some be now here that were not then present her Majesties present Charge and express Command is That no Bill touching the said Matter of State or Reformation in Causes Ecclesiastical be exhibited And upon my Allegiance saith the Speaker I am charged if any such Bill be exhibited not to read it I have been credibly informed That the Queen sent a Messenger or Serjeant at Arms into the House of Commons and took out Mr. Morrice and committed him to Prison Within few days after I find Mr. Wroth moved in the House That they might be humble Suitors to her Majesty that she would be pleas'd to set at liberty those Members of the House that were restrained which was accordingly done And answer was sent them by her Privy-Council That her Majesty had committed them for Causes best known to her self and to press her Highness with this Suit would but hinder them whose good they sought That the House must not call the Queen to an account for what she doth of her Royal Authority That the Causes for which they are restrained may be high and dangerous That her Majesty liketh no such Questions neither doth it become the House to search into Matters of that nature In 39 Eliz. the Commons were told Their Privilege was Yea and No And that her Majesties pleasure was That if the Speaker perceived any idle Heads which would not stick to hazard their own Estates but meddle with reforming the Church and transforming the Commonweal by exhibiting Bills to that purpose the Speaker should not receive them till they were view'd and consider'd by those who are fitter to consider of such things and can better judge of them And at the end of this Parliament the Queen rejected Forty eight Bills which had passed both Houses All these Passages are expresly to be found in the Records and Registries of the Council-Table and are quoted by Sir Robert Filmer in his Free holders Grand Inquest p. 77 c. and by Mr. Howel sometimes Clerk of the Council in his Philanglus p. 57 c. and several others By which it appears That this grand Privilege of Parliament Liberty of Speech which at present makes so great a Noise in the World was not in this good Queens Reign half so considerable as People now would fain persuade us It was of no great antiquity in her days but a Favour first begged in King Henry the Eighth's Reign by Sir Thomas Moore then Speaker of the House of Commons who prayed the King in the behalf of the House That if in Communication and Reasoning any man should speak more largely than of duty he ought to do that all such Offences should be pardoned and this to be entred upon Record which was accordingly granted by the King And the same Favour was allowed by Queen Elizabeth in the beginning of her Reign to Thomas Gargrave then Speaker since whose time this Privilege was always humbly desired by the Speakers for themselves and the whole House of Commons and favourably granted by their Sovereign Yet this Privilege extended onely to rash unadvised ignorant or negligent Escapes and Slips in Speech which People are subject to let fall in the heat of their Debates not to wilful Reflections much less to treasonable Speeches against the King and Government as sufficiently appears not onely by the aforesaid Proceedings in Queen Elizabeth's time but also by the Transactions of her Father's Reign where we find that Richard Strood and his Complices were not thought sufficiently protected by this Privilege for their free Speech in the House unless their Pardon were expresly confirmed by the King in Parliament to which purpose there is a printed Statute enacted in King Henry the Eighth's time And in Queen Mary's days Plowden was Fin'd in the King's Bench for Words spoken by him in Parliament against the Queen's Dignity See Filmer ubi supra Mr. Fowlis Hist of the Plots Conspiracies of the Pretended Saints in it This was well known to our British Solomon King James who finding the House of Commons encroaching too far upon the Prerogative sent the ensuing Letter from Newmarket to Sir Thomas Richardson their Speaker Mr. Speaker We have heard to our grief That our distance from the Parliament caused by our indisposition of Health hath emboldned some fiery and popular Spirits of the Lower House to debate Matters above their Capacity to our Dishonour and breach of Prerogative Royal. These are therefore to command you to make known to them That none hereafter shall presume to medle with any thing concerning our Government or Matters of State with our Sons Match with the Daughter of Spain nor to touch the Honour of that King or any other our Friends or Confederates nor with any Mans Particulars which have their due Motion in our ordinary Courts of Justice And whereas they have sent a Message to Sir Edwin Sandis to know the Reasons of his late Restraint you shall resolve them It was not for any Misdemeanour of his in Parliament But to put them out of doubt of any Question hereafter of that nature We think our self very free and able to punish any Mans Misdemeanours in Parliament as well sitting there as after which we mean not to spare hereafter upon any Occasion of any Mans. And if they have touch'd any Point which We have here forbidden in any Petition of theirs which is to be sent to Vs tell them except they reform it We will not daign the Hearing or Answering Newmarket Decemb. 3. 1621. Sanderson's History of King James pag. 510. And likewise in the same Parliament when the House of Commons much insisted upon their Privileges calling them their ancient and undoubted Inheritance this wise Prince in a second Letter to the Speaker plainly and truly told them That most Privileges of Parliament grew from Precedents which shews rather a Toleration than an Inheritance therefore he could not allow of the Style calling it their ancient and undoubted Right and Inheritance but could rather have wished that they had said their Privileges were derived from the Grace and Permission of his Ancestors and him And thereupon he concludes He cannot with patience endure his Subjects to use such Antimonarchical Words concerning their Liberties except they had subjoyned That they were granted unto them by the Grace and Favour of his Predecessors Yet he promiseth to be careful of whatsoever Privileges they enjoyed by long Custom and uncontrolled and lawful Precedents Sanderson's Hist p. 519. 520. Now add to this That if the King should be drawn to consent to the Bill of Exclusion after his several Declarations to the contrary he cannot but be concluded under a Constraint which alone makes the Act void in it self it being absolutely necessary that the Commons Lords and the Kings Consent should be free from all Restraint and Terrour and we know that Acts of Parliament in 15 Edw. 3. and 10 Ric 2. were repealed meerly because the King's Consent was forced Moreover if
we seriously did consider the mighty Advantages of an Hereditary Monarchy beyond an Elective we should find it reasonable that though the Laws had not yet the King should endeavour to make ours such much less ought he to alter that most happy Constitution by excluding his Brother For let Men say what they please the same Power that can put by One may All and so change the Best of Government for the Worst or None at all Besides His Majesty cannot but find it his own Interest to stick to the D. when he reflects that there is in all things especially in State-Affairs a Balance necessary by an equal Libration to keep things in a right Order and prevent Confusion and Ruine Where Men are there will be Ambition this creates Parties and Factions these must be kept divided and asunder by their Jars and Disagreement and by so poising them that the less like the smaller Fry of Fishes be not swallowed by the greater the safety of the Prince and State is preserv'd If the Prince be once prevail'd upon to joyn with the One to the suppression of the Other he has resigned his Power and exposed himself to the Mercy of the Conqueror This he likewise does if he gives way to several little Factions to embody into one of greater strength than the rest though assisted with that of his own Particular For here we must suppose three strong Parties one of the Prince and two of the People To keep this Balance in the best posture and to secure the Peace of the Commonwealth by the Kings reigning void of Fear or Jealousie on the score of Factions or his Successor 't is necessary in politie to find or make the next Heir the Object of the Peoples hatred and keep the Factions from combining because however they may chance to be weary of the King either through the inconstancy of their Humours studious of Change and Variety though for the worse or through the ill Conduct of Ministers or the Misfortunes of Publick Affairs when they find a Person whom they hate like to succeed they will be for continuance of the old or else being jealous of one another will not attempt his removal This then being so great an advantage prudent Kings cannot be supposed to neglect it by suffering the immediate Heir to be run down and thereby giving way to the People to dethrone the present Possessor and set up the next in course after To this Wisdom in Henry the Third gain'd by his own and Fathers Misfortunes we owe our present Constitution of Parliament This King perceiving the Lords Power in whom with himself the Supreme Legislative Right then consisted grown formidable the Commons being their Livery-men and Dependents erected these into a Lower House to counterpoise the weight of the other that he joyning with either as Occasion of State required might balance the other and so keep things in an equal and steddy Libration And if his Successors had been as sollicitous to maintain as he was to institute this good Order and Politie the Eternity of this Commonwealth would not at this day have been a Question And as this was our Home-Interest and that of holding the Scales even between France and Spain our Foreign so it plainly appears that not to exclude the Duke is not onely his Majesties particular Interest but also that of the Three Kingdoms Not to insist that the Parliament is not compleatly the Peoples Representative but granting it is they cannot be supposed to enjoy a greater Power than those they represent who because such are the greater and therefore must be concluded explicitly or implicitly to limit the Commissions of these their Trustees and that Consinement Reason will tell us must be within the Bounds of our ancient Rights and Privileges consequently these are not to be invaded without the consent of every individual Person or at least of the major part truly poll'd and computed The present Electors not making a sixth part of the Nation cannot in reason bind the rest contrary to their Interest much less can the Majority of those chosen by them oblige the others to conform to whatever they enact when they find the Statutes more prejudicial than advantageous the End of Government being the Good of the Community i. e. of the major part not of any artificial or fictitious Majority of a Quorum as in the House of Commons of 512 to reckon 40 the greater Number Now if such an Act should be obtain'd the Consequence if the D. survive the King whose Life God long continue must needs be War and Misery Folly and Repentance Our Histories are full of Tragical Events upon such Occasions One of them wrought so great a Depopulation that in sixty miles riding between York and Durham for nine years together there was neither Ground tilled nor House left standing Harold justling young Edgar Atheling out of the Throne produced a Civil War and the Norman Conquest I wish excluding the D. may not enslave us to the French Dominion which may be of greater evil than the cutting of as many of our own Peoples Throats as died in the Yorkist and Lancastrian Quarrel upwards of 200000 of the Commons besides several Kings and Princes and Nobles without number The Duke cannot be supposed to want Sticklers both at home and from abroad few will believe the Act lawful in its own nature nor the King's Consent free or themselves not bound by Oath to his Assistance Scotland and Ireland will rejoyce at another Civil War in England in hopes to free themselves from the Inconveniences of being Provinces Those who have least to lose are the usual Gainers by Rebellion There are sown between these Nations Seeds of Discontent and there will not be wanting those who will improve them I have heard from knowing Persons there are no less than Fifty thousand Irish Soldiers now living that have been trained up in the French and other Forreign Service and I believe there cannot be fewer of the Scottish People These all with many of our own Countreymen will quickly credit the Lawyers that tell us No Act no Crime no Attainder of Treason can bar the next of Blood from being King in the instant of time his Predccessor does not so much die as transmit his Life his Breath or his Soul by a State-Metempsychosis into the Nostrils the Body of his Successor Edward the Fourth Henry the Seventh Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth and King James enjoy'd the Crown though all excluded by Acts of Parliament if they ought to have the name that were the Effects of Force Strong hand and an usurping Tyrannick Power These Statutes were by all Judges of England accounted void in themselves and therefore never had the honour of Repeals nor were they brought into Plea by Sir Walter Rawleigh one of the greatest Wits of that Age though he urged a very trivial one The King 's not being Crown'd a Ceremony of Pomp and State not of Use or Necessity as
day continue the veriest Slaves in Nature And I pray why must we run all this hazard to secure Religion If that be the thing it may certainly be done by binding up the hands of a Popish Successor by such Laws as will make it Felony or Treason for a Papist to appear at Court or bear any Office and put it out of the Princes power to pardon such Offences or Offenders For my own part I see no cause to apprehend a Popish Successor especially the Duke would or could alter our Laws or Religion To attempt it would be for a Crown of Flowers to forfeit one of Gold and Jewels Has he ever offer'd to persuade any of his Children or his Servants to change their Opinions And why should we think a Man who has never broken his Word or Promise and ever professed nothing more than a Liberty of Conscience so restrain'd as might be consistent with Publick Peace should with his Fortune alter his Judgment contrary to Prudence and contrary to his Interest Kings are not now adays Priest-ridden and the King of England cannot be supposed to destroy his Subjects at their desires more than the Monarchs of France and Germany and other Princes of that Religion where Non-Papists or Protestants live under the Protection of Laws and enjoy their Liberties and their Fortunes Besides to offer by force to reduce all to the Church of Rome would be Folly and Madness Neither the Constitution of England nor Christianity will admit of propagating Religion by the Sword The next King not to mention that his Subjects in the Three Kingdoms will be above Two hundred Protestants for One Papist will not have the Fourth part of the present King's Revenue which being insufficient for the necessary Expences of the Crown will necessitate him to have recourse to and compliance with his People in Parliament But now consider the Issue If it please God after this Bill pass'd in some short time to take the King to himself the Princess of Orange perhaps in complement to her Father and to prevent a War may refuse and her Husband cannot come to the Throne if she decline it others being before him What then the next after cannot come in must the Duke then No that 's against Law Here will then be no King consequently Anarchy and Confusion But if the Princess do assume the Crown and after that the Duke have a Son and he bred up in the Protestant Religion what will then follow Still a War The Princess will be unwilling to resign and yet the other is most certainly King But if this young Prince should during his Fathers Life or his Sisters be kept out he or his Issue after contending with that of the Princess will entail a War upon the Nations So that upon the whole if the Duke out-live the King I see nothing but Misery and Desolation like to ensue upon his Disinherison And therefore I say 't is fitter to wave the Act wholly or endeavour by proving him guilty of the Plot by sufficient Testimonies to take away his Life For if we cannot be safe if he succeed I am sure we cannot if he out-live our present Sovereign a Bill of Attainder will be of no force the best Lawyers will tell you the Descent of the Crown washes that Stain away A Project of Divorce whisper'd between the King and Queen will not be sufficient Security for if that should take which is not probable because Christianity forbids it yet it 's possible the King may have no Issue by a new Consort or if he have that the most will look on them but as Illegitimate and so as a questionable Divorce once brought us from the Church of Rome in Henry the Eighth's days another may return us thither during or soon after the Reign of CHARLES the Second And here I would have it remembred That the Nature of Parliaments requires their intermedling onely with what the King shall propound or approve He calls them to advise and deliberate as Counsellors not to impose upon him in any Particular Let therefore the Spirit of Moderation govern and direct their Counsels put an end to the Plot by trying the Accused It has lost England in its Trade already Six Millions as has been lately computed by knowing Persons encreased our Jealousies and Fears at home made us a Scorn and Reproach abroad and exposed us to be a Prey to the Designs of Forreigners Let not the Ambition Malice or Revenge of any of our Fellow-Subjects prevail to the enslaving our selves and our Posterities If the Power of the Commons grow exorbitant the Lords are with the King to counterpoise it to prevent the otherwise not avoidable Ruine of the Commonwealth To the Lords then this Address is humbly submitted praying they would betimes consider all the fatal Consequences of the Bill of Exclusion The love of Truth and Justice Courage and the practice of those Vertues in this great Affair are the onely Preservatives of Englands present Peace and future Happiness Faelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum Remember what 's past and then I shall not need to add more than this Verbum sapienti As for others guided or misled by Ignorance Malice or Interest I can onely say with the Poet Quid cum illis agas qui neque jus neque bonum atque aequum sciunt Melius pejus prosit obsit nihil vident nisi quod lubet And therefore I leave them to Time for a better Temper to the Conduct of their own Reason and God's Providence for the Cure of their Folly and for a better Understanding Since I finish'd this Discourse the following Letter came to my hands and believing it as advantageous to the Publick as it is Ingenious I have resolved to add it that those who might repent the Charge of the former may be recompenced by the latter SIR I am griev'd at my very Soul and infinitely asham'd to find by your last that any make the Supposition of the D's being a Papist and consequently unfit to Govern the pretence of running so high against the Monarchy and that so many are drawn into this violent Course and Faction upon the surmise of his being if once offended irreconcileable I shall in few words return you my Opinion on these two Points I cannot indeed but look on both as meer Artifices of ambitious Men who missing a share in the present Constitution contrive another Government I wish I had not too much cause to say It will at last end in a Commonwealth For if nothing were in their Heads but securing the Establish'd Religion they would not oppose Popery alone but Presbytery equally with the other destructive of That for which they do not onely open a gap but for the Opinions of all other Sectaries And we cannot here but observe with astonishment and with Resolutions which have put us upon Preparations of sticking by our Sovereign against all manner of insolent and rebellious Practices whatsoever
total destruction depriv'd our late Sovereign of his Life and Crown which I am confident was not by the major part first intended in 1640 and had like to have kept his present Majesty in perpetual Exile had not Providence wrought Miracles in his favour and in spite of all the Artifices of his Rebellious Subjects restored him to his Throne without Blood or Violence among which I cannot but remember that devilish Pamphler intituled A Letter from Bruxelles c. mention'd in Baker's Chronicle publish'd after his Majesties Declaration from Breda insinuating That notwithstanding his Promises if they suffer'd his Return he would with all imaginable Cruelty revenge the Death of his Father and not forget it to the third Generation of those concerned in that horrid Murder This put the People into a great Consternation yet his unparallell'd Clemency and his so often pressing his Parliament to pass the Act of Oblivion sufficiently prov'd the Malice of that Invention But I hope this Cheat is now so well known that it will gain no Credit with considering Persons I onely wish some care were taken to undeceive the weak and unthinking that Peace and Unity which seem to have parted from you with his R. H. might with him be once more restor'd and the happy Vnion of both Kingdoms be made perpetual by suffering no rent or gap in the Royal Line which all of our Nation and we hear those of Ireland will not be less forward are not onely oblig'd but have vow'd to maintain with the hazard of their Lives and Fortunes a Necessity we hope you will never put upon us as well for your own sakes as for the Peace and Quiet of this Kingdom wherein he has not the least Concern who is and always will be Your most humble and most obedient Servant c. POST SCRIPT JUst now I hear of a new Project set on foot to give the King 600000 l. of which he may dispose one at pleasure on condition he will consent to the Bill of Exclusion and that in return he shall have Power by Act of Parliament in case he have no Issue by his Queen to settle by Will the Crown upon any of his Natural Children To manage this Design a new Set of Ministers is contriv'd A great Lord whose Son most if not wholly influences the House of Commons is to be made a Duke another Earl to be Treasurer Sir W. J. is to be L. C. J. Col. T. to be a Secretary of State c. I am very sorry to perceive the Differences between the King and his Subjects are fomented by Persons of the same Humour with those in 1640. who meeting at Sir Robert Long 's undertook if his then Majesty would do so and so he should govern the Parliament to all Intents and Purposes The King consenting to every excepting one their desir'd Preferments was refus'd crying out One and all having before bound themselves accordingly One of the then leading Men has in this Parliament a Son whose Power and Ambition falls very little short if at all of his Fathers and if you have a mind to discover Hercules his Proportion by that of his Foot compare the Remonstrance and the late Address and without naming you will find the near Relation of the Authors For shame let not such Proceedings be nick-nam'd doing your Country Service I remember to have heard that in the short Parliament before that of 40. when some more zealous than wise Members spake too extravagantly a sober Gentleman and no Courtier stood up and said he was for more moderate Counsels lest their present heat and exorbitance should put that King and his Successors for ever out of conceit with Parliaments who depended upon his Pleasure I wish the whole Kingdom as well as their Prince may have no reason to grow weary of and dislike the setled Constitution of Commons in Parliament chusing rather to have as formerly the whole Power in the King and his Great Council of Lords and Barons Extremes are near one another and many by grasping at too much have lost the little they enjoy'd This is as foolish as with the Dog in the Apologue to lose the Substance for the Shadow And since Prudence tells us A long provok'd and incens'd Clemency turns into the greatest Cruelty you ought to bridle your Passions and Ambition lest you too late repent your Madness and your Folly This Consideration has carried me beyond the usual length of a Post script wherein I design'd to have said little more than that I understand the D. writes this night to the King his Brother That if he can be secure his Parliament will agree with him upon quitting his Interest that he should not longer struggle for him who would not onely hazard his uncertain hopes of a Crown but would with joy expose his Life to do his Majesty service whose long Reign and Happiness notwithstanding all the Forgeries of his Enemies he as heartily wishes as any other the most Loyal Subject in his Dominions Consider the Greatness of this Generosity and let not Malice for ever prevail to the defamation of Innocence and the disturbance if not the ruine of these Nations FINIS