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A66131 The Prince of Orange his declaration shewing the reasons why he invades England : with a short preface, and some modest remarks on it. Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.; William III, King of England, 1650-1702. 1688 (1688) Wing W2331; ESTC R3225 30,452 32

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contrary to the Ancient custome shall be considered as null and of no force and likewise all Magistrates who have been Injustly turned out shall forthwith resume their former Imployments as well as all the Borroughs of England shall return again to their Antient Prescriptions and Charters And more particularly that the Antient Charter of the Great and Famous City of London shall again be in Force and that the Writts for the Members of Parliament shall be addressed to the Proper Officers according to Law and Custome That also none be suffered to choose or to be chosen Members of Parliament but such as are qualified by Law And that the Members of Parliament being thus lawfully chosen they shall meet and sit in Full Freedome That so the Two Houses may concurre in the preparing of such Lawes as they upon full and free debate shall Judge necessary and convenient both for the confirming and executing the Law concerning the Test and such other Lawes as are necessary for the Security and Maintenance of the Protestant Religion as likewise for making such Lawes as may establish a good aggrement between the Church of England and all Protestant Dissenters as also for the covering and securing of all such who will live Peaceably under the Government as becomes g●od Subjects from all Persecution upon the account of their Religion even Papists themselves not excepted and for the doing of all other things which the Two Houses of Parliament shall find necessary for the Peace Honour and Safety of the Nation so that there may be no more danger of the Nations salling at any time hereafter under Arbitrary Government To this Parliament wee will also referre the Enquiry into the birth of the Pretended Prince of Wales and of all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession And Wee for our part will concurre in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happines of the Nation which a Free and Lawfull Parliament shall determine Since wee have nothing before our eyes in this our undertaking but the Preservation of the Protestant Religion the Covering of all men from Persecution for their Consciences and the Securing to the whole Nation the free enjoyment of all their Lawes Rights and Liberties under a Just and Legall Government This is the designe that wee have Proposed to our selves in appearing upon this occasion in Armes In the Conduct of which Wee will keep the Forces under our Command under all the Strictnes of Martiall Discipline and take a speciall Care that the People of the Countries thro which wee must march shall not suffer by their means and as soon as the State of the Nation will admit of it Wee promise that we will send back all those Forreigne Forces that wee have brought along with us Wee doe therefore hope that all People will judge rightly of us and approve of these our Proceedings But wee chiefly rely on the blessing of God for the successe of this our undertaking in which Wee place our whole and only Confidence Wee do in the last place invite and require all Persons whatsoever All the Peers of the Realme both Spirituall and Temporall all Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants and all Gentlemen Citisens and other Commons of all ranks to come and assist us in order to the Executing of this our Designe against all such as shall Endeavour to Oppose us that so wee may prevent all those Miseries which must needs follow upon the Nations being 〈◊〉 vnder Arbitrary Government and Slavery And that all the Viole●ces and disorders which have overturned the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a FREE AND LEGALL PARLIAMENT And Wee do likewise resolve that as soon as the Nations are brought to a state of Quiet Wee will take care that a Parliament shall be called in Scotland for the restoring the Ancient Constitution of that Kingdom and for bringing the Matters of Religion to such a Settlement that the People may live easy and happy and for putting an end to all the Injust Violences that have been in a course of so many years Committed there We will also study to bring the Kingdom of Ireland to such a State that the Settlement there may be Religiously observed and that the Protestant and British Interest there may be secured And we will endeavour by all possible means to procure such an establishment in all the Three Kingdoms that they may all live in a happy Union and Correspondence together and that the Protestant Religion and the Peace Honour and Happiness of those Nations may be established upon lasting Foundations Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague the Tenth day of October in the year of our Lord 1688. WILLIAM HENRY PRINCE OF ORANGE By his Highnesses special Command C HUYGENS. THus you have an exact and full Account of the Prince of Orange's Declaration And can you find one word of a Treaty with France to extirpate all Protestants Or can you imagine that if they had the least reason for such a Talk they who aggravate every little thing would let this Declaration pass without the least mentioning of what is so momentous and important And is there any thing more than a Violent Presumption suggested about the Prince of Wales And is the very Noise of such a Presumption reason enough to justifie a real War As for the other things urg'd are they not Redressable by a Parliament and so far as it 's possible without one already Redressed 'T is a Parliament then that is the main thing to be insisted on which though Chosen as the last was would be too feeble an Argument to clear the present Invasion from the charge of being Injust and Unrighteous The Great Men of this Kingdom ever thought a Parliament Irregularly chosen more eligible than either a War or a rash Enquiry into the manner of the choise Did Queen Elizabeth's Parliament admit of a Words being spoken to bring Queen Mary's Parliament into doubt Did they not look on it as most dangerous to do so And although by the Triennial Bill the long Parliament in the late Kings Reign was actually dissolved Nine Months before it thought on the Repeal thereof yet even after 't was destroy'd by it the Dissolved Parliament sate and repealed the Dissolving Bill and made the conventicle-Conventicle-Act the Test-Laws repealed the Writ De Haeretico Comburendo and pass'd the Habeas Corpus Bill into a Law. But was the Assembly that Acted thus Irregularly ever call'd to an Account for it or any of their Laws declared Void and Null Or was it ever esteemed a Good Reason for a War And yet this is much more than hath been ever done by His Present Majesty Besides 't was the late King that took away the Charters and those who were entring on Violent Courses for their Restauration were proclaimed Traytors and several executed for it whilst all the Pulpits throughout England sounded of the Horridness Blackness Vileness
we had proposed an Expedient by which the Peace of those Kingdoms and a happy agreement among the Subjects of all Persuasions might have been setled but those Evil Councellours have put such ill Constructions on these our good Intentions that they have endeavoured to alienate the King more and more from us as if Wee had designed to disturb the quiet and Happiness of the Kingdome The last and great Remedy for all those Evils is the Calling of a Parliament for securing the Nation against the evil practises of those wicked Councellours but this could not be yet compassed nor can it be easily brought about For those Men apprehending that a lawful Parliament being once assembled they would be brought to an account for all their open violations of Law and for their Plots and Conspiracies against the Protestant Religion and the Lives and Liberties of the Subjects they have endeavoured under the specious Pretence of Liberty of Conscience first to Sow divisions among Protestants between those of the Church of England and the Dissenters The design being laid to engage Protestants that are all equally concerned to preserve themselves from Popish Oppression into mutual quarrellings that so by these some advantages might be given to them to bring about their Designs and that both in the Election of the Members of Parliament and afterwards in the Parliament it selfe For they see well that if all Protestants could enter into a mutual good Understanding one with another and Concurre together in the preserving of their Religion it would not be possible for them to compasse their wicked ends They have also required all Persons in the several Counties of England that either were in any Imployment or were in any Considerable Esteem to declare before hand that they would concur in the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and that they would give their voices in the Elections to Parliament only for such as would concurre in it Such as would not thus Preingage themselves were turned out of all Imployments And others who entred into those engagements were put in their places many of them being Papists and contrary to the Charters and Priviledges of those Burroughs that have a Right to send Burgesses to Parliament they have ordered such Regulations to be made as they thought fit and necessary for assuring themselves of all the Members that are to be chosen by those Corporations and by this means they hope to avoid that Punishment which they have Deserved tho it is apparent that all Acts made by Popish Magistrates are null and Void of themselves So that no Parliament can be Lawful for which the Elections and Returns are made by Popish Sheriffs and Majors of Touns and Therefore as long as the Authority and Magistracy is in such hands it is not possible to have any Lawful Parliament And tho according to the Constitution of the English Government and Immemorial Custome all Elections of Parliament men ought to be made with an Entire Liberty without any sort of force or the requiring the Electors to choose such Persons as shall be named to them and the Persons thus freely Elected ought to give their Opinions freely upon all Matters that are brought before them having the good of the Nation ever before their Eyes and following in all things the dictates of their Conscience yet now the People of England can not expect a Remedy from a free Parliament Legally Called and Chosen But they may perhaps see one Called in which all Elections will be carried by Fraud or Force and which will be composed of such Persons of whom those Evil Councellours hold themselves well assured in which all things will be carried on according to their Direction and Interest without any regard to the Good or Happiness the Nation Which may appear Evidently from this that the same Persons tried the Members of the last Parliament to gain them to Consent to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Lawes and procured that Parliament to be dissolved when they found that they could not neither by Promises nor Threatnings prevail with the Members to Comply with their wicked Designs But to Crown all there are Great and Violent Presumptions inducing us to Beleeve that those Evil Councellours in order to the carrying on of their ill Designs and to the Gaining to themselves the more time for the Effecting of them for the encouraging of their Complices and for the discouraging of all Good Subjects have published that the Queen hath brought forth a Son tho there have appeared both during the Queens pretended Bigness and in the manner in which the Birth was managed so many just and Visible grounds of suspicion that not only we our selves but all the good Subjects of those Kingdoms do Vehemently suspect that the pretended Prince of Wales was not born by the Queen And it is notoriously known to all the world that many both doubted of the Queens Bigness and of the Birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to Satisfy them or to put an end to their Doubts And since our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princesse and likewise we Our Selves have so great an Interest in this Matter and such a Right as all the world knows to the Succession to the Crown Since also the English did in the year 1672. when the States General of the Vnited Provinces were invaded in a most unjust warre use their utmost Endeavours to put an end to that Warre and that in opposition to those who were then in the Government and by their so doing they run the hazard of losing both the favour of the Court and their Imployments And since the English Nation has ever testified a most particular Affection and Esteem both to our Dearest Consort the Princesse and to Our selves Wee cannot excuse our selves from espousing their Interests in a matter of such high Consequence and from Contributing all that lies in us for the Maintaining both of the Protestant Religion and of the Laws and Liberties of those Kingdomes and for the Securing to them the Continual Enjoyment of all their just Rights To the doing of which wee are most Earnestly Solicited by a Great many Lords both Spirituall and Temporall and by many Gentlemen and other subjects of all Ranks THEREFORE it is that wee have thought fit to goe over to England and to Carry over with us a force sufficient by the blessing of God to defend us from the Violence of those Evill Councellours AND WEE being desirous that our Intentions in this may be Rightly Understood have for this end prepared this Declaration in which as wee have hitherto given a True Account of the Reasons Inducing us to it So wee now think fit to DECLARE that this our Expedition is intended for no other Designe but to have a free and lawfull Parliament assembled as soon as is possible and that in order to this all the late Charters by which the Elections of Burgesses are limited
this fully free Parliament his Highness will refer the inquiry into the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales to Vote him I suppose a Prince Prettyman the Son of Nobody For we know what the References of Conquerors signifie and what the freedom of their Arbitrators But it is time to leave talking when such things are said and think of other Weapons than Pens Would his Highness be content to refer his own Birth For though there be nothing of suspicion in it yet the nothing on his side is nearer to something than on the side of the Prince of Wales For one may suspect that he who talks at this rate was not born of an English Mother But after all there wants something still His Highness designs new Laws but Acts barely prepared have not the perfection of Laws Suppose the King should prove resty somewhere and advise upon it Why his Highness has found an Expedient He will himself concur in every thing that may procure the Peace witness his War and Happiness of the Nation that is just what he pleases He will take care that a Parliament shall be called in Scotland He will study to bring Ireland into a state that the settlement be observed and the Protestant and British Interest secured And as soon as the state of the Nation will admit he promises to send back his Foreign Forces and in the mean time invites and requires all Peers and all Persons whatsoever to c●me and assist him against all such as shall endeavour to ●ppose him That is in short He will be King of England For none pass Bills into Acts by their Concurrence but Kings To take care for calling Parliaments and for the settlement and security of the Kings Dominions belongs to none but the King And he who means to send his Forces away certainly means to stay himself And that we may not be ignorant in what condition he means to stay he takes the King upon him by way of Anticipation For no body can require the assistance of all his Subjects of all sorts but the King. So many Stories in the Declaration of a Prince which are the Entertainment of our Coffee-Houses and which we now perceive from whence they came so many dismal Idea's of our Misery who live a great deal more at ease th●n they do in Holland so much Trouble and so much Charge purely in Ch●●y to our Neighbours for no other design than to have a free Parliament Ass●mbled sounded untowardly and we could not forbear to suspect some de●ign ●t bottom though we had not found it own'd But if he had not told us ●o himself we should hardly have suspected that Interest could have drawn the Prince of Orange to dethrone the King unprince his Son and seize the Crown for himself But now we understand his Highness we will ende●vour his Highness shall understand us and our Protestant 〈…〉 better than he does We love our Princes for all we can be angry and talk more freely than they dare in other Countreys and will sooner dye at their Feet than Strangers shall injure much less dethrone them We love our Country and we love our Honour and before England shall become the Prey of Holland will take order they shall find nothing in it but Grass and Trees no Men for them to use as they did at Amboina We profess a Protestant Religion which teaches us not to rise in Arms against our King by whomsoever we are required but true Loyalty and Fidelity to him and his lawful Successors and to defend him against all attempts whatsoever against his Crown Person or Dignity and the World shall see we are no bad Scholars of so good a Mistress In a word we know and we Honour William Henry Prince of Orange but we know not William Henry King of England otherwise than for an Enemy Animadversions upon the Additional Declarations of his Highness THE Premises are so very plain that his Highness thought it necessary to take notice of them himself Against the Apprehensions of a Conquest he alledges the disproportion of his Forces and the joyning of English with him That disproportion is not his Fault and would have been tho he had brought Holland it self in his Fleet and all the Men in it But can he not design a Conquest for all that We were Conquered by the Normans and bare Twelve Thousand Suedes bid fair for the Conquest of Germany as little proportion as Normandy had to England or Sweden to Germany We can Conquer our selves tho Holland cannot which if we do we Conquer for him under whom we Fight For the General wins the Battel who ever Fight it And this of necessity his Highness must design unless he design to be beaten For Victory and Conquest are but two Names for one thing Neither is he a Man to be at all this ado to make a Conquest and not make the most of it when he was done neither can he do otherwise tho he would For as he has no Right to Act here by Law he must of necessity Act by Right of Conquest And we humbly beseech him not to declare us out of common Sense and into a belief that he is not capable of intending what we see he is actually doing But Enemies to their Country of all Men in the World one would least expect should be magnified for Integrity and Zeal and constant Fidelity and who cannot joyn in a wicked attempt of Conquest to make void their own lawful Titles to their Honours Estates and Interests Must we believe again they cannot joyn in an Attempt in which his Highness himself tells us they do joyn Nor void their Titles when they actually did void them the very moment of the first Overt Act which made it known they thought of that wicked Attempt And then the Fidelity the Integrity and Zeal of Treason is unintelligible Language in England But I have already observed that his Highness speaks in the Language of a Protestant Religion which is not Established here and in likelihood never will by a Parliament truly free The Kings Concessions are treated as a seeming Relief pretended Acts of Grace an imperfect Redress upon which no weight is to be laid because Solemn Promises have been broken a plain Confession of the Violation set forth in the Declaration and defective because they may again be taken up His Highness takes care that nothing shall be replyed upon breach of Promise by giving no instance where it was broken But to my grief here is greater Work in hand It had been shorter and not much plainer said I am resolved at any rate to come and be King. For as the pretence of the Declaration was that the King had taken up some things and the pretence of the Addition that he has laid them down 't is palpable that the Expedition was unalterably resolved without any care or thought of the good of England or its Concerns save only to borrow a pretence which might