Undertaking And it is a surprise to all thinking disinterested Men that Trade being the Source and Fountain of the Wealth Strength and Populace of a Nation and that this Kingdom being more adapted for it by its Situation Harbours and the Genius of its People than any other Country whatsoever that yet it should be so far from being encouraged in the way manner and degrees it ought that the Trade of England is more Clogged Loaded and has greater Burthens laid upon it than that of any other Nation But if this Method of counteracting the Scots should not be thought convenient when the Kingdom is to be charged with so many and large Grants of Mony to the Government for the upholding and carrying on the present War there is still another way of obviating all the Evils we are apprehensive of from the Scots Act and from the old East India Company yea and not only of defeating the Design of the Dutch who were the first and under-hand Advisers to it but of improving it into an Occation of strengthening our selves to chastise the Hollanders and to exact Reparations from them for all the Injuries of one kind and â—â—other which they have done us And that is the bringing these two Kingdoms into an Union of Councils Laws and Privileges of all Sorts as they are already united under one Monarch encompassed by the same Seas Inhabitants upon one Island and not differing in Language farther than in tone and dialect Which as it would be to the mutual Safety and Prosperity of both Nations so it is not to be questioned but that the Scots in consideration and acknowledgment of the Benefit that would accrue to them by an Incorporation with England would chearfully surrender their late Act and be as forward as we can wish to repeal it Nor would it be sound so difficult as some do imagine it to effect compass and perfect such an Union upon Terms that both Kingdoms may think equal could we on each side renounce national Piques and give up little private Interests in order to the obtaining a general common Good I am told that some are so ignorant and others so impudent as say That King William in virtue of that Sovereign Power which that Kingdom hath granted him may by his own personal and immediate Authority without the concurrence of a Parliament or the Prescription of a Law impose upon Trade what Duty Customs or Taxes he pleaseth and this they alledg to stand vested in him as a part of his Prerogative by the Gift and Concession of an Act of Parliament made in one of those Sessions when Launderdale was King Charles the Second's High Commissioner To which I reply three Things 1. That such a Supposition were to put all Traders of the Kingdom of Scotland into the state and condition of Slaves by making their whole Property acquirable by the way of Traffick to be under the protection of no Law but to be sâ—isable and disposable at the arbitrary Will and despotical Pleasure of the King which I think that Nation which justly boasts it self a free Kingdom as much as any other whatsoever will not easily acquiesce in and submit unto from any King But especially not from one of their own making who being as the Clay in their hands of which they have made a Vessel of Honour they may either break it or mould it again when the Humour takes them into a Vessel of Dishonour 2. Whatsoever Prerogative this Man under the Notion of being their King may have as to the laying Impositions upon Goods and Merchandise where no Law doth preclude and bar him from doing it and where the Concession Liberty and Right for them to trade to such and such Places and in such and such Commodities proceed and are derived meeâ—ly from his personal Grant and Charter which gives them all their Title so to do yet it is most absurd to imagine that he can have any such Prerogative or Power where a publick Law hath given them both a Right and Authority to trade and an Immunity from all Impositions whatsoever in reference to such Places and the Productions and Superfluities thereof and it is also Tyranny in him to challenge it For by this means no Laws can be a Fence about Mens Estates and Properties nor give them the Security which they both promise and were made and enacted for the ensuring to them And for King William to claim and exercise such a Jurisdiction and Authority were to usurp a dispensing Power that is both infinitely worse in it self and more fatal in its consequences than that for which we so much blamed and have hostily treated King James Seeing all the dispensing Power King James challenged was only in reference to penal Laws and those also relative meerly to Religious Matters as to both which the King has a greater extent and latitude of Jurisdiction inherent in him by reason of his Sovereign Power than he hath in reference to other Laws But should King William take upon him to dispense with the Act we are speaking of it were to usurp a dispensing Power both in reference to beneficial Laws and those made for the protection of our Civil Rights Properties and Estates which all Men who have common Sense know to be more out of the verge and reach of Kings to supercede and controle than those are which refer to Ecclesiastical Officers and which are likewise of a penal Nature 3. Should it be admitted that by that Act of Lauderdale's Parliament an absolute unlimitted and despotical Authority became vested in King Charles and stood conveyed to King James in relation to this laying Taxes and Impositions on Trade yet no Power of this kind accrues by this Act to King William in that it was complained of as one of the Grievances which were presented to him antecedently to his having Crown conferred upon him and whereof Redress only was demanded But it was stipulated and made a part of the Original Contract betwixt the Kingdom of Scotland and Him That no such Power as Lauderdale's Act imported should ever be claimed or exercised over them And for King William now to pretend to it were not only to violate his Coronation Oath and proclaim himself perjured to all the World but it were to discharge that Nation from all Obligation of Fealty to him and to give them a legal Right as well as Cause to proceed to the deposing and abdicating him Before I shut up this Discourse which the variety and importance of the matter has already made longer than I at first designed it though I hope it will not be found tedious I shall for the sake of many Thousands as well as my own humbly applying my self to the Senate of the Kingdom to the Members of the Privy Council and to the Gentlemen of both the Gowns for their resolving me Two or Three Questions which it is of great Concernment with respect to our Constitution our Laws our Religâ—on and our Consciences
Dominions should also take upon himself to Grant away and Alienate the Inheritance of his Cousin and to Disinherit him of it But why doth he not as well make Benting Prince of Wales as to give him the Revenue of that Principality Seeing he may as lawfully and by the same Measures of Justice do the First as he has done the Last And no doubt but that as he hath Inclination to it we may also live to see it done if he can but once Emerge out of the present War and thereupon bring over from the Continent a numerous and triumphant Outlandish Army to support and protect him in his Usurpation and Tyranny and make us with Tameness and Decency wear our Chains In the mean time considering the Depopulaation and Poverty which thro a long and costly War the Nation is already reduced unto we may make this Reflection upon and this Inference from the Prodigality of our Belgick King to his Dutch Minion and to his Outlandish Janizaries viz. that it can be done upon upon no other Design than to gratifie the Commo-nwealth of Holland and to raise them to an Ascendency of Wealth and Power over us For had he the least Regaâ—d to the Welfare of England he would blush to ask such immense Summs of the Parliament when he is alienating and disposing away the standing Revenues of the Crown to his Whores and Burdaâ—â—â—â— For how can we imagin that any thing should be held needful to be Levied of the People if it were not in Subseâ—viency to an Outlandish Interest when we see not only those Lands that are pretended to be forfeited but those Ancient Inheritances that the Sovereign and Royal Family should Subsist upon squander'd away upon little Foreigners which were bred and heretofore accustomed to live upon the Fragments of their Master's Table Surely we may expect from the Justice and Wisdom of this Parliament That before they Empty the Purses of those they Represent they will enquire how the Revenues vested in the Crown are bestowed and applyed For whatsoever Usurpers may dare to do in wasting the Treasure and Inheritance of the Throne by Buildng Palaces and furnishing them splendidly at Loo and for making Indorsements on the posteriour Parchments of those I have mentioned Our Natural and Lawful Kings never used to demand Succours of their Subjects till they had Exhausted themselves and Disbursed their whole Revenue in the Service and for the Protection of their People Nor is there any thing more frequently met with and better known in our Law than that there have been Acts of Resumption of former Grants and Donations from the Crown whensoever the Nation has been Engaged in an expensive War and the People have Groaned under large Taxes And as this is the first Original of the Kind that ever we had Experience of in this Kingdom and for which we are indebted to Holland so I hope that after our Deliverance from a Belgick Prince we shall have no Copy of it or that any King hereafter will make Alienations of Lands from the Crown when he is under Necessities of demanding Aids of his People for his Support and Assistance in Wars wherein he may come to be engaged To which I will only add that under all those lavish and squandring Wasts and Consumptions of our Prince upon Dutch for Closet and Chamber Services he hath not only been Narrow and Parcimonious enough but Niggardly and highly Ungrateful to the English because it could not benefit Holland Whereof among others Talmash that is Dead and old Danby who is Alive are known Instances tho they Served him both in Policy and War and Contributed farther to his Exaltation to the Throne and to the keeping him in it than Thousands of his Country-men were capable of doing and especially beyond what the Chocolate and Carpet Gentleman I have been speaking of had either Courage or Brain to Attempt In recompence whereof instead of any Lands and much less those of the Crown the one was sent and abandoned to be Killed by the French but Murthered by the English abroad and the other is Forsaken Given up and Sacrificed at â—â—me to the old Envy and bigotted Rage of his Enemies But whereas what I have now Represented may seem to Issue only in the Enriching a few Hollanders at our Loss and Expence and not to amount to the Benefit and Advantage either of the Community of that People or of those States unless Secondarily and after several Removes I shall therefore advance to the laying open and displaying wherein to our Vast and infinite Damage we are Bubbled out of our Money and Treasure and made a Prey to that Republick thro the large Sums daily Allotted and Paid them out of our Exchequer Nor is the way wherein it is done such a Mistery as needs Accuracy of Parts and great Penetration to Comprehend it seeing it cannot escape Proving Demonstratively Obvious to every One who will give himselfe leave to Consider how many of the Dutch Troops and of those that Constitute their Particular Quota are upon the English Establishment and Paid with English Mony For as if it had not been enough to have been Guilty both of that Prodigal Folly and that Treasonable Crime of giving them at one time Six Hundred Thousand Pounds as a pretended Re-imbursment of the Charge and Expence they Alleadged they had been at in sending their Fleet and Army hither upon the Motives as they had the Hypocrisy and Impudence to say and We the Simplicity and Lunatism to believe of Rescuing Us from Popery and Slavery but as appears by the Event for Introducing Atheism Thraldom and Poverty We did not only over and above that Maintain and Pay their Whole Army here for a Considerable time but have had ever since Six or Seven Holland Regiments upon English Establishment and both Maintained with good English Mony and at the Proportion of our Pay which is larger then they allow to those Troops which remain under their own Establishment Sure it might have been thought sufficient and would be so by any Prince save this Dutch one who inwardly hates Us and by all the Methods of his Administration seeketh and Pursueth our Ruine that besides the Raising and Maintaining the largest Body of Brittish Troops that has for many Ages been Imployed upon the Continent and over and above the Charges we are at in Assisting and Relieving the Duke of Savoy and on those particular Forces which are on English Pay in Piedmont We should be at the Expence of Purchasing Subsisting and Paying all the Danes most of the Hess many of the Lunenburgh and divers of the Swiss and some of the Brandenburgh Forces that are now in the Confederate Army in Flanders but that after all this Prodigal Expence which tho it may possibly give us the Reputation of a Rich yet will not even with our Allies themselves acquire us the Credit of a Wise Nation We should be so Ridiculously silly as to Beare and
more without asking or taking their Advice about it though a matter both of great Importance in it self and of vast Consequence to the Trade of this Kingdom Nor can it be imagined that the said Act for erecting of a Scotch Company was surreptitiously obtained or precipitately passed without his Knowledg and Information of the Tenor of it Seeing the Instructions were formed and digested here and signed by him which upon being sent down thither gave occasion and encouragement there to make and enact such a Statute at this Juncture And it is highly worthy of remark That this Scotch Law containing so many unusual Privileges and beneficial Concessions as were never granted heretofore by any King of Great Britain should be made at a Season when the Trade of England is so loaded and depressed by late grievous Impositions and Taxes laid upon It by several Laws since the Revolution in order to the carrying on of the present War and for the defraying the Charges of it Nor is it conceivable how after so many Discouragements given to the English East India Company not only in refusing them an Establishment by Law but in Delaying for several Years to grant them a Confirmation of their Charter and thereby putting them both to vast Expenses through their being so long in soliciting of it and the leaving them all that while naked and exposed to be undermined and supplanted by Interlopers that this unwonted and exuberant Grace should be exercised to the Kingdom of Scotland were it not done upon the Influence of Dutch Councils and in pursuance of Measures from Holland for the ruining the Trade of England And whosoever considers the little respect and the less affection which King William hath for the Scots Nation and with what disdain and contempt he speaks oâ— that whole Kingdom and treats those of the first Quality of it will easily believe That he did not authorise the Establishment of the forementioned Company out of kindness unto or concern for the Prosperity of that Nation but that it was done upon the Motives and in pursuance of foreign Councils Not that I do envy the Scots any Favour that is shewed them upon whatsoever Inducements it be done or that I blame the Parliament of Scotland for what they have done in this particular towards the raising of the Genius and encouraging the Industry of their People to the pursuit of Trade but what I would say is That as King William's Kindness to the Scots in this matter is to the apparent and visible Damage of the English so it is morally certain that both the first overture of such an Establishment sprung from Belgick Councils and that the Prince of Orange's Instructions which led that Parliament to such a Bill and the Royal Assent given thereunto by his Commissioner upon which it is become a Law and Statute is all in order to encrease the Trade and raise the Grandeur of the Dutch and to depress and lessen the Trade of England and thereby to weaken and impoverish the Kingdom For as the Author of a Paper called Some Considerations upon the late Act of the Parliament of Scotland for constituting an Indian Company has with Candor and Ingenuity told us Pag. 4. That the Original of that Design of settling a Company of Commerce for Strangers as well as for Scotch-men was not from Scotland nor from hence but altogether from foreign Parts which as he there tells us he had from good hands So we have reason upon his Testimony to receive what he says being so avowed a Patron of the Wisdom Justice and Equity of the said Act. However it will not be amiss to unfold a little more distinctly what he hath only obscurely and briefly insinuated In the doing whereof I must crave pardon for revealing a Secret committed to me in a private Conversation and the rather because I have always valued my self upon an inviolable Fidelity toward all that have trusted me and upon a tenacious Retentiveness and steddy Secrecy in reference to such Things as have been privately and under the Notion of friendship conveyed to me But where my Discretion has only been confided in but neither my Honour nor my Conscience have been engaged I do judg that I not only may but that in Duty I ought to disclose what hath been and is contrived and machinated in order to divide and separate these two Kingdoms and thereby to weaken if not ruin both of them namely That the Dutchâ— being afraid that either through the Prince of Orange's Death or through King James's Restauration these Nations may be awakened to consider how they have been first deluded and misled and then wronged and injured by the Hollanders and thereupon may be provoked to demand Reparation and grow enraged to persue Revenge they have therefore studied and concerted how to separate the Kingdoms of England and Scotland the one from the other And have proceeded so far therein as in either of the foregoing Cases to have allowance for it from Willam's Dutch Minions and Confidents which is equivalent to the having it from himself And accordingly they have treated with some of the Scotch Nation about it whom they have not only gratified with Mony to make them pliable but have given them assurance That there shall be Three or Four hundred thousand Pound ready to bribe and gain the chief and most leading Men of that Kingdom to comply with this Design at what time it may be needful for the Dutch to have it put in execution In pursuance whereof they have started the Project of a Scotch East India Company which that Nation had all the reason in the World to take hold of and they will be thought not only kind but just to themselves in gaining this Grant and Concession from the Crown for their coming into the Interest of this Man at a Season when their adhering to their Rightful King as was their Duty to have done would have made this Man's Title very uncertain and precarious and would have rendered his Abode in and Reign over these Kingdoms of a very short Duration and Continuance Nor will it escape the recommending the Wisdom of the Scots Nation to Posterity That whilst the English who have lavished away and wasted near 40 Millions sterl upon their Dutch King have not obtained one Beneficial National Act or Law in recompence of all that they have so foolishly and prodigally bestowed for the support of his Government the Scots by taking the Benefit of his foreign Inclinations and Affections have gained something that may be useful to them and their Off-spring It were high Presumption in me to undertake to declare how far the Scots Act is directly calculated and adapted to the Prejudice of England seeing that were to invade the Province and to break into the Rights of both Houses of the Parliament of England who being extreamly sensible of and having maturely weighed it have not only the Integrity and Fortitude to represent it
by a solemn Address to King William but who in their profound Wisdom are considering both how to obviate the Evils which that Law threatneth to the Traffick of the Kingdom and how to settle the Trade of the Nation upon such a Foot and Bottom as may give Encouragements to it and make it revive and flourish I do know that all which the two Houses are to expect from their Belgick King in answer to their Address is That he was surprised into the passing of the Scotch Act which I hope all Men will believe he as truly was as he pretends to have been into the Massacre of Glenco for the perpetration whereof he gave several positive and reiterated Orders For Fides Belgica and Fides Punica are equivalent and the Word of a Carthagenian Senator or General and that of a Dutch Prince are of the same alloy and stamp But as the Scots are a wiser Nation having obtained the passing of such a Law than upon any Consideration whatsoever to be prevailed upon to repeal or to part with it either to gratify King William or to humour and accommodate this Kingdom so no Man in the present Circumstances in which England is will judge it the Interest of this Nation to quarrel with Scotland or too much to rally and vex the Scots upon this Account Not but that there are many ways and means within the Circle and under the Power of the Parliament of England by which they may not only vent their Anger against those English that have subscribed to the Scots East India Stock but make Scotland it self first uneasy and then enraged But as this were to spend their Resentment and Anger where they ought not seeing all their Indignation ought in Justice and Equity to fall no where but upon Kensington and Holland so it were to make themselves Tools in promoting the Design of separating these two Kingdoms which the Dutch contrived this Act for the Establishment of the forementioned Company as a Foundation of and a Path unto For should they at Westminster as they easily may make all those English that have put in their Shares into the Scots Stock pay quadruple Taxes to the War which they are upon Ways and Means to support this would but make many wealthy and industrious Merchants to forsake England and retreat to Scotland where they will be heartily welcomed and effectually protected against all the Operation of such a stingy Law Or should the Parliament of England enjoyn these English that have subscribed to the Scots Stock to abandon and renounce their Membership in that Company this would not only entitle the Scots to so much Mony as was the Quota of theiâ— first Payment which having already received they are not so silly as to refund but it would also occasion those that have ventured so much in that Bottom rather to carry their whole Capital after it than to be both shut out from the Benefit of such a Proportion of their own Estates and likewise to forfeit so much of their very Principal Nor would the Parliament of England act with less imprudence and in greater inconsistency with their own Interest should they suffer themselves to be provoked to turn the Payment of all the Scots Regiments in Flanders off from the English Establishment and cast it upon the Scots as the equivalent of the Customs which they are excused from by the forementioned Statute but which they would be obliged to pay to the Government were they to trade to Africa and the East Indies upon the like bottom and terms which the English do But as this were to enfeeble the Confederate Army by robbing it of Seventeen thousand as good Men as any it is constituted of or else to necessitate England to hire and pay so many Foreigners in their room which they cannot in that Method of acting avoid doing towards the compleating of the Eighty seven thousand four hundred and forty Men which the House of Commons by their Vote of December the 14th have declared necessary for the Year 1696. So such a Procedure of this Kingdom towards Scotland would enforce the Scots both to call home their Troops and to employ them where England will not find any Advantage in giving them Provocation as well as Occasion to do it So that in a Word all the Anger that boileth in English Breasts upon the Account of this Scots Act ought to vent it self upon the Dutch who gave the Advice and upon our Belgick King who gave it the legislative Stamp and ratified it into an Act by what he calls his Royal Authority And to shew that all his little Excuses and particularly what he gave in answer to the Address of the Two Houses when presented to him Octob. 17. viz. That he had been ill served in Scotland is all Cheat pure Grimace in that he has not in Evidence of his being imposed upon and misled turned out or laid aside one of those Ministers of State whom he would have this credulous Nation believe to have deluded him to it Which were it true as it no wise is it ought not to vindicate him from being accountable for the wrong he hath therein done to the Kingdom of England seeing he who drove away King James by a President of his own making meerly for the Offences of that King's Ministers and which Ministers he has not only taken into his Friendship and Confidence but made some of them the chief Superintendants of all his Affairs must not think to Sham the World off with Pretences that the Ministers are only guilty whilst he is to be looked upon as one as innocent as the Child unborn Yea I will presume to add That whereas K. James was not by any Laws of the Kingdom responsable for the Transgressions of his Councillors and Offâ—cers but his Person and Royal Dignity were in all Cases to remain Sacred and Safe K. W. is justly and legally Arraignable for all the Crimes of his Ministers as well as for his own and that both by his authorising that unjust and barbarous Fact of abdicating his Uncle and Father in Law and also by virtue of the Stipulation Contract and Term upon which he accepted the Crown But if nothing else will serve and content the Parliament of England save the making Reprisals and taking Revenge upon the Scots for their establishing an East India Company with so many ample Privileges and Immunities the way of doing it is open and easy without their committing any thing that the Scots can call unjust or which they themselves may either repent or be ashamed of namely To grant unto their own trading Company especially to those of Africa and the East Indies such an Establishment by Law with ease from Custom and Impositions at least with such an Abatement and Moderation of them as caeteris paribus may be an Equivalent to all the Privileges and Immunities in the Scots Act and thereby discourage and cripple if not stifle and smother their
or have peace in their own Minds But then thirdly admitting the Prince of Orange to be King of England whether de Jure or de Facto I further enquire not I desire to ask the Two Houses of Parliament as well as our Lawyers and Divines of what Signification and Importance in their Judgments and Opinions the Word King is that the People may the better know the Nature Extent and Bounds of their Allegiance that being on their part Reciprocal and Corrolate to Kingship on the Sovereigns And this Question is the more necessary to be resolved in that the Notion and Idea of King is much different in the present Estimate of the Generality of Men as well within the Houses of Parliament as without them from what it is represented and found to be in our Laws and from what it has been always heretofore taken and acknowledged to be That therefore which with reference to my self as well as to many Thousands besides I would earnestly beg to know is Whether by King they mean a Sovereign Prince whose Person by virtue of the Authority lodged in him and by reason that the Peace and Welfare of the whole Society depends upon his Safety is Sacred and Inviolable who cannot legally be resisted opposed or withstood and much less be judged deposed and abdicated by any Power on Earth on any Pretence whatsoever and one without whose Call and Authority all Meetings Assemblies and Consultations about Matters of Government and State are Treason and Rebellion Or whether by King they do intend only a Person that is meerly in the Quality of a Trustee entrusted by and accountable to the People as his Principals and who being only vested with a delegated Power may therefore be resisted arraigned judged abdicated and drove away if he offend those over whom he is advanced to rule and act dissonantly from and contrary to the Laws of all which his Subjects are to be Judges For if King be taken in the first Sense to signify one that is unaccusable irresistable and unabdicable than we of this Nation neither have nor lawfully can have any other King than King James while he liveth and hath not renounced and disclaimed his Right And by consequence the Prince of Orange is no other than an Usurper And we out of our own Mouths and by our own Sentence no better than Rebels in abdicating the former and in submitting unto and owning the later And indeed the Principles upon which the Salisbury Dictator of Measures of Obedience Dr. Burnet who out of disloyal Malice to us endeavoured to subvert our antient Government and to battle all our Laws by his modern and treasonable Politicks striveth to justify the Abdication in a Book he hath lately published called Reflections on a Pamphlet entitled Some Discourses upon Dr. Burnet and Dr. Tillotson occasioned by the Funeral Sermon of the former upon the later plainly shew both how self condemned the Author is and what Rebellion he and the Nation are according to the Laws of God and Men become guilty by that Transaction For whereas he owns That illegal Acts and Acts of Tyranny and the remote Consequences of them do not justify the resisting of Princes and that they can be then only lawfully withstood when their going about to subvert totally the Constitution shall be plainly apparent P. 32 33 34 35 36 37. there is no more needful to be said for the loading of him and for the branding the Nation with the just Imputation of the highest and most detestable Treason committed in the Abdication of the King and in the Choise and Exaltation of the Prince of Orange to his Throne Seeing whatsoever illegal Acts which were not many nor of any menacing Importance to the Kingdom the King might be misled and hurried into by treacherous Councillors yet it is so far from being plainly apparent that he designed to subvert the Constitution that the contrary is demonstratively evident and that no Prince ever bore greater regard to the Laws Liberties and Prosperity of England than he did And as his Majesties sending an Ambassador to Rome his appointing Popish Bishops and his claiming a dispensing Power in reference to penal Laws about Religion are all the Instances which that traiterous Doctor gives of the King 's being embarqued in such an Attempt so they are such weak and impertinent Proofs of such a Design that it is to banter Mankind to raise a Suspition of it upon them and much more to stile them plain and apparent Evidences of it Nor needs there any more to shew that the Constitution was in no danger of being totally subverted by those Means and Overt Acts of Government than that neither the noble Person that went to Rome nor those that were constituted Popish Bishops nor any of them that gave Advice for the dispensing Power have been so much as arraigned and much less capitally punished as they would and deserved to have been if those Things had been of a direct and immediate Tendency to destroy totally the Constitution Nor would any Man have betrayed at once the Weakness and the Impudence as to have assigned those Acts of Administration and no other as convictive Proofs of an apparent Design in King James to subvert totally the Constitution but this noisy treacherous and disloyal Doctor who like to him that fired Diana's Temple to protect himself from Oblivion has been studying to raise himself a Monument upon the Banishment of his Sovereign the Ruin of our Antient Government and the Involving of these Kingdoms in a bloody and destructive War But then on the other had if King be taken in the second Sense for one that may be resisted arraigned deposed and drove away from his Throne and Kingdom then as the Prince of Orange hath but a flippery Seat of it and a thorny Crown so no Man can be lawfully required to take an Oath of Allegiance to him and much less justly punished by double Taxes or otherwise for refusing it Seeing if that be the Signification and Importance of King it may be every Man's Duty to assist in deposing and dethroning him And upon what I have said of his Miscarriages in Government and the Designs he is carrying on to the Ruin as well as Impoverishment of the Kingdom there is nothing remains to be added or adviced But to your Tents O Israel for this Man ought no longer to be suffer'd to pretend to reign over us For as he hath in many Instances apparently attempted the total Subversion of the Constitution which even by our Salisbury Doctor 's Principles of Politicks justifieth the deposing him and particularly both in the commanding a whole Tribe of Men that were under the Protection of the Laws to be massacred without any previous Tryal or Conviction and in his taking the Earl of Bredalbin by meer arbitrary Power not only out of the hands of Justice when he stood impeached by Parliament which whether he was justly or unjustly makes no Change in the Nature of what the Prince of Orange hath therein done but in putting him into the Administration of the Government as a Privy Councellor So he hath likewise in effect destroyed the very Kingdom and hath brought us into those Circumstances of Confusion Misery and Want out of which it is impossible to recover and deliver us while he is permitted to sit at the Helm And which if we be so sortish and so much Enemies to our selves and to our Posterity as to connive at any longer it will be out of the reach and power both of our Rightful King and of a well constituted Parliament ever to redeem us or either to retrieve the Nation from final Ruin or to save us from being Conquered by any potent Neighbour that may have a mind to invade us Nor will I enlarge this Discourse any further save to tell those who out of rebellious Enmity to a Rightful King and Idolatry of an Usurper may complain of the Acrfmony of some Expressions which will be found to occur in the foregoing Leaves That all the Language I have used is either consecrated by the Tongues or Pens of your Williamite Divines in their Pulpit Invectives against King James and the King of France or else it is all authorised by the Licenced Pamphlets published in way of Elogâ—e upon the present Government and Satyr upon the last And whosoever will waste so much time as to peruse a Paper stiled A Dialogue between the King of France and the late King James occasioned by the Death of the Queen will justify me in the Reprisals and Retaliations I have made Only whereas little is to be met with in these Sermons and Pamphlets but ridiculous Fiction and impudent Slander as well as dull Malice there will nothing be found in these Sheets but weighed and measured Truth though sometimes a little piquantly expressed Decemb. 20. 1695. ERRATA Page 2 line 30. before other read of ibid. l. 38. for staâ—e r. state p. 4. l. ult for stuff r. strife p. 5. l. 25. dele same p. 6. l. 36. for Redress r. Readers p. 9. l. 1. r. where we had for a great while been in the quiet and peaceable Possession p. 11. l. 37. r. plead p. 12. l. 15. dele a before Servant p. 13. l. 8. r. Placat's ibid. l. 20. r. Rude ibid. l. ult for their r. these p. 14. l. 8. r. become ibid. l. 20. for th r. to p. 15. l. 7. before it r. as ibid. l. 13. for were r. we p. 16. l. 3 4. r. putting ibid. l. 6. r. Guet p. 20. l. 21. r. executed ibid. l. 27. for yet r. yea p. 22. l. 35. after with r. the p. 23. l. 8. r. Donative p. 25. l. 38. r. Bordacho's p. 32. l. 33. before Mischiefs r. the p. 33. l. 6. before have r. they ibid. l. 12. two Millions p. 34. l. 7. after transported put p. 35. l. 33. for mark r. mask p. 36. l. 12. r. thither ibid. l. 19. for so r. for ibid. l. 20. for more r. were ibid. l. 33. r. they thus p. 37. l. ult dele they p. 38. l. 8. after unto put ibid. l. 21. r. become p. 43. l. 14. r. whereof p. 47. l. 28. r. Villanies p. 48. l. 28. r. become ibid. l. 29. r. Center p. 50. l. 25. r. Officers ibid. l. 30. r. the p. 51. l. 3. r. Plebi ibid. l. 11. dele to ibid. l. 22. before the r. that p. 55. l. 32. r. no.