of Protestants but against all they were sensible what Advantages your Popish Crew had made of our Divisions and observed with what Subtlety they had escaped Prosecution by the Laws in force against them by fomenting our Jealousies they saw the Strength and Greatness of the French King and how his Interest had been advanced by your Brother and you and judged of his Inclinations by his bloody Usage of his own Protestant Subjects they considered the Number of the Irish Papists and their bloody Principles and Practices and what Conspiracies were formed in that Kingdom and were ripe for Execution and that Scotland was in the Hands of you and your Villains and that you was the Head of the Popish and Popishly affected Party in the three Kingdoms they had with Grief observed that all the Places of Trust both Civil and Military were in the Hands of the avowed Enemies of the Laws and Liberties of England and notwithstanding all the humble Addresses made to the King and all his Proclamations for a strict Execution of the Penal Laws against Papists yet your villanous Faction evaded those Laws and went scotfree and only the poor Protestant Dissenters smarted under their Severity The Case being thus certainly that House of Commons had as much Reason to think of an Union amongst Protestants in 1680 as your Brother had if ever he spake Truth in 1679. And can you think they had any just Ground to believe that the Protestant Dissenters whilst under such Pressures and Provocations should chearfully and couragiously undertake the Defence of their Countrey since by it they had been and then were so ill treated Experience taught them it was in vain to force us to be of one Opinion and therefore the Commons took a very probable way to unite us in Affection 2. It is true they made this Vote not to arrogate to themselves a suspending Power but to shew they had a repealing Power They well knew that your busy Rascals would be striking whilst there were Weapons at hand and therefore that the Land might be in Peace they designed to take away all Occasions of Provocation from each other and resolved to take away those Penal Laws that occasioned them and accordingly began with a Vote declaring the Necessity of it to which if I am not much mistaken there was not one Negative in the House and a Vote of this nature did but precede the bringing in a Bill for the Repeal of that or those Laws they had voted grievous and inconvenient With what Face could you or your Party revile a Parliament for so regular a Proceeding according to the Custom and Usage of Parliaments How could you call the voting of a Law or Laws grievous and inconvenient a suspending of Acts of Parliament and charge them with Contempt of the Law established 3. We will suppose the Commons did not intend to bring in a Bill to repeal the Laws then in force against Dissenters for the Vote was not made to assume a Power of suspending Acts of Parliament neither did they require the Judges to forbear the Execution of them who were bound to see them performed but they only delivered their Opinion as a Matter of great Concern in that Juncture and notwithstanding the Noise your Cattel made it was wise and pious Counsel and tho it could neither command nor secure the Judges or Justices from doing their Duties if required yet we might have justly expected those that had the Management of Affairs to have hearkened in so plain a Case to the Voice of the Nation or given them or other Parliaments a Measure how to confide in them and the Judges and Justices had they not received Direction from your Brother and you were in Discretion and Conscience as much obliged to omit the Execution of those Laws as that of Bows and Arrows and several other Statutes then if not still in force but out of Use If our Ceremony-mongers had but given themselves leave to think and their Romish Zeal would have let them remembred they were obliged to put on Bowels of Compassion they would have found their Proceedings against their Protestant Brethren could not be justified either by Scripture or the Practice of the Primitive Church where nothing was so common as different Rites and Ceremonies nay Doctrines amongst them and yet the Band of Charity and Love maintained and Christians never learnt to persecute till Wealth and Secular Power did attend Religion and the Prince and Church made use of each other to enslave the World 4. Had not the Parliament reason to make that Vote charge them with what Usurpation you please since it was your constant Practice to inflame the Differences you had made thereby to betray us into the Religion of Rome and the Government of the French King therefore the united Strength of all Protestants was little enough to withstand you I pray let me ask you one Question why might not a Parliament attempt to make Abatements in the Terms of Conformity or dispense with the Ceremonies of the Church when those Ceremonies the Form of Worship and the very Hierarchy it self could plead no other Authority by which they are enjoined than some Acts of Parliament Nay Sir the Commons saw there was a Necessity of passing this Vote for your Popish Crew had poxt a Number of Men that pretended to be so zealous for the Protestant Religion that nothing could serve the turn for its Preservation but a Popish Head and tho the sorry Rogues were a Disgrace to any Religion yet they were so dangerously infected that they thought the Dissenters were equally if not more dangerous than the Papists to the Government tho they well knew the Dissenters had never sworn to any foreign Jurisdiction or Power The Parliament therefore seeing such a Division made in order to weaken our Hands and make us a Prey to your Teeth made this Vote in order to strengthen the Protestant Interest by which they manifested a Resolution of repealing those Laws that were used as Scorpions by our Clergy-men and scoundrel Justices to destroy their quiet and peaceable Neighbours 5. A fifth Pretence starts up in your Vindication and pricks up its Ears one would have thought some Countrey Vicar in his Study over the Oven had contrived and sent it up to you sweetly drest and it struts so daintily that I must not let it go without its due Consideration What is it then truly the House of Commons issued out Arbitrary Orders for taking Persons into Custody for Matters that related not to Privileges of Parliament Truly this is a pretty sort of Pretence surely the Parson's Wife or Daughter had a Hand in finding this Business out but it shall have its due Weight and therefore I shall say these three things 1. We will suppose they did issue forth Orders for taking Men into Custody for Matters that had no relation to Privileges of Parliament yet that House of Commons might have had this to say for
they called in an Act that raised it An humble Tender to his Sacred Majesty of the Duty and Loyalty of his antient Kingdom of Scotland And as a Testimony of the same they did offer to the King 20000 Foot and 2000 Horse sufficiently armed with 40 days Provision to be ready upon the King 's call and in the same Act they declared that if the King should have farther Use and Occasion for their Service the Kingdom would be ready every Man between Sixty and Sixteen and hazard their Lives and Fortunes if called for by his Majesty for the Safety and Preservation of his Person Authority and Government Sure one would think you had given them some State Philtre to create in them such a slavish Loyalty and Love to your Brother's Person and Government 4. Nay they went a step farther to please your Brother and your self being resolved not to fall short in expressing their Loyalty and Affection to him therefore do but observe them in another Act of Parliament wherein they most dutifully and humbly recognize his Majesty's Prerogative Royal and declar'd in the said Act That the ordering and disposal of Trade with Foreign Nations and the laying Restraints and Impositions upon Foreign Imported Commodities did belong to his Majesty and his Successors as an undoubted Privilege and Prerogative of the Crown and that therefore they might do therein as they should judg fit for the good of the Kingdom 5. These People certainly were bewitch'd with the thing called Loyalty and made it appear to the World that they placed the Security of all their Interests more in their Confidence of the King's Goodness than the firmest Provision of the best Laws for tho in the Parliament held by your Father in Person in 1641 many Acts were signed by him for settling their Religion Properties and Liberties which the deepest Consideration and Maturity of Judgment imaginable grounded upon long and well-weighed Experience many and well-managed Treaties and the Mediation of England could afford and furnish yet because the Glory of those Laws appeared to these Blockheads to be stain'd by the remembrance of some previous Contentions wherein they thought themselves very infortunate by having your Father differ from them to please your Brother at one blow they repealed the whole Proceeding of that Parliament and all the Laws then and there made for the Preservation of Religion as aforesaid 6. Those whom God will destroy he delivers up to Madness first and s he did these People in evidencing an unparallel'd Submission to the King and a Resignation of all that was near and dear to them into his Hands for tho that Nation since its first Reformation from Popery did continually oppose Prelacy yet after they had destroyed it and enjoyed their Church under a Constitution and Ministry according to their Hearts desire in compliance with your Brother they parted with the Presbyterian Government and reestablished Episcopacy to the Amazement of most Men so acceptable was he to the Scots Parliament at that Time And for the carrying on your cursed Designs you know how your Brother made James Sharp Mr. Hamilton Mr. Farwell and another whose Name occurs not at present to renounce their Presbyterian Ordination who were made Deacons and Priests and then consecrated Bishops by the Bishop of Winchester and two others of that Gang and four Scots Prelates thus made the King fixed the Government of that Church by Arch-bishops and Bishops as in his Father's time in 1637 who had the same Authority derived to them as they had in your Grandfather's Reign so by Proclamation bearing date Sept. 6. 1661. the Presbyterian Government ceased to be to all Intents and Purposes and the Council suspended the Meeting of the Presbyteries till they had received Power not from Heaven but from the Arch-bishops and Bishops who were in a short Time to enter upon their Government To compleat this Work the Parliament in the 2d Session reinstated the Bishops in the exercise of their Functions and restored them to all their Privileges Dignities Possessions c. Now one would think this Compliance of the Nation should have obliged your Brother and you to have treated them in some measure sutable to their Loyalty and slavish Resignation of themselves Your great Instrument in carrying on this blessed Work of inslaving the Kingdom of Scotland in these particulars in order to your farther Designs was the Earl of Middleton the first High Commissioner after your Brother's return who was most violent in pursuing this Change but by his impetuous Violence in this mighty Work on which he much valued himself he rendered himself obnoxious and despising Lauderdale who took hold of some of his Miscarriages in a short Time he was unhorsed by him and Lauderdale procured the Commission of Lord High Commissioner for the Earl of Rothes by whom Middleton's Parliament was dissolved upon which Madam Van Harlot their new Church appeared in its proper Colours and being made Triumphant 't is well known what Pranks the Whore played what Tumults her Guides excited and what Tragedies her Reverend Clergy acted in your Brother's Reign Nay old Hodg was not so much as advised withal in the Case and every thing was carried on with that Fury that had not Sir Robert Murray come in to the Relief of the People who were on the very brink of Destruction they must have inevitably perished But Sir I will not dwell here any longer only tell you that Lauderdale was the third Lord High Commissioner of Scotland by whom a lamentable Scene of Rogueries were acted and by whom you made your blessed Steps to ruin that poor Nation 1. Your first Step to ruin Scotland was the making Middleton and Lauderdale so excessively great In truth to give the Beasts their due as the Scotish Nation was not able to bear their Greatness so neither they to bear their own You remember that before Lauderdale was Commissioner by reason of his being sole Secretary of State for that Nation and Court-minister he had the absolute Rule and disposing of the Affairs and Concerns of that Kingdom which gave great Offence to the Scots who in the particulars abovesaid had shewed themselves so abominably Loyal as to quit their Religion Laws and Liberties to please your Brother and you As for Middleton he was invested with such Powers that Lauderdale was jealous of his Greatness who seeing him exercise his Power to the utmost imagined there would be nothing for him to do and therefore as I said justled Middleton out by whose Greatness Scotland by Consent of Parliament delivered up all as if Hallifax himself had issued forth Quo Warranto's against their Franchises both as to Liberty and Religion and you having had enough of Middleton's prostituting himself to your Brother's Will and yours exit Middleton and enter Lauderdale a case-hardened Rogue a Villain fit for the Devil's Service to all Intents and Purposes who the more easily to compleat your wicked Designs you may remember did
Bishops 8 Commissioners of the Shires and 8 Burgesses chosen by the 8 Lords and 8 Bishops to which the Commissioner added the Officers of State 2. That those who contended for this Body of Men have asserted that not only all Business must be by the Lords of the Articles and them only registred in Parliament but also that if in the Debates upon their Reports any new thing should be started the Parliament ought to take no notice of it further than to return the whole Matter to the meeting of the Articles to be there entertained or suppressed at their pleasure 3. It is manifest from all the Records of that Antient Kingdom that the Original Constitution of this Meeting or Body of Men was at first by the free appointment of their Parliaments who thought fit to name certain of their Number for framing such Overtures as were offered for the Publick Good into Articles in order to be turned into Laws according to the Antient Form And therefore it being at first devised by the Parliament as a simple Expedient for Order and Dispatch it was not always used but the Number was changeable as also its Method according as the Parliament saw Cause 4. You could not be so ignorant but that at one time or other when you was in that Kingdom you must be informed that as this Body of Men was in effect the Committee of Parliament to prepare and bring in Laws so that there was another of more antient Date called the Committee of Complaints or the Lords of the Grievances which was of use in all times and never laid aside till the second Session of the Parliament called in 1661 in the time of Middleton's Ministry 5. The Act of Parliament of K. James your Grandfather appointing four of every State to meet 20 days before the Parliament to receive all Articles and Petitions and deliver them to the Clerk of the Register to be presented to the Parliament for their Consideration that things reasonable might be formally made and presented to the Lords of the Articles in Parliament-time and frivolous Matters rejected doth no ways countenance that exorbitant Power these Lords of the Articles did assume to themselves it being manifest by the Order therein set down of preparing Matters by a Meeting before-hand and their subsequent forming and presenting by the Parliament to these Article-men that the Parliament's Power of first receiving and then committing Matters to that Body of Men was not then so much as the Subject of the Question But the only thing intended was the orderly setting down of things in Parliament as is apparent in the words of that Act of your Grandfather That no Article or Petition wanting a special Title or unscribed by him that presented the same shall be read or answered in that Convention or Parliament following the same Which was Sir a Provision so clearly preparatory to the Meeting and Business of the Lords of the Articles that 't is very strange your Brother should be so imposed upon by you and your Conspirators to prove this pretended Meeting had a Prerogative above that of the Parliament and it has been affirmed by several Persons of that Kingdom that understood the Scotish Parliament and Constitution that this villanous Authority was never intended by the King or Parliament to be in the Lords of the Articles nor had they the Impudence to pretend to it till they were countenanced in that Pretension by you and your Conspirators 6. You cannot but remember that Lauderdale had a great Influence on that Parliament that was called in 1663 when a particular Act passed for settling the Constitution and chusing Lords of the Articles for the time to come in which it was expresly provided that the Lords of the Articles are to proceed in the discharge of their Trust in preparing of Laws Acts and Proposals and ordering all things remitted to them by the Parliament which words remitted them imported no more nor less than that the Power of proposing was in the Body of the Parliament and that the Lords of the Articles were to act upon the things referred to them by Parliament as a Committee of Parliament 7. And lastly These Lords of the Articles were but the Parliament's Delegates and Servants and therefore how could they determine the Points the Parliament was to debate or not as they should see fit Therefore Sir if you consider but a little of this Matter you will find that your Fellow-Conspirator by attributing so much to these Lords of the Articles of Power and Prehemince over the Parliament design'd in time to destroy the Use of Parliaments For what was the Liberty Authority and Dignity of a Parliament if thus trampled on by these Miscreants who were by this Insolency become a great Grievance to the Kingdom Truly Sir I cannot but think that this Conspirator Lauderdale by his many Villanies had put himself under some Necessity of those Men and was prompted by some cogent Reasons to promote that exuberant Power in them For 1. I suppose he could not but be filled with the Terror of the Guilt he contracted thrô his wicked Proceedings and therefore might rationally suppose these Men thrô the base Compliance of the wicked Bishops would be a Refuge to him as they always were to Rogues and Traitors in that Kingdom And truly had he not improv'd the Use of these Tools his Actions might have been set in order before him in order to his severe Punishment by a faithful Parliament And 2. he knew that some warm Men as he called them had an itching to have him by the Collar and only forbore him because of your Brother's Respect and Kindness for him These Reasons were sufficient for him to keep up the Power of those Lords for the Parliament was so kind that when there was a vacancy in the Committee of the Articles he had the nominating of one to succeed 3. Because contrary to the Custom of the Parliament there he caused all such Members as were not named Lords of the Articles to be excluded the Meetings of the Lords of the Articles which you know was to no other End than that the Parliament being less prepared might the more implicitly go along with their Conclusions Thus you may see what a Grievance these Lords of the Articles were Sir by this time you cannot but see what havock you made of the Laws and Liberties of Scotland by those two great Villains Middleton and Lauderdale I might have enlarged upon this Subject but 't would fill a Volume to give account of every little Passage of yours there in order to enslave that People and establish Popery in that Kingdom Article XXIX YOU stand charged with many villanous Attempts to break the use of Parliaments and ridiculing that way of Government O Sir it was the more hateful to you because it preserv'd Liberty and Property which of all Men in your Day you most hated But you were not the first Man of Figure that
a Debt for their Rogueries the Gallows groans for their perverting of Justice and Judgment Where are your murdering Judges of the West Some of them yet live They might without the Consent of a pair of Spectacles have seen and might without fear have told you they could not chuse but see what was contained in this Preamble now recited Were the Rogues ignorant Then why did not your Pemberton your Scroggs your Levins your Charlton and the rest of that Crew instruct your Brother and you what was contained and pointed at in this Preamble But alas they did not they were able enough but they had rascally durante bene placito Commissions that indisposed them to be plain and honest in that Affair they were more afraid of losing their Places than of being damn'd for not doing their Duties But since they had not the Honour Honesty and Conscience of upright Judges give me leave to be plain with you Therefore Sir observe 1. The intolerable Grievance and Burden occasioned by the illegal Incroachments of the See of Rome to which Yoke you and your Villains endeavour'd to reduce and subjugate these Kingdoms You fired our City and murdered our Friends you promoted Men of Villanous Principles and worse Morals to the Judgment-Seat and made them Vassals to your Will and Pleasure who if they complied not were reproachfully dismissed their Imployments and ruined if possible Nay if any of them attempted but to prosecute Popery alas they were not for your Turn for your Design was by them to revive that intolerable Grievance by incouraging the illegal Incroachments of the See of Rome 2. Observe the many Complaints the People had made who in those dark Times under Popery groan'd under such Burdens What Burdens I pray you under the Incroachments of the See of Rome Why truly in disposing of Benefices Ay it is a good Observation for the Pope would present none but such as should advance his usurped Power and Interest and if the People were so bold as to complain of these things were they not a parcel of Rebels and Traitors for their pains No they complain'd without being called or treated as such What Remedy had they A Parliament Now Sir had not we as much need of an Act of Provisors against you for in your Brother's Time how many of your Rogues were presented to the best Livings in the Realm at your Procurement and how many Villains were made Bishops by the Whores Cleveland and Portsmouth and the Pimps and Bawds at Court Did not we stand in need of Statutes of Provisors Name me one Man of these that were not to advance the Power and Interest of France and to wink at the Progress and Growth of Popery Had we not reason to complain Yes To whom to the King No he was engaged for Popery and the French Interest and Arbitrary Power as well as your self His Metropolitan Whores were Papists to please him or he one to please them Therefore to what purpose was it We had none to complain to but a Parliament and how you used them we have not forgot and how our Application to them was not only useless but dangerous is not unknown In a word Sir the Condition of the Complainants in the Time of Edw. III tho they lived in the dark Times of Popery were in a far better Condition than we were in your Brother's Reign for notwithstanding the Religion of Edw. III his Interest was his Peoples and therefore held frequent Parliaments to whom they might complain and from whom they might find Redress without being judged Traitors and Rebels to the Government 3. Observe the Endeavours used in vain by former Parliaments to redress the same and to bring their Laws in being to have their Force and Effect You know that when the Kings of England were wicked then to gain the Point they used to fly to Rome for Countenance and advance that usurped Power to the Prejudice of the People So it was with your Brother and you when you had a Design in hand to enslave the Nation then you set up the Power and Interest of France and none were to be preferred in our good Church but Villains that were case-hardned enough to join with your Brother and you in ravishing the Peoples Rights and Franchises Had we good Laws in being against Popery They were suspended Had we any good Laws against the growing Greatness of France Yes we got one poor Act of Parliament against France and that was eluded Nay now I think on 't we got an Act to enter into an actual War against France with which your Party did impudently beg Money from France We got a poor sorry Act for the Liberty of the Subject called the Habeas Corpus Act this was by you and your Villains evaded so that we were under a necessity of Complaining Those in the Time of Edw. III had redress we had none till we drove you and the French Interest and Popery out of the Kingdom 4. Observe the Acknowledgment of the King and Parliament that the Obligation to this Duty was upon the King who you know is entrusted by the Law to preserve the Peace and Liberties of the Realm and to rectify all Miscarriages in the Government Which is apparent 1. From the Right of the Crown obliging him to pass good Laws 2. There were good Laws committed to his Trust in full Force which he was to execute 3. There is the King's Oath to pass new Laws for the Peoples Safeguard which they should tender to him as well as to execute old Laws already made 4. From the Sense of the People exprest in their Complaints And 5. From the Mischief and Damage that would otherwise ensue and therefore it is said that by the Desire and Accord of his People he past this famous Law the Preamble of which I have recited to you in part 4. There is another Statute worthy of your Consideration and pretty much to the same purpose you will find it in the 2d of Rich. II. in N o 28. Also the Commons of England in Parliament desire that forasmuch as Petitions and Bills presented in Parliament by divers of the Commons could not heretofore have their respective Answers that therefore both their Petitions and Bills in this present Parliament as also all others which shall be presented in any future Parliament may have a Good and Gracious Answer and Remedy ordained thereupon before the departing of every Parliament and to this purpose a due Statute be ensealed or enacted at this present Parliament to be and remain in Force for all Times to come To which the King replied thus The King is pleased that all such Petitions delivered in Parliament of Things or Matters which cannot otherwise be determined a good and reasonable Answer shall be made and given before the departure of the Parliament This King you know left not a very good Name behind being drawn away from loving his People just as you and your Brother were
Factions that put General Cromwell to the Necessity of taking upon him the Government of the Nation by a single Person by the Name and Title of Lord Protector Those who would destroy the Constitution of the House of Lords do endeavour the Destruction of the Ballance of the English Government 3. Consider the King gives Life and Vigour to all the Proceedings in Parliament the Wills and Desires of the People tho approved by the Lords and Commons in Parliament without the King signify nothing unless he bids them be an Act they are abortive Therefore he that shall attempt the Subversion of any of the other two Estates is no more a King but a Tyrant and useless to God and Man You see that your Father undid himself to all Intents and Purposes by following such Measures as subverted his own Government and so have you and if you will not believe it you may ask the French King and he will soon satisfy you of the Matter But from hence Sir you may see that you cannot destroy any one Estate in this Government but the whole is subverted and therefore I may lay down this Proposition that Parliaments are the Essential Part of the Government In a word then to conclude this Head let me ask you or any of your Plotters these two Questions 1. If this be so that by so great Authority viz. so many Statutes then and now in Force the Fundamentals of the Common Law the Essentials of the Government it self Magna Charta your Brother's Coronation-Oath and so many Laws of God and Man the Parliament ought to meet and sit to redress Grievances provide for Common Safety especially in times of Common Danger and that this was so in a most eminent manner none can doubt that did believe the King so many Parliaments the Cloud of Witnesses the publick Judicatures their own Sense and Experience of the manifold Mischiefs acted and the apparent Ruin and Confusion that threatned the Nation by the restless Attempts of you and your bloody Party Then Sir I ask you Whether after the People of England had the Point of the Dagger thus set to their Breasts and the Knife at their Throats Cities and Habitations fired Invasions and Insurrections threatned to destroy the King and Government your villanous Popish Party did not design to destroy the only Remedy hoped for under God to give us Relief that is our Parliaments who with so much Cost and Pains were elected sent up and intrusted for our Help and to turn them off without answering the Ends for which chosen by those frequent Prorogations and Dissolutions Consider Sir the Point in hand Were not the People of England justified in their important Cries humble Petitions to the King your Brother fervent Addresses to their Members and earnest Claims for this their Birthright pleaded with all the Modesty imaginable which the Laws of the Kingdom consonant to the Laws of God and Nature had given them How impudent then were your Abhorrers of such Petitions and Claims What can Withens who was expelled the House for the same say for himself What can the Rascal plead in behalf of himself and a rascally Crew that joined with him in signing an Address of Abhorrence and that Villain Jefferies who did that in London which Wythens had done in Westminster Which brings me to a second Question 2. If it be fo that by so great Authority Parliaments ought to meet and sit to redress Grievances c. what shall we say to those who advised your Brother to this high Violation of their Countries Rights to the infringing so many just Laws and to the exposing the Publick to those desperate Hazards even almost a total Ruine which was done with all the Impudence and Barefacedness imaginable the Advisers not having the least Remorse upon them If K. Alfred as Andrew Horne in his Mirror of Justice tells us hanged Darling Segnor Cadwine Cole and forty Judges more for judging contrary to Law and yet all those faise Judgments were but in particular and private Cases what Death did those deserve who offer'd Violence to the Law it self and all the sacred Rights of their Country If the Lord Chief Justice Thorpe iâ— Edward Ill 's time for receiving the Bribery of 100 l. was adjudged to be hanged as having made the King break his Oath to the People how much more guilty were they that made your Brother break his Coronation-Oath and perswaded him to act against all Laws for holding of Parliaments and passiâ—g 〈◊〉 therein which â—e was so solemnly sworn to do And if the Lord Chief Justice Tresillian was drawn hang'd and quartered for advising the King to act contrary to some Statutes only what did those deserve that advised your Brother to act not only against some but all the antient Laws and Statutes of the Realm Moreover Sir I would say this further to you if you will have a little Patience If Blake the King's Counsel only for assisting in the Matter and drawing up Indictments by the King's Command against Law tho it's like he might plead the King's Order and Command for so doing was drawn hang'd and quartered what was due to them that assisted your Brother in the total Destruction of all the Laws of the Kingdom and as much as in them lay their King and Country too And if Vske the Under-Sheriff whose Office it is to execute the Laws for but endeavouring to aid Tresillian Blake and their Accomplices against some of the Laws was also with five more drawn hang'd and quarter'd what Punishment did they deserve that not only aided your Brother but endeavour'd to subvert all the Laws of the Kingdom And if Empson and Dudley in the time of Henry VIII tho of the King 's Privy Council were hanged for procuring and executing an Act of Parliament contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and to the great Vexation of the People when yet they had an Act of Parliament on their Side what ought to have been done to those who had no such Act to shelter themselves and who not only acted contrary to but to the Destruction of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom I can expect Sir no Answer from you but this The Men that did these things should surely have died if they had been discovered they should have perished without Mercy Is it so then I come to the last Particular to be debated and that is III. You are the Man and your Party was the Party that did endeavour to break the Use of Parliaments by inveighing against that way of Government In a word therefore I shall descend unto Particulars and shew you 1st That your Inclinations were not for Parliaments or that Way of Governing 2ly What those Parliaments were that you and your Party procured to be dissolved 3ly What Arts and Methods you used to expose the three last Parliaments your Brother held in 1679 1680 and 1681. 4ly Your Unreasonableness in so doing 5ly The ill Consequences
Inclination you had for any Parliament for certain you nor your rascally Party could never expect to see a Parliament more ready to assist you in all your wicked Designs 3. Your Inclination to Parliaments was seen by the Notions and Practices of your Party in relation to Parliaments especially from those of them that knew you best Were not Coleman Beddingfield Whitebread Strange Nevil and several other Villains of your Privy Council at St. James's and did not these study to find out your Inclinations and to imitate you exactly And how these and the rest of your villanous Crew stood affected to Parliaments in general is not yet forgotten by some that knew them Was it not their common discourse that they hoped there would be no more need of Parliaments did not your Popish Priests and Jesuits go from Coffee-house to Coffee-house and ridicule Parliaments Alas Sir this was but the Copy which your Villains took from your own Words who sometimes when they wanted a Supply for their extraordinary Occasions would be seemingly content that a Parliament should meet and sit to raise such a Supply but never to redress Grievances nay some of them have said that a King's Proclamation ought to be sufficient to raise Money and that it would never be well with us till the whole Government was reduced to the Model of that of France 4. Your Inclinations to a Parliament were seen in your daily Breaches upon the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom You knew the Parliament had made an Act of Uniformity and several Laws against Dissenters in 1663 and several Laws were made against Papists in former Kings Reigns yet to oblige the Popish Party you broke in upon all these Laws at once and procured your Brother in the said Year to put forth an Indulgence for tender Consciences not for the Encouragement of Protestant Dissenters but the Increase and Growth of Popery And as a necessary thing to usher in your second wicked War against the Dutch you put your Brother upon issuing forth another Declaration of Indulgence in 1671. Many other Instances I could give of this Matter but this shall suffice Now how this could consist with an innate Love to English Parliaments I must leave to better Judgments 5. Your Inclinations to Parliaments were seen in your Unwillingness to let that Parliament meet and sit in which you had so great a Band of Pensioners To my certain Knowledg Messenger after Messenger has been sent to France with begging Letters to get Money from the French King to put off the Sitting of the Parliament Give your Brother his due he never cared for their Sitting unless it was to get a Supply that he might exercise his Talent you know where without Molestation which he could not well do at a Session of Parliament Sir when the Parliament was by Prorogation to have met in Feb. 1672 3 O what Interest was used to put it off till October following and it had been done if your Party had brought in a Million as they promised but bringing in but 356000 l. there was no help but a Parliament must meet who I think made up the Defect in the Supply you expected from the Popish Party You know the Parliament was put off from Octob. 1670 till Feb. 1672 3. by which long Interval you had a competent Scope for the mighty Work you had upon your Hands that you and the rest of the Architects of our Ruine might be so long free from their odious and busy Inspection till it were finished A drinking Companion of your Brother's telling you that the Session of Parliament drew near and asking you what you thought of the Humour the Parliament-men would be in at next Session you answered you trusted there might be no Occasion for their meeting any more for you had hopes to bring the Cause to bear without a Parliament and took it as a great Affront that the Question was asked You know the old Squire your Brother laughed at you for that Capricio of yours tho your Jesuits thought it a piece of Impudence in that Gentleman so much as to mention the name of a Parliament in your Presence he knowing your Opinion as to that way of Government I must conclude that Man to be at a perpetual War with Mankind that will not admit of the sight of either Friends or Enemies If Sir you could not bear the Congress of your Friends that had been so loyal and bountiful you must certainly be averse to the meeting of a Parliament that would call you and your wicked Party to account for your many traiterous Designs against our Laws and Liberties 6. And lastly Your Inclination to Parliaments was seen in your Opinion of the Affection which your Band of Pensioners did bear to you and your Cause You know Sir you had put your self under the Protection of the French King and therefore it was scarce possible for you to engage any more in a Parliamentary way for all English Parliaments are haters of the French Interest Your Friend Coleman in his Letter to La Chaise Sept. 29. says That in Father Ferier 's time he had inculcated the great danger the Catholick Religion and the Interest of his most Christian Majesty would be in at the next Session of Parliament which was to be in Oct 1673. at which I fore saw that the King my Master would be forced to do somewhat in Prejudice to his Alliance with his most Christian Majesty which I saw so evidently and particularly that we should make Peace with Holland that I urged all the Arguments I could which to me were Demonstrations to convince your Court of that Mischief and pressed all I could to perswade his most Christian Majesty to use his utmost Endeavours to prevent that Session of our Parliament Again you find him pressing him for the Dissolution of the Parliament in order to bring the Confederates to a Peace upon the French King's Terms Then he plainly tells you That the Parliament as it was managed by the then Ministry was both unuseful to England and France and the Catholick Religion In another Part he tells you That Prorogations were but loss of time and a means to strengthen those who opposed the Crown and therefore still presses for a Dissolution which would give the Protestant Religion the greatest Blow that ever it receiv'd since its first Birth So that we may see by your Servant Coleman what Opinion you had of the then Parliament But that we may rivet the Matter I pray Sir take but a Note or two of your own Letter to La Chaise wherein you express your self extreamly pleased That the French King was satisfied of the unusefulness of the Parliament in order to the Service of the King your Brother and his most Christian Majesty In another place you say that his Christian Majesty was of Opinion that the Parliament was neither in his Interest nor yours Pray let me know what Parliament would be in your Interest
Popish Adversaries which they could not do but by inflaming the Differences between the Conforming and Non-conforming Protestants that we might not unite our Forces against the Common Enemy 2. You and your Party by this means weakened the Protestant Interest There can be nothing more plain than this for upon the Dissolution of the Oxford Parliament Swarms of Priests and Popish Conspirators returned home and fell to work to pervert the People to the Obedience and Communion of the See of Rome What Pensions then you got for some and Imployments for others and with what care you maintain'd their Interest and defended their Cause and Quarrel against those that pursued them for their many Treasons against the Government we all saw to our great Sorrow And what help was there since you and your Party had so much countenance from your Brother who was ingaged with you in the whole Popish Conspiracy saving that of his own Life 3. You procured a severe Persecution against Protestant Dissenters which you nor none of your rascally Crew durst do during the Session of Parliament but immediately upon their Dissolution you fell upon them either because they had occasioned the sending of good Men to Parliament or because they were zealous Assertors of the Protestant Religion against Popery and of our English Liberties against Slavery these were indeed high Crimes for which you and your Villains made them smart to the ruine of several thousand Families and had you continued somewhat longer in that glorious Adventure you might have made poor England a howling Wilderness tho when your Brother and you came home you found it a Land flowing with Milk and Honey Nay you had rather all should have run into Confusion than the Dissenters should not be ruined because they could not comply with a few Ceremonies for which your Party had no other Authority than a few Acts of Parliaments 4. You advanced Arbitrary Proceedings in Westminster-Hall where you had a Set of rognish Judges exactly of a size for that turn who had as much Impudence for the Court as they had had Dread of being called to Account in Parliament for all their Villanies And tho it was a standing Constitution that if any Man stood impeached by the Commons of England before the Lords in Parliament no inferiour Court could take Cognizance of that Cause or try him for that Treason in Westminster-Hall for which he stood impeached in Parliament which upon the Dissolution of the Oxford-Parliament was Fitz-Harris his Case yet for all this you found out your Pemberton your Jones and your Raymond that had Impudence enough to try the said Fitz-Harris and condemn him for alas good Men they were not to lose their Places for every small Peccadillo if it were to serve the Government especially to do a Job for you and your Crew 5. Upon the Dissolution of the 3 last Parliaments to alienate the King from his People you and your Party did industriously revive the Memory of the late unhappy Civil War between your Father and the Parliament which was your Brother's Interest as well as the Nation 's to have buried in oblivion the mentioning that unhappy War serv'd only to put us in mind of the sudden Dissolution of 3 Parliaments and the 12 years want of one and what the Villains had done in your Father's Reign and the better to colour your procuring the Dissolution of those three Parliaments you had your Parties abroad to asperse and brand the Members as being of the same Complexion with those that met Nov. 3. 1640 but none of your Cut-throats did ever mention the bloody Massacre in 1641 because begun and carried on by your Father's Command and for his Service But Sir let me tell you that none lived more peaceably under your Brother's Government than they who were engaged in that War on the Parliament's side therefore I cannot tell by what prudent Topick you went when you discourag'd those Men in their obedient living by such villanous Reflections and upbraided them with what the Law had pardoned and they had expiated by their Loyalty since supposing they had been Criminals which yet I think they were not But this is plain beyond all dispute that the Parliament that restored your Brother to his Throne and you to be a constant Plague to this Nation made an Act of Indemnity wherein many things were enacted which they judged necessary for the Settlement of the Nation they prohibited under a Penalty one Man's reproaching another with being concerned in that War for the space of three years after the Date of the said Act sure then they never intended Men should afterwards take the liberty to upbraid one another with it 6. Another ill Consequence of dissolving those three Parliaments was that by this means you made a way to succeed your Brother in the Government If those Parliaments had sat and their Counsels not been defeated by their unexpected Dissolutions you must have been disabled from ever inheriting the Imperial Crown of these Realms and it was plain those Whores and other Traitors that procured the Dissolution of those Parliaments aim'd at your coming to the Throne But Sir I think your Party should have shown so much Ingenuity and Candour as to have owned that all the People of England particularly those that were for your Exclusion were as zealous for Monarchy even in the Royal Line as any of your clamorous Bullies durst for their Ears be I am sure nothing so much endanger'd the legal Monarchy of England as your coming to the Crown which the Wisdom of the Nation foresaw and therefore that it might be preserved resolved to pass you by and let it descend to another Heir Nay Sir if you had continued James Duke of York I am sure you might have lived with more Honour and Comfort than you can propose by putting your Feet under the French King's Table but God having ordained you to be a Plague to us for our Sins I think you let us see what you aimed at in your four Years Tyranny There are some blind Puppies whose Eyes are not yet opened I could wish you had their Company at St. Germains being confident you would soon lick them open 7. Another Consequence of the Dissolution of those three Parliaments was the possessing the King of a Design carried on by the dissenting Party for his Destruction and to introduce a Democratical Power which they called a Common-wealth nay that you might hasten the Dissolution of the Oxford-Parliament you made use of this Lie for an Argument which your Brother was willing to believe that he might have some Pretence for quitting that way of Government There were two sorts of Persons charged 1. The Parliaments themselves 2. Those who stedfastly asserted the Power and Privileges of Parliaments the Protestant Religion and Liberties of the People in opposition to Popery and Slavery 1. These Parliaments were charged with a Design against his Majesty's Person and Government Now Sir let us
those Parliaments were composed of Give me leave Sir to put this Question to you Suppose you had been found guilty of Treason by your Peers in Parliament or in any Court of Peers and the Case so plain that you had been condemned and executed for that Treason whether or no that Parliament or Court of Peers that had condemned you had been guilty of a Breach of their Allegiance and Murder This you cannot say then I must tell you that since whilst you were Duke of York you had made your self obnoxious to the Government in a lower degree why might not the same Authority proportion the Punishment and leave you your Life and debar you of the Succession This is to shew the Absurdity your Crew were guilty of in this Argument Now I will speak one Word by way of Answer Whereas your Conspirators did say the Bill of Exclusion was diametrically opposite to the Oath of Allegiance taken to your Brother and his Heirs no Man could bear Allegiance to two Persons at once nor could Allegiance be due to a Subject the Word Heirs obliges no Man till the Heir is in Possession of the Crown then the Obligation is fixed by virtue of the Oath made to his Predecessor Now Sir do but consider what Mischief your Party did to the Succession it self for the next Heir by their way of prating for by it they let loose your self from all the Restrictions and Penalties of human Laws so that you had no other Ties upon you not to snatch the Crown from off your Brother's Head than purely those of your own Conscience and what they were the Nation quickly saw 5. A fifth Argument you and your Conspirators used against the Bill of Exclusion was That it argued a Distrust of the Providence of God Now Sir was our Care to preserve the Protestant Religion a Mistrust of God's Providence and must those that were thus zealous be judged Men of little Faith God forbid 'T is true I cannot allow the least Evil to be done that Good may come of it but the Bill against you was justifiable by the Laws of God and the Constitution of the Government for Sir look back and consider how the Protestant Religion was first established here in England it was indeed by the mighty Hand of God influencing the publick Counsels of the Nation so that all imaginable Care was taken both by Prince and People to rescue themselves from the Romish Yoke and accordingly most excellent Laws were made against the Usurpation and Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome our noble Ancestors in those Days did not manifest a want of Zeal for their Religion with a lazy Pretence of trusting God's Providence but together with their Prayers to and Affiance in the great Jehovah joined the Acts of their own Duty without which they well knew they had no reason to expect a Blessing And a young Whipper-snapper a Friend of yours in a certain Coffee-house had prated at this rate till he was plentifully kickt for his Pains which was the best Way of answering such a Coxcomb that was not to be answered any other way 6. Another Argument against the Bill of Exclusion was this A standing Force would have been absolutely necessary to place and keep the Administration of the Government in Protestant Hands and the Monarchy it self would have been destroyed by a Law which was to have taken all sort of Power from the King and made him not so much as a Duke of Venice This I have heard your Brother talk but it was when he was drunk and this was the Talk of your Party drunk or sober truly they had little in their Discourses but Absurdity and Incoherence Sometimes they would say the Government and Succession to the Crown was of such Divine Right that nothing could lessen your Right nay some of them were so fulsome and nauseous as to talk of Acts of Parliament to banish you out of your own Dominions and to deprive you of your whole Power of Kingship after your being actually King but truly this nasty Cheat appeared so plain to the Parliament that one of your professed Vassals who had more Honour than the rest of your nonsensical Parasites was ashamed of it and openly renounced that self-contradicting Project which they had been so long contriving and thought they had so artificially disguised but tho it was so well-favouredly exposed in the House yet your Coxcombs thought the Nation might be deceived and therefore blusht not to offer it in their common Discourses in all Places and Companies but who they converted to the Cause I never was curious to inquire But Sir was a standing Force so necessary in case of your being excluded suppose it was nay I will go farther suppose a War had been necessary yet would it not have been a War justified by the Authority of Law and against a banished excluded Pretender There would have been no fear of its Consequence no true English Men could have joined with you or countenanced your Usurpation after such an Act and as for your Popish and French Adherents they would neither have been more angry nor more strong by the passing that Bill Truly Sir I must be plain and tell you that your being excluded when Duke of York would by no Means have necessitated a standing Army for the Preservation of the Government and Peace of the Kingdom the whole People of England would have been an Army for that Purpose and every Heart and Hand would have been prepared to maintain that so necessary and much desired Law for which those three Parliaments were so earnest with your Brother not only in pursuance of their own Judgments but by the Directions of those that sent them to remove so great a Grievance from the Nation as you then was and continued to be till you were graciously pleased to let us know that one pair of Heels was worth two pair of Hands Your notorious great Grand-mother was excluded by Act of Parliament yet Queen Elizabeth enjoyed the Crown with much Comfort and Peace for 44 Years and needed no standing Force to secure her from that pretty conditioned Gentlewoman's pretended Right Again a Word more to this standing Army I wonder that you and your Party should be so afraid of what you so eagerly desired nay some of them almost ventured a hanging to get one established If I am not much mistaken I have seen two Armies raised for no other Design than to bring in Popery and Slavery as was proved to the Shame of him that raised them and the first was as shamefully disbanded as it was impudently and against Law raised but the last Army you procured to be raised you and your Party were so unwilling to part with that two Acts were passed before we could get them disbanded And after your Brother had thrown off the use of Parliaments at your Instance he so increased the Number of his Guards that they became formidable to the People of England
Justice which are Officina Legis and particularly of the High Court of Parliament so called from Parlerlament speaking judicially his Mind And amongst others he gives us the following Law of K. Alfred who reigned in 880 and ordained for a Usage perpetual That twice a Year or oftner if need be in time of Peace they shall assemble themselves at London to treat in Parliament of the Government of the People of God how they should keep themselves from Offences should live in quiet and should receive Right by certain Laws and holy Judgments And thus saith this Great Coke you have the Law of K. Alfred as well concerning the holding this Court of Parliament here every Year at the City of London as to manifest the threefold End of this Great and Honourable Assembly 1. That Men might be kept from offending that is that Offences might be prevented both by good and provident Laws and by the due Execution of them Truly Sir here is Grief in one Hand and Sorrow in the other for your Brother and you you hated the one and despised the other Provident Laws you hated as much as you did an honest Woman and the other you despised as much as you did an honest Man And you were never more at ease than when thrô the want of a good Law or so you and your Party were not only emboldned but enabled to do Mischief 2. That all Men might live safely and quiet This is another End of Parliament Old Wright your quondam Justice of the Kings-Bench used to say That the Man that resigned himself up to the Will of his Prince was always safe and quiet But yet that Loggerhead of a Judg with Old Hodg and all his Inferior Crew could never find one such Saying in the Reports or Institutes of Judg Coke for the Saying was so silly that a Man must have judged it to have been his own unless he had humbly borrowed that wise Saying from Sir your sweet understanding Self for he understood as little of the Design and End of a Parliament as your self The Wretch is gone to his Place but as for Law and Parliaments no Man no not Jenner himself understood less than his Worship 3. That all Men might receive Justice by certain Laws and Holy Judgments not by Proclamations or French Edicts as you and your Brother did design but by certain Laws to the end Justice might be the better administred that Questions and Defects in Laws might be by the High Court of Parliament explained and reduced to certainty Your Brother and you if you had understood this would not have sent for a set of Rogues clothed in Purple to have gained their Opinion about suspending the Penal Laws against a parcel of Papists and Popish Priests no you would have applied your selves to Parliament to have explained the difficult and dark Parts of the Laws in force against those Men but you loved Darkness and dark Judges and therefore what you did was dark for Sir your Brother and you little thought and believed that the High Court of Parliament was the Supream Court of the Realm and that it was a part of the Frame of the Common Laws and that in some Cases Parliaments do proceed legally according to the Course of the Common Laws Had your Brother or you understood or believed the Antiquity of Parliaments you would not have preferred a Privy Council before them nor if you had valued the Dignity of Parliaments would you have preferred the Opinion of a parcel of Lambskin Rogues before a plain and positive Law nor if you had learned the Sovereign Jurisdiction of Parliaments would you have followed the Advice and Direction of your villanous Ministers of State tho against the Fundamental Constitution of the Government I wonder you did not take the Villains along with you to St. Germains your Ministers Judges and your Counsellors Learned in the Law your Wrights Jenners Miltons Withers Sawyers and the rest of the Hellish Crew I do not name them all but you might have had the Honesty not to have left them to disgrace their Profession which is well improved since I saw you last and to have procured an Apartment for them that your Ministers might have thought upon some better Politicks and your Roguy Judges and Lawyers might have understood the Law a little better than scribere est agere If that Bird had been but hang'd up in a Cage in your Presence-Chamber he would have sung another Tune For all his Brave-alls he and the rest of his Crew might have found some Expedient or another to have helped you to some other Kingdom since by the Law of some of them and the Politicks of others they fairly walked you out of three Kingdoms at once I do not see any great Reformation of their Manners or any great Improvement they have made of their Law since you was graciously pleased to take up your Residence at St. Germains and if you had taken the Vermin along with you there might have been a parcel of Dragoons that might have drub'd them to their Books so that by their Scribere's and Agere's they might have found some convenient Government for you which they might have kept you in to better purpose than did by their Law and Counsel keep you here Nay if you had advanced them a little above their Neighbours they might have seen the difference between a Declaration of Indulgence and a statute-Statute-Law for Liberty of Conscience and between an Act of Parliament and a Proclamation A good Whip dear Sir would have been of admirable Use and Instruction for it would have made them to understand and they would have told you tho somewhat too late 1. That Parliaments are part of the Frame of the Common Law which is founded on the Law and Light of Nature right Reason and Scripture 2. That according to this Law of Equity and Righteousness Parliaments ought freely to meet for the Common Peace Safety and Benefit of the People and Support of the Government 3. That Parliaments have been all along esteemed the Essential Part of the Government as being the most Antient Honourable and Sovereign Court in the Nation which ought frequently to meet and sit for the making and abolishing of Laws redressing Grievances and to see to the due Administration of Justice 4. That as to the Place of the meeting it ought to be at London not at New-Market at London not at Windsor at London not at St. Germains because London is the Capital City the Eye and Heart of the Nation as being not only the Royal Seat but the principal Place of Judicature and Residence of the chief Officers and Courts of Justice where also the Records are kept as well as the principal Place of Commerce and Concourse in the Nation and to which the People may have the best Recourse and where they may find the best Accommodation 5. They would have instructed you in the Antiquity of Parliaments which have been so
Antient that no Record can give an Account of their beginning Upon my word I will tell you that a little Chastisement upon these Villains by a parcel of your Dragoons would have wrought a mighty Change upon them Therefore Sir since you have nothing else to do send for them you shall have every one of them that are above Ground and if they do not answer Expectation then hang 'em all and I do think they should be content For Passive-Obedience and Non-resistance and the Divine Right of Ignorance are so fixt in their Bones that nothing but a good dragooning Flux will fetch them out In a word Sir now it is easily known why your Brother in his Reign did not suffer Parliaments to meet and sit for those Ends for which a Parliament was at first constituted for such Rogues as I have mentioned used to teach him the same Doctrine that they taught you only with these different Effects which wrought more upon you than it did upon him For all the brave Notions they gave him of Prerogative and Absolute Power and the Excellency of the Romish Religion above all other Religions could neither give him Strength enough to get Old Catherine with Child nor Courage enough to run away Now the same Doctrine that your Lawyers Judges and Ministers of State taught you had these wonderful Influences upon you of getting a Child for us or shamming one upon us and running from us without the Aid and Assistance of an old English Parliament The Rogues were running after you it had been no great matter if he she or they had been hang'd that stopt them But the Vermin by this time are come to themselves and can tell you for a need that not to suffer Parliaments to sit to answer the great Ends for which they were instituted was and still is expresly contrary to the Common Law and so consequently of the Law of God as well as the Law of Nature and thereby Violence hath been by your Brother and you offered to the Government it self and an Infringement of the Peoplâ—â—â—ndamental Rights and Liberties We have in some measure made our selves â—â—â—aration for the Dammage done us but more of that in its proper place 2. We have laid before you what the Common Law saith concerning Parliaments therefore it will in the second place be convenient to observe what our Statute Law acquaints us withal concerning Parliaments I know you had a great Love to our Laws and therefore I suppose you have read them that when you come again you may make better use of them than you did before and not have the Courage to dispense with them as you did before Old Jenner thought a Wife and nine Children was an admirable Argument for the Dispensing Power and swears when you come again he will never set up for an Expounder of the Law any more he will rather turn Priest to put you into the way of gaining the Kingdom of Heaven since he expounded the Law in so learned a manner as to make you lose the Kingdom of England But to the Point The Statute Laws the Learned say are Acts of Parliament which are or ought to be only declaratory of the Common Law which as you have it told you is founded upon right Reason and Scripture and I think our Learned in the Law have told us That if any thing be enacted contrary thereunto it is null and void and of no Effect Certainly Jenner and the rest of the Dispensing Crew were bewitch'd in not telling you that any Dispensation against Law was in it self null and void But there was a Wife and nine Children in the Case and Law was not his Business Truly for all his hussing Speech to the President and Fellows of Magdalen College in Oxford he knew as little Law as your self that sent him down But since some of the Villains were ignorant of the Law and the rest of them that had some Law and no Honesty did not inform you I pray let me intreat your Patience and observe what I say to you There are several Statutes that require frequent meetings of Parliament agreeable to the Common Law 1. The first of which is 4 Edw. III. cap. 14. in these words Item it is accorded that a Parliament shall be holden every Year once or more often if need be Alas that good King never sent to the French King for leave to call a Parliament nor did he sell him a Session of Parliament for a small Spell of 300000 l. per Ann. it never entred into the old Judges Noddles in his Reign that Parliaments were to be held sooner or later oftner or seldomer as the King pleased no it was your Lambskin Crew you set up in Charles the 2d's Time that taught that Doctrine Nay there were a Set of Rogues in your Father's Time who favoured that Heresy in the Government that the meeting and sitting of Parliaments was at the Will and Pleasure of the King but your Rogues went a Note above Ela for they would have the Laws to be dispensed with or suspended when the gracious Pleasure of the King was such 2. I have another Statute Law in my green Bag that is at your Service it is 36 Edw. III. cap. 10. read it and if you do not put on your Dispensing Spectacles you will find the Law to speak these words Item For the Maintenance of the said Articles and Statutes and redressing of divers Mischiefs and Grievances which daily happen a Parliament shall be holden every Year as at another time it was ordained by a Statute What Statute good Sir I pray ask your Dispensing Judges let them look into their Law-Books not upon their Wives and nine Children nor 〈◊〉 durante bene placito Commissions and they will find this Statute of the 36th of that King has reference to the Statute of the 4th of the said King above-mentioned Well Sir what 's the English of all this Your Judges have told you what the French of it is already to your Cost Now it shall cost you nothing if we tell you the English of it viz. That a Parliament ought Annually to meet to support the Government and to redress Grievances happening in the interval of Parliaments that being the great End proposed in their said meeting Now for Parliaments to meet Annually and not be suffered to sit to answer the Ends but to be prorogued or dissolved as Gammer Carwell or Nell Waal should direct before they had finished their Work was and would be nothing but an eluding the Law and striking at the Foundation of the Government and rendring Parliaments altogether useless You know there is no great difference between having no Meat at all and having it in abundance without being suffered to eat so I think it is to no purpose to have frequent Parliaments and they not suffered to sit and do the Business of the Nation for which they were sent by the People as well as called by the King You
had got such a Trick in your Brother's Time to put off Parliaments that I doubt if we should try you once more and take in those durante bene placito Rogues you would never leave it off First you got one Session put off and a truly loyal Band of Pensioners dissolved then three Parliaments dissolved one upon the neck of another as you and Nell Waal pleased Now our Forefathers and our Antient Kings of England to prevent Arbitrary Power and such intolerable Mischiefs as these did heartily agree to have a Proclamation made in Westminster-Hall before the End of every Session not to dissolve the Parliament to get a Sum of French Money but to tell the People that all who had any Matter to present to the Parliament should bring it before such a Day for otherwise the Parliament should determine This was done in the Reigns of Hen. 4. Hen. 5. Hen. 6. So that you may see and so might that Villain Jefferies that the People were not to be eluded or disappointed by surprising Prorogations and Dissolutions to frustrate the great Ends of Parliament But Sir suppose all your Brother's Crew of Judges and Ministers of State nay I would allow him half a dozen Priests and Dr. Finch the Warden of All-Souls into the Bargain who is an excellent Preacher and Pimp to the Whore of Babylon and Arbitrary Power nay I will allow you to have the French Parliament held at New-Market in 1677 and suppose they should have roared with open Mouth and said there was no Record nor Statute upon Record extant concerning the sitting of Parliaments to redress Grievances What then And suppose Finch the last 29th of May had told such a Story as this in his loggerheaded Sermon where he applauded the eminent shining Vertues of Charles II above those of his Royal Father and yours his Chastity Integrity Peaceableness and the like and provided all he had said were true that Charles was a Man of those Vertues and that there were neither Common nor Statute Laws extant for the sitting of Parliaments yet by Warden Finch's leave it is more certain that Parliaments are to sit and redress Grievances by the Fundamental Laws of the Government than that his Father presented the Grand Seignior with a Pendulum Clock so small that the Grand Seignior hung it at his Ear as the Ladies here used to hang their Pendants at theirs It may be Sir you will ask what Reason I could have to believe the sitting of Parliaments for redress of Grievances was our Right by the Fundamental Law of England I tell you Sir why because the Government must be lame without it and a Prince and his villanous Ministers might have done what they pleased and their Wills might have been their Laws Your Brother and you bid fair for such a Government had your Friend Coleman's Advice been taken and had K. Charles signed his Declaration for dissolving the Parliament Coleman had not Jenner's Courage of running away and so the Declaration was not signed but to your great Comfort he was graciously left to dance a Christmass Gambrel at Tyburn for his great pains in the mighty Work your Brother your Self and he had upon your Hands Therefore my good Friend it was provided for in the very Essence and Constitution of the Government it self this we may if Frank Withens and the rest of your Crew will give leave call Common Law tho Jefferies once was pleased to call it a Common Where This notwithstanding the filthy Expression of that impudent Villain that had neither Law Manners nor Honesty but the Impudence of ten carted Whores is of as much Value if not more as any Statute and of which all our good Acts of Parliament and Magna Charta it self are but declaratory So that tho your Brother or any King else had been intrusted with the formal Part of summoning and pronouncing the Dissolution of Parliaments which is done by Writ yet the Laws that oblige the King as well as the People have determined when and how it is to be done This is enough to shew you that your Brother as King shared in the Sovereignty that was in the Parliament and that it was cut out to him by Law and not left at his Disposal I must therefore tell you that Thomas and Francis and the rest of the Bloodhounds and murdering Dispensing Judges were much out in point of Law when they told your Brother that Parliaments both as to Calling and Dissolving were at his Will and Pleasure 3. There is another Statute viz. 25 Edw. III. cap. 23. that was Law in your Brother's Reign which the Judges if they had been acquainted with the Law who truly except a few that had but little Honesty and were generally Strangers to the Law must have told him and you too did oblige him and you to suffer the Meeting and Sitting of Parliaments Therefore I make use of that Statute to prove that the Meeting and Sitting of Parliaments is the Fundamental Right and Privilege of the People of England This Statute Sir was called the Statute of Provisors and was made to prevent and cut off the Incroachments of the Bishops of Rome whose Usurpations in disposing of Benefices had occasioned intolerable Grievances In the Preamble of which Statute it is expressed as follows Whereupon the Commons have prayed our said Sovereign Lord the King That since the Right of the Crown of England and the Law of the Realm is such that upon the Mischiefs and Damage which happen to this Realm he ought and is bounden of the Accord of his said People in his Parliament thereof to make Remedy and Law in avoiding the Mischiefs and Damage which thereof cometh that it may please him thereupon to provide Remedy Our Sovereign Lord the King seeing the Mischiefs and Damage before-named and having regard to the said Statute made in the Time of his said Grandfather and to the Causes contained in the same which Statute holdeth always its Force and was never defeated or annulled in any Point and by so much is bound by his Oath to do the same to be kept as the Law of this Realm tho that by sufferance and negligence it hath since been attempted to the contrary and also having regard to the grievous Complaints made to him by his People in divers Parliaments holden heretofore willing to ordain Remedy for the great Damages and Mischiefs which have hapned and daily do happen by the said Cause c. by the Assent of the Great Men and Commonalty of his said Realm hath ordained and established Come Sir what say you to all this Where is your Holloway your Withens and your Walcots And where is Tom Jenner with his Sorrow in one Hand and his Grief in the other an ignorant Rascal like the rest of his Brethren Where is your Herbert your Heath and your Milton Some of them are gone to their Places but they lived long enough to enslave the People and those that yet live owe
their Pleasures before Grievances were redressed and publick Bills of Common-Safety passed because to dissolve and prorogue at Pleasure is a Privilege which belongs to the Crown Answ This word Prorogue is but a new-fangled Business a thing brought up in latter Days but as for dissolving Parliaments at Pleasure that has been the Practice of our former wicked Kings by the Advice of their Roguish Ministers and Judges who laid aside all Law Honour Honesty and Conscience to prostitute themselves to the abominable Lust of a filthy Prince who designed nothing less than the Ruin of the Kingdom What your Father did I will not here concern my self but what your Brother did by your Procurement is my Province at this Time Your Brother when he held his French Parliament at New-Market in 1677 where most of the Rogues and Whores of the Court were present and your gracious Self waiting on him did much aggrandize himself by that Glorious Assembly Upon April 16. the Parliament at Westminster was adjourned till May 21. following Immediately upon the Recess the Duke of Crequi aâ—d that modest sober chaste Man of God the A. Bp of Rheims and Monsâ—eur Barillon and a Train of 3 or 400 Persons of all Qualities appear'd there so that the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of France with so many of their Commons made it look like an old-fashioned French Parliament And the Parliament at Westminster had been adjourned for their better Reception But what Address they made to the King or what Acts passed at that Noble Parliament I cannot tell they having not been yet published But I suppose they were these that follow 1. An Act for continuing his Majesty's Subjects in the Service of France 2. An Act for enabling the Dutchess of Cleveland to use the Arch-Bishop of Paris for her Father-Confessor c. 3. An Act to discharge her Grace from farther Attendance upon the King 4. An Act to constitute the French Gentlewoman to be Whore in her room and a Spy for the French King 5. An Act to enable Nell Waal to be Woman and Bawd in ordinary to the said French Gentlewoman and his Sacred Majesty 6. An Act to supply the Extraordinary Occasions of that Whore Portsmouth and her Woman Nell Waal 7. An Act to enable the Dutchess of Portsmouth in order to her Health to possess and enjoy a certain Apartment in a House-Royal called the Lock situate at the end of Kent-street and Nell to have the Reversion after her decease in case of Necessity 8. An Act for the further Supply of French-Money in order to enslave the Kingdom of 3000000 Livres per Annum 9. An Act for enabling James Duke of York to go on with his Conspirators in the Conspiracy against the Laws Liberties and Religion of the People of England and to demand the French King's Purse Credit and Interest for his Help and Assistance 10. An Act to invest Edward Coleman with the Sum of 20000 l. and a good Pension from the French King for his great Services done and to be done for the Catholick Religion and French Interest 11. An Act of Abolition of all Claims and Demands from the Subjects of France on Account of all Prizes made of the English at Sea since the Year 1674 till that Day and for the future 12. Act to supply the extraordinary Needs of the Pensioners at Westminster 13. An Act to continue the Sham-Alliance with the States-General of the Vnited-Provinces There were I suppose several Private Bills in favour of the Pimps Bawds and Whores that were not sworn in Ordinary but passed the Royal Assent as I may suppose because at that time all things between England and France moved with that punctual Regularity that it was like the Harmony of the Spheres so consonant with themselves tho I could not hear the Musick I pray Sir let us know in your next Declaration what other Secret Bills were passed in that August Assembly wherein the Affairs of Peace and War were transacted with the greatest Confidence and when good Boys they had done their Master's Business with your Brother's Aid and Help they were adjourned from New-Market to London where they dissolâ—ed themselves without your Brother's Prerogative to make way for the Westminster Parliament and so rubb'd off with all Demonstration of mutual Affection and Friendship Alas Sir these were Matters of that Import that they required all imaginable Expedition and Secresy and it would have been the highest Presumption for the poor Pensioners in the Westminster Parliament to have intermedled with them Alas if they had been admitted to end the Work it might have ended in their own Dissolution in order to a couragious running away You say by way of Objection Your Partisans made that which your Brother and other Kings did by their Prerogative Royal dissolve Parliaments before Grievances were redressed and necessary Bills past because things did not move with that punctual Regularity between your Brother and them that was between him and the French King I pray what was the Reason Had they not had Gratuities at the Charge of the Nation Or had the Dutchess of Portsmouth jilted them out of the French King's Blessing which the Duke of Crequi and the Arch-Bishop of Rheims brought them of 200000 Lewis d' Ores Who can tell what to say to these things It is no wonder then that Crew of Voters were grown resty and did not move regularly Well what then the Parliament must not sit till some State-Clockmaker had mended their Motions and made them go true the House then had some good Bills over which they roared only and then were sent Home by a blast of Prerogative-Breath Had your Brother any other Prerogative but what the Law gave him and what he was invested with at his Coronation If he had let us know it but for once I will grant he prorogued and dissolved Parliaments at his Pleasure to serve you and your Cut-throat Crew It doth not therefore follow that he had a Right so to do according to a Maxim I learned almost 30 Years since A facto ad jus non valet consequentia especially when such Prorogations and Dissolutions are against so many express and positive Laws such Principles of Common Right and Justice and so many particular Ties and Obligations to the contrary Your Brother might by the Advice of wicked Statesmen and villanous Judges pretend to a Prerogative the Law had given him of which nothing ever was known unless revealed by some French Maxims learned abroad in his Travels Yet such a Prerogative could not justify such Practices for if he had been invested with such Prerogatives by the Law yet the Law could give none to destroy it self and those it protects But Old Hodg and his Inferior Clergy may interpose and say Had not King Charles his Prerogative founded upon Law Who questions Sir but the Kings of England had their Prerogatives Yet observe what Old Bracton saith Pag. 487. That tho the Common Law allows many