the desires of His People or to shift them off upon the Generality of their Desires But what they plainly desire He gives a distinct Instruction to it and when they point at any thing which they do not distinctly Express He Remits the whole Affair to themselves and in this Case because there was no necessity of Adjusting Narratives but only to Rescind some Acts of that Parliament therefore the King doth not Require His Commissioner to Transmit the Proposals as in many other Articles but Authorizeth him to give the Royal Assent in this Matter and in the Settling of Church-Government and in Redressing of Fines and Restoring of Forfaultures which were the greatest Tokens of his Intire Confidence in the Parliament and that He did not Proceed Cautiously or Narrowly with them Who could have expected such unsuitable Returns that some persons should press to proceed to Votes in Matters new not offered in their Grievances without Representing to His Majesty any thing of the Matter before they were previously engaged and put the King to the necessity of a Refusal But that you may have a Swatch of the Acts of that Parliament and how far our Great Men did Outvey one another to Depress the Nation and Raise the Prerogative I have set down the Second Act of that Parliament by which you will see that they have not rested in the Doctrine of Passive Obedience but for what I see we owne Active Obedience without Reserve and yet I am told this Act passed with very few or no contrary Votes A Declaration and Offer of Duty by the Kingdom of Scotland with an Annexation of Excise to the Crown April 28. 1685. THe Estates of Parliament now Conveened by His Majesties Soveraign Authority Taking into their Confideration how the Nation hath continued now upwards of 2000 years in the unaltered Form of our Monarchical Government and uninterupted Line of 111 Kings whose Sacred Authority and Power hath been upon all Signal Occasions so Owned and Assisted by Almighty God that Our Kingdom hath been Protected from Conquest Our Possessions Defended from Strangers Our Civil Commotions brought into Wished Events Our Laws Vigorously Executed Our Properties Legally Fixed and Our Lives Securely Preserved so that We and Our Ancestors have Enjoyed those Securities and Tranquillities which the greater and more Flourishing Kingdoms have frequently wanted Those great Blessings We Owe in the first place to Divine Mercy and in Dependance on that to the Sacred Race of Our Glorious Kings and to the Solid Absolute Authority wherewith they were Invested by the First and Fundamental Laws of Our Monarchy Nor can either Our Records or Our Experience Instance Our being Deprived of those happy Effects But when a Rebellious Party did by Commotions and Seditions Invade the Kings Sacred Authority which was the Cause of Our Prosperity yet so far hath Our Primitive Constitution and Fundamental Laws Prevailed against the Innovations and Seditions of Turbulent Men as that these Interuptions never Terminated but either in the Ruine or at least the Suppression of these who at any time did Rebell or Rise in Opposition to Our Government And since so many Ages hath Assured to Us the great Advantages that flow down to all Ranks of People from the happy Constitution of Our Monarchy and that all Our Calamities hath ever arisen from Seditious Invasions upon these Sacred Rights Therefore the Estates of Parliament for Themselves and in Name of the whole Kingdom Judge Themselves Obliged to Declare and They Do Declare to the World that they Abhor and Detest not only the Authors and Actors of all preceeding Rebellions against the Soveraign but likewise all Principles and Positions which are Contrary or Derogatory to the Kings Sacred Supreme Absolute Power and Authority which none whether Persons or Collective Bodies can Participat of any manner of Way or upon any Pretext but in Dependance on Him and Commission from Him and as Their Duty formerly did Bind them to Owne and Assert the Just and Legal Succession of the Sacred Line as Unalterable by any Humane Jurisdiction so now they Hold Themselves on this Occasion Obliged for Themselves and the whole Nation Represented by Them in most Humble and Dutiful Manner to Renew the Hearty and Sincere Offer of their Lives and Fortunes to Assist Support Defend and Maintain King James the 7th their present Glorious Monarch and his Heirs and Lawful Successors in the Possession of Their Crowns Soveraignty Prerogatives Authority Dignity Rights and Possessions against all Mortals And withall to Assure all His Enemies who shall Adventure on the Disloyalty of Disobeying His Laws or on the Impiety of Invading His Rights that such shall sooner weary of their Wickedness than they of their Duty And they firmly Resolve to give their intire Obedience to His Majesty without Reserve and to Concur against all His Enemies Forreign or Intestine and they solemnly Declare that as they are Bound by Law so they are voluntarly and firmly Resolved that all of this Nation betwixt Sixty and Sixteen Armed and Provided according to their Abilities shall be in Readiness for His Majesties Service where and as oft as it shall be His Royal Pleasure to Require them And since the Excise of In-land and Forreign Commodities Granted to King Charl. 2 of ever blessed Memory by the 14th Act of the Parliament 1661 during all the days of his Lifetime and Prorogat by the 8th Act of the Parliament 1681 for five years thereafter will shortly Terminat And the Estates of Parliament Considering the Usefulness of this Grant to Support the Interest of the Crown Do as the first Evidence of their Sincerity in the foresaid Tender of their Duty Humbly and Unanimously Offer to His most Sacred Majesty King James the 7th their present Monarch and to His Lawful Heirs and Successors in the Imperial Crown of Scotland the said Excise of In-land and Forreign Commodities exprest in the said 14th Act of Parliament 1661 to be Collected in the manner Prescribed by the said 8th Act of the Parliament 1681 for ever And His Majesty and Estates of Parliament by the force of this Act have United Annexed and Incorporated and Unites Annexes and Incorporats the same to the Crown of this Realm to Remain therewith in Annexed Property in all time coming And in respect that the Alteration in the method of Collecting the In-land Excise from what it was by the Act 1661 to that Prescribed by the 8th Act of the Parliament 1681 will require some time to establish it in Collection Therefore His Majesty with Consent of the Estates continues the Collection Prescribed by the 14th Act of the Parliament 1661 for the said In-land Excise for six Moneths from the first of May next allenarly Art. 12. Griev THat the Marriage of a King or Queen of this Realm to a Papist is dangerous to the Protestant Religion and ought to be provided against This is Answered by the Fourteenth Instruction Instruct 14. YOu are to pass an Act that
Articles but they durst adventure to proceed in all these Votes contained in the Address without ever acquainting the King or procuring an Instruction to his Commissioner or Tabling these matters before the Articles which they would never allow to be chosen according to the standing Law By this you may guess at the Ingenuity of their Procedure and if it were not tedious I could give you many such instances The Estates did apply to the King to be turned into a Parliament that no time might be lost by the Indiction of the Parliament the King had no sooner granted it but a Committee of the Estates did Address to Him to delay the Diet of the Parliament till some of them might come up which was to secure their Interest in getting Offices and Places in the State which took off the reason they had pressed to be turned into a Parliament rather than that a new one should be called Likewise that Committee did take upon them to give good Injunctions to the King not to be hasty in disposing of Places till His Majesty might take Information from some persons whom they did recommend And accordingly His Majesty did neither at that time nor till now dispose of any place but what was absolutely necessary And in the nomination of the Lords of Session the King did not design the whole number but only Ten to make a full Quorum which might do all business while he were further informed for naming the other Five This was no sooner done then it was quarrelled as a Nullity in the Nomination because it was not compleat The King by Three several Instructions pressed the settling of the Church-government and did allow it to be done in any way they pleased with Committees or without them And sicklike for considering Fines and Forefaultures which was as oft shifted by those persons who offered the Address and at last it was declared to be impracticable and yet they have the confidence to spend a great deal of their Paper complaining for the not settling of Presbyterian Government and restoring Fines and Forefaultures as if the fault had lyen upon the King and that he needed to be pusht to it whereas they themselves have been the only obstructers And I am credibly informed that while they run about to amuse every body they tell those who are of the Church of England to ingratiat with them that what they did in relation to the abolishing of Episcopacy was nothing of their own inclinations but to comply with the King's Instructions who was engaged in that matter before he came from Holland which is sufficiently confuted by the Instructions themselves As to your second Question you have great reason to wonder why a Prince having made so great Concessions they were not accepted by every body and that it had been a better season afterwards to have demanded more But the misery lyes here if once the Instructions had been understood and been reduced into Laws that must have given so universal a satisfaction to the People and procured so much affection and gratitude to the King that all the Addresses Hopes and Endeavours had been in vain to creat Jealousie and maintain Faction and Mutiny For the benefits and ease the Nation should have received would have been so sensible and fresh that the Whisperer or Backbiter would have found no place or admittance whereas now the Nation remaining under its Fetters there being nothing done for its advantage or satisfaction every body is sensible of the misery it feels but few can make a Judgment of the Cause and the Author and they have been easily imposed upon to believe that these who keep them in slavery are their Champions and that he who promised and from whom they expected relief hath deserted them And to make these surmises pass the more plausible they give it out that the King is pestered with ill Counsellors and that the Malignants and these who ruined the Nation formerly are to be assumed into the Government that they may act their former part or a worse over again whereas almost all the Places and Commissions are filled with persons as have either never been in the Government or have acted most inoffensively there As to your third Question there came three Addresses to the King one from the Clergy desiring their Church-government to be established I am confident upon the sight of the Instructions and their application to the King the Ministers were convinced and satisfied that the King had done all that was proper for him and that it was their interest and duty to stand firm by the King and that their Party had no hopes or security under God but in him There was another Address from the Burrows desiring the King to give Instructions in relation to their Grievance I cannot say that their Commissioners were satisfied because they were men who went up upon another design than to take satisfaction unless they got places and therefore they got their Answer in Writing but I hope the Burrows do already or shall shortly understand how they were abused Thus far they did only choise a Trafequing Burgess who might be concerned in the interest of that State next day they were Whidled to choise the two Lawers whose errand was none of their business and yet they were to bear their Charges There was a third Address from a great many of the Members of Parliament I need not tell you what undue practices was used to procure and mendicat Subscriptions after the Parliament was up and to very little purpose for except it had been to insult the King as some few have done in all the steps of their management Could an Address out of Parliament import more than a Vote of Parliament except it were to convince the King of their peremptoriness and that they were incorrigible and that nothing was to be expected from the Parliament when it should meet again tho I do not believe that the King needs to fear this for when the generality of the Parliament comes to be informed and shall see the Instructions they will perceive clearly the selfish and implacable designs of some men and their false surmizes that they will quite and fall off from these men and leave them to themselves to double out their pretensions for places in which the Countrey hath little concern I need not tell you the matter of the Address since it is Printed I shall make some short reflections upon it 1o. These Votes which were so unseasonably brought in and so peremptorly pressed have no relation to the Grievances Now if they had been of so great importance why were they then forgot And if they be of less importance than the Grievance why do they make such a bustle to press in these points of less moment and stop these things which are of far greater consideration which were first Tabled by a representation from the States and granted by the King's Instructions And its pretty odd to see
men who make such a noise about the Authority of the Grievances that the King must satisfie them and yet when they please to bring in any little Overture it must take place and justle out the other 2º As to the Vote of Incapacities it is indeed a Vote incapacitating the King to imploy any person in his service but whom they please for the Terms are so lax and the Nation so universally involved that there are few men of Business Fortune or parts but they may be reached and most part of the Addressers themselves as far as they are capable they are guilty but when a man turns upon that side the most abominable and monstrous faults are covered whereas trifles are mustered and magnified if a man be on the King's side And I cannot forget the last Member of the incapacities that all who have obstructed the designs of the House after they came the length of Votes shall be incapable of Publick Trust though the Royal consent neither is nor I believe will perhaps ever be adhibited so they are no Laws but abortive Attempts which never had a precedent and it may be will never have a parallel So it was above measure hard to inflict the severest pain of incapacity where there was no Law Transgressed as appears by the words of the Statute Act 3. Par. 1. K. Ch. 2d So no Acts Sentences or Statutes to be past in any Parliament can be binding upon the people or have the Authority and force of Laws without the special Authority and Approbation of the King's Majesty or His Commissioner interpon'd thereto at the making thereof the punctual observance thereof is injoyned that none offer to call in question impugn or do any deed to the contrair hereof under the pain of Treason 3. As to that Article concerning the Session I have already told you how it was thrown out by the Committee of the Estates I dare say to you upon my reputation that there is not one word in our Law giving the Parliament any power in Tryal or Admission of the Lords of Session I shall refer you to two short Acts in Anno 1661 the second eleventh Acts of the first Session first Parliament K. Ch. 2d Where the King 's Right in this point is as clearly stated as can be exprest These Acts are as follows ACT and Acknowledgment of His Majesties Prerogative in the choise of His Officers of State Counsellors and Judges THE Estates of Parliament considering the great obligations that do ly upon them from the Law of God the Law of Nations the Municipal Laws of the Land and their Oaths of Allegiance to maintain and defend the Soveraign Power and Authority of the King's Majesty and the sad consequences that do accompany any incroachments upon or diminutions thereof do therefore from their sence of duty declare that it is an inherent priviledge of the Crown and an undoubted part of the Royal Prerogative of the Kings of this Realm to have the sole choise and appointment of the Officers of State and Privy Counsellors and nomination of the Lords of Session as in former times preceeding the year 1637. And that the King 's Sacred Majesty and his Heirs and Successors are for ever by vertue of that Royal Power which they hold from God Almighty over this Kingdom to enjoy and have the full exercise of that Right And therefore the King's Majesty with Advice and Consent of his Estates of Parliament doth hereby Rescind all Acts Statutes or Practices to the contrair Follows the acknowledgment of His Majesties Prerogative FOrasmuch as the Estates of Parliament of this Kingdom by their several Acts of the 11th and 25th of January last have from the sense of their humble duty and in recognizance of His Majesties just Right declared that it is an inherent priviledge of the Crown and an undoubted part of the Royal Prerogative of the Kings of this Kingdom to have the sole choise and appointment of the Officers of State Privy Counsellors and Lords of Session c. I shall only tell you that the Session is sitten down with as great satisfaction as ever it did and several of the most eminent Lawers have accepted whose Practice was much better than their Sallaries and you must allow me to say since they must know the Law they are great fools if they be not safe And I am sure the greatest Lawers that did oppose this would have been content to have run the hazard of the Parliaments censure if they could but procured the King's Commission and would have parted with the Club to the Boot when they had got their own Staik And as to that part of the Vote that the President should be chosen by the Lords this did not concern the Parliament since the Lords did not complain And the five last successive Presidents are named by the King in the same manner Besides my Lord Stairs is not made of new President but restored to an Office whereunto He had been formerly Admitted by the Lords conform to the King's Declaration from which he was unjustly thrust out And withal the Lords did unanimously by a Vote acquiesce in His Majesties nomination and reponing the President and declared if the matter had been intire to themselves they would all and every one of them have chosen him so this dust has been very idly raised 4o. I must again take notice of that grief they express for the want of that Church-government they themselves hindered to be established and the design of the Address is to Imprint in the apprehensions of the people that the King is slow or backward in that matter 5o. As to the Apology for not giving Cess it is very pleasant they did not refuse it absolutely but till some things were first exped which might give them satisfaction that is to say they would give no Cess or Subsistence for the Kings Troops though they must quit the Countrey if he withdraw them till such time as the King shall renounce the remainder of his Soveraignty And I shall not say that he hath been prodigal of his Prerogative but I am sure he hath been so liberal of it that it might at this time have given contentment for once It is needless in this case to remember either the obligations we owe to our King or the necessity we have of his Protection but I shall offer two things to show the ingratitude and foolishness of refusing this Supply 1o. The King hath expended above Threescore thousand pounds upon his Troops in Scotland out of his own Pocket for our defence and in sending Arms Ordnance and Ammunition thither and if he should abandon us this Winter the best part of the Nation would be forced to leave the Countrey 2o. By a standing Law the Parliament settled Eight Months Cess upon King James during his lifetime which we payed pleasantly for supporting that Government was it discretion to refuse the King four Months Cess which is but 24000 Pounds