Snare to the People but given Kings too often an Handle to fall into such Measures as have proved destructive to themselves Powers in a Crown that are wholly unfit to be exercised are only Temptations to Oppression and Misunderstanding Knight Service was once a very Politick Tenure It was once fit before the several People of this Kingdom were mixed and civilised that whoever was born upon a Lord's Land should be brought up under his Care and that no Woman that held Land of any Lord should carry her Estate to any Man that was an Enemy to that Lord yet in King James the First 's days the same Sir Francis Bacon tho' then Sollicitor-General to him in a Conference with the Lords by Commission from the Commons made a Speech to persuade the Lords to joyn with the Commons in a Petition to the King to obtain Liberty to treat of a Composition with his Majesty for Wards and Tenures This was in the seventh year of K. James's Reign in Halcyon-days The Speech is in the 34th page of my Lord Bacon's Resuscitatio and worth any Man's reading He therein proposeth in Recompence of the Revenue of Tenures a more ample a more certain and a more Loving Dowry Loving Dowry expresseth admirably well that Kings should be willing to change any part of their Revenue for what may suit better with the Peoples inclinations But I won't make Remarks upon this Speech The next Paragraph speaks of the Nature of those things and how it is changed with the times Vocaâ—â—â—â— manent Res fugiunt are his words And the next Paragraph to that says a great deal in these two Axioms Naturae vis maxima suus cuique discretus sanguis for restoring Children to the care of their most affectionate Relatives I come to the Reign of K. Charles I and must say that the strained use of some Powers and Prerogatives for which the flattering Lawyers had some dark semblance of Authority in our law-Law-Books gave the fatal Rise to the late Civil Wars which ended in the horrid Murther of that King and when K. Charles II. was Restored tho' the first Parliament he called will be allowed by every body to be sufficiently devoted to him yet he therein when they were under the greatest Transports and Raptures of Loyalty passed many Acts that plainly own the great Inexpediency if not Illegality of several things done in his Father's Days and secured us against the like Abuses hereafter and had he lived he must have owned that he himself had carried the Quo Warrantoes too far or he would have sate uneasie and those very Men that were instrumental in Quo-Warrantoing Corporations did every where declare that Regulations which however illegal I take them to be in themselves how much soever I think them a Fanatick Rowland for the Church of England Oliver yet I think they were agreeable to the Powers the Crown reserved to its self in the New Charters I say That those very Men that were instrumental to the Quo Warrantoing Corporations did every where declare that the Regulations in the succeeding 〈…〉 Power insecure and resolved all our Government into an Absolute and Despotick Rule Questionless there should be some way to punish the Abuses in Corporations but the Penal Laws that are against Corporations have perhaps annexed to them too great a Penalty perhaps it would be better to punish the Persons that offend than to fall upon the poor innocent Charter I would have the Body Corporate be able to do no wrong tho' the Members may But it is not my business in this place to propound the Remedies but to shew that it is lawful to make and that there used to be made and that there ought to be Reformations now as well as there have been formerly And I hope I have made it plain both from our Histories and Statute-Books That Civil Infallibility was not formerly an Article in our Politicks nor has it the Universality on its side nor will any Party abide by it unless for Personal Ends or when it serves their own Party The Papists did not believe it in their days the Church of England did not believe it when His Majesty was amongst us and the Fanaticks never pretended to believe it Thus you see my thoughts and as different as they may be from the Williamites that have deluded or from the Jacobites that have afrighted you I defie any of the One to be readier to hazard themselves for their Country or the Other to venture farther for the Service of King James All that I desire is That the King may have for his Motto what the sincere Historian says of the two best Emperors of Rome Tacitus his words are DIVUS NERVA ET DIVUS TRAâ—â—◠〈…〉 MISCUERUNT IMPERIUM ET LIBERTATEM And may the remainder of King James the Second's days give yet leave after He has lived long here to write upon his Tomb Divus JACOBUS Secundus c. Res olim insociabiles miscuit Imperium Libertatem I would have the King consult his own Honour but I think he does it best when he considers well and throughly of the Liberties of the People I allow that Maxim to be true Principum actiones proecipue sunt ad famam componendoe But no English King will preserve his Memory grateful in the Records of Time or his Name dreadful in Foreign Courts who is not beloved by his People and none will be so that does not carefully Fence and inviolably preserve our Rights We have been a People always jealous of our Rights Tenacissimi libertatis The Word Conquest is often met with in our common Histories and misleads our common Readers but though our Nation has been often stormed our Essential Laws and Customs were never carried The Romans governed us in great part by our own Laws and the wisest of their Lieutenants found we were more easily governed by Gentleness and Justice than by Force The Danes made no alteration in our Constitution and the Saxon and Norman Invasions ended in Treaty and the Saxon Government was homogeneous to our Temperament and when William called the Conqueror would have introduced the Customs of Norway the People neither would nor did receive them If a Man reads Histories to understand Government he 〈…〉 Tale of them and whoever looks into our Antiquities will find the footsteps of our Liberties are as ancient as of our Being But to return to what I was saying some time since I would not injure my Country for K. James nor would I injure K. James for my Country I think your Party wicked and I fear too many Jacobites are weak They are weak by fantastick Notions and violent Aversions and Personal Party and Church-Quarrels But I would rather lament than expostulate too freely and I desire no body to serve King James but on the Principles of making him the Father of his Country I once again assure you I neither do nor will upon any other and were he reinstated in
great Difference between the Changing or Abolition of some particular Laws and altering Fundamentals And the greatest Assertors of Liberty must acknowledge that Prerogatives in Kings suitable to the Respective Constitution are necessary to maintain those Constitutions and to protect their Subjects and consequently that in all Pacts and Compositions their People make with them due care should be taken even by the People not to take from their Kings any essential Powers Prerogative like a River sometimes gains and sometimes decreases in its Banks but the Balk of the Community sails safest when it keeps its own Natural Channel according to the respective Constitutions Bacon that writes the Uniformity of the Government of England is certainly no over Monarchical Author yet he has this Expression in relation to King Stephen Too much Counter-security from the King to the People is like too many Covenants in Marriage that make room for Jealousy and are but Seeds of an unquiet Life After all it is certainly the Nature of English-men to delight in and they have been used to a Limited Explained and Hereditary Monarchy and Naturam licet expellas furca tamen ipsa recurrat will be found true in a Politick as well as a Natural Sense by all those who would change our Government into an Absolute Monarchy or Downright Democracy or that will interrupt the Succession The Lancastrian Usurpations and the Late Times witness this But perhaps some of these Jacobites you complain of may think to disgrace what I have said by calling these Notions Republican To these Gentlement I will first Answer That since we are so Elemented for a Common-wealth there is no keeping it out but by a Reformation of the Monarchy that may as apparently Answer all the Reasons why Government was first deposited in the Magistrates hands either by God or the People I will not dispute the Original of Government at this time but I will offer one thing to these Speculators to consider of which is That whilst they too much cajole Kings they lose their Interest with the People and mislead an English Monarch and make way for that Government both in Church and State which they would if they understood how oppose They help the Real Common-wealths men to Arguments and give the Presbyterians opportunity to insinuate and gain the Hearts of the People Perhaps were the People of England a Prima Materia I would be very well content that the Draughts of these superfine Projectors should be debated but I think Machiavel was as good a Politician as most of Them and yet he says If the Variations of Times are not observed and Laws and Customs altered accordingly much Mischief must follow And in another Place he affirms it a very had Thing to keep them in Servitude who are disposed to be Free And whoever has reflected upon the extravagant Courses we have taken to be so ever since the Beginning of the late Civil Wars cannot sure doubt of our Disposition For tho we have been mistaken in our Cures no body can be mistaken in our Propensity I am no Lord nor ever desire or hope for any Title I had rather serve my Country in the Lower than the Vpper-House and if my Country never thinks fit to send me to that neither I shall never Court much less Bribe for that Imployment from my Country for I would not be Bribed in it Yet considering how much the Power of the Lords has in some Reigns been a check to the Incroachment of Kings and in others to the hot-headedness of the People I should be willing to screw up the Aristocratical part of our Government though not to the heighth it sometimes has had in our Policy but the present Ferments of England make it impracticable And tho some Men are I am not for driving Nails that will not go when we may without breach of Conscience let that Work alone to a more clâ—aâ—â—sighted Age. Though I think our Oaths and the Original Contract of our Law Books bind us to restore the King yet I know no Obligation we lie under to restore Power to the Lords but as there shall appear both great Feasibility and Expediency I am not for hazarding much for bringing things exactly and minutely to my Platform It will be always enough for me if the Fundamentals of our Government are preserved A Trimmer in Politicks if it means one that would avoid Extremities and compose Things and not one that serves himself by all Times and Changes is a Name and Character that I shall always revere But to give these Gentlemen a farther Answer I must tell them that it is plain by undeniable Matter of Fact that to those Persons that ingaged in the Scotch Plot tho he had not tried his Fortune in Ireland nor could the Persons ingaged assure his Return even upon such Condescensions yet the King granted under the Broad Seal of that Kingdom a full Redress for all Grievances and that at the Request of People that had opposed him so that talking of Terms will be no harsh Language to him now he can want no farther Illumination by a longer Series of Misfortunes to let him see that Compliance with his People is his true and only Interest In a private Pamphlet and in a private Capacity it is not proper to state the Manner and Bounds of our Redresses But did ever People re-admit a King they had ejected upon the Male-administrations of his Ministers if they could any ways help it without making good Provisions Can any body imagine we expect the People of England should The Men of Sâ—nse and Quality and Estates amongst the Jacobites be they Protestants or Papists don't wish they should do it Would you have Tryals secured It is the Interest of all Parties care should be taken about them or all Parties will suffer in their turns Plunket and Sidney and Ashton were doubtless all Murdered tho they were never so guilty of the Crimes wherewith they were charged The one Tryed twice the other found guilty upon one Evidence and the last upon nothing but presumptive Proof Either let Prisoners have Counsel or the Judges be forced to be more impartially so than they were in any of these Cases and let Juries understand that only Allegata and Probata are to direct their Verdict and not Deadly Feuds Foreign Belief or State Necessity In Scotland at all Tryals the whole is taken down in Writing Word for Word as well all Probations as what is said both by the King's Advocate and the Pannel or Criminal and is all made a Record that After-times when the heat of the Prosecution is over may examine whether the Judge dealt impartially and if he did not and is alive at the review of those Proceedings if the Prisoner suffered Death by his warping the Law the Judge is to undergo the same Punishment and if he is dead the Heirs of the injur'd Person is to recover equal Damages to what they sustained in their
forbear mentioning it There was not an ill thing done in King James's Reign that I did not call so then and all that know me know that I have taken it as my Province to represent Truths be they never so bold or bitter whilst they are for Instruction I I am no Advocate for any Man's Faults nor for any Faults tho' I would be charitable and good-natured forgiving and forgetting towards all Mens Persons Methinks the State of things require this measure I scarce believe there ever was a Period of Time wherein an Universal Amnesty was so requisite a forgetfulness as well as forgiveness of all past Crimes Methinks all sides stand in need of this Temper If the Ministers of King James exceeded in their Management of our Affairs as doubtless they did we have doubtless exceeded too in our Revenge upon the King's Person and besides those that have fallen in with the Usurpation have not proceeded against any one Man that has been in their hands for any thing that was done amiss in the two late Reigns and therefore methinks it is very hard if we cannot forgive those that have undergone Banishment which in all Countries has been reckoned some sort of Punishment or such as have hazarded Prisons or the Gallows every day Why should we not forgive all those that serve him amongst us or that are with the King tho' they may have had Faults when we desire or I am sure ought to desire that the whole Land should be forgiven All Parties and almost all Men have some way or other been to blame and therefore there seems to me to be a little too much Passion and Self-interest in keeping up old Grudges I avoid saying there is any infatuation in keeping them up tho' I cannot think that it is the likeliest way to prepare the King to close with Wise Councils to revive or continue our Piques For the King can scarce be supposed to be without some Kindness for those who have either followed His Fortunes or venturâ—d their Necks for Him and cons quently it is not perhâ—ps advisable to make those that transact in his Affairs tho' they have been peccant believe they can have no Quarter no Share in him unless he return with a High Hand They will have some Opportunities to put ill Constructions upon good Advices I have read of but few of those Heroic Spirits in any Age who have so divested themselves of all Regard for their own Persons and Posterity as to be willing to become a Sacrifice to their Country I think this Age affords fewest Instances of those Great Minds and therefore I think it the likeliest way to mâ—ke Men instrumental towards the Good of their Country to shew them that they shall find their own Account in being so I hope I have expressed my self in as modest and inoffensive words as any in which I could conceive my Thoughts and I hope I shall not be so mis-understood as if I would justifie any thing that was by any body done amiss for I will not justifie a false step even in the King but I would have us lay aside all the Byasses of Factions and Friendships and much more all Enmities that we may unanimously offer to the King Right Notions and thereby Restore Him to His Hereditary Kingdoms After all I would not have less than such a Repentance as gives evidence of Amendment entitle to Absolution but I would leave Room and Rewards for such Repentance I fear this Moderation and forgiving of Enemies will be thought a hard Lesson but I bless God I have practised it and I think it not only the noblest Precept in Christian Morality but an admirable Rule in Civil Prudence especially in our Case for it is as difficult for a Party that is subdivided within it self to pull down an Usurpation as it can be for a divided Kingdom to stand But I am sensible I have made too long a Digression and therefore must omit many other particulars upon which I would explain my self and the Sense of many other Jacobites and I can assure you I am sorry that any Jacobites say any thing that offends well-meaning Men but I wish for their own sakes my Country-men would not take a Standard either of the King's Inclinations or the rest of his Friends from their indiscreet Tattle There are in His Interest those that know that to talk too loftily and dogmatically to dispute as they do in the Schools concerning Prerogative and the Nature of Monarchy to stand nicely upon Punctilio's to consult Aristotle's and Xenophon's Kings is as unlikely a way to come to a mutual Accommodation as to peruse and and or am of Plato's Commonwealth Sir Thomas More 's Utop a Harrington's Oceana c. There are Men of his sid that think as the great Lawgiver Solon did that a Government must be framed according to the Nature of the Governed and that he is the best Subject as well as Politician that adapts all his Notions to our Tempers that considers Men as well as peruses Books when he is to draw a Scheme and I believe as you say that the high flights of some Jacobites hinder many honest Men from coming into his Interest and farther that they sometimes mislead the King Nevertheless there are in his Interest Men that I assure you are not frighted at Words nor startled at Nicknames that know the King of England makes the greatest Figure in Europe when he is best with his People and that is when he governs by the Measures of Commonweal These Men know a good Commonwealths-man was not a Character of Reproach in our Legislation and Politicks till all our Glory dwindled and the Absoluteness of Ministers was more consulted than the true Interest of King or Kingdom till a pack of Knaves forged a separate Interest between the King of England and his People and till they began to call a Mix'd Monarchy an errant Bull and would Reform our State by Metaphysical and Court Distinctions whereas if our Histories and statute-Statute-Books were consulted they are every where full of Explanations Are these Gentlemen you complain of weary of Magna Charta which was but a Revival and Recitation of the Saxon Liberties and ancient British Laws I will prove them farther That Laws and Lawful Prerogatives may be so abused that it may be fit to take away the One and to desire that the Other may never be again so used and that our former Kings have thought so But I will go no farther back than the Conjunction of the Two Roses and they may find that in Henry the Seventh's Time Empson and Dudley harassed the People by obsolete unrepealed Laws nay it has never been thought mean by our greatest Kings to make Condescentions to their People And as haughty as King Henry VIII was my Lord Herbert in his History of his Reign tells you That in his first Parliament he Repealed Explained or Limited those Statutes by which his Father had taken Advantage
Fortune by his illegal Sentence from the Heirs of the Vnjust Judge The Saxons punished false Judges by giving Satisfaction to the Party wrong'd by them and as the Case required by Forfeiture of the Residue to the King and by his disabling them for ever for Places of Judicature and by leaving their Lives to the King's Mercy Who can have the Face to oppose the Revival of something equivalent to that Law But I will not discuss too particularly the Particulars I shall mention The granting of that Bill for Judges that the Prince of Orange refused and Whitlock's for Tryals will be the Glory of King James's Reign whenever he is Restored As to the Armed Force of England I think there may be ways found out to make our Militia as serviceable as any Mercenary Bands to employ all our Officers that have had Military Experience to raise from time to time such Numbers of Officers and such Nurseries of Private Centinels as may make both the King and Kingdom safe add to the Glory and Majesty of our Monarch and yet not leave the least Umbrage for Jealousie in the Minds of the People But this is not a time of day for me to lay before the World such Plans I will not hold forth such Doctrines under any Government I think Unjust and that I think too have not the Honesty to embrace them if I would But if ever I see an English Parliament under a Rightful Prince I will not be wanting in offering my Mite in this and all other things that may contribute to the Good of my Country And sure no body can be so unreasonable as to be unwilling to hear from One that has given Testimony of his Loyalty to his King and Nation too any thing that such an One will propose to establish the Throne and quiet the Minds of his Fellow-Subjects Praetorian Bands in Rome Butchered as well as Guarded their Emperors It is but very lately that the Janisaries Deposed the Grand Seignior and King James's own Army Deserted from Him in these Kingdoms and I am confident I can shew that the Love of his Subjects is the best Standing Army for an English King as well as how he shall have it and be able to look all his Foreign Enemies in the face to boot But I say it is not time for the Publication of these things by my hand nor will I be too prolix upon any one thing therefore to come to Parliaments Is there any Man of Sense and Fortune that does not know them to be the Conservators of all that we hold dear Can there be an unjuster thing any thing more fatal than a partial Representation of the Minds and Interests of Men in that House Tho' this Reign has taught them to do very little else but give Money or Sanction to or Pardons for the Irregularities of Ministers yet the Design of their Institution is as well to provide Remedies for the Complaints of the Kingdom as Cash for the Prince's Coffers I will not debate what is necessary to make them Free but I am sure they should be so I will not say how often they must sit but I am sure they should frequently Both these Considerations are â—â—test for their own House and I am not willing to make narrow Spirits peevish But sure no Man of Interest or that hopes to keep any Reputation with the World will deny they should be free and frequent and that they should not be too much Officer'd that they may be Faithful I shall not enter into a Detail of what is the Work of Parliaments but there is One Thing I am sure is very properly Theirs and that is to make an exact Scrutiny into the Publick Administration and to bring Ministers who are above the reach of Common Courts of Judicature and can stem all other Prosecutions I say It is the Work of Parliaments to bring such Ministers to condign Punishment if they deserve it I know not any thing wherein Princes and some of their Subjects have been more unfortunately mistaken than in their Wishes that Ministers should be Impunible whereas Favourites that are not a Cement between Prince and People that don't consult in all their Actions the Laws of the Constitution and Inclinations of the Inhabitants become Rocks of Offence and bring Ruin sometimes upon Alâ— too often upon their Princes and God be praised for it more generally upon Themselves What is the Reason of that admirable Maxim That the King of England can do wrong Why do the People of England make him an Epicurean God so happy in the enjoyment of His own Majesty Why do we say That He neither can nor does disturb the Peace of our World but because His Eyes and His Ears His Omnisciency and His Omnipresency are comprehended in his Ministers but because if those Ministers are Troublers of our State they are to be punished even for Inadvertencies and much more for Sins of Malice Tho' this Revolution has blotted out all our Original Contract razed all our Statutes and law-Law-Books turned our Monarchy topsie-turvey and scandalously prevaricated from all our Civil Compacts by employing the Men that persuaded King James to and acted in what we imputed to him as false steps yet it was his Ministers should have been punished and not he himself dethroned and sure King James after he has found so many Ministers were false others flattering and foolish cannot be unwilling to leave it an everlasting Law to his and our Posterity that Ministers shall be accountable It is our Law tho' both weak and profligate Men have the one fancied and the other pretended the contrary and for that Reason and that Reason only it ought to be written more legibly in our statute-Statute-Books Is it not the Interest of Kings that Ministers should not Male-administer away all the Affection of their good and loving Subjects Is it not the Interest of Kings that the Representative Body should plainly shew them by whom and how they are betray'd Yet after all those that will read that excellent Chapter in Machiavel which shews how necessary it is for the Conservation of the State that any Citizen be securely accused p. 277. of his Works ought to read the two next pages which shew that unjust Calumnies are no less pernicious to a Commonwealth than legal Accusations are profitable and good and there you will find a great difference betwixt Accusation and Calumny Ministers ought to be punished I am satisfied the King is willing they should be so for the future Sunderland's Ministry suggests that Advice to Him very effectually and strongly but Beautefeaux also are to be suppressed in all well ordered States One thing seems naturally here to fall in my way which I beg leave to handle in the most inoffensive manner that I can I foresee this will less please some Men for whom no Man living can have a greater Honour than I have yet I think it of so much Necessity and Importance that I cannot