again brought his own Quotations every one of which rather makes good the Charge than any way excuses it for all the World cannot but see that those Civilities as he calls 'em and Complements to Dr. Otes are down right Jeers and Scoffs and have been ever taken so by every one that has read or heard them and yet this Gentleman has the confidence to bring them as proofs of his Innocency and Civility to Dr. Otes and would have all the World put out their eys and not see the true force and meaning of those words but according to his false glosses And for what reason is he an Enemie to Dr. Otes but because he is one of the Kings Witnesses and one of his Chief Witnesses and by discrediting his person and making him ridiculous or of small esteem with the people that he may that way lessen the esteem of the Plot pag. 7. They are wonderful things which the Doctor has done already and am perswaded he is yet reserved for more wonderful things to come when Truth shall deliver her self from the Rubbish of Oppression and Slander and in despight of Envy and Imposture render his Name as famous to Posterity as his Virtue has made it to the present Generation And this he says he writes with little less than the Genius of a Prophet This may be true though not as he intended and may be a Prophesie tho' he to himself may be a false Prophet But this though palpably a Jeer he calls a Panegyrick and that you may take notice of his meaning and as if there were Emphasis or something more than ordinary in the words Wonderful things to come Truth Oppression Slander Envy Imposture Name Posterity and Virtue they are all put in a different Character that you might observe the force of his most ingenious Complement that like Janus looks two ways at once The rest of his Quotations are much after the same Nature and how gladly he traces the Doctor as he calls it in making it plain that the Jesuits and the Schismaticks in the late Rebellion went hand in hand in Dethroning and Murthering our late Sovereign Who was it but you that found out the Conspiracy it self and then the Conspirators c thus would he also fix it on Dr. Otes to be an Author of Accusing the Presbyterians to have a Plot in hand because he had said that the Jesuites formerly in the shapes and disguises of Presbyterians and other Sectaries were a great means of promoting and of fomenting the late Rebellion therefore mark his Conclusions by Dr. Otes his own Testimony they are so still this is to do honour to the Dr. as he calls it yea more than ever any did him except the person that first called him the Saviour of the Nation The fourth Charge that he abuses the Nation under the Names of Cit and Bumpkin And here Mr. L'Estrange takes the pains to quote his own Characters of them that they represent a couple of Rascals and not Lords Citizens or Commons c. but I suppose the disgust was not so much at the Names of Cit and Bumpkin as at the matter Cit and Bumpkin discours'd of and how far that Book has disgusted and offended the sober and good people hath been already manifested by the several Answers has been wrote to it though Mr. L'Estrange will tell you that all was to no purpose Yet all that read his Dialogues both first and second part of them will confess that he has not only been severe upon the Presbyterians but has abused almost all that are not like himself driving on a faction though of the Church of England and no dissenters except from the Romish Church He would perswade the World that he wrote those Dialogues of Cit and Bumpkin in Answer to the virulent Appeal which gave a direct encouragement to a Rebellion but to help it forward he takes a course to irritate the Presbyterians by making them worse than the Papists and favourers of the Appellants Principles And after he has sufficiently abused the Citizens by his Rascally and Fanatical Cit he now in his Appeal seeks to cajole them But what a business he makes what words and distinctions he flies to what Inferences he draws and what a Grammarian he shews himself in 2 or 3 whole pages to salve his Cits Discourse of the Parliament and when all is done the Cloud of Dust he has raised will not put out the peoples eyes from seeing his good intentions therein Then he thought the sitting of the Parliament a great way off but now he would mince his Discourse then was then and now is now it speaks too plain his Conceptions of the Parliaments not being for his purpose But there has been enough spoken of this already As to the fifth particular that he has scandalously represented the late Petitioners and the Promoters of them he would evade also by his own self Quotations He grants Petitioning Lawful if the thing be simply good Petitioned for If so surely the calling of a Parliament to ease the Burthens of the People to rectifie errors in Government and to bring offenders to Justice is simply good in it self and therefore Lawful and yet he tells you it belongs not to the multitude to interpose in matters of State that is in plain English for the People to Petition their Sovereign to call a Parliament to ease their grievances so that he grants what in effect in the very next words he denyes By no means he will not hear of the peoples Petitioning it is of dangerous Consequence and he tells in many particulars in the late times They began with Petitioning against Evil Counsellors and Grievances then Petioned for the Militia the Kings Towns and Forts till they brought the King to the Block And after this manner they procoeded now again p. 18. what think you is not this man an Abhorrer of Petitioning and is not this a rendring the Petitioners and Petitions also scandalous and odious Then he tells us of several undue courses and practises used in former times therefore he says he has good Authority for apprehending the danger of Popular Petitions Goodman because some have been choaked with eating Plumbs none must ever eat them hereafter If the abuse of any thing must make the lawful use of any thing suspected or avoided we must forsake our meat and our drink and our Garments Men must by no means intermeddle with that they have no skill in that is Petitioning for a Parliament what has the People to do with that it is the Kings business and Prerogative Why may not 20000 Plow-Jobbers as well Subscribe a Petition to the Lord Mayor of London for the calling of a Common Council p. 17. a very good Conclusion because it is out of the Sphear of these Plow Jobbers to Petition the Lord Mayor for what they have nothing to do with therefore the People of England have no business to Petition the Kâ—ng for the calling of
A Brief ANSWER TO Mr. L'Estrange HIS APPEAL EVERY body that carries his eyes in his head and hath but an ordinary reason and understanding may see through this fine spun Appeal of Mr. L'Estrange it is plain enough That having rendred himself obnoxious not only to particular persons and parties of a Nation but to the Government and the Peace and quiet thereof by his wicked and malicious Pen he would now fearing to be called to Justice for the same endeavour by this his last Appeal to palliate his Crimes and hide his Knavery with this Cloak of seeming Honesty But at the same time for all his Justification in Words he takes a wiser course in slipping out of the way to avoid Justice and flies from those very persons to whom he Appeals the King and the 3 Estates As this very Act shews him not so very Innocent as he would make the World believe or that he little confides in the Justice and Integrity of those to whom he had Appealed so it might sufficiently serve for Answer of his Appeal to all the World However since the Gentleman has been ever very free of his Pen and medling where it little became him he may expect that some who have as little to do as himself will also find time to return answer to his Scribling and in a far better cause endeavour to unblind the eyes of the people which may be easily done and in a very few words in a case so plain and easie For truly Mr. L' E. uses nothing but Sophistry and tho' he believes he writes well himself every body else is not of that Opinion but considering the Badness of his Cause we may give him allowance In this his Appeal this Gentleman thinks or at least would have others believe that he had Justify'd himself by shewing you sufficient proofs of his Loyalty and Innocency brought out of his own Printed Writings and that way hopes he has stop'd the mouths of all his gain-sayers and rendred himself Innocent and clear of all those Accusations laid against him But should we grant all those proofs he has brought out of his Printed Pamphlets to be true in Terminis it is not for any of his good Deeds or good Words that he is accused but for the many wicked and scurrilous and indeed most horrid and pernicious Abuses he has put upon most part of the Nation and truly on all that love not to see their Nation inslaved nor the Protestant Religion subverted It is now plain enough of what Party and Faction he has been and for what end he has made all this stir and pudder with his Writings hoping to blind the eyes of the people and under the colour of a Protestant set Protestants together by the ears to advance Popery It shall not be my work at present to make Roger sight with L'Estrange and to turn over all his impertinent Scribbles to shew you how contradictory the whole scope of his writings are to those shreds and parcels he has pick'd out to Justify himself withal I have something else to do and it would swell this beyond the bulk of a Pamphlet which I intend not but let any one impartially read over his books and they will finde enough to oppose against what he hath wrote in his Appeal in his own Justification when the whole byass and stream runs contrary And all those six particular charges which he has observed in his 2d page of his Appeal very sufficiently made good against him from his own words and would had he staid have found Witnesses Vivâ voce that would have said more But we will descend from Generals to Particulars and briefly as may be consider the several parts of his Appeal which he has cast into 5 Heads the 1st is the subject matter of his Libellers as he calls e'm The 2d to vindicate himself therefrom The 3d. the Rancour of the Libellers The 4th to shew their Designs and Practises upon the Government and lastly how much it concerns the State to protect him the assertor of their Laws Rights and Priviledges This man knowing for whom he had undertaken believed he had a publick Cause in hand and like another Coleman priding himself in his parts believes himself a States-man and one already advanced to the Helm of Government he has link'd the Security Honour and Justice of the Government with his particular quarrels intreagues and wicked abuses and made his very Apology a publick Duty Alas that it should so much concern the King and the 3 Estates to take notice of this man and of his Appeal and that he should vanish in a Mist that when they would grasp this honour and support of the Cause they can find nothing but Air But notwithstanding the Vanity and Ostentation of this man there is no body that can see the Honour Justice and Security of the Nation with what Circumstances soever his Case is complicated to be at all concerned in any of his Pamphlets and much less in his Appeal This is but a taste of the Vanity this self-conceited States-man and Machivillian Politician would have shewn us if once the Wheel had come about and his Lord of the Faction come to be head of the Kingdom But to our business the matter of his Charge which he has himself very well drawn up into 6 heads 1. The ridiculing the Plot. 2. Countenancing the Sham-Plot 3. Discrediting the Kings Witnesses 4. In abusing the Nation under the Names of Cit and Bumpkin 5. In misrepresenting the late Petitions and their Promoters as Scandalous and Seditious 6. In embroyling the Kingdom by his Writings This is the Charge that he finds is fixed on him and which he very slenderly acquits himself of by bringing some seeming proofs out of his own Writings to the contrary But his Enemies and such as he has made to be justly so have more to charge him with than this though this be enough and more than he can ever clearly wipe off But as I am none of his Accusers I shall not say any more as to that point how far he has rendred himself obnoxious to Justice but only consider a little how far he has made himself Innocent and how cleverly he has wiped his mouth and looks demurely and full of Loyalty after he has rendred himself odious to a Nation by his Calumnies and Abuses In the first place he brings you as he calls them the undeniable Evidences of his own Papers which testifie his Opinion of the Plot and here he would have you to believe That he could not turn the Plot into ridicule because he believ'd it a very fine way of arguing Mr. L'Estrange cannot be a dishonest man because I know him I would be loath to stretch this point too far against him and rather think for all his proofs that he did not believe the Plot and that he laughed at it as many other fools do because they are blind and led away by the Nose by
a Parliament to ease their burthens and to rectifie their Grievances But though it be the Kings undoubted Prerogative to call and dissolve Parliaments we may now say since the Votes of this Honourable House now sitting has given us new boldness that notwithstanding the assertions and Opinions of these Abhorrers that it is the undoubted Right of the People of England humbly to Petition their Sovereign when Grieved for the calling of a Parliament and to redress their Grievances But Mr. L'Estrange doth not abuse the late Petitioners by no means have a care of that he abuses no body though he gives them never so vile terms and renders them odious and ridiculous Cit says p. 2. speaking of Subscriptions There was hardly a Register about the Town that escaped us for Names Bedlam Bridewell all the Parish Books nay the very Goals and Hospitals we had our Agents at all publick meetings Courts Church Change and all the Schools up and down Masters underwrit for their Children and Servants Women for their Husbands in the West Indies nay we prevail'd upon some Parsons to engage for their whole Congregation we took in Jack Straw Wat Tyler and the whole Legend of Poor Robins Saints into our List of Petitioners and some Names served us for 4 or 5 several places And then Bumpkin replies and you shall see how now that we were put to our shifts in the Country as well as you in the City I was employed you must know to get Names at 4 shillings an hundred and I had all my real subscriptions written at such a distance one from another that I could easily clap in a name or two betwixt them and then I got as many School-boys as I could to underwrite after the same manner and after this I fill'd up all those spaces with Names that I either remembred or invented my self or could get out of 2 or 3 Christening Books There are a World you know of Smiths Browns Clarks Walkers Woods so that I furnished my Catalogue with a matter of 50 a piece of these Sir-Names which I Christned my self And besides we had all the Non-Conformist Ministers in the Country for us and they brought in a power of Hands Thus the Gentleman plays with the Petitions and shews his abhorrency of Petitioning seeking to deter the People from using their modest Rights in Petitioning their Sovereign But now if all or most of these scurrilous things which he has made Cit and Bumpkin say be false and falsly applyed to and fixed upon the late Petitioners is not this man Guilty of scandalously misrepresenting the late Petitioners and the Promoters of the late Petitions let all the World judge To the last of his Charge he says That he is extreamly out of his Measures to be still Creating misunderstandings in the very Act of endeavouring either to rectifie or prevent them And to be indangering the Peace of the Kingdom in the design of preserving it No doubt but Mr. L'Estrange is the unhappy man if those were his measures as to be utterly mistaken in them for I know not what could have created a greater misunderstanding or more tended to the embroyling of the Nation Not in asserting the Law and Government against all Opposers as he would make you believe but in ridiculing the Plot abusing the Kings Evidence writing against Petitioning railing against the Presbyterians and raking in all the old Dunghills Not by laying open the Malice of many bold Libells against his Majesties Person Authority and Government but by railing against every body that gives an Answer to his Scurrilous Pamphlets and by abusing all that he believes not of his way and Faction not by maintaining the Apostolical Order and Constitution of the Church against Schism but in rendring the whole body of Dissenters odious factious and seditious Not by maintaining the Powers and Priviledges of the State against all Principles of Sedition but by making his Cits and Bumpkins to blow about the Coals of Sedition Not by inculcating Reverence and Obedience to Superiours but by abusing scoffing at and terrifying Inferiours Not by recommending the Blessings and Duties of Vnity but by widening the breaches and making greater the gap of Dissention These are the things that have created ill blood and have tended to the embroyling the Kingdom but whether defignedly or whether he mistook his measures I shall not say The next thing he passes to is to give you a scurrilous Description of the Quality of his Libellers as he calls them for all those who write in Answer to his idle and abusive Pamphlets he calls so And here he is Satyrical and abusive and the things touching particular persons I shall leave him for whether the things he charges them with be true or false it shews his railing disposition and foul mouth nothing becoming the Gentility and breeding he would pretend to But yet I cannot but take notice of his extream Pride and Vanity in thinking and ranking himself as a State and Church Martyr and his justly suffering for his abusive Pen he calls suffering with the King and with the Church and for their sakes also The Jesuites say as much and it is a vanity inherent to such Martyrs But it now appears that the Representatives of the whole Kingdom have no such Opinion of the Service he has done either to King or Church but rather to the contrary by his many abuses put upon the people in his Pamphlets has much disserted either He says it is the part of the Devil himself to blacken and defame and after he has thus said Grace falls to with open mouth and blackens and defames all he can with the spleen and rancour of a Cynick especially one little Creature as he calls him which little Creature indeed has been a Goad in his side and has prick'd the Bull so hard as has made him bellow full loudly But he is not only Splenetick at Mr. Care for writing smartly against him but has also put Mr. Curtis in several of his Pamphlets among the Libellers for exercising his Trade of Publishing Printed Books and Pamphlets He is so very dogged a Cynic that he will let no body live in Peace that he thinks loves not him or believes not well of his railing The very acquaintance of any that writes against him is enough to make him a Libeller and there are several to my own knowledge that hardly spake of him that he has abused because Friends or Relations to those who have answered some of his Scurrilities But he is no ways genteelly Satyrical but a down right abuser and scoffer without Salt or Wit and where he cannot charge 'em with any thing of Crime or dishonesty rather than be wanting to his own Malice he will seek for natural defects which also if he cannot find he will Create and rather than want matter for his Buffoonery will play with the Visage of a man and render it like a Visard an Ape or a Monky or any thing