THE PLEA CASE AND Humble Proposals Of the Truly-Loyal and Suffering OFFICERS LONDON Printed for the Truly-Loyal and Suffering OFFICERS March 30. 1663. To the Right Honourable the LORDS And to the Honourable the COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT May it Please Your Honours IT is not the King's Party but His Cause that lies now at your Feet and the Question is Briefly but This Whether or no from this time forward Loyalty in an Englishman shall be Reputed a Crime or a Virtue Our Comfort is that we have the Authority of the Nation for our Protection the Justice of it for our Judges the Wisdom Vote and Interest of it for our Advocates and This Address is but an Appeal from the Inquity of our Oppressors to the Piety of our Governours We shall not trouble your Honours with Compleynts against a General Corruption how True and Dangerous-soever but content our selves with a Particular Case wherein the Parties to this Paper are Peculiarly Concern'd and only Relievable by Your Honourable Aid and Authority Which Case in short is This There appear so many Pretenders to the Sixty Thousand Pounds c. lately Granted by His Majesty at Your Honours Request for the Relief of the Truly-Loyal and Indigent Officers that without a strict Examination of the Certificates the King the Kingdome and the Party will be Deceiv'd of Half the Mony This Inconvenience was Prudently foreseen by the Honourable the Commissioners Appointed for the Distribution of it who thereupon Directed the Regimenting and Printing of the Certificates in Order to a Review which Vote was no sooner Past but Presently Hands were Gather'd to call for a Present Dividend Although as yet there were not above Five Thousand Pounds in the Treasury Some Honest Gentlemen were Drawn into This Petition who now see Their Errour and that the Scope of it was by a Confusion of all Qualities and Interests to Hinder a Discovery Those Interruptions being at length Remov'd and the Book Perfected and Printed by the Express Approbation of His Sacred Majesty The License of a Principal Secretary of State and the Unanimous Allowance of the Commissioners aforesaid We do most Humbly Crave leave to Acquaint Your Honours that there is Great Industry still Employ'd to frustrate the Effects of it by Disgracing the Thing it self and by Hastning a Distribution before we can Reap the Fruit of the Intended Inspection When yet The Abuse is so Gross and Palpable that not Any Man that has ever born Office in the King's Army but can Point to the very Particulars and say This Officer has been dead This Seven-year That never had any Commission A Third never had any Men. This left the Party and Serv'd the Enemy c. So that finally only Those will be Gainers by a Sudden Distribution that would be Losers by an Inspection Nay so Unfortunate we are that it has been several times Refus'd us to Enter an Advertisement of This List into the News-Book which is the only Publique and Common way of Notice All These Crosse Circumstances put together have driven us upon a Necessity of Saying Something to do our selves Right and That 's the only Scope of our Plea Case and Proposals which with all Dutiful Reverence are the Subject of This Dedication The First Part Conteyning our Answers to several Objections touching the Reason of our Proceedings The Second Part is Chiefly a Report of Fact to Vindicate us in Point of Modesty The Third Consists of Certain Proposals which we rather commit to the Motions of Providence upon Your Hearts then Presume in any Degree to Presse upon Your Inclinations If we have Offended in Point of Forme we are Ready with all Dutyful Submissions to Acknowledge our Offence For Although the Indignation to see our Selves bought and sold like Slaves and Practis'd upon by every Knight of the Post may Possibly Divert us from the Regular Method of Good Manners Yet where the Question is either Duty to Your Authority or Gratitude to Your most Generous Obligations we shall much rather Lose the Remnant of our Miserable Lives then Fayle of any Proofe which may Demonstrate the Truly-Loyal and Suffering Officers to be of All Others In the most Inviolable Bonds and Resolves of Reverence and Obedience At Your Honours Devotion Robert Croft In the Name of the Rest The Truly-Loyall OFFICERS PLEA c. THere is a Book lately Printed under This Title A List of Officers Claiming to the Sixty Thousand Pounds c. Granted by His Sacred Majesty for the Relief of His Truly-Loyall and Indigent Party Which List is made Publique by the Consent and at the desire of the Honourable the Commissioners Appointed by Act of Parliament for Distribution of the said Moneys To which must be added that This List is Published by the Kings Express Allowance and Licensed by His Majestie 's Chief Secretary of State It will now seem Needless perhaps or worse To plead the Cause of an Act Executed by so Ample Solemn and Unquestionable Authority unless we first acquaint the World that notwithstanding This Authority great Endeavours are Used to Blast and Discredit the Proceeding Every Stationer's Shop being Buzz'd with Arguments against the Thing mostly as in Charity we believe out of Mistake or Misenformation but not a little also out of Project and Designe for there are very many Persons whose Interest it is to Suppress the List as the Evidence and Story of their Own Crimes Whereas on the Other side it is as much the Behoof of the Truly-Loyall to Promote the Ends of This Book as it is for the Benefit of their Opposers to Destroy the Fruits of it Since not only the Reputation and Well-being of the Party but the Cause it Self lies at Stake and to speak with Reverence and Modesty the Honour and Safety both of the King and Kingdom are Concern'd in the Consequence of This Miscarriage The Grounds of which Opinion we shall as frankly submit to the Censure of Others as we readily Engage against Their Objections to Acquit our Selves Which Objections we shall Undertake in the first place and They are according to the best of our Enformation in Summe and Weight as followes FIrst The Printed List of Officers Exposes the Royal-Party to have Their Throats Cut in Case of an Insurrection which was the Compounders Case in the dayes of the Committee of Safety when upon Printing a List of Their Names it was proposed that the whole Party might be Massacred FIrst It is a Charge upon the King to suggest that His Party are in the same Danger now under his Majestie 's Protection which they were formerly in under the Persecutors of His Royal-Father Secondly By the same Reason All his Majestie 's Loyal-Subjects must either wear Vizors or Hide their Heads when the King 's in Danger for Men are better known by their Faces than by their Names and what Mischief soever Threatens the Royal-Party is but in order to the Destruction of the King-Himself Thirdly The Members
Material that we can Charge upon the Transcript Touching the Obscurity of the Method It will suffice that any man that can but Read may Enform Himself in the Advertisement and that in the Alphabet of the Book He is to look for the Regiment he desires as the Table directs him to the Certify'd Officer The Last Exception is that The List is Ineffectual which is confuted by a Demonstration of the Contrary in the Discovery it has already produc'd In the Next Place to the Folly of this List comes to be suggested the Malice of it and That without any Regard at all to Those Powers that have both Approv'd and Authoriz'd it It is Point-blank Affirm'd that This List is only His Design that put it together to cast an Odium upon the King and to work Himself into a Faction Concerning which the Gentleman Himself has Conjur'd Us not to put on so much as a serious Look upon so Innocent a Scandal wherefore we let that Question fall touching His Particular But the Brand of Faction upon the Generality of the Truly-Loyal and suffering Party the Charge of Mutiny and Disobedience to the Authority of Parliament for This is the Language that we are of late accustom'd to if we but Modestly sollicit and endeavour that the Bounty which His Majesty Only Intended for His Friends may not be divided amongst His Enemies These are Imputations which we cannot but in Honour take Notice of so far as Consists with our Duty to the King and to the Law and rather than pass That Limit we shall not Refuse to Lay our Necks at the Feet even of our Meanest and Unkindest Adversaries with which Caution and Modesty before us we shall now Proceed to a Brief State of our Case The CASE SO soon as His Sacred Majesty had Past the Two Bills for the Relief of His Truly-Loyal and Indigent Party and Prorogued the Parliament The Commissioners Appointed Act of Parliament for the Menage and Distribution of That Bounty Apply'd Themselves with all Care and Diligence to the Advancement and dispatch of That Affair Particularly the Honourable the Commissoners siting in the Star-Chamber by Virtue of the Aforesaid Act and to the Ends aforesaid Observing and being Enform'd that Diverse Certificates were artificially Introduc'd and that many other Practices and Forgeries had been Attempted upon the Commissioners found it Convenient to make use of a Certain Number of select Officers of known Integrity and of General Acquaintance in His Late Majestie 's Armies to Assist them in the discovery of Unqualify'd Pretenders which Officers being both Nominated and Empower'd by the said Commissioners did accordingly Assemble and Proceed in Form and under the Name of a Committee for Inspections Which Committee being afterward dissolv'd and Their Proceedings Vacated It will not be Incongruous either to Order or Good Manners if for the clearing of our Cause we touch upon some Passages Then and There in Debate This Committee was by its Constitution to Consist of a Chosen Number of Commission Officers Additional to as many Commissioners of Parliament as should think fit to be There Their Power was only Preparatory and their first Order was to Consider of a Method to prevent the passing of undue Certificates and to Report their Proceedings therein upon the Tuesday following to the Star-Chamber Instead of Framing This Method which in Course was the first thing should have been done some Considerable time was spent upon Certificates effectually without any Method at all save only that the Colonels were to be first and the Rest to follow in their Turns and All to be put to a present Vote Whether they should Stand or Fall This manner of Proceeding begat many Heats Disorders and Delays for want of an Impartial Rule whereby to Judge of every Man according to his Respective Glayme and Qualification till in the End Experiment and Prudence mov'd the Gentlemen to Consider of a Certain Standard that should determine all Niceties in Question which was no sooner Agreed upon but it was Regularly submitted and Reported to the Star-Chamber Consisting in substance of These Particulars following He that has not Any way deserted his Loyalty and Duty to the Late King or his present Maiesty in Their Wars which are the words of the Act or as in another Place that has serv'd the Late King and his present Maiesty through the whole Course of the Late Wars That Person is within the Meaning of Truly-Loyal The Standard for Indigence was Four hundred Found in proportion to an Annuity of Fifty or Threescore A Reall Command for a Colonel of Horse was stated at Two-Hundred for a Captain at Thirty Horse For a Colonel of Foot at Three-Hundred men for a Captain at Forty They offer'd likewise what Officers they conceiv'd to have a Reall Command of Souldiers according to their Commisions and propos'd a Regimental Order as the aptest Method in their Opinion for Inspection While Matters were in Motion toward this hopefull Period there Interven'd another Question not to be omitted and it was occasion'd by somewhat that fell from the Lips of a worthy Gentleman having at that time the Chaire which was that There were Seaven-Thousand and Five-Hundred Officers Certify'd upon which Computation Reckoning Those that are probably Dead since 46 and Those that are known to have Deserted together with Those that do not Claim the late King must be suppos'd to have lost his Crown at the Head of above Twelve-Hundred Thousand men The Effects which This Overture wrought upon the Truly-Loyal and Suffering Party especially proceeding from a Person that spake with Authority and upon Knowledge were no other than as so many Lines drawn to a Point Every man pressing though with various Reasons to the same end PRINTING as the only means to Purge and Reduce that Prodigious-List and which way soever they lookt they met with Arguments both of Honour and of Necessity to Persue it and still the more narrowly they Consider'd the more forcible they found those Arguments The Case They Reason'd Thus THe Kingdom has presented His Majesty and His Majesty has at their Request Gratiously Bestow'd upon His Truly-Loyal and suffering Officers a Considerable Sum of Money with an Express Limitation of it to the Use and Behoof of such Persons Shall Cromwell's Guards now be Admitted to the Reward and Character of Loyalty or shall His Majestie 's Bounty that was directed singly to His Dutiful Servants be Apply'd in Common to the Murtherers of His Father Shall Treason and Loyalty be supported by the same Hand Or shall Those Gentlemen that ever Valu'd Their Honours before Their Lives be subjected now at Last to mingle Their Names with men of Desperate and Infamous Forfeitures And yet all This must be done without a strict Examination of This Blended List Upon the whole The King's Intentions are Frustrated His Charity Misemploy'd His Loyal Servants Defrauded His Enemies Supply'd Loyalty is Disheartn'd and Disobedience Encourag'd beside the Profusion of the Publique Treasure
the Hazzard of His Majesty taking His Enemies for His Friends and finally beside the sad Consequence of Condemning a Party that has been Loyal beyond all President to be Miserable beyond all Example which must needs follow upon the Admittance of so many Sharers to This Money To these Arguments in Order to the Press It was Reply'd that the King had Positively declar'd Himself against it Whereupon in Confidence that if so it were it proceeded only from a Misrepresentation of the Thing The Gentlemen drew up their Reasons and Tender'd Them to the Star-Chamber with their desires that his Majestle's Pleasure might be more Particularly besought concerning That Matter Upon which they past a Vote and a Person of Eminent Honour and Modesty Attended the King with the Humble Request of the Commissioners to whom upon the first Overture His Majesty was pleased to express Himself that there was much to be said both for and against it Demanding withall What Number the Certificates might amount to It was Answer'd that They were Reputed to be about Six or Seven Thousand Whereupon His Majesty Replyed that it must needs be a great Abuse then and that it would be so much Money thrown away if it came to be divided into so many shares in the Conclusion remitting the Business wholly to the Commissioners Upon the Report of which Gratious Return the Honourable the Commissioners past a Vote for the Print and soon after Another for the Method and Two more after That the One in Allowance of the Book and the Other of the Praeface wherewith His Majesty was again Acquainted and Approv'd it So that at length by the Mediation of all honourable Aids Agreements and Authorities we are possest of the List which we find as we Expected save that it falls nigh Two-Thousand short of the first Computation In This List we meet with Diverse Officers that have been long Dead several that never serv'd the King at all others that left and fought against Him Beyond These Gross Abuses we do not presume to Meddle and These are a sort of People with Whom we should be very loth to appear in the same Livery Concerning Commission-Officers within the Act whatshall be Reputed a sufficient Livelyhood what a Desertion or what Measure Those Pesons are to receive that claim to a Higher Command then in strictness they Executed Touching These Particulars we Interpose no further then in our wishes that there may be no Point strain'd to the Disadvantage of any Man that has faithfully and Honourably serv'd His Majesty for it is not our desire to augment our Particular Shares by Grating upon our Fellows but rather so far as Consists with the most Favourable sense of the Act that all such as joyn'd and Continued in the same Cause and Service may likewise be Joyn'd and Consider'd in the Reward Within This Compass we Reckon it our Duty to Contain our selves and thankfully to acknowledge the Prudence Justice Tenderness and unwearied Pains of Those Honourable Persons who are Commissioned for our Relief by the Benefit of whose Favours being now brought within View of what we have so long and so earnestly desir'd we find at last Another Scruple Injected Which is that All Certificates sign'd by Five Commissioners at a Publique Meeting are Concluding which Nicety is Principally Urg'd by such as have no other Title to the Benefit of the Act and the Delicacy of it Rests upon the Construction of the word TRUE according to the Number of such TRUE Certificates which TRUE if understood Only as Oppos'd to COUNTERFEIT there may be still a True Certificate though of a False Matter This Opinion will not sink into Us for many Rea which we shall only Offer with submission to Better First we conceive the Commissioners Nominated in This Act. and sitting in the Star-Chamber to be the Competent and Proper Judges of the Meaning of it and we have the Honour of Their Practice for Our Authority As for Instance It is put to the Vote what Officers should be Reputed Commission-Officers within the Act and which not How come the Commissioners in the Star-Chamber now to be Judges of That Qualification more then of the Rest That the Person Certify'd be a Commission-Officer and that being a Commission-Officer He be likewise Truly-Loyal and Indigent are Conditions Equally Requisite by the Letter of the Act and Five Commissioner's Hands can no more Conclude a Revolted Captain to be Truly-Loyal then they can Authorize an Armourer to be a Commission-Officer which being over-Rul'd in the one holds every jot as strong in the other Further In the Praeface to This newly Printed List the Honourable Commissioners have Expresly Promis'd and Invited an Inspection that is an Inspection of Persons rather than of Certificates for which Express Reason They are rather Enter'd in Regiments than in Counties Again The Conclusiveness of Five Hands at a Publique-Meeting Engages the Act in a Contradiction and we have heard that an Act Repugnant to it self is so far void The Distribution Made according to the Certificate Contradicts the Distribution Requir'd according to the Act. To This 't is Urg'd that the Certificate is an Act Executed and that though the Body of the Commissioners cannot totally Rescind such a Certificate they may yet suspend the Issuing of the Mony We Reply that if the Distribution were an Act Executed too such a Certificate were much a Better Plea for a Mistake Unforeseen and past Prevention than it would be in This Case where upon Proof the Person that demands the Mony is but the Counterfeit of the Person that ought to Receive it Again may they suspend the distribution after the Mony is due and not as well Refuse it utterly where it can never be due If it be due they are to Pay it at first if it be not due they are to Refuse it for delay will not make it more due and the Reason of stopping it for a moment holds for ever So that if they can neither Reject the Person because of the Certificate nor Allow of Him because of the Act the Mony must Eternally Rest where it is and never come to a Distribution It may be also Consider'd that the Case is Clear concerning the Persons and doubtful touching the Certificates But Wee 'll suppose more Force in the Objection then perchance there is and that in Extremity such TRUE Certificates may be so Render'd as to bear it See now how Many Reasons and how Weighty what Troops of Inconveniences appear Against the Colour of That single Argument There 's first The Ground of the Act a Consideration of services done to the Kingdom There 's Next The Scope of the Act The Honour and Relief of That Loyal Party that did Those Services Thirdly The Political Prudence of it for the Encouragement of Loyalty to Future Ages Fourthly The singular Care of Applying That Bounty aright The Threescore Thousand Pounds must be distributed among Persons precisely so and so Qualify'd To Conclude