Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A49984
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The answer of the Right Honourable the Earl of Danby, to a late pamphlet entituled, An examination of the impartial state of the case of the Earl of Danby
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Leeds, Thomas Osborne, Duke of, 1631-1712.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing L920; ESTC R12398
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18,135
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19
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THE ANSVVER OF THE Right Honourable THE EARL of DANBY TO A LATE PAMPHLET Entituled An EXAMINATION of the IMPARTIAL STATE of the Case of the Earl of Danby LONDON Printed by E. R. to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers Hall 1680. THE Earl of Danby's ANSWER c. I Have lately seen a Pamphlet called An Examination of the Impartial State of the Case of the Earl of Danby and pretended to be an Answer to that State but instead of being so I find it as I believe was the whole intent of the Author to be only a scurrilous Libel against the Earl of Danby every Page of it having something of that Nature in it I cannot learn certainly who is the Author although he says he has been very conversant in my Affairs and pretends to be furnisht with more particular knowledge of them than other Men but I believe that is but a pretence for the more specious wounding of me because it is too Knavish a part for any body who was a Servant or Officer under me to do for his own sake had the subject matter of it been true but I find it to be so generally false that it is impossible for any that related to the Exchequer or Treasury to be so ignorant of the matters of Fact besides to have told so many untruths knowingly and under Colour to do his King and Country service is an Action too black to believe of any Man although I must confess I know not how far such a Man may go as abandons all the Rules of Honour and Generosity in speaking of one under Restraint things that he knows ought not to be said of any Gentleman He is so sensible of this fault himself that he thought it needed an Apology but is able to make no better an one for it than by another untruth which is that he says it is charged upon every body by the Author of the State of my Case that Malice may have too great a share in the Prosecution of me Whereas the Expression in that Book is in the beginning of the Book and speaks only of the Cause which makes some men suspect whether malice may not have too great a share c. So ill has that Reason supported him against the want of Generosity which otherwise he confesses himself he might justly be censured for Though he hath shewed himself a very mean Enemy yet he has been so favourable to me through his whole Book that most of his Reasons and Inferences have been suitable to this beginning and I intend not to trouble my self with repeating or answering them nor with his frequent Contradictions of himself but shall barely inform the truth of those matters of Fact which the Author has falsly related having no design but to Vindicate my self from all Aspersions of having done any thing knowingly to the prejudice either of my King or Country The Examiner has pursued no Method and therefore I must be excused to take the matters of Fact confusedly and to Answer them in the same order as they stand in his Paper In the first place Page the 3 he charges me with having applied two thousand seven hundred seven pounds five shillings and eleven pence to my own use and to have been short so much in my Account of the Navy which is very false for the Money was remaining in my Hands and always owned by me to be so but it is true that his Majesty at my leaving the place of Treasurer of the Navy was pleased to remit me that Sum on the Ballance of my Account and I hope his Majesty is best Judge whether my Service in that Station deserved such a reward The next matter of Fact mentioned as to Money is the 18 Months Tax For I shall take notice of his Suggestions upon that and other things when the Facts are cleared This was payable in six Quarters viz. third of June 73. third of September 73. third of December 73. third of March 73. third of June 74. third of September 74. And I entred to the Treasury the 19th of June 73. so that I received all that came in of that Tax saving what was paid between the 3d and 19th of June 73. Insomuch that the Examiner in that particular is so near speaking true that the whole six Quarters were paid in my time but besides the first three Quarters which the Examiner confesses were Assigned by my Lord Clifford there was also twenty one thousand one hundred sixty three pound six shillings and eight pence charged by his Lordship on the fourth Quarter of that Tax and if the Examiner were as knowing as he pretends to be in the Exchequer he must know that the last three Quarters of that Tax brought clear into the Exchequer only the Sum of five hundred sixty five thousand four hundred ninety eight pounds thirteen shillings and ten pence half penny after all Charges deducted out of which Sum is likewise to be taken the aforesaid Sum of twenty one thousand one hundred sixty three pound six shillings and eight pence When he comes to what the King lost in his Customs by the Corn-Act and the Act for prohibiting French Commodities he answers that by calling them slight particulars although one of them was above sixty thousand pound a year and the other estimated to me by the Commissioners of the Customes at one hundred and fifty thousand pound a year and herein he Arraigns his own skill as much as he undervallues the Kings loss by saying Page the 6th that none can guess what those Acts might lessen from the Customs Whereas the Computations are duly made thereof every year by the Comptroller of the Customs by whose Certificates the Corn Debenters amounted in my time to more than sixty thousand pound a year for the years 76 and 77. and what the loss by the Prohibition hath amounted to could not appear in my time At last he ends that Paragraph with an Argument to confute the Author of my Case by which he has done me much more kindness than that Author did for he says it will appear the Customs never yielded so much as in my days by which he acknowledges a better Management of that Revenue in my time than before and let who the Examiner pleases have the Honour of it since his Majesty has had the Profit His 7th Page is so full of falsehood and ignorance that I know not of which there is most for he charges me with hindring Money from coming in to the Exchequer which was lent on the fifth part of the Excise and diverting it to other uses which is notoriously false and he says Mr. BARTIE or a Private Letter was the Voucher for the Commissioners of Excise placing and having allowed to their Account many Sums of Money which were paid by my Private Direction Which is not only untrue but utterly impossible there being nothing less than a Tallie or Privy-Seal which can be such a Voucher The next Charge
be thought to shew him as much Duty as I think he has done Contempt which is a Crime he truly censures that no guilt but Treason can exceed The said Assertion upon which he builds so many false Inferences is in Page the 25th where he says 'T is fit to observe in that Letter meaning the foresaid Letter of the 25th of March that the King was sufficiently informed that the French desired Peace upon the Terms sent by the Secretary whereas it is most plain in that Letter that the Kings Information which was by Mr. Godolphin was that the Confederates desired Peace upon the Terms sent by the Secretary And in the same Letter it is said to prevent the Kings sending into Holland again before he knows the mind of France I am commanded by his Majesty c. and but that the Examiner hath no more regard for Sense than he has for Truth it must have been as apparent Nonsense to him as it is to all other Men to have sent into France to know what he pretends was known concerning that King already In the 26th Page he says again Sure the Author of the State forgets that but a little before he says this Lord meaning me assures him that they were sufficiently informed the French desired Peace upon those Propositions And again Page the 27th That sure he cannot mean the Proposals that he says were received from the Confederates for those he was informed were desired by the French Now from so many Repetitions of things of which there is not one word neither in the Letter nor State of the Case and that both those have been so long printed that every Man has had the opportunity of seeing this Falshood I doubt not but it will easily be concluded what belief ought to be given to any thing he has said which may be either doubtful in the Proof or obscure in the meaning to those who are not particularly knowing to the Matters this Examiner has taken upon him to meddle with From these sure Assertions he does just as he did from his sure Proofs in reckoning draw divers as good Conclusions and lest he should omit any occasion of shewing that great Duty and Respect he professes to his Majesty he takes care in Page 26. to make a particular exception against the Author of the State for having justified the Kings honour in the 11th Page of that Stated Case by making appear that the King could have no design of getting the French Money for the purposes suggested against the Earl of Danby for the Examiner in the same Page 26 has laboured extreamly to have that Argument of the Author 's of the State to be taken for a very weak and false one which vindicates the King so fully from so foul an Aspersion He then proceeds to that part of the Letter which says That in Case the Conditions of the Peace shall be accepted the King expects to have six millions of Livers yearly for three years c. but says that before he enters upon that Paragraph he must separate the King from wrong or dishonour and Explains that separation Pag. the 29th with having separated the King from the Concern of that matter I confess he had need to say so because he says in the next page 30. That it was a project to let a Lease of Parliaments for three yeers but whether he has done what he pretended for the Kings Honour I must leave the Reader to Judge when if I durst have said in my Letter that the King expects six millions c. without the Kings order for saying so yet certainly it could not have been in my power alone to have Leased out Parliaments and as he says presently after to have renewed those Leases so that how it is possible to Render a King less or how this imputation can be designed against any body but the King himself although he would pretend some cover by doing it through my sides I cannot imagine nor is it possible to be understood otherwise I confess he seems to mittigate this Crime a little by the only modest expression he has shewed through his whole Book which is in a Paragraph page 24. and which he would fain have proved by a Syllogism but finding the first part of it would not hold good he says very modestly thus If this be a good Consequence that to accept French Money is to enslave the Nation I hope it follows the Sum of six millions of Livers c. was for the same purpose but himself acknowledges the consequence not to be good for he did not think the one hundred and twelve thousand five hundred pounds which he says was left in French money was for that purpose nor have we found many great Sums which former Kings have received from that Nation to have been so applyed or intended and he cannot deny but his Majesty might have had great Sums from them if he pleased which he has refused and refused only because he would confent to no disadvantagious Terms of Peace for the Confederates nor at the last did his Majesty ever consent to those Terms upon which the present Peace was made but on the contrary the lowest terms his Majesty did ever agree to propose to the French King were to have had divers more Towns restored by him both to the Emperour and Spain than are restored by the said Peace and demanded an intire Restitution of the Duke of Lorrain to that Dukedom as may be seen by those very Proposals which were then sent to Mr. Montague by Secretary Coventry and without which his Majesty would not hearken to any offers of their Money nor as is said in the said Letter would he suffer it to be mentioned by his Ambassador nay so much has his Majesty been injured in this matter that he needed not have wanted that Money which he so totally rejected if he would but have given his consent to the terms upon which the Peace was at last concluded at Nimiguen He follows that Charge of Leasing Parliaments within two or three Paragraphs with laying Contradictions to the Kings Charge but would impose that also upon the Author of the State saying sure though he has been very bold with the King yet he would not make him own Contradictions at the same time and I do not find the said Author to have said one word like it though this Examiner hath done so with great freedom There is an Explanation in Print of my said Letter of the 25th of March to Mr. Montague together with two of his Letters which will shew the cause why the money-Money-part was kept secret from the Secretaries c. Mr. Montague having both undertaken to get the King Money and having prayed the King in a Letter to himself that it might be kept secret from all men but me who never sought that trust at his hands I will therefore leave the rest of the Letter to that Printed Explanation and shall only observe two things more about it which are the close of the Examiner's Discourse upon that subject pag. 32. One is the blame he lays upon me for affirming in a Speech in the House of Lords that I could produce the Kings hand for the Letters made use of against me to which I shall only answer I had the Kings leave to do so as well as his Authority for what I writ The other is an Expression of the Examiners in the same Page in answer to a Clause of the Author 's of the State upon the said Letter viz. Sure there are few Masters that would expect obedience from their Servants in unlawful things and the Servants could less expect protection unless their Masters were above the Law The great Master of the Nation can give no more protection nor require more obedience than the Laws of God and Man allow Now what does this imply being said upon this occasion less than charging the King with Commanding an unlawful thing if he did Command the writing of the said Letter which his Majesty himself has owned publickly and me for obeying his Majesties Commands in what the Examiner calls unlawful To this I must answer That I durst not take upon me so easily as this Examiner does to judge whether that were unlawful which the King thinks to be lawful although it had been in a more doubtful matter But when the subject matter is about Peace and War the Examiner himself acknowledges pag. 31. that there is no question but the King may treat of Peace even in War declared and yet in pag. 32. would insinuate that a Letter of that nature and by the Kings Command and before War declared should be understood to be about an unlawful matter for otherwise by the Examiner's own Doctrine the King's Commands on that subject were legal and my obedience no Crime but did deserve Protection When he has done with the Affairs of State he is pleased to agree the Accusations about Sir Edmundbury Godfrey to be Libells against me and that to draw arguments of guilt from relying upon the Kings Pardon would rather shew a desire to find a Crime than prove it But for the King's part how valid or good his Pardon is his continued duty and respect to his Majesty makes him forbear to speak his opinion and I perceive also he takes it to be of such weight if he should that he fears it might too much Anticipate a Parliaments Judgment and upon the whole he concludes and I agree with him in that that if he has made appear to be true what he has said against me my Pardon was certainly my best defence but being so apparently contrary to truth not only concerning me but the King himself I am sure he needs a Pardon much more than he deserves one as I believe he is sensible because he takes the safest course of all which is to disguise himself as well as he has done Truth And if the Examiner was any of my Prosecuters he cannot deny but that malice has had too great a share at least in his part of my Prosecution DANBY FINIS