it as your Cattel would willingly have done if they had been taken into it Oh! that you were but here with a wise head and an honest heart that no body might know you to hear them talk of Descents and bodies of Jacobites to cover them you would split your sides with laughing at their extravagant folly for if you were to have twenty thousand lousie French Curs to land here they could not expect to be covered unless they covered one another as Tumble-down Dick would have covered the Booksellers Boy or a sweet-faced young Gentleman yet alive to tell the story such a covering they might have met withal but as for any other covering they know nothing of the matter nay my old friend I suppose they have sent over their Emissaries to invite you and to tell you they are ready truly so they are some are ready to starve and some are ready to be hanged and others of them are ready with your sweet self to run away and truly I am ready to dye with laughing when I see their management Come come to deal plainly with you these can neither fight nor cover but in that way I mentioned for they are purely for Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance and will no more fight than your Army did at Hounslow-Heath or at Salisbury the Rogues will not shew any Courage unless it be that of Tom Jenner or your sweet self valiantly to run away In short they are a pack of Rogues that are in a direct faction against the more sober sort of Jacobites and give false Characters of them aboard and calumniate them at home as discouragers of all Loyal designs as they call their nasty scoundrel Plots when in truth they have only shamm'd themselves to the Gallows and by their vain and villanous attempts they have exposed themselves as a rascally Generation of people that will not be content under any Government for if they had you here again those very men would be the first that would fly not only in yours but also in my poor Landlady's face God bless her and keep the poor Gentlewoman on the other side the Water and scratch her Eyes out rather than they would stand idle for want of business and send you and her and the little Cub a Grazing the second time Therefore I humbly conceive that your Cause is upon its last Legs unless these men have some better way than is yet known to the Government But still you huff and bounce and say they are your friends so they are and it is fit they should for in my conscience I think if they were yoked to any Interest but your own it would be yoking an Ox and an Ass together which would be an unequal yoking but for all your huffing and making such a noise of their friendship let me tell you the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth that they depose you their pretended King in the very conditions upon which they say they would have you restored for they would make you accountable to them or else good night Nicholas But what a swearing do you make and will in spight of Hell it self have them to be understanding men Well be quiet I will say so too and there is good reason for it For in their labouring to restore you they good men only think to accomplish an impossibility and above all they neither understand the state of the Nation nor the humour of the people nor the measures of Government nor the complication of Interests and Parties nor so much as the root of the Disease much less the Remedy but to please you they shall be men of intelligence because they get in to the most public Coffee-houses about the Town and therefore they cannot want for News and News-letters and upon the strength of Dyer's Letters they set up for men of business and intreague and they assume to themselves the Government of the whole Province of Jacobitism Oh what undertakers you have had for Levies Associations Parliaments Councils Lieutenants Seamen Soldiers Nay because the nature of their designs required secrecy they have made the whole Town to ring of their exploits and orders so that in giving you intelligence they have been and still are intelligencers to King VVilliam and give us a better account of what is done at St. Germains than they give you what is done here so that they are rather the instruments for this Government than for your good Worship Well what think you of the point don't you think your self blest with a parcel of pure understanding Loggerheads Oh how doth Tom the Exchequer-man value himself upon sitting at the upper end of the Table in Company with these his Brethren I never find him famous for any great adventure unless it was for sending a Coach-man to Bridewell for asking him Eighteen-pence for driving him from the Exchange to Westminster-hall and the poor man I suppose did share of Tom s blessing when the Rogue was a Justice of the Peace He is sometimes in pretty Company where to his great sorrow poor Dog your name is mentioned but not much to your advantage He is an ignorant Rascal that is hearty in your Cause when it doth not threaten his Pockets but an Intelligencer he is just such as your Brother and you used to have in you Ministry 6. I must observe a sixth thing to your good Worship Your Cattle here are a bold pragmatical sort of people they are great undertakers I must confess that is to say when they have the obedient Child that cheated his old Dad of his Estate in company with them they are as great talkers as ever met at the Devil Tavern nay they value themselves upon huffing and making a noise to no manner of purpose they are great secret-keepers for they tell every body what they know and more especially since Scotch Robin hath joined with them and as they contrive their matters the poorest Porter in the Street nay Squire Boldface Sir John Greasy Guts his Neighbour would swear that their Management is a scandal to their very Cause and Commission Now you make your Face up as if you were somewhat concerned at the News Come Sir I will appeal to Tom Long the Carrier of Exeter notwithstanding his simple remarks upon Mr. Baxter's Life or to Mr. Wind and Stink of All Souls or to Tom Little Pitcher his Kinsman nay to Doctor Dunce of the Abbey with his disputed Title and endless Wars who was a great Companion to Sir John Femvick that worthy good man nay rather than fail I will adventure to appeal to Rhyming Jack Carryl or to your old Fiddler Hodge and his inferiour Crew of Spiritual Bums whether or no your Puppies have not acted contrary to all the measures of common sense as well as Political Prudence in such a manner that no man of credit or brains even of their own Crew will have to do with them nay since Scotch Robin the Bookseller hath advanced himself into
by us except only the Descent upon the Person of the Duke of York who by the wicked Instruments of the Church of Rome has been manifestly perverted to their Religion And we do humbly represent to your Majesty as the Issue of our most deliberate Thoughts and Consultations That for the Papists to have their Hopes continued That a Prince of that Religion shall succeed in the Throne of these Kingdoms is utterly inconsistent with the Safety of your Majesty's Person the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Prosperity Peace and Welfare of your Protestant Subjects That your Majesty's Sacred Life is in continual Danger under the Prospect of a Popish Successor is evident not only from the Principles of those devoted to the Church of Rome which allow That an Heretical Prince and such they term all Protestant Princes excommunicated and deposed by the Pope may be destroyed and murthered but also from the Testimonies given in the Prosecution of the horrid Popish Plot against divers Traytors attainted for designing to put those accursed Principles into practice against your Majesty From the Expectation of this Succession has the Number of Papists in your Majesty's Dominions so much increased within these few Years and so many been prevailed with to desert the true Protestant Religion That they might be prepared for the Favours of a Popish Prince as soon as he should come to the Possession of the Crown And while the same Expectation lasts many more will be in the same Danger of being perverted This it is that has hardned the Papists of this Kingdom animated and confederated by their Priests and Jesuits to make a common Purse provide Arms make Application to foreign Princes and solicit their Aid for imposing Popery upon us and all this during your Majesty's Reign and while your Majesty's Government and the Laws were our Protection It is your Majesty's Glory and true Interest to be the Head and Protector of all Protestants as well abroad as at home but if these Hopes remain What Alliances can be made for the Advantage of the Protestant Religion and Interest which shall give confidence to your Majesty's Allies to join so vigorously with your Majesty as the state of that Interest in the World now requires while they see this Protestant Kingdom in so much Danger of a Popish Successor by whom at the present all their Counsels and Actions may be eluded as hitherto they have been and by whom if he should succeed they are sure to â—e destroyed We have thus humbly laid before your Majesty some of those great Dangers and Mischiefs which evidently accompany the Expectation of a Popish Successor the certain and unspeakable Evils which will come upon your Majesty's Protestant Subjects and their Posterity if such a Prince should inherit are more also than we can well enumerate Our Religion which is now so dangerously shaken will then be totally overthrown nothing will be left or can be found to protect or defend it The Execution of old Laws must cease and it will be vain to expect new ones The most sacred Obligations of Contracts and Promises if any should be given that shall be judged to be against the Interest of the Romish Religion will be violated as is undeniable not only from Argument and Experience elsewhere but from the sad Experience this Nation once had upon the like Occasion In the Reign of such a Prince the Pope will be acknowledged Supreme though the Subjects of this Kingdom have sworn the contrary and all Causes either as Spiritual or in order to Spiritual Things will be brought under his Jurisdiction The Lives Liberties and Estates of all such Protestants as value their Souls and their Religion more than their secular Concernments will be adjudged Forfeited To all this we might add That it appears in the Discovery of the Plot that foreign Princes were invited to assist in securing the Crown to the Duke of York with Arguments from his great Zeal to establish Popery and to extirpate Protestants whom they call Hereticks out of his Dominions and such will expect performance accordingly We further humbly beseech your Majesty in your great Wisdom to consider Whether in case the Imperial Crown of this Protestant Kingdom should descend to the Duke of York the Opposition which may possibly be made to his possessing it may not only endanger the further Descent in the Royal Line but even Monarchy it self For these Reasons we are most humble Petitioners to your most Sacred Majesty that in tender Commiseration of your poor Protestant People â—â—ur Majesty will be graciously pleased to depart from the Reservation in your said Speech and when a Bill shall be tender'd to your Majesty in a Parliamentary Way to disable the Duke of York from inheriting the Crown your Majesty will give your Royal Assent thereto and as necessary to fortify and defend the same That your Majesty likewise will be graciously pleased to assent to an Act whereby your Majesty's Protestant Subjects may be enabled to associate themselves for the Defence of your Majesty's Person the Protestant Religion and the Security of your Kingdoms These Requests we are constrained humbly to make to your Majesty as of absolute Necessity for the safe and peaceable Enjoyment of our Religion Without these Things the Alliances of England will not be valuable nor the People encouraged to contribute to your Majesty's Service As some farther means both of our Religion and Property we are humble Suiters to your Majesty That from hence-forth such Persons only may be Judges within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales as are Men of Ability Integrity and of known Affection to the Protestant Religion And that they may hold both their Offices and Salaries Quam diu bene se gesserint That several Deputy Lieutenants Justices of the Peace fitly qualified for those Employments having been of late displaced and others put in their Room who are Men of Arbitrary Principles and Countenancers of Papists and Popery such only may bear the Office of a Lord Lieutenant as are Persons of Integrity and known Affection to the Protestant Religion That Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace may be also so qualified and may be moreover Men of Ability of Estates and Interest in their Country That none may be imployed as military Officers or Officers in your Majesty's Fleet but Men of known Experience Courage and Affection to the Protestant Religion These our humble Requests being obtained we shall on our part be ready to assist your Majesty for the Preservation of Tangier and for putting your Majesty's Fleet into such a Condition as it may preserve your Majesty's Sovereignty of the Seas and be for the Defence of the Nation If your Majesty hath or shall make any necessary Alliances for defence of the Protestant Religion and Interest and Security of this Kingdom this House will be ready to assist and stand by your Majesty in the Support of the same After this our
was impossible that Godfrey had murdered himself because his Neck was broke before his Sword was run through his Body nay your good Brother the King saw you so earnest that he was ashamed at your Zeal which made the Prince swear to the D. of Buckingham that you carryed your self with that heat that a small Evidence would make him if you were brought to a Tryal to find you guilty of the said Murder Sir your behaviour in that particular was so nauseous your actions so plain and yet so pernicious that I stand amazed that your hand stopt there in short Sir the Sence I have of your guilt in that base Murder hath hardened my Heart against you and your villainous party for the many Insolencies that they at that time did offer and the secret Murders they Committed and were by you countenanced that all Men cryed shame and stood more amazed that you were not called to an Account for that Murder than they did at the impudence of the Murder it Self though God he knows that that Murther was of it self astonishing enough but to conclude this Head I pray take two things along with you which I shall leave you as my Legacy 1. What greater Satisfaction can the World have of your Guilt in this Affair if the Sons of Men will but give themselves a little time to consider these Circumstances that I have laid before you had I been so unfortunate as to have been privy to the Murder I would have been no more affraid to have charged you with it than your murdering Crew was to strangle that innocent Magistrate you will do well now to acquit your self of it if you can 't is true you are now out of the reach of the Law and since it is so I pray God keep you so during your Life but this I will tell you that these Circumstances entitle you to the Guilt of that Fact and whilst this Gentleman's Blood lies upon you I cannot forbear observing to you that in what you did to him you gave the world a Specimen of what you would have done to others and made many Men believe That the Earl of Essex came to his end by that way of Charity so that we have had great Testimony that for promoting your Cause you would not stick at the Protestants Blood you began with that honest Gentleman and you did not end in the Earl of Essex you killed Godfrey in his Person but the whole Nation in him was murdered in â—ffigie your hands were imbrued in his Blood but your black Hell-born Soul was dipt in the Blood of us all and since we are convinced that you murdered him and Essex I cannot but be convinced that you poysoned your Brother and had you had but time you would have made all away that stood in the way of your damn'd Religion you would have converted us with Blood and baptized us with Fire your nature and actions testifyed the one and London in a dreadful manner felt the other 2. Let me observe to you the Folly of your murdering this Magistrate certainly Sir it was one of the greatest pieces of Folly that you and your Party could be guilty of for what could be your end in it did you think that if Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey could not escape your murdering Crew that we could not find one in his room yes Sir to your great comfort there was a Gentleman that succeeded him that Harazed your Rogues to as good purpose as a Mans heart and soul could wish and if a Man could but have seen into your cursed Soul we might have found that you had the same Grace and Favours for and intended the same act of Charity to him as you did to Justice Godfrey but he escaped your Blessing and is yet alive to give you an Account of his Stewardship in Print if he pleases and of some of your Royal Misdemeanors into the bargain I pray Sir how do you And how do you like your self by this time how will you come of Therefore to conclude all Is there not here a monstrous Evidence of your whole Popish Plot For in truth we cannot prove it better than by such Practices as these that this Man was killed why either he knew or had discovered to him something that you and your Villains would not have him tell or you did it in defiance of Justice and in Terror to all them that then durst execute it upon them which I say is a great Evidence in its self I leave it with you after you have mumbled over your Mattins you may consider it whilst you have opportunity and leisure 9. I shall in proof of your Popish Plot offer to your consideration the Oral Testimony that was given so that you may see that we were not overhasty in our Proceedings upon those Malefactors that were charged to be in that villainous Conspiracy therefore I will give you their Names in order as follows 1. You have Richard Gastrel of the Grange in Gloucestershire I pray look upon him and see how you like him well sit down and hear what he saith to you in an Examination taken before the Lord Bishop of London a zealous Protestant I assure you and a Justice of the Peace so that you may see we had more good Justices besides Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey and this Richard Gastrel's Information was as follows THIS Deponent saith That in the year 1675 he travelled to Râ—me and being there he was by many arts and perswasions inveighled into the Romish Religion after which he was entertained by Cardinal Barbarini as one of his Gentlemen where after he had continued about five Months he was pervailed withal by several English there and by the said Cardinal to put himself into the English Seminary where after he had continued about two years and a half he returned home but whilst he continued in the said Colledge viz. in Lent last he discâ—ursed with Gerrard Ireland and William Dormour Priests now in England the said Iâ—eland told him that the Catholicks of England had expected long enough from his Majesty withâ—ut Effect and that it was in vain to expect any longer That the King had been much obliged to the Catholics and that he had now forgot their Kindness That he did no Good in England nor did deserve to be King but was a shame to all Princes and that it was no Sin to Kill him to which one Sergeant a Schollar replied Why The said Ireland answered bâ—cause it would be for the Good of the whole Church if the King were Dead the Catholic Religion would soon be brought into England And discoursing further of their going into England the said Ireland and Dormour said they hoped each of them to get a good fat Parsonage there this Dâ—ponent further saith That having an Audience of the Pope in the company of â—our Priests and another secular Gentleman all Students of the same Colledge the Pope understanding they were going for England and