a number of fast Friends Men who having first sold themselves would not stick to sell any thing after And we may well suspect they mean very ill at Court when their designs shock't such a Parliament For that very Favourite Parliament no sooner began in good earnest to examin what had been done and what was doing but they were sent away in hast and in a fright though the Ministers know they lost thereby a constant Revenue of extraordinary Supplies And are the Ministers at present more innocent than at that time The same interest hath the ascendant at Court still and they have heightned the Resentments of the Nation by repeated affronts and can we beleive them that they dare suffer a Parliament now to Sit. But we have gain'd at least this one Point by the Declaration that it is own'd to us that Parliaments are the best Method for healing the distempers of the Kingdem and the only means to preserve the Monarchy in credit both at home and abroad Own'd by these very men who have so maliciously rendred many former Parliaments ineffectual and by this Declaration have done their utmost to make those which are to come as fruitless and thereby have confessed that they have no concern for healing the distempers of the Kingdom and preserving the credit of the Monarchy which is in effect to acknowledge themselves to be what the Commons called them Enemies to the King and Kingdom Nothing can be more true then that the Kingdom can never recover it's strength and reputation abroad or its ancient Peace and Settlement at home His Majesty can never be releived from his fears and his domestick wants nor secure from the Affronts which he dayly suffers from abroad till he resolves not only to call Parliaments but to Hearken to them when they are called For without that it is not a Declaration it is not repeated promises nay it is not the frequent calling of Parliaments which will convince the world that the use of them is not intended to be laid aside However we rejoyce that His Majesty seems resolved to have frequent Parliaments and hope he will be just to Himself and us by continuing constant to this Resolution Yet we cannot but doubt in some degree when we remember the Speech made 26 Jan. 1679. to both Houses wherein he told them that he was Vnalterably of an Opinion that long intervals of Parliaments were absolutely necessary for composing quieting the minds of the People Therefore which we ought rather to beleive the Speech or the Declaration or which is likely to last longest a Resolution or an unalterable opinion is a matter too Nice for any but Court Criticks to Decide The effectual performance of the last part of the promise will give us assurance of the first When we see the real fruits of these utmost endeavours to extirpate Popery out of Parliament when we see the D. of York no longer first Minister or rather Protector of these Kingdoms and his Creature 's no longer to have the whole direction of Affairs when we see that Love to our Religion and Laws is no longer a crime at Court no longer a certain forerunner of being Disgrâ—c'd and Remov'd from all Offices and Employments in their Power whâ—n the word Loyal which is faithful to the Law shall be restored to its old meaning no longer signifie one who is for subverting the Laws when we see the Commissions fill'd with hearty Protestants the Laws executed in good earnest against the Papists the Discoverers of the Plot countenanc'd or at least heard and suffered to give their Evidence the Courts of Justice steady and not Avowing a Jurisdiction one day which they Disown the next no more Grand Juries discharg'd least they should hear Witnesses nor Witnesses hurried away least they should inform Grand Juries when we see no more Instruments from Court labouring to raise Jealousies of Protestants at home and some regard had to Protestants abroad when we observe somewhat else to be meant by Governing according to Law then barely to put in Execution against Dissenters the Laws made against Papists then we shall promise our selves not only frequent Parliaments but all the blessed effects of pursuing Parliamentary Counsels the Extirpation of Popery the Redress of Greivances the flourishing of Laws and the perfect Restoring the Monarchy to the Credit which is ought to have but which the Authors of the Declaration confess it wants both at Home and Abroad There needs no time to open the Eyes of His Majesties good Subjects and their Hearts are ready prepared to meet him in Parliaments in order to Perfect all the good Settlement and Peace wanting in Church and State But whilst there are so many little Emissaries imployed to sow and encrease Divisions in the Nation as if the Ministers had a mind to make His Majesty the Head of a Faction and joyn himself to one Party in the Kingdom who has a just right of Governing all which Thuanm lib. 28. says was the notorious folly and occasioned the Destruction of his great Grand Mother Mary Queen of Scots whilst we see the same Dâ—fferences promoted iudustriously by the Court which gave the rise and progress to the late troubles and which were once thought fit to be buried in an Act of Oblivion VVhilst we see the Popish interest so plainly Countenanced which was then done with Caution when every pretence of Pretogative is strained to the utmost Height when Parlaiments are used with contempt and indignity and their judicature all their Highest Priviledges brought in Question in inferior Courts we have buâ— too good cause to believe that though every Loyal and Good man does yet the Ministers and Favourites do but little consider the Rise and Progress of the late Troubles and have little desire or care to preserve their Country from a Relapse And who as they never yet shewed regard to Religion Liberty or Property so they would be little concern'd to see the Monarchy shaken off if they might escape the vengeance of Publick Justice due to them for so long a Course of pernicious Counsels and for Crowning all the rest of their faults by thus Reflecting upon that High Court before which we do not doubt but we shall see them one Day brought to Judgment Thus have we with an English plainness expressed our thoughts of the late Parliaments and their Proceedings as well as of the Court in Relation to them and hope this Freedom will offend no man The Ministers who may be concern'd through their appealing unto the People cannot in Justice deny unto any one of them the Liberty of weighing the reasons which they have thought fit to publish in vindication of their actions But if it should prove otherwise and these few sheets be thought as weak and full of errors as those we endevour to confute or be held injurious unto them we desire only to know in what we transgress and that the Press may be open for our justification Let the People to whom the Appeal is made judge then between them and us and let Reason and the Law be the Rules according unto which the Controversie may be decided But if by denying this they shall like Beasts recurr to force they will thereby acknowledge that they want the Arms which belong to rational Creatures VVhereas if the Liberty of Answering be left us we will give up the Cause and confess that both Reason and Law are wanting unto us if we do not in our Reply satisfie all reasonable and impartial men that nothing is said by us but what is just and necessary to preserve the interests of the King and his People Nor can there be any thing more to the Honour of His Majesty than to give the Nations round about us to understand that the King of England doth neither Reign over a Base servile People who hearing themselves Arraign'd and Condemned dare not speak in their own Defence and Vindication nor over so silly foolish and weak a People as that ill designed and worse supported Paper might occasion the VVorld to think but that there are some Persons in his Dominions not only of true English Courage but of greater intellectuals as well as better Morals than the Advisers unto and Penners of the Declaration have manifested themselves to be FINIS 4 Edw. 3 c. 14. 36 Ed. 3. c. 10. 2 R. 2. Nu. 28. Speech 21 Oct 1680 Speech 30 Apr. 1679 Speech 26 Oct. 1662 Speech 26 Dec. 1662 Speech 6 March 1679 Lord Chancellors Speech 23. May 1678. Address presented 21 Dec. 1680. Address presented 29 Nov. 1680. Rot Part 5. H. 4 Nu. 16. Traitte des droits de la Reine On t cette bien heureuse impuissance de ne pouvoir rien faire contre les Loys de leur Pali Postâ—â—lâ—â— de Rebâ— Turcicis 1. R 3. cap. 2. 12 Car. 2. c4 4. confirm'd 13. Car. 6 7. 12 Car. 2. c. 23. an 33 14 Car. c. 10. Tacit. Cap. 1. Sect. 2. pag. 9. 36 Ed. 3. 10. Rot. Parl. 4 Ed. 3. Nu. 6. Rot. Parl. â—â— Edw. 3. M. 18. Rot Parl. 26 Edw. 3. M. 25. Co. 2. Iust. 29.
King receives a Gift from his People he takes it under such conditions and ought to imploy it in such a manner and for such purposes as they direct We must therefore consult the several Acts by which those Branches were settled if we would Judge rightly whether the Commons had not particular reasons for what they did The Statute 12 Car. 2. c. 4. says That the Commons reposing Trust in his Majesty for Guarding the Seas against all Persons intending the disturbance of Trade and the Invading of the Realm to that intent do give him the Tonnage and Poundage c. This is as direct an Appropriation as Words can make and therefore as it is manifest wrong to the Subiect to divert any part of this Branch to other uses So for the King to Anticipate it is plainly to disable himself to perform the Trust reposed in Him And the late long Parliament thought this matter so clear that about two years before their Dissolution they passed a Vote with Relation to the Customs in all most the same Words The Parliament which gave the Excise were so far from thinking that the King had power to charge or dispose of it as his own that by a special clause in the Act whereby they give it they were careful to Impower him to dispose of it or any part of it by way of Farm and to Enact that such contracts shall be effectual in Law so as they be not for a longer time then three years The Act whereby the Hearth-money was given declares that it was done to the end that the public Revenue might be proportioned to the public Charge and 't is imposible that should ever be whilst it is lyable to be pre-ingag'd and anticipated And the Parliament were so careful to preserve this Tax always clear and uncharg'd that they made it penal for any one so much as to accept of any Pension or Grant for years or any other Estate or any summe of Money out of the Revenue arising by vertue of that Act from the King His Heirs or Successors Surely if the Penners of this Declaration had not been altogether ignorant of ourown Laws and of the Policy of all other Countries Ages they would never have Printed those Votes in hopes thereby to have exposed the Commons to the World They would not have had the face to say that thereby the King was Exposed to Danger deprived of a possibility of supporting the Government and reduc'd to a more helpless condition then the meanest of His Subjects This we are sure of that if the inviolable observing of these Statutes will reduce His Majesty to a more helpless Condition then the meanest of His Subjects he will still be left in a better condition then the Richest and Greatest of his Ancestors none of which were ever Masters of such a Revenue The H. of Commons are in the next place accused of a very high Crime the assuming to themselves a power of suspending Acts of Parliament because they declared that it was their Opinion That the prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the penal Laws is at this time grievous to the Subject a weakning of the Protestant interest an incouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom The Ministers remembred that not many years ago the whole Nation was justly Alarm'd upon the assuming an Arbitrary power of suspending penal Laws therefore they thought it would be very popular to accuse the Commons of such an Attempt But how they could possible misinterpret a Vote at that Rate how they could say the Commons pretended to a power of repealing Laws when they only declare their Opinion of the inconveniency of them will never be understood till the Authors of this are pleased to shew their Causes and Reasons for it in a second Declaration Every impartial man will own that the Commons had reason for this opinion of theirs They had with Great anxiety observed that the present design of the Papists was not against any one sort of Protestants but universal and for extirpating the Reform'd Religion They saw what advantages these Enemies made of our Divisions how cunningly they diverted us from persecuting them by fomenting our jealousies of one anether They saw the strength and nearness of the King of France and Judged of his inclinations by his usage of his own Protestant Subjects They considered the number the Bloody Principles of the Irish and what Conspiracies were form'd there and even Ripe for Execution and that Scotland was already delivered into the hands of a Prince the known head of the Papists in these Kingdomes and the Occasion of all their Plots and Insolencies as more then one Parliament had declared They could not but take notice into what hands the most considerable Trusts both Civil and Military where put and that notwithstanding all Addresses all Proclamations for a strict Execution of the penal Laws against Papists yet their Faction so far prevailed that they were eluded and only the dissenting Protestants smarted under the edge of them In the midst of such circumstances was there not cause to think an Union of all Protestants necessary and could they have any just ground to believe that the Dissenters whilst they lay under the pressures of severe Laws should with such Alacrity and Courage as was requisite undertake the defence of a Countrey where they were so ill treated A long and sad Experience had shew'd how vain the endeavours of former Parliaments had been to force us to be all of one Opinion and therefore the House of Commons resolv'd to take a sure way to make us of one Affection They knew that some busie men would be striking whilst there were weapons at Hand and therefore to make us live at Peace they meant to take away all occasions of provoking or being provoked In order to a general Repeal of these Laws they first came to a Vote declaring the necessity of it to which there was not one Negative in the House A Vote of this nature does for the most part precede the bringing in of a Bill for the Repeal of any General Law And it had been a great presumption in a particular Member to have asked leave to have brought in a Bill for Repealing so many Laws together till the House had first declar'd that in their opinion they were Grievous inconvenient No English man could be so ignorant of our Laws none but a French-man could have confidence to declaim against a proceeding so regular and Parlimentary as this Where was the disregard to the Laws Established for the Commons to attempt the abrogating of a Law that is Grievous to the Subject and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom Is it a suspending Acts of Parliament if they declare a Law to be Grievous and dangerous in their Opinion before they set about the Repeal of it And is there any ground to doubt but that a Bill would have pass'd that
other ways which were darkly and dubiously intimated in His Majesties Speech unto the Parliament at Oxford and repeated in the Declaration and His Majesty in his Wisdom could not but know that they signified nothing And those who spake more plainly in proposing a Regency as an expedient did in publick and private declare they believed the Duke would not consent unto it nor unto any unusual restriction of the Royal Power So that they could have no other design therein than a plausible pretence to delude the Parliament and People Some such consideration induced them to revive the distinction between the Kings personal and politick capacity by separating the power from the Person which we have reason to believe they esteemed unseasable However it is more than probable that the Jesuites Casuists and Popish Lawyers would reject it as well as any thing else that might preserve us from falling under his power And the Pope who could absolve King John Henry the third and others from the Oaths they had taken to preserve the Rights and Liberties of their Subjects might with the same falicity dissolve any that the Duke should take And as our Histories restifie what bloody Wars were thereby brought upon the Nation we have reason to believe that if the like should again happen it would be more fatal unto us when Religion is concerned which was not then in question Would not his Confessor soon convince him that all Laws made in favour of Heresie are void And would he not be liable to the heaviest Curses if he suffered his power to be used against his Religion The little regard he hath to Laws whilst a Subject is enough to instruct us what respect he would bear to them if he should be a King Shall we therefore suffer the Royal Dignity to descend on him who hath made use of all the power he has been entrusted with hitherto for our destruction And who shall execute this great Trust The next Heir may be an Infant or one willing to surrender it into his hands But should it be otherwise yet still there is no hope of having any fruit of this expedient without a War and to be obliged to swear Allegiance to a Popish Prince to own his Title to acknowledge him Supream Head of the Church and defender of the Faith seems a very strange way of Entitling our selves to fight with him The two reasons which the Declaration pretends to give against the exclusion are certainly of more force against the expedient A standing Force would have been absolutely necessary to have plac'd and kept the Administration in Protestant hands and the Monarchy it self had been destroy'd by a Law which was to have taken all sort of Power from the King and made him not so much as a Duke of Venice How absurdly and incoherently do these men discourse Sometimes the Government is so Divine a thing that no human Law can lessen or take away his Right who only pretends in Succession and is at present but a Subject But at other times they tells us of Acts of Parliament to banish him out of his own Dominions to deprive him of all power of his whole Kingship after he shall be in possession of the Throne The cheat of this expedient appear'd so gross in the House of Commons that one of the Dukes professed Vassals who had a little more Honour than the rest was asham'd of it and openly renounced the project which they had been forming so long and thought they had so Artificially disguised But though it was so well exposed in the House yet the Ministers thought the men without doors might be still deceived and therefore they do not blush to value themselves again upon it in their Declaration As for the insinuation which follow 's that there was reason to beleive that the Parliament would have passed further to attempt other great and important Changes at present If it be meant any change of the Constitution of the Government 't is a malicious suggestion of those men who are ever instilling into His Majesties mind ill thoughts of his Parliament since no Vote nor Proposition in either House could give any ground for such suspicion and therefore in this matter the People may justly accuse the Court who so often cry out against them for it of being moved by causeless Fears and Jealousies And for His Majâ—sty to be perswaded to Arraign the whole Body of his People upon the ill grounded surmises or malicious and false suggestions of evil and corrupt men about him doth neither well become the Justice of a Prince nor is agreeable to the measures of Wisdom which he should Govern himself as well as Rule his People by And if an attendance to the slanderous accusations of Persons who hate Parliaments because their Crimes are such that they have reason to fear them govern and sway his Royal mind there can never want grouds for the Dissolution of any Parliaments But if they mean by attempting great and important Changes that they would have besought His Majesty that the Duke might no longer have the Government in his hands that his dependents should no longer preside in his Councils no longer possess all the great Trusts and Offices in the Kingdom that our Ports our Garrisons and our Fleets should be no longer governed by such as are at his Devotion that Characters of Honour and Favour should be no longer plac'd on Men that the Wisdom of the Nation hath judged to be Favourers of Popery or Pensioners of France These were indeed greâ—t and important Changes but such as it becomes English men to believe were designed by that Parliament Such as will be designed and prest for by every Parliament and such as the People will ever pray may at last find success with the King Without these Changes the Bill of Exclusion would only provoke not disarm our Enemies nay the very Money which we must have paid for it would have been made use of to secure and hasten the Dukes return upon us We are now come to the consideration of that only fault which was peculiar to the Parliament at Oxford and that was their behaviour in relation to the business of Fitz-Harris The Declaration says he was impeached of High-Treason by the Commons and they had cause to think his Treasons to be of such an extraordinary Nature that they well deserved an Examination in Parliament For Fitz-Harris a known Irish Papist appear'd by the Informations given in the House to be made use of by some very great persons to set up a counterfeit Protestant Conspiracy and thereby not only to drown the noise of the Popish Plot but to take off the Heads of the most eminent of those who still refused to bow their knees to Baal There had been divers such honest contrivances before which had unluckily fail'd but the principal contrivers avoided the discovery as the others did the punishment in what manner and by what helps the whole Nation is