however the Roman Catholicks from this time forward were studiously avoided no man fearing any trouble from any body else as in truth I never heard of any man that was prosecuted on this account The 28th of October the Earl of Sunderland was removed from the Office of Principal Secretary of State and the Lord Viscount Preston put in his room This Change pleased all men but it came too late As the Cause of the Dismission of the Earl of Sunderland was then wholly unknown so it gave occasion to the reviving a Report that had been spread not long before upon the Imprisonment of Sir Bevil Skelton the English Ambassador in France that there had lately been a League concluded between the King of England and France for the Extirpation of the Protestant Religion here and the establishing Popery and Arbitrary Government to which end the French King was as was said to send a considerable Army and great Sums of Money into England and as it was before pretended that Skelton being a Protestant had discovered this Transaction to the Prince of Orange So it was now said Sunderland had lost the Original League out of his Scritore and that it was carried over to the Prince of Orange who would produce it to the Parliament of England But since that the Earl of Sunderland has published a Letter wherein he has given a larger Account of the true Cause of his being laid aside than is any where else to be met with and therefore I think it reasonable to add it here The Earl of Sunderland 's Letter to a Friend in London published March 23d 1689. TO comply with what you desire I will explain some things which we talked of before I left England I have been in a Station of a great noise without Power or Advantage whilst I was in it and to my Ruin now I am out of it I know I cannot justifie my self by saying though it is true that I thought to have prevented much Mischief for when I found that I could not I ought to have quitted the Service neither is it an Excuse that I have got none of those things which usually engage men in publick Affairs My Quality is the same it ever was and my Estate much worse even ruin'd tho' I was born to a very considerable one which I am ashamed to have spoiled tho' not so much as if I had encreased it by indirect means But to go on to what you expect The pretence to a Dispensing Power being not only the first thing which was much disliked since the death of the late King but the foundation of all the rest I ought to begin with that which I had so little to do with that I never heard it spoken of till the time of Monmouth's Rebellion that the King told some of the Council of which I was one that he was resolved to give Employments to Roman Catholicks it being fit that all persons should serve who could be useful and on whom he might depend I think every body advised him against it but with little effect as was soon seen That Party was so well pleased with that the King had done that they perswaded him to mention it in his Speech at the next meeting of the Parliament which he did after many Debates whether it was proper or not in all which I opposed it as is known to very considerable Persons some of which were of another opinion for I thought it would engage the King too far and it did give such offence to the Parliament that it was thought necessary to prorogue it after which the King fell immediately to the supporting the Dispensing Power the most Chimerical thing that was ever thought of and must be so till the Government here is as absolute as in Turkey all Power being included in that one This is the sense I ever had of it and when I heard Lawers defend it I never changed my Opinion or Language however it went on most of the Judges being for it and was the chief business of the State till it was looked on as setled Then the Ecclesiastical Court was set up in which there being so many considerable men of several kinds I could have but a small part and that after Lawyers had told the King it was legal and nothing like the High Commission Court I can most truly say and it is well known that for a good while I defended Magdalen Colledge purely by care and industry and have hundreds of times begg'd of the King never to grant Mandates or to change any thing in the regular course of Ecclesiastical Affairs which he often thought reasonable and then by perpetual Importunities was prevailed upon against his ownsense which was the very case of Magdalen Colledge as of some others These things which I endeavoured though without Success drew upon me the Anger and Ill-will of many about the King. The next thing to be try'd was to take off the Penal Laws and the Tests so many having promised their concurrence towards it that his Majesty thought it feasible but he soon found it was not to be done by that Parliament which made all the Catholicks desire it might be dissolv'd which I was so much against that they complained of me to the King as a man who ruined all his Designs by opposing the only thing could carry them on Liberty of Conscience being the Foundation on which he was to build That it was first offered at by the Lord Clifford who by it had done the work even in the late King's time if it had not been for his weakness and the weakness of his Ministers Yet I hindred the Dissolution several Weeks by telling the King that the Parliament in Being would do every thing he could desire but the taking off the Penal Laws and the Tests or the allowing his Dispensing Power and that any other Parliament tho' such a one could be had as was proposed would probably never repeal those Laws and if they did they would certainly never do any thing for the support of the Government whatever exigency it might be in At that time the King of Spain was sick upon which I said often to the King that if he should die it would be impossible for his Majesty to preserve the peace of Christendom that a War must be expected and such a one as would chiefly concern England and that if the present Parliament continued he might be sure of all the help and service he could wish but in case he dissolv'd it he must give over all thoughts of fereign Affairs for no other would ever assist him but on such terms as would ruine the Monarchy so that from abroad or at home he would be destroy'd if the Parliament were broken and any accident should happen of which there were many to make the aid of his People necessary to him This and much more I said to him several times privately and in the hearing of others But being over-power'd
they have not consulted him they ought to satisfie the King how they can warrant a Cessation of Arms on the Prince's side or how they can hinder him from advancing further to awe Debates in the Houses or what assurance they can give that he will acquiesce in the free Decision of the matters proposed or that he will peaceably depart out of the Land when things are setled and will not pretend a stay here till the vast Sums be paid him that he hath expended on this occasion or lastly will not find new occasions of questioning the security of Performance of any Agreement to be made If they have consulted the Prince they ought to shew his Commission authorizing them to make Proposal or shew the Heads of those Grievances he demands to be redressed for some they urge in their Petition there are which distract the People but I suppose they are more careful of their Heads than to own any such correspondence If these Noble Persons would have effectually saved Effusion of Blood they would rather have used all their Interest to have kept the Prince of Orange in his Country tho' with his Army and Fleet in readiness and have obtained his sending his demands and have waited like dutiful Subjects till the King had convened his Parliament and have tried how Gracious the King would have been in redressing Grievances and securing Religion and Property and after the King's refusal there might have been some colour for his Invasion but none upon any pretence whatsoever to have invited him to it Fifthly Those who will not openly and with a bare face justifie the Prince of Orange's Pretensions cannot think it consistent with the Honour of the King to stoop so low as to summon a Parliament at the direction of an Invader who can never be conceived to desire it with that eagerness if he did not judge it very much conduceable to his Interest for which very reason the King ought to be jealous of such Councils And I humbly conceive those Peers have not sufficiently considered how prejudicial this sort of Address may be to the King's Affairs and how much it will conduce to the further alienating of the Affections of the Subjects from the King when they shall hear of his denial to comply at present with this Expedient and never hear the reasons thereof since they have not divulged his Majesties Gracious Answer together with their Petition and I am sure at this time the putting the King upon such a Dilemma is the greatest dis-service can be done him and very little inferior to joining with his Enemies I might add many more Arguments to prove that the King cannot in Honour yield to this Advice without quitting that undeniable Prerogative the Laws give him of making War or concluding peace if those matters should be submitted to the Arbitriment of the two Houses or owning that the Allegiance of his Subjects did not bind them to assist him in the defence of his Crown and Dominions without the Votes of a Parliament But I shall conclude with some few Considerations I humbly offer to those Right Reverend and Noble Lords and all those who are of the same Judgment with them to reflect upon First then I desire them to consider whether it will not be more glorious and agreeable to the Principles of our Religion effectually to assist our undoubted lawful Soveraign than to suffer him to be dethroned solely because he is a Roman Catholick since the Papists themselves tho' they never take the Oath of Allegiance or Supremacy yet do and ever have declared that if any Roman Catholick Prince yea the Pope himself in person should invade any King of England tho' a Protestant yet that they are bound to defend such a King against them as much as if they were Turks Secondly Whether since the true and original Cause of this Invasion and consequently of all the Blood-shed these Lords so earnestly desire to prevent hath not been the denying to concur with the King in establishing of Liberty of Conscience even with such security to the Protestant Religion and Church of England as could be desired and whether in all human probability that would not be more conduceable to establish the publick Tranquility of the Kingdom and its increase in Wealth and People and consequently the most efficacious means to reduce the Dutch to be just and tractable Allies and Neighbours rather than any thing can be effected by this Invasion or the truckling to such avowed Enemies to our Country our Religion and our King. Thirdly Whether the King 's entire Trust in the Fidelity of his own Subjects for his defence and not admitting of foreign Aids that were unsought for proffered do not oblige all that have any sense of Gratitude or Duty to aid him to the very utmost against such Foreigners as so unnaturally and so unjustly invade him and when it hath pleased God to give success to the King 's just Arms we are not to doubt but the King according to his solemn promise in his late Royal Declaration will speedily call a Parliament and in it redress all such Grievances as his people can justly complain of with a full and ample security to the Church of England and all his Protestant Subjects which it will much more be our Interest to have in a truly harmonious and Free-parliamentary way at that time established than at this present in a tumultuary and precipitate haste so patched up as will not be durable and the more earnestly we desire to see this good work to be set upon the more haste the Nobility and Gentry should make to expel those who hindred the Convention of that Parliament which was much more likely to have setled matters to the content of the King and his People than this Invasion can ever hope to effect The Prince of Orange's Declaration could be no longer suppress'd and therefore it was suffered about this time to be printed with a short Preface and some modest Remarks as the Author pretends on it In 4to The Prince of Orange's Declaration shewing the Reasons why he invades England with a short Preface and some modest Remarks on it THERE having been various Discourses about the Reasonableness and Justice of the Dutch Invasion the Prince's great Love and special Care of the Protestant Religion and English Protestants set forth in the most charming manner and the Desperateness of the Protestant State and Condition painted in the blackest and most frightful Colours Our Natural Liege Lord notwithstanding his Unparallel'd Grace to all represented as designing the greatest Cruelty against his own Subjects strange Stories of ill things whispered and nothing less than a Secret League between His Majesty of Great Britain and the French King to extirpate all Protestants entred into These Reports are with so much Art and Cunning spread as to startle the most considering Protestants of all Perswasions whence nothing could be more eagerly desired than a sight of
Thing Now impartial Reason has always a regard to the Circumstances of Action and makes Allowances for Surprise for Straitness of Time for Resentment upon extraordinary provocation and never takes advantage of an Omission which may be fairly Interpreted from any or all of these Causes I mention this not that the present Case needs any such Allowance but to shew that the Law of Nature would admit it if Occasion required 'T is true written Laws either through the ambiguity of the Words or the defectiveness of the Sense are often abused by ill Men and wrested contrary to the Design of the Legislators But the Law of Nature is not tyed up to the Alphabet nor bound to determine by the Imperfections of former Ages Therefore this Principle will give the Enquirer no just Advantages against his Majesty for Equity has no Quirk in it nor ever lies at Catch Reason is always Just and Generous it never makes Misfortune an Accusation nor judges in favour of Violence Indeed what can be more Unrighteous though the Case was private and inferior than that any one should Suffer for being Injured and be barred his Right for the Faults of others If a Man should forfeit his House to those who set it on Fire only because he quitted it without giving some formal Directions to the Servants and be obliged to lose his Estate for endeavouring to preserve his Life I believe it would be thought an incomprehensible sort of Justice If to proceed in this manner be not to establish Wickedness by a Law I have done If Princes may be thus roughly treated their Birth is a Misfortune to them and we may say they are Crown'd rather for Sacrifice than Empire At this rate the People must e'en Govern themselves for the Throne will be a Place of too much Danger to sit on any longer We have an Excellent Church and we do well to take due Care to continue its Establishment but to dispossess our Prince upon this Score has as little Divinity as Law in it To endeavour to preserve our Religion by such Methods will make it more Fatal to us in the event than Atheism it self 'T is a mistake to think the World was made for none but Protestants and if Dominion was founded in Grace I am afraid our share would not be great in the Division § 31. If it is Objected That his Majesty 's not sending to his People upon his Removal is an Argument that he intended to govern them no longer To this I Answer 1. That I am pretty well assured That no Man who makes this Objection believes the truth of it and therefore I might safely leave it to his own Conscience to confute him Secondly His Majesty was scarcely Landed in France before the Administration was conferred upon the Prince of Orange which Action might very well discourage his Majesty from sending any Messages so soon as he intended But since it 's known his Majesty has sent Letters if not to the Privy Council as some affirm yet to the Convention § 33. Thirdly Those who were the Occasion of his Majesty's Departure should one would think have waited on him and invited him back For without Question the injuring Person ought to make the first step towards an Accommodation especially when Wrong is done to his own Prince Now whether his Majesty has been well used in this Revolution or not I leave the World to judge now but God will do it afterwards Thus SIR I have ventured to give you my Thoughts upon this Subject and am Affectionately Yours AN Answer to the Desertion Discuss'd HAving thus as truly and as shortly as I can from the Papers I have Collected stated the matter of Fact without which it is impossible to pass any judgment upon the merits of the case I come now in the next place to consider the small Piece which has necessitated me to take all this pains The Author of it is my acquaintance and a person for whom I have a great esteem both on the account of his Profession and of his personal worth learning and sobriety so that I cannot believe he had any ill design either in the writing or publishing of it his zeal for the Church of England's Loyalty and the difficulty and unusualness of the present case having been the occasions if not the causes of his mistake and therefore I will endeavour to shew him and the world his error with as much candor and sweetness as he himself can wish because I have the same design for the main that he had viz. the Honour of the Church of England and the safety of Government and especially our Monarchy It begins thus Sir I don't wonder to find a Person of your sense and integrity so much surprized at the report of the Thrones being declared vacant by the Lower House of the Convention for how say you can the Seat of the Government be empty whilest the King who all grant had an unquestionable Title is still living and his absence forced and involuntary I thought our Laws as well as our Religion had been against the Deposing Doctrine therefore I desire you would expound this State Riddle to me and give me the Grounds of this late extraordinary Revolution Sect. 1. In Answer to which he tells his Country Gentleman That the Gentlemen of the Lower House of Convention lay the main stress of their opinion upon his Majesties withdrawing himself c. Now that the King was de facto gone is not to be disputed but the Question is Whether his absence was truly forced and involuntary or no and by whom he was forced Our Author is for the affirmative and afterwards proposeth his Reasons which I shall examine And this Question being well stated the business of the Deposing Doctrine will appear nothing to the purpose Now before our Author could regularly enter upon this Question he ought first to have considered what the causes of this force was and what had been done by the King on his part and then have come to the other Whether the absenting himself was a fault or a misfortune So that to begin at the right end of the Question we must enquire what were the causes of this Revolution who were the Parties concern'd how things were managed on both sides and then come in the last place to the Question he begins with Now Sir are the Prince of Orange's Declaration and the Bishops Ten Proposals as to the things complained of true or false Are they justifiable or not by the Laws of England For if the King had done nothing which he could not fairly justifie his Title was unquestionable and therefore he ought not to have been disturbed either by his own Subjects or his Neighbours during his life But then Sir I think he had no right to govern us as he did and he had as little reason to expect whatever we did that his Neighbours would sit still and suffer him to do what he pleased to them and
us to the Ruin of Europe The King of England saith the Prince of Orange in his Declaration have given the greatest credit to those Counsellors who have overturned the Religion Laws and Liberties of his Realms And subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liherties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and indirect ways but in open and undisguised manner §. 2 Pag. 10. § 17. he informs us That both he and his dearest and most entirely beloved Consort the Princess have endeavoured to signifie in terms full of respect to the King the just and deep regret which all these proceedings have given us c. But those evil Counsellors have put such ill Constructions on these our good intentions that they have endeavoured to alienate the King more and more from us as if we had designed to disturb the peace and happiness of the Kingdom Sect. 19. To crown all there are great and violent presumptions inducing us to believe that these evil Counsellors in order to the carrying on their ill designs and to the gaining to themselves the more time for the effecting of them for the encouraging of their Complices and for the discouraging of all good Subjects they have published that the Queen have brought forth a Son tho there have appeared both during the Queens pretended bigness and in the manner in which the Birth was managed so many just and visible Grounds of suspicion that not only we our selves but all the good Subjects of those Kingdoms do vehemently suspect that the Pretended Prince of Wales was not born by the Queen And it is notoriously known to all the world that many both doubted of the Queens bigness and of the Birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfie them or to put an end to their Doubts Things being in this state He resolved to go over to England Sect. 21. and to carry with him sufficient force to defend him from the violence of those evil Counsellors and then he declares that this Expedition was intended for no other design but to have a free and lawful Parliament assembled as soon as is possible Sect. 25. To the end that all the violences and disorders which have overturned the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a Free and Legal Parliament to which he would also refer the Enquiry into the Birth of the Pretended Prince of Wales and all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession Now if all this is true which no English man can deny then had the Prince of Orange the justest cause that ever man had to do what he did and the King of England was bound in justice to have Summoned a Parliament and to have referr'd the things in question to them there being no other competent Judg on Earth of the things in dispute but if he would not suffer a Parliament to meet then the Sword must determine the Question between them for they were both Soveraign Princes and had no Superior over them to decide it The King accordingly referr'd it to the Sword for he refused to the last to suffer a Parliament to meet till the Invasion was over and the Prince had no reason to take his word for it The Protestants of England had no reason to fight against this Prince who came to right their Cause and offered to refer all to a Parliament of English Nobility and Gentry and the Papists alone were not able to resist the Prince's Army especially after many of the King's Army were gone over to the Prince so that the King was at last forced to call a Parliament in the manner I have set forth and he promised both the Nation and the Prince the Parliament should meet and act freely but before this was possible to be brought about without any cause given or alledged he disbanded his Army sent away the Queen the Child and the Seals and then followed them himself leaving the Nation in Anarchy and confusion Now I will refer this to the World whether this absence was not voluntary unforced and criminal after he had thus passed his word For supposing he had stayed on the Princes terms and the Parliament had met no Act could have passed without his own consent and if any thing had been required that had not been just and legal if then he had withdrawn his case would have been more justifiable and perhaps he should have found enough to have defended it and so needed not to have withdrawn The Story of the French League and the Prince of Wales are not passed so over tho they are postponed but we may hear more of them in due time tho when all is done there will be no reason to expect that all the Prate of this populous Town should be proved to be true it will be sufficient if his now Majesty justifie his own Publick Declarations which I believe no man doubts but he can and has done the Three Estates having in their Declaration subscribed to the truth of all the main parts of his The King being thus gone some way or other must be taken to bring us again to a settlement and that of a Convention of the Three Estates was taken as least liable to Exception and Mistake but then he tells us Sect. 2. That the Necessity alledged for their justification is either of their own making or of their own submitting to which is the same thing and therefore ought not to be pleaded in justification of their Proceedings Now this is not True The King would never have left his people if he had not first lost their hearts by the things charged upon his Counsellors nor then neither if he had not first resolved never to do them right against those Counsellors because he had reason to believe this would have satisfied them so that his late Majesty was not driven out of his Dominions by his Enemies as he stiled them but by his pretended Friends who put him upon doing ill things and then would not suffer him to Redress them Well but If he had been invited back upon Honourable Terms they needed not have had recourse to these singular Methods Why how does he know that The King had Honourable Terms offered him before he went and they would not stop him from going and if they had sent more Honourable Terms after him who can tell whether he would have accepted or have stood to them He had passed his Word before that a Parliament should meet yet he Burnt the Writs and withdrew Well but however our Author is resolved the late Kings withdrawing himself is no resigning of his Crown or discharging of his Subjects of their Allegiance In order to which he undertakes to shew that his late Majesty before his withdrawing had sufficient Grounds to make him apprehensive of danger and therefore it cannot be call'd an Abdication 2. That the leaving any representative behind him
no such Court as that Commission sets up may be erected for the future III. That your Majesty will graciously be pleased That no Dispensation may be granted or continued by Virtue whereof any person not duly qualified by Law hath been or may be put into any Place Office or Preferment in Church or State or in the Universities or continued in the same especially such as have Cure of Souls annexed to them and in particular that you will be graciously pleased to restore the President and Fellows of St. Mary Magdalen Colledge in Oxford IV. That your Majesty will graciously be pleased to set aside all Licenses or Faculties already granted by which any persons of the Romish Communion may pretend to be enabled to teach Publick Schools and that no such be granted for the future V. That your Majesty will be graciously pleased to desist from the Exercise of such a Dispensing Power as hath of late been used and to permit that Point to be freely and calmly debated and argued and finally setled in Parliament VI. That your Majesty will be graciously pleased to inhibit the four Foreign Bishops who stile themselves Vicars Apostolical from further invading the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which is by Law vested in the Bishops of this Church VII That your Majesty will be pleased graciously to fill the vacant Bishopricks and other Ecclesiastical Promotions within your Gift both in England and Ireland with men of Learning and Piety and in particular which I must own to be my peculiar boldness for 't is done without the privity of my Brethren That you will be graciously pleased forthwith to fill the Archiepiscopal Chair of York which hath so long stood empty and upon which a whole Province depends with some very worthy Person For which pardon me Sir if I am bold to say you have now here before you a very fair Choice VIII That your Majesty will be graciously pleased to supersede all further Prosecution of Quo Warranto's against Corporations and to restore to them their ancient Charters Priviledges and Franchises as we hear God hath put into your Majesties Heart to do for the City of London which we intended to have made otherwise one of our principal Requests IX That if it so please your Majesty Writs may be issued out with convenient speed for the calling of a free and regular Parliament in which the Church of England may be secured according to the Acts of Uniformity Provision may be made for a due Liberty of Conscience and for securing the Liberties and Properties of all your Subjects and a mutual Confidence and good Understanding may be established between your Majesty and all your People X. Above all That your Majesty will be graciously pleased to permit your Bishops to offer you such Motives and Arguments as we trust may by God's Grace be effectual to perswade your Majecty to return to the Communion of the Church of England into whose most holy Catholick Faith you were baptized and in which you were educated and to which it is our daily earnest Prayer to God that you may be re-united These Sir are the humble Advices which out of Conscience of the Duty we owe to God to your Majesty and to our Country we think fit at this time to offer to your Majesty as suitable to the present State of your Affairs and most conducing to your Service and so to leave them to your Princely Consideration And we heartily beseech Almighty God in whose hand the Hearts of all Kings are so to dispose and govern yours that in all your Thoughts Words and Works you may ever seek his Honour and Glory and study to preserve the People committed to your Charge in Wealth Peace and Godliness to your own both temporal and eternal Happiness Amen We do heartily concur H. London P. Winchester W. Asaph W. Cant. Fran. Ely. Jo. Cicestr Tho. Roffen Tho. Bath Wells Tho. Petriburg We may guess at the Rages the Priests were in at these Advices by the resentment they expressed afterwards against these innocent and good Proposals when their Affairs were in a much worse state than now they were The Bishop of Rochester observes that they were drawn at Lambeth on Mâ—nday the first of October and presented the third and the Prince of Orange's Declaration was signed in Holland the tenth New Stile which was the first of our Month and the matter of them is very near the same except one or two particulars too high for Subjects to meddle with and all this at a time when the King thought of nothing but Victory when in all probability he was the strongest both at Sea and Land when as yet there was no appearance of such a Prodigious alienation of his Subjects Affections when at least his Army was thought to be still firm to him and when the very Winds and Seas seemed hitherto as much on his side as they all afterwards turned against him October the 5th two days after the Bishops had made the Ten famous Proposals above-recited the King declared in Council That in pursuance of his Resolution and Intentions to protect the Church of England and that all Suspicions and Jealousies to the contrary may be removed he had thought fit to dissolve the Commission for Causes Ecclesiastical c. and accordingly did give Directions to the Lord Chancellor of England to cause the same to be forthwith done Now this was only half what was asked it not being declared illegal nor any Promise made so soon as ever the times would serve it should not be renewed And we shall see the Jesuits were champing on it bye and bye The 6th of October the King was also graciously pleased to restore to the City of London all their ancient Franchises and Privileges as fully as they enjoyed them before the late Judgment upon the Quo Warranto and the Lord Chancellor did them the honour to bring down the Instrument of Restitution and Confirmation under the Great Seal of England And Sir John Chapman was thereby constituted Lord Mayor till the time of Election and was accordingly sworn in the Guild-hall with the usual Solemnity The same day the Aldermen now in being that were at the time of the said Judgment took their former Places and the Vacancies were to be supplied by the Election of the Citizens according to the Ancient Custom of the City And an Address of Thanks was forthwith voted and signed for the Favour granted to them October the 10th his Majesty having received several Complaints of great Abuses committed in the late Regulations of the Corporations he thereupon in Council thought fit to authorize and require the Lords Lieutenants of the several Counties to inform themselves of all such Abuses and Irregularities within their Lieutenancies and to make forthwith Report thereof to his Majesty together with what they conceive fit to be done for the redressing of the same Whereupon he would give such further Orders as should be requisite But pressing News
they receive this Report against the Right Reverend Bishops the Design in which they are said to Embarque being founded on that very Principle in pursuance of which the Head of Charles the Blessed Martyr was brought to the Block and Embarque they cannot but by joyning with a Foreign Army the chief part of which is made up of those who though they would willingly enough ensnare our Bishops cannot be reasonably supposed to be true in the Promises they make about supporting their Hierarchical Grandeur the utmost they must expect in the long-run can be no more than a turning their Lands into Money that to the end their dependance on the Government may be the more effectually secured instead of their present Lands Leases c. they may have an Yearly Salary answerable to their worth and desert which as 't will be uncertain so it cannot be hopâ—d that its utmost height shall arise to the State and Degree of a Baron for Baronies go with their Lands By this you may see how unlikely any sort of English-men should by this Invasion gain any thing but Misery TO this was subjoyned a short Discourse stiled Animad-versions upon the Declaration of his Highness the Prince of Orange Which is about twelve Pages in Quarto supposed to be written by Steward but then attributed to Castlemain but whoever was the Author of it it is a spruce piece of Sophistry and he was a Person who well knew what could be said for a bad Case and where it was not possible to make any defence and there would insensibly glide by as if he had not minded the difficulty Page 21 he has this Expression Put it to the Nation and all the Nation must declare that every Man enjoys his Conscience his Liberty and his Property even to the envy of their less happy Neighbors and that there has been no proceeding against a single Man but for his single misdemeanor and this is not Arbitrary but Legal Power And then to asperse his Majesty with overturning all Laws under the Name of Evil Counsellors Why Sir let his Counsellors be never so bad they are worse whose Service his Highness has used in Pâ—uning his Declaration By this Sample the Reader may judge of that whole Paper First He useth the utmost assurance to out-face the World as to the Matter of Fact. Secondly Pretends Redress Thirdly Promiseth a Parliament when it may be denied or over-awed Fourthly Makes all the Prince's Assisters Traytors and Perjur'd And Lastly Because the King was not accountable to his own Subjects concludes that neither was he so to the Prince though a Sovereign Prince So he was to be revered like a God and No-body not a Neighbour-interested Prince was to presume to say to him What doest thou To that height of stupidity was their Flattery then arrived but soon after it expired This is the best Abstract I can give of that Defence which is too long to be intirely inserted in this Work though it were to be wished a larger might in due time be published with all the material Papers at large This Paper was afterwards Answered but things then had so rapid a motion that the Reply coming too late was scarce read or regarded The Prince being then invited to London by the Peers by the Guild-Hall Declaration Though there was not all that Men had fondly expected in this Declaration yet here was enough to satisfie any rational Man that the Expelling this Prince and his Army before our Religion Liberties Properties and Government were effectually setled in Parliament and those who had so outragiously attempted the ruine of them were call'd to an Account would certainly end in the ruine of them and was a kind of cutting up our Laws and Religion with our Swords This and nothing else was the cause that where-ever the Prince's Declaration was read it conquered all that saw or heard it and it was to no purpose to excite Men to fight against their own Interest and to destroy what was more dear to them than their Lives At the same time an Extract of the States General their Resolution Thursday the Twenty eighth of October 1688. was also Printed privately in London wherein among other Reasons why they had intrusted the Prince of Orange with this Fleet and Army is this which follows THE King of France hath upon several occasions shewed himself dissatisfied with this State which gave cause to sear and apprehend that in case the King of Great Britain should happen to compass within his Kingdom and obtain an Absolute Power over his People that then both Kings out of Interest of State and Hatred and Zeal against the Protestant Religion would endeavour to bring this State to Confusion and if possible quite to subject it At the same time was Printed also this Letter of the Prince of Orange to the Officers of the Army Gentlemen and Friends WE have given you so full and so true an Account of our Intentions in this Expedition in our Declaration that as we can add nothing to it so we are sure you can desire nothing more of us We are come to preserve your Religion and to restore and establish your Liberties and Properties and therefore we cannot suffer our selves to doubt but that all true Englishmen will come and concur with us in our desire to secure these Nations from POPERY and SLAVERY You must all plainly see that you are only made use of as Instruments to enslave the Nation and ruine the Protestant Religion and when that is done you may judge what ye your selves ought to expect both from the Cashiering all the Protestant and English Officers and Soldiers in Ireland and by the Irish Soldiers being brought over to be put in your Places and of which you have seen so fresh an Instance that we need not put you in mind of it You know how many of your Fellow-Officers have been used for their standing firm to the Protestant Religion and to the Laws of England and you cannot slatter your selves so far as to expect to be better used if those who have broke their Word so often should by your means be brought out of those streights to which they are at present reduced We hope likewise that ye will not suffer your selves to be abused by a false Notion of Honour but that you will in the first place consider what you owe to Almighty God and your Religion to your Country to your Selves and to your Posterity which you as Men of Honour ought to prefer to all private Considerations and Ingagements whatsoever We do therefore expect that you will consider the Honour that is now set before you of being the Instruments of serving your Country and securing your Religion and we shall ever remember the Service you shall do us upon this occasion and will promise you That we shall place such particular Marks of our Favour on every one of you as your Behaviour at this time shall deserve of us and the
Nation in which we shall make a great distinction of those that shall come seasonably to joyn their Arms with ours and you shall find us to be your well wishing and assured Friend W. H. P. O. This Letter was spread under-hand over the whole Kingdom and read by all sorts of Men and the reason of it being undeniable it had a great force on the Spirits of the Soldiery so that those who did not presently comply with it yet resolved they would never strike one stroke in this Quarrel till they had a Parliament to secure the Religion Laws and Liberties of England which the Court on the other side had resolved should not be granted till the Prince of Orange with his Army was expelled out of the Nation and all those that had submitted to him which were not many then were reduced into their Power to be treated as they thought fit In the mean time the Fleet came about from the Buoy and Ore to Portsmouth under the Command of the Lord Dartmouth where it arrived the Seventeenth of November and on Monday the Ninteenth day of November the King entred Salisbury which was then the Head Quarters of the Army The Sixteenth of November the Lord Delamere having received certain Intelligence of the landing of the Prince of Orange in the West and seeing the Irish throng over in Arms under pretence of Assisting the King but in reality to Enslave us at home as they had already reduced our Country men in Ireland to the lowest degree of Danger and Impusance that they have at any time been in since the Conquest of Ireland in the Reign of Henry Il. he thereupon assembled fifty Horsemen and at the Head of them marched to Manchester and the next day he went to Bodon Downs his Forces being then an hundred and fifty strong declaring his design was to joyn with the Prince of Orange This small Party of Men by degrees drew in all the North and could never be suppress'd Before his Royal Highness the Prince of Orange left Exeter there was an Association drawn up and Signed by all the Lords and Gentlemen that were with him the Date of which I cannot assign WE whose Names are hereunto subscribed who have now joyned with the Prince of Orange for the defence of the Protestant Religion and for the maintaining the Ancient Government and the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland do engage to Almighty God to his Highness the Prince of Orange and to one another to stick firm to this Cause and to one another in the defence of it and never to depart from it until our Religion Laws and Liberties are so far secured to us in a Free Parliament that we shall be no more in danger of falling under Popery and Slavery And whereas we are engaged in this common Cause under the Protection of the Prince of Orange by which in case his Person may be exposed to danger and to the cursed attempts of Papists and other bloody Men we do therefore solemnly engage to God and one another That if any such attempt be made upon him we will pursue not only those who make it but all their Adherents and all that we find in Arms against us with the utmost severity of a just Revenge to their Ruine and Destruction And that the execution of any such Attempt which God of his infinite Mercy forbid shall not divert us from prosecuting this Cause which we do now undertake but that it shall engage us to carry it on with all the rigour that so barbarous a Practice shall deserve November the Twentieth there happened a Skirmish at Wincanton between a Detachment of seventy Horse and fifty Dragoons and Grenadiers commanded by one Colonel Sarsfeild and about thirty of the Prince of Orange's Men commanded by one Cambel where notwithstanding the great inequality of the Numbers yet the latter fought with that desperate bravery that it struck a terror into the Minds of the Army who were otherwise sufficiently averse from fighting and besides the Action was every where magnified so much above the real truth that it shew'd clearly how much Men wished the Prosperity of that Prince's Arms. The Twenty second of November the King at Salisbury put out a Proclamation of Pardon which was regarded by no body FOrasmuch as several of our Subjects have been seduced to take up Arms and contrary to the Laws of God and Man to joyn themselves with Foreigners and Strangers in a most unnatural Invasion upon us and this their Native Country many of whom we are persuaded have been wrought upon by false Suggestions and misrepresentations made by our Enemies And we desiring as far as is possible to reduce our said Subjects to Duty and Obedience by Acts of Clemency at least resolving to leave all such as shall persist in so wicked an Enterprize without Excuse do therefore promise grant and declare and by this our Royal Proclamation publish our Free and Absolute Pardon to all our Subjects who have taken up Arms and joyn'd with the Prince of Orange and his Adherents in the present Invasion of this our Kingdom provided they quit and desert our said Enemies and within the space of twenty days from the Date of this our Royal Proclamation render themselves to some one of our Officers Civil or Military and do not again after they have rendred themselves as aforesaid return to our Enemies or be any way aiding or assisting to them And they who refuse or neglect to lay hold of this our Free and Gracious Offer must never expect our Pardon hereafter but will be wholly and justly excluded of and from all hopes thereof And lastly We do also promise and grant our Pardon and Protection to all such Foreigners as do or shall come over to us whom we will either entertain in our Service or otherwise grant them if they shall desire it freedom of passage and liberty to return to the respective Countries from whence they came The same day the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty then assembled at Nottingham made this Declaration WEE the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of these Northern Counties assembled at Nottingham for the Desence of the Laws Religion and Properties according to the free born Liberties and Priviledges descended to Us from our Ancestors as the undoubted Birth-right of the Subjects of this Kingdom of England not doubting but the Infringers and Invaders of our Rights will represent us to the rest of the Nation in the most malicious Dress they can put upon us do here unanimously think it our Duty to declare to the rest of our Protestant fellow-Subjects the grounds of our present Undertaking We are by innumerable Grievances made sensible that the very Fundamentals of our Religion Liberties and Properties are about to be rooted out by our late Jesuitical Privy Council as has been of late too apparent First by the King 's dispensing with all the Establish'd Laws at his pleasure 2. By displacing all Officers out of
all Offices of Trust and Advantage and placing others in their room that are known Papists deservedly made incapable by the Establish'd Laws of this Land. 3. By destroying the Charters of most Corporations in the Land. 4. By discouraging all Persons that are not Papists and preferring such as turn to Popery 5. By displacing all honest and consciencious Judges unless they would contrary to their Consciences declare that to be Law which was meerly Arbitrary 6. By branding all Men with the name of Rebels that but offered to justifie the Laws in a legal course against the Arbitrary Proceedings of the King or any of his corrupt Ministers 7. By burthening the Nation with an Army to maintain the Violation of the Rights of the Subjects and by discountenancing the Established Religion 9. By forbidding the Subjects the benefit of Petitioning and construing them Libellers so rendering the Laws a Nose of Wax to serve their Arbitrary ends And many more such-like too long here to enumerate We being thus made sadly sensible of the Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government that is by the influence of Jesuitical Councils coming upon us do unanimously declare That not being willing to deliver our Posterity over to such a condition of Popery and Slavery as the aforesaid oppressions do inevitably threaten we will to the utmost of our power oppose the same by joining with the Prince of Orange whom we hope God Almighty hath sent to rescue us from the Oppressions aforesaid will use our utmost endeavours for the recovery of our almost-ruin'd Laws Liberties and Religion and herein we hope all good Protestant Subjects will with their Lives and Fortunes be assistant to us and not be bug bear'd with the opprobrious Terms of Rebels by which they would fright us to become perfect Slaves to their Tyrannical Insolencies and Usurpations For we assure our selves that no rational and unbyass'd Person will judge it Rebellion to defend our Laws and Religion which all our Princes have Sworn at their Coronation which Oath how well it hath been observed of late we desire a Free Parliament may have the consideration of We own it Rebellion to resist a King that governs by Law but he was alwaies accounted a Tyrant that made his Will the Law and to resist such a one we justly esteem no Rebellion but a necessary Defence And in this Consideration we doubt not of all honest mens assistance and humbly hope for and implore the Great God's protection that turneth the Hearts of His People as pleaseth Him best it having been observed that People can never be of one mind without His Inspiration which hath in all Ages confirmed that Observation Vox Populi est vox Dei. The present Restoring the Charters and reversing the oppressing and unjust Judgment given on Magdalen-College Fellows is plain are but to still the People like Plumbs to Children by deceiving them for a while But if they shall by this Stratagem be fooled till this present Storm that threatens the Papists be past as soon as they shall be re-settled the former Oppression will be put on with greater vigour but we hope In vain is the Net spread in the sight of the Birds for First The Papists old Rule is that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks as they term Protestants tho the Popish Religion is the greatest Heresie And 2ly Queen Mary's so ill observing her Promises to the Suffolk men that help'd her to her Throne And above all 3ly the Pope's dispensing with the Breach of Oaths Treaties or Promises at his pleasure when it makes for the Service of Holy Church as they term it These we say are such convincing Reasons to hinder us from giving credit to the aforesaid Mock shews of Redress that we think our selves bound in Conscience to rest on no Security that shall not be approved by a freely-elected Parliament To whom under GOD we referr our Cause In the mean time the Nobility about the King having used all the Arguments they could invent to perswade him to call a Free Parliament and finding him unmoveably fixed in a contrary resolution and the Army in great discontent disorder and fear and the whole Nation just ready to take fire Prince George of Denmark the Duke of Grasion the Lord Churchil and many others of the Protestant Nobility left him and went over to the Prince of Orange who was then at Sherborn the Prince left this Letter for the King. SIR WIth an Heart full of Grief am I forced to write what Prudence will not permit me to say to your Face And may I e'er find Credit with Your Majesty and Protection from Heaven as what I now do is free from Passion Vanity or Design with which Actions of this Nature are too often accompanied I am not ignorant of the frequent Mischiefs wrought in the World by factious pretences of Religion but were not Religion the most justifiable Cause it would not be made the most specious pretence And your Majesty has alwaies shewn too uninterested a Sense of Religion to doubt the just effects of it in one whose practices have I hope never given the World cause to censure his real Conviction of it or his backwardness to perform what his Honour and Conscience prompt him to How then can I longer disguise my just Concern for that Religion in which I have been so happily educated which my Judgment throughly convinceth me to be the Best and for the Support of which I am so highly interested in my native Country and Is not England now by the most endearing Tye become so Whilst the restless Spirits of the Enemies of the REFORMED RELIGION back'd by the cruel Zeal and prevailing Power of France justly alarm and unite all the Protestant Princes of Christendom and engage them in so vast an Expence for the support of it Can I act so degenerous and mean a part as to deny my concurrence to such worthy Endeavours for the disabusing of your Majesty by the re-inforcement of those Laws and re-establishment of that Government on which alone depends the well being of your Majesty and of the Protestant Religion in Europe This Sir is that irresistable and only Cause that could come in competition with my Duty and Obligations to your Majesty and be able to tear me from you whilst the same affectionate desire of serving you continues in me Could I secure your person by the hazard of my Life I should think it could not be better imployed And wou'd to God these your distracted Kingdoms might yet receive that satisfactory compliance from your Majesty in all their justifiable pretensions as might upon the only sure Foundation that of the Love and Interest of your Subjects establish your Government and as strongly unite the Hearts of all your Subjects to you as is that of SIR Your Majesty's most humble and most obedient Son and Servant The Lord Churchil left a Letter to the same purpose which runs thus SIR SInce Men are seldom
of November That there should be a Free Parliament and to the Prince of Orange in his Message by the three Lords That he would consent to every thing that could reasonably be required for the Security of those that come to it and yet without any Provocation would burn the Writs and resolve to withdraw his Person before these Lords could possibly return him any Answer for he promised the Queen to follow her who went away the day before him I say this breach of his Word so solemnly made and given both to the Nation and the Prince shew that he was not Master of himself but turned about by others whither they pleased Now suppose the Prince had suffered him to continue at Whitehall and to call a Third Parliament what assurance could he have given that in the end of another forty days we should not have the same trick play'd us and then in March or April have been left in the same state of Confusion we were in in December to the certain ruine of these three Kingdoms and Holland into the bargain And when all had been done the Scruples would have been the same they are now the Obligations of the Oath of Allegiance the same and the sin of Deposing a Lawful Prince who resolved to do the Nation no Right would have been much greater and more scandalous than barely to take him at his Word and since he had left the Throne empty when he needed not to resolve he should ascend it no more Lastly Suppose the Prince had been Expelled by the King Would the King have then granted us what he would not grant us now Would he not have Disbanded his Protestant Army and have kept the Irish Forces in Pay and have every day encreased them What Respect would he ever after this have shewn to the English Laws Religion or Liberties when he had had no longer any thing to fear The memory of what happened after the Monmouth defeat though effected only by Church of England Men will certainly never be forgotten by others whatever these Bigots of Loyalty may pretend or say That Expression of the Lord Churchill's in his Letter That he could no longer joyn with Self-interested Men who had framed Designs against His Majesty's true Interest and the Protestant Religion to give a pretence by Conquest to bring them to effect ought to be seriously considered by all the Protestants of the Nation This one Argument prevailed upon him when he ran the hazard of his Life Reputation and Fortunes and now they are all on the other side I should consider very seriously if I were one of them what Answer I could make to this turned into a Question in the Day of Death and Judgment before ever I should act the direct contrary to what he has done For my part I am amazed to see Men scruple the submitting to the present King for if ever Man had a just cause of War he had and that creates a Right to the thing gained by it the King by withdrawing and disbanding his-Army yielded him the Throne and if he had without any more Ceremony ascended it he had done no more than all other Princes do on the like occasions and when the King after this was taken and brought back by force he was no longer then bound to consider him as one that was but as one that had been King of England and in that capacity he treated him with great Respect and Civility how much soever the King complained of it who did not enough consider what he had done to draw upon himself that usage But when all is said that can be said there may possibly be some Men to whom may be applied the Saying of Job Thou lovest thine enemies and hatest thy friends for thou hast declared this day that thou regardest neither princes nor servants for this day I perceive that if Absolons had lived and all we had died this day then it had pleased thee well Had the Protestant Religion the English Liberties the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation been all made an Holocaust to their Reputations and Humours their Scruples and School-niceties and the Prince of Orange perished or returned Ruin'd or Inglorious into Holland we should then have had the Honour of cutting up our Religion our Laws and our Civil Rights with our own Swords and we should have been the only Church under Heaven that had refused a Deliverance and Religiously and Loyally had Destroyed it self In truth the Men that would have purchased Popery and Slavery so dear ought to have enjoyed both to the End of the World. PART the SECOND A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE METHODS Used for the RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF OUR GOVERNMENT WITH REFLECTIONS ON A Pamphlet stiled The Dissertion Discussed In a Letter to a Country Gentleman THE Prince of Orange being thus received in London the 18th of December The Common Council of that City the same day assembled and passed an Order that all the Aldermen and their several Deputies and two Common Council men for each Ward should wait upon and congratulate his Highness the Prince of Orange upon his Happy Arrival to the City at such time and place as His Highness should appoint and that the two Sheriffs and Mr. Common Serjeant should wait upon the Prnice to know his Pleasure when they should attend him which was done the day after his Entry at St. James's who appointed them the next day The Committee of the Common Council came accordingly the 20th of December and Sir George Treby their Recorder made him this Speech in their Names May it please your Highness THe Lord Mayor being disabled by Sickness your Highness is attended by the Aldermen and Commons of the Capital City of this Kingdom Deputed to Congratulate Your Highness upon this Great and Glorious Occasion In which Labouring for Words we cannot but come short in Expression Reviewing our late Danger we remember our Church and State overrun by Popery and Arbitrary Power and brought to the point of Destruction by the Conduct of Men that were our true Invaders that brake the Sacred Fences of our Laws and which was worst the very Constitution of our Legislature So that there was no Remedy left but the Last The only Person under Heaven that could apply this Remedy was Your Highness You are of a Nation whose Alliance in all times has been agreeable and prosperous to us You are of a Family most Illustrious Benefactors to Mankind to have the Title of a Soveraign Prince Stadt-holder and to have worn the Imperial Crown are amongst their lesser Dignities They have long enjoyed a Dignity singular and transcendent viz. To be the Champions of Almighty God sent forth in several Ages to vindicate his Cause against the greatest Oppressions To this Divine Commission our Nobles our Gentry and among them our brave English Soldiers rendred themselves and their Arms upon Your Appearing GREAT SIR WHen we look back to the last Month and contemplate the Swiftness and
Transubstantiation Had not some Men believed this true in a great Measure they would never have disputed against matter of Fact which was done almost in the Face of the whole Kingdom To speak to the present Case Had not his Majesty great Reason to retire to secure his Person and his Honour at his first withdrawing from Whitehal which is the time from which our Author dates his pretended Desertion for he will not allow him to be King at his return I say had not his Majesty great Reason to retire when he had met with so many unfortunate Disappointments with so many surprizings and unparallel'd Accidents When part of the Army was revolted and the Remainder too apparently unserviceable When the People had such fatal and unremovable prejudices against his Majesty's Service When there were such terrible Disorders in the Kingdom and all Places were either Flaming or ready to take Fire What should a Prince do when he had scarce any thing left him to lose but himself but consult his Safety and give way to the irresistible Evil But our Author pretends the King's Affairs had a much better Aspect Let us observe how he proves it Why he tells us That when the Prince of Orange 's Proposals came to his Majesty the Army and the Fleet were left in his Hands They were so that he might pay them for the Prince's Service for they owned his Majesty's Authority scarce any other way than by receiving his Money and eating up his Meat It 's to be hoped they have since repented of their Actions But the Enquirer goes on with his Inventory of Forts and Revenues which the King was to have still He may know if he pleases that we have but Four considerable Forts in the Kingdom Now Hull and Plimouth had already disposed of themselves and the Tower of London was demanded for the City so that there was none but Portsmouth remaining And as for the Revenues it 's to be feared the Northern Collections would have been almost as Slender as those in the West And now one would think our Father began to relent For he owns That some Things which the Prince of Orange proposed may be called hard viz. his demanding that the Laws against Papists which were in Imployment might be executed But the Enquirer is much mistaken if he thinks the Prince of Orange insisted upon no more than the bare Execution of the Law in this point For the Disbanding of all Papists which was part of his Proposals is much more than what the Law requires by which the Papists are only excluded from Offices of Command and Trust. But neither the Test-Acts nor any others bar the King from Listing them as common Souldiers And lastly to deliver up his best Magazine and the Strength of his Capital City To be obliged to pay a Foreign Army which came over to enable his Subjects to drive him out of his Dominions were very extraordinary demands and looked as if there was a Design to reduce him as low in his Honour as in his Fortune To forgive a Man who endeavoured to Ruin me is great Christian Charity but to Article away my Estate to him because he has Injured me is such a Mortification as no Religion obliges us to This is in effect to Betray our Innocence and Sign away the Justice of our Cause and own that we have deserved all that hard Usage which has been put upon us so that it 's easie to imagine what an unconquerable Aversion the Spirit of Princes must needs have to such an Unnatural Penance In short when the Forts and Revenue were thus disposed of when the Papists were to be Disbanded and the Protestants could not be trusted when the Nation was under such general and violent Dissatisfactions when the King in case of a Rupture which was not unlikely had nothing upon the Matter but his single Person to oppose against the Prince's Arms and those of his own Subjects when his Mortal Enemies and those were under the highest Forfeitures to his Majesty were to sit Judges of his Crown and Dignity if no farther when Affairs were in this Tempestuous Condition To say that a Free and Indifferent Parliament might be Chosen with relation to the King 's Right as well as the Peoples and that His Majesty had no just visible Cause to apprehend himself in Danger is to out face the Sun and to trample upon the Understandings and almost upon the Senses of the whole Nation § 6. 2. It 's not improper to examine what doubty Reasons the Enquirer advances to prove the Kings coming from Feversham to Whitehal to be no return to his People The reason of his affirming this is apparent He is sensible what singular usage his Majesty met with and therefore he would fain unking Him that it might the better suit with his Character But pray what had the King done to incur a Forfeiture by his First Retirement Had he quitted the Realm If that was material it cannot be alledged for his Majesty was no farther off than the Coast of Kent Did he refuse to take Care of his people any longer when the Lords went down to Visit him to Whitehal No If he had he would not have come back when he was at his Liberty His return after some Assurances of fair Treatment is a plain discovery of the Motives of his withdrawing and that be came up with an intention to Govern. For I believe few People imagine that his Majesty would take such a Journy only to have Dutch Guards clap'd upon him to be hurried out of his Palace and carried Prisoner down the Thames at Noon-day But the Seals never appeared What time was there for them in 24 Hours Besides there was an Order of Council with his Majesty at the Head of it for suppressing the Mobile Dated Decemb. 18. which was the next Day after his Majesty's return And when he was sent back to Rochester he might plainly perceive his Government was at an End for the present For the Tower was Garrison'd by Foreign Forces The Lords published an Order by their own Authority to oblige the Papists to depart the Town The City made an Address to the Prince of Orange which was a Virtual acknowledgment of his Power and Associations came up to to that purpose out of the Country Cambridgeshire Address not to admit that his Majesty was denied a small Sum of his own Gold to Heal with As if they had rather poor People should perish with Boyles and Ulcers than shew common Justice and Humanity to their King. From all these remarkable Circumstances his Majesty might easily guess how they intended to dispose of him For no Man in his Senfes who has treated a Prince so Contemptuously in his own Kingdom will ever permit him either Power or Liberty for fear he should remember his former Usage From what has been said it 's most evident that his Majesty had all imaginable reason to provide for his own Security in
After this Edward the Fourth returned into England and pretending to lay aside all Claim to the Crown and only to seek the recovery of his Lands which belonged to him as Duke of York which he confirmed to the men of York by his Oath being thus received in the North he won over his Brother Clarence and hasted to London and there he took poor King Henry his Prisoner again and in a Battel slew the Earl of Warwick who came to rescue King Henry and in another Battel defeated Margaret the Wife of Henry the Sixth took and in cold blood murdered Prince Edward the Eldest Son of Henry the Sixth and not long after Henry the Sixth himself Now what saith our Letter-man to all this If it had been a known Law of England that a Prince had Ipso facto forfeited his Crown by going beyond Sea without leaving a Deputation tho his departure should happen to be involuntary it would have been a great Advantage to Henry the Sixth Yes doubtless his departure did facilitate the Recrowning of Henry the Sixth for he was not so well beloved as Edward the Fourth was and it is apparent the Nation swore Allegiance to Henry the Sixth de novo for that very cause for no body then questioned but that Edward's was the better Title and the Crown was Entailed to Henry and his Heirs Male and for want of such Issue to George Duke of Clarence and his Heirs and when Edward the Fourth after this came up to London every body forsook Henry the Sixth and he was retaken and imprisoned without any resistance Now after two Victories what wonder was it if Edward the Fourth exercised all Acts of Soveraignty and Tyranny too before the calling of a Parliament and in it restored all his own party and attainted King Henry's He might as well have proved it lawful to stab and murder Kings and Princes and to swear and forswear from the same story His next Instance is the flight of Charles the second from Worcester fight which was nothing to the purpose neither for that Prince had done nothing to forfeit his right and was ready to have done any thing to assure his subjects of theirs But James the Second had as is confessed on all hands violated the rights of his Subjects above any Prince that ever swayed this Scepter and would rather throw up the Government than suffer a Parliament to meet to redress their Grievances and this was the only reason why he as our Author saith Had fewer friends to stand by him than his Brother had after the unfortunate Battel of Worcester in 1651. The true Fountain of the Law that is to Determin this difficult and rare Case is our Fundamental Constitution and the General Laws and Practise of other Nations in the like or simular Instances And as there is an Analogy of Faith in Theology so there is an Analogy here too for those who are sufficiently Qualified to judge by but then they must be no young smatterers in Law History or State Politicks Nor was this Question determin'd by such but by the whole three Estates upon Reasons altogether unknown perhaps to this Gentleman but which may be sufficient to satisfie all the Princes in Christendom when they shall be laid before them In the mean time the Judgment of the States is conclusive to us and tho' we know not all the Reasons they might have yet we now know enough to acquiess and be satisfied But then this has been so very well laid down and pursued by the Author of the Case of Allegiance in our present Circumstances considered in a Letter from a Minister in the City to a Minister in the Country that I will rather refer my Reader to that Book than transcribe it to no purpose In the 29. Sect. He tells us the last refuge of the Case of Dereliction are the Laws of Nature but a very little storming will serve to drive it from this last Retrenchment Bold and like an Hero considering whom he engageth with For saith he the Law of Nature is nothing but the reason of the thing very true Now Impartial reason has always a regard to the circumstances of Action and makes allowances for Surprize for streightness of time for resentment upon Extraordinary Provocation and never takes Advantage of an Omission which may be fairly Interpreted from any or all of these causes Now tho he saith the present case needs not any such allowances Yet I will be so fair as to give all these Advantages and put it upon this fair Issue 1. Was not the whole English constitution acknowledged by the Late King to be so much in his favour That he said in his First Speech to the Council I have been reported a Man for Arbitrary power but that is not the first Story that has been made of me And I shall make it my endevour to preserve this Government both in Church and State as it is now by Law Established I know the Principles of the Church of England are for Monarchy and the Members of it have shewed themselves good and Loyal Subjects Therefore I shall always take care to defend and Support it I know too that the Laws of England are Sufficient to make the King as Great a Monarch as I can wish and as I shall never Depart from the Just rights and prerogatives of the Crown So I shall never invade any Mans Property Yet after all this Look upon nine of the ten Proposals made by the the Bishops Look upon the Prince of Orange's Declaration Look upon the Declaration made by the Lords and Commons the 12th of February last past and you will soon be satisfied in how many instances he had violated the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom and Sought the Ruine and utter Subversion of this Loyal Monarchical Church of England This conduct Lasted to the very moment they knew the Dutch preparations were made against him After this what could be done or said that was omitted to obtain a Redress in Parliament Was there any other way to Secure us than that of a Parliament Was this granted before it became Impossible to hinder it And when all mens Eyes were upon this did he not then Deliberately resolve to defeat our Expectations and to withdraw and leave us in a State of Anarchy and Confusion Here was no Surprize streightness of time no just resentment except he were angry that we could not contribute to our own Ruin and enslaving that we would not cut up our Laws Liberties and Religion with our Swords and Sacrifice our Deliverers to our Oppressors Nor were these violations only personal Injuries but they extended to the whole Church and Kingdom and to the whole Constitution and every branch of it nor were they such as would have ended with his Late Majesties life but were to have been intailed upon us and our posterity for ever for the Queen might have brought forth every year at that rate the Pretended Prince of Wales