JUSTICE Perverted AND INNOCENCE LOYALTY Oppressed OR A DETECTION OF THE CORRUPTIONS OF SOME Persons in Places of Great Trust in the Government which would have been laid open the Last Session of Parliament according to the Intention of both Houses had it not been prevented London Printed in the Year MDCXCV To the LORDS Spiritual and Temporal and COMMONS in Parliament Assembled IF we look back and consider how often and to how high a degree His Majesty hath expos'd His Royal Person this War and what immense Sums of Money have been rais'd during the same upon the Success whereof not only the well-being of this Kingdom but the Happiness of Europe depends one would then conceive the very Apprehension of these things was sufficient to beget a generous Principle in all Persons in Places of Trust and an Emulation in every Man to outvy each other in Acts of Duty and Loyalty But they have had a quite different Effect for many Persons in whom the King hath repos'd great Trust forgetting their Duty have during the Course of this War misrepresented Persons and Things to His Majesty and made a Prey of the Publick and the better to cover and carry on their wicked Designs have dispensed with the Law perverted Judgment and Justice punished innocent Persons for doing their Duty and preferred Criminals to the great Hazard of the Common Safety and from whence it is the Nation is now become so much in Debt All these Evils would I have twice laid open the last Session of Parliament but was both times prevented by unjust and illegal Means which causes me now to address my self to this most August Assembly for Relief These Corruptions being I conceive of much more dangerous Consequence to the Government considering what a Faction there 's in the Bowels of the Nation than the War it self having taken such deep root and grown to that height and so strongly supported as not to be remedied but in Parliament I humbly conceive there 's no Age can produce greater Instances of Oppression and Injustice than what the Nation now labours under and which in part are here set forth But God hath not left us without Means Ability and Opportunity of removing these Evils for there are great and remarkable Instances of Persons who have been found corrupt and have made a Breach of their Trust that have been censur'd in Parliament and it 's they who are truly and properly the Great Council and Physician of the Nation and as the Effect of whose great Wisdom and Prudence we now enjoy our Religion and Laws and the Government hath been kept so long upon its Basis And when God is pleas'd to make publick Examples of some Men and to punish them for their Cruelty and Oppression in such Cases he often makes use of weak and mean Instruments for the bringing his Purposes to pass that so the World may as it were visibly see the hand of Providence But I am not unsensible of my own Inability to manage so great an Vndertaking as that is in which I have engag'd my self considering the great Interest and Power of my Adversaries So I have nothing to depend upon but the Justice of my Cause the Goodness and Stability of our Laws and the Honour of the Representatives of the Nation which I humbly conceive will not be wanting to protect me being able by Substantial Evidence to prove what I have set forth I am my Lords and Gentlemen Your Honours most obedient Servant Robert Crosfeild ALL Nations even the most barbarous have ever been jealous of their Liberty and have rather chose to die fighting in the Field than be in Bondage to their Adversaries And in the dark and elder Times of the World we have Instances of Persons that have sacrific'd their own Lives for the Liberty and Safety of their Native Country who are to be admir'd and pity'd but not imitated Yet Nature hath stamp'd upon the Minds of all Men an Affection to their Native Soil and those who have deviated from it have ever been look'd upon as Monsters and treated accordingly Now notwithstanding the manifest Danger the Government hath lain under during this War it will appear that many Persons in Places of the greatest Trust have fallen from their Duty and used sinister and indirect Means to inrich themselves to the great waste of the Publick Treasure and hazard of the Common Safety of the Nation And those whom I accuse to have so done are the Right Honourable the Lords of the Admiralty Commissioners of the Navy and the Commissioners for the Sick and Wounded and exchanging Prisoners at War But before I enter upon any Matter relating to any of these Commissions I shall insert a Copy of a Deposition of a certain Merchant which was laid before the Lords of the Admiralty and is as followeth H. B. of Gosport Merchant maketh Oath This Deposition with several others being before the Publick Staters of Accompts I did desire might be produced but it could not be obtained for which reason I print it That he hath been an Inhabitant in the Parish of Alverstoke about Twenty eight Years and his House lying about half a Mile from the Water-side and about a Mile and a half up the Harbour he did for some Years serve their Majesties Stores at Portsmouth with Rozin and Oil and several other things During which time he hath often observ'd the Stores of that Yard were embezzled in considerable quantities having met with several sorts in his walks And doth upon his Oath acknowledg that he hath dealt for some thousands of Pounds as his Neighbours have done in that Nature that the Custom of that Yard running on and rather improving for this three Years last past And this Deponent finding great quantities was daily carried up and down about Town and other places and several Lads bringing up the Mill-Lake some Pitch and Tar at a distance from this Deponent's House and offering him the same to sale after several times he question'd where they had it and one of them by name John How 's own'd to him they had it out of the King's Stores He gave them fair warning of such a dangerous Trade and forthwith went and inform'd the Commissioner And this Deponent farther saith That he received fourteen Barrels of Tar from Capt. Richard New Foreman of the Yard of which fourteen Barrels the Commissioner stop'd four which he this Deponent sent over to Portsmouth Upon which some Question arising before the Commissioner about 27 Barrels of Tar said to be lost out of the Yard and he taking the four Barrels to be part of them order'd them to be carried into Stores notwithstanding the said New own'd to have had the fourteen Barrels aforesaid and clear'd the same to him at the Custom-house in the name of one Thomas Grant And this Deponent farther saith That it was here observable that he the said New did very unwillingly own the Delivery of them to this Deponent
's not to be imagined any effectual Remedy can be applied I am now humbly to pray that your Lordships will please to make report * * To a Committee of Council of what I have laid before your Honourable Board upon which I depend your Lordships in Justice will take occasion to recommend me for my Services in being the Original and only Instrument in the way of my Duty hardy enough to break through and bring on these Discoveries and exposing my self and Family in the Execution of your Orders to the great Persecution and Pressure we have long lain under that so my Integrity may not effect the Ruin that has been industriously endeavour'd by the Trading Multitude Upon My Lords Your Lordships most faithful humble Servant John Trevor I shall now give farther Demonstration of evil Practices in relation to the Navy by referring to what was published by order of the Lords of the Admiralty as appears by the Gazette of the 7th of January 1694 which is as followeth WHereas in pursuant of an Advertisement in the Gazette of the 10th of December last a Paper sign'd R. W. has been sent to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty offering to discover several Frauds and illegal Proceedings relating to Seamens Pay in case His Majesty shall be graciously pleas'd to extend His Pardon to the said R. W. and others that come in with him to make out the said Discoveries for as much as they have been concerned in the said Offences His Majesty being mov'd thereupon is pleas'd to promise His gracious Pardon to the said R. W. and these concern'd with him in the said Offences Provided they make out the said Discoveries and that they have not been guilty of any thing of the like Nature before There are four or five of these Advertisements in the Gazette some of them by order of the Commissioners of the Navy but all of them to the same purpose And any Man that has but half an Eye may see a great deal of Fallacy in them and that they have only the face of Justice and were never intended to make Discoveries but prevent them as appears by the Clause at last and that they have not been guilty of any thing of the like Nature before Very pretty there 's no Man living but must conclude that those whose Conscience will permit them to act such things have long practised them and 't is not probable they will ever make Discoveries unless they can sit down secure and have an ample and full Pardon Therefore this does but encourage all those that are guilty of these Practices to proceed in the same none being secure that shall go about to detect them Two of these Advertisements I read at the Bar of the House of Commons the last Session of Parliament being order'd to appear there as you will see by what ensues and the whole House was pleas'd to acquiesce in what I said And there 's no Man so weak but knows it to be the Practice of all Governments fully to pardon Offenders that make Discoveries who have committed any Crime even to the highest nature and not only so but oftentimes reward them of which we have sufficient Witness by Persons now living And it matters not what end he has to himself that makes the Discovery whether it be thro' Good-will or Ill-will Love or Hatred so it conduce to the Publick Good it 's then the Interest of the Government to give him all due Encouragement And until we come to act so we can never think to prosper but be in danger of ruin Indeed as things are now managed they look with an ill face for notwithstanding all the great Pretensions to Loyalty and the boasted Skill of some Persons yet I say there have been great Discoveries laid before the Lords of the Admiralty long before these Advertisements in reference to the wronging His Majesty and the poor Sailors but no Prosecution of the Persons that committed the Facts Commissioners for Sick and Wounded But I fear I have dwelt too long upon these Matters so shall proceed to the Commissioners for the Sick and Wounded Against whom one Mr. Baston exhibited a Complaint and twice prov'd them guilty so far as was sufficient to have given some of them their Passport as they have done to many a poor Sailor into the other World When he first brought his Articles against them they were by His Majesty's Order referred to the Examination of the Lords of the Admiralty and by their Lordships they were found guilty of what they were charg'd with Upon which they petition'd His Majesty for a Rehearing at the Council-board which was granted and they were again prov'd guilty of Breach of Trust c. as appears by the Council's Report And besides these Reports there are other Matters * Whereby much innocent Blood has been spilt and his Majesty's Treasure wasted but they are too long here too insert of dangerous consequence sworn and prov'd against them which have long lain dormant in the hands of the Commissioners of Accompts yet notwithstanding all this these Men are still continued in Commission and Mr. Baston deem'd the Offender I could lay down more things of this nature but I am even a weary of raking in all this Filth which must needs stink in the Nostrils of all good Men. But I would not have any one now conclude that all the Lords of the Admiralty Commissioners of the Navy and the Commissioners for the Sick and Wounded are guilty of these things for I verily believe otherways Yet in the mean time I can do no less than charge the whole Board for in these Cases the Major includes the Minor and so there 's no honest Gentleman can be any ways uneasy for what I have done or use Endeavours to prevent the fair Examination thereof but promote it thereby to remove the Scandal he seems now to lie under for when there comes a Discrimination Truth will appear as we have an Instance in the late Commissioners for Licensing Hackney-Coaches And now from all that has been related it can no ways seem strange how some Men have arriv'd to such vast Estates And if any Man impartially weighs the whole Matter it must even astonish him to consider how it 's possible any Government should be able to support it self so long as we have under such Corruptions and at the same time have so great a War upon it Indeed we only owe the Preservation of His Majesty's Sacred Person and Government to the Providence of God However the Nation feels the miserable Effects of these Corruptions by the many great and publick Debts But I shall leave those Gentlemen who have been the cause thereof to the Justice of God and the Laws of the Nation not doubting but they will meet with their due Reward and be oblig'd to disgorge their ill-gotten Goods I think we may now fairly conclude without any breach of Charity that the Commissioners of the
Navy and their Accomplices plainly make a Prey of the Publick and withal not doubt but the Contracts made on behalf of the King are for the most part fraudulent which has prompted them all along to protect those Criminals that have embezled the Publick Stores nothing else could induce them to do it unless they really design'd to ruin the Government which then must be confessed to have been a most effectual way so that the Navy which has been heretofore our Security is now become a Gulf to swallow the Publick Treasure If any Man endeavours to lay these Evils open he must undergo infinite Difficulties and Hardships having a corrupt Party to contend withal who by Time and Interest have knit and link'd themselves so fast together that he 's certainly crush'd by the Navy-board or their Adherents or otherways exposed to the World as I have been as a Fool or Madman or both and render'd to His Majesty as a vain idle Person and look'd upon with as much Contempt and Scorn as if he were the worst of Criminals I must confess I do not look upon this ill Treatment to be an Act of the Government but that it arrives from the same Fountain all the rest of the Evils have done nevertheless such Proceedings are a Dishonour to the Nation and Government and may at last prove fatal to them Some have assum'd to themselves a Power of dispensing with the Law Tho we have good and wholesom Laws that are not put in execution as those against Embezlements c. yet those that endeavour to have them put in practice do even run themselves upon their own Destruction as is seen by experience he that discovers any Breach of those Laws being in far more danger than those that committed the Facts which is highly pernicious and strikes at the very foundation of the Government I shall now relate something I have cause to remember and which is not altogether foreign to the Matter in hand At the first opening of the Session of Parliament begun and held in the fourth and fifth Year of his Majesty's Reign I published a Book entituled England's Glory Reviv'd wherein I propos'd an Act of Tunnage for laying six Pence per Tun upon all Coasters c. and likewise laid open the great Evil that attended the laying Embargo's upon Shipping which had been done every Year during the War until that time giving full Demonstration there was no cause for it and so there has been none laid since tho far greater occasion than at any time before All these Matters here related with some others I would have laid open the last Session of Parliament and in order to it declar'd in Print I could discover 2 or 300 thousand Pounds of the Publick Money that had been embezled Whereupon I was order'd to appear at the Bar of the House of Commons which I did and there declar'd the same so I had the Assistance of that Honourable House Upon which I was ordered to withdraw and in a quarter of an hour's time one of the Commissioners for Taking and Stating the Publick Accompts came to me in the Lobby and told me I had given great Satisfaction to the House and that I was referr'd to their Board where I should be heard with all imaginable Fairness But several Gentlemen told me that let my Cause be never so just I must expect to be trick'd by that Board none being more corrupt than they Which seem'd strange considering the care taken in Parliament in the Choice of those Persons and withal it being well known they had good Fortunes I thought it morally impossible they should ever be so corrupted as to act any thing against the Publick Good yet to my great Surprize I found my self mistaken But to proceed in obedience to the Order of the House I waited on the Commissioners for Stating the Publick Accompts and laid before them the great Injury done to the Souldiery by Agents and others in the Clothing of the Army to the Discouragement of the Souldiery and Hindrance of His Majesty's Service and then would have laid before them the Corruptions of the Navy afore-recited but they would not receive it all the Arguments I could use being to no purpose All the Answer I could obtain was that it did not lie before that Board and by way of Derision they said they might as well examine a Justice of Peace why he did not do Justice as to enquire into those Matters But with Submission they should have pursued the Order of the House of Commons which was to receive what I should lay before them and make report thereof with all convenient speed and not made themselves Judges what was sit for them to receive for as His Majesty and the Nation was injur'd and the Publick Money and Stores embezled it was their Duty to have heard me and left the House of Commons to be Judg. But they refusing to hear me put me to such a Nonplus that for sometime I knew not what to do and fearing I should do little in the House of Commons that Session I resolv'd to petition the House of Peers and acquainted some of the Witnesses with my Intention who very well approv'd on 't Whereupon I drew up a Petition with five Heads thereunto annex'd and presented it to a Noble Lord which his Lordship was pleas'd readily to receive and deliver to the House of Peers where it was receiv'd with much Freedom and Readiness by their Lordships and forthwith order'd to be read And that the ensuing Matter may be the better understood I have here set down a true Copy of the same which is as followeth To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled The humble Petition of Robert Crosfeild Sheweth THAT your Petitioner having lately dedicated and presented to your Lordships a Book entituled Great Britain's Tears setting forth the great Abuses committed in the Government by Persons in Places of Trust and also the Embezlement of the Publick Treasure to the great Hazard of the common Safety of the Nation And your Petitioner having in the Paper annex'd drawn up some part of the said Miscarriages and Grievances that the Nation now labours under relating to the Royal Navy and being ready by good and substantial Evidence to prove the same before this most Honourable House Your Petitioner therefore most humbly prays that your Lordships will please to hear and examine the said Grievances that the Offenders may have such Punishment and the great Numbers that are oppressed such Relief as to your Lordships Wisdom shall seem meet And your Petitioner shall ever pray c. 1. That the present Commissioners for Sick and Wounded Seamen and Exchanging Prisoners at War depending on the Admiralty not regarding Instructions or the Good of the Government have committed gross Ennormities as Holding or Conniving at an unlawful Correspondence with the French and Wronging both the King and Subject in their Accompts with other great Miscarriages All which has
them his Oath saying he had laid his Matters elsewhere and farther told them the Articles were true if they had but a mind to hear them Upon which the whole Board was silent not one Man making any Reply and the Gentleman who spoke the words hung down his Head as if he had been asleep not that he valued what was spoken but his Conscience smote him After these Things remain'd without any farther notice till July the 12th when I receiv'd a Letter from their Secretary requiring me to be at the Office the 18th Where I did appear and sent in my Name to the Board Upon which their Secretary came to me with a Message which I did not think fit to receive from him so sent in my Name again desiring to know if they had any farther Commands Whereupon I was call'd in and told by the Chairman that if I knew of any Persons that were guilty of any Crimes in relation to those Articles I had brought that were not within His Majesty's late Act of Grace if I would lay it before that Board I should be heard This was twice repeated to me for fear I should forget it * Some Persons have left the good old Way and made new Paths to themselves first crush a Man then by their Emissaries spread abroad he can prove nothing yet we see Time and Patience brings Truth to light to the Shame and Dishonour of its Repugners But now with these Gentlemens leave neither they nor I had any thing to do with the Matter as to judg who was pardon'd and who was not therefore this was only an Evasion to prevent the farther opening thereof for as the Articles were brought before the Act of Grace was passed so with Submission it was their Duty to have receiv'd the whole Information and if any Persons were afterwards found to be criminal and within the Act of Grace it were sufficient for them to plead it and then the Nation might know and see who it was had abus'd them for so many Years running and for the future take care to prevent the like Evils But this Method taken by these Gentlemen was a Means utterly to overthrow all Discoveries of this kind and the Kingdom like to be cheated and kept as much in the dark as it has been hitherto For should I have proceeded only upon some part it would have appear'd but a lame obscure Business especially as it might have been manag'd by them so in course it would be thrown out and rejected by the House of Peers as a Matter frivolous and idle and if I did not proceed it were still the same I having six Months time to do it in their Lordships might then with a great deal of Justice throw it out and after that no Punishment would be thought too great for me Therefore these Gentlemen have put me upon a Necessity of publishing these things not only in reference to my own Safety but in Justice to my Native Country And I am sorry they of all Men should not behave themselves more like Englishmen having all along had the Character of being worthy Patriots of their Country For if we may judg of things by the Actions of these Gentlemen and others it 's a grand Question whether there 's any such thing as Religion or we have any Laws or no And by the same Rule disputable whether I am a Man or a Woman But let us not thus deceive our selves for we must never expect to prosper until we make Duty and not Interest the Rule of our Actions And altho' God has been pleas'd to give Success to his Majesty's arms this last Campagn yet it can be no Argument for the Continuance of these Corruptions thereby to oppress the Nation and gratify the Appetite of particular Persons * Jeremiah 5.26 27 28 29. wherein is lively set forth our present State and Condition so worthy the Perusal of every Man Matters being still dubious the War not being brought to a period but the Event thereof uncertain and the Necessities of the Government apparently great therefore we can no ways infer from thence the War will have a happy Issue but may rather justly conclude in the end God will punish us if we maintain and support such Cruelty and Oppression Yet notwithstanding if by these evil Practices the Nation should be thrown into a Civil War which is no unreasonable Supposition but what we have just cause to fear considering what a Faction we have in the very Bowels of us which these Corruptions nourish and from whence they gain strength none probably would be more ready to draw their Sword in defence of their Country than the Authors and Abettors of these Corruptions From whence we may see the Frailty of Humane Nature and the miserable Effects of Pride Ambition and Covetousness which darkens the Understandings of Men while they make such eager pursuit after Riches and it 's that which hath produced all these great Enormities If these things are passed over with Silence the Nation can have no Security by reason it will embolden Offenders and excite and prompt others to commit the like Crimes ad Infinitum For it 's seen by Experience the Generality of Mankind are more inclined to follow Example than Precept but the fear of the Law and Punishment to ensue puts a Bridle upon the Appetite and Desires of Men and keeps them closer to their Duty than the Dictate of Conscience does and that excellent Saying of Polybius ought never to be forgotten I believe says he that Nature her self has constituted Truth as the supream Deity which is to be ador'd by Mankind and that she has given it greater force than any of the rest for being oppos'd as she is on all sides and Appearances of Truth so often passing for the Thing it self in behalf of plausible Falshoods yet by her wonderful Operation she insinuates her self into the Minds of Men sometimes exerting her Strength immediately and sometimes lying hid in Darkness for Length of Time but at last she struggles through it and appears triumphant over Falshood FINIS