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
rash and unjust Attempt We did intend as we lately declared to have met our Parliament in November next and the Writs are issued forth accordingly proposing to Our selves amongst other things that We might be able to quiet the minds of all Our People in matters of Religion pursuant to the several Declarations We have published to that effect but in regard of this strange and unreasonable Attempt from our Neighbouring Country without any manner of Provocation design'd to divert Our said Gracious Purposes We find it necessary to recall Our said Writs which We do hereby recall accordingly commanding and requiring Our loving Subjects to take notice thereof and to surcease all further proceedings thereon And forasmuch as the approaching Danger which now is at hand will require a great and vigorous Defence We do hereby strictly charge and command all Our loving Subjects both by Sea and Land whose ready Concurrence Valour and Courage as true English-men We no way doubt in a just cause to be prepared to defend their Country And We do hereby require and command all Lords-Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants to use their best and utmost endeavours to resist repel and suppress Our Enemies who come with such Confidence and great Preparations to invade and conquer these Our Kingdoms And lastly We do most expresly and strictly enjoin and prohibit all and every Our Subjects of what degree or condition soever from giving any manner of Aid Assistance Countenance or Succor or from having or holding any Correspondence with these Our Enemies or any of their Complices upon pain of High Treason and being prosecuted and proceeded against with the utmost severity Given at Our Court at Whitehall the 28 of Septemb. 1688. The Reader may be pleased to observe that foreign Forces which must be French were declined which implies they were proffered and perhaps it had been never the worse for them if the Irish which considering their Religion and temper towards the English are as much Foreigners as the French hadbeen declined too for we shall see they did him much Mischief and little or no Service 2. That the meeting of the Parliament was discharged before ever there was any mention of restoring the Charters of the Corporations September the 30. his Grace the Duke of Newcastle the Earl of Lindsey the Earl of Derby and the Lord Germyns and others of the Nobility were said to have offered their Service to his Majesty and several of them had Commissions sent to them to raise men in their Countries None of these and very few other of the Nobility or Gentry coming up but only sending Letters which were now thought wonderful Obligations so dreadful was the thought of the Invasion at Court and so great the discontent of the whole Body of the Nation for the late Transactions month October On Tuesday the 2d of October the King declared publickly in Council that he would restore the Charter of the City of London so that the next day the Bishops turned that Request into Thanks for having prevented their Petition The Ministers by this time became so sensible of their Danger and of the temper of the Nation that the 2d day of October they procured a General Pardon in the beginning of which are these words It has always been our earnest Desire since Our Accession to the Crown that all Our People should live at ease and in full enjoyment of Peace and Happiness under Our Government and nothing can be more agreeable unto Us than that Offenders should be reformed by Acts of Mercy extended towards them rather than Punishment Our open Enemies having upon Repentance found Our Favour and altho' besides Our particular Pardons which have been granted to many Persons it be not long since We issued forth Our Royal Proclamation of General Pardon to all our People yet forasmuch as they who live most peaceably do often fall within the reach of some of Our Laws c. Besides the usual Exceptions were excepted all Treasons committed or done in the parts beyond the Seas or any other place out of this our Realm and by name Robert Parsons Edward Matthews Samuel Venner Andrew Fletcher Colonel John Rumsey Major John Mauly Isaac Manley Francis Charleton Fsque John Wildman Esq Titus Oats Robert Ferguson Gilbert Burnet Sir Robert Peyton Laurence Braddon Samuel Johnson Clerk Thomas Tripping Esq and Sir Rowland Guynne The Pardon here hinted at came out some few days before this and in that all Corporations and Bodies Politicks were excepted which looked so like a design against the Bishops Deans and Colledges that it was taken notice of and this new Pardon sent after the former to shew the World the Ministers were only a little too intent upon their own security as they had most need of this Pardon that they never thought of the other On Wednesday October the 3d. the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of London Winchester Asaph Ely Chichester Rochester Bath and Wells and Peterborough all in a Body waited upon the King when the Archbishop spoke thus to him May it please Your Sacred Majesty WHen I had lately the Honour to wait upon you you were pleased briefly to acquaint me with what had passed two days before between your Majesty and these my Reverend Brethren by which and by the Account which they themselves gave me I perceived that in truth there passed nothing but in very general Terms and Expressions of your Majesties gracious and favourable Inclinations to the Church of England and of our reciprocal Duty and Loyalty to your Majesty Both which were sufficiently understoodand declared before and as one of my Brethren then told you would have been in the same state if the Bishops had not stir'd one foot out of their Diocesses Sir I found it grieved my Lords the Bishops to have come so far and to have done so little and I am assured they came then prepared to have given your Majesty some more particular Instances of their Duty and Zeal for your Service had they not apprehended from some words which fell from your Majesty That you were not then at leisure to receive them It was for this Reason that I then besought your Majesty to command us once more to attend you all together which your Majesty was pleased graciously to allow and encourage We therefore are here now before you with all Humility to beg your Permission that we may suggest to your Majesty such Advices as we think proper at this Season and conducing to your Service and so leave them to your Princely Consideration Which the King being graciously pleased to permit the Archbishop proceeded as followeth I. Our first humble Advice is That your Majesty will be graciously pleased to put the Management of your Government in the several Counties into the Hands of such of the Nobility and Gentry there as are legally qualified for it II. That your Majesty will be graciously pleased to annul your Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs and that
and Passion to create suitable Thoughts in the Hearts of those who had less Interest in the Defeat of the Prince's Army than the R. C's had The Birth of the Prince of Wales being thus worded made Men smile and they could presently recollect the Force and Value of the Deposers Evidence which had now been some time published but then nothing disgusted the Generality of Men more than to see the King continue so averse to the holding a Parliament till the Prince was expell'd out of the Nation the Consequence of which was notorious To what end said they should we fight when the Prince of Orange offereth at first to submit to a Free Parliament What shall we drive him out that we may never have one that shall sit to do us good Are the Jesuits such Reverers of Promises as to regard them when they can chuse No let us have a Parliament while the Prince is here to see us have Right or fight who will for me The same 5th day of November an Account was sent from Brixham That about 300 of the Dutch Fleet were come into Torbay several of which came directly to Brixham Key and Landed some Soldiers and the rest were sending them on Shore in Boats about 5 or 600 being then Landed and it was then said the Prince of Orange was come on Shore This Fleet consisted of 51 Men of War 18 Fire ships and 330 Tenders for the carriage of Men Horses Arms and Ammunition At his first Attempt he lost 400 Horse in a Storm and a Vessel was separated with 400 Foot which after came back to the Texel Hereupon order was given to the Harlem and Amsterdam Gazetteers to make a dreadful Representation of this Loss which had its effect upon our credulous Court. The Fleet was soon got in order again and sailed the first of November There lay then an English Fleet in the Buoy and Nore consisting of 34 Sail of Men of War and there were three in the Downs but the Wind was at E. N. E. and so they could not get out and they had no mind besides to do it At his Landing the People in great numbers from the Shore welcom'd his Highness with loud Acclamations of Joy. The first that Landed were six Regiments of English and Scoth under Mackay who met with no opposition but a hearty Welcome with all manner of Refreshments Thus the 5th 6th and 7th of November were employed in Landing the Army the Country-men bringing them in Provisions in great plenty The 6th of November an Account was sent from Exeter That the Prince of Orange was marching towards that City and they being in no Condition to oppose him the Bishop of that Diocess thought fit to leave the Town and to go to London which so pleased the King that he ordered him to be Translated to the See of York which was then vacant the 16th of November November the 7th the King published this Account of the Forces brought over by the Prince of Orange Horse The Life Guard. Regiment of Guards commanded by Benting Waldeck's Regiment Nassaw Mompellian Ginckel Count Vander Lip. The Princes Dragoons Marrewis Dragoons Sgravemoer Sapbroeck Floddorp Seyde Suylestein In all Troopers 1683 Life Guard 197 Benting's 480 Princes Dragoons 860 Marrewis 440 Â 3660 Foot. Companies Foot-Guard under Count Solmes 2000 25 Mackay 12 Balfort 12 Talmash 12 Bellises 12 Washops 12 Ossories 10 Berkevelt 10 Holstein 10 Wirtemberg 12 Hagendorn 10 Fagel 10 Nassaw 10 Carelson 12 Brander 10 Prince of Berkevelt 10 In all 164 Companies at 53 in a Company 8692 Guards 2000 Â 10692 Horse 3660 Foot 10692 Â 14352 List of the Fleet. Men of War 65 Fly-boats 500 Pinks 60 Fire-ships 10 In all 635 However Men were not easily then induced to believe that this was above one half of the Number brought over they concluding from the Number of Ships and the Companies taken in the Fly-boat by the Swallow-Frigat that the Army must be at least double to this Number though afterwards it appeared to be very near a true Account November the 8th the Prince went from Chudleigh towards Exeter where he arrived about One of the Clock and made a very splendid Entry with his Army the People much rejoycing at it and looking upon him as their Deliverer from Popery and Slavery That Night the Prince lodged at the Deanry the Dean as well as the Bishop having left the Town The 9th Dr. Burnet was sent to order the Priest and Vicars of the Cathedral not to pray for the Pretended Prince of Wales which they would not comply with till they were severely threatned The same day the Prince went to the Cathedral and was present at the singing Te Deum after which his Declaration was publickly read to the People The same day the late King published this Order FOr the more punctual and regular Payment of Quarters in the March of Our Forces We do hereby strictly charge and require That upon the Arrival of any Regiment Troop or Company in any Town or Village Publication be immediately made by Beat of Drum or otherwise and Notice given to the Chief Magistrate or Civil Officer of Our Pleasure That all Officers and Private Soldiers shall duely pay their Quarters and that such Chief Magistrate or Civil Officer do the next Morning come to the Place where such Regiment Troop or Company is drawn up before their March and make their Complaint to the Commander in Chief of any Wrong done or Quarters left unpaid Whereupon Our express Will and Pleasure is That such Commander in Chief shall cause Satisfaction to be made to the Party injured and the Debt to be paid And if any Commander in Chief shall fail therein We do hereby declare Our Resolution upon Complaint to punish such Commander in Chief by Cashiering or otherwise and to cause such Injury to be redressed and the Debt to be duely satisfied without delay The Soldiery had lived with very little Discipline in the Times of Peace and now the War was opening became more Insolent So that the ill observing this Order was one of those things which tended as much as any thing to the Ruine of that Army they being reduced to a great Want of all Necessaries by the People who feared their Payment and hated both them and the Cause they were embarked in About the same time there was published a very advantagious Character of the Prince of Orange which was greedily read and industriously spread under-hand The Prince continued three days at Exeter before any of the Gentry or Nobility appeared for him which caused a great Wonder in his Army and was published here the 18th we being told that some of the Rabble listed themselves for him and had Arms given them but the Mayor and Clergy of the City stood their Ground The 11th of November the King published an Account That the Enemy seised all the King's Money was found in the West and that they had taken 300 l. from the
kept in and about the parts where he landed Secondly As to the distraction of the People under their present Grievances it seems to many true Members of the Church of England that it had been every whit as agreeable to your Lordships Character to have rather thank'd his Majesty for his late extraordinary and gracious Favours than to have amus'd the Subjects at this time with the Apprehensions of Grievances without any intimation what they were for it is most manifest that by such remonstrating of Grievances the People were instigated to that bloody Rebellion in 1641. As to the Expression That your Lordships think your selves bound in Conscience of the Duty you owe to God and our holy Religion and to his Majesty and our Country most humbly to offer to his Majesty That in your opinion the ONLY visible way to prehis Majesty and his Kingdom would be the calling of a Parliament regular and free in all its Circumstances I hope to make out that the summoning of a Parliament now is so far from being the Only way to effect these things that it will be one of the principal causes of much Misery to the Kingdom and I am sure both our Duty to God and our holy Religion as well as to his Majesty and our Country doth plainly enjoyn us to use One other effectual means to obviate the Miseries of a Civil or Invasive War which is the keeping inviolably our Allegiance to our Soveraign and effectually joyning with him to resist all his Enemies whether ther Foreign Aggressors or Native Rebels And it is much to be wondred at that this Duty so well known to your Lordships should never be mention'd As to the Regular and Free Parliament in all its Circumstances I shall now proceed to prove that at this Season all our Wishes for such a one are impotent and must be ineffectual First it is a known Truth and sadly experienced That whenever the People are in a great Ferment and contrary Parties are bandying one against another the giving liberty to the People to meet in great Bodies is dangerous to the Government and you your selves not long since were of that opinion when you oppos'd the vehement Addresses to King Charles II. for summoning a Parliament when he judged it would strengthen the Faction against him and you very well know when great heats were among the Members and unreasonable Votes were pass'd against the Lineal Succession and other matters endangering the Government the King was obliged to prorogue some Parliaments from time to time that such separation might produce more sober Counsels And then the great cry was That for the Preservation of the King's Person and our Religion they were so earnest to have a Parliament meet Secondly it is impossible there can be a Regular and Free Election while the Electors are so violently divided one part of them being so vehement Wishers of the Success of the Prince of Orange that they slight all the Miseries that unavoidably will fall on the Country thereby upon the bare hope that he will preserve Religion and Property Now in such a time as this when if we will give credit to the Prince's Declaration there are so many that have invited him can it be safe for the King to grant a Commission even to the People to assemble in such great Confluxes as may afford them opportunity of listing themselves against him Thirdly If we yield that Elections can be without outragious Routs yet when the Parliament is met it is requisite by the very Constitution that every part of that August Assembly should be free in their Assent or Dissent to what is to be debated and that Freedom is as fundamentally necessary in the Person of the King as in the Members of either House and that one of the proper and necessary Circumstances of that Convention ought to be that all the Members shall be present I shall therefore shew that at this time none of these can be practicable First As to the King While such powerful Enemies are in the Country and so many ready to catch any opportunity to joyn with them how can the King be absent from his Army The providing for cherishing animating and ordering of which will sufficiently employ the most indefatigable of Princes And none can think that any Prince can watch the motions of such an Enemy and time his opportunities of assaulting them or defending himself and at the same time be embarass'd with a Party in the Houses that may as dangerously be levelling their Votes against him as the Invaders are their Artillery However there can be no freedom to the King how undaunted soever because the impending Storm may so affright his Council that they may advise to the yielding of some things that may be of ill consequence to the Government for whatever lessens the King 's just Prerogative as this may do in depriving him of exercising his Negative Voice is at one time or other prejudicial to his Subjects Secondly As to the Lords There can be no free Convention of them since several of them have so far forgot their Allegionce that they are actually in the Orange's Army and many other Lords are attending the King and their Charges so that while these Armies are in Being they cannot meet in their House but by their Proxies which I suppose none can expect will be allowed to the Peers that are in Rebellion if we may be allowed to call that such which all our Laws so adjudgeth The like may be said for the House of Commons All the Gentlemen of Interest in their Country by their Allegiance are bound to serve the King in his Wars at his Command and will be few enough to keep their respective Counties in peace And I am confident none will think such a Parliament as this ought to be that is desir'd should consist of such who have been little conversant in publick Affairs or have small Interests in their Counties So that upon the whole I cannot see how any Free Parliament can meet unless it be such a Convention as the Saxons obtained of the Britains on Salisbury-Plains where the eminentest of both People were to meet unarmed and there amicably adjust matters in difference but it is well known that the Saxons under their long Coats had their Weapons wherewith they slew the Flower of the British Nobility and thereby rendred their Conquest more easie It is true such a Stratagem is now like to take ffect but the King and those that wish well to the Succession of the Monarchy and the preservation of their Country must needs fear that there will be as dangerous Contests within the Houses as may be in the open Fields and thereby little can be expected from such a Parliament which can redound to the publick good of the Kingdom Fourthly Those Spiritual and Temporal Lords that have signed this Petition either have not or they have consulted the Prince of Orange before they proposed this Advice If
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
was impracticable at this juncture But there are two other things which he has not mentioned the first of which is who gave the occasion of these Dangers which he apprehended and the Second whether he had no other way to avoid those Dangers but by withdrawing Now it is plain that the ill courses taken under his Government had brought upon him those Dangers and that if he would have suffered a Parliament to meet he needed not to have withdrawn and consequently his going away rather than submitting the things in dispute to a Parliament was a voluntary Abdication Sect. 4. Our Author has a scruple whether the Kings going away signifies any thing to Scotland and Ireland now all this is no better than banter for when he left England he left them too tho' the one was for sometime and the other still is under the Regular Administration of the Lord Lieutenant as he tells us but those that have since come from thence assure us there is nothing Regular in his Administration but the British Protestants are treated as Enemies by this Minister of his so that Ireland being an Appendage of England and thus treating our Brethren ought by us to be taken for a Rebel and an Enemy let the pretence be what it will Their Loyalty to the Late King not excusing but Aggravating their Injuries to his Country men who have done nothing to deserve this usage but it is to be hoped will find hands enough to revenge it in due time Our Author in the 5 Sect. is to prove the late King had sufficient Grounds c. omitting his Rhetorick Had not his Majesty faith he great Reason to Retire to secure his Person and Honour at his first withdrawing from Whitchal When he had met with so many unfortunate disappointments with so many surprizing and unparallell'd Accidents c. I say no he ought to have considered what was the Cause of all these Misfortunes and to have applied himself with so much the more Industry to the quieting of his people which the sitting of the Parliament would in all probability have effected But what could he promise himself by withdrawing but the bare saving of his Life and Liberty with the loss of his Crown now his Life and Liberty were in no Danger as is plain for after he was brought back a Prisoner and suffered to go away again without any hinderance There are many indiscreet things said in this Paragraph which I could easily expose but I would not make this Answer too long nor exasperate any body against the Author and therefore I will pass them over To be obliged saith he to Pay a Foreign Army which came over to enable his Subjects to drive him out of his Dominions Looked as if there was a design to reduce him as low in his Honour as in his Fortune The Prince saith in his Declaration Sect. 21. That he intended nothing but to have a Free and Lawful Parliament Assembled as soon as was possible And this might have been done without driving the King out of his Kingdom and it is very difficult to imagine how he could at first propose more to himself nor would it have been any diminution of the Kings Honour to have paid the Dutch Army a few Weeks or Months till things could have been setled When the Forts and Revenues were thus disposed off when the Papists were to be disbanded And the Protestants could not be trusted when the Nation was under such violent and general dissatisfactions when the King in case of a Rupture which was not unlikely had nothing but his single Person to oppose against the Princes Arms and those of his own Subjects Well what then Why it was time to be gone No Sir it was time to be better Advised than he had been by those that had brought him into this deplorable State. It was time to despair of ever being able to Set up Popery and an Arbitrary Power in England to have reflected on the breach of his former Promises and Oaths which had so Exasperated his Subjects against him but by other measures might very easily have been again appeased and deserved after all rather to be trusted than those Popish Souldiers he was so fond of to his Ruine because he had formerly had sufficient Experience of their Loyalty till he had made it impossible for them to serve him without destroying their Religion and their Civil Liberties When his Mortal Enemies and those who were under the highest forfeitures to his Majesty were to sit Judges of his Crown and Dignity if no further c. The Power of an heated Imagination Why after all these were the three Estates of England whom he thus blackens or a part of them or rather the Church of England Nobility and Gentry the same men that were chosen and for the most part must be chosen again if we were to choose to morrow as to the Lower House and as to the Upper the Bishops and the Peers always are and must the be same Nor were they to sit Judges of his Crown and Dignity for they must have Sworn Allegiance to him again at their meeting much less of his Life or Liberty but only of his former Actions his Ministers and of the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales And he had Reason to have expected great Candor from them having had so great Experience of them before When a Gentleman of the Church of England could thus harangue it against his own Party and Interest we need not wonder if that Unfortunate Prince found some Jesuits about him who would perswade him rather to abandon his Crown Kingdom and People then the Glorious design of forcing England once more to submit to the yoke of Rome Section 6. Our Author is at a loss to find the Reason why his coming from Feversham to Whitehal is not allowed to be a return to his people now if he please to look into the former History he will find it was not voluntary but forced tho he was not then known and in all probability the fear continued upon him when the force was removed for then he saw he could not go away without the Prince's leave and that was the true reason of his inviting the Prince to London when he could not keep him out if he would Pray what had the King done to incur a Forfeiture by his first retirement had he quitted the Realm Yes he had and the Government too and necessitated his own Menial Servants to submit to the Prince by the Famous Address made at Guild-hall the 11th of December So that the Prince was now actually invested with the Government the whole Nation having submitted to him and it was at his choice whether he would treat him as a King now nor had he any great reason to do so considering how lately he had broke his word to him and the Nation His return after some assurance of Fair Treatment is a plain Discovery of the Motives of his withdrawing
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