A Modest Plea Both for the CAVEAT AND The AUTHOR of It. WITH SOME NOTES UPON Mr. IAMES HOWELL AND His Sober Inspections By ROGER L'ESTRANGE Laudatur ab his Culpatur ab illis Horat. LONDON Printed Aug. 28. 1661. For Henry Brome at the Gun in Ivy lane A Modest Plea REport speaks me a Prisoner for my last Pamphlet and if I knew who raised it or would have it so I would in earnest thank them for it First as the greatest honour they can do me to bring my Innocence upon the Stage and make me suffer in a Cause which every honest man prefers before his Being Next I should thank them for assisting toward the Discovery of the Kings Enemies which beyond doubt those people are that will torment themselves for a Reflection that concerns no other I say again there is an appearance of a Confederacy but I sixe nothing upon Persons whoever says There he means mee is in the right if he be one of the Conspirators otherwise not They know their own Affections best and I my own meaning which yet I take to be so plainly expressed as that no Englishman can make a Question of it This General Rumour has made me call my Papers and my Thoughts to shrift and neither in the One nor in the Other do I find any thing according to my judgement of my Duty that suits not with the strictest Obligation of it So let my Soul find Comfort as I believe the King is betrayed and if I had the honour of His Majesties Ear I would present him with my particular reasons for that opinion My expectation was that some of the Seditious Stationers and Lecturers of whom I have complayn'd should have been call'd to accompt and not to have been threatned my self effectually for complayning of them If there be any matter of exception I offer up my whole Life to the Scrutiny of the whole World and if from the first Moment of the Quarrel to this Instant they prove me Guilty either of the least remisnesse toward the Kings Cause any the least complyance with his Enemies or the least colour of Irreverence toward his Person I am content to lose my Head for 't I have now serv'd his Majesty in being and his blessed Father these One and Twenty years without either asking or receiving any thing Let him that charges mee make the same challenge T is a wise Precept That of Machiavell Encourage ACCUSATIONS and suppresse CALUMNIES I ask no more but to be either followed home or Let alone I come now to enquire into the Subject of the Controversie the Caveat it self which with great reason is by some Opposed and with as much by mee Defended for Their DIANA lyes at Stake My Repute Safety Freedome and which is more then All the Soul of every Loyal Subject the King himself But to be Thristy of my Time and Paper where lyes the Exception what Law does it offend either of Honour Conscience or of the Nation Does it presume to taxe the King or his Councill to kindle Iealousies betwixt united Brethren or to enflame the Rest into Impatience and Distemper Does it excite Revenge or Tumult If it does any of this I 'll bind my self to be his Slave that shews me where That is let it be Try'd by Indifferent Iudges and taken in Coherence for to catch here and there a snap is to destroy my meaning and at that rate ye may make Quidlibet ex quolibet Treason of the Law and pick Blasphemy out of the Holy Bible But Blam'd it is and why Not for the Preface I hope That only advises Warynesse and gives the Reasons for it There 's not a day that passes without seditious Lectures in the City some Openly others more Covertly bidding the People to prepare for a Persecution and Then ah Lord sayes Hancock give the King ANOTHER Heart a NEW Heart Lord and make him Thy Servant Meade seconds his Fellow-Schismatick with a word of Consolation but be of a good Heart says he Ye do not know what a year nay what a MONTH may bring forth This did he repeat so often and with such an Accent upon MONTH that upon my Soul I thought it related rather to the Timing of a Plot then to the pressing of a Duty for the Emphasis was much stronger upon the Time then upon the Exhortation This was a little above a Fornight since and in my own Hearing to which Add that the whole Crew are of the same Leaven I hope there is no harm in This and as little in charging Tyton a Stationer with dispersing Treason since his Majesties return for there 's a Combination betwixt the Presse and Pulpit to do mischief Now to the Matter of the Book wherein I shall omit nothing considerable First Note that to the 17. Page 't is a Reply upon I. H. his Cordiall The first Two Pages are only Prologue the Third is Mr. Howells the Fourth Mine and there I begin Telling I. H. that as the Cavaliers have liv'd true to their Prince upon a Rule of Honour Loyalty and Conscience so are they as well dispos'd to Dye for him if occasion require without the Aid of borrowed CORDIALS In the Fifth and Sixt Pages I fault his using of the word Reward as not becoming a Subject to his Prince for whether we receive any thing or nothing our Duty is still the same My Seventh Page only acquits the Cavaliers of causing the Kings wants or pressing them and fairly checks I. H. for being over-busy with that Argument In the 8 9. Pages I. H. objects and answers I deny his Twenty Cavaliers to One of the other side and with due Reverence to His Majesties Prerogative to bestow where and what he pleases I affirm that divers unknown persons are recommended to his Royal Favour who are very unworthy of it Page Tenth I blame the Authour of the Cordial for entring further into the Kings Actions then becomes him Pag. 11. I. H. exhorts us to Patience in expectation of a Reward and I tell him that we never serv'd for wages but it is our Duty to be Patient The Twelfth â—age carries the best Colour for a Cavil but first I 'll recite it and then explain it to a Syllable We find the Court dangerously thronged with Parasites Knaves represented to the King for Honest men and Honest men for Villains a watch upon his Majesties Ear to keep out better Information seditious Ministers protected and encouraged Libells against the Authority and Person of the King dispersed even by his Majesties sworn Servants and to Discover Treason is of a consequence in some respects more hazzardous then to commit it To this I explain my self that divers persons whom I know of dangerous principles and scandalous Report are crept into Office and Preferments These are the Parasites I mean and when I am commanded I shall name them That many Knaves have been represented for Honest men is evident in several whom His
in question should prove to be a kin to the Other we may be very well excused if we suspect his Cordiall and if we rather trust our own Eyes in our own Concern then anothers Spectacles In that contest betwixt One Tyrant and many if the Noble Assembly had baffled the Army then Oliver had been the Monster but Fortune would have it otherwise and so the Lot fell upon the NOBLE ASSEMBLY but not a half-penny matter to us whether the Dragon kill'd the Saint or the Saint the Dragon Some Subjects are like Common-Wooers that may safely swear that they love Twenty several Wenches Best in Four and Twenty hours and to such humours no Government comes amisse that carries either Interest or Novelty along with it He that expects the fixing of that sort of people might better wait till a River should either stop its course or run it self weary Labitur Labetur in omne volubilis aevum Others there are who I verily believe did take that Legislative Rabble for a Parliament and such we must not blame for calling it so Yet for the Cavaliers that never were nor are nor ever can be of That Judgement we should do very ill to chuse an Advocate out of that number or to expect much good from a Physician that could not help himself But too much time is spent in Preamble for which the Gentleman whom it concerns may thank himself I knew at first who wrote the Cordial but truly I had no Ambition to measure Pens with Mr. Howell and my Remarks upon the Mistake did not so much as glance upon the Author No sooner were the Inspections Publick but my Stationer comes to me by Mr. Howell's Order with a sleevelesse Story how ingenious a piece that same Cordial was how much His Majesty was pleased with it with great Additions too in favour of the person that composed it Some part of This in the second Impression of my Caveat I barely mentioned and so left it Upon Thursday or Friday last out comes another miserable Paper done by the same hand and in justification of the Former which I must needs take notice of for divers Reasons whereof I swear the Author and the thing it self are none The Copy was pressed upon my Stationer a very honest and a Loyal person as yet unfinished who gave me notice of the proposition but without any thought of undertaking it With much ado I prevailed with him to comply with the good Gentleman and out comes Gravity it self under the Form of SOBER INSPECTIONS c. The very Title speaks the Author no Physician and he that stands condemned to read the Text may swear he is no Conjurer He writes himself Historiographer Royal and tells his Tale to shew his Office Yes and a dainty Tale it is A Toledo Captain met Philip the Second a hunting and taking him for a Private person told him he was going to Court to demand a Reward for his Services The King asked him if he had not received his Pay He said Yes but 't was long a Comming However he 'd to the King for an Ayúda de costas something to drink Well sayes the King but in case his Majesty will give you nothing why then let him kisse my Mules Tail cryes the Captain Hereupon the King ask'd him his Name and bids him bring his Certificat next day to the Council and hee 'd procure him admittance The Captain appears Well Sir saies the King What was 't you said yesterday the King should do to your Mule if so and so In our Authors own words The Captain being nothing at all danted said Truly Sir My Mule is ready at the Court-gate if there be occasion The King for This Orders the Captain 400. Crowns present and 2000 Ryals Annuity The Condition of the English Cavaliers is much more considerable says our Historian for the Spanish Captain had all his Arriers paid him which our Cavaliers have not pag. 4. Most Logical and profound for as Tenterden-steeple was the cause of Godwin Sands even so Good people Love one another But can the great Defender of our Cause spy out no other Difference betwixt the Captains case and Ours then matter of Pay That want of Modesty and Reverence though the King lik'd it never so well ought to have been Reprov'd and Punish'd Suppose the bluntnesse of the man hit the Kings Humour Yet was it not the lesse below his Dignity even to suffer so exemplary a Boldnesse but much more to Reward it therein preferring his Fancy to his Honour Not but that Monarchs are Men as well as Subjects and may be allowed their Appetites and Likings yet beyond question This was an Oversight in Philip to lay himself so open for when the Court had once gotten the length of his Foot and that they found there were more waies then good to Profit and Preferment it would have been no wonder to have seen That Prince served and attended by Tumblers and Buffons in stead of Statesmen The Gentleman hath many other pretty fragments of Story which being exceedingly beside his Purpose I reckon not much to mine wherefore let them rest But in good manners something we will afford him in Requital which his INGREDIENTS and his COMPOSITION put me in mind of The late Lord Coring after a dear ill-dressed Dinner at Bruxells sends for mine Host and treats him with this Complement Friend says he I do take Thee for one of the best Cooks in Christendome ' bate but two faults The One is Thou hast the worst Ingredients in Nature The Other is Thou putt'st them the worst together This is the Fortune of some Writers too as well as Cooks Touching our Authors Calculation of Twenty Cavaliers preferr'd for One Roundhead I have already spoken what I thought fit and modest in my Caveat but since it is Mr. Howell's pleasure to re-enforce it rather then presse the point too far we 'l grant it but then Twenty of Mr. Howell's Cavaliers reckoning himselfe for One will not make half so many of Mine In his Sixt Page he tells us that divers great Kings have been enforced to raise and reward those that were once their very Enemies FOR A TIME And why FOR A TIME if a body may ask But this shall be discoursed at Length and Leisure In short he tells us what he told us before and winds up Thus. To conclude he who with a sober and well-brass'd judgement will examine that Cordial will find that there is never a Line Word or Syllable therein but breathes out the spirit of a perfect Cavalier as above twenty other several pieces of the same Author publish'd upon Emergent occasions do breathe besides there is no fretfull drug or the least Corrosive dram in it but all gentle lenitifs therefore he wonders how it should stir up such Malignant humors in any unlesse it were in them who having something lying upon the stomach made wrong use of that Cordial to cast it up We will allow the Gentleman to be a perfect Cavalier a perfect Republican if he pleases a perfect Protectorian a perfect Any-thing rather then disagree about his Perfection but I would he had not appealed to his Pieces And truly if he had spared the Malignant humours and the Queasie Stomach he talks of it would have been never the worse for the Author of the Cordial But now he finds himself so much deceiv'd in his Operations I hope he 'l mend He sees his Cordials prove Vomits and let me forget my own Name as he has done his if what Mr. Howell gives to move Choler does not provoke excessive Pleasure THE END * Note Pag. 12. pâ— 1. pâ— 4. pa. 11. pa. 12. pa. 18. pa. 38. pa. 39. Pag. 42. Pag. 43. Pag. 48. The Kings Actions not to be question'd Enformation lawful Private persons not to advise Prâ—nces without Leave A common grievance His Majesty vindicated The Kings Bounty is Free Pag. 38. Pag. 37. Postscript Tyranny it self is no Discharge of Duty Disloyalty a double Crime Loyalty an indispensable Duty Loyalty extends to thought word and deed A due respect to His Majesty Pag. 15. False Friends p. 29. An honest Principle pa. 46. I. H. I. H. I.H. I. H.
Honours may give himself a second thought to understand the meaning of it p. 28. But to impute these incongruities to the King were to commit a sin against Duty and Reason So far is his Majesty from Allowing or Directing them they are kept as much as possibly from his bare knowledge The Plot is laid against him and as they did before they do but now remove his Friends to make way to his Person ib. Further Those favours which the King himself bestowed were given by the unquestionable Prerogative of his own freedom the grounds whereof in part we know and in the whole we reverence p. 29. Yet once again So was the State of the Nation represented to his Majesty and such was his Royal Goodnesse that he thought fit to remit all and it is our Duty not to Murmure at it Thus far with Reverence to His Majesty which is yet more then had been needfull had not the frivolous apology of him that wrote the Cordial drawn it from me Nor do I find a Syllable that can by any Violence of comment or conjecture touch the Counsel nay to prevent all colour for such a mistake Thus I clear my self Beyond doubt there are true Converts and divers that even in the Counsells of the Kings Enemies did his Majesty Service Now to the Act of Indemnity let it be taken in the utmost Latitude we willingly submit to 't As'tis an Act of PARDON we complain not and as an Act of INDEMNITY we are obliged by it nor shall we start an Inch from the literal strictnesse of it As an Act of OBLIVION which forbids the MALICIOUS revival of past Differences we do not oppose it neither but a Preventional Prudence is allow'd us and to defend the justice of our Cause against the publick enemies of it In fine from the strict airection of the Act of Oblivion we must not swerve a Title Let it be now considered what this same Caveat may rationally effect upon the People If any thing that looks like Tumult or Irreverence let me dye the Death of a Traytour for it See first my Tendernesse for fear of misconstructions Were all the Ills we suffer joyned with as many more as we have hitherto endured imposed upon us by the direct Will and Order of the King If he should say Hang half my Friends for their Fidelity and Sterve the rest for Gaping when they are Hungry We ought to take all this but as a sad occasion of greater Honour a sharper Tryal of our Faith or at the worst as an unkind requital of our Love but no discharge of Duty Pag. 26. The Authority of Princes is Divine and their Commission makes their Persons sacred If They transgresse 't is against God whose Officers and Deputies they are not against Us. If We transgresse 't is both against God and Them a double Disobedience ibid. That Subject is guilty of his Masters Bloud that sees the Person of his Prince in danger and does not interpose to save him though he be sure to Dye himself even by the hand of him who he preserves Pag. 27. Not is it enough for Subjects to keep a Guard upon their Actions unlesse they set a VVatch before the Doors of their Lips their Tongues must be Tyed as well as their Hands Nay and the very Boylings of their Thoughts must be suppressed VVe that are thus instructed in the Grounds and Terms of Duty even toward the worst of Kings cannot mistake our selves sure toward the Contrary and become doubly Guilty First by imputing our Misfortunes to a wrong Cause and then by an undutiful and simple men age of them Pag. 29. Further upon Discourse of the Cavaliers party which very well deserves a Thought and of the Nations too which is not in Condition without some inconvenience to Relieve us rather then our necessities shonld any way oppress the publick and consequently reflect upon the King my Counsell's this Rather let us Resolve to suffer any thing for his Majesty then cause him to suffer in the Least for us Is this the Language of a Mutineer Certainly I have expressed my meaning ill if this tends to Sedition Once more finding a general distast against some persons whom the Kings knows only upon Recommendation what could be softer then to say that those Blessings which his Sacred Majesty meant to shed upon his Friends fell upon his Enemies The VOYCE was IACOBS but the HANDS are ESAU's what does this intimate but an Obligation still to the King even in those benefits which fell beside us To sum up the main scope of the Discourse It is by a Prudential Modesty and warynesse to state a right uuderstanding betwixt His Majesty and his People for nothing is more evident then that ill offices are done both to the King to misperswade him of the Royal Party and to possess his miserable Friends that the King cares not for them Since Discontents there are and some unhappy mistakes what could be more agreeable to Duty and Reason then to endevour to set all clear Which I have laboured first by assigning our misfortunes to their true Cause and Then by counselling a Fair and humble Notice concerning matter of Fact to his Sacred Majesty Where lyes the Crime of This I am to seek especially proceeding with all that 's possible of Honour and Humility toward the Person Office Dignity and the unquestioned wisdome of my Soveraign It is not lawful for a Private Subject to offer his Prince an Information Nay is he not obliged under the pain of Perjury and Treason if under Oath as I am to the Discovery of any thing he knows or hears of that may be Dangerous to his Majesty If it be Criminal to tell those truths without the Knowledge of which a Prince cannot be safe then I 'm in a mistake otherwise not For there I rest without prescribing my Duty being only to discover without presumiug to Advise or Direct Within these Limits I contain my self and by This rule of Resignation I have not only governed my Life my Tongue my pen but even my Thoughts And yet some take Exception at this following passage Let us examine it There are another sort also of cold Comforters that tell us 't is not Time yet This to a company of VVretches that can stay no longer then they can Fast yields little consolation Are we such Owles as not to see the Sun at Noon 'T is time Enough for some that tell us these fine things even before the Kings Revenue is setled to beg their Fourty Fifty nay their Hundred Thousand Pound a man and when the Nation shall be drawn so low that every Tax runs Blood 't is then Prognosticated that something shall be done for Us That is the Honour shall be ours to finish the undoing of the Nation and furnish Argument for another VVar. p. 29. 'T is a strange thing there should be so much Venome
giving the world a cast of his cunning and starts objections which we must either overthrow or suffer by Now whereas some object hehath rewarded ROUNDHEADS says the Author of the Cordial This is a charge upon the Cavaliers for to be sure the other Party will not complain Since manifest it is that in effect some persons are entertain'd beyond common expectation what better office could I do either to his Majesty or his Party then to lay a charm upon the people not to enquire too boldly into the actions of their Sovereign Had I done less the slur had stuck upon us had I. H. done nothing I had been silent Again whereas some except against his Majesties Lenity and Indulgence c. Not Wee say I could I say less and at this rate he squanders away his Breath and Politiques in Vindication of the King as if we charged his Majesty When to deal freely his very zeal in an Abuse and if I had a mind to blast a cause I would engage that Gentleman to be For it Next to this provocation I might plead my Primum Tempus had I not still a stronger Plea Innocence But to evince the Partiality of my Back-friends Let us suppose a Fault what is the Quality of it and who the Offender it is an Errour either of Imprudence or of Sawcynesse for that 's the worst they say of it and the Offender is a Person that has been twenty years a faithful Servant to the Crown Greater Crimes then This have been pardon'd within the Memory of Man yes and greater Offenders too and those that are the most advantag'd by That Pardon are now the sharpest upon Mee Now to the point of Prudence I shall easily grant that to exasperate so Keen so Close and Deadly a Faction as that which Threatens mee were a grosse and weak Oversight in any man that rates Himself above the publique but being Resolv'd rather to sink my selfe for speaking plain Loyall and usefull Truths then that the King should suffer by not knowing them I shall most readily dispose my self to act that Resignation which I doe now but Talk of NOTES UPON Mr. Iames Howell c. IF he that wrote the CAVEAT to the CAVALIERS had been of the Gentleman's Counsel that penned the CORDIAL he should never have disown'd the Author and after that have defended the matter of it If it was Well done why was it disclaim'd if Ill why is it justified But to the old Epigram He does as Puritans at Baptism do He is the Father and the Witnesse too The thing it self might have been spared but then so solemnly to disclaim it is not pro dignitate HISTORIOGRAPHI Regii The Title indeed might have becom'd the Mouth of his Toledo-Captain Some SOBER INSPECTIONS made into those Ingredients that went to the Composition of a late Cordial call'd A Cordial for the Cavaliers SOBER INSPECTIONS with a mischief why there was one I. H. that dedicated a discourse under this Title To his Highness The L. PROTECTOR when he would have made himself King wherein he compares OLIVER CROMWELL to CHARLES MARTEL and complements him in these words There is says he a memorable saying of Charles Martel in that mighty Revolution in France when he introduced the second race of Kings that in the pursuit of all his actions he used to say that he followed not the ambition of his heart so much as the inspirations of his soul and the designs of Providence This may be apply'd to your Highness in the conduct of your great affairs and admirable successes I rest in the lowest posture of obedience At your Highness command I. H. One passage more I remember that is of very pretty insinuation Under the name of POLYANDER is couch'd the Author of the Dialogue whom you must imagine to be a man of Parts and Travailed This Polyander gives his opinion for a single Person against all other forms of Government But then he says that It is requisite that this single person should be attended with a standing visible veteran Army to be paid well and punish'd well if there be cause to AWE as well as to Secure the People To give I. H. his due the other Oliver could not have given his Name-sake better counsel The Book indeed does mightily cry up the Royal Prerogative and 't is a little sharp upon the Scots and the thing commonly call'd the Long Parliament which yet at that time done does but proclaim the Author of it either a weak Statesman or a worse Subject For during their divisions it was our interest still to uphold the weaker side and hinder the other from setling Neither can any thing be more unseasonable then to exalt the rights of Sovereignty when a Traitor wields the Scepter It does but serve to fix the Crown upon the wrong Head to magnifie the Power of Kings when an Vsurper manages the Office It was an unlucky oversight in Mr. Howell to Christen this vindication of his Cordial SOBER INSPECTIONS If he had call'd it any thing else except S. P. Q. V. the Pamphlet might have liv'd and dyed free from that envy which commonly attends great Wits and Undertakings Not one of forty I dare almost swear but would have been content with the bare Title-page and never have turn'd the leaf but first to fob the poor Cavaliers with a Cordial like a whipp'd Posset that is all Froth and then to mend the matter by a sad tale in favour of it that wears a Title to give a Horse a Vomit This is not kindly done But that the world may not mistake I.H. for JAMES HOWEL the said JAMES HOWELL Esq in his Survey of VENICE dedicated to the SUPREME AUTHORITY of the Nation the PARLIAMENT of England in 1651. is clearly for a COMMON-WEALTH For says he were it within the reach of humane brain to prescribe rules for fixing a Society succession of people under the same Species of government as long as the world lasts the Republique of Venice were the fittest patern on earth both for Direction and Imitation And in the tender of his Republican Model to the Keepers of the Liberties he treats the mighty men in a stile of Reverence and Honour Most NOBLE SENATORS he begins and with a dignity befitting both the Presenter and the Present Thus he concludes Therefore most humbly under favour the Author deem'd it a piece of Industry not altogether unworthy to be presented unto that Noble Assembly by Their daily Orator HOWELL Now on the other side I.H. in his Epistle to the PROTECTOUR calls this same NOBLE ASSEMBLY a MONSTER and his HIGHNESS HERCULES for Quelling of it Yea such a Monster that was like to Gourmandize and devour all the Three Nations Who This I.H. was or That JAMES HOWELL belongs not to our Enquiry The Author of the Inspections says indeed very acutely There are more I.H's. then one and so say I there may be more Iames Howell's too But if the person now