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A26755
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A dialogue between a modern courtier and an honest English gentleman to which is added the author's dedication to both Houses of Parliament, to whom he appeals for justice / by Samuel Baston.
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Baston, Samuel.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing B1056; ESTC R37087
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24,574
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43
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VVhy not about Popery They only consist of Pure Downright Cheating the Publick And Sir to our Eternal Shame and Infamy I must tell you That multitudes of Poperies Zealous and Mortal Enemies are Dear and Intimate Friends to this Nay to speak in General there are few Men but what will much rather chuse to take Part in it than make Complaint against it for indeed the Nation is miserably Debauch'd by the horrid Nasty Fogs and Fumes of the Courts unsavoury Noysome Lusts But now after all this Mighty Hate to Popery and Love to Cheating the Consequence of both is much alike For if our Present Grievances viz. Cheating the Puhlick be well follow'd the People will soon be made Beggars and Bankrupts and then Poverty and Slavery will be found as True and Proper a Saying as Popery and Slavery And therefore to Speak in your own Stile I think there 's many that do well deserve the Character of Sleepy Senceless Sots and Fools But especially those Great Ones that have got Vast Estates by Fraud Treachery c. Sure they are Besotted with a WITNESS Fondly to Fancy that they shall hold their Ill-got-Goods by Vertue of those Wholesome Laws that they have Constantly broke to Get them This I say is a strange Paradox And now pray Who wou'd you have to omplain of Grievances and especially of these sort of Grievances that are so generally Belov'd by those that shou'd Redress them You see a very considerable part of the Nation are Silent for Reasons I spoke of just now and as for the Popularity or Middle sort viz. Traders Husbandmen c. who are the Main Body of the People they know their Grievances in General but can tell nothing in Particular where to fix the Fault and so cannot Complain but only Grumble Mutter and Murmur And now if a Self-interested Man won't Complain and if an Ignorant Man can't Complain and if a Wise and Honest Man that knows the Strength and Power of the Corrupt Party dare not Complain Pray Who wou'd you have to Complain at all Certainly 't is so far from being strange as you say that so few have Complain'd That 't is a great wonder to me how any have had so much GRACE or COVRAGE to open their Mouths against Corruption For who d'think shou'd Complain of a Vniversal and Gainful Grievance You see the Destruction of our Coyn went forward all this Reign and had even just destroy'd the Government before our Long-Headed-Statesmen did take the Pains to put King or Parliament in Mind to Redress it This cou'd not possibly be through Ignorance no there was too much Money got by the Evil and when the Trade cou'd be carried on no longer Then they all Cry'd out like Patriots of their Countrey to have it Redress'd So that for this Branch of the Nations Ruin we may also Thank the Court and Pray God we get well over it These are all Miserable and Destructive Evils that this Poor Nation at present Staggers under only for want of the Early Constant and Impartial Execution of Justice to Encourage Virtue and Suppress Vice But it seems this has been contrary to the deep Maxims of our Pollicy and so has hitherto been omitted And thus I think I have shew'd you why so few have Publickly Complain'd tho' the Nation is so Loaded with Grievances But I had almost forgot one Party and that is the Jacobites and I hope you wou d not have them Complain against these Grievances no they had much rather forward them For 't is upon these Shameful Corruptions they build their Hopes and for which they Contemn and Scoff at the Government in all Publick Places and Encrease their Party by many Proselytes For no Honest Man is capable to Contradict them being able to say nothing that is Good of the Court Whereas had Justice been duly Administred and Vice and Wickedness Punished and Suppress'd which we had and have Power enough to do there cou'd not have been at this day a Protestant Jacobite left in the Nation For the Justice and Equity of the Government must needs long before this have Brought them all over from Stubborn Folly and made them Proselytes to their own Interest and to Common Sence as well as Loving and Loyal Subjects to His Majesty And now Sir since you have Ask'd me several Questions I shall beg leave Calmly to Ask you one and that is Pray to what end were your Honours and Employments Conserr'd upon you Were they d'think only to get a Great Estate to leave to your Posterity Certainly the Duty 's Incumbent on such Offices cannot have so poor a Center but must aim at much Higher and Nobler Objects if a Man wou'd rightly consider them But I shall not detain you at present with an Account how Great and Extensive they are not doubting your Knowledge therein however in point of Friendship I cannot but put you in Mind That as a Privy-Councellor you have Power to Administer Justice but no Power to Obstruct it You have Power to put the Law in Execution but you have no Power to Pervert it or render it useless You have power to punish any Capital Publick Offender but you have no Power to Conceal his Crimes Protect him and let him Escaps Punishment For in doing it you betray the King and take from Him His Regal Power and Rob the People of their Laws and Liberties For you are to consider that in hearing the Crimes of a Publick Offender your Power only extends to Hear and Examine that Cause in Trust for your King and Country that Law and Justice may take place and a Lord Chief Justice may as lawfully presume to Pardon MURDER or Forgive one of my Debtors or a Justice of Peace to Compound that Fellony whereby I am Robb'd as you to Protect or Acquit any Publick Offender In short In all your publick Stations you 'r only a Trustee for your Prince and Country to promote the Interest of both and you are Answerable to both in this World as well as to God in the next how you Discharge these Trusts and I fear many MEN have most Dreadful Reckonings to make on this Account Therefore Sir I do Earnestly Advise you to take a Resolution to Save your Self from the Terrible Burden of this Guilt and Rouse a Noble English Genius and stand up for the Honour of God and the Good of your Prince and Country whose true Interests are Inseparable that Justice may be Administred Vertue Incourag'd and Vice and Wickedness Punish`d and Suppress`d For if you Sincerely Study True Pollicy God will surely Instruct and put you in the Right Way Otherwise you may still Continue to Wander as you have Hitherto done But after all do not Entertain any fond opinion that a Private Company of Men can possibly hold their Riches in the midst of a Ruin'd Nation No Certainly they must be Ruin'd also For if there 's any Law that will do their business if not They 'l only have the pleasure of being Plunder'd last by an Inrag'd and Furious Popularity For as 't is said in Job Fire shall Consume the Tabernacles of Bribery If God has said it We may affirm it and Pawn our Lives and Souls 't will be done if Attonement be not made FINIS Printed in the Year 1696.
Council of Trade was excellently propos'd at first to the Parliament But the Interest of the Court quickly beat out it's Brains and from this Establishment I doubt little good will arise my reasons for it are these First They do not understand Trade 't is Forreign to them and out of their sphere Secondly I cannot but observe that the Major part of these persons are the same that sit in Council and from time to time have heard the Crimes of the Admiralty and Navy and wanted no Power to redress those Grievances there So that the Regulation is no more than removing these Gentlemen from one Room to another as the Barons of the Exchequer pass from the Law to the Chancery side now certainly if I am a Corrupt or Ignorant Man in the Parlour I am the same in the Dineing Room Put Sir there you flatly Arraign the very Wisdom of the Government G. Yes certainly and their honesty too if by the Government you mean the Court or else what d' think I have been talking of all this while or how is it possible I could speak at all of any publick Grievances unless I Arraign'd both without you would have me say we are all Ruin'd and at the same time affirm that no body did it But I must beg your patience a little further because you did as it were Challenge me to give you some Instances of Corruption C. Sir Then you may proceed if you please I am sorry to hear so much tho I think none of it do's Actually relate to me for I 'm sure I always did what I cou'd G. Why then in the next place I shall give you some Account of the Commissioners for taking Care of Sick and Wounded Seamen and Exchanging Prisoners of War and these you will also find to be a wretched Pack For one of their Clerks who laid down his Employment has prov'd Notorious Crimes against them as holding a Pernitious and Unlawful Correspondence with the French all this War So that there has been an open and quick passage to give Intelligence to the Enemy of all our Affairs and Designs and to betray the Kings Councils from time to time also he has prov'd that they have Cheated the King in their Accounts and Cheated the poor Sick and Wounded Seamen in Plymouth Hospital out of their Provisions and that they have all along Cheated the Poor French Prisoners under their Care out of part of their Allowance and treated them in a very Barbarous manner For it seems their whole Allowance was but four pence each Man a day and they deducted three farthings out of that four pence It was also prov'd that the French Intendant General Marine writ diverse doleful Letters of Complaint to these Commissioners telling them how Barbarously and inhumanely the poor French Prisoners were us'd whereby many of them Perished And that he had Orders from the French King to use our English Prisoners in like manner if it was not rectify'd But no Regulation being made but the Evil rather Increasing was the true Cause that the French have all along us'd our poor English Captives in such a dreadful and Barbarous Manner For by reason of their Miserable short allowance and lying diverse Months in Filthy and Loathsome Prisons and others by being driven like Gally Slaves several hundred Miles Naked through the Country I say from these Causes many hundreds of them have Perished and many Familys have thereby been brought to utter Ruin Nay these Men have Committed Murther on both sides of the Water For besides the English they have basely and Cruelly destroy'd many of the poor French prisoners which doubtless is no less Murther in the Sight of God notwithstanding the War These and Diverse other Crimes were Examin'd and prov'd before the Admiralty by the Kings Special Order above two years since and a Report thereof was made to his Majesty and Carry'd by the Admiralty to the Cabinet-Council but the Matter was so manag'd that the Report was Stifled and not Read to the King so that the Commissioners upon their Petition were granted a Re-hearing before the Council in Publick where these Matters were Fully Prov'd over again but the business was delay'd from time to time till the King was gone for Flanders so that the Report of the Council was also kept from his Majesty and how that Report was afterwards curry'd in his Majestys absence I know not but this I know the Commissions are still in their places with power to pursue their Villainy so that what I told you just now appears again to be true That Satan cannot Cast out Satan There may many things more be said of these Mens horrid Wickedness as their destroying the poor Sick and Wounded Seamen with bad Medicines for the Lucre of gain which with many other Crimes were fully prov'd against them before the Comissioners for Stateing the publick Accounts where some Witnesses they brought appear'd most Willfully and Notoriously perjur'd and Escap'd punishment But for a more plain and particular Information herein I shall refer you to a Book Printed and Publish'd last year by the Person that brought the Complaint against these Men and Dedicated to the house of Peers It is Entituled Bastons Case for so was the Clerks Name or a Brief Account of the Evil Practices of the present Commissioners for Sick and Wounded as they were prov d. 1 st Before the Lords of the Admiralty 2 ly Before the Lords of the Council and 3 ly Before the Commissioners for Stateing the publick â—counts For there is Contain d the Admiraltys and Councills Report and there the Crimes of these Commissioners for Sick and Wounded lye barefac'd to the World And now Certainly it would Stir up a Mans Zeal for the publick good if he did but Consider in what Jeopardy and peril the poor Saylor Serves his King and Country For besides the hazard of his Life in open Fight if he continues in the Kings Service without being Sick or Wounded or Taken by the Enemy why then he 's lyable to be Query'd or Run'd out of his pay or oblig'd for Necessity to sell his Ticket for half loss or more to some of those Cursed Monsters call'd Ticket-buyers who as it has appear'd too plain are but Deputy's or Journy-men to the Navy-Board If he is set on Shoar Sick and Fresh dyet and Broath will not Cure him why then he runs a great hazard of being Poyson'd with his Physick but if he recovers 't is ten to one but he 's prick'd Run And if he 's taken by the Enemy 't is a great Chance if ever he returns to his Native Country Certainly it must ere long be Counted hard Measure that for such petty Retail Robbery and Murther as taking away a small Matter upon the Road or for killing another in a Duel for an Injury receiv'd that a Man shou'd be hang'd like a Dog When such wholesale Murtherers and Robbers as these are protected and Flourish in their Villainy