themselves that they had erred with their Fathers the Power of that House concerning taking Men into Custody had not then nor to this Day has received an exact Adjustment and therefore wants not Precedents of the like Nature and if they were Arbitrary Orders they were such as had been executed by Parliaments many a fair Year before your Sires of the antient Kingdom of Scotland were born and since Orders of the same nature had been made by Parliaments in the times of our antient Kings these Orders might have been passed by and not branded with the reproachful Name of being Arbitrary 2. Tho we have supposed that the Commons might issue out those Orders yet they took none into Custody by such Orders but what might well be supposed guilty of Breaches of Privilege in the highest Degree the Truth is when Parliaments met annually or at least frequently we find few or no Complaints but when they were not frequent but there were long Intervals of Parliament the Consequence of which was long sitting which began within these two hundred Years there were some Complaints of the Breaches of Privilege as in the time of Hen. 8. the 4th of Edw. 6. and in the time of Q. Eliz. when the Justice of the Commons hath been applauded by our former Kings for asserting their Privileges and not stigmatized for exerting an Arbitrary Power 'T is true the most notorious thing that could be fixed upon that House was the Fees extorted by the Serjeant of the House who tho he attends the House of Commons yet he ought to have considered that he was the King's Officer and by Law no Officer of the King 's shall take any Fee or Reward for doing his Office but what he receives from the King upon Penalty of returning double to the Plaintiff and being further punished at the Will of the King but of this you and your Party took no notice because the then Serjeant was a Creature of your own tho I think he smarted for it and your Brother laughed at his Calamity in the Case of an Under-Sheriff of Norfolk Therefore I say that to assert that their Orders that were made for the taking Men into Custody were for Matters that had no relation to Privileges of Parliament was an impudent Lie for there were a Number of Men who to distinguish themselves from the rest of their Countrey had basely given their Hands for Abhorrences of Parliaments and of those who most humbly petitioned for their sitting in a time of such extream Necessity their Names I will give that you may put a Mark of Favour upon those of them that are alive whenever they shall have occasion to meet you at St. Germains You may remember that House did fall upon such as had countenanced the Popish Plot and were Abhorrers of petitioning for the sitting of Parliaments and voted that it was and ever had been the undoubted Right of the Subjects to petition the King for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments and Redress of Grievances and that to traduce such Petitioning as a Violation of Duty and to represent it to his Majesty as tumultuous and seditious is to betray the Liberty of the Subject and contributes to the subverting the antient and legal Constitution of this Kingdom and introducing Arbitrary Power The first that fell under these Votes was Withens that was knighted for his Abhorring and after made a Judg he was expelled the House and voted a Betrayer of the undoubted Rights of the Subjects of England and received his Sentence at the Bar of the House he is yet alive I suppose he and his Brother Jenner may set up at St. Germains for Expounders of our Law in good time The next was Sir George Jefferies then Recorder of London against whom they voted an Address to the King to remove him out of all publick Offices and that the Members which served for the City should communicate the Vote to the Court of Aldermen There were several others that upon the same Account were taken into Custody as Sir Giles Phillips Mr. Coleman Capt. William Castle Mr. John Hutchinson Mr. Henry Walrond Mr. William Stawel Mr. Thomas Herbert Mr. Sheridon and Parson Thompson of Bristol And because Sir Francis North the Chief Justice of the Common-pleas advised and assisted in drawing up a Proclamation against petitioning for the sitting of the Parliament the Commons voted it a sufficient Ground to proceed against him for high Crimes and Misdemeanours the like Vote passed against Sir Thomas Jones one of the Judges of the King's Bench and upon Sir Richard Weston one of the Barons of the Exchequer but they went higher with Scroggs for they impeached him of High Treason for discharging the Grand Jury of Middlesex before they had finished their Presentments and for the Order made in the King's-Bench against Care 's Pacquet of Advice from Rome That it should be no more printed or published by any Person Well Sir what say you now to these Vermine Those now alive are still the same Rogues and your very humble Servants and Admirers and I could wish you had them with you at St. Germains being pretty Company and worthy of your Favour indeed to give them their Due they have been pretty false in their Oaths to King William whom some of your Party stile Prince of Orange These were the Men that House of Commons did censure I pray Sir on with your Spectacles and see whether the Crimes they were guilty of had no Relation to Privileges of Parliaments surely your Friends when they charged the House of Commons with this Crime were not in good earnest if they were they shall have a Rowland for their Oliver I 'll be in good earnest too and let them know that if the Privileges of Parliament be concerned when an Injury is done to a particular Member how much more when they strike at Parliaments themselves and endeavour to wound the very Constitution Nay in the Case of Sheridon who afterwards troubled the Nation with a Litter of scandalous Pamphlets upon that Account 't is plain that his Commitment was only in order to examine him about the Popish Plot and his Endeavours to stifle it Do not you know that Sheridon Say you never did yet let me tell you it was you instructed him how he should behave himself to the House whose Behaviour indeed was with as much Contempt and Insolency as if you or your Father had been demanding some of the Members and therefore they had reason surely to commit him Thompson you know him too very well he was zealous in divers Breaches of Privilege to serve you and the Popish Party witness his Usage of poor Bedlow and the rest of the Discoverers of the Popish Plot yet his Commitment was only in order to an Impeachment and as soon as they had gone through with his Examination he was set at Liberty giving Security to answer the Impeachment they had voted against him But 3. What if the Matters
been naturally dead For if any of the young Fry had preached against it he was rebuked as too Pragmatical and Sawcy and truly so they were that presum'd to preach against a Religion your Brother and you had ventur'd Soul and Body to advance in order to pox the whole Nation both Men and Women for the French Disease was so Epidemical that a Man could scarce find fair Quarter no not in the-Church or Chancel unless he was of the French Interest Thus you may remember what Success attended your Design in proroguing the Parliament by which the Liberty of Conscience intended was defeated and how its Defeat with the Consequences thereof prospered upon your Hands But what signifies all this since there was a French Interest the Romish Religion and an Italian Comrade to support all So much for your second Reason for proroguing that Parliament 3. And lastly Your great Design in carrying on this Match by the Prorogation of the Parliament was to create a Jealousy between the King and them exasperating him with their Impertinency and by your prevailing with him to countenance that wicked Match you exasperated the Parliament against the King For tho that Parliament should for ever after that Match have denied to give Money yet you were so sure of the French King that you hoped by the help of his Forces to have brought Popery in upon us and with it Arbitrary Government the first of which your Popish Tools cried up as the best Religion and our High Church-Rogues in conjunction with them cried up the last as the best of Governments yet at the same time they would deny it to be practicable here unless it pleased God to find out some way for both these great Churches to unite together to suppress Phanaticism But the Parliament saw into your Game and observed your Steps You sunk much in their Opinion therefore you resolv'd they should sink in the King's Opinion which occasioned so many Prorogations when you and your Party had any Villany in hand I might have said more to this Point but that I have spoken to it in my First Part. Article XXVII YOUR Brother and you made a French-Man General of your Army to the great Dishonour of the English Nobility This French General was then Count Schomberg and one of the Mareschals of France and he was chosen to bear that Trust before many valuable Noblemen we had at that Day It 's true he was a great Souldier and worthy to have commanded a better Army than you had at Black-Heath but when he saw what Vermin you and your Crew had got together and that their Design was to plunder the City of London and not to fight against the Dutch he fairly quitted his Post and left you tho Sir it is not to be forgotten what Designs you would have engaged that Noble Person in for you proposed to your self and Friends that he being a French Man would have joined with you in the Design of Arbitrary Government but when the thing was put to him he abhorred it and would not therefore continue in the Command But what a Dishonour was this to the Nobility of England that not one of them could be found to take upon him such a Command 1. Were they such Cowards that they dare not undertake it Or 2. Were they so unskilful in the Affair that they could not with Honour do it Or 3. Was the Design so villanous that they were not to understand any part of it Were you-resolved upon the French Government Then Schomberg you judged would join with you in that Affair Or were you resolved that Popery should proceed Then you had the Judicious Major General Fitzgerald that was to have done it I believe Sir you despaired of any of our Noblemen joining with you in these two Parts of your Design Popery and Arbitrary Power and therefore sought for other Persons that might give better hopes of approving themselves fit for your turn which turned to an ill Accompt for it bred ill Blood in the Nobility against you and your villanous Party Article XXVIII YOUR Brother and you oppressed the Kingdom of Scotland in order to ruin the Protestant Interest there Be pleased Sir to call to mind that when in the Year 1660 it pleased God to restore your Brother to the Throne in that Antient Kingdom the news of it was grateful to that People hoping his Restoration would prove a great Blessing and Comfort to them and he had been so if you and your wicked Party had let him taken such Measures as would have settled that Kingdom in Peace and Quietness There are several Particulars relating to that Kingdom worthy your Consideration and supposing you may by Mrs. Abigail's leave have now some time of thinking I pray remember 1. Upon your Brother's Restoration notwithstanding the Troubles and hard Usage the Scots had met with from your Father which cost him his Life at long-run and from Monk who for several Years had acted the part of a Tyrant in his Government of that Kingdom yet they took no advantage of these Miscarriages but with all chearfulness put their Necks under your Brother's Yoke of Absolute Prerogative of chusing all Officers of State Counsellors and Judges in making War and Peace and calling and dissolving Parliaments and Conventions of State It is well known how they had been provoked to renounce your Father's Government and put themselves under the Protection of some other Prince and might have defeated your Brother's Pretensions to that Kingdom since he renounced the Covenant he swore to maintain But they forgot all this and gladly received him their King and for Peace sake parted with many Immunities which that Kingdom antiently had hoping thereby to have engaged him to be a Nursing Father to their Church as then constituted according to the Examples of the Reformers and as they judged to the Word of God 2. You cannot but remember that this was not the only Demonstration of the great Loyalty of that People For tho it is well known that a limited Power in the Prince and the support of it by the Peoples Purse was the just Ballance of the Government of that and all other Kingdoms yet forgetting all Differences in your Father's Reign they testified an affectionate Zeal to your Brother in making the Revenue above double what your Father or he possessed and had they given themselves up to an intire Vassalage he could scarce have desired such a Bounty nay he thought it such a piece of exuberant Liberality that he was pleased to declare it was enough and that he would have no more Yet the Commissioners that held the Parliaments notwithstanding the King was sensible of the greatness of their Benevolence have drawn forth several Taxes pretending the King 's great Necessities even beyond the Ability of that People 3. They also complied with the desire of your Brother by your procurement to submit to the Bondage and Slavery of a villanous standing Army which
Justice which are Officina Legis and particularly of the High Court of Parliament so called from Parlerlament speaking judicially his Mind And amongst others he gives us the following Law of K. Alfred who reigned in 880 and ordained for a Usage perpetual That twice a Year or oftner if need be in time of Peace they shall assemble themselves at London to treat in Parliament of the Government of the People of God how they should keep themselves from Offences should live in quiet and should receive Right by certain Laws and holy Judgments And thus saith this Great Coke you have the Law of K. Alfred as well concerning the holding this Court of Parliament here every Year at the City of London as to manifest the threefold End of this Great and Honourable Assembly 1. That Men might be kept from offending that is that Offences might be prevented both by good and provident Laws and by the due Execution of them Truly Sir here is Grief in one Hand and Sorrow in the other for your Brother and you you hated the one and despised the other Provident Laws you hated as much as you did an honest Woman and the other you despised as much as you did an honest Man And you were never more at ease than when thrô the want of a good Law or so you and your Party were not only emboldned but enabled to do Mischief 2. That all Men might live safely and quiet This is another End of Parliament Old Wright your quondam Justice of the Kings-Bench used to say That the Man that resigned himself up to the Will of his Prince was always safe and quiet But yet that Loggerhead of a Judg with Old Hodg and all his Inferior Crew could never find one such Saying in the Reports or Institutes of Judg Coke for the Saying was so silly that a Man must have judged it to have been his own unless he had humbly borrowed that wise Saying from Sir your sweet understanding Self for he understood as little of the Design and End of a Parliament as your self The Wretch is gone to his Place but as for Law and Parliaments no Man no not Jenner himself understood less than his Worship 3. That all Men might receive Justice by certain Laws and Holy Judgments not by Proclamations or French Edicts as you and your Brother did design but by certain Laws to the end Justice might be the better administred that Questions and Defects in Laws might be by the High Court of Parliament explained and reduced to certainty Your Brother and you if you had understood this would not have sent for a set of Rogues clothed in Purple to have gained their Opinion about suspending the Penal Laws against a parcel of Papists and Popish Priests no you would have applied your selves to Parliament to have explained the difficult and dark Parts of the Laws in force against those Men but you loved Darkness and dark Judges and therefore what you did was dark for Sir your Brother and you little thought and believed that the High Court of Parliament was the Supream Court of the Realm and that it was a part of the Frame of the Common Laws and that in some Cases Parliaments do proceed legally according to the Course of the Common Laws Had your Brother or you understood or believed the Antiquity of Parliaments you would not have preferred a Privy Council before them nor if you had valued the Dignity of Parliaments would you have preferred the Opinion of a parcel of Lambskin Rogues before a plain and positive Law nor if you had learned the Sovereign Jurisdiction of Parliaments would you have followed the Advice and Direction of your villanous Ministers of State tho against the Fundamental Constitution of the Government I wonder you did not take the Villains along with you to St. Germains your Ministers Judges and your Counsellors Learned in the Law your Wrights Jenners Miltons Withers Sawyers and the rest of the Hellish Crew I do not name them all but you might have had the Honesty not to have left them to disgrace their Profession which is well improved since I saw you last and to have procured an Apartment for them that your Ministers might have thought upon some better Politicks and your Roguy Judges and Lawyers might have understood the Law a little better than scribere est agere If that Bird had been but hang'd up in a Cage in your Presence-Chamber he would have sung another Tune For all his Brave-alls he and the rest of his Crew might have found some Expedient or another to have helped you to some other Kingdom since by the Law of some of them and the Politicks of others they fairly walked you out of three Kingdoms at once I do not see any great Reformation of their Manners or any great Improvement they have made of their Law since you was graciously pleased to take up your Residence at St. Germains and if you had taken the Vermin along with you there might have been a parcel of Dragoons that might have drub'd them to their Books so that by their Scribere's and Agere's they might have found some convenient Government for you which they might have kept you in to better purpose than did by their Law and Counsel keep you here Nay if you had advanced them a little above their Neighbours they might have seen the difference between a Declaration of Indulgence and a Statute-Law for Liberty of Conscience and between an Act of Parliament and a Proclamation A good Whip dear Sir would have been of admirable Use and Instruction for it would have made them to understand and they would have told you tho somewhat too late 1. That Parliaments are part of the Frame of the Common Law which is founded on the Law and Light of Nature right Reason and Scripture 2. That according to this Law of Equity and Righteousness Parliaments ought freely to meet for the Common Peace Safety and Benefit of the People and Support of the Government 3. That Parliaments have been all along esteemed the Essential Part of the Government as being the most Antient Honourable and Sovereign Court in the Nation which ought frequently to meet and sit for the making and abolishing of Laws redressing Grievances and to see to the due Administration of Justice 4. That as to the Place of the meeting it ought to be at London not at New-Market at London not at Windsor at London not at St. Germains because London is the Capital City the Eye and Heart of the Nation as being not only the Royal Seat but the principal Place of Judicature and Residence of the chief Officers and Courts of Justice where also the Records are kept as well as the principal Place of Commerce and Concourse in the Nation and to which the People may have the best Recourse and where they may find the best Accommodation 5. They would have instructed you in the Antiquity of Parliaments which have been so