We Humbly pray his Highness in stead of the Liberty held forth by his Invasion to afford us the liberty of believing our own Eyes before the repetitions of his Historical Pen-men and to think we actually enjoy our Religion and our Laws as much as they would persuade us there is no such thing in England But thô our Case were as deplorable as their frightful Idea would make it what Remedy can we hope from the Declaration All Human Affairs are subject to the miscarriages inseparable from Human Nature When they happen among us the Wisdom of our Nation has always thought the best way of Redress is by Parliament But we could never think knocking out Mens Brains a proper remedy for miscariages about Religion nor plundring and burning apt to set right the sway'd Law. And we again pray his Highness rather to let us alone in our Misery than make us happy this way For as we are made the Happiness would be incomparably the more unsupportable Misery After all what would his Highness have done in the Case and what can be done more than to leave none of those things in being of which he complain'd And so much his Highness owns was done before he set Sail from Holland The Ecclesiastical Commission was broken the Suspension of the Bishop of London taken off Magdelene College restored Chancellors and Archdeacons discharged of their attendance Lord-Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants and the rest replaced and Charters returned As it is palpable that his Highness comes not to redress things which he knew were redress'd already it is palpable that we have Reasons of his coming alledged which are not his Reasons and too much ground to argue from one to all and conclude we have not one true Reason offered but are amused with pretences apt to work upon us but which no way move his Highness There is mention besides of Popish Chappels and Schools and Commissions all three consequences of Liberty of Conscience People cannot exercise their Religion without places in which to exercise it neither is there any complaint of the Meeting places of their fellow Dissenters nor can I understand why his Highness excepts against their Chappels who Declares he will not except them from the Liberty of Conscience Again Parents always breed up their Children in their own way And if Papists be not allow'd Schools at home they will be sent abroad to spend there what it were more for the benefit of the Nation should be laid out here and besides be train'd up to Foreign Customs and perhaps Foreign Principles not so grateful to the Nation whereas here they might be watcht But cannot the King and Parliament compose this matter without Bloodshed Is the Question whether a Boy shall go to School in England or Flanders so very material and so very intricate that nothing but Arms can decide it As for their Commissions it stands not with Nature that a King should not chuse some of his own way to trust with Commissions when he is persuaded he lawfully may With all my Heart I wish that the greater readiness and greater fidelity of others in the defence of their Prince and Country may convince him and all the World that he has made an ill choice But to see whither Exaggeration will go All Matters of Civil Iustice according to the Declaration are brought to great Vncertainties Evil Councellors â—â—ndered Masters of the Affairs of the Church the Government of the Nation and the Course of Iustice and all by these Commissions to Papists And yet all this signifies barely three or four Judges at most some Justices of Peace and some Officers in the Army Can a few and those puny Judges for there are no other master the Courts of Justice Can a few Officers most Subalterns with Soldiers not one to fifty of their Religion master the Affairs of the Church and enslave a Nation In which if all the Papists were armed and the rest naked their Pikes and Muskets could not defend them against a Volley of Stones Can Matters of Civil Justice be brought to great Uncertainties by the incapacity of Papists who have no incapacity upon them The Law indeed forbids them to be employed but if they be there is no invalidity laid upon their Acts. And for Military Incapacity if the Law had put it his Highness has dispens'd with it for an Invasion capacitates every body to save his Country as Fire breaking out to save his House But 't is incomprehensible that the Irish should be mentioned and the danger in which the Nation is of Slavery from them who if his Highness had not brought them in had never been here to fright us At worst the King's Subjects sure may be as safely here as absolute Foreigners and if Strangers tho' Subjects be inconsistent with our Freedom 't is certain that whatever be the business of his Highnesses Army our Freedom is not And this appears the more the farther we go All His Majesties Dominions are taken presently after into the care of his Highness and 't is represented as a dismal Matter that Papists are employed in Ireland and that the King's Power is in Scotland declared Absolute and Subjects to obey without Reserve Now these are the very words of a Law enacted in Scotland by a very free Parliament held under a Commissioner upon whom there never sell any imputation of Popery His Highness is sparing in this Point It is said farther by the Parliament That the Blessings of Scotlandâ— are next to God owing to the uninterrupted Line of the Kings and to that solid absolute Authority and that their Kings are invested with it by the first and fundamental Laws of their Monarchy But Parliaments it seems must exercise no freedom but according to the pleasure of a supervising Foreign Sword though I should think it somthing early to declare it In Ireland the Laws exclude not Papists from Employments and 't is again referr'd to the Conscience of his Highness Whether he would think it reasonable his Neighbours should exclaim and inflame the People against him for disposing Employments as the Law allows and themselves resolve the Matter to be so heinously unjust that any of them has right to revenge it upon his Country with the Miseries of War Who shall hope to please his Highness when he thinks fit at once to dislike breaking Laws in England making them in Scotland and keeping them in Ireland But these unsufferable Oppressions have put the Subjects under just Fears and made them look after such lawful Remedies as are allow'd of in all Nations I hope his Highness does not mean rising in Arms against their King and calling in Foreign Enemies by lawful Remedies Whatever other Nations do ours allows this for nothing but Treason and Rebellion nor I much suspect any Nation in the World besides And yet those lawful Remedies must sure be Remedies not authorized by Law for the Declaration makes such means barr'd by evil Counsellors The Instance is
Devilishness of that Conspiracy And is what was Black and Horrid then become Noble Great Generous and Glorious now Thus much was also a part of the late Duke of Monmouth's Declaration and yet a Parliament chosen by the Garbled Corporations proclaim'd him a Traitor and Attainted him But doth the Blood of Monmouth as well as of the forementioned Conspirators and of all those in the West lye on the Iudges Iuries Nobility and other Gentry of the Church of England that had a hand in condemning such as by violent Methods would have restor'd the Charters If these things could not vindicate the Presbyterian Plotters in the late King's Reign or Monmouth's Rebellion it cannot excuse the present Undertaking for this doth infinitely exceed these and the late Civil War too for neither of them brought in a Foreign Power upon us as now is done But it must be observed that how great soever our Grievances have been yet now all that Relief can reasonably be desired is granted us The Ecclesiastical Commission actually broken up the Bishop of London the Master and Fellows of Magdalen Colledge and the Ancient Charters of Cities and Burroughs actually restored all things on the ancient Bottom for the Calling a Free Parliament which His Majesty would have done before this time had not the Prince of Orange hindred him and as soon as the Prince of Orange departs the King will call one whereby all the Prince's Pretensions are taken away and nothing more remains for him to do but to return home or contend for the Crown Yet the Prince would have us believe that though he is not satisfied with this yet he intends no such thing as the Crown or a Conquest of us as appears by his Highnesses Additional Declaration His Highnesses Additional Declaration AFter we had prepared and printed this our Declaration wee have understood that the subverters of the Religion and Lawes of those Kingdomes hearing of our preparations to assist the People against them have begun to retract some of the Arbitrary and Despotick powers that they had assumed and to vacate some of their Injust Judgments and Decrees The sense of their Guilt and the distrust of their force have induced them to offer to the City of London some seeming releefe from their Great Oppressions hoping thereby to quiet the People and to divert them from demanding a Re-establishment of their Religion and Laws under the shelter of our Arms They do also give out that we do intend to Conquer and Enslave the Nation And therefore it is that we have thought fit to adde a few words to our Declaration We are Confident that no persons can have such hard thoughts of us as to imagine that we have any other Designe in this Undertaking then to procure a settlement of the Religion and of the Liberties and Properties of the subjects upon so sure a Foundation that there may be no danger of the Nations relapsing into the like miseries at any time hereafter And as the forces that we have brought along with us are utterly disproportioned to that wicked Design of Conquering the Nation if wee were capable of Intending it so the Great Numbers of the Principal Nobility and Gentry that are Men of Eminent Quality and Estates and persons of known Integrity and Zeal both for the Religion and Government of England many of them being also distinguished by their Constant fidelity to the Crown who do both accompany us in this Expedition and have earnestly solicited us to it will cover us from all such Malicious Insinuations For it is not to be imagined that either those who have Invited us or those that are already come to assist us can joyn in a wicked attempt of Conquest to make void their own lawful Titles to their Honours Estates and Interests Wee are also Confident that all men see how little weight there is to be laid on all Promises and Engagements that can be now made since there has been so little regard had in time past to the most solemne Promises And as that Imperfeit redresse that is now offered is a plain Confession of those Violations of the Government that we have set forth so the Defectiveness of it is no lesse Apparent for they lay down nothing which they may not take up at Pleasure and they reserve entire and not so much as mentioned their claimes and pretences to an Arbitrary and Despotick power which has been the root of all their Oppression and of the total subversion of the Government And it is plain that there can be no redresse nor Remedy offered but in Parliament by a Declaration of the Rights of the Subjects that have been invaded and not by any Pretended Acts of Grace to which the extremity of their affairs has driven them Therefore it is that we have thought fit to declare that we will refer all to a Free Assembly of the Nation in a Lawful Parliament Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague the 24. day of October in the year of our Lord 1688. WILLIAM HENRY PRINCE OF ORANGE By his Highnesses special Command C HUYGENS. THis Addition doth very fully unfold the Design the Prince will abide amongst us with a Foreign Power and make the Choice of a Parliament impracticable and therefore the Call of one a weak and foolish thing and yet oblige us to distrust every Promise the King makes us lesning what is done and insinuating that all things shall be soon undone And why all these Insinuations but to help us to Unravel the whole Intreague which if it be not for the Crown must be thus The Dutch knowing how the Prince hath ravished from them their Liberties and Priviledges and what danger they are in of being utterly undone if Liberty of Conscience be settled amongst us in England Precipitate the Prince on this Hazardous Undertaking not doubting but they shall be either delivered from the Princes Exercise of a Despotick Power over them or spoil our Liberty to the Continuance and Advance of their own Trade which may be the Reason why in the Entrance into the Declaration what relates to Religion is so worded as to gain the Bishops over to them the more eâ—sily to effect their Design for says the Declaration the Alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced it is not said that the Popish Religion but a Religion contrary to the Law and it 's well known that the Laws are against the Religion of the Dissenters and the Prince's Endeavour shall be to preserve and maintain above all the Religion and Worship of God that is Established amongst us which cannot be understood of the Worship the Dissenters use but of the Hierarchical way that is as contrary to the Prince's own Religion as 't is to that of the Dissenters in England And to perswade the Church men to close with him he Declares That he was most earnestly solicited to come over
them After all were our Case as bad as the Declaration represents it How comes his Highness to be concern'd in it It is in his own words certain and evident to all Men that Sovereign States whether Monarchies or Commonwealths are independent and have no Right to interpose otherwise than by friendly Offices in one anothers Affairs but violate the Laws of Nations as often as they do Every Government holds within itself all those who are concern'd in the Redress of Abuses when they happen and the Laws inform us who they are Nor is any thing more inconsistent with Government than the interposition of Foreign Powers nor more deeply resented by the Laws of all Nations than abetting of it Turn the Tables and let all these dismal Stories as som perhaps are be told of Holland and be never â—o true I refer it to all Mankind to Holland to his Highness himself whether the King of England would not pass for a very bad Neighbour and a very bad Man if he should take the cognizance from the States and himself compose their Disorders by War The immediate Concern insinuated relates I suppose to the prospect of Succession to which if the calamities of War be the proofs of his tender Affection to our Nation it will soon wish the Right of his Highness were farther removed than it is thô it has now pleased God the Right should not be immediate even in his Royal Consort But the most immediate Right to Succeed is no Right to intermeddle before the Succession falls I am Successor to my Father but cannot therefore dispose of his Estate chuse his Tenants for him and appoint what Covenants he shall make in his Leases any more than a stranger to his Bloud And yet it follows that upon these Ground his Highness can no longer forbear to Declare that Counsellors in chief Credit with the King have openly overturned Religion and the Laws and subjected them in all things relating to Conscience Liberty and Property to Arbitrary Government If these were the true Grounds of his Highness he could as little forbear to Declare against many perhaps all Nations in which there are more rational and more real causes of complaint to be found by one who would look after them But put it to Mankind and all Mankind must Declare that these Grounds are no Grounds and which no party will allow to justify another which disturbs them 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 Neighbours and that there has been no proceeding against a single Man but for his single Misdemeanor and this not by Arbitrary but Legal Power And then to asperse His Majesty with overturning all Laws under the name of Evil Counsellors Why let His Counsellors be never so bad they are worse whose Service his Highness has used in Penning this Declaration Men whose Brains reach no farther than to Copy from their Rebellious Ancestors of 41 by whose example it is too sadly known whom they meant by Evil Counsellors and what they intended to do with Him. And yet his Highness leads his Name to such Men and giving Credit to such Counsellors himself talks of Evil Counsellors in Credit with the King. To these general Premises the Declaration adds a List of particulars whereof the first is the Dispensing Power And this his Highness takes the pains to moot and tell us how far it goes and where it must stop and that a Sentence has been obtained for it from the Judges Those Judges should in reason understand the Matter better than those on whose Information his Highness has thought fit to relye As I take it for a Parliamentary Business I leave it untoucht to the Wisdom of a Parliament believing all I can say will be said and considered there and resolving to acquiesce in their determination In the mean time How does this justifie Foreign Arms Here is the Case Kings are not bred at the Inns of Court but must trust Lawyers for Law as well as Physicians for Physick The oppression of Conscience-Laws deafens His Majesties Ears with perpetual Complaints and His tenderness of His Subjects prompts Him to relieve them He adviseth with those of the Profession and they inform Him He may by His Dispensing Power relieve them Legally and he does it Every body is not content and he refers the whole to a publick Legal Tryal Pray what better or other Advice could his Highness have given What could he do more himself if it had been his own Case And if I may be so bold Does he always do so much Unfortunate Majesty and Unfortunate Mankind If every Nation must be justly liable to the calamities of War in which a King happens to have a Counsellor who in point of a Law of his own Country differs in Opinion from a Prince of another Upon this Point it is further Declared that these Evil Counsellors secretly examined the Opinions of the Iudges and procured such to be turn'd out as could not in Conscience concur in their pernicious Sentence Why then those bad Counsellors were not bad enough to desire Men should Act against their Conscience and the pernicious Sentence was given according to Conscience But this again is His Highnesses Case He has the nomination of Men to Employments as well as the King And I humbly refer it to his Conscience whether before he nominate he do not satisfy himself that his Nominê be a Man on whom he may rely for the Service which he expects from him Is it justice to fall out with the King for doing what he does Himself and all Princes in the World and all private Men who have Employments at their disposal After minding us that we have a Crowned King and have had Laws enacted in England for preservatiou of our Rights Liberties and Religion The Declaration repeats again that Evil Counsellors have in effect annulled all those Laws contrary to the Kings Promise and Oath Strange descant upon this short plain Song The King has Dispenc'd with one Law and that in the interval of Parliament from which he promises Himself it will be taken away and which the Parliament design'd by his Highness as free as it shall be we find by the Declaration must take away and this upon Information which he had reason to trust that he might according to Law. Will the Rhetorick of his Highnesses Pen-men make this pass for a breach of Promise and Oath for annulling and abolishing all Laws when we see with our Eyes the establisht Religion actually maintained and assist every day at the Divine Service of it when we see the Judges Sit and Suitors obtain effectual Decrees and Sentences from them and effectual execution elsewhere when we see no Dispensation nor Inclination to it in any thing save in relief of an Oppression which the whole Nation as far as I perceive consents should not be continued