quarter of the Suâ— he was to have had for that Affair and much less the Expences he had been at And that now at last he had lost his dear Life for serving his Majesty by which sad disaster she and her Family being ruin'd and reduc'd to misery and great want she therefore humbly besought his Majesty if he would be pleas'd to do nothing else for her that he would order her the payment of her Husband's Arrears c. To which Petition my Lord this Court Reply'd That Mr. Coleman her Husband had had more Mony from them than he deserv'd That he had been a false inconstant Rascal and had brought himself to that shameful end by his own Folly and Knavery having had the impudence to threaten his Majesties Embassador to turn Cat in Pan c. That his Majesty had nothing to say to her and would not give her one Farthing which surly Answer so thunder-struck the Poor Woman that she return'd over into England so enrag'd and in such a dreadful Fit of Despair that she miserably cut her own Throat at her Lodging in London which relation and Coppy of the Petition I had delivered me by an English Priest who was Coleman's Wife's Confessor and which after I had Transcrib'd it I delivered to the English E to be sent to King Charles the Ild. that he might see how his Brother's Creatures served him but how he represented it is beyond my knowledge to tell I have been tedious and am affraid troublesome to your Lordship by a long Epistle but the Curiosities whereof the various parts of it are Composed will I hope be as powerful a lenitiue against any Displeasure I may have incurred from your Lordship as they have been incitatives for me to write it who am My Lord Your most humble and most obedient Servant Paris Apr. â— 1683. N. St. LETTER LXVIII Of the Marquess de Louvois's being in England several times in King Charles the II. Reign and about what Business My Lord IN my last to your Lordship I have given some intimations concerning the Dukes being in France and Closetted by the French King and of Mr. Coleman's Negotiations and imbroylments with this Court together with his Wifes Calamitous life and Tragical death which I believe were wholly new to you And I cannot think but that of the Marquess de Louvois our great Minister of State here his being again and again in England and Closetted there with the King and Duke must be equally strange and surprizing to you but tho it be a secret I verily believe to all other persons on your side except the two foremention'd persons yet it is not so entirely such here especially in our Office that he has been wanting sometimes and hardly any of his Family knew what was become of him is most certain and upon such occasions it was sometimes given out he was indispos'd in the Country sometimes that he was sent into Handers Alsatia c. whether he afterwards went actually with so much expedition tho he rode in a â—â—tter that his Journeys into â—â—â—land were never perceiv'd I find two several occasions wherein he was Closetted 1. About a year before the breaking out of the second Dutch War when he was sent particularly to help the King and his Brother to concert the Preparations for and manner of Carrying on that War 2. To concert measures how to stave off the effects of the Popish Plot by remitting of Mony to dissolve Parliaments and by other methods when they saw they were carrying things farther then the French Interest required to have them driven but upon condition the two Brothers should not depart from their Interests for the future To complot measures how to ensnare the Protestant Party and especially the high Patriots in a Plot that should quite extinguish the Popish one and give the Duke of York opportunity to cut off all those who stood in the way between him and the Crown and between the Crown and absolute Power All which Closettings have been very short as well as private and performed with incredible diligence and of which 't is all I am able to inform your Lordship and with which I conclude remaining My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant Paris May 16. 1683. N. St. LETTER LXIX Of that called the Presbyterian Plot. My Lord I Was not a little transported with Joy to find your Lordship's Name was not incerted in the List I have seen of Persons taken up for the Plot I have had the vanity to flatter my self that some things that I have Writ lately to your Honour concerning Monsieur Louvois's Negotiations in England may inspire you with a more than ordinary Caution upon such an occasion wherein when it shall lye with your Lordship's conveniency to let me have a Line from you I do not desire so much to be satisfied as what Rules I am to observe for my future conduct in respect to my Correspondence since I have some reason to suspect your Honour may be uneasy under the present Circumstance of things and I have heard â—â—settled too I have little to say at present how far the Ministers of this Court are engaged in starting of this Conspiracy what I have formerly Written concerning their Management of the several Factions in England may give your Lordship some view of their Designs but what they generally say of it is That it was now seasonable to set up a Protestant one as a fresh game and since by their strong concurrence when they saw it time they had enabl'd the King to stiffe the other Popish one and thereby diverted the current of his Arms ready to fall upon them it was necessary having new Designs of Conquests in view and what can it be but Luxemburg block't up by them last year to raise a new Disturbance in his Dominions which could not be better effected now than by starting a Plot of another Stamp which would not only incapacitate the King to interpose and put a stop to their career but would also be an effectual means to make the holding of Parliaments impracticable at least for a time and make him quite fast in a manner to their King's Purse-strings towards which they had by the other Plot made such considerable Advances I do presume your Lordship retains the same English Spirit you were ever Master of and are as constant notwithstanding all the vicissitudes of State which have happen'd in your time which is the Reason I retain still my usual freedom who am My Lord Your humble Servant Paris July 21. 1683. N. S. LETTER LXX Of the Model of Ships sent by King Charles II. to the French King c. My Lord I Do presume it is a matter no longer doubted of that our King is fallen in more than ever with the interests of this Court the many Models and Draughts of Ships which he has sent over hither and some whereof I have seen at the Marquess de Louvois is a convincing proof of
it tho they are somewhat desirous to give it another Term here and say His Britannick Majesty is well known to be the only Prince in the World that understands Shipping the best and that only out of a little Vanity to shew his great Abilities in that way he sent diverse Models not only into France but else where also tho the real Cause as I have heard it whisper'd was his want of Jealousy and withal to Coaks as much Mony out of them as he could and in order to enhance the same he sent also Artists over as well as Models for which by the Account I have seen tho it seems to be somewhat imperfect as to the particulars he hath already receiv'd at times above 600000 Pounds Sterling which is all the particulars I could ever attain to in relation to this matter that I know is the most ungrateful to your Lordship to understand perhaps of any thing that has at any time dropp'd from my Pen and therefore I am glad 't is thus contracted as I am always of an opportunity to acknowledg how much I am My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Servant Paris June 4. 1684. N. S. LETTER LXXI The Conduct of the Court of France towards the Duke of York during his aboad in Flanders and Scotland c. My Lord YOUR Lordship will hardly believe the Treachery of the Ministers of this Court who since I have known them would stick at no manner of Villany to gain their ends and our unhappy Princes have from time to time given them but too much opportunity to work their designs through their own sides and this I have already made to appear by several instances to your Lordship and shall further now by observing that notwithstanding his Royal Highnesses Compliance with them in the business of Marrying his Daughter so far as he could and upon diverse other occasions as I have formerly hinted Yet at that time when he was forc'd to retire to Bruxels they were very angry with him and almost all the rest of the English Papists hecause so many of them had seem'd Zealous to serve the Spanish interest under the Duke in Flanders nay and the French King himself was heard to say That had he followed his Counsel and had been constant to him he should not have needed to retire to Bruxels or to any other place but France as I think I mention'd before to your Lordship Tho they seem'd afterward to mollify somewhat towards him yet they set their Emissaries on work in England and Scotland to deal with some persons about whom they had formerly got some Light in Monsieur Ruvigni's time to get the Duke sent into Scotland to make a Party there while they privately engag'd the Dutchess of Portsmouth and the Exclusioners in England to do their utmost both in Court and Parliament to get him Excluded from the Succession in hopes and with this accursed view that England having proceeded so far as to put him by the Succession Scotland would declare for him and so the two Kingdoms be rent in sunder and afflicted with a tedious War wherein they had resolv'd to assist the latter and yet my Lord 't is strange to think it yet so it is that they were not true to him even there for they got it privately propos'd to a certain Noble Family in the Kingdom of Scotland deriv'd from Blood Royal that if they would put in a claim to the Scotch Crown and throw off the Title of the two Brothers upon pretensions to be suggested to them and that Scotland would set up again for a Kingdom under a King of its own and renew their Antient League with France they should be Assisted effectually and should besides have the Lands of the Dutchy of Chateâ—leraut and the Honours and Lands of Aubâ—ny c. with many other additions restor'd to them and over and above all this a large Annual Pension and all the old Priviledges granted formerly to the Sootch Nation renewed and considerably augmented but tho my Lord that Noble Family refus'd to hearken to these their Treacherous Invitations yet there cannot a greater instance scarce be given of their Villanous Designs than this which I could not but communicate to your Lordship upon this occasion who am My Lord Your Humble Servant Paris Sept. 6. 1684. N. S. LETTER LXXII Of King Charles II's Resolution a little before his Death to alter his method ef Government My Lord I Am very well satisfied your Lordship must know in a very great measure the present Resolutions of the King in respect to his Future Government when you know so well by whose Agency he was at first Undeceiv'd and by whose Council and Assistance he intends to proceed but the Ministers here have too many Agents still about him to remain long Ignorant of the Design and are not a little Allarm'd to understand his Majesty hath resolv'd to restore all Charters to call a Parliament and thereby to get a moderate Liberty settled on Dissenters and to have the Boundaries of Prerogative Parliamentary Priviledges and Popular Liberty so clearly settled and explain'd that there may arise no more Disputes about them between King and People for the Future and that it shall be made Treason after that even in Parliament once to move any thing prejudicial to the King 's declar'd and explain'd Prerogatives or to the Parliament and Peoples declar'd Priviledges and Liberties and that all Officers Military and Civil shall be equally Sworn to maintain the one as well as the other that the Duke for the present shall be Sollicited to go for Scotland attended with such Persons as would take care to observe his Steps narrowly and that in his Absence the Princess Mary be Declar'd Heir Presumptive to the Crown and the Prince invited to Reside with her in England till the King's Death and the Duke totally Excluded and confin'd to live at Modena or Rome and not in this Kingdom or elsewhere but to have all his Revenues allow'd him and that if he prove Refractory and refuse to Retire any where else but into France that then he shall not only be depriv'd of his Revenue but be altogether confin'd in some Castle in England under a good Guard c. I do not question my Lord but this matter is sufficiently aggravated by the French Emissaries and perhaps there may be something more in it than I am able to fathom however it was my Duty to Transmit the same as I find in represented tho your Lordship may know much more truly the Fact than My Lord Your humble Servant Paris Jan. 4. 1685. N. S. LETTER LXXIII Of King Charles II's Death My Lord YOur Lordship may expect I should acquaint you how much surpriz'd I was at the News of the King's Death but the manner it was receiv'd here quite drown'd my Astonishment in that Kind and so it would any true English Man to see this Court have the News of his Majesties Death or at
of Spain with the Emperor's Daughter was put by and that with the Duke of Orleans's Daughter effected and that he was going to act mighty things for the French Interest for which he had large Promises made him of their powerful and effectual Assistance to obtain the Crown of Spain for himself after the Decease of the present King upon condition he should quit the Spanish Dominions in the Indies Low-Countries and Italy to the Crown of France for the performance of which they had sufficient Assurances from him I am further to observe to your Lordship from the said Minutes That they have attributed his Death to a Dose of Poison administred by the order and particular prescription of the Queen-Mother and that out of a fear she had he would one day Poison the King her Son and because he had against her Will been the instrument to make the French Match They further add how true the one or the other I will not take upon me to determine That the Queen Mother's hatred to Don John was inveterate that she had attempted once before to have Stab'd him and at another time to Pistol him As for the fore-mentioned Letter from the King of Spain to stop the Don's passage for Messina they say it was sent by the Instigation of the Duke de Medina Celi then in the French Faction with an intent to make him miss that stroke and secure him in their Interests by letting him know that it was by their Intreague he was admitted to Court I could further enlarge upon this subject did I judge it pertinent or agreeable to your Lordship's humour as I am affraid it is not and therefore I remain My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble and devoted Servant Paris July 2 1679. N. S. LETTER XL. Of General Instructions given to the French Agents in England to carry on the French Designs upon the Duke of York's Second Marriage My Lord THo' the French Agents in England have had address enough to get the Match with the Duke effected according to their Desires yet foreseeing that even this point could not elude the Peace between England and Holland they endeavoured to make the best advantage they could by making a Counterpoise of it to the said Peace and to a War we might afterward intend against them as having thereby linked the Duke faster to them than ever and laid a sure foundation for such Distractions both in Church and State as would give them large opportunity if not to compass all the Designs they had upon us yet at least to secure themselves from any great inconveniency from us They were not ignorant what good effects several previous Intreagues of theirs had to our disadvantage they saw plainly the second Dutch War had much more impoverished us than the First and the ill conduct of it much more sunk the King's Reputation besides the Divisions in the Fleet and the Jealousies and Factions in the Parliament and among the People about the Duke's Religion produced him great disgusts every day That the shutting up of the Exchequer had ruined his Credit and his Majesty in proclaiming Liberty of Conscience by Virtue of his own Prerogative and his levity afterward in flinching from it so unexpectedly had so disobliged and wounded with Jealousie the Church of England and all Patriots in Parliament tender of their Priviledges who held the Peoples Purse-strings on the one side and so incensed with a fresh Animosity the baffled Dissenters on the other that being over-whelmed with Debts opposed by dangerous and powerful Factions and yet Bankrupt both of Money and Credit too they fairly concluded he could have no other recourse but to them which odious remedy they supposed would but more and more heighten the mutual Jealousies and widen the Breaches till they grew large enough for them to enter by at long-run upon some part of the English Monarchy so famous hitherto for checking theirs above any other in Europe since the Decadency of the Western Empire from rising to the like exorbitant greatness And now this more than Magical Dose these Quacks in Policy had given us began to work every day more and more violently and with Symptoms more visible till almost mortal Convulsions followed The ablest Statesman we had at the Helm the Earl of Shaftsbury was discarded for his vehemency in opposing the said so pernicious Match of which I may give your Lordship an account another time and others of the same Sentiments discountenanced which by the French Agency begat the Prorogation of the Parliament dangerous Factions and pernicious Fractions even among the most zealous Assertors of Monarchy and best affected Friends to the Royal Family so that now imagining this Master-experiment of theirs had made way for them to execute what Projects they pleased on our Court and People for the future to lose no advantage for want of Managers they began to put their Designs in form which before lay somewhat perplext and out of order to which end they sent over their Instructions to some Domestick Agents whom they had chosen and placed on purpose about the New Dutchess and to their other assisting Ministers and Emissaries as they thought in that disposition of both Head 〈◊〉 Body of both Princes and People 〈…〉 could not but succeed and produce in due time the full effects by their Mischief-Brooding and Ambitious Consultations And their Instructions in substance were as follows They were now to make actual use of the several Parties they had as I have hinted already but as yet prepared to make Tools of and to this purpose they were to influence them partly by French Jesuited Instruments partly by French Hugonot Agents and of our own Nation their Instruments were to be I. Atheists and loose principled Men who yet could act rarely well the Zealots for that Religion or Cause which they were to Espouse II. Such Persons as they found to be conceited of their Parts and of Mercenary Spirits III. Hotspurs for Prerogative and the Church of England IV. The fiercest Spirits of the other Factions V. Some Bigots of the Roman Communion that were English and particularly those that had been bred up or had travelled in their Dominions and were well Jesuited VI. The leading Irish Papists in particular VII Men Ambitious of Greatness or Idolizers of Money and that chiefly in Scotland VIII Men disgustful or disabliged IX Men of desperate Fortunes and lost Reputations Of all these they were with great confidence to imploy and highly to oblige and flatter some while they were for their turn and disoblige others and then when they had done with them vice versa to disoblige and cast off those whom they had obliged and seemed to have trusted and court oblige and receive others who were before disoblig'd knowing how to work their Ends by those they disobliged as well as by those obliged But yet none of these except some of the first sort were to know the whole of their Designs nor be informed
Instructions given to their Agents in England to insinuate to the King but yet very tenderly what a piece of Unjustice it would be so to disgrace an innocent harmless Princess to whom he had been lawfully married and who had with so much patience bore the Infirmities that attended him and that the consequent of such a Divorce would perhaps be worse than the Divorce it self seeing a Brother would be baulked of the just hopes he had after his Majesty's death of ascending the English Throne c. But since my Lord having found the Parliament and Privy Council disposed very much to favour such an Action they gave their Emissaries of another stamp directions to incite the King to it and to promise to find him out a Princess of this Courts recommendation and procurement in hopes by that means to set the two Brothers at variance and to raise new Factions and Disputes about Succession and if they saw he would not consent yet they had their Creatures ready to whisper it in the Duke's ear as a great secret that if it were not for them he would have consented thereunto but how far these Politicks have been practised your Lordship can observe much better than I at such a distance who am My LORD Your ever obliged and most humble Servant Paris Mar. 2. 1680. N. S. LETTER LXVI Of the Earl of Shaftsbury's being Calumniated by the French Agents to King Charles II. in order to put him out from being President of the Council and from all Publick Administration My LORD THE joy conceived by the Ministers of this Court at the displacing of my Lord of Shaftsbury from his great Office of President of the King's Council and consequently from all Administration of Publick Affairs is as open and unexpressible as the Instruments and Causes of such a change are secret but so far as I have had any intelligence of this grand Affair which I predict to be no good Omen to our poor Country I am free and I hold my self in duty bound to communicate to your Lordship who perhaps will not much wonder at such a change when I tell you that the Emissaries of this Court but more especially the women kind whom I need not Name have incessantly as they have been taught their Lessons been buzzing the King in the Ears with such Calumnies and Accusation as here follow according as they are inserted here They were to lay hold on all opportunities to render the said Noble Lord obnoxious to the King but yet to be very tender in their first attack and therefore frequently to say That truly his President was a person of incomparable Parts and Abilities in matters of State and that to do him Justice he had done his Prince as important service as any of his Subjects That though he had in former times fallen in with the republican interest which was then predominant in the Nation yet he had since shewed so much Zeal for the Monarchy as might justly obliterate all former miscarriages provided still he proved constant in his Devoir and gave no suspition of his being inclinable to re-assume the principles which he seemed once so entirely to have forsaken and when they had again and again made way by such insinuations as these for more desperate Attacks They urged his Majesty might call to mind the time and occasion when as well as of whom the Earl had once said that when a man is wanting to himself he deserves that others should be so to him also and he might consider how false and dangerous a Maxime that was when it referr'd to a Prince or ones Country to whom one is never allowed to be wanting That the Earl had been as good as his word was already sufficiently manifest when he had discovered in Parliament the secret motives that had engaged the King to grant Liberty of Conscience before the late War as well as his Alliance with France and insinuated the designs his Majesty had to retrench the liberty of Parliaments which was indeed no more then to reduce that Assembly within the bounds of their Duty that his conduct ever since in promoting the Test c. gave no small Umbrage that he meant more then a bare exclusion of his Royal Highness from publick Offices That they could not be positive that a change of Government was designed thereby and a new essay for the monstrous Metamorphosis of the Monarchy into a Republick once more but that surely it looked that way For if the thing were considered aright the King 't was true was an Established Prince and now long in possession and in whose person there could be no plausible pretence to induce the people to abandon that form of Government and for the Regal power it self the time was yet too short since a Company of Tyrants had plunged the State into Troubles for to propose an entire abolition of King 's a second time seeing those very persons who went under the notion of Republicans did not so much yet aim for the most part at the change of the form of the Monarchical Government as at the diminution of the Authority and hence it might be reasonably inferred that the Earl well foreseeing he could not proceed directly to that which he aimed at began cunningly to take a round which he judged would conduct him with more safety to the same end And that seeing no possibility of dispossessing the King he had formed a design to disinherit the person that ought to succeed him being assured that the best expedient to destroy the regal Dignity was to disturb the order of Succession And that his Majesty must needs foresee the dangers arising from the Counsells of so pernicious a Man whose authority in Court Parliament and City was equally formidable as his Pollicy I will not take upon me to determine what great services his Majesty has lost by the discarding of this great Statesman he may want it in time and be better perswaded then ever of the Character himself has given once of him upon his resolution of a difficult Case viz. That he had a Chancellor who knew more Law than all his Judges and more Divinity than all his Bishops if these particulars be not new to your Lordship I desire to know it that I may be more cautious for the future in my Intelligence wherein I always aim at pleasing your Lordship Who am Your humble Servant Paris Aug. 29th 1681. LETTER LXVII Of the Duke of York's being in France Twice and Closetted by the French King His Rencounter with the French Ambassadour Barillon His Wives ill success in France Her Petition to the French King Return without Relief and her fatal End My Lord HAD I been able to have given your Lordship some remarkable passages relating to the Duke and Mr. Coleman's History in the time the great Affair of the Popish Plot was in Vogue and Agitation I do not doubt but I should have perform'd a grateful part to you yet I find
just pretensions about the Regale nor the franchises of Quarters but that he was resolved to be Pope in France and Sovereign in Rome from which no Force should ever make him depart or flinch back the least degree whatever Dangers he were exposed unto This great Constancy My Lord in the old Pontiff hath not a little appalled the exorbitant Pride and Fury of this Court however they have put the best Faâ— they can upon it and seem resolved to break through all Opposition and outbrave whatever shall be in their Way and divert their Resolution and I am assured the French Embassador Lavardin at Rome hath already pursuant to his Orders from hence highly menaced the old Dad who in a third Letter to the King has made answerable Reply of which I am pretty confident I shall in my next transmit to your Lordship the Particulars but in the mean time remain My Lord Your Faithful Servant Paris june 19. 1687. N. S. LETTER XXVIII The Contents of Pope Innocent XI's third Letter to the French King in answer to that of hâ—â— wherein he shews his Folly and Mistake in his Pretentions and Demands and threatens the Censure of the Church against him and shews the Inconveniency and Danger of setting up a Patriarch in France c. My Lord I Wish your Lordship as much Satisfaction in the perusal of this Letter as I have in keeping my Promise made to you in my last about the Pope's third Letter in getting Sight of the Minutes whereof I have met with much greater Difficulty than I expected or was usual with me I have already hinted Monsieur Lavardin's Menaces made at Rome upon the subject matter of the former Letter and therefore the Pope begins his with answering those Menaces that imported that the King should affranchise France from the Roman See nominate a separate Patriarch there â—and elect Bishops of his own without having any Recourse to the Bishop of Rome and in the mean while invade the Pope's Territories with his Arms and force the Franchises for his Ambassador and fiercely replying That he is resolved as in Conscience bound to do to transmit the Franchises and all other Rights of the Apostolick See to his Successors as he found them That he would recognize or allow of no Bishops of the King 's nominating till he had Satisfaction about the Regale that if he would be so heady as to proceâ—d â—o nominate a new Patriarch it would make a greater combustion in his Kingdom than he was aware of to which his Persecution of the Protestants would not a little contribute which he should find would be very unseasonable for him and would in all likelihood raise all Christendom against him as well as his own Subjects that thereby he would make a wide Gap to let in an Inundation of Heresies which he pretends to keep out and would teach the People after they had once trampled on the Pope's Authority to trample at last on that of the Bishops and King 's too and even on their very Persons as they had done in England and that when he had pulled down the mighty Dam of the Papal Power and let that raging Sea in it would be out of his Power to stop it where and when he would wherefore he conjured him and his Clergy to consider seriously yea twice and thrice of that weighty Project before they went to put it in Execution lest they might when they found it too late repent it and in vain attempt to recal the same That he must not think to fright him with the Noise of an Invasion for that tho' he would neither arm himself nor the rest of the Princes of Italy against him as he might do but oppose only Prayers and Tears yet if he desiâ—â—ed not from his pretended Regale and Franchises he would excommunicate Lavardin his Embassador and interdict his Kingdom and and set it in such a Flame about his Ears as should make him glad to go tamely back again and look after his own Home that after all should he sack and Plunder Rome captivate his Person and have all other Successes he could imagine it would be a very inglorious Expedition for Lewis the Great the eldest Son of the Church and such a pretended Bigot for it for to ravage its Territories and assault the supreme Pastor of it with those Arms with which he was bound to defend it and but a small Triumph to so great a Conqueror to over-power and martyrise a poor helpless and unarmed old Man as he was for whom some of his Predecessors would have been content to have become Martyrs themselves and therefore conjures him to think once more very seriously of it and then to act as he pleased but withal assures him That neither his Menaces nor his Arms shall make him flinch an Hair's breadth from those his last Resolutions wherein he was fully resolved to persist to the last Drop of his Blood Thus my Lord you have the brave Resolution of a Roman Pontiff who tho' the Title and Dignity of Christ's earthly Vicegerent be falsly ascribed to him yet undoubtedly he is possessed of a Soul above that of common Mortals and whom I therefore honour and esteem as I have always done and ever shall your Lordship who am My Lord Your most humble Servant Paris June 28. 1687. LETTER XXIX Of the Tryal and Suspension of the Bishop of London by vertue of the Ecclesiastical Commission My Lord I Have once and again intimated to your Lordship some Methods that were proposed to be prosecuted in order to the setting up of the King 's Dispensing Power and among other things to the best of my remembrance taken notice of the Ecclesiastical Commission with the Reasons urged to the King for making use of it and now you have seen the Effects of it upon my Lord of London whom some of them have said They were resoved to be revenged on for doing his Duty in the House of Lords by moving after the Lords had voted an Address of Thanks to the King for his Speech to that Session after the death of the D. of Monmouth in his own and his Brethren's Name That the House would take the King's Speech into consideration and debate the same but this way was not then resolved on but several others projected which yet they found impracticable when the Commission was agreed to be erected they had even then an Eye to the Bishop tho' no plausible Pretence for the Prosecution of him and therefore the said Commission lay dormant for some Months till such time as they might see the Effects of another Project to be put in Practice which was That some Reglements made in the late King's Reign in the Year 1662. importing among other things The Clergy in their Sermons should not meddle with State Affairs nor enter upon any Question that concerned the Rights of the King's Subjects nor to treat of some Points in Divinity which formerly had created great Troubles in