to you for a moderate Sum of Money a Million or two would by the French King's Assistance have been a competent Stock to open Shop withal that our Laws Liberties and Religion too should have perished at one stroke such was your Rage against us at that Day Your Bullies about the Town had the aid of your Purse to swagger against the Parliament and to admire the French King and tell us how happy we were by being imbarked in the French Interest thrô this Match and why should a damn'd Parliament be suffered to sit till it was consummated beyond the Power of their interposing in it And the King was not to be trusted in this Affair if a Parliament were to sit for he would be wheedled by the House of Commons upon the account of Money to break off this hopeful Match yea and with the King of France too but keep him without a Parliament and he would do any thing to please the French King or your self Now Sir from all this we may conclude how foolish and malicious your Crew did shew themselves in the Prorogation of the Parliament that the King might not be engaged by them to break off that Match to the projudice of the Popish Religion or the French Interest 2. This was not the only Reason for you had another before you viz. The consideration that the Bill for ease of Protestant Dissenters whereby a major part of them should have Liberty of Conscience and be capable of Church-preferment had passed the Commons and was sent up to the Lords in March 1672 3 where it then remained and would not long stick as you and your Party feared before it would obtain the Royal Assent which if once effected you foresaw the uniting the Protestant Interest would tend greatly to the suppression of Popery and consequently no hopes of that Religion 's being replanted here but if you could any how prevent the passing that Bill you doubted not for all the Parliament could do to be safe amongst so many Dissenters and drive on your Designs underhand for the destruction of all Protestants From hence Sir let me observe 1. That this was a time when you and your Party were not for Liberty of Conscience because the uniting of Protestants by Liberty would be very fatal to you and therefore you got the Parliament prorogued that this Blessing might not fall upon you and your Friends But how comes it to pass that you gave God thanks that it was always your Judgment that all Men ought to have the Liberty of their Consciences in Matters of Religion and Worship Were not you a most notorious Hypocrite to say so 2. You must needs be engaged in a most Hellish Design against the Protestant Religion and your Party be resolved to proceed-no farther in any other Work but that must be destroyed or else what needed so much Care for proroguing the Parliament that the Bill for Liberty of Conscience then in the House of Lords might of course come to nothing By which Prorogation you so offended the Parliament that you lost at least the Gift of a Million of Money 3. It argued you certainly very full of Revenge that because your Brother was forced to break his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience you would procure the Prorogation of a Parliament to break the Bill for it tho it was more legal and commendable in the Parliament notwithstanding the Loggerheaded Reasons given against it in 1664 in a Session of the same Parliament for by it we saw plainly that an Arbitrary Declaration for Liberty of Conscience was the Sense of your Soul but a legal Liberty of Conscience you hated from the bottom of your Heart and would rather incur the Displeasure of a Parliament than they should have the doing of that which they would not suffer your Brother your Self and wicked Party to do in a most illegal manner without the Authority of Parliament 4. I perceive at that time it was the Sense of the Lords as well as of the Commons that such a Bill was necessary to secure the Protestant Religion and therefore it would have passed that House and the King have given his Royal Assent to it if there had been but a Million or 1200000 Pounds in the Case Therefore that they might be better informed concerning the Conveniency of your Italian Match and the Inconveniency of that Bill for Liberty of Conscience you obtained a Prorogation tho your Brother good Man lost a swinging Tax by the Bargain 5. That you gained your Point in reference to Liberty of Conscience for Time you know is often Life to a Cause And as the Protestant Interest run high in the Session of Parliament in 1672 3 and this Act came from the Commons to the Lords in favour of them who had passed it but for want of Time and another Bill passed against Popery by which Clifford fell and you and your Party put out of Humour so that Clifford's Fall might be gentle an end was put to that Session the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience was broke or cancell'd and in revenge you put a stop to the passing the Bill that would have established Liberty of Conscience by a Law by breaking up the Parliament from Octob. 20. to 27. and then to Jan. 7. following In this Recess you not only compleated the Italian Design but so ordered the Matter that when the Parliament met in January all Favour to Dissenters was killed as dead as a Door-nail and not one word of reviving the Bill for Liberty of Conscience was heard of but on the contrary our Prickear'd Priests were instructed to preach this to be as true as the Gospel that now there was no more Danger from the Papists but that the Phanaticks were the only dangerous Enemy and you and the Devil's Brokers had found out a Scots Lord and 2 Men who then made a mighty Figure at Court that were impudent and desperate enough to put the King's Affairs on so narrow and weak a Bottom Nay Old Lawderdale rather than fail becomes a Patron of the Church and who but he with his Guts was cried up by our Parasitical Pulpit-hunters Nay I will say this for Clifford that tho Villain enough yet his Principles were very generous in comparison of your new Set of Juglers whose Business it was to ruin those this Year they had supported but the last nay give them their due they would never forgive a Man that had been but once in the Right Those Sir were your trusty Cards and they agreed with our Spiritual Guides and Roger their Master not only in Principles but Passion too therefore you presently joined with them in directing the Judges to put the Laws in Execution against Dissenters which was done as you required 6. Our Holy Church-men as their Zeal was much increased by your Influence to suppress the Dissenters so their Zeal against Popery was to all Intents and Purposes extinguish'd as if you and your Italian Mistress had
had got such a Trick in your Brother's Time to put off Parliaments that I doubt if we should try you once more and take in those durante bene placito Rogues you would never leave it off First you got one Session put off and a truly loyal Band of Pensioners dissolved then three Parliaments dissolved one upon the neck of another as you and Nell Waal pleased Now our Forefathers and our Antient Kings of England to prevent Arbitrary Power and such intolerable Mischiefs as these did heartily agree to have a Proclamation made in Westminster-Hall before the End of every Session not to dissolve the Parliament to get a Sum of French Money but to tell the People that all who had any Matter to present to the Parliament should bring it before such a Day for otherwise the Parliament should determine This was done in the Reigns of Hen. 4. Hen. 5. Hen. 6. So that you may see and so might that Villain Jefferies that the People were not to be eluded or disappointed by surprising Prorogations and Dissolutions to frustrate the great Ends of Parliament But Sir suppose all your Brother's Crew of Judges and Ministers of State nay I would allow him half a dozen Priests and Dr. Finch the Warden of All-Souls into the Bargain who is an excellent Preacher and Pimp to the Whore of Babylon and Arbitrary Power nay I will allow you to have the French Parliament held at New-Market in 1677 and suppose they should have roared with open Mouth and said there was no Record nor Statute upon Record extant concerning the sitting of Parliaments to redress Grievances What then And suppose Finch the last 29th of May had told such a Story as this in his loggerheaded Sermon where he applauded the eminent shining Vertues of Charles II above those of his Royal Father and yours his Chastity Integrity Peaceableness and the like and provided all he had said were true that Charles was a Man of those Vertues and that there were neither Common nor Statute Laws extant for the sitting of Parliaments yet by Warden Finch's leave it is more certain that Parliaments are to sit and redress Grievances by the Fundamental Laws of the Government than that his Father presented the Grand Seignior with a Pendulum Clock so small that the Grand Seignior hung it at his Ear as the Ladies here used to hang their Pendants at theirs It may be Sir you will ask what Reason I could have to believe the sitting of Parliaments for redress of Grievances was our Right by the Fundamental Law of England I tell you Sir why because the Government must be lame without it and a Prince and his villanous Ministers might have done what they pleased and their Wills might have been their Laws Your Brother and you bid fair for such a Government had your Friend Coleman's Advice been taken and had K. Charles signed his Declaration for dissolving the Parliament Coleman had not Jenner's Courage of running away and so the Declaration was not signed but to your great Comfort he was graciously left to dance a Christmass Gambrel at Tyburn for his great pains in the mighty Work your Brother your Self and he had upon your Hands Therefore my good Friend it was provided for in the very Essence and Constitution of the Government it self this we may if Frank Withens and the rest of your Crew will give leave call Common Law tho Jefferies once was pleased to call it a Common Where This notwithstanding the filthy Expression of that impudent Villain that had neither Law Manners nor Honesty but the Impudence of ten carted Whores is of as much Value if not more as any Statute and of which all our good Acts of Parliament and Magna Charta it self are but declaratory So that tho your Brother or any King else had been intrusted with the formal Part of summoning and pronouncing the Dissolution of Parliaments which is done by Writ yet the Laws that oblige the King as well as the People have determined when and how it is to be done This is enough to shew you that your Brother as King shared in the Sovereignty that was in the Parliament and that it was cut out to him by Law and not left at his Disposal I must therefore tell you that Thomas and Francis and the rest of the Bloodhounds and murdering Dispensing Judges were much out in point of Law when they told your Brother that Parliaments both as to Calling and Dissolving were at his Will and Pleasure 3. There is another Statute viz. 25 Edw. III. cap. 23. that was Law in your Brother's Reign which the Judges if they had been acquainted with the Law who truly except a few that had but little Honesty and were generally Strangers to the Law must have told him and you too did oblige him and you to suffer the Meeting and Sitting of Parliaments Therefore I make use of that Statute to prove that the Meeting and Sitting of Parliaments is the Fundamental Right and Privilege of the People of England This Statute Sir was called the Statute of Provisors and was made to prevent and cut off the Incroachments of the Bishops of Rome whose Usurpations in disposing of Benefices had occasioned intolerable Grievances In the Preamble of which Statute it is expressed as follows Whereupon the Commons have prayed our said Sovereign Lord the King That since the Right of the Crown of England and the Law of the Realm is such that upon the Mischiefs and Damage which happen to this Realm he ought and is bounden of the Accord of his said People in his Parliament thereof to make Remedy and Law in avoiding the Mischiefs and Damage which thereof cometh that it may please him thereupon to provide Remedy Our Sovereign Lord the King seeing the Mischiefs and Damage before-named and having regard to the said Statute made in the Time of his said Grandfather and to the Causes contained in the same which Statute holdeth always its Force and was never defeated or annulled in any Point and by so much is bound by his Oath to do the same to be kept as the Law of this Realm tho that by sufferance and negligence it hath since been attempted to the contrary and also having regard to the grievous Complaints made to him by his People in divers Parliaments holden heretofore willing to ordain Remedy for the great Damages and Mischiefs which have hapned and daily do happen by the said Cause c. by the Assent of the Great Men and Commonalty of his said Realm hath ordained and established Come Sir what say you to all this Where is your Holloway your Withens and your Walcots And where is Tom Jenner with his Sorrow in one Hand and his Grief in the other an ignorant Rascal like the rest of his Brethren Where is your Herbert your Heath and your Milton Some of them are gone to their Places but they lived long enough to enslave the People and those that yet live owe
that in all probability might not attract that Envy that the preferring of Papists in several great Places of Trust had done yet that the same Ends might be more certainly and easily tho not so soon obtained Which brings me to Article XXVI IN order to strengthen the Popish and French Interest you were pleased to take to Wife the Daughter of the Duke of Modena whom you have and hold to this Day which was in it self a Scoundrel Match but that it might appear somewhat considerable the French King declared her an adopted Daughter of France and promised to give her a Portion sutable thereunto for her Father could not give her a Groat And whether he gave her a Portion or no at that time I cannot tell if he did not I suppose you will eat it out before you leave St. Germains Your Brother consented to the Match without much difficulty by a good Lord a Friend of yours who consummated the Marriage by the Royal Consent and Authority of your Brother according to the Form used amongst Princes as your good Protestant Brother was pleased to express it Before this precious Bit of Italian Flesh could arrive in England your Conspirators who advised this Marriage perceived that the 20th of October would come and that it might probably receive some Obstruction from the Parliament and that some other things were prepared against their meeting for the curbing your Rogues who were grown as observed to you in the First Part damnably Insolent for the Check the Test-Bill had given was far less than the Incouragement from this wicked Marriage And that a fatal Blow might be given to the Preparations of the then House of Commons in prejudice of your Conspirators you procured a Prorogation to the 27th of October 1673 whereby to put an End to that Session and all the Business unperfected in March 1671 3 should fall to the Ground But pray what was the Matter Why must some good Bills fall to the Ground that were so well prepared in March 1672 3 Why truly your Reasons for the Prorogation if I am not much out were these three 1. To prevent and remove from your Brother all Temptations to break the intended Marriage and the French Alliance the Parliament being like to use their utmost endeavour to hinder the Consummation of that Marriage which might render the Popish Religion and the French Alliance impregnable You know Sir that Cardinal Howard promoted the Match to serve the Catholicks and the Catholick Religion was your end too since you were converted to such a degree of Zeal that Coleman your Secretary knew not his Head from his Heels or whether he was awake or in a Dream and then to strengthen the Interest of the French King must be your design since his Interest and yours were so inseparably united that he that was your Enemy was an Enemy to his Interest and he that was an Enemy to his was to your Interest also Now what a wicked Parliament was it that would have separated such an Interest and oppose such a Religion in endeavouring to prevent so hopeful a Match whereby 1. The Folly 2. The Malice of you and your Party did appear 1. The Folly of your Party did appear for that Parliament did never fail to give Money whenever called for if they were but indifferently well used and the King was generally unwilling to let a Session go off without some Pocket-money for the modest Gentlewomen at Whitehall therefore your Partisans should rather have adjourned the Marriage than prorogued the Parliament who having notice of the Conspiracy which you had managed more like an Irish Teague than an English Statesman were very angry at the King's breach of his Word and Royal Promise made to them in March before Therefore notwithstanding the King's Speech Octob. 20. for a swinging Supply for carrying on the War against the Dutch the Parliament would vote nothing but an Address against this Match of yours with the Daughter of Modena for they considered the Nation was not able always to lie under the dispensation of parting with Money to secure the Popish Religion and French Interest And as a preparation to the Address you know they passed this Vote viz. This House taking into consideration the Condition of the Nation will not take into any further Debate or Consideration any Aid Supply or Charge upon the Subject before the time of the Payment of the eighteen Months Assesment granted by a late Act of Parliament intituled An Act for raising the Sum of 1238750 l. for the Supply of his Majesty's present Occasions be expired unless it shall appear that the obstinacy of the Dutch shall render it necessary nor before this Kingdom be effectually secured from the Danger of Popery and Popish Counsels and Counsellors and other present Grievances be redressed You having by your little Vermine given out with all Folly and Impudence that you stood in no need of a Parliament but to give Money by this Vote they were even with you who with your Crew were so nettled at their Vote that you were resolved to give them a remove from your Councils but that it might not seem altogether upon the account of denying Money you let the Parliament proceed and the Address was prepared with Reasons against this Match of yours which I have laid down in my first Part and therefore wave them now the Parliament being assured that this Marriage at that time was not so far concluded but that for Reasons of State it might be rejected as has been practised in divers Nations and even by the French themselves in several Examples as manifestly appears in the French Histories I having an Opportunity of discoursing about the Match the Jesuits condemned the Conduct of your Friends at St. James's in deferring it till the Session was so nigh and then putting the Parliament off whereas the Marriage ought rather to have been suspended till the Parliament had given Money and one Million well husbanded would have enabled your Brother to set up Arbitrary Power for the French King would have stood by him And further That your Counsellors had been too open in the steps they took in this Match and had too publickly boasted of the Advantage they should have by it both as to France and Religion and had too much undervalued the Parliament since you could not at that Time subsist without one 2. As your Party shewed their Folly so their Malice for as the King was unwilling to part without Money and also to quit the French Interest all the Grievances of the Nation must be postpon'd which were judged by you to be but Trifles if any difference did arise it was their Faults to insist on such small things therefore with Indignation you procured them to be prorogued that they might recollect themselves and basely comply with your wicked Designs of destroying the Dutch and advancing the Fr. Interest in this Match that they might for the future be of no use
their Pleasures before Grievances were redressed and publick Bills of Common-Safety passed because to dissolve and prorogue at Pleasure is a Privilege which belongs to the Crown Answ This word Prorogue is but a new-fangled Business a thing brought up in latter Days but as for dissolving Parliaments at Pleasure that has been the Practice of our former wicked Kings by the Advice of their Roguish Ministers and Judges who laid aside all Law Honour Honesty and Conscience to prostitute themselves to the abominable Lust of a filthy Prince who designed nothing less than the Ruin of the Kingdom What your Father did I will not here concern my self but what your Brother did by your Procurement is my Province at this Time Your Brother when he held his French Parliament at New-Market in 1677 where most of the Rogues and Whores of the Court were present and your gracious Self waiting on him did much aggrandize himself by that Glorious Assembly Upon April 16. the Parliament at Westminster was adjourned till May 21. following Immediately upon the Recess the Duke of Crequi aâ—d that modest sober chaste Man of God the A. Bp of Rheims and Monsâ—eur Barillon and a Train of 3 or 400 Persons of all Qualities appear'd there so that the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of France with so many of their Commons made it look like an old-fashioned French Parliament And the Parliament at Westminster had been adjourned for their better Reception But what Address they made to the King or what Acts passed at that Noble Parliament I cannot tell they having not been yet published But I suppose they were these that follow 1. An Act for continuing his Majesty's Subjects in the Service of France 2. An Act for enabling the Dutchess of Cleveland to use the Arch-Bishop of Paris for her Father-Confessor c. 3. An Act to discharge her Grace from farther Attendance upon the King 4. An Act to constitute the French Gentlewoman to be Whore in her room and a Spy for the French King 5. An Act to enable Nell Waal to be Woman and Bawd in ordinary to the said French Gentlewoman and his Sacred Majesty 6. An Act to supply the Extraordinary Occasions of that Whore Portsmouth and her Woman Nell Waal 7. An Act to enable the Dutchess of Portsmouth in order to her Health to possess and enjoy a certain Apartment in a House-Royal called the Lock situate at the end of Kent-street and Nell to have the Reversion after her decease in case of Necessity 8. An Act for the further Supply of French-Money in order to enslave the Kingdom of 3000000 Livres per Annum 9. An Act for enabling James Duke of York to go on with his Conspirators in the Conspiracy against the Laws Liberties and Religion of the People of England and to demand the French King's Purse Credit and Interest for his Help and Assistance 10. An Act to invest Edward Coleman with the Sum of 20000 l. and a good Pension from the French King for his great Services done and to be done for the Catholick Religion and French Interest 11. An Act of Abolition of all Claims and Demands from the Subjects of France on Account of all Prizes made of the English at Sea since the Year 1674 till that Day and for the future 12. Act to supply the extraordinary Needs of the Pensioners at Westminster 13. An Act to continue the Sham-Alliance with the States-General of the Vnited-Provinces There were I suppose several Private Bills in favour of the Pimps Bawds and Whores that were not sworn in Ordinary but passed the Royal Assent as I may suppose because at that time all things between England and France moved with that punctual Regularity that it was like the Harmony of the Spheres so consonant with themselves tho I could not hear the Musick I pray Sir let us know in your next Declaration what other Secret Bills were passed in that August Assembly wherein the Affairs of Peace and War were transacted with the greatest Confidence and when good Boys they had done their Master's Business with your Brother's Aid and Help they were adjourned from New-Market to London where they dissolâ—ed themselves without your Brother's Prerogative to make way for the Westminster Parliament and so rubb'd off with all Demonstration of mutual Affection and Friendship Alas Sir these were Matters of that Import that they required all imaginable Expedition and Secresy and it would have been the highest Presumption for the poor Pensioners in the Westminster Parliament to have intermedled with them Alas if they had been admitted to end the Work it might have ended in their own Dissolution in order to a couragious running away You say by way of Objection Your Partisans made that which your Brother and other Kings did by their Prerogative Royal dissolve Parliaments before Grievances were redressed and necessary Bills past because things did not move with that punctual Regularity between your Brother and them that was between him and the French King I pray what was the Reason Had they not had Gratuities at the Charge of the Nation Or had the Dutchess of Portsmouth jilted them out of the French King's Blessing which the Duke of Crequi and the Arch-Bishop of Rheims brought them of 200000 Lewis d' Ores Who can tell what to say to these things It is no wonder then that Crew of Voters were grown resty and did not move regularly Well what then the Parliament must not sit till some State-Clockmaker had mended their Motions and made them go true the House then had some good Bills over which they roared only and then were sent Home by a blast of Prerogative-Breath Had your Brother any other Prerogative but what the Law gave him and what he was invested with at his Coronation If he had let us know it but for once I will grant he prorogued and dissolved Parliaments at his Pleasure to serve you and your Cut-throat Crew It doth not therefore follow that he had a Right so to do according to a Maxim I learned almost 30 Years since A facto ad jus non valet consequentia especially when such Prorogations and Dissolutions are against so many express and positive Laws such Principles of Common Right and Justice and so many particular Ties and Obligations to the contrary Your Brother might by the Advice of wicked Statesmen and villanous Judges pretend to a Prerogative the Law had given him of which nothing ever was known unless revealed by some French Maxims learned abroad in his Travels Yet such a Prerogative could not justify such Practices for if he had been invested with such Prerogatives by the Law yet the Law could give none to destroy it self and those it protects But Old Hodg and his Inferior Clergy may interpose and say Had not King Charles his Prerogative founded upon Law Who questions Sir but the Kings of England had their Prerogatives Yet observe what Old Bracton saith Pag. 487. That tho the Common Law allows many