commonly attend those in Publick Places do not seldom render their very Beds uneasie to them And for that reason I should not have accepted of the Office I now hold could I honestly have declined it but I thought I could not fairly desert those many worthy Citizens who after a full and free choice of me to that place endured the fatigue of many days throng and sweat in Justifying of their Election by the Poll. And if I can in any measure answer their Expectations in this service I shall be very well pleased without giving them any future trouble of the like kind And now I have spoken in general to the Exception taken against me for not keeping house and to the disrespects incurred by me upon that occasion It remains that I should say some thing to that other point of the exception whereby they would aggravate this neglect of mine as redounding to the dishonour of the City from whom I have received the honour of being preferred to this Office I confess I should deem my self very unhappy if I should deservedly fall under this Censure but Custom which I have said before is a grand Imposer exerciseth its Tyranny in nothing more than in Creating in Man a habit of Understanding things much other wise then the reason of the thing will bear and many practises upon this account that in themselves are very unbecoming and unwarrantable are not seldom urged and enforced as most commendable and necessary And I doubt not but that upon a due consideration of this matter this will appear to be our Case This City is indeed a great and opulent City full of People and Trade a City eminent for the great Charters Priviledges and Immunities with which it is Invested Renowned for its many Courts and Counsels Companies and Societies and for the good Laws therein Instituted and Ordained for the better Government of the several Ranks and Orders of men amongst them whereby they are enabled to obtain their own Justice maintain their own Peace and pursue all the good and advantageous ends of Trade with the better success and greater security And as the happiness and good estate of this City doth depend upon the right use and improvement of these advantages and upon a due and righteous Execution of those good Laws so the honour and esteem which this great City most justly finds from all men both at home and abroad doth principally result and arise from hence I confess there is another thing that doth well befit this great City which we call State and Grandeur which though it is far below and differs in the esteem of wise men as much from that honour which I have before described as my Lord Mayors Horse accoutred with his richest Furniture and Trappings doth from that honourable Person that sits upon him cloathed with eminencie of Power and Authority is found nevertheless most necessary to attract that Reverence from the Vulgar and common People towards so August a Government which they giving Judgment of things more by outward appearance then by intrinsick worth and real value would otherwise hardly give to the greatest Potentates To this end the City hath its several Ensigns of Authority and Power fitted to all Degrees of Magistracy and shewing the place they bear in the Government with becoming greatness They have their solemn Processions and Cavalcades set forth with Habits Equipage Attendants and other Ornaments sutable to the several degrees and orders of Men for the greater State They have also their Publick Shews and Triumphs upon set times and occasions edorned with much splendor to entertain and divert the People with Gaze and Admiration And they have besides these their Publick Feasts upon set times and solemn occasions of Assembling and rejoycing together for their refreshment And I do agree that as these being practised with that moderation and within those limits which the Laws of the City upon great reason have wisely Ordained may be of good use to the ends aforesaid so I have not been wanting in performing my part therein unless it shall be said That I have not attended those Cavalcades and Processions which were made last Easter to those Sermons which ought to have been at the Spittle And for this I shall only say that though I did intend to bear my part in those Solemnities also yet my Lord Mayor on whose Person only I am obliged to attend upon all Publick occasions within the Liberties of London not being in a Condition to go abroad and the rest who I thought would have been more tender impreserving that antient Custom which had been but once Changed in Three hundred years and then upon an extraordinary occasion as I could ever hear being pleased for what private reason I know not to stear another Course I did not think I was obliged to suffer my self to be led by the Nose by those that thought me unfit to be privy to their Councels or to know the reasons of so mysterious a Resolution for the alteration of that Antient Practice But let the Consequence of this Accident be what it will I conceive it falls not within our present question as to the matter of the Sheriffs ordinary course and way of House-keeping the neglect of which is here to be Answered And therefore to speak more directly to the point I say First that this not being accounted amongst those Publick Solemnities which as I have before noted make up the Cities Grandure I conceive detracts nothing from the honour of the City whatever reflection it may have upon my own personal Reputation In the next place I do little doubt but that the common course and method of the Sheriffs House-keeping upon due consideration will appear to be of so little Honour that on the contrary it will be found a great prejudice to the City and a real scandal to the Government that allows it as well as an unbecoming and unreasonable burden and slavery to him that bears it In this Method of House-keeping they divide the Week into certain and set days some whereof are called Publick days which they imploy in Feasting of the Companies of the City and other grand Feasts the other called private days are commonly spent in Treating of particular Friends and Relations and such as come upon occasional Visits As to that of the Feasting of the Companies of which the greatest Observation is made I think nothing can be less honourable to the Sheriffs and nothing more inconvenient to the Citizens and prejudicial to that sober Industry by which a Trading City thrives best As to the honour that accrues to the Sheriffs thereby I cannot well understand it since according to the usual practise in this case the Companies Generally Invite themselves to the Sheriffs and as a token of their Respects present them with two or three Guineys towards the Charge of a double Treat one in Winter of the Livery Men alone with such other persons as may accidentally come to
the rest there being more to be pleaded for Acts of Charity than for profuseness My Contest is not with the Poor Prisoners to whom Bowels of Compassion ought to be shewn but with that Male-Administration that hath occasioned this Grievance The Lawyers say That a particular mischief ought rather to be born then a general and publick inconveniency admitted And as those Laws which provide for the Government of the Prisons have been much neglected by occasion of the Sheriffs taking upon themselves this Charge so I know not but the putting a stop to these Payments which are but voluntary may give a good occasion for enquiry into those Laws and to the restoring of them to a due execution which would be of greater advantage to the Poor Prisoners than any thing that is now done and would also encourage others to such Charitable Benevolencies and Legacies as have been formerly given for their better support and also prevent the loss of those charitable Donations which its said have happened by want of due care in the Execution of the said Laws As the Laws of the Land do provide that the Counties shall maintain their Prisoners so the Laws of this City both Antient and Modern do place the Government and Care of the Prisons in the Court of Aldermen and a Committee of the City to be Annually appointed by and out of the Common Councel as the best Expedient our Wise and Prudent Ancestors could find for preventing those inconveniencies under which the Poor Prisoners now groan And if by holding of my hand and by those Arguments I have given to excuse my sparingness in this and other matters I should prove so happy as to give an occasion for Retrieving of those good Laws which the Ancient Prudence of this City hath most plentifully Provided for preserving and promoting the good Estate of Her Citizens so as they may no longer lye Dormant amongst their Records but be put in due Execution I think neither Prisoner nor any Freeman will hereafter find any just cause to complain of me And in effecting so good a Work as the World would easily believe that I should have greater satisfaction in my self so I should not doubt in the end of my Year notwithstanding the great Cry that hath been made against me with so little reason to have more thanks from the greatest part of my fellow Citizens upon that account and that the Obligation would last longer with them then if I had according to late Example spent Eight or Nine thousand pound in the Year of my Shrievaltie But this is but a good wish that fell out occasionally in the Current of my Discourse a matter rather to be desired than effected by any thing that I can say or do it is not for me to think I can bear back the strong Torrent of Custome when the Laws of the City are not strong enough to do it If I shall by this essay be able in any measure to stem that Tyde of Reproach which runs upon me with that violence that it threatens to over-set and make Shipwrack of my Honour and Reputation which is the proper Design of this Paper I shall deem my self in no small measure Happy and Successful A good name is as precious Oyntment and as I ought to Value it so methinks I should now at length be able to prevail with the World to be so just as to consider what real grounds or reasons there may be for so great a Noise and Clamour and the better to enforce this Justice I shall lay before them the great example of the All-righteous Judge When the Cry of Sodom and Gomorrah was very great and their Sin very grievous calling for Vengeance from Heaven against the Unrighteous Inhabitants thereof he would not streight-way rain down Fire and Brimstone upon them but said I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the Cry of it which is come unto me and if not I will know And we find that he gave Abraham leave to make the best Defence he could for them before the Judgment came The Sin of Sodom was very Great and Notorious and the Cry of it came up to Him that could not be deceived by false Reports therefore his Design in this was not to salve his own Justice but to give the credulous and ill-natured World which is apt to believe all the ill that is said rather than to examine the Truth of things this Great and Early Example as a most Sacred and Divine Rule to Govern themselves by in all cases of this Nature And if by what I have said and here offered I shall be able to prevail with a too censorious World to leave the Judgment Seat a little while and come down and see whether the Matters Charged against me be according to the Cry thereof that is come unto them or not before they give final Judgment I think in what I have here said I shall not have troubled my self nor them in vain FINIS
Evidence to prove the wilful Malice of those that cast this Reproach upon me or what I have to offer in aggravation of this Scandal Nevertheless I shall take that liberty here to say I was born a Gentleman and have had my Education accordingly and am of too great a Spirit to stoop to an Office of so base a nature to serve the greatest Prince or State in the World Fourthly That I was 〈◊〉 only one of the late Kings Judges but one of those two persons in Vizards that Assisted on the Scaffold at his Death This I may call a home thrust a blow levelled not at my Honour and Reputation only but since the Persons so Characterized are Excepted out of the Act of General Pardon and Oblivion at my Life and Fortune also and ought more deservedly to be Vindicated by some solemn course of Law then the forementioned Scandal but the Promoters of this loud Cry being lost in a Croud of People I cannot give my self or others that Publick satisfaction that the Merits of the Cause requires and therefore I am necessitated to give my self and the World the best satisfaction in this Point that I can And since Malice is so bold and daring I do bless that good Providence of God that set me in such Circumstances at that time when such Matter is Charged to be done that although I am of the Negative part I am able to convince the Author of that Report to the satisfaction of all Mankind of a most foul and malicious Slander and it is shortly thus Except I could be at Hambrough in Germany and at Westminster in England at one and the same time which all will agree is wholly impossible the odious Matter Charged upon me in this Article cannot be true and to prove that I was at Hambrough at the same time that the Matters Charged in this Article were Transacted at Westminster I vouch the same Evidence which I have Cited in my Defence upon the Second Article And as the Malice of this Design against my Honour will plainly appear by what is already said so that these several Slanders were broached and sent abroad on set purpose to way-lay me in my Election for one of the Burgesses for Southwark will yet further appear by that Scandalous Libel that goes abroad under the Name of How and Rich wherein the Author pretending to give an impartial Account of that Election after he had given a worthy Character of the rest of the Competitors suming up all the forementioned Reports which are sounded forth at large against me in a few softer words is pleased by an Elegant Irony to Characterize me as a Person sufficiently Eminent for the Figure I made in the late Revolutions And that this Character may find the better Credit with the World and that I may be thought still a Man of the same Spirit the Libellers adds That at the Election I threatned to pull one of the Kings Water-mens Coats over his Ears and that he thereupon Replyed to me Aye Sir so perhaps you would my Masters too if it were in your Power All which is most notoriously false and without any colour or ground of Truth Fifthly The next exception they take to my Nomination to serve as a Burgess in the present Parliament is That being one of the present Sheriffs for the Renowned City of London I live in a Garret and keep no House Were this admitted to be wholly true yet will it not be allowed as I conceive for a good exception in the Case of a Burgess to serve in Parliament if I be otherwise qualified for so great a Trust it being a Maxime That those that are most saving of their own Estates will be most careful of the Peoples But since it doth cast some Reflection on me in the Office I now bear I confess it will require a further Answer I say then that though this be not altogether true yet having less of Malice then the former I can the better bear it In the former matters Charged my Adversaries run upon me as if they designed nothing less then to tear me in pieâ—â—â— by this they seem desirous only to pull me down and degrade me by those they gave me the Character of a very bad Subject by this they would have me thought no good Citizen And as I have disclaimed those with that just abhorrencie that the Merits of the Case required so I doubt not but upon a due Consideration of so much of the aforesaid Exception as shall be found true as also of that which follows they will admit of so fair an Apology as will not leave me under the guilt of any misdemeanour But before I enter upon the Examination and Answer of Particulars I shall here enter my Protest That I have a true and real Veneration and Esteem for that Renowned City and have been ready to express the same upon all occasions both at home and abroad even before I had the Honour to be Called to the Office I now bear amongst them That I am always ready to pay that due observance and respect to the Government thereof that the Laws ordained for that purpose do require That though for many years last past I have not had any private Interest and Concern by way of Trade not expect hereafter any benefit or advantage thereby yet I have as hearty good wishes for the Trade Welfare and Prosperity of the said City as any Citizen whatsoever And as I have been always ready and willing in my place and station to promote those good ends so I brought the same resolutions with me into that Office which I now bear and shall endeavour to discharge with all integrity governing myself therein so far as I am able by the Laws of the City and of the Land to both which I acknowledge my self to be a Servant as my best Warrant as well as safest Guides And if in any thing I shall chance to fail or fall short of this it shall not be through any willful miscarriage or neglect but from mistake which may easily happen to one of my Education in the manage of an Office of that importance And now to return to that which is objected to my disparagement it is said That I live in a Garret and keep no House and this they aggravate by suggesting that for this reason I have been denyed several Priviledges granted to other Sheriffs not having done the City that honour in this respect as others in my place have done Ill will as it never speaks well so it seldom speaks true as it makes the worst Construction of all Actions so it commonly mis-reports all Persons against whom it hath any pique or prejudice this seems to be my Case and how I come to fall under these Circumstances will best appear by that which follows The Truth is being a single Person as I have been for many years and having neither the Concerns of a Family nor of Trade lying upon me