not so nice but it might have been â—een determined by a meaner Critick than our Author who hath shewn his great skill in the French Tongue in his learned Remarques on the Phrase it is a matter extremely sensible to us And in the Latine upon the word Republick or Commonwealth If he had not from hence sought an occasion to call his Majesties Fidelity in question which tho it may become a Republican is very indecent in a good Subject When we see the real fruits of these utmost endeavours to extirpate Popery out of Parliament when we see the Duke of York no longer first Minister or rather Protector of these Kingdoms and his Creatures no longer to have the whole direction of Affairs when we see that love to our Religion and Laws is no longer a Crime at Court no longer a fore-runner of being disgraced and removed from all Offices and Imployments in their Power That is when the Duke of York is ruined and not only his Popish but his Church of England Creatures who have shewn themselves such by Voting against the Bill of Exclusion be laid aside When our Religion which no man knows what it is and that part of the Laws which we skulk behind now to ruine all the rest and the King and Kingdom to boot shall not hinder our Preferment whatever we do or say When the word Loyal which is faithful to the Law shall be restored to its own meaning and no longer signifie one who is for subverting the Laws That is when men may safely pretend so much respect to the Laws that they may affront his Majesty who is the Fountain of all Laws and the Protector of them and us by them when the word Loyal shall have no other relation to his Majesty than the same word if in use there hath in Venice when spoken concerning their Duke When we see the Commissions filled with hearty Protestants that is with Whigs and Republicans and the Laws executed in good earnest against the Papists and the Dissenters passed by unpunished The Discoverers of the Plot countenanced or at least heard and suffered to give their Evidence except when they make bold with our selves and such a Colledge and Fitz-Harris and the Association-men in which cases they ought neither to be heard nor believed The Courts of Justice steady and not avowing a jurisdiction one day which they disown the next but just such as they were in the late times When we see no more Grand-Juries discharged lest they should hear Witnesses nor Witnesses hurried away lest they should inform Grand-Juries tho it were against his Majesty and when all Grand-Juries are of the Family of Ignoramus the Lawyer and will find according to their Conscience tho against both their Oath and their Evidence especially when a Precious man is in jeopardy to be hanged for something done or said against the King When we see no more instruments from Court labouring to raise jealousies of Associating Petitioning Protestants who have a Patent from heaven to retail all the fears and jealousies that ever shall from henceforward be put off in England Scotland and Ireland and in all other his Majesties Dominions and Countries whatsoever And to that purpose have erected several Mints for the Coining of them in London and the parts adjacent and do maintain several Presses and a great many Intelligencers to collect and disperse the same for the benefit of his Majesties discontented Subjects who receive much comfort by the worst and falsest of them and hope to have just such another harvest in the end as they reaped from the same Seed in and about the years 1640 41 42 and so on till 1660. When we see some regard had to Protestants abroad tho his Majesty should be by our defaults brought into such straits as hardly to be able to maintain the Government at home When we observe somewhat else to be meant by Governing according to Law than barely to put them in execution against Dissenters in whom our strength against the Government doth chiefly consist the Laws made against Papists In which number we desire the Church of England men that is all that stick to the Religion by Law Established may be included and then we shall promise our selves not only frequent Parliaments but everlasting ones and all the blessed effects of pursuing Parliamentary Councils the Extirpation of Popery and Prelacy the redress of Grievances the flourishing of Laws and the perfect restoring the Monarchy to the credit which it had in 1658 and 59. both at home and abroad There needs no time to open the Eyes of his Majesties good Subjects the Whigs and their hearts are ready prepared to meet him in Parliament in order to perfect all these good Settlements and Peace which are now wanting in Church and State But whilst there are so many little Emissaries imployed to sow and encrease divisions in the Nation as if the Ministers had a mind to make his Majesty head of a Faction and joyn himself to one Party in the Kingdom who has a just right of Governing all which Thuanus lib. 28. says was the notorious Folly and occasioned the destruction of his great-Grandmother Mary Queen of Scots whilst we see the same differences Promoted industriously by the Court which gave the Rise and Progress to the late troubles and which were once thought fit to be buried in an Act of Oblivion What is meant by the little Emissaries here I know not nor will I guess Nor did I ever observe the Ministers had a mind to make his Majesty the Head of a Faction which your Author much blames in Henry III. of France too when he suffered the Holy League the Prototype of the Association to be set afoot and propagated so far before he took notice of it that he was forced at last to attempt to make himself the Head of it which was properly a Faction combined by an Oath against the Right Heir to the Crown and a part of the Natural Subjects of France on pretence of Religion for the Exclusion of the first and destruction of the latter without and against the consent of the King which caused a Rebellion in France the destruction of the King a sooner Succession of Henry IV. the right Heir upon changing his Religion and if God had not prevented it had betrayed France into the hands of the Spaniards or Cantoned it into small Principalities Now this is properly to make a Prince the head of a Faction without consideration of the Rise of our late Troubles which sprung from such another League but to countenance a Loyal Party more than a Rebellious one is not so and whatever effect it had in the Reign of Queen Mary his Majesties Grandmother seems the only way now to save England and prevent the need of another Act of Oblivion and Indemnity for all those Crimes that were pardoned by his Majesty but never repented of by them that acted them Whilst
of the Muse he was in thus he proceeds It is not to be denied but that our Kings have in a great measure been intrusted with the power of Calling and Declaring the Dissolutions of Parliaments Have they so Whose Trustees are they When did they first obtain this favour I protest now I was so dull as to think that this right of Calling and Dissolving Parliaments was a Natural Right inherent in the Crown and as old as the British Monarchy and that at the granting of the great Charter and at all other times before or since when the Kings of England granted any new Priviledges to their Subjects they still reserved to the Crown the power of calling Parliaments when and where they pleased and to continue them as long as they thought fit and then to Dissolve or Prorogue them Well but if I was therein mistaken yet he allows our Kings a great measure of that trust and who claims the Remainder of it Not the Petitioners I hope No the Privy Council he tells us are to be advised with Now that is matter of Expedience only not of Right for whatever His Majesty can lawfully do with doubtless he may as lawfully though not in all cases and circumstances so prudently do without the Advice of his Privy-Council who never claimed that I have heard of any co-ordinate right of managing affairs with our Kings and matter of Advice in its own nature supposes a liberty in the Person to whom 't is given either to adhere to or to reject it Well but whoever has the rest of that Trust care hath been anciently taken both for the Holding of Parliaments Annually and that they should not be Prorogued or Dissolved till all the Petitions and Bills before them were Answered and Redressed And for this my Author quotes two Acts of Parliament which because they are short I will insert here The first is this Item it is accorded that a Parliament shall be holden every year once and more often if need be Here is every word in that Statute The second follows Item for maintenance of the said Articles and Statutes and redress of divers mischiefs and grievances which daily happen a Parliament shall be holden every year as another time was ordained by a Statute which is the very same that I have recited before The Record which he 〈◊〉 I can say nothing to So I agree with him that there are two Statutes provided for the holding of Parliaments Annually and more often if need be of which the Kings of England have ever since thought themselves the Judges But where are the Statutes to be found that these Parliaments should not be prorogued nor dissolved till ALL the Petitions and Bills before them were answered and redressed Here is not one tittle of this in either of these he quotes yet that is the main thing in controversie and which only needed proving But he goes on The Constitution had been equally imperfect and destructive of it self had it been left to the choice of the Prince whether he would ever Summon a Parliament or put into his power to dismiss them Arbitrarily at his pleasure Then sure it had been worth the while to have proved for what time they were to sit as well as how often And if this can be made out that it is an Arbitrary that is in the sense he would be understood in an Illegal Act for the King to prorogue or dissolve a Parliament till all the Petitions and Bills be answered and redressed then will it be possible for a Parliament to perpetuate it self for ever by an endless succession of Petitions and Bills mixed with other great affairs which as it is contrary to the practice of all our Kings since these Statutes so if it were true the Menarchy wuld not then be what it now is but be much nearer a Commonwealth So that be the Consequence what it will this learned Gentleman must yield that it is at the choice of our Princes to summon Parliaments when they think it needful and to dismiss them when they please As for the word Arbitrarily which he here useth it is needless and was suggested to him by his Spleen and and not by his Reason That Parliaments should thus meet Annually and thus sit till all the Petitions and Bills before them are answered and redressed is secured to us by the same sacred tye by which the King at his Coronation does oblige himself to let his Judges sit to distribute Justice every Term and to preserve inviclably all other Rights and Liberties of his Subjects I thought the Law had been altered a little in the first particular by a Statute made in the Seventeenth year of his now Majesties Reign Cap. 1. the words of which are as followeth And because by the Ancient Laws and Statutes of this Realm made in the Reign of King Edward the Third Parliaments are to be held very often Your Majesties humble and loyal Subjects the Lords Spititual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled most humbly do beseech your most Excellent Majesty c. that hereafter the sitting and holding of Parliaments shall not be intermitted or discontinued above three years at most but that within three years from and after the Determination of this present Parliament and so from time to time within three years after the determination of any other Parliament or Parliaments or if there be occasion more or oftener your Majesty your Heirs and Successors do issue out your Writs for calling assembling and holding of another Parliament to the end there may be a frequent calling assembling and holding of Parliaments once in three years at least So that surely his Majesty may without breach of his Coronation Oath delay the calling of a Parliament three years if there be no occasion for one sooner of which he is the Judge Therefore as he goes on abruptly to dissolve Parliaments at such a time when nothing but the Legislative Power and the Vnited Wisdom of the Kingdom could relieve us from our just fears or secure us from our certain dangers is very unsuitable to the great Trust reposed in the Prince and seems to express but little of that affection which we will always hope his Majesty bears towards his People and the Protestant Religion That there was then too much need of the Legislative Power and the Wisdom of the Nation united in Parliament is not to be denied and that his Majesty was very sensible of it appears by his calling three Parliaments in twenty six Months as my Author computes it page 46. and we shall have occasion hereafter to enquire by whose fault it came to pass that they were all so abruptly dissolved and that will lead us to a probable conjecture why none hath been since called notwithstanding his Majesties Affection to his People and the Protestant Religion is such that we have great reason to bless God for it and to
sending away his Royal Highness the Duke of York to discern whether Protestant Religion and the peace of the Kingdom be as truly aimed at by others as they are really intended by me c. By which it appears the Union his Majesty here meant was not that Union that was afterwards set on foot in Parliament and I cannot but suspect these words were misrecited of purpose And did not he comand my Lord Chancellour to tell them That it was necessary to distinguish between Popish and other Recusants between them that would destroy the whole flock and them that only wander from it These words are indeed in the Lord Chancellors Speech but with this Preface Neither is there nor hath been these fifteen hundred years a purer Church than ours so 't is for the sake of this poor Church alone that the State hath been so much disturbed It is her Truth and Peace her Decency and Order which they the Plotters and Papists labour to undermine and pursue with so restless a malice and since they do so it will be necessary for us to distinguish between Popish and other Recusants between them that would destroy the whole Flock and them that only wander from it So that whatever distinction his Majesty intended to allow between the Popish and Protestant Recusants it must be such as was consistent with the Truth Peace Decency and Order of the Religion by Law established which I suspect the Project of Union set on foot was not much less the Vote of the tenth of January for the suspending the execution of all Penal Laws made against them as a weakening of the Protestant Interest an encouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom These things considered we should not think the Parliament went too far but rather that they did not follow his Majesties Zeal with an equal pace At this rate of concluding a man may draw any Conclusion from any premises if he hath a mind to it His Majesty would joyn with them in any course that might tend to the security of the Protestant Religion for the future so as the same extend not to the diminution of his own Prerogative nor to alter the descent of the Crown in the right Line nor to defeat the Succession Therefore when they brought in a Bill to disinherit his Majesties Brother against his expresly declared resolution they did not go too far but rather they did not follow his Majesties Zeal with an equal pace When his Majesty thought it necessary to distinguish betwixt Popish Recusants and Protestant Dissenters that is to favour the latter more than the former they were for taking away all those Laws at once that have distinguished betwixt the Dissenters and the Religion established and giving up this Pure Church into the hands of her bitter Enemies that had but just before bid fair for her ruine as if the only care had been that the Papists might not have had the honour of destroying her and yet we are not to believe they went too far in this neither The truth is if we observe the daily provocations of the Popish Faction whose rage and insolence were only increased by the discovery of the Plot so that they seemed to defie Parliaments as well as inferiour Courts of Justice under the Protection of the Duke their Publickly Avowed Head who still carried on their designs by new and more detestable methods than ever and were continually busie by Perjuries and Subornations to charge the best and most considerable Protestants in the Kingdom with Treasons as black as those of which themselves were guilty If we observe what vile Arts were used to hinder the further discovery what liberty was given to reproach the Discoverers what means used to destroy or corrupt them how the very Criminals were incouraged and allowed to be good Witnesses against their Accusers We should easily excuse an English Parliament thus beset if they had been carried to some little Excesses not justifiable by the Laws of Parliament or unbecoming the wisdom and gravity of an English Senate Now other men may possibly be of another mind and think that if the state of things had been but half so deplorable as they are here described the least Excess had been then inexcusable for there is never more need of gravity than in great and eminent dangers but what I shall say will it is like not be much regarded hear then what the Chancellour of England said The Considerations which are now to be laid before you are as Vrgent and as Weighty as were ever yet offered to any Parliament or indeed ever can be so great and so surprizing have been our Dangers at home so formidable are the appearances of danger from abroad that the most Vnited Counsels the most Sedate and the calmest Temper together with the most dutiful and zealous affections that a Parliament can shew are all become absolutely and indispensably necessary for our preservation So that little excesses are great crimes when men are beset with dangers tho they may be excused in times of Peace and Security if I rightly understand this wise and honourable person But if we come to search into the particulars here enumerated there may possibly arise better Arguments to excuse their Excesses The Popish Faction about that time having tried all other ways to clear themselves of the Plot without any good success fell at last upon another Project which was to start a New Plot. They knew there were in London some Clubbs and Coffee-house-Sets of Presbyterians Old Army Officers discontented Gentlemen and Republicans which had close Cabals and private Meetings and that the Court had a jealous eye upon them as indeed there was good cause for it and out of these materials they thought they might easily raise the structure of a Presbyterian Plot against the State but all the chief men of the Popish Faction being fled imprisoned or executed this grand Design fell into the hands of people of no great either parts or reputation to carry on so difficult an Undertaking and it was not likely neither to be easily believed if it had no other Witnesses but Papists to attest it And it was not possible for them to bring over any other of any reputation in the low estate their affairs then were so that the Contrivance miscarried and only tended to make the Papists more hated than they were before and this is called the Meal-Tub Plot which I should rather have ascribed to the rage and desperation of the Papists than to their Insolence which was then very well abated by the Execution of Coleman Staley the Murtherers of Sir Edmundbury Godfry and the Jesuits which had reduced them to too low a condition to defie the meanest Courts of Justice in the Nation and put them upon those mean and base thoughts of Perjuries and Subornations to avoid that ruine which they saw ready to overwhelm and destroy them But that which
to break alone with that Monarch which had tired out all Christendom with a tedious expensive War when they were united against him And therefore the best Expedient that could then have fallen into the Heads of the Commons had been to have shewn him and all the Confederates that we were resolved to have stood by our King with our Lives and Fortunes which would have heartned them on to a stout resistance in case of his further encroachments upon them and in likelihood have kept him in some aw whereas the course that was taken had a quite contrary effect and tended more a thousand times to the discouragement of the Confederates than the fruitless attempt he hints at made by the Earl of Danby who was then in the Tower for it So that I believe all Europe will bear me Witness that all the great things the French King hath since done were in a great measure owing to the disorders of our English Parliaments and their declared resolution of giving the King no Supplies upon reasonable terms which rendered the Alliance and Enmity of our King abroad inconsiderable Amongst the great things the French King hath done since the Peace my Author tells us this His Pensioners at our Court have grown insolent upon it and presumed that now He the French King may be at leisure to assist them the Pensioners in ruining England and the Protestant Religion together And they have shaken off all dread of Parliaments and have prevailed with his Majesty to use them with as little respect and to disperse them with as great contempt as if they had been a Conventicle and not the great Representative of the Nation whose Power and Wisdom only could save him and us in our present Exigencies Surely the man that talks thus contemptuously of his Majesty and all the Ministers durst have told us if he could who were these French Pentioners but it was not his design to point out the men but to cast out general Accusations against the King the Ministers and the whole Government thereby to incense the People and to make them ungovernable that so his Majesty might be the sooner necessitated to submit himself to that Power and Wisdom that could only save him and us but might also easily ruine both if things were once put into such a state as his Majesty were no longer Master of that Power As to the Accusation or rather Calumny that the English Ministers are Pensioners to the French King it will easily appear false to any man that doth but reflect on Colemans Letters in 1674 when the King was in a much better condition to oppose and ruine the French designs and enterprizes and the French King had all the Confederates United and in an Actual War with him and there was nothing to fear or hope for but in England yet he then refused three hundred thousand Pounds tho it was pretended it would have assured the Dissolution of that long Loyal Parliament which France feared more than threescore such as have followed it and when at last Coleman descended to 200000 l. and at one time begged shamefully but for 20000 l. He was denied it Monsieur Rouvigni the French Embassadour usually telling him That if he could be sure of succeeding in that design his Master would give a much larger Sum but that he was not in a condition to throw away money upon uncertainties Nor doth it appear that ever Coleman got one farthing at that time And after the discovery of the Plot and the dissolution of the long Loyal Parliament the general Peace having delivered the French King from all Apprehensions of good or hurt from England His Majesty having such ill success in the first short Westminster Parliament and the Divisions of England appearing more fully in the Election of the Second and the year that passed betwixt that and its sitting all which were as well known in Paris as in London it is not to be doubted but he very well understood that there was then less reason to maintain Pensioners in England than before So that we may conclude from that time there hath come but little French Money over into England for Pensions to any Party England being thought in France so inconsiderable by reason of her Domestick Feuds Fears and incurable Jealousies that there is nothing to be feared or hoped from it whereas Pensions are to be imployed in Potent and United States I do not design by this to prove that no French Pensioners are now maintained in England but that they are few and gain but little by it and therefore it is ridiculous to conceive that all our Ministers of State are such and that they should be such fools as to conspire with France to ruine England for nothing or that which is next to it And it is as silly a supposition that the Privy Council and the rest of the Ministers of State who are not Pensioners should not discover those that are as soon as this discontented Gentleman There is a lewd and impossible conceit spread underhand about the Nation that the King himself is a Pensioner to France and all that is pretended to justifie it is only his being able to subsist so long without Parliamentary Supplies Now this I believe is not credited by any men of understanding but yet there are many such who for ill ends speak it in some companies and will shake their heads and shrug their shoulders and look gravely in other companies that they may seem to fear what they durst not speak Now if what I have said before be applied to this instance it will appear more ridiculous for that Pension that may tempt a hungry Courtier who is to raise a Family would be rejected with scorn if it were tendered to a meaner Prince than ours is And it is not to be thought that the French King who is observed to be as sparing of his Wealth as prodigal of his Souldiers would ever be at such an Expence as to maintain our Court and his own for fear the King should unite with a Parliament that would be an Enemy to France no all knowing men understand how little he cares for England if it were quiet at home but as now things stand he scorns it as beneath his Consideration Well but if neither the Ministers nor his Majesty are to be suspected who are I will tell you that in the words of a more knowing man than I dare pretend to be Those that roar most against French Councils and Measures Vnder-hand-bargains and Agreements between both the Kings know they belye their own Consciences and that the French have us in the last degree of Contempt This the Earl of Danby Printed in his own vindication perhaps not ignorant that some of their Ministers did in the year 1677 and 78. before the breaking forth of the Plot declare That Monsieur L. had greater interest and more Friends in England than the Duke of York that
not neglect to give it its due Consideration as appears by their Addresses of November 29. and Decemb. 21. 1680. and they told him no better could be expected of a Town for the most part under Popish Governours and always filled with a Popish Garrison Now this Gentleman might have done the World a Kindness to have told us how the Popery of the Governours or Garrison contributed any thing to the present Exigencies of that place into which it fell not by any neglect or Treachery but by a Siege laid about it by a potent Army of Moors They promised to assist him in defence of it as soon as ever they could be reasonably secured that any Supply which they gave for that purpose should not be used to augment the strength of our Popish Adversaries and to encrease our dangers at home All the rest is of the same kind with this But Sir can you tell what was meant by a reasonable security Or wherein the state of England would have been mended if Tangier had been lost Or can you give us any reason why this Parliament seemed resolved to run the Risque of losing this Town when the former Parliament had Voted so stoutly for the Annexing it to the Crown I might perhaps go near to answer all these questions from the exact Collection of Debates which are Printed but the safer and shorter way is to refer my Reader to them for his satisfaction My Author owns that his Majesty offered to concur in any Remedies that could be proposed for the security of the Protestant Religion but saith he he was pleased to go no further how could he for those Remedies the Commons offered were rejected and those which they were preparing were prevented by a dissolution What was rejected is well enough understood viz. the Bill of Exclusion and if the Association was what was preparing it is not great wonder it should be prevented by a Dissolution But for this we must be contented to remain in ignorance His Majesty had complained of Addresses in the name of Remonstrances rather than Answers Now here my Author cannot guess what the Ministers would have the word Remonstrance sigâ—ifie but he takes it to be a modest expressing the reasons of their resolution Now if this be the meaning of the Word we must own his Majesty hath in this particular charged the Commons wrongfully for there was seldom too much modesty joyned with their Reasons but they rather to us poor Country Folk seemed to have altogether lost that respect that was due to the Crown as any body else would think that should compare their Addresses with those made in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth particularly that made to thank her for taking away a part only of the Monopolies that oppressed them in the 44. year of her Reign when the Speaker and the whole House of Commons sate a good while on their knees to her but our Gentlemen treated our King at quite another rate and not much unlike those who remonstrated to his Majesties Father till they at last fairly brought him to the Block My Author considers in the next place that part of the Declaration which concerns the Arbitrary Orders for taking persons into custody for matters that had no relation to Priviledges of Parliament c. If saith he they the Ministers intended by these general words to reflect on the Orders made to take those degenerate Wretches into Custody who published under their hands Abhorrences of Parliaments and of those who in humble and lawful manner petitioned for their sitting in a time of such extreme necessity Surely they are not in good earnest they cannot believe themselves when they say that these matters have no relation to Priviledges of Parliament if the Priviledge of Parliament be concerned when an injury is done to any particular Member how much more when men strike at Parliaments themselves and endeavour to wound the Constitution But Sir I hope it is no breach of Priviledge of Parliament now to beg a small favour at your Worships hands and that is to produce but one instance of one single man that ever published an Abhorrence of Parliaments in general or of that Parliament in particular before it sate It seems mighty probable to me that these Wretches were a part of them and the rather because my Author is fain to misrepresent the whole matter of Fact to make it seem just Now Sir all the question was whether the manner of Petitioning then taken up by the Rabble was lawful or humble You say it was both but Sir your Sentence is neither Concluding nor yet infallible and therefore we appeal from it to the next Loyal Parliament which we hope some at least of those Degenerate Wretches may live to see and in the mean time there will ever be some ready to abhor a Petition signed by 60000 Shop-Keepers Apprentices c. humbly pretending to instruct the King and Council in spight of a Proclamation to the contrary when its fit a Parliament should sit which some are such fools as to imagine may be done again without abhorring Parliaments and consequently without breach of Priviledge of Parliament And because this was all that was done then to the best of our remembrance and as it is conceived may be made appear by those very abhorrences still extant therefore it is humbly conceived the Imprisonments thereupon were Arbitrary and illegal As to those two Persons my Author names of them that were taken into Custody by Order of Parliament Sheridon and Thompson I will raise no Contest with him because their case will depend upon the general determination The King's Declaration lays down this as a Rule that for the House of Commons to take into Custody any Subject for matters that have no relation to priviledges of Parliament is Arbitrary i. e. Illegal This the Author quarrels at and by a very few Precedents endeavours to prove That the House of Commons may order men to be taken into Custody for matters not relating to priviledge These two are directly contrary each to other and I only desire the liberty to enquire which of these seem likeliest to be in the right The Priviledges of the House of Commons are indeed our own and they enjoy and ought to use them as our Trustees and for our good and therefore it is folly in us to lessen them when they are such as are necessary and it is a great injury in them to extend them beyond what they anciently were to the damage of the Crown or of the Liberties of the Subjects or on the other hand to abuse those they really have and ought to enjoy to our damage or to the Detriment of the Kings Prerogative which is as necessary for our preservation as the Priviledges of Parliament themselves are The Priviledges of Parliament are many and relate either to the whole Body the Three Estates taken Collectively or to the Lords or to the Commons Those
causes may be assigned according to the several fancies and imaginations of men of our late miserable distractions they cannot be so reasonably imputed to any one cause as to the extreme poverty of the Crown the want of power could never have appeared if it had not been for the want of money But since that the rising greatness of our Neighbours have mounted the Expences of the Crown above that growing Revenue that was then setled and the Republical Party as his Majesty stiles them promise themselves the happiness of bringing about another Revolution by the same means the last was in his Majesties days if it be possible but however at his Death And therefore if the Crown thus beset shall at any time make use of Anticipations to relieve it self they only ought to be responsible for it who have or shall make it necessary For surely no Prince would borrow when he might have it freely given upon reasonable terms unless he took a pride in counting the number of his Creditors And therefore saith my Author it has ever been esteemed a Crime in Counsellors who persuaded the King to Anticipate his Revenue and a Crime in those who furnish'd money upon such Anticipations in an extraordinary way however extraordinary the occasion might be For this cause it was that the Parliament in the 35 of Henry VIII did not only discharge all these Debts which the King had contracted but Enacted that those Lenders who had been before paid again by the King should refund all those Sums into the Exchequer as judging it reasonable punishment to make them forfeit the Money they lent since they have gone about to introduce so dangerous a precedent It is bad Logick that raiseth general Conclusions from particular instances and it will appear so in this that we have in hand which because I cannot so well and creditably do it my self I will make appear by transcribing a passage out of my Lord Coke tho it be somewhat long Advice concerning new and plausible Projects and Oâ—â—ers in Parliament When any plausible project is made in Parliament to draw the Lords and Commons to assent to any Act especially in matters of weight and importance if both Houses do give upon the matter projected and promised their Consent it shall be most necessary they being trusted for the Commonwealth to have the matter projected and promised which moved the House to consent to be established in the same Act lest the benefit of the Act be taken and the matter projected and promised never performed and so the Houses of Parliament perform not the trust reposed in them as it fell out taking one example from many in the Reign of Henry VIII On the Kings behalf the Members of both Houses were informed in Parliament that no King or Kingdom was safe but where the King had three Abilities First To live of his own and be able to defend his Kingdom upon any sudden Invasion or Insurrection Secondly To aid his Confederates otherwise they would never assist him Thirdly To reward his well deserving Servants Now the Projâ—ct was that if the Parliament would give unto him all the Abbies Priories Friories Nunneries and other Monasteries that for ever in time then to come he would take order that the same should not be converted to private use but first That his Exchequer for the purposes aforesaid should be inrich'd Secondly the Kingdom strengthened by a continual maintainance of Forty thousand well trained Souldiers with skilful Captains and Commanders Thirdly For the benefit and ease of the Subject who never afterwards as was projected in any time to come should be charged with Subsidies Fifteenths Loans or other common aids Fourthly Lest the Honour of the Realm should receive any Diminution of Honour by the dissolution of the said Monasteries there being twenty nine Lords of Parliament of the Abbots and Priors that held of the King per Baroniam that the King would create a number of Nobles which we omit The said Monasteries were given to the King by authority of divers Acts of Parliament but no provision was therein made for the said Project or any part thereof only ad faciendam populum these Possessions were given to the King his Heirs and Successors to do and use therewith his and their own wills to the pleasure of Almighty God and the honour and profit of Almighty God Now observe the Catastrophe in the same Parliament of 32 Henry VIII when the great and opulent Priory of St. Johns of Jerusalem was given to the King he demanded and had a Subsidy both of the Clergy and Laity and the like he had in 34 Henry VIII and in 37 Henry VIII he had another Subsidy And since the dissolution of the said Monasteries he exacted divers Loans and against Law received the same Now let my Reader judge if it be reasonable to make what the Parliament did in the 25 of Henry VIII a standing Rule for all succeeding times when it is morally impossible that ever any King of England should have such a Treasure and Revenue as they had given this King within less than seven years and a Subsidy but the very year before besides If we had such Parliaments now and it were possible to give the King such Supplies as they did I would freely give my Vote to have the next Lender Hanged The true way to put the King out of a possibility of supporting the Government is to let him waste in one year that money which ought to bear the charge of the Government for seven But Sir to put you out of pain for that this would necessitate the sitting of Parliaments and the yielding to whatsoever they could desire So this tho true was not the reason of the Vote but directly contrary to it but the King knows the Consequence of that too well to need any restraint in that particular for he knows as well as you that this is the direct method to destroy not only the Credit of the Crown at home and abroad but the Monarchy it self If the King resolves never to pay the money that he borrows what faith will be given to the Royal Promises and the honour of the Nation will suffer in that of the Prince And if it be put upon the People to repay it this would be a way to impose a necessity of giving Taxes without end whether they would or no. Omitting the undutifulness of these suppositions it is very remarkable that the great Anticipations upon the Revenue were made in the time of the last Dutch War when they who now so much clamour against them were Ministers and they who now are such and bear all the blame were not in a capacity to hinder it Whether they had any such intentions as these in it they best know but I am sure one of them made it out powerfully that there was all the reason in the world that the Parliament should pay off
had been but for half an hour he would not have consented to it because of the ill consequences it might have hereafter the Militia being wholly in the Crown c. Now I believe it would be difficult for my Author to make and prove the like instance in any of our former Princes And in the first of the short Westminster Parliaments his Majesty passed the Act for the better securing of the Liberty of the Subject and for preventing imprisonment beyond Seas to which an honourable Person adds The Act against quartering of Souldiers upon the Subject and saith his Majesty might have had many Millions for these Acts if he had insisted on a bargain or known how to distinguish between his own private Interest and that of the Subject or the truckling way of Bartering when the good of his People was concerned And in the last short-lived Westminster Parliament his Majesty passed the Act against Importation of Irish Cattel for no other visible cause but because both Houses had passed it tho it tended to the Diminution of his Revenue And now let us see how gratefully our Author treats him for all these Royal and Prince-like Favours Therefore the Favorites did little consult his Majesties Honour when they bring him in solemnly declaring to his Subjects that his intentions were as far as would have consisted with the very Being of the Government to have complied with any thing that could have been proposed to him to accomplish those Ends he had mentioned which were the satisfying the desires of his Subjects and securing them against all their just fears when they are not able to produce an instance wherein they suffered him to comply in any one thing Whatever the House of Commons Addressed for was certainly denied tho it was only for that reason and there was no surer way of Intituling ones self to the favour of the Court than to receive a Censure from the representative body of the People As to the Addresses made by the House of Commons alone they were many of them such as his Majesty could not comply with without great mischief to himself or them that had exprest the greatest Zeal for his Service and when for that case only they seemed to be persecuted it would have been very impolitick in his Majesty tho he had been his own man and not under the dominion of the Favorites as it seems he was to have yielded to the Commons against them But cannot the Favorites instance wherein they suffered his Majesty to comply in any one thing with the House of Commons Did not his Majesty at their single request Pardon a great many Informers against the Plotters Did he not pardon B. Harris too his 500 l. Fine and Imprisonment which he had incurred by Printing disloyal and seditious Pamphlets Did not his Majesty upon their Address discharge all the Protestant Dissenters who were then under prosecution upon several Penal Statutes without paying Fees as far as it could be done according to Law and promise also to recommend them to the Judges There might many other instances be given of moneys issued out of persons taken care for and the like upon the single request of the Commons so that I cannot but wonder where my Authors modesty was when he pressed the Favorites to give one instance of his Majesties compliance with the House of Commons But his Majesty and the Court were kind to all that received any Censure from the representative body of the People They might thank themselves for that who bestowed their Censures so freely on men that had deserved very well of his Majesty and the Government and yet I believe there may be some instances given of men whom they Censured or imprisoned that have not been mightily advanced since by the Court but let us examine those few particular Examples my Author hath marked out Let it for the present be admitted saith my Author that some of the things desired by that Parliament were exorbitant and because we will put the objection as strong as is possible inconsistent with the very being of the Government yet at least some of their Petitions were more reasonable Doubtless there was some such which therefore were freely granted by his Majesty as I have proved The Government might have subsisted though the Gentlemen put out of the Commission of the Peace for their zealous acting against the Papists had been restored And so might the Protestant Religion by Law established be preserved without the assistance of these zealous Gentlemen and therefore his Majesty was not to be instructed by these Representatives whom he should imploy as Justices of the Peace especially after they had discovered so much kindness for the Dissenters who have something an odd Notion of Papists and Popery Nor would a final Dissolution of all things have ensued tho Sir George Jefferies had been removed out of all Publick Offices or my Lord Hallifax himself from his Majesties Presence and Councils The first of these Sir George Jefferies was then Recorder of London and was prosecuted by a part of the City for that he by traducing and obstructing Petitioning for the sitting of that Parliament had betrayed the Rights of the Subject Now that Gentleman opposed them as many others did in obedience to his Majesties Proclamation and the Laws of the Land and it was a little unreasonable that his Majesty should joyn with the Commons to ruine him though it could be made out that his Majesties Proclamation was illegal and that there were a mistake also in the point of Law My Lord Hallifax was prosecuted only for opposing the Bill for disinheriting the Duke of York in the House of Lords and no fault whatsoever laid to his charge Now he being a Member of that House it had been very unreasonable for his Majesty to have punished him for using his own just and legal freedom in a case especially wherein his Majesty had declared his own resolution so very often before Now Sir tho these two Persons are not essentially necessary to the preservation of the Government yet it is absolutely so that his Majesty do not give up those that have faithfully and legally served him in their proper Stations either to please the People or their Representatives without a legal trial and a just defence We may all remember what the Consequences of his Majesties Fathers giving up the Earl of Strafford in the beginning of the late troubles were and I hope I shall never live to see that sort of compliance reacted again Had the Statute of 35. Eliz. which had justly slept for Eighty years and of late unreasonably revived been repealed surely the Government might still have been safe And though the Fanaticks perhaps had not deserved so well as that in favour to them his Majesty should have passed that Bill yet since the Repeal might hereafter be of great use to those of the Church of England in case of a Popish
Successor which Blessing his Majesty seems resolved to bequeath to his People one would have thought he might have complied with the Parliament in that Proposal It is very probable his Majesty would have complied with them in that particular tho it is past a perhaps the Fanaticks had not nor ever will as long as they continue such deserve that favour at his hands But modest Sir how doth it appear that his Majesty is resolved to bequeath his People the Blessing of a Popish Successor Hath he promised the Duke to die before him Hath his Majesty obliged him to continue a Papist if he be one in spight of his Interest to the contrary Is this your Justice Is this your Modesty But the Ministers thought they had not sufficiently triumphed over the Parliament by getting the Bill rejected unless it were done in such a manner as that the precedent might be more pernicious to Posterity by introducing a new Negative in the making of Laws than the losing the Bill how useful soever could be to the present Age. That this Bill was not tendered to his Majesty for his Assent appears by three Votes of the Commons at Oxford The House then according to their order the day before took into consideration the matter relating to the Bill which passed both Houses in tbe last Parliament entituled An Act for the repeal of a Statute made in the 35 year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth but was not tendered to his Majesty for his Royal Assent Resolved that a Message be sent to the Lords desiring a Conference with their Lordships in matters relating to the constitution of Parliaments in passing Bills Ordered that a Committee be appointed to consider of and prepare the subject matter to be offered at the said Conference Thus far that Parliament went in order to the discovery of the cause of the not tendering that Bill and I have heard the Lords also were upon an inquiry what was become of it but the dissolution preventing them I never heard that there was any discovery made then or since of the person or persons that took it away Now where my Author had his intelligence that the Ministers took it away to introduce a new Negative in the making of Laws I shall not inquire This we may affirm That if the success of this Parliament did not answer expectation whoever was guilty of it the House of Commons did not fail in doing their part Never did men husband their time to more advantage They opened the Eyes of the Nation they shewed them their danger with a freedom becoming English men It was a Caution given by Queen Elizabeth in the end of a Parliament held in the 35th year of her Reign That she would not have the People feared with reports of great dangers but rather encouraged witb boldness against the Enemies of the State And what the effect of our new Politicks was once before we will remember They Asserted tbe Peoples right of Petitioning Yes that they did too very effectually Tho there was an Act of Parliament then in force with this Preface Whereas it hath been found by sad experience that tumultuous and other disorderly soliciting and procuring of Hands by private persons to Petitions Complaints Remonstrances and Declarations and other Addresses to the King or both or either houses of Parliament for alteration of Matters Established by Law redress of pretended Grievances in Church or State OR OTHER PUBLICK CONCERNMENTS have been made use of to serve the Ends of factious and seditious persons gotten into power to the violation of the Publick Peace and have been great means of the late unhappy Wars Confusions and Calamities of this Nation c. They Proceeded vigorously against the Conspirators discovered and heartily endeavoured to take away the very Root of the Conspiracy They had before them as many great and useful Bills as had been seen in any Parliament and it is not to be laid at their doors that they proved abortive This Age will never fail to give them their grateful Acknowledgments And Posterity will remember that House of Commons with honour Jamque opus exegit quod nec Jovis ira nec ignes Nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetusas Nomenque erit indelebile vestrum And now the work is ended which Jove's rage Nor fire nor Sword shall rase nor eating Age And their immortal name shall never die We come now to the particular enumeration of those gracious things which were said to the Parliament at Westminster His Majesty ask'd of them the supporting the Alliances he had made for the preservation of the General Peace in Christendom It is to be wished his Majesty had added to his gracious asking of Money a gracious Communication of those Alliances that such blind obedience had not been exacted from them as to contribute to the support of they knew not what themselves nor before they had considered whether those Alliances which were made were truly designed for that End which was Pretended very dutifully said or any way likely to prove effectual to it since no precedent can be shewn that ever a Parliament not even the late Long Parliament tho filled with Danby his Pensioners did give money for maintaining any Leagues till they were first made acquainted with the particulars of them That Leagues have been communicated to Parliaments heretofore is not to be disputed but that they were ever tendered before they were asked for is not so plain Nor doth it appear this was denied And as to his Parenthesis I desire only that it may be observed for my excuse in case I happen to speak any thing not respective enough of the renowned Parliament at Westminster But besides this this Parliament had reason to consider well of the general Peace it self and the influence it might have and had upon our Affairs before they came to any resolution or so much as a debate about preserving it since so wise a Minister as my Lord Chancellor blessed be God we have one wise Minister they have all along hitherto in general terms been treated at such a rare as if none of them had had either Wit or Honesty had so lately told us that it was fitter for meditation than discourse He informed us in the same Speech that the Peace then was but the effect of Despair in the Confederates and we have since learnt by whose means they were reduced to that Despair and what price was demanded of the French King for so great a Service It is an old Maxim That men should neither deliberate nor debate about those things that are not in their power Now whatever this General Peace was and whatever the effects of it might be the right of Peace and War was in the King and the Commons could not alter one tittle of it And a small degree of experience in the World will tell any man that England was not then in a condition