God From which two I will infer this Conclusion That who ever shall attempt to alter this Right of Succession without a manifest revelation which is not now to be expected is a Notorious Usurper upon the Right of the Person who is to Succeed be the pretence for it what it will and a Rebel against that Providence which gave him that Right Nor will all the Antient Rebellions Usurpations and Disorders which have hapned in this Kingdom Justify them that shall begin them again Now if it should please God so to order it that the Duke should at his Majesties Death be the Next Heir to his Crown I cannot see how any humane Power shall prevent his Succession to it but by encroaching upon his Right and by rebelling against the Divine Providence that gave it to him So that be the Inconveniences that shall follow upon such a Succession what they will or can be we must submit to them upon pain of Rebellion against both God and his Anointed our Lawful Prince And then let any man be judge whether it is better to fall into the Hands of a Popish Prince or into the Hands of an Angry God who is a Consuming fire and who is not bound by any Act of Parliament from afflicting a Sinful and Rebellious People So tho the Church of England hath all the reason in the world to dread such a Prince yet she will have greater reason to dread a Rebellion against him because it runs her upon the Divine Vengeance and is directly contrary to her Principles and the Practise of the Apostles and Primitive Church and is plain down-right Popery So that I conclude Neither She nor any of her Children will be guilty of it come what will come But this is not all we are already Sworn to Bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Kings Highness The Oath of Supremacy His Heirs and Lawful Successors and that to our power we shall assist and defend all Jurisdiction Priviledges Pre-Eminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and Lawful Successors or United and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm of which that of an hereditary Succession is one of the principal and we are Sworn not onely to his Majesty whom God Long Continue but also to his Lawful Successors with which Oath none but they that have that Right can dispence for this being a promissory Oath made to them as well as him when their Rights shall fall his Majesty cannot remit their Right nor any of them anothers but they have Every of them in their respective degrees and orders an indispensable Right confirmed to them by this Oath Nor would they cease to be Lawful Successors in the Sence of this Oath tho a Law were made to prevent bar or cut off their Succession because all that is meant by the word Lawful in this place is to be understood by the common Rules of Succession Settled by the Common Law of England viz. the Eldest Son or Daughter before a Younger of the same Sex c. Now if his Majesty cannot do it much less can the Lords or Commons do it because they are all within the obligation of this Oath and it is unreasonable that men should dispence with their own promissory Oathes to others for this would destroy all Faith and Confidence amongst men and pull up the very Roots of all Society and Government Nor can any man imagine that this Oath was made in favour of a Protestant Successor only H. 8. being a Popish Prince in whose time it was Settled at first And the same in effect is Sworn by the Oath of Allegiance with this binding Clause I do believe and in my Conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any other Person whatsoever hath power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I Acknowledge by good and full Authority to be lawfully Ministred unto me And by this Oath we are also bound to bear Faith and true Allegiance not onely to his Majesty but to his Heirs and Successors and Him and Them to Defend to the Utmost of our power c. Which is to be understood according to their several and respective Rights and at such times as they shall grow and accrew to them and every of them And altho this Oath was Introduced by a Protestant Prince yet is not made to him as a Protestant but as Lawful and Rightful King of this Realm and who ever is So hath and must have Right to impose it upon us be his Religion what it will So that besides the former Sin of Rebellion against the Providence of God Here is an Apparent and Unavoidable Perjury in this Case to Aggravate the other And surely no good Religious man will run upon these two Hideous Sins deliberately to avoid any temporal affliction whatsoever So that were the Case just such as it is represented by the Author of the Character of a Popish Successor It would not Justify the Excluding of such a Successor as he hath described by Force and Arms against his Right and our Oathes to the Contrary tho we were never so certain to Succeed in the Attempt But then that wicked man has most falsly represented things to us and So as it is impossible they should ever prove in the Event if we do not give occasion for it by an improsperous Rebellion nay I believe I may say if we should First it is agreed by All the World That there are Ten Protestants for one Papist thro all the Dominions of England So that if such a Successor should attempt to Extirpate them the bare refusing to aid or assist him in such an enterprize would render it impossible Secondly All our Laws are in favour of that Religion that is Established which could never be Repealed but in Parliament and it is morally impossible to have a Parliament the major part of which will not be Protestants who will never Consent to ruine themselves Thirdly The Revenue of such a Prince will not bear the Charge of so great an Army as will be necessary to reduce the People to a Religion so generally detested and hated as this is In answer to this there is Two things pretended First That he may have Foraign Ayds And Secondly That he will have means to deter or allure many from the Protestant Religion to his own As to Foraign assistances no Prince will dare to admit so many as shall totally over-power his own People because then they will be able to ruine him as the Saxons did the Brittains and he may be sure they will do it So that this is a ridiculous Supposition in a Prince of our own Nation that hath No other Dominions but these As to any Number of People that he may be able to bring over to his Religion they will be very inconsiderable in proportion to those that will never be brought over tho we suppose the Number greater then it is like to be
Wherefore we your Majesties Loyal Subjects could not but be sensibly affected with trouble to find such a Person notwithstanding the repeated Addresses of the last Parliament continued in your Counsels at this time when the affaires of your Kingdom require none to be put into such imployments but such as are men of known abilities Interest and esteem in the Nation without all suspition of either mistaking or betraying the true interest of the Kingdom and consequently of advising your Majesty ill We do therefore most humbly beseech your most sacred Majesty for the taking away the great Jealousies Dissatisfactions and Fears amongst your good Subjects that your Majesty will gratiously be pleased to remove the Duke of Lauderdale from your Majesties Counsels in your Majesties Kingdoms of England and Scotland and from all offices imployments and places of trust and from your Majesties Presence for ever This Address they presented to his Majesty the day following to which his Majesty replyed he would consider of it and return an Answer But in the mean time it was doubtless sent after the Speech into Scotland where it found all things rather necessitated to a Rebellion than disposed the Murther of so illustrious a Person as the Primate of that Kingdom and one of his Majesties Privy Counsel there was a Villany not to be smothered And the Proclamation published the day after the fact for the discovery and apprehending of the Assassines representing the Act as it deserved with great detestation had further allarm'd the whole Party who had as they thought no other way to escape the deserved revenge but by justifying the Murther with a Rebellion And finding by this Address that the House of Commons in England were in this critical moment pressing upon their dreadful Enemy the Duke of Lauderdale they took it for granted God had espoused their cause and if they could make a head in Scotland they should be seconded out of England hoping perhaps to be as well rewarded for this as they were for beginning the former Rebellion and so being pushed forward by their destiny and desperation on they went On Tuesday the 27th of May 1679 The Parliament was prorogued and the Thursday following which was the 29th of the same month the Scotch Covenanters who knew nothing of it began their Rebellion at Ragland in Scotland to which place about fourscore men well mounted and armed came and proclaimed the Covenant and burnt several Acts of Parliament and affixed this following Declaration on the Market Cross As the Lord had been pleased still to keep and preserve his Interest in the Land by the Testimony of some faithful Witnesses from the beginning so in our days some have not been wanting who through the greatest of Hazards had added their Testimonies to these who have gone before them by suffering death Banishment Torturings Finings Forfeitures imprisonments c. Flowing from cruel and perfidious Adversaries to the Church and Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Land Therefore we owning the Interest of Christ according to the word of the Lord and the National and Solemn League and Covenant desire to add our Testamony to the Testimonies of the Worthies that has gone before though unworthy yet hoping as true Members of the Church of Christ in Scotland and that against all things that has been done prejudicial to his interest from the beginning of the work of Reformation in Scotland especially from the year 1648 to the year 1660 against these following Acts. 1. The Act of Supremacy 2. The Declaration whereby the Covenants are condemned 3. The Act for Eversion of the established Government of the Church and for establishing Prelacy and for the Outing of Christs Ministers who could not conform thereto by an Act Rescissory of all Acts of Parliament and Assemblies for the Establishment of the Covernment of the Church of Scotland according to the Word 4. As likewise the Act of Council at Glasgow putting that Act recissory in execution where at one time were violently cast out above three hundred Ministers without any Legal procedures 5. As likewise the Act appointing a Holy Anniversary Day to be kept upon the 29th of May for giving thanks for the upsetting of an usurping Power destroying the Interest of the Church in the Land which is to set up the Creature to be worshipped in the room of our Great Redeemer and to consent to the assuming of the power that is proper to the Lord alone for the appointing Ordinances in his Church as particularly the Government thereof and the keeping of Holy-days and all other sinful and unlawful Acts Emitted and Executed by them And for Confirmation of this our Testimony we do hereby this day being the 29th day of May 1679 Publickly burn them at the Cross of Ragland most Justly as they perfidiously and Blasphemously had burnt our Holy Covenants through several Cities of the Covenanted Kingdoms We judge none will take exception at our not subscribing this our Testimony being so solemnly gone about for we are ready always to do it if judged necessary with all the faithful suffering Brethren in the Land They intended to have affixed this Declaration at Glasgow too but were prevented by the Kings Forces there On the Sunday following they Rendevoused upon London Hill being then 14 or 1500 men well armed and in good order the foot commanded by one Weir and the Horse by Robert Hamilton one Patron Balfour and Hackston these two last being of the number of them that murthered the Arch-bishop and consequently most concerned to carry the Rebellion as far as they could being thus disposed and Ordered one Captain Graham of Claver House marched against them with a troop of Horse and a Company of Dragoons upon whose approach the Rebels sent out two Parties to Skirmish with him which he beat into their main body and then they advanced with their whole force upon him So that after a considerable slaughter of them and the loss of his Cornet two Brigadiers and about eight Horse and twenty Dragoons his own horse being killed under him and he mounting another being so much over-powered in number he made his retreat towards Glasgow being in his way forced to fight his way through the Townsmen of Streuin who were got together to oppose it leaving ten or twelve of them dead upon the place On Munday the Second day of June the Rebells in the morning attacked the City of Glasgow at two several times but all the Streets were so well Barracadoed by the Lord Ross and the Souldiers there put into so good a posture that they were beat off with considerable loss besides many Prisoners that were taken and thereupon the Horse and Dragoons in the Town sallied out and pursued them upon their drawing off In the Interim the Council of Scotland having first given an account of this Rebellion to his Majesty published a Proclamation for the suppression of it and that failing Levied what forces they could to oppose them
speaking out of the Mouths of Phanatical Protestants or the last Speeches of John Kid and John King c. pag. 11. The matter of fact being thus stated the Reader need not wonder they were severely treated when they suffered the pains of Treason and Rebellion but besides those they had committed a vast number of Massacres and Assassinations before they murthered the Primate and this aggravated their sufferings Now all the cunning of this Declaration lies in this that they tell us what they suffered and perhaps truly but not a tittle of the case Which is just as if all the Rogues in the Nation should joyn and pen a complaint ennumerating how many of them since his Majesties Return have been Hanged Quartered Whipped Branded Transported Pillored Imprisoned which never meant any hurt to his Majesty or the Government but only to get a Living the best and easiest way they could Now to one that is as little vers'd in our ways of Punishment as we are in the Scotch it would seem a rueful Story whilest an English man would smile as knowing why they suffered all these hardships I need not apply it but shall add this they have deserved ten times more then they have felt as being the bloudiest Cut-throats in the world So that in Scotland no man dare to offend them openly for fear of assassination but such as either must by the necessity of their places or else have good means of defending their Lives against them Next I observe this Declaration is nothing but a large flourish upon the Speech and drawn just at that loose general rate which that is calling those Taxes and Punishments Arbitrary which they acknowledg were according to several Acts of Parliament and then pretending the persons that do constitute their Parliaments or States are overawed But then I must commend their ingenuity in this that they do not with the Commons of England lay the blame of all this upon the Duke of Lauderdale or their Ministers but upon the total change of their Government and State both Sacred and Civil and upon the Parliament of Scotland and the King whom they supplicate with menaces to restore him into the same State he found them in without which they were sensible the removing of the Duke of Lauderdale or any other of the great Ministers of State would signify nothing as to their Designs which was as they plainly tell us to set up the Presbyterian Doctrine and Church Government to serve the King in nothing else any further then he would serve them in that And lastly to obtain a free and unlimited Parliament and Assembly that is such as it might not be in his Majesties power to dissolve or frustrate by prorogation till they had extirpated Popery and Prelacy both together which was freely and roundly to tell us what they would have without canting and amusing us with general terms and hints but then I must not deny they had swords by their sides to justify these demands which our Gentlemen want and I wish ever may do but yet the Reader may observe that Speech that was so hugged in England and the Scotch Declaration meant the same thing though in different terms Observe also that they call the Presbyterian Doctrine and Government the Religion established though they own it to be taken away by a rescissory Act of Parliament for they believe all those Acts that have or shall be made against it are Null and Void and the former Acts are still in force though repealed which is an odd sort of Establishment consisting in the fancy of the people that own it and not in Law or Nature They lay the stress of their Justification upon necessity and yet own the greatest part of it to arise from hence that they must be deprived of the Gospel preached by the faithful Ministers and be made Slaves if they did not rebel Now as to their civil interest they would be in the same State with their Country men who are so far from rebelling that they have several times chastised them for it with a very little assistance from England And as to their Preachments I wonder in what part of the Gospel they learned to defend Christs Religion by rebellion but we must know this is pure Scotch Calvinistical Jesuitical Doctrine begun by the Devil and his Vicar the Pope not many hundred years ago and for which Bellarmine acknowledges there is neither Precept nor Example in the Bible nor in all Church History till near a thousand years after our Saviour's time and he gives this reason why the Gospel taught patience and submission because the contrary would have ruined Christianity then when but a few professed it but tells us St. Paul would have taught otherwise if he had lived in our days I shall not dispute how the Cardinal or the Scotch Gentlemen who talk at the same rate came to know this but I say it is equally destructive of any other Doctrine a man hath no mind to practise as of this of submission to Princes and suffering patiently for the truth without resistance As suppose I have a mind to revenge and they tell me of the Doctrine of meekness and forgiving injuries and Enemies if I reply this Doctrine was adopted to the Infant state of Christianity when Professors were few and exposed to persecution and could have got nothing by revenging their quarrels but ruine but the state of things is otherwise now and I may revenge my self with security both as to my self and as to my Religion and from thence infer that that Doctrine is ceased and I am at liberty to do in that particular as I see cause and that St. Paul would have taught so if he had lived in these times I say if I should argue thus upon their principles it could never be answered and a man might say as much for any other Gospel precept he had no mind to obey But to return The Covenanters in their first Declaration date the rise of all their troubles from the year 1648 and that is true and worth a Note You must know Charles the first had given them by the pacification all that they asked and the long Rebel Parliament had sent them home loaden with thanks Money and the spoils of England before our wars began * A View of the late Troubles cap. 18. but things going ill on the Parliament side after the King had routed Waller in the West and almost totally subdued the North by the valour of the E. of Newcastle the Parliament having no other way to turn them were forced to call in the Scots once more with Money and Promises yea and Oaths too to settle the Presbyterian Church Government here in England These two things prevailing upon them in they came and that ruined the King and his Party who at last surrendring himself to the Scots they dutifully sold him to the Parliament for 300000 lb. as all the World knows but the Chapmen fell out and
cannot possibly better represent this than in the Words of Camden The State of England was most miserable at that time as being involved in a War with Scotland on the one side and France on the other oppressed with the Debts which Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth had Contracted the Exchequer was Exhausted Calis and the County of Oyen and in them a great Magazine were lost to the dishonour of the English Name and the People were divided in their Opinions concerning Religion The Queen had no Potent Friends nor was fortified with the * Cognatione Alliance or Kindred of any Foreign Princes The Trade of England must of necessity be very small when the Nation was thus Near ruine But when the Queen had once setled the business of Religion and afterwards had taken care to preserve it from Foreign Violence by Repairing her Navy Royal so that it was far Superiour to any other which gave her Reputation at home and Fame abroad and also from the Attempts of the Papists and Dissenters by severe Laws constantly put in Execution and had thereby Won the Affections of her People and stilled their Fears They being secur'd thus at home began to search all the corners of the World for Trade and sent forth their Fleets to the East and West Indies to Muscovy by the Bay of St. Nicholas by them Discover'd and Green-Land and indeed whether not whence they returned with Honour and Wealth and made her and themselves Happy One thing that gave a great Advantage to the Trade and consequently to the Wealth of England in her time was the Devastations which the severity of the Duke de Alva and the Wars of Flanders thereby occasion'd caused in those Countries by which means we gained some Addition to our People the knowledge of some Manufactures which we had not before and also a vast stock of Mony and Treasure which altogether had like to have totally ruin'd the Spanish Netherlands but however this concurring with the rest helped to advance England to that height of Wealth and Reputation in the World that it was in her days the Bulwark of Christendom and without any considerable forrein Assistance humbled and brought down the House of Austria which then aimed at an Universal Monarchy But then it cannot be denyed that together with these Low Countrymen Factions and Common-Weath Principles entred England And although the severity of that Queen and the great Affection and Veneration the People had for her added to her Constancy whose Motto was Semper eadem Always the same kept them both under so as they were never able to give her any considerable disturbance yet they grew and encreased and in the Reign of her Successor tugged stoutly in the House of Commons for the Victory with the Court Party as they then stiled all that stood to the Crown and kept King James at Bay and destitute of those Supplies that were necessary to preserve the Grandeur of the Crown and the Reputation of England and forced him to spend Seven Years of his Reign without calling any Parliaments and the last he called which was in his One and Twentieth Year involved him in War And the next basely Betray'd his Son who succeeded presently after to the Necessity of clapping up a Dishonourable Peace for want of Means to carry on a War When King James came to the Crown the Dissenters of England expected a mighty advantage by it because Scotland had been always Presbyterian from whence he came during his time and they hoped his Education might have strongly influenced him to favour them above the Religion Established and upon this intuition Jan. 14. 1603. they procured the Conference at Hampton Court but alass they had so basely and Traiterously used him in Scotland and he was a Prince of that great Learning and Prudence that when they desired a kind of Presbyterie to be Setled here He replyed If you aim at a Scotch Presbyterie Full. C.H. L. 10. p. 18. it agreeth with Monarchy as God and the Devil then Jack and Tom and Will and Dick shall meet and Censure me and my Council Therefore I reiterate my former Speech Le Roy S' avisera the King will be advised stay I pray for one Seven Years before you demand it and then if you find me grow pursie and fat I may perchance hearken unto you for that Government will keep me in breath and give me work enough And in the next Paragraph he tells them That he had learned by the Example of his Mother and their dealings with him in his Minority this Maxime NO BISHOP NO KING So they totally failed of their expected advantage and were kept under though with a gentle hand in all his time But when his Son Succeeded and in his Parliaments found how strong these Factions were who had in a great measure prevailed upon the Free-men and Free-holders of the Nation to send up thither great Numbers of good Common wealth men as they then stiled them that is Factious Ambitious Disloyal Persons that hated the Religion and Monarchy by Law Established and when he saw these made it their business to encrease the necessities of the Crown and then denyed just and necessary supplies but upon such terms as would have ruined him and when he also perceived that one great design of theirs was to render him and his Government odious by clamoring eternally against his Conduct and Ministers of State He then saw there was an absolute necessity of a more effectual and vigorous Execution of the Laws against them Hereupon these godly men grew impatient Roger Cokes Englands improvement part 3. p. 13. and one part of them in the years 1636 37 and 38 fled over into Holland and planted themselves at Leyden Alkmare and other places where they instructed the Dutch in our Woollen Manufactures of Norfolk and Suffolk and I have heard saith my Author who is a credible person Sir Charles Harbord a person of great Wisdom and Insight in Forreign as well as the Interest of this Nation say That if all the Bishopricks of England were sold and given to the Nation it would not near compensate the loss the Nation sustained thereby And page 32 of the same discourse he informs us That in the time of our late Wars the Dutch by the means of these Manufactures got from the English the East-land Trade the Company of which heretofore was above all others the most flourishing and by Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the First was termed the Royal Company for it supplied Muscovy Sweden Denmark Poland and Lifeland with our Woollen Manufactures and made very advantagious Returns by Treasure especially Hungaria Duckets and the Commodities of those Countries into England This Trade till King Charles his Reign the English solely injoyed About the beginning of King Charles his Reign the Dutch began to be Interlopers rather than Traders with the English in it but in the time of the Wars by
the aforesaid means the Dutch allmost totally excluded the English We may observe how much the Trade of the Nation in general suffered by all this and especially that of Norfolk Suffolk and Essex of which the said Author gives an instance pag. 33. and from thence we may conclude how far the Trade of the Nation hath been and consequently may again be impaired by Factions if they be encouraged still amongst us I ought not to pass over in silence that my last quoted Author Ascribes this to the severe injunctions of Ecclesiastical discipline which these Zealous people would not indure And I know that many have used this as an Argument against Persecution and for a Toleration Comprehension or as the new Name is an Union But I reply if there were no Factions there could be no Persecution as they stile it nor any such dammage of our Trade and Commerce Secondly that they were not thus persecuted till they had provoked that King to the uttermost by rendring all Parliaments dangerous to the Crown and brought things into that State that neither the Monarchy nor the Religion Established could be any longer preserved without that severity So we may see if they be treated gently they grow Numerous and endeavour to subvert the Government if they be dealt severely with they over into forreign Countries and destroy our Trade so that both waies our ruine is almost assured by them and therefore should be no more incouraged than Pyrates and the common enemies of Mankind But to go on Another part of these people had before Planted themselves in New England in the West Indies 1629. where they have since grown Numerous and Rich and have abundantly practised that severity upon others who have dissented from them which they clamoured against and called persecution when it was used with more reason against themselves The Dutch being much exalted by the peace they had made with Spain whereby they were owned and acknowledged for a free and independent State by their old Sovereign and having acquired a vast Treasure by their Trade over all the World and by redeeming the places which were put into Queen Elizabeths hands for security of repayment of the Expence she was at to protect their feeble infant State out of the Hands of King James having so cut off their former obligations of respect to the Crown of England and lastly being grown strong in Shipping and knowing very well upon what ill terms King James and King Charles the Martyr stood with their Parliaments fell to plot the intire destruction of the English Trade and Navigation and in Order to this fell to endeavour the ruine of the English Fishery upon our own proper Seas His Majesties propriety and dominion on the Brittish Seas p. 26. They had formerly never Fished till they had begged leave of the King or of his Governour of Scarborough Castle this was now thought beneath the Magnificence of the Hogan Mogans and therefore they refused it Ib. pag. 29. 30. 55. They had formerly been limited by our Kings both for the number of the Vessells they should Fish with and the time Now they were resolved to be their own Carvers and in order to that denyed the English the Soveraignty of the British Seas Ib. p. 6. And as if all this had not been enough grew nearer and nearer upon the English Shores year by year than they did in preceding times without leaving any bounds for the Country people and Natives to Fish upon their Princes Coasts and oppressed some of his Subjects with intent to continue their pretended possession and had driven some of their great Vessells through their Netts to deter others by fear of the like Violence from Fishing near them c. as Secretary Nanton Pag. 58. January 21. 1618. acquaints the Lord Ambassador Carlton And to justify all this they sent out Men of War with their Fishermen to maintain that by force which they might have had of Courtesie for the asking To prevent these disorders of the Dutch King James Published a Proclamation in the seventh year of his Reign to assert his Right and exclude all Persons from Fishing upon our Seas without particular License but they neither valued this nor his Remonstrances by his Ambassadors nor the like Proclamation made in the twelfth year of his Sons Reign but went on by all the Crafts and Violences imaginable to ruine our Fishery to subvert the Right and Soveraignty the Kings of England have ever had to the Narrow Seas And all this only upon a presumption that those Princes would never be able to call them to an account by a War for all these Injuries And in the year 1639 The Reign of King Ch. fol. London 1655. pag. 163. they fell upon a Fleet of Spaniards in our Ports and Harbours with Canon and Fire-ships so furiously as made them all cut their Cables and being 53 in Number 23 ran on shore and stranded in the Downs whereof Three were burnt Two sunk and Two perished on the Shoar the remainder of the Twenty three being deserted by the Spaniards who went to Land were Manned by the English to save them from the Dutch and the other Thirty Ships put to Sea of which only Ten escaped thus far for the Narrative in short And now be pleased to read the Opinion of the Historian upon this These Two Potent Enemies Ibid. p. 165. being both Friends to England the British Seas ought by rule of State to have been an Harbour of Retreat to secure the Weaker from the Stronger not the Scene of their Hostile Ingagement and had this presumptuous Attempt of the Hollander met with a King or in times of another temper it would not it's like have been so silently connived at and their Victory might have cost them the loss of Englands Correspondence c. besides the King the Dutch well knew was of a Genius as not querulous so if provoked very placable and the Disposition of his Affairs as well as of his Mind disswaded from expostulating the Matter with them To that height of injustice and insolence were the Dutch then grown by the Divisions of England and the ill understanding betwixt the King and his Subjects This unfortunate Prince had made many brave Attempts before for the Honour and Safety of the English Nation without any good success for want of such Effectual Supplies from his Parliaments as might enable him to go through with them and he had taken up a generous Resolution to encrease the Navy Royal to a greatness proportionable to the Dutch and other neighbour Nations who were now striving for the Mastery of the Seas by out-building each other He got nothing from the Commons in Parliament that was considerable but with great difficulty and accompanied with Remonstrances Impeachments of the Chief Ministers complaints of Grievances and lowd Clamours of pretended fears and jealousies of Popery Arminianism Innovations in matters of Religion and as fast as
extravagance he had always an Enthusiastick Conceit that God had raised him up to pull down the Whore of Babylon the Man of Sin the Antichristian Pope of Rome and this led him into a War with Spain believing that Prince to be the only Bullwark of the Papacy and his Attempts upon the Islands in the West Indies and the Plate Fleets belonging to Spain not having that success he desired by reason of their distance or perhaps being out-witted by the French Ministers he fell in the next place in Conjunction with France upon the Spaniards in Flanders in which War Dunkirk was taken and cunningly Surrendred to Oliver by the French in hopes to encourage our silly Upstart to go on and help them to Conquer the rest but tu … â—atal mischiefs attended this The first was that our Spanish Trade which was one of the best and most profitable the English then had left was interrupted and in danger to be totally lost as all the Eastern Traffick was rendred very unsecure by the Ostenders The Second was That the Ballance of Christendom was broken and the French Interest brought to that height as to over-power all the Neighbouring Princes and in some sort to Compel His Majesty before he was well setled after his Restitution to resel them Dunkirk But these things were above the Politicks of our Oliver who was a better Souldier than a Statesman How the Domestick Trade of England was likely to flourish in this Mans time may be easily conjectured by any man that will but reflect on the Vast Taxes were then Arbitrarily raised without Parliaments and the Standing Armies that were then kept on Foot only because he durst not Disband them who had no other Title than the Sword had given him and when God called him in the Year 1658. to give an account for all the Villanies he had perpetrated with so much Treachery Perjury and Impiety neither his Son Richard who Succeeded him nor any of those various Governments which within the space of Two Years followed were able to Establish themselves so that during that time there was nothing but Treachery Rapine Confusion and Distrust to be found in the English Nation and it was only Gods infinite Mercy and Goodness which rescued us and our Trade from total Ruine by the peaceable Restitution of our Now most gracious Soveraign When His Majesty returned he brought nothing over with him but a Vast Debt contracted in his Exile to preserve him and his in a mean Condition from starving and he found nothing here at home but an empty Exchequer a People exhausted with Twenty Years War and Misery all his Pallaces disfurnished his Magazines rifled his Armory wasted his Ammunition spent or imbezzel'd and the remainder of the Army which had great Arrears due to them to be Disbanded and Paid off All these things call'd for large Supplies and they were as Loyally and freely granted by our Parliaments as Generously imployed by His Majesty to these uses But then these Good-Common-Wealth-men who had Taxed and Plundered the Nation without mercy for twenty years before all on a suddain turned tender hearted and begun to bemoan the good Peoples hardships in the payment of such Sums as their own Villanies and Treasons had made necessary and not contented with this Skynneri Motuus Compositi encited the Dutch by large Promises of Assistance to enter another War with us which though we prevailed had fatal Consequences the Plague falling in with it Bedloes nar of the P. Plot. for the Burning of London pag. 14. Oats his Nar. Arti. the 34. and a great part of the City of London being Burnt at the same time which Fire is said to have been began by some of these godly Male-Contents on purpose without doubt to promote Trade though the whole blame is now laid upon the Jesuits who might possibly put the Fifth Monarch-men upon it and hath been since owned I Consider That I am Writing a Preface to a small Book and therefore endeavour to be short and for ought I know may be dark but if all this be reflected on as it ought it will be a wonder not that our Trade is so little but that it is not totally Ruin'd But then my dear Countrymen may not Heaven and Earth stand amazed at our Stupidity and folly if we shall still go on stubbornly in those very ways which we have found so destructive to us but there is a greater wonder in it yet we stabb and wound our own Vitals our Trade and Commerce and at the same time pretend we are horribly afraid others should ruin us many years hence we caress and cherish these very Men and Factions that once before Impoverished us to almost Beggery we are hard at Work to ruine that Government by making it odious to the People under which England hath flourished in Wealth and Power in Reputation and Peace at home and abroad so many Ages and to set up one in the stead of it which within the memory of Man so narrowly missed of Ruining us forever Do you think another domestick War will encrease the Wealth or Trade or Navigation or Reputation of England Consider your Sea coast Towns from Dover to Barwick and observe how many of them are falling down or empty of Inhabitants or possest by Men that are able to drive no Trades Consider the Fishery of all sorts consider the falls of your Rents and Farms and when you have thought seriously of them think once more whether the pretended fears of Popery and Arbitrary Government ought so to possess you and to keep you intirely from reflecting on what doth more immediatly concern you and which if but a little longer Neglected will end if not in Popery in Beggery if not in Arbitrary Government in Anarchy War and Confusion But though Men may Consider these things as much or as little as they please yet I crave the Liberty to Conclude upon the whole That whoever promotes Factions in Church or State is an Enemy to Trade and Commerce and that when ever the Government of this or any other Country is indangered the Traffick of that place will suffer proportionably so that let them pretend what they will to the contrary they that promote our present Disturbances are as great Enemies to the Free-men and Free-holders of the Nation and all that are any way concerned in Trade as they are either to the Crown or the Church THE SECOND PART OF THE ADDRESS TO THE FREE-MEN and FREE-HOLDERS OF THE NATION HIS Majesty had no sooner declared the Long Loyal Parliament Dissolved and by His Royal Writ Commanded another to be chosen to meet the Sixth of March following but the Subjects in every place became divided amongst themselves and there being men not only of different but of opposite Interests offered to the People the choice was rendred very difficult and uncertain but the Opposition Feuds and Passions of the Contending Parties was apparent and certain enough The Dissenters
make a new one they returned and Adjourned till Saturday Morning But not agreeing then they desired a further time which was granted till Tuesday following The King telling the Messengers that as he would not have his Prerogative intrencht upon so he would not do any thing against the Priviledges of the House But then instead of Presenting a new Speaker they Presented a Representation Claiming it as a Right to have that Speaker they chose accepted if he were not excused for some Corporal Disease which hath always heretofore been alleadged either by themselves or some others in their behalf in full Parliament as they said But his Majesty not admitting this neither they Adjourned till Wednesday and drew up another Address to have the former better considered and to this his Majesty replied he would send them an answer the next day And accordingly On Thursday he sent for them up to the House of Lords and Prorogued them for one day and on Saturday morning sent for them again and by the Lord Chancellor Commanded them to proceed to the Choice of a Speaker and Present him on Munday Morning which they accordingly did and then they chose Mr. Sergeant Gregory of whom his Majesty approved on the Monday following It was Ominous thus to stumble at the Threshold and therefore there is no great wonder if after this much of his Majesties and the Lord Chancellors good Counsell relating to calmness in the Management of their Affairs was forgotten Tuesday Wednesday and a great part of Thursday the 20th day of March being spent in the preliminaries and in receiving and reading the shoal of Petitions concerning undue Elections and Returns on the Evening of the last day the Commons sent a Message to the Lords to put them in mind of the Impeachments of High Treason against Thomas Earl of Danby in the names of the Commons of England and to desire he might be Committed to safe Custody And referred it to the Committee of Secrecy to draw up further Articles against him By which it appeared that they were resolved to begin where the former Parliament ended so that men easily conjectured what would follow And some there were that suggested as if his place was his greatest Crime and that the ruin of a Minister of State in order to fright the rest of the Ministers was more sought than the Punishment of any Traytor whether Popish or Protestant In the week following it appearing that the Earl of Danby had a pardon by his Majesties mentioning of it in the House of Lords And a Committee being appointed to search it out returned on Monday the 24th of March that it had not been Regularly sued out but was Sealed in the King's presence by his express Command Upon which the Commons sent up a Message to the Lords to demand Justice against him and ordered an Address to his Majesty to represent the dangerous Consequences of granting Pardons to any persons that lie under an Impeachment of the Commons of England And the same day the Lords sent word to the Commons that they had ordered him to be taken into Custody On Tuesday the 25th of March 1679. the Lords sent a Message to the Commons that the Earl of Danby was not to be sound upon which the Commons ordered a Bill to be brought in to Summon him by a certain day or in default thereof to Attaint him Mr. Edward Sacvile a Member of the House of Commons being accused by Mr. Oats to have called the truth of the Plot and Murder of Sir Edmonberry Godfrey in question was ordered to be committed to the Tower Expelled the House and an Address made to his Majesty for the removing him from all Publick Imployments and Trusts This was a sure way to have the Plot believed On Wednesday there having before been a Complaint brought against one Hills and Edwin for Printing a Pamphlet intituled A Letter from a Jesuite at Paris to his Correpondent in London Shewing the most effectual way to ruin the Government and the Protestant Religion was to promote the Dissenters Interest and to chuse factious men into the House of Commons And it appearing that Dr. John Nalson was the Author of it there being no Law to punish this offence the said Doctor was ordered to be sent for in Custody of the Serjeant at Arms to inform the House touching the said Pamphlet The same day a Bill was sent down from the Lords Intituled an Act for the better discovery and speedy Conviction of Popish Recusants Which had been sent down in the former Session of Parliament time enough to have been passed but was neglected which was read the day following On Thursday the 27th of March the Lords sent down a Bill for the Banishing and Disabling the Earl of Danby which his Majesty had profered to do and desired the Concurrence of the House of Commons which the Commons read and rejected that day But notwithstanding the Commons went on with the Bill of Attainder against him and ordered a Clause to be added for the discovery of all trusts relating to him and that he should be made incapable of receiving pardon but by Act of Parliament wherein he shall be particularly Named The same day the Lords sent down a Bill to disinable any person from Sitting in any of the Houses of Convocation till he hath taken the Oaths and made and subscribed the Declaration therein contained On Friday a Bill was read for better securing the liberty of the Subjects Sir Christopher Calthrop Knight who was returned one of the Knights of the Shire for Norfolk being then sick of the Small-pox desired that the Case in difference betwixt him and Sir John Hobard Baronet which was to be heard on Friday next might be delayed which was denyed Note That Calthrop was of the Court-party and Hobard of the Country-party But to look a little back On Monday the 25th of March the House of Lords sent to examin the five Lords in the Tower concerning a French Book about the Plot the Author of which had it seems endeavoured to invalidate Mr. Oats his testimony but they would not own they knew the Author The same day the Vote mentioned in the former Part of the reality of the Popish Plot which had been renewed by the Commons and sent up to the Lords for their concurrence was Voted by the Lords and ordered to be inserted in the first leaf of the Office to be publickly used on the day * 11 of April appointed by his Majesty for solemn Fasting and Humiliation at the request of both Houses On Saturday the 29th the Lords agreed to have a Bill brought in to expell out of the Inns of Court Doctors Commons the College of Physicians and Heralds office all such persons as shall not give testimony of their being Protestants by going to Church and by taking the Sacrament and such Oaths Tests and Declarations as are appointed by any Law for the distinguishing Protestants from Papists and
Address should be made to his Majesty by such Members of their House as were of his Majesties Privy Counsel to desire his Majesty to Command the Lord Chancellor to put him out of the Commission of the Peace Because it seems his Imprisonment was not punishment enough for so great an offence as this Exact Coll. of the most considerable debates c. p. 337. And the Writing several other books to revive the memory of 1641. as one of the Members expressed it in the following Parliament when it seems they meant to have another fling at him for though his Majesty can pardon and forgive there are that cannot But I believe they have got no great matter by this Nor was the Doctor turn'd out of the Commission for all their Address his Majesty knowing this would not suit his Interest On Saturday the Lords sent down a Bill entituled May 3. An Act for freeing the City of London and parts adjacent from Popish Inhabitants and providing against other dangers which may arise from Papists And in the Afternoon May 5. an Account that the Earl of Danby would insist upon his Pardon and that he desired his Council might be heard to the Validity of it On Monday His Majesty sent this message to the Commons by the Lord Russell His Majesty hath commanded me to let the House know that his Majesty is willing to comply with the request made to him by the House concerning Pickering and that the Law shall pass upon him accordingly and as to the Condemned Priests the House of Peers have sent for them in order as his Majesty conceives to some Examinations and further to acquaint you that he repeateth his instances to you to think of putting the Fleet in such a posture as may quiet mens fears and at least secure us from any sudden attempt which his Majesty doubts not but you will do And though the streights and difficulties he lyeth under are very great he doth not intend during this Sessions to press for any other Supply being willing rather to suffer the Burdens that are upon him some time longer than to interrupt you whilst you are imployed about the discovery of the Plot the Tryal of the Lords and the Bill for securing our Religion The same day the Commons went up to the Bar of the Lords house to demand Judgment against the Earl of Danby upon the Illegality of his pardon May the 6. On Tuesday John Wilson and Roger Bockwith Esquires two Justices of the Peace of the County of York were sent for in Custody for saying that this Parliament was no Parliament and they would justify it Of which more hereafter May 22. A Message was sent to the Lords by the Commons that the House was ready to make good the Impeachments against the five Popish Lords in the Tower and the Committee of Secrecy belonging to the Commons was appointed to manage the evidence against them at their Tryals Wednesday The 7. of May the Lords sent down a Message that they had appointed Saturday to hear the Earl of Danby's Plea for the Validity of his Pardon that they had Addressed to the King for the naming a Lord High Steward at his Tryal and that of the Popish Lords which was appointed by their Lordships to be that day seven-night On Thursday The 8. of May. the Commons agreed an Address to his Majesty against John Duke of Lauderdale upon general pretences of fears and jealousies desiring he might be removed from his Majesties Counsels in England and Scotland putting his Majesty in mind of the Address of the last Parliament to that purpose and resolved they would attend his Majesty in a body The Commons desired a Conference with the Lords to state before hand the manner of proceedings in the Tryal of the Earl of Danby and of the five Popish Lords and took exceptions to their motion for a Lord High Steward On Friday his Majesty sent for the Commons and passed the Bill for Disbanding the Army and such other Bills as were ready which was wisely done for by this surprize other debates were prevented which might have prov'd of dangerous consequence After this they appointed a Committee to inspect the Journalls and search Presidents touching the carrying up of Bills and what previous intimation ought to be given to them of his Majesties intention to pass Bills and from and by whom such notice hath usually been given and whether the House may debate after the message delivered by the Black Rod for attendance of the House upon his Majesty It would have been very unhappy if by reason of these Debates the Forces then on foot should have continued undisbanded By all which as much as is possible to conjecture it would have been very unhappy if by reason of these Debates the Forces then on foot should have continued undisbanded to the great damage of the King and Kingdom notwithstanding the common clamour against them if his Majesty had not thus prevented it The same day the Commons passed this Vote that no Commoner whatsoever should presume to maintain the Validity of the pardon pleaded by the E. of Danby without the leave of their house first had and that the persons so doing should be accounted betrayers of the Liberties of the Commons of England and Ordered this Vote to be posted up at Westminster-hall Gate Serjeants-Innes and Innes of Court His Lordships Friends called this a depriving him of all counsel to defend himself but what was appointed by his Enemies and Accusers in a matter of Law insisting upon the Rules of proceedings in all other Courts and the ordinary methods of Common and Natural equity and right it seeming hard to ruine a man if not some diffidence of the case to deny him those Priviledges the meanest and worst of Rogues have which is to choose such Councel as the Court before whom they are to be tryed will allow the Kings Councel excepted And when the humour was stirr'd they voted that the Answer delivered by the Lords that day at the Last Conference about the manner of trying the Peers whereby their Lordships had not consented to a Committee of the Houses because they did not think it Conformable to the Rules and Orders of their Court of which they said they had reason to be tender in matters relating to their Judicature tended to the Interruption of the good correspondency between the two Houses May 10. The first thing the Commons did on Saturday morning was the Reading of an Address to the King for the raising of the Militia of London Westminster the Tower Hamlets and Counties of Middlesex and Surrey for the security of his Majesties Person at the Tryal of the Popish Lords by reason of the Great Resort of the Jesuits Popish Priests and other Popish Recusants at that time in contempt of his Majesties Laws and Royal Proclamation to which they desired the Concurrence of the Lords to which they unanimously agreed The E. of
judgment as well as others and if I be adjudged an enemy of the Commons of England for my pains I cannot help it only I have not medled with the Validity of the pardon in all this nor I think never will and so I have not offended against that Vote The Conclusion I shall draw from hence is that the Lords had reason to put the Tryal of the five Popish Lords first and that the Commons necessitated them so to do by that Extraordinary Vote by starting a new Controversy about the Jurisdiction of the Bishops in all Capital causes and by refusing them liberty to do as they always had done before that is to withdraw upon Leave with the usual protestations entered all which things were not presently to be given up nor could suddenly be determined The rest of that day was spent in two Conferences the one concerning the Habeas Corpus Act and the other about the Tryals in which the Long reasons I mentioned were delivered On Tuesday the 27th of May The Habeas Corpus Bill was agreed at a Conference betwixt the two Houses Then a Message was sent by the Lords to the Commons to acquaint them that his Majesty was coming in his Robes who accordingly sent for the Commons and having passed 1. An Act for the reingrossing the Records of Fines burnt or lost in the late Fire in the Temple 2. An Act for the better securing of the Liberty of the Subject and for preventing imprisonment beyond Seas Which is that I call the Habeas Corpus Act for shortness Which were all that had been got ready for his Royal assent in this Session of Parliament His Majesty made a short Speech to this effect My Lords and Gentlemen I Was in good hopes that this Session would have produced great good to the Kingdom and that you would have gone on unanimously for the good thereof but to my great grief I see that there are such differences between the two Houses that I am afraid very ill effects will come of them I know but one way of Remedy for the present assuring you that in the mean time I shall shew my sincerity with the same Zeal I met you here and therefore my Lord Chancellor I command you to do as I have Ordered you Who immediately Prorogued both Houses to the 14th day of August following The news of this Prorogation of the Parliament was no sooner spread about the Nation but the cry was taken up by the zealous Impostors that it was done of purpose to hinder the Tryal of the Popish Lords for as for the E. of D. the People were generally unconcern'd what came of him And dreadful Stories were told in Coffee-houses Ale-houses Taverns and Meeting houses of the danger of Popery and what great favourers they had at Court not sparing his Majesty But this was not all the Act for Regulating Printing expiring with this Session of which no care was taken notwithstanding his Majesty recommended it so seriously to the Parliament by the Lord Chancellour at the opening of it The Nation became presently so pestred with a swarm of Lying Seditious treasonable and scandalous Pamphlets Papers and Pictures that a man would have thought Hell had been broken loose His Majesty the Church the Government were represented every day by them in the most odious manner that spite falsehood and malice could invent to beget a disaffection in the people to the Government and to involve us in another Rebellion And if any man presumed to Defend them he was presently a Papist in Masquerade a Tory or Tantivy man and very often threatned with the Parliament All which was done without doubt out of as pure kindness to his Majesty and to beget honour to the Government and tended as apparently to the Interest and Safety of the Protestant Religion as the Jews Crys of Crucify him Crucify him did to the delivery of our Saviour out of the hands of Pilate There was an Accident that began in this Session of Parliament and received its occasional being from some Distemper'd Spirits In March 1679 there was a Speech said to be made in the House of Lords by a certain * This Speech is Printed in a Pamphlet called An impartial account of divers remarkable Proceedings in the last Session of Parliament London 1679. folio Earl and by the Diffenters and Commonwealth Party spread about the three Kingdoms with a mighty Zeal which in Scotland was followed with the usual effects of such like Speeches and in regard that it may administer much consolation to that Party to read it over again that were so well pleased with it before I will reprint it here word for word My Lords You are appointing of the State of England to be taken up in a Committee of the whole House some day next week I do not know how well what I have to say may be received for I never study either to make my Court well or to be popular I always speak what I am commanded by the Dictates of the Spirit within me There are some Considerations that concern England so neerly that without them you will come far short of safety and quiet at home We have a little Sister and she hath no Breasts what shall we do for our Sister in the day when she shall be spoken for If she be a wall we will build on her a palace of silver if she be a door we will enclose her with boards of Cedar We have several Little Sisters without Breasts the French Protestant Churches the two Kingdoms of Ireland and Scotland the Foreign Protestants are a Wall the only Wall and defence to England upon it you may build Palaces of Silver Glorious Palaces The protection of the Protestants abroad is the greatest power and security the Crown of England can attain to and which can only help us to give check to the growing greatness of France Scotland and Ireland are two doors either to let in good or mischief upon us they are much weakened by the Artifice of our cunning Enemies and we ought to Inclose them with Boards of Cedar Popery and Slavery like two Sisters go hand in hand sometimes one goes first sometimes the other in at doors but the other is always following close at hand In England Popery was to have brought in Slavery in Scotland Slavery went before and Popery was to follow I do not think your Lordships or the Parliament have Jurisdiction there it is an Ancient Kingdom they have an Illustrious Nobility a Gallant Gentry a Learned Clergy and an understanding worthy People but yet we cannot think of England as we ought without reflecting on the condition they are in They are under the same Prince and the influence of the same Favourites and Councils when they are hardly dealt with can we that are the Richer expect better usage for 't is certain that in all Absolute Governments the poorest Countries are always most favourably dealt with When the Ancient Nobility
by which means they were kept together not daring to part to plunder and their Number was also kept from increasing as otherwise it might have done But yet the Council knowing the Rebels could not continue long together would not fight them till his Majesty should send them orders so to do and a general His Majesty and the Council here resolved to send down his Grace the Duke of Monmouth who had given good proof of his Courage in Flanders and elsewhere who undertaking the enterprise against the Rebels went post into Scotland for that purpose The Rebels in the interim having possest themselves of Glasgow grew insolent at first and published a Proclamation in these terms WE the Officers of the Covenanted Army do require and command you the Inhabitants of the Burgh of Glasgow to furnish us with Twenty four Carts and sixty Baggage Horses for removing our Provision from this Place to our Camp whereever we shall set down the same and to abide with us for that end during our pleasure under the pain of being reputed our Enemies and proceeded against accordingly And another thus WE the Officers of the Covenanted Army do require and command the Magistrates of Glasgow to Extend and Banish forth thereof all Archbishops Bishops and Curates their Wives Bairns and Servants and all other families and persons concern'd in the Kings Army within eight and forty houres after the Publishing hereof under the Highest pains You have seen before what bad Subjects they were and these two will show what insolent Masters they proved but their Dominion was not long That which first amated them was the news of the Prorogation of the Parliament in England upon which they chiefly depended and in all probability had never risen but that they were forced into a belief that they were sure on that side not that I think the Parliament would have been any way serviceable to them but they were made to believe so in Scotland where any thing that looked that way was magnified above its real bigness But that being gone and the rest of Scotland continuing quiet or Arming against them and their friends in Edenborough being kept from joyning with them they began to suspect the worst and so fell a little from their first fury and published this second Declaration for their Vindication AS it is not unknown to a great part of the World how happy the Church of Scotland was whilst they enjoyed the Ordinances of Jesus Christ in purity and power of which we have been deplorably deprived by the establishment of Prelalacy So it is Evident not only to impartial persons but to professed Enemies with what unparallel'd patience and constancy the People of God have endured all the Cruelty Injustice and Oppression that the Will and Malice of Prelates and Malignants could invent and exercise And being most unwilling to Act any thing which might import opposition to Lawful Authority or engage the Kingdom in a War although we have all along been groaning under the overturning the work of Reformation Corruptions of Doctrine Slighting of Worship Despising of Ordinances the changing the Antient Church Discipline and Government Thrusting out so many of our faithful Ministers from their Charges Confining streightly Imprisoning exiling yea and putting to death many of them and intruding upon their Flocks a company of insufficient and scandalous persons and Fining Confining Imprisoning Torturing Tormenting Scourging and Stigmatizing poor people Plundring their Goods Quartering upon them rude Souldiers Selling their persons to forreign Plantations * * Horning is Out Lawing There is nothing like intercommuning with us for if any man hold any correspondency with the offender he is to be adjudged a Rebel of the same guiltiness all which severities they themselves first set up and practised against others The Burthen of Issachar Printed 1646. pag. 41 42. Horning and Intercommuning many of both whereby great Numbers in every Corner of the Land were forced to leave their Dwellings Wives Children and Relations and made to wander as Pilgrims still in hazard of their Lives none daring to reset harbour or supply though starving or so much as to speak to them even upon death bed without making themselves obnoxious to the same punishments and these things Acted under coulour of Law in effect tending to banish not only all sense of Religion but also to extinguish Natural affection even amongst persons of the nearest Relations and likewise groaning under the intollerable Yoak of Oppression in our Civil Interests our Bodies Liberties and Estates So that all manner of outrages have been most arbitrarily exercised upon us through a tract of several years past particularly in the year 1678 by sending among us an Armed Host of Barbarous Savages contrary to all Laws and Humanity and by laying on us several Impositions and Taxes as formerly So of late by a meeting of Prelimited and Over-awed Members in the Convention of Estates in July 1678 for keeping up of an Armed Force intrusted as to a great part of it into the hands of avowed Papists or favourers of them by whom sundry Invasions have been made upon us and most exorbitant abuses and incredible Insolencies committed against us and we being continually sought after while meeting in Houses for divine Worship Ministers and People frequently apprehended and most rigorously used and so being necessitated to attend the Lords Ordinances in Fields in the most desart places and there also often hunted out and assaulted to the effusion of our bloud and killing of some whereby we were inevitably constrained either to defend our selves by Arms at these meetings or to be altogether deprived of the Gospel preached by faithful Ministers and made absolute Slaves At one of which Meetings upon the first of June instant Captain Graham of Claver House being Warranted by a late Proclamation to kill whomever he found in Arms at Field Conventicles making resistance did furiously assault the people assembled and further to provoke did cruelly bind like Beasts a Minister with some others whom he had that very same Morning found in Houses and several being kill'd on both sides they knowing certainly that by Law they behoved if apprehended to die they did stand to their own defence and continue together and there after many of our Friends and Country-men being under the same oppression expecting the same measure did freely offer their assistance We therefore thus inevitably and of absolute Necessity forced to take this last Remedy the Magistrates having shut the Door by a Law against application that what ever our Grievances be either in things Civil or Sacred we have not the Priviledge of a Supplicant do judg our selves bound to declare That these with many other Horrid Grievances in Church and State which we purpose to Manifest hereafter are the true Causes of this our lawful and innocent self-defence And we do most solemnly in the presence of Almighty God the Searcher of all hearts declare That the true reasons of our continuing
done in the Names of the whole by the Commons in Parliament and if it be the Duty of every English man to fight for his King if occasion require against any Party that ever shall hereafter pretend to have the Authority of both or either of the Houses to back them 13 Car. 2. cap. 6. as I humbly conceive is most plain then why may not they right his Majesty with their Pens who must do it with their Swords why may they not Approve his Cause as well as Defend it And if this be not allowed Any King of England may be Deposed and Murthered as the late King was for if there be a Blind Obedience due to all the Votes of Parliament 13 Car. 2. cap. 1. §. 2. and no man may in any Case judge them Illegal and Unreasonable then must all men absolutely Submit to them and obey them and the Consequence is if any future Parliament shall Vote any future King or or Monarchy it self a Grievance to the Nation and those that stand by them Enemies to the Kingdom if no man may Contradict such a Vote nor any Number of Men how great soever Umpire betwixt the King and his Great Council that is Defend him against his Parliament the effect will Certainly follow and as this is the natural Tendance of these Principles as we saw in the Late Troubles so I can conceive no other cause why they should be now again insinuated into the Heads of the Rabble For these Men who pretend to reverence the Three Last Parliaments at such a Prodigious rate The late Long Parliament tho filled with Danby his Pensioners The Modest Vindication of the Two last Parliaments p. 11. do traduce that which went immediately before most abominably and those who are so tender of the Votes of these care as little for the Established Lawes of the former as I do for the Decrees of the Council of Trent or of the Synod of Dort So that it is plain it is not respect to Parliaments as Parliaments that makes them thus obsequious but as made up of such a Sort of men and Driving on such Designs and Interests To return then Gentlemen from this long Digression which I have inserted only to Justifie You I will Conclude That as you have begun bravely so you must go thro with the business or Expect a Revenge from the Opposite Party equal to their Rage and tho I Know you do not fear them yet I would Advise you not to be too Secure of them but let your Vigilance Industry and Application to all Sorts of Men be equal to theirs at least and then it is Ten thousand to one you shall never try either theirs or your own Valour and as your Case is better so let it inspire you with more Resolution to Stand and Fall with it and his Most hearty Prayers for a good Success upon all your Loyal Undertakings and Designs shall never be wanting who is Your most Devoted Servant THE Third Part OF THE ADDRESS TO THE FREE-MEN and FREE-HOLDERS OF THE NATION HIS Majesty by the Blessing of GOD having Supprest the short Scotch Rebellion which in great part miscarried by the timeing of it tho no human fore-sight on their part could have prevented that His Majesty first Proroguing and then Dissolving that Parliament which seem'd to be the occasion of it with such Secrecy and Quickness that their Friends at London could give them no previous Notice of his Intentions so to do So that besides the total disappointing them of all that Countenance Ayd and Assistance they promised themselves from England many of their Friends at home whose Crimes being less had not the same necessity or whose Zeal was not of that fiery temper with theirs and therefore were prudently resolved tho they wished well to the design yet not to hazard their sweet Lives and Fortunes in it till they saw what Success these first Venturers had who hearing of the Prorogation of the Parliament and being doubtless admonished by their London Friends at the same time not to stir during this short Recess as they then thought it would be layd by all thoughts of Joyning with them and Augmenting their Numbers and the Privy Councils in both Nations attending solely to that business it was Extinguished almost as easily as it began Upon which His Majesty by his Royal Proclamation Dissolved this Parliament and Issued out Writs for another to Sit at Westminster the Seventeenth day of October 1679. Hoping his Subjects duly reflecting upon the Miscarriages of the Last House of Commons and the Danger the Nation had so narrowly escaped of Being involved in another destructive Intestine War at a time when the Victorious Arms of France hung like a dreadful Cloud over our heads and the High Discontents of the Popish Party which were inflamed and inraged both by the Discovery and Prosecutions of the late Plot lay broyling in the Bowels of the Nation would proceed with more Prudence and Caution in the Next Elections and send Him up men of Better Tempers or that at least these Gentlemen by that Act seeing He was resolved to keep the Reins in his own hands and to let them Sir or Dissolve them according as they behaved themselves would thereby be kept in better awe for the future and make use of a little more calmness in their Proceedings if it were but to continue their Being But alas His Majesty soon found himself deceived in his Expectation the common people who see with other mens eyes and follow as they are led and that is for the most part the wrong way were easily perswaded to believe in the first place that this Parliament was Prorogued and Dissolved onely to prevent the Tryal of the Popish Lords in the Tower tho the Not Trying of them was one of the greatest Causes that Moved his Majesty to it as appears plainly both by the Journals of both the Houses and his Majesties Speech in the Conclusion of that Session of Parliament and altho these Five Lords were brought to the Bar and the Commons summon'd to give in Evidence against them that very day that they were Prorogued they refused to do it And on the other side the Malecontents rejoyced greatly in it being well assured that the same Men would be chosen again and so made use of this Dissolution as a means to incense the People against the King and the Government and to increase the real or pretended fears of Men by their Loud Clamours against French Pensioners Popery Arbitrary Government and the like which both in discourse and Print the Press being now at Liberty from its former restraint they objected with equal Confidence and Falshood against the Loyal Gentlemen that had opposed them But besides these general Charges they made special use of two things that fell out in the last Parliament and that had a mighty influence upon the Minds of the populace and other Unthinking men The first of which was to
us that he made claim by Humble Petition in the Name of the Commons of England in Parliament Assembled of the Antient Rights of the Commons for them and their Servants in their Persons and Estates to be free from Arrests and other disturbances in all their Debates to have Freedom and Liberty of speech and as occasion should require to have Access to his Majesties Person Which was allowed by the King But tho he hath not been pleased to Print his own Speech there was one given out for the Information of the People in Writing which was as followeth May it please Your Majesty THE House of Commons have been pleased to Make use of ME for their Speaker and Have presented me for Your Majesties Approbation It is a Place of great Weight and Pains Both by my Education and Profession I have been always used to Labour and Industry Therefore I will by Your Majesties Approbation endeavour to discharge the Trust reposed in me If this were the Preface to the Three Demands or Petitions I cannot blame him for not Printing it no more then I can commend him for making one so totally different from what used to be said on such occasions But a man may smile to see how finely the man had digested and put over all his trembling fears in one Nights time when he called to mind his Education and Profession which he had totally forgot the day before and now having considered better did not think it was fit to ask his Majesty to discharge a person so wonderfully qualified for the Place as all other had done before him being it seems not so sensible that by their Education and Profession they had been used to Labour and Industry And 't is pretty to see how his Majesties Approbation is put into a parenthesis as if one should say it was Needless and scarce worth the asking and the Sence of what he was to speak would have been perfect without it But such was his Majesty's Goodness that he easily passed over these things tho they were apparent encroachments upon his Royal Prerogative and such too as another Prince would have stomached He sought the good of his People more than any thing and for that cause bore these disorders On Munday the 25. of October the Lords sent down an Address they had made to his Majesty for the Pardon of all such persons as should come in and discover any thing further of the Plot within two Months and with it his Majesties Answer which was as followeth HIS Majesty hath Considered of the Address made by the House and is so willing to Encourage all persons who know of any Treasons and Conspiracies against his Person and Government that he will cause his Royal Proclamation to Issue declaring That he will fully Pardon and Secure all persons who shall make such discovery not Onely during the space of Two Months as is desired but at any time after whensoever such discovery shall be made The next day the Commons resolved to make an Address to his Majesty to the same purpose And Mr. Dangerfield the discoverer and great Agent in the Meal-Tub Plott which was a Silly design of the Papists to turn their Plott upon the Presbyterians mentioning Sir Robert Peyton a Member of their House in this Information They referred it to a Committee to Examine the Maters touching Sir Robert Peiton and to report the same to the House And then Resolved Nemine Contradicente That it was the Opinion of their House to proceed effectually to suppress Popery and Prevent a Popish Successor On Wednesday the 27th of October they agreed the said Address which was as followeth WE Your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects the Commons in Parliament Assembled being highly Zealous for the preservation of the Protestant Religion Your Majesties Sacred Person and Government and resolving to pursue with a strict and impartial Inquiry the Execrable Popish Plot which was detected in the Two Last Parliaments and has been Supported and Carried on by potent and restless Practises and Machinations especially during the late Recesses of Parliaments whereby several persons have been terrified and discouraged from declaring their Knowledg thereof most humbly beseech Your Majesty That for the Security of such persons who shall be willing to give Evidence or make further Satisfactory Discovery concerning the same to this House Your Majesty would be pleased to Issue Your Royal Proclamation assuring all the said persons of your Gracious Pardon if they shall give Evidence or make such Discovery within two Months after the date of such Proclamation There was two Exceptions taken to this Address by others Tho I find none made in the House viz. The first was That in the height of their Zeal they forgot to tell his Majesty what Protestant Religion they meant or desired to preserve for there being in England many not onely several but contrary Religions which yet may be Comprehended under that General term of Protestant Some of which are worse than Popery they were not to be preserved but Suppressed if it might be Except they intended in opposition to Popery to uphold all the Heresies and Schismes that arose in the late Rebellion amounting to near Eightscore as they have been counted but then it had been better to have called them Protestant Religions for it is a perfect piece of Nonsence to call these Contrary and Contending Factions who do mutually endeavour to Ruine each other tho they are now Combined as much against the Religion that is Established as against Popery and to Act against it with more fury than they do against Popery I say it is Nonsence to call these Conjoyntly Religion when if there be or ever were any such things as different Religions in the World these are such and they are as Contrary to the Religion established and each to other as they are to Popery Hitherto the Parliaments had always qualified that loose general word with such terms as these Established or by Law Established or the like and sometimes not so much as mentioned the Word Protestant which is very improperly affixed to any Party of the Reformed Religions of England there being perhaps never a Lutheran in England to take it strictly But we shall see afterwards that it was not a Casual or Accidental omission here but as these Protestants at Large had advanced the greater part of these Commons into that high dignity so they were resolved to lift them up above the Church and Laws by way of Reward tho the Peace of the Nation and the Government were Ruined by it The Second thing objected was That they Tacitly and Injuriously reflected upon His Majesty in their Pretences That during the Recess of Parliament several persons had been terrified and discouraged from declaring their Knowledg of the Plot. As for the Recesses Prorogations and Dissolutions of the Parliaments they were apparently forced upon the King much against his Will by the unreasonable Heats Feuds and Irregularities of the
Commons and so the King was not to be blamed and all that would Inform any thing concerning the Plott in these Intervals had been as Kindly used by the King and Councel as they could have been by the Parliament So that this was as I said an Injurious Reflection upon His Majesty and the Government and was an Argument of an ill temper and could not but disgust his Majesty Their limiting their Petition of Pardon to onely such persons as made any Discovery to their House was look't upon as much restrain'd for if the Discovery were really and effectually made what matter was it to what house or person it was made But it may be this might not be intended by them for any such purpose as the limiting of the thing to them tho in effect it did so and therefore I shall pass it over From this Address the House proceeded to the Votes about the Petitions which were as followeth Resolved Nemine Contradicente Which shewes the Strength of the party and not the Consent of the whole House That it is and Ever hath been the Vndoubted Right of the Subjects of England to Petition the King for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments and Redressing of Grievances Resolved N. C. That to traduce such Petitioning howsoever managed for so it must signifie or else it will conclude nothing from the Other as a Principle as a Violation of Duty and to represent it to his Majesty as Tumultuous and Seditious is to betray the Liberty of the Subject and Contributes to the Design of Subverting the Antient Legal Constitutions of this Kingdom and introducing Arbitrary Power Ordered That a Committee be appointed to inquire of all such persons as have offended against these Rights of the Subjects Resolved That an Address be made to his Majesty declaring the Resolution of this House to Preserve and Support the King's Person and Government and the Protestant Religion at home and abroad This last seemed to sweeten the Crudity of the former Votes and to Countenance and Justifie one of the greatest disorders that Contributed to the Ruine of his Father As to their first Vote which is their Principle it is granted modo forma as they have set it down But the Second is too general and an Undeniable foundation for Rebellion as hath been Experimented for all the Controversie was here about the manner of Petitioning viz. Whether a few private men might agree upon a Petition and then send Emissaries abroad to procure Hundreds and Thousands of Ignorant people to Subscribe it and then tender it to his Majesty as it were by the Number to fright him into a Complyance with them against his declared Resolution to the Contrary if this might be allowed the Liberty of the Subject would soon eat up the Prerogative of the King and disorder this or any other Government in the World In the Reign of Henry the Seventh one Thomas Flammock Lord Bacon 's Hist of H. 7. a Lawyer thought he could make a Rebellion and never break the Peace and the People of Cornwall being discontented about some Subsidies granted to the King he perswades them that it was not good they should stand like Sheep before the Shearers but put on Harness and take Weapons in their hands yet to do no Creature hurt but go and deliver the King a Strong Petition for the Laying down of those grievous Payments and for the Punishment of those that had given him that Counsel and to make others beware how they did the like in time to come And he said for his part He did not see how they could do the Duty of true Englishmen and good Liege-men except they did deliver the King from such Wicked ones that would destroy both him and the Country or in the Language of our dayes introduce Arbitrary Power And accordingly 16000 men armed assembled and marched from Cornwal to Black-Heath in Kent Modestly and Quietly enough Except that at Taunton in Somersetshire they killed in fury an Officious and Eager Commissioner for the Subsidy whom they called the Provost of Perin but by that time they came at Black-Heath they Threatned either to bid Battle to the King for now the Seas went higher than his Councellors or to take London within his View imagining themselves there to find no less fear than wealth And accordingly they persisted till the King having drawn out his Forces and Surrounded them he fought them and killed 20000 and took all the rest Prisoners Now I would Know whether this Strong Petition was Justifiable and whether if any body in our dayes should perswade a Number of Men to Act this over again it would be an offence against the Rights of the Subjects to abhor such Petitioning as a Violation of Duty and represent it to his Majesty as Tumultuous and Seditious or rather plainly Rebellious and it would be worth the while to try whether Flammock's Strong Petition may not be Justified by these Votes as they now stand penned for it doth not appear that any sort of Petitioning whatsoever may be opposed by the Votes But it may be replyed That here were no men in Arms in the case of the Petition in hand but what then if there should be for the future these Votes will Justify them too for if the People may Petition for the Calling or Sitting of a Parliament or Redressing of Grievances when and howsoever they please and no man may hinder them then is Honest Old Father Flammock's Strong Petition which was for the Redress of two Notable Grievances fairly Justifiable if it were now to be acted over again But if the People be allowed to Petition but not any way it had been fit to have told us and them what manner of way they were allowed to Petition as well as for what for that was the main thing in question But seeing they were not so kind to the People I will try if I cannot direct them into a better course the next time they shall have an Occasion to Petition the King for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments and Redressing of Grievances And to that purpose I will here insert a whole Act of Parliament XIII Car. 2. Cap. V. An Act against Tumults and Disorders upon pretence of Preparing or Presenting Publick Petitions or Addresses to His Majesty or the Parliament 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 1. For Alteration of Matters Established by Law 2. Redress of pretended Grievances in Church or State 3. 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 a great means of the late Unhappy Wars Confusions and Calamities in this Nation For preventing the like Mischiefs for the
the Letters Papers and Evidences which have been delivered to the Privy Council relating to the said Plot. This Afternoon they Waited upon his Majesty with their Address for the Preservation of his Person and Government c. On Munday the First day of November Mr. Secretary Jenkins told the House the Papers they had Addressed for had been sent to the Committee of the House of Lords for Examination of the Plot the 24th of October The Bill for wearing of Woollen was also read and committed Then the Speaker Reported the King's Answer to their Address for Preservation of his Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion which was as followeth I Thank you very heartily for your Zeal for the Protestant Religion and I assure you there shall be nothing wanting on my part at Home or Abroad to preserve it Sir Francis Winnington Chairman of the Committee for Inspecting the Journals of the Two last Parliaments concerning the Proceedings relating to the Popish Plot reported a general abstract of the same which was Ordered to be perfected and that they should inspect those of the House of Lords for the same time Then one Hardwich a Linnen-Draper being accused of some Misdemeanors against one Seignior Francisco a Witness in the Popish Plot was Ordered to be sent for in Custody of the Serjeant Attending their House to answer the same This was to punish a man before they knew whether he were guilty or no upon a bare Suggestion On Tuesday the 2 d. of November A Bill for prohibiting the Importation of Irish Cattel was read and committed And then one Harnage was ordered to be brought to the Bar for abusing Francisco Ferria And then they Voted an Address to his Majesty for a pardon for Dangerfield and that he would take him and Mr. Dugdale Mr. Prance and this Seignior F. Ferria into his Royal Care and Protection But these were small matters to what follow Resolved Nemine Contradicente That the Duke of York's being a Papist and the Hopes of his coming such to the Crown hath given the greatest Countenance and Encouragement to the present Designs and Conspiracies against the King and Protestant Religion Resolved That in defence of the King's Person and Government and of the Protestant Religion this House doth declare That they will stand by his Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes and that if his Majesty shall come by any violent death which God forbid they will Revenge it to the Vttermost upon the Papists who ever did it Resolved That a Bill be brought in to disable the Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of this Realm On Tuesday the 3 d. day of November the Lords sent down an Act they had passed for the better Regulating the Trials of the Peers of England to which they desired the Concurrence of the Commons and it was read the same day and committed Mr. Harnage being then brought to the Bar was continued in Custody of the Serjeant during the Pleasure of the House Not one tittle being inserted concerning the Nature of his Misdemeanor The Committee for Examination of the Journals were also appointed to inspect the Impeachments against the Lords in the Tower and the proceedings thereupon And they were also to prepare Evidence against the said Lords And in the mean time they Voted Resolved Nemine Contradicente That a Bill be brought in for the better Vniting of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects This was now a New Name for a Toleration as I will make it appear Ordered That Sir Tho. Whitegrave and Mr. Birch of Stafford Apothecary and Lieutenant Ellis be sent for in Custody of the Serjeant to answer to the Charge given against them by Mr. Dugdale Ordered That Herbert Herring be sent for in Custody c. for a Notorious Breach of Priviledge by him committed against Mr. Colt a Member of their House No account how or when being given But Jeremiah Bubb was onely Summoned to appear at the Bar to answer for a Breach of Priviledge committed against Mr. Colt The Bill for Prohibiting the Importation of Irish Cattel was read the second time and committed And Leave was given to bring in a Bill for the Exportation of Leather On Thursday the 4th of November the said Bill was read the first time and Ordered a second reading And then Mr. Secretary Jenkins Reported his Majesty's Answer concerning the Informers against the Popish Plot which was That Care had and should be taken of them Ordered That a Committee be appointed to inspect the Act intituled Trade Encouraged made in the 15th Year of his Majesties Reign and to bring in a Bill for prohibiting of Scotch Cattel at certain Seasons And then after some Debates and Votes concerning Elections of which I shall take no Notice The Bill for disabling the D. of York to Inherit was read the first time and committed Ordered That a Committee be appointed to Inspect the Laws that are in being touching the Maintenance of the Poor and to bring in a Bill or Bills for Regulating and preventing the encrease of the Poor in this Kingdom On Saturday the 6th of November it was Ordered That a Committee be appointed to Inspect the Law concerning the Anniversary Reading of the Narrative of the Gunpowder-Plot in Churches on every Fifth day of November and to Report the same to the House Resolved N. C. That it is the Opinion of this House That the Acts of Parliament made in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James against Popish Recusants Ought not to be Extended against Protestant Dissenters It would have been well if we had been told why they ought not to be Extended to all that break them one as well as another And then how it should be possible to distinguish these two Sorts of offenders one from the other the offence being Exactly the same tho the cause be a little different And then thirdly if a Bill had been brought in for that purpose for the Votes of the House of Commons are no binding Expositions of Law nor I hope never will be Lastly this Vote was needless if the Bill of Vnion went on and to no purpose if it did not as I suppose they understand Now. Ordered That a Committee be appointed to prepare and bring in a Bill for Repeal of all or any part of the Act of Parliament made in the 35th Year of the Reign of Queen Eliz. Cap. 1. Printed in the Statute Book of Pulton This was a severe Act against the Dissenters and they were Now to be Countenanced and Encouraged to the utmost for what end and purpose is not difficult to be guessed by their Insolence against the King and Government A Bill for Exportation of Cloth and other Woollen Manufactures into Turkey was read the first time and committed The Bill to disable the Duke of York was read the Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House with a Resolution declared that it should Extend to the Person of the Duke of
York Onely and that Committee was appointed on the next Munday Morning at Ten of the Clock And accordingly it was that day Debated and some Clauses added to it On Tuesday the Ninth of November his Majesty sent the Commons another Message by Mr. Secretary Jenkins which was as followeth CHARLES R. HIS Majesty desires this House as well for the Satisfaction of his People as of Himself to Expedite such Matters as are depending before them relating to Popery and the Plot and would have them rest assured That all Remedies they can tender to his Majesty conducing to those Ends shall be very acceptable to him Provided they be such as may Consist with preserving the Succession of the Crown in its Due and Legal Course of Descent On Wednesday the 10th of November A Bill for Regulating the Elections of Members to Serve in Parliament for the House of Commons was read the first time and ordered to be read the second time And the same day the Bill for prohibiting the Importation of Irish Cattel was read the third time and passed and sent up to the Lords Now let the Reader observe there was not one Publick Bill passed through the House of Commons in all this time but this and yet no Bill was more opposed than this but here the priyate Concerns of the North and West Country Gentlemen were Engaged and therefore they carried it on Might and Main against all opposition but as for any Bills against Popery they took no care or thought for that against the Duke of York may perhaps be made to appear to be of another Nature then was pretended and rather against any thing then Popery The same day the Lords sent down to the Commons a Bill which they had passed for Freeing the City of London and his Majesty's Court and the Parts adjacent from Popish Inhabitants and providing against other Dangers which may arise from Papists To which they desired their Concurrence Note That this Bill had been sent down from the Lords before and the Commons had lost the opportunity of passing it as you will see they will in this Session also tho there were Tragical representations made of the Danger the City and Nation were in from the Vast Numbers of them which were Seated in and about the City of London The truth is it was not convenient to loose any thing that might serve to fright the People and much better to have Papists in London for that purpose than to have them sent elsewhere and loose the means of Fermenting the Rabble But if men were not as willing to be or at least seem to be cheated as others are to delude them they would soon perceive whose interest it is to keep them in Fears and Jealousies and after discharge their Bug-bears or turn their rage another way The same day they Voted an Address to his Majesty in answer to his last Message And that they would proceed in the prosecution of the Lords in the Tower beginning with William Viscount Stafford On Thursday the 11th of November 1680. A Bill to prevent the offences of Bribery and Debauchery in Elections of Members to Serve in the Commons House of Parliament was Read the first time and ordered to be read again the Monday following with the Bill for Regulating Elections of Members to Serve in the said House formerly mentioned This day the Bill against the Duke of York was read the third time and passed The Title whereof was resolved to be An Act for Securing of the Protestant Religion by Disabling James Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging And it was ordered that the Lord Russel should carry it up to the Lords for their Concurrence The Bill sent down by the Lords for Freeing the City of London from Popish Recusants was read the first time on Friday 12. Nov. and Ordered a second reading in a full House This day the Commons sent a Message to the Lords to Acquaint them with their Intentions to begin with the Viscount Stafford and to desire them to appoint a Convenient time for the Tryal and that the Lords in the Tower might be Confined and kept from holding Correspondence with one another as persons impeached and committed for High Treason by Law ought to be The Lords answered As to the latter part of this Message They had taken Care already in it and as to the former They appointed Tuesday the Thirtieth day of the same Moneth And they further resolved to Address to his Majesty for a Sum of Money for defraying the Charges of Summoning of Witnesses and other Expences Incident to the Prosecution and Tryals of the Lords in the Tower and appointed Mr. Charles Clare to Receive and Expend the same for which purpose his Majesty gave Order that 100 l. should be Issued out of the Exchequer On Saturday the 13th of November Sir Robert Yeomans being upon his own Petition called to the Bar he Acknowledged his offence and was ordered to receive the Censure of the House upon his Knees to which he submitted and was discharged paying his Fees The Lords returned the Bill against Importing of Irish Cattel agreed to Commons the same day The City of London having Petitioned the House against Sir George Jeffereys their Recorder and it being referred to a Committee they passed this Vote Resolved That this Committee is of Opinion That by the Evidence given to this Committee it does appear that Sir George Jeffereys Recorder of the City of London by traducing and obstructing Petitioning for the Sitting of This Parliament hath betrayed the Rights of the Subject To which the House agreed and Ordered That an Humble Address be made to his Majesty to remove him out of all Publick Offices and appointed a Committee to draw up the same As if it had been likely his Majesty would have so far complyed with them as to have punished the Recorder for obeying his Laws and Proclamation against a Tumultuous and Seditious Sort of men But however his Majesty might Act they had another aim in this for they Voted That the Members of their House that Served for the City of London should communicate this Vote and Resolution of their House to the Court of Aldermen for the City of London This was a sure way to bespeak a Party in the City to Joyn with the House against the Abhorrers They further Ordered That this Committee should enquire into all such persons as have been Advising or Promoting of the late Proclamation stiled A Proclamation against Tumultuous Petitioning Thus having passed thus far without any check from any person they thought they might proceed as far further as they pleased And it is very probable that they were spurred on to this by their Friends and Enemies the one designing to make them Terrible and the other being willing to make them Hated However I am sure they they became more hated than feared by this and
many other such proceedings As the Parliament that is the Commons Courted the City so the City was as kind to them and Calling a Common Councel Voted an Address to his Majesty to declare their Loyalty and to Petition him that the Parliament might Sit until Protestantisme was Secured I believe they might mean innocently tho I am well Secured that this would have perpetuated them to the End of the World if some amongst them might have been Judges of the time when this great work was perfected But this did not Edify with his Majesty who penetrated to the bottom of these little Projects and was not over-pleased with this Correspondency betwixt this and the Commons remembring what ill effects this Conjunction had in the Reign of his Father So he Advised the Common-Councel to meddle with those things that lay before them and assuring them That he would Labour to maintain the Protestant Religion as it was Established by Law which was more than they desired he dismissed them On Munday the 15th day of November A Bill against the Importation of Cattel from Scotland was Read the first time and Ordered a Second Reading the Saturday following at Ten of the Clock This day was delivered the following Message to the Commons CHARLES R. HIS Majesty did in his Speech at the Opening of this Session of Parliament desire your Advice and Assistance in relation to Tangier the Condition and Importance of the Place obliges his Majesty to put this House in mind again That He relies upon them for the Support of it without which it cannot be much longer preserved His Majesty doth therefore Earnestly Recommend Tangier again to the due and speedy Consideration and Care of this House A Debate thereupon arising in the House they Voted That they would proceed in the Consideration of this Message the next Wednesday Morning at Ten of the Clock A Bill sent down from the Lords Intituled An Act for the better Regulating the Tryals of the Peers of England was Read the Second time and Committed upon the Debate of the House This day the Bill for Disabling the Duke of York was Read the first time in the House of Peers and the question being put Whether it should be read again the House divided Noes 63. Yeas 30. So it was Thrown out the Bishops all appearing against the Bill Except three for which some of the Commons Reflected upon them with great Liberty as if no body could be for the Duke but he must be for Popery The House of Commons taking notice of this were so discomposed that they Adjourned themselves on Tuesday Morning and did nothing that day And the day following meeting in a very bad and discontented humour and taking into Consideration the Message about Tangier They Resolved upon an Address to his Majesty upon the Debate of the House Humbly representing to him the dangerous State and Condition of the Kingdom And then it appearing that George Earl of Hallifax had been very Active in the House of Lords against the Bill for Dis-inheriting the Duke they Resolved also upon another Address to his Majesty to remove the Earl from his Majesties Presence and Councils for Ever And this was all they did the Second day after The House being in a perfect Fret and the Country-Party Heating themselves by their Speeches to that height they were scarce able to Consider what was fit to be said or asked And now that the Peers of England have passed their Judgment concerning this Bill I will add some short Reflections upon the Bill which I shall shall submit to my Reader as it is fit I should First Then I do acknowledg it is a great affliction to any Protestant Country to fall into the Hands of a Popish Prince and worse for England then for most other because of the great and implacable Malice the Jesuits and the whole Church of Rome have ever born to the Religion Established amongst us which is more easily defended against them then any other Reformed Church as being founded upon greater Antiquity and more conformable to the Primitive Church of the Three or Four first Centuries then either the Church of Rome or any of the Reformed Churches in these Western Parts of the World and therefore they of the Church of Rome Have left no stone unturned to Subvert her imploying all their own Wit and Power against her ever since the Reign of Queen Elizabeth began and sticking neither at Perjury Treason Murther nor any other Villany that they thought might conduce to that End and when God had by his Gracious Providence defeated all these their Damnable Projects They Transformed themselves into the shapes of our own Protestant Dissenters and so promoted a Rebellion which ended in the seeming Ruine of this Religion and Government to their mighty Content and Satisfaction but tho his Majesty at his Return re-settled this Church yet they did not give over but by a Toleration by spreading Pamphlets written in the Stile of the Dissenters and so very acceptable to them by discouraging all that opposed our Intestine Divisions and a multitude of such other frauds they have in Twenty Years time so shaken her foundations again that his Majesty can hardly now preserve and uphold her against the Popish Party on the one hand and the Dissenters on the other So that if this poor persecuted Church should fall into the hands of a Prince of their Communion She is to Expect whatever the most Enraged Malice armed with his Authority can inflict upon her and She hath all the reason in the world to expect the Dissenters will joyn with them to afflict and ruine her Not out of any Kindness to Popery but out of an implacable hatred they two have Conceived against her So that I must and will Conclude the Church of England hath the greatest reason in the world to dread that day that shall put her into such hands But yet still with this limitation notwithstanding that by Avoiding one Mischief she should not plunge her Self into a greater that is by flying a Persecution from men to fall into a Rebellion against her God and Saviour by whose Providence Kings and Princes of what Religion soever they be rule and by whom they have in all Ages been so Ordered Disposed and Governed as He in his Divine and Holy Wisdom Saw most Expedient for the Prosperity or Chastisement of his Church to the greater encrease of her Glory and Happiness in the world to come Two things I will lay down as Undoubted Rules or Maximes 1. That the Kingdom of England is an Hereditary Kingdom or Monarchy which for many Ages hath gone to the Next Heirs be they Males or Females of the Blood Royal without any Election or Consent of the People otherwise then by acknowledging their Lawful Right derived from God by their Blood to them The Second is That this Hereditary Monarchy was set up at first and hath been since upheld and maintained by the Providence of
for Repeal of the Laws de Scandalis Magnatum It was Ordered That a Committee should be appointed immediately to withdraw and prepare such a Clause Which was done and passed the same day If the Peers had passed this Clause they had reduced themselves into the Condition of the Gentry and Commoners and a man might have called the greatest Lord in England Knave more Safely perhaps than his Taylor but if they did not then that Excellent Bill was to be lost to which they had tacked this Clause which was quite of another Nature And it ought to be Considered also That the Lords were Soon Voted down by the Commons once before when by Separating themselves from the Crown they had lost their Support and they may be sure the same thing will follow again when ever the Commons shall prevail so far upon them as to bring the Peerage into as Low a Condition as the Gentry their Priviledges being to speak the truth too little already to support and maintain their Dignity and Honour but of this I need say no more The Bill for Uniting his Majesties Protestant Subjects to the Church of England was read the first time and ordered to be read again the Munday following after Ten of the Clock in a full House Another Bill for Exempting his Majesties Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the penalties of the Laws against Popish Recusants was read the first time and ordered to be read at the same time with the former again Friday Decemb. 17th Captain Castle petitioning to be discharged was Censured on his Knees at the Bar of the House and dismissed paying his Fees A Petition of one Richard Haines desiring Leave that a Bill should be brought in for restraining Vngrants and promoting the Woollen Manufactures was read and committed to a Committee to prepare the said Bill Leave also was given to bring in a Bill for the more easy Collecting of the Hearth-Money The Additional ACT for Burying in Woollen was read and passed and sent up by Sir George Downing to the Lords for their Concurrence A Bill for Continuance of two Acts The one Entituled An Act for preventing the planting of Tobacco in England and Regulating the Plantation Trade The Other An Act for Exporting Beer Ale and Mum was read a second time and committed Then the House agreed the Articles of Impeachment against Edward Seymour Esq a Member of their House and Ordered him to be taken into Custody of the Serjeant till he should give Sufficient Security to their House to answer the said Impeachment and the Serjeant at Arms was Ordered to take the said Security The Bill for restraining Papists from coming or residing within the Cities of London or Westminster c. was read the second time and committed Then the House resolved into a Committee of the whole House and passed these three Resolves 1. That a Bill be brought in for the more effectual Securing of the Meeting and Sitting of Frequent Parliaments as one means to prevent Arbitrary Power 2. That a Bill be brought in that the Judges hereafter to be made and Appointed may hold their Places and Salaries quam diu se bene gesserint and also to prevent the Arbitrary Proceedings of the Judges 3. That a Bill be brought in against Illegal Exaction of Money upon the People and to make it High Treason And a Committee was appointed to bring in a Bill or Bills pursuant to the said Resolves It may appear from hence great care was taken to put the Monarchy out of a possibility of Arbitrary Power but what then is it impossible that there should be any Such Thing as Arbitrary power Exercised by any but a Monarch Is not a Common-Wealth or a House of Commons as capable of Arbitrary power as a King Were the Proceedings of the Long Rebel-Parliament Arbitrary or No Were not Some of the Actions of this very House of Commons Arbitrary I dare Say those that suffered by them thought them so and the rest will be of the same mind if ever it comes to be their Turns to be so treated which they are not sure but at one time or other may happen At least I am sure the pulling down the Monarchy did Once before bring in Arbitrary power with a Vengeance and those that had clamoured against it as they do now when there was no cause for it durst not mutter a Sillable when there was and if they did really believe there were any danger of it Now we should hear much less than we do of it On Saturday the 18th of December The Bill for taking away the Court holden before the President and Council in the Marches of Wales was read the third time and passed and sent up to the Lords The rest of this day was spent in returning an Answer to his Majesties Speech On Munday following a Bill to prohibit the Importation of Foreign Guns was read the first time and Ordered a second reading And Mr. Aulnutt and Mr. Herbert were Ordered to be discharged being first Censured on their Knees and paying their Fees And that Sir John Lloyd Mayor and William Jackson and William Clutterbuck late Sheriffs of Bristol be sent for into Custody On Tuesday the 21 of December The Bill for Vniting his Majesties Protestant Subjects to the Church of England was read the second time and committed upon the Debate of the House And it was Ordered That Leave be given to bring in a Bill or Bills for Inspecting and Correcting Pluralities and Non-Residences relating to Ecclesiastical Benefices The same day they delivered their Answer to his Majesties late Speech on Wednesday the 15th of December which I will here insert according to my promise My Lords and Gentlemen AT the Opening of this Parliament I did acquaint you with the Alliances I had made with Spain and Holland as the best Measures that could be taken for the Safety of England and the Repose of Christendom But I told you withall That if Our Friendship became Unsafe to trust to it would not be wondred at if Our Neighbours should begin to take new Resolutions and perhaps such as might be fatal to Us. I must tell you That Our Allies cannot but see how little hath been done since this Meeting to Encourage their Dependance upon Us and I find by them That Unless We can be So United at home as to make Our Alliance valuable to them it will not be possible to Hinder them from Seeking some other Refuge and making Such New Friendships as will not be Consistent with Our Safety Consider that a Neglect of this Opportunity is Never to be repaired I did likewise lay the Matter plainly before You touching the Estate and Condition of Tangier I must Now tell you again That if that Place be thought worth the Keeping you must take such Consideration of it that it may be speedily Supply'd it being impossible for Me to Preserve it at an Expence so far above My Power I did
for himself I know not for the Parliament never brought him to an hearing But upon inquiry I find notwithstanding all this Clamour the Man hath a great and good Report for his Piety Learning and Prudence but his Zeal for the Religion Established drew this Storm upon him from the Exasperated Dissenters who never stick thus to blast the Fame of Good Men when it serves their ill designs But to return from this Digression The Bill for Exempting his Majesties Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of Certain Laws was read a second time and Committed upon a Debate of the House to the Committee to whom the Bill for Vniting of his Majesties Protestant Subjects was Committed upon a Debate of the House Then the Bill for Banishing the Papists out of the King's Dominions was read a second time and committed upon the Debate of the House Then the House adjourned till Thursday the 30th of December That day the House met and Ordered That the Committee appointed to prepare Evidence against the 4. Popish Lords in the Tower should look into the Evidence and Report their Opinions to the House in Order to the further Directions and Proceedings of the House against them Resolved That the several Writings Papers and Proceedings relating to such Members of the late Long Parliament as received Allowances out of the Moneys appointed for Secret Services be produced to this House Resolved N. C. That no Member of this House shall accept of any Office or Place of Profit from the Crown without Leave of the House or any Promise of any such Office or Place of Profit during such time as he shall continue a Member of the House and that the offenders herein shall be Expelled It seems they had discovered that some of their Zealous men were Selling themselves to the Court-Party for Preferment and prepared this Vote to keep the Party together Friday the 31th of December The Bill for prohibiting the importation of Forein Guns was read the second time and rejected Leave was also given to bring in a Bill for Regulating the abuses in making Casks Barrels and other Vessels And A Committee appointed to peruse the Laws relating to Weights and Measures and to report their Opinions in the same and to bring in a Bill or Bills for the better Regulating and Ascertaining the same Ordered also That Leave be given to bring in a Bill for a General Naturalization of Alien-Protestants and allowing them liberty to Exercise their Trades in all Corporations A Bill for Relief of the Subjects against Arbitrary Fines was read a second time and committed Then the House Adjourned till Munday the 3d. of January Which day An Act for limiting the times of Importation of Cattel from Scotland being read the third time passed and was sent up to the Lords Then A Bill for Repealing an Act made in the 13th Year of his Now Majesties Reign intituled An ACT for the Well-Governing and Regulating of Corporations was read the first time and Ordered to be read again A Bill for the better discovery of Settlements to Superstitious Vses was read the first time and Ordered a second reading the Friday following at Ten of the Clock in a full House The same day the Lords sent down a Bill to the Commons Intituled An Act for distinguishing Protestant Dissenters from Popish Recusants To which they desired the Concurrence of the House The Lords sent down another Message to put the Commons in mind of the Bill for the Better regulating of the Tryals of the Peers of England And Another Message to acquaint them That their Lordships had received a Petition from Mr. Seymour for a speedy Tryal Upon which the Commons read his Answer to their Impeachment which had lyen by them some time and ordered a Committee to prepare Evidence against him and Manage it at his Tryal On Tuesday the 4th of January His Majesty sent the Commons another Message which is as followeth CHARLES R. HIS Majesty received the Address of this House with all the disposition they could wish to comply with their reasonable desires but upon perusing it he is Sorry to See their Thoughts so wholly fixed upon the Bill of Exclusion as to determine that all other Remedies for the Suppressing of Popery will be ineffectual His Majesty is Confirmed in his Opinion against that Bill by the Judgment of the House of Lords who rejected it He therefore thinks there remains Nothing more for him to say in answer to the Address of this House but to recommend to them the Consideration of all other Means for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion in which they have no reason to doubt of his Concurrence when ever they shall be presented to him in a Parliamentary way and that they would Consider the present State of the Kingdom as well as the Condition of Christendom in Such a Manner as may inable him to Preserve Tangier and Secure his Alliances abroad and the Peace and Settlement at home This Message being read in the House they Resolved to take into Consideration the Friday following in a full House The same day the Lords sent down a Vote which they made that day Die Martis 4 January 1680. Resolved by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled That they do declare that they are fully Satisfied that there now is and for divers years last past there hath been a Horrid and Treasonable Plot and Conspiracy contrived and carried on by those of the Popish Religion in Ireland for Massacring the English and Subverting the Protestant Religion and the ancient Established Government of that Kingdom To which their Lordships desired the Concurrence of the Commons On Wednesday the 5th of January Richard Thompson was Ordered upon his Petition to give sufficient Security for his forth-coming to the Serjeant at Arms attending that House to Answer to the Impeachment against him and so was discharged of his Imprisonment I can see No reason why he should be prosecuted by an Impeachment in Parliament It being beneath the Dignity of the Houses to Concern themselves with such a man as Mr. Thompson must needs be who might much better have been proceeded against in the Spiritual or Civil Courts if the Accusations were all True but that his Blaspheming Calvin and the Loyal Presbyterian Protestants would have signified Nothing there as I believe they would not before the Lords if he had been Tryed Formerly the Commons impeached none but such as were too great to be prosecuted any where else and that but rarely and upon great Necessity This made them Venerable and Dreadful but this Course for Small or No faults to impeach and imprison great Numbers of Mean People which they followed in this Session tended to Nothing but the Wasting their time and Hindering greater Affairs to the damage of the King and Kingdome The same day the Commons agreed an Impeachment against Sir William Scroggs Knight Chief Justice of the Court of Kings-Bench
a fair Warning also to look to Himself and the Religion by Law Established when he saw with how little Reverence these Protestants at Large treated him while his Prerogatives were intire and wholly in his Own Hands and had he but yielded to them in the Point of the Duke of York they would Soon have taught him how little was to be gotten by Complying with men of their temper The only Service they did was to the French King for our Allies beyond Seas seeing that No Assistance was to be Expected from England Surrendred their strongest Towns to him for the Asking and so suffered the worst effects of War in Peace The City of London Lost the hopes of having any more Parliaments amongst them till Times be better and more Settled by their grateful Applications to them for their Loyalty and Care of the Protestant Religion at Large The Trade of a Considerable part of the Nation is ruined not for want of Laws but by too many which have restrained that intercourse and freedom that ought to be betwixt Us and our Neighbour Nations yet I cannot say that this Parliament would have relieved the Nation in that point if they had Continued Longer when it is considered with what care and industry the Act for the prohibition of Irish Cattel was carried against all opposition tho it is damageable to a very considerable part of the Nation if not to the whole and had these Gentlemen been equally concerned for the Suppressing of Popery as they were for this ACT Some of those Bills at least that were sent down from the Lords or began by the Commons might have been ready as well as this for the Royal Assent Yet they had some very good Bills relating to Trade under consideration but they were not so Zealous in that Concern as they ought to have been but rather seemed to fear the State of the People on that account should be made too easie before they had obtained their other Ends of his Majesty and the Government Of this their Vote about the Act for prohibition of the French Trade may be an instance for however that Act might be of great use if the Dutch would consent to prohibit all Trade with them as well as We yet as Long as they go on to Trade with them and we do not it onely tends to impoverish the King and Us and Inrich them and therefore ought to have been left at liberty till they and we can mutually agree to stop it Nor did the Protestant Religion by Law established fare any better for that being equally opposed by the Dissenters on one hand and the Papists on the other under pretence of Uniting us against the latter the former were encouraged by their Votes and Bills to endeavour her ruine The Bill for Uniting his Majesties Protestant Subjects is a perfect Toleration of almost all other Religions which are or shall be amongst us except Popery and had it and the other Bill for Exempting them from the Penalties of the Laws made against the Popish Recusants passed it would not have been possible to have Executed them or any other against the Papists For it cannot be imagined that the Papists could not have been able to have got themselves Listed amongst some of our Dissenters or other and then upon making the Declaration and producing two Persons as Witness that they believed them to be Protestant Dissenters they would have had the liberty to have inflamed both those Dissenters that were Comprehended and those that were Tolerated against the entire Conformists and these again against them And so both Popery should have gone unpunished and the Feuds amongst our selves would have grown to that height that nothing but a standing Army would have been able to have kept us in any tolerable quiet If the Ministers of the Church of England had been part of them entire Conformists and part of them Presbyterians those that were of the first sort would have kept up the Religion Established as high or higher then now and the other Party must have laid aside totally the use of the Common-Prayer as well as the Surplice Cross and Kneeling at the Lords Supper or else their whole Party which now follow them would have all left them and so another Faction would have risen in the Church of Semi-Conformists and all those that are without the Church would have continued as now they are under other Teachers only more insolent and more turbulent and so instead of uniting us against the Papists and Popery which is the pretended cause of the Act we should have been more divided and Animated against each other then now we are It was one of the Rules prescribed by that Bill That no person should be admitted to take the Declaration who refused the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy when tendred unto him Now this would have left all the Quakers Anabaptists and several other Sects in the same state of Persecution as they call it as they now are and great Numbers of the Other Sects too when they had considered of it would have Scrupled it as well as they in Scotland have done and so those that were totally Excluded would have been enraged against those that had been tolerated as having betrayed them first and then left them to the Severity of the Law and by that time all these Parties viz. the Rigid Conformists 2. Semi-Conformists 3. Tolerated and Non-Tolerated Protestants all enraged against each other had for some time been fermented by the Jesuits and Popish Party a man may guess what kind of Vnion there would have been amongst Protestants in England And when they had gained all this what Security could have been given that they would have rested here that Act which one Parliament makes another may Repeal and they would never have been Secure of Keeping what they had gained but by taking care to fill the House of Commons in every Parliament with the most Factious men they could pick out and they could never have maintained their reputation with the Party but by pushing things forward and so every Sessions something more must have been granted for the better Security of the Union and removing of Fears and Jealousies till at last we had been brought to the same state of Confusion his Majesty found us in at his Return That a considerable number of these Dissenters are as much against Monarchy as Conformity is Apparent by their Books discourses and former practice Now what Security should his Majesty have had that when this Party had by impunity and time been strong enough to have dealt with the Loyal Party they would not have endeavoured to be dispensed with from obeying him or any other King but Christ Jesus and then Nothing could have united Protestants and Secured us against Popery but the Laying aside the Kingly Government and the Setting up a Common-wealth and of this they have already given some Notable hints in their Pamphlets and when they are told the
rode back to Magus where they first assaulted the Coach and one of them by Name John Balfour of Kinlock as he passed by that Town was heard to say very audibly and distinctly That now Judas was killed A Proclamation being published in his Majesties Name for the discovery of these abominable execrable Murtherers and search made among the Tenants and Heritors of the Shire of Fife and the Inhabitants of Magus being examined upon oath it was made apparent that the bloody Assassins and many others who were strongly presumed to have been Abetters and Contrivers of the Murther were notorious Fanaticks Frequenters of Field-Conventicles and Followers of Mr. Welsh and other Traiterous intercommuned and Rebellious Preachers Nine of the Actors in this Tragedy were discovered by their Names and Sirnames which are as followeth John Balfour of Kinlock David Hackston of Rathilettet George Balfour in Gilston James Russel in Kings-Kettle Robert Dingwall a Farmers Son in Caddam Andrew Guillan Weaver in Balmerinoch Alexander Hinderson and Andrew Hinderson Sons to John Hinderson in Killbrachmont George Fleming Son to George Fleming in Balbuthy The rebellion interrupting the course of Justice against these miscreants for some time the 20th day of September 1679 there was another Proclamation published for the apprehending those Nine and all others that were in the Rebellion and were Heritors or Ministers But by this time the Murtherers and Rebels had fled the Kingdom notwithstanding all imaginable care and diligence to prevent their escape and whilst the Covenanting Army lay at Glascow one of the Balfours as a very credible Gentleman who was then the Town told me saith my Author openly boasted of the Murther as a glorious fact and said holding up his Arm This hand helped to kill the Fox And five of the Accomplices Complotters and Abetters of the Murther chose to dye and be hung up in Chains upon the place rather then confess the sinfulness of the action by acknowledging it was a Murther or a Sin The Fanatical Party foretold it in several places and the Morning before it was committed one of the Assassins like a Jesuit Consecrated to an Heroical Act after a solemn Sacrilegious form held up his hand and swore that That hand should kill the Arch-Prelate upon which the Holy Sister his Hostess kissed him And it is notoriously known in Scotland that he who commanded the foot for Mr. Welsh upon Reupar Law that famous Field Conventicle owned that their Friends thanked God for the Archbishops death which neither they nor their abetters in either Kingdom will call Murther when they have occasion to Speak thereof My Author goes further and shews how the Predecessors of these Godly Cut-throats Norman Lesly John Lesley Peter Carmichael and James Meluil Assassinated Cardinal Beton Archbishop of St. Andrews in his Castle there in cold blood gravely and with the preface of an harangue which Knox commends calling the Principal Murtherer a Meek man of God an odd kind of Presbyterian meekness which our Saviour doth not commend From thence he descends and shew their Principles both Anicent and Modern upon which they build these bloody practises He tells as Goodman Knox's Companion in his Discourse of Tyranny and Popery pag. 30. hath these words All men are bound to see the Laws of God kept and to suppress and resist Idolatry by force Nor is it sufficient for Subjects not to obey the wicked Commands of Princes but they must resist them and deliver the Children of God out of the hands of their Enemies as we would deliver a Sheep that is indanger to be devoured by a Wolf And if the Magistrates refuse to put Mass-mongers and False Preachers now all Bishops and Church-ministers in their esteem are such to death the people in seeing it performed shew that zeal of God which was commended in Phineas Hence all Kirk Writers since his Majesties Return such as Napthali Jus populi The Apologetical Narration The Poor mans Cup The History of the Indulgence as he tells us call the Bishops Apostates Perjured Prelates a perjured Fraternity Traitors to Christ Enemies to his people Idolaters Backsliders All which is meant of forsaking the Covenant and Presbyterian Government and is the very Language they murthered the Archbishop with which shews they were not Jesuits but arrant Presbyterians that did the Wicked fact and my said Author quotes this Passage from Jus Populi pag. 415. The fact of Phineas was a Laudable Act of justice and a precedent for Judges and Magistrates in all times coming and that by his Example any Member of the Council for Phineas rose from among the Congregation might lawfully rise up and execute judgment on this wicked Wretch the Archbishop and his cursed Fraternity who have brought by their Apostacy and defection from the Covenant and cause of God the wrath of God upon the Land For the rest I shall refer my Reader to that ingenious Author from whom I had not Transcribed all this but to prompt others to read him and to Supply that Defect to them who cannot get that Book The news of this Execrable and Barbarous Murther was soon diffused all over England and it may be all the rest of Christendom and entertained by all People who were not poisoned with this Presbyterian Leven with horror and deterstation The rest began to qualify and allay it with ill Characters of the poor man or to divert it from the right Agents by laying it one while upon the Jesuits and another while upon the Tenants of the Archbishop But they foresaw these things would not do their business and therefore their friends in London did what they could to instigate an Address against the Duke of Lauderdale which was the man they most hated and feared of all the world and who if he were not removed would certainly prosecute and revenge this Murther now so it fell out that though not upon their sollicitation there was an Address Voted the 6th of May which pass'd the Eighth The Address which I think fit to be inserted here was as followeth We your Majesties most Loyal and Dutiful Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament assembled finding your Majesties Kingdoms involved in eminent Dangers and great difficulties by the evil designs and pernicious Counsels of some who have been and are in high places of trust and Authority about your Royal Person who contrary to the duty of their places by their Arbitrary and Destructive Counsels tending to the subversions of the Rights Liberties and Properties of your Subjects and the alteration of the Protestant Religion establisht have endeavoured to alienate the Hearts of your Loyal Subjects from your Majesty and your Government Amongst whom we have just reason to accuse John Duke of Lauderdale for a chief Promoter of such Counsels and more particularly for contriving and endeavouring to raise jealousies and misunderstandings between your Majesties Kingdoms of England and Scotland whereby Hostilities might have ensued and may arise between both Nations if not prevented
Exclusion of the Duke of York will onely Secure them once from a Popish Prince and make them that follow more Cautious how they discover themselves too soon and that if any Actual King of England should turn Papist which is as possible and more probable then that another Heir should do it they would then be in the same state as if the Duke Succeeded They constantly reply That it is unreasonable it should be in the power of one man to reduce us to Popery that is It is not reasonable that Kingly Government should be any Longer Continued amongst us From all which I conclude That the project of Uniting Protestants by remitting the Laws against the Dissenters is impossible and that these Consequences being Obvious and Apparent before-hand there could be no other design in the Attempt but the ruine of the Monarchy and the introducing Confusion and War amongst us at least these would certainly have followed So that the day a Toleration or which is all one an Vnion amongst Protestants upon the terms propounded is settled the Monarchy must be made Absolute or it will not Stand And Provision must be made to maintain a Standing Army bigg enough eo Keep all Parties Quiet how much soever they are averse to it or our Peace at home will not be Maintained And as to all Foreign affairs England must look on and suffer all things to go as they will for Neither King nor Common-Wealth will be in a Condition to do any thing abroad in that unsettled state things will be at home and by that time England comes to settle France if God interpose not by Miracles will have brought under So many of its Neighbours that England will be able to make no effectual resistance if it should be attacked by that Potent Kingdom Conclusion My dearest Countrymen I humbly begg you would be pleased to reflect Seriously upon this in time if it be not Now too late and Unite heartily with His Majesty our most Gracious and Sweet-Natured Soveraign and the Religion Established and not suffer your selves to be led by pretended Fears into real and unavoidable Slavery and Consusion attended with all the Miseries of War and which as much as Man can foresee must end in Popery and a French Conquest of us I have laid the Matter plainly before you not Knowing what may follow as to my Self but this I am sure of that Advantage I can have none by it I am a private person and I Expect so to live and die I have no aim at any Publick Imployment or Place of Trust nor any means to attain it if I had I am Contented with the State God hath Set me In. And the Utmost I wish for is to Leave things to my Posterity as they ought Now to be if the Laws had their due Effects and therefore I am compelled by Nothing but my Zealous affection for my Country which next God and my own Soul I love above all things to run the hazard of giving you this Advice and thereby drawing upon me the Malice and Revenge of all those that seek to Ruine and Enslave You. As to those Gentlemen of the House of Commons who may possibly take offence at What I have written for all I am sure will not I desire they would in cool blood Consider what they have done and then let them think of Me what they please For if ever Faction Anger and ill designs were entertained by so great a Body of Men as the Major part of this House was it is Apparent they were here And I will instance in but a few Particulars tho I might in more Can any mortal man produce either Precedent or Law to Justifie the Imprisonment of the Gentlemen called the Abhorrers Have the meanest people of England a right to Petition the King against his Express Command in a thing of which he is the Sole Judge by all our Laws and that by Multitudes of Hands procured by men that have no authority for that purpose and may not Grand-Juries Justices of the Peace and other such like persons oppose them or which is less disown it But suppose they did more than they ought was it fit to imprison them before they were allowed to defend themselves Gentlemen it served your turn now but it may one day be turn'd against you and then consider how you will take it The Corporations do Now most of them send Gentlemen but they may when they please lay You by and send Mechanicks Trades-men Shop-Keepers How would your high spirits brook it to be sent for in Custody and made to Kneel without being Suffered to Speak and onely for doing your duties to such men and so be sent home again I am sure no English Gentleman can brook this indignity but with such inward Resentments as befit the Generosity and Temper of that Nation or otherwise I must think we are prepared for Slavery and all that Manly Courage that hath made our People Renowned in all Countries in the World is degenerated into the Most Shameful Effeminacy and Cowardise Onely in this case Religion and Loyalty made them yield even to Injustice and Oppression As long as his Sacred Majesty thought fit to Suffer it they Submitted but with such Thoughts as would have taught you more Justice and Moderation if this had not been in the case Your styling all those Gentlemen that had been brought in to the Commission of the Peace in the room of some others displaced MEN of Arbitrary Principles and Countenancers of Papists and Popery and if you could have invented more Odious Names and Words than these you might with as much truth and ingenuity have bestowed them upon them Was it fairly done or was it not Is it one of the Priviledges of your House to Vote Me a Jew or a Turk or that I was one of those men that occasioned the Breach betwixt Charles the First and his Parliament If it be then I will say no more but that I begg your Pardon and Kneel down at the Bar of a House of Commons with the same Submission as if I believed the Speaker Infallible and every Member an Angel But if your Votes ought to be not only Consonant to Law but agreeable to the truth of things then that Passage was hastily and passionately written and not well Considered and care ought to be taken for the future to Write more Cautiously and Speak and Vote like Men that had a little respect to your Places Your Votes of the 7th of January 1680. concerning his Majesties Revenues and borrowing of Money upon them are they justifiable or no may I not lend the King 100 l. if I please without your leave and not incur the danger of being reputed an Enemy to the Sitting of Parliaments Suppose the French should Land in England or Ireland or the Papists or Dissenters rise and the King Want Money to suppress the one or drive out the other must we hazard his and our Ruine rather
then supply him by a Lone in the Intervals of Parliament have we a Property in what is our own and may we not use it as we see cause without breach of Priviledge of Parliament Your Vote of the 10th of January That the Prosecution of the Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws was at that time Grievous to the Subject a Weakning of the Protestant Interest an Incouragement to Popery and Dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom is as little understood as any of the rest Why was it made To what Subject is it Grievous To the Dissenters Why then let them leave their Dissenting to the Church of England and all will be well What Protestant Interest doth it weaken for there are more Protestant Interests then one in the Nation doth it weaken that Protestant Interest which is Settled by Law Then say so But how it doth encourage Popery or endanger the Peace of the Nation is yet Harder to be understood but Suppose it did what then You may repeal the Laws and Bills you had afoot that would have Repealed them if they would have passed but you were to be adjourned and had not time to finish them And did you think to have laid them asleep by your Single Vote without the Consent of the Lords or the King You should have done well then to have told the Nation that you have the whole Legislative Power in your hands and that it is Contrary to Law for any man to Act against a Vote of the House of Commons tho in Obedience to an Act of Parliament But that I may not seem to set up my own Single Judgment against a Whole House of Commons I will insert an Authority or two Equal to them in better Times tho they be Long. The first of which shall be an Address of the House of Commons the 28. of Febr. 1663. May it please your Most Excellent Majesty WE Your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons in Parliament Assembled having with all Fidelity and Obedience Considered of the Several Matters Comprised in Your Majesties late Gracious Declaration of the 26. of Decemb. Last and your most Gracious Speech at the beginning of this presenâ— Session Do in the first place for our Selves and in the Names of all the Commons of England render to your most Sacred Majesty the Tribute of our most hearty Thanks for all that infinite Grace and Goodness wherewith Your Majesty hath been pleased to publish your Royal Intentions of adhering to your Act of Indemnity and Oblivion by your Constant and Religious observance of it And our Hearts are further enlarged in these returns of Thanksgivings when we Consider Your Majesties most Princely and Heroick Professions of relying upon the Affections of your People and Abhorring all Sort of Military and Arbitrary Rule But above all we can never enough remember to the Honour of Your Majesties Piety and our own unspeakable Comfort those Solemn and most endearing Invitations of us Your Majesties Subjects to prepare Laws to be presented to Your Majesty against the Growth and encrease of Popery and withal to provide more Laws against Licentiousness and Impiety at the same time declaring Your Own Resolutions for Maintaining the Act of Vniformity And it becomes us always to acknowledg and Admire Your Majesties Wisdom in this your Declaration whereby Your Majesty is pleased to resolve not onely by Sumptuary Laws but by your Own Royal Example of Frugality to restrain that Excess in mens Expences which is grown so general and so exorbitant and to direct our endeavours to find out fit Laws for Advancement of Trade and Commerce After all this We humbly beseech Your Majesty to believe that it is with Extream Vnwillingness and Reluctancy of Heart that we are brought to differ from any thing which your Majesty hath thought fit to propose And though we do no way doubt but that the unreasonable distempers of Mens Spirits and the Many Mutinies and Conspiracies which were carried on during the late Interval of Parliaments did reasonably incline Your Majesty * * I suppose here is a word wanting to ill humours till the Parliament assembled and the hopes of an Indulgence if the Parliament should Consent to it Especially seeing the pretenders to this Indulgence did seem to make some title to it by virtue of Your Majesties Declaration from Breda Nevertheless your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects who are Now returned to Serve in Parliament from those Several Parts and Places of Your Kingdom for which we were Chosen do humbly offer to Your Majesties Great Wisdom That it is in No Sort Adviseable that there be any Indulgence to such persons who prefume to dissent from the Act of Uniformity and Religion Established for these Reasons We have Considered the Nature of Your Majesties Declaration from Breda and are Humbly of Opinion that Your Majesty ought not to be pressed with it any further Because it is not a Promise in it Self but onely a Gracious declaration of Your Majesties Intentions to do what in you lay and what a Parliament should Advise Your Majesty to do and No such Advice was ever given or thought fit to be offered nor could it be otherwise Vnderstood because there were Lawes of Vniformity then in being Note this Which Could not be dispeused with but by Act of Parliament They who do pretend a right to that Supposed Promise put their right into the Hands of their Representatives whom they chose to Serve for them in this Parliament who have passed and your Majesty Consented to the ACT of Vniformity If any shall presume to Say That a right to the benefit of this Declaration doth still remain after this Act passed it tends to dissolve the very Bonds of Government and to Suppose a disability in Your Majesty and your Houses of Parliament to make a Law contrary to any part of your Majesties Declaration though both Houses should Advise Your Majesty to it We have also Considered the Nature of the Indulgence proposed with reference to those Consequences which must Necessarily attend it It will Establish Schism by a Law and make the whole Government of the Church precarious and the Censures of it of No Moment or Consideration at all It will no way become the Gravity or Wisdom of a Parliament to pass a Law at One Session for Vniformity and at the Next Session the reason for Vniformity Continuing still the same to pass another Law to frustrate or Weaken the Execution of it It will Expose Your Majesty to the restless Importunity of every Sect or Opinion and of every single person also that shall presume to dissent from the Church of England It will be a cause of increasing Sects and Sectaries whose Numbers will weaken the true Protestant profession so far that it will at last become difficult for it to defend it self against them And which is yet further Considerable those Numbers which