in the fourth year of the Reign of James the First your Grandfather which intended the better abolition of all memory of Hostility and the dependencies thereof between England and Scotland and the better repressing the Occasions of Discord and Disorders for time to come and of a like Act passed about the same time in Scotland by the force of which said late Acts there was a Militia setled in that Kingdom of Twenty thousand Foot and Two thousand Horse who were obliged to be in a readiness to march into any part of the Kingdom of England for any service wherein your Brother's Honour and Greatness might be concerned and they were to obey such Orders and Directions as they should from time to time receive from the Privy Council of that Kingdom By colour of which general words the then Parliament did conceive that the Kingdom of England was liable to be invaded upon any pretence whatsoever And this was done by the procurement of that Lauderdale he having been all the time of those Transactions Principal Secretary of that Kingdom and chiefly intrusted with the administration of the Affairs of State there and he being Commissioner for holding the Parliament at the time of passing the latter of the said Acts whereby the providing the said Horse and Foot was effectually imposed upon that Kingdom and that extraordinary Power vested in the Privy Council there so that the Commons of England conceived they had just reason to apprehend the ill Consequences of so great and an unusal Power especially since at that time the Affairs of the Kingdom of Scotland were managed by the said Duke who publish'd himself to be a Person of such pernicious Principles thereupon they pray'd the King your Brother to dismiss him from all his Employments and forbid him his Presence and Counsels for ever as a person obnoxious and dangerous to the Government This Sir is the Character and these are the Qualifications of a person that your Conspirators judg'd meet for a man to serve your Cause and Interest and how near he brought the People of Scotland to the French Government and Interest I must leave an impartial Reader to judge he wanted nothing but a King to make an Example of him and all such profligate Monsters of Mankind But I will give you a second Instance of the good Opinion that the Commons of England assembled in Parliament had of this Varlet and that is as follows 2. Upon the 10th of May 1678 the Commons of England assembled in that Parliament represented to the King your Brother the deplorable condition the state of the Kingdom thro' evil Counsellors which Sir you know were your Conspirators and were designing to overthrow the Protestant Interest in both Kingdoms and were the Cause why the King your Brother follow'd not the Advice of his Parliament for the redressing of Grievances amongst whom they reckon'd John Duke of Lauderdale and pray'd that the King would remove him from his Council and Presence for ever 3. I hasten to a third Instance of the Opinion that the Commons of England had of the said Duke of Lauderdale and that was in a Parliament held in May 10th 1679. They tell the King in their Address That they found the Kingdoms involv'd in imminent dangers and great difficulties by the evil designs and pernicious Counsels of some who had been and were then actually in high Places of Trust and Authority about the Person of the then King who contrary to the Duty of their Places by their arbitrary and destructive Counsels tending to the subversion of the Rights Liberties and Properties of the People of Great Britain and the alteration of the Protestant Religion did endeavour to alienate the Hearts of the People from the then King and his Government amongst whom they had just reason to accuse the Duke of Lauderdale for a chief promoter of such Counsels and more particularly for contriving and endeavouring to raise Jealousies and Misunderstandings between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland whereby Hostilities might have ensued and might have risen between the two Nations They took notice of the many repeated Addresses of the immediate preceding Parliament and were much concerned that notwithstanding those Addresses they found that Duke Lauderdale with all his Qualifications continued in the Councils of the then King for that the Affairs of the Kingdom required that none should be put into such Employments but such as were not only of known Abilities Interest and Esteem in the Nation but also were without all suspicion of mistaking or betraying the true Interest of the Nation Upon these Considerations a new Parliament pray'd the then King to remove him the said Duke Lauderdale from his Employments and Person and Councels for ever You well know that in the Month of February 1678 you were banish'd into Flanders before the meeting of the new Parliament for the good King your Brother parted with his old Pensioners who lowed very loud for want of Fodder and to save Charges that stale Parliament was dissolv'd and a new one call'd whom your Conspirators by the insight they had in the Elections knew it would be such a Parliament as was not for their turns therefore a deep Consult was held how to make the Nation to believe that they were in earnest they resolv'd to discover the Plot and discourage Popery tho' in truth it was the two things you and your Conspirators aimed at to be still supported However to blind the Eyes of Mankind it was resolved that all imaginable symptoms should be publickly professed both for the discovery of the Popish Plot and leaving you and your Conspirators for you were to absent your self from your Brother and go beyond Sea for some time upon these Considerations the one was That you being out of the way might stop the further examination of the Popish Plot then newly discover'd to the King who was in every bit of it but that of his own Life and it had a near relation to your self And by this means your Conspirators thought to preserve the Chief Conspirator alive and safe The other was for a gloss to make Mankind to think that the King your Brother and the Court were such mortal Enemies to Popery that he would not endure you his Popish Brother near him for fear of being influenc'd by Popish Councels But Sir you may remember that your self and Conspirators at St. James's were of a different Opinion some of your Partisans with all their might and skill opposed your leaving the Kingdom for that it would weaken your Party extreamly and make persons more bold to come in and give Evidence against you when you were absent than if you were present and that if you were absent tho' by the Royal Command of your Brother the King yet the People would be ready enough to say you flâ—d for fear and that it was in effect to own your self guilty Such Arguments as these were used by your Conspirators but the Whore Portsmouth
Was this Sir to carry on the War or to go on in making of Alliances you know it was that Popery and the French Government might be advanced both at one and the same time so that Sir I have justified that head the unwillingness of King Charles's entring into and keeping League with those who would uphold and maintain the Protestant Religion but chose rather to make Alliances with France yea and keep them too with a King that had a mighty mind to destroy it 11. I come to the last Passage that I proposed in the beginning of this Memento to treat about and that is this That as long as King Charles lived what a dismal and difficult task had this Nation to suppress you and your wicked Popish and Popishly affected Accomplices and that when he died you were like to be his Successor and therefore the Commons took this into serious consideration and upon the whole that the state of Religion was desperate and that the Popish Conspirators would certainly be advanced and that there would be nothing less than the Nation to all intents and purposes ruined therefore I pray Sir remember the Vote passed Ap. 27.1679 Resolved Nemine Contradicente That the Duke of York being a Papist and the hopes of his coming to the Crown such hath given the greatest incouragement to the present Conspiracy and designs of the Papists against the King and the Protestant Religion Sir This Vote would have ground and beaten an ordinary Subject to Powder but it had not that effect upon you and your Party your Party was so prevalent at that time your Popish Party I mean that you and your Conspirators threw off all these Difficulties with scorn and impudence enough for it is plain enough that the Popish Party had such an influence upon King Charles as to favour them notwithstanding the notoriety of those Crimes both they and you stood charged withal For 1. The Popish Party had a great interest at Court upon the pretence of their pretended Loyalty in the time of the Civil War between Charles the First and his Subjects And again some few of them were instrumental in the escape of his Son Charles the Second from Worcester and the seeming readiness that was in that Party for the Restoration of the said Charles the Second in the Year 1660. this gave them not only a share of peace and Quiet under Charles's Government but procured from him a farther degree of respect unto them by this means they had a very great advantage of carrying on their Designs against the Interest of the Nation and Peace of the Government and this was the Argument Sir that you used for that part of your Banditti in order to join your Forces and strengthen your Party Give me leave Sir to observe to you how wicked a thing it was in you to embolden such a party of Rogues to ruin the Nation you used to say they were always loyal and therefore how many times did you procure great Indulgences from the Government against the express Letter of the Law for them while the rigor of the Law was let loose upon other Dissenters who yet continued more quiet and loyal under their Pressures and Provocations than those under Favours and Caresses and did not the King your Brother hazard the Hearts and Affections of his best Subjects and much of Royal Honour if ever he had any in appearing for his Indulgence of March 15. 1671 2 with frustration to engage if possible these everlasting holy Cutthroats but where was the Loyalty of these your Popish Conspirators For 1. Was it not at their instigation when they were in a Conspiracy against the Peace of this Nation with that Arch-Traytor Laud that was sometime Archbishop of Canterbury that the Uniformity of Service that was in England was against all Law Justice and Conscience pressed upon the Kingdom of Scotland which occasioned that breach with that Nation that was not without great difficulty and vast expence made up to the dishonour of King Charles the First and the English Nation You cannot but remember you have been informed who were the Prime Sticklers upon the occasion of that Service-book and other strange Impositions laid upon that people to foment the War between the two Kingdoms For in your Letter to Ashby the Rector of the English Colledge at St. Omers dated March 17 1676 7. to supply you with a dozen of such men as were used in Scotland in 1637 1638 1639. that would not stick at any thing to carry on the Catholick Cause in which you said that his Majesty of France your Brother and your self were ingaged for you then did want them and upon the receipt of your Letter the Scotch Colledge at Doway was consulted and 12 men were dispatched over for England for what Ends and Purposes you know well enough But to return to the Point in hand The Priests that were sent into Scotland in the time of your Father Charles the First you have been informed that they were sent by Cardinal Richlieu into that ancient Kingdom to enflame the Differences between the two Nations and the Motives upon which that great Incendiary was so earnest to kindle a War in the Dominions of your Father were sufficiently understood by those that lived and were actually engaged in publick Negotiations who have been so just as to leave them upon record to future Generations and they were the very same Motives that you and your Party made the grounds for the subversion of the Protestant Religion and our English Government these were your loyal Men that would have brought in a Religion upon us by a conversion of us with Blood and a Baptism with fire but the Good Lord I hope will keep the Land from the one and this great City from the other 2. Your Conspirators were men of undoubted Loyalty and this Englishmen will believe if you can make them because of their great zeal in commencing and carrying that never to be forgotten bloody Massacre in Ireland wherein so many thousand Protestants lost their Lives and were by your Hell-born Cut-throats basely and barbarously murthered Nay as a testimony of their Loyalty they renounced your Father's Authority and the Authority of his Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom and assumed the Royal Authority to themselves owing only a dependance upon the Pope and his Nuncio yet these men for that piece of barbarity were by you and your Brother recommended to several Princes as men that had ventured their Lives and lost their Estates for promoting the Catholick Apostolick Religion in Ireland by the direction and express Command of your Royal Father of blessed Memory and many of them in their old age were at your Brother's request and yours made Priests to get Bread for that piece of Service 3. The Loyalty of your Conspirators did highly appear in that accession they had to the Death of Charles the First they did contrive it and this hath been made appear to their
neither pay'd by him nor yet receiv'd by them and not only so but that the Protestants in the North of Ireland were much alarm'd at those Quantities of Arms and Ammunition that were put into the Hands of the Irish Catholicks 10. Your Conspirators Coleman and the Jesuites in London receiv'd Letters from St. Omers written from Father Ireland not he that was hanged for his own Name was Ironmonger but this Man 's own Name was Saltmarsh That Care was taken for the Destruction of the Duke of Ormond in Ireland he being then Lord-Lieutenant there And for what Reason Because he had refused Sir to join with you in Breaking the English Interest in that Kingdom though Sir you may remember that the said Duke was a Person very Obsequious to your Brother and your Self and the Reason why you could not get him to engage with you in Omnibus was his own Safety and Ease Yet when you acted by the King's Command the said Duke never failed you nor did his Son the Earl of Ossory which cost that good Gentleman many a Sigh when he came to dye for the Business of the Smyrna Fleet and the Wicked War against the Dutch stuck upon his Soul to the last Minute of his Life But I say Because the Duke of Ormond would not push on every thing you put upon him he was not for your turn though give him his due he had gone farther than his Inclinations lead him to please your Mind 11. In the last place when you took the Crown you in a short time put the whole Government into the Hands of the Irish Papists by which means the English Protestant Interest was in great danger to be lost and the Protestant Inhabitants were under the daily Fears through your Grace and Favour of having their Throats cut nay many daily by your Cut-Throat Teagues were by your especial Direction basely inhumanely and barbarously murthered So that some tasted of that Cruelty which others justly apprehended from the Arbitrary Power you set up there Some of them left the Kingdom and abandoned their Estates calling to mind that Cruel and Bloody Massacre which fell upon their Fathers in that Kingdom in the year 1641. And to crown your Work you traiterously invaded that Kingdom and called a Number of your Villains together and christened them by the Title and Name of a Parliament and what you did by their countenance many yet alive can tell But Doctor King an old Passive Obedience Friend of yours hath painted you out at large in those particular Carriages of yours when you with your French Mirmidons invaded that Kingdom But Sir let me tell you That Great William our King hath endeavoured and doth still study to bring Ireland into such a State that the Settlement of the Protestant Religion may there be religiously observed and the Protestant English Interest may be secured against any Effort of yours or your Irish Teagues to the contrary notwithstanding III. SCOTLAND You having play'd your Game so well in Ireland it will not be amiss to cast our Eye upon that Quondam Ancient Kingdom and see how you managed there for as you managed Ireland by a Tool that succeeded the Lord Roberts so in Scotland You and your Brother acted by Lauderdale for he brought all the Laws and Liberties of Scotland to the Council-Chamber bringing all Persons and Causes of any moment to your Arbitrary Council who acted as Lords Paramount without controul and so zealous were you by him to promote and support the French Interest there that continually new Levies were making in Scotland for the Service of the French King tho' at that very time we were pretending a French War in England You remember Sir that by your Influence upon the King your Brother and on the Council of Scotland you make them use all the diligence that was possible to get an Army there to be a standing Army in the room of the Militia of that Kingdom the Militia being not thought fit for your Popish Designs And the means to effect the same you pitch'd upon those you judged to be the most effectual which was first to Oppress and Enrage the Dissenters and this could not be better accomplished than by disturbing and prosecuting their Meetings and Religious Assemblies for the Worship of God which You and your Conspirators did with all imaginable diligence And you having found out a new way by caution your Conspirators devised a Bond should be imposed upon every Man they marked out for Ruine as being Enemies to their Arbitrary Proceedings which Bond was That the Landlord should be bound for his Tenant the Master for his Servant and the Husband for the Wife and Father for the Children not to go to Conventicles Which you knew many would not do for that the People of Scotland generally hated Praelatical Government But this way they thought would so enrage the People whom they fore-knew would not part with their Meetings that they doubted not but to force a Rebellion and thereupon have a fair Pretence to raise Forces for the Security of the Kingdom against restless Meeters and Meetings Which Design Sir You and your Party in that Kingdom did at last effect Another Device you and your Conspirators had of seizing the Field-Meetings by the armed Forces and destroying them both in Bodies and Estates and dragging them to Gaols and then by whole Ship-loads selling them to the Plantations as Condemn'd Men and Ship-loads coming here for London they by one way or another got their Liberty Was this of the Bond all And was the Selling of them all No For You and your Conspirators found out another way by the Tyranny of Duke Lauderdale and that was this There was a Warrant procured from the Council of Scotland to disarm divers Shires and Low-lands of that Kingdom and when that would not exasperate them then another Order was procured to order the High-landers a sort of barbarous Papists to be armed and by whole Regiments to come down upon the Inhabitants spoiling and destroying the whole Country living amongst them at discretion and these very High-landers thus armed under the pretence of keeping the Peace had in their Commission from your Brother's and your Council in Scotland Authority to live at Free Quarter upon those Inhabitants which they did divers Months together to the destruction of the poor People And all this was to procure a Rebellion at any rate But least this should be too general I will descend to some Particulars that the thing may be plain to your Ragged Regiment at St. Germans and your Hell-born Cut-throat Crew here in England I. I will shew you in several Particulars how your Brother and You invaded the Rights of the Good People of Scotland in general II. I will give you to remember some Instances of your Brother's and your Barbarity to particular Persons III. Your Brother's and your way of using your Prisoners I. Give me leave to put you and your Conspirators in mind of
Parliament you used great Endeavours for a standing Army under the notion of securing the Peace against those Dissenters and Field Meeters but tho' you had labour'd hard in that point yet the Success did not answer your expectation so fully as to give you content Well Sir what becomes of old Lauderdale your faithful Servant and dearly beloved Favorite for I do not find him in this Parliament No he 's forced to stay in England not daring to appear in Scotland for his Hell hounds were not able to weather the Point because the Stream run so strong against him not that you had made any change of his Measures in the Conspiracy against the Protestant Interest and Religion unless it were for the worse and very desirous you were of getting him into Scotland and no doubt you would have served him a Scotch Maiden Trick Why so Because that Old Dog had been heard to say that all you had done in Scotland was nothing in regard the Oaths were omitted and that the Parliament was but a Convention and what you had done was in it self void and of no effect These were bloody words and highly resented by you and afterwards you had an Eye upon Argyle who began to snort at the Test and though he had been a Dog in a String to your Brother and your self some Qualm came cross his Conscience He therefore began to make his Interpretations upon it which were such as cut the Throat of the thing it self And altho' the Interpretation he gave could be no other than the genuine sence of the thing and plain to be understood that it could mean no other than what he intended to take it in yet it was so much disliked that he was then to have been made a Sacrifice under the notion of being guilty of High Treason only for explaining the Test he was accordingly seized and libelled against and found guilty of the Fact and he was then in a fair way to have lost his Life for his Ingenuity but he with a great deal of dexterity made his escape and so saved himself for that time from being murder'd by you and your Cut-throats there Scotland Sir you bridled and saddled and brought the Government there to be something like the French Mode differing nothing but that you had made the Scots the greater Vassals of the two And the People of that Kingdom caressed you highly for the grace and favour of their Vassalage notwithstanding which you were not willing to stay any longer there your Friends advising you by all means to return to England to secure your Interest in England you having setled Scotland to your content And this remember Sweet Sir that the Whore Portsmouth with her Bastard Son was by your Royal Brother sent to France to renew the Dover Treaty in which she was more successful than your Sister of blessed memory for she was caressed by the French King and her Bastard honour'd as a Prince of the Blood and she setled a firm Correspondency between Lewis of France and Charles of Great Britain pursuant to the Treaty at Dover This you heard of and you judged the Strumpet was undermining you and obtaining the Succession for her son which made you after your arrival at Whitehall more unwilling to return again for Scotland than before and you pressed the then King your Brother for your stay here but you were told that you must return to Scotland where your stay should be but short you obeyed and went by Sea with your chief Favourite Mumper who with you was like to have been lost but you saved your self and the Curr and lost some Treasure with a great part of your Retinue who drank your Health and went to the bottom But you arrive in Scotland and the Mony being lost your Intentions of having a standing Army there were sunk also Your stay was to be short in Scotland and so shall mine therefore since I have put you in mind of your bridling and saddling that poor Kingdom as a Subject and a High Commissioner for King Charles give me leave to remember you of your Carriage when you pretended to and usurped that Crown as King of Sâ—otland for by the Laws of that Kingdom all Popish Princes were uncapable of that Crown And because of your Omission of the Oaths that were to be by you taken all that you did in repealing them was null and void and to no effect so that those Laws were still in force against you notwithstanding the aforesaid pretended Repeal for without those Oaths the meeting together of Lords and Commons was no Parliament but a Convention which cannot repeal any Statute there Upon your taking that Crown the Earl of Argyle upon the 20th of May 1685 well knowing how the Protestant Religion must suffer in Scotland lands in Scotland near a place called Kentire and on the 21st sent forth his Declaration wherein he tells the Scots That the End of his coming was the defence of the Protestant Religion the Laws and Liberties of the Protestants of Scotland against Popery and Arbitrary Government and therefore he required all persons from sixteen to sixty to come and joyn with him with Arms and Provisions necessary One of his sons sent Letters to several Gentlemen upon the same account so that in few days his Army was encreased to 2500 Men. But Sir your Trappan that betray'd the poor Protestants at Bothwâ—ll bridge 1679 escaping the Gallows lived to betray this poor Gentleman in the year 1685. for instead of shewing him the true way wherein he should have marched provided Rogues who led him into a bogg from whence he returning towards Glyde was fallen upon by some Scots and taken and Sir by your Arbitrary Order he was basely murder'd at Edinburgh on the 30th of June following This man had all along fought in your Brother's Cause and Quarrel and was an Instrument to betray his Father to your Brother and was murder'd in the beginning of his Reign after his Return This man had served your Cause and Interest in Scotland many years and had run in the same excess of Riot with your Conspirators but God opened his Eyes to see your base Designs against the Religion and Liberties of his Country and therefore nothing would satisfie you but his Blood and the ruine of his whole Family Well he is dead but I must say of him he deserved better Fortune in the World and more Favour from your Hands and his that is gone to his place Scotland did another time become a Field of Blood and till it was you were not contented But the Scots being weary of these perpetual disappointments they submitted to your Government and you then declared by the Advice of your Villanous Conspirators especially the damn'd Bishops that you were clothed with an Absolute Power and that all your Subjects of that Kingdom were bound to obey you without reserve upon which you did assume an Arbitrary Power both over the Religion and Laws of that
the said Persecution were reduced almost to Beggery or to live upon the Charity of Friends Some were forced to fly the Nation and yet were more loyal under their Pressures and Provocations than your Cut-throat Papists were under their then Caresses and Favours received from your Brother and your self Nay a reverend Minister of the Gospel of Christ who had been very instrumental in your Restauration yea and ventur'd his Life for your Brother's Restauration in the year 1650 you suffer'd to perish in Newgate as a Reward for so great a piece of Service to your Brother and your self and Family and for no other reason but because he could not comply with some Rascally Ceremonies that our Ecclesiastical Vermin had borrow'd from the Church of Rome to Adorn our Protestant Worship and because he would not take the Oxford Oath lay'd upon the Nation to enslave it 8. Another Project you had for the ruining the Interest of the Protestant Religion and the Interest of England was the Advancing of Men that were Enemies to the Protestant Interest into the greatest Places of Trust As What a Sett of Villains had you made Judges of the Land by which means you brought all the Matters of Civil Justice into great Uncertainties by reason of the Tenour of their Commissions and the Ignorance of the Rogues you employ'd Therefore how miserable was the Nation who were obliged to Answer to such Judges that were forced to comply in all things with the Directions that were given by you and your Wicked Cut-throats or else to be turned out at yours and their Pleasure If we look further you had in your Brother's time the disposing of all Military Employments And how you did shew your Hatred to the Protestant Religion and the English Interest You did in his time raise a great many Persons to the greatest Military Trusts both by Sea and Land Strangers as well as Natives so that by these measures your Conspirators became Masters of the Affairs of the Government of the Nation and of the course of Justice and you had all the Church Vermin engag'd with you to subject the whole Kingdom to a despotick Arbitrary power and all these joyn'd together to execute your wicked Designs to enslave and debauch the People of the Land 9. To compleat the Work that nothing might stand in your way of Establishing your Popish Religion you murder'd your Brother who was uncertain in his Engagements in the Conspiracy for when he found it was not safe for him to appear in promoting Popery he soon left you Or if a Sum of Money could be gotten from a Parliament he commonly bless'd the Nation with a Proclamation or two against Popish Priests Jesuites and Popish Recusants or pass a Bill or so to the prejudice of the Popish Party as he did in 1673 when the Test-Bill passed as also another in 1678. This obliged you and your Conspirators to hasten his destruction which you had long contrived You found a fit Tool and as fit a Dose to do the Work in it you had your desired Ends and so you mounted the Throne Which brings me to the Second Point What you did in order to the Ruine of the Protestant Religion and the Government after your accession to the Crown II. Your Tyranny was very cruel but short yet full of strange and surprising Circumstances It was highly astonishing to see a Popish Prince ascending the Throne to rule a Protestant Nation and defend a Protestant Church but Sir you had no such Designs in your Head for you shew'd what you would do with our Laws when you could engage your Conspirators to dispense with part of the Oaths that you should have taken It is manifest and notorious that when you were upon the coming to the Crown you was receiv'd by all the People of England Scotland and Ireland as King without the least opposition for our Ecclesiastical Vermin had made your way clear by their Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance and the Divine Right of Succession and the possibility of preserving the Glory and Grandeur of their Church of England by a Popish Prince and that there was more danger from Fanaticks than from Papists and such-like scoundrel Notions You cannot but remember that King Charles your Brother having received the deadly Dose your Conspirators had prepar'd for him on February the 6th 1684 5 he went to his Place that very day Sir you were proclaim'd King to the sorrow of all that wish'd well to England and its Religion Liberties and Laws you then appear'd at the Council-Table as King and by all your Conspirators you was owned and saluted as such to whom you were pleas'd to make a sort of a Speech in which you were pleas'd to declare your self to this effect THat Since it hath pleased Almighty God to place you in that station and that you were now to succeed so Good and Gracious a King as well as so Kind a Brother you thought it fit to declare That you would follow his Example and more especially in that of his great Clemency and Tenderness to all his People That you had been reported to have been a man for Arbitrary Power tho' that had not been the only Story that had been made of you That you would make it your Endeavour to preserve Government both in Church and State as it was by Law establish'd That you knew the Principles of the Church of England were for Monarchy and that the Members of it had shewn themselves good and loyal Subjects and therefore you would take care to defend and support it That you knew the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King as great a Monarch as you could wish and therefore as you would never depart from the Just Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown so you would never invade any Man's Property And that you had ventur'd your Life very often in the defence of the Nation And that you would go as far as any Man in preserving it in all its Just Rights and Liberties This Sir is the sum and substance of what you were pleas'd to say at the Council board and one would have sworn that you would have taken up the Trade of being Speech wright-general to the whole Band of your Conspirators I am confident your old Friends the Jesuites that had been hang'd but a little before could not have outdone you though it had been to have saved their Lives Well it was a Speech and how true you were to this Speech you shall judge and your Conspirators too if you will but consider 1. You said You would not invade any man's Right and Property and that you would preserve the Nation in its Just Rights and Liberties And so you did for you the next day after your accession to the Crown publish'd a Proclamation for the continuing the payment of the Custom and Excise which were expir'd by the death of the King your Brother for several weeks after Did not this shew
ought to have considered That none of the vain Pamphlets that either Ferguson or L'Estrange or any of that rascally Crew ever writ were ever able to shake the natural and dutiful Affections of our English Nation to your Majesty and of this I am sure they have had sufficient Experience In the next place many of these Conspirators are Priests and Jesuits more fit to manage a Pen than a Launce to dispute of Philosophy than to discourse of War to have a low opinion of their own Parts than to be prodigal in their Assurance and let them say no more than what is true and judge that to be the great truth that is best made out In the last Place if that those have not been of the Tribe of Levi yet then they have been Fellows of desperate Fortunes which they are ambitious to advance by Lies and the ruin of their Country I do not wonder why they traduce and asperse your Majesty's Government for they are and have been for many Years plotting your Ruin and Destrâ—â—tion both before and since you were our King and the business is plain that they can never hurt your Person till they have destroyed your Interest and have withdrawn a considerable Party from your Majesty by which they may make a Stand then they may possibly if not discovered make an attempt upon your Person which they cannot do till your Interest is destroyed by their many traiterous Aspersions and they believed thrown upon your Majesty Nay tho King Charles the Second did comply with them in many things yet because he did not comply in every thing they spared not him but made it their business to traduce him it is true his Government was Censurable because he complied not with the Terms and preserved not the fundamental Constitutions of an English Monarchy therefore his Government was exposed to the Censure of some that opposed even his proceedings when they had liberty as they were Members of Parliament for they had just Ground to believe that he closed with the French Interest against that of his own Kingdom and with the Popish Party in order to betray the Protestant Interest both at Home and Abroad and the Conspirators they let lose their Tongues against him because he was not wholly theirs but ever and anon gave them the slip by which they were disappointed in their Designs therefore in a Letter of theirs to their Party in Scotland they plainly say That he was so addicted to his Pleasure that he was not fit to Govern and in another Letter they charge him with unsteadiness in his Resolutions as to Religion and when they had a design to hasten his Exit then they charge him with all the Falseness and Vileness that might be imagined to be in the worst of Men so that your Majesty is not the only Prince that these Miscreants have Traduced And truly it filled me with great Horror when I saw their Industry in dispersing their filthy and scandalous Libels against your Majesty and Government it being the method of those Men first to beget a disaffection in your Subjects against your Majesty if it were possible that your Destruction might be the more easily accomplish'd by them but your Majesty hath been very happy for nothing these Villains could either Write or Speak ever made the least impression upon the Hearts of your Loving Subjects but on the other hand it filled them with Zeal against that party of Men especially since they were so highly sensible of that Grace and Clemency by which their Lives had been continued to them for we all know that this was not the first Conspiracy that they have been engaged in against your Majesty I pray God it may be the last Give me leave to put your Majesty in mind of a Passage in one of Mr. Coleman's Letters to the French King's Confessor which is this he saith there The Design prospered so well that he doubted not but the Business would be manaaged to the utter ruin of the Protestant Party So the design of these Cut-throats prospered so well that they did not doubt but that in a little time their Business would be managed to the Destruction of your Majesty and your Protestant Subjects for they carried on one Design to Murder your Person and another to Invade your Kingdoms with a Foreign Force and they were much in the right for it would have been impossible for them to have Restored the Late King by an Invasion and to have set up Popery and Slavery without destroying a Protestant King and the Protestant Interest in England All good Protestants I hope will find to their great Satisfaction that these Traitors have brought Destruction upon themselves and their Party and that not a Man of them shall Escape for your Majesty's Proceedings with such will be as quick as their Gunpowder and much more effectual So that your humble Subjects may rejoice in your Majesties Justice upon these Men since Grace and Clemency could not Reform them Sir I was a Discoverer of a Conspiracy carried on by the Popish Party for the Destruction of King Charles the Second and your Majesty when Prince of Orange and for the Subversion of the Government and the Protestant Religion in England and all over Europe but it was my Misfortune to discover a Conspiracy to a King that was engaged in every part thereof but that of his own Life and I met with such Opposition from the then Duke of York and his Conspirators that it was scarce possible for me to have withstood it had not I had a more than an ordinary Presence of Mind to have supported me This Sir I say was my Case yet notwithstanding all the Opposition I met with all I gave the Popish Party such a deadly Wound that they could not be cured of it no not in the Reign of the late King though they had all the Incouragement that Men could have because the Villany of that Party of Men stuck so upon the Minds of the People of England that no Stone was left unturn'd to rid our Hands of them and their Popish King which was effectually done when your Majesty undertook and compleated the Deliverance of this poor bleeding Nation Many Men have wondered that the late King when he was Duke of York should have such an Ascendency over his Brother King Charles the Second since it is well known that when King Charles was upon his return Home to enjoy his Crown that the Duke of York with the Queen Mother was in a Conspiracy to have destroy'd King Charles to the end that he the said Duke of York might have return'd Home and enjoy'd the Crown himself the Lord Arlington discover'd the same and so the design was baffled yet no Man was so much in favour as the Duke of York and as a Testimony of the King's Grace and Favour He was made Lord High Admiral of England and held that Office till he openly refused the subscribing the Test
according to an Act made in the Year 1673 But he enjoying that great and mighty Office of Lord High Admiral of England for several Years He obtain'd the King's Favour the Court was at his Will and Commandment either for love to him or for fear of his Greatness and Authority He so demeaned himself to the King his Brother that that King would never believe that the great Interest that he had acquired by the Greatness of his Office should ever be abused to the prejudice of the Government but for the King's Service and Benefit he increased the number of his Friends and Followers by gratifying some with Naval Preferments and others with Mony always imploying his Purse his Credit and his Countenance for the strengthning his Party and that in such a manner as that the King could not but perceive it yet he so dissembled the Matter and pretended to such a degree of Obedience and Affection to the King and gratify'd him in his sinful Pleasures that the King did not distrust his Proceedings and that he might continue in the King's Favour he made it his business as much as in him lay to comply with his Humours and Humane Frailties And when he was forced to lay down that great Office by reason of his refusal of the Sacramental Test above-mentioned he obtain'd of the King that his Friends and high Church Conspirators might be put in Commissioners of the Admiralty in his place he made all the Ministers of state sure to him so that when he was banished into Flanders a first and a second time and after his return he procured that the Duke of Monmouth should be banished the Court he judging him to be his Enemy and then his Conspirators endeavour'd not in vain to keep the said Duke of Monmouth in discredit with the King But the then Parliament being sensible of the dangerous Conspiracy against the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and the King's Person carried on by the Popish Party and finding that the Duke's being a Papist had incouraged them in that Hellish Plot they having great hopes of his coming such to the Crown they fell upon the Duke and to prevent the Storm from falling upon the Duke the King sends him into Scotland after that he had bridled and sadled that Kingdom in some measure to his Hearts content He applies himself to his Friends to procure his return he is accordingly permitted to return to the great Joy of his Party He fawns upon the King's Whore that he kept in the Matted Gallery at White hall and who he created Dutchess of Portsmouth who had a great Interest in the King and obtain'd at first or last whatsoever pleased her of the King that whosoever he was were he never so high in the King's Favour that displeased her in time lost the King's good Will and good Opinion this Duke carried himself so towards her that he seemed to affect nothing more than her good liking and yet not so desirous thereof as that he would wholly depend thereupon knowing that the King although he always attributed much to this infamous Whore and was pleased that she was Reverenced and Respected yet he could not well bear that her good Will should be sought above his own Royal Favour But the Duke did continue his Friendship with her hoping in time to command them both and when ever he found any of the King's Ministers not throughly complying with him and not ready to follow his Designs he laboured by all means to have them removed and others put in their Places who would not fail him in his wicked Designs and Purposes nor to depend wholly upon his Favour and also to make him privy if need were to whatsoever Business and Affair of State they were commanded by the King to dispatch whereby he came tho he were out of the Councel upon the same account as he had left the Office of Lord High Admiral to the perfect knowledge of all that was purposed and determined by the King 's Privy Council and he was in such Favour and Credit that even the principal Officers about the King either for Faer or Love or by other Mens Examples submitted themselves wholly unto his Devotion and he had such Interest in the King's Court and Courtiers that all or most part of them seemed to be at his sole Disposition and to affect him more than the King himself He having Installed himself in this manner in the Court and in a great measure withdrew the Hearts of the principal Officers thereof from their Duty and Love to their King He thought it also not enough to be invested in their Favours but all the endeavours were used that he might have the Affections of the Common People to procure this he obtains the help of a filthy Strumpet called High-Church whose Blasphemous Preachers of Passive-Obedience and Non-Resistance did him mighty Service in order thereunto And what Feasting there was provided for the Apprentices of the City of London who were a sort of young Men who were to be by his Conspirators debauched in order to his Service and by the great promises of his Grace and Favour he easily and quickly perswaded the Conspirators to favour his Cause and Conspiracy Nay all the legal Force throughout the Kingdom from the Lord Lieutenant of a County to a Deputy Lieutenant and Captains Lieutenants and Ensigns and Serjeants were all and every of them his Creatures the Justices of Peace and Sheriffs were his Admirers and the Custom-house and Excise were all at his Devoire from one end of the the Kingdom to the other and generally Vintners and Ale-drapers were of his Interest and so was old L'Estrange the Guide and his little Scoundrel Clergy of the Church by which means many of the Common People were so ready willing and desirous to perform and accomplish his Pleasure as that in respect of their Obedience to him he seemed to lack nothing but the name of a King to be one Notwithstanding the great Honour and Reverence the Court shewed him in the Reign of his Brother and the Love and Affection the Commonalty did bear him the nearness of his relation to the King and the mighty Interest he had and the unaccustomed Authority he had in so slie a manner Usurped the high Attempts and Imaginations he had lodged in his Heart and the great Opinion he had of himself yet he was so far from appearing puffed up with Pride and Disdain to those that were much below him that he thought not scorn to give Audience to the meanest Man that had business with him Now how could a Man of my Circumstances having provoked him by the Discovery of the Hellish Conspiracy carried on by him and his wicked Popish Party and Popishly affected stand against such a Man of such an Interest for he and his Party when they could not hurt me by their Subborned Witnesses against me not only to destroy my Reputation but my
kind and loving Brother for he joined with you in those wicked Designs and Purposes which you were carrying on to destroy and enslave us and too often took your Faults upon himself to screen you from the publick Justice of the Nation 4. They saw old Officers unjustly displaced and men of base Quality unworthily advanced by which Contrivance you Sir may very well remember you created a great disaffection in the King 's best Friends both of the old Nobility and Gentry and others that had espoused the King your Brother's Quarrel upon just English Principles and chose rather to advance a parcel of base Irish Papists and vile Frenchmen to the great discouragement of the English and those that heartily would have served the King your Brother upon English Protestant Principles It is well known that some of those you preferred were so insolent that when they came to have and enjoy great Places in the Ministry of King Charles the Second's Government that they assumed to themselves by your direction the Regal Power treating in Matters of War and Peace with Foreign Ministers and Ambassadors giving Instructions to the said King Charles's Ministers abroad without communicating them to those that ought to have been privy to the same contrary to Law and all this I can prove hath been done by your direction How many honest Old Servants were displaced by the influence you had on the King your Brother some are yet alive to tell especially those who were well affected to the Protestant Religion and in Parliament had appeared for the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom in opposition to Popery and Slavery 5. They saw King Charles the Second carried away with Vanities and wholly governed by his Whores You may remember that some of those Whores you your self put upon him as Jenny Roberts who was in part kept by you as a Spy upon him and for this end at your Command she turned Papist and when she could be of no use to you nor was constant to King Charles you and he put her off and left her to starve Cleveland and Porismouth two Metropolitan Whores that governed him as they pleased and what Sums of Money through the ascendency they had over him they obtained from him I shall not need to tell you and how many Bishopricks they disposed of we have not forgotten And in all this Sir it is plain you promoted them to advance your Cause and Interest 6. He entred into a League with England's mortaâ— Enemies the French and such strong Alliances were made with that Savage Prince and Nimrod of Europe by which means we were hurt in our Trade and impaired in our Riches and Greatness and to effect this Work what Arts and Contrivances you and your Conspirators did use by introducing French Whores French Fashions and Customs and French Officers and French Servants whom we have nourished and cherished with all the Caresses imaginable and to the meanest Valet de chamber or Contemptible Lacquey or Fidler who pretended to be but alamode de France your Parasites paid more respect to than to our brave Englishmen nay so amorous too had your fine but debauched Ladies been of a French Kick shaw that they have even hugged them in their very Bosoms and have lamented the loss tho but of the meanest French Skips witness the Tears that fell from divers great Personages of the Feminine Sex that on their Knees made supplication for that insipid High way-man Du Vall who at last though with great difficulty was hanged at Tyburn for Robberies committed on the Highway It is true he was a man of excellent Parts and singular Learning only he could neither Write nor Read But had this been all I should not have mentioned this Particular There wae more in this then some unthinking men at that time were aware of for you and your Accomplices made further steps to maintain this strong Alliance with the French our mortal Enemies for you did not only introduce the Modes and Customs of France amongst us but the Yoke of France that must be put on too I have heard of a cer certain Knight called Sir James that in a Coffe-house was heard to say That it would never be well in England till our King was as Absolute as the King of France He was an Alderman of London and Sir your very humble Admirer and at that time you had made a very gracious promise to him of obtaining of your Brother the great Park near Dublin for him for the great Services he had done your self and the French Interest And truly Sir he hath deserved that Boon at your hands were it but for the aforesaid wise Saying of his and had that Rascal had but Brains suitable to his Impudence a man might easily have taken him for one of the Chief of the Conspirators with your self against the Religion Laws and Liberties of the People of England This Fellow I say was an Alderman of London and his Residence was in the City but by his Discourse a man would have sworn he had always lived with your Conspirators at St. James's or at Whitehall or with the French Taylor an old Companion of yours who thanked God That his great King of France could send for his Head and his Estate when he pleased Blessed be God Sir your Residence is in that sweet place of St. Germains where you enjoy your self and Friends in a most comfortable manner and you have your health as well as if you had 100 Sail of Ships at your Devotion and an Army of 50000 men which is a mercy I pray let me ask you What sort of People are your French Neighbours Is there not such a slavish temper in those poor Wretches as is astonishing Just to such a slavish and knavish Temper you were about to bring the People of this Nation to your Conspirators had made a considerable progress in this mighty Work and had not Divine Providence interposed you had compleated the same Your Party to compleat this Work found out the only true way which was first to enslave our Souls by subjecting them and our Reason to the blind Superstition of the Church for that Priest craft having once so far won upon Englishmen as to make them trust and pin their Faith and Reason upon their Sleeves they may after that bring them to any thing that they shall direct and therefore as in your Day so in all Ages heretofore nothing did shew more the Cunning of your Banditti than to drive on these two together Popery and Slavery only sometimes they have driven on the one by the other sometimes Popery led the Van to bring on French Slavery and sometimes French Slavery led the Van to bring on Popery Your Friends well knew that Popery and Slavery like two Sisters they go hand in hand sometimes one goes first and sometimes the other In England your Council resolved that Popery was to bring in Slavery in Scotland Slavery was to have brought in
was to Man them The French King judged that too great a Point to be gained by King Charles upon him and wheedles with the Duke of Buckingham and offers him 100000 l. Sterling to consent that he should Man the Fleet against which the Duke urged it was against the Agreement the King his Master had made with him the French King and so would not accept the 100000 l. withal telling the French King That if he would let us be Neptune at Sea he should be Jove by Land The French King seemed contented and so the Discourse ended But the French King deals then with the Lord Arlington and gives him 60000 l. and Arlington prevailed Sir with you to press the King your Brother not to insist upon Manning the French Fleet with English for that it would be less charge to him if the French King did Man the Fleet himself and withal urged to the King That they were but low and they should have occasion enough for Money otherwise So Arlington got by the Bargain his 60000 l. and the French King the advantage of setting out his own Fleet. Well Sir you remember the French Fleet was set out and joined the English the English Fleet was commanded by your self and the French Fleet by Monsieur d' Estree and upon the 28th of May 1672. you were attacked in Soul-Bay by De Ruyter who commanded the Dutch with a great deal of Bravery and the Attack was made with great advantage on the Dutch side you did what you could to have beaten the Dutch and the French Admiral did what he was sent for and that was to look on till you both were well worried Vice-Admiral Montague was sacrificed and your Fleet so damnably mangled that a man would have thought you had met with another Smyrna Fleet but our Bells did ring for joy but God know there was no occasion on your side to boast of a Victory but you may see what it is to be in ill Company and I think they served the Dutch the same Trick when they joined with them in the Year 1666. a remarkable Year you know for what but of that in its proper place What is next You may be will not own you were beaten by the Dutch but it is plain that if you had a Victory it was not worth the name of one but we have no more fighting under your Command How fared it with your Brother of France truly very well for the rest of the Year passed with great success to the French but none to the English What shall we do now What did you begin that War upon Hopes yes and great hopes too the French King 's supplying us towards the carrying of it on and taking the Smyrna Fleet and a multitude of Dutch Prizes but Prob Dolor all these Hope 's vanished and the Revenue exhausted and the Exchequermoney spent then Sir you were put to your last shifts Since Liberty of Conscience turned to so little account well you resolved once more to permit your Brother's Calling his Parliament to set down on the 4th of February 1672 3. the very day appointed for God knows you were so disappointed that I wonder you were able to set out a Fleet that Year 5. You come to your last Project for the carrying on the War and that is the Parliament and so by the good leave of your Banditti they do set down but that which is the greatest astonishment to me that they could look a Parliament in the face after they had advised and compleated so many Rogueries in an interval of Parliament and how you your self could sit with ease in the House of Peers whereas you could not but be conscious to your self of abetting and joining in with these these Rogues in their Villany Well then What said your Conspirators to the Parliament truly they communicated the War to them and the Causes of the War the Necessity of the War and the Danger of the War if not supplied but not a word of your hopes of never wanting them any more not a word of the Design of Propogating the Catholick Cause you mentioned the Medals and Pictures and the Flag but the Devil a word of the Northern Heresy and the reducing the States-General to the Popish Religion Truly Sir this House of Commons took pity upon you and according to their never failing Loyalty to the Crown knowing that a good Gratuity would appear to themselves put you off with the small Pittance of 1250000 l. tho those Pensioners would wash their hands of the War and therefore would not give this Money for the carrying a War against the Dutch but for the King 's Extraordinary Occasions But was this all they did no it was not all there was something else done that did some what allay the growing Greatness of you and your Conspirators for tho they were to be supplied for their private Occasions out of the 1250000 l. they had given yet they were sensible that the Nation began to smoak the true Causes of this wicked War and the End for which it was undertaken There was an Act prepared before the Money-Bill was passed by which your Popish Conspirators were obliged to pass through a new State-Purgatory or to be uncabable of any Publick Imployment I remember when I was abroad what Curses were laid upon the Parliament for that scurvy Bill and upon the Earl of Shaftsbury who tho then Lord Chancellor yet engaged so far in that Act and in defence of the Protestant Religion that in due time it cost him his Place which notwithstanding the Popish Parties bitter Curses he won a fair Reputation and became to their great grief a zealous Assertor of the Rights of the People of England Was this all No your first step to the Establishment of Popery the Indulgence I mean was called in question and tho the Popish Party had contributed more than it was worth for the carrying on of the War the King was pleased to cancel it and promised that he never would do so any more and passed the Test-Bill Did he so Had he not promised the Princess your Sister that he would restore the Roman Catholick Religion and that he would begin first in Ireland in order to which you know the Lord Roberts was removed and another that was base enough to do such a Jobb was sent in his room and you in your Brother's Name engaged the same to your Popish Contributors and he engaged in his own name the like It is scarce possible to believe it how could he answer this to Lewis the French King For it was his Agreement with him to have the same Government and the same Religion truly he could not tell how to help it the Sons of Zerviah were too many for him And 1250000 l. was not to be lost for want of a compliance with the Parliament and to you the King promised that he would make it up to the Roman Catholicks another way but how and when I
by the House of the Conspirators supplying the French King with Men not a few but considerable numbers to the great discouragement of the Confederates engaged in the Common Cause against that proud Monster of Mankind So the Vote of May 23 1677. Resolved That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty That he would be pleased to enter into a League Offensive and Defensive with the States-General of the United Provinces and to make such other Alliances with such other Confederates as His Majesty shall think fit against the Growth and Power of the French King and preservation of the Netherlands And what was done upon all these Addresses truly very little but up starts a League made with the Dutch that was not worth one Farthing and how that Sham-League was kept we all very well remember But as a further proof of your Brother's Being unwilling to enter into any firm and hearty League with the Confederates engaged against the French King remember this Thâ—â— through yours and the Power the rest of the Conspirators had over him he could never be brought to enter into and be engaged in an actual War with France notwitstanding all the humble Applications made to him by Parliaments nay tho he passed a Bill to enter into a War with France and had the benevolence given in that Bill in order to the same yet a firm League was made with France the Interest and Religion of the French King and the King your Brother and your self being all one In the first place be pleased Sir to remember that the Parliament that was adjourned to the Third of December 1677. and then put off till the Fifteenth of January 1677 78 but that day being come both Houses met but by a Message to the House of Commons they are ordered to adjourn till the Twenty eighth and the pretended reason the then King gave or rather you and your Conspirators that his Majesty had matters of great Importance in order to the satisfaction of their Addresses for the Preservation of Flanders but it so fell out that things were not then so ripe as in a few days they would be therefore it was his Majesties Royal Will and Pleasure that the House do immediately Adjourn till the Twenty eighth of the same Month. The Message was very Grateful to the House of Commons and to many others who understood not the Conspiracy for the design was clear another thing than what they had conceived The day of their meeting comes and they are entertained with a Speech full of good Words yet he Reprimands them for their distrust and to shew them how they were mistaken they are told what a great care the King had taken of the Protestant Religion And in order thereunto he had concluded a Match with the Lady Mary to the Prince of Orange but you know Sir thaâ— it was full sore against his and your Wills a Prince Professing the same Religion wâ—â—â— us which by King Charles's good leave was a great mistake for I dare say that the Prince of Orange now our King never Receiv'd the Sacrament from the Church of Rome in all his days which to my certain knowledge King Charles did and afterwards Receiv'd it from the hands of a Bishop of the Church of England the self-same day But to go on with his Speech he told them that the Prince of Orange was a Prince ingaged in Arms to Defend the Common Cause of Chridendom and so he goes on and talks of Alliances and forgets not to call for a fresh supply that he might carry on his Alliances made and to be made Well Sir What was the effect of this Most Gracious Speech I remember that the House in return made an humble but a sharp Address and the Speech was not answered with Thanks in General but only in Particular relating to the King's care he had of the Protestant Religion which Address was Concluded on January 31st following In that Address they promise the King Supplies provided he would enter into an actual War with France and join in with the Confederates and Exclaim against the growing Greatness of the French King and that if it must be Peace that they would have the French King left in no better condition than he was upon the Conclusion of the Pyrenean Treaty I remember when this Address was made I was at St. Omers but we had news from Coleman how you resented it nay Sir it 's well known that the Address stuck terribly in your stomach as well as the Match between the Prince of Orange and the Lady Mary our Late Gracious Queen by which Sir you could not but easily perceive that the House of Commons had got some scent of the Damnable Plot that was carrying on against our Religion Laws and Liberty and your underhand-dealing with France and the Popish Interest But that men might not understand you too well your Agents were busy both in City and Countrey to nâ—â—â—ish a Report of Alliances with the Confederates and a War with France and so big they pretended to be of the War with France that they avowed the certainty of it both in words and in Print all this I say was to keep the Nation in horrid Ignorance To this end Sir you hired a Tool that had pawned his Soul for Bread to write against the French King but all was not gold that glistered there was no Money like to come because that the House was resolved to be satisfied that the Alliances were made and the War proclaimed This Sir you and your Party looked upon as a great hardship put upon the King and that the House of Commons took too much upon them but your Rogues made use of this Address to be a poor Cripple to beg Money even from France it self you know who undertook in that Affair to get Money from France upon the strength of that Address and was in a fair way of succeeding had not something happened between the Cup and the Lip In a word Nothing but War with France is talked of the French is content it should be a Bill passed for a War and Money was given the French King concurred with you in it a Law passes against the Importation of French Goods he wills that too for you had so ordered the matter that notwithstanding that Act by the diligent care of the Officers of the Custom-House there was more French Goods brought into the Custom-House than before But Sir you were not idle all this time for while the People of England were talking of War and Alliances you and your Conspirators were busie both at home and abroad oh the multitude of Messages that were sent to Rome and France and you know what Advice was given you that upon the account of the pretended War you should raise Forces for the Priests doubted not through the assistance of the Saints the work would be done you raised Forces and got Money tho for other ends than the Parliament gave it
both in their Estates and Families that Scotland was a Field of Blood through many Barbarous Murders that you by the Hands of your Party Committed there Some of your bloody Crew here especially the Tyrant Lauderdale were exceeding glad of the News of these poor Protestants Rising and your Popish Conspirators and their Motly Protestant Admirers and Abettors did prick up their Ears at the News and concluded the Day was their own Our English Popish Army was to cut their Throats first and then the Throats of all English Men that stood in their Way afterwards And Lauderdale highly valued himself upon this Rising for Posts came every day to White-hall to bring the News of their Increasing boasting that now the Fanaticks had shewed themselves in their Colours and that it was by that strict hand that he had kept over them in Scotland that had been the Cause of their being quiet so long hoping by this to get Honour for his prudent Management when all Mankind knows that his Management was with a Design to make them take up Arms And it was you and he that raised that Devil but Sir you know whom you had appointed to betray them Sir you were in Flanders thither the News was sent to you not because you were ignorant of the Contrivance but it was a Watch-word for your Return But that you might lay this Devil which you and your Conspirators had raised and kill two Birds with one Stone therefore you pitch'd upon the Duke of Monmouth that he might destroy the Protestants there and that his Person might either fall in Scotland or his Reputation be ruined here at home therefore by your Advice or rather Direction he is ordered for Scotland in all hast for it was the Grief of your Soul to see him the Darling of the Protestants of both Kingdoms Besides Sir you knew that if he went Armed into Scotland without Assent of Parliament in both Kingdoms by an Act made in the Reign of Charles the Fâ—st was High Treason and therefore the Consequences might be fatal to him every way However he went by the general Consent of the Council and was well received in Scotland by Vertue of his Commission given him and draws the Army in Scotland together and faces these poor Wretches and indeed as Matters had been managed in Scotland it was a great Question if the Forces in Scotland would have been prevailed with with so little Difficulty to be commanded to go out against these innocent and oppressed Country-men of theirs had it not been to go under the Command of the Duke of Monmouth who marches up to the Enemy they by their Petition desire Liberty of Religion and offer to lay down their Arms it being given out by your Party that the Duke of Monmouth had a Power of giving them Terms but that could not be done by him for your Blood-hounds never intended they should have any Quarter given them therefore he had not that Power in his Commission of granting any Terms as was promised him Nay if I am not mistaken after that he had left London the Instructions that he had to grant Terms were recalled before ever he arrived in Scotland so that some of our Counsellors intended well and though all things were promised not long before to be acted before their Faces above-board yet they were mistaken for all the chief of their Consults were privately acted amongst your Popish Crew the French Ambassador and your Priests at the Duchess of Portsmouth's Lodgings and to give them a Reputation the honest Part of the Council sitting as Cyphers all was done as by an Order of the King and Council Well what then The Duke of Monmouth engaged with these poor Creatures but your Rogues and Trickers and Officers amongst these poor Souls soon left them before the Battle was begun so that the Pains of Reducing them was not very great nor hazardous and divers of these poor Protestants were murdered upon the place by one Oglethorpe an eminent Cut-throat yet alive notwithstanding they cried for Quarter which was promised them but how well that Promise was kept was seen many hundreds of them having been murdered in cool Blood under a Colour of Law as if they had been Traytors So that the Duke comes home a Victor in the sence of some and a vanquished Person in the minds and affections of others who would not out of Love to him have had him engaged with such an ill Company of Cut-throats in such a thing in Scotland they knowing it hazardous in many Respects however for his own Security he procured his Pardon for that Action But that Pardon though it was an Act of great foresight in the Duke yet the Judgment of Heaven pursued him for as he contributed to the Murder of so many poor Protestants by the Help of Popish Cut-throats so he himself was murdered and his Friends by you and your Popish Cut-throats It will not be amiss Sir to put you in mind of your Cut-throat Lauderdale of whom you made such use and who complied against his Understanding Judgment and Conscience if he had any with you and your Brother in all those Villainous Acts and Barbarous Inhumanities in Scotland I will now shew the Opinion that our English Parliament had of that Monster of Mankind 1. Remember Sir the Address of the House of Commons to the King your Brother on April 23. 1675. for then they found that some persons in great Employment under that King had fomented Designs against the Interest of the Subject intending to deprive Great Britain of its ancient Rights and Liberties that thereby they might the more easily introduce the Popish Religion and Arbitrary Government to the ruine and destruction of the Subjects thereof amongst whom they had just cause to accuse for a promoter of such Designs the Duke of Lauderdale because it had been testified in their House by several Members of Parliament That in a Hearing before the Council in the Case of Mr. Pennystone Whalley who had committed Mr. John James contrary to the King's Declaration of the 15th of March 1671 the said Duke of Lauderdale did publickly affirm in the presence of the King your Brother and before several then attending the Board that the King's Edicts were to be obey'd for that they were equal with the Laws and ought to be observ'd in the first place thereby justifying the said Declaration and the Proceedings thereupon and declaring his Inclination to Arbitrary Councels in terror of all good Protestants This Sir was not all but they had a farther confirmation of this Opinion by two Acts of Parliament of a very strange and dangerous nature which they had found in the printed Statutes of Scotland the first whereof was in the third Session of the first Parliament held under the King your Brother Cap. 25. and the other in a second Parliament Cap. 2. the like had never passed since the union of the two Crowns and were contrary to an Act passed
carry'd it for your going therefore a Command was sent to you all of a sudden That it was your Brother's pleasure you should be gone This Sir fill'd many with amazement who knew not for what ends such Counsels had been taken and it filled others with great Joy they now believing that the King your Brother and his Court would have been purg'd from Popery and his Popish Councels and the Popish Fabrick which had been so long a building would again tumble down when they saw you that were the chief supporter of it had left your station Well Sir away you go for Flanders as if you had been going into another World but your Conspirators were not a whit daunted but resolv'd to stick as faithfully to you as you had done before to them And tho' by this departure of yours many of your Conspirators for whom the Kingdoms were too hot and who ought to have danced a Gambrel at Tyburn under the pretence of being your Servants yet notwithstanding the hardiest and boldest of your impudent Crew staid behind and watch'd Affairs at home letting nothing be done that was material but what was done by your Advice and Direction and theirs and by your being abroad they had the opportunity of studying and advising what was fit to be done at home This Sir I must observe to you by the way that before you could be prevail'd upon to go you were faithfully promised that nothing of value or moment should be done or acted without you nay the Speech that was to be made at the Opening of the Parliament was concluded on before you went Yet for all this at the Meeting of the New Parliament which was now become almost a Wonder in this Nation a great panick Fear was struck in all or most of your Crew and they certainly had so much Fear upon them from the least to the greatest that they were even ready to cry Quarter or at least to offer terms of accommodation the Nation being in a very great ferment and your Party that had rely'd so much upon the mighty Mind of the French King for Mony began to curse him for driving them upon these Extremities nay you your self did not spare to revile him for the same The King your Brother happening to be indispos'd at Windsor which being posted over to you you return with all speed and unexpectedly and being here you had but a little inclination to return to Flanders again but the King pleasing you with some private Resolutions of his you did submit to return again to Flanders where you was as coldly received as at first but your stay was not long there for the Coast being then clear you resolved upon returning home and did accordingly return and the design you know was then to fix the Sham Protestant Plot you and your Conspirators had contriv'd But that would not keep you in England for it was resolv'd that you should go to Scotland to settle the Protestant Religion there where you receiv'd the sad News of the baffling the Sham-Plot that you and yours had thought to charge upon some Protestants which made you take new Measures and you resolv'd to part with a small spell of Mony to get the Parliament prorogued for some longer time and a greater Sum was pressed from France but without success for the Duke of Bucks spoil'd that Design for which piece of service you owed him a Cake and was resolv'd if it had not been timely prevented you would have bestow'd upon him a whole Loaf But that by the way Well you arrive in Scotland I pray how were you receiv'd with great Joy to your Banditti there Nay the most excellent Protestant Bishops receiv'd you with tokens of Welcome and highly resented the Affront that the Parliament of England had put upon you when they went about to exclude you and very honestly declar'd against it and tho' the Commons of England were so dim sighted as not to see that the only way to settle the Protestant Religion was by a Popish King yet they could see it and declare it as an undoubted Truth Now Sir it was expected that you should admire the Fabrick that your old Friend Lauderdale had so delicately contrived and in reward of his good Service advance his Interest No no you no sooner got into Scotland but you were designing against Lauderdale he being the great Instrument of sending you thither for you never forgave him that Affront so that after your arrival in Scotland his Interest much dwindl'd away Thus you rewarded one of your old Friends who had sold Body and Soul and all to the Devil to serve you and your Cause he is gone to his place I fear in sure and certain expectation of Wrath and Vengeance for the many Villanies he had committed against the Religion Laws and Liberties of his Country Whilst Sir you were in Scotland you and your Conspirators made your Designs to go on to your full content tho' much diligence was us'd and pains were taken in the point and to give you and your Accomplices that which is your due you never did spare your Pains for the bringing on your wicked Devices to perfection and you thought it good Policy and your best way to make sure of something that if England should be too hard for you yet you resolved to make sure of Scotland And to repeal those Laws that were in force which did debar a Popish Prince from inheriting that Crown therefore you got a Parliament call'd and your self made High Commissioner Upon this you labour the Point for the choice of the Commoners that should be fit for the purpose and to cajole some of the Lords you entice Hamilton to come into your Interest You mounted the Throne as High Commissioner without regarding the Law or due Qualifications necessary in taking the Oaths for that was below you And the King having furnish'd you with Letters you are admitted into the Council without taking the Oaths But being got into the House you carried all before you and got your Succession to the Crown of Scotland secured by an Act and you got a Test passed by which all were to swear not to endeavour to alter that Government either in Church or State and all such as refused were to lose their Employments In a word you made every thing to pass that you and your Crew had a mind to As you were a Privy Councillor in that Kingdom you wheedled in the Duke of Hamilton and admitted him one of the Council who was very zealous for the Protestant Religion formerly but then began to be very cool And so were the rest of the cajoled Lords they all put on the Temper that Scotchmen usually are attended withal that is to be false to the Cause that is persecuted for upon the rising of the Parliament they suffer'd the poor Dissenters to be squeezed to death and suffer'd all imaginable Severities to be used towards them You succeeding so well in
Kingdom From all which it 's apparent what you did when you were Duke of York was in order to compleat the Work when you came to be King James These great and insufferable Oppressions of the poor Protestants of that Kingdom and the open contempt of all Law Justice Sence and Reason together with the sad Consequences that most certainly followed upon it did put those poor People under great and just Fears and did thrice make them offer at such lawful Remedies as were Allow'd by the very Law of Nature tho' it was not with that effect that was desir'd Lauderdale and your other Conspirators did endeavour to make all men to apprehend the loss of their Lives Liberties Honours and Estates if they should go about to preserve themselves from your great Oppressions by Petitions Remonstrances or other means the Law did allow of So you did by several Scotch Noblemen and Gentlemen to their utter ruine therefore what Obligation you have laid upon the Kingdom in general or any one Protestant in particular both before and since your pretended Reign there I leave it to your self and Conspirators to judge And therefore blessed be God for delivering that Nation from your Tyranny and Oppression IV. ENGLAND NOW we have seen your particular Projects that you and your Conspirators pursued to ruine Holland Ireland and Scotland I think it will not be unnecessary to put you in mind of the Pranks you and your Party play'd both before and since you usurped the Imperial Crown of this Kingdom and then you will see whether you can expect that any honest Englishman should ever engage for your return again in Peace to this Nation Therefore I shall use this method 1. I shall shew you how far you were engag'd in the Conspiracy of turning the Civil Government into downright French Slavery and our Protestant Religion into Popery before you took the Crown And 2. I shall shew you what you contributed to it after 3. I will shew you the unreasonableness of the attempting your return hither On which Particulars I hope you have leisure enough to reflect and advise about with your worthy Ministry you have attending your person at St. Germains I. I will shew you how far you were engaged in the Conspiracy of turning the Civil Government into downright French Slavery and our Protestant Religion into Popery before you took the Crown When God was pleased to restore you and your Brothers you may remember that you came into a Land flowing with Milk and Hony for its Plenty and a well-govern'd Country for Religion and Virtue But this agreed not with the Complexion of your Souls you had another Game to play and this I found in a Letter of yours from Breda to old Courtney the Jesuite That you would follow the Directions that Mazarine had given you and then you question'd not but to bring the People to receive the Roman Catholick Religion This Sir was your Project and how you pursued it let all the World judge Therefore 1. Your Conspirators were resolv'd to remove all those who had been eminent in Virtue and Sobriety from any Command or Place of Trust in the Government I must not forget the Usage of those who had been great Instruments in that Work viz. Two thousand Ministers in one day laid aside that room might be made for those whose Doctrine should enslave the People and whose profligate Lives should render Men Atheists enough to be of any Religion but of that which was according to Godliness Make them Atheists said Mazarine aad you will soon make them Papists Nay the love of Debauchery created such a Prejudice in your Brother the King against the Marquiss of Argyle that it was the chief Obstacle to his being pardon'd for he had reprov'd Charles for offering Violence to a sober Lady in Scotland in the year 1650 for which Reproof he never forgave Argyle to his dying day Nay give me leave to remember you that when that unfortunate Lord was in Custody and humbly requested but to speak one word with the King before he was carried for Scotland to be murder'd you took upon you to reprove any that should move the King with this Jeer. That Argyle was one of the Godly Party it was not for such fellows to see the King Or to that purpose and the King your Brother was pleas'd to say Let my Lord Argyle be content he shall see the Maiden e're long his own dearly beloved Invention And nothing was a greater Argument for his Destruction than his Piety Sir I can prove that those men who were concerned in Judging and Condemning your Father to death tho' that was the Pretence or handle you took to have them cut off yet the great reason why they were not spared was that if they lived and as long as they lived they would have been great Obstacles in your way of debauching the People and that was the reason of their being cut off for old Courtney being at London and admiring their demeanour and deportment in their Confinement gave you an account of their Piety and Devotion And so did old Hitchcock the Monk but what Answer you made them was remarkable your Brother and your self would never have had them excepted had you not been fully satisfied that as long as they lived you could have no manner of prospect of settling the Government and advancing the Catholick Religion both which have told me of their stedfastness and resolution to the last degree and could not forbear shedding of Tears when they discoursed that matter to me and if you remember it was the weaker part of those men that had their Lives given them not but that some of them were worthy persons but they had not arrived to those Experiences of God and true Religion as the others had done that laid down their Lives in that Cause But the truth is I never found many of them had so little Grace as to repent of what they had done Nay your Rage did not cease here for you by all the Wrong imaginable pack'd a Parliament together of greenheaded young Gentlemen the Sons of some Cavaliers whose Parents suffer'd in the late War and so were haters of Dissenters from whom an Act was obtained to empower Commissioners to displace all Officers that they should judge not to be firm to the King's Interest and Proceedings By this Knack you had all Justices of the Peace and Corporation Magistrates that had been forward in punishing Prophaneness and Ungodliness in their respective Places and had been great Promoters of Religion and Holiness of Life turn'd out and in their rooms were put all profane and ungodly Wretches Swearers by and Blasphemers of the Name of Almighty God these being Men for your Turn that you might the more easily enslave and so pervert the People And it was come to that pass that none could have any Employment unless he could swear and damn for the Church tho' they never came within the inside of
this Nation which I prove to you and your Villainous Crew both at home and abroad For did you not try the Members of the pack'd Parliament that sat down in the Year 1685 to gain them to consent to the repeal of the Test and Penal Laws And did you not dissolve that Parliament when you found that you could neither by Promises nor by Threatnings prevail with these very Members to comply with your wicked Designs and those who would not comply were branded as if they were Disturbers of the publick Peace For you may remember that though the Prince and Princess of Orange did endeavour to signifie in terms full of Respects and Duty to your self the just and deep regret all your wicked and ungodly Proceedings had given them and in compliance to your desires they had signified their Thoughts concerning your Repealing the Penal Laws and Test which though they did it in such a manner that they had just Ground of hope that they had proposed an Expedient by which the Peace of England Scotland and Ireland and a happy Agreement among the Subjects of all Perswasions might have been certainly settled You and your Hellborn Crew put such Villainous Constructions upon their honest and sincere Intentions as that you were not ashamed to condemn them both as persons that designed to disturb the Quiet and Happiness of the Kingdom But Sir the people of England always Testified a most singular Affection and Esteem for the Prince and Princess of Orange as persons zealously Affected with and concerned for the Advancement of the Protestant Religion and Interest and therefore many of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and many Gentlemen and other persons of Note laid our miserable Case before them and beged their Aid and Assistance The Prince of Orange upon due consideration of our deplorable State to which we were brought by you and your wicked Accomplices found that in point of that Duty he owed to God and in return of the great Value the people of England had for him that he could no way excuse himself from espousing our Cause or Quarrel in a Matter of such high Consequence and from Contributing to the utmost of his Power for the maintaining both of our Religion and our Laws and our Liberties and to secure us in the perpetual Enjoyment of all our Rights Therefore he came over with a Force sufficient which through the Blessing of the Great God was sufficient to suppress you and your villainous Conspirators You know Sir that as you and your Conspirators were not only full of Cruelty and Guilty of the greatest Inhumanities and Barbarities So you and they were full of lies and deceit for upon the coming over of this Great Prince you were sensible of the Greatness of your Guilt and had no great Confidence in your own Forces which induced you to offer to the City of London some seeming Relief from their great Oppression you hoping thereby to beguile us of a firm Establishment and full Security of our Laws Liberties and Religion and finding that the Kingdoms Eyes were fully opened then you and your Hellborn Crew gave out with as much Mallice as Falseness that the Prince of Orange intended to Conquer and Enslave the Nation No Sir the Design of that mighty Deliverer was the security of our enjoying our Religion Laws and Liberties and that there might be no danger of the Kingdoms relapsing into the like Miseries for the time to come Well Sir you remember that the Prince arrives and you fled before him He no sooner comes but he was bid welcome by all True Protestants You run away A Convention was called and he to our great Joy was chosen our King A Parliament sits down and his Majesty joyned with them in making such Laws as have secured us and our All he Fights our Battles he Loves our Nation and we Love our King and we shall not refuse any thing that may be for his Honour Greatness and Content You are deposed as useless in the sight of God and driven from amongst Protestants to graze at St. Germains where you may take your ease till the French King shall be as weary of your Company as we were of your Wicked and Tyrannical Government You have made many attempts to be restored sometimes you Threaten us at other times you would Flatter us to a second Entertainment but that is but a foolish thought of your Counsellers at St. Germains which brings me to the last point of my Memorial which is to shew you 3. The Unreasonableness of your attempting of your Return hither on which particulars I hope you have leisure enough to reflect and to advise about with your worthy Ministry you have attending your Person there but least they should not have Honour and Honesty enough to deal plainly with you I will lay down Six undeniable Arguments why it is morally impossible that you should be ever readmitted to reign over us 1. Because we cannot bind you by the most Solemn Oaths 2. Because we are Protestants 3. Because we are English-men And 4. Because we are Free-men 5. Because we have a King of our own Religion and Judgment to whom we have sworn Allegiance who goeth out and in before us and fights our Battles for us 6. Because of your Attempt upon the Person of our King in employing your Traiterous Assassins to murder him 1. Because we cannot bind you by the most Solemn Oaths we saw our Laws over-turned our Liberties seized our Religion corrupted and subverted and you Forsworn The Laws of Nature taught us to provide for the defence of our All which was at Stake And can any Man think it hard that the Kingdom laid you aside And we laying you aside for the Breach of your Contract and Oath made to the People of England Can you expect that we should in the least be guilty of so base a Compliance as to submit our selves to the Government of a Man that by his Abominable Perjury dissolved his own Government You have time now to consider that Perjury in a King is a most Grievous Offence against God and his Own Crown and Dignity but much more Grievous when it is volantarily committed And when a Prince committeth Perjury willingly when he doth any thing willingly against his Coronation-Oath taken not by Force but by Free-will not unadvisedly but with great Consideration not to his Hurt but to his Advantage not to perform a Thing Dishonest or Impossible but that which is both Possible and Honest For when a Prince not being forced thereunto by just Fear or irrisistible Necessity breaketh such an Oath as there can be no colour to excuse his Perjury it arguing him and convincing him of Fraud and Deceit and gave occasion to all thinking Men that you had no manner of regard to your Coronation-Oath so it puts you under an absolute Incapacity of being Restored since the both Houses of Parliament upon the breach you made of your Contract have thought