all their Interest to keep up their dying Gains Will they not struggle hard Hence 't is no stone is left unturned hence 't is that some disrobe themselves of their Quality and give such Attendance even like common Solicitors making close impertinent Applications with the invention of many a needless false Story to amuse the unwary hence their readiness with Golden Showers to sprinkle and powre where it might Fructifie But Blessed be God they have not to deal with an ungenerous corrupt Court So that it 's hoped all their Labour Toil and Golden Influences will be in vain and as in the days of their Power they refused to hear the Cryes the Tears the Groans of the Oppressed the Fatherless the Widow in their great Distress and under the Effusion of that Blood which yet lies uncovered and calls to Heaven for Vengeance so it may be supposed the day is now come that just Judgment shall be executed whether it be unto Life Banishment or Confiscation and that as a Nusance they be dissolved never to have any Entrustments of Power more but made a Nehustan and a new Legal one Erected And because in your last advice you say the great Question is Whether a New Company or the Old one Vamped Enlarged Rectified and Grafted according to the Model you mention tho what is in the Premisals was all that was designed upon that Head Yet in regard such great Interest you say is made and no wonder for the latter and that it has obtained much with some of Eminency it 's necessary to be dilated on But understanding the same work has been undertaken by abler Hands in two several Tracts and give great satisfaction being already Published as I am told so I refer you thereto and shall only add a small matter on that Head and then come to the next Point 1. This present Company upon its Erection would not nor did they Graft upon the former Stock then in a very low tho not in the same condition this now is in nor was there through out all the Stocks that have been for this Trade and there have been many any such thing done as Grafting on a former so that being a Novâ—ly it may be conceived the more impracticable And seeing this Company would not admit such a thing upon their Establishment it seems less reasonable for them to desire it to be allowed them or for the Parliament to admit of it 2. To Graft upon this present Company seems absolutely against the Right of the Free-born Subject of England no mean Infiringment of Magna Charta Which the People of England have always claim'd and adventured their Lives and Fortunes so oft and freely and so lately also in its behalf Every of the Subjects of England hath a Native Right to the Foreign Trade of this Kingdom and therefore ought in all conjoined exclusive Stocks to have his natural Liberty allowed him to come in upon equal terms with others his fellow Subjects which he will be deprived of in this way of Grafting Being that after that Proposal a very few of the Nation will have continued to them and in their Hands above Three parts of Four of this so great Trade and the whole Nation besides shall not have a quarter part of the Trade Which will be so eminent a Violating the Right of the Subject as it cannot be imagined that any within your Walls can either propose or plead for 3. This present Company is a superlative transcendent Monopoly treble refined not only a Monopoly upon the Nation in secluding it from the Kingdom in general and confining it to the City of London but even upon the Company themselves in impounding it in the hands of a very few Persons who receive most of the Benefit thereof and therefore not to be Grafted upon being it will still according to the present Constitution remain as a great Grievance to the Nation and the rest of the Adventurers that are not admitted into the Cabal And how much it imports the Commons of England to rescue so great an Affair it being or may be it s most certain a full fifth Part of the Foreign Trade of the Nation out of the hands of such persons as Monopolize and make a Prey thereof and to settle the sameâ— in such a National Method and in such Hands thereby as that all those that have right thereto and are willing to join therein may partake of the Benefit thereof will surely be well considered by their Honours And how little a share do they deserve therein who endeavour to rob the rest of the Nation of the whole thereof 4. The Grafting upon this Stock must needs be against the Inclinations of any persons of Sagacity and Conscience considering the many numerous and great Troubles they are plunged into with the Subjects of England thro many too violent bitter and Illegal Actions to preserve this Monopoly to themselves contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Nation and Rights of the Subject This is too sad a Theme to be expatiated upon So I shall say no more of it 5. The Grafting upon this Stock may endanger the loss of the whole Trade of India We already see to how low an ebb it s come the Trade of Bengale and Suratt and of other places being left or abdicated by their withdrawing from them and the invaluable Island of Boonbay that great Emporium of India as some of them strangely term it taken from them and Possessed by the Mogul's People and all our Trade elsewhere in danger being wholly at the Mercy of the Indians And these Gentlemen having brought Affairs to this pass seems it in the least reasonable to continue them in the Management but rather that it be immediately removed out of their hands least there comes upon the Nation an entire loss of this so important a Trade there appearing no other way of retrieving and conserving thereof 6. The Grafting upon this Stock seems not at all advisable in regard of that perfect rooted bitter Emnity that appears in the present Managers and Caballists and many the concerned against any the Subjects of England that claim and desire the enjoyment of that Right and Liberty the Law of the Land allows them This is so uncontrolably evident as the most hardened Forhead cannot gainsay It would be too tedious to make an Enumeration of particulars in the Prosecutions that have been made against the Subjects of England being upon their lawful Occasions and acting according to the Laws but against the companies Interest What rigorous Usage had the Andalusians How heavy a Charge was laid against them of Piracy to have taken away all their Lives as well as Goods And how well they proved it the Honourable Committee of Parliament can well remember What they farther did by their Orders in India and here shall at present be passed over in silence Only I shall note That the Andalusians were Impeached by the Company of the very same Crime here
measure to forego or release somewhat of their private Interest for a more National good it will not be by any means adviseable to have any Recourse to such what Pretensions soever they make that they want no due Tenderness for the Trade and the Nations Interest whilst the rectifying thereof by any new or suitable Model be contrary to their private Interest and so their Inclination which will engage them to cast Rubbs and Difficulties in the way rather than to smooth it to such a Work Therefore it seems more conducive to the accomplishing or perfecting so good and National a Design that rather the Complainants and such as have been conversant and are well versed in the Affair having no Interest that is in this present Stock be called and desired to give their Assistance who may on good grounds be supposed to be better able to give Light into the Occasion of all the Abuses and Mismanagements and direct also to the true and most likely Methods for the regulating and rectifying of them which it 's hoped will be taken into due Consideration Now to come nearer to the matter in hand it will be necessary that some Postulata's be laid down as previous to an Answer to the Question they leading directly thereto and are as followeth Viz. 1. THAT Foreign Traffique and Commerce as 't is absolutely necessary unto so is the Great Privilege and National Concern of this Kingdom and among others none more National than the East-India Trade 2. That the People of England being a Free People have an inherent real just undoubted Natural Right to the National Foreign Commerce of this Kingdom and so particularly to that of East-India 3. That the Commerce and Traffique of this Nation may by those to whom is intrusted the Legislative Power and Sovereign Authority be regulated circumscribed and modelled into wholesom Methods for the more easie secure Orderly National and profitable carrying on the said Negotiation 4. That the Limitations Circumscriptions Regulations Models Standards c. used in the Methodizing of Trade ought to agree with and not be repugnant to the Fundamental Constitutions of this Nation and Native Freedom of the Subject therefore the Terms of Admission for Adventurers to Trade should be easie and large to the increasing of Commerce and not narrow and difficult in the Nature of illegal Monopolies which of what sort soever are contrary to the Freedom of the Subject and absolutely destructive to the Nation and Trade thereof 5. That as some Foreign Trade may best be negotiated by being open to all that will come thereinto at pleasure so others may best be carried on by some Regulations and Circumscriptions as either by separate Managements under a general Society and Governó by particular Admissions into the same by Inheritance a◠is Service or by Redemption upon Terms easie to the Subject as is or should be the Case of that of the Turkey Company and Merchant Adventurers and other Companies or else Conjunctly by a Joynt Stock and Management and particularly the East-India Trade for Reasons too long here to be inserted is generally agreed by all may best be managed in a publick National Way by a well-founded Joynt-Stock and Management both as to the Honour and Advantage of the Nation and Profit of the Adventurers 6. That the present Company or Joynt-Stock hath a very narrow unnational illegal Foundation a Small Stock vastly disproportionate to the immense Trade of the East-Indies whereby it strongly savours of a Cursed Monopoly or is absolutely the same very ill Terms of Settlement its Constitution being greatly pernicious to the Whole Nation and the said Trade of India the multiplying Votes according to the repeated quantity of Stock putting it into the Power of a few over grown rich ill disposed Malignant Persons by Combination and Confederacy to ingross and Monopolize the said Trade and Management thereof wholly to themselves as is the Case at this day thereby rendring that Great Affair of the India Trade from publick and National as it ought to be a particular private Interest and Benefit to the irreparable Damage of the Subject in his Right and Property and opening a Way to his entire Destruction by having so vast and important Concern of the Nation in the Disposal of so few hands and such as cannot be esteemed Friends to the present Settlement Good of the Subject or Nation its Constitution being calculated for the Advancement of Arbitrary Power 7. That the Arbitrary Management of this Company by the Governor and Committees hath all along conduced to and greatly advanced the introducing Popery Slavery and Tyranny into this Nation during the Reigns of the two last Kings more especially since the Year 1681. by too great Severities in unhappy unexampled ways exercised towards and upon the Free-born Subjects of England their Persons Goods Estates and Liberties as has been made evident at the Bar of the Honourable House of Commons And by Hostilities and Depredations unreasonably exercised towards the Subjects of the Great Mogul and other Potentates in India and Parts adjacent together with a continued Series of unhappy indiscreet Conduct of their whole Affairs has already deprived the Nation of Trade in Bengale Surat and other Places and put the rest and whole of that invaluable Trade of East-India upon the utmost hazard of being inevitably utterly and irrecoverably lost to the Nation 8. The present Condition of this Company and Posture of its Affairs are such as seem to declare the Managers thereof unfit uncapable for carrying on the Trade or ever bringing it into any good Condition or method again having through Charges Losses Dividends c. come to the End of their Stock and it 's fear'd run it much in Debt and by a continued trying new Projects and Tricks the whole Trade is come to a doleful languishing State insomuch 9. That unless some speedy Course be immediately taken for removing the Management of this Trade out of the hands of these Conductors and putting it under the Conduct of abler Guides it may be of unconceivable Damage to this Kingdom in having the Care of our Trade in India longer neglected upon which its utter Ruine and Loss may ensue and it will be a sad Adieu that must be given to it 10. That this is an Opportune Season for the making such Alteration as may be useful for the better carrying on this so great Concern to the Nation the People of England in general being highly sensible of the great destructive Miscarriages it hath lain under and the Parliament of England now sitting on Inquest for redressing Grievances therefore in Consideration of the Premisses That the East-India Trade is of a vast National Importance to which the whole Nation hath an unquestionable Right and forasmuch as the present Company or Joynt-Stock hath an illegal Foundation and very improper Constitution whereby and through the indiscreet Conduct and Management of their Affairs they have brought themselves under very unhappy Circumstances
which they themselves were acting by then Servants and Orders in India at the self-same time And if it were so Criminal in the Andalusians why it should be so highly praise-worthy in the Company seems difficult to conceive Nor doth the Bitterness of their Spirits appear less notorious at present insomuch that even civil Converse is not admitted by them and all that are not justly of their Minds for the continuance of this Stock contrary to the Laws of the Land and Right of the Subject are stigmatized with the inviduous Names of Interlopers and Enemies to the Company and the Crown on purpose as may justly be conceived to make a Faction and Party And can Two walk together if they be not agreed No more can any good arise from the Vamping this Company by a Conjunction of Stocks while they are at so great Emnity with those that desire a share in Trade with them so should there be any mixture of Councils what Agreement would there be Nay rather what Clashings would there not be every Trifle occasioning a Tempest and what must be the event but that the Hatred in the Old Caballists against those that should Graft or Vamp would bring great Detriment if not Destruction on the whole Tigers and Wolevs may be Chained but their Natures not changed therefore not safely to be conversed with by the harmless and innocent Sure it is without some Harmony in Affection there can be no pleasant profitable intimate Conversation and these Gentlemen the present Managers have by a many years continued Series of Conduct given most evident Demonstration of the unfitness of their Temper for any such Conjunction and Communion and the unrelenting Hardness of Heart that undeniably appears upon them at this day sufficiently manifests their Disposition unaltered and most difficultly if at all changeable so that the Proverb holds good The Ethiopian changeth not his Skin nor the Leopard his Spots 7. This Company is of a most ignoble Extract and Original having its first Settlement in times of great Confusion being Incorporated by Oliver Cromwell about the time when what he called a Parliament declared and inaugurated him Lord Protector of these Nations and seems to be one of his first Royal Donatives or rather a specimen of his intended Government it being exquisitely adapted thereto by its plenty of Arbitrary Clauses Which the concerned apprehending as may be supposed some Benefit by might by fit means procure to be continued in the Charter obtained of King Charles the Second upon his Restoration which was no other in reality than a Confirmation or Establishment of the former there being no new Subscriptions nor Stock or Persons but the same without any Enlargement or alteration Now this was far from being a National Joynt-Stock in its Rise in regard it had its beginning and was set on foot as it were in hugger mugger without any due publick notice given to all parts and in a time when the greatest part of the Nobility Gentry and Merchants of the Land could not or durst not Subscribe and many others but very little having been under the Fines and Sequestrations of or Obnoxions to an Inquisition by the Petentates of Haberdashers-Hall one of which continued a Censor to his dying Day or near it in the Committee for their Direction and Instruction no doubt in such Affairs and it must be owned he lost not his labour they having made great Imprâ—â—â—ments therein So that it became rather a private Bargain or packt Juncto of Olivers than a Natiâ—nal Stock or Coâ—â—any insomuch that considering its Birth Founder and Design it wâ—â—l be conceived very inconvenient to Graft upon and may be wondred it should be pressed but what will not Interest do And surely none of clear Spirits desirouâ— to remain and be esteemed Free Subjects can without great disdain have any Thoughts of Grafting on this present Stock and Constitution it being a Vamping Nel's Old Boots but that a new One be Erected agreeable to the Laws of the Land 8. This Company by reason of many late Aâ—â—ions hath fallen into great Disrepute with the Natives and Government of India among whom the Affairs of that Trade are negotiated and brought a Scandal upon the whole Nation that we who were in Repute above all other Europians in former days are now become a Reproach among those Heathens And to continue and Graft upon this Company or Stock will but justifie all late unbecoming unjust Actions and Mismanagements and bind our Reproach upon us Therefore to take off all that Odium the Nation lies under in the sight of those Heathens and to â—estore our selves to that former Honour and Credit we had with them nothing can more conduce according to the best of my judgment then an entire Dissolution of the present Stock or Company and Erecting a new One with a greater Fund and better Constitutions that it may be as it ought A National Stock and Trade This may be sufficient to be added concerning Grafting And seeing this Company did not Graft upon the former or ever it was done before and that so to do is against the Right of the Subject and that the present Stock is a most grievous Monopoly and involved in great Troubles with the Subjects of England by violent and illegal Actions its Trade brought to a very low ebb and all endangered and still the bitter Emnity of the present Managers towards their fellow Subjects remaining thereby prohibiting any fair Conjunction as also considering its odd and ignoble Birth under Oliver Cromwell and the great Reproach by their late uncharitable Actions towards the Indians they have cast upon the Nation it will undoubtedly by all Patriots be judged expedient not to be Grafted on but rather dissolved and a new one Erected And so I come to the next Point which is Secondly The other way proposed for enlarging the Stock for the India Trade and that is by Establishing a new National Joynt-Stock by new Subscriptions and Dissolving this present Joynt Stock which seems most proper and only practicable at this time Now in proceeding to this Work and settling thereof it 's humbly conceived these or the like Methods be used First That this New National Joynt-Stock be enlarged to Sixteen Hundred Thousand Pounds at least by new Supscriptions that so being National the whole Body of the Nation may come in and partake thereof and that it may be a secure Fund or Bank for the Nation to employ its money on Secondly That this New National Joynt-Stock or Company be Confirmed and made a Corporation by Act of Parliament exclusive to all others from the Cape of Good Hope to the Eastward of Japan and that the Trade to East-India be declared a Trade of the State or the Kingdom as indeed it will be by the whole Nation willing thereto having Interest therein as well as Right thereunto So that hereafter all Abuses and Injuries done them in their Trade and Rights in those parts by any other
Nations may be judged and reputed as done not only to the particular concerned but to the Nation and be espoused accordingly which may be a means of preserving what we have and regaining somewhat at least of what lost and prevent our own People from an easie parting with any the Privileges Ports Trade or Rights in those Parts and others of our Neighbour Nations from invading them Want of which has been of irreparable Damage to the Nation in the Loss of many Places and great Trades in those Parts in former and later Days as the Spice Trade that of Macasses Japan Jacquatra or Batavia and Bantam c. And it will be a great Encouragement to all Persons Endeavours in advancing the said Trade and in all Acquisitions in those parts it not being only for a private but national Interest and this is that which greatly stimulates the Dutch in all their enlargements The present Company hath in their Charter a larger extent and tract of the World included then is here proposed for a new one viz. from the Cape Good Hope down to the Magellanean Strait and thence all Southward and so all the back of America to Japan which here is thought good to be omitted as being of no use and ill fame to them making a great Noise of the vastness of their Charter whereas they never made any benefit thereof but hindred others therefore to be left free to all English to Advantage themselves or on occasion to endamage other Nations by new discoveries or what already known Thirdly That non obstante the exclusive Clause yet liberty be granted to all Ships to Trade to Madagascar and the Coast of Mosambique and all other places on the Coast of Africk on the other side or beyond the Cape of Good Hope while not Traded to by the Company and that interfere not with the Companies Commerce they giving security not to Trade but where allowed and this to be without any Fee or Reward more than to the Clerk barely for the Writings Fourthly That Diamonds Pearls and all pretious Stones Ambergreece and Musk be left free to all natural born Subjects of England to Trade in paying one per cent for the Money sent out and 2 per cent upon the Goods home and that Gold and all Bullion imported thence be free Fifthly That for the more equal and general distribution of the East-India Trade in this Realm and the greater and more National enlargement thereof it be carried on and managed at several other Ports in the Land besides London and such as are at some considerable distance therefrom viz. at York whose Sea Port may be Hull Bristol and Exon at each of which and at more if afterwards thought needful Presidencies may be erected for the management of the India Trade for the remoter Counties as to instance more particularly To York might pertain the Counties of Lincoln Nottingham Derby York Lancaster Durham Westmorland Cumberland Northumberland and Berwick upon Tweed To Bristol Glocester Worcester Stafford Chester Salop Hereford Monmouth and all the Welsh Counties To Exon Wilts Dorset Somerset Devon Cornwall Which Division if not judged proportionable may be altered and better setled by Persons more vers'd in those Parts Now if this or some such way be taken the Ports being at such distance and remoteness from the great City of London will make no diminution to the Trade thereof but be a great Addition to that of those places by an enlargement of their Exportations as well as consumption in those Parts of some of what imported which would arise meerly from setting up such Marts and truly the so long Monopolizing this Commerce solely to London as it hath had many other ill effects so the Right of the Subject hath been highly violated in his being deprived of what by the law of the Land is his native Due and Property and it s hoped may now at length be well considered of by the Members for those parts and restored to them it seeming highly unreasonable that the Nobility Gentry Merchants and Inhabitants of those parts should be deprived and wholly divested of their Birthright only for the advancement of a few London Merchants This way of diffusing the Trade would have in my slender Opinion many great Advantages attending it the Nation would then come to have a thorow insight into the immense Value of this important Trade which it now is so very ignorant of that even very few save some of the concerned and others in and about London have any tolerable cognisance thereof and even many great and worthy Patriots and Statesmen have not till of late been throughly convinced of its Value and from this ignorance of its being so advantagious to this Nation have most of those direful effects flowed in upon this Trade Hinc illae lacrymae as the loss of great Acquisitions Privileges and Commerce in former days and the great decay and almost total loss thereof now of late It cannot enter into any mans heart acquainted with this Trade and its Value that if it had formerly been diffused through the Nation and so had become a general Interest by all mens participating of its Gains that ever so great a part thereof could have been so tamely parted with as was by our Progenitors or such hardships put upon it as have been of late by the present Managers No sure should any of these things have happened to the Dutch in what a rage would the Commonalty have been what fury would have appeared in the faces of the concerned and what Consternation in all as if their very banks were cutting or the overflowing deluge of 72 were again breaking in upon them who that was any ways accessary could have been safe When they lost Tywan the Governor Mons Coyet a Swedish Gentleman of good esteem tho he had in time given sufficient advice of what was coming and when it came upon them did all that man could do and gave it not up till it could not be held any longer and tho forced to it by all the People as I had it from them there present yet underwent many years Imprisonment in the remote Eastern Islands ten times worse than death e're he could get any Release tho stript and destitute of all and yet we can part with our Trades at Japan Spice Islands Macasser Jaquatra or Batavia c. formerly and with Bantam Suratt and Bengale lately and seem little concerned thereat Such a Stoical Apathy have we been under and still are in this Affair and whence can this arise but from our ignorance of the Trade and its Value which nothing can better cure than this distribution thereof and its management to several Presidencies and Marts whereby the knowledge thereof will sensibly diffuse it self through the whole Realm and quicken us for hereafter to a preventing and redressing of any Injuries that may be offered or done unto that Trade by any whomsoever and possibly to regaining of some part thereof formerly
thereto by the Trustees as aforesaid and decided determined and made good and so the like on behalf of the present Company in any Claims they have on any in these parts Lastly That things be carried on in all points and in all causes with that candor and â—â—stice so as the present Company may have no cause to complain in the least but to be weâ— pleased therewith and this will be both the Duty and Interest of the New Company for 〈◊〉 they indulge any their Servants to abuse others it will not be long before they turn the same upon their Masters and it cannot be expected that the new Company will do otherwise in regard the best of men are most likely by the constitution to come into the direction and from such nothing can be supposed to proceed or be acted or ordered but what is honorable just and good the Servants they send out in the choice of whom such caution and regard will be had that the Trustees of the old Company will even be well satisfied in and approve of them will no doubt take great care of their behaviour and carriage in this matter it being their interest so to do least an information comes against them to their ruin or great disgrace and loss in being recalled Thus as succinctly and clearly as time and ability would permit I have performed what you required of me wherein from several undeniable Propositions previously laid down I have in general given you the result of my judgment unbyassed and impartial upon your Question viz. That the East-India Trade may best be managed in a National way for the publick benefit by dissolving of the present Company and erecting a new National Joynt-Stock more enlarged diffused on better Constitutions and under a Parliamentary Sanction And in prosecution hereof it was proposed That the India Trade being National if managed by a Joynt-Stock it ought to be enlarged agreeable to the Trade this is allowed on all hands even the present Company not dissenting to it then the ways proposed for enlarging were examined that of adding to the present Stock under its Constitution pressed by its Adventurers was rejected the other way of erecting a new one considered and approved its fundamental Constitution delineated and many Precepts laid down as necessary thereto And a further progress was made wherein many things were offered as wholsome methods for the due and prudent carrying on the Trade in a National beneficial way And lastly I came to the dissolution of this Company wherein such Proposals are tendred as makes it appear very feasible and facile without any prejudice to them as to the Trade by any Interval or Casme or any loss the Company can sustain in its Effects and all those difficult things of valuing dead Stock making good all demands and dues from them and to them and their neat Effects is rendred not only practicable but exceeding easie and safe nor hath any thing as I apprehend been proposed under this last head that in the least doth grate or bear hard upon them but what they themselves if themselves must heartily and readily close with it being my study so to compose these methods that they might have their right end in giving content to all Parties by a dividing to all their due Portions and that in a perspicuous quick plain cheap equal way which if effected is what I desired and have most cordially aimed at if not it is what I could atrain unto And such is your candor as to accept of my unfeigned endeavours and over-look and pardon my weakness Now of these particulars that I have gone thro as necessary to be considered both on the erection of a new Company and dissolving the present or old one it will be needful that some of them be in the body of the Charter or Act it self others in the Preamble and some only made by Laws all which and others that may be necessary will present themselves upon perusal of their Charters and Customs and consideration of the nature of the Affair And as hinted at the beginning it will be of great use that when the Bill be drawn up some Merchants and persons vers'd in the Affairs of India men of clear Spirits good Understanding and of fair and even Tempers not having been of the Cabals be summoned to attend the Committee and by some selected Members thereof be consulted with which may much conduce to the well modelling this grand Affair If upon perusal hereof your self or imparting thereof to others Objections do arise against any thing herein laid down you know my insufficiency so well not to impute it but as to any else I have to desire of them that they would not find fault with words barely of which I freely confess my self no great Master so that it may not be apparel'd in a modern garb and it s hoped the Age is past wherein Men were to be Criminals for a word but as to the matter and substance let them search thereinto and object what they can not doubting it will stand the test and be found agreeable to the Laws of God and Man particularly our own Laws and Constitutions to Reason Justice Equity Conscience Prudence humane and divine natural moral and spiritual distributing to each one their real Right and Liberty and divesting none of their just Privilege and Property But if any have other Apprehensions I would request they would not so much acquarrel at and oppugn these my private it may be Sentiments but that as they manifest its inconveniences so also they would propose and shew us some more excellent way and method for the better and more National carrying on this so g and important Affair that so less time may be lost and then from the diversity of Methods and Plots that may be offered a most wholsome useful advantageous extensive National secure prâ—dent thriving and lasting Model may be extracted for the retrieving improving and establishing this so necessary and beneficial Commerce to our Nation and Posterity maugâ—e all opposition whatever from treacherous Friends or open Enemies of both which we have no want the greater is our Misery I add not more but await what may be the issue and â—â—uly whether you know or will believe it or no mens eyes begin to fail and their hearts to sink on this account this is the second Sessions that this Aâ—â—â—ir hath been before you and nothing yet done after all the pains therein save a Vote or so which tho a Revivâ—l yet passing no further causes sadness again to you 't is the Subjects of England have applied themselves for Justice and Succour against this great Society and tho their Plaints are taken notice of yet Judgment hath not been executed and because hereof they seem jocund concluding they shall escape hence also from the same delay do the Enemies of our Liberties the Locusts of the late Reigns come swarming forth of those lurking holes a just fear of
deserved punishment had lately driven them into wiping their mouths saying They have done no wickedness and ready no doubt to react the same Villanies again Omission or Neglect of Justice may cause great trouble if not ruine notwithstanding all our blooming hopes and fair indications Saul a most hopeful 〈◊〉 and Ahab a great King are dreadful instances who for sparing such as were appointed to destruction came to sad Ends falling by the hands of the uncircumcised and thousands with them There is a time when the hand is not to spare nor the eye to pity it 's a Maxim Moral and Divine That Publick Justice is a sure â—â—â—â—ng Fouâ—â—ation for the Publick Wealth Prosperity and Success of a Realm a due Execution of Justice on notorious Delinquents procuâ—es Peace and Quiet and prevents much Mischief is the Atonement in times of great Distress and Wrath procures lasting Blessings upon the Actors as in the Case of Phineas and his Posterity You have this day gâ—â—atly comfâ—â—ted the hearts of the People of the Land in thrusting forth that Person as unworthy of Session among you which brings to mind a Story I have read 't is in the Roman History of one Septimius Arabinus an execrable Wretch notoriously infamous for his many Oppressions cruel bloody Prosecutions of his Country-men the Free Romans their Liberties Properties and Lives for which I think he was proscribed but to Heliogabalus the Monster of Men he becoming a great Privado was acquitted and re-admitted into the Senate but upon the grand Revolution and choice of Alexander Severus to be Dictator or Emperor the Senate Romes Parliament for that always remained and sitting even during the time of the Imperial Crowns attending him with a Congratulatory Address Arabinus like Satan impudently appeared among them whose hated head the Dictator no sooner espyed but lifting up his hands and eyes to Heaven cryed but O Numina Arabinus non solum vivit sed in Senatum venit Oh ye Divine Powers what is it mine eyes behold What Age and Times are we fallen into Arabinus is not only permitted to live but admitted to sit in the Senate What! he that broke and dispensed with all Laws instructed or incouraged men so to do shall he become one of our Legislators And shall a Râ—man and Heathen be in such an Extasie upon sight of a Tool of the foregoing Reigns for the betraying the free Romans Rights and Privileges And shall not Englishmen and Christians upon the like view be under some more than ordinary Emotion of Spirit Go on and prosper ye Heads of our Tribes you have taken a right Course to purge first â—our own House and then to cleanse the rest of the Land whether there be an Arabinus â—n Court or Camp sure I am there are many in the great City Counties and Corporations and not a few in this I am discoursing of may they all feel the Power of your Justice according to their Demerits as what you have done is the first beginnings so may it be an Earnest of further Proceedings in this kind but whether do I swerve Particularly there have been laid before your selves in this and the former Sessions and fully proved in the House and Committees many Violences Outrages Seizures Oppressions Deaths the like scarce perpetrated since the days of Brember and Tresilian committed by this Company their Orders and Procurement towards and upon the Free Subjects in their Goods Liberties Bodies Estates Lives and as an Accumulation the Commission of these heinous Crimes are not wholly new and late and so merely from the Perswasions Agreeableness of or Sympathy with the late Reigns but what hath radically and naturally flowed from them and appeared in them at their first Foundation by Oliver Cromwell for even then breathing Threatnings and Slaughters they sent forth their first Ships with Commissions and Instructions as upon the proof hath appeared for seizing and spoiling the Subjects of England then in India and they effected it fully in many places as is uncontroulably evident in Mr. Skinners Case and Instances â—ight be given in many others which was committed about thirty years since and it 's conceived by some tho with my dissent one Reason why the Company took in but half what subscribed designing to make up the other with the Spoils they should get in India from the Subjects of England so that their very Foundation hath been laid in Oppression swadled with the Spoils of the People nursed up by Arbitrary Government sucking in as Mothers milk Despotick Power and Sovereign Authority Quo semel est imbuta recâ—ns servabit â—dorem and having received in their Youth still continue the same tincture and whaâ— horrible Superstructures they have made our own Eyes behold and many in their Bodies Relations and Estates are bitterly sensible of you have upon fair deliberate Hearings agreed to the Proofs and that satisfaction should be made and in a full House almost nâ—mine contradicente in the Case of the poor St. Helenians voted it Murther whence it undeniably follows there were Murtherers and some owned themselves guilty at your Bar of giving Instructions for the same Now what is the sequel why the word is If it be told thee and thou hast heard of it and inquired diligently and behold it be true and the thing certain as 't is in this Case then shalt thou bring forth the Man c. as great care is to be taken not to be rash but well assured before Judgment so when Judgment is given Execution ought most surely to follow Now if in these Cases no Reddress comes from you whither shall Application be made As the able and learned Serjeant Tremayne said in the Close of his Plea at your Bar upon the same Case Justice could not be had elsewhere against them they had in the late Reigns made such Interest in Westminster and Whitehall That if no Relief came from you all their unjust illegal Actions must pass for Law Let never such things be said of the Commons of England but from them let Judgment run down as Waters and Righteousness follow as a mighty Stream Now what may succeed I cannot presage but heartily wish whether the old Company a new one or none be setled by you yet they may be obliged to render full satisfaction for all wrongs injuries damages done the Subject but if that should not be and that all the distresses seizures flights imprisonments deaths hitherto must go for nothing yet that some provision might be made for the Subject by way of Exempt from their power and liberty be granted to stand upon their own defence for the future if reprisals may not be granted for what 's past it being without controversie as just righteous and legal for the Subject to make defence and on seizures to reprise himself on their goods in England or India as for the Company to seize their effects in either places Abasuerus the great Persian Monarch upon hearing and considering the Complaint of the Jews under great distresses spoils and fears when he found they were abused not only gave them an exempt from the power of their Enemies but also liberty to stand upon their guard and to slay them that had designed their ruine and for all their wrongs and cruel usages to recompence themselves by the spoils of such their Enemies Informers and Persecutors tho his Natural Subjects Notwithstanding his Decrees and Proclamations issued out before for the prosecuting and ruining the poor Jews who could not submit to the impositions of those Heathens and this is recorded to all ages for the reputation honor glory and renown of that mighty Prince I have yet one more wish that the great burthen laid on this and other Plantation Trades in the duties importing were well considered of and abated the groans of the Plantations being very great there is nothing can advance this Nation more or like to Trade nor any thing that more than freedom easie and low duties of which the whole World gives ample testimony but this may sooner be wished for than expected I know neither this or any thing else appearing for the Nations Interest will lye at your door you have always evidenced your self a true Patriot both in Council and in Camp you have not from your youth up at any time shunned any enterprise on the Nations account tho never so hazardous you have jeoparded your life frequently in behalf of our Laws Liberties and Religion never counting any thing dear to you that you might serve your Nation your Time your Strength your Estate your Blood you have freely and valiantly bestowed in the Nations service and are an Instance I would hope not the only single one that have served your generation with your Estate and not for an Estate No! those things never moved you but a higher Principle and your reward is with you from the Lord for I think you never 〈◊〉 any from Men A hoary head in the way of righteousness which is a Crown of glory I haâ—◠〈◊〉 ready abused your patience so shall not detain you any longer than to Subscribe my 〈◊〉 Lond. 20. Jan. 1689. Honoured Sir Your Really Devoted Servant