could not have begun the War without them and therefore at such a Conjuncture might probably have condescended to some Equality of Terms But the King of England well understood how careful the French King was to preserve and increase the Trade of his Subjects and that it was by the diminution of that Beam of his Glory that the Hollanders had raised his Indignation The King therefore the more to gratifie him made it his constant Maxim to burthen his English Merchants here with one Hand while the French in his own Territories loaded them no less with the other So that when the English Merchants in London had prepared a Petition to the King and Council to complain of the Oppression which their Factors and Agents lay under in France with a true State of their Case and a short account of their Grievances information thereof was given to the Court by which means the Perusal of the Papers being transmitted by the King â—o his Instruments all further Prosecution of the matter was stopp'd by his Conniâ—ance and Authority and the Merchants were put off with a Promise that the French Embassador should be acquainted with their Complaints and that they should be redress'd through his means Which proving ineffectual upon their farther Applications for redress they were Hector'd Brow-beaten Ridicul'd and might have met with fairer Audience from Monsieur Colbert Nor was it only in the matter of Commerce that the King of England had obliged the French Tyrant but even in the War it self For that except the irresistible Bounties oâ— so great a Prince to some particular English Instruments and a little Subsistance Money for the Fleet frugally parted with the King of England had put him to no Charges but the English Navy Royal had served him all along No Purchase No Pay He had ty'd the French King to no Terms had demanded no Partisson of Conquests had made no humane Condition but had sold him all for those two Pearls of high Value the True Roman Catholick Worship and the true French Government So soon as the Peace was concluded betwixt England and Holland by the Awe of the Parliament the French King as a mark of his Displeasure and to humble the English Nation let loose his Privateers among the English Merchants insomuch that there was no security of Commerce or Navigation notwithstanding the Publick Amity betwixt the two Crowns but at Sea they Murther'd Plunder'd made Prize and Confiscated all they met with Their Piccaroons lay before the Mouths of our Rivers hover'd all along the Coast took our Ships in the very Ports so that we were in a manner block'd up by Water and in this manner it continued from 1674. till the latter end of 1676. without Remedy And yet all this while that the French made these intolerable Depredations and Piracies upon the Kings Subjects they were more diligently than ever supply'd from England with Recruits and those that would go voluntarily into the French Service were encouraged others that would not press'd imprison'd and carried over by main force and constraint And by the King's connivance his own Magazines were daily emptied to furnish the French with all sorts of Ammunition of which the following Accompt affords but a small Parcel in comparison of what was daily conveyed away under colour of Cockets for Iersey Granado's without number shipped off under the pretence of unwrought Iron Lead Shot One and twenty Tuns Gunpouder Seven thousand one hundred thirty four Barrels Iron Shot Eighteen Tun Six hundred Weight Match Eighty eight Tun nineteen hundred Weight Iron Ordinance Four hundred forty one Quantity Two hundred ninety two Tuns nine hundred Weight Carriages Bandaliers Pikes c. the quantity uncertain All this and what more beside not then discovered was exported from London to France from Iune 1675. to Iune 1677. And thus was the French King gratified for undoing us by Sea by Contributing all the King could rap and rend of Men and Ammunition to make him more Potent and Formidable to us by Land Another great Instance of the King of England's extraordinary Kindness to the French King was this that while he storm'd at the Dutch for not promoting as he pretended the coming away of some Families that were unwilling to leave Surinam he found no fault with the French for keeping him above four years out of St. Christophers nor for destroying in the mean while that part of the Island which belonged to his own Subjects So great a piece of rudeness it was thought to press too hard upon the French King for performance of Articles on his side Nay the French Commanders in those Parts did not scruple to assert that there was a very good understanding in relalation to that Island between the English and French Court so great a kindness the King had for the French so little for his own Subjects Nor must we omit that when the Orders of the French Privy Council Commanding all their Sea Officers and Commanders in the Islands of America to secure to their Master the Soveraignity of those Seas were brought by a Person of Quality into the Cabinet Council at Whitehall they were at first declaimed against but soon buried in oblivion and put up amongst the useless Papers though the French in pursuance of those Commands proved afterwards so vexatious to the English that thethen Governor of Iamaica sent word that notwithstanding their old Quarrel with the Spaniards it was much easier to keep a good Correspondence with them than with our dear Allies the French Nor must it be forgot as an Eminent Mark of our Sovereign's Deference to the French Interest and manner of Government that in the year 1677 upon notice that a Great French Embassador was coming over into England he Adjourn'd his English Parliament that he might have the more Elbow room to entertain his better beloved Friends For all things at that time moved between France and England with that punctual Regularity that it was like the Harmony of the Sphears so that immediately after the Recess of the English Parliament over came the D. of Crequi the Archbishop of Rheimes M. Barillon with a Train of three or four hundred Persons of all Qualities you would have sworn they had been the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of France with a proportionable number of their Commons met the King at New-Market so that it look'd like another Parliament and that the English had been Adjourn'd for their better Reception Much of their business no doubt was conceal'd but so much came to light that they prest the King to continue his Subjects in the Service of France because the Parliament at that time most earnestly prest and was preparing a Bill for their being call'd home They also demanded an Abolition of all Claims and Demands from the Subjects of France upon account of all Prizes made of the English since the year 1674 till that day and for the future And the King on the other side required a
shadow of a Law to countenance them of which more in due place Having made this fair Progress toward the enslaving both the Souls and Bodies of his own Subjects at home let us take a View of his Zeal to the Protestant Religion abroad And first for the Protestants of France his Care and Tenderness for them may be easily conjectur'd from hence that the first Edicts issu'd forth by Lewis the Fourteenth for their Persecution bear date with the Time and Year of his Most Protestant Majesties Restauration And from that day to this in stead of interceding or concerning himself in their behalf he has by his own Example and his strict Correspondence with the French King both countenanc'd and encourag'd their Oppression which the French King at that time when he was formidable in the Love of his Subjects durst no more have prosecuted than Mazarine durst proceed in his Fury against the Hugonots when more Pious Oliver bestir'd himself in their Favour But our Protestant Monarch was so far from sending Succour to the French Protestants that he betray'd those to the Rage of the French Tyrant that came to invoke his Aid in their behalf For when Monsieur Rohan came into England to acquaint his Pious Majesty with the Resolutions taken at Paris to persecute and if possible to root out the Reformed in France and propos'd such Overtures to the King as would have been greatly for his Glory and Interest yet no way contrary to the Allegiance of that poor People he remitted the Monsieur to his Brother the D. of York who not only inform'd the French Embassador of the Gentleman's Errand but plac'd him behind the Hangings to hear whatever Monsieur Rohan had to represent and propose to him Which altho the Embassador could not but abhor in the two Brothers and was asham'd of in himself yet he could do no less then inform his Master of what he had seen and heard Upon which the poor Gentleman upon his Return out of England was so narrowly watch'd and so closely pursu'd that being apprehended upon the Borders of Switzerland he was carried back to Paris and there broken upon the Wheel Nor did it satisfie the King and his dear Brother the Duke to have thus betray'd as well as abandon'd the Protestants in France but with the utmost Malice that Popery could inspire into them they sought the Destruction of the Seven United Provinces upon no other Account but of their being Protestant States and for giving shelter to those who being persecuted by himself and his Confederate the French Tyrant for their Religion fled thither for Protection and Safety For knowing what in due time they intended to bring upon the Protestants at home they thought it most requisite to destroy those Protestant States in the first place that there might remain no Sanctuary for their persecuted Subjects And indeed abating this and one more Ground of their Quarrel with those States never was a War undertaken upon more unjust and frivolous Pretences then those Two which the King engag'd in against the Seven Provinces in the Years 1667. and 1672. Nor can any thing justifie the Discretion and Wisdom of those Wars had they not been undertaken meerly in subserviency to the promoting Popery and Slavery seeing that upon all other Grounds that Reason and Prudence can suggest it was the Interest of England as still it is to preserve the Government of Holland entire Nor can we have a truer Accompt of the Grounds upon which the two Monarchs of England and France agreed the War against Holland in the Year 1672. then by the Representation which the French Embassador made of it both at Rome and Vienna For tho' his Publick Declaration pretended no more but that it was to seek Reparation for the Diminution of his Glory yet the Accompt he gave to the Pope of his Master's and consequently of our Protestant Monarch his strict Confederate's undertaking that War was that he did it in order to the Extirpation of Heresie And in the same manner they sought to justifie the Piety of that Enterprise to his Imperial Majesty by alledging That the Hollanders were a People that had forsaken God and were Hereticks and that all good Christians were bound to associate and unite for their Extirpation Upon which accompt it seems our King and the Duke thought fit to exchange the Appellation of Good Protestants for that of Good Christians However from hence it was plain what sort of Good Christians they were since it was as evident that their uniting with France in that War was to destroy the Protestant Dutch Hereticks And that we may yet more fully understand the Motive upon which the King embark't in that bloody and expensive War it is worthy observation how that when the French King made it one of his Propositions upon which he would be contented to receive the States into his ancient Friendship That they should not only allow the Publick Exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion over all the United Provinces but that they should appoint a Sallary to the Priest allotted to the Churches which the Papists by that Demand were to enjoy the King of England being no less concerned for Popery then his Brother of France gave the States to understand by his Plenipotentiaries That without their Concession of the foregoing Demand of the King of France he could not return to Peace with them So that not only from the Motive upon which the War was commenc'd but from the Proposals which he urg'd them to consent to in order to a Peace we have a most convincing Proof of his Majesty's being no zealous Protestant but rather quite the contrary and of his pious Inclinations to the Extirpation as well as weakning the Protestant Religion in the United Provinces Certainly a most thankful Acknowledgment and Royal Requital of those Provinces for the many Kindnesses which they had vouchsaf'd him during his Exile and for their Favours their liberal Entertainments the high Honours which they had paid him when he made their Country the last Stage of his Retreat in order to his Return to his Crown and Kingdom But this must be ascrib'd to his Zeal for promoting the Catholick Religion which attones for all Defects of Justice and Gratitude and ought to be imputed to those Principles of Popery which he had suck't in with the French Air and which have a peculiar Vertue and Faculty to expel all Morality and good Nature These being the real Grounds and Motives that induc'd the King of England to begin that Impolitick War against the Dutch in the year 1665. whatever was openly and publickly pretended how strangely was the Parliament deluded and blinded by the King's Oaths and Protestations of his Zeal for the Protestant Religion What vast Sums of the Subjects Money they gave the perfidious Monarch to defray the Expences of that unnecessary and baneful War is too well known and yet after all saving one brisk Engagement ill-manag'd tho' with
some Loss to the Dutch at length no Fleet was set out and the choicest of the Royal Navy either burnt or taken in Harbour to save Charges And tho' the French at length join'd themselves in assistance with the Dutch against us yet by the Credit he had with the Queen Mother he so far impos'd upon Charles the Second no less ready for his own private Conveniencies to be impos'd upon that upon assurance which no Man of Prudence and Foresight would have believ'd that the Dutch would have no Fleet at Sea that Year he forbore to make ready and so incurr'd that ignominious Disgrace at Chatham the like to which the English never suffer'd since they claim'd the Dominion of the Sea And which was more as he had been beholden to his great Friend the King of France for the Ignominy he had suffer'd so was he glad to receive the Peace from his Favour which was concluded at Breda And now we come to the best Act that ever he did in his Life had he had the Grace to pursue it which shew'd how happy a Prince he might have been had he been ever faithful to his own and the Interests of his People and that Religion which he outwardly profest For upon conclusion of that Peace having leisure to look about him and to observe how the French had in the Year 1667. taken their Opportunity and while we were embroyl'd and weakned by the late War had in violation of all the most Sacred and Solemn Oaths and Treaties invaded and taken a great part of the Spanish Netherlands which had always been consider'd as the Natural Frontier of England the King then prompted more by his own Fears then out of any kindness he had for the Nation judg'd it necessary to interpose before the Flames that consum'd his next Neighbour should throw their Sparkles over the Water Thereupon he sent Sir William Temple then his Resident at Brussels to propose a nearer Alliance with the Hollanders and to take joint Measures against the French Which Proposals of Sir William Temple's being entertain'd with all Compliance with the Dutch within Five days after Two several Treaties were concluded between the King and the States The one a Defensive and Stricter League than before between the Two Nations and the other a Joint and Reciprocal Engagement to oppose the Conquest of Flanders and to procure either by way of Mediation or by Force of Arms a speedy Peace between France and Spain upon the Terms therein mentioned And because Sweden came into the same Treaty within a very little while after from the Three Parties concern'd and engag'd it was call'd the Triple League In pursuance of which the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle was also forc'd upon the French and in some manner upon the Spaniards who were very unwilling to part with so great a Part of their Country by a Solemn Treaty But both the King and the Hollanders thought it a very great and good Work and judg'd it an extraordinary Happiness not only for Spain but for all Europe to come off with a broken Pate and to have at least for that while kept France from going farther Besides all this to tye the Knot the faster and take even the very thoughts from the French King of ever stirring or being troublesom to his Neighbour the King sent an Extraordinary Envoy to several Princes of Germany to invite them into the Triple League and his Minister to perswade them to it laid open with no less heat then plainness the danger all Europe was in urging the insensibility of most Princes and their carelesness the watchful Ambition of the French the Greatness of their Forces and the little Reason there was to trust him In fine omitting nothing that could Alarm all the World and procure a general Confederacy against the Common Oppressor More than this in regard the Spaniards were very much wanting to themselves by their backwardness in the Payment of the Subsidies promised to Sweden the King af England being not without some fears least the Swedes should fall off uless the Money agreed upon were paid them without farther delay he offer'd to advance part of it himself and had accordingly done it in case the Dutch would have advanced the rest The Kidg of France thus stopp'd in his Career by the Tripple League and by the Peace of Aix la Chapelle soon after concluded though for a while he dissembled his dissatisfaction yet resolved to untye the Tripple Knot whatever it cost him To which purpose the Dutchess of Orleans was sent over as one that would be a welcom Guest to her Brother and whose Charms â—nd Dexterity joyn'd with her other adâ—antages would give her such an ascenâ—ent over him as could not fail of Success â—nd indeed she acquitted her self so well â—f her Commission that she quite supplanted all the King 's good Councils and by yielding to his Incestuous Embraces while the D. of B. held the Door so charmed his most Sacred Majesty and he quite and clean forgot his Tripple League and entred into a new and stricter Alliance with France than ever 'T is true the Peace was dear bought by the Zealous Lady in regard it cost her her Life upon her return into France For though she might seem to have atton'd for the Crime and to have merited forgiveness from her Husband by the advantageous League which she had pleasantly syren'd her Brother to make with the French Monarch yet jealous and incensed Orleance was not so much a lover of his Country as to remit the Indignity done to his Bed or such a Bigot as to pardon the Woman that had sacrificed his Honour to the Interest of Popery However the Articles being thus sealed at Dover by his Majesty the Marquis of Belfonds was immediately sent hither and a Person of great Honour sent thither and so the League it self being drawn into form was ratified on both sides This Treaty was for a long time a work of Darkness and lay long concealed tilâ— the King of France to the end the King of England being truly set forth in hiâ— Colours out of a disâ—air of ever being trusted or forgiven by his People hereafter might be push't to go on barefac'd and follow his steps in Government as well as Religion most treacherously and unking-like caused it to be Printed at Paris tho upon Complaint made at the French Court it was again stifled and the Author tho' he had his instructions from Colbert to humour the King committed to the Bastile for a short time and then let out again However the Book being Printed some few Copies lit into safe hands from whence take the Substance of that Mystery of Iniquity as follows After that M. de Croisy the French Embassador at London had laid before the Eyes of the King of England all the Grounds which his Majesty had of Complaint against Holland c. He told him that the time was come to revenge himself of a
English with the French like the Disasters that happen to Men by being in ill Company In the mean time the hopes of the Spanish and Smirna Fleet being vanished the slender Allowance from the French not sufficing to defray farther Charges and the ordinary Revenue of His Majesty with all the former Aids being in less than one years time exhausted the Parliament with the King 's most gracious leave was permitted to sit again at the time appointed At what time at the King 's and the Lord Keeper's usual daubing way the War was first communicated to them and the Causes the Necessity the Danger so well painted out that upon the King 's earnest Suit the Commons though in a War begun without their Advice readily Voted the Royal Mumper no less than One million two hundred and fifty thousand Pounds though they would not say it was for the War but for the King 's extraordinary Occasions Nevertheless it was but yet a Vote to Embryo and therefore now beginning in grow more sensible of the true Causes of the Quarrel they prepared an Act before they let the Money-Bill slip out of their Hands by which the Papists were obliged to pass through a new State Purgatory if they intended to be capable of any Publick Employment The Declaration also of Indulgence was questioned which tho His Majesty had out of his Princely and Gracious Inclinations to Popery and the Memory of some former Obligations granted for the sake of the Papists yet greedy after the Coin he was pleased to cancel at the humble request as he pretended of the Parliament and declared it should be no President for the future After which compelled by his want of a fresh Supply he passed the Bill concerning the Papists in exchange for the Money and then the Parliament growing uneasie they were again sent a Grazing for a good while The King hoping when he had the management of the Cash to frustrate the Effect of the Act which he had passed against his good Friends the Roman Catholicks And now the King having got the Money in his Hands a new Project was set on foot to set up an Army in England for the introducing of Slavery and Popery under pretence of Landing in Holland Which was raised with all the Expedition imaginable over which as Colonel Fitzgerald an Irish Papist was made Major General so were the greatest number of the Captains and other Officers of the same Stamp And because that pretence was soon blown over it was afterward still continued on foot under the more plausible Colour of a War with France But after all these cunning Contrivances to alter the Religion and Government of the Nation the King being disappointed in all his Projects and finding that the Parliament grown more sensible of his abstruse designs and alarum'd at his extraordinary new Militia both Burthensom and unnecessary for any other Employment but the support of Arbitrary Power would give him no more Money but began to call his Ministers in question was forc'd to make a Peace with the Dutch and disband the Army to his great regret However what he could not do at hope he resolved to do abroad and therefore the English Scotch and Irish Regiments that were already in the French Service were not only kept up in their full Complement but new numbers of Soldiers were daily transported thither to make up in all a constant Body of Ten thousand Men. Which was done on purpose that he might have an Army train'd up under the French Discipline and Principles ready seasoned to be call'd back into England for the Execution of any opportune Enterprize upon his Protestant Subjects Thus far we have seen the King's inveterate Malice to his Neighbours and Allies the Dutch meerly upon the account of their being Protestants and Protectors of the Protestant Religion and his pernicious Conjunction with the French King to their utter Destruction and Desolation A continued Series of Treachery and Faith-breaking which only that Romish Principle That there is no Faith to be kept with Hereticks could have infused into his Breast Now let us take a short view of his Carriage from the beginning of his Restoration to the French King the Mortal Enemy of his Subjects and the Religion which they profess It is well known in general how much the Extraordinary Kindness of Charles the Second to Lewis the Fourteenth has contributed to that vast increase of Shipping and Experience in the Art of Navigation to which they are now arrived which no Prince in the World that might have been so strong at Sea as his Majesty might have been with half the Expence which he squander'd away to ruin the nation had he been sensible in the least of his own Grandure the welfare of his ow Subjects and the danger of having so potent a Rival for the Dominion of the Sea which God and Nature seemed to have appropriated to himself We have been told of brisk Messenger sent to the French Kings so soon as they did but lay the Carkass of a pitiful Flyboat upon the Stocks But such was the Complaisance of our Supine Monarch that he not only connived at the industrious Preparations of the French King but lent him his helping Hand to make him Master of his own Rights When they had none of their own he sent Vice-Admirals and other considerable Sea-Officers to encourage and promote the setting out of their Fleets He pitied their want of Experience in Sea Affairs and out of Compassion and Brotherly Love lead their rare Sea-men by the Hand train'd them up in his Fleets and among the best of his Sea-men taught them the Skill which they had been forcod to toyl for by the Experience of many Ages and to crown all even to fight for them and to interpose between them and Danger with so good Success that the French Squadron as if the Engagement had been only designed for a Diversion and Entertainment to them came off as fresh and as whole as when they first sailed out of their own Ports was such an unparallell'd Kindness that nothing but the extraordinary hopes the King had placed in him of being his great Assistant for the compassing of his pernicious designs upon his own Subjects could have made him condescend to But to come to Particulars It was a strange Demonstration of the King of England's kindness to the French Interest though to the unspeakable Detriment of his own People that after all those Expressions in the Lord Keeper Bridgman's Speech of the Treaty between France and the King of England concerning Commerce wherein the King would have as he said such a singular regard to the Honour and Trade of this Nation notwithstanding the intolerable Oppression upon the English Traffick in France ever since the King's Restoration he had not in all that time made one step toward a Treaty of Commerce or Navigation with him no not even at that time when the English were so necessary to him that he
Pope himself which once was printed in Whitlocks Memoirs but upon the considerations of the danger that might ensue upon divulging it at that time to the World torn out before the publishing of the Book However to supply that defect we shall here insert the Propositions that were sent by him to Rome while he was in Scotland professing the Presbyterian Religion and carried thither and press'd forward by one Dalie an Irish Priest and Confessor to the then Queen of Portugal under the Title of Propositions and Motives for and on the behalf of the most Invincible King of Great Britain France and Ireland to Pope Innocent X. in the Year of Iubilee 1650. Which Dalie taking France in his way spake with the Queen-Mother and receiv'd her Directions for the better management of the Affair Most Blessed Father Our Agent at present residing at Rome with all humility shews to your Holiness That the principal cause and occasion of that Regicide tyrannically perpetrated upon the Person of Charles the First Father of that foresaid Charles the Second by his Rebels and cruel Subjects the like whereof was never heard of from the beginning of the world not only not among civil Nations but even among the most barbarous themselves have been the graces favors and concessions so often and so many ways extended to the Catholick Religion and the Assertors and Professors thereof in the Kingdoms both of England and Ireland The truth of which appears in that the foresaid Charles the First gave Authority to the Marquiss of Ormond by several Commissions for the establishing and perfecting all Conditions with the Confederate Catholicks of the Kingdom of Ireland of sufficient security for the Catholick Faith Furthermore the said Charles the First tearing lest the said Ormond being an Heretick should not satisfie the said Confederates in all things He sent thither the Marquiss of Worcester a Man truly and wholly Catholick with a more ample Commission in which Commission the said Marquiss of Worcester had full Authority of concluding a Peace with the said Confederate Catholicks and of giving them Conditions altogether satisfactory as well concerning Liberty of Religion as also as to other Injuries that had been done unto them which the said Marquiss of Worcester making with them an absolute Peace did abundantly fulfil Further this appeareth in that the said Charles the First even in England it self did by Commissions set the Catholicks namely the said Marquiss of Worcester Sir Arthur Ashton and many others over his Armies and made them Governours of Cities Castles and strong Holds notwithstanding the clamour of the People against it and which was not a slight Motive of the Regicide committed upon him whereby it appears that although the said King Charles the First died not a Catholick yet he died for them Again most blessed Father the same Agent most humbly represents That the present King Charles the Second the true and undoubted Heir of the foresaid Charles the First and of all his Kingdoms to whom the said Kingdoms belong of right according to that of Christ Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's while his Father yet lived was known to have good and true Natural inclinations to the Catholick Faith following which and going on in his Fathers steps he did not only recommend it to the Marquiss of Ormond but gave it him in express Command to satisfie in all things the Confederate Catholicks in Ireland namely That he should grant them the free exercise of their Religion That he should abrogate the Penal Laws made against them and that he should restore to the said Catholicks whether Laicks or Ecclesiasticks their Lands Estates Possessions or what other Rights did at any time belong unto them and by the said Laws had been unjustly taken away in obedience to which Commands the said Marquiss in the Name and by the Authority of the said two Kings namely Charles the First and the II. made and concluded a firm Peace with the said Confederate Catholicks by the conclusion of which Peace the said present King and all his Dominions hath involved himself with the Catholicks in an irreconcileable War against the Parliamentarian Regicides of England whose Blood therefore the said cruel Tyrants insatiably thirst after as they did after his Fathers The said Agent further offers to your Holiness That the inhumane Regicides do wickedly usurp to themselves in the Dominions aforementioned all the Authority of the King do most cruelly persecute all the Catholicks both in England and in Ireland partly by condemning them to Banishment partly by thrusting them into Prisons and otherwise corporally punishing them and lastly by putting them to death a Witness of the truth hereof is that great slaughter made by Cromwel in the taking of the two Cities of Drogheda and Wexford and other places where all the Catholicks without distinction of either Sex or Age were slaughtered witness hereof also the raging persecution and death of Catholicks in England by all which and by their Parliamentarian Decrees themselves and their Covenant with God as they call it it is evident even beyond the clearness of the light of the shining Sun That these Tyrannical Regicides do ultimately intend and put forth all their Power for the utter destruction of all Catholicks and to extirpate by the Roots and wholly to extinguish the Catholick Faith throughout the World openly asserting and boasting with great glory that these things being once finished in those Dominions they will then invade France and after that run through Germany Italy and all Europe throwing down Kings and Monarchs whose very Titles are most odious and abhorrent unto them Briefly they have no other thing in their Aim than these two namely The extirpation of the Catholick Religion and the destruction of Monarchy To which wicked Machinations of theirs forasmuch as they could never have any the least hopes that either the King or his Father should at any time in the least assent they have put the one to death and the other to exile And these Rebels now with a nefarious boldness have lately called themselves a Common-wealth To meet with and prevent the infernal endeavours of such Rebels our Agent most humbly offers to your Holiness the following Propositions 1. That your Holiness would make an annual supply out of your own Treasury unto the said Charles the Second of considerable sums of Money sutable to the maintaining the War against those Rebels against God the Church and Monarchy 2. That you would cause and compel the whole beneficed Clergy in the world of whatsoever Dignity Degree State or Condition soever to contribute the third or the fourth part of all their Fruits Rents Revenues or Emoluments to the said War as being Universal and Catholick And that the said Contribution may be paid every Three Months or otherwise as shall seem most expedient to your Holiness 3. That by your Apostolick Nuncio's your Holiness would most instantly endeavour with all Princes Common-wealths and Catholick States
the Scandal of being a Whore that after he had made her a Dutchess he made her also his Wife that is to say he marry'd her by vertue of his Royal Prerogative at the Lord A's House by the Common Prayer-Book according to the Ceremonies of the Church of England A thing in some measure justifiable in a Prince since the Law allows all Men one Wife and therefore a King who is above Law may surely have two And upon this ground perhaps it was that upon a Lord Mayor's Day being at Mr. Eaton's in Cheapside where the King usually stood upon some Discourse that brought it out she cry'd Me no Whore if me thought me were a Whore me would cut mine own Throat And by the same Dispensing Power he provided also for her Children And therefore having no less adulterously begotten a Daughter upon the Lady Wood he join'd her in holy Wedlock to one of his Sons whom he had begot after the same Legitimate manner upon the Body of the Dutchess of Cleveland according to the Answer of Tamar to Ammon of which he wanted not Sycophant Priests enow to put him in mind But these were Peccadillo's readily forgiven by the Religion which he inwardly embrac'd which could readily dispense with such Trifles as these provided he went thorough-stitch with the Work which his Ghostly Fathers had cut out for him Which was the reason perhaps that he made choice of a Devotion so conformable to his lustful Inclinations For certainly what was said of Harry the Eighth might much more properly he said of him That he spar'd no Woman whether Virgin Marry'd or Widow in his Venereal Heats Which fill'd his Court so full of Pimps and Panders that there was hardly any Preferment about his Person for any other This was that which render'd the D. of L. one of the most ill-favour'd of Men so amiable in our Caesar's Eyes And this was that which advanced several others to their gilded Coaches and Places of the greatest Honour and Profit about the Court. Tho nothing was more mournful then to see those vast Sums of Money which the Parliament so profusely gave him for the Honour and Security of the Nation so extravagantly and prodigally wasted upon his Strumpets of which two were Common Harlots of Actresses taken from the Bawdy Stage to his Royal Bed A thousand Pounds every Munday-morning for the Smiles of a Gilt when his necessary Servants pin'd and starv'd for want of their weekly Board-wages and the strength of the Kingdom his Seamen were forc'd to serve his Enemies for Bread Thus from the first hour of his Arrival into these Kingdoms for I dare not call them His he set himself by his own perswasion and influence to withdraw both Men and Women from the Laws of Nature and Morality and to pollute and infect the People with all manner of Debauchery and Wickedness He that ought to have shone like the North Star in the Firmament of Royalty to direct his Subjects in the Paths of Vertue and Honesty was the Sovereign Ignis fatuus to misguide them into all the snares of Ruin and Perdition Execrable Oaths were the Chief Court-Acknowledgements of a Deity Fornications and Adulteries the Principal Tests of the Peoples Loyalty and Obedience And whether it were to affront God who had preserved and restored him to his Throne or to be reveng'd upon the Nation for inviting him so unanimously to weild the Scepter of his Ancestors certain it is that he made it his business to live in defiance of the Fear and Authority of God and to poyson and corrupt the Minds and deprave the Manners of the English People as might easily be observed through the whole Course of his Reign But the King had been well instructed in his Exile and had sufficiently learnt in his banishment that undoubted Maxim of Tyranny that the only way to alter the settl'd Government of a Nation and to introduce Slavery and Popery the support of Thraldom was to weaken and make soft the Military Temper of the People by Debauchery and Effeminacy which generally go hand in hand together Knowing therefore that Regis ad Exemplum totus componitur Orbis he gave these lewd Examples himself on purpose that after he had thus Enervated the Minds and Resolutions of his Subjects he might the more easily trample upon their Necks and reduce them under the perpetual Yoke of Antichrist in expectation of his Mothers Blessing and to fulfil the Agreement between himself the Pope and the French King Certain it is that the Kingdom was never in a better Posture for the King to work upon it then at the time of his return into England For such were the Contests for Superiority among those who had taken upon them the Government after the death of Oliver such the Confusions and Disorders that from thence arose that no body could probably see where would be the End of the general Distraction unless it were by reducing all things to their Primitive Condition under a Prince whose Title was so fair to the Crown Though a great Blunder in Politicks which the necessity of Affairs at that time made to pass for an Act of Prudence But such an Act it was to which all Parties were the more inflam'd by the Kings reiterated Oaths Promises and Declarations to those of the Church of England to maintain the Protestant Religion to the Dissenters that he would indulge their tender Consciences with all the Liberty they could rationally desire and to All in general that he was a most really zealous and unalterable Protestant And so infatuated they were with these ingratiating Wheedles that should all that knew him beyond Sea both at Colen and in Flanders have spoken their discoveries with the Voices of Angels nay should the Letter which he wrote with his own hand in the year Sixty two to the Pope have been shewn them in Capital Letters they would have been all lookt upon but as Fictions and Inventions to obstruct the Happiness of the Nation The People therefore ador'd him as the end of all their Miseries the Dissenters upon the Relations of their Ministers return'd thought themselves happy in the reports of his Mercy and Piety and the Parliament doated upon his Oaths and Promises so that no Prince in the World could ascend a Throne with more Love and Affection or with a greater Reputation in the Opinion of the whole Nation What could be more inhuman more immoral more barbarous then by all the Violations of Royal Faith and the Word of a King to disappoint the Hopes and Expectations of a People that had such a Confidence of his Religion and Vertue Though perhaps such a failure might have been attributed to his Weakness and want of Conduct But to set himself after so high a Veneration of his Vertues such a prostrating of their Lives and Fortunes at his Feet in Combination with a Forreign Prince the only professed and mortal Enemy of their Welfare to destroy their Religion
Nation that had so little respect for Kings and that the occasion was never more favourable seeing many of the Princes of Germany were already entered into the League and that the King of France was powerful enough to be able to promise to his Allies in the Issue of that War satisfaction both as to their Honour and Interests whereby he prevailed with that Prince to enter into secret Alliance with France And for his greater Assurance and the more to confirm him Henrietta Dutchess of Orleans went for England and proposed to her Brother in the Name of the Most Christian King that he would assure him an Absolute Authority over his Parliament and full Power to establish the Catholick Religion in his Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland But withal she told him that to compass this before all things else it would be necessary to abate the Pride and Power of the Dutch and to reduce them to the sole Province of Holland and that by this means the King of England should have Zealand for a Retreat in case of necessity and that the rest of the Low-Countries should remain to the King of France if he could render himself Master of it This is the Sum of that famous League concluded at Dover fram'd and enter'd into on purpose for the Subjugation of these three Nations to Popery and Slavery However as at first this Treaty was kept so close that it was no way to be discover'd so before the Effects appear'd it was necessary that the Parliament after the old wont should be gull'd to the giving of Money for the carrying on this grand and deep Conspiracy The Parliament met Octob. 24. 1670. where the Lord Keeper Bridgeman guided more by his Instructions than by any knowledge he had of the devilish Design omitted nothing to make Both Houses sensible of the great Service done to England and in a manner to all Mankind by chaining up the devouring Lyon that was never satiated with Prey and the more to incite their Liberality he told them of several other Leagues which the King for the good of his People and the Advancement of the Trade of the Nation had made with other Princes as the D. of Savoy the King of Denmark and the King of Spain by which as his Lordship was pleased to say it was evident that all the Princes of Europe sought his Majesties Friendship as acknowledging they could not secure much less improve their present Condition without it concluding that for the Support of these Alliances the annual Charge of His Majesties Navy came to no less than Five hundred thousand Pounds nor could be maintain'd with less Upon the telling of which Story notwithstanding the immense Sums lavish'd to no purpose or rather to our Loss in the former War with Holland notwithstanding they had given the Additional Duty upon Wines for Eight years amounting to Five hundred and sixty thousand Pounds and confirmed the Sale of the Fee farm Rents no less their Gift being a part of the Publick Revenue to the value of one Million and Eight hundred thousand Pounds they could not hold but gave with both hands again a Subsidy of Twelve Pence in the Pound to the real value of all Lands and other Estates proportionably with several more beneficial Clauses in the Bargain to which they joyned the Additional Excise upon Beer Ale c. And lastly the Law Bill which being summ'd up together could not be estimated at less than two Millions and half So that for the Tripple League here was a Tripple Supply and the Subject had now all the reason to believe that this Alliance which had been fix'd at first by the Publick Interest Safety and Honour was by these three Grants as with three Golden Nails sufficiently clinched and rivetted But now therefore was the most proper Time and Occasion for the King and his chosen Ministers to give Demonstrations of their Fidelity to the French Monarch and for his Sacred Majesty by the Forfeiture of all these Obligations to his Subjects and the Princes abroad and at the Expence of all this Treasure given for quite contrary Uses to recommend himself the more meritoriously to his Patronage The Parliament therefore after they had given all this Money were presently Prorogued and sat no more till the latter end of February 1672. that there might be a competent time allowed for so great a work as was designed and that the Architects of our Ruine might be so long free from the busie and odious Inspection of the Parliament till the work were finish'd And now all Applications made by his Majesty of Great Britain to induce Foreign Princes into the Garranty of the Peace of Aix la Chapelle ceased while on the other side those who desired to be admitted into it were here rejected The Duke of Lorrain who had always been a true Friend to the King and for his Affection to the Tripple League had incurred the French King's Displeasure with the loss of his Country Seizd upon in the year 1669. against all the Laws not only of Peace but Hostility yet by vertue of the Dover Treaty was refused the favour to which others had been so earnestly invited and though his Envoy was sent back with Complements and many Expressions of Kindness yet he was told withal that the French Invasion was a torrent not to be stopp'd at that time which was as much as to say the Case was alter'd and the Tripple League must signifie nothing At the same time also the Emperour by a Letter invited himself into the same Garranty in conformity to one of the Articles of the said Treaty of Aix Upon receipt of which Letter the King assured the Spanish Embassador that he was glad his Imperial Majesty was so ready to come into the League and told him he would cause an Instrument to be prepared in order to his Admission But when the Resolution was taken and orders given for preparing the said Instrument it was moved that Mr. Secretary Trevor who was not initiated in their holy Mysteries might not have the drawing of it though it was his proper Province By which means the Popish Cabal having made themselves sole Masters of the thing at first a reasonable honest Draught was brought in but before it was perfected Monsieur Colbert being consulted the King was possessed with an opinion that the admitting the Emperor would be attended with dangerous Consequences and that in case he came into the League his Majesty would be engaged in all his Quarrels and bound to make his Forces March into the farthest parts of Germany as often as it should happen to be Invaded by the Great Turk which Secretary Trevor oppos'd as much as he was able and endeavoured to satisfie the King that the Garranty of the Tripple League as well as of the Treaty of Aix related only to Hostilities either from France or Spain yet the wary Men of the Cabal being on the King's side carry'd it and so the
Emperor was put off with a Flamm Nay so soon as the Two Confederate Monarchs had thus made a shift to cut the Gordian Knot the now pitiful but formerly vaunted Tripple League was trampled under foot turn'd into Ridicule and less valued than a Ballad Insomuch that to talk of admitting others into the Tripple League was reprehended in print as a kind of Figure of Speech commonly called a Bull. And farther to shew how much he hated the thoughts of the Triple League which he had made for the good of Christendom his most Sacred Majesty suffered an Agent of his one Marsilly whom he had sent to invite the Switzers into the Garranty who was Surprized and taken Prisoner by the French in the execution of the Commands he had not many Months before received from Whitehall to be broken upon the Wheel at Paris tho one single Word from the King would have sav'd his Life Neither did he take it ill that upon the Scaffold Twenty Questions were put to him relating to his own Person or that in such a publick and infamous Place a strict inquiry should be made as to what had pass'd between him and the King of England for that was the best Title they could afford him for all his late Favours And thus it is plain that the Tripple League was broken for no other ends than to be subservient to the ends of the French King to ruin the Dutch and to bring the Three Kindoms of England Ireland and Scotland under the Yoaks of Arbitrary Power and Roman Catholick Idolatry after a total Abolition of the name of Parliaments and subversion of the Fundamental Laws Gratias tibi piissime atque invictissime Rex Carole Secunde And thaâ— he might not as much as in him lay meet with after-rubs Mr. H. C. dispatch'd into Sweden to dissolve the Tripple League in that Kingdom which he did so effectually by co-operating with the French Ministers in that Court that the Swede after it came to Rupture never assisted to any purpose or prosecuted the Ends of the said Alliance only by arming himself at the expence of the League first under a disguised Mediation acted the French Interest and at last threw off his Vizard and drew his Sword on the French side in the Quarrel And at home when the Project ripen'd and grew hopeful the Lord Keeper was discharged from his Office and both he the D. of Ormond Prince Rupert and Secretary Trevor were discarded out of the Committee for Forreign Affairs as being too honest to comply with the Intreagues then on foot Mr. Trevor being the first Secretary of State that was ever left out of a Commission of that Importance All things being so well thus far disposed toward a War with Holland there wanted only a Quarrel and to pick one required much invention The East-India Company was summon'd to know whether they had any thing to object against them but the Dutch had so punctually complyed with all the Conditions of the Peace at Breda that nothing could there be found out And as to the Tripple League they were out at the same time in pursuance of it and to be ready upon occasion to relieve the the Spanish Netherlands which were then threatned by the French But at length a way was found out that never hapned because it was never so much as imagin'd before by sending the Fanfan a sorry inconsiderable Yatcht but bearing the English Flag with Orders to sail into the middle of the Dutch Fleet single out the Admiral and to fire two Guns at him a thing as ridiculous as for a Lark to dare a Hobby However the Commander in Chief in respect to his Majesties Colours and in consideration of the Amity between both Nations paid the Admiral of the Yatcht a Visit to know the reason of his Anger and understanding it was because the whole Fleet had fail'd to strike to his Oyster-boat the Dutch Commander excus'd it as a thing that never hapned before and therefore could have no Instructions in it and so they parted But the Captain of the Yatcht having thus acquitted himself return'd full freighted with the Quarrel he was sent for Which yet for several Months was pass'd over here in silence but to be afterwards improv'd as the design ripen'd For there was yet one jolly prank more to be plaid at home to make the King more capable of what was shortly after to be executed upon his Neighbours The Exchequer for some years before by the Bait of more than ordinary Gain had decoy'd in the greatest part of the most wealthy Goldsmiths and they the rest of the Money'd People of the Nation by the due payment of Interest till the King was run in Debt upon what account no body knew above Two Millions Which served for one of the Pretences in the Lord Keeper's Speech at the Opening of the Parliament to demand and obtain a Grant of the forementioned Supplies and might plentifully have suffic'd to disengage the King with Peace and any tolerable Good Husbandry But as if it had been perfidious to have apply'd them to any of the Purposes declar'd instead of Payment it was privately resolv'd to shut up the Exchequer lest any part of the Money should have been legally expended but that all might be appropriated to the Holy War in prospect and those far more pious Uses to which the King had dedicated it This Affair was carried on with all the secresie imaginable lest the unseasonable venting of it should have spoil'd the Wit and Malice of the Design So that all on a sudden upon the First of Ianuary 1671. to the great astonishment ruine and despair of so many interested Persons and to the Terror of the whole Nation by so Arbitrary a Fact the Proclamation issu'd forth in the midst of the Confluence of such vast Aids and so great a Revenue whereby the Crown publish'd it self Bankrupt made Prize of the Subject and broke all Faith and Contract at home in order to the breaking of both abroad with more advantage What was this but a Robbery committed upon the People under the Bond and Security of the Royal Faith by which many hundreds were as really impoverish'd and undone as if he had violently broken into their Houses and taken their Money out of their Coffers Nay that would have look'd Generous and Great whereas the other was base and sneaking Only it seem'd more agreeable to his Majesties Temper to rob his Subjects by a Trick than to plunder them by direct and open Force Of alliance to this only with some more Gâ—ains if more could be of Vileness and Unworthiness in it was that Action also of seizing part of the Money collected for the Redemption of Slaves out of Argiers and fetching it from the Chamber of London where it lay deposited to that end into the Treasury from whence it was to be dispos'd and made use of for the Enslaving the Nation Could there be an Action of greater barbarity
hands to prevent the Consequences of French and Popish Dictates they were mistaken in the Man and gave their wholsom Advice to him that was bound not to take it and was himself the Primum Mobile of all the Disorders which they besought of him to remedy During this Sessions of Parliament many foul things came to light For while the King had raised an Army and pressed the Parliament for Money to maintain them under pretence of making a War with France which was the earnest desire of all the Protestant part of the Kingdom the Parliament were fully informed that while the King boasted of the Alliances which he had made for the preservation of Flanders and the Protestant Religion both at home and abroad he was secretly entred into Treaties and Alliances at the same time with the French King and Mr. Garraway of the House of Commons had gotten a Copy of the Private Treaty between the King of England and the French King at the same instant that the Secretary and all the Court Pentioners cried out a War insomuch that such of the Conspirators as were in the House began to blush when they saw the Cheat so palpably discerned It was farther discovered that a great Favourite of the Duke 's had been sent over into France under a pretence of Expostulating and requiring satisfaction for the Injuries which the English had received from the French but in reality to carry the Project of Articles for the Peace and to settle and confirm all things fast about the Money that was to come from France and to agree the Methods for shamming the Confederates about their Expected Alliances They found themselves cheated of all the Pole Bill Money which they had given so little a while before upon the assurance of a War intended against France the greatest part of which they perceived was imediately though appropriated to the French Wur only converted to other uses as the paying of old Debts so that very little was left to pay for any Necessaries bought or to be bought toward the pretended War with France Nor were they ignorant of the real Design for which the King had raised his Army and what care the King and his Brother took that there should be no other Officers in that Army than what were fit for the Work in hand which was to introduce Popery and French Government by main force Four parts of Five being downright Papists or else such as resolved so to be upon the least intimation The Duke recommending all such as he knew fit for the Turn and no less than a Hundred Commissions being sign'd by Secretary W. to â—ish Papists to raise Forces notwithstanding the late Act by which means both the Land and Naval Forces were in safe hands And to compleat the Work hardly a Judge Justice of the Peace or any Officer in England but what was of the Duke's Promotion Nor were they ignorant of the private Negotiations carried on by the Duke with the Kings Connivance with the Pope and Cardinal Norfolk who had undertaken to raise Money from the Church sufficient to supply the King's Wants till the Work were done in case the Parliament should smoak their Design and refuse to give any more Nor was the Parliament ignorant what great Rejoycing there was in Rome it self to hear in what a posture his Majesty was and how well provided of an Army and Money to begin the Business The Parliament also understood while they were labouring the War with France and to resist the growth of Popery and Arbitrary Power that the King underhand assisted the French with Men and Ammunition of all sorts and soon after that a Cessation was concluded both at Nimeghen and Paris and that the King had got some money from France for that Jobb by which means the French King was now sure to hold all his Conquests abroad which had England been real to the Confederates might have been easily wrested again out of his Hands But it seems it was not so much Money as the King expected which made him angry so that he began to threaten that if the French King did not perform his Promise of 300000 l. Annuity for three Years he would undo all he had done against the next Parliament But the French King derided those vain Threats menacing in his turn that if the King of England would not be content with his Terms and do and say to the Parliament according to his directions he would discover both him and his Correspondents in betraying the Nation and discover all his secret Contrivances against the Kingdom as afterwards he Published the Dover Treaty at Paris which was the reason that after that His Majesty of England never durst disoblige the French Monsieur but became a perfect Slave to his Interest a Bondage he never needed to have undergone had he been but half as sincere to his English Parliament But to them he was never true with them he always broke his Faith and Royal Word insomuch that after they had given him Money to Disband his Army he employed the Money to another use and kept up his standing Forces to the great Terror of the People in all parts of the Kingdom So that now all things running on the Papistical side to their Hearts desire what with Popish Souldiers Popish Officers Popish Counsels Popish Priests and Jesuits swarming about the Town and Country and France at leisure to help them who had help'd him to be more a Conqueror by the Peace than he could have expected by a War the Duke of York was for the Kings pulling off his Vizard and for setting up Alamode of France according to what had been so often debated at White hall and St. Iames's But while the King and his Brother were thus riding Post to ruin the Laws and Religion of the Kingdom the Discovery of the Popish Plot by Dr. Oats broke all their Measures for a time by laying open the Secret Contrivances of our English Castor and Pollux for the introducing of Popery and Arbitrary Government This Plot was no sooner made known to the King but he imparts it to the Duke not the knowledge of the Plot for that they both knew before but the News of the Plots being discovered Upon which they set themselves with all the care they could to stop the farther Progress of the Discovery To which purpose the Duke gives notice of it to his Man Coleman and the Priests and Jesuits in the Savoy by which means what Papers and Persons were to be conceal'd and conveyed away was carefully looked after All this while by this â—easonable detection of the King and his Brother to the Priests Jesuits Oats himself narrowly escaped Massacred Oats finding himself thus betray'd and abandoned by the King applies himself to Sir Edmund Bury Godfry with a Scheme of the Plot fairly drawn up by that means to be introduced before the Council to have the Business there unfolded which with much ado was done and Oats
yet there was another quickly hatch'd of the same stamp and nature though carried on by other Instruments Nell Wall an Irish Papist and a Wench formerly employed only to empty Close-stools at White-Hall but afterwards for her Religion advanced to be one of the French Dutchesses Women and so to the King's Favour by which she became a great States-Woman as well as a common Whore To this Woman a great part of the Popish Secrets were discovered and by her means Fitz-Harris was first introduced to the Dutchess and then to the King where he was told That the Plot would undo them unless a way could be found to make a Counter-plot therefore he was bid to try all ways to effect it for that no Cost should be spared but such Rewards should be given as were fit for so great a Service Draw Painter here England's pious Protestant Monarch Counter-plotting with his Popish Concubine and her Close-stool Wench against his Parliament and Kingdom in favour of those that sought the destruction of both The business of this Irish Tool was to find out Seditious Lampoons and Pamphlets and carry them to White-Hall where he had Audience and private Conferences with Nell Wall the Dutchess and the King himself and where he had sometimes given for secret service a Hundred and Two Hundred Pound at a time and was no less slabber'd by his Gracious Soveraign than Dangerfield had been before So zealous were We for the Popish Cause that rather than miss of the Designs of enslaving the Nation by Arbitrary Government and Popery that We would have declar'd our selves even to have kiss'd the Tail as well as the Cheeks of the most Contemptible Creatures in the World Nor must it be omitted as an Argument of His Majesty's great Zeal for the Protestant Religion That when one Sergeant a Priest made a discovery of the Popish Plot from Holland which he caus'd to be transmitted to the Court with an intention to have discovered several others he was first brib'd off by Pillory-Carr then sent for into England slightly and slily examined had his Pardon given him and sent back with Five Pound a week to say no more And in this game that we may understand by whose Countenancing the thing was done Sir L. Ienkins shewed the utmost of his Parts and Fidelity being just enter'd Secretary in the room of another who did not care to venture so far as that both Fool as well as Knave did Among whose good Services to his Master we may reckon his endeavours as much as lay in his Power to conceal the Murther of the Priest at Abbeville in France upon intimation that he was coming into England to make a farther discovery of the Plot Which together with his fasting and other infallible tokens shewed him to be plainly what was well enough known before Father Goff's Creature as well as the King 's and Duke's Nor was it a thing less astonishing to the Nation to see the Parliament prorogued from time to time no less than seven times before permitted to sit on purpose to get time for the Popish Duke to settle the Protestant Religion in Scotland and to the end the Conspirators might get heart and footing again and retrieve their Losses in England and in this Interval it was that Messengers were sent to their Friends at Rome and others their Associates for Money to strike while the Iron was hot in regard that Scotland by this time was secur'd and all things in such a forwardness that now or never was the time but the Pope had such an ill opinion of our Soveraign's Fidelity that he slipt his neck out of the Collar and in imitation of him the rest excused themselves upon the score of their poverty Thus missing money from Rome and the rest of their Popish Associates and the King of France refusing to part with any more Cash there was no way but one at a forc'd-put which was to let the Parliament sit and to make them the more willing to give money to undo the Nation the King in a framed Speech told them of the wonderful Advantageous Alliances for the Kingdoms good he had made with Foreign Princes and particularly with Hâ—lland and how necessary it was to preservâ— Tangier which had already run him in Debt Upon which Considerations the Burden of his Song was More Money But the Parliament Incensed at the frequent Prorogations fell upon Considerations more profitable for the Kingdom such as were the bringing to Condign punishment the Obstructers of their Sitting the Impeaching of North for Drawing the Proclamation against Petitioning and three of the Judges for dismissing the Grand Jury before whom the Duke was Indicted of Recusâ—ncy before they could make their presentments the prosecution of the Popish-Plot and the Examination of the Meal-Tub-Sham all which they lookt upon to be of greater moment than the King's Arguments for his wants For it was well known that by His perâ—idious Dealings abroad he had so impaired his Credit with all the Foreign Princes to whom he sent that they slighted his Applications as one upon whose Word they could never Rely And as for the preservation of Tangier there was nothing less in his Thoughts A fine Credit for a Prince and an excellent Character to recommend him to Posterity that he had no other than his own Sinister ends upon the Grand Council of his Kingdom nor no other way to work them to â—hose ends unless by forging untruths to make them accessary to the betraying of the â—eople that had entrusted them The Parliament therefore bent all their Cares to secure the Kingdom from Popery â—oncluding that the Dukes Apostâ—tizing from â—is Religion was the sole Evil under which â—he Nâ—â—â—ons in a more particular manner â—roaned and consequently that he was to 〈◊〉 Dismoâ—â—ted But the King being reâ—â—lved not to forsake his Brother whatever â—â—came of the Kingdom out of a proâ—ense â—alice to the Nation and â—oresight of the Miseries which his Brother's Government would bring upon the people rather than out of any natural Affection that he bore him took such a high Resentment against these honest and just proceedings of the Houses that after he had Sacrificed the Lord Stafford to his hopes of obtaining money upon the Dukes undertaking to furnish him he Dissolved this Parliament too with promise of another at Oxford to sweeten the bitter Pill which he had made the Nation to swallow In the mean time all the Care imaginable was taken to bring the Protestant-Plot to perfection preparative to which Judges were selected with Dispositions Thoughts and Minds as Scarlet as their Gowns And the Choice of Sheriffs was wrested by force from the people that they might pick out Juries without Conscience and Honesty A Plot contrived by Perfidiousness and Treachery beyond the parallel of History A Plot with Parisian Massacre in the Belly oâ— it designing no less an Innundation of Innocent Protestant Blood under the colour and forms of Justice and yet
who but he who in his last wheedling Speech to pick the Nations Pocket had promised to Consenâ— to any Laws against Popery at the bottoâ— of it Who but he the Suborner and Instructer of Fitzharris and the Gratifier of him too with his own Hand And why was W p readmitted to his and his Brother's Favour but to be the principal Broker for Witnesses and grand Minister of Subordination for the carrying on this bloody Design that since he could not advance his Fortune by the prostitution of his own Daughter he might do it by betraying the Innocent to slaughter What a crew of Devils in the shape of Men a Regiment of Miscreants in whom all the Transgressions of the Law and Morality were muster'd together I say what a band of such Caitiffs were rendevouz'd and with that Money which Parliaments gave to promote the Security of the Kingdom carress'd and pamper'd even to excess for the destruction of the Innocent And all this at the expence of him that bore the Stile and Character of our Gracious Soveraign For full proofs of which there needs no more than to look into the Tryal of Fitzharris himself and observe the Shuffâ—ng and Hectoring of Portsmouth and her Close-stool Wench Mrs. Wall when they were ask'd the Question about the Money that was given him at White-Hall and yet one would have thought that the modest and humble Address and Petitions of so maâ—y Parliaments to secure the Lives and Religion of his people that the care and tenderness which they had still out of mistake for his person that the prostrated Complaints of a distressed Nation and that the foresight of these dismal Calamities he was bringing upon three spacious and opulent Kingdoms might have interceded for some Compassion had there been a grain of common Humanity in his Adamantine Heart or that the heat of his Lust had not petrified all his pity And yet as horrid as this Plot was which nothing could equal but that horrid Plot of his own which this was contrived to coveâ— and stifle by excelling it was carried on with all the vigour imaginable insomuch that the more fatal Libel than the Gorgon's Head that was to kill unseen was ready prepared for the Work and the Train ready to take fire had not Everard's Jealousie of some design upon himself outwitted Fitzharris and first betrayed him to save his own Bacon To recite the particulars of a Design already so well known and publickly exposed to all the World would be a repetition altogether needless This however was observable that we were come to the height of Tiberius's Reign when Informers and 〈◊〉 Accusers a sort of Men found out for thâ— Ruine of the Publick and for the punishment of which no Laws can be too severe were encouraged and courted with Rewards Nullus à poena hominum cessavit dies decreta accusatoribus precipua premia nemini delatorum fides abrogata omne Crimen pro Capitali receptum etiam paucorum simpliciumque Verborum No day passed without some punishment inflicted great Rewards given to Informers no Informer but what was believed all Crimes were adjudged Capital though merely a few idle Words Such a Harmony there was between these times and the pernicious Reign of that Master in Cruelty and Dissimulation Tiberius But the Roguery being discovered while Fitzharris thought to have put Everard upon this Dilemma either to hang or prove the Libel upon others he came to run himself into the Noose Lord into what an Agony it put the King the Duke his dear Brother and their then juggling Instruments that the King who a little before was so overjoyed with the accompt of the Contrivance which was given him at White-hall that he could hardly contain himself from displaying the Raptures of his Soul was now so highly incensed against Fitzharris that he was heard to say He should die if there were no more Men in England But his Confession to the Recorder Sir George Treby and others what the design of the Conspiracy was that is to say to thrust papers into the pockets and Lodgings of such and such Gentlemen and then to seize them with the papers about them so enraged his Employers that he was presently lockt up in the Tower out of the reach of all Men but the Lieutenant to damn him for spoiling so hopeful a Design and Secretary Ienkins who was only admitted to him either to threaten or cajole him with fair promises into a Recantation But above all things there was such a dread among the Conspirators lest the Parliament should come to the knowledge of the depth of the Design that their resolute insisting to have the Cognizance of the Crime within their own jurisdiction was the occasion of their sudden Dissolution After which a Chief Justice was exalted on purpose to hang Fitzharris out of the way to prevent his farther discovery though the rejecting of Fitzharris's Impeachment by the Lords was a thing so new and unusual as to the Proceedings of Parliament that the Commons who knew the Law as well as the Judges voted it a Denial of Justice and that no Inferior Court should dare to try an Offender by them impeach'd But the Judges over-ruling the Law and the Court over-ruling the Judges no sooner was the Parliament Dissolved but Fitzharris was Hanged and by that means many a Mystery of Iniquity concealed The dissolution of this and the foregoing Parliament was justified by a Declaration in the King's Name which being published with all the severity and reproach that could be cast upon those worthy Patriots verified the Report of what the King had been heard to say That he would make the name of Parliaments to be forgotten in England However the Parliament being blown up and the King running away in a pretended pannick fear from Oxford to colour the ensuing projects of Plotting and Subornation no sooner was he settled again at London and Fitzharris Hang'd to the great joy of those that adored him before but the Gazett was cram'd with Addresses from all parts of the Nation to thank the King for his expressions and promises to Govern by Law which was no more than his Duty But those Addresses were only signed by the unthinking loose and rascally part of the people who were not sensible of the mischief which was thereby intended which was to make the Nation out of Love with Parliaments thereby to unhinge the Government and to introduce Tyranny and Arbitrary Power And that th Addressorse were only the Canaille of the Kingdom with only a Tool of Quality at the Head of them the Conspirators well knew which was the reason they never durst adventure to call any more Parliaments upon the Credit of their Addresses notwithstanding the mighty brags of their Number and Reputation in the Countries As for the Tryal of Fitzharris I shall say nothing of it as being already in Print Only this is to be observed by the way That no Attorney or Sollicitor-General durst
with the World whose whole Course had been to deal thus deceitfully and treacherously with God He who made it his business to impose upon the All-seeing Eye of the Heavenly Majesty might easily bear with that Infirmity of his of not scrupling the deluding Nations and abusing the Credit of Mankind 'T was his Practice to be a Papist in his Closet and a Protestant in his Chappel to be this hour at the Mass bearing a Part in the Romish Ceremonies upon Christmas-Eve at Sommerset-House and the next day communicating after the maning of the Church of England at White-Hall This the Dutchess of Cleveland well knew and therefore had been often heard to say That She did not embrace the Catholick Religion out of any esteem that she had for it but because that otherwise she could not continue the King's Mistress And consequently Miss of State Add to this his sending the D. of Monmouth into France with an express Command to reconcile himself there to the Church of Rome So that his whole Life may be said to be made up of Contradictions and that to save others the trouble of charging him with falshood he employed his own Tongue in all his publick Speeches and Declarations to give his own Heart the Lye and justly merited the Character which a certain Person gave him to carry with him to his Grave That he was an irreconcileable Enemy of the Protestant-Religion a Parliament and a Virtuous Woman But what car'd he who being put in mind to consider what Infamy the History of his Life and Reign would entail upon his Memory replied That he car'd not tho the World made a Whistle of his Tail when he was dead Neither indeed was there any true Zeal for any Religion to be believed in a Man who coming into the Chamber of a certain Peron and finding a Bible there reproached the owner for having less wit than he took him to have since he troubled himself with such a Book But tho he had long trifled with the Papists his beloved Friends and indeed had so carried himself that neither Papist nor Protestant could tell what to make of him yet the Papists resolv'd they would be no longer dallied with by him And therefore so soon as he had made all things ready for his Brother's Exaltation after he had prevented his Exclusion from the Throne and put all the power of his Dominions into his Hands to give way for him that truly Reign'd while he but only wore the name of King he was struck with an Apoplexy as it was given out for let the true Cause be what it will a Prince always dies of some Disease or other in the Physicians Catalogue but such were the Circumstances of his Death that Men began to discover their Suspicions freely to the World before he was cold However it were certain it is that he was Absolved from all his sins by his great Friend Iohn Huddleston and that the Priests gave him extream Unction At what time one of his Relations forcing his way into the Room and seeing them at it could not forbear saying That now they had Oyl'd and Greas'd his Boots they had made him fit for his Iourney And this is yet more remarkable That all the while he lay upon his Death-bed he never spoke to his Brother to put him in mind of preserving the Laws and Religion of his People but only recommended to him the Charitable care of his two Concubines Portsmouth and poor Nelly Nor was it a small aggravation of the general Suspition to find him hurried to his Grave with such an ungrateful secrecy in the dead of the Night as if they had feared the Arresting of his Corps for Debt not so much as the mean Pomp of the Blewcoat Boys to sing him to Heaven Insomuch that he was Buried by his Brother whom he had so highly obliged with far less decency than was permitted for the Funeral of his Father by his capital Enemies that had beheaded him But that perhaps might be so ordered by Providence to signify that he was not worth the publick Lamentation of the People whose Religion and Liberties he had been always designing to subvert To him succeeded Iames the II. not more perniciously designing but more eargerly bent in the Chase of National Ruin and Destruction He came in to England full freighted with his Mother's Religion and her Malice to the People of the Nation but wore at â—â—st the same Vizard Mask of Protestantism which his Brother did But tho he were fitter for the business they both design'd yet he understood not how to manage it so well so that had he been the elder Brother we may undoubtedly presume to say he would have been much sooner thrown out of the Saddle greatly to the saving both the Honour and Treasure of the Nation and the Life of many a worthy Gentlemen and true Lover of his Country 'T is well known and a thing confirm'd by two Letters yet to be seen wherein one of the King 's own Chaplains then upon the spot when it was done imparts and laments it to a Bishop That the Duke of York while he was yet but very young made a solemn Renunciation of the Protestant Religion and was reconciled to the Church of Rome while he sojourned with his Mother in France in hopes by the assistance of the Papists to have defeated his elder Brother of his Right of Inheritance tho he had all the Indulgence imaginable to conceal his Conversion where it might be for his private Advantage and the general good of the Cause And so early was this Ambition of his to supplant his Elder Brother That when the Scots were treating with the Exil'd King to restore him to the Throne of Scotland That he was at that very time practising with such as remain'd faithful to the King's Title here that they would renounce his elder Brother and chuse him for their Soveraign And for that Reason it was that the Duke forsook him at Bruxels and withdrew into Holland so that the King was necessitated not only to command him upon his Allegiance to return but was constrain'd to send the Duke of Ormond and some other Persons of Quality as well to threaten as persuade him before he would go back And as he was an early Traytor to his Brother so did he no less treacherously attempt the disowning of his first Wife For finding her extraordinary Chastity to be such that he could not be admitted to her Bed but upon the lawful score of Matrimony he was at last Married to her but so very privately that only the King was privy to it After which perceiving that his Brother's Restoration was fully determin'd in England under pretence that it would be more for his own and the Honour and Interest of his Brother to Marry with some great Princess that would both enrich and strengthen them by the largeness of her Dowry and the greatness of her Relations he would have taken an
occasion from the privacy of the Nuptials to deny her being his Wife and to disavow all Contracts and Ceremonies of Marriage between them But the King detesting so much baseness as being himself a witness of the Marriage would not suffer the Lady to be so heinously abused but constrain'd him after great reluctancy to declare it publickly to all the World A happy Providence for England which by that Conjunction blest us with two Protestant Princesses matchless in Virtue and Piety and all those other Graces that adorn their Sex to the eldest of which we are beholden for our Deliverance from an Inundation of Slavery and Popery under the Auspicious Conduct of a Soveraign truly meriting the Noble and Ancient Titles of King of Men and Shepherd of the People and the yet more dignified Addition of Defender of the Faith And from the youngest of which we have already the earnest of a hopeful Issue to guard us from the like Invasions Such is the provision of Providence that many times it happens the most venomous Creatures carry about them the particular Antidote against their own Poysons Certain it is that the D. of York would never have pull'd off his Protestant Vizour nor have declar'd himself of the Roman Communion so soon had he not been thereto necessitated by a Stratagem of the King his Brother for the Papists having a long time waited for the Accomplishment of the King's Oaths and Promises for restoring their Religion and having annually contributed large Sums of Money towards the effecting of it at length grew impatiently sullen and would advance no more unless the King or the Duke would openly declare themselves for Popery Which the King thinking no way seasonable for him to do and not being able by all his Arguments and Importunities to prevail with his Brother to do it he at length bethought himself of this Project which was To get the Queen to write a Letter intimating her Intention to withdraw into a Monastry which Letter was to be left upon her Closet Table that her Priests as it was concerted before-hand might there seize it and seeing the Contents of it carry it forthwith to the Duke Upon which the Duke being jealous lest the King upon the Queen's relinquishing her Husband might be induced to marry again and thereby deprive him of the hopes of succeeding than which there was nothing which he thirsted after more upon obtaining a previous Assurance that in case he declared himself a Papist she should not withdraw immediately pull'd off his Mask and renounced Communion with the Church of England Being thus quit of his fears from the King his next work was to rid himself of all his Jealousies of the D. of Monmouth To which purpose he lay day and night at the King to require him to turn Roman Catholick Which the King out of his Tenderness to the Romish Cause as well as to gratifie his Brother undertook to do and accordingly sent him into France with an express Command to reconcile himself to the Church of Rome however the Duke of Monmouth out of an aversion to the Fopperies of that Religion fail'd in his performance Which so incens'd the D. of Y. that from that time forward he studied all the ways imaginable to bring him to Destruction In the mean time having by his publickly declaring himself a Papist engag'd all those of the same Religion to his Person and Interest he resolved to drive on Iehu-like and to promote the Catholick Cause with all the vigour and swiftness he was able and to make the utmost use of his Brothers good Intentions And such was his Bigottry to the Romish Church That according to the Principles of that Religion he stuck at nothing per fas nefas to bring about his Popish Designs I shall not here dilate upon his secret Negotiations at Rome his Correspondencies with Foreign Priests and Jesuites or his Private Intrigues with the French King which have been all sufficiently exposed already in Print as for that whatever has been already said of the King is also to be said of him in general while he was Duke in regard they both drew in the same Yoak for the Ruine of the Nation For this is as certain as the rest that he had a most eager desire to Rule and Rule Despotically which was the Reason he was frequently heard to say He had rather Reign one Month as the King of France than Twenty Years as his Brother the King of England did And besides it was as plain That he had a mortal Antipathy against the Protestant Religion and more particularly against the Professors of it in England but more especially the Dissenters upon the score of Revenging his Father's Death An Imbitter'd Hatred which he deriv'd from his Mother who mortally malic'd England upon the same Account and which he acknowledg'd in his Bedchamber at St. Iames's where he openly declar'd That he was resolv'd to be reveng'd upon the English Nation for his Father's Death Which if those unthinking People who are so eager to have him again would but consider they would not be so forward for his return For it is in vain for the Church of England-Men of what degree soever to think that their refusing to Swear Allegiance to King William and Queen Mary would excuse them from that universal Revenge which he would take upon the Nation were it ever again in his Power Only here was the Difference between the two Brothers That the King thought to Ruin his Enemy by main Force and the fair hand of Victory but the Duke hoping to kill two Birds with one Stone made it his Business at the same time to Ruin the Enemy by Force and his own Country by Treachery Thus when he had engag'd his Brother in the First Holy Dutch War of the Extirpation of Hereticks he permits the English at first to exercise all the Bravery of their Skill and Courage to a great Probability of Success but then falls asleep in the height of his Conduct to the end the Dutch for want of Orders might have an Opportunity to wrest the Victory out of the Hands of the English on purpose to keep the Ballance of Destruction on both sides even Thus he permitted himself to be surpris'd at Soul-Bay knowing there were enough to Maul the Enemy but not enough to preserve those that Fought on our side So that the Dutch may be said to be well Thrash'd and the English to be well Sacrific'd And as a farther Demonstration of his Perfidious Soul when he found the Contest would be too tedious between two Nations so well match'd it was the Duke's Contrivance to Suborn and Bribe two Indigent and Desperate Villains to go over and Fire the Dutch Ships as they lay in their Harbours and when he had done that it was the same Treachery that with a sham Story lull'd his Brother asleep and procur'd the Firing of our Ships at Chatham The Burning of London was such a
matchless Piece as could not have enter'd into the Breast of any but a Bejesuited Herostratus in hopes to purchase the infamous immortality of a Popish Saintship by reducing to Ashes the greatest Bulwark and Magazin of the Protestant Religion in Europe Rome was set on Fire by Nero to have rebuilt it again more Glorious and that he might have space enough for one of the most sumptuous Palaces so design'd under the Sun thereby to have made the Mistress of the Earth the wonder of the World But London was fired not only to destroy the Wealth and Habitations of the City never to have risen more but with an intention to extirpate the Inhabitants themselves to boot and to have turn'd the Venerable and Spacious Pile into a depopulated Wilderness by a general Massacre of the People under the Consternation of the spreading Flames The standing Streets provided and furnished with Incendiaries with fresh Materials to revive and restore the weary Conflagration and when taken in the Act rescued out of the Hands of those that seized them and sent to St. Iames's to be there secured from the Rage of the Multitude and then dismist without Prosecution An excellent way to have made all sure by mixing the Blood of the Inhabitants with the Ashes of their Dwellings the only Cement which the Papists believed would fastest bind the Fabrick of the Romish Church And what greater piece of Perfidie could there be than while the D. was riding about the Streets under pretence of assisting to quench the Fire that his Guards were at the same time employed to prevent the People from removing their Goods and his Palace made the Refuge of such as were taken in the very fact of cherishing and fomenting the Flames This the Committee of Parliament trac'd so far that it cost the Life of the poor Gentleman that gave the Information of these Things to the Chair-man of the Committee to prevent any further Discovery and secure the D. from the Danger of his Life Coleman's crying out There was no Faith in Man was a most undeniable Testimony of the Treachery of his Master notwithstanding all the faithful Service he had done him and was it not a Magnanimous and Generous Act of a Prince to betray as he did to the Gallows not only his most trusty Servant but his Fellow-Partner in the Conspiracy More inhumane still was the Barbarous Murder actually contriv'd and brought to perfection by the encourag'd Instruments of the Duke For he it was that sent word to Coleman to bid him take no care for that Sir Edmondbury Godfrey should be remov'd out of the way and at the same time took the like care that his Servant Coleman should follow him For it was Detection that he feared and the Duke well knew that the Dead could never tell Tales The Particulars of the Murder and how far the Circumstances of it reached the Duke are too fresh in Memory to be here inserted and Dispensation for Deeds of the blackest hew were so easily obtained that it was no wonder the Duke so little boggled at a single Murder to conceal the designs of general Massacres wherein he was engag'd In pursuance of which he was no less industrious to bring the Presbyterians and all the Dissenting Protestants within the Snare of his Sham-plot in order to the Destruction of thousands of Innocent Persons This Dangerfield discovered to the World and his Informations taken upon Oath before Sir William Roberts and Sir William Poultney are extant wherein he gives an Account of his being introduced several times into the Duke of York's Presence Particularly that being once among the rest admitted to the Duke of York's Closet at White-Hall he kissed his Hand upon his Knees And then being taken up by the Duke he gave him a little Book containing the whole Scheme of the Presbyterian Plot for which the Duke thank'd him as also for his diligence in the Catholick Cause and wishing good Success to his Undertakings Added these words That the Presbyterian Plot was a thing of most mighty Consequence and I do not question but the Effects of it will answer our Expectation especially in the Northern Parts where I am well assur'd the major Part of the Gentry are my Friends and have given sufficient Demonstrations to me as also of their Intentions to prosecute this Presbyterian Plot for they are no strangers to the Design At the same time he ordered Dangerfield to be very careful of what he communicated to the Persons who were to be the Witnesses in that new Plot lest he should be caught in the Subornation and so bring a terrible Odium upon the Catholicks and make himself uncapable of any further Service Then for Encouragement in the prosecution of the Sham-Plot the Duke promis'd that he would take care that Mony should not be wanting and ordered him with all the Expedition the Thing would allow to make a Discovery of it to the King At the same time the Duke also made divers Vows and bitter Execrations to stand by him in the Thing and engaged upon his Honour to be his Rewarder and in Earnest gave him Twenty Guinies with his own Hand and telling him withal what a great Reputation he had gained among the Catholicks and that in a short time he should see the Catholick Religion flourish in these Kingdoms with a great deal more to the same purpose Of the truth of which among many others there could not be a more convincing Proof than the bitter Enmity which the Duke bore to Dangerfield after his Discovery and the severe Usage which he receiv'd from Iefferies the Duke's Creature and the Rhadamantine Dispenser of his Revenges In Scotland he Rul'd or rather Reign'd tho in his Brother's Life-time with a more Arbitrary and Lawless Controul And there it was that he breath'd forth his Venome against the Protestants utter'd his Tyrannous Maximes with more freedom and exercis'd his Tyranny with a more boundless and exorbitant Extravagance For there it was that he first undertook to exercise the power of Sovereign Rule refusing to take the Oath of High Commissioner which the Law of the Country requir'd as here he had denied to take the Test and to shew how he intended to govern England when it came to his turn there it was that in the hearing of Persons of great Credit he had this worthy Apothegm That tho in England the Lawyers rul'd the Court yet in Scotland he would rule the Lawyers There it was that he positively denied to give the Parliament any security for the Preservation of their Religion in case he succeeded to the Crown And being told of the Terms that the King had offer'd to the Parliament of England tho much harder and more dishonourable than any which they required he replied That the King never intended any such Limitations should pass nor did he offer them but when he knew they would not be accepted And farther to demonstrate his imbitter'd hatred of the Protestants
to a higher Scrutiny The Justice of Heaven perhaps not minding a present Revenge of his Death who had not only prevented the Presecution of Noble and Innocent Essex's Blood but so severely punish'd the Industrious Enquiry after it Only this is further to be remark'd that the Irish Papists could for some time before fix upon the utmost Period of his Reign and the D. was sent for in haste out of Scotland without any apparent Reason for it besides that the King's Permission was obtain'd with some Difficulty However by the violent and tremendous Death of his Brother he at length arrived at the long-long wish'd for Haven of his Ambitious Desires and beholds himself mounted upon the Pinacle of Royalty only that his Fall might be the more conspicuous He was no sooner Proclaimed but he declared his Religion openly to his Privy Council however he began with a mild and caressing Declaration which he afterwards broke in every Line of it A meer Trap baited with Indulgence to Tender Consciences on purpose to catch the Dissenting Mice to deliver them when caught into the Paws of his ravenous Popish Cats but no sooner was he Crowned but as if his Coronation-Oath and all his Promises so lately made had been no more than so many Pills of Opium and believing himself environed with Power sufficient to maintain his Tyranny and Oppression he invades Property by Expulsion of the right Owners tramples upon the Laws by his pretended Prerogative of Suspending Power and goes about to pull down the Stately Structure of the Protestant Religion by the Suspension of one and imprisoning and Arraigning at his Criminal Bar no less than Seven of the most Eminent Fathers of the English Church And by a strange Alteration of the Face of Government Treason over-rules the Law and Traitors impeached are fetched out of Jail to sit Triumphantly dominering at the Helm of State and Iefferies the Daniel that in some measure might be said to be taken out of the Lions Den for the Cruelty of his Nature is advanced in open Hostility to Justice to wage War with the Fundamental Constitutions of the Kingdom A mean Spirit insulting over his Inferiors but a Spaniel to his Superiors who tho he knew himself no more than a Tool in the hand of the Popish Artificers the Shadow of Grandeur lofty under Contempt and domineering only in publick yet having pawn'd his Soul for the hopes of an Embroidered Purse rather than recoil to Goodness carreers on in Mischief and as if his Robes had not been Scarlet enough dies them more deep in Innocent Blood and becomes his Master's Vassal to enslave the Nation Such Counsellors as these hurried on the New Crown'd King with such a Rapidness to accomplish the great Work of introducing Tyranny and Popery to which his own Fears of leaving the Papists worse than he found them as furiously carried him that he threw his Brother into his Grave as if he had not had leisure to bury him or as if he had deem'd him not worth a Funeral whom he thought not worth a longer Life Unless perhaps he thought the Hypocrisie of Pompous Obsequies would have but the more provok'd his Brother 's Injur'd Manes with which as common Fame had spread it he was already too much pestred I will not here dispute the Truth of Apparitions nor insist upon the vulgar censures about the Town upon the Priests for not detaining him in the half-way-Prison but singing him out of Purgatory to make his Brother melancholy by facing him several times and giving him an astonishing stroke upon the back as he was going down a pair of Stairs in Whitehal yet this may be asserted That Guilt accompanied with Terror forms those Apparitions in in the Mind which work the same Effect and obtain the same belief when once divulg'd among the Credulous as if they were real However it were it shew'd he thought himself but little beholding to him for living so long and consequently no way oblig'd to retaliate a Succession so late in the Year with so much Loss of Time And now the first influences of his Tyranny and Fury against the Protestants flew into Scotland where whatever Indulgence he shewed in England he issued forth a Dreadful Proclamation against the Dissenters under the Notion of Enemies to the King and Government and Destroyers of the British Monarchy sufficient to have given a more early Alarm to the Dissenters in England had they not been lull'd asleep by the Softness of a present Repose and the Charms of their Decoy-Duke Penn the effect rather of their Simplicity than their Policy But the first Act of his Revenge in England brake forth upon Dr. Oates He could not forget the Doctor 's detection of his Conspiracies against the Kingdom And because he could not find out a way to hang him his Chief Iustice Iefferies found out a Punishment to gratify his Royal Fury worse than Death it self and till then unknown among Christians in Imitation of the Roman Fustuarium by which the Roman Souldiers were often drub'd to Death or if they scap'd sent into perpetual Banishment as the Doctor was first of all Scourg'd by the Common Executioner beyond all Precedent and then Condemn'd to perpetual Imprisonment A Sentence so void of all Christian Compassion that only Iefferies could have invented and such a Beast as Withens could have pronounced A goodly sight to see Protestant Judges condemning a Protestant and the Detector of a most Horrid Popish Plot upon the Evidence of known Papists and some of them nearly Related to the Executed Traytors and this for Perjury too upon the Testimony of Witnesses already falsifi'd As if Justice were a thing that never had been Naturaliz'd in Heaven but only depended upon the Will of the Prince a Kind of Tool to be us'd by his Bene-placito Slaves at his or their Discretion or the grand Poppet of the World to be shew'd in various Dreâ—ses and Disguises as the force of Judicature requir'd But as for Dangerfield he had been once his Darling frequently admitted to kiss his Hand while he was in Conspiracy with him to Suck the Blood of the Innocent But there was no Atonement for his revolting and revealing the Hidden Mystery of Iniquity Therefore he must dance the same Dance that Oates had done only the King did him this small Piece of Justice to throw away an Inconsiderable Roman Catholick to Satisfy the general Discontent upon his being Murder'd In the next place he calls a Parliament and renews his Assurances and Promises to preserve the Government both in Church and State as by Law Establish'd and Vows to hazard his own Person as he had formerly done in defence of the just Liberties and Properties of the Nation But still the Burden of his song was More mony Which the Parliament willing to Engage him if possible by all the Testimonies of their Duty and Loyalty or at least to shew that nothing should be wanting on their part readily granted
And in regard that Argyle was said to be Landed under the Notion of a Rebel in Scotland they declared their Resolutions to stand by and assist him with their Lives and Fortunes against all his Enemies whatever No less quick to gratify than he to make those Promises which he never intended to perform And indeed under the Consternation the King was then in upon the Landing of Argyle in Scotland and the D. of Monmouth in England both at the same time perhaps the Parliament might have bound him up to what Conditions they pleas'd had they not slipt their Opportunity But those two Storms being fortunately blown over the one by ill Conduct the other by the Treachery of Pretended Friendship and both Argyle and the D. of Monmouth safe in their Graves the King was so puft up with a Petty Victory overy a few Clubmen and so wrapt up with a Conceit That he had now Conquer'd the whole Nation that after he had got as much as he thought he could in modesty desire or they part withal unless they saw greater Occasions than they did which nevertheless were no small Sums in the heat of their obliging Generosity at the Commencement of a Reign he turn'd him off after he had sold them two or three inconsiderable Acts for all their Mony And now being freed from any farther thoughts of Parliaments believing himself Impregnable he resolves to be Reveng'd upon the Western People for siding with his Capital Enemy Monmouth and to that purpose sends down his Executioner in Ordinary Iefferies not to decimate according to the Heathen way of Mercy but with the Besome of his Cruelties to sweep the Country before him and to depopulate instead of Punishment At what time Acquaintance or Relation of any that fell in the Field with a slender Circumstance tack'd to either was a Crime sufficient for the Extirpation of the Family And Young and Old were hang'd in Clusters as if the C. Justice had design'd to raise the Price of Halters besides the great Number of those that upon bare Suspicion were transported beyond Sea and there sold for Slaves and the Purchase-Mony given away to satisfy the Hunger of needy Papists After-Ages will read with Astonishment the barbarous Usage of those poor People of which among many Instances this one may seem sufficient whereby to take the Dimensions of all the rest That when the Sister of the two Hewlands hung upon the Chief Iustices Coach Imploring Mercy on the behalf of her Brothers the Merciless Judg to make her let go caus'd his Coachman to cut her Hands and Fingers with the lash of his Whip Nor would he allow the Respit of the Execution but for two days tho the Sister with Tears in her Eyes offer'd a Hundred Pound for so small a Favour And whoever sheltr'd any of those forlorn Creatures were hurried to the Slaughter-House with the same inexorable outrage without any Consideration either of Age or Sex Witness the Execution of the Lady Lisle at Winchester As for Argyle and the Duke tho they might die pitied yet could they not be said to be unjustly put to Death in regard they had declared Open Hostility and therefore it was no more than they were to expect upon ill Success However since they were betray'd into the Victor's Hands before any great harm was done the Crime was not so great that nothing but a Massacre could atone for it more especially considering what great Advantages the King made of these Rebellions For it gave him a fair Opportunity to increase the Number of his Standing-Forces under pretence That the Militia was not to be depended upon and of the Reputation he had lost of being so Miserably unprovided against so wretched an Attempt as Monmouth's was For which Reason he was resolv'd to be better provided henceforward for the Security of the Nation and to croud in his Popish Officers into Commands under the Notion of Persons of approv'd Loyalty and therefore such whose Persons he was neither to expose to disgrace by a Removal nor himself to suffer the want of Cautious and wary of Removing his Popish Commanders but minding not at all to remove the Fears and Jealousies of the Nation However his Plausible Promises and this Important Necessity of augmenting his Standing Forces were urg'd upon the Parliament as undeniable Reasons for More Mony So great a Confidence the King had either in the Awe which he had upon the Parliament or that they were so Blind that they could not see through his Cobweb Pretences But he soon found that he was deceived in his Expectations and therefore perceiving his Gilded Hooks could not take they were decently Dismiss'd after ten Days Sitting with a Prorogation from October till the Fâ—bruary ensuing But it seems King Iames was so confidently assur'd That the Bands of Friendship and Alliance between him and the French King were so Indissoluble That whatever Assistance the Parliament deny'd him in England he should not fail of from his Dear Friend and Confederate in France That the Parliament being call'd for no other Intent or Purpose than to Betray the Nation by Furnishing the King to accomplish his Designs of Popery and Arbitrary Government when they refused to be subservient to those Wicked Designs and thought it more Honourable to be true to the Nation whom they Represented than Serviceable to the Encroachment of his Tyranny he lay'd them aside as things no longer useful for him And therefore like a man chaâ—ed with their just denial of his Demands he resolves the utter Subversion of English Parliaments the only Remora's of his ungodly Projects by compleating the Disfranchising of all the Cities and Corporations throughout the Nation so fairly begun in his Brother's Reign to make way for the Introduction of a French Parliament That should at once have surrender'd all the Ancient Liberty of the Kingdom and the whole Power of the Government into his Hands And to Terrifie men into this slavish Complyance with his Tyrannical Will and Pleasure the Names of all such Persons as out of Honour and Conscience refused to Co-operate with his Popish Ministers towards the Publick Ruin of Liberty and Religion and prostitute their own and the Freedoms of their Posterity to his Arbitrary subjection were Threatned to be return'd up to the Attorney-General to the end their Persons and Estates might be undone by Illegal Prosecutions In the next place to set himself Paramount above all the Controul of Law out of a vain Opinion that Kings are accountable to none but God A set of Judges are pickt out to overturn the very Fundamentals of Humane Society and Annihilate the very ends of Government This the King knew must be done by Judges that had abandoned all High Opinion of God and Nature and had quitted all sense of Conscience and True Honour and had wholly given up their Judgments to the foolish Enticements of Ambition and Flattery And when he had found out such it was easie for
him to say with his Grandfather of the same Name Let me make what Iudges I please and I will easily have what I please to be Law No wonder then these Judges having Instruments drawn up by Brent which pass'd the Great Seal to Indemnifie them for whatever they did or said Illegally affirm'd it to the King for Law That the King was an Independent Prince That the Laws of the Kingdom were the Kings Laws That the Kings of England might Dispence with all Laws that regarded Penalties and Punishments as oft as necessity required That they were Iudges and Arbitrators who have Power to Iudge of the Necessity which may induce them to make use of these Dispensations And Lastly That the King of England could not Renounce a Prerogative annexed to the Crown By Vertue of which Concessions and Opinions of the Judges all the Laws in England made in the Reigns of four several Princes for the security of the Nation against Popery and Arbitrary Government were rendred of no Effect By Vertue of these Concessions Arundel of Warder was made Lord Privy Seal Alibone a Judge and Castlemain was sent with great Pomp an Embassador to Rome to be there contemn'd and despis'd by his Holiness for the bad name which his Master had among all the Princes of Europe and the ill Opinion the Pope himself had of him By Vertue of these Concessions it was that the greatest part of the Kingdom 's Military Safety and Defence was put into the hands of persons incapable to be intrusted with them by the Express Laws of the Kingdom and that the Execution of the Ancient Laws and Statutes of the Realm against divers sorts of Treasons and other hainous Crimes was stopt By Vertue of these Concessions Sir E. Hales was made Lieutenant of the Tower to Terrifie the City with his Mortar-pieces and level his Great Guns to the Destruction of the Metropolis of the Kingdom when the Word should be given him By Vertue of these Concessions it was that Peters was made a Privy Councellor to outbrave the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London that he had his four Provincial Bishops and that the Priests and Jesuites swarm'd in all parts of the Kingdom Built themselves Convents hired Mass Houses made open Profession of their Foppish Religion in the Chief City of the Nation and in several of the Great Cities and Towns of the Kingdom and publickly Ridicul'd the Scripture in their Pulpits All which Transgressions of all the Laws of the Land both Civil and Ecclesiaâ—tick are so fully Represented in the Memorial of the Protestants to their Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Orange That they cannot be more fully noâ— more sensibly repeated But the Inundation stopt not here it was to be a general Deluge or nothing at all To which purpose all Obstructions that oppos'd the â—orrent were to be levell'd or remov'd out of the way for effecting of which there could be no Engine thought sufficient but that of the Ecclesiastical Commission so arbitrary in its Origâ—nal that it had nothing but the Pillars of the Prerogative to support it and manag'd with that Arbitrary Fury by Iefferies That he look'd like a Monstrous Titan Warring against the Heaven of Law and Justice For he had no way to carry Illegality with a high hand but by arrogant Domineering and surly Incivility while he had nothing to offer to any Person that offer'd Law to him but Sic Volo Sic Iubeo To tell a Peer of England and the Bishop of London so much his Superiour only that he Sate upon the Throne of his Commission he that was not to be mentioned with the Bishop in the same day was such a foul piece of Exeuberance of his Guildhall Eloquence which only could have dropt from the lips of Insulting Barbarism All that can be said for him is this That as many men commit Absurdities when loden with Wine this was one of his Extravagancies in his Drink of Honour And indeed after he had tasted of that potent Charm the whole Course of his Behaviour seem'd to be a meer Intoxication which made him afterwards make use of the same Receipt to drown both his Life and his Dishonour together However the Suspending this Noble Peer and Bishop contrary to all pretence of Law for refusing to obey the Kings unjust and illegal Command was no such Advantage to the King's Cause that he had so much reason to thank the Chancellor or Peters either for putting him upon committing a greater Act of Injustice to justify a less The Bishop was too well and too generally belov'd among all the professors of Protestantism for the Papists to put such an Affront upon so Eminent a Father of the Protestant Church for them not to resent it even the more prudent Papists thought it a Proceeding too harsh and unreasonable and the more moderate look'd upon it as too base and unworthy so that the Hot-spurs of the King's Council were losers on every side And besides it was such a stabbing contradiction to the King's Speech in Council upon his Brother's Death That since it had pleased God he should succeed so good and gracious a Prince as his dear Brother he was resolv'd to follow his Example more especially in that of Clemency and Tenderness to his People That the barbarous suspending this Bishop was one of the main things which destroyed the solemn verity of Royal Word Which though he had falsified already in his severity to Otes and Dangerfield yet the Person of a Peer and Bishop and a Star of the first Magnitude in the Church of England render'd much more conspicuous But the King was under a necessity he had declar'd one thing to the Protestants but he had bound himself to do another for the Papists If he falsified with the Protestants the Papists could absolve him If he prov'd unfaithful to the Papists they would never forgive him And in this Dilemma he resolv'd to follow the Maxim of his Profession Not to keep Faith with Hereticks Neither were the steps he made the steps of State-convenience now and then upon an exigency but all in a huddle out of his Zeal to make large steps for fear he should dye and leave the Papists worse than he found them These severe Proceedings against the Bishop of London were the Violation of that part of his Declaration wherein he promis'd the Preservation of the Ecclesiastical Government as Established by Law But the Barbarous usage of the Gentlemen of both Maudlin Colledges was an unsanctified breach of another part of his Declaration wherein he no less solemnly engaged to maintain the Protestants in all their Properties and Possessions as well of Church as Abby-Lands as of all other their Properties whatsoever Notwithstand all which how he turn'd those Gentlemen out of their Legal Freeholds by the Arbitrary Power of his High Commission how he violated the Constitutions of the deceased Founders and with what an embitter'd rage and fury he rated