Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	conqueror_n	king_n	scotland_n	2,527	5	9.9151	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65414	An answer to the late K. James's last declaration, dated at St. Germains, April 17. s.n. 1693	Welwood, James, 1652-1727.; Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.	1693 (1693)	Wing W1302; ESTC R204539	18,776	44

This may be Printed Iune 5. 1693. J. Trenchard AN ANSWER To the Late K. JAMES's Last Declaration Dated at St. Germains April 17. S. N. 1693. LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-lane MDCXCIII AN ANSWER To the LATE K. JAMES's Last Declaration IT seems we are yearly to expect a New Declaration of the Late King 's and ev'ry one of them is to be of a quite different Strain from another In that published the last Year K. Iames was pleas'd to pull off the Mask and give us his own genuine Intentions what he had a mind to do with us when once he came to be our Master Then he was firmly resolved to remount the Throne by force of Arms and to sap its new foundation with English Blood This Kingdom was adjudged a Hecatomb to his Revenge And indeed the whole Nation was by a fair consequence excepted out of his Indemnity and nothing but Axes and Gibbets were to Attone for the Wrongs we had done him but now it 's thought fit the Mask should once more be put on and the Thunder of the Last Year be hush'd up in the Serene Temper of This. Here he desires rather to be beholding to his Subjects Love to him than to any other expedient whatever for his Restauration But the last year he was to use no gentler methods to regain us than a French Army sent him by his dearest Brother the French King that is in plain English He was to render us Slaves in the Right of Conquest A wonderful change in Stile And the first Essay in Politicks of a New Ministry at St. Germains But Good God! What a low Opinion must the Contrivers of this Declaration entertain of the whole Nation of England if they imagin'd in good earnest such a gross Sham could take with them When these Kingdoms have so severely felt the overthrow of their Laws Religion and Liberties brought upon them in spight of the most solemn Promises and the Sanction of an Oath to the contrary when an unexpected Providence had broke the Yoke from off our Necks and secured to us all those valuable things we were upon the point of losing for ever by changing our King without changing the Line or the Monarchy to imagine that after all this they can be wheedled in to trust the same Prince once more with their All meerly because forsooth He or some in his Name emits a kind of faint Promise to do otherwise than we know to our Fatal Experience he did before is at the same time to suppose this Island to be Inhabited by a Herd of Brutes and not Reasonable thinking Creatures I challenge all the Late King's Declarationmakers and even the suppos'd Contriver of this last for whose Parts I have a just Esteem to give me but one single instance from History That ever a free People who from a just and recent sence of an Invasion made by a limited Monarch upon their Laws and Fundamental Constitution had thereupon withdrawn their Allegiance from him and confer'd it upon another did ever afterwards willingly and tamely submit to His Government again No there is not one instance of this kind in all the Records of time For tho' scarce one Age has past without some remarkable Revolution in Kingdoms and States yet a thing of this nature was never yet heard of since the World was This appears one of the most universally received Principles of Humane Society Never to trust the Promises of one that has broke with us before especially if those former were back'd with the Religious Sanction of an Oath To break through this Principle in some trivial matter may be perhaps pardonable in a Philosopher or some good-natur'd man that ventures thereby no more than what he is content to lose But to submit the dearest and most sacred things that Men can possess on Earth the Liberties Laws and Fundamental Constitutions of his Countrey all that either he or his Children after him can call or wish their own To submit all these I say to a few feeble Promises of one that has broke to us much more solemn ones before were a madness that never a Nation under Heaven was yet guilty of As it is the easiest thing in the world to promise largely when a man finds it his interest so to do So it is ordinarily the last Refuge weak minds have their recourse to when all other means of compulsion or persuasion fail But at the same time he that threatens highly when he thinks he has power in his hands to make his Threats good and comes thereafter to cajole with soft Promises of good Treatment when that Power is gone one must divest himself of all common sence if he believe that that man's mind is really chang'd to the better and does not ascribe the change of his manner of treating with us to the change of his Fortune To bring this close to King Iames's Case Last year all things were in a readiness in France for a formidable Descent upon us and indeed it was within an ace of taking effect We were ev'ry minute in hazard of seeing a French Army land upon our Coasts and King Iames with them Matters were so ripened for them in the Neighbouring Kingdom that an Insurrection was to break out there as soon as they set foot ashore here In a word The great Design of carrying a War into the Bowels of this island by the Power of France in conjunction with our Malcontents at home was well enough laid and wanted but little of Execution Then was a time for a Generous Prince to tell the People of England He desir'd rather to be beholden to his Subjects Love than to any other expedient whatsoever for his Restauration This had look'd plausible indeed and one would have been tempted almost to believe he was in earnest But alas the Late King thought there was no obligation upon him then to hide or dissemble his Intentions Buoy'd up with the hopes of an Infallible Success he spoke his mind plain out and in his Declaration at that time emitted to which I refer the Reader for brevity sake he talk'd in a loftier strain from St. Germains and his Camp in Normandy than ever yet he had done at the top of his Glory at White-hall Full with the mighty things he was to do at the head of a French Army he was pleas'd not to treat with us but to treat us as Slaves he had a mind to conquer with his Sword Nor could we have expected higher Language if we had been already lying groveling at a Conqueror's Feet But God be thanked the Scene is much alter'd with respect to King Iames since last Year All the Designs of the French Court for this Year are levell'd elsewhere and we know of no Preparations for invading England this Summer Scotland has not only put it self into a posture of defence but the whole face of Affairs there are wonderfully changed by this Session of Parliament

to the better and the Late King's Party sufficiently humbled It 's from the consideration of this change of Affairs in England and Scotland the Late King has been induc'd to change his Stile And to this alone instead of the Threats of the former we are beholding for this last Whining Declaration But to come to the Declaration it self to let the World see how little we fear its being capable to influence any body of common sense to their Party we shall give the express words of it Paragraph by Paragraph with some short Reflections on ev'ry one of them His Majesties most Gracious Declaration to all his Loving Subjects JAMES R. WHereas We are most sensible that nothing has contributed so much to our Misfortunes and our Peoples Miseries as the false and malicious Calumnies of our Enemies Strange Might not one have reasonably expected that in four years retirement the Late King should have been able to attain the knowledge of the real Causes of his own Misfortunes and his Peoples Miseries And is he yet to learn what all Europe is long since sufficiently persuaded of If he has We have not yet forgot the breach of reiterated Promises and a Coronation Oath the setting up a Dispensing Power above and contrary to Law the bringing over an Army of Irish Papists amongst us the employing those and almost only those that by Acts of Parliament were incapable the turning men out of their Freeholds for not obeying Commands directly contrary to an Oath they had taken before the endeavours made and methods us'd for overturning the Religion establish'd by Law and bringing in another by the same Law abolish'd with a thousand other bare fac'd Violations of our Rights and Constitution All these were not the Calumnies of his Enemies No! It was under those real and felt Evils we groan'd in the last Reign And to a wilful and formed Design of bringing all these and more upon us King Iames is only to ascribe the loss of Three Crowns Therefore we have always been and still are most willing to condescend to such things as after mature deliberation We have thought most proper for removing thereof and most likely to give the fullest satisfaction and clearest Prospect of the greatest Security to all ranks and degrees of our People What a wonderful Stock of Confidence was there required to pen this one single Period A Period which though consisting but of two Lines yet contains no less than five Superlatives to make up an Assertion that all England knows to be false Has the Late King been always most willing to condescend to such things as were thought most proper and most likely to give the fullest Satisfaction and clearest Security to his People What then meant his stiff Denial to comply with a Parliament that had exprest the firmest Loyalty to him in his greatest Exigence when they came only to address him with all Expressions of humility not to break in upon the Law by employing those whom the Law incapacitated Why sent he that Loyal Parliament a packing immediatly upon the back of this Address And told them plainly he would do the quite contrary to what they advised him Was this to be most willing to give the fullest satisfaction to his People When he would needs invade the uncontroverted Rights of Magdalen Colledge there was not wanting some even then to advise him of the danger and Illegality of that Design How willing he was to hear any Terms of Moderation in that Affair all the World knows And the thrusting out the Master and Fellows of that House merely because they would not comply with an illegal Command is not yet quite lost in the memory of man The sending the Bishops to the Tower was another convincing Evidence of his being always most willing to give the clearest prospect of the greatest Security to all Ranks and Degrees of People And to add one Instance more to a great many others that might be nam'd His refusal afterwards to call a Parliament upon the Address of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in his greatest Exigence and when his own Affairs most requir'd it did scarce bespeak him a Prince most willing to give his People Satisfaction So that if one had been to advise the Contrivers of this Declaration which way to make the whole look more ridiculous it had been to put in this Period That he still is most willing to satisfy all Ranks and Degrees of People in the same sense he has always been so which we are very inclinable to believe And so in that point we are agreed And because we desire rather to be beholding to our Subjects Love to us than to any other expedient whatever for our Restoration We have thought fit to let them know before-hand our Royal and sincere Intentions and that whenever our Peoples United Desires and our Circumstances give us the opportunity to come and assert our Right We will come with the Declaration that follows JAMES R. The Writer has stumbled here upon two unlucky Expressions Our Sincere Intentions and our Peoples United Desires When he fell upon the first it seems he had in his thoughts how naturally the people of England would be inclin'd to doubt the Sincerity of those Promises he makes them in the late King's name and even the very moment the Words were dropping from his Pen he himself was thinking how little credit they would obtain By this he can scarcely be judg'd a fit Amanuensis for a King It is infinitely below the Majesty and Honour of a Monarch to use the word sincere in speaking of his Intentions Among Gentlemen 〈◊〉 interlarding their Discourse with such an expression As what I say is true is not fashionable for the very saying so derogates from that just sense every virtuous man has of his own Honour and Veracity which puts him beyond the suspicion of telling an untruth But for a Minister to tell the people in his Prince's Name That his Master's Intentions towards them are Sincere is yet more ridiculous by how much more the Word of a Prince ought to be more Sacred and less liable to be suspected than that of private men The other Expression The united Desires of his People is as unluckily chose If the late King come not to assert his Right till his People's United Desires give him an opportunity we are in no great danger of seeing him in England or of making a trial how far he has a mind to keep his Word United Desires is a very comprehensive Word and it must be some Ages hence that such a thing can happen For it will be hard enough for the Teeth of one Age at least to eat out the Remembrance of the late Reign and while that is not forgot there is no great probability of the People of England's Uniting in their Desires to bring back King Iames. All that we have hitherto given of the Declaration being it seems intended only for a Preface