Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A54973
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Plain dealing is a jewel and honesty the best policy both set forth in an answer to a letter received by a gentleman in London, from his friend in the countrey : wherein is planly demonstrated the grounds and reasons of our present distractions and methods proposed for preventing the same for the future / by a lover of truth and a hearty well-wisher to the prosperity of the King and his three kingdoms.
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Lover of truth and a hearty well-wisher to the prosperity of the king and his three kingdoms.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing P2352; ESTC R8001
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28,621
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25
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such Danger they upon the opening of every Parliament or Session of Parliament would have put the several Members of the House of Commons as well as the Lords upon a right Course of preventing the Mischiefs they seemed to fear and delivering us from the Grievances they pretended the Kingdom suffered under but as if they had not believed what they reported they took the contrary Course and instead of perswading the Parliament to moderate sober Councils and Proceedings studied to put them into Heats and Passions and upon Exclaiming against particular Persons to whom they owed prejudice as being His Majesties Servants and Ministers These upon common Fame before heard or Witnesses examined against them must be Removed from the Kings Presence and Councils for Ever on Addresses from the House of Commons no Body knew for what save I ancies and Immaginations But some of them being too Great and their Integrities and Abilities for His Majesties Service better known to him then them His Majesty not thinking fit to Remove them Thereupon some of these worthy Patriots of their Countrey for several Sessions of Parliament made it their business to doe nothing save to contrive Differences between the Two Houses of Parliament for which purpose they questioned the Lords Jurisdiction in matters of Appeals particularly in the Cases of Sherly and Fag and others which Controvercy they carried so high that Sir John Fag and several Lawyers were Committed by the House of Commons to the Tower for only appearing before the Lords at their Bar and owning their Judicature in Cases of Appeals from Courts of Equity this single Point caused several Prorogations and rendred several Sessions Fruitless though the same was never before called in question since His Majesties Restauration Now if those Gentlemen who so highly concerned themselves in these matters had been of such publick Spirits as to spend their time in laying open the Dangers they apprehended we were in and the Grievances we suffered under with Design to have prevented those Dangers and redressed those Grievances They would certainly then have applied to the several Members of Parliament prest for Moderation desired them to avoid all Heats and Passions and to look into the Plot search it to the bottom Try the Lords in the Tower and examine the Truth of the several Grievances complained of and find means to prevent the Danger of the former and secure us for the Future against the latter in doing whereof they must necessarily have found who had occasioned both and after securing the Subjects then to have fallen on the Persons Guilty would have been more proper for if then these Persons had been too great for the Parliament and procured Prorogations and Dissolutions yet had the Parliament discharged their Consciences done their Duty preserved their Countrey and deserv'd Thanks and Honour from those they Represented But to fall upon particular Persons first and to doe nothing for our Security because they could not have their Ends against those Persons they had prejudice too give me leave to say for them to be perswaded to this method of Proceedings in my apprehension did not argue that either they themselves or those persons that informed them of the Grievances and Dangers the Nation was said to lie under believed the truth of either and if so then was it a Barbarous Act to amuse alarm and frighten the People from their Duty to their Prince with groundless Noise and Clamor If really there were at those times such Grievances and Dangers as Represented how could the Parliament have answered it to God and their Countrey if through their private Heats and Animosities the Mischiefs threatned and which the Nation seared had fallen upon us if they had then believed our Danger so great as they discoursed it to be and had not known that more Noise and Clamor was made then there was just occasion for I am of opinion they would for their own Honour as well as the publick Good have first endeavoured to have secured our future Happiness rather than hazarded the same out of some private Peak they had to particular Persons Again If these Gentlemen by the Endeavors they used to have obtained an Act for Secluding his Royal Highness from the Imperial Crown of England had designed to secure the Protestant Religion against a Popish Successor had that I say been their single Intention certainly they would have made the Act general to bar for the future all Persons of the Popish Religion from Inheriting or wearing the Imperial Crown of England but to bring in a Bill against James Duke of York alone by name and that whether he be Papist or Protestant at the time of the Kings Death provided he should happen to survive him this kind of procedure seems rather to be the effect of the Malice and Revenge of some particular persons against the Dukes Person who have gone so far as that they judg they cannot be safe if ever he Reigns than a Design to secure the Protestant Religion against a Popish Successor For First If such Bill was past and his Royal Highness should die before the King that Act dies with him Secondly If the Duke survive the King he being near as Old it cannot be expected he should live long after him so it would do little good nor will it be any great Security to the Kingdom to have him bar'd and no Body else Besides the offering of such Bill was unmannerly and put a hardship upon the King to Exclude by a Law his only Brother from Inheriting the Crown of England though he should be a Protestant and at the same time out of Zeal to the promotion and preservation of the Protestant Religion leave room for the King of Spain or any other Popish Successor except the Duke of York to Succeed our present King and bring in the Spanish Inquisition with him What savors this of or looks it like but a malicious Design of particular persons against the Duke of York I am sure I can find nothing of a real Design in it to Secure the Protestant Religion and Interest Whereas if the Bill had been made general to have barred all Popish Successors it would have been more excusable and might perhaps have been judged the effect of the Parliaments Care of the Protestant Interest and it may be would not have appeared so difficult for the King to have past if he had found reason to believe it for his Subjects Good and with tendency to the Security and Happiness of his Kingdoms Because in such Case His Majesty had done his Royal Brother no wrong only by advice of Parliament had past a general Law for the publick Good and Security of his Kingdoms That could neither hurt the Duke or bar him the Succession without his own consent by Declaring himself a Papist Besides if this Bill had past into an Act what would it have signified has not many of the like nature been past against several former Princes who
having Resolved to depart from the aforesaid Councils cancel his Declaration Issue out Writs for new Elections withdraw his Arms from the French Kings assistance and send them in Ayde to the States Genreral of the United provinces for preventing the further Growth of the power of France whether those Persons who ever since have made it their business to devide between the King and his Subjects and prevent the Parliaments giving him when he desired 600000 l. to have Enabled him in time to have Joined his forces with those of the States Generall and their Allyes for the End before mentioned may not as reasonably and with as litle breach of Charity as the former be suspected to be French Pentioners The first Designing only to advance France by bringing Holland Low and these Contriving how to keep Holland under by hindring His Majesty from Assisting them for the pulling down the power of France If the latter may be Equally suspected with the former I am sure all who have taken any kind of notice of the Transactions of Affairs amongst us for this Eight or Nine Years past must needs know who they are that have been guilty of both But to Proceed Whilst these Noble Lords were in Power and one of them either as Chancellor of the Exchequor or one of the Lords Commissionors of his Majesty's Treasury had the almost sole manadgery and dispose of every Branch of His Majesties Revenue No Sum of Mony could be granted the King by his Parliament that by them was Esteemed sufficient a Million and half Two Millions and half at a time signified little But no sooner were they Dischardged from their Ministration then the Cry every where set about by them was You Free-holders of England you Gentlemen of the House of Commons have a care what you do keep close your Purses if you give Mony you are undone Prerogative will be advanced too high Arbitrary Power and Popery will certainly be set up and the Subjects thereby Enslaved like those of France as if Prerogative Power though Vested in the King's Person were not to be Exercis'd by himself but by his Premier Ministers and as if there were no persons in England fit to be made such Ministers or to be Intrusted with the Exercise of that Power save only they who for the Reasons aforesaid His Majesty had thought fit to remove from their Trust and out of His Concils This amongst simple Honest people gained belief was lookt upon as wholsom Council the which they Imbraced with thankfulness and diligently persued every where agreeing to instruct their Representatives in Parliament to this purpose and upon the choice of the three last Parliaments chose sew or none to Represent them but such as they were assured would pursue this their Direction which accordingly hitherto hath been done Now give me leave in short to account the Sad Consequences that have Insued upon these Evil Practices His Majesty for want of Supplies necessary which these false and subtle Insinuations put into the Ignorant Peoples Heads kept from him hath hitherto been rendered uncapable of carrying on the War against France which the Parliament still prest for and His Majesty promised to have begun and would have vigorously pursued if they would have given him 600000 l. when he desired it the which they refused to doe neither have they since given him any Mony but what by the Act that gave it was appropriated to particular Services The Consideration of this gave Courage to the French and so disheartned the Dutch that they for their own preservation were obliged to agree a Peace without the consent of their Confiderates who since have been necessitated to enter into the same though to the unspeakable Dammage of Christendom For hereby was the Confideracy broken between the Emperor Spaniard Dane Hollander and all the Princes of the Rhine By this the Duke of Brandenburgh was obliged to deliver up all his Conquests in Pomerania and Bremen which had cost him so dear By this means the Confiderates Army for want of Mony hath since been most of it Disbanded whilst the French Army with his Immence Revenue is still kept on foot and daily Increased to the Terror of all Europe The Incursions he hath since made upon Flanders Alsace Strasburg and Cazal the Keys into Germany and Italy hath Alarmed all parts of the World none knowing where he will design next nor what places he will Demand as Dependences belonging to his new Conquests I know this is all Charged upon our present Ministers as the effect of their Male Administrations and the People are laboured hard to believe the same But in my Oppinion all these Mischiefs proceed from and are the ill Effects of the afore-mentioned Evil Councils which the King so long since had given him and were put in practice as aforesaid and proceed chiefly from the Male-contentedness of some of the Persons that gave those Councils who being used to Govern and now removed from all places of Trust know not how to Obey and sit quiet therefore endeavor to Confound all His Majesties Councils break all his Measures and obstruct all Proceedings for Publick Good in hopes to oblige His Majesty to a necessity of Restoring them to His Favor and their former Trust as not being able to Mannage the Government without them I cannot say these are the sole occasions of our present Mischiefs for there are a sort of men about the City and all over England in every County of Turbulent Spirits Active Minds Subtle Wits little Fortunes and less Consciences Credit or Reputation sufficiently Debauch'd and Vitious in their Principles and Conversations these are found out and made use of by the French are Pentionors to that King and Imployed to fall in with our own Male-contents and seemingly to take their parts these run from place to place tell the Danger the Kingdom is in of Popery and Arbitrary Power and of the Plot on foot to destroy the King and Protestant Religion and what Danger the Protestants are in of being Massacred these Improve their Interest with the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in every Parliament to hinder giving any Mony least they Inslave the Kingdom thereby these Roar about Streets and at every Coffee-House and in all Companies they come into what Danger the Protestant Religion is already in and that it will certainly be Destroyed if ever a Popish Successor should happen in England flock like Bees to the Court of Request when our â—arliament sits bussing in the Ears of our Representatives That there is no way to be secured but by passing an Act for Secluding His Royal Highness the Duke of York from ever Inheriting let him now or hereafter be of what Religion he will the Imperial Crown of this Realm which for the Three last Parliaments hath been vigorously Endeavored and with success to their Designs by having hindred all other Affairs and prevented all Remedies for settling and composing our present Differences and securing us