seeing the words wherein alone the Treason must lye were owned to have been spoken above two year ago And for his being suborned by the Earl of Essex and the Earl of Shaftsbury to Swear Treason against the Duke of Ormond my Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Sir John Davies it is remarkable that he never testified any thing of that nature against them and what he did declare in relation to them or any others he referred himself for the truth of it to the Council-Books of that Kingdom or to such Depositions which had been either taken by the Council there or had been transmitted to them by others And as no man that is Master of sense and hath any knowledg of those two Honourable Persons will ever submit his Faith to receive so incredible a thing as that they should Suborn any man to swear falsly so Mr. Morley whose credit infinitely surpasseth that of the Witnesses who swore against him absolutely denies that they ever did or that he ever spake any such thing concerning them But they that can first invent and then get so absurd and impossible a thing as Transubstantiation received and believed may be pardoned both in forging and in hoping to vvin credit to things ridiculously foolish as well as abominably false Nor could so dull a Fable proceed from any but people of an Irish understanding neither vvill it obtain with any men but such as have renounced Reason as vvell as Honesty But there is yet a third and that a more signal Instance of the Papists endeavouring to involve the Protestants in Ireland under the guilt of a Plot against his Majesty and this displays and unfolds it self in the Accusation sworn against Mr. Hawkins The person charged is known to be an ingenious Gentleman and one vvho hath always acquitted himself as became Honour Discretion and Loyalty only it is his fortune to be a Protestant and was his unhappiness to be made acquainted vvith some of the Popish Designs against the Government which instead of furthering or concealing he communicated to My Lord Lieutenant That vvherewith he was charged doth in all things so quadrate with vvhat we have heard Svvorn against Protestants in England that we may boldly say they vvere all coined in the same Mint For one Mac-Gennis svvears That Mr. Havvkins told him he went for England to establish a Correspondency with my Lord of Shaftsbury and that be received a Commission from the said Earl for a Troop of Horse and one Mackoghlin deposeth That he was to be a Trooper under Mr. Hawkins and that he had three pounds from him towards the buying a Horse The very counterpart and direct parallel of what Booth informed against Capt. Wilkinson and vvhich he and Bains would have suborned the Captain to swear against the Earl of Shaftsbury and were both hammered in the same Forge But as the Devil and the Priests inspire the Papists with falshood and malice so God to over-rule and defeat their Rage and Treachery deprives them of common Wit and Understanding and gives them up to all prodigious folly and madness For as Mackoghlin never spake with Mr. Hawkins but once and that in the presence of another person and then he only endeavoured to have insinuated himself into his Acquaintance which Mr. Hawkins refused to admit him into so it is most certain that Mr. Hawkins never conversed with the Earl of Shaftsbury nor so much as at any time saw him And whereas it was sworn by Mackgennis That he should say he came to London to establish a correspondence with that Nohle Peer and that he received a Commission from him for a Troop of Horse The whole matter deposed is not only false but the condition which my Lord was at that time in being a Prisoner in the Tower shows the impossibility that such an Affair should be transacted between them at that season Neverthelss that Ingenious and Loya Gentleman was committed to the Castle of Dublin upon that Forged and Ridiculous Information and had not the Protestant Plot been so far detected as to be hissed off the stage by several Juries it might not only have cost Mr. Hawkins his Life but laid a foundation for superinstructing a Conspiracy upon wherein most Protestants of quality and zeal in that Kingdom would have been included and first or last charged with the guilt of it For there were no fewer than between Twenty or Thirty mustered up of a sudden to testisie a Protestant Plot persons who as they believe implicitely in matters of Religion they would likewise swear so for the Interest and Advantage of St. Patrick and the Holy Church And besides what they may reasonably be supposed to receive out of the Catholick Treasury for so seasonable and useful a Service as the Swearing innocent Protestants out of their Lives and Estates they had lately the confidence to petition the Council in Ireland that a maintenance might be allowed them from the State And it seems but just and equal that they should be afforded the same encouragement which those listed and employed upon the like Service in England have and that they should have some consideration for the sale of their Souls tho they will be so reasonable as not to keep up that Commodity to the price which it goes at and is valued here And whereas fellows not only of a meer Irish understanding and breed but such as had conversed all their days in Bogs and whose most refined and improved knowledg is how with handsomeness to steal Horses and Cows might be found deficient in art and cunning to manage this Meritorious work of Swearing with some consistency to themselves and one another there are some lately arrived there from hence who having been trained and instructed here by the grand Masters of the Forgery and Affidavit-School may be able to edifie and discipline those raw blades in the necessary Virtues of Perjury and Impudence and acquaint them with the laudable method of rehearsing the Depositions which had been given them to con without administring any symptoms of their speaking by rote But their understandings not being so docile and flexible as their Consciences they make daily some unfortunate and fatal misadventure And their having publickly accosted the greatest persons with rude and insolent Menaces and their having threatned to accuse every one whom according to their knowledg of the measures of the World they do but apprehend to have offended them they have already so enfeebled their Credit with all sorts of men that they are altogether become useless and unserviceable It is far from my intention to bring all the natural Irish under this Character for tho most of them who continue Papists would esteem it not only venial but meritorious to cut a Protestants throat yet there are thousands of them who from some principles of Mankind and Bravery do detest the destroying Protestants in the base and creeping ways of Subornation and Perjury And we desire to be pardoned for this
Title and Quarrel against the Lady Jane she published a Proclamation to forbid and inhibit all Preaching and Expounding of the Scripture without her special License Which was to subject the Reformed to punishment if they offended whereas the Papists were sure not only to be pardoned in case they transgressed but were thereby in effect countenanced to restore the Romish Worship and Service And when a Parliament was called there was not only violence used in divers places to hinder the Commons from assembling to chuse and the election of several who were judged fit for the Queens turn promoted by force and threatnings but there were many false Returns made and some duly elected forcibly turned out of the House Upon which all the Laws against Popery came easily to be repealed and new Laws made for the suppression of the Reformed Religion and the persecution of Protestants Which as it serveth to convince all that have not wilfully shut their eyes against light and who are not resolved with a brutish obstinacy to withstand reason what we are to expect from a Popish Successor notwithstanding all the Laws which we enjoy for our security so the rage wherewith the Papists are at present transported and inflamed against the Protestants of these Kingdoms and the temper of the Gentleman whom they labour to see advanced to the Throne may cause us reasonably to fear and apprehend severer persecutions in case he should attain the weilding of the British Scepter than ever our forefathers under Queen Mary suffered or met withal For the Scheme which he hath set in Scotland while he is but a Subject and greatly restrained by the Wisdom Goodness and Authority of His Majesty from accomplishing half of what we are to suppose him inclined unto by his Principles may sufficiently satisfie all mankind what he is like to prove should he ever come to act with an uncontrolled liberty and have an opportunity to display the complexion of his mind His proceedings against the Earl of Argyle do not more surprise all the World than they proclaim how little he values the Lives of the Greatest and most Innocent Peers if they will not become subservient to his Interest and instrumental in his Popish and Arbitrary Designs And as the Earl's offering to explain in what sense he was willing to take the Test is a thing which no Law can justly forbid and which a Cobler might have done in England in the like case without being so much as liable to a rebuke so it is not unworthy of the knowledg of the World that he communicated the Explanation to his Highness beforehand and desired to know whether he might not be allowed to take it with the Proviso's which he afterwards mentioned in Councel And as the Duke did not prohibit but seem'd to permit at least to connive at what was proposed so it is remarkable that the said Earl was suffered to take his Place in Council after he had taken the Test in the sense which that Explanation did import But his Interest in the Kingdom and his stedfastness and zeal for the Protestant Religion administring matter of dislike and jealousie seeing nothing more material or really Criminal did occur were thought fit after some Nocturnal thoughts and private Consults to be laid hold upon for the ruining a Person vvhom as they could not manage to the service of their purposes so they dreaded the prejudice he might do them by running cross to their Designs Nor is the Earl of Argyles entertainment more severe in having that called Treason vvhich the common reason of mankind and all the Lavv of the World justifies than it is expresly contrary to the Lavv and Practise of Scotland to condemn attaint and forfeit any unless they either are or have been in actual Rebellion but such as are personally present or have had Warning given them to appear But the unpresidented Severity vvhich this Great and Wise Nobleman hath had measured unto him may be a Warning to all His Majesties Protestant Subjects what they are to expect if this Commissioner in Scotland arrive once to be King of Great Britain France and Ireland and how little the Laws which we so much rely upon will avail us if we be found to thwart his will and humour And as Laws are no security to Protestants against the Malice and Cruelty of the Papists when once they are armed with Force and Power sufficient to destroy them so neither the Liberty and Priviledges which the Papists are suffered equally to enjoy with our selves nor the Favours and Civilities which we have been ready upon all occasions to heap upon them can restrain or hinder our being ruined whensoever they are furnished with an opportunity to attempt and aceomplish our extirpation The Bloody Cruelties of Queen Mary to the Suffolk Protestants who in effect set the Crown upon her Head and the barbarous Severities exercised at present against the Hugonots of France who not only with the expence of their Treasure and Blood established Henry the 4th on the Throne of France when the Princes of Lorrain would have excluded him but by their Courage and Valour preserved the Soveraignty unto him that at this time persecutes them when the Prince of Conde would have wrested the Government out of his hand are so many uncontrollable Arguments and Demonstrations that no Merits or Services can secure Protestants from the Rage and implacable Malice which the Popish Religion inspireth men with And as the Irish Massacre ought never to be forgotten by the Protestants of these Dominions so it had this ingredient to aggravate the Barbarity of it that it was perpetrated at a season when instead of having any reason to complain of their usage by the English they were in the quiet possession of equal Priviledges almost with themselves But if we will descend to the present time and take a view of what the condition of the Papists hath been since His Majesties happy Restoration we shall easily perceive what an ungrateful generation of men they are and that they are not capable of being obliged by kindnesses For to begin with the Irish Papists who of all men deserved least lenity from a Protestant Government it is remarkable that notwithstanding the Rebellion wherein they had been ingaged and the infinite slaughters which they had committed in a time of Peace without the least provocation administred unto them yet there hath not any Law been made against them since the King's Return save one against their living in Walled Towns which was suspended by His Majesties Command expressed in a Letter to the Lord Deputy and Council from being put in execution And as to the ancient Laws which vvere in being and force against them that vvhole Kingdom swarming with Priests and Friers and their celebrating Mass every where with as much openness as the Parochial Ministers do preach the Word or read the Liturgy are undeniable Evidences how little those Laws have been applied to their hurt or
severe Censure which we have fastned upon the Rascality of the Irish Nation seeing besides the impressions we retain of them by the remembrance of the Irish Massacre and the fresher intelligence we have received of their regardlesness of Truth and Justice from the manage of themselves before the Court of Claims we have been lately enabled to form an opinion of the Herd and Hive of that people by the observations we have made of those few that have flown over hither and especially by the little Colony which Justice Warcup is Governour and Overseer of However as I rejoyce at the present stemming that Deluge of Sin and Misery which was there so nearly threatning innocent and loyal Protestants had not some baffle befallen those suborned Affidavit folk and did not a notorious infamy attend their testimony so I beseech Almighty God to prevent the consequences and effects which the countenancing such a course should it again revive and prosper would in all probability be followed and attended with For as the English Protestants in that Kingdom do throughly know the humour principles and inclinations of the Popish Irish and how absolutely they are under the conduct and at the disposal of their Priests so by being less numerous than the Papists they are both more apprehensive of and watchful against ruine and danger and cannot but construe this method of destroying them as much more pernicious than a new War or Rebellion in that Barbarous and Bloody people would be But tho the late Sham pretended Protestant Plot was so laid and contrived by the Papists as to comprehend under the infamy and guilt of it the chiefest persons in Ireland who profess the Protestant Religion or have any regard for the Liberties and Rights of Mankind yet the primary and main end of this horrid Papal design was to ruin and destroy the Principal Patriots of the Reformation and civil Liberties in England For upon the Fate of the Protestants here depends the safety or extirpation of all in these Kingdoms who profess separation from the Communion of the Church of Rome For the Protestants are not only most numerous here and best able to defend themselves in case a Massacre should be attempted upon them by the Papists but it was a Parliament in England that Voted and Published the reality of a present Popish Conspiracy that did proclaim to all the world the dangers which his Majesty and Loyal Subjects are in from men of Papal Principles that caused some of the principal Conspirators to be arraigned and condemned and which hath been endeavouring to hinder a Popish Successor from coming hereafter to ascend the Throne And therefore tho' few elsewhere that are either of any note for zeal to their Religion or worth saving for their ardour and courage for civil Right were to escape being entangled in the dangers and loaded with the reproach which they hop'd to bring upon all the Protestants of these Dominions by a forged pretence and charge of our being embark'd in a Conspiracy to depose the King and alter the Government yet it was mainly the Peers Gentlemen and others in England who are resolved not only to live and die in the Protestant Faith themselves but to do all they can to transmit it as an inheritance to their posterity that this Sham was calculated to retch and overthrow And albeit there have been but few hitherto named and accused yet could the Witnesses have been but once believed they would have soon sworn all into the same guilt whom either out of malice or for the facilitating the Introduction of Popery and arbitrary power they had a mind to get destroyed For whatsoever hath been either published in allowed Writings or affirmed in Courts of Judiâ—ature concerning the narrowness of this pretended Conspiracy and that they know of no Protestant Plot but that only a few discontented or desperate persons had been designing Treason against His Majesty yet the matter is in reality quite otherwise and this is only alledged to lessen the horror of people at first and to prevent the effects of their indignation should they understand the unlimitedness of Papal Rage Nor have the Contrivers and Managers of this Sham been Masters of so much Wit as to conceal the boundlesness of their Wrath and how extensive they purposed to render this Protestant Plot. For by making Oxford the Scene where the King was to be apprehended and that at a time when he was surrounded with all his Guards they do plainly tell all the world that had they obtained the Evidence to be credited and allowed in relation to any one person of quality they would have soon brought the Lives and Fortunes of thousands to lye at their discretion and mercy Admit but once that His Majesty was to be seised when encompassed with so great and well disciplined a force and it will necessarily follow that there must have been a very great number of Protestants engaged for the accomplishing of it Nay the very Depositions of the Witnesses themselves as they are communicated to the world in Print in the Tryal of Mr Stephen Colledg and in the Proceedings upon the Bill against the Earl of Shaftsbury do sufficiently proclaim that there were not only many Protestants of an inferior Rank but many of the principal Peers and Gentlemen in England that were designed to be brought within the circle and compass of this Protestant Plot. Nor is it likely that having designed to bring so many under the guilt of the Sham Meal-Tub Conspiracy they would now abate in the number which they purposed to destroy For besides the advantages which they enjoy through having Counsellers more to their gust they have either wheedl'd or brib'd many of our high-flown Church-men if not with a satisfaction to glory yet with an abject silence to connive at our ruin But the bounds which the Papists intended to set to their own malice in forging shamming upon the world that the Protestants had combined to depose the King may be best and most easily collected from the Testimonies of the Witnesses in the fore-mentioned Treatises Accordingly we are told by Dugdale That Colledg not only advised him to go with Horse and Arms to Oxford because he expected there would be See the Tryal of Stephen Colledg p. 19. something done there but he further says That he heard several Parliament-men talking before that Session of a disturbance that was likely to happen at Oxford and that it would be therefore best to leave some Parliament-men at home in every County who might manage the people And Smith not only affirms that Colledg told him how the Parliament was agreed to seize the King and that in order thereunto all the Parliament-men were Ibid. p. 28. to come to Oxford well armed and accompanied with Arms and Men but that the Earl of Shaftsbury should declare unto him how the Parliament-men who came out of the See the Proceedings upon the Bill against the Earl of
profligate Villain himself yet he may be a good Witness against his Complices and especially such as debauched him into Perjury That which he Deposeth is briefly this namely That Smith perswaded See Colledge's Trial p. 57 58. him to Swear that Sir John Brooks and others held a Consult at Grantham and that it was there resolved it was better to seize the King at Oxford than to let him go and that if Balron would manage it rightly against my Lord Shaftsbury and Colledge he would makehim for ever And seing Mowbray hath been lately produced by Just Warcup at the Court of the Verge as a good Evidence I suppose we may likewise produce his Testimony in proof of Smith's being a Suborner Now he Deposeth That Smith importuned him to Swear That Sir John Brooks had said there would be cutting of throats at Oxford and that the King would be seized there And he says Smith added That the Parliaments denying the King Money See Colledge's Trial p. 59 60. and standing upon the Bill of Exclusion was pretence enough sor any man to Swear that there was a Design against the King and that the King was to he apprehended And as these Witnesses ought not to be disallowed by the managers of this Protestant Plot seing they are made use of by themselves so they not only prove Smith to be an infamous and suborning Rascal But besides the Depositions unfold and declare the whole Mystery of this pretended protestant Conspiracy For whosoever are either against a Popish Successor or unwilling to give Money till they know how it shall be employed and applied are to be Sworn against as Guilty of a Design to Depose the King and alter the Government So that there is no mean if these men have their Will but we must either submit to be Papists and Slaves or else we must be content to be destroyed as Rebels and Traitors in the way of a Legal Process I think we may say now upon the whole of what hath been declared concerning Smith that that man is not careful of his own Credit who will give credit to this fellows Testimony And whatsoever Jury should find a Bill upon this Wretches Evidence may be justly esteemed to put their Neighbours Life in jeopardy upon the Oath of a suborned and perjured Rogue Nor can they who shall hereafter bring in a Verdict against Protestants upon Smith's Deposition be thought to have duly regarded or considered the quality of the Witness or the credibility of the Evidence but rather be judged by all to have pursued either their own Animosities or the unjust Quarrels of other men The next Witness who at the proceeding at the Old-Baily swore against that Honourable Peer the Earl of Shaftsbury was Brian Haynes a fellow stigmatized and branded with the infamy of so many Crimes that he disgraceth any Cause which he is produced in the favour of For seeming Angels are not to be believed when they are in fellowship and speak in consort with Hellish Fiends It were endless to recount the Enormities of his Life all his days having been spent in wickedness and profligacy For besides the Thefts and Robberies whereof he was guilty when at liberty This is remarkable that when his Debaucheries and Immoralities had lodged him about six years ago in the Kings-Bench so prevalent was the habit of Villany which he had acquired that among other Rogueries See John Whaley's Deposition in Colledge ' s Trial p. 44. which he practised there he stole a Tankard belonging to the Drawer And what is this less than committing a Robbery in the sight of the Gallows which we say ' is the highest Token of irreclaimabless and obstinacy in Wickedness Yea Perjury it self which is the most fatal and destructive sin to the Safety and Peace of Mankind is a Trade which he hath been long accustomed unto For in a Case between Mr. Bill and my Lady Windham divers years since he gave a false Testimony upon Oath as he not only afterwards acknowledged to my Lord Chief-Justice Rainsford but for which he craved her Ladiships Pardon Nor is there any thing more obvious than that he swore falsly at Oxford upon Colledge's Trial. For whereas he there Deposeth upon Oath That Colledge See Colledge ' s Trial p. 31 31. should speak opprobriously of My Lord Chief-Justice Pemberton in the Month of March before the Parliament sate at Oxford it is most certain and falls under the knowledg of all English-men That that worthy Gentleman of the Coif was not made Chief-Justice till about the middle of April following So doth God infatuate men when they engage themselves in a wicked Design that he over-rules them in some thing or other to betray themselves and beyond their intention to detect the Villany wherein they are concerned To that prodigious Impudency was that Wretch arrived that he hath openly professed Swearing and Perjury to be his Trade For Mr. Hickman Deposeth That he heard Haynes say to one Mr. See Colledge's Trial p. 30. Scot a Papist God damn him he cared not what he swore nor whom he swore against because it was his Trade to get his Money by Swearing This brazen-faced Varlet that swears now so positively a Protestant Plot did not only Depose upon Oath before Sir George Treby March 6. 1681. That David Fitzgerald was pursuing a Design of shamming the Popish Plot and fâ—rging a Protestant one but he presented the same in a Paper which remains at the Council-Board a Copy whereof as it was extrcted by William Blathwayt the 5th of Octob. 1681. I shall here annex Brian Haynes of London Gentleman Aged Thirty years and upwards maketh Oath That Mr. David Fitz-Gerald one of the Kings Evidence told this Deponent about the latter end of February last that he the said Fitz-Gerald possessed His Majesty and also gave it under his Hand and Seal that the late Plot was a Presbyterian Plot and invented by the Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftsbury of purpose to extirpate the Family of the Steward ' s and dethrone his present Majesty and turn England into a Common-wealth or else set the Crown upon the said Earl's head which the said Earl told the said Fitz Gerald did more appertain to the said Earl than to his present Majesty And this Deponent further saith That one Robert Power agent for the Earl of Tyrone and likewise the said Fitz Gerald did divers times tamper with the Deponent to speak with Mr. John Macknamarra to the end the said Macknamarra would retract his Depositions concerning the Popish Plot against the said Earl of Tyrone And that in case the said Macknarra would deny what he deposed against the said Earl of Tyrone the said Robert Power and David Fitz Gerald did to this Deponent promise the said Macknamarra should be provided for all the days of his Life And this Deponent further saith That the said Fitz Gerald told this Deponent he wanted but Mr. John Macknamarra to come
in and joyn with him and he would have the Earl of Shaftsbury ' s head cut off and sham the whole Popish Plot. By this Deposition we are plainly led into this whole deviliâ—h Intrigue of charging Protestants with a Conspiracy against the Person of the King and the established Monarchy For Fitz Gerald being corrupted by the Papists and sâ—ch as manage their designs to sham off the Popish Plot and swear one upon Protestants he accordinly applies himself to every person whom he conceived with any probality entertain thoughts of prevailing upon And by dealing with men of no Principles and of most profligate Lives to whom were proposed great Offices and ample Rewards they have by degrees been able to muster up Nine or Ten Rascals most of which were before notoriously infamous and having clothed them with the stile of the King's Evidence they grow angry that their Testimony is not admitted to the reproach of our Religion and the destruction of many innocent persons Yea this wretch Hayn's consessed to one Mrs. Hall That he had been dealt with to form a Presbyterian See Colledge's Trial p. 42. Plot and that he was desired to corrupt and suborn one Everard and others to come over and promote the same Design And upon the Overtures which had been made him he not only told one Mr. Titon That he could frame a Presbyterian Plot and that there was Money to be gotten by doing it but he acknowledged to one Mr. Richards That he was employed and Ibid. p. 43. had an hand in putting the Plot upon Dissenting Protestants and that he was offered a Pardon and 500 l if he would swear such and such base things That is if he would accuse the Earl of Shaftsbary and other Loyal Patriots of Religion and English Liberties of being guilty of a Conspiracy against his Majesty and the established Government And the Fellow being in great want and having long before shipwrack't his Conscience he was easily brought to comply with this wicked and abominable Proposal For as he told Mowbray His necessitous Condition made him take desperate Resolutions and that to make his Fortune he would swear a Plot against the Presbyterians in reference to whom any plausable thing would be believed And that the World may know of how long standing this forged Conspiracy has been I shall here add something of Sampson's Deposition upon Oath before an Alderman of London which may serve further to enlighten this Affair He swears That John Macknamarra told him that Edward Ivey and Bryan Hayns agreed together in April last to swear Treason against the Earl of Shaftsbury and that the Treason which they resolved to swear was That the said Earl should say That this King deserved more to be dethroned than Richard the second and that he the said Earl vvould dethrone the King and make England a Common-Wealth and that if the Bill against the Earl of Shaftsbury were once found that then they with Smith Turbervil and others would swear Treason against many more And as we may be sure that the Villan's being a Papist disposed him the more readily to venture upon a Design which was judged so subservient to the Romish Interest so it were worth the while to inform the World with what Court-Ministers and little Officers he secretly corresponded all the time he pretended to abscond But as those persons must be left to suffer by Justice of a Parliament so all the Discoveries relating to a close Converse between those Gentlemen and Hayns must be deferred till this whole matter fall under the Inspection of the Two Houses But so zealous of a sudden did the Rascal become in ruining Protestants upon this forged Plot That he not only called the Parliament at Oxford a company of Rogues because they would give the King no Money but that by doing Shaftsbury and other Protestants business they Colledge's Trial p. 44. would help him to Money out of the Phanatiks estates for they would rather damn their Souls to the Devil than that the Catholick Cause should sink If men did not chuse the being imposed upon and were not obstinate against conviction they might have been satisfied long ago that there was no Truth nor Reality in all the talk and noise which we have had concerning a Protestant Plot but that it is only the invention of ill men instructed and acted by the Papists for the retrieving the sinking Cause and Interest of the Catholick Church in these Nations And they have pitched upon Tools who are either wholly fearless of Damnation or such who upon a promise of Happiness in this world are resolved to venture it So that upon what hath been here with all Truth as well as Brevity represented concerning this Fellow Haynes I hope that at least all the sober part of Mankind will see cause for justifying the late Jury in their not believing his Testimony Nor have I insisted upon half the Crimes and gross Immoralities of his Life such as his forging a Letter to one Mr. Harbottle of Lincoln in order to cozen a Gentleman of Goods to the value of 200 l. And his marrying one Mrs. Mansfield and then turning her away after he had lived divers years with her and spent 500 l. which she brought him pretending she was but his Whore because they were not married according to the Form of the Church of England but after the Romish Fashion tho' he that is guilty of such things ought not to be believed unless the matter he swears carry a probability in it or be rendred morally certain by Circumstances which are either notorious or otherwise confirmed No instead of recounting such Wickednesses and Immoralities I have rather chosen to make him appear an infamous Rascal and one to whose Affidavit concerning a Protestant Plot no credit is to be given by declaring his own acknowledgments of the whole Forgery and upon what Motives and through whose Instigation he listed himself for a Witness and what was the end which the Managers of this Design proposed ultimately unto themselves with respect to which they reckon'd the murdering of innocent men would be esteem'd a holy and meritorious service And I shall only add to what hath been said That the wretch plainly contradicted himself in the face of the Court. For being asked by the Jury Whether he had not given an Information to a Justice of Peace concerning some design against the Earl of Shaftsbury he twice denied his having given such an Information to any save Secretary Jenkins yet upon my Lord Chief Justice's telling him that he did not observe the question and proposing it again to him he See Proceedings at the Old Baily p. 44 45. at last accknowledged that he had given an Information to Sir George Treby how Mr. Fitz-Gerald had both told the King and given it under his hand That the Earl of Shaftsbury was resolved to set the Crown upon his own head or otherwise to turn the Kingdom
other great and worthy Protestants is nothing but a late Forgery of their own and that they take upon them to detect vvhat never really vvas upon the Subornation of others and for the accomplishing some base mercinary and villanous ends Nor can there be a clearer proof of the Folly of these Fellovvs and the Falshood of vvhat they svvear than that some of them represent themselves to have discoursed all the while with the greatest Loyalty when in the mean time they introduce My Lord speaking See Proceedings at the Old-Baily p. 24 25. Treason at every word We must suppose that man distracted who should continue speaking Treason for half an hour together when in the Interim all the Answers and Replies of the person with whom he is discoursing do manifest a firm and steddy Allegiance to the King Smith's pretending to have spoken with so much Caution and Circumspection while as he swears The Earl of Shaftsbury talk'd nothing but Treason betrays not only the folly of the wretch but plainly shews that whatsoever he swore against that Noble Peer was false and either forged by himself or dictated unto him by such as had hired and suborned him Yea all that they deposed appears plainly to be False and Romance in that the persons whom they pretend to have been present when the Earl of Shaftsbury spake such Traiterous vvords against His Majesty and the Government do positively aver that there vvas not so much as one syllable of all that said vvhich these Miscreants have svvorn For whereas Dennis affirms that Major Manley was in the Room when my Lord told the said Dennis That they did really intend to have England under a Common-wealth Proceedings at the Old Baily p. 31 32. and that his Lordship desired Dennis to advise those of his Name and such as were his Friends in Ireland to be in a readiness to assist the Common-wealth of England Major Manley indeed acknowledgeth his being present at that time when Dennis was with the Earl of Shaftsbury but withal he is ready to swear That my Lord spake not one word to him except the asking him with some seeming passion and heat what his business was And forasmuch as Booth deposeth upon Oath That Captain Wilkinson was several times by when my Lord Shaftsbury discoursed to the purpose that that Miscreant swore and particularly that the business about the Fifty men who were to be my Lord Shaftsbury ' s Guard was transacted before the Captain this Honest and Loyal Gentleman peremptorily affirms That he vvas never at the Earl of Shaftsbury's vvith Booth but once and that in the hearing and presence of Sir Peter Colliton and that the vvhole discourse vvas about their going to Carolina The falsehood of the vvhole matter vvhich the Witnesses have deposed against the Earl of Shaftsbury is evidently detected and discovered by this that vvhereas one of the Witnesses pretends to have communicated the Treasonable design vvhich my Lord had acquainted him vvith that very night vvhich he heard it to a Club or Society of Gentlemen at the Queens Arms in Newgate street all these Worthy and truly Loyal Gentlemen do positively and unanimously affirm that there vvas no such thing either mentioned at that time or at any other season discovered unto them For vvhereas Smith svvears That my Lord Shaftsbury having told him the King did walk in the same steps which his Father did and would never be quiet till he came to his Fathers end and that thereupon he the See Proceedings at the Old Baily p. 25. said Smith came immediately and acquainted these Gentlemen with it who were met at the Queens Arms they do all solemnly profess there was no such thing and that Smith is a forsworn and perjur'd Rascal in saying so However here was a Train laid for the Lives of all those Worthy and Loyal persons could the vvretch have obtained Credit with the Jury as to what he Deposed against My Lord. And whereas Smith furt her says the Earl of Shaftsbury told him that Evening which Major Manley brought him from the Club at the Queens-Arms to Thanet-house The King pamper'd Fitz-Gerald to stifle Ibid. the Plot in Ireland and that he was as well satisfied with the coming in of Popery as the Duke of York and that the Parliament was satisfied he was as much for it as his Brother for so the Wretch swore in Court tho' the last words be left out in the Print all this I say is feigned and invented seeing Major Manley who was present and by all that time albeit Smith concealed that upon the giving his Evidence is ready to Depose upon Oath that there was not one Syllable spoken by my Lord to the purpose which this Miscreant swears Let us add to this Hayns's Deposing That he had Ibid. a long discourse with the Earl of Shaftsbury at a Cooks in Ironmonger-lane in a little Room next the Kitchin where by the way that last expression is left out in the Print and we shall find this whole Forgery still more obvious and palpable For as My Lord was never there except when he dined with divers Noble and Worthy Persons So besides the improbability of his leaving the company and society of men of the best Quality in England to come and talk with such a Fellow as Hayns and besides the absurdness that is in supposing the Earl of Shaftsbury to have staid an hour in a little Room by a Cook 's Kitchin not only the Servants of the house do positively affirm the contrary of all that this Rascal swears but divers Noble Persons are ready to testifie that the Earl of Shaftsbury never came down stairs out of the great Room till he was going away and that he took Coach immediately without withdrawing into any Room below But that which is extravagant beyond all imagination and which proclaims to every wise man the falshood of all they have sworn is Hayns's deposing That the Earl of Shaftsbury should not only say There are Families in England which have as much pretence to the Crown as the King but that the Duke of Buckingham Ibid. p. 27. hath in Right of his Mother as good a Title to the Crown as ever any Steward had Is it not enough to introduce the Earl of Shaftsbury talking Treasonably but he must be likewise exposed as talking ridiculously Surely the Superintenders and Managers of this Plot in the guilt whereof they would involve Protestants must either be of very weak Understandings themselves or they must apprehend the generality of Mankind to be so otherwise they could never hope to impose upon the world by such nonsensical stuff as this is For besides that no man knows of any Title whereby the Duke of Buckingham can pretend to the Crown the Right of claiming by his Mother as sprung from the Plantagenets being altogether groundless so there is not so sublime a Friendship between my Lord Shaftsbury and the Duke of Buckingham as
Retinue be Foundation to raise a just suspition of a Plot the Lords and Commons to whom some give the Character of being more Loyal than the rest of His Majesties Subjects will be most liable to suspicion Our Adversaries would greatly oblige us if they would tell us where the Forces vvere raised that vvere to be employed in this Traterous Fact and hovv they remained invisible in their coming together and parting again It vvas the indispensable duty of His Majesties Officers to have diligently enquired after these things And surely the Ministers have had opportunity as vvell as inclination to have done it long before novv And vvhereas vve are told of Fifty men and those persons of quality who had others to attend them that were listed for a Guard to the Earl of Shaftsbury Ibid. p. 21. and that Captain Wilkinson was to have the Command of them the Captain vvhose Word is more valuable than Booth's Oath does not only deny it but hath demonstrated that such an undertaking vvas inconsistent vvith the State of his affairs Yea the Wretch altho' he svvears That himself was one of them and that he had accordingly provided Arms and a good Stone-horse Ibid. p. 21. Yet he could neither say That he knew one man of them or that ever he conversed with any p. 36. of them Nor is the perjur'd Rogue able to give the world an account where he bought the Stone-horse which he pretends to have provided in order to the Design nor in what Stable he kept him to be in a readiness for that Service Would our Enemies have the world believe the incredible Crimes wherewith they have gotten us charged Alas all men who have either a grain of Wit or Honesty left will sooner look upon them as Malicious and Blood thirsty Impostors It would require a Book rather than a Paragraph throughly to inspect and discourse the matter which the Witnesses have Sworn and from thence to unveil the whole Mystery and detect the Forgery of this Protestant Plot. What can be more ridiculous in it self or more discover the Villany of this Intrigue than to hear a company of Wretches swear that a prudent and wise man has been engaged in a Conspiracy to destroy the Monarchy and to establish a Commonwealth when the doing it were to ruin himself and all the Peerage of England No man out of Bedlam can be so distracted as to embark in a Design which would bring himself into a level with those above whom he is raised and upon whose Resolves those of his Order and Rank in the present Government have by the Constitution a perfect Negative Ambition is that which usually inspires men to great and hazardous Undertakings and he must be supposed a Fool that would engage in an affair that would lessen and degrade both himself and all his Posterity as well as the Nobility of his Country Nor could he expect any man of Greatness and Interest to join with him in a Project so inconsistent with their Honour and the Figure which under the Established Legal Government they make in the State Nor is the altering the Monarchy into a Commonvvealth more contrary to his Allegiance than it is repugnant to his Interest and those indelible Principles of Civil Knovvledg and Policy vvhich he is imbu'd vvith and hath alvvays professed What can be imagined more absurd than that the Earl of Shaftsbury and the Protestant Peers and Gentlemen of England should combine to accelerate their ovvn ruin in Apprehending and Deposing the King vvho is our only Security and Protection against Popery Slavery and Arbitrariness Tho' Princes have been sometimes laid aside by a discontented people when the people have had a prospect of bettering their Condition under him who vvas likely to succeed yet never any conspired to destroy a just and merciful Prince to make vvay for one in his room that implacably hated both them and their Religion and vvho had resolved and determined their ruin Nor hath it been ever knovvn that the same Folly and Madness especially when the consequences have been fatal and destructive to the first Authors hath been acted twice in the same Age. And therefore the reviving the memory of the late War instead of serving to raise Fears and Jealousies of another doth to all thinking people demonstrate there can be none unless the Papists should begin a Rebellion and Massacre in England as they did heretofore in Ireland and in such a case I know not but that Protestants may both endeavour to defend their Lives against the Swords of their Enemies and to be revenged upon those bloody men And were not some people forsaken of all Modesty as they have abandoned all Truth and Justice they would be ashamed of filling the Nation with Jealousies of a new Civil War unless they know of such who are resolved either to extirpate us as well as to overthrow all our Rights and Liberties if by having recourse to Arms we do not defend both our selves and them To all that hath been said concerning the Infamy of the Witnesses and from the absurdity of the matter which they have Deposed in order to the detection of this forged Conspiracy against Protestants we might still render their Testimony more palpably false by observing how they studiously endeavour to put an estimate and value upon themselves beyond what they are capable of having and all this in order and subserviency to their being the better believed concerning the Treasons whereof they had accused us For knowing that there was no reason why any Faith should be given unto them and being apprehensive they would not be believed how do they endeavour by Protestations and otherwise to support and fortifie their own Credit Accordingly Smith before he entred upon the giving his Evidence against the Earl of Shaftsbury desired leave to wipe off the Aspersions which lay upon him about Colledge's Trial which words by the by are left out in the Print namely That whereas it had been reported that he Swore a Proceedings at the Old-Bailey p. 23. general Plot against the Protestants and the City of London instead whereof there is only in the Print a general Design against his Majesty he then said that he never swore any such thing neither could he swear there was a general Design of the City For not to insist upon this that he swore at Colledges Trial That Colledg told him the Parliament was agreed to seize the King and that the City was provided which is in effect the very things which at the proceedings upon the Bill against the Earl of Shaftsbury he would have vindicated himself from as aspersions only east upon him I say not to insist upon this what else meant that Apology See Colledge's Trial p. 28. 27. but that he would have retrieved a credit with the Jury which he knew he had forfeited and impose an opinion of his Honesty upon them being jealous that they might think he had lost all
man from doing himself right when he hath been publickly as well as eminently injured And truly it looks like an imposing that upon the implicite Faith of the World which they know themselves unable to prove or it argues a distrust either of the goodness of their Cause or that it hath not been managed with integrity and candor when they are unwilling to admit both sides the priviledg of being openly heard For tho it may become the Wisdom of men in Power and Government to preserve the Justice of Courts and Reputation of Juries from being openly arraigned when an Indictment after a full Enquiry hath been approved and allow'd by such as are the proper and only judges of it yet such a procedure as the restraining men from defending their own Innocency and vindicating the impartiality of those who acquitted them after a full and Legal hearing can never adjust it self to the sense or reason of mankind Nor doth such a course and method import any thing less than that for having miss'd the satiating their Malice in the Blood of one or two whom they mortally hated they will pursue their Revenge in endeavours to blast the Credit and diminish the value and esteem of all that have been instrumental in preventing and defeating their Intendment NOW this Plot for Deposing the King and altering the Government whereof Protestants were to be Accused and Impeached was not only so contrived as that it might reach most English Peers and Gentlemen who stood in the way of Popery and Arbitrariness but the Protestants in Ireland were to be brought under the charge and accusation of it For the Popish Conspiracy having been carried on with the same vigour against the Lives of Protestants and the established Religion in that Kingdom as it was in this and the Parliament here being so far satisfied and convinced of the reality of it there as well as in England as to declare and testifie the belief of it by the unanimous Votes of both Houses accordingly the Papists in both Kingdoms were equally and by the same Artifices to be relieved from the imputation which lay upon them and to be rescued from the punishments which the Laws Adjudged and Condemned them unto Therefore the Protestants in both Nations were to be accused of having forged the Popish Plot and that having thereby amused His Majesty and the people they have in the mean time been fomenting and promoting a real one of their own This was that which St. Laurence the Priest would See No Protestant Plot First part p 33 34 35. have Hired and Suborned Mr. William Smith to Swear and Depose and whereof the Evidence was so strong against St. Laurence at his Trial that tho' he was acquitted yet he is still believed by all impartial men that heard it to have been really guilty For it is not only reported from thence by persons who deserve to be credited that such especially were returned upon the Jury who were known before-hand to have reflected upon Mr. Smith but it is most certain that whereas the Prisoner was allowed five Councel to plead for him there was none of the King's Councel nor any one man of the Gown besides that appeared in behalf of the Evidence Whether they forbore from an opinion that the Evidence was so plain that it required no Plea to enforce or apply it or whether they did it out of deference to some great men whom they would not offend by being concerned in any thing that may prejudice the honour and integrity of the Papists or whether it was in obedience to the commands of such who would not have an Intrigue detected upon the discovery whereof the Protestants may come to be thought peaceable and loyal again as I cannot certainly tell so I shall not take upon me to conjecture and divine But besides that which was sworn against St. Laurence by Mr. Smith which to any who read it will appear either the copy transcript or counterpart of what they have been doing here we have other evidence of the Papists labouring in Ireland to sham off their own Plot by representing it as a Forgery falsely laid upon them by the Pratestants and their endeavouring to possess the Government with a belief that during the noise and buz which the Protestants had raised concerning a Popish Plot they were themselves embarkt in a Conspiracy against the King and the Monarchy Thus whereas one Captain Morley had appeared before the Committees of Lords and Commons here and swore two Consults which the Papists had in Ireland in reference to the extirpating the Protestant Religion in that Kingdom they have procured no fewer than six or seven Irish Witnesses not only to Depose against the said Morley That he was Suborned by the Earl of Essex the Earl of Shaftsbury Sir Robert Cleyton and others to Swear Treason against the Duke of Ormond the Lord Chancellor Boyle and Sir John Davies but that he himself had said the King was on enemy to all Protestants and deserved to have his Head cut off as his Father had Here we have an Epitome and Abridgment of what the whole Popish Party is laying out their Money improving their Wit and employing the Power and Interest of their Friends for and about But why the Papists should in all their Depositions introduce the Protestants affirming the King to be a Papist and an enemy to those of the same Religion which he not only professeth but which he hath sacredly and solemnly Vow'd for ever to protect and defend I think no wise man is able to tell unless it be that they have a mind to recriminate upon us what they have been proved guilty of themselves It is not yet seasonable to declare by whose means and by what Arts the foresaid Deposition was obtained nor how Handland and Murphey two fellows that came over hither to Swear the Popish Plot were since their return transformed into Witnesses to prove a Protestant Conspiracy but all these things must be foreborn till his Majesty in his Princely Wisdom and from that Justice which he hath hitherto governed his people by and in the discharge of his promise which his Loyal addressing Subjects as well as others do rely upon be pleased to call a Parliament and then both all these and many other things will be more fully disclosed and set in a brighter light In the mean time this must be acknowledged to the Honour of His Majesty and the Justice of the Council-Board that tho the foresaid Deposition was received by some in Ireland with great fondness and transmitted hither not only with all expedition and speed but accompanied with an earnest desire that the Gentleman might be sent thither yet the King and Council would neither do so illegal and arbitrary a thing as to send a person from hence to Ireland without his own consent both born and bred here and who actually possesseth an estate in England Nor could it be done without great Injustice