had nothing to say against him were not thought by him to be those Men that intended to destroy Him. I will in this case make him a better Excuse out of a charitable Construction than he has yet made for himself I hope without that foul Language he lays to my Charge I had convinced him in my former Animadversions how fouly he had fallen upon the King and that may have made this last of his Papers a little more modest and himself so far humbl'd as to be pleas'd to give us a milder Interpretation of his Words than ever was his Meaning in their first Composition and Original for they being rang'd among the rest of those Papers that have so much of that unimitable boldness in the blemishing of His Majesties Person and Government Quaere Whithis may not be called Evil Information of the King to his Leiges which is Leasing making by the Laws of Scotland Jac. 5. p. 6. c. 83. cannot be presum'd to be more civilly meant Our Author knows if hee 'll but pardon the Application of his Ecclesiastical Function to a Civil use that it is the Practise of the men of his Profession to discover any dubious sense of the Scriptures or the Fathers by having recourse to Texts and Contexts by considering the several Parts of the Works how they cohaere and from such Collateral Relations to make their most reasonable Constructions if I may therefore deal with the Dr. in his own way I hope to make it very plain That by These Men might be well meant by him the King and His Ministers that had a mind to persecute and destroy him If he can paint Him as a Terror to his People with his fearful Mercenarys because possess'd with his own Religion may not he think he may persecute and destroy them for the sake of theirs and that when our Author in his repeated Reflections has so barbarously observ'd that for Religion it self * Vid. His Reflections or Parliament Pacific 1 par pag. 2. Six Papers pag. 2. he must unavoidably do it does he not apply the decry'd Persecution in France to the King of England that Proclaims nothing but Indulgence and that this * Pag. 10. p. 14. King to countenance him will copy after him that his Absolute Power may declare us Hereticks to be burnt without Reserve has he not forc't the King 's own Words of Invincible Necessity to extend to Tortures Dragoons and Death it self where necessities are not invincible And if by these must be meant only Informers to destroy you how comes the Government it self to be made Mahometan and His Majesty's * Pag. 21. Oath that he has made to be administred in Scotland but an * Pag. 14. Obedience of the Bowstring an Order to send in their Heads and destroy themselves I am apt to think our Author has forgot himself when he would palliate and excuse a Reflection upon the King or that he may be surpris'd at the repetition of his own Extravagance SECT VI. THe next Question that comes to be Consider'd is Whether by the King's Laws every one of His Subjects was warranted to seise on such Offenders in Vid. 1 pag. what manner soever if so then the Dr's Exceptions are more hastily made than the Envoy's Memorial The seising such Offenders I had given him several Presidents of before but our Author that pretends to Answer all that concerns himself has indeed left it all Vnanswer'd By the Statute Laws of both Kingdoms setting aside the natural Leigeance that obliges them the Subjects are bound to detect all such as enter into Vid. L. Coke Inst Vid. any Treasonable Conspiracy against the King and Government and cause their Persons to be * Jac. 6. p. 14. C. 205. apprehended and that upon pain of being * punisht as Principal Offenders and this shall extend to all Subjects of the King of Great Britain where-ever they reside and more particularly by the Laws of Scotland the Letters of Intercommuning extend to all their King's Subjects whatever Country they inhabit neither will that Expedient of a translated Allegiance excuse them neither can it be imagin'd from even our own Law but that all Allegiance and Obedience is inseparable even from those Subjects that reside in another Dominion and even in the Service of a foreign Prince since we have an †3 Jac. c. 4. Act that makes it Felony for any to go to any Neighbouring State or another Prince's Territories without taking an Oath of Obedience to their own Prince this my * Inst 3. c. 23. Lord Coke extends to Democratical Governments and Republicks as well as Principalities and that to those that go thither even without any design of entring into Forreign Service barely for omission of taking this Oath of Obedience before they went out of the Kingdom a Law though it has been look'd upon like a dead Letter and so little executed yet will serve to let us know that this Precedent Oath was requir'd to prevent the pretence of suspending your Allegiance by any forreign Naturalization which though it may priviledge you in another State for the present could never annull that Antecedent Obedience that by your Birth you ow'd and by your own Act had sworn to your Natural Lord so that it supersedes all doubt but that by the King's Laws Vid. his Abstract of the Memorial all his born Subjects wherever they reside are bound to observe those Laws among themselves and if such Offenders as our Author can be seiz'd by the King's Subjects at home they are as much oblig'd and warranted if they have Power and Opportunity in what manner soever to put it in Execution abroad Where Reason and Law do Justifie such proceedings it does almost supersede any Necessity to defend it by Presidents and Arguments from Practise and Fact but even for that as we are not deficient so we will not be wanting to produce them though we had satisfy'd the World in it before and one would think our Author too since he has not offer'd to return to them the least Reply The Case of Dr. Story was so truly represented Dr. B's 13 Q. Eliz. 1571. too and yet no otherwise than the truth of the Fact and that as it is related by Fox so truly parallel that I cannot discover the least disparity unless it be in this alone that the one is a famous Doctor in Divinity and the other was only as Celebrated a Doctor in the Civil Law which since our Author would not take notice of when he was answering all that Related to himself we will repeat it here a little more at large Vid. pag. 1. Story was Imprison'd upon Queen Elizabeth's coming to the Crown only for having been zealous in the concerns of his Religion in the Reign of Queen Mary The Famous Fox gives no other reasons for it but represents him as you might expect under the colour of Cruelty and Persecution though indeed
* Id. Heath's Chro. That also in the Year 6¾ they cashier'd our Regiments would have had them take a New Oath to their States which they all generously disdain'd refusing to betray their natural Lord by that treacherous Expedient of translating their Allegiance And such an Aversion the whole Nation had then against this political Project of our Author's Opiniatre which he so prides himself in that the Opinion of the whole Parliament was against him and when the Dutch propos'd this new Oath they past a Bill of Attainder against all such as went over into their Service and that though the Laws had made it Felony before these I consess were Heroical Attempts of the Dutch upon the Subjects of the King of Great Britain to tempt them to betray their Master but our Author being experienc'd in that point wanted no Temptation and if he will have one Heroical Attempt more upon Honesty we know how his new Masters betray'd us who when our Embassadors were entring their Town to treat most Heroically enter'd our River to burn and destroy and who tho' we are so falsly upbraided with a French League did once really conclude a League with France to betray England which as I am well inform'd the late King had under their own Hands to produce and now this Heroical Invasion without the least denunciation is most becoming the Dutch and another Instance of their fair dealing with Princes but Time may shew that England dare not only resent this but revenge it too Could it possibly have been avoided from the Contents of his Papers I would not have given our Author the Glory who of his own accord is too much given to affect it of making his Cause that of a Nations but since in this very piece he has labour'd so much to make it so and those that are his Defenders by Publick Instruments Solemn Replys and Resolutions which our Adversary here with his Name affix'd openly insists and relies on have thought fit to interest themselves so far in his defence His Majesty's Honour requires as defensatory an Apology and our English Nation as well as private Pens reduc'd to a necessity of maintaining it Argument I am sure is an inoffensive Weapon especially when only us'd by them that perhaps have some reason to be offended and till our Author returns us as much Reason and Law President and Examples from History and Fact to justifie his Cause as I may perhaps with Modesty say has been here offer'd to overthrow it The Memorials of the King of Great Britain in spight of this Author's Reflections will appear to the reasonable part of the World and all People unprejudic'd to be well grounded and notwithstanding the Reply from the States to be still unanswered SECT IX AND now to come to this Vindication of himself of which there has been nothing like it unless it be the words in the Title Page he Charges me for laying to his Charge several * P. 6. Papers that I do not prove upon him I confess I cannot Swear to the Truth of them neither can it be expected that I should unless I were in the same Confederacy with our Author for the defaming of his Country and his King and had been a * Vid. p. 6 7. Scribler more despicable and mean than any but himself can make me i. e. his Amanuensis But though he will not allow * P. 2. Similitude of Hands to be Proof enough to hang him I hope Similitude of Styles and of Circumstances of Affairs may be sufficient or good Evidence only to guess at an Author and a bad Man. More particular Proof of my Charges might I suppose been as well referr'd to his legal Tryal as he does his Innocency and Defence his Justifying and Clearing of himself but since he is not contented even with that Charge which he dares not deny I must shew the World upon what it was grounded 1. The Papers then that I arraign'd for his in one of Vid. Parl. Pac. the former Treatises and that for the most audacious Reflections on the Crown and almost on the Memory of all His Majesty's Royal Predecessors were those Sir that as confidently carry in their Front this Author 's celebrated Name They are Printed in Holland which from the Letter and Paper and manner of Printing I can prove being no such Stranger to Dutch Books and it may be easily guest from whence we might expect Dr. Burnett's These Papers are all Pag'd in Common with those Letters of His that were sent to the Secretary of State on purpose I suppose to let us see they were all of a piece They contain all of them either the peculiar Concerns of this Author or else what is as much his peculiar Province the highest Defamations of the King and his Government which for farther satisfaction I have in this Treatise specify'd and repeated These Libels were long before by a Praeliminary Menace †1 Lett. to my Ld. M. of Displeasing His Majesty with a Recital of Affairs threatned to be sent us and the Dr. was indeed so civil before he began his War with the Crown to send a solemn Denunciation and the defying of his Prince was an arrogance so agreeable to such a Subject that it supersedes Proof and a Man need not seek far to find out the Champion Though I must confess too that the foolish affectation of his having had such a * Vid. Ib. share in Affairs for this Twenty years did not the Author's Vanity prevail against the Truth of the Fact and a probable Credibility one might be brought to believe then none of Dr. Burnett's I do not hear of his having been to either Crowns a Secretary of State or a Privy Counsellor and by what has appear'd he was ever reputed the worst man in the World for to be one a Secretioribus Consiliis since if we can credit his own Relation * Vid. Vind. p. 7. only of my Lord Lau d's Affairs and the Character he had from an Archbishop of Scotl. he was not well qualify'd for so much as one a Sacris Domesticis Some things are so * Vid. Baldus ut Supra Notorium probatione non indiget plainly probable that they supersede the pains of any Proof and that Moral Certainty we have of his having writ these Six Papers is as good as Demonstration The next Papers that I have quoted as his are the Reflections on Mr. Varilla's no one that I ever yet met with did ever mistrust them for any others and himself has taken all the Care in the World that they should be known for his alone His Itinerary Letters that I have touch'd upon I hope he does not dispute or has not taken so much the Liberty of a Traveller as to have occasion to be asham'd of the Relations The Enquiry against the Book of the late Bishop of Oxon has so much in it of our Authors malice and revenge that it
Allowed to be Publish'd Anno Dom. 1688. Natural Allegiance AND A National Protection TRULY STATED Being a Full ANSWER TO Dr. G. Burnett's Vindication of Himself LONDON Printed and sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster 1688. Remarks on the Second Part of the Reflections of Dr. Burnett on the Parliamentum Pacificum being an Answer to the Vindication of himself SECT I. AN Apology for so many Months silence * Vid. pag. 1. which is sometime Interpreted a Consent to the Accusation would be now as requisite and necessary for our selves and be better excus'd by the long deliberate and serious Consideration that has been had of what is here Writ than that of our Authors from his uneasiness in Writing Himself and his Admirers I am sure think he Writes very easily * Vid. his Papers and the many Calumnies he has cast upon our English Government and the Prince that Presides in it in multiply'd Reflexions in repeated Libels aggravated with Arrogance and Applause only from their being the most Audacious Crimes and the severest Satyrs on the Crown This does certainly declare that they do not come from him with such a deal of difficulty but are more probably the sudden Productions of his easie â—â—ile The hasty Transports of an * Vid. Letter to my Lord Middleton avow'd and Animated Passion or the gratifying the Popular Fame he has here acquir'd partly for his Meritorious Learning and more by his study'd Affectation Had this Paper but the half of that Modesty it pretends to it could not with so bold a * Paragraph Front term those pieces that have been publish'd in defence of a Prince and Government he defames but so many Libels only because they have tost about his Name I cannot see how they can be call'd so unless this Celebrated Name to which so â—any are ascrib'd like some Cabalistick Spell can make a Metamorphosis and blot the very Papers that offer but to mention it Those are look'd upon as the greatest Libellers by the Civil Law that invade and abuse the Civil * Atrox injuria estimatur Si Magistratus c. Inst 4. Tit. 4. Si ad seditionem Vis Publica est Vid. Pacii Analys ibid. power and the Magistrate which if it tend to Sedition is there call'd a * Vid Tuld hic c. 5. per l. Un. C. Si quis Imp. maledixerit Quisque vel cogitavit c. Vid. C. 9. 6. Publick Invasion Had our Author that Christian Temper which he tells us he proposes for a Pattern and Imitation I humbly conceive he ought to have been so humble too though such an High-Priest and kept the Priest from being so high as to revile the Prince that Divine Pattern our Saviour is indeed the greatest Example of such a sort of deference and submission that would make him such a Christian as to pay it to his King though Pagan and that though Dr. B. were of the Opinion of Mr. I. in the point of * Vid. Julian's Popery and Paganism Popery In the next place his Apology for the States of Holland is but little better than what he makes for himself Vid. Ibid. pag. for the Protection they have given him might proceed from the Misrepresentation he has given them and their Lordships we thought would have had too much Honor for Crowned Heads and their own Allies than to protect a person that Libel'd and abus'd both at least if they allowed him the priviledge of a Naturaliz'd Subject K. of France England in his Reflect they could not indulge him a Liberty that must be deny'd any Native that is to offer to defame the Proceedings of those Princes whom not only their Sacred Character should preserve Inviolate but whom themselves were oblig'd by solemn Leagues and Articles of Alliance Sanctions that in such National Concerns are more seriously to be observ'd to maintain in their wonted Honor and Esteem and to deliver up such Forreign Fugitives or punish at home such Domestick Offenders as do endeavour to diminish it The little Reflection that was past upon their Government one Vid. Parliam Pacif. would have thought might have been past by too by one that reflects upon ours so much and Statesmen will allow even Grotius himself that the Aggressors in such Violations authorize the returning of the like If our Author can prove that the States have been worse used than he has used the King of Great Britain or that the least Animadversion was ever made on their Government or Constitution till His Majesty had suffer'd so much from his most Injurious Pen we will then submit to that punishment which the Pensioner and the Doctor doe desire and be heartily sorry for that Atrocious Calumny which they say has so much deserv'd it I have therefore in all the preceding Treatise omitted such Expressions as might give an offence tho' they could be said with truth I have given Historical Accounts of the Proceedings of those Catholick Princes whose Memory and Religion Persons and Perswasions our Author thinks it his Duty barely by Reflection to defame and if Holland has happened to be concern'd in the History as well as France and Germany who can help it the Doctor might as well commence a Quarrel with Heylin's Geography for Historians in a Trade can never agree as to make us answerable to States for an History of the times and only for relating the Transactions of those very Papists and Protestants that made such a wonderful alteration in this Western part of the World and even an account extorted from us by those Rhetorical Reflexions which from a greater Zeal against Popery than any regard to sincerity and truth I am confident he has made Neither does this Justification of our selves like our Author's Defamation of Princes consist for the most part only in Flourish and Tropology and I might add in a little Malice mingl'd with his much Learning and Wit but the Writing of an History is to be defended by the Law and tho' it were of all Nations is no Libel by the very Jus Gentium The World could never be said to sit in Judgment upon Sir Walter Rawleigh and the short History we have given of the Forreign Reformations make us no more accountable to States abroad than our Author is for the History of our own at home though I must confess I do not expect any thanks from Holland because he had his from the House so that if those Passages by which he so laboriously would stir up the resentment of the * Vid. Reflect a part pag. p. States have only a respect to Matter of Fact to History and that of Reformation the Laws of Nations make it no Injury and I hope none of our Neighbours will teach us any better Law. Injurious Defamation consists properly in Reflections which of late is our Authors excellency his common Topick Title Peculiar and what Reflects upon the fame of private Persons or
†Novel 78.5 Antoninus Pius gave the Jus Civitatis to much Forreign-People that repair'd to Rome And though our King cannot naturalize without an Act of Parliament which I cannot see but might have been admitted as a point of Soveraignty it being of old allowed to his Original Ancestors the Roman Princes and the denying it fixing somewhat of Soveraignty in the three States yet by our Law now he grants Letters of Denization which is as * Coke's Report fol. 25. inseperably assix'd to his Royal Person yet still this being Denizen'd or Naturaliz'd shall never alienate that Allegiance you owe your Natural Prince much less protect a man from the Justice and resentment of his Lawful Soveraign for if it cannot be defended in those that are born Subjects of a Forreign State it cannot be imagin'd justifiable in those that are Naturaliz'd for though that puts you in a conditionas if you had been a Subject born yet it is with relation only to personal defects to qualifie you for the Priviledges of a Native and not to exempt you from the Obligations you owe to the Laws of God and Nature By what has been said and somewhat more that I shall now say I hope he 'll retract this opinion That Vid. Vind. p. 5. the Obligations of Honour that all Soveraigns come under to protect whom they have naturaliz'd against all things but their own Justice is no dark point of Law and that it is what every Prince Practises That Obligation of Honor were there no Leagues to oblige them would on the contrary command them not to justifie those Crimes in Naturaliz'd Subjects which they cannot defend in their Natives he is so far from clearing this dark point of the Law that he has made it only more obscure and indeed put the Law quite out like the Expositor that Writ so much of Fiat Lux upon his Window till he had darken'd the whole Room And for the practice of Princes it is plainly against him some Presidents there are where Protection has been much insisted on as when the Venetians defended Pope Alexander against the Emperor Frederick but I hope our Author will not make his Case that of a Soveraign Prince when the Chalcidenses refus'd to deliver up Nauplius to the Greeks as we have observ'd before it was after they had found him Innocent by a formal Tryal and that obstinacy of the Gepidae even by which they perisht was not for protecting a Criminal in the Case of High Treason and for a more Modern Instance when Queen Elizabeth demanded Morgan and others 34 Eliz. Cambden fol. 25. out of France and was refus'd it is apparent it was upon a particular revenge the French King propos'd to himself by way of Retaliation for he would not so much as offer her to put them to a Tryal there which all Authors do indisputably agree in ought to be done and which the * Vid. Answer to 2d Memorial Dutch themselves in his own Case grant to be reasonable though they do not put it in Execution for he told her plainly †Si in Anglia quid machinati sunt Regem non posse de eisdem cognoscere Cambd. ibid. that he could not that is more truly Would not take any Cognisance in France for any thing they had done in England tho' what the Queen pursu'd them for was High-Treason too But when we come to Consult the History we as soon come to see the Reason too and that was return'd in the very answer of the King 's viz. that the Queen had not long before * In suum regnum Mongomerium Principem Condaeum c. ad misisse Comd. 1585. receiv'd Montgomery the Prince of Conde and other French Fugitives into her Protection and truly if we consider her as encouraging all the troubles of that Kingdom and his Subjects that she assisted when in Arms against their King in a cruel War and that against her own Articles of Peace it cannot be expected she should meet with much Complement from such a King or the Common Justice that the Laws of Nations would allow neither would it be a rational Conclusion from Particular Instances and those ill apply'd to subvert a Universal Rule of Reason Equity and Right This Obligation of Honour that all Soveraigns lye Vid. Vind. p. 5. under to protect whom they Naturalize against every thing is I think another of his unlucky Reflections and that upon the Honour of all Princes I cannot tell You what sense some sort of People may have of this Honour that don't use to stand much upon having any but Crown'd Heads that are generally the Fountains of all that is Honourable treat one another with more respect The sense that the Ancients had of this Obliging Honour was briefly this Dion Chrysostom says that among the many Mischiefs that attend Governments and cause all this Discord and Disturbance he counts this for one The protecting Criminals and Offenders that fly from one City to another That the next Degree to Treason is to harbour and Protect Traytors and next to the Renegadoes are those that receive them This is observ'd by †Grotius Lib. 2 C. 21. Quintil. Declam 255. Grotius out of Quintilian and our Authors offering to put this Principle upon the States is by the Consent of their own Grotius the greatest Libel upon their Lordships they might have been more honourable and wise than to permit a particular Person 's Crimes to Be paum'd upon them for an Interest of State and a single man's Offence that can hardly be said to be a Subject to make their Government suffer by a national Imputation And thus Aeschines in his Answer to Demosthenes declares in his Treaty with K. Philip for the Peace of Greece That the Malefactors themselves and not their Cities should suffer for their faults which nothing but the punishing or delivery of the Criminals can excuse and for this reason the Cerites presently left it to the choice of the Romans which they would have And as I observ'd above I thought the States would have been more truly honourable than to entertain such Maxims of Government for a point of Honour and that the Wise Administrations they have many times shewn would not have permitted them to receive it as a point of Wisdom or Policy and that from an Instance that these their most Learned Statesman that ever their Country afforded or indeed any other has applied to the Case Ibid. and that is Basilius's sending to Cosroe's for one that was his own Subject but being declared a Rebel and a Fugitive tells him he hoped he would be so prudent as not * Somewhat to this purpose said the Romans when they sent for Jugurâ—ba by Protecting him to countenance such a President against himself And indeed this has been in this last Age the real occasion of debauching it into our Author's degenerate Principle of Honour when by the first Breach upon
and that aggravated when the Persons were Military men that Zonoras discoursing of King Lazus who had Revolted from the Persians to the Romans makes it a Just Cause of War between those Romans and the Persians because the Roman General had drawn over unto himself the Subjects of the King of Persia This is granted too by the Learned Grotius and he insists * Lib. 2. c. 5. sect 24. Lib. 3. c. 20. sect 41. several times upon the same Passage for a President His Majesty's Memorial almost in the same words expresses the Saying of Sabinus That though every man has this natural Liberty or the power to make himself a Member of what City he pleases yet he cannot of the Right of Dominion after another has been introduced and therefore Grotins adds the authority of Paulus That by the Laws of the Romans all Fugitive Servants were liable to the right of Reception whom their Masters can over claim and they must still remain their Servants and that it is the greatest Injury to detain them from their Service And certainly then the Soveraign will have as great a Right to that of his Subjects So that it is indeed somewhat to be admired to see so lately the Laws of Nature and Nations alleadg'd to Justifie a Matter to which they both are so plainly repugnant and by those very People against whom their own most applauded Author is the best of Advocates and who plainly Lib. 3. c. 9. sect 11. tells us too in another place * Ibid. lib. 3. c. 20. That it is unlawful to receive such as are bound either by Oath or otherwise to perform any Service or Duty to another Prince and since their Lawyers tell them so it will not be Improper to look a little into our Law and see what that tells us By the Stat. of Hen. 7. * 11 H. 7. Calvin's Case Jac. 1. and the Resolution given in K. J. 1. it is Plain the King of England cannot be depriv'd of the Service of any of his Subjects who are bound to serve him in Peace as well as War both within the Kingdom and without that natural Allegiance is unalterable and unseparable whatever Liberty of Translation Some may pretend to and by a particular Act of Parliament of K. James as upon another occasion was before observ'd the Serving of Foreign 3 Jac. c. 5. 3d. Inst c. 23. Princes with a Translation of Allegiance is particularly provided against by the requiring an Oath of Obedience before they go over and making it Felony to go without And What can be imply'd from this but their Obligation to return when call'd and commanded And this is extended by the Comment of my Lord Coke to a going over without serving or to Domestick Service as well as Military The whole Design of the Statute seems directed more especially against Souldiers entring into Foreign Service and by a more particular Branch of it binds them * Vid. Form of the Obligat not only to take their Oath of Obedience but also to give two sufficient Sureties And it was a Case once that came into Question * Dyer 298. Whither the going only to live out of the Kingdom without Leave were not a Contempt and an Offence punishable and to be construed as a Desire to withdraw his due Obedience And 't is plain that Queen Elizabeth whose Memory the States ought to Reverence as well as our Author after She had given Leave of Absence in a Foreign Service for some Years upon a Refusal to return on the sending her Privy Seal that Commanded it upon their Allegiance Id. fol. 375. B. proceeded against the Persons as Fugitives seizes confiscates and sells their Estates and Inheritance If these then are the Laws of England if this has been resolv'd in the Reign of a Princess whose Proceedings no Protestants will dispute His Majesty's Envoy might well declare The King could Recall His Vid. the King's Men orial Subjects by his Royal Proclamation or his Letters of Privy Seal and that they were bound to Obey those Orders upon very severe penaltys and the Memorials of the Marquiss may with the Wiser part of the World be thought to contain a great deal of sense and reason notwithstanding that our Author has endeavour'd to Vid. Vindic. p. 3. 4. represent most of them so absurd and ridiculous But then all Doubt is excluded and out of doors by a general consent and accord of all Statesmen and * Vid. Ibid. ut Supra Grotius in particular where it is decided by those Obligations that arise from Articles Contracts and Agreements and to this those that have contested it so much by their own Consent and Resolution are bound and have concluded themselves so that since a solemn Capitulation has been produc'd and which we need not insist on to make out since so publickly known The Proceedings of His Majesty's Minister of State which our Author has undertaken to reflect on and ridicule will appear to all understanding People to be founded upon the Principles of natural Justice common Equity National Laws and private Stipulations And 't is too plain now for what ends His Majesty has been deny'd in so just Demands which must redound with all impartial People as much to his Honour as to their Shame and a successful piece of Injustice has just as much Equity as a prosperous Villany has to be entituled to the specious Name of abused Virtue But setting aside the unanswerable Argument of the Earl of O's Convention and Agreement in 78 I cannot see but the Contenders against it and these asserters of this Natural Liberty had long before concluded themselves by their own Act in the Articles of two several Treaties that of Surinam in 67. and the other signed at Westminster in 73. for though by the first it was stipulated upon the Place that instead of this agreeable natural Liberty all the King's Subjects were to have the Liberty to remove themselves after the transferring of the Place to some other Plantations under His Majesty's Obedience which I hope imply'd that their Allegiance was not to be Translated no not with the Soil it self this was thought then so agreeable to Nature that it was admitted immediately as an Article tho' it may be well remembred how those promises too were kept the King's Subjects indeed were kept and detain'd contrary to that very Treaty and this Detention acknowledg'd unjust by themselves in the 5 Article in 73 and that it should be lawful at any time for His Majesty to send Ships for his Subjects and that they have leave to depart with all that belong to them and that they themselves were to assist them in their return and this was granted by themselves to Grobbendonck at the business A. D. 1629. of Bois le Duc where they could not detain the King of Spain's Subjects for theirs much less than the K. of Englands And to which I shall only add
it seems was well grounded and the Doctor tells us no more than this That the Duke alway thought he would betray him if this Vid. Ib. can be call'd a Vindication of himself the Reproaches he accuses me of may pass for his Encomiums But for another Argument e Confesso what can declare Vid. Ibid. more fully his falshood to be a propense and revengeful malice and which he would make a necessitated Discovery then his disclosing of his own accord the Proposal of a Scottish Peer about Invading England who was liable to the Laws of it and that to a Member of its Parliament and who perhaps he knew too to be no friend to this great Minister whom his suspected Principles had made so much his Enemy Can our Author reconcile this to common sense That the telling a person of Honour and a Member of the House such a Tale was not betraying it or not the same as if he had publisht it on the House top Oats and Tongue told their Tale of a Plot to a person of Honour and Member of the House upon which it was so set about that it was known to a great many others upon which they were sent Vid. Pag. 7. for to the House and will our Author say these Men were unwillingly brought to own a detestable piece of Forgery and which I am credibly inform'd his was too for that late Loyal Peer is said to have justify'd himself so far that all that he offer'd at was only that his Majesty might be able to make more use of his Subjects of Scotland by his being inabled to call for their Service in England to serve him out of their own Realm as well as within which was consonant and agreeable not only to reason but to some express * Vid. Acts Parl. of Scotland Acts of Parliament both of that Kingdom and our own and which 't is more than probable this Doctor too from the resentment * Vid. 11. H. 7. that he had of his Sufferings under that great Ministers anger did improve also into a Plot of an Army Ib. a Scottish Invasion of Spoiling and Subduing the English It is pretty to observe how this Excellency of our Author does indeed consist in Writing that is in Black and White when with a touch of his Pen any Actions shall appear in what colour he pleases he tells us of a Perfect Reconciliation that ensu'd between this great Minister and himself but says That upon some reasons of Ib. his own their meeting was defer'd or not thought convenient and I am much of this Authors mind that upon some reasons the Duke had he did not think convenient to meet him it was a good Argument of his Lordships Cunning and Policy and as little proof of this perfect Reconciliation Vid. pag 7. Coll. 2. that Celebrated Statesman was never suspected yet for want of Wisdom and it is a known Maxim That a Man may betray me once by his being a Knave but the second opportunity makes me a Fool. And the Attestation this Author appeals to of that Ibid. Noble Peers Nephew is all of a piece with the rest of his Vindication that is nothing of truth in it or nothing to the purpose I have taken pains to enquire into this matter have consulted my Lord M. that Honourable and Ingenious Person he so injuriously reflects on and find nothing of that Paragraph to be true but his Lordships being now of the Roman Communion and that was as invidiously forc'd in by our Author for a Reflection upon his being reconcil'd but the greater abuse it must needs be to fasten a false thing upon a Person of Honour who ought to be handled with more regard to modesty and truth than if our Author was treating only with Mr. Varillas or reflecting upon his Scriblers He Cites this Honourable Person as a Witness but if he has none that could do him more service should he appear to his Citation I am afraid it would go hard with him at his Tryal He appeals freely to Pag. 7. his Lordship for bringing very kind Messages to him from my Lord Duke and signifying them to him after his death I confess our Author ever gives himself a freedom with great Persons which is but a part of his peculiar Vanity to Aggrandise himself but I must freely tell him too this is found to be false 't is strange that it must be the misfortune of so * Lord L. Lord R. Lord M. many Lords to suffer by such a dangerous Correspondent this Noble Person remembers none of these very kind Messages he brought him nor any that the Duke ever sent and that his Lordship might be more fully satisfy'd not relying wholly upon his own Memory it being almost six years since as an Argument of his greater integrity and Ingenuity has also as freely appeal'd to a person from whose Function as well as favour our Author can expect nothing but Justice and that is a Divine and his own Favourite who first introduc'd my Lord to his unhappy Acquaintance whose Return is That he assures his Lordship there was not a word spoken by his Lordship in his hearing who was present at the two several Meetings they had of any Message from the Duke of Lauderdale to the Doctor The Original Answer I have by me as also the Copy of the Letter his Lordship sent So that I must conclude too I cannot leave this without taking notice of our Authors sincerity and assure him Vid. Reflect on Parliam Pacificum 1 part pag. 3. when ever he makes a better Vindication of his own I ll pardon him the groundless Reflexion he has put upon mine He tells me in the next place I pity Mr. Varilla's defeated condition and so indeed I do Dr. Burnett's too who wants nothing to his being baffl'd but the modesty to acknowledge it he is as unlucky here in his Appeals as I have made him appear in some of his Reflexions since the Learned Author at Rome and the other at Paris to both of which he has appeal'd have both Vindicated Schelstradt Le Grand themselves in particular Treatises against this bold Appellant and our Author can make no further defence unless he intends to decide it by Combat and I am much assur'd his Appealing to his Friends there about Monsieur Vid. Vind. p. 7. Var. not pretending to justifie himself and receiving an Order from the King to insist no more on the Dispute is as unfortunately false and which we have taken care to enquire into whatever are Mr. Varillas his faults of which he cannot be excus'd there must be much of Allowance made him for being a Forreigner where the Exactitude of Names as well as times may fail him our Author might be at no little loss were he to Write their French History though an Historian of France has lately Corrected that of his Reformation and as some think with