to break alone with that Monarch which had tired out all Christendom with a tedious expensive War when they were united against him And therefore the best Expedient that could then have fallen into the Heads of the Commons had been to have shewn him and all the Confederates that we were resolved to have stood by our King with our Lives and Fortunes which would have heartned them on to a stout resistance in case of his further encroachments upon them and in likelihood have kept him in some aw whereas the course that was taken had a quite contrary effect and tended more a thousand times to the discouragement of the Confederates than the fruitless attempt he hints at made by the Earl of Danby who was then in the Tower for it So that I believe all Europe will bear me Witness that all the great things the French King hath since done were in a great measure owing to the disorders of our English Parliaments and their declared resolution of giving the King no Supplies upon reasonable terms which rendered the Alliance and Enmity of our King abroad inconsiderable Amongst the great things the French King hath done since the Peace my Author tells us this His Pensioners at our Court have grown insolent upon it and presumed that now He the French King may be at leisure to assist them the Pensioners in ruining England and the Protestant Religion together And they have shaken off all dread of Parliaments and have prevailed with his Majesty to use them with as little respect and to disperse them with as great contempt as if they had been a Conventicle and not the great Representative of the Nation whose Power and Wisdom only could save him and us in our present Exigencies Surely the man that talks thus contemptuously of his Majesty and all the Ministers durst have told us if he could who were these French Pentioners but it was not his design to point out the men but to cast out general Accusations against the King the Ministers and the whole Government thereby to incense the People and to make them ungovernable that so his Majesty might be the sooner necessitated to submit himself to that Power and Wisdom that could only save him and us but might also easily ruine both if things were once put into such a state as his Majesty were no longer Master of that Power As to the Accusation or rather Calumny that the English Ministers are Pensioners to the French King it will easily appear false to any man that doth but reflect on Colemans Letters in 1674 when the King was in a much better condition to oppose and ruine the French designs and enterprizes and the French King had all the Confederates United and in an Actual War with him and there was nothing to fear or hope for but in England yet he then refused three hundred thousand Pounds tho it was pretended it would have assured the Dissolution of that long Loyal Parliament which France feared more than threescore such as have followed it and when at last Coleman descended to 200000 l. and at one time begged shamefully but for 20000 l. He was denied it Monsieur Rouvigni the French Embassadour usually telling him That if he could be sure of succeeding in that design his Master would give a much larger Sum but that he was not in a condition to throw away money upon uncertainties Nor doth it appear that ever Coleman got one farthing at that time And after the discovery of the Plot and the dissolution of the long Loyal Parliament the general Peace having delivered the French King from all Apprehensions of good or hurt from England His Majesty having such ill success in the first short Westminster Parliament and the Divisions of England appearing more fully in the Election of the Second and the year that passed betwixt that and its sitting all which were as well known in Paris as in London it is not to be doubted but he very well understood that there was then less reason to maintain Pensioners in England than before So that we may conclude from that time there hath come but little French Money over into England for Pensions to any Party England being thought in France so inconsiderable by reason of her Domestick Feuds Fears and incurable Jealousies that there is nothing to be feared or hoped from it whereas Pensions are to be imployed in Potent and United States I do not design by this to prove that no French Pensioners are now maintained in England but that they are few and gain but little by it and therefore it is ridiculous to conceive that all our Ministers of State are such and that they should be such fools as to conspire with France to ruine England for nothing or that which is next to it And it is as silly a supposition that the Privy Council and the rest of the Ministers of State who are not Pensioners should not discover those that are as soon as this discontented Gentleman There is a lewd and impossible conceit spread underhand about the Nation that the King himself is a Pensioner to France and all that is pretended to justifie it is only his being able to subsist so long without Parliamentary Supplies Now this I believe is not credited by any men of understanding but yet there are many such who for ill ends speak it in some companies and will shake their heads and shrug their shoulders and look gravely in other companies that they may seem to fear what they durst not speak Now if what I have said before be applied to this instance it will appear more ridiculous for that Pension that may tempt a hungry Courtier who is to raise a Family would be rejected with scorn if it were tendered to a meaner Prince than ours is And it is not to be thought that the French King who is observed to be as sparing of his Wealth as prodigal of his Souldiers would ever be at such an Expence as to maintain our Court and his own for fear the King should unite with a Parliament that would be an Enemy to France no all knowing men understand how little he cares for England if it were quiet at home but as now things stand he scorns it as beneath his Consideration Well but if neither the Ministers nor his Majesty are to be suspected who are I will tell you that in the words of a more knowing man than I dare pretend to be Those that roar most against French Councils and Measures Vnder-hand-bargains and Agreements between both the Kings know they belye their own Consciences and that the French have us in the last degree of Contempt This the Earl of Danby Printed in his own vindication perhaps not ignorant that some of their Ministers did in the year 1677 and 78. before the breaking forth of the Plot declare That Monsieur L. had greater interest and more Friends in England than the Duke of York that
the King had need be on his guard for he was in great danger of running the same risque with his Father when it was likewise inquired what interest amongst the People two great Peers had who have since the Plot been great Pillars of the Protestant Religion tho neither was ever reputed to have any were Ministers and Advisers in 1670 and 71. very good Friends to France and Popery Enemies to the Triple Alliance and to Holland c. It was also said That 300000 l. a year bestowed in Scotland and England among the Factious and Discontented would better serve the Interest of France than any Bargain they could drive with the Ministers Thus far that noble Pen hath discovered who are the French Pensioners and Reason speaks the same thing For if it be the Interest of France to divide England it is their Interest too to do it as cheap as they can and there is no doubt to be made of it but 10000 l. a year divided amongst the London Holders-forth and the Walling fordians on no other condition but that they should declaim stoutly against the King the Court the Ministers France and Popery things which no money could make them forbear speaking against would more effectually engage them to go on in that course than all the treasures of France would the King and Ministers to procure the Ruine of England and the settlement of Popery things which Nature and Education have taught them to abhor And by this means England as they might easily foresee would be so divided that if a Civil War did not follow yet at least there would be no fear of its being in a condition to look abroad and succour its Neighbours To these men is owing all that Contempt that hath fallen upon our English Parliaments both at home and beyond the Seas who by putting the House of Commons upon those things that would disgust the King and all the Gentry in the Nation have done as much as they could to make them first feared and then hated by almost one half of the Subjects and tends as directly to the ruine of that ancient and excellent Constitution as the disorders of the Tribunes of the People did to the ruine of the Liberty of the Romans But alas if we look into the Speech made at the opening of the Parliament we shall find no mention of any new Ally except the Spaniard whose Affairs at that time through the defects of their own Government and the Treachery of our Ministers were reduced to so desperate a state that he might well be a burthen to us but there was little to be hoped from a Friendship with him unless by the name of a League to recommend our Ministers to a New Parliament and cozen Country Gentlemen of their Money Before I can answer this I ought to Transcribe so much of his Majesties Speech as concerns this business which is as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen The several Prorogations I have made have been very advantageous to our Neighbours and very useful to me for I have employed that time in making and perfecting an Alliance with the Crown of Spain suitable to that which I had before with the States of the United Provinces and they also had with Spain consisting of mutual obligations of Succour and Defence I have all the reason in the world to believe that what was so much desired by former Parliaments must needs be very grateful to you now For tho some perhaps may wish these Measures had been taken sooner yet no man can with reason think it is now too late for they who desire to make these Alliances and they who desire to break them shew themselves of another opinion And as these are the best Measures that could be taken for the safety of England and repose of Christendom so they cannot fail to attain their End and to spread and improve themselves further if our Divisions at home do not render our Friendship less considerable abroad Now all the Gentlemans Craft lay in the word New there is no mention of any New Ally No but there is mention of an old one double Confederated both with Spain and England to the same purpose and these three States being thus United as his Majesty truly tells them would in a little time draw in more if our Divisions did not prevent it Our Divisions had that effect and made the King a true Prophet against his will and now all the blame is to be thrown upon the Ministers that is in reality upon the King Nay our Ministers poor unfortunate men must bear the reproach of Ruining not only England but Spain too by their Treachery but yet our kind Author doth not lay all that burthen upon their shoulders but confesseth that their ill Governing had a part in it but however it came to pass Spain was in so desperate a state then that it might be a burthen to England but no ways beneficial And yet before the end of this very Paragraph he is in a dreadful fear that Spain should joyn with his Majesties Successor and for the introduction of Popery make a War upon the People with all his Forces by Sea and Land At this rambling rate does our Gentleman talk It cannot be denied but that the Affairs of Spain were very ill managed at that time but then that was owing to the Minority of their King the Factions in their Court the Contests betwixt Don John and the Queen-Mother their Regent and their two Parties and it is not improbable the French King might have some few Pensioners in Spain as well as England but yet that once most potent Kingdom was not sunk to so low an Ebb of Fortune as to be only a burthen to its Allies tho it had need of them and ought by all the rules of Policy to have been so much the more carefully secured and supported by them especially by England And therefore our Country Gentlemen who were too wise to be cozened of their money by the crafty Ministers will I hope not lay it to their charge too that the Affairs of Spain have ever since visibly declined and the French King hath taken near as much from his Neighbours during the Peace upon pretence of Dependencies by Process as he got in all the War by his Sword and potent Armies For this seems in great part at least not so much owing to the Treachery of our Ministers as to the Tenacity and thriftiness of these Country Gentlemen that were so shie of being cozened of their Money But upon the perusal of the League it appears by the 3 4 and 5. Articles that it was like to create us troubles enough for it engages us indefinitely to enter into all the quarrels of the Spaniards tho they hapned in the West Indies or the Philippine Islands or were drawn upon himself by his own injustice or causeless provocations Whether my Author have been any more faithful in his account of this League than
regard to the Laws established This the Author could not deny nor defend and therefore he changeth the terms into a power of Repealing Laws with which the Commons were never charged Now a power of Suspending and a power of Recpealing are vastly different Every Pardon is a suspension of the Execution of the Law in relation to the Party pardoned and so is every Dispensation and when the King put forth the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience there was no design of repealing but only of suspending the Execution of the Penal Laws pro tempore so that if the Commons designed this Vote or Declaration of theirs should have any other effect than to shew their good will to the Dissenters it must extend tho not to a Repeal yet to a suspension of the Execution of the Penal Laws against them which is all the Declaration charged the Commons with and so the Dissenters understood it and have since pleaded this Vote in Bar to the Execution of those Laws against them tho they acknowledge they are not Repealed thereby Every impartial man will own that the Commons had reason for this opinion of theirs Suppose they had reason for it this will not give them a legal Power The King hath good reason to do many things which yet if he should offer at they would clamour against him as an Usurper of an Arbtrary Power for reason gives no man any Author to act except he hath a lawful power to back his reason with There may be great reason to repeat an Act of Parliament and yet in all the Judges in Westminster should thereupon declare it to be either suspended or repealed I know what we should hear of it quickly Well but let us hear their Reasons They had with great anxiety observed that the present design of the Papists was not against any one sort of Pretestants but Vniversal and 〈◊〉 extirpating the Reformed Religion That this might be the ultimate design of the Plot is not much to be doubted but it was immediately bent only against the Religion established and accodingly therwere Successors appointed to all the Bishops and 〈◊〉 Clergy but none to Mr. Baxter Dr. Owen and the rest of that Fry that ever I heard of So that this reason concludes not in favour of the Dissenters but of the Regular Clergy who as they were in most danger ought to have been most taken care of But this Vote left them in the same danger it found them of being destroyed by the Papists and let loose the Dissenters upon them too to encrease that danger 2. They saw what advantages these Enemies made of our Divisions and how cunningly they diverted us from persecuting them by fomenting our Jealousies of one another Did they not Sir observe too how the Dissenters took the occasion of the Plot and of the general hatred against Popery to ruine the Loyal and Conformable Clergy How they presently engrossed the Title of Protestant and endeavoured to make the Rabble believe that all but the Bobtail Holders forth and their Followers were Papists in Masquerade Tories Tantivimen c. If they did not observe these things others did And also that all of a sudden all the Jesuits assumed the shapes of Nonconformists and railed stoutly against Bishops Ceremonies Humane Impositions and Arbitrary Government They knew there was no Possibility of escaping the vengeance of the Church of England men but by setting the Dissenters upon them and they needed no Spur. So this was a good Argument to have taught the Dissenters more modesty but since they had not that it was a strong Argument to have suppress'd them vigorously as the only Auxiliaries of the Papists against the Church and the great hinderers of the prosecution of the Plot. 3. They saw the strength and nearness of the King of France and judged of his inclinations by his usage of his own Protestant Subjects 4. They considered the number and the bloudy Principles of the Irish And 5. That Scotland was already delivered into the hands of a Prince the known head of the Papists in these Kingdoms and the occasion of their Plots and Insolencies as more than one Parliament had declared It should have been worded thus as they had declared in more than one Parliament for these were the same men in several Parliaments who made these several Declarations Now I cannot conceive wherein the force of these three Arguments lies the French King was powerful and hated Protestants therefore the Church of England must be prepared for ruine by giving as many as pleased a free liberty to separate from her and procure her destruction The Irish Papists had ill designs just ripe for execution therefore the English Nonconformists were to be tolerated that they might get strength and be able to rise at the same time to ascertain the destruction of the Church But the fifth Reason is much better Scotland was in the hands of the Duke How came he by it What did he invade it by force and violence against his Majesties Will If he did then let us make a mighty Combination against him But if it were delivered to him by the proper Owner who may govern it by whom he please what occasion is there for the Dissenters service here 6. They could not but take notice into what hands the most considerable Trusts both Civil and Military were put 7. And that notwithstanding all Addresses and all Proclamations for a strict execution of the Penal Laws against Papists yet their Faction so far prevailed that they were eluded and only the Dissenting Protestants smarted under the rage of them That they took very good notice who were imployed in Civil and Military Trusts appears by the Address of December 21. 1680. not many days before this Vote where they tell the King That several Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace fitly qualified for those imployments have been of late displaced and others put in their room who are men of Arbitrary Principles and Countenancers of Papists and Popery These they would have had turned out and others put in who are men of Integrity and known affection to the Protestant Religion and may be moreover men of Ability of Estates and Interest in their Country His Majesty knew what they meant but did not think fit to change his choice and the truth is they gave him no great encouragement by their own carriage to have any more to do with these able wealthy popular men And therefore it seems this was one reason that moved them to Vote the Protestant Dissenters free from Penal Laws either to keep them out of the hands of these evil Trustees both Civil and Military or else to make a Party out of them not only against the Duke of York but also against these Countenancers of Papists and Popery that is against his Majesties Officers both Civil and Military As if because the French King notwithstanding his great Power and Aversion to the Protestant Religion could not hurt the Church of England therefore
of the French Interest It is not strange at all that the Parliament at Oxford should anger the Court more than that at Westminster for the Court did never yet dissolve a Parliament abruptly and in heat but they found the next Parliament more averse and to insist upon the same things with greater eagerness than the former English Spirits resent no affronts so highly as those that are done to their Representatives and the Court will be sure to find the effects of that resentment in the next Election The truth of this as matter of History is very apparent for so it came to pass in the Reign of his Majesties Father upon every Dissolution the Commons made choice of the same or worse Members till in 1640. they had fitted themselves with a Parliament to their hearts desire who resented not the Affronts done to themselves as the Peoples Representatives but the several Stops and Rubs that had been laid in their way so highly that the Court i e. the King soon felt the effects of it But did the Nation escape No but Bloud and Violence Anarchy and Consusion took possession of them to that height that the pious Martyr called it A Hell of Misery and Chaos of Confusion The Author in the next line acquaints us That a Parliament does ever participate of the present temper of the People Never were Parliaments of more different Complexions than that of 1640. and that of 1661. yet they both exactly answered the humours which were predominant in the Nation when they were respectively chosen It doth not become me to say whether that of 1680. were liker that of 1640. or 1661. but I must needs say I wonder my Author could reflect so sensibly on the difference and yet at the same time heighten the Popular Heats with inculcating the fears of France and Popery and not rather endeavour to allay them by telling his Country-men that twenty years Misery followed the 1640 Parliament and twenty years Peace the latter which I cannot but esteem a more Loyal and a more Prudent reflection than that he hath made and much more necessary both for the Representatives and Electors Let them however now consider seriously of it and the next time send up men zealous to bring the real Incendiaries of the Nation to Justice and then it is not to be doubted but some that are Country Favourites will be found to promote the French and Popish Interest as well as the Republick And I dare then become their Sponsor if it might not look too presumptuously in so mean a person as I am that by Gods mercy we should enjoy another Score of Halsion years to the confusion of Popery and the extreme damage of France Both which do as certainly promote our present distempers as they did those in Charles the First his times as have been made so apparent that the Dissenters who were the Principals then as they are now would fain persuade the world that the Accessaries the French Emisaries and Jesuits did all that mischief that was then done But as this is ridiculous and impossible so if duly considered it might prevent a relapse into the same misery and confusion which is more to be desired by all good Christians than the most delightful revenge upon the Favorites But it is but reasonable to expect all that I can say will signifie but little to this sort of men if the modest Gentleman I am examining may be presumed better acquainted with their tempers than I am For surely saith he this DECLARATION what great things soever may be expected from it will make but very few Converts not only because it represents things as high Crimes which the whole Kingdom the contrary of which is now too apparent to be proved on one hand or denied on the other has been celebrating as meritorious Actions but because the People have been so often deceived by former Declarations that whatsoever carries that Name will have no credit with them for the Future This I confess is one good way to prevent the making too many Converts to Loyalty for if a People can once be effectually persuaded their Governours are faithless perfidious men that seek nothing but an opportunity to delude and abuse them by false pretences there will be no great danger they will pay them too much respect and obedience But surely the man that talks thus is some French Emisary or Jesuit such thoughts as these never arose from a Church of England Gentlemans heart for the worst enemy of England could not have breathed a worse insinuation into the hearts of his Majesties Subjects They have not yet forgot the Declaration from Breda tho others forgot it too soon and do not spare to say that if the same diligence the same earnest solicitations had been made use of in that affair which have been since exercised directly contrary to the design of it there is no doubt but every 〈◊〉 of it would have had its desired effect and all his Majestâ—â—â— Subjects would have enjoyed the fruits of it and 〈…〉 extolling a Prince so careful to keep his Sacred Promise◠〈…〉 People Before this unworthy Insinuation can be 〈…〉 â—â—swered I must transcribe so much of that Declaratio◠〈…〉 here supposed to have sailed of its 〈…〉 followeth And because the Passion and uncharitableness of the times have produced several opinions in Religion by which men are engaged in Parties and Animosities against each other which when they shall hereafter unite in a freedom of Conversation will be better understood we do declare a liberty to tender Consciences and that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences of Opinion in matter of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and that we shall be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as upon mature deliberation shall be offered to us for the full granting that Indulgence Here is his Majestie Royal Promise wherein ought to be observed that his Majesty promised nothing to any Party that should disturb the peace of the Kingdom Nor to them that did not further than that he would consent to such an Act of Parliament when it should be offered to him So that he was not obliged to procure such an Act nor yet to do it without an Act. And now let us see how they behaved themselves towards him Whilst says his Majesty we continued in this temper of mind and resolution and have so far complied with the persuasion of particular persons and the distemper of the times as to be contented with the exercise of our Religion in our own Chappel according to the constant practice and Laws established without enjoying that practice and the observation of those Laws in the Churches of the Kingdom in which we have undergone the Censure of many as if we were without that zeal for the Church which we ought to have and which by Gods Grace we shall always
of the Muse he was in thus he proceeds It is not to be denied but that our Kings have in a great measure been intrusted with the power of Calling and Declaring the Dissolutions of Parliaments Have they so Whose Trustees are they When did they first obtain this favour I protest now I was so dull as to think that this right of Calling and Dissolving Parliaments was a Natural Right inherent in the Crown and as old as the British Monarchy and that at the granting of the great Charter and at all other times before or since when the Kings of England granted any new Priviledges to their Subjects they still reserved to the Crown the power of calling Parliaments when and where they pleased and to continue them as long as they thought fit and then to Dissolve or Prorogue them Well but if I was therein mistaken yet he allows our Kings a great measure of that trust and who claims the Remainder of it Not the Petitioners I hope No the Privy Council he tells us are to be advised with Now that is matter of Expedience only not of Right for whatever His Majesty can lawfully do with doubtless he may as lawfully though not in all cases and circumstances so prudently do without the Advice of his Privy-Council who never claimed that I have heard of any co-ordinate right of managing affairs with our Kings and matter of Advice in its own nature supposes a liberty in the Person to whom 't is given either to adhere to or to reject it Well but whoever has the rest of that Trust care hath been anciently taken both for the Holding of Parliaments Annually and that they should not be Prorogued or Dissolved till all the Petitions and Bills before them were Answered and Redressed And for this my Author quotes two Acts of Parliament which because they are short I will insert here The first is this Item it is accorded that a Parliament shall be holden every year once and more often if need be Here is every word in that Statute The second follows Item for maintenance of the said Articles and Statutes and redress of divers mischiefs and grievances which daily happen a Parliament shall be holden every year as another time was ordained by a Statute which is the very same that I have recited before The Record which he 〈◊〉 I can say nothing to So I agree with him that there are two Statutes provided for the holding of Parliaments Annually and more often if need be of which the Kings of England have ever since thought themselves the Judges But where are the Statutes to be found that these Parliaments should not be prorogued nor dissolved till ALL the Petitions and Bills before them were answered and redressed Here is not one tittle of this in either of these he quotes yet that is the main thing in controversie and which only needed proving But he goes on The Constitution had been equally imperfect and destructive of it self had it been left to the choice of the Prince whether he would ever Summon a Parliament or put into his power to dismiss them Arbitrarily at his pleasure Then sure it had been worth the while to have proved for what time they were to sit as well as how often And if this can be made out that it is an Arbitrary that is in the sense he would be understood in an Illegal Act for the King to prorogue or dissolve a Parliament till all the Petitions and Bills be answered and redressed then will it be possible for a Parliament to perpetuate it self for ever by an endless succession of Petitions and Bills mixed with other great affairs which as it is contrary to the practice of all our Kings since these Statutes so if it were true the Menarchy wuld not then be what it now is but be much nearer a Commonwealth So that be the Consequence what it will this learned Gentleman must yield that it is at the choice of our Princes to summon Parliaments when they think it needful and to dismiss them when they please As for the word Arbitrarily which he here useth it is needless and was suggested to him by his Spleen and and not by his Reason That Parliaments should thus meet Annually and thus sit till all the Petitions and Bills before them are answered and redressed is secured to us by the same sacred tye by which the King at his Coronation does oblige himself to let his Judges sit to distribute Justice every Term and to preserve inviclably all other Rights and Liberties of his Subjects I thought the Law had been altered a little in the first particular by a Statute made in the Seventeenth year of his now Majesties Reign Cap. 1. the words of which are as followeth And because by the Ancient Laws and Statutes of this Realm made in the Reign of King Edward the Third Parliaments are to be held very often Your Majesties humble and loyal Subjects the Lords Spititual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled most humbly do beseech your most Excellent Majesty c. that hereafter the sitting and holding of Parliaments shall not be intermitted or discontinued above three years at most but that within three years from and after the Determination of this present Parliament and so from time to time within three years after the determination of any other Parliament or Parliaments or if there be occasion more or oftener your Majesty your Heirs and Successors do issue out your Writs for calling assembling and holding of another Parliament to the end there may be a frequent calling assembling and holding of Parliaments once in three years at least So that surely his Majesty may without breach of his Coronation Oath delay the calling of a Parliament three years if there be no occasion for one sooner of which he is the Judge Therefore as he goes on abruptly to dissolve Parliaments at such a time when nothing but the Legislative Power and the Vnited Wisdom of the Kingdom could relieve us from our just fears or secure us from our certain dangers is very unsuitable to the great Trust reposed in the Prince and seems to express but little of that affection which we will always hope his Majesty bears towards his People and the Protestant Religion That there was then too much need of the Legislative Power and the Wisdom of the Nation united in Parliament is not to be denied and that his Majesty was very sensible of it appears by his calling three Parliaments in twenty six Months as my Author computes it page 46. and we shall have occasion hereafter to enquire by whose fault it came to pass that they were all so abruptly dissolved and that will lead us to a probable conjecture why none hath been since called notwithstanding his Majesties Affection to his People and the Protestant Religion is such that we have great reason to bless God for it and to
he was of the Kings Speech I cannot say because it is not in my power to examine those Articles But his mentioning our obligation to assist Spain in the West-Indies and Philippine Islands where it is impossible against the Duke of Brandenburg and the King of Portugal where it would be unjust and against his Protestant Subjects opprest by him as they were by his Grandfather Philip are such things would make a man suspect his sincerity a little and the rather because his Majesty tells us The League was suitable to that which he had before with the States of the Vnited Provinces and they also had with Spain consisting of mutual obligations of Succour and Defence Now the account my Author gives of it is in part so impossible and in the rest so improbable that no Mortal in his right Wits can believe that Spain should desire or England grant any such things And therefore if he had at all expected to have been believed he ought to have Transcribed those three Articles for a proof of what he had said And whereas he tells us it engages us indefinitely to enter into all the quarrels of the Spaniards That if true will bear a fair Construction and will no more oblige us to those things he mentions if they be not express'd nay I think I may say if they be in plain terms than it will to help the King of Spain to destroy our selves in case he should happen to have a quarrel with us hereafter For no League can bind any further than as it is just and possible But that which concerns us yet nearer saith my Author in this League is that this obligation of Assistance was mutual so that if a Disturbance should happen hereafter in England upon any attempt to change our Religion or our Government tho it was in the time of his Majesties Successors The most Catholick King is obliged by this League which we are still to believe was entered into for the security of the Protestant Religion and the good of the Nation to give aid to so pious a design and to make War upon their Majesties the People with all his Forces both by Land and Sea And therefore it was no wonder that the Ministers were not forward in shewing this League to the Parliament who would have soon observed all these inconveniences and have seen how little such a League could contribute to the preserving the General Peace or to the securing of Flanders since the French King may within one months time possess himself of it and we by our League are not obliged to send our Succours till three months after the Invasion so that they would upon the whole matter have been inclined to suspect that the main end of this League was only to serve for a handsom pretence to raise an Army in England and if the People here should grow discontented at it and any little disorders should ensue The Spaniard is thereby obliged to send over Forces to suppress them This is fraught with such rare new Politicks and he has taken such care to make Rebellion safe whether it happens in his Majesties time or in his Successors especially if it were in order to the preservation of our Religion and Government and wo be to the man that begins one on any other pretence that I thought sit to transcribe it intire But Sir whatever the Spaniard hath promised or the Ministers intended against the People must needs come to nothing for you know that his Affairs were lately through the defects of his own Government and the Treachery of our Ministers reduced to so desperate a state that he might well be a Burthen to us but there was little to be hoped for from a friendship with him and therefore as little in hast to be feared from his Forces too if he should be so Popishly inclined as to think it a Pious design to help the King to bring in Arbitrary Government by the handsom pretence of an Army raised for his assistance or that and Popery too in the time of his Majesties Successor to which this Gentleman knows no man better the People have no Maw tho the Ministers have a filthy inclination and therefore cunningly took care by their Treachery to reduce his Affairs whose help they chiefly relied on into that desperate condition we lately see them in Well but for all that he may recover some part of his ancient Power yes who doubts that to hurt us but not to help us And now no man can blame the Ministers that they were not forward in shewing this League to the Parliament who would doubtless have forthwith Addressed to the King against them and ushered it in with a Vote that they were all of them Promoters of Popery and Spanish Counsels and Enemies to the King and Kingdom By this League in seems the King was not obliged to send over any Succours till three months after an Invasion tho it is as plain as the Nose on a mans face that the French King may in one months time possess himself of Flanders He may however take longer time if he please for any care was taken here to prevent it so that if his Majesty had taken a little too long a time to send in his Aids which all things considered few men will think he did yet they that should have backed him in it have taken a longer time and therefore ought not to complain The next thing saith my Author recommended to them was the further Examination of the Plot and every one who have observed what has passed for more than two years together cannot doubt but that this was sincerely desired by such as are most in credit with his Majesty And then surely the Parliament deserved not to be censured upon this account since the Examination of so many new Witnesses the Trial of the Lord Stafford the great preparations for the trial of the rest of the Lords and their diligent inquiry into the Horrid Irish Treasons shew that the Parliament wanted no diligence to pursue his Majesties good intentions in that affair Now Sir If they had but suspended the Bill for disinheriting the Duke of York and their Votes that followed upon the throwing it out in the Lords House and could but have held their hands from sending for their fellow-Subjects into Custody till they had dispatched this great Affair tried all the other Lords in the Tower it is thought by wiser men than I they might have had time enough to have gone through with this business but some body tells us the Plot was to be kept on foot else they would be defeated It was to be used like the Holy War always a doing never done withal till it made way for some other designs that would not go merrily without the noise of a Plot to drive them When his Majesty desired from the Parliament their Advice and assistance concerning the Preservation of Tangier the Commons did
is reduced to want an extraordinary supply and then he ought to resort to his Parliament Well but suppose as it may happen the necessity is so urgent that it cannot be put off till a Parliament can be called and meet and raise money Or if you please suppose a Parliament dare not trust the King with money or which is all one will pretend so Or will not supply him unless he will pass an Act that they shall sit as long as they please or unless he will let them turn out what Ministers of State Justices of the Peace c. they think sit and put in others as they please May not a Prince relieve himself in these cases by an Advance or Anticipation but must submit absolutely to the Commons I hope he will not say these are impossible accidents Our Ancestors did wisely provide that the King and his People should have frequent need of one another and by having frequent opportunities of mutually relieving one anothers wants be sure ever to preserve a dutiful affection in the Subject and a Fatherly tenderness in the Prince When the King had occasion for the liberality of his People he would be well inclined to hear and redress their Grievances and when they wanted ease from oppressions they would not fail with alacrity to supply the occasions of the Crown All this is certainly true and was the very reason why the two first Parliaments of his Majesties Reign of whose Loyalty and hearty affections to the Crown no man ever doubted setled part of the Revenue on his Majesty for his Life only that his Successor might be obliged by a regrant of it And the whole which they gave to this King was but equal to the constant and regular Expences of the Government as they designed it tho it is said it falls short of that too Now might things be thus carried as my Author tells us they were designed to be England would certainly be the happiest Nation in the World The King would be as rich as his People could make him and the People as happy as a tender and good King could make them But alas there is sprung up a new Generation of men who have taken such an Aversion for Monarchy and the just Prerogatives of the Crown that till these Grievances the greatest Grievances that ever can betide a free-born people be totally taken away they can find no gust in the removal of all those other petty Grievances of which our Ancestors complained so often and as often found redress There is also arisen a sort of sober Protestants as the Dissenters will needs be called who can neither agree one with another nor with the Religion that is Established and to them it is an intolerable Grievance to see Episcopacy a Liturgy and a few innocent Ceremonies which they call Popery established in the Church and till these are extirpated Root and Branch and every of their pious Whimsies setled successively in the place of them or tolerated at once they good men cannot be at ease neither These two have twisted their interests together with a third sort that have no Religion at all but have a damnable inclination to the Spoils of the Church and the Plunder of the Nation And they by Popular Arts have wheedled and deluded great numbers of the Freemen and Freeholders of the Nation into a strong belief that Popery is by our Governours designed to be set up in the Church and Arbitrary Government in the State things which these good men hate mightily as there is good reason for it but are very much abused by the Information and much more by being persuaded as they have been that the chusing discontented men to be their Representatives in the House of Commons was the only way to prevent these two dreadful things from falling upon them These men however have sometimes got to be the major part of that House and the Consequence hath ever been that the King could get no Supplies be his necessities what they could be unless he would grant such things as tended immediately to the ruine of the Church and Monarchy And if he were a little averse to it then he was presently Libelled to the Nation as a favourer of Popery and a designer of Arbitrary Government but if it were not safe to attack him then according to the method of the late Rebels the cry was raised against the Evil Counsellors or the Corrupt Ministers and nothing would do but the turning them out of their employments as treacherous Servants to the Kingdom for being too faithful to the King And because they can never effect these great things by other means they have always turned this excellent Constitution against it self and that which was intended to endear the King and his People each to others their mutual want of each others assistance hath been made a Steppal to mount the Throne and pluck down the Mitre So that his Majesty who knew how things went in his Father's days was not out when he told the Commons in his Speech March 1. 1661. as followeth Gentlemen I need not put you in mind of the miserable effects which have attended the wants and necessities of the Crown I need not tell you that there is a Republick Party still in the Kingdom which have the courage to promise themselves another Revolution and methinks I should as little need to tell you that the only way with Gods blessing to disappoint their hopes and desires and indeed to reduce them from those extravagant hopes and desires is to let them see that you have so provided for the Crown that it hath wherewithal to support it self and to secure you which I am sure is all I desire and desire only for you preservation Therefore I do conjure you by all the professions of affection you have made to me by all the kindness I know you have for me after all your deliberations betake your selves to some speedy resolutions and settle such a real and substantial Revenue upon me as may hold some proportion with the necessary Expences I am at for the Peace and Benefit and Honour of the Kingdom that they who look for troubles at home may despair of their wishes and that our Neighbours abroad by seeing that all is well at home may have that esteem and value of Us as may secure the Interest and Honour of the Nation and make the happiness of this Kingdom and of this CITY once more the Admiration and Envy of the World This Parliament understood things well and provided accordingly so that the nineteenth of May following the Lord Chancellor in a Speech made at their Prorogation told them They had wisely very wisely provided such a constant growing Revenue as may with Gods blessing preserve the Crown from those scandalous wants and necessities as have heretofore exposed it and the Kingdom to those dismal miseries from which they are but even now buoyed up for whatsoever other humane
causes may be assigned according to the several fancies and imaginations of men of our late miserable distractions they cannot be so reasonably imputed to any one cause as to the extreme poverty of the Crown the want of power could never have appeared if it had not been for the want of money But since that the rising greatness of our Neighbours have mounted the Expences of the Crown above that growing Revenue that was then setled and the Republical Party as his Majesty stiles them promise themselves the happiness of bringing about another Revolution by the same means the last was in his Majesties days if it be possible but however at his Death And therefore if the Crown thus beset shall at any time make use of Anticipations to relieve it self they only ought to be responsible for it who have or shall make it necessary For surely no Prince would borrow when he might have it freely given upon reasonable terms unless he took a pride in counting the number of his Creditors And therefore saith my Author it has ever been esteemed a Crime in Counsellors who persuaded the King to Anticipate his Revenue and a Crime in those who furnish'd money upon such Anticipations in an extraordinary way however extraordinary the occasion might be For this cause it was that the Parliament in the 35 of Henry VIII did not only discharge all these Debts which the King had contracted but Enacted that those Lenders who had been before paid again by the King should refund all those Sums into the Exchequer as judging it reasonable punishment to make them forfeit the Money they lent since they have gone about to introduce so dangerous a precedent It is bad Logick that raiseth general Conclusions from particular instances and it will appear so in this that we have in hand which because I cannot so well and creditably do it my self I will make appear by transcribing a passage out of my Lord Coke tho it be somewhat long Advice concerning new and plausible Projects and Oâ—â—ers in Parliament When any plausible project is made in Parliament to draw the Lords and Commons to assent to any Act especially in matters of weight and importance if both Houses do give upon the matter projected and promised their Consent it shall be most necessary they being trusted for the Commonwealth to have the matter projected and promised which moved the House to consent to be established in the same Act lest the benefit of the Act be taken and the matter projected and promised never performed and so the Houses of Parliament perform not the trust reposed in them as it fell out taking one example from many in the Reign of Henry VIII On the Kings behalf the Members of both Houses were informed in Parliament that no King or Kingdom was safe but where the King had three Abilities First To live of his own and be able to defend his Kingdom upon any sudden Invasion or Insurrection Secondly To aid his Confederates otherwise they would never assist him Thirdly To reward his well deserving Servants Now the Projâ—ct was that if the Parliament would give unto him all the Abbies Priories Friories Nunneries and other Monasteries that for ever in time then to come he would take order that the same should not be converted to private use but first That his Exchequer for the purposes aforesaid should be inrich'd Secondly the Kingdom strengthened by a continual maintainance of Forty thousand well trained Souldiers with skilful Captains and Commanders Thirdly For the benefit and ease of the Subject who never afterwards as was projected in any time to come should be charged with Subsidies Fifteenths Loans or other common aids Fourthly Lest the Honour of the Realm should receive any Diminution of Honour by the dissolution of the said Monasteries there being twenty nine Lords of Parliament of the Abbots and Priors that held of the King per Baroniam that the King would create a number of Nobles which we omit The said Monasteries were given to the King by authority of divers Acts of Parliament but no provision was therein made for the said Project or any part thereof only ad faciendam populum these Possessions were given to the King his Heirs and Successors to do and use therewith his and their own wills to the pleasure of Almighty God and the honour and profit of Almighty God Now observe the Catastrophe in the same Parliament of 32 Henry VIII when the great and opulent Priory of St. Johns of Jerusalem was given to the King he demanded and had a Subsidy both of the Clergy and Laity and the like he had in 34 Henry VIII and in 37 Henry VIII he had another Subsidy And since the dissolution of the said Monasteries he exacted divers Loans and against Law received the same Now let my Reader judge if it be reasonable to make what the Parliament did in the 25 of Henry VIII a standing Rule for all succeeding times when it is morally impossible that ever any King of England should have such a Treasure and Revenue as they had given this King within less than seven years and a Subsidy but the very year before besides If we had such Parliaments now and it were possible to give the King such Supplies as they did I would freely give my Vote to have the next Lender Hanged The true way to put the King out of a possibility of supporting the Government is to let him waste in one year that money which ought to bear the charge of the Government for seven But Sir to put you out of pain for that this would necessitate the sitting of Parliaments and the yielding to whatsoever they could desire So this tho true was not the reason of the Vote but directly contrary to it but the King knows the Consequence of that too well to need any restraint in that particular for he knows as well as you that this is the direct method to destroy not only the Credit of the Crown at home and abroad but the Monarchy it self If the King resolves never to pay the money that he borrows what faith will be given to the Royal Promises and the honour of the Nation will suffer in that of the Prince And if it be put upon the People to repay it this would be a way to impose a necessity of giving Taxes without end whether they would or no. Omitting the undutifulness of these suppositions it is very remarkable that the great Anticipations upon the Revenue were made in the time of the last Dutch War when they who now so much clamour against them were Ministers and they who now are such and bear all the blame were not in a capacity to hinder it Whether they had any such intentions as these in it they best know but I am sure one of them made it out powerfully that there was all the reason in the world that the Parliament should pay off
the Dissenters were to be caressed and cherished that they in a small time might be in a capacity to do it And now if these were not good reasons for the Vote let any impartial man that is any but a Church of England man judge In the midst of such Circumstances was there not cause to think an Union of all Protestants necessary and could they have any just grounds to believe that the Dissenters whilst they lay under the pressures of severe Laws should with such Alacrity and Courage as was requisite undertake the defence of a Country where they were so ill treated Whether this question relates to the French King and the Papists or the Duke and the Civil and Military Officers may be a question and therefore it must be so answered As to the first there was all the reason in the world that they should joyn heartily with the Government against the Papists and French for they could not hope to mend their condition by falling into their hands who they knew would treat them with other manner of severities than those they met with from the Laws if they did not know this any of the French Protestants that fled over 〈◊〉 England might have informed them sufficiently Nâ—w of evils the least is to be chosen and tho their conâ—â—tion had not been equal to their desires yet it had been a madness to have made it worse by delivering up themselves and their Country into the hands of the French and Papists But if it relates to the Duke and the Civil and Military Officers then I hope he will excuse me if I do not think it fit to have another Union of Protestants of that sort again A long and sad Experience had shewed how vain the endeavours of former Parliaments had been to force us to be all of one Opinion and therefore the House of Commons resolved to take a sure way to make us all of one Affection This was the very reason of the Declaration of Liberty of Conscience But how unlike that course was to prevail the Nation had sufficient experience in a few years And Sir I can assure you it is above the power of a House of Commons to unite those men in Affection who differ not only in Opinion but Practice too in matters of Religion For these reasons my Author saith this Vote was made in order to a repeal of them by a Bill to be brought in and presently he grows Pettish and tells us None but a Frenchman could have the confidence to declaim against a proceeding so regular and Parliamentary as this Your humble Servant Sir I pray be a little pacified you may possibly be mistaken as well as another man but would I believe take it a little unkindly to be called Monsieur presently They very first Vote they made that day was this Resolved That whosoever advised his Majesty to Prorogue this Parliament to any other purpose than in order to the passing of a Bill for the Exclusion of James Duke of York is a betrayer of the King the Protestant Religion and of the Kingdom of England a promoter of the French interest and a Pensioner to France So they knew they were to be Prorogued that very day and as the Story goes made more than ordinary haste to pass these Votes Now it was impossible that a Bill should be brought in much less passed in that Session which was to end before night and therefore this was not nor could not be the cause of that Vote and all your little Queries founded upon this supposition are silly and impertinent There was not the least direction or signification to the judges which might give any occasion for the reflection which follows in the Declaration The due and impartial execution of the Laws is the unquestionable duty of the Judges and we hope they will always remember that duty so well as not to necessitate a House of Commons to do theirs by calling them to account for making private instructions the Rule of their judgments and acting as men who have more regard to their Places than their Oaths So the Dissenters may see they are mistaken when they think the Judges or Justices may forbear executing the Laws against them upon the score of this Vote But tho the Judges are sworn to execute all Laws yet there is no obligation upon any man to inform against another No Sir Is not every Grand-Jury man every Constable and Churchwarden sworn to Present the breakers of our Laws as well as the Judges are to punish them And as for the next Conundrams of yours the comparing a parcel of Laws made within twenty years to those Antiquated ones about Caps and Bows and Arrows and killing of Lambs and Calves and your business of Empson and Dudley they are such stuff as a man of half your understanding would have been ashamed to have mensioned in a good cause In the next place my Author acquaints us what are the causes usually of disusing Laws alterations of the Circumstances whereupon a Law was made or if it be against the genious of a People or have effects contrary to the intents of the Maker none of which can be said in this case Nor is that true which follows that the quiet safety or trade of our Nation hath been promoted by the not executing of these Laws as any man may know that can remember but ten years backward And therefore notwithstanding the Vote of the Commons the Judges may act wisely and honestly if they should encourage Informers or quicken Juries by strict and severe Charges For the due and impartial execution of the Laws is the unquestionable duty of the Judges according to my Author and therefore I will hope they shall not be accounted Knaves or Fools for doing their unquestionable duty But then my Author hath another quarrel with the Ministers and that was for numbring this Vote amongst the causes of the Dissolution of that Parliament when the Black Rod was at the door of the House to require them to attend his Majesty at the very time when it was made Well suppose we should grant that this was not one of those Votes that occasioned the Prerogation it not being then made when that was resolved on yet it might occasion their Dissolution which hapned some time after And was not this an excellent time to make Votes for the bringing in of Bills for the Repeal of Laws when the Black Rod was at the door to call the House to a Prorogation After a little anger against the Ministers for arraigning one of the Three Estates in the face of the World for usurping power over the Laws imprisoning their fellow Subjects Arbitrarily exposing the Kingdom to the greatest dangers and indeavouring to deprive the King of all possibility of supporting the Government the man hath forgot how often he hath arraigned the Long Loyal Parliament for a
things have been done but ought they therefore to be reacted As for his railing Accusations brought against his Royal Highness they deserve so much the less consideration because he treats the King at that abominable rate he doth of whose Clemency Justice and Compassion all Europe are Witnesses Having concluded there must be a War he saith Let it be under the Authority of Law let it be against a Banished Excluded Pretender There is no fear of the Consequence of such a War No true Englishman can joyn with him or countenance his Vsurpation after this Act and for his Popish and Forein Adherents they will neither be more provoked nor more powerful by the passing of it This man all along supposeth that neither the Duke nor the King have any natural Hereditary Right to the Crown but talketh as if it were meerly at the pleasure of the People and their Representatives to make what man they please King of England supposing that a Son of an Emperour of Germany or of a King of Poland were passed by or Excluded and should enter a War for the gaining of that Crown to which for want of an Election he had never any legal right he might be stiled a Pretender or an Usurper but in an Hereditary Kingdom it can never be so if according to the before cited opinion of K. James no Act of Parliament can extinguish the Dukes Right which God and Nature hath given him in case the King should die before his Royal Highness without lawful Issue tho it may prevent his obtaining it So that he can never be an Usurper or Pretender till the Monarchy of England is declared to be Elective And this may be thought to be one reason why his Majesty should never yield the point And as for my Authors confidence in the success of such a War it speaks nothing but his earnest desire of one rather than not to have his Will and I hope the Nation will have no occasion to prove him a false Prophet Nor will his Exclusion make it at all necessary to maintain a standing Force for preserving the Government and the peace of the Kingdom The whole People will be an Army for that purpose and every heart and hand will be prepared to maintain that so necessary so much desired Law If all this were true there would be no need of an Army indeed but then there would also be as little need of an Association too for I never heard of a Prince that was able to compel three whole Nations to submit to him against all their Wills and without Forein Aids But Sir the House of Commons thought the latter necessary or else they would never have desired that his Majesty would be likewise Graciously pleased to Assent to an Act whereby his Majesties Protestant Subjects may be enabled to Associate themselves for the defence of his Majesties Person the Protestant Religion and the security of your Kingdoms This was thought as necessary as the Bill of Exclusion and what kind of Association some men intended is well enough understood now by the whole Nation As to his Recrimination upon the Ministers for the two Armies and the Guards let him set his heart at rest for the World is very well satisfied the one were never intended to be kept up and it is hoped the other the Guards will be ever formidable to such Gentlemen as my Author who in kindness to the Queen of Scots Title and the Bill of Exclusion is like a good Protestant contented to insinuate that Queen Elizabeth was a Bastard though born in Matrimony For so she must be if what the Papists say of her having no other Right but only that of an Act of Parliament by which Mary Queen of Scots was Excluded be true In the next Paragraph my Author endeavours to face his Majesty down That nothing was intended by those other ways which were darkly and dubiously intimated in his Majesties Speech unto the Parliament at Oxford and repeated in the Declaration and he saith that his Majesty in his wisdom could not but know that they signified nothing Now this is a strange way of proceeding with Princes and would anger a private man The Regency signified nothing the distinction betwixt the Kings Personal and Politick Capacity was unfeasible the Pope might absolve him from all Oaths as he did King John and Henry III. and it would be more fatal to us when Religion is concerned which was not then in question His Confessor would excite him against us and he who has made use of all the Power he has been intrusted with hitherto for our destruction witness his Naval Wars against the Dutch would certainly Elude all Methods but the Bill of Exclusion and if it were otherwise there was no hopes of having any fruit of any Expedient without a War and to be obliged to swear Allegiance to a Popish Prince to own his Title to acknowledge him supreme Head of the Church and Defender of the Faith seems says my Author a strange way of entitling our selves to fight with him It doth so and therefore all those that are resolved on a War will I suppose never do it But are all these Titles annexed to the Crown as Protestant or as imperial and subject to none but God Did they belong to Henry VIII or did they not And supposing no Expedient should be used would not the Number Constancy and Resolution of the English Nation and Protestants in it preserve the Religion in one Prince's Reign tho of a different Religion without a War The Expedient propounded by his Majesty that if means could be found That in case of a Popish Successâ—r the Administration of the Government might remain in Protestant hands whether it be feasible or no shews an inclination in his Majesty to submit to any thing but what will ruine both him and his Brother as the Bill of Exclusion backed with such an Association as was lately found certainly will In short this Case is beset with so many and great difficulties that it baffles all humane wit and understanding to provide such an Expedient for it as may be secure and satisfie and therefore when all is done that can be done it must be left to God Almighty who only can and will determine it Having denied the charge in the Declaration That there was reason to believe that the Parliament would have passed further to attempt some other great and important changes even at present and according to his wont schooled the King and told the Ministers That they hate Parliaments because their Crimes are such that they have reason to fear them He relents a little and tells us if they the Ministers by that expression meant That the Parliament would have besought the King that the Duke might no longer have the Government in his hands This is a little hard to be understood the Duke not being then in England 2. That his Dependants those that had
four they fell upon the Exclusion Bill and that being rejected by the Lords they fell upon the Revenue and seemingly Voted the King a Bankrupt Jar. 7. by declaring that no man ought to trust him further than he had ready money nor lend him any and Declared that several eminent men of the Privy Counsellors were favourers of Popery and enemies to the King and Kingdom and for which and the other things they were dissolved then comes that at Oxford with the Votes I have recited for which and for insisting upon the Bill for Excluding the Duke of York they were dissolved Could none of these Parliaments have tried the Popish Lords without these things Yes doubtless they might but they would not but kept these Lords in the Tower that whatever provocation they should give the King to Dissolve or Prorogue them still the clamour might be that it was to prevent their Trials And I am fully persuaded there are some men in England would almost choose to be hanged themselves rather than be deprived of this glorious and popular pretence of insensing the People against the King and the Court. If there be no other Evidence of the Unparliamentary and mean Solicitations used to promote this pretended Rejection of the Commons Accusation than this scurvy Hint in my Author which he acknowledgeth not fit to be remembred tho he cannot forbear Printing it I suppose it is but a small part of the Nation that will be extremely sensible of it But yet however if their Impeachment had not been rejected Fitz-Harris had long since been executed or deserved mercy by a full discovery of these malicious designs against the King and People and the secret Authors of them And that he would certainly have done to have saved his own life and then we should have had an opportunity to have made the World believe that the King did hire Fitz-Harris to raise a Rebellion against himself to defame himself and insense the minds of the People against him for thus he defamed the King at his Trial. This was all he could do to merit a Pardon by and this he did at his Trial but was able to produce no testimony to back it But this Trial occasioned strange talk in Westminster Hall and Questions were raised of a strange nature that will never have a determination in any inferiour Court but will assuredly at one time or other have a further Examination These questions were moved then by Fitz-Harris his Counsel and need never be determined By the Term in the Declaration of the Lords having done themselves right by refusing to admit the Impeachment he hath discovered the Penman of the Declaration and says he has done himself and the Nation Right and discovered himself by using his ordinary Phrase upon this occasion Now I thought verily the next word would have been his Name no but stay you there The Person is well known without naming him who always tells men they have done themselves no right when he is resolved to do them none Now cannot I tell any more whom he means by this private token than the man in the Moon and if he had graciously vouchsafed to have whispered his name in my Ear and I had known that he had usually thus expressed himself yet I should still be a little jealous some Frenchman or other might be the Author of it because my Author hath given full as good evidence Page 5. to prove it was so As for the Commons nothing says my Author was carried on to extremity by them nothing done but what was Parliamentary they could not desire a Conference till they had first stated their own Case and asserted by Votes the matter which they were to maintain at a Conference This was done effectually in the first part of the first and second Vote without adding That the refusal of the Lords to proceed in Parliament upon such Impeachment is a denial of Justice and a violation of the Constitution of Parliaments and in the second Vote and an obstruction to the further discovery of the Popish Plot and of great danger to his Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion Here the Declaration lays the stress of the business and says That when either of the Houses are so far transported as to pass such Votes concerning the proceedings of the other without Conferences first had to examine upon what grounds such proceedings are made and how far they might be justified this puts the Two Houses out of a Capacity of Transacting business together and consequently is the greatest violation of the Constitution of Parliaments Now surely the House of Commons might have asserted their Right without these Expressions which must needs insense the Lords especially when they were Printed and spread over the whole Nation But the House of Commons was so far from thinking themselves to be out of a Capacity of Transacting with the Lords any further that they were preparing to send a Message for a Conference to Accommodate this difference at the very instant when the Black Rod called them to their dissolution But this it is very probable was not known to his Majesty so that it came too late to save them If every difference in Opinion and Vote should put the Two Houses out of a Capacity of transacting business together every Parliament must be dissolved as soon as called Now Sir I could never have thought that it is so usual a thing for the Two Houses to make such Votes as these against each other I am persuaded the Lords would never have treated with the Commons if a Conference had been demanded till the Conclusions of the first and second Vote had been recanted But the Ministers promoted this difference between the Two Houses what did any of them dictate these Votes and then broke the Parliament lest it should be composed And for this my Author gives you his own honest word over again in the next Page and hopes no man will be so hard-hearted as not to believe him But my Author hath another quarrel against the Ministers because they censure these Votes of the Commons as the greatest violation of the Constitution of Parliaments They ought certainly says my Author to have excepted the power which is here assumed of giving such a Judgment and Publishing such a charge as being not only the highest violation of the Constitution but directly tending to the destruction of it Well then I for my part will never undertake to defend them in it Aut I have observed one thing in these debates that the Priviledges of the House of Commons are not much unlike the Power claimed by the Pope which is to judge all men and to be judged by no man So that whatever they are pleased to call Priviledge of Parliament I am bound to believe is so with an implicit faith For these Priviledges of Parliament are known to none but those that sit in St. Stephens Chappel and if
not so nice but it might have been â—een determined by a meaner Critick than our Author who hath shewn his great skill in the French Tongue in his learned Remarques on the Phrase it is a matter extremely sensible to us And in the Latine upon the word Republick or Commonwealth If he had not from hence sought an occasion to call his Majesties Fidelity in question which tho it may become a Republican is very indecent in a good Subject When we see the real fruits of these utmost endeavours to extirpate Popery out of Parliament when we see the Duke of York no longer first Minister or rather Protector of these Kingdoms and his Creatures no longer to have the whole direction of Affairs when we see that love to our Religion and Laws is no longer a Crime at Court no longer a fore-runner of being disgraced and removed from all Offices and Imployments in their Power That is when the Duke of York is ruined and not only his Popish but his Church of England Creatures who have shewn themselves such by Voting against the Bill of Exclusion be laid aside When our Religion which no man knows what it is and that part of the Laws which we skulk behind now to ruine all the rest and the King and Kingdom to boot shall not hinder our Preferment whatever we do or say When the word Loyal which is faithful to the Law shall be restored to its own meaning and no longer signifie one who is for subverting the Laws That is when men may safely pretend so much respect to the Laws that they may affront his Majesty who is the Fountain of all Laws and the Protector of them and us by them when the word Loyal shall have no other relation to his Majesty than the same word if in use there hath in Venice when spoken concerning their Duke When we see the Commissions filled with hearty Protestants that is with Whigs and Republicans and the Laws executed in good earnest against the Papists and the Dissenters passed by unpunished The Discoverers of the Plot countenanced or at least heard and suffered to give their Evidence except when they make bold with our selves and such a Colledge and Fitz-Harris and the Association-men in which cases they ought neither to be heard nor believed The Courts of Justice steady and not avowing a jurisdiction one day which they disown the next but just such as they were in the late times When we see no more Grand-Juries discharged lest they should hear Witnesses nor Witnesses hurried away lest they should inform Grand-Juries tho it were against his Majesty and when all Grand-Juries are of the Family of Ignoramus the Lawyer and will find according to their Conscience tho against both their Oath and their Evidence especially when a Precious man is in jeopardy to be hanged for something done or said against the King When we see no more instruments from Court labouring to raise jealousies of Associating Petitioning Protestants who have a Patent from heaven to retail all the fears and jealousies that ever shall from henceforward be put off in England Scotland and Ireland and in all other his Majesties Dominions and Countries whatsoever And to that purpose have erected several Mints for the Coining of them in London and the parts adjacent and do maintain several Presses and a great many Intelligencers to collect and disperse the same for the benefit of his Majesties discontented Subjects who receive much comfort by the worst and falsest of them and hope to have just such another harvest in the end as they reaped from the same Seed in and about the years 1640 41 42 and so on till 1660. When we see some regard had to Protestants abroad tho his Majesty should be by our defaults brought into such straits as hardly to be able to maintain the Government at home When we observe somewhat else to be meant by Governing according to Law than barely to put them in execution against Dissenters in whom our strength against the Government doth chiefly consist the Laws made against Papists In which number we desire the Church of England men that is all that stick to the Religion by Law Established may be included and then we shall promise our selves not only frequent Parliaments but everlasting ones and all the blessed effects of pursuing Parliamentary Councils the Extirpation of Popery and Prelacy the redress of Grievances the flourishing of Laws and the perfect restoring the Monarchy to the credit which it had in 1658 and 59. both at home and abroad There needs no time to open the Eyes of his Majesties good Subjects the Whigs and their hearts are ready prepared to meet him in Parliament in order to perfect all these good Settlements and Peace which are now wanting in Church and State But whilst there are so many little Emissaries imployed to sow and encrease divisions in the Nation as if the Ministers had a mind to make his Majesty head of a Faction and joyn himself to one Party in the Kingdom who has a just right of Governing all which Thuanus lib. 28. says was the notorious Folly and occasioned the destruction of his great-Grandmother Mary Queen of Scots whilst we see the same differences Promoted industriously by the Court which gave the Rise and Progress to the late troubles and which were once thought fit to be buried in an Act of Oblivion What is meant by the little Emissaries here I know not nor will I guess Nor did I ever observe the Ministers had a mind to make his Majesty the Head of a Faction which your Author much blames in Henry III. of France too when he suffered the Holy League the Prototype of the Association to be set afoot and propagated so far before he took notice of it that he was forced at last to attempt to make himself the Head of it which was properly a Faction combined by an Oath against the Right Heir to the Crown and a part of the Natural Subjects of France on pretence of Religion for the Exclusion of the first and destruction of the latter without and against the consent of the King which caused a Rebellion in France the destruction of the King a sooner Succession of Henry IV. the right Heir upon changing his Religion and if God had not prevented it had betrayed France into the hands of the Spaniards or Cantoned it into small Principalities Now this is properly to make a Prince the head of a Faction without consideration of the Rise of our late Troubles which sprung from such another League but to countenance a Loyal Party more than a Rebellious one is not so and whatever effect it had in the Reign of Queen Mary his Majesties Grandmother seems the only way now to save England and prevent the need of another Act of Oblivion and Indemnity for all those Crimes that were pardoned by his Majesty but never repented of by them that acted them Whilst