from those Contentions whilest every one pretended to all the Marks which are to attend upon the true Church except only that which is inseparable from it Charirity to one another My Lords and Gentlemen This Disquisition hath cost the King many a Sigh many a sad Hour when he hath considered the almost irreparable Reproach the Protestant Religion hath undergone from the Divisions and Distractions which have been so notorious within this Kingdom What pains he hath taken to compose them after several Discourses with learned and pious Men of different Perswasions you will shortly see by a Declaration He will publish upon that Occasion by which you will see His great Indulgence to those who can have any Protection from Conscience to differ with their Brethren And I hope God will so bless the Candor of His Majesty in the Condescentions he makes that the Church as well as the State will return to that Unity and Unanimity which will make both King and People as happy as they can hope to be in this World My Lords and Gentlemen I shall conclude with the Kings hearty thanks to you not only for what you have done towards Him which hath been very signal but for what you have done towards each other for the excellent correspondence you have maintained for the very seasonable Deference and Condescention you have had for each other which will restore Parliaments to the Veneration they ought to have And since His Majesty knows that you all desire to please him you have given him ample Evidence that you do so He hath appointed me to give you a sure Receipt to attain that good End it is a Receipt of His own prescribing and therefore is not like to fail Be but pleased your selves and perswade others to be so contrive all the ways imaginable for your own Happiness and you will make Him the best pleased and the most happy Prince in the World THE State of ENGLAND Both at HOME and ABROAD In Order to The Designs of France CONSIDERED To the READER THIS Discourse being imaginarily Scened and yet really performed out of the Treasure of a very great Minister of State 's Capacity it was thought fit to be Published now and not before because that Respect ought to be payed to the Secret of his Majesty's Affairs so as nothing should anticipate the King 's own Labours to give the People Satisfaction in his due time touching the tender Care that He is graciously pleased to take of all his Subjects in point of Honour Safety Freedom Union and Commerce which nothing could more advance then the Conclusion of the Treaty newly made betwixt England and the States of the United Provinces which without Flattery may be demonstrated to Men of Understanding to aim at nothing but the Good of His Subjects in general exempt from all manner of private Interest whatsoever Blessed be God then that it is so happily concluded and that we have a King whom nothing can ever alienate from the true Interest of his Realms nor no corrupt Counsellour let him be thought to be never so Powerful or Crafty in order to his own Advantages prevent the Wisdom and Integrity of such a Prince from prevailing above the Artifices and Frauds of those who would perswade the Nation were they competent Masters of their Art enough so to do that those Counsellors who are not interested can be less prudent or successful then such as did make it their Business to appropriate all to themselves and nothing to their Master The French King is much commended for his Parts and Activity but let us see him out-do the King of England in this particular of the Treaty both in Courage and Conduct and then I shall be apt to attribute his Grandeur as much to natural Abilities as extraordinary Fortune but not before THE State of England c. THE Adventure which happened unto me lately is of so extraordinary a nature and contains so many important Discoveries in relation to the publick Good in its Progress that I should prove defective towards my Countrey if I did not candidly publish all the Passages both touching the Occasion and Effects of what followed from this Accident Know then that a Peer of the Realm of England and one whose Merit Quality and the Place which he holds in the Administration of the Affairs of the Kingdom are remarkable did invite sundry of his Lordship's best Friends to a magnificent Feast and amongst the rest he had the kindness not to omit me out of the number where the excellence of the Chear which he made to his Guests after a most noble manner put the whole Company into such a refined humour of conversing together that the Entertainment was but one intire pleasing Debate how to express our compleat enjoying of each other I was not wanting with the uttermost of Vigour and Solace to uphold the Genious of this Conference But as the freest speakers do commonly come by the worst in Discourse and are the soonest exposed to enterfiering lashes I found my self to be attacqued in so many places at once with the swiftness of other Mens Reasons and Wits who held the opposite Arguments that although I were something heated yet there remained unto me presence of mind enough and success of Intervalls to get insensibly out of the Press whilst the Disorder and Confusion lasted which is usual at such Meetings into another room I retired then pursuing the Opportunity into a fair Gallery which surprised my Eyes with the rich Ornaments wherewith it was furnished but not without trouble neither and a Curiosity beyond the Opticks of the Place which increased there so as I was diverted from any farther Consideration of the Furniture because the Place seemed to lie too near the Enemy to dwell any longer upon those Objects Wherefore I went into another Chamber hard by which instantly filled me with new Apprehensions by the means of several large Looking-Glasses hanging on the Walls which shewed me my own proper Figure at length on every side and from thence imprinted in my wounded Imagination as many Adversaries as there were angular Reflections out of each Mirrour that appeared to pursue me so furiously that I ran on violently with my head forwards in order to some Escape to the door of another Chamber adjoyning thereunto which opened with such Resistance when I thrust against it as if it had been forced with a Petard And thus falling in the Attempt I was so stunned that it was a good while after before I could come to my self again But at last having partly recovered my spirits I was surprised with a fresh astonishment as much amazed me as the former had done that I repeated for when I began to open my eyes half way finding that till then they had been altogether unuseful to me I attributed the Disorder to want of Sight often feeling in regard of the Darkness of the Room to try whether they were still in my head or not
found this following Paper which immediately either by himself or a Relation of his was delivered to Sir William Morrice one of his Majesties Principal Secretaries of State The Contents of the Paper are as follows A Warning to Protestants I Who have been a Papist from my Infancy till of late and in Zeal for their horrid Principles had too great a share in the Firing of the City and did intend to do further Mischief to the Protestants of which I am now and ever shall be a Member do upon Abhorrence of that Villany and Religion that hath moved me to it declare to all Protestants the Approach of their sudden Ruine that it may be prevented if it be not too late When I together with other Papists both French Irish and English fired the City others were imployed to Massacre the Protestants we thinking thereby to destroy the Heads of your Religion but the Massacre was disappointed by the Fear of him who was the chief Agent in this Villany And the Fire not having done all its Work they have often endeavoured to fire the remaining part They intend likewise to land the French upon you to whose Assistance they all intend to come and for that purpose are stored with Arms and have so far deceived the King that they have the Command of most part of the Army and the Sea-Ports The French intend to land at Dover that Garison being most Papists And the Papists in England have express Command from Rome to hasten their Business before the next Parliament and to dispatch Therefore as you love your Lives and Fortunes prevent your Ruine by disarming all the Papists in England especially C. L. from the Tower and the L. D. and all his Adherents and Souldiers from Dover and by disarming all Papists I have such an Abhorrence that I would willingly undergo any Punishment for it and declare my self openly were I not assured that I could do you more good in concealing my Name for the present Delay not from following these Directions as you love your Lives and be not deceived by any Pretences whatsoever An Impartial Account of some Informations taken before several Justices of the Peace concerning the several Fires happening of late in and near the City of London ABout the latter end of June and in July one Joseph Harrison came several times to the Greyhound-Inn in Holborn pretending to enquire for Letters for himself and about the beginning of July comes into the said Inn and meeting Mr. Atkins the Master of the said Inn He the said Harrison asked him for a Can of Beer whereupon Mr. Atkins ordered his Man to draw two Cans drinking one himself and giving the other to Harrison After which the said Harrison took Mr. Atkins by the Hand and lead him out of his own Yard into Holborn and by the Rails in the Street the said Harrison advised the said Atkins to put off his House and dispose of his Goods as soon as he could for within Three Weeks or a Month there would be great and dreadful Fires in and about London Mr. Atkins asked him How he knew so The said Harrison replied If you will not believe me you may chose and so left him One Monday July the 25th Mr. Atkins his Wife hearing of the Fire at the George-Inn in Southwark went to her Mother at the Talbot-Inn in Southwark the back-part of which said Inn is adjoyning to the George-Inn and was likewise on Fire and being there she espied the aforesaid Joseph Harrison in the Yard and remembring the aforesaid Advice to her Husband desired some Persons that were next her to lay hold on him which being done he was conveyed to a Foot-Company that stood in Arms near the said Inn judging that the nearest place to secure him After which Sir John Smith one of the Sheriffs of London was acquainted with the whole matter Upon which he with the L. C. went to the said Company and in the hearing of several gave Charge to the Captain of the said Company to keep him safe until they had time to examine him After the Fire was put out some went to enquire after the Prisoner and the Captain told them The L. C. had dicharged him The next Day being Tuesday a Person was informed that the said Harrison taught School in Thread-Needle Street and that he boasted of his Deliverance and said That the L. C. was pleased to honour him so far as to take him in his Barge with him to White-hall and bad him but be patient a while and he should have Satisfaction from the Persons that had troubled him But hearing where to find him Endeavours were used to retake him and accordingly was accomplished on Wednesday July 27. and had before the Worshipful Sir John Frederick who sent him to Bishopsgate and ordered him to be brought before the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen the next day to be examined Before whom were these following things proved against him upon Oath 1. THat he hath had frequent Correspondency with Jesuits and Papists 2. That he hath spoken to several of his Acquaintance to go with him to Popist Meetings declaring that he knew of many 3. That he hath been perswaded to turn Mendicant Fryer and hath been offered a Stipend to turn to the Romish Religion 4. That he knew there would be divers great and dreadful Fires in and about London within a Month. 5. That he advised Friends to rid their Hauds of all their Concerns in and about London for there would be a great Consumption of houses there 6. That when he was in the Custody of the Foot-Company aforesaid Mr. Atkins aforesaid affirming to swear the former Article he threatned him if he did it should cost him the best House he had 7. That he said there were forty thousand French Papists lately come over to his Knowledge besides many that were amongst us already 8. The Lord Mayor asking him Who perswaded him to turn Catholick He answered The King's Under-Barber Phillips After which he told the Court That when he was apprehended for these things my L. C. discharged him and took him with him in his Barge to White-hall He further told the Court That he was some time an Assistant to Mr. Lovejoy Schoolmaster at Canterbury and that he had Letters Testimonial of his good Behaviour from the Dean of Canterbury Upon which my Lord Mayor remembring that he had seen him with Mr. Lovejoy and said that Mr. Lovejoy told him That he was an idle Rogue And so he was committed to Newgate On Saturday the 30th of July it was further deposed upon Oath by Thomas Roe before Sir John Frederick as follows The Information of Thomas Roe of Bernard-Inn Gent. taken the 3th of July 1670. by Sir John Frederick Alderman one of His Majesties Justices of Peace in the City of London upon Oath as followeth THomas Roe saith that he hath for at least twelve or thirteen Years last past been acquainted with one Joseph Harrison who was
but Christianity itself that lies at stake For in the Ruine of the Empire the Turks work is done to his hand by breaking down the only Fence that has preserv'd us all this while from the Incursions of the Ottoman Power Now as nothing can be more glorious than at all hazards to hinder the effusion of more Christian Blood and to save Christendom itself from Bondage it is so much our Interest too that we our selves are lost without it And as the Obligation is reciprocal so the Resolution is necessary The choice we have before us being only this Either to unite with our Neighbours for a Common Safety or to stand still and look on the tame Spectators of their Ruine till we fall alone This is so demonstrative that if we do not by a powerful Alliance and Diversion prevent the Conquest of Flanders which lies already a gasping we are cut off from all Communication with the rest of Europe and coop'd up at home to the irrecoverable loss of our Reputation and Commerce for Holland must inevitably follow the Fate of Flanders and then the French are Masters of the Sea Ravage our Plantations and infallibly possess themselves of the Spanish Indies and leave us answerable for all those Calamities that shall ensue upon it which as yet by God's Providence may be timely prevented But he that stills the raging of the Sea will undoubtedly set Bounds to this overflowing Greatness having now as an Earnest of that Mercy put it into the Hearts of our Superiours to provide seasonably for the Common Safety and in proportion also to the Exigence of the Affair knowing very well that things of this Nature are not to be done by halves We have to do with a Nation of a large Territory abounding in Men and Money their Dominion is grown absolute that no Man there can call any thing his own if the Court says Nay to 't So that the sober and industrious part are only Slaves to the Lusts and Ambition of the Military In this Condition of Servitude they feel already what their Neighbours fear and wish as well to any Opportunity either of avoiding or of casting off the Yoke which will easily be given by a Conjunction of England and Holland at Sea and almost infallibly produce these effects First It will draw off the Naval Force of France from Sicily America and else-where to attend this Expedition Secondly The Diversion will be an Ease to the Empire and the Confederates from whence more Troops must be drawn to encounter this Difficulty than the French can well spare Thirdly It will not only encourage those Princes and States that are already engag'd but likewise keep in awe those that are disaffected and confirm those that waver 'T is true this War must needs be prodigiously expensive but then in probability it will be short And in Cases of this Quality People must do as in a Storm at Sea rather throw part of the Lading over-board than founder the Vessel I do not speak this as supposing any difficulty in the Case for the very contemplation of it has put fire into the Veins of every true English-man and they are moved as by a sacred impulse to the necessary and the only means of their Preservation And that which Crowns our hopes is that these generous Inclinations are only ready to execute what the Wisdom of their Superiours shall find reasonable to Command I need not tell you how jealous the People of England are of their Religion and Liberties to what degree they have contended even for the shadow of these Interests nor how much Blood and Treasure they have spent upon the Quarrel Could any Imposture work so much and can any Man imagine that they will be now less sensible when they see before their eyes a manifest Plot upon their Religion their Liberties invaded their Traffick interrupted the Honour and the very Being of their Country at stake their Wives and Children expos'd to Beggary and Scorn and in Conclusion The Priviledge of a Free-born English-man exchanged for the Vassalage of France An ANSWER to a LETTER written by a Member of Parliament in the Country upon the occasion of his Reading of the Gazette of the 11th of December 1679 wherein is the Proclamation for further Proroguing the Parliament till the 11th of November next ensuing SIR I Received your Letter when I was ingaged in much other business which will excuse me that I have not returned an Answer sooner and that is done no better now You desire me to let you know what that Judgment is which my Lord Chancellor acquainted my Lord Mayor and his Brethren with and what my thoughts are upon it And that I may obey you in both I will first Transcribe that Case as it is reported by Justice Crook that being already put into English whereas the Case in Moor is in French MEmorandum That by Command from the King all the Justices of England Cro. Ja. f. 37. Nov. 100. Moor 755. with divers of the Nobility viz. The Lord Ellesmere Lord-Chancellor the Earl of Dorset Lord-Treasurer Viscount Cranbourn Principal Secretary the Earl of Nottingham Lord Admiral the Earls of Northumberland Worcester Devon and Northampton the Lords Zouch Burghley and Knowles the Chancellor of the Dutchy the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishop of London Popham Chief Justice Bruce Masters of the Rolls Anderson Gawdy Walmesley Fenner Kingsmil Warburton Savel Daniel Yelverton and Snigg were assembled in the Star-Chamber where the Lord Chancellor after a long Speech made by him concerning Justices of the Peace and his Exhortation to the Justices of Assize and a Discourse concerning Papists and Puritans declaring how they both were Disturbers of the State and that the King intending to suppress them and to have the Laws put in execution against them demanded of the Justices their Resolutions in three things First Whether the Deprivation of Puritan-Ministers by the High Commissioners for refusing to conform themselves to the Ceremonies appointed by the last Canons was lawful Whereto all the Justices answered That they had conferred thereof before and held it to be lawful because the King hath the Supreme Ecclesiastical Power which he hath delegated to the Commissioners whereby they had the Power of Deprivation by the Canon-Law of the Realm And the Statute of 1 Eliz. which appoints Commissioners to be made by the Queen doth not confer any new Power but explain and declare the Ancient Power And therefore they held it clear That the King without Parliament might make Orders and Constitutions for the Government of the Clergy and might deprive them if they obeyed not And so the Commissioners might deprive them But they could not make any Constitutions without the King And the divulging of such Ordinances by Proclamation is a most gracious Admonition And forasmuch as they have refused to obey they are lawfully deprived by the Commissioners ex Officio without Libel Et ore tenus convocati Secondly Whether a Prohibition
King make unto him certain propositions for taking away some heavy Taxes that had been imposed on them by his Father Solomon which he refusing to gratifie them in and following the Advice of Young Men Ten of the twelve Tribes immediately chose Jeroboam a Servant of Rehoboham's a meer Stanger and of mean Parentage and made him their King and God approved thereof as the Scriptures in express Words do testifie For when Rehoboam had raised an Army of One hundred and fourscore thousand Men intending by force of Arms to have justified his Claim God appeared unto Semaiah and commanded him to go to Rehoboam and to the House of Jadah and Benjamin saying Return every man to his house for this thing is of me saith the Lord. So that since God did permit and allow this in his own Commonwealth which was to be the Pattern for all others no doubt he will approve the same in other Kingdoms whenever his Service and Glory or the Happiness of the Weal-publick shall require it The next instance I shall give you shall be in Spain where Don Alonso de la Cerda having been admitted Prince of Spain in his Father's Life-time according to the Custom of that Realm married Blanoha Daughter of Lewis the First King of France and had by her two Sons Named Alonso and Hernando de la Cerda but their Father who was only Prince dying before Alonso the Ninth then King he recommended them to the Realm as lawful Heirs apparent to the Crown But Don Sancho their Fathers Younger Brother who was a great Warrier and Sirnamed El Bravo was admitted Prince and they put by in their Grandfathers Life-time by his and the States Consent and this was done at a Parliament held at Sagovia in the Year 1276. And in the Year 1284 Alonso the Ninth being dead Don Sancho was aknowledg'd King and the Two Princes Imprisoned but at the Mediation of Philip the Third King of France their Unkle they were set free and Endowed with considerable Revenues in Land and from them do descend the Dukes De Medina Celi at this Day and the present King of Spain that is in Possession descendeth from Don Sancho In France Lewis the Fourth had Two Sons Lothairin who succeeded him and Charles whom he made Duke of Lorrain Lothairin dying left an only Son named Lewis who dying without Issue after he had reigned Two Years the Crown was to have descended on his Unkle Charles Duke of Lorrain But the States of France did exclude him and chose Hugo Capetus Earl of Paris for their King and in an Oration made by their Embassadour to Charles of Lorrain did give an Account of their Reasons for so doing as it is related by Belforest a French Historian in these very words Every Man knoweth Lord Charles that the Sucession of the Crown and Kingdom of France according to the ordinary Rights and Laws of the same belongeth unto you and not unto Hugh Capet now our King But yet the same Laws which do give unto you such Right of Succession do judge you also unworthy of the same for that you have not endeavoured hitherto to frame your Life according to the Prescript of those Laws nor according to the Use and Custom of the Kingdom of France but rather have allied your self with the Germans our old Enemies and have accustomed your self to their vile and base Manners Wherefore since you have abandoned and forsaken the ancient Virtue Amity and Sweetness of your Countrey your Countrey has also abandoned and forsaken you for we have chosen Hugh Capet for our King and have put you by and this without any Scruple in our Consciences at all esteeming it for better and more just to live under Hugh Capet the possessor of the Crown with enjoying the ancient use of our Laws Customs Privileges and Liberties than under you the next Heir by Blood in Oppressions strange Customs and Cruelty For as they who are to make a Voyage in a Ship on a dangerous Sea do not so much respect whether the Pilot claims Title to the Ship or no but rather whether he be skilful valiant and like to bring them in safety to their ways end even so our principal care is to have a good Prince to lead and guide us happily in this way of Civil and Politick Life which is the end for which Princes are appointed And with this Message ended his Succession and Life he dying not long after in Prison And now I shall come home and give you an Instance or two in England since the Conquest and so conclude William Rufus second Son of William the Conqueror by the assistance of Lanfrank Archbishop of Canterbury who had a great opinion of his Virtue and Probity was admitted King by the consent of the Realm his elder Brother Robert Duke of Normandy being then in the War at Jerusalem William dying his younger Brother Henry by his ingenuity and fair carriage and by the assistance of Henry Earl of Warwick who had greatest interest in the Nobility and Maurice Bishop of London a leading-man amongst the Clergy obtained also the Crown And Robert Duke of Normandy was a second time excluded And though this King Henry could pretend no other Title to the Crown than the Election and Admission of the Realm yet he defended it so well and God prosper'd him with success that when his elder Brother Robert came to claim the Kingdom by force of Arms he beat him in a pitch'd-Battel took him Prisoner and so he died miserable in Bonds King Henry had one only Daughter named Maud or Matilda who was married to the Emperor and he dying without Issue she was afterwards married to Geofry Plantagenet Earl of Anjou in France by whom she had a Son named Henry whom his Grandfather declared Heir-apparent to the Crown in his Life-time yet after his Death Henry was excluded and Stephen Earl of Bulloine Son of Adela Daughter of William the Conqueror was by the States thought more fit to Govern than Prince Henry who was then but a Child And this was done by the perswasion of Henry Bishop of Winchester and at the solicitation of the Abbot of Glastenbury and others who thought they might do the same lawfully and with a good Conscience for the publick Good of the Realm But the Event did not prove so well as they intended for this occasioned great Factions and Divisions in the Kingdom for the quieting of which there was a Parliament held at Wallingford which passed a Law That Stephen should be King only during his Life and that Prince Henry and his Off-spring should succeed him and by the same Law debarred William Son of King Stephen from inheriting the Crown and only made him Earl of Norfolk Thus did the Parliament dispose of the Crown in those days which was in the year 1153 which sufficiently proves what I have asserted The sum of all I have said amounts to this That Government in general is by the Law of
not unknown to your Majesty how restless the Endeavours and how bold the Attempts of the Popish Party for many years last past have been not only within this but other your Majesties Kingdoms to introduce the Romish and utterly to extirpate the true Protestant Religion The several Approaches they have made towards the compassing this their Design assisted by the Treachery of perfidious Protestants have been so strangely successful that 't is matter of Admiration to Us and which we can only ascribe to an Over-ruling Providence that your Majesties Reign is still continued over Us and that We are yet assembled to consult the means of our preservation This bloody and restless Party not content with the great Liberty they had a long time enjoyed to excercise their own Religion privately amongst themselves to pertake of an equal Freedom of their persons and Estates with your Majesties Protestant Subjects and of an Advantage above them in being excused from chargeable Offices and Employments hath so far prevailed as to find countenance for an open and avowed practice of their Superstition and Idolatry without controul in several parts of this Kingdom Great swarms of Priests and Jesuits have resorted hither and have here exercised their Jurisdiction and been daily tampering to pervert the Consciences of your Majesties Subjects Their Opposers they have found means to disgrace and if they were Judges Justices of the Peace or other Magistrates to have them turned out of Commission and in contempt of the known Laws of the Land they have practised upon people of all Ranks and qualities and gained over divers to their Religion some openly to profess it others secretly to espouse it as most conduced to the service thereof After some time they became able to influence matters of State and Government and thereby to destroy those they cannot corrupt The continuance or Prorogation of Parliaments has been accommodated to serve the purposes of that Party Money raised upon the People to supply your Majesties extraordinary Occasions was by the prevalence of Popish Councils imployed to make War upon a Protestant State and to advance and augment the dreadful Power of the French King though to the apparent hazard of this and all other Protestant Countries Great numbers of your Majesties Subjects were sent into and continued in the service of that King notwithstanding the apparent Interest of your Majesties Kingdoms the Addresses of the Parliament and your Majesties gracious Proclamations to the contrary Nor can We forbear to mention how that at the beginning of the same War even the Ministers of England were made Instruments to press upon that State the acceptance of one demand among others from the French King for procuring their peace with him that they should admit the publick exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion in the United Provinces the Churches there to be divided and the Romish Priests maintained out of the publick Revenue At home if Your Majesty did at any time by the Advice of Your Privy-Council or of Your two Houses of Parliament Command the Laws to be put in Execution against Papists even from thence they gained advantage to their Party while the edge of those Laws was turned against Protestant Dissenters and the Papists escaped in a manner untoucht The Act of Parliament enjoining a Test to be taken by all Persons admitted into any Publick Office and intended for a security against Papists coming into Employment had so little effect that either by Dispensations obtained from Rome they submitted to those Tests and held their Offices themselves or those put in their places were so favourable to the same Interests that Popery it self has rather gained than lost ground since that Act. But that their business in hand might yet more speedily and strongly proceed at length a Popish Secretary since Executed for his Treasons takes upon him to set afoot and maintain correspondencies at Rome particularly with a Native Subject of Your Majesties promoted to be a Cardinal and in the Courts of other Forreign Princes to use their own form of Speech for the subduing that Pestilent Heresie which has so long domineered over this Northern World that is to root the Protestant religion out of England and thereby to make way the more easily to do the same in other Protestant Countries Towards the doing this great Work as Mr. Coleman was pleased to call it Jesuits the most dangerous of all Popish Orders to the Lives and Estates of Princes were distributed to their several Precincts within this Kingdom and held joint Councils with those of the same Order in all Neighbour Popish Countries Out of these Councils and Correspondencies was hatcht that damnable and hellish Plot by the good Providence of Almighty God brought to light above two Years since but still threatning us wherein the Traitors impatient of longer delay reckoning the prolonging of Your Sacred Majesties Life which God long Preserve as the Great Obstacle in the way to the Consummation of their hopes and having in their prospect a Proselyted Prince immediately to succeed in the Throne of these Kingdoms resolved to begin their Work with the Assassination of Your Majesty to carry it on with Armed Force to destroy Your Protestant Subjects in England to Execute a second Massacre in Ireland and so with ease to arrive at the suppression of our Religion and the subversion of the Government When this Accursed Conspiracy began to be discovered they began the smothering it with the Barbarous Murther of a Justice of the Peace within one of Your Majesties own Palaces who had taken some Examinations concerning it Amidst these distractions and fears Popish Officers for the Command of Forces were allowed upon the Musters by special Orders surreptitionsly obtained from Your Majesty but Counter-Signed by a Secretary of State without ever passing under the Tests prescribed by the aforementioned Act of Parliament In like manner above fifty new Commissions were granted about the same time to known Papists besides a great number of desperate Popish Officers though out of Command yet entertain'd at half pay When in the next Parliament the House of Commons were prepared to bring to a legal Tryal the principal Conspirators in this Plot that Parliament was first Prorogued and then Dissolved The Interval between the Calling and Sitting of this Parliament was so long that now they conceive Hopes of covering all their past Crimes and gaining a seasonable time and advantages of practising them more effectually Witnesses are attempted to be corrupted and not only promises of Reward but of the Favour of your Majesty's Brother made the Motives to their Compliance Divers of the most considerable of your Majesty's Protestant Subjects have Crimes of the highest nature forged against them the Charge to be supported by Subornation and Perjury that they may be destroyed by Forms of Law and Justice A Presentment being prepared for a Grand Jury of Middlesex against your Majesty's said Brother the Duke of York under whose Countenance all the
Administration of Justice Belongeth to the Office of a King But the fullest account of it in few words is in Chancellor Fortescue Chap. XIII which Passage is quoted in Calvin's Case Coke VII Rep. Fol 5. Ad Tutelam namque Legis Subditorum ac eorum Corporum bonorum Rex hujusmodi erectus est ad hanc potestatem a populo effluxam ipse habet quo ei non licet potestate alia suo populo Dominari For such a King That is of every Political Kingdom as this is is made and ordained for the Defence or Guardianship of the Law of his Subjects and of their Bodies and Goods whereunto he receiveth power of his People so that he cannot Govern his People by any other power Corollary 1. A Bargain 's a Bargain 2. A Popish Guardian of Protestant Laws is such an Incongruity and he is as Unfit for that Office as Antichrist is to be Christ's Vicar CHAP. II. Of Prerogatives by Divine Right I. GOvernment is not matter of Revelation if it were then those Nations that wanted Scripture must have been without Government whereas Scripture it self says That Government is The Ordinance of Man and of Humane Extraction And King Charles the First says of this Government in particular That it was Moulded by the Wisdom and Experience of the People Answ to XIX Prop. II. All just Governments are highly Beneficial to Mankind and are of God the Author of all Good they are his Ordinances and Institutions Rom. 13.1 2. III. Plowing and Sowing and the whole business of preparing Bread-Corn is absolutely necessary to the subsistence of Mankind This also cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in Working Isa 28. from 23. to 29th Verse IV. Wisdom saith Counsel is mine and sound Wisdom I am Vnderstanding I have strength By me Kings Reign and Princes decree Justice By me Princes Rule and Nobles even all the Judges of the Earth Prov. 8.14 V. The Prophet speaking of the Plowman saith His God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him Isa 28.26 VI. Scripture neither gives nor takes away Mens Civil Rights but leaves them as it found them and as our Saviour said of himself is no Divider of Inheritances VII Civil Authority is a Civil Right VIII The Law of England gives the King his Title to the Crown For where is it said in Scripture That such a Person or Family by Name shall enjoy it And the same Law of England which has made him King has made him King according to the English Laws and not otherwise IX The King of England has no more Right to set up a French Government than the French King has to be King of England which is none at all X. Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesars neither makes a Caesar nor tells who Caesar is nor what belongs to him but only requires Men to be just in giving him those supposed Rights which the Laws have determined to be his XI The Scripture supposes Property when it forbids Stealing it supposes Mens Lands to be already Butted and Bounded when it forbids removing the antient Land-marks And as it is impossible for any Man to prove what Estate he has by Scripture or to find a Terrier of his Lands there so it is a vain thing to look for Statutes of Prerogative in Scripture XII If Mishpat Hamelech the manner of the King 1 Sam. 8.11 be a Statute of Prerogative and prove all those particulars to be the Right of the King then Mishpat Haccohanim the Priest's custom of Sacrilegeous Rapine Chap. 2.13 proves that to be the Right of the Priests the same wood being used in both places XIII It is the Resolution of all the Judges of England that even the known and undoubted Prerogatives of the Jewish Kings do not belong to our Kings and that it is an absurd and impudent thing to affirm they do Coke 11. Rep. p. 63. Mich. 5. Jac. Give us a King to Judge us 1 Sam. 8.5 6 20. Note upon Sunday the Tenth of November in this same Term the King upon Complaint made to him by Bancroft Archbishop of Canterbury concerning Prohibitions was informed that when Question was made of what matters the Ecclesiastical Judges have Cognizance either upon the Exposition of the Statutes concerning Tythes or any other Thing Ecclesiastical or upon the Statute 1 Eliz. concerning the High Commission or in any other Case in which there is not express Authority by Law the King himself may decide it in his Royal person and that the Judges are but the Delegates of the King and that the King may take what Causes he shall please to determine from the Determination of the Judges and may determine them himself And the Archbishop said That this was clear in Divinity That such Authority belongs to the King by the Word of God in Scripture To which it was answered by me in the presence and with the clear consent of all the Justices of England and Barons of the Exchequer That the King in his own person cannot adjudge any Case either Criminal as Treason Felony c. but this ought to be determined and adjusted in some Court of Justice according to the Law and Custom of England And always Judgments are given Ideo consideratum est per Curiam so that the Court gives the Judgment And it was greatly marvelled That the Archbishop durst inform the King that such absolute power and authority as is aforesaid belonged to the King by the Word of God CHAP. III. Of OBEDIENCE I. NO Man has any more Civil Authority than what the Law of the Land has vested in him Nor is he one of St. Paul's Higher Powers any farther or to any other purposes than the Law has impowr'd him II. An Usurped Illegal and Arbitrary power is so far from being the Ordinance of God that it is not the Ordinance of Man III. Whoever opposes an Usurped Illegal and Arbitrary Power does not oppose the Ordinance of God but the Violation of that Ordinance IV. The 13. of the Romans commands Subjection to our Temporal Governours Verse 4. because their Office and Imployment is for the publick welfare For he is the Minister of God to Thee for Good V. The 13. of the Hebrews commands Obedience to spiritual Rulers Verse 17. Because they watch for your Souls VI. But the 13. of the Hebrews did not oblige the Martyrs and Confessors in Queen Mary's Time to obey such blessed Bishops as Bonner and the Beast of Rome who were the perfect Reverse of St. Paul's Spiritual Rulers and whose practice was murthering of Souls and Bodies according to the true Character of Popery which was given it by the Bishops who compiled the Thanksgiving for the Fifth of November but Archbishop Laud was wiser than they and in his time blotted it out The Prayer formerly run thus To that end strengthen the Hands of our Gracious King the Nobles and Magistrates of the
Yet perceiving betwixt Discerning and Doubting that all I assayed of this kind was to no purpose after having deplored the bitterness of an imaginary Loss I groped on more and more in the dark until I chanced to come to an Alcone where feeling with my hands I took fast hold upon the Alcone and grasped the Pillar of a Bed which had I not light upon I must have fallen the second time For thrusting hard against one of the Posts the Counter-stroak of the Wood threw me all along into the middle of a Couch where I remained stretched forth like a Coarse without any motion in the same posture of a precipitate Swoon And then it was that the Vapours of my Body which were disturbed by the first Mistake confusedly did stir through all the parts in the agitated fluctuancy of a Storm though by degrees growing to be undeceived Sleep which appeaseth all the Mutinies in humane Creatures did naturally and more agreeably seise upon my Faculties and compose the Tempest with perfect tranquility of Mind and animal Operations as if I had never been so discomposed 'T is impossible to tell you how long I continued in the State of this Interregnum betwixt Life and Death nor what Care the Company took to learn what was become of me but in vain blaming me for having left them or rather the War begun using all sorts of means to find where I was and bring me back to the Combate I shall only tell you by the way that about Sun-set a great Noise was raised by two of the servants of the House who entred suddenly into the Chamber where I lay which assured me as I awakened that I was yet living and the blazing of the Wax-tapers which they set upon the Tables and Cup-boards made me extremely joyful at the Restauration of my sight which in my Opinion till then was absolutely gone from me But then a third Apprehension seised on my Powers first to be catch in such a Posture and exposed to the innocent jests which might be made by the Guests on the subject of my strange Disorder and precipated Flight from them But as I sought my Eyes once more to steal away out of this Society for all Night and not be seen by any Body another noise obliged me to keep close where I was upon the Bed and draw the Curtains home not to be discovered I was not long in this Concealment when I saw come into the same Place three Persons whose Deserts in this Relation must be better known than their Names and the Importance of their Interest in the State by what I am going now to say of those particulars because I am strictly obliged not to reveal them These strangers the Master of the House did very civilly introduce into the Chamber who without many Complements sate down on the seats which were prepared for them near the Table My Sleep had digested those Fumes and dissipated all the Clouds of my Understanding therefore judging that the cause that assembled such great Personages together there in this secret Entertainment could not be but of the highest importance both the Curiosity and the Shame of having them witnesses to my Disorder obliged me to keep firm to my Post within the cover of the â—ed and to lend an attentive ear to all their Discourse For the Master of the house began the Overture of the Conference in the Terms following In that part which we do hold of the Government of the State it is not enough that a sincere Amity doth link us in one band of Interest and Esteem particularly to each other if we be not also united in the same Judgment as to all which concerns the Publick Good In our former Conferences we used to take just Measures how to rectifie things within the Realm but now it rests with us to agree upon some Maxims which are to be maintained in regard of Foreign Matters to the end that in these Rencounters wherein we are to give Counsel we may act in all things with a perfect Concert which no doubt will give a great weight to the Resolutions which shall be formed thereupon and the present Case since never have any Counsellours treated of nicer Points nor more serious ones than those which are to be debated among us to day The fire is already kindled in our Neighbourhood the Monarchy of Spain is just upon the brink of falling to the ground if it be not succoured and France in a conditition to avow the vast Design which that Crown hath long meditated as well against the Peace of Europe as the Commerce of our Navigations if a powerful Fence be not quickly made to keep the French within their Bounds Wherefore all the rest of the Forces of Europe stand at gaze expecting the Result of what England doth determine herein considering us the Counter-ballance which time out of mind hath held the Scales even betwixt those two great Monarchies for the Safety of all the rest They wait but our giving of the Sign to joyn with us in the common Defence and the better share of them seek it from England and the others have their Eyes open towards our Conduct to take their measures also by no other model but what we shall trace out unto them There is no need of a Providence extraordinary enlightned to judge which is our true Interest in this Conjuncture but the present State of our Affairs doth not leave us the same Facilities to follow it in which we do abound as to the Knowledge thereof Mean while the Mischief presses forwards and doth not afford Place nor Time sufficient to expect a Benefit of other Vicissitudes which run sufficiently against us nor to regulate our Resolutions by those Events which take too impetuous a part in the Cause on that side which we ought most to fear Therefore it is more than season to form our Fundamental Maxim on which all our Conduct is to move in this present Conjuncture and at this very instant decide whether we will chuse to be simple Spectators or take some part to act in this Tragedy since the Resolution which we shall fix thereupon will be the Center from whence we must draw all our Lines afterwards Which is the proper Point that we are to discourse of now among our selves here before we do give our Opinions on the whole matter to the Publick and in which particular I desire the rather to be enlightned by your wise Reasonings by how much the more I am assured That the sole good of the State is the only Rule and Object of all your Counsels As soon as ever he had uttered these words one of the Three after casting down of his Eyes and pondering what he was to say to the rest with having thought before he advised began his Discourse thus If late Experience had not taught us enough to our cost that it is much easier to begin a War than successfully to get out of it when
a mind to Conquer us I read in the Scripture so base a Character of none as of them who are neither hot nor cold And able Statesmen have always reproved this kind of Tepidness or Half-conduct to be both unuseful and dangerous Media via nec Amicos parat nec Inimicos tollit Wherefore England must of necessity either preserve the Low-Countries against the Usurpation of the French which is our Bulwark or raise a new Fence that shall shelter us from being conquered To preserve the first then Spain must be assisted from hence and to make a new Rampart we must divide the Spoil with France Experience hath sufficiently shewn us that our Ports are not inaccessible and Reason demonstrates that those can never be secure from the like Attempts but by keeping a powerful Fleet out at Sea that we may be absolute Masters there 'T is a Maxim also which admits neither of exception nor diminution That a well-governed Kingdom is obliged to arm when War is kindled in the Neighbourhood And though we should resolve to take part neither with the one Interest nor the other yet we must be in a Posture to hinder the Torrent from coming upon our Land that so the Conquerour may not have a mind to extend his Conquests hitherwards Here then is the Charge of Arming which on this Conjuncture is inevitable the equipping of a Fleet and raising of Souldiers to be mutually entertained at the charge of the People if we do not speedily take some Party and all this Expence without Glory or hope to get any fruit by so unprofitable a Counsel wherein our Souldiers will never learn the Discipline of War or extract any Utility from such Prizes as being uncapable after this manner to share in the Booty or in the Victories and Treaties of Accommodation according to their several events Whereas by taking part either with Spain or France the Charge would be much less because he whom we aid would largely contribute towards it and the Prizes gotten at Sea might help to discharge the Expence both of the Naval and the Land-Forces And thus would our Souldiers be exercised and our Nation make a noise again abroad and regain the Reputation which we have of late but too ignominiously lost in the World For when our men shall be trained up daily in strict Discipline beyond Seas we shall by this means establish a Seminary of good and able fighting men at the Cost of others which will be the firm Pillars of the Party and render us considerable in the eyes of all our Neighbours Besides this course may be a vent so to discharge the Realm of ill humours and a great company of Idle persons which now being without Employment are a burthen to the Publick and who one day are capable too of disturbing the domestick Tranquility of the State whereas on the contrary what Success soever this War shall have we shall always find our Accompt in the end of an Accommodation whereof being thus prepared we cannot fail of having the principal benefit and part All these Considerations then seem unto me to be so convincing that they do oblige me absolutely to condemn the Opinion of Neutrality as inconsistent with our Glory Safety and Fundamental Reasons of State by concluding positively that we ought to lend an ear to those Propositions which shall be made unto us from all Parties and embrace those which shall be found to be most agreeable and convenient to the Interest of the Kingdom And in the interim to be the more considered by both these great Parties and better assured against all manner of Attempts my Advice is That without any longer loss of time a strong Fleet should be presently got ready and that as many days as we have to spare before the next Campagne since now every hour is precious that is not well spent as to this purpose may be employed to render us henceforwards necessary unto them whose Cause we shall resolve to embrace and as formidable to those against whom we intend to declare so that on both sides we may be the Commanders of the whole Affairs and give it respite or motion by the sole Rule of the Interests of England After that he had spoken thus I did observe by the Countenance of the other two persons that had not yet spoken that this Discourse did not displease them wherefore without any farther Reflection one of them briskly began to speak to this effect Your Reasons said he are so convincing that I do not only render my consent unto them without any Reply but mean to make use of them to serve as the Bass and Foundation of that Edifice which I have a long time meditated upon in order to the fundamental Maxims of State of this Nation Therefore without more ceremony or delay I see that we must act and take one of the two Parties For any other Counsel would be dangerous and destructive by exposing of us to a thousand Inconveniencies which all the humane Prudence imaginable cannot be capable of preventing or avoiding in process of time I remain also agreed with you that in the choice of which Party we are to take we ought not to consider more than just what our own Interest properly is which is the Rule of that conduct of Monarchs that as the Soul and the Spirit vivifying the whole Figure before us gives it motion in the Body of the State It rests then to Form the Consequences upon these Principles and decide which of the two Parties is the most convenient France offers Roses unto us Spain nothing but Thorns The first presents us with a Scheme of Conquests without Dangers the last with prospect of Dangers without Profit The one invites us to be their Companions of assured Victories of which they have already beaten the way the other doth sollicite us and implore our Aid only to help them out of the mire without any other Benefit than as the old Proverb says There 's your labour for your pains at the price of our Bloud and Lives If we shall engage in the Assistance of Spain in succouring them we run a Risco of being lost our selves without yet being able to re-establish them but by joyning with France we shall partake of the Spoiles with them which we can never by force be able to take out of their hands since the Progress of France is now arrived at such a point of Effect that all our Powers combined together are not sufficient to stop it and then both our Resistances and Succours will serve but to ruine the Spaniards the sooner and bring the Vengeance of the French upon our own heads And if Spain comes to sink under the Weight of the War all the burthen of that Fall centers upon England alone In fine 't is agitated therefore singly as to this particular Whether we will needs chuse to embark in a Vessel so driven with storms or in a Ship which sails at ease with
full Sails seconded with the favourable Gales of Fortune But in case all these material Objections cannot divert us from engaging in the ill Fortune of the Spaniards let us see on what Terms at least we can assist them usefully If we shall send Troops into the Low Countreys to their Aid 't is in effect to overwhelm them by the very weight and charge of those Succours and sacrifice so many of our own Subjects to Famine and Misery as we do thus send Souldiers unto them because they have neither Countrey enough left to Lodge them in when they come thither nor the means to Entertain them after once they are there If we succour them meerly by Sea that kind of help will not hinder France from taking of their Towns in the mean time one by one and so though we should a little incommodate France we shall not ease Flanders at all and such an Assistance will in Conclusion prove none because 't is an Application of the Plaister too remotely and on the wrong side of the Wound If then the Loss of the Low Countreys be inevitable let us do what we can were it not much better that we should have our share in the Parcels of so great a Shipwrack then to suffer France to ingross them all to themselves since supposing that we do divide Booties with the French on this Occasion the Places which by this means must necessarily fall into our hands will be so many new Bulwarks to England which may shelter us for the future against their vast Designs of which the Partisans of Spain make a Chimerical Monster to intimidate the English from taking part with their best and properest Interest in the Case But when once we are entered into a Communion of Conquests with the French the subduing of Flanders will serve us as Ladders to arrrive at other Projects by wherein we may probably hope to find our Profit and Satisfaction mutually together as well as the Pleasure of a just Revenge I set aside the Conquest of the Indies which we could not fail to encompass whil'st France doth hold all the Forces of Spain in play both at Sea and Land and so occupied that they 'll never be able to retain what they hold in the New World no more than that remainder of Territories which yet they stand possessed of nearer hand Wherefore as to what regards the Interest of this Kingdom what I have last urged methinks might suffice to make you of my Opinion And if we do impartially consider that of the Royal Family What can be more important and convenient for it than to have at their Devotion a Neighbouring Power hard by which is so formidable and that is able to protect them in a few hours from all manner of Revolutions that they may and perhaps not without cause neither apprehend at home by thus commanding both the Treasures and the Armies of France whenever they shall have any need of them to put a Bridle in the mouths of all such as do seek to check their Authority I avow that our properest Interest were to hold the Ballance equal between Spain and France if we could but we should then have thought sooner of that whil'st these matters were in a condition to be disputed For at present the Weight of the Case inclining totally to one side so that we can no longer oppose France with Spain as a Barricado against their Designs we must now think how to become our selves the Counterpoise of France and the Defence of Europe by establishing of our Power beyond Seas on solid Foundations that all other Princes may consider us hereafter as the only People who are capable of resisting the Design of the Universal Monarchy and so as France it self may not be able impunitively to thwart England in this Resolution because then our Safety will be much more firmly setled by our own Strength than with the Force of others and all those who apprehend the Progress of France will conjoyn with us and become tyed to the Fortune of England as they would be at this instant to Spain if they saw that Monarchy in a Condition to be able to maintain them So that all those Reasons do oblige me to conclude that we must no longer hesitate on this point of taking part with France and accept of those Advantagious Offers which the French make unto us both in respect of the publick Good of Christendom as well as our own particular Security since by being united to them in a Knot of such inseparable Conditions and on such a Conjuncture of Affairs because of which they dare refuse us nothing that we ask what need we fear from the opposite Conjunction of any other Parties All the Assistents at this Conference began to express Indignation against this part of his Discourse and shewed by their Unquietness all the while that he spake thus that they had much ado to keep from interrupting of him or to refrain from answering tumultuously before that he had made an end But as they offered to reply in heat all at once to deliver their thoughts on this Subject the Master of the House who had not yet delivered his sense to the Company broke silence and with a little smile which had something in it grave and scornful dexterously intermingled together addressing himself to him who had spoken with so much length just before held on the Debate as follows I know your Prudence my Lord too well says he and your Lordship 's disinteressed Zeal for the good of the State to believe that you can mean seriously what you have urged on the behalf of France but rather am perswaded and that easily too that with an ingenious Artifice you have thus disguised your own true Sentiments of this Case the better to penetrate into the bottom of our ours and so give Opportunity to see clearlier through all the Reasons and the Doubts which may be formed there upon touching this Matter of which we do now treat since the truth of any Argument doth never so well appear and endure the light as when it is sifted to the very root and that the Reflexion thereof is exalted by the Opposition of the contrary sense So that in combating with your Opinion I shall still think that we do not disagree but rather to dissent in the Exposition of a vain Phantasm which you erected for sport sake to divert us and give the Company Recreation Allow me then to tell you that this Project upon which you have thus exercised the accuteness of your Wit with so great a grace is both unprofitable and chimerical no less then shameful and unjust and ruinous towards England to all intents and purposes whatsoever whereas the Design of succouring Spain is facil honourable profitable necessary and suitable to the Fundamental Maxims of our State And if you please to afford me never so little attention it will not be difficult for me to prove unto you very clearly according
to your own Judgment what I shall propose of this Nature that we shall perfectly accord in one and the same Result and convince you fully of the Truth thereof The Design which you mention is of the like nature that it were to demolish an old strong Edifice to build an new Castle in the Air or like his who to renew his Youth consented to be cut into pieces and put his several members into an Alembick of Glass To follow your Counsel then we must alter the whole Constitution of our Politicks from innovated Interests and Foreign Maxims by turning all things upside down even from the Accidents to the very Genius of the Nation and distil more modern Bloud into the veins of the People then that which they have hereditarily received from Father to Son But let us I beseech you examine on what ground and with what Materials this new Edifice is to be raised That Earth which you have proposed unto us to make it out of is a moving sort of Sand or a Floating Island in which we can never fix on any firm Bottom 'T is upon France that you would have us establish our Fortune to found a Power which one day may counterbalance the Power of the French or at least shelter us from their vast Designs Nay you will needs have France made the Instrument of a greatness in a Neighbour which they ought to suspect if they be not besotted by so putting England into a state to be able e're long to stop their Progresses and erect a Bulwark in us against themselves As if France that is our hereditary Enemy and hath so often tried what we are able to do against the Enlarging of their Empire who have graven deep in their hearts the injury of the Title which to their shame England carries in all publick Treaties and her Trophees in reference to that Crown this very France which hath no greater desire then to take the Dominion of the Sea from us and the Precedency in Commerce will help us as you believe to conquer the Indies in which one third part of his Realm is interessed and of which they do suck away all the Marrow with the semination of their Baubles by the ill husbandry of the Spaniards She who just now comes from Joyning with our Enemies against us after she had first contrived how to broach the Quarrel between England and the States of the United Provinces under divers false motions who snatched the Victory out of our hands when we were morally certain of beating the Dutch who reduced the Bishop of Munster to a necessity of separating from us in this War after that he had received our Assistance in large Sums of Money debauched Denmark from our party hindred the Swedes to arm in our favour and contrived the whole Fabrick of that Affront which we received in the River of Thames Can you after all these demonstrations of the Rancour which they bear in their hearts against England be so uningenuous as to believe that the French will make a Bridge for us on the other side of the Sea as sincerely intending by this means to make us participate of their conquests with them or ever to unite in a sound Amity with our Interests For God's sake then disabuse your self as soon as you can out of this gross Errour if it be so that it hath got the least Fixation in your mind since you cannot cordially reason thus or have the least hope of such an Incongruity in the Reason of State of other Nations without conceiving at the same time that the French have lost both their Wits and Judgment of which yet there is no great reason why we should think as they have handled us in this matter of Negotiations of late for therein I am sure that we do find them to have more than common sense France indeed will be glad to have us for the Instruments of their Ambition but never for Companions of their Glory or Rivals to their Greatness The French do I confess seek to make use of us to pull the Chesnut out of the Fire to save the burning of their fingers but when that is done the French will not endure that we should eat any bit of the Kernel And the work which they do now make for us both at home and abroad is so incompatible with our Interest and Designs as well as their own that their Professions towards us at this time cannot possibly be sincere except they be grown so kind on a suddain as to overthrow all their Fundamental Laws and in favour of England change the whole face of their Designs which they have hitherto been forming upon Europe They pretend that the Low-Countries are entirely fallen to them by the right of Devolution which France hath forged to belong to its self Then are all those Provinces by consequence united to the French Crown nor can their King divide or alienate any part of them If this be true to our advantage though he would never so fain but that it must be subject still to return again to their Tribunal they have annulled the Renunciation of the Infanta of Spain and thereby have formed a Right to the Succession of that Monarchy in case the young King should come to fail of a Successor So that the most Christian King can give us no share in the dismembring of Spain without doing prejudice to a Right which he pretends to be acquired unalienably to his Crown and whereof he himself may not otherwise dispose Next let us view the Materials which we are to have to build this new Edifice with Either we must undertake this War at our own Charge or at the Expence of France If it be undertaken at the Cost of France we must be their Hirelings at best as the Tartars be to the Ottomons and cannot move one step beyond What and How they 'l have us act France on these terms will always hold the Bridle in our Teeth and the Cavessan upon our Noses to make us stop turn and wind in the middle of the Courses just as they please From the very first moment that we shall grow burthensome unto them they have but to withdraw their Supplies to make us fall headlong to the Ground and then the Share which we pretend in their Conquests doth purely and arbitrarily depend on their discretion But if we shall underake to carry on this Design out of our own proper Purse who shall furnish us with the Means of doing it Do you believe that the Parliament and the People will give away their Substance to act against the true Interests of the Realm and that they 'l Bleed to quench the ambitious Thirst of the French or destroy Spain from whence all the abundance of our Commerce is derived and which even at this Instant grants unto us such notable Advantages by a Treaty which is solemnly ratified The part which France doth offer us in the Conquests of Ostend and Neuport
is a vast Liberality indeed but still of other folks Goods It would become them far better to restore back Dunkirk to England which they cheated us of by Surprize or the Town of Callis which they have dismembred from our ancient Dominion They take from us what is our own already and present us with nothing but what is not in their power to give because they cannot bestow either the Title or the Possession of what they do offer in this Kind upon us which if we will have we must gain it by the Point of the Sword And this Train which they do shew us is of the same nature with that sort of Temptations with which the Devil tempted our Saviour from the top of the Pinnacle But do not you discover that this is a subtil Artifice to imbroil us again in a now War with the States of the United Provinces who have the Interest to defend these two Places as much as if either Amsterdam or Flushing were so designed upon And without an absolute Naval Victory we can never hope to conquer them and such a Conquest at Sea too as shall put the Hollanders out of all manner of possibility to afford any Succours in this Case This is a very hard bone which France doth cast in for us to gnaw whil'st they eat all the Marrow of it In fine when the Arms of France joyned to our Forces shall have put us possession of these two Places yet they 'll be totally unuseful to England when France is possessed of all the rest Because thus the French will shut us quite out of the whole Traffick of the Low Countreys and will be always in a Condition to drive the English away from thence unless we do resolve continually to keep a Fleet at Sea for the conserving of them If this Design be hollow and visionary it is not less shameful then airy and full of Injustice We have no manner of Pretention on the Monarchy of Spain nor is it our Genius to whet our Spirits to form Castles in the Clouds of Chimerical Rights What Glory can it be to our Arms to help to oppress a King in Minority of six years old by surprize only because we find him now to be rudely attacqued and unprovided on a frivolous Pretext immediately after the French had given the Queen his Mother and his principal Ministers of State at Madrid such solemn assurances to the contrary as well as at Paris touching the inviolable continuation of a good Peace and a sincere Friendship The manner which Spain hath held and acted with us newly in relation to England when we were assaulted by three powerful Enemies at one time ought to oblige us at least to be deaf to the artificial Allurements of France For although the French have tried by all the ways imaginable and with Offers incomparably more advantagious than those which they do make to us at present to the end that so they might have gained the Forces of Spain to unite with them to our inevitable Oppression yet was it never in their Power to shake the unalterable Amity which the Spanish Nation have for us by a kind of natural Sympathy which one knows not how better to express than by the Immutability of it whether we do oblige or disoblige them Would it not then be an Ingratitude totally inconsistent with the Honour and the Hospitality of the English Temper so soon to forget this Kindness since at the same instant that Spain was the deepliest engaged against Portugal they did notwithstanding openly oppose the Designs of France which seemed to the prejudice of England by refusing them in contemplation of us firmly and with great Resolution Passage for those Troops of theirs which they sent to ruine the Bishop of Munster our Ally and Confederate then We cannot complain of any Injury or Attempt wherein the Spaniards have tampered against England No League nor ancient Treaty doth oblige us to second the Designs of France and we cannot conclude new Aliances with the French to this purpose without directly contravening that Treaty which we have lately ratified with Spain Let us see then what the Herald is to say to the Spaniards that shall be sent to denounce War unto them on this Occasion from England or with what Reasons we shall be able to fill a Manifesto which we would offer to the Publick whereby to justifie the Causes of this Rupture Wherefore I leave the Care my Lord to you being that you seem to be the Author of this Counsel to found it well in the point of Justice But pray see that you perform it better and with more grace than the Writer of the Queen of France's Prepensions hath done I say farther yet That this Design is both prejudicial and destructive and that it carries along with it most pernicious Consequences as well in the present time as the time to come For from the very moment that we do break with Spain our Commerce will cease with the Effects of all those great Advantages which the Spaniards have * By the Treaty last ratified at Madrid by the Earl of Sandwich His Majesty's Embassadour there newly granted unto us and the Merchants of this Realm who trade there will justly be confiscated since all the Profit that we draw from thence must on these terms infallibly redound in favour of the Hollanders whilest our Arms do busie the Spaniards in the Low Countries and the French as they do their utmost against Spain at the same instant will seize their principal Ports into their Power and thus become absolute Masters of the Commerce by putting themselves into a Posture to ereâ—â—â— Doâ—â—â—nion over th◠〈◊〉 which we can never afterwards be able to resist Not above three Years agâ— France was hardly able to set forth twenty Ships that is to say Men of War 〈◊〉 â—ow they have sixty large Vessels ready furnished and well armed and do apply all their Industry and Pains in every part to augment the number Could the Ghost of Queen Elizabeth return back into the World again she would justly reproach us who are the Ministers of State here in England for having abandoned her good Maxims by tamely suffering before our Eyes a Maâ—itim Power to increase which she so diligently kept down throughout the whole Course of her Reign Whereas you are so far from opposing the Growth of this Power that you rather seem to desire England should facilitate the ways to make it grow the faster and render it yet more formidable than it is by the Acquisition of the Sea Ports which in conclusion must infallibly bring France to be Mistress of the Commerce of the Indies All the World knows the vast quantity of Money and Arms which the French have accumulated to that end alone out of the richest Purses of that Kingdom I agree to what hath been said before very prudently in this Conference that our Power and Greatness doth principally consist in the matter of
Commerce and therefore I conclude even from thence by an unerrable Consequence that Commerce ought to be the chief Object of our Jealousie and that we are bound to be as tender of the Conservation of this Benefit as of the Apples of our Eyes But then we must look far off how to prevent whatsoever may hinder the Progress of Trade or diminish the Abundance of this Commerce We have nothing to fear in this particular on the Account of Spain which applies little towards Traffick and leaveth almost all the Advantages thereof freely to the English in their own proper Ports But if this Interest should fall into the Power of an industrious and active Nation and a People covetous of Gain as the French are we are not to expect any Share of the Utility or to partake with France therein but rather that they will prescribe the Law of Commerce unto the English according to their own Will and Pleasure As soon as ever 't is known that we do treat of Conjunction with France one of these two things must necessarily happen either that Spain finding it self uncapable to resist the Union of both Forces will send a Blank to the French King to make such Conditions with them as he thinks best by conceding unto him all their Portion in the Low Countreys or that all the rest of the Powers of Europe justly apprehending so terrible an Union will joyn with Spain to stop the Torrent of our Designs In the first state of the Case then we shall quickly find our selves taken for persons deluded in this Negotiation and France only gather all the Fruit of the Couzenage of which the Shame of having been so grosly cheated can only remain to us when the whole World discerns that the desire of Prey hath prevailed with England above the Faith of those solemn Treaties which we have made with the Crown of Spain and thus shall we obtain no other Advantage by having made such a false step then to have facilitated the means for France to unite all the Low Countreys to that Crown without striking one Blow to the eternal and irreparable Damage of the Crown of England For who can assure us that from the same instant when we do declare unto France our intention to unite with them the French instead of uniting their Party with England will not rather prevail the sooner in their Pretensions with Spain to make the Spaniards because of this Apprehension disposed to accord to whatsoever France shall demand which is as the old Proverb says To keep the Mule at our Cost and hold the stirrup unto the French or play a ridiculous part in making use only of Scare-crows and give a false Alarm to favour the Designs of others Next who shall secure us that after Spain hath yielded because of this Apprehension the Low Countreys to the Disposition of France That the Spaniards and the French shall not then streightly unite together to be revenged of us and bring us down The affinity of Bloud Religion and the hopes which the Most Christian King may found to himself upon the Succession to this Monarchy if the Renunciation of the Queen once comes to be annulled are strong Links that may very well unite them together and the principal of the Division which is at present betwixt them having no other foundation but reciprocal Jealousie touching the Equality of their Power this Emulation will expire as soon as ever that France doth see Spain in a Condition to be no longer able to dispute the Sovereign Arbitrage of Christendom with them and the cause of their Hatred being taken away all the Effects thereof will cease likewise And then the common Interests of both will unite them in a Bond which is inseparable any more from whence our Ruine must infallibly arise because the Substance and Surety of England solely depends upon the Emulation of these two Powers as the Temperament of a humane Body consists in the Opposition of the Elementary Qualities But what shall we say of the States of the United Provinces Can we reasonably believe that they 'll remain without Motion or that they 'll not awaken at the noise only of this Negotiation which we shall carry on with France to the Destruction of Spain Since 't is evident they have no other course to take than to prevent us but by joyning themselves with France before we have finished this Treaty or else to bind their Interests fast with the Spanish Crown and the Empire on the first Occasion And then are we excluded from our Pretensions and all the hopes of our vast Conquests which we have fancied unto our selves And in the next place also shall we be replunged into a long and dangerous War from whence we came but just now as it were to escape with so much difficulty and damage France hath yet proposed nothing unto us directly touching the Ports of Ostend and Newport to be given to the English and 't is apparent as to England by sundry authentick Documents that the French have no mind to treat seriously with us on this Point unless that they do find us disposed to unite with Spain and the States of the United Provinces for the common Defence Whereas 't is no less certain that the French have expresly made the very same Propositions and more advantagious ones unto the said States by soliciting them to re-combine with France in order to their old Design of dividing the Low Countries mutually between each other to the entire Exclusion both of us and the Spaniards being fully agreed as to this particular at the beginning of the War past Whereby 't is clearly to be forseen that France considers us no farther then as the worst of their Prospects and that the French will always be ready to buy dearer the Amity of the States of the United Provinces than ours Would it not then be a great imprudence in us to serve them as Instruments on such disgraceful and disadvantagious Terms to contribute towards the engaging of the Hollanders to their Party It being out of doubt that the Jealousie which we should so give them of our Negotiation with France would be a powerful incitement to the States to put them upon being before hand with us in this Treaty and cut the Grass after this manner under our feet But admit all this should cease I do not see what Measures we can take at this time with France nor what Assurances or Precautions the French may give us in a Treaty so as to shelter England from the Danger of that known Maxim of theirs which is In all Confederations to be bound by no other Rule but their Interest meerly I avow that the Rupture of the Pyrenean Treaty frights me and the remembrance of their Proceeding held with us heretofore throughout all the Course of our late War with Holland hath made me so incredulous that they must shew me many miracles and evident ones too before I shall be converted to
she finds no Opposition in the approaches thereunto and Spain probably must sink under the burthen unless that Crown be succoured though it is as true also that the Mischief is easily to be prevented if Remedies be applied thereunto in due time and before that the Inconvenience root it self too deep All the Advantage which France hath gained in this last Campaign is no more than an effect of their Address and the over-grown Credulity of Spain rather than of their Valour and Power All the Places which they have conquered in Flanders are but great Country-Towns where the People being ever the strongest he that is Master of the Field carries always the Keys of them at his Girdle to enter when he pleases and the winning of one Battel recovers them back again France hath constantly yielded in every thing where she hath found a real Resistance without gaining any thing beyond what the fright of an incommodated Multitude hath holpen them to acquire by such a Surprising Invasion Spain hath yet great resorts to recur unto provided only they can gain time and the means of making them meet together and thus recover their Spirits We know that she hath made Contracts for considerable Sums of Money and that the Spaniards are now about to put themselves in a way to be able shortly to withstand the strongest Shocks of the War and by the little Diversion of the Forces of France which we may make without any prejudice to England we can certainly put Spain into a Condition of attacquing the French as well as of defending it self and so shall we reduce France into a necessity of demanding Peace Spain is not unprovided of Friends nor Allies The Emperour doth already make a great step in favour of the Circle of Burgundy by taking of it intirely under his Protection as a Member of his Body The States of the United Provinces are not asleep neither as to their own proper Interests upon this Conjuncture and after having tried in vain the sweeter ways of appeasing the Tempest they will not abandon themselves on so pressing an Occasion being that they do see well enough their Safety depends absolutely upon their Resolution We know that they desire a sincere Alliance with us and that they would make all the progresses necessary towards it could they but discern in us any real disposition not to reject the Offer Sweden which is weary to serve but as an Instrument to the Interests of France to the prejudice of their own Affairs will no doubt also follow our Motions and the most part whom rather Fear than Love doth tye unto the Motions of France will questionless take off the Mask as soon as ever they shall see a considerable Power on foot to protect them France is a Body replete with ill humours which will easily degenerate into an universal Corruption when the French are never so little shaken The Jealousie alone which our Fleet will give them must needs oblige them to employ the better part of their Troops to furnish their Maritime Coasts and consequently render them the weaker every where else Besides it is plain that in this last Campaign in which they thought to swallow all up at a bit they made all the Force that they were able and yet were not able notwithstanding to bring into the Field above Forty thousand men after having drawn out of their Garrisons and the Provision of their Towns all the strength almost that they had there whereby their Frontiers were left naked Judge then to what point they 'l be reduced when they 'l be put both to furnish their Places on all sides and divide their Troops too in Alsatia Italy the County of * or Catalonia Rossillon and Flanders and that in all these Countries they 'l meet with Enemies to fight against as well as a multitude of Male-contents at home no less formidable within the Center of their own proper Bowels For thus they can build no longer upon the strength of their Army which is destroyed very near already by Labour Sickness Diseases and want of Pay Wherefore they must begin anew and with fresh Charges raise more men because the ill usage which their Troops have received doth render them so barren of Souldiers that they are compelled to seek Recruits and as it were beg Supplies with vast sums of Money from other States And this Imaginary Fountain of Treasure of theirs which here is thought to be un-exhaustible will be found to have a bottom when our Fleet doth disturb their Commerce Which is the same thing as our Banquer and Farmers of the Customs the Credit which till then they may get with the Partisans by means of oppressing the People with Tax upon Tax will fail The Men of Business and the Natives being pressed to unsupportable Extremities will quickly either cast off the yoke or sink under the burthen and the weight of those Impositions Their incapacity to hold out any longer is well enough seen by the impossibility wherein they now find themselves to make good what they have promised the Portugueses whose Friendship hath been formerly so necessary unto them And if Spain as 't is hoped that it may do once shall take a Resolution to be delivered of this intestine War with Portugal by some Accommodation the Spaniards will soon be in a Condition of being useful to their Allies and feared by their Enemies But if we do suffer the Designs of France to pass by undiscovered and impunitively to permit them to conquer the Low Countries towards the total oppression of Spain then I cannot but avow that France thus will be most terrible unto us And in case at present we are afraid of drawing their Revenge on our heads then shall we have must juster cause to apprehend the future effects of their Ambition Wherefore at the Bottom of all these Reasons it seems to me that by the same Principle of Apprehension which you have of the French we are obliged to oppose these Progresses of theirs which if not stopped would yet render them more redoubtable If so be that we do fear them in the Field having so many Friends that do tender their Alliance unto us our fear were much more justifiable if after the rejecting of all those Offers we alone were exposed to their mercy or that our moderation could exempt us from their Out-rages but on the contrary rather give the French better Conveniencies of putting these Violences in Execution should such an insipid Counsel prevail for they 'l never consider us farther than we do make our selves Considerable They have printed Books of their Pretensions to England Experience teaches us even to this day that 't is enough with them to ground a War without giving them any other cause of Hostility That we have * Scotland and Ireland Kingdoms belonging to this Monarchy which may very well fit their Designs which is enough to invite the French to attack them whil'st England is weak
Irlandois on peut dire qu'on leur doit une bonne partie de cette victoire That is to say And to give the English and Irish their due France is indebted to them in a large measure for this Victory But now to our Politician again Ils se haissent les uns les autres sont en division continuelle soit pour la Religion soit pour le Government The English says he hate one another and are still quarrelling either about Religion or Government These Indecencies would almost make a Man call them Names but let us pass without one angry word from the Interest of our Reputation to that of our Peace and enquire how they stand affected to us upon that point To say that England has not for a long time had any Troubles either at home or abroad which the French have not promoted or improv'd to their own advantage is to say no more than that they deal with us as they do with all the World beside so that we must e'en have recourse again to their Politicks for some particular Mark of their Favour where you shall find that our State-Mountebank has not yet shewn all his Tricks but puts himself with a very grave and fore-casting Countenance upon the very Project of our Ruine Une Guerre de France de trois ou quatre ans contre eux les ruinera entierement ainsi il semble qu'il ne faut point faire de paix avec eux qu' a des Conditions qui nous soient tres avantageuses A War says he of three or four Years with France would absolutely destroy the English so that methinks we should not entertain any Peace with them but upon very profitable Terms And then a little after In fine says he the way to undo the English is to make them keep an Army on foot and there 's no fear of their Landing in France but to their certain destruction unless they should be invited by a Rebellion without which their Troops will in a short time most undoubtedly fall foul one upon another To keep them upon continual Expence 't is but giving them the Alarm upon the Isles of Jersey and Guernsey Wight and Man Ireland and the Cinque Ports by which means they will be put upon the Charge of Fortifications and Garrisons which will perswade the People that the King intends to set up a Standing Army and an Arbitrary Government So long as this holds the Nation will never be at quiet but torment themselves with Fears and Jealousies which may be easily fomented by Letters in Cypher to such or such particular Persons and in such sort to be intercepted as shall be found convenient These Letters may give a Hint of a Descent in Ireland and elsewhere which would dispose the Irish who mortally hate the English to a Revolt and among the suspicious Multitude they would pass for Gospel This Contrivance would make the Scots also to bethink themselves of recovering their Liberty where there must be Parties made and the Sects encourag'd one against another especially the Roman Catholicks must be fairly handled and private Assurance given in the Name of the King of England to the Benedictins who are easie enough to be impos'd upon that they shall be restor'd to all their former Benefits according to the Printed Monasticon which will presently make the Roman Catholicks declare themselves and the Monks will move Heaven and Earth for the bringing of Matters about But then Care must be taken to carry on the Report that the King is of the Romish Religion which will distract the Government and throw all into an Absolute Confusion From hence we may gather First What Opinion the French have of us Secondly That it is not only their Desire and Study but a formed Design to embroyl us Thirdly That they will stick at nothing neither to compass that End be it never so foul Fourthly This Libeller has trac'd us out the very Methods of their working As by amusing the People with forged Letters of Intelligence where the first Author of the Plot must miraculously discover it By filling the Peoples Heads with Fears and Jealousies and leaving no Stone unturn'd in England Scotland and Ireland to stir up a Rebellion Why has he not advis'd the Poysoning of all our Fountains too which would have been a Course of as much Christianity and Honour But that this Trifler may not glorifie himself too much in his wondrous Speculations take Notice that he is only the Transcriber not the Author of this goodly Piece for the Original was betwixt Richlieu and Mazarine and it amounts to no more in effect than an imperfect History of the French Dealings with us for a long time and particularly in our late Troubles To come now from his most unmannerly Malice to his Reason of State if I am not mistaken England might longer subsist in a War with France than France could in a Peace within it self the heaviest of all Judgments when a Nation must be wicked upon necessity And again when he says That England cannot hurt France by a Descent unless call'd in by a Rebellion He never considers That if England had an Army a-foot and stood inclin'd to make use of it that way we should not be long without an Invitation For we see what the Bourdelois c. did upon their own Bottom and without any Forreign Encouragement and the whole Business miscarried only for want of a vigorous Second Lastly Give me leave to say that he has extreamly over-shot himself in one thing more for tho' this has been realty the Practice of the French and is at this day the very Model and Rule by which their Emissaries govern themselves it should yet have been kept as the greatest Secret in the World for the owning of these Inglorious Artifices in Publick makes it one of the grossest Libels that ever was written against the French Government to say nothing of his oversight in disobliging the Roman Catholicks and laying Snares to trepan them The Question of Trade has been so beaten already that there remains little to be added to it Nor in truth needs it since it is agreed on all hands that the French set up for an Universal Commerce as well as for an Universal Monarchy And in effect the one is but a necessary consequent upon the other Nor is it enough it seems for us to be design'd upon by them without lending them our Hands towards the Cutting of our own Throats For upon a sober and judicious Estimate we are Losers by our Trade with France at least a Million and an half per Annum I shall conclude this Head with one passage more out of our Pelitiques of France And you 'll say 't is a pleasant one too but it must be under the Rose Upon a presupposal of Mischief that 's a Brewing in England Now says he it will be our Business to renew our Alliance with Holland we can wheedle them into an
Opinion that they are the only Men that understand the Knack of Trade so that they shall have that to themselves the Talent of the French alas lies another way and there 's no forcing of any thing against Nature and that now 's the â—ick of time to crush their Competitors for the Northern Seas So that we are all of us to be served with the same Sauce but 't is some degree of Honesty yet when they tell the World what they are to trust to Now to sum up all that 's said If the French can dispence with Oaths and Solemn Contracts If it be their Custom and a Branch of their Policy to fish in troubled Waters If they hate us as English-men and are not for us as Reformed Catholicks If they do all they can to wound us in our Reputation our Peace and our Trade we may take for granted that they will destroy us to all purposes if they can which naturally leads me to an Enquiry how far we are in their Power or likely so to be that we may take our Measures accordingly It will not stand with the brevity I propose in this Paper to give you a Geographical or an Historical Account of Places or Actions But in as few words as I can I am to present you with a general View of the present State of Christendom with a regard to the Power of France and then to consider how far England may be concern'd in the Common Fate Here it was that you and I brake off in our last Discourse so that in the prosecution of it I must try to walk without leading saving only the helps that I have gathered from certain Tracts which I have read upon his Recommendation wherein I shall steer a middle course betwixt some that over-value the Strength of France and others that will have it to be less than indeed it is That the Arms of France are at this day formidable to all Christendom is not to be deuied and Tacitus gives you the reason of it in the Case of the Romans and the Britains Rarus says he ad propulsandum commune Periculum conventus ita dum singuli pugnant universi vincuntur There must be a common force to oppose a common danger they struggled one by one till they were all destroyed The French no doubt of it are a Weaâ—â—y a Populous and a Military Nation But it must be allowed that they are more indebted for their Greatness to the Slips and Oversights of others and this without disparagement too than they are to their proper Conduct and Valour The advance they made into Flanders in 1667 was introduced by the Spaniards trusting to their Assurances of Friendship and rather imputable to an excess of Charity than any want of Precaution though it seemed not very likely that they should march with Horse Foot and Cannon only to go a Birding Through these and the like Arts they have rais'd themselves to that dangerous height where now we behold them taking all Advantages of the unsetled Condition of Spain the Divisions of the Empire and the Factions in Holland and of all other Mistakes in point of Fore-sight and Resolution elsewhere You know very well the Conquests they have made upon the United Provinces the Spanish Netherlands a considerable part of Germany with the Terror and Devastation that accompanies them every-where The Progress of their Arms in Catalonia Sicily the West-Indies c. Now what may be the Consequences of this over-growing Power and how to prevent them is the matter in Question AS it is without Dispute that the French aim at Universal Dominion which is only a more plausible Cover for that Universal Slavery which must create it so is it accompted as indubitable a Principle that the Conquest of Flanders must be the Foundation of it And according to this Maxim it is that they take their Measures for they have â—ade themselves Masters of the Out-works already in Valenciennes Cambray and St. Omer three places of very great Strength and Importance And it is generally believ'd by the recalling of their Troops from the Rhine and bending the Flower of their Force that way that they will push for the rest this Campania If they carry it as probably they will without the speedy Addition of some powerful Alliance take notice I beseech you of that which naturally follows In the first place the Charge and the Hazard of that War is over which in Garrisons and in the Field has put his Most Christian Majesty to expence of keeping near 100000 Men in Pay which will then be at Liberty to fall in upon the Empire Beside what has been expended in Management as the French call it which in honest English is down right Corruption Secondly This Acquisition will furnish the French King with Men and Monies for an Army of Fifty thousand Men and no better Souldiers in Europe Thirdly what will become of the Duke of Brandenburg if the French shall fall into Cleves and Mark with a matter of Forty or Fifty thousand Men more and from thence into Pomeren and Prussia Fourthly the whole Patrimony of the Empire from the Rhine to the Frontiers of France sâ—â—l by an inevitable Consequence into the hands of the Frenchâ— as they have already swallowed the three Bishopricks of Metz Toul and Verdun So that the Imperial Army will be forced over the Rhine and there probably kept in play and upon the bare Deâ—â—â—sive by the Princes of the French Interest while in the mean time the Princes of â—â—â—â—phalia will be reduc'd to an absolute Necessity of ranging themselves under the French Protection and changing their Party And what can then be expected from Holland after what they have suffer'd already and under their present Despairs but to content themselves with such Conditions as France will give them For after the loss of Cleves and Flanders their Case is wholly desperate unless England should vigorously interpose to their Relief And the State of the Empire is neither better nor worse than that of their Neighbours for they must all submit their Necks to the same Yoak When matters are brought to this Pass they have before them England Spain and Italy the Cloud is gathered already and it is wholly at their Choice where it shall break There are a great many People I know that promise themselves mighty things from the event of another Campania for want I fear of consulting the Chart and the almost insuperable Difficulties that lie in the way The means they propose are either by carrying the War into France by way of Revulsion or by forcing the French upon a Capital Battel The former Proposition seems First very impracticable and Secondly of little or no Advantage if it could be effected It must be considered that beyond Mentz Coblentz and Treves the Imperialists have no Magazine at all beside that betwixt Treves and France a part of Luxenburg excepted is absolutely in the Enemies Power Now how should an
Army subsist there that must over and above pass through a Country of about twenty Leagues that is wholly laid waste and in ashes and without any Cattle in it or any other sort of necessary Provision Put the Case now that the Imperialists should break through all these Difficulties and carry an Army even into the Lorrain it self the Country of Metzin or Burgundy which would take them up the best part of a Summer too all the strong holds are in the hands of the French and the Country laid so desolate that there 's no living for an Army there When 't is come to this they must resolve either upon a Battel or Siege If the former The French are at liberty whither they will Fight or no and there 's no compelling of them for they are among their strong holds and all 's their own both behind them and on each side and the Country either burnt or deserted But carry it farther yet and suppose the French forc'd upon the Risque of a Battel First the Imperialists are not sure to get the better of it And Secondly What if they should Nay to the Degree of an entire Victory All that would be expected more for that Year would be only to take in some considerable Post and make good the ground they had gotten for the next Campagne For it would be a madness to pâ—â—sue their Victory into the heart of an Enemies Country and leave so many Garrisons upon their backs which would undoubtedly cut off all their Convoys and starve them But this is still the supposing of a Thing not to be supposed for the French in this Case would stand upon the Defensive and not to come to a Battel Or in case they should and he worsted they have Men enough in Garrison for Recruits that would immediatly reinforce them Now on the other side what if the Imperialists should chance to be routed The Garrisons which the French hold in Lorrain Burgundy and Alsatia would in such Case totally destroy that broken Army and cut out such work in Germany as has has not been known in the Empire for many Ages In this extremity let us suppose that the Empire should yet bring another Army into the Field and try the Issue of a Second Battle and miscarry And that the disaffected Princes of the Empire should declare themselves for the Enemy all that part of Germany that lies within two or three Days Journey of the Rhine would be irrecoverably lost a great part of it being so harrased already that 't is not able so much as to furnish an Army upon a March much less for a Winter Quarter Now to the Business of a Siege the French have taught us by Philipsburg and Mastricht that they want neither Skill to fortifie a Place nor Courage to defend it So that without a great loss of Time and Men it cannot be expected that the Imperialists should make themselves Masters of any considerable Place and when they shall have carried it what will a Town in Lorain or Burgundy signifie to the saving of the Spanish Netherlands which if once lost are hardly ever to be retriv'd Now taking this for granted if England does not step in with all the Speed and Vigor imaginable see what will be the end on 't First That the French being Masters of all the Posts Passes and Strong-holds in Lorrain and Burgundy may dodge and trifle the Imperialists at Pleasure and make them spend out the Year without any Advantage to the Netherlands The way would have been for the Imperialists to have prest with an Army of 50000 Men directly into the Body of France and the Confederate Troops in the Low Countries to have made another Inrode by the way of Picardy or Bologne but since the taking of Valenciennes Cambray and St. Omer there 's no possibility of piercing France that way So that a very small Army now upon the Spanish Netherlands with the help of the French Garrisons is sufficient to amuse and tire out the whole Force of Spain and Holland upon that Quarter Secondly France being thus secured on that side will unquestionably fall in with all their Power upon the Empire unless diverted by the Alarm they have now received from England Now admitting this to be the Condition of France let any Man of Sense judge what Good the Imperial Army can do to the Netherlands upon which single point depends the Fortune of Christendom What if they should March up to the Borders of France with 50000 Men Will not the French encounter them there with as many or more And with this odds too that the Imperialists suffer a thousand Incommodities in their March through a ruin'd Country Whereas the French have good Quarters and plenty of all things at hand watching the others Motions and emproving all Advantages against them Thirdly In this Posture of Affairs the Confederates must never expect to do any great Matter upon the French in these Provinces unless they do very much out number them And it is likwise to be considered that these Troubles falling out in the Minority of his Catholick Majesty the Distractions of that Government the Revolt of Sicily and great Disorders upon the Frontiers of Spain the Netherlands have been much neglected till the Elevation of his Highness Don Joan of Austria to the Dignity of Prime Minister And that it is not possible for him by reason of the many Exigencies of that Crown nearer home to send any considerable Succour to the Low Countries otherwise then by Supplies of Money So that by that time the Imperialists and the Hollanders are got into their Winter-Quarters or at least before they take the Field again the French from time to time will be ready with fresh Troops out of their Garrisons to prosecute their Conquests which by Degrees must needs break the hearts of the poor Inhabitants when they find that neither their Faith nor their Courage is able any longer to protect them And when that Day comes what by their Armies and what by other Influences the French will have as good as Subjected Two thirds of Europe And there will also occur these farther Difficulties First No body knows where the French will begin their Ataque which will oblige the Spaniard and Hollander to strengthen all their Garrisons as far as their Men will reach Secondly When the Spanish and Holland Troops shall be so dispers'd wheresoever the French sit down they must then give themselves for lost for want of an Army to relieve them beside their furious and obstinate manner of Assault for they care not how many Men they lose so they carry the place And then most of the Men too are made Prisoners of War Nor is the Season of the Year any Discouragement to them neither witness their First Irruption into Burgundy and the restless Activity of their Troops even at this Instant So soon as their work in Flanders is over which only England under Heaven is able to
prevent or Check the French will have an Army of at least 50000 Men about Lorain Luxenburg and Burgundy to face the Imperialists and at the same Time with as many more perhaps they will seize upon the Dutchy of Juliers and of Cleves and from thence pass the Rhine to countenance those that are of the French Cabal on the side of Westphalia and so in due time several other Princes of the Empire It is remarkable that in Three Years War against the Confederates his most Christian Majesty has not only stood his ground without losing so much as one Inch of his Ancient Patrimony but actually and almost without Opposition taken several Towns and some entire Provinces from the Principals of the Confederacy And made himself almost as considerable at Sea as he is at Land Not only in the Mediterranean and upon the Coasts of Spain and Italy but in America too where he has laid a Foundation of great Mischief both to England and Holland in the point of Commerce if not timely prevented And he does little less by his Money than by his Arms for he pays all and with French Money under pretext of Neutrality maintains considerable Armies in the very heart of the Empire which 't is feared will be ready enough upon any distaster to joyn with the Common Enemy It is the French Court that manages the Counsels of Poland and they govern the Swisse no less who by the Conquest of the Franche County are made little better then slaves And yet by a fatal Blindness that Republick still furnishes the French with the best of their Soldiers and helps forward the Destruction of Europe never dreaming that they themselves are to be undone too at last But it is no great matter you 'l say to impose upon the Swisse which are a heavy and Phlegmatick People but the French Charms have bewitch'd even Italy it self though a Nation the most Clear-sighted and suspicious of all others For their Republicks lie as quiet as if they were asleep though the Fire is already kindled in Sicily and the Danger brought home to their own Doors It is a wonder that they lay things no more to heart considering First the Passages the French have to favour their Entry Secondly That they are many and small States weak and easily to be corrupted if not so already Thirdly that though they have been formerly very brave and many particulars remain so still yet in the generality they are soft and effeminate And Fourthly that the French is there the Master of the Seas These Reflections methinks might convince any Man of the Condition they are in And certainly they that were not able to defend themselves against Charles the Eighth will be much less able to encounter Lewis the 14th Or if he gets in to drive him out again as they did the Other For they must do it wholly upon their own Strength having only the Turk in Condition to help them For Germany and Spain are sunk already And the Swisse will neither dare to venture upon 't nor are they able to do it if they had a mind tot As for Spain it is neither Populous nor fortifi'd and perhaps want of Provisions may keep it from an Invasion And yet for all that with a Body of Thirty or Forty Thousand Men by the way of Fontaraby and as many by Catalonia the French may if they please in two Campania's make themselves Masters of Navarre Arragon Catalonia and Valentia and then it is but fortifying the Frontiers and making his Catholick Majesty a Tributary in Castile Who must content himself to take what they please to give him over and above in consideration of his Dominions in Italy and the Spanish Indies A Possibility that England and Holland shall do well to think of For when he has the Mines in his Power and Europe under his Feet there will be no contending After this they have only the Swisse or the English to fall upon next For the Former they are neither fortified nor united in Affections or Religion As for England They are a People not naturally addicted to the French sensible of their Honour and of their Interest and the whole World is convinced of their Courage They are United under the Government of a Gracious Prince and their Concerns are at this Instant lodged in the hands of the most Loyal and Publick-spirited Representatives that ever acted in that Station beside the Strength of the Island by Situation So that the French would find it a hard matter either to make a Conquest here or if they should surprize it to keep it But yet they have finer Ways to Victory than by Force of Arms and their Gold has done them better Service than their Iron What have we now to do then but in a Common Cause to arm against a Common Oppression This is the time or never for Italy to enter into a League for their Common Safety and not only to keep but if possible to force the French from their Borders while the Imperial Army holds the Capital Power of France in Play And this is the time too for the Swisse to recal all their Troops out of the French Service and to strike a general League also for the Recovery of Burgundy the only Outwork of their Liberties and to expel the French Garrisons and deliver the places into the hands of the Right Owners And will it not concern Poland as much as any of the rest that stands and falls with the Empire as the Defence of Christendom against the Turks and whose own turn is next This Alarm methinks should call off the Princes from the Acquisitions they have made upon part of the Swedes Possessions in the Empire to the Assistance of the Spanish Netherlands and make all the French Mercenaries in the Empire to bethink themselves of returning from the Delusions which either the French Artifice or Money has imposed upon them He that has no regard for the Head will have less for the Dependences when he has them at his Mercy Nay the very French themselves should do well to contemplate the Slavery that is now prepar'd for them Their Laws and Liberties are trampled upon and till the French Government be reduc'd to the Bounds of its Ancient Constitution neither the People nor their Neighbours can ever be secure In this dangerous Crisis of Affairs it has pleas'd Divine Providence to leave England the Arbitress of the Fate of Europe and to annex such advantages to the Office that the Honour the Duty and Security of this Nation seem to be wrapt up together In the Point of Honour what can be more Generous than to succour the Miserable and the Oppress'd and to put a stop to that Torrent that threatens Christendom with an Universal Deluge Beside the Vindication of our selves for those Affronts and Indignities both Publick and Private that we have suffer'd upon our own Account And then in matter of Duty It is not only Christendom
by certain Noblemen and others of our Kingdom of Ireland suggesting Disorders and Abuses as well in the Proceedings of the late begun Parliament as in the Martial and Civil Government of the Kingdom We did receive with extraordinary Grace and Favour And by another Proclamation in the 12th year of his Reign Procl 12 Jac. he declares That it was the Right of his Subjects to make their immediate Addresses to him by Petition and in the 19th year of his Reign he invites his Subjects to it And in the 20th year of his Reign Procl Dat. 10 July 19. Jac. Procl Dat. 14. Feb. 20. Jac. he tells his People that his own and the Ears of his Privy Council did still continue open to the just Complaints of his People and that they were not confined to Times and Meetings in Parliament nor restrained to particular Grievances not doubting but that his loving Subjects would apply themselves to his Majesty for Relief to the utter abolishing of all those private whisperings and causless Rumors which without giving his Majesty any Opportunity of Reformation by particular knowledge of any Fault serve to no other purpose but to occasion and blow abroad Discontentment It appears Lords Journ Anno 1640. that the House of Lords both Spiritual and Temporal Nemine contradicente Voted Thanks to those Lords who Petitioned the King at York to call a Parliament And the King by his Declaration Printed in the same year Declar. 1644. declares his Royal Will and Pleasure That all his Loving Subjects who have any just cause to present or complain of any Grievances or Oppressions may freely Address themselves by their humble Petitions to his Sacred Majesty who will graciously hear their Complaints Since his Majesty's happy Restauration Temp. Car. 2. the Inhabitants of the County of Bucks made a Petition That their County might not be over-run by the Kings Deer and the same was done by the County of Surry on the same Occasion 'T is time for me to conclude your trouble I suppose you do no longer doubt but that you may joyn in Petition for a Parliament since you see it has been often done heretofore nor need you fear how many of your honest Countreymen joyn with you since you hear of Petitions by the whole Body of the Realm and since you see both by the Opinions of our Lawyers by the Doctrine of our Church and by the Declarations of our Kings That it is our undoubted Right to Petition Nothing can be more absurd than to say That the number of the Supplicants makes an innocent Petition an Offence on the contrary if in a thing of this Publick concernment a few only should address themselves to the King it would be a thing in it self ridiculous the great end of such Addresses being to acquaint him with the general desires of his People which can never be done unless multitudes joyn How can the Complaints of the diffusive Body of the Realm reach his Majesty's Ears in the absence of a Parliament but in the actual concurrence of every individual Person in Petition for the personal application of multitudes is indeed unlawful and dangerous Give me leave since the Gazette runs so much in your mind Stat. 13. Car. 2. c. 5. to tell you as I may modestly enough do since the Statute directs me what answer the Judges would now give if such another Case were put to them as was put to the Judges 2 Jacobi Suppose the Nonconformists at this day as the Puritans then did should sollicite the getting of the hands of Multitudes to a Petition to the King for suspending the Execution of the Penal Laws against themselves the present Judges would not tell you that this was an Offence next to Treason or Felony nor that the Offenders were to be brought to the Council-board to be punished but they would tell you plainly and distinctly That if the hands of more Persons than twenty were solicited or procured to such a Petition and the Offenders were convicted upon the Evidence of two or more credible Witnesses upon a Prosecution in the Kings-bench or at the Assizes or Quarter Sessions within six Months they would incur a Penalty not exceeding a 100 l. and three Months Imprisonment because their Petition was to change a matter establisht by Law But I am sure you are a better Logician than not to see the difference which the Statute makes between such a Petition which is to alter a thing establisht by Law and an innocent and humble Petition That a Parliament may meet according to Law in a time when the greatest Dangers hang over the King the Church and the State The Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftsbury 's Speech in the House of Lords March 25. 1679. My Lords YOU are appointing of the Consideration of the State of England to be taken up in a Committee of the whole House some day next Week I do not know how well what I have to say may be received for I never study either to make my Court well or to be Popular I always speak what I am commanded by the Dictates of the Spirit within me There are some other Considerations that concern England so nearly that without them you will come far short of Safety and Quiet at Home We have a little Sister and she hath no Breasts what shall we do for our Sister in the day when she shall be spoken for If she be a Wall we will build on her a Palace of Silver if she be a Door we will inclose her with Boards of Cedar We have several little Sisters without Breasts the French Protestant Churches the two Kingdoms of Ireland and Scotland The Foreign Protestants are a Wall the only Wall and Defence to England upon it you may build Palaces of Silver glorious Palaces The Protection of the Protestants abroad is the greatest Power and Security the Crown of England can attain to and which can only help us to give Check to the growing Greatness of France Scotland and Ireland are two Doors either to let in Good or Mischief upon us they are much weakened by the Artifice of our cunning Enemies and we ought to inclose them with Boards of Cedar Popery and Slavery like two Sisters go hand in hand sometimes one goes first sometimes the other in a doors but the other is always following close at hand In England Popery was to have brought in Slavery in Scotland Slavery went before and Popery was to follow I do not think your Lordships or the Parliament have Jurisdiction there It is a Noble and Ancient Kingdom they have an illustrious Nobility a Gallant Gentry a Learned Clergy and an Understanding Worthy People but yet we cannot think of England as we ought without reflecting on the Condition therein They are under the same Prince and the Influence of the same Favourites and Councils when they are hardly dealt with can we that are the Richer expect better usage for 't is
in open Arms or with Arms in their Houses or about their Persons or in any Office or Imployment Civil or Military upon any Pretence whatsoever contrary to the known Laws of the Land shall be treated by Us and our Forces not as Soldiers and Gentlemen but as Robbers Free-Booters and Banditti they shall be incapable of Quarter and intirely delivered up to the Discretion of our Soldiers And We do further declare that all Persons who shall be found any ways aiding and assisting to them or shall march under their Command or shall joyn with or submit to them in the Discharge or Execution of their Illegal Commissions or Authority shall be looked upon as Partakers of their Crimes Enemies to the Laws and to their Country And whereas we are certainly informed that great Numbers of armed Papists have of late resorted to London and Westminster and parts adjacent where they remain as we have reason to suspect not so much for their own Security as out of a wicked and barbarous Design to make some desperate Attempt upon the said Cities and their Inhabitants by Fire or a sudden Massacre or both or else to be the more ready to joyn themselves to a Body of French Troops designed if it be possible to land in England procured of the French King by the Interest and Power of the Jesuits in Pursuance of the Engagements which at the Instigation of that pestilent Society his most Christian Majesty with one of his Neighbouring Princes of the same Communion has entred into for the utter Extirpation of the Protestant Religion out of Europe Tho we hope we have taken such effectual care to prevent the one and secure the other that by God's Assistance we cannot doubt but we shall defeat all their wicked Enterprises and Designs We cannot however forbear out of the great and tender Concern We have to preserve the People of England and particularly those great and populous Cities from the cruel Rage and bloody Revenge of the Papists to Require and expect from all the Lord-Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace Lord-Mayors Mayors Sheriffs and all other Magistrates and Officers Civil and Military of all Counties Cities and Towns of England especially of the County of Middlesex and Cities of London and Westminster and parts adjacent that they do immediately disarm and secure as by Law they may and ought within their respective Counties Cities and Jurisdictions all Papists whatsoever as Persons at all times but now especially most dangerous to the Peace and Safety of the Government that so not only all Power of doing mischief may be taken from them but that the Laws which are the greatest and best Security may resume their Force and be strictly Executed And We do hereby likewise Declare that We will Protect and Defend all those who shall not be afraid to do their Duty in Obedience to these Laws And that for those Magistrates and others of what condition soever they be who shall refuse to assist Us and in Obedience to the Laws to Execute vigorously what we have required of them and suffer themselves at this Juncture to be cajoled or terrified out of ther Duty We will esteem them the most Criminal and Infamous of all Men Betrayers of their Religion the Laws and their Native Country and shall not fail to treat them accordingly resolving to expect and require at their hands the Life of every single Protestant that shall perish and every House that shall be burnt or destroyed by their Treachery and Cowardise William Henry Prince of Orange Given under our Hand and Seal at our Head-quarters at Sherburn Castle the 28th day of November 1688. By his Highness special Command C. HUYGENS. The following Paper was Published by Mr. Samuel Johnson in the Year 1686. for which he was Sentenc'd by the Court of King's Bench Sir Edward Herbert being Lord Chief Justice to stand three times on the Pillory and to be whipp'd from Newgate to Tyburn Which barbarous Sentence was Executed An Humble and Hearty Address to all the English Protestants in this present Army Gentlemen NExt to the Duty which we owe to God which ought to be the principal Care of Men of your Profession especially because you carry your Lives in your Hands and often look Death in the Face The second Thing that deserves your Consideration is The service of your Native Country wherein you drew your first Breath and breathed a free English Air. Now I would desire you to consider how well you comply with these two main Points by engaging in this present Service Is it in the Name of God and for his Service that you have joyned your selves with Papists who will indeed fight for the Mass-book but burn the Bible and who seek to Extirpate the Protestant Religion with Your Swords because they cannot do it with their Own And will you be Aiding and Assisting to set up Mass-houses to Erect that Popish Kingdom of Darkness and Desolation amongst us and to train up all our Children in Popery How can you do these Things and yet call your selves Protestants And then what Service can be done your Country by being under the Command of French and Irish Papists and by bringing the Nation under a Foreign Yoke Will you help them to make forcible Entry into the Houses of your Country-men under the Name of Quartering directly contrary to Magna Charta and the Petition of Right Will you be Aiding and Assisting to all the Murders and Outrages which they shall commit by their void Commissions Which were declared Illegal and sufficiently blasted by both Houses of Parliament if there had been any need of it for it was very well known before That a Papist cannot have a Commission but by the Law is utterly Disabled and Disarmed Will you exchange your Birth-right of English Laws and Liberties for Martial or Club-law and help to destroy all others only to be eaten last your selves If I know you well as you are English Men you hate and scorn these Things And therefore be not unequally yoaked with Idolatrous and Bloody Papists Be Valiant for the Truth and shew your selves Men. The same Considerations are likewise humbly offered to all the English Seamen who have been the Bulwark of this Nation against Popery and Slavery ever since Eighty Eight Several Reasons for the Establishment of a standing Army and Dissolving the Militia By Mr. S. Johnson 1. BEcause the Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants and the whole Militia that is to say the Lords Gentlemen and Free-holders of England are not fit to be trusted with their own Laws Lives Liberties and Estates and therefore ought to have Guardians and Keepers assigned to them 2. Because Mercenary Soldiers who fight for twelve Pence a Day will fight better as having more to lose than either the Nobility or Gentry 3. Because there are no Irish Papists in the Militia who are certainly the best Soldiers in the World for they have slain Men Women and Children
in your Kingdoms as here in the Roman Empire But now we refer it even to your Majesty to judg what condition we can be in to afford you any Assistance we being not only Engaged in a War with the Turks but finding our selves at the same time unjustly and barbarously Attacked by the French contrary to and against the Faith of Treaties they then reckoning themselves secure of England And this ought not to be concealed that the greatest Injuries which have been done to our Religion have flowed from no other than the French themselves who not only esteem it lawful for them to make perfidious Leagues with the sworn Enemies of the Holy Cross tending to the destruction both of us and of the whole Christian World in order to the checking our Endeavours which were undertaken for the glory of God and to stop those Successes which it hath pleased Almighty God to give us hitherto but further have heaped one Treuchery upon another even within the Empire it self The Cities of the Empire which were Surrendred upon Articles signed by the Dauphin himself have been exhausted by excessive Impositions and after their being exhausted have been Plundred and after Plundring have been Burned and Razed The Palaces of Princes which in all times and even in the most destructive Wars have been preserved are now burnt down to the ground The Churches are Robbed and such as submitted themselves to them are in a most Barbarous manner carried away as Slaves In short It is become a Diversion to them to commit all manner of Insolences and Cruelties in many places but chiefly in Catholick Countries exceeding the Cruelties of the Turks themselves which having imposed an absolute necessity upon us to secure our selves and the holy Roman Empire by the best means we can think on and that no less against them than against the Turks we promise our selves from your Justice ready assent to this That it ought not to be imputed to us if we endeavour to procure by a just War that security to our selves which we could not hitherto obtain by so many Treaties and that in order to the obtaining thereof we take measures for our mutual Defence of Preservation with all those who are equally concerned in the same Design with us It remains that we beg of God that he would Direct all things to his glory and that he would grant your Majesty true and solid Comforts under this your great Calamity we embrace you with tender Affections of a Brother At Vienna the 9th of April 1689. The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster concerning the Misgovernment of King James and filling up the Throne Presented to King William and Queen Mary by the right Honourable the Marquess of Hallifax Speaker to the House of Lords With His Majesties most gracious Answer thereunto WHereas the late King James the Second by the Assistance of divers Evil Counsellors Judges and Ministers Imploy'd by Him did endeavour to Subvert and Extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom By Assuming and Exercising a Power of Dispensing with and Suspending of Laws and the Execution of Laws without consent of Parliament By Committing and Prosecuting divers Worthy Prelates for humbly Petitioning to be Excused from concurring to the said assumed Power By 〈◊〉 and causing to be executed a Commission under the great Seal for erecting a Court called The Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes By Levying Mony for and to the Use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative for other time and in other manner than the same was granted by Parliament By raising and keeping a standing Army within this Kingdom in the time of Peace whithout consent of Parliament and Quartering Soldiers contrary to Law By causing several good Subjects being Protestants to be Disarmed at the same time when Papists were both Armed and Imployed contrary to Law By violating the Freedom of Election of Members to serve in Parliament By Prosecutions in the Court of King's-Bench for Matters and Causes cognizable only in Parliament and by divers other Arbitrary and Illegal Courses And whereas of late Years Partial Corrupt and Unqualified Persons have been returned and served on Juries in Tryals and particularly divers Jurors in Tryals for High-Treason which were not Free-holders And Excessive Bail hath been required of Persons committed in Criminal Cases to elude the Benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subjects And Excessive Fines have been Imposed And Illegal and Cruel Punishments inflicted And several Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Convictions or Judgment against the Persons upon whom the same were to be Levied All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws and Statutes and Freedom of this Realm And whereas the said late K. James the Second having abdicated the Government and the Throne being thereby vacant His Highness the Prince of Orange whom it hath pleased Almighty God to make the glorious Instrument of Delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by the Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and divers principal Persons of the Commons cause Letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being Protestants and other Letters to the several Counties Cities Universities Burroughs and Cinque-Ports for the Chusing of such Persons to represent them as were of Right to be sent to Parliament to Meet and Sit at Westminster upon the 22d Day of January in this Year 1688 in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being Subverted Upon which Letters Elections having been accordingly made And thereupon the said Lord's Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their respective Letters and Elections being now Assembled in a Full and Free Representative of this Nation taking into their most serious Consideration the best Means for attaining the Ends aforesaid do in the first place as their Ancestors in like Case have usually done for the Vindicating and Asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties Declare That the pretended Power of Suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without Consent of Parliament is Illegal That the pretended Power of Dispensing with Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority as it hath been assumed and exercised of late is Illegal That the Commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes and all other Commissions and Courts of the like Nature are Illegal and Pernicious That levying of Mony for or to the Use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative without grant of Parliament for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted is Illegal That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are Illegal That the Raising or Keeping a standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace unless it be with