man from doing himself right when he hath been publickly as well as eminently injured And truly it looks like an imposing that upon the implicite Faith of the World which they know themselves unable to prove or it argues a distrust either of the goodness of their Cause or that it hath not been managed with integrity and candor when they are unwilling to admit both sides the priviledg of being openly heard For tho it may become the Wisdom of men in Power and Government to preserve the Justice of Courts and Reputation of Juries from being openly arraigned when an Indictment after a full Enquiry hath been approved and allow'd by such as are the proper and only judges of it yet such a procedure as the restraining men from defending their own Innocency and vindicating the impartiality of those who acquitted them after a full and Legal hearing can never adjust it self to the sense or reason of mankind Nor doth such a course and method import any thing less than that for having miss'd the satiating their Malice in the Blood of one or two whom they mortally hated they will pursue their Revenge in endeavours to blast the Credit and diminish the value and esteem of all that have been instrumental in preventing and defeating their Intendment NOW this Plot for Deposing the King and altering the Government whereof Protestants were to be Accused and Impeached was not only so contrived as that it might reach most English Peers and Gentlemen who stood in the way of Popery and Arbitrariness but the Protestants in Ireland were to be brought under the charge and accusation of it For the Popish Conspiracy having been carried on with the same vigour against the Lives of Protestants and the established Religion in that Kingdom as it was in this and the Parliament here being so far satisfied and convinced of the reality of it there as well as in England as to declare and testifie the belief of it by the unanimous Votes of both Houses accordingly the Papists in both Kingdoms were equally and by the same Artifices to be relieved from the imputation which lay upon them and to be rescued from the punishments which the Laws Adjudged and Condemned them unto Therefore the Protestants in both Nations were to be accused of having forged the Popish Plot and that having thereby amused His Majesty and the people they have in the mean time been fomenting and promoting a real one of their own This was that which St. Laurence the Priest would See No Protestant Plot First part p 33 34 35. have Hired and Suborned Mr. William Smith to Swear and Depose and whereof the Evidence was so strong against St. Laurence at his Trial that tho' he was acquitted yet he is still believed by all impartial men that heard it to have been really guilty For it is not only reported from thence by persons who deserve to be credited that such especially were returned upon the Jury who were known before-hand to have reflected upon Mr. Smith but it is most certain that whereas the Prisoner was allowed five Councel to plead for him there was none of the King's Councel nor any one man of the Gown besides that appeared in behalf of the Evidence Whether they forbore from an opinion that the Evidence was so plain that it required no Plea to enforce or apply it or whether they did it out of deference to some great men whom they would not offend by being concerned in any thing that may prejudice the honour and integrity of the Papists or whether it was in obedience to the commands of such who would not have an Intrigue detected upon the discovery whereof the Protestants may come to be thought peaceable and loyal again as I cannot certainly tell so I shall not take upon me to conjecture and divine But besides that which was sworn against St. Laurence by Mr. Smith which to any who read it will appear either the copy transcript or counterpart of what they have been doing here we have other evidence of the Papists labouring in Ireland to sham off their own Plot by representing it as a Forgery falsely laid upon them by the Pratestants and their endeavouring to possess the Government with a belief that during the noise and buz which the Protestants had raised concerning a Popish Plot they were themselves embarkt in a Conspiracy against the King and the Monarchy Thus whereas one Captain Morley had appeared before the Committees of Lords and Commons here and swore two Consults which the Papists had in Ireland in reference to the extirpating the Protestant Religion in that Kingdom they have procured no fewer than six or seven Irish Witnesses not only to Depose against the said Morley That he was Suborned by the Earl of Essex the Earl of Shaftsbury Sir Robert Cleyton and others to Swear Treason against the Duke of Ormond the Lord Chancellor Boyle and Sir John Davies but that he himself had said the King was on enemy to all Protestants and deserved to have his Head cut off as his Father had Here we have an Epitome and Abridgment of what the whole Popish Party is laying out their Money improving their Wit and employing the Power and Interest of their Friends for and about But why the Papists should in all their Depositions introduce the Protestants affirming the King to be a Papist and an enemy to those of the same Religion which he not only professeth but which he hath sacredly and solemnly Vow'd for ever to protect and defend I think no wise man is able to tell unless it be that they have a mind to recriminate upon us what they have been proved guilty of themselves It is not yet seasonable to declare by whose means and by what Arts the foresaid Deposition was obtained nor how Handland and Murphey two fellows that came over hither to Swear the Popish Plot were since their return transformed into Witnesses to prove a Protestant Conspiracy but all these things must be foreborn till his Majesty in his Princely Wisdom and from that Justice which he hath hitherto governed his people by and in the discharge of his promise which his Loyal addressing Subjects as well as others do rely upon be pleased to call a Parliament and then both all these and many other things will be more fully disclosed and set in a brighter light In the mean time this must be acknowledged to the Honour of His Majesty and the Justice of the Council-Board that tho the foresaid Deposition was received by some in Ireland with great fondness and transmitted hither not only with all expedition and speed but accompanied with an earnest desire that the Gentleman might be sent thither yet the King and Council would neither do so illegal and arbitrary a thing as to send a person from hence to Ireland without his own consent both born and bred here and who actually possesseth an estate in England Nor could it be done without great Injustice
seeing the words wherein alone the Treason must lye were owned to have been spoken above two year ago And for his being suborned by the Earl of Essex and the Earl of Shaftsbury to Swear Treason against the Duke of Ormond my Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Sir John Davies it is remarkable that he never testified any thing of that nature against them and what he did declare in relation to them or any others he referred himself for the truth of it to the Council-Books of that Kingdom or to such Depositions which had been either taken by the Council there or had been transmitted to them by others And as no man that is Master of sense and hath any knowledg of those two Honourable Persons will ever submit his Faith to receive so incredible a thing as that they should Suborn any man to swear falsly so Mr. Morley whose credit infinitely surpasseth that of the Witnesses who swore against him absolutely denies that they ever did or that he ever spake any such thing concerning them But they that can first invent and then get so absurd and impossible a thing as Transubstantiation received and believed may be pardoned both in forging and in hoping to vvin credit to things ridiculously foolish as well as abominably false Nor could so dull a Fable proceed from any but people of an Irish understanding neither vvill it obtain with any men but such as have renounced Reason as vvell as Honesty But there is yet a third and that a more signal Instance of the Papists endeavouring to involve the Protestants in Ireland under the guilt of a Plot against his Majesty and this displays and unfolds it self in the Accusation sworn against Mr. Hawkins The person charged is known to be an ingenious Gentleman and one vvho hath always acquitted himself as became Honour Discretion and Loyalty only it is his fortune to be a Protestant and was his unhappiness to be made acquainted vvith some of the Popish Designs against the Government which instead of furthering or concealing he communicated to My Lord Lieutenant That vvherewith he was charged doth in all things so quadrate with vvhat we have heard Svvorn against Protestants in England that we may boldly say they vvere all coined in the same Mint For one Mac-Gennis svvears That Mr. Havvkins told him he went for England to establish a Correspondency with my Lord of Shaftsbury and that be received a Commission from the said Earl for a Troop of Horse and one Mackoghlin deposeth That he was to be a Trooper under Mr. Hawkins and that he had three pounds from him towards the buying a Horse The very counterpart and direct parallel of what Booth informed against Capt. Wilkinson and vvhich he and Bains would have suborned the Captain to swear against the Earl of Shaftsbury and were both hammered in the same Forge But as the Devil and the Priests inspire the Papists with falshood and malice so God to over-rule and defeat their Rage and Treachery deprives them of common Wit and Understanding and gives them up to all prodigious folly and madness For as Mackoghlin never spake with Mr. Hawkins but once and that in the presence of another person and then he only endeavoured to have insinuated himself into his Acquaintance which Mr. Hawkins refused to admit him into so it is most certain that Mr. Hawkins never conversed with the Earl of Shaftsbury nor so much as at any time saw him And whereas it was sworn by Mackgennis That he should say he came to London to establish a correspondence with that Nohle Peer and that he received a Commission from him for a Troop of Horse The whole matter deposed is not only false but the condition which my Lord was at that time in being a Prisoner in the Tower shows the impossibility that such an Affair should be transacted between them at that season Neverthelss that Ingenious and Loya Gentleman was committed to the Castle of Dublin upon that Forged and Ridiculous Information and had not the Protestant Plot been so far detected as to be hissed off the stage by several Juries it might not only have cost Mr. Hawkins his Life but laid a foundation for superinstructing a Conspiracy upon wherein most Protestants of quality and zeal in that Kingdom would have been included and first or last charged with the guilt of it For there were no fewer than between Twenty or Thirty mustered up of a sudden to testisie a Protestant Plot persons who as they believe implicitely in matters of Religion they would likewise swear so for the Interest and Advantage of St. Patrick and the Holy Church And besides what they may reasonably be supposed to receive out of the Catholick Treasury for so seasonable and useful a Service as the Swearing innocent Protestants out of their Lives and Estates they had lately the confidence to petition the Council in Ireland that a maintenance might be allowed them from the State And it seems but just and equal that they should be afforded the same encouragement which those listed and employed upon the like Service in England have and that they should have some consideration for the sale of their Souls tho they will be so reasonable as not to keep up that Commodity to the price which it goes at and is valued here And whereas fellows not only of a meer Irish understanding and breed but such as had conversed all their days in Bogs and whose most refined and improved knowledg is how with handsomeness to steal Horses and Cows might be found deficient in art and cunning to manage this Meritorious work of Swearing with some consistency to themselves and one another there are some lately arrived there from hence who having been trained and instructed here by the grand Masters of the Forgery and Affidavit-School may be able to edifie and discipline those raw blades in the necessary Virtues of Perjury and Impudence and acquaint them with the laudable method of rehearsing the Depositions which had been given them to con without administring any symptoms of their speaking by rote But their understandings not being so docile and flexible as their Consciences they make daily some unfortunate and fatal misadventure And their having publickly accosted the greatest persons with rude and insolent Menaces and their having threatned to accuse every one whom according to their knowledg of the measures of the World they do but apprehend to have offended them they have already so enfeebled their Credit with all sorts of men that they are altogether become useless and unserviceable It is far from my intention to bring all the natural Irish under this Character for tho most of them who continue Papists would esteem it not only venial but meritorious to cut a Protestants throat yet there are thousands of them who from some principles of Mankind and Bravery do detest the destroying Protestants in the base and creeping ways of Subornation and Perjury And we desire to be pardoned for this
very well satisfied with it desiring only that he would add to the last clause of the body of the Petition these words viz. That they could not be supplied out of His Majesties Exchequer And that when he had thus perfected the foul draught to their satisfaction and ingrossed it he read it to them again with the same plainness and distinctness as before and that all of them did very well approve of it especially Mr. Turberville who was pleased to give it a particular Character Now whether we ought to believe Mr. Turberville who swears That he never read that Petition nor knew what was in it but that it was drawn by the order of Mr. Colledg or believe Mr Bellamy who affirms and is ready to depose upon Oath That Turberville and the rest gave Instructions for the drawing of it ordered the foul draught to be corrected by the addition of several important words had it read to them distinctly and audibly and gave their approbation of it I shall refer it to the judgment of all sober discreet and unbiassed men Nor is it unworthy of our observation that when the same Petition was objected against him at Oxford towards the invalidating his Testimony against Mr. Colledg he was provided with no such answer as this which he retreated to at the Old-Baily which forced My Lord Chief-Justice North to endeavour to relieve him by saying There was nothing in that Petition See Colledges Trial p. 47 48. that is a Contradiction to what he then Swore But I humbly conceive all men will not be of this Reverend Judges mind especially when they consider that Turbervile and the rest whose hands are to that Petition do not only therein declare how restless the Papists were in tampering with the Witnesses to corrupt them to stifle and discredit the belief of the Popish Plot but that they were labouring to obtain them to impute the same unto and devolve it upon Protestants And for the shift which Turberville hath since betaken himself unto it is nothing but an evasion either lately invented by himself or suggested unto him by those that Suborned him And yet the Silliness of it is as conspicuous as the Falshood For as it is incredible that any man should set his hand to a Paper which he had neither read nor knew what was in it so no man that should draw such a Petition provided he were wise would admit it seing it might give those very persons at whose desire he had done it an advantage of turning upon him to his prejudice The whole ground and foundation upon which Turbervile came to Swear a Protestant Plot are laid open See Colledge's Trial p. 48. and detected to us by Dr. Oats For the Doctor hath Deposed in Court that Turbervile justified his Swearing Treason against Mr. Colledg tho' he had said before that he would not give any Evidence against him Because the Citizens had deserted him and God damn him he would not starve Alas We poor Protestants thought our selves safe in our Innocency but behold a company of indigent and mercinary Rascals have resolved to Swear us into Guilt that they might obtain Bread Upon the whole it doth appear that the Testimony of Turberville ought to be esteemed of no validity And that the Jury could not in the case of my Lord of Shaftsbury do otherwise than they did notwithstanding the Testimony of this Fellow without becoming themselves unrighteous and unjust The next person that mounted as an Affidavit-man against the Earl of Shaftsbury was Mr. John Smith a person every way adapted to compensate the deficiency of truth in what he says with impudence in the manner of declaring it And because some who do not throughly know the man seek more especially to countenance the belief of a Protestant Plot from his Testimony we shall be the more careful to unmask him and give the world a representation of him in his just features complexion and colours What truely his Christian Name is or whether he have any or no I cannot certainly tell but I have made a shift of late to learn both his Sirname and his Country namely that the one is Ireland and the other Barry And seeing that See procedings against the Earl of Shaftsbury p. 69. he was not brought to acknowledg the name of Barry but after some tergiversation I do affirm that that is the only name he ought to go by if it were not the temper humour and interest of the man to walk always in a disguise And forasmuch as he hath been ambitious to seek a Reputation by pretending himself an English-man I do proclaim to all the world that he was born in Connaught in the Kingdom of Ireland 'T is so habitual for some to lie that no ties nor obligations can make them speak truth However he hath not so much dishonoured England by pretending himself a Native here as he hath our Lord Jesus Christ by giving himself out for a Christian For whereas England owns many Villains and flagitious persons for Natural Subjects and free Denisons Christ will acknowledg none for Christians that only make mention of his Name when they blaspheme it But if the world will account him for a Christian that swears as often as he speaks I say that in all probability notwithstanding whatsoever he pretends to the contrary he is truly and really a Papist For Mr. Sampson hath deposed upon Oath That John Smith Stephen Dugdale and Edward Turberville having sent for him to the One Tun Tavern in Hungerford Market on the 23d of September last Smith begun the Duke of York ' s Health swearing God damn him that he therefore both loved him and drunk his Health because he was a Papist I am so far from being angry at his drinking the Duke of York's Health that out of sincere love to His Majesty as well as the Protestant Religion I wish no man may ever have occasion to drink it under a higher Title All that I would observe is upon what motive and inducement Barry's love to his Royal Highness is grounded and built To this I shall only subjoin one proof more of what Religion whatsoever he pretends we ought to esteem him to be namely that he said at Newark He would sooner hang Ten Protestants than One Papist And his Reason was as considerable as his Assertion viz. because the Popish principles led them to Treason which the Protestant principles did not It would seem the fellow begun to apprehend that the Court would grow weary of his confidence and importunity and therefore he begins to commend principles which may justifie his being another Jaques Clement or a new Ravilliack And if he answer the Character I have received of him there is not a person alive who is more likely to supply the place and undertake the Province of the Four Ruffians who were disappointed and prevented in their design against his Majesty Anno 1678. than this lean long chapp'd Cassius
other great and worthy Protestants is nothing but a late Forgery of their own and that they take upon them to detect vvhat never really vvas upon the Subornation of others and for the accomplishing some base mercinary and villanous ends Nor can there be a clearer proof of the Folly of these Fellovvs and the Falshood of vvhat they svvear than that some of them represent themselves to have discoursed all the while with the greatest Loyalty when in the mean time they introduce My Lord speaking See Proceedings at the Old-Baily p. 24 25. Treason at every word We must suppose that man distracted who should continue speaking Treason for half an hour together when in the Interim all the Answers and Replies of the person with whom he is discoursing do manifest a firm and steddy Allegiance to the King Smith's pretending to have spoken with so much Caution and Circumspection while as he swears The Earl of Shaftsbury talk'd nothing but Treason betrays not only the folly of the wretch but plainly shews that whatsoever he swore against that Noble Peer was false and either forged by himself or dictated unto him by such as had hired and suborned him Yea all that they deposed appears plainly to be False and Romance in that the persons whom they pretend to have been present when the Earl of Shaftsbury spake such Traiterous vvords against His Majesty and the Government do positively aver that there vvas not so much as one syllable of all that said vvhich these Miscreants have svvorn For whereas Dennis affirms that Major Manley was in the Room when my Lord told the said Dennis That they did really intend to have England under a Common-wealth Proceedings at the Old Baily p. 31 32. and that his Lordship desired Dennis to advise those of his Name and such as were his Friends in Ireland to be in a readiness to assist the Common-wealth of England Major Manley indeed acknowledgeth his being present at that time when Dennis was with the Earl of Shaftsbury but withal he is ready to swear That my Lord spake not one word to him except the asking him with some seeming passion and heat what his business was And forasmuch as Booth deposeth upon Oath That Captain Wilkinson was several times by when my Lord Shaftsbury discoursed to the purpose that that Miscreant swore and particularly that the business about the Fifty men who were to be my Lord Shaftsbury ' s Guard was transacted before the Captain this Honest and Loyal Gentleman peremptorily affirms That he vvas never at the Earl of Shaftsbury's vvith Booth but once and that in the hearing and presence of Sir Peter Colliton and that the vvhole discourse vvas about their going to Carolina The falsehood of the vvhole matter vvhich the Witnesses have deposed against the Earl of Shaftsbury is evidently detected and discovered by this that vvhereas one of the Witnesses pretends to have communicated the Treasonable design vvhich my Lord had acquainted him vvith that very night vvhich he heard it to a Club or Society of Gentlemen at the Queens Arms in Newgate street all these Worthy and truly Loyal Gentlemen do positively and unanimously affirm that there vvas no such thing either mentioned at that time or at any other season discovered unto them For vvhereas Smith svvears That my Lord Shaftsbury having told him the King did walk in the same steps which his Father did and would never be quiet till he came to his Fathers end and that thereupon he the See Proceedings at the Old Baily p. 25. said Smith came immediately and acquainted these Gentlemen with it who were met at the Queens Arms they do all solemnly profess there was no such thing and that Smith is a forsworn and perjur'd Rascal in saying so However here was a Train laid for the Lives of all those Worthy and Loyal persons could the vvretch have obtained Credit with the Jury as to what he Deposed against My Lord. And whereas Smith furt her says the Earl of Shaftsbury told him that Evening which Major Manley brought him from the Club at the Queens-Arms to Thanet-house The King pamper'd Fitz-Gerald to stifle Ibid. the Plot in Ireland and that he was as well satisfied with the coming in of Popery as the Duke of York and that the Parliament was satisfied he was as much for it as his Brother for so the Wretch swore in Court tho' the last words be left out in the Print all this I say is feigned and invented seeing Major Manley who was present and by all that time albeit Smith concealed that upon the giving his Evidence is ready to Depose upon Oath that there was not one Syllable spoken by my Lord to the purpose which this Miscreant swears Let us add to this Hayns's Deposing That he had Ibid. a long discourse with the Earl of Shaftsbury at a Cooks in Ironmonger-lane in a little Room next the Kitchin where by the way that last expression is left out in the Print and we shall find this whole Forgery still more obvious and palpable For as My Lord was never there except when he dined with divers Noble and Worthy Persons So besides the improbability of his leaving the company and society of men of the best Quality in England to come and talk with such a Fellow as Hayns and besides the absurdness that is in supposing the Earl of Shaftsbury to have staid an hour in a little Room by a Cook 's Kitchin not only the Servants of the house do positively affirm the contrary of all that this Rascal swears but divers Noble Persons are ready to testifie that the Earl of Shaftsbury never came down stairs out of the great Room till he was going away and that he took Coach immediately without withdrawing into any Room below But that which is extravagant beyond all imagination and which proclaims to every wise man the falshood of all they have sworn is Hayns's deposing That the Earl of Shaftsbury should not only say There are Families in England which have as much pretence to the Crown as the King but that the Duke of Buckingham Ibid. p. 27. hath in Right of his Mother as good a Title to the Crown as ever any Steward had Is it not enough to introduce the Earl of Shaftsbury talking Treasonably but he must be likewise exposed as talking ridiculously Surely the Superintenders and Managers of this Plot in the guilt whereof they would involve Protestants must either be of very weak Understandings themselves or they must apprehend the generality of Mankind to be so otherwise they could never hope to impose upon the world by such nonsensical stuff as this is For besides that no man knows of any Title whereby the Duke of Buckingham can pretend to the Crown the Right of claiming by his Mother as sprung from the Plantagenets being altogether groundless so there is not so sublime a Friendship between my Lord Shaftsbury and the Duke of Buckingham as
disgusts to see a Body of men ruined and impoverished in whose hands three parts of four through the whole Kingdom have less or more of their Interests involved And whereas none save the Informers are either desirous or likely to gain by these violent courses the King being too generous as well as good to sell his Treasury with the spoil of the oppressed would it not become our Publick Ministers to consider whether it be a congruous and wise thing to glut and satisfie the Avarice of an idle and unprofitable sort of people not only at the cost and expence of many honest and industrious Families that will be ruined but at the vast diminution of the Trade of the Nation and proportionably the lessening the King's Profit and Revenue Nor are such as do fully conform to the Worship Discipline and Ceremonies of the Church offended as well as surprized at the seeing Distresses levied upon their harmless Neighbours only for their Consciences towards God but they are wonderfully alarm'd at the manner in which they are daily disseized of their estates being without the Enquiry and Verdict of a Jury Such was the care of our Ancestors for the security of our Estates as well as our Lives that by that which is consign'd to us as the Common Law of the Land we have this fence and bulwark to guard our Property That we ought not to be dispossest either of the whole or any part but upon a hearing and trial by a Jury I know that by the Acts for preventing and suppressing Seditious Conventicles such and such Officers as are therein named have a power given them to levy the respective Fines that are imposed upon Offenders without the Enquiry or Verdict of a Jury but I also know that an Act of Parliament hath not heretofore been sufficient to justifie and protect those who have invaded the Properties of men and disseized them of their Estates without a previous and Legal Trial. Tho' Empson and Dudley thought themselves secured by the Authority of a Statute made in the 11 Hen. 7. in what they did of this kind yet that Act was not only repealed in the 1 Hen. 8. for being contrary to the just Rights of the Subject and the Common Law of England but they who ventured to act upon it to the oppression of the people were Condemned and Hanged for so doing And as the counsel and advice for the execution of the Penal Laws upon Dissenters at a season when both our Lives and Religion are in eminent danger and hazard by reason of the Plots and Conspiracies of the Papists can proceed from no other persons but such as favour Popery and would promote the bloody Designs of the Church of Rome so who knows but that the Phanaticks being a surly people may by way of reprisal Indict many of his Majesties Conformable Subjects upon other Penal Statutes to which either upon one score or another most of them will be found liable And as it would savour of too great Partiality in the Government to grant a Noli prosequi for the Relief and Protection of such should they come to be prosecuted when at the same time it is found countenancing and encouraging the prosecution of Dissenters upon Laws which are not in themselves better more just or usefuller to the preservation of the publick Peace and the maintenance of good Manners so it would be little for the reputation and credit of such as superintend and guide affairs to see the whole Kingdom turned into a Cock-pit and one Subject scratch pluck and harass another Nay were the Phanaticks inclined to retaliate upon others what is daily measured out unto themselves they want not considerable advantages from Statutes of lessening if not wholly destroying some considerable branches of His Majesties Revenue For besides the damage and prejudice it would give the King in the matter of the Excise should Alehouse keepers be Indicted upon the Statute of the 21 of James cap. 7. where it is Ordained That whosoever sells a Pot or Quart of Ale for above a Penny shall for every such offence forfeit twenty Shillings and which the Act of the 22 and 23 of this King can no ways relieve them from seing the Clause by which they were indempnified from that Penalty is wholly expired I say besides this the Act concerning the Excise is not so discretely and carefully penned but that occasion may be taken by a discontented people to dispute and debate the validity of it in some particulars which if carried would altogether overthrow it Nor is it improbable but that the Severity which the Dissenters suffer and undergo upon the Statutes against Conventicles may so awaken and provoke them to enquire into the Nature Form and Quality of those Laws that upon a Legal and fair hearing they may be found to have no concernment in them or the Penalties of them For as they seem not to come within the reason of those Acts because they were made as the Title and Preface to them do declare only to prevent and suppress Seditious Conventicles which the Dissenters by assembling for the Worship of God according to the revelation of his Word are no ways chargeable withal so it doth not plainly appear that the body of these Acts which subject those only to Penalties Who worship God in other manner than according to the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England doth any ways extend unto them The Disciples of Christ and all Christians may be as truly and rationally accused of disobedience to their Teacher and Saviour whensoever they are found praying in any other words than those contained in the Lord's Prayer seing Jesus Christ hath bid us Pray after that manner as the Dissenters can be justly Informed against or Indicted For worshipping God in other manner than according to the Liturgy merely because they read not the Prayers of the Church And to all that hath been said I hope this may be modestly added That should the Phanaticks by the execution of the Penal Laws be driven to extremities and left destitute of all other means of relieving themselves they may possibly become so far exasperated and incensed as to question and bring into debate the validity of the principal Laws upon which they suffer For tho' I do not take upon me nor presume to say any thing against the Force and Legality of them yet no man can undertake what a rich and courageous people may do that is hamper'd by and insested upon them And should the Parliament that met the 8th of May in the 13th of this King be found to have exceeded the time which the the Act of the Sixteenth Car. cap. 1. For preventing of Inconveniences happening by the long Intermission of Parliaments had appointed and limited for their continuing to sit before they once thought of Abrogating and Repealing that Statute which they did not till the Session that begun the 16th of March in the 16th of Car. 2. then the
severe Censure which we have fastned upon the Rascality of the Irish Nation seeing besides the impressions we retain of them by the remembrance of the Irish Massacre and the fresher intelligence we have received of their regardlesness of Truth and Justice from the manage of themselves before the Court of Claims we have been lately enabled to form an opinion of the Herd and Hive of that people by the observations we have made of those few that have flown over hither and especially by the little Colony which Justice Warcup is Governour and Overseer of However as I rejoyce at the present stemming that Deluge of Sin and Misery which was there so nearly threatning innocent and loyal Protestants had not some baffle befallen those suborned Affidavit folk and did not a notorious infamy attend their testimony so I beseech Almighty God to prevent the consequences and effects which the countenancing such a course should it again revive and prosper would in all probability be followed and attended with For as the English Protestants in that Kingdom do throughly know the humour principles and inclinations of the Popish Irish and how absolutely they are under the conduct and at the disposal of their Priests so by being less numerous than the Papists they are both more apprehensive of and watchful against ruine and danger and cannot but construe this method of destroying them as much more pernicious than a new War or Rebellion in that Barbarous and Bloody people would be But tho the late Sham pretended Protestant Plot was so laid and contrived by the Papists as to comprehend under the infamy and guilt of it the chiefest persons in Ireland who profess the Protestant Religion or have any regard for the Liberties and Rights of Mankind yet the primary and main end of this horrid Papal design was to ruin and destroy the Principal Patriots of the Reformation and civil Liberties in England For upon the Fate of the Protestants here depends the safety or extirpation of all in these Kingdoms who profess separation from the Communion of the Church of Rome For the Protestants are not only most numerous here and best able to defend themselves in case a Massacre should be attempted upon them by the Papists but it was a Parliament in England that Voted and Published the reality of a present Popish Conspiracy that did proclaim to all the world the dangers which his Majesty and Loyal Subjects are in from men of Papal Principles that caused some of the principal Conspirators to be arraigned and condemned and which hath been endeavouring to hinder a Popish Successor from coming hereafter to ascend the Throne And therefore tho' few elsewhere that are either of any note for zeal to their Religion or worth saving for their ardour and courage for civil Right were to escape being entangled in the dangers and loaded with the reproach which they hop'd to bring upon all the Protestants of these Dominions by a forged pretence and charge of our being embark'd in a Conspiracy to depose the King and alter the Government yet it was mainly the Peers Gentlemen and others in England who are resolved not only to live and die in the Protestant Faith themselves but to do all they can to transmit it as an inheritance to their posterity that this Sham was calculated to retch and overthrow And albeit there have been but few hitherto named and accused yet could the Witnesses have been but once believed they would have soon sworn all into the same guilt whom either out of malice or for the facilitating the Introduction of Popery and arbitrary power they had a mind to get destroyed For whatsoever hath been either published in allowed Writings or affirmed in Courts of Judiâ—ature concerning the narrowness of this pretended Conspiracy and that they know of no Protestant Plot but that only a few discontented or desperate persons had been designing Treason against His Majesty yet the matter is in reality quite otherwise and this is only alledged to lessen the horror of people at first and to prevent the effects of their indignation should they understand the unlimitedness of Papal Rage Nor have the Contrivers and Managers of this Sham been Masters of so much Wit as to conceal the boundlesness of their Wrath and how extensive they purposed to render this Protestant Plot. For by making Oxford the Scene where the King was to be apprehended and that at a time when he was surrounded with all his Guards they do plainly tell all the world that had they obtained the Evidence to be credited and allowed in relation to any one person of quality they would have soon brought the Lives and Fortunes of thousands to lye at their discretion and mercy Admit but once that His Majesty was to be seised when encompassed with so great and well disciplined a force and it will necessarily follow that there must have been a very great number of Protestants engaged for the accomplishing of it Nay the very Depositions of the Witnesses themselves as they are communicated to the world in Print in the Tryal of Mr Stephen Colledg and in the Proceedings upon the Bill against the Earl of Shaftsbury do sufficiently proclaim that there were not only many Protestants of an inferior Rank but many of the principal Peers and Gentlemen in England that were designed to be brought within the circle and compass of this Protestant Plot. Nor is it likely that having designed to bring so many under the guilt of the Sham Meal-Tub Conspiracy they would now abate in the number which they purposed to destroy For besides the advantages which they enjoy through having Counsellers more to their gust they have either wheedl'd or brib'd many of our high-flown Church-men if not with a satisfaction to glory yet with an abject silence to connive at our ruin But the bounds which the Papists intended to set to their own malice in forging shamming upon the world that the Protestants had combined to depose the King may be best and most easily collected from the Testimonies of the Witnesses in the fore-mentioned Treatises Accordingly we are told by Dugdale That Colledg not only advised him to go with Horse and Arms to Oxford because he expected there would be See the Tryal of Stephen Colledg p. 19. something done there but he further says That he heard several Parliament-men talking before that Session of a disturbance that was likely to happen at Oxford and that it would be therefore best to leave some Parliament-men at home in every County who might manage the people And Smith not only affirms that Colledg told him how the Parliament was agreed to seize the King and that in order thereunto all the Parliament-men were Ibid. p. 28. to come to Oxford well armed and accompanied with Arms and Men but that the Earl of Shaftsbury should declare unto him how the Parliament-men who came out of the See the Proceedings upon the Bill against the Earl of
disappointed them in all their Idolatrous and Arbitrary Designs and consequently deserved more to feel the first and early effects of their wrath than that wise and great Peer so they prudently foresaw that should they adjourn their Revenge against him till they had made an experience of the credit of their Witnesses upon some other considerable persons he would by his Abilities and Industry not only have easily detected and exposed the whole Intrigue but have broken the Machine by which they had projected both to overturn Religion and Property and extirpate Protestants in these Nations Accordingly they thought it their best course to assault him by way of surprize and to hurry him to Prison upon an Accusation of a Conspiracy which people would be astonished at the noise of but had not enjoy'd time to inspect and unravel And we may rationally conceive the Papists believed that the Convicting My Lord Shaftsbury upon a charge of Levying War and Conspiring to seize the Person of the King would be a kind of Moral Proof against every other person whom they should think fit to have afterwards accused of the same Crime For how easily would they have perswaded the world that a person of his great Sagacity and exact Conduct would never embark in so vast an attempt without a proportionate number of persons engaged with him who for their Power Quality and Interest might be supposed capable to effect and carry it And they would have pleaded that such whom his artificial Glosses and plausible Reasonings had not inveigled into Treason the esteem which he universally hath among all sorts of men that are not weary of their Religion and Liberties had sway'd and biassed them to an implicite concurrence in a Design which they took not time to consider and had not Abilities to comprehend neither the dangers nor consequences and issue of And how would every man have been exposed and ridicul'd that should offer to bring the reputation of the Witnesses into suspicion after they had been allowed for good and credible Evidence against a Peer of the Earl of Shaftsbury's bulk and figure Besides the Papists thought that the destroying this one Nobleman would have either frighted others to a compliance with them in their Designs or at least discouraged them from offering to withstand or control the Councels and Projections which they are upon of enslaving these Nations and extirpating our Religion These were the Motives and Inducements upon which they singled out this great person to have him the first man of Quality that should be Indicted of this pretended Protestant Conspiracy For having through the influence which they have over our Ministers and the power which some of that party have upon His Majesty proceeded so far as to prevail with the King to turn him out of his Councels and from the administration of his Affairs for no other reason that the world can take notice of but because he would not concur with them in their Designs against the Protestant Religion and the Establish'd Laws they hop'd that by attacquing him at last upon an Accusation of Treason he might fall a Sacrifice to their Malice and Revenge And as his loss of the Chancellorship with all the aspersions and obloquy that for divers years fell upon him are to be ascribed to his Zeal and Activity in promoting the Bill for disabling Papists from holding any Publick Employment which past in the Session of Parliament that begun Feb. 4. 1672. so all the Perseutions he hath lain under of late and all the dangers which his Life hath been exposed unto either by secret Assassinations or Legal Forms are to be entirely attributed to his inspection into the Popish Plot and the endeavours which he hath laid himself out in for preventing the Subversion of our Religion and Laws and the ruin of these Nations by the Romish Conspirators and his studying to defeat the hopes they have of compassing all at last by means of a Popish Successor Nor can there be a more indubitable and convincing Argument that this whole Protestant Plot under the pretended guilt whereof this incomparable person and great Peer was to have been destroyed came out of a Popish Forge and was formed and invented by the Romish Priests than that those of the Papal Religin abroad and especially the Ecclesiasticks had both the knowledg of it and discoursed it to others before the most inquisitive Protestants in England could arrive at any intelligence concerning it In confirmation of the truth whereof and for the ampler satisfaction of all mankind that the Papists were the Authors and Contrivers of this Conspiracy which they labour to sham upon Protestants I shall subjoin the two following Depositions which were made upon Oath before a Magistrate of London Edward Dover of Stepney in the County of Middlesex Mariner aged thirty years or thereabouts freely and upon his own motion maketh Oath That he the said Deponent being in the Port of Bruges in Flanders with his Ship and in the managing of his business there being in a publick house on or about the eighteenth of June last New Stile he met with one James Morgan which said Morgan is a reputed Popish Priest And being his Countryman and having had formerly knowledg one of another they entred into the more free discourse and among other this Deponent asked the said Morgan What News from England Is there an end of the Popish Plot yet To which the said Morgan answered What Plot There is no Plot but a Presbyterian Plot and that now the Lord Howard one of the greatest of them is clapt up for it and by that time you get home Shaftsbury will be also secured And further the said Morgan added that he hop'd ere long to Preach in a publick Pulpit in London or words to that effect Jurat Aug. 23. 1681. John Coleuart of the Parish of St. Katherines in the County of Middlesex Mariner aged fifty years or thereabout freely and of his own motion maketh Oath that being in Bruges in Flanders with his Ship in following his business there was in a publick house on or about the eighteenth of June last New Style where he met amongst others with a Popish Priest as he is reputed called James Morgan and discoursing with him of the several affairs of England and of the Popish Plot he the said Dâ—poâ—ent heard the said Morgan among other things say 〈…〉 but a Presbyterian Plot and that the Lord Howard was already secured for it and that it would not belong before the Earl of Shaftsbury would be also secured or words to that effect Jurat Aug. 3. 1681. And as the Papists were the Authors and Framers of this Sham Plot so they have chosen Tools every way adapted for the worst of Villanies to mâ—â—ge and conduct it For Justice Warcup the principal Broker for Witnesses and one of the chief Directors of this grand affâ—â—r is known both at the Council Board in the High-Court of Chancery to be a
have here offered from his own acknowledgments concerning his being suborned is enough should he be weighed as abstracted from any dependance upon his Brother John to render him and make him appear to be no less in this whole matter than a perjured and infamous Rascal And we pity our Adversaries as driven to very low shifts in that they had no other to produce to prove the chiefest men of England guilty of Treason but such foolish wretches as could neither conceal their own Mercinariness and Perjuries nor the Villanies of those who had suborn'd and corrupted them The next person whom the Managers of the Bill against the Earl of Shaftsbury thought fit to venture the Truth and Proof of the Charge against him upon is Edward Ivey one that is infamous to a very Proverb and who disgraceth the Name of a Gentleman by pretending to the Title and Appellation That he hath been Convicted and Condemned for Robbery appears from the Certificate which I shall here subjoin Somerset ss Ad Assisas General Goal Delibar Dom. Regis de prisonet in ea existent tent apud Civit Wellen. in pro eadem Com. Die Sabbat scil Nono die Augusti Anno Regni Dom. nost Caroli Secund. Dei Grat. Angl. Scot. Franc. Hibern Regis Fidei Defensor Decimo quarto coram Roberto Foster Mil. Capital Justic Dict. Dom. Regis ad placita coram ipso Regetenend assign Johan Archer Servie ad Legem Justic c. Whereas at this present Assizes one Edward Ivey was Indicted for robbing himself and his Sister Joan Plympton This is therefore to certifie that the said Edward Ivey was Convicted for the same Fact and had Sentence of Death passed upon him but afterwards had His Majesties Pardon Vera Copia ex per Fra. Stevens He that could be guilty in Robbing his own Sister will decline nothing that is Criminal if the committing it be but subservient to his Ambition or Covetousness For having violated the Obligations of Nature he can be under no confinement from subordinate Laws It were endless to recount the Enormities of his Life whereof almost every Action hath been a Scandal I shall therefore only detect those Villanies which he hath perpetrated to the rendring him infamous as well as the proclaiming him prodigiously wicked He was no sooner pardoned for one Felony but he committed another For having listed himself for a Trooper and gone to Portsmouth he there married a second Wife tho' his first was still living And finding it was discovered and that there was a Prosecution commencing against him he thereupon fled to Ireland being never heard of again in his own Country till he appeared as one of the King's Evidence concerning a Popish Plot. For His Majesty having promised in his Royal Proclamations that whosoever came in by such a time to detect the Conspiracy of the Papists against His Person and the Government should thereupon be pardoned this cunning Rascal thought with himself he might safely venture hither as reckoning that his Felonies would be included in his Pardon as well as his Treasons To this I might add his having lived some time this last Summer with a Woman whom he swore God damn him he was Married unto which Woman proved in the end to be another mans Wife and was accordingly taken out of Bed from him by her Husband on the second of October at Night But whereas He said upon Oath at Mr. Rouse's Trial that he came not over to England to discover the Popish Plot it is not only known to all who understand any thing of the late Transactions that this was his pretence and that accordingly he made a large Discovery but withal Mr. Samson also swears There was twenty Pound allowed the said Ivey by my Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to defray his passage hither in order to his revealing the Popish Plot. Who can blame a fellow of his Principles that hath a latitude to swear and forswear as he finds it for his interest if he disclaim the having come hither upon an errand which he is so little thank'd for and which is not likely to conduce so much to his profit as he imagined it would The forming a Protestant Plot and suborning others as well as coming in himself to swear Treason against the Earl of Shaftsbury and other Patriots of our Religion and Civil Liberties is a design that will turn to better account and give him an esteem with some men beyond what ever the former dull Trade would have done And therefore it is a fiâ—ter end for one of his genius and stamp to bear himself upon as the grand motive of his Journey hither But whereas he Swore likewise the time when the Bill was preferred against Rous that the Earl of Shaftsbury did usually dictate to him the Information he drew up and Deposed concerning the Popish Plot There are divers persons and amongst others Mr. Sampson who do testifie they saw those Informations in his hand before ever he knew the Earl of Shaftsbury And seeing he further declared at the same time that some Informations which he had given in here against the Papists were wholy false and that he made Oath of them only because Mr. Rouse would not otherwise give any Money ought not all Mankind therefore to esteem him as a Villain and as one that is perjur'd upon Record Nor could any thing more amaze the thinking part of Mankind than that when this miscreant had declared himself perjured in open Court he should yet be produced again the next Sessions and that against no less considerable person than the right Honourable the Earl of Shaftsbury is But whether we are to ascribe it to excess of rage in some men against that Noble Peer or whether we are to attribute it to a Divine infatuation upon the Managers of the Bill of Indictment I cannot tell but I dare boldly say That both the Jury and hundreds in the Court besides were able to guess at the maliciousness of that Prosecution and to conclude within themselves That whatsoever was alleadged to render that excellent Patriot guilty of Treason was all forgery and groundless invention But that we may yet further expose this fellow Ivey and that at the same time unveil this whole Combination wherein some ill men have been engaged in order to the Subversion of our Liberties and Religion or against the lives of the greatest and most innocent protestants I shall in the next place observe that he both spake of such a Design while it was in agitation and forming and embark'd in it upon promises of Reward himself but endeavoured to corrupt and suborn others to joyn in the same Villany Accordingly Captain Yarrington informs That being one morning in bed at Mr. Stephen Colledges he there heard Mr. Ivey acquaint Mr. Colledg with a Desing that was then on foot for framing of a Plot against Protestants and that they were to be accused of a Conspiracy against the Monarchy and for deposing the
King And Mr. John Jenks deposeth That Mr. Ivey confessed to him how he had great offers made him provided he would swear against Protestants And Mr. Ashlock says that Ivy one day told him He had been with the said Lord and that my Lord Hyde had order'd him to send at any time to him and he should have money And the said Ashlock further adds That he saw a Letter directed to my Lord Hyde from Ivey which Ivey said was for money Now that Ivey was necessitous and the more likely to be suborned for money to swear any thing that was false appears not only by the Petition presented to my Lord Major the Court of Aldermen and the Common Council which he among others subscribed but more especially from his own Testimony in Court at the time when Mr. Rowse was indicted seeing he then owned That he had falsly sworn such things meerly because he could not otherwise get mony And that this Protestant Plot was hatched by this hired suborned Rascal and others who in order to promote the Interest and designs of the Papists had combined to asperse Loyal Persons with the imputation of Treason and to make the chief Protectors under his Majesty of our Religion and Liberties perish in the form and course of Justice does appears by what Mr. Sampson hath deposed upon Oath namely That John Macknamarra told him how he and Ivey having been with the Earl of Shaftsbury his Lordship had refused to discourse with them alone saying He never discoursed with any but in the presence of his Servants and that I being thereupon very greatly disgusted contrived by way of Revenge to swear High Treason against him Not but that the Design of accusing my Lord Shaftsbury of Treason was laid by others but Ivey being suborned to be a Witness against him he therefore sought an opportunity of speaking with his Lordship alone the better to obtain what he should afterwards say against him to be believed However having upon some instigation or other entertain'd a Resolution of swearing Treason against this Loyal and Noble Lord his next business was to procure others to fortifie his Testimony and second him in whatsoever he should say Accordingly he applies to Haynes assuring him in the names of several Lords That he should not only have his pardon but five hundred pounds provided as Mrs. Wingfield Haynes's Mother-in-Law told Mrs. Hall and Mary Richards he would fasten a Plot upon Protestants and swear against several Lords Nay Mr. Zell one of Justice Warcups present Darlings and whose Testimony he ought not to decline against Ivey having so lately made use of it in the Court of Verge to vindicate himself I say this Zell hath deposed upon Oath That Ivey would have perswaded him to swear High Treason against the Earl of Shaftsbury and by way of Argument to influence him to a compliance told him That the E. of H. my L. H. my L. C. and Mr. S. were a Commitee to give assurances of Pardons and to allow Gratuites to all that would swear against that Lord and that there is a Presbyterian Plot. And tho' I am not willing to believe those great Ministers guilty of this which Zell says Ivey reported of them yet it is something strange that knowing it from Prints as well as otherwise they have not endeavoured to get that Rogue punished for defaming of them And I do verily think it would be as much for the Honour of the Government and for the Reputation of these States-men to have this fellow and the rest who have used the like Language concerning them either prosecuted by way of Action or Information as it will prove in the issue that the Attorney General is prosecuting one Baldwin for having published a Book called No Protestant Plot wherein so far as very good and wise men can see there is not any thing criminal unless it be a Crime to detect the Designs of the Papists against Protestants and to vindicate the innocency of those who as it hath appeared by the verdicts of Juries were falsly and unrighteously accused But to return I suppose from what hath been here declared and laid open concerning Ivey there will not many be found who are credible persons themselves that will look upon him hereafter as a credible Witness in reference to a Protestant Plot. Nor is the bringing the Lives of Innocents into hazard upon the Testimony of a wretch branded with so many capital Offences and who besides hath been so evidently tamper'd with to be any other way expiated or attoned for but by bringing both him and his Abettors to condign punishment The last Witness made use towards the proving the Bill against the Earl of Shaftsbury was Bernard Dennis a fellow as lewd in his Morals as any of the rest and drawn and procured to be an Evidence against Protestants by the same means and arts that they were Nor is he only an Irish man but of one of the most sottish bigotted bloody Clans's of all that Kingdom See proceedings upon the Bill against the Earl of Shaft p. 48. And upon the best enquiry I can make there is not one Irish man of his Name in that whole Nation who is known to be a Protestant I should not have mentioned this if the fellow upon being ask'd whether all his Kindred were not Papists had not answered he could not say so And yet were he put to it he will not be able to name one Person neither in the County where he was born where Ibid. p. 32. he says there are so many of them nor in the whole Country besides that is not a Papist if withal they be not of the most violent and bloodily disposed sort And whereas he once told Mr. Wilmore they two being discoursing together about the principles of the Papists that the Papists valued no more the life of a Heretick than they did that of a Dog it is most probable that he therein spake the Sense of his Kindred and published what they had of old infused into him I will not enquire what Religion he is of at present seeing no form nor kind of Religion can give him a Reputation but he reflects dishonour upon whatsoever Religion he doth profess Only I wish that the Papists have not Sham'd him upon the Church of England that he may the better and under the fairer name Sham a Plot upon Protestants And who knows but finding a respect paid to his Testimony at the Tryal of my Lord Stafford because he there professed himself a Papist he might thereupon hope it would advantage him in being believed against a Protestant by listing himself in the Communion of the Protestant Church The forgery of this Plot would have been too obvious should Romish Priests have come forth as the principal Witnesses to prove the best Protestants in England concerned in a Conspiracy against His Majesty and the Government but the producing none for Evidence but Members of our own Church
that for advancing the Duke to the Throne my Lord should not only venture his own life fortune but disoblige the best Friends he hath in the Nation and entangle his native Country in Civil War This misadventure in the Testimony of one of the most considerable Witnesses betrays not only their Folly but that the whole Plot whereof the Earl of Shaftsbury hath been accused is a malicious Forgery in order to take away the Life of that innocent Peer Nor can any who are not willing to sacrifice the Protestant Religion the Liberties of their Country and the Lives of Guiltless Persons to the Hatred and Rage of the Papists give any Credit to Fellows who Swear at so Wilde and Nonsensical a rate Had the Mercinary vvretches designed to publish themselves for Liars and Impostors to all the vvorld they could not have taken a more effectual vvay to do it than by affirming that the Earl of Shaftsbury should be desirous to enter into a Combination and Conspiracy vvith Irish Papists in order to prevent a Popish Successor and for preserving the Protestant Religion For at the same time that Dennis chargeth this Noble Person vvith saying That he would extirpate the King and all his Family he swears That he desired him to write to his Ubi supra p. 32. Irish Popish Friends to be ready to assist And tho' I do not much vvonder to find a Caitiff of the size of Dennis's Wit and Understanding swear a business vvhich disproveth it self before all Wise and Rational persons yet I cannot forbear marvelling that they vvho vievv'd the Depositions and vvere to gloss and enforce the Evidence vvould suffer such a Deposition to appear upon the publick Stage vvhich vvould not only make the Forgery notorious but infallibly expose themselves as well as the perjur'd Rogues to the laughter scorn and detestation of mankind Nor is it unworthy of remark that in the expressions which they swear my Lord Shaftsbury used they make him not only forget the Loyalty of a Subject but the Civility and Breeding of a Gentleman For the Terms wherein they represent him speaking of the King are besides their being Treasonable too rude to proceed from any that knows the measures of Civility or hath been occasioned to speak with any kind of Decorum For not only Macknamarra introduceth him calling the King a Faithless Person and one that was no way to be believed But Haynes will have him both to say That the King had no more Religion than a Horse and that he was degenerated into a perfect Ibid. p. 28. p. 43. p. 27. Beast and that he durst as soon be hang'd as to meddle with the said Haynes if he stuck to his Information about Sir Edmond-bury Godfrey ' s Murder This is a Dialect proper for such Rascals as the Witnesses to use but it is not a Stile that men of Quality are accustomed unto or can allow themselves to speak in For how much soever they may be offended with the ways and methods of Princes yet they constantly speak of their Persons with Respect and Deference Whether are we to esteem it a Subject fit for our mirth and laughter or for our disgust and indignation to see a Fellow appear at a Bar against a Great and Wise Peer and among other Treasonable Expressions whereof he accuseth him to swear That the said Lord put a greater Respect and Valuation upon him than he did upon the King himself Haynes having sent to the Earl of Shaftsbury and several other Noble Persons That he would make considerable Discoveries if they would procure him a Pardon the Rascal swears That being in Discourse with my Lord Shaftsbury about that matter my Lord should say If the King would not grant the Pardon for him that was desired they would raise the whole Kingdom against him and Ibid. p. 27. that he must not expect to live peaceably in his Throne if he did not grant it For not to insist on this That the Earl of Shaftsbury never spake with Haynes nor would not so much as see him both which will be proved as far as Negatives are capable can any man that hath not renounced Sense as well as Conscience believe that the Earl of Shaftsbury would put the Life of the King and the Peace of the Kingdom in competition with Haynes's being pardoned or not pardoned For suppose that the Fellow undertook to make very useful and important Discoveries provided he might have a Pardon yet we must be Bruits before we can be perswaded that a person of Prudence and Conduct should in case a pitiful wretch were not secured against the danger of the Gallows to which he stood obnoxious threaten not only to dethrone a Monarch to whom he lies under many Obligations besides those of Fealty but to hurl a quiet and peaceable Nation into War and Blood And as if it were not enough for these silly as well as malicious wretches to make my Lord Shaftsbury say a Thousand things which are equally Ridiculous and absurd as they are Treasonable they will have him to have talk'd of matters ready to be done which being duly weighed will be found to have been morally impossible For so is all that is sworn against him concerning a Design to seize the King at Oxford where he was not only surrounded with his Guards but as our Enemies must acknowledg environed with many Loyal Peers and Gentlemen Nor are we told of any preparations that were suitable to an undertaking which was so difficult in it self and which would be extreamly fatal to the Authors if it miscarried For whereas they depose That my Lord told them the Members came well Smith p. 26. Horsed and well Armed the whole Kingdom knows the contrary Some of the Members went so ill attended as that they were not in a condition to secure themselves from being Rob'd by the way And divers of the most Martial persons in the Oxford House of Commons went thither in Hackney Coaches with scarce a Servant a peice to wait upon them Yea this very Earl who is said not only to have projected the seizing the King at Oxford but to have corresponded with others in order to their coming provided thither with strength and force for the accomplishing of it had neither Coach nor Horse there himself So ignorant was this Noble Person of any such design and so unprepared for the execution of an attempt of that nature that he went down in an hired Coach and was forc'd to stay there after the Dissolution of the Parliament till he sent to London for Horses to convey and accommodate him home Was not the Concourse at Oxford much smaller than was reckoned upon considering the Greatness and Solemnity of the Occasion It cannot be thought that the Peers of England and the principal Gentry of the Kingdom should go to to so August and Solemn an Assembly without some Menial Servants to attend them And if the having supernumeraries in a
Retinue be Foundation to raise a just suspition of a Plot the Lords and Commons to whom some give the Character of being more Loyal than the rest of His Majesties Subjects will be most liable to suspicion Our Adversaries would greatly oblige us if they would tell us where the Forces vvere raised that vvere to be employed in this Traterous Fact and hovv they remained invisible in their coming together and parting again It vvas the indispensable duty of His Majesties Officers to have diligently enquired after these things And surely the Ministers have had opportunity as vvell as inclination to have done it long before novv And vvhereas vve are told of Fifty men and those persons of quality who had others to attend them that were listed for a Guard to the Earl of Shaftsbury Ibid. p. 21. and that Captain Wilkinson was to have the Command of them the Captain vvhose Word is more valuable than Booth's Oath does not only deny it but hath demonstrated that such an undertaking vvas inconsistent vvith the State of his affairs Yea the Wretch altho' he svvears That himself was one of them and that he had accordingly provided Arms and a good Stone-horse Ibid. p. 21. Yet he could neither say That he knew one man of them or that ever he conversed with any p. 36. of them Nor is the perjur'd Rogue able to give the world an account where he bought the Stone-horse which he pretends to have provided in order to the Design nor in what Stable he kept him to be in a readiness for that Service Would our Enemies have the world believe the incredible Crimes wherewith they have gotten us charged Alas all men who have either a grain of Wit or Honesty left will sooner look upon them as Malicious and Blood thirsty Impostors It would require a Book rather than a Paragraph throughly to inspect and discourse the matter which the Witnesses have Sworn and from thence to unveil the whole Mystery and detect the Forgery of this Protestant Plot. What can be more ridiculous in it self or more discover the Villany of this Intrigue than to hear a company of Wretches swear that a prudent and wise man has been engaged in a Conspiracy to destroy the Monarchy and to establish a Commonwealth when the doing it were to ruin himself and all the Peerage of England No man out of Bedlam can be so distracted as to embark in a Design which would bring himself into a level with those above whom he is raised and upon whose Resolves those of his Order and Rank in the present Government have by the Constitution a perfect Negative Ambition is that which usually inspires men to great and hazardous Undertakings and he must be supposed a Fool that would engage in an affair that would lessen and degrade both himself and all his Posterity as well as the Nobility of his Country Nor could he expect any man of Greatness and Interest to join with him in a Project so inconsistent with their Honour and the Figure which under the Established Legal Government they make in the State Nor is the altering the Monarchy into a Commonvvealth more contrary to his Allegiance than it is repugnant to his Interest and those indelible Principles of Civil Knovvledg and Policy vvhich he is imbu'd vvith and hath alvvays professed What can be imagined more absurd than that the Earl of Shaftsbury and the Protestant Peers and Gentlemen of England should combine to accelerate their ovvn ruin in Apprehending and Deposing the King vvho is our only Security and Protection against Popery Slavery and Arbitrariness Tho' Princes have been sometimes laid aside by a discontented people when the people have had a prospect of bettering their Condition under him who vvas likely to succeed yet never any conspired to destroy a just and merciful Prince to make vvay for one in his room that implacably hated both them and their Religion and vvho had resolved and determined their ruin Nor hath it been ever knovvn that the same Folly and Madness especially when the consequences have been fatal and destructive to the first Authors hath been acted twice in the same Age. And therefore the reviving the memory of the late War instead of serving to raise Fears and Jealousies of another doth to all thinking people demonstrate there can be none unless the Papists should begin a Rebellion and Massacre in England as they did heretofore in Ireland and in such a case I know not but that Protestants may both endeavour to defend their Lives against the Swords of their Enemies and to be revenged upon those bloody men And were not some people forsaken of all Modesty as they have abandoned all Truth and Justice they would be ashamed of filling the Nation with Jealousies of a new Civil War unless they know of such who are resolved either to extirpate us as well as to overthrow all our Rights and Liberties if by having recourse to Arms we do not defend both our selves and them To all that hath been said concerning the Infamy of the Witnesses and from the absurdity of the matter which they have Deposed in order to the detection of this forged Conspiracy against Protestants we might still render their Testimony more palpably false by observing how they studiously endeavour to put an estimate and value upon themselves beyond what they are capable of having and all this in order and subserviency to their being the better believed concerning the Treasons whereof they had accused us For knowing that there was no reason why any Faith should be given unto them and being apprehensive they would not be believed how do they endeavour by Protestations and otherwise to support and fortifie their own Credit Accordingly Smith before he entred upon the giving his Evidence against the Earl of Shaftsbury desired leave to wipe off the Aspersions which lay upon him about Colledge's Trial which words by the by are left out in the Print namely That whereas it had been reported that he Swore a Proceedings at the Old-Bailey p. 23. general Plot against the Protestants and the City of London instead whereof there is only in the Print a general Design against his Majesty he then said that he never swore any such thing neither could he swear there was a general Design of the City For not to insist upon this that he swore at Colledges Trial That Colledg told him the Parliament was agreed to seize the King and that the City was provided which is in effect the very things which at the proceedings upon the Bill against the Earl of Shaftsbury he would have vindicated himself from as aspersions only east upon him I say not to insist upon this what else meant that Apology See Colledge's Trial p. 28. 27. but that he would have retrieved a credit with the Jury which he knew he had forfeited and impose an opinion of his Honesty upon them being jealous that they might think he had lost all