matchless Piece as could not have enter'd into the Breast of any but a Bejesuited Herostratus in hopes to purchase the infamous immortality of a Popish Saintship by reducing to Ashes the greatest Bulwark and Magazin of the Protestant Religion in Europe Rome was set on Fire by Nero to have rebuilt it again more Glorious and that he might have space enough for one of the most sumptuous Palaces so design'd under the Sun thereby to have made the Mistress of the Earth the wonder of the World But London was fired not only to destroy the Wealth and Habitations of the City never to have risen more but with an intention to extirpate the Inhabitants themselves to boot and to have turn'd the Venerable and Spacious Pile into a depopulated Wilderness by a general Massacre of the People under the Consternation of the spreading Flames The standing Streets provided and furnished with Incendiaries with fresh Materials to revive and restore the weary Conflagration and when taken in the Act rescued out of the Hands of those that seized them and sent to St. Iames's to be there secured from the Rage of the Multitude and then dismist without Prosecution An excellent way to have made all sure by mixing the Blood of the Inhabitants with the Ashes of their Dwellings the only Cement which the Papists believed would fastest bind the Fabrick of the Romish Church And what greater piece of Perfidie could there be than while the D. was riding about the Streets under pretence of assisting to quench the Fire that his Guards were at the same time employed to prevent the People from removing their Goods and his Palace made the Refuge of such as were taken in the very fact of cherishing and fomenting the Flames This the Committee of Parliament trac'd so far that it cost the Life of the poor Gentleman that gave the Information of these Things to the Chair-man of the Committee to prevent any further Discovery and secure the D. from the Danger of his Life Coleman's crying out There was no Faith in Man was a most undeniable Testimony of the Treachery of his Master notwithstanding all the faithful Service he had done him and was it not a Magnanimous and Generous Act of a Prince to betray as he did to the Gallows not only his most trusty Servant but his Fellow-Partner in the Conspiracy More inhumane still was the Barbarous Murder actually contriv'd and brought to perfection by the encourag'd Instruments of the Duke For he it was that sent word to Coleman to bid him take no care for that Sir Edmondbury Godfrey should be remov'd out of the way and at the same time took the like care that his Servant Coleman should follow him For it was Detection that he feared and the Duke well knew that the Dead could never tell Tales The Particulars of the Murder and how far the Circumstances of it reached the Duke are too fresh in Memory to be here inserted and Dispensation for Deeds of the blackest hew were so easily obtained that it was no wonder the Duke so little boggled at a single Murder to conceal the designs of general Massacres wherein he was engag'd In pursuance of which he was no less industrious to bring the Presbyterians and all the Dissenting Protestants within the Snare of his Sham-plot in order to the Destruction of thousands of Innocent Persons This Dangerfield discovered to the World and his Informations taken upon Oath before Sir William Roberts and Sir William Poultney are extant wherein he gives an Account of his being introduced several times into the Duke of York's Presence Particularly that being once among the rest admitted to the Duke of York's Closet at White-Hall he kissed his Hand upon his Knees And then being taken up by the Duke he gave him a little Book containing the whole Scheme of the Presbyterian Plot for which the Duke thank'd him as also for his diligence in the Catholick Cause and wishing good Success to his Undertakings Added these words That the Presbyterian Plot was a thing of most mighty Consequence and I do not question but the Effects of it will answer our Expectation especially in the Northern Parts where I am well assur'd the major Part of the Gentry are my Friends and have given sufficient Demonstrations to me as also of their Intentions to prosecute this Presbyterian Plot for they are no strangers to the Design At the same time he ordered Dangerfield to be very careful of what he communicated to the Persons who were to be the Witnesses in that new Plot lest he should be caught in the Subornation and so bring a terrible Odium upon the Catholicks and make himself uncapable of any further Service Then for Encouragement in the prosecution of the Sham-Plot the Duke promis'd that he would take care that Mony should not be wanting and ordered him with all the Expedition the Thing would allow to make a Discovery of it to the King At the same time the Duke also made divers Vows and bitter Execrations to stand by him in the Thing and engaged upon his Honour to be his Rewarder and in Earnest gave him Twenty Guinies with his own Hand and telling him withal what a great Reputation he had gained among the Catholicks and that in a short time he should see the Catholick Religion flourish in these Kingdoms with a great deal more to the same purpose Of the truth of which among many others there could not be a more convincing Proof than the bitter Enmity which the Duke bore to Dangerfield after his Discovery and the severe Usage which he receiv'd from Iefferies the Duke's Creature and the Rhadamantine Dispenser of his Revenges In Scotland he Rul'd or rather Reign'd tho in his Brother's Life-time with a more Arbitrary and Lawless Controul And there it was that he breath'd forth his Venome against the Protestants utter'd his Tyrannous Maximes with more freedom and exercis'd his Tyranny with a more boundless and exorbitant Extravagance For there it was that he first undertook to exercise the power of Sovereign Rule refusing to take the Oath of High Commissioner which the Law of the Country requir'd as here he had denied to take the Test and to shew how he intended to govern England when it came to his turn there it was that in the hearing of Persons of great Credit he had this worthy Apothegm That tho in England the Lawyers rul'd the Court yet in Scotland he would rule the Lawyers There it was that he positively denied to give the Parliament any security for the Preservation of their Religion in case he succeeded to the Crown And being told of the Terms that the King had offer'd to the Parliament of England tho much harder and more dishonourable than any which they required he replied That the King never intended any such Limitations should pass nor did he offer them but when he knew they would not be accepted And farther to demonstrate his imbitter'd hatred of the Protestants
could not have begun the War without them and therefore at such a Conjuncture might probably have condescended to some Equality of Terms But the King of England well understood how careful the French King was to preserve and increase the Trade of his Subjects and that it was by the diminution of that Beam of his Glory that the Hollanders had raised his Indignation The King therefore the more to gratifie him made it his constant Maxim to burthen his English Merchants here with one Hand while the French in his own Territories loaded them no less with the other So that when the English Merchants in London had prepared a Petition to the King and Council to complain of the Oppression which their Factors and Agents lay under in France with a true State of their Case and a short account of their Grievances information thereof was given to the Court by which means the Perusal of the Papers being transmitted by the King â—o his Instruments all further Prosecution of the matter was stopp'd by his Conniâ—ance and Authority and the Merchants were put off with a Promise that the French Embassador should be acquainted with their Complaints and that they should be redress'd through his means Which proving ineffectual upon their farther Applications for redress they were Hector'd Brow-beaten Ridicul'd and might have met with fairer Audience from Monsieur Colbert Nor was it only in the matter of Commerce that the King of England had obliged the French Tyrant but even in the War it self For that except the irresistible Bounties oâ— so great a Prince to some particular English Instruments and a little Subsistance Money for the Fleet frugally parted with the King of England had put him to no Charges but the English Navy Royal had served him all along No Purchase No Pay He had ty'd the French King to no Terms had demanded no Partisson of Conquests had made no humane Condition but had sold him all for those two Pearls of high Value the True Roman Catholick Worship and the true French Government So soon as the Peace was concluded betwixt England and Holland by the Awe of the Parliament the French King as a mark of his Displeasure and to humble the English Nation let loose his Privateers among the English Merchants insomuch that there was no security of Commerce or Navigation notwithstanding the Publick Amity betwixt the two Crowns but at Sea they Murther'd Plunder'd made Prize and Confiscated all they met with Their Piccaroons lay before the Mouths of our Rivers hover'd all along the Coast took our Ships in the very Ports so that we were in a manner block'd up by Water and in this manner it continued from 1674. till the latter end of 1676. without Remedy And yet all this while that the French made these intolerable Depredations and Piracies upon the Kings Subjects they were more diligently than ever supply'd from England with Recruits and those that would go voluntarily into the French Service were encouraged others that would not press'd imprison'd and carried over by main force and constraint And by the King's connivance his own Magazines were daily emptied to furnish the French with all sorts of Ammunition of which the following Accompt affords but a small Parcel in comparison of what was daily conveyed away under colour of Cockets for Iersey Granado's without number shipped off under the pretence of unwrought Iron Lead Shot One and twenty Tuns Gunpouder Seven thousand one hundred thirty four Barrels Iron Shot Eighteen Tun Six hundred Weight Match Eighty eight Tun nineteen hundred Weight Iron Ordinance Four hundred forty one Quantity Two hundred ninety two Tuns nine hundred Weight Carriages Bandaliers Pikes c. the quantity uncertain All this and what more beside not then discovered was exported from London to France from Iune 1675. to Iune 1677. And thus was the French King gratified for undoing us by Sea by Contributing all the King could rap and rend of Men and Ammunition to make him more Potent and Formidable to us by Land Another great Instance of the King of England's extraordinary Kindness to the French King was this that while he storm'd at the Dutch for not promoting as he pretended the coming away of some Families that were unwilling to leave Surinam he found no fault with the French for keeping him above four years out of St. Christophers nor for destroying in the mean while that part of the Island which belonged to his own Subjects So great a piece of rudeness it was thought to press too hard upon the French King for performance of Articles on his side Nay the French Commanders in those Parts did not scruple to assert that there was a very good understanding in relalation to that Island between the English and French Court so great a kindness the King had for the French so little for his own Subjects Nor must we omit that when the Orders of the French Privy Council Commanding all their Sea Officers and Commanders in the Islands of America to secure to their Master the Soveraignity of those Seas were brought by a Person of Quality into the Cabinet Council at Whitehall they were at first declaimed against but soon buried in oblivion and put up amongst the useless Papers though the French in pursuance of those Commands proved afterwards so vexatious to the English that thethen Governor of Iamaica sent word that notwithstanding their old Quarrel with the Spaniards it was much easier to keep a good Correspondence with them than with our dear Allies the French Nor must it be forgot as an Eminent Mark of our Sovereign's Deference to the French Interest and manner of Government that in the year 1677 upon notice that a Great French Embassador was coming over into England he Adjourn'd his English Parliament that he might have the more Elbow room to entertain his better beloved Friends For all things at that time moved between France and England with that punctual Regularity that it was like the Harmony of the Sphears so that immediately after the Recess of the English Parliament over came the D. of Crequi the Archbishop of Rheimes M. Barillon with a Train of three or four hundred Persons of all Qualities you would have sworn they had been the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of France with a proportionable number of their Commons met the King at New-Market so that it look'd like another Parliament and that the English had been Adjourn'd for their better Reception Much of their business no doubt was conceal'd but so much came to light that they prest the King to continue his Subjects in the Service of France because the Parliament at that time most earnestly prest and was preparing a Bill for their being call'd home They also demanded an Abolition of all Claims and Demands from the Subjects of France upon account of all Prizes made of the English since the year 1674 till that day and for the future And the King on the other side required a
yet there was another quickly hatch'd of the same stamp and nature though carried on by other Instruments Nell Wall an Irish Papist and a Wench formerly employed only to empty Close-stools at White-Hall but afterwards for her Religion advanced to be one of the French Dutchesses Women and so to the King's Favour by which she became a great States-Woman as well as a common Whore To this Woman a great part of the Popish Secrets were discovered and by her means Fitz-Harris was first introduced to the Dutchess and then to the King where he was told That the Plot would undo them unless a way could be found to make a Counter-plot therefore he was bid to try all ways to effect it for that no Cost should be spared but such Rewards should be given as were fit for so great a Service Draw Painter here England's pious Protestant Monarch Counter-plotting with his Popish Concubine and her Close-stool Wench against his Parliament and Kingdom in favour of those that sought the destruction of both The business of this Irish Tool was to find out Seditious Lampoons and Pamphlets and carry them to White-Hall where he had Audience and private Conferences with Nell Wall the Dutchess and the King himself and where he had sometimes given for secret service a Hundred and Two Hundred Pound at a time and was no less slabber'd by his Gracious Soveraign than Dangerfield had been before So zealous were We for the Popish Cause that rather than miss of the Designs of enslaving the Nation by Arbitrary Government and Popery that We would have declar'd our selves even to have kiss'd the Tail as well as the Cheeks of the most Contemptible Creatures in the World Nor must it be omitted as an Argument of His Majesty's great Zeal for the Protestant Religion That when one Sergeant a Priest made a discovery of the Popish Plot from Holland which he caus'd to be transmitted to the Court with an intention to have discovered several others he was first brib'd off by Pillory-Carr then sent for into England slightly and slily examined had his Pardon given him and sent back with Five Pound a week to say no more And in this game that we may understand by whose Countenancing the thing was done Sir L. Ienkins shewed the utmost of his Parts and Fidelity being just enter'd Secretary in the room of another who did not care to venture so far as that both Fool as well as Knave did Among whose good Services to his Master we may reckon his endeavours as much as lay in his Power to conceal the Murther of the Priest at Abbeville in France upon intimation that he was coming into England to make a farther discovery of the Plot Which together with his fasting and other infallible tokens shewed him to be plainly what was well enough known before Father Goff's Creature as well as the King 's and Duke's Nor was it a thing less astonishing to the Nation to see the Parliament prorogued from time to time no less than seven times before permitted to sit on purpose to get time for the Popish Duke to settle the Protestant Religion in Scotland and to the end the Conspirators might get heart and footing again and retrieve their Losses in England and in this Interval it was that Messengers were sent to their Friends at Rome and others their Associates for Money to strike while the Iron was hot in regard that Scotland by this time was secur'd and all things in such a forwardness that now or never was the time but the Pope had such an ill opinion of our Soveraign's Fidelity that he slipt his neck out of the Collar and in imitation of him the rest excused themselves upon the score of their poverty Thus missing money from Rome and the rest of their Popish Associates and the King of France refusing to part with any more Cash there was no way but one at a forc'd-put which was to let the Parliament sit and to make them the more willing to give money to undo the Nation the King in a framed Speech told them of the wonderful Advantageous Alliances for the Kingdoms good he had made with Foreign Princes and particularly with Hâ—lland and how necessary it was to preservâ— Tangier which had already run him in Debt Upon which Considerations the Burden of his Song was More Money But the Parliament Incensed at the frequent Prorogations fell upon Considerations more profitable for the Kingdom such as were the bringing to Condign punishment the Obstructers of their Sitting the Impeaching of North for Drawing the Proclamation against Petitioning and three of the Judges for dismissing the Grand Jury before whom the Duke was Indicted of Recusâ—ncy before they could make their presentments the prosecution of the Popish-Plot and the Examination of the Meal-Tub-Sham all which they lookt upon to be of greater moment than the King's Arguments for his wants For it was well known that by His perâ—idious Dealings abroad he had so impaired his Credit with all the Foreign Princes to whom he sent that they slighted his Applications as one upon whose Word they could never Rely And as for the preservation of Tangier there was nothing less in his Thoughts A fine Credit for a Prince and an excellent Character to recommend him to Posterity that he had no other than his own Sinister ends upon the Grand Council of his Kingdom nor no other way to work them to â—hose ends unless by forging untruths to make them accessary to the betraying of the â—eople that had entrusted them The Parliament therefore bent all their Cares to secure the Kingdom from Popery â—oncluding that the Dukes Apostâ—tizing from â—is Religion was the sole Evil under which â—he Nâ—â—â—ons in a more particular manner â—roaned and consequently that he was to 〈◊〉 Dismoâ—â—ted But the King being reâ—â—lved not to forsake his Brother whatever â—â—came of the Kingdom out of a proâ—ense â—alice to the Nation and â—oresight of the Miseries which his Brother's Government would bring upon the people rather than out of any natural Affection that he bore him took such a high Resentment against these honest and just proceedings of the Houses that after he had Sacrificed the Lord Stafford to his hopes of obtaining money upon the Dukes undertaking to furnish him he Dissolved this Parliament too with promise of another at Oxford to sweeten the bitter Pill which he had made the Nation to swallow In the mean time all the Care imaginable was taken to bring the Protestant-Plot to perfection preparative to which Judges were selected with Dispositions Thoughts and Minds as Scarlet as their Gowns And the Choice of Sheriffs was wrested by force from the people that they might pick out Juries without Conscience and Honesty A Plot contrived by Perfidiousness and Treachery beyond the parallel of History A Plot with Parisian Massacre in the Belly oâ— it designing no less an Innundation of Innocent Protestant Blood under the colour and forms of Justice and yet
with the World whose whole Course had been to deal thus deceitfully and treacherously with God He who made it his business to impose upon the All-seeing Eye of the Heavenly Majesty might easily bear with that Infirmity of his of not scrupling the deluding Nations and abusing the Credit of Mankind 'T was his Practice to be a Papist in his Closet and a Protestant in his Chappel to be this hour at the Mass bearing a Part in the Romish Ceremonies upon Christmas-Eve at Sommerset-House and the next day communicating after the maning of the Church of England at White-Hall This the Dutchess of Cleveland well knew and therefore had been often heard to say That She did not embrace the Catholick Religion out of any esteem that she had for it but because that otherwise she could not continue the King's Mistress And consequently Miss of State Add to this his sending the D. of Monmouth into France with an express Command to reconcile himself there to the Church of Rome So that his whole Life may be said to be made up of Contradictions and that to save others the trouble of charging him with falshood he employed his own Tongue in all his publick Speeches and Declarations to give his own Heart the Lye and justly merited the Character which a certain Person gave him to carry with him to his Grave That he was an irreconcileable Enemy of the Protestant-Religion a Parliament and a Virtuous Woman But what car'd he who being put in mind to consider what Infamy the History of his Life and Reign would entail upon his Memory replied That he car'd not tho the World made a Whistle of his Tail when he was dead Neither indeed was there any true Zeal for any Religion to be believed in a Man who coming into the Chamber of a certain Peron and finding a Bible there reproached the owner for having less wit than he took him to have since he troubled himself with such a Book But tho he had long trifled with the Papists his beloved Friends and indeed had so carried himself that neither Papist nor Protestant could tell what to make of him yet the Papists resolv'd they would be no longer dallied with by him And therefore so soon as he had made all things ready for his Brother's Exaltation after he had prevented his Exclusion from the Throne and put all the power of his Dominions into his Hands to give way for him that truly Reign'd while he but only wore the name of King he was struck with an Apoplexy as it was given out for let the true Cause be what it will a Prince always dies of some Disease or other in the Physicians Catalogue but such were the Circumstances of his Death that Men began to discover their Suspicions freely to the World before he was cold However it were certain it is that he was Absolved from all his sins by his great Friend Iohn Huddleston and that the Priests gave him extream Unction At what time one of his Relations forcing his way into the Room and seeing them at it could not forbear saying That now they had Oyl'd and Greas'd his Boots they had made him fit for his Iourney And this is yet more remarkable That all the while he lay upon his Death-bed he never spoke to his Brother to put him in mind of preserving the Laws and Religion of his People but only recommended to him the Charitable care of his two Concubines Portsmouth and poor Nelly Nor was it a small aggravation of the general Suspition to find him hurried to his Grave with such an ungrateful secrecy in the dead of the Night as if they had feared the Arresting of his Corps for Debt not so much as the mean Pomp of the Blewcoat Boys to sing him to Heaven Insomuch that he was Buried by his Brother whom he had so highly obliged with far less decency than was permitted for the Funeral of his Father by his capital Enemies that had beheaded him But that perhaps might be so ordered by Providence to signify that he was not worth the publick Lamentation of the People whose Religion and Liberties he had been always designing to subvert To him succeeded Iames the II. not more perniciously designing but more eargerly bent in the Chase of National Ruin and Destruction He came in to England full freighted with his Mother's Religion and her Malice to the People of the Nation but wore at â—â—st the same Vizard Mask of Protestantism which his Brother did But tho he were fitter for the business they both design'd yet he understood not how to manage it so well so that had he been the elder Brother we may undoubtedly presume to say he would have been much sooner thrown out of the Saddle greatly to the saving both the Honour and Treasure of the Nation and the Life of many a worthy Gentlemen and true Lover of his Country 'T is well known and a thing confirm'd by two Letters yet to be seen wherein one of the King 's own Chaplains then upon the spot when it was done imparts and laments it to a Bishop That the Duke of York while he was yet but very young made a solemn Renunciation of the Protestant Religion and was reconciled to the Church of Rome while he sojourned with his Mother in France in hopes by the assistance of the Papists to have defeated his elder Brother of his Right of Inheritance tho he had all the Indulgence imaginable to conceal his Conversion where it might be for his private Advantage and the general good of the Cause And so early was this Ambition of his to supplant his Elder Brother That when the Scots were treating with the Exil'd King to restore him to the Throne of Scotland That he was at that very time practising with such as remain'd faithful to the King's Title here that they would renounce his elder Brother and chuse him for their Soveraign And for that Reason it was that the Duke forsook him at Bruxels and withdrew into Holland so that the King was necessitated not only to command him upon his Allegiance to return but was constrain'd to send the Duke of Ormond and some other Persons of Quality as well to threaten as persuade him before he would go back And as he was an early Traytor to his Brother so did he no less treacherously attempt the disowning of his first Wife For finding her extraordinary Chastity to be such that he could not be admitted to her Bed but upon the lawful score of Matrimony he was at last Married to her but so very privately that only the King was privy to it After which perceiving that his Brother's Restoration was fully determin'd in England under pretence that it would be more for his own and the Honour and Interest of his Brother to Marry with some great Princess that would both enrich and strengthen them by the largeness of her Dowry and the greatness of her Relations he would have taken an