Taxes and reckons up some Millions I am not so conversant in the Affairs of the Treasury as to tell whether his Computation be right but be it so we had rather pay that and much more than fall into our former misery it is some satisfaction to our minds that when our Taxes are paid the rest is our own But to set this matter right and to discover the Author's disingenuity we must take notice that the Statute taking away the Hearth-money one of the most grievous burthens this Nation ever groaned under Peter-pence and Danegeld not excepted passed the Royal Assent the 24th of April 89. And that our Author in several places of his Book takes notice of Statutes passed and other matters happening afterwards as the Pole-bill the first of May the Declaration of War against France the 7th of May the Ease to Dissenters the 24th of May and the Act for satisfying the States-General the 20th of August 89. But yet he speaks not one word of the other and his reason is because if he had done that the great Taxes he speaks of would dwindle into nothing for if that Duty amounted to 200000 Pound per annum we have not yet given the King Twenty years Purchase for it which is the rate most of his Subjects sell at He tells us next The War cannot be carried on without Money and that at the end of it it must cost in a great Sum to Disband the Army which he would perswade us to save by restoring King James This is a declaring War against the Army and will lessen the number of his Friends if he have any there and then if the Nation by restoring that King will avoid paying their own Army they must pay his which is as numerous and to whom there is as great an Arrear due besides all that is due to the French King So that if any be so sordid as to wish a change in the Government it must be on other Motives than to save his Money the restitution of the Hearth-money being all he is like to get by that bargain He tells us next That we who feared the coming of the French in King James 's time have taken a way by declaring War against them to bring them upon us with a vengeance But I would have him know this Nation would rather see the French here open and professed Enemies than pretended Friends and that we fear them less in the one capacity than the other and surely we never had less reason to fear them than at present though it were too great presumption to guess at the Divine Councils or to say that God now designs to be avenged on him for his Blasphemy and many Oppressions or that he has at last heard the Groans of the Fatherless and Widows though doubtless he will in his own due time inquire and visit for these things yet if we consider how he stands with the Kings of the Earth we may rationally hope that his Glory is near an end for the Emperour and Princes of the Empire are exasperated against him not only by his seizing and barbarously destroying their Territories but by his stopping their Victories over the Turks and by assisting them by so great a diversion But it hath pleased God to bless their just Cause with success both against the one and the other with the King of Spain and the States of Holland he has actual War the Cantons of Switzerland at best but Neutral and some think they are almost over-come by the late Pope's advice to quit it who not only styled him the Common Enemy of the Christian part of Europe but with his last Breath advised the Cardinals to oppose his unjust designs Had England ever a better time to humble his Pride or to force him to do justice to themselves and Allies for the many injuries and provocations he has from time to time heaped upon them If we cannot deal with him now that he has no Allies to support but the Turks Irish and Algerines we must despair of ever seeing an end to the Miseries of Europe The sixth is Keeping a standing Army in time of Peace without consent of Parliament He wisely omits Quartering Souldiers contrary to Law being neither able to say any thing in defence of it nor to retort it on the present Government All that he says to this Article is That his Officers were enriched by his Pay and that they were his delight but he does not tell us they were so because he hoped to over-throw our Religion and Laws by their assistance and to throw off Parliaments those Shakells on his designs He tells us next King James used no Forreign force but contented himself with his Natural-born Subjects But was not there some of them as ill as either Dutch or Brandenburger The Irish are more opposite to our Religion and Civll Interest than either of the other But our Author is angry we have an Army in being not designed to enslave the Nation as the last was but ready to oppose all that shall endeavour to bring us under our old Bondage and some to spare to oppose the French design on Flanders by whose Courage he has already received one defeat and durst his General have stayed and not retreated so very fast he might have had another Our Author in his last Leaf gives us so true a representation of the inconveniencies and burthens the Nation groaned under from the Army that I cannot better express them than in the Author's words Some Rake-hells of the Army took liberty to disgrace the Service who to supply their extravagant Expences put the Souldier's Pay into their own Pockets for which they allowed them under-hand to sharp upon the Country and too often leave their Quarters unpaid to the dishonour of the King and ruin of many an honest Man And to add to that Infamy they forced the Constables by threats to give them Certificates that they had paid their Quarters and behaved themselves well in them when in truth they had done neither But to heal the matter he says further That those that were averse to the King's interest with a design to ruin him in the affections of the People either quite concealed this from him or at least so minced the matter that the difficulty the poor Country-man lay under of being heard or relieved made the remedy often prove worse than the disease Doubtless if there had not been too many instances of the fruitless Complaints of the Nation upon the abuses of the Army we should not have had so full a confession as this from our Author The seventh Article is Causing several good Subjects being Protestants to be disarmed But our Author omits the other half That Papists at the same time were both armed and employed contrary to Law What is said to this is so little to the purpose that I scarce know how to Answer it He cannot tell when this was done nor whether those disarmed Protestants were not
Advertisement HIbernia Anglicana or the History of Ireland from the Conquest thereof by the English to this time with an Introductory Discourse touching the Antient State of that Kingdom and a new and exact Map of the same Part the First By Richard Cox Esq The Second Part from the beginning of the Reign of King James the First to this present Time by the same Author will be Published the next Term. Both Printed for Joseph Watts at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-yard THE Present Settlement VINDICATED And the Late MIS-GOVERNMENT PROVED In ANSWER to a SEDITIOUS LETTER FROM A Pretended LOYAL MEMBER OF THE CHVRCH of ENGLAND To a RELENTING ABDICATOR By a Gentleman of Ireland LONDON Printed for Ioseph Watts at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1690. AN ANSWER To a Late Seditious Letter FROM A Pretended Loyal MEMBER OF THE CHVRCH of ENGLAND c. SIR THERE was a Pamphlet put into my Hands lately by whom I know not the method of address being unusual set me upon the immediate perusal of it in which I had not gone far before I observed the design both of the Donor and Author who I am apt to believe were the same for only one that abounded in his own Notions and valued them because they were his own could expect to make a Proselyte by his Reasoning If that was the design these few hasty Reflections will shew you how much he has been mistaken in me Before I enter upon Particulars I must acknowledge that our Author's method is very regular and had he made out the Propositions as laid down by him his Book would be much more dangerous to the Government than I apprehend it is for were it made plain that the late King only designed the good and happiness of his Subjects in general I fear that alone would weaken the hand of our Deliverer without proving our Condition to be worse now than in his Reign But since neither of those Propositions are true and since so little can be said in the support of them a very critical season is required for the advancement of those Notions though our Author in his Title-page pretends himself a Member of the Church of England and in other places that his chief concern is for the Church yet his using Arguments to perswade us to return to that Condition that had so lately endangered it and can only destroy it and his confident misrepresenting matter of fact are sufficient proofs to what Society he belongs His first Proposition is That King James really proposed to himself those methods of Government which he judged would best conduce to the happiness of all his Subjects in general His Arguments to prove this are only an Encomium on his Person and Parts and a pretended Answer to an Objection made by himself which is in truth several though he calls it but one and notwithstanding all he says most of them will still remain as blemishes on his King's Understanding as well as Government I am sorry that the Confidence of the Author forces me to say any thing to the lessening of his Person and nothing less than a hold asserting That no qualifications were wanting in King James that we could have wished would have tempted me to it Our Author knows very well how to pick out Topicks of Praise but never confiders how applicable they are to his Hero a proof whereof we have in his first instance when I read it I was almost tempted to believe I had been reading the Character of his Grandfather and that our Author had mistaken one James for the other otherwise he would not have told us of his care in preserving us in Peace when most part of Europe and Asia were in continual War But notwithstanding all his said Endeavours there was more Blood shed in his Four years Reign than in the others Twenty-four And as to the other part of the Assertion I cannot call to mind the continual Wars of our Neighbours during the late King's Reign nor instance in any other but that against the Turks which our Author seems to remember by his mention of Asia and I leave it to the Christian World to judge Whether that were not more beneficial as well as more glorious than his Peace How industrious he was in advancing the Trade of this Kingdom I cannot tell but this I am sure of that the Trade this Nation drives with France was above Six hundred thousand pound of advantage to that Nation to the prejudice of this the over-ballance of that Trade amounting yearly to that Sum if not to a far greater And besides he was as zealous and more successful in destroying the Trade of another of his Kingdoms to enlarge hereon is too melancholy a subject for either of us And though he were a good Husband of his Revenue yet certainly what was given to the Priests and Fryars of both Kingdoms and their Emissaries might have been better imployed and I should be glad to know what our Author thinks of the great Expences of Castlemain's vain Embassy to Rome which did scarce procure him the common respect due to his Character And that he never required a Tax from his People is so strange an Assertion that surely our Author never considered what he writ or thought we would not for he not only required a Tax from his People but levied great ones of them without their grant for which in Page 20. our Author makes an excuse which shall be considered in its place and if our Author had but looked into the Acts of Parliament of his Reign he would have found Four of the first Five granting him temporary Taxes not expired and very great ones sufficiently large for one Session and it is seldom seen that Parliaments give Money without asking but it was so far from that that he never speaks to them but to take care of his Revenue was part of his Speech and when he passed the Bill setling on Himself the Revenue his Brother had for Life he required a further Tax from his People in a set Speech for no other purpose and if the Author would but look into his Speech of October the 9th 1685. at the opening the next Sessions of that Parliament he will find he wanted not more Subsidies for want of asking and that in this particular we are more beholden to his other Councils that made him afraid of Parliaments than to his kindness to his People if his Magazenes and Stores were plentifully furnished This was but an ordinary effect of his long Peace great Revenue and greater Designs But I make a Question Whether those were so well provided as he was desirous the World should believe And in truth they were never more empty of which the Nation has already found the inconvenience For if the Naval Stores had but answered expectation his Friends had met with other entertainment in Bantry-bay the First of May last That he kept too good a Correspondence with one of his
Neighbouring Princes will not be denied but whether with more than one of them I question and whether thereby he did not sink the Reputation of his Justice and Honour both abroad and at home will appear by the respect he had at Rome where one would have thought he should have been courted at another rate for a Protestant instance the States denial of Dr. Burnet and not suffering the Doctor to with-draw though he desired it is sufficient and the Carriage of the French at Hudsons-hay shews their kindness as well as respect If our Author had considered these things surely he would not have bragged of the good Correspondence he held with his Neighbour Princes and States or of the Reputation he had acquired to himself abroad When I met the Author praising the late King for his Mercy and Compassion to his Enemies I began to suspect my Eyes and was in hopes that he would have brought us so good news from the West that we should speak no more of the Western Campaign and that the Numbers that were said to be executed there were only in Effigie and that he had the very persons to produce sound and in good health without I could have done this I should not have mentioned the other especially if I had been of the Author's opinion that he was Master of so many other good qualities I should think that the using this had been enough to make people suspect the rest of the Character for if that had been true there had been no need to add this so notoriously otherwise I have read the History of England and upon a serious reflection thereon I believe it may be truly said That so many of the Common people were not put to death by the Hand of Justice and driven into Exile for all the Rebellions of these 600 years as were served for that of Monmouth's which did not last six weeks the weaker Sex not spared But for the Duke of Alva's Government of the Netherlands Foreign Story could not have afforded a precedent but then I do not find that great Man praised for his Lenity in this we are an Original neither do I find that he was more exact in his Scrutiny than we were at Westminster where we were told that the Rebels were 6000 of which 2000 killed and only 2000 brought to Justice the other 2000 our Grand-Jury were directed to find out and yet after all this some people will brag of this Man's forgiving Nature the sobriety of his Life and discountenancing Debauchery may be true as to excessive Drinking but the placing his spurious Issue in the highest degree of Honour is no great discouragement to the other sort of Debauchery For his Assiduity in his Councils and Treasury and the rest of that Paragraph as it is needless to examine them so certainly the truth of them is no proof that the late King intended the happiness of his Subjects in general The next Paragraph asserts That it was the late King's opinion that Liberty of Conscience would be grateful to a great many of his Subjects and would invite Forreigners to fix their Habitations amongst us to our great advantage that it was the best expedient to bring us to a brotherly Love and to prevent the Calamities that befel this Kingdom in his Father's time and that he had this Notion still fixed in him with a design to signalize his Reign thereby In opposition to which I will endeavour to shew that the late King had no such glorious aim and that thereby he only intended to subvert the established Religion of these Kingdoms which will plainly appear if we consider first how different such a method is to the fundamental principles of his Religion as well as the practise of all Ages those that believe there is no Salvation out of the Church which is only one and that theirs if they have any Bowels of Compassion or Charity will endeavour the enlarging the pale of that Church And then that Hereticks are to be extirpated upon the penalty of having their Territories given away to others where this duty is neglected is as essential a part of his Religion as General Councils can make it therefore it were an injury to his Charity and Piety to suspect he would not use his power so as became a zealous and submissive Son of the Church and what could be a greater brand to the sincerity of his Religion than decreeing counter to infallible Councils it were as easie reconciling Toleration to Infallibility as such actions with being a good Catholick unless they were sanctified with a good intention and done for the good of the Church but to say he did not understand so much of the Arcana of his Religion cannot be supposed without saying he understood nothing of it and though he did not it cannot be doubted but he would have been told of his duty by some Monitory Briefs from Rome St. Peter's Successor used to be so kind to Princes as to lay before them the guilt and danger of actions less favourable to Hereticks and to call upon them to avoid both by executing the Decrees of the Church against them if it be said that the Roman Church at least the Guides of it approved what King James did in this matter and that to preserve his Conscience the Decrees of the Councils were suspended as to him I do verily believe it and think that it follows from thence that they knew what hook lay under that gilded bait otherwise I know not how the same persons could approve of the French King's Edict of October 85. annulling the perpetual and irrevocable Edict of Nantes and the barbarous manner of the execution of it and the late King's Declaration in 87. giving a general Liberty of Conscience two Decrees that concur only in one thing that they are both against the Laws of their several Lands In my opinion this would look so like an affront to that mighty Monarch's Conduct that unless he were likewise privy to the plot his Resentment would not be satisfied with less than a solemn Renunciation and taking new measures now he has the late King so much at his devotion And I doubt not if this proceeding had displeased him but in his late Contests with the Pope we should have heard him upbraiding his Holiness with this kindness to Hereticks but since neither of these have followed and that neither the King of France nor the Pope is offended at our Indulgence we may lawfully conclude there was little kindness thereby intended to us Secondly If this Notion had been still fixed in the late King and had he always been of opinion that none ought to be oppressed and persecuted for matters of Religion he would still have acted consonant to this principle which that he did not do is plain from his concurring with and promoting the enacting of the severest Laws against Dissenters in his Brother's time and also from his first Act of Government the rigorous imposing