I should have much wondered if Scotland had escaped that Grace and Favour of yours which was generally speaking pretty impartial For why should the Administration of Justice be in better Hands there than it was here You were resolved that the doing of Justice in the three 〈…〉 be of a Piece and therefore play'd your Game there tho with more 〈…〉 as you did here To prove this you procured your Brother's Letters â—â— Lauderdale to constitute one Sir Andrew Ramsey one of the Lords of the Sessions who never was bred up to the Law but to Merchandizing Which extravaâ—â—ant Proceeding being complained of in Parliament as of dangerous Consequence Ramsey parted with his Place resigning it up to Lauderdale and was said to have more Knowledg than the other three And by reason of the Insufficiency of the Lords of the Session thereupon Partiality so manifestly crept into that as well as other Courts of Justice that the Foundations of Law and Justice were much shaken as was once ready to be proved in full Parliament in that Kingdom in the Time of Lauderdale's Ministry Now Sir you may see it was not a Fault in a Man to serve the late Protector if he would but join with Lauderdale and you to subvert the Government of that Kingdom and enslave the People in order to establish Popery For this Ramsey had been Provost of Edinburgh in the Protector 's Time and complied with him to the height of being knighted and after that got to be reknighted and reentred Provost by the Favour of Earl Middleton to whom he was a villanous Tool in assisting him to defraud the People of their Religion Laws and Liberties all at once But upon Middleton's Disgrace this Fellow strikes in with Lauderdale who had a greater Sacrifice to offer to Baal than Middleton had yet offered with whom and the Tradesmen of Edinburgh by his long-practised Arts of Flattery and Bribery he so mightily prevailed that continuing Provost for ten Years in that time he so domineered over the poor Citizens and so enriched himself by their Rents and Moneys at his Pleasure that by Lauderdale's Assistance and yours he cheated the King of near 20000 l. Sterling and had an Opportunity of obtaining to be constituted one of the Lords of the Session And tho he with the other three who as I said before were more unskilful in the Law made such Havock that Lauderdale himself could not keep him in that Station so many notorious Corruptions and illegal Proceedings being proved against him and them yet there was not a Change made in that Court without some difficulty And after all their signal Villanies they were let fall by your self and Lauderdale as Men that had overdone your Business 3. Another Step taken to ruin the People of Scotland was the Gift of a Part of your Brother's Revenue called the King's Casualties which is the Wards and Marriages to another of your Creatures there procured by Lauderdale thrô your Interest with the King tho contrary to all the Laws of that Kingdom in that Case which was not only prejudicial to the Government but extreamly vexatious to the People For these Casualties were an Arbitrary Revenue and paid or not as the King pleased Therefore the giving it to any one Man to make his most of it was both against Law and Reason and the Interest of the Subject This Creature of yours was the Earl of Kincaerden who the more to oppress the People in this Point was by the King's Letters by you procured joined in Commission with Lauderdale in the Treasury and also with the extraordinary Lords of the Session by which they went on without controul to grieve the People Sir It is apparent to those that understand the Constitution of that Kingdom that this Gift of the Casualties was never known in Scotland till attempted 〈…〉 Ministry who not being so bad as to join with you in such a piece of â—â—â—â—â—quency it proved one Cause of his Disgrace 4. You know it was your Rogues Design here in England to diminish and debase the Coin and Plate of the Kingdom the direful Effects whereof we feel at this Day and for which this Nation is bound to curse the Names and Memory of you and your wicked Adherents Thus you proceeded in Scotland tho your Father 's own dear Country where you corrupted the Mint and Coinage For by the King's Letters the Lord Hatton Brother to Lauderdale was constituted chief in that Office I think they call the Master of the Mint General but if I am mistaken in the Names I may be in some measure excused But as to the thing I am sure I am in the right for the Corruption of the Mint and Coinage was so great that the Scots People grew very uneasy and made a fearful Complaint in Parliament proving in that August Assembly that for several Years they had found to their sorrow the intrinsick Value of the Silver Coin sensibly diminished both in Weight and Fineness to the great Damage of that Kingdom Nay the thing rested not here but to vex the People care was taken by Hatton to over-charge the Country with a sort of base Coin without considering the Weight and Value of that sort of Money to the manifest hindering of the Trade of that Kingdom and it was an Artifice your Conspirators used for enslaving that People to impoverish them so that you might the more easily bring them under the Yoke of an Arbitrary Power But Sir that you might help on this Lord of the Mint in depraving the Silver Coin you may remember the Dutch Dollars commonly called Leg-Dollars usually imported by their Merchants and currant with them at 58 d. per Piece were cried down by your Bandog Lauderdale to 56 d. for no other reason but because he procured your Favour to obtain a Command from the King for so doing that the said Dollars might be brought as Bullion into the Mint for the Advantage of the Lord Hatton his Brother and your Favorite And notwithstanding the great Complaint of the People there was nothing done But upon the Adjournment of the Parliament a Sham-Trial was obtained and the Lord Hatton indemnified tho it was proved that none of the Money coined in his Time was either Weight or Standard 5. A fifth Step you took to overturn the Government of that Kingdom and defraud that People of their Religion Laws and Liberties was a certain Monster your Brother and you set up a Body of Villains called the Lords of the Articles The most valuable and considering Men of that Nation some of whom I have had the Honour to be acquainted with have judged this Body of Men to be nothing else but a virtual Subversion of the Power and Liberties of Parliament and highly prejudicial to the King and Kingdom I pray Sir observe 1. That this meeting of the Articles when reestablished by you and your Conspirators consisted of 8 Bishops chosen by the Lords and 8 Lords chosen by the
Factions that put General Cromwell to the Necessity of taking upon him the Government of the Nation by a single Person by the Name and Title of Lord Protector Those who would destroy the Constitution of the House of Lords do endeavour the Destruction of the Ballance of the English Government 3. Consider the King gives Life and Vigour to all the Proceedings in Parliament the Wills and Desires of the People tho approved by the Lords and Commons in Parliament without the King signify nothing unless he bids them be an Act they are abortive Therefore he that shall attempt the Subversion of any of the other two Estates is no more a King but a Tyrant and useless to God and Man You see that your Father undid himself to all Intents and Purposes by following such Measures as subverted his own Government and so have you and if you will not believe it you may ask the French King and he will soon satisfy you of the Matter But from hence Sir you may see that you cannot destroy any one Estate in this Government but the whole is subverted and therefore I may lay down this Proposition that Parliaments are the Essential Part of the Government In a word then to conclude this Head let me ask you or any of your Plotters these two Questions 1. If this be so that by so great Authority viz. so many Statutes then and now in Force the Fundamentals of the Common Law the Essentials of the Government it self Magna Charta your Brother's Coronation-Oath and so many Laws of God and Man the Parliament ought to meet and sit to redress Grievances provide for Common Safety especially in times of Common Danger and that this was so in a most eminent manner none can doubt that did believe the King so many Parliaments the Cloud of Witnesses the publick Judicatures their own Sense and Experience of the manifold Mischiefs acted and the apparent Ruin and Confusion that threatned the Nation by the restless Attempts of you and your bloody Party Then Sir I ask you Whether after the People of England had the Point of the Dagger thus set to their Breasts and the Knife at their Throats Cities and Habitations fired Invasions and Insurrections threatned to destroy the King and Government your villanous Popish Party did not design to destroy the only Remedy hoped for under God to give us Relief that is our Parliaments who with so much Cost and Pains were elected sent up and intrusted for our Help and to turn them off without answering the Ends for which chosen by those frequent Prorogations and Dissolutions Consider Sir the Point in hand Were not the People of England justified in their important Cries humble Petitions to the King your Brother fervent Addresses to their Members and earnest Claims for this their Birthright pleaded with all the Modesty imaginable which the Laws of the Kingdom consonant to the Laws of God and Nature had given them How impudent then were your Abhorrers of such Petitions and Claims What can Withens who was expelled the House for the same say for himself What can the Rascal plead in behalf of himself and a rascally Crew that joined with him in signing an Address of Abhorrence and that Villain Jefferies who did that in London which Wythens had done in Westminster Which brings me to a second Question 2. If it be fo that by so great Authority Parliaments ought to meet and sit to redress Grievances c. what shall we say to those who advised your Brother to this high Violation of their Countries Rights to the infringing so many just Laws and to the exposing the Publick to those desperate Hazards even almost a total Ruine which was done with all the Impudence and Barefacedness imaginable the Advisers not having the least Remorse upon them If K. Alfred as Andrew Horne in his Mirror of Justice tells us hanged Darling Segnor Cadwine Cole and forty Judges more for judging contrary to Law and yet all those faise Judgments were but in particular and private Cases what Death did those deserve who offer'd Violence to the Law it self and all the sacred Rights of their Country If the Lord Chief Justice Thorpe iâ— Edward Ill 's time for receiving the Bribery of 100 l. was adjudged to be hanged as having made the King break his Oath to the People how much more guilty were they that made your Brother break his Coronation-Oath and perswaded him to act against all Laws for holding of Parliaments and passiâ—g 〈◊〉 therein which â—e was so solemnly sworn to do And if the Lord Chief Justice Tresillian was drawn hang'd and quartered for advising the King to act contrary to some Statutes only what did those deserve that advised your Brother to act not only against some but all the antient Laws and Statutes of the Realm Moreover Sir I would say this further to you if you will have a little Patience If Blake the King's Counsel only for assisting in the Matter and drawing up Indictments by the King's Command against Law tho it's like he might plead the King's Order and Command for so doing was drawn hang'd and quartered what was due to them that assisted your Brother in the total Destruction of all the Laws of the Kingdom and as much as in them lay their King and Country too And if Vske the Under-Sheriff whose Office it is to execute the Laws for but endeavouring to aid Tresillian Blake and their Accomplices against some of the Laws was also with five more drawn hang'd and quarter'd what Punishment did they deserve that not only aided your Brother but endeavour'd to subvert all the Laws of the Kingdom And if Empson and Dudley in the time of Henry VIII tho of the King 's Privy Council were hanged for procuring and executing an Act of Parliament contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and to the great Vexation of the People when yet they had an Act of Parliament on their Side what ought to have been done to those who had no such Act to shelter themselves and who not only acted contrary to but to the Destruction of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom I can expect Sir no Answer from you but this The Men that did these things should surely have died if they had been discovered they should have perished without Mercy Is it so then I come to the last Particular to be debated and that is III. You are the Man and your Party was the Party that did endeavour to break the Use of Parliaments by inveighing against that way of Government In a word therefore I shall descend unto Particulars and shew you 1st That your Inclinations were not for Parliaments or that Way of Governing 2ly What those Parliaments were that you and your Party procured to be dissolved 3ly What Arts and Methods you used to expose the three last Parliaments your Brother held in 1679 1680 and 1681. 4ly Your Unreasonableness in so doing 5ly The ill Consequences
9. Your Pensioners finding there was no War made against France in pursuance of the said Act and that the Army was a great Grievance to the Nation gave six hundred and odd thousand Pounds to disband them yet with that Money you rather augmented your Forces and kept up your Army to the great hazard of the Peace of the Kingdom Nay Sir in a word to order the Money in a Bill so as to prevent its being embezeled was argument enough to make it miscarry for you chose rather to go without it than it should be appropriated to any particular use 10. The Pensioner Parliament having been your Drudges for eighteen Years and beginning to have their Eyes a little too much opened it was high time to part with them therefore having granted the aforesaid Sum of 600 and odd thousand Pounds to disband the Army and the additional Duty upon Wines for three Years and being that Sessions disposed to give no more Money your Brother having sworn on the 29th of December laying his Sacred Hands upon Portsmouths bare B for the greater solemnity of the Business that he would dissolve the Parliament came to the House on Monday the 30th of December 1678 and prorogued them to the 4th of February but on the 25th of January that Parliament was by Proclamation dissolved and the same Day Writs issued out for the Meeting of a new one at Westminster the 6th of March following which was just forty Days between the Test and Return This Parliament being sat down and finding the Army was a great Grievance to the Nation and like to be of fatal Consequence if maintained passed a Bill for the raising one hundred and ninety odd thousand Pounds to disband it and tho this was but a new Parliament yet they understood your Brother's old Practices and yours too of putting the Monies to uses never intended by Parliament and therefore resolved never to trust you any more in the Matter of Money for as this was the least Tax so it was the last that ever your Brother saw from any Parliament in his Reign 11. Another demonstration of the Point in hand was the immense Sums Chiffinch and the Privy Purse issued out for those Uses the Parliament never intended who design'd the Money they had so freely given to defray the publick Charge of the Nation but since Chiffinch had the disposal of so much why did not the Parliament give that Rascally Pimp and the Whore his who was Whore and Papist enough as well as a Dutchess to serve you Sir a swinging Sum for their extraordinary Occasions for they were both Labourers in this Vineyard And truly the work of the Night lying upon their Hands somewhat too hard they took in a Rogue that was a Fellow-labourer with them till the Death of Charles II. And who had the gracious Opportunity of robbing his Closet we cannot tell but old Chiffinch if alive could and Sir if you will have it examined who robb'd yours I believe a little Matter might find you out the Man I have seen the Rogue go to Chappel-Prayers now Mass is out of Fashion as devoutly as any Pimp or Bawd about Whitehall ever did in yours or your Brother's Time But Sir you may see the just Judgment of Almighty God upon you for as you joined with your Brother and a parcel of thorow-pac'd Rogues to embezle the Nation 's Money to support a Crew of Pimps Bawds Whores and Traitors Cutthroats and Murderers so your grand Pimp and his villanous Deputy embezled 〈◊〉 your Brother and you intrusted him or them with to other Uses and Purposes than ever you intended for how Chiffinch could acquire such an Estate honestly since his way of living was so profuse I cannot tell unless by these Courses and whether that little scabby Rascal could attain to the Estate he has without fingering some of your Jewels when you did us the Honour to leave us I pray Sir let us join together to examine if we carry our Cause it may for ought I know be a Travelling Penny in your Pocket when you leave St. Germaini Article XXIII YOUR Brother and you joined together to have all the Laws made against the Popish Priests and Jesuits suspended Truly Sir there need not many Arguments to satisfy the Nation of the Truth of this Charge For 1. What Numbers came into the Realm notwithstanding the many severe Laws made against them in the Times of Queen Elizabeth and James I. and that not secretly but barefacedly owning themselves to be such 2. How many taken up by your Brother's Warrant in Rose-Alley in Holborn and other Places were discharged contrary to all Law and the common Practice thereof 3. How many were protected by the Queen Dowager and entertained as if they were in her Service which she could not have done had not you and your Brother withheld the Laws from being executed against them 4. Those that did not know your Brother's and your Religion apprehending some of these Priests were well chid by you and several of them that owed Money you set their Creditors upon to their utter Ruin 5. If the Justices in the Countrey did according to their Oaths and Duty attempt the putting the Laws in Execution that were made to prevent England being overstock'd with that sort of Vermine were they not turned out with this Brand of being disturbers of the Peace of the Government Witness Mr. Arnold Mr. Scudamore cum multis aljis 6. If any of your Brother's Whores Pimps or Bawds or yours were pleased to turn Papist to oblige you and continue in your Favour had not they leave to keep a stiff-rump'd Priest or so to help them in their great Affairs of procuring a Catholick By-Whore or Whores with whom through Confession they were acquainted And Sir did they not pimp at a more reasonable Rate than Chiffinch or his Deputy did in order to promote the Catholick Cause 7. Did you not support and maintain a great number of them to the Tune of eighteen Pence a Day at St. James's for the Service of your Italian Comrade at the Expence of the Publick for secret Service And what secret Service they did Mrs. Junipor can tell I suppose as well if not better than your sweet self and these being well paid was it not your Care to have them Men of good Parts tho of little or no Learning 8. Did not your Brother and you and your Council put a Test upon these Priests that they should be true to yours and the French King's Interest and not refuse any Service in order thereunto that lay in their Power 9. Were not these Priests your Spies and Trapans about the Kingdom to draw Men into Plots and Conspiracies And did they not do your Business in those Cases with that Dexterity that you gained your point of murdering several Persons and rendering the poor Dissenters obnoxious to your Pensioner Parliament in order to get severe Laws made against them whilst your villanous
Justice which are Officina Legis and particularly of the High Court of Parliament so called from Parlerlament speaking judicially his Mind And amongst others he gives us the following Law of K. Alfred who reigned in 880 and ordained for a Usage perpetual That twice a Year or oftner if need be in time of Peace they shall assemble themselves at London to treat in Parliament of the Government of the People of God how they should keep themselves from Offences should live in quiet and should receive Right by certain Laws and holy Judgments And thus saith this Great Coke you have the Law of K. Alfred as well concerning the holding this Court of Parliament here every Year at the City of London as to manifest the threefold End of this Great and Honourable Assembly 1. That Men might be kept from offending that is that Offences might be prevented both by good and provident Laws and by the due Execution of them Truly Sir here is Grief in one Hand and Sorrow in the other for your Brother and you you hated the one and despised the other Provident Laws you hated as much as you did an honest Woman and the other you despised as much as you did an honest Man And you were never more at ease than when thrô the want of a good Law or so you and your Party were not only emboldned but enabled to do Mischief 2. That all Men might live safely and quiet This is another End of Parliament Old Wright your quondam Justice of the Kings-Bench used to say That the Man that resigned himself up to the Will of his Prince was always safe and quiet But yet that Loggerhead of a Judg with Old Hodg and all his Inferior Crew could never find one such Saying in the Reports or Institutes of Judg Coke for the Saying was so silly that a Man must have judged it to have been his own unless he had humbly borrowed that wise Saying from Sir your sweet understanding Self for he understood as little of the Design and End of a Parliament as your self The Wretch is gone to his Place but as for Law and Parliaments no Man no not Jenner himself understood less than his Worship 3. That all Men might receive Justice by certain Laws and Holy Judgments not by Proclamations or French Edicts as you and your Brother did design but by certain Laws to the end Justice might be the better administred that Questions and Defects in Laws might be by the High Court of Parliament explained and reduced to certainty Your Brother and you if you had understood this would not have sent for a set of Rogues clothed in Purple to have gained their Opinion about suspending the Penal Laws against a parcel of Papists and Popish Priests no you would have applied your selves to Parliament to have explained the difficult and dark Parts of the Laws in force against those Men but you loved Darkness and dark Judges and therefore what you did was dark for Sir your Brother and you little thought and believed that the High Court of Parliament was the Supream Court of the Realm and that it was a part of the Frame of the Common Laws and that in some Cases Parliaments do proceed legally according to the Course of the Common Laws Had your Brother or you understood or believed the Antiquity of Parliaments you would not have preferred a Privy Council before them nor if you had valued the Dignity of Parliaments would you have preferred the Opinion of a parcel of Lambskin Rogues before a plain and positive Law nor if you had learned the Sovereign Jurisdiction of Parliaments would you have followed the Advice and Direction of your villanous Ministers of State tho against the Fundamental Constitution of the Government I wonder you did not take the Villains along with you to St. Germains your Ministers Judges and your Counsellors Learned in the Law your Wrights Jenners Miltons Withers Sawyers and the rest of the Hellish Crew I do not name them all but you might have had the Honesty not to have left them to disgrace their Profession which is well improved since I saw you last and to have procured an Apartment for them that your Ministers might have thought upon some better Politicks and your Roguy Judges and Lawyers might have understood the Law a little better than scribere est agere If that Bird had been but hang'd up in a Cage in your Presence-Chamber he would have sung another Tune For all his Brave-alls he and the rest of his Crew might have found some Expedient or another to have helped you to some other Kingdom since by the Law of some of them and the Politicks of others they fairly walked you out of three Kingdoms at once I do not see any great Reformation of their Manners or any great Improvement they have made of their Law since you was graciously pleased to take up your Residence at St. Germains and if you had taken the Vermin along with you there might have been a parcel of Dragoons that might have drub'd them to their Books so that by their Scribere's and Agere's they might have found some convenient Government for you which they might have kept you in to better purpose than did by their Law and Counsel keep you here Nay if you had advanced them a little above their Neighbours they might have seen the difference between a Declaration of Indulgence and a Statute-Law for Liberty of Conscience and between an Act of Parliament and a Proclamation A good Whip dear Sir would have been of admirable Use and Instruction for it would have made them to understand and they would have told you tho somewhat too late 1. That Parliaments are part of the Frame of the Common Law which is founded on the Law and Light of Nature right Reason and Scripture 2. That according to this Law of Equity and Righteousness Parliaments ought freely to meet for the Common Peace Safety and Benefit of the People and Support of the Government 3. That Parliaments have been all along esteemed the Essential Part of the Government as being the most Antient Honourable and Sovereign Court in the Nation which ought frequently to meet and sit for the making and abolishing of Laws redressing Grievances and to see to the due Administration of Justice 4. That as to the Place of the meeting it ought to be at London not at New-Market at London not at Windsor at London not at St. Germains because London is the Capital City the Eye and Heart of the Nation as being not only the Royal Seat but the principal Place of Judicature and Residence of the chief Officers and Courts of Justice where also the Records are kept as well as the principal Place of Commerce and Concourse in the Nation and to which the People may have the best Recourse and where they may find the best Accommodation 5. They would have instructed you in the Antiquity of Parliaments which have been so
by a set of wicked Rogues yet before they had ravished this Prince and weaned him from his Peoples Love he made this excellent Law in which Sir you may observe 1. A Complaint of former Remisness their Bills afore-time have not been passed and their Grievances unredressed by unseasonably dissolving of Parliaments before their Laws could pass 2. That a Law might pass in that very Parliament to rectify that Abuse for the future And 3. that it should not pass for a Temporary Law but to last for ever being of such absolute Necessity that before Parliaments be dismissed Bills of Common Right might pass to which the then King Richard did freely agree 5. I have another Proof which is from that great Oracle of the Law the Chief Justice Coke in Institut 4. B. p. 11. asserting That Petitions may be truly preferred tho very many have been answered by the Law and Custom of Parliament before the end of the Parliament This that Great Lawyer delivers not as his own single Opinion but tells us that what he laid down in this Particular appeared in an Antient Treatise de modo tenendi Parliamentum in these words faithfully translated The Parliament ought not to be ended while any Petition dependeth undiscussed or at least to which a determinate Answer is not made And again That one Principle of calling Parliaments is for the redressing Grievances that daily happen Further yet concerning the departing of Parliaments It ought to be in such a manner saith Modus Tenendi demanded yea and publickly proclaimed in the Parliament and within the Palace of the Parliament whether there be any that hath delivered a Petition to the Parliament and hath not received answer thereto If there be none such it is to be supposed that every one is satisfied or else answered unto at the least so far forth as by the Law he may be This Custom was observed in after Ages as you heard before Once more and I have done Observe what this Great Judg saith concerning the Authority and Antiquity of this Antient Treatise called Modus tenendi Parliamentum which we often make use of in our Institutes Certain it is this Modus was rehearsed and declared before William I. called the Conqueror and by him approved for England upon which according to the Modus he held a Parliament for England as appears 21 Edw. 3. Fo. 60. Well Sir how do you by this time and how doth my old Mistress and the little Welch Gentleman Are you not satisfied of the Necessity of the Meeting and Sitting of Parliaments I pray call Tom Jenner and Frank Withens those two Rascals and all the Crew of Villains that misled your Brother and you or were misled by you for they were willing Vermin I confess to do what they were bid upon pain and peril of losing their Places And lest these Scoundrels should be too ignorant let us call in Old Pemberton that did several Jobs of Journey-work for your Brother and you he impudently tried Fitz-Harris tho he was impeached in Parliament which Scroggs would not undertake and he tried the Great and never-to-be forgotten Lord Russel and how he carried himself let the World judg I am sure my Ld Russel was murdered But I have heard Pemberton talk as like a Villain as any of the rest which was not because of his Ignorance I say let us summon them all that remain in the Land of the Living for the Devil hath not fetch'd them all yet and tho they are not prating upon the Bench yet the Rogues are getting a Penny at the Bar These Vermin I dare say with a little drubbing will aver that it is most certain these wholsome Laws are not only in full Agreement with the Common Law and declarative thereof but fully agree with the Oath and Office of our Kings who have that great Trust by the Law lodged with them for the Good and Benefit and not Hurt and Mischief of the People But if these Dunghil Rascals should be fullen because not imployed once more to oppress and murder the People under a Form and Colour of Law and refuse to satisfy you I will with that little Law I have propose these three things upon the whole of what has been said upon this fifth Head 1st These Laws are very sutable to the Office and Duty of a King and the End for which he was instituted by God himself who commands him to do Justice and Judgment to all especially the Oppressed but not deny them any request for their Relief Protection or Welfare It had not been below you to have obey'd the Laws as a Subject nor your Brother to have kept them as a King and had he relied more upon his Parliament than he did upon your Counsel and that of his wicked Ministry he might have liv'd to this Day But you and your Crew perswaded him he was above Laws and that the Statutes of the Realm signified nothing no longer than they would serve his Turn who therefore made no Conscience of the Sitting of Parliaments for redress of Grievances 2ly These Laws relating to Parliaments do also fully agree with the Coronation Oath your Brother took and solemnly made to his People viz. To grant fulfil and defend all rightful Laws which the Commons of the Realm shall chuse and to strengthen and maintain them to the utmost of his Power But Sir suppose any of the Learned in the Laws of the Realm should stand at your Elbow as Tom Jenner or Old Holloway or any of that Crew and tell you that your Brother did not take any such Oath To this I may say that if he did not the Nation had the more wrong but I never heard yet that any had the Impudence to deny it I confess when you shuffled on the Crown it was said some things were abated for which those concerned in that Ceremony ought to have been hanged 3ly Those Laws do also fully agree with Magna Charta it self which hath been confirmed to us by 40 Parliaments at least which saith We shall deny nor defer to no Man Justice and Right much less to the whole Parliament and Kingdom in denying and deferring to pass such necessary Bills the Necessities of the People call for Had Old Brown had but half the Honesty of an Irish Rapparee he would not have consented to your Brother's dropping of a Bill in the Year 1680 it was intituled An Act for repealing an Act of the 35th of Q. Elizabeth a good Bill to have preserved the Protestant Dissenters But your Party had some barbarous Murders and Outrages to commit and could not well go on with their Show unless such a Bill as that of Q. Elizabeth was in Force so that it might now and then aid and assist your everlasting Holy Cut-throats in their bloody Conspiracy against God and his Christ Object But you may say That your Brother and Father and several other Princes have otherwise practised by dissolving or proroguing Parliaments at
their Pleasures before Grievances were redressed and publick Bills of Common-Safety passed because to dissolve and prorogue at Pleasure is a Privilege which belongs to the Crown Answ This word Prorogue is but a new-fangled Business a thing brought up in latter Days but as for dissolving Parliaments at Pleasure that has been the Practice of our former wicked Kings by the Advice of their Roguish Ministers and Judges who laid aside all Law Honour Honesty and Conscience to prostitute themselves to the abominable Lust of a filthy Prince who designed nothing less than the Ruin of the Kingdom What your Father did I will not here concern my self but what your Brother did by your Procurement is my Province at this Time Your Brother when he held his French Parliament at New-Market in 1677 where most of the Rogues and Whores of the Court were present and your gracious Self waiting on him did much aggrandize himself by that Glorious Assembly Upon April 16. the Parliament at Westminster was adjourned till May 21. following Immediately upon the Recess the Duke of Crequi aâ—d that modest sober chaste Man of God the A. Bp of Rheims and Monsâ—eur Barillon and a Train of 3 or 400 Persons of all Qualities appear'd there so that the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of France with so many of their Commons made it look like an old-fashioned French Parliament And the Parliament at Westminster had been adjourned for their better Reception But what Address they made to the King or what Acts passed at that Noble Parliament I cannot tell they having not been yet published But I suppose they were these that follow 1. An Act for continuing his Majesty's Subjects in the Service of France 2. An Act for enabling the Dutchess of Cleveland to use the Arch-Bishop of Paris for her Father-Confessor c. 3. An Act to discharge her Grace from farther Attendance upon the King 4. An Act to constitute the French Gentlewoman to be Whore in her room and a Spy for the French King 5. An Act to enable Nell Waal to be Woman and Bawd in ordinary to the said French Gentlewoman and his Sacred Majesty 6. An Act to supply the Extraordinary Occasions of that Whore Portsmouth and her Woman Nell Waal 7. An Act to enable the Dutchess of Portsmouth in order to her Health to possess and enjoy a certain Apartment in a House-Royal called the Lock situate at the end of Kent-street and Nell to have the Reversion after her decease in case of Necessity 8. An Act for the further Supply of French-Money in order to enslave the Kingdom of 3000000 Livres per Annum 9. An Act for enabling James Duke of York to go on with his Conspirators in the Conspiracy against the Laws Liberties and Religion of the People of England and to demand the French King's Purse Credit and Interest for his Help and Assistance 10. An Act to invest Edward Coleman with the Sum of 20000 l. and a good Pension from the French King for his great Services done and to be done for the Catholick Religion and French Interest 11. An Act of Abolition of all Claims and Demands from the Subjects of France on Account of all Prizes made of the English at Sea since the Year 1674 till that Day and for the future 12. Act to supply the extraordinary Needs of the Pensioners at Westminster 13. An Act to continue the Sham-Alliance with the States-General of the Vnited-Provinces There were I suppose several Private Bills in favour of the Pimps Bawds and Whores that were not sworn in Ordinary but passed the Royal Assent as I may suppose because at that time all things between England and France moved with that punctual Regularity that it was like the Harmony of the Spheres so consonant with themselves tho I could not hear the Musick I pray Sir let us know in your next Declaration what other Secret Bills were passed in that August Assembly wherein the Affairs of Peace and War were transacted with the greatest Confidence and when good Boys they had done their Master's Business with your Brother's Aid and Help they were adjourned from New-Market to London where they dissolâ—ed themselves without your Brother's Prerogative to make way for the Westminster Parliament and so rubb'd off with all Demonstration of mutual Affection and Friendship Alas Sir these were Matters of that Import that they required all imaginable Expedition and Secresy and it would have been the highest Presumption for the poor Pensioners in the Westminster Parliament to have intermedled with them Alas if they had been admitted to end the Work it might have ended in their own Dissolution in order to a couragious running away You say by way of Objection Your Partisans made that which your Brother and other Kings did by their Prerogative Royal dissolve Parliaments before Grievances were redressed and necessary Bills past because things did not move with that punctual Regularity between your Brother and them that was between him and the French King I pray what was the Reason Had they not had Gratuities at the Charge of the Nation Or had the Dutchess of Portsmouth jilted them out of the French King's Blessing which the Duke of Crequi and the Arch-Bishop of Rheims brought them of 200000 Lewis d' Ores Who can tell what to say to these things It is no wonder then that Crew of Voters were grown resty and did not move regularly Well what then the Parliament must not sit till some State-Clockmaker had mended their Motions and made them go true the House then had some good Bills over which they roared only and then were sent Home by a blast of Prerogative-Breath Had your Brother any other Prerogative but what the Law gave him and what he was invested with at his Coronation If he had let us know it but for once I will grant he prorogued and dissolved Parliaments at his Pleasure to serve you and your Cut-throat Crew It doth not therefore follow that he had a Right so to do according to a Maxim I learned almost 30 Years since A facto ad jus non valet consequentia especially when such Prorogations and Dissolutions are against so many express and positive Laws such Principles of Common Right and Justice and so many particular Ties and Obligations to the contrary Your Brother might by the Advice of wicked Statesmen and villanous Judges pretend to a Prerogative the Law had given him of which nothing ever was known unless revealed by some French Maxims learned abroad in his Travels Yet such a Prerogative could not justify such Practices for if he had been invested with such Prerogatives by the Law yet the Law could give none to destroy it self and those it protects But Old Hodg and his Inferior Clergy may interpose and say Had not King Charles his Prerogative founded upon Law Who questions Sir but the Kings of England had their Prerogatives Yet observe what Old Bracton saith Pag. 487. That tho the Common Law allows many
been privy to it yet the Jesuits well knew it was impossible for you that was converted to that degree of Zeal for the Romish Religion and French Interest to have given ground in that Affair Now Sir I hope your Villains here will be fully satisfied that it was possible for the Popish Party to carry on such a Design as this in opposition to a Parliament which is a great Proof of your Aversness to Parliaments But to come close to the Point That your Nature and Temper in relation to your Politicks demonstrated your Aversness to English Parliaments the Jesuits you know were very industrious with you for the Promotion of their Religion which you consented to and what did you in order to this Did you not lay some Foundations for Popery in order to its being established Were there not Judges Justices of the Peace Sheriffs and other Judiciary Officers of your procuring in order to deprave the Law of the Nation and defile the Throne of Justice I pray how did the villanous Judges use even the Protestant Laws to open the first Gate to Slavery and our Laws being in their Hands did they not use them as barbarously as they could to the Discouragement of Vertue and promoting Vice Did not your Brother's Ministers of State betray our Liberties What Remedy had the People If a Session of Parliament was near you so hated them upon this very Principle of Arbitrary Power that either the Session was put off for a longer time or else it was to be so short that Grievances could not be redressed and when you got a Period put to a Session your wicked Judges were to play their Parts with the Laws whilst your Ministers were ravishing all our Liberties from us and as for Religion you had a Set of Apostolical Caterpillars who were to manage that for your Service and Interest These Measures of yours taken from your Popish Crew had rendred you so out of love to an English Parliamentary Government that you were at one time looked upon by Parliament the greatest Grievance of the Nation the universal Object of their Hate and Fear and the Subject of their Clamours and Curses At whose door did all the Discontents and Murmurs lie but at yours Were not the Murmurs so violent against you that they became a great part of the Complaints of good Men to Heaven in their own and their Country's Behalf Nay Murmurs were so bold that your Brother was attackt with them for did they not look upon you as Jupiter's Stork amongst the Frogs Notwithstanding all your former Glories and Conquests your whole Stock of Fame was lost and buried in your Apostacy from the Protestant Religion How all this and an innate Love to your Country and its Government could stand together I leave to wiser Men to judg We saw you design'd to make us submit to an Arbitrary Power Our Magna Charta was to have been destroyed by you and your Cut-throats our Religion and Liberties to have been abolished Popery and a Despotick Power set up the Lords and Commons extirpated and all to have devolved into you when they had given the fatal Blow that you might have set up Idols and Molten Calves and we have bowed down to them Now Sir consider who the Man was that took such Measures and laid such Designs and if it were possible for him to love an English Protestant Parliament I 'll be his Slave To conclude this Head Did you not by these Politicks of yours fet the whole Kingdom in a Flame and then please your self with it When you burnt our City you and your Party sung Te Deum for Joy whilst others were astonished at the dismal Sight Did not your unbounded Thirst for innocent Blood make the Kingdom of England a Slaughter-house And might you have had your Will you would have made Smithfield your Original Shambles It is well known Sir how you loved humane Sacrifices and what Measures you took from France and Rome to propagate your Cause is not yet forgotten nor I hope never will 3. Let us consider your Nature and Temper as to your Morals from which we will demonstrate your Disaffection and Aversion to Parliaments What Morality could we expect from you that was and still is a Papist and a bigotted one too And being so all your Morals are but Slaves to your Zeal Nay had you been Master of all the Cardinal Vertues there 's not one but must have been used to destroy our Religion Laws and Liberties Your Fortitude and Courage if ever you had any made you the more daring to push on Rome's Religion and the French Interest and to withstand the Opposition you met withal in Parliament Your Justice you made use of to restore the Power and Authority of the Bishop of Rome believing him to be Christ's lawful Vicar and Peter's true Successor and the said Office including the Ecclesiastical Supremacy you declared it your Duty to give the Pope the same Right over the Consciences of the People of England as you had to succeed your Brother tho through his Blood Let us consider Sir your Temperance which for once I will suppose you to be Master of too not for the publick Good but only to testify that you could conceal your Passions which were great enough to do publick Mischief for you had always a most firm Resolution to ruin these Kingdoms As for your Constancy it was no more than fixed Obstinacy But it may be your Party may say you were never heard to rage or scarce seen to frown how true that may be I cannot tell for I never was your Pimp or Admirer and therefore cannot pretend to that Familiarity with you that some may Yet what was your Temperance and Constancy but fit Pillars to support your damnable Designs against the Religion and Government of these three Kingdoms But Sir if we should again take a view of your admirable Temperance in its larger Signification that is a Denial of worldly Desires it was still worse and worse for when you voluntarily took up your Cross and quitted your great Employments under your Brother you left the Management of those Offices to Villains of a deeper dye than the rest of Mankind who still carried on your Design to destroy us you only quitted the toil of the Power and left it to your subordinate Villains In the last place we will comply with your Admirers and Flatterers and own you had Prudence if you had it was the worse for us because that and that alone could be your Trump-Gard the only leading Vertue that managed your Conduct in all your Hellish Plots and Designs with that Care and Art that you made a fair Progress in effecting the Business of Rome as to Religion and of the French King as to Arbitrary Power to enslave and pox us both in Religion and Liberty To give you your due you ripened that mighty Work you and Coleman had upon your Hands to a mighty Perfection
had your spiritual Myrmidons throughout the Kingdom roaring from their Pulpits against the Proceedings of those Parliaments by the Instruction of some of their Superiours this by the help of new Matter the Court instructed them in lasted several years so that they were rather Court-Agents to carry on some design than Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God But alas when the Tithe-pig began to squeak they turned their Discourses another way Truly Sir to give the pious Herd of your Ecclesiastical Swine their due they will do any thing to serve you if they can but enjoy their Swill and Grains poor Wretches I never met with any of them that would lose a Meal to save either King or Kingdom 8. You had your Rascals in the most publick Coffee-houses who spent their time chiefly in railing at Parliaments that they were unuseful and were bringing 40 and 41 again upon the Stage that they had a Design to ruin the King by giving no Money and starving his Servants nay Sir they were so insolent as to offer all Indignity to those Gentlemen that had served in any of those Parliaments for doing of which they were not only incouraged by your Grace and Favour in your Smiles but were also well rewarded The Particulars might be set down but I leave them to reply upon those that shall pretend to answer this or any part of it provided they put their Names to their Answer as I have done to this my Memorial otherwise I shall not take notice of any Scribler in your Party You have your Friend Sherridan one of your Devil's Brokers in Ireland and honest Togra Smith another excellent Partisan of yours nay you have a Set of Case-hardned Villains that would if they durst be barking at the Government the Rogues stand still for want of Business I pray give them orders to disprove any part of the truth of what I now write if you do you have a notorious Rogue the Quondam Bp. of Kilmore that walks in your Quondam Park of St. James's he is still a Malignant and hates our English Government you would do well to send for him for he would be a main Champion with you in the Case of governing by Parliaments The Sum of all which is this You may reflect upon the various ways you and your Party took to expose three Parliaments by which you shewed your self an Enemy of all English Parliaments and therefore we could not but judg who were the Men that would poison the People and change the Government even the Enemies of the Constitution and of those who endeavoured to preserve the old English Government Fourthly The unreasonableness of the ill usage of those Parliaments shews you an Enemy to Parliaments in general You cannot but remember what amaâ—â—ment seized every good Man to see two of the greatest Parliaments England ever knew dissolved within the space of three Months I confess the Kings of England have in a great measure been intrusted by the Kingdom with appointing the times of the Sitting and Dissolving of Parliaments but lest thro' defect of Age Experience or Understanding they should forget or mistake our Constitution or by Passion private Interest or the Influence of evil Counsellors be so far misled as not to assemble Parliaments when the publick Affairs require it or should declare them dissolved before the Ends of their Meeting were accomplished the Wisdom of our Forefathers has provided divers Laws both for holding Parliaments annually and oftner if need be and that they should not be put off till all the Bills were passed all Petitions answered and Grievances â—edressed But to be more particular with you I will ask you a few Questions which if any of your Teagues can answer me on your behalf they shall be my Counsellors I assure you if ever I come to be Duke of Modena 1. What Precedent can be produced for such a Dissolution amongst our antient Records in Parliament held in the times of our antient English Kings We are taught by the Writ of Summons that Parliaments are never called without the Advice of the Council and the usage of all Ages has never been to send them away without the same Advice Now if these Methods of calling and dismissing Parliaments were safe then not to pursue them was to expose the King to the Censures and Reflections of the whole Nation for an Action not only illegal and uncustomary but also very ungrateful to the People 2. Have not the Laws of the Land taken great care to make the King always dear to the People and to preserve his Person sacred in their Esteem by wisely preventing his appearing in any Action that may be unacceptable to them Now was the Dissolution of three Parliaments nay four in the compass of 26 Months acceptable to the People Ought you not then to have used your Interest with him to have acted according to the Laws and Customs of Parliaments which would have rendred you both acceptable to the People And had he given himself leasure to have had this debated in Council because then his Counsellors must have answered for their Advice you and your Brother had remained Honourable in the Eyes of the Nation and not have been judged guilty of such Orders as were not only irregular but also very illegal 3. Suppose you should say the King commanded it to be done and his Ministers were bound to obey and therefore are justified yet Sir let me tell you that the Ministers that advised and assisted in the Administration of Affairs could not justify an unlawful Action under Colour of the King's Commands since all his Commands contrary to Law were in themselves void which is the true reason of that old Maxim in the Law That the King can do no wrong a Maxim not only true in self but safe for a Prince and Subject too for certainly it was Nonsense in your Brother's Favourites to think of excusing their many Enormities under pretence of their Master's Command The truth is it was so unreasonable that the Privy Council was ignorant of the thing and surprised at it not being worthy to be trusted with it but the French Whore near St. James's House had the News of the Parliament's being to be dissolved two days before we knew of it at Oxford so that it was a Work of darkness concerted between Barillon and Portsmouth and the King resolved upon it by their Advice 4. Would it not have been unreasonable in your Brother and you to have dismissed the 12 Judges from sitting in Term-time and from going the several Circuits that Justice and Judgment might not be done Now that Parliaments should meet and sit for Redress of Grievances and making good and wholesome Laws by the same Sacred Tie whereby at his Coronation he obliged himself to let his Judges sit to distribute Justice every Term and in both the Seasons of the Year in their Circuits and to preserve inviolably all the Rights and Liberties of
often demanded in vain was according to the Law of Nations and the Rules of Justice nay Sir we might have been engaged in his Quarrel with old Kate's native Country which we ought to have had special regard of for the Blessing they sent us in 1662. And pray what was the Quarrel Truly nothing but a treacherous seizing the Island of St. Gabriel which the Portuguese had peaceably enjoyed several Years upon which you know Jack the Portuguese invaded some part of the Spanish Country Also by virtue of this Alliance we were even obliged to assist the Spaniard in case of any disturbance in his own Dominions You and your Brother were admirable good at secret Articles and in one of those it is plainly expressed we were to furnish him 8000 Men for 3 Months so that if he inclin'd to make his Subjects as great Slaves to the Crown as they are to the Church our good King was to assist him in so good a Work Truly Sir when I reflect on Philip the Second's Barbarity to the People of the Low Countries whom our Ancestors thought fit to succour I could not but think this Alliance now under debate was for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Good of the Nation because my Lord Hallifax and old Lauderdale told me so and therefore as the Stars would have it it was not fit the League should be laid before the Parliament lest they should think so too and find a blind side or two in it and think it would contribute but little to the Good of the Nation or securing the Peace of poor Flanders Well Sir your Cake proved Dough that bout for there was Death in the Pot a standing Army aimed at in England that would not down with us at that time of which you were to have been General that would have done more good Business upon Hounslow-Heath than in Flanders for they were not to help the Spaniard till the French had invaded them three Months and it 's well known he could then have been Master of a considerable part of that Country But yet no Money came nor can I help it if I should cry my Eyes out let me therefore be a little more particular with you and ask two or three Questions it may be we may find some Expedient they might have used to allay the matter on your side Now supposing this League the best that ever could be made yet 1. Had not the Parliament just Cause to be very jealous of your Brother's Sincerity in this Alliance and the more because he would not declare what it was nor suffer it to be laid before them Therefore had it been the best in Christendom nay as good as that between him and Cleveland and Mother Knight the Bawd which he had broken for several years or that that was then in being between Mrs. Portsmouth and her Woman Nell Waall yet what could they say to such a League or what Security could they have that it should be kept more than the Triple League or that with the Prince of Orange or that with the States General which were all broken almost as soon as made 2. The Parliaments of England had been ill used by you and your Banditti and therefore you must allow this not to meet with that Temper you desir'd who after they had heard of this Alliance were not suffered so much as to have it laid before them to consider of tho it had been before your Council at St. James's and Barillon the French Ambassadour had perused it and was privy to the secret Article in it and had not like a Man of Truth given a Copy of it to one that let some have a sight of it Surely Sir you and your Party could not but provoke a Parliament by these Carriages and how then could you expect Money to support this new Alliance 3. I pray Sir how was it possible any good could come to Christendom in general or to these Nations in particular by this new Alliance It is plain that all Christendom after the separate Peace with the Dutch could not preserve Spain and the Spanish Netherlands from falling under the Dominion of the French King how then could your Brother by this new Alliance be in a Condition to support them without the Dutch since by the help of you and your Traitors he brought this Nation into a distracted and deplorable Condition Nay Sir one word more What good could these Kingdoms expect by this Alliance since thereby all the Hardships imaginable were put upon our Traders both to Spain and the West-Indies and had that King been as able as willing he would have let you known it ' ere this time 4. Was it not unreasonable to ask Money for the support of this League tho we suppose it the best that ever was made Your Brother was the first King that ever asked Money to support Alliances I have read of Kings when by the Advice of Parliament they have made War upon any of their Neighbours they have called for Money to carry it on with Vigour but I never find any of our Kings that ever called for Money to support Alliances especially when they were justly ashamed to declare what they were 5. Again Your Crew I confess at that time made a horrid noise about the Spanish Alliance and wondered the Parliament would give no Money to maintain it Alas Sir there was never yet an Alliance made with any State in Christendom if a good one but would earn its own living and therefore needed no Money to support it if it were a bad one I am sure it deserved none 6. Once more and I 'll conclude this Point since your Party made such a noise about the Spanish Alliance pray Sir how was it kept If my Memory fails not it was not over-well observed for I think in 1682. your Ally the French King blocked up Luxemburgh and in the year my Lord Russel was murdered took Courtray one of the six Towns delivered up by the French to the Spaniard and keeps it to this Day as he doth Luxemburgh which he took by force in 1684. Now I do not find your Brother ever assisted this Confederate of his according to the tenour of the Alliance or as he was Guarantee in the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle which in his excellent Declaration of War against the Dutch he declared he would maintain Upon the whole I see no reason why the Parliament should have given any Money to support this Alliance 2. As the Parliament would give no Money for the support of this Alliance so neither for the support of Tangier this stuck mightily in your Stomach and in the Maws of all your Party Now Sir Tangier being most valiantly deserted it deserves not to be mentioned but because it so highly offended your Friends who to this day mention it with reluctancy I will say a word or two to it It is some years since that the Commons of England to
of Protestants but against all they were sensible what Advantages your Popish Crew had made of our Divisions and observed with what Subtlety they had escaped Prosecution by the Laws in force against them by fomenting our Jealousies they saw the Strength and Greatness of the French King and how his Interest had been advanced by your Brother and you and judged of his Inclinations by his bloody Usage of his own Protestant Subjects they considered the Number of the Irish Papists and their bloody Principles and Practices and what Conspiracies were formed in that Kingdom and were ripe for Execution and that Scotland was in the Hands of you and your Villains and that you was the Head of the Popish and Popishly affected Party in the three Kingdoms they had with Grief observed that all the Places of Trust both Civil and Military were in the Hands of the avowed Enemies of the Laws and Liberties of England and notwithstanding all the humble Addresses made to the King and all his Proclamations for a strict Execution of the Penal Laws against Papists yet your villanous Faction evaded those Laws and went scotfree and only the poor Protestant Dissenters smarted under their Severity The Case being thus certainly that House of Commons had as much Reason to think of an Union amongst Protestants in 1680 as your Brother had if ever he spake Truth in 1679. And can you think they had any just Ground to believe that the Protestant Dissenters whilst under such Pressures and Provocations should chearfully and couragiously undertake the Defence of their Countrey since by it they had been and then were so ill treated Experience taught them it was in vain to force us to be of one Opinion and therefore the Commons took a very probable way to unite us in Affection 2. It is true they made this Vote not to arrogate to themselves a suspending Power but to shew they had a repealing Power They well knew that your busy Rascals would be striking whilst there were Weapons at hand and therefore that the Land might be in Peace they designed to take away all Occasions of Provocation from each other and resolved to take away those Penal Laws that occasioned them and accordingly began with a Vote declaring the Necessity of it to which if I am not much mistaken there was not one Negative in the House and a Vote of this nature did but precede the bringing in a Bill for the Repeal of that or those Laws they had voted grievous and inconvenient With what Face could you or your Party revile a Parliament for so regular a Proceeding according to the Custom and Usage of Parliaments How could you call the voting of a Law or Laws grievous and inconvenient a suspending of Acts of Parliament and charge them with Contempt of the Law established 3. We will suppose the Commons did not intend to bring in a Bill to repeal the Laws then in force against Dissenters for the Vote was not made to assume a Power of suspending Acts of Parliament neither did they require the Judges to forbear the Execution of them who were bound to see them performed but they only delivered their Opinion as a Matter of great Concern in that Juncture and notwithstanding the Noise your Cattel made it was wise and pious Counsel and tho it could neither command nor secure the Judges or Justices from doing their Duties if required yet we might have justly expected those that had the Management of Affairs to have hearkened in so plain a Case to the Voice of the Nation or given them or other Parliaments a Measure how to confide in them and the Judges and Justices had they not received Direction from your Brother and you were in Discretion and Conscience as much obliged to omit the Execution of those Laws as that of Bows and Arrows and several other Statutes then if not still in force but out of Use If our Ceremony-mongers had but given themselves leave to think and their Romish Zeal would have let them remembred they were obliged to put on Bowels of Compassion they would have found their Proceedings against their Protestant Brethren could not be justified either by Scripture or the Practice of the Primitive Church where nothing was so common as different Rites and Ceremonies nay Doctrines amongst them and yet the Band of Charity and Love maintained and Christians never learnt to persecute till Wealth and Secular Power did attend Religion and the Prince and Church made use of each other to enslave the World 4. Had not the Parliament reason to make that Vote charge them with what Usurpation you please since it was your constant Practice to inflame the Differences you had made thereby to betray us into the Religion of Rome and the Government of the French King therefore the united Strength of all Protestants was little enough to withstand you I pray let me ask you one Question why might not a Parliament attempt to make Abatements in the Terms of Conformity or dispense with the Ceremonies of the Church when those Ceremonies the Form of Worship and the very Hierarchy it self could plead no other Authority by which they are enjoined than some Acts of Parliament Nay Sir the Commons saw there was a Necessity of passing this Vote for your Popish Crew had poxt a Number of Men that pretended to be so zealous for the Protestant Religion that nothing could serve the turn for its Preservation but a Popish Head and tho the sorry Rogues were a Disgrace to any Religion yet they were so dangerously infected that they thought the Dissenters were equally if not more dangerous than the Papists to the Government tho they well knew the Dissenters had never sworn to any foreign Jurisdiction or Power The Parliament therefore seeing such a Division made in order to weaken our Hands and make us a Prey to your Teeth made this Vote in order to strengthen the Protestant Interest by which they manifested a Resolution of repealing those Laws that were used as Scorpions by our Clergy-men and scoundrel Justices to destroy their quiet and peaceable Neighbours 5. A fifth Pretence starts up in your Vindication and pricks up its Ears one would have thought some Countrey Vicar in his Study over the Oven had contrived and sent it up to you sweetly drest and it struts so daintily that I must not let it go without its due Consideration What is it then truly the House of Commons issued out Arbitrary Orders for taking Persons into Custody for Matters that related not to Privileges of Parliament Truly this is a pretty sort of Pretence surely the Parson's Wife or Daughter had a Hand in finding this Business out but it shall have its due Weight and therefore I shall say these three things 1. We will suppose they did issue forth Orders for taking Men into Custody for Matters that had no relation to Privileges of Parliament yet that House of Commons might have had this to say for
themselves that they had erred with their Fathers the Power of that House concerning taking Men into Custody had not then nor to this Day has received an exact Adjustment and therefore wants not Precedents of the like Nature and if they were Arbitrary Orders they were such as had been executed by Parliaments many a fair Year before your Sires of the antient Kingdom of Scotland were born and since Orders of the same nature had been made by Parliaments in the times of our antient Kings these Orders might have been passed by and not branded with the reproachful Name of being Arbitrary 2. Tho we have supposed that the Commons might issue out those Orders yet they took none into Custody by such Orders but what might well be supposed guilty of Breaches of Privilege in the highest Degree the Truth is when Parliaments met annually or at least frequently we find few or no Complaints but when they were not frequent but there were long Intervals of Parliament the Consequence of which was long sitting which began within these two hundred Years there were some Complaints of the Breaches of Privilege as in the time of Hen. 8. the 4th of Edw. 6. and in the time of Q. Eliz. when the Justice of the Commons hath been applauded by our former Kings for asserting their Privileges and not stigmatized for exerting an Arbitrary Power 'T is true the most notorious thing that could be fixed upon that House was the Fees extorted by the Serjeant of the House who tho he attends the House of Commons yet he ought to have considered that he was the King's Officer and by Law no Officer of the King 's shall take any Fee or Reward for doing his Office but what he receives from the King upon Penalty of returning double to the Plaintiff and being further punished at the Will of the King but of this you and your Party took no notice because the then Serjeant was a Creature of your own tho I think he smarted for it and your Brother laughed at his Calamity in the Case of an Under-Sheriff of Norfolk Therefore I say that to assert that their Orders that were made for the taking Men into Custody were for Matters that had no relation to Privileges of Parliament was an impudent Lie for there were a Number of Men who to distinguish themselves from the rest of their Countrey had basely given their Hands for Abhorrences of Parliaments and of those who most humbly petitioned for their sitting in a time of such extream Necessity their Names I will give that you may put a Mark of Favour upon those of them that are alive whenever they shall have occasion to meet you at St. Germains You may remember that House did fall upon such as had countenanced the Popish Plot and were Abhorrers of petitioning for the sitting of Parliaments and voted that it was and ever had been the undoubted Right of the Subjects to petition the King for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments and Redress of Grievances and that to traduce such Petitioning as a Violation of Duty and to represent it to his Majesty as tumultuous and seditious is to betray the Liberty of the Subject and contributes to the subverting the antient and legal Constitution of this Kingdom and introducing Arbitrary Power The first that fell under these Votes was Withens that was knighted for his Abhorring and after made a Judg he was expelled the House and voted a Betrayer of the undoubted Rights of the Subjects of England and received his Sentence at the Bar of the House he is yet alive I suppose he and his Brother Jenner may set up at St. Germains for Expounders of our Law in good time The next was Sir George Jefferies then Recorder of London against whom they voted an Address to the King to remove him out of all publick Offices and that the Members which served for the City should communicate the Vote to the Court of Aldermen There were several others that upon the same Account were taken into Custody as Sir Giles Phillips Mr. Coleman Capt. William Castle Mr. John Hutchinson Mr. Henry Walrond Mr. William Stawel Mr. Thomas Herbert Mr. Sheridon and Parson Thompson of Bristol And because Sir Francis North the Chief Justice of the Common-pleas advised and assisted in drawing up a Proclamation against petitioning for the sitting of the Parliament the Commons voted it a sufficient Ground to proceed against him for high Crimes and Misdemeanours the like Vote passed against Sir Thomas Jones one of the Judges of the King's Bench and upon Sir Richard Weston one of the Barons of the Exchequer but they went higher with Scroggs for they impeached him of High Treason for discharging the Grand Jury of Middlesex before they had finished their Presentments and for the Order made in the King's-Bench against Care 's Pacquet of Advice from Rome That it should be no more printed or published by any Person Well Sir what say you now to these Vermine Those now alive are still the same Rogues and your very humble Servants and Admirers and I could wish you had them with you at St. Germains being pretty Company and worthy of your Favour indeed to give them their Due they have been pretty false in their Oaths to King William whom some of your Party stile Prince of Orange These were the Men that House of Commons did censure I pray Sir on with your Spectacles and see whether the Crimes they were guilty of had no Relation to Privileges of Parliaments surely your Friends when they charged the House of Commons with this Crime were not in good earnest if they were they shall have a Rowland for their Oliver I 'll be in good earnest too and let them know that if the Privileges of Parliament be concerned when an Injury is done to a particular Member how much more when they strike at Parliaments themselves and endeavour to wound the very Constitution Nay in the Case of Sheridon who afterwards troubled the Nation with a Litter of scandalous Pamphlets upon that Account 't is plain that his Commitment was only in order to examine him about the Popish Plot and his Endeavours to stifle it Do not you know that Sheridon Say you never did yet let me tell you it was you instructed him how he should behave himself to the House whose Behaviour indeed was with as much Contempt and Insolency as if you or your Father had been demanding some of the Members and therefore they had reason surely to commit him Thompson you know him too very well he was zealous in divers Breaches of Privilege to serve you and the Popish Party witness his Usage of poor Bedlow and the rest of the Discoverers of the Popish Plot yet his Commitment was only in order to an Impeachment and as soon as they had gone through with his Examination he was set at Liberty giving Security to answer the Impeachment they had voted against him But 3. What if the Matters
Nell Waal or Barillon could have for their Lives Notwithstanding all this you may remember how it inveighed against the King with all the bitterness imaginable and incited all Men to rebel against him in order to destroy his Person and yours This Paper as villanous as it was against the King was by him Portsmouth and her Bawd Nell and Barillon ordered to be conveyed into the Pockets and Lodgings of several Noblemen Gentlemen and others that when they were seized and this found upon them they should be charged with Treason and Rebellion and the finding of this upon them should be a Proof of the same The Tool that was to carry on this Roguery was Fitz-Harris who was to be one of the Witnesses to swear this Conspiracy designed by the Protestants and your Conspirators had prepared the Business to be laid in Oxford-shire Buckingham-shire and Bark-shire that this Villany might not miscarry but be believed by the Juries that should be pack'd in those Counties in order to a speedy Justice upon the pretended Criminals But Sir as well laid as this Design was it proved to be a Brat of Popish Extraction and the Midwives were that Whore Portsmouth and trusty Nell her Bawd with whom you would have engaged in Person had not the Catholick Cause called for your Presence in Scotland but I suppose let who will believe it that you know nothing of the Business I shall prove you in it in its proper place Well then the nature of the Crime and the King your Brother Barillon and the two Strumpets aforenam'd being engaged in this piece of Villany and several great Persons being to be destroyed surely deserved an Inquiry which an Oxford-Jury neither could or would ever make for they it may be in the Multitude of their Mercies would have dealt with other Protestants as they did by poor Colledge whom they basely murdered to please your Brother and you That House of Commons as if endowed with a Prophetick Spirit unanimously agreed that none but the Parliament was capable of looking into the bottom of this Affair both in its Original and Tendency and the more zealous they were for that the more they saw the Zeal of the Judges and the inferiour Courts in Westminster-Hall abated in relation to the Popish Plot and its Discovery but heightned for you and your Party against the Protestants and that those Blood-hounds thirsted after their Blood that asserted the Laws and Liberties of England Truly to speak the best I can of those Judges they were much changed for the worse as appeared in the Trials of Wakeman Gascoyne and others that were in the Popish Conspiracy and in good truth Sir the Oxford House of Commons were the more jealous and could you blame them for when this Fitz-Harris was sensible of his Crime or at least of his Danger and had begun to tell Tales he was removed out of the Legal Custody of the Sheriffs and illegally committed close Prisoner to the Tower to the great astonishment of all sober Men. That Parliament therefore had no other way to have the Prosecution effectual and the Judgment according to the Laws of the Land and that Fitz-Harris should not lie under any hopes but by impeaching him for they well knew that no Pardon could stop their Sail tho it might the King's Now Sir consider how this Pretence of yours could justify the Dissolution of that Parliament 9thly The last Pretence I shall mention which you had for dissolving the three last Parliaments was their bringing in a Bill to exclude you and to render you incapable of inheriting the Imperial Crown of this Realm This was the best Pretence you and your Party could make for doing so wicked a thing so pernicious to the Peace of the Kingdom but if I destroy this Goliah I trust you will quit it and let it take its fate with the others There were many of your Party that used several Arguments against that Bill which I shall take notice of 1. The Conspirators did impudently assert that the Bill of Exclusion was unlawful and therefore in it self null and void especially since the King had declared against it Some of them were pretended Protestants and had been for some time educated in the University under a Parcel of High-church-Loggerheads they even they were tainted with this Notion that was fit for none but such as believed Transubstantiation Now Sir if it were against Law it must be against a written or an unwritten Law if it were against a written Law your Party should have named it which when they had done they should have named that Parliament that ever was bound up by any written Law if we take them in their Legislative Capacity as we must do in this Case and to declare that a Parliament is bound up by written Laws in their Legislative Capacity is both destructive and absurd 1. It was destructive the Parliament being the fundamental Court and Law of the Kingdom and ordained to make Laws and see them executed or to supply their Deficiency according to the present Exigency for Preservation of the Peace and Safety of the People which is universally in them but not so in particular Laws and Statutes which cannot provide against future Exigencies as the Law of Parliaments doth and therefore were not Limits to those Parliaments and it would have been farther destructive by depriving those Parliaments of half their Power at once whenever they should be circumscribed by written Laws in their Legislative Capacity which is a peculiar Property belonging only to inferiour Courts of Law and Justice but not to the Parliament of England which is the Supream Court but must have ceased to be so and have divested it self of that inherent and uncircumscribed Power which the Safety of the People comprehends and requires 2. It was absurd in the Conspirators to urge that the Bill of Exclusion was against Law and therefore null and void of it self for the Legislative Power of Parliament is to give Laws to England and not to receive any saving from the Nature and End of their own Constitution which as they give Parliaments a Being so the Parliaments make Laws for Preservation of themselves and the whole Kingdom they represent As for your unwritten Law it is to me like your unwritten Verities in the Church of Rome and the paltry Ceremonies of a Church that cannot be proved lawful either from the Command of Christ or the Practice of his Apostles if therefore by unwritten Law you mean Custom of Inheritance that 's against your Party by the Practices that have been both at home and abroad or if you mean the Equity of the thing then the Parliament in their Legislative Capacity were Judges of that or if you mean Prudence the Parliament being the Wisdom of the Nation are certainly Judges of that also From all which it undoubtedly follows that the Proposal of a Bill to exclude you from inheriting the Crown of this Realm was in it self
lawful because of the uncircumscribed Power of Parliaments in judging what is lawful and what is necessary for the Safety of the People by whom they are sent to Parliament for redress of Grievances which no written Law could provide against in an universal way So then it being lawful in it self to propose a Bill to exclude you from the Crown the doing it after your Brother had signified his Pleasure against the Bill could not make it against Law for I remember no Law written or unwritten that ever constituted him Lord of the Articles upon the Parliament which they were to debate and propose or not But what was his Will and Pleasure or the Pleasure of two or three Villains and Whores that joined with him in usurping such a Power altogether strange to our English Constitution of Parliament And I must tell you your Brother 's intolerable Stiffness in that Particular I cannot think was out of Kindness to you or from any suspicion he had of the Danger of the English Monarchy by such a Law but from the Influence of some ill Men engaged in the Conspiracy with you to destroy that Constitution who knowing your Brother's Inclination in that Particular as well as yours made it their Business to nourish in your Absence a Misunderstanding between him and the People whom you and he mortally hated justly fearing if he should ever have come to the due Temper of an English Monarch and to have a Sense of the Peoples Affection to him as the Father of the Kingdom he would have delivered up you and your Rogues who had infected him with that deadly Notion that the Interest of an English Parliament was not only distinct from but opposite to his Interest and Designs 2. Your Conspirators used to urge another Argument against the Bill of Exclusion no doubt your own first or they would never have presumed to use it so long till it was become thredbare viz. that the King could not comply with the House of Commons in it tho the Interest as well as the Desire of the People of England because it so nearly concerned him in point of Honour Justice and Conscience Your Brother and you were both Men of Honour Conscience and Justice of which you both made this Nation sensible Well since it was so let me argue upon the Topicks of Honour Justice and Conscience with you Had it not been honourable in your Brother to be true and faithful to his Word and Oath to keep and maintain the Religion and Laws established Nay Sir could any Man have thought it dishonourable in him to have loved the Safety and Welfare of his People and the true Religion established amongst them above the temporal Greatness of his Relations Was it not just in conjunction with his Parliament for his Peoples Safety to make use of a Power warranted by our English Laws and the Examples of former Ages Or where was his Justice that was the Father of his Country to expose his Children to ruin out of Fondness to a perverse Brother and to abandon the Religion Laws and Liberties of these Kingdoms which he was sworn to maintain and expose them to the Rage of you and your traiterous Jesuits who thought your selves in Conscience bound to subvert them Your Brother by his own might have remembered your Religion and what your Brother's Conscience was in relation to your Succession a cunning Man could scarce find out but if he had been a Protestant I might have asked what Conscience obliged him to ascend the Throne to overthrow the Protestant and set up the Popish Religion â—ir since your Brother insisted so much upon Honour Justice and Conscience I 'll say of him as I ought that he was a Papist yet I am sure he was bound in Honour Justice and Conscience to have preserved to the People of England their Religion Laws and Liberties and in conjunction with this Parliament to have secured them from being subverted by you and your Followers since withâ—â— much Duty and Affection they recalled him from a miserable Banishment attended with Poverty and Dishonour and chearfully placed him upon the Throne and enlarged his Revenue above what any of his Predecessors had enjoyed and gave him vaster Sums in 20 Years than had been given to all the Kings since William the Norman Where then was his Honour Conscience and Justice in leaving them to be destroyed by you It cannot be said he had therein more regard to the Government than to the Person that succeeded him seeing if he had passed the Bill of Exclusion he had no ways prejudiced the legal Monarchy which he did enjoy with all those Rights Prerogatives and Powers which his Ancestors did ever claim besides what he usurped against Law which yet the People quietly submitted to 3. A third Argument your Party used was That it was a hard Case that a Man should lose his Inheritance because of this or that Perswasion in Matters of Religion Truly Sir had your Case been only so I should have thought your Argument pretty strong but alas Popery was not in you and your Conspirators an innocent Perswasion of Men differing from others in religious Matters but a real Conspiracy against Christianity it self nor was this Inheritance your Cattel used to mention a bare Inheritance of a private Person without the Consideration of an Oâ—â—â—ce annexed to it which required you to be Par Officio I pray what did your Logger-heads mean when they made such a Noise about an Inheritance nothing less than a Government of three Kingdoms the Protection of several Nations the making of War and Peace for them the Preservation of their Religion the disposal of all publick Places and Revenues the Execution of all Laws with many other things of the greatest Importance Truly Sir these inconsiderate Persons were mightily out in their Claim for the three Parliaments had reason to look about them when they had reflected upon the Bloody Tenets of the Church of Rome and more particularly upon the hellish Conspiracy then discovered and at that Time carrying on with Vigour by your Popish and Popishly affected Traitors and finding you to be the avowed Head of this devillish Party could you with any Justice think they should not prevent as much as in them lay your being a Shepherd since you had declared your self a Wolf And since you were a Papist how could they believe you would ever appear in the Defence of the Protestant Religion I think this may suffice for this Argument 4. A fourth Argument against the Bill of Exclusion was the Oath of Allegiance taken to your Brother by the Parliament of England Truly I never heard the Argument from any but an Irish Man not but we had then Fools enow to invent such an Argument as we have at this Day to attempt your Restoration But their Arguments were as silly as their Plots and this is one of the most foolish Arguments could be used against such great and wise Assemblies as
hated Parliaments for your Father of ever-notorious Memory hated them and therefore tried Conclusions with Parliaments for 12 Years together 'T is true he did call that blessed Parliament in 1640 that would have redressed England's Grievances had they not been prevented by the factious Spirits of some whose Zeal was not according to Knowledg Dr. Gauden tells you that your Father call'd that Parliament in Novemb. 3. 1640. Not more by the Advice of others or by the Necessity of his own Affairs than by his own Choice and Inclination I could expect no better from a Baal's Priest than to begin with a Lie For what Man that lived in that Time knew not how the Case stood with Charles the First And besides if I had not Access to a King yet I could discover his Inclinations either by those that were about him and in favour with him or by the Currant of his Actions all which I say testified to the World your Father's strange aversness to a Parliament Those that were near him and most in favour with him were Courtiers and Rascally Prelats Vermin whose chief study was to find out how he stood inclined and to imitate him exactly and that which was his Will was their Doctrine concerning Parliaments and so it was with you But that I may proceed in some Method I shall shew 1. That Parliaments are the Right of the People 2. That they are an essential Part of the Government 3. That you hated them tho such and by consequence was an Enemy to the Government of England 1. That Parliaments are the Right of the People of England which they may claim in order to have their Grievances redressed the common Safety of the Nation provided for and their Religion Laws and Liberties secured For call to mind with delight if you can the wonderful Discovery and undeniable Confirmation of the Popish Plot which designed so much Ruin and Mischief to these Nations in all things both Civil and Sacred and the unanimous Sense and Censure of so many Parliaments upon it together with some Acts of Publick Justice upon many of the Traitors The Nation was not without hopes that since that cursed Design of introducing Popery and Slavery and the Murder of your Brother was discovered for the space of 30 Months at least some effectual Remedies should have been applied to prevent the Attempts of your Cut-throat Party upon us the better to secure the Religion and Government of the Nation and the Person of the King But by sad Experience we found that notwithstanding the vigorous endeavours of three Parliaments â—o provide proper and wholsome Laws to answer both Ends by your influencing a pack of Villains you and your Party were so prevalent as to stifle in the Birth those Righteous Endeavours of our Parliaments by many surprizing Prorogations and Dissolutions whereby the Fears and Dangers of the People daily encreased and the Spirits of you and your Party heightned to renew and multiply fresh Plots against the Religion Laws and Liberties of the Realm I will lay down some known Maxims that relate to a King and Parliament of England 1. You know the Kings of England can do nothing as Kings but what of Right they ought to do 2. The King can neither do wrong nor die 3. The King's Prerogative and the Subjects Liberty are determined by Law 4. The King has no Power but what the Law gives him and is called King from ruling well Rex à benè Regendo viz. according to Law and is only a King whilst he rules well but a Tyrant when he oppresses 5. That the Kings of England never appear more in their Glory and Majestick Sovereignty than in Parliaments 6. That the Prerogative of the Crown can do no wrong nor can it be a Warrant for so doing Now Sir having laid down some Truths relating to the Kings of England give me leave to lay before you some that relate to the Parliament 1. Then I say that the Parliament of England constitutes and gives a Being to the Government of England 2. A Parliament of England is to the Government what the Soul is to the Body which is only able to apprehend and understand the Symptoms of all Diseases threatning the Body Politick 3. A Parliament is the Bulwark of our Liberty the Boundary which keeps the People of England from the Inundation of Tyrannical Power and Government 4. Parliaments do make new and abrogate old Laws reform Grievances settle the Succession grant Subsidies and in a word may be called the Great Physician of the Kingdom From all which it appears if Parliaments are necessary in our Constitution that they must have their Times of Session and Continuation to provide Laws essentially needful for the being and well-being of the People and for redressing all Publick Grievances arising either for want of Laws or of undue execution of those in being or otherwise And sutable hereunto are those Provisions made by the Wisdom of our Forefathers as recorded by them both in the Common and Statute Law 1. Sir you was an excellent Man at the Common Law and so were your Gang at St. Germains and tho they have little occasion for it there yet I may refresh their Memories for having had so much leasure to study the Excellency of the French Religion and Government our Common Law may be forgotten by them Nay Rhyming Jack Carryl himself since the loss of his Estate may have resolved to forget the Law since he will not have so much occasion for it as he might have had if he had chosen Sussex instead of St. Germains and so may be at a loss to inform you I therefore give you a touch or so not that I pretend to cure the King 's Evil of the Common Law what it saith concerning Parliaments I pray Sir remember what old Coke saith one of your Grand-father's Judges who was a famous Lawyer and persecuted by him for you know what but never had the Courage to run away he tells us in one of his Law Books which your old Friend Jenner swears he never understood That the Common Law is founded in the immutable Law and Light of Nature agreeable to the Law of God requiring Order Government Subjection and Protection containing certain antient Vsages warranted by the Holy Scriptures and because given to all is therefore called Common Sir if you will send for your old Drudg Frank Withens I dare aver he cannot give you a better for his Life But you will say What is this to Parliaments Well Sir since this may pass the Understanding of your Dispensing Rogues I will tell you what he saith in his 9th Book in the Preface they are his own Words in the Book called the Mirror of Justice in which appears the whole Frame of the Antient Common Laws of this Realm from the Time of K. Arthur An. 516 till near the Conquest which treats also of the Officers as well as the Diversity and Distinction of the Courts of