January last was composed of these not a County City or Borough of England but appeared there by their Representatives and the whole Peers did or might have appeared by themselves or Proxies so that here was a Parliament in substance and the Author will not pretend that any thing was wanting but the King 's Writ to call them together To which I say first That anciently when Parliaments met at the King's Court on fixed times as the Feast of the Nativity and other Feasts every year we have no account of any Summons because the Time and Place of meeting being known that was needless But these Times are so dark that I will not insist much on this nor on the Election of our Kings in the Saxon Times which was done by an Assembly convened certainly without the King 's Writ or any Authority from one I confess that in the ordinary Administration of Affairs the King's Writ is requisite to bring the Nation to a great Council But this is not required so much for any Authority derived from thence as to keep up an agreement and harmony in the Government if this were otherwise all Members could sit in the House of Commons that have such a Writ authorizing their Election which not so especially in long-liv'd Parliaments such as King Charles the Second's was there a Majority of the House might have been of such as were Elected by vertue of a Warrant from the Speaker In 73 about Thirty Members Elected by vertue of the King's Writs were not suffered to sit but were dismissed the House and the Speaker Issued Warrants for new Elections so that in these cases the Authority seems to proceed more from the Speaker's Warrant than the King 's Writ But I say that from this usual practise it does not follow that the Estates may not Assemble otherwise in extraordinary Cases As in this Hereditary Monarchy Suppose the Royal Family were extinct must the Nation remain still in confusion never come into any form of Government because we cannot have the King 's Writ to Summon a Parliament that is unreasonable therefore the Representatives of the Nation must meet and settle the Government without any Writ of Summons this is no impossible supposition though it never happened in this Kingdom because it has happened in other places and upon such occasions the Government has been re-settled by the States Next Supposing that on the Death of the reigning King his Son or Successor is far distant this is no fictitious supposition because it really happened In what condition must we be until the return of our King or directions from him The Authority of our Judges Sheriffs c. determined with the King's Life so they cannot act therefore in this necessity to avoid Anarchy and Confusion the States of the Kingdom must meet and settle the Government by appointing Officers and doing what else is requisite for the safety of the Kingdom And this they did upon the Death of Henry the Third without any Writ or Authority from his absent Son After the Death of William Rufus the Crown of this Kingdom was given to King Henry by an Assembly of the people not chosen by Writ this shews also the regard they had in those days to the Lineal succession These instances shew that the King 's VVrit of Summons is not so essentially necessary to the Being of Parliaments but that the people of England may and have assembled in some cases without them of which we have a very late instance in the Parliament to which the Royal Family is much obliged and to which the Nation was more obliged than to any but the one now sitting I mean the Parliament that brought back the Royal Family This Parliament met without the King 's VVrit and was called in the Name of the Keepers of the Liberties of England and yet fate made Laws and acted as a Parliament with King Charles the second for several Months together and yet no Man can say there was so great reason for their continuing together as for the present Parliaments we had not then so many Enemies abroad and at home the Kingdom was in full quiet the French and Irish were not then our avowed Enemies nor ready to devour us a forty days delay then had not put us in the power of either of them as probably it had now done and if the King had now taken that course the consequence had only been the trouble of Electing the same persons a-new and postponing the necessary preparations for our security for two Months at least And if we further compare the Case in question with these I have mentioned we will find that it has much the advantage in other circumstances for that Parliament laboured under more difficulties than the want of VVrits of Summons a doubt that the Long Parliament was then in being by vertue of King Charles the First 's unfortunate Act that it should not be dissolved without their own consent and in 59 King Charles was at Breda or not much further off and he would gladly have Issued VVrits if they had been desired of him but his Brother cancelled and tore those he had once Issued that Parliament met without any request from the Body of the people this at the Express request of the City of London and almost the whole Nation and if that Parliament was called by those that Exercised the chief Authority in the Nation so was this by him that at our own desire had taken the Administration of Affairs upon him though the Royal Line was not extinct yet in October last the Kingdom was left as much in confusion and without government as if that misfortune had befallen us a Parliament by VVrits we could not have and without a Parliament it was impossible to settle the Kingdom so that we had no choice but either to continue without any Government as we were or to meet in Parliament as we did which being formerly done in other Countries as well as our own And since the King is pleased to consult with them we must acquiesce in their Judgments and obey them as the Legislative power of this Kingdom notwithstanding our Author's Jests here and his Assertions in the fourth Article That this is done without precedent or colour of Law The third Article Article is His committing and prosecuting the Bishops for humbly Petitioning to be excused from consenting to the said assumed Power of Suspending the Laws and their execution For answer to which our Author refers us to what he said on this subject before and therefore so do I. He tells us further on this Head That the present Government remembring the Proverb Felix quem faciunt is resolved to avoid the Rocks the last split upon which I look upon to be no ill news For now if we will take the Author's word there will be no further attempts against our Church or Religion our Laws or Properties but God-bethanked we have better assurance than the Author
Advertisement HIbernia Anglicana or the History of Ireland from the Conquest thereof by the English to this time with an Introductory Discourse touching the Antient State of that Kingdom and a new and exact Map of the same Part the First By Richard Cox Esq The Second Part from the beginning of the Reign of King James the First to this present Time by the same Author will be Published the next Term. Both Printed for Joseph Watts at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-yard THE Present Settlement VINDICATED And the Late MIS-GOVERNMENT PROVED In ANSWER to a SEDITIOUS LETTER FROM A Pretended LOYAL MEMBER OF THE CHVRCH of ENGLAND To a RELENTING ABDICATOR By a Gentleman of Ireland LONDON Printed for Ioseph Watts at the Angel in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1690. AN ANSWER To a Late Seditious Letter FROM A Pretended Loyal MEMBER OF THE CHVRCH of ENGLAND c. SIR THERE was a Pamphlet put into my Hands lately by whom I know not the method of address being unusual set me upon the immediate perusal of it in which I had not gone far before I observed the design both of the Donor and Author who I am apt to believe were the same for only one that abounded in his own Notions and valued them because they were his own could expect to make a Proselyte by his Reasoning If that was the design these few hasty Reflections will shew you how much he has been mistaken in me Before I enter upon Particulars I must acknowledge that our Author's method is very regular and had he made out the Propositions as laid down by him his Book would be much more dangerous to the Government than I apprehend it is for were it made plain that the late King only designed the good and happiness of his Subjects in general I fear that alone would weaken the hand of our Deliverer without proving our Condition to be worse now than in his Reign But since neither of those Propositions are true and since so little can be said in the support of them a very critical season is required for the advancement of those Notions though our Author in his Title-page pretends himself a Member of the Church of England and in other places that his chief concern is for the Church yet his using Arguments to perswade us to return to that Condition that had so lately endangered it and can only destroy it and his confident misrepresenting matter of fact are sufficient proofs to what Society he belongs His first Proposition is That King James really proposed to himself those methods of Government which he judged would best conduce to the happiness of all his Subjects in general His Arguments to prove this are only an Encomium on his Person and Parts and a pretended Answer to an Objection made by himself which is in truth several though he calls it but one and notwithstanding all he says most of them will still remain as blemishes on his King's Understanding as well as Government I am sorry that the Confidence of the Author forces me to say any thing to the lessening of his Person and nothing less than a hold asserting That no qualifications were wanting in King James that we could have wished would have tempted me to it Our Author knows very well how to pick out Topicks of Praise but never confiders how applicable they are to his Hero a proof whereof we have in his first instance when I read it I was almost tempted to believe I had been reading the Character of his Grandfather and that our Author had mistaken one James for the other otherwise he would not have told us of his care in preserving us in Peace when most part of Europe and Asia were in continual War But notwithstanding all his said Endeavours there was more Blood shed in his Four years Reign than in the others Twenty-four And as to the other part of the Assertion I cannot call to mind the continual Wars of our Neighbours during the late King's Reign nor instance in any other but that against the Turks which our Author seems to remember by his mention of Asia and I leave it to the Christian World to judge Whether that were not more beneficial as well as more glorious than his Peace How industrious he was in advancing the Trade of this Kingdom I cannot tell but this I am sure of that the Trade this Nation drives with France was above Six hundred thousand pound of advantage to that Nation to the prejudice of this the over-ballance of that Trade amounting yearly to that Sum if not to a far greater And besides he was as zealous and more successful in destroying the Trade of another of his Kingdoms to enlarge hereon is too melancholy a subject for either of us And though he were a good Husband of his Revenue yet certainly what was given to the Priests and Fryars of both Kingdoms and their Emissaries might have been better imployed and I should be glad to know what our Author thinks of the great Expences of Castlemain's vain Embassy to Rome which did scarce procure him the common respect due to his Character And that he never required a Tax from his People is so strange an Assertion that surely our Author never considered what he writ or thought we would not for he not only required a Tax from his People but levied great ones of them without their grant for which in Page 20. our Author makes an excuse which shall be considered in its place and if our Author had but looked into the Acts of Parliament of his Reign he would have found Four of the first Five granting him temporary Taxes not expired and very great ones sufficiently large for one Session and it is seldom seen that Parliaments give Money without asking but it was so far from that that he never speaks to them but to take care of his Revenue was part of his Speech and when he passed the Bill setling on Himself the Revenue his Brother had for Life he required a further Tax from his People in a set Speech for no other purpose and if the Author would but look into his Speech of October the 9th 1685. at the opening the next Sessions of that Parliament he will find he wanted not more Subsidies for want of asking and that in this particular we are more beholden to his other Councils that made him afraid of Parliaments than to his kindness to his People if his Magazenes and Stores were plentifully furnished This was but an ordinary effect of his long Peace great Revenue and greater Designs But I make a Question Whether those were so well provided as he was desirous the World should believe And in truth they were never more empty of which the Nation has already found the inconvenience For if the Naval Stores had but answered expectation his Friends had met with other entertainment in Bantry-bay the First of May last That he kept too good a Correspondence with one of his
struggle for Mastery occasioned what was so done It were but a small improvement of this Observation to shew that our Author broaches this Doctrine with the same design now when prudent and pious Endeavours are using to remove all stumbling-blocks out of the Dissenter's way in coming to our Churches which I hope will meet with the wished-for success notwithstanding all the endeavours of Rome and Hell to the contrary Next our Author goes to demonstrate That the overthrow of the Church of England or especially of Protestanism was never designed and this he thinks he does by the King 's so often declaring the contrary and by the sence he and his Juncto had that their Converts were but few and by the late King 's granting a safe retreat and liberal contribution to the French Protestants and by the paucity of the Papists in his Army To which I say that from all these it does not follow that the destruction of the Church was not designed for unless the King's Word were like the Laws of the Medes and Persians unalterable it will be but a loose Consequence the King promised not to do it therefore he will not it conculdes much stronger the Principles of his Religion obliege him to it therefore he will endeavour it When this Argument was used soon after the Gracious assurance given us at the first Council or first Session of Parliament where the same was again repeated it had so much colour of an Argument that it deceived many especially when there was subjoyned to it That these promises and assurances came from a Prince that valued his word so much as never to have broken it Buâ— now that we have seen him break through Laws that he had sworn as well as promised to maintain the very pretence to an Argument is vanished for as there is more Injustice so there is more of Dishonour in the one than the other When we examine his other instances they will prove as inconclusive for he could not deny a retreat to the fugitive Hugonots without allaruming his own Subjects and discovering his Designs too plainly to the most short-sighted and they were not then ripe for such a discovery After such an action who would have believed him that it was his Opinion That Conscience ought not to be forced If he had endeavoured either by fair or foul means to have preserved the Edict of Nantes to have supported that most distressed part of Mankind from their King's Barbarities as Queen Elizabeth did and his Father attempted it would have been a better proof of his love for Liberty of Conscience than either his Declarations or a small Charity afforded to a few fugitives which I must call but small when I consider what the Elector of Brandenburgh did for those poor people that great Man not only offorded them a safe retreat when they came into his Dominions but by a solemn Declaration invited them to take shelter there and to assist them in their Journey appointed his several Agents in Holland Hamburgh Francfort and Cologne to furnish all such of them as should desire it with what Vessels and Provisions they should stand in need of for the Transportation of themselves their Goods and Families to whatsoever Town in his Dominions they should pitch upon for the place of their abode But his kindness did not rest here for he provided Houses and Lands for them and their Heirs and where it was necessary he provided them all Materials for Repairs and Building where Houses were built on new Foundations they had Ten years Exemption from all Taxes and Duties and Six years where they were only repaired And for a further encouragement he made them Free of all his Towns and Corporations without paying any thing for the same and lest they might be oppressed he set over them a Jurisdiction composed of persons chosen by themselves and if any difference happened between them and a German this person was to joyn with the Magistrate in deciding the same and maintained one of their own Ministers for them in every Town with several other great favours If King James had taken this course our Author might have insisted on it at least as an heroick Act but since he did not set out a Fleet or so much as one single Ship to assist those poor people in their flight and when with difficulty they had gotten here he left them to their shifts and the charity of the Nation I do not see what he could have done less especially if we consider one discouragement that went along with it It is true he suffered them to breathe of his Air but would not suffer them to sigh or complain of the usage they had met with in France but at the instance of the French Ambassador ordered the Account they had written thereof to be Burnt by the hand of the Hangman which was accordingly done the fifth of May 86 and the Royal Exchange was made the place of Execution that the account thereof might fly the easier over France by our Merchant's Letters to their Correspondents there which as it proved a discouragement to those in France not to take sanctuary here so it so much frightned those that were then here that many of them thereupon removed to the West-Indies and other places where the French King's Ministers had not so much power being justly jealous that that power might soon be improved to a forcing them back But since our Author lays so much stress on this Act if ye examine the matter a little further we shall find these poor people owe the compleating of their misery to the late King For though the Tyrant began to oppress his Protestant Subjects some years ago which from time to time encreased as his Interest did at our Court yet he never ventured on the total suppression of the Reformed Religion nor revoked the Edict of Nantes until October 85. that the late King was on the Throne for as much his friend as King Charles was yet he did not know how far a Parliament might have influenced him to resent that matter therefore he forbore it until all was sure on this side the Water Next as to the Number of Papists in the Army they will appear very many if we consider two things First that there were fewer of them to be had in England than of other Men fit to be Souldiers and yet their proportion was greater with respect to the Army than to the Kingdom otherwise there had not been above two or three in a Regiment all that exceeded that number seems to be the effect of industry and pains rather than chance Next we must remember the little time the late King had for this mighty business he had little more than three years for the Raising his Army which at first to avoid offence was to be Protestant but a few Officers whose Loyalty he had experienced and having had the benefit of their Services in the late time of need and