Authority and Princely Power the Happiness Stabilitie and Quyetness of Our Subjects do depend Hes most perfidiously and treasonably presumed to commit and is guilty of the Crimes above mentioned in sua far as Archbald Campbel sometime Earl of Argyle James Stewart Sone to Sir James Stewart sometime Provost of Edinburgh Mr. Robert Ferguson sometime Chaplain to the late Earl of Shaftsbury Thomas Stewart of Cultness William Denholn sometime of Westsheils Master Robert Martin sometime Clerk to our Iustice-Court and several other Rebells and Traitors being most justy by our high Courts of Parliaments and Iustice Court Forfaulted for the Crimes of Treason and fled to our Kingdom of England and to Holland Flanders Geneva and several other places The said Doctor Gibert Burnet did upon the First Second and remanent days of the Month of January February and remainent Months of the Year one thousand six hundred eighty two one thousand six hundred eighty three one thousand six hundred eighty four or January February March or Aprile one thousand six hundred eighty five Converse Correspond and Intercommon with the said Archbald late Earl of Argyle a Forfaulted Traitor and that within the said Doctor Burnet his Dwelling-Hous in Lincolns-Inne Fields near the Plow-Inn in our City of London or Suburbs thereof or some other part or place within our Kingdom of England Defamed Sclandered and Reproached and Advisedlie spoke to the Disdain and Reproach of our Person Government and Authority wrote several Letters and receaved Answers thereto from the said Forfaulted Traitor when he was in Holland or elsewhere expressely contrary to his Duty and Allegeance to Vs his Soveraign Lord and King. And suklick upon the first second and third dayes of the Months of May June July August September October November and December one thousand six hundred eighty five and upon the first second and third dayes of the Moneths of January February and remanent Moneths of the Year one thousand six hundred eighty six and first second and third dayes of the Moneths of January February March one thousand six hundrd eighty seven or any or other of the dayes of any or other of the said Moneths or Years The said Doctor Gilbert Burnet did most treasonable Recept Supplied Aided Assisted Conversed and Intercomoned with and did Favours to the said James Stewart Mr. Robert Ferguson Thomas Stewart William Denholm and Mr. Robert Martyn forfaulted Traitors and Rebells in the Cityes of Rotterdam Amsterdam Leyden Breda Geneva or some other part or place within the Netherlands or elsewhere publickly and avowedly uttered several Speeches and Positions to the Disdain of our Person Authority and Government continues and persists in such undutiful and treasonable Practises against Vs and Our Government We being his Soveraign Lord and Prince expreslie contrair to his Allegeance and Duty By committing of the whilk Crimes above specifyed or either of them the said Doctor Burnet is guilty and culpable of the Crime of High Treason and is Art and Part thereof which being found be any Inquest he ought and should to suffer Forfaulture of Life Land and Goods to the Terror and Example of others to commit the like hereafter Our Will is theirfore and we charge you straitlie and Command that incontinent this our Letter seen yee pass and in our Name and Authority Command and Charge the said Doctor Gilbert Burnet above complained upon be sound of Trumpet with displayed Coat and using other Solemnities necessar to come and find sufficient Caution and Sovertie acted in our Books of Adjournal that he shall compeir before our Lords Iustice General Iustice Clerk and Commissioners of Iusticiary within the Tolbuith or Criminal Court-hous of Edinburgh the twentie sevinth day of June next to come in the hour of Caus there to underlie the Law for the Crymes above mentiond and that under the Paines contained in the new Acts of Parliament And that yee charge him personally if he can be apprehended and falizeing thereof at his dwelling-hous and be open Proclamation at the Mercat Cross of the head Burgh of the Shyre Stewartis Regalitie and other Iurisdiction where he dwells to come and find the said Sovertie acted in manner forsaid within six dayes if he be within this our Kingdom and if he be out with the Samyue that ye command and charge him in manner forsaid be open Proclamation at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh Peer and Shoar of Leith to come and find the said Sovertie within threescore dayes next after he is charged be you thereto under the Paine of Rebellion and putting of him to our Horne Whilst six and threescore dayes respectively being by-past and the said Sovertie not being found nor no Intimation made be him to you of the finding thereof that ye incontinent thereafter denunce him our Rebel and put him to our Horne Escheat and inbring all his moveable Goods and Geir to our use for his Contemption and Disobedience And if he come and find the said Sovertie Intimation alwayes being made be him to yow of the finding thereof that summond and Assyse hereto not exceeding the number of fourtie fyve Persons together with such Witnesses who best know the Veritie of the Premisses whose Names shall be given you in Roll subscribed by the said Complautor Ilk Person under the paine of one hundred Merks And that ye within fiftein dayes after his denunciation for not finding of Caution caus registrate thir Our Letters with your Executions thereof in Our Books of Adjournal conforme to the Act of Parliament made there-anent According to Iustice as ye will answer to Vs thereupon the whilk to doe Committs to yow conjunctly and severallie Our full Power be thir Our Letters delyvering them be yow duelie Execute and Indorsat again to the bearer Given under Our Signet at Edinburgh the nynteinth day of Aprile and of Our Reign the third Year 1678. Ex deliberatione Dominorum Commissionariorum Justiciarii sit subscribitur Signed 19. Apryle 1687. THO. GOFDONNE The Witnesses against Dr. Gilbert Burnet are Sir John Cochran of Ockiltree John Cochran of Wattersyd Mr. Robert West Lawyer Englishman Mr. Zachary Bourne Brewer Englishman Mr. William Carstaires Preacher Robert Baird Merchant in Holland Mr. Richard Baxter Preacher AN ANSWER TO THE Criminal Letters issued out against me I Look upon it as a particular Misfortune that I am forced to answer a Citation that is made in his Majesty's Name which will be ever so sacred with me that nothing but the sense of an Indispensable Duty could draw from me any thing that looks like a contending with that sublime Character I owe the Defence of my own Innocence and of my Reputation and Life to my self I owe also to all my Kindred and Friends to my Religion as I am a Christian and a Protestant and to my Profession as I am a Church-man and above all to His Majesty as I am his born Subject such a Vindication of my Loyalty and Integrity as may make it appear that my not
to some Words in the Proclamation that it was thought necessary to set them near one another that the Reader may be able to judge whether he is deceived by any false Quotations or not BY THE KING A PROCLAMATION JAMES R. JAMES the Seventh by the Grace of God King of Scotland England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To all and sundry our good Subjects whom these Presents do or may concern Greeting We having taken into Our Royal Consideration the many and great Inconveniencies which have hapned to that Our Ancient Kingdom of Scotland of late Years through the different Persuasions in the Christian Religion and the great Heats and Animosities amongst the several Professors thereof to the ruine and decay of Trade wasting of Lands extinguishing of Charity contempt of the Royal Power and converting of true Religion and the Fear of GOD into Animosities Names Factions and sometimes into Sacriledge and Treason And being resolved as much as in us lies to unite the Hearts and Affections of Our Subjects to GOD in Religion to Us in Loyalty and to their Neighbours in Christian Love and Charity Have therefore thought fit to Grant and by Our Sovereign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power which all Our Subjects are to obey without Reserve do hereby give and grant Our Royal Toleration to the several Professors of the Christian Religion after-named with and under the several Conditions Restrictions and Limitations after mentioned In the first place We allow and tolerate the Moderate Presbyterians to Meet in their Private Houses and there to hear all such Ministers as either have or are willing to accept of Our Indulgence allanerly and none other and that there be not any thing said or done contrary to the Well and Peace of Our Reign Seditious or Treasonable under the highest Pains these Crimes will import nor are they to presume to Build Meeting Houses or to use Out-Houses or Barns but only to exercise in their Private Houses as said is In the mean time it is Our Royal Will and Pleasure that Field-Conventicles and such as Preach or Exercise at them or who shall any ways assist or connive at them shall be prosecuted according to the utmost Severity of our Laws made against them seeing from these Rendezvouses of Rebellion so much Disorder hath proceeded and so much Disturbance to the Government and for which after this Our Royal Indulgence for Tender Consciences there is no Excuse left In like manner We do hereby tolerate Quakers to meet and exercise in their Form in any Place or Places appointed for their Worship And considering the Severe and Cruel Laws made against Roman Catholicks therein called Papists in the Minority of Our Royal Grandfather of Glorious Memory without His Consent ☜ and contrary to the Duty of good Subjects by His Regents and other Enemies to their Lawful Sovereign Our Royal Great Grandmother Queen Mary of Blessed and Pious Memory wherein under the pretence of Religion they cloathed the worst of Treasons Factions and Usurpations and made these Laws not as against the Enemies of GOD but their own which Laws have still been continued of course without design of executing them or any of them ad terrorem only on Supposition that the Papists relying on an External Power were incapable of Duty and true Allegiance to their Natural Soveraigns and Rightful Monarchs We of Our certain Knowledge and long Experience knowing that the Catholicks as it is their Principle to be Good Christians so it is to be Dutiful Subjects and that they have likewise on all occasions shewn themselves Good and faithful Subjects to Us and Our Royal Predecessors by hazarding and many of them actually losing their Lives and Fortunes in their defence though of another Religion and the Maintenance of their Authority against the Violences and Treasons of the most violent Abettors of these Laws Do therefore with Advice and Consent of Our Privy Council by our Soveraign Authority Prerogative Royal and Absolute Power aforesaid suspend stop and disable all Laws or Acts of Parliament Customs or Constitutions made or executed against any of our Roman-Catholick Subjects in any time past to all Intents and Purposes making void all Prohibitions therein mentioned Pains or Penalties therein ordained to be inflicted so that they shall in all things be as free in all Respects as any of Our Protestant Subjects whatsoever not only to exercise their Religion but to enjoy all Offices Benefices and others which we shall think fit to bestow upon them in all time coming Nevertheless it is Our Will and Pleasure and we do hereby command all Catholicks at their highest pains only to exercise their Religious Worship in Houses or Chappels and that they presume not to Preach in the open Fields or to invade the Protestant Churches by force under the pains aforesaid to be inflicted upon the Offenders respectively nor shall they presume to make Publick Processions in the High-streets of any of Our Royal Burghs under the Pains above-mentioned And whereas the Obedience and Service of Our Good Subjects is due to Us by their Allegiance and Our Soveraignty and that no Law Custom or Constitution Difference in Religion or other Impediment whatsoever can exempt or discharge the Subjects from their Native Obligations and Duty to the Crown or hinder Us from Protecting and Employing them according to their several Capacities and Our Royal Pleasure nor Restrain Us from Conferring Heretable Rights and Priviledges upon them or vacuate or annul these Rights Heretable when they are made or conferred And likewise considering that some Oaths are capable of being wrested by Men of sinistrous Intentions a practice in that Kingdom fatal to Religion as it was to Loyalty Do therefore with Advice and Consent aforesaid cass annull and Discharge all Oaths whatsoever by which any of Our Subjects are incapacitated or disabled from holding Places or Offices in Our said Kingdom or enjoying their Hereditary Rights and Priviledges discharging the same to be taken or given in any time coming without our special Warrant and Consent under the pains due to the Contempt of Our Royal Commands and Authority And to this effect we do by Our Royal Authority aforesaid stop disable and dispense with all Laws enjoyning the said Oaths Tests or any of them particuarly the first Act of the first Session of the first Parliament of King Charles the Second the eleventh Act of the foresaid Session of the foresaid Parliament the sixth Act of the third Parliament of the said King Charles the twenty first and twenty fifth Acts of that Parliament and the thirteenth Act of the first Session of Our late Parliament ☜ in so far allanerly as concerns the taking the Oaths or Tests therein prescribed and all others as well not mentioned as mentioned and that in place of them all Our good Subjects or such of them as We or Our Privy Council shall require so to do shall take and swear the following Oath allanerly
now to treat the Men of the Church of England with the same Brutal Excesses that he bestowed so lately and so liberally on the Dissenters as if his Design were to render himself equally odious to all Mankind III. The Church of England may justly expostulate when she is treated as Seditious after she has rendred the highest Services to the Civil Authority that any Church now on Earth has done She has beaten down all the Principles of Rebellion with more Force and Learning than any Body of men has ever yet done and has run the hazard of enraging her Enemies and losing her Friends even for those from whom the more Learned of her Members knew well what they might expect And since our Author likes the figure of a Snake in ones Bosome so well I could tell him that according to the Apologue we took up and sheltered an Interest that was almost dead and by that warmth gave it life which yet now with the Snake in the Bosome is like to bite us to death We do not say we are the only Church that has Principles of Loyalty but this we may say That we are the Church in the World that carries them the highest as we know a Church that of all others sinks them them the lowest We do not pretend that we are Inerrable in this Point but acknowledge that some of our Clergy miscarried in it upon King Edward's Death Yet at the same time others of our Communion adhered more steadily to their Loyalty in favour of Queen Mary than She did to the Promises that she made to them Upon this Subject our Author by his false Quotation of History forces me to set the Reader right which if it proves to the disadvantage of his Cause his Friends may thank him for it I will not enter into so tedious a Digression as the justifying Queen Elizabeth's being Legitimate and the throwing the Bastardy on Queen Mary must carry me to this I will only say That it was made out that according to the best sort of Arguments used by the Church of Rome I mean the constant Tradition of all Ages King Henry the VIII marrying with Queen Katherine was Incestuous and by Consequence Queen Mary was the Bastard and Queen Elizabeth was the Legitimate Issue But our Author not satisfied with defaming Queen Elizabeth tells us that the Church of England was no sooner set up by her than She Enacted those Bloody Cannibal Laws to Hang Draw and Quarter the Priests of the living God. But since these Laws disturb him so much What does he think of the Laws of Burning the poor Servants of the living God because they cannot give Divine Worship to that which they believe to be only a Piece of Bread The Representation he gives of this part of our History is so false that tho' upon Queen Elizabeth's coming to the Crown there were many Complaints exhibited of the illegal Violences that Bonner and other Butchers had committed yet all these were stifled and no Penal Laws were enacted against those of that Religion The Popish Clergy were indeed turned out but they were well used and had Pensions assigned them so ready was the Queen and our Church to forgive what was past and to shew all Gentleness for the future During the first thirteen years of her Reign matters went on calmly without any sort of Severity on the account of Religion But then the restless Spirit of that Party began to throw the Nation into violent Convulsions The Pope deposed the Queen and and one of the Party had the Impudence to post up the Bull in London upon this followed several Rebellions both in England and Ireland and the Papists of both Kingdoms entred into Confederacies with the King of Spain and the Court of Rome The Priests disposed all the People that depended on them to submit to the Pope's Authority in that Deposition and to reject the Queen's These Endeavours besides open Rebellions produced many secret Practices against her Life All these things gave the rise to the severe Laws which began not to be enacted before the twentieth year of her Reign A War was formed by the Bull of Deposition between the Queen and the Court of Rome so it was a necessary piece of Precaution to declare all those to be Traitors who were the Missionaries of that Authority which had stript the Queen of hers Yet those Laws were not executed upon some Secular Priests who had the Honesty to condemn the Deposing Doctrine As for the Unhappy Death of the Queen of Scotland it was brought on by the wicked Practices of her own Party who fatally involved her in some of them She was but a Subject here in England and if the Queen took a more violent way than was decent for her own Security here was no Disloyalty nor Rebellion in the Church of England which owed her no sort of Allegiance IV. I do not pretend that the Church of England has any great cause to value her self upon her Fidelity to King Charles the First tho' our Author would have it pass for the only thing of which She can boast for I confess the cause of the Church was so twisted with the King 's that Interest and Duty went together tho' I will not go so far as our Author who says that the Law of Nature dictates to every Individual to fight in his own Defence This is too bold a thing to be delivered so crudely at this time The Laws of Nature are perpetual and can never be cancelled by any special Law So if these Gentlemen own so freely that this is a Law of Nature they had best take care not to provoke Nature too much lest She fly to the Relief that this Law may give her unless she is restrained by the Loyalty of our Church Our Author values his Party much upon their Loyalty to King Charles the First But I must take the liberty to ask him of what Religion were the Irish Rebels and what sort of Loyalty was it that they shewed either in the first Massacre or in the Progress of that Rebellion Their Messages to the Pope to the Court of France and to the Duke of Lorrain offering themselves to any of these that would have undertaken to protect them are Acts of Loyalty which the Church of England is no way inclined to follow and the authentical Proofs of these things are ready to be produced Nor need I add to this the hard terms they offered to the King and their ill usage of those whom he imployed I could likewise repress the Insolence of this Writer by telling him of the slavish Submissions that their Party made to Cromwel both Father and Son. As for their adhering to King Charles the First there is a peculiar boldness in our Author's Assertion who says That they had no Hope nor Interest in that cause The State of that Court is not so quite forgot but that we do well remember what Credit the Queen had
Informations against me which gave the rise to all that has since followed ought to be lookt on as Calumniators and to be punished accordingly and if any ill chosen Expression had fallen from me in the Letter that I writ to the Earl of Middletoune the Privacy of the Letter the Respect that was in it and the Provocation that drew it from me an Accusation of High Treason which is now evidently made out to be a Calumny all these I say give me some reason to conclude that if a secret Animosity of some of my Enemies that have abused their Credit with the King to my Prejudice had not wrought more than a regard to Justice there had not been a second Prosecution when the first was found to be so ill grounded that they were forced to let it fall The Citation is in these Words JAMES by the Grace of God King of Great Brittain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith To our Lovits Heraulds Pursevants Macers and Messre at armes conjunctly and severally specially Constitute Greeting Forsameikle as it is humbly meant et Complaind to us be our right trusty and familiar Councellour Sir John Dalrymple the younger of Stair our Advocat for our Interest Upon Doctor Gilbert Burnet That wher by the Common Law by the Acts of Parliament and the municipall Lawes of this Kingdom the declyning or impugning our Soveraign Authority or putting Treasonable Limitations upon the Prerogatives of our Crown upon the native Allegiance due by any of our Subjects born Scots men whether residing within our Dominions or not are declared to be High Treason and punishable by the Pains due and determined in the Law for Treason Nevertheless it is of verity That Doctor Gilbert Burnet who is a Scotsman by Birth and Education being cited at the Peir and Shoar of Leith at the instance of our Advocat for several Treasonable Crimes to underly the Law by vertue of particular Command from us direct to the Lords of our Privy Council and ane Act of our said Privy Council hereupon ordering our Advocat to Intent the Proces Instead of appeiring before the Lords of Iusticiery Doctor Gilbert Burnet did write and subscribe a Letter dated at the Hague the third day of May last directed for the Earl of Middletoune one of our principal Secretaries of State for our Kingdom of England In the which the said Doctor shows that in respect the Affairs of the Vnited Provinces falls to his Lordships share in the Ministry Therefore he makes the following Addresses to his Lordship and by him to us and gives ane accompt that he is certiorat of the Proces of Treason execute against him at the instance of our Advocat And for answer thereto the Doctor Writes that he hes bein thretteen years out of the Kingdom of Scotland and that he is now upon the point of Marrying in the Netherlands and that he is Naturalized by the States of Holland and that thereby during his stay there his Allegiance is translated from us to the Soveraignity of the Province of Holland and in the end of his Letter he Certifies that if this decly natur be not taken of his hand to sist the Proces he will appeir in Print in his own Defence and will not so far betray his own Innocence as to suffer a thing of that nature to pass upon him In which he will make a recital of Affairs that hes passed these twenty years and a vast number of particulars which he believes will be displeasing to us and therfor desires that he may not be forced to it which is a direct declyning of our Authority denying of his Allegiance to us and asserting that his Allegiance is translated from us to the Soveraignty of the States of Holland And a threatning us to expose traduce disparage and bely our Government and the publict Actings for twenty years past Tho he acknowledges it will be displeasing to us Yet by a most Indiscret and Disloyal Insolence he threatens to do it in contempt Except forsooth we will acquiesse and suffer the derly natur of our Royal Authorite and pass from the Proces as having no Allegiance due to us from the Doctor c. After this follows the form of Law ordinary in such Citations by which I am required to appear on the 9th day of August in order to my Tryal which was to be six days after that under the Pains of being declared a Rebel and a Fugitive and all bears date the 10th of June 1687. I shall offer only two Exceptions to this in point of Form 1st there is no Special Law set forth here upon which I am to be Judged which as I am informed by those who understand the Law of Scotland makes the Citation null in point of Form since High Treason is a Crime of such a Nature that no Man can be concluded Guilty of it but upon a special Law. 2dly In Criminal matters no Proofs of any Writing upon the Similitude of Hands are so much as admitted by the Law of Scotland so that all such Proofs are only General Presumptions and therefore since there is no other Proof that can be pretended in this case it is not possible according to the grounds and practice of the Scottish Law to find me Guilty upon this Citation Upon my not appearance on the 9th day of August the matter was for some time delayed At last a Writ was issued out against me called in the Law of Scotland Letters of Horning because they are published with the blast of a Horn in which I am declared the King's Rebel but this is not issued out upon the account of the Matter of the Citation of which no Cognizance has been taken But only for my not appearance to offer my self to Tryal and the Operation of this in Law is only the putting me out of the King's Protection and the present Seizing on my personal Estate and after a year the Seizing any thing that I enjoy for Term of Life but this Writ does neither affect my Life nor my Posterity nor can an Estate of Inheritance be so much as Confiscated by it and tho the term Rebel is put in it that word is only a Form of Law for every man that does not pay his Debts is liable to such a Writ and he is declared the King's Rebel just as the Chancery in England issues out a Writ of Rebellion upon Contempts so that if the being called a Rebel in such a Writ gives the Government a right to demand me then every Man that retires into Holland either out of England or Scotland upon the account of a disorder in his Affairs may be demanded as soon as any such Writ goes out against him As for the matter of this Citation I said so much upon it in my former Paper that since no Answer has been made to that I do not think it necessary to say any more than what will occur to me in the account of the Progress of this
the Reflections that I have already mentioned To the second I said I could not be a Fugitive since I had come out of Scotland fourteen years ago and after eleven years stay in England had come out of it three years ago by the King's leave As for my being a Rebel I could answer nothing to that till I saw the Judgment that had passed upon me but I was now the Subject of the States and as I humbly claimed their Protection so I pretended to no Protection against Justice but offered my self to a Tryal if any thing was laid to my charge This being reported to the States of Holland they were so far satisfied with my Answer that the substance of it was put in the form of an Answer to the two Memorials The whole amounts to this that I was become their subject by being naturalized before this process was begun against me so that I am now under their Protection But if there is any thing to be objected to me that can bear a Tryal they will give order that full and speedy Justice shall be done upon it in the Court of Holland Upon this a 3d Memorial was given in to which the Articles of the Treaty between the King and the States were annexed relating to Fugitives and Rebels and it was said in it that the States were bound to execute these with relation to me without taking upon them to examine the grounds upon which the sentence was past And because here lies the strength of the whole matter I shall offer such Considerations upon it as will I hope satisfie all persons 1. No Sentence is either passed or produced against me for I am not declared by any Judgment either Rebel or Fugitive and by the 7th Article all Condemnations ought to be notified by publick and Authentical letters which must be understood of a Record of the sentence that ought to be produced whereas there is nothing shewed in my case but only a Memorial 2. All Treaties especially in the odious parts of them are to be understood according to the common acceptation of the terms contained in them and not according to the particular forms of any Courts of Justice the common acceptance of Fugitive is a man that flies away after a crime committed from the prosecution of Justice and a Rebel in the common acceptation is a man that has born Arms against his Prince since then I am not so much as charged with either of these I cannot be comprehended in the Article of the Treaty for this must be the only sense according to which the States are bound to deny harbour to Declared Rebels and Fugitives 3. That which puts an end to the whole matter is that before I writ that Letter upon which I am now prosecuted I was become a Subject of the States and by Consequence was no more in a Capacsty to be either the King's Rebel or Fugitive And the point of Naturalizing Strangers is now such an universal Practice that the right of granting it is inseperable from Soveraign Power so that either the States have this Right or they are no more a Free and Soveraign State. And the obligations of honour that all Soveraigns come under to protect those whom they naturalize against every thing but their own Justice is no dark point of Law but is that which every Prince knows and practices as oft as there is occasion for it The King of France has used all the Naturalized Srangers in the same manner that he has used his own subjects in the point of Religion and tho the French Protestants that are gone into England are according to the severity of the Edicts passed against them made Criminals for flying out of that Kingdom so that according to the Letter of those Edicts they are Fugitives yet the King has received them all owned them for his Subjects naturalised some and supplied others of them by a Bounty truly worthy of so great a Prince and if the King does this to those of another Religion that do fly out of the Dominions of a Prince with whom he is in peace The States could not with any colour of reason refuse to Naturalise me who am of their own Religion when after so long a stay among them it appeared that the King had nothing ro lay to my charge and they having Naturalised me if they should withdraw their Protection before I had forfeited it by any illegal Action of mine they should make a Breach upon the Publick Liberty upon which their Government is chiefly founded And it is to be observed that the Treaty between the King and them as to the Articles concerning Rebels and Fugitives is Reciprocal as all the Ancient Treaties between the Crown of England and the Princes of these Provinces before the formation of the Commonwealth ever were as to this particular so that they can be no more bound to the King by it than the King is bound to them Now let us suppose that the King Naturalises a Dutchman by which he is admitted to all the Priviledges of an Englishman if the Dutch should after that condemn this person as guilty of Rebellion the King could not upon the States demanding of him deliver him up or banish him at his pleasure since this cannot be done arbitrarily to any Englishman without a legal tryal by his Peers and therefore it is plain that my case does not at all fall within the Articles of the Treaty so that in this whole matter the States have acted as a free State that was careful to maintain its Honour and to assert its being an Independent Soveraignty and for my own part I can appeal to all the Members of the States of Holland if I made any applications to them as if I would value my self on my being supported in opposition to the Envoy's Memorial I staid at home while the thing was under consultation without making Addresses to any one of them as to my own particular It is true I would not withdraw of my own accord from my own house which I thought would have been a forsaking the Rights of the Countrey a mistrusting the Protection of my Soveraigns as well as my own Innocence and an abandoning of the post in which God by his Providence has placed me And I am resolved rather to run the risque of all that with which I am threatned than show the least unbecoming fear I thank God I make use of that common but Noble expression that I am neither afraid to dye nor ashamed to live I will not go further into dark thoughts tho I know enough of of the contrivances against me by an order of men whose souls are as black as their Habits Tho for a great while I thought that the meanness of my person was such that even success in any design against me could not have counterballanced the Infamy of it Thus I hope those hard words of high treason or Rebellion will make no impressions on