Fulness of Our Present Deliverance astonished we think it Miraculous Your Highness led by the Hand of Heaven and call'd by the Voice of the People has preserved our dearest Interests The Protestant Religion which is Primitive Christianity Restored Our Laws which are our Ancient Title to our Lives Liberties and Estates and without which this World were a Wilderness But what Retribution can we make to Your Highness Our Thoughts are full charged with Gratitude Your Highness has a lasting Monument in the Hearts in the Prayers in the Praises of all good men amongst us And Late Posterity will Celebrate Your ever Glorious Name till time shall be no more The first care of his Highness was the English Army for which he made this Order Whereas upon the late Irregular Disbanding of the Forces divers Souldiers carried away the Arms belonging to their respective Regiments and have since lost or imbezilled the same We do hereby direct and require all Persons to whose hands the said Arms or any of them are come or with whom they now remain forthwith to deliver them to the said Souldiers or their Officers upon Demand and in default thereof forthwith to bring them to the Officers of the Ordnance now attending at Uxbridge Hounslow or the Tower of London in order to the returning the said Arms into the Stores of the Ordnance Given at St. James's the 21 of December 1688. His next care was the appointing Quarters for the several English Scots and Irish Regiments and the ordering them accordingly to repair to the places therein named The same Day was also a great Council of the Nobility about Sixty of the Peers then Meeting at St. James's who all except two Subscribed a Paper in the nature of an Association After which His Highness thus expressed himself My Lords I Have desired you to meet here to advise the best manner how to pursue the Ends of My Declaration in Calling a Free Parliament for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and restoring the Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom and settling the same that they may not be in danger of being again Subverted Upon which it was resolved That the said Proposals should be further Debated the next Day in the House of Peers at Westminster And Sir John Maynard Mr. Holt Mr. Polexfen Mr. Bradford and Mr. Atkinson five Counsellors at Law were odered to attend them for their Advice The 22. the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled at Westminster in the House of Lords and appointed Francis Gwin Esq to Sign such Orders as should be from time to time by them made which was thus signed by Tho. Ebor. Northfolk Somerset Grafton Ormond Beauford Northumberland Hallifax Oxford Kent Bedford Pembrooke Dorset Devonshire Bullingbrook Manchester Rivers Stamford Thanet Scarsdale Clarendon Burlington Sussex Maclesfield Radnor Berkeley Nottingham Rochester Fauconberg Mordant Newport Weymouth Hatton W. Asaph F. Ely. La Ware. R. Eure. P. Wharton Paget North and Grey Chandos Montague Grey Maynard T. Jermyn Vaughan Carbery T. Culpeper Lucas Delamer Crew Lumley Carteret Osulston These Peers thus Assembled the 25th day of December Signed and Presented to His Highness this Address WE the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled in this Conjuncture do desire Your Highness to take upon You the Administration of Publick Affairs both Civil and Military and the Disposal of the Publick Revenue for the Preservation of our Religion Rights Laws Liberties and Properties and of the Peace of the Nation And that Your Highness will take into Your particular Care the present Condition of Ireland and endeavour by the most speedy and effectual means to prevent the Dangers Threatning that Kingdom All which we make our Requests to Your Highness to undertake and exercise till the meeting of the intended Convention the 22d Day of January next in which we doubt not such proper Methods will be taken as will conduce to the Establishment of these things upon such sure and legal Foundations that they may not be in Danger of being again Subverted Dated at the House of Lords Westminster the 25th of December 1688. WE the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled at Westminster in this Extraordinary Conjuncture do Humbly desire Your Highness to Cause Letters to be Written Subscribed by Your Self to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being Protestants and to the several Counties Universities Cities and Burroughs Cinque Ports of England Wales and Town of Berwick upon Tweed The Letters for the Counties to be directed to the Coroners of the Respective Counties or any one of them and in default of the Coroners to the Clerk of the Peace of the Respective Counties And the Letters for the Universities to be directed to the respective Vice Chancellors and the Letters to the several Cities Burroughs and Cinque Ports to be directed to the Chief Magistrates of each Respective City Burrough and Cinque Port containing Directions for the choosing in all such Counties Cities Buroughs and Cinque Ports within ten days after the receipt of the said Respective Letters such a Number of Persons to represent them as are of Right to be sent to Parliament of which Elections and the times and places thereof the Respective Officers shall give notice within the space of five days at the least Notice of the intended Elections for the Counties to be Published in the Churches immediately after the time of Divine Service and in all Market Towns within the Respective Counties and Notice of the intended Elections for the Cities Universities Burroughs and Cinque Ports to be Published within the Respective Places The said Letters and the Execution hereof to be returned by such Officer or Officers who shall Execute the same to the Clerk of the Crown in the Court of Chancery so as the Persons so to be chosen may meet and sit at Westminster on the 22d day of January next Dated at the House of Lords Westminster December the 25th 1688. Both which were Signed by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal then Assembled and presented to His Highness the Prince of Orange the same day at St. James's The 28th of December the Prince of Orange returned this Answer to the Peers then Assembled at St. James's My Lords I Have considered of your Advice and as far as I am able I will endeavour to Secure the Peace of the Nation until the Meeting of the Convention in January next for the Election whereof I will forthwith Issue out Letters according to your desire I will also take care to apply the Publick Revenue to the most proper uses that the present Affairs require and likewise endeavour to put Ireland into such a condition as that the Protestant Religion may be maintained in that Kingdom And I assure you that as I came hither for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of these Kingdoms so I shall always be ready to expose my self to any Hazard for the Defence of the same The 26th The Knights Citizens and Burgesses who had served in
being now Assembled in a full and Free Representative of this Nation taking into their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the Ends aforesaid do in the first place as their Ancestors in like case have usually done for the vindicating and asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties declare That the pretended power of suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without consent of Parliament is illegal That the pretended power of Dispensing with Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority as it hath been assumed and exercised of late is illegal That the Commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes and all other Commissions and Courts of the like nature are illegal and pernicious That Levying of Money to or for the use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative without Grant of Parliament for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be Granted is illegal That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are illegal That the raising or keeping a standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace unless it be by consent of Parliament is against Law. That the Subjects being Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their condition and as allowed by Law. That the Election of Members of Parliament ought to be Free. That the freedom of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parliament That Excessive Bail ought not to be required nor Excessive Fines imposed nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted That Jurors ought to be duly Impannel'd and return'd and Jurors which pass upon men in Trials for High Treason ought to be Freeholders That all Grants and Promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular persons before Conviction are illegal and void And that for Redress of all Grievances and for the amending strengthing and preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be held frequently And they do claim demand and insist upon all and singular the Premises as their undoubted Rights and Liberties and that no Declarations Judgments Doings or Proceedings to the prejudice of the people in any of the said Premises ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into consequence or example To which demand of their Rights they are particularly encouraged by the Declaration of his Highness the Prince of Orange as being the only means for obtaining a full redress and remedy therein Having therefore an intire confidence that his said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the Deliverance so far advanced by him and will still preserve them from the violation of their Rights which they have here asserted and from all other attempts upon their Religion Rights and Liberties The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled at Westminster do resolve That William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange be and be declared King and Queen of England France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging to hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to them the said Prince and Princess during their Lives and the Life of the Survivor of them and that the sole and full exercise of the Regal power be only in and executed by the said Prince of Orange in the Names of the said Prince and Princess during their joynt Lives and after their Deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Princess and for default of such Issue to the Princess Anne of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body and for default of such Issue to the Heirs of the Body of the said Prince of Orange And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do pray the said Prince and Princess of Orange to accept the same accordingly And that the Oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all persons of whom the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy might be required by Law instead of them and that the said Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy be abrogated I A. B. Do sincerely Promise and Swear That I will be Faithful and bear true Allegiance to Their Majesties King WILLIAM and Queen MARY So help me God. I A. B. Do Swear That I do from my heart Abhor Detest and Abjure as Impious and Heretical this Damnable Doctrine and Position That Princes Excommunicated or Deprived by the Pope or any Authority of the See of Rome may be Deposed or Murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do Delare that no Forreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminece or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm So help me God. Jo. Brown Clericus Parliamentorum The same day this Delaration bears Date Her Royal Highness the Princess of Orange arrived in the River of Thames in the Afternoon and was received with all the Hearty Demonstrations and Expressions of Joy by the City that are usual on such Occasions The 13th of February The Lords and Commons Ordered the following Proclamation to be published and made WHereas It hath pleased Allmighty God in his Great Mercy to this Kingdom to Vouchsafe us a Miraculous Deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that our Preservation is Due next under GOD to the Resolution and Conduct of His Highness the Prince of ORANGE whom GOD hath Chosen to be the Glorious Instrument of such an Inestimable Happiness to us and our Posterity And being Highly Sensible and Fully Perswaded of the Great and Eminent Vertues of Her Highness the Princess of ORANGE whose Zeal for the Protestant Religion will no doubt bring a Blessing along with Her upon this Nation And Whereas the Lords and Commons now Assembled at Westminster have made a Declaration and Presented the same to the said Prince and Princess of ORANGE and therein Desired Them to Accept the Crown who have Accepted the same accordingly We therefore the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons together with the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London and others of the Commons of this Realm do with full Consent Publish and Proclaim according to the said Declaration WILLIAM and MARY Prince and Princess of ORANGE to be KING and QUEEN of England France and Ireland with all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging Who are Accordingly so to be Owned Deemed and Taken by All the People of the aforesaid Realms and Dominions who are from henceforward bound to acknowledg and pay unto them All Faith and True Allegiance Beseeching GOD by whom Kings Reign to Bless King WILLIAM and Queen MARY with Long and Happy Years to Riegn over us GOD Save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY John Brown Clericus Parliamentorum The 15th of February The Lords and Commons Ordered That His Majesties most Gracious Answer this day be added to the Engrossed Declaration in Parchment to be
And for the better effecting Our said Intention We have by Order made by Us in Council and under Our Sign Manual and We do also by this Our Proclamation made with the Advice of Our said Council discharge remove and dismiss all and every Person and Persons of and from all Offices and Places of Mayors Bailiffs Sheriffs Aldermen Common-council-men Assistants Recorder Town-clerk and all and every Office and Place which they or any of them have or claim only by Charter Patent or Grant from Our dear Brother or from Our Self since the Dates of the respective Deeds of Surrender or Rules of Judgment except such Corporations whose Deeds of Surrender are Inrolled or against whom Judgment is entred and that all and every such Person and Persons deliver up into the Hands of the said Persons hereby appointed and intended to act and execute the said Offices and Places all and every the Charters Records Books Evidences and Matters concerning the said Corporations And We do hereby further publish and declare That We have caused all and every the said Deeds of Surrender which can be found to be delivered and put into the Hands of Our Attorney-General to be by him cancell'd and returned to the Corporations and Bodies Politick of the respective Cities and Towns whom they concern and have also given to Our said Attorney Authority and do hereby Warrant and Command him not only not to proceed or enter Judgment upon the said Quo Warranto's or Informations in nature of a Quo Warranto or any of them but to enter upon the respective Records Noli Prosequi's and Legal Discharges thereof And We do hereby publish and declare Our further Grace and Favour to the said Cities Corporations and Burroughs at any time hereafter by any further Act to grant confirm or restore unto them all their Charters Liberties Franchises and Privileges that at the respective times of such Deeds of Surrender or Rules for Judgment made or given they held or enjoyed And in order to the perfecting Our said Gracious Intentions We do hereby likewise publish and declare Our Royal Will and Pleasure for and concerning the Restoring to such Our Cities Corporations and Burroughs within our said Kingdom and Dominion which have made Deeds of Surrender or have had Judgment given against them which Surrenders and Judgments are entred of Record That Our Chancellor Attorney General and Sollicitor-General without Fees to any Officer or Officers whatsoever upon Application to them made shall and they are hereby required to prepare and pass Charters Instruments Grants and Letters-Patents for the Incorporating Re granting Confirming and Restoring to all and every the said Cities Corporations and Burroughs their respective Charters Liberties Rights Franchises and Privileges and for restoring the respective Mayors Bailiffs Recorders Sheriffs Town-clerks Aldermen Common-council-men Assistants Officers Magistrates Ministers and Free-men as were of such Cities Corporations and Burroughs at the time of such Deeds of Surrender or Judgments respectively given or had and for the putting them into the same State Condition and Plight they were in at the times of such Deeds of Surrender or Judgment made or given And whereas divers Burroughs that were not heretofore Corporations have since the Year 1679. had Charters of Incorporation granted and passed unto them We hereby further express and declare Our Royal Pleasure to determine and annul the said last-mentioned Charters and Corporations And to that end We have in pursuance to the Power reserved in the said Charters by Our Order in Council and under Our Sign Manual removed and discharged and We do also by this Our Proclamation made with the Advice of our said Council remove and discharge all and every Person of or in the said last-mentioned Corporations of and from all Offices and Places of Mayors Bailiffs Recorders Sheriffs Aldermen Common-council-men Assistants and of and from all and every other Office and Place from which We have Power reserved by the said Charters respectively to remove or discharge them And We do hereby promise and declare That We will do and consent to all such Acts Matters and Things as shall be necessary to render these Our Gracious Intentions and Purposes effectual It being Our Gracious Intention to call a Parliament as soon as the General Disturbance of Our Kingdom by the intended Invasion will admit thereof Given at Whitehall It was necessary to transcribe this long Piece to shew what an hurry of Confusion the Nation was then in and how reasonable it was for the Bishops in their Seventh Proposal to desire the Restitution of all these Corporations and Burroughs to their Ancient State without which as things had been carried of late especially it was altogether impossible a Free and Legal Parliament should be holden The 12th of October his Majesty having declared his Resolution to preserve the Church of England in all its Rights and Immunities as an Evidence of it signified his Pleasure to the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of Winchester as Visitor of St. Mary Magdalen College in Oxford to settle that Society Regularly and Statutably who accordingly caused the 16th of that Month a Citation to be fixed up on the College Gates to recal Dr. Hough and the former Fellows of that Society by the second of November following And he accordingly went down to reinstate them and was joyfully received by the University but an Account coming that very Post that the Dutch Fleet had suffered very much in a Storm the 16th of the same Month N. S. and that they would hardly be able to sail till the Spring his Lordship was recalled to London and the Restitution put off But soon after that false News being contradicted the Affection to the Church of England revived and the 24th of October he returned and went thorow with the Work. The 20th of October we had the Favour of the following Proclamation bestowed upon us FOrasmuch as the great Preparations made to invade and conquer this Our Kingdom require Our utmost Care in providing for the necessary Safety and Defence thereof wherein we resolve thro' God's Assistance not to be wanting and to the intent that Our Enemies who will bring the heavy and sad Calamities of War may not strengthen themselves at their coming hither by seising the Horses Oxen and Cattel of any of Our Subjects which may be useful and serviceable to them for Burthen and Draught We have therefore thought fit and We do here by this Our Royal Proclamation published by and with the Advice of Our Privy Council strictly charge and command all and every the Lords Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants of Our respective Counties adjoining to the Sea and all Sheriffs Justices of Peace Mayors Bailiffs and all and every other Officers and Ministers Civil and Military within their respective Counties Cities Towns and Divisions That they cause the Coasts to be carefully watched and upon the first approach of the Enemy to cause all Horses Oxen and Cattel which may be
they have not consulted him they ought to satisfie the King how they can warrant a Cessation of Arms on the Prince's side or how they can hinder him from advancing further to awe Debates in the Houses or what assurance they can give that he will acquiesce in the free Decision of the matters proposed or that he will peaceably depart out of the Land when things are setled and will not pretend a stay here till the vast Sums be paid him that he hath expended on this occasion or lastly will not find new occasions of questioning the security of Performance of any Agreement to be made If they have consulted the Prince they ought to shew his Commission authorizing them to make Proposal or shew the Heads of those Grievances he demands to be redressed for some they urge in their Petition there are which distract the People but I suppose they are more careful of their Heads than to own any such correspondence If these Noble Persons would have effectually saved Effusion of Blood they would rather have used all their Interest to have kept the Prince of Orange in his Country tho' with his Army and Fleet in readiness and have obtained his sending his demands and have waited like dutiful Subjects till the King had convened his Parliament and have tried how Gracious the King would have been in redressing Grievances and securing Religion and Property and after the King's refusal there might have been some colour for his Invasion but none upon any pretence whatsoever to have invited him to it Fifthly Those who will not openly and with a bare face justifie the Prince of Orange's Pretensions cannot think it consistent with the Honour of the King to stoop so low as to summon a Parliament at the direction of an Invader who can never be conceived to desire it with that eagerness if he did not judge it very much conduceable to his Interest for which very reason the King ought to be jealous of such Councils And I humbly conceive those Peers have not sufficiently considered how prejudicial this sort of Address may be to the King's Affairs and how much it will conduce to the further alienating of the Affections of the Subjects from the King when they shall hear of his denial to comply at present with this Expedient and never hear the reasons thereof since they have not divulged his Majesties Gracious Answer together with their Petition and I am sure at this time the putting the King upon such a Dilemma is the greatest dis-service can be done him and very little inferior to joining with his Enemies I might add many more Arguments to prove that the King cannot in Honour yield to this Advice without quitting that undeniable Prerogative the Laws give him of making War or concluding peace if those matters should be submitted to the Arbitriment of the two Houses or owning that the Allegiance of his Subjects did not bind them to assist him in the defence of his Crown and Dominions without the Votes of a Parliament But I shall conclude with some few Considerations I humbly offer to those Right Reverend and Noble Lords and all those who are of the same Judgment with them to reflect upon First then I desire them to consider whether it will not be more glorious and agreeable to the Principles of our Religion effectually to assist our undoubted lawful Soveraign than to suffer him to be dethroned solely because he is a Roman Catholick since the Papists themselves tho' they never take the Oath of Allegiance or Supremacy yet do and ever have declared that if any Roman Catholick Prince yea the Pope himself in person should invade any King of England tho' a Protestant yet that they are bound to defend such a King against them as much as if they were Turks Secondly Whether since the true and original Cause of this Invasion and consequently of all the Blood-shed these Lords so earnestly desire to prevent hath not been the denying to concur with the King in establishing of Liberty of Conscience even with such security to the Protestant Religion and Church of England as could be desired and whether in all human probability that would not be more conduceable to establish the publick Tranquility of the Kingdom and its increase in Wealth and People and consequently the most efficacious means to reduce the Dutch to be just and tractable Allies and Neighbours rather than any thing can be effected by this Invasion or the truckling to such avowed Enemies to our Country our Religion and our King. Thirdly Whether the King 's entire Trust in the Fidelity of his own Subjects for his defence and not admitting of foreign Aids that were unsought for proffered do not oblige all that have any sense of Gratitude or Duty to aid him to the very utmost against such Foreigners as so unnaturally and so unjustly invade him and when it hath pleased God to give success to the King 's just Arms we are not to doubt but the King according to his solemn promise in his late Royal Declaration will speedily call a Parliament and in it redress all such Grievances as his people can justly complain of with a full and ample security to the Church of England and all his Protestant Subjects which it will much more be our Interest to have in a truly harmonious and Free-parliamentary way at that time established than at this present in a tumultuary and precipitate haste so patched up as will not be durable and the more earnestly we desire to see this good work to be set upon the more haste the Nobility and Gentry should make to expel those who hindred the Convention of that Parliament which was much more likely to have setled matters to the content of the King and his People than this Invasion can ever hope to effect The Prince of Orange's Declaration could be no longer suppress'd and therefore it was suffered about this time to be printed with a short Preface and some modest Remarks as the Author pretends on it In 4to The Prince of Orange's Declaration shewing the Reasons why he invades England with a short Preface and some modest Remarks on it THERE having been various Discourses about the Reasonableness and Justice of the Dutch Invasion the Prince's great Love and special Care of the Protestant Religion and English Protestants set forth in the most charming manner and the Desperateness of the Protestant State and Condition painted in the blackest and most frightful Colours Our Natural Liege Lord notwithstanding his Unparallel'd Grace to all represented as designing the greatest Cruelty against his own Subjects strange Stories of ill things whispered and nothing less than a Secret League between His Majesty of Great Britain and the French King to extirpate all Protestants entred into These Reports are with so much Art and Cunning spread as to startle the most considering Protestants of all Perswasions whence nothing could be more eagerly desired than a sight of
the Prince of Orange 's Declaration For the Expectations of most Men are That some extraordinary Secrets some hidden Works of Darkness should be reveal'd and brought to light as generally those who yet never saw the Prince's Declaration do still believe But there not being one word of any such Treaty we cannot see why it is that the Prince comes over and if others impartially peruse the Declaration we doubt not but 't will convince them that they give no Reason powerful enough to justifie so Bloody an Enterprise as this in the issue must needs be We will therefore give you a true Copy of the Prince's Declaration word for word as it runs in the West The Declaration of his Highness WILLIAM HENRY by the Grace of God PRINCE of ORANGE c. of the Reasons inducing him to appear in Arms in the Kingdom of England for preserving of the Protestant Religion and for restoring the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland 1. IT is both certain and evident to all men that the publick Peace and Happiness of any State or Kingdom cannot be preserved where the Laws Liberties and Customs established by the lawful Authority in it are openly transgressed and annulled More especially where the Alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced Upon which those who are most immediately concerned in it are indispensably bound to endeavour to preserve and maintain the established Laws Liberties and Customs and above all the Religion and Worship of God that is established among them and to take such an effectual care that the Inhabitants of the said State or Kingdom may neither be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civil Rights Which is so much the more necessary because the Greatness and Security both of Kings Royal Families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the Happiness of their Subjects and People depend in a most especial manner upon the exact observation and maintenance of these their Laws Liberties and Customs 2. Upon these grounds it is that we cannot any longer forbear to declare that to our great Regret we see that those Councellors who have now the chief Credit with the King have overturned the Religion Laws and Liberties of those Realms and subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liberties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and indirect ways but in an open and undisguised manner 3. Those evil Councellors for the advancing and colouring this with some plausible Pretexts did invent and set on foot the Kings Dispensing Power by Virtue of which they pretend that according to Law he can suspend and dispence with the Execution of the Laws that have been enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament for the security and happiness of the Subject and so have rendred those Laws of no effect tho' there is nothing more certain than that as no Laws can be made but by the joint concurrence of King and Parliament so likewise Laws so enacted which secure the publick Peace and safety of the Nation and the Lives and Liberties of every Subject in it cannot be repealed or suspended but by the same Authority 4. For tho the King may pardon the Punishment that a Transgressor has incurred and to which he is condemned as in the Cases of Treason or Felony yet it cannot be with any colour of Reason inferred from thence that the King can entirely suspend the Execution of those Laws relating to Treason or Felony unless it is pretended that he is clothed with a Despotick and Arbitrary Power and that the Lives Liberties Honours and Estates of the Subjects depend wholly on his good Will and Pleasure and are entirely subject to him which must infallibly follow on the King 's having a Power to suspend the Execution of the Laws and to dispense with them 5. Those Evil Counsellors in order to the giving some Credit to this strange and execrable Maxim have so conducted the Matter that they have obtained a Sentence from the Judges declaring that this Dispensing Power is a Right belonging to the Crown as if it were in the power of the Twelve Judges to offer up the Laws Rights and Liberties of the whole Nation to the King to be disposed of by him Arbitrarily and at his Pleasure and expresly contrary to Laws enacted for the Security of the Subjects In order to the obtaining this Judgment those Evil Counsellors did before hand examine secretly the Opinion of the Judges and procured such of them as could not in Conscience concur in so pernicious a Sentence to be turned out and others to be substituted in their rooms till by the Changes which were made in the Courts of Judicature they at last obtained that Judgment And they have raised some to those Trusts who make open Profession of the Popish Religion tho those are by Law rendred incapable of all such Employments 6. It is also manifest and notorious That as his Majesty was upon his coming to the Crown received and acknowledged by all the Subjects of England Scotland and Ireland as their King without the least Opposition tho he made then open Profession of the Popish Religion so he did then promise and solemnly swear at his Coronation That he would maintain his Subjects in the free Enjoyment of their Laws and Liberties and in particular that he would maintain the Church of England as it was established by Law It is likewise certain that there have been at divers and sundry times several Laws enacted for the Preservation of those Rights and Liberties and of the Protestant Religion and among other Securities it has been enacted That all Persons whatsoever that are advanced to any Ecclesiastical Dignity or to bear Office in either University as likewise all other that should be put in any Imployment Civil or Military should declare that they were not Papists but were of the Protestant Religion and that by their taking of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test yet these Evil Councellors have in effect annulled and abolished all those Laws both with relation to Ecclesiastical and Civil Employments 7. In order to Ecclesiastical Dignities and Offices they have not only without any colour of Law but against most express Laws to the contrary set up a Commission of a certain number of Persons to whom they have committed the Cognisance and Direction of all Ecclesiastical matters in the which Commission there has been and still is one of his Majesties Ministers of State who makes now publick profession of the Popish Religion and who at the time of his first professing it declared that for a great while before he had believed that to be the only true Religion By all this the deplorable State to which the Protestant Religion is reduced is apparent since the Affairs of the Church of England are now put into the hands of persons who have accepted
was sent down to Portsmonth with Orders to the Lord Dartmouth to send him under a good Convoy with his Nurse into France This he was said to have utterly refused whereupon he was brought back to London again on Saturday Doc. 8. and the Queen resolved to go over with him her self and not contented with this extorted from the King a Promise to follow her himself Which was the very worst Counsel the worst Enemy he had in the World could possibly have given him But to return back Scotland was by this time almost in as bad a condition as England and some of the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland were sent up with a Petition for a Free Parliament and the Popish Chapels at York Bristol Glocester Worcester Shrewsbury Stafford Woolverhampton Bromidgham Cambridge and St. Edmond's Bury were about this time demolished and whereever the Lords in Arms came the Papists were disarmed And in Norfolk the Duke of Norfolk their Lord-Lieutenant had a great appearance of the Gentry with him where he and they declared for a Free Parliament and the Protection of the Protestant Religion This meeting was at Norwich the First of December and after that the same Declaration was renewed at Yarmouth and the Suffolk men approved of it but wanted a Lord Lieutenant to assemble and head them in order to the shewing their concurrence with safety Bristol was seized by the Earl of Shrewsbury and Sir John Guise the Lord Lovelace was delivered by the Gentry of Gloucestershire out of the Castle of Gloucester where till then he had been imprisoned The Lords Molineux and Aston in the mean time seized Chester for the King being R. C's and Berwick stood firm to him too but New-Castle received the Lord Lumley and Declared for a Free Parliament and the Protestant Religion York was in the hands of the associated Lords and the Garrison of Hull seized the Lord Langdale their Governour a Papist and the Lord Montgomery and disarmed some Popish Forces newly sent thither and then Declared for a Free Parliament and the Protestant Religion And Plimouth had long before submitted to the Prince of Orange And the Army at Reading upon another false Alarm on Saturday the 8th of December retired in great haste to Twyford Bridge and endeavouring to regain their post a Party of the Prince's men who were sent for by the Inhabitants of Reading upon their threatning to plunder and fire the Town attacked the Irish Dragoons and slew Fifty of them the Irish making little Defence tho' the Prince's Party were much fewer in number because they believed the whole Army was at hand The Popish Party was become so contemptible in London that on Thurday the Sixth of December there was an Hue and Cry after Father Peters publickly cried and sold in the Streets of London But this was not the worst neither for about the same time came forth this following Declaration in the Name of the Prince of Orange By his Highness William Henry Prince of Orange A Third Declaration WE have in the course of our whole life more particularly by the apparent hazards both by Sea and Land to which we have so lately exposed our Person given to the whole World so high and undoubted Proofs of our fervent Zeal for the Protestant Religion that we are fully confident no true Englishman and good Protestant can entertain the least Suspicion of our firm Resolution rather to spend our dearest Blood and perish in the Attempt than not to carry on the blessed and glorious Design which by the favour of Heaven we have so successfully begun to rescue England Scotland and Ireland from SLAVERY and POPERY and in a Free Parliament to Establish the Religion the Laws and the Liberties of these Kingdoms on such a sure and lasting Foundation that it shall not be in the Power of any Prince for the future to introduce Popery and Tyranny Towards the more easie compassing this great Design we have not been hitherto deceived in the just Expectation we had of the concurrence of the Nobility Gentry and People of England with us for the Security of their Religion and the Restitution of the Laws and the Re-establishment of their Liberties and Properties Great numbers of all Ranks and Qualities having joyned themselves to us and others at great distances from us have taken up Arms and Declared for Us. And which we cannot but particularly mention in that Army which was raised to be the Instrument of Slavery and Popery many by the special Providence of God both Officers and common Soldiers have been touched with such a feeling sense of Religion and Honour and of true Affection to their Native Country that they have already deserted the illegal Service they were engaged in and have come over to Us and have given us full assurance from the rest of the Army That they will certainly follow this Example as soon as with our Army we shall approach near enough to receive them without hazard of being prevented and betray'd To which end and that we may the sooner execute this just and necessary Design we are engaged in for the publick Safety and Deliverance of these Nations We are resolved with all possible diligence to advance forward that a Free Parliament may be forthwith called and such Preliminaries adjusted with the King and all things first setled upon such a foot according to Law as may give us and the whole Nation just reason to believe the King is disposed to make such necessary Condescension on his part as will give entire Satisfaction and Security to all and make both King and People once more happy And that we may effect all this in the way most agreeable to our desires if it be possible without the effusion of any Blood except of those execrable Criminals who have justly forfeited their Lives for betraying the Religion and subverting the Laws of their Native Country we do think fit to declare that as we will offer no violence to any but in our own necessary defence so we will not suffer any injury to be done to the Person even of any Papist provided he be found in such place and condition and circumstances as the Laws require So we are resolved and do declare That all Papists who shall be found in open Arms or with Arms in their Houses or about their Persons or in any Office or Employment Civil or Military upon any pretence whatsoever contrary to the known Laws of the Land shall be treated by Us and our Forces not as Soldiers and Gentlemen but as Robbers Free-booters and Banditti They shall be incapable of Quarter and intirely delivered up to the Discretion of our Soldiers And we do further declare That all Persons who shall be found any ways aiding and assisting to them or shall march under their Command or shall joyn with or submit to them in the discharge or execution of their illegal Commissions or Authority shall be looked upon as Partakers of their Crimes Enemies to
Tilbury Fort be put into the Hands of the City VI. That a sufficient part of the Publick Revenue be assigned us for the Support and Maintenance of our Troops until the Sitting of a Free Parliament VII That to prevent the landing of the French or other Foreign Troops Portsmouth may be put into such Hands as by His Majesty and Us shall be agreed on Tilbury-Fort was then Garison'd by the Irish and there were a great many of them and other Papists in Portsmouth This Answer was sent to His Majesty on Monday the Tenth of December by an Express yet he resolved to leave the Town and ordered all those Writs for the Sitting of the Parliament that were not sent out to be burnt and a Caveat to be entred against the making use of those that were sent down And at the same time he sent Order to the Earl of Feversham to Disband the Army and Dismiss the Soldiers The Letter to the Earl of Feversham was in this Form. THings being come to that Extremity that I have been forced to send away the Queen and my Son the Prince of Wales that they might not fall into the Enemies Hands which they must have done if they had stay'd I am obliged to do the same thing in hopes it will please God out of his infinite Mercy to this unhappy Nation to touch their Hearts again with true Loyalty and Honour If I could have rely'd on all my Troops I might not have been put to the Extremity I now am in and would at least have had one blow for it But though I know there are many and brave Men among you both Officers and Soldiers yet you know that both you and several of the General Officers and Soldiers and Men of the Army told me It was no ways advisable for me to venture my self at their Head or to think to fight the Prince of Orange with them And now there remains only for me to thank you and all those both Officers and Soldiers who have stuck to me and been truly Loyal I hope you will still retain the same Fidelity to me and though I do not expect you should expose your selves by resisting a Foreign Army and a Poyson'd Nation yet I hope your former Principles are so inrooted in you that you will keep your selves free from Associations and such pernicious things Time presseth so that I can add no more Jamex Rex The Earl of Feversham presently after the receit of this Letter Disbanded Four thousand Men which was all the Army he had then with him and under his Command after which he sent this Letter to the Prince of Orange SIR HAving received this Morning a Letter from His Majesty with the unfortunate News of his Resolution to go out of England I thought my self obliged being at the Head of his Army and having received his Orders to make no Opposition against any body to let your Highness know it with the Advice of the Officers here so soon as was possible to hinder the effusion of Blood. I have ordered already to that purpose all the Troops that are under my Command which shall be the last Order they shall receive from Feversham This was to all intents and purposes a clear and full Abdication or Desertion of the Army and put them under an inevitable necessity of submitting to the Prince of Orange they having no body to Lead or Head them against him And it is not conceivable how they could keep themselves from entring into an Association or Oath of Allegiance to the Prince now he was gone without exposing themselves by resisting a Foreign Army and a Poyson'd Nation For neither could the Nation long continue without a Prince nor would any Person that succeeded in that Capacity have ever suffered them to live within his Government without giving him Security by Oath for their Submission and Loyalty to him So that the whole design of this Letter seems to be the Sowing a Division in the Nation that at the same time he left us we might not unite or settle our selves under the other but by our Principles be divided that so he might the more easily reduce us again into the State we were in when the Prince first designed his Expedition against England This being done about Three of the Clock in the morning December the 11th the King went down the River in a small Boat towards Gravesend The principal Officers of the Army about the Town thereupon met about Ten of the Clock at Whitehall and sent an Express to the Prince of Orange to acquaint him with the Departure of the King and to assure him that they would assist the Lord Mayor to keep the City quiet till his Highness came and made the Souldiery to enter into his Service Much about the same time the Lords Spiritual and Temporal about the Town came to Guildhall and sending for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen made the following Declaration The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster Assembled at Guild-Hall the 11th of December 1688. WE doubt not but the World believes that in this great and dangerous Conjuncture we are heartily and zealously concerned for the Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land and the Liberties and Properties of the Subject And we did reasonably hope that the King having issued out his Proclamation and Writs for a Free Parliament we might have rested secure under the expectation of that Meeting But His Majesty having withdrawn himself and as we apprehend in order to his departure out of this Kingdom by the pernicious Counsels of Persons ill affected to our Nation and Religion we cannot without being wanting to our Duty be silent under those Calamities wherein the Popish Counsels which so long prevailed have miserably involved these Realms We do therefore unanimously resolve to apply out selves to his Highness the Prince of Orange who with so great Kindness to these Kingdoms so vast Expence and so much Hazard hath undertaken by endeavouring to procure a Free Parliament to rescue us with as little effusion of Christian Blood as possible from the imminent Dangers of Popery and Slavery And we do hereby declare That we will with our utmost Endeavours assist his Highness in the obtaining such a Parliament with all speed wherein our Laws our Liberties and Properties may be secured the Church of England in particular with a due Liberty to Protestant Dissenters and in general the Protestant Religion and Interest over the whole World may be supported and encouraged to the Glory of GOD the Happiness of the Established Government in these Kingdoms and the Advantage of all Princes and States in Christendom that may be herein concerned In the mean time we will endeavour to preserve as much as in us lies the Peace and Security of these great and populous Cities of London and Westminster and the parts adjacent by taking care to disarm all Papists and secure all Jesuits and
fit That all Officers and Souldiers be Lodged by the Direction and Appointment of the Magistrates Justices of the Peace or Constables of the place where such Forces shall come and not otherwise And we do hereby strictly forbid all Officers and Souldiers upon any pretence whatsoever to take up any Quarters for themselves or others without such Direction or Appointment upon pain of being Casheired or suffering such other punishment as the offence shall deserve The Prince found the Treasury very empty of Money the Cash in it being said to be but 40000 l. Whereupon he desired the City of London to advance a Sum for His present Occasions and the 10th of January they agreed to lend 100000 l. but it being raised by Subscriptions it amounted to above 150000 l. The 16th of January the Prince put out a Declaration to assure the Mariners and Seamen of their Pay and suppress the false reports had been spread to the contrary by the Discontented Party The Elections of the Members for the Convention in the mean time went on with the greatest Liberty that could possibly be conceived every man giving his Vote for whom he pleased without the least Solicitation from the Prince or any of his there had been Writs before this twice for a Parliament in a few Months and almost every place had before this fixed their Members so that the difference was not great between the Men that were and those that would have been chosen if the King had suffered the first or second Parliament he called to have met and this gives the truest Idea that can be desired of the temper of the Nation and what would have been the event if either of those Parliaments had sate The two Houses met the 22d of January and the Upper House there being no Lord Chancellor chose the Marquess of Hallifax for their Speaker and the Commons chose Henry Powle Esq after which a Letter was read in both Houses from His Highness the Prince of Orange on the Occasion of their Meeting which was as followeth My Lords I Have endeavoured to the utmost of my power to perform what was desired from me in order to the publick peace and safety and I do not know that any thing hath been omitted which might tend to the preservation of them since the Administration of Affairs was put into my hands It now lieth upon you to lay the foundations of a firm security for your Religion your Laws and your Liberties I do not doubt but that by such a full and free Representative of the Nation as is now met the Ends of my Declaration will be attained And since it hath pleased God hitherto to bless my good intentions with so great success I trust in him that he will compleat his own work by sending a spirit of Peace and Union to influence your Counsels that no interruption may be given to an happy and lasting Settlement The dangerous condition of the Protestants in Ireland requiring a large and speedy succour and the present state of things abroad oblige me to tell you that next to the danger of Unseasonable Divisions amongst our selves nothing can be so fatal as too great delay in your Consultations The States by whom I have been enabled to rescue this Nation may suddenly feel the ill effects of it both by being too long deprived of the service of their Troops which are now here and of your early assistance against a powerful enemy who hath declared a War against them And as England is by Treaty already engaged to help them upon such Exigencies so I am confident that their chearful concurrence to preserve this Kingdom with so much hazard to themselves will meet with all the Returns of Friendship and assistance which may be expected from you as Protestants and Englishmen whenever their condition shall require it Given at St. James's the 22d day of January 1688. To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled at Westminster Will. H. P. d' Orange The first thing the Houses took care of was by mutual consent to draw up and present the following Address The Address of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster in this present Convention to his Highness the Prince of Orange Die Martis 22º Januarii 1688. WE the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled at Westminster being highly sensible of the Great Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that our Preservation is next under God owing to your Highness do return our most humble thanks and acknowledgments to your Highness as the Glorious Instrument of so great a Blessing We do further acknowledg the great care your Highness has been pleased to take in the Administration of the Publick Affairs of the Kingdom to this time and we do most humbly desire your Highness that you will take upon you the Administration of Publick Affairs both Civil and Military and the Disposal of the Publick Revenue for the Preservation of our Religion Rights Laws Liberties and Properties and of the Peace of the Nation And that your Highness will take into your particular care the present state of Ireland and endeavour by the most speedy and effectual means to prevent the Dangers threatning that Kingdom All which we make our Request to your Highness to undertake and exercise till further Application shall be made by us which shall be expedited with all convenient speed and we shall also use our utmost endeavours to give dispatch to the matters recommended to as by your Highness's Letter To this Address thus presented by both Houses at St. James's the Prince of Orange made this Reply the same day My Lords and Gentlemen I Am glad that what I have done hath pleased you And since you desire me to continue the Administration of Affairs I am willing to accept it I must recommend to you the consideration of Affairs abroad which maketh it fit for you to expedite your business not only for making a Settlement at home upon a good foundation but for the safety of all Europe The Houses also ordered that Thursday the 21th of January Instant be appointed for a day of Publick Thanksgiving to Almighty God in the Cities of London and Westminster and ten miles distance for having made his Highness the Prince of Orange the Glorious Instrument of the Great Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that Thursday the 14th of February next be appointed for a Publick Thanksgiving throughout the whole Kingdom for the same The 23d of January the Lords passed this Order Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled at Westminster That no Papist or Reputed Papist do presume to come into the Lobby Painted Chamber Court of Requests or Westminster-Hall during the sitting of this Convention And it is further Ordered That this Order be Printed and Published and set upon the Doors of the said Rooms The 28th of January the Commons passed this Vote Resolved That King James the
enroll'd in Parliament and Chancery which is as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen THis is certainly the Greatest Proof of the Trust you have in us that can be given which is the thing that maketh us value it the more and we thankfully accept what you have offered And as I had no other intention in my coming hither than to Preserve Your Religion Laws and Liberties So you may be sure that I shall endeavour to Support them and shall be willing to concur in any thing that shall be for the Good of the Kingdom and to do all that is in my Power to Advance the Wellfare and Glory of the Nation Thus ended that Stupendious Revolution in England which we have so lately seen to the great Joy of the Generality of the Protestants of Europe and of many of the Catholick Princes and States who were at last convinced that the attempting to force England to return under the Obedience of the See of Rome in the present conjuncture of Affairs would certainly end in the ruine of this potent Kingdom and whilest it was doing the present French King would possess himself of the remainder of the Spanish Netherlands and the Palatinate and perhaps of the Electorates of Cologne Ments and Triers a great part of which he hath actually seized whilest the Prince of Orange was thus Gloriously asserting the English Liberty The true reasons of the Swiftness of this Change may easily be assigned by shewing the temper and designs of James the II. The Temper of William the III. our Present Soveraign and The Nature of the English Nation and of the times all concurring with Wonderful Harmony to produce this wonderful effect For had James the II. undertook any thing but the subjecting England to Popery and the Exercise of an Arbitrary Power to that end his vast Revenue and personal Valour and the Reputation he had gained at home and abroad by the defeat of the Monmouth Invasion would have gone near to have effected it and after all this if he had in the beginning of October frankly granted all the Ten Proposals made by the Bishops and suffered a Parliament to have met and given up a confiderable number of his Ministers to Justice and suffered the pretended Prince of Wales his Birth to be freely debated and determin'd in Parliament It would in all probability have prevented or defeated the then intended Invasion But whilest he thought to save the Pretended Succession the Dispensing and Suspending power and the Ecclesiastical Commission to carry on his former design with when he had baffl'd the Prince of Orange the Nation saw through the project and he lost all Had a Prince of less secrecy prudence courage and interest than the Prince of Orange undertaken this business it might probably have miscarried but as his cause was better so his reputation conduct and patience infinitely exceeded theirs he would not stir till he saw the French Forces set down before Philipsbourg and then he was sure France and Germany were irrevocably ingaged in a War and consequently he should have no other opposition than what the Irish and English Roman Catholicks could make against him For no English Protestant would fight his Country into Vassalage and Slavery to Popish Priests and Italian Women when a Parliament sooner or later must at last have determin'd all the things in Controversie except we resolved once for all to give up our Religion Laws Liberties and Estates to the will of our King and submit for ever to a French Government A Nation of less sense than the English might have been imposed upon of less bravery and valour might have been frighted of a more servile temper might have neglected its Liberties till it had been too late to have ever recovered them again But none but a parcel of Jesuits bred in a Cloister and unacquainted with our temper as well as Constitution would ever have hoped to have carried two such things as Popery and Arbitrary power both at once upon so jealous a Nation as the English is which hates them above any other people in the World. The cruel slaughter they had made of the poor wretches they took after the defeat at Bridgwater ought to have made them for ever despair of gaining any credit with the Dissenters who rarely forgive but never forget any ill treatment Yet these little Politico's had so little sense as to build all their hopes on the Gratitude and Insensibility of these men as if they should for Liberty of Conscience arbitrarily and illegally granted and consequently revocable at the will of the Granter have sold themselves to everlasting slavery They were equally mistaken in their carriage towards the Church of England party for when some of them had pursued both Clergy and Laity with the utmost obloquy hatred oppression and contempt to the very moment they found the Dutch storm would fall upon them Then all at once they passed to the other extream the Bishops are presently sent for the Government intirely to be put into their hands and all places Presses and Papers fill'd with the Encomiums of the Church of England's Loyalty and Fidelity who but three days before were Male-contents if not Rebels and Traytors for opposing the Kings Dispensing power and the Ecclesiastical Commission And which was the height of folly the same Pen which had been hired to defame and blacken the Church of England the Author of the Publick Occurrences truly stated was ordered to magnifie its Loyalty By which they gained nothing but the intire and absolute disobliging the whole Protestant party in the Nation so that for the future no body would serve or trust them To compleat their folly and madness they perswaded the King to throw up the Government and retire into France pretending we would never be able to agree amongst our selves but would in a short time be forced to recal him and yield to all those things we had so violently opposed or if not he might yet at least force us to submit by the succours he might gain in France without ever considering how possible it was we might agree and how difficult it would be to force us by a French Army which was equally contrary to the Interest of England and all Europe besides and to all intents and purposes destructive of the Interest of that Prince they pretended thus to exalt and re-establish Had France been now in Peace there might yet have been some colour for this but when all Europe was under a necessity to unite against him for its own preservation then to perswade the King of Great Britain to desert his Throne and fly thither for succour upon hopes of recovering his Kingdoms again by the assistance of the French the mortal and hereditary enemies of the English this was so silly a project that there seems to have been something of a Divine Infatuation in it However certainly no rational man will think that all the Princes of Europe would sit still and
was impracticable at this juncture But there are two other things which he has not mentioned the first of which is who gave the occasion of these Dangers which he apprehended and the Second whether he had no other way to avoid those Dangers but by withdrawing Now it is plain that the ill courses taken under his Government had brought upon him those Dangers and that if he would have suffered a Parliament to meet he needed not to have withdrawn and consequently his going away rather than submitting the things in dispute to a Parliament was a voluntary Abdication Sect. 4. Our Author has a scruple whether the Kings going away signifies any thing to Scotland and Ireland now all this is no better than banter for when he left England he left them too tho' the one was for sometime and the other still is under the Regular Administration of the Lord Lieutenant as he tells us but those that have since come from thence assure us there is nothing Regular in his Administration but the British Protestants are treated as Enemies by this Minister of his so that Ireland being an Appendage of England and thus treating our Brethren ought by us to be taken for a Rebel and an Enemy let the pretence be what it will Their Loyalty to the Late King not excusing but Aggravating their Injuries to his Country men who have done nothing to deserve this usage but it is to be hoped will find hands enough to revenge it in due time Our Author in the 5 Sect. is to prove the late King had sufficient Grounds c. omitting his Rhetorick Had not his Majesty faith he great Reason to Retire to secure his Person and Honour at his first withdrawing from Whitchal When he had met with so many unfortunate disappointments with so many surprizing and unparallell'd Accidents c. I say no he ought to have considered what was the Cause of all these Misfortunes and to have applied himself with so much the more Industry to the quieting of his people which the sitting of the Parliament would in all probability have effected But what could he promise himself by withdrawing but the bare saving of his Life and Liberty with the loss of his Crown now his Life and Liberty were in no Danger as is plain for after he was brought back a Prisoner and suffered to go away again without any hinderance There are many indiscreet things said in this Paragraph which I could easily expose but I would not make this Answer too long nor exasperate any body against the Author and therefore I will pass them over To be obliged saith he to Pay a Foreign Army which came over to enable his Subjects to drive him out of his Dominions Looked as if there was a design to reduce him as low in his Honour as in his Fortune The Prince saith in his Declaration Sect. 21. That he intended nothing but to have a Free and Lawful Parliament Assembled as soon as was possible And this might have been done without driving the King out of his Kingdom and it is very difficult to imagine how he could at first propose more to himself nor would it have been any diminution of the Kings Honour to have paid the Dutch Army a few Weeks or Months till things could have been setled When the Forts and Revenues were thus disposed off when the Papists were to be disbanded And the Protestants could not be trusted when the Nation was under such violent and general dissatisfactions when the King in case of a Rupture which was not unlikely had nothing but his single Person to oppose against the Princes Arms and those of his own Subjects Well what then Why it was time to be gone No Sir it was time to be better Advised than he had been by those that had brought him into this deplorable State. It was time to despair of ever being able to Set up Popery and an Arbitrary Power in England to have reflected on the breach of his former Promises and Oaths which had so Exasperated his Subjects against him but by other measures might very easily have been again appeased and deserved after all rather to be trusted than those Popish Souldiers he was so fond of to his Ruine because he had formerly had sufficient Experience of their Loyalty till he had made it impossible for them to serve him without destroying their Religion and their Civil Liberties When his Mortal Enemies and those who were under the highest forfeitures to his Majesty were to sit Judges of his Crown and Dignity if no further c. The Power of an heated Imagination Why after all these were the three Estates of England whom he thus blackens or a part of them or rather the Church of England Nobility and Gentry the same men that were chosen and for the most part must be chosen again if we were to choose to morrow as to the Lower House and as to the Upper the Bishops and the Peers always are and must the be same Nor were they to sit Judges of his Crown and Dignity for they must have Sworn Allegiance to him again at their meeting much less of his Life or Liberty but only of his former Actions his Ministers and of the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales And he had Reason to have expected great Candor from them having had so great Experience of them before When a Gentleman of the Church of England could thus harangue it against his own Party and Interest we need not wonder if that Unfortunate Prince found some Jesuits about him who would perswade him rather to abandon his Crown Kingdom and People then the Glorious design of forcing England once more to submit to the yoke of Rome Section 6. Our Author is at a loss to find the Reason why his coming from Feversham to Whitehal is not allowed to be a return to his people now if he please to look into the former History he will find it was not voluntary but forced tho he was not then known and in all probability the fear continued upon him when the force was removed for then he saw he could not go away without the Prince's leave and that was the true reason of his inviting the Prince to London when he could not keep him out if he would Pray what had the King done to incur a Forfeiture by his first retirement had he quitted the Realm Yes he had and the Government too and necessitated his own Menial Servants to submit to the Prince by the Famous Address made at Guild-hall the 11th of December So that the Prince was now actually invested with the Government the whole Nation having submitted to him and it was at his choice whether he would treat him as a King now nor had he any great reason to do so considering how lately he had broke his word to him and the Nation His return after some assurance of Fair Treatment is a plain Discovery of the Motives of his withdrawing
Grievances which the Majority of the three Estates should have judged necessary to be redress'd would have signified as little so that whatever the difficulties or distrusts of the King were at that time he saw he must yield the point after he had strugled as long as was possible and now when he had now passed his Word it was too late to revoke it and therefore there was that necessity added to the other of holding one Now Sr. if we had yielded this point there had been an End of the English Liberties for ever If he had yielded it what inconvenience could have followed which did not certainly attend his Desertion of us but if he had stayed he might in all probability have saved his main Stake and have regained the Affections of his people again and so have ended his Days in Honour and Peace in his own Palace and amongst his good Subjects At least there was so great a probability of all this that no man but he would have taken the other way Nor he neither if he had suffered this Question to have been debated in his Privy Council and had heard what all sides could have said for it Sect. 21. He tells us this expedient the appointing of a representative was not absolutely necessary for the Administration of Justice might have proceeded regularly without any such Deputation by virtue of those Commissions which the Judges and Justices of the Peace had already from the King. So that here was no need of Seals or Commissioners tho the Nation was imbroiled to that heigth that no body durst have undertaken this dangerous Charge as he tells us the Section before and the King was gone Thus men loose themselves when they meddle with what they do not understand The Tumults which arose that very day in London and spread themselves with the news of the Kings withdrawing all over the Nation do sufficiently confute this airy Notion And at this time both the Judges and Justices of the Peace were at almost as Low an Ebb of Authority and Credit with the People as their Master by reason of the many unqualified men which had been imployed and the things they had done contrary to Law he could not but know how the late Lord Chancellor Sir Roger Lestrange and many others were treated by the People and yet he tells us the Administration of Justice might have proceeded regularly yes we might have lived without any King Magistrates or Execution of Justice at all if all men would have been quiet and minded their own business Section 22 We have a whimsey of a Journey of Charles the first into Scotland and that five Lords were appointed by him to sign bills in his Name but the Judges and Justices acted by virtue of their former Commissions without any new Authority from these Representatives of his Majesty Now to what end is all this why to prove that Commissions will hold tho the King is absent Who ever doubted this for without this had been allowed he could have had no representative But I thought he would have given us an instance of a King that had Stole out of his Kingdom and had left no body to have supplied his place which Charles I. did and yet after he was gone no body knew whether to return no body knew when his people had been Governed by his Judges and Justices of the Peace and then this should have been an Example for England Henry the 3d. of France was first King of Poland and hearing of his brothers Death stole away without Leaving any Deputy But then the Kingdom of Poland call'd a Dyet and Judged it an Abdication and proceeded to the Election of a New King as if he had been Dead The Instances of this nature must be very rare but who ever heard of a Prince that withdrew himself from his people or was forced away and yet no body was put in his place Certainly James the 2d foresaw what would follow and in some sort consented to it rather than to the setting of a Parliament § 26. He undertakes to prove in the last place that we have no Grounds either from the Laws of the Realm or from those of Nature to pronounce the Throne void upon such a retreat of a Prince as we have before us This is bold and very peremptory considering there had then a Vote passed for it in the Lower house of the Convention And that this Gentleman is a Clergy-man and knows very little of the Laws of England There is said he no Statute so much as pretended to support this Deserting Doctrine he might have better called it this right of providing for our selves when we had no body to take care off us There is no Statute to enable us to meet and chose a new King if the whole Royal Line should happen to be extinct yet this may very probably happen at one time or another What shall we therefore continue in a State of Anarchy for ever Neither has it any foundation in common Law For common Law is nothing but Ancient usage and Immemorial Custom Now Custom Supposeth Precedents and Parallel Cases But it is granted on all hands that the Crown of England was never judged to be demised by the withdrawing of the Prince before Such a withdrawing as this I believe never happened in England before nor ever will again and it is Stupendioutly wonderful that it happened now There was nothing asked of the King but what he ought to have granted freely viz the calling of a Free and Lawful Parliament which he said he was resolved to have had tho the Prince had not entered England and so soon as he was retired he would hold such a Parliament then he came further and promised to hold a Parliament the 15th of January and sent thee Noble-men to the Prince to adjust the Preliminaries who had as good an Answer as they could expect but before it was possible the late King should know what it would be whilest all men rested secure under the Expectation of that meeting The King for Reasons wholly unknown to us burns the Writs sends away the Seals withdraws himself and disbands his Army Now if he can find a case Parallel to this in the History of the whole world Erit mihi Magnus Apollo Nay saith he our Laws are not only silent in the maintenance of this Paradox but against it as I shall make good by two Instances The first of these is that of Edward the Fourth who was forced to fly without leaving any representative yet returned and regained the Crown King Edward was surprized under pretence of a Treaty and sent Prisoner to Warwick Castle and made his escape out of Custody after this Henry the Sixth was again Crowned and Edward the Fourth declared a Traytor in Parliament and an Usurper of the Crown and all his Estate confiscated and the like Judgment passed against all his Adherents and all the Statutes made by him were revoked