against Sr. W. Scroggs as One Article Ingredient to the making up of his Treasons Now certainly there was something Extraordinary in 't that more then That Number of Noble Lords should be Declared Pernicious Advisers Promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdom for only Ioyning with the King Himself in Opinion against the Exclusion And that the Same Persons should Arraign the One that Brought-off the Other So Mortal a Sin was it accounted in Those days to Serve the Crown and the Royal Family and so Venial a Slip to Endeavour the Overturning of the Government I do not remember so much as any One Instance that Vary'd from This Rule And never was any thing so Constant that came by Chance To give These Political Operators their Due there was Nothing Wanting to their Purposes that either Fraud Industry Confidence or Hypocrisy could Furnish They made the People afraid of Infallibility and Arbitrary Power and at the Same Time look'd them in the very Faces while they Assum'd the One and Practis'd the Other Themselves the Former under the Authority of the Wisedom of the Nation and the Latter in the Right of the Commons of England For Every Vote was in Effect a Sentence of Law Reason and Power Sovereign Absolute and without Controll And it was but saying that This or That Is at This Time Grievous to the Subject a Weak'ning of the Protestant Interest an Encouragement to Popery and Dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom to make the Resolution Authentique with a Non Obstante of never so many Laws to the Contrary If a Vote say that the King Cannot Pardon That Subjects shall not lend him Money Or That the Refusal of the Lords to Proceed in Parliament upon the Commons Impeachments of any Peer or Commoner for Treason or any other Crime or Misdemeanour is a Denial of Iustice and a Uiolation of the Constitution of Parliaments Here 's the King Law and Lords Over-rul'd and the Votes made Presidents Cited and Pleaded for the Prerogative of the House of Commons in all the Clubs or which is the same Thing the Peoples Courts of Iustice throughout the Three Kingdoms And it could not well be Other so long as Green-Ribbon-Committees and Caballs Without doors had such an Influence upon what pass'd Within and that the Principal Managers of Otes'es Plot were the very Oracles that were Consulted for Direction and Resolution upon All the Conspiracies that were then in Agitation These Evidences upon the Transactions of the House it self drawn from the Prints that they Themselves Order'd to be Publish'd and that were Publish'd accordingly as an Appeal to the Whole World in Iustification of their Proceedings and to Prevent False Copies and Reports These very Papers are the Evidences as their Unlucky Starrs would have it that are now Arisen in Iudgment 1against them and Faithfully Deliver'd-over to Succeeding Times as the Only Sure Means of Vnriddling the Mystery of This Wonderfull Intrigue And certainly No better way to let the Reader into the Secrets of This Affair then by the Key it self that was Made Originally to the Cypher I Have by this Time Trac'd the Likelyhoods of a Deliberated Design upon the King Church and State thorough all the Steps of Probability and Strong Presumption up to the Highest Degree of Certainty and Demonstration Were not All the Violent Asserters of the Duke of Monmouth's Pretended Interest and the Opposers of the Indubitable Right of his Royal Highness Embarqu'd in the Same Bottom of Enmity to the Government and of Kindness to the Faction How many were there in Both Houses that had the Same Hearts towards the King in a Committee of Parliament that they had afterward in a Clubb or in an Army And still Otes'es Plot the Support of All their Pretences And what was the Countenance of That Plot at Last but that the King was in Danger of being Assassinated by the Papists and therefore the Posse of the Three Kingdoms was to be Rais'd to Prevent that Murther Now whoever Believes That Story to be True must of Necessity draw this Conclusion from it That the Same People Stickled for the Saving of the King at Whitehall that were for the Killing of him in the West That is to say unless they can Bear the World down that there was No Rebellion Or that None of the Leading Members of Either House were Concern'd in 't but for That there was never any thing made Plainer then This Affirmative not onely from the Mouths of their Confederates but from the Confessions of the very Parties Themselves For the Truth of This I may further Remit my self to Divers Proclamations Declarations and Other Acts of State that have been Issued out by the Order and Authority of the Late Blessed King and of his Sacred Majesty that is now in Being But as a Supplemental Explanatory to All the Rest the Paper of Association that was found in the Late Earl of Shaftsburies Closet and Prov'd upon him if ever Light it self was made Manifest That Paper I say may serve without any Violence to the Text for a Comment upon All the Dark Passages of That History for it is in the Frame Order and Matter of it no other then a Compendious Abstract of the Debates and Resolutions that had pass'd the Commons upon the bus'ness of the Plot and the Succession Insomuch that there is hardly a Syllable of any Moment in the One that is not Answer'd and Eccho'd in the Other and whoever Lick'd it into Form the Project was the Cubb of a Close-Committee and it was kept in Reserve for a Forc'd-Put The French Holy League was look'd upon in those days as a Master-piece but the Devil was as yet a Novice The Scotch and English Holy League and Covenant came an Age Later into the World and Refin'd upon the French One and Then some Forty Year after that came the Noble Peers Association that Out-did them Both. But there 's no Reading upon 't 'till we have the Piece it self Before us in its own Dimensions Words and Colours The Paper which was Seized in the E. of Shaftsbury's Closet by Francis Gwin Esquire One of the Clerks of His Majesties Privy-Council and Read November 24. 1681. at the Old-Baily before His Majesties Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer WE the Knights c. Finding to the grief of our Hearts the Popish Priests and Iesuits with the Papists and their Adherents and Abetters have for several years last past pursued a most pernicious and Hellish Plot to root out the true Protestant Religion as a pestilent Heresie to take away the Life of our Gracious King to subvert our Laws and Liberties and to set up Arbitrary Power and Popery 2. And it being Notorious that they have been highly encouraged by the Countenance and Protection given and procured for them by J. D. of Y. and by their expectations of his succeeding to the Crown and that through crafty Popish Councils his
Five Windsor Letters But That which Tong Propounded for an Evidence so Demonstrative of the Truth of All he had Deliver'd that it would put a Final End to Any Question upon That Point serv'd only to Conclude the Whole to be a Forgery These Letters now were Manifestly of Tong 's Contriving One of them of his Own Hand-Writing Nay the Authority and the Truth of them in respect both of the Authors and the Matters were to the Uttermost of Tong 's Poor Might and Skill in such a Manner Excus'd and Defended that they were Argu'd to be Such and Such Peoples Hands because they were Not Like their Hands and without pretending to shew any Other of their Counterfeit Letters to Compare them by And Tong has not quite done yet neither Tong gets himself sent for to the Council He Delivers his Papers in Fetches Otes He Sollicits King Lords Commons and Committees There was not One Step in the whole Frame of the Conspiracy which he does not Write Notes Narratives or Relations upon He 's In at All thorough the Three Kingdoms Who but Tong to furnish the History of all our â—ires Treasons Popish Commissiâ—nâ— Allyances â—aggots Peâ—sâ—cutâ—ons Who but He to undertake for the Lists of the Plotters the Particularities of their Crimes and to set-up in short for Historiographer to the Conspiracy and the Common Solicitor to the whole Faction Though he Declares as is said already in a Petition to the House of Commons that he had No Knowledge of any Person Charged or Suspâ—cted to be in the Confâ—deracy and hardly of any One Popish Gentâ—eman in England I have yet One Paper more of His bearing Date April 29. 1679. Tuesday He takes upon him with his usual Confidence to Advise his Majesty to Deliver up all Priests and Iesuits to the severity of the Laws in that Case Provided For says he They are not to be Consider'd as Meer Priests but as Professed and Known Enemies to our King and Kingdom Spyes Assassins and Incendiaries To This Discourse the King shew'd Great Dislike and Changed his Countenance with Displeasure and said that Bloud Became not the Dr nor his Coat Said he must Preach Other Doctrine to Him and That on the Account of Conscience and Appealed to the Drs Own Conscience whether He would be Contented to be so Persecuted Terming them Poor People and said Other as Effectual Means might be Used The Dr Answer'd that he spoke This only for his Majesties Enformation and that he might know that he was not Obliged neither in Honour Promise nor Conscience to Interpose for them as Priests if his Affairs Press'd him and Required him to do Otherwise If I had thought of it sooner This Treatise would as well have born the Title of a Brief History of Tong as of a Brief History of the Times Or it would have done as well perhaps as either of them to have Call'd it A Vindication of Titus Otes For His Murders were a kind of Chance-Medley Compar'd with the Others He Poor Devil Swore to Any thing that came Next without either Feeling or Fore-seeing the Conscience or the Consequences of Things A False Oath in His Mouth was no more then an Invenom'd Tooth in the Mouth of a Mad Dog. He Sâ—apt at Every thing that was in his Way and No Remedy for the Wound like a Piece of his Own Liver The very Bleeding of him at a Carts-Arse has Purg'd away the Malignity of the Poyson Otes'es Part was Divided betwixt a Malicious Humour that he brought into the World with him and an Habitual Course of Wickedness that made his Sins as Familiar to him as his Daily Bread but the Invention the Contrivance and the Conduct was Alltogether Tong 's Who Certainly had the Fore-thought the Deliberation and the Study of Wickedness to Answer for Over and Above And Otes made no more of a False Oath then of Writing just so many Words out of a Copy-Book And I have yet One Word more to say Comparatively even on Tong 's Behalf which is That he himself had his Directors also that were the More Criminal of the Two For Even in the Confusion of Hell it self there is a Subordination as well as in Heaven and there are Degrees of Anguish and Desparation in the One as there are of Glories in the Other Nay Lucifer if I may say so Values Himself upon the Dignity of being Vppermost and the Deeper the Horror the Greater is His Glory The End. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TIMES c. PART III. Treating of the DEATH OF Sir E.B. Godfrey By Sir Roger L'Estrange Kt. LONDON Printed for R. Sare at Grays-Inn-Gate in Holborn MDCLXXXVIII TO POSTERITY THERE will be a Time when Truth shall be Believ'd and the Witnesses of it Iustify'd and the World never the more upon the mending Hand neither perhaps For it is Matter of Course in the Reason and Flux of Humane Affairs for the Next Age to do That Right to the Former which the Former could Not do to it self 'T is a Rare Felicity of the Times says Tacitus when the Present State of Things will bear a True History But so it is however that One Generation finds Argument and Entertainment for Another And whether the Subject be Good or Bad or the Succeeding Age Better or Worse Things will be never the less Agreeable in the Story for being Execrable in the Practice For the Popular Test of Good or Evil is Profit or Loss and it is only Interest that supports the Reputation of Wickedness and Quenches the Veneration that is due to Virtue So that in saying There will be such a Time c. and in Appealing from the Envy of the Present to the Impartial Iustice of the Times to come I do not take upon me to speak with the Spirit of a Prophet as if I Fore-told Things Hard to be Fore-known Neither do I reckon that I put any Complement upon Posterity in Transmitting my Cause and my Papers into Their Hands My Bus'ness is only to Place Truth in a Proper Light and to take the best Care I can that After-times may be the Wiser for Our Follies the Honester for our Impostures and that the Infamy of the Present Age may not pass for History in the Next This Tract is Intended for a Third Part in Continuation of what I have already Publish'd in Two Other Parts under the Title of A Brief History of the Times c. In the First Part I have layd open the Scheme and Manage of the Late Conspiracy upon the Credit of the Conspirators Proper Acts and Records In the Second I have Endeavour'd to give the World a True Account of the Rise Progress and Conduct of the Pretended Popish Plot. And to shew not so much what it was Not as what it Was which will make the Story appear quite Another Thing then all this while it has been taken to be The Third Part that I am now entring upon is a kind of Historical Review upon
is no Security or Safety for the Protestant Religion the King's Life or the Well-Constituted and Established Government of This Kingdom without Passing a Bill for Disabling James Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging and to Rely upon any other Means and Remedies without such a Bill is not only Insufficient but Dangerous Here 's the Horrid Popish English Plot made the Ground for the Excluding of the Duke and keeping the King short of Mony according to the Intent of the Votes of Ian. 7. 1680. above-mention'd And That 's made the Foundation likewise for the Refusal in the Address before-Cited in the very Syllables of the said Address That your Majesties Sacred Life is in Continual Danger under the Prospect of a Popish Successor is Evident not only from the Principles of Those Devoted to the Church of Rome but also from the Testimonies Given in the Prosecution of the Horrid Popish Plot against Divers Traytors Attainted for Designing to put Those Accursed Principles into Practice against your Majesty There needs no Subtlety of Quirking or Reasoning upon this Case of MONY the Spite of it lying so Open that Every Common Eye sees thorough it and that the Terms the Republican Cabal Treated upon in some of those Parliaments were no other then a Tryal of Skill to see if they could bring his Late Majesty to a Composition for his Crown For the King was to have No Mony but upon Conditions of Disinheriting his Brother and more yet as I shall shew in Due Place Contrary to all the Tyes of Conscience Gratitude Iustice and Prudence And All for fear of a Damnable Hellish Popish Plot. We shall see now how they Dealt with his Majesty likewise in the Matter of Power No Power THE Power of a Prince Exerts it self in the Means of an Ample Revenue to Answer all the Necessities of the Crown to Pay his Troups and to Reward Honourable Services In the Privileges of Sovereign Authority the Love and the Reputation that he has in the Hearts of his People In the Arms of his Militia the Command of his Subjects and the Chearfull Obedience of his Friends They had allready Maim'd and Disabled his Late Sacred Majesty in the First Great Point of his Revenue That which comes-on Next is to see how they dealt with him in respect of his Power of Prerogative in General and as to his Forces both by Land and by Sea in Particular and whether the whole Proceeding was not still Grounded upon the Damnable Bug-bear of the Popish Plot. How they us'd him upon the Matter of his Credit and Friends shall come-on in due Time. But to Proceed now to an Enquiry how they handled him upon the Subject of his Prerogative First in the Case of the Earl of Danby The Kings Prerogative of Pardoning Question'd REsolved That an Humble Address be made to His Majesty Representing to his Majesty the Irregularity and Illegality of the Pardon mentioned by his Majesty to be Granted to the Earl of Danby and the Dangerous Consequence of Granting Pardons to Any Persons that lie under an Impeachment of the Commons of England Here 's the Kings Power of Life and Death shaken at the very Root and what 's the Unpardonable Crime at last but This among Others That he is Popishly-Affected and hath Trayterously Conceal'd after he had Notice of the Late Horrid Plot or Conspiracy Contrived by the Papists against his Majesties Person and Government and hath Suppress'd the Evidence and Reproachfully Discountenanced the Kings Witnesses in the Discovery of it in favour of Popery Immediately tending to the Destruction of the Kings Sacred Person and Subversion of the Protestant Religion There happen'd no Evil under the Sun in those Days but the Late Horrid Plot or somewhat like it had still a Finger in the Pye But from Pardoning in my Lord Danby's Case they proceeded afterward to a Bolder Step in my Lord Staffords and to make a Moot-Point of it whether the King by his Prerogative could so much as Remit any Part of the Sentence but Sir W. I. gave his Opinion upon 't in Favour of the Prerogative upon a very Weighty Reason This House says he lyeth not under any Obligation to Offer at any Opposition nor concern themselves herein Especially at This Time when such a Dispute may End in Preventing of the Execution of the said Lord Stafford And therefore I do humbly Conceive you may do well to give your Consent that the said Writ be Executed according to its Tenor. The Short of the Bus'ness was This Sentence of Death was pass'd in Form upon my Lord Stafford and the Kings Writ to the Sheriffs Commanded only his Head to be Sever'd from his Body Bethel and Cornish the then Sheriffs of London and Middlesex Apply'd themselves by Petition to the Lords to know whether they should Obey the Writ or Not The Lords found the Scruples Vnnecessary and Declar'd That the Kings Writ ought to be Obey'd After this to the Commons Stating the Matter under These Four Following Quaeries I speak upon the Credit of the Collection of Debates above-mention'd 1. Whether the King being neither Iudge nor Party can Order the Execution 2. Whether the Lords can award Execution 3. Whether the King can Dispense with any part of the Execution 4. If the King can Dispense with some part of the Execution why not with All Upon the Debate it was in the Conclusion Resolved That This House is CONTENT That is to say it does VOVCHSAFE and with MVCH A-DO too that the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex do Execute William Late Viscount Stafford by Severing his Head from his Body only The Story of these Insolencies will never be Believ'd in After-Ages but however we are upon the Foot still of the Trayterous and Execrable Conspiracy for the Imprisoning Deposing and Murdering his Sacred Majesty and the Raising and Disposing of Men Monys Arms and other Things Necessary for their Wicked and Trayterous Designs and Namely a Commission for William Viscount Stafford to be Paymaster of the Army HEre 's a Dreadfull Bus'ness as the Good Woman said about this same Trayterous and Execrable Conspiracy Pray the Lord it be all True at Last for the Government was Mightily off the Hinges about it and the Fountain of Mercy and Power seem'd to be quite Dry'd-up The Sheriffs were become the Peoples Officers and the Commons made Iudges of the Validity of the King 's Writ The Style of Authority was no longer We Charge and Command but Resolv'd upon the Question and the Power of the Keys dropt into St. Stephens Chapel Parliamentary as well as Pardoning Power Encroch'd upon AND that they might not seem Partial to One Prerogative more then Another They struck at the King's Power of Parliaments as well as of Pardons and finding that an Everlasting Parliament Agreed so well with their Predecessors
they had a Months-mind to make Tryal of the Same Experiment Themselves too as may be seen by the By in their Parliamentary Addresses and Votes but most Expresly in the Throng of Popular Addresses to his Majesty and in the Libel of Vox Patriae where so many of the Members got themselves Address'd to in a kind of an Association to That very purpose As for Example In the Address against Sir George Ieffreys the Earl of Hallifax and several Votes upon the same Occasion We your Majesties most Dutifull c. in hopes to bring the Popish Conspirators to speedy Iustice were about to Petition to your Majesty in an Humble Dutifull and Legal Way for the Sitting of This Parliament c. And so again We c. being deeply sensible of the Manifold Dangers and Mischiefs which have been Occasion'd to This your Kingdom by the Dissolution of the Last Parliament and by the Frequent Prorogations of This Parliament whereby the Papists have been Greatly Encouraged to Carry on their Hellish and Damnable Conspiracies c. Resolved That Whosoever Advised his Majesty to Prorogue This Parliament to Any Other purpose then in Order to the Passing of a Bill for the Exclusion of James Duke of York is a Betrayer of the King the Protestant Religion and of the Kingdom of England a Promoter of the French Interest and a Pensioner to France What is All This but Overturning and Overturning Confusion like Waves following One upon the Back of Another and the Cabal so Intoxicated with Passion in the Logick of This Last Vote that the very Despite of being Defeated made them Forget their Ordinary Prudence For the Conclusion is never to be Reconcil'd to the Premisses All that can be said for This Worrying Vote is that they were then in their Last Agonies for they were That Day Prorogu'd from the aforesaid 10th of Ianuary to the 20th in Order to a Dissolution And in All Mischievous Creatures the Convulsions of Death are ever the Strongest But for the Rolls of the Written Addresses of Those Days they are most of them Peremptory for Sitting 'till they might be Effectually Secur'd and That 's One Main Condition too of the Countrys Addresses to their Members And the Address of Sir Patience Ward then Lord-Mayor c. to his Majesty Himself Your Petitioners were Extremely Surpriz'd at the Late Prorogation whereby the Prosecution of the Publique Iustice of the Kingdom and the Making the Provisions Necessary for the Preservation of your Majesty and your Protestant Subjects hath received an Interruption c. They do therefore most Humbly pray c. That the said Parliament may Sit from the Day to which they are Prorogued untill by their Councels and Endeavours Those Good Remedies shall be Provided and Those Iust Ends Attained upon which the Safety of your Majesties Person The Preservation of the Protestant Religion The Peace and Settlement of your Kingdoms and the Welfare of This your Ancient City do so Absolutely Depend What is This now but the Counter part of the Bill for Continuing the Parliament that was Pass'd in Forty One and Chiefly upon the very Same Pretences too Viz. That Publique Grievances might be Redress'd and Iustice done upon Delinquents before the Parliament should be Dissolv'd Or in short The King was Not to Prorogue Adjourn or Dissolve This Parliament without Consent of Both Houses And there 's Another Parliamentary Point yet to Come in the Vote of Unqualifying the Members for the Receiving of any Beneficial Office from the King. 'T is a kind of a Scandalous Incapacity for a Subject to fare the worse for his Master's Commission And too much in all Conscience for the Same Men to Tye-up the King's Hands from Any Act of Grace and Bounty toward his Subjects that had before Ty'd-up the Peoples Hands from Supplying his Majesty The Vote was This Resolved That no Member of This House shall Accept any Office or Place of Profit from the Crown without the Leave of This House nor any Promise of any such Office or Place of Profit during such time as he shall continue a Member of This House An Eminent Member that Started This Motion made it his Observation upon the Long Parliament That All Those that had Pensions and most of Those that had Offices Voted All of a side as they were directed by some Great Officer c. If That Gentleman had taken as much Notice that the House had but Two sides and who Voted on the Other he would have found a Noble Peer to have Weigh'd against his Great Officer and the Matter to be no more then the Old Discrimination over again of King and Parliament It may be a Question now the Tendency and Intent of This Touch duly Consider'd whether they made the King or the Member in such a Case the Greater Delinquent of the Two. And they were not Contented here neither without a Further Essay upon the Choice of his Majesties Ministers and Officers of State War and Iustice After the Copy of the Old Nineteen Propositions The King not to Chuse his own Officers and Ministers NO Judges but men of Ability Integrity and Known Affection to the Protestant Religion And They Themselves to be Iudges of the Iudges Their Offices and Salaries to hold Quamdiu se bene gesserint c. No Lord-Lieutenants but Persons of Integrity and Known Affection to the Protestant Religion the Religion of the Associators that is No Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace but so Qualify'd And moreover Men of Ability Estates and Interest in their Country uâ—der the Same Character still None to be Employ'd as Military Officers or Officers in his Majesties Fleet but men of Known Experience Courage and Affection to the Protestant Religion All Parliament-Proof still and of the Same Stamp To say nothing of the Habeas-Corpus Bill and other Encroachments upon the Prerogatives of the Crown for fear of being too too Tedious We 'le see next how they Beâ—av'd themselves in the Bus'ness of the Militia and the Kings Guards over and above the Step they made to have the Approbation of All Officers Themselves After the Blessed Example still of Old Forty One Nay and in the very Method too Beginning with an Address for Guards as follows They offer at the Militia and the Guards WHereas the Safety and Preservation of your Majesties Sacred Peâ—son is of so Great a Consequence and Concernment to the Protestant Religion and to All your Subjects We do most humbly beseech your Majesty to Command the Lord Chamberlain and All Other the Officers of your Majesties Houshold to take a Strict Care that no Vnknown or Suspicious Persons may have Access near your Majesties Person and that your Majesty will likewise please to Command the Lord Mayor and Lieutenancy of London to Appoint sufficient Guards of the Train-Bands during This Session of Parliament and likewise the Lords Lieutenants of Middlesex and Surry to appoint
in Preparation and bringing to Perfection it is our Resolution and we do Declare that in Defence of your Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion we will Stand by your Majesty with our Lives and Fortunes and shall be ready to Revenge any Violence Offered by them to your Sacred Majesty It is to be noted that the Vote was Soften'd in this Address For as it was Worded at first Whoever had Kill'd the King the Papists should have Gone to Pot for 't which Hint did as good as say Get but over This Iobb my Masters and y 'ave done your Bus'ness But the Conspirators found a way however to Supply That Restrictive Distinction by Murdering him Themselves and giving it out that the Papists had done it according to the Evidence of the Republican Conspiracy which says it was so Determin'd if the Rye House Project had Succeeded The Conspirators were to go to several Persons and Ask them Supposing that the Papists should Rise or that there should be a General Insurrection or a French Invasion Are you in a Posture of Defence This was the very Practice and the Imposture in the Case of the Militia the Double-Guards and the Rout they made among the Papists But Keeling a little Lower in the same Tryal puts it into somewhat Plainer English. These Men says he where to be in a readiness and it was Design'd that the Thing should be laid upon the Papists as a Branch of the Popish-Plot Which may serve for an Excellent Commenâ— upon the Present Text. Upon the 15th of Dec. 1680. There was no way with 'em but immediately to Banish All the Considerable Papists in England out of the Kings Dominions And it is to be Suppos'd that they would not have Forgotten his Royal Highness in the Number Especially Considering how Mindfull they were of him in Other Cases Insomuch that there was hardly any thing done by the Conspirators that had Worm'd themselves into the House but for Countenance-sake and to While away Time that had not the Ruine of the Duke and consequently of his Royal Brother in the Bottom of it and they were so Eager upon 't that all they could do without it was to no purpose Resolved Nemine Contradicente that so long as the Papists have any Hopes of the Duke of Yorks Succeeding the King in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto Belonging The Kings Person the Protestant Religion and the Lives Liberties and Properties of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects are in Apparent Danger of being Destroy'd And then follows Another Resolve upon the Necessity of such a Bill Excluding and Proroguing Two Great Points THE Refusal of This Bill and the Last Refuge that the King had left him of Proroguing Parliaments were Two Terrible Rubbs in their way For with the Help of the One they could have done the Bus'ness of the Roman Catholiques at pleasure and made as many Reputed and Suspected Papists of the Rest of his Majesties Subjects as they found Averse to the Popular Design And Then under the Countenance of a Sitting Parliament they had a Thousand Tricks and Devices by their Printed Votes Papers and Intelligences to make their Principals Fall down and Worship them as the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion the Heroes and Patriots of the Common Cause and the Saviours of the Nation But the Cunning Snapps of the Faction finding that the King would not let go his Power of Calling them and sending 'em away again as he pleas'd and that Prorogations and Dissolutions were but as Sentence and Execution to them They had the Wit to make a Provision of Parliamentary Guards for the Oxford Meeting under Colour of Securing the Protestant Members from having their Throats Cut there by the Papists And it is more then Probable that if his Majesty had not very prudently taken Two Steps at a Time and Dissolv'd them upon the very Spot and Instant without the Antecedent Ceremony of Proroguing them they would have found under the Colour of a House of Commons yet in Being Another Game to Play. There had been a Heavy Cry made upon all their Former Disappointments in Pamphlets Papers Discourses Addresses upon Surprizing Prorogations Popish and Amazing Prorogations c. which humour they did Notably set forth in an Address to his Majesty of No. 11. 1680. IN relation to the Tryalls of the Five Lords Impeached in Parliament for the Execrable Popish Plot we have so far Proceeded as we doubt not but in a short time we shall be ready for the same But we Cannot without being Vnfaithfull to your Majesty and to our Country by whom we are Intrusted Omit upon This Occasion humbly to Enform your Majesty that our Difficulties even as to these Tryalls are much Increased by the Evil and Destructive Councels of those Persons who Advised your Majesty first to the Prorogation and then to the Dissolution of the Last Parliament at a time when the Commons had taken great pains about and were Prepar'd for those Tryalls And by the like Pernicious Councells of those who Advised the Many and Long Prorogations of the Present Parliament before the same was permitted to Sit whereby some of the Evidence which was prepared in the Last Parliament may possibly during so long an Interval be Forgotten or Lost and some Persons who might probably have Come-in as Witnesses are either Dead have been Taken-off or may have been Discourag'd from giving their Evidence But of One Mischievous Consequence of those Dangerous and Unhappy Councells we are Certainly and Sadly Sensible Namely that the Testimony of a Material Witness against every of Those Five Lords and who could probably have Discover'd and brought-in much Other Evidence about the Plot in General and Those Lords in Particular cannot now be given Viva Voce forasmuch as That Witness is Unfortunately Dead between the Calling and the Sitting of this Parliament To prevent the Like or Greater Inconvenience for the Future we make it our most Humble Request to your Excellent Majesty that as you tender the Safety of your Royal Person The Security of your Loyal Subjects and Preservation of the True Protestant Religion you will not suffer your self to be prevail'd upon by the Like Councell to do any Thing which may Occasion in Consequence though we are Assured never with your Majesties Intention either the Deferring of a Full and Perfect Discovery and Examination of This most Wicked and Detestable Plot or the Preventing the Conspirators therein from being brought to speedy and Exemplary Justice and Punishment and we humbly beseech your Majesty to rest Assured Notwithstanding any Suggestions which may be made by Persons who for their Own Wicked Purposes Contrive to Create a Distrust in your Majesty of your People that Nothing is more in the Desires and shall be more the Endeavours of us your faithfull and Loyal Commons then the Promoting and Advancing of your Majesties True Happiness and Greatness NOW to Observe a little upon
This Lamentably-Complaining Address the Old Vein I perceive of Popery and Calamity Conspiracy and Destruction runs quite thorough it And what Misery soever has either Threatn'd or Befall'n the King the Government the Church or the People is All-Charg'd upon the score of This Almighty Plot as the First Cause and Mover of it And which was the spite on 't no Averting of Those Impending Miseries but by the Kings Parting with his Honour his Crown Natural Affection Humanity Gratitude In short His Ministers His Friends His Prerogative Reasâ—n and Iustice 'T is Urg'd that the Councels were Evil and Destructive that Mov'd his Majesty to a Prorogation and Then to a Dissolution of the Foregoing Parliament How could it be Evil and Destructive in the Advising and not so in the Doing too Or what matters it whether it be done Without Advice or With it so long as the Venom of This Address Wounds the King Equally under the Cover of his Ministers The Want of That Advice and Resolution in the Parliament of One and Forty Cost the Royal Father his Life and the Son Probably upon such a Concession would not have come-off much Cheaper Unless it shall be Imagin'd that he might have found Better Quarter in the House then in the Field from the very same Persons that were Now in Councell and Afterwards in Arms against him It is pretended that the Commons were ready for the Tryal of the Five Lords at the Dissolution of the Last Parliament Now This was only Bubbling the Multitude for the Commons Themselves would not Yield to 't unless the Earl of Danby might be Try'd First But to say All in a word The King was Vndone if he did Not Prorogue and the Republicans if he Did. As to the Possibility of more Witnesses Coming in it cannot be Deny'd that according to the way of Summons that was then in Fashion the Common Iayles nay Newgate it Self in the Case of Prance were Consulted for Evidence and they could not well fail of as many Witnesses as either Malice Faction Countenance or Reward could Prevail upon to Forswear themselves But a Material Evidence it seems was lost by 't Bedloe they mean. A Fellow known for a Blasphemous Atheistical Wretch A Thief a Cheat and in fine a Scandal to the very Alms-Basket What a Dismal VNFORTVNATE Loss was This now of so Material an Evidence in Good Time upon the Plot in General which Material Evidence in the True Intent of it is no Other then a Rogue that would Swear any thing But against the Five Lords they say in Particular And if there had been Five times Fifteen Hundred more of them he should have Sworn against 'em All at the Same Price I can hardly look back upon the Parting Complement without Thinking of the Addresses and Declarations of One and Forty for the making of Charles the First a Glorious King they are so Very Very Alike But so much for the Bus'ness of Prerogative And now for the Other Great Point the Matter of Exclusion let the Bill Speak for it self 'T is Long But it Carries the Heart in the Face on 't and 't is Pity but Posterity should have it Entire The Bill amended as the House had order'd was read Intituled An Act for securing of the Protestant Religion by disabling James Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging WHEREAS James Duke of York is notoriously known to have been perverted from the Protestant to the Popish Religion whereby not only great Encouragement hath been given to the Popish Party to enter into and carry on most Devilish and Horrid Plots and Conspiracies for the Destruction of his Majesties Sacred Person and Government and for the Extirpation of the True Protestant Religion But also if the said Duke should succeed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm nothing is more manifest then that a Total Change of Religion within these Kingdoms would ensue For the prevention whereof Be it Enacted by the King 's most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same that the said James Duke of York shall be and is by the Authority of this present Parliament Excluded and made for ever uncapable to Inherit Possess or Enjoy the Imperial Crown of this Realm and of the Kingdoms of Ireland and the Dominions and Territories to them or either of them belonging or to have exercise or enjoy any Dominion Power Iurisdiction or Authority in the same Kingdoms Dominions or any of them And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if the said James Duke of York shall at any time hereafter Challenge Claim or attempt to possess or enjoy or shall take upon him to use or exercise any Dominion Power or Authority or Iurisdiction within the said Kingdoms or Dominions or any of them as King or chief Magistrate of the same That then he the said James Duke of York for every such offence shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures as in case of High Treason And further that if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall assist or maintain abet or willingly adhere unto the said James Duke of York in such challenge claim or attempt or shall of themselves attempt or endeavour to put or bring the said James Duke of York into the Possession or Exercise of any Regal Power Iurisdiction or Authority within the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid or shall by Writing or Preaching advisedly publish maintain or declare That he hath any Right Title or Authority to the Office of King or Chief Magistrate of the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid That then every such Person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and that he suffer and undergo the pains penalties and forfeitures aforesaid And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that he the said James Duke of York shall not at any time from and after the 5th of November 1680. return or come into or within any of the Kingdoms or Dominions aforesaid And then he the said James Duke of York shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the pains penalties and forfeitures as in case of High Treason and further that if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall be aiding or assisting unto such return of the said James Duke of York that then every such person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and suffer as in cases of High Treason And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That he the said James Duke of York or any other Person being Guilty of any of the Treasons aforesaid shall not be capable of or receive benefit by any Pardon otherwise than by Act of Parliament wherein they shall be particularly named and that no Noli prosequi
or Order for stay of Proceedings shall be received or allowed in or upon any Indictment for any of the offences mentioned in this Act. And be it further Enacted and declared and it is hereby Enacted and Declared that it shall and may be Lawfull to and for any Magistrates Officers or other Subjects whatsoever of these Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid and they are hereby enjoyned and required to apprehend and secure the said James Duke of York and every other person offending in any of the premisses and with him or them in case of resistance to fight and him or them by force to subdue For all which actions and for so doing they are and shall be by virtue of this Act saved harmless and indemnified Provided and it is hereby declared that nothing in this Act contained shall be construed deemed or adjudged to disenable any other Person from Inhâ—riting and Enjoying the Imperial Crown of the Realms and Dominions aforesaid other than the said James Duke of York But that in case the said James Duke of York should survive his now Majesty and the Heirs of his Majesties Body The said Imperial Crown shall descend to and be enjoyed by such person or persons successorily during the Life of the said James Duke of York as should have inherited and enjoyed the same in case the said James Duke of York were naturally Dead any thing contained in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that during the life of the said James Duke of York This Act shall be given in charge at every Assizes and General Sessions of the Peace within the Kingdoms Dominions and Territories aforesaid and also shall be openly read in every Cathedral Church and Parish Church and Chappels within the aforesaid Kingdoms Dominions and Territories by the several Respective Parsons Vicars Curates and Readers thereof who are hereby required immediately after Service in the Fore-noon to reade the same twice in every year that is to say on the 25th of December and upon Easter-day during the Life of the said James Duke of York The Faction were in a Fair way by This time to rid their Hands of the King's Roman Catholique Friends and they were not without their Expedients and Inventions to get shut of Reputed as well as of Profess'd Papists For there needed but an Impeachment an Address a Supposition or an Opinion to the doing of the Whole Work. The Popish Design they say was Assisted by the Treachery of Perfidious Protestants Now Those Perfidious Protestants made Excellent Reputed Papists Reputed and Suspected By Whom If by Themselves the Devil 's in People if They do not Win All they Play for when they have the Shuffling and the Packing of their own Cards and Keep-in or Put-out as they Themselves please Resolved That All Persons who Advis'd his Majesty in his Last Message to This House to Insist upon an Opinion against the Bill for Excluding the Duke of York have given Pernicious Advice to his Majesty and are Promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdom Resolved That it is the Opinion of This House that George Earl of Hallifax Henry Marquis of Worcester and Henry Earl of Clarendon are Persons who Advised his Majesty ut Supra and that they have therein given Pernicious Councell to his Majesty are Promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdom And therefore they Address'd for the Removing of them And when their Hands were In Laurence Hyde Esq and Lewis Earl of Feversham were to be Remov'd from All Offices and from his Majesties Presence for Ever and an Anathema Pass'd upon the Advisers of a Prorogation unless upon a Condition of Excluding the Duke I Have Chosen rather upon This whole Matter to Hazzard an Error on the Right Hand then on the Left and to venture being Over-large in my Authorities and Proofs rather than fall Short. So that here is Evidence more then Enough of the Snares that were laid for All men of Integrity and Honour and the Advantages that the Faction intended to make of the Zeal the Passions and the Credulity of the Common People If This Pernicious Advice in the Case of the Earl of Strafford and Arch-Bishop Laud had been given to Charles the first which the Votes Impute to These Honourable Persons in the Case of the Duke of York it had most undoubtedly Sav'd King Church and People if his Majesty had thought fit to follow it which were All lost for want of Proroguing Dissolving and Asserting the Privileges of the Crown in That Turbulent Iuncture Insolent Demands Expostulations and Propositions are the Certain Prologue to Insolent Actions But his Majesty Himself was too Good to Suspect and where ever he Trusted any of the Party he was Betray'd Briefly the Case of the Two Last Kings were but too much Alike Only the Latter when he had Parted with as much as 't was possible for him to Spare and Save the Rest he Held his Hand Whereas his Vnhappy Father gave On and On 'till he left himself at Mercy The Thing that made the Great Noise was the Bill of Exclusion but A King or No King was the Truth of the Matter in Issue They were of OPINION that these noble Persons did so or so and upon That Bare Opinion let fly at the King's Ministers Effectually by Whole-Sale without any respect to the Measures of Religion Order Reason or State. How many Cart-Loads of Fears and Iealousies have we had lest the King should Abuse his Power And how many Casuistical Whimseys of Self-Preservation in case he does But here was no Right no Colour to the Pretence of so much as bringing That Question upon the Carpet And the Councell that they Brand for so Pernicious was undoubtedly the most Seasonable and Saving Advice upon That Crisis that could be Given But to go forward If they may Exclude the Heir Apparent for Religion why not the King Himself too The Parity of Excluding the Duke Extending to the Deposing of the Sovereign and This Doctrine was the very Corner Stone of the Last Rebellion And Excluding for RELIGION is not All neither for it Involves a Claim of breaking-in upon the Crown whether there be any Religion in the Case or No For the Conspirators made themselves both Dividers and Chusers and Their Single OPINION was a Sentence in the Case the very Saying that it was This or That Religion or Whatsoever Religion they pleas'd was enough to Make it so This House is of OPINION went Fifty times further then Be it Enacted by the King 's most Excellent Majesty THis Vnaccountable Stretch of Arrogance and Vsurpation put all Sober Men to a Stand to Consider what would be the End in a Natural and a Logical Consequence upon This Proceeding If a Prince has not the Liberty of Chusing his Own Servants If he has not the Power of Protecting them If Subjects shall take upon them to Treat
Designs have so far prevailed that he hath created many and great Dependents upon him by his bestowing Offices and Preferments both in Church and State. 3. It appearing also to us That by his Influence Mercenary Forces have been levied and kept on Foot for his secret Designs contrary to our Laws the Officers thereof having been named and appointed by him to the apparent hazzard of his Majesties Person our Religion and Government if the danger had not been timely foreseen by several Parliaments and part of those Forces with great difficulty caused by them to be Disbanded at the Kingdoms great Expence And it being Evident that notwithstanding all the continual endeavours of the Parliament to deliver his Majesty from the Councils and out of the Power of the said D. yet his Interest in the Ministry of State and others hath been so prevalent That Parliaments have been unreasonably Prorogued and Dissolved when they have been in hot pursuit of the Popish Conspiracies and ill Ministers of State their Assistants 4. And that the said D. in order to reduce all into his own Power hath procured the Garisons the Army and Ammunition and all the Powet of the Seas and Souldiery and Lands belonging to these Three Kingdoms to be put into the hands of his Party and their Adherents even in opposition to the Advice and Order of the last Parliament 5. And as we considering with Heavy Hearts how greatly the Strength Reputation and Treasure of the Kingdom both at Sea and Land is Wasted and Consumed and lost by the intricate expensive management of these Wicked destructive Designs and finding the same Councils after exemplary Iustice upon some of the Conspirators to be still pursued with the utmost devilish malice and desire of Revenge whereby his Majesty is in continual hazzard of being Murdered to make way for the said D's Advancement to the Crown and the whole Kingdom in such case is destitute of all security of their Religion Laws Estates and Liberty sad experience in the Case Queen Mary having proved the wisest Laws to be of little Force to keep out Popery and Tyranny under a Popish Prince 6. We have therefore endeavoured in a Parliamentary-way by a Bill for the purpose to Bar and Exclude the said Duke from the Succession to the Crown and to Banish him for ever out of these Kingdoms of England and Ireland But the first Means of the King and Kingdoms Safety being utterly rejected and we left almost in Despair of obtaining any real and effectual security and knowing our selves to be intrusted to Advise and Act for the preservation of his Majesty and the Kingdom and being persuaded in our Consciences that the Dangers aforesaid are so eminent and pressing that there ought to be no delay of the best means that are in our power to secure the Kingdom against them We have thought fit to propose to all true Protestants an Union amongst themselves by solemn and sacred promise of Mutual Defence and Assistance in the preservation of the true Protestant Religion his Majesties Person and Royal State and our Laws Liberties and Properties and we hold it our bounden Duty to join our selves for the same intent in a Declaration of our United Affections and Resolutions in the Form Ensuing THE Association I A. B. Do in the presence of God solemnly Promise Vow and Protest to maintain and Defend to the utmost of my Power with my Person and Estate the True-Protestant Religion against Popery and all Popish Superstition Idolatry or Innovation and all those that do or shall endeavour to spread or advance it within this Kingdom I will also as far as in me lies maintain and defend His Majesties Royal Person and Estate as also the power and priviledge of Parliaments the lawfull Rights and Liberties of the Subject against all Incroachments and Usurpation of Arbitrary power whatsoever and endeavour intirely to Disband all such Mercenary Forces as we have reason to believe were raised to advance it and are still kept up in and about the City of London to the great Amazement and Terrour of all the good people of the Land. Moreover I. D. of Y. having publickly professed and owned the Popish Religion and notoriously given Life and Birth to the Damnable and Hellish Plots of the Papists against his Majesties Person the Protestant Religion and the Government of this Kingdom I will never consent that the said I. D. of Y. or any other who is or hath been a Papist or any ways Adher'd to the Papists in their wicked Designs be admitted to the Succession of the Crown of England But by all lawfull means and by force of Arms if need so require according to my Abilities will oppose him and endeavour to Subdue Expell and Destroy him if he come into England or the Dominions thereof and seek by force to set up his pretended Title and all such as shall Adhere unto him or raise any War Tumult or Sedition for him or by his Command as publique Enemies of our Laws Religion and Countrey To this end we and every one of us whose hands are here under-written do most willingly bind our selves and every one of us unto the other joyntly and severally in the Bond of one firm and loyal Society or Association and do promise and vow before God That with our joint and particular Forces we will Oppose and Pursue unto Destruction all such as upon any Title whatsoever shall oppose the Iust and Righteous ends of this Association and Maintain Protect and Defend all such as shall enter into it in the just performance of the true intent and meaning of it And lest this Just and Pious Work should be any ways obstructed or hindered for want of Discipline and Conduct or any evil-minded persons under pretence of raising Forces for the service of this Association should attempt or commit Disorders we will follow such Orders as we shall from time to time receive from this present Parliament whilst it shall be Sitting or the Major Part of the Members of both Houses subscribing this Association when it shall be Prorogued or Dissolved and obey such Officers as shall by them be set over us in the several Countries Cities and Burroughs untill the next meeting of this or another Parliament and will then shew the same Obedience and Submission unto it and those who shall be of it Neither will we for any respect of Persons or Causes or for Fear or Reward separate our selves from this Association or fail in the Prosecution thereof during our Lives upon pain of being by the rest of us prosecuted and suppressed as Perjur'd persons and publick Enemies to God the King and our Native Countrey To which Pains and Punishments we do voluntarily submit our selves and every one of us without benefit of any Colour or Pretence to excuse us In witness of all which Premisses to be Inviolably kept we do to this present Writing put our Hands and Seals and shall be most ready to
accept and admit any others hereafter into this Society and Association Notes upon the ASSOCIATION THE Reader will find in this Paper of Association All the Lines of the Pretended Popish Plot the Summ of the Whole Cause and of all they Contended for It shews the Modell and Expounds the Meaning of the Design the Manner of Working-it-up and the Degrees of Ripening it for Execution It lays Open the Rise Progress and Drift of a Republican Conspiracy Step by Step Insomuch that a man may Trace out with a Chalk the Entire Course of the Intrigue from the First Broaching of it to the Last Resolution and understand that Resolv'd upon the Question had a Hand in 't as well as Wée the Knights c. And This will Plainly Appear upon Comparing the One with the Other My Next Bus'ness is to lay open the Conformity of Parts and the Harmony of Design betwixt the Proceedings of the House and the Tendence of the Paper of Confederacy and when I have made out That once there will be No Separating the Conspirators in the Votes from Wée the Knights c. in the Association but they must be Both of Necessity Involv'd in the same Plot. The First Clause finds a Hellish Popish Plot agreeable to the Vote of Oct. 31. 1678. The Second finds the Duke of York in the Bottom on 't And so did a Following Vote some Four Days after the Former Whereupon I remember there was a Debate Started for an Address to Remove him It speaks of the Power and Influence of Popish Councells in the Disposing of Offices which is the Main Topique again of the Address of Nov. 29. 1680. And so in the Third and Fourth Clauses it falls upon the Illegal Mercenary Forces Unreasonable Prorogations and Dissolutions The Strength of the Nation both at Sea and Land put into the hands of His Royal Highnesses Party and their Adherents which is no other again then an Extract out of Several Votes and Addresses already mention'd The Fifth takes a General Prospect of the Miserable Condition of the King and Kingdom through the Vindictive Malice of the Papists Which is over and over Inculcated also in Several of their Addresses as in that of November 29. 1680. If so and so We have Freed our selves from the Guilt of That Bloud and Desolation which is like to Ensue And so afterward in that of Decemb 21. 1680. The Question is Put Whether in case the Crown should Descend to the Duke of York the Opposition which may possibly be made to his Possessing it may not onely Endanger the Further Descent in the Royal Line but even Monarchy it self In the Sixth Clause it sets forth that since they cannot Prevail upon the King to Exclude the Duke by a Bill in a Parliamentary-way they Propose a Promise of Mutual Defence and Assistance among All True-Protestants In the Preservation of the True-Protestant Religion his Majesties Person and Royal State and our Lives Liberties and Properties c. These are the Words of the Preamble or Introduction to the Association which are but the very same Thing in Other Terms with the Proposal of Dec. 21. 1680. in the Address it self Wherein they desire That his Majesty will be Graciously pleased to Assent to an Act whereby his Majesties Protestant Subjects may be Enabled to Associate Themselves for the Defence of his Majesties Person the Protestant Religion and the Security of his Kingdoms These Requests say they we are Constrained humbly to make to your Majesty as of Absolute Necessity for the Safe and Peaceable Enjoyment of our Religion So that This Association is Parliamentary from Head to foot and little more in 't then a Working upon Their Modell Only Wée the Knights c. Took Leave in One Case and Ask'd it in the Other I speak of the Majority of the House as it was then Leaven'd and with Great Honour to the Loyal and Sober Mixture that was in That Assembly While the Address above-Mention'd in Answer to the Kings Speech of the 15th of the same Month was under Debate the Collectour of the Proceedings of That Season takes upon him to Report this following Passage of a Speech Deliver'd in the House upon That Question I cannot agree in Pressing the Association-Bill For being it hath not yet been brought into the House we do not well know what will be the Purport of it And it is not Proper that we should Ask of the King we know not What nor Expect that he should Grant us what He can know nothing of And truly Sir I think that These Things about the Judges Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace are Minute Things to be Insisted on at This Time Compar'd with Others which might be Demanded Queen Elizabeth's Councellours never thought Her Safe 'till the Popish Successor was in a Tower and I am afraid that you will never be Safe untill you take some such Course that may bring things to an Issue When you have done That and Banished All the Considerable Papists out of England I think we shall not be in such Apparent Danger as we now are And seeing This may Probably be Granted and the Other Bills Not I humbly Move you to Recommit the Address that it may be better Consider'd And what 's the Difference now in Substance betwixt the Biass of the Debate and the Effect of the Resolution The Exclusion and Association were not let fall because they were Vnequal and Vnreasonable but because they were not Attainable and only in Exchange too for Other Equivalent Expedients for Such an Imprisonment and Such a Banishment would have had the Force of an Exclusion and an Association without the Name of it for the Banishing of All on the One side does Naturally Resolve into an Vnion of All on the Other Now to put All This together it amounts to no more then what the Prevailing Party in the House had Propounded Declar'd and Resolv'd upon Before-hand Only the Kings Peremptory Refusal put 'em upon the After-Game of Attempting to get That by Force which they could not Gain by Address And it is not to be doubted but the Faction Acted In the House as well as Out of the House by the Same Spirit To say the Truth on 't The Conspirators that Influenc'd These Desperate Designs were Past Rubicon long since and No Retreat left them but with Halters about their Necks if Tenderness and Clemency it self had not well nigh Dissolv'd the Awe of Royal Power and Iustice in the Overflowings of That most Gracious Prince's Patience and Mercy But when the Ring-Leaders found that they might Ask any thing Gratis they never fail'd of following Denyals with Importunities and Importunities with Expostulations 'till in the End upon a Full Tryal of their Interest and Skill they might come to Settle their Measures They Reckon'd upon 't that they had Two Strings to their Bow And that if One Fail'd they had Another would Hold. They Ply'd his Majesty
with the most Reproachfull of Libells under the Title of Petitions and Addresses and in a Style and Countenance of Duty and Respect When they Miss'd of any thing at First Request they were sure to follow it with Passion Instance Menace and Clamour The Monarchy it Self could not Stand without Excluding the Duke and no way to Prevent the Bloud that was like to Ensue but by an Association And in Excuse for the Liberties they took they had recourse to the Trust Reposed in them by those they Represented If the King Buckles he 's Lost by his Own Act If he Persists in the Negative there 's the Ruine of Religion and the Three Kingdoms laid at his Door If he Yields it must be either to the Right and Reason of their Demands or in Acknowledgment that they are too Strong for him which is Equally Dangerous Both ways To Conclude what matters it whether a Prince be Lost by Treaty or by Violence or whether the People be Gull'd into a Barefac'd or into a Plausible Rebellion But at the same time the Common Medium that they Depended upon to Either End was the Good Will and Favour of the People And there needed no more to Secure That Interest then to put their Shams Plausibly Together And under the Colour of Zeal for the Publique to Draw Credit to the Imposture At the First Opening of This Plot Almost All peoples Hearts took Fire at it and Nothing was heard but the Bellowing of Execrations and Revenge against the Accursed Bloudy Papists It was Imputed at first and in the General to the Principles of the Religion and a Roman-Catholique and a Regicide were made One and the Same Thing Nay it was a Saying Frequent in some of our Great and Holy Mouths that they were Confident there was not so much as One Soul of the Whole Party within his Majesties Dominions that was not either an Actor in This Plot or a Friend to 't In this heat they fell to Picking-up of Priests and Iesuits as fast as they could Catch 'em and so went on to Consult their Oracles the Witnesses with All Formalities of Sifting and Examining upon the Particulars of Place Time Manner Persons c. while Westminster-Hall and the Court of Requests were kept Warm and Ringing still of New Men Come in Corroborating Proofs and Further Discoveries c. Under This Train and Method of Reasoning the Managers Advanc'd Decently enough to the Finding-out of what They Themselves had Laid and Concerted before-hand And to give the Devil his due the Whole Story was but a Farce of so many Parts and the Noisy Enformations no more then a Lesson that they had much ado to go thorough with even with the Help of Diligent and Carefull Tutors and of many and many a Prompter to bring them off at a Dead Lift. But Popery was so Dreadfull a Thing and the Danger of the Kings Life and of the Protestant Religion so Astonishing a Surprize that People were almost bound in Duty to be Inconsiderate and Outrageous upon 't And Loyalty it Self would have look'd a little Cold and Indifferent if it had not been Intemperate Insomuch that Zeal Fierceness and Iealousy were never more Excusable then upon This Occasion And Now having Excellent Matter to Work upon and the Passions of the People already Dispos'd for Violence and Tumult there needed no more then Blowing the Cole of Otes's Narrative to put All into a Flame And in the mean Time all Arts and Accidents were Emprov'd as well toward the Entertainment of the Humour as to the Kindling of it The people were first Hayr'd out of their Senses with Tales and Ielousies and Then made Iudges of the Danger and Consequently of the Remedy Which upon the Main and Briefly came to no more then This. The Plot was Laid all over the Three Kingdoms France Spain and Portugal Tax'd their Quotas to 't we were All to be Burnt in our Beds and Rise with our Throats Cut and no way in the world but Exclusion and Vnion to help us The Phancy of this Exclusion Spread Immediately like a Gangrene over the whole Body of the Monarchy and no saving the Life of his Majesty without Cutting-off every Limb of the Prerogative The Device of Union pass'd Insensibly into a League of Conspiracy and instead of Uniting Protestants against Papists Concluded in an Association of Subjects against their Sovereign Consounding Policy with Religion By these Steps the Managers I remember proceeded to the Instrument of the Association that is now in Question They Labour'd at first to Sham-it-off for the Old Queen Elsabeths Association Reviv'd Secondly That it was only the Copy of a Bill that had pass'd the House of Commons But when the Matter appear'd so Foul that there was No Defending of it they made use of a Third Shift to Evade the Danger and the Scandal by pretending that there was No such Paper in my Lord Shaftesbury's Closet any otherwise then as They that Found it there Laid it there And so they Endeavour'd to Turn the Malice on the One side into a Trick on the Other This Last Shuffle was as well Colour'd as the Case would bear in a Paper call'd A Letter from a Person of Quality to his Friend about Addresses and Abhorrers It was an Artificial Sly Piece and the Noble Peer more then Suspected to have a Hand in 't Himself Now as to the First Pretext to say nothing of the State-Craft of the Old Association there was This Difference Between them The One was to Defend the Queen against any Pretender upon the Suggestion of a False Title The Other was a Conspiracy set up against a Iust and Legal Title the One was only to Work at a Distance in Case of such an Occasion The Other was to Blow-up a Civil War Immediately for fear of Imaginary Dangers to Come The One had the Countenance of an Vnion against the Queens Enemies and With her Allowance and Consent The Other was a Plot upon the Kings Brother and Against his Majesties Mind and Consent The One was in fine a Limited Association with Submission to Authority The Other a Treasonous Vsurpation in Defyance and in Despite of Authority The Second Cavil was as good as a Gagg to many People in That Troublesome Conjuncture for a Parliamentary Association in Those Days would have been Sacred even against both Law and Gospel and therefore Those that Believ'd the Flam of its being a Bill that had pass'd the House And Consequently Asserted the Reason of the Proceeding reckon'd upon 't that they had the Wisedom of the Nation on their side on One hand as they had most Certainly the Folly and the Madness of it on the Other Now This Opinion serv'd for a Protection to All that could be said in favour of the Project upon That Text. But the Passing of That Bill was a Mistake for ought that I could ever hear to the Contrary The King 't is True was Press'd in 't over
Innumerable the Principal Abettors of Otes'es Sworn Plot for the saving of the King were Themselves Conspirators in an Vnder-Plot for the Destroying of him and there needs no more for a Final Proof of This then a Short Summary of what I have Deliver'd allready THey did all they could to leave the King neither MONEY POWER CREDIT nor FRIENDS To Strip him both of his Parliamentary and his Pardoning Prerogative the Command of his Militia and the Choice of his Officers They made it Penal even to Assert his Regalities or come Near his Person and when they had gone as far as the Plot and Popery would Carry them they Join'd in an Express League of Association to take up Arms against the King Himself and to lay Violent Hands upon the Government So that as they Began with the Necessity of Excluding the Duke for fear of the Plot They Ended in the Opinion of as Absolute a Necessity of Dissolving the Monarchy for fear of the King. By These Methods they proceeded from Bad to Worse 'till they had pass'd Gradually thorough all the Degrees of a Seditious Progress from the Hypocritical Pretence of a Tenderness for the Life of their Sovereign to the Last Peremptory Determination of taking the Crown off from his Head. If either Thought Word or Deed Project Contrivance or Execution might pass for the Proof of any thing here is a Plot under a Plot made as Clear as Truth it self A Plot in a Westminster-Committee as well as in a Kings-Head Club. There was all done by the Plotting Part of them toward the Ruine of the King that Spite Art and Industry were Able to do Wée the Knights c. in the Association was in Plain English We the Conspirators for the Members of the Present Sitting Parliament took upon Themselves the Authority of Subduing Expelling and Destroying Issuing out of Orders and Raising of Forces Or in Case of being Prorogu'd or Dissolv'd the Majority of the Subscribing Members were like Cromwells Major Generals again to Govern in the Counties Cities and Burroughs for which they were Chosen Now the Bus'ness had never come to an Association it seems if his Majesty would have Hearken'd to his Parliaments for the Danger was timely foreseen they say by several Parliaments And Notwithstanding all the Continual Endeavours of Parliaments to Deliver his Majesty from the Councells and out of the Power of the said Duke of York Yet his Interest c. Even in Opposition to the Advice and Order of the Last Parliament And so again We have Endeavour'd in a Parliamentary-Way to Barr Exclude and Banish him for ever c. But the First Means of the King and Kingdoms Safety being Rejected c. We have thought fit to Propose an Vnion of Mutual Defence and Assistance c. From hence it appears that they Aim'd at the Same Thing upon the Main in their Votes and Addresses that they did in the Association and that they were Both Govern'd by the same Influence and that the whole Tract was but the same Conspiracy So that it is now somewhat a Clearer Case Who they were that Design'd the Murther of the King then Who Burnt London the Opinion of the House Ian. 10. 1680. notwithstanding It would be Pleasant enough if it were not allmost Inhumane to take any Pleasure in a Discourse upon this Subject to see how direct a Counter-part the Truth of the Story was to the Fiction for They Themselves were to do all those Things which they charg'd upon the Papists There were to be Sham-Plots Cutting of Throats and Burning of Towns. How did they Tamper and Practise with the Witnesses Bribe Suborn Forswear All these Things were laid at the door of the Papists while they Design'd and Did those very Things Themselves Witnesses says the Address are Attempted to be Corrupted and not only Promises of Reward but of the Favour of your Majesties Brother made the Motives to their Complyance Was not this the very Course they took with Otes with Prance with Fitz-Harris and briefly what were All their Mediations for Their Secret Examinations Importunities for Reward Recommendations to Deaneries and the Good Word of the Committee still in their favour What was all This I say but the same Saddle set upon the Wrong Horse Divers of the most Considerable of your Protestant Subjects have Crimes of the Highest Nature Forged against them the Charge to be Supported by Subornation and Perjury that they may be Destroy'd by Forms of Law and Iustice. Was not This the very Case of the Duke the Lords and other Persons of Honour and Quality Were not the Priests the Iesuits and the Other Pris'ners upon the Account of the Plot Outrag'd at their Tryals in the very face of the Bench by the Scomms and Execrations of the Rabble When the Insolencies of the Mobile to the Scandal of That Popular License made it liker a Bear-Garden then a Court of Iustice And then when False Witnesses had Suppress'd and Out-fac'd the Truth and Shamm'd the Imposture both upon Bench and Iury the Authority of Four Parliaments is Vouch'd for the Credit of the Abuse Nay the Invention was so Pompous a piece of Trumpery that Effectually they made it a kind of Raw-head-and-Bloudy-Bones to the Common People We can only Ascribe it they say to an Over-ruling Providence that your Majesties Reign is still Continu'd over us and that we are yet Assembled to Consult the Means of our Preservation As who should say 't is e'en a Mercy that we have not had All our Throats Cut in our Beds by These Bloudy Papists When yet all this while not so much as a Popish Mouse durst peep out of his Hole for fear of an Evidence or a Catch-pole for they had their State-Weazels Ferreting up and down in every Corner A Short History of Otes AS for Otes now that was no man of Form and Ceremony but according to M. Hunts Quaint Character of him rather Incurious and Apert the said Mr. Otes I say never stood upon the Scruple of the Parenthesis in the Revenging Vote WHICH GOD FORBID but like a Son of Thunder call'd a spade a spade and by the Dint of Oaths and Maledictions Carry'd Three Kingdoms before him A Plain Blunt Man they cry'd He did not love to Mince matters This was his Character He was for Freedom of Speech and so it appear'd upon the Executing of a Writ of Enquiry at the Bar of the Kings-Bench at Westminster Iune 19. 1684. The Duke of York having brought an Action against him upon the Statute De Scandalis Magnatum But we 'le see some of his Flowers there THe Duke of York 's a Traytor says he fol. 9. A Rascal a Papist and a Traytor fol. 17. A Traytor again and in the Plot. 19. He shall be Hang'd fol. 13. I shall Live to see him Hang'd fol. 16. And Hang'd fol. 17. We 'le have no more regard for him then if he were a Scavenger of Kent-street
and Defence and there were Two Imaginary Plots also to Answer as well as to Countenance These Two Real Conspiracies The One as I sayd e'en now was Habernfelds the Other Tongs Cheats Both and of the very Same Make and Cut but as True however to the End they were Made for as a Pair of False Dice to the Interest of the Caster If I may lead the Allegory a Step further the People were to be Buhbled the Table was Set the Battle begun the Sharpers carry'd all before 'em while the By-Standers That is to say the Multitude that were to Iudge the Points in Controversy understood Nothing at all either of the Trick or of the Play. Neither in Truth was it for Every Common Eye to Discern the Abuse Some were blinded with Prepossession Others Misled for want of Good Heed and Attention Some again were Short-sighted and Some perhaps too Charitable to suspect the Worst of Things But briefly the Plot of 1678 was an Imposture and there were those that Knew as much and saw Thorough it upon the First bringing of the very Pretence upon the Stage Some I say that saw Thorough it and yet made the Most on 't to the Hazzard of the King the Royal Family and the Three Kingdoms I am not without Pregnant Instances and Great Authorities to Back me in This Opinion over and above the Historical Course of Parliamentary Resolutions Votes Orders and Addresses which I have lately publish'd in a Former Part upon This Subjest and Grounded upon Those Evidences as a Demonstrative Proof of what I take upon me to Affirm The Thing is Clear and True Fit to be Known and Worthy of a Sober Consideration for how can any Man Bestow a Thought Better then upon the Means of Distinguishing Right from Wrong Truth from Falshood Hypocrisy from Good Faith The Means I say of Setting Men Right in their Vnderstandings and in their Duties and of Vndeceiving the People in a Matter where Misunderstandings and Mistakes are of so Mortal a Consequence to the Well-being of the Publique I took This Hint from the Postscript to my Last Resolving within my self to say somewhat farther upon 't in my Next then I had at That Time either Will or Leisure to do So that I shall Begin where I left off and proceed from Thence to a more Particular Enquiry into the Story of This Intrigue And in This Place I must give the Reader to Understand that whoever looks for the Date or the Mystery of the Pretended Popish Plot in Otes'es Pretended Narrative of it will have his Labour for his Pains for Otes was neither the Inventer of the One nor the Author of the Other any further then as he follow'd Dr Tong 's Directions Swore to Dr Tong 's Words and Wrote after Dr Tong 's Copy So that Tong is the Oracle we are to Consult for the Revelations of Titus Some there are I know that will have the Original Contrivance to be the Work of Shaftsbury and his Cabal when in Truth they did only Refine upon and Emprove Materials that were brought ready to their Hands and to give them their Due they had That Talent beyond All that ever went before them For in the Case of Fears and Ielousies the Old way of Proceeding the Advance is only Gradual the Dangerous Consequences at a Distance and the Evils yet to Come The Treasons Massacres Murders c. are all but in Vision and men have the Patience to Wait for the Operation of Imaginary Causes at the Long-Run But our Modern Plot-Drivers have found out a way to put the Multitude into a Present Possession of their very Fore-bodings and in the Name of the Law and under the Countenance of his Majesties Courts of Iustice to do the Whole Work at a Heat Swearing is Proving and Proving is Hanging and a Brace of Knights of the Post upon the Spot will do Forty times more Execution then the Dogging of a Plot out at Length A Bloudy Conspiracy Sign'd Seal'd and Deliver'd upon the Faith and Reputation of Two or Three So Help me God's makes Infinitely surer Work on 't then the Bare Presage of a Destruction Future and Vncertain upon any Political or Conjectural Calculation whatsoever This was the Master-piece of our Late Impostors They had Swearers at Command Powerfull Patrons and Mediators for the Encouraging Protecting and Rewarding of Perjuries and Two False Oaths to a Fact though never so Incredible with a Commons-Address to Back it is as Certain Death as a Screw'd-Gun or a Silver-Bullet By the Help of This Invention they had Witnesses Iuries Advocates of the Long Robe of All sorts Votes Ryots and Tumults at their Beck and found out so Sure and so short a way to their Journeys End it would have been a Madness to run the Risque of Attempting That by Fallacy and False Reasoning which they could not fail of bringing about by the Dint of False-Swearing To Conclude That which in Common Acceptation has pass'd so many Years for Otes'es Plot will be found no more at Last then a Transcript of Tong 's as Tong 's was Effectually of Habernfeld's and I have very Good Authority to Support me in this Opinion So that Otes has been but a Tool all this while and a sorry one too God Wot to make such a Bussle in the World so long as he has done But to come to my Matter we 'le first take the Plot such as it was Sworn to be before the King and Councell with Sir Will. Iones'es Report upon the State of the Evidence And we 'le Then look back for the Head of This Nile and so Trace the Course of it into the Branches which I have Divided into Ten Chapters according to the Order of the following Method THE CONTENTS OF THE Chapters 1. SIr William Jones'es State of the Evidence about the Popish Plot. Presented to his Late Majesty in Councell Oct. 18. 1678. With Notes upon his Report and upon his Opinion of the said Plot. p. 1. 2. An Extract of some Passages out of the Manage of Otes'es Evidence in the Prosecution of it Compar'd with Sir W. Jones'es Opinion and Report as to the Credit of his Testimony at the Time of Stating it p. 21. 3. The Pretended Popish Conspiracy was a New Plot made of an Old one and Dr. Tong not Otes was the Founder and Contriver of it p. 49. 4. The Pretended Popish Plot of 1678. was only a Copy drawn from Habernfeld's Original of 1640. p. 58. 5. Was Habernfeld's Model it self an Historical Truth or a Fiction p. 75. 6. If Tong 's or Otes'es Plot was an Imposture whether or no was it Design'd from the Beginning or were the Impostors Themselves Impos'd upon p. 85. 7. By what Means This Imposture came to be Promoted and the Manner of doing it p. 107. 8. By what Means the Author of This Little History came by the Papers herein mention'd p. 111. 9. The Design of Tong 's Plot was upon the Duke of York
Enformations was directly Felo de se as any Man may Unquestionably satisfy himself upon the Reading of ' em To say nothing of his Rank Absurdities and Palpable Contradictions as they are Expos'd from one End to the other of the Second Volume of Observators 2 ly That Sir W. Iones Himself upon the Stating of the Evidence does more then Tacitly Presume and Acknowledge the Great Vnlikelyhood at least if not the Downright Incredibility of his Testimony 3 ly That it is very Hard to Reconcile the Progress of his Prosecution to the Tenor of his First Report And this Third is the Point that I am in This Place to Pursue with a Charity for All Errors and Complyances upon Misenformation or Mistake It would have been Morally Impossible for the Conspirators of One and Forty ever to have Gain'd their Point upon Charles the First without a Protestation or Covenant to Vnite them as I have Hinted already And the Doctrine of Co-ordination to Head them under the Colour of a Quorum of the Three Estates They could never have brought their Ends about I say without This Beside that after These Two Steps Advanced with Impunity and Success the Work was more then Half-done And over and above the Proportion betwixt the Means and the End the very Attempt of These Encrochements upon their Prince did Manifestly Import a Design of taking the Sovereignty into their own Hands This They Attempted upon Charles the Second in the Association and in the Bill of Exclusion The Former was to Vnite and Strengthen the Confederacy and the Other was to Invade and to Vsurp upon the Prerogative Royal And what had they more to do after Assuming Absolute Power to Themselves and Translating the Allegeance of the People from their King to their Fellow-Subjects which was Expressly the Case of their Association and in Consequence That of the Bill of Exclusion too then to Kill and take Possession Or in a word what could They Propose Less to Themselves by setting These Practices afoot then the Subversion of the State Only for the better Face of the Business Religion is made a Cloak to their Ambition and the Crown to be Secur'd in the Peoples Hands for fear of Popery But let it be either the One way or the Other The Thing was to be done however and whether by an Ambitious Zeal or a Holy Ambition it Comes all to a Case There came out an Octavo in Eighty One under the Title of An Exact Collection of the most Considerable Debates in the Honourable House of Commons at the Parliament held at Westminster the one and Twentieth of October 1680. The several Speeches therein are Introduc'd with the Two First Letters as the Publisher Intends them of the Speakers Name I take the matter as I find it There are many Lew'd things 't is True reported in the Book according to the License of the Times they were said to be Spoken in but I have not as yet met with any Exception to it of Falsity for the matters therein Deliver'd I do not here Propose the Strictnesses of a Methodical Division in a Case where I have Scarce room barely to Name some Few General Heads before I Leave them Here 's a Plot Suppos'd The Being of it Presum'd and the Danger of it taken for Granted Together with a Formal Contemplation of the Rise of it the Operations and the Remedies I find Several Passages in this Book under the Title of Sir W. I. Referring to all these Particulars As for Instance UPON a Report maid by Coll. Birch of the Informations relating to the Irish Plot c. Ian. 6. 1681. Sir W. I. is represented Speaking in These Words Mr. Speaker Sir The Evidence which you have heard at the Bar and the Report which hath been Read as to the Popish Plot in Ireland is not only a Plain Discovery of the Dangerous and Deplorable Condition of the Protestants in Ireland but a Great Confirmation of what Dr. Otes and the rest of the Witnesses have said as to the Plot Here So that Now No Man can have any Excuse for not Believing it but such as are Misled by Others who Know it too well because they are In it I Cannot but observe what a Coherence and Agreement there is in the Carrying on the Two Plots Collections p. 230. In Seventy Five and Seventy Six all the Clergy in Ireland said as Fitzgerard Deposeth that the Duke of York should be King in 1678. c. And doth it not appear by the Witnesses here that they Intended about That Time to Cut-off the King Massacre most of the Protestants and to Conquer Others c. And doth not This Agree not only with Dr Otes'es Discovery but Prances too p. 231. And so he goes on Descanting upon Parallels and Resemblances 'till at last finding that All the Plots Center in the Duke of York he advises a Declaration to This Purpose That the Duke of York's being a Papists and the Expectation which That Party have of his coming such to the Crown have given the Greatest Encouragement to the Popish Plot in Ireland as well as Here. p. 233. This Resolve leads to a Bill of Exclusion without any more ado and Sr W. I. is no less Earnest for an Association-Bill Provided he says it might be made as it should be p. 183. For This Bill says he must be much stronger then That in Queen Elizabeth's Days That was for an Association only after her Death but I cannot tell if such a Bill will Secure us Now the Circumstances we are under being very Different In Queen Elizabeths days the Privy Councellors were All for the Queens Interest and Now for the Successor's Now Most of the Privy Councellors are for the Successor and Few for the King. Then the Ministers Vnanimously agreed to keep-out Popery now we have too much reason to fear there are many that are for Bringing-it-In In Those days they All agreed to keep the Popish Successor in Scotland Now the Major part agreed to keep the Successor Here All which must be consider'd in drawing up the Bill p. 184. He takes a great deal of pains in Another place to shew the Danger and Necessity of Things and it is Observable in the Heat of his Course how he does Effectually Drop the Bus'ness of the Plot and Transferr the Ground of the Exclusion to a Scruple of Religion As to the Danger Sr W. I. says It cannot be Imagin'd that the Great Body of Protestants which are in This Nation will Tamely submit to the Popish Yoak which they will in Time see must be the Consequence of Submitting to a Popish King without some Struggling p. 91. The Safety of the King and Kingdom depend upon it p. 92. And so again By assisting the Popish Faction his Majesty is reduced to Great Difficulties and Trouble in the Administration of his Regal Authority and the Credit Peace and Tranquility of the Nation almost Irrâ—coverably Lost
so Still p. 170. This was a Shot at Random I hope without considering where it would fall for it makes All Men whatsoever without any Exception of Persons to be either Fools or Knaves that were not of the Managers Pretended Opinion I call it Pretended because I look upon it as a Flight of his Rhetorique rather then a Motion of his Conscience And that it was Design'd to work upon the Passions of those that heard him rather then upon their Iudgments This Liberty does not only give every Honest Thinking Man an Honourable Right but puts him upon a Defensive Necessity of Throwing-off that Infamous Character let it Light where it Will and of Rangeing the Fools and the Knaves on the Other side But This is a Sentence however with Two Edges One way he makes People Conspirators and Abetters for not Believing the Plot at a Uenture whether the Supposed Fact be True or False The Other way he makes a General Plot on 't by taking All Into 't that do not Believe it But as to the Proof now of a General Plot If Otes'es Plot falls there Remains No General Plot to Prove upon Colemans Letters are a Particular Matter of a Personal Practice and Vndertaking And His Crime at the Vttermost Stretch of it amounted to no more then a Forward Intermeddling with State-Matters without a Commission I could never find out the least Colour in that whole Proceeding to Imagine any sort of Affinity that Colemans Letter-Plot had with Sir Will. Iones'es pretended Narrative Plot. He had a Plot undoubtedly upon the Fing'ring of French Mony But without any Malice in my Conscience against Either King or Government Sir William Iones draws Inferences from the Jesuits Several Meetings Their Raising of Arms and Gathering of Moneys toward the Execution of their Design fol. 169. Certain Imaginary Commissions to Popish Lords Seditious Sermons and Discourses Ibid. All which is upon Otes'es Bottom still And so my Lord Staffords being at Fenwicks Chamber and his Bolting-out Treasonous Words in Otes'es Hearing against the King fol. 170. The Pages 178. 179 are spent in Iustifying Otes wherein Sir William does not only admit Otes'es Change of Religion but even blesses Providence for 't in these Words I am sure it is happy for us that he Did Change his Religion Without That we had not had the First Knowledge of the Plot nor of many Particulars which he could not come to know but by Occasion of that Change fol. 179. This was a Mighty Mistake for we had the First Knowledge of the Plot from Tonge And then for so great a Man there was as unlucky an Oversight Sir William Iones upon the Summing-up of the Evidence makes Otes to be a Papist though He Himself Swore he was None in the Tryall Nay and he raises Arguments from his Being the Thing that he Swore he was Not and Emproves His Forswearing Himself to the Advantage of his Evidence I desire to know says my Lord Stafford whether Mr Otes was Really a Papist or did but Pretend Otes I did only Pretend I was not Reaâ—â—y One I Declare it fol. 123. The Evidence says Sr W. in another Place is so Strong that I think it admits of No Doubt and the Offences prov'd against My Lord and the Rest of his Partâ— are so Foul that they need no Aggravation The Offences are against the King against his Sacred Life against the Protestant Religion nay against All Protestants for it was for the Extirpation of All Protestants out of These Three Nations I mean not of Every one that is Now so but of Every one that would have Continu'd so Every one amongst us if These Designs had been Accomplish'd must either have Turn'd his Religion or turn'd out of his Country or have been Burn'd in it fol. 186. Here 's a Charge of Treason against every Papist in the Three Kingdoms to a Single Man Every Protestant Throat to be Cut or to fly his Country or to Turn or to Burn. Taking away the Kings Life and the Extirpating of the Protestant Religion by Violence were the Points of the Conspiracy what could be more Incentive toward an Vniversal Tumult What more Repugnant to Christian Charity and to Common Sense then to Build such Conclusions upon the Testimony of Abandon'd Cheats and the Visionary Extravagances of Dreamers of Dreams for such was Tonge most Superstitiously according to the Letter But to carry it further yet All These Pretences have been Detected for a Forgery and a Counter-Plot Prov'd on the Other side to Answer Every Malicious Point of This. What Atonement is the whole World able to make for the Affronts that have been put upon Gods Providence Truth and Iustice upon the Honour of the King the Peace of the Kingdom and the Reputation of the Oppress'd and Injur'd Party But to return to my Point It will deserve one word more now after Otes'es Passing Muster for a Competent and a Credible Witness according to Sr William Iones'es Qualifications and Measures to take a little notice on the other side what it is that he makes to be an Incapacity for a Warrantable and a Creditable Discharge of that Duty 'T is no great Wonder where a Profligate Sodomite and a Common Knight-of-the-Post passes for a Testis Probus to See a Man of Honour upon tâ—e File for an Infamous Rascal Sir William Iones makes his Exceptions to Mr. Lydcot's Evidence which he gave Concerning My Lord Castlemain Lord Staffords Tryal pag. 115. c. I refer the Reader to the Tryal it self and he will find no need of a Gloss upon the Text to shew him how that Worthy Honest Gentleman was handled in Court by the Manager But He that would more Particularly Enform himself in the Ground of Sir Williams Exceptions must look for his Crime fol. 177. upon Summing-up the Evidence A Man says Sir W. Iones that owns himself the Continual Companion and Secretary of one so Famous in the Popish Party as my Lord Castlemaine is A Man that Pretends he was never out of his Company And a Man that owns that two Years since he was Taking of Notes at a Trial for This Plot Not only for his Curiosity but for his Lord who was Concern'd in the Accusation That This Man should be a Fellow of Kings College seems Strange and 'till it be better Prov'd will hardly be Believ'd Nor will he deserve any Credit From one End to the other of This History of the Pretended Popish Conspiracy the Weight of the Proof still rests upon Otes'es Probity and Reputation and the Whole Frame has nothing more to Support it then Flourish and Noise The Proof and Character of a Licentious and Habitual Dissolution of Manners through the Entire Course of Otes'es Conversation is still Blown-off with one of These Two Banters Set a Rogue to Catch a Rogue That is to say He must be a Party to the Treason to Qualify him for a Testimony The other
Invasions Past Present and to Come Nothing in short came Amiss to him Order'd that Dr. Tong and Mr. Otes be Summon'd to Attend the Bar of This House at Four a Clock in the Afternoon to give an Account Touching the Plot and the Conspiracy c. Commons Journal Oct. 25. 1678. Order'd that Dr. Tong do Attend again to morrow Morning to give an Account concerning the Fire of the City of London Ib. Here 's a Manifestation sufficient of the Hand Interest and Design that Dr Tong had in the Plot and the Encouragement he met withall on the One side was in All Respects Answerable to the Zeal he Express'd for the Promoting of it on the Other As will be further seen hereafter But yet the Wisdom of the Nation was Certainly never more over-shot then in laying any sort of Stress upon the Credit of His Report For over and above the Absurdity of his Reasons the Impotence of his Passions and the Scandal of his Authorities that lye Open for All the World to Judge of he Cuts his Own Throat with his Own Hand in a Petition to That very House of Commons that seem'd to Believe him by laying Reasons Vnanswerable before them why they Ought Not to Believe him wherein he Declares and Affirms that he had no Knowledge of any Person Charg'd or Suspected to be in the Confederacy Hardly of any One Popish Gentleman in England So that here 's a Popish Plot Undertaken to be Prov'd against so many Persons by Name And That Proof Accepted for Current when the very Accuser himself Confesses and Declares that he knows not so much as any One Conspirator But an Infallible Vote Solves Impossibilities and Reconciles Contradictions A Plot is â—esolv'd upon A Plot there Is and a Plot there Must be though they fetch it out of the Grave again after so many Years Dead and Bury'd This is a Story so Silly Flat and Nauseous that I should hold my self Oblig'd to beg a Publique Pardon for Exposing it if it were not for These Two Vses of Application First to shew the Senseless Ground and Foundation of All our Late Troubles and Distresses And Secondly That there is No Tale or Fable so Monstrous or Incredible that Prejudice and Credulity shall not make to Pass for Gospel This Plot in fine such as it is was Tongs Plot The Project of it Copy'd-out from That of Habernfeld and no more upon the Whole then One Forgery Grafted upon Another But This will be Best Clear'd by Confronting the Two Narratives The Parallel will be somewhat Large but my hand is now In 't is a Matter of Moment that Depends upon 't and so the Case will the Better Bear it CHAP. IV. The Pretended Popish Plot of 1678. was only a Copy drawn from Habernfelds Original of 1640. THe History of Habernfeld's Discovery was first Published in Forty Three by Prynne in his Romes Master-Piece having been seiz'd by him as he sets it forth in his Preface in the Arch-Bishops Chamber in the Tower by Warrant from the Close Committee May. 31. 1643. His Introduction is a kind of Synopsis of the Whole Relation which Prynne Pronounces for so Indubitable a Truth that Whoever deems it an Imposture may well be Reputed an Infidel he says if not a Monster of Incredulity To which I may Interpose that I have known many of Mr Prynne's Infidels and Monsters that have been very Good Christians and very Honest Men. Upon the Coming-forth of Otes'es Popish-Plot-Narrative in 1678. The Old Story of Habernfeld was Reprinted under This Title The Grand Designs of the Papists in the Reign of our Late Sovereign Charles the 1 st And now Carry'd on against his Present Majesty his Government and the Protestant Religion The Prefacer seems to be Absolutely of Tong 's and Otes'es Opinion upon the Matter in Question about the Two Plots only with This Difference That the One Illustrates the Old Plot by the New one and the Other Illustrates the New Plot by the Old one and so there 's an Inference Interchangeably drawn from the Resemblance of the Counterfeit to the Authority of the Story But over and above These Considerations it seems to Me not unlikely that Tonge had some hand in the Publication For it came out just after my Refusal to License his Royal Martyr where the Stress was laid upon That Point And the Conspiracy being at That Time Hot from the Forge Tong could not do better then by Matching the President to make One Sham Vouch for Another It is not the Design of These Papers says the Publisher to give an Account of the Discovery of the Late Plot but only to Present the Reader with the Narrative of Another against his Majesties Royal Father of Blessed Memory So Exactly resembling This which now lies under Examination that it can hardly be call'd Another Being nothing else but the Same thing Acted over again only with the Necessary Alteration of Circumstances of Time Places and Persons Preface After this Preface follows a Paper Entitled Sir William Boswell's First Letter to the Arch-Bishop concerning the Plot. Dated Hague Sep. 9. 1640. which he dispatch'd away to the Arch-Bishop with one from Habernfeld Enclosed under the Title of Andreas ab Habernfeld's Letter to the Arch-Bishop concerning the Plot Revealed to him This is Accompany'd with Another Paper Entitled The General Overture and Discovery of the Plot. And there is likewise a Third Paper of Habernfelds which he calls The Large and Particular Discovery of the Plot and Treason against the King Kingdom and Protestant Religion and to raise the Scottish Wars The Story is Heavy and there 's too Much on 't to be Inserted at Length but my Bus'ness being only to set forth the Resemblance betwixt the Two Plots and to run the Parallel the Heads of the Relation in Abstract will abundantly Answer My End And when I shall have gotten over This part of the Proceeding a Man may properly enough Enquire into the Merits of the Whole Matter and see what Opinion the King Himself the Arch-Bishop and Sr William Boswell had of This Discovery To take the Particulars as they Rise and to Apply the Parallel to Those Points in the Same Order as I find them in the Original I shall begin with the Preface and run thorough both the Abstract of Habernfeld and Tong 's Counter-Part in as Few Words as Possible The Parallel of the Two Plots The Discoverer he says was a Chief Actor in This Plot sent hither from Rome by Cardinal Barbarini to Assist Con the Popes Legat in the Pursuit of it and Privy to All the Particulars therein Discovered Preface And was not Our Prime Discoverer Otes a Chief Actor too Sent over from St Omers to Assist the Plot and about the Iesuits Affairs Lord Staffords Tryal fol. 28. Intrusted with Commissions Iesuits Tryal fol. 13. Tempted to Kill the King Narrative Ar. 60. Dispatched with Proposals to the Carmelites about it fol.
of Christian Charity suffers them not to Conceal These Things Yet both from his Majesty and the Lord Arch-Bishop some Small Exemplar of Gratitude will be Expected p. 8. These are the very Reasonings and Pretences of Ezrel Tong put into the Mouth of Titus Otes No Figments So help me God No Thought of Gain but Pure Zeal and Christian Charity to work upon the Discoverers But yet some Small Exemplar of Gratitude will be Expected as a matter of Ten or Twelve Pound a Week-Pension for Otes and the Value perhaps of Four or Five times as much more in Presents and Veils A Deanery or some such Trifle for Tong. What is All This but a Flat Contradiction thrown in the very Face of the Pretext It is as Clear as Day that Tong and Habernfeld in All Things Material Walk Hand in Hand thorough the Whole Story But to avoid Idle Repetitions as much as may be I shall in the Next Place make a Short Abstract of Habernfeld's Last and Long Paper of Intelligence and so Finish my Parallel It bears This Following Title And from thence I shall Proceed to the Heads of it The Large and Particular Discovery of the Plot against the King Kingdom and Protestant Religion and to raise the Scottish Wars p. 13. The A King is in Danger of his Life and Crown B England and Scotland to be Subverted The Discoverer of This was Born and Bred in the C Popish Religion being D Fit for the Design p. 13. He was E sent over by Cardinal Barbarini F Troubled in Conscience and G came over to the Orthodox Religion H Reveal'd the Treason to a Friend I Put the Particulars in Writing out of which were drawn K. Articles p. 14. He falls upon the L Iesuitical Off-spring of Cham. p. 15. The M Society are the Conspirators The N Popes Legat is their Chief Patron They hold their O Weekly Intelligences p. 16. Cuneus the Instrument of the P Conjur'd Society He Presents the King with Roman Curiosities Promises but Means it not to Espouse the Cause of the Palatinate p. 17. Offers the Bishop a Cardinals Cap makes use of Court-Instruments and Mediations p. 18. But finding All in Vain Q Ambushes were to be Prepar'd wherewith the Lord Arch-Bishop together with the King should be Taken p. 19. They pass R Sentence against the King and lay hold of the Indignities put upon Prynne Burton and Bastwick and the Scotch Service-Book to stir up the Puritans to a Revenge Some Scottish Popish Lords are sent to Enflame S Scotland by which the T Hurtfull Disturber of the Scottish Liberty might be Slain V An Indian Nut provided by the Society and shew'd to the Discoverer in a W Boasting Manner To Poyson the X King after the Example of his Father p. 21. Hamilton's Chaplain Private with Cuneus A Chaplain of Richelieu's sent over to Assist the Conspiracy A Character given of Sr Toby Mathews p. 22. And an Account of his Intelligences Haunts and Meetings p. 23. The Story of Reade over again p. 24. Iesuits Letters and Meetings And Y All the Papists of England Contributing to the Design p. 25. One Widow Gave Forty Thousand Pound English toward it And Others beyond their Ability in Proportion He follows This with a Ramble upon Several Persons by Name that were dipt in the Conspiracy And further with This Remarkable Discovery The President of the aforesaid Society was my Lord Gage a Jesuit Priest Dead above Three Years since He had a Palace Adorn'd with Lascivious Pictures which Counterfeited Prophaneness in the House but with them was Palliated a Monastery wherein Forty Nuns were Maintained hid in so Great a Palace It is Scituated in Queen Street which the Statue of a Golden Queen Adorns The Secular Jesuits have bought All This Street and have Reduced it into a Quadrangle where a Jesuitical College is Tacitly built with the Hope that it might be Openly finish'd as soon as the Universal Reformation was begun p. 29. To pass a Short Note now upon the Whole The Design upon the A King and B England and Scotland is the General Scope of Otes'es Plot. He pretends to come over from C the Popish Religion No man Fitter for the D Design E sent over F Troubled in Conscience and G Converted The General of the Iesuits at Rome and the Provincial Here did the Parts of Cardinal Barbarini and the Popes Legat. Otes H Revealed the Treason to Tong and I put the Particulars in Writing out of which Tong Extracted K Articles Otes makes M the Society the Conspirators The Provincial serves for N The Popes Legat. The O Weekly Intelligences Grove took an Account of and for Instruments of the P Conjur'd Society Otes'es Narrative has them in abundance The Q Ambushes were laid in St. Iames'es and at Windsor The R Sentence pass'd at several Consults The Rebellion in S Scotland by Irritating the Puritans was Manag'd by Otes'es Missionaries and the King to be Murder'd as the T Hurtfull Disturber of their Liberties Wakemans Poyson was V the Indian Nut and Cuneus's Boasting of it Answers Conyers'es shewing Otes the Dagger in Grays-Inn-Walks Habernfelds Talk of Poysoning the X King after the Example of his Father was Match'd both in the Narrative of Otes'es Plot and Expressly in his Epistle before that Narrative to the Eternal Infamy of the Reporters of it And as Habernfeld Y makes All the Papists of England to be Concern'd in This Conspiracy so Otes in his Epistle and Narrative has made an Vniversal Plot on 't Only we want a Forty-Thousand-Pound Widow to Perfect the Parallel But That Defect is Amply Supply'd in Irish Contributions and Other Secret Services As to the Foolery of the Last Paragraph the Man must be a Great Stranger to London as well as to Common Sense that can look upon it as any other then a most Extravagant Foppery and without any Colour or Coherence After This Large Discovery as the Enformer Pretends comes a Summary in Eleven Heads of the Whole Matter which is only the same over again and is Answer'd over again by the same Parallel Only the 10 th Clause has an Expression in it Worthy of Remarque Some says he of the Principal Vnfaithful ones of the Kings Party are Notify'd by Name Many of whose Names Occur Not yet their Habitations are Known p. 31. Now in Otes'es Muster of the Conspirators it runs Whose Names Occurr at Present Nar. fol. 61. One would have thought they might have Vary'd the Phrase a little But our Modern Discoverers have been much better at Copying then at Inventing Witness This Whole Parallel and the Five Iesuits Letters It must not be Omitted neither that the Order of Politicians which Habernfeld speaks of p. 15. is Learnedly Turn'd forsooth into the Order of POLITITIANI by Otes in his Narrative Art. 53. In Conclusion here 's a Plot Copy'd-out to the Life and the Transcript a most Scandalous and Impious Cheat beyond all Controversy whatever the Original was
in Question The Next Point will be how far he was True to his Matter and to Himself without either Stretching Shortning Suppressing or Clashing with his own Testimony but with a Charitable Abatement of and a Christian Allowance still for Humane Frailty The Point in Issue was a Plot or No Plot upon the Life of the King c. So that all Omissions upon That Mortal Article are Mightily to be suspected of Malice and Iniquity where they carry the Face of a Direct Tendency to That Execrable End. CHAP. V. Notes upon Certain Omissions Enlargements Disagreements and Contradictions in the Evidence of Bedloe and Prance concerning the Plot together with the True Reasons Thereof WE have Already given a General and a Sufficient Account in the Last Chapter but one of the Evidences Deliver'd by Bedloe and Prance upon the Subject of the Plot And we are now to take into Consideration the Competency the Fairness the Fulness and the Consistency of Those Depositions In the First Place the Omissions and Enlargements that appear in the several Enformations upon Comparing them One with another Now this is a Point not to be Cleared without References Repetitions and Recitals So that there 's No help for 't but by making them as Few and as Short as may be 1. I find it upon the Lord's Journal that the Monks of Doway gave Bedloe the Sacrament Four Times upon a Charge of Secrecy Nov. 12. 1678. 2. And again That Bedloe Demanded of Mr. Gage the Rector of the English College what they would do with the King. He Answered They would keep him well in a Convent 3. Bedloe then Demanded who should Govern in Chief He told him there should be a Tender made to ONE of the Crown if he would Acknowledge it from the Church but they did believe he would not Accept of it and then the Government should be left to some Lords that the Pope would appoint which Lords he would not tell me but said I should know it from the Monks at Paris Lords Journal Ib. 4. He says again in the same Deposition as is Already hinted in the Third Chapter Who were to Govern Who Told him so Ten Thousand from Flanders to Land at Bridlington-Bay The Lord Powes Petres c. to Rendezvous in South-Wales with Another Army and They to Ioyn Twenty or Thirty Thousand more that were to Land at Milford Haven from the Groin in Spain which Army was to be RELIGIOVS Men and PILGRIMS from St. Jago in Spain c. Lords Journal Ibid. 5. Forty Thousand Men ready in London Beside Those that would on the Alarum be Posted at Every Ale-House Door to have Kill'd the Soldiers as they went out of their Quarters 6. Le Phaire told him also that when any Plotter was taken up he should be kill'd before he was brought to his Tryal or the Prison Burnt 7. And That Guernsey and Jersey were to be surpriz'd by a Power from Brest and other Places of France and that several French Ships have layn in and about the Channel All This Summer upon the same Occasion 8 And further Le Phaire Pritchard c. as before had often told him that there was not a Roman Catholique in England that was not Privy to the Design and had not Received the Sacrament from their Father Confessors to be secret and assistant to the carrying of it on To Pass a Note or Two upon the Particulars above they are of so great Importance to be Thoroughly Sifted and made out that the Plot it self the Credit and the very Being of it stands or falls upon the Truth or Falsity of these Enformations But the Stress does not lye so much upon True or False as whether this be the Whole Truth or Not For All these Heads and Circumstances of the Story upon the Lords Iournal and the Four Evangelists over and above are utterly Forgotten in the Evidence upon the Tryal of the Pris'ners Now if Bedloe Deliver'd the Whole Truth at First how came he afterwards to Enlarge his Evidence But to Expound this Riddle now he swore before the Lords to the Generals only of Otes's Plot for Otes himself was not yet Resolv'd upon the Particulars So that which way soever Titus Led William was bound to Follow and the Point of his Oath in Westminster-Hall was not Levell'd at the Plot it self but at the Persons of the Pretended Conspirators Now to trace Things in order as they lye before us We hear Nothing of Four Sacraments The Convent The Tender of the Crown and the Pope's Resolution upon 't The Ten Thousand and the Twenty or Thirty Thousand the Pilgrims and the Religious The London Forty Thousand The Posting of People at Ale-House Doors The Killing of Plotters or the Burning of Prisons The Surprizing of Guernsey and Iersey Every Roman Catholique of Quality under a Sacrament to serve the Design We have not one Syllable of All this in the Printed Tryals though upon the same Oath and froâ— the same Lips that swore to the Whole Truth upon the Lords Iournal But here 's the Scheme of Otes's Plot yet upon the whole Matter And then for the Tender of the Crown as it is Pointed at in the Third Article it is so exactly the Drift and the Case of a Whimsey set forth in Otes's Narrative only in other Words viz. The Pope hath ordered says Otes That in case the Duke of York which is the ONE he speaks of will not accept these Crowns as forfeited by his Brother unto the Pope as of his Gift and settle such Prelates and Dignitaries in the Church and such Officers in Commands and Places Civil Naval and Military as he hath Commissioned as above Extirpate the Protestant Religion and in Order thereunto Ex post Facto consent to the Assassination of the King his Brother Massacre of his Protestant Subjects Firing of his Towns c. by Pardoning the Assassins Murtherers and Incendiaries that then HE be also Poysoned or Destroyed after they have for some time abus'd his Name and Title to strengthen their Plot Weakned and Divided the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland thereby in Civil Wars and Rebellions as in his Fathens Time to make way for the French to seize These Kingdoms and totally ruine their Infantry and Naval Force Otes's Narrative p. 64. This Paragraph comprizes in few Words a General View of the whole Project and it was but Swearing so many Men to such and such Parts and Offices in this Fiction of a Conspiracy to Compleat the Reputation of the Discovery that is to say some were to have Publique Charges and Commissions Others to carry on the Massacres Murthers Assassinates Poysoning and Conflagrations And after the Digesting of the Treasons they could not well fail of Discovering the Traytors especially when the same Oath that made the One made the Other It is not to be Imagin'd that Bedloe upon his repeated Oaths before the King and the Lords could Honestly forget so many remarkable Instances of
the Saturday when Sir Edmundbury Godfrey went away from his House Lawrence Hill a Servant to Dr. Godden came to the House of this same Cutler about Four in the Afternoon and there finding some Company they went to Whisk there being one Mr. Robert Belt Mr. John Moor Cutler Himself and others in the Company and that the said Mr. Hill did not stir from Cutler 's House till about Eight of the Clock when Hill 's VVife went to fetch him Home Now this has quite spoil'd the Fashion of Prance's Story of Green and Hill's Dogging of Godfrey from Place to Place at These very Hours But a Man can hardly set one Single Step in This Proceeding without a Stumble And from the Monday Night's Remove out of Hill's Chamber to the Twelve-a-Clock-Adventure on the Wednesday Night following to Primrose-Hill in the Face and yet out of the Sight it seems of the Guards and Watches is but the same Vnaccountable Foolery all of a Piece There was a Plot first to make out the Murther 2 ly To make a Plot on 't And Then to throw it up into the Air like a Paper-Kite with Protestant Religion Priviledges Liberty and Property at the Tayl of it to set the Mobile a Gaping So that it was to be made a Murther of the First Magnitude And they were in All Conscience and Reason to Assign some Cause or Provocation Answerable to so Nefarious a Fact And what was This but either Green's Revenge for Sir Edmund's bearing hard upon him about a Parish-Duty as Prance has it or to Force Examinations from him according to Bedloe's Project which Examinations were Already before the King and Council Sworn Copies of them in several Hands and the Witnesses then in Being to swear them over again Was This a Matter of Moment to move the Foundations of Three Kingdoms Or was there ever a more Senseless Pretext in Nature without either Weight in the One or Colour in the Other But there was a Third Reason yet which by the help of a Popular and a Mercenary Eloquence made more Noise then the other Two. And that was his Zeal for the Discovery of the Plot and the Enmity he bare to the Papists when it is yet Notoriously known that he believed it a Sham from the Beginning That he took Tong and Otes for a Brace of False Miscreants and that he was so far from being an Enemy to the Papists that in Cases of Need he did them All the Good Offices he could And now to come to the Chair-work A Chair it was that certainly dropt out of the Clouds for This Particular Service and went Thither again for we do not find that it was either Made a Purpose or who was the Owner of it nor whence it came nor whether it went at last Only Prance tells us that they set it in a new House by So-ho till they came back again c. Tr. pag. 20. And then we are to Imagin a Tall Stiff Body to be Crowded Into 't and then Carry'd off with Ropes to Cut any Man's Shoulders to the Bone a Brace of Bearers to 't that never set one Step in a Chair before And 't is a Thing of Time to Break your Chair-men to the Work that they may March and Trot together But the Body is by This Time Cas'd Hous'd Sedann'd Box'd-up or call it what you will. Now the Matter duly Consider'd the whole Train of the History is but One Insuperable Difficulty upon the Heel of Another Hill brought the Sedan They put him Into 't and upon a Hem in the Queens Court at Midnight Berry open'd the Gate fol. 19. In the Lords Iournal Dec. 24. It was but Half the Gate and the Single Wicket would have serv'd as well too and with Less Danger of giving the Alarm And this was All to be done and the Body and Chair-men to Pass Invisibly too for Nicholas Trollop Nicholas Wright and Gabriel Hesketh that were plac'd Centinels by Corporal Collet that Wednesday Night within the Gate saw nothing of All This though Trollops stood from Seven to Ten Wright reliev'd him at Ten and staid till One Hesketh reliev'd him at One and staid till Four. They all swear to the Night to the Hour to the Place and Positively that they kept to their Post and that there was No Sedan Pass'd out at Somerset-House that Night Berry's Maid Elizabeth Minshaw swears that her Master came Home That Night in the Dusk and was not an Hour Out 'till he went to Bed about Twelve Tryal pag. 68 69 70. Consider the Season too when there were Two Plots a-foot at once One upon the King and Another upon Godfrey And a Man could hardly walk the Streets without being taken for a Suspected Person And they were to pass in the very Teeth of the Watch too And why so Far when they went every Moment in Danger of their Lives And the Single Question of Who goes there would have Hang'd them All If they were but met and Examin'd they were Lost So that wherever they found the Coast Clear it would have been infinitely more for the Bearers Security and for the Impostors purpose too to have thrown the Body into the very Kennel before the Gate of the House Which would have given some Countenance to the Sham or at a Venture to have left both Chair and Body together Any where in the Open Street to have taken their Fortune Would any People in their Right Wits now ever have sworn such a Huddle of Inconsistencies and Contradictions into the Pretext of a True History where the Fact was not only False but so Easily Prov'd to be so Hill was gone abroad to Dog Sir E. Godfrey about Nine or Ten a Clock on Saturday Morning October 12. 1678. Tryal p. 17. This is Prance's Story And Elizabeth Curtis agrees with Mr. Prance Exactly in Point of Time as Mr. Attorney Observes Tryal p. 40. And this Elizabeth Curtis again is Sworn and Examin'd Tryal pag. 38. as Sir Edmund's Servant which was a monstrous great Hazard they ran to lay the Stress of an Evidence upon her Privity to Matters as a Servant in the House when it was Notorious that she was never so But only a Poor Woman that now and then did Chair-work for them Now Robert How Swears That upon That Saturday Hill and He were together from about Nine till One pag. 61. And Richard Lazenby Confirms How 's Testimony by his Evidence that they two Din'd with Hill that Saturday And Lazenby swears again that upon the Wednesday Night following he was with him from Five to Seven And yet this was the Hour that Girald Green and Hill had Dogg'd him into St. Clements Tryal pag. 20. And so for Elizabeth Curtis that swears Directly to the Particular Knowledge of Green and Hill fol. 39. Iudith Pamphlin that liv'd in the House with Sir Edmund deposeth quite another Matter And Avis Warrier does very notably Corroborate Pamphlins Evidence Pamphlin 's Deposition is This. Iudith Pamphlin