an unbias'd man believe the justice of his Courts corrupted and his Judges Arbitrary because it is the opinion of some perhaps that have a mind to sit on the Bench Are those fair and competent Asserters of an Arbitrary Power and good Witnesses of their Princes Tyranny only because they are banish'd the Court and could see nothing of it when they sate in the Council Lastly can he truly fear Popery that is of no Religion at all and be an impartial Judge of the Temper of the Duke of York that is his avow'd and mortal Enemy neither the Civil Law or Common will admit of any prejudic'd Evidence And for God's sake let the King and Government when they are arraign'd have as fair play for it as one of your Joyners or Coblers a Colledge or an Hewson would expect Next my Lord you would prove the Queens Association to have been carried on without her knowledge from a certain Speech of hers to her Parliament but whether the Quotation be false or true we won't dispute at present but this seems to me a plain sort of owning the Paper of which your Friends are accused only you would say somewhat for your selves in not acquainting his Majesty with it a little sooner by telling the Kingdom his Predecessor Queen Elizabeth knew nothing of such a Combination any more than himself and that she look'd upon it as an obligation from her Subjects to find so many hands unknowingly subscrib'd but granting they agree in this circumstance that such a Loyal Design as well as a Treasonable one may possibly have been carried on in the dark Can you imagine my Lord She would have taken it for an Obligation too had they tender'd her a Paper that would have sworn her out of her Supremacy and lodg'd it in the major part of her House of Commons and with what face could ever any Subject offer a scheam of Rebellion to his Soveraign and desire of him the liberty to commence a Rebel and a Traytor only for his defence and preservation The Story of the Queen of Scots which you would make so plain a Parallel is in my judgment as little to the purpose First Did the Queen of England shew her self as vigorous in opposing the disinheriting of her next Heir as our King has been both kind and just in asserting the Rights of his Brother and Successor Secondly Do you think if she had really declared her self against the proceedings of her Parliament in that Affair her Subjects would have enter'd into an Association to have done it by themselves No no your Lordship is too good an Historion not to know that things were then carried on with her Majesties Connivance and tacit Approbation and that she acted her part of the Tragedy like one of Matchiavel's Monarchs behind the Curtain and for which even Writers very favourable to your own Party and no Causines have justly condemn'd her And it seems all your own factious Crew don't agree with your Lordship in thinking the Proceedings against that unfortunate Queen so fair and honourable for very lately a certain Protestant Buffoon has prov'd it plain Murder in his second part of a thing call'd a Speculum or the View and Reflection of a Chimera half Droll half Author and half Ass and from that very Case this Hotch-potch Animal proves King-killing to be the Doctrine of the Church of England but I hope you will agree with me because he differs from you in this point that this his Argumentation is like the rest of his Stuff very ridiculous but as for his abusing the Church-men there you may shake hands again for he paints them out very pleasantly like Fools Anticks and Jack-Puddings and you draw them out terribly all in blood Governours of the Popish Interest revengeful implacable and such as never forgive so that between you the Clergy may be pretty well secur'd of an Odium when you can expose them even in the two several extreams But would a Jew take such to be Christians that vilify the Church of which they would seem to be and ridicule the very Religion they are thought to profess And here I can't but observe a Barbarous as well as a Malicious hint of your Lordships who when you have represented how violent the Parliament was against the Succession of the Queen of Scots with a cruel and emphatical Malice cry out Nay and against her Life too We know my Lord the Parliament help'd the Grand-Mother to the Block and you saw another made the Father stoop to it But would you have your Associated Baalites sacrifice the Blood of the Son too This is stretching up a private Revenge to vye even with the Vengeance of the Almighty and an angry God only visits to the third and fourth Generation Your Lordship in this Insinuation shews a great deal of Inhumanity not to be parallel'd but by that of your Friends the Dissenters in their Association or the Cannibals of the West-Indies which as some say infest our Plantations there and refresh themselves in nothing more than in the Blood of an Enemy These are the bloody Measures which your Passion transports you to and not your Judgment directs People look through these transparent Politicks like Water and see nothing but Malice and Revenge at the bottom Your last politick Observation is That his present Majesty is the first Prince that ever was perswaded to be so willing to settle indubitably the Title of his presumptive Heir But why perswaded Has he not natural Affection enough to be willing himself And would he not much rather be thought the first should he humour your Faction that ever unnaturally disinherited a kind Brother and his Heir apparent And I believe nothing grieves you more than that his Majesty's Consent must be requir'd and could a Parliament be gotten once to act again without him no doubt but the Bill of Exclusion would be the first Act of the Session But the Law of Nations ever since the Time of Justinian the Laws of the Kingdom down from the Conqueror have happily placed the Sanction of every Law in the Will of the Prince and you and your Friends must be contented my Lord till you can perswade the King to give you his Le Roy Vult and the Crown and Scepter to the Bargain And seeing you are pleas'd to call the D. of Y. but a presumptive Heir and seem to lay such a stress and Emphasis upon the new-coin'd word we will discuss this Business a little further My Lord if I mistake not your Friend you pretend to vindicate was the first that applied this pretty Distinction to the next Heir of the Crown It looks like a piece of State-Sophistry and your noble Friend some say was fam'd for a fine distinguishing Logical Head when a young Academick and a body would almost swear this Vindicator the Vindicated and the noble Peer differ only like the little Man with three great Names who still makes but the same person
two late Villains that preach'd Rebellion at the very place of Execution no doubt 't was with a great deal of Submission they made two several Insurrections one of which was but lately dispers'd at Bothwel-Bridge they submissively murdered the Bishop of St. Andrews and very lately with a great deal of Dissenters Humanity mangled and mutilated the poor Souldiers These are many I hope and strong Evidences of their bad Carriage whereas you have not given one single Instance of their good Your business in the next Paragraph is to make the discover'd Association a Popish Hobgoblin too a Mormo conjur'd up at White-Hall or to use your own expression The keeping Hounds in full cry with a Red-Herring out of their own Kitchin trail'd through the Kingdom to make a noise A pleasant Metaphor I confess in comparing a piece of Rebellion with a Red-Herring somewhat a more apposite Allegory even upon this account because both are great Commodities in the Dutch Common-wealths but I fancy my Lord could your Party but have kept this Herring close and drying in their own Chimney till the Nations Palate had been a little better disposed to relish such a salt Bit the Dogs that would have follow'd the scent then I am afraid would have shown themselves a thirsty sort of Blood-Hounds and took some of the King 's best Subjects for their Prey but now this dried Fish has took a little Air and rank Treason stunk and offended the whole Kingdom 't is no wonder if your Party won't allow the Dish to come out of their Kitchin when it looks as if it had been drest in Hell and had the Devil for its Cook Your Lordship has not carefully perused those Proceedings at the Old-Baily neither is to be imagined how you should impartially when you seem to be so much prejudiced or else you would find the Impudence to lye on your side in making the seizing of the Paper questionable the words of Mr. Gwin are as positive as the Case could admit which are plainly these It was certainly there for there I found it I don't know as to the particular Paper but all in that Bag were there vid. page 34. Now your Lordship won't allow it to be positive Evidence because not to the particular Paper But suppose my Lord one of your Irish Witnesses should transport hither a Ship-load of his Country Cattel to stock your Lordships Mannor would you not believe him if he swore they all came from thence and it was unlikely any other Breed should leap up in the Voyage And sure that Gentleman may pass for a more competent Witness than a common Bug-trotter The Messengers seiz'd a whole bundle of Colledge's infamous treasonable Ballads had it not been positive Evidence if they had sworn only to the whole Bundle as well as if to the particular Ballad produc'd in the Court But you can't have the Patience or Heart to examine the Parallel it being the woful Case of a dissenting Protestant But then you will take the pains to consider this there were Bundles of Letters found in Coleman's Study two or three of which were only used in his Tryal would your Lordship have had that sort of Traytor escap'd too had the Witnesses been only able to swear to the Papers in general that they found and not to the very particular one produc'd I don't know in what English Reports your Lordship has met with Monsieur Fouquet's Case which is a French one I am sure your Honour would be loth to be tryed by their Arbitrary Laws when it can hardly abide the Test of ours And whatever you think I fancy the State is higher concern'd against him that endeavours to subvert it than him that only defrauds its Exchequer And yet the one you see has been kept a long time Prisoner in the Bastile though the other quickly got out of the Tower And as for those Laws of Nature and Reason you urge on your part sure they are never so irrational to befriend a man suspected for unnatural plotting against his Prince and the Father of his Country which was the thing then in question but it s being a loose Paper and unsubscribed will that exempt a man from being questioned especially in Matters of Treason where there are no Accessories but every Concealer a Principal Were not some of the Jesuits questioned for Papers unsubscribed and Langborn partly condemn'd for receiving Commissions never produc'd found or like to be heard of And these Parallel Instances I don't urge as an extenuation of their Guilt who merited death by the Law but to shew your foul Reasoning and prejudic'd Argumentation in making that sort of Evidence light and empty in your Friends Case though only to put him upon his Tryal when you thought it full and weighty in your Enemies even for their Sentence and Execution The detestation of a damnable piece of Treason your Lordship calls A Popish Clamor and Abhorrence Are they all Papists my Lord that protest to defend his Majesty If so your own Party will be libel'd too in that Accusation who most of all make such Protestations though they least intend it And if they must be Papists that vow to preserve the present Government of Church and State your Lordship by such Doctrines will draw more Proselytes to the Romish Faith than ever did Priest or Jesuit or to use your own words have given a greater Blow to the Protestant Religion than all that ever went before you for such wild Positions and unreasonable Censures will make all to be of that Communion who love their God and their King or are willing to commence good Christians and loyal Subjects But not withstanding all your malicious Accusations is it to be prov'd there were any Roman-Catholicks that promoted these late Abhorrences or any single one that sign'd such an Address though they were ready perhaps to do it and can shame some of our Protestants whose Religion truly gives no such Dispensations for Treason and Rebellion and consequently should make them better Subjects Yet some of those spent their Blood for our late Soveraign when so many of ours lost it in fighting against him and also 't is unadvisedly objected that the Papists should be concern'd in these Abhorrences for that would make them more Friends to your Party than any other in affording you Matter for aspersing all those as such with whom they subscribe and only give your Lordship and your Crew a Pretence for such scandalous Suggestions But the mischief of it is they do no great service in such a forbearance since we deal with an Accuser as subtil and malicious as that primitive one the Devil and who would blast his Enemies Reputation were they all Angels But my Lord there are a number of as great and better Subjects than your selves who have better thoughts too concerning the late Abhorrencies and are so far from bering troubl'd at what they have done or perswaded to forbear by your unjust censuing and
traducing it that they many times in their Addresses beg pardon for not having begun sooner not my Lord but that it was abhorr'd in the Heart of every good Subject look'd on as the Contrivance of Hell and Darkness as soon as ever it came to light but that they vye with one another for an early of those villanous designs which they think none can soon enough detest Upon the appearance of your terrible Comet the Nation seem'd to gaze a while on the dreadful Phaenomenon before they could make their Observations and the Reason why they might not presently fall on abhorring such damnable Practices might proceed rather from the deep Impression it had on their Minds than any shallow Inadvertency for Hearts that are surprized with any Passion either of Love or Detestation have their Tongues for a while suspended from expressing their Sentiments and inward Conceptions It has always been the stale Clamour of the vigilant and jealous Faction that the King and Kingdom was asleep if so I am confident they have now pretty well awaken'd both out of their secure slumber And that with a ghastly Spectrum of a Rebellion and the dreadful Ghost and Appearance of another Civil War In the next place Your Lordship lays a mighty stress on the single Vote of an House of Commons and well you may my Lord when your Friends have had of late such an â—nfluence and Interest therein and any States-man will have a great Conceit of their Proceedings who think well of his Maxims and take him for their Achitophel But this is but a reciprocal sort of associating in one anothers Defence and somewhat like that natural Combination there is among some Creatures when they are mumbling of a Thistle to claw one another Yet my Lord should the next House be men of other Sentiments condemn the Treason of this Association vote him for an Enemy to King and Country in whose Custody it was found would your Lordship be willing their Order'd and Resolv'd should be the sole Test of the Guilt as well as Innocence of the Person Yet our own Chronicles will afford Instances of greater Alterations in the Vein and Humour of Parliaments and whose Pulses have beaten as strongly quite another way A Parliament deposed Richard the second and a Parliament advanc'd Edward the fourth a Parliament set a price on the Head of our present King and a Parliament afterward set the Crown upon it And why one House of Commons may not as well vote him a Friend to the King and Kingdom whom others have done an Enemy I cannot understand But then from Irish-Witnesses and well-chosen Iuries the whole Nation prays as well as your Lordship Good Lord deliver us but then you may give them leave to curse too those that first brought over the one and pack't the other It seems Haynes was no Irishman when a blank Pardon was su'd for Dennis Oneal and Macnamarra no Rogues so long as they would hang none but Papists Willmoors Rowses Whitakers Harveys and the Jury I should have nam'd first of the noble Peer you vindicated these were not pick'd and chosen were they But because you instance in unreasonable Damages given by the Surry-men you shall have a Rowland for that Oliver too and what do you think of that of the Guild-hall who found it Assault and Battery for an Officer to pull off an insolent Fellow's Hat when upon his Tryal in an Ecclesiastical Court a Fellow that behaved himself as rudely towards your Party in his Curse ye Meroz as he has done since to ours in his Naked Truth And what a dishonest and ungrateful sort of Retribution is it for them to countenance now such a turbulent Wretch only because he can disturb our establish'd Church when all our sober persons condemn'd him for such an impetuous Railing even against your unwarranted Assemblies What can an indifferent and impartial person think of the foulness of such Proceedings but that you would close with any Villain that will but libel the Government and even with your worst of Enemies to do it an injury observing a sort of malicious Politicks in the very directing of your Anger and Revenge and wisely smother your Resentments against a private Foe if you can but make him an Instrument to disturb the publick Peace But my Lord the truth of it is that which makes you so uneasie is you find your selves lash'd with Rods of your own making and have conjur'd up a sort of Devils that won't be aw'd only by your own Wand and whom all your Sorceries I am afraid won't quickly lay Cavies in the late time was an opprobious Name fix'd on good Subjects and then they were nettl'd as soon as Roundhead was given to the bad Whig now had never been thought of had not Tory been first started we should have had no Pilkington Juries had the E. of S. been put upon his Tryal and you would have met my Lord with no such Gentle Reflection had you not first publish'd your Modest Account and since your Party alway leads the Dance can you in Conscience blame any for following the Round Then as for the business of the City-Charter perhaps it may not be so long in being compass'd as your Lordship imagines and for the justice you shall meet for your Fortunes when 't is gone I dare promise will be better than others will meet with for their Lives while 't is there But why do you think it so long my Lord Are Charters given and confirm'd without any Limitations and Reserves Had they their Swords in their hands when 't was granted And did they article and capitulate for theirs in the City as the Barons did for the great one in the Meadow Then perhaps your Advocates might find a Clause in it to prove it not forfeited by Rebellion in which the City seems already so deeply engag'd as if it were actually in another state of War with its Soveraign For won't your Lordship judge that Ass to rebel against his Driver in standing still or running back as well as if he had lifted up his heel against his Master And how near the stopping the Channel of the Laws or perverting the Justice of the Nation borders on the taking up of Arms and the cutting out their own Statutes with the Sword I leave even to the Determination of your Lordship who perhaps were an Eye-witness of that fatal Affinity that is between them and what a pretty sort of Praeludium it prov'd to the Civil War The President of the Guises was the most unhappiest Parallel your Lordship could have brought upon the Stage and at this time had been much better omitted it suiting as little with your Lordships Application as it mightily agrees with your Parties Practices The Guises were a bloody Faction indeed and design'd the overthrow of that Monarchy by the same means and measures your Associators do that of ours It was they deluded a youthful Prince with the hopes of a Crown and
our own Suffering in the Flame and one of the greatest Reasons your Sticklers urge for such a dangerous Alteration in the Government is but Matter of Expediency These factious Innovators I confess fling about a common Objection too That it is a little strange a Parliament their publick Representative should not be allow'd what we grant every private Subject viz. To Disinherit But I hope there is some difference between an Heir to three Kingdoms and one perhaps only to so many Acres Lands and Leases may be dispos'd of by the Proprietor when Crowns and Scepters are out of the disposal of the Prince The Laws of Nations will allow men a Dominion over their Issues and Estates when they won't Kings a Power of disinheriting their own Successors much less an hereditary Monarch to pass for a Parliament's Heir instead of the Crown 's Our Chronicles tell us of one of our young Princes that laid hold on the Crown as soon as ever the old King was but suppos'd dead and told the dying Monarch when he reviv'd for a little while that he thought him expir'd and then knew the Crown to be presently his And why would not the D. of Y. who notwithstanding all your Lordships malicious Suggestions never shew'd such a forwardness to mount the Throne have the same Diadem immediately transferr'd should his Majesty which I hope will be long first yield to the same Fate the Laws admitting no more of an Interregnum than an Exclusion But if your Lordship whose Politicks are best understood from the Measures you take can bring this Monarchy to an Elective one then I grant the Successor must be forc'd to court your honourable Assemblies for their Suffrages But then I date promise he will wave his Pretension to the Crown and have more reason to despair of Justice than those that lately let fall their Suits and Actions Then he shall relinquish his Right to the Government of Old England and leave your Lordship sole Candidate to be King of a New Poland There are many Creatures sometimes maliciously good and that makes your Lordship bestow a few faint Elogies on his Majesty only that his Brother may appear the more odious and with a great deal of spight you could picture him a Saint could you make the other the more truly to represent the Devil the Greatness of our Soveraign's Spirit is as well known as the Meekness of his Temper and his Abilities and Courage need no such spightful Pen as yours to write the Panegyrick But why then must his Highness that has the same Blood in his Veins be thought an effeminate Person and a Coward but the best of it is no one will think him so the sooner for an envious Suggestion of his inveterate Enemy and no indifferent person can be so mad as to take the Character of the Duke of York from a Friend of the E. of S. And can those with Modesty accuse him for want of Valour that has hazarded his Life for the Service of his King and Country against the Forces of the Dutch and the Rage of Wind and Water who have never shown any of their own unless it were in Arms against their Soveraign and fighting under the Banner of a Common-wealth And as for his Temper it is both generous and mild enough and not hated by such Multitudes as your Lordship would insinuate and by none I fancy but those that fear it and have merited the severest of its Animadversions and it was the Foxes Trick in the Fable my Lord when it had offended the Guardian Mastiff of the Flock to accuse him for the worrying of the Sheep And as Religious as you seem to be in the Close you shall find us altogether as Devout praying with more Zeal and less Hypocrisie that the God of Heaven who is the searcher of all Hearts would still detect the deep Designs of yours bless the King in defeating the Counsels of all Achitophels and the Curses of every Shimei FINIS