Lord Balmerino a Pardon'd Traytor and the Son of One. His Father had been a Favourite and principal Secretary to King Iames and rais'd by him out of Nothing to his Estate and Dignity Yet was this Thankless Wretch Arraign'd for and Attainted of High-Treason and after Sentence to be Drawn Hang'd and Quarter'd he was by the Kings Mercy pardon'd and restor'd Another eminent Covenanter was the Earl of Arguile of whom Walker gives this Accompt He brought his Father to a pension outed his Brother of his Estate Kintyre ruin'd his Sisters by cheating them of their portions and so enforcing them into Cloysters It must needs be a Conscientious Design with such Saints as These in the Head of it This Covenant was effectually no other then a Rebellious Vow to oppose the Kings Authority and Iustifie Themselves in the exercise of the Soveraign power which they assum'd to a degree even beyond the claim of Majesty it self pleading the Obligation of the Covenant to all their Vsurpations They Levyed Men and Moneys Seiz'd the Kings Magazines and strong Holds Rais'd Forts Begirt his Castles Affronted his Majesties Proclamations Summon'd Assemblies Proclaim'd Fasts Deprived and Excommunicated Bishops Abolish'd Episcopacy Issued out Warrants to choose Parliament-Commissioners Renounced the Kings Supream Authority Trampled upon Acts of Parliament pressing their Covenant upon the Privy-Council They gave the last Appeal to the generality of the People discharging Counsellors and Iudges of their Allegiance and threatning them with Excommunication in case they disobeyed the Assembly All this they did according to the Covenant and whether This was Religion or Ambition let the World judge These Affronts drew the King down with an Army to the Borders and within two Miles of Barwick the two Bodies had an Enterview March 28 1639. But the Scots craving a Treaty his Majesty most graciously accorded it Commissioners were appointed Articles agreed upon and a Pacification concluded Iune 17. Not one Article of this Agreement was observ'd on the Covenanters part but immediately upon the Discharge of his Majesties Forces the Scots brake forth into fresh Insolencies and the Incroachments upon the Prerogative addressing to the French King for Assistance against their Native Soveraign And yet the Quarrel was as they pretended for the Protestant Religion and against Popery In August 1640 they entred England and upon a Treaty at Rippon soon after a Cessation is agreed upon referring the Decision of all Differences to a more General Treaty at London In November began the Long Parliament and now the Scene is London Where with great License and Security Parties are made and Insolencies against the Government committed and authorized under protection of the Scotch Army and the City-Tumults By degrees Matters being prepar'd and ripened they found it opportune soon after to make something a more direct Attempt upon the Soveraignty but by Request first and resolving if that way fail to try to force it In Ianuary they Petition for the Militia In February they secure the Tower and in March Petition again for 't But so that they Protest If his Majesty persist to deny it they are resolv'd to take it And the next day it is Resolved upon the Question That the Kingdom be forthwith put into a posture of Defence by Authority of both Houses of Parliament In April 1642 the Earl of Warwick seizes the Navy and Sir Iohn Hotham Hull Refusing the King Entrance which was justified by an ensuing Vote and his Majesty proclaiming him Traytor for it was Voted a Breach of Priviledge In May they pretended Governour of Hull sends out Warrants to raise the Trained Bands and the King then at York forbids them moving the County for a Regiment of the Trained Foot and a Troop of Horse for the Guard of his Royal Person Whereupon it was Voted That the King seduced by wicked Counsel intended to make a War against his Parliament and that whosoever shall assist him were Traytors They proceeded then to corrupt and displace divers of his Servants forbidding others to go to him They stop and seise his Majesties Revenue and declare That whatsoever they should Vote is not by Law to be questioned either by the King or Subjects No Precedent can limit or bound their Proceedings A Parliament may dispose of any thing wherein the King or People have any Right The Soveraign Power resides in Both Houses of Parliament The King hath no Negative Voice The levying of War against the Personal commands of the King though accompanied with his Presence is not a levying of War against the King but a levying War against his Laws and Authority which they have power to declare is levying War against the King Treason cannot be committed against his Person otherwise then as he was Intrusted They have Power to judge whether he discharge his Trust or not that if they should follow the highest Precedents of other Parliaments Patterns there would be no cause to complain of want of Modesty or Duty in them and that it belonged only to them to judge of the Law Having stated and extended their Power by an absurd illegal and impious severing of the King's Person from his Office their next work is to put Those Powers in execution and to subject the Sacred Authority of a lawful Monarch to the Ridiculous and Monstrous Pageantry of a Headless Parliament And That 's the Business of the 19 Propositions demanding That the great Affairs of the Kingdom and Militia may be managed by Consent and Approbation of Parliament all the great Affairs of State Privy-Council Ambassadors and Ministers of State and Judges be chosen by Teem that the Goverment Education and Marriage of the King's Children be by Their Consent and Approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdom put under the Command and Custody of such as They should approve of and that no Peers to be made hereafter should Sit and Vote in Parliament They desire further That his Majesty would discharge his Guards Eject the Popish Lords out of the House of Peers and put the Penal Laws against them strictly in Execution and finally That the Nation may be govern'd either by the Major part of the Two Houses or in the Intervals of Parliament by the Major part of the Councel and that no Act of State may be esteemed of any validity as proceeding from the Royal Authority without Them Upon these Tearms they insisted and Rais'd a War to Extort them So that 't is clear they both design'd and fought to Dethrone his Majesty and exercise the Soveraign Power themselves which was to Suit their Liberty of Acting to that of Sitting and to make themselves an Almighty as well as an Everlasting Parliament CAP. IV. The Instruments and Means which the Conspirators imployed to make a Party THat their Design was to usurp the Government is manifest Now to the Instruments and Sleights they use to compass it The
Time and what farther Summ they will raise for the carrying on the same and for what Time and if these Things be not Assertained as one saith Money is the Cause certainly what ever the Cause is if Money be Wanting the business will fall to the ground and all our Labour will be Lost and therefore I hope you will have a care of our Vndertakings How many Souls Lives Millions and Noble Families How well a Temper'd Government How Gracious a Prince and happy a People were by This Cursed Army Destroy'd will need no more then their own Consciences to determine when Divine Vengeance shall call them to a Reckoning It brought forth briefly the worst of Crimes and Mischiefs without the least Tincture of a Comfort or shadow of a Benefit Nor was it likely to do other if we consider either the People Place Custome or Government they were to work upon Concerning the People first Populi ferè omnes ad Aquilonem positi Libertatem quandam spirant 'T is Bodin's observation that your Northern Nations are Generally keen Assertours of Freedom which for their Parts the English made too true How could it be Expected then that a People which Oppos'd their Lawful Prince for the fear of Slavery should ever finally Submit to a Rebellious Vsurper under the Actual and Shameful Extermity of it This Reluctancy of Humour in the Generality joyn'd with the Particular Vigilance Loyalty and Enterprizings of the Royalists render'd those Courses Necessary at present to the Vsurper which must certainly sink him in the End Nor was it more against the Genius of the People than against the Interest and Reason of the Place The Place we are to consider as an Island no Forreign Danger then in view to Palliate the Oppression of an Army nor any Subject whereupon to turn the Influence of it No Stranger in the Case concern'd only at Variance with our selves we breed and nourish in our proper bowels the Evil that Devours or at the best Consumes us The Army fear'd the Plots but 't was the Nation felt them and the Result of all was only a Dispute betwixt the Civil and the Military Power Law and Necessity so that Effectually the two Parties of this Division thus Enterwatching and Counter-Plotting one another we were rather in a State of War than a Posture of Security the People being at this Election either to Resist or Starve and the Army as much oblig'd to make good their undertaking or fall to nothing What could be Rationally the Issue of these Provocations and Animosities but either the Destruction of the Army by the People or of the People by the Army in Order to a General Quiet Neither of them being safe but by the Ruine and Subjection of the Other If the People refuse to Pay they are Presently Dis-affected if the Souldiery be their own Carvers they are lookt upon as Tyrannical and Insolent and here 's Matter furnish'd for a Civil War Now That which makes the Case Worse is as I said that being Islanders and wanting the Colour of Arming against Dangerous Neighbours we are forced to spend that humour in Mutiny among our selves which might Otherwise be Diverted by and Employ'd upon a Publique Quarrel A Disgression to the State of FRANCE Upon the Continent 't is Otherwise as in France for the Purpose where though the King Entertains a Standing Army of 12000. and about Fourscore Regiments more in Flanders Italy Catalogne and Luxemburgh besides Strangers There 's yet the Countenance of an Interest and a Prudential Ground for 't to Ballance the Power or at least Check the Progress of his Ambitious Neighbour Spain For says the Duke of Rohan in his Interest of France Il faut opposer La Force á la Force Car ni les persuasions ni la Iustice des armes ne fera la loi à celui qui sera armè tellement que la France doit se retrencher de toute autre despence moins utile estre tousiours puissamment arme Force must meet Force for 't is the Sword that gives the Law to Equity and Reason wherefore let France rather be sparing in any other way then in the Constant Entertainment of a Puissunt Army It may be Argu'd too that the Exercise of Armes is the Profession of the French Nobility and in Effect 't is only War abroad keeps them in Peace at home Yet even in France it self where the Necessity of a Standing-Army is bolster'd up with so many fair Appearances the Effects are Dismal how plausible soever the first Occasion seem'd Where it began or what it was not a rush matter but that by Gradual encroachments from small and Temporary Pretenses 't is now grown to a Constant and unlimited Excess he that knows any thing of France cannot be Ignorant They that fetch it from Guntran King of Orleans 587. look too far back methinks and entitle the Tyranny to too fair a President His Case being This. Guntran was the Surviver of Four Brothers Sons of Clotaire the First the other Three being Cherebert Chilperic and Sigibert The Eldest of these Dyed Childless and the Other two were Murther'd by the Practises of Fredegonde first the Mistris and afterward the Wife of Chilperic Sigibert supinely indulging himself in the height of his Conquests and Pleasures was Stabb'd in his own Palace by a Couple of Souldiers employ'd by Fredegonde who did as much at last for her Husband Chilperic having first Caused him to Murther his Son Clovis to Divorce one Wife and Strangle another The Story is Short and a little Curious Fredegonde had a Gallant called Landry de la Tour by Her Preferr'd to be Duke of France and Mayor of the Palace The King comes one Morning in his Hunting-Dress into the Queens Chamber as she was busie about her Head with her Hair over her Eyes and without a word speaking tickles her on the Neck with the Twigg-end of his Riding-wand Ah Landry says she That 's not Cavalier like to come Behind The King was as much surpriz'd with the Discovery as Fredegonde with the Mistake and went his way with the Thought of it in his Countenance Landry is presently sent for by the Queen They discourse the Accident Debate the Consequences and in the End Complot to have Chilperic Murthered as he returns from the Chase which was Executed with much Ease and Security the King being only attended with a Single Page who Dy'd with his Master and the Murtherers escap'd This Chilperic had by Fredegonde Clotaire the Second but Four Moneths old at the Death of his Father and the Regency of King and Kingdom was Committed to Guntran the young Kings Uncle by the Fathers side The Regent warn'd by the Miscarriage of his Brothers and being enformed that the same Hand by which they fell sought His Life also Establishes a Considerble Guard constantly to attend his Person which was both suitable to his Wisdom and Dignity as a Security against
not only the Stroke of Violence but the very Thought of it and a fit Circumstance of Majesty The Influence of This Force went not far nor in Truth the Royalty of their first Race of Kings much farther whos 's either Lenity or Aversness to Business of State gave their Great Counsellours the means to Vsurp and Transferr Their Authority which Confidence they abused to the Supplanting of their Masters Complaints Suits References Addresses must be made forsooth to the Majors not to the Kings They undertake the Disposition of Monies and Offices the Menage of Treaties and Alliances They Grant Revoke at Pleasure Briefly from 632. to 750. France was rather under a Majoralty then a Monarchy and Then Pope Zachary having first Absolv'd the French of their Oath of Obedience the Race of Chilperic is Laid By Himself the Fourth of that Name formally Degraded and Cast into a Monastery by Decree of Parliament and Pepin Install'd in his Stead Thus did the Son of the Last Great Subject make himself the First of the Second Race of Kings of which in requital for too much said upon the Former I shall say nothing at all Nor much more upon this Subject save only that Charles the VII and his Successour Lewis the XI Laid the first firm Foundation of the Military Power to which Charles the VIII Francis the I. c. have since furnish'd their Additionals and Superstructures to make the Tyranny compleat 'T is Truth the Splendor and Profusion of the Court and Camp is Dazling and Prodigious they swim in Pleasures and Plenty but he that turns his Eye toward those Miserable Animals the Peasants that with their Blood and Sweat Feed and Support that Luxe and Vanity with hardly bread for their own Mouths will find it much a different Prospect the great Enhansers of the Charge claiming Exemption from the burthen of it He that would see the Glory of the One Part and the Slavery of the Other needs only read L'EST AT de la FRANCE of 1661. Treating of the Officers of the Crown Honours Governments Taxes Gabelles c. He shall there find the Venality of Officers and Their Rates the Privileges of the Nobility and Their Encrochments Who are Exempt from Payments or rather that the Country-man Payes for All. To make an end let him also observe the Power and Partiallity of their Supereminent Parliament of Paris The Book I mention is of undeniable Authority wherein Account is given of at the least Eight Millions English arising from Three Taxes only and for the sole behoof and Entertainment of the Souldery their Tailles Taillon and Subsistance Beside their Aides an Imposition upon all sorts of Merchandise Salt Excepted which must needs by a Vast Income and their Gabelle upon Salt that brings in near Two Millions more Not to insist upon Casualties and infinite other Inventions for squeezing which they practise The Plough maintains the Army Take notice that this Reflection was Calculated for the State of France in 1661. Give them their Due their Noblesse are Brave and Accomplish'd Men and the Brunt of all Hazzards lies totally upon Them but scarce in Nature is there a more abject Commonalty and to conclude Such is their Condition that without War they cannot Live if not Abroad they are sure to have it at Home Let it be Noted too the Taxes follow'd their Army not their Army the Taxes for 't is One thing to Levy Money to Raise Guards and Another thing to Levy Guards to Raise Money the One appearing to be done by Consent the Other by Force I use Guards and Army promiscuously as only taking a Guard for a small Army and an Army for a stronger Guard If a Standing Army subjects France to so many Inconveniences whereof History is full where the Strength lies in the Nobility How much more Hazzardous was it to England where the Welfare of the whole depended upon the Affections and Interest of the Middle-rated People Especially under an Vsurper that was driven to uphold himself upon the daily Consumption of the Nation and a Body that becomes every day Weaker than Other must not expect to be long-liv'd So much for the Inconvenience of Cromwell's Standing Army as to the Situation of England together with a View of the Effects of it in France We 'l now consider what Welcome it was like to find upon the Point of Experience or Custom Alteration of Customs is a work of Hazzard even in Bad Customs but to change Customs under which a Nation has been happy for Innovations which upon Experience they have found Fatal to them is matter of great Peril to the Vndertaker But I look upon Oliver's Case as I do upon a Proposition of such or such a Mate at Chesse where there are severral ways to come within One on 't and None to Hit it The Devil and Fortune had a mind to Puzzle him He Prefers his Pawns Transposes Shifts his Officers but all will not do He still wants either Men or Money if he Disbands he has too few of the One if he holds up he has too little of the Other Such in Truth was this Tyrants Exigence that he was forc'd to That which the Lawful Possessors of the English Crown would never venture upon No nor the Vsurpers neither before our Blessed Reformers of 1641. But Where will those People stay That thorough God and Majesty make way Our Saxon Kings contented themselves with a Law What Arms every man of Estate should find and a Mulct upon such as did Detractare Militiae Edmond Ironside after his Duel with Camillus the Dane and a Composition to divide the English and Danish Kingdoms betwixt them and their Heirs kept no Army on foot to Guard the Agreement Neither did the Danes who after his Death Treacherously Seiz'd the Kingdom to maintain their Conquest William the Conquerour that subdu'd both English and Danes thought himself safe enough in creating Tenures by Knights-Service and permitting Proprieties though at that time under such Jealousies that he took divers of his English Prisoners into Normandy with him for fear of a Commotion in his Absence William Rufus and after Him his Brother Henry the First tho' the Vsurpers of the Senior Right of their Elder Brother Robert set up his Rest upon the same Terms And so did Henry the II after a long Contest with King Stephen and notwithstanding the unruliness of most of his Sons Henry III and then Edward I after the Barons Warrs Employ'd no Standing Army to secure themselves neither did Edward or Richard the Second notwithstanding a Potent Faction of the Nobility bandying against the Latter of them Neither did the Henries IV V and VI in the Grand Schism of York and Lancaster ever approve of it Nor Henry VII as Wise and Iealous as any of his Predecessours If any thing could have warranted the Adventure methinks the Topsie-turvy and Brouillery which Henry the VIII
before his Life and Fortune This Evidence may serve for a Moral Assurance of an Honest Man Whereas without this Personal and Particular Examination not only the Future Safety but the present Quiet of a Kingdom may come to be endanger'd by a Mischoice of Ministers To Reason upon this Hazard does not at all Impeach the Soveraign's Absolute Freedom to Elect whom He pleases nor does it one jot justifie the Subject that shall presume to Scan and Iudge the Actions of his Prince But in Regard that Discontentments breed Seditions and that Mistakings of This Quality may beget Discontentments we Offer This Expedient as to That Consequence And in Truth it seems to be a kind of Prophanation of the Seat of Iustice when He Sits upon the Bench that deserves to hold up his Hand at the Bar. To Conclude then When a Monarch comes to Discover the Inconvenience of such Ministers He may kill two Birds with one Stone and Consider who Recommended them But they may be better Kept out than Driven on Next to the Choice of Good Persons Succeeds the Care of Good Order when they are Chosen Which may be Provided for First By maintaining an Intelligence concerning the General Bias and Complexion of their Proceedings as to the Publick i. e. Whether or no they do equal Iustice betwixt King and People Secondly By Over-watching them in Cases of more Private and Particular Concern Let not This Strictness appear either too much for a Prince his Business or below his Dignity Kingdoms are Lost for want of These Early Providences these Little Circumspections but it costs more to Recover them Nor in effect is the Trouble at all Considerable for 't is here as 't was with the Tyrant that durst not Sleep for fear of having his Throat cut A Mathematician comes to him and tells him That for so many Talents he 'd secure him and shew him such a Secret that it should be impossible for any man so much as to design upon him without Discovery The Tyrant was content provided that he might be satisfied of the Secret before he parted with his Money and so takes the Cunning-man into his Cabinet What was the Secret But that he should give the fellow so much Money pretend that he had Taught it him This Sory comes up to Vs The bare Opinion of a Prince his Vigilance saves him the Need and Trouble of it And Three or Four Discoveries in his whole Raign shall gain him That Opinion Touching Those Abuses which Immediately relate to the Publick as concerning the misconstruction of Lawyers c. they are usually couch'd under the Salvo of an Ambiguity To prevent which Inconvenience all Those Distinctions which in Seditious times have been made use of for the Authorising or Countenancing of Treason might be summ'd up and Declar'd Treasonous Themselves Such I mean as the Co-ordinate Power of King Lords and Commons The Litteral and Equitable Construction of Laws The Person and Authority of Princes Singulis Major Vniversis Minor c. For sure it is not Reasonable that the Clear and Sacred Rights of Kings should depend upon the dubious and Prophane Comments of the People Concerning Grievances of a more Particular Quality the Principal of them are Injustice and Delay the Former whereof is purely the Fault of the Iudge the Other may in some measure and in some Constitutions be imputed to a Defect in the Law In This Case the best way to prevent further Mischief and satisfie for what is done already is an Impartial Severity upon all Offenders as they are Detected Especially where Complaints are General and the Injustice Notorious for nothing less then a Publick Example can amount to a Publick Satisfaction Sect. III. How to Prevent or Remedy Seditions arising from the Disorders of the COURT WE have in the Last Chapter Pag. 99. concerning Seditions which may possibly arise from a Disorder'd Court stated what we intend by the Court-Interest We have like-wise Divided the Evill-Instruments into such as either Plot Mischief or Occasion it We have again Subdivided the Plotters into Three Parties The One whereof opposes the Title of the Governour The Other as Directly the Form of the Government And there is a Third Party that bring their Ends about by Supplications Vows Fasting and Prayer by Forms of Piety and Reverence and finally that with a Hail Master and a Kiss Betray their Soveraign Concerning the Two Former More needs not be said than that Force is to be Repell'd by Force and That the Monarch is suppos'd to have always in Readiness for the Safety of the Government The Other is a Serpentine and Winding Party that Steals and Glides into the very Bosome of a Prince and Then it Clipps and Strangles him This is a Faction that Answers to our Iesuited Puritan Yet while I separate These Three for Perspicuity of Method let me not be understood as if they would not mingle in Complication of Interest For nothing is more Notorious then that in all Commotions upon pretext of Conscience the Religious Division is still the Receptacle of all other Disaffected Humours whatsoever He that 's an Atheist to Day becomes an Enthusiast to Morrow where a Crown is the Prize Only I must confess the Presbyterian playes the Fast and Loose of the Device the best in the whole World Let as many help him as will 't is Liberty of Conscience forsooth but have a Care of the Purity of the Gospell when they come to share with him They may if they please nay they shall be Invited to 't run the hazards of the Course with him Venture Neck and Body over Hedge and Ditch through Thick and Thin but yet at last the Devill a bit of the Quarry In fine the Plausible Contrivers of Sedition under what Mask-soever are the People we aim at and These are either In the Counsell or Out of it Sir Francis Bacon Divides the Dangers from Within the Great Counsell into an Over-greatness in One Counsellour or an Over-strict Combination in Divers The Rest we only look upon as Their Dependencies Pag. 71. We proceed from the Direct Contrivance of Seditions to the more Remote Occasions of them As Corruption Monopolizing Non-payment of Debts c. This being the Order into which we have dispos'd the Causes of Seditions it will be suitable that some Degree of Method be observ'd in the Remedies But first a word of Introduction We are to take for granted that Sedition is a kind of Clock-work and that the Main Spring of all Rebellions is Ambition We may be again as Confident that never any One Monarchy was destroy'd but with design to set up Another The Talk of This or That Form of Government or of This or That Shape of Religion being no more then a Ball toss'd among the People for the Knaves to keep the Fools in play with It 's Truth that a Sinking Monarchy lapses into an Aristocracy and That again into a Popular State