II. having endeavoured to subvert the Constitution of this Kingdom by breaking the Original Contract between King and People and by the Advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons having violated the Fundamental Laws and having withdrawn himself out of this Kingdom have abdicated the Government and that the Throne is thereby vacant Resolved That this Vote be sent up to the Lords-House tomorrow morning for their Concurrence This Vote occasioned the Letter I am to Examine Hereupon followed several Conferences between the Lords and the Commons none of which being Printed and the Written Copies dispersed about the Town being of no good Authority I must leave them unrelated month February The sixth of February the Lords at last assented to the Vote above The 29th of January this Question was proposed in the Lords-House Whether a Regency with the Administration of Regal power under the name and stile of King James the Second during the Life of the said King James be the best and safest way to preserve the Protestant Religion and the Laws of the Kingdom Upon which the House divided Contents 48. Non-contents 51. This very much facilitated the Concurrence of the two Houses in the other Vote The Throne being thus declared vacant some were for the Prince of Orange to be Elected King alone others for the Princess to be forthwith proclaimed and acknowledged as next Immediate Heir of the Crown of England and others were for a Commonwealth But the two strongest parties were those who were for the Prince and those that were for the Princess so that at last there was a way found to twist these two into one by giving the Title indifferently to both and the Administration solely to the Prince to avoid the inconvenience of two co-ordinate Soveraigns Whilest these things were warmly debated in the Convention and the Town and all men were yet in suspence which way they would be determin'd some that were over zealous set a foot the following Petition the first of February and endeavoured to have it subscribed by the Multitude indifferently going up and down to publick places to solicite Subscriptions To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled in the Grand Convention the Humble Petition of Great Numbers of Citizens and other Inhabitants of the Cities of London and Westminster WHereas we are in a deep sense of the danger of Delays and perplext Debates about settling the Government at this time Vacant by reason whereof the necessary ends of Government cannot be duly administred We humbly desire that his most Illustrious Highness the Prince of Orange and his Royal Consort the Princess may be speedily setled in the Throne by whose Courage Conduct and Reputation this Nation and the Protestant Religion may be defended from our Enemies at Home and abroad And that Ireland now in a bleeding and deplorable condition may be rescued from its miseries and these Kingdoms settled on a lasting foundation in Peace and Liberty Whereupon his Highness being informed of the ill consequences and scandal of this way of proceeding caused this Order to be made and published to suppress it By the Mayor WHereas his Highness the Prince of Orange hath been pleased to signifie to me this day That divers persons pretending themselves to be Citizens of London in a tumultuous and a disorderly manner have lately disturbed the present Convention of the Lords and Commons at Westminster upon pretence of Petitioning It being regular and usual for the Citizens of this City that are under the apprehension of any Grievance to make their application to my self and the Court of Aldermen Therefore with the Advice of my Brethren the Aldermen of this City these are to require you That you command within your Ward that they forbear any such tumultuous Disturbance or Assembly as they will answer the contrary at their utmost peril Dated the third day of February 1688. The twelfth of February the two Houses at last fully agreed all things in dispute between them in this manner The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster WHereas the late King James the Second by the Assistance of divers evil Counsellors Judges and Ministers employ'd by him did endeavour to subject and extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom By assuming and exercising a power of Dispensing with and suspending of Laws and the Execution of Laws without consent of Parliament By committing and prosecuting divers worthy Prelates for humbly Petitioning to be excused from concurring to the said Assumed Power By issuing and causing to be Executed a Commission under the Great Seal for erecting a Court call'd The Court of Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs By Levying Money for and to the use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative for other time and in other manner than the same was Granted by Parliament By raising and keeping a standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace without consent of Parliament and Quartering Soldiers contrary to Law. By causing several good Subjects being Protestants to be disarmed at the same time when Papists were both Aimed and imployed contrary to Law. By violating the Freedom of Elections of Members to serve in Parliament By Prosecutions in the Court of Kings-Bench for matters and causes cognizable only in Parliament and by divers other Arbitrary and Illegal courses And whereas of late years partial corrupt and unqualified persons have been returned and served on Juries in Trials and particularly divers Jurors in Trials for High Treason which were not Freeholders And Excessive Bail hath been required of persons committed in Criminal cases to elude the Benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subject And Excessive Fines have been imposed And Illegal and cruel punishments inflicted And several Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Conviction or Judgment against the persons upon whom the same were to be levied All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws and Statutes and freedom of this Realm And whereas the late King James the Second having abdicated the Government and the Throne being thereby vacant His Highness the Prince of Orange whom it hath pleased Almighty God to make the Glorious Instrument of Delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by the Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and divers principal persons of the Commons cause Letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being Protestants and other Letters to the several Counties Cities Universities Burroughs and Cinque-Ports for the chusing of such persons to represent them as were of right to be sent to Parliament to meet and sit at Westminster upon the 22d day of January 1688 in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being subverted upon which Letters Elections have been accordingly made And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their Respective Letters and Elections
being now Assembled in a full and Free Representative of this Nation taking into their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the Ends aforesaid do in the first place as their Ancestors in like case have usually done for the vindicating and asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties declare That the pretended power of suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without consent of Parliament is illegal That the pretended power of Dispensing with Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority as it hath been assumed and exercised of late is illegal That the Commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes and all other Commissions and Courts of the like nature are illegal and pernicious That Levying of Money to or for the use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative without Grant of Parliament for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be Granted is illegal That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are illegal That the raising or keeping a standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace unless it be by consent of Parliament is against Law. That the Subjects being Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their condition and as allowed by Law. That the Election of Members of Parliament ought to be Free. That the freedom of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parliament That Excessive Bail ought not to be required nor Excessive Fines imposed nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted That Jurors ought to be duly Impannel'd and return'd and Jurors which pass upon men in Trials for High Treason ought to be Freeholders That all Grants and Promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular persons before Conviction are illegal and void And that for Redress of all Grievances and for the amending strengthing and preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be held frequently And they do claim demand and insist upon all and singular the Premises as their undoubted Rights and Liberties and that no Declarations Judgments Doings or Proceedings to the prejudice of the people in any of the said Premises ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into consequence or example To which demand of their Rights they are particularly encouraged by the Declaration of his Highness the Prince of Orange as being the only means for obtaining a full redress and remedy therein Having therefore an intire confidence that his said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the Deliverance so far advanced by him and will still preserve them from the violation of their Rights which they have here asserted and from all other attempts upon their Religion Rights and Liberties The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled at Westminster do resolve That William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange be and be declared King and Queen of England France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging to hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to them the said Prince and Princess during their Lives and the Life of the Survivor of them and that the sole and full exercise of the Regal power be only in and executed by the said Prince of Orange in the Names of the said Prince and Princess during their joynt Lives and after their Deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Princess and for default of such Issue to the Princess Anne of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body and for default of such Issue to the Heirs of the Body of the said Prince of Orange And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do pray the said Prince and Princess of Orange to accept the same accordingly And that the Oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all persons of whom the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy might be required by Law instead of them and that the said Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy be abrogated I A. B. Do sincerely Promise and Swear That I will be Faithful and bear true Allegiance to Their Majesties King WILLIAM and Queen MARY So help me God. I A. B. Do Swear That I do from my heart Abhor Detest and Abjure as Impious and Heretical this Damnable Doctrine and Position That Princes Excommunicated or Deprived by the Pope or any Authority of the See of Rome may be Deposed or Murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do Delare that no Forreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminece or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm So help me God. Jo. Brown Clericus Parliamentorum The same day this Delaration bears Date Her Royal Highness the Princess of Orange arrived in the River of Thames in the Afternoon and was received with all the Hearty Demonstrations and Expressions of Joy by the City that are usual on such Occasions The 13th of February The Lords and Commons Ordered the following Proclamation to be published and made WHereas It hath pleased Allmighty God in his Great Mercy to this Kingdom to Vouchsafe us a Miraculous Deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that our Preservation is Due next under GOD to the Resolution and Conduct of His Highness the Prince of ORANGE whom GOD hath Chosen to be the Glorious Instrument of such an Inestimable Happiness to us and our Posterity And being Highly Sensible and Fully Perswaded of the Great and Eminent Vertues of Her Highness the Princess of ORANGE whose Zeal for the Protestant Religion will no doubt bring a Blessing along with Her upon this Nation And Whereas the Lords and Commons now Assembled at Westminster have made a Declaration and Presented the same to the said Prince and Princess of ORANGE and therein Desired Them to Accept the Crown who have Accepted the same accordingly We therefore the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons together with the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London and others of the Commons of this Realm do with full Consent Publish and Proclaim according to the said Declaration WILLIAM and MARY Prince and Princess of ORANGE to be KING and QUEEN of England France and Ireland with all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging Who are Accordingly so to be Owned Deemed and Taken by All the People of the aforesaid Realms and Dominions who are from henceforward bound to acknowledg and pay unto them All Faith and True Allegiance Beseeching GOD by whom Kings Reign to Bless King WILLIAM and Queen MARY with Long and Happy Years to Riegn over us GOD Save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY John Brown Clericus Parliamentorum The 15th of February The Lords and Commons Ordered That His Majesties most Gracious Answer this day be added to the Engrossed Declaration in Parchment to be
Law without so much as suffering the Persons that were accused to Plead in their own Defence 12. They have also by putting the Administration of Justice in the hands of Papists brought all the matters of Civil Justice into great uncertainties with how much Exactness and Justice soever that these Sentences may have been given For since the Laws of the Land do not only exclude Papists from all Places of Judicature but have put them under an Incapacity none are bound to acknowledge or to obey their Judgments and all Sentences given by them are null and void of themselves So that all Persons who have been cast in Tryals before such Popish Judges may justly look on their pretended Sentences as having no more force than the Sentences of any private and unauthorised Person whatsoever So deplorable is the case of the Subjects who are obliged to answer to such Judges that must in all things stick to the Rules which are set them by those Evil Counsellors who as they raised them up to those Employments so can turn them out of them at pleasure and who can never be esteemed Lawful Judges so that all their Sentences are in the Construction of the Law of no Force and Efficacy They have likewise disposed of all Military Employments in the same manner For though the Laws have not only Excluded Papists from all such Employments but have in particular Provided that they should be disarmed yet they in contempt of these Laws have not only armed the Papists but have likewise raised them up to the greatest Military Trusts both by Sea and Land and that Strangers as well as Natives and Irish as well as English that so by those means having rendred themselves Masters both of the Affairs of the Church of the Government of the Nation and of the Courts of Justice and subjected them all to a Despotick and Arbitrary Power they might be in a capacity to maintain and execute their wicked Designs by the assistance of the Army and thereby to enslave the Nation 13. The dismal effects of this Subversion of the Established Religion Laws and Liberties in England appear more evidently to us by what we see done in Ireland where the whole Government is put in the Hands of Papists and where all the Protestant Inhabitants are under the daily fears of what may be justly apprehended from the Arbitrary Power which is set up there which has made great numbers of them leave that Kingdom and abandon their Estates in it remembring well that Cruel and Bloody Massacre which fell out in that Island in the Year 1641. 14. Those evil Counsellors have also prevailed with the King to declare in Scotland That he is cloathed with Absolute Power and that all the Subjects are bound to Obey him without Reserve upon which he has assumed an Arbitrary Power both over the Religion and Laws of that Kingdom from all which it is apparent what is to be looked for in England as soon as matters are duly prepared for it 15. Those great and insufferable Oppressions and the open Contempt of all Law together with the Apprehensions of the sad Consequences that must certainly follow upon it have put the Subjects under great and just Fears and have made them look after such lawful Remedies as are allowed of in all Nations yet all has been without effect And those Evil Counsellors have endeavoured to make all Men apprehend the loss of their Lives Liberties Honours and Estates if they should go about to preserve themselves from this Oppression by Petitions Representations or other means authorised by Law. Thus did they proceed with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other Bishops who having offered a most humble Petition to the King in terms full of Respect and not exceeding the number limited by Law in which they set forth in short the Reasons for which they could not obey that order which by the Instigation of those Evil Counsellors was sent them requiring them to appoint their Clergy to read in their Churches the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience were sent to Prison and afterwards brought to a Tryal as if they had been guilty of some enormous Crime They were not only obliged to defend themselves in that pursuit but to appear before professed Papists who had not taken the Test and by consequence were Men whose Interest led them to condemn them and the Judges that gave their Opinion in their favours were thereupon turned out 16. And yet it cannot be pretended that any Kings how great soever their Power has been and how Arbitrary and Despotick soever they have been in the exercise of it have ever reckoned it a Crime for their Subjects to come in all Submission and Respect and in a due number not exceeding the limits of the Law and represent to them the Reasons that made it impossible for them to obey their Orders Those Evil Counsellors have also treated a Peer of the Realm as a Criminal only because he said That the Subjects were not bound to obey the Orders of a Popish Justice of Peace though it is evident that they being by Law rendred incapable of all such Trusts no regard is due to their Orders This being the security which the People have by the Law for their Lives Liberties Honours and Estates that they are not to be subjected to the Arbitrary Proceedings of Papists that are contrary to Law put into any Employments Civil or Military Both We our selves and our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princess have endeavoured to signifie in terms full of respect to the King the just and deep Regret which all these Proceedings have given us and in Compliance with his Majesty's desires signified to us We declared both by Word of Mouth to his Envoy and in Writing what our Thoughts were touching the Repealing of the Test and Penal Laws which we did in such a manner that we hoped we had proposed an Expedient by which the Peace of those Kingdoms and a happy agreement among the Subjects of all Persuasions might have been setled but those Evil Counsellors have put such ill Constructions on these our good Intentions that they have endeavoured to alienate the King more and more from us as if We had designed to disturb the Quiet and Happiness of the Kingdom 18. The last and great Remedy for all those Evils is thâ— calling of a Parliament for securing the Nation against the evil Practices of those wicked Counsellors but this could not be yet compassed nor can it be easily brought about For those Men apprehending that a Lawful Parliament being once assembled they would be brought to an account for all their open Violations of Law and for their Plots and Conspiracies against the Protestant Religion and the Lives and Liberties of their Subjects they have endeavoured under the specious Pretence of Liberty of Conscience first to sow Divisions among Protestants between those of the Church of England and the Dissenters The Design being laid to
others and I was often foolishly willing to beast what my Master would have done tho I used all possible Endeavours against it I lie under many other Misfortunes and Afflictions extreme heavy but I hope they have brought me to reflect on the occasion of them the loose negligent unthinking life I have hitherto led having been perpetually hurried away from all good Thoughts by Pleasure Idleness the Vanity of the Court or by Business I hope I say that I shall overcome all the disorders my former life had brought upon me and that I shall spend the remaining part of it in begging of Almighty God that he will please either to put an end to my sufferings or to give me strength to bear them one of which he will certainly grant to such as rely on him which I hope I do with the Submission that becomes a good Christian I would enlarge on this Subject but that I fear you might think something else to be the reason of it besides a true sense of my Faults and that obliges me to restrain my self at present I believe you will repent in having engaged me to give you this account but I cannot the doing of what you desire of me The 29th an Account was given that the Dutch Fleet consisting of 52 Men of War with a very numerous Attendance of Victuallers and other Ships and Vessels for the Transportation of the Land Forces sailed the Friday before which was the 19th from the Flats near the Briel with the Wind at S. W. and by S. and the Prince of Orange embarkt on a Frigat of 28 or 30 Guns and with him the Count of Nassau General of the Horse the Count de Solmes Colonel of his Foot-Guards the Count de Stirum the Sieur Benting and the Sieur Cuerkerker and the Marshal de Schomberg went on board such another Frigat And the 20th most of the Fleet was seen in the Morning from Schevelingue when the Wind coming more Westerly and the next Night proving very stormy it obliged them to come in again having suffered considerable damage 400 Horses being thrown over-board and several dead men and one of their Men of War was stranded and another disabled There was very little of this Story true but it was a Report set on foot to deceive the Court here and it had the effect which was expected and the Priests began to boast very much of the assistance they expected from the Virgin Mary and the rest of the Saints who had been powerfully sollicited to confound this Heretical Fleet. The first of November we were again told from the Hague that the damage the Dutch Fleet had sustain'd by the late Storms was greater than was at first reported That there were 1500 Horses dead or unserviceable That the Prince of Orange had lost most of his own Horses and the Marshal de Schomberg the best of his That his Son Count Charles Schomberg was in great danger the Ship he was in having spent her main Mast That a Captain of Horse in the Sieur Bentin'gs Regiment was missing with his whole Troop and two Captains of Foot-Guards were likewise missing with their Companies That to supply these losses a great many fresh Horses were ordered to be sent to the Fleet and that it was said the Regiment of the Baron de Frizes should be imbarkt That in the mean time the Prince of Orange continued at Helvoetsluys intending to sail again so soon as the Fleet was in a condition and the Weather would permit Thus was our Court at that time imposed upon for want of good intelligence About this time a parcel of the Prince of Orange's Declarations were intercepted in London upon reading that expression in it That the Prince was most earnestly invited hither by divers of the Lords both Spiritual and Temporal and by many Gentlemen and others The King sent for some of the Bishops again and required of them a Paper under their hands in abhorrence of the Prince of Orange's intended Invasion by such a day the following Declaration was then in the Press and this Abhorrence was designed to be tacked to it but the Bishops of Canterbury London Peterborough and Rochester on whom only this Storm fell refused to do it as contrary to their priviledge of Peerage and their Profession in promoting a War against a Prince so near ally'd to the Crown and they earnestly desired this might be left to a Free-Parliament His Majesty hereupon was very much incensed against them and parted from them with Indignation And thereupon the Jesuited Party at Court were so violently enraged that as we are credibly informed saith the Bishop of Rochester one of the chief advised in a heat they should all be imprisoned and the Truth extorted from them by violence By which it appears no Solicitation could force the King to yield to the sitting of a Parliament whatever hazard he ran month Novemb. The 2d day of November there was published another Proclamation for the suppressing of the Prince of Orange's Declaration WHereas the Prince of Orange and his Adherents who design forthwith to invade Our Kingdoms in order thereunto have contrived and framed several treasonable Papers and Declarations hoping thereby to seduce Our People and if it were possible to corrupt our Army a very great number whereof being printed several persons are sent and imployed to disperse the same throughout Our Kingdoms And altho' all persons as well in criminal as in other cases are bound to take notice of the Laws at their peril yet to the intent that none may think to escape due punishment or to excuse themselves when they shall be detected by pretending Ignorance of the nature of their Crime We are graciously pleased by this Our Royal Proclamation published by the Advice of our Privy-Council to forewarn and admonish all Our Subjects of what degree or quality soever that they do not publish or disperse repeat or hand about the said treasonable Papers or Declarations or any of them or any other Paper or Papers of such like nature without discovering and revealing the same as speedily as may be to some of Our Privy-Council or some of Our Judges Justices of the Peace or publick Magistrates upon peril of being prosecuted according to the utmost severity of the Law. This Proclamation had the same effect with all the rest of their Counsels for men suspected thereupon that there was much more in the Declarations and Papers than they afterwards found and accordingly became more desirous by far to see it and the Spanish Ambassador here in London gave them as I have been credibly informed to whosoever desired them For about almost three Weeks together the Wind stood perpetually West during all which time the common question was every Morning Where is the Wind to day And a Seaman was observed to curse the Dragon in Cheapside for turning his Head where his Tail should be But in the latter end of October the Wind came East to
the great Sorrow of the Roman Catholicks and the Joy of the rest of the Nation And when all men expected the Invasion would fall on the North the third of November between ten and eleven of the Clock the Dutch Fleet was discovered about half Seas over and about five this numerous Fleet was passed by that Town steering a Channel course Westward the Wind at East North-East a fresh Gale. The same day Captain Aylmer Commander of the Swallow brought into the Downs a Fly-boat belonging to this Fleet which had on board four Companies of the Foot of Colonel Babington's Regiment commanded by Major Colambine They said the Prince sail'd from Goree on Thursday the first of November This Ship had had the misfortune to strike upon a Sand which had torn off her Rudder without doing her any other damage so that she was forced to float as the Winds and Seas drove her and could hold no Course which was the cause of her being taken And this small piece of good Fortune turn'd to their disadvantage men from the number taken in this Ship concluding that the Dutch Army was three times as great as it really was By this time they found that the Prince of Orange his Declaration could not be totally suppress'd and thereupon one of the Scribling Jesuits put out a Pamphlet against it intituled The Dutch Design Anatomized or the Discovery of the Wickedness and Unjustice of the intended Invasion and a clear Proof That it is the Interest of all the King's Subjects to defend his Majesty and their Country against it This Author has the Confidence to tell us That the forged Heads of the Prince's Declaration and the Bishops Ten Proposals are known to be the Contrivance of the King's Enemies framed on purpose to amuse the People and make them believe the setting us at rights is the only design of the Dutch and till those Proposals be granted we are not safe pag. 29. So that if the design had miscarried not only the Redress of those Grievances was utterly to be dispaired of but those that had made them to preserve the King from ruin were already arraigned for his Enemies and accordingly to be treated Page the 39. If saith he out of peevish stubbornness some will sit still and not assist the King in this Juncture or trayterously joyn with the Invaders what can they expect from his victorions Arms but the Punishment due to their Perfidiousness and Cowardice So that here was no Mercy for any but those who were very active in the ruine of the Invaders and by what followed upon the Defeat of the late Duke of Monmouth all men were able to make an Estimate what would be our Destiny now Another of the same Party comes forth soon after in Print under the Title of Reflections upon his Highness the Prince of Orange 's Declaration but then neither of the these were suffered to print the Declaration it self and therefore what they said of it was neither regarded nor believed by any of the Protestants and served only to exasperate the Nation the more against them The 5th of November the Dutch Fleet passed by Dartmouth and it being a hazy foggy Morning and full of Rain they over-shot Torbay where the Prince intended to land but about nine of the Clock the Weather cleared up and the Wind changed W. S. W. and the Fleet stood Eastward with a moderate Gale entring Torbay and being then about 4 or 500 Sail in Number This Change of the Wind was observed by Dr. Burnet to have been of no long duration but immediately it chopped into another Corner when it had executed its Commission Whilst the Prince was busie Landing his Army in the West the King puts out here the 6th of November this following Declaration AS We cannot consider this Invasion of Our Kingdoms by the Prince of Orange without Horror for so unchristian and unnatural an Undertaking in a Person so nearly related to Us so it is Matter of the greatest Trouble and Concern to Us to reflect upon the many Mischiefs and Calamities which an Army of Foreigners and Rebels must unavoidably bring upon Our People It is but too evident by a late Declaration published by him That notwithstanding the many specious and plausible Pretences it carries his Designs at the bottom do tend to nothing less than an Absolute Usurping of Our Crown and Royal Authority As may fully appear by his assuming to himself in the said Declaration the Regal Style requiring the Peers of this Realm both Spiritual and Temporal and all other Persons of all Degrees to obey and assist him in the Execution of his Designs a Prerogative inseparable from the Imperial Crown of this Realm And for a more undeniable Proof of his immoderate Ambition and which nothing can satisfie but the immediate Possession of the Crown it self he calls in question the Legitimacy of the Prince of Wales Our Son and Heir apparent tho by the Providence of God there were present at his Birth so many Witnesses of unquestionable Credit as if it seem'd to have been the particular Care of Heaven on purpose to disappoint so wicked and unparallell'd an Attempt And in order to the effecting of his Ambitious Designs he seems desirous in the Close of his Declaration to submit all to the Determination of a Free Parliament hoping thereby to ingratiate himself with Our People though nothing is more evident than that a Parliament cannot be Free so long as there is an Army of Foreigners in the Heart of Our Kingdoms so that in truth he himself is the fole Obstructer of such a Free Parliament We being fully resolved as We have already declared so soon as by the Blessing of God Our Kingdoms shall be delivered from this Invasion to call a Parliament which can no longer be liable to the least Objection of not being freely chosen since We have actually restored all the Burroughs and Corporations of this Our Kingdom to their Ancient Rights and Privileges in which we shall be ready not only to receive and redress all the Just Complaints and Grievances of Our Good Subjects but also to repeat and confirm the Assurances We have already given to them in Our several Declarations of Our Resolution by God's Blessing to maintain them in their Religion their Liberties and Properties and all other their Just Rights and Privileges whatsoever Upon these Considerations and the Obligations of their Duty and Natural Allegiance we can no ways doubt but that all Our Faithful and Loving Subjects will readily and heartily concur and joyn with Us in the entire Suppressing and Repelling of those Our Enemies and Rebellious Subjects who have so injuriously and disloyally invaded and disturbed the Peace and Tranquility of these Our Kingdoms All this while the Prince's Declaration was kept in and few had seen it but Men had now a general Idea of it This Declaration in the mean time was pleasing to very few It was penn'd with too much Spleen
Collector of the Excise at Exeter and committed the Officer to Custody and that not one Person of Quality was yet come in to them This last was again confirm'd by another Express the next day The 13th an Account came from Cirencester That the Lord Lovelace going to the Prince with between 60 and 70 Horse was there seised by the Militia by Order of the Duke of Beaufort with about 13 of the Party one Major Lorege being slain in the Action together with his Son Captain Lee and Leiutenant Williams and six Common Soldiers wounded but notwithstanding this Resistance the Lord Lovelace was at last forced to yield and secured by the Duke of Beaufort and this was very acceptable News at Whitehall but the Joy was short and not well founded The 14th there came an Account from Salisbury That upon the 12th the Lord Cornbury pretending to have received Orders from his Majesty caused the Royal Regiment of Horse the Royal Regiment of Dragoons whereof he was Colonel and the Duke of St. Albans Regiment of Horse commanded by Colonel Langston to march from Salisbury to Dorchester where they refreshed themselves and then they went to Bridport and Axminster Several of the Officers thereupon apprehending some Design asked the Lord Cornbury as was said whither they were going Who answered To beat up the Enemies Quarters at Honiton But he finding the Royal Regiment of Horse and several Officers of the Dragoons did more and more suspect him he marched with those that would follow him towards Honiton Langston going before with the Regiment of St. Albans but the Royal Regiment of Horse and several of the Dragoons return'd to Bridport And the same day the Earl of Feversham came to Salisbury to Command the Forces in Chief The next day these Regiments return'd from Bridport to Salisbury and we were told there was not ten Troopers of the Royal Regiment wanting which sufficiently shews how firm they were in their Fidelity to his Majesty But notwithstanding this Flourish this News caused a great Consternation at Whitehall The 16th there was published a Proclamation to prohibit the keeping of Exeter Fair and other Fairs thereabouts because many on that Pretence went over to the Prince of Orange The same day the Reverend Dr. Lamplu then Bishop of Exeter was Translated to the Archbishoprick of York and Dr. Trelawny from the See of Bristol to that of Exeter And his Majesty also ordered a Publick Collection to be made thorow the City of London the Liberties and Suburbs thereof for the Relief of the poor and distressed Inhabitants of the City who were by the Distractions of the Times and the Interruption of Trade reduced to great Want and Misery The 17th of November the Archbishop of Canterbury the Archbishop of York Elect the Bishop of Ely and the Bishop of Rochester presented this Petition to the King. May it please Your Majesty WE Your Majesties most Loyal Subjects in a deep sense of the Miseries of a War now breaking forth in the Bowels of this Your Kingdom and of the Danger to which Your Majesties Sacred Person is thereby like to be exposed as also of the Distractions of Your People by reason of their present Grievances do think our selves bound in Conscience of the Duty we owe to God and our Holy Religion to Your Majesty and our Country most humbly to offer to Your Majesty That in our Opinion the only visible way to preserve Your Majesty and this Your Kingdom would be the Calling a Parliament Regular and Free in all its Circumstances We therefore most earnestly beseech Your Majesty That You would be graciously pleased with all speed to call such a Parliament wherein we shall be most ready to promote such Counsels and Resolutions of Peace and Settlement in Church and State as may conduce to Your Majesties Honour and Safety and to the quieting of the Minds of Your People We do likewise humbly beseech Your Majesty in the mean time to use such Means for the preventing the Effusion of Christian Blood as to Your Majesty shall seem most meet W. Cant. Grafton Ormond Dorset Clare Clarendon Burlingten Anglesey Rochester Newport Nom. Ebor. W. Asaph F. Ely. Tho. Roffen Tho. Petriburg T. Oxon. Paget Chandois Osulston It was said there was a sharp Answer given to this excellent Petition which was the Sense of all the King's Friends in the Nation except a few desparate Men whose Crimes had rendred them uncapable of the Mercy of a Parliament and some others who designed the Ruine of the English Liberties and Religion with the utmost hazard of the King and Kingdom The same day in the Afternoon the King left the City and with his Royal Highness Prince George of Denmark went to Windsor and the next Morning he went to Salisbury appointing in his absence the Privy-Council to meet for the Dispatch of all Affairs as occasion should require The 19th of November the Lords for their own Vindication published the Petition afore-represented and the next day the King's Answer to it was printed also which was this His Majesties most Gracious Answer My Lords WHat you ask of Me I most passionately desire and I promise you UPON THE FAITH OF A KING That I will have a Parliament and such an one as you ask for as soon as ever the Prince of Orange has quitted this Realm For how is it possible a Parliament should be Free in all its Circumstances as you Petition for whilst an Enemy is in the Kingdom and can make a Return of near an hundred Voices This was sufficiently disobliging considering the State of Affairs and the Temper of the Nation at that time but the Jesuits were so enraged at the printing the Petition that they published a Paper with this Title Some Reflections upon the Humble Petition to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal who subscribed the same presented November 17th 1688. which follows in these words THat the Peace-makers are blessed is a Truth our Saviour hath left recorded in the holy Scriptures and those are truly to be honoured who can contribute any thing to so happy a work But that either this way of Petitioning or the matter in it desired is likely to produce so great a Blessing is a Question worthy thy serious Consideration I shall first therefore take notice of some of the dubious Expressions in the Petition and then lay down some few Reasons why I judge the Petition in it self unseasonable and lastly endeavour to shew how unpracticable the summoning of a Parliament is at this present The Expression That a War is now breaking forth in the Bowels of the Kingdom shews that their Lordships either know or foresee that a Civil War is fomenting and I pray God this Petition do not more than any thing else occasion it or that the Prince of Orange intends to carry on the War through the Bowels of the Kingdom whereas those that wish well to the King hope it will be
they have not consulted him they ought to satisfie the King how they can warrant a Cessation of Arms on the Prince's side or how they can hinder him from advancing further to awe Debates in the Houses or what assurance they can give that he will acquiesce in the free Decision of the matters proposed or that he will peaceably depart out of the Land when things are setled and will not pretend a stay here till the vast Sums be paid him that he hath expended on this occasion or lastly will not find new occasions of questioning the security of Performance of any Agreement to be made If they have consulted the Prince they ought to shew his Commission authorizing them to make Proposal or shew the Heads of those Grievances he demands to be redressed for some they urge in their Petition there are which distract the People but I suppose they are more careful of their Heads than to own any such correspondence If these Noble Persons would have effectually saved Effusion of Blood they would rather have used all their Interest to have kept the Prince of Orange in his Country tho' with his Army and Fleet in readiness and have obtained his sending his demands and have waited like dutiful Subjects till the King had convened his Parliament and have tried how Gracious the King would have been in redressing Grievances and securing Religion and Property and after the King's refusal there might have been some colour for his Invasion but none upon any pretence whatsoever to have invited him to it Fifthly Those who will not openly and with a bare face justifie the Prince of Orange's Pretensions cannot think it consistent with the Honour of the King to stoop so low as to summon a Parliament at the direction of an Invader who can never be conceived to desire it with that eagerness if he did not judge it very much conduceable to his Interest for which very reason the King ought to be jealous of such Councils And I humbly conceive those Peers have not sufficiently considered how prejudicial this sort of Address may be to the King's Affairs and how much it will conduce to the further alienating of the Affections of the Subjects from the King when they shall hear of his denial to comply at present with this Expedient and never hear the reasons thereof since they have not divulged his Majesties Gracious Answer together with their Petition and I am sure at this time the putting the King upon such a Dilemma is the greatest dis-service can be done him and very little inferior to joining with his Enemies I might add many more Arguments to prove that the King cannot in Honour yield to this Advice without quitting that undeniable Prerogative the Laws give him of making War or concluding peace if those matters should be submitted to the Arbitriment of the two Houses or owning that the Allegiance of his Subjects did not bind them to assist him in the defence of his Crown and Dominions without the Votes of a Parliament But I shall conclude with some few Considerations I humbly offer to those Right Reverend and Noble Lords and all those who are of the same Judgment with them to reflect upon First then I desire them to consider whether it will not be more glorious and agreeable to the Principles of our Religion effectually to assist our undoubted lawful Soveraign than to suffer him to be dethroned solely because he is a Roman Catholick since the Papists themselves tho' they never take the Oath of Allegiance or Supremacy yet do and ever have declared that if any Roman Catholick Prince yea the Pope himself in person should invade any King of England tho' a Protestant yet that they are bound to defend such a King against them as much as if they were Turks Secondly Whether since the true and original Cause of this Invasion and consequently of all the Blood-shed these Lords so earnestly desire to prevent hath not been the denying to concur with the King in establishing of Liberty of Conscience even with such security to the Protestant Religion and Church of England as could be desired and whether in all human probability that would not be more conduceable to establish the publick Tranquility of the Kingdom and its increase in Wealth and People and consequently the most efficacious means to reduce the Dutch to be just and tractable Allies and Neighbours rather than any thing can be effected by this Invasion or the truckling to such avowed Enemies to our Country our Religion and our King. Thirdly Whether the King 's entire Trust in the Fidelity of his own Subjects for his defence and not admitting of foreign Aids that were unsought for proffered do not oblige all that have any sense of Gratitude or Duty to aid him to the very utmost against such Foreigners as so unnaturally and so unjustly invade him and when it hath pleased God to give success to the King 's just Arms we are not to doubt but the King according to his solemn promise in his late Royal Declaration will speedily call a Parliament and in it redress all such Grievances as his people can justly complain of with a full and ample security to the Church of England and all his Protestant Subjects which it will much more be our Interest to have in a truly harmonious and Free-parliamentary way at that time established than at this present in a tumultuary and precipitate haste so patched up as will not be durable and the more earnestly we desire to see this good work to be set upon the more haste the Nobility and Gentry should make to expel those who hindred the Convention of that Parliament which was much more likely to have setled matters to the content of the King and his People than this Invasion can ever hope to effect The Prince of Orange's Declaration could be no longer suppress'd and therefore it was suffered about this time to be printed with a short Preface and some modest Remarks as the Author pretends on it In 4to The Prince of Orange's Declaration shewing the Reasons why he invades England with a short Preface and some modest Remarks on it THERE having been various Discourses about the Reasonableness and Justice of the Dutch Invasion the Prince's great Love and special Care of the Protestant Religion and English Protestants set forth in the most charming manner and the Desperateness of the Protestant State and Condition painted in the blackest and most frightful Colours Our Natural Liege Lord notwithstanding his Unparallel'd Grace to all represented as designing the greatest Cruelty against his own Subjects strange Stories of ill things whispered and nothing less than a Secret League between His Majesty of Great Britain and the French King to extirpate all Protestants entred into These Reports are with so much Art and Cunning spread as to startle the most considering Protestants of all Perswasions whence nothing could be more eagerly desired than a sight of
they receive this Report against the Right Reverend Bishops the Design in which they are said to Embarque being founded on that very Principle in pursuance of which the Head of Charles the Blessed Martyr was brought to the Block and Embarque they cannot but by joyning with a Foreign Army the chief part of which is made up of those who though they would willingly enough ensnare our Bishops cannot be reasonably supposed to be true in the Promises they make about supporting their Hierarchical Grandeur the utmost they must expect in the long-run can be no more than a turning their Lands into Money that to the end their dependance on the Government may be the more effectually secured instead of their present Lands Leases c. they may have an Yearly Salary answerable to their worth and desert which as 't will be uncertain so it cannot be hopâ—d that its utmost height shall arise to the State and Degree of a Baron for Baronies go with their Lands By this you may see how unlikely any sort of English-men should by this Invasion gain any thing but Misery TO this was subjoyned a short Discourse stiled Animad-versions upon the Declaration of his Highness the Prince of Orange Which is about twelve Pages in Quarto supposed to be written by Steward but then attributed to Castlemain but whoever was the Author of it it is a spruce piece of Sophistry and he was a Person who well knew what could be said for a bad Case and where it was not possible to make any defence and there would insensibly glide by as if he had not minded the difficulty Page 21 he has this Expression Put it to the Nation and all the Nation must declare that every Man enjoys his Conscience his Liberty and his Property even to the envy of their less happy Neighbors and that there has been no proceeding against a single Man but for his single misdemeanor and this is not Arbitrary but Legal Power And then to asperse his Majesty with overturning all Laws under the Name of Evil Counsellors Why Sir let his Counsellors be never so bad they are worse whose Service his Highness has used in Pâ—uning his Declaration By this Sample the Reader may judge of that whole Paper First He useth the utmost assurance to out-face the World as to the Matter of Fact. Secondly Pretends Redress Thirdly Promiseth a Parliament when it may be denied or over-awed Fourthly Makes all the Prince's Assisters Traytors and Perjur'd And Lastly Because the King was not accountable to his own Subjects concludes that neither was he so to the Prince though a Sovereign Prince So he was to be revered like a God and No-body not a Neighbour-interested Prince was to presume to say to him What doest thou To that height of stupidity was their Flattery then arrived but soon after it expired This is the best Abstract I can give of that Defence which is too long to be intirely inserted in this Work though it were to be wished a larger might in due time be published with all the material Papers at large This Paper was afterwards Answered but things then had so rapid a motion that the Reply coming too late was scarce read or regarded The Prince being then invited to London by the Peers by the Guild-Hall Declaration Though there was not all that Men had fondly expected in this Declaration yet here was enough to satisfie any rational Man that the Expelling this Prince and his Army before our Religion Liberties Properties and Government were effectually setled in Parliament and those who had so outragiously attempted the ruine of them were call'd to an Account would certainly end in the ruine of them and was a kind of cutting up our Laws and Religion with our Swords This and nothing else was the cause that where-ever the Prince's Declaration was read it conquered all that saw or heard it and it was to no purpose to excite Men to fight against their own Interest and to destroy what was more dear to them than their Lives At the same time an Extract of the States General their Resolution Thursday the Twenty eighth of October 1688. was also Printed privately in London wherein among other Reasons why they had intrusted the Prince of Orange with this Fleet and Army is this which follows THE King of France hath upon several occasions shewed himself dissatisfied with this State which gave cause to sear and apprehend that in case the King of Great Britain should happen to compass within his Kingdom and obtain an Absolute Power over his People that then both Kings out of Interest of State and Hatred and Zeal against the Protestant Religion would endeavour to bring this State to Confusion and if possible quite to subject it At the same time was Printed also this Letter of the Prince of Orange to the Officers of the Army Gentlemen and Friends WE have given you so full and so true an Account of our Intentions in this Expedition in our Declaration that as we can add nothing to it so we are sure you can desire nothing more of us We are come to preserve your Religion and to restore and establish your Liberties and Properties and therefore we cannot suffer our selves to doubt but that all true Englishmen will come and concur with us in our desire to secure these Nations from POPERY and SLAVERY You must all plainly see that you are only made use of as Instruments to enslave the Nation and ruine the Protestant Religion and when that is done you may judge what ye your selves ought to expect both from the Cashiering all the Protestant and English Officers and Soldiers in Ireland and by the Irish Soldiers being brought over to be put in your Places and of which you have seen so fresh an Instance that we need not put you in mind of it You know how many of your Fellow-Officers have been used for their standing firm to the Protestant Religion and to the Laws of England and you cannot slatter your selves so far as to expect to be better used if those who have broke their Word so often should by your means be brought out of those streights to which they are at present reduced We hope likewise that ye will not suffer your selves to be abused by a false Notion of Honour but that you will in the first place consider what you owe to Almighty God and your Religion to your Country to your Selves and to your Posterity which you as Men of Honour ought to prefer to all private Considerations and Ingagements whatsoever We do therefore expect that you will consider the Honour that is now set before you of being the Instruments of serving your Country and securing your Religion and we shall ever remember the Service you shall do us upon this occasion and will promise you That we shall place such particular Marks of our Favour on every one of you as your Behaviour at this time shall deserve of us and the
suspected of Sincerity when they act contrary to their Interests and tho' my dutiful Behaviour to your Majesty in the worst of Times for which I acknowledge my poor Services much overpay'd may not be sufficient to incline you to a charitable Interpretation of my Actions yet I hope the great advantage I enjoy under your Majesty which I can never expect in any other change of Government may reasonably convince your Majesty and the World that I am acted by an higher Principle when I offer that Violence to my Inclination and Interest as to desert your Majesty at a time when your Affairs seem to challenge the strictest Obedience from all your Subjects much more from one who lies under the greatest personal Obligations imaginable to your Majesty This Sir could proceed from nothing but the inviolable Dictates of my Conscience and a necessary Concern for my Religion which no good man can oppose and with which I am instructed nothing ought to come in competition Heaven knows with what Partiality my dutiful Opinion of your Majesty hath hitherto represented those unhappy Designs which inconsiderate and self-interested men have framed against your Majesty's true Interest and the Protestant Religion But as I can no longer join with such to give a pretence by Conquest to bring them to effect so I will alwaies with the hazard of my Life and Fortune so much your Majesty's due endeavour to preserve your Royal Person and Lawful Rights with all the tender Concern and dutiful Respect that becomes SIR Your Majesty's Most dutiful and most obliged Subject and Servant The going off of these Great Men struck the King himself with Terror and Affliction and the Army which was before in very much disorder became thereby so full of Fear and Suspicion that a false Alarm being made by design or accident on Sunday the 25th of November the King and the whole Army left Salisbury the Army retreating to Reading and the King to Andover and on Monday the 26th of November returned in the Evening to London The Princess Ann of Denmark his second Daughter was gone privately the night before from Whitehall with the Lady Churchil and if she had not left a Letter too behind her which shew'd the reason of her retiring in all probability all the Popish Party about Whitehall had been cut in pieces by the King 's own Guards upon a surmise they had made away this beloved Princess So that they were forced to print her Letter to the Queen to secure them selves from Violence The first thing the King did after his return to London was to remove Sir Edward Hales from being Lieutenant of the Tower and to put Sir Bevil Skelton a Protestant in his place Sir Edward had angered the whole City to the utmost by planting several Mortar pieces on the Walls towards the City which tho' designed only to awe it had enraged more than frighted them So that His Majesty saw he was not safe at Whitehall as long as Sir Edward was Master of the Tower. The 28th day His Majesty ordered in a Privy-Council the Lord Chancellor to issue out Writs for the Sitting of a Parliament at Westminster the 15th day of January following But it was now too late and the Nation was in that Ferment that it was not much regarded what the Court did or said The 30th day of November the King to appease the Minds of the People issued out this Proclamation WEE have thought fit as the best and most proper means to Establish a lasting Peace in this our Kingdom to call a Parliament and have therefore ordered our Chancellor to cause Writs to be issued forth for summoning a Parliament to meet at Westminster upon the Fifteenth day of January next ensuing the Date of this our Royal Proclamation And that nothing may be wanting on our part towards the Freedom of Elections as we have already restored all Cities Towns Corporate and Burroughs throughout our Kingdom to their ancient Charters Rights and Priviledges so we command and require all Persons whatsoever that they presume not by Menace or any other undue means to influence Elections or procure the Vote of any Elector And we do also strictly require and command all Sheriffs Mayors Bailiffs and other Officers to whom the Execution or Return of any Writ Summons Warrant or Precept for Members to the ensuing Parliament shall belong that they cause such Writ Summons Warrant or Precept to be duly published and executed and Returns thereupon fairly made according to the true merits of such Elections And for the Security of all Persons both in their Elections and Service in Parliament we do hereby publish and declare That all our Subjects shall have free Liberty to elect and all our Peers and such as shall be elected Members of our House of Commons shall have free Liberty and Freedom to serve and sit in Parliament notwithstanding they have taken Arms or committed any act of Hostility or been any way aiding or assisting therein And for the better assurance hereof We have graciously directed a general Pardon to our Subjects to be forthwith prepared to pass our Great Seal And for the reconciling all publick Breaches and obliterating the very Memory of all past Miscarriages We do hereby exhort and kindly admonish all our Subjects to dispose themselves to elect such persons for their Representatives in Parliament as may not be byassed by Prejudice or Passion but qualify'd with Parts Experience and Prudence proper for this Conjuncture and agreeable to the ends and purposes of this our Gracious Proclamation month December The Account of this Resolution going to the Fleot all the Officers and the Admirals drew up this Address To the KING' 's Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Address of George Lord Dartmouth Admiral of your Majesty's Fleet for the present Expedition and the Commanders of your Majesty's Ships of War now actually at the Spithead in your Majesty's Service under his Lordship's Command Most Dread Soveraign THE deep Sense we have had of the great Dangers your Majesty's Sacred Person has been in and the great effusion of Christian Blood that threatned this your Majesty's Kingdoms and in all probability would have been shed unless God of His infinite Mercy had put it into your Majesty's Heart to call a Parliament the only means in our Opinions under the Almighty left to quiet the Minds of your People we do give your Majesty our most humble and hearty Thanks for your gracious Condescension beseeching Almighty God to give your Majesty all imaginable Happiness and Prosperity and to grant that such Counsels and Resolutions may be promoted as conduce to your Majesty's Honour and Safety and tend to the Peace and Settlement of this Realm both in Church and State according to the established Laws of the Kingdom On board the Resolution at Spithead Decemb. 1. 1688. Signed Dartmouth Berkley Ro. Strickland And under them by 38. other Commanders In the week following the pretended Prince of Wales
Tilbury Fort be put into the Hands of the City VI. That a sufficient part of the Publick Revenue be assigned us for the Support and Maintenance of our Troops until the Sitting of a Free Parliament VII That to prevent the landing of the French or other Foreign Troops Portsmouth may be put into such Hands as by His Majesty and Us shall be agreed on Tilbury-Fort was then Garison'd by the Irish and there were a great many of them and other Papists in Portsmouth This Answer was sent to His Majesty on Monday the Tenth of December by an Express yet he resolved to leave the Town and ordered all those Writs for the Sitting of the Parliament that were not sent out to be burnt and a Caveat to be entred against the making use of those that were sent down And at the same time he sent Order to the Earl of Feversham to Disband the Army and Dismiss the Soldiers The Letter to the Earl of Feversham was in this Form. THings being come to that Extremity that I have been forced to send away the Queen and my Son the Prince of Wales that they might not fall into the Enemies Hands which they must have done if they had stay'd I am obliged to do the same thing in hopes it will please God out of his infinite Mercy to this unhappy Nation to touch their Hearts again with true Loyalty and Honour If I could have rely'd on all my Troops I might not have been put to the Extremity I now am in and would at least have had one blow for it But though I know there are many and brave Men among you both Officers and Soldiers yet you know that both you and several of the General Officers and Soldiers and Men of the Army told me It was no ways advisable for me to venture my self at their Head or to think to fight the Prince of Orange with them And now there remains only for me to thank you and all those both Officers and Soldiers who have stuck to me and been truly Loyal I hope you will still retain the same Fidelity to me and though I do not expect you should expose your selves by resisting a Foreign Army and a Poyson'd Nation yet I hope your former Principles are so inrooted in you that you will keep your selves free from Associations and such pernicious things Time presseth so that I can add no more Jamex Rex The Earl of Feversham presently after the receit of this Letter Disbanded Four thousand Men which was all the Army he had then with him and under his Command after which he sent this Letter to the Prince of Orange SIR HAving received this Morning a Letter from His Majesty with the unfortunate News of his Resolution to go out of England I thought my self obliged being at the Head of his Army and having received his Orders to make no Opposition against any body to let your Highness know it with the Advice of the Officers here so soon as was possible to hinder the effusion of Blood. I have ordered already to that purpose all the Troops that are under my Command which shall be the last Order they shall receive from Feversham This was to all intents and purposes a clear and full Abdication or Desertion of the Army and put them under an inevitable necessity of submitting to the Prince of Orange they having no body to Lead or Head them against him And it is not conceivable how they could keep themselves from entring into an Association or Oath of Allegiance to the Prince now he was gone without exposing themselves by resisting a Foreign Army and a Poyson'd Nation For neither could the Nation long continue without a Prince nor would any Person that succeeded in that Capacity have ever suffered them to live within his Government without giving him Security by Oath for their Submission and Loyalty to him So that the whole design of this Letter seems to be the Sowing a Division in the Nation that at the same time he left us we might not unite or settle our selves under the other but by our Principles be divided that so he might the more easily reduce us again into the State we were in when the Prince first designed his Expedition against England This being done about Three of the Clock in the morning December the 11th the King went down the River in a small Boat towards Gravesend The principal Officers of the Army about the Town thereupon met about Ten of the Clock at Whitehall and sent an Express to the Prince of Orange to acquaint him with the Departure of the King and to assure him that they would assist the Lord Mayor to keep the City quiet till his Highness came and made the Souldiery to enter into his Service Much about the same time the Lords Spiritual and Temporal about the Town came to Guildhall and sending for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen made the following Declaration The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster Assembled at Guild-Hall the 11th of December 1688. WE doubt not but the World believes that in this great and dangerous Conjuncture we are heartily and zealously concerned for the Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land and the Liberties and Properties of the Subject And we did reasonably hope that the King having issued out his Proclamation and Writs for a Free Parliament we might have rested secure under the expectation of that Meeting But His Majesty having withdrawn himself and as we apprehend in order to his departure out of this Kingdom by the pernicious Counsels of Persons ill affected to our Nation and Religion we cannot without being wanting to our Duty be silent under those Calamities wherein the Popish Counsels which so long prevailed have miserably involved these Realms We do therefore unanimously resolve to apply out selves to his Highness the Prince of Orange who with so great Kindness to these Kingdoms so vast Expence and so much Hazard hath undertaken by endeavouring to procure a Free Parliament to rescue us with as little effusion of Christian Blood as possible from the imminent Dangers of Popery and Slavery And we do hereby declare That we will with our utmost Endeavours assist his Highness in the obtaining such a Parliament with all speed wherein our Laws our Liberties and Properties may be secured the Church of England in particular with a due Liberty to Protestant Dissenters and in general the Protestant Religion and Interest over the whole World may be supported and encouraged to the Glory of GOD the Happiness of the Established Government in these Kingdoms and the Advantage of all Princes and States in Christendom that may be herein concerned In the mean time we will endeavour to preserve as much as in us lies the Peace and Security of these great and populous Cities of London and Westminster and the parts adjacent by taking care to disarm all Papists and secure all Jesuits and
their Arms to some of the Officers of the Ordnance who are to deposite the same in the Stores in the Tower of London And we do require and command all Justices of the Peace Constables and other Officers whom it may concern that they apprehend and seize all such Souldiers as shall not repair to their respective Bodies and that they be dealt with as Vagabonds Given at the Council-Chamber at Whitehall the Fourteenth of December 1688. Tho. Ebor. Hallisax Dorset Carlisle Craven Nottingham Rochester N. Duresme P. Winchester North and Grey J. Trever J. Titus It was but time to put out this Order for on Thursday morning the 13th of December about Three of the Clock there was a dreadful Alarm that the Irish in a desperate Rage were approaching the City putting Men Women and Children to the Sword as they came along whereupon the Citizens all rose placing Lights in their Windows from top to bottom and guarded every man his own Doors with his Musquet charged with Bullet and all the Trainbands in the City were assembled and there was nothing but shooting and beating of Drums all night This Alarm spread it self the whole length and breadth of the Kingdom of England and all that were able to bear Arms appeared at their several places vowing the Defence of their Lives Religion Laws and Liberties and resolving to destroy all the Irish and Papists in England in case any injury were offered them but then there were very few Papists slain in these Tumults and Frights but their Houses were generally rifled on pretence of searching for Arms and Ammunition The Lords after this sent the Lords Feversham Ailes bury Yarmouth and Middleton most humbly to entreat the King to return to Whitchall and ordered his Guards to go down to him to see him safe on board any Ship he should chuse if he persisted in his Resolution to go out of the Nation With them went the Servants of his Houshold to carry him Money and Cloaths all he had of the former being taken from him by the Seamen and his Cloaths rent and torn in the searching of him before he was known as he had in part signified in a Letter to the Lord Feversham Now considering the whole Nation in a manner had submitted to the Prince of Orange before the King was heard of after he had withdrawn himself it had perhaps been but reasonable to have suspended the inviting him back to Whitchall till they had received his Consent or at least asked it or had called a greater Assembly of the Peers than that day met The 12th day the four Lords sent by the Peers with four Aldermen and eight of the Common Council of London parted to wait upon the Prince of Orange with the Declaration signed by the Body of the Peers the day before at Guildhall The 15th the King removed to Rochester in order to his Return to London and some of his Troops of Guard went down thither to him And the next day being Sunday he returned about Five in the Evening to Whitchall attended by one Troop of Grenadiers and three Troops of Life Guard a Set of Boys following him through the City and making some Huzza's whilst the rest of the People silently looked on His Highness the Prince of Orange who was then at Windsor had sent Monsieur Zulestein to the King to desire him to continue at Rochester but he missing him the King came to Whitehall and from thence sent the Lord Feversham with a Letter to the Prince to Windsor to invite him to St. James's with what number of Troops he should think fit to bring with him he could now do no otherwise his own Army having been disbanded by his own order all the Forts in England except Portsmouth being in the Prince's hands and London and almost all the Peers in his absence having sent their Submission and inviting him to come forthwith to Town to take upon him the Care of the City This Letter being by the Prince referred to the Peers that were then at Windsor they concluded that the shortness of the time could admit no better Expedient than that the King might be desired to remove to some place within a reasonable distance from London and Ham a House belonging to the Dutchess of Landerdale was pitched upon and a Note or Paper to that purpose drawn up which was ordered to be delivered after the Prince's Guards were in Possession of the Posts about Whitchall WE desire you the Lord Marquiss of Hallifax the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Lord Delamere to tell the King That it is thought convenient for the great quiet of the City and the greater safety of his Person that he do remove to Ham where he shall be attended by his Guards who will be ready to preserve him from any disturbance Given at Windsor the Seventeenth of December 1688. W. Prince de Orange Monsieur Zulestein followed the King to London and there delivered his Letter and the Sixteenth returned to Windsor The Earl of Feversham went the same day with the Letter to the Prince which was mentioned above and was by him committed to the Castle of Windsor The King so soon as ever he came to Whitehall issued out this Order of Councill At the Court at Whitehall the Sixteenth day of December 1688. Present The King 's most Excellent Majesty Duke Hamilton Earl of Craven Earl of Berkley Earl of Middleton Lord Viscount Preston Lord Godolphin Master of the Rolls Mr. Titus HIS Majesty being given to understand That divers Outrages and Disorders are committed in several Parts of the Kingdom by Burning Pulling-down and otherwise defacing Houses and other Buildings and Rifling and Plundering the same to the great terror of His Majesty's Subjects and manifest Breach of the Peace His Majesty in Council is pleased to Direct and Command all Lord Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants Justices of the Peace Mayors Constables and all other Officers whom it may concern to use their utmost endeavours for the preventing of such Outrages and Disorders for the future and for the suppressing all riotous and tumultous Meetings and Assemblies whatsoever William Bridgeman There having been sufficient care taken for this by the Council before it was not consistent with his Interest thus to shew his Zeal for the Popish Party in the very first Act he did upon his return as if he had come back only to serve them During the time the King stay'd at Whitehall it was crowded with Irishmen Priests Jesuits and Roman Catholicks afrer the old wont and it is said one of the Priests sent an imperious Message to the Earl of Mulgrave the Lord Chamberlain to furnish his Lodgings with new Furniture for he meant to continue in them And the King also as was said discharged Leiburn a Popish Bishop out of Newgate on Monday the Seventeenth of December So that all things were returning apparently into the old Chanel and we were to expect nothing but what we had already seen and felt and
any of the Parliaments in the time of His late Majesty Charles II. As also the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Fifty of the Common Council of the City of Lrndon being desired by His Highness to attend Him this day One hundred and Sixty Members and the rest came call but the Mayor who was sick to St. James's and were by Him acquainted with the State of things and desired to repair to the Commons House at Westminster where they chose Mr. Powle for their Speaker then sending to know what the Peers had done the Addresses as above recited were delivered to them with which they concurred And the 27th they also presented them to the Prince to whom He gave the same Answer he had given to the Lords the 28th in the Afternoon The 30th His Highness put out the usual Proclamation for the continuance of the Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and other Officers and Ministers not being Papists to act in their Respective places till the Meeting of the Convention or other Order to the contrary Excepting also all such Offices or Places where since His Arrival in this Kingdom he had already or should hereafter otherwise provide month January The 2d of January He put out a Declaration for the better Collecting the Publick Revenue which I need not transcribe The 5th of January His Highness put out this following Order FOR the better Preventing Disorders that may happen in any Burrough Corporation or other place of Election of Members for the intended Convention by any Souldiers Quartered in those places And that such Elections may be carried on with the greater Freedom and without any colour of Force or Restraint We do hereby strictly charge and require all Collonels and Officers in chief with any Regiment Troop or Company to cause such Reigments Troops or Companies to march out of the Qaurters where such Election shall be made the several Garrisons only Excepted the day before the same be made to the next Adjoyning Town or Towns being not appointed for any Election and not to return to their first Quarters until the said Respective Elections be made and fully compleated wherein they are not to fail as they will answer the contrary at their peril The Scotch Nobility and Gentry in or about London were also by His Highness's Order Summoned to St. James's where they met the 7th of January at Three in the Afternoon to whom the Prince made this Speech My Lords and Gentlemen THE only reason that induced me to undergo so great an Undertaking was That I saw the Laws and Liberties of these Kingdoms overturned and the Protestant Religion in eminent Danger And seeing you are here so many Noblemen and Gentlemen I have called you together that I may have your Advice what is to be done for the securing the Protestant Religon and Restoring Your Laws and Liberties according to my Declaration Then they withdrew to the Council Chamber at Whitehall and chose the Duke of Hamilton their President And after some Debates Agreed the heads of a Paper which they ordered to be drawn The 8th they met again and the Paper was Read and Approved and ordered to be Ingrossed The Earl of Arran proposed in this second Meeting That it was his Advice that the Prince of Orange should be moved to desire the King to return and call a Free Parliament for the securing our Religion and Property according to the known Laws of the Kingdom which said he in my humble opinion is the best way to heal all our Breaches which was Disgusted by all and seconded by none of them The 9th They met again and Signed the Paper which was in these Words WE the Lords and Gentlemen of the Kingdom of Scotland Assembled at Your Highness's desire in this Extraordinary Conjunction do give Your Highness our humble and hearty thanks for Your Pious and Generous Undertaking for preserving of the Protestant Religion and Restoring the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom In Order to the attaining of these Ends Our humble Advice and Desire is That Your Highness take upon You the Administration of All Affairs both Civil and Military The disposal of the Publick Revenues and Fortresses of the Kingdom of Scotland and the doing of every thing that is necessary for the preservation of the Peace of the Kingdom until a General Meeting of the States of the Nation which we humbly desire Your Highness to call to be holden at Edinburgh the 14th day of March next by Your Letter or Proclamation to be Published at the Market Crosses of Edinburgh and other Head Burroughs of the several Shires and Stewartries as sufficient intimation to all concerned according to the Custom of the Kingdom And that the Publication of these Your Letters or Proclamation be by the Sheriff or Stewart-Clerks for the Free-Holders who have the value of Lands holden according to Law for making Elections and by the Town Clerks of the several Burroughs for the Meeting of the whole Burgesses of the Respective Royal Buroughs to make their Elections at least Fifteen days before the Meeting of the Estates at Edinburgh and the Respective Clerks to make intimation thereof at the least ten days before the Meetings for Election And that the whole Electors and Members of the said Meeting at Edinburgh qualified as above expressed be Protestants without any other Exception or Limitation whatsoever To deliberate and resolve what is to be done for securing the Protestant Religion and restoring the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom according to Your Highness's Declaration Dated the 10th day of January 1689. at the Council Chamber at White-Hall It was Signed by about Thirty Lords and Eighty Gentlemen and was presented in their presence at St. James's by the Duke of Hamilton their President The 14th His Highness met the Scotch Lords and Gentlemen in the same place again and spake to them as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen IN pursuance of Your Advice I will until the Meeting of the Estates in March next give such Orders concerning the Affairs of Scotland as are necessary for the calling of the said Meeting for the preservation of the Peace the applying of the Publick Revenue to the most pressing uses and puting the Fortresses in the hands of Persons in whom the Nation can have a just confidence And I do further assure you that you will always find me ready to concur with you in every thing that may be found necessary for securing the Protestant Religion and restoring the Laws and Liberties of the Nation The Earls of Crawford and Louthain being present in this last Meeting but coming up to London after the former desired they might Sign the said Address and they accordingly did so The 8th day January His Highness put out a Declaration against quartering Soldiers on private Houses And that all Houses should be deemed Private Houses except Victualling Houses and Houses of Publick Entertainment or such as sell Wine or any other Liquor by Retail In all which Houses We do think
enroll'd in Parliament and Chancery which is as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen THis is certainly the Greatest Proof of the Trust you have in us that can be given which is the thing that maketh us value it the more and we thankfully accept what you have offered And as I had no other intention in my coming hither than to Preserve Your Religion Laws and Liberties So you may be sure that I shall endeavour to Support them and shall be willing to concur in any thing that shall be for the Good of the Kingdom and to do all that is in my Power to Advance the Wellfare and Glory of the Nation Thus ended that Stupendious Revolution in England which we have so lately seen to the great Joy of the Generality of the Protestants of Europe and of many of the Catholick Princes and States who were at last convinced that the attempting to force England to return under the Obedience of the See of Rome in the present conjuncture of Affairs would certainly end in the ruine of this potent Kingdom and whilest it was doing the present French King would possess himself of the remainder of the Spanish Netherlands and the Palatinate and perhaps of the Electorates of Cologne Ments and Triers a great part of which he hath actually seized whilest the Prince of Orange was thus Gloriously asserting the English Liberty The true reasons of the Swiftness of this Change may easily be assigned by shewing the temper and designs of James the II. The Temper of William the III. our Present Soveraign and The Nature of the English Nation and of the times all concurring with Wonderful Harmony to produce this wonderful effect For had James the II. undertook any thing but the subjecting England to Popery and the Exercise of an Arbitrary Power to that end his vast Revenue and personal Valour and the Reputation he had gained at home and abroad by the defeat of the Monmouth Invasion would have gone near to have effected it and after all this if he had in the beginning of October frankly granted all the Ten Proposals made by the Bishops and suffered a Parliament to have met and given up a confiderable number of his Ministers to Justice and suffered the pretended Prince of Wales his Birth to be freely debated and determin'd in Parliament It would in all probability have prevented or defeated the then intended Invasion But whilest he thought to save the Pretended Succession the Dispensing and Suspending power and the Ecclesiastical Commission to carry on his former design with when he had baffl'd the Prince of Orange the Nation saw through the project and he lost all Had a Prince of less secrecy prudence courage and interest than the Prince of Orange undertaken this business it might probably have miscarried but as his cause was better so his reputation conduct and patience infinitely exceeded theirs he would not stir till he saw the French Forces set down before Philipsbourg and then he was sure France and Germany were irrevocably ingaged in a War and consequently he should have no other opposition than what the Irish and English Roman Catholicks could make against him For no English Protestant would fight his Country into Vassalage and Slavery to Popish Priests and Italian Women when a Parliament sooner or later must at last have determin'd all the things in Controversie except we resolved once for all to give up our Religion Laws Liberties and Estates to the will of our King and submit for ever to a French Government A Nation of less sense than the English might have been imposed upon of less bravery and valour might have been frighted of a more servile temper might have neglected its Liberties till it had been too late to have ever recovered them again But none but a parcel of Jesuits bred in a Cloister and unacquainted with our temper as well as Constitution would ever have hoped to have carried two such things as Popery and Arbitrary power both at once upon so jealous a Nation as the English is which hates them above any other people in the World. The cruel slaughter they had made of the poor wretches they took after the defeat at Bridgwater ought to have made them for ever despair of gaining any credit with the Dissenters who rarely forgive but never forget any ill treatment Yet these little Politico's had so little sense as to build all their hopes on the Gratitude and Insensibility of these men as if they should for Liberty of Conscience arbitrarily and illegally granted and consequently revocable at the will of the Granter have sold themselves to everlasting slavery They were equally mistaken in their carriage towards the Church of England party for when some of them had pursued both Clergy and Laity with the utmost obloquy hatred oppression and contempt to the very moment they found the Dutch storm would fall upon them Then all at once they passed to the other extream the Bishops are presently sent for the Government intirely to be put into their hands and all places Presses and Papers fill'd with the Encomiums of the Church of England's Loyalty and Fidelity who but three days before were Male-contents if not Rebels and Traytors for opposing the Kings Dispensing power and the Ecclesiastical Commission And which was the height of folly the same Pen which had been hired to defame and blacken the Church of England the Author of the Publick Occurrences truly stated was ordered to magnifie its Loyalty By which they gained nothing but the intire and absolute disobliging the whole Protestant party in the Nation so that for the future no body would serve or trust them To compleat their folly and madness they perswaded the King to throw up the Government and retire into France pretending we would never be able to agree amongst our selves but would in a short time be forced to recal him and yield to all those things we had so violently opposed or if not he might yet at least force us to submit by the succours he might gain in France without ever considering how possible it was we might agree and how difficult it would be to force us by a French Army which was equally contrary to the Interest of England and all Europe besides and to all intents and purposes destructive of the Interest of that Prince they pretended thus to exalt and re-establish Had France been now in Peace there might yet have been some colour for this but when all Europe was under a necessity to unite against him for its own preservation then to perswade the King of Great Britain to desert his Throne and fly thither for succour upon hopes of recovering his Kingdoms again by the assistance of the French the mortal and hereditary enemies of the English this was so silly a project that there seems to have been something of a Divine Infatuation in it However certainly no rational man will think that all the Princes of Europe would sit still and
Transubstantiation Had not some Men believed this true in a great Measure they would never have disputed against matter of Fact which was done almost in the Face of the whole Kingdom To speak to the present Case Had not his Majesty great Reason to retire to secure his Person and his Honour at his first withdrawing from Whitehal which is the time from which our Author dates his pretended Desertion for he will not allow him to be King at his return I say had not his Majesty great Reason to retire when he had met with so many unfortunate Disappointments with so many surprizings and unparallel'd Accidents When part of the Army was revolted and the Remainder too apparently unserviceable When the People had such fatal and unremovable prejudices against his Majesty's Service When there were such terrible Disorders in the Kingdom and all Places were either Flaming or ready to take Fire What should a Prince do when he had scarce any thing left him to lose but himself but consult his Safety and give way to the irresistible Evil But our Author pretends the King's Affairs had a much better Aspect Let us observe how he proves it Why he tells us That when the Prince of Orange 's Proposals came to his Majesty the Army and the Fleet were left in his Hands They were so that he might pay them for the Prince's Service for they owned his Majesty's Authority scarce any other way than by receiving his Money and eating up his Meat It 's to be hoped they have since repented of their Actions But the Enquirer goes on with his Inventory of Forts and Revenues which the King was to have still He may know if he pleases that we have but Four considerable Forts in the Kingdom Now Hull and Plimouth had already disposed of themselves and the Tower of London was demanded for the City so that there was none but Portsmouth remaining And as for the Revenues it 's to be feared the Northern Collections would have been almost as Slender as those in the West And now one would think our Father began to relent For he owns That some Things which the Prince of Orange proposed may be called hard viz. his demanding that the Laws against Papists which were in Imployment might be executed But the Enquirer is much mistaken if he thinks the Prince of Orange insisted upon no more than the bare Execution of the Law in this point For the Disbanding of all Papists which was part of his Proposals is much more than what the Law requires by which the Papists are only excluded from Offices of Command and Trust. But neither the Test-Acts nor any others bar the King from Listing them as common Souldiers And lastly to deliver up his best Magazine and the Strength of his Capital City To be obliged to pay a Foreign Army which came over to enable his Subjects to drive him out of his Dominions were very extraordinary demands and looked as if there was a Design to reduce him as low in his Honour as in his Fortune To forgive a Man who endeavoured to Ruin me is great Christian Charity but to Article away my Estate to him because he has Injured me is such a Mortification as no Religion obliges us to This is in effect to Betray our Innocence and Sign away the Justice of our Cause and own that we have deserved all that hard Usage which has been put upon us so that it 's easie to imagine what an unconquerable Aversion the Spirit of Princes must needs have to such an Unnatural Penance In short when the Forts and Revenue were thus disposed of when the Papists were to be Disbanded and the Protestants could not be trusted when the Nation was under such general and violent Dissatisfactions when the King in case of a Rupture which was not unlikely had nothing upon the Matter but his single Person to oppose against the Prince's Arms and those of his own Subjects when his Mortal Enemies and those were under the highest Forfeitures to his Majesty were to sit Judges of his Crown and Dignity if no farther when Affairs were in this Tempestuous Condition To say that a Free and Indifferent Parliament might be Chosen with relation to the King 's Right as well as the Peoples and that His Majesty had no just visible Cause to apprehend himself in Danger is to out face the Sun and to trample upon the Understandings and almost upon the Senses of the whole Nation § 6. 2. It 's not improper to examine what doubty Reasons the Enquirer advances to prove the Kings coming from Feversham to Whitehal to be no return to his People The reason of his affirming this is apparent He is sensible what singular usage his Majesty met with and therefore he would fain unking Him that it might the better suit with his Character But pray what had the King done to incur a Forfeiture by his First Retirement Had he quitted the Realm If that was material it cannot be alledged for his Majesty was no farther off than the Coast of Kent Did he refuse to take Care of his people any longer when the Lords went down to Visit him to Whitehal No If he had he would not have come back when he was at his Liberty His return after some Assurances of fair Treatment is a plain discovery of the Motives of his withdrawing and that be came up with an intention to Govern. For I believe few People imagine that his Majesty would take such a Journy only to have Dutch Guards clap'd upon him to be hurried out of his Palace and carried Prisoner down the Thames at Noon-day But the Seals never appeared What time was there for them in 24 Hours Besides there was an Order of Council with his Majesty at the Head of it for suppressing the Mobile Dated Decemb. 18. which was the next Day after his Majesty's return And when he was sent back to Rochester he might plainly perceive his Government was at an End for the present For the Tower was Garrison'd by Foreign Forces The Lords published an Order by their own Authority to oblige the Papists to depart the Town The City made an Address to the Prince of Orange which was a Virtual acknowledgment of his Power and Associations came up to to that purpose out of the Country Cambridgeshire Address not to admit that his Majesty was denied a small Sum of his own Gold to Heal with As if they had rather poor People should perish with Boyles and Ulcers than shew common Justice and Humanity to their King. From all these remarkable Circumstances his Majesty might easily guess how they intended to dispose of him For no Man in his Senfes who has treated a Prince so Contemptuously in his own Kingdom will ever permit him either Power or Liberty for fear he should remember his former Usage From what has been said it 's most evident that his Majesty had all imaginable reason to provide for his own Security in
Secondly This Expedient was not absolutely Necessary for the Administration of Justice might have proceeded Regularly without any such Deputation by Virtue of those Commissions which the Popish Judges and Justices of the Peace had already from the King. This I shall prove § 22. 1. From a parallel Instance King Charles the I. took a Journy into Scotland in 41. during the Session of Parliament at Westminster where though he appointed Five Lords to sign Bills in his Name The Continuation of Bak. Chron. yet the Judges and Justices Acted by vertue of their former Commissions without any new Authority from any Representatives of His Majesty Now Scotland is as much a distinct Kingdom from England as France and France as much His Majesties Dominions as Scotland And therefore if Commissions will hold in the King's Absence in one Place why not in the other § 23. Secondly The present Judges met in January last at Westminster to dispatch some Business in order to keep the Term but were forbidden to proceed by the Prince of Orange's Secretary So that it is plain it was the Opinion of these Reverend Judges that their Commissions from His Majesty were still in Force But in the next place § 24. If His Majesty had deputed any Persons to Represent him in Parliament this Method would have been attended with new and insuperable Difficulties For § 25. 1. If they had been Limited they would not have given Satisfaction For it being impossible to foresee the Business and Votes of a Parliament at a distance If they had been restrained to certain Points in all probability they would have wanted Power to have passed all the Bills and and so their Deputation would not have Answered the Desire of the Houses and the greatest part of their Grievances might have been counted unredressed If it 's said that the Parliament might have requested an Enlargement of their Commission from His Majesty To this I Answer That the Convention may send to His Majesty for an Expedient now if they please And I hope they will for I hear his Majesty has been so gracious as to send to them But 2. If these Commissioners were unlimited it would be in their Power to do a great many things prejudicial to the Crown In such a Case they might alter the Monarchy into a Commonwealth or Sign the Deposing of his Majesty if such Bills should happen to be offered And though there may be many Persons of Honour and Conscience enough to lodge such a Trust with Yet in regard his Majesty has been lately mistaken in some of whose Fidelity he had so great and Assurance he has small encouragement to be over confideing for the Future Indeed no Wise Prince will Trust so vast a Concern as a Kingdom with the Honesty of another especially when many of his Subjects are disaffected and in a Ferment So that nothing can be more unreasonable than to expect such Plenipotentiary and Absolute Commissioners § 26. 3. I shall prove in the last place That we have no Grounds either from the Laws of the Realm or from those of Nature to pronounce the Throne void upon such a Retreat of a Prince as we have before us 1. To begin with the Laws of the Realm which are either Acts of Parliament or those we call Common Laws Now there is no Statute so much as pretended to support this Deserting Doctrine and if there was it 's certain no such can be produced Indeed a Prince must be very weary of Governing and void of the common Inclinations of Mankind who would sign a Bill of this Nature and give his Subjects such a dangerous Advantage against himself and his Posterity Neither has this Opinion any better Countenance from Common Law For Common Law is nothing but Antient Usage and Immemorial Custom Now Custom supposes Precedents and Parallel Cases But it 's granted of all Hands That the Crown of England was never judged to be Demifed by the withdrawing of the Prince before now And therefore it follows by undeniable Consequence that this Opinion can have no Foundation in the Common Law because there is not so much as one Ruled Case to prove it by Nay our Laws are not only silent in the maintenance of this Paradox but against it as I shall make good by Two Precedents § 27. 1. From the Case of Edward the IV. who having not sufficient Force to Encounter the Earl of Warick who had raised an Army for King Henry was obliged to fly the Kingdom but that he deputed any Persons to Represent him our Histories don't give us the least Intimation Neither was it Objected at his return that he had Abdicated the Government by omitting to Constitute a Regent Neither is it material to Object that all Disputes of this Nature were over-ruled by his Victorous Army For if it had been the known Law of this Realm that a Prince had ipso facto forfeited his Crown by going beyond Sea without leaving a Deputation though his Departure should happen to be Involuntary If this I say had been the Law of the Kingdom it would not only have been a great advantage to Henry the VI. and made the Nation ring of it of which there is altum Silentium but we may be well assured King Edward would not have conferr'd Honour worn the Crown and taken the State and Authority of the King upon him till he had been Re-Established by Parliaments But that he did Exercise all Acts of Soveraignty before the calling of a Parliament appears from Daniel Stow and Baker And when the Parliament was Convened those who had taken up Arms against him were found Guilty of Treason and his Adherents were restored to Blood and Estate Daniel But there was no Confirmation or Resisting or his Title which is a Demonstration there was no need of it and that this Abdicating Doctrine was perfectly unknown to that Age. § 28. 2. To come nearer our own Times what Seals or Commissioners did Charles the II. leave behind him after Worcester Fight And yet I beleive no Mortal ever urged this as an Argument against his Restauration If it be Answered that there was much more danger in this case than in that before us To this I reply that if we Examine the matter more narrowly we shall find the disparity very inconsiderable For was there not a numerous Army of Foreigners and Subjects in the Field against his present Majesty at his retiring What Power or Authority or so much as Liberty was there left him And I am afraid that at that time he had fewer Friends to stand by him than his Brother after that unfortunate Battle in 51. § 29. And since this pretended Dereliction has no manner of Protection from the Constitution it has no other refuge but the Laws of Nature to fly to but a very little Storming will serve to drive it from this last Retrenchment § 30. For the Law of Nature is nothing but the Reason of the
us to the Ruin of Europe The King of England saith the Prince of Orange in his Declaration have given the greatest credit to those Counsellors who have overturned the Religion Laws and Liberties of his Realms And subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liherties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and indirect ways but in open and undisguised manner §. 2 Pag. 10. § 17. he informs us That both he and his dearest and most entirely beloved Consort the Princess have endeavoured to signifie in terms full of respect to the King the just and deep regret which all these proceedings have given us c. But those evil Counsellors have put such ill Constructions on these our good intentions that they have endeavoured to alienate the King more and more from us as if we had designed to disturb the peace and happiness of the Kingdom Sect. 19. To crown all there are great and violent presumptions inducing us to believe that these evil Counsellors in order to the carrying on their ill designs and to the gaining to themselves the more time for the effecting of them for the encouraging of their Complices and for the discouraging of all good Subjects they have published that the Queen have brought forth a Son tho there have appeared both during the Queens pretended bigness and in the manner in which the Birth was managed so many just and visible Grounds of suspicion that not only we our selves but all the good Subjects of those Kingdoms do vehemently suspect that the Pretended Prince of Wales was not born by the Queen And it is notoriously known to all the world that many both doubted of the Queens bigness and of the Birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfie them or to put an end to their Doubts Things being in this state He resolved to go over to England Sect. 21. and to carry with him sufficient force to defend him from the violence of those evil Counsellors and then he declares that this Expedition was intended for no other design but to have a free and lawful Parliament assembled as soon as is possible Sect. 25. To the end that all the violences and disorders which have overturned the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a Free and Legal Parliament to which he would also refer the Enquiry into the Birth of the Pretended Prince of Wales and all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession Now if all this is true which no English man can deny then had the Prince of Orange the justest cause that ever man had to do what he did and the King of England was bound in justice to have Summoned a Parliament and to have referr'd the things in question to them there being no other competent Judg on Earth of the things in dispute but if he would not suffer a Parliament to meet then the Sword must determine the Question between them for they were both Soveraign Princes and had no Superior over them to decide it The King accordingly referr'd it to the Sword for he refused to the last to suffer a Parliament to meet till the Invasion was over and the Prince had no reason to take his word for it The Protestants of England had no reason to fight against this Prince who came to right their Cause and offered to refer all to a Parliament of English Nobility and Gentry and the Papists alone were not able to resist the Prince's Army especially after many of the King's Army were gone over to the Prince so that the King was at last forced to call a Parliament in the manner I have set forth and he promised both the Nation and the Prince the Parliament should meet and act freely but before this was possible to be brought about without any cause given or alledged he disbanded his Army sent away the Queen the Child and the Seals and then followed them himself leaving the Nation in Anarchy and confusion Now I will refer this to the World whether this absence was not voluntary unforced and criminal after he had thus passed his word For supposing he had stayed on the Princes terms and the Parliament had met no Act could have passed without his own consent and if any thing had been required that had not been just and legal if then he had withdrawn his case would have been more justifiable and perhaps he should have found enough to have defended it and so needed not to have withdrawn The Story of the French League and the Prince of Wales are not passed so over tho they are postponed but we may hear more of them in due time tho when all is done there will be no reason to expect that all the Prate of this populous Town should be proved to be true it will be sufficient if his now Majesty justifie his own Publick Declarations which I believe no man doubts but he can and has done the Three Estates having in their Declaration subscribed to the truth of all the main parts of his The King being thus gone some way or other must be taken to bring us again to a settlement and that of a Convention of the Three Estates was taken as least liable to Exception and Mistake but then he tells us Sect. 2. That the Necessity alledged for their justification is either of their own making or of their own submitting to which is the same thing and therefore ought not to be pleaded in justification of their Proceedings Now this is not True The King would never have left his people if he had not first lost their hearts by the things charged upon his Counsellors nor then neither if he had not first resolved never to do them right against those Counsellors because he had reason to believe this would have satisfied them so that his late Majesty was not driven out of his Dominions by his Enemies as he stiled them but by his pretended Friends who put him upon doing ill things and then would not suffer him to Redress them Well but If he had been invited back upon Honourable Terms they needed not have had recourse to these singular Methods Why how does he know that The King had Honourable Terms offered him before he went and they would not stop him from going and if they had sent more Honourable Terms after him who can tell whether he would have accepted or have stood to them He had passed his Word before that a Parliament should meet yet he Burnt the Writs and withdrew Well but however our Author is resolved the late Kings withdrawing himself is no resigning of his Crown or discharging of his Subjects of their Allegiance In order to which he undertakes to shew that his late Majesty before his withdrawing had sufficient Grounds to make him apprehensive of danger and therefore it cannot be call'd an Abdication 2. That the leaving any representative behind him
was impracticable at this juncture But there are two other things which he has not mentioned the first of which is who gave the occasion of these Dangers which he apprehended and the Second whether he had no other way to avoid those Dangers but by withdrawing Now it is plain that the ill courses taken under his Government had brought upon him those Dangers and that if he would have suffered a Parliament to meet he needed not to have withdrawn and consequently his going away rather than submitting the things in dispute to a Parliament was a voluntary Abdication Sect. 4. Our Author has a scruple whether the Kings going away signifies any thing to Scotland and Ireland now all this is no better than banter for when he left England he left them too tho' the one was for sometime and the other still is under the Regular Administration of the Lord Lieutenant as he tells us but those that have since come from thence assure us there is nothing Regular in his Administration but the British Protestants are treated as Enemies by this Minister of his so that Ireland being an Appendage of England and thus treating our Brethren ought by us to be taken for a Rebel and an Enemy let the pretence be what it will Their Loyalty to the Late King not excusing but Aggravating their Injuries to his Country men who have done nothing to deserve this usage but it is to be hoped will find hands enough to revenge it in due time Our Author in the 5 Sect. is to prove the late King had sufficient Grounds c. omitting his Rhetorick Had not his Majesty faith he great Reason to Retire to secure his Person and Honour at his first withdrawing from Whitchal When he had met with so many unfortunate disappointments with so many surprizing and unparallell'd Accidents c. I say no he ought to have considered what was the Cause of all these Misfortunes and to have applied himself with so much the more Industry to the quieting of his people which the sitting of the Parliament would in all probability have effected But what could he promise himself by withdrawing but the bare saving of his Life and Liberty with the loss of his Crown now his Life and Liberty were in no Danger as is plain for after he was brought back a Prisoner and suffered to go away again without any hinderance There are many indiscreet things said in this Paragraph which I could easily expose but I would not make this Answer too long nor exasperate any body against the Author and therefore I will pass them over To be obliged saith he to Pay a Foreign Army which came over to enable his Subjects to drive him out of his Dominions Looked as if there was a design to reduce him as low in his Honour as in his Fortune The Prince saith in his Declaration Sect. 21. That he intended nothing but to have a Free and Lawful Parliament Assembled as soon as was possible And this might have been done without driving the King out of his Kingdom and it is very difficult to imagine how he could at first propose more to himself nor would it have been any diminution of the Kings Honour to have paid the Dutch Army a few Weeks or Months till things could have been setled When the Forts and Revenues were thus disposed off when the Papists were to be disbanded And the Protestants could not be trusted when the Nation was under such violent and general dissatisfactions when the King in case of a Rupture which was not unlikely had nothing but his single Person to oppose against the Princes Arms and those of his own Subjects Well what then Why it was time to be gone No Sir it was time to be better Advised than he had been by those that had brought him into this deplorable State. It was time to despair of ever being able to Set up Popery and an Arbitrary Power in England to have reflected on the breach of his former Promises and Oaths which had so Exasperated his Subjects against him but by other measures might very easily have been again appeased and deserved after all rather to be trusted than those Popish Souldiers he was so fond of to his Ruine because he had formerly had sufficient Experience of their Loyalty till he had made it impossible for them to serve him without destroying their Religion and their Civil Liberties When his Mortal Enemies and those who were under the highest forfeitures to his Majesty were to sit Judges of his Crown and Dignity if no further c. The Power of an heated Imagination Why after all these were the three Estates of England whom he thus blackens or a part of them or rather the Church of England Nobility and Gentry the same men that were chosen and for the most part must be chosen again if we were to choose to morrow as to the Lower House and as to the Upper the Bishops and the Peers always are and must the be same Nor were they to sit Judges of his Crown and Dignity for they must have Sworn Allegiance to him again at their meeting much less of his Life or Liberty but only of his former Actions his Ministers and of the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales And he had Reason to have expected great Candor from them having had so great Experience of them before When a Gentleman of the Church of England could thus harangue it against his own Party and Interest we need not wonder if that Unfortunate Prince found some Jesuits about him who would perswade him rather to abandon his Crown Kingdom and People then the Glorious design of forcing England once more to submit to the yoke of Rome Section 6. Our Author is at a loss to find the Reason why his coming from Feversham to Whitehal is not allowed to be a return to his people now if he please to look into the former History he will find it was not voluntary but forced tho he was not then known and in all probability the fear continued upon him when the force was removed for then he saw he could not go away without the Prince's leave and that was the true reason of his inviting the Prince to London when he could not keep him out if he would Pray what had the King done to incur a Forfeiture by his first retirement had he quitted the Realm Yes he had and the Government too and necessitated his own Menial Servants to submit to the Prince by the Famous Address made at Guild-hall the 11th of December So that the Prince was now actually invested with the Government the whole Nation having submitted to him and it was at his choice whether he would treat him as a King now nor had he any great reason to do so considering how lately he had broke his word to him and the Nation His return after some assurance of Fair Treatment is a plain Discovery of the Motives of his withdrawing
and of his intention to Govern. Had it been parely Voluntary I would have allowed the Consequence but when he did and said all that he could to have got out of the hands of the Feversham men without Discovering himself and was at last brought up as Prisoner and discovered by those who knew him after he was Landed for him after all this to return to White-Hall is no Argument of his intention to stay and Govern us But admit it were What proof did he give that he would change his Measures Was not White-Hall crowded with Irish and English Roman Catholicks as before Was there any one step towards the Satisfying of his Protestant Subjects of his better Intentions towards them The only Order of Council he made after his return was apparently in favour of the Papists so that by that we may guess what would have followed The rest of the Paragraph is either mistimed mistaken or nothing to the purpose for I will grant him his Late Majesty had some cause as well as free leave to withdraw the second time So that after all I Conclude just contrary to my Author the first withdrawing was causeless and therefore Voluntary and therefore in his own Notion an Abdication From the VIIIth Section to the XXth Section is spent in a Controversie with the Author of the Present State of Affairs about the Abdication or Deposing of Richard II. and Edward II. and as I am no Friend to the Deposing Doctrine in General nor have any good Opinion of those Actions in particular nor those Books by me now which are absolutely necessary to the Discussing those Questions I shall leave the aforesaid Author to make his own defence if he please and go to his 20th Section where he proposeth this Question If its Demanded Why his Majesty did not leave Seals and Commissioners to supply his Absence It was Impracticable at this Juncture Now if this Answer is true then it follows that it was impossible his late Majesty should reign any longer for if he would not Govern us himself and either would not or could not find any other person or persons to supply his place and this was brought upon him by his own Act then was his Government and right at an end Government supposeth a Governour and Persons Governed if one of them fail the other fails too and the blame falls on the party that gives the cause Nor was it possible for us to continue in a state of Anarchy however it was brought upon us but after he was gone it was absolutely necessary that we should set up another in his place or run into Confusion and a state of War. And when we had once taken this care for our selves considering how ill we had been used it was very probable we should not be very willing to return again under his power and therefore his late Majesty ought to have continued his Post what Difficulties soever he had struggled with even to the hazard of his Life and Liberty or if he abandon'd his people to have expected that they would take care to provide for themselves as they did which was to put his Antagonist in the actual Possession of the Government for we could then much less than he find any other person or persons to set up But let us hear his Reasons When the Nation was so much embroiled and the Kings interest reduced to such an unfortunate Ebb It would have been very difficult if not impossible to have found persons who would have undertaken such a dangerous Charge Now this must be understood of his first withdrawing tho' he confounds it with the second for then I will grant it was not only difficult but Impossible But when he went first from White-Hall doubtless this was well considered and it would put an end to all our disputes if we knew the true Reasons which were then alledged for his going The three Lords which were sent to treat with the Prince are said to have returned his Answer the Evening before the King went away by an Express but it is Notorious he resolved to go before the Queen went and the next Paris Gazett told us he was expected every Tide in France so that it was no secret there so that what so ever Answer the Prince made he was resolved to be gone Yet he had promised the Nation and the Prince there should be a Free Parliament Now if the Nation was already so Imbroiled and the Kings Interest at so low an Ebb his going away must needs reduce his Kingdoms and Affairs into a much worse Estate The result of all which is that having well considered all things he at last resolved rather than suffer a Parliament to meet and determine the differences between him and his People and the Prince of Orange He would abandon his People when no body durst undertake to supply his place by reason of the Difficulties and this is a real and true Abdication For I will suppose after all that it was absolutely necessary that a Parliament should meet and that we must have been absolutely ruined one way or other if one had not met for if James the II. could have resetled himself without one then It is past all Controversie he would after that never have suffered one to meet and act freely who would abandon his Kingdom rather than suffer a Parliament in this Extremity when he had no other way to save himself And after he was gone nothing but a Meeting of the three Estates could have sufficient Authority to Re-Establish our shattered Government and settle the Nation But saith my Author Granting such a representation had been engaged in The Commissions must either have extended to the caling of a Parliament or not if not they would neither have been satisfactory nor absolutely necessary nor satisfactory for the want of a Parliament was that which was accounted the great Greivance of the Nation as appears from the Prince of Orang's Declaration where he says expressly That his expedition is intended for no other design but to have a free and lawful Parliament assembled as soon as was posible Now here our Gentleman leaves us in the Dark without telling us what he thought but § 25. He reassumes it and shews that if the Commissioners were limited the greatest part of the Grievances might have been counted unredress'd if unlimited it would be in their Power to do a great many things prejudicial to the Crown And his Majesty having been lately mistaken in some of whose fidelity he had had so great an assurance he has small encouragement to be over confiding for the future That is it is fit he should trust no body so far Now I think I have sufficiently proved that we were in such circumstances that if we had not had a Parliament we had been certainly ruin'd And therefore any Deputation without a Commission to hold a Parliament would have signified nothing and a Commission that had not extended to all those
Grievances which the Majority of the three Estates should have judged necessary to be redress'd would have signified as little so that whatever the difficulties or distrusts of the King were at that time he saw he must yield the point after he had strugled as long as was possible and now when he had now passed his Word it was too late to revoke it and therefore there was that necessity added to the other of holding one Now Sr. if we had yielded this point there had been an End of the English Liberties for ever If he had yielded it what inconvenience could have followed which did not certainly attend his Desertion of us but if he had stayed he might in all probability have saved his main Stake and have regained the Affections of his people again and so have ended his Days in Honour and Peace in his own Palace and amongst his good Subjects At least there was so great a probability of all this that no man but he would have taken the other way Nor he neither if he had suffered this Question to have been debated in his Privy Council and had heard what all sides could have said for it Sect. 21. He tells us this expedient the appointing of a representative was not absolutely necessary for the Administration of Justice might have proceeded regularly without any such Deputation by virtue of those Commissions which the Judges and Justices of the Peace had already from the King. So that here was no need of Seals or Commissioners tho the Nation was imbroiled to that heigth that no body durst have undertaken this dangerous Charge as he tells us the Section before and the King was gone Thus men loose themselves when they meddle with what they do not understand The Tumults which arose that very day in London and spread themselves with the news of the Kings withdrawing all over the Nation do sufficiently confute this airy Notion And at this time both the Judges and Justices of the Peace were at almost as Low an Ebb of Authority and Credit with the People as their Master by reason of the many unqualified men which had been imployed and the things they had done contrary to Law he could not but know how the late Lord Chancellor Sir Roger Lestrange and many others were treated by the People and yet he tells us the Administration of Justice might have proceeded regularly yes we might have lived without any King Magistrates or Execution of Justice at all if all men would have been quiet and minded their own business Section 22 We have a whimsey of a Journey of Charles the first into Scotland and that five Lords were appointed by him to sign bills in his Name but the Judges and Justices acted by virtue of their former Commissions without any new Authority from these Representatives of his Majesty Now to what end is all this why to prove that Commissions will hold tho the King is absent Who ever doubted this for without this had been allowed he could have had no representative But I thought he would have given us an instance of a King that had Stole out of his Kingdom and had left no body to have supplied his place which Charles I. did and yet after he was gone no body knew whether to return no body knew when his people had been Governed by his Judges and Justices of the Peace and then this should have been an Example for England Henry the 3d. of France was first King of Poland and hearing of his brothers Death stole away without Leaving any Deputy But then the Kingdom of Poland call'd a Dyet and Judged it an Abdication and proceeded to the Election of a New King as if he had been Dead The Instances of this nature must be very rare but who ever heard of a Prince that withdrew himself from his people or was forced away and yet no body was put in his place Certainly James the 2d foresaw what would follow and in some sort consented to it rather than to the setting of a Parliament § 26. He undertakes to prove in the last place that we have no Grounds either from the Laws of the Realm or from those of Nature to pronounce the Throne void upon such a retreat of a Prince as we have before us This is bold and very peremptory considering there had then a Vote passed for it in the Lower house of the Convention And that this Gentleman is a Clergy-man and knows very little of the Laws of England There is said he no Statute so much as pretended to support this Deserting Doctrine he might have better called it this right of providing for our selves when we had no body to take care off us There is no Statute to enable us to meet and chose a new King if the whole Royal Line should happen to be extinct yet this may very probably happen at one time or another What shall we therefore continue in a State of Anarchy for ever Neither has it any foundation in common Law For common Law is nothing but Ancient usage and Immemorial Custom Now Custom Supposeth Precedents and Parallel Cases But it is granted on all hands that the Crown of England was never judged to be demised by the withdrawing of the Prince before Such a withdrawing as this I believe never happened in England before nor ever will again and it is Stupendioutly wonderful that it happened now There was nothing asked of the King but what he ought to have granted freely viz the calling of a Free and Lawful Parliament which he said he was resolved to have had tho the Prince had not entered England and so soon as he was retired he would hold such a Parliament then he came further and promised to hold a Parliament the 15th of January and sent thee Noble-men to the Prince to adjust the Preliminaries who had as good an Answer as they could expect but before it was possible the late King should know what it would be whilest all men rested secure under the Expectation of that meeting The King for Reasons wholly unknown to us burns the Writs sends away the Seals withdraws himself and disbands his Army Now if he can find a case Parallel to this in the History of the whole world Erit mihi Magnus Apollo Nay saith he our Laws are not only silent in the maintenance of this Paradox but against it as I shall make good by two Instances The first of these is that of Edward the Fourth who was forced to fly without leaving any representative yet returned and regained the Crown King Edward was surprized under pretence of a Treaty and sent Prisoner to Warwick Castle and made his escape out of Custody after this Henry the Sixth was again Crowned and Edward the Fourth declared a Traytor in Parliament and an Usurper of the Crown and all his Estate confiscated and the like Judgment passed against all his Adherents and all the Statutes made by him were revoked
fit That all Officers and Souldiers be Lodged by the Direction and Appointment of the Magistrates Justices of the Peace or Constables of the place where such Forces shall come and not otherwise And we do hereby strictly forbid all Officers and Souldiers upon any pretence whatsoever to take up any Quarters for themselves or others without such Direction or Appointment upon pain of being Casheired or suffering such other punishment as the offence shall deserve The Prince found the Treasury very empty of Money the Cash in it being said to be but 40000 l. Whereupon he desired the City of London to advance a Sum for His present Occasions and the 10th of January they agreed to lend 100000 l. but it being raised by Subscriptions it amounted to above 150000 l. The 16th of January the Prince put out a Declaration to assure the Mariners and Seamen of their Pay and suppress the false reports had been spread to the contrary by the Discontented Party The Elections of the Members for the Convention in the mean time went on with the greatest Liberty that could possibly be conceived every man giving his Vote for whom he pleased without the least Solicitation from the Prince or any of his there had been Writs before this twice for a Parliament in a few Months and almost every place had before this fixed their Members so that the difference was not great between the Men that were and those that would have been chosen if the King had suffered the first or second Parliament he called to have met and this gives the truest Idea that can be desired of the temper of the Nation and what would have been the event if either of those Parliaments had sate The two Houses met the 22d of January and the Upper House there being no Lord Chancellor chose the Marquess of Hallifax for their Speaker and the Commons chose Henry Powle Esq after which a Letter was read in both Houses from His Highness the Prince of Orange on the Occasion of their Meeting which was as followeth My Lords I Have endeavoured to the utmost of my power to perform what was desired from me in order to the publick peace and safety and I do not know that any thing hath been omitted which might tend to the preservation of them since the Administration of Affairs was put into my hands It now lieth upon you to lay the foundations of a firm security for your Religion your Laws and your Liberties I do not doubt but that by such a full and free Representative of the Nation as is now met the Ends of my Declaration will be attained And since it hath pleased God hitherto to bless my good intentions with so great success I trust in him that he will compleat his own work by sending a spirit of Peace and Union to influence your Counsels that no interruption may be given to an happy and lasting Settlement The dangerous condition of the Protestants in Ireland requiring a large and speedy succour and the present state of things abroad oblige me to tell you that next to the danger of Unseasonable Divisions amongst our selves nothing can be so fatal as too great delay in your Consultations The States by whom I have been enabled to rescue this Nation may suddenly feel the ill effects of it both by being too long deprived of the service of their Troops which are now here and of your early assistance against a powerful enemy who hath declared a War against them And as England is by Treaty already engaged to help them upon such Exigencies so I am confident that their chearful concurrence to preserve this Kingdom with so much hazard to themselves will meet with all the Returns of Friendship and assistance which may be expected from you as Protestants and Englishmen whenever their condition shall require it Given at St. James's the 22d day of January 1688. To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled at Westminster Will. H. P. d' Orange The first thing the Houses took care of was by mutual consent to draw up and present the following Address The Address of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster in this present Convention to his Highness the Prince of Orange Die Martis 22º Januarii 1688. WE the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled at Westminster being highly sensible of the Great Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that our Preservation is next under God owing to your Highness do return our most humble thanks and acknowledgments to your Highness as the Glorious Instrument of so great a Blessing We do further acknowledg the great care your Highness has been pleased to take in the Administration of the Publick Affairs of the Kingdom to this time and we do most humbly desire your Highness that you will take upon you the Administration of Publick Affairs both Civil and Military and the Disposal of the Publick Revenue for the Preservation of our Religion Rights Laws Liberties and Properties and of the Peace of the Nation And that your Highness will take into your particular care the present state of Ireland and endeavour by the most speedy and effectual means to prevent the Dangers threatning that Kingdom All which we make our Request to your Highness to undertake and exercise till further Application shall be made by us which shall be expedited with all convenient speed and we shall also use our utmost endeavours to give dispatch to the matters recommended to as by your Highness's Letter To this Address thus presented by both Houses at St. James's the Prince of Orange made this Reply the same day My Lords and Gentlemen I Am glad that what I have done hath pleased you And since you desire me to continue the Administration of Affairs I am willing to accept it I must recommend to you the consideration of Affairs abroad which maketh it fit for you to expedite your business not only for making a Settlement at home upon a good foundation but for the safety of all Europe The Houses also ordered that Thursday the 21th of January Instant be appointed for a day of Publick Thanksgiving to Almighty God in the Cities of London and Westminster and ten miles distance for having made his Highness the Prince of Orange the Glorious Instrument of the Great Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that Thursday the 14th of February next be appointed for a Publick Thanksgiving throughout the whole Kingdom for the same The 23d of January the Lords passed this Order Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled at Westminster That no Papist or Reputed Papist do presume to come into the Lobby Painted Chamber Court of Requests or Westminster-Hall during the sitting of this Convention And it is further Ordered That this Order be Printed and Published and set upon the Doors of the said Rooms The 28th of January the Commons passed this Vote Resolved That King James the