Purchasing of it than She is believed to have done And therefore not being Contented with Lands of Theobalds which were bestowed upon him soon after the Prince of Orange was Advanced into a Condition and Capacity of making Grants and Alienations of that Kind and of which he has made large Improvements and Raised vast Summes from thence by Sales and otherwise to the wonderful Wrong and Damage of all those that had Leases of and Tenant Right in them from and under the late Duke of Albemarle to whose Father they were Judged a very Royal and Valuable Recompence for the Noble Service He did in Retrieving and Re-establishing the Government upon its Ancient Legal Bottom the Restoring the late King Charles to his Rightful and Hereditary Soveraignity and for Re-estating these Kingdoms in the peaceable Possession of their Laws and Liberties I say that not being Satisfied with this ample Donative and Gift He hath lately Begged of King William the other Lands I have Mentioned and hath had them Granted unto Him without the least Regard to the Right of the Crown the Property of the Prince of Wales the Laws of this Kingdom or to the Interest which some Hundreds of Persons have more or less in them Of which Acquisition on Benting's part and Alienation on William's it will not be amiss to inlarge a little that we may the better Discern and come the more Sensibly under the Impression both of the Despotical and Unlimimited Absoluteness which the Usurper and his Minions Challenge over us and of the Slavish State and Tenure we are Reduced unto of having our Estates wrested from us and given away to what Degree Measure and Proportion one Dutch Man shall have the Impudence to Demand and the other the Insolency and Tyranny to Grant For if we look into the Extent and Largeness of this Grant it is the Giving away no less than the Dominion and Property of Five Parts of Six of one Entire County which as it is too great a Power and Inheritance for any Foreign Subject to Possess and Inherit So it may hereafter prove Unsafe for the Government to have so Numerous a People made Subject unto and Dependant on Him Seeing it is of that vast Dimension and ample Jurisdiction that near Fifty Mean Lordships Hold of those Mannors and above Fifteen Hundred Freeholders are Tenants there to the King and thereby Obliged unto Him under a particular Allegiance besides that which they ow him in the Quality and on the Foot of their being his Subjects And it is so particular a Revenue Anciently Vested in the Prince of Wales that it cannot Legally and according to the Customs Constitution and Laws of England be Alienated from him And therefore upon the Creation of a Prince of Wales there are upon the Right of Tenure under him and of Tenancy unto him Mises of Eight Hundred Pounds payable to the said Prince Nor is it unworthy of Remark that in the Preamble of the Statute of the 21. Jac. Cap. 29 it was brought into Doubt and questioned whether Charles the First that was then Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwal whom the Statute Declares to have an Inheritance in both tho under special Limitation could Let or Rent Leases for Three Lives or any longer than his Own And it is there Declared that he could not unless such Leases were Confirmed in Parliament And the Reason is Because upon want of a Prince of Wales that Inheritance becomes immediatly Vested in the Crown So that if the Prince of Wales himself who has an Inheritance in that Revenue cannot Grant Estates out of it for any longer than his own Life without the Consent and Authority of Parliament it demonstratively Follows that the Prince of Orange who by the very Title that he possesseth the Crown hath at most only an Estate in it for his own Life cannot Grant away and Alienate it without the Consent of both Houses of Parliament Declared in and by a formal and express Statute To which I will presume to add that in Case of a Failure of a Prince of Wales it doth not settle in the Crown as a Propriety but as an Usufructuary till a Prince of Wales be Created to whose Creation that Revenue is Annexed by those words in our Law To him and his Heires who shall be Kings of England Nor was there ever a Disposal or Alienation of that Estate from the Crown save when Queen Elizabeth who was as much the Idol as she was called the Protectoress of her People ventured to grant it unto and bestow it upon the Earle of Leicester but that both occasioned such an Insurrection and Rebellion and was likely to raise and continue such a Civil War in the Kingdom that Leicester was glad both to depart from all Pretence of Claim that was made unto him by that Grant and quietly to Resign it and the Queen who wanted neither Spirit to Assert her legal Rights and Prerogatives nor Interest in the Affections of her Subjects for Support and Justification of them was joyful to put an End to those Intestine Divisions and Troubles bâ— Reassuming those Lands to the Crown where they have ever since continued Nor can a rightful and hereditaâ—y King of England even in the Case and on the Sâ—pposal that there were no Prince of Wales legally Alienate and Give away those Lands from the Crown seeing they are no otherwise Vested in it than in Trust to be Preserved forth coming to the Use Profit and Honour of such a Prince when there comes to be One and at what time he is Created and Declared And therefore in and by the very Statute of Charles II. which gave Power as well as Liberty for the Sale and Disposal of the Fee Farm Rents there is a particular and express Exception of the forementioned Welch Rents tho there was then no Prince of Wales nor any Prospect that there would be one of that King's Body which plainly Imported that the Parliament took the Welch Revenue nor to be Alienable Much less then can the Prince of Orange that hath no hereditary Right to the Crown but hath only Obtained it by the illegal and merely pretended Choice of the People which is in other Terms to have Usurped it and who by the very Act of Settlement has but an Estate for Life in the Possession of it Grant away the Inheritance and absolute Fee of the Principality of Wales For it is no less an Absurdity in Law to say that a Tenant for Life can Grant a Fee than to say that a Tenant in Fee can Grant no more than for a Life But it appears that that tho the Power of a lawful King and of a legitimate Prince of Wales be Limited and Restrained within the Precincts of Law yet that the Power of an Usurper is boundless and unconfined However it is no way incongruous that he who has violently Snatched his Father in Law and Uncle's Crown from his Head and Drove him from his
Dominions should also take upon himself to Grant away and Alienate the Inheritance of his Cousin and to Disinherit him of it But why doth he not as well make Benting Prince of Wales as to give him the Revenue of that Principality Seeing he may as lawfully and by the same Measures of Justice do the First as he has done the Last And no doubt but that as he hath Inclination to it we may also live to see it done if he can but once Emerge out of the present War and thereupon bring over from the Continent a numerous and triumphant Outlandish Army to support and protect him in his Usurpation and Tyranny and make us with Tameness and Decency wear our Chains In the mean time considering the Depopulaation and Poverty which thro a long and costly War the Nation is already reduced unto we may make this Reflection upon and this Inference from the Prodigality of our Belgick King to his Dutch Minion and to his Outlandish Janizaries viz. that it can be done upon upon no other Design than to gratifie the Commo-nwealth of Holland and to raise them to an Ascendency of Wealth and Power over us For had he the least Regaâ—d to the Welfare of England he would blush to ask such immense Summs of the Parliament when he is alienating and disposing away the standing Revenues of the Crown to his Whores and Burdaâ—â—â—â— For how can we imagin that any thing should be held needful to be Levied of the People if it were not in Subseâ—viency to an Outlandish Interest when we see not only those Lands that are pretended to be forfeited but those Ancient Inheritances that the Sovereign and Royal Family should Subsist upon squander'd away upon little Foreigners which were bred and heretofore accustomed to live upon the Fragments of their Master's Table Surely we may expect from the Justice and Wisdom of this Parliament That before they Empty the Purses of those they Represent they will enquire how the Revenues vested in the Crown are bestowed and applyed For whatsoever Usurpers may dare to do in wasting the Treasure and Inheritance of the Throne by Buildng Palaces and furnishing them splendidly at Loo and for making Indorsements on the posteriour Parchments of those I have mentioned Our Natural and Lawful Kings never used to demand Succours of their Subjects till they had Exhausted themselves and Disbursed their whole Revenue in the Service and for the Protection of their People Nor is there any thing more frequently met with and better known in our Law than that there have been Acts of Resumption of former Grants and Donations from the Crown whensoever the Nation has been Engaged in an expensive War and the People have Groaned under large Taxes And as this is the first Original of the Kind that ever we had Experience of in this Kingdom and for which we are indebted to Holland so I hope that after our Deliverance from a Belgick Prince we shall have no Copy of it or that any King hereafter will make Alienations of Lands from the Crown when he is under Necessities of demanding Aids of his People for his Support and Assistance in Wars wherein he may come to be engaged To which I will only add that under all those lavish and squandring Wasts and Consumptions of our Prince upon Dutch for Closet and Chamber Services he hath not only been Narrow and Parcimonious enough but Niggardly and highly Ungrateful to the English because it could not benefit Holland Whereof among others Talmash that is Dead and old Danby who is Alive are known Instances tho they Served him both in Policy and War and Contributed farther to his Exaltation to the Throne and to the keeping him in it than Thousands of his Country-men were capable of doing and especially beyond what the Chocolate and Carpet Gentleman I have been speaking of had either Courage or Brain to Attempt In recompence whereof instead of any Lands and much less those of the Crown the one was sent and abandoned to be Killed by the French but Murthered by the English abroad and the other is Forsaken Given up and Sacrificed at â—â—me to the old Envy and bigotted Rage of his Enemies But whereas what I have now Represented may seem to Issue only in the Enriching a few Hollanders at our Loss and Expence and not to amount to the Benefit and Advantage either of the Community of that People or of those States unless Secondarily and after several Removes I shall therefore advance to the laying open and displaying wherein to our Vast and infinite Damage we are Bubbled out of our Money and Treasure and made a Prey to that Republick thro the large Sums daily Allotted and Paid them out of our Exchequer Nor is the way wherein it is done such a Mistery as needs Accuracy of Parts and great Penetration to Comprehend it seeing it cannot escape Proving Demonstratively Obvious to every One who will give himselfe leave to Consider how many of the Dutch Troops and of those that Constitute their Particular Quota are upon the English Establishment and Paid with English Mony For as if it had not been enough to have been Guilty both of that Prodigal Folly and that Treasonable Crime of giving them at one time Six Hundred Thousand Pounds as a pretended Re-imbursment of the Charge and Expence they Alleadged they had been at in sending their Fleet and Army hither upon the Motives as they had the Hypocrisy and Impudence to say and We the Simplicity and Lunatism to believe of Rescuing Us from Popery and Slavery but as appears by the Event for Introducing Atheism Thraldom and Poverty We did not only over and above that Maintain and Pay their Whole Army here for a Considerable time but have had ever since Six or Seven Holland Regiments upon English Establishment and both Maintained with good English Mony and at the Proportion of our Pay which is larger then they allow to those Troops which remain under their own Establishment Sure it might have been thought sufficient and would be so by any Prince save this Dutch one who inwardly hates Us and by all the Methods of his Administration seeketh and Pursueth our Ruine that besides the Raising and Maintaining the largest Body of Brittish Troops that has for many Ages been Imployed upon the Continent and over and above the Charges we are at in Assisting and Relieving the Duke of Savoy and on those particular Forces which are on English Pay in Piedmont We should be at the Expence of Purchasing Subsisting and Paying all the Danes most of the Hess many of the Lunenburgh and divers of the Swiss and some of the Brandenburgh Forces that are now in the Confederate Army in Flanders but that after all this Prodigal Expence which tho it may possibly give us the Reputation of a Rich yet will not even with our Allies themselves acquire us the Credit of a Wise Nation We should be so Ridiculously silly as to Beare and
and Reputation that he would neither be accessary to see the Nation Betrayed nor Silently Connive at it and whom therefore tho the Prince of Orange kept a great while at the Hague under a Publick Character from hence yet he was let into none of the Secrets nor trusted in the Management of the Weighty Affairs of State which were Agitated and Adjusted between our Belgick King and those who have assumed to themselves the Haughty Stile of High and Mighty Lords and in whose hands is the Administration of the Government of the Seven Provinces in all things relative to Peace War Traffick and Commerce Nor is it matter of Wonder or Surprize that he Treats those English with Disdain as well as Reservedness whom he pretends to Employ under Publick Characters Abroad seeing the Ministers who are supposed to be at the Head of Affairs at Home and who are believed to be admitted into all the Secrets of the Government are made acquainted with very little Previous to it's coming to be 〈◊〉 but then they whom he did not think worthy to be his Councellors tho they bear the Name are called upon and set at work as his Tooles to see that performed which only himself and his Minion Benting and may be one certain Person more who is in credit with him for having formerly betrayed unto him both his Master and the Kingdom had Debated and Resolved upon Yet those whom he calls his Principal Secretaries of State signifie no more nor make no better Figure in the most important and weighty Matters than that of little and Servile Commis which one of these so Resented heretofore that he Surrendered his Post and withdrew from business but being Tempted with the Profits Salaries and Perquisites of the Place and Allured by a Lofty Title and a Blew Ribon and likewise Flattered with the Hopes that were given him of being otherwise and more Honourably dealt with for the future he hath reassumed it again but meets with the same Reasons and has the same Cause given him of Abandoning it afresh as he Pretended to have for his Deserting it before But moâ—eover besides all these Advantages the Dutch are possessed for the Undoing us thro the Interest they have in their Stadtholder and our Brittish King or by reason of the Services which a Hollander can do them to our Prejudice by being Constituted Ambassador oâ— Envoy from the Crown of England to foreign Courts or by vertue of the Capacity that Benting is in to Betray us and to be useful unto them and promote their separate Designs and Undertakings by the Room he filleth both in our Council and Senate House as well as by the Post of special Access and Favour which he enjoyeth about his Master This same Gentleman Benting who is the Minion and Darling of our Monarch for Familiarities and Privacies which I blush to mention has Granted unto him as well as Assumed the whole Superintendency of the Kingdom of Scotland Governs it intirely by his Creatures who are the only Persons there Trusted with the Administration and to whom he gives such Measures in Reference both to the Legislative and to the Executive Part of the Government in that Kingdom as may best Quadrate with the Benefit of Holland and prove most Disserviceable to the Prosperity of England Witness among many other Things the New Erecting of a Scotch East India Company and the Terms and Immunities upon which it is Established whreof I shall discourse hereafter Having now briefly Detected and Declared the known perfidious and encroaching Temper of the Dutch Nation what awak'ning Examples and Premonitions we had antecedently to the Revolution to Fear and Expect their dealing Treacherously and Rapaciously with us should we have the Folly and Madness as to Trust them and of which Means and Advantages they became thereby possessed for Encroaching upon and Undermining us in all our Concernments I shall proceed in the next Place to Discover and lay Open some of those many Methods Ways and Instances wherein since that time they have Committed Depradations upon us and made us both the Tooles of their Selâ—ish and Ambitious Designs and the Prey of their Malice Craft and Avarice And the Granting away such large Estates and the Settleing such ample Inheritances upon some Individuals of the Dutch Nation may be justâ—y accounted a Robbery Perpetrated upon the Kingdom and a Plundering of the Crown and People to Enrich both those Persons upon whom those Laâ—ds are bestowed and the whole Belgick Republick which is not only made Opulent by this Accruing Weaâ—th of its particular Subjects but whither the Profits and Emoluments of those Estates are Carried and Transported For not to insist upon the vast Summes of Mony which many of that People have Acquired Here in the way of Salaries Gifts and Bribes since the Prince of Orange made a Descent into this Kingdom and which they have Conveyed and Transmitted thither to the Enriching that Common-wealth as well as themselves how many Noble Real Estates have been Conferr'd upon and Vested in them And to omit the many other Alienations of Lands from the Crown and the Ravishment of Ancient Freeholds and Inheritances from divers of of the Subjects of these Dominions that have been lavishly bestowed upon your Ginkles and your Rovignies the later of whom besides the Grant of the Title and Honour of Lord Viscount Galloway has the Estate of Sir Patrick Trant given unto him which has been represented and is held worth Three Thousand Pounds Sterling Annually and the Former is not only Created Earle of Athlone but has the Estate of the Earle of Limerick as likewise that of the Lord Baron of Stone Conferred upon him of which the Last is reckoned to be at least worth Two Thousand Five Hundred Pounds per Ann. and the First Three Thousand Pounds Yearly But I shall only take Notice and think it Proof enough of what I have Suggested of the Large Grants made to Benting of the Lands at Theobalds and of the Lordships of Denbigh Land Bromfield and Yale in the County of Denbigh And which aâ—e not only Given unto Him from the Crown for a certain Term of Years or merely during his Master's Life but are Disposed awâ—y and Alienated for Ever to Him and his Heirs For the Dutch Gentleman knowing his own Invaluable tho Secret Merits and how and in what Manner he had Debased and Prostituted himself to Deserve of his Highness by Accommodating and Serving him in his unnatural Pleasures thought that if Mrs. Villars for Gratifying him in his Lusts in a more natural Way albeit not a lawful hath Merited the Gift of the King's Lands in Ireland which without another Revolution or a Resumption of them by Act of Parliament will come at last to be worth Twenty Thousand Pounds per Ann. to her and her Posterity He might well Pretend unto and Claim something more Considerable as having Contracted a higher Guilt and Submitted to a worse Infamy for the
this Kingdom and being so much to the Advantage of his beloved Country-men he hath neither taken care to have it enquired into as it ought to be nor hath he used proper and effectual means to obviate it And then as for our Gold whereof we are next to speak whatsoever of it hath been at any time sent over thither either for the Subsistence and Payment of our Troops or for any of the other forementioned Ends they have for some Years wholy refused it except upon the Terms of Half a Crown less in the Guinea than it readily went for in England So that by the Remission of it again hither and the Transmitting it back to them which hath been done at least Four times in the Year they have clearly Gained of us Fifty per Cent Annually by that sole Species of our English Coyn but more especially since the rise of Guineas here to Thirty Shillings a Guinea that hath been occasioned by the scarcity of Silver which the Transporting it hither and their Melting it down hath proved the cause of it is incredible what a Prodigous Profit they have made to themselves and what proportionable Damage and loss they have brought upon us in bringing over not only all the Guineas can be found in their own Provinces but all they could Procure and Purchase in other Places on the Continent and which they have put Off and Vended here at that Excessive Rate which they do now go at and have done so some time Whereas they went both from us heretofore to Holland and â—â—re lately bought up by the Dutch from other Foreigners at a Price and Value not exceeding Nineteen or Twenty Shillings of our Mony To which I may Subjoyn that the Value of all other Gold being risen in England in Proportion to the growth of the Value of Guineas they have thereupon brought over as much Foreign Gold as they saw any likelyhood of Buying up our Grain Manufactures and the other Productions of our Country with and have thereby both made Vast Depradations upon us and suitable Gains to themselves thro their vending that Gold here at high and exorbitant Rates which they before Possessed or had lately Procured at the moderate and intrinsick Value of it Whence upon a little Consideration and less Arithmetick we may easily Calculate how great by this means alone their Gain and our Loss have been in that by all the Guineas and Proportionally by other Gold 〈◊〉 they have brought over and put off to us they have mâ—de of every Two Pounds above Three Nor is this all the Damage that thereby ariseth to Us but there are Worse and more Fatal Mischiefs that must unavoidably overtake us very Speedily in that all our Productions and Manufactures which from Year to Year have been Transported into the Seven Provinces either to serve them or the Neighbouring parts of the Continent about them have been Bought up in Extraordinary portions and Measures thro their vent of their Guineas at so high a value and for as much as they can neither Consume themselves nor Dispose to others with whom they drive a Commerce what of our Productions and Manufactures they have bought in the Way and and on the Terms I have mentioned it will be therefore impossible for them and is beyond their intention to transport from us for these several Years to come what this Kingdom fabricketh and yieldeth So that by a necessary Consequence thereupon there must very soon ensue an extraordinary Decay in Trade to the starving both most of our Manufacturers and all others who gain their Subsistence and have heretofore liv'd plentifully by carrying out and vending abroad the Productions and Superfluities of our Country For as the Dutch who for several Years to come will need none of them so by reason of the large Stores of all kinds of English Commodities and Goods with which they have furnished themselves will be able to forestal and undersel us in all the Markets of Europe Moreover to all the forementioned ways of their making their excessive Advantages by and criminal Depradations upon us thro and by reason of the Mony that hath been exported hence in Specie for the payment of our Troops they do also gain an incredible and vast Profit to themselves and cause proportionable Loss and Damage to us by those immense Summs which have not been remitted in Specie but returned beyond Sea by Bills for the use and ends which have been specified which they effect and accomplish by skrewing up and raising the Exchange in profit to themselves and sinking it in loss to us Twenty and Thirty per Cent For no less at present is the difference of Exchange not only on all the Goods and Commodities which we either buy of or sell unto them but upon all the Mony which upon whatsoever Funds we draw and transfer thither by Bills And the extraordinary gâ—in accruing by this means to the Dutch was one of the principal Reasons why they would not suffer those of the Bank of England to erect a Mint on their side for the Coyning our Silver into such mixt and embased Mony as goes current in Holland and Flanders And it was likewise the grand Motive why they refusâ—d to lend the Two Hundred Thousand Pounds to the said Bank which they would have borrowed of them the last Summer towards the paying our Army and for which they offered Five per Cent. Interest and not only to give their own Obligations for the Security of the said Principal and Interest and which 〈◊〉 should be Assignable from one person to another as those of the States of Holland are but that King William himself should thro a Mortgage of his Revenue and hereditary Lands to the States become Surety for the payment of the said summ and the Interest of it Which tho it would have been not only very profitable but highly reputable to the Dutch and disgraceful to King William and the Kingdom of England yet upon the score and Motive of their making a much larger Profit than that would have amounted unto on the Remission of Mony from hence thither by Bills of Exchange they Laughed at the Overture and scornfully rejected the Proposal Nor can any Man be so void of Sense as not to discern had all but so much Mâ—ral Honesty and love to their Country left as to acknowledge it that this exorbitant growth of Exchange between England and Holland must speedily perfect and Consummate our Ruine considering the Poverty to which we are already reduced and the scarcity of Mony under which we labour All which we are indebted for to our Belgick King and to his Treacherous as well as Improvident Conduct towards England in his Management of the War which to gratifie his Ambition we were easily brought to embark in But before I shall dispatch the Topick I am upon I cannot omit the representing one Method more by which they becâ—me greatly Enriched and we as much Impoverished thro the