whole Process Ridicul'd in the very Form and Terms of the Law and Dress'd up in so Contemptuous a manner that nothing was ever more Rudely and Spitefully treated then the Kings Authority and the Wisdom of the Scottish Nation in that Act of State After these Affronts upon the King himself it is not to be expected that they should treat his Royal Highness at a Civiller rate But how this Privilege of Questioning Sovereign Authority Discharging Subjects of their AllegJance and Disposing of the Crowns of Princes comes to be the Subject of every Mean and Mercecenary Pen will be taken I hope into a seasonable Consideration One of the most Seditious Impostures that has yet seen the Light was a Libel that passed under the Title of Bedlo's Narrative of the Fires which was almost wholly and Verbatim taken out of other Scandalous Libels of Former Date and Fobb'd upon the Nation under the Name and Authority of one of the Kings Witnesses Care put it together and it was Printed in Bedlo's Absence The main Scope of the Pamphlet was to possess the People as if the Duke of York the Guards and the Court-Party had Countenanced and Promoted the Conflagration The Kings Life-Guard he says rescued a Man that was taken in the Act of Firing a House Pag. 9. And again One of the Life-Guard threw Fire-Balls into a Womans Lapp Pag. 10. The Duke of York too a French-man into his Custody and said I will secure him but he was heard of no more Ibid. Four Life-Guard-men rescued another French-man c. Ibid. Another French-man carried before the D. of Y. and heard of no more Pag. 11. And so another in like manner Pag. 13. There 's another Charg'd with Burning the City and his Father is said to answer for him My Son doth nothing but what he has a Patent from the King for Pag. 11. In the Popish Courant of Jan. 14. 1680. The same Henry Care and Langley Curtis kill two Birds with one Stone 'T is certain every Papist is Implicitly at least a Rebel and a Traytor Here 's no Exception of either Queen or Duke nor of the very Preservers of his Sacred Majesty when the Rebellious Schismaticks pursued him to Murther him Nay 't is so far from an Exception that he points with his Finger to That he would be at If ever says the Courantier a little below we get a Popish Successor into the Saddle and the Black Tantivy-men to hold the Stirrup whilst his Holiness rides the dull Beasts at Pleasure We 'll burn all the Heretical Doggs c. so that it seems we have a Popish Clergy too as well as a Popish Successor And then to Finish his Complement July 22. 1681. We have says he got a New Fry of Church-men prepared by Hobbs and the Play-house that care not a farthing for any Religion provided they may but Swagger and Domineer and Swear and Damn and Drink Healths with a Huzza I shall only take a Taste here of that Venemous Character of a Popish Successor Though sufficient to give any Honest man Horror for the very Syllables of it but much more to see such Daring Insolencies pass Unpunished He calls his Royal Highness Pag. 10. the Greatest and only Grievance of the Nation the Universal Object of their Hate and Fear and the Subject of their Clamours and CURSES And a little further with as much Malice to the King as to the Duke he pronounces his Majesty as good as lost for his Friendship as he Expresses it to that One GANGREEND Branch of Royalty This is a Subject too Foul to Enlarge upon and I make no question but those Generous and Loyal Magistrates that Entertained so Honourable an Indignation for a Brutal Outrage upon the Duke's Picture will be answerably sensible of these Affronts upon Common Morality and Justice and the Honour of their Sovereign in the Person of his Royal Brother How does Janeway Rage in his Vox Patriae against The Wretched Pensioners in Pag. 2. Those Execrable Villains that by receiving Pensions betray'd our Trusts and our Libertys in the Late Long Parliament Pag. 17. Those Abominable Monsters Pag. 20. And what were these Pensioners at last but a List of Honest Gentlemen Proscribed as the StraffordJans were upon the Entrance into the late Rebellion for Adhering to their Consciences and their Duty 's Divers Privy Councellors and other Persons of Value and Credit in their Stations and of Unquestionable Worth in the Opinion of all that ever knew them And the Addressers are to be served with the same Sauce too A Popish and Arbitrary Design at the Bottom Baldwin's tendency of Addresses F Pag. 9. The Scum and Refuse of the Places where they live Pag. 12. Though the most Eminent Subjects of the Nation Some little Bankrupt Tradesmen a Scandalous and Disgrac'd Attorney one whose Necessity Exposes him to be Biassed by Crusts of Bread and Pots of Ale Ibid. And now to Janeway and Care in Conjunction Most of the Subscribers says the Impartial Numb 15. are RuffJans and Beggerly Vermin drawn in by Pots of Ale and not Apprentices and there 's nothing scapes better that falls in their way And the Impartial again Numb 16. Alderman Pilkington and Mr. Shute are fit Persons to Serve the City next Year in Quality of Sheriffs c. But there are a Pack of People that scarce know what they would have Most Industriously Endeavouring by Caballs and Drunken Factious Clubs to pull up some other Persons c. This is to say in short that whosoever gives his Vote for any other man is a Drunken Factious Rascal What work has Janeway made Impartial Numb 47. With a Scandalous and Malicious Forgery of a Debaucht committed upon Michaelmas day last in the Church of All-hallows Staining and the Story False from one end to the other But it was the Spleen of the Faction when they could not disappoint the Election though by the Meanest Practices Imaginable to be Revenged upon those Honest Gentlemen that were desirous by Ringing the Bells to welcome the Person Elected into his Office It would be Endless and truly as Needless to run through the History of the Scandals upon all those Places and Persons that have Acted Dutifully and Affectionately for the Common Serof the Church and the Crown Is not the King Twitted for his Venison to some of the Addressers Is not Norwich Bristol c. Charged with Designs of Setting up Popery and Arbitrary Power The Artillery Company of Bristol Blasted as an Illegal Usurpation and Calumniated for a Private Test as if there were a Popish Conâ—piracy in the Bottom of it Let but any Man open his Mouth for the King and the Government and he is presently a Bogg-Trotter a Witness in such a Cause a Jury-man in such a One a Judge in another and Branded for all the Villanies which that Sink of Infamy the Faction can throw upon him A Turn-Coat a Fidler a Beggarly
Profit together with the King P. 18. We 'l see now what he says to the Point of Election or Succession In the time says he of Hen. 1. and Hen. 2. there were some Speciall Acts of Parliament for settling the Crown on Maud the Empress or her Issue P. 24. But all such Acts for Tying the Crown to such or such a Family do not Evince a Former Right of Succession P. 25. And then further I say not says he Ibid. how often it hath been adjudg'd that Affirmative Statutes do not annull the Common Law and that one may Prescribe against a Statute Negative but in Affirmance of the Common Law So that if an English King was Elective by the Common Law the Kingdom might Prescribe against Late Statutes which might Erre much more then they could Oblige All Future Parliaments but they might still be free and most of all in what was due before by Common Law Ibid. And moreover P. 75. He grounds his Pretence upon the Speech of Hubert at the Coronation of King John an Excellent President for his turn It is well known to you all that no man hath Right of Succession to this Crown Except that by Unanimous Consent of the Kingdom with Invocation on the Holy Ghost he be Elected from his own Deserts but if any of the last Kings race be more worthy and better then others his Election is more Proper or more Reasonable as it now is in Earl John here present Which says he Ibid. seemeth most rightly to State the nature of Succession as it was in this Kingdom So that all did amount but to this That if a King had such Children so Qualify'd and so Educated that they were above others in Virtue Wisdom and True worth or at least Caeteris Pares they were the most likely Candidates for the Crown So that his Malitious Imposture resolves at last wholly into this He sets the Parliament and the People above the King and makes the Government Elective by the Common Law and from thence Concludes all those Statutes that Assert the Kings Sole Sovereignty and the Right of Hereditary Succession as Nullities for then Repugnance thereunto ' â—is true that Care and Janeway for they are both one in the Impartial have publish'd Num. 82. a Rude Advertisement as if Baldwin had not publish d this Book Whereas Oâ—e or â—wo of Baldwins Servants were taken at One a Clock on a Sunday Morning Posting up the Title Pages which is as much a Publishing them as if he had sold them Openly in his own shop Beside that t is probable he knew the Malice of the Book by the Close and Unseasonable course he took for the Notifying and dispersing of it I have been forc'd to speak at large upon This but I shall be shorter in the rest and go on a little upon the same Head of Sedition All Considering People will now see that Conventiclers are not punish d and ruin'd for holding Conventicles but for being zealous for the Protestant Religion and Government by advice of Parliament against Popery and Clandestine Arbitrary Councells Postscript to Remarques upon Sr. William Smiths Speech at Hicks Hall Publish'd by Baldwin again Here is first a Vote of the Commons set up above the Authority of several Establish'd Laws 2 ly The King himself charg'd with a design of Suppressing the Protestant Religion and Advancing the Interest of Popery in Requiring the Execution of 'em and with Clandestine Arbitrary Councells over and above Double your Watches says Janeway in his Vox Patriae Chain up the Streets of the City day and night Suffer not any Body of Armed Soldiers Greater or Less other then the Trained Bands of this City to march through any part of the City P 1. Here 's a Proposall of keeping his Majesty out of Louden by Force and the Rebells did his Father out of Hall and the Printing of this Paper can have no other End then to Invite and Encourage the Nation into a Tumult And what 's the Ground of this Audacious Proposall but the Surprizing Prorogation of the Parliament Ibid. So that the King shall not Exercise the undoubted ' Prerogatives of his Royall Authority upon pain of Janeways denounâ—ing War against him In the same Libell P. 17 he has a Pretended Address from Suffex to the Knights of the Shire declaring that they will stand by and defend them with their Lives and Fortunes in doing whatsoever they shall judge necessary for the Peace Safety and Prosperity of the Nation if any danger should threaten them And the People of Winchelsea undertake as far to their Burgesses P. 20. Thereby disowning their duty to their Sovereign and transferring their Allegeance to their Fellow-Subjects The Burden of the Song from one end to the other of this Pamphlet being the Exclusion of his Royall Highness and Barring the Kings Supply with an intermixture of demanding the Artillery the Militia the Regulation of Courts Ecclesiastical and Civil a Bill of Association the disposing of all Publick Offices and Charges c. The Sheriffs Case makes King Lords and Commons to be a Corporation which amounts to no less then a ' Deposing of the King That Bugbear Passive-Obedience says Jo. Starkey in the Character of a Popish Successor P. 20. is a Notion crept into the world and most zealously and perhaps as Ignorantly defended What is this but a Papall Absolution But then in the Second Part P. 34. the Nail is driven to the Head Have we not bad a Late King of Portugal Deposed as Delirious and Frantick and consequently render'd by Law Vncapable of Reigning and all this done by his own Subjects and those of his own Religion without the least Reflection of Treason or Rebellion or the Aspersion of Lifting a hand against the Lords Anointed What is this but to tell the People that there needs no more to the Deposing of a Prince then the Outcry of the Multitude that he is not fit to Govern These Outrages upon the Laws of God and man will never find Protection within the Walls of this Loyal City And this Licence is not more the Shame of the Government then the Vile Instruments are in truth the Dishonour of Mankinde The Desperate Practices Declarations and Positions of the Scottish Covenanters even to the barefac'd avowing of it to be their Duty to destroy the King the Royal Family and the Persons as well as the Order of the Bishops is too notorious to be either Conceal'd Palliated or Deny'd which put the Government in Conclusion upon a Test as the only Expedient for the securing both of the Church and State against the Violent and Impious Machinations of those Diabolical Spirits and in effect for preserving the Peace of the Two Kingdoms Just now upon this very Instant of Time when the Scottish Faction were Meditating New Commotions out comes Curtis's Cheat and Mockery of the Arraignment Tryal and Condemnation of a Dogg for refusing the Test and the
A WORD CONCERNING LIBELS AND LIBELLERS Humbly Presented To the Right Honorable Sir John Moor Lord-Mayor of London and the Right Worshipfull the Aldermen his Brethren By Roger L' Estrange LONDON Printed for Joanna Brome at the Signe of the Gun in S. Pauls Church-yard 1681. To the Right Honorable Sir John Moor Knight Lord-Mayor of the City of London and to the Right Worshipful the Aldermen his Brethren BEing given to understand that your Lordship and the Court of Aldermen have lately taken into consideration the bus'ness of Seditious Libells and Papers and that for want of particular Enformation the matter proceeded no further at that time then to a Generall Admonition which extended to the Innocent as well as to the Guilty through the False and Malitious Practices of the Criminalls for the Involving of both forts under the same Scandall and Condemnation I reckon it my duty to the King the Church the City to every Honest man and in the last place to my Self to present your Lordship and the Bench of Aldermen your Brethren with the means of distinguishing the One from the Other In full assurance that your Loyalty Generosity and Wisedom your love of Truth Peace and Common Equity will dispose you to Vindicate his Majesties Crown and Dignity the Royal Family the honour of the Government and all that is Sacred in humane Society against all Insults whatsoever and Cause Exemplary Justice to be done upon such Offenders in these Cases as shall be found properly under your Authority and Jurisdiction I shall not Clog this Paper with Instances either superfluous or of Ancient Date but keep my self within compass both for Time and Bulk Citing the Book and the Page still as I go along with the Publishers Name in the Margent And it will likewise appear from the Pamphlets themselves that there 's a Form'd Conspiracy against both Church and State for the destruction of the Whole and of every Part of it Root and Branch The Book that deserves the first place in this consideration was printed for John Kidgel at the Atlas in Cornhill 1682. and publish'd by Richâ—rd Baldwin in the Old-Bayly A Bold and a Common Agent for the promoting of Sedition and it carries the designe in the very Title and Face on 't Rights of the Kingdom or Customs of our Ancestors touching the Duty Power Election or Succession of our Kings and Parliaments Our TRVE Liberty DUE Allegeance Three Estates THEIR Legislative Power Originall Judiciall and Executive with the Militia Freely discussed through the Brittish Saxon Norman Laws Histories This Gallimawfrey of Fragments was first publish'd in 1649. in favour of Cromwells Proceeding and Government the main Stress of the Discourse resting upon these two Points First that the Late King was lawfully put to death Secondly that the English Monarchy is not Hereditary but Elective And so the Author by Presidents either Impertinent Unwarrantable Perverted or misapply'd supports his Pretensions the best he can Finding this Treasonous Piece to be now Re-printed I could not but bethink my self To what end And this Curiosity put me upon comparing the Two Editions to see how far they Agreed wherein they Differ'd or whether this Latter Impression were the very same with the Original Upon the Examination I find severall sly Variations and Additions and many things Omitted in the Latter Copy which gives first to understand that this is not the work of a Bookseller or Printer for profit but a Regular and Industrious Disposition of the matter for some other purpose And what that Purpose is may be easily gather'd from the Pulse and Biass of the Treatise For the Omissions though Many Large are only such as apply the Arguments for the Sovereign Power of a Parliament or the People to the Defence of the Late Kings Murther or else such as strike so directly at the Subversion of the Monarchy that the Age is not as yet either so Mad or so Wicked as to bear it But his Arguments and Reasonings all this while for the Peoples Right of Calling their Kings to an Account remain Whole and Vntouch'd So that his Maintenance of the Peoples Power over the King even to the Deposing and putting of him to Death stands as good against this King as it did against his Father and speaks the Publisher and the Author to be both of a mind in the Case In One word the two Posâ—ions of this Villanous Book are the Two Pillars of the Associating Plot. And if the Faction can but first perswade the Multitude that if the King will not do as the People would have him the People may deal with the King as they please And Secondly That this is an Elective Monarchy there 's the King's the Duke of York's and the Governments business done at a Blow But I shall leave the Author to Expound his own meaning in three or four passages omitted in this new Edition I cannot see says he why it should be a Crime for any to desire that an Action of such Concernment putting the King to death might be fully Clear'd to be Just and acted Justly Page 2. And again I would gladly have spoken all that I justly might to have saved him from death till I had seen that his Life could not consist with Peoples Peace and Safety which I may acknowledge to be the Supreme and Highest Law Humane P. 3. Further My work shall be to Enquire of matters of Law And how by the Laws and Customs of this Kingdom it may be known Adjudged and Declar'd what is the Duty of our King and whether he hath done it or not and in case of failure how it may be judg'd who they be that must determine it so that the Subject may and should be quiet and submit to such an Act Judiciall and Conclusive Pag. 4. Once again It may seem a short work and soon sayd when the King breaks his Trust the Parliament must Judge him and when the Lords refuse the Commons might and must because it was Necessity but I am loth to hide my self in a Dark Chaos I had rather see it Cleared in the Open Sun P. 4. This is sufficient to shew the Opinion and the Drift of the Author wherein he declares himself that the Late King was Justly put to death and undertakes by Law and Reason to prove it So that his Pretended Proofs being now Expos'd to the Publick by Kidgell and Baldwin in the very same terms with the Original must necessarily render the Late Publishers as Guilty as the Author There runs a Vein of Sedition through the whole Tract but some Few Instances out of this late Impression shall serve the Turn Let us Discusse it says he by Law and Reason what is our Legall Fcalty how made how Limited how kept or how DISSOLV'D P. 11. So that our Allegeance may be Dissolv'd it seems and is only Conditionall And again Allegeance was ad Legem to the Laws the Kingdom and the Kingdoms good or
Rascal a Drunken Blaspheming Wretch a Sworn Papist One that has Whor'd his Mother Betray'd his Prince and in short 't is but Raking of Hell for a Catalogue of the most Damning Sins that ever carried any man thither to furnish out the Character of a Person that Honestly Interposes betwixt Religion and Sacrilege betwixt Sedition and the Laws betwixt the Prince and the Regicide and betwixt Order and Confusion Neither are the King's Ministers Magistrates Justices Juries and Witnesses nay the King himself one jot more respectfully handled in Baldwin's two Parts of the No Protestant Plot and the Scandals run through from one end to the other Janeway in his strange News from Hicks's Hall calls the Middlesex Justices Adulterers Whore-mongers Swearers Drunkards Cheats Pag. 6. and Janeway again in his Ignoramus Justices but of the other day takes upon him to Arraign and Declare Law and to Juggle the People into a Mis-understanding and Contempt of all those wholsome Statutes which the Wisdom of our Fore-Fathers hath provided for the Security of the Protestant Religion and the Peace of the Kingdom With this Sawcy Reflection upon the Bench in the very Title Page Some Directions to the Officers that may be Threatned or Perswaded to Act by such Umwarrantable Orders from such IGNORAMUS JUSTICES It is the Opinion of Men well vers'd in the Trade of Book-Selling that there has not been so little as 30000 Ream of Paper spent upon this Seditious Subject in this Late Liberty of the Press But I shall stop here with an Humble Recommendation of the whole Matter to the Right Honourable your Lordship and to the Right Worshipful the Aldermen your Brethren I shall not need to suggest that the Government of the City can never be fafe while That of the Kingdom is in danger for it was notoriously the Effect of this intolerable Licence that subjected the Regular Authority of the City to Arbitrary Armies and Committees that stripp'd the Magistracy of their Privileges and Ornaments and set up Thimble-makers Dray-men and Coblers for their Lords and Masters I need not mind your Lordship of the Agreement betwixt the Past and Present Degrees Methods and Pretences of Proceeding betwixt their Godly Party and our True Protestants falsly so called nay I have heard of the same Faces now at work again under the same Vizors It is not a thing forgotten that when the fear of Tyranny was pretended the very Pretenders to those Fears exercised the most Barbarous Tyranny in Nature themselves nor was there ever so Base and Scandalous a Vassallage as that which the unwary Multitude drew upon themselves under the hope of Liberty The apprehensions of Popery Vanished in the Destruction of the Canonical Clergy the setting up of a Preaching Ministry concluded in the Plundering Ejecting Sequestring c. All the Orthodox and Loyal Divines of the Kingdom turning the Churches into Stables and supplying the Pulpits with Red-Coats and Mechanicks Consecrating at last the Pretended Purity of the Gospel with the most UnchristJan Outrages of a Barbarous Sacrilege A Tory is the Name now for a Popish Dogg or a Malignant of Forty One And the Insolency of the Rabble upon Captain Griffith in November last when they cry'd Kill him he 's a Tory Kill him knowing him at the same time to be an Officer of the Lieutenancy an Ancient Common Council-man and at that instant upon his Duty and within his own Precinct That Insolence with submission looks like an Earnest of their good Will to the subverting of the Government in General and that of the City in particular and an Essay toward the accomplishing of that Work To say nothing of other Inconveniencies that may arise by Forcing men upon Personal Revenges unless these Scandalous Liberties may be Adverted upon by Publick Justice Having here laid before your Lordship both the Quality of the Crimes suggested and the Names of several of the Criminals and all of them Persons too within the reach of your Command It is not so much L'Estrange as the Common Voice of an Injur'd Government and People that makes this Application But I am further to represent to your Lordship that at the same time while these Libellous Papers and Agents go Scot-free the Authors and Publishers of other Books and Papers whose Business is only to vindicate the Government from the Forgeries Calumnies Malice and Sedition of the Dayly Libels of Care Curtis Janeway Baldwin c. are Presented and the Bills found as Mrs Brome particularly for the Observator by a a câ—rtain Grand Jury who according to their Oath could neither see nor hear of any thing on the other hand while yet at the same time almost every Stall is cover'd and every Coffee-House furnished with News-Papers and Pamphlets both written and Printed of Personal Scandal Schism and Treason But I shall now desire your Lordship and your Right Worshipful Brethren to take Notice what it is that the Animals of this Age call the Favouring of Popery and the Creating of Misunderstanding betwixt His Majesty and People The Observator Num. 27. after some Remarks upon the Practices and Positions of a Phanatical Party says to this purpose Never Mince the Matter but instead of Demanding This or That under a Disguise speak plain and put the Sence of the Party into the Form of a Petition And then follows the Petition at length in these very Syllables Your Majesties most Humble and Obedient Subjects having suffered many Disappointments by reason both of Short and of Long Parliaments and the late Executing of the Law against Dissenters the Pretences of Tyranny and Popery being grown stale the Popish Plot drawn almost to the Dregs and the Eyes of the People so far open that they begin to see their Friends from their Enemies to the Disheartning of All True Protestants and the Encouraging of the Sons of the Church We your Majesties Dissenting Subjects being thereby brought unto so low a state that without a Timely Relief We the Godly People of the Land must inevitably Perish May it please your Majesty to Grant the Right of Calling and Dissolving Parliaments Entring into Associations Leagues and Covenants the Power of the Militia War and Peace Life and Death the Authority of Enacting Suspending and Repealing Laws to be in your Liege People the Commons of England And these Things being Granted whereof your Petitioners stand in great need if your Majesty wants either Men or Monies for the Support of Your Royal Dignity and Government your Majesty shall see what we your Loyal Petitioners will do for you The Observator above-mention'd concludes in these Words All the Rest is Cant and Gibberish but This is English This Personated Petition is no more in fine than a Compendium of their Demands and Cemplaints dress'd up in their own Hypocritical Terms So that the Sedition lies in the Defending of the King's Crown and Dignity and the Laws of the Land which necessarily implies an Allowance and Justification of the Libellous Opposers of the Government FINIS John Kidgelâ— and Richard Baldwin Richard Baldwin Richard Janeway Richard Janeway Suppos'd by Baldwyn John Starkey Langley Curtis Hen. Care Hen. Care Langley Curtis Jo. Starkey Janeway Rich. Baldwin Care and Janeway Care and Janeway Janeway and Care Rich. Baldwin Janeway Janeway