the Queen when they could not be ignorant that it was the voice of common Fame in England and Foreign Countries that her Majesties Conception of a Child was meerly Fictitious and that a supposititious Prince was designed and seeing no Excuse or Pretence is published for the neglect or failure of such a Testimony of his birth we say the Circumstances of the Case being considered it 's most unjust to expect or demand of Your Highnesses or of the People of England or of Foreigners a belief and acknowledgment that this pretended Prince of Wales was born of the Queen As our Common Law informs us who are fit and proper Witnesses whose Testimonies ought to be received in this Case and in the proof of all Matters of Fact respectively so the same declares who are deemed to be unfit and disabled to be Witnesses in all the various and respective Questions of Fact it shews whose Testimonies ought not to be heard and much less believed in divers sorts of Facts that come into question If your Highness and the Kingdom be told of the presence of such persons to have been at the Birth of this pretended Prince as ought not by our Laws to be accounted Witnesses nor their averrments in the case to be heard by your Hss or the Kingdom and much less to be allowed to be of any Validity in the Common course of out Courts of Judicature if parties concerned to prove a Fact do knowingly offer for Witnesses such as our Laws reject in the Facts in question it turns to the prejudice of their other proof we are therefore obliged to acquaint your Highnesses with the Actions Qualities Respects and Circumstances that have disabled many by force of our Common Law to be heard as Witnesses of the Birth of this pretended Prince of Wales First Our Laws utterly disable all those to be heard in the Case that have received either gifts of Money or Honours or any other Reward or Benefits whatsoever for their pretended Assistance about his Birth or by reason or occasion of that pretence 't is the Common Practise of our Law that when a Witness is produced the adverse Party may examine him upon his Oath whether he hath had Money or other Reward or Gift directly or indirectly for or by reason of the matter in question or from the Party in whose behalf he is produced to testifie or from any of his Friends if he cannot acquit himself thereof by his Oath though it cannot be proved against him our Impartial Law deems such a person not only to be partial in the Case but corrupted and bribed and unworthy to be heard Our Law will not admit those to be Witnesses for the Birth of this supposed Prince of Wales that have any Promise Expectation or Hopes of any Advancement Office Place or Benefit by or under him if he shall be received and allowed by the Kingdom to be Prince of Wales they that cannot purge themselves by their Oaths from all such Promises Expectations and Hopes are not in the Judgment of our Law persons indifferent and unconcerned in the Event of the Matter in question nor fit to be heard as Witnesses their Testimonies being partly for themselves and their own Benefit and the allowance of such Testimonies in Judicature would in consequence subvert all Civil Justice and Government Our Law excludes all from being Witnesses to support the pretence of the supposed Prince of Wales as have such dependance on the Patrons and Maintainers of him that they are in danger of damage and loss by them of any kind if they should displease them in their Testimony Our Laws judg all such not to be free and of their own Right in the Case but bound to serve and please the Patrons of the Cause and therefore presume that they may be corrupted by fear of losing the Advantages they love if they should impartially declare the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth of the matter Our Laws seek to know the naked and entire Truth of all Facts that come into legal question or Contest and will not admit of any to be Witnesses of them unless they appear to be free from Fears of any Prejudice to themselves by speaking the Truth impartially We are inforced by the Concern of all the Protestants to speak more plainly than we would we must say that all that hold Offices of Profit and Honour during the Kings Will are by the Laws of England excluded out of the Number of fit and competent Witnesses about the Birth of this Child whom His Majesty hath proclaimed and maintains to be Prince of Wales our good Laws have regard to humane infirmities and will not put a temptation upon men to suffer them to be Witnesses in matters wherein they may damnifie themselves in the loss of their Offices if they happen to displease their Master in his concern in the case by testifying clearly the whole Truth of it they are not free in the Judgment of our Laws to speak the Truth without fear and for that reason are not to be received by the Kingdom as Witnesses in this Case Our Laws will never allow or suffer any to be Witnesses in this Case who are known or may be proved to have Enmity or Prejudice of any kind upon any account whatsoever to Her Royal Highness against whom most immediately this supposed Prince contends she having been most unquestionably the Heir apparent of the Crown and justly so remaining until the Kingdom shall be satisfied by a sufficient Number of lawful Witnesses that there is a Prince born whereby her claim to the next Succession shall be postponed The question of Fact to be decided by Witnesses is apparently between her Royal Highness and this supposed Prince and 't is a legal unanswerable and conclusive Exception against any to be received for Witnesses against her in his behalf that they are declared Enemies to her and the Professed Protestant Religion the destruction whereof they are bound in Conscience to endeavour and for that reason such known Enemies to her right of Succession to the Crown that their Church have decreed and declared her Right and the Right of all Protestants to any Authorities to be absolutely forfeited to the Papists for Protestant Heresie It cannot be denied that all that are sincerely Roman Catholicks and believe their own Church do judg Her Royal Highness to be an Excommunicated Heretick by their Church and that all Her Rights in possession and reversion are thereby confiscated and that they are all obliged by the Law of their Church in Conscience of their Religion and by the hope of Pardon of their sins to defeat and destroy by all ways and means in their Power all Her Pretensions to the Descent of the Crown upon her and to assist to the investing the Right to the Succession in a Roman Catholick We might here add that our English Papists are all in Vnion and Communion with the Pope as appears by his Nuntio in
the mouth of Publick fame or to have shewed the justly jealous Subjects that there were such fit and proper Witnesses that a Prince was now born of the Queen as were unquestionable without any possible exception whose truth and faithfulness might be relied upon securely Justice also required for full security that there had been competent and sufficient numbers of those fit and proper Witnesses at least that there had been so many of them as were able to obviate all ways and practices of deceit that it could not have been supposed to be possible that a Fraud had been put upon them This sort of Caution is always just and necessary in the Birth of our Princes but in the present case there could have been no honest end intention or pretence to have confin'd themselves to a small number of Witnesses of a fact wherein a Kingdom known to be filled with just suspitions of an Imposture to be put upon them were to be satisfied meerly by the Witnesses averrment and a Noble Princess also to be excluded from being Heiress apparent to the Crown Our Laws require Witnesses of Facts answerable to the Nature and Circumstances of them and always require ample Testimonies when the Parties that are obliged to prove them had it in their powers and choice without charge or burden to themselves to have multiplied their Witnesses to what number they had pleased and could not be ignorant of the usefulness or necessity of it and yet more especially if the fact were such whereby Great Benefit was to accrue to them and Answerable Loss unto others in such a Case it would much abate the strength of the proof in the course of the Law if there were such a small number of Witnesses as might leave room for any objection or the least doubt of the fact The ancient Roman Imperial Laws in the Cases of Subjects when there was a Posthumus to be born that might exclude another Heir apparent We say those Laws in common natural Equity to prevent a supposititious Child appointed thirty days notice to be given to the apparent Heir and all others whose Right was concerned of the Expected time of her Travel and delivery that on the behalf of the Heir apparent Women might be sent to be present to see the Birth of the Child that might become the Heir that Law confined the number to five free Women to be sent allowing her that was to be delivered to have also five Women of her own chusing and no more so that the number to be present at her delivery should not exceed Ten besides two Midwives and six Maid Servants that were no Witnesses This Rule was set down positively in the Empire as the Dictate of natural Equity and Prudence and although England hath no positive written Law that prescribes any set number of Friends to be sent in such a case by the Heir apparent to see the Birth of such a Child yet the Custom and Practice is in every such case tho' no Fraud be suspected to give notice to the next Heir and that some of their Friends are customarily sent to what number they please to be present at the Birth of the Child that may be an Heir to the Exclusion of another That practice with us is not of Favour but of Legal Right our Common Law generally Binds all that set up a claim to any thing that another hath to give such Notice of his pretence as is needful to make his just defence if he can and to prove the Fact whereby he claims by such a number of Witnesses as may put the Truth of it out of doubt to the Court of Judicature but that number in the Course of our Law is greater or smaller according to the Cause that appears of jealousy or distrust of the Truth of the Fact pretended These Rules of our Law and the Reasons of them fully include the case of a Pretence of a Child to be born to exclude an Heir apparent and if there were many known grounds of suspition in any such case that it was designed to set up a supposititious Child and a notorious Common fame of it and no notice were given of the time expected of the Childs Birth hoped to be Heir to the then Heir apparent or to any that had expectances of the Inheritances We say in such a case by the Rules and Practices of our Laws a small number of Witnesses of the Birth of a Child ought not to be believed since they that should claim for such a Child might by due notice to the Parties concerned have had such Witnesses as had put the Childs Birth beyond all question Certainly by the reason of our Common Law there ought to be a much greater number of Witnesses of the Birth of every of our Princes than of the Birth of the Subjects Heirs but our Law requires that the Birth of this pretended Prince of Wales should have been proved by a greater number of Witnesses than was ever needful heretofore in the case of a Prince there ought to have been so many fit and proper Persons present at his pretended Birth that it might have been manifest to all that had heard it that the Eyes of so many Witnesses of such Condition Knowledg and Judgment could not have been deceived in what they had testified to have known and seen the number ought to have been so considerable that there could have been no reasonable Suspition that so many of both Sexes and of various Dignities Honours and Interests and some of them of Consanguinity with the former Heiress apparent had made a Confederacy amongst themselves to abuse the Kingdom with a Counterfeit Prince and that so many had kept each others Counsel in a Fraud and Falshood so odious and injurious It had been common Prudence as well as Justice to the Realm that the Witnesses of the Birth had been very many that amongst such a Number some of them might have been known in one part of the Kingdom and others in another Part and that some of their Names and Qualities might have been known in Foreign Countries and for that Reason the Ministers of Foreign Princes according to Custom ought to have been some of the Witnesses the Peoples knowledg of the Names Qualities or Persons of the Witnesses had much conduced to their fuller assurance of the Truth it would have appeared to them incredible and almost impossible that the Integrity of such and so many Witnesses could have been attacked either separately or jointly But on the contrary seeing Custom and Law required a good number of fit and proper Witnesses to have made up a Testimony of the Birth of a Prince that might have been truely said to have been omni Exceptione majus above all possible Objections against it and seeing the wit of Man cannot invent a reason why the King and the Patrons of this pretended Prince of Wales did not provide such ample and unquestionable Testimonies that he was born of
London and he is by the ancient Laws and Statutes of this Realm declared the Publick or Common Enemy of the Kingdom near two hundred years before Henry the Eighth T is manifest that the English Papists are declared Enemies to Her Royal Highnesses Right in this Case between her and the pretended Prince of Wales and therefore by the Laws of England they cannot be Witnesses of the Fact in question neither ought their Testimonies therein to be offered to the Kingdom to Delude the People The Civil Law so fully concurs with our Common Law in rejecting Enemies to be Witnesses in the cause of their Enemy that it denies to give credit to what they may testifie in the cause of their Enemy with their dying Breath after they have received the Eucharist that is the General Conclusion of the Doctors of that Civil Law Inimicus etiamsi in articulo mortis constitutus accepisset Eucharistiam repellitur a testimonio causae sui inimici We mention this chiefly to shew that 't is not only by our English Laws that our Papists are rejected from being Witnesses of the Birth of this pretended Prince against Her Royal Highness but by the ancient approved Rules of the Civil Law which they generally acknowledg and by the Judgment of their own Doctors Herein are only set forth to Your Highnesses the Laws of England that you may justly insist upon as your Right to prevent the Church of Rome's Conspiracies against you we reflect not on the credit or truth of any Roman Catholick Lords or others in giving their Testimonies in Matters of private Interests wherein the cause of their Church is not in question and the Laws of their Church bind them not to either party but since they are bound in this case to be Enemies to Her Royal Highness our Law will not allow them to be believed to her prejudice and they must openly renounce that common Honesty to which they pretend if they offer themselves to the Kingdom to be competent Witnesses against Her in behalf of this pretended Prince when they are conscious to themselves that not only our Laws but Natural Justice and Equity abhors such a practice We must say with all due reverence and most humble submission that Our Laws will not allow that the Declaration or Testimony of His Majesty or the Queen should be accepted and believed in this case as lawful proof that this pretended Prince was born of the Queen 't is sufficient for us that our Laws will not suffer our Kings to descend into the Place of Witnesses they will not admit them to testifie their own knowledg of the Facts in any case whatsoever Criminal or Civil but there is abundant reason also from Natural Equity and Civil Justice that the Kingdom should not receive and rely upon the King's Affirmation about the Birth of this supposed Prince their Majesties have publickly Espoused his Cause for their own in all respects and none on Earth Kings or Subjects may justly expect or be suffered to supply the Place of Witnesses in their own case since Civil Government is established if they might lawfully be their own proof for their cause they might as justly be Judges of their own proofs which in Consequence would turn up the Foundations of Civil Government one of its chiefest original intentions being to introduce a course of Justice that none might be their own Judges We would not speak thus plainly if it were justly avoidable we cast no Scandal hereby upon His Majesty nor any way come near the crime of detraction we barely relate the Law of England in this case of His Majesties Affirmation of the Birth of this pretended Prince that it hath not the force of legal proof or of the Testimony of one Legal Witness and His Majesty is obliged in Justice and Honour by his Office and Oath not to impose upon his Subjects to believe and rely upon his Affirmation or Word in this case nor on the Queen's that 's necessarily included in his he cannot desire the People diffusively to change their ancient customs and Laws to substitute their King's Words or Assertions in the room of sworn Legal Witnesses to prove the Matters of the Highest moment about the Government If the Kingdom should allow the Affirmation of their Kings to be sufficient to make a Lawful Prince of Wales without such Witnesses of his Birth as our Law requires they should consent to Change the ancient Constitution of the English Monarchy and so destroy the established Legal Security of their Freedom and Estates The Laws of England in this case are not dissonant from the Laws of other Kingdoms and the most absolute Empires the Civil Law now received in most Christian Kingdoms that was so adapted to absolute Government that it was one of its principles That Principis verbum pro lege habendum est the word of the Prince was to be taken for a Law we say that Law never ascribed absolute credit to the Prince's Affirmations of Matters of Fact wherein the Subjects Rights were concerned it passeth for a Rule of that Law in such cases Princeps indistincte non creditur the Emperour is not to be believed intirely without limitations and restrictions in his affirming Matters of Fact relating to his Subjects Legal Interest and Securities The Learned Doctors in that Law determine that the Emperor's Affirmation that a Subject hath committed Treason or Rebellion against him ought nor to be believed or taken for a proof they say expresly Regi fides non adhibetur si attestatur talem fuisse proditorem likewise if he pretends and declares a cause why he deprives any Subject or Feudatory of his Interest he is not to be believed there must be proof and the parties intended to be prejudiced must be cited and heard in their defence They generally resolve that when a King asserts or attests any thing to the prejudice of another he is not to be therein believed especially when his Affirmation is for his own advantage and to the Subjects damage or inconvenience These are their words Quando ex assertione Principis ipse Principaliter sentiret commodum subditi incommodum tum ipsi Principi non creditur The Emperor Henry the 6. of Germany had a due sense of the Justice and Reason of the Law herein about the year 1200. he did not Expect that the People should believe the Affirmations of himself and his Empress Constantia about the Birth of a Prince when there was a rumor and suspition that Constantia was past her age of Child-bearing and feigned a Great Belly he gave the People plentiful proof by Witnesses more than Reason required he prepared a most publick Place wherein she remained expecting her time of Delivery Ventre Custodito with publick Watchers or Keepers that no Supposititious Child might possibly be Conveyed to her and there in the sight of the People of the City and all the Matrons that would and could possibly approach her none being
Licensed and Entred According to Act of Parliament AN ACCOUNT OF THE REASONS OF THE Nobility and Gentry's Invitation Of His HIGHNESS the PRINCE of ORANGE INTO ENGLAND Being a MEMORIAL from the English Protestants Concerning their GRIEVANCES With a Large Account of the Birth of the Prince of WALES Presented to their HIGHNESSES The PRINCE and PRINCESS of ORANGE LONDON Printed for Nathanael Ranew and Jonathan Robinson in St. Paul's Church-yard 1688. A MEMORIAL FROM THE ENGLISH PROTESTANTS FOR THEIR HIGHNESSES THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF ORANGE IT cannot be unknown to Your Highness that the Protestants of England that are Faithful to the Principles and Doctrines of their Religion and to the just Established legal Government are in divers kinds most intollerably vexed and oppressed by the Popish Contrivances and Practices covered with the pretences and name of Authority That Illegal things are daily imposed upon them in their several Stations and Places which they are convinc'd in their Consciences can never be justified unto God or the Kingdom and yet they are pressed upon them without regard to their Consciences by loss of their Offices and Imployments and many other threatned Effects of the Kings displeasure That many of their legal Liberties Benefits and Means of subsistence in their Churches and Colledges are taken from them by meer Will and Pleasure and Processes and Prosecution by arbitrary Commissioners are threatned and begun against great numbers of them without their guilt of the least Offence or Transgression against any of the Laws of this Realm That they are debarred and spoyled of the due free Election of their Magistrates and Officers in their Cities and Towns and pretended Officers and Magistrates are imposed upon them and turned out and put in at the Kings absolute Will as they are found ready to comply with and serve the Popish Design either ignorantly or corruptly That several of the Bodies Politick of their Cities and Towns are declared to be dissolved at the Kings Pleasure to terrify and subjugate the minds of all the rest and the Citizens and Burgesses are thereby Disfranchised and Divested of all their good Customs Freedoms and Priviledges if they cannot in Conscience comply with Illegal Commands and will not treacherously surrender their legal Rights and Priviledges unto the Kings Will. That the legal securities provided by the Kings and Kingdom in Parliament against the dangers of their Religion and Liberties are by the Kings absolute Command thrown aside and made useless by pretence of his Power to dispence with those penal Laws notwithstanding the Subjects Right in them for the protection and safety of their Religion Liberties and Lives whereby the very Foundation of all the Subjects Rights and Properties is undermined and shaken and a New Claim is set up and maintained that the Subjects have no Right Property or security against the Will and Pleasure of their Kings That by colour of such a dâ—spensing Power the trust of the Kingdoms Defence and Safety by military Powers is put into such hands as are made incapable of them by many express Laws of the Kings and Kingdoms in Parliament which justly give the Protestants sad apprehensions of imminent dangers seeing themselves put into the Power of those that publickly profess to be in Union and Communion with the Church of Rome that openly declare themselves to be the mortal Enemies to all Protestants and that they are bound upon peril of their Salvation to seek their Destruction if they shall continue constant to the Protestant Profession That contrary to the express Laws of the Realm lately declared in Parliament an Army of Papists and Mercenaries is maintained and dispersed through the Kingdom in full Peace to the great disquiet and terror of the Pretestants and they are in divers ways constrained to receive these Soldiers into their Houses to sojourne there against their Wills whereby they are deprived of their Peace and Security in their Families and of their Converse with their Neighbours and Friends and of the advantages they might make in their ways of living That the King hath barred and forbidden the execution of the Ancient Laws of the Realm against divers sorts of Treasons and other most hainous Crimes and all the Statutes now known to have been made from age to age for 500 Years past in relation to the Popes and Romish Priests Powers and Practises are suspended tho' the Experience of the Papists in all those Ages shewed those Powers and Practices to be so mischievous and dangerous that they often complained in Parliament they feared the Destruction of the Kingdom by them His Majesty also so Controuls the Courts of Law in the Course wherein Justice ought to be administred that the Judges tho' they have highly served the Popish Designs are turned out of their Places Honours and Pensions if they dare but suffer the Laws justly to acquit those whom the King would have condemned as appears amongst divers other Instances by his late displacing Judge Holloway and Judge Powell upon the legal acquittal of the seven Bishops We need not shew to your Highness more particular Instances of our Oppression since 't is notorious that there is a publick attempt authorized by the King to subvert the very Foundation of the whole Civil legal Government of the Kingdom that is the Peoples free Election in the Customary Established Course by Counties Cities and Boroughs of their Deputies to Act and Consent for them in Parliament unto all Laws to be made and repealed The truly Noble Monarchy was founded on equal Freedom and the Civil Government of England was always of right truly free because no Laws or Authorities ever bound the Persons and Properties of the Kingdom save only those wherein the Kings and all the Subjects freely agreed every Subjects free consent being deemed by our Laws to be given personally as by his Deputies to the Enacting and Repealing of every Law. Therefore the Statutes of old in affirmance of the common Custom of England declared that Elections should be free from all interruptions and interpositions by the King or the Pope and the Kings have bound themselves by the Statutes no way to disturb any Electors in making their free Elections No Commands Promises or Threats no Prayers nor Solicitations ought to be made unto the Electors by the King or Pope or any others the Peoples Deputies say the Laws are to be chosen Freely and Indifferently without pre-ingagement of the Electors or fear of displeasing the King and without promises of Favour or Rewards to them They are to be indifferent at the Time and Place of Election and in such manner to proceed notwithstanding any Request or Command to the contrary otherwise the Elections are void and null But we are not able to number the various kinds of Attempts and Practises to overturn this Foundation of our Government There have been infinite Endeavours and Artifices openly used to destroy
to attract some decent reverence from the men of like quality in their Exposing to them nakedly the works of nature as was unavoidably necessary That they had been fit and proper in regard of their sufficiency of knowledg and understanding in the matters of Child-bearing such as knew by Experience all those works of Nature in what manner the Mothers ought to be and are Customarily treated in their real travel and Child-bearing and immediately after it and what are the natural Symptoms in the Mother that Accompanie the real bringing forth of a Child before it hath been its natural time of nine Months in the womb and at its due natural time and also the signs of a Child perfectly grown in the womb or brought to light before its time of perfection it was of necessity that the witnesses had been of such knowledg and experience in all these Matters or so sufficiently informed about them by others of skill and faithfulness that it might have been Evident to the Kingdom that such witnesses could not be imposed upon deluded or deceived by any Cunning Artifices to believe this pretended Prince to have been born of the Queen if he were in truth supposititious and Counterfeit The General Rules of our Canon Law required that the Witnesses had been publickly known to the Kingdom by their Persons or their Names their Interests Concerns or Imployments our Fundamental Laws have taken care that all matters of Fact should be decided by Juries of the Neighbourhood where the Facts are done that the Witnesses that testifie them may be known to the Jurors and Fraud is always suspected if persons unknown to the Neighbourhood of the Facts be produced to witness them unless there be manifest reason for their knowledg of the Fact better than those that were near to the place and known to the Jurors The reason of our Law is of impregnable force in the case of the supposed Prince that the Witnesses of his Birth should be persons publickly known on whose knowledg truth and credit the whole Kingdom and the Christian World should rely in a matter of such vast consequence Obscure unknown persons never publickly named or heard of in this or any foreign Kingdom and above all obscure foreigners French or Italians or others ought not to be deemed fit or competent Witnesses to satisfie the Kingdom in this Fact indeed when Circumstances are considered it will be evident that their pretended Testimony ought to be rejected and if it be offered it justly puts a prejudice upon their pretences in regard there was a whole Kingdom besides all the Eminent Ministers of Foreign Princes and States out of which Witnesses might have been selected that were publickly known and heard of by all the People and the necessity of it was never so manifest in any case it being known to his Majesty and his whole Court that the Queens being with Child was not generally believed either in England or Foreign Countries Common Justice required that the Witnesses had been fit and proper in respect of their high distinguishing Quality either that they had been dignified with some of the highest Ecclesiastical Dignities as Arch-bishops or Bishops or had been by Birth or Creation of the degree of the greatest Nobility of the Kingdom or that their extraordinary Worth had raised their Reputation and had been honoured with the great and eminent Offices of Trust in the Realm Our Laws are impartial to High and Low in hearing the Testimonies of Witnesses in every Case and therefore they duly consider both the Circumstances of every Fact to be proved and of every Witness and his Capacity to prove it Our Laws indeed judge not Truth and Integrity to be annexed and intailed to Dignity Nobility or Greatness yet they justly claim the Testimonies of persons of great Dignity in the Church or of Noble Birth and raised Knowledg and Fortunes and independent upon others as more free from exception which this Case requires than those that are of weak understandings without the advantage of excellent Breeding and Instruction or indigent and bound to depend upon Favour of others for their support like Nurses and Midwives and other Servants Therefore Caeteris paribus the Capacity and Probability of knowing the Facts and the Indifferency of Witnesses of High and Low degree being equal our Laws justly allow most Weight and Credit to the Testimony of dignified and noble Witnesses and they are therefore required to prove the Fact of a Prince's Birth whereupon depends the Right and Title to Kingdoms to exclude the apparent Right of one and to put another into possession of the same Our Laws presume Persons of such high degree to have greater sense and regard to Conscience more generosity and contempt of Falshood and more tenderness of their Honor than those of Low Condition and upon that presumption Noblemens Affirmations upon their Honor are in many Cases accepted by our Laws in lieu of their Oaths unto which all others are obliged in the same or like Cases and for that reason their Declarations of the Birth of a Prince without their making Oath thereof judicially have been as certainly relied upon by the Kingdom in the Descent of the Inheritance without Dispute as if they had sworn their knowledg in the forms of Justice There are also other circumstantial Reasons unto which our Laws have regard for the greatest value to be put upon the Testimony of the Nobility of both Sexes about the Birth of a Prince they are most accustomed to the presence and conversation of the King and Queen Such Ladies are justly presumed to be free from too great awful Distances Common to those of lower Quality and to have more Audacity and Confidence to make such near Approaches to the Queen in her Travel and bringing forth as are necessary that they may be ocular Witnesses that they have seen the Child in its very Birth and such Nobles are more bold and free to take such a searching view of the Child in its naked Naturals as may make them knowing Witnesses of its Birth and absolutely certain that they are not deluded with a Supposititious Child Such Noble Witnesses are also known to have greater Obligations upon them than others to prevent all possible Questions and Disputes that may arise by any uncertainties about the Succession to the Crown which may divide and destroy the Kingdom and their great Interest and Posterities their Conditions are Fortunes are supposed by our Laws to be above temptations by Bribes of Wealth or Honour to connive at falshood or to stoop to serve a Counterfeit Prince Upon all these Considerations the Witnesses of the Birth of every English Prince ought to be of such High and Noble Quality and it was known to have been infinitely more necessary that the reason of our Law had been exactly observed in the case of this Supposed Prince than ever it was since the foundation of the Kingdom there never was any such occasion to have stopped
Excluded she brought forth a Prince that was afterwards chosen Emperor Frederic the 2 d. If it were needful we could shew Your Highness that the Honour and Security of our Royal Family of England with the peace and safety of the Kingdom were intended in the Constitution of our Legal Monarchy in such manner that the Kings should not have Power at their will to Change the Succession or by any means prevent the Descent of the Crown to the next in Blood. But if the Kingdom should believe his Majesties Affirmation of this supposed Princes Birth without proof thereof according to the Laws and Customs of England the next Succession were really and actually thereby put out of the Legal Course and referred to the will of the King which is in effect to make the Crown Patrimonial whereas by the Laws and Customs of England the Right to the Crown descends to the next of Blood and the Successor is most properly to be stiled the Heir of the Kingdoms by force of the Kingdoms Laws and cannot be defeated of the Succession by any Act of the Predecessor if therefore the King should gain so vast a power by imposing on the People to believe his Attestation of this supposed Princes Birth 't is manifest that natural Justice as well as the Law of England makes it of no force or effect to the prejudice of her Royal Highness in her Esteem of being the Heiress apparent to the Crown We believe the Jesuits and other maintainers of this supposed Prince will claim as is their common practice against these our Laws whose force detects and defeats their Impostures they will pretend that 't is unreasonable to expect a Testimony of his Birth from such Witnesses and in such manner as are herein described exclusive of all Roman Catholicks but the reason and wisdom of these Laws are irresistible and its a great Circumstance shewing their guilt that they are displeased with the Laws that prevent Falsehood and Impostures and require proofs of Facts as clear as the Sun. The just and innocent are never offended at any Law that provide for Truth and Righteousness they cannot but be conscious to themselves that it was more easie to have provided such Witnesses as our Laws requires of a Princes Birth then to have had such as they provided that would Counterfeit to be Spectators and be content as 't is now said they were to see nothing of the Fact of which they were to be published to the Kingdom to have been the knowing Eye Witnesses 'T is notorious that the presence of ten of the Protestant Nobility of either Sex and other persons of Eminent Quality might have been as easily procured as one of the Catholicks if it had been intended to deal justly and fairly with the Kingdom and they know that the Protestants throwout Europe not the Papists wanted and desired satisfaction about the Queens great Belly and her delivery the suspitions of a Counterfeit Prince were strong amongst them and decryed by all the Papists they knew the Friends and those of Consanguinity with her Royal Hss were as ready to attend if they had been called as any Catholick whatsoever and they were not ignorant that Custom Law and Natural Justice required that Convenient notice should have been given to her Royal Highness above all others of the Expected time of the Queens Delivery that such Noble Matrons as she had thought Necessary might have been sent to have Continually attended near her Majesty and to have been impartial Witnesses of the Birth beyond Exception they understood the custom of calling Embassadors to be present at the Queen Delivery and that a Common fame of a designed Imposture was spread in forraign Protestant Countries and that there were Envoys and Publick Ministers from some of them Especially that the Dutch had an Embassador there and Expected to have been called they know that those Provisions for legal unquestionable proof of the Birth that was pretended have been no hindrance of the presence or assistance of as many Papists of each Sex as Her Majesty had desired and she might have as intirely depended upon their only help if it had been her pleasure as if those lawful Witnesses had not been present The Popish Councils delude his Majesty if they perswade him that any pleas of Inadvertency Neglect or Ignorance can satisfy the Kingdom instead of the proofs in the Case that the Custom and Laws of England require 't is a Rule of our Law that none shall make advantage of their own lachez that is their Failers or neglects of what they ought to have done less evidence is never to be accepted in our course of Judicature because the Party concerned was negligent in seeking it or ignorant when he might have known his duty We presume Your Highness in reading this may be satisfyed in the Truth of our first Preliminary Conclusion which is necessary to be always remembred in order to a just Judgment to be made of this supposed Prince of Wales and of the things proper to be done by Your Highness by reason or occasion of his pretences we doubt not Your Highness will clearly perceive what you may in justice demand of his Majesty in the Case preserving nevertheless a most pious sense of a fillial Duty We may more remember Your Highness that as the case now appears no acknowledgment of that pretended Prince can justly be required of Your Highness by his Majesty It s contrary to Justice and our Laws that her Royal Highness should depart from her place and claim of Heiress apparent to the Crown and resign it to a Child who is not yet lawfully witnessed to have been born of the Queen VVe therefore put your Highness in remembrance of a second Conclusion fit to be premised in this Case as an absolute certainty to be insisted on that is That neither the Laws of England nor any natural or Civil Justice do require of your Highness any kind of Testimonies or proofs that the pretences of this supposed Prince of Wales are false and feigned or that he was not born of the Queen Whosoever claims to be the natural and legitimate Son of any Family it s wholly and solely incumbent on him to prove it by the Laws and Customs of all Civil Governments and by the manifest Light of Nature those two Rules of the Civil Law are adopted by all Countries into their courses of Judicature Qualem quis se facit pro fundamento intentionis suae talem se debet probare and Filius qui petit haereditatem tanquam filius debet probare filiationem if Sonship or other quality or relation be the ground of a demand that Foundation must be always proved by the demandant if he that pretends to be Heir by his Birth to any inheritance fails of such sufficient Witnesses as the respective Laws of Countries require to prove his proximity of Blood there needs no Testimony on the part of those that deny his Linal Descent
appeared pious and great to make her Conception one of the Miracles of the Lady's Image tho it happened Unluckily afterward that they could not make the times of her Conception and supposed delivery to agree with natures most constant time of Nine Months The Confidents and Advisors about the Imposture hearing the voice of Common â—ame upon the King 's Declaring when the supposed now born Child was shewn that he had now a Son a strong and lively Prince the meanest child bearing Woman that were disintered saying thereupon in mockery that such a child of about Eight Months was as great a Miracle as the Queens Conception hath been reported we say the Confidents fearing it might make the whole story less credible and help to detect the fraud they have perswaded her Majesty to declare that she had miscounted the time of her Conceiving the Child and that she knew very well that she was with Child before her use of the Bath by this new reckoning they thought that it might be affirmed that the Child was born at his due time and might be strong and lively as his Majesty had said and they thought it an easie sham to say Women misreckoned very often But it was unhappily forgotten that her Majesty had continued and expresly affirmed her first reckoning several weeks after her pretended delivery it was forgotten that it was known sufficiently that her Majesty had her Terms in her Journey to Bath and four days after the Kings going from thence which was a manifest proof that there was then no Conception it was not considered that if it be truth that the Queen knew her self to have then conceived as she hath lately declared then it cannot be a misreckoning and the meanest Physitian she had at Bath would have told her that if she had imagined a conception as she now says Bathing would probably destroy the Embryo It was not well remembred how the King had declared with her Majestys privity the miracle of the time of her conceiving quite inconsistent with her now account neither was it thought of in the now Council how her Majesties Truth and Honor should be saved in her contrary Stories of the time of her conceiving even since her supposed delivery but we need not mention that since the World knows how little regard the Jesuite Confessors have to truth Her Majesty shewed no grounds to believe her pregnancy by natures progress there in the Common natural Signs that in four Months follow in every Woman that hath a Child in her Womb were wholly wanting in her Majesty there was no swelling or increase of the usual proportion of her Breasts nor was there any milk ever seen to be in them tho one Lady took the Confidence once to affirm it the proportion of them was visibly the same to the Eyes of all that can be lawfully Witnesses and were usually in her presence and none of those Ladies proper to be VVitnesses could ever obtain the satisfaction to see a drop of milk from her breasts tho it had been her Majesties Honour Interest and Pleasure to have shewed it if there had been any reality in the pretence of her pregnancy We put this Circumstance into our memorial not without some Mirth in our meeting because one of our company said he was now sure that neither her Mujesties Physitians nor the Jesuits were natural Philosophers they might said he with very little arts have caused the Queens Brests at her age to have swelled with milk so plentifully that she might have easily milked it forth in quantity in the sight of the Princess of Denmark and all the Protestant Ladies of the Court it may be done said he in rational or animal Creatures and he gave us instances of undoubted credit wherein it had been done to his knowledge and a Child suckled and to divert us he offered to shew it in an animal â—e having also tried that Experiment and thereby milked out the milk from a young Creatures Udder that had never been with young another of the Company said merily if that were so easie an artifice he wondred that the Romish Priests had not learned it since it s known to the World that they have long had the Art of keeping the Virgin Marys milk above 1600 Years and of multiplying the quantity of it from Horse Loads to Cart Loads to disperse among their credulous vulgar We humbly pray your Highnesses Pardon that we seem herein less serious then so great a matter requires we speak only the words of truth and soberness but the comical tricks of the Romish Priests that commonly ends in Tragedy force us to represent them as they deserve There 's another known sign and testimony of a Womans pregnancy that is the sensible stirring of the Child in the womb that was expected her Majesty should have shewn to the Ladies with Joy especially to those Protestant Ladies of her bed Chamber that doubted with the Protestant Dr. her then Physitian her being with Child as far as they durst when the quickening of a Child in her womb was pretended and published throughout the Kingdom it had been a Pleasure to her Majesty and no trouble if it had been real without deceipt to have shewn the motion of a Child in her womb to honorable Matrons of her Bedchamber that might have been in all respects lawful VVitnesses of that truth to the Justly Jealous Kingdom these might have touched her belly and had been proper Judges from their Experience of the true motions of an infant in the womb and some of Consanguinity to the Heyress apparent might have been admitted to that favour as our Laws and common prudence directed for removing the causes of Jeasie but however industriously her Majesties quicking with Child was spread abroad yet the feeling of its motions was never vouchsafed to any competent VVitnesses of it to give the suspitious Kingdom a ground to believe that she was with Child The next visible and manifest sign of the true natural progress of a great belly is the distension of all the parts of the Body that incircles and incompasseth the womb such is the place and manner wherein nature hath prepared the lodging of the growing Child in the womb that according to its growth and increase and the quantity of liquors that are there naturally and necessarily congested there so are all the Circumambient parts gradually extended and inlarged to make room there never was nor naturally can be an Extention only of the Peritoneum the Rim of the belly to give room to the Child all Naturalists and Anatomists know that if in that manner no Child could keep its natural sight in the womb nor be born alive All men and Women that ever observed Women great with Child know that all the parts that inclose the Cavity swell until the time of their delivery approach but this natural necessary sign of pregnancy so intirely failed in her Majesty that skilful spectators of both sexes wondered that
better arts were not used to make that vissible sign and appearance of the growth of a Child in her womb we were satisfied by skilful Matrons of great Experience that attended on purpose to observe her Majesty Exactly that all the outward parts of her Body that incompass the womb were of the same proportion that they were at other times save only her belly which was exceedingly copped up and high that shewed like a great bellied Woman to them that looked upon her Majesty before but said they when we saw her Majesty walking and looked upon her behind and on each side we saw not the least appearance in her of a great bellied Woman we took care to have the fashion of her Majestys Body observed by skilful Women at several periods of time during her supposed pregnancy and once a very short time before her pretended Delivery and we had always the same accompt we have here faithfully given Your Highness We compared this Circumstance with another that we had marked whereof we had from time to time full assurance during all the four last Months time of her Majesties supposed being with Child those being the Months wherein usually all the circumambient parts of the Womb swell most we were very well informed that in all these Months Her Majesty contrary to her former usual course always withdrew from her Chamber and retired into her Cabinet or some other private room with two or three Italians when she changed her Linnen and would never permit any one of the Protestant Ladies of the Bedchamber to see her change her Linnen as they had constantly done Those two circumstances explained each other and plainly shewed that the natural naked and true shape of her Majesties Body as it was then was not to be seen by those that were not of the Confederacy in the intended Imposture those that were only capable of being lawful VVitnesses for her Majesty against common Fame if Fame had belyed her those were all excluded from a possibility of seeing whether her belly was truly and naturally great and a few foreigners of no Quality were only to keep the Secret of what Her Majesty was to make the copling belly Nothing can be more manifest then it is by all these Circumstances taken as they ought in connexion each with other that there hath nothing appeared of the natural plainness and simplicity that always accompany truth in the whole Demeanor of her Majesty from the time of her pretended Conceiving a Child to the very time of her feigned delivery of this supposed Prince of Wales all that hath been acted in the matter hath plainly imported Trick and Design to hide and smother Natures VVorks that ought to have been most freely exposed to the whole World if there had been any truth in the pretences that could have born the Light we may securely affirm to your Highness that in all the eight Months and four Days first reckoned to have been the time of her Majesties Pregnancy or from the time of her going to Bath in the new Reckoning there never hath been any of these constant natural signs in her Majesty that could afford to any understanding Man or Women a ground to believe that she conceived a Child The Progress towards finishing the intended Imposture of this Prince of Wales hath been answerable to its beginning In the preparation for her Majesties supposed Delivery there hath been no regard to the rules of natural Equity or Law or common 〈…〉 nor any appearance of that open freedom and naturally plain proceeding that ought to have shewn that they did not fear the Kingdom or the World knowing the truth of all that should be done in that pretended natural work of Bearing a Child wherein the whole Kingdom and so much of the World was concerned if the Customs and Laws of England or natural Equity had been consulted in the Circumstances of the Case about the preparations needful for her Majesties expected deliverance of a Prince the first of all Advises had certainly been to give early notice to your Highness and to others in the nearest possibility or expectance of succeeding to the Crown of the time of her expected travel and deliverance of a Prince and of the place of her residence at such time That proper Noble Matrons and others might have prepared themselves and attended there and have been present in their behalf which might have suppressed and silenced for ever by their Testimonies all Suspitions of Fraud or Imposture But 't is not only undeniable that no such notice was given either to her Royal Highness or to any of Consanguinity with her nor to any other of the Noble Matrons of England but such Artificers were used as might most conceal the time and intended Place of her pretended Travel such feigned time of her supposed Conception was published by the King and Queen that neither her Royal Highness nor any of the Nobility could possibly foresee the time when the Comedy that is now said to have been acted was to begin The Place where her Majesty was intended to lye in was kept in such uncertainty and often published so variously sometimes that it should be at Richmond sometimes at Windsor another time at Hampton-Court that none of the Nobles of either Sex that were of the Kindred and Friends of the Heir Apparent nor of the Protestant Nobility could know how to prepare themselves for attendance on her Majesty as was their duty to Their Majesties Her Royal Highness and the Kingdom As the Publication of the place was often changed as if a surprise in the place was designed so at last such a sudden and seeming hasty Resolution was taken a day or two before her pretended Delivery that her lying in should be at St. James's tho none expected the time to be near by above three Weeks that Commands were given for preparing her Lodgings there so hastily that when her Majesty said on the Friday She would lye there on Saturday and it was told her it was not possible her Lodgings should be ready She then said She would lie there on the floor It was hoped by all the Protestants that the Princess of Denmark would have been a faithful watcher for her own sake when the time of her Majestys deliverance of her great belly should come tho she had not been able or she durst not give them advice of the occurrences in the time of her Majestys supposed pregnancy it was thought that she could not be avoided but she would be present to see what was brought forth whether any thing or nothing but care was taken that advise should be given her when she wanted astringent Medecines to go to the loosening Waters of the Bath to keep her fourscore Miles distant till the pretended Prince should be born At the first Notice we had of her Majesties passionate Declaration that She would lie at St. James's on the Saturday Night we could not conjecture that there was to be
a pretended Prince brought forth on the Sunday nor was there any Whispers of it or the least natural Feigned or Counterfeit sign of fore-running Pains of a Woman whose time of Travel approacheth Her Majesty was late in the Night at Cards and no appearance of an indisposition then nor is any pretended to have been in the Night but we learned by the Event on the Sunday the reason of Her Majestys fixed and immoveable Resolution to lie at Saint James's on the Saturday Night she was to seem to bring forth a Prince on the Sunday There was a cunning contrivance to chuse a fit time of that day it was to be between the hours of nine and ten in the Morning that all or most of the Protestant Ladies might be at Church and the Trick be over before their return and that the Midwife Mrs. Labady and the Favourite Mrs. Tourain might have Freedom and Secrecy as they had to act their Parts in the bringing forth of a supposititious Prince The Room also that was chosen wherein the Trick was to be acted was fit for the purpose and contrary to the Rules of Common Prudence in a Case suspected for setting up a supposititious Child and ought to have been avoided if their meaning had been just and good there was a private Door within the Rail of the Bed into a Room from whence a Child might be secretly brought and put into the Bed unseen by any that should attend in the Queen's Room tho at the feet of the Bed none of them coming into the Rail and by that Door the three Confidents the Midwife Mrs. Labady and Mrs. Tourain brought into her Majesties Bed what they pleased unseen If they had wanted no secret conveyance by that Door common Prudence required that they had nailed or sealed it up to avoid confirming and increasing the Kingdoms just and known Jealousies of imposing upon them a Counterfeit Prince when it should be known that there were such secret ways as made it so easy to be done by Confederation undiscerned by others that were in the Room but it appeared by the Event that the privy Door was so necessary for the designed Imposture that all the Transactions of it were managed by that Door as is well known to all those Lords of the Council that were brought for a shew not to see any thing that was done but only to be seen in the Bed-Chamber with His Majesty that their Names might be published to the People as if they had been Witnesses of the Queens being delivered of this pretended Prince The Civil Law provided as a Rule of common natural Equity that when a Woman was to be delivered of a Posthume Child that might defeat another appearing Heir that the Chamber wherein she was to be delivered should have but one Door and if there were more that they should be sealed up with the Seals of both Parties and that Keepers should be set at the single Door and no Woman suffered to enter until she was searched in all kinds that no Child might be conveyed to the Woman in her real or supposed Travel and tho' we have no express Statute that gives direction in such Cases yet our Common Law abhors all appearance of Fraud about Inheritances and 〈…〉 pointed 〈◊〉 of the most able Neighbours to judg of all the Signs and Appearances of Fraud an 〈…〉 Heirs who may also judg upon presumptive Evidence and reject any pretended Hell where they see signs of Fraud and Imposture whereupon to ground their Judgment and every one must at his peril take care that there be no grounds of suspicion given of a supposititious Heir We have faithfully shewed Your Highness what were the Preparations for her Majesties supposed time of Travel wherein there appeared no Marks of an Intiention to deal uprightly and openly with her Royal Highness as Heiress apparent of the Crown and with the Subjects of the Kingdom nor were there any natural signs that Her Majesty really feared or expected the common Sorrows Pains and Danger of a Woman in Travel or made any sutable Provisions We cannot learn that there were in readiness so much as the usual Instruments of Midwives whereupon they commonly place all Women of Quality in their time of Travel that such Assistance may be given them by the Matrons and Midwives as is not possible to be given on their Knees which is the common Posture of meaner Women and least of all as they lie in their Bed which is seldom used until the length of the Travel and Failures of Strength enforce it There being many natural Reasons for the Posture of the Womens Bodies helping them in their Travel Amongst other suitable Provisions it had been certainly fit that a Colledg of Physicians had been called to attend somewhere near to Her Majesty if She had not known there could be no need of them and had not been sure there could be no hour of danger to her self in a feigned Travel nor any sudden need of Physicians Advice or help to a strong lively supposed Prince that was intended then to be brought forth As all the Preparations for her Majesties supposed time of Travel discovered to knowing and observing People that there was no reality in her pretences made of a great Belly so the Fiction and Fraud was made more manifest when the Trick came to be acted Her Majesty lying in Bed with all the Curtains round close drawn all that was provided belonging naturally to a Child and intended to be used by them in their bringing forth the supposititious Prince being prepared and ready within the inner Chamber then Her Majesty's feigned Travel began and all these things were by the help of the Midwife Mrs. Labady and Mrs. Tourain the Confederates brought through the Door in the Wall by the Queen Bed and put between her Sheets that is a Child and all that naturally attends a Birth Then the Midwife and the Confidents seemed very busy about Her Majesty in the Dark none seeing what they did and being afraid as appeared by the Midwife's Words that the Child which was prepared to sleep to prevent its crying before it was got into the Bed should be stifled by the Closeness of the Bed they were forced to hasten the Queen's pretended Delivery even beyond what was reasonably to be believed notwithstanding all that could be said of the Lady of Loretto or any other Saints Assistance therefore the Queens supposed Deliverance was in very short time But nothing appeared in Her Majesty like the real natural Travel of a Woman in Child-bearing there were none of the usual natural Signs in Her Majesty of being in real Travel which cannot be hidden there was no appearance of an approaching Travel by various intermitting Pangs usually very great by the Infants struggling to free it self of the Womb no shew of the Pains naturally and gradually increasing as more of the Ligatures came to be broken or rent whereby every Infant is safely retained
or the Laws of England Our Laws require and demand an entry to be made upon all Intruders into the Rights or Inheritances of another there ought to be legal Interruptions made of all wrongful Possessions however obtained A long permission of an illegitimate Child to pass for a legitimate Heir is of dangerous consequence to the true Heir of an Inheritance 't is a known Rule both in our English Laws and the Civil Laws Tacens longo tempore praesumitur consentire he that remains long without answering any thing to an Intruders claim seems to allow it We crave pardon that we must freely tell your Hss that it hath been our astonishment that your Hss have been so long silent and have deferred to make your just demand and that you have so long suffered her R. Hss Chaplains to pray publickly for this supposed Prince of Wales Your Hss Heart cannot desire the God of Truth and Righteousness to prosper such an Invasion of your own and the Kingdoms Rights nor to bless the Impostor as such being set up tho an Innocent Child to be a Tool in the hands of others to destroy the Protestant Profession your Hss claims to the greatest Inheritance and the best Civil Government known in the World. We believe your Hss to be true Christians that tremble in the Worship and Prayers before the Eternal Majesty and therefore hope such a shew of owning him will not be longer suffered to be acted before the great God that searcheth all the hearts of Princes and Subjects If your Hss shall first make this 〈…〉 and Satisfaction therein be not given by the maintainers of the supposed Prince 〈…〉 al Justice and our Laws dictate that your Hss demand a retraction by the 〈…〉 all Christian Kingdoms and States of the false News they have published of the Birth of a Prince of Wales and their Vindication of her R. Hss Right apparent to the next Succession of the Crown When a wrongful Claimer to be Heir of any Inheritance cannot prove his true Descent the Court wherein he sues his Claim not only rejects and damns his false Pretences but openly declares the Counterfeit Tricks or Forgeries that they observe to have been attempted to support the false Claim and our Laws enable the Heir that hath been disturbed to demand by his Action against the false Pretender Satisfaction for the Scandal of his lawful Title and our Laws further require his prosecution for Justice against all the known Confederates in that intended Wrong and Fraud for their several Crimes therein committed We are sensible that most Catholic Princes have a prejudice to us in the Rights we claim as English Protestants not knowing our Laws and Liberties and we have therefore proposed these two Demands to be first in order made by your Hss in the behalf of her R. Hss and the Kingdom that we might convince them that we have Reason and Justice according to their own Laws and Rules of Right to seek your Hss Protection against the King's Practices as they yet appear in forcing us to stoop to a Counterfeit Prince and to change the Succession of the Crown and the whole Government your Hss having therein a joint Concern with us and our Laws and Nature it self call upon you to defend your own and the Kingdom 's Right to preserve the Succession of the Crown as it is by the Laws established which the King had no pretence of Power to Change. But we must also humbly fly to your Hss to protect us against the horrible destruction made by the King of all our Laws for the Reformation of our Christian Religion and our Security against the open professed and mortal Enemies of our Liberties therein the King having declared to the World that those Laws shall never hereafter be put in Execution and to make our Case therein desperate hath caused his Judges to justify him in what he hath done We must also pray your Hss help against his Invasion of all our Civil Rights and Fundamental Liberties and his utter subversion of the Free Government of England by its ancient Customs and Laws We cannot doubt but your Hss will be convinced by this Memorial that we have not complained of our Oppressions until they are become intolerable nor sought any Relief save from God alone until your Highnesses justly expected inheritance and the very being of our Civil Government are in the most extream danger of utter ruine We are and have been truly Loyal to the King and never refused obedience to any of his legal Commands or any whatsoever that could consist with all our other Duties to God and our fellow Subjects We have been content to suffer personal wrongs and manifest Injustice and considered the Corruption of Men that abuses and particular wrongs will happen in all Governments and ought patiently to be born whilst the Fundamentals of Civil Government and Justice are sacredly preserved Our Christian Charity taught us that 't is better that a few suffer wrongs than to hazard for their just Relief more effusion of Blood or other Mischiefs than can be recompensed by their obtaining Right We know the Jesuites crafts might have clouded the Justice that might have been demanded in particular Cases and we have therefore staid until the Justice of what we pray is become demonstrable unto all that are not corruptly and wilfully blind or led blindfold by the Jesuites or Romish Priests We are sensible that the King hath used the Name of the Royal Authority and Prerogative in all the lawless powers that he hath exercised and we durst not pray your Hss aid against his doings if there could be reasonably any doubt or question whether the things he hath done and daily doth might be authorized by the Royal Powers and high Prerogatives which belong to the Kings of England 'T is most unquestionable that the Noble English Monarchy and Government had a legal Foundation and was and is established upon Customs Franchises and Laws peculiar to the English Nation It was always free and independent upon all the Powers and Potentates on Earth the Kings and the People are and of right were always free and absolute to bind themselves by their own Laws made by their joynt consent and not otherwise they could never be bound by any others than themselves save only by the Laws of the most high God. A King of England ceaseth to act by the English Kingly Authority or as a King of England if he yield up himself or his Subjects to be bound or subjected to any other Laws Canons or Jurisdictions than such as are made or freely received by the mutual agreement of the King and the representative Body of the Realm in Parliament 'T is declared in the St. 16 R. 2.5 that the Crown of England had been so free at all times that it hath been in Subjection to no Realm and that the same ought not in any thing touching the Regality to be submitted to the Bishop of Rome
declared Heir apparent of the Crown which ought not by the known Laws of the Kingdom to have been acknowledged until lawful Witnesses of his Birth of the Queen had been duely published to the Kingdom as was necessary in this case wherein publick fame makes him a Counterfeit Yet to their shame and grief the People are forced to seem in their publick Prayers to present him to God as their Prince and dare not ask who are the Witnesses of his Birth 10. Many of their Juries are pressed to Find their Neighbours Criminals tho' in their Consciences they think them innocent as is notorious amongst many other Instances in the case of those that made innocent expressions of their joy for the Justice that was done to the 7 Bishops and many are forced to submit to be tryed in matters about the loss of their Estates by Fines and their Lives also by Juries returned by secret Contrivances and Nominations contrary to the direction of our Laws being neither of the most sufficient nor most indifferent of the nearest Neighbours to the Facts in question nor by Sheriffs sworn as the Laws require whereby the course of the Kingdoms Justice is perverted and the legal Government subverted All these Instances are too well known to be denyed by our Adversaries Viz. A The case of the Lord Bishop of London suspended Of Doctor Peachel Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge and Master of Pembroke-Hall deprived Of Doctor Hough and 26 Fellows of Magdalen Colledge Oxford besides the Demres outed from their free-hold and lively-hood and Decreed incapable of any other Preferment only for keeping to the Law the Statute of their Colledge and Oaths The Suspension of near 200 Ministers in the County of Durham for refusing to read to their People the Kings Declaration for dispensing with our Laws c. (B) Viz. The Summons of the Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Affairs to the Chancellors Commmissaries and Arch-deacons of the Diocesses of most of the Bishops to return the Names of all the Ministers that did not read the Kings Declaration wherein they transgressed no Law Ecclesiastical or Civil (C) The City of London and all the Cities and Towns Corporate of the Kingdom are sad instances of this the King alone setting up whom he pleases to have the Names and use the Powers of their formerly chosen Magistrates (D) So the King hath done to the ancient Cities of Oxford Winchester and the Borough of Totness now threatens to do the same to the great City of Norwich or something tantamount whereby he assumes to dispose of the Subjects legal Interests at his Will as if the Subjects had no Property (E) The late Statutes of 25 and 30 of Car. 2. were made expresly for the Protestants Security so were those of 5 El 1. 13. El. 2. 23. El. 1. 27. El. 2. 1 Jac. 1. and the Stat. 25 H. 8.19 20 21. and many ancient Stat. of Ed. 1. Ed. 2. Ed. 3. Ri. 2. and many other Kings were made to secure the People from the apprehensions of the Church of Rome and the King hath declared that none of them shall at any time hereafter be put in execution (F) 'T is known all the professed Papists are by the Stat. of El. Jac. 1. and Car. 2. made incapable of holding any Trust or Powers in the Kingdom and that the King hath placed the most of them in their hands (G) See the Pet. of Right 3. Car. and the late Statutes Car. 2. that declare the dispersing of Souldiers into the Country and the quartering them in the Subjects Houses to be â—gainst the Laws and Customs of the Realm aâ—d 't is Demanded and Enacted as the Peoples Right that they shall never be so burdened by Souldiers (H) See the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience that suspends the Execution of all the Penal Laws whatsoever in matters Ecclesiastical those that make it Treason to maintain the Popes Powers and Canons to be above our Laws or to take his Dispensation of Obedience to them (I) See the Statutes 35 Ed. 1. 25 Ed. 3. 72 Ed. 3. 16 Ri. 2.5 (K) See 24 H. 8.12 25 H. 21. 'T is declared that the Realm is free and subject to no Laws but by their own consent and that the King and Parliament representing the whole State of the Realm have the Power to Dispense with the Laws as they shall see occasion (L) See the Statutes 1 Jac. 1.1 (M) See Stat. Westm 1. 3 Ed. 7. The common Law is there declared and the King bindeth himself not to disturb any Electors to make free Elections See Car. 2. Parl. See 7 H. 4.15 6 H. 6.4 9 H. 4.8 (N) Note that the Kings Practice of Closeting Members of Parliament was the same as it 's now for Electors (O) See the King's Second Declaration for Liberty of Conscience April 27. 1688. P See the grievous complaints of the Commons in 25 Ed. 3.4 provisos and 6 Ric. 2.5 27 Ed. 3. Q See the Parliament Roll 4 H. 4. 1 H. 5. R See the St. 3 H. 5. St. 4.7 H. 4.8 S So the Pope absolved H. 3. and Ed. 1. from their Oath to keep the great Charter T King John made V See the Roll. part 40 Ed. 3. num 8. Rot. Claus 3. Ed. 1. cala K. Johns Charter and Grant to the Pope a most unjust and forceless Charter since burnt W Note that Cromwel took upon him such a power to send for men by his Letters without Election and called them a Parliament and made Acts and intended to have changed the Succession of the Crown to his own family if those his Creatures could have agreed with him (x) That is in France the Dukedom of Savoy the Kingdom of Poland many others (y) That Edict of 1685. is worthy to be read by every true Protestant (z) 'T is fit to see in that Edict prepared as it s published the opinion they have of Protestants That they are deemed uncapable of having any right to claim the benefit of the Treaties Promises or Oaths made to them by the Papists (a) See in Coleman's Letters in print published by the Parliaments command (b) See the relation of it printed (c) See Dr. Burnets Letter from his personal inquiry See Rol. Clar. 3. Ed. num 9. Shed See Cooks Inst fol. 13. Rot Parliament 28 Ed. 1. see Cooks instituti 2. fol. 98.