Successor which Blessing his Majesty seems resolved to bequeath to his People one would have thought he might have complied with the Parliament in that Proposal It is very probable his Majesty would have complied with them in that particular tho it is past a perhaps the Fanaticks had not nor ever will as long as they continue such deserve that favour at his hands But modest Sir how doth it appear that his Majesty is resolved to bequeath his People the Blessing of a Popish Successor Hath he promised the Duke to die before him Hath his Majesty obliged him to continue a Papist if he be one in spight of his Interest to the contrary Is this your Justice Is this your Modesty But the Ministers thought they had not sufficiently triumphed over the Parliament by getting the Bill rejected unless it were done in such a manner as that the precedent might be more pernicious to Posterity by introducing a new Negative in the making of Laws than the losing the Bill how useful soever could be to the present Age. That this Bill was not tendered to his Majesty for his Assent appears by three Votes of the Commons at Oxford The House then according to their order the day before took into consideration the matter relating to the Bill which passed both Houses in tbe last Parliament entituled An Act for the repeal of a Statute made in the 35 year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth but was not tendered to his Majesty for his Royal Assent Resolved that a Message be sent to the Lords desiring a Conference with their Lordships in matters relating to the constitution of Parliaments in passing Bills Ordered that a Committee be appointed to consider of and prepare the subject matter to be offered at the said Conference Thus far that Parliament went in order to the discovery of the cause of the not tendering that Bill and I have heard the Lords also were upon an inquiry what was become of it but the dissolution preventing them I never heard that there was any discovery made then or since of the person or persons that took it away Now where my Author had his intelligence that the Ministers took it away to introduce a new Negative in the making of Laws I shall not inquire This we may affirm That if the success of this Parliament did not answer expectation whoever was guilty of it the House of Commons did not fail in doing their part Never did men husband their time to more advantage They opened the Eyes of the Nation they shewed them their danger with a freedom becoming English men It was a Caution given by Queen Elizabeth in the end of a Parliament held in the 35th year of her Reign That she would not have the People feared with reports of great dangers but rather encouraged witb boldness against the Enemies of the State And what the effect of our new Politicks was once before we will remember They Asserted tbe Peoples right of Petitioning Yes that they did too very effectually Tho there was an Act of Parliament then in force with this Preface Whereas it hath been found by sad experience that tumultuous and other disorderly soliciting and procuring of Hands by private persons to Petitions Complaints Remonstrances and Declarations and other Addresses to the King or both or either houses of Parliament for alteration of Matters Established by Law redress of pretended Grievances in Church or State OR OTHER PUBLICK CONCERNMENTS have been made use of to serve the Ends of factious and seditious persons gotten into power to the violation of the Publick Peace and have been great means of the late unhappy Wars Confusions and Calamities of this Nation c. They Proceeded vigorously against the Conspirators discovered and heartily endeavoured to take away the very Root of the Conspiracy They had before them as many great and useful Bills as had been seen in any Parliament and it is not to be laid at their doors that they proved abortive This Age will never fail to give them their grateful Acknowledgments And Posterity will remember that House of Commons with honour Jamque opus exegit quod nec Jovis ira nec ignes Nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetusas Nomenque erit indelebile vestrum And now the work is ended which Jove's rage Nor fire nor Sword shall rase nor eating Age And their immortal name shall never die We come now to the particular enumeration of those gracious things which were said to the Parliament at Westminster His Majesty ask'd of them the supporting the Alliances he had made for the preservation of the General Peace in Christendom It is to be wished his Majesty had added to his gracious asking of Money a gracious Communication of those Alliances that such blind obedience had not been exacted from them as to contribute to the support of they knew not what themselves nor before they had considered whether those Alliances which were made were truly designed for that End which was Pretended very dutifully said or any way likely to prove effectual to it since no precedent can be shewn that ever a Parliament not even the late Long Parliament tho filled with Danby his Pensioners did give money for maintaining any Leagues till they were first made acquainted with the particulars of them That Leagues have been communicated to Parliaments heretofore is not to be disputed but that they were ever tendered before they were asked for is not so plain Nor doth it appear this was denied And as to his Parenthesis I desire only that it may be observed for my excuse in case I happen to speak any thing not respective enough of the renowned Parliament at Westminster But besides this this Parliament had reason to consider well of the general Peace it self and the influence it might have and had upon our Affairs before they came to any resolution or so much as a debate about preserving it since so wise a Minister as my Lord Chancellor blessed be God we have one wise Minister they have all along hitherto in general terms been treated at such a rare as if none of them had had either Wit or Honesty had so lately told us that it was fitter for meditation than discourse He informed us in the same Speech that the Peace then was but the effect of Despair in the Confederates and we have since learnt by whose means they were reduced to that Despair and what price was demanded of the French King for so great a Service It is an old Maxim That men should neither deliberate nor debate about those things that are not in their power Now whatever this General Peace was and whatever the effects of it might be the right of Peace and War was in the King and the Commons could not alter one tittle of it And a small degree of experience in the World will tell any man that England was not then in a condition
had been but for half an hour he would not have consented to it because of the ill consequences it might have hereafter the Militia being wholly in the Crown c. Now I believe it would be difficult for my Author to make and prove the like instance in any of our former Princes And in the first of the short Westminster Parliaments his Majesty passed the Act for the better securing of the Liberty of the Subject and for preventing imprisonment beyond Seas to which an honourable Person adds The Act against quartering of Souldiers upon the Subject and saith his Majesty might have had many Millions for these Acts if he had insisted on a bargain or known how to distinguish between his own private Interest and that of the Subject or the truckling way of Bartering when the good of his People was concerned And in the last short-lived Westminster Parliament his Majesty passed the Act against Importation of Irish Cattel for no other visible cause but because both Houses had passed it tho it tended to the Diminution of his Revenue And now let us see how gratefully our Author treats him for all these Royal and Prince-like Favours Therefore the Favorites did little consult his Majesties Honour when they bring him in solemnly declaring to his Subjects that his intentions were as far as would have consisted with the very Being of the Government to have complied with any thing that could have been proposed to him to accomplish those Ends he had mentioned which were the satisfying the desires of his Subjects and securing them against all their just fears when they are not able to produce an instance wherein they suffered him to comply in any one thing Whatever the House of Commons Addressed for was certainly denied tho it was only for that reason and there was no surer way of Intituling ones self to the favour of the Court than to receive a Censure from the representative body of the People As to the Addresses made by the House of Commons alone they were many of them such as his Majesty could not comply with without great mischief to himself or them that had exprest the greatest Zeal for his Service and when for that case only they seemed to be persecuted it would have been very impolitick in his Majesty tho he had been his own man and not under the dominion of the Favorites as it seems he was to have yielded to the Commons against them But cannot the Favorites instance wherein they suffered his Majesty to comply in any one thing with the House of Commons Did not his Majesty at their single request Pardon a great many Informers against the Plotters Did he not pardon B. Harris too his 500 l. Fine and Imprisonment which he had incurred by Printing disloyal and seditious Pamphlets Did not his Majesty upon their Address discharge all the Protestant Dissenters who were then under prosecution upon several Penal Statutes without paying Fees as far as it could be done according to Law and promise also to recommend them to the Judges There might many other instances be given of moneys issued out of persons taken care for and the like upon the single request of the Commons so that I cannot but wonder where my Authors modesty was when he pressed the Favorites to give one instance of his Majesties compliance with the House of Commons But his Majesty and the Court were kind to all that received any Censure from the representative body of the People They might thank themselves for that who bestowed their Censures so freely on men that had deserved very well of his Majesty and the Government and yet I believe there may be some instances given of men whom they Censured or imprisoned that have not been mightily advanced since by the Court but let us examine those few particular Examples my Author hath marked out Let it for the present be admitted saith my Author that some of the things desired by that Parliament were exorbitant and because we will put the objection as strong as is possible inconsistent with the very being of the Government yet at least some of their Petitions were more reasonable Doubtless there was some such which therefore were freely granted by his Majesty as I have proved The Government might have subsisted though the Gentlemen put out of the Commission of the Peace for their zealous acting against the Papists had been restored And so might the Protestant Religion by Law established be preserved without the assistance of these zealous Gentlemen and therefore his Majesty was not to be instructed by these Representatives whom he should imploy as Justices of the Peace especially after they had discovered so much kindness for the Dissenters who have something an odd Notion of Papists and Popery Nor would a final Dissolution of all things have ensued tho Sir George Jefferies had been removed out of all Publick Offices or my Lord Hallifax himself from his Majesties Presence and Councils The first of these Sir George Jefferies was then Recorder of London and was prosecuted by a part of the City for that he by traducing and obstructing Petitioning for the sitting of that Parliament had betrayed the Rights of the Subject Now that Gentleman opposed them as many others did in obedience to his Majesties Proclamation and the Laws of the Land and it was a little unreasonable that his Majesty should joyn with the Commons to ruine him though it could be made out that his Majesties Proclamation was illegal and that there were a mistake also in the point of Law My Lord Hallifax was prosecuted only for opposing the Bill for disinheriting the Duke of York in the House of Lords and no fault whatsoever laid to his charge Now he being a Member of that House it had been very unreasonable for his Majesty to have punished him for using his own just and legal freedom in a case especially wherein his Majesty had declared his own resolution so very often before Now Sir tho these two Persons are not essentially necessary to the preservation of the Government yet it is absolutely so that his Majesty do not give up those that have faithfully and legally served him in their proper Stations either to please the People or their Representatives without a legal trial and a just defence We may all remember what the Consequences of his Majesties Fathers giving up the Earl of Strafford in the beginning of the late troubles were and I hope I shall never live to see that sort of compliance reacted again Had the Statute of 35. Eliz. which had justly slept for Eighty years and of late unreasonably revived been repealed surely the Government might still have been safe And though the Fanaticks perhaps had not deserved so well as that in favour to them his Majesty should have passed that Bill yet since the Repeal might hereafter be of great use to those of the Church of England in case of a Popish
he was of the Kings Speech I cannot say because it is not in my power to examine those Articles But his mentioning our obligation to assist Spain in the West-Indies and Philippine Islands where it is impossible against the Duke of Brandenburg and the King of Portugal where it would be unjust and against his Protestant Subjects opprest by him as they were by his Grandfather Philip are such things would make a man suspect his sincerity a little and the rather because his Majesty tells us The League was suitable to that which he had before with the States of the Vnited Provinces and they also had with Spain consisting of mutual obligations of Succour and Defence Now the account my Author gives of it is in part so impossible and in the rest so improbable that no Mortal in his right Wits can believe that Spain should desire or England grant any such things And therefore if he had at all expected to have been believed he ought to have Transcribed those three Articles for a proof of what he had said And whereas he tells us it engages us indefinitely to enter into all the quarrels of the Spaniards That if true will bear a fair Construction and will no more oblige us to those things he mentions if they be not express'd nay I think I may say if they be in plain terms than it will to help the King of Spain to destroy our selves in case he should happen to have a quarrel with us hereafter For no League can bind any further than as it is just and possible But that which concerns us yet nearer saith my Author in this League is that this obligation of Assistance was mutual so that if a Disturbance should happen hereafter in England upon any attempt to change our Religion or our Government tho it was in the time of his Majesties Successors The most Catholick King is obliged by this League which we are still to believe was entered into for the security of the Protestant Religion and the good of the Nation to give aid to so pious a design and to make War upon their Majesties the People with all his Forces both by Land and Sea And therefore it was no wonder that the Ministers were not forward in shewing this League to the Parliament who would have soon observed all these inconveniences and have seen how little such a League could contribute to the preserving the General Peace or to the securing of Flanders since the French King may within one months time possess himself of it and we by our League are not obliged to send our Succours till three months after the Invasion so that they would upon the whole matter have been inclined to suspect that the main end of this League was only to serve for a handsom pretence to raise an Army in England and if the People here should grow discontented at it and any little disorders should ensue The Spaniard is thereby obliged to send over Forces to suppress them This is fraught with such rare new Politicks and he has taken such care to make Rebellion safe whether it happens in his Majesties time or in his Successors especially if it were in order to the preservation of our Religion and Government and wo be to the man that begins one on any other pretence that I thought sit to transcribe it intire But Sir whatever the Spaniard hath promised or the Ministers intended against the People must needs come to nothing for you know that his Affairs were lately through the defects of his own Government and the Treachery of our Ministers reduced to so desperate a state that he might well be a Burthen to us but there was little to be hoped for from a friendship with him and therefore as little in hast to be feared from his Forces too if he should be so Popishly inclined as to think it a Pious design to help the King to bring in Arbitrary Government by the handsom pretence of an Army raised for his assistance or that and Popery too in the time of his Majesties Successor to which this Gentleman knows no man better the People have no Maw tho the Ministers have a filthy inclination and therefore cunningly took care by their Treachery to reduce his Affairs whose help they chiefly relied on into that desperate condition we lately see them in Well but for all that he may recover some part of his ancient Power yes who doubts that to hurt us but not to help us And now no man can blame the Ministers that they were not forward in shewing this League to the Parliament who would doubtless have forthwith Addressed to the King against them and ushered it in with a Vote that they were all of them Promoters of Popery and Spanish Counsels and Enemies to the King and Kingdom By this League in seems the King was not obliged to send over any Succours till three months after an Invasion tho it is as plain as the Nose on a mans face that the French King may in one months time possess himself of Flanders He may however take longer time if he please for any care was taken here to prevent it so that if his Majesty had taken a little too long a time to send in his Aids which all things considered few men will think he did yet they that should have backed him in it have taken a longer time and therefore ought not to complain The next thing saith my Author recommended to them was the further Examination of the Plot and every one who have observed what has passed for more than two years together cannot doubt but that this was sincerely desired by such as are most in credit with his Majesty And then surely the Parliament deserved not to be censured upon this account since the Examination of so many new Witnesses the Trial of the Lord Stafford the great preparations for the trial of the rest of the Lords and their diligent inquiry into the Horrid Irish Treasons shew that the Parliament wanted no diligence to pursue his Majesties good intentions in that affair Now Sir If they had but suspended the Bill for disinheriting the Duke of York and their Votes that followed upon the throwing it out in the Lords House and could but have held their hands from sending for their fellow-Subjects into Custody till they had dispatched this great Affair tried all the other Lords in the Tower it is thought by wiser men than I they might have had time enough to have gone through with this business but some body tells us the Plot was to be kept on foot else they would be defeated It was to be used like the Holy War always a doing never done withal till it made way for some other designs that would not go merrily without the noise of a Plot to drive them When his Majesty desired from the Parliament their Advice and assistance concerning the Preservation of Tangier the Commons did
is undeniable but then those reasons ought to be alledged and proved for the turning a man out of Service is certainly in many cases a great punishment tho not equal to hanging The People themselves are highly concerned in the great Ministers of State who are Servants to the Kingdom as well as to the King and the Commons whose business it is to present all Grievances as they are most likely to observe soonest the folly and treachery of those publick Servants the greatest of all Grievances so this representation ought to have no little weight with the Prince Here is the true reason as long as the Ministers look upon themselves as the Kings Servants they will adhere to the Crown but if they be taught once that they are Servants to the People too then because it is difficult to serve two Masters they will be more distracted and act more timorously especially if according to the modern distinction the Country-Party get the Ascendent of the Court-Party in a Parliament Queen Elizabeth told the Commons by the Lord Keeper that she misliked that such irreverence towards Privy-Counsellors who were not to be accounted as Common Knights and Burgesses of the House that are Counsellors but during the Parliament whereas the other are standing Counsellors and for their Wisdom and great Service are called to the Council of State They were not then thought to be such publick Servants as might be treated at any rate sent to the Tower or to carry up a Bill to the Lords against which they had given their Vote as if it were to triumph over them But Henry IV. a wise and a brave Prince in the Fifth year of his Reign turned out four of his Servants only because the Commons desired they might be removed But then this Prince had no Title and therefore was not in a capacity to dispute any thing with them and in this very Parliament too they gave him so extraordinary a Tax and so troublesom to the Subject that they would not suffer any Record of it to be left in the Treasury and he was obliged to grant them this extraordinary favour in recompence of it He had but newly in Battel conquered one Rebellion wherein Mortimers Title was at the bottom and was ingaged then in a War with France And he had reason to fear a general Defection of the Nation King Richard being reported to be alive And he was then in great want of Money so that for such a Prince so beset to grant any thing was far from a wonder but ought no more to be drawn into Example than that Tax they then gave him and least of all now when things are in a very different posture But then all these Ministers are censured for doing that which was approved by two of the three Estates The Resolve was this That all persons who advised his Majesty in his last Message to this House to insist upon an opinion against the Bill for Excluding the Duke of York have given pernicious Counsel to his Majesty and are promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdom Now this Bill was before this thrown out by the House of Lords and therefore there was no reason to Vote the Ministers Enemies to the King and Kingdom for doing that which was approved by two of the three Estates in Parliament But they ought not to have appealed to the People against their own Representatives Why not The unfortunate Reigns of Henry III. Edward II. Richard II. and Henry VI. ought to serve as Land-marks to warn succeeding Kings from preserring secret Councils to the wisdom of their Parliaments And so ought the Example of his Majesties Father to warn both his Majesty and the whole Nation how they suffer the Ministers of State to be trodden under foot by Factious men and the Prerogatives of the Crown to be swallowed up by pretended Priviledges of Parliament for all these things have once already made way for the Ruine of the Monarchy as that did for the enslaving of the People The next thing my Author falls upon is the business of the Revenue but here I cannot imagine what he would have he makes a long Harangue against Alienation of the Revenues of the Crown and about the reasonableness of Resumptions of those that had been alienated And tells us No Country did ever believe the Prince how absolute soever in other things had power to sell or give away the Revenue of the Kingdom and leave his Successor a Beggar That the haughty French Monarch as much power as he pretends to is not ashamed to own that he wanted power to make such Alienations and that Kings had that happy inability that they could do nothing contrary to the Laws of their Country This and much more my Author hath upon this occasion learnedly but very impertinently written about these two Votes believing his Reader could not distinguish betwixt an Alienation and an Anticipation But the best way to have this clearly understood is to insert the Votes of the Commons which are as followeth Resolved That whosoever shall hereafter lend or cause to be lent by way of Advance any money upon the Branches of the Kings Revenue arising by Customs Excise or Hearth-money shall be adjudged to hinder the sitting of Parliaments and shall be responsible for the same in Parliament Resolved That whosoever shall accept or buy any Tally of Anticipation upon any part of the Kings Revenue or whoseever shall pay such Tally hereafter to be struck shall be adjudged to hinder the sitting of Parliaments and shall be responsible therefore in Parliament Now what Advancing money upon the Revenues and accepting Tallys of Anticipation have to do with Alienation of it I cannot devise For certainly it is one thing to advance a Fine and take a Farm so much the cheaper for three four or seven years and another thing to purchase the same to a man and his Heirs for ever And it is one thing to receive an Order to take such a Sum of Money of the Tenant out of the next half years Rent and a quite other thing to purchase the Feesimple of an Estate which is an Alienation The Revenues of the Crown of England are in their own nature appropriated to Publick Service and therefore cannot without injustice be diverted or Anticipated May not an Anticipation be as well imployed upon the Publick Service as a growing Revenue when it is become due Does Anticipation signifie mispending or diverting from a Publick to a private use Is it impossible the Publick should at any time need a greater Sum of money than the Revenue will afford and may not a Prince in such a case Anticipate and afterward get it up again by his good Husbandry No for Either the Publick Revenue is sufficient to answer the necessary occasions of the Government and then there is no colour for Anticipations or else by some extraordinary Accident the King
61. Pag. 11. Colemans long Letter A seasonable Address to the Parliament pag. 6 7. Pag. 12. Pag. 12. Verbae strictius quam fere proprietas sumenda erunt si id necessarium erit ad vitandam iniquitatem vel Absurdltatem atsi non talis est necessitas sed manifesta aequitas vel utilitas in restrictione subsistendum erit intra arctissimos terminos proprietatus nisi Circumstantia aliud suadeant Grot. de jure Belli Pacis lib. 2. cap. 16. sect 12. Pag. 13. Pag. 13. Seasonable Address p 3. Pag. 13. Pag. 13. April 7 and 9. 1678. Pag. 14. Pag. 14. Hist Col. of the four last Parliaments of Q Eliz. Pag. 15. Proceedings of the four last Parliaments of Q. Eliz. p. 254. Anno Regni 44. It seems probable to me that this question was then first resolved by the Arguments brought for it which use not to be in plain cases and one Member opposed it and another said many were sent for but none appeared none were punished Cokes Instit part 4. of the proceedings in Parliament against absents p. 38. * Owned by this Author p. 39. Cokes Instit part 4. p. 24. Debates of the House of Commons pag. 217. A Commitment of this House is always in nature of a Judgment and the Party not Bailable Address to the Freemen c. Part. 2. p 38. 4 Edw. 6. 18 Jac. 20 Jac. 3 Car. Pag. 16. Pag. 17. Ibid. Pag. 17. Ibid. Proceedings of the four last Parl. p. 47. Pag. 17. In hoc Parliamento concessa suit Regi taxa insolita incolis tricabilis valde gravis Wals nec servarentur ejus Evidentiae in Thesauria Regia Ibid. Polid. Virgil. Sunorum crebris conjurationibus vexatus Jan. 7. 1680. Pag. 18. Pag. 19. There were two Votes of the same nature passed in 1626 concerning Tonnage and Poundage Nalsons Preface to his Collections pag. 60. Pag. 19. Pag. 19. Pag. 20. ☞ ☜ ☜ Pag. 20. Cokes Instit part 2. p. 44. ☞ ☜ ☜ 27 â— 8. 31 â— â— c. 13. 32. H. 8. c. 14. 27 H. 8. c 24. Pag. 20. Ibid. Pag. 21. Pag. 21. Ibid. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 22. Pag. 23. Pag. 23. Pag. 23. Pag. 23. * Suppose that the Church of England were disarmed of all those Laws by which she is guarded and would not this turn a National Church into nothing else but a Tolerated Sect or Party Would it not take away all appearance of Establishment from it Lord Chancellors Speech April 13. 75. Would this Unite us in one Affection Pag. 24. Pag. 24. Ibid. Pag. 25. Pag. 25. Pag. 11 20. Pag. 26. The gracious Speech there made and the gracious Declaration that followed are so much of a piece that we may justly conclude the same persons to have been the Authors of both Pag. 27. of this Book Pag. 27. Pag. 6. Pag. 27. Proceedings of the four last Parl. Pag. 32. Viide p. 178. ☜ Pag. 27. Feb. 24. 1592. 35 Eliz. Prerogative of Parliaments Pag. 56. Feb. 28. 1592. And accordingly in this Session of Parliament was the sharp Statute made against the Dissenters which was designed to have been repealed when the Bill of Repeal was lost in the House of Lords Pag. 27. Pag. 28. Pag. 28. Ibid. Pag. 28. Pag. 29. The Lord Chancellor told the Parliament May 1â— 1662. that they had well provided for the Crown by the Bill of the Milâ—â—â—â— and the Act for the Additional Revenue to their high Commendationâ— How â—â—owaâ—d and indisposed soever many are at present who 〈◊〉 such obstructions laid in their way to Mutiny and Sedition use all the Artifiâ—e they can to persuade the people that yoâ— have not been soiretou enough for their Liberty nor 〈◊〉 enough for their proâ—â—â— and 〈◊〉 labour to 〈◊〉 their reverence towards you which sure was 〈◊〉 more due to any Parliament Pag. 30. The continuation of the History of England by John Trussel Pag. 31. Pag. 31. Address of Decemb. 21. 1680. Pag. 32. Pag. 33. Pag. 34. In plain English there must be a Change we must neither have Popish Wife nor Popish Favourite nor Popish Mistris nor Popish Counsellor at Court nor any new Convert We want a Government and a Prince that we may trust c. A Speech of a Noble Peer of the Realm Pag. 35. Pag. 35. Oatos tells us these were the Protesting Lords and the Leading men in the House of Commons Trial pag. 28. Trial pag. 21. Pag. 35. Pag. 24. Feb. 27. Said Colledge If you do not joyn with Fitz-Harris and charge the King home you are the basest fellow in the world c. Colledge Trial. pag. 30. Pag. 36. Pag. 36. Ibid. Pag. 36 37 38 39. Pag. 40. Pag. 41. * 〈…〉 the Third 's time they put down the Purveyor of the Meat for the maintenance 〈…〉 House as if the King had been a Bankrupt and gave order that without ready Money he shâ—â—â— not take up a Chicken Prerogative of Parliaments p. 15. Pag. 41. Trial p 54. Pag. 41. Pag. 42. Ibid. Pag. 42. Pag. 43. Ibid. Ibid. Pag. 44. There hath not been a Week since Venners rising in which there have not been Combinations and Conspiracies formed against his Majesties Person and against the Peace of the Kingdom c. Lord Chancellors Speech May 8. 1661. Pag. 6. Pag. 44. Tacitus in the end of the Reign of Augustus saith Senes plerique inter Bella Civium nati quotusquisque reliquâ—s qui Rempub. vidisset igitur versus Civitatis status nihil usquam prisâ—i integri moris Omnis exuta aequalitate jussa Principis aspectare H. lib. 1. In which passage Monarchy is opposed to the ancient Liberty or Commonwealth Pag. 45. See the Preface to the first part of the Addreâ—s to the Freemen c. Pag. 19. Pag. 22. Pag. 45. Pag. 46. Declaration Debates p. 19 1. Pag. 46. Address to the Freemen p 39. part 2. * Speech to the Parliament Feb. 5. 1672. Pag. 35. Pag 6. Ibid. Pag. 47. 17 Car. 2. C. 1. Pag. 5. Pag. 43 44 Pag. 47. Ibid. Colledges Trial p. 18. 25. Pag. 48. Pag. 48. Ibid. Redde Reverentiam Praelato Obedientiam quarum altera Cordis altera Corporis est Nec enim sufficit exterius obtemperare majoribus nostris nisi ex intimo Cordis Affectu sublimiter sentiamus de tis S. Bernard Serm. 3. de Advent This internal reverence due to the Sacred Majesty of our Kings above all other Superiours whatsoever is that which we express by the word Loyalty Conclusion Religion Loyalty Laws The Republicans are eveâ—y day calling in the Aid of the Law that they may overthrow the Law which they know to be their irreconcilable enemy Lord Chancellors Speech May 19. 1662. Monarchy Popery Oaths Clergy Conversation Ministers C'est à un Prine à regler leâ— Courtisans dautant qu'on lâ—â— impute tous leurs disorders qu' on presume quand â—ls en 〈◊〉 que c'est luy mesme qui les commet garcâ— qu'il est oblige dâ— les empescher Judges and Magistrates Gentry Liberty and Property Books Fears and Jealousies Plot. Priviledge
voted against the Bill should no longer preside in His Councils no longer possess all the great Trusts and Offices in the Kingdom 3. That our Ports our Garrisons and our Fleets should be no longer governed by such as are at his devotion 4. That Characters of Honour and Favour should be no longer placed on men that the Wisdom of the Nation the House of Commons without the Lords for they have it seems lately got a Patent to Monopolize all the Wisdom of the Nation hath judged to be favourers of Popery or Pensioners of France These are great and important Changes but such as it becomes Englishmen to believe were designed by that Parliament and such as will be designed and prest by every Parliament and such as the People will ever pray may find success with the King without these Changes and the Association forgotten by my Author the Bill of Exclusion would only provoke not disarm our Enemies Nay the very money which we must have paid for it would have been made use of to secure and hasten the Duke's return upon us Now this was all perhaps was meant by that passage in the Declaration and the Consequences of these things are such that no beseeching will ever obtain them till his Majesty is weary of all he hath and therefore it well becomes all English men that do not design another Rebellion for time to come to design and pray and our Parliaments to press for some other things that may be fitter for them to ask and his Majesty to grant I conclude with the Wisemans Advice My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change Especially to such important changes We are now come to the consideration of that only fault which was peculiar to the Parliament at Oxford and that was their behaviour in relation to the business of Fitz-Harris the Declaration says He was impeached of High Treason by the Commons and they had cause to think his Treasons to be of such an extraordinary nature that they well deserved an examination in Parliament We shall by and by come to examine the reasons that made them think so and in the interim it is worth the while to recite the very words of the Declaration which are these The business of Fitz-Harris who was impeached by the House of Commons of High Treason and by the House of Lords referred to the ordinary course of Law was on the sudden carried on to that extremity by the Votes which the Commons passed on March 26. last that there was no possibility left of a Reconciliation The Votes are these Rosolved That it is the undoubted Right of the Commons in Parliament assembled to impeach before the Lords in Parliament any Peer or Commoner for Treason or any other Crime or Misdemeanor And that the refusal to proceed in Parliament upon such impeachment is a denial of Justice and a Violation of the Constitutions of Parliaments Resolved That in the case of Edward Fitz-Harris who by the Commons hath been impeached of High Treason before the Lords with a Declaration that in convenient time they would bring up the Articles against him for the Lords to Resolve that the said Fitz-Harris should be proceeded with according to the course of Common Law and not by way of impeachment at this time is a denial of Justice and a violation of the Constitutions of Parliaments and an Obstruction to the further discovery of the Popish Plot and of great danger to his Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion Resolved That for any inferiour Court to proceed against Edward Fitz-Harris or any other person lying under an impeachment in Parliament for the same Crimes he or they stand impeached is a high breach of the Priviledge of Parliament And now let us follow my Authors account of Fitz-Harris his business who he says truly was a known Irish Papist and it appeared by the Informations given in the House he was made use of by some very great persons to set up a Counterfeit Protestant Conspiracy and thereby not only to drown the noise of the Popish Plot but to take off the Heads of the most eminent of those who refused to bow their knees to Baal c. That this might look as unlike a Popish Design and be the better received by the people as was possible they framed a libel full of the most bitter invectives against Popery and the Duke of York it carried as much seeming zeal for the Protestant Religion as Colemans Declaration and as much care and concern for our Laws as the penners of this Declaration would seem to have But it was also filled with the most subtile insinuations and the sharpest expressions against his Majesty that could be invented and with direct and passionate incitements to Rebellion This Paper as it appears by the account of it which was given at Fitz-Harris his Trial was penn'd in the stile and just like the Libels the sober Protestants daily Print and perhaps not much unlike our modest Vindicator in the main but had some things in it which they whisper for the present because it is dangerous Printing of them And some other things plainly spoken which the other Party have a way to insinuate craftily so that it may be understood and yet not hazard their sweet lives This saith my Author was to be conveyed by unknown Messengers Oates says by the Penny Post to their hands who were to be betrayed and then they were to be seized upon and those Libels sound about them were to be a Confirmation of the truth of a Rebellion which they had provided Witnesses to swear was designed by the Protestants and had before prepared men to believe by Private Whispers And the credit of this Plot should no doubt have been soon confirmed by speedy Justice done upon the pretended Criminals And now it is time to give a little better account of this Libel than perhaps the Author has given it was penned by one Mr. Everard by the direction of Fitz-Harris he fearing he might be shamm'd and that it was designed so called in one Mr. Smith and Sir William Waller into the business that so he might clear himself of it and trappan Fitz-Harris These two Gentlemen heard Fitz-Harris dictate the heads of it to Everard and one of them heard him approve of it when it was delivered to him Mr. Everard was promised his reward for all this by the French Embassadour as Sir William Waller swears in the Trial he heard Fitz-Harris say and upon Sir William Wallers giving the King an account of it Fitz-Harris was taken with the Libel about him Being taken and committed to Newgate he was examined the tenth day of March by Sir Robert Clayton and Sir George Treby There he speaks not one word of the Author of the Libel But being thus imprisoned he found there was no way to save his life but to curry favour with those
four they fell upon the Exclusion Bill and that being rejected by the Lords they fell upon the Revenue and seemingly Voted the King a Bankrupt Jar. 7. by declaring that no man ought to trust him further than he had ready money nor lend him any and Declared that several eminent men of the Privy Counsellors were favourers of Popery and enemies to the King and Kingdom and for which and the other things they were dissolved then comes that at Oxford with the Votes I have recited for which and for insisting upon the Bill for Excluding the Duke of York they were dissolved Could none of these Parliaments have tried the Popish Lords without these things Yes doubtless they might but they would not but kept these Lords in the Tower that whatever provocation they should give the King to Dissolve or Prorogue them still the clamour might be that it was to prevent their Trials And I am fully persuaded there are some men in England would almost choose to be hanged themselves rather than be deprived of this glorious and popular pretence of insensing the People against the King and the Court. If there be no other Evidence of the Unparliamentary and mean Solicitations used to promote this pretended Rejection of the Commons Accusation than this scurvy Hint in my Author which he acknowledgeth not fit to be remembred tho he cannot forbear Printing it I suppose it is but a small part of the Nation that will be extremely sensible of it But yet however if their Impeachment had not been rejected Fitz-Harris had long since been executed or deserved mercy by a full discovery of these malicious designs against the King and People and the secret Authors of them And that he would certainly have done to have saved his own life and then we should have had an opportunity to have made the World believe that the King did hire Fitz-Harris to raise a Rebellion against himself to defame himself and insense the minds of the People against him for thus he defamed the King at his Trial. This was all he could do to merit a Pardon by and this he did at his Trial but was able to produce no testimony to back it But this Trial occasioned strange talk in Westminster Hall and Questions were raised of a strange nature that will never have a determination in any inferiour Court but will assuredly at one time or other have a further Examination These questions were moved then by Fitz-Harris his Counsel and need never be determined By the Term in the Declaration of the Lords having done themselves right by refusing to admit the Impeachment he hath discovered the Penman of the Declaration and says he has done himself and the Nation Right and discovered himself by using his ordinary Phrase upon this occasion Now I thought verily the next word would have been his Name no but stay you there The Person is well known without naming him who always tells men they have done themselves no right when he is resolved to do them none Now cannot I tell any more whom he means by this private token than the man in the Moon and if he had graciously vouchsafed to have whispered his name in my Ear and I had known that he had usually thus expressed himself yet I should still be a little jealous some Frenchman or other might be the Author of it because my Author hath given full as good evidence Page 5. to prove it was so As for the Commons nothing says my Author was carried on to extremity by them nothing done but what was Parliamentary they could not desire a Conference till they had first stated their own Case and asserted by Votes the matter which they were to maintain at a Conference This was done effectually in the first part of the first and second Vote without adding That the refusal of the Lords to proceed in Parliament upon such Impeachment is a denial of Justice and a violation of the Constitution of Parliaments and in the second Vote and an obstruction to the further discovery of the Popish Plot and of great danger to his Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion Here the Declaration lays the stress of the business and says That when either of the Houses are so far transported as to pass such Votes concerning the proceedings of the other without Conferences first had to examine upon what grounds such proceedings are made and how far they might be justified this puts the Two Houses out of a Capacity of Transacting business together and consequently is the greatest violation of the Constitution of Parliaments Now surely the House of Commons might have asserted their Right without these Expressions which must needs insense the Lords especially when they were Printed and spread over the whole Nation But the House of Commons was so far from thinking themselves to be out of a Capacity of Transacting with the Lords any further that they were preparing to send a Message for a Conference to Accommodate this difference at the very instant when the Black Rod called them to their dissolution But this it is very probable was not known to his Majesty so that it came too late to save them If every difference in Opinion and Vote should put the Two Houses out of a Capacity of transacting business together every Parliament must be dissolved as soon as called Now Sir I could never have thought that it is so usual a thing for the Two Houses to make such Votes as these against each other I am persuaded the Lords would never have treated with the Commons if a Conference had been demanded till the Conclusions of the first and second Vote had been recanted But the Ministers promoted this difference between the Two Houses what did any of them dictate these Votes and then broke the Parliament lest it should be composed And for this my Author gives you his own honest word over again in the next Page and hopes no man will be so hard-hearted as not to believe him But my Author hath another quarrel against the Ministers because they censure these Votes of the Commons as the greatest violation of the Constitution of Parliaments They ought certainly says my Author to have excepted the power which is here assumed of giving such a Judgment and Publishing such a charge as being not only the highest violation of the Constitution but directly tending to the destruction of it Well then I for my part will never undertake to defend them in it Aut I have observed one thing in these debates that the Priviledges of the House of Commons are not much unlike the Power claimed by the Pope which is to judge all men and to be judged by no man So that whatever they are pleased to call Priviledge of Parliament I am bound to believe is so with an implicit faith For these Priviledges of Parliament are known to none but those that sit in St. Stephens Chappel and if
must answer for their misdemeanors as well as they must for his Next the Ministers his great care is to instil into the People a great aversion for the Loyal Judges and Magistrates but if they warp a little then he admires them for men and lovers of the Liberty of the People But that which next Hanging is most dreadful to him are the Loyal Gentry and their dependents These he knows can neither be wheedled nor frighted generally and therefore all the Forces he provideth are only against these Canaanites who keep the good People out of the Land of Promise or make their lives uneasie in it by denying them liberty of Conscience to be of any Religion or none as occasion serveth besides they have great Estates good meat and drink and some Authority all which belong to the Godly After Liberty of Conscience he places a Lawless Licence to do what he list and take what he please which he calls Property for he would fain have the Hedge broken down that all mens Estates Wives and Daughters might be common to him which is the most beloved Notion he has Reipublicae of a Commonwealth His Study is well stuffed with seditious Pamphlets and intelligences but his Staple Author is the Loviathan which he hath read ten times oftener than the Bible and Practiseth a thousand times more yet he hath a good Parcel of other Commonwealth Authors too and admires nothing in the Greeks and Romans but their hatred to Monarchy and love of Liberty and Popular Governments and were it not for this would be contented all their Books were burnt When all things are well he frights the little Folk with Predictions of what may be or is intended shall be and the less probable the thing is the more easily it is sometimes believed Only the wonder is men should court Fear and fall in love with Jealousie which are uneasie Passions to them but profitable to our Gentleman who to create them in his Followers pretends himself horribly over run with them when indeed his only fear is he should not after so many Cheats put upon the People be believed The Plot and the Duke are his two great Pretences and he wisheth they may never fail till he hath overthrown the Monarchy for then he shall want his best handles to take the People by Priviledge of Parliament is his last retreat and if that fails then he must take Achitophels course and set his house in Order to provide for what follows FINIS Pag. 3. Pro. Dom. Rege dicit quod cum placeat ei Parliament suum tenere pro utilitate Regnà sui de Regali potestate suâ facit summoneri ubi quando c pro voluntate sua Cok. Jurisdict p. 16. * The Three Estates do but Advise as the Privy-Council doth which if the King imbrace it becomes the Kings own Act in the one and the Kings Law in the other for without the Kings Acceptation both the publick and private Advices be but as empty Egg-shells Sir Walter Ralcighs Prerogative of Parliaments pag. 57. Vide Grotium de imp sum potest circa Sacra Cap. 6. Pag. 3. 4. Ed. 3. c. 14. 36 Ed. 3. c. 10. 2 R. 2 Num. 28. Pag. 2. Pag. 2. Pag. 2. Colledges Trial p. 37 57 73. Colledges Trial p. 27 30. Pag. 2. Pag. 3. Pag. 3. Pag. 3. Pag. 3. Pag. 3. Pag. 4. Pag. 4. Declaration Pag. 5. Pag. 4. Pag. 5. Pag. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 15. â—â—lledge averred that the 〈…〉 of 40. did 〈…〉 what they had just 〈…〉 for and the Parliament 〈…〉 last at Westminster 〈…〉 of the same opinon 〈…〉 83. And to this 〈…〉 a great while 〈…〉 had excused the 〈…〉 from 〈…〉 War and 〈…〉 King which he 〈…〉 Papists did â— du Moulin's Vindication of the sincerity of P. c. p. 58. London 1679. Colledges Trial â— 81 82 83. Pag. 6. Pag. 7. Declaration from Breda April 4. 1660. ☞ Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs Octob. 25. 1660. ☜ ☜ ☜ There are some seditious Preachers who cannot be content to be dispenced with for their full Obedience to some Laws Established without reproaching and inveighing against those Laws how Established soever who tell their Auditors that the Apostle meant when he bid them stand to their Liberties that they should stand to their Arms c. Lord Chancellors Speech May 8. 1661. Address to the Freemen and Freeholders of the Nation Part. 1. By a Declaration published December 26. 1662. in which are these words We shall make it our special care so far forth as in us lies without invading the freedom of Parliament to incline them to make such an Act c. Friday Feb. 27. 1663 Collection of Messages Addresses c. Pag. 6. ☞ See the first part of the Address to the Freemen c. Pag. 7. The Declaration Pag. 7. Speech Octob. 21. 1680. Pag. 8. Address to the Freemen and Freeholders Part II. pag. 22. * Though his Majesty could not do that without acting contrary to his own judgment strengthened with the Opinion and Advice given by his Royal Grandfather King James of blessed memory to his Eldest Son Price Henry in these words But if God give you not Succession defraud never the nearest by right whatsoever conceit ye have of the person For Kingdoms are ever at Gods disposition and in that case we are but live-rentars lying no more in the Kings nor Peoples hand to dispossess the righteous Heir Basil Doron 62. ult Ed. Pag. 8. Speech Octob. 26. 1662. Speech Deceâ— 26. 1662. Pag. 8. Pag. 8. Speech Mar. 6 1678-9 Pag. 8. Lord Chancellors Speech March 6. 167â—-â— Pag. 9. Speech Mar. 6. 1678-9 Pag. 9. A seasonable Address to both Houses of Parliament pag. 4. Pag. 9. Pag. 10. Pag. 10. Pag. 10. Votes Nov. 13. 1680. Pag. 10. * 16 Car. 2. c. 4. Pag. 10. Friday March 25. 1681. Pag. 10. Historical Collect of the four last Parliaments of Q. Eliz. p. 47. 13 Car. 2. ca. 5. Pag. 10. * By the Bill to disinherit his Royal Highness Pag. 11. Pag. 11. Lord Chancellors Speech May 23. 1678. The words are these The influence such a Peace will have upon our Affairs are fitter for Meditation than Discourse Therefore it will import us to strengthen our selves at home and abroad that it may not be found a cheap or easie thing to put an Affront upon us * Dr. Nalson observes that the like disorders had the same effect in the time of His Majesties Father who he saith by this means lost the opportunity of being able to support his Friends and Allies as also that Honour and Terrour among his Enemies Abroad which the Union and hearty Affections of his Parliament would have rendred great and dreadful but now he became mean and contemptible that Prince who hath not power oâ—â—â— his own Subjects at home being in no probable capacity of doing any great matters abroad Preface to his impartial Collection Pag.