to you for a moderate Sum of Money a Million or two would by the French King's Assistance have been a competent Stock to open Shop withal that our Laws Liberties and Religion too should have perished at one stroke such was your Rage against us at that Day Your Bullies about the Town had the aid of your Purse to swagger against the Parliament and to admire the French King and tell us how happy we were by being imbarked in the French Interest thrô this Match and why should a damn'd Parliament be suffered to sit till it was consummated beyond the Power of their interposing in it And the King was not to be trusted in this Affair if a Parliament were to sit for he would be wheedled by the House of Commons upon the account of Money to break off this hopeful Match yea and with the King of France too but keep him without a Parliament and he would do any thing to please the French King or your self Now Sir from all this we may conclude how foolish and malicious your Crew did shew themselves in the Prorogation of the Parliament that the King might not be engaged by them to break off that Match to the projudice of the Popish Religion or the French Interest 2. This was not the only Reason for you had another before you viz. The consideration that the Bill for ease of Protestant Dissenters whereby a major part of them should have Liberty of Conscience and be capable of Church-preferment had passed the Commons and was sent up to the Lords in March 1672 3 where it then remained and would not long stick as you and your Party feared before it would obtain the Royal Assent which if once effected you foresaw the uniting the Protestant Interest would tend greatly to the suppression of Popery and consequently no hopes of that Religion 's being replanted here but if you could any how prevent the passing that Bill you doubted not for all the Parliament could do to be safe amongst so many Dissenters and drive on your Designs underhand for the destruction of all Protestants From hence Sir let me observe 1. That this was a time when you and your Party were not for Liberty of Conscience because the uniting of Protestants by Liberty would be very fatal to you and therefore you got the Parliament prorogued that this Blessing might not fall upon you and your Friends But how comes it to pass that you gave God thanks that it was always your Judgment that all Men ought to have the Liberty of their Consciences in Matters of Religion and Worship Were not you a most notorious Hypocrite to say so 2. You must needs be engaged in a most Hellish Design against the Protestant Religion and your Party be resolved to proceed-no farther in any other Work but that must be destroyed or else what needed so much Care for proroguing the Parliament that the Bill for Liberty of Conscience then in the House of Lords might of course come to nothing By which Prorogation you so offended the Parliament that you lost at least the Gift of a Million of Money 3. It argued you certainly very full of Revenge that because your Brother was forced to break his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience you would procure the Prorogation of a Parliament to break the Bill for it tho it was more legal and commendable in the Parliament notwithstanding the Loggerheaded Reasons given against it in 1664 in a Session of the same Parliament for by it we saw plainly that an Arbitrary Declaration for Liberty of Conscience was the Sense of your Soul but a legal Liberty of Conscience you hated from the bottom of your Heart and would rather incur the Displeasure of a Parliament than they should have the doing of that which they would not suffer your Brother your Self and wicked Party to do in a most illegal manner without the Authority of Parliament 4. I perceive at that time it was the Sense of the Lords as well as of the Commons that such a Bill was necessary to secure the Protestant Religion and therefore it would have passed that House and the King have given his Royal Assent to it if there had been but a Million or 1200000 Pounds in the Case Therefore that they might be better informed concerning the Conveniency of your Italian Match and the Inconveniency of that Bill for Liberty of Conscience you obtained a Prorogation tho your Brother good Man lost a swinging Tax by the Bargain 5. That you gained your Point in reference to Liberty of Conscience for Time you know is often Life to a Cause And as the Protestant Interest run high in the Session of Parliament in 1672 3 and this Act came from the Commons to the Lords in favour of them who had passed it but for want of Time and another Bill passed against Popery by which Clifford fell and you and your Party put out of Humour so that Clifford's Fall might be gentle an end was put to that Session the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience was broke or cancell'd and in revenge you put a stop to the passing the Bill that would have established Liberty of Conscience by a Law by breaking up the Parliament from Octob. 20. to 27. and then to Jan. 7. following In this Recess you not only compleated the Italian Design but so ordered the Matter that when the Parliament met in January all Favour to Dissenters was killed as dead as a Door-nail and not one word of reviving the Bill for Liberty of Conscience was heard of but on the contrary our Prickear'd Priests were instructed to preach this to be as true as the Gospel that now there was no more Danger from the Papists but that the Phanaticks were the only dangerous Enemy and you and the Devil's Brokers had found out a Scots Lord and 2 Men who then made a mighty Figure at Court that were impudent and desperate enough to put the King's Affairs on so narrow and weak a Bottom Nay Old Lawderdale rather than fail becomes a Patron of the Church and who but he with his Guts was cried up by our Parasitical Pulpit-hunters Nay I will say this for Clifford that tho Villain enough yet his Principles were very generous in comparison of your new Set of Juglers whose Business it was to ruin those this Year they had supported but the last nay give them their due they would never forgive a Man that had been but once in the Right Those Sir were your trusty Cards and they agreed with our Spiritual Guides and Roger their Master not only in Principles but Passion too therefore you presently joined with them in directing the Judges to put the Laws in Execution against Dissenters which was done as you required 6. Our Holy Church-men as their Zeal was much increased by your Influence to suppress the Dissenters so their Zeal against Popery was to all Intents and Purposes extinguish'd as if you and your Italian Mistress had
Bishops 8 Commissioners of the Shires and 8 Burgesses chosen by the 8 Lords and 8 Bishops to which the Commissioner added the Officers of State 2. That those who contended for this Body of Men have asserted that not only all Business must be by the Lords of the Articles and them only registred in Parliament but also that if in the Debates upon their Reports any new thing should be started the Parliament ought to take no notice of it further than to return the whole Matter to the meeting of the Articles to be there entertained or suppressed at their pleasure 3. It is manifest from all the Records of that Antient Kingdom that the Original Constitution of this Meeting or Body of Men was at first by the free appointment of their Parliaments who thought fit to name certain of their Number for framing such Overtures as were offered for the Publick Good into Articles in order to be turned into Laws according to the Antient Form And therefore it being at first devised by the Parliament as a simple Expedient for Order and Dispatch it was not always used but the Number was changeable as also its Method according as the Parliament saw Cause 4. You could not be so ignorant but that at one time or other when you was in that Kingdom you must be informed that as this Body of Men was in effect the Committee of Parliament to prepare and bring in Laws so that there was another of more antient Date called the Committee of Complaints or the Lords of the Grievances which was of use in all times and never laid aside till the second Session of the Parliament called in 1661 in the time of Middleton's Ministry 5. The Act of Parliament of K. James your Grandfather appointing four of every State to meet 20 days before the Parliament to receive all Articles and Petitions and deliver them to the Clerk of the Register to be presented to the Parliament for their Consideration that things reasonable might be formally made and presented to the Lords of the Articles in Parliament-time and frivolous Matters rejected doth no ways countenance that exorbitant Power these Lords of the Articles did assume to themselves it being manifest by the Order therein set down of preparing Matters by a Meeting before-hand and their subsequent forming and presenting by the Parliament to these Article-men that the Parliament's Power of first receiving and then committing Matters to that Body of Men was not then so much as the Subject of the Question But the only thing intended was the orderly setting down of things in Parliament as is apparent in the words of that Act of your Grandfather That no Article or Petition wanting a special Title or unscribed by him that presented the same shall be read or answered in that Convention or Parliament following the same Which was Sir a Provision so clearly preparatory to the Meeting and Business of the Lords of the Articles that 't is very strange your Brother should be so imposed upon by you and your Conspirators to prove this pretended Meeting had a Prerogative above that of the Parliament and it has been affirmed by several Persons of that Kingdom that understood the Scotish Parliament and Constitution that this villanous Authority was never intended by the King or Parliament to be in the Lords of the Articles nor had they the Impudence to pretend to it till they were countenanced in that Pretension by you and your Conspirators 6. You cannot but remember that Lauderdale had a great Influence on that Parliament that was called in 1663 when a particular Act passed for settling the Constitution and chusing Lords of the Articles for the time to come in which it was expresly provided that the Lords of the Articles are to proceed in the discharge of their Trust in preparing of Laws Acts and Proposals and ordering all things remitted to them by the Parliament which words remitted them imported no more nor less than that the Power of proposing was in the Body of the Parliament and that the Lords of the Articles were to act upon the things referred to them by Parliament as a Committee of Parliament 7. And lastly These Lords of the Articles were but the Parliament's Delegates and Servants and therefore how could they determine the Points the Parliament was to debate or not as they should see fit Therefore Sir if you consider but a little of this Matter you will find that your Fellow-Conspirator by attributing so much to these Lords of the Articles of Power and Prehemince over the Parliament design'd in time to destroy the Use of Parliaments For what was the Liberty Authority and Dignity of a Parliament if thus trampled on by these Miscreants who were by this Insolency become a great Grievance to the Kingdom Truly Sir I cannot but think that this Conspirator Lauderdale by his many Villanies had put himself under some Necessity of those Men and was prompted by some cogent Reasons to promote that exuberant Power in them For 1. I suppose he could not but be filled with the Terror of the Guilt he contracted thrô his wicked Proceedings and therefore might rationally suppose these Men thrô the base Compliance of the wicked Bishops would be a Refuge to him as they always were to Rogues and Traitors in that Kingdom And truly had he not improv'd the Use of these Tools his Actions might have been set in order before him in order to his severe Punishment by a faithful Parliament And 2. he knew that some warm Men as he called them had an itching to have him by the Collar and only forbore him because of your Brother's Respect and Kindness for him These Reasons were sufficient for him to keep up the Power of those Lords for the Parliament was so kind that when there was a vacancy in the Committee of the Articles he had the nominating of one to succeed 3. Because contrary to the Custom of the Parliament there he caused all such Members as were not named Lords of the Articles to be excluded the Meetings of the Lords of the Articles which you know was to no other End than that the Parliament being less prepared might the more implicitly go along with their Conclusions Thus you may see what a Grievance these Lords of the Articles were Sir by this time you cannot but see what havock you made of the Laws and Liberties of Scotland by those two great Villains Middleton and Lauderdale I might have enlarged upon this Subject but 't would fill a Volume to give account of every little Passage of yours there in order to enslave that People and establish Popery in that Kingdom Article XXIX YOU stand charged with many villanous Attempts to break the use of Parliaments and ridiculing that way of Government O Sir it was the more hateful to you because it preserv'd Liberty and Property which of all Men in your Day you most hated But you were not the first Man of Figure that
their Pleasures before Grievances were redressed and publick Bills of Common-Safety passed because to dissolve and prorogue at Pleasure is a Privilege which belongs to the Crown Answ This word Prorogue is but a new-fangled Business a thing brought up in latter Days but as for dissolving Parliaments at Pleasure that has been the Practice of our former wicked Kings by the Advice of their Roguish Ministers and Judges who laid aside all Law Honour Honesty and Conscience to prostitute themselves to the abominable Lust of a filthy Prince who designed nothing less than the Ruin of the Kingdom What your Father did I will not here concern my self but what your Brother did by your Procurement is my Province at this Time Your Brother when he held his French Parliament at New-Market in 1677 where most of the Rogues and Whores of the Court were present and your gracious Self waiting on him did much aggrandize himself by that Glorious Assembly Upon April 16. the Parliament at Westminster was adjourned till May 21. following Immediately upon the Recess the Duke of Crequi aâ—d that modest sober chaste Man of God the A. Bp of Rheims and Monsâ—eur Barillon and a Train of 3 or 400 Persons of all Qualities appear'd there so that the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of France with so many of their Commons made it look like an old-fashioned French Parliament And the Parliament at Westminster had been adjourned for their better Reception But what Address they made to the King or what Acts passed at that Noble Parliament I cannot tell they having not been yet published But I suppose they were these that follow 1. An Act for continuing his Majesty's Subjects in the Service of France 2. An Act for enabling the Dutchess of Cleveland to use the Arch-Bishop of Paris for her Father-Confessor c. 3. An Act to discharge her Grace from farther Attendance upon the King 4. An Act to constitute the French Gentlewoman to be Whore in her room and a Spy for the French King 5. An Act to enable Nell Waal to be Woman and Bawd in ordinary to the said French Gentlewoman and his Sacred Majesty 6. An Act to supply the Extraordinary Occasions of that Whore Portsmouth and her Woman Nell Waal 7. An Act to enable the Dutchess of Portsmouth in order to her Health to possess and enjoy a certain Apartment in a House-Royal called the Lock situate at the end of Kent-street and Nell to have the Reversion after her decease in case of Necessity 8. An Act for the further Supply of French-Money in order to enslave the Kingdom of 3000000 Livres per Annum 9. An Act for enabling James Duke of York to go on with his Conspirators in the Conspiracy against the Laws Liberties and Religion of the People of England and to demand the French King's Purse Credit and Interest for his Help and Assistance 10. An Act to invest Edward Coleman with the Sum of 20000 l. and a good Pension from the French King for his great Services done and to be done for the Catholick Religion and French Interest 11. An Act of Abolition of all Claims and Demands from the Subjects of France on Account of all Prizes made of the English at Sea since the Year 1674 till that Day and for the future 12. Act to supply the extraordinary Needs of the Pensioners at Westminster 13. An Act to continue the Sham-Alliance with the States-General of the Vnited-Provinces There were I suppose several Private Bills in favour of the Pimps Bawds and Whores that were not sworn in Ordinary but passed the Royal Assent as I may suppose because at that time all things between England and France moved with that punctual Regularity that it was like the Harmony of the Spheres so consonant with themselves tho I could not hear the Musick I pray Sir let us know in your next Declaration what other Secret Bills were passed in that August Assembly wherein the Affairs of Peace and War were transacted with the greatest Confidence and when good Boys they had done their Master's Business with your Brother's Aid and Help they were adjourned from New-Market to London where they dissolâ—ed themselves without your Brother's Prerogative to make way for the Westminster Parliament and so rubb'd off with all Demonstration of mutual Affection and Friendship Alas Sir these were Matters of that Import that they required all imaginable Expedition and Secresy and it would have been the highest Presumption for the poor Pensioners in the Westminster Parliament to have intermedled with them Alas if they had been admitted to end the Work it might have ended in their own Dissolution in order to a couragious running away You say by way of Objection Your Partisans made that which your Brother and other Kings did by their Prerogative Royal dissolve Parliaments before Grievances were redressed and necessary Bills past because things did not move with that punctual Regularity between your Brother and them that was between him and the French King I pray what was the Reason Had they not had Gratuities at the Charge of the Nation Or had the Dutchess of Portsmouth jilted them out of the French King's Blessing which the Duke of Crequi and the Arch-Bishop of Rheims brought them of 200000 Lewis d' Ores Who can tell what to say to these things It is no wonder then that Crew of Voters were grown resty and did not move regularly Well what then the Parliament must not sit till some State-Clockmaker had mended their Motions and made them go true the House then had some good Bills over which they roared only and then were sent Home by a blast of Prerogative-Breath Had your Brother any other Prerogative but what the Law gave him and what he was invested with at his Coronation If he had let us know it but for once I will grant he prorogued and dissolved Parliaments at his Pleasure to serve you and your Cut-throat Crew It doth not therefore follow that he had a Right so to do according to a Maxim I learned almost 30 Years since A facto ad jus non valet consequentia especially when such Prorogations and Dissolutions are against so many express and positive Laws such Principles of Common Right and Justice and so many particular Ties and Obligations to the contrary Your Brother might by the Advice of wicked Statesmen and villanous Judges pretend to a Prerogative the Law had given him of which nothing ever was known unless revealed by some French Maxims learned abroad in his Travels Yet such a Prerogative could not justify such Practices for if he had been invested with such Prerogatives by the Law yet the Law could give none to destroy it self and those it protects But Old Hodg and his Inferior Clergy may interpose and say Had not King Charles his Prerogative founded upon Law Who questions Sir but the Kings of England had their Prerogatives Yet observe what Old Bracton saith Pag. 487. That tho the Common Law allows many
lawful because of the uncircumscribed Power of Parliaments in judging what is lawful and what is necessary for the Safety of the People by whom they are sent to Parliament for redress of Grievances which no written Law could provide against in an universal way So then it being lawful in it self to propose a Bill to exclude you from the Crown the doing it after your Brother had signified his Pleasure against the Bill could not make it against Law for I remember no Law written or unwritten that ever constituted him Lord of the Articles upon the Parliament which they were to debate and propose or not But what was his Will and Pleasure or the Pleasure of two or three Villains and Whores that joined with him in usurping such a Power altogether strange to our English Constitution of Parliament And I must tell you your Brother 's intolerable Stiffness in that Particular I cannot think was out of Kindness to you or from any suspicion he had of the Danger of the English Monarchy by such a Law but from the Influence of some ill Men engaged in the Conspiracy with you to destroy that Constitution who knowing your Brother's Inclination in that Particular as well as yours made it their Business to nourish in your Absence a Misunderstanding between him and the People whom you and he mortally hated justly fearing if he should ever have come to the due Temper of an English Monarch and to have a Sense of the Peoples Affection to him as the Father of the Kingdom he would have delivered up you and your Rogues who had infected him with that deadly Notion that the Interest of an English Parliament was not only distinct from but opposite to his Interest and Designs 2. Your Conspirators used to urge another Argument against the Bill of Exclusion no doubt your own first or they would never have presumed to use it so long till it was become thredbare viz. that the King could not comply with the House of Commons in it tho the Interest as well as the Desire of the People of England because it so nearly concerned him in point of Honour Justice and Conscience Your Brother and you were both Men of Honour Conscience and Justice of which you both made this Nation sensible Well since it was so let me argue upon the Topicks of Honour Justice and Conscience with you Had it not been honourable in your Brother to be true and faithful to his Word and Oath to keep and maintain the Religion and Laws established Nay Sir could any Man have thought it dishonourable in him to have loved the Safety and Welfare of his People and the true Religion established amongst them above the temporal Greatness of his Relations Was it not just in conjunction with his Parliament for his Peoples Safety to make use of a Power warranted by our English Laws and the Examples of former Ages Or where was his Justice that was the Father of his Country to expose his Children to ruin out of Fondness to a perverse Brother and to abandon the Religion Laws and Liberties of these Kingdoms which he was sworn to maintain and expose them to the Rage of you and your traiterous Jesuits who thought your selves in Conscience bound to subvert them Your Brother by his own might have remembered your Religion and what your Brother's Conscience was in relation to your Succession a cunning Man could scarce find out but if he had been a Protestant I might have asked what Conscience obliged him to ascend the Throne to overthrow the Protestant and set up the Popish Religion â—ir since your Brother insisted so much upon Honour Justice and Conscience I 'll say of him as I ought that he was a Papist yet I am sure he was bound in Honour Justice and Conscience to have preserved to the People of England their Religion Laws and Liberties and in conjunction with this Parliament to have secured them from being subverted by you and your Followers since withâ—â— much Duty and Affection they recalled him from a miserable Banishment attended with Poverty and Dishonour and chearfully placed him upon the Throne and enlarged his Revenue above what any of his Predecessors had enjoyed and gave him vaster Sums in 20 Years than had been given to all the Kings since William the Norman Where then was his Honour Conscience and Justice in leaving them to be destroyed by you It cannot be said he had therein more regard to the Government than to the Person that succeeded him seeing if he had passed the Bill of Exclusion he had no ways prejudiced the legal Monarchy which he did enjoy with all those Rights Prerogatives and Powers which his Ancestors did ever claim besides what he usurped against Law which yet the People quietly submitted to 3. A third Argument your Party used was That it was a hard Case that a Man should lose his Inheritance because of this or that Perswasion in Matters of Religion Truly Sir had your Case been only so I should have thought your Argument pretty strong but alas Popery was not in you and your Conspirators an innocent Perswasion of Men differing from others in religious Matters but a real Conspiracy against Christianity it self nor was this Inheritance your Cattel used to mention a bare Inheritance of a private Person without the Consideration of an Oâ—â—â—ce annexed to it which required you to be Par Officio I pray what did your Logger-heads mean when they made such a Noise about an Inheritance nothing less than a Government of three Kingdoms the Protection of several Nations the making of War and Peace for them the Preservation of their Religion the disposal of all publick Places and Revenues the Execution of all Laws with many other things of the greatest Importance Truly Sir these inconsiderate Persons were mightily out in their Claim for the three Parliaments had reason to look about them when they had reflected upon the Bloody Tenets of the Church of Rome and more particularly upon the hellish Conspiracy then discovered and at that Time carrying on with Vigour by your Popish and Popishly affected Traitors and finding you to be the avowed Head of this devillish Party could you with any Justice think they should not prevent as much as in them lay your being a Shepherd since you had declared your self a Wolf And since you were a Papist how could they believe you would ever appear in the Defence of the Protestant Religion I think this may suffice for this Argument 4. A fourth Argument against the Bill of Exclusion was the Oath of Allegiance taken to your Brother by the Parliament of England Truly I never heard the Argument from any but an Irish Man not but we had then Fools enow to invent such an Argument as we have at this Day to attempt your Restoration But their Arguments were as silly as their Plots and this is one of the most foolish Arguments could be used against such great and wise Assemblies as