Father would I have obeyed the Parliament and discovered the Transporters of Gold at that time 1643. I had inioyed all my estate and been setled in the Office which I have for two Lives for the regulating Gold and Silver Thred and Wyer And all this damage I suffered for obeying your Maiesties Royal Fathers command to my damage at this day above twenty thousand pounds My most humble Petition to your Majesty is That seeing I was oppressed and traduced by the tyranny of Sir Henry Vane junior Sir Arthur Haselrig and Mr. St. John they being the principal Actors that ruined me that I may have by your Majesties goodness bounty and mercy allotted out of Sir Arthur Haselrigs and Sir Henry Vanes estates such satisfaction and reparation as your Maiesty in your Royal wisdom shall think fit and just for my support after so sad an oppression for my loyalty to your Royal Father the petition to the Parliament and my charge against Vane St. John Haslerig was put into the Parliament before your Majesties gracious Letter from Breda the Lords in Parliament ordered me to respite my Petition to them until your Maiesties happy arrival into England and ever since I watched my opportunity to shew what I have done and suffered for your Royal Father and what I can and will do for Your Majesties Royal service if you please to command me I am at your service as far as my life and estate will go MAY it please your Majesty in the year 1636. your Majesties Royal Father gave Alderman Wollaston and Alderman Gibbs his Gratious pardon Sir Henry Mildmay and the Company of Goldsmiths charged Alderman VVollaston for buying the Kings stollen Plate and Alderman Gibbs for refining and melting of Silver contrary to the Lawes as will appear in the Records of the Councel-Table about March 1635. Had not his Royal Majesty of blessed memory pardoned the then Lord Major Wollaston the Law had hanged him before ever he had come to have been Lord Major of London and then he should have prevented this VVollaston from being such a Traitor to his Majesty the Proverb saith Save a Thief from the gallows and he will hang thee This VVollaston proved a bloody enemy to the King to his dying day and Gibbs as bad as he but is yet living For as soon as ever I delivered his Majesties Message unto my Lord Major he sent for his fellow Traitor Alderman Gibbs and they presently concluded to make Sir Henry Vane junior Sir Arthur Haslerig Mr Sollici or St. John and Francis Allen acquainted with the Kings Letter and ordered presently to apprehend me Sir Basil Brook and Mr. Rily to seize upon our Estates and sequester us And so presently I was that night apprehended and for four years so used that never any man that brought up a Letter from any King of England to London for a Peace was so barbarously and cruelly used that Evening the aforesaid persons and some others examined me they carried me to Goldsmiths Hall they sent for Sir Basil Brock and Mr. Rily and St. John the Kings Sollicitor caused all our Pockets to be searched and found their Letters in Sir Basil Brocks and Rilies but none in mine and as Sir Basil Brook presented him with the Kings Letter which I brought up from Oxford St. John asked Sir Basil Brook for another Letter which the Kings Majesty had sent up the day before I went to Oxford to presse Rily and his party to act their business as soon as they could with a Letter from my Lord George Digby which the Officers found about Sir Basil Brook Touching this business when they had these Letters St. Johns Vane Haselrig Mr. Allen Lord Major Wollaston and Alderman Gibbs and several others made themselves very merry with them There was Mr. Jackson the Essay-Master of Goldsmiths Hall a very honest man and one that saved my life at that time in discovering to me what was confessed by Rily that he had not discovered any thing and that the aforesaid Committee were resolved to face me down Rilie had confessed all and so would have me to discover and I should have mercie They found in Mr. Rilies pockets Reads two Letters aforesaid and threatned him to have him racked if he would not discover the bottom of the businesse and who they were in the Citie that plotted to oppose the Scots coming in But there was an Oath of Secrecy amongst them all and Rilie knew them all but I was not privy to the number that was but only to act with Sir Basil Brook Read and at Oxford with his Majestie the Queens Majestie the Dutchess of Buckingham and Lord Digby and to bring the Kings Letter from Oxford Had Rily but confessed those Gentlemen in London that wete privie with him in this business he had made many score of men in the City of London lose their Lives and Estates And had the Lord Major VVollaston concealed the business twenty four hours it had been out of his power to have stopped this design for peace His late Majesty of blessed memory told me at Oxford That Rily had sent him down by one that came purposely to Read from London a List of above two hundred of the principal men that had ingaged in this business every man upon an Oath of secresie The late King commanded me to tell Mr. Rilie Scoutmaster-general of the City that he should follow his former Directions which was to be careful whom he imparted this business to and to treat with them severally and not together for all their security depended thereon that it did concern all our Lives and Estates to be circumspect We had former Presidents to make us wary Tomkins and Challenor and others and though he was careful of all his Subjects yet of those that were most forward to serve him he was most tender that they should venture themselves telling me he did know more of this design then I did by Gods blessing it will take saith his Majestie I have laid it so with Mr Rily that I am assured of a happy success go thy way I will make thee a man and tell my Lord Major and Mr. Rilie I will make them famous for ever Rily was by all parties trusted to carry on this design and had not the sins of the Nation prevented us of such a mercy for it was not Gods time for our deliverance there was never in all these troubles a design for putting an end to the War without bloodshed so laid and contrived as Sir Basil Brook Col. Read Mr. Rily had laid every man his part severally and so secretly that though the principal men in the City were ingaged in the business to make the City of London to declare for the King and to oppose the Scots invading of England and the Cities Declaration which they intended to publish I brought it to his Majesty my self 1643. and received my Orders and Directions thereupon my self from his Majesty and the Queens most
as it is at this day at Amsterdam and several other Common-wealths in Christendome If this do not satisfie your Lordships I have it at large to shew this mischief but I hope I shall not need to say more to this businesse to stopit My Lords I am none of the Councel or Committee for Trade and so it may be presumption in me to intermeddle to say any thing in this businesse but my Lords a Stander by may see more in the Game then the Gamesters I am no Lawyer yet I humblie say I know this point concerning the giving libertie to Merchants to transport money and what the damage may be to his Majestie to his Lords of the Councel and to the Kingdom in general as well as many others that are in Commission for the Regulating of Trade My Lords I have bin writing on this Argument above this moneth and shall be ready to present to his Majestie and his Privie Councel within this week a Paper that shall unfold the many mischiefs and dangers the Merchants would expose the King and the Kingdom into had they this Power in their hands the Merchants should they obtain this their desire and remove this Trust out of his Majestie and his Privy Councels Hands to be the only Iudges to give leave to Merchants to transport Gold and Silver would rob the King of one of his greatest Prerogatives and Flowers of the Crown which by twenty Acts of Parliament and Proclamations is only invested in the Kings Majestie and his Privy Conncel the granting the Merchants this Power will bring an hundred inconveniences and mischiefs to the King Nobility and Gentry as I have at large to shew your Lordships and the Privy Councel and if I do not satisfie his Majestie your Lordships and all his Privie Councel of this that I say to be true never let me have your Lordships good opinion that I am either an honest man or one that loves the Kings Safetie Honour and Greatnesse and the Honour of his Privy Councel And therefore my most Humble Suit is to your Lordship my Lord Chancellour that if this businesse be called on at the Councel of Trade and your Lordship be present there this day as I hear you intend to be purposely about this businesse that your Lordship would be pleased either to put off this businesse for to have it argued before the Kings Majestie or his Privie Councel at Whitehall sometime next week in the mean time I shall be ready to shew to your Lordship and the Privy Councel that it concerns his Majestie next to the Militia to continue and keep this great Trust in his Majesties Sacred hands and in the Power of his Privie Councel and no other person by the Law can or ought to have the Priviledge to give leave to transport Gold and Silver at their pleasure this being the soul of the Militia they that have the money and the Peoples purses have virtually the Command in all Common-wealths of the Government let who will have the Title the Bankers have the power and this priviledge is no where granted but in Commonwealths God defend England from the very name of a Commonwealth for the Tragedies which were lately acted by some Merchants in England When we had no King in this our Israel they have robbed the Kingdome of all the Gold and so now would work iniquity by a Law but by Gods Assistance I will diffect them and lay the danger open to his Majestie your Lordship and the Kings most Honourable Privie Councel and stand or fall by your righteous Judgement humbly praying for his Majesties Safety Honour and Service that no further proceeding in this great businesse be argued but before his Majestie and his most prudent Privie Councel within lesse then a week I shall be ready with my Reasons for what I say to shew your Lordship that so all the Lovers of the King might be satisfied of the Damage and Danger of removing this great Trust out of his Majesties and his Privy Councels Hands So I humbly rest Novemb. 27. 1660 Your Lordships Humble Servant THO. VIOLET For the Right Honourable the LORD CHANCELLOUR May it please your Lordship to give Order That no further proceedings in this business be but before His Majesty and his Privy Council at White-hall and if His Majesty and Privy Council give judgement against what I say to be true I will lose my life when they hear this business examiued WHereas the Merchants of London are endeavouring to get an Act of Parliament to have liberty to export Gold and Silver freely without the Kings Majesties and his most Honourable Privy Councils leave I humbly propound for His Majesties service and the safety and honour of his Majesty that these humble Proposals might be considered of before any further proceedings on that business be made That his Majesty and his honourable Privy Council be pleased to keep intire in their own hands the Licencing of all Gold and Silver after it is imported into this Kingdom to be exported or Coined as they shall see just cause for the safety of the Nation and safety and honour of his Majesty and the Lords of his Council and the safety and benefit of all his Majesties Subjects of what condition soever and being setled in the Crown so many hundred years by Acts of Parliament as I shall prove it this great and Sacred trust be no way altered especially at this Juncture of time this Kingdom being robbed of almost all its Gold and a great part of the Silver Coin for the private profit of particular persons to the weakning of the Nation and the destruction of Trade this Royal trust being one of the prime flowers of the Crown and the very soul of the Militia and it a right inherent onely in the King and his Privy Council and there onely deposited for many hundreds of Years whereby the King only by the Law can give leave and licence to transport Gold and Silver after it is imported into the Kingdom and that if you ever suffer this Roial trust to be managed by the Merchant and suffer all persons by Act of Parliament to be free to transport Gold or Silver either in Coin or Bullion after it is imported and landed in England You take away one of the principal Prerogatives and flowers of the Crown destroying his Majesties Mint in the Tower of London and lay a sad foundation to give some factious Merchants of this Kingdom a ground to make new disturbances and leave the Nation weak and naked of all Gold and Silver The granting the Merchants this power they desire will bring a thousand mischiefs both on the King and Kingdom which God defend In all ages till these Phanatick daies the Gold and Silver after it was landed in the Kingdom was held the Blood and Sinews of War and Peace the Militia and strength of the Kingdom I shall humbly present unto you these following Reasons for keeping this power intire
in your Majesty and Privy Council and the King Lords and Commons cannot be safe to suffer any other person upon any pretence whatsoever of the Crafty Merchant to have the disposals at their will and for their private lucre to have the power by Act of Parliament to transport Gold or Silver either to the Indies or other forraign Countries or to any part of Christendom Without your Majesties licence and order to take an exact account of what quantity of Gold or Silver is transported to what Country the Ship with the Ships masters name either to the Indies or any forraign Princes Country in Christendom or to any State or Commonwealth that so upon reasons of State they may either inlarg his Licences to the Merchant or straighten them according as the King and his Privy Council in their great wisdom shall think fit Your Majesty and Privy Council ever having regard that the Kingdome have alwayes such plenty of Gold and Silver as may be for the honour of the King and safety of the people and to maintain Trade and Comerce in the Kingdom to pay Rents Customs Excise and Subsidies to be a strength and an honour to the Kingdom and the King and his Privy Council to take the care to hinder Gold and Silver to be transported to the Kings enemies And of all and every part of these Heads and Branches and real Prerogatives in all Ages the King and none but the King and his Privy Council by Acts of Parliament are the onely proper Iudges at their will discretion and pleasure for the safety of the Kingdom and no other person whatsoever Upon the several Reasons of the Merchants to his Majesty and his privy Council and upon their petition and request the King can dispence with the penalty of the Law and give the Merchant licence to transport onely such quantities of Gold or Silver either forraign Coin or Ingots or the currant Coin of the Kingdom either in Gold or Silver as the King and his privy Council shall think fit for to carry on the Merchants trade in Christendom and out of Christendom to strengthen his Majesties friends and offend his foes and this is an undoubted right of his Majesties Crown and cannot be dispenced with or deposited into the Merchants hands or any other Subjects either Lords spiritual or temporal but to the dishonour of his Majesty and all the good people of the Kingdom I do humbly prove it true for these Reasons following If any person of what degree soever transport Gold or Silver without the Kings licence the Laws and Statutes heretofore hath made it Felony both for Bishops Noblemen or Commons as I shall shew by the St atutes hereafter following afterwards a praemunire and at this day forfeiture and imprisonment during the Kings pleasure viz. 9 Edward 3. 2 Henry 4 cap. 4 2 Henry 6 cap. 6. 18. Edw. 4 1 Henry 8. 5 and 6 of Edw. 6. When the Kings Majesty hath War with any Prince by the Law the King may prohibit the Merchant to export Corn Armes Ammunition to them or any other Commodities the Law provides the prohibiting the exportations of Wool Fullers earth and Timber as being destructive to the Nation Gold and Silver by the Law is free for any man to import at what place he please to land it without paying any Duty or Custome the reason whereof is that the Merchant is obliged to Coin it and upon the Coinage the King hath his duty paid but once being landed it cannot be transported but with leave from his Majesty or the forfeiture being taken and the party claiming the Gold and Silver so taken on shipboard to be committed to prison without Bail till the King or his privy Council please to discharge him This is the Law this the Custome before these mad Phanatick daies that we had no King in Israel And this in all Ages was the practice both in your Exchequer and the Star chamber for otherwise the Merchant for his private profit would send all the Gold and Silver out of the Nation and make the Kings proclamation wait upon the Merchants Exchange as at this day it is with the Gold The Merchants and some Goldsmiths have raised Gold above the Kings proclamation may it please your Majesty we want a Star chamber to punish them I humbly leave it to consideration no Gold to be had under one shilling six pence in twenty shillings more then silver I humbly pray an Act might pass this present Parliament against this abuse of the Gold Coin and several other abuses and cheats put on the Nobility and Gentry by the adulterating and undue making Gold and Silver Lace in London whereby the wearers are daily cozened by course flight adulterate Gold and Silver and by putting a slight body of Silver on a great threed of silk to the damage of this Nation above fifty thousand pound a year as I will prove it to your Majesty and your Privy Council and this is done for want of a Regulation of the Work-masters and Workmen in London that make Gold and Silver Lace without an Essay or Finenesse or proportion of Silver to Silk I humbly desire your Lordships to consider what a loss the King will have in his Customes to suffer Gold and Silver to be exported at the pleasure of the Merchant and pay no Custome here will be for the profit of particular Merchants a Trade driven both inwards and outwards and the King have neither Excise nor Custome for all the World knows Gold and silver payes no duty inwards it is free to be imported at the pleasure of the Merchant when and how and where he please for the reasons abovesaid And if you give the Merchant leave to transport the Gold and Silver freely he imports what is the King the better by this Trade of the Merchants either inwards or outwards let this be granted to the Merchants to send out Silver and Gold freely for their private profit and in a few years they will leave neither Gold nor Silver in the Nation May it please your Majesty It is profit that is some Merchants guide not honour nor the safety of the Nation and this is most apparent by some mens actions and demands touching this great businesse The King will lose in point of His Excise and Customs for if the Merchant invest his Silver and Gold in Merchandies the King hath thereby His Excise and Customs the King will lose in point of His Mintage if no money be coyned no profit by coynage this hath made the Mint a great part of their Work-houses fall down It is for the Kings honour to have His Kingdoms full of Gold and Silver for His and the Subjects defence And if this Fanatick project should take the King loses one of the principal prerogatives of His Crown and Dignity for those that have the command of the peoples purses have the principal part of the Militia This is a Common-wealth trick but tends to the
people of the kingdom that when your Majesties loving Subjects would give you aid by consent of Parliament they have no monies to do it but at the Merchants pleasure who will be the onely Judges of the price they shall pay by exchanging and the quantity in coin they will please to let the people have Should the Parliament now grant your Majesty a paiment of a hundred thousand pounds in coined English gold at twenty shillings the peice of gold according to the Lawes and Statutes and your royal Fathers Proclamation which forbids all either Forreigners or Natives whomsoever to pay give or utter the currant coins of gold or silver at above the Kings proclamation upon pain of forfeiture and imprisonment during the Kings pleasure See the Statute law 5 6 Edward 6. Yet for all your Maiesties lawes and proclamations your Maiesty nor the Parliament shall not receive a hundred thousand pounds in gold or a hundred pound but at the Merchants price viz. 21 shill 4 pence 21 shill 6 pence 21 shill 8 pence 22 shill for a twenty shillings piece of gold This is done in contempt of your Majesty and the law because the Merchants have got all the coined gold into their hands and transported it to forraign parts and they will not let it come back again but at their pleasure and price make silver a free merchandize the merchants will guide the prize and send it all away to the destruction of your Maiesties Mint The Merchants of London had they this power they desire would by tricks either by Security or Exchange get all the Gold and Silver into their hands And then I tremble to think what will follow if the Merchants be Masters of all the money your Majesties Fleet will lie at Chatham at Portsmouth c. and no moneys to be raised but at the will of their Bankers Your people in Parliament shall grant your Majesties Subsidies and when it comes to be paid they have no money but what is in the Merchants Banks or upon the Merchants Security they having gotten into their hands all the money All the world knows the whole stock of the money of the Kingdom is to be disposed of by the credit of the City of London the City of London gives the Rule to the Kingdom and the Merchant of London for credit upon money rules the City now if your Majestie should put this power into the Merchants hands to transport Gold and Silver at their pleasure it would be a ready way to see the late Tragedies acted over again and it is granted by all persons that Gold and Silver commandeth all things if your Majestie should part with this Royal Prerogative I humbly desire your Majestie upon my knees to consider where you will lodge this great Jewel which is the quintessence of the Mllitia I humbly say many Merchants of London are recovered but lately out of the madness of a dangerous Rebellion and wise men use to watch such as have been once frenzie afterwards in all their actions lest being let goe at their own pleasure they one time or another do either themselves or some others a mischeif this I now humbly say is to preserve your Majesties Greatness Honour and safety of your Majesty and your most honourable Privy Council I study not to please some Merchants but to serve your Majestie in truly stating this business I being formerly imploied in this service by your Royal Father he would have believed me in this point and concerning the regulating of Gold and Silver lace and removing the obstructions of the Mint for seven years I had the onely care of this business by his Majesties order to prevent the transporting Gold or Silver If your Majestie suffer the Merchants to obtain this their desire all the paiments of the Kingdom will be unfixed and your Majesties Subjects will have no money left but Groats and some odd monies to buy Butter and Eggs the Tenants must pay their Rents after the Barbarious way in SCOTLAND in Boules of Corne and Chaldrons of Victualls Coles Horses Cowes and Sheep Your Majesties Privy Councel and your great Lords and Gentry must truck with their Tenants instead of a thousand pound Sterling to be paid them in current Gold and Silver according to 20. s. the pound Sterling for Gold they must at this day pay 21. s. 6. d. if they will have a twentie shillings peece is not this a wrong and dimunition to all the Lords in ENGLAND seven pound ten shillings in the hundred in all the Rents they are out of by Lease But let Silver be made a free Merchandize to Transport at their pleasure without your Majesties leave farewell all Land-Lords payments in money then which God defend your Majestie should expose all the Nobilitie to be at the will of the Merchants for to receive either their Rent in Money or Ware All payments in Silver will raise the price of your English shilling shall be set against your Majesties Crown and Dignitie by the Merchant as at this day all the world know they have presumed without your Majesties leave and against your Lawes to send away all your Majesties current Gold of the Nation and to make it a Merchandize here in London in contempt despite and affront of your Majestie the Parliament and your Majesties Lawes and Statutes and now are so brazen Fac'd that they look and sue to have libertie to rob the King of this great priviledg I humbly hope the Merchants bribeing daies are past they had once a time in the long Parliament to make their Gold and Silver break thorough all Barrs all Lawes a Corporation of London with a joynt Purse was such a Roman Ram that it battered down all the Lawes and Statutes I humbly hope this businesse and the mischiefs that would follow if they should obtain their desire is so clearly stated to be only in your Majestie and your most Honourable Privy Councel that you will never part with it to any Corporation of Merchants or others but to keep it safe where the Law hath disposed it it is a Iewel the Law hath invested in the Crown and cannot be valued it is an inestimable Pearl and Riches That if the Merchants could by confederation pay down a Million of Money to your Majestie presently to have it in their hands Your Majestie would be a loser Your Majestie would part with that which is Your Honour Your Safetie Your Lords and all Your Peoples safetie the Soul of the Militia I pray God upon my Knees your Majestie and your Privy Councel would consider what is here said and set a mark on these men that attempt under sly and fained pretences by subtiltie and craft to undermine your Majesties Throne Crown and Dignitie these men that desire this to be in their Power are like Water men look one way and Row another These men many of them have designed in their heart the moddle of a Common-wealth to be the fittest Government for
this Kingdome God hath delivered your Majestie from the Sword-man the Club man and hath restored your Majestie to the Glory and Greatnesse of your Royal Father and your Predecessors with the Hearts of all your good Subjects and a large increase of the Revenues of your Crown to the joy of all your Majesties good Subjects This Glory troubles some Mungrels of LONDON that dare not bark but are at this day cunning fauning Spaniels that would by fauning cozen your Majestie of this Great atd Royal Prerogative which had they it in seaven years they may lay such a Foundation that the Child unborn may rue it I have read of a little Fish that sticking to a Ships side shall stop a great Ship under sail The Merchants of a Kingdom or Common-wealth that are Bankers and have libertie to transport Gold and Silver at their pleasure rule the Commonwealth both for War or Peace and have virtually the sovereign power being Masters of all the peoples monie These Bankers can hang a Pad-lock on the Commonwealths Sword when they please God defend your Majestie and your Lords from suffering them to do so in your Kingdom of England for all the reasons before and after following The Merchants of London have transported all the Gold and most of the Silver out of England principally by the confederation and assistance of the Goldsmiths in Lumbardstreet who are just in the nature of the Bankers at Amsterdam and the Goldsmiths is your Merchants Jaccall as the Jac-call is to the Lion they hunt for the Lions prey The Goldsmiths lay up Gold and Silver for the Merchants to transport some Goldsmiths in Lumbardstreet keeping at this day many great Merchants of London cashes and some Noble mens cash by this credit of several mens monies the Goldsmiths in Lumbardstreet are in the nature of Bankers and have a great stock of Treasure by them alwayes of Gold forraign coines and Silver And as these and the Merchants please to truck and and chaffer set the price of the currant Gold of your Kingdom at above the price currant by Proclamation of your Royal Father and above the price of your Mint to the destruction of your Majesties Mint and against your Crown and Dignities your Majesties Mint is tied to a certain rule both for the weight and fineness of the Standard of your Majesties Gold and Silver and cannot by the Law exceed now here is the mischief The Goldsmiths they go between the Mint and the Merchants that transports Gold and Silver and out-bids the Mint 1. d. and sometimes 2. d. and more the Ounce in Silver and five shillings the Ounce in Gold at this day and so catch up all the Gold and Silver to transport being Factors and Purveyors to the Merchants that transports Gold and Silver And by this confederation between the Merchants and Goldsmiths contrary to the Lawes and Proclamations of the Kingdom they have cheated and robbed the Kingdom and your Majesties Mint in the Tower of London and for these last fifteen Years have destroyed and made desolate the same Your Majesties Mint in all times by the Law should have the preheminence and first served Your Majesties Mint at this day is neglected your Majesties Lawes despised and your Majestie and the Kingdom of England Lords Gentry Commons cheated and robbed of all your Gold and almost all your Silver to the weakning and impoverishing of the Kingdom This wickednesse is done onely for the inriching of a few particular Persons Goldsmiths and Merchants to the destruction of the whole Kingdom and if not timely prevented to the ruine and destruction and decay of Trade This was done when we had no KING in Israel God forbid your Majestie now should suffer it If your Majestie by your justice do not make some of these Offendors an example and timely prevent it by the grave advice of your most Honourable Lords of the Councel for the time to come to prevent these abuses by a Law or renewing the old Laws by your Majesties Proclamation making it losse of Estate for any Goldsmiths to sell any Merchants Gold or Silver to transport or to convert Gold or Silver into any other use then Plate and Gold and Silver Wyer the Offendor for ever after to lose his Freedom And that no Merchant or Goldsmith shall give for Gold or Silver more then it shall be declared for by Proclamation upon pain of forfeiture And that all Goldsmiths that are Exchangers of Forreign Bullion shall enter into securitie with the Officers of your Majesties Mint to your Majesties use to Coin the same and to convert it to no other use That no Merchant obtain a Licence from your Majestie to transport Gold or Silver nor the East India Company other or more then they themselves cause upon their own proper accompt to be truly imported according to their Charter and that all Warrants for transporting Gold or Silver be Registred and the Goldsmiths to be tyed to Coin all the Gold and Silver they shall hereafter buy such Goldsmiths that will not to be debarred the liberty to have power to exchange Forreign Gold and Silver this being a Prerogative of the Crown and never granted the Company of the Goldsmiths as I can prove by the Law that the Warden of your Majesties Mint is your Majesties Exchanger and he may Licence any whom he please to buy Forreign Bullion provided they put in securitie to Coin it in the Tower and convert it to no other use but to coin upon the pain of forfeiture of his Bonds to your Majestie May it please Your Majesty my most humble prayer to Your Majesty and Privy Councel is that at this juncture of time the late Lord Cottingtons Rules Observations may be made use of for bringing of Gold and Silver into the Kingdom that State-man about the year 1630. made a most advantageous Contract with the King of Spaine for the bringing in Silver from Spaine in English bottoms and Landing the Silver at Dover one third part to be Coyned in Your Majestyes Royal Fathers Mint in the Tower of London and the other two parts by Your Majestyes Royal Father and his Privy Councels Licence to be transported at the will of the Importer this Commission was granted under the Great Seal of Your Majestyes Royal Father by the advice of his Privy Councel and above ten millions of Silver Coyned upon that Contract from the year 1630. to 1643. This Silver hath bin almost all transported away for the private profit of the Merchant and little currant Silver Coyne left in the Kingdom but light and eliped and Counterset mony in abundance All the Gold sent away to the destruction of the Kingdom for the private profit of the Merchants If Your Majesty please to inquire of Your Officers of the Mint they can certifie this is the truth And what a dangerous Project this was of some men to goe about to steal so Royal a Flower out of the Crown such pilferers are Enemies
excellent Majesty the Dutchess of Buckingham and the Lord Georgs Digby his Majesties Secretary and Coll. Read were only privie to this businesse to my knowledge at the Court and no other Two Letters of Col. Read's sent to Mr. Theophilus Rily Scout-master of the City of London from Oxford to incourage the Common-Councel of the City of London to Petition his late Majesty for Peace and to consider the sad Effects that would follow upon the Scots invading England Jan. 1643. SIR I Wrote to you formerly but never had any Answer I assure you faithfully I have not been wanting to do what you desired as you may perceiv by the effects if you have not your desire blame your self and give me leave to tell you that if you neglect the opportunity now offered to you it may be you shall never have the like again for I have made those whom you have given just occasion to be your worst friends to be your best and the only instruments to procure what here is sent you and be you confident shee shall still be so provided you do your part The Queens most Excellent Majesty in my hearing I being sent down to Oxford by order of Rilie and some others to bring up his Majesties Letter Decemb. 1643. did most earnestly intercede for the City of London The King thereupon replied that he had there the best and worst subjects of any King in Christendom and hereupon the Queen replied Violet it shall be my care to see the Gentlemen that come from the City with a Petition to the King shall be well accomodated and have a most Gratious Answer to all their just demands God blesse them God increase their number and thereupon the Queens Majesty wept and the King drew his handkerchief out of his pocket and the tears stood in the Kings eyes which made both Read and I fall a weeping and thereupon the Queen commanded Col. Read to lift up the Hangings to see no body stood behinde the Hangings to hear what shee said which Read did and when the Queen see no body behinde the Hangings Ah Violet said she the King and I am in a most sad condition we have Traytors about us that watch all our Words and Actions we speak nothing nor do nothing but it is seat up to the Parliament and they interpret it in the worst Sence The Queens Majesty at that time was very ill and lookt very carefully and was nothing but Skin and Bones God be thanked for the blessed change that is here at this day the Kings Majesty her Son in the Throne of his Royal Father and King of the hearts of his People these two Papers was found in Rilies pockets and was printed by Order of Parliament and Col. Read charged to be a Jesuite I am sure of it these Papers makes him a true Prophet I saved Reads life in getting him exchanged of the General Essex by a wrong name consider I beseech you what a gap is opened by bringing in of the Scots for the destruction of this Kingdom if there be not a Peace which I pray God Almightie to send speedily you must expect Armies of Strangers from several Places who are now preparing who certainly at their coming in will over-run the whole Kingdom and when it is past remedy you will see your own Errors and therefore to prevent more misery then I am able to expresse to this deplorable Kingdom and the effusion of the bloud of thousands of men women and children which must inevitably be this Summer apply your selves in an humble and submissive way to his Majestie whom I know you will finde ready with Arms out-stretched to receive you to favor and mercy and grant you favors even beyond your expectation Defer no time for God's sake and what you will do do it speedily I say again do it speedily for reasons I may not write Oxford Dec. 10. 1560 Col. Read's Paper to Mr. Rilie Scoutmaster of the City of LONDON SIR I Assure you that I have not been wanting to further your good desires and if it be not your own faults I make no doubt but things will have an happy issue for I finde those that are most concerned in it forward enough Reflect now upon the miserie of the times and upon the groans and sufferings of those you see not which yet have been nothing to what they will be if not speedily prevented by a Peace which to obtain I beseech you let it not only be your own care but the care of all those you love or have power with otherwise be confident of a generall ruine which certainly will be inevitable both to your selves and posteritie and therefore take it into your serious consideration and let no causless jealousies hinder you to apply your selves in an humble and submissive manner to his Majestie who I am sure will yet look upon you with a gracious eie lose no time for the longer you delay it may prove the more difficult no doubt This last Letter I Tho. Violet delivered from Read at Oxford to Mr. Rilie in London Decemb. 20. 1640. This Coll. Read I got exchanged by a wrong name for a private Souldier at the intreatie of Sir Basil Brook who told me I should do a very good service for his Majestie and the Queens Majestie to get Read to be discharged but that must be done by a wrong name or else said Sir Basil Brook the Parliament would never admit of his exchang I did effect it and sent this Coll. Read to the King at Oxford upon condition he would returne to Mr. Rilie the Scout-master of London how he found his Majestie inclined to receive a Petition from the City of London for peace that they would declare themselves for a peace and Petition his Majestie for a cessation of Arms and an accommodation between the late King of Glorious memory And I Tho. Violet was sent down to Oxford Decemb. 29 1643 to bring up his Majesties Gratious Letter the Copie of the Citie of London desire being sent to his late Majestie wherein they desired upon the Copie I brought to Oxford to have his Majestie directed his Letter to the Militia of London but his late Majestie would not own the Militia to treat with them as the Militia of the Citie because his Majestie told me at Oxford they were not impowred by his Commission and he would not own them I told his late Majestie and the Lord Digbie it was contrary to my instructions which I received from Mr. Rilie to alter the superscription of His Majesties Letter but seeing His Majestie would not but direct his Letter To our Lord Mayor and Aldermen of our City of London and all other our well affected Subjects of that our Citie I would venture my life to bring up this Letter to London and going according to my instructions I received from his Maiestie to acquaint Wollaston then Lord Mayor of London and Alderman Gibbs they caused me some few
houres after I was gon from them to be apprehended upon a Charge of High Treason MAy it please your Majesty to peruse this ensuing Narrative viz. in Sept. 1657. I being sick sent to Bradshaw to write to the pretended Protector Cromwell that if he would not pay me the eleven thousand pounds he promised me to pay me some considerable sum for my support Bradshaw at that time wrote to Cromwell very earnestly to pay me a considerable sum in part using this as his argument and telling Mr Beck Cromwels Solicitour Mr Tho. Hewet and Mr Yates my Chirurgeon who were all three by when Bradshaw wrote to the pretended Protector about me Bradshaw said Remember my service to my Lord Protector and desire him in my name to pay Violet a considerable part of his money for his support according to his quality my Lord Protector knowes not Violet so well as I do If the man should go to Charls Stuart he would do us more mischief than a hundred thousand pounds would do us good there are some Kings would give an hundred thousand pounds for to have such an Engine for their turn and they knew him as well as I do This message was sent to Cromwel from Bradshaw by Mr Beck the Protectors Solicitour Mr Hewet Mr Yates and these Gentlemen are all in London to justifie this to be true Mr Beck upon this message moved Mr Francis Bacon the master of the Request to move Cromwel the Protector effectually about me and he would also move him which they did and they both told mee when my name was but mentioned for my money I petitioned for Cromwel was so incensed against me that he bestowed all the bad words in the world and said that he took me to be a dangerous person and an Arrant Villain against him and in a word saith Mr Bacon and Mr Beck he takes thee to be an Arrant Knave They often asked me if I could imagine the reason that the Protector and some of his Council was so bitter against me that they never heard man have a worse character than Cromwel did give me and some of his Council that were intimate with him as Thurloe c. I replyed I received good for evil the Protectors payment to me is not currant to revile me for venturing my life in his service and laying out of my purse 1500l to get him 278250l so much money Baxter paid him clear for the silver I staid him in the ships Sampson Salvador and St George as will appear by an Ordinance of Parliament for Baxters discharge for the payment of that money I knew Cromwels reason but would not tell it to them For I found when it was too late he knew he had undone himself by seizing on this Silver and breaking up the Parliament and that I was the fatal Instrument that advised him to take the Silver into his own custody either under the Ban quetting house to lodg it or in the Tower He did believe I did it innocently and for his good for had he believed I had done as truly I did malitiously to destroy him he would have caused me to have been torn in pieces Mr Strickland asked one Capt. Swan a Gentleman of Kent an intimate friend of mine what he thought I was and whether I was not a Cavaleer Strickland telling Captain Swan Many of us of the Council of State take Violet to be a sly and dangerous fellow he is alwayes presenting Propositions unto us which may bear double interpretations he pretends for the Councils profit but I am sure it is for their danger he hath staid Three hundred thousand pounds in Silver and hath set us together by the ears amongst our selves and with Holland Cromwel and Bradshaw makes use of him promising him from day to day to give him his Estate but they but abuse him they will never give him a farthing I heard Bradshaw say I could wish Violet had his Estate or the value but there is no trusting him therein If he should run to the King of Scots he would do us more mischief than a hundred thousand pounds Keep him poor and that will keep him honest to us for if he had his Estate he would be with the King of Scots The King of France hath a standing Councel for to Regulate his Mints and to hinder the Transporting of Gold or Silver VVere the like Orders setled in England it would be for your Majesties service and keep your Majesties Mint on work IN an Ordinance and Declaration of the King of France printed at Paris 30. Oct 1640. Fol. 8 9. We expresly forbid that all Materials of Gold or Silver either coined or uncoined shall not be bought and sold at higher Rates then is expresly set down in this Declaration which doth declare the true value that must be paied for the Mark of Silver We expresly forbid every one of what qualitie or condition soever to Transport out of our Kingdom any Gold or Silver coined or uncoined or any other Goldsmiths work upon penaltie of forfeiture of the Materials and Merchandize and other things therein they shall be found to be packed up in besides the penaltie of fiftie pounds and bodily punishment In an ORDINANCE and PLACCART For the Regulating of the Mint Published in Brussels the last day of May 1640. ARTIC XI WE have also forbidden and forbid by these presents every one of what quality or condition soever as well our Subjects as others to transport any Gold or Silver from henceforth out of our Lands directly or indirectly or to cause the same to be transported Minted or unminted without having obtained from us before hand express leave and consent to do the same upon penalty of forfeiture the Gold and Silver and Bullion and to pay besides the double worth as also the Waggons that shall willingly have conveyed the same the offenders to be banished out of our land for five years and the second time for ever Ordinance and Placcart at Brussels the 18th of March 1643. ARTIC LVII WE expresly forbid any person of what quality or condition soever to buy or sell any Gold or Silver either Bullion or currant at a higher price then the Ordinance of our said Mint permitteth upon penalty of the forfeiture of all Gold and Silver the first time the second four times as much and severe correction Placcart and Ordinance for Flanders and Antwerp 4 Octob. 1585. ARTIC XV. WE forbid and interdict expresly that no one of what quality or degree or condition soever shall transport or carry any Gold or Silver of our Coins or Bullion melted or in mass nor any Gold or Silver to coin money upon forfeiture of the said Gold and Silver besides two hundred Gold Rose Nobles for every Mark of Gold and twenty Golden Rose-Nobles for every Mark of Silver and the second time to be bodily punished ARTIC XIII ANd we do expresly forbid all and every one henceforth to buy or sell any wares of Gold or