happy in his People and both secured by frequent Parliaments which therefore could never endanger your Brother's Crown Mistake not your self nor think that we could be cheated with that Nonsense for nothing could endanger his Crown but your advancing the Religion of Rome and the Arbitrary Power of France in England It was these things endanger'd your Brother's Government nothing else could but good Gentleman he was engaged with you in these things beyond recovery to the ruin of himself and the endangering of all our Laws and Liberties The Devil's Brokers did not join with you in dissolving the Long Parliament but cried out if that Parliament was dissolved the Church would fall but Sir I will say that for you you had as little regard for the Church as you could considering how the Rogues had espoused your Quarrel and thought that Passive-Obedience Nonresistance and the Divine Right of Succession would have been admirable Orvâ—etans against the Plague of Rebellion But why must this Church fall with the Pensioners Alas alas the poor distressed Church and the poor distressed Band of Pensioners For the latter they were a Parcel of matchless Villains and she Whore enough not to be in the Nation 's Interest but dissolved they were and what escaped the Jail were secured by the Friars those who had stood by the Interest of their Country were sent again and such a Set of Gentlemen as no King would have sent home in so ignominious a manner but your Brother at your procurement and being sent home you and your Party made it your Business to expose them 1. You had them exposed on your Stages in your rascally Play-houses by a Parcel of mercenary Rogues and Whores who you and your villanous Party set up to debauch the Nation and to ridicule the essential Parts of the Government as if the Votes and Debates of that August Assembly were to be ridiculed by such Vermine who were Tools you made use of in some part to do your Drudgery But stay it is not fit the Whores that are Stage-players should be reflected on left there should be a more severe Act made for cutting of Noses for a Parliament-Man you know had his Nose cut for speaking against that sort of Vermine but I will not be afraid to mention their contemptuous reproaching of Parliaments 2. You had Monsieur Barillon who managed the Intrigue of charging the principal leading Members of both Houses of those three Parliaments with being in a Conspiracy against your Brother and your self and this he and your Jesuits Priests and other Vermine contrived by Subornation and Perjury a Proceeding not unusual to some Persons and Courts all the Mischiefs Poisonings and Villanies in all the European Courts were owing chiefly to his and his Master 's most Christian Politicks he was used as a main Agent fit to expose three as great Parliaments as England ever knew to all the Courts of Christendom as a Confederacy of Men in a Plot to destroy the King and your self and as Enemies to Monarchy And what was this but to render Parliaments odious to all the Princes of Europe 3. Notwithstanding those three Parliaments had nothing before them but to secure the Government against the Depredations that Popery and Arbitrary Power would have made upon it and notwithstanding their great Duty to the King yet what a scandalous Declaration was emitted wherein the said Parliaments were most villanously treated as if they had aimed at nothing but the change of the Government This Declaration may be supposed to be drawn by that Villain the French Ambassador in his own Mother-Tongue because tho it was turned into English yet the French way of wording it shews there was a French Counsellor in the case which could be none but he who was the chief Counsellor your Brother and you used in the management of your Conspiracy yet it is but the Copy of your Grandfather's and Father's way of Proceeding which your Brother and you thought fit to use to asperse Parliaments you were all Friends alike to that Constitution of the English Government 4. It is very remarkable that your villanous Judges were instructed in their Circuits to spit their Venom against the Proceedings of the said Parliaments and in their respective Stations they were to let their Grand Juries know what reason the King had to dissolve them and how they recommended the King's most Gracious Declaration to their Consideration and what Converts they made I was never curious to inquire for I could not suppose but the Country knew the Men and their Character and under what necessity they lay to be Villains from the tenour of their illegal Commissions and that they must prostitute themselves to the Will of the Court or be dismissed from their Imployments but they chose rather to be Scandals to the Bench than to appear as so many Reproaches to their Professions at the Bar. Upon all which Considerations I cannot believe they ever made any farther Profelytes against the English Parliaments than a paltry Sheriff of a County or a villanous Grand Jury pack'd on purpose to draw up an Address of Thanks for the Court 's attempting to ruin the Government as established by Law 5. Since Sir the City of London could not be debauched but the eminent Merchants and Traders in it stood firm to their Laws and Liberties and to the Government of England by Parliaments so that you could not influence the Masters you took an unheard-of Course to debauch the Servants and Apprentices in their Morals and procured a Day of Feasting for them whâ—re they were incouraged to huzza it away against Parliaments and to reproach the Senators as a Herd of Men set upon the Destruction of the Government both in Church and State but it pleased God to open the Eyes of several of those young Gentlemen to see that this Feasting and Rioting was carried on by ill Men and that the dissolving of Parliaments was only to screen some publick Offenders from Justice and by degrees quitting themselves of that scandalous Congress in a year or two their Feasting fell to the ground 6. You imployed old Hodg your Buffoon in ordinary to write against the Proceedings of those Parliaments the Rogue by his Lies Equivocations and Prevarications did much Mischief having called in a parcel of little Priests who engaged themselves to rail at Parliaments and admire the Loyalty of old Hodg their Guide whose Observators were the Subjects of their Discourses every Lord's day nay they would scarce look upon a Sacramental Discourse the first Sunday in the Month to be well dish'd up unless some of Roger's Frippery was mingled with it so that the old Villain was not unsuccessful in his traiterous Papers which he published several times a week till God in his Mercy opened the Eyes of some of our Passive-Obedience-Puppies and let them see the Villain was aiming at Popery and destroying the Church of England notwithstanding his specious Pretences to defend it 7. You
I should have much wondered if Scotland had escaped that Grace and Favour of yours which was generally speaking pretty impartial For why should the Administration of Justice be in better Hands there than it was here You were resolved that the doing of Justice in the three 〈…〉 be of a Piece and therefore play'd your Game there tho with more 〈…〉 as you did here To prove this you procured your Brother's Letters â—â— Lauderdale to constitute one Sir Andrew Ramsey one of the Lords of the Sessions who never was bred up to the Law but to Merchandizing Which extravaâ—â—ant Proceeding being complained of in Parliament as of dangerous Consequence Ramsey parted with his Place resigning it up to Lauderdale and was said to have more Knowledg than the other three And by reason of the Insufficiency of the Lords of the Session thereupon Partiality so manifestly crept into that as well as other Courts of Justice that the Foundations of Law and Justice were much shaken as was once ready to be proved in full Parliament in that Kingdom in the Time of Lauderdale's Ministry Now Sir you may see it was not a Fault in a Man to serve the late Protector if he would but join with Lauderdale and you to subvert the Government of that Kingdom and enslave the People in order to establish Popery For this Ramsey had been Provost of Edinburgh in the Protector 's Time and complied with him to the height of being knighted and after that got to be reknighted and reentred Provost by the Favour of Earl Middleton to whom he was a villanous Tool in assisting him to defraud the People of their Religion Laws and Liberties all at once But upon Middleton's Disgrace this Fellow strikes in with Lauderdale who had a greater Sacrifice to offer to Baal than Middleton had yet offered with whom and the Tradesmen of Edinburgh by his long-practised Arts of Flattery and Bribery he so mightily prevailed that continuing Provost for ten Years in that time he so domineered over the poor Citizens and so enriched himself by their Rents and Moneys at his Pleasure that by Lauderdale's Assistance and yours he cheated the King of near 20000 l. Sterling and had an Opportunity of obtaining to be constituted one of the Lords of the Session And tho he with the other three who as I said before were more unskilful in the Law made such Havock that Lauderdale himself could not keep him in that Station so many notorious Corruptions and illegal Proceedings being proved against him and them yet there was not a Change made in that Court without some difficulty And after all their signal Villanies they were let fall by your self and Lauderdale as Men that had overdone your Business 3. Another Step taken to ruin the People of Scotland was the Gift of a Part of your Brother's Revenue called the King's Casualties which is the Wards and Marriages to another of your Creatures there procured by Lauderdale thrô your Interest with the King tho contrary to all the Laws of that Kingdom in that Case which was not only prejudicial to the Government but extreamly vexatious to the People For these Casualties were an Arbitrary Revenue and paid or not as the King pleased Therefore the giving it to any one Man to make his most of it was both against Law and Reason and the Interest of the Subject This Creature of yours was the Earl of Kincaerden who the more to oppress the People in this Point was by the King's Letters by you procured joined in Commission with Lauderdale in the Treasury and also with the extraordinary Lords of the Session by which they went on without controul to grieve the People Sir It is apparent to those that understand the Constitution of that Kingdom that this Gift of the Casualties was never known in Scotland till attempted 〈…〉 Ministry who not being so bad as to join with you in such a piece of â—â—â—â—â—quency it proved one Cause of his Disgrace 4. You know it was your Rogues Design here in England to diminish and debase the Coin and Plate of the Kingdom the direful Effects whereof we feel at this Day and for which this Nation is bound to curse the Names and Memory of you and your wicked Adherents Thus you proceeded in Scotland tho your Father 's own dear Country where you corrupted the Mint and Coinage For by the King's Letters the Lord Hatton Brother to Lauderdale was constituted chief in that Office I think they call the Master of the Mint General but if I am mistaken in the Names I may be in some measure excused But as to the thing I am sure I am in the right for the Corruption of the Mint and Coinage was so great that the Scots People grew very uneasy and made a fearful Complaint in Parliament proving in that August Assembly that for several Years they had found to their sorrow the intrinsick Value of the Silver Coin sensibly diminished both in Weight and Fineness to the great Damage of that Kingdom Nay the thing rested not here but to vex the People care was taken by Hatton to over-charge the Country with a sort of base Coin without considering the Weight and Value of that sort of Money to the manifest hindering of the Trade of that Kingdom and it was an Artifice your Conspirators used for enslaving that People to impoverish them so that you might the more easily bring them under the Yoke of an Arbitrary Power But Sir that you might help on this Lord of the Mint in depraving the Silver Coin you may remember the Dutch Dollars commonly called Leg-Dollars usually imported by their Merchants and currant with them at 58 d. per Piece were cried down by your Bandog Lauderdale to 56 d. for no other reason but because he procured your Favour to obtain a Command from the King for so doing that the said Dollars might be brought as Bullion into the Mint for the Advantage of the Lord Hatton his Brother and your Favorite And notwithstanding the great Complaint of the People there was nothing done But upon the Adjournment of the Parliament a Sham-Trial was obtained and the Lord Hatton indemnified tho it was proved that none of the Money coined in his Time was either Weight or Standard 5. A fifth Step you took to overturn the Government of that Kingdom and defraud that People of their Religion Laws and Liberties was a certain Monster your Brother and you set up a Body of Villains called the Lords of the Articles The most valuable and considering Men of that Nation some of whom I have had the Honour to be acquainted with have judged this Body of Men to be nothing else but a virtual Subversion of the Power and Liberties of Parliament and highly prejudicial to the King and Kingdom I pray Sir observe 1. That this meeting of the Articles when reestablished by you and your Conspirators consisted of 8 Bishops chosen by the Lords and 8 Lords chosen by the
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
and had it not met with a mighty Blast you might by your supposed Prudence have ruined three mighty Kingdoms Now Sir if we grant you were endued with these mighty Vertues of Fortitude Temperance and Prudence yet we must say they were the absolute Hinges that open'd the Gates to Rome and France where Superstition ruled the Day Your moral Vertues were but lesser Lights that took their Light from that greater Orb above but how these moral Vertues did shine in you your old Friend Tom Jones if alive could plainly tell for he knew your Vertues very well even to his dying Day I must mind you of one thing more viz. your Oath of Alleâ—iance that you took to your Brother as your Sovereign Lord. Did you keep that Oath to him If you did surely the only Motive that prompted you was some Obligation you believed was in the Oath But pray tell me did not you Apostacy to the Church of Rome not only require a Renunciation of that Oath but also absolve you from the Ties of it Therefore I ask you again Could your Conspiracy with the French King against our Laws and Liberties consist with that Oath Or if you look'd upon your self released from it pray what Security could the Government have when you should come to the Crown that you would keep your Faith with an Heretical People that would not keep Faith and true Allegiance to your Brother who was of the same Religion with your self This Sir was your Morality of which your Party so much boasted And how the Exercise of these Vertues that were so used in the Drudgery of France and Rome could be consistent with an English Parliamentary Government I cannot tell Thus Sir the Consideration of your Nature and Temper in all these Respects shews you were a Person in whom it was impossible there could be any love for Parliaments Let your Party say what they will and boast of your Vertues till doomsday yet I must say that your Nature and Temper shewed you a Man of no good Morals your Conscience being ready at all times to transmigrate as you found occasion Those near you that understood the Pulse of your Opinion did not in the least doubt your Heart which whilst you profest to be a Protestant conveyed Symptoms of Inflammation against the Reformed Religion because it was not so ready to consume a Party of Men you hated according to a Maxim of your dearest Great Grandmother of notorious Memory Mary Queen of Scots to which purpose you zealously promoted about the time of your Brother's Restoration abundance of Church-Caterpillars that with the fiercest Wrath might devour those of the Reformed Religion nay how often did you fall upon these Vermin as not zealous enough in persecuting those that differed from them only in a few rascally Ceremonies not worthy of wiping a Porter's Breech by which means those base Creatures ruined several thousands of Families in the space of twenty odd Years and brought them to great want And for all the Pretences you ever made for Liberty of Conscience you used to discover to your Brother the Ardency of your Zeal against poor dissenting Protestants and the Moderate Church-men that they were the greatest Enemies against his Government and for no other Reason but because they would not part with their Religion as Christians nor their Liberties as English-Men but preserve both chast and inviolable that they might approve themselves Men of Uprightness before God and Man 2. Your Inclinations published you an Enemy of all Parliaments from your Usage of that very Parliament in which you had such a Band of Pensioners One would think you should never have parted with such a Parliament where you and your Villains had purchased such an Interest truly some of them were so fond to aid and abet the Destruction of the Nation that the Charges in their Elections were defrayed whatever they amounted to any some of them were so profligate that as they had no Estates so they had neither Conscience nor Honour but were such as you pick'd out as necessary Men whose Votes you most relied upon You procured Tables for many of them at Whitehall and Westminster and had them for their great Loyalty in their Votes received into Pension What vast Sums did they give a great part of which was by you obtained to carry on your wicked Designs and Purposes And what Sums did you obtain to carry on your first wicked War against the Dutch and to supply your extraordinary Occasions in the second How well they supplied the Necessities of the Court-Whores Pimps and Bawds is well known You no sooner demanded but they complied so that your Brother and you once thought your selves exceeding happy in a House of Commons notwithstanding the Exchequer was shut up and by a Proclamation that you procured the Crown was published a Baâ—krupt in the midst of so many Aids and Revenues given by them Yet what humble Slaves were these to you and your Interest that when you ought to have shared in the Publick Justice of the Nation due to Traitors they not only passed by all your Miscarriages but stood by you as far as they durst and tho your Sins cried aloud yet nothing moved them to call you to an account for them If your Brother asked they gave till even they themselves were near the point of becoming useless and their Pensions too in danger In recompence of this you aimed at their Dissolution and how you branded them in a certain Declaration drawn up by Coleman by your Privity which your Brother had promised to sign but not being a Slave to his Word did not is yet remembred In that Declaration you charge the House of Commons that had given your Brother such Testimonies of their Loyalty and Bounty with misconstruing all his Endeavours to preserve the Nation in Ease and Prosperity and against all Reason and Evidence represented them to the Nation as Arguments of Fear and Disquiet and that under pretence of securing Property and Religion they had demanded unreasonable things from the Crown to bring those Men that had so well served your Brother and you out of all Esteem with the Protestant Dissenters You declared them Enemies to Liberty of Conscience and to the Proceedings of the Government and that they made seditious Constructions of the same and many other Charges of a very high Nature especially for opposing your Match with Mrs. Modena your Italian Comrade Nay you charg'd them for being Enemies to the Church of England and therefore you laboured to the utmost to have them dissolved tho you well knew that if these poor Dogs were not in a Parliament they must be in a Prison If this were your usage of a Parliament in which you were so happy if we may believe the King's Message to the Commons Feb. 28. 1663. what can any Man judg from hence but this that if this Parliament could not please you none could This I think sufficiently demonstrates what