man from doing himself right when he hath been publickly as well as eminently injured And truly it looks like an imposing that upon the implicite Faith of the World which they know themselves unable to prove or it argues a distrust either of the goodness of their Cause or that it hath not been managed with integrity and candor when they are unwilling to admit both sides the priviledg of being openly heard For tho it may become the Wisdom of men in Power and Government to preserve the Justice of Courts and Reputation of Juries from being openly arraigned when an Indictment after a full Enquiry hath been approved and allow'd by such as are the proper and only judges of it yet such a procedure as the restraining men from defending their own Innocency and vindicating the impartiality of those who acquitted them after a full and Legal hearing can never adjust it self to the sense or reason of mankind Nor doth such a course and method import any thing less than that for having miss'd the satiating their Malice in the Blood of one or two whom they mortally hated they will pursue their Revenge in endeavours to blast the Credit and diminish the value and esteem of all that have been instrumental in preventing and defeating their Intendment NOW this Plot for Deposing the King and altering the Government whereof Protestants were to be Accused and Impeached was not only so contrived as that it might reach most English Peers and Gentlemen who stood in the way of Popery and Arbitrariness but the Protestants in Ireland were to be brought under the charge and accusation of it For the Popish Conspiracy having been carried on with the same vigour against the Lives of Protestants and the established Religion in that Kingdom as it was in this and the Parliament here being so far satisfied and convinced of the reality of it there as well as in England as to declare and testifie the belief of it by the unanimous Votes of both Houses accordingly the Papists in both Kingdoms were equally and by the same Artifices to be relieved from the imputation which lay upon them and to be rescued from the punishments which the Laws Adjudged and Condemned them unto Therefore the Protestants in both Nations were to be accused of having forged the Popish Plot and that having thereby amused His Majesty and the people they have in the mean time been fomenting and promoting a real one of their own This was that which St. Laurence the Priest would See No Protestant Plot First part p 33 34 35. have Hired and Suborned Mr. William Smith to Swear and Depose and whereof the Evidence was so strong against St. Laurence at his Trial that tho' he was acquitted yet he is still believed by all impartial men that heard it to have been really guilty For it is not only reported from thence by persons who deserve to be credited that such especially were returned upon the Jury who were known before-hand to have reflected upon Mr. Smith but it is most certain that whereas the Prisoner was allowed five Councel to plead for him there was none of the King's Councel nor any one man of the Gown besides that appeared in behalf of the Evidence Whether they forbore from an opinion that the Evidence was so plain that it required no Plea to enforce or apply it or whether they did it out of deference to some great men whom they would not offend by being concerned in any thing that may prejudice the honour and integrity of the Papists or whether it was in obedience to the commands of such who would not have an Intrigue detected upon the discovery whereof the Protestants may come to be thought peaceable and loyal again as I cannot certainly tell so I shall not take upon me to conjecture and divine But besides that which was sworn against St. Laurence by Mr. Smith which to any who read it will appear either the copy transcript or counterpart of what they have been doing here we have other evidence of the Papists labouring in Ireland to sham off their own Plot by representing it as a Forgery falsely laid upon them by the Pratestants and their endeavouring to possess the Government with a belief that during the noise and buz which the Protestants had raised concerning a Popish Plot they were themselves embarkt in a Conspiracy against the King and the Monarchy Thus whereas one Captain Morley had appeared before the Committees of Lords and Commons here and swore two Consults which the Papists had in Ireland in reference to the extirpating the Protestant Religion in that Kingdom they have procured no fewer than six or seven Irish Witnesses not only to Depose against the said Morley That he was Suborned by the Earl of Essex the Earl of Shaftsbury Sir Robert Cleyton and others to Swear Treason against the Duke of Ormond the Lord Chancellor Boyle and Sir John Davies but that he himself had said the King was on enemy to all Protestants and deserved to have his Head cut off as his Father had Here we have an Epitome and Abridgment of what the whole Popish Party is laying out their Money improving their Wit and employing the Power and Interest of their Friends for and about But why the Papists should in all their Depositions introduce the Protestants affirming the King to be a Papist and an enemy to those of the same Religion which he not only professeth but which he hath sacredly and solemnly Vow'd for ever to protect and defend I think no wise man is able to tell unless it be that they have a mind to recriminate upon us what they have been proved guilty of themselves It is not yet seasonable to declare by whose means and by what Arts the foresaid Deposition was obtained nor how Handland and Murphey two fellows that came over hither to Swear the Popish Plot were since their return transformed into Witnesses to prove a Protestant Conspiracy but all these things must be foreborn till his Majesty in his Princely Wisdom and from that Justice which he hath hitherto governed his people by and in the discharge of his promise which his Loyal addressing Subjects as well as others do rely upon be pleased to call a Parliament and then both all these and many other things will be more fully disclosed and set in a brighter light In the mean time this must be acknowledged to the Honour of His Majesty and the Justice of the Council-Board that tho the foresaid Deposition was received by some in Ireland with great fondness and transmitted hither not only with all expedition and speed but accompanied with an earnest desire that the Gentleman might be sent thither yet the King and Council would neither do so illegal and arbitrary a thing as to send a person from hence to Ireland without his own consent both born and bred here and who actually possesseth an estate in England Nor could it be done without great Injustice
seeing the words wherein alone the Treason must lye were owned to have been spoken above two year ago And for his being suborned by the Earl of Essex and the Earl of Shaftsbury to Swear Treason against the Duke of Ormond my Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Sir John Davies it is remarkable that he never testified any thing of that nature against them and what he did declare in relation to them or any others he referred himself for the truth of it to the Council-Books of that Kingdom or to such Depositions which had been either taken by the Council there or had been transmitted to them by others And as no man that is Master of sense and hath any knowledg of those two Honourable Persons will ever submit his Faith to receive so incredible a thing as that they should Suborn any man to swear falsly so Mr. Morley whose credit infinitely surpasseth that of the Witnesses who swore against him absolutely denies that they ever did or that he ever spake any such thing concerning them But they that can first invent and then get so absurd and impossible a thing as Transubstantiation received and believed may be pardoned both in forging and in hoping to vvin credit to things ridiculously foolish as well as abominably false Nor could so dull a Fable proceed from any but people of an Irish understanding neither vvill it obtain with any men but such as have renounced Reason as vvell as Honesty But there is yet a third and that a more signal Instance of the Papists endeavouring to involve the Protestants in Ireland under the guilt of a Plot against his Majesty and this displays and unfolds it self in the Accusation sworn against Mr. Hawkins The person charged is known to be an ingenious Gentleman and one vvho hath always acquitted himself as became Honour Discretion and Loyalty only it is his fortune to be a Protestant and was his unhappiness to be made acquainted vvith some of the Popish Designs against the Government which instead of furthering or concealing he communicated to My Lord Lieutenant That vvherewith he was charged doth in all things so quadrate with vvhat we have heard Svvorn against Protestants in England that we may boldly say they vvere all coined in the same Mint For one Mac-Gennis svvears That Mr. Havvkins told him he went for England to establish a Correspondency with my Lord of Shaftsbury and that be received a Commission from the said Earl for a Troop of Horse and one Mackoghlin deposeth That he was to be a Trooper under Mr. Hawkins and that he had three pounds from him towards the buying a Horse The very counterpart and direct parallel of what Booth informed against Capt. Wilkinson and vvhich he and Bains would have suborned the Captain to swear against the Earl of Shaftsbury and were both hammered in the same Forge But as the Devil and the Priests inspire the Papists with falshood and malice so God to over-rule and defeat their Rage and Treachery deprives them of common Wit and Understanding and gives them up to all prodigious folly and madness For as Mackoghlin never spake with Mr. Hawkins but once and that in the presence of another person and then he only endeavoured to have insinuated himself into his Acquaintance which Mr. Hawkins refused to admit him into so it is most certain that Mr. Hawkins never conversed with the Earl of Shaftsbury nor so much as at any time saw him And whereas it was sworn by Mackgennis That he should say he came to London to establish a correspondence with that Nohle Peer and that he received a Commission from him for a Troop of Horse The whole matter deposed is not only false but the condition which my Lord was at that time in being a Prisoner in the Tower shows the impossibility that such an Affair should be transacted between them at that season Neverthelss that Ingenious and Loya Gentleman was committed to the Castle of Dublin upon that Forged and Ridiculous Information and had not the Protestant Plot been so far detected as to be hissed off the stage by several Juries it might not only have cost Mr. Hawkins his Life but laid a foundation for superinstructing a Conspiracy upon wherein most Protestants of quality and zeal in that Kingdom would have been included and first or last charged with the guilt of it For there were no fewer than between Twenty or Thirty mustered up of a sudden to testisie a Protestant Plot persons who as they believe implicitely in matters of Religion they would likewise swear so for the Interest and Advantage of St. Patrick and the Holy Church And besides what they may reasonably be supposed to receive out of the Catholick Treasury for so seasonable and useful a Service as the Swearing innocent Protestants out of their Lives and Estates they had lately the confidence to petition the Council in Ireland that a maintenance might be allowed them from the State And it seems but just and equal that they should be afforded the same encouragement which those listed and employed upon the like Service in England have and that they should have some consideration for the sale of their Souls tho they will be so reasonable as not to keep up that Commodity to the price which it goes at and is valued here And whereas fellows not only of a meer Irish understanding and breed but such as had conversed all their days in Bogs and whose most refined and improved knowledg is how with handsomeness to steal Horses and Cows might be found deficient in art and cunning to manage this Meritorious work of Swearing with some consistency to themselves and one another there are some lately arrived there from hence who having been trained and instructed here by the grand Masters of the Forgery and Affidavit-School may be able to edifie and discipline those raw blades in the necessary Virtues of Perjury and Impudence and acquaint them with the laudable method of rehearsing the Depositions which had been given them to con without administring any symptoms of their speaking by rote But their understandings not being so docile and flexible as their Consciences they make daily some unfortunate and fatal misadventure And their having publickly accosted the greatest persons with rude and insolent Menaces and their having threatned to accuse every one whom according to their knowledg of the measures of the World they do but apprehend to have offended them they have already so enfeebled their Credit with all sorts of men that they are altogether become useless and unserviceable It is far from my intention to bring all the natural Irish under this Character for tho most of them who continue Papists would esteem it not only venial but meritorious to cut a Protestants throat yet there are thousands of them who from some principles of Mankind and Bravery do detest the destroying Protestants in the base and creeping ways of Subornation and Perjury And we desire to be pardoned for this
such a profligate Rascal's Affidavit were both to bring upon themselves the guilt of innocent blood and betray their own and other mens Lives into his hands whensoever it may be profitable to him to swear Treason against them Upon the whole As my Lord Chief Justice had some weighty Reasons why he would not allow the Jury to ask Mr. Booth Whether ever he had been Indicted for Fellony so the Jury had sufficient Reasons from common Fame and the Informations of others as well as just grounds of suspicion from my Lord's Inhibition and the Fellow 's avoiding to answer to believe that he had and consequently to judg what little Credit was to be given to his Testimony The next person who appeared upon the Stage at the Old Baily upon the preferment of the Bill against the Earl of Shaftsbury was Mr. Turberville and accordingly we shall endeavour to satisfie the world that his Depositions against this Noble Peer ought to be no ways believed or regarded I love to tread softly upon the grave of the dead and therefore shall not discover the gross immoralities of his Life I mean such as detract from the Reputation of a man's Word and Oath For being delivered from his malice I shall not load his Memory more than the being just to our selves and the whole Protestant party in this Kingdom makes indispensably necessary Mr. Sampson deposeth upon Oath That he and Mr. Turberville being together at the Sign of the Cock by the Pall Mall Two or Three days before Colledg's Tryal Mr. Turberville told him of a design that was on foot against Protestants but swore That he knew nothing against the Earl of Shaftsbury the Lord Howard or any other Protestants save only of Colledg ' s idle words and Rous ' s keeping back the charity of the City from the Evidence William Clerk Esq informeth likewise upon Oath That upon the 5th of July he went to see Mr. Turberville and having found him in a house in Lincolns-Inn-Fields in bed he told him That he had heard by Sir Allen Apsley how he the said Turberville had given Evidence against my Lord of Shaftsbury and that Turberville replied to this He would meet Sir Allen any where but at his own house and would justifie that he was never in Town since my Lord Stafford ' s Tryal and that he never gave Evidence against the Earl of Shaftsbury neither did he know any thing against him Nay there are many other persons of Quality such as Sir Francis Rolls William Herbert Esquire Hobbs Esquire John Trenchard Esquire Gentlemen of great Honour and Truth who do all testifie That after the Commitment of the Earl of Shaftsbury Mr. Turberville declared the same to them with many solemn protestations That he neither was nor could be a Witness against this Noble Peer So that the Grand Jury before whom the Bill against the Earl of Shaftsbury was preferred had just ground for the question which they put to the said Turberville viz. Whether having been challenged by some after my Lord's Commitment concerning his being a Witness against him he had not protested before God and sworn deeply that he knew nothing against my Lord. And all men of Judgment and Sense are wonderfully surprised both at the Attorney General 's objecting That they were not to be allowed to ask such a question and at my L. C. J. insinuating That this was no ground to cavil with the Witnesses upon for so according to our Manuscript tho' it be in gentler terms in the Print he was pleased to express it For as a Jury are to take equal care to defend the Lives and Reputations of the innocent as to convict suchas are criminal and guilty so they are obliged to take notice of every thing which lies in a subserviency to the discovery of the Truth which way soever it arrives with them whether it be upon publick fame or by the information of particular persons Seing therefore it plainly appears that what Turberville said in the Court was contradictory to what he had declared to divers persons elsewhere and that his Oath at the Bar was directly repugnant to what he had sworn before divers Gentlemen in other places we may very reasonably conclude that his whole Depositions against my Lord were either the invention of this perjur'd fellow or that they were dictated unto him by such who had hired and suborned him to come in as an Evidence in order to destroy this honourable Peer But this is not all that we have to offer against the credibility of this Witness for besides this we have the Testimonies of several honest and reputable persons of his acknowledging that he had been often tempted to go off from his Evidence against the Papists and to come in and depose against Protestants For not only Mr. Broadgate swears That Mr. Turberville told him that he had great proffers of preferment and See Colledg's Tryal p. 45. rewards from the Court if he would go off from what he had said and come upon the contrary but Dr. Oats affirms That the said Turberville declared unto him how Mr. Warcup had offered him any thing See No Protestant Plot part 1. p. 26. he would desire provided he would swear against the Earl of Shaftsbury my Lord Howard Mr. Rous and Mr. Whitaker Yea his being one of those that subscribed the Petition to my Lord Mayor the Aldermen and the Commons of London in Common-Council assembled wherein they declare That the Papists had not only so far wrought upon the necessities of some as that for a present supply they had Ship-wrack'd their consciences but that they were tampering with and labouring to corrupt others of the most considerable Witnesses I say his being one that subscribed that Petition is enough to assure all unbiassed persons how and upon what Motives and Terms he came to be an Evidence concerning a Protestant Plot. And whereas he had the Impudence to affirm in Court See the proceedings at the Old-Baily p. 39. That tho he signed that Petition yet he never read it nor knew what was in it I shall here subjoin an Information of Mr. Bellamy the Scrivener who drew it which being directly to the contrary may serve both to overthrow this shameless evasion and convince the world what a lying infamous Rascal this Turberville was Now the Information which Mr. Beliamy hath both given under his hand and declares himself ready to Depose upon Oath whensoever he shall be called thereunto is in the words following namely That Mr. Turberville Macknamarra Haynes and others came to his house being near Guild-hal the Night before the Common-Council sate to desire him to draw a Petition to the Lord Mayor Court of Aldermen and Common Council for their present support and maintenance And that when they had given him Instructions he drew a foul draught thereof which he read to them the next Morning as audibly and distinctly as he could and that they all seemed
very well satisfied with it desiring only that he would add to the last clause of the body of the Petition these words viz. That they could not be supplied out of His Majesties Exchequer And that when he had thus perfected the foul draught to their satisfaction and ingrossed it he read it to them again with the same plainness and distinctness as before and that all of them did very well approve of it especially Mr. Turberville who was pleased to give it a particular Character Now whether we ought to believe Mr. Turberville who swears That he never read that Petition nor knew what was in it but that it was drawn by the order of Mr. Colledg or believe Mr Bellamy who affirms and is ready to depose upon Oath That Turberville and the rest gave Instructions for the drawing of it ordered the foul draught to be corrected by the addition of several important words had it read to them distinctly and audibly and gave their approbation of it I shall refer it to the judgment of all sober discreet and unbiassed men Nor is it unworthy of our observation that when the same Petition was objected against him at Oxford towards the invalidating his Testimony against Mr. Colledg he was provided with no such answer as this which he retreated to at the Old-Baily which forced My Lord Chief-Justice North to endeavour to relieve him by saying There was nothing in that Petition See Colledges Trial p. 47 48. that is a Contradiction to what he then Swore But I humbly conceive all men will not be of this Reverend Judges mind especially when they consider that Turbervile and the rest whose hands are to that Petition do not only therein declare how restless the Papists were in tampering with the Witnesses to corrupt them to stifle and discredit the belief of the Popish Plot but that they were labouring to obtain them to impute the same unto and devolve it upon Protestants And for the shift which Turberville hath since betaken himself unto it is nothing but an evasion either lately invented by himself or suggested unto him by those that Suborned him And yet the Silliness of it is as conspicuous as the Falshood For as it is incredible that any man should set his hand to a Paper which he had neither read nor knew what was in it so no man that should draw such a Petition provided he were wise would admit it seing it might give those very persons at whose desire he had done it an advantage of turning upon him to his prejudice The whole ground and foundation upon which Turbervile came to Swear a Protestant Plot are laid open See Colledge's Trial p. 48. and detected to us by Dr. Oats For the Doctor hath Deposed in Court that Turbervile justified his Swearing Treason against Mr. Colledg tho' he had said before that he would not give any Evidence against him Because the Citizens had deserted him and God damn him he would not starve Alas We poor Protestants thought our selves safe in our Innocency but behold a company of indigent and mercinary Rascals have resolved to Swear us into Guilt that they might obtain Bread Upon the whole it doth appear that the Testimony of Turberville ought to be esteemed of no validity And that the Jury could not in the case of my Lord of Shaftsbury do otherwise than they did notwithstanding the Testimony of this Fellow without becoming themselves unrighteous and unjust The next person that mounted as an Affidavit-man against the Earl of Shaftsbury was Mr. John Smith a person every way adapted to compensate the deficiency of truth in what he says with impudence in the manner of declaring it And because some who do not throughly know the man seek more especially to countenance the belief of a Protestant Plot from his Testimony we shall be the more careful to unmask him and give the world a representation of him in his just features complexion and colours What truely his Christian Name is or whether he have any or no I cannot certainly tell but I have made a shift of late to learn both his Sirname and his Country namely that the one is Ireland and the other Barry And seeing that See procedings against the Earl of Shaftsbury p. 69. he was not brought to acknowledg the name of Barry but after some tergiversation I do affirm that that is the only name he ought to go by if it were not the temper humour and interest of the man to walk always in a disguise And forasmuch as he hath been ambitious to seek a Reputation by pretending himself an English-man I do proclaim to all the world that he was born in Connaught in the Kingdom of Ireland 'T is so habitual for some to lie that no ties nor obligations can make them speak truth However he hath not so much dishonoured England by pretending himself a Native here as he hath our Lord Jesus Christ by giving himself out for a Christian For whereas England owns many Villains and flagitious persons for Natural Subjects and free Denisons Christ will acknowledg none for Christians that only make mention of his Name when they blaspheme it But if the world will account him for a Christian that swears as often as he speaks I say that in all probability notwithstanding whatsoever he pretends to the contrary he is truly and really a Papist For Mr. Sampson hath deposed upon Oath That John Smith Stephen Dugdale and Edward Turberville having sent for him to the One Tun Tavern in Hungerford Market on the 23d of September last Smith begun the Duke of York ' s Health swearing God damn him that he therefore both loved him and drunk his Health because he was a Papist I am so far from being angry at his drinking the Duke of York's Health that out of sincere love to His Majesty as well as the Protestant Religion I wish no man may ever have occasion to drink it under a higher Title All that I would observe is upon what motive and inducement Barry's love to his Royal Highness is grounded and built To this I shall only subjoin one proof more of what Religion whatsoever he pretends we ought to esteem him to be namely that he said at Newark He would sooner hang Ten Protestants than One Papist And his Reason was as considerable as his Assertion viz. because the Popish principles led them to Treason which the Protestant principles did not It would seem the fellow begun to apprehend that the Court would grow weary of his confidence and importunity and therefore he begins to commend principles which may justifie his being another Jaques Clement or a new Ravilliack And if he answer the Character I have received of him there is not a person alive who is more likely to supply the place and undertake the Province of the Four Ruffians who were disappointed and prevented in their design against his Majesty Anno 1678. than this lean long chapp'd Cassius
pretensions to any such thing It is also remarkable and serves to discover their Falshood in what they swore against the Earl of Shaftsbury that they endeavoured to make themselves valuable and worthy to be trusted by great and wise men by pretending a knowledg of the Transactions of the world and affairs of Kingdoms which as they were never capable of attaining so they had but betrayed their Folly and Vanity in offering to discourse concerning such things to that knowing and sagacious Peer For to hear Hayn's depose That he gave my Lord Shaftsbury See Proceedings at the Old-Bayly p. 27. an account of all Transactions from King Charles the First 's Reign to this very day and that my Lord was mightily satisfied pleased and free with him finding that he was a Traveller Is as if he should have told all the world that what he Deposed against that great man was all Forgery and that he was only seeking to beget a credulity in the Court by a vain ostentation of his knowledg in Civil Affairs and his being qualified to be admitted into the secret and hazardous Counsels of the greatest Statesmen Alas an acquaintance with the Occurrences of Princes Reigns and a being able to declare the affairs of two Regencies in their dependence and order with the Causes and Reasons of a War which few can penetrate into the grounds of â—re not things agreeable to the way of Hayns's Education nor to be expected from one that is not wonderfully conversant in the Memoire and Registers of Civil matters and who hath enjoyed an intimate acquaintance with those that were interested in the management both of Civil and Military Concernments Their Malice and Perjury in this whole Affair are open and palpable by their indirect and evasive answers to plain and easie questions Such was Booth's reply to Mr. Papilion who having ask'd him whether he knew any of Proceed p. 36. the Fifty men which he had deposed were listed under Captain Wilkinson said He never directly knew or conversed with any of them And such also was Haynes's reply to the question which was put to him concerning his having given an Information to a Justice of Peace of a design against Ibid. p. 42 43. the Earl of Shaftsbury for as he wrigled to and fro a great while before he could be brought to acknowledg it the answer was neither full nor ingenuous Again Their not remembring times and seasons when such things which they swore should be spoken or when they gave in their Informations about them does proclaim the Witnesses to be Impostors and whatsoever they deposed to be nothing but Forgery For several of the things which they declared they could not remember were such as it is morally impossible they should forget them Thus Haynes could not tell the time when the Earl of Shaftsbury spake Ibid. 44. the Treasonable words about making the Duke of Buckingham King Nor could either Smith or Turberville tell when they gave in their Informations against my Lord nor whether it was before or p. 40. after his Commitment Nay Smith could not tell in what month he did it In a word the Demeanor of the Witnesses carrying things so as if they would hector people into a belief of what they swore and their answering the questions proposed unto them either with great difficulty or with great artifice and cunning proclaim to all impartial men that the Design upon which they appeared was very ill and that they were suborned perjured fellows There was not that modesty to be seen in their Behaviour nor that simplicity in their Evidence nor that plainness easiness and directness in their Answers which was agreeable to Truth but their whole carriage and the manner of their delivering themselves was starch't huffing artificial and full of trick But whereas there is a Paper stiled An Association pretended to be found among other Writings in the Earl of Shaftsbury's Closet that morning he was apprehended upon which great stress is laid towards the proving a Conspiracy of this Lord and other Protestants against His Majesty and the Government I shall therefore with all that modesty which becomes me in reference to persons in Authority and yet with all that freedom which the Innocency of Peers and Gentlemen unjustly accused doth require take this Paper a little into consideration and make some just and modest Reflections in reference unto it An Association for the preservation of the King and the Protestant Religion if it be duly drawn and contain nothing in it contrary to the Rights and Prerogatives of His Majesty the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberties and Property of the People will neither be found so new nor so surprising a thing as that the Grand Juries of the several Counties should be influenced and perswaded to abhor it For our Ancestors in Queen Elizabeths time being apprehensive that the Queens Life the Peace of the Kingdom and the Protestant Religion were in danger from the Papists upon the hope they had of a Popish Successor in case of the Queens Death they thereupon entred into an Association for the preservation of her Majesties Life and the revenging her Death if she should have perished by violent hands which instead of being ridicul'd and declared against was not only unanimously subscribed by the most considerable persons in the Kingdom but both approved and ratified by an Act of the Parliament that next followed But whether it was that our Forefathers loved the Queen and were more zealous for their Religion than we love his present Majesty and are zealous for ours or whether they thought there was more danger to be feared from Mary Queen of Scots who was then the apparent Popish Successor than we think there is from a Gentleman of the same Principles with her that hath the same and more palpable pretences to the Crown I shall not take upon me to determine However it is not unknown that Two several late Parliaments being convinced of the dangers which His Majesties Life is in from the Papists that they may accelerate the ascent of one of their own Communion to the Throne did after mature Debate and as a Testimony of the greatest Loyalty they could pay His Majesty come to this Resolve Resolved That in defence of the Kings Person and Government and Protestant Religion the House doth declare That they will stand by His Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes and that if His Majesty should come to any violent Death which God forbid they will revenge it to the utmost on the Papists Yea the last Westminster Parliament being deeply sensible what Plots the Papists were embark'd in for the Destruction of the King the extirpation of the reformed Religion in these Kingdoms and the placing the Crown upon the head of a Popish Prince they ordered a Bill for an Association to be brought into the House And whereas Secretary Jenkins deposeth upon Oath That tho he heard of such a thing as
Shaftsbury p. 19. Country were well provided with Horse Arms and Men and that if the King offered any violence to them they might oppose him for the like had been done in former times And Haynes deposeth That Colledg should tell him Vnless the King should suffer the Parliament to continue to sit at Oxford they would seize him and bring him Colledg's Tryal p. 30. to the Block as they did the Logger-head his Father yea that my Lord Shaftsbury should declare Vnless the King granted the Pardon which was demanded Proceedings upon the Bill against the Earl of Shaftsbury p. 37. for the said Haynes they would raise the whole Kingdom against him Booth likewise swears how my Lord Shaftsbury told him That he and others had considered with themselves that it was fit for them to have Guards at Oxford and that to this purpose he had establisht a matter of Fifty men persons Ibid. p. 21. of quality and that he had entrusted Capt. Wilkinson with the Command of them and in case any violence should be offered by the King they would repel Force with greater Force Now tho' all this be nothing but a bundle of forged lies yet it plainly declares that no fewer than all the men of quality in England who are zealous for the Reformed Religion and Civil Rights yea the whole Body of sincere Protestants were to be drawn and hook't within the verge of this Plot and all their Lives and Fortunes brought to lye at the favour of the Government upon the pretended guilt of it For no man can think that the blood of the Earl of Shaftsbury and my Lord Howard would have attoned for so general and universal a Conspiracy could they but once have enjoyed the good fortune to have had credit given to these fellows Testimonies The designs which the Papists proposed unto themselves in their forging of this Conspiracy were greater than to be compassed and accomplished by the murder of Three or Four men in the way of legal proofs For as nothing less was aim'd at by means of this Sham Plot than the destroying all who withstand the Introduction of Popery and the establishment of a Popish Successor so many hundreds were to be taken out of the way besides those apprehended and accused ere ever the people of this Kingdom could be expected quietly to submit to be Papists slaves But because the foregoing Depositions do only speak in general of a Conspiracy wherein the Parliament and Nobles were engaged in conjunction with my Lord Shaftsbury to apprehend and cut off the King we shall therefore give an account from the Attestations of others of some few more who besides those publickly named were to have been charged with and perished under the pretended guilt of this forged Plot. And as we are assured from the mouth of a Gentleman of great Reputation and good Quality that John Smith said to him he could swear Treason against a hundred Protestants so Thomas Samson hath deposed upon Oath That John Macknamarra told him that Edward Ivie Bryan Haynes John Smith and Edward Turbervile did intend to swear Treason against Sir Patience Ward Sir Robert Clayton Sir Thomas Player Mr. Bethel who was then Sheriff of London Coll. Mildmay others Yea to that confidence were the mercinary perjured Rogues arrived of their being able to destroy men upon the suborn'd Testimonies that had been dictated unto them that one Mr. Shewin informs upon Oath his having heard John Macknamarra and Edward Turbervil offer on the 11th of August last to lay a wager That Mr. Sheriff Bethel Mr. Best and divers of the London Jury which had brought in an Ignoramus upon the Bill against Stephen Colledg would be hang'd before Christmas last And that the world may be fully convinced how the Papists and the Tools of one quality and another which they work by designed to extend the guilt of this pretended Protestant Plot we shall subjoyn the Deposition of one Ashlock who said That Edward Ivie immediately after Colledg ' s Tryal told him That as they had gotten the said Colledg to be cast and condemned so they were resolved to have the Duke of Monmouth and other Lords to drink of the same cup and to taste Colledg ' s fate So that no man who is a Protestant ought after the knowledg of this to believe himself safe or that he is exempted out of the number of those upon whom the Papists under the pretence of a Protestant Plot hoped to have wreck'd their Malice and Rage For they that dare entertain thoughts of destroying a Prince whom his greatest Enemies can charge with no fault save that he is a Protestant and zealous for the King's preservation and glory are not to be supposed to harbour any thoughts of Compassion and Mercy towards Protestants of an inferior rank Shall neither the Honour which the D. of M. hath brought to His Majesty and the Nation by his foreign Atchievements nor the peace and establishment which he restored to the King and Throne by his prudent and valorous subduing Insurrections at home be sufficient to protect him from the danger and infamy of a Scaffold no more than they were able to secure him from being excluded his Father and Prince's presence and deprived of those Offices which his Merit rendered him worthy of had he not any nearness by Nature and blood to His Majesty to plead for him Will nothing satisfie the Romish Crew unless they can bring the King to forget the Affections of Father as well as the Justice of a Monarch and make him abandon a person to their treachery and implacable wrath whom he is obliged by the Laws of nature to protect as his son whom he is bound by the Laws of England to defend him as his Subject And as all men discern whose Interest hath been served and whose revenge gratified in all the mortifications of this Loyal and Innocent Duke so we can easily guess in whose behalf and for the promoting of whose concernments this whole Protestant Conspiracy was invented and forged And having succeeded so well already as by their meer importunities to alienate his Majesty from a person whom he once seemed to value and love they are encouraged to hope the King will be prevailed with by suggestions of Treasonable Crimes to sacrifice him to their indignation and ire Having now traced and pursued this forged Plot so far as to see that it was calculated for no less than the whole Meridian of Great Brittain and that all the Patriots of Religion and Laws in both Nations were to be destroyed under a pretence of being combin'd in it we are in the next place to view it in the complexion and figure wherein it opened and unfolded it self against the Right Honorable the Earl of Shaftsbury and those other persons who have been either Indicted or only Committed for an alledged accession to it And as the Papists very well know that none had more opposed and
into a Common wealth I wonder how their Lordships and more especially how the Kings Council who seemed to lay great weight upon his Testimony could forbear blushing to hear a fellow say not only once That he had given such an Information to none save to Secretary Jenkins but to add a second time No no to none except Secretary Jenkins and yet upon the hint which my Lord Ibid. Chief Justice gave him to acknowledg in the next breath That he had given such an Information to Sir George Treby And tho' the Court might take no notice of this shameful contradiction yet we may be sure that the Jury as well as a great many Gentlemen besides did The next person whom His Majesties Learned Council at Law produced as a Witness of my Lord Shaftsbury's being guilty of Treason against the King and his Government and upon whose Testimony they not only stak'd the belief of a Protestant Plot but ventur'd both the Honour of the Government and their own Wisdom and Discretion was John Macknamarra a fellow of the same stamp with the rest and fashioned in the same mould for the present Design His early immoralities as well as the straitness and penury of his condition gave not only the managers of this Sham against English Protestants encouragement to assault him but rendred him disposed for and capable of their impressions For both John Row and Francis Foulk Gentlemen of good Quality and Justices of the Peace in the Kingdom of Ireland do testifie That he was not only an idle lying and pilfering boy but that being put upon his Oath concerning some goods which he was suspected to have stollen from one of his Masters Daughters he denied to have taken them when nevertheless upon search they were taken about him And his progress in Roguery encreased answerably to his growth in years For the same Gentlemen do not only declare That he and his brother Dennis used frequently to bring Horses to graze on Camphaire Bogg which afterwards upon enquiry were found to be stollen from some remote places but that his bouse was known to be the greatest receptacle in the County of Clare for Rogues and Thieves And now finding himself in a Kingdom where he could not subsist by Horse-stealing nor take sanctuary in Boggs when pursued as he did in Ireland he was glad to find such a Trade set up as a man might get both Money and Countenance meerly for forswearing himself to relieve and advance the Catholick Cause For that his condition was become extreamly necessitous appears not only from the Petition which he and others presented to the City for a maintenance but is attested by divers to whom in converse he every day complained of it And whereas he as well as the rest doth pretend That that Petition spake neither his Language nor Case but was framed for them by others particularly That Colledg was concerned in promoting that Petition by my Lord Shaftsbury ' s advice and that he neither read it nor knew what was in it Mr. Samson not only swears That he saw them dictate See Proceeding at the Old Baily p. 45. it to the Scrivener who drew it but that John Macknamarra told him how they intended to evade the stress laid upon it for weakening the credit of their Testimony by affirming that it was made for them by the City And forasmuch as this fellow being questioned by the Grand Jury at Rous's Tryal how he was maintained had the impudence to answer That he did then rent a hundred pound per annum in Ireland That thing is altogether false as is both attested by Mr. Samson upon Oath and confirmed by Letters and Informations from persons in that Kingdom who very well knew the Rascal and are themselves of unquestionable Honour and Reputation Such a stranger was John Macknamarra to the reality of a Protestant Plot or the time when he pretends the Treasonable words were spoken by that Noble Peer that there are several persons whom all sober men will give entire belief unto who not only depose That he used about that time to aver there was no such thing but that he also used to fasten very severe Characters upon such as took upon them to say there was For whereas he swears That he heard the Earl of Shaftsbury speak such and such Traiterous words in March and April last Mr. Ibid p. 44. Wilmer deposeth That being in discourse with Macknamarra about the time that the Indictment was exhibited against my Lord Howard the said Macknamarra did affirm that he knew nothing against any Protestant in England and that none would swear any Treasonable Design against them but David Fitzgerald and his crew of damn'd shamming Rascals who would swear any thing And Sampson informs upon Oath That about two days before Macnamarra went to Oxford to Colledge ' s Trial the said Macnamarra told him that he knew the Design against Protestants but swore God damn him if he knew of any Treason by any Protestants or knew of any Plot but the Popish Plot or if he would swear to any such thing And as we have all that is needful to convince every man who is not either a Fool and not capable of being instructed and undeceived or else a Knave who from corrupt Princiciples and Motives and in order to Villanous ends is willing to be imposed upon that as Macknamarra by his own manifold Confessions sealed with Execrations and Oaths knew of no Traiterous Design wherein either the Earl of Shaftsbury or any other Protestant was engaged or concerned so we are fully acquainted with the methods and ways and by what means he came to be seduced to appear as an Evidence against that Noble Peer or to charge a Plot upon His Majesty's Protestant Subjects For he not only acknowledged to Mr. Samuel Harris shortly after the said Macnamarra was bail'd out of Newgate and also at divers times afterwards to Mr. John Wilmer That Coll. Warcup had been with him and earnestly solicited him to come to Whitehal telling him that he might have great advantages by so doing and that the Justice spake this in such a manner and way as gave him reason to suspect a Design of frustrating his Evidence against the Papists and employing him in some very ill Design But he likewise confessed to Dr. Oates Mr. Thomas Pain Mr. Samuel Bull and several others That Warcup had offered him several hundred pounds if he would recant his Evidence against the Papists fall in with Fitzgerald and swear Treason against the Earl of Shaftsbury and other Protestant Lords and Gentlemen And so gainful did the Justice and these Gentlemen whose Purses and Treasure this grand Broker for and principal director of the Witnesses hath the use and disposal of for the service of so good and necessary a service make the Trade of Perjury to this mercinary and suborn'd Rascal that he hath since not only lived at a high and extravagant rate spending commonly as
other great and worthy Protestants is nothing but a late Forgery of their own and that they take upon them to detect vvhat never really vvas upon the Subornation of others and for the accomplishing some base mercinary and villanous ends Nor can there be a clearer proof of the Folly of these Fellovvs and the Falshood of vvhat they svvear than that some of them represent themselves to have discoursed all the while with the greatest Loyalty when in the mean time they introduce My Lord speaking See Proceedings at the Old-Baily p. 24 25. Treason at every word We must suppose that man distracted who should continue speaking Treason for half an hour together when in the Interim all the Answers and Replies of the person with whom he is discoursing do manifest a firm and steddy Allegiance to the King Smith's pretending to have spoken with so much Caution and Circumspection while as he swears The Earl of Shaftsbury talk'd nothing but Treason betrays not only the folly of the wretch but plainly shews that whatsoever he swore against that Noble Peer was false and either forged by himself or dictated unto him by such as had hired and suborned him Yea all that they deposed appears plainly to be False and Romance in that the persons whom they pretend to have been present when the Earl of Shaftsbury spake such Traiterous vvords against His Majesty and the Government do positively aver that there vvas not so much as one syllable of all that said vvhich these Miscreants have svvorn For whereas Dennis affirms that Major Manley was in the Room when my Lord told the said Dennis That they did really intend to have England under a Common-wealth Proceedings at the Old Baily p. 31 32. and that his Lordship desired Dennis to advise those of his Name and such as were his Friends in Ireland to be in a readiness to assist the Common-wealth of England Major Manley indeed acknowledgeth his being present at that time when Dennis was with the Earl of Shaftsbury but withal he is ready to swear That my Lord spake not one word to him except the asking him with some seeming passion and heat what his business was And forasmuch as Booth deposeth upon Oath That Captain Wilkinson was several times by when my Lord Shaftsbury discoursed to the purpose that that Miscreant swore and particularly that the business about the Fifty men who were to be my Lord Shaftsbury ' s Guard was transacted before the Captain this Honest and Loyal Gentleman peremptorily affirms That he vvas never at the Earl of Shaftsbury's vvith Booth but once and that in the hearing and presence of Sir Peter Colliton and that the vvhole discourse vvas about their going to Carolina The falsehood of the vvhole matter vvhich the Witnesses have deposed against the Earl of Shaftsbury is evidently detected and discovered by this that vvhereas one of the Witnesses pretends to have communicated the Treasonable design vvhich my Lord had acquainted him vvith that very night vvhich he heard it to a Club or Society of Gentlemen at the Queens Arms in Newgate street all these Worthy and truly Loyal Gentlemen do positively and unanimously affirm that there vvas no such thing either mentioned at that time or at any other season discovered unto them For vvhereas Smith svvears That my Lord Shaftsbury having told him the King did walk in the same steps which his Father did and would never be quiet till he came to his Fathers end and that thereupon he the See Proceedings at the Old Baily p. 25. said Smith came immediately and acquainted these Gentlemen with it who were met at the Queens Arms they do all solemnly profess there was no such thing and that Smith is a forsworn and perjur'd Rascal in saying so However here was a Train laid for the Lives of all those Worthy and Loyal persons could the vvretch have obtained Credit with the Jury as to what he Deposed against My Lord. And whereas Smith furt her says the Earl of Shaftsbury told him that Evening which Major Manley brought him from the Club at the Queens-Arms to Thanet-house The King pamper'd Fitz-Gerald to stifle Ibid. the Plot in Ireland and that he was as well satisfied with the coming in of Popery as the Duke of York and that the Parliament was satisfied he was as much for it as his Brother for so the Wretch swore in Court tho' the last words be left out in the Print all this I say is feigned and invented seeing Major Manley who was present and by all that time albeit Smith concealed that upon the giving his Evidence is ready to Depose upon Oath that there was not one Syllable spoken by my Lord to the purpose which this Miscreant swears Let us add to this Hayns's Deposing That he had Ibid. a long discourse with the Earl of Shaftsbury at a Cooks in Ironmonger-lane in a little Room next the Kitchin where by the way that last expression is left out in the Print and we shall find this whole Forgery still more obvious and palpable For as My Lord was never there except when he dined with divers Noble and Worthy Persons So besides the improbability of his leaving the company and society of men of the best Quality in England to come and talk with such a Fellow as Hayns and besides the absurdness that is in supposing the Earl of Shaftsbury to have staid an hour in a little Room by a Cook 's Kitchin not only the Servants of the house do positively affirm the contrary of all that this Rascal swears but divers Noble Persons are ready to testifie that the Earl of Shaftsbury never came down stairs out of the great Room till he was going away and that he took Coach immediately without withdrawing into any Room below But that which is extravagant beyond all imagination and which proclaims to every wise man the falshood of all they have sworn is Hayns's deposing That the Earl of Shaftsbury should not only say There are Families in England which have as much pretence to the Crown as the King but that the Duke of Buckingham Ibid. p. 27. hath in Right of his Mother as good a Title to the Crown as ever any Steward had Is it not enough to introduce the Earl of Shaftsbury talking Treasonably but he must be likewise exposed as talking ridiculously Surely the Superintenders and Managers of this Plot in the guilt whereof they would involve Protestants must either be of very weak Understandings themselves or they must apprehend the generality of Mankind to be so otherwise they could never hope to impose upon the world by such nonsensical stuff as this is For besides that no man knows of any Title whereby the Duke of Buckingham can pretend to the Crown the Right of claiming by his Mother as sprung from the Plantagenets being altogether groundless so there is not so sublime a Friendship between my Lord Shaftsbury and the Duke of Buckingham as
that for advancing the Duke to the Throne my Lord should not only venture his own life fortune but disoblige the best Friends he hath in the Nation and entangle his native Country in Civil War This misadventure in the Testimony of one of the most considerable Witnesses betrays not only their Folly but that the whole Plot whereof the Earl of Shaftsbury hath been accused is a malicious Forgery in order to take away the Life of that innocent Peer Nor can any who are not willing to sacrifice the Protestant Religion the Liberties of their Country and the Lives of Guiltless Persons to the Hatred and Rage of the Papists give any Credit to Fellows who Swear at so Wilde and Nonsensical a rate Had the Mercinary vvretches designed to publish themselves for Liars and Impostors to all the vvorld they could not have taken a more effectual vvay to do it than by affirming that the Earl of Shaftsbury should be desirous to enter into a Combination and Conspiracy vvith Irish Papists in order to prevent a Popish Successor and for preserving the Protestant Religion For at the same time that Dennis chargeth this Noble Person vvith saying That he would extirpate the King and all his Family he swears That he desired him to write to his Ubi supra p. 32. Irish Popish Friends to be ready to assist And tho' I do not much vvonder to find a Caitiff of the size of Dennis's Wit and Understanding swear a business vvhich disproveth it self before all Wise and Rational persons yet I cannot forbear marvelling that they vvho vievv'd the Depositions and vvere to gloss and enforce the Evidence vvould suffer such a Deposition to appear upon the publick Stage vvhich vvould not only make the Forgery notorious but infallibly expose themselves as well as the perjur'd Rogues to the laughter scorn and detestation of mankind Nor is it unworthy of remark that in the expressions which they swear my Lord Shaftsbury used they make him not only forget the Loyalty of a Subject but the Civility and Breeding of a Gentleman For the Terms wherein they represent him speaking of the King are besides their being Treasonable too rude to proceed from any that knows the measures of Civility or hath been occasioned to speak with any kind of Decorum For not only Macknamarra introduceth him calling the King a Faithless Person and one that was no way to be believed But Haynes will have him both to say That the King had no more Religion than a Horse and that he was degenerated into a perfect Ibid. p. 28. p. 43. p. 27. Beast and that he durst as soon be hang'd as to meddle with the said Haynes if he stuck to his Information about Sir Edmond-bury Godfrey ' s Murder This is a Dialect proper for such Rascals as the Witnesses to use but it is not a Stile that men of Quality are accustomed unto or can allow themselves to speak in For how much soever they may be offended with the ways and methods of Princes yet they constantly speak of their Persons with Respect and Deference Whether are we to esteem it a Subject fit for our mirth and laughter or for our disgust and indignation to see a Fellow appear at a Bar against a Great and Wise Peer and among other Treasonable Expressions whereof he accuseth him to swear That the said Lord put a greater Respect and Valuation upon him than he did upon the King himself Haynes having sent to the Earl of Shaftsbury and several other Noble Persons That he would make considerable Discoveries if they would procure him a Pardon the Rascal swears That being in Discourse with my Lord Shaftsbury about that matter my Lord should say If the King would not grant the Pardon for him that was desired they would raise the whole Kingdom against him and Ibid. p. 27. that he must not expect to live peaceably in his Throne if he did not grant it For not to insist on this That the Earl of Shaftsbury never spake with Haynes nor would not so much as see him both which will be proved as far as Negatives are capable can any man that hath not renounced Sense as well as Conscience believe that the Earl of Shaftsbury would put the Life of the King and the Peace of the Kingdom in competition with Haynes's being pardoned or not pardoned For suppose that the Fellow undertook to make very useful and important Discoveries provided he might have a Pardon yet we must be Bruits before we can be perswaded that a person of Prudence and Conduct should in case a pitiful wretch were not secured against the danger of the Gallows to which he stood obnoxious threaten not only to dethrone a Monarch to whom he lies under many Obligations besides those of Fealty but to hurl a quiet and peaceable Nation into War and Blood And as if it were not enough for these silly as well as malicious wretches to make my Lord Shaftsbury say a Thousand things which are equally Ridiculous and absurd as they are Treasonable they will have him to have talk'd of matters ready to be done which being duly weighed will be found to have been morally impossible For so is all that is sworn against him concerning a Design to seize the King at Oxford where he was not only surrounded with his Guards but as our Enemies must acknowledg environed with many Loyal Peers and Gentlemen Nor are we told of any preparations that were suitable to an undertaking which was so difficult in it self and which would be extreamly fatal to the Authors if it miscarried For whereas they depose That my Lord told them the Members came well Smith p. 26. Horsed and well Armed the whole Kingdom knows the contrary Some of the Members went so ill attended as that they were not in a condition to secure themselves from being Rob'd by the way And divers of the most Martial persons in the Oxford House of Commons went thither in Hackney Coaches with scarce a Servant a peice to wait upon them Yea this very Earl who is said not only to have projected the seizing the King at Oxford but to have corresponded with others in order to their coming provided thither with strength and force for the accomplishing of it had neither Coach nor Horse there himself So ignorant was this Noble Person of any such design and so unprepared for the execution of an attempt of that nature that he went down in an hired Coach and was forc'd to stay there after the Dissolution of the Parliament till he sent to London for Horses to convey and accommodate him home Was not the Concourse at Oxford much smaller than was reckoned upon considering the Greatness and Solemnity of the Occasion It cannot be thought that the Peers of England and the principal Gentry of the Kingdom should go to to so August and Solemn an Assembly without some Menial Servants to attend them And if the having supernumeraries in a