Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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B05867
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An antidote against poison. Composed of some remarks upon the paper printed by the direction of the Lady Russel, and mentioned to have been delivered by the Lord Russel to the sheriffs at the place of his execution.
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Shower, Bartholomew, Sir, 1658-1701.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing S3649; ESTC R184221
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10,207
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4
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AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST POISON Composed of some Remarks upon the Paper printed by the direction of the Lady Russel and mentioned to have been delivered by the Lord Russel to the Sheriffs at the place of his Execution THe Publishing of this Paper as the last Speech of a dying man cannot but surprise all Persons who were present at the Tryal of the Lord Russel to read such Reflections upon the Judges the Kings Council the Sheriffs and the Jury the Fact so untruly represented and the Offenders Innocence so strongly asserted when they can all attest to the fairness of his Trial the respectful Treating of him by the Kings Council as far as was consistent with their Duty without any strains upon the Evidence to the favourable Demeanor of the Court towards him not in the least aggravating the Crime beyond the Evidence and to the fulness of the Evidence upon the Proofs produced And therefore those who heard the Evidence must acknowledge that tlat Paper is so far from containing the whole truth of the Lord Russel's Case that what of Fact is therein infected is wholly disguised and untruly and unfaithfully set down Neither doth the Lord Russel in his Speech to the Sheriffs aver all contained in that Paper to be true nor the Paper to contain the whole truth of his Case only saith he had set down in that Paper all that he thought fit to leave behind him No doubt he might have as well said All that his faithful Confessor advised him to leave behind him For whosoever strictly peruseth the Paper will not find the Ingenuity Sincerity or plain style of a Dying Gentleman but may discover the peculiar Dialect of an Artist accustomed to shadow Truth with doubtful and ambiguous Expressions and the Paper artificially contrived and designed to gratifie a Party by a colourable asserting the Innocency of the Criminal condemned by the Law for High Treason and laying a Malitious Imputation upon the Government for an unjust Prosecution of an Innocent Person to Death Whether the Paper doth truly state the Crime upon the Fact proved for which the Lord Russel was Condemned And whether it contain any plain denial of that Fact will best appear by truly stating the Crime charged upon him by the Indictment and the Fact proved upon him at his Trial The Lord Russel with others are charged by the Indictment with High Treason for Conspiring Compassing and Imagining the Death and Destruction of the King and raising of a Rebellion within the Kingdom And the Overt Acts wherewith they are charged are their Meeting together consulting and agreeing to raise an Insurrection and Rebellion and to seize upon the Kings Guards At the Trial of Colonel Rumsey did swear that there was a General Rising intended in October and November last and that he was engaged therein And that the Earl of Shaftsbury who was likewise engaged therein in November last acquainted him that the Duke of Monmouth the Lord Gray Lord Russel Sir Thomas Armstrong and Mr. Ferguson were to meet at Mr. Shepherds house in Abchurch Lane and sent him thither with a Message to them that accordingly he went thither and found the Lord Russel and the rest there and delivered to them the Message from the Earl of Shaftsbury which was that it was high time to come to some Resolution about the Rising That answer was returned that Mr. Trenchard had assured them that in four hours time one Thousand Foot and two or three Hundred Horse should be ready at Taunton But now Master Trenchard required two or three days notice of the Rising and therefore they could not go on at present and that my Lord Shaftsbury must be contented He said the Answer was pronounced by Mr. Ferguson and the Lord Gray spoke to the same purpose And being interrogated whether the Lord Russel were so near as to hear the Message he said he was so near and could not but hear it And being asked by the Lord Russel whether he consented to the Answer he declared upon his Oath that the Lord Russel did consent And that they then treated and consulted of the General Rising And both Colonel Rumsey and Mr. Shepherd did swear That the Lord Russel and the rest did consult at Mr. Shepherds about seizing of the Kings Guards And having at a former Meeting appointed some of their Number viz the Duke of Monmouth Lord Gray and Sir Thomas Armstrong to view in what posture the Guards were they made Report to the rest there they found them very remiss in their Duties and might be easily seized Mr. Shepherd swore that their meeting at his house was not casual but appointed by themselves and that they came late in the Evening and that my Lord Russel mentioned not any private Businesse to him neither had he then any private Business with the Lord Russel But the Lord Russel pretending he came to taste some Sherry which he had bespoke of Mr. Shepherd Mr. Shepherd denied upon his Oath that the Lord Russel had bespoke an Sherry of him or mentioned any such thing then to him The Lord Howard gave in Evidence upon his Oath that there was a design of a General Rising both in October and November last and that the Earl of Shaftsbury then acquainted him he had Ten thousand brisk Boys ready And after the Departure of the Earl of Shaftsbury it was thought necessary for the preventing of Confusion and more orderly managing of the Rising that a select Council should be held for that purpose And accordingly the Duke of Monmouth the Earl of Essex the Lord Russel Colonel Sidney Mr. Hamden junlor and himself met in January last at Mr. Hamaens House in Russel street and debated certain Preliminaries to the Rising Amongst others Whether the Rising should be in London first or in the Countrey first or in both at once and the major opinion inclined to have the Rising both in London and the Country at one time That soon after they held a second Meeting at the Lord Russels house where all the last mentioned Persons were present and where they again debated of the Rising and then came to this Resolution That some Person should be sent into Scotland to invite some Persons thence from the discontented Scots to treat with them That they might be assured of what Assistance they might expect from the Scots That that matter was committed by them to the special care and conduct of Colonel Sidney And that Colonel Sidney acquainted him he had sent Aaron Smith into Scotland accordingly and that he had given him threescore Guineys to defray the charges of his Journey The Lord Howard interrogated by the Lord Russel whether he said any thing in those Debates declared upon his Oath that though his Lordship never used to speak much yet he did speak in those debates and consented to what was done This was the substance of the Evidence though delivered by the Witnesses more at large as will appear by their Depositions when they
branch of 25. Ed. 3. But that was too clear a matter for a dying Man plainly to deny his Conscience must have controled him And to let every Man understand the Subtilty of that paper in declaration of the Lord Russel's innocence with such restrictions It is necessary to be known that there were two parts in this horrid Design one was a general Râ—sing managed by a select Council wherein the Conspirators according to their different Principles had their different ends some were for a Common Wealth though the fewer in number others were for continuing the Monarchy and Government but with Exclusion of his Royal Highness Of this latter sort were the Duke of Monmouth and the Lord Russel who plainly sets down in the Paper the Duke of Monmouth's Opinion of him that they were both of a temper And the Lord Russel gives his Opinion of himself That his earnestness in the matter of the Bill of Exclusion had no small influence in his present Sufferings though spoken by him with great Reflection upon the Government yet it truly seems to have been the natural cause of those Extravagancies he was led unto his zeal in that matter transporting him to seek that by force which the King had before denied in a course of Parliament The other part of the Plot was downright Assassinating of the King and the Duke of York this was managed by a Council of Ruffians who according to their Principles judged this the most expeditious and safest way to secure the General Rising and render it more effectual This was made out beyond all peradventure by many Witnesses at the Trials of Captain Walcot and Hone the latter whereof besides the proofs against him confessed himself to be one of the Number who had engaged themselves to kill the King For this latter horrid Fact of Killing and Assassinating the Lord Russel was not accused thereof nor any proof offered to make it out And therefore his frequent professions of his innocency as to any Plot or Design upon the Kings Life or to Kil the King or his knowing any thing thereof and of his abhorrence thereof as an inhumane base vile and barbarous Act which Epithits the Paper gives to that soul Fact are no plain declarations of his innocence as to the Crime charged and proved upon him of Conspiring and Consulting to raise an Insurrection within the Kingdom And t 's evident by the Lord Russel's restraining the expression of his Innocency to the design upon the King's Life and to Killing of the King and omitting to mention the general Rising which was fully proved upon him that the Lord Russel intended only that Crime for which Hone and Walcot were condemned of Assassinating the King The other restriction of his Innocency as to any design for Alteration or Change of the Government which he esteemed the best in the World which amounts to no more than that he had no design himself nor knew of any to throw off Monarchy and to introduce a Common-wealth which was never charged upon him and may easily be presumed to be such a Government as was no ways agreeable to his height of Spirit But this is no denyal of his being ingaged in any design to make an Insurrection though his end in such Insurrection were far short of Killing of the King or Changing the Monarchy Let it be supposed to be only to overawe the King that a Parliament might fit to passe the Bill of Exclusion and other Bills for the security of the Protestant Religion or other specious pretences whatsoever which is the best Construction can be put upon the Lord Russel's Case That he had a part in the Insurrection is evidently proved and not denied by him But he saith his part was sincere and well-meant What that sincere meaning was he doth not plainly tell us which becomes a Dying Man to do But leaves us to conjecture from the other parts of the same Paper what his sincere purposes were His zeal for the Bill of Exclusion and Detestation of Popery which accompanied him to his Death argue his sincere intention in the Rising to be something that was for the promoting of the Bill of Exclusion and the utter Extirpation of Popery Yet he professeth that notwithstanding all his zeal against Popery that he never had a thought of doing any thing against it Basely or Inhumanly but what would well consist with the Christian Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom This again renders the matter difficult to guess at his sincere meaning in the Design But the Compiler of the Speech hath so ordered the Composition of the Sentences by the discretive Particle But that room is left for the Dying Person to intend nothing to be inconsistent with the Christian Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom but what was base and inhumane as the Assassination of the King and Duke is judg'd to be and that an Insurrection only to compel the King to pass such Bills as His Protestant Subjects conceived necessary for the Preservation of their Religion was no base and inhumane thing and therefore not inconsistent with the Christian Religion but for the support of it nor with the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom which allow in the opinion of too many both more ancient and modern Fomenters of Rebellion against Princes a Liberty in the People to acquire that which they apprehend to be their Right and for their Preservation by force which they cannot obtain from their Princes by fair means upon the account of a Supream Law for preservation of themselves and their Religion inherent to all Governments To this purpose was prepared and published that venemous Book of Julian so much hugged and applauded by the Conspirators as a fit Plâ—ister composed of Ancient Christian Practices for such Consciences who might entertain the least scruple against Infamous Lybelling of their Prince or using any Force or Coersion upon the Government To the same purpose have been Printed and Re-printed of late divers Seditious Books and Pamphlets and another was preparing for the Press by one of the Conspirators To assert a Supremacy in the People to determine for themselves against their Prince The Northern Climate hath of late furnished us both with Doctrines and Examples of the same Batch The Compiler of the Speech was without question acquainted if not infected with those Doctrines Tenets and Examples and therefore may be presumed to lye under that great Delusion that it was lawful for Subjects to procure from their Princes by force whatever they judg'd necessary for the preservation of their Civil or Religious Rights so in the doing thereof their parts were sincere and well meant When nothing is clearer by the Laws of this Kingdom than that to raise a Rebellion or make an Insurrection be the design or intent thereof never so speciously good is High Treason And it is apparent that the Lord Russel or the Author of that Paper was misguided in two principal