against their inclination could not passe it over But they handled it so tenderly as if they were afraid to touch it The first day insteed of the Question Whether the Parliament were by this unpresidented Prorogation indeed Dissolved it was proposed something ridiculously Whether this Prorogation were not an Adjournment And this Debate too they Adjourned till the next day and from thence they put it off till the Munday morning Then those that had proposed it yet before they would enter upon the Debate asked Whether they might have liberty as if that had not been more then implied before by Adjourning the Debate and as if Freedome of speech were not a Concession of Right which the King grants at the first opening of all Parliaments But by this faintnesse and halfe-counsell they taught the House to deny them it And so all that matter was wrapped up in a cleanly Question Whether their grand Committees should sit which involving the Legitimacy of the Houses Sitting was carried in the Affirmative as well as their own hearts could wish But in the Lords House it went otherwise For the first day as soon as the Houses were seperate the Duke of Buckingham who usually saith what he thinks argued by all the Laws of Parliament and with great strength of Reason that this Prorogation was Null and this Parliament consequently Dissolved offering moreover to maintaine it to all the Judges and desiring as had been usuall in such Cases but would not here be admitted that even they might give their opinions But my Lord Frechvvell as a better Judge of so weighty a point in Law did of his great Courtship move That the Duke of Buckingham might be called to the Barre which being opposed by the Lord Salisbury as an extravagant motion but the Duke of Buckinghams proposal asserted with all the Cecilian height of Courage and Reason the Lord Arundell of Trerise a Peere of no lesse consideration and Authority then my Lord Frechvvell and as much out of order as if the Salt had been thrown down or an Hare had crossed his way Opening renewed the motion for calling the Duke to the Barre But there were yet too many Lords between and the Couriers of the Honse of Commons brought up advice every moment that the matter was yet in agitation among them So that the Earl of Shaftsbury had opportunity to appear with such extraordinary vigour in what concerned both the Duke of Buckingham's person and his Proposal that as the Duke of Buckingham might have stood single in any rational contest so the Earl of Shaftsbury was more properly another Principal than his Second The Lord Chancellour therefore in answer undertook on the contrary to make the Prorogation look very formal laying the best colours upon it after his manner when Advocate that the Cause would bear and the worst upon his Opponents but such as could never yet endure the Day-light Thus for five or six hours it grew a fixed Debate many arguing it in the regular method till the expected news came that the Commons were rose without doing any thing whereupon the greater number called for the Question and had it in the Affirmative that the Debate should be laid aside And being thus flushed but not satisfied with their Victory they fell upon their Adversaries in cool blood questioning such as they thought fit that same night and the morrow after sentencing them the Duke of Buckingham the Earl of Salisbury the Earl of Shaftsbury and the Lord Wharton to be committed to the Tower under the notion of Contempt during his Majestyes and the Houses pleasure That Contempt was their refusing to recant their Opinion and aske pardon of the King and the House of Lords Thus a Prorogation without President was to be warranted by an Imprisonment without Example A sad Instance and whereby the Dignity of Parliamens and especially of the House of Peers did at present much suffer and may probably more for the future For nothing but Parliament can destroy Parliament If a House shall once be Felon of it selfe and stop its own breath taking away that Liberty of speech which the King verbally and of course allows them as now they had done in both Houses to what purpose is it comming thither But it was now over and by the weaknesse in the House of Commons and the Force in the House of Lords this Presumptuous Session was thus farre settled and confirmed so that henceforward men begun to wipe their Mouths as if nothing had been and to enter upon the Publick Businesse And yet it is remarkable that shortly after upon occasion of a discourse among the Commons concerning Libells and Pamphlets first one Member of them stood up and in the face of their House said That it vvas affirmed to him by a person that might be spoke vvith that there vvere among them thirty forty fifty God knovvs hovv many Outlavved Another thereupon rose and told them It vvas reported too that there vvere diverse of the Members Papists A third That a multitude of them vvere Bribed and Pensioners And yet all this was patiently hushed up by their House and digessed being it seems a thing of that Nature which there is no Reply to which may very well administer and deserve a serious Reflexion how great an opportunity this House of Commons lost of ingratiating themselves with the Nation by acknowledging in this Convention their invalidity to proceed in Parliament and by addressing to his Majesty as being Dissolved for a Dismission For were it so that all the Laws of England require and the very Constitution of our Government as well as Experience teaches the necessity of the frequent Meeting and change of Parliaments and suppose that the Question Concerning this Prorogation were by the Custom of Parliaments to be justified which hath not been done hitherto yet who that desires to maintaine the reputation of an honest man would not have layed hold upon so plausible an occasion to breake company when it was grown so Scandalous For it is too notorious to be concealed that near a third part of the House have beneficiall Offices under his Majesty in the Privy Councill the Army the Navy the Law the Houshold the Revenue both in England and Ireland or in attendance on his Majesties person These are all of them indeed to be esteemed Gentlemen of Honor but more or lesse according to the quality of their severall imployments under his Majesty and it is to be presumed that they brought along with them some Honour of their own into his service at first to set up with Nor is it sit that such an Assembly should be destitute of them to informe the Commons of his Majesties affaires and communicate his Counsells so that they do not by irregular procureing of Elections in place where they have no proper interest thrust out the Gentelmen that have and thereby disturbe the severall Countreys Nor that they croude into the House in numbers beyond modesty and which
other Nations as refractory disobedient Persons that had lost all respect to his Majesty Thus were they well rewarded for their Itch of Perpetual Sitting and of Acting the Parliament being grown to that height of Contempt as to be Gazetted among Run-away Servants Lost Doggs Strayed Horses and High-way Robbers In this manner was the second meeting of this whether Convention or Parliament concluded But by what Name soever it is lawfull to call them or how irregular they were in other things yet it must be confessed That this House or Barn of Commons deserved commendations for haveing so far prevented the establishment of Popery by rejecting the Conspiratours two Bills Intituled 1. An Act for further securing the Protestant Religion by educating the Children of the Royal family therein And for the providing for the Continuance of a Protestant Clergy 2. An Act for the more effectual conviction and Prosecution of Popish Recusants And for having in so many Addresses applyed against the French power and 〈◊〉 And their Debates before recited upon this latter subject do sufficently show that there are men of great parts among them who understand the Intrest of the Nation and as long as it is for their purpose can prosecute it For who would not commend Chastity and raile against Whoreing while his Rival injoyes their Mistresse But on the other side that poor desire of Perpetuating themselves those advantages which they have swallowed or do yet gape for renders them so â—…bject that they are become a meer property to the Conspiratours and must in order to their continuance do and suffer such things so much below and contrary to the spirit of the Nation that any honest man would swear that they were no more an English House of Parliament And by this weaknesse of theirs it was that the House of Peers also as it is in contiguous Buildings yeelded and gave way so far even to the shaking of the Government For had the Commons stood firme it had been impossible that ever two men such as the Black and White Lords Trerise and Frechvvel though of so vast fortunes extraordinary understanding and so proportionable Courage should but for speaking against their sense have committed the Four Lords not much their inferiours and thereby brought the whole Peerage of England under their vassalage They met again at the Day appointed the 16 of July The supposed House of Commons were so well appayed and found themselves at such ease under the Protection of these frequent Adjournments which seemed also further to confirme their Title to Parliament that they quite forgot how they had been out-lawed in the Gazette or if any sense or it remaind there was no opportunity to discover it For his Majesty having signified by Mr. Secretary Coventry his pleasure that there should be a further Adjournment their Mr. Seymour the speaker deceased would not suffer any man to proceed But an honourable Member requiring modestly to have the Order Read by which they were before Adjourned he Interrupted him and the Seconder of that motion For he had at the last Meeting gained one President of his own making for Adjourning the House without question by his own Authority and was loath to have it discontinued so that without more ado like an infallible Judge and who had the power over Counsels he declared Ex Cathedra that they were Adjourned till the third of December next And in the same moment stampt down on the floor and went forth trampling upon and treading under foot I had almost said the Priviledges and usage of Parliament but however without shewing that decent respect which is due to a multitude in Order and to whom he was a Menial servant In the mean time the four Lords lay all this while in the Tower looking perhaps to have been set free at least of Course by Prorogation And there was the more reason to have expected one because the Corn Clause which deducted Communibus Annis 55000 I. out of the Kings Customes was by the Act of Parliament to have expired But those frequent Adjournments left no place for Divination but that they must rather have been calculated to give the French more scope for perfecting their Conquests or to keep the Lords closer till the Conspirators Designes were accomplished and it is less probable that one of these was false than that both were the true Causes So that the Lords if they had been taken in War might have been ransomed cheaper than they were Imprisoned When therefore after so long patience they saw no end of their Captivity they began to think that the procuring of their Liberty deserved almost the same care which others took to continue them in Durance and each of them chose the Method he thought most advisable The Earl of Shaftsbury having addressed in vain for his Majesties favour resorted by Habeas Corpus to the Kings Bench the constant Residence of his Justice But the Judges were more true to their Pattents then their Jurisdiction and remanded him Sir Thomas Jones having done him double Justice answering both for himself and his Brother Tvvisden that was absent and had never hard any Argument in the case The Duke of Buckingham the Earle of Salisbury and the Lord Wharton had better Fortune then he in recurring to his Majesty by a Petition upon which they were enlarged making use of an honorable Evasion where no Legal Reparation could be hoped for Ingratefull Persons may censure them for enduring no more not considering how much they had suffered But it is Honour enough for them to have been Confessors nor as yet is the Earl of Shaftsbury a Martyr for the English Liberties and the Protestant Religion but may still live to the Envy of those that maligne him for his Constancy There remaines now only to relate that before the meeting appointed for the third of December his Majesties Proclamation was Issued signifying that he expected not the Members attendance but that those of them about Town may Adjourn themselves till the fourth of April 1678. Wherein it seemed not so strange because often done before as unfortunate that the French should still have so much further leisure allowed him to compleat his design upon Flanders before the Nation should have the last opportunity of interposing their Counsells with his Majesty it cannot now be said to prevent it But these words that the House may Adjourn themselves were very well received by those of the Commons who imagined themselves thereby restored to their Right after Master Seymours Invasion When in reversal of this he probably desiring to retain a Jurisdiction that he had twice usurped and to adde this Flower to the Crown of his own planting Mr. Secretary Coventry delivered a written Message from his Majesty on the 3d. of December of a contrary effect though not of the same validity with the Proclamation to wit That the Houses should be Adjourned only to the 15. of January 1677. Which as soon as read Mr. Seymour
and People of Religion and Government and how near they are in all humane probability to arrive Triumphant at the end of their Journey Yet that I may not be too abrupt and leave the Reader wholly destitute of a thread to guide himself by thorow so intriguing a Labyrinth I shall summarily as short as so copious and redundant a matter will admit deduce the order of affaires both at home and abroad as it led into this Session It is well known were it as well remembred what the provocation was and what the successe of the warre begun by the English iâ—… the Year 1665. against Holland what vast supplyes were furnished by the Subject for defraying it and yet after all no Fleet set out but the Flower of all the Royal Navy burnt or taken in Port to save charges How the French during that War joyned themselves in assistance of Holland against us and yet by the credit he had with the Queen Mother so farre deluded his Majesty that upon assurance the Dutch neither would have any Fleet out that year he forbore to make ready and so incurred that notable losse and disgrace at Chatham How after this fatall conclusion of all our Sea Champaynes as we had been obliged to the French for that warre so we were glad to receive the Peace from his favour which was agreed at Breda betwixt England France and Holland His Majesty was hereby now at leisure to remarke how the French had in the year 1667. taken the time of us and while we were imbroled and weakned had in violation of all the most solemn and sacred Oaths and Treatyes invaded and taken a great part of the Spanish Nether-Land which had alwayes been considered as the natural Frontier of England And hereupon he judged it necessary to interpose before the flame that consumed his next neighbour should throw its sparkles over the water And therefore generously slighting all punctilious of ceremony or peeks of animosity where the safty of his People and the repose of Christendom were concerned he sent first into Holland inviting them to a nearer Alliance and to enter into such further Counsells as were most proper to quiet this publick disturbance which the French had raised This was a work wholy of his Majestys designing and according to that felicity which hath allways attended him when excluding the corrupt Politicks of others he hath followed the dictates of his own Royal wisdom so well it succeeded It is a thing searse credible though true that two Treatyes of such weight intricacy and so various aspect as that of the Defensive League with Holland and the other for repressing the further progresse of the French in the Spanish Netherland should in five days time in the year 1668. be concluded Such was the Expedition and secrecy then used in prosecuting his Majesty particuler instructions and so easy a thing is it for Princes when they have a mind to it to be well served The Svvede too shortly after made the third in this Concert whether wisely judging that in the minority of their King reigning over several late acquired dominions it was their true intrest to have an hand in all the Counsells that tended to pease and undisturbed possession or whether indeed those ministers like ours did even then project in so glorious an Alliance to betray it afterward to their own greater advantage From their joyning in it was called the Triple Alliance His Majesty with great sincerity continued to solicite other Princes according to the seventh Article to come into the Guaranty of this Treaty and delighted himself in cultivating by all good means what he had planted But in a very short time these Counsells which had taken effect with so great satisfaction to the Nation and to his Majestyes eternal honour were all changed and it seemed that Treatyes as soon as the Wax is cold do lose their virtue The King in June 1670 went down to Dover to meet after a long absence Madam his onely remaining sister where the days were the more pleasant by how much it seldomer happens to Princes then private persons to injoy their Relations and when they do yet their kind interviews are usually solemnized with some fatlity and disaster nothing of which here appeared But upon her first return into France she was dead the Marquess of Belfonds was immediately sent hither a Person of great Honour dispatched thither and before ever the inquiry and grumbling at her death could be abated in a trice there was an invisible Leagle in prejudice of the Triple one struck up with France to all the height of dearnesse and affection As if upon discecting the Princess there had some state Philtre been found in her bowells or the reconciliation wiah France were not to be celebrated with a lesse sacrifice then of the Blood Royall of England The sequel will be suitable to so ominous a beginning But as this Treaty was a work of Darknesse and which could never yet be understood or discovered but by the effects so before those appeared it was necessary that the Parliament should after the old wont be gulld to the giving of mony They met the 24th Oct. 1670. and it is not without much labour that I have been able to recover a written Copy of the Lord Bridgmans speech none being printed but forbidden doubtlesse lest so notorious a Practise as certainly was never before though there have indeed been many put upon the Nation might remain publick Although that Honourable person cannot be persumed to have been accessory to what was then intended but was in due time when the Project ripened and grew hopeful discharged from his Office and he the Duke of Ormond the late Secretary Trevor with the Prince Rupert discarded together out of the Committee for the Forraign Affaires He spoke thus My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons WHen the two Houses were last Adjourned this Day as you well know was perfixed for your Meeting again The Proclamation since issued requiring all your attendances at the same time shewed not only his Majesties belief that his business will thrive best when the Houses are fullest but the importance also of the Affaires for which you are so called And important they are You cannot be ignorant of the great Forces both for Land and Sea-service which our Neighbours of France and the Low-Countries have raised and have now in actual Pay nor of the great Preparations which they continue to make in Levying of Men Building of Ships filling their Magazines and Stores with immense quantities of all sorts of Warlike Provisions Since the beginning of the last Dutch War the French have increased the Greatness and Number of their Ships so much that their Strength by Sea is thrice as much as it was before And since the end of it the Dutch have been very diligent also in augmenting their Fleets In this conjuncture when our Neighbours Arm so potently even
instead of giving a Temper to their deliberations may seem to affect the Predominance For although the House of Peers besides their supream and sole Judicature have an equal power in the Legislature with the House of Commons and at the second Thoughts in the Government have often corrected their errours yet it is to be confessed that the Knights Citizens and Burgesses there assembled are the Representers of the People of England and are more peculiarly impowred by them to transact concerning the Religion Lives Liberties and the Propriety of the Nation And therefore no Honorable person related to his Majesties more particular service but will in that place and opportunity suspect himself least his Gratitude to his Master with his self-interest should tempt him beyond his obligation there to the Publick The same excludes him that may next inherit from being Guardian to an Infant not but there may the same affection and integritie be found in those of the Fathers side as those on the Mothers but out of decent and humane caution and in like manner however his Majesties Officers may be of as sound and untainted reputation as the best yet common Discretion would teach them not to seek after and ingrosse such different Trusts in those bordering Intrests of the King and Contrey where from the People they have no Legall advantage but so much may be gained by betraying them How improper would it seem for a Privy Counsellour if in the House of Commons he should not justify the most arbytrary Proceedings of the Councill Table represent affaires of State with another face defend any misgovernment patronize the greatest Offenders against the Kingdome even though they were too his own particular enemies and extend the supposed Prerogative on all occasions to the detriment of the Subjects certaine and due Libertyes What self denyall were it in the Learned Counsell at Law did they not vindicate the Misdemeanours of the Judges perplex all Remedies against the Corruptions and Incroachment of Courts of Judicature Word all Acts towards the Advantage of their own Profession palliate unlawfull Elections extenuate and advocate Publick Crimes where the Criminall may prove considerable step into the chaire of a Money Bill ' and pen the Clauses so dubiously that they may be interpretâ—… in Westminister-Hall beyond the Houses intention mislead the House not only in point of Law but even in matter of Fact without any respect to Veracity but all to his own further Promotion What Soldier in Pay but might think himself sit to be cashiered should he oppose the increase of Standing Forces the Depression of Civill Authority or the Levying of Mony by whatsoever means or in what Quantity Or who of them ought not to abhorre that Traiterous Position of taking Armes by the Kings Authority against those that are Commissionated by him in pursuance of such Commission What Officer of the Navy but takes himself under Obligation to magnify the expence extoll the mannagment conceal the neglect increase the Debts and presse the Necessity ringging and unringging it to the House in the same moment and representing it all at once in a good and a bad condition should any Member of Parliament and of the Exchequer omit to transform the Accounts conceal the Issues highten the Anticipations and in despight of himself oblidge whosoever chance to be the Lord Treasurer might not his Reversioner justly expect to be put into present Posession of the Office Who that is either concerned in the Customes or of their Brethren of the Excise can with any decency refuse if they do not invent all further Impositions upon Merchandise Navigation or our own domestick Growth and Consumption and if the Charge be but Temporary to perpetuate it Hence it shall come that insteed of relieving the Crown by the good old and certain way of Subsidyes wherein nothing was to be got by the House of Commons they devised this Foraine course of Revenue to the great Greivance and double charg of the People that so many of the Members might be gratified in the Farmes or Commissions But to conclude this digression whatsoever other Offices have been set up for the use of the Members or have been extinguished upon occasion should they have failed at a Question did not they deserve to be turned out Were not all the Votes as it were in Fee Farme of those that were intrusted with the sale Must not Surinam be a sufficient cause of quarrel with Holland to any Commissioner of the Plantations Or who would have denyed Mony to continue the War with Holland when he were a Commissioner of Prizes of Sick and Wounded of Transporting the English or of Starving the Dutch Prisoners How much greater then would the hardship be for those of his Majesties Houshold or who attend upon his Royall Person to forget by any chance Vote or in being absent from the House that they are his Domestick servants Or that all those of the capacity abovementioned are to be look upon as a distinct Body under another Discipline and whatsoever they may commit in the House of Commons against the National Interest they take themselves to be justified by their Circumstances their hearts indeed are they say with the Country and one of them had the boldness to tell his Majesty That he was come from Voting in the House Against his Conscience And yet these Gentlemen being full and already in Imployment are more good natured and less dangerous to the Publick than those that are hungry and out of Office who may by probable computation make another Third part of this House of Commons Those are such as having observed by what steps or rather leaps and strides others of their House have ascended into the highest Places of the Kingdom do upon measuring their own Birth Estates Parts and Merit think themselves as well and better qualified in all respects as their former Companions They are generally men who by speaking against the French inveighing against the Debauches of Court talking of the ill management of the Revenue and such Popular flourishes have cheated the Countrys into Electing them and when they come up if they can speak in the House they make a faint attaque or two upon some great Minister of State and perhaps relieve some other that is in danger of Parliament to make themselves either way considerable In matters of money they seem at first difficult but having been discourst with in private they are set right and begin to understand it better themselves and to convert their Brethren For they are all of them to be bought and sold only their Number makes them cheaper and each of them doth so overvalue himself that sometimes they outstand or let slip their own Market It is not to be imagined how small things in this case even Members of great Estates will stoop at and most of them will do as much for Hopes as others for Fruition but if their patience be tired out they grow at last
is not sufficient vvithout a further Supply to enable your Majesty to Speak or Act those things vvhich are desired by your People We humbly take leave to acquaint your Majesty that many of our Members being upon an expectation of an Adjournment before Easter are gone into their several Countries vve cannot think it Parliamentary in their absence to take upon us the granting of money but do therefore desire your Majesty to be pleased that this House may Adjourn it self for such short time before the sum of 200000 l. can be expended as your Majesty shall think sit and by your Royal Proclamation to command the attendance of all our Members at the day of Meeting by vvhich time vve hope your Majesty may have so formed your Affaires and fixed your Alliances in pursuance of our former Addresses that your Majesty may be gratiously pleased to Impart them to us in Parliament and vve no vvayes doubt but at our next Assembling your Majesty vvill not only meet vvith a Complyance in the Supply your Majesty desires but vvithall such farther Assistance as the posture of your Majesties Affaires shall require in confidence vvhereof vve hope your Majesty vvill be encouraged in the mean time to speak and act such things as your Majesty shall judge necessary for attaining those great ends as ye have formerly represented to your Majesty And now the money Bill being Passed both Houses and the French having by the surrender of Cambray also to them perfected the Conquest of this Campagne as was projected and the mony for further preparations having been asked onely to gain a pretence for refusing their Addresses the Houses were adjourned April the 16th till the 21 of May next And the rather becuase at the same moment of their rising a Grand French Ambassador was coming over For all things betwixt France and England moved with that punctual Regularity that it was like the Harmony of the Spheres so Consonant with themselves although we cannot hear the musick There landed immediately after the Recesse the Duke of Crequy the Arch-Bishop of Rheims Monsieur Barrillon and a Traine of three or four hundred persons of all Qualities so that the Lords Spirituall and Temporall of France with so many of their Commons meeting the King at Nevv-market it looked like another Parliament And that the English had been Adjourned in order to their better Reception But what Addresse they made to his Majesty or what Acts they passed hath not yet been Published But those that have been in discourse were An Act for continuing his Majesties subjests in the service of France An Act of abolition of all Claymes and demandes from the subjests of France on Account of all Prizes made of the English at Sea since the year 1674 till that day and for the future An Act for marring the Children of the Royal Family to Protestants Princes An Act for a further supply of French mony But because it appears not that all these and many others of more secret nature passed the Royall Assent it sufficeth thus far to have mentioned them Onely it is most certain that although the English Parliament was kept aloofe from the businesse of War Peace and Alliance as Improper for their Intermedling Presumptuous Yet with these 3 Estates of France all these things were Negotiated and transacted in the Greatest confidence And so they were Adjourned from Nevv-Market to London and there continued till the return of the English Parliament when they were dismissed home with all the signes and demonstrations of mutuall 〈◊〉 And for better Preparations at home before the Parliament met there was Printed a second Packet of Advice to the men of Shaftsbury the first had been sold up and down the Nation and Transmitted to Scotland where 300 of them were Printed at Edenburgh and 40 Copyes sent from thence to England fariely bound up and Guilded to shew in what great Estmiation it was in that kingdome But this the sale growing heavy was dispersed as a Donative all over England and it was an Incivilty to have enquired from whence they had it but it was a Book though it came from Hell that seemed as if it dropped from Heaven among men some Imagined by the weight and the wit of it that it proceeded from the Two Lords the Black and the White who when their care of the late Sitting was over had given themselves Caviere and after the Triumphs of the Tongue had Establish those Trophes of the Pen over their Imprisoned Adversaries But that had been a thing unworthy of the Frechvvellian Generosity or Trerisian Magnanimity And rather besits the mean malice of the same Vulgar Scribler hired by the Conspirators at so much a shâ—…t or for day wages and when that is spent he shall for lesse mony Blaspheme his God Revile his Prince and Belye his Country if his former Books have Omitted any thing of those Arguments and shall Curse his own Father into the Bargain Monday May 21. 1677. The Parliament met according to their late Adjornment on and from April 16th to May 21 1677. There was no speech from the King to the Parliament but in the House of Commons This Meeting was opened with a verball message from his Majesty delivered by Secretary Coventry wherein his Majesty acquainted the House that having according to their desire in their Answer to his late Message April 16th driected their Adjournment to this time because they did alledge it to be unparliamentary to grant Supplyes when the House was so thin in expectation of a speedy Adjournment and having also Issued out his Proclamation of summons to the end there might be a full House he did now expect they would forthwith enter upon the consideration of his last message and the rather because he did intend there should be a Recesse very quickly Upon this it was moved That the Kings last Message of April 16. And the Answer thereto should be Read and they were read accordingly Thereupon after a long silence a discourse began about their expectation and necessity of Alliances And particularly it was intimated that an Alliance with Holland was most expedient for that we should deceive our selves if we thought we could be defended otherwise we alone could not withstand the French his purse and power was too great Nor could the Dutch withstand him But both together might The general discourse was that they came with an expectation to have Allyances declared and if they were not made so as to be imparted they were not called or come to that purpose they desired and hoped to meet upon and if some few dayes might ripen them they would be content to Adjorn for the mean time The Secretary and others said these Allyances were things of great weight and 〈◊〉 and the time had been short but if they were finisht yet it was not convenient to publish them till the King was in a readinesse and posture to prosecute and maintain them till when his Majesty could