Mr Solicitor had shortened his Labour by the pains he had taken to sum up the Evidence to them which he concluded he had without doubt done with all faithfulness to his Master He then proceeds to blacken the Defendant with all the foul Language that Malice could suggest and tells his old Friends of the Jury whose acquaintance with him disposed them to credit him that the Popish Plot was a sham and that under the pretence thereof another black and bloody Conspiracy was carried on Then he magnifies the evidence against the Defendant both from the number of the St Omers Sparks no less then twenty but also their harmony and he affirms that against the credit of their Testimony there was no objection really made but only Impudence that the Defendant had produced but two positive Witnesses that they were likewise positive in their contradiction of one another that they swore according as their humour led them and not according to any remembrance they had of the thing and that he rather believed it because the third Witness Page gave an evidence contrary to both of them how notoriously false these malitious Suggestions are will evidently appear upon the perusal of what these three honest and plain-dealing Witnesses swore Then he comes to the Defendants fourth Witness Mr Walter and positively affirms that he says nothing to the matter for that it did plainly appear the time which he speaks of was about a year and a half before the five Jesuits Tryal which must be in 1677 before the Defendant went to St Omers Mr Solicitor told the Jury that Mr Walter spoke of a year and a quarter before the discovery of the Plot had that been true it had run it back to the year 1677 and to a time before the Doctor went to St Omers His Lordship makes Mr VValter to speak of about a year and a half before the Jesuits Tryal which runs it back to December 1677 and then the King 's celebrated Witnesses and Mr VValter are agreed but Mr Vvalter speaking for himself says the time was near a year and a quarter before the Tryal of the Jesuits which brings us to April 1678. Though the Chief Justice and Solicitor were not agreed in this matter yet they would not quarrel about it provided the understanding Jury would credit either of them against Mr Walter and so serve the turn they aimed at the baffling the credit of the Popish Plot and not allow this Witness to be serviceable to the Vindication of Dr Otes Upon the following day after this Tryal Dr Otes was tryed upon an Indictment for another supposed Perjury but that prosecution being of the Complexion with what is here presented I shall not trouble the Reader with any thing further upon this subject then to present him with the Names of the Jury viz. Sr Thomas Vernon Nicholas Charlton Esq Tho. Langham Esq Thomas Hartop Francis Griffith John Kent George Tory Ano. Hen. Loades Tory Also John Midgley John Pelling Thomas Short and George Peck The Juries having according to the direction of that Man of Blood Jeffryes brought in the Defendant guilty of both the Perjuries Comes the Abhorrer of Parliaments the tender-hearted good natured Protestant Judge VVythens to pronounce the Sentence This very Person Wythens being Counsel for Knox did declare openly in the Court of King's Bench that Dr Otes had served the Nation too well to be vilified in that Court. previous to it he tells the Defendant That no Christian 's Heart can think of the innocent Blood which was shed by his Oath without bleeding That every knowing Man believed and every honest Man grieved for it He proceeds God be thanked our Eyes are now opened You had not one Word to justifie your self from that great and heinous Perjury you were accused of transcendant Impudence The Judgment of the Court inter alia is You shall upon Wednesday next be VVhipt from Algate to Newgate Vpon Friday you shall be VVhipt from Newgate to Tyburn by the Hands of the common Hangman This I pronounce to be the Judgment of the Court upon you and I must tell you plainly If it had been in my power to have carried it further I should not have been unwilling to have given Judgment of Death upon you I shall sum up all with the sense of the present House of Commons upon this whole proceeding which take in this Vote Martis 11th die Junij 1689. Resolved That the Prosecution of Titus Otes upon two Indictments for Perjury in the Court of King's Bench was a design to stifle the Popish Plot and that the Verdicts given thereupon were corrupt and that the Judgments given thereupon were cruel and illegal Notes upon the Tryal of Nathaniel Reading Esq for attempting to stifle the King's Evidence as to the horrid Popish Plot upon Wednesday the 24th of April 1679. before the Lord Chief Justice North c. THe Conspirators against our Religion Laws and Liberties being struck with astonishment and the Imprisoned and Impeached Traytors with no small Terror at the most providential and happy accession of Captain William Bedloe's Testimony to the discovery made by Dr Otes of the hellish Popish Plot in which he had stood single much discouraged we do quickly find their thoughts at work how to remove this newly acquired Witness Their way of taking off Sr Edmundbury Godfrey having so highly dis-served their Cause that is not to be again practised therefore the resolution taken in the present case is to tamper with and buy off Captain Bedloe they pitched upon Mr Reading to carry on this Intrigue whose parts and principles did very well qualifie him for such an undertaking but Mr Bedloe being above the reach of very powerful Temptations he very honestly detected the villainous Attempts upon him and the Suborner was brought to Justice as follows The Indictment sets forth the Plot against the King the Government and the Protestant Religion and that Colman Ireland and Grove were tryed condemned and executed for the same That several Lords viz. the Earl of Powis Lord Viscount Stafford Lord Bellasis Lord Arundel of Wardour Lord Petre and also Sr Henry Titchbourn stand impeached of the said Treason That Reading well knowing these things and to obstruct and stifle them and to retard the prosecution of Justice against the Lord Powis Stafford Bellasis Petre and Sr Henry Titchbourn did on their part the 29th of March last solicit suborn and endeavour to perswade Mr VVilliam Bedlooe whom he knew to have given Information of those Treasons against the said Persons to lessen stifle and not to give in evidence the full truth against them and to give such evidence as he should direct and to that purpose did give him fifty six Guineas and promised him other great Rewards to the hindrance and suppression of Justice The Jury were these Sr John Cutler Thomas Cass Joshua Galliard Rains. Waterhouse Edw. Willford Mathew Bateman Tho. Henslow Walter Moil Thomas Earsby
snivelled at and overthrown by a Company of such Whining Fellows Do you think to sham People into Offices No I tell you Villany was the Foundation of it and Knavery the Superstructure Neither Bethel nor that very Fellow that stands there Cornish would have taken the Oaths and Sacrament till they found it would contribute to the design of subverting the Government then these Rascals could qualifie themselves for an Office only to put the Kingdom into a Flame Mr Gilbert Nelson then testified That upon the holdling up of the Hands at the Election of Sheriffs the 24 th of June 1682. there were upon the view most for Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois and that upon the casting up the Poll Books there was the greatest number for Mr Papillon Mr Wightman added that in the Poll-Books there were 2400. and odd for Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois Mr Leonard Robinson added that by the Hands the majority was much more for Mr P. and Mr D. than for the other two and the Sheriffs did so declare their opinion and a Poll being demanded and granted after it was closed in the Evening the Sheriffs declared the Numbers upon the Hustings Mr P. and Mr D. had above two thousand and Mr North and Mr Box some hundreds under two thousand Mr Baker testified that the Action was brought by the advice of Mr Wallop Mr Pollexfen and Mr Thompson Then the Chief Justice comes to sum up the Evidence and after a most tedious Introduction proceeds to discharge his Spleene thus Come Gentlemen it is best to be plain Tho' it is true a Man may lawfully sue for such an Office and it is no offence yet it looks somewhat extraordinary 't is for some strange purpose or other It is notoriously known that for several Years the Government has been beset and which is a baser thing than ever was thought of or acted in the highest times of Villany the very Methods of Justice have been corrupted and all to serve the main design of subverting the Government Gentlemen this is so black a Wickedness that no honest Man that has any sense of Loyalty Religion or common Justice but must tremble at the very thoughts of it When we see such Fellows as are common Reproaches to the Government shall get into Office to make Ignoramus Juryes When men begin to take Oathes to sanctifie Villany what shall we say And all this you all of you Gentlemen know to be true Was it not more safe to conspire the death of the King his Brother than to give the least frown upon one of these snivelling Saints Did not we know that Men were sanctified to be Jury-men that before were never thought fit to be trusted with the common Society of honest Men Mr Papillon knows all this to be true eminently When pack'd Jurys were grown to that heighth that when seven or eight Witnesses swore down-right Treason The Traytor could not by these Men so much as be accused by an Indictment To that stupidity in Villany were things brought by these Fellows So far were the proceedings in Courts of Justice tainted that cropp'd Hair and a demure Look were the best signs of a good Evidence Gentlemen There was not a pursuit of right in this case It was a designed piece of Villany on purpose to affront the Government nay to destroy it and if he were ten thousand times Mr Papillon I would tell him so It is plain Gentlemen that the design from the beginning to the end was to cause a tumult and confusion in the City in order to put that damned hellish Conspiracy for destroying the King and his Brother and every man that was honest and loyal in execution This Gentlemen is plain English We all know Mr Papillon to be a wealthy Man one that had rather have minded his Affairs than the expensive Office of Sheriff but that something was to be done to wreak a damned Malice and Revenge upon the Government This I tell him openly and let him and his party make their Remarks upon it as they please There was questionless a devilish Malice fixed in his heart and mind and he wanted an opportunity to effect it and he thought it best for his own security to take this course and nothing else was in it Alack-a-day as Mr Pilkington said I am for the preservation of the Liberties and Properties of the Subject but I find the City is strangely run down in their Rights and Priviledges I will rather take a troublesome Office than let all run thus and immediately sets himself a Cock-a-hoop as if there were none to take care of the City but himself He and Mr Bethel and Mr Cornish forsooth are the only Men of the times the Men Men for the Liberties of the Subject and the Rights of the City Gentlemen the Government is infinitely concerned in this Case that puts a weight upon your enquiry into the damages your severity in this Case will deter all People from entring into Clans and Cabals to affront the Government That I may not further nauseat the Reader with the foul Language venomous Malice of this Insolent arrogant and intolerable Slanderer I shall transcribe no more of his virulent discourse though he run on to a strange length at a most wicked and infamous rate of Falshoods and Defamations against the best Men of the City without any manner of colour for the truth of what he said The Jury thus directed found for the Plantiff and assessed Damages to 10000 l. The Chief Justice said Gentlemen you seem to be Persons that have some sense upon you and consideration for the Government and I think have given a good Verdict and are to be greatly commended for it By this extravagant and most unrighteous Verdict was this upright and Wise Citizen Mr Papillon drove into Exile till Heaven vouchsafed him with the Nation a most Miraculous and happy deliverance by the glorious Vndertaking of our now Soveraign then Prince of Orange That it may not be forgotten how this Plantiff Sr William Pritchard came to be Lord Mayor I shall subjoyn the Account of the Poll taken when he was brought on Sr Thomas Goold had 2257 Votes Alderman Cornish had 2227. Sr William Pritchard had but 2144. Sr Henry Tulse had 236. Being conscious that in the foregoing Account of the Tryal of the pretended Guildhall Riot I forgot to intimate to the Reader that Lieutenant Colonel Quiney had a Warrant for what he did tho' he did not condescend to show it to such Men as Sr Robert Clayton and the other Aldermen upon whom he put the Indignity before mentioned to do him right and to shew that though he might act too headily 't was not upon his own Head I shall in this place insert the Names of those who ordered him and the Forces he then commanded to that Post They were The Lord Mayor Sr John Moore Sr George Waterman Sr James Edwards Sr Will. Pritchard Sr Hen. Tulse Sr James Smith
A DISPLAY OF Tyranny OR REMARKS UPON The Illegal and Arbitrary Proceedings in the Courts of Westminster and Guild-Hall London From the Year 1678. To the Abdication of the late King James in the Year 1688. In which time the Rule was Quod Principi placuit Lexesto First Part. London Printed Anno Angliae Salutis primo 1689. Sold by Book-Sellers in London VVestminster TO The Eminently Deserving and Highly Honoured Sr Samuel Barnardiston Baronet Sir THat I do inscribe these my summary Collections of some few of the Exorbitancies and of the arbitrary illegal and pernicious Practices of the late unhappy Reigns to your Name will as I hope be forgiven when you reflect upon your own dear bought share in the melancholy and tragical Transactions upon which I have spent my thoughts The Names of the late Earl of Shaftesbury of my Lord Russel Col. Sidney and other great Men who were run upon and destroyed by a Race of Men who were raised to the Bench from being the Scandal of the Bar and by ignorant corrupt and partial Jury-Men will be remembred with eternal honour And by consequence it must be yours that you were my Lord Russel's endeared Friend That you served as Foreman of that great Jury which guarded the Earl of Shaftesbury's Life and that you expressed your self with some transport of Joy at the hopes of the brave Colonel Sidney's deliverance and that the sham Protestant Plot was confounded That from hence immediately your late Troubles sprung is fresh in every Bodies remembrance but 't is not so well known that you had the guilt of Original Sin upon you you were a Barnardiston descended of a Family well known and highly esteemed in Suffolk and Lincolnshire for many hundreds of years past which no History remembers to have been clouded but in times when the Laws of England have suffered an Eclipse Your never to be forgotten Father Sr Nathaniel Barnardiston was in the worst of times those in which we have lived excepted a Champion a Resolute Assertor of the English Liberties He in the year 1626 when King Charles the first in a most arbitrary way required money by way of Loan with many other good Patriots refused to subscribe and lend and was thereupon as a refractory Person as was the Language of the Privy Council of that day confined far enough from home in the County of Sussex however he stiffly adhered to his honest resolution against that arbitrary attempt and continued under confinement till the beginning of the year 1628 when that King's straits necessitating a Parliament the Gentlemen imprisoned for refusing the Loane-Money were then released and generally throughout the Kingdom elected to present the Grievances and assert the Liberties of the People in that Parliament as was Sr Nathaniel Barnardiston for his County of Suffolk Sir The Remembrance of this when you were first invited by that County to represent them in Parliament upon the death of Sr Henry North might in all propability provoke a great Minister of State to say that there was reason of State why you must not be Knight of your Shire and therefore he would appoint an easie Gentleman whom he could manage Sheriff to keep you out and so he did as long as he could at a time when that Parliament was corrupted to such a degree that the Fate of the Nation seemed almost to depend upon the Vote of one or two good Members your Country had upon that occasion a manifest demonstration of your Fidelity and Zeal in their Service you did worthily assert the right of that Election than which there never was any more clearly made after a tedious and very expensive attendance in prosecuting your Complaint of that abuse your Election was affirmed in the House of Commons tho' opposed by the united power of Tories Pensioners and Papists you then came into Parliament at a most Critical Juncture When the Protestant Religion and the Laws were eminently beset and dangerously threatned you did most faithfully and unweariedly labour there for some years against very great Discouragements It being in that day a mighty conquest if the true English Gentlemen of that House could for the saving of the Kingdom carry a Question by five or six Voices against the numerous Pensioners who were there listed and fed and paid to betray their Countries Liberties Your demeanour and great desert in that day of England's Distress merited a Title to the Hearts of your Country-Men who with very little opposition if not with an unanimous Voice Elected you for one of their Representatives to the three succeeding Parliaments in which your avowed Opposition to Popery and undaunted Adhesion to the Bill of Exclusion as the only expedient for securing the Protestant Religion markt you out to the Popish Rage These Sir. were in truth your heinous actual transgressions These provoked Jefferies whose Talent lay in facing all things down with Noise and Impudence to discharge a load of Slime and Choler at you your Crimes were complicated and they lie under a very great mistake who think that your Imprisonment and Fine of 10000 l. were only for writing to a Friend what you believed and all good Men passionately desired Having thus mentioned your great Oppression I shall take leave not for your own but for the Reader 's Information to insert the Reasons upon which the House of Lords did lately reverse that unjust and wicked Judgment upon you 1st The Information in this Case being grounded upon Letters which in themselves were not material but made so by Innuendo's their Lordships declared that Innuendo's or supposed or forced Constructions ought not to be allowed for all Accusations should be plain and the Crimes ascertained 2dly That the Fine of 10000 l. is exorbitant and excessive not warranted by legal Precedent in former Ages for all Fines ought to be with a Salvo Contenemento and not to the Parties Ruin. 3 d. That the demanding Sureties for the good Behaviour during Life except in very great and very often repeated Crimes wherein the Publick Peace of the Realm is very much concerned is contrary to the Liberty of the Subject Sir to detain you no longer upon a subject so well known as is that of your own Sufferings and Desert I know not whether I ought to apologize for my frequent using the name of Tory I am conscious that Names of Discrimination and Reproach are offensive to the Ears of good Men therefore to explain my self I intend not thereby to expose the well-deserving and pious Members of the Church of England but I mean the Men who being forsaken of common Sense and Honesty seemed ready to renounce the name of Protestant and gloried in Ranting Damning Swearing Loyalty The Men who encouraged and triumphed in the Murders of late committed amongst us and who to this hour go on to palliat and excuse if not to justifie them The Men who cryed up a Popish Successor as the only means to preserve
the Church of England and who are now for calling him back These were Men who would have finished the Ruin of the Nation in the Dissolution of its antient and well Established Government and in the Blood of its best Patriots They gloryed in calling themselves Tories their Guide and Patron did in their name thrust out stigmatize all the sober and moderate Men of the Church of England with the Name of Trimmers bestowed upon them this Apothegme That a Trimmer is worse than a Rebel Whoever recurs to the Original of that Name in the Observators will find that it pointed at first at two honourable and never to be forgotten Protestants of your Neighbour County the late Lord Townshend and Sr John Hobart of Norfolk and quickly after Dr Fowler Mr Smithee and many other Reverend Divines of the Church of England fell under that Denomination Now surely 't is not a Crime to call such Men as these by the name which they appropriated to themselves and 't were Foolish to esteem Men of their practices to be of any Religion In some cases a Man ought not to be over-patient and it must move any one to hear a Learned Lawyer at the Bar at the time when Popery had actually ascended the Throne in this manner to caress a Tory-Jury Gentlemen I cannot but with much Sorrow remember to you and I know you all remember it too well that there was a time when the City of London was so far corrupted that it was become a Refuge and Sanctuary for high Treason when there was no Justice to be had for the King there when Men lodged themselves within those Walls as a Protection for their Conspiracies We all remember the time when Indictments were perferred and a plain Evidence given to a Grand-Jury even to the publick satisfaction of all that heard it and yet they have refused to find the Bill and not only so but were so abetted by the Rabble that it was scarce safe for the Judges to sit upon the Bench These are things none of us can forget but must be perpetually remembred to the shame of the Authors and Contrivers of them And must it not provoke a Man to hear the following Doctrine from the Pulpit upon the sad occasion of the good Lord Russell's death of whom one of the best Divines now living did truely say that an Age would not repaire that loss to the Nation viz. Cuting of Throats would have been counted only a Scotch way of Triming and the destruction of Princes to be no more but a perfecting the History of the Reformation They who cannot rise up to all the heights of Conformity can yet strain a point upon occasion and rise up to all the heights of Rebellion and Barbarity and had not God marvelously interposed these squeamish Conscience Traytors would have shewed the truth of this Is it not astonishing at this day when the Parliament hath declared that my Lord Russell Colonel Sidney and Sr Thomas Armstrong were murdered to heare an Irish Arch-Deacon who fled hither upon the score of Religion and is a Principal Manager of our Charity to the Irish Protestants publickly ridicule the death of the first two by telling us in an upbraiding way these are your Martyrs and affirm that the last dyed justly and according to Law Would such men as these satisfie the World of their Ingenuity and Repentance these extravagancies undoubtedly ought to be put into utter Oblivion now that Heaven has wrought for us a most signal and miraculous deliverance but which is to be lamented those very Men who carryed us to the very brinck of destruction are not onely remorseless but many of them do make it their business by drinking Popish Healths wishing success to their Arms and spreading false Newes to infect and debauch the Kingdom especially the City and to traduce maligne and undermine the Government under which the divine Providence has so mercifully placed us and therefore they who have given such high provocations and done so much mischief and do still remain impenitent ought not to esteem themselves unkindly used by some tart expressions Sr That I may be justâ—…ied with you who I am sure would believe the best of every Man and make the best of all things I have said much more then I did intend upon this occasion and hope you will forgive it You have very signally and heartily lent and laid out your self in your Countries service that service was not onely difficult and hazardous but it had proved fatal had not Heaven interposed for your deliverance and therefore all true Lovers of old England's welfare must wish that no false Insinuations may lessen you in the esteem of Good Men you have been a publick Good and that obliges me to be Sir Your Honourer and Most Obedient Servant February 10. 1689. The CONTENTS REmarks upon Dr Otes his Tryal pag. 1. Vpon the Tryal of Reading p. 38. Vpon the Tryal of Knox and Lane p. 45. Vpon the Tryal of Tasborough and Price p. 53. Vpon the Proceedings against the Earl of Shaftesbury p. 64. Vpon the Tryal of Stephen Colledge p. 92. Vpon the Tryal of Thompson the Printer Payne and Farwell p. 117. Vpon the Tryal of the pretended Guildhall Riot p. 127. Vpon the Tryal of my Lord Russell p. 155. Vpon the Tryal of Colonel Sidney p. 185. Vpon the Tryal of Sr Samuel Barnardiston p. 207. Vpon the Proceedings against Sr Thomas Armstrong p. 215. Vpon Mr Papillon's Tryal with Sr William Pritchard p. 228. Vpon the Tryal of Alderman Cornish p. 245. REMARKS upon the Tryal of Dr Titus Otes upon an Indictment for Perjury at the King's Bench Bar at VVestminster before Sr George Jeffryes Baron of Wem Lord Chief Justice Whom the House of Commons had recommended to the King by this Vote and an Address thereupon November the 13th 1680. Resolved That Sr George Jeffryes Recorder of London by traducing and obstructing Petitioning for the sitting of this Parliament hath betrayed the Rights of the Subject Ordered That an humble Address be made to his Majesty to remove Sr George Jeffryes out of all publick Offices Mr Justice Wythens Who was advanced to a Seat upon that Bench by the following Vote of the House of Commons October 29. 1680. Resolved That Sr Francis Wythens by promoting and presenting to his Majesty an Address expressing an Abhorrence to Petition his Majesty for the calling and sitting of Parliaments hath betrayed the undoubted Rights of the Subjects of England And this Order thereupon Ordered That Sr Francis Wythens be expelled this House for this high Crime and that he receive his Sentence at the Bar of this House upon his Knees from Mr Speaker Which he received accordingly Mr Justice Holloway late Recorder of Oxford whose part in the dispatching Stephen Colledge advanced him to this station And Mr Justice Walcot the best of all the four but as poor as Sr R. Wright and by consequence a fit Tool to serve the
disband the mercenary Forces raised and kept up to advance arbitrary Power but such a mistake may be remitted to Sr F. Wythens and also to that smooth Lord Chief Justice North who in suming up the Evidence to the Grand Jury did wilfully no doubt of it make the same mis-representation of that matter Mr Saunders added that the design of the Paper was pretended to oppose Popery and Arbitrary Power and destroy the Papists which seemed not so much in it self but that their Witnesses would shew who those Papists were that were to be destroyed And now the Witnesses are called who were John Booth a most notorious and scandalous Villain who had been guilty of several Felonies Edward Turbervile and John Smyth an Irish Priest who were manifestly perjured in the Tryal of honest Colledge Brian Haynes John Macnamar Dennis Macnamar Edward Ivey and Bernard Dennis Profligate Irish Witnesses who according to every season had traded in Swearing and Counter-swearing It may suffice to present the Impartial Reader with the Names of these scandalous Fellows for 't would be nauseous to detain him in reading the non-sensical incredible contradictory stuff sworn by them as That the Earl would raise the Kingdom to compel the King to give Haynes a Pardon That the Government was to be changed to a Common-wealth and the Duke of Buckingham to be King. That the Earl should tell Macnamar and Ivey that he would bring the King's Head to the Block That a Person of the Earl of Shaftesbury's extraordinary caution should talk Treason or any thing else with so infamous a Fellow as Haynes for an Hour together in a Cook 's Shop in Ironmonger-Lane It seems here worthy of Observation that the Conspirators clap'd this Noble Lord into the Tower in the beginning of July 1681 but the Term coming on when they must prosecute him or he would be bailed out they were then to seek for English Witnesses to back the trusty Irish so Booth and the rest were rak'd together and Captain Wilkinson one of the honestest Men then or now living was tempted and threatned at a more then ordinary rate to come in to back and credit their Testimony as was evidently made out by his Information which to his eternal honour he published before this prosecution an Abstract whereof I do hereunto subjoyn to evince the cursed practises of those dayes and to mind an ungratful Generation of the merit of that worthy upright Person It may also deserve Remark that the Treasonable discourses Sworn against his Lordship by these Varlets were fix'd by them to February and March before the Instructors of these Witnesses well remembring that that was a time when the Nation was in no small ferment upon the trifling with Parliaments for the introduceing Popery and Tyranry yet most of these Witnesses upon their examination were forced to acknowledge that they gave or rather sold their Informations after my Lord of Shaftesbury was committed in July upon a Warrant for high Treason which Secretary Jenkins who managed this whole Intrigue and the Witnesses thereof gloried that he had the honour to sign I shall here take occasion to declare what I have long believed that the amusing us in England with the Irish Popish Plot did proceed from the depth of the Jesuits Counsels with design to trip up the Heels of their execrable Plot here that they sent us these wretches on that very errand I do also think that the Conspirators then at Whitehall did in the management of this Intrigue over-reach this great and wise Lord the Earl of Shaftesbury and that his zeal to extirpate Popery in both the Kingdoms disposed him to be too credulous in that matter of the Irish Plot at least as to the honesty of the Witnesses thereof But what Man endued with the least grain of Honesty and Sense could ever credit the Evidence against this Noble Peer after the reading Mr Colledge's Tryal and the Information of worthy Captain Wilkinson about this very affair As to the Paper found in the Earl's House and upon which so great stress was laid I shall here note that at this time it was notoriously known even in every Coffee-House that an Association and very probably this now given in evidence had been resolved upon and read in Parliament and the Fore-man of the Grand-Jury who was a Member well knowing that the Plot-Secretary was then of the House of Commons examined him strictly about it but he appeared very reserved and cautions in his answers and could not at first remember that he had heard of the Association but as Town-talk but being closely followed with Questions by the worthy Fore-man he very unwillingly went a little further saying That to the best of his remembrance he was not present in the House at the Reading the Association though 't is notoriously known that he did there make Speeches against it To evince that the project of an Association was no new thing I cannot hinder my self from a small digression to shew that one of this formal Secretary's Confidents Nathaniel Thompson the Popish Printer had published the news of this Association near two Years before this prosecution it is in his Intelligence of December the 9th 1679 in these Words A form of an Association is preparing for People to subscribe for the defence of the King 's sacred Person the present Established Form of Government and the Protestant Religion paralel to that in Queen Elizabeth's time which was afterward confirmed by Act of Parliament This seems to take its Rise from the Resolve of the late Parliament This very Advertisement may be well supposed to put such as were curious to know the transactions of that time to get a sight of the Association so notified to be on foot and 't is very probable that by that means it might as news be handed to the Earl of Shaftesbury and so come to be thrown by amongst his old Papers however had not an upright understanding English Jury interposed it had as certainly destroyed the Honour Estate and Life of this never to be forgotten Noble Lord as the Westminster Carpenter in disguise with his little Presbyterian Band and his eleven Brethren did destroy the brave Colonel Sydney upon the evidence of old loose Papers found in his House enforced with a Maxim in three cramp Words Scribere est Agere as unintelligible in all probality to that pack'd Jury as was the Treatise of that great Man or as the Maxim it self is to learned Lawyers Well to conclude after much contrasting between the Jury and the Court whether the Jury might consider the credibility of the Witnesses which the Chief Justice denyed and Mr Papillon with much tugging having gained a great point of the Court viz. That they were within the compass of their own Vnderstanding and Consciences to give their Judgment Which is in truth no more than the giving them leave to see with their own Eyes hear with their own Ears and judge by their own
Reason the Jury returned Ignoramus upon the Indictment to the unspeakable satisfaction and joy of all Men who were not in the Conspiracy or Well-Wishers to it An Abstract of Captain Henry Wilkinson's Information of what passed between him and the Persons who attempted to prevail with him to swear high Treason against the Earl of Shaftesbury Imprimis HE declares on his Oath That upon the 8th of October 1681 Mr Walter Baines came to him in the King's Bench Prison and caressing him with great kindness told him that Mr Browrig was sent Prisoner to York-Castle for Treason and for appearing for the Earl of Shaftesbury He then told the Informant that he could not but know much of my Lord Shaftesbury's designs against the King and that if he would make discovery to him he was ready to do him any Kindness and desired an opportunity and added that he had been lately with Mr Graham and that he had a great Interest with my Lord Hide That Baines spent all the time he staid with him in expressing a great deal of Zeal upon that subject and assured the Informant that he should have Pardon and should be considerably rewarded to which the Informant perceiving what was designed and resolving to humour it seemed to listen telling Baines that when he was requited for his former Services having suffered much for King Charles the first and been very active in the Restoration of the second he would serve his Majesty in what he could That upon the 11th of October the Informant was sent for to Mr Booth who was a Prisoner at Weaver's House near the King's-Bench he having been removed thither the Night before from one of the Compters That the Informant understood Booth to be in the design that he had known him above twenty Years and to be a Person of good learning and ingenuous but of bad Principles and very ill Reputation having been accused and condemned for Cliping and Coyning besides Murder therefore he resolved to stand upon his Guard. That Booth said to the Informant that he was to tell him that he had an opportunity to be a better man in his Fortune then ever he was and to make his Fortune and that he might have 500 l. per annum to him and his Heirs or 10000 l. which he pleased to discover what he knew of my Lord Shaftesbury and of his design to change the Government to a Common-wealth and to witness against him to which the Informant replyed that no Body would believe that he should be trusted with such a design but that Booth answered that he was the likeliest man to know having served the King and been slighted that the Informant to humour the matter and to provoke Booth to speak his full mind told him that he was with the Lord Shaftesbury the Night before he was apprehended and that Sr Thomas Armstrong was there That the Informant gave an account of this transaction to one Mr Gervas James that Night desiring him to put it in Writing declaring that if he should be tempted to Swear any thing of a Plot or Design by the Lord Shaftesbury against the King it was for Reward and desired him to witness it against him That upon the 12th of October he was invited to the same place to Booth with whom he found Baines where they tempted him as before to be a Witness against the Lord Shaftesbury who answered that till he was satisfied for by-past Services he would not be any way concerned at Court but that if they would give him two Thousand Guineas towards the Injury he had received he would discover what he knew but still declared that he knew nothing of any design by that Lord but that the more he declared he knew nothing the more Booth urged the Reward saying that 500 l. per annum or 10000 l. was intended for him That the Informant upon Booth's importunity said when he had the Money and a Pardon he would do any Service he could that Baines thereupon told him that he might have a Pardon in two or three days and then took his Christian Name which the Informant conceived was with intention to get a Pardon That upon the 13th of October the Informant was sent for by Booth Baines to dine with them at Mr Weaver's House and that Mr Graham came thither and told the Informant whom he had known about twenty Years that my Lord H. and my Lord H. and the two Secretaries of State had inquired of him concerning the Informant and his Reputation and that he the said Graham had answered that the Informant had served the King and his Father faithfully and was a very honest man and a great sufferer and had received great disappointments and they had sent him the said Graham to carry him to the King where he should have his promise to be requited for his Sufferings and to receive his Royal Promise for his Reward That the Informant thereupon told Graham that he could say nothing and would not go to Whitehall upon which Graham said That whether he could say any thing or not he might be recompenced for his Sufferings Whereupon the Informant took leave and went away dissatisfied to be so tempted That upon the 14th of October Booth came to the Informant to know whether he would go to the King or not and told him That Mr Wilson my Lord Shaftesbury 's Secretary then in the Gate-House had offered to come in and make discovery if he might be pardoned and therefore he would have the Informant to have the honour to be the first discoverer That the Informant then telling him that he had no business at Whitehall Booth said if he would not go to the King the Lord Chief Justice's Warrant would be sent to fetch him to his Chamber where some of the Council would examine and swear him that Booth then demanded of him whether he did not ride with Sword and Pistols out of Town with the Lord Shaftesbury when he went to Oxford which being confessed by the Informant Booth then said that he must needs be privy to this that if the King would not pass three Acts one for excluding the Duke the next for making void the Act of Queen Elizabeth against Recusancy and the third for uniting Protestants then by force of Arms he was to be compelled and added that all the Council were satisfied that he knew this That upon the 15th of October Booth came again to the Informant to know whether he would yet go to Whitehall Who demanding for what Booth said To evidence against the Earl of Shaftesbury And being told by the Informant that he had nothing to say against him Booth importuned him not to lose the great opportunity he then had That Baines then came to them and the Informant inquired why they should be so urgent to have him a Witness who told him There were yet none but Irish Witnesses who had not credit but if he would come in though he had been
to wrest from them their undoubted priviledge of chusing Sheriffs I shall take leave to subjoyn a brief account of the Indignities Violence then used towards several of the Chief Magistrates of the City but shall by the way though it comes not in its proper place present the Reader with a Transcript of the New-fashion'd Summons issued by the Lord Mayor upon the extraordinary occasion which then appeared to have Sheriffs of Sr L. Jenkins his Nomination By the Mayor THese are to require you that on Midsummer day next being the day appointed as well for Confirmation of the Person who hath been by me Chosen according to the Antient Custom and Constitution of this City to be one of the Sheriffs of this City and the County of Middlesex for the Year ensuing as for the Election of the other of the said Sheriffs and other Officers you cause the Livery of your Company to meet Together at your Common-Hall early in the Morning and from thence to come together Decently and Orderly in their Gowns to Guild-Hall there to make the said Confirmation and Elections Given this 19th Day of June 1682. Wagstaffe To return to what was last proposed The accustomed day for Swearing the Sheriffs being come the Aldermen were called to Guildhall by Summons from the Lord Mayor as follows Sir your Worship is desired to be at a Cort of Aldermen at Guildhall on Thursday at nine of the Clock in the forenoon in your Violet Gown and Cloke it being the 28th of September Hereupon at that hour six Aldermen viz. Sr John Laurence Sr Robert Clayton Sr Patience VVard Sr Thomas Goold Sr John Shorter and Alderman Cornish went with Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois to Guildhall where Quiney in a very insolent manner came to them and told them he had a command to keep the Hall clear whereupon they demanded whether he did not know them to be Magistrates of the City and could believe his Order reach'd them he replyed that he knew them and they must remove They then said they were summoned and attended in all peaceableness quickly after he accosted them again saying Gentlemen you must withdraw I have a command to require it They then demanded a sight of his Warrant but huffing he said he would shew none to such as they were and then laid hold of Sr P. Ward saying Sr you must remove and in the same manner laid hold of Sr John Laurence pulling him with such violence that he had like to have thrown him down and treating the rest of the Aldermen in that manner they were all forced to retire in this proceeding he was abetted and supported by Mr Wythers Wiseman Nichols Steverton c. then present in Guildhall proper men to be returned to serve upon the Jury in the foregoing Cause The Lord Mayor being come to the Court Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois declared that they were ready and did there tender themselves to take the Office of Sheriffs and to be sworn and humbly prayed the Answer of his Lordship the Court but without condescending thereto the Mayor went to the Hustings calling Mr North and Rich to follow him and there calling them to the Book to be sworn Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois offered themselves to be sworn and Mr Papillon laid his hand on the Book but his Lordship and Sr J. E. Sr W. P. and some other Aldermen commanded them to forbear and keep the Peace and be gone Some of the Aldermen claimed to be heard but the Mayor refused it and proceeded to swear North and Rich whereupon the duely elected Sheriffs with the six Aldermen withdrew protesting against those irregular and arbitrary proceedings Remarks upon the Tryal of my Lord Russell upon the 13 th of July 1683. UPon the Discovery of the Popish Plot the Conspirators finding their measures to be broken as indeed were those of the French King all over Europe they advised King Charles the Second to make use of the Discovery as a Cripple to beg Money of the then approaching Parliament which was immediately to sit for the better effecting thereof the obsequious Clergy were privately instructed to Preach against Popery and to magnifie the Discovery of the Plot this Doctrine was thundered out from the Pulpits till the Dissolution of that notorious Pentionary Parliament Having then found their hopes dash'd new Instructions were given and the Clergy advertised that there was some fear from the Dissenters but yet for a time they were to Preach against Popery but not to talk of the Plot this humour continued till the Dissolution of the Parliament which met in March 1678. was dissolved in May following 1679. Then they received advice that there was a Presbyteterian as well as a Popish plot this made the Ecclesiastical Drums beat loudly against Dissenters and that work was closely followed till the breaking the Parliament at Oxford in the beginning of the year 1681. When the Conspirators influenced too many of the Pulpits to thunder against the credit of the Popish plot and to insinuate a belief of a Presbyterian Plot which they were all the while hammering and by this art they did at length usher it into the World. The Nobility and Gentry of England to make bold with their own words in their Memorial for our now Gracious King and Queen then Prince and Princess of Orange had been as they therein freely confessed too slow to believe the desperate Popish Plot and had been deluded with the King's Promises to protect and maintain the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Government of England until they saw them all undermined But many discerning this Delusion more early than others did the never to be forgotten Duke of Monmouth Earl of Essex Lord Russel and Colonel Sidney with some other great and valuable Persons who were of that well-grounded Opinion That a free Nation like this of England might defend their Religion and Liberties when Invaded and taken from them under pretence and colour of Law began to bethink themselves how to restore Parliaments to their antient freedom and to deliver the Nation from the fury of that Torrent of Popery which they wisely fore-saw ready to break in and carry all before it At this juncture the Conspirators laid hold of the Information given by Keeling of unadvised and rash Discourses of a very small number of Men nine or ten at the most all Strangers to the Persons and honest Consultations of those great Men before named and they cunningly and maliciously â—…atch'd and work'd it into one piece and emitted it to the World by their Declaration read in all Churches under the name of a Presbyterian or Fanatick Plot which they had long wanted Hereupon a Proclamation pursues the Duke of Monmouth and some others designed for destruction who chose to stand aside out of the reach of the Blood-thirsty Conspirators But the Earl of Essex my Lord Russell and Colonel Sidney would not be overcome by the perswasions of those who invited
them to safe retirements and so were clap'd into the Tower and afterwards in different wayes butchered It was resolved that my Lord Russell the Honour of his Age should be cut off in a seeming way of Justice and as he was a Person of inestimable value so the art used to destroy him was extraordinary in the first place The Conspirators to introduce a belief of his Lordship's guilt procure two Persons charged with Keeling's Plot to be convicted just before my Lord is brought to Tryal reserving other two of them of whose Conviction they more doubted to be tryed after his Lordship Then a well prepared Pannel of Jurors many of them train'd and disciplin'd under L'Estrange and some Inferiour Clergy-Men his Prostitutes was returned by Sr John Moore 's Sheriffs Matters being thus prepared He is brought upon his Tryal at the Old-Bayly upon Friday the 13th of July 1683 At the instant of entring upon it the Conspirators cut the Eaâ—l Essex's Throat in the Tower and to facilitate the dispatch of the Lord then at the Bar they immediately intimate by an express to the Old-Bayly that the Earl of Essex had murdered himself from hence a wicked and unquestionably a premeditated Inference is raised of the good Lord Rassell's guilt and by this diabolical contrivance the Blood of the Earl of Essex is made a main Evidence towards the Prisoner's Conviction that being accomplished upon the day ensuing the Verdict of his guilt is made an Argument to seduce and delude the Coroner's Inquest into a belief that the Earl of Essex had destroyed himself The Jury being called his Lordship was over-ruled in his Challenges of those of them who were not Freeholders though the learned in the Laws did and do say that he was entituled to those Challenges not of Grace but Right and the same was allowed to others by my Lord's Prosecutors at such Seasons when it would not disserve their turn thus the Estate Honour and Life of this Noble Lord are put into the Hands and Power of Tradesmen and Shop-keepers He being charged with an Indictment for high Treason the right of my Lord 's Challenging for want of Freehold was argued and insisted upon by his Council Mr Pollexfen Mr Holt and Mr Ward But was opposed by The Attorney General The Solicitor General Sr George Jeffryes and Mr North. And was over-ruled by the Judges upon the Bench who were The Lord Chief Justice Pemberton The Lord Chief Baron Justice Jones Justice Wyndham Justice Charleton Justice Levins Baron Streete and Justice Wythens Then the following Jury were sworn Jahn Martin William Rouse Gervas Seaton William Fashion Thomas Short George Tory Ano. William Butler James Pickering Thomas Ieve Hugh Noden Robert Brough and Thomas Oneby Then Mr North the King's Counsel opened the Indictment to this effect That the Prisoner stood charged with no less than conspiring the Death of the King and that in order to it he with other Traytors the second of November 1682 conspired to raise War against him and to Massacre his Subjects and to seize his Guards and Person The Attorney General being so hot upon this bloody pursuit that he had before positively refused to defer the Tryal till the Afternooon * 'T is probable that he might imagine that by the Afternoon the suspition of the Earl of Essex's Assassination might reach the Ears of the Jury as it did in a few hours many about the Town and then Mr Attorney had lost that which he made a mighty part of his Evidence and imposed upon the Court to go instantly upon it did now apply himself totis viribus to impress the Jury telling them that the Prisoner was one of the Council of State as he in a scornful way expressed himself to give forth directions for the general Rising that as had appeared was to be in the Kingdom That the Rising was of great concern and expence and must be managed by Persons of Interest Prudence and Secrecy That they consulted in October and November how to seize the Guards and at several meetings they received Messages from my Lord of Shaftesbury touching the Rising That this was the great Consult and moved all the Wheels That there were Vnderlings who were to manage the Assassination who were an inferiour Council of seven That there was a great Council of six who were the Prisoner the Earl of Essex whom he pretended he was sorry to name he having that Morning prevented the hand of Justice upon himself * Note this was spoken within an hour or two after the Earl's death before any Inquisition taken or it could possibly be known how he came by his death but right or wrong this Jury must now pass upon him and find him Felo de se to facilitate and justifie the Murder they are now to commit and four others That they debated how they should make the Rising Resolved that before they fell upon it they would have an exact account of the time Method of the Scotch Rising and thereupon Colonel Sidney sent Aaron Smyth on purpose to invite Scotch Commissioners to treat with these Noble Lords that pursuant to this just before the Plot broke out several came from Scotland to treat how to manage the Work They demanded at first 30000 l. then fell to 10000 l. and at last to 5000 l. but they not coming to their terms it broke off the Week the Plot was discovered He concluded that they should shew that all the Inferiour party still look'd upon these to be the Heads I shall not here trouble the Reader with the particulars of the Evidence given against this Noble Lord by the Lord Howard Colonel Romsey and Mr Shepheard nor offer at any Remarks thereupon much less to touch upon the many Hardships and great Injustice put upon his Lordship in this Prosecution in point of Law all that having been admirably well done by the Learned Pens of the right Honourable the Lord Chief Baron Atkyns and of Mr Hawles of Lincolns Inn My purpose not only in extracting these Notes in my Lord Russell's Case but also in this whole Tract being only to present the World with some matters of History which they did not put down or remark upon and which indeed invited me to this work to gather together for publick use Abstracts and Remarks upon some memorable Tryals in the late unhappy Reigns upon which they never touched I shall therefore now proceed to represent something further of the carriage and exasperating Speeches of the King's Council c. against his Lordship The Solicitor General sum'd up the Evidence in this manner That the Prisoner stood Indicted for High Treason in conspiring the Death of the King That the Overt Act laid to prove that Conspiracy by is the assembling in Council to raise Arms against the King and to raise a Rebellion and that they had proved that by three Witnesses He then proceeded to state the substance of the Evidence which having done as
Howard's Testimony is single As to the Consult he talks of What could six Men do Can my Lord Howard raise five Men by his credit By his Purse For my part I knew not where to raise five Men. That such Men as We are that have no Followers should undertake so vast a design is very unlikely And this great design thus carried on had neither Officers nor Souldiers no Place no Time no Money for it This is a pritty Cabal and a very deep maintaining of the Plot. Then the Prisoner called the Earl of Anglesey the Earl of Clare Capt Philip Howard Dr Burnet Mr Joseph Ducas Lord Paget and Mr Edward Howard who all testified that the Lord Howard had frequently with great asseverations and calling God to Witness affirmed that he knew of no Plot and that he was confident of Colonel Sidney's Innocence Mr Blake proved that my Lord Howard told him that he could not get his Pardon till he had past the drudgery of Swearing Mr Ducas Grace Tracy and Elizabeth Penwick proved that the Lord Howard came to the Colonel's House and being told that he was taken away to the Tower for the Plot He took God to witness he knew nothing of it and believed the Colonel did not and he then desired that the Colonel's Plate and Goods might be sent to his House to be secured Then Mr Wharton offered to imitate those Sheets of paper so that they should not know which was which but the Court did not regard it Now Mr Solicitor in his wonted luxuriant way of talking Men to Death falls upon the Prisoner and jumbles things thus together in his Address to the Jury Gentlemen We go about to prove the compassing and imagining the Death of the King by the Prisoner's consulting how to raise Armes and by plain matter in writing under his hand where he does affirm it is lawful to take away and destroy the King A strange Suggestion no way warranted by the reading the Papers and he then proceeds in the same way to insinuate many things against the Prisoner which no way affected nor reached him by the Evidence given He then comes to the Papers and sayes Compassing and imagining the Death of the King is the Act of the mind and when once there is an Overt Act that is a thing that manifests such intention Then the Law takes hold of it Now after this Evidence which the Reader will remember was only the Lord Howard's Swearing I think no Man will doubt whether it was in the heart of the Prisoner to destroy the King here is an avowed principle of Rebellion Establisht upon the strongest reason he has to back it Gentlemen speaking to the Carpenter and his Fellows most competent Judges of such a Book This with the other Evidence that has been given will be sufficient to prove his compassing the Death of the King This Book is another and more than two Witnesses against him you have heard one Witness prove it positively to you that he consulted to rise in Arms against the King and here is his own Book says it is lawful to rise in Arms if the King break his Trust and in effect he has said the King has broken his Trust therefore this will be a sufficient demonstration what the imagination of the Heart of this Man was that it was nothing but the Destruction of the King and of the Government Some Men may by passion be transported into such an offence in them it is less dangerous but it is this Gentleman's principle Gentlemen This is the more dangerons Conspiracy in this Man by how much the more it is rooted in him and how deep it is you hear when a Man shall write as his principle that it is lawful to depose Kings they breaking their Trust and that the Revolt of the whole Nation cannot be called Rebellion It will be a very sad * But late Experience refutes his Opinion and we now see 't is a very happy Case Case when People act this according to their Consciences and do all this for the good of the People as they would have it thought but this is the Principle of this Man We think We have plainly made it out that is was the Imagination of his heart to Destroy the King. Hereupon Colonel Sidney said My Lord We have had a long story I desire Mr Solicitor would not think it his Duty to take away Mens Lives any how My Lord Coke and Lord Hales were both of Opinion That the Overt Act of one Treason is not an Overt Act of another Hales saith Compassing by bare words is not an Overt Act Conspiring to levy VVar is no Overt Act. Then the Chief Justice concluded with a long Repetition of what he pretended had been given in Evidence and said that though some Judges had been of opinion that Words of themselves were not an Overt Act yet my Lord Hales nor my Lord Coke nor any other of the Sages of the Law ever questioned but that a Letter would be an Overt Act sufficient to prove a Man guilty of Treason for Scribere est Agere Gentlemen I must tell you that in Case there be but one Witness to prove a direct Treason and another to prove a circumstance that contributes to that Treason That will make two Witnesses to prove the Treason Here is a most trayterous Lybel if you believe that Colonel Sidney writ it No Man can doubt but it is a sufficient Evidence that he is guilty of Compassing and Imagining the Death of the King I must mind you that this Book contains all the Malice and Revenge and Treason that Mankind can be guilty of This is made use of by him to stir up the People to Rebellion yet by the way it was not so much as pretended that Colonel Sidney had published the Book or shown it to any Mortal So 't is not upon two but upon greater Evidence then two and twenty if you believe this Book was writ by him Next I must tell you upon I think a less Evidence the Lord Russel was Convicted and Executed An excellent Argument that having then tasted Noble Blood they must go on to drink their fill of it 't is to be lamented that such Miscreants have not been dismissed the World as the famous Scythian Queen Tomyris did the Persian Tyrant with a Satiate vos Sanguine quem sitistis Proditores Patriae et dedecus humani generis This Doctrine thus powerfully insinuated to the well disposed Jury a pack of meer Tools to eccho back the pleasure of the Judge procured a Guilty to be without difficulty brought in upon this Great and Noble Person It being hereupon demanded of him what he had to say why Judgment of Death should not be given against him He said that he had had no Tryal he was to be Tryed by his Country and he did not find his Country in the Jury that tryed him There were some of them that were not Freeholders and there is
having in his forementioned Paper mentioned the Opinion of King James the first delivered in his Speech to the Parliament in the Year 1603. I shall here to gratifie the Reader 's Curiosity transcribe a Paragraph or two of that Learned King's Speech viz. I do acknowledge that the special and greatest point of difference that is betwixt a rightful King and an usurping Tyrant is in this That whereas the proud and ambitious Tyrant doth think his Kingdom and People are only ordained for the satisfaction of his Desires unreasonable Appetites The righteous and just King doth on the contrary acknowledge himself to be ordained for the procuring of the Wealth and Prosperity of his People and that his great and principal Worldly Felicity must consist in their Prosperity That I am a Servant it is most true That as I am Head and Governour of all the People in my Dominion who are my natural Subjects considering them in distinct Ranks So if we will take in the People as one Body Then as the Head is ordained for the Body and not the Body for the Head so must a righteous King know himself to be ordained for his People and not his People for him Wherefore I will never be ashamed to sonfess it my principal honour to be the great Servant of the Common-wealth To this I shall subjoyn a few Words to the same purpose out of that King's Speech to the Parliament in 1609 Every just King in a settled Kingdom is bound to observe that Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeable thereunto And therefore a King governing in a settled Kingdom ceases to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant as soon as he leaves off to rule according to the Laws Notes upon the Tryal of Sr Samuel Barnardiston Baronet at Guild-Hall London Before Sr George Jefferies Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench upon the 14 th day of February 1683. upon an Information to the effect following viz. THat there having been a Horrid Plot lately discovered the Defendant to scandalize the Evidence wrote a Letter to this effect viz. That the return of the Duke of Monmouth and his being received into Favour with the King had made a great alteration at Court and that those who before spoke indecently of him did now court and creep to him Yesterday being the last of the Term all the Prisoners in the Tower upon the late Sham Protestant Plot were Bailed The Information against Mr Bavddon who Prosecuted the Murder of the Earl of Essex for a Subornation was not prosecuted and his Bail was discharged and the passing Sentence upon the Author of Julian the Apostate and the Printer of the late Lord Russel's Speech was passed over with silence Great Applications are made to the King for the pardoning Mr Sidney The Lord Howard appears despicable in the eyes of all men The Papists and high Tories are quite down in the Mouth Their Pride is abated and themselves and their Plot confounded but their Malice is not Asswaged It s generally said the Earl of Essex was Murdered The brave Lord Russel is afresh Lamented The Plot is lost here except you in the Country can find it out amongst the Addressers and Abhorrers And that he wrote in another Letter to this effect The King is never pleased but when the Duke of Monmouth is with him His Pardon was Sealed and delivered to him last Wednesday 't is said he will be restored to be Master of the Horse c. He treats all his old Friends with great Civility they are all satisfied with his Integrity and if God spare his Life doubt not but he will be an Instrument of much good to the King and Kingdom he said publickly that he knew my Lord Russel was as Loyal a Subject as any in England and that his Majesty believ'd the same now it would make you laugh to see how strangely our high Torys and Clergy are mortified their Countenances speak it Sr George is grown very humble It s said Mr Sidney is reprieved for forty days which bodes well And that in a third Letter he wrote thus The late change here in publick Affairs is so great and strange that we are like men in a Dream and fear we are not fit for so great a Mercy as the present Juncture seems to promise the Sham Protestant Plot is quite lost and confounded And that in a fourth Letter there are these expressions Contrary to all mens expectations a Warrant is signed for beheading Colonel Sidney at Tower-Hill next Fryday great endeavours have been used to obtain this Pardon but the contrary party have carried it which much dasheth our Hopes but God still governs The King's Counsel to prosecute this matter were The Recorder of London Mr Herbert quickly after made Lord Chief Justice Mr Jones Counsel for Sr S. Barnardiston were Mr Williams Mr Thompson and Mr Blackerby The Jury pick'd out to try this Cause were Thomas Vernon Knighted soon after the Service done in this Cause and then made Fore-man of a Jury to convict Dr Otes of Perjury Percival Gilburne one of the Jury upon the Guildhall Riot Edward Bovery William Withers senior A well qualified Jury-Man for this Cause James VVood Robert Masters A principal Witness against Colledge Samuel Newton Another of the Riot Jury George Toriano One of the Lord Russell's Jury Kenelm Smyth Thomas Goddard Thomas Amy and Richard Blackburne The Rocorder of London and Mr Herbert having aggravated the charge in the Information Mr Blaithwait Atterbury the Messenger and Nehemiah Osland Sr Samuel's Servant gave evidence of the writing those Letters and sending them by the Post for Sr Philip Skippon Mr Gael and Mr Cavel in Suffolk Then Mr Williams Counsel for Sr Samuel applied to the Jury to this effect That the question was Whether Sr Samuel were knowingly guilty of the Writing and publishing the four Letters That as to his publishing them he saw no evidence and he put it to the Court whether the sending them to the Post-House could amount to the publishing a Libel and he added to the Jury that he supposed they would not take it upon their Oaths that he was guilty of what he was there accused of many things being laid in the Information to inhanse the Crime of which there was no proof The Clamorous Chief Justice proceeding to dierct the Jury expressed himself to this effect That the Information took notice of a horrid Conspiracy lately hatcht for the destruction of the King and subversion of the Government and that the Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney who were ingaged in that damnable Conspiracy were convicted and executed That the Defendant being dissaffected and a man of ill Principles to disturb the Government did cause the four Letters to be writ and published That the Letters were Factious Seditious and Malitious and as base as the worst of mankind could have invented That it was a work of time and thought fixt in his
Sr John Peak Sr John Chapman Sr Sym. Lewis Sr John Mathews Sr Benj. Newland Sr William Dodson Sr John Buckworth Lt. Colonel John Steventon Thomas Cowden Edward Beaker John Wallis John Nicolls William Parker Henry Loads Peter Aylworth John Short Richard Aily Benj. Skut Humphrey Stroud William Carpenter Remarks upon the Tryal of Alderman Cornish at the Old-Bayly upon Munday the 19th of October 1685. Before the Lord Chief Justice Jones the Lord Chief Baron Justice Wythens Justice Levins Justice Streete Baron Gregory and Jenner the Recorder WHen the Reader remembers what part this Eminent and Worthy Citizen acted in the mighty Struglings between Christianity and Popery English Liberties and Tyranny he will not be surprised to see him overwheml'd when by the Aid of the worst of men the Banks of our Security were broken down and the Torrent of Popery and Arbitrary Power carried all before it That from the time of the discovery of the Popish Plot the Conspirators did with indefatigable Industry apply themselves to shift it off to the Protestants is most undoubtedly and beyond contradiction true This alarming the City and it being well known that the Lives Liberties Estates of English-men against Arbitrary Attempts upon them Lay in Tryals by Juryes The Citizens in the Year 1680 rouz'd out of the Lethargy in which they had long lain and bethink themselves how to secure substantial honest Juryes knowing that that could only be accomplished by proper Sheriffs They pitched upon and elected Mr Bethel and Mr Cornish to serve in that Office By so doing and by a like Election of Mr Pilkington now deservedly Lord Mayor and Mr Shute in the succeeding Year 1681 the Popish design of murdering Protestants under colour of Law was Post-poned until the Ancient Right of Electing Sheriffs was ravish'd from the City in the year 1682. However the Conspirators impatient of delay made their attempt in the Sheriffalty of Mr Bethel Mr Cornish The Earl of Shaftesbury and divers others are now clapt up upon pretence of a Plot and an experiment is made upon Mr Stephen Colledge a Man of great Honesty and who wanted nothing but a Figure to make him every way valuable But these Sheriffs not furnishing a Jury to cut him off The Earl of Shaftesbury and the rest who were imprisoned are reserved for the next Sheriffalty When they hoped tho' as Heaven would have it without ground to get Sheriffs and by them Juryes for their purpose And the Conspirators being enraged at the disappointment and baffle put upon them by an honest City-Jury in the Case of Mr Colledge They hurry that poor man to Oxford and there by most unpresidented illegal Practices basely murder him Further it cannot be forgotten that the honest endeavour of these worthy Sheriffs Mr Bethel and Mr Cornish to have the Sham-Plot of Fitz. Harris throughly searched into did greatly contribute to their future Sufferings The mentioning this Wretch forces a Remembrance of the Stratagems then used to present his discovery of the Authors of his Trayterous Libel and of the design for which it was framed That that matter might not be pryed into by the Magistrates of London he is removed from Newgate to a most close Confinement in the Tower Then he being Impeached in the Oxford Parliament in March 1680 to hinder the Examination of it there that Parliament is dissolved Quickly after he is tryed and condemned in the Court of Kings-Bench Then tho' a Papist he is left solely to the management of Dr H. of the Tower and without controversie was held to the last Moment of his Life under the hope and expectation of a Pardon if he would confess or to speak more properly say as he was directed But being deluded and his Mouth stop'd The Doctor in his Name emits to the World a Mock Confession inconsistent in it self and most notoriously void of truth but most wickedly contrived to render these Sheriffs and also those worthy Gentlemen Sr Robert Clayton an Alderman and Sr George Trâ—by Recorder of London infamous and odious to the highest degree and all this with design to create a belief of a Protestant Plot particularly the Doctor 's Paper charged the Sheriffs that they came to Pitz. Harris in Newgate with a Token from the Lord Howard which he knew to be true and told him nothing would save his Life but discovering the Popish Plot and gave him great encouragement from the Lord Howard that if he would declare that he believed so much of the Popish Plot as amounted to the introducing the Roman Catholicks or if he would find out any that would criminate the Queen or the Duke or make so much as a plausible story to confirm the Plot that the Parliament would restore him to his Father's estate with the profits thereof since his Majesty's Restoration How idle false groundles and villanous soever this Story was it highly irritated the Conspirators against these Gentlemen About this time God for the Scourge of the Nation had sent into the City that common Nusance to Mankind a Race of blind sensless Creatures who hardly deserved to be called Men and therefore took to themselves the Name of Tories These Animals seeming to delight in Fetters of Iron rather than Chains of Gold were the Champions for Arbitrary and Despotick Power They set themselves to betray the Rights and Liberties of the City and to bring all Free-born Englishmen to live at the Will of an Absolute Prince These by Addresses of Thanks for the Violation of the Laws and of Abhorrence of those who endeavoured to maintain them invited the Conspirators to attempt the overthrow of the Antient Priviledges and Government of London Nay their Solicitation Backt with assurance of a Surrender procured the bringing a Quo Warranto against the City Charters But the Wretches failing their Principals herein as they ever did in all things but Noisy Huzza's and a Committee of Aldermen and Commoners true English-Men being appointed to guard the City Franchises against the Quo Warranto Attack New Measures must be taken hereupon The Tories now perceiving that their Quo Warranto must pass the Formalities of Westminster-Hall witb bended Knees supplicate the aid of that Tool of State Secretary Jenkins He readily espouses them and having the Ascendant of Sr John Moor at this time most unluckily Lord Mayor directs him to constitute Mr North and Mr Rich Sheriffs of the City which he as obsequiously as daringly undertakes Many worthy Citizens whose names deserve eternal remembrance boldly withstood these Arbitrary Illegal Attempts Amongst them Mr Bethel and Mr Cornish were not the last and they felt with the first the rage of the Conspirators and their Adherents Their honest innocent and peacable appearing to Vote for the Election of Shâ—riffs in 1682. according to the undoubted right of the Citizens was termed a Riot and in Mr Cornish's Tryal now before us a Branch of the Plot. and most certainly is was the greatest Plot and Treason