Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A59480
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A speech lately made by a noble peer of the realm
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Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of, 1621-1683.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing S2901; ESTC R233457
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3,768
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3
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A SPEECH Lately Made by a Noble PEER OF THE REALM My Lord IN this great Debate concerning the King's Speech the sad State and Condition we are in and the Remedies thereof I have Offered You my Opinion and many Lords have spoken admirable well to it with great Freedom and Plainness as the Case requires Give me leave to offer you some few words in answer to two or three of my Lords of the Earls Bench that have maintained the contrary Opinion My Lord near me hath told your Lordships that the President of Hen. the 4. that I offered to you who was a Wise and Magnanimous Prince and yet upon the Address of his Parliament put away a great part of his Family and Councils at one time is no proper instance because he was an Usurper had an ill Title and was bound to please the People My Lords I meddle not with his Title I am sure our King hath a very undoubted one But this My Lord must allow that that wise Prince having need of the People knew no better way to please them and to create a good intelligence between them and him than to put a way those from Court and Council that were unacceptable to them If our King hath the same Necessity to please the People though for other Reasons than want of a Title Yet I am sure the President holds that a Wise Prince when he hath need of his People will rather part with his Family and Counsellors than displease them My Lords This Noble Lord near me hath found fault with that President that he supposes I offered your Lordships concerning the Chergeable Ladies at Court But I remember no such thing I said but if I must speak of them I shall say as the Prophet did to King Saul What means the bleating of this kind of Cattel And I hope the King will make me the same answer that he reserves them for Sacrifice and means to deliver them up to please his People For there must be in plain English My Lords a change We must neither have Popish Wife nor Popish Favourite nor Popish Mistriss nor Popish Counsellor at Court or any new Convert What I spoke was about another Lady that belongs not to the Court but like Simpronia in Catalines Conspiracy does more Mischief than Cethegus In this time of Distress I could humbly advise our Prince would take the same course that the Duke of Savoy did to suffer neither Strangers nor Embassadors to stay above some few weeks in his Country for all the Strangers and Embassadors here have served the Plot and Design against us I am sure they have no tye to be for us But my Lords what I rose up to speak was more especially to my Lord of the Earls Bench that spoke last and sits behind me Who as he hath the greatest influence in our present Councils so he hath let fall to you the very Root of the matter and the hinges upon which all turns He tells you that the House of Commons have lately made offers to the King and he wonders we do not expect the Kings Answer to them before we enter into so hot and high Debates He tells you if the King be assured of Supplies we cannot doubt of his Complyance in this and all we can ask for otherwise the King should fall into that that is the worst condition of a Prince to have his People have no confidence in him My Lords This is that I know they put the King upon and this is that we must be ruined by if we may not with Freedom and Plainness open our Case My Lords 'T is a very hard thing to say that we cannot trust the King and that we have already been deceived so often that we see plainly the apprehensions of Discontent in the People is no Argument at Court. And though our Prince be in himself an Excellent Person that the People have the greatest Inclinations imaginable to Love yet we must say he is such an one as no Story affords us a parallel of How plain and how many are the proofs of the Design to murther him How little is he apprehensive of it The Transactions between him and his Brother are Admirable and Incomprehensible His Brother designs being early Known to aim at the Crown before his Majesties Restauration to this Kingdom This Match with a Portugal Lady not like to have Children Contrived by the Dukes Father-in-Law and no sooner effected but the Duke and his Party make Proclamation to the World that we are like to have no Children that he must be the certain Heir He takes his Seat in Parliament as Prince of Wales His Guards about him The Princes Lodgings at Whitehall his Guards upon the same Floor without any Interposition between him and the King so that the King was in his Hands and in his Power every Night All Offices and Preferments being bestowed by him Not a Bishop made without him This Prince changes his Religion to make himself a Party and such a Party that his Brother must be sure to dye and be made away to make room for Him nothing could preserve him but that which I hope he will never do give greater earnest to that wicked Party than his Brother could and after all this Plot breaks out plainly headed by the Duke his interest and his Design How the King hath behaved himself ever since the breaking ouâ— of it the World knows we have expected every hour that the Court should joyn with the Duke against us And it is evident more hath been done to make the Plot a Presbyterian Plot than to discover it The Prorogations the Dissolutions the Cutting short of parliaments not suffering them to have time or opportunity to loâ—k into any thing hath shew'd what reason we have to have confidence in this Court We are now come to a Parliament again by what Fate or what Council for my part I cannot guess neither do I understand the Râ—ddle of it The Duke is quitted and sent away the House of Commons have brought up a Bill to disable him of the Crown and I think they are so far extreamly in the right but your Lordships are wiser than they and have rejected it yet you have thought fit and the King himself hath made the Proposition to make such Expedients as shall render him but a Nominal Prince In the mean while where 's this Duke that the King and both Houses have declared unanimously thus dangerous Why he is in Scotland raising of Forces upon the Terra firma that can enter dry foot upon us without hazard of Winds or Seas the very place he should be in to raise a party there to be ready when from hence he shall have notice So that this being the case where is the trust We all think the business is so ripe that they have the Garrisons the Arms the Amunition the Seas and Souliery all in their hands they want but one good Summe of Money to set up
and Crown the Work and then they shall have no more need of the People and I believe whether they are pleased or no will be no great trouble to them My Lords I hear of a Bargain in the House of Commons and an Address made to the King but this I know and must boldly say it and plainly that the Nation is Betray'd if upon any Terms we part with our Money till we are sure the King is ours have what Laws you will and what Conditions you will they will be of no use but wast Paper before Easter if the Court have Money to set up for Popery and Arbitrary Designs in the mean while On the other hand give me leave to tell you my Lords the King hath no reason to distrust his People no man can go home and say that if the King Comply with his People they will do nothing for him but â—are all up from him we want a Government and we want a Prince that we may trust even with the spending of half our Annual Revennues for some time for the Preservation of these Nations The growing Greatness of the French can not be stopt with a little Expence nor without a real and hearty Vnion of the King and his People It was never known in England that our Princes wanted Supplies either for their Forreign designs or for their Pleasures nothing ever shut the English Purses but the fears of having their Money used against them The hour that the King shall satisfie the People that what we give is not to make us Slaves and Papists he may have what he will and this your Lordships know and all mankind that know us Therefore let me plainly tell your Lordships the Arguments that the present Ministers use is to Destroy the King and not Preserve him For if the King will first see what we will do for him it is impossible if we are in our Senâ—es we should do any thing But if he will first shew that he is intirely ours that he Weds the Interest and the Religion of the Nation 't is impossible he should want any thing that we can give But I see how the Argument will be us'd Sir they will do nothing for you what should you do with these men But on the other hand I am bold to say Sir You may have any thing of this Parliament put away these Men change your Principles change your Court and be your self for the King himself may have any thing of us My Lords if I have been too plain I beg your Pardon I thought it was the Duty of an English Nobleman at this time to speak plain or never I am sure I mean well and if any man can answer or oppose Reason to what I say I beg they would do it for I do not desire or propose any Question I Beg this Debate may last for some dayes and that we may go to the bottom of the matter and see if these things are so or no and what Curâ— there is of the Evil we are in and then thâ— Result of your Debates may produce somâ— proper Question However we know who hears and I am glad of this that your Lordships have dealt sâ— Honourably and so clearly in the Kings presencâ— and in the Kings hearing that he cannot say hâ— wants a right State of thsngs he hath it beforâ— him and may take Councel as he thinks fit London Printed for F. S. at the Elephant and Castle near the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 168â—