Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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B22927
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The third part of No Protestant plot with observations on the proceedings upon the Bill of Indictment against the E. of Shaftsbury : and a brief account of the case of the Earl of Argyle.; No Protestant plot. Part 3
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Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing F762; ESTC R6678
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98,401
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157
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other great and worthy Protestants is nothing but a late Forgery of their own and that they take upon them to detect vvhat never really vvas upon the Subornation of others and for the accomplishing some base mercinary and villanous ends Nor can there be a clearer proof of the Folly of these Fellovvs and the Falshood of vvhat they svvear than that some of them represent themselves to have discoursed all the while with the greatest Loyalty when in the mean time they introduce My Lord speaking See Proceedings at the Old-Baily p. 24 25. Treason at every word We must suppose that man distracted who should continue speaking Treason for half an hour together when in the Interim all the Answers and Replies of the person with whom he is discoursing do manifest a firm and steddy Allegiance to the King Smith's pretending to have spoken with so much Caution and Circumspection while as he swears The Earl of Shaftsbury talk'd nothing but Treason betrays not only the folly of the wretch but plainly shews that whatsoever he swore against that Noble Peer was false and either forged by himself or dictated unto him by such as had hired and suborned him Yea all that they deposed appears plainly to be False and Romance in that the persons whom they pretend to have been present when the Earl of Shaftsbury spake such Traiterous vvords against His Majesty and the Government do positively aver that there vvas not so much as one syllable of all that said vvhich these Miscreants have svvorn For whereas Dennis affirms that Major Manley was in the Room when my Lord told the said Dennis That they did really intend to have England under a Common-wealth Proceedings at the Old Baily p. 31 32. and that his Lordship desired Dennis to advise those of his Name and such as were his Friends in Ireland to be in a readiness to assist the Common-wealth of England Major Manley indeed acknowledgeth his being present at that time when Dennis was with the Earl of Shaftsbury but withal he is ready to swear That my Lord spake not one word to him except the asking him with some seeming passion and heat what his business was And forasmuch as Booth deposeth upon Oath That Captain Wilkinson was several times by when my Lord Shaftsbury discoursed to the purpose that that Miscreant swore and particularly that the business about the Fifty men who were to be my Lord Shaftsbury ' s Guard was transacted before the Captain this Honest and Loyal Gentleman peremptorily affirms That he vvas never at the Earl of Shaftsbury's vvith Booth but once and that in the hearing and presence of Sir Peter Colliton and that the vvhole discourse vvas about their going to Carolina The falsehood of the vvhole matter vvhich the Witnesses have deposed against the Earl of Shaftsbury is evidently detected and discovered by this that vvhereas one of the Witnesses pretends to have communicated the Treasonable design vvhich my Lord had acquainted him vvith that very night vvhich he heard it to a Club or Society of Gentlemen at the Queens Arms in Newgate street all these Worthy and truly Loyal Gentlemen do positively and unanimously affirm that there vvas no such thing either mentioned at that time or at any other season discovered unto them For vvhereas Smith svvears That my Lord Shaftsbury having told him the King did walk in the same steps which his Father did and would never be quiet till he came to his Fathers end and that thereupon he the See Proceedings at the Old Baily p. 25. said Smith came immediately and acquainted these Gentlemen with it who were met at the Queens Arms they do all solemnly profess there was no such thing and that Smith is a forsworn and perjur'd Rascal in saying so However here was a Train laid for the Lives of all those Worthy and Loyal persons could the vvretch have obtained Credit with the Jury as to what he Deposed against My Lord. And whereas Smith furt her says the Earl of Shaftsbury told him that Evening which Major Manley brought him from the Club at the Queens-Arms to Thanet-house The King pamper'd Fitz-Gerald to stifle Ibid. the Plot in Ireland and that he was as well satisfied with the coming in of Popery as the Duke of York and that the Parliament was satisfied he was as much for it as his Brother for so the Wretch swore in Court tho' the last words be left out in the Print all this I say is feigned and invented seeing Major Manley who was present and by all that time albeit Smith concealed that upon the giving his Evidence is ready to Depose upon Oath that there was not one Syllable spoken by my Lord to the purpose which this Miscreant swears Let us add to this Hayns's Deposing That he had Ibid. a long discourse with the Earl of Shaftsbury at a Cooks in Ironmonger-lane in a little Room next the Kitchin where by the way that last expression is left out in the Print and we shall find this whole Forgery still more obvious and palpable For as My Lord was never there except when he dined with divers Noble and Worthy Persons So besides the improbability of his leaving the company and society of men of the best Quality in England to come and talk with such a Fellow as Hayns and besides the absurdness that is in supposing the Earl of Shaftsbury to have staid an hour in a little Room by a Cook 's Kitchin not only the Servants of the house do positively affirm the contrary of all that this Rascal swears but divers Noble Persons are ready to testifie that the Earl of Shaftsbury never came down stairs out of the great Room till he was going away and that he took Coach immediately without withdrawing into any Room below But that which is extravagant beyond all imagination and which proclaims to every wise man the falshood of all they have sworn is Hayns's deposing That the Earl of Shaftsbury should not only say There are Families in England which have as much pretence to the Crown as the King but that the Duke of Buckingham Ibid. p. 27. hath in Right of his Mother as good a Title to the Crown as ever any Steward had Is it not enough to introduce the Earl of Shaftsbury talking Treasonably but he must be likewise exposed as talking ridiculously Surely the Superintenders and Managers of this Plot in the guilt whereof they would involve Protestants must either be of very weak Understandings themselves or they must apprehend the generality of Mankind to be so otherwise they could never hope to impose upon the world by such nonsensical stuff as this is For besides that no man knows of any Title whereby the Duke of Buckingham can pretend to the Crown the Right of claiming by his Mother as sprung from the Plantagenets being altogether groundless so there is not so sublime a Friendship between my Lord Shaftsbury and the Duke of Buckingham as
false and infamous person Nor is it to be wondered at that he should become subservient in all base ways to the Malice and Indignation of men upon the promise and hopes of a valuable Reward who that he might obtain preferment to places of Trust and Profit is said to have turn'd Pander to his own Daughter and have exposed her to mens Lust But it is long since this Justice was ambitious of being instrumental in the ruin of My Lord Shaftsbury seing it was he that introduced Marchiamont Needham to the Earl of Danby in order to assist in the great Designs which were then in agitation against this Lord's Honour and Life And as Needham in pursuance of this malicious contrivance wrote both the Advices to the men of Shaftsbury wherein according to his wonted method of treating all he wrote against he loads this Honourable Person with all the Aspersions his Wit influenced by the Malice and Revenge of others could invent and suggest so I have seen the Instructions that were given about the Arraigning this Peer upon pretence of his being Guilty of very Criminal matters But as it is argued that our Ministers then were at a wonderful loss for Men of Wit and Conduct to promote their Designs while they had so many admirably qualified in the want of Honesty seing they were forced by Money and Flattery as well as by Promises which were never perform'd to bribe over a fellow to defame this Noble Peer who had not only always scribbled on the other side but reviled the late King his present Majesty and Monarchical Government with the like freedom and equal bitterness And so ambitious was Warcup of being instrumental in the ruin of My Lord Shaftsbury at that time of day that not being trusted nor employ'd in the Design proportionably to his desires and inclinations he bespake Needham in a Letter to him which I have seen to recommend him to the Earl of Dunby as a person that would be zealous in agitating and promoting what they were upon And besides the Evidence that hath been given elsewhere of Justice Warcup's suborning Witnesses to Swear the forged Conspiracy whereof the Earl of See No Protestant Plot part 1. p. 22 23. Shaftsbury hath been lately accused I shall here subjoin one further Instance of his Villanous carriage in this affair For Mr. Sampson among many other things which he hath Deposed upon Oath before a Magistrate in London positively swears That Justice Warcup often solicited him with promises of Reward to be a Witness against the Earl of Shaftsbury and others of the City There are also other two whose Depositions I shall forbear at the present to reherse that directly restifie his endeavouring to have Suborn'd them upon the same Design So deplorable is the case of innocent Protestants that if persons accused do conceal the Witnesses who can discover the Accusations against them they abandon themselves and their own Innocency and if they publish them they do become thereby exposed to the Rage of the common Enemy and are brought into danger of being suborned against themselves And therefore the world ought to pardon us if we reveal no more than what is necessary for the vindication of the Innocency of those that have been accused and the justification of the Integrity of the Juries that had the cognizance of the Bills which were presented The late Proceedings at the Court of the Verge against Mr. Everard do declare in the face of all the world what kind of entertainment they are to expect who have refused to be Witnesses against innocent men or who have the courage to detect the subornations of such as traffick and barter for Evidence against guiltless Protestants But it is no ways strange that the Justice who can muster a Troop of Mercinary Rascals to perjure themselves for the service of the Papists should procure some of them to venture their Souls upon so necessary a duty as the preserving themselves and him from the Gibbet or at the least the Pillory Yet even most of these whom he then produced are so publickly infamous that their Testimony will never support an Indictment against any man before a good and impartial Jury nor yet impeach the Credit of the person against whom they swear I know when and where one of them wrote a Letter to the Justice desiring him to draw up what he pleased assuring him that upon easie considerations he would be ready to make Oath of it Yet after all the pains he hath been at to protect himself from the punishment of one Crime by perpretrating another he will not only find that Mr. Everard is able to prove that whereof he hath accused him by undeniable Circumstances but he will also find there are several others whose Reputation he can no ways detract from that will be forth coming in due time and place to lay open and prove the Villany whereof he hath been guilty in suborning Witnesses against the Earl of Shaftsbury However it is no ways fair nor equal that when Indictments could not be received neither at the Old Baily nor Hicks's-Hall against the Justice and his Complices for conspiring to take away the Lives of innocent persons yet a Bill can be immediately admitted in another Court if the matter and design of it be to stiflle the detection or asperse the Discoverers of this Conspiracy Nor is Warcup the only person that hath been employ'd and intrusted in hiring and suborning Witnesses to swear a Protestant Plot but there are many others and even some of the Gown who to gratifie the Papists and either to make way for their own preferment in case of a Popish Successor or to testifie their gratitude to such as recommended them to the Places which they do now possess have shamefully and to the dishonour of their Profession co-operated with the Justice in the same villanous design For besides their secret correspondence and mysterious traffick with Haynes before his being apprehended which alone is enough to demonstrate their concernment in the whole forgery and intrigue of this Protestant Plot There is a person who will appear upon occasion that will testifie how much a certain Gentleman retaining to the Law did endeavour by flattery and promises to obtain him to become a Witness against the Earl of Shaftsbury It will not at length be found to have been much to any mans Reputation to have the glossing managing or setting of the Depositions which were brought them by the Masters of the Forgery Mint but it will for ever subject those to a character of Infamy who contrary to the Justice Equity and Honour of the Law wherein they are eminent practicers have prostituted themselves to be Factors for Perjury And if men will not be brib'd and wheedled to forswear themselves upon so useful and sacred a design as the destroying loyal and harmless Protestants who are guilty of no other Crime but their withstanding the establishment of Popery and Arbitrary Power