doubtful a foot this Long Parliament now stood upon by this long Prorogation there could not have been a more Legal or however no more wise and honest a thing done then for both the Lords and Commons to have separated themselves or have besought his Majesty to that purpose left the Conspirators should any longer shelter and carry on their design against the Government and Religion under this shadow of Parliamentary Authority But it was otherwise ordered of which it is now time to relate the Consequences The four Lords having thus been committed it cannot properly be said that the House of Peers was thence forward under the Government of the Lord Frechvvel and the Lord Arundel of Trerise but those two noble Peers had of necessity no small Influence upon the Counsels of that House having hoped ere this to have made their way also into his Majesties Privy Council and all things fell out as they could have wished if under their own direction For most of them who had been the most active formerly in the Publick Interest sate mute in the House whether as is probable out of reverence to their two Persons and confidence in their wisdom they left all to their Conduct and gave them a general Proxy or whether as some would have it they were sullen at the Commitment of of the four Lords and by reason of that or the Prorogation began now to think the Parliament or their House to be Non Compos But now therefore Doctor Cary a Commner was brought to the Barre before them and questioned concerning a written Book which it seems he had carried to be printed treating of the Illegality of this Prorogation and because he satisfyed them not in some Interrogatories which no man would in Common honour to others or in self preservation as neither was he in Law bound to have answered they therefore Fined him a thousand pounds under that new Notion of Contempt when no other Crime would do it and sentenced him to continue close Prisoner in the Tovver until payment Yet the Commons were in so admirable good temper having been conjured by the charming Eloquence of the Lord Chancellor to avoid all misunderstanding between the two Houses that their could no Member or time be found in all the session to offer their House his Petition much lesse would that breach upon the whole Parliament by imprisoning the Lords for using their liberty of speech be entertained by them upon motion for fear of entrenching upon the priviledge of the House of Peers which it had been well for them if they had been as tender of formerly One further Instance of the Completion of their House at that season may be sufficient One Master Harrington had before the Session been Committed Close Prisoner for that was now the mode as though the Earl of Norhampton would not otherwise have kept him Close enough by Order of the King and Councill the Warrant bearing for subornation of Perjury tending to the Defamation of his Majesty and his Government and for Contemptuously Declaring he vvould not ansvver his Majesty any Question vvhich his Majesty or his Privy Councill should aske him As this Gentleman was hurried along to the Tovver he was so dexterous as to convey into a friends hand passing by a Blanke Paper onely with his name that a Petition might be written above it to be presented to the House of Commons without rejecting for want of his own hand in the subscription His Case notwithstanding the Warrant was thus He had met with two Scotch souldiers in Town returned from Flanders who complained that many of their Countrey men had in Scotland been seised by force to be carried over into the French service had been detained in the Publick prisons till an oportunity to transport them were heaved on board fast tyed and bound like malefactors some of them struggling and contesting it were cast into the Sea or maimed in conclusion an intolerable violence and barbarity used to compell them and this near the present session of Parliament Hereupon this Gentleman considering how oft the House of Commons had addressed to his Majesty and framed an Act for recalling his Majesties Subjects out of the French service as also that his Majesty had iâ—…ued his Proclamation to the same purpose thought he might do a good and acceptable thing in giving information of it to the House as time served But withall knowing how witnesses might possibly be taken off he for his own greater security took them before a Master of Chancery where they comfirmed by Oath the same things they had told him But hereupon he was brought before his Majesty and the Privy Councill where he declared this matter but being here asked by the Lord Chancellour some insnaring and improper questions he modestly as those that were by affirmed desired to be exâ—…ised from answering him further but after this answered 〈◊〉 Majesty with great humility and respect to divers questâ—…us This was the subornation of Perjury and this the Contempt to his Majesty for which he was made Close Prisoner â—…pon his Petition to the House of Commons he was sent for and called in where he is reported to have given a very clear account of the whole matter and of his behaviour at the Council board But of the two Scotch soldiers the one made himself perjured without being suborned by Harrington denying or misrepresenting to the House what he had sworn formerly And the other the honester fellow it â—…ms of the two only was absented But however divers honourable Members of that House attested voluntarily that the soldiers had affirmed the same thing to them and inâ—…ed the Truth of that matter is notorious by several other 〈◊〉 that since came over and by further account from 〈◊〉 Master Harrington also carryed himself towards 〈◊〉 â—…ouse with that modesty that it seemed inseparable 〈◊〉 him and much more in his Majesties presence so that 〈◊〉 House was inclined and ready to have concerned themselves for his Liberty But Master Secretary Williamson stood 〈◊〉 having been a Principal Instrument in commiting him and because the other crimes rather deserved Thanks and Commendation and the Warrant would not Justify it self he insisted upon his strange demeanour toward his Majesty decipherd his very looks how truly it matters not and but that his Majesty and the House remained still living Flesh and Blood it might have been imagined by his discourse that Master Harrington had the Head of a Gorgon But this story so wrought with and amazed the Commons that Mr. Harrington found no redresse but might thank God that he escaped again into Close Prison It was thought notwithstanding by most men that his looks might have past any where but with a man of Sir Josephs delicacy For neither indeed had Master Harrington ever the same oportunities that others of practiting the Hocus Pocus of the Face of Playing the French Scaramuccie or of living abroad to learn how to make the Plenipotentiary
short Prorogation of six days when he understood their intention gave them opportunity to have disisted But it seems they judged the National Jnterest of Religion so farre concerned in this matter that they no sooner meet again but they drew up a second request by way of Addresse to his Majesty with their Reasons against it That for his Royal Highnesse to marry the Princesse of Modena or any other of that Religion had very dangerous consequences That the mindes of his Majesties Protestant subjects will be much disquieted thereby filled with infinite discontents and Jealousies That his Majesty would thereby be linked into such a foraine Alliance which will be of great disadvantage and possibly to the Ruine of the Protestant Religion That they have found by sad experience how such mariages have always increased Popery and incorraged Priests and Jesuits to prevert his Majesties subjects That the Popish party already lift up their heads in hopes of his marriage That they fear it may diminish the affection of the people toward his Royal Highnesse who is by blood so near related to the Crown That it is now more then one Age that the subjects have lived in continual apprehensions of the increase of Popery and the decay of the Protestant Religion Finally that she having many Kindred and Relations in the Court of Rome by this means their enterprises here might be facilitated they might pierce into the most secret Counsells of his Majesty and discover the state of the Realm That the most learned men are of opinion that Marriages no further Proceeded in may lawfully be Dissolved And therefore they beseech his Majesty to Annul the Consummation of it and the Rather because they have not yet the Happiness to see any of his Majestyes own Lineage to Succeed in his Kingdomes These Reasons which were extended more amply against his Royal Highnesses Marriage obtained more weight because most men are apt to Judge of things by Circumstances and to attribute what happens by the Conjuncture of Times to the Effect of Contrivance So that it was not difficult to Interpret what was in his Royal Highness an ingagement only of Honour and Affection as proceeding from the Conspirators Counsels seeing it made so much to their purpose But the business was too far advanced to retreat as his Majesty with great reason had replyed to their former Address the Marriage having been celebrated already and confirmed by his Royal Authority and the House of Commons though sitting when the Duke was in a Treaty for the Arch Dutchess of Inspruck one of the same Religion yet having taken no notice of it Therefore while they pursued the matter thus by a second Address it seemed an easier thing and more decent to Prorogue the Parliament than to Dissolve the Marriage And which might more incline his Majesty to this Resolution the House of Commons had now bound themselves up by a Vote that having considered the present State of the Nation they would not take into Deliberation nor have any further Debate upon any other Proposals of Aide or any Surcharge upon the Subject before the payment of the Tvvelve hundred and fifty thousand pounds in eighteen Months which was last granted were expired or at least till they should evidently see that the Obstinacy of the Hollanders should oblige them to the contrary nor till after the kingdom should be effectually secured against the dangers of Popery and Popish Counsellours and that Order be taken against other present Misdemeanours There was yet another thing the Land-Army which appearing to them expensive needless and terrible to the People they addressed to his Majesty also that they might be disbanded All which things put together his Majesty was induced to Prorogue the Parliament again for a short time till the seventh of January One thousand six hundred seventy three That in the mean while the Princess of Modena arriving the Marriage might be consummated without further interruption That Session was opened with a large deduction also by the new Lord Keeper this being his first Experiment in the Lords House of his Eloquence and Veracity of the Hollanders averseness to Peace or Reason and their uncivil and indirect dealing in all Overtures of Treaty with his Majesty and a Demand was made therefore and re-inforced as formerly of a proportionable and speedy Supply But the Hollanders that had found themselves obstructed alwayes hitherto and in a manner excluded from all Applications and that whatever means they had used was still mis-interpreted and ill represented were so industrious as by this time which was perhaps the greatest part of their Crime to have undeceived the generallity of the Nation in those particulars The House of Commons therefore not doubting but that if they held their hands in matter of money a Peace would in due time follow grew troublesome rather to several of the great Ministers of State whom they suspected to have been Principal in the late pernicious Counsels But instead of the way of Impeachment whereby the Crimes might have been brought to Examination Proof and Judgment they proceeded Summarily within themselves noting them only with an ill Character and requesting his Majesty to remove them from his Counsels his Presence and their Publick Imployments Neither in that way of handling were they Impartial Of the three which were questioned the Duke of Buckingham seemed to have muoh the more favourable Cause but had the severest Fortune And this whole matter not having been mannaged in the solemn Methods of National Justice but transmitted to his Majesty it was easily changed into a Court Intrigue where though it be a Modern Maxime That no State Minister ought to be punished but especially not upon Parliamentary Applications Yet other Offenders thought it of security to themselves in a time of Publick Discontent to have one Man sacrisiced and so the Duke of Buckingham having worse Enemies and as it chanced worse Friends than the rest was after all his Services abandoned they having only heard the sound while he felt all the smart of that Lash from the House of Commons But he was so far a Gainer that with the loss of his Offices and dependance he was restored to the Freedom of his own Spirit to give thence-forward those admirable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vigour and Vivacity of his better Judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though to his own Imprisonment the due Liâ—… of the English Nation 〈◊〉 manner of proceeding in the House of Commons 〈◊〉 a new way of negotiating the Peace with Holland but the â—…ost effectual the Conspirators living all the while under continual apprensions of being called to further account for their Actions and no mony appearing which would either have prepetuated the War or might in case of a Peaâ—…e be misapplied to other uses then the building of Ships insinuated by the Lord Keeper The Hollanders Proposalls by this means therefore began to be thought more reasonable and the Marquis del Fresno the Spanish Minister in this Court labourd
are Commissioned by him in pursuance of such Commission and yet neither is the Tenour or Rule of any such Commission specified nor the Qualification of those that shall be armed with such Commissions expressed or limited Never was so much sence contained in so few words No Conveyancer could ever in more Compendious or binding terms have drawn a Dissettlement of the whole Birth-right of England For as to the Commission if it be to take away any mans Estate or his Life by force Yet it is the Kings Commission Or if the Person Commissionate be under never so many Dissabilities by Acts of Parliament yet his taking this Oath removes all those Incapacities or his Commission makes it not Disputable But if a man stand upon his Defence a good Judge for the purpose finding that the Position is Traitorous will declare that by this Law he is to be Executed for Treason These things are no Nicetyes or remote Considerations though in making of Laws and which must come afterwards under Construction of Judges Durante Bene-placito all Cases are to be put and imagined but there being an Act in Scotland for Tvventy thousand Men to March into England upon Call and so great a Body of English Souldery in France within Summons besides what Forainers may be obliged by Treaty to furnish and it being so fresh in memory what sort of persons had lately been in Commission among us to which add the many Bookes then Printed by Licence Writ some by Men of the Black one of the Green Cloath wherein the Absoluteness of the English Monarchy is against all Law asserted All these Considerations put together were sufficient to make any honest and well-advised man to conceive indeed that upon the passing of this Oath and Declaration the vvhole sum of Affaires depended It grew therefore to the greatest contest that has perhaps ever been in Parliament wherein those Lords that were against this Oath being assured of their own Loyalty and Merit stood up now for the English Liberties with the same Genius Virtue and Courage that their Noble Ancestors had formerly defended the Great Charter of England but with so much greater Commendation in that they had here a fairer Field and the more Civil way of Decision They fought it out under all the disadvantages imaginable They were overlaid by Numbers the noise of the House like the VVind was against them and if not the Sun the Fire-side was allwayes in their Faces nor being so few could they as their Adversaries withdraw to refresh themselves in a whole days Ingagement Yet never was there a clearer Demonstration how dull a thing is humane Eloquence and Greatness how Little when the bright Truth discovers all things in their proper Colours and Dimensions and shining shoots its Beams thorow all their Fallacies It might be injurious where all of them did so excellently well to attribute more to any one of those Lords than another unless because the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Shaftsbury have been the more reproached for this brave Action it be requisite by a double proportion of Praise to set them two on equal terms with the rest of their Companions in Honour The particular Relation of this Debate which lasted many dayes with great eagerness on both sides and the Reasons but on one was in the next Session burnt by Order of the Lords but the Sparkes of it will eterually fly in their Adversaries faces Now before this Test could in so vigorous an opposition passe the House of Peers there arose unexpectedly a great Controversy betwixt the two Houses concerning their Priviledges on this occasion The Lords according to their undoubted Right being the Supream Court of Judicature in the Nation had upon Petition of Doctor Shirley taken cognizance of a Cause between him and Sir John Fagg a Member of the House of Commons and of other Appeales from the Court of Chancery which the Commons whether in good earnest which I can hardly believe or rather some crafty Parliament men among them having an eye upon the Test and to prevent the hazard of its coming among them presently took hold of and blew the Coales to such a degree that there was no quenching them In the House of Peers both Partyes as in a point of their own Privilege easily united and were no lesse inflamed against the Commons and to uphold their own ancient Jurisdiction wherein neverthelesse both the Lords for the Test and those against it had their own particular reasons and might have accused each-other perhaps of some artifice The matter in conclusion was so husbanded on all sides that any longer converse betwixt the two Houses grew impracticable and his Majesty Prorogued them therefore till the 13th of October 1675 following And in this manner that fatall Test which had given so great disturbance to the mindes of our Nation dyed the second Death which in the language of the Divines is as much as to say it was Damned The House of Commons had not in that Session been wanting to Vote 300000 l. towards the building of Ships and to draw a Bill for appropriating the Ancient Tunnage and Poundage amounting to 400000 l. yearly to the use of the Navy as it ought in Law already and had been granted formerly upon that special Trust and Confidence but neither did that 300000 l. although Competent at present and but an earnest for future meeting seem considerable and had it been more yet that Bill of appropriating any thing to its true use was a sufficient cause to make them both miscarry but upon pretense of the quarrel between the Lords and Commons in which the Session thus ended The Conspirators had this interval to reflect upon their own affaires They saw that the King of France as they called him was so busy abroad that he could not be of farther use yet to them here then by his directions while his Armyes were by assistance of the English Forces severall times saved from ruines They considered that the Test was defeated by which the Papists hoped to have had Reprisalls for that of Transubstantiation and the Conspirators to have gained Commission as extensive and arbitrary as the malice of their own hearts could dictate That herewith they had missed of a Legality to have raised mony without Consent of Parliament or to imprison or execute whosoever should oppose them in pursuance of such their Commission They knew it was in vaine to expect that his Majesty in that want or rather opinion of want which they had reduced him to should be diverted from holding this Session of Parliament nor were they themselves for this once wholy averse to it For they presumed either way to find their own account that if mony were granted it should be attributed to their influence and remaine much within their disposal but if not granted that by joyning this with other accidents of Parliament they might so represent things to his Majesty as to incense him against them
and distrusting all Parliamentary Advice to take Counsel from themselves from France and from Necessity And in the meane time they fomented all the Jealousies which they caused They continued to inculcate Forty and One in Court and Country Those that refused all the mony they demanded were to be the onely Recusants and all that asserted the Libertyes of the Nation were to be reckoned in the Classis of Presbyterians The 13th of October came and his Majesty now asked not only a Supply for his building of Ships as formerly but further to take off the Anticipation upon his Revenue The House of Commons took up again such Publick Bills as they had on foot in their former sitting and others that might either Remedy Present or Prevent Future Mischiefs The Bill for Habeas Corpus That against sending men Prisoners beyond Sea That against raising Mony without Consent of Parliament That against Papists sitting in either House Another Act for speedier convicting of Papists That for recalling his Mejestys Subjects out of the French service c And as to his Majestys supply they proceeded in their former Method of the two Bills One for raising 300000 l. and the other for Appropriating the Tunnage and Poundage to the use of the Navy And in the Lords House there was a good disposition toward things of Publick Interest But 300000 l. was so insipid a thing to those who had been continually regaled with Millions and that Act of Appropriation with some others went so much against stomack that there wanted only an opportunity to reject them and that which was readiest at hand was the late quarrel betwixt the House of Lords and the Commons The house of Commons did now more peremptorily then ever oppose the Lords Jurisdiction in Appeals The Lords on the otherside were resolved not to depart from so essentiall a Priviledge and Authority but to proceed in the Exercise of it So that this Dispute was raised to a greater Ardure and Contention then ever and there appeared no way of accomodation Hereupon the Lords were in consultation for an Addresse to his Majesty conteining many weighty Reasons for his Majestyes dissolving this Parliament deduced from the nature and behaviour of the present House of Commons But his Majesty although the transaction between the two Houses was at present become impracticable Judging that this House might at some other time be of use to him chose only to Prorogue the Parliament The blame of it was not onely laid but aggravated upon those in both Houses but especially on the Lords-House who had most vigorously opposed the French and Popish-Jnterest But those who were present at the Lords and observed the conduct of the Great Ministers there conceived of it otherwise And as to the House of Commons who in the heat of the Contest had Voted That vvhosoever shall Sollicity or prosecute any Appeal against any Commoner of England from any Court of Equity before the House of Lords shall be deemed and taken abetrayer of the Rights and Liberties of the Commons of England and shall be proceeded against accordingly Their Speaker going thorow VVestminster Hall to the House and looking down upon some of those Lawyers commanded his Mace to seize them and led them up Prisoners with him which it is presumed that he being of his Majesties Privie Councill would not have done but for what some men call his Majesties Service And yet it was the highest this of all the Provocations which the Lords had received in this Controversie But however this fault ought to be divided there was a greater committed in Proroguing the Parliament from the 22th of November 1675 unto the 15th of February 1676. And holding it after that dismission there being no Record of any such thing done since the being of Parliaments in England and the whole Reason of Law no lesse then the Practise and Custome holding Contrary This vast space betwixt the meetings of Parliament cannot more properly be filled up then with the coherence of those things abroad and at home that those that are intelligent may observe whether the Conspirators found any interruption or did not rather sute this event also to the Continuance of their Counsells The Earl of Northampton is not to be esteemed as one engaged in those Counsells being a person of too great Honour though the advanceing of him to be Constable of the Tovver was the first of our Domestick occurrents But if they could have any hand in it 't is more probable that lest he might perceive their Contrivances they apparelled him in so much Wall to have made him insensible However men conjectured even then by the Quality of the Keeper that he was not to be disparaged with any mean and vulgar Prisoners But another thing was all along very remarkable That during this Inter-Parliament there were five Judges places either fell or were made vacant for it was some while before that Sir Francis North had been created Lord Cheif Justice of the Common Pleas the five that succeeded were Sir Richard Rainsford Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench. Mountagne Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer Vere Bartie Barrister at Law one of the Barrons of the Exchequer Sir William Scroggs one of the Justices of the Common Pleas. And Sir Thomas Jones one of the Justices of the Kings Bench. Concerning all whom there it somthing too much to be said and it is not out of a figure of speech but for meer reverence of their Profession that I thus passe it over considering also humane infirmity and that they are all by their Pattens Durante Bene Placito bound as it were to the Good Behaviour And it is a shame to think what triviall and to say the best of them obscure persons have and do stand next in prospect to come and sit by them Justice Atknis also by Warping too far towards the Laws was in danger upon another pretense to have made way for some of them but upon true Repentance and Contrition with some Almes Deeds was admitted to Mercy And all the rest of the Benches will doubtlesse have profited much by his and some other example Alas the Wisdom and Probity of the Law went of for the most part with good Sir Mathevv Hales and Justice is made a meere property This poysonous Arrow strikes to the very heart of Government and could come from no Quiver but that of the Conspirators What French Counsell what standing Forces what Parliamentary Bribes what National Oaths and all the other Machinations of wicked men have not yet been able to effect may be more compendiously Acted by twelve Judges in Scarlet The next thing considerable that appeared preparatory for the next session was a Book that came out by publick Authority Intitled Considerations touching the true vvay to suppresse Popery c. A very good design and writ I beleive by a very good man but under some mistakes which are not to be passed over One in the Preface wherein he
saith The Favour here proposed in behalf of the Romanists is not more than they injoy among Protestants abroad at this day This I take not to be true either in Denmark or Svveden and some other Countrys were Popery is wholly suppressed and therefore if that have been effected there in ways of prudence and consisting with Christianity it ought not to have been in so general words misrepresented Another is P. 59 and 60. a thing ill and dangerously said concluding I knovv but one Instance that of David in Gath of a man that vvas put to all these straits and yet not Corrupted in his principles When there was a more Illustrious Example near him and more obious What else I have to say in passing is as to the Ground-work of his whole design which is to bring men nearer as by a distinction betwixt the Church and Court of Rome a thing long attempted but ineffectually it being the same thing as to distinguish betwixt the Church of England and the English Bishops which cannot be seperated But the intention of the Author was doubtlesse very honest and the English of that Profession are certainly of all Papiest the most sincere and most worthy of favour but this seemed no proper time to negotiate further then the Publick Convenience There was another Book likewise that came out by Authority towards the Approach of the Session Intitled A Packet of Advise to the men of Shaftsbury c. But the name of the Author was concealed not out of any sparke of moModesty but that he might with more security excercise his Impudence not so much against those Noble Lords as against all Publick Truth and Honesty The whole composition is nothing else but an Infusion of Malice in the Froath of the Town and the Scum of the University by the Prescription of the Conspirators Nor therefore did the Book deserve naming no more then the Author but that they should rot together in their own Infamy had not the first events of the following Session made it remarkable that the Wizard dealt with some Superior Intelligence And on the other side some Scattering papers straggled out in Print as is usuall for the information of Parliament men in the matter of Law concerning Prorogation which all of them it is to be presumed understood not but was like to prove therefore a great Question As to matters abroad from the Year 1674 That the Peace was concluded betwixt England and Holland the French King as a mark of his displeasure and to humble the English Nation let Loose his Privateers among our Merchant men There was thenceforth no security of Commerce or Navigation notwithstanding the publick Amity betwixt the two Crowns but at Sea they Murthered Plundred made Prize and Confiscated those they met with Their Picaroons laid before the Mouth of our Rivers hoverd all along the Coast took our Ships in the very Ports that we were in a manner blocked up by Water And if any made application at his Soveraign Port for Justice they were insolently bassled except some sew that by Sir Ellis Leightous Interest who made a second prize of them were redeemed upon easier Composition In this manner it continued from 1674 till the latter end of 1676 without remedy even till the time of the Parliaments Sitting so that men doubted whether even the Conspirators were not Complices also in the matter and sound partly their own account in it For evidence of what is said formerly the Paper at the end of this Treatise annexed may serve returned by some Members of the Privy Council to his Majesties Order to which was also adjoyned a Register of so many of the English Ships as then came to notice which the French had taken and to this day cease not to treat our Merchants at the same rate And yet all this while that they made these intolerable and barbarous Piracyes and depredations upon his Majestyes Subjects from hence they were more deligently then ever supplied with Recruits and those that would go voluntarily into the French service were incouraged others that would not pressed imprisoned and carried over by maine force and constraint even as the Parliament here was ready to sit down notwithstanding all their former frequent applications to the Contrary And his Majesties Magazins were daily emptied to furnish the French with all sorts of Ammunition of which the following note containes but a small parcell in comparison of what was daily conveyed away under colour of Cockets for Jarsy and other places A short account of some Amunition c. Exported from the Port of London to France from June 1675. to June 1677. Granadoes without number Shipt off under the colour of unwroght Iron Lead Shot 21 Tuns Gunpovvder 7134 Barrels Iron Shot 18 Tun 600 Weight Matcb 88 Tun 1900 Weight Iorn Ordinance 441. Quantity 292 Tuns 900 Weight Carriages Bandileirs Pikes c. uncertain Thus was the French King to be gratified for undoing us by Sea with contributing all that we could rap and rend of Men or Amunition at Land to make him more potent against us and more formidable Thus are we at length arrived at this much controverted and as much expected Session And though the way to it hath proved much longer then was intended in the entry of this discourse yet is it very short of what the matter would have afforded but is past over to keep within bounds of this Volumn The 15th of February 1676 came and that very same day the French King appointed his March for Flanders It seemed that his motions were in Just Cadence and that as in a Grand Balet he kept time with those that were tuned here to his measure And he thought it a becoming Galanttrie to take the rest of Flanders our natural out work in the very face of the King of England and his Petites Maisons of Parliament His Majesty demanded of the Parliament in his Speech at the opening of the Sessions a Supply for building of Ships and the further continuance of the Additional Excise upon Beer and Ale which was to expire the 24th of June 1677 and recommended earnestly a good correspondence betvveen the tvvo Houses representing their last Differences as the reason of so long a Prorogation to allay them The Lord Chancellor as is usuall with him spoiled all which the King had said so well with straining to do it better For indeed the mischances of all the Sessions since he had the Seales may in great part be ascribed to his indiscreet and unlucky Eloquence And had not the Lord Treasure a farre more effectual way of Perswasion with the Commons there had been the same danger of the ill successe of this Meeting as of those formerly Each House being now seated the case of this long Prorogation had taken place so farre without doores and was of that consequence to the Constitution of all Parliaments and the Ualidity of all proceedings in this Session that even the Commons though sore
may effectally have the Care and Government of such Children according to the true intent of this Law Be it Enected That after any such Children shall have attained their respective Ages of fourteen years no person shall have enjoy bear and execute any office service imployment or place of attendment relateing to their persons but such as shall be approved of in writing under the Hands and Seals of the said Arch-Bishops and Bishops in being or the Major part of such of them as are there in being And if any person shall take upon him to Execute any such Office Service Imployment or place of Attendance contrary to the true intent and meaning of this Act he shall forfeit the sum of 100 l. for every moneth he shall so Execute the same to be recovered by any person that will sue for the same in any Action of Debt Bill Plaint or Information ' in any of his Majesties Courts at VVestminister shall also suffer Imprisonment for the space of six months without Bayle or Manieprize And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Person born within this Realme or any other of his Majesties Dominions being a Popish Preist Deacon or Ecclesiiastical Person made or deemed or professed by any Authority or Jurisdiction derived challenged or pretended from the See of Rome or any Jesuite whatsoever shall be allowed to attend the person of the Queens Majesty that now is or any Quen Consort or Queen Dowager that shall be hereafter whilst they are within this Realme â—…or by pretence of such service or any other matter shall be Exempted from the penall Laws already made against such persons coming into being or remaining in this Kingdom but shall be and are hereby lyable to the utmost severity thereof Provided alwayes That it shall and may be lawfull for Master John Huddleston being one of the Queens Majesties Domestique servant to attend her said Majesties service any thing in this Act or any other Law to the contrary notwithstanding And be it further Enacted That after the Death of the Queens Majesty to whom God grant a long and happy life all lay persons whatsoever born within this Realme or any other of his Majesties Dominions that shall be of the Houshold or in the service or Employment of any succeeding Queen Consort or Queen Dowager shall do and performe all things in a late Act of this Parliament Entituled An Act for preventing Dangers vvhich may happen from Popish Recusants required to be done and performed by any person that shall be admitted into the service or Employment of his Majesty or his Royal Highnesse the Duke of York which if they shall neglect or refuse to do and perform and neverthelesse after such Refusall and execute any Office Service or Employment under any succeeding Queen Consort or Queen Dowager every person so offending shall be lyable to the same penalties and disabilities as by the said Act are may be inflicted upon the breakers of that Law Provided alwayes That all and every person or persons that shallby vertue of this Act have or claym any Arch-Bishoprick Bishoprick Deanry Prebendary Parsonage Vicarage or other Ecclesiastical Benefits with Cure or without Cure shall be and is hereby enjoyned under the like penalties and disabilitys to do and perform all things whatsoever which by Law they ought to have done if they had obteyned the same and by the usuall course and form of Law without the help and benefit of this Act. And be it further Enacted That all and every Arch-Bishops Bishops appointed by this Act to Assemble upon the Demise of his Majesty or any other King or Queen Regnant in order to repaire and make humble tender of the Oath and Declaration aforementioned to any succeeding King or Queen be bound by this Act to Administer the same shall before such tender and Administration thereof and are hereby required to Administer the same Oath and Declaration to one another with such of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops at any time assembled as by the statute 31. H. 8. ought to have precedence of all the rest of them that shall be so assembled is hereby Authorized and required to administer to the rest of them and the next in order to such Prelates is hereby Authorized and required to administer the same to him and the same Oath and Declaration being Engrossed in other peice of Parchment they and every of them are hereby enjoyned to subscribe their names to the same and to return the same into the high Court of Chancery hereafter with their Certificate which they are before by this Act appointed to make And if any of the said Arch-Bishops or Bishops shall be under 〈◊〉 same penalties forfeiture and disabilities as are hereby â—…ointed for such Arch-Bishops and Bishops as neglect or refuse to make any tender of the said Oath and Declaration to any succeeding King or Queen Regnant And be it further Enacted That the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury or Arch-Bishop of York or such other Bishop to whom it shall belong to issue forth summons to all the Bishops of England and Wales requiring to meet and consult concerning the Nomination of fit persons for the supply of any Arch-Bishopprick or Bishopprick according to this Act shall make the said summons in such manner that the time therein mentioned for the meeting the said Arch-Bishops and Bishops shall not be more then forty days distinct from the time of the Date and Issuing out of the said summons And be it further Enacted That in case any person intituled by this Act doth demand Consecration in order to make him Bishop of any vacant See in manner aforesaid shall demand the same of the Arch-Bishop of the Province and such Arch Bishop that shall neglect or refuse to do the same either by himself or by others Commissioned by him by the space of thirty days that then such Arch Bishop shall over and besides the trebble Dammages to the party before appointed forfeit the summe of 1000 l. to any person that will sue for the same in any of his Majesties Courts at Westminster by Action of Debt Bill Plaint or Information wherein no Essoyn Protection or Wager of Law shall be allowed And being thereof lawfully convicted his Arch-Bishopprick shall thereby become Ipso Facto voyd as if he were naturally Dead and he shall be and is hereby made uncapable and disabled to hold have receive the same or any other Bishopprick or Ecclesiastical Benefice whatsoever And be it further Enacted That after such neglect or refusall by the space of thirty dayes after Demand to make such Consecration or in case of the vacancy of the Arch-Bishopprick such Bishop of the said Province for time being who by the Statute of 31. H. 8. ought to have presidents of all the rest calling to his Assistance a sufficient number of Bishops who are likewise required to assist at such time and place as he shall thereunto appoint shall and is hereby required upon reasonable
have been respited again as it had in former Sessions and for the whole long Prorogation But their House was farr from such Obstinacy And the news being come of the taking both of Valenciennes and St. Omar with the defeate of the Prince of Orange at Mont-Cassel so that now there was no further danger of preventing or Interrupting the successes of the French-King this Campagn at last therefore upon the 11 of Aprill this following answer was offerred to their House from his Majesty by Master Secretary Coventry C. R. HIs Majesty having considered your last Addresse and finding some late alteration in affaires abroad thinks it necessary to put you in mind That the only vvay to prevent the dangers vvhich may arise to these Kingdoms must be by putting his Majesty timely in a Condition to make such fitting preparation as may enable him to do vvhat may be most for the security of them And if for this reason you shall desire to fit any longer time his Majesty is content you may Adjourn novv before Easter and meet again suddenly after to ripen this matter and to perfect some of the most necessary Bills novv depending Given at our Court at White-Hall the 11. of April 1677. Somewhat was said on both these matters but the Greater debate of them was Adjorned till next day and then reassumed Then it was moved that the House should Adjorn till after Easter and then meet again with a Resolution to enable the King to make such preprations as should be thought necessary and also passe some necessary Bills for the Kingdome which if they did not the blame of the neglect must rest upon themselves and it would be observed they had not sat to any effect this four yeares and that now they had a session and had given a Million they did take little care to redresse Greviances or passe Good Laws for the People and that they should not be able to give any account of themselves to their Neighbours in the Country unlesse they should face them down that there was no Greviance or Mischeife in the Nation to be Redressed and that the King had stopped their mouths and laid it to them by offering to them to sit longer Others said they should perfect the two money Bills and give the King Ease and take another time to consider further of Religion Liberty and Property especially seeing all Bills now depending would be kept on foot the Intended Recesse being to be but an Adjournment that they had very good Laws already and would give their shares in any new ones they were making to be in the Country at the present time that it was necessary for them to be there the 10th of May to Execute the Act for 600000 l. c. And some time was to be allowed for their Journyes and rest after it that the passing some necessary Bills came in the end of the Kings Message and by the by For his Majesty saith That if for this Reason that is for making of preparations c they should desire to sit longer and if so then also take the opportunity of passing such Bills So the sence and inclination of the House was to rise before Easter as had been before intimated and expected Then they fell upon the main consideration of the Message and to make a present Answer The Secretary and other Ministers of State said that the Alteration of Affaires which his Majesty took notice of was the successe of the French against the Prince of Orange in the Battel and their proceeding to take Cambray and St. Omars Thus by Inches or rather great measures they were taking in Flanders which was reckoned the Out-work of England as well as Holland and they said plainely nothing could put his Majesty in a condition to make fitting preparations to preserve the Kingdom but ready money To this it was answered that it was not proper nor usuall to aske money at the end of a Session and it was fit that Alliances should be first made and that they should Adjourn rather till that were done for they ought not to give money till they knew for what and it was clearely spoken and made out to them that if there were no Summers War there was money enough given already It was replyed That they had not direction from his Majesty as to what he had resolved and it might be not convenient to discover and publish such things but they would offer their Guesse and Ayme at some things if there were any Approaches towards War though they ought to consider and compute like him in the Gospel whether with such a force they could encounter a King that came against them with such a force they should think of providing a Guard for the Isle of Wight sersey Carnsey and Ireland and secure our Coasts and be in a defensive posture on the Land we might be Attaqued in a night Also there would be a necessity of an extraordinary Summer Guard at Sea his Majesty did use to apply 400000 l. vearly out of the Customes upon his Fleets the very harbour Expence which in Anchorage Mooring Docks and Repaires c. was 110000 l. per annum and he was now setting forth 40 Ships for the Summer Gard but if there were a disposition towards War there must be more Shipps or at least those must be more fully manned and more strongly appoynted and furnished the more especially if the Breach were sudden for otherwise our Trading Ships at Sea as well as those Ships and Goods in the French Ports would be exposed Now it is reasonable that the remander which was above and beyond the Kings ordinary Allowance should be supplyed by the Parliament and the Extraordinary preparations of this kind for the present could not amount to lesse than 200000 l. It was answered that it was a Mealancholy thing to think Jersey c. Were not well enough secured at least as well as in the year 1665 when we alone had War with the French and Dutch too and yet the Kings Revenue was lesse then than now That the Revenue of Ireland was 50000 l. per annum beyond the Establishment that is the Civill Military and all payments of the Government which if not sent over hither but disposed there would suffice to defend that Kingdom and they remember that about a moneth ago they were told by some of these Gentlemen that the French King would not take more Townes in Flanders if he might have them but was drawing off to meet the Germans who would be in the field in May and therefore it was strang he should be represented now as ready to Invade us and that we must have an Army raised and kept on our Islands and Land No they would not have that it would be a Great matter in the Ballance if the Kings Subjects were withdrawn from the French service and applyed on the other side and tell that were done that we did continue to be Contributary to the Greatnesse
is not sufficient vvithout a further Supply to enable your Majesty to Speak or Act those things vvhich are desired by your People We humbly take leave to acquaint your Majesty that many of our Members being upon an expectation of an Adjournment before Easter are gone into their several Countries vve cannot think it Parliamentary in their absence to take upon us the granting of money but do therefore desire your Majesty to be pleased that this House may Adjourn it self for such short time before the sum of 200000 l. can be expended as your Majesty shall think sit and by your Royal Proclamation to command the attendance of all our Members at the day of Meeting by vvhich time vve hope your Majesty may have so formed your Affaires and fixed your Alliances in pursuance of our former Addresses that your Majesty may be gratiously pleased to Impart them to us in Parliament and vve no vvayes doubt but at our next Assembling your Majesty vvill not only meet vvith a Complyance in the Supply your Majesty desires but vvithall such farther Assistance as the posture of your Majesties Affaires shall require in confidence vvhereof vve hope your Majesty vvill be encouraged in the mean time to speak and act such things as your Majesty shall judge necessary for attaining those great ends as ye have formerly represented to your Majesty And now the money Bill being Passed both Houses and the French having by the surrender of Cambray also to them perfected the Conquest of this Campagne as was projected and the mony for further preparations having been asked onely to gain a pretence for refusing their Addresses the Houses were adjourned April the 16th till the 21 of May next And the rather becuase at the same moment of their rising a Grand French Ambassador was coming over For all things betwixt France and England moved with that punctual Regularity that it was like the Harmony of the Spheres so Consonant with themselves although we cannot hear the musick There landed immediately after the Recesse the Duke of Crequy the Arch-Bishop of Rheims Monsieur Barrillon and a Traine of three or four hundred persons of all Qualities so that the Lords Spirituall and Temporall of France with so many of their Commons meeting the King at Nevv-market it looked like another Parliament And that the English had been Adjourned in order to their better Reception But what Addresse they made to his Majesty or what Acts they passed hath not yet been Published But those that have been in discourse were An Act for continuing his Majesties subjests in the service of France An Act of abolition of all Claymes and demandes from the subjests of France on Account of all Prizes made of the English at Sea since the year 1674 till that day and for the future An Act for marring the Children of the Royal Family to Protestants Princes An Act for a further supply of French mony But because it appears not that all these and many others of more secret nature passed the Royall Assent it sufficeth thus far to have mentioned them Onely it is most certain that although the English Parliament was kept aloofe from the businesse of War Peace and Alliance as Improper for their Intermedling Presumptuous Yet with these 3 Estates of France all these things were Negotiated and transacted in the Greatest confidence And so they were Adjourned from Nevv-Market to London and there continued till the return of the English Parliament when they were dismissed home with all the signes and demonstrations of mutuall 〈◊〉 And for better Preparations at home before the Parliament met there was Printed a second Packet of Advice to the men of Shaftsbury the first had been sold up and down the Nation and Transmitted to Scotland where 300 of them were Printed at Edenburgh and 40 Copyes sent from thence to England fariely bound up and Guilded to shew in what great Estmiation it was in that kingdome But this the sale growing heavy was dispersed as a Donative all over England and it was an Incivilty to have enquired from whence they had it but it was a Book though it came from Hell that seemed as if it dropped from Heaven among men some Imagined by the weight and the wit of it that it proceeded from the Two Lords the Black and the White who when their care of the late Sitting was over had given themselves Caviere and after the Triumphs of the Tongue had Establish those Trophes of the Pen over their Imprisoned Adversaries But that had been a thing unworthy of the Frechvvellian Generosity or Trerisian Magnanimity And rather besits the mean malice of the same Vulgar Scribler hired by the Conspirators at so much a shâ—…t or for day wages and when that is spent he shall for lesse mony Blaspheme his God Revile his Prince and Belye his Country if his former Books have Omitted any thing of those Arguments and shall Curse his own Father into the Bargain Monday May 21. 1677. The Parliament met according to their late Adjornment on and from April 16th to May 21 1677. There was no speech from the King to the Parliament but in the House of Commons This Meeting was opened with a verball message from his Majesty delivered by Secretary Coventry wherein his Majesty acquainted the House that having according to their desire in their Answer to his late Message April 16th driected their Adjournment to this time because they did alledge it to be unparliamentary to grant Supplyes when the House was so thin in expectation of a speedy Adjournment and having also Issued out his Proclamation of summons to the end there might be a full House he did now expect they would forthwith enter upon the consideration of his last message and the rather because he did intend there should be a Recesse very quickly Upon this it was moved That the Kings last Message of April 16. And the Answer thereto should be Read and they were read accordingly Thereupon after a long silence a discourse began about their expectation and necessity of Alliances And particularly it was intimated that an Alliance with Holland was most expedient for that we should deceive our selves if we thought we could be defended otherwise we alone could not withstand the French his purse and power was too great Nor could the Dutch withstand him But both together might The general discourse was that they came with an expectation to have Allyances declared and if they were not made so as to be imparted they were not called or come to that purpose they desired and hoped to meet upon and if some few dayes might ripen them they would be content to Adjorn for the mean time The Secretary and others said these Allyances were things of great weight and 〈◊〉 and the time had been short but if they were finisht yet it was not convenient to publish them till the King was in a readinesse and posture to prosecute and maintain them till when his Majesty could
such Alliances To which the Speaker re-assuming the Chair and this being reported the House agreed and appointed the Committee And Adjourned over Asâ—…nsion day till Friday In the interim the Committee appointed met and drew the Address according to the above mentioned Order a true Coppy of which is here annexed May it please your Most excellent Majesty YOur Majesties most Loyal and Dutiful Subjects 〈◊〉 Commons in Parliament assembled have taken into their serious consideration your Majesties gracious Speech and do beseech your Majesty to believe it is a great affliction to them to find themselves obleiged at present to decline the granting your Majesty the supply your Majesty is pleased to demand conceiving it is not agreeable to the usage of Parliament to grant Supplyes for mainteance of Wars and Alliances before they are signified in Parliament which the too Wars against the States of the Vnited Provinces since your Majesties happy Restoration and the League made in January 1668 for preservation of the Spanish Nether Lands sufficiently proved without ling your Majesty with Instances of greater antiquity from which usage if we might depart the president might be of dangerous consequence in future times though your Majesties Goodnesse gives us great security during your Majesties Raign which we beseech God long to continue This Consideration prompted us in our last Addresse to your Majesty before our last Recesse humbly to mention to your Majesty our hopes that before our meeting again your Majesties Alliances might be so fixed as that your Majesty might begraciously pleased to impart them to us in Parliament that so our earnest desires of supplying your Majesty for prosecuting those great ends we had humbly laid before your Majesty might meet with no impediment or obstruction being highly sensible of the necessity of supporting as well as making the Alliances humbly desired in our former Addresses and which we still conceive so important to the safety of your Majesty and your Kingdomes That we cannot without unfaithfulnesse to your Majesty and those we Represent omit upon all occasions humbly to beseech your Majesty as we now do To enter into a League offensive and defensive vvith the States General of the United Provinces against the grovvth and povver of the French King and for the preservation of the Spanish Nether-Lands and to make such other Alliances vvith such other of the Confiderates as your Majesty shall think fit and usefull to that end in doing which That no time may be lost we humbly offer to his Majesty these Reasons for the expediting of it 1. That if the entering into such Alliances should draw on a War with the French King it would be lest detrimental to your Majesties Subjects at this time of the year they having now fewest effects within the Dominion of that King 2. That though we have great reason to believe the power of the French King to be dangerous to your Majesty and your 〈◊〉 when he shall be at more leisure to molest us yet we conceive the many Enemies he has to deal with at present together with the scituation of your Majesties Kingdoms the Unanimity of the People in the Cause the care your Majesty hath been pleased to take of your ordinary Guards of the Sea together with the Credit provided by the late Act for an additional Excise for three years make the entering into and declaring Alliances very safe until we may in a regular way give your Majesty such further Supplies as may enable your Majesty to support your Allyances and defend your kingdoms And because of the great danger and charge which must necessarily fall upon your Majesties kingdomes if through want of that timely encouragement and assistance which your Majesties joyning with the States General of the United Provinces and other the Confederates would give them The said States or any other considerable part of the Confederates should this next Winter or sooner make a Peace or Truce with the French King the prevention vvhereof must 〈◊〉 be acknovvledged a singular effect of Gods goodness to us which if it should happen your Majesty would be afterwards necessitated with fewer perhaps with no Alliances or Assistance to withstand the power of the French king which hath so long and so succesfully contended with so many and so potent Adversaries and whilest he continues his over-ballancing greatness must alwayes be dangerous to his Neighbours since he would be able to oppress any one Confederate before the rest could get together and be in so good a posture of offending him as they novv are being joyntly engaged in a War And if he should be so successful as to make a Peace or 〈◊〉 the present Confederation against him it is much to be feared whether 〈◊〉 would be possible ever to reunite it at least it would be work of so much time and difficulty as would leave your Majesties Kingdomes exposed to much misery and danger Having thus discharged our duty in laying before your Majesty the Dangers threatning your Majesty and your Kingdomes and the onely Remedyes we can think of for the preventing securing and queting the minds of your Majesties People with some few of those Reasons which have moved us to this and our former Addresses On these Subjects We most humbly beseech your Majesty to take the matter to your serious Consideration and to take such Resolutions as may not leave it in the power of any neighbouring Prince to rob your People of that happinesse which they enjoy under your Majesties gracious Governement beseeching your Majesty to â—…fident and assured that when your Majesty shall be 〈◊〉 to declare such Alliances in Parliament We shall hold our selves obliged not only by our promises and assurances given and now which great Unaninity revived in a full House but by the Zeal and desires of those whom we represent and by the Interests of all our safetyes most chearfully to give your Majesty from time to time such speedy Supplyes and Assistances as may fully and plentifully answer the Occasions and by Gods blessing preserve your Majesty Honour and the safty of the People All which is most humbly submitted to your Majesties great Wisdome Friday May 25th 1677 Sir John Trevor reported from the said Committee the Addresse as 't was drawn by them which was read Whereupon it was moved to agree with the Committee but before it was agreed to there was a debate and division of the House It was observed and objected that there was but one reson given herein for declining the granting money and that is the Unpresidentednesse and as to one of the Instances to this purpose mentioned Viz. the Kings first Dutch War it was said to be mistaken for that the 2500000 l. was voted before the War declared But it was answred that if the Declaration was not before the grant of the money which Quaere yet 't was certain that the War it self and great Hostilites were before the money and some said there might be other reasons
would not give leave to a worthy Member offerring to speak but abruptly now the third time of his own authority Adjourned them without putting the Question although Sr. J. Finch for once doing so in Tertio Charoli was accused of high Treason This only can be said perhaps in his excuse That whereas that in tertio Car. was a Parliament Legally constituted Mr. Seymour did here do as a Sheriff that disperses a Riotous assembly In this manner they were kickt from Adjourment to Adjournment as from one stair down to another and when they were at the bottom kickt up again having no mind yet to Go out of Doors And here it is time to fix a period if not to them yet to this Narrative But if neither one Prorogation against all the Laws in being nor three Vitious Adjournments against all Presidents can Dissolve them this Parliament then is Immortal they can subsist without his Majesties Authority and it is less dangerous to say with Captain Elsdon so lately Si Rebellio evenerit in Regno non accideret fore contra omnes tres Status Non est Rebellio Thus far hath the Conspiracy against our Religion and Government been laid open which if true it was more than time that it should be discovered but if any thing therein have been falsly suggested the disproving of it in any particular will be a courtesy both to the Publick and to the Relator who would be glad to have the world convinced of the contrary tho to the prejudice of his own reputation But so far is it from this that it is rather impossible for any observing man to read without making his own farther remarkes of the same nature and adding a supplement of most passages which are here but imperfectly toucht Yet some perhaps may Object as if the Assistance given to France were all along invidiously aggravated whereas there have been and are considerable numbers likewise of his Majesties Subjects in the Service of Holland which hath not been mentioned But in Answer to that it is well known through what difficulty and hardship they passed thither escaping hence over like so many Malefactors and since they are there such care hath been taken to make them as serviceable as others to the Design that of those three Regiments two if not the third also have been new modelled under Popish Officers and the Protestants displaced Yet had the Relator made that voluntary Omission in partiality to his Argument he hath abundantly recompenced in sparing so many Instances on the otherside which made to his purpose The abandoning his Majesties own Nephevv for so many years in compliance with His and our Nations Enemies the further particulars of the French Depradations and Cruelties exercised at Sea upon his Majesties Subjects and to this day continued and tollerated without reparation Their notorious Treacheries and Insolencies more especially relating to his Majesties Affairs These things abroad which were capable of being illustrated by many former and fresh Examples At home the constant irregularities and injustice from Term to Term of those that administer the Judicature betwixt his Majesty and his People The Scrutiny all over the Kingdom to find out men of Arbitrary Principles that will Bovv the knee to Baal in order to their Promotion to all Publick Commissions and Imployments and the Disgracing on the contrary and Displacing of such as yet dare in so universal a depravation be honest and faithful in their Trust and Offices The defection of considerable persons both Male and Female to the Popish Religion as if they entred by Couples clean and unclean into the Ark of that Church not more in order to their salvation than for their temporal safety The state of the Kingdom of Ireland which would require a whole Volume to represent it The tendency of all Affairs and Counsels in this Nation towards a Revolution And by the great Civility and Foresight of his Holyness an English Cardinal now for several years prepared like Cardinal Poole to give us Absolution Benediction and receive us into Apostolical Obedience It is now come to the fourth Act and the next Scene that opens may be Rome or Paris yet men sit by like idle Spectators and still give money towards their own Tragedy It is true that by his Majesty and the Churches care under Gods Speciall providence the Conspiracy hath received frequent disappointments But it is here as in Gaming where tho the Cheat may lose for a while to the Skill or good fortune of a fairer Player and sometimes on purpose to draw him in deeper yet the false Dice must at the long run Carry it unless discovered and when it comes once to a great Stake will Infallibly Sweep the Table If the Relator had extended all these Articles in their particular Instances with severall other Heads which out of Respect he forbore to enumerate it is evident there was matter sufficient to have further accused his Subjects And nevertheless he foresees that he shall on both hands be blamed for pursuing this method Some on the one side will expect that the very Persons should have been named whereas he onely gives evidence to the Fact and leaves the malefactors to those who have the power of inquiry It was his design indeed to give Information but not to turn â—…ormer That these to whom he hath onely a puplick enmity no private animosity might have the priviledige of Statesmen to repent at the last hour and by one signall Action to expiate all their former misdemeanours But if any one delight in the Chase he is an ill Woodman that knows not the size of the Beast by the proportion of his Excrement On the other hand some will represent this discourse as they do all Books that tend to detect their Conspiracy against his Majesty and the Kingdome as if it too were written against the Government For now of late as soon as any man is gotten into publick imployment by ill Acts and by worse continues it he if it please the Fates is thence forward the Government and by being Criminal pretends to be sacred These are themselves the men who are the Living Libells against the Government and who whereas the Law discharges the Prince upon his Ministers do if in danger of being Questioned plead or rather Impeach his Authority in their own Justification Yea so impudent is their ingratitude that as they intitle him to their Crimes so they arrogate to themselves his Virtues chalenging whatsoever is well done and is the pure emanation of his Royal Goodness to have proceeded from their Influence Objecting thereby his Majesty if it were possible to the hatred and interposing as far as in them lies betwixt the love of his People For being conscious to themselves how inconsiderable they would be under any good Government but for their notorious wickedness they have no other way of subsisting but by nourishing suspitions betwixt a most loyal People and most gracious Soveraign But this Book though of an extraâ—…dinary nature as the case required and however it may 〈◊〉 caluâ—…iated by interessed persons was written with no 〈◊〉 intent than of meer Fidelity and Service to his Majesty 〈◊〉 God forbid that it should have any other effect than 〈◊〉 the mouth of all Iniquity and of Flatterers may be stopped and that his Majesty having discerned the Disease may with his Healing Touch apply the Remedy For so far is the Relator himself from any Sinister surmise of his Majesty or from suggesting it to others that he acknowledges if it were fit for Caesars Wife to be free much more is Caesar himself from all Crime and Suspition Let us therefore conclude with our own Common Devotions From all Privy Conspiracy c. Good Lord deliver us Errata Pag. 6 line 5 read at the same time p. 8 l 6 r. clave non erranie p. 8 l. 25 dele still p. 17 l. 〈◊〉 r. Feb. 15. 1676. p. 27 l. 20. r. 1800000. p. 30 l. 1 r. deference p. 43 l. 34 r. Eng. Declaration p. 48 l. 〈◊〉 r. claimed a povver p. 67 l. 20 r. obvious p. 74 l. 20 r. as p. 75 l. 34 35 r. rigging and unrigging p. 79 l. 2 r. these p. 85 l. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that others had of practising p. 114 l. 5 r. vvink p. 115 l. 27 28 r. and the vvhole house p. 120 l. 8 r. French Embassade p. â—…21 l. 23. 〈◊〉 carâ—…re p. 133 l. 28 r. more then ordinary FINIS Rush Coll. 171. 172 177 178.
dealt with him in all things most frankly That notwithstanding all the Expressions in my Lord Keeper Bridgmans Speech of the Treaty betvveen France and his Majesty concerning Commerce vvherein his Majesty vvill have a singular regard to the Honour and also to the Trade of this Nation and notwithstanding the intollerable oppressions upon the English Traffick in France ever since the Kings Restauration they had not in all that time made one step towards a Treaty of Commerce or Navigation with him no not even now when the English were so necessary to him that he could not have begun this War without them and might probably therefore in this conjuncture have condescended to some equality But they knew how tender that King was on that point and to preserve and encrease the Trade of his Subjects and that it was by the Diminution of that Beam of his Glory that the Hollanders had raised his Indignation The Conspirators had therefore the more to gratify him made it their constant Maxime to burden the English Merchant here with one hand while the French should load them no less with the other in his Teritories which was a parity of Trade indeed though something an extravagant one but the best that could be hoped from the prudence and integrity of our States-men insomuch that when the Merchants have at any time come down from London to represent their grievances from the French to seek redress or offer their humble adviâ—…e they were Hector'd Brow-beaten Ridiculed and might have found fairer audience even from Monsieur Colbert They knew moreover that as in the matter of Commerce so they had more obliged him in this War That except the irresistable bounties of so great a Prince in their own particular and a frugal Subsistance-money for the Fleet they had put him to no charges but the English Navy Royal serv'd him like so many Privateers No Purchase No Pay That in all things they had acted with him upon the most abstracted Principles of Generosity They had tyed him to no terms had demanded no Partition of Conquests had made no humane Condition but had sold all to him for those two Pearls of price the True Worship and the True Government Which disinteressed proceeding of theirs though suited to Forraine Magnanimity yet should we still lose at Sea as we had hitherto and the French Conquer all at Land as it was in prospect might at one time or other breed some difficulty in answering for it to the King and Kingdom However this were it had so hapned before the arrival of the Plenipotentiaries that whereas here in England all that brought applycations from Holland were treated as Spies and Enemies till the French King should signify his pleasure he on the contrary without any communication here had received Addresses from the Dutch Plenipotentiaries and given in to them the sum of his Demands not once mentioning his Majesty or his Interest which indeed he could not have done unless for mockery having demanded all for himself so that there was no place left to have made the English any satisfaction and the French Ministers therefore did very candidly acquaint those of Holland that upon their accepting those Articles there should be a firm Peace and Amity restored But as for England the States their Masters might use their discretion for that France was not obliged by any Treaty to procure their advantage This manner of dealing might probably have animated as it did warrant the English Plenipotentiaries had they been as full of Resolution as of Power to have closed with the Dutch who out of aversion to the French and their intollerable demands were ready to have thrown themselves into his Majesties Armes or at his Feet upon any reasonable conditions But it wrought clean otherwise For those of the English Plenipotentiaries who were it seems intrusted with a fuller Authority and the deeper Secret gave in also the English Demands to the Hollanders consisting in eight Articles but at last the Ninth saith Although his Majesty contents himself vvith the foregoing Conditions so that they be accepted vvithin ten dayes after vvhich his Majesty understands himself to be no further obliged by them He declares nevertheless precisely that albeit they should all of them be granted by the said States yet they shall be of no force nor vvill his Majesty maâ—…e any Treaty of Peace or Truce unless the Most Christian King shall have received satisfastion from the said States in his particular And by this means they made it impossible for the Dutch however desirous to comply with England excluded us from more advantagious terms than we could at any other time hope for and deprived us of an honest and honourable evasion out of so pernicious a War and from a more dangerous Alliance So that now it appeared by what was done that the Conspirtors securing their own fears at the price of the Publick Interest and Safety had bound us up more strait then ever by a new Treaty to the French Project The rest of this year passed with great successe to the French but none to the English And therefore the hopes upon which the War was begun of the Smyrna and Spanish Fleet and Dutch Prizes being vanished the slender Allowance from the French not sufficing to defray it and the ordinary Revenue of the King with all the former Aides being as was fit to be believed in lesse then one years time exhausted The Parliament by the Conspirators good leave was admitted again to sit at the day appointed the 4th of February 1672. The Warr was then first communicated to them and the Causes the Necessity the Danger so well Painted out that the Dutch abusive Historical Pictures and False Medalls which were not forgot to be mentioned could not be better imitated or revenged Onely there was one great omission of their False Pillars which upheld the whole Fabrick of the England Declarations Upon this signification the House of Commons who had never failed the Crown hitherto upon any occosion of mutual gratuity did now also though in a Warre contrary to former usuage begun without their Advice readily Vote no less a summe than 1250000 l. But for better Colour and least they should own in words what they did in effect they would not say it was for the Warre but for the Kings Extraordinary Occasions And because the Nation began now to be aware of the more true Causes for which the Warre had been undertaken they prepared an Act before the Money-Bill slipt thorrow their Fingers by which the Papists were obliged to pass thorow a new State Purgatory to be capable of any Publick Imployment whereby the House of Commons who seem to have all the Great Offices of the Kingdom in Reversion could not but expect some Wind-falls Upon this Occasion it was that the Earl of Shaftsbury though then Lord Chancellour of England yet Engaged so far in Defence of that ACT and of the PROTESTANT RELIGION that in due
time it cost him his Place and was the first moving Cause of all those Misadventures and Obloquy which since he lyes ABOVE not Under The Declaration also of Indulgence was questioned which though his MAJESTY had out of his Princely and Gracious Inclination and the memory of some former Obligations granted yet upon their Representation of the Inconveniencies and at their humble Request he was pleased to Cancel and Declare that it should be no President for the Future For otherwise some succeeding Governour by his single Power Suspending Penal Laws in a favourable matter as that is of Religion might become more dangerous to the Government than either Papists or Fanaticks and make us Either when he pleased So Legal was it in this Session to Distinguish between the King of Englands Personal and his Parliamentary Authority But therefore the further sitting being grown very uneasie to those who had undertaken for the Change of Religion and Government they procured the Recess so much sooner and a Bill sent up by the Commons in favour of Dissenting Protestants not having passed thorow the Lords preparation the Bill concerning Papists was enacted in Exchange for the Money by which the Conspiraiors when it came into their management hoped to frustrate yet the effect of the former So the Parliament was dismissed till the Tvventy seventh of October One thousand six hundred seventy three In the mean time therefore they strove with all their might to regain by the VVar that part of their Design which they had lost by Parliament and though several honourably forsook their Places rather than their Consciences yet there was never wanting some double-dyed Son of our Church some Protestant in grain to succeed upon the same Conditions And the difference was no more but that their Offices or however their Counsels were now to be administred by their Deputies such as they could confide in The business of the Land Army was vigourously carried on in appearance to have made some descent in Holland but though the Regiments were Compleated and kept Imbodyed it wanted effect and therefore gave cause of sufpition The rather because no Englishman among so many well-disposed and qualified for the work had been thought capable or fit to be trusted with Chief Command of those Forces but that Monsieur Schomberg a French Protestant had been made General and Collonel Fitsgerald an Irish Papist Major General as more proper for the Secret the first of advancing the French Government the second of promoting the Irish Religion And therefore the dark hovering of that Army so long at Black-Hearth might not improbably seem the gatherings of a Storm to fall upon London But the ill successes which our Fleet met withall this Year also at Sea were sufficient had there been any such design at home to have quasht it for such Gallantries are not to be attempted but in the highest raptures of Fortune There were three several Engagements of ours against the Dutch Navy in this one Summer but while nothing was Tenable at Land against the French it seem'd that to us at Sea every thing was impregnable which is not to be attributed to the want of Courage or Conduct either the former Year under the Command of his Royal Highness so Great a Souldier or this Year under the Prince Robert But is rather to be imputed to our unlucky Conjunction with the French like the disasters that happen to men by being in ill Company But besides it was manifest that in all these Wars the French ment nothing less than really to assist us He had first practised the same Art at Sea when he was in League with the Hollander against us his Navy never having done them any service for his business was only to see us Batter one another And now he was on the English side he only studied to sound our Seas to spy our Ports to learn our Building to contemplate our way of Fight to consume ours and preserve his own Navy to encrease his Commerce and to order all so that the two great Naval Powers of Europe being crushed together he might remain sole Arbitrator of the Ocean and by consequence Master of all the Isles and Continent To which purposes the Conspirators furnished him all possible opportunities Therefore it was that Monsieur d' Estree though a Person otherwise of tryed Courage and Prudence yet never did worse than in the third and last Engagement and because brave Monsieur d' Martel did better and could not endure a thing that looked like Cowardise or Treachery though for the Service of his Monarch commanded him in rated him and at his return home he was as then was reported discountenanced and dismissed from his Command for no other crime but his breaking of the French measures by adventuring one of those sacred Shipps in the English or rather his own Masters Quarrel His Royal Highnesse by whose having quitted the Admiralty the Sea service thrived not the better was now intent upon his Marrige at the same time the Parliament was to reassemble the 27th of October 1673. the Princesse of Modena his consort being upon the way for England and that businesse seemed to have passed all impediment Nor were the Conspirators who to use the French phrase made a considerable Figure in the Government wholly averse to the Parliaments meeting For if the House of Commons had after one years unfortunate War made so vast a Present to his Majesty of 1250000 l. But the last February it seemed the argument would now be more pressing upon them that by how much the ill sucesses of this year had been greater they ought therefore to give a yet more liberal Donative And the Conspirators as to their own particular reckoned that while the Nation was under the more distresse and hurry they were themselves safer from Parliament by the Publick Calamity A supply therefore was demanded with much more importunity and assurance then ever before and that it should be a large one and a speedy They were told that it was now Pro Aris Focis all was at stake And yet besides all this the Payment of the Debt to the Banckers upon shutting the Exchequer was very civilly recommended to them And they were assured that his Majesty would be constantly ready to give them all proofes of his Zeal for the true Religion and the Laws of the Realm upon all occasions But the House of Commons not having been sufficiently prepared for such demands nor well satisfied in several matters of Fact which appeared contrary to what was represented took check and first interposed in that tender point of his Royall Highuesse's Match although she was of his own Religion which is a redoubled sort of Marriage or the more spiritual part of its Happynesse Besides that she had been already solemnly married by the Dukes Proxcy so that unlesse the Parliament had been Pope and calmed a power of Dispensation it was now too late to avoide it His Majesty by a