of Rebellion or some extraordinary Commotions Then at last in a tender respect to his Peoples Safety more than to his own was his Majesty constrain'd to awaken his Authority to try what good Effect the Vigour of his Laws would have on those Offenders with whom all his repeated Mercy and Indulgence had so little prevail'd Yet such was then his Majesties hard Fortune so firmly combined were the Disaffected especially by their Prevalent Interest in packing the Juries of London and Middlesex that whilst his Majesty carefully endeavour'd to distribute Impartial Justice to all his Subjects he could not obtain the same Right Himself his Enemies still becoming more numerous and united in those very places where their desperate Enterprises against the Government were likely to be most sudden and pernicious Amongst divers other infamous Examples of this Nature was that of Colledge the Joyner For though the Criminal was so mean a Man and no other ways considerable but for his audacious Forwardness in affronting the Government yet his Majesty with all his Royal Authority could hardly prevail to have him brought to a Fair and Legal Tryal Nor had his Majesty been able at last to procure so much Justice to be done had not the Process been removed into another County where the Rulers of the Faction being less powerful that new and damnable Opinion and Practice of the Lawfulness of Equivocating and even of Perjury for the Good Old cause had not prevailed over the old and honest English Principles of Truth and Honour However though in the end his Majesties Justice got the better at that time yet it was defeated in a greater and more important Instance that of the late Earl of Shaftsbury who had been long and reasonably suspected and in the issue was manifestly discovered to be the chief Author and supreme Manager of all these Trayterous Contrivances against his Majesties Crowns and Life The said Earl his Majesty had formerly pardon'd inrich'd enobled and advanc'd to one of the highest Stations in the Kingdom by a long Succession of manifold Bounties endeavouring to render his Abilities and Experience in Business serviceable to his King and beneficial to his Country Yet so treacherous and undermining was his Genius so unmeasurable his Ambition so impatient of quiet and moderate Courses so much fitter he was to be the Instrument of a Tyrant than the Servant of a Just and Good Prince that after many hainous Infidelities and Offences committed by him and forgiven by his Majesty he was at length necessitated to discharge him his Service yet so as to leave him one of the most considerable Peers in the Kingdom for Title and Estate But his aspiring and revengeful Spirit could not brook so gentle a disgrace Wherefore having deservedly been dismiss'd the Court he presently attempted to set the Country directly against it Immediately he profess'd himself the most zealous true Protestant and the greatest Patriot Thereby slily insinuating his designs into the Heads of all Sects and Divisions in Church and State To them betraying some vilifying others maliciously interpreting all his Majesties Counsels Making those very Consultations and resolutions of State whereof he had been the chief Adviser when he was in Power to be the principal objections against the Government when he was displaced Thus he and his party went boldly on to disturb the publick quiet and to affront his Majesties Authority with the highest Insolence In Words and Writings defaming it as Arbitrary and Tyrannical whilst in Deeds he insulted over it as believing it to be weak and resolving to make it despicable And all this with a secure confidence not only of Indempnity but Success Knowing himself to be under the protection of Juries of his own appointment or approbation And therefore presuming he was far out of the reach of his Majesties just Indignation And so for a time it unhappily proved For being legally indicted of Crimes of the highest Nature though the Evidence against him was cleer and positive some of the Witnesses being the very same Men whose Testimony had been approved of in the prosecution of Oats's Plot And the very Original draught of a treasonable Association having been actually found in his Custody yet he could not be brought to a Lawful Trial by his Peers the Indictment being stifled by a shameful Ignoramus and that accompanied with so much Insolence that the very Ministers of his Majesties Justice were in much more danger than the Criminal and hardly escap'd the rude Assaults of his Confederates and Party However from so great a Violation of Common Right and of the Royal Dignity his Majesty gain'd this very considerable Advantage That thenceforth he plainly perceived the main Strength of all his Enemies Arrogance lay in their Extravagant Power to pack the City-Juries For what Treason might not the Earl of Shaftsbury securely Project or Ferguson Write or an Association Act against the Government whilst Goodenough and a setled Club was at hand with their Corrupt Pannels to Indempnifie and if need were to second and applaud their most Villanous Practices Wherefore his Majesty foreseeing how destructive in time the Effects of so great and growing a Mischief would be resolved at length after many Intolerable Provocations to strike at that which he had now found to be the very Root of the Faction This his Majesty and all wise and good Men perceiv'd could be no other ways done than first by reducing the Elections of the Sheriffs of London to their Antient Order and Rules that of late were become only a Business of Clamour and Violence And then to make Inquiry into the Validity of the City-Charter it self which an ill Party of Men had abused to the Danger and would have done it to the Destruction of the Government had they been suffer'd to go on never so little farther uncontroul'd In both these most just and necessary Undertakings the Righteousâ—â—â—â— of his Majesties Cause met with an answerabâ—â—â—uccess First notwithstanding all the Tuâ—â—â—â—uous Riots the Factious Party committed 〈◊〉 â—isturb the peaceable Issue of that Affair y 〈…〉 undoubted Right of the Lord Mayor's Nâ—â—â—â—ating the eldest Sheriff was restored and estabâ—â—â—â—ed And so the Administration of Justice once more put in a way of being cleared from Partiality and Corruption And then a due Judgment was obtain'd by an equal Process of Law against the Charter it self and its Franchises declared forfeited to his Majesty But though this happy Event of his Majesties Controversie with the disaffected part of the City of London was in all Humane probability the only effectual Course to provide for the future Peace and Stability of the Government yet it had like to have proved a present Occasion of its utter Ruine For when so many guilty Persons found that the great Point of the Sheriffs was resetled on its Antient Bottom and the City-Charter it self in hazard of being speedily vacated so that now there would be no farther evasion for them by any pretence of
their Fidelity to his Majesty the Surplusage being intended entirely to return and descend to his Family yet the said Earl abusing the great Freedom indulg'd him in Prison which he enjoy'd as largely after his Condemnation as before fled from his Majesties Mercy the knowledge of his own Guilt not suffering him to venture on that Clemency whereof he had before participated so plentifully when he was under the like Sentence of Condemnation The King however notwithstanding this new Provocation still retain'd the same benign thoughts of favouring his Wife and Children And before it was known that the said Earl had more Debt on his Estate than the full value of it amounted to which really was his Case his Majesty was graciously pleas'd in one Royal Largess to give thrice more of the Inheritance to his Posterity than their Father could lawfully have done had it never been forfeited But how ill he deserved or requited so many Acts of Grace and Bounty will appear by the sequel of his Behaviour after his Escape For in stead of doing what his Complices and Dependants gave out he intended that he would humbly cast himself at his Majesties Feet and implore his Pardon which he of all Men living had no reason to think desperate he is no where to be found but associating with his Majesties implacable Enemies in the Head of new Machinations of Treason employs his Liberty abroad in maintaining Traiterous Correspondences at Home with restless Malice exciting the wicked Conspirators of both Kingdoms to a fatal Union against the Life Government and Family of his Liege Soveraign and Benefactor And all this is to be proved upon him by Arguments as clear as the Sun by the Credit of his own Authentick Letters and by the plain Depositions of his principal Messengers and Agents in the whole Villany By this brief Recollection of the troubled State of Affairs and the Tumultuous Temper of ill Mens Minds in his Majesties Kingdoms of England and Scotland about the time when this treasonable Conspiracy was in agitation the impartial World may perceive from what destructive seeds of Sedition private Passions and Animosities under the disguise of Religion and the publick Interest so Monstrous a Birth was produced In the wonderful Discovery of which detestable Confederacy and in the happy Prevention of its dire Effects as all who have heard of it must acknowledge that a signal care of Gods Providence has appear'd for his Majesties and these Nations Preservation So his Majesty gives the Sacred Word and Protestation of a King that nothing has been done on his part but what was agreeable to that Royal Benignity and Natural Candor of his whole Life whereof all the World even his Enemies have had such undoubted Experience The Evidence was most of it deliver'd in his Majesties own presence The Examinations were taken by Men of unquestionable Reputation and Honour The whole Proceeding has been managed with all imaginable Integrity There has been no straining or extorting of Accusations to blemish the Fame of the Innocent No Temtation of Rewards proposed No Pardon assured before-hand for discovering or aggravating the Crimes of the Guilty Some Witnesses who offer'd themselves of whom there might have been any colourable Suspicion his Majesty wholly rejected Lest it should once again happen that the blasted Credit or needy Condition or profligate Lives of the Persons deposing should derogate from the strength of their Depositions and administer any the least doubt of Subornation Those Witnesses his Majesty admitted had been generally Men strongly prepossess'd in Conscience Zeal and Interest for that Party Men whose former avow'd Hatred of the Government was reason sufficient to gain them an absolute trust with any who studied to overthrow it They were not of desperate Fortunes Nor despicable Men. For the most part they separately and singly brought in their Discoveries Divers of them had little or no Conversation or Familiarity one with another There was no shadow or possibility of a combination between them all to discover yet such is the prevalence of Self-conviction and so great the Power of Truth that all their several Discoveries did perfectly agree with themselves and with each other in all material parts and circumstances It was therefore in the Summer of the Year 1683 a time when all his Majesties Dominions injoyed a settled Peace and profound security whilst the greatest part of the Neighbouring World was involved in Wars and Combustions that his Majesty and his Council were suddenly awaken'd with the surprizing Knowledge of this dreadful Conspiracy which had been laying very deep and broad for many Months before The Man whom God chose to make the first Discoverer was Josiah Keeling Citizen and Salter of London A Person of good Credit in the common Business of his Calling but otherwise a most perverse Fanatick so fiercely addicted to their Cause that he had been one of the busiest Sticklers in all the late Publick Oppositions against the Government Particularly he was the very Man who undertook and perform'd the most insolent Assault upon Authority that perhaps the Party ever attempted in full Peace which was the Arresting the Lord Mayor in open Day in the midst of the City of London for refusing to admit the pretended Sheriffs who had been chosen by those Meetings of the Factious in and about the City that the Law has since condemn'd as Unlawful and Riotous However by so eminent and bold a piece of Service together with his former approved Activity and Violence for the discontented Interest was Keeling judg'd by the chief Conspirators fitly qualifi'd to be admitted into their most private Consultations And accordingly thereafter they trusted him as one of their surest Confidents In so much that he was invited to make one of the Forty Miscreants whose proper part it was to Assassinate his Majesties and his Royal Highnesses Persons Of which Number after he had freely consented to be and had met and acted jointly with the rest for some time to prepare the cursed Work for a speedy Execution it pleased the Divine Goodness so to touch his Soul with the Horrour of so amazing a Crime that he could not rest Day nor Night till after much conflict in his Mind he had fully determin'd to discharge his Conscience of the Hellish Secret Wherefore having first Communicated some part of his burden to one Mr. Peckam his private Friend who had often before warn'd him in general of the dangerous course he was in by so deeply ingaging in all the former Seditious Intrigues he was by him directed to address himself to the Lord Dartmouth one of his Majesties Privy Council who remitted him to Sir Leolyn Jenkins Principal Secretary of State before whom he gave his first Information upon Oath and in due form of Law on the Twelfth of June in that Year But the intended Assassination upon the first disclosing of it appear'd to be so prodigious a Barbarity that his Majesty for some time gave but very
Riches and Honour of this Kingdom depend most on its Maritime Greatness However the Conspirators not in the least doubting but they should have sufficient Numbers to make a stand and give time to others to come in and declare their Rendezvouses were appointed in the chief Piazza's and most of the convenient Posts of London and Westminster whence they might at once Attack the Bridge the Exchanges the Guards the Savoy Whitehal and the Tower and they had ready in Town about 100 of Cromwel's old Officers to Head and Govern the mixt Multitude as soon as they should appear in Arms. At the same time a Party of 500 Horse was to come out of the Country to scour the Streets and immediately Barricadoes were to be made the Horses of Hackney-Coaches and other Strangers were to be seiz'd on the Horse-Guards not actually mounted to be surpriz'd in their several Stables the Churches to be broken open and used as St. Pauls was in the late times Ferguson had also often assur'd them he could promise for three hundred Scots to be ready at a day affirming that such a Number most of them Bothwel-Bridge Men resided about Town as Journey-men in divers Trades and were to be commanded by Ten or Twelve Gentlemen of that Nation Adding that some hundreds more went about the Country with Packs taking that way to get and carry Intelligence as well as for a Livelyhood Upon supposition of this Strength Whitehal was to be assaulted at once by one Party from the Strand by another on the back-side from Westminster and on the River by Water-Men in Boats with Hand-Granadoes And in confidence that his Majesty and the whole Court would speedily either be taken or fly there were distinct Parties assign'd to way-lay them on the Road either to Windsor or Portsmouth Their principal Aim being to surprize the Tower as a place most able to annoy them and where there lay great Magazines and Stores of Ammunition to furnish them they had many Debates of Stratagems proposed on that subject One was to be perform'd by Night by firing a parcel of Fagots to burn down the Gates whilst a strong Party without was to be ready to make a brisk Attack in the first Confusion of the Garison Another to be Executed about Two in the Afternoon thus One party privately Arm'd was to go see the Armory another the Lions The first to return into the Sutler's House by the Gate At the same time some were to come in Coaches on pretence of visiting the Lords then Prisoners Those in the Sutler's House were to Issue out and kill a Horse or overthrow a Coach just in the passage Then both parties to joyn and seize on the Guards and by a sign given upon the Coaches over-turning Two or Three Hundred Men lodg'd in Houses thereby were to come in and Second the rest Another was that some of the Conspirators as Constables and Officers of Justice should bring in others as Offendors and that several should enter feined Actions one against the other in St. Catharines-Court then held in the Tower On the Court Day others were to come in as Plantiffs Defendents and Witnesses who joyning with those that seem'd to come out of Curiosity all these might be seconded by a like party prepar'd from without the over-turning a Coach being likewise made use of in this Case Which soever of these ways should happen to be attempted The Lord Dartmouth Master-General of the Ordnance was immediately to be dispatch'd as one whose Bravery and Courage they fear'd would prompt him to Blow up the Great Magazine of Powder there and so Bury them with himself in the Ruine if he found he could not otherways resist them Besides securing to themselves by these means the Cities of London and Westminster which was their greatest Care they had also under Consideration the Raising Commotions at the same time in divers others parts of England Especially in those Counties of the West and North which they believed the Duke of Monmouth's Progresses had most inclined to their Factious Interest In every County some one Great Man was to put himself at the Head of the Rebellion and divers of them had their proper Stations appointed Particularly of Newcastle they made themselves sure and laid great stress upon it by reason of its vicinity to Scotland and the influence its Coal-Pits have on the City of London In Cheshire they depended on a numerous assistance that being the County in which the Earl of Shaftsbury had formerly advised the Insurrection should begin and a Free Parliament be declar'd for at the time of the Duke of Monmouth's going thither in one of his Mock-Triumphs Portsmouth was to be attempted by some going into the Town on pretence of seeing the place at the same time another Party coming in on the Market-day disguis'd like Country-Men and both together were to fall on the Guards From Taunton they expected great Numbers remembring the old Disloyalty of the Inhabitants which they had evidenc'd by a most remarkable insolence having presumed for some Years after his Majesties most happy Restoration to keep solemnly a Day of Thanksgiving to God for raising the Siege which his Father had laid against the Parliaments Rebellious Forces in that Town In Bristol they had secured a good Party which they doubted not might easily Master the City as manifestly appears by the full Confession of Holloway Citizen of Bristol which he freely made upon his very first Examination and afterwards confirm'd at his Execution when he could not have the least hope of Pardon to be obtain'd thereby At the same time when they were making these Preparations for an Insurrection the other design of Assassinating his Majesty and his Royal Highness kept equal pace with it It is manifest that some of these very Men had often before devised the Kings and his Royal Brothers Murder divers ways For besides what Hone confess'd of the Proposal to shoot them from Bow-Steeple and another Project of destroying them the next Lord Mayor's Day before which was laid aside upon notice that his Majesty and his Brother intended not to be there and besides Richard Rumbald's Invention of blowing up the Play-House when they should both be present the said Rumbald inform'd his Confederates that he and some of his Friends had resolv'd to cut off the King and the Duke in their Journey to or from Newmarket above ten Years before and had layn sometime in ambush to that purpose but without effect because as God would have it his Majesty and his Royal Brother then unexpectedly went the other way through the Forest which as the Wretch himself could not but observe they have seldom or never done before or since And now also upon this occasion divers ways of performing the Assassination were debated One was to make the attempt on them in St. James's Park as they were passing privately and sometimes almost alone to St. James's Another when they should be going down the River
less could be had the Earl would content himself That when the Deponent was ready to ship for England Steuart writ him word there was hope of the Mony That the Day after he arrived here he acquainted Sir John Cockran with the said Earls demands of the Sum of Mony and the Horse and Dragoons That Sir John Cockran carried him to the Lord Russel to whom the Deponent propos'd the Affair but being a stranger had no answer from him at that time That afterwards having met the Lord Russel at Shepard's House where Shepard told him the said Lord was come to speak with him about the Mony the Deponent reiterated to the Lord Russel the former proposition for 30000 l. and the 1000 Horse and Dragoons the said Lord answering They could not get such a Sum rais'd at the time but if they had 10000 l. to begin with that would draw People in and when they were once in they would soon be brought to more but as for the Horse and Dragoons he could say nothing at present for that behoved to be concerted on the Borders That the Deponent made the same proposal to Ferguson who was much concerned and Zealous in promoting it and told him he was doing what he could to get it effected always blaming Colonel Sydney for driving on designs of his own That the said Deponent met twice or thrice with Melvil Cockran Jerviswood Monroe the two Cambells of Cessnock Mongomery of Langshaw and Veatch where they discours'd of Mony to be sent to Argyle That Monroe Melvin and the Cessnocks were against medling with the English Conspirators as Men that would talk but would not do That therefore it were better for the Scots to attempt something by themselves That Veatch Jerviswood and this Deponent were for accepting the Mony That at one of their Meetings it was agreed one Martin late Clerk of the Justice Court should be sent into Scotland to hinder the Country from rising till they saw how Matters went in England That the said Martin did go at the Charge of the Gentlemen there met and was â—â—â—cted to the Lairds of Polwart and Torwoodâ—â—â—â— who sent back word It would not be so easie a matter to get the Gentry of Scotland to concur yet that afterwards Polwart writ to Monroe That the Country was readier than they imagined That the said Deponent had the Key of the Cypher agreed on in his keeping when a Letter came from Argyle to Major Holmes intimating that the said Earl would joyn with the Duke of Monmouth follow his Measures and obey his Directions That for the Decyphering of this he gave the Key to Veatch who was to deliver the Letter to Ferguson and he to the Duke of Monmouth To all this Carstares added in his Deposition of Sept. 18. 1684. That he himself had communicated the Design on foot to three famous English Conventicle-Preachers Griffith Mede and Dr. Owen who he affirm'd did all concur in promoting it and were desirous it should take effect which part of Carstares's Oath is the more remarkable because the King solemnly affirms that the Duke of Monmouth in his Confession to his Majesty and his Royal Highness did particularly name those very three Men as conscious of the Plot and withal declar'd in these very words That all the considerable Nonconformist Ministers knew of the Conspiracy An instance that alone if there were not many more such were a sufficient Instruction to all Separatists of what tender Consciences the Men are whom they chuse for the principal Guides of their Consciences Since after all this Mede deposed before his Majesty That he never heard of any Disturbance intended against the Government but that on the contrary he himself had once advised Ferguson upon discourse of some Libel of his then newly made publick That it was not their part to do such things Nay their great Oracle Dr. Owen being examin'd upon Oath before the Lord Chief Justice Jones and being ask'd Whether he had not heard of a horrid Plot against the Life of the King did not long before his Death take God to witness and subscrib'd to it with his dying Hand That indeed he had heard of such a Plot by the means of the Kings Proclamation but no otherwise But that which still farther undeniably confirms the Scotch part of the Conspiracy with the English was the Confession of William Spence a Scotch-Man and of Major Holmes an English-Man the former being a Menial Servant to the Earl of Argyle the other his long Dependent and Friend a Man active in the times of Cromwel and always disaffected to his Majesties Government Major Holmes being taken in London in the beginning of the Discovery with several of the Earl of Argyle's Original Letters about him and being examin'd confess'd He knew of the Earl of Argyle ' s proposing to some principal Men in England That for 30000 Pounds he might be furnish'd for his Expedition into Scotland That the English at last condescended to send him 10000 Pounds That though he had not personally converst with the Great Men who were to raise the Money yet he had often heard the Duke of Monmouth the Lord Gray the Lord Russel named That he himself was appointed by the Earl of Argyle to convey Letters to and from his Countess and others his Correspondents That he could not Decypher those taken about him but that William Spence could That this Spence went under the Name of Butler and was just then come over in the Packet-Boat from Holland to dispose of the Libel call'd The Earl of Argyle's Case This Deposition was given by Major Holmes on June 29. 1683. the very day that Spence being arrived from Holland was apprehended under the Name of Butler Besides this Evidence of Holmes concerning Spence it appears plainly by the Earl of Argyle's own words in several passages of his Letters taken in Holmes's possession especially in that part of the long Letter of the 21 of June which was not written in Cypher That the said Spence alias B. as he afterwards own'd himself for the Man knew his the said Earls Address and how to write to him adding That he could instruct Holmes in this Cypher else he had lost six hours Work Wherefore upon this assurance that Spence could Decypher the Letters he was examined before the King but not confessing any thing material and seeming resolv'd not to do it he was sent into Scotland where he was brought to discover the whole Intrigue acknowledg'd That he himself was the B. or Butler mention'd in the Letters That those superscrib'd to West and Robert Thomson were directed to Major Holmes under those false Names That he the said Spence could open the Letters and explain the way of reading them which he did and then justified upon Oath the Explanation he had made to be according to their true sense It happen'd also at the same time whilst Spence was under close Examination that Mr. Gray of Crechie a Scotch Gentleman
which I did When I came there Ferguson told me the same but that they wanted Money Upon which Sir Thomas desired me to Lend some and he would see me Repaid and added That if he had been in Stock he would have done it himself After this the King could not think himself in the least bound to go out of the way of the Law for shewing any distinguishing Act of Grace to Sir Thomas Armstrong especially when it is manifest there was scarce a Man living who had more Personal obligations to his Majesty than he had and yet no Man had made more ungrateful returns for them than he had done Nor could his Majesty forget how many other Persons and some very near his Majesty Sir Thomas Armstrong had been the Chief Instrument of perverting Upon which account his Majesty had reason to look on him as the Author of many more Treasons besides his own There is now scarce any thing material left unmention'd relating to the Proof either of the Assassination or Insurrection but what may be readily supplied by any intelligent Reader out of the Original Records of Informations and Confessions whereof by his Majesties Command there are Copies annext to this Narration for an Authentick Confirmation of its Truth Only the King is pleas'd that a more particular account should be given than has been hitherto made Publick of the Duke of Monmouth's rendring himself of the Reasons then moving his Majesty to grant him his Pardon and of what happen'd immediately upon it which occasion'd the said Dukes final Disgrace and Banishment from his Majesties presence As to the late Earl of Essex's Murdering himself in the Tower some few Days after his Imprisonment there His Majesty cannot think it becomes him to descend to any particular Justification of his own or his Ministers Innocency in that Calamitous Accident Though his Majesty is not Ignorant that divers most Malicious Pamphlets have been lately spread abroad in English and other Languages which with an unparellell'd Impudence have accus'd several Persons of eminent Virtue and Honour about his Majesty not sparing even his Royal Highness nay scarce freeing the King himself from being Personally Conscious of so Base and Barbarous an Action But after the Truth of the whole matter has been carefully examin'd and asserted by the Coroners Inquest whose proper Business it was and after Braddon has suffer'd the Punishment of the Law for Suborning even Children to bear false Witness in the Case and after the Notoriety of the Fact and all the Circumstances of it have been so clearly made out that there is not a Man in all England of an honest Mind or sound Sense who does in the least doubt it his Majesty disdains to enter into dispute with every Petulant Scribler or to answer the villanous Suggestions and horrid Calumnies contain'd particularly in the Libel call'd The Detection and in the Epitome of it the one written by Ferguson the other by Danvers both infamous Men and mortal Enemies to his Majesties Government and Person Yet his Majesty cannot but think it deserves Observation That when the late Earl of Essex had so many considerable Relations and Alliances with divers the greatest Families in the Kingdom and when neither his Lady nor Brother nor any one of all his Numerous Friends and Noble Kindred who were most nearly concern'd did ever express the least Jealousie of foul dealing or ill practise upon the said unfortunate Earl and when all Mens Eyes are open'd and scarce a Man of their own Party has any scruple in his Thoughts about that Business yet that now at last their old Advocate of Treason Ferguson should come forth in Print to out-face so clear a Demonstration of Truth and should try still to turn the Envy of that unhappy Stroak on the Court and the King and his dearest Brother It cannot but seem a prodigious Confidence and Presumption that Ferguson should be their chosen Champion in this Cause The Man who by so many Depositions stands Outlaw'd and Convict of having had the greatest share in the blackest part of the Conspiracy The Man in accusing whom almost every Witness both Scotch and English consented so that his Crimes have been proved by more than Twenty plain Evidences particularly the Duke of Monmouth himself having confess'd to his Majesty That in all their Debates Ferguson was always for Cutting of Throats saying That was the most Compendious Way That this very Ferguson should so far make good his own words at parting when he vow'd He would never be out of a Plot as long as he liv'd That now in his Banishment under the load of so many undeniable Treasons he should still appear as the great Patron of the Old Cause and should presume he can impose on the World in a matter of Fact so fully try'd so clearly prov'd and determined What can be a greater Impudence than that Ferguson should still expect that he could make any Man living believe the King himself or the Duke of York could ever be induced to practise his Compendious Way on the Earl of Essex However from this one instance the King hopes the World will judge how most Injuriously and Barbarously he has been used by his Adversaries in their other Libels against him in most of which it is well known the same venemous Pen was employ'd As for the deplorable end of the said Earl his Majesty freely owns there was no Man in his Dominions more deeply afflicted with it than himself His Majesty having been thereby deprived of an extraordinary Opportunity to exercise his Royal Clemency and to testifie to all his Loyal Subjects and Old Friends how highly he valued the Memory and Sufferings of the Lord Capel Next himself his Majesty thinks he is also bound in common Justice to declare That his entirely beloved Brother was most tenderly concern'd and griev'd at that lamentable Effect of the Earl of Essex's Despair His Majesty being best able upon his own knowledge to vouch for the Duke of York That he never deserv'd ill of the said Earl and was always most readily inclined for both their Fathers sakes to have forgiven whatever ill the Earl of Essex had done to him Now touching his Majesties Pardoning the Duke of Monmouth and what followed upon it the King is pleased this Account shall be given The World needs not be told with what extraordinary regret to his Majesty the said Duke was of late Years perverted from that sense of his Duty and Allegiance his Majesty might justly claim from him upon many more Obligations besides that of being his Subject But it was one of the first and principal Artifices of the Earl of Shaftsbury's Malice after his own disgrace at Court to be reveng'd on the King by afflicting him in so tender a part and by fly Insinuations to wrest from his Bosom a Person who he knew had so great a share in his Majesties Affections This was indeed a Talent peculiar to the Earl of Shaftsbury That
of all Men living he could most easily turn himself into all shapes and comply with all Dispositions having by long practise got the skill to cover his Hooks with Baits fitting every Humour The Covetous who are no small Number of the pretended Godly Party those he was wont to feed and deceive with hopes of Wealth and new Sequestrations The Ambitious with Praise and Vain-Glory The Nonconformist Zealots with Promises of Liberty in Religion sometimes not refusing to stoop lower and even to serve and assist the Pleasures and Debauches of Men that way inclin'd if he found them any way useful for his purpose Wherefore the said Earl observing in the Duke of Monmouth a Mind rash unsteady and ambitious soon made him an easie Prey to his wicked Subtilty disguised under fair and plausible Colours On the one side puffing up his Youthful Thoughts with a vain Ostentation of Honour and the Temptation of Fame to be gotten by Asserting and Defending his Countries Liberties and Religion always pretended by him to be in imminent danger whilst He was out of place On the other inflaming him with imaginary Suspicions of the Duke of York's irreconcileable Hatred to his Person Which was so far from having any real Foundation that on the contrary his Majesty who best knows does freely here testifie for his dearest Brother in this particular That the Duke of Monmouth till he made himself uncapable of his Friendship never had a more entire or fast Friend about his Majesty and there was scarce ever any Honour or Benefit conferr'd on him but it was obtain'd of his Majesty by his Royal Highnesses Intercession However by such groundless Jealousies and empty Conceits was the Duke of Monmouth insensibly drawn to desert his only true Interest and to give himself over to the Delusions of his Majesties mortal Enemies This the King apparently perceiving and foreseeing how in the event it would tend to the said Dukes inevitable Ruine his Majesty tryed by all imaginable ways of Kindness to cast forth the Evil Spirit in him and to rescue him out of their Hands At length when no milder course would serve his Majesty required him on his Allegiance to go beyond the Seas and there to remain till his farther pleasure was signified His Majesty still hopeing that at so great a distance the Poyson would be less effectual and that by his absence the said Duke would be kept Innocent of the Treasonable designs which his New Associates were furiously carrying on against the Government But in that expectation his Majesty was unfortunately disappointed The Duke of Monmouth presently shew'd how much his false Friends and Treacherous Flatterers had prevailed over his unwary Youth and how different they had taught him to be from the Obedience which at the same time was practised by his Royal Highness For the said Duke of Monmouth soon return'd into England contrary to his Majesties express Command The discontented Party having thus got him again and made him surer to themselves by this new Affront to his Majesty began now to take new Life and Vigour by his presence With insufferable Boldness and Contempt of Authority shewed him every where to the Rabble Leading him about with insolent Pomp through many Countries openly owning and crying him up as the Head of their Cause the unhappy Young-Man all the while not understanding that he was only a Property By these fatal steps he was at last brought into the most pernicious Counsels and undertakings And whilst nothing less was intended by his Tempters but the subversion of all that is well-setled and sacred in Church and State they deluded him into the very same Designs by popular shews and empty Names of the Protestant Duke the great Champion and Protector of the Privileges of the Subject and the Reformed Religion Which under his Majesty can never want any other Protector nor can ever stand in need of such Champions as many of late have vaunted themselves to be of whose Religion there can be given no better Account than of their Loyalty Such then was the state of things when upon the first breaking forth of this Horrid Conspiracy his Majesty with inexpressible surprize and Grief Found by undoubted Evidence the Duke of Monmouth very deeply engaged and therefore had but too just reason to put him into a Proclamation among the other Conspirators After that the said Duke had withdrawn himself from his Majesties Justice and so long was become incapable of his Forgiveness In this obstinate defiance the Duke of Monmouth continued till the Outlawry against him and other his Complices began to draw to an Issue Then his Majesty receiv'd from him the first Letter In which his Majesty fancy'd he saw a greater Spirit of Ingenuity than afterwards proved However finding in it so clear and full expressions of the said Dukes remorse for his former Disloyalty to his Majesty and Ingratitude to the Duke of York and so frank professions of his Resolutions to amend for the future joyn'd with the greatest Imprecations on himself if he should wilfully violate his promises therein made his Majesty did thereupon immediately return this Answer written with his own Hand that his Majesty might not be wanting on his part to lay hold on any good and probable Opportunity of reducing him to Reason and saving him from utter Ruine If the Duke of Monmouth desires to make himself capable of my Mercy he must render himself to the Secretary and resolve to tell me all he knows resigning himself entirely to my Pleasure This determinate Declaration of his Majesties Will drew from the Duke of Monmouth a second Letter wherein with vehement and pathetick Words he aggravates his Distraction and Torment for having offended his Majesty Confesses Himself in fault betray'd into fatal Mistakes misled into Mischiefs whereof he did not at first in the least suspect the Consequences declares That his Crime appear'd to him in so terrifying a shape that he preferr'd even Death before his present sense of it implores His Majesties Pardon no otherwise but if he may receive it by his Royal Highnesses Mediation professes To speak this not only in outward Form but with the greatest Sincerity in the World resigns Himself to his Majesties Disposal not only now but for the remainder of his Life engages Absolutely to put his very Will into his Majesties Hands for the future which he acknowledges had been so ill a Guide to him in times past concluding That till he could receive some comfortable Return to this his unfeigned Submission he was the most miserable disconsolate Creature living Upon the receipt of this second Letter the King being perswaded there could be no room left to question the Sincerity of a real Change in the Duke of Monmouth and knowing he had now enough in his Hands to overwhelm him with Confusion if it should prove otherwise his Majesty did thereupon without any more reserve immediately admit him into his Presence being introduced by Mr. Secretary
Jenkins When the Secretary was withdrawn there being none else present but his Royal Highness his Majesty can have no other Testimony besides of what past between them but God who knows all things And to the same God his Majesty appeals as well as to his dearest Brother Nothing doubting but if the Duke of Monmouth shall ever return to any sense of his Duty to God and his King he himself will be a third Witness of the Truth of what his Majesty now declares That the Duke of Monmouth with Signs of the most humble Contrition and sincere Sorrow for his past Miscarriages did then fully and freely acknowledge his having been Conscious of the Conspiracy and gave his Majesty much greater Light into many Particulars of it than he could possibly else have obtain'd 'T is true his Majesty does not deny the said Duke persisted to the last in renouncing any the least knowledge or thought of the Assassinating part Nor did his Majesty much press him on that side his Royal Indulgence easily inclining him to wish and to believe That One who had the Honour to be taken so near to him could not be guilty of so vile a Parricide But of the other part the Trayterous Design to seize on his Majesties Person and subvert the present Government by an Insurrection of that his Majesty must own and profess on the Word of a King The Duke of Monmouth made no scruple to confess his share and so largely to set it forth that there was little of the Conspiracy before known which the said Duke did not confirm and many Passages of it were before unknown which he reveal'd After this his Majesty made no delay to give him many certain Proofs of his entire Forgiveness of all past Offences and of his renew'd Affections and Royal Bounty to him for the future presently cherishing him near his own Person with his wonted Tenderness declaring in Council the perfect Contentment he had receiv'd by his Submission and ordering his Pardon to be dispatch'd with all expedition promising him withal at his earnest Intreaty That he should not be a Witness a Favour refused to the late Duke of Orleans in France upon the like occasion Yet no sooner was the Pardon compleated in due Form of Law but his Majesty and the whole Court was afresh Alarm'd with the continual resort to him of divers Persons whom his Majesty knew to be engag'd and had Proof sufficient to Convict them in course of Law if he would have produced it all To this at the same time were added many arrogant and impudent Speeches of his late Complices and Dependants saying That the said Duke had made no Confession but had asserted the Innocency of some that had suffer'd Which manifestly tended to vilifie the Truth of the whole Discovery and to bring a Scandal on all the Proceedings of his Majesties Justice Wherefore at last his Majesty was awaken'd and thought fit to put him gently in mind by what was so lately past of his danger of relapsing into the same Precipice out of which nothing but his Royal Goodness had recover'd him And for the better Security of the said Duke himself as well as of the Kingdom for the time to come his Majesty instantly demanded of him to give some such Satisfaction to the whole Nation in publick as he had but just before given to his Majesty and his Royal Highness in private The Duke of Monmouth seeming willing to comply with his Majesties most Gracious Desires all that his Majesty obliged him to do was to Write over and Subscribe a Letter which his Majesty himself was pleas'd so to word as not only to consult the Duke of Monmouth's Safety but also his Credit as much as could possibly stand with his Majesties own Safety or Credit For his Majesty permitted him in that Letter wholly to acquit himself of the Bloody Assassination and only required him to own again his part in the Insurrection And his Majesty leaves it to all the World to Judge whether in this Letter of his Majesties own prescribing he did not express the Duke of Monmouth's Guilt far more tenderly than the said Duke himself had done in his own Letters to his Majesty before his Pardon was Sealed This Letter the Duke of Monmouth readily Subscribed and Presented to his Majesty But his former ill Adherents and Corrupters still Flocking about him in great Numbers and Animating him to continue Faithful to his Old Friends of the Party assuring him he could not fail in little time to overbear all that should stand in his way by the Power of his recover'd and increas'd Favour by these and such like Mischievous Instigations they soon got so much the better of his unstable Mind as to overthrow all his new-made Vows of Loyalty Insomuch that presently after he came rashly to the King and earnestly intreated the foresaid Letter might be return'd him again having been instructed to pretend a Fear that some opportunity might be taken from it by his Enemies to blast his Reputation and perhaps to bring him in to give Evidence against others his Companions in the Conspiracy His Majesty had often before said and promised enough to him to free the Mind of any reasonable Man from such Jealousies But when all Protestations of that kind on his Majesties Part could have no effect and the said Duke still vehemently insisted That the Paper he had sign'd might be delivered him back his Majesty once for all told him he would never keep it against his will that he might not have the least occasion to say he was forced to write what he did But withal seriously warn'd him to consider what irreparable ill consequences on his part were likely to follow upon his obstinacy And therefore gave him time till the next Morning to deliberate calmly with himself what was to be his final Resolution The next Day the Duke of Monmouth appearing still more fixt in his perverse Demand his Majesty freely put the Letter again into his Hands but withal from that moment banish'd him his Presence and the Court. Nor can his Majesty reflect on the said Duke's undutiful Behaviour in the issue of this whole Affair without an extream Indignation to find that after so submissive and ample a Confession of his Crime both by VVriting and Speech he should not only give no other sign of his Repentance but that the very first use he should make of his Majesties Gracious Pardon for it was to take by it the advantage of entring more securely on a new course of Disobedience The King has thus condescended to set forth an Impartial Relation of the Beginning Proceeding and Defeat of that whole detestable Conspiracy His Majesty has so long delay'd the Publication of it chiefly in Consideration of many of the Criminals themselves how ill soever they may have deserv'd of him For the Law allowing them the space of a whole Year after the Outlawry to render themselves before they were to
Law to escape unpunish'd Then they concluded it was high time to bring their Devilish Purposes to a quicker issue and once for all to strike boldly at the Heart of the KING and Kingdom Particularly the Earl of Shaftsbury being conscious to himself of the blackness of his Crimes and of the Iniquity of the Verdict by which he had for that time escaped and finding he was now within the compass of the Justice he had so lately frustrated and contemn'd thenceforth gave over all his quieter and more plausible Arts of Sedition whereby he proudly bragg'd he should in time as his Expression was Leisurely walk his Majesty out of his Dominions and on a sudden betook himself to more precipitate Enterprises Alarming his Companions with a prospect of their common danger thence inflaming some to Insurrections others to Assassinations supposing now there was no way left for him or them to justifie their former Misdemeanors and Treasons but by attempting and succeeding in greater Mischiefs This was found by evident Proof to have been the principal rise and occasion of ripening the Horrid Conspiracy in the Kingdom of England Nor could there possibly have happen'd a stronger Justification of his Majesties Counsels in attempting to rectifie the City-Juries and Elections since it is apparent his principal Enemies laid so much stress on the unjust Power they had therein usurp'd that being once fairly driven from that Strength they immediately resolv'd nothing less than a bare-fac'd and avow'd Rebellion could repair the Loss their Party sustain'd by so great a Blow As for his Majesties Kingdom of Scotland it is notorious there has been long shelter'd in it a desperate Faction of furious Zealots that under the old Professions of the Cause of Christ and a purer way of Gospel-Worship has grown up by degrees to a Violation at last not only of all the Rules and Institutions of true Religion but of common Humanity For does not the whole Christian World at this day behold with Horrour that the most Villanous Tenets of the fiercest Scottish Covenanters and even of their Remonstrators have been out-done by their Successors and Disciples in the Field-Meetings and Armed Conventicles Have they not thence proceeded to all the Execrable Rage of Rapine and Violence In so much that some of them have lived and died glorying in the most barbarous Murders and basest Cruelties refusing obstinately with their last Breath so much as to pray for his Majesty or to say God save the King though by an unexampled Mercy they had their Pardons assur'd to them at the very place and moment of their Execution upon that single Condition And besides the remains of those Bloody Enthusiasts whose Principles are not yet entirely extinguish'd though their force has been twice vanquish'd in open Field by Gods Providence prospering his Majesties Arms It is certain also the Peace of that Kingdom has of late been much indanger'd by other great Numbers of Factious and Seditious Spirits who though at first they would not venture to incourage publickly the others declared Treasons yet stuck not secretly to Favour and foment their Cause and as the event infallibly proves would soon have Own'd and Headed their Fury had it prosper'd Wherefore the wise care of former Sessions of Parliament there having sufficiently provided by a due severity of Good Laws against the dreadful Consequences of continuing the Field-Meetings for the farther securing the Reformed Religion and the Antient Rights of the Crown and the Royal Family in that Kingdom it was judg'd adviseable by the Wisdom of his Majesties great Council the last Session of Parliament to appoint and Authorise a Solemn Test to be taken by all Persons in place of publick Trust or Power In that Session the Test was soon pass'd into an Act of State without any considerable opposition Though there were not wanting some turbulent Men in the Assembly who took that occasion of shewing how ill they were affected to the establish'd Government of their Country Which they could have no other inducement to be but either a desire of Commotions by reason of the desperate State of their own ill-spent Fortunes or Envy at the better Condition of Honester Men or some inveterate Contagion of Treason derived down to them from the last unhappy Age of Confusions Of that unquiet and seditious Party the chief and declared Head was the late Earl of Argyle who during the very sitting of the Parliament had by many indirect ways attempted to hinder his Majesties Service the said Earl and the then President of the Session and their Complices taking their opportunity in wording the Test to add thereto all the very same Clauses that have since given any Colour of scruple to themselves But when all his crafts for obstructing the Bill were defeated by the far greater Number of well disposed Members the Loyal Voters for it being at least Ten to one of the disaffected then no sooner was the Parliament adjourn'd but the said Earl of Argyle first at Edenburgh next in traversing several Shires did make it his Chief Business to insinuate every where into the minds of the Clergy and Laity the most malicious prejudices imaginable against the whole tenour of the Test. And afterwards on his return to Edenburgh he often presumptuously declared he would either not take it at all or take it only with a reserve of his own explanation which he put in Writing and dispers'd the contrivance of it being such as dissolves all the Obligations of the Oath and makes his own present Fancy and private Opinion the only Standard whereby he meant to be guided in all the publick Duties of his Loyalty and Allegiance At length his Majesties High Commissioner the Duke and the Privy Council of that Kingdom having been well inform'd of the said Earls seditious Carriage in City and Country and being fully confirm'd in their Judgments and Consciences of his Trayterous Purposes in that fallacious and equivocating Paraphrase on the Test which he own'd in their presence perverting thereby the sound sense and eluding the force of his Majesties Laws in order to set the Subjects loose from their Obedience and to perpetuate Schism in the Church and Faction in the State Upon these Grounds he was most deservedly Prosecuted by his Majesties Advocate before the Soveraign Justice-Court according to the known Laws of his Country and after a full and equal Tryal he was found guilty of Treason by the Learned Judges and a Jury not only of his Peers but also many of them his own nearest Relations Soon after Judgment given albeit the King was far from any thought of taking away his Life and that no farther prejudice was design'd against him but the forfeiture of some Jurisdictions and Superiorities which he and his Predecessors had surreptitiously acquired and most tyrannically exercis'd besides the disposal of part of his Estate to pay his just Creditors and some few moderate Donatives to those whom he and his Father had formerly ruin'd for
little Ear and slow Credit to this Information as little suspecting as deserving such usage from the worst of his Subjects Which generous Caution that his Majesty took not to be impos'd on by New Rumours of Plots and his Gracious Tenderness not to believe so ill of his very Enemies but upon certain Demonstration was one of the chief Occasions that divers of the principal Agitators and Managers of the whole business took the Alarm and got time to scatter and withdraw beyond the Seas However by Gods Providence continually watching over his Majesties and these Nations safety so many of the Traytors soon after fell into the Hands of Justice who did either voluntarily acknowledge their being Partakers of the Treason or were Convicted of it by Evident Proof that henceforth who ever shall pretend not to believe the Truth of the whole they must either be such as were Parties in the Design or so monstrously unreasonable as to believe there never can be a Real Plot against any Prince or State but what does actually succeed and take effect Thus much is certain of this Conspiracy and it is so remarkable and extraordinary that perhaps the like cannot be affirm'd of any other mention'd in all History that there was scarce a Man Attainted or Executed for it who did not more or less add some new Light to the several parts of the dark Contrivance either by a plain Confession of it or by their very manner of denying it and by the weakness of the Subterfuges whereby they endeavour'd to palliate their Crimes Upon the whole Matter though his Majesty doubts not but the Treasonable Infection was in some degree or other spread into most Quarters of these Kingdoms amongst the Ringleaders of the Republican Clubs and lawless Conventicles in Town and Country there being no reason for any Man to think otherwise since it was the usual boast of their principal Factors That more than Twenty Thousand Persons were made privy to the very beginnings of it before the late Earl of Shaftsbury's Flight Yet his Majesty utterly abhorring that bare Suspicions though never so probably grounded should prevail to conclude any Man Guilty has resolved no Reflection shall be made on the Fame of any but only such whose part in it was made out by positive Testimony And in the Kingdom of England besides the Earl of Shaftsbury who during his time was the Prime Engineer in contriving and directing all the several Motions and Parts of the whole Conspiracy next under him the Persons who are already Judicially found to have been deeply concern'd as Actors some in the Insurrection part others in the Assassination divers of them in both together are these The Duke of Monmouth whom the Factious Party had long Corrupted and Alienated from his Duty and Gratitude to the King and his Royal Highness by suggesting and increasing in him groundless Fears and poys'ning his Mind with unjust and forbidden Hopes The Lord Gray of Wark who for some Years had been ingaged in the most furious Designs of the Faction of late especially after he found that the Wickedness of his private Life could neither be so well hidden or go unpunish'd in a quiet State as in publick Disturbances The late Earl of Essex whose dark and turbulent Spirit and insatiable Ambition had carry'd him on to be one of the Principal Authors of all the late Distractions in Publick Councils and Popular Heats against the Government Till after many such ill Practices unworthy the Son of such a Father God left him at last to fall into this Precipice and permitted him to punish himself for it more severely than the King could ever have found in his Heart to do had he but given his Majesty time to make use of the excellent Goodness of his Nature The Lord Howard of Escrick who had always been a busie Promoter of Fanatical and Republican Projects for Alterations in Church and State and was therefore for a time the second Favourite of the Disaffected whilst he was Imprison'd with the Earl of Shaftsbury Nor did they ever make any Objections against the Honesty of his private Life till he came to the honestest part of it The Lord Russel a Person carried away beyond his Duty and Allegiance into this Traiterous Enterprise by a vain Air of Popularity and a wild Suspicion of losing a great Estate by an imaginary return of Popery whereby he was the more easily seduced by the wicked Teachers of that most Unchristian Doctrine which has been the cause of so many Rebellions and was so conformable to his Presbyterian Education That it is lawful to Resist and Rise against Soveraign Princes for preserving Religion Colonel Algernoon Sidney who from his Youth had profest himself an Enemy to the Government of his Country and had acted accordingly As he lived so he died a Stubborn Assertor of the Good Old Cause Mr. John Hambden the Younger who has renew'd and continued the Hereditary Malignity of his House against the Royal Family his Grandfather having been the most Active Instrument to widen the Breach between the late Blessed KING and the seduced part of his People The Usurper Cromwel often own'd That Mr. Hambden was the very Man who advised him to oppose the Justice and Honour of his Majesties Cause with an affected Zeal of Conscience and pure Religion Sir Thomas Armstrong a Debauch'd Atheistical Bravo one of those who with an Hypocrisie peculiar to this Age would have pass'd for the most forward Reformers of Church and State whilst they themselves both in their Practise and Opinions were the greatest Corrupters of Virtue and all Good Manners Lieutenant Colonel Walcot an Old Officer in Cromwel's Army who after Pardon and Indemnity receiv'd and a plentiful Estate secured to him by his Majesties most Happy Return yet was actually ingaged in all the Plots against the Government ever since Particularly in that of Ireland some Years ago to surprize the Castle of Dublin He was Introduced by the Lord Howard under the Character of a Stout and Able Officer into a strict Familiarity with the Earl of Shaftsbnry from whom he never after parted till his Death accompanying him in his Flight into Holland and returning thence with his Corps he and Ferguson having this peculiar Mark of his Kindness to be named Legatees in his Last Will and Testament as his special Friends Colonel John Romzey who had gotten Credit abroad in Portugal by his Courage and Skill in Military Affairs He was recommended to the Earl of Shaftsbury as a Soldier of Fortune resolute and fit for his turn in any desperate Attempt By his Majesties Favour upon his Royal Highnesses Intercession he got possess'd of a very considerable Office in the Customs of Bristol which having sold he afterwards most ungratefully became the said Earls entire Creature and Dependant Nor was he ever a profess'd Papist as since his Confession the Party has given out that he was according to their wonted Impudence of Lying Thomas Shepard
whether English or Scotch the Man to whom next the late Earls of Shaftsbury and Argyle belong'd the chief place and precedence in the whole Diabolical Design was Robert Ferguson a Scotch-Man he had been divers Years a fierce Independent-Preacher in the City of London and had long Brandish'd his Poys'nous Tongue and Virulent Pen against the Government He is manifestly convicted to have had a Hand in the most Scandalous Libels of those Times And was always particularly cherished magnified and maintained by the Party for his peculiar Talent in aspersing the Government and reviling his Majesties Person So that upon all Accounts of his restless Spirit fluent Tongue subtil Brain and hellish Malice he was perfectly qualifi'd to be the great Incendiary and common Agitator of the whole Conspiracy and after Shaftsbury's Death it cannot be denied but he was the Life and Soul of all especially for the carrying on of the Assassination These Persons appear hitherto to have been the principal Contrivers or Instruments of the whole Treason in the Kingdoms of England and Scotland Divers others there are concerning whom more than conjectural Proofs may be given of their being engaged in it But his Majesty is willing to spare particular Names as far as may stand with the Necessary and Just Vindication of his Government It may suffice that of these his Majesty has here allowed to be mention'd the World is abundantly satisfied that the several Shares they undertook in this Conspiracy were very agreeable to their former well known perverse Principles and declared Disaffections to the Government It is therefore certain that in the Year 1682 before and especially after Midsummer-Day when the great Business of Electing the City Sheriffs came of course to be Agitated the whole Factious Interest in and about the Town prepared to employ the Main of their Power and Craft in preventing the Swearing of the True Sheriffs on the Michaelmas-Day ensuing All which time nothing was omitted by the Disloyal Citizens and great Numbers of Strangers unduly mingled with them in all their Assemblies to elude or terrifie the Honest Zeal of the Loyal and to deceive and gain over the doubtful Members of the City Whether by direct or indirect ways it matter'd not For just about that time the New and Devilish Invention came to be most in Vogue by which they made the receiving all Oaths and taking the very Blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper to be only an Instrument for the promoting their pretended Godly Designs Wherefore in that space of time all imaginable prophane and seemingly holy Cheats and Prevarications were practis'd All sorts of Arms never before known to be procured in such Quantities by private Persons such as Blunderbusses Steel Armor cover'd with Silk and the like were carefully sought after and bought up The most improbable false Rumors fill'd every Street That now all true Protestants were to be Massacred in an instant That such Sheriffs were Nominated as had consented to be the Executioners That Popery was speedily to be Introduced barefac'd and in Triumph That all faithful Adherents to the Government were but Papists in Mascarade Popery being still made the Word of Alarm to excite and exasperate the Populace Though it is manifest the Authors of all those Clamours against Popery never intended its Suppression For that would not have consisted with their Design which was by the Popular Dread of it upon all Occasions to shake the Crown and undermine the Church of England The Truth is to such a heighth of Arrogance were things grown on their side that whoever shall indifferently reflect on the dangerous Devices slanderous Reports and Writings and other violent Emotions of the whole Party that Summer in the City they will have just cause to conclude that the course of their Proceedings was not so much a Civil Struggle against their Fellow-Citizens for Victory in the Peaceable Choice of Two subordinate Officers of Justice as a Decisive Contention for a Mastery over the whole Government Yet however cunningly the Train was laid it took no effect but on themselves The Noise and Rage of all their Mutinous Routs in Taverns and Coffee-Houses vanish'd into Air. Sir John Moor the Lord Mayor together with the greater number of wiser richer and better Citizens understood rightly and stuck unmoveably to the Kingdoms and their own true Interest Mr. North and Mr. Rich were quietly admitted and sworn Sheriffs at the appointed time with the usual Solemnities Immediately after this the very same Night the Earl of Shaftsbury privately withdrew from his own House redoubling his old Exclamations of Popery Tyranny Superstition Idolatry Oppressions Murders Irish Witnesses of whose Subornation no Man in the three Kingdoms could have given a more exact account than himself Whilst he thus lay secret in the City Romzey Walcot Ferguson Goodenough and others his Complices daily frequenting him they applied themselves with all diligence to expedite the Rebellious Work before projected His Vain-glory and the Conceit of his own Dexterity and his former constant success in making Confusions inclining him to fancy what his Flatterers suggested that the whole City and Kingdom were at his beck and upon the holding up of his Finger would presently rise in Arms to extirpate the two Brothers Slavery and Popery as they were lewdly wont in their private Debauches to style the King and his Royal Highness The said Earl of Shaftsbury had some time before set on foot a Treaty with the Earl of Argyle who after his escape out of Edenburgh-Castle came privily to London held divers Meetings with the Confederates and offer'd that for 30000 l. Sterling he would make a sturdy Commotion in Scotland But the Sum of Money demanded being so considerable and many other Scruples started and unforeseen Difficulties rising which could not so presently be removed as Argyle's pressing danger required he first quitted the Field and retired into Holland with intention there at a greater distance and more security to renew and prosecute the same Proposal About that time also both ways of destroying these Kingdoms were brought under their Consideration the general way of an Insurrection and the more compendious way as they call'd it of Assassinating the King and Duke in their return that October from Newmarket The Insurrection was instantly promoted on all Hands in Town and Country But the Assassination having then not been soon enough thought on went no farther than Discourse to be afterwards resumed and more deliberately provided for against the next Opportunity In the mean while the long expected Michaelmas-Day being thus calmly pass'd and the New Sheriffs having taken a peaceable Possession of that Power whose influence on the whole Nation the said Earl of Shaftsbury well understood no Man better Then he began on a sudden to have a quicker and sharper sense of the urgent State of their common Affairs especially of his own Imminent Peril and to accuse the rest of the Confederates of backwardness if not of Treachery in the
soon after died in Amsterdam having few or no other Companions of the last part of his Life but several miserable English and Scotch Fugitives who had formerly been the Instruments of his Trayterous Practises and were forc'd to fly the stroke of Justice on that Account So that he could not but know that all those about him in his Sickness and Death had Just reason to hate and curse him as their principal Seducer and cause of their Ruine Nor can such an end of such a Life be justly reflected on without a special Adoration of the secret Counsels of the Divine Providence That he who a little before was generally esteem'd the Head and Protector of all the Factious in the Kingdom whom he vouchsafed to distinguish and Honour by the Title of Worthy Men and the Terror and Scourges of all the Good and the Loyal whom he mark'd out and design'd for Destruction and Slaughter under the Name of Men worthy He who in his own conceit had so much the absolute disposal of the Hearts and Hands of all the Disaffected as to be able to subvert the Establish'd Government when he pleased and had really once gone very far to effect it had not his own Presumption Defeated his Malice That this very Man having seen all his hopes and contrivances dash'd in Pieces at home should have nothing left to do but to take shelter in that Commonwealth which in his former Greatness he had so mortally provok'd there to lead a Life of Disgrace and Misery and to Dye neglected in a Country of which he had formerly express'd so great a Hatred And yet still retaining so much Venemous Rancour against his most Gracious Master as to profess with his last Breath that he had deservedly receiv'd his Deaths Wound meaning the bruise in his Side and now his Death in that Country where he had done his own so much Mischief When he was one of the Commissioners sent thither in the Year 1660 to invite his Majesty home freely and without Terms After this though the Earl of Shaftsbury was gone yet the impressions of Mischief he had left behind on the minds of the Confederates would not so easily vanish They soon reflected on his last advise that so many having been made Conscious to the Design they should certainly find more safety in pushing it on boldly than in too late a Retreat Upon this immediately they recover'd their Spirits and Resolution which his hasty flight had somewhat Damp'd thenceforth they renewed their Consultations with greater vigour than before The Principal Managers having their frequent Meetings as also the inferior Instruments theirs whilst some of each Number gave secret intimations to the other of what was passing in their separate Assemblies Of the great Council of Six the Consults that have been hitherto plainly testifi'd and sworn to were those at Mr. Hambdens at the Lord Russels and at Mr. Shepherds The Subordinate Cabals were kept in divers places in and about the City As in the December of that Year at Colonel Romzey's House in the Soho Square in the next February at West's Chamber in the Temple about which time it was agreed that Ferguson should be sent for as he was and came over accordingly Then their Meetings were more frequent upon the Kings being at Newmarket and after Usually at West's Lodgings for the conveniency of its situation Or in common Taverns As at the Miter within Aldgate The Horse-Shooe on Tower-Hill The Fortune at Wapping The Syracusa-House The Kings-head in Atheist-Alley the Salutation and the George in Lumbard-Street on June the Twelfth the very Day of the Discovery they met at the Sun-Tavern behind the Exchange on June 14 they met at Bailly of Jerviswood's Chamber and again in Bartholomew-Lane and at the Green-Dragon on Snow-hill and so continued to do some where or other till they totally dispers'd from Walcot's Lodging in Goodman's Fields Their Meetings being so generally in places of Publick Entertainment Therefore to prevent the Observation of Drawers and Servants they often discours'd of their whole Bloody Business in a Canting Language of their own making The King was sometimes call'd the Church-Warden of Whitehall The King and Duke the Black-Bird and the Gold-Finch the Captain and Lieutenant Provisions of Arms as Blunderbusses Muskets Pistols were talk'd of under the disguis'd Names of Swan-Quills Goose-Quills Crow-Quills The Insurrection was styled the General Point the Assassination the Lopping Point and striking at the Head And because several of the Conspirators were Lawyers it was sometimes agreed that their wicked intentions against the King and the Duke should be veil'd under the terms of Disseising him in Possession and barring him in Remainder At other times the Killing of both pass'd for executing a Bargain and Sale as being a short manner of conveyance and the Rising in Arms as the longer and more tedious way for executing a Lease and Release The Villains thus wantonly abusing the Innocent Terms of the excellent Profession of the common Laws of England to cover their horrid Designs against his Majesties Person and Crown whose Preservation and Prosperity is the great end and sense of all those Laws But for the most part when they were free and amongst themselves they discours'd of the whole contrivance in plain Language and without reserve their common Healths being such as these To the Man who first draws his Sword against Popery and Slavery in defence of the Protestant Religion Confusion to the two Brothers Popery and Slavery explaining the same to be meant of the Royal Brothers of Whitehal And when some of them who were less harden'd in Cruelty express'd some kind of consternation and dread of the Consequences of so dire a Stroak and desir'd the Infamy of it might be thrown on the Papists others particularly Ferguson declared They thought the Action too good to have the Papists carry away the Honour of it and often applauded it as a Glorious Work That it would be an Admonition to all Princes to take heed how they Oppressed their Subjects That he hoped to see the Fact rewarded by a Parliament and the Actors in it have the Honour of Statues erected to them and the Title of Preservers of their Country So also when Nelthrop Walcot and some few others readily declar'd themselves willing to joyn in the Insurrection but shrunk a little at first at the horrour of the Assassination R. Rumbald and R. Goodenough with monstrous impiety maintain'd the Kings and the Dukes Murder as the more pious Design of the two and recommended it as keeping one of the Ten Commandments and the best way to prevent shedding Christian Blood In these their private Cabals the Matters they promiscuously treated of were either a general Insurrection or the Assassination of the Kings and his Royal Highnesses Persons Of the Assassination divers ways were consulted till they fix'd on that of the Rye The Insurrection was proposed to be made at the same time in England and Scotland The
Cockran was forc'd to present himself before the Council of Scotland Afterwards he and his Companions came to Town and the Negotiation was warmly set on Foot In the mean time Cockran and the rest often attended at Windsor to make their Court one day kissing the King 's and the Duke's Hands the next consulting with the English Cabal all in shew to sollicit the Interest of Carolina whilst they really intended a Business of far greater Importance which was in their own Language To see what could be done for the delivery of the Nations At the same time the late Earl of Argyle for his part had deputed some of his Confidents hither to attend the issue of those Debates to represent his Proposals and to transmit to him the Results of their Counsels the whole correspondence between them being veil'd under a style of Merchandize The Treaty being thus begun some general Things were easily agreed on by all sides The Scots were to rise first the English to have notice of it with all possible speed then to second them here The Rebellion in both Kingdoms to be before Harvest Arms and Ammunition to be transported out of Holland Argyle to go with them and Head the Rising These things being quickly pass'd over some other Matters endured a longer contest and one unseasonable Dispute had like to have broken all The English Commissioners requir'd They should presently declare for a Commonwealth and the Extirpation of Monarchy which the Scots refused protesting The generality of their People would never hearken to that at first But the great Point on which the Conclusion of the whole depended was the Sum of Money to be rais'd and intrusted with the Scots to lay out The Sum at first demanded was Thirty Thousand Pounds that sunk afterwards to Ten Thousand But for the raising of this the English made several delays and scruples being willing to trust their Scotch Brethren with any thing but Money Upon this Contrast the Treaty was often on and off the Scots talking high objecting to the English That they were only good at Fire-side Plotting whereas for their part they were resolv'd to rise though they had nothing but their Claws to fight with At length they came to an Agreement That the Ten Thousand Pounds should be rais'd and put into the Hands of Shepard who was to return the Bills for it by Ferguson or Baillie to Amsterdam After this manner was the whole Conspiracy going on when the Discovery overtook it For now the happy Twelfth of June was come Josiah Keeling had sworn to his first Deposition before Mr. Secretary Jenkins But finding that his Majesty and his Ministers were exceeding diffident of his single intelligence in a business of so vast a Moment he consider'd which way he might best strengthen his Evidence To that end he prevail'd with Goodenough who had an entire confidence in him that his Brother John Keeling might be admitted into the next Meetings of the Conspirators he himself promising to be answerable for his Secrecy This was done and thereupon both the Brothers gave in their joint Testimony upon Oath on the 14 of June touching the progress of the Treason So they continued to do for a day or two more till John Keeling let fall some Expressions to his Relations which they whisper'd about among their Fanatick Acquaintance That as they call'd it something was working which might do mischief to honest People That being rumour'd about came quickly to the Knowledge of some of the Conspirators Upon this they immediately assembled and Rumbald declar'd his Fears of Keeling's Treachery and that were he sure of it he would instantly get him knock'd on the Head But Keeling coming in amongst them somewhat cleer'd himself and allay'd their Jealousie by many asseverations of his fidelity to the common Cause Soon after they met again when it was suggested that Keeling had been seen about Whitehal and on the Road to Windsor where his Majesty then resided But Keeling still frequenting their Company renew'd the Protestations of his Innocency pretended his going to Whitehal was upon other business complain'd he was in great want of Mony upon which one Hundred Pounds the Sum he told them he stood in need of was presently rais'd and lent him that Evening lest his Want should be a Temptation to him But their distrust increasing every Hour it was mention'd to Keeling that the best way for him to render himself unsuspected would be to withdraw out of Town for some short time Rumbald offering him his House to retire to Keeling still endeavour'd by many imprecations to quiet their Suspicions of him but persisted that he could not go into the Country by reason of urgent business of his Calling and Family So for that time he got safe out of their Hands which they afterwards extreamly regretted some of them owning that it was their purpose if they could have got him abroad to have kill'd and privately Buried him But shortly after this they heard that Warrants were out against divers of them and therefore agreed to meet on Monday June 18th at Walcot's Lodgings in Goodman's-Fields to consult once for all what should be done for their common safety Accordingly at that time there met Walcot Norton Wade Romzey the two Goodenoughs Nelthrop West Ferguson Their Opinions were very different what course was to be taken West once proposed that all should stand their ground and by a bold Denial and their Personal Credit out-face and baffle Keelings single Word But the consciousness of their own Guilt would not let them harken to that advice Wade and some others offer'd as Armstrong had done to some of them just before That things should still be put to a Push that if a Thousand Men could be got together and the Duke of Monmouth in the Head of them something might still be done At the worst it were better for them to Dye like Men than to be hang'd like Dogs But that was also rejected as a wild and desperate course Romzey and the rest alledging their Peoples Hearts were down and accusing their great Men for want of Spirit and Resolution Then they determin'd upon flying and had some thoughts of hiring a Vessel immediately to transport them into Holland But finding on Inquiry that the Boat could not be clear'd at the Custom-House till next Morning nor at Gravesend till the Afternoon they concluded that would be too late and therefore every Man was left to shift for himself So they separated in much Terrour and Confusion Only Walcot according to the constant sacrilegious way of the whole Party to intitle the Almighty to their greatest Impieties said at parting God would yet deliver the Nation though he did not approve of the present Instruments And Ferguson to keep up the same Character of remorseless Villany to the last took his leave of them in these very words That he perceived they were Strangers to this kind of Exercise but he had been used to fly and
compleat Deduction of the said Earl's part in the design'd Insurrection Immediately after the Cyphers this follows in words at large The Total Sum is 128 Guilders and 8 Stivers that will be paid you by Mr. B. Which last Clause was the Rule whereby Mr. Gray found out and Spence discover'd the Decyphering of the whole Letter and it was accordingly done by each of them apart by making eight Columns and placing 128 words in each Column descending as upon view of the Authentick Printed Copies will appear to any Man beyond all Contradiction In short this Letter of the late Earl of Argyle's was known by many of the Privy Council there to be his Hand and his own Lady upon Oath deposed She knew it to be his though she did not know the Contents of it And such is the Account that is to be given of the said Earl of Argyle's Loyalty which he had desir'd might be the only Standard in what sense he would take the Test. Hitherto he had been by Inheritance Lord High Admiral and Justice General of Argyle Tarbat and the Isles and great Master of the Houshold He was by his Majesty put into Places of great Dignity and Trust he was made extraordinary Lord of the Session one of his Majesties Privy Council and one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury And after his Fathers Condemnation for the highest Crimes and his own Forfeiture of his Honour and Estate for Treasonable Expressions in a Letter of his he was restor'd to all his Father possess'd except the Title of Marquiss But notwithstanding all these and many more Obligations of the like nature which he had to his Majesty his fondness of esteem with the Factious People his aversion to Monarchy and hatred of the Royal Family particularly of the Duke of York led him to this height of Ingratitude This and divers other Letters of the like traiterous importance all written with Argyle's own Hand being at one and the same time taken about Major Holmes the Person chiefly intrusted by the said Earl to receive and convey all his Correspondences with England and Scotland it cannot be doubted but very many more Papers of the same dangerous Tenor had been this way interchang'd between him and the English and Scotch Conspirators during the whole progress of the Conspiracy Especially considering that in some of these the Earl of Argyle refers to some Expressions and Propositions which he says he had made in others and there are no such Expressions to be met with in all these Letters that are taken Besides that with the Letters themselves there were also seiz'd about Holmes several Alphabets and a Key of Words whereas of one of the Alphabets there has been as yet no use found in Decyphering and though in the Key there are Eighty new-coyn'd Words yet not above Six of them are made use of in all the parcel of the said Earl's Letters hitherto intercepted However by the Light these Letters gave so well agreeing with several other Intelligences receiv'd from many Hands his Majesties Council of Scotland were abundantly convinc'd that the the Bloody Design had reach'd thither also and therefore immediately order'd the bottom of the Business to be search'd into by a Secret Committee Whereupon Warrants were issued out there to apprehend Walter Earl of Tarras Brother-in-Law to the Duke of Monmouth Sir Patrick Hume Laird of Polwart Pringle Laird of Torwoodlie James Murray Laird of Philiphaugh and Hugh Scot Laird of Gallowshiels all of them being Persons named by Carstares and others as Partakers with Argyle in this Treason as they had been formerly most active with him in endeavouring to disturb the Loyal Proceedings of the Parliament for enacting the Test. Of these the Laird of Polwart and Torwoodlie having been the most busie and so conscious of their greater guilt conceal'd themselves and have hitherto escaped the other three were taken and brought to Edenburg where they freely confess'd upon Oath As did also Commissary Monroe who had been sent thither Prisoner out of England All which Depositions and Confessions they again repeated and confirm'd in the same solemn manner at the Tryal of Mr. William Baillie of Jerviswood The Earl of Tarras without either craving or receiving any security for himself did ingenuously confess That about the time when Sir John Cockran and Commissary Monroe got their Commission from the Carolina Company for London Mr. Baillie desir'd him to speak to Monroe that he might be added to the Commission Telling him that he was resolved to go to London however upon his own charges For that his and their going about the Carolina business was only a Pretence and a Blind but the true design was to push forward the People of England who did nothing but talk to go more effectually about their business That thereupon the said Baillie did settle a correspondence with the Deponent whereby the one was to give an account what past between the Country party in England and the Scotch Men there the other to write back what occurr'd in Scotland That the said Baillie told him the only way to secure the Protestant Religion was for the King to suffer the Parliament to sit and pass the Bill of Exclusion Which the King might be induc'd to do if the Parliament would take sharp and brisk Measures with him That after the said Baillie went to London he did give the Deponent account by Letters how things were in great disorder there but he hoped effectual courses were taking to remedy them That Mr. Robert Martin did come to Mr. Pringles of Torwoodlie in May 1683 and brought the Deponent a Letter from the said Baillie then at London That Martin told the Deponent things in England were in great disorder and like to come to a height but the Country Party were considering of Methods for securing the Protestant Religion That the Scotch-Men at London had ask'd 30000 Pounds but that Argyle was to have 10000 l. which Sum was to be sent by Baillie into Holland to buy Arms and then Argyle was to Land with those Arms in the West-Highlands of Scotland The Earl of Tarras deposed farther That Philiphaugh and he went to Gallowshiels House where they met with Polwart and Gallowshiels That there it was discours'd among them that in case the English should rise in Arms it was necessary so many as could be got on the Borders should be in readiness to deal with Straglers and Seize on Horses and thereafter joyn with those that were in Arms on the Borders of England That then it would be convenient to surprize Berwick Stirling and some other strong places That some Persons should be employ'd to inquire what Arms were in the Country That it was resolv'd every one should speak to and prepare such particular Persons as they could trust not at first in plain terms but indirectly and upon supposition of a Rising in England That there was a Word and Sign to be used among them the sign was by loosing
it was such as rather became the Subtilty Artifice and Equivocation of some crafty hypocritical Confessor or Presbyterian Casuist than the Noble plainness and simplicity of a Gentleman especially of One who in this very Paper so much boasts of the Sincerity and Candour of his whole Life and of his perpetual hatred of Tricks and Evasions Among divers other notorious Shifts and Prevarications contain'd in it this is observable That in this Paper he declares solemnly he never was at Shepard's in that Company but once as in his Tryal he had affirm'd absolutely he never was there but once whereas besides what Shepard positively swore That he was more than once there and in that very Company the said Lord Russel himself also when he was Examin'd in the Tower by his Majesties Command June 28th confess'd He had been at Shepard's House frequently which Confession after it was written down read and repeated by himself he in great Agitation of Mind desir'd he might alter it And the Alteration he made was to put in divers times in stead of frequently The Truth of which appears by the Original thus subscribed and corrected by the the Lord Russel and by the known Integrity of Sir Leolyn Jenkins Sir John Ernly and his Majesties Atturney-General and Sollicitor-General who receiv'd the Examination and have attested the Alteration The Lord Russel likewise in the Printed Speech affirms His intention of going to Shepards was to taste Sherry and in his Tryal he said He staid not above a quarter of an Hour there tasting of Sherry Though presently after in the very same Paper forgetting what he had said he acknowledges He was desir'd to go thither by the Duke of Monmouth upon a business of greater consequence than the tasting of Sherry Which was That the Duke of Monmouth call'd upon him to tell him that the Earl of Shaftsbury and some other hot Men would undo them all if great care were not taken and therefore intreated him to go with him to Shepards To this he adds That when he came thither there were things spoken by some with much more heat than Judgment Things of the same Nature no doubt with those he confess'd to have heard before in the Earl of Shaftsbury's Company which made the Duke of Monmouth himself cry out Did you ever hear so Horrid a thing However all these Treasonable Discourses about making some Stirs as he stiles them the said Lord would fain have had pass only for Misprision of Treason Though it is remarkable that in all those his last Words there is no more sign of his asking Forgiveness of God or the King for his confess'd Misprision than for the High Treason Moreover in the same printed Paper he solemnly avows There was no undertaking at Shepards for seizing the Guards none appointed to view or examine them only that there was some discourse then and at other times about the feasibleness of it adding That several times by accident he heard it mention'd as a thing might easily be done By which and other the like concessions in that Speech he well nigh grants himself Guilty of the Crime whereof he was accus'd since the Judges often assur'd him that those discourses and consultations not reveald are High Treason He farther says it was by a strange fetch that a design of seizing on the Guards was construed a design of killing the King But that this construction was no such strange fetch Colonel Walcot himself might have inform'd him who both at his Trial and his Execution did with far more Truth and Ingenuity allow that it was the same thing for him to engage the Kings Guards whilst another kill'd him as to kill him with his own Hands Though to put this whole matter out of question touching that Consultation at Shepards for seizing the Guards his Majesty declares on the Faith of a King appealing also to the Memory of his Royal Highness to confirm the same That the Duke of Monmouth did in express Terms confess this very particular and all the circumstances of it to his Majesty at the time of his rendring himself Namely That the foresaid debate of surprizing the Guards was at Shepards that the Lord Russel was one of the Persons debating it that the result was the Duke of Monmouth the Lord Gray and Sir Thomas Armstrong should go view the Guards in order to seize them that accordingly they three did go and take a view of them to that end and that the report they made to the same Company at their next Meeting was that the thing might be done if they had any considerable strength But what need any farther Proof of the insincerity of the Lord Russel's last Justification than the foremention'd Deposition of Carstares An Evidence not only by Law unquestionable but such as cannot but be esteem'd by the very Conspirators themselves of invincible strength and conviction Since he was a Man eminent in their Party and one of their principal seducing Teachers And what the said Carstares deposed relating to the Lord Russel his Majesty thinks fit to be repeated here again It was That when he return'd into England out of Holland where he had been to concert matters with the Earl of Argyle for promoting the General Conspiracy the next Day he met with Sir John Cockran and having acquainted him with the Earl of Argyle ' s demands of 30000 l. Sterling and the Thousand Horse and Dragoons Sir John Cockran carried the said Carstares to the Lord Russel to whom he proposed the affair but being then a perfect stranger had no return from him at that time That afterwards the Deponent met with the Lord Russel accidentally at Shepard ' s House where as Shepard affirm'd the said Lord was come to speak with him about the Money before mention'd That when the other two had done talking Carstares himself desir'd to speak with the Lord Russel and that in his discourse with him having reiterated the former proposition for the 30000 l. and the Thousand Horse and Dragoons the Lord Russel answer'd in these very Words They could not get so much Money rais'd at the time but if they had 10000 l. to begin that would draw People in and when they were once in they would soon be brought to more But as for the 1000 Horse and Dragoons he could say nothing at the present for that behoved to be concerted on the Borders By which plain Deposition agreeing with so many other Witnesses it is manifest that when they whom the Lord Russel trusted with Composing his last Speech permitted him to affirm on the word of a Dying Man He knew nothing of any Design against the King or Kingdom either they did grosly prevaricate with him or he with them His Majesty has judg'd it convenient that the whole Proceeding with the Lord Russel should be thus particularly recollected as well that one great Instance for all might be given of the Impartiality and fair course in which the publick Justice was
be look'd on as Men absolutely condemn'd his Majesty was willing to stay till the full time was expired still hoping that some of them would come voluntarily in and stand a Legal Tryal and if possible prove themselves Innocent But since not one of the Persons Outlaw'd has all this while ventured himself on the Laws of his Country his Majesty has now thought it not fit any longer to suppress the Evidence against them And what is here publish'd though it be not near the whole of the Informations given in upon Oath yet will be found abundantly sufficient to Convict every Man of them either of the intended Insurrection or Assassination Both which his Majesty knows are made out with as much clearness of Testimony and strength of indubitable Records as any Humane Affair is capable of VVhat now remains But that his Majesty should engage himself before God and the whole World to make a right use of so great a Blessing as his Deliverance from these desperate Treasons and should with the Authority of a King and with the tender Affection of a true Father of his Country require and admonish all his Subjects of all Parties and Opinions to do the like For himself his Majesty cannot but be deeply sensible he has been now once more preserv'd by the immediate Hand of God and therefore looks on himself as afresh obliged to manifest his Gratitude to Heaven by promoting the Glory of his Preserver in continuing to consult above all things the VVelfare of his Church and the Peace and Happiness of this great People committed to his Charge And his Majesty declares he will improve this new Advantage the Divine Favour has so marvellously put into his Hands not in Acts of Severity and Revenge which his Nature utterly abhors but by imitating the Divine Goodness as in a regular Course of strict Justice to all obdurate Impenitents so which he much rather desires in his usual method of Mercy and Kindness to as many as shall give sincere Proofs of Penitence and Reformation of their past Crimes Virtues which his Majesty has too much Reason to believe his and his Fathers Enemies have hitherto been very little acquainted with As for those his Majesties misguided Subjects who after all this persevere to be disaffected to his Government his Majesty has reason to expect that now at length they would be convinc'd by that very Providence which used to be their own principal and best-beloved Argument whenever it seem'd to be never so little on their side and that henceforth they would quietly submit to and follow the same Providence since it has so signally appear'd against them and much more Wonderfully declar'd it self for than ever Mr. Sydney had reason to say it had declar'd against his Majesty If there can possibly still remain any well meaning Men in their Party led away by the specious Delusions of good Words abused to the worst things if any such have really thought their Lives and Fortunes Laws and Consciences at any time in Danger under his Majesties Government let them but Remember and consider sadly what was the Issue of the very same Jealousies Murmurs and Tumults against his Royal Father of Blessed Memory whether the first and most eminent Instruments of subverting for a time this renown'd and antient Monarchy were not themselves beguil'd by the same Methods into the meanest Slavery both Spiritual and Temporal Out of which they were compell'd at last to confess they could be no otherwise redeem'd but by returning again into the very same constitution of things they had so unwisely overthrown Or if the Experience of time past so dearly bought can prevail nothing on them let them but seriously reflect on their present Condition In stead of harkening to what wicked and designing Men under the most deceitful Colours suggest to them for Sinister Ends let them guide their Opinions by their own plain and sensible Observation Let them but fairly and indifferently compare the present State of all Nations round about them with their own And then let them refufe if they can to bless God and the King for their inexpressible advantages above all others Whilst all his Majesties Subjects find they may if they will securely injoy Peace Plenty Liberty and the best Religion why should any Torment themselves or disquiet others with wild imaginations and Fears of future Evils Which nothing can be so ready a way to bring upon them as their own Fears Henceforth therefore let no vain pretence of Liberty and Property once more push them on to the same desperate Designs wherein when they had formerly success which they cannot always promise themselves yet even then it turn'd within a few Years to the Ruine of their own Pretences Let no mistaken Zeal of Conscience seduce them again to Disobedience since the only Obligations of a True Christian Conscience lead all to Obedience none to Rebellion Let them no longer be infatuated by the false Shews and Insinuations of Popularity Rather let them learn once for all who is the only true Patriot what is truly Popular what not Let them know That whoever complies with the common Peoples sudden Humours and changeable Passions against their solid Interest Whoever labours to make the whole Government obnoxious to any single Sect or Party VVhoever strives to divide the Country or City from the Court VVhoever endeavours to enlarge disputable Priviledges to the hazard of known Prerogatives In fine whoever would pervert Liberty into Licentiousness that Man can never be a True Patriot all That is false Popularity It is indeed equally as Destructive to the People as to the Prince Those Counsels only are and ought to be esteem'd really Popular which proceed on sure and legal Foundations to confirm the Monarchy where it is strong to strengthen and support those parts of it which by length of time may have been somewhat weaken'd and decay'd Those Persons only are the True Patriots and design their Countries Good the best and only sure way who make it their Business to keep the King in a condition to protect his People There is no true commendable English Popularity but true English Loyalty Thus much his Majesty vouchsafes to advise all his Enemies and discontented Subjects though even to them he has done all the Good in this World to oblige them not to be so There is one sort of these whom the King acknowledges he once thought he should never have had just Reason to rank among his Enemies Those Persons his Majesty means who after having well approved their Loyalty to his Glorious Father in the last Age of Rebellion have yet since been either wholly perverted or have very much stagger'd in their due Obedience and Love to himself For them his Majesty declares he would fain still retain his wonted Kindness And if either private Envy or a too Presumptuous Value of their old Merits shall have made them entirely to forget the many vast Benefits and Favours that He or
his Father have so liberally conferr'd on them or if the late groundless Rumours of Popery Slavery and Arbitrary Power shall have so far prevail'd as to sour and corrupt Them also yet they might remember that their Generous Loyalty did once before remain untainted and bravely stood the Shock amidst the very same Rumours and Slanders as popularly but as falsly urg'd then against the Government as they have been of late So that either then they were in the wrong or are now and cannot possibly have been both times on the right side Wherefore his Majesty conjures them to look back on the Actions of their former Lives and to make the Honour gotten by them in their Youth for their Courage and Fidelity to the Crown first a reproof then an example to their Old Age. Once for all let them seriously observe that they are come at last to be unfortunately deluded not only by many the very same ill Principles but also by many the very same ill Parties of Men which they once esteemed it their Glory and Conscience to fight against But as for all who still continue the Kings Faithful Friends and Dutiful Subjects his Majesty most willingly takes this occasion to speak to them in another style His Majesty cannot but testifie to all the VVorld the delightful sense he retains of their unmoveable steddiness and renew'd Fidelity to him in these late times of extreme difficulty and distraction He cannot suppress within his own Royal Breast his Joy to find the same unshaken Principles and Practices of Loyalty to his Blessed Father still surviving and flourishing in them and inherited by himself with increase And after the unvaluable Mercy of God to him and his Subjects in his most happy Restoration his Majesty cannot but esteem This to have been equall'd by none but That that in so dangerous a Juncture of Publick Affairs he has met with so many unfeign'd Testimonies of Love to his Person and Zeal for his Government from all Degrees of Men in the Nation And if some have swerv'd from their Duty yet his Majesties Indignation and Resentments against them are overwhelm'd by the comfortable remembrance of the far greater and better Number of those who stood by him in the severest Trials So his Majesty has just reason to acknowledge the main Body of the Nobility and Gentry has done So has the whole sound and honest Part of the Commonalty So the great Fountains of Knowledge and Civility the Two Universities So the wisest and most Learned in the Laws So the whole Clergy and all the Genuine Sons of the Church of England A Church whose Glory it is to have been never tainted with the least Blemish of Disloyalty His Majesty cannot here forbear to let the World know what entire Satisfaction he has taken in one special Testimony of his Subjects Affections whence through Gods Gracious Providence the Monarchy has gain'd a most considerable Advantage by means of this very Conspiracy And it is that so great a Number of the Cities and Corporations of this Kingdom have since so freely resign'd their Local Immunities and Charters into his Majesties Hands lest the abuse of any of them should again hereafter prove hazardous to the just Prerogatives of the Crown This his Majesty declares he esteems as the peculiar Honour of his Reign being such as none of the most popular of all his late Royal Predecessors could have promis'd to themselves or hoped for Wherefore his Majesty thinks himfelf more than ordinarily oblig'd to continue as he has hitherto begun to shew the greatest Moderation and Benignity in the exercise of so great a Trust Resolving upon this occasion to convince the highest pretenders to the Commonweal that as the Crown was the first Original so it is still the surest Guardian of all the Peoples Lawful Rights and Privileges In Conclusion his Majesty makes this solemn Declaration to all his Loving Subjects That as by former and late Experience he has found next under God the firmness of his Friends to him has saved his Authority and Life So he is resolved to secure both by his Constancy to his Friends Such as was the Old Loyal Party and as many as have been bred up and succeeded in their Principles Whom his Majesty looks on as the great Pillars and Supporters of his Throne By them therefore his Majesty declares he will always stand and then he is sure by Gods Grace he can never fall His Majesty also here Publickly resolves that he himself will take care to keep his Ministers and Servants from the Lowest to the Highest within the Lawful Bounds of their Duty But will never suffer them to be cryed down by Noise and Tumults As to his Dearest and most Loyal Brothers Safety and just Rights his Majesty assures all the World he will inviolably Cherish them as his own And as the Danger in this Hellish Conspiracy was Common to them both so their Interests and Affections shall be always inseparable Nor can his Majesty forbear to recommend to the Imitation of all his other Subjects the profound Respect entire Resignation and Obedience which his Royal Highness continues to Practise to his Majesties Person and Government His Majesty expects from his Subjects all just submission to his Laws And promises them a proportionable Favour and Incouragement His Majesty lets them all know that the Rewards of the Crown shall be distributed according as Men deserve of the Crown and no otherwise And as God has given his Majesty the Heart not to desire to abuse So he will never as long as he Lives part with the just Prerogatives and Powers with which God alone has intrusted him FINIS