Demands to make such Consecration which shall be good and effectual in Law as if the said Bishops were thereunto authorized and empowred by Commission from such Arch-Bishop or any other person or persons having authority to grant Commission for the doing the same And be it further Enacted That the said Bishops and every of them are hereby enjoyned and required to perform the same upon pain of forfeiting upon any neglect or refusal trebble dammages to the party grieved to be recovered with Costs in any of his Majesties Courts of Record at Westminster as also the sum of 1000 l. to any person that will sue for the same in any of his Majesties Courts at Westminster by any action of Debt Bill Plaint or Information wherein no Essoyn Protection or Wager of Law shall be allowed and being lawfully convicted of any such neglect or refusal his or their Bishopprick that shall be so convicted shall become ipso facto void as if he or they were naturally dead and he or they are hereby made incapable and disabled to have hold or receive the same or any other Bishopprick or any other Ecclesiastical Benefice whatsoever Yet this Notorious Bill had not the same accident with the first but was read a second time and committed wherein their Houses curiousity seemes to have led them rather than any satisfaction they had in the matter or hope of amending it For it died away the Committee disdaining or not daring publickly to enter upon it some indeed having as is said once attempted it in private and provided R S. a fit Lawyer for the Chairman but were discovered And thus let these two Bills perish like unseasonable and monstrous Births but the Legitimate issue of the Conspirators and upon the hopes of whose growth they had built the succession of their Projects Hence-forward another Scene opens The House of Commons thorow the whole remainder of this Session falling in with some unanimity and great Vigor against the French Counsels Of which their Proceedings it were easy to assigne the more intimate Causes but they having therein also acted according to the Publick Interest we will be glad to suppose it to have been their only Motive That business having occasioned many weighty Debates in their House and frequent Addresses to his Majesty deserves a more particular account Nor hath it been difficult to recever it most of them being unwilling to forget any thing they have said to the purpose but rather seeking to divulge what they think was bravely spoken and that they may be thought some-body often arrogating where they cannot be disproved another mans Conception to their own honour March the 6th 1676 the House being resolved into a Committee of the whole House to consider of Grievances Resolved That a Commitee be appointed to prepare an Addrsse to represent unto his Majesty the danger of the Povver of France and to desire that his Majesty by such Alliances as he shall think fit do secure his Kingdomes and quiet the feares of his People and for preservation of the Spanish Netherlands May it please your Majesty WE your Majesties most Loyal Subjects the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled find our selves Obliged in duty and faithfulnesse to your Majesty and in discharge of the Trust reposed in us by those vvhomvve represent Most bumbly to Offer to your Majesties consideration that the mindes of your People are much disquieted vvith the Manifest dangers arising to your Majesty by the Grovvth and Povver of the French King Especially by the acquisition already made and the further progresse like to be made by him in the Spanish Nether-lands in the preservation and security vvhereof vve humbly Conceive the Intrest of your Majesty and the safety of your People are highly concerned and therefore vve most humbly beseech your Majesty to take the same into your Royall care and to strengthen your selfe vvith such strictter Alliances as may secure your Majesties Kingdomes and secure and preserve the said Spanish Nether-lands and thereby quiet the Mindes of your Majesties People This Addresse was presented to his Majesty the 16. of March and his Majesties Answer was Reported to the House of Commons by Mr. Speaker the 17 of March which was thus That his Majesty was of the Opinion of his two Houses of Parliament That the Preservation of Flanders was of great consequence And that he would use all meanes in his power for the Safety of his Kingdoms A motion was therefore made for a second Address upon the same subject on Monday March 26th which here followeth May it please your Majesty WE your Majesties most loyal Subjects the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled do vvith unspeakable joy and Comfort present our humble thanks to your Majesty for your Majesties gratious acceptance of our late Address and that your Majesty vvas pleased in your Princely Wisdom to express your Concurrance and Opinion vvith your tvvo Houses in reference to the Preservation of the Spanish Netherlands And vve do vvith most carnest and repeated desires implore your Majesty That you vvould be pleased to take timely care to prevent those dangers that may arise to these Kingdoms by the great Povver of the French King and the Progress he daily makes in those Netherlands and other places And therefore that your Majesty vvould not defer the entring into such Allyances as may obtain those ends and in case it shall happen that in pursuance of such Alliances your Majesty should be engaged in a War vvith the French King vve do hold our solves obliged and do vvith all humility and chearfulness assure your Majesty That vve your most loyal Subject shall alvvayes be ready upon your signification thereof in Parliament fully and from time to time to assist your Majesty vvith such Aydes and Supplies as by the Divine assillance may enable your Majesty to prosecute the same vvith Success All vvhich vve do most humbly offer to your Majesty as the unanimous sence and desire of the vvhole Kingdom March 30th 1677. IT was alledged against this Address that to press the King to make further Alliances with the Confederates against the French King was in effect to press him to a War that being the direct and unavoidable Consequence thereof That the Consideration of War was most proper for the King who had the intelligence of Forraine Affaires and knew the Arcana Imperii That it was a dangerous thing hastily to Incite the King to a War That our Merchant-Ships and Effects would be presently seised by the French King within his Dominions and thereby he would acquire the value of it may be near a million to enable him to maintain the War against us That he would fall upon our Plantations and take Plunder and annoy them That he would send out abundance of Capers and take and disturbe all our Trading Ships in these Seas and the Mediterranean That we had not so many Ships of War as he and those thirty which were to
King ease to pay Interest for his Debts c. But on the contrary it was answered that the Preamble speakes not of his Debts but His extraordinary Occasions But besides they did not intend to withdraw so much of their Gift but did resolve to re-emburse his Majesty the 200000 l. so much of it as he should lay out in extraordinary Preparations But then it was Objected that this would be a kind of denouncing of War and that 200000 l. was a miserable mean and incompetent sum to defend us against those whom we should provoke But it was Answered That it was but an Earnest of what they intended and that they were willing to meet again and give further Supplies Besides the French King was not Formidable for any great hurt that he could do us during the Confederacy there were several Princes of Germany as the Arch-Bishop of Metz and Triers the Palsgrave the Duke of Nevvburgh c. which are at War with him and are safe and yet they are much more weak and inconsiderable than we but they are defended not by their own strength but by the whole Confederacy The Debate concluded in Voting the following Answer which was presented to his Majesty by the Speaker of the whole House Friday April the 13th May it Please your Majesty WE your Majesties most dutifull and Loyall subjects the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled do vvith Great satisfaction of mind Observe the regard your Majestie is pleased to Expresse to our former Addresses by Intimating to us the late alterations of Affaires abroad and do return our most humble thanks for your Majesties most Gratious Offer made to us thereupon in your late message and having taken a serious deliberation of the same and of the preparation your Majesty hath therein Intimated to us vvere fitting to be made in order to those publick ends vve have for the present provided a security in a Bill for the Additional duty of Excise upon vvhich your Majesty may raise the sum of 200000 l. And if your Majesty shall think fit to call us together again for this purpose in some short time after Easter by any publick signification of your pleasure commanding our Attendance vve shall at our next meetting not only be ready to re-imburse your Majesty vvhat Sums of money shall be expended upon such Extraordinary preparations as shall be made in pursuance of our former Addresses but shall likevvise vvith thankfull hearts proceed then and at all other times to furnish your Majesty vvith so large proportion of assistance and supplyes upon this Occasion as may give your Majesty and the vvhole vvorld an ample Testimony of our Loyalty ' and affection to your Majesties service and as may enable your Majesty by the help of Almighty God to maintain sucbstricter Alliances as you shall have entred into against all Opposition vvhatsoever Easter Mondy Aprill 19th Another Message in writing from his Majesty was delivered by Secreatary VVilliamson to the House of Commons Viz. C. R. HIS Majesty having considered the Answer of this House to the last message about enabling him to make fitting preparations for the security of these Kingdoms finds by it that they have only enabled him to borrow 200000 l. upon a Fond given him for other uses His Majesty desires therefore this House should know and he hopes they will alwayes believe of him that not only that Fond but any other within his Power shall be engaged to the utmost of his power for the preservation of his Kingdoms but as his Majesties condition is which his Majesty doubts not but is as well known to this House as himself he must tell them plainly that without the summe Six hundred thousand pounds or Credit for such a summe upon new Fonds it will not be possible for him to speak or act those things which should answer the ends of their severall Addresses without exposing the Kingdom to much Grearer danger His Majstyes doth further acquaint you that having done his part and laid the true state of things before you he will not be wanting to use the best meanes for the safety of his People which his presen Condition is Capable off Given at our Court at White-Hall April 16. 1677. There upon the House fell into present Consideration of an Answer and in the first place it was Agreed to return Great thanks to his Majesty for his Zeal for the safety of the Kingdome and the hopes he had given them that he was convinced and satisfied so as he would speak and act according to what they had desired and they resolved to give him the utmost assurance that they would stand by him and said no man could be unwilling to give a fourth or third part to save the residue But they said they ought to consider that now they were a very thine House many of their Members being gone home and that upon such a Ground as they could not well blame them for it was upon a presumption that the Parliament should rise before Easter as had been intimated from his Majesty within this fortnight and universally expected since and it would be un-Parliamentary and very ill taken by their Fellow-members if in this their absence they should steal the Priviledge of granting money and the Thanks which are given for it That this was a National business if ever any were and therefore fit to be handled in a full National Representative and if it had hitherto seemed to go up-hill there was a greater cause to put the whole shoulder to it and this would be assuring animating and satisfactory to the whole Nation But they said it was not their mind to give or suffer any delay they would desire a Recess but for three weeks or a moneth at most And the 200000 l. which they had provided for present use was as much as could be laid out in the mean time tho his Majesty had 600000 l. more ready told upon the Table And therefore they thought it most reasonable and advisable that his Majesty should suffer them to Adjorn for such a time in the Interim of which his Majesty might if he pleased make use of the 200000 l. and might also compleat the desired Alliances and give notice by Proclamation to all Members to attend at the time appointed The Answer is as followeth May it please your Majesty WE your Majesties most Loyal Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled having considered your Majesties last Message and the gratious expressions thereâ—…n contained for imploying your Majesties vvhole Revenue at any time to raise money for the preservation of your Majesties Kingdoms find great cause to return our most humble thanks to your Majesty for the same and to desire your Majesty to rest assured that you shall find as much duty and affection in us as can be expected from a most Loyal People to their most gratious Soveraign and vvhereas your Majesty is pleased to signify to us that the sum of 200000 l.
such Alliances To which the Speaker re-assuming the Chair and this being reported the House agreed and appointed the Committee And Adjourned over Asâ—…nsion day till Friday In the interim the Committee appointed met and drew the Address according to the above mentioned Order a true Coppy of which is here annexed May it please your Most excellent Majesty YOur Majesties most Loyal and Dutiful Subjects 〈◊〉 Commons in Parliament assembled have taken into their serious consideration your Majesties gracious Speech and do beseech your Majesty to believe it is a great affliction to them to find themselves obleiged at present to decline the granting your Majesty the supply your Majesty is pleased to demand conceiving it is not agreeable to the usage of Parliament to grant Supplyes for mainteance of Wars and Alliances before they are signified in Parliament which the too Wars against the States of the Vnited Provinces since your Majesties happy Restoration and the League made in January 1668 for preservation of the Spanish Nether Lands sufficiently proved without ling your Majesty with Instances of greater antiquity from which usage if we might depart the president might be of dangerous consequence in future times though your Majesties Goodnesse gives us great security during your Majesties Raign which we beseech God long to continue This Consideration prompted us in our last Addresse to your Majesty before our last Recesse humbly to mention to your Majesty our hopes that before our meeting again your Majesties Alliances might be so fixed as that your Majesty might begraciously pleased to impart them to us in Parliament that so our earnest desires of supplying your Majesty for prosecuting those great ends we had humbly laid before your Majesty might meet with no impediment or obstruction being highly sensible of the necessity of supporting as well as making the Alliances humbly desired in our former Addresses and which we still conceive so important to the safety of your Majesty and your Kingdomes That we cannot without unfaithfulnesse to your Majesty and those we Represent omit upon all occasions humbly to beseech your Majesty as we now do To enter into a League offensive and defensive vvith the States General of the United Provinces against the grovvth and povver of the French King and for the preservation of the Spanish Nether-Lands and to make such other Alliances vvith such other of the Confiderates as your Majesty shall think fit and usefull to that end in doing which That no time may be lost we humbly offer to his Majesty these Reasons for the expediting of it 1. That if the entering into such Alliances should draw on a War with the French King it would be lest detrimental to your Majesties Subjects at this time of the year they having now fewest effects within the Dominion of that King 2. That though we have great reason to believe the power of the French King to be dangerous to your Majesty and your 〈◊〉 when he shall be at more leisure to molest us yet we conceive the many Enemies he has to deal with at present together with the scituation of your Majesties Kingdoms the Unanimity of the People in the Cause the care your Majesty hath been pleased to take of your ordinary Guards of the Sea together with the Credit provided by the late Act for an additional Excise for three years make the entering into and declaring Alliances very safe until we may in a regular way give your Majesty such further Supplies as may enable your Majesty to support your Allyances and defend your kingdoms And because of the great danger and charge which must necessarily fall upon your Majesties kingdomes if through want of that timely encouragement and assistance which your Majesties joyning with the States General of the United Provinces and other the Confederates would give them The said States or any other considerable part of the Confederates should this next Winter or sooner make a Peace or Truce with the French King the prevention vvhereof must 〈◊〉 be acknovvledged a singular effect of Gods goodness to us which if it should happen your Majesty would be afterwards necessitated with fewer perhaps with no Alliances or Assistance to withstand the power of the French king which hath so long and so succesfully contended with so many and so potent Adversaries and whilest he continues his over-ballancing greatness must alwayes be dangerous to his Neighbours since he would be able to oppress any one Confederate before the rest could get together and be in so good a posture of offending him as they novv are being joyntly engaged in a War And if he should be so successful as to make a Peace or 〈◊〉 the present Confederation against him it is much to be feared whether 〈◊〉 would be possible ever to reunite it at least it would be work of so much time and difficulty as would leave your Majesties Kingdomes exposed to much misery and danger Having thus discharged our duty in laying before your Majesty the Dangers threatning your Majesty and your Kingdomes and the onely Remedyes we can think of for the preventing securing and queting the minds of your Majesties People with some few of those Reasons which have moved us to this and our former Addresses On these Subjects We most humbly beseech your Majesty to take the matter to your serious Consideration and to take such Resolutions as may not leave it in the power of any neighbouring Prince to rob your People of that happinesse which they enjoy under your Majesties gracious Governement beseeching your Majesty to â—…fident and assured that when your Majesty shall be 〈◊〉 to declare such Alliances in Parliament We shall hold our selves obliged not only by our promises and assurances given and now which great Unaninity revived in a full House but by the Zeal and desires of those whom we represent and by the Interests of all our safetyes most chearfully to give your Majesty from time to time such speedy Supplyes and Assistances as may fully and plentifully answer the Occasions and by Gods blessing preserve your Majesty Honour and the safty of the People All which is most humbly submitted to your Majesties great Wisdome Friday May 25th 1677 Sir John Trevor reported from the said Committee the Addresse as 't was drawn by them which was read Whereupon it was moved to agree with the Committee but before it was agreed to there was a debate and division of the House It was observed and objected that there was but one reson given herein for declining the granting money and that is the Unpresidentednesse and as to one of the Instances to this purpose mentioned Viz. the Kings first Dutch War it was said to be mistaken for that the 2500000 l. was voted before the War declared But it was answred that if the Declaration was not before the grant of the money which Quaere yet 't was certain that the War it self and great Hostilites were before the money and some said there might be other reasons
time it cost him his Place and was the first moving Cause of all those Misadventures and Obloquy which since he lyes ABOVE not Under The Declaration also of Indulgence was questioned which though his MAJESTY had out of his Princely and Gracious Inclination and the memory of some former Obligations granted yet upon their Representation of the Inconveniencies and at their humble Request he was pleased to Cancel and Declare that it should be no President for the Future For otherwise some succeeding Governour by his single Power Suspending Penal Laws in a favourable matter as that is of Religion might become more dangerous to the Government than either Papists or Fanaticks and make us Either when he pleased So Legal was it in this Session to Distinguish between the King of Englands Personal and his Parliamentary Authority But therefore the further sitting being grown very uneasie to those who had undertaken for the Change of Religion and Government they procured the Recess so much sooner and a Bill sent up by the Commons in favour of Dissenting Protestants not having passed thorow the Lords preparation the Bill concerning Papists was enacted in Exchange for the Money by which the Conspiraiors when it came into their management hoped to frustrate yet the effect of the former So the Parliament was dismissed till the Tvventy seventh of October One thousand six hundred seventy three In the mean time therefore they strove with all their might to regain by the VVar that part of their Design which they had lost by Parliament and though several honourably forsook their Places rather than their Consciences yet there was never wanting some double-dyed Son of our Church some Protestant in grain to succeed upon the same Conditions And the difference was no more but that their Offices or however their Counsels were now to be administred by their Deputies such as they could confide in The business of the Land Army was vigourously carried on in appearance to have made some descent in Holland but though the Regiments were Compleated and kept Imbodyed it wanted effect and therefore gave cause of sufpition The rather because no Englishman among so many well-disposed and qualified for the work had been thought capable or fit to be trusted with Chief Command of those Forces but that Monsieur Schomberg a French Protestant had been made General and Collonel Fitsgerald an Irish Papist Major General as more proper for the Secret the first of advancing the French Government the second of promoting the Irish Religion And therefore the dark hovering of that Army so long at Black-Hearth might not improbably seem the gatherings of a Storm to fall upon London But the ill successes which our Fleet met withall this Year also at Sea were sufficient had there been any such design at home to have quasht it for such Gallantries are not to be attempted but in the highest raptures of Fortune There were three several Engagements of ours against the Dutch Navy in this one Summer but while nothing was Tenable at Land against the French it seem'd that to us at Sea every thing was impregnable which is not to be attributed to the want of Courage or Conduct either the former Year under the Command of his Royal Highness so Great a Souldier or this Year under the Prince Robert But is rather to be imputed to our unlucky Conjunction with the French like the disasters that happen to men by being in ill Company But besides it was manifest that in all these Wars the French ment nothing less than really to assist us He had first practised the same Art at Sea when he was in League with the Hollander against us his Navy never having done them any service for his business was only to see us Batter one another And now he was on the English side he only studied to sound our Seas to spy our Ports to learn our Building to contemplate our way of Fight to consume ours and preserve his own Navy to encrease his Commerce and to order all so that the two great Naval Powers of Europe being crushed together he might remain sole Arbitrator of the Ocean and by consequence Master of all the Isles and Continent To which purposes the Conspirators furnished him all possible opportunities Therefore it was that Monsieur d' Estree though a Person otherwise of tryed Courage and Prudence yet never did worse than in the third and last Engagement and because brave Monsieur d' Martel did better and could not endure a thing that looked like Cowardise or Treachery though for the Service of his Monarch commanded him in rated him and at his return home he was as then was reported discountenanced and dismissed from his Command for no other crime but his breaking of the French measures by adventuring one of those sacred Shipps in the English or rather his own Masters Quarrel His Royal Highnesse by whose having quitted the Admiralty the Sea service thrived not the better was now intent upon his Marrige at the same time the Parliament was to reassemble the 27th of October 1673. the Princesse of Modena his consort being upon the way for England and that businesse seemed to have passed all impediment Nor were the Conspirators who to use the French phrase made a considerable Figure in the Government wholly averse to the Parliaments meeting For if the House of Commons had after one years unfortunate War made so vast a Present to his Majesty of 1250000 l. But the last February it seemed the argument would now be more pressing upon them that by how much the ill sucesses of this year had been greater they ought therefore to give a yet more liberal Donative And the Conspirators as to their own particular reckoned that while the Nation was under the more distresse and hurry they were themselves safer from Parliament by the Publick Calamity A supply therefore was demanded with much more importunity and assurance then ever before and that it should be a large one and a speedy They were told that it was now Pro Aris Focis all was at stake And yet besides all this the Payment of the Debt to the Banckers upon shutting the Exchequer was very civilly recommended to them And they were assured that his Majesty would be constantly ready to give them all proofes of his Zeal for the true Religion and the Laws of the Realm upon all occasions But the House of Commons not having been sufficiently prepared for such demands nor well satisfied in several matters of Fact which appeared contrary to what was represented took check and first interposed in that tender point of his Royall Highuesse's Match although she was of his own Religion which is a redoubled sort of Marriage or the more spiritual part of its Happynesse Besides that she had been already solemnly married by the Dukes Proxcy so that unlesse the Parliament had been Pope and calmed a power of Dispensation it was now too late to avoide it His Majesty by a
and distrusting all Parliamentary Advice to take Counsel from themselves from France and from Necessity And in the meane time they fomented all the Jealousies which they caused They continued to inculcate Forty and One in Court and Country Those that refused all the mony they demanded were to be the onely Recusants and all that asserted the Libertyes of the Nation were to be reckoned in the Classis of Presbyterians The 13th of October came and his Majesty now asked not only a Supply for his building of Ships as formerly but further to take off the Anticipation upon his Revenue The House of Commons took up again such Publick Bills as they had on foot in their former sitting and others that might either Remedy Present or Prevent Future Mischiefs The Bill for Habeas Corpus That against sending men Prisoners beyond Sea That against raising Mony without Consent of Parliament That against Papists sitting in either House Another Act for speedier convicting of Papists That for recalling his Mejestys Subjects out of the French service c And as to his Majestys supply they proceeded in their former Method of the two Bills One for raising 300000 l. and the other for Appropriating the Tunnage and Poundage to the use of the Navy And in the Lords House there was a good disposition toward things of Publick Interest But 300000 l. was so insipid a thing to those who had been continually regaled with Millions and that Act of Appropriation with some others went so much against stomack that there wanted only an opportunity to reject them and that which was readiest at hand was the late quarrel betwixt the House of Lords and the Commons The house of Commons did now more peremptorily then ever oppose the Lords Jurisdiction in Appeals The Lords on the otherside were resolved not to depart from so essentiall a Priviledge and Authority but to proceed in the Exercise of it So that this Dispute was raised to a greater Ardure and Contention then ever and there appeared no way of accomodation Hereupon the Lords were in consultation for an Addresse to his Majesty conteining many weighty Reasons for his Majestyes dissolving this Parliament deduced from the nature and behaviour of the present House of Commons But his Majesty although the transaction between the two Houses was at present become impracticable Judging that this House might at some other time be of use to him chose only to Prorogue the Parliament The blame of it was not onely laid but aggravated upon those in both Houses but especially on the Lords-House who had most vigorously opposed the French and Popish-Jnterest But those who were present at the Lords and observed the conduct of the Great Ministers there conceived of it otherwise And as to the House of Commons who in the heat of the Contest had Voted That vvhosoever shall Sollicity or prosecute any Appeal against any Commoner of England from any Court of Equity before the House of Lords shall be deemed and taken abetrayer of the Rights and Liberties of the Commons of England and shall be proceeded against accordingly Their Speaker going thorow VVestminster Hall to the House and looking down upon some of those Lawyers commanded his Mace to seize them and led them up Prisoners with him which it is presumed that he being of his Majesties Privie Councill would not have done but for what some men call his Majesties Service And yet it was the highest this of all the Provocations which the Lords had received in this Controversie But however this fault ought to be divided there was a greater committed in Proroguing the Parliament from the 22th of November 1675 unto the 15th of February 1676. And holding it after that dismission there being no Record of any such thing done since the being of Parliaments in England and the whole Reason of Law no lesse then the Practise and Custome holding Contrary This vast space betwixt the meetings of Parliament cannot more properly be filled up then with the coherence of those things abroad and at home that those that are intelligent may observe whether the Conspirators found any interruption or did not rather sute this event also to the Continuance of their Counsells The Earl of Northampton is not to be esteemed as one engaged in those Counsells being a person of too great Honour though the advanceing of him to be Constable of the Tovver was the first of our Domestick occurrents But if they could have any hand in it 't is more probable that lest he might perceive their Contrivances they apparelled him in so much Wall to have made him insensible However men conjectured even then by the Quality of the Keeper that he was not to be disparaged with any mean and vulgar Prisoners But another thing was all along very remarkable That during this Inter-Parliament there were five Judges places either fell or were made vacant for it was some while before that Sir Francis North had been created Lord Cheif Justice of the Common Pleas the five that succeeded were Sir Richard Rainsford Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench. Mountagne Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer Vere Bartie Barrister at Law one of the Barrons of the Exchequer Sir William Scroggs one of the Justices of the Common Pleas. And Sir Thomas Jones one of the Justices of the Kings Bench. Concerning all whom there it somthing too much to be said and it is not out of a figure of speech but for meer reverence of their Profession that I thus passe it over considering also humane infirmity and that they are all by their Pattens Durante Bene Placito bound as it were to the Good Behaviour And it is a shame to think what triviall and to say the best of them obscure persons have and do stand next in prospect to come and sit by them Justice Atknis also by Warping too far towards the Laws was in danger upon another pretense to have made way for some of them but upon true Repentance and Contrition with some Almes Deeds was admitted to Mercy And all the rest of the Benches will doubtlesse have profited much by his and some other example Alas the Wisdom and Probity of the Law went of for the most part with good Sir Mathevv Hales and Justice is made a meere property This poysonous Arrow strikes to the very heart of Government and could come from no Quiver but that of the Conspirators What French Counsell what standing Forces what Parliamentary Bribes what National Oaths and all the other Machinations of wicked men have not yet been able to effect may be more compendiously Acted by twelve Judges in Scarlet The next thing considerable that appeared preparatory for the next session was a Book that came out by publick Authority Intitled Considerations touching the true vvay to suppresse Popery c. A very good design and writ I beleive by a very good man but under some mistakes which are not to be passed over One in the Preface wherein he
against their inclination could not passe it over But they handled it so tenderly as if they were afraid to touch it The first day insteed of the Question Whether the Parliament were by this unpresidented Prorogation indeed Dissolved it was proposed something ridiculously Whether this Prorogation were not an Adjournment And this Debate too they Adjourned till the next day and from thence they put it off till the Munday morning Then those that had proposed it yet before they would enter upon the Debate asked Whether they might have liberty as if that had not been more then implied before by Adjourning the Debate and as if Freedome of speech were not a Concession of Right which the King grants at the first opening of all Parliaments But by this faintnesse and halfe-counsell they taught the House to deny them it And so all that matter was wrapped up in a cleanly Question Whether their grand Committees should sit which involving the Legitimacy of the Houses Sitting was carried in the Affirmative as well as their own hearts could wish But in the Lords House it went otherwise For the first day as soon as the Houses were seperate the Duke of Buckingham who usually saith what he thinks argued by all the Laws of Parliament and with great strength of Reason that this Prorogation was Null and this Parliament consequently Dissolved offering moreover to maintaine it to all the Judges and desiring as had been usuall in such Cases but would not here be admitted that even they might give their opinions But my Lord Frechvvell as a better Judge of so weighty a point in Law did of his great Courtship move That the Duke of Buckingham might be called to the Barre which being opposed by the Lord Salisbury as an extravagant motion but the Duke of Buckinghams proposal asserted with all the Cecilian height of Courage and Reason the Lord Arundell of Trerise a Peere of no lesse consideration and Authority then my Lord Frechvvell and as much out of order as if the Salt had been thrown down or an Hare had crossed his way Opening renewed the motion for calling the Duke to the Barre But there were yet too many Lords between and the Couriers of the Honse of Commons brought up advice every moment that the matter was yet in agitation among them So that the Earl of Shaftsbury had opportunity to appear with such extraordinary vigour in what concerned both the Duke of Buckingham's person and his Proposal that as the Duke of Buckingham might have stood single in any rational contest so the Earl of Shaftsbury was more properly another Principal than his Second The Lord Chancellour therefore in answer undertook on the contrary to make the Prorogation look very formal laying the best colours upon it after his manner when Advocate that the Cause would bear and the worst upon his Opponents but such as could never yet endure the Day-light Thus for five or six hours it grew a fixed Debate many arguing it in the regular method till the expected news came that the Commons were rose without doing any thing whereupon the greater number called for the Question and had it in the Affirmative that the Debate should be laid aside And being thus flushed but not satisfied with their Victory they fell upon their Adversaries in cool blood questioning such as they thought fit that same night and the morrow after sentencing them the Duke of Buckingham the Earl of Salisbury the Earl of Shaftsbury and the Lord Wharton to be committed to the Tower under the notion of Contempt during his Majestyes and the Houses pleasure That Contempt was their refusing to recant their Opinion and aske pardon of the King and the House of Lords Thus a Prorogation without President was to be warranted by an Imprisonment without Example A sad Instance and whereby the Dignity of Parliamens and especially of the House of Peers did at present much suffer and may probably more for the future For nothing but Parliament can destroy Parliament If a House shall once be Felon of it selfe and stop its own breath taking away that Liberty of speech which the King verbally and of course allows them as now they had done in both Houses to what purpose is it comming thither But it was now over and by the weaknesse in the House of Commons and the Force in the House of Lords this Presumptuous Session was thus farre settled and confirmed so that henceforward men begun to wipe their Mouths as if nothing had been and to enter upon the Publick Businesse And yet it is remarkable that shortly after upon occasion of a discourse among the Commons concerning Libells and Pamphlets first one Member of them stood up and in the face of their House said That it vvas affirmed to him by a person that might be spoke vvith that there vvere among them thirty forty fifty God knovvs hovv many Outlavved Another thereupon rose and told them It vvas reported too that there vvere diverse of the Members Papists A third That a multitude of them vvere Bribed and Pensioners And yet all this was patiently hushed up by their House and digessed being it seems a thing of that Nature which there is no Reply to which may very well administer and deserve a serious Reflexion how great an opportunity this House of Commons lost of ingratiating themselves with the Nation by acknowledging in this Convention their invalidity to proceed in Parliament and by addressing to his Majesty as being Dissolved for a Dismission For were it so that all the Laws of England require and the very Constitution of our Government as well as Experience teaches the necessity of the frequent Meeting and change of Parliaments and suppose that the Question Concerning this Prorogation were by the Custom of Parliaments to be justified which hath not been done hitherto yet who that desires to maintaine the reputation of an honest man would not have layed hold upon so plausible an occasion to breake company when it was grown so Scandalous For it is too notorious to be concealed that near a third part of the House have beneficiall Offices under his Majesty in the Privy Councill the Army the Navy the Law the Houshold the Revenue both in England and Ireland or in attendance on his Majesties person These are all of them indeed to be esteemed Gentlemen of Honor but more or lesse according to the quality of their severall imployments under his Majesty and it is to be presumed that they brought along with them some Honour of their own into his service at first to set up with Nor is it sit that such an Assembly should be destitute of them to informe the Commons of his Majesties affaires and communicate his Counsells so that they do not by irregular procureing of Elections in place where they have no proper interest thrust out the Gentelmen that have and thereby disturbe the severall Countreys Nor that they croude into the House in numbers beyond modesty and which
doubtful a foot this Long Parliament now stood upon by this long Prorogation there could not have been a more Legal or however no more wise and honest a thing done then for both the Lords and Commons to have separated themselves or have besought his Majesty to that purpose left the Conspirators should any longer shelter and carry on their design against the Government and Religion under this shadow of Parliamentary Authority But it was otherwise ordered of which it is now time to relate the Consequences The four Lords having thus been committed it cannot properly be said that the House of Peers was thence forward under the Government of the Lord Frechvvel and the Lord Arundel of Trerise but those two noble Peers had of necessity no small Influence upon the Counsels of that House having hoped ere this to have made their way also into his Majesties Privy Council and all things fell out as they could have wished if under their own direction For most of them who had been the most active formerly in the Publick Interest sate mute in the House whether as is probable out of reverence to their two Persons and confidence in their wisdom they left all to their Conduct and gave them a general Proxy or whether as some would have it they were sullen at the Commitment of of the four Lords and by reason of that or the Prorogation began now to think the Parliament or their House to be Non Compos But now therefore Doctor Cary a Commner was brought to the Barre before them and questioned concerning a written Book which it seems he had carried to be printed treating of the Illegality of this Prorogation and because he satisfyed them not in some Interrogatories which no man would in Common honour to others or in self preservation as neither was he in Law bound to have answered they therefore Fined him a thousand pounds under that new Notion of Contempt when no other Crime would do it and sentenced him to continue close Prisoner in the Tovver until payment Yet the Commons were in so admirable good temper having been conjured by the charming Eloquence of the Lord Chancellor to avoid all misunderstanding between the two Houses that their could no Member or time be found in all the session to offer their House his Petition much lesse would that breach upon the whole Parliament by imprisoning the Lords for using their liberty of speech be entertained by them upon motion for fear of entrenching upon the priviledge of the House of Peers which it had been well for them if they had been as tender of formerly One further Instance of the Completion of their House at that season may be sufficient One Master Harrington had before the Session been Committed Close Prisoner for that was now the mode as though the Earl of Norhampton would not otherwise have kept him Close enough by Order of the King and Councill the Warrant bearing for subornation of Perjury tending to the Defamation of his Majesty and his Government and for Contemptuously Declaring he vvould not ansvver his Majesty any Question vvhich his Majesty or his Privy Councill should aske him As this Gentleman was hurried along to the Tovver he was so dexterous as to convey into a friends hand passing by a Blanke Paper onely with his name that a Petition might be written above it to be presented to the House of Commons without rejecting for want of his own hand in the subscription His Case notwithstanding the Warrant was thus He had met with two Scotch souldiers in Town returned from Flanders who complained that many of their Countrey men had in Scotland been seised by force to be carried over into the French service had been detained in the Publick prisons till an oportunity to transport them were heaved on board fast tyed and bound like malefactors some of them struggling and contesting it were cast into the Sea or maimed in conclusion an intolerable violence and barbarity used to compell them and this near the present session of Parliament Hereupon this Gentleman considering how oft the House of Commons had addressed to his Majesty and framed an Act for recalling his Majesties Subjects out of the French service as also that his Majesty had iâ—…ued his Proclamation to the same purpose thought he might do a good and acceptable thing in giving information of it to the House as time served But withall knowing how witnesses might possibly be taken off he for his own greater security took them before a Master of Chancery where they comfirmed by Oath the same things they had told him But hereupon he was brought before his Majesty and the Privy Councill where he declared this matter but being here asked by the Lord Chancellour some insnaring and improper questions he modestly as those that were by affirmed desired to be exâ—…ised from answering him further but after this answered 〈◊〉 Majesty with great humility and respect to divers questâ—…us This was the subornation of Perjury and this the Contempt to his Majesty for which he was made Close Prisoner â—…pon his Petition to the House of Commons he was sent for and called in where he is reported to have given a very clear account of the whole matter and of his behaviour at the Council board But of the two Scotch soldiers the one made himself perjured without being suborned by Harrington denying or misrepresenting to the House what he had sworn formerly And the other the honester fellow it â—…ms of the two only was absented But however divers honourable Members of that House attested voluntarily that the soldiers had affirmed the same thing to them and inâ—…ed the Truth of that matter is notorious by several other 〈◊〉 that since came over and by further account from 〈◊〉 Master Harrington also carryed himself towards 〈◊〉 â—…ouse with that modesty that it seemed inseparable 〈◊〉 him and much more in his Majesties presence so that 〈◊〉 House was inclined and ready to have concerned themselves for his Liberty But Master Secretary Williamson stood 〈◊〉 having been a Principal Instrument in commiting him and because the other crimes rather deserved Thanks and Commendation and the Warrant would not Justify it self he insisted upon his strange demeanour toward his Majesty decipherd his very looks how truly it matters not and but that his Majesty and the House remained still living Flesh and Blood it might have been imagined by his discourse that Master Harrington had the Head of a Gorgon But this story so wrought with and amazed the Commons that Mr. Harrington found no redresse but might thank God that he escaped again into Close Prison It was thought notwithstanding by most men that his looks might have past any where but with a man of Sir Josephs delicacy For neither indeed had Master Harrington ever the same oportunities that others of practiting the Hocus Pocus of the Face of Playing the French Scaramuccie or of living abroad to learn how to make the Plenipotentiary
is not sufficient vvithout a further Supply to enable your Majesty to Speak or Act those things vvhich are desired by your People We humbly take leave to acquaint your Majesty that many of our Members being upon an expectation of an Adjournment before Easter are gone into their several Countries vve cannot think it Parliamentary in their absence to take upon us the granting of money but do therefore desire your Majesty to be pleased that this House may Adjourn it self for such short time before the sum of 200000 l. can be expended as your Majesty shall think sit and by your Royal Proclamation to command the attendance of all our Members at the day of Meeting by vvhich time vve hope your Majesty may have so formed your Affaires and fixed your Alliances in pursuance of our former Addresses that your Majesty may be gratiously pleased to Impart them to us in Parliament and vve no vvayes doubt but at our next Assembling your Majesty vvill not only meet vvith a Complyance in the Supply your Majesty desires but vvithall such farther Assistance as the posture of your Majesties Affaires shall require in confidence vvhereof vve hope your Majesty vvill be encouraged in the mean time to speak and act such things as your Majesty shall judge necessary for attaining those great ends as ye have formerly represented to your Majesty And now the money Bill being Passed both Houses and the French having by the surrender of Cambray also to them perfected the Conquest of this Campagne as was projected and the mony for further preparations having been asked onely to gain a pretence for refusing their Addresses the Houses were adjourned April the 16th till the 21 of May next And the rather becuase at the same moment of their rising a Grand French Ambassador was coming over For all things betwixt France and England moved with that punctual Regularity that it was like the Harmony of the Spheres so Consonant with themselves although we cannot hear the musick There landed immediately after the Recesse the Duke of Crequy the Arch-Bishop of Rheims Monsieur Barrillon and a Traine of three or four hundred persons of all Qualities so that the Lords Spirituall and Temporall of France with so many of their Commons meeting the King at Nevv-market it looked like another Parliament And that the English had been Adjourned in order to their better Reception But what Addresse they made to his Majesty or what Acts they passed hath not yet been Published But those that have been in discourse were An Act for continuing his Majesties subjests in the service of France An Act of abolition of all Claymes and demandes from the subjests of France on Account of all Prizes made of the English at Sea since the year 1674 till that day and for the future An Act for marring the Children of the Royal Family to Protestants Princes An Act for a further supply of French mony But because it appears not that all these and many others of more secret nature passed the Royall Assent it sufficeth thus far to have mentioned them Onely it is most certain that although the English Parliament was kept aloofe from the businesse of War Peace and Alliance as Improper for their Intermedling Presumptuous Yet with these 3 Estates of France all these things were Negotiated and transacted in the Greatest confidence And so they were Adjourned from Nevv-Market to London and there continued till the return of the English Parliament when they were dismissed home with all the signes and demonstrations of mutuall 〈◊〉 And for better Preparations at home before the Parliament met there was Printed a second Packet of Advice to the men of Shaftsbury the first had been sold up and down the Nation and Transmitted to Scotland where 300 of them were Printed at Edenburgh and 40 Copyes sent from thence to England fariely bound up and Guilded to shew in what great Estmiation it was in that kingdome But this the sale growing heavy was dispersed as a Donative all over England and it was an Incivilty to have enquired from whence they had it but it was a Book though it came from Hell that seemed as if it dropped from Heaven among men some Imagined by the weight and the wit of it that it proceeded from the Two Lords the Black and the White who when their care of the late Sitting was over had given themselves Caviere and after the Triumphs of the Tongue had Establish those Trophes of the Pen over their Imprisoned Adversaries But that had been a thing unworthy of the Frechvvellian Generosity or Trerisian Magnanimity And rather besits the mean malice of the same Vulgar Scribler hired by the Conspirators at so much a shâ—…t or for day wages and when that is spent he shall for lesse mony Blaspheme his God Revile his Prince and Belye his Country if his former Books have Omitted any thing of those Arguments and shall Curse his own Father into the Bargain Monday May 21. 1677. The Parliament met according to their late Adjornment on and from April 16th to May 21 1677. There was no speech from the King to the Parliament but in the House of Commons This Meeting was opened with a verball message from his Majesty delivered by Secretary Coventry wherein his Majesty acquainted the House that having according to their desire in their Answer to his late Message April 16th driected their Adjournment to this time because they did alledge it to be unparliamentary to grant Supplyes when the House was so thin in expectation of a speedy Adjournment and having also Issued out his Proclamation of summons to the end there might be a full House he did now expect they would forthwith enter upon the consideration of his last message and the rather because he did intend there should be a Recesse very quickly Upon this it was moved That the Kings last Message of April 16. And the Answer thereto should be Read and they were read accordingly Thereupon after a long silence a discourse began about their expectation and necessity of Alliances And particularly it was intimated that an Alliance with Holland was most expedient for that we should deceive our selves if we thought we could be defended otherwise we alone could not withstand the French his purse and power was too great Nor could the Dutch withstand him But both together might The general discourse was that they came with an expectation to have Allyances declared and if they were not made so as to be imparted they were not called or come to that purpose they desired and hoped to meet upon and if some few dayes might ripen them they would be content to Adjorn for the mean time The Secretary and others said these Allyances were things of great weight and 〈◊〉 and the time had been short but if they were finisht yet it was not convenient to publish them till the King was in a readinesse and posture to prosecute and maintain them till when his Majesty could
put for agreeing with their Committee this Address which passed in the Affirmative without Division of the House Then it was Ordered That those Members of the House who were of his Majestys Privy Counsel should move his Majesty to know his pleasure when the House might wait upon him with their Address Mr. Povvle reported from the Committee Amendments to the Bill for Recalling his Majestys Subjects out of the French Kings Service which were Read and Agreed to by the House and the Bill with the Amendments Ordered to be Ingrossed And then the House Adjourned to the morrow Saturday May 26 1677 in the morn The House being sate had notice by Secretary Coventry That the King would receive their Address at three in the afternoon The Bill for Recalling his Majesties Subjects c. being then Ingrossed was Read the Third time and Passed The effect of the Bill in short was this That all and every of the Natural born Subjects of his Majesty who should continue or be after the first of August next in the Military Service of the French King should be disabled to inherit any Lands Tenements or Hereditaments and be uncapable of any Gift Grant or Legacy or to be Executor or Administrator and being convicted should be adjudged guilty of Felony without benefit of the Clergy and not pardonable by his Majesty his Heirs or Successors except only by Act of Parliament wherein such Offenders should be particularly named The like appointment for such as should continue in the Sea-service of the French King after the first of May 1678. This Act as to the prohibiting the offence and incurring the penalties to continue but for two years but the executeing and proceeding upon it for Offences against the Act might be at any time aswell after as within the two years Then it was Ordered that Mr. Povvle should carry up this Bill to the Lords and withall should put the Lords in mind of a Bill for The better suppressing the grovvth of Popery which they had sent up to their Lordships before Easter which was forth with done accordingly As soon as this was ordered several other Bills were moved for to be Read c. But the Members generally said No. They vvould proceed on nothing but the French and Popery So they Adjourned to the afternoon when they attended the King with their Address at the Banqueting House in White-Hall Which being presented The King Answered That it was long and of great importance that he would consider of it and give them an Answer as soon as he could The House did nothing else but Adjourn till Monday morn Monday May 28 1677. The House being sate they received notice by Secretary Coventry that the King expected them immediately at the banqueting-Banqueting-House Whether being come The King made a Speech to them on the Subject of their Address Which Speech to prevent mistakes his Majesty read out of his Paper and then delivered the same to the Speaker And his Majesty added a few words about their Adjournment The Kings Speech is as followeth Gentlemen Could I have been Silent I vvould rather have chosen to be so then to call to mind things so unfit for you to meddle vvith as are contained in some parts of your last Addresses vvherein you have entrenched upon so undoubted a Right of the Crovvn that I am confident it vvill appear in no Age vvhen the Svvord vvas not dravvn that the Prerogative of making Peace and War hath been so dangerously invaded You do not content your selves vvith desiring Me to enter into such Leagues as may be for the safety of the Kingdome but you tell Me vvhat sort of Leagues they must be and vvith vvhom and as your Addresse is vvorded it is more liable to be understood to be by your Leave then at your Request that I should make such other Alliances as I please vvith other of the Confederates Should I suffer this fundamental Povver of making Peace and War to be so far invaded though but once as to have the manner and circumstances of Leagues prescribed to Me by Parliament it 's plain that no Prince or State vvould any longer believe that the Soveraignty of England rests in the Crovvn Nor could I think My Self to signifie any more to Foreign Princes then the empty Sound of a King Wherefore you may rest assured that no Condition shall make Me depart from or lessen so essential a part of the Monarchy And I am vvilling to believe so vvell of this House of Commons that I am confident these ill Consequences are not intended by you These are in short the Reasons vvhy I can by no means approve of your Address and yet though you have declined to grans Me that Supply vvhich is necessary to the Ends of it I do again declare to you That as I have done all that lay in my povver since your last Meeting so I vvill still apply my self by all the means I â—…an to let the World see my Care both for the Security and Satisfaction of my People although it may not be vvith those Advantages to them vvhich by your Assistances I might have procured And having said this he signified to them that they should Adjourn till the 16th of July Upon hearing of this Speech read their House is said to have been greatly appalled both in that they were so severely Checked in his Majesties name from whom they had been used to receive so constant Testimones of his Royal Bounty and Affection which they thought they had deserved as also because there are so many Old and fresh Presidents of the same Nature and if there had not yet they were led into this by all the stepps of Necessity in duty to his Majesty and the Nation And several of them offering therefore modestly to have spoken they were interrupted continually by the Speaker contesting that after the Kings pleasure signified for Adjornment there was no further Liberty of speaking And yet it is certain that at the same time in the Lords House the Adjournment was in the 〈◊〉 forme and upon the Question first propounded to that House and allowed by them All Adjournments unlesse made by speciall Commission under his Majesties Broad Seal being and having alwaies been so an Act of the Houses by their own Authority Neverthelesse several of their Members requiring to be heard the Speaker had the confidence without any Question put and of his own motion to pronounce the House Adjourned till the 16th of July and sâ—…pt down in the middle of the floor all the House being astonished at so unheard of a violation of their inherent Priviledge and Constitution And that which more amazed them afterwards was that while none of their own transactions or Addresses for the Publick Good are suffered to be Printed but even all Written Coppies of them with the same care as Libells suppressed Yet they found this severe speech published in 〈◊〉 next days News Book to mark them out to their own and all
and People of Religion and Government and how near they are in all humane probability to arrive Triumphant at the end of their Journey Yet that I may not be too abrupt and leave the Reader wholly destitute of a thread to guide himself by thorow so intriguing a Labyrinth I shall summarily as short as so copious and redundant a matter will admit deduce the order of affaires both at home and abroad as it led into this Session It is well known were it as well remembred what the provocation was and what the successe of the warre begun by the English iâ—… the Year 1665. against Holland what vast supplyes were furnished by the Subject for defraying it and yet after all no Fleet set out but the Flower of all the Royal Navy burnt or taken in Port to save charges How the French during that War joyned themselves in assistance of Holland against us and yet by the credit he had with the Queen Mother so farre deluded his Majesty that upon assurance the Dutch neither would have any Fleet out that year he forbore to make ready and so incurred that notable losse and disgrace at Chatham How after this fatall conclusion of all our Sea Champaynes as we had been obliged to the French for that warre so we were glad to receive the Peace from his favour which was agreed at Breda betwixt England France and Holland His Majesty was hereby now at leisure to remarke how the French had in the year 1667. taken the time of us and while we were imbroled and weakned had in violation of all the most solemn and sacred Oaths and Treatyes invaded and taken a great part of the Spanish Nether-Land which had alwayes been considered as the natural Frontier of England And hereupon he judged it necessary to interpose before the flame that consumed his next neighbour should throw its sparkles over the water And therefore generously slighting all punctilious of ceremony or peeks of animosity where the safty of his People and the repose of Christendom were concerned he sent first into Holland inviting them to a nearer Alliance and to enter into such further Counsells as were most proper to quiet this publick disturbance which the French had raised This was a work wholy of his Majestys designing and according to that felicity which hath allways attended him when excluding the corrupt Politicks of others he hath followed the dictates of his own Royal wisdom so well it succeeded It is a thing searse credible though true that two Treatyes of such weight intricacy and so various aspect as that of the Defensive League with Holland and the other for repressing the further progresse of the French in the Spanish Netherland should in five days time in the year 1668. be concluded Such was the Expedition and secrecy then used in prosecuting his Majesty particuler instructions and so easy a thing is it for Princes when they have a mind to it to be well served The Svvede too shortly after made the third in this Concert whether wisely judging that in the minority of their King reigning over several late acquired dominions it was their true intrest to have an hand in all the Counsells that tended to pease and undisturbed possession or whether indeed those ministers like ours did even then project in so glorious an Alliance to betray it afterward to their own greater advantage From their joyning in it was called the Triple Alliance His Majesty with great sincerity continued to solicite other Princes according to the seventh Article to come into the Guaranty of this Treaty and delighted himself in cultivating by all good means what he had planted But in a very short time these Counsells which had taken effect with so great satisfaction to the Nation and to his Majestyes eternal honour were all changed and it seemed that Treatyes as soon as the Wax is cold do lose their virtue The King in June 1670 went down to Dover to meet after a long absence Madam his onely remaining sister where the days were the more pleasant by how much it seldomer happens to Princes then private persons to injoy their Relations and when they do yet their kind interviews are usually solemnized with some fatlity and disaster nothing of which here appeared But upon her first return into France she was dead the Marquess of Belfonds was immediately sent hither a Person of great Honour dispatched thither and before ever the inquiry and grumbling at her death could be abated in a trice there was an invisible Leagle in prejudice of the Triple one struck up with France to all the height of dearnesse and affection As if upon discecting the Princess there had some state Philtre been found in her bowells or the reconciliation wiah France were not to be celebrated with a lesse sacrifice then of the Blood Royall of England The sequel will be suitable to so ominous a beginning But as this Treaty was a work of Darknesse and which could never yet be understood or discovered but by the effects so before those appeared it was necessary that the Parliament should after the old wont be gulld to the giving of mony They met the 24th Oct. 1670. and it is not without much labour that I have been able to recover a written Copy of the Lord Bridgmans speech none being printed but forbidden doubtlesse lest so notorious a Practise as certainly was never before though there have indeed been many put upon the Nation might remain publick Although that Honourable person cannot be persumed to have been accessory to what was then intended but was in due time when the Project ripened and grew hopeful discharged from his Office and he the Duke of Ormond the late Secretary Trevor with the Prince Rupert discarded together out of the Committee for the Forraign Affaires He spoke thus My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons WHen the two Houses were last Adjourned this Day as you well know was perfixed for your Meeting again The Proclamation since issued requiring all your attendances at the same time shewed not only his Majesties belief that his business will thrive best when the Houses are fullest but the importance also of the Affaires for which you are so called And important they are You cannot be ignorant of the great Forces both for Land and Sea-service which our Neighbours of France and the Low-Countries have raised and have now in actual Pay nor of the great Preparations which they continue to make in Levying of Men Building of Ships filling their Magazines and Stores with immense quantities of all sorts of Warlike Provisions Since the beginning of the last Dutch War the French have increased the Greatness and Number of their Ships so much that their Strength by Sea is thrice as much as it was before And since the end of it the Dutch have been very diligent also in augmenting their Fleets In this conjuncture when our Neighbours Arm so potently even
short Prorogation of six days when he understood their intention gave them opportunity to have disisted But it seems they judged the National Jnterest of Religion so farre concerned in this matter that they no sooner meet again but they drew up a second request by way of Addresse to his Majesty with their Reasons against it That for his Royal Highnesse to marry the Princesse of Modena or any other of that Religion had very dangerous consequences That the mindes of his Majesties Protestant subjects will be much disquieted thereby filled with infinite discontents and Jealousies That his Majesty would thereby be linked into such a foraine Alliance which will be of great disadvantage and possibly to the Ruine of the Protestant Religion That they have found by sad experience how such mariages have always increased Popery and incorraged Priests and Jesuits to prevert his Majesties subjects That the Popish party already lift up their heads in hopes of his marriage That they fear it may diminish the affection of the people toward his Royal Highnesse who is by blood so near related to the Crown That it is now more then one Age that the subjects have lived in continual apprehensions of the increase of Popery and the decay of the Protestant Religion Finally that she having many Kindred and Relations in the Court of Rome by this means their enterprises here might be facilitated they might pierce into the most secret Counsells of his Majesty and discover the state of the Realm That the most learned men are of opinion that Marriages no further Proceeded in may lawfully be Dissolved And therefore they beseech his Majesty to Annul the Consummation of it and the Rather because they have not yet the Happiness to see any of his Majestyes own Lineage to Succeed in his Kingdomes These Reasons which were extended more amply against his Royal Highnesses Marriage obtained more weight because most men are apt to Judge of things by Circumstances and to attribute what happens by the Conjuncture of Times to the Effect of Contrivance So that it was not difficult to Interpret what was in his Royal Highness an ingagement only of Honour and Affection as proceeding from the Conspirators Counsels seeing it made so much to their purpose But the business was too far advanced to retreat as his Majesty with great reason had replyed to their former Address the Marriage having been celebrated already and confirmed by his Royal Authority and the House of Commons though sitting when the Duke was in a Treaty for the Arch Dutchess of Inspruck one of the same Religion yet having taken no notice of it Therefore while they pursued the matter thus by a second Address it seemed an easier thing and more decent to Prorogue the Parliament than to Dissolve the Marriage And which might more incline his Majesty to this Resolution the House of Commons had now bound themselves up by a Vote that having considered the present State of the Nation they would not take into Deliberation nor have any further Debate upon any other Proposals of Aide or any Surcharge upon the Subject before the payment of the Tvvelve hundred and fifty thousand pounds in eighteen Months which was last granted were expired or at least till they should evidently see that the Obstinacy of the Hollanders should oblige them to the contrary nor till after the kingdom should be effectually secured against the dangers of Popery and Popish Counsellours and that Order be taken against other present Misdemeanours There was yet another thing the Land-Army which appearing to them expensive needless and terrible to the People they addressed to his Majesty also that they might be disbanded All which things put together his Majesty was induced to Prorogue the Parliament again for a short time till the seventh of January One thousand six hundred seventy three That in the mean while the Princess of Modena arriving the Marriage might be consummated without further interruption That Session was opened with a large deduction also by the new Lord Keeper this being his first Experiment in the Lords House of his Eloquence and Veracity of the Hollanders averseness to Peace or Reason and their uncivil and indirect dealing in all Overtures of Treaty with his Majesty and a Demand was made therefore and re-inforced as formerly of a proportionable and speedy Supply But the Hollanders that had found themselves obstructed alwayes hitherto and in a manner excluded from all Applications and that whatever means they had used was still mis-interpreted and ill represented were so industrious as by this time which was perhaps the greatest part of their Crime to have undeceived the generallity of the Nation in those particulars The House of Commons therefore not doubting but that if they held their hands in matter of money a Peace would in due time follow grew troublesome rather to several of the great Ministers of State whom they suspected to have been Principal in the late pernicious Counsels But instead of the way of Impeachment whereby the Crimes might have been brought to Examination Proof and Judgment they proceeded Summarily within themselves noting them only with an ill Character and requesting his Majesty to remove them from his Counsels his Presence and their Publick Imployments Neither in that way of handling were they Impartial Of the three which were questioned the Duke of Buckingham seemed to have muoh the more favourable Cause but had the severest Fortune And this whole matter not having been mannaged in the solemn Methods of National Justice but transmitted to his Majesty it was easily changed into a Court Intrigue where though it be a Modern Maxime That no State Minister ought to be punished but especially not upon Parliamentary Applications Yet other Offenders thought it of security to themselves in a time of Publick Discontent to have one Man sacrisiced and so the Duke of Buckingham having worse Enemies and as it chanced worse Friends than the rest was after all his Services abandoned they having only heard the sound while he felt all the smart of that Lash from the House of Commons But he was so far a Gainer that with the loss of his Offices and dependance he was restored to the Freedom of his own Spirit to give thence-forward those admirable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vigour and Vivacity of his better Judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though to his own Imprisonment the due Liâ—… of the English Nation 〈◊〉 manner of proceeding in the House of Commons 〈◊〉 a new way of negotiating the Peace with Holland but the â—…ost effectual the Conspirators living all the while under continual apprensions of being called to further account for their Actions and no mony appearing which would either have prepetuated the War or might in case of a Peaâ—…e be misapplied to other uses then the building of Ships insinuated by the Lord Keeper The Hollanders Proposalls by this means therefore began to be thought more reasonable and the Marquis del Fresno the Spanish Minister in this Court labourd
so well that his Majesty thought fit to Communicate the overture to both Houses and though their advice had not been asked to the War yet not to make the Peace without it There was not much difficulty in their resolutions For the generall bent of the Nation was against the War the French now had by their ill behaviour at Sea in all the Engagements raised also the English Indignation their pernicious Counsels were visible in their book of the Politique Francoise tending by frequent levyes of men and mony to exhaust and weaken our Kingdome and by their conjuction with us on set purpose to raise betwixt the King and his People a rationall Jealousy of Popery and French Government till we should insensibly devolve into them by Inclination or Necessity As men of ill conversation pin themselves maliciously on persons more sober that if they can no otherwise debauch them they may blast their Reputation by their society and so oblige them to theirs being suspected by better Company Besides all which the very reason of Traffick which hath been so long neglected by our greater Statesmen was now of some consideration for as much as by a Peace with the Hollander the greatest part of the Trade and Navigation of Europe as long as the French King disturbed it would of course fall into the English management The Houses therefore gave their humble advice to his Majesty for a just and honorable Peace with the States Generall which when it could be no longer resisted was concluded In the seventh Article of this Treaty it is said That the Treaty vvhich vvas made at Breda in the yeare 1667 as also all the others vvhich are by this present Treaty confirmed shall by the present be renevved and shall continue in their full force and vigour as far as they shall not be contrary unto this said present Treaty Which words are the more to be taken notice of that they may be compared afterwards with the effects that follow to see how well on the English part that Agreement hath been observed The businesse of the Peace thus being once over and this Parliament still lowring upon the Ministers of State or bogling at the Land Forces whereof the eight new raised Regiments were upon the request of the Commons at last disbanded or imployed in further Bills against Popery and for the Education and Protestant Marriage henceforward of those of the Royal Family the necessity of their further sitting seemed not so urgent but that they might have a repose till the tenth of November 1674. following The Conspirators had hitherto failed of the accomplishing their design by prepetual disappointments and which was most grievous to them foresaw that the want of mony would still necessitate the frequent sitting of Parliament which danger they had hop'd long ere this to have conquer'd In this state of their affaires the French King therefore was by no meanes to be further disobliged he being the Master of their secret and the only person which if they helped him at this plunge might yet carry them thorow They were therefore very diligent to profit themselves of all the advantages to this purpose that their present posture could afford them They knew that his Majesty being now disengaged from War would of his Royall Prudence interpose for Peace by his Mediation it being the most glorious Character that any Prince can assume and for which he was the more proper as being the most Potent thereby to give the sway and the most disintressed whereby to give the Equity requisite to such a Negotiation and the most obliged in Honour as having been the occasion by an unforeseen consequence of drawing the sword of all this part of Europe But if they feared any propension in his Majesty to one party it was toward Spaine as knowing how that Crowne as it is at large recited and acknowledged in the preamble of the last Treaty between England and Holland had been the only instrument of the happy Peace which after that pernicious War we now injoyed Therefore they were resolved by all their influence and industry though the profit of the War did now wholly redown to the English Nation and however in case of peace it was our Interest that if any France should be depressed to any equality to labour that by this mediation France might be the onely gainer and having all quiet about him might be at perfect leisure to attend their project upon England And one of these our Statesmen being pressed solved all Arguments to the contrary with an oraculous French question Faut il que tout se fasse par Politique rien par Amitie Must all things be done by Maxims or Reasons of State nothing for Affection Therefore that such an absurdity as the ordering of Affairs abroad according to the Interest of our Nation might be avoided the English Sbotch and Irish Regiments that were already in the French Service were not only to be kept in their full Complement but new numbers of Souldiers daily transported thither making up in all as is related at least a constant Body of Ten thousand Men of his Majesties Subjects and which oftentimes turned the Fortune of Battle on the French side by their Valour How far this either consisted with the Office of a Mediatour or how consonant it was to the seventh Article above mentioned of the last Treaty with Holland It is for them to demonstrate who were the Authors But it was indeed a good way to train up an Army under the French Discipline and Principles who might be ready seasoned upon occasion in England to be called back and execute the same Counsels In the mean time they would be trying yet what they could do at home For the late proceedings of Parliament in quashing the Indulgence in questioning Ministers of State in Bills against Popery in not granting Money whensoever asked were Crimes not to be forgiven nor however the Conspirators had provided for themselves named in the Act of General Pardon They began therefore after fifteen Years to remember that there were such a sort of men in England as the Old Cavalier Party and reckoned that by how much the more generous they were more credulous than others and so more fit to be a gain abused These were told that all was at Stake Church and State How truly said But meant how falsly That the Nation was running again into Fourty One That this was the time to refresh their antient merit and receive the Recompence double of all their Loyalty and that hence-forward the Cavaliers should have the Lottery of all the Great or Small Offices in the Kingdom and not so much as Sir Joseph Williamson to have a share in it By this meanes they indeed designed to have raised a Civil War for which they had all along provided by new Forts and standing Forces and to which they had on purpose both in England and Scotland given all provocation if it would have been taken that
are Commissioned by him in pursuance of such Commission and yet neither is the Tenour or Rule of any such Commission specified nor the Qualification of those that shall be armed with such Commissions expressed or limited Never was so much sence contained in so few words No Conveyancer could ever in more Compendious or binding terms have drawn a Dissettlement of the whole Birth-right of England For as to the Commission if it be to take away any mans Estate or his Life by force Yet it is the Kings Commission Or if the Person Commissionate be under never so many Dissabilities by Acts of Parliament yet his taking this Oath removes all those Incapacities or his Commission makes it not Disputable But if a man stand upon his Defence a good Judge for the purpose finding that the Position is Traitorous will declare that by this Law he is to be Executed for Treason These things are no Nicetyes or remote Considerations though in making of Laws and which must come afterwards under Construction of Judges Durante Bene-placito all Cases are to be put and imagined but there being an Act in Scotland for Tvventy thousand Men to March into England upon Call and so great a Body of English Souldery in France within Summons besides what Forainers may be obliged by Treaty to furnish and it being so fresh in memory what sort of persons had lately been in Commission among us to which add the many Bookes then Printed by Licence Writ some by Men of the Black one of the Green Cloath wherein the Absoluteness of the English Monarchy is against all Law asserted All these Considerations put together were sufficient to make any honest and well-advised man to conceive indeed that upon the passing of this Oath and Declaration the vvhole sum of Affaires depended It grew therefore to the greatest contest that has perhaps ever been in Parliament wherein those Lords that were against this Oath being assured of their own Loyalty and Merit stood up now for the English Liberties with the same Genius Virtue and Courage that their Noble Ancestors had formerly defended the Great Charter of England but with so much greater Commendation in that they had here a fairer Field and the more Civil way of Decision They fought it out under all the disadvantages imaginable They were overlaid by Numbers the noise of the House like the VVind was against them and if not the Sun the Fire-side was allwayes in their Faces nor being so few could they as their Adversaries withdraw to refresh themselves in a whole days Ingagement Yet never was there a clearer Demonstration how dull a thing is humane Eloquence and Greatness how Little when the bright Truth discovers all things in their proper Colours and Dimensions and shining shoots its Beams thorow all their Fallacies It might be injurious where all of them did so excellently well to attribute more to any one of those Lords than another unless because the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Shaftsbury have been the more reproached for this brave Action it be requisite by a double proportion of Praise to set them two on equal terms with the rest of their Companions in Honour The particular Relation of this Debate which lasted many dayes with great eagerness on both sides and the Reasons but on one was in the next Session burnt by Order of the Lords but the Sparkes of it will eterually fly in their Adversaries faces Now before this Test could in so vigorous an opposition passe the House of Peers there arose unexpectedly a great Controversy betwixt the two Houses concerning their Priviledges on this occasion The Lords according to their undoubted Right being the Supream Court of Judicature in the Nation had upon Petition of Doctor Shirley taken cognizance of a Cause between him and Sir John Fagg a Member of the House of Commons and of other Appeales from the Court of Chancery which the Commons whether in good earnest which I can hardly believe or rather some crafty Parliament men among them having an eye upon the Test and to prevent the hazard of its coming among them presently took hold of and blew the Coales to such a degree that there was no quenching them In the House of Peers both Partyes as in a point of their own Privilege easily united and were no lesse inflamed against the Commons and to uphold their own ancient Jurisdiction wherein neverthelesse both the Lords for the Test and those against it had their own particular reasons and might have accused each-other perhaps of some artifice The matter in conclusion was so husbanded on all sides that any longer converse betwixt the two Houses grew impracticable and his Majesty Prorogued them therefore till the 13th of October 1675 following And in this manner that fatall Test which had given so great disturbance to the mindes of our Nation dyed the second Death which in the language of the Divines is as much as to say it was Damned The House of Commons had not in that Session been wanting to Vote 300000 l. towards the building of Ships and to draw a Bill for appropriating the Ancient Tunnage and Poundage amounting to 400000 l. yearly to the use of the Navy as it ought in Law already and had been granted formerly upon that special Trust and Confidence but neither did that 300000 l. although Competent at present and but an earnest for future meeting seem considerable and had it been more yet that Bill of appropriating any thing to its true use was a sufficient cause to make them both miscarry but upon pretense of the quarrel between the Lords and Commons in which the Session thus ended The Conspirators had this interval to reflect upon their own affaires They saw that the King of France as they called him was so busy abroad that he could not be of farther use yet to them here then by his directions while his Armyes were by assistance of the English Forces severall times saved from ruines They considered that the Test was defeated by which the Papists hoped to have had Reprisalls for that of Transubstantiation and the Conspirators to have gained Commission as extensive and arbitrary as the malice of their own hearts could dictate That herewith they had missed of a Legality to have raised mony without Consent of Parliament or to imprison or execute whosoever should oppose them in pursuance of such their Commission They knew it was in vaine to expect that his Majesty in that want or rather opinion of want which they had reduced him to should be diverted from holding this Session of Parliament nor were they themselves for this once wholy averse to it For they presumed either way to find their own account that if mony were granted it should be attributed to their influence and remaine much within their disposal but if not granted that by joyning this with other accidents of Parliament they might so represent things to his Majesty as to incense him against them
instead of giving a Temper to their deliberations may seem to affect the Predominance For although the House of Peers besides their supream and sole Judicature have an equal power in the Legislature with the House of Commons and at the second Thoughts in the Government have often corrected their errours yet it is to be confessed that the Knights Citizens and Burgesses there assembled are the Representers of the People of England and are more peculiarly impowred by them to transact concerning the Religion Lives Liberties and the Propriety of the Nation And therefore no Honorable person related to his Majesties more particular service but will in that place and opportunity suspect himself least his Gratitude to his Master with his self-interest should tempt him beyond his obligation there to the Publick The same excludes him that may next inherit from being Guardian to an Infant not but there may the same affection and integritie be found in those of the Fathers side as those on the Mothers but out of decent and humane caution and in like manner however his Majesties Officers may be of as sound and untainted reputation as the best yet common Discretion would teach them not to seek after and ingrosse such different Trusts in those bordering Intrests of the King and Contrey where from the People they have no Legall advantage but so much may be gained by betraying them How improper would it seem for a Privy Counsellour if in the House of Commons he should not justify the most arbytrary Proceedings of the Councill Table represent affaires of State with another face defend any misgovernment patronize the greatest Offenders against the Kingdome even though they were too his own particular enemies and extend the supposed Prerogative on all occasions to the detriment of the Subjects certaine and due Libertyes What self denyall were it in the Learned Counsell at Law did they not vindicate the Misdemeanours of the Judges perplex all Remedies against the Corruptions and Incroachment of Courts of Judicature Word all Acts towards the Advantage of their own Profession palliate unlawfull Elections extenuate and advocate Publick Crimes where the Criminall may prove considerable step into the chaire of a Money Bill ' and pen the Clauses so dubiously that they may be interpretâ—… in Westminister-Hall beyond the Houses intention mislead the House not only in point of Law but even in matter of Fact without any respect to Veracity but all to his own further Promotion What Soldier in Pay but might think himself sit to be cashiered should he oppose the increase of Standing Forces the Depression of Civill Authority or the Levying of Mony by whatsoever means or in what Quantity Or who of them ought not to abhorre that Traiterous Position of taking Armes by the Kings Authority against those that are Commissionated by him in pursuance of such Commission What Officer of the Navy but takes himself under Obligation to magnify the expence extoll the mannagment conceal the neglect increase the Debts and presse the Necessity ringging and unringging it to the House in the same moment and representing it all at once in a good and a bad condition should any Member of Parliament and of the Exchequer omit to transform the Accounts conceal the Issues highten the Anticipations and in despight of himself oblidge whosoever chance to be the Lord Treasurer might not his Reversioner justly expect to be put into present Posession of the Office Who that is either concerned in the Customes or of their Brethren of the Excise can with any decency refuse if they do not invent all further Impositions upon Merchandise Navigation or our own domestick Growth and Consumption and if the Charge be but Temporary to perpetuate it Hence it shall come that insteed of relieving the Crown by the good old and certain way of Subsidyes wherein nothing was to be got by the House of Commons they devised this Foraine course of Revenue to the great Greivance and double charg of the People that so many of the Members might be gratified in the Farmes or Commissions But to conclude this digression whatsoever other Offices have been set up for the use of the Members or have been extinguished upon occasion should they have failed at a Question did not they deserve to be turned out Were not all the Votes as it were in Fee Farme of those that were intrusted with the sale Must not Surinam be a sufficient cause of quarrel with Holland to any Commissioner of the Plantations Or who would have denyed Mony to continue the War with Holland when he were a Commissioner of Prizes of Sick and Wounded of Transporting the English or of Starving the Dutch Prisoners How much greater then would the hardship be for those of his Majesties Houshold or who attend upon his Royall Person to forget by any chance Vote or in being absent from the House that they are his Domestick servants Or that all those of the capacity abovementioned are to be look upon as a distinct Body under another Discipline and whatsoever they may commit in the House of Commons against the National Interest they take themselves to be justified by their Circumstances their hearts indeed are they say with the Country and one of them had the boldness to tell his Majesty That he was come from Voting in the House Against his Conscience And yet these Gentlemen being full and already in Imployment are more good natured and less dangerous to the Publick than those that are hungry and out of Office who may by probable computation make another Third part of this House of Commons Those are such as having observed by what steps or rather leaps and strides others of their House have ascended into the highest Places of the Kingdom do upon measuring their own Birth Estates Parts and Merit think themselves as well and better qualified in all respects as their former Companions They are generally men who by speaking against the French inveighing against the Debauches of Court talking of the ill management of the Revenue and such Popular flourishes have cheated the Countrys into Electing them and when they come up if they can speak in the House they make a faint attaque or two upon some great Minister of State and perhaps relieve some other that is in danger of Parliament to make themselves either way considerable In matters of money they seem at first difficult but having been discourst with in private they are set right and begin to understand it better themselves and to convert their Brethren For they are all of them to be bought and sold only their Number makes them cheaper and each of them doth so overvalue himself that sometimes they outstand or let slip their own Market It is not to be imagined how small things in this case even Members of great Estates will stoop at and most of them will do as much for Hopes as others for Fruition but if their patience be tired out they grow at last
have been respited again as it had in former Sessions and for the whole long Prorogation But their House was farr from such Obstinacy And the news being come of the taking both of Valenciennes and St. Omar with the defeate of the Prince of Orange at Mont-Cassel so that now there was no further danger of preventing or Interrupting the successes of the French-King this Campagn at last therefore upon the 11 of Aprill this following answer was offerred to their House from his Majesty by Master Secretary Coventry C. R. HIs Majesty having considered your last Addresse and finding some late alteration in affaires abroad thinks it necessary to put you in mind That the only vvay to prevent the dangers vvhich may arise to these Kingdoms must be by putting his Majesty timely in a Condition to make such fitting preparation as may enable him to do vvhat may be most for the security of them And if for this reason you shall desire to fit any longer time his Majesty is content you may Adjourn novv before Easter and meet again suddenly after to ripen this matter and to perfect some of the most necessary Bills novv depending Given at our Court at White-Hall the 11. of April 1677. Somewhat was said on both these matters but the Greater debate of them was Adjorned till next day and then reassumed Then it was moved that the House should Adjorn till after Easter and then meet again with a Resolution to enable the King to make such preprations as should be thought necessary and also passe some necessary Bills for the Kingdome which if they did not the blame of the neglect must rest upon themselves and it would be observed they had not sat to any effect this four yeares and that now they had a session and had given a Million they did take little care to redresse Greviances or passe Good Laws for the People and that they should not be able to give any account of themselves to their Neighbours in the Country unlesse they should face them down that there was no Greviance or Mischeife in the Nation to be Redressed and that the King had stopped their mouths and laid it to them by offering to them to sit longer Others said they should perfect the two money Bills and give the King Ease and take another time to consider further of Religion Liberty and Property especially seeing all Bills now depending would be kept on foot the Intended Recesse being to be but an Adjournment that they had very good Laws already and would give their shares in any new ones they were making to be in the Country at the present time that it was necessary for them to be there the 10th of May to Execute the Act for 600000 l. c. And some time was to be allowed for their Journyes and rest after it that the passing some necessary Bills came in the end of the Kings Message and by the by For his Majesty saith That if for this Reason that is for making of preparations c they should desire to sit longer and if so then also take the opportunity of passing such Bills So the sence and inclination of the House was to rise before Easter as had been before intimated and expected Then they fell upon the main consideration of the Message and to make a present Answer The Secretary and other Ministers of State said that the Alteration of Affaires which his Majesty took notice of was the successe of the French against the Prince of Orange in the Battel and their proceeding to take Cambray and St. Omars Thus by Inches or rather great measures they were taking in Flanders which was reckoned the Out-work of England as well as Holland and they said plainely nothing could put his Majesty in a condition to make fitting preparations to preserve the Kingdom but ready money To this it was answered that it was not proper nor usuall to aske money at the end of a Session and it was fit that Alliances should be first made and that they should Adjourn rather till that were done for they ought not to give money till they knew for what and it was clearely spoken and made out to them that if there were no Summers War there was money enough given already It was replyed That they had not direction from his Majesty as to what he had resolved and it might be not convenient to discover and publish such things but they would offer their Guesse and Ayme at some things if there were any Approaches towards War though they ought to consider and compute like him in the Gospel whether with such a force they could encounter a King that came against them with such a force they should think of providing a Guard for the Isle of Wight sersey Carnsey and Ireland and secure our Coasts and be in a defensive posture on the Land we might be Attaqued in a night Also there would be a necessity of an extraordinary Summer Guard at Sea his Majesty did use to apply 400000 l. vearly out of the Customes upon his Fleets the very harbour Expence which in Anchorage Mooring Docks and Repaires c. was 110000 l. per annum and he was now setting forth 40 Ships for the Summer Gard but if there were a disposition towards War there must be more Shipps or at least those must be more fully manned and more strongly appoynted and furnished the more especially if the Breach were sudden for otherwise our Trading Ships at Sea as well as those Ships and Goods in the French Ports would be exposed Now it is reasonable that the remander which was above and beyond the Kings ordinary Allowance should be supplyed by the Parliament and the Extraordinary preparations of this kind for the present could not amount to lesse than 200000 l. It was answered that it was a Mealancholy thing to think Jersey c. Were not well enough secured at least as well as in the year 1665 when we alone had War with the French and Dutch too and yet the Kings Revenue was lesse then than now That the Revenue of Ireland was 50000 l. per annum beyond the Establishment that is the Civill Military and all payments of the Government which if not sent over hither but disposed there would suffice to defend that Kingdom and they remember that about a moneth ago they were told by some of these Gentlemen that the French King would not take more Townes in Flanders if he might have them but was drawing off to meet the Germans who would be in the field in May and therefore it was strang he should be represented now as ready to Invade us and that we must have an Army raised and kept on our Islands and Land No they would not have that it would be a Great matter in the Ballance if the Kings Subjects were withdrawn from the French service and applyed on the other side and tell that were done that we did continue to be Contributary to the Greatnesse
not so much as speak out insisting on his words That vvithout 600000 l. it vvould not be possible for him to speak or Act those things vvhich should ansvver the ends of their several Addresses vvithout exposing the Kingdom to much greater dangers By others it was observed and said That they met now upon a publick notice by Proclamation which Proclamation was in pursuance of their last Addresse in which Addresse they desire the King they may Adjourn for such time as with in which they hoped Allyances might be fixed so as to be imparted they mentioned not any particular day If his Majesty had not thought this time long enough for the purpose he might have appointed the Adjournment for a longer time or he might have given notice by Proclamation that upon this account they should re-adjourn to a yet longer time But surely the time has been sufficient especially considering the readiness of the Parties to be Allyed with it is five weeks since our 〈◊〉 He that was a minister chiefly imployed in making the Tripple â—…ague has since published in print that that League was made in sive dayes and yet that might well be thought a matter more tedious and long then this For when people are in profound peace as the Dutch then were it was not easy to embark them presently into Leagues They had time and might take it for greater deliberation But here the people are in the distresse of War and need our Allyance and therefore it might be contracted with ease and expidition were we as forward as they Neither is five weeks the limit of the time that has been for this purpose for it is about ten weeks since we first Addressed for these Allyances And as to the Objection That it was not fit to make them known before preparation were made they said the force of that lay in this that the French would be allarmed But they answered that the asking and giving money for this purpose would be no lesse an Allarm For the French could not be ignorant of what Addresses and Answers have passed and if mony be granted to make warlike preperations for the end therein specified it is rather a greater discovery and denouncing of what we intended against the French Grotâ—…us de jure Belli Pacis saies If a Prince make extraordinary preparations a neighbour Prince who may be affected by them may expostulate and demand an account of the purpose for which they are intended and if he receive not satisfaction that they are not to be used against him it is a cause of War on his part so as that Neighbour may begin if he think fit and is not bound to stay till the first preparer first begin actuall Hostility and this is agreeable to reason and the nature of Government Now the French King is a vigilant Prince and has wise Ministers about him upon which general account tho we had not as we have seen an extraordinary French Embassy here dureing our Recesse we should suppose that the French King has demanded an account of our Kings purpose and whether the extraordinary preparations that are begun and to be made are designed against him or not In which case his Majesty could give but one of three answers 1. To say They are not designed against him and then his Majesty may acquaint us with the same and then there is no occasion of our giving money 2. To say They are designed against him in which case his Majesty may very well impart the same to us For it were in vain to conceal it from us to the end that the French might not be allarmd when it is before expresly told the French that the design was against him 3. To give a doubtfull answer But that resolves into the second For when a Prince out of an apprehension that extraordinary preparations may be used against him desires a clear categoricall and satifactory answer concerning the matter as the manner of Princes is a dubious answer does not at all satisfie his inquiry nor allay his jealousy But in that case it is and is used to be taken and understood that the forces are desined against him And if his Majesty have given no answer at all which is not probable it is the same with the last So that this being so by one meanes or other the French have the knowledge of the Kings purpose and if it be known to or but guessed at by hem why is it concealed from his Parliament Why this darknesse towards us Besides we expect not so much good as we would so long as we are afraid the French should know what we are a doing In this state of uncertainty and unâ—…ipeness the House Adjourned to Wednesday Morning nine a cloâ—…k 〈◊〉 first ordred the Committe for the Bill for recalling his Majesties Subjects out of the service of the French King to sit this after-noon which did sit accordingly and went thorough the Bill Wednesday May 23d 1677. His Majesty sent a Message for the House to attend him presently at the Banqueting House in White-Hall where he made the following Speech to them Gentlemen I Have sent for you hither that I might prevent those mistakes and distrusts vvhich I find some are ready to make as if I had called you together only to get money from you for other uses than you vvould have it imployed I do assure you on the Word of a King that you shall not repent any trust you repose in me for the safety of my Kingdoms and I desire you to believe I vvould not break my Credit vvith you but as I have already told you that it vvill not be possible for me to speak or act those things vvhich should ansvver the ends of your several Addresses vvithout exposing my kingdoms to much greater dangers so I declare to you again I vvill neither hazard my ovvn safety nor yours until I be in a better condition than I am able to put my self both to defend my Subjects and offend my Enemies I do further assure you I have not lost one day since your last meeting in doing all I could for your desence and I tell you plainly it shall be your fault and not mine if your Security be not sufficiently provided for The Commons returning to their House and the Speech being there read they presently resolved to consider it and after a little while resolved into a Committee of the whole House for the more full free and regular debate The Secretary and others propounded the supplying the King wherein they said they did not press the House but they might do as they pleased But if it be expected that Allyances be made and made known there must be 600000 l raised to make preperation before for the king had declared that without it it could not be possible for him to speak or Act he could not safely move a step further The king had the right of making Peace War and Leagues as this House has of giving
〈◊〉 Office and may there be seen still if the Papers are not 〈◊〉 A maâ—… 〈◊〉 not tell to what end this advise was given unlesse to spend the Kings money for the Admiralty of Scotland is not now and much lesse then was so considerable as to require any such force against it And if the design were to hinder theiâ—… Coâ—…erce and succours by Sea the charg of one of those great Ships might have been divided and applied to the setting out five or six lesse Ships each of which was capable of doing as much for that service as such a great one and could keep out at Sea longer It is a plain case unless the power of France be lowred we cannot be safe without Conjunction with other Confederates it cannot be done The question is whether the present be the proper time for thâ—… work Certainly it is there is a happy Confederation against the French which we cannot so well hope to have continued without our coming into it much less can we hope to recover or recruite it if once broken The very season of the year favours the businesse It is proper and safe to begin with the French in the summer now he is engaged and not at Leisure whereas in Winter when the Armies are â—…wn out of the Field he will be able to apply himself to us As to the Citizens not advancing mony upon the late cerdit we are informed they were never regularly or effectually asked my Lord Major indeed was spoken to and perhaps some of the Aldermen but all they are not the City he sent about curiously to some of the Citizens to know if they would lend of which they took little or no notice it being not agreeable to their way and usage for the custom in such cases has always been that some Lord of the Council did go down 〈◊〉 â—…he Common Counsell which is the Representative body of the City and there propound the matter Besides in this particular case the Citizens generally asked the same question we do are the Alliances made and said if they were made they would lend money but if not they saw no cause for it Philip the second of Spaine made an observation in his Will or some last Memorial and 't is since published in Print by Monsieur he observes the vanity of any Princes aspiring at the universal Monarchy for that it naturally made the rest of the world joyntly his enemies but ambition blinds men suffers them not to look back on such Experiences But this observation shews what is natural for others to do in such a case and that the way to repell and break such a design is by their universall confederation Philip the Second was most capable of making this Observation for in his hands pâ—…ed the Spanish Design of the Universal Monarchy and that chiefly by reason of the Conjunction of the English and Dutch against him In the process of this debate Gentlemen did more particularly explain themselves and propound to Address their design to the King for a League offensive and defensive with the Dutch against the French power Against which a specious Objection was made That the Dutch were already treating with the French and 't was like they would slip Collar make a separate Peace for themselves and leave us engaged in a War with France To which was Answered That there was no just fear of that the Dutch were Interessed in repressing the Power of France as well as we and they knew their Interest It was reasonable for them to say If England which is as much concerned in this danger will not assist us we will make the best terms we can for our selves there is yet a Seam of Land between the French and us we may Trade by or under them c. But if England will joyn with the Dutch they cannot find one syllable of reason to desert the Common Cause They have observed a propensity in the People of England to help them but not in the Couurt of England If they can find that the Court does heartily joyn it will above all things oblige and confirm them In One thousand six hundred sixty seven when the Dutch were in Peace and Plenty when Flanders was a greater Bullwork to them for the French had not pierced so far into it and when the direction of their affaires was in a hand of inâ—… enmity to the Crown of England John de Witt yet 〈◊〉 thâ—… Interest did so far Govern him and them as to enâ—… 〈◊〉 Tripple League against the growth and power of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more and most certainly therefore now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and weakened by a War and stand in need of our help now the French have approached nearer the bâ—…ink of their Country and are encreased in Naval force to the danger of their Trade and Navigation and now their affaires are chiefly directed by a kinsman of the Crown of England the Prince of Orange they cannot deflect or start from a League they make with us against our Common Enemy It was moved that there might be a League Offensive and Defensive with Spain and the Dutch and other convenient Allyances with the rest of the Confederates but the particular concerning Spain was retracted and laid aside by the general Discourse of the Members to this purpose We do covet an Allyance with Spain above others for that they are Owners of the Netherlands for whose preservation we have Addressed that it is with Spain that we have the most if not the only profitable Trade and the Spaniards are good gallant and sure Friends But they are remote and we know not whether there are full powers here or at Brussels for this matter and to wait for their coming from Madrid would make Church-work whereas we need the swiftest expedition Therefore they Voted their Address to be particular and expresly for such a League with the Dutch and as to the Spaniards together with the other Confederates in general This passed with very general consent there was an extraordinary full House and upon putting the question there were but two negative Voices to it There were more ordinary particulars appointed to be in the Address but no contest or debate about them The Vote was as followeth Resolved THat an Addresse be made to the King That his Majesty vvould be pleased to enter into a League offensive and defensive vvith the Sates General of the Vinited Provinces and to make such other Alliances vvith others of the Confederates as his Majesty shall think â—…it against the grovvth and povver of the French King and for the preservation of the Spanish Nether-Lands and that a Committe be appointed to dravv up the Addresse vvith reasons vvhy this House cannot comply vvith his Majestics Speech until such Alliances be 〈◊〉 into and further shevving the necessity of the speedy making such Alliances and vvhen such Alliances are made giving his Majesty Assurance of speedy and chearfull supplyes from time to time for supporting and maintaining
other Nations as refractory disobedient Persons that had lost all respect to his Majesty Thus were they well rewarded for their Itch of Perpetual Sitting and of Acting the Parliament being grown to that height of Contempt as to be Gazetted among Run-away Servants Lost Doggs Strayed Horses and High-way Robbers In this manner was the second meeting of this whether Convention or Parliament concluded But by what Name soever it is lawfull to call them or how irregular they were in other things yet it must be confessed That this House or Barn of Commons deserved commendations for haveing so far prevented the establishment of Popery by rejecting the Conspiratours two Bills Intituled 1. An Act for further securing the Protestant Religion by educating the Children of the Royal family therein And for the providing for the Continuance of a Protestant Clergy 2. An Act for the more effectual conviction and Prosecution of Popish Recusants And for having in so many Addresses applyed against the French power and 〈◊〉 And their Debates before recited upon this latter subject do sufficently show that there are men of great parts among them who understand the Intrest of the Nation and as long as it is for their purpose can prosecute it For who would not commend Chastity and raile against Whoreing while his Rival injoyes their Mistresse But on the other side that poor desire of Perpetuating themselves those advantages which they have swallowed or do yet gape for renders them so â—…bject that they are become a meer property to the Conspiratours and must in order to their continuance do and suffer such things so much below and contrary to the spirit of the Nation that any honest man would swear that they were no more an English House of Parliament And by this weaknesse of theirs it was that the House of Peers also as it is in contiguous Buildings yeelded and gave way so far even to the shaking of the Government For had the Commons stood firme it had been impossible that ever two men such as the Black and White Lords Trerise and Frechvvel though of so vast fortunes extraordinary understanding and so proportionable Courage should but for speaking against their sense have committed the Four Lords not much their inferiours and thereby brought the whole Peerage of England under their vassalage They met again at the Day appointed the 16 of July The supposed House of Commons were so well appayed and found themselves at such ease under the Protection of these frequent Adjournments which seemed also further to confirme their Title to Parliament that they quite forgot how they had been out-lawed in the Gazette or if any sense or it remaind there was no opportunity to discover it For his Majesty having signified by Mr. Secretary Coventry his pleasure that there should be a further Adjournment their Mr. Seymour the speaker deceased would not suffer any man to proceed But an honourable Member requiring modestly to have the Order Read by which they were before Adjourned he Interrupted him and the Seconder of that motion For he had at the last Meeting gained one President of his own making for Adjourning the House without question by his own Authority and was loath to have it discontinued so that without more ado like an infallible Judge and who had the power over Counsels he declared Ex Cathedra that they were Adjourned till the third of December next And in the same moment stampt down on the floor and went forth trampling upon and treading under foot I had almost said the Priviledges and usage of Parliament but however without shewing that decent respect which is due to a multitude in Order and to whom he was a Menial servant In the mean time the four Lords lay all this while in the Tower looking perhaps to have been set free at least of Course by Prorogation And there was the more reason to have expected one because the Corn Clause which deducted Communibus Annis 55000 I. out of the Kings Customes was by the Act of Parliament to have expired But those frequent Adjournments left no place for Divination but that they must rather have been calculated to give the French more scope for perfecting their Conquests or to keep the Lords closer till the Conspirators Designes were accomplished and it is less probable that one of these was false than that both were the true Causes So that the Lords if they had been taken in War might have been ransomed cheaper than they were Imprisoned When therefore after so long patience they saw no end of their Captivity they began to think that the procuring of their Liberty deserved almost the same care which others took to continue them in Durance and each of them chose the Method he thought most advisable The Earl of Shaftsbury having addressed in vain for his Majesties favour resorted by Habeas Corpus to the Kings Bench the constant Residence of his Justice But the Judges were more true to their Pattents then their Jurisdiction and remanded him Sir Thomas Jones having done him double Justice answering both for himself and his Brother Tvvisden that was absent and had never hard any Argument in the case The Duke of Buckingham the Earle of Salisbury and the Lord Wharton had better Fortune then he in recurring to his Majesty by a Petition upon which they were enlarged making use of an honorable Evasion where no Legal Reparation could be hoped for Ingratefull Persons may censure them for enduring no more not considering how much they had suffered But it is Honour enough for them to have been Confessors nor as yet is the Earl of Shaftsbury a Martyr for the English Liberties and the Protestant Religion but may still live to the Envy of those that maligne him for his Constancy There remaines now only to relate that before the meeting appointed for the third of December his Majesties Proclamation was Issued signifying that he expected not the Members attendance but that those of them about Town may Adjourn themselves till the fourth of April 1678. Wherein it seemed not so strange because often done before as unfortunate that the French should still have so much further leisure allowed him to compleat his design upon Flanders before the Nation should have the last opportunity of interposing their Counsells with his Majesty it cannot now be said to prevent it But these words that the House may Adjourn themselves were very well received by those of the Commons who imagined themselves thereby restored to their Right after Master Seymours Invasion When in reversal of this he probably desiring to retain a Jurisdiction that he had twice usurped and to adde this Flower to the Crown of his own planting Mr. Secretary Coventry delivered a written Message from his Majesty on the 3d. of December of a contrary effect though not of the same validity with the Proclamation to wit That the Houses should be Adjourned only to the 15. of January 1677. Which as soon as read Mr. Seymour