make a new one they returned and Adjourned till Saturday Morning But not agreeing then they desired a further time which was granted till Tuesday following The King telling the Messengers that as he would not have his Prerogative intrencht upon so he would not do any thing against the Priviledges of the House But then instead of Presenting a new Speaker they Presented a Representation Claiming it as a Right to have that Speaker they chose accepted if he were not excused for some Corporal Disease which hath always heretofore been alleadged either by themselves or some others in their behalf in full Parliament as they said But his Majesty not admitting this neither they Adjourned till Wednesday and drew up another Address to have the former better considered and to this his Majesty replied he would send them an answer the next day And accordingly On Thursday he sent for them up to the House of Lords and Prorogued them for one day and on Saturday morning sent for them again and by the Lord Chancellor Commanded them to proceed to the Choice of a Speaker and Present him on Munday Morning which they accordingly did and then they chose Mr. Sergeant Gregory of whom his Majesty approved on the Monday following It was Ominous thus to stumble at the Threshold and therefore there is no great wonder if after this much of his Majesties and the Lord Chancellors good Counsell relating to calmness in the Management of their Affairs was forgotten Tuesday Wednesday and a great part of Thursday the 20th day of March being spent in the preliminaries and in receiving and reading the shoal of Petitions concerning undue Elections and Returns on the Evening of the last day the Commons sent a Message to the Lords to put them in mind of the Impeachments of High Treason against Thomas Earl of Danby in the names of the Commons of England and to desire he might be Committed to safe Custody And referred it to the Committee of Secrecy to draw up further Articles against him By which it appeared that they were resolved to begin where the former Parliament ended so that men easily conjectured what would follow And some there were that suggested as if his place was his greatest Crime and that the ruin of a Minister of State in order to fright the rest of the Ministers was more sought than the Punishment of any Traytor whether Popish or Protestant In the week following it appearing that the Earl of Danby had a pardon by his Majesties mentioning of it in the House of Lords And a Committee being appointed to search it out returned on Monday the 24th of March that it had not been Regularly sued out but was Sealed in the King's presence by his express Command Upon which the Commons sent up a Message to the Lords to demand Justice against him and ordered an Address to his Majesty to represent the dangerous Consequences of granting Pardons to any persons that lie under an Impeachment of the Commons of England And the same day the Lords sent word to the Commons that they had ordered him to be taken into Custody On Tuesday the 25th of March 1679. the Lords sent a Message to the Commons that the Earl of Danby was not to be sound upon which the Commons ordered a Bill to be brought in to Summon him by a certain day or in default thereof to Attaint him Mr. Edward Sacvile a Member of the House of Commons being accused by Mr. Oats to have called the truth of the Plot and Murder of Sir Edmonberry Godfrey in question was ordered to be committed to the Tower Expelled the House and an Address made to his Majesty for the removing him from all Publick Imployments and Trusts This was a sure way to have the Plot believed On Wednesday there having before been a Complaint brought against one Hills and Edwin for Printing a Pamphlet intituled A Letter from a Jesuite at Paris to his Correpondent in London Shewing the most effectual way to ruin the Government and the Protestant Religion was to promote the Dissenters Interest and to chuse factious men into the House of Commons And it appearing that Dr. John Nalson was the Author of it there being no Law to punish this offence the said Doctor was ordered to be sent for in Custody of the Serjeant at Arms to inform the House touching the said Pamphlet The same day a Bill was sent down from the Lords Intituled an Act for the better discovery and speedy Conviction of Popish Recusants Which had been sent down in the former Session of Parliament time enough to have been passed but was neglected which was read the day following On Thursday the 27th of March the Lords sent down a Bill for the Banishing and Disabling the Earl of Danby which his Majesty had profered to do and desired the Concurrence of the House of Commons which the Commons read and rejected that day But notwithstanding the Commons went on with the Bill of Attainder against him and ordered a Clause to be added for the discovery of all trusts relating to him and that he should be made incapable of receiving pardon but by Act of Parliament wherein he shall be particularly Named The same day the Lords sent down a Bill to disinable any person from Sitting in any of the Houses of Convocation till he hath taken the Oaths and made and subscribed the Declaration therein contained On Friday a Bill was read for better securing the liberty of the Subjects Sir Christopher Calthrop Knight who was returned one of the Knights of the Shire for Norfolk being then sick of the Small-pox desired that the Case in difference betwixt him and Sir John Hobard Baronet which was to be heard on Friday next might be delayed which was denyed Note That Calthrop was of the Court-party and Hobard of the Country-party But to look a little back On Monday the 25th of March the House of Lords sent to examin the five Lords in the Tower concerning a French Book about the Plot the Author of which had it seems endeavoured to invalidate Mr. Oats his testimony but they would not own they knew the Author The same day the Vote mentioned in the former Part of the reality of the Popish Plot which had been renewed by the Commons and sent up to the Lords for their concurrence was Voted by the Lords and ordered to be inserted in the first leaf of the Office to be publickly used on the day * 11 of April appointed by his Majesty for solemn Fasting and Humiliation at the request of both Houses On Saturday the 29th the Lords agreed to have a Bill brought in to expell out of the Inns of Court Doctors Commons the College of Physicians and Heralds office all such persons as shall not give testimony of their being Protestants by going to Church and by taking the Sacrament and such Oaths Tests and Declarations as are appointed by any Law for the distinguishing Protestants from Papists and
Address should be made to his Majesty by such Members of their House as were of his Majesties Privy Counsel to desire his Majesty to Command the Lord Chancellor to put him out of the Commission of the Peace Because it seems his Imprisonment was not punishment enough for so great an offence as this Exact Coll. of the most considerable debates c. p. 337. And the Writing several other books to revive the memory of 1641. as one of the Members expressed it in the following Parliament when it seems they meant to have another fling at him for though his Majesty can pardon and forgive there are that cannot But I believe they have got no great matter by this Nor was the Doctor turn'd out of the Commission for all their Address his Majesty knowing this would not suit his Interest On Saturday the Lords sent down a Bill entituled May 3. An Act for freeing the City of London and parts adjacent from Popish Inhabitants and providing against other dangers which may arise from Papists And in the Afternoon May 5. an Account that the Earl of Danby would insist upon his Pardon and that he desired his Council might be heard to the Validity of it On Monday His Majesty sent this message to the Commons by the Lord Russell His Majesty hath commanded me to let the House know that his Majesty is willing to comply with the request made to him by the House concerning Pickering and that the Law shall pass upon him accordingly and as to the Condemned Priests the House of Peers have sent for them in order as his Majesty conceives to some Examinations and further to acquaint you that he repeateth his instances to you to think of putting the Fleet in such a posture as may quiet mens fears and at least secure us from any sudden attempt which his Majesty doubts not but you will do And though the streights and difficulties he lyeth under are very great he doth not intend during this Sessions to press for any other Supply being willing rather to suffer the Burdens that are upon him some time longer than to interrupt you whilst you are imployed about the discovery of the Plot the Tryal of the Lords and the Bill for securing our Religion The same day the Commons went up to the Bar of the Lords house to demand Judgment against the Earl of Danby upon the Illegality of his pardon May the 6. On Tuesday John Wilson and Roger Bockwith Esquires two Justices of the Peace of the County of York were sent for in Custody for saying that this Parliament was no Parliament and they would justify it Of which more hereafter May 22. A Message was sent to the Lords by the Commons that the House was ready to make good the Impeachments against the five Popish Lords in the Tower and the Committee of Secrecy belonging to the Commons was appointed to manage the evidence against them at their Tryals Wednesday The 7. of May the Lords sent down a Message that they had appointed Saturday to hear the Earl of Danby's Plea for the Validity of his Pardon that they had Addressed to the King for the naming a Lord High Steward at his Tryal and that of the Popish Lords which was appointed by their Lordships to be that day seven-night On Thursday The 8. of May. the Commons agreed an Address to his Majesty against John Duke of Lauderdale upon general pretences of fears and jealousies desiring he might be removed from his Majesties Counsels in England and Scotland putting his Majesty in mind of the Address of the last Parliament to that purpose and resolved they would attend his Majesty in a body The Commons desired a Conference with the Lords to state before hand the manner of proceedings in the Tryal of the Earl of Danby and of the five Popish Lords and took exceptions to their motion for a Lord High Steward On Friday his Majesty sent for the Commons and passed the Bill for Disbanding the Army and such other Bills as were ready which was wisely done for by this surprize other debates were prevented which might have prov'd of dangerous consequence After this they appointed a Committee to inspect the Journalls and search Presidents touching the carrying up of Bills and what previous intimation ought to be given to them of his Majesties intention to pass Bills and from and by whom such notice hath usually been given and whether the House may debate after the message delivered by the Black Rod for attendance of the House upon his Majesty It would have been very unhappy if by reason of these Debates the Forces then on foot should have continued undisbanded By all which as much as is possible to conjecture it would have been very unhappy if by reason of these Debates the Forces then on foot should have continued undisbanded to the great damage of the King and Kingdom notwithstanding the common clamour against them if his Majesty had not thus prevented it The same day the Commons passed this Vote that no Commoner whatsoever should presume to maintain the Validity of the pardon pleaded by the E. of Danby without the leave of their house first had and that the persons so doing should be accounted betrayers of the Liberties of the Commons of England and Ordered this Vote to be posted up at Westminster-hall Gate Serjeants-Innes and Innes of Court His Lordships Friends called this a depriving him of all counsel to defend himself but what was appointed by his Enemies and Accusers in a matter of Law insisting upon the Rules of proceedings in all other Courts and the ordinary methods of Common and Natural equity and right it seeming hard to ruine a man if not some diffidence of the case to deny him those Priviledges the meanest and worst of Rogues have which is to choose such Councel as the Court before whom they are to be tryed will allow the Kings Councel excepted And when the humour was stirr'd they voted that the Answer delivered by the Lords that day at the Last Conference about the manner of trying the Peers whereby their Lordships had not consented to a Committee of the Houses because they did not think it Conformable to the Rules and Orders of their Court of which they said they had reason to be tender in matters relating to their Judicature tended to the Interruption of the good correspondency between the two Houses May 10. The first thing the Commons did on Saturday morning was the Reading of an Address to the King for the raising of the Militia of London Westminster the Tower Hamlets and Counties of Middlesex and Surrey for the security of his Majesties Person at the Tryal of the Popish Lords by reason of the Great Resort of the Jesuits Popish Priests and other Popish Recusants at that time in contempt of his Majesties Laws and Royal Proclamation to which they desired the Concurrence of the Lords to which they unanimously agreed The E. of
Danby sending a Petition to the Lords that his Counsel durst not appear to defend his case by reason of the Vote of the Commons the Lords at a Conference desired to know if there were any such Vote to which the Commons would not answer Sir Robert Howard acquainting them there had been paid from our Lady-day 1676 to the 20th of March 1679 the Sum of 252467 lb. 1 s. 9 d. for Secret Services They ordered that Mr. Charles Bertie should be taken into Custody of the Sergeant at Armes attending their House And in the Next place they ordered that all the Members that were of the Long Robe of their house should prepare themselves with Reasons against the pardon pleaded by the E. of Danby Which was very necessary now that no body durst defend it So the Lords Ordered the E. to be returned to the Tower in safety On Sunday the Lords agreed to the demand of the Commons for the appointing a Committee of both Houses to state the Preliminaries of the tryals to be had to meet the next day May 11. And then the Commons proceeded to Vote that a Bill be brought in to disable the Duke of York to inherit the Imperial Crown of this Realm and appointed a Committee to draw the same Which was in pursuance of their former Vote on Sunday the 27th of April Though the Lords who had been twise desired to concur in that vote had given no answer to it Out of an apprehension perhaps that his Majesties Life might be indangered upon this Vote they resolved Nemine Contradicente That in defence of the Kings person and the Protestant Religion this house doth declare that they will stand by his Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes and that if his Majesty should come by any violent death which God forbid that they will revenge it to the utmost upon the Papists As if it had been impossible his Majesty should be murthered by any other then a Papist or that it had been any consolation to his Majesty to have known that his death should have been revenged to the utmost on them who ever had been the cause or procurers of it This prov'd the occasion of breaking all the following Parliaments to this day and thereby to secure the Popish Lords in the Tower from Tryal and to prevent all the excellent Laws that were then under consideration against Popery from ever being brought to pass And finally it prov'd an obstacle of union between the King and the Houses to the great advantage of our Enemies at home and abroad to the great hazard of the Nation and more especially of the Protestant Religion which was pretended to be secured by it I shall say more of this Vote and the former hereafter when the effects of them will appear better then they did at first On Wednesday his Majesty sent another Message to the Commons to put them again in mind of the Fleet May 14. and let them know he would acquit himself of the evil consequences which the want of a Fleet in such a juncture might produce and that the entering upon it could be no hinderance to the other great affairs on their hands but rather a Security in the dispatch thereof Upon which a debate arising they adjourn'd the Consideration of this Message till Monday Sennight after which had the appearance of a denial On Thursday there arose a Controversy betwixt the two Houses about the Bishops May 15. for the Lords having Voted that the Lords Spiritual have a right to stay and sit in Court till the Court proceed to the Vote of Guilty or not guilty The Commons opposed it and said that the Lords Spiritual ought not to have any Vote in any proceedings upon impeachments against the Lords in the Tower involving the E. of Danby's case with the other Lords though it was vastly different And indeed from hence arose this contest the Commons imagining that the Bishops would be for the validity of his pardon and so make a major Vote in that House and therefore as they had deprived him of his Counsel before so now the business was to out the most favourable part as they thought of his Judges The same day the Bill to disinherit the D. of York was read the first time and Ordered a second reading On Saturday a Vote of the House of Lords was read in the House of Commons May 17. 16 May 1679. Resolved by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled that Thursday next be appointed to begin the Tryals of the five Lords in the Tower viz. the E. of Powis c. After which resolution the Lords Spiritual asked the leave of that house that they might withdraw themselves from the Tryals of the said Lords with the Liberty of entring their usual Protestations Upon which the Commons Resolved That it be given as an instruction to their Committee to insist upon the former Vote of this House That the Lords Spiritual ought not to have any vote in any Proceedings against the Lords in the Tower and when that matter shall be setled as they please for the Lords had setled it and the method of proceedings adjusted this House shall then be ready to proceed upon the Tryal of the E. of Danby against whom the House hath already demanded judgment and afterwards to the Tryal of the other five Lords in the Tower So here was the two Houses in their Votes point blank against one another I shall here take notice of some Arguments that passed betwixt the Lords and the Commons as they are expressed in the Lords Journal On Tuesday the 13th of May The Commons desired to know concerning the Bishops being present at the Tryals of the Lords impeached to which the Lords made this Answer That it belonged not to the Commons to be concerned in the Constituting parts of the Court upon such Tryals but that the judgment of this matter belongs entirely to the Lords and when they have adjudged it the Commons cannot alter it and therefore should not debate it Upon which the Commons acknowledged that Judgment after Tryal is in the Lords but their Lordships are not to give judgment unless the Commons demand it and that the Commons desire to know whether the Lords will proceed in these Tryals as their Lordships did anciently for if the Bishops should sit upon these Tryals they should not demand Judgment but being dissatisfied with their being there and it may be the Commons may proceed by Bill To which the Lords made Answer that after the Evidence is fully heard they are bound to give judgment of Condemnation or Acquittal but this being a matter of Judicature the Lords declared that they would impose silence upon themselves and debate it no further The Commons further desired to know whether the Bishops should be allowed to vote upon the Validity of the pardon of the E. of Danby which they account no Preliminary but the very essence of the Tryal On
any part of the King's Revenue or whosoever shall pay such Tally hereafter to be struck shall be adjudged to hinder the Sittings of Parliaments and shall be responsable therefore in Parliament First they Resolve they would give nothing themselves and then they terrify all others as much as in them lyeth from Lending or Advancing any Money to him which was not according to their Writ of Election to Advise his Majesty but by duress to force and compel him to Submit to their better Judgment as became Loyal and Dutiful Subjects So that his Majesty might well say of these Votes That instead of giving him assistance to Support his Allies or enabling him to Preserve Tangier they tended rather to disable him from contributing towards either by his own Revenue or Credit not only exposing him to all Dangers that might happen either at home or abroad but endeavouring to deprive him of the possibility of Supporting the Government it Self and to reduce him to a more helpless condition than the meanest of his Subjects A Sad and a very Just Complaint and Accordingly resented by that vast Number of People that have since Addressed to thank his Majesty for that Declaration On Saturday the 8th of January The Lords sent a Message to the Commons to acquaint them that their Lordships had appointed that day Sevennight for hearing the Cause upon the Impeachment of Mr. Seymour and that their House might reply if they thought fit but they had no leisure to take notice of it Information being given to the House by the Serjeant at Arms that Sir John Lloyd Sir Edward Philips Herbert Herring Miles Baspole _____ Iles and Arthur Yeomans who for divers great Misdemeanors by them committed as was pretended against the Priviledge of their House were Ordered to be taken in Custody of the said Serjeant did Abscond themselves that the said Order could not be put in Execution against them hereupon they Ordered That an Humble Application should be made to his Majesty from their House by Such Members thereof as were of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council desiring his Majesty to Issue out his Royal Proclamation for the Apprehending the said several persons in case they should not render themselves to the Serjeant by a certain day therein to be limited The same day they Ordered That a Committee should be Appointed to inspect the Journals of their House and of the House of Lords and Precedents to Justify and Maintain That the Lords ought to Commit Persons to Safe Custody when Impeached for High Treason by the Commons in Parliament and to make report thereof to the House Which Vote had relation to Sir William Scroggs And so we are come to the day that finally put an End to all their Proceedings which was Munday the 10th day of January and a great Wonder it was that his Majesty could endure them so long They began the day with a Vote which shews the Meaning and Tendance of all the rest Resolved That whosoever Advised his Majesty to Prorogue this Parliament to any other purpose than in order to the passing of a Bill for the Exclusion of James Duke of York is a betrayer of the King the Protestant Religion and of the Kingdom of England A Promoter of the French Interest and a Pensioner to France They Knew then that they were to be Prorogued but they Knew not by whose Advice and so if his Majesty did it without any Advice then all these Hard words were thrown at him but by whomsoever it were done this Vote could have no good meaning or effect and must end in Smoke or Tumults and Confusion 2. Resolved That the Thanks of this House be given to the City of London for their Manifest Loyalty to the King their Care Charge and Vigilancy for the Preservation of his Majesties Person and of the Protestant Religion Ordered That the Members that Serve for the City of London do accordingly give them the Thanks of the House Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That the City of London was Burnt in the Year 1666 by the Papists designing thereby to Introduce Arbitrary Power and Popery into the Kingdom Resolved That the Commissioners of the Customes and other Officers of the Custom-House have Wilfully broken the Law prohibiting the Importation of French Wines and other Commodities and that if they shall hereafter Wilfully or Negligently break that Law they shall be questioned therefore in Parliament Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That James Duke of Monmouth hath been removed from his Offices and Commands by the Influence of the Duke of York Ordered That an humble Application be made to his Majesty from this House by such Members thereof as are of his Majesties Honourable Privy-Council to desire his Majesty to restore the said James Duke of Monmouth to his said Offices and Commands This was excellently timed and they had so obliged his Majesty they might be sure he would not deny them Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws is at this time Grievous to the Subject a weakning of the Protestant Interest and incouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom Here their Mouths were stopt by a Message from the King by Edward Carteret Usher of the Black-Rod Acquainting them that the King Commanded them to Attend him immediately in the House of Peers And there his Majesty Prorogued them to the Thursday Sevennight being the 20th of that Instant January 1680. 1. His Majesty gave his Royal Assent to the Act Prohiting the Importation of Cattle from Ireland 2. To the Act for Supplying the late Act for Burying in Woollen 3. And to an Act To rectifie Errors in Sir Charles Houghton 's Settlement There was another Act for Repeal of the Act of the 35 of Elizabeth ready to be passed and it was Lost No body knew how and was never tendred to his Majesty Soon after this Parliament was Dissolved by Proclamation to the great Satisfaction of all but the Dissenters who if they had been able to consider things Aright had as little reason to be pleased with their Proceedings as any of the rest for they did them no other Service then to Exasperate the King and the Government against them and have made them to be more prosecuted and less pitied than they were before The Popish Party received almost as little damage by them as the Dissenters did Advantage for they bending their force Equally against the Succession and Popery all their Designs if they had any beyond clamour against the Papists were broken Their Arbitrary and Illegal Proceedings against the Abhorrers of the Tumultuous Petitions for the Sitting of the Parliament procured more Friends to the Duke of York then perhaps he would otherwise have had and gave the English Gentry an Excellent Prospect what they might Expect from these Warm Gentlemen if ever they fell into their hands The King had
in Arms candidly and sincerely are these 1. The defending and securing of the true Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Government founded upon the word of God and summarily comprehended in our Confessions of faith and Catechisms and Established by the Laws of this Land To which Kings Nobles and People are solemnly sworn and engaged in our National and Solemn League and Covenant and more particularly the defending and maintaining the Kingly Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ over his Church against all sinful Supremacy derogatory thereto and encroaching thereupon 2. The preserving and defending the Kings Majesty his Person and Authority in preservation and defence of that true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom that the World may bear Witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intention to diminish his just Power and Greatness 3. The Obtaining of a free and Unlimited Parliament and a free General Assembly in Order to the Redressing or foresaid Grievauces for preventing the eminent danger of Popery and Extirpating of Prelacy from amongst us This therefore being the cause we appear for and resolve in Gods great Name to own They are much more honest and ingenuous than our Dissenters for that they speak frankly and freely what they mean to do which the other deny in words and prosecute in deeds as much as the Scots as far as they durst thereby Homologating all the Testimonies of faithful Sufferers for the truth in Scotland these eighteen years by gone We humbly request the Kings Majesty would restore all things as he found them when God brought him home to his Crown and Kingdoms and if that cannot be obtained then we heartily and humbly invite intreat beseech and obtest in the Bowels of Jesus Christ all who are under the same * * That is the Obligation of the Covenant Bonds with us to occur in the Defence of this Countrey Cause and Interest And that they will not stand still and see not only us oppressed but this foresaid cause ruined Adversaries highly and proudly insult against God and all good Friends of the truth discouraged Yea the Protestant Cause in Britain and Ireland and even your selves within a little time made a Prey of or else forced when we are Broken which the good Lord prevent dreadfully to wrong your Consciences Finally because we desire no mans hurt or blood We request our Countrey men now the standing Forces of this Kingdom some of them being our Friends and Kinsmen not to fight against us least in so doing they be found fighting against the Lord whose cause and quarrel we are sure he will own and signally countenance seeing we fight under his Banner who is the Lord of Hosts I have taken the pains to transcribe this Long Declaration not for any delight I take in it but because it is an undeniable instance and demonstration that the Kirk-men in Scotland did then intend to have renewed that War again that formerly brought this Nation to the very brink of Ruine and was the means of the Barbarous Murther of his Majesties Father of the Banishment of our King and his Brothers and Sisters for twelve years of the expence of 48 Millions of Money and Plate and of the loss of one hundred thousand Lives by Fire Sword and Famine All which calamities were begun and carried on by these very men first in Scotland by the incouragement of some factious men of our own Nation and afterwards here in England upon the same pretences As any man may remember that is but fifty years old and the rest may see by comparing this Declaration with those that were made then and therefore I cannot but admire the Providence of God in preventing this Presbyterian Plot by a Prorogation in the very nick of time without which this Rebellion would in all likely-hood have had much countenance from some in England who encouraged it Underhand upon pretences of Countenance from above how groundless soever nor had it ended as it did and where it did if they had got the first battel or but been able to have kept the Field But for the benefit of my Country Reader who is not acquainted with the affairs of Scotland let me observe two or three things for the better understanding of this Grand Cheat and without which this doleful Story may leave great impressions of pity upon the mind of an English-man which these bloudy Rebels of all the world do not deserve The Reader then shall be pleased to understand that besides this Rebellion there was a former one at Pentland Hills where these Covenanteers fought the Kings Forces in ranged Battel in 1666 and in many of their Field Conventicles there was weekly Meetings of Hundreds and Thousands of Armed men formed into Troops and Companies ready upon all occasions of probable capacity to fight against the King for the King in Sion And in 1676 they appeared so numerous that the Privy Council of Scotland advised his Majesty to send English Forces to lie in readiness upon the Borders and to order Viscount Granard to lie with an Army on the Irish Coasts ready to be transported upon occasion and likewise upon the Motion of the Marquess of Athol to procure the Lords of the Highlands a Commission to march with their Vassals under the Command of his Majesties Major General into the West which descent of the Highlanders is mentioned in the Declaration and Aggravated beyond truth or reason by stilling them Barbarians which those that knew these men aver they were not but behaved themselves very civilly to prevent the Field Conventicles from running together into a general Rebellion as they did this May. But to come to particulars they had a Field fast near Iedburgh in Tiveotdale toward the latter end of March 1678 where there were present 7 Preachers and 5000 people the men being armed to seek God for three things 1. That he would be pleased to put an end to the persecution of his people in that Kingdom 2ly That he would have mercy on all those that took the wicked Bond that was not to suffer any Conventicles on their Lands and give them grace to repent 3ly That he would bless with success those Noble Lords that were gone to London to complain of the Duke of Lauderdale and who procured the first Address against him though to no purpose There was another in the March the May following where were assembled eight or 9000 People to receive the Sacrament and renew the solemn League and Covenant of which the Privy Council gave his Majesty an account And another near Dumbar shortly after where they fell upon the Kings forces of the Basse that went out to dismiss them and killed one of the Souldiers and wounded more Finally my Author who is a learned Gentleman saith if he should go on to enumerate all the Field Meetings till that great one which began the Rebellion this May he might write a History The Spirit of Popery
KING' 's Most Excellent Majesty Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Duke of Lauderdale Marquess of Worcester Earl of Ossory Lord Chamberlain Earl of Sunderland Earl of Clarendon Earl of Essex Ear of Bathe Earl of Craven Earl of Aylesbury Lord Bishop of London Lord Bishop of Durham Lord Maynard Mr. Vice-Chamberlain His Majesty was this day pleased to Command that the Declaration hereafter following be Entered in the Council-Book it being all Written and Signed by his Majesty's Own Hand in a Paper which his Majesty this day delivered at the Board to be Kept in the Council Chest viz. FOR the avoiding of Any dispute which may happen in time to come concerning the Succession of the Crown I do hereby Declare in the Presence of Almighty God That I Never gave nor made any Contract of Marriage nor was Married to any Woman whatsoever but to My present Wife Queen Catherine now Living White-Hall the Third day of March 1679. CHARLES R. His Majesty Commanded us who were present at the making and Signing this Declaration to attest the same Finch C. Danby Lauderdale Worcester Ossory Arlington Sunderland Clarendon Essex Bathe Craven Aylesbury H. London N. Durham W. Maynard G. Carteret In April Last We found the same Rumour not only Revived again but also Improved with New Additions to wit It was given out That there was a Writing yet Extant and lately produced before several Persons whereby the said Marriage or Contract at least for the Report was Various would appear and that there are several Lords and others yet Living who were pretended to have been present at the said Marriage We Knew full well that it was Impossible that any thing of this should be true there being Nothing more Groundless and False then that there was any such Marriage or Contract between Vs and he said Mrs. Walters alias Barlow Yet We proceeded to call before Vs and caused to be Interrogated in the Council such Lords and other persons as the Common Rumour did Surmise to have been present at the pretended Marriage or to Know something of it or of the said Writing And Though it appeared to all Our Council upon the Hearing of the said Lords and other persons severally Interrogated and upon their denying to have been present at any such Marriage or to Know any thing of it or of any such Writing That the Raising and Spreading of such a Report so incoherent in the several parts of it was the Effect of deep Malice in some few and of Loose and Idle discourse in others Yet We think it Requisite at this time to make Our Declarations above recited more Publick and to Order the Same as We do hereby with the Advice of Our Privy Council to be forthwith Printed and Published And We do again upon this Occasion call Almighty God to Witness and Declare upon the Faith of a Christian and the Word of a King That there was never any Marriage or Contract of Marriage had or made between Vs and the said Mrs. Walters alias Barlow the Duke of Monmouth's Mother or between Vs and any Woman whatsoever Our Royal Confort Queen Catherine that now is Excepted And We do hereby Strictly Require and Command all Our Subjects whatsoever That they presume not to Vtter or Publish any thing contrary to the Tenor of this Our Declaration at their Peril and upon pain of being proceeded against according to the Vtmost Severity and Rigour of the Law Given at our Court at White-Hall the Second day of June in the Two and thirtieth Year of Our Reign On the 15th of the same Month of June Mr. Attorney General by his Majesties Command moved in the Court of Chancery That these Declarations might be Enrolled and made a Record of that Court for the preservation of them and in order thereunto the Rords and others of his Majesties Privy Council who were present when his Majesty made and Signed those Declarations and were Now in Court being desired to Attest the same They did it upon their Oaths as did likewise the Clerks of the Council and then it was Ordered That the said Declarations should be enrolled accordingly And when about this time his Majesty had sent the Duke of Monmouth to reside for some time beyond the Seas that he might not be made a Stale to these Mens ill designs they wrought so much upon him that he returned without his Majesties Leave and all his Places which were of great Value as well as Trust Power and Honour were taken from him In the Last Parliament at Westminster the 10th day of January 1680. The Commons past these Votes Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That James Duke of Monmouth hath been Removed from his Offices and Commands by the Influence of the Duke of York Ordered That an humble Application be made to His Majesty from this House by such Members thereof as are of his Majesties Most Honourable Privy Council to desire his Majesty to Restore the said James Duke of Monmouth to his said Offices and Commands Now let it be Considered That there was not the least regard had to the Duke of Monmouth or his Interest till this day in all that Session of Parliament and now when it was said they should be Prorogued and all the reason in the world to believe that a Dissolution would follow the last day in probability they were to Sit his Majesty being also disoblig'd by the Votes about the Revenue so that it could not be Expected that almost any thing could be granted and when they could not Hope to see any effect of it they passed these two Votes For what might be expected from it let his Grace the Duke of Monmouth and all the World Judge I have heard some men insinuate that the Duke of Monmouth was sent into Scotland tho there was no need of him that by that Defeat of the Dissenters he might be rendered odious to their Partisans here in England and so be turned out of all his Places and No man Concern himself for him he having as they would insinuate no Friends in England but they To which I answer That it ought to be Considered that on the one Side his Majesty who is the Father of the Duke appears whom all the World his worst Enemies not Excepted acknowledg to be a Prince of a God-like Goodness and Clemency to his very Enemies and on the other Side a Company of Men who have given large Demonstrations that they are Enemies to Monarchy it self and therefore not likely to be over-kind to any of the Royal Family but for ill Ends and such as the Duke hath no reason to promote if he did perfectly Understand them Now let any man reflect upon this and then pronounce as his Reason shall direct him whether his Majesty or the Anti-Court Party were likeliest to design the Ruine of the Duke that is A Kind Father or an Enraged and disobliged Enemy To say here as they commonly do That his Majesty was imposed
the Letters Papers and Evidences which have been delivered to the Privy Council relating to the said Plot. This Afternoon they Waited upon his Majesty with their Address for the Preservation of his Person and Government c. On Munday the First day of November Mr. Secretary Jenkins told the House the Papers they had Addressed for had been sent to the Committee of the House of Lords for Examination of the Plot the 24th of October The Bill for wearing of Woollen was also read and committed Then the Speaker Reported the King's Answer to their Address for Preservation of his Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion which was as followeth I Thank you very heartily for your Zeal for the Protestant Religion and I assure you there shall be nothing wanting on my part at Home or Abroad to preserve it Sir Francis Winnington Chairman of the Committee for Inspecting the Journals of the Two last Parliaments concerning the Proceedings relating to the Popish Plot reported a general abstract of the same which was Ordered to be perfected and that they should inspect those of the House of Lords for the same time Then one Hardwich a Linnen-Draper being accused of some Misdemeanors against one Seignior Francisco a Witness in the Popish Plot was Ordered to be sent for in Custody of the Serjeant Attending their House to answer the same This was to punish a man before they knew whether he were guilty or no upon a bare Suggestion On Tuesday the 2 d. of November A Bill for prohibiting the Importation of Irish Cattel was read and committed And then one Harnage was ordered to be brought to the Bar for abusing Francisco Ferria And then they Voted an Address to his Majesty for a pardon for Dangerfield and that he would take him and Mr. Dugdale Mr. Prance and this Seignior F. Ferria into his Royal Care and Protection But these were small matters to what follow Resolved Nemine Contradicente That the Duke of York's being a Papist and the Hopes of his coming such to the Crown hath given the greatest Countenance and Encouragement to the present Designs and Conspiracies against the King and Protestant Religion Resolved That in defence of the King's Person and Government and of the Protestant Religion this House doth declare That they will stand by his Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes and that if his Majesty shall come by any violent death which God forbid they will Revenge it to the Vttermost upon the Papists who ever did it Resolved That a Bill be brought in to disable the Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of this Realm On Tuesday the 3 d. day of November the Lords sent down an Act they had passed for the better Regulating the Trials of the Peers of England to which they desired the Concurrence of the Commons and it was read the same day and committed Mr. Harnage being then brought to the Bar was continued in Custody of the Serjeant during the Pleasure of the House Not one tittle being inserted concerning the Nature of his Misdemeanor The Committee for Examination of the Journals were also appointed to inspect the Impeachments against the Lords in the Tower and the proceedings thereupon And they were also to prepare Evidence against the said Lords And in the mean time they Voted Resolved Nemine Contradicente That a Bill be brought in for the better Vniting of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects This was now a New Name for a Toleration as I will make it appear Ordered That Sir Tho. Whitegrave and Mr. Birch of Stafford Apothecary and Lieutenant Ellis be sent for in Custody of the Serjeant to answer to the Charge given against them by Mr. Dugdale Ordered That Herbert Herring be sent for in Custody c. for a Notorious Breach of Priviledge by him committed against Mr. Colt a Member of their House No account how or when being given But Jeremiah Bubb was onely Summoned to appear at the Bar to answer for a Breach of Priviledge committed against Mr. Colt The Bill for Prohibiting the Importation of Irish Cattel was read the second time and committed And Leave was given to bring in a Bill for the Exportation of Leather On Thursday the 4th of November the said Bill was read the first time and Ordered a second reading And then Mr. Secretary Jenkins Reported his Majesty's Answer concerning the Informers against the Popish Plot which was That Care had and should be taken of them Ordered That a Committee be appointed to inspect the Act intituled Trade Encouraged made in the 15th Year of his Majesties Reign and to bring in a Bill for prohibiting of Scotch Cattel at certain Seasons And then after some Debates and Votes concerning Elections of which I shall take no Notice The Bill for disabling the D. of York to Inherit was read the first time and committed Ordered That a Committee be appointed to Inspect the Laws that are in being touching the Maintenance of the Poor and to bring in a Bill or Bills for Regulating and preventing the encrease of the Poor in this Kingdom On Saturday the 6th of November it was Ordered That a Committee be appointed to Inspect the Law concerning the Anniversary Reading of the Narrative of the Gunpowder-Plot in Churches on every Fifth day of November and to Report the same to the House Resolved N. C. That it is the Opinion of this House That the Acts of Parliament made in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James against Popish Recusants Ought not to be Extended against Protestant Dissenters It would have been well if we had been told why they ought not to be Extended to all that break them one as well as another And then how it should be possible to distinguish these two Sorts of offenders one from the other the offence being Exactly the same tho the cause be a little different And then thirdly if a Bill had been brought in for that purpose for the Votes of the House of Commons are no binding Expositions of Law nor I hope never will be Lastly this Vote was needless if the Bill of Vnion went on and to no purpose if it did not as I suppose they understand Now. Ordered That a Committee be appointed to prepare and bring in a Bill for Repeal of all or any part of the Act of Parliament made in the 35th Year of the Reign of Queen Eliz. Cap. 1. Printed in the Statute Book of Pulton This was a severe Act against the Dissenters and they were Now to be Countenanced and Encouraged to the utmost for what end and purpose is not difficult to be guessed by their Insolence against the King and Government A Bill for Exportation of Cloth and other Woollen Manufactures into Turkey was read the first time and committed The Bill to disable the Duke of York was read the Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House with a Resolution declared that it should Extend to the Person of the Duke of
York Onely and that Committee was appointed on the next Munday Morning at Ten of the Clock And accordingly it was that day Debated and some Clauses added to it On Tuesday the Ninth of November his Majesty sent the Commons another Message by Mr. Secretary Jenkins which was as followeth CHARLES R. HIS Majesty desires this House as well for the Satisfaction of his People as of Himself to Expedite such Matters as are depending before them relating to Popery and the Plot and would have them rest assured That all Remedies they can tender to his Majesty conducing to those Ends shall be very acceptable to him Provided they be such as may Consist with preserving the Succession of the Crown in its Due and Legal Course of Descent On Wednesday the 10th of November A Bill for Regulating the Elections of Members to Serve in Parliament for the House of Commons was read the first time and ordered to be read the second time And the same day the Bill for prohibiting the Importation of Irish Cattel was read the third time and passed and sent up to the Lords Now let the Reader observe there was not one Publick Bill passed through the House of Commons in all this time but this and yet no Bill was more opposed than this but here the priyate Concerns of the North and West Country Gentlemen were Engaged and therefore they carried it on Might and Main against all opposition but as for any Bills against Popery they took no care or thought for that against the Duke of York may perhaps be made to appear to be of another Nature then was pretended and rather against any thing then Popery The same day the Lords sent down to the Commons a Bill which they had passed for Freeing the City of London and his Majesty's Court and the Parts adjacent from Popish Inhabitants and providing against other Dangers which may arise from Papists To which they desired their Concurrence Note That this Bill had been sent down from the Lords before and the Commons had lost the opportunity of passing it as you will see they will in this Session also tho there were Tragical representations made of the Danger the City and Nation were in from the Vast Numbers of them which were Seated in and about the City of London The truth is it was not convenient to loose any thing that might serve to fright the People and much better to have Papists in London for that purpose than to have them sent elsewhere and loose the means of Fermenting the Rabble But if men were not as willing to be or at least seem to be cheated as others are to delude them they would soon perceive whose interest it is to keep them in Fears and Jealousies and after discharge their Bug-bears or turn their rage another way The same day they Voted an Address to his Majesty in answer to his last Message And that they would proceed in the prosecution of the Lords in the Tower beginning with William Viscount Stafford On Thursday the 11th of November 1680. A Bill to prevent the offences of Bribery and Debauchery in Elections of Members to Serve in the Commons House of Parliament was Read the first time and ordered to be read again the Monday following with the Bill for Regulating Elections of Members to Serve in the said House formerly mentioned This day the Bill against the Duke of York was read the third time and passed The Title whereof was resolved to be An Act for Securing of the Protestant Religion by Disabling James Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging And it was ordered that the Lord Russel should carry it up to the Lords for their Concurrence The Bill sent down by the Lords for Freeing the City of London from Popish Recusants was read the first time on Friday 12. Nov. and Ordered a second reading in a full House This day the Commons sent a Message to the Lords to Acquaint them with their Intentions to begin with the Viscount Stafford and to desire them to appoint a Convenient time for the Tryal and that the Lords in the Tower might be Confined and kept from holding Correspondence with one another as persons impeached and committed for High Treason by Law ought to be The Lords answered As to the latter part of this Message They had taken Care already in it and as to the former They appointed Tuesday the Thirtieth day of the same Moneth And they further resolved to Address to his Majesty for a Sum of Money for defraying the Charges of Summoning of Witnesses and other Expences Incident to the Prosecution and Tryals of the Lords in the Tower and appointed Mr. Charles Clare to Receive and Expend the same for which purpose his Majesty gave Order that 100 l. should be Issued out of the Exchequer On Saturday the 13th of November Sir Robert Yeomans being upon his own Petition called to the Bar he Acknowledged his offence and was ordered to receive the Censure of the House upon his Knees to which he submitted and was discharged paying his Fees The Lords returned the Bill against Importing of Irish Cattel agreed to Commons the same day The City of London having Petitioned the House against Sir George Jeffereys their Recorder and it being referred to a Committee they passed this Vote Resolved That this Committee is of Opinion That by the Evidence given to this Committee it does appear that Sir George Jeffereys Recorder of the City of London by traducing and obstructing Petitioning for the Sitting of This Parliament hath betrayed the Rights of the Subject To which the House agreed and Ordered That an Humble Address be made to his Majesty to remove him out of all Publick Offices and appointed a Committee to draw up the same As if it had been likely his Majesty would have so far complyed with them as to have punished the Recorder for obeying his Laws and Proclamation against a Tumultuous and Seditious Sort of men But however his Majesty might Act they had another aim in this for they Voted That the Members of their House that Served for the City of London should communicate this Vote and Resolution of their House to the Court of Aldermen for the City of London This was a sure way to bespeak a Party in the City to Joyn with the House against the Abhorrers They further Ordered That this Committee should enquire into all such persons as have been Advising or Promoting of the late Proclamation stiled A Proclamation against Tumultuous Petitioning Thus having passed thus far without any check from any person they thought they might proceed as far further as they pleased And it is very probable that they were spurred on to this by their Friends and Enemies the one designing to make them Terrible and the other being willing to make them Hated However I am sure they they became more hated than feared by this and
many other such proceedings As the Parliament that is the Commons Courted the City so the City was as kind to them and Calling a Common Councel Voted an Address to his Majesty to declare their Loyalty and to Petition him that the Parliament might Sit until Protestantisme was Secured I believe they might mean innocently tho I am well Secured that this would have perpetuated them to the End of the World if some amongst them might have been Judges of the time when this great work was perfected But this did not Edify with his Majesty who penetrated to the bottom of these little Projects and was not over-pleased with this Correspondency betwixt this and the Commons remembring what ill effects this Conjunction had in the Reign of his Father So he Advised the Common-Councel to meddle with those things that lay before them and assuring them That he would Labour to maintain the Protestant Religion as it was Established by Law which was more than they desired he dismissed them On Munday the 15th day of November A Bill against the Importation of Cattel from Scotland was Read the first time and Ordered a Second Reading the Saturday following at Ten of the Clock This day was delivered the following Message to the Commons CHARLES R. HIS Majesty did in his Speech at the Opening of this Session of Parliament desire your Advice and Assistance in relation to Tangier the Condition and Importance of the Place obliges his Majesty to put this House in mind again That He relies upon them for the Support of it without which it cannot be much longer preserved His Majesty doth therefore Earnestly Recommend Tangier again to the due and speedy Consideration and Care of this House A Debate thereupon arising in the House they Voted That they would proceed in the Consideration of this Message the next Wednesday Morning at Ten of the Clock A Bill sent down from the Lords Intituled An Act for the better Regulating the Tryals of the Peers of England was Read the Second time and Committed upon the Debate of the House This day the Bill for Disabling the Duke of York was Read the first time in the House of Peers and the question being put Whether it should be read again the House divided Noes 63. Yeas 30. So it was Thrown out the Bishops all appearing against the Bill Except three for which some of the Commons Reflected upon them with great Liberty as if no body could be for the Duke but he must be for Popery The House of Commons taking notice of this were so discomposed that they Adjourned themselves on Tuesday Morning and did nothing that day And the day following meeting in a very bad and discontented humour and taking into Consideration the Message about Tangier They Resolved upon an Address to his Majesty upon the Debate of the House Humbly representing to him the dangerous State and Condition of the Kingdom And then it appearing that George Earl of Hallifax had been very Active in the House of Lords against the Bill for Dis-inheriting the Duke they Resolved also upon another Address to his Majesty to remove the Earl from his Majesties Presence and Councils for Ever And this was all they did the Second day after The House being in a perfect Fret and the Country-Party Heating themselves by their Speeches to that height they were scarce able to Consider what was fit to be said or asked And now that the Peers of England have passed their Judgment concerning this Bill I will add some short Reflections upon the Bill which I shall shall submit to my Reader as it is fit I should First Then I do acknowledg it is a great affliction to any Protestant Country to fall into the Hands of a Popish Prince and worse for England then for most other because of the great and implacable Malice the Jesuits and the whole Church of Rome have ever born to the Religion Established amongst us which is more easily defended against them then any other Reformed Church as being founded upon greater Antiquity and more conformable to the Primitive Church of the Three or Four first Centuries then either the Church of Rome or any of the Reformed Churches in these Western Parts of the World and therefore they of the Church of Rome Have left no stone unturned to Subvert her imploying all their own Wit and Power against her ever since the Reign of Queen Elizabeth began and sticking neither at Perjury Treason Murther nor any other Villany that they thought might conduce to that End and when God had by his Gracious Providence defeated all these their Damnable Projects They Transformed themselves into the shapes of our own Protestant Dissenters and so promoted a Rebellion which ended in the seeming Ruine of this Religion and Government to their mighty Content and Satisfaction but tho his Majesty at his Return re-settled this Church yet they did not give over but by a Toleration by spreading Pamphlets written in the Stile of the Dissenters and so very acceptable to them by discouraging all that opposed our Intestine Divisions and a multitude of such other frauds they have in Twenty Years time so shaken her foundations again that his Majesty can hardly now preserve and uphold her against the Popish Party on the one hand and the Dissenters on the other So that if this poor persecuted Church should fall into the hands of a Prince of their Communion She is to Expect whatever the most Enraged Malice armed with his Authority can inflict upon her and She hath all the reason in the world to expect the Dissenters will joyn with them to afflict and ruine her Not out of any Kindness to Popery but out of an implacable hatred they two have Conceived against her So that I must and will Conclude the Church of England hath the greatest reason in the world to dread that day that shall put her into such hands But yet still with this limitation notwithstanding that by Avoiding one Mischief she should not plunge her Self into a greater that is by flying a Persecution from men to fall into a Rebellion against her God and Saviour by whose Providence Kings and Princes of what Religion soever they be rule and by whom they have in all Ages been so Ordered Disposed and Governed as He in his Divine and Holy Wisdom Saw most Expedient for the Prosperity or Chastisement of his Church to the greater encrease of her Glory and Happiness in the world to come Two things I will lay down as Undoubted Rules or Maximes 1. That the Kingdom of England is an Hereditary Kingdom or Monarchy which for many Ages hath gone to the Next Heirs be they Males or Females of the Blood Royal without any Election or Consent of the People otherwise then by acknowledging their Lawful Right derived from God by their Blood to them The Second is That this Hereditary Monarchy was set up at first and hath been since upheld and maintained by the Providence of
and Ordered others to be drawn against Sir Francis North Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas Sir Thomas Jones one of the Justices of the Kings-Bench and Sir Richard Weston one of the Barons of the Exchequer So they were resolved to find themselves work tho they had refused to do the King's Business till that was granted which was impossible to be had this Session of Parliament Thursday the 6th of January A Bill for the more Easie Collecting the Duty of Hearth-Money was read a second time and committed upon the Debate of the House A Bill for Repealing the Act for the Well-Governing of Corporations was read the second time and committed Sir Philip Skippon was Excused from being taken into Custody for his Default in not attending the House in the Call there of the Tuesday before Colonel Birch reporting from the Committee appointed to receive Informations relating to the Popish Plott in Ireland That the Committee having proceeded upon the Matters to them referred had taken several Examinations and received the Answer of Sir John Davis and had also perused several Informations transmitted from the House of Lords relating to the said Plott All which he read in his place and afterwards delivered the same in at the Clerks Table where the same were again read The House then took into Consideration the Message sent from the Lords the Tuesday before wherein they desired the Concurrence of the House and Resolved That the House did agree with the Lords with the addition of these Words That the Duke of York being a Papist and the Expectation of his coming to the Crown hath given the Greatest Countenance and Encouragement thereto as well as to the Horrid Popish Plot in this Kingdome of England And they resolved to deliver the said Vote to the Lords at a Conference and Appointed a Committee to draw up Reasons to be offered at the said Conference Ordered That the several Informations of John Macnamara Maurice Fitz-Gerrald and James Mash that day read to the House relating to the Irish Plot be forthwith Printed Resolved That Rich. Poure Earl of Tyrone in the Kingdom of Ireland be Impeached of High Treason And that the Lord Dursley do go up to the Bar of the Lords and Impeach him c. and pray that he may be Committed to Safe Custody And further Ordered That the Committee appointed to prepare the Evidence against the Popish Lords in the Tower do prepare the said Impeachment Ordered That the further Consideration of the said Report in relation to Arthur Earl of Anglesey and Sir John Davis be Adjourned to Saturday Morning next at Ten of the Clock in a full House When it was Adjourned to Munday following which was their last day and gave them occasion for other Thoughts On Friday the 7th day of January The ingrossed Articles of Impeachment against Sir William Scroggs were Read and sent up to the Lords by the Lord Cavendish A Bill to prevent Vexatious Actions was read the first time and Ordered a second reading A Bill to prevent the Symony of one person from prejudicing another was read the first time and Ordered a second reading The Bill of Discovery of Settlements of Estates for Superstitious Uses was read the second time and committed upon the debate of the House Then the House according to their Order entred into Consideration of his Majesty's Message sent to the House the Tuesday before and Voted as followeth Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That there is no Security or Safety for the Protestant Religion the King's Life or the Well Constituted and Established Government of this Kingdom without passing a Bill for disabling James Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging and to rely upon any other means or remedies without such a Bill is not onely Insufficient but dangerous Resolved That his Majesty in his last Message having assured this House of his readiness to Concur in all other means for the preservation of the Protestant Religion this House doth declare That until a Bill be likewise passed for Excluding the Duke of York this House cannot give any Supply to his Majesty without Danger to his Majesties Person Extream Hazard of the Protestant Religion and Vnfaithfulness to Those by whom this House is trusted It seems the loss of Tangier and of all our Alliances abroad did not at all Hazard the Protestant Religion or Endanger his Majesties Person Resolved That all Persons who Advised his Majesty in his last Message to this House to insist upon an Opinion against the Bill for Excluding the Duke of York Have given pernicious Counsel to his Majesty and Are Promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdome Resolved That George Earl of Halifax Henry Marquess of Worcester Henry Earl of Clarendon in the Opinion of this House are persons who Advised his Majesty in his last Message to this House to insist upon an Opinion against the Bill for Excluding the Duke of York and have therein given pernicious Counsel to his Majesty and are Promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdom Resolved That an Humble Address be presented to his Majesty to remove Lawrence Hide Esq from his Majesties Councils and Presence and from his Office in the Treasury for ever Resolved That an Humble Address be presented to his Majesty to remove Henry Marquess of Worcester from his Presence and Councils and all the Offices and Imployments of Honour and Profit for ever Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That Lewis Earl of Feversham is a Promoter of Popery and of the French Interest and a Dangerous Enemy to the King and Kingdom Resolved That an Humble Address be made to his Majesty to remove him from all Military Offices and Commands and from all other Publick Offices and Imployments and from his Majesties Councils and Presence for ever But here was no Addresses Voted against George Earl of Halyfax nor Henry Earl of Clarendon A Motion being made also for an Address to his Majesty to remove Edward Seymour Esq from his Majesties Council and Presence it was Adjourned to the Munday following Having taken all this care to Chastise the Great Men who as they believed had opposed them in this great business in the Next place they undertook to Chastise his Majesty Himself and if their design had taken effect as it is to be hoped it Never will his Majesty and all his Successors should have Known what it is to Anger a House of Commons However they meant well for they Resolved That whoever should hereafter Lend or cause to be lent by way of Advance any Money upon the Branches of the King's Revenue arising by Customs Excise or Hearth-Money that is all the principal Branches shall be Adjudged to hinder the Sitting of Parliaments and shall be responsible for the same in Parliament Resolved That whoever shall accept or buy any Tally of Anticipation upon
the aforesaid means the Dutch allmost totally excluded the English We may observe how much the Trade of the Nation in general suffered by all this and especially that of Norfolk Suffolk and Essex of which the said Author gives an instance pag. 33. and from thence we may conclude how far the Trade of the Nation hath been and consequently may again be impaired by Factions if they be encouraged still amongst us I ought not to pass over in silence that my last quoted Author Ascribes this to the severe injunctions of Ecclesiastical discipline which these Zealous people would not indure And I know that many have used this as an Argument against Persecution and for a Toleration Comprehension or as the new Name is an Union But I reply if there were no Factions there could be no Persecution as they stile it nor any such dammage of our Trade and Commerce Secondly that they were not thus persecuted till they had provoked that King to the uttermost by rendring all Parliaments dangerous to the Crown and brought things into that State that neither the Monarchy nor the Religion Established could be any longer preserved without that severity So we may see if they be treated gently they grow Numerous and endeavour to subvert the Government if they be dealt severely with they over into forreign Countries and destroy our Trade so that both waies our ruine is almost assured by them and therefore should be no more incouraged than Pyrates and the common enemies of Mankind But to go on Another part of these people had before Planted themselves in New England in the West Indies 1629. where they have since grown Numerous and Rich and have abundantly practised that severity upon others who have dissented from them which they clamoured against and called persecution when it was used with more reason against themselves The Dutch being much exalted by the peace they had made with Spain whereby they were owned and acknowledged for a free and independent State by their old Sovereign and having acquired a vast Treasure by their Trade over all the World and by redeeming the places which were put into Queen Elizabeths hands for security of repayment of the Expence she was at to protect their feeble infant State out of the Hands of King James having so cut off their former obligations of respect to the Crown of England and lastly being grown strong in Shipping and knowing very well upon what ill terms King James and King Charles the Martyr stood with their Parliaments fell to plot the intire destruction of the English Trade and Navigation and in Order to this fell to endeavour the ruine of the English Fishery upon our own proper Seas His Majesties propriety and dominion on the Brittish Seas p. 26. They had formerly never Fished till they had begged leave of the King or of his Governour of Scarborough Castle this was now thought beneath the Magnificence of the Hogan Mogans and therefore they refused it Ib. pag. 29. 30. 55. They had formerly been limited by our Kings both for the number of the Vessells they should Fish with and the time Now they were resolved to be their own Carvers and in order to that denyed the English the Soveraignty of the British Seas Ib. p. 6. And as if all this had not been enough grew nearer and nearer upon the English Shores year by year than they did in preceding times without leaving any bounds for the Country people and Natives to Fish upon their Princes Coasts and oppressed some of his Subjects with intent to continue their pretended possession and had driven some of their great Vessells through their Netts to deter others by fear of the like Violence from Fishing near them c. as Secretary Nanton Pag. 58. January 21. 1618. acquaints the Lord Ambassador Carlton And to justify all this they sent out Men of War with their Fishermen to maintain that by force which they might have had of Courtesie for the asking To prevent these disorders of the Dutch King James Published a Proclamation in the seventh year of his Reign to assert his Right and exclude all Persons from Fishing upon our Seas without particular License but they neither valued this nor his Remonstrances by his Ambassadors nor the like Proclamation made in the twelfth year of his Sons Reign but went on by all the Crafts and Violences imaginable to ruine our Fishery to subvert the Right and Soveraignty the Kings of England have ever had to the Narrow Seas And all this only upon a presumption that those Princes would never be able to call them to an account by a War for all these Injuries And in the year 1639 The Reign of King Ch. fol. London 1655. pag. 163. they fell upon a Fleet of Spaniards in our Ports and Harbours with Canon and Fire-ships so furiously as made them all cut their Cables and being 53 in Number 23 ran on shore and stranded in the Downs whereof Three were burnt Two sunk and Two perished on the Shoar the remainder of the Twenty three being deserted by the Spaniards who went to Land were Manned by the English to save them from the Dutch and the other Thirty Ships put to Sea of which only Ten escaped thus far for the Narrative in short And now be pleased to read the Opinion of the Historian upon this These Two Potent Enemies Ibid. p. 165. being both Friends to England the British Seas ought by rule of State to have been an Harbour of Retreat to secure the Weaker from the Stronger not the Scene of their Hostile Ingagement and had this presumptuous Attempt of the Hollander met with a King or in times of another temper it would not it's like have been so silently connived at and their Victory might have cost them the loss of Englands Correspondence c. besides the King the Dutch well knew was of a Genius as not querulous so if provoked very placable and the Disposition of his Affairs as well as of his Mind disswaded from expostulating the Matter with them To that height of injustice and insolence were the Dutch then grown by the Divisions of England and the ill understanding betwixt the King and his Subjects This unfortunate Prince had made many brave Attempts before for the Honour and Safety of the English Nation without any good success for want of such Effectual Supplies from his Parliaments as might enable him to go through with them and he had taken up a generous Resolution to encrease the Navy Royal to a greatness proportionable to the Dutch and other neighbour Nations who were now striving for the Mastery of the Seas by out-building each other He got nothing from the Commons in Parliament that was considerable but with great difficulty and accompanied with Remonstrances Impeachments of the Chief Ministers complaints of Grievances and lowd Clamours of pretended fears and jealousies of Popery Arminianism Innovations in matters of Religion and as fast as
that shame and confusion they deserve who through their sides strike at the Lords Anointed and endeavour to ruine both the Church and State by changing the Government from a Monarchy to a Common-wealth as experience taught us once before when the Crown soon followed the Miter and the Temporal Lords the Bishops On Wednesday four of the five Lords in the Tower were brought to the House of Lords and heard the Articles readagainst them and had Copies of them and were assigned their Counsel for matter of Law but not for matter of Fact and had time to answer till the 15th Instant But the Lord Bellasys not being able to appear by reason he was lame of the Gout was excused and had a Copy of the Articles sent him On Monday the 14th of April at a conference the Lords consented to pass the Bill against the Earl of Danby without any amendment Wednesday the 16th of April A Bill for securing the King and Kingdom against the growh and Danger of Popery was read the second time and commttied to a Committee The same day a Message was brought from the Lords that the E. of D. had rendered himself and was sent to the Tower And by another Message word was sent that the four Lords had Appeared had sent in their Answers to the Articles upon which they had been proceeded against which Answers they sent down to the Commons being the Originalls and the Lords desired the return of them with all convenient speed that they might consider of them And then the Commons Voted his Majesty a supply for the Disbanding the rest of the Forces not disbanded by the former Act. To be levied by a Land Tax in six Months By which all Forces raised or brought over from Foreign parts since the 29th of September 1677. were to be disbanded The Commission Officers being to be paid only to the first of this April The next day a debate arising Thursday the 17 of April whether the Mony for Disbanding the Army should be paid into the Exchequer it was carried in the Affirmative by 60 Voices A Committee of Secrecy was appointed to prepare and draw up evidence against the E. of Danby and also further Articles as they should see cause On Friday the 25th of April a Bill for prevention of raising Mony upon the Subjects but by Act of Parliament was read the first time and ordered to be read a second time A Bill for exporting Cloth to Turkie was read a first time and ordered to be read again The same day the E. of D. and John Lord Bellasys appeared at the Bar of the House of Lords and put in their several Answers which were sent down to the Commons with desire they might be returned with all convenient speed On Saturday it was resolved in the House of Commons 26 of April that they would the Friday following take into consideration how to make the law for prohibiting the importation of French Commodities more effectual William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Wardour and William Earl of Powis Appeared this day at the Bar of the House of Lords and retracted their former Plea's and put in their Answers which were by a Message sent down to the Commons which were read and referred to the Committee of Secrecy belonging to the said House This day the House of Commons resolved Nemine Contradicente That this House will sit to morrow to consider of the best means to secure and preserve the Kings person and also the Protestant Religion against the Attempts of the Papists both in the Reign of his Majesty and his Successors And accordingly they did sit and began the day very inauspiciously with reading an Address to his Majesty for the Execution of Pickering who as they said had been imployed by some of the Conspirators to execute their Execrable design of Murdering his Majesty and upon his Tryal was found guilty thereof as also of divers Priests and Jesuits who stood then Condemned by his Majesties Judges at the Old-Bayley and in several of the Circuits Upon which Offenders they humbly desired immediate Execution might be done to the terror of all such wicked persons who by their daily Traiterous practises do justify the prudence of their Ancestors in making such Laws and manifest the necessity of putting them in Execution And though there is nothing to be said for the men yet I wish they had not made this severe motion on a Lord's day it being none of those works of Charity and Mercy 29. Car. Cap. 7. no nor necessity neither which are commendable on that day and this might as well have been done on any other day Then they proceeded to the work appointed and Voted in the first place That a Bill be brought in upon the debate of the House to Banish all Papists or reputed Papists from London and Westminster and twenty Miles of the same for Six Months and to confine all those that live above twenty Miles from London within five Miles of their own Habitations under penalties and referred it to a Committee to draw up the same And then Secondly Resolved Nemine Contradicente That the Duke of York being a Papist and the hopes of his coming such to the Crown have given the greatest countenance and encouragement to the present Conspirators and designs of the Papists against the King and the Protestant Religion Resolved That the concurrence of the Lords be desired to this Vote Ordered that the Committee of Secrecy draw up a Narative of all such matters as concern the D. of Y. relating to the present Plot contained in such Papers as they have in their hands and present the same to the House on Wednesday next And then they adjourned the debate till Monday following The next day being Monday the 28th of March the House attended his Majesty with the said Address for the Executing Pickering c. To which his Majesty reply'd Gentlemen I Have always been tender in matters of blood which my Subjects have no reason to take exception at but this is a matter of great weight I shall therefore consider of it and return you an answer So little was this mercifull Prince exasperated by all the practises against him On Wednesday the 30th of April his Majesty sent for the Commons up to the Lords House and made this Speech to the two Houses My Lords and Gentlemen THe Season of the Year advancing so fast I thought it necessary to put you in mind of three particulars 1. Prosecuting the Plot 2. Disbanding the Army 3. Providing a Fleet for our common security And to shew you that whilst you are doing your parts my thoughts have not been misimployed but that it is my constant care to do every thing that may preserve your Religion and secure it for the future in all events I have commanded my Lord Chancellor to mention several particulars which I hope will be an evidence that in all things that concern the Publick security I
shall not follow your zeal but lead it The Lord Chancellor spoke thus My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons THat Royal care which his Majesty hath taken for the general quiet and satisfaction of all his Subjects is now more evident by these new and fresh instances of it which I have in command to open to you His Majesty hath considered with himself that it is not enough that your Religion and Liberty is secure during his own Reign but he thinks he owes it to his people to do all that in him lies that these blessings may be transmitted to your posterity and so well secured to them that no succession in after Ages may be able to work the lest alteration And therefore his Majesty who hath often said in this place that he is ready to consent to any Laws of this kind so that the same extend not to alter the descent of the Crown in the Right Line nor to defeat the Succession hath now commanded this to be further explained And to the end it may never be in the power of any Papist if the Crown descend upon him to make any change either in Church or State I am commanded to tell you that his Majesty is willing that provision may be made first to distinguish a Papist from a Protestant Successor then to limit and circumscribe the Authority of a Popish Successor in these cases following that he may be disabled to do any harm first in reference to the Church his Majestie is content that care may be taken that all Ecclesiastical and spiritual Benefices and promotions in the Gift of the Crown may be conferred in such a manner that we may be sure the Incumbents shall always be of the most Pious and learned Protestants And that no Popish Successor while he continues so may have any power to controul such preferments In reference to the State and civil part of the Government as it is already provided that no Papist can sit in either House of Parliament so the King is pleased that it be provided too that there may never want a Parliament when the King shall happen to dy But that the Parliament then in being may continue indissolvable for a compleat time or if there be no Parliament then in being then that the last Parliament which was in being before that time may reassemble and sit a competent time without any new Summons or Elections And as no Papist can by Law hold any place of trust so the King is content that it may be further provided that no Lords or other of the Privy Council no Judges of the common Law nor in Chancery shall at any time during the Reign of any Popish Successor be put in or displaced but by the Authority of Parliament And that care also be taken that none but sincere Protestants may be Justices of the Peace In reference to the Military part the King is willing that no Lord Lieutenant or Deputy Lieutenant nor no Officer in the Navy during the Reign of any Popish Successor be put out or removed but either by Authority of Parliament or of such persons as the Parliament shall intrust with such Authority 'T is hard to invent another restraint to be put upon a Popish Successor considering how much the Revenue of the Successor will depend upon consent of Parliament and how impossible it is to raise mony without such consent But yet if any thing else can occur to the Wisdom of the Parliament which may further secure Religion and liberty against a Popish Successor without defeating the Right of Succession it self his Majesty will most readily consent to it Thus watchful is the King for all your safety and if he could think of any thing else that you do either want or wish to make you happy he would make it his business to effect it for you God Almighty long continue this blessed Union between the King and his Parliament and people The House of Commons returning resolved to Adjourn the consideration of his Majesties Speech till the next Monday Morning And now let any man but seriously consider the Condescention of these proposals and that they were franlly and freely offered before the House of Commons had obliged themselves in point of Honour to stand to any Vote of Exclusion for that was not then made and he must then be amazed to see to what extremities matters have proceeded during that and the two last Parliaments But who can brook the impudence of those men who have notwithstanding this by Tales and Pamphlets endeavoured to represent his sacred Majesty to his people as a favourer of Papists and Popery Some men may possibly say that all this will not infallibly secure us against Popery and I say nothing can make any thing in this lower world steady and unalterable but it is more likely to do it than the exclusion Bill because it disarms a Popish Successor of the tempration and opportunity of enslaving us by force where as the other puts the Sword into his hand and compells him to try his fortune for the whole the event of which is much more uncertain than some pretend who trusting now to force and number will in likelyhood find themselves disappointed by men and punished by God for their distrust of his providence and reliance on the Arm of Flesh if not ruined by their over great confidence in the number of their party which often have deceived men in such occasions But this it not the place of these considerations but that they broke loose here against my will On Thursday the Commons gave leave to bring in a Bill 1. of May. that when any Member of their House is preferred to any Office or place of profit a new Writ should immediately issue out for Electing of a Member to serve in his stead This was to keep the party together and to prevent the Ministers from bying off any of them by preferment Seasonable Address to both Houses p. 10. and it is to be wished it had passed for that would have lessened their Numbers and have taken off all those that hoped to rise by opposition to the Court as they call it but indeed to the King and the Morarchy In the interim it may be a caution to the Country that they take not all these Gentlemen to be what they pretend to be for that apparently some of them were driving a Market for Preferments how much soever they had clamoured their predecessors on that account This day also Dr. John Nalson who had been a long time Imprisoned and put to vast charge for Writing the Letter of Advice from a Jesuite in Paris to his correspondent in London was discharged without assigning any reason or Law for this way of proceeding against him which was never yet used against any of the Writers of the most virulent Libells against the Government and Religion by Law established and they Voted also that an
speaking out of the Mouths of Phanatical Protestants or the last Speeches of John Kid and John King c. pag. 11. The matter of fact being thus stated the Reader need not wonder they were severely treated when they suffered the pains of Treason and Rebellion but besides those they had committed a vast number of Massacres and Assassinations before they murthered the Primate and this aggravated their sufferings Now all the cunning of this Declaration lies in this that they tell us what they suffered and perhaps truly but not a tittle of the case Which is just as if all the Rogues in the Nation should joyn and pen a complaint ennumerating how many of them since his Majesties Return have been Hanged Quartered Whipped Branded Transported Pillored Imprisoned which never meant any hurt to his Majesty or the Government but only to get a Living the best and easiest way they could Now to one that is as little vers'd in our ways of Punishment as we are in the Scotch it would seem a rueful Story whilest an English man would smile as knowing why they suffered all these hardships I need not apply it but shall add this they have deserved ten times more then they have felt as being the bloudiest Cut-throats in the world So that in Scotland no man dare to offend them openly for fear of assassination but such as either must by the necessity of their places or else have good means of defending their Lives against them Next I observe this Declaration is nothing but a large flourish upon the Speech and drawn just at that loose general rate which that is calling those Taxes and Punishments Arbitrary which they acknowledg were according to several Acts of Parliament and then pretending the persons that do constitute their Parliaments or States are overawed But then I must commend their ingenuity in this that they do not with the Commons of England lay the blame of all this upon the Duke of Lauderdale or their Ministers but upon the total change of their Government and State both Sacred and Civil and upon the Parliament of Scotland and the King whom they supplicate with menaces to restore him into the same State he found them in without which they were sensible the removing of the Duke of Lauderdale or any other of the great Ministers of State would signify nothing as to their Designs which was as they plainly tell us to set up the Presbyterian Doctrine and Church Government to serve the King in nothing else any further then he would serve them in that And lastly to obtain a free and unlimited Parliament and Assembly that is such as it might not be in his Majesties power to dissolve or frustrate by prorogation till they had extirpated Popery and Prelacy both together which was freely and roundly to tell us what they would have without canting and amusing us with general terms and hints but then I must not deny they had swords by their sides to justify these demands which our Gentlemen want and I wish ever may do but yet the Reader may observe that Speech that was so hugged in England and the Scotch Declaration meant the same thing though in different terms Observe also that they call the Presbyterian Doctrine and Government the Religion established though they own it to be taken away by a rescissory Act of Parliament for they believe all those Acts that have or shall be made against it are Null and Void and the former Acts are still in force though repealed which is an odd sort of Establishment consisting in the fancy of the people that own it and not in Law or Nature They lay the stress of their Justification upon necessity and yet own the greatest part of it to arise from hence that they must be deprived of the Gospel preached by the faithful Ministers and be made Slaves if they did not rebel Now as to their civil interest they would be in the same State with their Country men who are so far from rebelling that they have several times chastised them for it with a very little assistance from England And as to their Preachments I wonder in what part of the Gospel they learned to defend Christs Religion by rebellion but we must know this is pure Scotch Calvinistical Jesuitical Doctrine begun by the Devil and his Vicar the Pope not many hundred years ago and for which Bellarmine acknowledges there is neither Precept nor Example in the Bible nor in all Church History till near a thousand years after our Saviour's time and he gives this reason why the Gospel taught patience and submission because the contrary would have ruined Christianity then when but a few professed it but tells us St. Paul would have taught otherwise if he had lived in our days I shall not dispute how the Cardinal or the Scotch Gentlemen who talk at the same rate came to know this but I say it is equally destructive of any other Doctrine a man hath no mind to practise as of this of submission to Princes and suffering patiently for the truth without resistance As suppose I have a mind to revenge and they tell me of the Doctrine of meekness and forgiving injuries and Enemies if I reply this Doctrine was adopted to the Infant state of Christianity when Professors were few and exposed to persecution and could have got nothing by revenging their quarrels but ruine but the state of things is otherwise now and I may revenge my self with security both as to my self and as to my Religion and from thence infer that that Doctrine is ceased and I am at liberty to do in that particular as I see cause and that St. Paul would have taught so if he had lived in these times I say if I should argue thus upon their principles it could never be answered and a man might say as much for any other Gospel precept he had no mind to obey But to return The Covenanters in their first Declaration date the rise of all their troubles from the year 1648 and that is true and worth a Note You must know Charles the first had given them by the pacification all that they asked and the long Rebel Parliament had sent them home loaden with thanks Money and the spoils of England before our wars began * A View of the late Troubles cap. 18. but things going ill on the Parliament side after the King had routed Waller in the West and almost totally subdued the North by the valour of the E. of Newcastle the Parliament having no other way to turn them were forced to call in the Scots once more with Money and Promises yea and Oaths too to settle the Presbyterian Church Government here in England These two things prevailing upon them in they came and that ruined the King and his Party who at last surrendring himself to the Scots they dutifully sold him to the Parliament for 300000 lb. as all the World knows but the Chapmen fell out and
Second time which God prevent My Intentions were to have ended this Epistle here it being but too long already but there is one Passage in this Pamphlet I judge absolutely necessary to be Considered the words are These Sect. 2. Tho men are to be esteemed capable of knowing their own Wants Fears and Dangers and ought to be justified in begging those means of Relief and Redress which the Law hath provided for them yet every one is not to be accounted Sufficiently qualified to Determine concerning the Reasonableness and Legality of Parliamentary Proceedings and Resolves nor is any Number of Men whatsoever Impowred to Umpire differences between his Majesty and his Great Council This is the pretence that justified the last War and as long as it stands for a Maxime at this loose rate it is here pen'd will justifie Ten thousand one after another and therefore it cannot but be worth a small parcel of your time to Enquire and Consider how much truth or falsehood there is in it And in the first place it cannot be denyed but that every man ought to have the Liberty to propose his own personal Wants Fears and Dangers to his Superiors and to be allowed thereupon to beg such Redress as the Law hath provided but then to infer from hence that he hath an Equal right or ability to Consider of the Publick and National Wants Fears and Dangers and to beg the Enacting of New Laws or the Repeal of Old Laws for the removing of them or which is all one the Calling or Sitting the Continuance or Changing of Parliaments to that purpose is so gross a delusion so full of Danger and doth so immediately tend to Sedition and Rebellion Especially if Multitudes of Factious men may be allowed to pretend what Fears Wants and Dangers they please and then in a Tumultuary way to beg what Redress they think fit by Petitions signed by 40 50 or 60 thousand men at a time that it was prohibited by an Act of Parliament upon Experience of the Mischief it hath done 13 Car. 2. cap. 5. and the foresight of what it will do as often as it is used it being destructive to any Government whatsoever As to the Second Proposition It is to be acknowledged That every one is not to be accounted Sufficiently qualified to Determine concerning the Reasonableness and Legality of Parliamentary Proceedings and Resolves But then 't is not fit to infer from thence First That no man is so qualified nor Secondly That it is impossible but that all their Proceedings should be Legal and Reasonable Nor Thirdly That any man ought to approve of and submit to them whether they be so or no. For tho it is most certain there are but few men are so qualified yet it is as Certain that some men even amongst the Addressers were if many Years Sitting in Parliament will qualifie a person of great abilities for it And it is no less certain That of 1640 1649 1653 1656. in none of which Except the first was there any Royal Writ at all Lord Chancell Speech May the 8th 1661. That the Proceedings of Two or Three Parliaments within the Memory of Man have been not onely Unreasonable and Illegal but Trayterous and Rebellious and we are not sure but that we may have more such if God be not the Mercifuller to us and if any such should happen to be and we should joyn with them tho but out of a Modest Opinion that we are not sufficiently qualified to Determine concerning the Legality and Reasonableness of Parliamentary Proceedings and Resolves yet it would neither Excuse the Guilt nor prevent the Punishment that is due by Law to them who shall Rebel against the King tho in Obedience to a Parliament To the Third That no Number of Men whatsoever is Impowred to Umpire betwixt his Majesty and his Great Council may be answered That there is an ambiguity in the word Umpire and it may be taken not only different but contrary wayes and therefore it ought not to have been used in this place And Secondly That if any difference should happen to arise betwixt him and them we ought not to resist the King nor to assist his Great Council against him with Force and Arms tho the King should be in the Wrong and they in the Right for that is Determined in Parliament already 13 Car. 2. cap. 6. Thirdly It is true That no Number of men whatsoever have any authority to hear and determine their Differences in a Judicial way so as to compel them to submit to their judgment for then that Number of men should be Superior both to King and Barliament but all this notwithstanding seeing the House of Commons Appealed to the People by Printing their Votes c. and the King by publishing his Gracious Declaration why might not the Addressers so far approve of His Majesties Proceedings as to Thank Him for the Satisfaction he had given them and to promise him to stand by him with their Lives and Fortunes which they were bound to do however Fourthly It may be answered That besides the Differences betwixt the King and the Commons and the Lords and Commons there were some Differences betwixt the Commons and some of them that Addressed afterwards they had Imprisoned several Gentlemen and other Subjects which they conceived then as perhaps they do still were Illegal and unreasonable Proceedings and they were as capable of Knowing their want of Protection and as sensible of the Dangers and Fears of further Oppression as other men and therefore they ought to have been Justified if they had begged those means of Relief and Redress which the Law had provided for them but yet they Patiently and Silently Expected the Issue till GOD put it into His Mejesties Royal Breast in whose hands are the Hearts of Kings to declare these their Proceedings ARBITRARY and might they not then rise up and Thank their Soveraign for the Favour he had shown them It is hard to conceive upon this Man's principles they might not have Petitioned His Majesty for Relief and Redress before this time but yet no man did it And in Relation to the Differences betwixt His Majesty and the Commons and the Upper and the Lower House what necessity is there that the Addressers should approve of them for tho the Commons were their Representatives and Trustees the King is their Soveraign and the Lords are not Aliens and Foreigners but the Two highest States of this our Native Country and altho the Addressers pretend no Authority over that Supreme Court of Jurisdiction yet what reason is there why they may not approve of what the Lords have done well tho the Commons will not Upon the whole therefore I crave Leave to Conclude That the Addressors in General have done nothing but what may be fairly Justified and was necessary to Satisfie his Majesty and the World that there was a Considerable Part of the Nation did not approve of what was
done in the Names of the whole by the Commons in Parliament and if it be the Duty of every English man to fight for his King if occasion require against any Party that ever shall hereafter pretend to have the Authority of both or either of the Houses to back them 13 Car. 2. cap. 6. as I humbly conceive is most plain then why may not they right his Majesty with their Pens who must do it with their Swords why may they not Approve his Cause as well as Defend it And if this be not allowed Any King of England may be Deposed and Murthered as the late King was for if there be a Blind Obedience due to all the Votes of Parliament 13 Car. 2. cap. 1. §. 2. and no man may in any Case judge them Illegal and Unreasonable then must all men absolutely Submit to them and obey them and the Consequence is if any future Parliament shall Vote any future King or or Monarchy it self a Grievance to the Nation and those that stand by them Enemies to the Kingdom if no man may Contradict such a Vote nor any Number of Men how great soever Umpire betwixt the King and his Great Council that is Defend him against his Parliament the effect will Certainly follow and as this is the natural Tendance of these Principles as we saw in the Late Troubles so I can conceive no other cause why they should be now again insinuated into the Heads of the Rabble For these Men who pretend to reverence the Three Last Parliaments at such a Prodigious rate The late Long Parliament tho filled with Danby his Pensioners The Modest Vindication of the Two last Parliaments p. 11. do traduce that which went immediately before most abominably and those who are so tender of the Votes of these care as little for the Established Lawes of the former as I do for the Decrees of the Council of Trent or of the Synod of Dort So that it is plain it is not respect to Parliaments as Parliaments that makes them thus obsequious but as made up of such a Sort of men and Driving on such Designs and Interests To return then Gentlemen from this long Digression which I have inserted only to Justifie You I will Conclude That as you have begun bravely so you must go thro with the business or Expect a Revenge from the Opposite Party equal to their Rage and tho I Know you do not fear them yet I would Advise you not to be too Secure of them but let your Vigilance Industry and Application to all Sorts of Men be equal to theirs at least and then it is Ten thousand to one you shall never try either theirs or your own Valour and as your Case is better so let it inspire you with more Resolution to Stand and Fall with it and his Most hearty Prayers for a good Success upon all your Loyal Undertakings and Designs shall never be wanting who is Your most Devoted Servant THE Third Part OF THE ADDRESS TO THE FREE-MEN and FREE-HOLDERS OF THE NATION HIS Majesty by the Blessing of GOD having Supprest the short Scotch Rebellion which in great part miscarried by the timeing of it tho no human fore-sight on their part could have prevented that His Majesty first Proroguing and then Dissolving that Parliament which seem'd to be the occasion of it with such Secrecy and Quickness that their Friends at London could give them no previous Notice of his Intentions so to do So that besides the total disappointing them of all that Countenance Ayd and Assistance they promised themselves from England many of their Friends at home whose Crimes being less had not the same necessity or whose Zeal was not of that fiery temper with theirs and therefore were prudently resolved tho they wished well to the design yet not to hazard their sweet Lives and Fortunes in it till they saw what Success these first Venturers had who hearing of the Prorogation of the Parliament and being doubtless admonished by their London Friends at the same time not to stir during this short Recess as they then thought it would be layd by all thoughts of Joyning with them and Augmenting their Numbers and the Privy Councils in both Nations attending solely to that business it was Extinguished almost as easily as it began Upon which His Majesty by his Royal Proclamation Dissolved this Parliament and Issued out Writs for another to Sit at Westminster the Seventeenth day of October 1679. Hoping his Subjects duly reflecting upon the Miscarriages of the Last House of Commons and the Danger the Nation had so narrowly escaped of Being involved in another destructive Intestine War at a time when the Victorious Arms of France hung like a dreadful Cloud over our heads and the High Discontents of the Popish Party which were inflamed and inraged both by the Discovery and Prosecutions of the late Plot lay broyling in the Bowels of the Nation would proceed with more Prudence and Caution in the Next Elections and send Him up men of Better Tempers or that at least these Gentlemen by that Act seeing He was resolved to keep the Reins in his own hands and to let them Sir or Dissolve them according as they behaved themselves would thereby be kept in better awe for the future and make use of a little more calmness in their Proceedings if it were but to continue their Being But alas His Majesty soon found himself deceived in his Expectation the common people who see with other mens eyes and follow as they are led and that is for the most part the wrong way were easily perswaded to believe in the first place that this Parliament was Prorogued and Dissolved onely to prevent the Tryal of the Popish Lords in the Tower tho the Not Trying of them was one of the greatest Causes that Moved his Majesty to it as appears plainly both by the Journals of both the Houses and his Majesties Speech in the Conclusion of that Session of Parliament and altho these Five Lords were brought to the Bar and the Commons summon'd to give in Evidence against them that very day that they were Prorogued they refused to do it And on the other side the Malecontents rejoyced greatly in it being well assured that the same Men would be chosen again and so made use of this Dissolution as a means to incense the People against the King and the Government and to increase the real or pretended fears of Men by their Loud Clamours against French Pensioners Popery Arbitrary Government and the like which both in discourse and Print the Press being now at Liberty from its former restraint they objected with equal Confidence and Falshood against the Loyal Gentlemen that had opposed them But besides these general Charges they made special use of two things that fell out in the last Parliament and that had a mighty influence upon the Minds of the populace and other Unthinking men The first of which was to
represent all those Gentlemen of the House of Commons who had Voted against the Bill for Excluding his Royal Highness the Duke of York as Papists or at least Popishly affected and for my part I believe it was the principal Motive of bringing in that Bill for it is scarce possible but that they must see after that Second Declaration that his Majesty made in that very Session concerning the Succession and the House of Lords refusing to joyn with them in the first of these Votes that introduced that Bill that they should never be able to get it pass into an Act but then they might easily foresee however it would be a powerful means of inciting the People against all that should oppose it and prevail with them to pass a Sentence upon them as Popishly affected at least if not down-right Arrant Papists and herein they had great part of their design and there was no Motive more frequently used than this and for the most part it was driven a little higher and urged against his Majesty too as by the bye thus What will you give your Voice for who is a Papist and Voted for the Duke of York in the last Parliament who is an Arrant Papist and the King is little better Which words were actually spoken by one of that Party and Sworn upon him at his Majesty's Suit and for which the party was Fined Five hundred Marks in the Kings-Bench And by this Sole Argument they prevailed to Exclude almost all those Gentlemen and to fill up their places with men of their own principles and traduced his Majesty the Court and all the Ministers of State and almost all the Gentry and Loyal Clergy too for endeavouring to have these men chosen again The Second Thing that they made great advantage of was the pretended discovery of Sir S. Fox of the Pensioners in the Long Loyal Parliament which discovery being hastily made and No Record of it being entred they took the Confidence to Add to it whomsoever they were pleased to have so thought by the small Free-men and Free-holders and that was a Number it may be double and treble to that Sir S. mentioned however I am sure that the Written Lists that were then spread abroad and which were all of Equal Authority or pretended to be so did not agree some having more Names than other and I am well assured that some Persons Named were not Pensioners nor could be so and therefore I believe Sir S. never said they were but they were added by the Transcribers according to their private Interests or Passions but they made the People believe they knew who would be Pensioners too which was somewhat difficult and led the diffidence to that height as to Exclude as far as they could possibly not onely all the Courtiers and other Persons who had any Places of Profit and Advantage under his Majesty but their Relations too and Wanted not much that they had Excluded all those who bore any honorary Imployments or Offices such as Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace So that nothing now recommended a man so effectually for a Parliament-man as that he had not been thought fit to be trusted in the least by his Majesty or their Neighbour Gentry or having been so had been turned out all which were applauded as Men not to be bought Enemies to the Court and Ministers and therefore true Friends to the Protestant Religion and the Country All which tended as they said to the Advancement of his Majesties Service and to the increasing the Love of the People towards him and the Government and he was a hard-hearted man who called the Sincerity of their Loyal intentions in question These two being added to all the Ill ways they had made use of in the former Election no wonder if his Majesty was not Satisfied with the Returns when he faw by them what men he was to meet in his next House of Commons Whereupon his Majesty Prorogued them at the day of their meeting till a further time and so kept them from meeting to Sit till the 21th of October 1680. And now let us see how they behaved themselves in this Interval Wherein I shall desire the Reader 's Excuse if I do not relate things in that precise order they fell out it being nothing material to my purpose His Majesties Intentions of Proroguing the Parliament from time to time so as not to permit a Session till the time he had designed which was a Year being once known the great Contrivers of all our Disturbances who met and ordered all things in Clubbs and close Cabals fell into the greatest Passion imaginable they had carried things to that height out of design to force the King to Dissolve that Parliament or yield more than he could either spare or recall but then they had made their count he could not continue long without another Parliament and the quick choyce and the temper of the Men generally Returned was Appeal from the Country to the City as they gave out in their Pamphlets according to their hearts desire But then if they might be dissolved or prorogued when ever they came to Redress the Grievances of the People that is when ever his Majesty pleased to think it Expedient and especially for so long a time the heat the People were then in might cool other thoughts might arise the fears of an immediate Execution of the Plot upon them might appear as they knew they were vain and salse His Majesty might Recover his Estimation with his People and shew he was able to Subsist without present Supplies from a Parliament and which grieved them most of all he might in this time Root up the Reliques of the Scotch Rebellion in such manner that no assistance would afterwards be to be had from those Northern Brethren what need soever they might have of them which is as good as confest by the Author of the Appeal to the City To prevent these and several other dreadful Consequences of this Nature they cast their heads what course they should take the way of Pamphlets was slow and uncertain and they had almost Cloyed the Appetite of the Nation with that Crude sort of Rebellious and Disloyal Discourses which served rather for the divertisement to Idle men then gave them any great Advantage at least for the present and they had need in this affair of some very quick and powerful Expedient that might work upward upon the King and downward upon the People Neither could they then bethink themselves of any better remedy than to revive the old way of Tumultuous Petitions signed by all sorts of people and that in vast Numbers The first of which sort as I believe An. 1603. C. His Book 9. Pag. 7. was the Mille manus Petition Presented to King James Tho as Fuller acquaints us there was onely 750 * But after this the Author saith other Petitions were set a foot about the same time for
these being for the most part men of Authority in their Country so quelled this many-headed Hydra that the triple Cordial of a Commons Vote have not been able since to Revive it And so I shall take my leave of it till I come to those Votes and the proceedings upon them In the Interim I desire my dear Countrymen they would reflect Seriously upon what is here said and remember what fruits they reaped of this pernicious seed the last time they were prompted by this Sort of men to the use of it and how they Treated the Surrey and Kentish men for using it to a purpose for which it was never designed the procuring PEACE His Majesty therefore Prorogued the Parliament from the 17th of October to the 26 of January and then meeting them in Person and making a Gracious Speech to them Prorogued them to the 15th of April and then to the 17th of May and from thence to the First of July and so on to the 22d of the same and thence to the 23d of August and from thence to the 21. of October 1679. when he declared they should finally Sit according to his former Resolution which the Petitions had more confirmed him in In the Interim several things hapned worth the taking Notice of as giving us some Light into the Designs of the Common-wealth Party and the Temper of the Dissenters by which we may Judge what we shall meet with at their hands if ever they prevail again The first I will Instance in was their Treatment of the London Apprentices Some of them had been busy in Burning the Pope and after that had been drawn in to Sign the Petition but finding they had disobliged others by it L'Estrange's Narr of the Plot pag. 15. 4 to to give some Satisfaction they gave Notice in Print That they would burn the Rump the 29th of May following and this was taken for such an affront by the Young Gentlemen of that Old Family of Rumpers that presently all the Prentices were made Traytors Conspirators most of them said to be Papists for which several of them were Imprisoned and it was much grief of heart to the Merciful Rumpers too that they were not Hanged and one of them with great regret told the following Parliament That he thought Cap. Tom. was at Tangier Exact Collection of Debated p. 112. who should have headed the Apprentices Mutiny in London and if saith the Gentleman I be not Mis-informed is a Captain too for that intended Eminent Service A Sad Story if it was true and there was no mis-information in the case some where or other but this was onely meant for a Kind Reflection on the Government which is grown of late strangely in Love with Mutinies and doubtless made Capt. Tom a Captain there not onely to reward him for his Eminent Intended Service in London but to put him into a Capacity of promoting a Tumult or Mutiny there too Upon this Occasion I am shrewdly tempted to remember some of the 41. Tumults and Mutinies in behalf of the Rump but because they were not Popish but Puritan Mutinies and for the Service of the Common-wealth of England I will forbear it Onely I will give the World a Caution not to be mightily Surprized if afterwards the Late Addressing Apprentices be clawed away for Papists and Mutineers too If there be not too many of them In the beginning of May his Majesty had two or three Fits of an Ague which went off again without any great hazard to his Life yet this occasioned some considerable Events In one of the Fits there was some tampering among his back-Friends for the Proclaiming his Grace the D. of M. King in case his Majesty should die of that Sickness About that time that there was a Pamphlet Printed to make out a Title for him too pretending to some Strange Discoveries to be made of a Black Box that should do the D. much Kindness but tho his Majesty and the Privy-Council took all the Care imaginable to discover the Author of this Black Box-discourse it could not be found And to prevent the Ill Effects of such Rumors for the future his Majesty Published a Declaration the 2 d. of June 1679. which tho it hath been already printed and is Long yet because it may be very hard to produce it some Years hence I will take the pains to Insert it here from the Gazette of the 7th of June 1680. CHARLES R. WE cannot but take Notice of the great Industry and Malice wherewith some men of a Seditious and Restless Spirit do spread abroad a most False and Scandalous Report of A Marriage or Contract of Marriage supposed to be had and made between Vs and one Mrs. Walters alias Barlow now Deceased Mother of the present Duke of Monmouth aiming thereby to fill the Minds of Our Loving Subjects with Doubts and Fears and if possible to divide them into Parties and Factions and as much as in them lies to bring into question the Clear Vndoubted Right of Our True and Lawful Heirs and Successors to the Crown We have therefore thought Our Self Obliged to Let our Loving Subjects see what steps We cut of Our Care of them and their Posterity have already made in order to Obviate the Ill Consequences that so dangerous and Malicious a Report may have in Future Times upon the Peace of Our Kingdoms In January Last was Twelvemonth We made a Declaration written with Our Own Hand in the Words following THere being a False and Malicious Report Industriously spread abroad by Some Who are Neither Friends to Me nor the Duke of Monmouth as if I should have been Either Contracted or Married to his Mother and though I am most Confident that this Idle Story cannot have any Effect in this Age Yet I thought it my Duty in relation to the true Succession of this Crown and that future Ages may not have any pretence to give disturbance upon that Score or any other of this Nature to declare as I do here declare in the presence of Almighty God That I was never Married nor gave any Contract to any Woman whatsoever but to My Wife Queen Catherine to whom I am now Married In Witness whereof I have set My Hand at White-Hall the Sixth of January 1679. This Declaration I made in the Presence of CHARLES R. W. Cant. H. Finch C. H. Coventry J. Williamson To strengthen which Declaration We did in March following which was March last was Twelve-month make a more Publick Declaration in Our Privy Council written likewise with Our Own Hand and having caused a true Transcript thereof to be Entred in Our Council Books We Signed it and caused the Lords of Our Privy Council then attending Vs in Council to Subscribe the same likewise and We Ordered the Original to be kept in the Council Chest where it Now remains The Entry whereof in the Council Book is in these words following At the Court at White-Hall March 3 d. 1679. Present The
Advantages redeem either Me or my Subjects I cannot suffer so much in Point of Honour by those Rude and Scandalous PAMPHLETS which like fire in great Conflagrations flie up and down to set all places on like flames as those men do who pretending so much to Piety are so forgetful of their Duty to God and Me by no ways ever Vindicating the Majesty of their King against any of those who contrary to the Precept of God and Precedent of Angels speak evil of Dignities and bring Rayling Accusations against those who are honoured with the Name of Gods but 't is no wonder if Men not fearing God should not honour their King Thus far That Illustrious Saint and Martyr who felt the Heat and suffered the Scorchings first of those Tongues that are set on fire by Hell and after of these Pamphlet-Flakes and Sparks which raised such a Fire in His Three Kingdoms as occasioned his Ruine and Murther and the Banishing of his Wife and Children and were likely enough to have ended in the total and everlasting Ruine of the English Church and Nation And can any man believe it reasonable that his Son our present Most Gracious Soveraign should sit still and Suffer Himself and his Ministers his Judges and his Officers both Civil and Military to be represented to his People in the most Odious Manner that Malice can invent and a Thousand false ridiculous Lyes and Slanders to be vented against him and them No surely it can never be expected and were not another Rebellion designed it would never be desired Thus the Last began and thus the Next must begin We have the Testimony of His Majesty's Father and our own Remembrance for the one and we are Sensible how far things are Advanced of late that way for a proof of the other And if these hot-headed Religious Lyers think it reasonable that for fear of the Unjust reproach of Asserting Arbitrary Government the hazard should be run of having no Government I hope they will find themselves deceived and I am sure his Majesty hath not one Loyal Subject in all his Three Kingdoms that is not of this mind My Lord Coke in the Pleas of the Crown tells us Cap. 93. Inst leg Aluered Cap. 28. That the Law before the Conquest was That the Author and Spreader of False Rumours amongst the People had his Tongue cut out if he redeemed it not by the Estimation of his Head And surely the Printing of such is not a less but a greater Crime and deserves a greater punishment And in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Anno 1581. one Stubbs had his Right hand Cut off for writing a Libel against the Queen as Camden tells us which Stubbs was Brother in Law to Carthwright the famous Puritan Preacher in those days By a Statute made the 3 Ed. 1. Cap. 33. it was Enacted That from thenceforth none should be so hardy to Tell or Publish any False Newes or Fales whereby Discord or Slander may Grow between the King and his People or the Great Men of the Realm And he that doth so shall be taken and kept in Prison until he hath brought him into the Court which was first Author of the Tale. Which is confirmed 2 Rich. 2. Cap. 5. And again 12 Rich. 2. Cap. 11. with this addition That if the Offender could not find his Author He should be punished by the Advice of the Council Both which Statutes are still in force tho those of the 1 2 P. M. Cap. 13. 1 Eliz. 6. upon which Stubbs was punished are Expired So that here is no Need of Arbitrary proceeding to punish such Disorders when a due Execution of these Old Statutes might do the business The 22. of June 1680. The Rebel Scots endeavouring to renew their Rebellion 21 persons Assembled and after a Solemn Procession and Singing of Psalms Published and affixed on the Cross at Sanchar a Paper wherein they declare for themselves And all that will Adhere to them as the Representatives of the true Presbyterian Church and Covenanted Nation of Scotland they do disown Charles Stuart who has been Raigning or rather Tyrannizing on the Throne of Brittain these Years past as having any Right or Title to or Interest in the Crown of Scotland or Government as Forfeited several Years since by his Perjury and Breach of Covenant with God and his Church and Vsurpation of his Crown and Royal Prerogatives therein c. So they proceeded to Excommunicate and Depose his Majesty and 70 Persons took up Arms against him the chief of which were Donald Cargile and one Hall who were Actually in the Last Rebellion These men swore either to other That if any person who should joyn with them should afterwards submit to the King upon any account whatsoever or own him for their King the rest should Butcher the Party so submitting So that several of them being taken and upon Tryal found Guilty of this Horrid and Divillish Conspiracy chose rather to Suffer as Traytors than to own their King or ask a Pardon from him as fearing a worser Death from their fellow Conspirators than the Law would inflict upon them Now I would desire my Country-men to Consider Seriously whether the Popish Tenents are worse than these Presbyterian Doctrines and whether his Majesty is not as much in danger to fall by the hands of one of these reformed Assassinates as by a Consecrated Jesuite On Thursday the 21. of October 1680. The long Expected and impatiently Desired Parliament met at Westminster And I will now attend it to see whether it were such as answered the hopes of these Petitioners who had boasted of it as a Master-Piece and which was to Confound all they were pleased to Call Popery Which Parliament his Majesty began with this Speech My Lords and Gentlemen THE several Prorogations I have made have been very advantagious to Our Neighbours and Very Vseful to Me for I have imployed that time in making and perfecting an Alliance with the Crown of Spain suitable to that which I had before with the States of the United Provinces and they also had with Spain Consisting of Mutual Obligations of Succour and Defence I have all the Reason in the World to believe that what was so much desired by former Parliaments must needs be very grateful to you now for tho some perhaps may wish these Measures had been taken sooner yet no man can with reason think it is now too Late for they who desire to make these Alliances and they who desire to break them shew themselves of another Opinion And as these are the best Measures that could be taken for the Safety of England and Repose of Christendom So they cannot fail to attain their End and to spread and improve themselves further if Our Divisions at home do not render Our Friendship less Considerable abroad To prevent these as much as may be I think fit to renew to you all the Assurances which can be desired That
nothing shall be wanting on My part to give you the fullest Satisfaction your Hearts can wish for the Security of the Protestant Religion which I am fully resolved to maintain against all the Conspiracies of Our Enemies and to Concur with You in any new Remedies which shall be proposed that may Consist with the preserving the Succession of the Crown in its Due and Legal Course of Descent And in Order to this I do recommend to You to pursue the further Examination of the Plot with a strict and impartial Enquiry I do not think My Self Safe nor You neither till that Matter be gone thro with and therefore it will be necessary that the Lords in the Tower be brought to their speedy Tryal that Justice may be done I need not tell you what danger the City of Tangier is in nor of what Importance it is to Vs to preserve it I have with a mighty Charge and Expence sent a very Considerable Relief thither but Constantly to maintain so great a Force as that War will require and to make those New Works and Fortifications without which the Place will not be long Teneable amounts to so Vast a Sum that without Your Support it will be impossible for me to undergo it Therefore I lay the matter plainly before You and desire Your Advice and Assistance But that which I Value above all the Treasure in the World and which I am Sure will give Me greater Strength and Reputation both at home and abroad then any Treasure can do is a perfect VNION amongst Our Selves Nothing but this can restore the Kingdom to that Strength and Vigor which it seems to have Lost and raise Vs again to that Consideration which England hath Vsually had All Europe have their Eyes upon this Assembly and think their own Happiness or Misery as well as Ours will depend upon it If We should be So Vnhappy as to fall into such Mis-Vnderstanding among Our Selves as should render Our Friendship unsafe to trust to it will not be Wondred at if Our Allies should begin to take new Resolutions and perhaps such as may be Fatal to Vs Let Vs therefore take Care that We do not Gratifie Our Enemies and Dishearten Our Friends by any Vnseasonable Disputes If any such do happen the World will see it is no fault of Mine for I have done all that was possible for Me to do to Keep You in Peace while I live and to Leave You So when I die But from so great Prudence and so good Affections as Yours I can fear Nothing of this Kind but to Rely upon You all That You will use Your best Endeavours to bring this Parliament to a Good and Happy Conclusion The Lord Chancellor made no Speech at all His Majesty giving himself the whole Trouble of this Affair hoping his Words would the more be Considered by them and the business the more zealously pursued The House of Commons being returned and a Motion made That William Williams Esq should be chosen Speaker It was Resolved in the Affirmative Nemine Contradicente who forthwith made two Speeches in the House which are Printed in the Votes one to Excuse himself by reason of his insufficiency by reason of the difficulty both of the Place and Things to be transacted But that being refused he made a Second which shew'd more the temper of the Man and is as followeth Gentlemen I Tremble when I reflect under what difficulties Learned Experienced and Wise Men have Laboured in this Chair Yet I am not afraid of their President who impaired their Estates and Health no nor of them who lost their Lives in this Service These are a Sacrifice I owe my Country But when I suffer my self to think that some Gentlemen have Maimed their Reputation in this Trust these Thoughts are dreadful to me and must yet strike deeper with me unless you that called me hither shall please to Stand by me Cherish and Support me in all the difficulties of this Place I have it by your Courtesie and shall hold it at your Pleasure and I have this to Secure me If I fall I fall into the Hands of Gentlemen that made me what I am in Your Service I doubt not but you will remember your own Minister your own ONELY your own INTIRELY placed in this Service without Seeking without Recommending I expect No Boon but your Grace and Favour to depart as I came when you shall please to Command me without repenting Some have said these Speeches were never made in the House but added afterwards to the Votes tho it 's possible they might be designed but that is nothing to the purpose In my poor Judgment this last Speech is lyable to many great Exceptions and for which he would certainly have been eased of this Laborious and Dangerous Imployment under any Prince but the Mildest of Men with whom he had now to do First he might have treated his Predecessors in that Chair with more respect than to take notice of them that had Maimed their Reputation which as they were not many so that thought might with more Humility and Candour have been kept to himself and the rather because one present had had the Misfortune to be represented disadvantagiously in the latter end of the former Parliament and this looked more like an insulting Bravado than a Modest Excuse It had been good he had taken the Lord Verulam's Counsel Essay the 11. Vse the Memory of thy Predecessor Fairly and Tenderly for if thou dost not it is a Debt will Surely be paid when thou art Gone In the Second Paragraph he flies higher and is not content to tell them that he is their Minister without he added Onely and Intirely Now another man would have left out these words or have added something to them to declare his Loyal Intention to his Prince too whose Minister the Speaker is more properly than the Houses whose Place he holds there and from whom he hath his Authority tho he hath his Nomination from the Commons nor is he a Speaker at all till the King hath approved of their Choyce His Majesty to avoid any Contest about a Speaker had it seems not Recommended any Person to them as is usual and he takes Notice of that too but in such a manner as looks more like a Triumph over his Majesty than any thing else as having gained that point upon him by the last Contest when he tells them he was placed in that Service without Seeking without Recommending And in the Next place he tells them He Expects no other Boon but by their Grace and Favour to depart as he came without repenting He may possibly prove a Prophet and as he seems to scorn his Prince's Favour so he may ever want an opportunity of Refusing it On Friday the House of Commons attended his Majesty with their Speaker where he that hath entred two Speeches to the Commons is not pleased to Enter that which was made to his Majesty but onely tells
us that he made claim by Humble Petition in the Name of the Commons of England in Parliament Assembled of the Antient Rights of the Commons for them and their Servants in their Persons and Estates to be free from Arrests and other disturbances in all their Debates to have Freedom and Liberty of speech and as occasion should require to have Access to his Majesties Person Which was allowed by the King But tho he hath not been pleased to Print his own Speech there was one given out for the Information of the People in Writing which was as followeth May it please Your Majesty THE House of Commons have been pleased to Make use of ME for their Speaker and Have presented me for Your Majesties Approbation It is a Place of great Weight and Pains Both by my Education and Profession I have been always used to Labour and Industry Therefore I will by Your Majesties Approbation endeavour to discharge the Trust reposed in me If this were the Preface to the Three Demands or Petitions I cannot blame him for not Printing it no more then I can commend him for making one so totally different from what used to be said on such occasions But a man may smile to see how finely the man had digested and put over all his trembling fears in one Nights time when he called to mind his Education and Profession which he had totally forgot the day before and now having considered better did not think it was fit to ask his Majesty to discharge a person so wonderfully qualified for the Place as all other had done before him being it seems not so sensible that by their Education and Profession they had been used to Labour and Industry And 't is pretty to see how his Majesties Approbation is put into a parenthesis as if one should say it was Needless and scarce worth the asking and the Sence of what he was to speak would have been perfect without it But such was his Majesty's Goodness that he easily passed over these things tho they were apparent encroachments upon his Royal Prerogative and such too as another Prince would have stomached He sought the good of his People more than any thing and for that cause bore these disorders On Munday the 25. of October the Lords sent down an Address they had made to his Majesty for the Pardon of all such persons as should come in and discover any thing further of the Plot within two Months and with it his Majesties Answer which was as followeth HIS Majesty hath Considered of the Address made by the House and is so willing to Encourage all persons who know of any Treasons and Conspiracies against his Person and Government that he will cause his Royal Proclamation to Issue declaring That he will fully Pardon and Secure all persons who shall make such discovery not Onely during the space of Two Months as is desired but at any time after whensoever such discovery shall be made The next day the Commons resolved to make an Address to his Majesty to the same purpose And Mr. Dangerfield the discoverer and great Agent in the Meal-Tub Plott which was a Silly design of the Papists to turn their Plott upon the Presbyterians mentioning Sir Robert Peyton a Member of their House in this Information They referred it to a Committee to Examine the Maters touching Sir Robert Peiton and to report the same to the House And then Resolved Nemine Contradicente That it was the Opinion of their House to proceed effectually to suppress Popery and Prevent a Popish Successor On Wednesday the 27th of October they agreed the said Address which was as followeth WE Your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects the Commons in Parliament Assembled being highly Zealous for the preservation of the Protestant Religion Your Majesties Sacred Person and Government and resolving to pursue with a strict and impartial Inquiry the Execrable Popish Plot which was detected in the Two Last Parliaments and has been Supported and Carried on by potent and restless Practises and Machinations especially during the late Recesses of Parliaments whereby several persons have been terrified and discouraged from declaring their Knowledg thereof most humbly beseech Your Majesty That for the Security of such persons who shall be willing to give Evidence or make further Satisfactory Discovery concerning the same to this House Your Majesty would be pleased to Issue Your Royal Proclamation assuring all the said persons of your Gracious Pardon if they shall give Evidence or make such Discovery within two Months after the date of such Proclamation There was two Exceptions taken to this Address by others Tho I find none made in the House viz. The first was That in the height of their Zeal they forgot to tell his Majesty what Protestant Religion they meant or desired to preserve for there being in England many not onely several but contrary Religions which yet may be Comprehended under that General term of Protestant Some of which are worse than Popery they were not to be preserved but Suppressed if it might be Except they intended in opposition to Popery to uphold all the Heresies and Schismes that arose in the late Rebellion amounting to near Eightscore as they have been counted but then it had been better to have called them Protestant Religions for it is a perfect piece of Nonsence to call these Contrary and Contending Factions who do mutually endeavour to Ruine each other tho they are now Combined as much against the Religion that is Established as against Popery and to Act against it with more fury than they do against Popery I say it is Nonsence to call these Conjoyntly Religion when if there be or ever were any such things as different Religions in the World these are such and they are as Contrary to the Religion established and each to other as they are to Popery Hitherto the Parliaments had always qualified that loose general word with such terms as these Established or by Law Established or the like and sometimes not so much as mentioned the Word Protestant which is very improperly affixed to any Party of the Reformed Religions of England there being perhaps never a Lutheran in England to take it strictly But we shall see afterwards that it was not a Casual or Accidental omission here but as these Protestants at Large had advanced the greater part of these Commons into that high dignity so they were resolved to lift them up above the Church and Laws by way of Reward tho the Peace of the Nation and the Government were Ruined by it The Second thing objected was That they Tacitly and Injuriously reflected upon His Majesty in their Pretences That during the Recess of Parliament several persons had been terrified and discouraged from declaring their Knowledg of the Plot. As for the Recesses Prorogations and Dissolutions of the Parliaments they were apparently forced upon the King much against his Will by the unreasonable Heats Feuds and Irregularities of the
Commons and so the King was not to be blamed and all that would Inform any thing concerning the Plott in these Intervals had been as Kindly used by the King and Councel as they could have been by the Parliament So that this was as I said an Injurious Reflection upon His Majesty and the Government and was an Argument of an ill temper and could not but disgust his Majesty Their limiting their Petition of Pardon to onely such persons as made any Discovery to their House was look't upon as much restrain'd for if the Discovery were really and effectually made what matter was it to what house or person it was made But it may be this might not be intended by them for any such purpose as the limiting of the thing to them tho in effect it did so and therefore I shall pass it over From this Address the House proceeded to the Votes about the Petitions which were as followeth Resolved Nemine Contradicente Which shewes the Strength of the party and not the Consent of the whole House That it is and Ever hath been the Vndoubted Right of the Subjects of England to Petition the King for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments and Redressing of Grievances Resolved N. C. That to traduce such Petitioning howsoever managed for so it must signifie or else it will conclude nothing from the Other as a Principle as a Violation of Duty and to represent it to his Majesty as Tumultuous and Seditious is to betray the Liberty of the Subject and Contributes to the Design of Subverting the Antient Legal Constitutions of this Kingdom and introducing Arbitrary Power Ordered That a Committee be appointed to inquire of all such persons as have offended against these Rights of the Subjects Resolved That an Address be made to his Majesty declaring the Resolution of this House to Preserve and Support the King's Person and Government and the Protestant Religion at home and abroad This last seemed to sweeten the Crudity of the former Votes and to Countenance and Justifie one of the greatest disorders that Contributed to the Ruine of his Father As to their first Vote which is their Principle it is granted modo forma as they have set it down But the Second is too general and an Undeniable foundation for Rebellion as hath been Experimented for all the Controversie was here about the manner of Petitioning viz. Whether a few private men might agree upon a Petition and then send Emissaries abroad to procure Hundreds and Thousands of Ignorant people to Subscribe it and then tender it to his Majesty as it were by the Number to fright him into a Complyance with them against his declared Resolution to the Contrary if this might be allowed the Liberty of the Subject would soon eat up the Prerogative of the King and disorder this or any other Government in the World In the Reign of Henry the Seventh one Thomas Flammock Lord Bacon 's Hist of H. 7. a Lawyer thought he could make a Rebellion and never break the Peace and the People of Cornwall being discontented about some Subsidies granted to the King he perswades them that it was not good they should stand like Sheep before the Shearers but put on Harness and take Weapons in their hands yet to do no Creature hurt but go and deliver the King a Strong Petition for the Laying down of those grievous Payments and for the Punishment of those that had given him that Counsel and to make others beware how they did the like in time to come And he said for his part He did not see how they could do the Duty of true Englishmen and good Liege-men except they did deliver the King from such Wicked ones that would destroy both him and the Country or in the Language of our dayes introduce Arbitrary Power And accordingly 16000 men armed assembled and marched from Cornwal to Black-Heath in Kent Modestly and Quietly enough Except that at Taunton in Somersetshire they killed in fury an Officious and Eager Commissioner for the Subsidy whom they called the Provost of Perin but by that time they came at Black-Heath they Threatned either to bid Battle to the King for now the Seas went higher than his Councellors or to take London within his View imagining themselves there to find no less fear than wealth And accordingly they persisted till the King having drawn out his Forces and Surrounded them he fought them and killed 20000 and took all the rest Prisoners Now I would Know whether this Strong Petition was Justifiable and whether if any body in our dayes should perswade a Number of Men to Act this over again it would be an offence against the Rights of the Subjects to abhor such Petitioning as a Violation of Duty and represent it to his Majesty as Tumultuous and Seditious or rather plainly Rebellious and it would be worth the while to try whether Flammock's Strong Petition may not be Justified by these Votes as they now stand penned for it doth not appear that any sort of Petitioning whatsoever may be opposed by the Votes But it may be replyed That here were no men in Arms in the case of the Petition in hand but what then if there should be for the future these Votes will Justify them too for if the People may Petition for the Calling or Sitting of a Parliament or Redressing of Grievances when and howsoever they please and no man may hinder them then is Honest Old Father Flammock's Strong Petition which was for the Redress of two Notable Grievances fairly Justifiable if it were now to be acted over again But if the People be allowed to Petition but not any way it had been fit to have told us and them what manner of way they were allowed to Petition as well as for what for that was the main thing in question But seeing they were not so kind to the People I will try if I cannot direct them into a better course the next time they shall have an Occasion to Petition the King for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments and Redressing of Grievances And to that purpose I will here insert a whole Act of Parliament XIII Car. 2. Cap. V. An Act against Tumults and Disorders upon pretence of Preparing or Presenting Publick Petitions or Addresses to His Majesty or the Parliament WHEREAS it hath been found by Sad Experience That Tumultuous and other Disorderly Soliciting and Procuring of Hands by private persons to Petitions Complaints Remonstrances and Declarations and Other Addresses to the King or both or either Houses of Parliament 1. For Alteration of Matters Established by Law 2. Redress of pretended Grievances in Church or State 3. Or other Publick Concernments have been made use of to serve the ends of Factious and Seditious persons gotten into power to the Violation of the Publick Peace and have been a great means of the late Unhappy Wars Confusions and Calamities in this Nation For preventing the like Mischiefs for the
future Be it Enacted by the Kings Most Excellent Majesty by and with the Consent of the Lords Commons assembled in Parliament and by the Authority of the same That no person or persons whatsoever shall from and after the First of August One thousand six hundred sixty and one sollicite labour or procure the getting of Hands or other Consent of any persons above the number of Twenty or more to Petition Complaint Remonstrance any Declaration or other Address to the King or both or either Houses of Parliament for alteration of Matters Established by Law in Church or State Unless the Matter thereof have been first Consented unto and Grdered by Three or more Justices of the County or by the Major part of the Grand Jury of the County or Division of the County where the same matter shall arise at their Publick Assizes or General Quarter-Sessions or if arising in London by the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons in Common Councel assembled And that no person or persons whatsoever shall repair to his Majesty or both or either of the Houses of Parliament upon pretence of presenting or delivering any Petition Complaint Remonstrance or Declaration or other Addresses accompanied with Excessive Numbers of People * * Nor. not at any one time above the number of Ten persons upon pain of Incurring a penalty not exceeding the Sum of One hundred pounds in Money and Three Moneths Imprisonment without Bail or Mainprise for every offence to be prosecuted at the Court of Kings-Bench or at the Assizes or General Quarter-Sessions within Six Months after the Offence committed and proved by two or more Credible Witnesses Provided always That this Act or any thing therein contained shall not be Construed to Extend to debar or hinder any person or persons not exceeding the Number of Ten aforesaid to represent any publick or private Grievance or Complaint to any Member or Members of Parliament after his Election and during the Continuance of the Parliament or to the Kings Majesty for any Remedy thereupon to be had or to Extend to any Address whatsoever to his Majesty by all or any of the Members of both or either Houses of Parliament during the Sitting of the Parliament but that they may enjoy their Freedom of Access to his Majesty as heretofore hath been used Now had this Act of Parliament been pursued I believe there would have been no Controversie in this case and there was great reason it should * Because By reason of the Unquietness of the Times when every thing seemed to tend to the renewing of those Calamities the Act mentions in the Preface and was made to prevent But supposing it had been never so Regular what reason can be assigned why one part of the People should be freer to Petition for any thing than the other was against it if one party may for the instance Petition the King to change his Mind after he hath declared it in any cause why is not the other part as free to desire him not to change now that which may seem a publick Grievance to one County or Place may be a great Advantage to another and they are totally debarred of all means of Maintaining their present advantage if they may not Counter-Petition But in this case here the persons that Petitioned were private men and contrary to the express Letter of this Act solicited hands in an irregular way and such sort of hands as besides their Number were of No Consideration for the directions that they sent with the Petitions were That it mattered not whether they were Gentlemen or so much as Free-holders so they were Numerous Now let any man consider whether it be reasonable that a company of Rude Country Clowns and a parcel of Pragmatical Apron-men should contrary to his Majesty's Proclamation pretend themselves wise enough to Advise his Majesty when the Parliament should Sit. But if it be alledged That there were others besides these why were not these totally left out why was there such care that the Subscriptions should be so Numerous did these small Folk add any weight to the Advise No surely On the other Hand they that appeared against them were Parliament-men themselves Justices of the Peace Grand Juries at Assizes and Sessions Common-Councels and Magistrates in Corporations men full as likely to Understand what was fit to be done and as Unlikely to betray the true Liberties of the People on the one hand or to invade the just Prerogatives of the Crown on the other but then these were men true to the Religion and Government by Law established and the Petitioners were of the same sort for the most part with them that had brought on the former Calamities by this and other such specious and popular pretences to the ruine both of King and People Prerogative and Liberty and therefore the more justly suspected to be playing over the Old Game Thus much may suffice concerning the Votes And now let us see how they proceeded against the pretended Offenders And in the first place Sir Francis Withens a Member of their House being accused on this Account as an offender against the Rights of the Subject who was not then present It was Ordered That Notice should be given him to attend in his place the next Morning On Thursday October 28. Sir F. Withins appearing in his place It was ordered that the Clerk of the Peace for Westminster should attend the House the next Morning at Ten of the Clock with the Roll of the Orders for the Last Easter Sessions for the City of Westminster Then they fell upon an Information which had been given the House against Sir Robert Yeomans of Bristol and Sir Robert Cann a Member of the House That they did in October 1679 Publickly declare That there was no Popish Plot but a Presbyterian Plot. Which was attested against them by Mr. Row Sword-Bearer of Bristol and Sir John Knight a Member of the House Sir Robert Cann being to make his defence Uttered several Reproachful and Reflecting words against Sir John Knight for which he was called to the Bar and received a Reprehension on his Knees and then being ordered to withdraw they Voted he should be committed to the * Where he lay till the 8th of Novemb. then was discharged Tower and Expelled the House and that Sir Robert Yeomans should be sent for in Custody of the Serjeant attending their House This weighty affair took up the whole day and it had been well spent if the Popish Plot had been made one jot the plainer or the Presbyterian Plot ever so little taken off by it but the World was full as well satified of the truth of the former before notwithstanding what these Gentlemen had said to the Contrary and much confirmed in the truth of the latter by this Violent if not Arbitrary way of proceeding against them For if these Gentlemen had offended against any Law why were they not prosecuted in a Legal way where
they might have made a Legal defence and have received a Legal Sentence But here they had nothing but bare affirmations without any witness to defend them and a Sentence founded upon this as sharp chargeable and dishonourable as was possible If this be the Liberty of the Subject and these men our defenders from Arbitrary Government On Friday October 29. Sir George Downing having obtained Leave to bring in a Bill for wearing of the Woollen Manufacture of England The House Ordered that Dr. Tongue should be recommended to his Majesty for the first Considerable Church-Preferment that should happen to become void in the Kingdom And then the Speaker Reported his Majesty's Answer to the Address concerning Pardons which is recited above which Answer was THat he did intend to direct such a Proclamation and was resolved not onely to prosecute the Plot but Popery also and to take Care of the Protestant Religion Established by Law and if We joyn and the Lower House go on Calmly in their Debates without heats He did not doubt but to beat down Popery and all that belongs to it This Answer will stand upon Record against them and Posterity will certainly give them their due for Neglecting this Mild Admonition of this Meek Prince But to go on Mr. Harbord Reported the Address for the Support of the King's Person and Government and the Protestant Religion both at Home and Abroad Which was as followeth WE Your Majesties most Dutiful and Obedient Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled Do with most Thankful Hearts Acknowledg not Onely Your Majesties many former Royal Declarations of Your Adherence to the * * What Protestant Religion why are not the words by Law Established here as well as in his Majesties Answer above Protestant Religion in the Preservation and Protection thereof but Your further Manifestation of the same in Your Gracious Speech to both Houses at the Opening of this present Parliament in which Your Majesty is pleased to Command us strictly and impartially to prosecute the Horrid Popish Plot without which we do fully assent to Your Majesties great Judgment That neither Your Person nor Government can be Safe nor your Protestant Subjects It being part of the very Religion of Popery where it can obtain to Extirpate all Protestants both Prince and People which hath caused in the Times of Your Royal Ancestors since the Reformation that great Care to oblige the Subjects against their return to the Papal Yoke in the very same Oathes wherein they Swear Allegiance to their Prince And as Now the Eyes of all the Protestant Kingdoms and States abroad are upon us and looking upon Your Majesty as the Royal Head of so many Protestant Countries cannot but hope upon a Happy and Solid Security in our Religion at Home That your Majesty will be the greatest Protection to them from whom we may expect a Mutual Assistance as being involved in the same Common Danger So we do humbly assure your Majesty That we shall be always ready to preserve your Majesties Person and Government and to Support the * * What that by Law Established or another As contrary to it as Popery is Protestant Religion both at home and abroad And do Humbly beseech your Majesty to Esteem all persons whatsoever who shall otherwise represent Vs to your Majesty as those who design to divide between the King and his People and to defeat the Meeting and Sitting of Parliaments That those Popish Designs may succeed which they well know cannot otherwise prosper And this they have made Vndeniably Evident in the Interval of Parliaments by Contriving with unparallel'd Insolence a most Damnable and Wicked Design to transfer their own Crimes upon so many of your Majesties Loyal Protestant Nobility and Gentry hoping thereby to destroy those who with the greatest Zeal and Integrity endeavour to prosecute them The Effect of this Specious Address to possess the People what Stout Champions the Presbyterians are against Popery and to Involve all them that had appeared against them as Papists or Favourers of Papists and to let the World know what a horrid opinion they had of that Silly-impossible-Meal-Tub-Sham Plot And Certainly the Popish Party were much to blame to Lay their Treasons to the Presbyterians who have too many of their own to answer for without this Accumulation of guilt from others Crimes But as to their boast of their Great Zeal and Integrity in endeavouring to prosecute the Popish Plot we shall be better able to judge of it in the Conclusion of this Session of Parliament Then the House Proceeded to Examine Sir Francis Wythens business and it appearing by Witness and his own Confession that he had presented an Address to his Majesty expressing an Abhorrency to Petition his Majesty for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments they Voted him a Betrayer of the Undoubted Rights of the Subjects of England and ordered him to be Expelled the House for this High Crime and to receive his Sentence at the Bar upon his Knees Which he submitted to Observe how they misrepresent this Gentleman the Address he presented was drawn by the Bench at Easter Sessions for Westminster and related onely to that Petition and that Parliament in those Circumstances now as they word the business it must signify that the Address was against All Sorts of Petitions for the Sitting of Parliaments in the plural Number which is foul play to misrepresent the Matter of fact in a thing so lately done and well Known to every body in the very place where they Sit but it was necessary it should be so worded to Justify the Severity of the House if that would have done This was the Second Member of Parliament they Expelled in a way that was look't on as Arbitrary and unexampled and this was the use they made of His Majesties Advice to proceed Calmly and without Heats On Saturday the 30th of October They passed a Vote That the Votes of their House should be Printed being first Perused and Signed by Mr. Speaker who was to Nominate and Appoint the persons to Print the same From these Printed Votes I have Extracted what hath gone before and shall follow after and to them I appeal for the truth of this Narrative of their Proceedings and but for this Vote it might have been difficult to have known what they had done so as to have charged them By them also I have been encouraged to speak my Mind more freely of this than of the former Parliaments for this Printing their Votes could be designed for Nothing but to enable the People to pass a Judgment on their Actions one of which Number I am Their next Vote was That they would proceed to the full Examination of the Popish Plot in order to bring the Offenders to Justice And then they Nominated a Committee to Inspect the Journals of the Two last Parliaments and Report their proceedings relating to the Popish Plot and Ordered An Address to his Majesty for
God From which two I will infer this Conclusion That who ever shall attempt to alter this Right of Succession without a manifest revelation which is not now to be expected is a Notorious Usurper upon the Right of the Person who is to Succeed be the pretence for it what it will and a Rebel against that Providence which gave him that Right Nor will all the Antient Rebellions Usurpations and Disorders which have hapned in this Kingdom Justify them that shall begin them again Now if it should please God so to order it that the Duke should at his Majesties Death be the Next Heir to his Crown I cannot see how any humane Power shall prevent his Succession to it but by encroaching upon his Right and by rebelling against the Divine Providence that gave it to him So that be the Inconveniences that shall follow upon such a Succession what they will or can be we must submit to them upon pain of Rebellion against both God and his Anointed our Lawful Prince And then let any man be judge whether it is better to fall into the Hands of a Popish Prince or into the Hands of an Angry God who is a Consuming fire and who is not bound by any Act of Parliament from afflicting a Sinful and Rebellious People So tho the Church of England hath all the reason in the world to dread such a Prince yet she will have greater reason to dread a Rebellion against him because it runs her upon the Divine Vengeance and is directly contrary to her Principles and the Practise of the Apostles and Primitive Church and is plain down-right Popery So that I conclude Neither She nor any of her Children will be guilty of it come what will come But this is not all we are already Sworn to Bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Kings Highness The Oath of Supremacy His Heirs and Lawful Successors and that to our power we shall assist and defend all Jurisdiction Priviledges Pre-Eminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and Lawful Successors or United and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm of which that of an hereditary Succession is one of the principal and we are Sworn not onely to his Majesty whom God Long Continue but also to his Lawful Successors with which Oath none but they that have that Right can dispence for this being a promissory Oath made to them as well as him when their Rights shall fall his Majesty cannot remit their Right nor any of them anothers but they have Every of them in their respective degrees and orders an indispensable Right confirmed to them by this Oath Nor would they cease to be Lawful Successors in the Sence of this Oath tho a Law were made to prevent bar or cut off their Succession because all that is meant by the word Lawful in this place is to be understood by the common Rules of Succession Settled by the Common Law of England viz. the Eldest Son or Daughter before a Younger of the same Sex c. Now if his Majesty cannot do it much less can the Lords or Commons do it because they are all within the obligation of this Oath and it is unreasonable that men should dispence with their own promissory Oathes to others for this would destroy all Faith and Confidence amongst men and pull up the very Roots of all Society and Government Nor can any man imagine that this Oath was made in favour of a Protestant Successor only H. 8. being a Popish Prince in whose time it was Settled at first And the same in effect is Sworn by the Oath of Allegiance with this binding Clause I do believe and in my Conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any other Person whatsoever hath power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I Acknowledge by good and full Authority to be lawfully Ministred unto me And by this Oath we are also bound to bear Faith and true Allegiance not onely to his Majesty but to his Heirs and Successors and Him and Them to Defend to the Utmost of our power c. Which is to be understood according to their several and respective Rights and at such times as they shall grow and accrew to them and every of them And altho this Oath was Introduced by a Protestant Prince yet is not made to him as a Protestant but as Lawful and Rightful King of this Realm and who ever is So hath and must have Right to impose it upon us be his Religion what it will So that besides the former Sin of Rebellion against the Providence of God Here is an Apparent and Unavoidable Perjury in this Case to Aggravate the other And surely no good Religious man will run upon these two Hideous Sins deliberately to avoid any temporal affliction whatsoever So that were the Case just such as it is represented by the Author of the Character of a Popish Successor It would not Justify the Excluding of such a Successor as he hath described by Force and Arms against his Right and our Oathes to the Contrary tho we were never so certain to Succeed in the Attempt But then that wicked man has most falsly represented things to us and So as it is impossible they should ever prove in the Event if we do not give occasion for it by an improsperous Rebellion nay I believe I may say if we should First it is agreed by All the World That there are Ten Protestants for one Papist thro all the Dominions of England So that if such a Successor should attempt to Extirpate them the bare refusing to aid or assist him in such an enterprize would render it impossible Secondly All our Laws are in favour of that Religion that is Established which could never be Repealed but in Parliament and it is morally impossible to have a Parliament the major part of which will not be Protestants who will never Consent to ruine themselves Thirdly The Revenue of such a Prince will not bear the Charge of so great an Army as will be necessary to reduce the People to a Religion so generally detested and hated as this is In answer to this there is Two things pretended First That he may have Foraign Ayds And Secondly That he will have means to deter or allure many from the Protestant Religion to his own As to Foraign assistances no Prince will dare to admit so many as shall totally over-power his own People because then they will be able to ruine him as the Saxons did the Brittains and he may be sure they will do it So that this is a ridiculous Supposition in a Prince of our own Nation that hath No other Dominions but these As to any Number of People that he may be able to bring over to his Religion they will be very inconsiderable in proportion to those that will never be brought over tho we suppose the Number greater then it is like to be
for that some men have got a way of Reproaching all they hate with the Name of Papists because there is none more hated than that yet even for that case the Number must be small being very unwilling to List themselves in a hated Party Except they may have great Advantages by it which are not to be afforded to many in proportion to the rest in one Kings Reign in so small a Kingdom as England Thirdly The very attempting this with Force and Violence will drive so many people out of the Nation that the Prince will destroy both his Revenue and Security which we may believe no man will do for his own sake To this we may add That it is three to one whether we have any such Prince Who but God can tell whether ever the Duke shall Survive his Majesty Whether if he do he shall be the Next Heir and whether if he be So his Interest the Grace of God or meer humane inconstancy may not work upon him to return to that Religion he was first principl'd in and for which his Royal Father most Gloriously Laid down his Life And after all this Supposing he should Succeed and be Zealous for his Religion and Suppose that to be Popery there is no necessity that he must Act all the worst Principles of Popery to the Utmost degree I am sure it is not usual so to do tho the difficulty be not so great as here it will be And after all doth not the Providence of God govern the Popish as well as Protestant Princes Is the Arm of the Almighty shortned that he can neither Deliver nor Support his Church or hath he forsaken her in her Old Age who preserved her with So much Care and Power in her Infancy under Heathen Princes for above Three hundred Years and under Arrian Princes which were as bad as the worst Papists a long time after that Do we believe this Protestant Religion is acceptable to him Are the far greatest part of them that profess it Sincere or False in their pretences If all these be answered one way we have Something to rely upon that is more Steady than the Faith and Religion of Princes If in the other it will be but a folly to pretend to Secure by humane Arts that which God is resolved to destroy But the reason upon which the Bill of Exclusion is built is worse than the thing First they Vote That the Dukes being a Papist and the Hopes of his Coming such to the Crown hath given the greatest Countenance and Encouragement to the present Designs and Conspiracies against the King and Protestant Religion They Vote the Duke a Papist which is more than any man living can tell but himself and if it should be granted that he is So what then Then this hath given the greatest Countenance and Encouragement to the present Designs and Conspiracies against the King and Protestant Religion and then the Conclusion is That therefore he must be dis-inherited To me it seems better Logick to say Then all possible Care and Art is to be imployed to reduce him back to our Church whereas this way of proceeding with him can end in nothing but the enraging and exasperating of him against the Protestant Religion But then the Duke's being a Papist hath not given the greatest nor if we may believe Mr. Oates hardly any Encouragement to the Plot for he tells us Article 60. that when he urged That he feared the Death of the King would scarely do the business and effect the Design unless his R. H. would pardon those that did the business and stand by them in it Keines replyed That the Duke was not the Strength of their Trust for they had another way to effect the setting up the C. R. c. And if James did not Comply with them to pot he must go also And Article 29. If the Duke shall set his face in the least measure to follow his Brothers foot-steps his Passport was made to Lay him asleep And Article 24. They the Jesuits aver That altho the Duke was a good Catholique yet he had a tender affection for the King and would scarcely be engaged in that Concern and if they should once intimate their Designs and Purposes unto him they might not onely be frustrated of their Design but also might lose his Favour Art 16. He saith he putting this question What if the Duke should prove Slippery They replyed His Passport was ready when ever he should Appear to fail them And page the 64. He tells us He the Pope hath ordered That in case the D. of York will not accept these Crowns as forfeited by his Brother unto the Pope as of his Gift and settle such Prelates and Dignities in the Church and such Officers in Commands and Places Civil Naval and Military as he hath Commissioned Extirpate the Protestant Religion and in order thereunto Ex post facto Consent the Assassination of the King his Brother Massacre of his Protestant Subjects Firing of his Towns c. by Pardoning of the Assassins Murtherers and Incendiaries that then he also be Poysoned or destroyed after they have for some time abused his Name and Title to Strengthen their Plot c. All which Passages in his and other of the Narratives shew plainly the D. being a Papist was not the greater nay it was hardly any encouragement to the Plot and tho some of them have gone farther than Mr. Oates yet that shews the Jesuits had different opinions of His R. Highness and therefore had no assurance but if the Plot upon the Life of the King had succeeded he might have revenged it upon them tho he were of their Religion as they believed But because these things may be disputed both ways Suppose I should grant the Hopes of his Coming a Papist to the Crown did really give the greatest Encouragement to the Plot will dis-inheriting him defeat those hopes No but it will rather whet them on to do their utmost to Murther the King to prevent or revenge that injury to the Duke and of this the House was so sensible that the same day they passed this Vote they Added to it this that followes Resolved N. C. That in Defence of the Kings Person and Government and of the Protestant Religion this House doth declare That they will Stand by His Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes and that if his Majesty shall come by any Violent Death which God forbid they will revenge it to the Vtmost upon the Papists This latter Vote they have annexed to the former every time they have passed it which shews they are sensible Revenge and Despair are full as likely to push them on as Hope to this Horrid attempt and in that case this Vote will never hinder them but it may encourage the Scotch Assassins to do it if they can Knowing the Papists are to Suffer who ever doth the fact So that to me it seems the Reasons upon which the Bill
is founded are weak and unconcluding and that no Malice could have Contrived a more effectual way to hasten those Calamities upon us it pretends to prevent and to ascertain what is full as likely never to happen without it So I conclude the Lords did well and wisely in rejecting the Bill and the Bishops in joyning with them so to do And now I will proceed with the rest of the Votes having made this short Digression to Express my thoughts on this great affair which I submit to the Judgment of wiser men and shall willingly retract or amend any thing if I have erred for I seek nothing by all this but the Peace and Prosperity of my Country There being little done of importance on Thursday the 18th day of November the next day the Commons fell upon the business of the Abhorrers of the Petitions and began with the Grand-Juries for the Counties of Somerset and Devon which had both detested and abhorred the said Tumultuous Petition So they Ordered That Sir Giles Philips and William Coleman being the Fore-men of the said Grand-Juries should be sent for in Custody of the Serjeant at Arms attending their House to answer at the Bar of their House for Breach of Priviledge by them committed against their House Before in Sir George Jeffereys Case it was for betraying the Rights of the Subject and Now 't is become a Priviledge of Parliament for the People to Petition by Hundreds and Thousands for the Sitting of a Parliament At this rate of Proceeding there will be Priviledges of Parliament enough at last At the same time they ordered Captain William Castle and Mr. John Hutchinson and Mr. Henry Walrond the two last being of the said Grand-Juries to be Sent for in Custody too So this was a pretty handsom begining But the next day they found that Mr. William Stawell was Fore-man for the Grand-Jury for Devon and not Mr. Coleman so they ordered his Name to be put out of the Warrant and Mr. Stawell's to be put in This shews with what heat and haste they managed this affair But why should the Fore-men of the Grand-Juries be sent for rather than all or any of the rest the Foreman having no more Authority than the Last man nor being any way inabled by his place to Help or Hinder any thing but being Concluded by the Major part be his own Opinion what it will but they could not tell who promoted this affair and therefore Right or Wrong Singled them out to be made Examples not thinking it convenient to send for the whole Number who yet were punished in these and not only they that suffered but every Gentleman in the Nation suffer'd in them their Liberties being at the Mercy of every Corporation who when they please may send Taylors Grocers c. to enjoy these exorbitant priviledges and Send for the best Knights and Gentlemen in England for not having payd respects great enough to them The Bill of Importation of Cattel from Scotland was read the second time and Committed Then they proceeded in the business of the Abhorrers and Voted That one Thomas Herbert Esq should be sent for in Custody for prosecuting John Arnold Esq at the Council Table for promoting the said Petition and procuring Subscriptions To him they added Sir Thomas Holt Serjeant at Law and Mr. Thomas Staples as Betrayers of the Liberties of the Subject The same day one Eld was discharged out of Custody who had been taken for not Making a good Search for Arms at the Lord Aston's House at Taxall in Staffordshire Notice being taken that he was a Sober Protestant what that means I must leave to my Reader for I never heard that any sort of Protestants made Drunkenness or Debauchery or any other sort of Insobriety a part of Protestantisme and I should have liked it better if it had been a Confiding Man and an Enemy to the Popish Faction It were worth the while to enquire how he stood affected to the Puritan Faction On Munday the 22 of November Two Bills for Regulating Elections were read the second time and Committed to a Committee to unite or divide them as they should see cause The day following Sir Thomas Holt petitioning the House was called in and Censured upon his Knees and Discharged The same day a further Address was Voted to Petition his Majesty to remit a Fine of 500 l. that had been set upon Mr. Benjamin Harris for Printing Seditious Libels Such men were not to be discouraged in an Age when so few were to be found who would undertake that dangerous Imployment for the good of the Nation The same day a Bill was brought in for Repeal of an ACT made in the 35 of Eliz. Cap. 1. Against Seditious and Disloyal Sectaries and Conventicles this Bill passed both Houses but was taken away before it was Signed by the King So that Statute Escaped then to the terror of those Protestants There having been a design to Indict the Duke of York for a Popish Recusant in Trinity Term this Year and the same being prevented by the Court of Kings-Benches discharging the Grand-Jury before they had found the same the House made this Vote That the discharging of a Grand-Jury by any Judge before the end of the Term Assizes or Sessions whilest Matters are under their Consideration and Not presented is Arbitrary Illegal and Destructive to publick Justice a manifest Violation of his Oath what Oath and is a Means to Subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Resolved That a Committee be appointed to Examine the Proceedings of the Judges in Westminster-Hall c. On Wednesday November 24. After Orders for the sending for George Bell an Attorney at Law Arthur Yeomans William Jordan John Laws and Henry Aulnett for Breach of Priviledge of Parliament without assigning wherein Order was given to bring in a Bill 1. To Supply the Laws against Bankrupey 2. And another to take away the Court held before the Lord President and Council in the Marches of Wales Then the Bill for Repeal of the 35 Eliz Cap. 1. was read the Second time and Ordered to be ingrossed Ordered That an humble Address be made to his Majesty from this House by such Members thereof as are of His Majesties Most Honourable Privy Council to desire his Majesty to give Orders That all Protestant Dissenters who are prosecuted upon any Penal Laws made against Popish Recusants in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James may be Admitted to a Composition in the Exchequer without paying any Fees Which was granted by his Majesty Ordered That Leave be given to bring in a Bill declaring that those Laws shall not be Extended to P. Dissenters and that it be referred to the Committee appointed to bring in the Bill for the better Vniting of his Majesties Protestant Subjects The Attorney-General being ordered formerly to attend and This day Called in and Examined touching the Manner of Issuing forth of the P. stiled A Proclamation against Tumultuous
Petitions and Giving an Account to the House That Sir Fra. North Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas was Advising and Assisting in the drawing up and passing of the said Proclamation and a Debate thereupon arising in the House they Resolved N.C. That it was sufficient Ground for the House to proceed upon an Impeachment against him for High Crimes and Misdemeanors and order taken for an Impeachment accordingly Thus the Dissenters are encouraged to go on and break the Laws and the Judges punished for Executing them On Thursday the 25 of November Nothing Extraordinary was done but the Exhibiting Articles against Edward Seymour Esquire formerly Speaker of the House to Each of which he being required to make a distinct answer there arising a Debate upon the first Article the whole was adjourned to the next day Samuel Verdon Under-Sheriff of Norfolk was ordered to be sent for into Custody upon a Complaint of several Crimes and Misdemeanors by him committed For a Notorious Breach of Priviledge of Parliament by him committed against their House No such thing being mentioned in the Complaint Friday Novemb. 26. The Bill of Repeal of the 35 of Eliz. was read the third time and passed And the House resolved to Impeach Mr. Seymour upon 4 Articles and appointed a Committee to draw up those Articles accordingly and Referred it to them to consider of Precedents concerning the Committing of Members to Custody when Impeached in Parliament On Munday the 29 day of November the House attended his Majesty with their Address concerning Tangier which being very long I will not trouble the Reader with it at Large The whole is a Tragical representation of the Advantages that Popery had gotten over the Religion and Government Assisted as they tell us by the Treachery of perfidious Protestants which must be the Dissenters by whose assistance they obtained the Toleration broke several Sessions of the Long Loyal Parliament if Coleman's Letter to Monsieur Le Chese may be Credited and it may truly be averred that the Papists have not obtained any Advantage without the Dissenters nor the Dissenters without them They say further That the ACT of Parliament enjoyning a Test to be taken by all persons admitted into any Publick Office and intended for a Security against Papists coming into Imployment had So little effect that either by dispensations obtained from Rome they Submitted to those Tests and held their Offices themselves or those put into those Places wore so favourable to the same Interest that Popery it self has rather gained than lost ground since that ACT. Now Supposing it true that some of them did obtain such dispensations what was this to his Majesty and if any of them that gat their Offices were apt to afford them unlawful favours they might have called them to account for it with much more general Satisfaction than they did the Abhorrers but let any man that Knowes any thing of the World Judge whether the Malice or falsehood of the Conclusion be greatest They tell the King a dreadful Story of the defeating of the Presentment intended against his Majesties Brother the Duke of York under whose Countenance all the rest of the Papists shelter themselves as they say But surely his Majesty was not to be informed what they thought of this who could not but be well informed of the Fact long since and so they descend to the business of the Weekly Pacquet of Advice from Rome which Exposes Popery as it deserves say they as Ridiculous to the People and they tell his Majesty That a New and Arbitrary Rule of Court was made in his Majesties Court of Kings-Bench That the same for the future should not be Printed by any person whatsoever But then they take no Notice how that Author has made many Odious False and Scandalous Reflections upon the Religion and Government by Law Established which was the cause why it was Supprest and not any talent he had of writing against Popery Finally They tell the King that they have freed themselves from the guilt of that blood and desolation which is like to ensue which is an Expression in that place that looks like a kind of Threat or Menace for there was then No prospect of blood or desolation that could arise from any cause or persons but what must be Countenanced by the Dissenters The Conclusion is But our Onely hope next under God is in Your Sacred Majesty that by your Great Wisdome and Goodness we may be effectually Secured from Popery and all the Evils that attend it and that none but persons of Known Fidelity to Your Majesty and Sincere Affection to The Protestant Religion What Religion may be put into any Imployment Civil or Military That whilst we shall give a Supply to Tangier we may be assured we do not Augment the Strength of our Popish Adversaries nor encrease our own Dangers which Desires of your Faithful Commons if Your Majesty shall Graciously vouchsafe to grant we shall not onely be ready to assist Your Majesty in defence of Tangier but do whatsoever else shall be in our power to enable Your Majesty to Protect the Protestant Religion and Interest at home and abroad and to resist and repel the Attempts of Your Majesties and the Kingdoms Enemies But His Majesty notwithstanding continued without any Supply and by the Blessing of God preserved the Town Now it is very observable that in the former Parliament there being a Report That Tangier should be Sold to relieve the Necessities of the Crown they then Voted April 9. 1679. That the House was of Opinion That those who should Advise His Majesty to part with Tangier to any Foraign Prince or State or be Instrumental therein ought to be accounted Enemies to the King and Kingdom And yet now that it was in apparent hazard to be lost to the Moors the Sworn Enemies of all Christians they would grant nothing to preserve it and many of the Commons in their Speeches were of Opinion that it was the best way to desert the Town So that if any did Advise his Majesty to Sell the Place they were Enemies to the King and Kingdom but if it were lost or deserted So the King had nothing for it the Matter was not much so that the King might bear the blame tho the Commons were in the fault On TVESDAT the 30th of November the Tryal of William Viscount Stafford was began which lasted till the 7th of December of which I shall take no Notice it being printed by it Self During all which time there was nothing material done by the House of Commons except that business Wednesday the 8th and Thursday the Ninth of December were spent in Reporting of Elections and discharging persons out of the Custody of the Serjeant and Ordering others to be taken in to Supply their places But very remarkable was their Severity against Mr. Sheridon and Mr. Day who were Ordered to be taken into Custody their Papers to be Searched and that
No person should be Admitted to come to them but such as should have occasion to bring them Necessaries On Friday the 10th of December Captain Castle was found and Voted guilty of offending against the Rights of the Subject by Obstructing Petitioning to His Majesty for the Sitting of that Parliament The same day the Commons Ordered an Impeachment to be prepared against Sir Francis North Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas for High Crimes and Misdemeanors viz. for Advising the Proclamation against Tumultuous Petitions Then they Voted That the Imprisonment of one Peter Norris at Dover by the Order of Sir Leoline Jenkins was Illegal and Arbitrary and an Obstruction to the Evidence for the Discovery of the Horrid Popish Plott This was the business for which Sheridon and Day were imprisoned On Munday the 13th A Bill for Exportation of Cloth and other Woollen Manufactures into Turkey being read the second time and a Debate arising thereupon it was Ordered that it should lie upon the Clerks Table They Ordered also That the Committee appointed to look into and prepare Evidence against the Lords in the Tower do Examine the Evidence against all persons concerned in the Popish Plot. And they were to report the Names of such persons together with their Opinions therein to the House upon the Debate And also that Leave should be given to bring in a Bill for Banishing of all Papists and suspected Papists from the Cities of London and Westminster and XX miles of the same with Clauses therein for disarming of all Papists and for Pains and Penalties against all such Papists or suspected Papists as should Ride Go or be Armed And that Lists of them should be brought in by the Members When ever any Law pass against suspected Papists great care ought to be taken to limit that Loose term or great Mischiefs will insue On Tuesday the 14th of December Complaint was made That one Herbert Herring who had been ordered to be taken into Custody for a Breach of Priviledge did abscond himself to avoid the Execution of the said Order whereupon it was Resolved That if he did not render himself by Saturday that House would proceed against him by Bill in Parliament for endeavouring by his absconding to Avoid the Justice of the House This was a way never to want Work if every Fugitive Attorney or Porter that had broke the Priviledge of the House was to be brought in by Bill Sir Robert Peyton a Member of their House was the Next that fell under their displeasure being said to Have had Secret Negotiation with the Duke of Y. by the Means of the Earl of Peterborough Mrs. Cellier and Mr. Gadbury at such time as they were turning the Popish Plot upon the Protestants i. e. the Presbyterians it seems they are THE Protestants For which he was Ordered after his defence to be Expelled the House and to be brought to the Bar to receive the Censure of the House upon his Knees from the Speaker Which was done with so little respect to the Quality of the person that after the Dissolution of the Parliament he sent the Speaker a Challenge for which he was Committed having been before committed to the Serjeant for not being at hand when it should have been first done by the Speaker So he was twice Committed and Expell'd too but by what Law the House of Commons proceeded I know not It is the Interest both of the Members and of Us whom they represent to take care that this be not left to them for here was a Member Expelled not for being a party to that Conspiracy of the Papists but for having Secret Negotiations with the Duke of York at that time and if this be allowed that they may Expel for what cause they please be there Law or be there none then have the greater part of the House an Absolute and Arbitrary power over the lesser part and if either Side do by accident get the Advantage of the other by a Single Vote they may Expel them as they please which must Necessarily end in Confusion and Slavery On Wednesday the 15th of December the House resolved into a Committee of the whole House to Consider of Ways and Means to Secure this Kingdom against Popery and Arbitrary Power and Resolved upon two Votes viz. Resolved Nemine Contradicente That this House doth agree with the Committee That one Means for the Suppressing Popery is That a Bill be brought in to banish immediately all the Considerable Papists of England out of the Kings Dominions Resolved N. C. That this House doth agree with the Committee That a Bill be brought in for an Association of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects for the Safety of his Majesties Person * Note here is no mention of his Majesties Government in this Association the Defence of the Protestant Religion and the Preservation of his Majesties Protestant Subjects against all Invasions and Oppositions whatsoever and for preventing the Duke of York or any Papist from Succeeding to the Crown And ordered a Committee to be appointed to prepare and bring in a Bill pursuant to the first of the said Resolves The latter was taken up to Supply the Bill of Exclusion which bad been thrown out by the Lords and was never prosecuted any further for when they came to draw the Bill it was found impracticable without involving us presently in a Civil War For an Association signifies nothing without a Head to govern and direct it if the King be made the Head then we are where we were and it is to no purpose If another person be made So then there is two distinct Governments in the same Kingdom which can never stand together a Month without imbroyling themselves and the People This the Holy League of France proved Experimentally true and the same Event will always follow Besides there was no reason to Expect that either his Majesty or the House of Lords would yield to this way of Exclusion which was worse than the former Tho if that had passed it would have signified nothing without an Association or a Standing Army as the Author of the Seasonable Address to both Houses of Parliament hath well proved This day also His Majesty made a Speech to both the Houses which I will insert when I come to the Answer of the Commons to it On Thursday the 16th of December A Petition of Divers Inhabitants in the County of Surry Complaining of the proceedings in an Ecclesiastical Court against them being read it was referred to a Committee to bring in a Bill or Bills for Regulating the proceedings of such Courts A Petition of Joshua Brook and other Merchants against the African Company was also read and referred to a Committee Mr. Booth reporting from the Committee to whom the Bill for the better Regulating the Tryals of the Peers of England was committed An Amendment to be made and a Clause to be Added and thereupon a Motion being made to bring in a Clause
for himself I know not for the Parliament never brought him to an hearing But upon inquiry I find notwithstanding all this Clamour the Man hath a great and good Report for his Piety Learning and Prudence but his Zeal for the Religion Established drew this Storm upon him from the Exasperated Dissenters who never stick thus to blast the Fame of Good Men when it serves their ill designs But to return from this Digression The Bill for Exempting his Majesties Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of Certain Laws was read a second time and Committed upon a Debate of the House to the Committee to whom the Bill for Vniting of his Majesties Protestant Subjects was Committed upon a Debate of the House Then the Bill for Banishing the Papists out of the King's Dominions was read a second time and committed upon the Debate of the House Then the House adjourned till Thursday the 30th of December That day the House met and Ordered That the Committee appointed to prepare Evidence against the 4. Popish Lords in the Tower should look into the Evidence and Report their Opinions to the House in Order to the further Directions and Proceedings of the House against them Resolved That the several Writings Papers and Proceedings relating to such Members of the late Long Parliament as received Allowances out of the Moneys appointed for Secret Services be produced to this House Resolved N. C. That no Member of this House shall accept of any Office or Place of Profit from the Crown without Leave of the House or any Promise of any such Office or Place of Profit during such time as he shall continue a Member of the House and that the offenders herein shall be Expelled It seems they had discovered that some of their Zealous men were Selling themselves to the Court-Party for Preferment and prepared this Vote to keep the Party together Friday the 31th of December The Bill for prohibiting the importation of Forein Guns was read the second time and rejected Leave was also given to bring in a Bill for Regulating the abuses in making Casks Barrels and other Vessels And A Committee appointed to peruse the Laws relating to Weights and Measures and to report their Opinions in the same and to bring in a Bill or Bills for the better Regulating and Ascertaining the same Ordered also That Leave be given to bring in a Bill for a General Naturalization of Alien-Protestants and allowing them liberty to Exercise their Trades in all Corporations A Bill for Relief of the Subjects against Arbitrary Fines was read a second time and committed Then the House Adjourned till Munday the 3d. of January Which day An Act for limiting the times of Importation of Cattel from Scotland being read the third time passed and was sent up to the Lords Then A Bill for Repealing an Act made in the 13th Year of his Now Majesties Reign intituled An ACT for the Well-Governing and Regulating of Corporations was read the first time and Ordered to be read again A Bill for the better discovery of Settlements to Superstitious Vses was read the first time and Ordered a second reading the Friday following at Ten of the Clock in a full House The same day the Lords sent down a Bill to the Commons Intituled An Act for distinguishing Protestant Dissenters from Popish Recusants To which they desired the Concurrence of the House The Lords sent down another Message to put the Commons in mind of the Bill for the Better regulating of the Tryals of the Peers of England And Another Message to acquaint them That their Lordships had received a Petition from Mr. Seymour for a speedy Tryal Upon which the Commons read his Answer to their Impeachment which had lyen by them some time and ordered a Committee to prepare Evidence against him and Manage it at his Tryal On Tuesday the 4th of January His Majesty sent the Commons another Message which is as followeth CHARLES R. HIS Majesty received the Address of this House with all the disposition they could wish to comply with their reasonable desires but upon perusing it he is Sorry to See their Thoughts so wholly fixed upon the Bill of Exclusion as to determine that all other Remedies for the Suppressing of Popery will be ineffectual His Majesty is Confirmed in his Opinion against that Bill by the Judgment of the House of Lords who rejected it He therefore thinks there remains Nothing more for him to say in answer to the Address of this House but to recommend to them the Consideration of all other Means for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion in which they have no reason to doubt of his Concurrence when ever they shall be presented to him in a Parliamentary way and that they would Consider the present State of the Kingdom as well as the Condition of Christendom in Such a Manner as may inable him to Preserve Tangier and Secure his Alliances abroad and the Peace and Settlement at home This Message being read in the House they Resolved to take into Consideration the Friday following in a full House The same day the Lords sent down a Vote which they made that day Die Martis 4 January 1680. Resolved by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled That they do declare that they are fully Satisfied that there now is and for divers years last past there hath been a Horrid and Treasonable Plot and Conspiracy contrived and carried on by those of the Popish Religion in Ireland for Massacring the English and Subverting the Protestant Religion and the ancient Established Government of that Kingdom To which their Lordships desired the Concurrence of the Commons On Wednesday the 5th of January Richard Thompson was Ordered upon his Petition to give sufficient Security for his forth-coming to the Serjeant at Arms attending that House to Answer to the Impeachment against him and so was discharged of his Imprisonment I can see No reason why he should be prosecuted by an Impeachment in Parliament It being beneath the Dignity of the Houses to Concern themselves with such a man as Mr. Thompson must needs be who might much better have been proceeded against in the Spiritual or Civil Courts if the Accusations were all True but that his Blaspheming Calvin and the Loyal Presbyterian Protestants would have signified Nothing there as I believe they would not before the Lords if he had been Tryed Formerly the Commons impeached none but such as were too great to be prosecuted any where else and that but rarely and upon great Necessity This made them Venerable and Dreadful but this Course for Small or No faults to impeach and imprison great Numbers of Mean People which they followed in this Session tended to Nothing but the Wasting their time and Hindering greater Affairs to the damage of the King and Kingdome The same day the Commons agreed an Impeachment against Sir William Scroggs Knight Chief Justice of the Court of Kings-Bench
by being troublesom to the Government find they can Arrive to an Indulgence will as their Numbers increase be yet more troublesome so at length they may arrive to a general Toleration which Your Majesty hath declared against and in time some prevalent Sect will at last Contend for an Establishment which for ought can be foreseen may end in Popery It is a thing altogether without Precedent and will take away all means of Convicting Recusants and be inconsistent with the Method and Proceedings of the Laws of England Lastly it is humbly Conceived That the Indulgence proposed will be so far from tending to the Peace of the Kingdom that it is rather likely to occasion great disturbance And on the Contrary That the Asserting of the Laws and the Religion Established according to the Act of Uniformity is the most probable Means to produce a Settled Peace and Obedience through the Kingdom because the Variety of Professions in Religion when Openly indulged doth directly distinguish men into Parties and withal gives them Opportunities to count their Numbers which considering the Animosities that out of a religious Pride will be kept on foot by the several Factions doth tend directly and inevitably to open disturbance Nor can Your Majesty have any Security that the Doctrine or Worship of the Several Factions which are all governed by a Several Rule shall be consistent with the Peace of the Kingdom And if any person shall presume to disturb the Peace of the Kingdome We do in all humility declare That we will for ever and upon all occasions be ready with our Vtmost Endeavours and Assistance to Adhere to and Serve Your Majesty according to our bounden Duty and Allegiance The Reason and Loyalty of this Address prevailed with his Majesty at that time to lay aside all his Thoughts of an Indulgence and well had it been for him and us if he had never reassumed them for from his forsaking this Advice in the Year 1671. Sprung all those Miseries that now so much threaten him and us But tho his Majesty Changed the Parliament kept their grounds for in an Address dated the 14th of Feb. 1672. they assert against His Majesties Declaration of Indulgence dated the 15th of March before That Penal Statutes in Matters Ecclesiastical cannot be suspended but by Act of Parliament We therefore say they the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons do most humbly beseech Your Majesty That the said Lawes may have their Free Course until it shall be otherwise provided by Act of Parliament and that Your Majesty would Graciously be pleased to give such Directions herein that no Apprehensions or Jea ousies may remain in the Hearts of Your Majesties good and faithful Subjects The King not being Satisfied with this but still insisting that he had a Right by his Supremacy to Suspend the Execution of Penal Laws in Ecclesiastical Affairs They replyed the 26th of Feb. following That no such Power was ever Claimed or Exercised by any of his Majesties Predecessors and if it should be admitted might tend to the Interrupting of the Free Course of the Laws and altering the Legislative Power which hath always been acknowledged to reside in his Majesty and the Two Houses of Parliament Therefore they did with an Vnanimous Consent become again Humble Suitors unto his Sacred Majesty That he would be pleased to give them a full and Satisfactory Answer to their first Petition and Address and that his Majesty would take such effectual Order That the Proceedings in this Matter might not be for the future drawn into Example To which said last Address his Majesty was pleased to Condescend so far as to Order his Declaration of Indulgence to be taken off the File and Cancell'd Now the use I make of all is to shew first That the Opinion of an Excellent Wise House of Commons was That an Indulgence Toleration or Vnion as they now call it was of a Mischievous Nature and would finally end in Confusion and Popery Secondly That if it should be thought necessary to grant one it being a Legislative Act it must be by the Joynt Consent of the King and the Two Houses and not by any one of them And therefore I will Leave it to the Consideration of the Gentlemen of that House to Judge Whether they did well in passing the Vote of the 10th of January aforesaid for the Suspension of all Penal Laws which relate to the Protestant Dissenters Some pretending to Excuse them have said it was a Vote only in order to a Bill to be brought in for the taking those Laws away But I answer There were several other Bills for that purpose depending and therefore this was in vain Secondly There is no mention of a Bill to be brought in in the Conclusion of the Vote Thirdly They knew they were to be Prorogued as appears by their first Vote and therefore Such a Design would have been impossible Now if they had carried those few Points in this Session First not onely to Deny the King any Supply but to make it Criminal for any man to Lend him any Money upon his Revenues they might then in another Session have gone further and have made it Punishable for any man to have paid him his Just Settled Legal Dues and that would have made them able to have Forced this King or his Successors to what ever they had pleased Secondly If they might have gone on to imprison his Majesty's Subjects in an Illegal and Arbitrary way for Matters that had no relation to Priviledges of Parliament they might afterwards have Extended this to as many Persons and Things as they had pleased and so No man would have dared to have stood by His Majesty against a House of Commons tho they had attempted to Depose his Majesty Nor would his Majesty in a short time have been able to have Protected his Subjects against any injury that they or any of them had been pleased to have done them which would infallibly have Subverted the Monarchy and have introduced a Common-Wealth Thirdly If they had got that great Branch of the Legislative Power into their hands of suspending the Execution of Laws by their Vote they might have driven it as far as they pleased and so have once more Outed the King and the House of Lords as a former Parliament did by the Same Means I will conclude this with the Judgment of a Great and a Learned Man Clarendon's Answer to Hobbs p. 127 128. No Orders made by A House of Commons in England are of any Validity or Force or receive any Submission longer then that House of Commons Continues and if Any Order made by them be against any Law or Statute it is Void when it is Made and receives no Obedience His Majesty then had both Law and Reason on his Side when he ended his Speech to the Next Parliament at Oxford with these Words I WILL Conclude with this one Advice to you That the Rules
the great Pains which he hath taken With and Among them Lastly In Testimony of the High Esteem that the Inhabitants of That City had of This Gentleman they Met him with a great many Horsemen at his Return from his Persecution in London and bad him Wellcom again to the Place of his Residence with the Highest Expressions of Joy and Acclamation Sir John Lloyd's Certificate concerning Mr. Thompson under the Seal of the Office of his Majoralty WHereas Richard Thompson Vicar of St. Mary Redcliff and St. Thomas two Eminent Churches within the City of Bristol even from the time of his first appearance to officiate in those Churches hath been privily traduced and now of late openly and maliciously branded by the multiforme Fanaticks of this City for a Church-Papist and Jesuite for the Rector of St. Omers so Nick-naming St. Thomas and with many like Terms of Obloquy and Slander the Invention whereof may be reckon'd upon as the very first and peculiar gift of that Party whose great and only Master-piece it hath been and still is by like Maliciously Witty and Wicked Methods and Artifices to expose alike His Loyalty and Ministry and to lessen that Esteem and Reputation he hath thereby gained in the Hearts and Affections of all the Kings Majesties Loyal Loving Subjects within this City These are therefore at the Request of and just Due to the said Richard Thompson to Certifie unto all unto whom these Presents shall come that the said Richard Thompson is well known to me John Lloyd Knight and Major of the said City and to all the Kings Majesties Loyal and Loving Subjects therein to be a Person of most Innocent and Exemplary Life and Conversation a most Constant and Careful Dispenser of God's most Holy Word unto the People under his Charge a most Diligent and Zealous Assertor of the Kings Majesties Supremacy in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil in opposition to all Schismatical and Factious Persons and Principles under what Names soever they pass or prevail amongst us and also of all the Christian Doctrines together with the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England as they are now Owned and Established by Law In Testimony whereof I have caused the Seal of my Office of Majoralty to be affixed Dated the Eighteenth Day of September Anno Dom. 1679 John Lloyd Major The Dean and Chapter of Sarum their Certificate OMnibus quorum interest innotescat per Praesentes Ricardum Thompson in Artibus Magistrum Vicarium de Bedminster juxta Bristoliam quamdiu apud nos commoratus est pie vitam sobrieque laudabiliter tradâ—xisse In concionibus saepe habendis sedulo curam adhibuisse strenue studiis Theologicis navasse operam Nec unquam quod scimus docuisse quicquam vel tenuisse quod Ecclesia Anglicana non etiam appobut atque tuetur Cujus praesertim Disciplinae superioribus quibuscunque ab omni parte conformem morigerumque se praestit it In quorum omnium Testimonium fidem iisdem faciendam nomina nostra cognomina plane ex animo apposuimus Sept. 13. Annoque Salutis reparatae 1679. Thomas Pierce Dec. Sarum Daniel Whitby Praecentor Sarum Ricardus Drake Cancellarius Sarum Ricardus Hill Can. Resid Sarum Franciscus Horton Can. Resid Sarum A Certificate Signed by several of his Auditors upon the Thirtieth of January 1679. being Persons of great Reputation for Loyalty as well as Fortune THese are to Certifie all whom it may concern That we whose Names are hereunto Subscribed were present at the Parish Church of St. Thomas within the City of Bristol on the Thirtieth Day of January 1679. where we then heard Mr. Richard Thompson Preach very solemnly on the Occasion of that Days Fast To which Sermon every one of us for himself doth Declare he was very attentive And we do all hereby Certifie and Declare that we do not remember that the said Mr. Thompson did then say in his Prayer or Sermon That there was no Popish Plot but a Presbyterian Plot or any thing to that or the like effect And we are ready to make Oath of the same if required But on the contrary we have heard him detest and abhor the Popish Plot. And we do further Certifie That the said Mr. Thompson is and by all the time we have known him hath been a True and Loyal Subject to our Most Gracious Soveraign and of a very Sober and Pious Life and Conversation amongst us every way suitable to his Function Witness Our Hands this Thirteenth day of November 1680. John Hicks Alderman Sir Richard Crump Ald. Sir John Knight Kt. George Morgan Thomas Davidge Edmond Brand John Broadway Walter Gunter John Hellier John Oliff John Yeomans John Combes Sheriff George Boucher Thomas Turner George Hart Sheriff James Millerd Ralph Oliff James Twyford Daniel Pym Thomas Hartwell Edmund Arundel Richard Benson Francis Yeomans Thomas Durbin Charles Allen. THE END