with him in this that the most necessary action to be first done before or on the day of His Majesties and his Parliaments meeting were a most solemne humiliation for the blood hath bin shed which can never be so put off from one to another but it will still lye on the Land and for the many robberies have been â—ommitted not by Prince Rupert who is least guilty of them but by one English-man one Christian one Protestant upon another And in sum for all those sins wherewith we and it may be the King and Parliament have provoked our God to jealousie As we have cause to feare in respect of the spirit of jealousie he hath sent among us and between theâ— for the iudgements of God on men do not seldome point to that sin wherewith they first grieved him This will well set off the action of thanksgiving no lesse necessary to be performed for such a happy meeting And here may be some thing more yet needfull to be done for the doing whereof as no subject is so able so in some respect no man is so fit as my Lord your father and which if I be not mistaken would make him as acceptable to the people as his extraordinary experience and abilities have rendred him to his Majesty which for the Kingdomes sake I wish he were though I have no obligation to him and some great persons to whom I am infinitâ—ly obliged think they have had as little to him as I. Heark me thinkes I heare a noyse of ten thousand times ten thousand people making the earth to shake and the mountaines Eccho with ioyfull acclamations God save the King God save the Queen â—od save the Prince And after a due pause then a confused murmur of as many thousands saying one to another See how their Maiesties and His Highnesse reioyce in the ioy of the two Houses of Parliament waiting on them and in the ioy of all their People Glory be to â—od on high for the peace he hath given us And after this a whisper of many asking every on of his neighbour Which is the Lord Kimbolton which is the Lord Digby which are the five Members of the House of Commons Are they also reconciled and become better friends for their late bitter falling out And may we hope that all the Noblemen â—entlemen and all other sorts of people in the Kingdom will take up the same fashion This is the Lords doing blessed be his holy name Am I not deceived No I am not I will quit my Eremites weed to go see this great sight and to give my Plaudite to this happy Catastrophy of our Tragicall Comedy then returne to my Cell and to my only ambition there to attain to that Heaven upon Earth (a) which the great Philosopher of our Age and Nation hath expressed in his language that is in the best was ever spoken by English man To have my mind move in charity rest in Providence and turne upon the Poles of Truth Madame I Shall not adventure to write unto your Majesty with freedome but by expresses or till such time as I have a cipher which I beseech your Majesty to vouchsafe me At this time therefore I shall only let your Majesty know where the humblest and most faithfull servant you have in the world is Here â—â—Middleborough where I shall remain in the privatâ—st way I can till I receive iâ—structions howâ— to serve the King and your Majesty in these parts If the King betake Himsâ—lfe to a saâ—e placâ— where he may avow and protect his servants from rage I meâ—n and viâ—lence for from justice I will never implore it I shall then live in impatience and in misery till I waite upon you Buâ—â—f after all he hath done of late he shall betake himselfe to the easiâ—st and complyantest wayes of accommodation I am confident that thâ—n I shall serve him more by my absence then by all my industry and it will be a comfort to me in all calamities if I cannot serve you by my actions that I may do it in some kinde by my sufferings for your sake haâ—ing I protest to God no measure of happinâ—sse or misfortune in this world but what I derive from your Majesties value of my affection and fidelity Middleborough the 21. of Ianuary 1641. The Supscription of the Letter For my Worthy friend Sir Lewes Divâ—s Knightâ— at the Earle of Bristolls house i◠〈◊〉 LONDON Deare Brother I Hope you will have received the Letter which I wrote unto you from aboord Sir Iohn Peâ—â—ington wherein I gave you account of the accident of O Neals man and why I thought fitting to continue my journey into Holland going still upon this ground 〈◊〉 if things go on by way of accommodâ—tion by my absence the King will be advantaged Iâ— the King declare Himselâ—e and â—â—tire to a safe place I shall be able to wait upon him from hâ—â—â— as well â—s out oâ— any part of England ovâ—r â—nd above the service which I may dâ— Him here in the mean time Besides that I â—ound all the Ports so strict that if I had not taken this opportunity of Sir Iohn Penningtons forwardnesse in the Kings seâ—vice it would have bin impossible for me to have gotten away at any other time I am now here at Middleborough at the Golden-fleece upon the Market at one Geoâ—ge Pâ—â—râ—oâ—s hâ—usâ— where I will remain till I receive from you advertisement of the state of things and likewâ—se instâ—uctions from their Majâ—stiâ—s which I desire you to hasten unto me by some safe handâ— anâ— withall to sâ—nd unto me a cyphâ—r whereby we may write unto one anothâ—â— frâ—â—ly If you knew how â—asie a passage it were you would oâ—fer the King to come â—ver for some few dayes your sâ—lfe God knows I have not a thought towards my â—ountry to â—ake â—e blush much lesse criminall but where Traitors have so great a sway the â—onestâ—st thoughts may prove most treaâ—onable Let Duk Sâ—â—â—lty be diâ—patcht hiâ—hâ—râ— speedily with such black clothes and lâ—nnen as I 〈◊〉 and let your letters be directed to the Baron of Sherborn for by that name I live unknown Let care be taken for Bils of Exchangâ— Middleborough Ian. 20. 1641 Yours The Lord DIGBYES Letter to the Queens Majesty Madam HAGUE March 10. 1642. IT is the first contentment that I have been capâ—ble of this long time That your Majestie â—â— safely arrived in HOLLAND Withdrawn from a Country so unworthy of you I should have waâ—ted the first upon you both to have tendred my duty according to my preâ—â—dence of obligâ—tion abovâ— others and to hâ—ve informed your Majesty the timeliest of the state of this place wither you are coming both in point of affectâ—ons and inâ—erests but that there flie about such reports that the Parliament hath dâ—sirâ—d your Majesty not to admit me to your Presence as I daâ—e not presume into it without particular permâ—ssion The grouâ—d of their malâ—volence towards
me in this particular is said to be upon some Letters which they have presumed to open directed unto your Majesty from me which I proâ—esse I cannot apprehend for I am certain that I have not written to your Majestie the least word that can be wrested to an ill sensâ— by my greatest enâ—mies having not so much as mentioned â—ny businesse to your Majesty since I left England To the King I wrâ—te onâ—e with that hardinesse which I thought His aâ—â—aires and complexion required but that Lâ—tter was sent by so safe hands as I cannot apprehend the miscarrying of it However Mâ—â—am if my misfortune be so great as that I must be deprived of the sole comfort of my 〈◊〉 of waiting on Your Majesty and following Your fortunes I beseech You let my doome be so signified unto me as that I may retire with the least shame that well may be to bewaile my unhappinesse which yet will be supportable if I may be but assured that inwardly that genâ—rous and princely hearts preserves me the place of MADAM Your Majesties most faithfull and most affectionate humble servant Master Ellyots Letter to the Lord DIGBY My Lord YOu have ever been so willing to oblige that I cannot despair of your favour in a businâ—sse wherâ—in I am much concerned The King was pleased to employ me to London to my Lord Keeper for the Seals which though after two hours consideration he refused yet being resolved not to be denied my importunity at last prevailed which service the King hath declared was so great that he hath promised a reward equall to it it may be the King expects I should move him for some place which I shall not do being resolved never to hâ—â—e any but the Queen being already so infinitely obliged to her for her favours that I confesse I would owe my being onely to her nor shall I ever value that life I hold but as a debt which I shall ever pay to her commands The favour which I desire from yourâ— Lordship is That you will engage the Queen to write to the King that he would make me a Groome of his Bed-chamber which since I know t is so absâ—lutely in her power to doe I shall never think of an other way for which favour neither her Majesty nor your Loydship shall ever finde a mâ—re reall servant For our affairs they are now in so good a condition that if we are nor undone by hearkning to an A commodation there is nothing else can hurt us which I feare the King is too much enclined to but I hâ—pe what he shall receive from the Queen will make him so resolved that nothing but a satisfaction equâ—ll to the injuries he hath received will make him quit the advantage he now â—â—th which I do not doubt will be the means oâ— bringing your Lordship quickly hither where you shall finde none more ready to obey your Commands Yorke the 27 of May 1642. Then your most faithfull and humble servant THO: ELLIOT Observations upon the same Letters THe Lords and Commons have commanded these ensuing Letters and Votes to be printed The copy of a Letter writtâ—n by the Lord Digby to the Queen the 10 of Mâ—â—châ— last of his own hand-writing An originâ—ll Letter wâ—itten to the Lord Digby by Mâ—stâ—â—Thomas Eliot from Yâ—â—ke the 27 of May last Two notes of Arms the one of which is partly His Majâ—sties own hand both found among my Lord Digbâ—â—s papers In the Letter of the Lord Digby to the Quâ—â—n it may be observâ—d how he discovers his venomous hâ—â—rt to this Kingdom in that malicious censure thâ—t we are a Countrâ—y unworthy of hâ—â— unworthy indeed to be so often designed to â—uine and destruction to be undermined and circumventâ—d by so many plots and devillish projects of Iesuits and Priests and other the most factious and malignanâ— spirits in Christâ—ndome by which we had been often ruined and destroyed iâ— Gods wonderâ—â—ll mercy had not preserved usâ— and we call his Divinâ— Majesty to witnâ—sse thâ—t we have nâ—ver done any thâ—ng agâ—inst the personall safety or Honor of Hir Majesty onely we have desired to be secured from such plots from such mischiâ—â—â—us Engineâ—â— thâ—t thâ—y migâ—t not have the favour of the Court and such a powerfull influence upon His Majesties Councels as they have had to the extream hazard not onely of the civill Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom but of that which we hold deâ—rer much than these yea then the very being of this Nation our Religion whereupon depends the Honor of Almighty God and salvation of our souls Let this Lord who wâ—s long amongst us and knew the grounds of our proceedings and most secret consultations produce any thing if he can of undutifulnesse or dis-respect to her Majesty exprest or intended by us Another discovery in the Letter is this That this Lord confesâ—eth that he writ to His Majesty with the hardinesse which he thought His afâ—airs and complexion required what this was may well be perceived in a Letter from himselfe to the Queen heretofore printed by our direction his affairs in the judgement of this Lord required that he should withdraw Himselfe from His Parliament betake Himselfe to some place of strength such was the counsell he then gave Him and how well it hath bin followed every man may perceive but what His Majesties Complexion required that may seem a greater mystery and yet this may be collected out of that Letter That His Majesty in the apprâ—hâ—nsion of this Lord was too inclinable to an Accommodation with His Parliament which in a kinde of scorn in that Letter is called the easie or the sage way this Complexion so beseeming a good Prince required such a hardy and vehement provocation to wrath and war against His Subjects as this Lord presumed to expresse in that Letter and besides his treachery to the Kingdom we may herein observe a great degree of insolence and contempt towards His Majesty that he shoulâ— dare in a Letter to the Queen to tax His Majesties Complexion with so much as mildnesse towards His people must needs be required such hardy and bold Counsâ—ll In Master Eliots Letter it may be first observed That whilest His Majesty contests with His Parliament for some questionable Prerogatives concerning the Common-wealth His own servants do really deprive him of an undoubted Prerogative of being the Soveraigne disposer of favours and preferments in His own Family which this Gentleman doth expresse in that resolution never to have any place about His Majesty but by the Queen and may be further observed what these desperate Counsels about the King are most afraid of and what they think most huâ—tfull to themselves that His Majesty should be inclined to an Accommodation with His people By this they fear to be undone that is to lose that prey the estates of the Parliament men and other good Subjects which they have already devoured in their own fancies and that they expect to
waited on their Majesties and leaving them at Hampton Court provided their own accommodations at Kingston the next place of râ—câ—ipt and still so used for the over plâ—â— of company which the Court it self could not entertaine To these Gentlemenâ— of whom few or none were of my acquaintance and to this place was I sent by His Majesty with some expressions of his Majesties good acceptance of their service and returning the same night to Hampton Court continued my attendance to Windsor whither their Majesties then repaired I had not been there one day when I heard that both Houses of Parliament were informed that I and Colonell Lunsâ—ord a person with whom I never exchanged twenty words in my life had appeared in a warlike manner at Kingston to the terror of the Kings liege people and thereupon had ordered that the Sheriff of Surrey and as I conceive that all other Sheriffes throughout England should raise the power of their severall Counties to suppresse the forces that be and I had levyed When first this news was brought me I could not but sâ—ight it as a ridiculous rumour for being most certain that I had never been at Kingston but only upon that message of the Kings to forty or fifty Gentlemen totally strangers to me with whom I stayed not the space of half an hour at most and in no other equipage then a Coach and six hired horses with one single man in the Coach with me and one servant riding by I thought it utterly impossible for the most remancy it self at so neer a distance to raise out of that any scriâ—â—â— matter of scandall or prejudice upon me But when soon after I received from some of my friendz not only a confirmation of that seeming impossibility but a particular accompt of the manner of it How some information concerning me at Kingâ—ton had been referred to the examination of a Committee of my sharpest enemies how the six Coach horses I appeared with there were turned by them into six score horses and that mistake I know not by what prevalence of my unhappinesse or of my enemies credit not suffered to be rectified by other witnesses there who affirmed the truth Finding my selfe in this sad condition but twenty miles off and not knowing how the people in other places might be terrified if reports concerning me should spread but in a proportionable rare to remoter distances they being now derivablo from such considerable Authors I must confesse I then began to look upon my felfe as a person of the rare misfortune that my reputation would not weigh down the most improbable or impossible accusation but fit to receive any imputation of guilt the most mischievous or malitious instrument of calumny could invent And in this condition with no other discontent then not believing my self much indebted to the world for good usage I procuredâ— hisâ— Majesties licence to transport a person of so great inconvenience and danger out of his Dominions into another Countrey and with all possible speed removed my self into Holland never suspecting that my guilt would increase with my absence in the retired private life which I had resolved on and did according to that resolution lead beyond Sea having the vanity of some hope that a little time discovering the falsehood of some things believed of me would take away the inconvenience of other things that were but unworthily suspected Some weeks I rested there without any hurt till the falshood of a person to whose trust I committed a Packet brought it to a hand well contented with any occasion to satisfie his own particular private malice and revenge upon me and so my Letters one to the Queens Majesty and the other to my brother Sir Lewis Dives were publiquely brought to be read in both Houses of Parliament from thence new arguments of guilt are so far enforced against me and the former displeasure revived and heightned to such a pitch that at the same time I heard of the interception of my Letters I found my self accused of high Treason too and that for levying War against the King a crime certainly that of all other I could least suspect my self guilty of And to say the truth it came into my charge but by accident for being in generall charged of high Treason and the impeachment in particular bearing onely that I had appeared in warlike manner to the terror of the Kings Subjects a question was raised by a Lord or two learned in the Law whether that accusation would amount to Treason or no and so leave was desired to amend the charge which being granted to make sure work by the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. it was put in that I had levyed War against the King If I were guilty or suspected of so lowd a crime how it came to sleep so long or if not how these Letters wherein upon an unpartiall survey there will not be found so much as an opinion as unto peace or war could minister occasion for a charge of my levying War against the King I leave to equall consideration I am farre from censuring or disputing the resolution or opinion of both or either House of Parliament no man râ—â—eives a stroke from thence with more submission and humility and the great reverence I bear to it hath made such an impression in me that the weight of their displeasure hath added many years to me but in so neer a concernment of my life and my honour that grave Assembly may give me leave without presuming to think their judgements unjust to say their evidence may be untrue and the persons trusted by them not so full of honour ingenuity or integrity so free from passion malice interest or affection as they are thought It will be no presumption or disâ—respect to that great Councell to say that I have many enemies who have used all the ill arts their wit or malice could suggest to bring this affliction upon me and have not in whispers or in the dark published their resolution to destroy me witnesse the known tampering with very many persons both by threats and promises to accuse me their creating and cherishing such monstrous untruths of my treating with the Danes and other forreign power of a great treason of mine plotted and discovered at Sherburn with mighty warlike preparations there of my being at the head of the Rebells in Ireland and the like to make me odioâ— to the people to whose rage and violence they have ofâ—â—â—â—â— deâ—voured to give me up a sacrifice the deep sense I have of my afflictionâ— and injuries shall never transport me to heighten the represâ—nâ—aâ—ion of them to the least degree beyond truth but whoever shall consider the penalty of Treason the ruine and desolation it brings to families the brand and infamy it fixes on our memories and shall remember that this portion was designed to me for going on my Masters errant in a Coach and six horses will believe that a mixture of sorrow
you have had but equall dealing with others And as for the amendment of the charge I believe your Lordship may one day find that your assembling of Cavaliers at Kingston upon Thames for in those words it is expressed in the third Remonstrance of the Parliament was understood by the Lords and Commons at that time to be a sufficient discovery of your mind to engage His Majesty into a civill war So sufficient that his Majesties coming to the House of Commons in the manner he did His retiring from London to Hampton Court and the appearing of those persons in a warlike manner at Kingston upon Thames who having been so assembled by your Lordship waited upon his Majesty thither were by the Parliament both Houses being then full thought sufficient grounds for the committing of the custody of the Town of Hull and of the Magazine there to Sir Iohn Hotham and for his possessing himselfe thereof by their Authority Notwithstanding his Majestie having sent my Lord the Earl of Newcastle to take the government of that Town upon him all which you may observe in the Remonstrance above mentioned As you may also another passage I suppose very worthy to be seriously reflected upon by your Lordship amounting to that on their own part which my Lord your father calleth ultimam admonitionem on his Majesties part to wit That if those malignant spirits your Lordship by perusing the place may see whom they intend shall ever force us to defend our Religion the Kingdome the Priviledges of Parliament and the Rights and Liberties of the Subject with our swords the blood and destruction that shall ensue thereupon must be wholly cast upon their account God and our consciences tell us that we are clear and we doubt not but God and the whole world will clear us therein By this your Lordship may fully discern that the charge intended to be made good against you is no lesse then having been an instrument at least of some other greater malignants to incite His Majesty to the beginning of a civill war which will not fayle to prove levying War against the King if it can be proved against you And how far those Letters of your Lordships in which you are so confident that upon an impartiall survey there will not be found so much as an opinion as unto peace or war yet being layed to other evidences may serve to induce your Peers to find you guilty of the making of such a Warre may be seene in time the great bringer of truth to light APOLOGY Since that time other Letters of mine or Copies of Letters possibly never sent have had the same fortune and been published to the world and to shew the follies and indiscretions of a man enough in her disfavour before with Glosses and Comments to informe the people how much of the dangerous and pernicious Counsells pretended to be then and still on foot had passed through my hands and how great an enemy I am to Parliaments to this latter most grievous and venemous imputation I hope God will have preserved me some kind of Autidote in mens memories of what part I had the happinesse to bear in the passing of the Trienniall Bill and to it I shall only say thus much that I have had the honour to be a Member of the one House and must presume to think My self still a Member of the other that I value the honour the dignity and the priviledges of both infinitely above the pleasures and benefits of life and if I ever wilfully contributed or shall ever consent to the prejudice of either I wish the desires of all my enemies may fall upon me To that of my having had so great a hand in ill Counsells which are expressed to be of his Majesties removing from London to a place of safety and the like I shall be bold to say that the Letter to the Queens Majesty from whence my enemies would make the inference hath not with any confidereâ— the least propending of advice any way but is meerly an account of mine own intentions to apply my self to His Majesties service either by absence or attendance according to course that His Majesty in his wisdom should thinke fit to take Every body knowes I never had the honor to be a Counsellor neither have I presumed without being questioned by his Majesty to interpose in his affairs when he hath graced me with any question I have answered with the freedom of a Subject and a Gentleman But had I been a Counsellor having seen what I have seen and heard what I heard I who have known such Members of both Houses marked out by the multitude for blessings and such for sacrifice I who can say with truth that such of that Rabble cryed out the Kings is the Traitor such that the young Prince would govern better I who can prove that a Leader of those people in the heat and violence of the tumult cryed out that the King was not fit to live Had I been a Counsellor what had I been as the learning of Treason was then understood should I not have advised his Majesty to withdraw to a place of safety not from his Parliament but from that insolent and unruly multitude who had already brought into so much hazard the persons and the liberty of this till then most happy Parliament and not staying there did so lowdly threaten ruine even to the sacred person of the King Advertise his Majesty I did of the danger advise him I could not I had neither the ability nor the authority In my Letter to the Queen at her first coming into Holland it was observed that in that expression of welcoming her from a Country not worthy of her I â—â—ewed much venime and rancour to my own Nation I meant it not and must appeale to those who are best acquainted with the Civility of language whether the addresse might not be comely to any Lady of quality who should upon any not pleasing occasion leave one Country for a while to reside in another And I hope ere long to wellcome Her Majesty back from a place not so unworthy of her unto this Nation most worthy of her without either disparagement to Holland or complement to those to whom the unworthy of that Letter was intended For the charge of boldnesse and presumption in some expressions of those Letters though I might be glad to compound my treason for incivilitie since the suspicion of that depends upon the right understanding of language and connexion of words it will be no disrespect to any through whose hands they have passed to believe that as they were otherwise intended by me so that they are capable of other interpretation However if in truth mis understanding or ill breeding bath produced the other I hope the conclusion will only be that I am an ill Courtier or an ill Secretary both which I do humbly confesse not that I am no good English man no good Subject If in any
of those Letters there were any expressions of discontent or bitternesse I shall say little more then that they passed an examination they were not prepared for and fell into hands that they were not directed to and I am confident that many honest Gentlâ—men who have had the happinesse to preserve their papers from such â—n inquisition and shall consider the case they might be in if all their secret conferences and private Letters weâ—eâ— exposed and produced to the publicâ—â— view will cast up these Letters of mine in the number of my misfortunesâ— without making any addition to my faults and certainly whoever shall observe the measure of my sufferings with any kind of indifference will easily forgive such eruptions of passion as were onely vented by me to a brother though they came within the reach of any other car To draw now to a period of my unfortunate story which I cannot promise my self from the generality so much charity as to vouchsafe the reading further then meâ—r curiosity shall lead them I returned into England not with so much joy to see my Countrey as hope to be admitted upon my humble Petition to His Majesty to a fair regular impartiall vindication of my innocency and I protest to God I look upon the time I may naturallie hope to live with no other comfort then as it may make me still capable of that happinesse I have follies and infirmities enough about me to make me aske the pardon of eâ—ery wise and good man but for treason or for any voluntary crime either against my Soveraign or my Country I say it with all humility I will not accept a pardon from the King and Parliament By the grace of God it shall never be sayd that either the Parliament hath brought me or His Majesty exposed me to a triall my own uprightnesse shall constantly sollicite it and without recourse in this to either of their favours I will either stand a justified man to the world or fall an innocent But in the meane time till it shall please God to blesse this Nation with such a composure of the present distractions as that Government and Law may have their rightfull and comfortable course I implore only so much charity from men as may seem due to one whose good intentions to his Country have been in some sort publiquely manifested whose ill are yet but obscurely and improbably suggested To conclude let the few yeers I haue lived be examined and if there be found any rancour or venime in my nature even toward particular persons which might in time contract it self to an enmity against the stateâ— if I have been a fomenter of jealousies and debate or a secret conspirer against the honour and fame of any man if I have worn Religion as a maske and vizard for my hypocrisie and underhand cherished any opinions that I have not avowed if I have been lead by any hopes of preferment to flattery or by the misse of it to revenge if I have been transported with private ambition and been inclined to sacrifice the least branch of the publique peace and happinesse to my owne ends and advantage let the complication of all these ills prepare a judgement of treason it self upon me and let me be looked upon as a man who hath made a progresse in wickednesse that a few yeers more added to that account would render me a prodigie to the world But if in truth my life hath been pleasant to me under no other Nation then as I might make it usefull to my Country and have made it my businesse to beget and continue a good intelligence amongst good men if I have been then most zealous and fervent for the Liberties of the Subject when the power of Court was most prevalent and for the rights of the Crown when popular licence was most predominant if by my continuall study and practise of Religion I have alwayes been a true sonne of the Church of ENGLAND and by my submission and application of my actions to the known rule of the Law I haue alwayes been a true son of the State of England if my actions have been 〈◊〉 and my words onely doubtfull if my life onely clouded with many intersections I hope the world will beleeve I have been overtaken with too great a measure of unhappinesse and every generous heart will case me of some part of my burthen by giving the benefit of his good opinion ANSWER And so my Lord I am come to your Lordships Letters which is all that remaineth in your Apologie of which I have not already given you my account except it be of your counsell and purpose as well in the transporting of your self into Holland as in your returne from thence into England which you call the period of your unfortunate story Both which will fitly fall in with your Letters and I wish did as well agree with them But sure they were quite out of your memory and you could recover no copy of them when you wrote this passage in your Apologie I procured his Majesties Licence to transport a person of so great inconvenience and danger out of his Dominions into another Countrey and with all possible speed removed my selfe into Holland never suspecting that my guilt would increase with my absence in the retyred private life I had resolved on and did according to that resolution lead beyond tqe sea My Lord I hope it will not offend you to be shewed by your servant that you are not well hidden under this covert where you may else chance to be taken by an enemy In which hope I will presume to observe that it may be well believed your Lordship resolved on such a retyred private life on the other side of the sea if things had gone on here by way of Accommodation to which easiest and compliantest way it appears your Lordship doubted His Majesty might betake Himselfe But whether His Majestie shewing Himselfe so extreamly tender of the Peace of the Kingdome that He was more a wake to the sense of the calamity and misery that in all probability was like to befall His good Subjects upon this occasion then of His own Honor and Dignity were so well approved of by your Lordship you know the judgement of the Parliament in their observations upon your Letters to the Queens Majesty and I will leave the world to judge My purpose is only to shew out of them that your Lordships resolution to lead so retyred a life on the other side was not absolute but conditionate a blind man if he could read your letters must needs plainly see For you were no sooner arrived at Middleburg in Zealand but in your first letter from thence to Sir Lewis Dives you make mention of another written from abord Sir Iohn Pennington wherein you gave an account why you thought sitting to continue your journey into Holland going stil upon this ground that if things went on by way of Accommodation the King would be
advantaged by your absence If the King should declare Himselfe and retire to a safe place you should be able to wait upon him from thence as well as out of any part of England over and above the service which you might do his Maiesty there in the meane time In the same letter to Sir Lewis from Middleburg you declare that your purpose to remain in that retired place and condition was only till you received instructions from their Maiesties which sure were not very necessary for your employment in a retired private life you desire him to hasten your sayd instructions unto you by some safe hand you desire him to send you a Cypher of which there could be no great need for your giving him an account how you spent your vacant hours Or if there were yet sure that was not the reason why you besought the Queens Maiesty to vouchafe you a Cypher or why you would not adventure to write to her Maiesty but by expresses till such time as you had a Cypher But why do I wast time and paper in making such inferences In that letter of your Lordships to her Maiesty dated from Middleburg the 21 of January you shew your selfe indeed very confident that if His Maiesty after all he had lately done should betake himself to the easiest and compliantest way of Accommodation you should serve his Maiesty more by your absence then by all your industry to which darke expression I will give no light But withall you shew that if the King should betake himselfe to a safe place you should then live in impatience patience and misery till you wayted on her Maiesty so short-breath'd was your resolution to lead a private retired life on that side the Sea Yet truely how long you lived in that manner I have not heard But it should seeme it was not many weeks for by the tenth of March your Lordship had been so long at the Hague that you thought your selfe very sufficiently instructed and able to informe her Maiesty of the state of that place both in point of affection and interest Quaere in relation to what which considering the many Provinces and towns and persons to be enquired after there before any good judgement could be made of the state of that place in either of the respects above mentioned and the reservednesse of that Nation especialy toward strangers I dare say would have asked some other very busie man three very busie weeks But God hath given your Lordship much quicknesse of wit and your great industry and paines in the study of books hath made the study of men a sport to you in which it is certain that some man may do more in a day theÌ„ another man can do in a yeer There is therefore no certain inference to be made of the time you had spent at the Hague by the number of talents you had gained there in comparison of the improvement might have been made by some other man But when in your letter to the Queens Majesty dated at the Hague before her Majesties coming thither you say you had not so much as mentioned any businesse to her Majesty since you left England may we not thence lawfully inferre that there was some businesse committed to your knowledge at least which you might have mentioned to her Majesty And sure my Lord when your Lordship wrote to the Kings Maiesty with that hardinesse which you thought his affairs and complexion required though every body knowes your Lordship never had the honour to be a Counsellor yet I believe most men will believe that you either presumed to interpose in his Maiesties affairs without being questioned which you say you never did or that His Maiesty had entrusted you with some part of his affairs on that side the sea from whence you wrote or which is worst for you that in some affairs then on the Carpet your Lordship was a very secret and a principall Counsellor if his Maiesty sent to Zealand or Holland to demand your good advice about them having my Lord your father and so many other able Counsellors at that time not farre from him But I will enquire no further what businesse you had or did beyond the sea though perhaps it were possible to make an unhappy guesse at it by the two notes of armes found among your papers I come to your Letters written from thence the falling whereof into hands they were not directed to I shall be very willing to cast up in the number of your misfortunes so your Lordship will not forget to put this into your reckning that no misfortunes happen to any man without the speciall providence of God whose hand many men thinke they see in making your own an instrument to discover more against you then could easily have beene found out otherwise though the falsehood of a person you trusted and other accidents were used as meanes to bring this to passe I dare not be so peremptory in my observation or censure but leaving the consideration thereof to your Lordship whom it concerneth crave your leave to say that these Letters of yours are so full and clear an evidence of your being an excellent Courtier and as excellent a Secretary that I doubt the world wil nere admit your being ill in either for a good excuse of the faults have been found in some expressions of your Letters I shall instance but in one not in respect of the unworthy you therein put upoÌ„ your Countrey wch notwithstanding I conceive will be judged by those to whom you appeal to have been but a wild piece of civillity to asperse a whole Nation especially your own with the fault of some few and this in an addresse to a Lady of so great eminence and of another Nation not much given to over-value ours but if that should be suffered to passe for an ill made complement I beseech your Lordship what good construction can be made of your saying it was the first contentment you had been capable of a long time that Her Majesty was safely arrived in Holland withdrawn from a Country unworthy of her Which that her Maiesty had any not pleasing occasion to do I beleeve was an exceeding great discontentment to many other good Subiects and good English men no lesse for her Maiesties sake then their owne this having beene taken by all men that had understanding of the times for a shrewd prognostick of the storme which was then gathering and now lyes so sore upon us in the foresight whereof I hope your Lordship took no contentment though your words might with little force be wrested to such an interpretation But to passe by other expressions and come to the matter of your Letters and examine whether any wrong hath been done you in the Glosses and Comments with which you observe they have been published to the world to informe the people how much of the dangerous and perniâ—ious Counsells pretended to be then and still on foot had passed
through your hands and how great an enemy you are to Parliaments for these are your words And you seem to be very sensible of this latter most grievous and as you expresse it venemous imputation Whereas I find no sillable to that purpose in the Glosse made upon the copy of your Lordships letter to the Queens Maiesty of the tenth of March which is all that ever I have seen published with any Glosse besides those of the 20. and 21. of Ianuary and I have enquired diligently of some other who are in a trade of news and can hear of no other letter of your Lordships published in print And yet that ingenuity I have observed in your Lordship in many other occasions will not suffer me to imagine that in this you have framed a charge against your selfe upon such an article as was never put in against you that from thence you might take an occasion to make such a defence for your selfe as you conceived would be to your advantage Such little plots are womens worke unworthy of a man of your parts and when they are discovered as they seldome fayle to be ever come home with the giving of a shrewd counterbuffe and therefore I will passe this over To that of your Lordships having had so great a hand in ill Counsells which are expressed to be of his Maiesties removing from London to a place of safety and the like I will not re-inforce the inferences you say have been made out of your letters by your enemies because I would not willingly be taken for one of them But as your humble servant observe two things to your Lordship which I perswade my selfe you did not well observe in the writing of this part of your Apology The first is that you have therein entered into such a contestation as I beleeve no subiect of this Kingdome before you ever undertooke against the two Houses of Parliament For they in that Declaration of theirs wherein they have set forth the Grounds and Reasons that necessitated them to take up Defensive arms among others make mention of the uniust charging of some Members of both Houses with Treason of the Kings coming to the House of Commons with a Troop of Cavaliers to fetch those of that House away by force of the pious and generous resolution of the City of London to guard the Parliament in regard of this greatest violation of Parliament that was ever attempted of certain wicked persons who had engaged the King in the above mentioned design and practise against the Parliament of their having been so grieved and enraged by this action of the City that thereupon they made his Maiesty forsake WHITE-HALL under pretence that His Person was there in great danger which they say is a suggestion as as false as the father of lyes can invent And yet your Lordship hath been bold to averre the truth of the danger of His Majesties person was therein at that time by avowing that there were Tumults then which the Parliament hath denyed in one of their Declarations and your Lordship saith you saw them with your eyes and then by giving three severall inâ—tances of most dangerous indeed desperat words spoken in those Tumults against the King two of which your Lordship saith you heard with your own ears and the third you say you can prove to have been spoken by a leader of those people in the heat and violence of the Tumult His Majesty on the other side in his Declaration of the 12. of August wherein he hath graciously descended to give his Subâ—ects an account of the Reasons of his having taken up Defensive Arms among other things alledgeth his having done it to preserve the Freedom Priviledge and Dignity of Parliament awed and insulted upon by Force and Tumults whereof his Majesty giveth many particular instances and offereth to prove them And your Lordship saith you have known such Members of both Houses marked out by the multitude for blessings and such for sacrifice You say Advertise His Majestie you did Advise him you could not you had neither the ability nor the opportunity But you ask if you had been a Counsellour what you had been if having seen what you had seen and heard what you had heard you should not have advised his Majesty to withdraw to a place of safety not from his Parliament but from that insolent and unruly multitude who had already brought into so much hazard the persons and the Liberty of this till then most happy Parliament and not â—taying there did so loudly threaten ruine even to the sacred person of the King which is a most full averment of one great part of the Kings charge against those whom his Majestie stileth the Factious part of the Parliament though not a charging it on the particular persons accused thereof by his Majestie And whether this being laid to the early knowledge your Lordship had of his Majesties deliberation whether he should betake himself to a safe place and to the many inferences have been made upon your severall Letters which I will not repeat may not amount to a probable Argument that you had some hand in the Counsell of his Maiesties removing from London to a place of safety and the like I leave your Lordship and the world to iudge By this time I apprehend your Lordship may well conceive me to be in the number of your Enemies because I have been so sharp and pressing upon you in this last part of your Apologie Which I have been with an intention to do your service by putting you to think whether you should do well to lye at this guard if you should come to be questioned for your lifey our Lordship may have heard if not my Lord your father can tell you particularly how the great Oracle of Parliamentary proceedings in his time Sir Henry Nevill by name lost himselfe in the last he was of commonly called the Undertakers Parliament The sum is this he had done the greatest service to his Countrey that perhaps was ever done by a private Gentleman in a time of peace by procuring the Assembling of a Parliament in the time he did upon the hopes he gave that the House of Commons might be induced to grant a supply of Subsidies to the late King our Soveraign of blessed memory without questioning his power of imposing if his Maiesty on his part might be pleased to grant them such and such things upon such and such conditions which were so much to the advantage of the Subiect that I doubt we shall never have the like bargain offered again yet this great service of his and of other leading men with whom he conferred about it having been decryed in that Parliament under the title of undertaking he suffered that mis-conceit to prevail so far in the House before he tooke the courage to avow what he had done and as I have heard from wise men might have had thanks for doing in the fair way he did
it that through that default onely and for no other fault he forfeited the great credit he had in the House before and occasioned an untimely and most unhappy dissolution of that Parliament It may be the like adventure hath befallen as wise a man in a tryall for his life But I will give no more examples nor make any other then this generall application That which hath happened once or twice may have hapned thrice and may happen a fourth time And yet why should I hold my self thus in the clouds I will adventure to descend to a particular confession that my selfe among many thousand other of the Kings loyall subiects have been exceedingly offended with your Lordship for having had so deep a hand as hath been seen under your own in the ill advise of his Maiesties removing so far from the Parliament for distance of place doth naturally induce a proportionable distance in affection between the best friends if the time of absence be not very carefully entertained with all possible meanes to maintain their amity at the height but if there were any jarre between them before and they come to wrangle about that by letters it is almost impossible to prevent an utter breach between them though they be men of the best tempered spirits Besides this it hath ever been my simple opinion that if His Maiesty after his returne from Dover had given over all thoughts of retiring to Yorke and gone directly to London he might have been able to have quite broken the stroÌ„g combinatioÌ„s conspiracies his Maiesty supposeth were made against him into so many pieces by his royall presence and the help of his Nobles and of those many generous persons in the House of Commons who would have lent willing hands to so needfull a work that it could not have been in the power of the Devil himself to repiece the poor wormes so dissevered for the best among them would have been found no other if he had once lifted up his head against the King his Soveraign But my imagination of the unadvisednesse of the advise given his Maiesty to quit his Saddle having been founded on the confident beleef I ever had that his sacred Person was in no danger by those foolish disorderly friskes of the unmannaged rude people of his Royall City till I saw your Lordships Apology His Maiesties Declaration conteyning nothing but generalls to that purpose I am now quite out of patience that the particulars I therein find to the contrary should have been kept up so long to the infinite preiudice of his Maiesties service of his good peoples quiet and of your Lordships honor who certainly need not have suppressed your knowledge so long nor have now made so dainty of owning the advise given his Maiesty to retire to a safe place if there were so iust a cause of fear that His Maiesties life which is of more worth then ten thousand of ours might have been in danger in the tumults at London But now I find I can proceed no further in doing your Lordship that service which I hope you see I have hitherto endeavoured without taking notice to you of a thing of which I perceive you have studiously declined the mention and which I should be as unwilling to touch as you it being the head of that bile which putteth you to the greatest pain you are in if the King and Kingdome were not in as much upon the same occasion In which respect I am resolved to put a launcet into it when I have first most humbly prayed God upon my knees that my so doing may through his blessing be to the ease of his Majesty of your Lordship and of us all and not to the hurt of any body which he is my witnesse is my sincere and onely intention if I know my own heart Which that your Lordship may not thinke I resolve on impertinently before the time I must first shew you how farre the matter is prepared It cannot be unknowne to your Lordship though in your Apology you seem to make your selfe ignorant that common fame hath from the beginning accused you to have bin the suggestor to his Majesty of the accusation put in by his Atturney against the Lord Kimbolton and the five worthy Members of the House of Commons Or if it be possible this should have been kept from your ears which hath certainly been the voyce of the people for about a yeer your Lordship may finde so much in expresse termes in the publick intelligence of two weeks of this January with this addition that you were the Adviser of his Majesty to come in person to the House of Commons in a hostile manner with four hundred armed men upon the fourth of January last To which it may be thought your Lordship had some reference by making the fourth of this January the date of the publication of your Apology But my Lord this darke intimation which it may be you may expound in that manner in time to come doth not cannot serve your turne at the present For the plain truth is I tell it you for your service and hope you will take it so you may as well rayse a dead man out of his grave as rayse your selfe or your reputation from the hate and infamy under which you and it lye by any thing you can say or do or all your friends â—or you untill this popular odious and infamous imputatioâ— the heavy gravestone of your good name be removedâ— And that as the world goes cannot be done now by any imprecation of your own no not of his Majâ—sties that you were not the man except his Majesty shall produce some other very probable Author of the suggâ—stion And I much doubt whether that will be sufficient to acquit you For that unhappy word which fell from your pen long ago Where Traytors have so great a sway â— and which you would now excuse as an eruption of passion or an expression of discontent vented only to a brother yet layd to the relation you have made in your Apology of the danger in which his Majesties person and the persons and liberty of this till then happy Parliament were respectively involved by the Tumults of which his Majesty chargeth the accused Members to have been the Contriversâ— and for that reason chiefly Traytors I doubt hath made such an impression in mens minds that you would hardly be excused though some other should take this burthen wholly upon him I am sure if you were the man and have proof as you say you have of the treasonable words spoken by a Leader of the people in the heat and violence of the tumult and if withall you can prove that the tumult in which they were spoken was an unlawfull assâ—mbly and contrived by all or any of the accused Members and if this would have been sufficient to have â—ound them or any of them guilty of Treason as by what I have heard to be Law in another case
should it might much aggravate your fault no way excuse your declining their judiciall sentence it being notoriously knowne that some time after your Lordship went out of England the resolution of the House of Peers was not wholly guided by that of the House of Commons witnesse the two offers at the Militia before that Ordinance passed in both Houses and His Maiâ—sties owne Testimony in his Declaration of the twelfth of August That the House of Peers could not yet be prevailed with to joyne with the House of Commons in their extravagances But your Lordship is now resolved that by the grace of God it shall never be sayd that either the Parliament hath brought you or his Majestie exposed you to a tryall your own uprightnesse shall constantly sollicite it and without recourse in this to either of their favours I would to God you had been of the same mind when you procured His Maiesties licence to go into Holland and that in stead thereof you had been an humble suitor to his Maiâ—stie to have distinguished the crimes he hath since layd to the charge of the accused Members of both Houses in his often cited Declaration of the twelfth of August into done out of Parliament and done in Parliament And to have preferred inditements against them for the one but have left the other to the determination of Parliament For of the third sort wch is done by authority or command of Parliament I presume there were few if any amounting to treason to be pretended much lesse prov'd at the time of their first accusation By this meanes possibly Justice might have proceeded against your Lordship and them and the Kingdome might have continued in peace Whereas now through your Lordships absenting your selfe and the unhappy misunderstanding between his Maiesty the Parliament touching the Priviledge of the accused Members thereof in the case of Treason the whole Kingdom not excepting the Members of both Houses of Parliament are so divided that all that take part with the one are by the other declared to be Traitors and while it so remainath what pobissility is there of such a fair regular imparriall triall for any man either in Parliament or at Common Law as your Lordship intendeth For your Lordship as it appeareth by your Apologie is not resolved to stand as a iustified man to the world or to fall as an â—nnocent till it please God to blesse this Nation with â—uch a composure of the present distractions as that Government and Law may have their rightfull course And yet you are resolved not to accept a pardon from the King and Parliament for treason or for any voluntary crime either against your Soveraign or your Countrey For ought can be perceived the accused Members are as fully resolved of this but in the meane time the poor simple honest Country man is plundered on both sides and while your Lordship and those noble and worthy Members of both Houses stand so highly upon your innocence he beares all the punishment which I would they and your Lordship would lay to heart lest that (a) Romane rise up one day in iudgement against you and them who chose rather to go into a voluntary banishment then to be the subject matter of a civill war and was so rewarded for that piety towards his Countrey that he returned in a more glorious triumph then by the Laws of that State he might have done if all his enemies which were also the enemies thereof had been defeated by him And yet I would not be iudged so partiall either to my selfe or to my Countrey Neighbours as once to let such a thought much lesse a word escape me that my hands and theirs have not been deep in the bloud hath beene shed His Maiâ—sties Declaration to all his loving Subjects published with the advise of his Privie Counsell in Answer to the Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom set forth by the House of Commons the fifteenth of Deâ—ember 1641. before the beginning of the troubles of this last yeer hath an Oraculous conclusion We shall now coniure all our good Subiects of what degree soever by all the bonds of love duty or obedience that are pretious to good men to ioyne with us for the recovery of the peace of that Kingdom Ireland and for the preservation of the peace of this to remove all their doubts and fears which may interrupt their affections to Us and all their iealousies and apprehensions which may lessen their charity to each other and then if the sins of this Nation have not prepared an inevitable judgement for us all â— God will yet make Us a great and a glorious King over a free and happy people It was true most gracious Soveraign it was true Your high wisdom elevated by that of your godly and prudent Senators did well foresee and foretell how your Maiesty and your People might still have been happy if our sins had not so far provoked our â—od to iealousie that there was no remedy but his wrath must needs break forth against us to consume us as it doth this day For else it had not bin possible that his Maiestie and his great Counsell the Parliament should ever have entertained such a reciprocall iealousie and mutuall diffidence of one another as soon after this appeared and hath since more fully bin discovered to the whole world to the great scandall of his Maiesty and of the Parliament and to no advantage of the Subiect or of the Nation else it had not been possible that through the same iealousie His Maiestie and his high Court of Parliament should ever have differed shall I say so much or so little about the formality of proceeding against persons upon information whether true or false accused of high Treason that although his Maiestie ommitted nothing that could have been done on his part either for the rectifying of the mistake which had already happened upon this occasion or for the repairing and asserting of an involuntary breach of priviledge or for prâ—venting of more by his desire to be directed by them in the course he was to take And though the Parliament on their part did not let to shew his Majestie the originall ground of that misprision in that no Accuser appeared against the accused and the House of Commons apart in a Committee thereof Declared that they were so far from any endeavour to protect any of their Members that shall be in due manner prosecuted according to the Laws of the Kingdom and the rights and priviledges of Parliament for Treason or any other misdemeanour That none shall be more ready and willing than they themselves to bring them to a speedy and due Triall yet this misunderstanding brought thus neer to a right understanding that nothing remained in difference but whether his Majestie were to produce the Suggestor before the accused persons were put into safe custody could never be reconciled by the helpe of divers Presidents since alledged in the
toward the staying of good Christians in this Kingdome from seperation than two hundred volumes as well written of the same Argument by Prelates or prelaticall men could have done Indeed he was the most iudicious and moderate Non-conformist after M. Bainâ—s that ever I heard of M. Bâ—ll of Whitmore And though I am not of that mind in their sence yet I coÌ„ceive the institutioÌ„ of the superiority of Bâ—â— over Presbiters was the first step by wch Anti-Xâ— asceÌ„ded into his Throne of universall Bishop and I would therefore have it taken down in due time being of the beleef that a principio non fuit sic is the only right rule of Reformation But whether this and some other steps yet standing in our Church should be quite taken down all at once is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a sceptick questio in a matter of State For the Apostles themselves had respect to considerations of prudence in the abolition of ancient usages and so may we The reason for the doing of the worke by pieces which swayeth with me is your Lordships expressed thus Let us resolve upon that course wherein with union we may probably promise our selves successe happinesse and security which whether we shall do in a present utter demolition of all manner of Episcopacy so much still affected by many of our grave learned and godly Divines I do a little doubt and I do not see how we can want their labours without greater inconveniences to our church then in retaining primitive Diocesan Bishops or superintendents for a time till there be a cleer plurality of learned godly Ministers which can hardly be hoped for till some Laws now in force have bin altered some good time But your Lordp hath made a most prudent motion (a) whereunto and to many other passages in your Lordships Speech touching Bishops if they that are most against them would take due heed they would be lesse against your Lordship and their own ends then they have been and are We might have had the same ease for tender consciences in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth which his Majesty is most graciously inclined to grant now if some fiery Zelots of that time had not answered Secretary Walsingham imployed to sound whether that would content them that they would not leave a hoof of Israel in Egypt Which rash answer kept them and so many godly Ministers and people since their times so much longer in the Egypt your Lordp. hath so well described God give us more wisdom now Rome was not built nor will be pulled down in one day And therefore I see not why your Lordship and those other Parliament men with whom you consulted might not have well agreed about this Church-work or why his Maiesty or any other truly religious man should be offended either with your temper or with theirs in it Oh but his Majesty hath heard of the License taken by them at their private Cabals to undervalue and viâ—ifie the Kings person and power Of their having designed to have taken the Prince his son from him by force nay to have seâ—sed on his own sacred Person Of a solemn Combination and Conspiracie entred into by them for altering the â—overnment of the Church and State Of their soliciting and drawing down Tumults to Westminster to remove all that stood in their way Bishops Popish Evil and Rotten (a) hearted Lords by a kinde of force and by the same means to awe such of the House of Commons as were not of their mindes in all things Of some of the Clergie who were their Emissaries and chief Agents to derive their seditious directions to the people when there was need of their help Of their treating with forreign power to assist them assoon as their designs should be ripe Nay his Majesty can prove much of this by their own Letters I will not here repeat what I could extract out of the Declarations of both Houses of Parliament of as many other as strange tales told of designes of his Majesties so credibly that it seems they have been believed by so wise a Senate I will keep my self to your Lordships Apology And that you may reflect the more sadly upon the condition of these GentlemeÌ„ by looking upon your own Let me in the first place beseech you to cast your eye upon these passages What collection was made of your being observed to be at Court what report was made in the City of that you delivered in the House of Commons to the Bill of Attainder what censure you incurred for suffering that Speech to be printed without your privity and yet could find no meanes to clear your selfe what portion was designed to you for going to Kingston upon Thames in a warlike manner in a Coach and six hired horses with one single man in the Coach with you and one servant riding by you to the terror of the Kings liege peopleâ— what a dangerous Letter your first to the Queens Majestie was by the interception whereof your going upon your Masters errend in the equipage abovesayd came to amount to levying war against his Maiesty what other glosses were made on your other Letters Then turne the tables and aske your selfe whether by like unlucky chances the accused Members may not have as hard an after game to play as you Whether his Majestie allowing him to be the wisest Christian King in the world as I think him may not yet be more easily mis-inâ—ormed and more hardly disabused then his two Houses of Parliament Whether that which his Majestie hath heard of discourses held by them at their private meetings and of Messages sent by them to their confederates be not more subject to misreport and mis-interpretation than that which was spoken by your Lordship in Parliament before so many hundred witnesses whether as probable tales might not be told of their design upon the persons of the King Queen or Prince as of our your Lordships being an enemy to Parliaments treating with Danes or being at the head of the rebelsâ— in Ireland and yet as little truth in them whether their conferring among themselveâ— and consulting with others in this Kingdom or of a forâ—eign Nation of the wayes and meanes and manner of altering any part of the government of this Church or State into a better form and of the opposition they were like to find therin were not as convertible into a solemne Combination and conspiracie to do it by force as the Message you delivered to forty or fifty Gentlemen totally strangers to you was to be metamorphosed into the shâ—pe it was whether there they may not have had as little hand in the Tumults whereof they are charged to have been the â—ontrivers as your Lordship had in that which your brother did without your knowledge and yet whether they may not have met witâ— as great difficulties to come to clear themselves from the treasonable speeches vented in them whether the impâ—tation layd upon many godly