and does hereby Dissolve it and from this time excuses your farther attendance here but with his repeated Thanks for your Service hitherto and with the assurance of his Satisfaction in you so far that he should not have parted with you but to make way for this new Constitution which he takes to be as to the Number and Choice the most proper and necessary for the uses he intends them And as most of you have Offices in his Service and all of you particular Shares in his Favour and good Opinion so he desires you will continue to exercise and deserve them with the same Diligence and good Affections that you have hitherto done and with confidence of his Majesty's Kindness to you and of those Testimonies you shall receive of it upon other occasions Therefore upon the present Dissolution of this Council his Majesty appoints and commands all those Officers he hath named to attend him here to morrow at Nine in the Morning as his Privy-Council together with those other Persons he designs to make up the number and to each of whom he has already signed particular Letters to that purpose and commands the Lord Chancellor to see them issued out accordingly which is the Form he intends to use and that hereafter they shall be signed in Council so that nothing may be done unadvisedly in the Choice of any Person to a Charge of so great Dignity and Importance to the Kingdom Names of the Lords of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council HIS Highness Prince Rupert William Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Heneage Lord Finch Lord Chancellor of England Anthony Earl of Shaftsbury Lord President of the Council Arthur Earl of Anglesey Lord Privy-Seal Christopher Duke of Albemarle James Duke of Monmouth Master of the Horse Henry Duke of Newcastle John Duke of Lauderdale Secretary of State for Scotland James Duke of Ormond Lord Steward of the Houshold Charles Lord Marquess of Winchester Henry Lord Marquess of Worcester Henry Earl of Arlington Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold James Earl of Salisbury John Earl of Bridgewater Robert Earl of Sunderland one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State Arthur Earl of Essex first Lord Commissioner of the Treasury John Earl of Bath Groom of the Stole Thomas Lord Viscount Falconberg George Lord Viscount Hallifax Henry Lord Bishop of London John Lord Roberts Denzil Lord Holles William Lord Russel William Lord Cavendish Henry Coventry Esq one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State Sir Francis North Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Sir Henry Capell Knight of the Bath first Commissioner of the Admiralty Sir John Ernle Knight Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Thomas Chicheley Knight Master of the Ordnance Sir William Temple Baronet Edward Seymour Esquire Henry Powle Esquire Whitehall April 11. 1679. HIS Majesty being this day in Council did cause such of the aforementioned Lords and others who were then present to be Sworn Privy-Counsellors which being done they took their places accordingly His Majesty was also pleased to declare that he intended to make Sir Henry Capell Knight of the Bath Daniel Finch Esquire Baronets Sir Thomas Lee Sir Humphrey Winch Sir Thomas Meers Edward Vaughan and Edward Hales Esquires Commmissioners for the Execution of the Office of Lord High Admiral of England And his Majesty being afterwards come into the House of Peers in his Royal Robes and the House of Commons attending his Majesty was pleased to make this Speech My Lords and Gentlemen I Thought it requisite to acquaint you with what I have done now this day which is That I have Established a new Privy-Council the Constant number of which shall never exceed Thirty I have made choice of such Persons as are Worthy and able to Advise Me and am Resolved in all My Weighty and Important Affairs next to the Advice of my Great Council in Parliament which I shall very often Consult with to be Advised by this Privy-Council I could not make so great a Change without acquainting both Houses of Parliament And I desire you all to apply your selves heartily as I shall do to those things which are necessary for the good and safety of the Kingdom and that no time may be lost in it The Message from the King by Mr. Secretary Jenkins to the Commons on the 9th of November 1680. 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 The Address to his Majesty from the Commons Saturday November 13. 1680. May it please your most Excellent Majesty WE Your Majesty's most Loyal and Obedient Subjects the Commons in this Present Parliament assembled having taken into our most serious Consideration Your Majesty's Gracious Message brought unto us the ninth day of this instant November by Mr. Secretary Jenkins do with all thankfulness acknowledge Your Majesty's Care and Goodness in inviting us to expedite such Matters as are depending before us relating to Popery and the Plot. And we do in all Humility represent to Your Majesty that we are fully convinced that it is highly incumbent upon us in discharge both of our Duty to Your Majesty and of that great Trust reposed in us by those whom we represent to endeavour by the most speedy and effectual ways the Suppression of Popery within this Your Kingdom and the bringing to publick Justice all such as shall be found Guilty of the Horrid and Damnable Popish Plot. And though the Time of our Sitting abating what must necessarily be spent in the choosing and presenting a Speaker appointing Grand Committees and in taking the Oaths and Tests enjoyned by Act of Parliament hath not much exceeded a Fortnight yet we have in this Time not only made a considerable Progress in some things which to us seem and when presented to Your Majesty in a Parliamentary way will we trust appear to Your Majesty to be absolutely necessary for the Safety of Your Majesties Person the effectual Suppression of Popery and the Security of the Religion Lives and Estates of Your Majesties Protestant Subjects But even in relation to the Tryals of the Five Lords impeached in Parliament for the Execrable Popish Plot we have so far proceeded as we doubt not but in a short time we shall be ready for the same But we cannot without being unfaithful to Your Majesty and to our Country by whom we are entrusted omit upon this occasion humbly to inform Your Majesty that our Difficulties even as to these Tryals are much encreased by the evil and destructive Councels of those Persons who advised Your Majesty first to the Prorogation and then to the Dissolution of the last
That the using Torture without Evidence or in ordinary Crimes is contrary to Law That the sending of an Army in a Hostile manner upon any part of the Kingdom in a peaceable time and exacting of Locality and any manner of free Quarter is contrary to Law That the charging the Lieges with Law-burroughs at the King's instance and the imposing of Bands without the Authority of Parliament and the suspending the Advocates from their Imployments for not compearing when such Bands were offered were contrary to Law That the putting of Garisons on private Mens Houses in a time of peace without the consent of the Authority of Parliament is contrary to Law That the opinion of the Lords of Session in the two Causes following were contrary to Law viz. 1. That the concerting the demand of a Supply for a Forfaulted Person although not given is Treason 2. That Persons refusing to discover what are their private thoughts and judgments in relation to points of Treason or other Mens actions are guilty of Treason That the fining Husbands for their Wives withdrawing from the Church was contrary to Law That Prelacy and Superiority of any Office in the Church above Presbyters is and hath been a great and unsupportable Grievance and Trouble to this Nation and contrary to the Inclinations of the Generality of the People ever since the Reformation they having Reformed from Popery by Presbyters and therefore ought to be abolished That it is the Right and Privilege of the Subjects to protest for remand of Law to the King and Parliament against Sentences pronounced by the Lords of Session providing the same do not stop execution of the said Sentences That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and that all Imprisonments and Prosecutions for such Petitions are contrary to Law That for redress of all Grievances and for the amending strengthning and preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be frequently called and allowed to sit and the freedom of Speech and Debate secured to the Members And they do claim and demand and insist upon all and sundry the Premisses as their undoubted Right and Liberties and that no Declarations Doings or Proceedings to the prejudice of the People in any of the said Premisses ought in any ways to be drawn hereafter in consequence and example but that all Forfaultures Fines loss of Offices Imprisonments Banishments Pursuits Persecutions and Rigorous Executions be considered and the Parties seized be redressed To which demand of the Rights and Redressing of their Grievances they are particularly incouraged by his Majesty the King of England his Declaration for the Kingdom of Scotland of the _____ day of October last as being the only means for obtaining a full Redress and remead therein Having therefore an entire Confidence That his said Majesty the King of England will perfyte the Deliverance so far advanced by him and will still preserve them from the Violation of the Rights which they have here asserted and from all other Attempts upon their Religion Laws and Liberties The said Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland do resolve That William and Mary King and Queen of England France and Ireland â—e and Be Declared King and Queen of Scotland to Hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdom of Scotland to them the said King and Queen during their Lives and the longest Liver of them and that the sole and full exercise of the Royal Power be only in and exercised by him the said King in the Names of the said King and Queen during their joynt lives And after their deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdom to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Queen Which failing to the Princess Ann of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body Which also failing to the Heirs of the Body of the said William King of England And they do pray the said King and Queen of England to accept the same accordingly And that the Oath hereafter mentioned be taken by all Protestants of whom the Oath of Allegiance and any other Oaths and Declarations might be required by Law instead thereof And that the said Oath of Allegiance and other Oaths and Declarations may be Abrogated I A. B. Do sincerely Promise and Swear That I will be Faithful and bear True Allegiance to Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary So help me God A Proclamation declaring William and Mary King and Queen of England to be King and Queen of Scotland Edinburgh April 11. 1689. WHereas the Estates of this Kingdom of Scotland by their Act of the Date of these Presents have Resolved That WILLIAM and MARY King and Queen of England France and Ireland Be and Be declared King and Queen of Scotland to hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdom of Scotland to them the said King and Queen during their Lives and the longest Liver of Them and that the Sole and Full Exercise of the Regal Power be only in and Exercised by the said King in the Names of the said King and Queen during their joynt Libes As also the Estates having Resolved and Enacted an Instrument of Government or Claim of Right to be presented with the Offer of the Crown to the said King and Queen They do Statute and Ordain that William and Mary King and Queen of England France and Ireland be accordingly forthwith Proclaimed King and Queen of Scotland at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh by the Lyon King at Arms or his Deputs his Brethren Heraulds Macers and Pursevants and at the Head-Burghs of all the Shires Stewarties Bailliaries and Regalities within the Kingdom by Messengers at Arms. Extracted forth of the Meeting of the Estates by me Ja. Dalrymple Cls. God save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY The Manner of the King and Queen taking the Scotish Coronation Oath May 11. 1689. THis day being appointed for the publick Reception of the Commissioners viz. The Earl of Argyle Sir James Montgomery of Skelmerly and Sir John Dalrymple of Stair younger who were sent by the Meeting of the Estates of Scotland with an Offer of the Crown of that Kingdom to Their Majesties they accordingly at three of the Clock met at the Council-Chamber and from thence were Conducted by Sir Charles Cotterel Master of the Ceremonies attended by most of the Nobility and Gentry of that Kingdom who reside in and about this place to the Banqueting-House where the King and Queen came attended by many Persons of Quality the Sword being carried before them by the Lord Cardrosse and Their Majesties being placed on the Throne under a Rich Canopy they first presented a Letter from the Estates to his Majesty then the Instrument of Government Thirdly a Paper containing the Grievances which they desired might be Redressed and Lastly an Address to His Majesty for turning the Meeting of the said Estates into a Parliament All which being Signed by his Grace the Duke of Hamilton as President of the Meeting and
43. A Brief Account of particulars occurring at the happy death of our late Soveraign Lord K. Ch. 2d in regard to Religion faithfully related by his then Assistant Mr. Jo. Huddleston 280 44. Some Reflections on His Majesty's Proclamation of the Twelfth of Feb. 1686 7. for a Toleration in Scotland together with the said Proclamation 281 45. His Majesty's Gracious Declaration to all his Loving Subjects for Liberty of Conscience 287 46. A Letter containing some Reflections on His Majesty's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience Dated April 4. 1687. 289 47. A Letter to a Dissenter upon Occasion of His Majesty's Late Gracious Declaration of Indulgence 294 48. The Anatomy of an Equivalent 300 49. A Letter from a Gentleman in the City to his Friend in the Countrey containing his Reasons for not reading the Declaration 309 50. An Answer to the City Minister's Letter from his Countrey Friend 314 51. A Letter from a Gentleman in Ireland to his Friend in London upon ocasion of a Pamphlet entituled A Vindication of the Present Government of Ireland under his Excellency Richard Earl of Tyrconnel 316 52. A Plain Account of the Persecution laid to the Charge of the Church of England 322 53. Abby and other Church Lands not yet assured to such possessors as are Roman-Catholicks dedicated to the Nobility and Gentry of that Religion 326 54. The King's Power in Ecclesiastical matters truly stated 331 55. A Letter writ by Mijn Heer Fagel Pensioner of Holland to Mr. James Stewart Advocate giving an Account of the Prince and Princess of Orange's thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Test and the Penal Laws 334 56. Reflections on Monsieur Fagel's Letter 338 57. Animadversions upon a pretended Answer to Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter 343 58. Some Reflections on a Discourse called Good Advice to the Church of England c. 363 59. The ill effects of Animosities 371 60. A Representation of the Threatning Dangers impending over Protestants in Great-Britain With an Account of the Arbitrary and Popish ends unto which the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in England and the Proclamation for a Toleration in Scotland are designed 380 61. The Declaration of his Highness William Henry by the Grace of God Prince of Orange c. of the Reasons inducing him to appear in Arms in the Kingdom of England for preserving of the Protestant Religion and for restoring the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland 420 62. His Highnesses Additional Declaration 426 63. The then supposed Third Declaration of his Royal Highness pretended to be signed at his head Quarters at Sherborn-Castle November 28. 1688. but was written by another Person tho yet unknown 427 64. The Reverend Mr. Samuel Johnson's Paper in the year 1686. for which he was sentenc'd by the Court of Kings-Bench Sir Edward Herbert being Lord Chief Justice and Sir Francis Wythens pronouncing the Sentence to stand Three times on the Pillory and to be whipp'd from Newgate to Tyburn which barbarous Sentence was Executed 428 65. Several Reasons for the establishment of a standing Army and Dissolving the Militia by the said Mr. Johnson 429 66. To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty the Humble Petition of William Archbishop of Canterbury and divers of the suffragan Bishops of that Province then present with him in behalf of themselves and others of their absent Brethren and of the Clergy of their respective Diocesses with His Majesty's Answer 430 67. The Petition of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for the calling of a free Parliament together with His Majesty's Gracious Answer to their Lordships Ib. 68. The Prince of Orange's Letter to the English Army 431 69. Prince George his Letter to the King 432 70. The Lord Churchill's Letter to the King 432 71. The Princess Ann of Denmark's Letter to the Queen 433 72. A Memorial of the Protestants of the Church of England presented to their Royal Hignesses the Prince and Princess of Orange 433 73. Admiral Herbert's Letter to all Commanders of Ships and Seamen in His Majesty's Fleet. 434 74. The Lord Delamere's Speech 434 75. An Engagement of the Noblemen Knights and Gentlemen at Exeter to assist the Prince of Orange in the defence of the Protestant Religion Laws and Liberties of the People of England Scotland and Ireland 435 76. The Declaration of the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty at the Rendezvouz at Nottingham November 22. 1688. 436 77. His Grace the Duke of Norfolk's Speech to the Mayor of Norwich on the 1st of December in the Market-place of Norwich 437 78. The Speech of the Prince of Orange to some principal Gentlemen of Somersetshire and Dorsetshire on their coming to join his Highness at Exeter Novemb. 15. 1688. 437 79. The True Copy of a Paper delivered by the Lord Devonshire to the Mayor of Darby where he Quartered Novemb. 21. 1688. 438 80. A Letter from a Gentleman at Kings-Lynn Decemb. 7. 1688. to his Friend in London With an Address to his Grace the most Noble Henry Duke of Norfolk Lord Marshall of England Ibid. 81. His Grace's Answer with another Letter from Lynn-Regis giving the D. of Norfolk's 2d Speech there Decemb. 10. 1688. 439 82. The Declaration of the Lord 's Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster Assembled at Guild-Hall Decemb. 11. 1688. Ibid. 83. A Paper delivered to his Highness the Prince of Orange by the Commissioners sent by His Majesty to treat with him and his Highness's Answer 1688. 440 84. The Recorder of Bristoll's Speech to his Highness the Prince of Orange Monday Jan. 7. 1688. 441. 85. The Humble Address of the Lieutenancy of the City of London to his Highness the Prince of Orange Decemb. 12. 1688. 442 86. The Humble Address of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons of the City of London in Common-Council Assembled to his Highness the Prince of Orange 443 87. The Speech of Sir Geo. Treby Knight Recorder of the Honourable City of London to his Highness the Prince of Orange Decemb. 20. 1688. Ibid. 88. His Highness the Prince of Orange's Speech to the Scotch Lords and Gentlemen with their Advice and his Highness's Answer with a true Account of what past at their meeting in the Council Chamber at White-Hall Jan. 7. 1688 9. 444 89. The Emperor of Germany's Account of K. James's Misgovernment in joining with the K. of France the Common Enemy of Christendom in his Letter to K. James 446 90. The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster concerning the Misgovernment of K. James and filling up the Throne Presented to K. William and Q. Mary by the Right Honourable the Marquess of Hallifax Speaker to the House of Lords with His Majesty's Most Gracious Answer thereunto 447 91. A Proclamation Declaring William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange to be King and Queen of England France and Ireland c. 449 92. The Declaration of the Estates of Scotland concerning the Misgovernment of K. James the 7th
proved Thus was that man hanged upon that Confession only though the promise that drew it from him doth appear upon Record and can be proved by good and clear Evidence And from this your Majesty may judge what credit may be given to such men We do not at present enlarge on other particulars though of great importance such as Monopolies selling places of Honors turning men of known integrity out of their Imployments to which they had a good and just right during their lives the profits of one of the most considerable of these being sequestred for sometime and applyed for the Dutchess of Lauderdales use the treating about and receiving of great bribes by the Duke and Dutchess of Lauderdale and the Lord Hatton and particularly from the Towns of Edenborough Abberdeen Lynlythgo and many others for procuring from your Majesty Warrants for illegal impositions within these Towns the manifest and publick perverting of Justice in the Session besides the most signal abuses of the Mint and Copper Coin that are most grievous to all your Subjects But the number of these is so great and they will require so many Witnesses to be brought hither for proving them that we fear it would too much trouble your Majesty now to examine them all but your Majesty shall have a full account of them afterwards One thing is humbly offered to your Majesty as the root of these and many other oppressions which is that the Method of governing that Kingdom for several years hath been That the Lord Hatton and his adherents frame any Letter that they desire from your Majesty to your Council and send it to the Duke of Lauderdale who returns it signed and this is brought to the Council upon which if at any time a debate ariseth concerning the matter of that Letter as being against or with Law and when it is proposed that a representation of that should be made to your Majesty then the Lord Hatton in his insolent way calls to have it put to the question as if it were a crime to have any Warrant either debated or represented to your Majesty which is procured by the Duke of Lauderdale or himself and this is ecchoed by his Party and by this means any further debating is stopped There are some other particulars relating to these heads that are to be offered to your Majesty in other Papers which are not added here lest your Majesty should now be troubled with too long a Paper The Impeahment of the Duke and Dutchess of Lauderdale with their Brother My Lord Hatton Presented to His Majesty by the City of Edenbourgh The matters of Fact particularly relating to the Town of Edenbourgh humbly offered for your Majesties Information Before the Matter of Fact be spoken to it is necessary that your Majesty be informed of one thing upon which this whole Affair hath moved THe City of Edenbourgh had at several times given considerable sums of Money to the Duke of Lauderdale amounting to upward of Twelve Thousand pounds Sterlin and the Lord Hatton Brother to the said Duke being inraged by that their former practice and being arrived to great height and influence in the Administration of Your Majesties Affairs in Scotland did thereupon resolve on a Designe of getting Money for himself also from them as will appear to your Majesty by the following Narration but the Magistrates at that time and such others as had then the Principal Influence in the Administration of Affairs in that Town being honest Men of good Fortunes and not to be brought to comply with his Design he bethought himself of all ways to vex them and knowing they did much value the Prosperity of the Town he thought that the first means for promoting that his Design was to have them threatned with removing Your Majesties Publique Judicatures from that City to Sterlin and perswaded his Brother the Duke of Lauderdale to move Your Majesty to that purpose but being disappointed of that project by Your Majesties Royal Wisdom Your Majesty looking upon it as if it were to declare to the World that You were jealous of so great a Part of that Your Ancient Kingdom he bethought himself of new ways to accomplish his Design for which he judged nothing so proper and effectual as to disturb them in the choice of their Magistrates and Town-Counsel and by all means possible to get some of his own chusing fit for his own ends brought into the Administration of the Affairs of that City In order to which being impatient of any longer delay he laid hold of what follows being the first occasion that offer'd though a very frivolous one At Michaclmas 1674 The said City of Edenbourgh being to go about the Election of their Magistrates for the ensuing year there was procured a Letter from Your Majesty to Your Privy Counsel commanding them to forbid the Magistrates and Town Counsel to proceed in their Elections but to continue the Magistrates that then were till Your Majesty's further pleasure should be known the reason suggested to Your Majesty for it was taken from this Circumstance That the Election ought to be made upon the Tuesday after Michaelmas and it happening this year that Michaelmas fell to be on a Tuesday they were resolved to proceed to their Elections upon Michaelmas-day Though this was a very small Matter and upon very good and prudent Considerations resolved as will afterward appear yet was it represented to Your Majesty as a Factious Design and an Innovation of dangerous Consequence tending to create and maintain Faction in that City contrary to Your Majesties Service Your Majesties foresaid Letter being intimated to the Magistrates and Town-Counsel they did immediately give exact obedience to the same They did also represent to Your Majesties Privy Council the Rights that they had for chusing their own Magistrates which had been granted to them by many of Your Majesties Royal Ancestors and confirmed by many Parliaments by vertue of which they humbly conceived they ought to be suffered to proceed in their Elections They did also represent to Your Majesties Privy Council the Reasons which had moved them to resolve of making their Elections on the said Tuesday being Michaelmas day which in short were that by their Constitution they were obliged upon the Friday before Michaelmas to make the List out of which the Magistrates are to be chosen after the doing of which there is a Surcease and Vacation of all ordinary Courts of Judicature within the Town and the whole time is spent by the Common People and Tradesmen of the Town in Rioting and Drinking until the Elections be finished which in this case would have been Twelve days which they did in Prudence think they ought to shorten not conceiving it contrary in the least to the established Rules of their Election 2. On these things they did humbly crave Your Majesties Privy Council would be pleased to represent to Your Majesty that thereby they might be freed from the suspicion of any
Factious Design with which they were charged by the said Letter This being through the Influence of the Lord Hatton refused by the Privy Council they dispatched a Gentleman to the Duke of Lauderdale with Letters and Instructions full of Respect and Submission to his Grace The Gentleman at his first arrival found Duke Lauderdale very kind and was made believe he should be quickly dispatched with Answers according to his Desire but some Delays having fallen in the Duke of Lauderdale fell likewise upon thoughts of getting Money from the Town upon this occasion and therefore pretending still more and more kindness to the said Gentleman he did first by some Insinuations let fall to him his expectation and at last flatly asked him if he had not brought a heavy Purse with him which when he understood he was not to expect he changed his Method and grew harsher and having detained him Five or Six Weeks he the said Duke entered into Consultation with his old Friend Sir Andrew Ramsey how to order the Affair By his Advice he did write a Letter and sent Proposals to the said Town That they should give Bond and Security That the Townsmen should live regularly as to all matters Ecclesiastical in the largest extent as the same is determined by the late Acts of Parliament and to keep the Town free of all sorts of Tumults either of Man or Woman Judging that this was impossible for them to perform and unfavourable to attempt and that therefore it would oblige them to make offers of Money This Letter was all the Gentleman could obtain and having gone back to Scotland and delivered it to the Magistrates they were so far from being carried in the Design that they were glad of that opportunity to witness their Zeal to serve Your Majesty for they did very heartily comply with what was proposed concerning the Bonds and Securities demanded and immediately urged that Your Majesties Ofcers and Lawyers would cause draw such Bonds and Securities as was fit for the purpose offering good Security for great summs of Money for the performance But this not being the thing truly intended their ready Compliance with it set them yet farther off from their desired Settlement and served for no other intent than to cause the Lord Hatton to double his diligence to find out new means to mollest them to which end it was alledged by him that they had of old forfeited their Priviledges and Liberties by some great Misdemeanour and that therefore they had not right to chuse their own Magistrates for which he would needs have their Records searched and accordingly they themselves with their Books and Records were in a most unusual manner brought often before him and his Friends though they had not Authority for it to the great Disturbance and Annoyance of the Citizens by being abundantly jealous of their Liberties were with no small care kept within the due Bounds of Moderation by the Loyalty and Vigilancy of their Magistrates They the said Magistrates finding how they were used at home by the Lord Hatton did again apply themselves to the Duke of Lauderdale both by private Letters to the Duke of Lauderdale and his Dutchess from some of the most eminent of them full of Assurances of particular Respect to their Graces and by a publick Letter to him from the whole Town-Council offering Bond and Security to him in the terms proposed by his fore-mentioned Letter But this could not prevail it being objected to them from some frivolous things the Lord Hatton had scraped together out of their old Records that they had lost their Liberties and that the right of chusing their Magistrates did no more belong to them Then did they produce their Charters and did convincingly clear all Mistakes and evidently make appear that the right of chusing their own Magistrates did remain to them undoubtedly and intirely All these things being cleared and open they expected to be restored to the free exercise of their Election in their accustomed manner They were still kept off with Delayes until the Lord Hatton in pursuance of his Design fell a practising with some few of themselves who did undertake with his assistance to get such Elected as were fit for his ends whereupon he writes to his Brother the Duke of Lauderdale to move Your Majesty for a Letter and accordingly the Letter was procured from Your Majesty upon the Seventh of August 75 wherein Your Majesty after reciting Your former Orders in that Affair did declare that You were well informed of their Obedience to Your Commands and of their dutiful Carriage in Your Concerns and therefore ordained them the next day after the Receipt of the Letter to convene their whole Council after their accustomed manner and out of the Lists already made to Elect the Lord Provost Bailies and other Officers According to which Letter they did the next day proceed to their Elections but instead of those whom the Lord Hatton expected they would have chosen they did Elect some men of good Fortunes and Integrity not at all fit for his purpose these who had ingaged to him not being men of that esteem or influence as to be able to carry his Design as they had undertaken The new Magistrates and Council did immediately after their Election acquaint Your Majesty with their Procedure and gave Your Majesty great Acknowledgments and Assurances of their care of the Peace of the Town and of Your Majesty's Service in all Matters both Ecclesiastical and Civil The said Lord Hatton being exceedingly inraged at this Act of theirs did by Advice of Sir George Mackynge now Your Majesties Advocate send a Letter to the Duke of Lauderdale to which he procured Your Majesties Hand upon the 25th of the same month of August by which Your Majesty ordered Your Privy Council to intimate to the Magistrates and Town-Council that it was Your Royal Pleasure that there should be turned out of the Town-Council and declared incapable of any Publique Trust in the said Town Twelve of the most eminent of the same Men with whom your Majesty had exprest your self so well pleased and whose Actings your Majesty had approved by your Letter of the Seventh of the said Month. This was accordingly executed by the Privy-Council without ever so much as calling before them the said Persons though great Crimes were laid to their Charge as being Factious Persons and mis-representing your Majesty's Proceedings without mentioning any particular Fact of theirs which could import any such Crime And though they be threatned by the said Letter to be pursued for these great Crimes and that your Majesty's Advocate is commanded in the same to insist against them yet could they never obtain from your Majesty's Privy-Council that they should be tryed for these things though by a Petition signed by the whole Twelve they did represent the great Prejudice they sustained both in their Reputation and Trade by being kept under such Threatnings and therefore did humbly offer themselves to
Earl unless they had his Royal Highness's and their Lordships special License and Warrant to that effect which is usual in the like Cases And by the said Petition humbly supplicated that his Highness and the Council would give special Order and Command to the said Sir George Lockhart the said Earls ordinary Advocate to consult and plead for him in the foresaid Criminal Process without incurring any hazard upon that account His Royal Highness and Lords of the said Privy Council did refuse the desire of the said Petition but allowed any Lawyers the Petitioner should employ to consult and plead for him in the Process of Treason and other Crimes to be pursued against him at the instance of His Majesties Advocate And also the said Alexander Dunbar having and holding in his hands another Act of the said Lords of Privy Council of the date the 24th of the said month relative to and narrating the said first Act and proceeding upon another supplication given in by the said Earl to the said Lords craving That his Royal Highness and the said Lords would interpose their Authority by giving a positive and special Order and Warrant to the said Sir George Lockhart to consult and plead with him in the foresaid Criminal Process conform to the tenor of the Acts of Parliament mentioned and particularized in the said Petition and frequent and known practice in the like cases which was never refused to any Subjects of the meanest quality His Royal Highness and Lords of Privy Council having considered the foresaid Petition did by the said Act adhere to their former Order allowing Advocates to appear for the said Earl in the Process foresaid as the said Acts bear and produced the said Acts and Procuratory foresaid to the said Sir George Lockhart who took the same in his hands and read them over successive and after reading thereof the said Alexander Dunbar Procurator and in name and behalf foresaid solemnly required the said Sir George Lockhart as the said Noble Earls ordinary Advocate and as a Lawyer and Advocate upon the said Earls reasonable expence to consult and advise the said Earls said Process at any time and place the said Sir George should appoint to meet thereupon conform to the foresaid two Acts of Council and Acts of Parliament therein mentioned appointing Advocates to consult in such matters which the said Sir George Lockhart altogether refused Whereupon the said Alexander Dunbar as Procurator and in Name foresaid asked and took Instruments one or more in the hands of me Notary publick undersubscribed And these things were done within the said Sir George Lockhart's Lodging on the South side of the Street of Edinburgh in the Lane-Mercat within the Dining-room of the said Lodging betwixt Four and Five hours in the Afternoon Day Month Year Place and of His Majesties Reign respective foresaid before Robert Dicksone and John Lesly Servitors to John Camphell Writer to His Majesties Signet and Dowgall Mac. Alester Messenger in Edinburgh with divers others called and required to the Premisses Ita esse Ego Johannes Broun Notarius publicus in Premissis requisitus Attestor Testantibus his meis signo subscriptione manualibus solitis consuetis Broun Witnesses Robert Dicksone Dowgall Mac. Alester John Lesly Decemb. 5. 1682. The Opinion of divers Lawyers concerning the Case of the Earl of Argyle WE have considered the Criminal Letters raised at the instance of His Majesties Advocate against the Earl of Argyle with the Acts of Parliament contained and narrated in the same Criminal Letters and have compared the same with a Paper or Explication which is libelled to have been given in by the Earl to the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council and owned by him as the sense and explication in which he did take the Oath imposed by the late Act of Parliament Which Paper is of this tenor I have considered the Test and am very desirous to give chedience as far as I can c. And having likewise considered that the Earl after he had taken the Oath with the explication and sense then put upon it it was acquiesced to by the Lords of Privy-Council and he allowed to take his place and to sit and Vote And that before the Earls taking of the Oath there were several papers spread abroad containing objections and alledging inconsistencies and contradictions in the Oath and some thereof were presented by Synods and Presbyteries of the Orthodox Clergy to some of the Bishops of the Church It is our humble Opinion that seeing the Earls design and meaning in offering the said Explication was allenarly for the clearing of his own Conscience and upon no facrious or seditious design and that the matter and import of the said paper is no contradiction of the Laws and Acts of Parliament it doth not at all import any of the Crimes libelled against him viz. Treason Leasing making depraving of His Majesties Laws or the Crime of Perjury but that the glosses and inferences put by the Libel upon the said paper are altogether strained and unwarrantable and inconsistent with the Earls true design and the sincerity of his meaning and intention in making of the said Explication Wednesday the 12th of December the day of compearance assigned to the Earl being now come he was brought by a guard of Souldiers from the Castle to the place appointed for the Trial and the Justice Court being met and fenced the Earl now Marquess of Queensberry then Justice-General the Lords Nairn Collingtoun Forret Newtoun and Hirkhouse the Lords of Justitiary sitting in Judgment and the other formalities also performed the Indictment above set down Num. 24. was read and the Earl spoke as follows The Earl of Argyle's Speech to the Lord Justice General and the Lords of the Justitiary after he had been arraigned and his Indictment read My Lord Justice General c. I Look upon it as the undeniable priviledge of the meanest Subject to explain his own words in the most benign sense and even when persons are under an ill Character the misconstruction of words in themselves not ill can only reach a presumption or aggravation but not any more But it is strange to alledge as well as I hope impossible to make any that know me believe that I could intend any thing but what was honest and honourable suitable to the Principles of my Religion and Loyalty tho I did not explain my self at all My Lord I pray you be not offended that I take up a little of your time to tell you I have from my Youth made it my business to serve His Majesty faithfully and have constantly to my power appeared in his Service especially in all times of difficulty and have never joined nor complied with any Interest or Party contrary to His Majesties Authority and have all along served him in his own way without a frown from His Majesty these thirty years As soon as I passed the Schools and Colledges I went to travel to France and Italy and
some instance of Our Favour and to remember the many Services he had done and the Sufferings he had undergone for his Affections and Fidelity to Our Royal Father and Our self and that it was time to redeem him from those Calamities which yet do lie as heavy upon him since as before Our happy Return And thereupon We recommend him to You Our Lieutenant that you should move Our Council there for preparing a Bill to be transmitted to Us for the Re-investing him the said Marquess into the possession of his Estate into that Our Kingdom as had been done in some other Cases To which Letter you Our said Lieutenant returned us answer That you had informed Our Council of that Our Letter and that you were upon consideration thereof unanimously of Opinion that such a Bill ought not to be transmitted to Us the Reason whereof would forthwith be presented to Us from our Council After which time We received the inclosed Petition from the said Marquess which We referred to the considerations and examinations of the Lords of Our Privy Council whose Names are mentioned in that Our Reference which is annexed to the said Petition who thereupon met together and after having heard the Marquess of Antrim did not think fit to make any Report to Us till they might see and understand the Reasons which induced you not to transmit the Bill We had proposed which Letter was not then come to Our Hands After which time We have received your Letter of the 18th of March together with several Petitions which had been presented to you as well from the Old Soldiers and Adventurers as from the Lady Marchioness of Antrim all which We likewise transmitted to the Lords Referees Upon a second Petition presented to Us by the Lord Marquess which is here likewise enclosed commanding Our said Referees to take the same into their serious consideration and to hear what the Petitioner had to offer in his own Vindication and to report the whole matter to Us which upon a third Petition herein likewise inclosed We required them to expedite with what speed they could By which deliberate Proceedings of ours you cannot but observe that no importunity how just soever could prevail with Us to bring Our Self to a Judgment in this Affair without very ample Information Our said Referees after several Meetings and perusal of what hath been offered to them by the said Marquess have reported unto Us That they have seen several Letters all of them the hand-writing of Our Royal Father to the said Marquess ☞ and several Instructions concerning his treating and joining with the Irish in order to the King's Service by reducing to their Obedience and by drawing some Forces from them for the Service of Scotland That besides the Letters and Orders under His Majesty's Hand they have received sufficient Evidence and Testimony of several private Messages and Directions sent from Our Royal Father and from Our Royal Mother with the privity and with the Directions of the King Our Father by which they are persuaded that whatever Intelligence Correspondence or Actings the said Marquess had with the Confederate Irish Catholicks was directed or allowed by the said Letters Instructions and Directions and that it manifestly appears to them that the King Our Father was well pleased with what the Marquess did ☞ after he had done it and approved the same This being the true state of the Marquess his Case and there being nothing proved upon the first Information against him nor any thing contained against him in your Letter of March 18. but that you were informed he had put in his Claim before the Commissioners appointed for executing the Act of Settlement and that if his Innocency be such as is alledged there is no need of transmitting such a Bill to us as is desired and that if he be Nocent it consists not with the Duty which you owe to Us to transmit such a Bill as if it should pass into a Law must needs draw a great prejudice upon so many Adventurers and Soldiers which are as is alledged to be therein concerned We have considered of the Petition of the Adventurers and Soldiers which was transmitted to Us by you the Equity of which consists in nothing but that they have been peaceably in possession for the space of seven or eight years of those Lands which were formerly the Estate of the Marquess of Antrim and others who were all engaged in the late Irish Rebellion and that they shall suffer very much and be ruined if those Lands should be taken from them And We have likewise considered another Petition from several Citizens of London near sixty in number directed to our Self wherein they desire That the Marquess his Estate may be made liable to the payment of his just Debts that so they may not be ruined in the favour of the present Possessors who they say are but a few Citizens and Soldiers who have disbursed very small Sums thereon Upon the whole matter no man can think We are less engaged by Our Declaration and by the Act of Settlement to protect those who are Innocent and who have faithfully endeavoured to serve the Crown how unfortunate soever than to expose to Justice those who have been really and maliciously guilty And therefore we cannot in Justice but upon the Petition of the Marquess of Antrim and after the serious and strict Inquisition into his Actions declare unto you That We do find him Innocent from any malice or rebellious Purpose against the Crown and that what he did by way of Correspondence or Compliance with the Irish Rebels was in order to the Service of Our Royal Father and warranted by his Instructions and the Trust reposed in him and that the benefit thereof accrued to the Service of the Crown and not to the particular advantage and benefit of the Marquess And as we cannot in justice deny him this Testimony so We require You to transmit Our Letter to Our Commissioners that they may know our Judgment in this Case of the Lord of Antrim's and proceeded accordingly And so we bid you heartily farewel Given at our Court at White-Hall July 10. in the 15th Year of Our Reign 1683. By His Majesty's Command HENRY BENNET Entred at the Signet-Office July 13. 1663. To Our Right Trusty and Right entirely Well-beloved Cousin and Counsellor James Duke of Ormond Our Lieutenant-General and General Governour of Our Kingdom of Ireland and to the Lords of Our Council of that Our Kingdom Vox Populi Or The Peoples Claim to their Parliament's Sitting to Redress Grievances and to provide for the Common Safety by the known Laws and Constitutions of the Nation SInce the wonderful Discovery and undeniable Confirmation of that horrid Popish Plot which designed so much ruine and mischief to these Nations in all things both Civil and Sacred and the unanimous Sense and Censure of so many Parliaments upon it together with so many publick Acts of Justice upon so many
and of which you have seen so fresh an instance that we need not put you in mind of it You know how many of your Fellow-Officers have been used for their standing firm to the Protestant Religion and to the Laws of England and you cannot flatter your selves so far as to expect to be better used if those who have broke their word so often should by your means be brought out of those Straits to which they are reduced at present We hope likewise that you will not suffer your selves to be abused by a false Notion of Honour but that you will in the first place consider what you owe to Almighty God and your Religion to your Country to your Selves and to your Posterity which you as Men of Honour ought to prefer to all private Considerations and Engagements whatsoever We do therefore expect that you will consider the Honour that is now set before you of being the Instruments of serving your Country and securing your Religion and We will ever remember the Service you shall do Us upon this Occasion and will promise unto you that We shall place such particular Marks of our Favour on every one of you as your Behaviour at this time shall deserve of Us and the Nation in which we will make a great Distinction of those that shall come seasonably to join their Arms with ours and you shall find us to be Your Well-wishing and Assured Friend W. H. P. O. Prince George 's Letter to the King SIR WITH a Heart full of Grief am I forced to Write what Prudence will not permit me to say to your Face And may I e'er find Credit with your Majesty and protection from Heaven as what I now do is free from Passion Vanity or Design with which Actions of this Nature are too often accompanied I am not ignorant of the frequent Mischiefs wrought in the World by factious pretences of Religion but were not Religion the most justifiable Cause it would not be made the most specious pretence And your Majesty has always shewn too uninterested a Sense of Religion to doubt the just Effects of it in one whose Practices have I hope never given the World cause to censure his real conviction of it or his backwardness to perform what his Honour and Conscience prompt him to How then can I longer disguise my just Concern for that Religion in which I have been so happily Educated which my Judgment throughly convinces me to be best and for the Support of which I am so highly interested in my Native Country And is not England now by the most endearing Tie become so Whilst the restless Spirits of the Enemies of the REFORMED RELIGION back'd by the cruel Zeal and prevailing Power of France justly alarm and unite all the Protestant Princes of Christendom and engage them in so vast an Expence for the support of it can I act so degenerous and mean a part as to deny my Concurrence to such worthy Endeavours for disabusing of your Majesty by the Reinforcement of those Laws and Establishment of that Government on which alone depends the well-being of your Majesty and of the PROTESTANT RELIGION in Europe This Sir is that irresistible and only Cause that cou'd come in Competition with my Duty and Obligations to your Majesty and be able to tear me from You whilst the same Affectionate Desire of serving You continues in me Could I secure your Person by the Hazard of my Life I should think it could not be better Employed And wou'd to God these Your distracted Kingdoms might yet receive that satisfactory Compliance from your Majesty in all their justifiable pretensions as might upon the only sure Foundation that of the Love and Interest of your Subjects establish your Government and as strongly Unite the Hearts of all your Subjects to You as is that of SIR Your Majesty's most Humble and most Obedient Son and Servant The Lord Churchill 's Letter to the King SIR SInce Men are seldom suspected of Sincerity when they act contrary to their Interests and though my dutiful Behaviour to your Majesty in the worst of Times for which I acknowledge my poor Services much over paid may not be sufficient to incline You to a charitable Interpretation of my Actions yet I hope the great Advantage I enjoy under Your Majesty which I can never expect in any other change of Government may reasonably convince Your Majesty and the World that I am acted by a higher Principle when I offer that violence to my inclination and interest as to desert Your Majesty at a time when your Affairs seem to challenge the strictest Obedience from all your Subjects much more from one who lies under the greatest personal Obligations imaginable to Your Majesty This Sir could proceed from nothing but the inviolable Dictates of my CONSCIENCE and a necessary concern for my RELIGION which no good man can oppose and with which I am instructed nothing ought to come in Competition Heaven knows with what partiality my dutiful Opinion of Your Majesty hath hitherto represented those unhappy Designs which inconsiderate and self-interested men have framed against Your Majesty's true Interest and the Protestant Religion But as I can no longer joyn with such to give a pretence by Conquest to bring them to effect so will I always with the hazard of my Life and Fortune so much your Majesty's due endeavour to preserve Your Royal Person and Lawful Rights with all the tender Concern and dutiful Respect that becomes SIR Your Majesty's most Dutiful and most Obliged Subject and Servant The Princess Ann of Denmark 's Letter to the Queen Madam I Beg your pardon if I am so deeply affected with the surprising News of the Princes being gon as not to be able to see You but to leave this Paper to Express my humble Duty to the King and your Self and to let You know that I am 〈◊〉 to absent my self to avoid the King's Displeasure which I am not able to bear â—ur ther against the Prince or my Self And I shall stay at so great a distance as not to return before I hear the happy News of a Reconcilement And as I am confident the Prince did not leave the King with any other design than to use all possible means for His Preservation so I hope You will do me the Justice to believe that I am uncapable of following Him for any other End Never was any one in such an unhappy Condition so divided between Duty and Affection to a Father and a Husband and therefore I know not what to do but to follow one to preserve the other I see the general falling off of the Nobility and Gentry who avow to have no other end than to prevail with the King to secure their Religion which they saw so much in danger by the Violent Counsels of the Priests who to promote their own Religion did not care to what dangers they exposed the King I am fully perswaded that the Prince of
With several other Informations concerning other Fires in Southwark Fetter-Lane and elsewhere 27 5. Votes and Addresses of the Honourable House of Commons assembled in Parliament made 1673. concerning Popery and other Grievances 49 6. A Letter from a Parliament-man to his Friend concerning the Proceedings of the House of Commons this last Session begun the 13th of October 1675. 53 7. A Speech made by Sir William Scroggs one of His Majesty's Serjeants at Law to the Right Honourable the Lord Chancellor of England at his admission to the Place of one of His Majesty's Justices of the Court of Common-Pleas 56 8. A Discourse upon the Designs Practises and Councels of France 59 9. An Answer to a Letter written by a Member of Parliament in the Countrey upon the Occasion of his reading of the Gazette of the 11th of December 1679. wherein is the Proclamation for further proroguing the Parliament till the 11th of November next ensuing 67 10. The Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftsbury's Speech in the House of Lords March 25. 1679. 71 11. The Instrument or Writing of Association that the true Protestants of England entred into in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth 73 12. The Act of Parliament of the 27th of Queen Elizabeth in Confirmation of the same 74 13. A Word without doors concerning the Bill for Succession 76 14. A Collection of Speeches in the House of Commons in the Year 1680. 81 15. A Copy of the Duke of York's Bill 91 16. Some particular Matters of Fact relating to the Administration of Affairs in Scotland under the Duke of Lauderdale 93 17. The Impeachment of the Duke and Dutchess of Lauderdale with their Brother the Lord Hatton presented to his Majesty by the City of Edenburgh The matters of fact particularly relating to the Town of Edenburgh humbly offered for His Majesty's information 96 18. His Majesty's Declaration for the dissolving of His late Privy Council and for constituting a New One made in the Council-Chamber at White-hall April 20. 1679. 99 19. The Mâ—ssage from the King by Mr. Secretary Jenkins to the Commons on the 9th of November 1680. 102 20. The Address to His Majesty from the Commons on Saturday the 13th of November 1680. Ibid. 21. The Address of the Commons in Parliament to His Majesty to remove Sir George Jeffreys out of all publick Offices 103 22. His Majesty's Message to the Commons in Parliament relating to Tangier 104 23. The Humble Address of the Commons assembled in Parliament presented to His Majesty on Monday the 29th of November 1680. in answer to that Message ibid. 24. The Humble Address of the House of Commons presented to His Majesty on Tuesday the 21st of December 1680. in answer to His Majesty's Gracious Speech to both Houses of Parliament upon the 15th day of the same December 107 25. The Report of the Committee of the Commons appointed to examine the Proceedings of the Judges c. 109 26. The Report from the Committee of the Commons in Parliament appointed by the Honourable House of Commons to consider of the Petition of Richard Thompson of Bristol Clerk and to examine Complaints against him And the Resolution of the Commons in Parliament upon this Report for his Impeachment for High Crimes and Misdemeanors on Friday the 24th of December 1680. 116 27. Articles of Impeachment of Sir William Scroggs Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench by the Commons in Parliament assembled in their own Name and in the name of all the Commons of England of High Treason and other great Crimes and Misdemeanors 119 28. The Humble Petition of the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons of the City of London in Common Council assembled on the 13th of January 1680. to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for the sitting of the Parliament prorogued to the 20th then instant together with the Resolutions Orders and Debates of the said Court 122 29. Vox Patriae Or the Resentments and Indignation of the Free-born Subjects of England against Popery Arbitrary Government the Duke of York or any Popish Successor being a true Collection of the Petitions and Addresses lately made from divers Counties Cities and Burroughs of this Realm to their Respective Representatives chosen to serve in the Parliament held at Oxford March 21 1680. 125 30. The Speech of the Honourable Henry Booth Esq at Chester the 2d of March 1680 1 〈◊〉 his being elected One of the Knights of the Shire for that County to serve in the Parliament summon'd to meet at Oxford the 21st of the said Month. 147 31. An Account of the Proceedings at the Sessions for the City of Westminster against Thomas Whitfield Scrievener John Smallbones Woodmonger and William Laud Painter for tearing a Petition prepared to be presented to the King for the sitting of the Parliament with an Account of the said Petition presented on the then 13th Instant and His Majesty's Gracious Answer 150. 32. The Judgment and Decree of the Vniversity of Oxford passed in their Convocation July 21 1683. against certain pernicious Books and damnable Doctrines destructive to the Sacred Persons of Princes Their State and Government and of all Humane Society 153 32. The Case of the Earl of Argyle Or an Exact and Full Account of his Tryal Escape and Sentence As likewise a Relation of several Matters of Fact for better clearing of the said Case 151 33. Murther will out Or The King's Letter justifying the Marquess of Antrim and declaring that what he did in the Irish Rebellion was by direction from His Royal Father and Mother and for the Service of the Crown 217 34. Vox Populi Or The Peoples claim to their Parliaments sitting to redress Grievances and to provide for the Common safety by the known Laws and Constitution of the Nation 219 35. The Security of English-mens Lives Or The Trust Power and Duty of the Grand Juries of England explained according to the Fundamentals of the English Government and the Declarations of the same made in Parliament by many Statutes 225 36. The Speech and Carriage of Stephen Colledge before the Castle at Oxford on Wednesday Aug. 31. 1681. taken exactly from his Mouth at the place of Execution 255 37. The Speech of the late Lord Russell to the Sheriffs together with the Paper delivered by him to them at the place of Execution July 21. 1683. 262 38. To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty the Humble Petition of Algernoon Sidney Esq 266 39. The very Copy of a Paper delivered to the Sheriffs upon the Scaffold on Friday Dec. 7. 1683. by Algernoon Sidney Esq before his Execution there 267 40. Of Magistracy 269. Of Prerogatives by Divine Right 270. Of Obedience 271. Of Laws 272. By Mr. Samuel Johnson 41. Copies of two Papers written by the late King Charles II. published by His Majesty's Command Printed in the Year 1686. 273. 42. A Letter containing some Remarks on the Two Papers writ by His late Majesty King Charles II. concerning Religion 274
keeping Watch since the Plot hath cost the City above 100000 l. The City of London is the Bulwark of our Religion And is it not said the Duke is at the head of 30 or 40000 men The Lieutenancy and Justices how are they molded for his turn And if you do nothing now in this House we must all without any more ado try to make a Peace with him as well as we can I 'll never do it And will you for the sake of one man destroy three Kingdoms An Highth He moved that the Representation might declare That we see no Security but removing the Duke of York A Ninth We discoursing of Tangier at this time is like Nero's Fiddling whilst Rome was consuming by Fire If it be in a good condition we cannot help it if in a bad one we are not in a posture to do it Pray consider the condition by what 's past when King Henry the Eighth was for Supremacy the Kingdom was for it when King Henry the Eighth was against it the Kingdom was against it When King Edward the Sixth was a Protestant the Kingdom was so when Queen Mary was a Papist the Kingdom was so when Queen Elizabeth was a Protestant the Kingdom so again Regis ad exemplum c. And I believe even in King Edward the Sixth's time the Bishops themselves would not have been for throwing out such a Bill as this And if King Edward had promised any thing for the preservation of the Protestant Religion so that Mary might succeed the Pope would no way have contrived so great a Favour The bidding us prevent Popery and the letting alone a Popish Successor is as if a Physician should come to a man in a Pleurisie and tell him he may make use of any Remedies but letting of Blood the Party must perish that being the only Cure I am not at present for giving of Money that being to the State as Food to the Stomach if that be clean meat turns to good Nourishment but if it be out of order it breeds Diseases And so it is in the State if that be not in order too We have been often deceived and by the same men again Was not 200000 l. given for the Fleet in 74 and was any of it employed that way Money given for an actual War with France employed for a dishonourable Peace Never so many Admirals and so few Ships to guard us never more Commissioners of the Treasury and so little Money never so many Counsellors and so little Safety Let us address His Majesty A Tenth I 'll never be for giving of Money for promoting Popery and a Successor a publick Enemy to the Kingdom and a Slave to the Pope Whilst he hath 11 to 7 in the Council and 63 to 31 in the House of Lords we are not secure And if my own Father had been one of the 63 I should have voted him an Enemy to the King and Kingdoms and if we cannot live Protestants I hope we shall dye so The Eleventh Redress our Grievances first and then and not till then Money Tangier never was nor will be a place of Trade Tituan and Sally so near they will never trade with us to destroy themselves and can never be for our Advantage And I have many years wonder'd at the Council that have been for the keeping of it and am of opinion that Popery may be aimed at by it and that our Councils are managed at Rome from whence I saw a Letter from a Friend dated the 21th of October with the Heads of the King's Speech in it to this effect That His Majesty would command them not to meddle with the Succession That he would ask no Money That he would stand upon the Confirmation of the Lord Danby's Pardon and That the keeping of Tangier was to draw on Expences and was it not would be for the blowing of it up Twelfth I am for a Representation Thirteenth I remember before the last Session of Parliament there was a Council held at Lambeth and there hatched a Bill against Popery It was for the breeding of Children of a Popish Successor which admitted the thing and it was called a Bill against Popery but we called it the Popish Bill I am for the Church of England but not for the Church-men of the late Bishop of St. Asaph on his Death-bed good man could hardly forbear declaring himself which his Epitaph did Ora pro Anima ordered to be written upon his Tomb. We are told the other day we ought to make the Duke a Substantive to stand by himself That there was less danger of a General without an Army than an Army without a General And I have read in Pliny which was most to be feared an Army of Lyons with an Hare to their General or an Army of Hares with a Lyon to their General and it was concluded that an Army of Hares with a Lyon to their General was most to be feared of the two His Majesty is inclosed by a sort of Monsters who endeavour to destroy and I hope to move against them before we rise and though we have lost our last Bill we have not lost our Courage and Hearts Fourteenth His Majesty desires your Advice and Assistance it is seldom which is very kind and though you shall think fit not to give the latter it 's but mannerly to give the first And I hope you will not resent any Injury if any there were done by the House of Lords on the King who though he cannot cure all ill in one day he can ruine all And I acquaint you there is a very great Weight laid upon this Session of Parliament and upon the agreeing of the King with the People on which depends the Welfare of the Protestants abroad and hope you will not go about to Remonstrate now Fifteenth If you had sent the Duke's Lord Craven's and Mulgrave's Regiment to Tangier it would supply the Place with Men and Disband the Lord Oxford's Regiment and the Money on those imployed would bear much of the share of this Then the House Resolved to appoint a Committee to draw up an Address upon the Debate of this House to represent His Majesty the State and Condition of the Kingdom in Answer to His Majesties Message about Tangier The SPEECHES of several Learned and Worthy Members of the Honourable House of Commons for Passing the Bill against the Duke of York Mr. Speaker THE Gentleman that spoke last seems to intimate that we ought to have a due regard to the Kings Brother and consider what infinite disadvantages will accrew to us if we are too hasty in our Resolutions as before the Duke is found guilty to proceed to pass a Bill for Exclusion for that nothing but War and Bloodshed can be expected from it therefore he says we ought to be moderate and find out a Medium to secure the Protestant Religion notwithstanding the Duke may be a Papist Now Gentlemen I give you the Dictates of my
to have been perverted from the Protestant to the Popish Religion whereby not only great Encouragement hath been given to the Popish Party to enter into and carry on most Devilish and Horrid Plots and Conspiracies for the Destruction of His Majesties Sacred Person and Government and for the Extirpation of the True Protestant Religon But also if the said Duke should succeed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm nothing is more manifest than that a Total Change of Religion within these Kingdoms would ensue For the Preservation whereof Be it Enacted by the King 's Most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That the said James Duke of York shall be and is by the Authority of this present Parliament Excluded and made for ever uncapable to Inherit Possess or Enjoy the Imperial Crown of this Realm and of the Kingdoms of Ireland and the Dominions and Territories to them or either of them belonging or to have exercise or enjoy any Dominion Power Jurisdiction or Authority in the same Kingdoms Dominions or any of them And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if the said James Duke of York shall at any time hereafter challenge claim or attempt to possess or enjoy or shall take upon him to use or exercise any Dominion Power or Authority or Jurisdiction within the said Kingdoms or Dominions or any of them as King or Chief Magistrate of the same That then he the said James Duke of York for every such Offence shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures as in case of High Treason And further That if any Person or Persons whatever shall assist or maintain abett or willingly adhere unto the said James Duke of York in such challenge claim or attempt or shall of themselves attempt or endeavour to put or bring the said James Duke of York into the Possession or Exercise of any Regal Power Jurisdiction or Authority within the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid or shall by Writing or Preaching advisedly publish maintain or declare That he hath any Right Title or Authority to the Office of King or Chief Magistrate of the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid that then every such Person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and that he suffer and undergo the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures aforesaid And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That he the said James Duke of York shall not at any time from and after the Fifth of November 1680 return or come into or within any of the Kingdoms or Dominions aforesaid And then he the said James Duke of York shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures as in case of High Treason And further That if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall be aiding or assisting unto such Return of the said James Duke of York That then every such Person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer as in Cases of High Treason And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That he the said James Duke of York or any other Person being guilty of any of the Treasons aforesaid shall not be capable of or receive Benefit by any Pardon otherwise than by Act of Parliament wherein they shall be particularly named and that no Nole prosequi or Order for stay of Proceedings shall be received or allowed in or upon any Indictment for any of the Offences mentioned in this Act. And be it further Enacted and Declared And it is hereby Enacted and Declared That it shall and may be lawful to and for any Magistrates Officers and other Subjects whatsoever of these Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid and they are hereby enjoyned and required to apprehend and secure the said James Duke of York and every other Person offending in any of the Premisses and with him or them in case of Resistance to fight and him or them by Force to subdue For all which Actings and for so doing they are and shall be by virtue of this Act saved harmless and indemnified Provided and it is hereby Declared That nothing in this Act contained shall be construed deemed or adjudged to disenable any other Person from inheriting and enjoying the Imperial Crown of the Realms and Dominions aforesaid other than the said James Duke of York But that in case the said James Duke of York should survive his now Majesty and the Heirs of his Majesty's Body The said Imperial Crown shall descend to and be enjoyed by such Person or Person successarily during the Life of the said James Duke of York as should have inherited and enjoyed the same in case the said James Duke of York were naturally dead any thing contained in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That during the Life of the said James Duke of York this Act shall be given in charge at every Assizes and General Sessions of the Peace within the Kingdoms Dominions and Territories aforesaid and also shall be openly Read in every Cathedral Church and Parish Church and Chappels within the aforesaid Kingdoms Dominions and Territories by the several respective Parsons Vicars Curates and Readers thereof who are hereby required immediately after Divine Service in the Fore-noon to read the same twice in every year that is to say on the 25th of December and upon Easter-day during the Life of the said James Duke of York This BILL was Read Three Times and Passed and sent up to the Lords for their Concurrence Some particular Matters of Fact relating to the Administration of Affairs in Scotland under the Duke of LAUDERDALE Humbly offered to Your Majesty's Consideration in Obedience to Your Royal Commands 1. THE Duke of Lauderdale did grosly misrepresent to your Majesty the Condition of the Western Countries as if they had been in a state of Rebellion though there had never been any opposition made to your Majesty's Authority nor any Resistance offered to your Forces nor to the execution of the Laws But he purposing to abuse your Majesty that so he might carry on his sinistrous Designs by your Authority advised your Majesty to raise an Army against your peaceable Subjects at least did frame a Letter which he sent to your Majesty to be signed by your Royal Hand to that effect which being sent down to your Council Orders was thereupon given out for raising an Army of Eight or Nine thousand men the greatest part whereof were Highblanders and notwithstanding that to avert threatning the Nobility and Gentry of that Country did send to Edenburgh and for the security of the Peace did offer to engage that whatsoever should be sent to put the Laws in execution should meet with no affront and that they would become Hostages for their safety yet
this Army was marched and led into a peaceable Country and did take free Quarters according to their Commissions and in most places levied great Sums of Money under notion of dry Quarters and did plunder and rob your Subjects of which no redress could be obtained though Complaints were frequently made all which were expresly contrary to the Laws of the Kingdom 2. In their Quarters it was apparent that regard was only had to the Dukes private Animosities for the greatest part of those places that were most quartered on and destroyed had not been guilty of the Field-Conventicles complained of and many of the places that were most guilty were spared upon private Considerations 3. The Subjects at that time were required to subscribe an exorbitant and illegal Bond which was impossible to be performed by them that they their Wives and Children and Servants should live orderly according to Law not go to Conventicles or entertain vagrant Preachers with several other particulars by which Bond those that signed it were made lyable for every Man's fault that lived upon their Ground 4. Your Majesty's Subjects were charged with Laborrows denounced Rebels and Captions were issued out for seizing their persons upon their refusing to sign the aforesaid Bond and the Nobility and Gentry there who have ever been faithful to your Majesty and had appeared in Arms for suppressing the last Rebellion were disarmed upon Oath A Proclamation was also issued forbidding them upon great Penalty to keep any Horses above four Pounds ten groats price 5. The Nobility and Gentry of the Shire of Ayre were also indicted at the instance of your Majesty's Advocate of very high Crimes and Misdemeanors whereof some did import Treason These Indictments were delivered them in the Evening to be answered by them the next Morning upon Oath and when they did demand two or three days time to consider of their Indictments and crave the benefit of Lawyers to advise with in matters of so high concernment and also excepted to their being put to swear against themselves in matters that were Capital which was contrary to all Law and Justice those their desires were rejected though the like had never been done to the greatest Malefactor in the Kingdom And it was told them they must either swear instantly or they would repute them guilty and proceed accordingly 6. The Noblemen and Gentlemen knowing themselves innocent of all that had been surmised against them did purge themselves by Oath of all the particulars that were objected to them and were thereupon acquitted And though the Committee of the Council used the severest manner of enquiry to discover any Seditious or Treasonable Designs which were pretended as the grounds of leading in that Army into those Countries yet nothing could ever be proved so false was that Suggestion concerning a Rebellion then designed that was offered to your Majesty and prevailed with you for sending the aforementioned Letter 7. The Oppressions and Quarterings still continued The Noblemen and Gentry of those Countries went to Edenburgh to present to your Council the heavy Pressure that they and their people lay under and were ready to offer to them all that in Law or Reason could be required of them for securing the peace The Council did immediately upon their appearing there set forth a Proclamation requiring them to depart the Town within three days upon all highest pains and when the Duke of Hamilton did petition for leave to stay two three or days longer for some very urgent Affairs that was refused him 8. When some Persons of Quality had declared to the Duke of Lauderdale that they would go to represent their condition to your Majesty if they could not have Justice from your Ministers for preventing that a Proclamation was set forth forbidding all the Subjects to depart the Kingdom without License that so your Majesty might not be acquainted with the said condition of your Subjects from making their application to your Majesty no less contrary to your Majesty's true Interest who must always be the Refuge of his People than to the natural right of the Subject The former Particulars relate to the Invasion of the Rights of great numbers of your Subjects all at once What follow have indeed only fallen on some single persons yet are such that your whole People apprehend they may be all upon the slightest occasions brought under the like Mischiefs 1. The Council hath upon many occasions proceeded to a new kind of Punishment of declaring men uncapable of all publick Trust concerning which your Majesty may remember what Complaints the said Duke made when during the Earl of Middleton's Administration he himself was put under and incapacitated by an Act of Parliament The Words of his Paper against the Earl of Middleton are Uncapacitating was to whip with Scorpions a punishment to rob men of their Honour and to lay a lasting stain upon them and their Posterity And if this was complained of when done by the highest Court of Parliament your Majesty may easily conclude it cannot be done in any lower Court But yet notwithstanding it is become of late years an ordinary Sentence in Council when the least Complaints are brought against any with whom the Duke of Lauderdale and his Brother are offended Instances of this are The declaring Thirteen worthy Citizens of Edenburgh uncapable of publick Trust against whom no Complaint was ever made to this day as your Majesty will perceive by a Paper more fully concerning that Affair The true cause of it was that those men being in the Magistracy that Duke and his Brother could not get a vast Bribe from them out of the Towns-money which was afterwards obtained when they were removed The Provost of Glascow Aberdeen and Jadburgh were put under the same Sentence for signing a Letter to your Majesty in the Convention of the Burroughs with the rest of that Body which Letter was advised by him who is now your Majesty's Advocate as that which had nothing in it which could bring them under any guilt and yet those three were singled out of the whole number and incapacitated besides an high Fine and long Imprisonment as to your Majesty will more fully appear by another Paper Sir Patrick Holme of Polworth being sent by the Shire of Berwick to complain of some illegal Proceedings and to obtain a legal remedy to them which he did only in the common Form of Law was also declared uncapable of publick Trust besides many months Imprisonment The Provost of Linlythgo being complained of for not furnishing some of your Forces with Baggage Horses was called before the Council and because he said they were not bound in Law to furnish Horses in such manner he was immediately declared incapable of publick Trust and was both fined and imprisoned There are also fifty of the Town of St. Johnstons incapacitated upon a very slight pretence so that it 's very impossible for them to find a sufficient number of Citizens for the Magistracy
the strictest and severest Tryal To which Petition they never received any Answer To make appear to your Majesty that these things were done for private and finistrous Designs and not upon account of the ill effectedness or factious Dispositions of the Men as was pretended Your Majesty is humbly prayed to take notice of these Particulars following First There are three of the most considerable of these very Persons who had been charged with so great Crimes admitted since that time by bribing the Dutchess of Lauderdale into a Trust in your Majesty's Affairs in Scotland more eminent and considerable than any Trust the Town of Edenburgh can confer viz. The paying off your Majesty's Forces and bringing in your Majesty's Excise Secondly No sooner were these Twelve Men turned out of the Town-Council but after many great and essential Informalities with the recital of which it is needless to trouble your Majesty they elected for Magistrates Men of no Reputation either for Parts Estate or Honesty And though these Bonds and Securities which had been demanded from the others and consented to by them was formerly pretended to be of great importance for your Majesty's Service yet they were not so much as once demanded either by the Duke of Lauderdale or the Lord Hatton from these Men who were now chosen Thirdly These new Magistrates were not long in their Seats when off comes the Mask and the true design of getting Money appears For by an Act of the Town-Council there is about 5000 l. Sterlin disposed on amongst their nameless Friends which were the Duke of Lauderdale the Lord Hatton and some other of their Friends A great Sum to be got from that City considering that the Duke of Lauderdale had got before that about 12000 l. Sterlin from them The Dutchess of Lauderdale did also since that time endeavour to get more Money from them and did with great Wrath threaten the Magistrates in plain Terms for not giving her a Present notwithstanding all the Good she said she had done for them reckoning the Favours your Majesty hath at any time been pleased to bestow upon them as done by her self Thus hath that poor Town been abused and doth now lie having Magistrates without either Conduct or Courage in a time when the Disorders of that Nation doth require Persons to be imployed there of eminent Fidelity and Capacity to serve your Majesty His Majesty's Declaration for the Dissolution of his late Privy Council And for Constituting a New one made in the Council-Chamber at White Hall April the twentieth 1679. By His Majesty's Special Command My Lords HIS Majesty hath called you together at this time to communicate unto you a Resolution he hath taken in a matter of great Importance to his Crown and Government and which he hopes will prove of the greatest Satisfaction and Advantage to his Kingdoms in all Affairs hereafter both at Home and Abroad and therefore he doubts not of your Approbation however you may seem concerned in it In the first place His Majesty gives you all Thanks for your Service to him here and for all the good Advices you have given him which might have been more frequent if the great number of this Council had not made it unfit for the Secrecy and Dispatch that are necessary in many great Affairs This forced him to use a smaller number of your in a Foreign Committee and sometimes the Advices of some few among them upon such Occasions for many Years past He is sorry for the ill success he has found in this Course and sensible of the ill Posture of Affairs from that and some unhappy Accidents which have raised great Jealousies and Dissatisfaction among his good Subjects and thereby left the Crown and Government in a Condition too weak for those Dangers we have reason to fear both at home and abroad These his Majesty hopes may be yet prevented by a Course of wise and steady Counsels for the future and these Kingdoms grow again to make such a Figure as they have formerly done in the World and as they may always do if our Union and Conduct were equal to our Force To this end he hath resolved to lay aside the use he may have hitherto made of any single Ministry or private Advices or Foreign Committees for the general direction of his Affairs and to constitute such a Privy-Council as may not only by its number be fit for the Consultation and Digestion of all business both Domestick and Foreign but also by the Choice of them out of the several Parts this State is composed of may be the best informed in the true Constitutions of it and thereby the most able to counsel him in all the Affairs and Interests of this Crown and Nation And by the constant Advice of such a Council his Majesty is resolved hereafter to govern his Kingdoms together with the frequent use of his Great Council of Parliament which he takes to be the true ancient Constitution of this State and Government Now for the greater Dignity of this Council his Majesty resolves their constant number shall be limited to that of Thirty And for their greater Authority there shall be Fifteen of his chief Officers who shall be Privy Counsellors by their places And for the other Fifteen he will choose Ten out of the several Ranks of the Nobility and Five Commoners of the Realm whose known Abilities Interest and Esteem in the Nation shall render them without all suspicion of either mistaking or betraying the true Interests of the Kingdom and consequently of advising him ill In the first place therefore and to take care of the Church his Majesty will have the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of London for the time being and to inform him well in what concerns the Laws the Lord Chancellor and one of the Lord Chief Justices For the Navy and Stores wherein consists the chief Strength and Safety of the Kingdom the Admiral and Master of the Ordnance for the Treasury the Treasurer and Chancellor of the Exchequer or whenever any of these Charges are in Commission then the first Commissioner to serve here in their room the rest of the Fifteen shall be the Lord Privy-Seal the Master of the Horse Lord Steward and Lord Chamberlain of his Houshold the Groom of the Stole and the two Secretaries of State And these shall be all the Offices of his Kingdom to which the Dignity of Privy-Counsellor shall be annexed The others his Majesty has resolved and hopes he has not chosen ill His Majesty intends besides to have such Princes of his Blood as he shall at any time call to this Board being here in Court A President of the Council whenever he shall find it necessary and the Secretary of Scotland when any such shall be here But these being uncertain he reckons not of the constant number of Thirty which shall never be exceeded To make way for this new Council his Majesty hath now resolved to Dissolve this old one
if he were judged a Refuser he submitted but could conceive no greater danger in the matter for he had served His Majesty faithfully within doors and was resolved to do so without doors and so he made his obeisance and went out Next morning being Saturday November 5. The Earl waited on his Royal Highness and mongst other things told his Highness he was strangely surprised that the saying He could not bind up himself in his station and in a lawful way c. as was contained in that Paper was lookt on as a Crime seeing he had said the same words to his Highness formerly in private without any offence to which His Highness gave no answer hut held his peace which made the Earl make bold to put him to remember his own words and to ask him what he had said when the Earl formerly spoke to him Then His Highness was pleased to say he had forgot what he had said To which the Earl answered the worse indeed for me But Sir here are the same words I formerly said without offence what says Your Highness now What ill is in them Let me know and I will vindicate my self And all his Highness at this Second time said was what hath been above remarked That they were unnecessary words that the Earl scrupled needlesly that he was not tyed up by that Oath as he imagined And after a pause added As I have already told you Well you have cheated your self you have taken the Test To which the Earl replyed he hoped then his Highness was satisfied as above his Highness then began to complain that the Earl the little while he sat in Council after he had taken the Oath had not gone along to approve the Councils explanation The Earl said he had not heard the debate And therefore it was reasonable to excuse him from Voting His Highness returned a little warmly that the Earl knew the Case well enough which indeed was not unlike and yet not at all strange that the Earl could not Vote for that explanation seeing he could not but know the Parliament did intend the Confession should be Sworn And that he himself had taken it in that sense as all others had done before that explanation past in Council but the Earl replying nothing his Highness continued That the Earl and others bad designed to bring trouble upon an handful of poor Catholicks that would live peaceably however they were used but it should light upon others A little after His Highness commanded the Earl not to go out of Town till he waited on him which the Earl said he should obey But notwithstanding thereof one of the Clerks of the Council was sent to the Earl that same night late to intimate to him not to go out of Town till the Council should sit upon the Tuesday thereafter Upon Monday the Seventh of November the Earl waited on His Highness again and told him he was surprised to get such a message from the Council after His Highness had laid his own Commands upon him and asked what the Councils meaning could be His Highness was pleased to say he knew nothing but referred all to themselves at their meeting Upon Tuesday the Eight of November when the Council met without ever calling the Earl an Order was sent to him by one of their Clerks to enter himself Prisoner in the Castle of Edinburgh before Twelve of the Clock the next day with a warrant to the Deputy Governour to keep him Prisoner wherein the word Sure-firmance was struck out which appeared to have been fairly writ This Order the Earl received and obeyed it with great submission entering all alone in an Hackney-Coach And when some of his Relations and Persons of quality offered to go along with him he refused saying that if he were pursued at the instance of any other he would accept of their civility but seeing he was pursued at the instance of His Majesties Advocate he would go in the most humble way that he could think on and have no body concerned but himself But all this did not hinder the Council to write to his Majesty the Letter hereafter insert giving Judgment before Tryal without any hearing and seeking leave to proceed to a process which they likewise proceeded in before any return came as likewise about the very Date of this Letter they emitted their explanation of the Test Albeit in their Letter they assert That they had been very careful not to suffer any to take the Test with glosses and explanations The Earl some days after his entering Prisoner into the Castle of Edinburgh did write a Letter to his Royal Highness telling him that he had obeyed his Highness and the Councils Order in entering Prisoner in that place that he had not written sooner least he might be thought too impatient of his punishment which appeared to be the effects of an high displeasure which he hoped he no wise deserved that he was resolved to continue in all duty and obedience to His Majesty and his Royal Highness and never to fail in any profession thereof he had made and begged to know what satisfaction was expected and where and how he might live with his Highness favour This Letter at First seemed to please and the Earl heard it did but the only answer directly returned was Summonds charging the Earl with leasing making and depraving of Laws before any return from His Majesty And after a return came another Summonds with sound of Trumpet containing Perjury and Treason added to the former crimes Notwithstanding all which fair weather was made and it was given out and likewise intimated to the Earl by a particular message from one of the Club that no more was designed but to humble the Earl and to take his heritable and other Offices from him and his Family and when his Highness was told it was hard measure by such a process and on such pretensions to threaten Life and Fortune his Highness said Life and Fortune God forbid What happened after these things and how the process was carried on follows now in order And for your more clear and distinct information I have sent you several very necessary and useful Papers with Indexes on the Margin pointing at such Passages as more remarkably concern this affair The TEST Containing the Oath to be taken by all Persons in publick Trust I Solemnly Swear in the presence of the Eternal God whom I invoke as Judge and Witness of the sincere intention of this my Oath That I own and sincerely profess the true Protestant Religion contained in the Confession of Faith Recorded in the first Parliament of King James the VI and that I believe the same to be founded on and agreeable to the written Word of God And I promise and swear That I shall adhere thereunto ☞ during all the days of my Life time and shall endeavour to Educate my Children therein And shall never consent to any change or alteration contrary thereto and
Highness c. Montrose Errol Marshall Marr Glencarne Winton Linlithgow Perth Strathmore Roxburgh Queensberry Airley Kintore Breadalbane Lorne Levingston Bishop of Edinburgh Elphinston Rosse Dalziel Treasurer Deputy Praeses Advocate Justice Clerk Collinâ—oun Tarbet Haddo Lundie This day the Test was subscribed by the above-written Privy-Councellors and by the Earl of Queensberry who coming in after the rest had taken it declared that he took it with the Explication following The Earl of Queensberries Explanation of the Test when he took it HIS Lordship declared that by that part of the Test That there lies no obligation to endeavour any change or alteration in the Government c. He did not understand himself to be obliged against Alterations in case it should please His Majesty to make alterations of the Government of Church or State HALYRVDEHOVSE Sederunt vigesimo primo Die Octobris 1681. His Royal Highness c. Winton Perth Strathmore Queensberry Ancram Airley Lorne Levingston Bishop of Edinburgh Treasurer Deputy Praeses Register Advocate Collintoun This day the Bishop of Edinburgh having drawn up a long Explication of the Test to satisfie the many Objections and Scruples moved against it especially by the conformed Clergy presented it to the Council for their Lordships Approbation which was ordered to be read but the Paper proving prolix and tedious his Highness after reading of a few Leaves interrupted saying very wittily and pertinently That the first Chapter of John with a Stone will chase away a Dog and so break it off Yet the Bishop was afterward allowed to print it if he pleased Sederunt quarto Die Novembris 1681. His Royal Highness c. Montrose Praeses Perth Ancram Levingston President of Session Advocate Winton Strathmore Airley Bishop of Edinburgh Treasurer Deputy Lundie Linlithgow Roxburgh Balcaras Esphynstoun Register This day the Eari of Argyle being about to take the Test as a Commissioner of the Treasury and having upon Command produced a Paper bearing the sense in which he took the Test the precedeing day and in which he would take the same as a Commissioner of the Treasury Upon consideration thereof it was resolved that he cannot sit in Council not having taken the Test in the sense and meaning of the Act of Parliament and therefore was removed The Earl of Argyle's Explication of the Test when he took it I Have considered the Test and I am very desirous to give obedience as far as I can I 'm confident the Parliament never intended to impose contradictory Oaths Therefore I think no Man can explain it but for himself Accordingly I take it as far as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion And I do declare That I mean not to bind up my self in my station and in a lawful way to wish and endeavour any alteration I think to the advantage of Church or State not repugnant to the Protestant Religion and my Loyalty And this I understand as a part of my Oath But the Earl finding as hath been narrated this his Explication though accepted and approven by his Highness and Council the day before to be this day carped and offended at and advantages thereupon soughtand designed against him did immediately draw up the following Explanation of his Explication and for his own vindication did first communicate it to some privately and thereafter intended to have offered it at his Trial for clearing of his defences The Explanation of his Explication I Have delayed hitherto to take the Oath appointed by the Parliament to be taken by the first of January next But now being required near two Months sooner to take it this day peremptorily or to refuse I have considered the Test and have seen several Objections moved against it especially by many of the Orthodox Clergy notwithstand whereof I have endeavoured to satisfie my self with a just Explanation which I here offer that I may both satisfie my conscience and obey Your Highness and Your Lordships commands in taking the Test though the Act of Parliament do not simply command the thing but only under a Certification which I could easily submit to if it were with Your Highness favour and might be without offence but I love not to be singular and I am very desirous to give obedience in this and every thing as far as I can and that which clears me is that I am confident what ever any Man may think or say to the prejudice of this Oath the Parliament never intended to impose contradictory Oaths and because their sense they being the framers and imposers is the true sense and that this Test injoyned is of no private interpretation nor are the Kings Statutes to be interpreted but as they bear and to the intent they are made Therefore I think no Man that is no private Person can explain it for another to amuse or trouble him with it may be mistaken glosses But every Man as he is to take it so is to explain it for himself and to endeavour to understand it notwithstanding all these exceptions in the Parliament which is its true and genuine sense I take it therefore notwithstanding any scruple made by any as far as it is consistant with it self and the Protestant Religion which is wholly in the Parliaments sense and their true meaning which being present I am sure was owned by all to be the securing of the Protestant Religion founded on the Word of God and contained in the Confession of Faith Recorded J. 6 p. 1. c. 4. And not out of scruple as if any thing in the Test did import the contrary but to clear my self from all cavils as if thereby I were hand up further then the true meaning of the Oath I do declare that by that part of the Test that there lies no obligation on me c. I mean not to bind up my self in my station and in a lawful way still disclaiming all unlawful endeavours to wish and endeavour any alteration I think according to my conscience to the advantage of Church or State not repugnant to the Protestant Religion and my Loyalty and by my Loyalty I understand no other thing then the words plainly bear to wit the duty and allegiance of all Loyal Subjects and this explanation I understand as a part not of the Test or Act of Parliament but as a qualifying part of my Oath that I am to Swear and with it I am willing to take the Test 〈◊〉 Your Royal Highness and Your Lordships allow me or otherwise in submission to Your High 〈◊〉 and the Councils pleasure I am content to be held as a refuser at present The Councils Letter to His Majesty Concerning their having committed the Earl of Argyle May it please your Sacred Majesty THE last Parliament having made so many and so advantageous Acts for securing the Protestant Religion the Imperial Crown of this Kingdom and Your Majesties Sacred Person whom God Almighty long preserve and having for the last and as the best way
for securing all these appointed a Test to be taken by all who should be entrusted with the Government which bears expresly That the same should be taken in the plain and genuine sense and meaning of the words We were very careful not to suffer any to take the said Oath or Test with their own Glosses or Explications But the Earâ— of Argyle having after some delays come to Council to take the said Oath as a Privy-Councellor spoke some things which were not then heard nor adverted to and when his Lordship at his next offering to take it in Council as one of the Commissioners of Your Majesties Treasury was commanded to take it simply he refused to do so but gave in a Paper shewing the only sense in which he would take it which Paper we all considered as that which had in it gross and scandalous Reflections upon that excellent Act of Parliament making it to contain things contradictory and inconstant and thereby depraving Your Majesties Laws misrepresenting Your Parliament and teaching Your Subjects to evacuate and disappoint all Laws and Securities that can be enacted for the preservation of the Government suitable to which his Lordship declares in that Paper That he means not to bind up himself from making any alterations he shall think fit for the advantage of Church or State and which Paper he desires may be looked upon as apart of his Oath as if he were the Legislator and able to add a part to the Act of Parliament Upon serious perusal of which Paper we found our selves obliged to send the said Earl to the Castle of Edinburgh and to transmit the Paper to Your Majesty being expresly obliged to both these by Your Majesties express Laws And we have commanded your Majesties Advocate to raise a pursuit against the said Earl for being Author and having given in the said Paper And for the further prosecution of all relating to this Affair we expect Your Majesties Commands which shall be most humbly and faithfully obeyed by Edinburgh Nov. 8. 1681. Your Majesties most Humble most Faithful and most Obedient Subjects and Servants Sic Subscribitur Glencairne Winton Linlithgow Perth Roxburgh Ancram Airlie Levingstoun Jo. Edinburgen Ross Geo. Gordoun Ch. Maitland G. Mekenzie Ja. Foulis J. Drumond Novemb. 15. 1681. The Kings Answer to the Councils Letter C. R. MOst dear c. Having in one of your Letters directed unto us of the 8. Instant received a particular account of the Earl of Argyle's refusing to take the Test simply and of your proceedings against him upon the occasion of his giving in a Paper shewing the only sense in which he will take it which had in it gross and scandalous Reflections upon that excellent late Act of our Parliament there by which the said Test was enjoyned to be taken we have now thought fit to let you know that as we do hereby approve these your Proceedings particularly your sending the said Earl to our Castle of Edinburgh and your commanding our Advocate to raise a Pursuit against him for being Author of and having given in the said Paper so we do also authorize you to do all things that may concern the further prosecution of all relating to this Affair Nevertheless it is our express Will and Pleasure That before any Sentence shall be pronounced against him at the Conclusion of the Process you send us a particular account of what he shall be found guilty of to the end that after our being fully informed thereof we may signifie our further pleasure in this matter For doing whereof c. But as notwithstanding the Councils demanding by their Letter His Majesties allowance for prosecuting the Earl they before any return caused His Majesties Advocate to exhibit an Indictment against him upon the points of slandering and depraving as hath been already remarked so after having received His Majesties answer the design grows and they thought fit to order a new Indictment containing beside the former points the Crimes of Treason and Perjury which accordingly was exhibited and is here subjoyned the difference betwixt the two Indictments being only in the particulars above noted The Copy of the Indictment against the Earl of Argyle Archibald Earl of Argyle YOU are Indicted and Accused That albeit by the Common Law of all well-govern'd Nations and by the Municipal Laws and Acts of Parliament of this Kingdom and particularly by the 21st and by the 43d Act Par. 2 James 1. and by the 83d Act Par. 6. James 5. and by the 34th Act Par. 8. James 6. and the 134th Act Par. 8. James 6. and the 205th Act Par. 14. James 6. All Leasing-makers and tellers of them are punishable with tinsel of Life and Goods like as by the 107th Act Par. 7. James 1. it is statuted That no man interpret the Kings Statutes otherwise than the Statute bears and to the intent and effect that they were made for and as the makers of them understood and who so does in the contrary to be punished at the Kings will And by the 10th Act Par. 10. James 6. it is statuted That none of His Majesties Subjects presume or take upon him publickly to declare or privately to speak or write any purpose of reproach or slander of His Majesties Person Estate or Government or to deprave his Laws or Acts of Parliament or misconstrue his proceedings whereby any mistaking may be moved betwixt his Highness his Nobility and loving Subjects in time coming under pain of death certifying them that does in the contrary they shall be reputed as seditious and wicked Instruments enemies to his Highness and to the Commonwealth of this Realm and the said pain of death shall be executed against them with all rigour to the example of others And by the second Act Ses 2. Par. 1. Char. 2. it is statuted That whosoever shall by Writing Libelling Remonstrating express publish or declare any words or sentences to stir up the people to the dislike of His Majesties Prerogative and Supremacy in causes Ecclesiastick or of the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops as it is now settled by Law is under the pain of being declared incapable to exercise any Office Civil Ecclesiastick or Military within this Kingdom in any time coming Like as by the fundamental Laws of this Nation by the 130th Act Par. 8. James 6. it is declared That none of His Majesties Subjects presume to impugn the Dignity or Authority of the three Estates or to procure innevation or diminution of their Power and Authority under the pain of Treason And that it is much more Treason in any of His Majesties Subjects to presume to alter Laws already made or to make new Laws or to add any part to any Law by their own Authority that being to assume the Legislative Power to themselves with His Majesties highest and most incommunicable Prerogative Yet true it is that albeit His Sacred Majesty did not only bestow on you the said Archibald Earl of Argyle
eminence and worth And I here shall set it under my Hand to witness against all my Informers that none did with more passion nor shall with more continued zeal witness themselves to be true Honourers of you than he who desires infinitely to be esteemed My Lord Your most Humble Servant GLENCAIRN What I cannot well write I hope this discreet Gentleman will tell you in my Name and I shall only beg leave to say that I am your most Noble Ladies Humble Servant After the reading of which order and letters which yet the Court refused to record The Earl's Advocate or Council Sir George Lockhart said in his defence as follows Sir George Lockhart 's Argument and Plea for the Earl of Argyle SIR George Lockhart for the Earl of Argyle alledgeth That the Libel is not Revelant and whereupon he ought to be but to the knowledge of an Inquest For It is alledged in the general That all Criminal Libels whereupon any persons Life Estate and Reputation can be drawn in question should be founded upon clear positive and express Acts of Parliament and the matter of Fact which is libelled to be the Contravention of those Laws should be plain clear and direct Contraventions of the same and not argued by way of Implications and Inferences Whereas in this Case neither the Acts of Parliament founded upon and libelled can be in the least the foundation of this Libel nor is the Explication which is pretended to be made by the Pannel at the time of the taking of his Oath if considered any Contravention of those Laws which being premised and the Pannel denying the Libel as to the whole Articles and Points therein contained it is alledged in special That the Libel in so far as it is founded upon the 21st Chap. Stat. 1. Robert 1. and upon 83d Act Par. 6. James 5. the 43d Act Par. 2. James 1. and upon the 83d Act Par. 10. James 5. and upon 84th Act Par. 8. James 6. and upon the 10th Act Par. 10. James 6. and upon the 2d Act Par. 1. Ses 2. of His Sacred Majesty and inferring thereupon That the Pannel by the pretended Explication given in by him to the Lords of His Majesties Privy-Council as the sense of the Oath he had taken doth commit the Crime of Leasing-making and depraving His Majesties Laws The Inference and subsumption is most unwarrantable and the Pannel tho any such thing were acknowledged or proved can never be found guilty of contraveening these Acts of Parliament In respect it is evident upon perusal and consideration of these Acts of Parliament that they only concern the case of Leasing-making tending to Sedition and to beget Discord betwixt His Majesty and His Subjects and the dislike of His Majesties Government and the reproach of the same And the said Laws and Acts of Parliament were never understood or libelled upon in any other Sense And all the former Acts of Parliament which relate to the crime of Leasing-making in general terms and under the qualification foresaid as tending to beget discord betwixt his Majesty and his Subjects are explained and fully declared as to what is the true meaning and import thereof by the 134th Act Par. 8. James 6. which relates to the same Crime of Leasing-making and which is expresly described in these terms To be wicked and licentious publick and private Speeches and untrue Calumnies to the disdain and contempt of His Majesties Council and Proceedings and to the dishonour and prejudice of his Highness and his Estate stirring up his Highness's Subjects to misliking and Sedition and unquietness which being the true sense and import of the Acts of Parliament made against Leasing-makers there is nothing can be inferred from the Pannel's alledged Explication which can be wrested or construed to be a Contravention of these Laws In respect First It is known by the whole tenor of his Life and graciously acknowledged by His Sacred Majesty by a Letter under His Royal Hand that the Pannel did ever most zealously vigorously and faithfully promote and carry on His Majesties Service and Interest even in the worst and most difficult times Which is also acknowledged by a Pass under the Earl of Middleton's hand who had then a special Commission from His Majesty for carrying on His Majesties Service in this Kingdom as Lieutenant General under His Majesty and by a Letter under the Earl's hand of the dateâ— both which do contain high expressions of the Pannels Loyalty and of the great Services he had performed for His Majesties interest and His Majesty as being conscious thereof and perfectly knowing the Pannels Loyalty and his zeal and faithfulness for his Service did think fit to entrust the Pannel in Offices and Capacities of the greatest trust of the Kingdom And it is a just and rational presumption which all Laws makes and infers That the words and expressions of persons who by the tenor and course of their Lives have expressed their Duty and Loyalty to His Majesties Interest are ever to be interpreted and understood in meliorem partem And by way of Implication and Inference to conclude and and infer crimes from the same which the user of such words and expressions never mean'd nor designed is both unreasonable and unjust 2. As the foresaid Acts of Parliament made against Leasing makers and depravers of His Majesties Laws only proceed in the terms aforesaid where the words and speeches are plain tending to beget discord between the King and his Subjects and to the reproach and dislike of his Government and when the same are spoke and vented in a subdolous pernicious and fraudulent manner So they never were nor can be understood to proceed in the case of a person offering in the presence of a publick Judicature whereof he had the honour to be a Member his sincere and plain meaning and apprehension of what he conceived to be the true sense of the Act of Parliament imposing and enjoyning the Test There being nothing more opposite to the Acts of Parliament made against Leasing-making and venting and spreading abroad the same upon seditious designs than the foresaid plain and open declaration of his sense and apprehension what was the meaning of the said Act of Parliament And it is of no import to infer any crime and much less any of the crimes libelled albeit the Pannel had erred and mistaken in his apprehension of the Act of Parliament And it were a strange extention of the Act of Parliament made against Leasing-makers requiring the qualifications foresaid and the Acts against depraving His Majesties Laws to make the Pannel or any other person guilty upon the mistakes and misapprehensions of the sense of the Laws wherein men may mistake and differ very much and even eminent Lawyers and Judges So that the Acts of Parliament against Leasing making and depraving His Majesties Laws can only be understood in the express terms and qualifications foresaid Like as it neither is libelled nor can be proven that
hours without intermission it adjourned till the next day being Tuesday the 13th of December at Two of the Clock in the Afternoon And then the Earl being again brought to the Bar the following Interloquutour that is Judgment and Sentence of the Lords of Justitiary on the foregoing debate was read and pronounced in open Court Edinburgh December 12. 1681. The Interloquutour of the Lords of Justitiary THE Lords Justice General and Commissioners of the Justitiary having considered the Libel and Debate they sustain the defence proponed for the Earl of Argyle the Pannel in relation to the perjury Libelled viz. That he emitted this Explanation at or before his taking the Test first before his Royal Highness His Majesties High Commissioner and the Lords of His Majesties Privy Council relevant to elude that Article of the Libel The Lords sustain the Libel as being founded upon the Common Law and Explication Libelled and upon Act 130. Parl. 8. James VI. to infer the pain of Treason They likewise sustain the Libel as founded upon the 10. Act Parl. 10. James VI. to infer the pain of Death and likewise sustain that part of the Libel anent Leasing making and Leasing-telling to infer the particular pains mentioned in the several Acts Libelled And repel the whole other defences duplies and quadruplies and remits the Libel with the defences anent the Perjury to the knowledge of an Assize Thereafter the Assize that is the Jury being constitute and sworn viz. List of the Assizers Marquiss Montross E. Middleton E. Airlie E. Perth P. Cr. E. Dalhousie E. Roxburgh P. C. E. Dumfries E. Linlithgow P. Cr. Lord Lindoors Lord Sinclare Lord Bruntisland Laird of Gosfoord Laird of Claverhouse Laird of Balnamoon Laird of Park Gordon HIS Majesties Advocate adduced four Witnesses to prove the points of the Indictment remitted to the knowledge of the Assize viz. John Drummond of Lundie then Governour of the Castle of Edinburgh now Treasurer Deputy Sir William Paterson and Mr. Patrick Menzies Clerks of the Privy Council and H. Stevenson their under Clerk Who deponed That on the 4th of November the Earl did give in an unsubscribed Explanation of the Test which he refused to sign One of the Witnesses also adding That he heard him make the same Explanation the day before in Council and that it was there accepted Then His Majesties Advocate asked if the Earl would make use of his Exculpation for eliding the Perjury Libelled to wit That he had emitted the same Explanation before taking the Test in presence of his Royal Highness and the Council To which the Earl answered That seeing they had sustain'd the Libel as to the alledged Treason he would not trouble them about the Perjury especially the matter of Fact referred by the Interloquutour to his probation being of it self so clear and notour Fut the truth is the Interloquutour pronounced was so amazing that both the Earl and his Advocates were struck with deep silence for they plainly perceived that after such a Judgment in the case all further endeavours would be in vain it being now manifest that seeing the Earls innocence had so little availed as that his plain and honest words purely uttered for the necessary satisfaction of his own conscience and clearing of his Loyalty had been construed and detorted to infer Leasing-making Depraving and Treason the Tongues of men and Angels as some of his Advocates also said could not do any good and therefore neither did the Earl nor they object any thing either against the Assizers or Witnesses though liable to obvious and unanswerable exceptions Nor did the Earls Advocates say any thing to the Assize as the custom is and as in this case they might well have done to take off the force of the Evidence and to demonstrate that the Depositions instead of proving the Indictment did rather prove the Earls defences But as I have said they now plainly saw that all this had been unnecessary work and in effect were of opinion that after so black and dreadful a sence put upon what the Earl had spoke and done in such fair and favourable circumstances there could be nothing said before such a Court which might not expose themselves to the like hazard and more easily be made liable to the same mis-construction But upon this silence the Advocate taking Instruments protests whether in form only or from a real fear let others judge for an Assize of Error in case the Assizers should Assoil or acquit Whereupon the Assize removing was inclosed and after some time returned their Verdict which was read in open Court of this tenour The Verdict of the Assize THE Assize having Elected and Chosen the Marquess of Montrose to be their Chancellor they all in one voice find the Earl of Argyle guilty and culpable of the Crimes of Treason Leasing-making and Leasing-telling And find by plurality of Votes the said Earl innocent and not guilty of Perjury And then the Court again adjourned And the Privy-Council wrote the following Letter to His Majesty Halyrud-House December 14. 1681. The Councils Letter to the King desiring leave to pronounce Sentence against the Earl of Argyle May it please Your Sacred Majesty IN Obedience to Your Majesty's Letter dated the 15th of November last we ordered Your Majesty's Advocate to insist in that Process raised at your Instance against the Earl of Argyle And having allowed him a long time for his appearance and any Advocates he pleased to employ and Letters of Exculpation for his Defence He after full Debate and clear Probation was found guilty of Treason Leasing-making betwixt Your Majesty Your Parliament and Your People and the reproaching of Your Laws and Acts of Parliament But because of Your Majesty's Letter ordaining us to send Your Majesty a particular account of what he should be found guilty of before the pronouncing of any Sentence against him we thought it our duty to send Your Majesty this account of our and Your Justices proceedings therein And to signifie to Your Majesty with all Submission That it is usual and most fit for Your Majesty's Service and the Advantage of the Crown that a Sentence be pronounced upon the Verdict of the Assize without which the Process will be still imperfect After which Your Majesty may as you in Your Royal Prudenee and Clemency shall think fit Ordain all farther execution to be sisted during Your Majesty's pleasure Which shall be dutifully obeyed by Your MAJESTY's Most Humble Most Faithful and most Obedient Subjects and Servants Sic Subscribitur Alex. St. And. Athol Douglas Montrose Glencairn Wintoun Linlithgow Perth Roxburgh Dumfries Strathmore Airlie Ancram Livingstoun Jo. Edinburgens Elphingstoun Dalziell Geo. Gordon Ch. Maitland Geo. Mckenzie G. Mckenzie Ramsay J. Drummond THE Earl as well as the Lords of Privy Council waited some days for the Answer of this Letter But the Earl making his escape a day or two before it came I shall take occasion to entertain you in the mean time with an account of
some thoughts that the Earl had set down in Writing in order to some discourse he intended to have made to the Lords of Justiciary before their pronouncing Sentence And then I shall subjoyn the Motives and Arguments which as he hath since informed some of his Friends did induce him to make his escape Which with what I have said before will give you a full account of all matters till His Majesty's return came and the Sentence past And first he takes notice That on Monday the Twelfth of December the day of his Arraignment the Court adjourned before he was aware And it being then late about nine of the Clock and after a sederunt of twelve hours He did not imagine they would have proceeded further that night but only heard afterwards that they sat it out till two or three after midnight And was surprized the next morning to understand that without calling him again or asking at him or hearing or considering his own sense of his own words they had not only found the Libel relevant but repelled his defences and with one breath rejected all his most material reasons of Exculpation root and branch This seemed hard though the words had been worse and no way capable of a favourable construction which none no not the Judges themselves can be so void of sense as to think really they were not and this was so far beyond all imagination that neither the Earl nor his Advocates did ever dream it could fall out though all was not said might have been said nor what was said so fully enforced as the Earl's Advocates could easily have done if the case had not been thought so very clear and the Earl his innocence so obvious and apparent and they unwilling unnecessarily to irritate many concerned This great haste and strange proceeding did so surprise and astonish him as I have said that it caused him the next day when the Sentence was read to keep deep silence and suffer the Interloquutor to be pronounced the Assizers chosen and sworn and the Witnesses received and examined without once offering to say or object any thing or so much as inquiring at either Assizers or VVitnesses whether they had not been tampered with and practised by promises and threatnings or whether some of them had not previously and publickly declared themselves in the Case and others of them had not partially advised and solicited against him Which as they are just and competent Exceptions so he was able to have proven them against most of them instantly and fully And indeed as to such of the Assizers as were Councellors whom for your better information I have marked in the List of Assuzers thus P. Cr. and had first ordered his Imprisonment next signed the Letter to His Majesty and then ordered the Process and therein manifestly fore-stalled their own judgment had they done no more it was a wonder beyond parallel That neither their own Honour nor the common decency of Justice nor even His Majesty's Advocate 's Interest did prevent their being impannelled on that Assize But the truth is the Earl did so far neglect and abandon himself and give way to the Court that he did not so much as open his mouth to clear himself of the Perjury laid to his charge which yet God Almighty was pleased to do by the plurality of voices of the same Assize who it appears plainly did bear him little kindness For whereas Assizers do usually return their Verdict Proven or not Proven rather than Guilty or not Guilty and ought alwise to do so where the relevancy is in dubio and especially in a case of this nature in which the alledged Treason is no overt act and indeed no act nor so much as a real ground of offence but plainly such a subtil chimerical and non-sensical consequence that the finding it doth quite surpass the comprehension of all unbyassed men It might have been expected that persons of their quality would have chosen the more moderate form of proven or not proven and not involved themselves unnecessarily upon Oath in adjudging the relevancy of a guilt which so few are able to imagine and none will ever make out yet you see in their Verdict that all in one voice they did find the Earl Guilty in the most positive and strong form adding for superabundance culpable forsooth the better to demonstrate their good will Nor is it unworthy of remark that when such of the Assizers as were present at the Council declared the Earl Innocent of the Perjury which His Majesty's Advocate did only pretend to infer from the Earls alledged silence or not speaking loud enough the first day when he signed the Test because they heard him at the same time pronounce his explanation Yet some other Assizers that were no Councellors and knew nothing of the matter of fact but by hear-say without all regard to the witnessing of these Counsellors their fellow Assizers voted him Guilty And so took it formally on their Consciences that he had said nothing in the Council at his taking the Test albeit all the Council knew the contrary by which they are clearly perjured Nay such was the earnestness of some who thought it scazce possible to carry the Treason upon words so safe and innocent to have the Earl found guilty of Perjury that it was particularly recommended to His Majesty's Advocate to get him made guilty of that point to render him for ever uncapable of publick employment And the Clerk of the Assize was so concerned in it that he twice misreckoned the Votes before he would yield that the Earl was assoiled or acquit of the Perjury And this among other things may serve to clear how that whole matter was influenced and managed For as the Earl cannot be charged with Perjury the second day because he swore none at all so as little the first day seeing whether he took the Test with an Explanation as certainly he did or simply without saying any thing It is equally apparent there was no Perjury in the case But it appears their Assizers were of the Opinion that the Indictment or Libel alone as it was indeed the only evidence was a sufficient proof of the Earl his being guilty of Perjury And indeed for any other Rule or Reason that occurs They might as well have found him guilty of the Perjury as of the Treason But the Assizers that were Councellors being under a particular check apprehending they might be found perjured themselves if they had not acknowledged the hearing of the words that all others present could have attested to have been audibly spoken and some of themselves have confessed to have heard before they knew the tenor of the Libel And the great Crime of Treason being sufficient to do the Job it is like they judged it advisable to give this insignificant absolution from Perjury That their Virdict of Treason might have the greater colour and shew of candor and sincerity However it seems to be without
the Earl's Restitution was no less than He and his Family might well expect of His Majesty's Goodness and Justice It is true The Earl was again accused and condemned which may appear indeed strange to such as know not all particulars upon the same old Acts of Leasing-making and with as little ground if possible as now and was Pardoned by His Majesty for which he hath often and doth always acknowledg that he owes to His Majesty both his Life and Fortune But upon this occasion and being baited as he is he hopes His Majesty will not take it ill that he say That His Majesty's Mercy was in this case determined by Justice And for proof that His Majesty did then know him to be innocent Did not His Majesty then say It was impossible to take a Man's Life upon so small an account Though nevertheless it had been done if His Majesty had not interposed and pardoned him Did not the Chancellor Clarendon who was Patron to the most considerable of the Earl's pursuers hearing of his Condemnation Bless God he lived not in a Countrey where there were such Laws He should have said such Judges And I believe many more will say the same now Did it not plainly appear at that time that his principal pursuers were very bitter malicious and unjust to him For the Earl had not only served His Majesty in that troublesome and hazardous appearance in the Hills but he had been particularly useful to Earl Middletoun then His Majesty's Lieutenant General and had stood by him when these deserted him whom notwithstanding he took afterwards by the hand when he was His Majesty's Commissioner in the year 1661. and then designed new Interests and new Alliances whereof some did hold and some never held And then indeed it was that he and others thought it proper for them to destroy the Family of Argyle to make their own Fortunes But it pleased God and His Majesty to dispose otherwise Then it was that the Earl was so hotly pursued for his Life having at that time no Fortune all being in His Majesty's hands Then was the accusation of Treason likewise urged by the same persons and must have carried but it was not found necessary Leasing-making being sufficient to take his Life and as it falls out when any Game is started and the Hounds in chase all the little Curs run alongs So the Earl wanted not then many pursuers that are now scarce to be heard of And further some of the parties themselves confessed the particulars to the Earl afterwards who yet now return to act their former parts and that they had then laid down a resolution to intrap him per fas aut nefas but notwithstanding all this ill humour and violence all the ground they could get for a quarrel in two years time was one single Letter among many they intercepted the occasion and import whereof was as follows About a Twelvemonth after the death of the late Marquess of Argyle The Earl his Son being by the loss of his Estate and burden of his Debts brought into straits a Friend from Edenburgh wrote to him then at London to do what he could for himself at Court and the sooner the better for he needed neither expect Favour nor Justice from some in Scotland and if matters were delayed his Father 's whole Estate would be begg'd away in parcels His Friend likewise complained that the Earl did not write to inform his Friends in Scotland and on this he insisted several post-days which at last drew an answer from the Earl that he had been to wait upon His Majesty and had found him both just and kind to him and doubted not the effects of his Royal favour that he was sensible of his loss by delay yet must proceed discreetly and not press to give His Majesty trouble but must take His Majesty's method and wait his time That he judged much of what his Friend told him was true but he must have patience It was his misfortune that some took pains to make His Majesty believe that the Parliament was his Enemy and the Parliament to believe the King was his Enemy and by such informations he was like to be a sufferer but he hoped in God all should be well This blast must blow out and will blow over The King will see their tricks And upon this Letter specially those last words the Earl was accused of Leasing-making betwixt King and Parliament and that he expected changes and so had a great deal of the same stuff laid to his charge as now you have heard And if the now Register will produce the Eal's principal Letter and the Paper the Earl gave in to the Parliament these two would clear all the Case then and now as you may see Mutatis Mutandis being much the same and some of the same Tools used But to go on The Earl's words in that Letter being clear and plain viz. That he complained of others that reported Lies to the King and Parliament but did himself report none to either He acknowledged the Letter which could never have been proven to be his and as soon as he heard that it was intercepted did render himself to His Majesty before he was called for But which very much troubled him had not access Yet His Majesty was so gracious that instead of sending him Prisoner to Scotland with a Guard as was much pressed he allowed him to go down on a Verbal Bail And His Majesty was pleased to say That he saw nothing in the Earl's Letter against His Majesty or the Parliament but believed the Earl did design to reflect on the Earl of Middleton The Earl came to Edinburgh a fourthnight before the day appointed by His Majesty and thought to have had the liberty of the City till that day should come but was sent to the Castle the next day after his arrival Upon which he advertised His Majesty of his condition who would hardly believe they would take his Life till it was told plainly it was designed and if he died it lay at His Majesty's door upon which His Majesty was graciously pleased to send immediately an Order to the Earl of Middleton not to proceed to Execution against him Yet the Sentence of Death was pronounced and the Day of Execution remitted by the Parliament to the Earl of Middleton Which he accepted of albeit he had no particular instruction for it from His Majesty which before a year went about Earl Middleton found could not be justified by him and some of the Earl's chief accusers were declared by His Majesty to be themselves Leasing-makers And then the Earl by His Majesty's favour and goodness was restored to a part of his Predecessors Estate and Titles which he took as thankfully as if a new Estate and new and greater Honours had been conferred upon him And though His Majesty was pleased at the granting of these Titles to say He could help them when he pleased yet His Majesty knows
another making a Speech that no Man understood a third all the time of the reading repeating Lord have mercy upon me miserable sinner Nay even an Advocate after being debarred a few days because albeit no Clerk yet he would not take it without the benefit of his Clergy viz. the Councils Explanation was yet thereafter admitted without the Warrant of the Councils Act but all this in the Case of so many other was right and good Further the Council expresly declare the Earl to be Guilty before he had ever said one word in his own defence Thereafter some of them become his Assizers and others of them witness against him and after all they do of new concern themselves by a Second Letter to His Majesty wherein they assert That after full debate and clear probation he was found guilty of Treason c. to have a sentence past against him and that of so high a nature and so dreadful a consequence as suffers no person to be unconcerned far less their Lordships his Judges who upon grounds equally just and which is more already predetermined by themselves may soon meet with the same measure not only as Concealers of Treason but upon the least pretended disobedience or non-compliance with any Act of Parliament and after all must infallably render an account to God Almighty He bids them therefore lay their hands to their bearts and whatever they shall judge he is assured that God knows and he hopes all unblassed men in the World will or may know he is neither guilty of Treason nor any of the Crimes libelled He says he is glad how many out-do him in asserting the true Protestant Religion and their Loyalty to His Majesty only he hadds If he could justify himself to God as he can to His Majesty he is sure he might account himself the happiest man alive But yet seeing he hath a better hope in the mercy of God through Jesus Christ he thereupon rests whether he finds Justice here on Earth or not He says he will add nothing to move them either to tenderness or pity he knows that not to be the place and pretends to neither from them He pleads his Innocence and craves Justice leaving it to their Lordships to consider not so much his particular Case as what a Preparative it may be made and what may be its Consequences And if all he hath said do neither convince nor persuade them to alter their judgment yet he desires them to consider whether the Case do not at least deserve to be more fully represented and left to His Majecty's wisdom and justice seeing that if once the matter pass upon record for Treason it is undoubted that hundreds of the best and who think themselves most innocent may by the same methods fall under the like Condemnation whenever the King's Advocate shall be thereto prompted And thus you have a part of what the Earl intended to have said before pronouncing Sentence if he had not made his Escape before the day Yet some things I perceive by his Notes are still in his own breast as only proper to be said to His Majesty I find several Quotations out of the Advocate 's printed Books that it seems he was to make some use of but seeing it would have been too great an interruption to have applied them to the places designed I have subjoined them together leaving them to the Advocate 's own and all mens consideration It was by some remarked That when the Lords of Justitiary after the ending of the first days debate resolved that same night to give judgment upon it they sent for the Lord Nairn one of their number an old and infirm man who being also a Lord of the Session is so decayed through age that he hath not for a considerable time been allowed to take his turn in the Outer-house as they call it where they judge lesser Causes alone But notwithstanding both his age and infirmity and that he was gone to bed he was raised and brought to the Court to consider a Debate a great deal whereof he had not heard in full Court and withal as is informed while the Clerk was reading some of it fell of new asleep It was also remarked that the Lords of Justitiary being in all five viz. the Lord Nairn above-mentioned with the Lords Collintoun Newtoun Hirkhouse and Forret the Libel was found relevant only by the odds of three to two viz. the Lord Nairn aforesaid the Lord Newtoun since made President of the Session and the Lord Forret both well enough known against the Lord Collintoun a very ingenious Gentleman and a true old Cavalier and the Lord Hirkhouse a learned and upright Judge As for the Lord Justice General who was also present and presided his vote according to the constitution of the Court was not asked But to return to my Narrative the Earl as I have already told you did not think fit for reasons that you shall hear to stay till His Majesty's return came to the Council's last Letter but taking his opportunity made his escape out of the Castle of Edinburgh upon Tuesday the Twentieth of December about eight at night and in a day or two after came His Majesty's Answer here subjoined The King's Answer to the Council's Letter December 18. 1681. C. R. MOST dearly c. having this day received your Letter of the 14th instant giving an account that our Advocate having been ordered by you to insist in that Process raised at our instance against the Earl of Argyle he was after full debate and clear probation found guilty of Treason and Leasing-making betwixt us our Parliament and our People and the reproaching our Laws and Acts of Parliament We have now thought fit notwithstanding of what was ordered by us in our Letter to you of the 15th of November last hereby to authorize you to grant a Warrand to our Justice General and the remanent Judges of our Justice Court for proceeding to pronounce a Sentence upon the Verdict of the Jury against the said Earl nevertheless it is our express pleasure and we do hereby require you to take care that all execution of the Sentence be stopped until we shall think fit to declare our further pleasure in this Affair For doing whereof c. Which Answer being read in Council on the Thursday and the Court of Justiciary according to its last Adjournment as shall be told you being to meet upon the Friday after a little hesitation in Council whether the Court of Justiciary could proceed to the Sentence of Forfaulture against the Earl he being absent it was resolved in the affirmative And what were the grounds urged either of hesitation or resolution I cannot precisely say there being nothing on record that I can learn But that you may have a full and satisfying account I shall briefly tell you what was ordinarily discoursed a part whereof I also find in a Petition given in by the Countess of Argyle to the Lords
time coming and to have forfaulted amitted and tint all and sundry his Lands Tenements annual-rents Offices Titles Dignities Tacks Steedings Rowmes Possessions Goods and Geere whatsumever pertaining to him to our Sovereign Lord to remain perpetually with his Highness in property Which was pronounced for Doom 23 Dec. 1681. After the reading and publshing whereof The Earl's Coat of Arms by order of the Court was also torn and ranversed both in the Court and at the Mercat-Cross Albeit some thought that this was rather a part of the Execution which His Majesty's Letter discharges than a necessary Solemnity in the Publication and the Advocate himself says p. 61. of his printed Criminals That it should only be practised in the Crime of Perduellion but not in other Treasons The Reasons and Motives of the Earl's Escape with the Conclusion of the whole Narrative THE Earl's Escape was at first a great surprise both to his Friends and Unfriends for as it is known that his Process in the beginning did appear to the less concerned more like a piece of pageantry than any reality and even by the more concerned was accounted but a politick Design to take away his Offices and lessen his Power and Interest So neither did any of his Friends fear any greater hazard nor did most of his Unfriends imagine them to be more apprehensive Whereby it fell out that upon report of his Escape many and some of his Well-wishers thought he had too lightly abandoned a fair Estate and the probable expectation he might have had of His Majesty's favour As also some that were judged his greatest Adversaries did appear very angry as if the Earl had taken that course on purpose to load them with the odium of a design against his life And truly I am apt to think it was not only hard and uneasie for others to believe that a Person of the Earl's quality and character should upon so slender a pretence be destroyed both as to life and fortune but also that he himself was slow enough to receive the impressions necessary to ripen his Resolution and that if a few Accidents as he says himself happening a little before his escape had not as it were opened his eyes and brought back and presented to him several things past in a new light and so made all to operate to his final determination he had stayed it out to the last Which that you may the better understand you may here consider the several Particulars that together with what he himself hath since told some Friends apparently occurred to him in these his second thoughts in their following order And first you have heard in the beginning of this Narrative what was the first occasion of the Earl his declining in his Highness's favour You may also remember that his Majesty's Advocate takes notice that he debated against the Act enjoining the Test in the Parliament And as I have told you he was indeed the Person that spoke against excepting the King's Brothers and Sons from the Oath then intended for securing the Protestant Religion and the Subjects Loyalty not thinking it fit to complement with a Privilege where all possible caution appears rather to be necessary And this a Reverend Bishop told the Earl afterwards had downright fired the kiln What thereafter happened in Parliament and how the Earl was always ready to have laid all his Offices at his Majesty's feet And how he was content in Council to be held a Refuser of the Test and thereby incur an intire deprivation of all publick Trust is above fully declared and only here remembred to shew what Reason the Earl had from his first coming to Edinburgh in the end of October to think that something else was intended against him than the simple devesting him of his Employments and Jurisdictions And yet such was his assurance of his Innocence that when ordered by the Council to enter his Person in Prison under the pain of Treason he entered freely in an Hackney Coach without either hesitation or noise as you have heard 2dly The same day of the Earl's Commitment the Council met and wrote as I have told you their Letter to his Majesty above set down Num. 22. Wherein they expresly charge him with Reproaching and depraving but yet neither with Perjury nor Treason and a few days after the Earl wrote a Letter to his Highness wherein he did endeavour to remove his Offence in terms that it was said at first had given satisfaction But yet the only return the Earl had was a Criminal Summons containing an Indictment and that before any Answer was come from His Majesty And then so soon as his Majesty's Answer came there was a new Summons sent him with a new Indictment adding the Crimes of Treason and Perjury to those of Reproaching and Depraving which were in the first Libel as you have heard above whereby you may perceive how early the Design against the Earl began to grow and how easily it took encrease from the least encouragement 3dly When the Earl petitioned the Council for Advocates to plead for him Albeit he petitioned twice and upon clear Acts of Parliament yet he had no better Answer than what you have above set down And when the Earl's Petition naming Sir George Lockhart as his ordinary Advocate was read in Council his Highness openly threatned that in case Sir George should undertake for the Earl he should never more plead for the King nor him But the Earl taking Instruments upon Sir George his refusal and giving out that he would not answer a word at the Bar seeing the benefit of Lawyers according to Law was denied him Sir George and other Lawyers were allowed to assist him but still with a grudge Likewise afterwards they were questioned and convened before the Council for having at the Earl's desire signed their positive Opinion of the Case At which time it was also said in Council by his Highness That their fault was greater than the Earl's However we see that as he was the occasion of the anger so he hath only found the smart of it 4thly The whole Process with the Judgment of the Lords of Justitiary and Verdict of the Assize whereby the Earl was found guilty as you have seen notwithstanding of what hath so plainly appeared and was so strongly pleaded in his behalf of Leasing-making Depraving and Treason Is of it self a clear demonstration that either the highest punishment was intended for so high a guilt or that at least it was no small humiliation that some designed for him It being equally against reason and prudence setting aside the Interest of Justice to strain things of this nature beyond the ends truly purposed and which in effect are only the more to be suspected the more they are concealed 5thly The Process being carried on to the Verdict of the Assize and the Council being tied up by His Majesty's Letter before pronouncing Sentence to send a particular account to His Majesty of what
the Earl should be found guilty of for His Majesty's full information The Council doth indeed dispatch away a new Letter immediately for His Majesty's leave to proceed but instead of that particular account required by His Majesty for his full information all the information was ever heard of to be sent by the Council was what is contained in the body of the Letter wherein they briefly but positively affirm That after full debate and clear probation he was found guilty of Treason Which all men must say was far better contrived to prompt his Majesty to a speedy allowance than to give him that particular information of the case which His Majesty's Letter expresly requires and the Earl expected should have been performed But further the Council was commanded to sign this Letter not simply in the ordinary form but by a special Command laid on every Member and the Clerk appointed to go about and get their Subscriptions telling them they were Commanded and complaining to the Duke when any scrupled to do it The strictness of which Orders is apparent enough from the very Subscriptions where you may not only read the names of Bishops subscribing in causa sanguinis but some of the Earl's Friends and Relations who wanted Courage to refuse And in effect how many of all the Members did it willingly is hard to say seeing generally they excuse the deed in private 6thly About a week or two before the Trial the Earl had notice that at a close Juncto where were Persons of the greatest eminency it was remembred by one present how that Anno 1663. The Earl had been pardoned by His Majesty after he had been found guilty by the Earl of Middleton and that Parliament And that then it was looked on as an Error in the Earl of Middletoun that he had not proceeded to Execution albeit His Majesty had given command to the contrary because as it was said it would have been but the same thing to him But now adds this kind Remembrancer The case is much more easie Now his Royal Highness is on the Throne It might have cost Earl Middletoun a frown but now it can signify nothing but will rather be commended in his Royal Highness as acting freely like himself The stop of the sentence looks like a distrust but this will vindicate all and secure all And as the first part of the Story the Earl remembred well he had heard it from the same Person An. 1664. and had reported it to the Duke of Lauderdale a little after so the second part being of a very well known dialect could not but give the Earl the deeper impressions It was further told the Earl at the same time when the Councils Letter to obtain His Majesty's assent to the pronouncing Sentence and leaving all to discretion was sent that it was thought fit that nothing should appear but fair weather till the very close Yet was the Earl so confident of his own Innocence and His Majesty's Justice that he did not doubt but His Majesty seeing the Process would at least put a stop to the Sentence But after the Councils Letter was gone in such terms as you have seen to seek Liberty from His Majesty to proceed to Sentence without either double or abbreviate of the Process sent with it and no doubt smooth insinuations made with it that all designed was to humble the Earl or clip his wings And that this Letter was hasted away by a fleeing Pacquet to prevent the Earl's Application which it could not but do and so could not but have weight and prevail with His Majesty to whom the Earl's Petition as coming too late was indeed never presented Then and not till then the Earl began to have new thoughts 7thly The Earl's Trial having been upon Monday and Tuesday the 12th and 13th of December upon the 14th the Councils Letter was dispatched and upon the 15th the Earl intreated by a friend for liberty to speak to his Royal Highness whose Answer was That it was not ordinary to speak to criminals except with Rogues on some Plot where discoveries might be expected Yet his Highness said he would advise upon it But upon Friday the 16th he did refuse it Yet the Earl did renew his suit and urged That he had sent a Petition to His Majesty which was the first he had sent upon that occasion and that before the return should come he was desirous to have his Highness Answer that he might owe some part of the favour he expected to his Highness But on Monday morning the 19th the Earl was told he was not like to have any access and in the afternoon he heard that the return of the Councils Express was looked for on Thursday the 22d being the Council day And further That the Justice Court which according to its custom had sat the same Monday and in course should have adjourned till Monday the 26th of December or because of Christmass to the first Monday of January was for the Earl's sake adjourned till Friday the 23d to the end that immediately upon the King's return they might pronounce Sentence He was moreover informed that his Royal Highness was heard say That if the Express returned not timously he would take upon himself what was to be done Which being general and dark was the more to be suspected All this the Earl told made him the same Monday late cast in his thoughts whether it were not fit for him to attempt an escape but his doubtings were so many he could resolve nothing that night except to put off till Wednesday Yet on Tuesday morning he began to think if he did at all design to escape he had best do it that same evening However he was even then not fully resolved nor had he as yet spoke one word of it to any mortal But about Ten of the Clock this Tuesday his Highness absolute refusal to suffer the Earl to see him until His Majesty's Return came was confirmed And about Noon the Earl heard that some Troops and a Regiment of Foot were come to Town and that the next day he was to be brought down from the Castle to the Common Jail from which Criminals are ordinarily carried to Execution and then he resolved to make his escape that very Night and yet did not conclude it throughly till five of the Clock in the Evening At which time he gave directions about it not thinking to essay it till near Ten But at Seven one coming up from the City and telling him that new Orders were privately given for further securing of him That the Castle Guards were doubled and none suffered to go out without showing their faces and that some Ladies had been already put to do it and therefore disswading him to attempt any escape because it was impossible The Earl said No then it is full time And so he made haste and within half an hour after by God's blessing got safe out questioned pretty warmly by the first Centry
alledged irrelevancy thereof That in time coming all Criminal Libels shall contain that the persons complained on are Art and Part of the Crimes Libelled which shall be relevant to accuse them thereof swa that no exception or objection take away that part of the Libel in time coming He says That he finds no Act of Parliament more unreasonable for the Statutory part of that Act committing the Tryal of Art and Part to Assizers seems most unjust Seeing in committing the greatest questions of the Law to the most ignorant of the Subjects it puts a sharp Sword into the hands of blind men And the reason of this Act specified in the Narrative is likewise most inept and no ways illative c. What Reproaches What Blasphemies The Earl said not one word against any Act of Parliament But on the contrary That he was confident the Parliament intended no contradiction and that he was willing to take the Test in the Parliaments sense But here the Advocate both says and Prints it That an Act of Parliament is most unreasonable and most unjust and it's reason most inept and that it puts a sharp Sword in the hands of blind men Whereof the smallest branch is infinitely more reproachful than all can be strained out of the Earl's words But Sir Speculation is but Speculation and if the Advocate when his day comes be as able to purge himself of Practical Depravations as I am inclined to excuse all his Visionary Lapses notwithstanding of the famous Title Quod quisque juris in alterum statuorit ut ipse eodem jure utatur he shall never be the worse of my censure Murther will out Or the King's Letter justifying the Marquess of Antrim and declaring That what he did in the Irish Rebellion was by Direction from his Royal Father and Mother and for the service of the Crown Ireland Aug. 22. 1663. Ever honoured Sir LAST Thursday we came to Trial with my Lord Marquess of Antrim but according to my Fears which you always surmised to be in vain he was by the King 's Extraordinary and Peremptory Letter of Favour restored to his Estate as an Innocent Papist We proved Eight Qualifications in the Act of Settlement against him the least of which made him uncapable of being restored as Innocent We proved 1. That he was to have a hand in surprizing the Castle of Dublin in the Year 1641. 2. That he was of the Rebels Party before the 15th of September 1643. which we made appear by his hourly and frequent intercourse with Renny O Moore and many others being himself the most notorious of the said Rebels 3. That he entered into the Roman-Catholick Confederacy before the Peace in 1643. 4. That he constantly adhered to the Nuncio's Party in opposition to his Majesty's Authority 5. That he sate from time to time in the Supream Council of Kilkenny 6. That he signed that execrable Oath of Association 7. That he was Commissionated and acted as Lieutenant-General from the said Assembly at Kilkenny 8. That he declared by several Letters of his own penning himself in Conjunction with Owen Ro Oneale and a constant Opposer to the several Peaces made by the Lord Lieutenant with the Irish We were seven hours by the Clock in proving our Evidence against him but at last the King's Letter being opened and read in Court Rainsford one of the Commissioners said to us That the King's Letter on his behalf was Evidence without Exception and thereupon declared him to be an Innocent Papist This Cause Sir hath tho many Reflections hath passed upon the Commissioners before more startled the Judgments of all men than all the Tryals since the beginning of their sitting and it is very strange and wonderful to all of the Long Robe that the King should give such a Letter having divested himself of that Authority and reposed the Trust in the Commissioners for that purpose And likewise it is admired that the Commissioners having taken solemn Oaths To execute nothing but according to and in pursuance of the Act of Settlement should barely upon his Majesty's Letter declare the Marquess Innocent To be short There never was so great a Rebel that had so much favour from so good a King And it is very evident to me though young and scarce yet brought upon the stage that the consequence of these things will be very bad and if God of his extraordinary mercy do not prevent it War and if possible greater Judgments cannot be far from us where Vice is Patroniz'd and Antrim a Rebel upon Record and so lately and clearly proved one should have no other colour for his Actions but the King 's own Letter which takes all Imputations from Antrim and lays them totally upon his own Father Sir I shall by the next if possible send you over one of our Briefs against my Lord by some Friend It 's too large for a Pacquet it being no less in bulk than a Book of Martyrs I have no more at present but refer you to the King's Letter hereto annexed CHARES R. RIght Trusty and well-beloved Cousins and Counsellors c. We greet you well How far we have been from interposing on the behalf of any of our Irish Subjects who by their miscarriages in the late Rebellion in that Kingdom of Ireland had made themselves unworthy of Our Grace and Protection is notorious to all men and We were so jealous in that particular that shortly after Our return into this Our Kingdom when the Marquess of Antrim came hither to present his duty to Us upon the Information We received from those Persons who then attended Us by a Deputation from Our Kingdom of Ireland or from those who at that time owned our Authority there that the Marquess of Antrim had so misbehaved himself towards Us and Our late Royal Father of blessed memory that he was in no degree worthy of the least Countenance from Us and that they had manifest and unquestionable Evidence of such his guilt Whereupon We refused to admit the said Marquess so much as into Our Presence but on the contrary committed him Prisoner to our Tower of London where after he had continued several Months under a strict restraint upon the continual Information of the said Persons We sent him into Ireland without interposing the least on his behalf but left him to undergo such a Tryal and Punishment as by the Justice of that Our Kingdom should be found due to his Crime expecting still that some heinous Matter would be objected and proved against him to make him uncapable and to deprive him of that Favour and Protection from Us which we knew his former Actions and Services had merited After many months attendance there and We presume after such Examinations as were requisite he was at last dismissed without any Censure and without any transmission of Charge against him to Us and with a License to transport himself into this Kingdom We concluded that it was then time to give him
had received from Christ they were the Judges even of the Scripture it self many years after the Apostles which Books were Canonical and which were not And if they had this power then I desire to know how they came to lose it and by what Authority men separate themselves from that Church The only pretence I ever heard of was because the Church has fail'd in wresting and interpreting the Scripture contrary to the true sence and meaning of it and that they have imposed Articles of Faith upon us which are not to be warranted by God's word I do desire to know who is to be Judge of that whether the whole Church the Succession whereof has continued to this day without interruption or particular men who have raised Schims for their own advantage This is a true Copy of a Paper I found in the late King my Brothers Strong Box written in his own Hand JAMES R. The Second Paper IT is a sad thing to consider what a world of Heresies are crept into this Nation Every man thinks himself as competent a Judge of the Scriptures as the very Apostles themselves and 't is no wonder that it should be so since that part of the Nation which looks most like a Church dares not bring the true Arguments against the other Sects for fear they should be turned against themselves and confuted by their own Arguments The Church of England as 't is call'd would fain have it thought that they are the Judges in matters Spiritual and yet dare not say positively that there is no Appeal from them for either they must say that they are Infallible which they cannot pretend to or confess that what they decide in matters of Conscience is no further to be followed then it agrees with every mans private Judgment If Christ did leave a Church here upon Earth and we were all once of that Church how and by what Authority did we separate from that Church If the power of Interpreting of Scripture be in every mans brain what need have we of a Church or Church-men To what purpose then did our Saviour after he had given his Apostles power to Bind and Loose in Heaven and Earth add to it that he would be with them even to the end of the World These words were not spoken Parabolically or by way of Figure Christ was then ascending into his Glory and left his Power with his Church even to the End of the World We have had these hundred years past the sad effects of denying to the Church that Power in matters Spiritual without an Appeal What Country can subsist in peace or quiet where there is not a Supream Judge from whence there can be no Appeal Can there be any Justice done where the Offenders are their own Judges and equal Interpreters of the Law with those that are appointed to administer Justice This is our Case here in England in matters Spiritual for the Protestants are not of the Church of England as 't is the true Church from whence there can be no Appeal but because the Discipline of that Church is conformable at that present to their fancies which as soon as it shall contradict or vary from they are ready to embrace or joyn with the next Congregation of People whose Discipline and Worship agrees with their Opinion at that time so that according to this Doctrine there is no other Church nor Interpreter of Scripture but that which lies in every mans giddy brain I desire to know therefore of every serious Considerer of these things whether the great work of our Salvation ought to depend upon such a Sandy Foundation as this Did Christ ever say to the Civil Magistrate much less to the People that he would be with them to the end of the World Or did he give them the Power to forgive Sins St. Paul tells the Corinthians Ye are Gods Husbandry ye are Gods Building we are Labourers with God This shews who are the Labourers and who are the Husbandry and Building And in this whole Chapter and in the preceeding one St. Paul takes great pains to set forth that they the Clergy have the Spirit of God without which no man searcheth the deep things of God and he concludeth the Chapter with this Verse For who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him But we have the mind of Christ Now if we do but consider in humane probability and reason the powers Christ leaves to his Church in the Gospel and St. Paul explains so distinctly afterwards we cannot think that our Saviour said all these things to no purpose And pray consider on the other side that those who resist the truth and will not submit to his Church draw their Arguments from Implications and far fetch'd Interpretations at the same time that they deny plain and positive words which is so great a Disingenuity that 't is not almost to be thought that they can believe themselves Is there any other foundation of the Protestant Church but that if the Civil Magistrate please he may call such of the Clergy as he thinks fit for his turn at that time and turn the Church either to Presbytery Independency or indeed what he pleases This was the way of our pretended Reformation here in England and by the same Rule and Authority it may be altered into as many more Shapes and Forms as there are Fancies in mens Heads This is a true Copy of a Paper written by the late King my Brother in his own Hand which I found in his Closet JAMES R. A LETTER Containing some Remarks on the Two Papers writ by His late Majesty King CHARLES the Second Concerning Religion SIR I Thank you for the two Royal Papers that you have sent me I had heard of them before but now we have them so well attested that there is no hazard of being deceived by a false Copy you expect that in return I should let you know what impression they have made upon me I pay all the reverence that is due to a Crowned Head even in Ashes to which I will never be wanting far less am I capable of suspecting the Royal Attestation that accompanies them of the truth of which I take it for granted no man doubts but I must crave leave to tell you that I am confident the late King only copied them and that they are not of his Composing for as they have nothing of that free Air with which he expressed himself so there is a Contexture in them that does not look like a Prince and the beginning of the first shews it was the effect of a Conversation and was to be communicated to another so that I am apt to think they were Composed by another and were so well relished by the late King that he thought fit to keep them in order to his examining them more particularly and that he was prevailed with to Copy them lest a Paper of that nature might have been made a
after the Fifth Century the Doctrine of one Individual Essence was received If you will be farther informed concerning this Father Petau will satisfie you as to the first Period before the Council of Nice and the leared Dr. Cudworth as to the second In all which particulars it appears how variable a thing Tradition is And upon the whole matter the examining Tradition thus is still a searching among Books and here is no living Judge XII If then the Authority that must decide Controversies lies in the Body of the Pastors scattered over the World which is the last retrenchment here as many and as great Scruples will arise as we found in any of the former Heads Two difficulties appear at first view the one is How can we be assured that the present Pastors of the Church are derived in a just Succession from the Apostles there are no Registers extant that prove this So that we have nothing for it but some Histories that are so carelesly writ that we find many mistakes in them in other Matters and they are so different in the very first links of that Chain that immediately succeeded the Apostles that the utmost can be made of this is that here is an Historical Relation somewhat doubtful but here is nothing to found our Faith on so that if a Succession from the Apostles times is necessary to the Constitution of that Church to which we must submit our selves we know not where to find it besides that the Doctrine of the necessity of the Intention of the Minister to the Validity of a Sacrament throws us into inextricable difficulties I know they generally say that by the Intention they do not mean the inward Acts of the Minister of the Sacrament but only that it must appear by his outward deportment that he is in earnest going about a Sacrament and not doing a thing in jest and this appeared so reasonable to me that I was sorry to find our Divines urge it too much till turning over the Rubricks that are at the beginning of the Missal I found upon the head of the Intention of the Minister that if a Priest has a number of Hosties before him to be consecrated and intends to Consecrate them all except one in that case that Vagrant Exception falls upon them all it not being affixed to any one and it is defined that he Consecrates none at all Here it is plain that the secret Acts of a Priest can defeat the Sacrament so this overthrows all certainty concerning a Succession But besides all this we are sure that the Greek Churches have a much more uncontested Succession than the Latines So that a Succession cannot direct us And if it is necessary to seek out the Doctrines that are universally received this is not possible for a private man to know So that in ignorant Countries where there is little Study the people have no other certainty concerning their Religion but what they take from their Curate and Confessor since they cannot examine what is generally received So that it must be confessed that all the Arguments that are brought for the necessity of a constant infallible Judge turn against all those of the Church of Rome that do not acknowledge the Infallibility of the Pope for if he is not infallible they have no other Judge that can pretend to it It were also easie to shew that some Doctrines have been as Universally received in some Ages as they have been rejected in others which shews that the Doctrine of the present Church is not always a sure measure For five Ages together the Doctrine of the Pope's Power to depose Heretical Princes was received without the least Opposition and this cannot be doubted by any that knows what has been the State of the Church since the end of the Eleventh Century and yet I believe few Princes would allow this notwithstanding all the concurring Authority of so many Ages to fortisie it I could carry this into a great many other Instances but I single out this because it is a point in which Princes are naturally extream sensible Upon the whole matter it can never enter into my mind that God who has made Man a Creature that naturally enquires and reasons and that feels as sensible a pleasure when he can give himself a good account of his Actions as one that sees does perceive in comparison to a blind man that is led about and that this God that has also made Religion on design to perfect this Humane Nature and to raise it to the utmost height to which it can arrive has contrived it to be dark and to be so much beyond the penetration of our Faculties that we cannot find out his mind in those things that are necessary for our Salvation and that the Scriptures that were writ by plain men in a very familiar Stile and addrest without any Discrimination to the Vulgar should become such an unintelligible Book in these Ages that we must have an infallible Judge to expound it and when I see not only Popes but even some Bodies that pass for General Councils have so expounded many passages of it and have wrested them so visibly that none of the Modern Writers of that Church pretend to excuse it I say I must freely own to you that when I find that I need a Commentary on dark passages these will be the last persons to whom I will address my self for it Thus you see how fully I have opened my mind to you in this matter I have gone over a great deal of ground in as few words as is possible because hints I know are enough for you I thank God these Considerations do fully satisfie me and I will be infinitely joyed if they have the same effect on you I am yours THis Letter came to London with the return of the first Post after his late Majesties Papers were sent into the Country some that saw it liked it well and wished to have it publick and the rather because the Writer did not so entirely confine himself to the Reasons that were in those Papers but took the whole Controversie to task in a little compass and yet with a great variety of Reflections And this way of examining the whole matter without following those Papers word for word or the finding more fault than the common concern of this Cause required seemed more agreeing to the respect that is due to the Dead and more particularly to the Memory of so great a Prince but other considerations made it not so easie nor so adviseable to procure a License for the Printing this Letter it has been kept in private hands till now those who have boasted much of the Shortness of the late King's Papers and of the length of the Answers that have been made to them will not find so great a disproportion between them and this Answer to them A Brief Account of particulars occurring at the happy Death of our late Soveraign Lord King Charles
the Reign of Our late Royal Brother King Charles the Second shall not at any time hereafter be required to be Taken Declared or Subscribed by any person or persons whatsoever who is or shall be Employed in any Office or Place of Trust either Civil or Military under Us or in Our Government And We do further Declare it to be Our Pleasure and Intention from time to time hereafter to Grant Our Royal Dispensations under Our Great Seal to all our Loving Subjects so to be Employed who shall not take the said Oaths or Subscribe or declare the said Tests or Declarations in the abovementioned Acts and every of them And to the end that all Our Loving Subjects may receive and enjoy the full Benefit and Advantage of Our Gracious Indulgence hereby intended and may be Acquitted and Discharged from all Pains Penalties Forfeitures and Disabilities by them or any of them incurred or forfeited or which they shall or may at any time hereafter be liable to for or by reason of their Non-conformity or the Exercise of their Religion and from all Suits Troubles or Disturbances for the same We do hereby give Our Free and Ample Pardon unto all Non-conformists Recusants and other Our Loving Subjects for all Crimes and Things by them commited or done contrary to the Penal Laws formerly made relating to Religion and the Profession or Exercise thereof Hereby Declaring That this Our Royal pardon and Indempnity shall be as Good and Effectual to all intents and purposes as if every individual person had been therein particularly named or had particular Pardons under Our Great Seal which We do likewise Declare shall from time to time be Granted unto any person or persons desiring the same Willing and Requiring Our Judges Justices and other Officers to take Notice of and Obey Our Royal Will and Pleasure herein before Declared And although the Freedom and Assurance We have hereby given in relation to Religion and Property might be sufficient to remove from the Minds of Our Loving Subjects all Fears and Jealousies in relation to either yet We have thought fit further to Declare That We will Maintain them in all their Properties and Possessions as well of Church and Abby-Lands as in any other their Lands and Properties whatsoever Given at our Court at Whitehall the Fourth Day of April 1687. In the Third Year of Our Reign By His Majesties Special Command A LETTER containing some Reflections on His Majesties Declaration for Liberty of Conscience Dated the Fourth of April 1687. SIR I. I Thank you for the Favour of sending me the late Declaration that His Majesty has granted for Liberty of Conscience I confess I longed for it with great Impatience and was surprised to find it so different from the Scotch Pattern for I imagined that it was to be set to the second part of the same tune nor can I see why the Penners of this have sunk so much in their stile for I suppose the same Men penned both I expected to have seen the Imperial Language of Absolute Power to which all the Subjects are to Obey without reserve and of the Cassing Annulling the stopping and disabling of Laws set forth in the Preamble and body of this Declaration whereas those dreadful words are not to be found here for instead of Repealing the Laws his Majesty pretends by this only to Suspend them and though in effect this amounts to a Repeal yet it must be confessed that the words are softer Now since the Absolute Power to which his Majesty pretends in Scotland is not founded on such poor things as Law for that would look as if it were the gift of the People but on the Divine Authority which is supposed to be delegated to his Majesty this may be as well claimed in England as it was in Scotland and the pretentions to Absolute Power is so great a thing that since his Majesty thought fit once to claim it he is little beholding to those that make him fall so much in his Language especially since both these Declarations have appeared in our Gazettes so that as we see what is done in Scotland we know from hence what is in some peoples hearts and what we may expect in England II. His Majesty tells his people that the perfect Injoyment of their Property has never been in any Case invaded by him since his coming to the Crown This is indeed matter of great Incouragement to all good Subjects for it lets them see that such Invasions as have been made on Property have been done without his Majesties knowledge so that no doubt the continuing to levy the Customes and the Additional Excise which had been granted only during the late King's Life before the Parliament could meet to renew the Grant was done without his Majesties knowledge the many Violences committed not only by Soldiers but Officers in all the parts of England which are severe Invasions on Property have been all without his Majesties knowledge and since the first Branch of Property is the Right that a man has to his Life the strange Essay of Mahometan Government that was shewed at Taunton and the no less strange proceedings of the present Lord Chancellour in his Circuit after the Rebellion which are very justly called his Campagne for it was an open Act of Hostility to all Law and for which and other Services of the like nature it is believed he has had the reward of the great Seal and the Executions of those who have left their Colours which being founded on no Law are no other than so many murders all these I say are as we are sure Invasions on Property but since the King tells us that no such Invasions have been made since he came to the Crown we must conclude that all these things have fallen out without his privity And if a standing Army in time of Peace has been ever lookt on by this Nation as an Attempt upon the whole Property of the Nation in gross one must conclude that even this is done without his Majesties knowledge III. His Majesty expresses his Charity for us in a kind wish that we were all Members of the Catholick Church in return to which we offer up daily our most earnest Prayers for him that he may become a Member of the truly Catholick Church for Wishes and Prayers do no hurt on no side but his Majesty adds that it has ever been his Opinion that Conscience ought not to be constrain'd nor people forced in matters of meer Religion We are very happy if this continues to be always his sense but we are sure in this he is no Obedient Member of that which he means by the Catholick Church for it has over and over again decreed the Extirpation of Hereticks It encourages Princes to it by the Offer of the pardon of their Sins it threatens them to it by denouncing to them not only the Judgments of God but that which is more sensible the loss of their Dominions
England would not break their Oaths and obey a Mandate that plainly contradicted them we see to what a pitch this is like to be caried I will not anticipate upon this illegal Court to tell what Judgments are coming but without carrying our Jealousies too far one may safely conclude that they will never depart so far from their first Institution as to have any regard either to our Religion or our Laws or Liberties in any thing they do If all this were acted by avowed Papists as we are sure it is projected by such there were nothing extraordinary in it but that which carries our Indignation a little too far to be easily governed is to see some pretended Protestants and a few Bishops among those that are the fatal Instruments of pulling down the Church of England and that those Mercenaries Sacrifice their Religion and their Church to their Ambition and Interests this has such peculiar Characters of Misfortune upon it that it seems it is not enough if we perish without pity since we fall by that hand that we have so much supported and fortified but we must become the Scorn of all the World since we have produced such an unnatural Brood that even while they are pretending to be the Sons of the Church of England are cutting their Mothers Throat and not content with Judas's Crime of saying Hail Master and kissing him while they are betraying him into the hands of others these carry their Wickedness farther and say Hail Mother and then they themselves murther her If after all this we are called to bear this as Christians and to suffer it as Subjects if we were required in Patience to possess our own Souls and to be in Charity with our Enemies and which is more to forgive our False Brethren who add Treachery to their Hatred the Exhortation were seasonable and indeed a little necessary for Humane Nature cannot easily take down things of such a hard digestion but to tell us that we must make Addresses and offer Thanks for all this is to insult a little too much upon us in our Sufferings and he that can believe that a dry and cautiously worded Promise of maintaining the Church of England will be religiously observed after all that we have seen and is upon that carried so far out of his Wits as to Address and give Thanks and will believe still such a man has nothing to excuse him from believing Transubstantiation it self for it is plain that he can bring himself to believe even when the thing is contrary to the clearest Evidence that his Senses can give him Si populus hic vult decipi decipiatur POSTSCRIPT THese Reflections were writ soon after the Declaration came to my hands but the Matter of them was so tender and the Conveyance of them to the Press was so uneasie that they appear now too late to have one effect that was Designed by them which was the diverting men from making Addresses upon it yet if what is here proposed makes men become so far wise as to be ashamed of what they have done and carrying is a means to keep them from their Courtship further than good words this Paper will not come too late A LETTER TO A DISSENTER Upon occasion of His MAJESTIES Late Gracious DECLARATION of INDVLGENCE SIR SInce Addresses are in fashion give me leave to make one to you This is neither the Effect of Fear Interest or Resentment therefore you may be sure it is sincere and for that reason it may expect to be kindly received Whether it will have power enough to Convince dependeth upon the Reasons of which you are to judge and upon your preparation of Mind to be perswaded by Truth whenever it appeareth to you It ought not to be the less welcome for coming from a friendly hand one whose kindness to you is not lessened by difference of Opinion and who will not let his thoughts for the Publick be so tyed or confined to this or that Subdivision of Protestants as to stifle the Charity which besides all other Arguments is at this time become necessary to preserve us I am neither surprized nor provoked to see that in the Condition you were put into by the Laws and the ill Circumstances you lay under by having the Exclusion and Rebellion laid to your Charge you were desirous to make your serves less uneasie and obnoxious to Authority Men who are fore run to the nearest Remedy with too much haste to consider all the Consequences Grains of allowance are to be given where Nature giveth such strong Influences When to Men under Sufferings it offereth Ease the present Pain will hardly allow time to examine the Remedies and the strongest Reasons can hardly gain a fair Audience from our Mind whilst so possessed till the smart is a little allayed I do not know whether the Warmth that naturally belongeth to new Friendships may not make it a harder Task for me to perswade you It is like telling Lovers in the beginning of their Joys that they will in a little time have an end Such an unwelcome Style doth not easily find Credit but I will suppose you are not so far gone in your new Passion but that you will hear still and therefore I am under the less Discouragement when I offer to your Consideration two things The first is the Cause you have to suspect your new Friends The second the Duty incumbent upon you in Christianity and Prudence not to hazard the Publick Safety neither by desire of Ease nor of Revenge To the First Consider that notwithstanding the smooth Language which is now put on to engage you these new Friends did not make you their Choice but their Refuge They have ever made their first Courtships to the Church of England and when they were rejected there they made their Application to you in the second Place The Instances of this might be given in all times I do not repeat them because whatsoever is unnecessary must be tedious the Truth of this Assertion being so plain as not to admit a Dispute You cannot therefore reasonably flatter your selves that there is any Inclination to you They never pretended to allow you any Quarter but to usher in Liberty for themselves under that Shelter I refer you to Mr. Coleman's Letters and to the Journals of Parliament where you may be convinced if you can be so mistaken as to doubt nay at this very Hour they can hardly forbear in the height of their Courtship to let fall hard Words of you So little is Nature to be restrained it will start out sometimes disdaining to submit to the Usurpation of Art and Interest This Alliance between Liberty and Infallibility is bringing together the Two most contrary Things that are in the World The Church of Rome doth not only dislike the allowing Liberty but by its Principles it cannot do it Wine is not more expresly forbidden to the Mahometans than giving Hereticks Liberty is to Papists They are
of the Peace and Vnity of this Realm 3. And that such Person or Persons so to be Named Assigned Authorised and Appointed by Your Highness Your Heirs or Successors after the said Letters Patents to him or them made and delivered as is aforesaid shall have full Power and Authority by Vertue of this Act and of the said Letters Patents under Your Highness Your Heirs and Successors to exercise use and execute all the premisses according to the Tenor and Effect of the said Letters Patents any matter or cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding So that I take it that all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was in the Crown by the Common Law of England and declared to be so by the said Act of 1 Eliz. 1. and by that Act a Power given to the Crown to assign Commissioners to exercise this Jurisdiction which was accordingly done by Queen Elizabeth and a High Commission Court was by her erected which sate and held Plea of all Causes Spiritual and Ecclesiastical during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth King James the First and King Charles the First till the 17th Year of his Reign Which leads me to consider the Statute of 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. which Act recites the Title of 1 Eliz. ca. 1. and Sect. 18. of the same Act and recites further Section 2. That whereas by colour of some Words in the aforesaid Branch of the said Act whereby Commissioners are authorised to execute their Commission according to the Tenor and Effect of the Kings Letters Patents and by Letters Patents grounded thereupon the said Commissioners have to the great and insufferable Wrong and Oppression of the Kings Subjects used to Fine and Imprison them and to exercise other Authority not belonging to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction restored by that Act and divers other great Mischiefs and Inconveniences have also ensued to the Kings Subjects by occasion of the said Branch and Commissions issued thereupon and the Executions thereof Therefore for the repressing and preventing of the aforesaid Abuses Mischiefs and Inconveniences in time to come by Sect. 3. the said Clause in the said Act 1 Eliz. 1. is Repealed with a Non obstante to the said Act in these Words Be it Enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty and the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That the aforesaid Branch Clause Article or Sentence contained in the said Act and every Word Matter and thing contained in that Branch Clause Article or Sentence shall from henceforth be Repealed Annulled Revoked Annihilated and utterly made Void for ever any thing in the said Act to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And in Sect. 5. of the same Act it is Enacted That from and after the first of August in the said Act mentioned all such Commissions shall be void in these Words And be it further Enacted That from and after the said first Day of August no new Court shall be erected ordained or appointed within this Realm of England or Dominion of Wales which shall or may have the like Power Jurisdiction or Authority as the said High Commission Court now hath or pretendeth to have but that all and every such Letters Patents Commissions and Grants made or to be made by his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and all Powers and Authorities granted or pretended or mentioned to be granted thereby And all Acts Sentences and Decrees to be made by virtue or Colour thereof shall be utterly void and of none effect By which Act then the Power of Exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Commissioners under the Broad-Seal is so taken away that it provides no such Power shall ever for the future be Delegated by the Crown to any Person or Persons whatsoever Let us then in the last place consider Whether the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12 hath restored this Power or not And for this I take it that it is not restored by the said Act or any Clause in it and to make this evident I shall first set down the whole Act and then consider it in the several Branches of it that relate to this Matter The Act is Entituled An Act for Explanation of a Clause contained in an Act of Parliament made in the 17th Year of the Late King Charles Entituled An Act for Repeal of a Branch of Statute in Primo Elizabethae câ—ncerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical The Act it self runs thus Whereas in an Act of Parliament made in the Seventeenth Year of the Late King Charles Intituled An Act for Repeal of a Branch of a Stature primo Elizabethae concerning Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical It is amongst other things Enacted that no Arch-bishop Bisâ—â—p or Vicar-General nor any Chancellor nor Commissary of any Arch-Bishop Bishop or Vicar-General nor any Ordinary whatsoever nor any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or Minister of Justice nor any other Person or Persons whatsoever exercising Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Jurisdiction by any Grant Lisence or Commission of the Kings Majesty His Heirs or Successors or by any Power or Authority derived from the King his Heirs or Successors or otherwise shall from and after the First Day of August which then should be in the Year of our Lord God 1641. Award Impose or Inflict any Pain Penalty Fine Amercement Imprisonment or other Corporal Punishment upon any of the Kings Subjects for any Contempt Misdemeanor Crime Offence Matter or Thing whatsoever belonging to Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Cognizance or Jurisdiction 2. Whereupon some Doubt hath been made that all ordinary Power of Coertion and proceeding in Causes Ecclesiastital were taken away whereby the ordinary Course of Justice in Causes Ecclesiastical hath been obstructed 3. Be it therefore Declared and Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority thereof That neither the said Act nor any thing therein contained doth or shall take away any ordinary Power or Authority from any of the said Arch-Bishops Bishops or any other Person or Persons named as aforesaid but that they and every of them exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction may proceed determine Sentence execute and exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and all Censures and Coertions appertaining and belonging to the same before any making of the Act before recited in all Causes and Matters belonging to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction according to the Kings Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws used and practised in this Realm in as ample Manner and Form as they did and might lawfully have done before making of the said Act. Sect. 2. And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the afore recited Act of Decimo Septimo Car. and all the Matters and Clauses therein contained excepting what concerns the High Commission Court or the new Erection of some such like Court by Commission shall be and is thereby repealed to dlintents and purposes whatsoever
Their Highnesses who shall blame them for any inconveniency that may arise from thence since they have declared themselves so freely on this Subject and that so much to the advantage even of the Roman Catholicks And since the Settlements of matters sticks at this single point that Their Highnesses cannot be brought to consent to things that are so contrary to Laws already in being and that are so dangerous and so hurtful to the Protestant Religion as the admitting of Roman Catholicks to a share in the Government and to places of Trust and the repealing of those Laws that can have no other effect but the Securing of the Protestant Religion from all the Attempts of the Roman Catholicks against it would be You Write That the Roman Catholicks in these Provinces are not shut out from Employments and places of Trust But in this you are much mistaken For our Laws are express excluding them by name from all share in the Government and from all Employments either of the Policy or Justice of our Country It is true I do not know of any express Law that shuts them out of Military Employments that had indeed been hard since in the first Formation of our State they joyned with us in defending our publick Liberty and did us eminent service during the Wars therefore they were not shut out from those Military Employments for the publick sifety was no way endanger'd by this both because their numbers that served in our Troops were not great and because the States could easily prevent any Inconvenience that might arise out of that which could not have been done so easily if the Roman Catholicks had been admitted to a share in the Government and in the Policy or Justice of our State I am very certain of this of which I could give very good proofs that there is nothing which Their Highnesses desire so much as that his Majesty may reign happily and in an intire Confidence with his Subjects and that his Subjects being perswaded of his Majesties fatherly affection to them may be ready to make him all the returns of duty that are in their Power But their Highnesses are convinced in their Consciences that both the Protestant Religion and the safety of the Nation would be exposed to most certain Dangers if either the Tests or those other Penal Laws of which I have made frequent mention should be repealed Therefore they cannot consent to this nor concur with his Majesties Will for they believe they should have much to Answer for to God if the consideration of any present advantage should carry them to consent and concur in things which they believe would be not only dangerous but mischievous to the Protestant Religion Their Highnesses have ever paid a most profound duty to his Majesty which they will always continue to do for they consider themselves bound to it both by the Laws of God and of Nature But since the matter that is now in hand relates not to the making of new Laws but to the total Repealing of those already made both by King and Parliament they do not see how it can be expected of them that they should consent to such a Repeal to which they have so just an aversion as being a thing that is contrary to the Laws and Customs of all Christian States whether Protestants or Papists who receive none to a share in the Governments or to publick Employments but those who profess the publick and established Religion and that take care to secure it against all attempts whatsoever I do not think it necessary to demonstrate to you how much their Highnesses are devoted to his Majesty of which they have given such real Evidences as are beyond all verbal ones and they are resolved still to continue in the same Duty and Affection or rather to encrease it if that is possible I am SIR Yours c. Nov. 4. 1687. Reflexions on Monsieur Fagel's Letter SIR I Shall endeavour to Answer yours as fully and briefly as possible 1. You desire to know whether the Letter I sent you be truly Monsieur Fagel's or not 2. Whether their Highnesses gave him Commission to Write it 3. How far the Dissenters may rely on their Highnesses word 4. What effects it has on all sorts of People Sir Roman Catholicks may be pardoned if they endeavour to make that Letter pass for an Imposture it is their Interest so to do and they are seldom wanting to promote that let the methods be never so indirect which they are forced to make use of It does indeed spoil many hopeful Projects of theirs But how any Protestant among us can really doubt the truth of it is strange to me Some things carry their own evidence along with them I take this Letter to be one of that kind I do not desire you to believe me upon my bare affirmation that I know it to be genuine tho this be most true but shall offer my Reasons to convince you that it cannot be otherwise First The Letter is like its Author the matter is weighty the Reasoning solid the Stile grave full and clear like that of a Lawyer It has an Air all over which as well shews the Religion and Temper of its Writer as the Matter and Method of it do his Capacity and Judgment Now all these Qualities make up the Character of Monsieur Fagel Secondly There are the same grounds to believe this Letter to be M. Fagel's as there are to believe any thing you have not seen Viz. The constant Asseverations of Persons of undoubted Credit that come from Holland who all agree in it and assure us of it M. Fagel own'd it to several English Gentlemen and many both here and in Holland knew two Months ago that such a Letter was written a Forgery would before this time have been detected especially such a one as ruines the Designs of the Triumphing Party Thirdly It was written by M. Fagel in answer to Letters from Mr. Stewart sent by his Majesties special Orders and Mr. Stewart had both an English and Latin Copy sent him Therefore the English Copy is not called a Translation but it is a sort of Original For you are not to doubt but the matter was ordered so that her Royal Highness might peruse it as well as his Majesty In the next place you would know whether their Highnesses gave Order to Monsieur Fagel to write it I wish Sir you would take the pains to read the Letter over again and consider who this Monsieur Fagel is He is Pensionary of Holland and first Minister of State raised to that Dignity by the Prince's Favour he Answers Letters written to him which are ordered by his Majesty to be Communicated to their Highnesses In his Answer he gives an Account of their Highnesses Opinions about the Repeal of the Penal Laws and Test matters of a National Concern and of the greatest Importance Now you must have a strange Opinion of Monsieur Fagel if you think him capable
of so great an indiscretion or rather Imposture as to write such a Letter of his own Head The Letter it self Demonstrates that whoever writ it is no Fool and the Circumstances I have marked show that he is no Knave And indeed the Substance of it is not new it only repeats to his Majesty the same Answer which the Prince and Princess had formerly given to his Majesties Envoy there In short you may leave the whole Matter to this plain Issue If this Letter be a false one it will be disowned if a true one it will be owned Their Highnesses love not to do things that will not bear the Light It is evident they did not intend the Matter of it should be a Secret having told it to Monsieur D' Albeville as often as he in his discreet VVay necessitated them to do it But how it came to be printed I cannot inform you justly however you shall have my Conjecture I remember as soon as it was noised about Town that Mr. Stewart had received a Letter of such a Nature from Monsieur Fagle care was taken that the VVriter of the common News Letters which are dispersed over the Kingdom should insert in them that their Highnesses had declared themselves for the Repeal of the Test This Pia Fraus might I suppose give occasion to the printing of the Letter as the VVisdom and Policy of our States-men in putting Mr. Stewart on writting such Letters had procured 〈◊〉 I say Letters for Monsieur Fagel had five or six on that Subject before he answered so unwilling were they in Holland to return an Answer since they could not give one that was pleasing or do any thing that looked like medling The third thing you desired to be satisfied in is Whether the Dissenters may reâ—y on their Highnesses Word I am as apt to mistrust Princes Promises as you are But shall now give you my Reasons why I think the Dissenters may safely do it And at the same time because of the Affinity of the Matter I will tell you why I think we may all rely on their Highness for our Civil Liberties as well as the Dissenters may do for Liberty of Conscience Much of what I have to say is equally applicable to them both yet because I know you have had an Account of Her Royal Highness better than I can give you I shall for the most part speak only of the Prince My first Reason is the certainest of all Reasons That it will be His Highnesses Interest to settle Matters at Home which only can be done by a Legal Tolleration or Comprehension in Matters of Religion and by restoring the Civil Liberties of the Nation so much invaded of late That this will be his Interest is evident if his Designs lye abroad as it 's certain they do Designs at home and abroad at the same time are so inconsistent that we see his Majesty tho raised above his Fears at home by his late Victory and invited abroad by all that can excite his Appetite for Glory cannot reconcile them The Truth is one that would undertake it is in the same Condition with Officers that beat their Men to make them fight they have Enemies before and behind But you may happily object that Princes do not always follow their true Interests of which it is not difficult in this Age to give several fatal Instances I answer That it is to be presumed that Princes as well as other Men will follow their Interests till the contrary appear and if they be of an Age to have taken their Fold and have till such an Age kept firm to their Interests the Presumption grows strong but if their Inclinations the Maxims of their Families the Impressions of their Education and all their other Circumstances to side with their Interest and lead them the same way it is hardly credible they should ever quit it Now this being the present Case we have all the certainty that can be had in such Matters The Prince of Orange has above these 15 years given so great proof of his Firmness and Resolution as well as of his Capacity and Conduct in opposing the Grand Ravisher I may add the Betrayers too of Liberty and Religion that he is deservedly by all impartial Men owned to be the Head of the Protestant Interest A Headship which no Princes but the Kings of England should have and none but they would be without it Now one may rationally conclude That when the Prince shall joyn to his present Possession of this Headship a more natural Title by being in a greater Capacity to act he will not degrade himself nor lay aside Designs and Interests which ought to be the Glory of England as they are indeed the Glory of his Family acquired and derived to him by the Blood of his Ancestors and carried on and maintained by himself with so much Honour and Reputation I might add here That the Prince is a Man of a sedate even Temper full of Thoughts and Reflections one that precipitates neither in Thinking Speaking nor Acting is cautious in resolving and promising but firm to his Resolutions and exact in observing his Word Inform your self and you 'll find this a part of his Character and conclude from hence what may be presumed from his Inclinations Now as to the Maxims of his Family let us compare them a little where it may be decently done The French King broke his Faith to his Protestant Subjects upon this single Point of Vain glory that he might shew the World he was greater than most of his Predecessors who tho they had the same Inclinations were not potent enough to pursue them effectually as he has done to the everlasting Infamy of his Name and Reign The Maxims of the French Kings have been how to outvie each other in Robbing their Neighbours and Oppressing their Subjects by Perfidiousness and Cruelty But those of the Family of Orange on the contrary have been to Rescue Europe from its Oppressors and maintain the Protestant Interest by Vertue Truth Honour and Resolution knowing that such Methods are as necessary to make Protestant Princes and States flourish as Vice and Oppression are to maintain Popish Government No Popish Prince in Europe can pretend to have kept his Word to his Protestant Subjects as the Princes of Orange have always done to their Popish Subjects at Orange and elsewhere and the Papists have often broke their Word to that Family and have been and are its declared Enemies and tho the Princes two Great Grand-Fathers Admiral Coligny and Prince William were assassinated by the Authority and with the Approbation of that whole Party yet it cannot be made appear that ever the Princes of that Family failed in keeping their Word even to such Enemies or used their own Popish Subjects the worse for it in making distinction between them and their other Subjects or influenced the States to use theirs so I say the States who a low their R.
joyn in 〈…〉 common Interests of the Protestant Religion And to conclude I would 〈…〉 of the Dissenters to make use of their best Judgment on this so critical an Occusion whâ—â— they will do in my Opinion in keeping close to the Contents of this Letter by ends 〈◊〉 to obtain in a fair and legal way such a Liberty to all Perswasions as is the 〈◊〉 Right of Free men and as our Protestant Successors declare themselves willing to joyn in and it those who have an equal nay a greater Interest than themselves will not agree to such a Liberty because they will be Masters or nothing the Dissenters will have the Comfort of having discharged their own Consciences as prudent Men and good Christians ought to do and may safely trust God with the Event Sir I thought I had made an end but looking your Letter over again I find I have forgot to answer a Reason or two you give why you doubt whether the Letter be truly Mr. Fagels You are informed you say that such and such Great Men doubted of it but some might as well pretend to doubt of the Truth of that Letter though they knew it to be true as believe her Majesty to be with Child almost before she knew it her self and that she was quick when the Embryo as Anatomists say is not much above an inch long I don't think that Popish Successors like certain VVeeds grow faster than others The Persons you name may Trim and presume on their Merit least they might be thought capable of Resentment A dangerous Reflection I say their Merit you have seen a long Relation of the great Services some when they were in Power did their Highnesses it is bound up with a Relation of the true Causes of their Sufferings for their or rather their Highnesses Religion You know even how one of them the last Summer payed them his Reverence with all the Respect and Humility of a due distance and with the same Caution with which the Invincible Monarch fights out of Canon Shot But Sir though the Character of a Trimmer be ordinarily the Character of a prudent Man there are Times and Seasons when it is not the Character of an honest Man I acknowledge that since their Highnesses Marriage nothing has hapned so much for the Good of the Protestant Interest as this Letter of Mr. Fagels and if I had been either the Writer or Adviser of it I should be very proud of it and think the Nation much in my Debt But Sir that was not a very good Reason to make you doubt of it for a good Cause will have its time though not so often as a bad one which hath ordinarily the Majority of its side I am confident at present we have all the reason in the World to expect it for my own part though I am neither young nor strong I hope to live to see a Day of Jubilee in England for all that deserve it when honest Men shall have the same Pleasure in thinking on these Times that a Woman happily delivered hath in reflecting on the Pain and Danger she was in But Knaves shall remember them as I am told the damned do their Sins Cursing both them and themselves SIR I am Yours January the 12th 1688. Animadversions upon a pretended Answer to Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter SIR I Have been so far hitherto from thinking that the pretended Answer to the Excellent Letter of Mijn Heer Fagel deserved a Reply that I judged it would have been a disgrace offered to the Judgment of persons of the most ordinary Intellectuals as well as the Witnessing not only a great measure of self-denial but the submitting of my self to a severe mortification and pennance to bestow one upon it For as it argues a mean Opinion of mankind to believe that they should need any assistance save what their own Reason furnisheth them with in order to their preservation from being imposed upon by so weak foolish incoherent and self-contradictious a Paper so 't is both the rendring one mean and cheap and the inflicting upon himself a most uneasie chastisement to waste his time and employ his thoughts in animadverting upon and exposing so trifling and despicable an Author But seeing I am told that not only he who is commonly supposed to have had the presumption and indiscretion to write the Answer has also the vanity to value himself upon it but that there are others whose wit candour and ingenuity are much of a size with his who do improve our silence in reference unto it tho' arising from the contempt and neglect which all wise men have for it to countenance themselves in a belief and to obtrude an Opinion upon others of its containing something nervous and considerable I shall therefore account my self for once so much a debtor both to the vain and to the unwise as to bestow a few such Reflections upon it as may serve to rectifie the Judgments of the one and both to correct the folly and to abate the pride and swelling confidence of the other And indeed the Author 's concealing his Name may make us justly suspect that we are not to look for truth strength nor candor in that Paper especially when he writes not only in Justification of the proceedings of his Majesty of Great Brittain which is enough to shield him from all severe Attacks provided that he had conducted himself as became a wise and an honest man But in that he enters the lists against a person of Mijn Heer Fagel's quality and whose Letter not only had his Name affixed to it and was beautified with all those impressions of clearness gravity strength prudence and Religion which became the greatness of the Subject and whereunto the having been able to return an Answer that had the umbrage and appearance of Reason would have given a reputation to the Undertaker but which had been also penned by the Command and Authority of their Serene Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Orange in order to declare their Opinion in a matter of the greatest importance that ever English Protestants were concerned in and from Principles of Conscience and Justice hath given that assurance and satisfaction which all peaceable and good men either stood in need of or could desire And as this Authors venturing abroad in the fashion of an Incognito was not without reason seeing he might thereby hope not only to treat Mijn Heer Fagel without regard to truth or ingenuity but that with the less hazard both to his person and reputation he might arraign the Justice and Fidelity of these States and charge them with a violation of the Fundamental Articles upon which their Government was at first erected so he must not take it amiss if upon encountring him in the dark I not only fail in paying him the deference which he may conceive due unto him but handle him unsuitably to the Post he is said to possess Tho' I am not without apprehension that if he
bear the Character which is vulgarly ascribed to him and if the greatest indication of the wisdom and integrity of Princes be the prudence and sincerity of their Ministers but that we may thence come under a necessity of entertaining meaner thoughts than we otherwise would both of the Moral and Intellectual Capacity of him to whom this Gentleman is indebred both for his Titles and the Function he is exalted unto Whereas on the other hand besides many signal Evidences which have filled all Europe with admiration of the admirable Wisdom inflexible Integrity eminent Vertues Religious tho' calm and discreet Zeal and steddy and impartial Justice of his Highness the Prince of Orange our Ideas of him as a person under whose Government Conduct and Shadow all good men may promise themselves happiness are not a little heightned by the consideration of the excellent Qualities of Monsieur Fagel whose advancement as Pensionary of Holland to the first Ministry in that State is owing to the Princes Grace and Recommendation Which Eminent Trust as he hath all along discharged with Honour to his Highness Reputation to himself and to the Satisfaction of those who are interested in the Affairs of that Republick so by nothing hath he more merited an universal esteem and praise from all Protestants and acquitted himself more worthily towards God and their Serene Highnesses than by that Letter wherein he was honoured to declare their thoughts and in which he hath with so much wisdom moderation and convincing light expressed both their Highnesses Sentiments and his own as well concerning the English Laws the Papists may and the Dissenters ought to be favoured with the Repeal of as concerning those which no wise Non-conformist desires to have rescinded and which to humour the Papists with the Abrogation of were no less than to expose the Nation to ruine and to lay the Reformed Religion open to be totally subverted Now this Excellent Letter and which hath produced all the good Effects that honest men long'd for but knew not before how to compass our Anonymous Answerer is pleased with an Indignation and angry Resentment and in hopes to exasperate his Majesty of Great Britain against their Serene Highnesses to stile a kind of Manifest in reference to most important Affairs which even Mr. Stewart who in obedience to the injunctions of his Soveraign had with so much importunity sollicited their Highnesses Opinion about the Repeal of the Penal and Test Laws he says could not have expected And of whom to testifie his exact and intimate knowledge and to recompence him for the unfortunate service he had been employed in and to encourage his readiness to future drudgery he is pleased by a creation of his own as being the Substitute of the Fountain of Honour to confer the Title of Dr. upon But certainly had this Anonymous Writer the sense and prudence of an ordinary man he would not under the present conjuncture of Affairs talk of Manifests nor put people in mind of them at a season when most persons of all ranks and qualities are so much disgusted and when they at Whitehall are so lavish in their provocations towards some who if they were not strangely fortified against all tincture of Resentment are known to be capable of doing them irreparable prejudice and who by such a Manifest as there is cause enough to emit might not only disturb their proceedings but with the greatest facility blow up at once both all their hopes and projections I would fain know of this modest and discreet Gentleman whether if their Highnesses had ordered a Letter to be written declarative of their Opinion for the Abrogation of the Tests by what name he would have judged it worthy to be called and whether if he had bestowed upon it the Title of a Manifest he would have thereby intended to fasten upon it an imputation of presumption and reproach All good men have reason mightily to bewail their Highnesses condition seeing according to this rate of proceeding towards them it is in the power of the Papal Ecclesiasticks in England when they please to prevail upon the King to reduce them to the uneasie circumstances either of offending against their Consciences or of displeasing him For there is no more requisite towards the bringing them into this unhappy Dilemma but that Father Peters or any other of the Tribe who have an Ascendency over his Majesty do persuade him to desire their Highnesses Thoughts in reference to such particulars wherein it is neither consistent with their Religious Principles nor agreeable with their Honour to comply with his Majesties Judgment and Inclinations For if in prudence they decline the returning of an Answer they are sure not only to be censured as guilty of neglect incivility and rudeness but they do thereby administer an advantage to their Enemies of diffusing reports to their prejudice thro' the Nation as if they approved all those Court-methods which for no other reason save upon the meer motives of respect and wisdom they avoided openly to disallow And if on the other hand they suffer themselves to be overcome by importunities and thereupon give an Answer agreeable to the Dictates of their own minds but which is found to interfere with the prepossessions wherewith his Majesty is imbued then their Lot is to have it called by the unkind and ignominious Title of a Manifest One would think that Letter ought to have been mentioned by a softer name if we do but consider its being written not only with the utmost modesty that becomes the Relation Their Highnesses stand in to the King and which is any ways agreeable to their own quality but that it is enforced with all the Reasons that may serve to demonstrate that their Opinion is the result of conviction and judgment and not the effect of humour nor a sentiment they are meerly determined unto by their interest But we see no Term is too hard to be bestowed upon a Paper that hath so much prejudiced the Priests in their designs and laid so great an obstruction in the way of those methods which they had proposed to themselves for the robbing England of the Protestant Religion And whereas our Author tells us that tho' Mr. Stewart did not account himself obliged to answer Monsieur Fagel's Letter yet one who extreamly esteems and honoureth Mr. Stewart thinks the Publick too much concerned not to have the weakness of the reasonings in it detected and to have it made appear that the inferences deduced from them are no ways convincing I can easily believe that Mr. Stewart did not judge himself obliged to answer the Pensionary's Letter and all men do account it a piece of wisdom in him to forbear endeavouring it For tho' he be much better qualified for such an undertaking than our Author yet he could not but be sensible that it was not to be attempted with any hope of success And if our Author had been endow'd with any measure of discretion he would
from the publick and established Religion As to the first it is sufficiently known that according to the judgment of the Church of Rome we are Hereticks and that Heresie being Crimen laesae Majestatis Divinae we are therefore the worst of Traitors and liable to the Penalties of the greatest High Treason And thereupon we are not only declared to be infamous and sentenced to be deprived of all Honor and Dignity and to be incapable of all Offices and have our Estates confiscated and seised but we are condemned to be burnt and if that cannot conveniently be effected it is both made lawful and meritorious to extirpate us by War or Massacre as shall be best and most safe for the Church of Rome In order whereunto not only all Laws made for our Security are declared to be null and that no promises made unto us ought to be kept but all Princes that neglect to destory and extirpate us are proclaimed to be deposed And sutable hereunto has their carriage been for many ages to such as differ from them in Articles of Faith and will not joyn in their Superstitions and Idolatries In proof where of I neither need to insist upon the infinite Murders committed by the Inquisition the most Devilish Engine of Cruelty that ever the World was acquainted with nor to reflect so far backward as the Parisian and Irish Massacres or the infinite Slaughters perpetrated heretofore in France Germany and the Low Countreys c. seeing we have such fresh and doleful evidences of the mercy and gentleness of the Papal Church in the ungrateful inhumane perjurious and salvage persecutions executed so lately in France and Piedmont If it be the effect of Royal and Paternal affection in the King of England to his Subjects that all he endeavoureth is to treat them as becomes a common Father without making any distinction between one and another as our Author is pleased to call it in his Testimony concerning him what cruel Parents must many Princes of the Roman Communion be who act with that difference towards their people that while they cherish and embrace some they tear out the Bowels and suck the blood of others And if no Society destitute of such tender and Christian affections can merit the name of a Church we hence learn where to fasten the character of being the Mother of Harlots In that we not only know whose Doctrine it is that whom She cannot convert She ought to destroy but that we have observed her to have been in all Ages drunk with the Blood of Saints All the commendations our Author bestows upon the King of England are not only either so many accusations of His Majesties insincerity in the Papal Faith or infallible indications that both the King pardon the expression and his Minister are Hypocritical Dissemblers but they are stabbing and twinging Satyr's against Mother Church and the Holy Father and against his Brittanick Majesties dear Brother and Ally the French King Nor can we be guilty either of Crime or Indecency in the worst we can say of the Church of Rome and the Most Christian King seeing we have in equivalent Terms a President for it both from so good a Catholick and so wise a Minister of a great Monarch as our honourable Author is And tho I begin to grow weary of conversing with so impertinent a man yet I am bound to wait upon him a little longer and while the Reader can reap no advantage by any thing he says to see whether it be not possible to lay hold of an occasion from his Ignorance and Folly to communicate things that may be more solid and instructive The sixth thing therefore whereof I accused him and for which I promised to call him to an account is his egregious ignorance in relation to Government Laws Customs and matters of Fact Mijn Heer Fagel tells us that the Test Laws being enacted by King and Parliament for the Security of the Reformed Religion and the Roman Catholicks receiving no prejudice by them but being meerly restrained from getting into a condition to subvert it therefore Their Highnesses could not consent to their Repeal And he further adds that there is no Kingdom Common-wealth or any constituted Body and Society in which there are not Laws made for the safety thereof which not only provide against all attempts that may disturb their peace but which prescribe such conditions as they judge necessary for the discerning who are qualified to bear Employments To which he again subjoins that there is a great difference between the conduct of these of the Reformed Religion towards Roman Catholicks which is moderate and only to prevent their getting into a capacity to do hurt and that of those of the Roman Catholick Religion towards the Reformed who not being satisfied to exclude them from places of Trust do both suppress the whole Exercise of their Religion and severely persecute all that profess it And he finally adds that both Reason and the Experience of the present as well as past Ages do shew that it is impossible for Roman Catholicks and those of the Reformed Religion when joyned together in places of Trust and publick Employment to maintain a good Correspondence live in mutual peace and to discharge their Offices quietly and to the publick Good Now from these several passages which carry their own evidence along with them our Author takes occasion both to vent his foolish and ridiculous Politicks and to proclaim his ignorance in History and of the most obvious matters of Fact However we shall have the patience to hearken to what he hath been pleased to say and shall examine it piece by piece as we go along And the first thing he does is to acquaint us with a mighty Mystery of State and which none but so great a Minister could have been able to have revealed namely that tho the King and Parliament upon the first Revolution with respect to Religion and the introducing and setting up the Reformed Religion thought fit to make those Laws which they judged necessary for its preservation yet that it does not follow that his present Majesty and a Parliament would be of the same mind but that they might enact Laws of a differing Nature from the former and re-establish Religion into the same State in which it was before the Reformed Doctrine and Worship was set up We are much obliged to our Author for this discovery though I must add that this it is to trust a Fool with secrets for he will be sure to be blabbing For tho he subjoin that he will not say that matters would be pushed so far yet he hath already told us enough to make us understand both what his own hopes are and what is designed by the Papal party if they could compass a Parliament of a Complexion and Temper to their mind But there are two fatal things which lye in their way One is that neither progressing nor closeting bribing nor threatning can
could they once get to have a share in the Legislation and to be legally stated in all places of Trust and Power What need we had of a legal security for our Religion in case of a Papists coming to inherit the Crown not onely the late King who thorowly knew his Brothers temper and bigottry but those Loyal Zealots who with an unhappy vigour opposed the Bill of Exclusion were sensible of and therefore besides all the security which we have for our Religion by the Statutes in force they offered many other provisions for its protection and several of them very threatning to the Monarchy which we might have had established into Laws if through our pursuit of the point of Exclusion we had not been so improvident as to despise and reject them He that dares attempt so much as he hath done in opposition unto and defiance of all our Laws what will he not have the confidence to undertake and be in a condition to accomplish if these obstructions were out of his way The Penal Laws cannot prejudice the Papists in this King's Reign seeing he can connive at the non-execution of them and the Repeal of them now cannot benefit the Papists when he is gone because if they do not behave themselves modestly we can either re-establish them or enact others which they will be as little fond of But their abrogation at this time would infallibly prejudice us and would prove to be the pulling up of the Sluces and the throwing down the Dikes which stem the deluge that is breaking in upon us and which hinder the threatning waves from overflowing us And whereas Mr. Pen would obtrude upon weak and credulous Men That if these Laws were Repealed the King is willing to give us other for our security and that he would onely exchange the security and not destroy it Letter 2d p. 11. he must pardon us if we do not easily believe him after what we know of his Majesties natural Genius and Religious Bigottry and after what we have seen and experienced in the whole course of his Government And if there be no other way of giving the King an opportunity of Keeping his word with the Church of England in preserving her and maintaining our Religion but the Repealing of the Penal and Tests Laws as he intimates unto us Good Adv. p. 50. we have not found the Royal Faith so sacred and inviolable in other instances as to rob our selves of a Legal defence and protection for to depend upon the precarious one of a bare promise which his Ghostly Fathers whensoever they find it convenient will tell him it was unlawful to make and which he can have a Dispensation for the breaking of at what time he pleaseth Nor do we remember that when he pledged his Faith unto us in so many Promises that the parting with our Laws was declared to be the condition upon which he made and undertook to perform them Neither can any have the confidence to alledge it without having recourse to the Papal Doctrine of Mental Reservation Which being one of the Principles of that Order under whose conduct he is makes us justly afraid to rely upon his word without further Security However we do hereby see with what little sincerity Mr. Pen Writes and what small regard he hath to His Majesty's honour when he tells the Church of England That if She please and like the terms of giving up the Penal and Test Laws against Papists that then the King will perform his word with her Good Adv. p. 17. but that otherways it is She who breaks with him and not he with her ib p. 44. Though something may be said for the Repealing of all Penal Laws in reference to every perswasion that is called Religion how incongruously soever it may claim that Name yet 't is inconsistent with the safety of all Civil Government and a plain betraying of the Civil Liberties as well as the established Religion in Great Brittain not to allow the precluding those from places of Trust of whose fidelity we can have no assurance And therefore as all that Mr. Pen hath alledged for abolishing the Tests is miserably silly so he hath thereby too manifestly detected the small regard he bears to the safety of the Kingdoms and the Protestant cause not to be suspected in every thing else which he hath more plausibly and reasonably asserted For as all Governments have an unquestionable Right to use means whereby to preserve themselves so 't is not onely lawful but expedient that they should have Tests by which it may be known who are fit to be trusted with the Legislative and Executive power Without this no Constitution can subsist nor Subjects be in any security under it Neither can any Reasons be advanced against the Test Laws but what are of equal force against exacting Oaths of Allegiance and Promises of Fidelity from those whom the Government thinks meet to Employ One might think that Mr. Pen should allow as much to the Parliament of England as he challengeth to himself in his Government of Pensilvania For I find that not onely such shall be precluded from a share in the Government there who shall either be convicted of ill Fame and unsober Coversation or who shall not acknowledge Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and Saviour of the World Chap. 2d of their Constitutions and Laws but that none shall be either chosen into Office or so much as admitted to choose but who solemnly declare and promise Fidelity to William Pen and his Heirs Chap. 57. This I take not onely to be equivalent unto but something more than our Tests do amount unto For whereas there may be several whom the Quakers may judge persons of unsober Conversation who may be true to the Civil Interest of their Country and willing to the utmost of their power to preserve the Peace and promote the Prosperity of it we have no ground to believe the like of Papists in relation to the welfare and safety of a Protestant State And that not onely because they acknowledge a Forraign Jurisdiction inconsistent with and paramount to ours but because they are obliged by the Principles of their Religion whensoever they find themselves able to destroy and extirpate us I 'm sure that the Motives which in 73 and 78 enforced to the Enacting of the Test Laws do at this season plead more effectually for the continuing them Nor had we so much cause then of being afraid of Popery or to be apprehensive of having our Religion overturned by Papists which were the Inducements to the making of those Laws as we have ground to dread it at this time and to be jealous of it under the present conjuncture And the more that the Roman Catholicks and their Advocates press to have these Laws abolished the more fear they excite in us of their design if they knew how to effect it and make us the more resolved to hazard all we have to
given to his Declaration and to what he hath since the Emission of it repeated both in his Speech to Mr. Penn and in his Letter to Mr. Alsop And to omit many other Instances of his kindness and Benignity to the Fanaticks whom he now so much hugs and caresseth it may not be amiss to remember them and all other Protestants of that barbarous and illegal Commission issued forth by the Council of Scotland while he as the late King 's High Commissioner had the Management of the Affairs of that Kingdom by which every Military Officer that had command over twelve Men was impower'd to impannel Juries Try Condemn and cause to be put to Death not only those who should be found to disclaim the King's Authority but such as should refuse to acknowledge the King 's new modelled Supremacy over that Church in the pursuance and Execution of which Commission some were Shot to Death others were Hang'd or Drowned and this not only during the Continuance of the Reign of his late Majesty but for above a Year and a half after the present King came to the Crown But what need is there of insisting upon such little Particulars wherein he was at all times ready to express his Malice to Protestants seeing we have not only Dr. Oates's Testimony and that of divers others but most Authentick Proofs from Mr. Coleman's Letters of his having been in a Conspiracy several Years for the Subversion of our Religion upon the meritorious and sanctified Motive of extirpating the Northern Heresie Of which beside all the Evidence that four Successive Parliaments arrived at I know several who since the Duke of York ascended the Throne have had it confirmed unto them by divers Foreign Papists that were less reserved or more ingenuous than many of that Communion use to be To question the Existence of that Plot and his present Majesties having been Accessary unto and in the Head of it argues a strange Effrontery and Impudence through casting an Aspersion of Weakness Folly and Injustice not only upon those Three Parliaments that seem'd to have retained some Zeal for English Liberties but by fastening the same Imputations upon the Long Parliament which had shewed it self at all times more Obsequious to the Will of the Court than was either for their own Honor or the Safety and Interest of the Kingdom and who had expressed a Veneration for the Royal Family that approached too much upon a degree of Idolatry Whosoever considers that Train of Counsels wherein the King was many Years engaged and whereof we felt the woful Effects in the Burning of London the frequent Prorogation and Dissolution of Parliaments the widening and exasperating Differences among Protestants the stirring up and provoking Civil Magistrates and Ecclesiastical Courts to persecute Dissenters and the maintaining Correspondencies with the Pope and Catholick Princes abroad to the dishonor of the Nation and danger of our Laws and Religion cannot avoid being apprehensive what we are now to look for at his Hands nor can be escape thinking that he esteems his Advancement to the Crown both a Reward from Heaven for what he hath done and plotted against these three Kingdoms and an Opportunity and Advantage administred to him for the Perfecting and Accomplishment of all those Designs with which he hath been so long Bigg and in Travel for the Destruction of our Religion the Subversion of our Laws and the Re-establishment of Popery in these Dominions The Conduct and Guidance under which His Majesty hath put himself and the fiery Temper of that Order to whose Government he hath resigned his Conscience may greatly add to our Fears and give us all the Jealousie and Dread that we are capable of being impressed with in reference to Matters to come that there is nothing which can be Fatal to our Religion or Persons that we may not expect the being called to conflict with and suffer For tho most of the Popish Ecclesiasticks especially the Regulars bear an inveterate Malice to Protestants and hold themselves under indispensible Obligations of eradicating whatsoever their Church stiles Heresie and have accordingly been always forward to stir up and provoke Rulers to the use and Application of Force for the Destruction of Protestants as a Company of perverse and obstinate Hereticks adjudged and condemned to the Stake and Gibbet by the infallible Chair yet of all Men in the Communion of the Romish Church and of their Religious Orders the Jesuits are they who do most hate us and whose Counsels have been most Sanguinary and always tending to influence those Monarchs whose Consciences they have had the guiding and conducting of to the utmost Cruelties and Barbarities towards us What our Brethren have had measured out to them in France through Father de la Chaise's Influence upon that King and through the bewitching Power and Domination he hath over him in the quality of his Confessor and as having the Direction of his Conscience may very well alarm and inform us what we ought to expect from His Majesty of Great Britain who hath surrendered his Conscience to the Guidance of Father Peters a Person of the same Order and of the like mischievous and bloody Disposition that the former is 'T is well observed by the Author of the Reasons against Repealing the Acts of Parliament concerning the Test that Cardinal Howard's being of such a meek and gentle Temper that is able to withstand the Malignity of his Religion and to preserve him from concurring in those mischievous Counsels which his Purple might seem to oblige him unto is the reason of his being shut out from Acquaintance with and Interest in the English Affairs transacted at Rome and that whatsoever his Majesty hath to do in that Court is managed by his Ambassador under the sole Direction of the Jesuits So that it is not without cause that the Jesuit of Liege in his intercepted and lately printed Letter tells a Brother of the Order what a wonderful Veneration the King hath for the Society and with what profound Submission he receives those Reverend Fathers and hearkens to whatsoever they represent Nor is His Majesty's being under the Influence of the Jesuits through having one of them for his Confessor and several of them for his Chief Counsellors and principal Confidents the only thing in this Matter that awakens our Fear in what we are to expect from his armed Power excited and stir'd up by that fiery Tribe but there is another Ground why we ought more especially to dread him and that is his being entred and enrolled into the Order and become a Member of the Society whereby he is brought into a greater Subjection and Dependence upon them and stands bound by Ties and Engagements of being obedient to the Commands of the General of the Jesuits and that not only in Spirituals but in whatsoever they shall pretend to be subservient to the Exaltation of the Church and for upholding the Glory of the Tripple Crown This
till after the expiration of twenty Years In the same manner when he had resolved to Repeal the Edict of Nantes and had given injunction for the Draught by which it was to be done he at the same season gave the Protestants all assurances of Protection and of the said Edicts being kept Inviolable To which may be added that shameful and detestable Chicanery in passing his Sacred and Royal Word that no violence should be offered any for their Religion tho at that very moment the Dragoons were upon their March with orders of exercising all manner of Cruelties und Barbarities upon them So that his Majesty of Great Britain hath a Pattern lately sent him and that by the Illustrious Monarch whom he so much admires and whom he makes it his Ambition and Glory to imitate Nor are we without proofs already how insignificant the King's Promises are except to delude and what little confidence ought to be put in them The disabling and suspending the 13th Statute of his late Parliament in Scotland wherein the Test was Confirmed and his departing from all his Promises Registred in his Letter as well as from those contained in the Speech made by the Lord Commissioner pursuant to the Instructions which he had undoubtedly receiv'd together with his having forgotten and receded from all his Promises made to the Church of England both when Duke of York and since he came to the Crown are undeniable evidences that his Royal Word is no more Sacred nor Binding than that of some other Monarchs and that whosoever of the Protestants shall be so foolish as to rely upon it will find themselves as certainly disappointed and deceived as they of the Reformed Religion elsewhere have been And while they of the Established way find so small security by the Laws which the King is bound by his Coronation Oath to observe the Dissenters cannot expect very much from a naked Promise which as it hath not a solemn Oath to enforce it so 't is both Illegal in the making and contrary to the principles of his Religion to keep Nor is it unworthy of observation that he hath not only departed from his Promises made to the Church of England but that we are told in a late Popish Pamphlet Intituled A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty Published as it self says by Authority that they were all conditional to wit by vertue of some Mental Reservation in his Majesty's Breast and that the Conformable Clergy having failed in performing the Conditions upon which they were made the King is absolved and discharged from all Obligation of observing them The Church of England says he must give his Majesty leave not to nourish a Snake in his Bosom but rather to withdraw his Royal Protection which was promised upon the account of her constant fidelity Which as it is a plain threatning of all the Legal Clergy and a denunciation of the unjust and hard measure they are to look for so it shakes the Foundation upon which all credit unto and reliance upon his Majesty's Word can be any ways placed For tho Threatnings may have tacit Reserves because the right of executing them resides in the Threatner yet Promises are incapable of all latent conditions because every Promise vests a Right in the Promisee and that in the virtue of the words in which it is made But it is the less to be wondred at if his Majesty fly to Equivocations and Mental Reserves being both under the conduct of that Order and a Member of the Society that first taught and practised this treacherous piece of Chicanery However it may inform the Dissenters that if they be not able to answer the End for which they are depended upon or be not willing in the manner and degree that is expected or if it be not for the Interest of the Catholick Cause to have them indulged in all these cases and many more the King may be pronounced acquitted and discharged from all the Promises he hath given them as having been merely stipulatory and conditional And as he will be sure then finem facere ferendae alienae personae to lay aside the disguise that he hath now put on so if they would reflect either upon his temper or upon his Religion they might now know haud gratuitam in tanta superbia comitatem that a person of his pride would not stoop to such Flattery as his Letter to Mr. Alsop expresseth but in order to some design But what need other proof of the fallaciousness of the two Royal Papers and that no Protestants can reasonably depend upon the Royal Word there laid to pledge for the continuation of their Liberty but to look into these too Papers themselves where we shall meet expressions that may both detract from our belief of his Majesty's sincerity and awaken us to a just jealousie that the Liberty and Toleration granted by them are intended to be of no long standing and duration For while he is pleased to tell us that the granting his Subjects the free use of their Religion for the time to come is an addition to the perfect Enjoyment of their Property which has never been invaded by His Majesty since his coming to the Crown He doth in effect say that His Fidelity Truth and Integrity in what he grants in reference to Religion is to be measured and judged by the Verity that is in what He rells us as to the never having Invaded our Property And that I may Borrow an Expression from Mr. Alsop and to no less Person than to the King himself namely That tho we pretend to no refined Intellectuals nor presume to Philosophise upon Mysteries of Government yet we make some pretence to the Sense of Feeling and whatever our Dullness be can discern between what is exacted of us according to Law and what we are rob'd of by an Exerclse of Arbitrary Power For not to insist upon the violent Seisure of Mens Goods by Officers as well as Soldiers in all parts of England which looks like an Invasion upon the Properties of the Subject nor to dwell upon his keeping an Army on foot in time of Peace against the Authority as well as without the Countenance of Law which our Ancestors would have stiled an Invasion upon the whole Property of the Kingdom I would fain know by what Name we are to call his Levying the Customs and the Additional Excise before they were granted unto him by the Parliament all the legal Establishment of them upon the Nation having been only during the late King's Life till the Settlement of them upon the Crown was again renewed by Statute It were also worth his Majesties telling us what Titles are due to the Suspending the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge a Beneficio and the turning the President of Magdalen's in Oxford out of his Headship and the Suspending Dr. Fairfax from his Fellowship if there be not an Invasion upon our Property seeing every part of this is against all
Orange designs the King's safety and preservation and hope all things may be composed without more Blood-shed by the calling a Parliament God grant a happy End to these Troubles that the King's Reign may be prosperous and that I may shortly meet You in perfect peace and safety till when let me beg You to continue the same favourable Opinion that You have hitherto had of Your most Obedient Daughter and Servant ANNE A Memorial of the Protestants of the Church of England Presented to their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Orange YOur Royal Highnesses cannot be ignorant that the Protestants of England who continue true to their Religion and the Government Established by Law have been many ways troubled and vexed by restless contrivances and designs of the Papists under pretence of the Royal Authority and things required of them unaccountable before God and Man Ecclesiastical Benefices and Preferments taken from them without any other Reason but the King's Pleasure that they have been summoned and sentenced by Ecclesiastical Commissioners contrary to Law deprived of their Birth-Right in the free Choice of their Magistrates and Representatives divers Corporations dissolved the Legal Security of our Religion and Liberty established and ratified by King and Parliament annull'd and overthrown by a pretended Dispensing Power new and unheard of Maxims have been preached as if Subjects had no Right but what depends on the King's Will and Pleasure The Militia put into the Hands of persons not qualified by Law and a Popish Mercenary Army maintained in the Kingdom in time of Peace absolutely contrary to Law The Execution of the Law against several high Crimes and Misdemeanours superseded and prohibited the Statutes against Correspondence with the Court of Rome Papal Jurisdiction and Popish Priests suspended that in Courts of Justice those Judges are displaced who dare acquit them whom the King would have Condemned as happened to Judg Powel and Holloway for acquitting the Seven Bishops Liberty of chusing Members of Parliament notwithstanding all the Care taken and Provision made by Law on that behalf wholly taken away by Quo Warranto's served against Corporations and the three known Questions All things carried on in open view for the Propagation and Growth of Popery for which the Courts of England and France have so long joyntly laboured with so much Application and Earnestness Endeavours used to perswade your Royal Highnesses to consent to Liberty of Conscience and abrogating the Penal Laws and Tests wherein they fell short of their aim That they most humbly implore the Protection of your Royal Highnesses as to the 〈◊〉 ending and incroachments made upon the Law for maintenance of the Protestant Religion our Civil and Fundamental Rights and Priviledg and that Your Royal Highness would be pleased to insist that the Free Parliament of England according to Law may be restored the Laws against Papists Priests Papal Jurisdiction c. put in Execution and the Suspending and Dispensing Power declared null and void the Rights and Priviledges of the City of London the free Choice of their Magistrates and the Liâ—â—â—ties as well of that as other Corporations restored and all things returned to their 〈◊〉 Channel c. Admiral Herbert 's Letter to all Commanders of Ships and Seamen in His Majesties Fleet. Gentlemen I Have little to add to what his Highness has express'd in general Terms besides laying before you the dangerous way you are at present in where Ruin or Infamy must inevitably attend you if you don't joyn with the Prince in the Common Cause for the Defence of your Religion and Liberties for should it please God for the sins of the English Nation to suffer your Arms to prevail to what can your Victory serve you but to enslave you deeper and overthrow the true Religion in which you have liv'd and your Fathers dy'd Of which I beg you as a Friend to consider the Consequences and to reflect on the Blot and Infamy it will bring on you not only now but in all After-Ages That by Your means the Protestant Religion was destroy'd and your Country depriv'd of its Ancient Liberties And if it pleases God to bless the Prince's Endeavours with success as I don't doubt but he will consider then what their Condition will be that oppose him in this so good a Design where the greatest Favour they can hope for is their being suffer'd to end their Days in Misery and Want detested and despised by all good Men. It is therefore and for many more Reasons too long to insert here that I as a true English-man and your Friend exhort you to joyn your Arms to the Prince for the Defence of the Common Cause the Protestant Religion and the Liberties of your Country It is what I am well assured the major and best part of the Army as well as the Nation will do so soon as convenience is offered Prevent them in so good an Action whilst it is in your power and may it appear That as the Kingdom hath always depended on the Navy for its Defence so you will yet go further by making it as much as in you lies the Protection of her Religion and Liberties and then you may assure your selves of all Marks of Favour and Honour suitable to the Merits of so great and glorious an Action After this I ought not to add so inconsiderable a thing as that it will for ever engage me to be in a most particular manner Your faithful Friend and humble Servant AR. HERBERT Aboard the Leyden in the Gooree Lord Delamear 's Speech THE occasion of this is to give you my Thoughts upon the present Conjuncture which concerns not only you but every Protestant and Free-born Man of England I am confident that wishes well to the Protestant Religion and his Country and I am perswaded that every Man of you thinks both in danger and now to lie at stake I am also perswaded that every Man of you will rejoyce to see Religion and Property settled if so then I am not mistaken in my Conjectures concerning you Can you ever hope for a better Occasion to root out POPERY and SLAVERY than by joining with the P. of O. whose Proposals contain and speak the Desires of every Man that loves his Religion and Liberty And in saying this I will invite you to nothing but what I will do my self and I will not desire any of you to go any further than I will move my self neither will I put you upon any Danger where I will not take share in it I propose this to you not as you are my Tenants but as my Friends and as you are Englishmen No Man can love Fighting for its own sake nor find any pleasure in danger And you may imagine I would be very glad to spend the rest of my days in peace I having had so great a share in Troubles but I see all lies at stake I am to chuse whether I will be a Slave and a Papist or a
heal all Breaches This Proposal seemed to dissatisfie the whole Meeting and the Duke of Hamilton their President Father to the Earl but they presently parted Wednesday the Ninth of January they met at three of the Clock in the same Room and Sir Patrick Hume took notice of the Proposal made by the Earl of Arran and desired to know if there was any there that would second it But none appearing to do it he said That what the Earl had proposed was evidently opposite and inimicous to his Highness the Prince of Orange's Undertaking his Declaration and the good Intentions of preserving the Protestant Religion and of Restoring their Laws and Liberties exprest in it and further desired that the Meeting should declare this to be their Opinion of it The Lord Cardross seconded Sir Patrick's Motion It was answered by the Duke of Hamilton President of the Meeting That their Business was to prepare an Advice to be offered to the Prince and the Advice being now ready to go to the Vote there was no need that the Meeting should give their Sense of the Earl's Proposal which neither before nor after Sir Patrick's Motion any had pretended to own or second so that it was fallen and out of doors and that the Vote of the Meeting upon the Advice brought in by their Order would sufficiently declare their Opinion This being seconded by the Earl of Sutherland the Lord Cardross and Sir Patrick did acquiesce in it and the Meeting Voted unanimously the Advice following To His Highness the Prince of Orange WE the Lords and Gentlemen of the Kingdom of Scotland Assembled at your Highness's desire in this Extraordinary Conjunction do give your Highness our Humble and Hearty Thanks for your Pious and Generous Undertaking for Preserving of the Protestant Religion and Restoring the Laws and Liberties of these Kingdoms In order to the Attaining these Ends our humble Advice and Desire is That your Highness take upon You the Administration of all Affairs both Civil and Military the Disposal of the Publick Revenues and Fortresses of the Kingdom of Scotland and the doing every Thing that is necessary for the Preservation of the Peace of the Kingdom until a general Meeting of the States of the Nation which we humbly desire your Highness to Call to be holden at Edinburgh the Fourteenth day of March next by your Letters or Proclamation to be published at the Market-Cross of Edingburgh and other Head-Boroughs of the several Shires and Stewartries as sufficient Intimation to All concerned and according to the Custom of the Kingdom And that the Publication of these your Letters or Proclamation be by the Sheriffs or Stewart Clerks for the Free-holders who have the value of Lands holden according to Law for making Elections and by the Town-Clerks of the several Burroughs for the meeting of the whole Burgesses of the respective Royal Burroughs to make their Elections at least Fifteen Days before the Meeting of the Estates at Edingburgh and the Respective Clerks to make Intimation thereof at least Ten Days before the Meetings for Elections And that the whole Electors and Members of the said Meeting at Edingburgh qualified as above Exprest be Protestants without any other Exception or Limitation whatsoever to Deliberate and Resolve what is to be done for securing the Protestant Religion and Restoring the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom according to your Highness's Declaration Dated at the Council-Chamber in White hall the Tenth Day of January 1689. This Address being Subscribed by Thirty Lords and about Eighty Gentlemen was presented in their presence at St. James's by the Duke of Hamilton their President to his Highness the Prince of Orange who thanked them for the Trust they reposed in him and desired time to consider upon so weighty an Affair Upon the Fourteenth of January his Highness the Prince of Orange met again with the Scots Lords and Gentlemen at St. James's And spoke to them as follows My Lords and Gentlemen IN persuance of your Advice I will until the Meeting of the States in March next give such Orders concerning the Affairs of Scotland as are necessary for the Calling of the said Meeting for the preserving of the peace the applying of the publick Revenue to the most pressing Vses and putting the Fortresses in the Hands of persons in whom the Nation can have a just Confidence And I do further assure you That you will always find me ready to concur with you in every Thing that may be found necessary for Securing the Protestant Religion and Restoring the Laws and Liberties of the Nation The Earl of Crawfourd desired of his Highness That himself the Earl of Louthian and others come to Town since the Address was presented might have an opportunity to Subscribe it which was accordingly done His Highness Retired and all shewed great Satisfaction with his Answer The Emperor of Germany 's Account of K. James 's Misgovernment in joyning with the King of France the Common Enemy of Christendom in his Letter to King James viz. LEOPOLD c. WE have received your Majesties Letters dated from St. Germans the sixth of February last by the Earl of Carlingford your Envoy in our Court By them we have understood the Condition your Majesty is reduced to and that you being deserted after the Landing of the Prince of Orange by your Army and even by your Domestick Servants and by those you most consided in and almost by all your Subjects you have been forced by a sudden Flight to provide for your own Safety and to seek Shelter and Protection in France Lastly that you desire Assistance from us for the recovering your Kingdoms We do assure your Majesty that as soon as we heard of this severe turn of Affairs we were moved at it not only with the common sense of Humanity but with much deeper Impressions suitable to the sincere Affection which we have always born to you And we were heartily sorry that at last that was come to pass which tho we hoped for better things yet our own sad thoughts had suggested to us would ensue If your Majesty had rather given Credit to the Friendly Remonstrances that were made you by our late Envoy the Count de Kaunitz in our Name than the deceitful Insinuations of the French whose chief aim was by fomenting continual Divisions between you and your People to gain thereby an Opportunity to insult the more securely over the rest of Christendom And if your Majesty had put a stop by your Force and Authority to their many Infractions of the Peace of which by the Treaty at Nimegen you are made the Guarantee and to that end entred into Consultations with us and such others as have the like just Sentiments in this matter We are verily persuaded that by this means you should have in a great measure quieted the Minds of your People which were so much exasperated through their aversion to our Religion and the publick Peace had been preserved as well
houses in Holborn at the same time That he was at the Fire in the Temple but was not engaged to do any thing in it And said that Gyfford told him that there were English French and Irish Roman Catholicks enough in London to make a very good Army and that the King of France was coming with 60000 Men under pretence to shew the Dauphin his Dominions but it was to lay his Men at Deep Bulloign Callis and Dunkirk to be in an hours Warning to be Landed in England and he doubted not but it would be by the middle of June and by that time all the Catholicks here will be in readiness all were to rise in order to bring him in That the Papists here were to be distinguished by Marks in their Hatts that the said Father Gyfford doubted not but he should be an Abbot or a Bishop when the work was over for the good service he hath done That at their Meeting Father Gyfford used to tell them it was no more sin to kill a Heretick then a Dog and that they did God good Service in doing what Mischiefs they could by firing their houses That it was well Sir Edmondbury Godfrey was Murdered for he was their Devilish Enemy That Coleman was a Saint in Heaven for what he had done And saith he is fearful he shall be Murthered for this Confession Father Gyfford having sworn him to Secresie and told him he should be Damned if he made any Discovery and should be sure to be killed and that he should take the Oaths because he was a House-keeper and that it was no sin And saith That Gyfford and Roger _____ told him when their Forces meet about the middle of June then have at the VOTES and ADDRESSES Of the Honourable House of Commons ASSEMBLED IN PARLIAMENT Made this present Year 1673 Concerning Popery and other Grievances March 29. 1673. The Parliaments Address to his Majesty for the Removal of Grievances in England and Ireland WE your Majesties most Loyal Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament assembled conceiving our selves bound in necessary Duty to your Majesty and in Discharge of the Trust reposed in us truly to inform your Majesty of the Estate of your Kingdom And though we are abundantly satisfied that it hath been your Royal Will and Pleasure that your Subjects should be governed according to the Laws and Customs of this Realm yet finding that contrary to your Majesties gracious Intention some Grievances and Abuses are crept in We crave Leave humbly to represent them to your Majesties Knowledge and Desire 1. That the Imposition of 12 d. per Chaldron upon Coals for the providing of Convoys by Vertue of an Order from Council dated the 15th of May 1672 may be recalled and all Bonds taken by Virtue thereof cancelled 2. That your Majesties Proclamation of the 24th of December 1672 for preventing of Disorders which may be committed by Soldiers and whereby the Soldiers now in your Majesties Service are in a manner exempted from the ordinary Course of Justice may likewise be recalled 3. And whereas great Complaints have been made out of several parts of this Kingdom of divers Abuses committed in Quartering of Soldiers That your Majesty would be pleased to give Order to redress those Abuses and in particular that no Soldiers be hereafter Quartered in any private Houses and that due Satisfaction may be given to the Inn-keepers or Victuallers where they lye before they remove 4. And since the continuance of Soldiers in this Nation will necessarily produce many Inconveniences to your Majesties Subjects We do humbly present it as our Petition and Advice That when this present War is ended all your Souldiers which have been raised since the last Session of Parliament may be Disbanded 5. That your Majesty would be likewise pleased to consider of the Irregularities and Abuses in pressing Soldiers and to give Order for the Prevention thereof for the future 6. And although it hath been the Course of former Parliaments to desire Redress in their Grievances before they proceeded to give a Supply yet we have so full Assurance of your Majesties Tenderness and Compassion towards your People that we humbly prostrate our selves at your Majesties feet with these our Petitions desiring your Majesty to take them into your Princely Consideration and to give such Orders for the Relief of your Subjects and the Removing these Pressures as shall seem lest to your Roâ—al Wisdâ—m Address touching Ireland WE your Majesties most Loyal Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament assembled taking into Consideration the great Calamities which have formerly befallen your Majesties Subjects of the Kingdom of Ireland from the Popish Recusants there who for the most part are profest Enemies to the Protestant Religion and the English Interest and how they make use of your Majesties gracious Disposition and Clemency are at this time grown more insolent and presumptuous than formerly to the apparent Danger of that Kingdom and your Majesties Protestant Subjects there the Consequence whereof may likewise prove very fatal to this your Majesties Kingdom of England if not timely prevented And having seriously weighed what Remedies may be most properly applied to those growing Distempers do in all Humility present your Majesty with these our Petitions 1. That for the Establishment and Quieting the Possessions of your Majesties Subjects in that Kingdom your Majesty would be pleased to maintain the Act of Settlement and Explanatory Act thereupon and to recall the Commission of Enquiry into Irish Affairs bearing Date the 17th of January last as containing many new and extraordinary Powers not only to the Frejudice of particular Persons whose Estates and Titles are thereby made liable to be questioned but in a manner to the Overthrow of the Acts of Settlement And if pursâ—â—d may be the Occasion of great Charge and Attendance to many of your Subjects in Ireland and shake the Peace and Security of the whole 2. That your Majesty would give Order that no Papist be either continued or hereafter admitted to be Judges Justices of the Peace Sheriffs Coroners or Mayors Sovereigns or Portrieves in that Kingdom 3. That the Titular Popish Archbishops Bishops Vicars-General Ablâ—â—s and all other exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by the Popes Authority and in particular Peter Talbot pretended Archbishop of Dublin for his notorious Disloyalty to your Majesty and Disobedience and Contempt of your Laws may be commanded by Proclamation forthwith to depart out of Ireland and all other your Majesties Dominions or otherwise to be prosecuted according to Law And that all Convents Seminaties and Publick Popish Scholes may be dissolved and suppressed and the Secular Priests commanded to depart under the Penalty 4 That no Irish Papist be admitted to inhabit in any part of that Kingdom unless duly licensed according to the aforesaid Acts of Settlemenâ— and that your Majesty would be pleased to recall your Letters of the 26th of February 1671. And the Proclamation thereupon whereby general Licence is
given to such Papists as inhabit in Corporations there 5. That your Majesties Letters of the 28th of September 1672. and the Order of Council thereupon whereby your Subjects are required not to prosecute any Actions against the Irish for any Wrongs or Injuries committed during the late Rebellion may likewise be recalled 6. That Colonel Talbot who hath notoriously assumed to himself the Title of Agent of the Roman Catholicks in Ireland be immediately dismissed out of all Command Military and Civil and forbidden Access to your Majesties Court. 7. That your Majesty would be pleased from time to time out of your Princely Wisdom to give such further Order and Directions to the Lord Lieutenant or other Governour of Ireland for the time being as may best conduce to the Encouragement of the English Planters and Protestants Interest there and the Suppression of the Insolencles and Disorders of the Irish Papists there These our humble Desires we present to your Majesty as the best means to preserve the Peace and Safety of that your Kingdom which hath been so much of late in Danger by the Practices of the said Irish Papists particularly Richard and Peter Talbot and we doubt not but your Majesty will find the happy Effects thereof to the great Satisfaction and Security of your Majesties Person and Government which of all earthly things is most dear to your Majesties most Loyal Subjects Ordered October 20. 1673. THat an Address be made to his Majesty by such Members of this House as are of his Majesties Privy-Council to acquaint his Majesty that it is the humble desire of this House that the intended Marriage of his Royal Highness with the Dutchess of Modena be not consummated and that he may not be Married to any Person but of the Protestant Religion And the same Day the Parliament was Prorogued till Monday next The Address of the Parliament to his Majesty WE your Majesties most Humble and Loyal Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament assembled being full of Assurance of your Majesties gracious Intentions to provide for the Establishment of Religion and the Preservation of your People in Peace and Security and foreseeing the dangerous Consequences which â—ay follow the Marriage of his Royal Highness the Duke of York with the Princess of â—â—â—dena or any other of the Popish Religion we hold our selves bound in Conscience â—â—d Duty to represent the same to your Sacred Majesty not doubting but these constant Testimonies which we have given your Majesty of our true and loyal Affections to your Sacred Person will easily gain a Belief that these our humble Desires proceed from Hearts still full of the same Affections toward your sacred Majesty and with intentions to establish your Royal Government upon those true Supports of the Protestant Religion and the Hearts of your People with all Humility desiring your Majesty to take the same into your Princely Consideration and to relieve your Subjects from those Fears and Apprehensions which at present they lie under from the Progress hath been made in that Treaty We do therefore humbly intreat your Majesty to consider that if this Match do proceed it will be a means to disquiet the Minds of your Protestant Subjects at home and to fill them with endless Jealousies and Discontents and will bring your Majesty into such Alliances abroad as will prove highly prejudicial if not destructive to the Interest of the very Protestant Religion it self And we find by sad Experience that such Marriages have encreased and encouraged Popery in this Kingdom and given opportunity to Priests and Jesuits to propagate their Opinions and seduce great Numbers of your Majesties Subjects And we do already observe how much the Party is animated with the hopes of this Match which were lately discouraged by your gracious Concessions in the last Meeting in this Parliament That we greatly fear this may be an Occasion to lessen the Affections of the People to his Royal Highness who is so nearly related to the Crown and whose Honour and Esteem we desire may always be intirely preserved That for another Age more at the least this Kingdom will be under the continual Apprehensions of the Growth of Popery and the Danger of the Protestant Religion Lastly We consider that this Princess having so near a Relation and Kindred to many Eminent Persons of the Court of Rome may give them great Opportunities to promote their Designs and carry on their Practices among us and by the same means penetrate into your Majesties most Secret Counsels and more easily discover the State of the whole Kingdom And finding that by the Opinions of very Learned Men it is generally admitted that such Treaties and Contracts by Proxies are dissolvable of which there are several Instances to be produced We do in all humbleness beseech your Majesty to put a stop to the Consummation of this intended Marriage And this we do the more importunately desire because we have not yet the Happiness to see any Issue of your Majesty's that may succeed in the Government of these Kingdoms which Blessings we most heartily pray Almighty God in his due time to bestow upon your Majesty and these Kingdoms to the unspeakable Joy and Comfort of all your Majesty's Subjects who desire nothing more than to continue under the Reigns of your Majesty and your Royal Posterity for ever October 30. 1673. Mr. Secretary Coventry brought from his Majesty an Answer to the Address presented to him touching the Duke of York as followeth C. R. HIS Majesty having received an Address from the House of Commons presenting their humble Desire that the intended Marriage betwixt his Royal Highness and the Princess of Modena may not be Consummated Commanded this Answer to be returned That he perceived the House of Commons have wanted a full Information of this Matter the Marriage not being barely intended but Compleated according to the Forms used amongst Princes and by His Royal Consent and Authority Nor could He in the least suppose it disagreeable to His House of Commons His Royal Highness having been in the view of the World for several Months engaged in a Treaty of Marriage with another Catholick Princess and yet a Parliament held during the time and not the least Exception taken at it An Address ordered to be presented to His Majesty concerning a Marriage between his Royal Highness and the Princess of Modena and a Committee appointed to that purpose A Committee appointed for preparing a Bill for a general Test to distinguish between Protestants and Papists and those that shall refuse to take it be incapable to enjoy any Office Military or Civil or to sit in either Houses of Parliament or to come within five miles of the Court. The House adjourned till Monday October 31. 1673. Resolved That the House considering the present Condition of the Nation will not take into any further Debate the Consideration of any Aid or Supplies or Charge upon the Subjects before the time of Payment of
sworn to only as far as every Man pleases to interpret and as far as may be consistent with any new principles of State But the Parliament certainly I do not speak Ironically did intend by this Test to swear and assert the True Protestant Religion and the said Confession of Faith whatever may be now pretended The Earl could not also but very well remember what his Highness had said to himself about the inserting of the Confession and no doubt the Advocate if ingenuous knows all this For the thing was at that time matter of common talk and indeed till Papers objecting contradictions and inconsistencies betwixt the Confession and the rest of the Test began to be so numerous which was about the end of October that there was no possibility left to answer them but by alledging That in the Test men do not swear to every article and proposition of the Confession but only to the Protestant Religion therein contained this point was never doubted And whether this answer be true and a solid Vindication consonant to the words of the Test or a circulating evasion enervating all its force let others judge But the Advocate says When it was moved in Parliament to read the Confession it was waved Most true and the reason given by the Bishops for it was That it was notour they knew it and it was already insert in the Acts of Parliament And the truth was the reading of it would have spent more time than was allowed on examining the whole Test It was likâ— wise late after a long Sederunt and it was resolved to have the Act passed that night and so it went on But it was likewise moved to read the Covenant seeing it was to be disclaimed and this was flatly refused And will the Advocate thence infer That by the Test the Covenant is not abjured albeit it be most certain that many in the Parliament at that time had never read the one or the other But to follow the Advocate 's excursions and answer them more particularly The motion for reading the Confession being made on this very occasion Because it was to be insert in the Test and sworn to concludes enough against him For no body can be so effronted as to say it was used in Parliament as an argument not to read it because it was not to be sworn to but though it cost a debate it was plainly agreed to be sworn to and therefore insert 2dly Can any man doubt the Confession was to be sworn to when it is notour that severals who were members of Parliament and by reason of offices they enjoyed were called to swear the Test pretending with reason tenderness of an Oath did before swearing make a fashion at least of reading and studying the Confession to satisfy themselves how far they might swear it And that this was done by an Hundred I can attest themselves Lastly It is certain that when in the end of October the Bishop of Edenburgh did quarrel Sir George Lockhart for causing the Confession to be insert in the Test and he answered that without it a Turk might sign the Test it was not then pretended by the Bishop that the Confession was not to be sworn to and therefore he at that time had no reply But this is a debate I confess not altogether necessary for my present task only thereby you may see ground enough for the Earl to believe the Confession was sworn to And all that did swear before the Councils Explanation having sworn in that sense and for ought I know all except the Clergy being by the Councils Act still bound to do so It was not strange the Earl might be of this Opinion And seeing that many of the Contradictions were alledged to arise hence and the Earl being a Dissenter it was yet less strange that the Earl did scruple nor is it unreasonable that his modest Explanation should have a most benign acceptance This second pretence of aggravation is That His Majesty did not only bestow on the Earl his Lands and Jurisdictions fallen into His Majesty's hands by the forfaulture of his Father but also pardon him the crimes of Leasing-making and Misconstruing whereof he was found guilty by the Parliament 1662. And raised him to the title and dignity of an Earl and to be a member of all His Majesty's Judicatories All which the Earl as he hath ever doth still most thankfully acknowledg But seeing the Advocate hath no warrand to upbraid him with His Majesty's favours and that these things are now remembred with a manifest design to raise dust and blind strangers and to add a very ill thing Ingratitude to the heap of groundless calumnies cast upon him I must crave leave to answer a little more particularly and refute this new Tout as the Scots Proverb is in an old Horn. This old Leasing making is then now brought in seriously after it hath been treated in ridicule for Eighteen years by the very Actors who did never pretend to defend it in cold blood And were it not to digress too much I could name the persons and make them if capable think shame of their falshood and prevarications in that point and of their abusing His Majesty and prostrating Justice but I forbear The Advocate in his Book of Pleadings makes this a Stretch and says His Majesty rescinded it And His Majesty himself hath several times exprest his sense of the stretches made by some against the Earl at that time It is well known the Family of Argyle is both Ancient and Honourable and hath been Loyal and Serviceable to the Crown for several Hundreds of years but they must now be destroyed for having done and being able as they say to do too much which others neither can nor will do Neither is the Advocate ignorant that the only failing that Family hath been charged with in all that long tract of time was a compliance of the late Marquess of Argyle the Earl's Father in the time of the late Usurpation by sitting in the then Parliament of England some years after all the standing Forces of the Kingdom were broken His Majesty beyond Sea the whole Countrey over-run the Usurpers universally acknowledged and neither probability of resistance nor possibility of shelter left to any that were most willing to serve His Majesty as the Advocate himself hath published in his Printed Pleadings in which he likewise lays out the special and extraordinary Circumstances whereby the Marquess was necessitate to do what he did And the compliance charged on him was so epidemick that all others were pardoned for the same except he alone though none had such favourable Arguments to plead and though he pleaded the same Indemnity that saved others And seeing he submitted and delivered up himself and lost his Life and seeing at the same time of the Compliance that he suffered for the Earl his Son was actually serving and suffering for His Majesty as you find in the former part of this Letter
any thing clause or sentence in the said Act contained to the contrary â—â—ithstanding Sect. 3. Provided always and it is hereby Enacted That neither this Act nor any thing herein conâ—â—ined shall extend or be construed to ravive or give Force to the said Branch of the said Statute wade in the said First Year of the Reign of the said Late Queen Elizabeth mentioned in the said Act if Parliament made in the Seventeenth Year of the Reign of the said King Charles but that the said Branch of the said Statute made in the said First Year of the Reign of the said Late Queen Elizabeth scall stand and be Repealed in such sort as if this Act had never been made Sect. 4. Provided always and it is hereby Enacted That it shall not be lawful for any Arch-bishop Bishop Vicar-General Chancellor Commissary or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or Minister or any other person having or exercising Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to Tender or Administer unto any Person whatsoever the Oath usually called Ex Officio or any other Oath whereby such person to whom the same is tendred or administred may be charged or compelled to confess or accuse or to purge him or herself of any Criminal matter or thing whereby he or she may be liable to Censure or Punishment any thing in this Statute or any other Law Custom or Vsage heretofore to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding Sect. 5. Provided always That this Act or any thing therein contained shall not extend or be construed to extend to give unto any Arch Bishop Bishop or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Judge Officer or other person or persons aforesaid any Power or Authority to Exercise Execute Inflict or Determine any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Censure or Coertion which they might not by Law have done before the Year of our Lord 1639. 2. Nor to abridge or diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclefiastical Matters and Affairs nor to confirm the Canons made in the Year 1640. nor any of them nor any other Ecclesiastical Laws or Canons not formerly confirmed allowed or enacted by Parliament or by the established Laws of the Land as they stood in the Year of our Lord 1639. From the Title of the Act and the Act it self considered I gather First That it is an Explanatory Act of the 17th of Car. 1. as to one particular Branch of it and not introductive of any new Law Secondly That the Occasion of making it was not from any Doubt that did arise VVhether the High Commission Court were taken away or whether the Crown had Power to erect any such like Court for the future but from a Doubt that was made that all ordinary Power of Coertion and Proceedings in Causes Ecclefiastical was taken away whereby Justice in Ecclesiastical Matters was obstructed and this Doubt did arise from a Clause in 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. Sect. 4. herein mentioned to be recited in the said Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Thirdly That this Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as appears upon the Face of it was made to the intent the ordinary Jurisdiction which the Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Persens had always exercised under the Crown might not be infringed but not to restore to the Crown the power of Delegating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Letters Patents to Lay persons or any others and as to this nothing can be plainer than the VVords of the Act it self Sect. 2. Whereby 17 Car. 1. is repealed but takes particular care to except what concerned the High Commission Court or the new Erection of some such Court by Commission Neither did the Law-makers think this Exception in that Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Sect. 2. to be sufficient but to put the Matter out of all doubt in the Third Section of the same Statute It is provided and Enacted That neither that Act nor any thing therein contained should extend or be construed to revive or give force to the Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. Sect. 18. but that the same Branch shâ—â—â— stand absolutely Repealed And if so then the power of the Crown to delegate the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is wholly taken away for it was vested in the Crown by 1 Eliz. 1. and taken away by 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. and is in no manner restored by 13 Car. 2.12 or any other But there may arise an Objection from the VVords in the Statute of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. that saith That that Act shall not extend to abridge or diminish the Kings Majesties Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs VVhence some Men would gather that the same power still remains in the Crown that was in it before 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. To which Objection I give this Answer That every Law is to be so constructed that it may not be Felo de se and that for the Honour of the Legislators King Lords and Comment Now I would appeal to the Gentlemen themselves that assert this Doctrine VVhether they can so construe the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. as they pretend to do without offering Viâ—lence to their own Reason For when the 1 Car. 1. ca. 11. had absolutely repealed the Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. that vested the power in the Crown of Delegating the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Enacts That no such Commission shall be for the future and the Act of 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. Repeals the 17 Car. 1. ca. 12. except what relates to that particular Branch there can no more of the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters and Affairs be saved by the saving in the 13 Car. 2. ca. 12. but what was left in the Crown by 17 Car. 1. ca. 11. And now I hope I have sufficiently evinced That all the Proceedings before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are CORAM NON JVDICE and therefore have sufficient Reason to believe That the same would never have been set on foot by his present Majesty who had always the Character of JAMES the Just and hath promised upon his Royal VVord That he will invade no Mans Property had he not been advised thereunto by them who are better versed in the Canons of the Church of ROME than in the Laws that relate to the CROWN and CHURCH of ENGLAND A LETTER Writ by Mijn Heer Fagel Pensioner of Holland to Mr. James Stewart Advocate Giving an Account of the Prince and Princes of Orange's Thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Test and the Penal Laws SIR I Am extream sorry that my ill health hath so long hindred me from Answering those Letters in which you so earnestly desired to know of me what their Highnesses thoughts are concerning the repeal of the Penal Laws and more particularlarly of that concerning the Test I beg you to assure your self that I will deal very plainly with you in this matter and without reserve since you say that your Letters were writ by the King's knowledge and allowance I must
then first of all assure you very positively that their Highnesses have often declared as they did it more particularly to the Marquiss of Albeville His Majesties Envoy Extraordinary to the States that it is Their Opinion That no Christian ought to be persecuted for his conscience or be ill used because he differs from the publick and Established Religion And therefore They can consent that the Papists in England Scotland and Ireland be suffered to continue in their Religion with as much Liberty as is allowed them by the States in these Provinces in which it cannot be denied that they enjoy a full Liberty of conscience And as for the Dissenters Their Highnesses do not only consent but do heartily approve of their having an entire Liberty for the full exercise of their Religion without any trouble or hindrance so that none may be able to give them the least disturbance upon that account And their Highnesses are very ready in case his Majesty shall think fit to desire it to declare their willingness to concur in the setling and confirming this Liberty and as far as it lies in them they will protect and defend it and according to the Language of Treaties They will confirm it with their Guaranty of which you made mention in yours And if his Majesty shall think fit further to desire their concurrence in the repealing of the Penal Laws they are ready to give it provided always that those Laws remain still in their full vigour by which the Roman Catholicks are shut out of both Houses of Parliament and out of all publick Employments Ecclesiastical Civil and Military As likewise all those other Laws which confirm the Protestant Religion and which secures it against all the attempts of the Roman Catholicks But their Highnesses cannot agree to the repeal of the Test or of those other Penal Laws last mentioned that tend to the security of the Protestant Religion since the Roman Catholicks receive no other prejudice from these then the being excluded from Parliaments or from publick Employments And that by them the Protestant Religion is covered from all the Designs of the Roman Catholicks against it or against the publick safety and neither the Test nor these other Laws can be said to carry in them any severity against the Roman Catholicks upon account of their Consciences They are only provisions qualifying men to be Members of Parliament or to be capable of bearing Office by which they must declare before God and Men that they are for the Protestant Religion So that indeed all this amounts to no more than a securing the Protestant Religion from any prejudices that it may receive from the Roman Catholicks Their Highnesses have thought and do still think that more than this ought not to be ask'd or expected from them since by this means the Roman Catholicks and their posterity will be for ever secured from all trouble in their Persons or Estates or in the Exercise of their Religion and that the Roman Catholicks ought to be satisfied with this and not to disquiet the Kingdom because they cannot be admitted to sit in Parliament or to be in Employments or because those Laws in which the Security of the Protestant Religion does chiefly consist are not repealed by which they may be put in a condition to overturn it Their Highnesses do also believe that the Dissenters will be fully satisfied when they shall be for ever covered from all danger of being disturbed or punished for the free Exercise of their Religion upon any sort of pretence whatsoever Their Highnesses having declared themselves so positively in these matters it seems very plain to me that They are far from being any hindrance to the Freeing Dissenters from the Severity of Penal Laws since they are ready to use their utmost endeavours for the Establishing of it Nor do They at all press the denying to the Roman Catholicks the Exercise of their Religion provided it be managed modestly and without Pomp or Ostentation As for my own part I ever was and still am very much against all those who would persecute any Christian because he differs from the publick and established Religion And I hope by the Grace of God to continue still in the same mind for since that Light with which Religion illuminates our minds is according to my sense of things purely an effect of the Mercy of God to us we ought then as I think to render to God all possible Thanks for his Goodness to us and to have pity for those who are still shut up in Error even as God has pitied us and to put up most earnest prayers to God for bringing those into the way of Truth who stray from it and to use all gentle and friendly methods for reducing them to it But I confess I could never comprehend how any that profess themselves Christians and that may enjoy their Religion freely and without any disturbance can judge it lawful for them to go about to disturb the Quiet of any Kingdom or State or to overturn Constitutions that so they themselves may be admitted to Employments and that those Laws in which the Security and Quiet of the established Religion consists should be shaken It is plain that the Reformed Religion is by the Grace of God and by the Laws of the Land enacted both by King and Parliament the publick and established Religion both in England Scotland and Ireland and that it is provided by those Laws that none can be admitted either to a place in Parliament or to any publick Employment except those that do openly declare that they are of the Protestant Religion and not Roman Catholicks and it is also provided by those Laws that the Protestant Religion shall be in all time coming secured from the Designs of the Roman Catholicks against it In all which I do not see that these Laws contain any Severity either against the Persons or Estates of those who cannot take those Tests that are contrary to the Roman Catholick Religion all the inconveniences that can redound to them from thence is that their Persons their Estates and even the Exercise of their Religion being assured to them only they can have no share in the Government nor in Offices of Trust as long as their Consciences do not allow them to take these Tests and they are not suffered to do any thing that is to the prejudice of the Reformed Religion Since as I have already told you Their Highnesses are ready to concur with his Majesty for the Repeal of those Penal Laws by which Men are made liable to fines or other Punishments So I see there remains no difficulty concerning the Repealing the Penal Laws but only this that some would have the Roman Catholicks render'd capable of all publick Trusts and Employments and that by consequence all those should be repealed that have secured the Protestant Religion against the designs of the Roman Catholicks where others at the same time are not less