An Account of the GROWTH OF POPERY AND Arbitrary Government IN ENGLAND More Particularly from the Long Prorogation of November 1675 Ending the 15th of February 1676 till the Last Meeting of Parliament the 16th of July 1677. AMSTERDAM Printed in the Year 1677. An account of the Growth of POPERY and Arbitrary Government in England c. THere has now for diverse Years a design been carried on to change the Lawfull Government of England into an Absolute Tyranny and to convert the established Protestant Religion into down-right Popery than both which nothing can be more destructive or contrary to the Interest and Happinesse to the Constitution and Being of the King and Kingdom For if first we consider the State the Kings of England Rule not upon the same terms with those of our neighbour Nations who having by force or by adresse usurped that due share which their People had in the Government are now for some Ages in possession of an Arbitrary Power which yet no Presciption can make Legall and exercise it over their persons and estates in a most Tyrannical manner But here the Subjects retain their proportion in the Legislature the very meanest Commoner of England is represented in Parliament and is a party to those Laws by which the Prince is sworn to Govern himself and his people No Mony is to be levied but by the common consent No than is for Life Limb Goods or Liberty at the Soveraigns discretion but we have the same Right modestly understood in our Propriety that the Prince hath in his Regality and in all Cases where the King is concerned we have our just remedy as against any private person of the neighbourhood in the Courts of Westminster Hall or in the High Court of Parliament His very Prerogative is no more then what the Law has determined His Broad Seal which is the Legitimate stamp of his pleasure yet is no longer currant than upon the Trial it is found to be Legal He cannot commit any person by his particular warrant He cannot himself be witnesse in any cause the Ballance of Publick Justice being so dellicate that not the hand only but even the breath of the Prince would turn the scale Nothing is left to the Kings will but all is subjected to his Authority by which means it follows that he can do no wrong nor can he receive wrong and a King of England keeping to these measures may without arrogance be said to remain the onely Intelligent Ruler over a Rational People In recompense therefore and acknowledgment of so good a Government under his influence his Person is most sacred and inviolable and whatsoever excesses are committed against so high a trust nothing of them is imputed to him as being free from the necessity or temptation but his Ministers only are accountable for all and must answer it at their perills He hath a vast Revenue constantly arising from the Hearth of the Housholder the Sweat of the Laboures the Rent of the Farmer the Industry of the Merchant and consequently out of the Estate of the Gentleman a larg competence to defray the ordinary expense of the Crown and maintain its lustre And if any extraordinary occasion happen or be but with any probable decency pretended the whole Land at whatsoever season of the year does yield him a plentifull Harvest So forward are his Peoples affections to give even to superfluity that a Forainer or English man that hath been long abroad would think they could neither will nor chuse but that the asking of a supply were a meer formality it is so readily granted He is the Fountain of all Honours and has moreover the distribution of so many profitable Offices of the Houshold of the Revenue of State of Law of Religion of the Navy and since his persent Majesties time of the Army that it seems as if the Nation could scarse furnish honest men enow to supply all those imployments So that the Kings of England are in nothing inferiour to other Princes save in being more abridged from injuring their own subjects But have as large a field as any of external felicity wherein to exercise their own Virtue and so reward and incourage it in others In short there is nothing that comes nearer in Government to the Divine Perfection then where the Monarch as with us injoys a capacity of doing all the good imaginable to mankind under a disability to all that is evil And as we are thus happy in the Constitution of our State so are we yet more blessed in that of our Church being free from that Romish Yoak which so great a part of Christendome do yet draw and labour under That Popery is such a thing as cannot but for want of a word to express it be called a Religion nor is it to be mentioned with that civility which is otherwise decent to be used in speaking of the differences of humane opinion about Divine Matters Were it either open Judaisine or plain Turkery or honest Paganisme there is yet a certain Bona fides in the most extravagant Belief and the sincerity of an erroneous Profession may render it more pardonable but this is a compound of all the three an extract of whatsoever is most ridiculous and impious in them incorporated with more peculiar absurdityes of its own in which those were deficient and all this deliberately contrived knowingly carried on by the bold imposture of Priests under the name of Christianity The wisdom of this fifth Religion this last and insolentest attempt uppon the credulity of mankind seems to me though not ignorant otherwise of the times degrees and methods of its progresse principally to have consisted in their owning the Scriptures to be the word of God and the Rule of Faith and Manners but in prohibiting of the same time their common use or the reading of them in publick Churches but in a Latine translation to the vulgar there being no better or more rational way to frustrate the very design of the great Institutor of Christianity who first planted it by the extraordinary gift of Tongues then to forbid the use even of the ordinary languages For having thus a book which is universally avowed to be of Divine Authority but sequestring it only into such hands as were intrusted in the cheat they had the opportunity to vitiate suppresse or interpret to their own profit those Records by which the poor People hold their salvation And this necessary point being once gained there was thence forward nothing so monstrous to reason so abhorring from morality or so contrary to scripture which they might not in prudence adventure on The Idolatry for alas it is neither better nor worse of adoring and praying to Saints and Angels of worshipping Pictures Images and Reliques Incredible Miracles and plapable Fables to promote that veneration The whole Liturgy and Worship of the Blessed Virgin The saying of Pater Nosters and Creeds to the honour of Saints and of Ave Mary's too not
time it cost him his Place and was the first moving Cause of all those Misadventures and Obloquy which since he lyes ABOVE not Under The Declaration also of Indulgence was questioned which though his MAJESTY had out of his Princely and Gracious Inclination and the memory of some former Obligations granted yet upon their Representation of the Inconveniencies and at their humble Request he was pleased to Cancel and Declare that it should be no President for the Future For otherwise some succeeding Governour by his single Power Suspending Penal Laws in a favourable matter as that is of Religion might become more dangerous to the Government than either Papists or Fanaticks and make us Either when he pleased So Legal was it in this Session to Distinguish between the King of Englands Personal and his Parliamentary Authority But therefore the further sitting being grown very uneasie to those who had undertaken for the Change of Religion and Government they procured the Recess so much sooner and a Bill sent up by the Commons in favour of Dissenting Protestants not having passed thorow the Lords preparation the Bill concerning Papists was enacted in Exchange for the Money by which the Conspiraiors when it came into their management hoped to frustrate yet the effect of the former So the Parliament was dismissed till the Tvventy seventh of October One thousand six hundred seventy three In the mean time therefore they strove with all their might to regain by the VVar that part of their Design which they had lost by Parliament and though several honourably forsook their Places rather than their Consciences yet there was never wanting some double-dyed Son of our Church some Protestant in grain to succeed upon the same Conditions And the difference was no more but that their Offices or however their Counsels were now to be administred by their Deputies such as they could confide in The business of the Land Army was vigourously carried on in appearance to have made some descent in Holland but though the Regiments were Compleated and kept Imbodyed it wanted effect and therefore gave cause of sufpition The rather because no Englishman among so many well-disposed and qualified for the work had been thought capable or fit to be trusted with Chief Command of those Forces but that Monsieur Schomberg a French Protestant had been made General and Collonel Fitsgerald an Irish Papist Major General as more proper for the Secret the first of advancing the French Government the second of promoting the Irish Religion And therefore the dark hovering of that Army so long at Black-Hearth might not improbably seem the gatherings of a Storm to fall upon London But the ill successes which our Fleet met withall this Year also at Sea were sufficient had there been any such design at home to have quasht it for such Gallantries are not to be attempted but in the highest raptures of Fortune There were three several Engagements of ours against the Dutch Navy in this one Summer but while nothing was Tenable at Land against the French it seem'd that to us at Sea every thing was impregnable which is not to be attributed to the want of Courage or Conduct either the former Year under the Command of his Royal Highness so Great a Souldier or this Year under the Prince Robert But is rather to be imputed to our unlucky Conjunction with the French like the disasters that happen to men by being in ill Company But besides it was manifest that in all these Wars the French ment nothing less than really to assist us He had first practised the same Art at Sea when he was in League with the Hollander against us his Navy never having done them any service for his business was only to see us Batter one another And now he was on the English side he only studied to sound our Seas to spy our Ports to learn our Building to contemplate our way of Fight to consume ours and preserve his own Navy to encrease his Commerce and to order all so that the two great Naval Powers of Europe being crushed together he might remain sole Arbitrator of the Ocean and by consequence Master of all the Isles and Continent To which purposes the Conspirators furnished him all possible opportunities Therefore it was that Monsieur d' Estree though a Person otherwise of tryed Courage and Prudence yet never did worse than in the third and last Engagement and because brave Monsieur d' Martel did better and could not endure a thing that looked like Cowardise or Treachery though for the Service of his Monarch commanded him in rated him and at his return home he was as then was reported discountenanced and dismissed from his Command for no other crime but his breaking of the French measures by adventuring one of those sacred Shipps in the English or rather his own Masters Quarrel His Royal Highnesse by whose having quitted the Admiralty the Sea service thrived not the better was now intent upon his Marrige at the same time the Parliament was to reassemble the 27th of October 1673. the Princesse of Modena his consort being upon the way for England and that businesse seemed to have passed all impediment Nor were the Conspirators who to use the French phrase made a considerable Figure in the Government wholly averse to the Parliaments meeting For if the House of Commons had after one years unfortunate War made so vast a Present to his Majesty of 1250000 l. But the last February it seemed the argument would now be more pressing upon them that by how much the ill sucesses of this year had been greater they ought therefore to give a yet more liberal Donative And the Conspirators as to their own particular reckoned that while the Nation was under the more distresse and hurry they were themselves safer from Parliament by the Publick Calamity A supply therefore was demanded with much more importunity and assurance then ever before and that it should be a large one and a speedy They were told that it was now Pro Aris Focis all was at stake And yet besides all this the Payment of the Debt to the Banckers upon shutting the Exchequer was very civilly recommended to them And they were assured that his Majesty would be constantly ready to give them all proofes of his Zeal for the true Religion and the Laws of the Realm upon all occasions But the House of Commons not having been sufficiently prepared for such demands nor well satisfied in several matters of Fact which appeared contrary to what was represented took check and first interposed in that tender point of his Royall Highuesse's Match although she was of his own Religion which is a redoubled sort of Marriage or the more spiritual part of its Happynesse Besides that she had been already solemnly married by the Dukes Proxcy so that unlesse the Parliament had been Pope and calmed a power of Dispensation it was now too late to avoide it His Majesty by a
sufficient caution to the Kings of England and of the People there is as little hopes to seduce them the Protestant Religion being so interwoven as it is with their Secular Interest For the Lands that were formerly given to superstitious uses having first been applyed to the Publick Revenue and afterwards by severall Alienations and Contracts distributed into private possession the alteration of Religion would necessarily introduce a change of Property Nullum tempus occurrit Ecelesiae it would make a general Earth-quake over the nation and even now the Romish Clergy on the other side of the water snuffe up the savoury odour of so many rich Abbies and Monasteries that belonged to their predecessors Hereby no considerably Estate in England but must have a piece torn out of it upon the Titile of Piety and the rest subject to be wholly forfeited upon the account of Heresy Another Chimny mony of the old Peter pence must again be payed as tribute to the Pope beside that which is established on his Majesty and the People instead of those moderate Tithes that are with too much difficulty payed to their Protestant Pastors will be exposed to all the exactions of the Court of Rome and a thousand artifices by which in former times they were used to draine away the wealth of ours more then any other Nation So that in conclusion there is no English-man that hath a Soul a Body or an Estate to save that Loves either God his King or his Country but is by all those Tenures bound to the best of his Power and Knowledge to maintaine the established Protestant Religion And yet all this notwithstanding there are those men among us who have undertaken and do make it their businesse under so Legal and perfect a Government to introduce a French slavery and instead of so pure a Religion to establish the Roman Idolatry both and either of which are Crimes of the Highest nature For as to matter of Government if to murther the King be as certainly it is a Fact so horred how much more hainous is it to assassinate the Kingdome And as none will deny that to alter our Monarchy into a Commonvvealth were Treason so by the same Fundamenttal Rule the Crime is no lesse to make that Monarchy Absolute What is thus true in regard of the State holds as well in reference to our Religion Former Parliaments have made it Treason in whosoever shall attempt to seduce any one the meanest of the Kings subjects to the Church of Rome And this Parliament hath to all penalties by the Common or Statute Law added incapacity for any man who shall presume to say that the King is a Papist or an Introducer of Popery But what lawless and incapable miscreants then what wicked Traytors are those wretched men who endevour to pervert our whole Church and to bring that about in effect which even to mention is penal at one Italian stroke attempting to subvert the Government and Religion to kill the Body and damn the Soul of our Nation Yet were these men honest old Cavaliers that had suffered in his late Majesties service it were allowable in them as oft as their wounds brake out at Spring or Fall to think of a more Arbitrary Government as a soveraign Balsom for their Aches or to imagine that no Weapon-salve but of the Moss that grows on an Enemies Skul could cure them Should they mistake this Long Parliament also for Rebells and that although all Circumstances be altered there were still the same necessity to fight it all over again in pure Loyalty yet their Age and the Times they have lived in might excuse them But those worthy Gentlemen are too Generous too good Christians and Subjects too affectionate to the good English Government to be capable of such an Impression Whereas these Conspiratours are such as have not one drop of Cavalier Blood or no Bovvels at least of a Cavalier in them but have starved them to Revel and Surfet upon their Calamities making their Persons and the very Cause by pretending to it themselves almost Ridiculous Or were these Conspiratours on the other side but avowed Papists they were the more honest the less dangerous and the Religion were answerable for the Errours they might commit in order to promote it Who is there but must acknowledge if he do not commend the Ingenuity or by what better Name I may call it of Sir Thomas Strickland Lord Bellassis the late Lord Clifford and others eminent in their several stations These having so long appeared the most zealous Sons of our Church yet as soon as the late Test against Popery was inacted tooke up the Crosse quitted their present imployments and all hopes of the future rather then falsify their opinion though otherwise men for Quality Estate and Abilityes whether in Warre or Peace as capable and well deserving without disparagement as others that have the art to continue in Offices And above all his Royal Highnesse is to be admired for his unparallelled magnanimity on the same account there being in all history perhaps no Record of any Prince that ever changed his Religion in his circumstances But these persons that have since taken the worke in hand are such as ly under no temptation of Religion secure men that are above either Honour or Consciencs but obliged by all the most sacred tyes of Malice and Ambition to advance the ruine of the King and Kingdome and qualified much better then others under the name of good Protestants to effect it And because it was yet difficult to find Complices enough at home that were ripe for so black a desing but they wanted a Back for their Edge therefore they applyed themselves to France that King being indowed with all those qualityes which in a Prince may passe for Virtues but in any private man would be capital and moreover so abounding in wealth that no man else could go to the price of their wickednesse To which Considerations adding that he is the Master of Absolute Dominion the Presumptive Monarch of Christendom the declared Champion of Popery and the hereditary natural inveterate Enemy of our King and Nation he was in all respects the most likely of all Earthly Powers to reward and support them in a Project every way suitable to his one Inclination and Interest And now should I enter into a particular retaile of all former and latter Transactions relating to this affaire there would be sufficient for a just Volume of History But my intention is onely to write a naked Narrative of some the most considerable passages in the meeting of Parliament the 15 of Febr. 1676. Such as have come to my notice which may serve for matter to some stronger Pen and to such as have more leisure and further opportunity to discover and communicate to the Publick This in the mean time will by the Progresse made in so few weeks demonstrate at what rate these men drive over the necks of King
opposed any such pretension But some of them at last growing wiser by foisting a counterfeit Donation of Constantine and wresting another Donation from our Saviour advanced themselves in a weak ignorant and credulous Age to that Temporal and Spiritual Principality that they are now seised of Tues Petrus super hanc Petram adificabo Ecclesiam meam Never was a Bishop-prick and a Verse of Scripture so improved by good management Thus by exercising in the quality of Christs Uicar the publick function under an invisible Prince the Pope like the Maires of the Palace hath set his master aside and delivered the Government over to a new Line of Papal Succession But who can unlesse wilfully be ignorant what wretched doings what Bribery what Ambition there are how long the Church is without an Head upon every Vacancy till among the crew of bandying Cardinalls the Holy Ghost have declared for a Pope of the French or Spanish Faction It is a sucession like that of the Egyptian Ox the living Idol of that Country who dying or being made away by the Priests there was a solemn and general mourning for want of a Deity until in their Conclave they had found out another Beast with the very same marks as the former whom then they themselvs adored and with great Jubilee brought forth to the People to worship Nor was that Election a grosser reproach to human Reason then this is also to Christianity Surely it is the greatest Miracle of the Romish Church that it should still continue and that in all this time the Gates of Heaven should not prevaile against it It is almost unconceivable how Princes can yet suffer a Power so pernicious and Doctrine so destructive to all Government That so great a part of the Land should be alienated and condemned to as they call it Pious Uses That such millions of their People as the Clergy should by remaining unmarryed either frustrate humane nature if they live chastly or if otherwise adulterate it That they should be priviledged from all labour all publick service and exempt from the power of all Secular Jurisdiction That they being all bound by strict Oaths and Vows of Obedience to the Pope should evacuate the Fealty due to the Soveraign Nay that not only the Clergy but their whole People if of the Romish preswasion should be obliged to rebel at any time upon the Popes pleasure And yet how many of the Neighbouring Princes are content or do chuse to reign upon those conditions which being so dishonorable and dangerous surely some great and more weighty reason does cause them submit to Whether it be out of personal fear having heard perhaps of several attempts which the blind obedience of Popish Zelotes hath executed against their Princes Or whether aiming at a more absolute and tyrannical Government they think it still to be the case of Boniface and Phocas an usurping Emperour and an usurping Bishop and that as other Cheats this also is best to be managed by Confederacy But as farre as I can apprehend there is more of Sloth then Policy on the Princes side in this whole matter and all that pretense of inslaving men by the assistance of Religion more easily is neither more nor lesse then when the Bramine by having the first night of the Bride assures himself of her devotion for the future and makes her more fit for the husband This reflection upon the state of our Neighbours in aspect to Religion doth sufficiently illustrate our happinesse and spare me the labour of describing it further then by the Rule of Contraryes Our Church standing upon all points in a direct opposition to all the forementioned errours Our Doctrine being true to the Principles of the first Christian institution and Episcopacy being formed upon the Primitive Model and no Ecclesiastical Power jostling the Civil but all concurring in common obedience to the Soveraign Nor therefore is their any whether Prince or Nation that can with less probability be reduced back to the Romish perswasion than ours of England For if first we respect our Obedience to God what appearance is there that after so durable and general an enlightning of our minds with the sacred Truth we should again put out our own Eyes to wander thorow the palpable darkness of that gross Superstition But forasmuch as most men are less concern'd for their Interest in Heaven than on Earth this seeming the nearer and more certain on this account also our alteration from the Protestant Religion is the more impossible When beside the common ill examples and consequences of Popery observable abroad whereby we might grow wise at the expense of our Neighbours we cannot but reflect upon our own Experiments at home which would make even fools docible The whole Reign of Queen Mary in which the Papists made Fewel of the Protestants The Excommunicating and Deprivation of Queen Elizabeth by the Pope pursued with so many Treasons and attempts upon her Person by her own Subjects and the Invasion in Eighty-Eight by the Spanish The two Breves of the Pope in order to exclude King James from the Succession to the Crown seconded by the Gunpovvder-Treason In the time of his late Majesty King Charles the first besides what they contributed to the Civil War in England the Rebellion and horrid Massacre in Ireland and which was even worse than that their pretending that it was done by the Kings Commission and vouching the Broad Seal for their Authority The Popes Nuncio assuming nevertheless and exercising there the Temporal as well as Spiritual Power granting out Commissions under his own Hand breaking the Treatys of Peace between the King and as they then styled themselves the Confederate Catholicks heading two Armies against the Marquess of Ormond then Lord Lieutenant and forcing him at last to quit the Kingdom all which ended in the Ruine of his Majesties Reputation Government and Person which but upon occasion of that Rebellion could never have happened So that we may reckon the Reigns of our late Princes by a succession of the Popish Treasons against them And if under his present Majesty we have as yet seen no more visible effects of the same spirit than the Firing of London acted by Hubert hired by Pieddelou two French-men which remains a Controverfie it is not to be attributed to the good nature or better Principles of that Sect but to the wisdom of his Holyness who observes that we are not of late so dangerous Protestants as to deserve any special mark of his Indignation but that we may be made better use of to the weakning of those that are of our own Religion and that if he do not disturbe us there are those among our selves that are leading us into a fair way of Reconciliation with him But those continued fresh Instances in relation to the Crown together with the Popes claim of the Temporal and immediate Dominion of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland which he does so challenge are a
so they might have a Rase Campagne of Religion Government and Propriety or they hoped at least by this means to fright the one party and incourage the other to give hence forward Money at pleasure and that money on what title soever granted with what stamp coyned might be melted down for any other service or uses But there could not have been a greater affront and indignity offerred to those Gentlemen and the best did so resent it then whether these hopes were reall to think them men that might be hired to any base action or whether as hitherto but imaginary that by erecting the late Kings Statue that whole Party might be rewarded in Effigie While these things were upon the Anvill the tenth of November was come for the Parliaments sitting but that was put of till the 13th of April 1675. And in the mean time which fell out most opportune for the Conspirators these Counsells were matured and something further to be contrived that was yet wanting The Parliament accordingly meeting and the House of Lords as well as that of the Commons being in deliberation of severall wholesome Bills such as the present state of the Nation required the great Design came out in a Bill unexpectedly offered one morning in the House of Lords whereby all such as injoyed any beneficiall Office or Imployment Ecclesiastical Civill or Military to which was added Privy Counsellours Justices of the Peace and Members of Parliament were under a Penalty to take the Oath and make the Declaration and Abhorrence insuing I A. B. Do declare That it is not Lavvful upon any pretence vvhatsoever to take up Armes against the King and that I do abhorre that Traiterous position of taking Armes by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by him in Pursuance of such Commission And I do svvear that I vvill not at any time Indeavour the Alteration of the Government either in Church or State So help me God This same Oath had been brought into the House of Commons in the Plague year at Oxford to have been imposed upon the Nation but there by the assistance of those very same persons that now introduce it t was thrown out for fear of a General Infection of the Vitales of this Kingdome And though it passed then in a particular Bill Known by the name of the Five-mile Act because it only concerned the Non-conformist Preachers yet even in that it was throughly opposed by the late Earle of Southampton whose Judgement might well have been reckoned for the Standard of Prudence and Loyalty It was indeed happily said by the Lord Keeper in the opening of this Session No Influences of the Starrs no Configuration of the Heavens are to be feared so long as these tvvo Houses stand in a Good Disposition to each other and both of them in a happy Conjunction vvith their Lord and Soveraign But if he had so early this Act in his prospect the same Astrology might have taught him that there is nothing more portentous and of worse Omen then when such an Oath hangs over a Nation like a New Comet forboding the Alteration of Religion or Government Such was the Holy League in France in the Reigne of Henry the third Such in the time of Philip the second the Oath in the Netherlands And so the Oaths in our late Kings time taught the Fanaticks because they could not swear yet to Covenant Such things therefore are if ever not needlessely thought for good fortune sake only to be attempted and when was there any thing lesse necessary No King of England had ever so great a Treasure of this Peoples Affections except what those ill men have as they have done all the rest consumed whom but out of an excesse of Love to his Person the Kingdome would never for it never did formerly so long have suffered The Old Acts of Allegiance and Supremacy were still in their full Vigour unlesse against the Papists and even against them too of late whensoever the way was to be smoothed for a liberall Session of Parliament And moreover to put the Crown in full security this Parliament had by an Act of theirs determined a Question which the wisdome of their Ancestors had never decided that the King hath the sole power of the Militia And therefore my Lord Keeper did by his patronizing this Oath too grossely prevaricate against two very good State Maximes in his Harangue to the Parliament for which he had consulted not the Astrologer but the Historian advising them first That they should not Quieta movere that is said he vvhen men stirre those things or Questions vvhich are and ought to be in peace And secondly That they should not Res parvas magnis motibus agere That is saith he againe vvhen as much vveight is laid upon a nevv and not alvvays necessary Proposition as if the vvhole summe of affaires depended upon it And this Oath it seems was the little thing he meant of being forsooth but a Moderate Security to the Church and Crovvn as he called it but which he and his party layd so much vveight on as if the vvhole sum of Affaires did depend upon it But as to the Quieta movere or stirring of those things or Questions which are and ought to be in Peace was not this so of taking Armes against the King upon any pretence whatsoever And was not that also in Peace of the Trayterous Position of taking Armes by his Authority against his Person Had not the three Acts of Corporations of Militia and the Five Miles sufficiently quieted it Why was it further stirred But being stirred it raises in mens thoughts many things more some les others more to the purpose Sir Walter Tirrells Arrow grazed upon the Deer it was shot at but by that chance kill'd King William Rufus Yet so far was it that Sir Walter should for that chance shot be adjudged of Treason that we do not perceive he underwent any other Tryal like that of Manslaughter But which is more to the point it were difficult to instance a Law either in this or other Country but that a private Man if any king in Christendom assault him may having retreated to the Wall stand upon his Guard and therefore if this matter as to a particular man be dubious it was not so prudent to stirre it in the General being so well setled And as to all other things though since Lord Chancellour he havein his Speech of the 15 of Feb. One thousand six hundred seveny six said to testify his own abhorrency Avvay vvith that ill meant distinstion betvveen the Natural and the Politique Capacity He is too well read to be ignorant that without that Distinction there would be no Law nor Reason of Law left in England To which end it was and to put all out of doubt that it is also required in this Test to declare mens abhorrency as of a Traitorous Position to take Armes against those that
〈◊〉 Office and may there be seen still if the Papers are not 〈◊〉 A maâ—… 〈◊〉 not tell to what end this advise was given unlesse to spend the Kings money for the Admiralty of Scotland is not now and much lesse then was so considerable as to require any such force against it And if the design were to hinder theiâ—… Coâ—…erce and succours by Sea the charg of one of those great Ships might have been divided and applied to the setting out five or six lesse Ships each of which was capable of doing as much for that service as such a great one and could keep out at Sea longer It is a plain case unless the power of France be lowred we cannot be safe without Conjunction with other Confederates it cannot be done The question is whether the present be the proper time for thâ—… work Certainly it is there is a happy Confederation against the French which we cannot so well hope to have continued without our coming into it much less can we hope to recover or recruite it if once broken The very season of the year favours the businesse It is proper and safe to begin with the French in the summer now he is engaged and not at Leisure whereas in Winter when the Armies are â—…wn out of the Field he will be able to apply himself to us As to the Citizens not advancing mony upon the late cerdit we are informed they were never regularly or effectually asked my Lord Major indeed was spoken to and perhaps some of the Aldermen but all they are not the City he sent about curiously to some of the Citizens to know if they would lend of which they took little or no notice it being not agreeable to their way and usage for the custom in such cases has always been that some Lord of the Council did go down 〈◊〉 â—…he Common Counsell which is the Representative body of the City and there propound the matter Besides in this particular case the Citizens generally asked the same question we do are the Alliances made and said if they were made they would lend money but if not they saw no cause for it Philip the second of Spaine made an observation in his Will or some last Memorial and 't is since published in Print by Monsieur he observes the vanity of any Princes aspiring at the universal Monarchy for that it naturally made the rest of the world joyntly his enemies but ambition blinds men suffers them not to look back on such Experiences But this observation shews what is natural for others to do in such a case and that the way to repell and break such a design is by their universall confederation Philip the Second was most capable of making this Observation for in his hands pâ—…ed the Spanish Design of the Universal Monarchy and that chiefly by reason of the Conjunction of the English and Dutch against him In the process of this debate Gentlemen did more particularly explain themselves and propound to Address their design to the King for a League offensive and defensive with the Dutch against the French power Against which a specious Objection was made That the Dutch were already treating with the French and 't was like they would slip Collar make a separate Peace for themselves and leave us engaged in a War with France To which was Answered That there was no just fear of that the Dutch were Interessed in repressing the Power of France as well as we and they knew their Interest It was reasonable for them to say If England which is as much concerned in this danger will not assist us we will make the best terms we can for our selves there is yet a Seam of Land between the French and us we may Trade by or under them c. But if England will joyn with the Dutch they cannot find one syllable of reason to desert the Common Cause They have observed a propensity in the People of England to help them but not in the Couurt of England If they can find that the Court does heartily joyn it will above all things oblige and confirm them In One thousand six hundred sixty seven when the Dutch were in Peace and Plenty when Flanders was a greater Bullwork to them for the French had not pierced so far into it and when the direction of their affaires was in a hand of inâ—… enmity to the Crown of England John de Witt yet 〈◊〉 thâ—… Interest did so far Govern him and them as to enâ—… 〈◊〉 Tripple League against the growth and power of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more and most certainly therefore now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and weakened by a War and stand in need of our help now the French have approached nearer the bâ—…ink of their Country and are encreased in Naval force to the danger of their Trade and Navigation and now their affaires are chiefly directed by a kinsman of the Crown of England the Prince of Orange they cannot deflect or start from a League they make with us against our Common Enemy It was moved that there might be a League Offensive and Defensive with Spain and the Dutch and other convenient Allyances with the rest of the Confederates but the particular concerning Spain was retracted and laid aside by the general Discourse of the Members to this purpose We do covet an Allyance with Spain above others for that they are Owners of the Netherlands for whose preservation we have Addressed that it is with Spain that we have the most if not the only profitable Trade and the Spaniards are good gallant and sure Friends But they are remote and we know not whether there are full powers here or at Brussels for this matter and to wait for their coming from Madrid would make Church-work whereas we need the swiftest expedition Therefore they Voted their Address to be particular and expresly for such a League with the Dutch and as to the Spaniards together with the other Confederates in general This passed with very general consent there was an extraordinary full House and upon putting the question there were but two negative Voices to it There were more ordinary particulars appointed to be in the Address but no contest or debate about them The Vote was as followeth Resolved THat an Addresse be made to the King That his Majesty vvould be pleased to enter into a League offensive and defensive vvith the Sates General of the Vinited Provinces and to make such other Alliances vvith others of the Confederates as his Majesty shall think â—…it against the grovvth and povver of the French King and for the preservation of the Spanish Nether-Lands and that a Committe be appointed to dravv up the Addresse vvith reasons vvhy this House cannot comply vvith his Majestics Speech until such Alliances be 〈◊〉 into and further shevving the necessity of the speedy making such Alliances and vvhen such Alliances are made giving his Majesty Assurance of speedy and chearfull supplyes from time to time for supporting and maintaining
such Alliances To which the Speaker re-assuming the Chair and this being reported the House agreed and appointed the Committee And Adjourned over Asâ—…nsion day till Friday In the interim the Committee appointed met and drew the Address according to the above mentioned Order a true Coppy of which is here annexed May it please your Most excellent Majesty YOur Majesties most Loyal and Dutiful Subjects 〈◊〉 Commons in Parliament assembled have taken into their serious consideration your Majesties gracious Speech and do beseech your Majesty to believe it is a great affliction to them to find themselves obleiged at present to decline the granting your Majesty the supply your Majesty is pleased to demand conceiving it is not agreeable to the usage of Parliament to grant Supplyes for mainteance of Wars and Alliances before they are signified in Parliament which the too Wars against the States of the Vnited Provinces since your Majesties happy Restoration and the League made in January 1668 for preservation of the Spanish Nether Lands sufficiently proved without ling your Majesty with Instances of greater antiquity from which usage if we might depart the president might be of dangerous consequence in future times though your Majesties Goodnesse gives us great security during your Majesties Raign which we beseech God long to continue This Consideration prompted us in our last Addresse to your Majesty before our last Recesse humbly to mention to your Majesty our hopes that before our meeting again your Majesties Alliances might be so fixed as that your Majesty might begraciously pleased to impart them to us in Parliament that so our earnest desires of supplying your Majesty for prosecuting those great ends we had humbly laid before your Majesty might meet with no impediment or obstruction being highly sensible of the necessity of supporting as well as making the Alliances humbly desired in our former Addresses and which we still conceive so important to the safety of your Majesty and your Kingdomes That we cannot without unfaithfulnesse to your Majesty and those we Represent omit upon all occasions humbly to beseech your Majesty as we now do To enter into a League offensive and defensive vvith the States General of the United Provinces against the grovvth and povver of the French King and for the preservation of the Spanish Nether-Lands and to make such other Alliances vvith such other of the Confiderates as your Majesty shall think fit and usefull to that end in doing which That no time may be lost we humbly offer to his Majesty these Reasons for the expediting of it 1. That if the entering into such Alliances should draw on a War with the French King it would be lest detrimental to your Majesties Subjects at this time of the year they having now fewest effects within the Dominion of that King 2. That though we have great reason to believe the power of the French King to be dangerous to your Majesty and your 〈◊〉 when he shall be at more leisure to molest us yet we conceive the many Enemies he has to deal with at present together with the scituation of your Majesties Kingdoms the Unanimity of the People in the Cause the care your Majesty hath been pleased to take of your ordinary Guards of the Sea together with the Credit provided by the late Act for an additional Excise for three years make the entering into and declaring Alliances very safe until we may in a regular way give your Majesty such further Supplies as may enable your Majesty to support your Allyances and defend your kingdoms And because of the great danger and charge which must necessarily fall upon your Majesties kingdomes if through want of that timely encouragement and assistance which your Majesties joyning with the States General of the United Provinces and other the Confederates would give them The said States or any other considerable part of the Confederates should this next Winter or sooner make a Peace or Truce with the French King the prevention vvhereof must 〈◊〉 be acknovvledged a singular effect of Gods goodness to us which if it should happen your Majesty would be afterwards necessitated with fewer perhaps with no Alliances or Assistance to withstand the power of the French king which hath so long and so succesfully contended with so many and so potent Adversaries and whilest he continues his over-ballancing greatness must alwayes be dangerous to his Neighbours since he would be able to oppress any one Confederate before the rest could get together and be in so good a posture of offending him as they novv are being joyntly engaged in a War And if he should be so successful as to make a Peace or 〈◊〉 the present Confederation against him it is much to be feared whether 〈◊〉 would be possible ever to reunite it at least it would be work of so much time and difficulty as would leave your Majesties Kingdomes exposed to much misery and danger Having thus discharged our duty in laying before your Majesty the Dangers threatning your Majesty and your Kingdomes and the onely Remedyes we can think of for the preventing securing and queting the minds of your Majesties People with some few of those Reasons which have moved us to this and our former Addresses On these Subjects We most humbly beseech your Majesty to take the matter to your serious Consideration and to take such Resolutions as may not leave it in the power of any neighbouring Prince to rob your People of that happinesse which they enjoy under your Majesties gracious Governement beseeching your Majesty to â—…fident and assured that when your Majesty shall be 〈◊〉 to declare such Alliances in Parliament We shall hold our selves obliged not only by our promises and assurances given and now which great Unaninity revived in a full House but by the Zeal and desires of those whom we represent and by the Interests of all our safetyes most chearfully to give your Majesty from time to time such speedy Supplyes and Assistances as may fully and plentifully answer the Occasions and by Gods blessing preserve your Majesty Honour and the safty of the People All which is most humbly submitted to your Majesties great Wisdome Friday May 25th 1677 Sir John Trevor reported from the said Committee the Addresse as 't was drawn by them which was read Whereupon it was moved to agree with the Committee but before it was agreed to there was a debate and division of the House It was observed and objected that there was but one reson given herein for declining the granting money and that is the Unpresidentednesse and as to one of the Instances to this purpose mentioned Viz. the Kings first Dutch War it was said to be mistaken for that the 2500000 l. was voted before the War declared But it was answred that if the Declaration was not before the grant of the money which Quaere yet 't was certain that the War it self and great Hostilites were before the money and some said there might be other reasons
Assigned against giving money before the Alliances but they rather desired to spare them onely in general said t was not resonable to grant money before there was a Change they 〈◊〉 not say of Counsellors but of Counsells and an harâ—…â—…dertaking these Alliances would be the best demonstration of that Change For the swerving from this Interest and part was the step by which we went awry and the returning thereto would restore us to our right place and way And a Gentleman produced and read the Kings Speech made Monday the 10th of February 1667. wherein he speak chiefly of the League which afterwards when the Svvede came into it was called the Tripple League My Lords and Gentlemen I Am glad to see you hear again to tell you what I have done in this Intervall which I am consident you will be pleased with since it is so much to the Honour and security of the Nation I have made a League Offensive and Defensive with the States of the United Provinces and likewise a League for an efficacious mediation of Peace between the two Crowns into which League that of Svveden by its Ambassador hath offered to enter as a principal I did not at our last Meeting move you for any Aid though I lye under great Debts contracted by the last War but now the posture of our Neighbours abroad and the consequence of this new Alliance will oblige me for our security to set out a considerable fleet to Sea this Summer and besides I must build more great Ships and t is as necessary that I do something in order to the fortifying some of our Ports I have begun my self in order to these ends but if I have not your speedy assistance I shall not be able to go thorow with it wherefore I do earnestly desire you to take it into your speedy consideration c. Which shews the proper course and practice That Kings first communicate their Alliances made before they demand Supplies upon the account of them So the Exception was let fall But the grand Objection mannaged against it was upon the main point of the Address wherein they desired his Majesty to make a League Offensive and Defensive with the Dutch and such other Alliances with the rest as he should think sit Those who were against this particular or particularizeing in the Address spoke to this effect This is an Invasion upon his Majesties Prerogative of making Peace War and Leagues and it is the worse for the Distinction that is used in respect of the Dutch and the rest by which you giving him express directions as to the Dutch and referring to his discretion as to the others it looks and gives an Umbrage as if what he was to do was by your leave The Antient Land-mark the Boundaries between King and People must not be removed This power is one of the few things reserved entirely to the Crown Parliaments are summoned to treat de Arduis but He de quibusdam Arduis this is unpresidented The Marriages of the Royal Family is such a peculiar thing reserved to the King and the matter of the Lady Arrabella is an Instance Queen Elizabeth resented it high that the Parliament should propound her marrying and she said that however it is well they did not name the person if they had named the person it had been intolerable now here you name the person whom you would have the King Ally If you may go so far you may come to draw a Treaty and propose to the King to sign it By this you would put a great Indecorum upon the King he is now concerned as a Mediator at Nimmegen and it would be an indecent thing for him at the same time to declare himself a party It is believed the House of Austria though they sent full powers to Nimmegen for the purpose yet never intended to conclude a Peace But it was an absurd thing for them to declare so in Publick There must be publick decorum This is the way for the King to have the worse bargain with the Confederates for they observing how he is importuned and as it were driven to make these Alliances will slacken and lessen those advantagious offers which other wise they would be forced to make And again and again they said his Majesty did agree with this House in the End and they did not doubt but he would prosecute it by the same means as was desired But his Prerogative was not to be incroacht upon This manner of proceeding would never obtain with the King nay it would make the Address miscarry with the King On the other Side several spoke to this effect We ought to consider we are upon the Question of agreeing an Address drawn by our Committee by our Order If they have not in matter and manner corresponded with our direction or intention we have cause to disagree But here the Exception taken and cause pressed why we should not agree with them is because they have observed the very words and substance of our Order which exactly justifieth this Draught This passed on Wednesday upon a full Debate in a very full House two only contradicting but not one speaking or thinking the Kings Prerogative was toucht and therefore its strange it should be made the great Objection and Question of this day But the Prerogative is not at all intrencâ—…d upon we do not nor do pretend to Treat or make Alliances we only offer our advice about them and leave it with the King he may do as he pleaseth either make or not make them It is no more than other persons may do to the King or doubtless the Privy Council may Advise him in this particular and why not his Great Council This rate of discourse would make the Kings Prerogative consist meerly in not being advised by his Parliament of all People There are manifold Presidents of such Advices Leagues have been made by Advice of Parliament and have been ratified in Parliament In Edvv. 3. Râ—…ch 2. and especially in Henry the Fifths time and particularly with 〈◊〉 the Emperour and king of the Romans and Henry the fifth was a Magnanimous Prince and not to be â—…mposed upon 18. Jac. The Parliament Advised the King about making and mannaging a War Rushvv Coll. 36 41 42 45 46. And we may well remember our own advising the first Dutch War and making Leagues is less than War But if there was no President in this particular Case it was no Objection for matter of Advice is not to be circumsâ—…ribed by President If there be a 〈◊〉 case that a Prince should joyn in a War together with another Prince when that Prince was too potent before and that when this was discerned and a Peace made yet Succors should continually go out of the first Princes Dominions to the service of the other Prince and that notwithstanding several Addresses and advices to the contrary T is true as Objected that the Commons have sometimes declined advising in the