assistants of their Grandee Janisaries to wit Sultan Cromwell Bashaw Ireton c. they doubt not but to quell all their opposers and make such a peace with the King as shall secure their power or set up another which shall be but a Cypher to bear the blame of their misgovernment and please the people withall who they say would be quiet if they had any thing like a King though never so powerless or witless And now give me leave to pity those Gentlemen and others who so freely enter into an Ingagement upon such slender grounds and never weigh the consequence of such endertakings Did the Gentlemen of Essex Surrey and Kent with other the Free-holders but conceive how these men hug themselves with the sweet apprehensions of their accomplishing their designs by their actings yea I say did they but as I doe heare and see with what contentment of spirit they receive the tidings of such their tumultuous approaches and indeavours to terrifie and dissolve the Parliament and with what undervaluing words they speak of them as knowing themselves able when they please to crush them and bring them under the lash and did they I say but wich me know that all their delayes therein is but to give time to the Parliament to chew upon their fears which they by their creatures indeavour to heighten that so they might be necessitated to adjourne and look for their own security they would more suddenly have manifested their spleen by the power of the sword destroyed those that have thus ignorantly prosecuted what they themselves so cunningly designed Neither can I choose but pittie the Kings friends when I consider into what a snare they have run themselves I make no question but that they did cordially intend their assistance for the Kings restauration but by these actings as these Politicians have ordered it they have contributed assistance to the Kings ruine for they must know that if the House adjourne and these seeming stormes be once blown over if the King will not grant what they desire these actings though by themselves designed and promoted shall be charged upon the Kings accompt and brought as arguments to justifie their future dealings with him Thus you see the wits of the time out-witted and the proverb verified All is not gold that glisters Here you see a whole Kingdome abused and in danger to be inslaved to advance the interest of foure and twenty K O that Englishmen would be wise and at last before it bee too late by an happy union seek the establishment of iustice and freedome Can you ever expect happinesse from extremes can you find certainty in uncertainties or doe you ever look to get peace by warre order by confusion certainly no rationall man can be so besotted as to imagine that certain rules of government could be a burden to him seeing onely uncertainty hath occasioned all our trouble Had the Kings power and the Parliaments Priviledges been limited and declared the exercise of the Militia could never have caused such a bloudy dispute And I do conceive it is not our work now to contest for preserving the now-established Lawes since we have experimentally found many of them to be burthensome and destructive in themselves none of them by reason of abuse and corruption a protection to us in our liberties or properties but to labour for such an establishment for the future as may be a certain and safe rule for Kings Parliaments and People to walk by since neither in reason ought to be absolved from obedience to all just Lawes or left to govern or be governed by the dictates of lust will or pleasure This rule must make us happy this must be The happy meanes to make this People free Lawes just and equall now can onely bring Peace to the Nation honour to the King Unite then quickly 't is your union must Force your oppressors to be truly just And without you unite you strive in vaine Justice or Freedome ever to obtaine Strike hands then boldly yeeld not to be slaves To cruell Tyrants nor to subtill Knaves FINIS Numb 6. VVestminster Projects OR THE Mystery of Iniquity OF THE Committee of Darby House DISCOVERED Plot on great Wharton and contrive to save the House of Peers For if the King do but survive He 'l pull them by the ears Pray send for Say and St. Johns too and study some device To cheat the Kingdom once again Y 'ave done it neatly twice The Proverb is beware the third For if you make a blort 'T is ten to one you lose your heads and then you 'l spoil the sport For I should very sorry be you should such honour have A Halter I could well afford the portion of a knave Printed no body knows where licenced no body knows when and sent into the world by the appointment of the said Committee because they could not help it in the year of their vexation 1648. Westminster Projects WHat a strange age are we fallen into where nothing but knavery is practised and nothing but Religion professed seeming holiness hath caused our unhappiness and we are cheated into slavery by fair promises of Freedom and Liberty O tempora O mores O times O manners whom shall we beleeve or trust if not those that are seemingly clothed with righteousness who with such zeal dare call the God of Heaven to evidence the sincerity of their hearts in that they had no other end or intention then the advancement of His Majesty and the Peace of the Kingdom But alas alas Great men are subject to forgetfulness especially when their honor and promotion stand in competition with their Religion witness our ambitious Lords and oppressing Grandees who seven years ago preacht a doctrine that the King might not oppress but now they tell us they may A King might not impeach imprison fine c. but now they may and have witness their unjust dealings with the seven impeached Lords eleven impeached Commons and the four Aldermen for the fift he proved a Cullion and acknowledged himself a Traytor and so became capable of mercy and the enjoyment of fourteen hundred a year by the excise which if he had not submitted and kissed sultan Cromwels great Toe he had surely lost and therefore all things considered Alderman Cullum was the wisest man for what are all the Liberties of England worth in comparison of his office Alas money will buy him a good name and so long as he is free no matter who are slaves But on the contrary I must commend the valour honesty and innocency of those worthy Patriots of their Country Sir John Maynard Sir John Geare Alderman Adams Alderman Langham and Alderman Bunce who for their own Vindication and the securing the Liberties of England out of the jaws of those devouring Harpies the Lords who study nothing more than to make the people slaves have so nobly entered the Lists and notwithstanding so many disadvantages in respect of custom presidents power and
aside and to set up the Duke of Glocester who shall only have the title but thâ—y will exercise the power as a Committee of Estates such a Committee as now sits at Darby House and if this should be effected which will without all question if the people speedily interpose not all our seven years sufferings have served but as an Induction to a greater bondage and slavery then what we either found or fear in the King though without all question if in this way he should prevail it would be to the peoples extream prejudice Therefore my friends seeing we are betwixt two extreams and that whoever rules we are designed to slavery let us at last act rationally and shew charity to our selves as well as loyalty to the King or affection to the Parliament and Army for certainly it is possible for a King to be happy and yet a people to be both safe and free for a Parliament to be free and powerful but not unlimited or unbounded either in its actions or priviledges and for an Army to be an useful servant and not an insulting tyrannical master But without the peoples union upon common and just principles for the preservation of all just interests it is impossible to keep a King from being a Tyrant a Parliament from being oppressive or an Army from being abusive Therefore seeing the quarrel on all hands is whose interest shall be secured The King for his The Parliament for theirs The Army for theirs And in all these contests you are only destroyed and yet no security sought or endeavoured for you As if your lives estates and children were given you only to be made use of to support the Ambition of a few men who by flattery and dissimulation have gotten titles of honor and places of profit which they are loth to part with or give an account for And therefore you must be made their Properties and by them be enforced to spend the fruits of your labour hazard the lives of your selves children and servants only to keep your selves from being slaves to one that you may be slaves to another O therefore dear Countrymen if you have the hearts of Englishmen before you again endeavour to drown the Kingdom in a deluge of Blood consider wherefore you fight and what will be the fruit of it and at last consult your own safety which ought to be the supream Law both to King and Parliament The people safety is the supream Law then without controversie the Kings power and the Parliaments too was conferred upon them for that end namely to preserve the People and not as they have done to destroy them It is your interest now to consider what power the King may have that is consistant with your freedom and what power Parliaments may have also that may enable them to do the work for which you chose them and that they be bounded as to what you empower them and what not let them have a rule of certainty for we see apparently uncertainty hath occasioned all our trouble 'T is this must make us happy this will bring Peace to the Nation Freedom to the King The Peoples Interest being thus secur'd Oppressive taxes will not be endur'd Just Peace shall be your portion but till then You must be vassals to the lusts of men Take then your choyse be freemen or be slaves If you 'l support the interest of knaves They 'l knavishly reward you you shall see Oppression linkt to your posteritie Tyrants and fawning sycophants shall raign Justice or Right you never shall obtain But if you will be wise and straight combine To stanâ— for Freedom peace and truth shal shine Throughout your Borders you shall surely see All power employ'd for your securitie King Parliament and Army shall declare You are supream and they your servants are When you give limits to their lawless wills Then not till then shall you be free from ills FINIS
Numb 5. Westminster Projects OR The Mystery of Iniquity OF Darby-House Discovered A Plot a Plot our Saviours cry But dare it not declare Because alas they know full well Themselves the Traitors are Yet though they think themselves secure And juggle with the City Who are deluded once againe And cheated more 's the pity Yet yet them know their knavery shall To all the world appeare For I 'le not keep their secrets I For flatterie or feare Printed no body knowes where licensed no body knows when and sent into the world by the appointment of the said Committee because they could not help it in this yeare of their vexation 1648. VVestminster Projects IT is strange that in a time of Reformation there should be so much wickednesse and in high places too that Westminster should after all its seeming sanctity become such a Den of Devills such a Cage of unclean Birds but what remedy what is past cure must be past care also But yet it is requisite that they should be knowne for Knaves unknowne passe for honest men and there is not such a subtill deceiver in the world as an Angell of light a Devill in the shape of a Saint especially at Westminster hath done more mischief then all the honest men there can ever do good I confesse it a wonder there is no more hurt done considering honest men are so scarce there and knaves so plentifull for you can scarce peep into a Committee but you shall find ten if there be eleven in the number two in a Committee is a miracle nay if you find one in the Committee of Derby I 'le give you leave to hang him though my Lord Say himselfe be there But now I talke of that Committee I will tell you strange newes they have done the Kingdome good service and is not that a wonder in a Committee And if you aske how I must tell you they have discovered a Plot and well they might if you knew all you would say so for as sure as I live they made it the Fox is the finder and for fear others should discover it they did it themselves you know it is good to cry Whore first but you may observe the knavery of the Baker They tell us of a Plot against the Kingdome Parliament and City but by whom they know not not one actor or contriver is discovered and why thinke you because the Earle of Northumberland the Chaire-man of the Committee thinks it not convenient for fear he should be troubled to purchase the life of another Waller to secure his head from the Block But because you shall not be kept in ignorance know their Proverb is verifified there is seldome much smoke but there is some fire so you shall find that there is not only a talk of a Plot but such a plot indeed as tends to the ruine and destruction of all honest men in the Kingdome The particulars thus 1 For the severall Counties of Essex Surrey and Kent the ground and growth of their late Petitions proceeded and had their births from a party in the Houses of Parliament being Members of the Committee of Derby-house with other of their creatures the Earle of Warwick was the first promoter of Essex Petition Sir Arthur Anstoe of Surrey and Sir Simpleton Walsingham with other of his Adherents were drawn into the present ingagement of Kent 2. For London and the parts adjacent there hath been a designe of listing many thousands and putting them into Armes which designe hath had its rise and birth from the treacherous braine of Algernon Percy whose name and family never were found to be faithfull either to God or their Countrey and it may be boldly averred that he was never other then a Traytor to the Kingdome since the late Warre witnesse the plot for which Tompkins and Challenor were murthered wherein the Earle of Northumberland was a chiefe Actor with Waller and therefore though Waller was the greatest offender as having ingaged others yet he must be sold to the Earl of Northumberland for some thousands of pounds and by him conveighed into France not only to conceale his Knavery but to be his Agent to keep up his credit with the Queen and give him intelligence what the Queene desires should be effected This is the reason why you have no further discovery of this dangerous plot whereas had the finders been free you should have had them proclaimed the Authors names imprisoned them seized their estates c. and had a day of Thanksgiving whereas now you see them rather desire a day of Humiliation for sorrow that they were so soon discovered Neither is this honoured Gentleman without other accomplices for there is a Cabinet-Councell of them to wit Sir William Lewis Sir Iohn Clotworthy the Earle of Holland the Countesse of Carlisle Doctor Fraper a Scot Sir Peter Killigrew cum multis alus all which receive constant intelligence from the Queen and act accordingly and by their designement are all these commotions and troubles which threaten the Kingdome to that end is the Earle of Northumbealand Chaire-man of the Committee of Safety at Derby-house to the end he may be inabled to retard proceedings especially if they crosse the ends they aime at But because you shall see that I speake more then probabilities although my neer relation to them would hinder yet I will clearly discover unto you the very bottome of their design In order to which give me leave to informe you that the quarrell betwixt the Factions in the Houses is now not whether the King shall be brought in but who shall bring him in and who shall be the Princes of the People under him when brought in The Royall Presbyterian and Independent for there are such of both sorts as Northumberland Warwick Say Crumwell Ireton Vane Senior Vane Iunior c. they would bring in the King upon their accompt and make such an agreement with him as might not only secure them with safety but advance them to honour also The reall Presbyterian and reall Independent they are willing to bring in the King but they would first have the King secure unto them Religion Law and the Liberties of the Nation but alack they are but a few and their tale cannot be heard for the cry of others is Let us use the best means we can to satisfie the King no matter what becomes of the Kingdome And to this end have they underhand promoted and procured these tumults so that thereby they might force the House to an adjournment which is the chiefe thing they desire and if procured then all the power will reside in that Committee And because they will be sure to doe their worke they have endeavoured to bring in seven Lords more into them namely their whole House which if effected we shall be troubled no more with a House of Peers or Parliament but must be governed by a Committee of Estates and by the power of the Army which by the
perswasions to the contrary have continued the combate and come off not only unfoild but with honor having thrown the Lords Jurisdiction by them usurped over Commons on its back so that unless Englishmen prove the worst of cowards it will not be possible for the Lords ever to dare to take the impudence to adjudg fine or imprison a Commoner more for which noble act of theirs they deserve to have their names engraven in Marble with this memorial Maynard Gayer Adams Langham Bunce did save Our English Freedoms from the very grave Of dire destruction cause they phainly saw The Lords usurp a Power above the Law They took the Laws part and the Lords resist And having choak'd them with a Scottish Mist Bravely retreated for which Fame intends To crown them with the name o' th Peoples Friends Which to their Generations shall remain A badg of honor Time shall ne're obtain To have forgotten but shall make them be But for Cullum this shall be his memorial Here lies a man did Law and fame despise Betray'd his cause for an office in th' Excise Confest himself a Traytor which is moe For profits sake did kiss great Cromwels Toe Twelve hundred pounds per annum for to save He sold his Faith and proved a fawning knave But now I talk of twelve hundred pounds give me leave to tell you that it is no wonder that we are slaves to the Grandees nay that we are no more slaves then we are for you must know that there are in the City but 24. Aldermen and at least fourteen of them have fourteen hundred a year by their places which they enjoy by the favour of the ruling party of Lords and Commons and wherefore think you is it that they confer such places on them is it not to the end that they may give them assistance to enslave and ride you when they please Have they not all along made use of their power and interest in the City to raise what sums of money they pleased and if a demand was made for the loan of ten or twenty thousand pounds would not these men always appear the promoters thereof and to draw others on make proffers to lend a thousand pounds a man which they knew well enough how to pay themselves again out of the Treasury but for you you must be content with the publick Faith nay Hay have they not by this means had such an influence upon the Councels and Government of this City that we have not had liberty to chuse our own Governors or Officers nor dispose of our own Militia or indeed do any thing but what corresponded with the sence of the Grandee Faction but it should meet great opposition in debate at our Common Councels and if they could not carry things there as they desired then presently the power of the Parliament must be made use of to forbid the prosecution of that which they by their interest could not hinder Thus are you notwithstanding all your struglings for Freedom involved in slavery and yet know it not for it cannot be imaginable that these men which get so much by the Grandee Faction as Gibs Woolaston Foulk c. should ever carry on any other interest then their Masters and unless you be wise and force all such Pentionary Aldermen to disgorge give up their places or throw off their Gowns which would be best of all and choose honester in their rooms and also make provision for the future that no Alderman or other Magistrate shall take upon him any such employment as the receiving and disposing of the publike Treasure It is impossible for you to be other slaves and so to be liable to be oppressed taxed and cheated for if he that hath a sword in his hand shall have power to dispose of the publick treasure he will not fear to be his own carver and who shall dare to call him to an account But I have found so much knavery in the City that I had almost lost my way to Westminster which is the very fountain of fallacy where in the first place I met with a Committee of Condemnation alias a Committee of Indempnity where I found them robbing Peter to pay Paul There was a great controversie and the debate was desperate and dubitable whether the Keeper of Newgate Mr Woolaston should be protected for his knavery or Colonel Lilburne punished for his honesty I was loth to stay to see the issue for fear it should have stunk for it is ten to one but the knave Jaylor had the most of the Committee on his side because there was a knave Lord or two to overlook them for fear they should do justice and suffer the Rogue to be hanged for his knavery and then they be put to the trouble to send a reprieve to hell for him knowing it is impossible on earth to find so fit an instrument to execute their infernal commands From thence I went to the Committee of safety at Darby House where I found them as safe as a Cat in a Cubbard hugging themselves for joy at the successe of their Plot which was as followeth I told you the last time how and by what means the tumults in the several Counties were occasioned namely by the underhand designements of this Grandee Faction sitting at Darby House Give me leave now to tell you further that all these appearances by Goring c. for the King are but delusions and by designe thereby to perfect their work of perpetuation of their power It is certain that Goring is imployed by these juggling knaves only to engage as many as he can in the name of the King thereby to give them an opportunity to crush and bring the Kings party so low that it shall not be possible for them to rise again which if effected say they it will bring such a terrour upon all other parties in the Kingdom that do what we will we shall not need to fear any And then shall the King be necessitated either to accept of such conditions as we shall afford him or else we shall be in power to depose him and either keep the power in our own hands or set up the Duke of Glocester which will serve but as a Cypher to please the people withall Suitable to this design was the late answer to the Counties Petitions That they would maintain a Government by King Lords and Commons c. And that in due time they would take into consideration how to settle the Kingdom Which I am confident they are resolved of if this work they have now in hand be but effected which is as followeth They will offer to the King such termes of Agreement as shall serve to secure the power and places of honor and preferment of the ruling party of the Parliament and Army And if the King will joyn with them upon such an account they will bring him in but if he will not then they say they have ground enough to lay him