Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A34079
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The Protestant mask taken off from the Jesuited Englishman being an answer to a book entituled Great Britain's just complaint.
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Comber, Thomas, 1645-1699.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing C5484; ESTC R22733
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44,472
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73
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right Heir and here he sets up his Bristles and hectors his Adversary the Convention and the Prince of Orange for not proving the Prince of Wales Supposititious Now he neither proves it a real Birth himself nor answers half the Arguments have been urged against it yet is very angry that others will not prove a Negative The Convention had seen the Depositions Pag. 20. knew the Credit of the Witnesses and all the Circumstances of the Delivery yet after all did not believe it a real Birth they had examined it as far as was necessary to their own Satisfaction and after all declared the Princess of Orange to be the right Heir The Papists whose Religion was to be brought in by the Father and established by this pretended Son and all their Well-wishers should have brought better Proof of their New Heir than a few depending partial interested People it was their Business to have produced their Evidence The Convention judged according to all the Proofs they had and unanimously declared for the Princess's Right who being the next Heir in their Judgment and in the Opinion of the whole Nation some few excepted they sufficiently shewed they did not intend to make this Monarchy Elective in that they declared the true Heir as they verily believed to be Queen But suppose they had spent Months or Years in the Inquiry and left the Nation to sink in the mean while what would all this have signified to Jesuits and Nose-led Protestants Unless they had pronounced for the Prince of Wales right or wrong this sort of People would not have acquiesced in their Determination and therefore they did wisely after they and almost the whole Body of English Protestants were satisfied not to trouble themselves any further Besides Pag. 21. if King James did believe it why did he not put it upon a Trial in Parliament in his own Time He understood the People of England generally suspected there was Artifice used to exclude a Protestant Heir and therefore why did he not call a Parliament long before the Prince of Orange came over and submit it to their Inquiry Yea when the Prince was come He the Bishops Nobility and Officers yea all England desired King James to call a Parliament to settle this and other Matters yet he would not call one but fled from this way of Trial. If it be said King James had proved it by the Depositions 't is answered These were Witnesses all of one side chosen by a Party sworn before partial Men and in too private a Place for an Hereditary Monarchy The People doubting about the true Heir ought to have Satisfaction given to their Representatives in Parliament which was not done yea King James did not call these Witnesses till fourteen Days before the Prince landed viz. October 22. thereby shewing he did not intend to give the Nation any sort of Satisfaction but Fear and the serving a Turn extorted this Condescension from him Wherefore when King James would not try this Matter by his Parliament when he might have done it why should the Convention do his Business for him and neglect the Nation 's Safety But he urges that none were denied Satisfaction who desired it I reply the Princess of Denmark formerly complained she had not the Satisfaction given her which was fit and it is generally believed she was sent out of the way on purpose The Dutch Embassador who ought to have satisfied Princess Mary was not called the Bishops by design were sent to the Tower the good Protestants were all at Church and this lucky Juncture with a Place suddenly resolved on seem plainly designed for Privacy And indeed none were at the Birth it self but interested Friends and Well-wishers to a Popish Heir whose Design and Hopes made some of them willing to affirm and others easy to believe any thing Nor is the late Daughter's Birth among Foreigners and such as would top this Prince of Wales upon us a sufficient Evidence that a Son was born before the Reckoners there were as often shifted as they had been here and as few Witnesses were called and after all the Letters that were writ hither and after all the Promises of a Birth that should be so well attested as to confirm the former the one was managed as much in the dark as the other had been nor have we yet heard of any of those Attestations with which we were so much threatned Having therefore not proved a Prince of Wales Page 22. the Argument from his Innocency and the Injury done him falls Non entis nulla sunt Accidentia Had the Convention believed there was such a Son they would have owned him as Heir but believing there was no such Person they cannot properly be said to intend or do him any Injury Queen Mary's Resolution to have the Prince joined with her is known to many The Injury done to Princess Ann and her Children is none at all but a Benefit for what was her Title or theirs worth if the Prince of Orange had permitted the Papists to set up a Prince of Wales and perhaps Dukes of York and Glocester to exclude them all for ever Is not her Succession and her Issues both nearer and surer than it was under King James King William it 's true is made King for his Life but if he die before the Queen which the Hazards he runs in defending both Sisters Titles makes too probable then the Princess Ann and her Children have no Injury at all and if he should survive Queen Mary I appeal to any impartial Man whether this King who rescued the Princess's Title from being extinguished do not merit to keep the Soveraignty for the rest of his Life especially since she and her Heirs precede his by any other Wife From Aggravations he falls to History and while he blames his Adversaries Ignorance therein he evidently shews his own in affirming that no such Breach was ever made in our English Succession before Whereas we have had but 27 Reigns from the Conquest to this Revolution and in that time there have been several Breaches in the Succession most of them greater than this viz. William the Conqueror William Rufus Henry the First King Stephen King John Henry the Fourth and Seventh to which some who deny Henry the 8th's Marriage with his Brother's Widow to be lawful add Queen Mary and the Papists put in Queen Elizabeth Now upon such Breaches the Sentence of the People was had to confirm the Pretender's Title yet this Kingdom still remained Hereditary in common Account and never was reckoned as by his Argument it would have been an Elective Monarchy But to keep to his Instances there was a greater Breach than is now by King Henry the Seventh's coming to the Crown for though Richard the Third was slain and left no Child yet he left an Heiress Elizabeth Daughter of King Edward the Fourth and some of her Sisters were then alive as was also a Son and a Daughter