free so in plain English the generality of the People and those of the best sense hold themselves no wise affected or prescribed unto by these Declarations For we who knew the tenour of them when they lay concealed in the Councel Books and yet thought our selves at liberty to believe as our Judgments conducted us are not likely to have our mindes altered by the bare Printing of them But how far the Conscience of the king is concern'd or defiled I leave to those of the Theologick Faculty to resolve only I judge that the same Casuistical Divinity whereby they salved the Conscience and vindicated the honor of the king in case the of the Covenant and with all discharged him from the Obligation which it was supposed to have put upon him may whensoever he thinks meet stand him in good stead and affoord him the same relief in the case of the late Declarations Eightly There is one thing further that must not be omitted because it gives us amazement and yet affords us pleasant diversion namely the motive they have brought his Majesty to alledge for his making and publishing this Declaration I confess I could not read it without surprise and wonderful emotion And I dare say when you think seriously of it you will find pitty stir in your heart to your abused Prince and your bood swell in your Veins through indignation at some about him For after the care they have suffered him to take for preserving our Religion Lives and Liberties from the designs of the Papists by dissolving two Parliaments and so often Proroguing a third they bring him now to publish this Declaration to relieve the minds of his loving Subjects from their fears and to prevent the ill consequences which a belief of his having been Married to the D. of M's Mother may have in future times upon the Peace of these kingdoms A most proper way to extinguish our fears by doing all that he can to subject us hereafter to one who is the professed Enemy of our established Religion and Legal Government But that your Lordship may the better comprehend how highly we are obliged to his majesty for his love and tenderness to his People in all that they judge dear and valluable by designing so hopeful a Successor over them I shall recount some of those many particulars from which we esteem our selves capable of judging what a gracious and desirable Prince this dear and beloved Brother is like to prove 1. He is a Gentleman that hath renounced the Religion wherein he was not only educated and which these Nations profess but which he had consigned unto him sealed with the Blood of his father and entailed upon him and the whole Line by no less then his Grandfathers Curse in case any of old Jame's off-spring should depart from it 2. He hath made it his business to seduce his Majesties Subjects to the papal Faith and to enslave them to a forraign Jurisdiction And by his addresses solicitations and preferments wherewith he is able to reward such mercinary soules as are ready to make sale of their Religion he hath made more converts to the Church of Rome than all the English Missionaries have been able to do 3. Through the power which he hath obtained over the King he hath procured the chiefest places of strength in the Nation and some of the greatest Trusts as well Civil and Religious as Military to be conferred upon known Papists and sworn enemies to the Protestant Cause and English Liberties 4. He hath been the principal promoter of Arbitrary Government and of making the Kings interest both distinct from and opposite to that of his People And this he hath done in pursuance of Papal advice and in subserviency to the Romish interest For where the Monarch is absolute and the Lives and Fortunes of whole Nations are enslaved to the will and pleasurâ— of one person the meer wheedling of a lustfull weak or inconsiderate Prince will go a great length in the gaining vast multitudes to adore the Triple Crown And for such as shall provâ— stubborn and refractory it is but meritoriously to kill them and then convert their Lands to the use of the holy Sea 5. It was this darling and beloved One that Authorised thâ— burning of London and not only made his own palace a Sanctuary to the Villan's who were suspected as instruments of that dreadful conflagration but rescu'd and discharged diverse who were apprehended in the very Fact And this he did partly in revenge for as much as London had been both the Magazine of Strenth and Treasure during the War with the late King and partly to gratify his Popish friends by destroying the bulwark of the Protestant Religion and the chief Receptacle of the Hereticks 6. It was this presumptive Heir that all along obliged his Majesty to neglect the concerning himselfe in favour of the Protestants abroad and did so order it through his power over the King that never any forrain Alliance was made but what was abused to the betraying of them And here let me call over a story and perhaps a more Tragical one and accompainied with baser Treachâ—ry then any History is able to acquaint you with One Monseiur Rohux a French Gentleman coming into England to treat with the King concerning an Alliance between his Majesty and Forrain Protestants meerly for the preservation of their Religion and having acquainted the Duke of York with his errand after he had in a private conference or two transacted with the King about iâ— This Royal Prince out of his wonted kindness to the Protestants and the reformed religion caused Rouveny Lieger Ambassador from France at this Court to stand behind the hangings at St James while he made this innocent Gentleman discourse over the whole business Upon which Mons. Rouveny being obâ—iged to acquant his master with it Mons. Rohux who upon some â—ntimation that the Duke had betrayed him had withdrawn â—ence to Switzerland was there seized by a party of French Horse and brought to the Bastile whence after some times imprisonement he was carried to the place of Excution and broken â—pon the Wheel 7. It was through the Duke of Yorks means that both the first â—nd second Wars were commenced against the Dutch and that â—n order not only to weaken the Protestants by their mutual deâ—troying of each other but in hope to have turned the victorious Arms of the King upon the Hereticks at home and the patrons of English liberty 8. It was this zealous Prince for the honour and safety of Brittain that adviced the breaking the Tripple-League which was the wisest conjunction and most for the glory of the Kings Reign and the preservation of his Dominions that ever he entered into And this he did not only to gratify France whose Pensioner as well as whose confederate he hath been but to leave the Protestants here naked to the attempts of the papists For he knew that while that League continued firm
Henry the 2. tho upon far different reasons was Crowned in coniunction with King Stephen And I wish that what the Brother of the King of portugal hath of late years effected against his Prince did not awaken our jealousie to fear that the same may be attempted by a dispensation from the infallible chair elsewhere However they have taken care should they accomplish this designe that they may not be obliged to entetain our Katherine as they in Portugal did the French Madam Married to Alphonso for asmuch as the best part of the portion with our Princess namely Tangeir is through the courage and conduct of my Lord Incheqine one of the Dukes greatest confidents as good as disposed of But should they proceed in this design against his Majesty it becomes all his Majesties good Subjects to endeavour as one man the rescuing him from under their power seeing the very designment of such a thing is a Treason of so high a Nature against the King that we should be wanting in our Allegiance should we not apply our selves in the use of all possible wayes and meanes to punish and aveng as well as prevent the excution of it Now my Lord these are but few of the many particulars by which we are sufficently enlightned concerning the Duke of York and we may abundantly learn from these how much we are indebted to his Majesty for his Grace Favour and care in appointing such a one after him to succeed over us Do not all our fears hereupon immediately vanish and die and Hope Joy and Gladness revive in our hearts on this prospect which the King hath given us of so good an Heir But poor Prince we at once compassionate and forgive him knowing that this proceeds not from his inclination but that he hath been hurried and forced to it Nor do we need any further assurance of the inward propensions of his Majesties heart and the dislike his breast is filled with for what he hath done but the endeavoures which he used under daily and manifold importunities to the contrary to have avoided it and the sadness which appears in his countenance since over-awed to publish this Declaration And as for the Duke of Y. let him not deceive himself for as he may percieve by this that we fully understand him and know the kindness he entertains for us so we are prepared for him and resolved to return unto him and his in the kind they intend to bring For having both Divine and Humane Laws on our side we are resolved neither to be Papists nor Slaves and consequently not to be subjects to him who hath vowed either utterly to extirpate us or to reduce and compell us to be both the one and the other Lastly For the Issuing of all this Controversy concerning whose Right it is to succeed next after his Majesty men here about the town accustomed to discourse think that there need but two proposals and those very rational ones to be made The first is that the Parliament being admitted to sit they may examine this Affair whereof they alone are competent Judges Whatsoever Declarations may otherwise signifie yet it is a principle which can never be oblitterated out of the minds of English Men That they are neither binding Laws nor can alienate or extinguish the Rights of any Shall the Son of a common Person be allowed the Liberty to justify his Legittimacy in case his Father prove so forgetful or so unnatural as to disclaim him And shall the Duke of Monmouth meerly by being the Son of a King forfeit this just and universe Priviledge If his Majesty was indeed Married to that discountenanced Gentlemans Mother he is by our Laws the Son of the Kingdom as well as the Son of King Charles And therefore it is necessary as well as fit that the People should in all due and Legal ways understand whether they have any Interest or not in him before they be commanded to renounce him or resign it All therefore we desire is that this matter may be impartially and fairly heard and that before those who alone have right to be Judges of it and as no other course but this can satisfy the minds of People so it cannot be expected that upon the Authority of a Declaration especially gotten as this was they should sacrifice the share which for any thing yet appears they have in him as their apparent Prince and next Heir to the Throne And unless this be obtained the People will undoubtedly think their own Rights invaded whatsoever the said Duke judgeth of his The second thing we would humbly beg as well as propose is That the Parliament being called to sit the Duck of York may be legally tryed for his manifold Treasons and Conspiracies against the King and kingdom For if he be innocent and that the Right of Succession be his all Men will quietly acquiesse under him but if he should prove guilty as we no wise qvestion but that he will shall his Treasons when a Subject qualifie him to be a King and Pave the way for his rising to the Throne According to all Equity as well as Law he ought first to iustifie himself from all traitrous attempts and Acts against the King and People before he be allowed to have his claim heard concerning any title that in time to come he may have to rule over these Nations I shall subjoyn no more at present save that I am London June the 10th 1610. My Lord Your most obedient Servant
the king of Sweden and the States of Holland would have construed all designes upon the Protestants in England as done against those of the same religion with themselves and in favor of whose profession they had entred into that Alliance 6. He hath not only mantained correspondence with Forrain Princes to the betraying the Kings councels but hath confederated with them for the extirpation of our religion and overthrowing our Legal Government And besides many other evidences of this which it is not convenient to mention at present The depositions which arrived with the Commitee of Seceresy during the Session of the late Parliament together with Colemans letters and that which he wrote in the Dukes name and indeed by his command do uncontrolably demonstrate it 10. He was consenting to and hath cooperated in the whole Popish Plot for both his Confessor and Secretary did with his knowledg and approbation Seal the Resolves for the Kings death 11. It was the Duke who when the King had revealed the first discovery of the Hellish Romish Plot to him immediatly communicated it to Father Beding-field that so the conspirators might know to how secure their papers and abscond themselves 12. It was he who through his command over the Post Office prevented the intercepting the letters From St· Omers and others Forraign Seminaries whereby that whole damnable conspiracy would have been more fully detected 13. He employed his own Dutchess to transport several of the Traitors to Holland that so they might scape the search that was made for them and the punishment which they had deserved 14. It was he who suborned encouraged and rewarded the vilest Miscreants to frame and swear a Plot against the Protestants and this he did to beget a disbelif of the Popish conspiracy and in order to destroy such of the Nobility and Gentry as were the chief assertors of the Reformed Religion and English liberty 15. It was he who advised the several prorogations and dissolutions of Parliaments whensoever they were either considering the bleeding condition of the Protestant interest abroad or supplicating the King to an Alliance with Protestants Princes for its protection and preservation 16. It was he in whose favour the Dissolution of the last Parliament was procured and who hath prevented the sitting of this after Eight several times appointed for their meeting And all to hinder the Trial of the Traitorous Lords in the Tower and to obstruct the further search into the many Hellish Plots wherein himself and the rest of the Papists are engaged for the subversion of our Religion and Laws and the destruction of the lives of his Majesty and People And how much he hath lessened his Majesties interest in the hearts of his Subjects and weakned their confidence in his Royal word by obliging him to treat this Parliament as he hath done seeing in his speech to both Houses March 6. 1678. he had so solemnly declared his resolution to meet his people frequently in Parliaments and into what straits and wants they have thereby also reduced him I shall rather leave your Lordship silently to consider than take upon me at this time to unfold 17. It was he who after he had for so many years promoted the aiding and succoring of France with English Forces till that aspiring Prince was ascended to a power and greatness not to be in any probability withstood or controlled did at last engage his Majestie in making the general peace which is a thing so highly prejudicial to all Europe in the unavoidable consequences of it 18. It was he who countenanced and enlivened the late Traitorous Combination of Prentices and Ruffians and who together with the Lords in the Tower Issued out the Mony both for the expences of their entertainments and for the providing them with Arms to distrube the peace of the Citty and Kingdom and assault the Houses and Lives of his Majesties Liege People 19. It is he who hath enrolled and secretly mustred men in all Counties of England and who besides the English Papists whom at this time he hath called from all parts of the Nation to London is also provided of a great number of Irish who formerly washed their hands in the blood of Protestants or are the genuine off-spring of those that did Now being thus furnished and environed he is resolved unless God in his providence miraculously interpose to put all to a venture and play over the same game in England that was heretofore acted in Ireland 20. It is he who cherisheth in his bosome and exalteth to the highest Trusts such as Coll. Worden who betrayed his Majesties secrets to the usurping powers particularly to Mr. Scot. Nay himself may be charged with many â—hings in those times whereby we may apparently discover both his treachery to his Majesty and his ambition to have usurped the Crown from him For when a Loyal party of the English Fleet had espoused his Majesties Right and Title against the enemies of his Crown and person the Duke who being then aboard should have encouraged and ventured his Life in conjunction with them did instead thereof by a most shameful and â—isloyal deserting of them both discourage them in their fidelity and so far as in him lay obleige them to compound for themselves with a â—eclusion of his Majesties intrest Yea besides this when the Scots were treating the King at Breda in order to the establishing him in the Throne of that Kingdom the D. of Y. was at that very time transacting with such as remained faithful to the Kings Title here that they would renounce his elder Brother and chuse him for their Soveraign Nor do I believe that his Majesty can forget the occasion and design upon which the Duke forsooke him at Bruges and withdrew to Holland so that the King was necessitated not only to command him upon his allagience to return but was forced to send the Duke of Ormond and some other persons of quality to threaten as well as perswade him before he would goe back 21. It is he who not thinking the declaration enough to facilitate his ascention to the Throne or to secure him from resistance in the attempts he purposeth upon our Lives and Liberties hath been and still is endeavouring to be admitted and let further into the Government and accordingly hath accosted the King by my Lord Durass in that matter This is the more surprising forasmuch as one would think that it is not possible he should be further let into the Government having Berwick Hull Langer point Shereness Portsmouth and the Magazine of the Tower Legg being now Master of the Ordnance in the hands of his sworn vassals and creatures and having also the superintendency of all civil affaires in him unless by taking the Scepter actually into his hand he should confine the King to a Country House and and an Annual pension And his partisans about the Town talk of no less than the having the Duke Crown'd during the Kings life as