than one word to say both for the Iustice and the Necessity of these Proceedings and the whole Nation already feels the extraordinary good effects of them notwithstanding the expence of Blood and Treasure of which he complains for we know whom we are to thank for that And the best way to prevent the effusion of more Blood and the expence of more Money is to keep out his French Troops and to know when we are well Revolutions are and will be Bloody and Chargeable and therefore one Revolution is enough for one Age The Dutch are already pay'd and we don't desire to pay the French too which is a much longer Account and we shall get less by it We have hitherto had something for our Money and something that is very valuable our Laws and Liberties and Religion but I believe the Nation will think it a hard bargain to pay ten times the price for French Popery and Slavery The Nation as he says has cast up the Account and I believe above Nineteen parts in Twenty have consider'd the matter so well that they are come to a fixt Resolution to oppose the intended Invasion to the utmost of their Power As for the loss of the Ships of War it now appears God for ever be praised for it that Their Majesties have a Fleet still left Considerable enough and Faithful too notwithstanding all the Arts and Endeavours of our Enemies to Debauch them from their Allegiance to deal with and even to destroy the Naval Power of France DECLARATION The next Consideration is What may reasonable be expected for the time to come And as to that no better judgment can be made of any future Events than by Reflecting upon what is past And doubtless from the Observation of the Temper and Complexion the Methods and Maxims of the present Usurper from the Steps he has already taken when it was most necessary for him to give no distaste to the People as well as from the Nature of all Usurpation which can never be supported but by the same ways of Fraud and Violence by which it was first set up there is all the Reason in the World to believe that the beginning of this Tyranny like the Five first Years of Nero is like to prove the mildest part of it and all they have yet suffer'd is but the beginning of the Miseries which those very Men who were the great Promoters of the Revolution may yet live to see and feel as the Effect of that Illegal and Tyrannical Government which they themselves first impos'd upon the Kingdoms OBSERVATIONS There is no Answer needs be given to this which may always be said of the best Beginnings of the best Government We for our part find no fault with His Majesty's Government yet and see no reason to suspect it for the future Taxes are the only Cause of Complaint now and yet few complain of them but Iacobites who out of their great Zeal for the late King pay double Taxes to the present Government to keep him out which does him more mischief than Iacobite Oaths could do and yet thanks be to God we have a hopeful Prospect of the end of these Taxes and have been so well repaid of late that we shall not grudge to clear the Account that we may have something to call our own But of all Men in the World excepting always His most Christian Majesty the late King should not attempt to frighten us with the Dangers of Misgovernment for a good Reason in which himself is too nearly concern'd and which all English Protestant Subjects very well know As to what relates to the first five Years of Nero This certainly is a piece of the Secretary's own Pedantry to shew his great Reading and to impart to us one of the choicest Secrets in the Roman History All Comparisons of Princes with Nero are very odious but I know not how he could have made one more to the advantage of King William than to compare his Reign hitherto with the five first Years of Nero which the Roman Historians tells us may compare with that of the best of their Emperors But however this I am sure of that it is better to begin a Reign as Nero did than to begin where he ended as two other Kings have done and to go on to improve and perfect that ill Pattern to which if God had not mercifully prevented it they were not above a Month ago just ready to have given their last hand and the finishing strokes DECLARATION And yet the Consideration must not rest here neither For all wise Men ought and all good Men will take care of their Posterity and therefore it is to be remembred that if it should please Almighty God as one of his severest Iudgments upon these Kingdoms for the many Rebellions and Perjuries they have been guilty of so far to permit the Continuation of the present Usurpation that we should not be restor'd during our Life-time yet an indisputable Title to the Crown will survive in the Person of our dearest Son the Prince of Wales our present Heir apparent and his Issue and for default of that in the Issue of such other Sons as we have great reason to hope the Queen being now with Child we may yet leave behind us And what the Consequences of that is like to be may easily be understood by all that are not strangers to the long and bloody Contentions between the two Houses of York and Lancaster and whoever shall read the Histories of those Times and there shall have presented to him as in one view a Scene of all the Miseries of an Intestine War the perpetual harrassing of the poor Commons by Plunder and Free-quarter the ruine of many noble Families by frequent Executions and Attainders the weakning of the whole Kingdom in general at home and the losing those advantages they might in the mean time have procur'd for themselves abroad cannot but conclude that these are the natural Effects of those Strugglings and Convulsions that must necessarily happen in every State where there is a Dispute entail'd between an injured Right and an unjust Possession OBSERTATIONS This will need but a very short Answer For as to the Civil Wars he threatens our Posterity with from the Pretences of the Prince of Wales I must needs say I had rather if it must come to fighting that they should fight for the Crown twenty or thirty Years hence then now Give Peace in our days O Lord. I had rather our Posterity should enslave themselves if they shall have a mind to be enslaved then that we should enslave our selves and our Posterity with us There is no such haste of bringing in Popery and Slavery and it is to be hoped if we be true to our Religion and Liberties our Posterity may grow wise by our Example But I must observe that whereas the Prince of Wales in this English Declaration is called the Heir apparent in the French Declaration he is called
only the Presumptive Heir Perhaps Presumptive Heir in the French Law may be the same with Heir apparent in ours If it be not What did Sir E. H. or whoever was the Penman of this Declaration mean by it Will they set aside the Pretences of the Prince of Wales if the late Queen Mary who is said to be with Child in good truth bring forth a Son this looks very suspiciously as if they did not believe they had given sufficient Satisfaction about the Birth of this Pretended Prince of Wales but however we must presume him Prince of Wales till they have another whom they can by better proof make out to be the unquestionable Son of the late Queen Mary DECLARATION There is another Consideration that ought to be of weight with all Christians and that is the calamitous Condition of Europe now almost universally engaged in a War among themselves at a time when there was the greatest hopes of Success against the Common Enemy and the fairest Prospect of Enlarging the Bounds of the Christian Empire that ever was in any Age since the declining of the Roman And so far from the hopes of a general Peace before our Restoration that no rational Project of a Treaty can be form'd in order to it But that once done the thing will be easie and we shall be ready to offer our Mediation and interpose all the good Offices we can with his most Christian Majesty for the obtaining of it OBSERVATIONS This whole Period is a sharp and perpetual Satyr against the French King For who has been the great Disturber of the Peace of Europe but his most Christian Majesty With whom are all the Princes of Europe at War but with Him Who else has hindered the success against the Common Enemy and the enlarging the bounds of the Christian Empire Who invited the Turk into Europe Who encourages him to continue the War after so many Fatal Defeats which may probably prove the ruin of his whole Empire In a word what other Christian Prince is the Great Turk's Ally and Confederate in this War And is not this War continued and encouraged by all the Power and Interest of the French King on purpose to disturb the Peace of Europe that while the Imperial Forces are otherwise employ'd he may make a Prey of his weaker Neighbours It is decent to spare Crowned Heads and such as have been crowned but the Penman of this Declaration deserves his Reward for putting in so many notorious Falshoods as may justly call the truth and sincerity of the whole in Question I know but one Excuse for him that he has made it almost all of a piece and though he has had little regard to Truth yet he has so ordered the matter that he can deceive no body but those who have a great mind to be deceived and it is not amiss that such should be gratified Who but the late King could hope to perswade the World that to restore him to his Kingdoms is absolutely necessary to the Peace of Europe that before his Restoration no rational Projects of a Treaty can be formed in order to a Peace He may be mistaken in this for the French King may quickly be glad to make Peace and leave Him and his Restoration out of the Treaty For things are come to that extremity now that it is in vain to think of Peace till Lewis the Great be reduced to such a state as to accept it and unable to break it And then this Argument returns upon him for the Peace of Europe is a necessary Reason why he should not be restored as I observed in my former Letter But He who could fancy himself to be a proper and effectual Mediator for a Peace if he were restored must have liberty to fancy any thing and it is happy for him that he has so comfortable an Imagination I do really pity him too much to endeavour to dispossess him of it because that would be to undo Him more than He is already undone DECLARATION Since therefore We come with so good Purposes and so good a Cause the Iustice of which is founded upon the Laws both of God and Man since the Peace of Europe as well as of Our own Kingdoms the Prosperity of present and future Ages is concerned in the success of it We hope We shall meet with little Opposition but that All Our Loving Subjects according to the Duty and the Oath of their Allegiance and as We hereby Command and Require them to do will joyn with Us and Assist Us to the utmost of their Power OBSERVATIONS I can say little to this the Event will best shew whether the People of England will think his Cause so good and the Reasons for his Restauration so pressing as to assist him in it DECLARATION And We do hereby strictly forewarn and prohibit any of Our Subjects whatsoever either by Collecting or paying any of the Illegal Taxes lately imposed upon the Nation or any part of Our Revenue or by any other ways to Abet or Support the present Usurpation And that We may do all that can be thought of to win over all Our Subjects to Our Service that so if it be possible We may have none but the Usurper and his Foreign Troops to deal with and that none may be forced to continue in their Rebellion by despair of Our Mercy for what they have already done We do hereby Declare and Promise by the Word of a King That all Persons whatsoever how guilty soever they may have been except the Persons following viz. The Duke of Ormond Marquess of Winchester Earl of Sunderland Earl of Bath Earl of Danby Earl of Nottingham Lord Newport Bishop of London Bishop of St. Asaph Lord Delamere Lord Wiltshire Lord Colchester Lord Cornbury Lord Dunblane John Lord Churchil Sir Robert Howard Sir John Worden Sir Samuel Grimstone Sir Stephen Fox Sir George Treby Sir Basil Dixwel Sir James Oxendon Dr. Tillotson Dean of Canterbury Dr. Gilbert Burnet Francis Russel Richard Levison John Trenchard Esquires Charles Duncomb Citizen of London Edwards Napleton Hunt Fisherman and all others who offer'd Personal Indignities to Us at Feversham except also all Persons who as Iudges or Iury-men or otherwise had a hand in the Barbarous Murther of Mr. John Ashton and of Mr Cross or of any others who have been illegally Condemned and Executed for their Loyalty to Us and all Spies and such as have betrayed Our Counsels during Our late Absence from England that by an early return to their Duties and by any Signal Mark of it as by Seizing to Our Use or Delivering into Our Hands any of Our Forts or by bringing over to Us any Ships of War or Troops in the Usurper's Army or any new raised and Armed by themselves or by any other Eminent good Service according to their several Opportunities and Capacities shall manifest the sincerity of their Repentance shall not only have their respective Pardons immediately passed under the
great danger and could not but know that he had given them too just occasion for such Jealousies and Fears and it is wonderful that he should think of publishing a Declaration and not think fit to give the least satisfaction about these matters not to say one word about Popery and Arbitrary Power nor to give any express promise that he would remove these fears The only thing he appeals to is the justice of his Cause and does not think himself obliged to say any thing more upon this occasion than that he comes to assert his own just Rights c But this was not the Controversy between Him and his People they did not dispute then his Right to the Crown tho they have some Reason to do it now and yet were willing to part with him when he thought fit to leave them and if he knew what made them so and hoped to return again by their Assistance and with their good-liking any one but those of his own Council would have thought him obliged to say something of it The Prince of Orange's Declaration put him in mind of this which he says cheated his Subjects into the late Revolution and it had been much more to the purpose to have discovered the cheat of that Declaration or to have said nothing of it than to affirm without any proof that now it appears to be notoriously false in all the parts of it for English Protestants know nothing to this day but that it is all true still Were there not in the late Reign open and bold attempts made against the Laws the Liberties and the Religion of these Kingdoms Was not the Dispensing Power set on foot for those purposes Were not the Iudges tamper'd with to obtain a sentence in favour of the Dispensing Power and placed and displaced till they could find fit Tools for that Work men who would sacrifice the Laws and Religion of their Countrey to the Will of their Prince or to their own Covetousness and Ambition Were not the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test Dispensed with upon this pretence and men unqualified by Law put into Ecclesiastical Civil and Military Preferments to the apparent danger both of Church and State Was there no Ecclesiastical Commission set up no Popish Chappels Monasterys and Convents erected and endowed contrary to Law Were not the Nobility and Gentry Closeted and Examined about the repeal of the Test and those disgraced and turned out of all Offices and Employments who would not comply Were not the Bishops sent to the Tower and Tried in Westminster-Hall for their Humble Petition to him against reading the Declaration Was not the Administration of Justice and the greatest Military Trusts put into the hands of Papists Were not the Charters of Cities Towns and Corporations seized into the King's hands and so new-modelled that the King might chuse what Burgesses he pleased and have a House of Commons of his own Creatures Were there not visible grounds of suspition concerning the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales And has there been sufficient satisfaction given the Nation about it to this day These are the Grievances complain'd of in the Prince's Declaration which were believed then not upon the Authority of the Declaration but because they were seen and felt and are believed still because they are still remembred by those who saw and felt them and how they have since been evidently disprov'd I cannot guess But if such things as these are not thought fit to be owned as mistakes in Government if it was not thought fit to promise the redress of any one of them no not in his Declaration whereby he commands and invites his Subjects to Assist him in recovering his Kingdoms I can easily guess that they will not be thought faults much less be redress'd if he should return They must be his very Loving Subjects indeed that can be thus imposed upon DECLARATION And therefore to take the matter from the beginning it cannot be forgotten That as soon as We had certain Notice of the Prince of Orange's unnatural design of Invading Our Kingdoms with the whole Power of the United Provinces We first took the best care We could to provide for Our Defence which We seem'd effectually to have done when We had put Our Fleet and Army into such a condition that tho his most Christian Majesty who well saw the bottom of the Design against Us against Himself and indeed against the Peace of Europe offered Us considerable Succours both by Land and Sea We did not think it at all necessary to accept them at that time as resolving to cast Our selves wholly next to the Divine Protection upon the Courage and Fidelity of Our English Army which had been with so much care and tenderness form'd and obliged by Us. And having thus prepared to oppose Force to Force We did in the next place apply Our selves to give all reasonable satisfaction to the minds of Our good Subjects by endeavouring to undeceive them and to let them see be times and whilst the mischief might easily have been prevented how fatal a Ruin they must bring upon their Countrey if they suffered themselves to be seduc'd by the vain pretences of the Prince of Orange's Invasion However so great was the infatuation of that time that We were not believ'd till it was too late But when he was oblig'd to throw off the Mask by degrees and that it began to appear plainly that it was not the reformation of the Government which yet was a matter that did not at all belong to him to meddle with but the Subversion of it that he aim'd at that so he might build his own Ambitions designs upon the Ruins of the English Nation And when the Poyson had insinuated it self into the vital Parts of the Kingdom When it had spread over our whole Army and so far got into Our Court and Family as not only to corrupt some of Our Servants that were nearest Our Person and had been most highly obliged by us but not even to leave Our own Children at that time uninfected When Our Army daily Deserted on the one hand and on the other hand Tumults and Disorders increased in all Parts of the Kingdom And especially when shortly after the Revolution came on so fast that We found Our selves wholly in Our Enemies Power being at first confin'd by them in our Own Palace and afterwards rudely forced out of it under a Guard of Foreigners We could not then but be admonished by the Fate of some of Our Predecessors in the like circumstances of the danger We were in and that it was high time to provide for the security of Our Person which was happily effected by Our getting from the Guard that was set upon us at Rochester and Our arrival in France the only Part in Europe to which We could retire with safety that so We might preserve Our selves for better times and for a more happy opportunity such as is that
which by the Blessing of God is at present put into our Hands OBSERVATIONS To begin with the Certain notice of the P. of Orange ' s Design is not to take the matter from the beginning Had he intended to give any satisfaction to English Subjects he should have begun where their Complaints and Grievances occasioned by his Arbitrary and Illegal Government began that is where the Prince's Design and his own Abdication began That he took the best care he could for his own defence no man questions and had he taken less it would not have been taken ill by the Nation That his Christian Majesty saw this Design was against himself long before the late King was sensible of it appears from the Memorial printed at the Hague 9. Septemb. 1688. by Monsieur de Conte d'Avaux the French King's Ambassadour But when he says 't was against the Peace of Europe I confess I know not how to understand it unless by the Peace of Europe his Most Christian Majesty mean an Universal Desolation which he was making as fast as he could For this cannot be denied to be a most certain and effectual way of setling a Country in peace to lay it waste and to destroy and drive out the Inhabitants To prevent which indeed was the bottom of this Design and the most effectual way to do it was to divide England from the Interest of France That the French King to prevent this did offer King Iames the Assistance of his Forces is very probable from the same Memorial which threatens the Dutch with it and how this Assistance came to be refused we learn from my Lord Sunderland's Letter printed in the History of the Desertion which and some other Counsels that thwarted the Popish Designs cost him his Religion and soon after the Favour of his Prince and his Preferments at Court That he had no such great Confidence in the Fidelity of his English Army was too evident in the daily Reformations he made in it exchanging Protestants for Papists and English-men for Irish which occasioned that memorable Accident at Portsmouth which gave such a general disgust to the Army in a very lucky Season as greatly disposed them either to go over to the Prince or at least not to fight against him That he did many things in the time of his distress to sweeten his Subjects is true but he was much mistaken if he thought this sufficient to give reasonable satisfaction He undid many things which he had illegally done but he did this so late and it was so apparently a matter of force owing to the change of his fortune not of his Inclinations and then too done with so ill a grace that I could observe no body that was then satisfied with it He restored the Charter of London and of other Cities and Corporations He dissolved the Ecclesiastical Commission restored Magdalen Colledge but never own'd the Illegality of these Proceedings would never renounce his dispensing Power would never be persuaded by the most humble Petitions and earnest Importunities of his Lords and Bishops to call a Free Parliament and to refer the redress of all Grievances to them till he seems to have formed a Design of leaving England and then his Issuing out of Writs which he resolved should never be executed could do him no hurt and would have a good appearance as if he had been willing to have referr'd all to a Parliament had not the growing Power of his Enemies made it more necessary for him to consult the safety of his own Person The Case of Magdalen Colledge convinced all men that these were Extorted Favours and would last no longer than it was safe to recall them King Iames had given his Orders to the Bishop of Winchester the Visitor of that Colledge to recall Dr. Hough and the former Fellows of that Society and he accordingly went down to reinstate them but upon the News that the Dutch Fleet had suffered much in a Storm and probably could not sail till the next Spring His Lordship had new Orders sent to call him back but that News proving false he was permitted to return and to pursue his first Orders This it seems was all the reasonable satisfaction that could be given what his Graces and Favours to Protestants were and how long they would last As for what concerns the Prince of Orange now our Gracious King I know of no mask he had on nor that ever he threw off or that He afterwards appeared to be any other than his Declaration had represented Him He came not for the Crown but to reform Abuses and to secure the Succession which the Right of his Princess and his own Right and Interest the preservation of the Protestant Religion and of the Liberties of Europe gave Him Right and Authority to meddle with but besides his Expectation and original Intention he has the Crown which he came not for He has deceived no body in it but if any one be deceived King Iames and the People of England have deceived Him the one in leaving his Crown the other in placing it on his Head where indeed it ought to be both in Right of His Princess and for his own merits for He who saves a Nation had He no other Claim or Title may very well deserve to wear the Crown especially when it was with the free Consent of the Princess our most Gracious Queen and upon the desire of the Estates of the Realm and still necessary to save the Nation In the next place He justifieth his leaving England for the security of his Person being wholly in the Enemies power at first confined by them in his own Palace and afterwards rudely forced out of it under a Guard of Foreigners But if he have forgot it others have not that before this happened he had privately withdrawn his Person disbanded his Army dissolved his Government flung his Broad Seal into the Thames and had never had this pretence for his Escape had he not been stopped by a mistake for no body intended to stay him and all this while he was in Treaty with the Prince and that upon such equal Terms that he could be under no just apprehension of ill usage He excuses his going to France because it was the only part in Europe to which he could retire with safety which is a Confession that he alone was in the French Interest against all Europe besides and that he durst not trust his Cause with any other Princes in Christendom which argues either a great jealousie of his own Cause or of their Justice and Honour even to distressed Princes But I am sure France was the only place in Europe he ought to have avoided and if he had no other place to go to he ought to have ventured himself at home or to have gone to Rome which had been a kind of Second Home unless he intended to resign his Crown He knew what Opinion English Subjects had of His Most Christian Majesty
England which will be a great Favour indeed from him if he should return with a French Power But the Church of England is protected already by Princes who think it their Duty to do it And we think our selves much safer in the Inclinations of a Protestant King and Quen than we can be in all the Promises of a zealous Papist And therefore this can be no argument in our case because it offers us a worse security for our Protection than what we already have for it is always great odds on Nature's side And yet this Promise to the Church of England seems fainter and cooler than some he has formerly made which is all the reason we have to expect it will be better kept especially there being not the least Intimation of the Breach of his former Promises nor any excuse made for it And it is fit to be observed that whereas he promises that upon all Vacancies of Bishopricks and other Dignities and Benifites within our Disposal care shall be taken to have them filled with the most Worthy of their own Communion there is not one word said of Universities and Colledges though the Case of Magdalen Colledge is so very notorious and so fresh in every Man's Memory that there is hardly a Roman or Artificer in the Nation that has not a lively Remembrance of it Church of England men then shall at present have the Churches and Papists the Colledges to breed up a Roman Catholick Succession of honest Obediah's DECLARATION And whereas more Tumults and Rebellions have been rais'd in all Nations upon the Account of Religion then on all other pretences put together and more in England then in all the rest of the World besides That therefore Men of all Opinions in Matters of Religion may be reconciled to the Government that they may no longer look upon it as their Enemy but may therefore think themselves equally concern'd in the Preservation of it with the rest of their Fellow subjects because they are equally well treated by it and being convinc'd in our Iudgment that Liberty of Conscience is most agreeable to the Laws and the Spirit of the Christian Religion and most conducing to the Wealth and Prosperity of our Kingdoms by encouraging Men of all Countries and Perswasions to come and Trade with us and settle amongst us For these Reasons we are resolved most earnestly to recommend to Our Parliament the settling Liberty of Conscience in so Beneficial a manner that it may remain a lasting Blessing to this Kingdom OBSERVATIONS In this Paragraph for the Peace of the Nation and for the Advancement of Trade he promises earnestly to recommend to the Parliament the settling Liberty of Conscience But this is no Argument to the Dissenters to help forward another Revolution because they have it already in as full and ample a manner as it can be given them All that he can add to this is Liberty of Conscience for Papists and the Repeal of the Test which cost him so much Closetting to no purpose and now is promis'd as a Favour What Protestant Dissenters will think of it I leave them to consider But when he says We are convinc'd in our Iudgment that Liberty of Conscience is most agreeable to the Laws and to the Spirit of the Christian Religion me-thinks these two Kings treat one another with great Freedom For what handsomer Complement could have been made to the most Christian King then to intimate that his Persecution of his Protestant Subjects is not at all agreeable to the Laws or to the Spirit of the Christian Religion This is Plain-dealing if the French King can bear it But I suppose they are agreed that K. I. shall declare as is most fit for his purpose and the French King do what is most convenient for his own DECLARATION Lastly It shall be our great Care by the Advice and Assistance of our Parliament to repair the Breaches and heal the Wounds of the late Distractions to restore Trade by putting the Act of Navigation in effectual Execution which has been so much violated of late in favour of Strangers to put our Navy and Stores into as good a Condition as we left them to find the best ways of bringing back Wealth and Bullion to the Kingdom which of late has been so much exhausted and generally we shall delight to spend the Remainder of our Reign as we have always design'd since our coming to the Crown in studying to do every thing that may contribute to the Re-establishment of the Greatness of the English Monarchy upon its old and true Foundation the united Interest and Affection of the People OBSERVATIONS What these Breaches and Wounds of the late Distractions are he does not tell us and therefore we must suppose they are such as are here mentioned As for restoring Trade it has not been lost yet the Custom house does not complain of it which is commonly the first that feels it The Navy is in a much better Condition than he left it if we may guess at that by its late Exploits But if he be so well skilled in restoring Navies he ought both in Charity and Gratitude now to stay a little longer in France As for his bringing back Wealth and Bullion into the Nation I believe the Nation would have been better pleased if he would have promised to send none out And as for his Concluding promise in these words And generally we shall delight to spend the Remainder of our Reign as we have always design'd since our coming to the Crown in studying to do every thing that may contribute to the Re-establishment of the Greatness of the English Monarchy upon its old and true Foundations the united Interest and Affection of the People This is Plain-dealing and surest to be made good of any thing in the Declaration And if he does this now as he always designed to do it for he could not then do all that he designed to do here is a renewed Promise of popery and Arbitrary Power And those are unpardonable Infidels who will not take his word for it DECLARATION Thus having endeavored to answer all Objections and give all the Satisfaction we can think of to all Parties and Degrees of Men We cannot want our selves the Satisfaction of having done all that can be done on our part whatever the Event shall be the Disposal of which we commit with great Resignation and Dependance to that God who judges Right And on the other side if any of our Subjects after all this shall remain so obstinate as to appear in Arms against us as they must needs fall unpitied under the Severity of our Iustice after having refused such gracious offers of Mercy so they must be answerable to Almighty God for all the Blood that shall be spilt and all the Miseries and Confusions in which these Kingdoms may happen to be involved by their desperate and unreasonable Opposition Given at Our Court at St. Germains this present 20th of April 1692. in the Eighth Year of our Reign Per ipsum Regem manu propriâ