ancient Custom XXVII That all Gentlemen shall have the Freedom of the Salt Mines XXVIII The ancient Privileges of the Palatinates shall remain inviolable XXX All the Privileges which belong to the Universities of Cracow and other Cities as well Ecclesiastick as Secular as also all the Articles which were promis'd upon Oath at the Coronations of the Kings Henry Stephen Sigismond Vladistaus John Casimir and others shall be renew'd at this Election which if it be not done or any thing endeavour'd to the contrary of these Articles then the Inhabitants of Poland and Lithuania to be free and disingag'd from their Obedience This being over the new King advanced towards Poland and upon the Frontiers was harangued by the Embassy sent to him by the Republick or at least a Party of it And having himself Swore to the Pacta Conventa and given sufficient Testimony of his being reconciled to the Romish Church he deliver'd himself to the Nobility that attended him in the following manner MY Dear and Good Friends You have chosen Me to be Your King You are come to offer Me the Crown and You have brought Me hither I am come and have quitted my Territories and my Country for Love of You. 'T is not with a Design to be a Burthen to You but to bring abundance along with Me my Wealth my Forces and all that belongs to Me to augment as much as in Me lies the Glory and Honour of Your Nation by fighting against the Enemies of the Kingdom more-especially those of Christendom Be assur'd that my Heart shall be always constant and sincere towards my Faithful Subjects and that my Sword shall only be employ'd in the Defence of Your Liberty and the Authority with which You have invested Me. From Piccari the King continued his March towards Cracow And tho' all Circumstances consider'd he had by far the Advantage over his Adversary yet there were still innumerable Difficulties not only to struggle with in Poland but Saxony it self was also to be taken care of wherefore least the sudden Change of his Religion should occasion any Innovations there he caused the following Declaration to be affixed upon the Gates of Dresden FRederick Augustus by the Grace of God King of Poland c. Elector of Saxony c. We notifie and make known That having long since by Divine Inspiration resolv'd to return to the Bosom of the Roman Church wherein our Ancestors liv'd and whereas for that purpose without any Allurement of Interest or Profit but only having God before our Eyes we have embrac'd the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Religion and that in the mean while it has pleased his Divine Majesty to advance our Person to the Throne of Poland for which reason we find our selves oblig'd by Affairs of so great Importance to absent our selves for some time from our Dear Country the Electorate of Saxony and seeing that for these Reasons and because of our Change the States of our said Country and our Dear Subjects may believe that we have a Design to abolish their ancient Priviledges we have thought fit to declare That we have not any the least Thought to over-charge 'em in any manner whatsoever contrary to their aforesaid ancient Priviledges but rather graciously to maintain our said States and Subjects in all their Liberties assuring 'em that as we promis'd 'em when we enter'd into Possession of our Estates and were settl'd in the Government and now that we have embrac'd the Roman Religion that we will maintain and protect our Dear States and Subjects in their Ausburg Confession in their ancient Possession of Liberty of Conscience of Churches of Religious Worship of Religious Exercise of Universities of Schools and of all other Priviledges which they now enjoy that in pursuance of this we will not constrain any Person to embrace our present Catholick Religion but will leave every Body free in his own Conscience as we assure 'em upon our Royal and Electoral Word assuring our selves in the mean time that our Dear States and Subjects will continue their just Affection Love Esteem and Fidelity which they have hitherto testify'd to our Person as their Lawful Elector and Sovereign and that they will live in Peace in Repose and in Union during our Absence for a while so that the Blessing of God and all manner of Happiness may more and more increase to which purpose we will assist our People with all our Power and at all times give 'em Demonstrations of our Royal and Electoral Affection And to the end that our present Assurance and Promise may be known to all our States and Subjects of our Electorate and other Countries we ordain that being Printed it be affix'd in all Places of our Electorate and Country and that Copies of it be every where distributed and dispers'd And for the greater Confirmation of what is above written we have Sign'd this present Act and Promise with our Hand and Seal'd it with our Seal At Lobsow August 6. 1697. â— AVGVSTVS K. of Poland and E. of Saxony The Prince of Conti in the mean time being buoy'd up by the Primate and his Party September the 6th left France and on the 25th arrived before Danzick but while that City refused his Men the liberty of Landing and adher'd firmly to the Interest of the Elector this last was solemnly crowned King at Cracow September 15. This undoubtedly must be a great Mortification to the Prince of Conti However not to be totally discouraged and in assurance that the Lithuanian Army would not submit to the new crown'd King with an Intention farther still to embroil Matters he wrote the following Letter and his Party were very sedulous to disperse Copies of it FRancis Lewis de Bourbon Prince of Conti and by the Grace of God and the Affection of the Polish Nation Elect King of Poland and the Dutchy of Lithuania made no haste to come sooner in order to testifie his Acknowledgment that he might not do any Prejudice to the Customs of the Kingdom For the same Reason it is that he still remains on Board his Ship and that he has brought no Men along with him He does not apprehend that the Coronation of the Elector of Saxony can any way Prejudice his Right according to the Maxim That whatever is originally invalid can never be of any force in the Consequences that attend it Hence it comes to pass besides the Irregularities of His Electoral Highness's Coronation that there is an indispensible Necessity according to the Pacta Conventa that the Electress should embrace the Roman Catholick Religion before the Elector can be crown'd He puts all his Confidence in the Poles having a Design to avoid Effusion of Blood But in case of Necessity he Promises as many Forces as shall be necessary and continues still dispos'd to spend his Estate and to expose his own Person for the Polish Religion and Liberty But tho' this Stratagem had not the desired Effect the new King did not defer the
hath been and still is a damnable Hellish Plot contrived and carried on by Recusants for assassinating and murdering the King subverting the Government and rooting out and destroying the Protestant Religion I am not insensible what Artifices have been used to ridicule this Plot in all the Parts of it and particularly so far as it relates to the Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey But there are some Things so particular herein for evincing That that Gentleman fell a Martyr through Popish Cruelty and yet not commonly known that I shall take notice of them in this place There was one Prance a Papist by Religion and a Silversmith by Trade living near Covent-Garden and one that wrought for the Priests and others in Somerset-House who some time after the said Murder being observed to abscond from his House for several Days by his Neighbours some of them represented the same to some Parliament-Men with other circumstantial Suspicions they had of the said Prance and thereupon there was an Order got to seize him and he was referred to the Examination of Sir Richard Everard and Sir Charles Harboard Now before the Murder Le Pair Pritchard and some other Priests had treated with bedlow to be assisting in it which he at first assented to but after relented and did not come But the Monday after the Fact was committed which was Octob. 14. meeting with La Faire in Red-Lyon-Court he charged him with being worse than his Word but engaged him to meet him at 9 a Clock in Somerset-House where he was told by La Faire That though he was not assistant as he promised in killing Sir Edmund yet if he would be helpful to carry him off he should have 2000 l. Reward Hereupon Bedlow desiring to see the Body Le Faire shewed it him and then they advised together about the Disposal of it Bedlow being of Opinion it were best to sink it in the River with Weights which was not agreed to But in seeing the Body Bedlow saw Pranoe in the Company too yet did not know him before This being done Bedlow went to Bristol but finding himself much troubled in Conscience having twice taken the Sacrament to conceal the Business God put it into his Heart that some Murders being past and to prevent greater to come he was convinced it was his Duty to return to London to reveal what he knew which he did and went to the Lobby of the House of Lords in order to it In the mean time Sir Charles Harboard and Sir Richard Everard having examined Prance and the House being set left him to the Care of the Constable of Covent-Garden who brought him to the Lobby of the Lords House where Bedlow seeing him but never before save the foresaid Time in Somerset-House he charged the Guards to seize him for that reason saying He remembred him well he having when they viewed Sir Edmund ' s Body a black Perruke on but now none Hereupon search being made the Perruke was found And hence it was that Prance became an Evidence in this Discovery and on whose Evidence chiefly Green Berry and Hill were convicted and executed I shall not enter into any more Particulars of this Plot as being already sufficiently treated on by divers Authors and not falling directly under under the Course of our present Design but there is one Thing very remarkable attending it and such I think as can hardly be parallel'd in any other Story and that is that there should be so many and such clear Proofs to Murder the King's Person and yet that he should be solâ—ittle apprehensive of it But it may be as Tom. Killigrew was said to have told him He knew more of the Plot than any Body else and his Discovery of it would quickly have satisfied his People But whether it were my Lord Treasurer Danby's Business or the Popish Lords in the Tower or the Affairs of the Plot in general the King having on Monday the 30th of Dec. last Prorogued both Houses to the 4th of Feb. did on the 24th of Jan. Dissolve his once Darling Long-lived but now Expiring Parliament which had been continued by several Prorogations and Adjournments 17 Years 8 Months and 17 Days being first called on the 8th of May 1661. And issued out Writs to call another to Sit at Westminister on the 6th of March following but thought â—it on the 28th of Feb. in the Interim to direct a Letter to the Duke of York his Brother to command him to withdraw beyond Sea to this Effect I Have already given you my Resolves at large why I think it fit that you absent your self for some time beyond the Seas I am truly sorry for the Occasion so may you be sure I shall never desire it longer than it shall be absolutely necessary for your Good and my Service In the mean time I think it proper to give it you under my Hand that I expect this Compliance from you and desire it may be as soon as conveniently you can You may easily perceive with what Trouble I write this to you there being nothing I am more sensible of than the constant Kindness you have ever had for me I hope you are as just to me to be assured that no Absence nor any Thing else can ever change me from being truly and kindly Yours C. R. The Duke with his Dutchess and Family in pursuance to this Command within a few Days withdrew accordingly and for a while retired to the Hague and from thence to Brussels while the King in the mean time that he might let the World see how he was otherways as well as therein become a new Man for the future did upon the 20th of Apr. make a Declaration to this Purpose in Council and in his new Parliament and afterward Published it to the whole Nation How sensible he was of the ill Posture of his Affairs and the great Dissatisfactions and Jealousies of his good Subjects whereby the Crown and Government were become too weak to preserve it self which proceeded from his use of a single Ministry and of private Advices and therefore professed his Resolution to lay them aside for the future and to be advised by those whom he had chosen for his Council in all his weighty and important Affairs together with the frequent Advice of his great Council in Parliament The Members that composed which Council because of the great Worth of most of them we shall give the Reader a List of His Highness Prince Rupert William Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Henry Lord Finch Lord-Chancellor of England Anthony Earl of Shaftsbury Lord President of the Council Arthur Earl of Anglesey Lord Privy-Seal Christopher Duke of Albemarle James Duke of Monmouth Master of the Horse Henry Duke of Newcastle John Duke of Lauderdale Secretary of State for Scotland James Earl of Salisbury John Earl of Bridgwater Robert Earl of Sunderland one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State Arthur Earl of Essex First Lord-Commissioner of
Particulars of it And for Tangier there had been several Attacks made upon it this Year and for some time past and was chargeable enough to the King But of this we shall have Occasion to say something hereafter And as for the King's Sincerity in recommending to them the Prosecution of the Plot That Man that considers the Transactions between the Prorogation of the last Parliament and the Sitting of this with the Methods that were used to stifle the real Plot and to father a Sham one upon innocent Men and yet believes the King to be in Earnest has a large Faith and much Good may do him with it Then for his professing his Readiness to concur with any new Remedies that should be proposed that were consistent with preserving the Succession of the Crown in its due and legal Course of Descent it implied no more than Let the Wolf be Shepherd and let the Sheep make what Laws they please for their Preservation For it was well known the Duke was a Papist whose Maxims are to keep no Faith with Hereticks However the House of Commons entred into Debates about this Matter and there were many Expedients proposed how the Established Government in Church and State could be preserved yet none could be found practicable in case the Duke succeeded So that the Country Party moved that the Court Party should propound their Expedients in the Case but they either could not or else had no Instructions from the Court to warrant such Expedients as might be proposed by them Matters being thus at a stand in respect to the Securing the Protestant Religion the House of Commons at last could think of no other Way to effect it than by bringing in a Bill for the total Exclusion of the Duke of York from the Crown which after several Debates upon it they passed on the 11th of Nov. And of which that you may the better comprehend the Meaning I have here subjoined a Copy WHereas James Duke of York is notoriously known to have been perverted from the Protestant to the Popish Religion whereby not only great Encouragement hath been given to the Popish Party to enter into and carry on most Devilish and Horrid Plots and Conspiracies for the Destruction of his Majesty's Sacred Person and Government and and for the Extirpation of the true Protestant Religion But also if the said Duke should succeed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm nothing is more manifest than that the total Change of Religion within these Kingdoms would ensue For the Preservation thereof be it Enacted by the King 's most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That the said James Duke of York shall be and is by the Authority of this present Parliament Excluded and made for ever uncapable to Inherit Possess or Enjoy the Imperial Crown of this Realm and of the Kingdoms of Ireland and the Dominions and Territories of them or either of them belonging or to Have Exercise or Enjoy any Dominion Power Jurisdiction or Authority in the said Kingdoms Dominions or any of them And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if the said James Duke of York shall at any time hereafter Challenge Claim or Attempt to Possess or Enjoy or shall take upon him to Use or Exercise any Dominion or Power or Authority or Jurisdiction within the said Kingdoms or Dominions or any of them as King or Chief Magistrate of the same that then he the said James Duke of York for every such Offence shall be deemed and adjudged Guilty of High-Treason and shall suffer the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures as in Case of High-Treason And further That if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall assist or maintain abet or willingly adhere unto the said James Duke of York in such Challenge Claim or Attempt or shall of themselves attempt or endeavour to put or bring the said James Duke of York into the Possession or Exercise of any Legal Power Jurisdiction or Authority within the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid or shall by Writing or Preaching advisedly Publish Maintain or Declare that he hath any Right Title or Authority to the Office of King or Chief Magistrate of the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid that then every such Person shall be Deemed and Adjudged Guilty of High-Treason and that he suffer and undergo the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures aforesaid And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the said James Duke of York shall not at any time from and after the 5th of Nov. 1680 return or come into or within any of the Kingdoms or Dominions aforesaid and then he the said James Duke of York shall be Deemed and Adjudged Guilty of High-Treason and shall suffer the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures as in Case of High-Treason And further That if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall be aiding or assisting unto such Return of the said James Duke of York that then every such Person shall be Deemed and Adjudged Guilty of High-Treason and shall suffer as in Cases of High-Treason And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the said James Duke of York or any other Person being Guilty of any of the Treasons aforesaid shall not be capable of or receive Benefit by any Pardon otherwise than by Act of Parliament wherein they shall be particularly named And that no Noli prosequi or Order to stay Proceedings shall be received or allowed in or upon any Indictment for any of the Offences mentioned in this Act. And be it further Enacted and Declared and it is hereby Enacted and Declared That it shall and may be lawful to and for any Magistrates Officers and other Subjects whatsoever of these Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid And they are hereby enjoined and required to Apprehend and Secure the said James Duke of York and any other Person offending in any of the Premisses and with him or them in case of Resistance to fight and him or them by force to subdue For all which actings and for so doing they are and shall be by Virtue of this Act saved harmless and indemnified Provided and it is hereby declared That nothing in this Act contained shall be construed deemed or adjudged to disenable any other Person from Inheriting and Enjoying the Imperial Crown of the Realms and Dominions aforesaid other than the said James Duke of York but that in Case the said James Duke of York should survive his now Majesty and the Heirs of his Majesty's Body the said Imperial Crown shall descend to and be enjoyed by such Person or Persons successorily during the Life of the said James Duke of York as should have Inherited and Enjoyed the same in case the said James Duke of York were naturally dead any Thing contained in this Act to the Contrary notwithstanding And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That
Graham's Business to find out good Jury-Men and then the Sheriffs would be sure to return them In these Plots my Lord H seemed to have the greatest hand But more particularly Rumsey was the Evidence in respect to that of the Seizing the Guards Lee and Goodenough in that of Black-Heath Rumball at whose House they said the Rye-Plot was to be acted denied at his Death he ever knew any But the great design was against the Earl of Essex the Lord Russel and such great Patriots who had shewed themselves zealous Protestants upon all Occasions and constant Opposers of the designs of Popery and Arbitrary Power As for the first of these two Noble Persons he never absconded but was presently confined Prisoner in the Tower where in a few Days after it was given out he had cut his own Throat and to satisfie the Nation of the Truth of the Report and Sincerity of the Government therein the Business was so ordered year 1683 that before the Jury was Impannelled and the Coroner's Inquest sate the Earl's Body was taken out of the Closet where it was pretended he had laid violent Hands upon himself and stripp'd off his Cloathes which were carried away add the Closet washed And when one of the Jury insisted to see my Lord's Cloaths in which he died the Coroner was sent for into another Room and upon his Return he told the Jury it was the Body and not the Clothes they were to lit upon And a Motion being made that the Jury should adjourn and give my Lord's Relations notice that if they had any thing to say in my Lord's Behalf they should do it within such a time it was answered That the King had sent for the Inquisition and would not rise from the Counâ—il-Board till it was brought But whether it proved to His Majesty's Satisfaction I will not take upon me to determine though it was reported he seem'd much concern'd at the Misfortune saying My Lord of Essex needed not to have despaired of Mercy since he owed him a Life Be it as it will his being that Day in Person accompanied with his good Brother in the Tower where neither of them had been for near 15 Years before set People's Tongues loose to Censure and so much the more when it was known that particular care was taken to give immediate Notice to the Court at the Old-Baily of the Earl's Disaster that in the worst Sence Use might be made of it by the King's Council against my Lord Russel then upon his Trial as the Council did accordingly and which had the design'd Effect upon that Noble Person who some days after suffered innocently in Lincolns-Inn-Fields after he had made a Speech and left a Paper in the Sheriff's Hands to declare the same to the World both which lest forgot by any true English-man and particularly the last I have thought fit to subjoin because it carries in it in my Opinion a perfect Confutation of that Sham-Conspiracy and gives a true Idea of whatever Meeting he had been at with other Men of Quality to discourse of the Affairs or their Countrey and how if possible in a just Way to prevent it Ruin both in Religion and Liberty JULY 12th 1683. Mr. Sheriff I Expected the Noise would be such that I could not be very well heard I was never fond of very much speaking much less now therefore I set down in this Paper all that I think sit to leave behind me God knows how far I was always from Designs against the King's Person or of altering the Government and I still Pray for the Preservation of both and of the Protestant Religion I am told that Captain Walcot has said something concerning my Knowledge of the Plot I know not whether the Report be true or not but I hope it is not for to my Knowledge I never saw him to speak with him in my whole Life And in the Words of a Dying Man I profess I know of no Plot either against the King's Life or the Government But I have now done with this World and am going to a better I forgive all the World and I thank God I die in Charity with all Men. And I wish all sincere Protestants may love one another and not make room for Popery by their Animosities The PAPER delivered to the Sheriffs I Thank God I find my self so composed and prepared for Death and my Thoughts so fixed on another World that I hope in God I am quite from setting my Heart on this Yet I cannot forbear now the setting down in Writing a farther Account of my Condition to be left behind me than I will venture to say at the Place of Execution in the Noise and Clutter that is like to be there I bless God heartily for those many Blessings which he in his Infinite Mercy has bestowed upon me through the whole Course of my Life That I was born of worthy good Parents and had the Advantages of a Religious Education which are invaluable Blessings For even when I minded it least it still hung about me and gave me Checks and has now for many Years so influenced and possessed me that I feel the happy Effects of it in this my Extremity in which I have been so wonderfully I thank God supported that neither my Imprisonment nor fear of Death have been able to discompose me in any Degree but on the contrary I have found the Assurances of the Love and Mercy of God in and through my Blessed Redeemer in whom only I trust And I do not question but that I am going to partake of that Fullness of Joy which is in his Presence The Hopes therefore do so wonderfully delight me that I think this is the happiest Time of my Life though others may look upon it as the saddest I have lived and now am of the Reform'd Religion a true and sincere Protestant and in the Communion of the Church of England though I could never yet comply with or rise up to all the Heighths of many People I wish with all my Soul all our differences were removed and that all sincere Protestants would so far consider the danger of Popery as to lay aside their Heats and agree against the Common Enemy and that the Church-men would be less severe and the Dissenters less scrupulous for I think bitterness and Persecution are at all times bad but much more now For Popery I look on it as an Idolatrous and bloody Religion and therefore thought my self bound in my Station to do all I could against it And by that I foresaw I should procure such great Enemies to my self and so powerful ones that I have been now for some time expecting the worst and blessed be God I fall by the Ax and not by the Fiery Tryal Yet whatever Apprehensions I had of Popery and of my own severe and heavy share I was like to have under it when it should prevail I never had a Thought of doing any thing
intimate my Mind otherwise I do hereby require all my Vassals any where and all within my several Jurisdictions with their fensible Men within their Command to go to Arms and to join and concur with us according to the said Declaration as they shall be answerable at their Peril and that they obey the particular Orders they shall receive from me from time to time I need not tell the World the Fate of this brave Man it was generally believed at that time that Sir John Cockram who came over with him betrayed him as some Body else was thought to have done by the Duke of Monmouth but however that Matter was in Reality Thus it happened with the Earl that after several Marches and Countermarches his Men were at length lead into a Boggy sort of a Place on Pretence or with Intention to bring him off from the King's Army then upon the Heels of them where they all lost one another dispersed and shifted for themselves The Earl himself being taken by a Country Man and brought to Edenburgh he there suffered for his former unpardonable Crime in requiring Care should be taken for the Protestant Religion and the Explaining the Test conformable thereunto for the Legality of which he had the Hands of most of the Eminent Lawyers about the City He made a very pious End being beheaded at Edenburgh June 30. But this Business of Argyle was but like Thunder afar off to what happened soon after in the West of England K. James was so apprehensive not only before but even after his Ascension to the Throne of the Duke of Monmouth's Designs against him that he used his utmost Endeavours by his Envoy Mr. Skelton in Holland to get him secured and sent into England which Design could not yet he carried so covertly but that the Prince of Orange came to the Knowledge of it who having more Honour and Goodness in him than to suffer an innocent forelorn Man to fall into the Hands of those who had been the Occasion of his Exile and Misery did not only give the Duke Notice of the Plot against him but gave him Money to go privately to Brussels with a farther Assurance that if he would go to the Campaign in Hungary he would maintain him at his own Charge with an Equipage suitable to his Quality But his Fate led him to return again privately from thence into Holland where having concerted his Measures with such Refugiated English as he found there they embarked on 3 small Vessels and about June 12 lan ded at Lyme in Dorsetshire where the Duke in his own and the rest of his Followers Names put out his Declaration which because the State at that time were so far from thinking fit to publish as they were Argyle's that they made it Criminal to read it and used all their Endeavours to smother it we shall here give you Word for Word The DECLARATION of James Duke of Monmouth and the Noblemen Gentlemen and others now in Arms for the Defence and Vindication of the Protestant Religion and the Laws Rights and Priviledges of ENGLAND AS Government was originally instituted by God and this or that Form of it chosen and submitted to by Men for the Peace Happiness and Security of the Governed and not for the private Interest and personal Greatness of those that rule So that Government hath always been esteemed the best where the Supream Magistrates have been invested with all the Power and Prerogatives that might capacitate them not only to preserve the People from Violence and Oppression but to promote their Prosperity and yet where nothing was to belong to them by the Rules of the Constitution that might enable them to injure and oppress them And it hath been the Glory of England above most other Nations that the Prince had all intrusted with him that was necessary either for the advancing the Welfare of the People or for his own Protection in the Discharge of his Office and withal stood so limited and restrained by the Fundamental Terms of the Constitution that without a Violation of his own Oath as well as the Rules and Measures of the Government he could do them no hurt or exercise any Act of Authority but through the Administration of such Hands as stood obnoxious to be punished in case they transgressed So that according to the primitive Frame of the Government the Prerogatives of the Crown and the Privileges of the Subject are so far from justling one another that the Rights reserved unto the People tended to render the King Honourable and Great and the Prerogatives settled on the Prince were in order to the Subjects Protection and Safety But all Humane Things being subject to Perversion as well as Decay it hath been the Fate of the English Government to be often changed and wrested from what it was in the first Settlement and Institution And we are particularly compelled to say that all the Boundaries of the Government have of late been broken and nothing left unattempted for turning our limited Monarchy into an absolute Tyranny For such hath been the Transaction of Affairs within this Nation for several Years last past that though the Protestant Religion and Liberties of the People were fenced and hedged about by as many Laws as the Wisdom of Man could devise for their Preservation against Popery and Arbitrary Power our Religion hath been all along countermined by Popish Counsels and our Privileges ravished from us by Fraud and Violence And more especially the whole Course and Series of the Life of the D. of Y. hath been but one continued Conspiracy against the Reformed Religion and the Rights of the Nation For whoever considers his contriving the burning of London his instigating a Confederacy with France and a War with Holland his fomenting the Popish Plot and encouraging the Murther of Sir Ed. Godfrey to stifle it his charging Treason against Protestants suborning Witnesses to swear the Patriots of our Religion and Liberties out of their Lives his hiring execrable Villains to assassinate the late Earl of Essex and causing those others to be clandestinely cut off in hopes to conceal it his advising and procuring the Prorogation and Dissolution of Parliaments in order to prevent their looking into his Crimes and that he might escape the Justice of the Nation Such can imagine nothing so black and horrid in it self or so ruinous and destructive to Religion and the Kingdom which we may not expect from him The very Tyrannies which he hath exercised since he snatched the Crown from his Brother's Head do leave none under a Possibility of flattering themselves with Hopes of Safety eithor in their Consciencies Persons or Estates For in defiance of all the Laws and Statutes of the Realm made for the Security of the Reformed Protestant Religion he not only began his Reign with a bare-faced A vowing himself of the Romish Religion but call'd in Multitudes of Priests and Jesâ—its for whom the
blasted by both Houses of Parliament if there had been any need of it for it was very well known before that a Papist cannot have a Commission but by the Law is utterly disabled and disarmed Will you exchange your Birth-right of English Laws and Liberty for Martial or Club-Law and help to destroy one another only to be eaten last your selves If I know you well as ye are English Men you hate and scorn these Things and therefore be not unequally yoaked with Idolatrous and Bloody Papists Be valiant for the Truth and shew your selves Men. The same Considerations are likewise humbly offered to all the English Sea-men who have been the Bulwark of this Nation against Popery and Slavery ever since 1588. This Address is so plain as to need no Remark upon it and therefore I shall only tell you before I pass to Foreign Affairs that Colonel Talbot formerly mentioned was doing what he would all this time in Ireland while the King himself had settled Affairs so in Scotland when he was High Commissioner and now Argyle was cut off that he did not question but to carry on his Designs more bare-faced there than he had done in England And therefore tho' he did not call a Parliament in that Kingdom till April this Year yet in his Letter to them he took no notice at all of the Protestant Dissenters but recommended to them his innocent Roman Catholick Subjects who had with their Lives and Fortunes been always assistant to the Crown in the worst Rebellions and Usurpations though they lay under Discouragements hardly to be named These he heartily recommended to their Care to the End that as they had given good Experience of their true Loyalty and peaceable Behaviour so by their Assistance they might have the Protection of his Laws and that Security under his Government which others of his Subjects had not suffering them to lie under Obligations which their Religion could not admit of by doing whereof they would give a Demonstration of the Duty and Affection they had to him and do him most acceptable Service And this Love he expected they would shew to their Brethren as they saw he was an indulgent Father to them all This was very kind indeed on the King's part to those of his own Religion and in this kind Mood we will leave him at present and prosecute a little the mighty Affairs of the Campaigns abroad where their Armies were doing much better Feats than ours in England whose greatest Talent was Cursing and Swearing and Riding the Country as themselves pleased I shall make no Recapitulation in this Place of the Progress of the last Campaign in Hungary nor of the Siege of Buda with the ill Success of it the preceding Year viz. 1684 but come to tell you That the Duke of Lorain having joined the Imperial Army in June marched now again towards Buda and by the 21st in the Morning the Imperialists began their Approaches at about 500 Yards distance from the Walls of the Lower Buda making use upon this Occasion of their old Trenches and continued their Works all that Day and the following Night tho' with considerable Difficulty from the Badness of the Earth and the Enemies firing out of the Town from whence a Pole taken at the Siege of Vienna made his Escape with the Basha's Horse 2 Scymiters and his Commanding-Staff who reported to the General That their coming before Buda was very surprizing that the Garrison was not near so strong as when it was besieged before and that the Turks had Intelligence that the Christians had formed a Design upon Alba Regalis and Erla which was true in Fact for it was not concluded to attempt Buda till the 20th of June at a general Council of War hold at Comorra And 2 Days after the Pole came a Janizary out of the Town also and surrender'd himself upon a Dream he had had the Night before that the Christians would become Masters of the Place and put all the Sword as they had done last Year at Neuheusel and that if he fled to the Christians he might find Merty Adding withal that the Garrison was not above 6000 strong This Intelligence made the Germans re-double their Diligence so that the same Day with a Battery of 6 Pieces of Cannon which they had raised they made a Breach in the Wall of the Lower Town which was 5 Foot thick of about 15 Paces which made the Turks fear an Assault that very Night and they prepared for it accordingly but it was deferred till the Day following when after the Basha's Women and about 10000 Pounds in Money had been taken as going by Water from the Town to Belgrade there were a Party of Granadeers commanded to discover whether the Breach were accessible or not which upon their Report of its being so was stormed at Night with such Confusion that if the Turks had kept their Posts they might have cut off all the Assailants But they were so far from that that they not only retired into the Upper Town and by their Proceedings did not think themselves secure there neither for they made a Fire against the New Port that they might see if the Germans attempted any thing by Petard This the Germans did not do but only contented themselves to make a Lodgment upon the Breach From the 25th to the 29th the Besiegers were busie in raising more Batteries and making a Line of Communication between the Lodgment and the Angle of the Wall looking into St. Paul's Valley which they finished and placed 4 Mortars there notwithstanding the Turks in 2 several brisk Sallies endeavoured to hinder them and in their continual firing from the Town all manner of destructive Instruments upon them yet this did not hinder the Besiegers by the 1st of July to raise a Battery to fire upon the Angle of the Round Tower which looks towards St. Paul's Valley and to carry on their Trenches by the Help of that and another Battery so as to take in a Turkish Mosque from whence they returned with an Angle and Parallel Line with Buda till they came to the Right-hand Way leading to the North Part at which the 3 Lines met by the Favour of a Wall and a deep Road under which the Besiegers were covered who now mounted 4 Mortars more with which they continually played upon the Town Their Cannon also by this time had made a considerable Breach which by their advancing another Line from the Place where the 3 Lines met so as to flank the outermost of them and join the Wall of the old Town looking into St. Paul's Valley where they made a Place of Arms capable to hold about 300 Men they now by the 4th were got within 50 Paces of it where they covered themselves from the Enemies Fire The Brandenburghers the same Day arriving in the Camp they took up their Quarters to the Left of the Germans and advanced 2 Parallel Lines to communicate with the others
King's Foragers which greatly perplexed him So that understanding at last that the main Body of the Tartars commanded by Sultan Nuradin was come near his Camp yet without being able precisely to learn the Place where they were he caused it to be published among the Moldavians That whoever brought him certain Intelligence of them should have the Reward of 200 Crowns Whereupon one that was well acquainted with the Country went into the Enemies Camp and having observed it returned and gave the King an Account that they lay within a Mile of his Army and that a Party of 4000 Tartars was advanced at some distance from the rest The King being thus informed of the Posture the Enemy were in detached the Court-Marshal and the Court-Treasurer about Midnight to attack those advanced Troops and followed himself with the whole Army This Detachment with the Help of the Moldavian who was their Guide came upon the Enemy before they had time to retire to their main Body and after a sharp Dispute entirely routed them taking about 300 Prisoners among whom were several Murza's and other Persons of considerable Note among the Tartars While this was doing the King also advanced and attacked the Serasquier and Sultan who not knowing of the Defeat of their advanced Troops expected they would have fallen upon the Poles in their Rear and Flank and with this Encouragement they put themselves into a Posture to oppose him However they were deceived and after a short fight were routed and forced to flee leaving a great many Slain and Prisoners behind them but not without Loss also on the Poles side there being several Officers and Persons of Quality and particularly the Palatine Podolskie among the Number of the Slain But while these Things were doing by the Polish Army abroad the Country nearer Home was cruelly ravaged by the Garrison of Caminiec who made frequent Incursions into the Polish Territories Which together with the King 's marching homeward after this last Action and demolishing the fore-mentioned Forts in his Return which he had raised as he went onwards made this Expedition to be little thought of and as little Advantage to redound to the Poles from it as they hitherto had reaped by their Alliance with the Moscovites who made a mighty Smoak this Campaign but very little Fire of whom we shall have more Occasion to talk hereafter year 1687 Now we are come to another Year and the Affairs of England fall of Course under our Consideration And as we left off with taking Notice of the King's Kindness to his Roman Catholick Subjects in a more particular Manner in the Letter he wrote to the Parliament of Scotland we are now to tell you of a more general Act of his and that was upon the 12th of February to issue out his Proclamation for a Toleration of Religion unto all Wherein by the by you are to observe that he exerted his Absolute Power which he said his Subjects ought to obey without Reserve But the Toleration he allowed his Roman Catholick Subjects in Scotland he would scarce allow to his Protestant Subjects in Ireland for Tyrconnel so did Talbot merit for reforming the Army was not only made an Earl but Lord-Lieutenant in Ireland to boot in the room of my Lord Clarendon and one Fitton an infamous Person detected for Forgery not only at Westminster but Chester too was brought out of the King 's Bench Prison in England to be Chancellor and Keeper of the King's Conscience in Ireland Sir Charles Porter being turned out to make way for him Now Talbot being thus advanced in Honour and Office began to exert his Authority and his first Proclamation towards the End of Feb. imported a Promise to defend the Laws Liberty and Established Religion but fairly left out the Preservation of the Act of Settlement and Explanation However though at first he only left them out being resolved to out the Protestants first and to let the Irish into their Forfeited Estates yet he did not stop there We told you last Year what Efforts were made to propagate the King's Power in Westminster-Hall and what Instructions the Judges had in their Circuits to dispense with the Penal Laws and Tests against Dissenters from the Church and now these Things being brought pretty well to bear upon the 25th of April out came the King's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience which was conceived in the following Terms His MAJEETY's Gracious DECLARATION to all His Loving Subjects for LIBERTY of CONSCIENCE JAMES R. IT having pleased Almighty God not only to bring Us to the Imperial Crown of these Kingdoms through the greatest Difficulties but to preserve Us by a more than ordinary Providence upon the Throne of Our Royal Ancestors there is nothing now that We so earnestly desire as to Establish our Government on such a Foundation as may make Our Subjects happy and unite them to Us by Inclination as well as Duty which We think can be done by no Means so effectually as by granting to them the free Exercise of their Religion for the Time to come and add that to the perfect Enjoyment of their Property which has never been in any Case invaded by Us since Our coming to the Crown Which being the Two Things Men value most shall ever be preserved in these Kingdoms during our Reign over them as the truest Methods of their Peace and Our Glory We cannot but heartily wish as it will easily be believed that all People of Our Dominions were Members of the Catholick Church yet We humbly thank Almighty God it is and hath of long time been Our constant Sense and Opinion which upon divers Occasions We have declared that Conscience ought not to be constrained nor People forced in Matters of meer Religion It has ever been directly contrary to Our Inclination as We think it is to the Interest of Government which it destroys by spoiling Trade depopulating Countries and discouraging Strangers and finally that it never obtained the End for which it was employed And in this We are the more Confirmed by the Reflections We have made upon the Conduct of the Four last Reigns For after all the frequent and pressing Endeavours that were used in each of them to reduce this Kingdom to an exact Conformity in Religion it is visible the Success has not answered the Design and that the Difficulty is invincible We therefore out of Our Princely Care and Affection unto all Our Loving Subjects that they may live at Ease and Quiet and for the Increase of Trade and Incouragement of Strangers have thought fit by Virtue of Our Royal Prerogative to issue forth this Our Declaration of Indulgence making no doubt of the Concurrence of Our Two Houses of Parliament when we shall think it convenient for them to meet In the first Place We do declare That We will Protect and Maintain Our Archâ—bishops Bishops and Clergy and all other Our Subjects of the Church of England in the free
steering a Channel Course Westward the Wind at E. N. E. a fresh Gale and on the 5th passing by Dartmouth it being hazy Weather they overshot Torbay where the Prince designed to Land But about 9 a Clock the Weather cleared up and the Wind changed to W. S. W. and the Fleet stood Eastward with a moderate Gale being about 4 or 500 Sail whereof there was 51 Men of War and 18 Fireships This Change of Wind was observed by Dr. Burnet to be of no long Duration but it immediately choped into another Corner when it had executed its Commission While the Prince was landing his Army and advanced to Exeter the King was vainly endeavouring to sooth the People by redressing the Disorders committed by the Soldiers and Promises of a Parliament which several of the Bishops and Nobility petitioned might be a Free Regular one in all its Circumstances wherewith His Majesty to discover his good Disposition did not appear by his Answer to be well-pleased And all Endeavours were used to make the Prince and his Army contemptible in the sight of the People by Printing a List of them and giving out That none of the Nobility and Gentry but only a few Rabble appeared for him and that the Prince's Declaration might be kept close from the Knowledge of the People yet it did not continue so long with the Prince whose Army was considerably augmented by the Junction of divers Persons of good Quality with him Neither could the Court any longer keep the Declaration suppress'd and therefore they suffered the same to be Printed with a Preface and some modest Remarks as the Author pretends on it VVhich Declaration was this that follows The Declaration of His Highness WILLIAM HENRY by the Grace of God Prince of Orange c. of the Reasons inducing him to appear in Arms in the Kingdom of ENGLAND for preserving of the Protestant Religion and for Restoring of the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland I. IT is both certain and evident to all Men That the Publick Peace and Happiness of any State or Kingdom cannot be preserved where the Laws Liberties and Customs Established by the Lawful Authority in it are openly transgressed and annulled More especially where the Alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced Upon which those who are most immediately concerned in it are indispensably bound to endeavour to maintain and preserve the Established Laws Liberties and Customs and above all the Religion and Worship of God that is Established among them and to take such an Effectual Care that the Inhabitants of the said State or Kingdom may neither be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civil Rights which is so much the more necessary because the Greatness and Security both of Kings Royal Families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the Happiness of their Subjects and People depend in a most especial manner upon the exact Observation and Maintenance of these their Laws Liberties and Customs II. Upon these Grounds it is that we can't any longer forbear to declare That to our great Regret we see that those Counsellors who have now the chief Credit with the King have overturned the Religion Laws and Liberties of these Realms and subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liberties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and indirect VVays but in an open and undisguised Manner III. These Evil Counsellors for the Advancing and Colouring this with some plausible Pretexts did invent and set on Foot the King 's Dispensing Power by Virtue of which they pretend that according to Law he can suspend and dispense with the Execution of the Laws that have been enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament for the Security and Happiness of the Subject and so have rendred those laws of no effect though there is nothing more certain than that as no Laws can be made but by the joynt Concurrence of the King and Parliament so likewise Laws so Enacted which secure the Publick Peace and Safety of the Nation and the Lives and Liberties of every Subject in it cannot be repealed or suspended but by the same Authority IV. For though the King may pardon the Punishment that a Transgressor has incurred and for which he is condemned as in the Cases of Treason or Felony yet it cannot be with any colour of Reason inferred from thence that the King can entirely suspend the Execution of those Laws relating to Treason or Felony unless it is pretended that he is cloathed with a Despotick and Arbitrary Power and that the Lives Liberties Honours and Estates of the Subjects depend wholly on his Good Will and Pleasure and are entirely subject to him which must infallibly follow on the King 's having a Power to suspend the Execution of the Laws and to dispense with them V. Those Evil Counsellors in order to the giving some Credit to this strange and execrable Maxim have so conducted the Matter that they have obtained a Sentence from the Judges declaring That this Dispensing Power is a Right belonging to the Crown as if it were in the Power of the Twelve Judges to offer up the Laws Rights and Liberties of the whole Nation to the King to de disposed of by him Arbitrarily and at his Pleasure and expresly contrary to Laws Enacted for the Security of the Subjects In order to the obtaining of this Judgment those Evil Counsellors did before-hand examine secretly the Opinion of the Judges and procured such of them as could not in Conscience concur in so pernicious a Sentence to be turned out and others to be substituted in their Rooms till by the Changes that were made in the Courts of Judicature they at last obtained that Judgment And they have raised some to those Trusts who make open Profession of the Popish Religion tho' those are by Law render'd incapable of all such Employments VI. It is also manifest and notorious that as His Majesty was upon his coming to the Crown received and acknowledged by all the Subjects of England Scotland and Ireland as their King without the least Opposition tho' he made then open Profession of the Popish Religion so he did then promise and solemnly swear at his Coronation That he would maintain His Subjects in the free Enjoyment of their Laws and Liberties And in particular That he would maintain the Church of England as it was Established by Law It is likewise certain that there have been at divers and sundry times several Laws Enacted for the Preservation of those Rights and Liberties and of the Protestant Religion And among other Securities it has been Enacted That all Persons whatsoever that are advanced to any Ecclesiastical Dignity or to bear Office in the University as likewise all others that should be put into any Employment Civil or Military should declare that they were not Papists but were
again to their Ancient Prescriptions and Charters And more particularly that the Ancient Charter of the Great and Famous City of London shall again be in Force And that the Writs for the Members of Parliament shall be Addressed to the proper Officers according to Law and Custom That also none be suffered to chuse or to be chosen Members of Parliament but such as are qualified by Law And that the Members of Parliament being thus chosen they shall meet and sit in full Freedom that so the Two Houses may concur in the preparing such Laws as they upon full and free Debate shall judge necessary and convenient both for the Confirming and Executing the Law concerning the Test and such others Laws as are necessary for the Security and Maintenance of the Protestant Religion as likewise for making such Laws as may Establish a good Agreement between the Church of England and all Protestant Dissenters as also for the Covering and Securing of all such who live peaceably under the Government as becomes good Subjects from all Persecution upon the Account of their Religion even Papists themselves not excepted and for the doing of all other things which the Two Houses of Parliament shall find necessary for the Peace Honour and Safety of the Nation so that there may be no more Danger of the Nation 's falling at any time hereafter under Arbitrary Government To this Parliament we will refer the Enquiry into the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales and of all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession XXII And We for our part will concur in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happiness of the Nation which a Free and Lawful Parliament shal determine since we have nothing before our Eyes in this our Undertaking but the Preservation of the Protestant Religion the Covering of all Men from Persecution for their Consciences and the Securing the whole Nation the Free Enjoyment of all their Laws Rights and Liberties under a just and legal Government XXIII This is the Design that We have proposed to our selves in appearing upon this Occasion in Arms in the Conduct of which we will keep the Forces under our Command under all the Strictness of Martial Discipline and take special Care That the People of the Countries through which we must march shal not suffer by their Means and as soon as the State of the Nation will admit of it we promise That we will send back all those Foreign Forces that we have brought along with us XXIV We do therefore hope That all People will judge rightly of us and approve of these our Proceedings But we chiefly rely on the Blessing of God for the Success of this our Undertaking in which we place our whole and only Confidence XXV We do in the last place invite and require all Persons whatsoever all the â—eers of the Realm both Spiritual and Temporal all Lords-Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants and all Gentlemen Citizens and other Commons of all Ranks to come and assist Us in order to the Executing of this our Design against all such as shall endeavour to oppose us that so we may prevent all those Miseries which must needs follow upon the Nations being kept under Arbitrary Government and Slavery And that all the Violences and Disorders which have overturned the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a Free and Legal Parliament XXVI And we do likewise resolve That as soon as the Nation is brought to a state of Quiet we will take care that a Parliament shall be called in Scotland for Restoring the Ancient Constitution of that Kingdom and for bringing the Matters of Religion to such a Settlement that the People may live easie and happy and for putting an end to all the unjust Violences that have been in a Course of so many Years committed there We will also study to bring the Kingdom of Ireland to such a State that the Settlement there may be Religiously observed and that the Protestant and British Interest there may be secured And we will endeavour by all possible means to procure such an Establishment in all the Three Kingdoms that they may all live in a happy Union and Correspondence together and that the Protestant Religion and the Peace Honour and Happiness of those NATIONS may be Established upon Lasting Foundations Given under Our Hand and Seal at Our Court in the Hague the 10th Day of October in the Year of Our Lord 1688. WILLIAM HENRY Prince of Orange By His Highness's Special Command C. HUYGENS. To this Declaration the Prince upon further Information of things thought fit to add another to this purpose AFter we had Prepared and Printed this Our Declaration we have understood that the Subverters of the Religion and Laws of these Kingdoms hearing of our Preparations to assist the People against them have began to retract some of the Arbitrary and Despotick Power that they had assumed and to vacate some of their unjust Judgments and Decrees The Sense of their Guilt and the Distrust of their Force have induced them to offer to the City of London some seeming Relief from their great Oppressions hoping thereby to quiet the People and to divert them from demanding a Re-establishment of their Religion and Laws under the shelter of our Arms They do also give out That we do intend to Conquer and Enslave the Nation and therefore it is we have thought fit to add a few Words to our Declaration VVe are confident That no Persons can have such hard Thoughts of us as to imagine we have any other Design in this our Undertaking than to procure a Settlement of the Religion and of the Liberties and Properties of the Subjects upon so sure a Foundation that there may be no Danger of the Nation 's Relapsing into the like Miseries at any time hereafter And as the Forces we have brought along with us are utterly disproportioned to that Wicked Design of Conquering the Nation if we were capable of intending it so the great Numbers of the Principal Nobility and Gentry that are Men of Eminent Quality and Estates and Persons of known Integrity and Zeal both for the Religion and Government of ENGLAND many of them being also distinguished by their Constant Fidelity to the Crown who do both accompany us in this Expedition and have earnestly sollicited us to it will cover us from all such Malicious Insinuations For it is not to be imagined that either those who have invited us or those who are already come to assist us can join in a wicked Attempt of Conquest to make void their own Lawful Titles to their Honours Estates and Interests We are also confident That all Men see how little Weight there is to be laid on all Promises and Engagements that can be now made since there has been so little regard had in the time past to the most solemn Promises And as that imperfect Redress that is now offer'd is a plain
Confession of those Violences of the Government that we have set forth so the Defectiveness of it is no less apparent For they lay down nothing which they may not take up at pleasure and they reserve entire and not so much as mentioned their Claims and Pretences to an Arbitrary and Despotick Power which has been the Root of all their Oppression and of the Total Subversion of the Government And it is plain That there can be no Redress no Remedy offered but in Parliament by a Declaration of the Rights of the Subjects that have been invaded and not by any pretended Acts of Grace to which the Extremity of their Affairs has driven them Therefore it is that we have thought fit to declare That we will Refer all to a Free Assembly of this NATION in a Lawful Parliament Given under Our Hand and Seal at Our Court in the Hague the 24th Day of October in the Year of Our Lord 1688. WILLIAM HENRY Prince of Orange By His Highness's Special Command C. HUYGENS. At the same time an Extract of the States-General's Resolution was privately Printed at London wherein among other Reasons why they had intrusted the Prince of Orange with such a Fleet and Army is this which follows THE King of France hath upon several Occasions shewed himself dissatisfied with this State which gave Cause to fear and apprehend that in case the King of Great Britain should happen to compass within his Kingdom and obtain an Absolute Power over his People that then both Kings out of the Interest of State and Hatred and Zeal against the Protestant Religion would endeavour to bring this State to confusion and if possible quite to subject it There was also Printed about the same Juncture this Letter of the Prince of Orange to the Officers of the Army Gentlemen and Friends WE have given you so full and so true an Account of Our Intentions in this Expedition in Our Declaration that as We can add nothing to it so We are sure you can desire nothing more of Us. We are come to preserve your Religion and to Restore and Establish your Liberties and Properties And therefore We cannot suffer Our Selves to doubt but that all true English Men will come and concur with Us in Our Desire to Secure these Nations from Popery and Slavery You must all plainly see That you are only made use of as Instruments to enslave the Nation and ruine the Protestant Religion and when that is done you may judge what ye your selves ought to expect both from the Cashiering all the Protestant and English Officers and Soldiers in Ireland and by the Irish Soldiers being brought over to be put in your Places and of which you have seen so fresh an Instance that We need not put you in mind of it You know how many of your Fellow-Officers have been used for their standing firm to the Protestant Religion and to the Laws of England And you cannot flatter your selves so far as to expect to be better used if those who have broke their Word so often should by your Means be brought out of those Streights to which they are at present reduced We hope likewise that ye will not suffer your selves to be abused by a false Notion of Honour but that you will in the first place consider what you owe to Almighty God and your Religion to your Country to your Selves to your Posterity which you as Men of Honour ought to prefer to all private Considerations and Engagements whatsoever We do therefore expect That you will consider the Honour that is now set before you of being the Instruments of Serving your Country and Securing your Religion and We shall ever remember the Service you shall do Us upon this Occasion and will promise you that We shall place such particular Marks of Our Favour on every one of you as your Behaviour at this time shall deserve of Us and the Nation in which We shall make a great Distinction of those that shall come seasonably to join their Arms with Ours And you shall find Us to be your Well-wishing and assured Friend W. H. P. O. This Letter was spread under-hand over the whole Kingdom and read by all sorts of Men and the Reason of it being undeniable it had a great Force on the Spirits of the Soldiery so that those who did not presently comply with it yet resolved they would never strike one stroke in this Quarrel till they had a Parliament to secure the Religion Laws and Liberties of England Which the Court on the other side had resolved should not be granted till the Prince of Orange with his Army was expelled out of the Nation and till all those that had submitted to him which were not many then were reduced into their Power to be treated as they thought fit In the mean time the Fleet came about from the Buoy in the Nâ—re to Portsmouth under the Command of the Lord Dartmouth where it arrived on Saturday the 17th of November and on the Monday following the KING entred Salisbury which was then the Head Quarters of the whole Army But on the 16th of the aforesaid Month the Lord Delamere having received certain Intelligence of the Landing of the Prince of Orange in the West and seeing the Irish throng over in Arms under pretence of Assisting the King but in reality to enslave us at Home as they had already reduced our Country-Men in Ireland to the lowest Degree of Danger and Impuissance that they have at any time been in since the Conquest of Ireland in the Reign of King Henry II. He thereupon Assembled Fifty Horse-Men and at the Head of them marched to Manchester and the next Day he went to Bodon-Downes his Forces being then 150 strong declaring his Design was To join with the Prince of Orange This small Party of Men by degrees drew in all the North and could never be suppressed Now before His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange left Exeter there was an Association drawn up and signed by all the Lords and Gentlemen that were with him the Date of which I cannot assign but the Words thereof are as follow VVE whose Names are hereunto subscribed who have now joined with the Prince of Orange for the Defence of the Protestant Religion and for the maintaining the Antient Government and the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland do engage to Almighty God to His Highness the Prince of Orange and to one another to stick firm to this Cause and to one another in Defence of it and never to depart from it until our Religion Laws and Liberties are so far secured to us in a Free Parliament that we shall be no more in danger of falling into Popery and Slavery And whereas we are engaged in this Common Cause under the Protection of the Prince of Orange by which means his Person may be exposed to Danger and to the cursed Attempts of Papists and other Bloody Men we do therefore solemnly
are too often accompanied I am not ignorant of the frequent Mischiefs wrought in the World by factious Pretences of Religion but were not Religion the most justifiable Cause it would not be made the most specious Pretence And your Majesty has already shewn too interested a Sense of Religion to doubt the just Effects of it on one whose Practices have I hope never given the World cause to censure his real Conviction of it or his backwardness to perform what his Honour and Conscience prompt him to How then can I longer disguise my just Concern for that Religion in which I have been so happily educated which my Judgment truly convinceth me to be the Best and for the Support of which I am so highly interested in my Native Country And is not England now by the most endearing Tye become so Whilst the restless Spirits of the Enemies of the Reformed Religion back'd by the cruel Zeal and prevailing Power of France justly alarm and unite all the Protestant Princes of Christendom and engage them in so vast an Expence for the Support of it Can I act so degenerous and mean a Part to deny my Concurrence to such worthy Endeavours for the disabusing your Majesty by the Re-inforcement of those Laws and Re-establishment of that Government on which alone depends the Well-being of your Majesty and of the Protestant Religion in Europe This Sir is that irresistible and only Cause that could come in Competition with my Duty and Obligation to your Majesty and be able to fear me from you whilst the same affectionate Desire of serving You continues in me Could I secure your Person â— by the hazard of my Life I should think it could not be better employed And would to God these your distracted Kingdoms might yet receive that satisfactory Compliance from your Majesty in all their justifiable Pretensions as might upon the only sure Foundation that of the Love and Interest of your Subjects establish your Government and as strongly unite the Hearts of all your Subjects to You as is that of c. The Lord Churchill left a Letter to the same purpose which runs thus SIR SInce Men are seldom suspected of Sincerity when they act contrary to their Interests and tho' my dutiful Behaviour to Your Majesty in the worst of Times for which I acknowledge my poor Services much over-paid may not be sufficient to incline You to a charitable Interpretation of my Actions yet I hope the great Advantage I enjoy under Your Majesty which I can never expect in any other Change of Government may reasonably convince Your Majesty and the World that I am acted by an higher Principle when I offer that Violence to my Inclination and Interest as to desert Your Majesty at a Time when Your Affairs seem to challenge the strictest Obedience from all Your Subjects much more from one who lies under the greatest Personal Obligations imaginable to Your Majesty This SIR could proceed from nothing but the inviolable Dictates of my Conscience and a necessary Concern for my Religion which no good Man can oppose and with which I am instructed nothing ought to come in Competition Heaven knows with what Partiality my dutiful Opinion of Your Majesty hath hitherto represented those unhappy Designs which Inconsiderate and Self-Interested Men have framed against Your Majesty's true Interest and the Protestant Religion But as I can no longer join with such to give a Pretence by Conquest to bring them to effect so I will always with the hazard of my Life and Fortune so much Your Majesty's due endeavour to preserve Your Royal Person and Lawful Rights with all the tender Concern and dutigâ—l Respect that becomes c. Upon this the Army retreated to Reading and the King very disconsolate returned on the 26th in the Evening to London from whence the Princess Ann of Denmark his second Daughter was gone privately the Night before and if she had not left a Letter behind her to shew the reason of her Retreat the King 's own Guards had in all probability torn all the Popish Party to pieces upon a surmize that they had made her away The Letter she left for the Queen was as follows MADAM I Beg Your Pardon if am so deeply affected with the surprizing News of the Prince's being gone as not to be able to see You but to leave this Paper to express my humble Duty to the King and Your Self and to let You know that I am gone to absent my self to avoid the King's Displeasure which I am not able to bear either against the Prince or my self And I shall stay at so great a Distance as not to return before I hear the happy News of a Reconcilement And as I am confident the Prince did not leave the King with any other Design than to use all possible Means for His Preservation so I hope You will do me the Justice to believe that I am not capable of following him for any other End Never was any one in such an unhappy Condition so divided between Duty and Affection to a Father and an Husband and therefore I know not what to do but to follow one to preserve the other I see the general Falling off of the Nobility and Gentry who avow to have no other End than to prevail with the King to secure their Religion which they saw so much in danger by the violent Counsels of the Priests who to promote their own Religion did not care to what Dangers they exposed the King I am fully persuaded that the Prince of Orange designs the King's Safety and Preservation and hope all Things may be composed without more Blood-shed by the Calling of a Parliament God grant a happy End to these Troubles that the King's Reign may be prosperous and that I may shortly meet You in perfect Peace and Safety Till when let me beg you to continue the same favourable Opinion that You have hitherto had of c. The first thing done upon the King's Return was the turning Sir Edward Hales out from being Lieutenant of the Tower and then to order Writs to be issued out for the sitting of a Parliament the 15th of Jan. but that was too late and the Nation was now in such a Ferment that neither this pace nor a Proclamation of the 30th of Nov. requiring the Elections to be done in a fair and legal manner signified any thing so that the King now began to provide for his Family and first he sent away the Prince of Wales to Portsmouth but my Lord Dartmouth would not suffer him to be carried into France yet the Queen soon after found a way to convey him her self and divers others thither And indeed it was high time for Scotland now was as much alarmed as England and some of the Nobility and Gentry were sent up with a Petition for a free Parliament all the North of England was secured for the Prince Newcastle receiving the Lord Lumâ—ey and declaring
Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within the Realm So help me God This Declaration being tendered to the Prince and Princess of Orange and the Conditions being accepted by both they were soon after proclaimed King and Queen of England according to the Tenor of a Proclamation drawn by the Convention for that very purpose and so they took a peaceable Possession of the English Crown the few Soldiers of Dumbarton's Regiment that sometime after revolted being quickly brought to submit and no other Punishment inflicted upon them than to be sent into Holland without any deâ—alcation of their Pay But the King having now done his Work in England 't was his next Thoughts to make sure of Scotland whither he had sent a Body of Men sometime since under the Command of Major General Mâ—ckay and where notwithstanding the Duke of Gourdon still held Edinburgh Castle and that there was a disposition in the Northern Inhabitants of that Kingdom to adhere to the late King a Convention met also and notwithstanding King James writ to them as well as King William yet the formers Letter was so far from having any effect upon them in his Favour that the Throne of Scotland was declared vacant and an Act of Recognition drawn up in the Form following THat whereas James the Seventh being a professed Papist did assume the Regal Power and act as a King without ever taking the Oaths required by Law whereby every King at his Access to the Government was obliged to swear to maintain the Protestant Religion and to Rule the People according to the laudable Laws and by the Advice of wicked Counsellors did invade the Fundamental Constitutions of the Kingdom of Scotland and alter'd it from a Legal limited Monarchy to an Arbitrary and Despotick Power and in a publick Proclamation asserted an Absolute Power to annul and disable all Laws particularly by arraigning the Laws establishing the Protestant Religion and to the Violation of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom By erecting publick Schools and Societies of the Jesuits and not only allowing Mass to be publickly said but also converting Protestant Chapels and Churches to publick Mass-Houses contrary to the express Laws against saying and hearing of Mass By allowing Popish Books to be printed and disposed by a Patent to a Popish Printer designing him Printer to his Majesty's Houshold Colledge and Chappel contrary to Law By taking the Children of Protestant Noblemen and Gentlemen and sending them abroad to be bred Papists and bestowing Pensions on Priests to pervert Protestants from their Religion by Offers of Places of Preferments By disarming Protestants while at the same time he employ'd Papists in Places of the greatest Trust both Civil and Military c. and entrusting the Forces and Magazines in their hands By imposing Oaths contrary to Law By exacting Money without Consent of Parliament or Convention of Estates By levying and keeping up a Standing Army in time of Peace without Consent of Parliament and maintaining them upon free Quarter By employing the Officers of the Army as Judges throughout the Kingdom by whom the Subjects were put to death without legal Trial Jury or Record Bp imposing exorbitant Fines to the value of the Parties Estates exacting extravagant Bail and disposing Fines and Forfeitures before any Process or Conviction By imprisoning Persons without expressing the Reason and delaying to bring them to Trial. By causing several Persons to be prosecuted and their Estates to be forfeited upon Stretches of old and forfeited Laws upon weak and frivolous Pretences and upon lame and defective Proofs as particularly the late Earl of Argyle to the Scandal of the Justice of the Nation By subverting the Rights of the Royal Boroughs the Third Estate of Parliament imposing upon them not only Magistrates but also the whole Town Council and Clerks contrary to their Liberties and express Charters without any pretence of Sentence Surrender or Consent So that the Commissioners to Parliaments being chosen by the Magistrates and Councils the King might in effect as well nominate that entire Estate of Parliament Besides that many of the Magistrates by him put in were Papists and the Boroughs were forced to pay Money for the Letters imposing those illegal Magistrates upon them By sending Letters to the Chief Courts of Justice not only ordering the Judges to stop sine die but also commanding them how to proceed in Cases depending before them contrary to the express Laws and by changing the Nature of the Judges Patents ad vitam or culpam into a Commission de bene placito to dispose them to a Compliance of Arbitrary Courses and turning them out of their Offices if they refus'd to comply By granting personal Protections for Civil Debts contrary to Law All which were Miscarriages of King James utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws Freedoms and Statutes of the Realm of Scotland Upon which Grounds and Reasons the Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland did find and declare That K. James the 7th being a profess'd Papist did assume the Regal Power c. as at the beginning whereby he had forfeited the Right of the Crown and the Throne was become vacant Therefore in regard his Royal Highness then Prince of Orange since King of England whom it pleas'd God to make the glorious Instrument of delivering these Kingdoms from Popery and Arbitrary Power by Advice of several Lords and Gentlemen of the Scots Nation then at London did call the Estates of this Kingdom to meet upon the Fourteenth of March last in order to such an Establishment as their Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being subverted The said Estates being at that time assembled accordingly in a full and free Representative of the Nation taking into their most serious Consideration the best Means for attainâ—ng the Ends aforesaid did in the first place as their Ancestors in the like Cases had usually done for the Vindicating and Asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties declare That by the Law of Scotland no Papist could be King or Queen of the Realm nor bear any Office whatever therein nor that any Protestant Successor could exercise the Regal Power till he or they had sworn the Coronation-Oath That all Proclamations asserting an Absolute Power to null and disable Laws in order to erecting Schools and Colledges for Jesuits converting Protestant Churches and Chappels into Mass-Houses and the allowing Mass to be said That the allowing Popish Books to be printed and dispersed was contrary to Law That the taking the Children of Noblemen Gentlemen and others and keeping them abroad to be bred Papists the making Funds and Donations to Popish Schools and Colledges the bestowing Pensions on Priests and the seducing Protestants from their Religion by offers of Places and Preferment was contrary to Law That the disarming of Protestants and the employing Papists in the greatest Places of Trust both Civil and Military c. was contrary to Law That the imposing