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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A59340 Remarks on Algernoon Sidney's paper, delivered to the sherriffs at his execution Settle, Elkanah, 1648-1724. 1683 (1683) Wing S2715; ESTC R12784 7,216 4

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REMARKS ON Algernoon Sidney's PAPER Delivered to the SHERRIFFS AT HIS Execution THe great Aim of this Paper like that of the late Lord Russel is a continued Justification of a dying Traytor 's Innocence a virulent and declamatory Harangue against the Magistracy of the Nation loaded with so much Obloquie and Injustice thrown upon the Court the Judges and the very Government it self that 't is a perfect Appeal to the People to revenge his blood and an open and visible Exhortation to them to push them on to the finishing of that Work which himself dy'd for and which his own shortned thread did not hold out to see accomplisht and all under a shadow of Truth but an Intayling of his Guilty Principles to Posterity But alas his mighty Protestations of all Saint and no Sinner are so aukwardly and so lewdly put together that half an Eye of sense cannot but spy through the Falsity of them This Gentleman however is an Original of his Kind and if the Candidness and not the Inadvertency of the Author be to be thankt for 't has dealt more plainly with the World than his Predecessour Russel for instead of Prayers for the King and the Prosperity of the Crown and a Detestation of Anarchy he very ingenuously avoids so poor a Disguise and with a bar-fac'd Openness avows his Republican Principles and his utter aversion to Monarchy To come to the Paper The first material thing he tells us is That We live in an Age that makes Truth pass for Treason which his Tryal and Condemnation he says sufficiently evidences Tho truly his unhappy Paper has rather turn'd the Tables and proved Mr. Sidney has a greater Mind to make Treason pass for Truth a Truth too so divine that his very last Ejaculation is His glorifying of the Mercy of God in permitting him to dye a Witness to He goes on and says West Rumsey and Keyling who were brought to prove the Plot said no more of me than that they knew me not and some others equally unknown unto me had used my Name and that of some others to give a little Reputation unto their Designs The Lord Howard is too infamous by his Life and the many Perjuries not to be denyed or rather sworn by himself to deserve mention and being a single Witness would be of no value though he had been of unblemished Credit and had not seen and confessed that the Crimes committed by him would be pardon'd only by committing more and even the Pardon promised could not be obtained till the Drudgery of Swearing was over In the first place under that Ignominious Reflection Of giving Reputation to their Designs the Discovery of the whole Phanatical Plot is insinuated to be all Juggle and Combination Tho the World may take notice of a wonderful Difference betwixt the Quality of these Discoverers and those of the Popish-Plot Their Oats and Bedlows though no better than the Rakings of Jayls and no higher than Companions for Valets were nevertheless thought worthy to be Secret-keepers and Cabinet-Counsellors of Princes and honour'd with the universal Belief of a whole applauding Nation for Detection of a hellish Plot traced up to no less than a Conspiracy of 30000 Bloody-Pilgrims and as many formidable Black-Hills like the head of Nilus up to the Mountains of the Moon Whereas on the contrary these last Witnesses were Men of undisputed Reputation Birth and Honour Men so far from Oats his hopes of a Parliamentary Donative of 30000 pound that the Discovery was made without the least prospect of a Reward Besides if these Witnesses were Villains how comes the Lord Howard to be the Only Evidence against Collonel Sidney and West Rumsey and Keyling to keep silent when in the Case of Designs as he calls them and that they had sworn without Fear or Conscience or had had but half that Salamanca Courage that brought the Queen into the Poisoning the King no doubt these three Mutes had opened their Mouths too and not left the Collonel such a Loop-hole for Innocence as a Pretence of a Single-Testimony But the Master-stroak of the Colonel's Pen against the Lord Howard is one of the most accurate pieces of Mallice that the most studyed Revenge could have put together But if the Lord Howard's Life be so infamous the Colonel had done well to have specifyed wherein Almost the whole Life of that Lord has been notoriously known to have been spent in that very Old Cause which the Colonel Religiously even to his Death a●serts styling himself no less than a Witness of God's Truth and consequently arrogating a Crown of Martyrdom for dying in Was not Shaftsbury all along this Lord 's Gamaliel And has he not lived a continually profest Enemy to these very Idols to whom this Gentleman says he dy'd a Sacrifice And if so How can this Gentleman render his Accuser's Life so Infamous unless for those very Principles which he proudly boasts are the glory of his own Besides if his many Perjuries are so undeniable he had done well to have given some Particulars of them I am certain the Violation of his Allegiance in the days of the late Fanatical Rebellion is none of the Perjuries he intends to lay to his Charge for then he must make that the Lord Howard's Infamous Guilt which he makes his own highest Vertue and Honour But if his Perjury consists in his late Discovery from that the very dying Criminals nay some of them against their wills have been his Compurgators The very Lord Russel in all his Protestations of Innocence in his last Speech confesses he had been at several Meetings where they had discours't of seizing the King's Guards and though he endeavours to render it wholly a Discourse by Accident yet as accidental as 't was it brought the Lord Russel and the Duke of Monmouth on purpose to Shepherd's to prevent the putting it in Execution and perswade some violent Men from attempting that which would undo them all This indeed is the Lord Howards Perjury which the dying Sidney quarrels with and to stigmatize him deeper yet he very audaciously and Libellously affirms that the Lord Howard had not only Seen but CONFEST that the Crimes he had committed would not be pardoned but for committing of greater and even the promised pardon not to be obtaind till the Drudgery of Swearing was over 'T is not enough it seems as he says afterwards That the Bench was fill'd with those that had been Blemishes to the Bar And consequently the Judges corrupted and the Law perverted yes and the Court nay Government it self rendred no less than Supporters of Popery where he tells us He dyes a Sacrifice to Idols But for the last most Diabolical Calumny from the blackest Spirit of Fanaticisme he insolently accuses the King himself of the most wretched Subornation of Perjury as if the Lord Howards Pardon had been only obtained by the merit of Swearing Innocent Men out of their Lives Good God! to what Outrages can that sin