common prudence requires that his Majesty should make some suitable preparations that he may at least keep pace with his Neighbours if not out-go them in Number and Strength of Shipping For this being an Island both our Safety our Trade our Being and our Well-Being depend upon our Forces at Sea His Majesty therefore of his Princely Care for the Good of his People hath given order for the fitting out of Fifty Sayl of his Greatest Ships against the Spring besides those which are to be for Security of our Merchants in the Mediterranean As foreseeing if he should not have a considerable Fleet whilst his Neighbours have such Forces both at Land and Sea Temptation might be given to those who seem not now to intend it to give us an Affront at least if not to do us a Mifchief To which may be added That his Majesty by the Leagues which he hath made for the Common Peace of Christendom and the good of his Kingdoms is obliged to a certain Number of Forces in case of Infraction thereof as also for the Assistance of some of his Neighbours in case of Invasion And his Majesty would be in a very ill condition to perform his part of the Leagues if whilst the Clouds are gathering so thick about us he should in hopes that the Wind will disperse them omit to provide against the Storm My Lords and Gentlemen Having named the Leagues made by his Majesty I think it necessary to put you in mind That since the Close of the late War his Majesty hath made several Leagues to his own great Honour and infinite Advantage to the Nation One known by the Name of the Tripple Alliance wherein his Majesty the Crown of Sweden and the States of the United Provinces are ingaged to preserve the Treaty of Aix la Capelle concerning a Peace between the two warring Princes which Peace produced that effect that it quenched the Fire which was ready to have set all Christendom in a Flame And besides other great Benefits by it which she still enjoyes gave opportunity to transmit those Forces against the Infidels which would otherwise have been imbrued in Christian Blood Another between his Majesty and the said States for a Mutual Assistance with a certain number of Men and Ships in case of Invasion by any others Another between his Maiesty and the Duke of Savoy Establishing a Free Trade for his Majesties Subjects at Villa Franca a Port of his own upon the Mediterranean and through the Dominions of that Prince and thereby opening a Passage to a Rich part of Italy and part of Germany which will be of a very great advantage for the Vending of Cloth and other our home Commodities bringing back Silk and other Materials for Manifactures than here Another between his Majesty and the King of Denmark whereby those other Impositions that were lately laid upon our Trade there are taken off and as great Priviledges granted to our Merchants as ever they had in former Times or as the Subjects of any other Prince or State do now enjoy And another League upon a Treaty of Commerce with Spain whereby there is not only a Cessation and giving up to his Majesty of all their Pretensions to Jamaica and other Islands and Countries in the West Indies in the Possession of his Majesty or his Subjects but with all free Liberty is given to his Majesties Subjects to enter their Ports for Victuals and Water and safety of Harbour and Return if Storm or other Accidents bring them thither Priviledges which were never before granted by them to the English or any Others Not to mention the Leagues formerly made with Sweden and Portugal and the Advantages which we enjoy thereby nor those Treaties now depending between his Majesty and France or his Majesty and the States of tbe United Provinces touching Commerce wherein his Majesty will have a singular regard to the Honour of this Nation and also to the Trade of it which never was greater than now it is In a word Almost all the Princes in Europe do seek his Majesties Friendship as acknowledging they cannot Secure much less Improve their present condition without it His Majesty is confident that you will not be contented to see him deprived of all the advantages which he might procure hereby to his own Kingdoms nay even to all Christendom in the Repose and Quiet of it That you will not be content abroad to see your Neighbours strengthening themselves in Shipping so much more than they were before and at Home to see the Government strugling every year with Difficulties and not able to keep up our Navies equal with theirs He findes that by his Accounts from the year 1660 to the Late War the ordinary Charge of the Fleet Communibus annis came to about 500000 l. a year and it cannot be supported with less If that particular alone take up so much add to it the other constant Charges of the Government and the Revenue although the Commissioners of the Treasury have mannag'd it with all imaginable Thrift will in no degree suffice to take of the Debts due upon Interest much less give him a Fonds for the fitting out of this Fleet which by common Estimation thereof cannot cost less than 800000 l. His Majesty in his most gracious Speech hath expressed the great sence he hath of your zeal and affection for him and as he will ever retain a grateful memory of your former readiness to supply him in all Exigencies so he doth with particular thanks acknowledge your frank and chearfull Gift of the New Duty upon Wines at your last Meeting But the same is likely to fall very short in value of what it was conceived to be worth and should it have answered expectation yet far too short to ease and help him upon these Occasions And therefore such a Supply as may enable him to take off his Debts upon Interest and to set out this Fleet against the Spring is that which he desires from you and recommends it to you as that which concerns the Honour and Support of the Government and the Wellfare and Safety of your Selves and the whole Kingdome My Lords and Gentlemen You may perceive by what his Majesty hath already said that he holds it requisite that an End be put to this Meeting before Christmas It is so not only in reference to the Preparation for his Fleet which must be in readiness in the Spring but also to the Season of the Year It is a time when you would be willing to be in your Countries and your Neighbours would be glad to see you there and partake of your Hospitality and Charity and you thereby endear your selves to them and keep up that Interest and Power among them which is necessary for the service of your King and Country and a Recesse at that time leaving your business unfinished till your Return cannot either be convenient for you or suitable to the condition of his Majesties Affaires which requires
so well that his Majesty thought fit to Communicate the overture to both Houses and though their advice had not been asked to the War yet not to make the Peace without it There was not much difficulty in their resolutions For the generall bent of the Nation was against the War the French now had by their ill behaviour at Sea in all the Engagements raised also the English Indignation their pernicious Counsels were visible in their book of the Politique Francoise tending by frequent levyes of men and mony to exhaust and weaken our Kingdome and by their conjuction with us on set purpose to raise betwixt the King and his People a rationall Jealousy of Popery and French Government till we should insensibly devolve into them by Inclination or Necessity As men of ill conversation pin themselves maliciously on persons more sober that if they can no otherwise debauch them they may blast their Reputation by their society and so oblige them to theirs being suspected by better Company Besides all which the very reason of Traffick which hath been so long neglected by our greater Statesmen was now of some consideration for as much as by a Peace with the Hollander the greatest part of the Trade and Navigation of Europe as long as the French King disturbed it would of course fall into the English management The Houses therefore gave their humble advice to his Majesty for a just and honorable Peace with the States Generall which when it could be no longer resisted was concluded In the seventh Article of this Treaty it is said That the Treaty vvhich vvas made at Breda in the yeare 1667 as also all the others vvhich are by this present Treaty confirmed shall by the present be renevved and shall continue in their full force and vigour as far as they shall not be contrary unto this said present Treaty Which words are the more to be taken notice of that they may be compared afterwards with the effects that follow to see how well on the English part that Agreement hath been observed The businesse of the Peace thus being once over and this Parliament still lowring upon the Ministers of State or bogling at the Land Forces whereof the eight new raised Regiments were upon the request of the Commons at last disbanded or imployed in further Bills against Popery and for the Education and Protestant Marriage henceforward of those of the Royal Family the necessity of their further sitting seemed not so urgent but that they might have a repose till the tenth of November 1674. following The Conspirators had hitherto failed of the accomplishing their design by prepetual disappointments and which was most grievous to them foresaw that the want of mony would still necessitate the frequent sitting of Parliament which danger they had hop'd long ere this to have conquer'd In this state of their affaires the French King therefore was by no meanes to be further disobliged he being the Master of their secret and the only person which if they helped him at this plunge might yet carry them thorow They were therefore very diligent to profit themselves of all the advantages to this purpose that their present posture could afford them They knew that his Majesty being now disengaged from War would of his Royall Prudence interpose for Peace by his Mediation it being the most glorious Character that any Prince can assume and for which he was the more proper as being the most Potent thereby to give the sway and the most disintressed whereby to give the Equity requisite to such a Negotiation and the most obliged in Honour as having been the occasion by an unforeseen consequence of drawing the sword of all this part of Europe But if they feared any propension in his Majesty to one party it was toward Spaine as knowing how that Crowne as it is at large recited and acknowledged in the preamble of the last Treaty between England and Holland had been the only instrument of the happy Peace which after that pernicious War we now injoyed Therefore they were resolved by all their influence and industry though the profit of the War did now wholly redown to the English Nation and however in case of peace it was our Interest that if any France should be depressed to any equality to labour that by this mediation France might be the onely gainer and having all quiet about him might be at perfect leisure to attend their project upon England And one of these our Statesmen being pressed solved all Arguments to the contrary with an oraculous French question Faut il que tout se fasse par Politique rien par Amitie Must all things be done by Maxims or Reasons of State nothing for Affection Therefore that such an absurdity as the ordering of Affairs abroad according to the Interest of our Nation might be avoided the English Sbotch and Irish Regiments that were already in the French Service were not only to be kept in their full Complement but new numbers of Souldiers daily transported thither making up in all as is related at least a constant Body of Ten thousand Men of his Majesties Subjects and which oftentimes turned the Fortune of Battle on the French side by their Valour How far this either consisted with the Office of a Mediatour or how consonant it was to the seventh Article above mentioned of the last Treaty with Holland It is for them to demonstrate who were the Authors But it was indeed a good way to train up an Army under the French Discipline and Principles who might be ready seasoned upon occasion in England to be called back and execute the same Counsels In the mean time they would be trying yet what they could do at home For the late proceedings of Parliament in quashing the Indulgence in questioning Ministers of State in Bills against Popery in not granting Money whensoever asked were Crimes not to be forgiven nor however the Conspirators had provided for themselves named in the Act of General Pardon They began therefore after fifteen Years to remember that there were such a sort of men in England as the Old Cavalier Party and reckoned that by how much the more generous they were more credulous than others and so more fit to be a gain abused These were told that all was at Stake Church and State How truly said But meant how falsly That the Nation was running again into Fourty One That this was the time to refresh their antient merit and receive the Recompence double of all their Loyalty and that hence-forward the Cavaliers should have the Lottery of all the Great or Small Offices in the Kingdom and not so much as Sir Joseph Williamson to have a share in it By this meanes they indeed designed to have raised a Civil War for which they had all along provided by new Forts and standing Forces and to which they had on purpose both in England and Scotland given all provocation if it would have been taken that
and People of Religion and Government and how near they are in all humane probability to arrive Triumphant at the end of their Journey Yet that I may not be too abrupt and leave the Reader wholly destitute of a thread to guide himself by thorow so intriguing a Labyrinth I shall summarily as short as so copious and redundant a matter will admit deduce the order of affaires both at home and abroad as it led into this Session It is well known were it as well remembred what the provocation was and what the successe of the warre begun by the English iâ—… the Year 1665. against Holland what vast supplyes were furnished by the Subject for defraying it and yet after all no Fleet set out but the Flower of all the Royal Navy burnt or taken in Port to save charges How the French during that War joyned themselves in assistance of Holland against us and yet by the credit he had with the Queen Mother so farre deluded his Majesty that upon assurance the Dutch neither would have any Fleet out that year he forbore to make ready and so incurred that notable losse and disgrace at Chatham How after this fatall conclusion of all our Sea Champaynes as we had been obliged to the French for that warre so we were glad to receive the Peace from his favour which was agreed at Breda betwixt England France and Holland His Majesty was hereby now at leisure to remarke how the French had in the year 1667. taken the time of us and while we were imbroled and weakned had in violation of all the most solemn and sacred Oaths and Treatyes invaded and taken a great part of the Spanish Nether-Land which had alwayes been considered as the natural Frontier of England And hereupon he judged it necessary to interpose before the flame that consumed his next neighbour should throw its sparkles over the water And therefore generously slighting all punctilious of ceremony or peeks of animosity where the safty of his People and the repose of Christendom were concerned he sent first into Holland inviting them to a nearer Alliance and to enter into such further Counsells as were most proper to quiet this publick disturbance which the French had raised This was a work wholy of his Majestys designing and according to that felicity which hath allways attended him when excluding the corrupt Politicks of others he hath followed the dictates of his own Royal wisdom so well it succeeded It is a thing searse credible though true that two Treatyes of such weight intricacy and so various aspect as that of the Defensive League with Holland and the other for repressing the further progresse of the French in the Spanish Netherland should in five days time in the year 1668. be concluded Such was the Expedition and secrecy then used in prosecuting his Majesty particuler instructions and so easy a thing is it for Princes when they have a mind to it to be well served The Svvede too shortly after made the third in this Concert whether wisely judging that in the minority of their King reigning over several late acquired dominions it was their true intrest to have an hand in all the Counsells that tended to pease and undisturbed possession or whether indeed those ministers like ours did even then project in so glorious an Alliance to betray it afterward to their own greater advantage From their joyning in it was called the Triple Alliance His Majesty with great sincerity continued to solicite other Princes according to the seventh Article to come into the Guaranty of this Treaty and delighted himself in cultivating by all good means what he had planted But in a very short time these Counsells which had taken effect with so great satisfaction to the Nation and to his Majestyes eternal honour were all changed and it seemed that Treatyes as soon as the Wax is cold do lose their virtue The King in June 1670 went down to Dover to meet after a long absence Madam his onely remaining sister where the days were the more pleasant by how much it seldomer happens to Princes then private persons to injoy their Relations and when they do yet their kind interviews are usually solemnized with some fatlity and disaster nothing of which here appeared But upon her first return into France she was dead the Marquess of Belfonds was immediately sent hither a Person of great Honour dispatched thither and before ever the inquiry and grumbling at her death could be abated in a trice there was an invisible Leagle in prejudice of the Triple one struck up with France to all the height of dearnesse and affection As if upon discecting the Princess there had some state Philtre been found in her bowells or the reconciliation wiah France were not to be celebrated with a lesse sacrifice then of the Blood Royall of England The sequel will be suitable to so ominous a beginning But as this Treaty was a work of Darknesse and which could never yet be understood or discovered but by the effects so before those appeared it was necessary that the Parliament should after the old wont be gulld to the giving of mony They met the 24th Oct. 1670. and it is not without much labour that I have been able to recover a written Copy of the Lord Bridgmans speech none being printed but forbidden doubtlesse lest so notorious a Practise as certainly was never before though there have indeed been many put upon the Nation might remain publick Although that Honourable person cannot be persumed to have been accessory to what was then intended but was in due time when the Project ripened and grew hopeful discharged from his Office and he the Duke of Ormond the late Secretary Trevor with the Prince Rupert discarded together out of the Committee for the Forraign Affaires He spoke thus My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons WHen the two Houses were last Adjourned this Day as you well know was perfixed for your Meeting again The Proclamation since issued requiring all your attendances at the same time shewed not only his Majesties belief that his business will thrive best when the Houses are fullest but the importance also of the Affaires for which you are so called And important they are You cannot be ignorant of the great Forces both for Land and Sea-service which our Neighbours of France and the Low-Countries have raised and have now in actual Pay nor of the great Preparations which they continue to make in Levying of Men Building of Ships filling their Magazines and Stores with immense quantities of all sorts of Warlike Provisions Since the beginning of the last Dutch War the French have increased the Greatness and Number of their Ships so much that their Strength by Sea is thrice as much as it was before And since the end of it the Dutch have been very diligent also in augmenting their Fleets In this conjuncture when our Neighbours Arm so potently even
dealt with him in all things most frankly That notwithstanding all the Expressions in my Lord Keeper Bridgmans Speech of the Treaty betvveen France and his Majesty concerning Commerce vvherein his Majesty vvill have a singular regard to the Honour and also to the Trade of this Nation and notwithstanding the intollerable oppressions upon the English Traffick in France ever since the Kings Restauration they had not in all that time made one step towards a Treaty of Commerce or Navigation with him no not even now when the English were so necessary to him that he could not have begun this War without them and might probably therefore in this conjuncture have condescended to some equality But they knew how tender that King was on that point and to preserve and encrease the Trade of his Subjects and that it was by the Diminution of that Beam of his Glory that the Hollanders had raised his Indignation The Conspirators had therefore the more to gratify him made it their constant Maxime to burden the English Merchant here with one hand while the French should load them no less with the other in his Teritories which was a parity of Trade indeed though something an extravagant one but the best that could be hoped from the prudence and integrity of our States-men insomuch that when the Merchants have at any time come down from London to represent their grievances from the French to seek redress or offer their humble adviâ—…e they were Hector'd Brow-beaten Ridiculed and might have found fairer audience even from Monsieur Colbert They knew moreover that as in the matter of Commerce so they had more obliged him in this War That except the irresistable bounties of so great a Prince in their own particular and a frugal Subsistance-money for the Fleet they had put him to no charges but the English Navy Royal serv'd him like so many Privateers No Purchase No Pay That in all things they had acted with him upon the most abstracted Principles of Generosity They had tyed him to no terms had demanded no Partition of Conquests had made no humane Condition but had sold all to him for those two Pearls of price the True Worship and the True Government Which disinteressed proceeding of theirs though suited to Forraine Magnanimity yet should we still lose at Sea as we had hitherto and the French Conquer all at Land as it was in prospect might at one time or other breed some difficulty in answering for it to the King and Kingdom However this were it had so hapned before the arrival of the Plenipotentiaries that whereas here in England all that brought applycations from Holland were treated as Spies and Enemies till the French King should signify his pleasure he on the contrary without any communication here had received Addresses from the Dutch Plenipotentiaries and given in to them the sum of his Demands not once mentioning his Majesty or his Interest which indeed he could not have done unless for mockery having demanded all for himself so that there was no place left to have made the English any satisfaction and the French Ministers therefore did very candidly acquaint those of Holland that upon their accepting those Articles there should be a firm Peace and Amity restored But as for England the States their Masters might use their discretion for that France was not obliged by any Treaty to procure their advantage This manner of dealing might probably have animated as it did warrant the English Plenipotentiaries had they been as full of Resolution as of Power to have closed with the Dutch who out of aversion to the French and their intollerable demands were ready to have thrown themselves into his Majesties Armes or at his Feet upon any reasonable conditions But it wrought clean otherwise For those of the English Plenipotentiaries who were it seems intrusted with a fuller Authority and the deeper Secret gave in also the English Demands to the Hollanders consisting in eight Articles but at last the Ninth saith Although his Majesty contents himself vvith the foregoing Conditions so that they be accepted vvithin ten dayes after vvhich his Majesty understands himself to be no further obliged by them He declares nevertheless precisely that albeit they should all of them be granted by the said States yet they shall be of no force nor vvill his Majesty maâ—…e any Treaty of Peace or Truce unless the Most Christian King shall have received satisfastion from the said States in his particular And by this means they made it impossible for the Dutch however desirous to comply with England excluded us from more advantagious terms than we could at any other time hope for and deprived us of an honest and honourable evasion out of so pernicious a War and from a more dangerous Alliance So that now it appeared by what was done that the Conspirtors securing their own fears at the price of the Publick Interest and Safety had bound us up more strait then ever by a new Treaty to the French Project The rest of this year passed with great successe to the French but none to the English And therefore the hopes upon which the War was begun of the Smyrna and Spanish Fleet and Dutch Prizes being vanished the slender Allowance from the French not sufficing to defray it and the ordinary Revenue of the King with all the former Aides being as was fit to be believed in lesse then one years time exhausted The Parliament by the Conspirators good leave was admitted again to sit at the day appointed the 4th of February 1672. The Warr was then first communicated to them and the Causes the Necessity the Danger so well Painted out that the Dutch abusive Historical Pictures and False Medalls which were not forgot to be mentioned could not be better imitated or revenged Onely there was one great omission of their False Pillars which upheld the whole Fabrick of the England Declarations Upon this signification the House of Commons who had never failed the Crown hitherto upon any occosion of mutual gratuity did now also though in a Warre contrary to former usuage begun without their Advice readily Vote no less a summe than 1250000 l. But for better Colour and least they should own in words what they did in effect they would not say it was for the Warre but for the Kings Extraordinary Occasions And because the Nation began now to be aware of the more true Causes for which the Warre had been undertaken they prepared an Act before the Money-Bill slipt thorrow their Fingers by which the Papists were obliged to pass thorow a new State Purgatory to be capable of any Publick Imployment whereby the House of Commons who seem to have all the Great Offices of the Kingdom in Reversion could not but expect some Wind-falls Upon this Occasion it was that the Earl of Shaftsbury though then Lord Chancellour of England yet Engaged so far in Defence of that ACT and of the PROTESTANT RELIGION that in due
a measure to be taken in those things and it is indeed to the great reproach of Humane Wisdom that no man has for so many Ages been able or willing to find out the due temper of Government in Divine Matters For it appears at the first sight that men ought to enjoy the same Propriety and Protection in their Consciences which they have in their Lives Liberties and Estates But that to take away these in Penalty for the other is meerly a more Legal and Gentile way of Padding upon the Road of Heaven and that it is only for want of Money and for want of Religion that men take those desperate Courses Nor can it be denied that the Original Lavv upon which Christianity at the first was founded does indeed expresly provide against all such severity And it was by the Humility Meekness Love Forbearance and Patience which were part of that excellent Doctrine that it became at last the Universal Religion and can no more by any other meanes be preserved than it is possible for another Soul to animate the same Body But with shame be it spoken the Spartans obliging themselves to Lycargus his Laws till he should come back again continued under his most rigid Discipline above twice as long as the Christians did endure under the gentelest of all Institutions though with far more certainty expecting the return of their Divine Legislater Insomuch that it is no great Adventure to say That the World was better ordered under the Antient Monarchies and Commonvvealths that the number of Virtuous men was then greater and that the Christians found fairer quarter under those than among themselves nor hath there any advantage acrued unto mankind from that most perfect and practical Moddel of Humane Society except the Speculation of a better way to future Happiness concerning which the very Guides disagree and of those few that follow it will suffer no man to pass without paying at their Turn-pikes All which had proceeded from no other reason but that men in stead of squaring their Governments by the Rule of Christianity have shaped Christianity by the Measures of their Government have reduced that streight Line by the crooked and bungling Divine and Humane things together have been alwayes hacking and hewing one another to frame an irregular Figure of Political Incongruity For wheresoever either the Magistrate or the Clergy or the People could gratify their Ambition their Profit or their Phanfie by a Text improved or misapplied that they made use of though against the consent sense and immutable precepts of Scipture and because Obedience for Conscience sake was there prescribed the lesse Conscience did men make in Commanding so that several Nations have little else to shew for their Christiainity which requires Instruction only and Example but a pracell of sever Laws concerning Opinion or about the Modes of Worship not so much in order to the Power of Religion as over it Neverthelesse because Mankind must be governed some way and be held up to one Law or other either of Christs or their own making the vigour of such humane Constitutions is to be preserved untill the same Authority shall upon better reason revoke them and as in the mean time no private man may without the guilt of Sedition or Rebellion resist so neither by the Nature of the English Foundation can any Publick Person suspend them without committing an Errour which is not the lesse for wanting a legall name to expresse it But it was the Master-peice therefore of boldnesse and contrivance in these Conspiratours to issue this Declaration and it is hard to say wherein they took the greater felicity whither in suspending hereby all the Statutes against Popery that it might thence forward passe like current money over the Nation and no man dare to refuse it or whether gaining by this a President to suspend as well all other Laws that respect the Subjects Propriety and by the same power to abrogate and at last inact what they pleased till there should be no further use for the Consent of the People in Parliament Having been thus true to their great designe and made so considerable a progresse they advanced with all expedition It was now high time to Declare the War after they had begun it and therefore by a Manifesto of the seventeenth of March 1672 the pretended Causes were made publich which were The not having Vailed Bonnet to the English Yatch though the Duch had all along both at home and here as carefully endevoured to give as the English Minestrs to avoid the receiving of all satisfaction or letting them understand what would do it and the Council Clock was on purpose set forward lest their utmost Compliance in the Flag at the hour appointed should prevent the Declaration of War by some minuts The detaining of some few English families by their own Consent in Surynam after the Dominion of it was by Treaty surrendred up to the Hollander in which they had likewise constantly yielded to the unreasonable demands that were from one time to another extended from hence to make the thing impracticable till even Banister himself that had been imployed as the Agent and Contriver of this misunderstanding could not at the last forbear to cry shame of it And moreover to fill up the measure of the Dutch iniquity they are accused of Pillars Medalls and Pictures a Poet indeed by a dash of his Pen having once been the cause of a Warre against Poland but this certainely was the first time that ever a Painter could by a stroke of his Pencill occasion the Breach of a Treaty But considering the weaknesse and invalidity of those other allegations these indeed were not unnecessary the Pillars to adde strength the Meddalls Weight and the Pictures Colour to their Reasons But herein they had however observed Faith with France though on all other sides broken having capitulated to be the first that should do it Which as it was no small peice of French Courtesey in so important an action to yield the English the Precedence so was it on the English part as great a Bravery in accepting to be the formost to discompose the State of all Christendom and make themselves principal to all the horrid Destruction Devastation Ravage and Slaughter which from that fatal seventeenth of March One thousand six hundred seventy tvvo has to this very day continued But that which was most admirable in the winding up of this Declaration was to behold these Words And vvhereas vve are engaged by a Treaty to support the Peace made at Aix la Chapelle We do finally Declare that notvvithstanding thé Prosecution of this War We vvill maintain the true intent and scope of the said Treaty and that in all Alliances vvhich We have or shall make in the progress of this War vve have and vvill take care to preserve the ends thereof inviolable unless provoked to the contrary And yet it is as clear as the Sun that the French
short Prorogation of six days when he understood their intention gave them opportunity to have disisted But it seems they judged the National Jnterest of Religion so farre concerned in this matter that they no sooner meet again but they drew up a second request by way of Addresse to his Majesty with their Reasons against it That for his Royal Highnesse to marry the Princesse of Modena or any other of that Religion had very dangerous consequences That the mindes of his Majesties Protestant subjects will be much disquieted thereby filled with infinite discontents and Jealousies That his Majesty would thereby be linked into such a foraine Alliance which will be of great disadvantage and possibly to the Ruine of the Protestant Religion That they have found by sad experience how such mariages have always increased Popery and incorraged Priests and Jesuits to prevert his Majesties subjects That the Popish party already lift up their heads in hopes of his marriage That they fear it may diminish the affection of the people toward his Royal Highnesse who is by blood so near related to the Crown That it is now more then one Age that the subjects have lived in continual apprehensions of the increase of Popery and the decay of the Protestant Religion Finally that she having many Kindred and Relations in the Court of Rome by this means their enterprises here might be facilitated they might pierce into the most secret Counsells of his Majesty and discover the state of the Realm That the most learned men are of opinion that Marriages no further Proceeded in may lawfully be Dissolved And therefore they beseech his Majesty to Annul the Consummation of it and the Rather because they have not yet the Happiness to see any of his Majestyes own Lineage to Succeed in his Kingdomes These Reasons which were extended more amply against his Royal Highnesses Marriage obtained more weight because most men are apt to Judge of things by Circumstances and to attribute what happens by the Conjuncture of Times to the Effect of Contrivance So that it was not difficult to Interpret what was in his Royal Highness an ingagement only of Honour and Affection as proceeding from the Conspirators Counsels seeing it made so much to their purpose But the business was too far advanced to retreat as his Majesty with great reason had replyed to their former Address the Marriage having been celebrated already and confirmed by his Royal Authority and the House of Commons though sitting when the Duke was in a Treaty for the Arch Dutchess of Inspruck one of the same Religion yet having taken no notice of it Therefore while they pursued the matter thus by a second Address it seemed an easier thing and more decent to Prorogue the Parliament than to Dissolve the Marriage And which might more incline his Majesty to this Resolution the House of Commons had now bound themselves up by a Vote that having considered the present State of the Nation they would not take into Deliberation nor have any further Debate upon any other Proposals of Aide or any Surcharge upon the Subject before the payment of the Tvvelve hundred and fifty thousand pounds in eighteen Months which was last granted were expired or at least till they should evidently see that the Obstinacy of the Hollanders should oblige them to the contrary nor till after the kingdom should be effectually secured against the dangers of Popery and Popish Counsellours and that Order be taken against other present Misdemeanours There was yet another thing the Land-Army which appearing to them expensive needless and terrible to the People they addressed to his Majesty also that they might be disbanded All which things put together his Majesty was induced to Prorogue the Parliament again for a short time till the seventh of January One thousand six hundred seventy three That in the mean while the Princess of Modena arriving the Marriage might be consummated without further interruption That Session was opened with a large deduction also by the new Lord Keeper this being his first Experiment in the Lords House of his Eloquence and Veracity of the Hollanders averseness to Peace or Reason and their uncivil and indirect dealing in all Overtures of Treaty with his Majesty and a Demand was made therefore and re-inforced as formerly of a proportionable and speedy Supply But the Hollanders that had found themselves obstructed alwayes hitherto and in a manner excluded from all Applications and that whatever means they had used was still mis-interpreted and ill represented were so industrious as by this time which was perhaps the greatest part of their Crime to have undeceived the generallity of the Nation in those particulars The House of Commons therefore not doubting but that if they held their hands in matter of money a Peace would in due time follow grew troublesome rather to several of the great Ministers of State whom they suspected to have been Principal in the late pernicious Counsels But instead of the way of Impeachment whereby the Crimes might have been brought to Examination Proof and Judgment they proceeded Summarily within themselves noting them only with an ill Character and requesting his Majesty to remove them from his Counsels his Presence and their Publick Imployments Neither in that way of handling were they Impartial Of the three which were questioned the Duke of Buckingham seemed to have muoh the more favourable Cause but had the severest Fortune And this whole matter not having been mannaged in the solemn Methods of National Justice but transmitted to his Majesty it was easily changed into a Court Intrigue where though it be a Modern Maxime That no State Minister ought to be punished but especially not upon Parliamentary Applications Yet other Offenders thought it of security to themselves in a time of Publick Discontent to have one Man sacrisiced and so the Duke of Buckingham having worse Enemies and as it chanced worse Friends than the rest was after all his Services abandoned they having only heard the sound while he felt all the smart of that Lash from the House of Commons But he was so far a Gainer that with the loss of his Offices and dependance he was restored to the Freedom of his own Spirit to give thence-forward those admirable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vigour and Vivacity of his better Judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though to his own Imprisonment the due Liâ—… of the English Nation 〈◊〉 manner of proceeding in the House of Commons 〈◊〉 a new way of negotiating the Peace with Holland but the â—…ost effectual the Conspirators living all the while under continual apprensions of being called to further account for their Actions and no mony appearing which would either have prepetuated the War or might in case of a Peaâ—…e be misapplied to other uses then the building of Ships insinuated by the Lord Keeper The Hollanders Proposalls by this means therefore began to be thought more reasonable and the Marquis del Fresno the Spanish Minister in this Court labourd
instead of giving a Temper to their deliberations may seem to affect the Predominance For although the House of Peers besides their supream and sole Judicature have an equal power in the Legislature with the House of Commons and at the second Thoughts in the Government have often corrected their errours yet it is to be confessed that the Knights Citizens and Burgesses there assembled are the Representers of the People of England and are more peculiarly impowred by them to transact concerning the Religion Lives Liberties and the Propriety of the Nation And therefore no Honorable person related to his Majesties more particular service but will in that place and opportunity suspect himself least his Gratitude to his Master with his self-interest should tempt him beyond his obligation there to the Publick The same excludes him that may next inherit from being Guardian to an Infant not but there may the same affection and integritie be found in those of the Fathers side as those on the Mothers but out of decent and humane caution and in like manner however his Majesties Officers may be of as sound and untainted reputation as the best yet common Discretion would teach them not to seek after and ingrosse such different Trusts in those bordering Intrests of the King and Contrey where from the People they have no Legall advantage but so much may be gained by betraying them How improper would it seem for a Privy Counsellour if in the House of Commons he should not justify the most arbytrary Proceedings of the Councill Table represent affaires of State with another face defend any misgovernment patronize the greatest Offenders against the Kingdome even though they were too his own particular enemies and extend the supposed Prerogative on all occasions to the detriment of the Subjects certaine and due Libertyes What self denyall were it in the Learned Counsell at Law did they not vindicate the Misdemeanours of the Judges perplex all Remedies against the Corruptions and Incroachment of Courts of Judicature Word all Acts towards the Advantage of their own Profession palliate unlawfull Elections extenuate and advocate Publick Crimes where the Criminall may prove considerable step into the chaire of a Money Bill ' and pen the Clauses so dubiously that they may be interpretâ—… in Westminister-Hall beyond the Houses intention mislead the House not only in point of Law but even in matter of Fact without any respect to Veracity but all to his own further Promotion What Soldier in Pay but might think himself sit to be cashiered should he oppose the increase of Standing Forces the Depression of Civill Authority or the Levying of Mony by whatsoever means or in what Quantity Or who of them ought not to abhorre that Traiterous Position of taking Armes by the Kings Authority against those that are Commissionated by him in pursuance of such Commission What Officer of the Navy but takes himself under Obligation to magnify the expence extoll the mannagment conceal the neglect increase the Debts and presse the Necessity ringging and unringging it to the House in the same moment and representing it all at once in a good and a bad condition should any Member of Parliament and of the Exchequer omit to transform the Accounts conceal the Issues highten the Anticipations and in despight of himself oblidge whosoever chance to be the Lord Treasurer might not his Reversioner justly expect to be put into present Posession of the Office Who that is either concerned in the Customes or of their Brethren of the Excise can with any decency refuse if they do not invent all further Impositions upon Merchandise Navigation or our own domestick Growth and Consumption and if the Charge be but Temporary to perpetuate it Hence it shall come that insteed of relieving the Crown by the good old and certain way of Subsidyes wherein nothing was to be got by the House of Commons they devised this Foraine course of Revenue to the great Greivance and double charg of the People that so many of the Members might be gratified in the Farmes or Commissions But to conclude this digression whatsoever other Offices have been set up for the use of the Members or have been extinguished upon occasion should they have failed at a Question did not they deserve to be turned out Were not all the Votes as it were in Fee Farme of those that were intrusted with the sale Must not Surinam be a sufficient cause of quarrel with Holland to any Commissioner of the Plantations Or who would have denyed Mony to continue the War with Holland when he were a Commissioner of Prizes of Sick and Wounded of Transporting the English or of Starving the Dutch Prisoners How much greater then would the hardship be for those of his Majesties Houshold or who attend upon his Royall Person to forget by any chance Vote or in being absent from the House that they are his Domestick servants Or that all those of the capacity abovementioned are to be look upon as a distinct Body under another Discipline and whatsoever they may commit in the House of Commons against the National Interest they take themselves to be justified by their Circumstances their hearts indeed are they say with the Country and one of them had the boldness to tell his Majesty That he was come from Voting in the House Against his Conscience And yet these Gentlemen being full and already in Imployment are more good natured and less dangerous to the Publick than those that are hungry and out of Office who may by probable computation make another Third part of this House of Commons Those are such as having observed by what steps or rather leaps and strides others of their House have ascended into the highest Places of the Kingdom do upon measuring their own Birth Estates Parts and Merit think themselves as well and better qualified in all respects as their former Companions They are generally men who by speaking against the French inveighing against the Debauches of Court talking of the ill management of the Revenue and such Popular flourishes have cheated the Countrys into Electing them and when they come up if they can speak in the House they make a faint attaque or two upon some great Minister of State and perhaps relieve some other that is in danger of Parliament to make themselves either way considerable In matters of money they seem at first difficult but having been discourst with in private they are set right and begin to understand it better themselves and to convert their Brethren For they are all of them to be bought and sold only their Number makes them cheaper and each of them doth so overvalue himself that sometimes they outstand or let slip their own Market It is not to be imagined how small things in this case even Members of great Estates will stoop at and most of them will do as much for Hopes as others for Fruition but if their patience be tired out they grow at last
such Alliances To which the Speaker re-assuming the Chair and this being reported the House agreed and appointed the Committee And Adjourned over Asâ—…nsion day till Friday In the interim the Committee appointed met and drew the Address according to the above mentioned Order a true Coppy of which is here annexed May it please your Most excellent Majesty YOur Majesties most Loyal and Dutiful Subjects 〈◊〉 Commons in Parliament assembled have taken into their serious consideration your Majesties gracious Speech and do beseech your Majesty to believe it is a great affliction to them to find themselves obleiged at present to decline the granting your Majesty the supply your Majesty is pleased to demand conceiving it is not agreeable to the usage of Parliament to grant Supplyes for mainteance of Wars and Alliances before they are signified in Parliament which the too Wars against the States of the Vnited Provinces since your Majesties happy Restoration and the League made in January 1668 for preservation of the Spanish Nether Lands sufficiently proved without ling your Majesty with Instances of greater antiquity from which usage if we might depart the president might be of dangerous consequence in future times though your Majesties Goodnesse gives us great security during your Majesties Raign which we beseech God long to continue This Consideration prompted us in our last Addresse to your Majesty before our last Recesse humbly to mention to your Majesty our hopes that before our meeting again your Majesties Alliances might be so fixed as that your Majesty might begraciously pleased to impart them to us in Parliament that so our earnest desires of supplying your Majesty for prosecuting those great ends we had humbly laid before your Majesty might meet with no impediment or obstruction being highly sensible of the necessity of supporting as well as making the Alliances humbly desired in our former Addresses and which we still conceive so important to the safety of your Majesty and your Kingdomes That we cannot without unfaithfulnesse to your Majesty and those we Represent omit upon all occasions humbly to beseech your Majesty as we now do To enter into a League offensive and defensive vvith the States General of the United Provinces against the grovvth and povver of the French King and for the preservation of the Spanish Nether-Lands and to make such other Alliances vvith such other of the Confiderates as your Majesty shall think fit and usefull to that end in doing which That no time may be lost we humbly offer to his Majesty these Reasons for the expediting of it 1. That if the entering into such Alliances should draw on a War with the French King it would be lest detrimental to your Majesties Subjects at this time of the year they having now fewest effects within the Dominion of that King 2. That though we have great reason to believe the power of the French King to be dangerous to your Majesty and your 〈◊〉 when he shall be at more leisure to molest us yet we conceive the many Enemies he has to deal with at present together with the scituation of your Majesties Kingdoms the Unanimity of the People in the Cause the care your Majesty hath been pleased to take of your ordinary Guards of the Sea together with the Credit provided by the late Act for an additional Excise for three years make the entering into and declaring Alliances very safe until we may in a regular way give your Majesty such further Supplies as may enable your Majesty to support your Allyances and defend your kingdoms And because of the great danger and charge which must necessarily fall upon your Majesties kingdomes if through want of that timely encouragement and assistance which your Majesties joyning with the States General of the United Provinces and other the Confederates would give them The said States or any other considerable part of the Confederates should this next Winter or sooner make a Peace or Truce with the French King the prevention vvhereof must 〈◊〉 be acknovvledged a singular effect of Gods goodness to us which if it should happen your Majesty would be afterwards necessitated with fewer perhaps with no Alliances or Assistance to withstand the power of the French king which hath so long and so succesfully contended with so many and so potent Adversaries and whilest he continues his over-ballancing greatness must alwayes be dangerous to his Neighbours since he would be able to oppress any one Confederate before the rest could get together and be in so good a posture of offending him as they novv are being joyntly engaged in a War And if he should be so successful as to make a Peace or 〈◊〉 the present Confederation against him it is much to be feared whether 〈◊〉 would be possible ever to reunite it at least it would be work of so much time and difficulty as would leave your Majesties Kingdomes exposed to much misery and danger Having thus discharged our duty in laying before your Majesty the Dangers threatning your Majesty and your Kingdomes and the onely Remedyes we can think of for the preventing securing and queting the minds of your Majesties People with some few of those Reasons which have moved us to this and our former Addresses On these Subjects We most humbly beseech your Majesty to take the matter to your serious Consideration and to take such Resolutions as may not leave it in the power of any neighbouring Prince to rob your People of that happinesse which they enjoy under your Majesties gracious Governement beseeching your Majesty to â—…fident and assured that when your Majesty shall be 〈◊〉 to declare such Alliances in Parliament We shall hold our selves obliged not only by our promises and assurances given and now which great Unaninity revived in a full House but by the Zeal and desires of those whom we represent and by the Interests of all our safetyes most chearfully to give your Majesty from time to time such speedy Supplyes and Assistances as may fully and plentifully answer the Occasions and by Gods blessing preserve your Majesty Honour and the safty of the People All which is most humbly submitted to your Majesties great Wisdome Friday May 25th 1677 Sir John Trevor reported from the said Committee the Addresse as 't was drawn by them which was read Whereupon it was moved to agree with the Committee but before it was agreed to there was a debate and division of the House It was observed and objected that there was but one reson given herein for declining the granting money and that is the Unpresidentednesse and as to one of the Instances to this purpose mentioned Viz. the Kings first Dutch War it was said to be mistaken for that the 2500000 l. was voted before the War declared But it was answred that if the Declaration was not before the grant of the money which Quaere yet 't was certain that the War it self and great Hostilites were before the money and some said there might be other reasons