themselves the R. C's have neither Hearts to keep firm to such a Resolution nor Hands to Execute it Since therefore They themselves have unhappily brought their Church into such Preâ—pices by provoking the Dissenters it is in a particular manner their Duty as well as their laterest to endeavour to soften them by assisting the Letter and promoting the Design of it But if the old leaven still remain they continue to argue as formerly if the Surplice be parted with the Church of England is lost if the Penal Laws be repealed the Test will follow and comfort themselves with this most Christian reflection that the R. C. will not accept of what is offered them such men deserve all the misery that is preparing for them and will perish without Pity and give thinking Men occasion to remember the Proverb Beat a Fool or a Zealot in a Morter yet his Foolishness will not depart from him But the Dissenters ought not to be much concerned at this they have their own Bigots and the Church of England theirs there will be Tools whilst there are Workmen This a time for Wisdom to be justified of her Children when honest men ought to leave off minding the lesser Interests of this or that particular Church and joyn in securing the common Interest of the Protestant Religion And to conclude I would particularly beg of the Dissenters to make use of their best Judgment on this so critical an occasion which they will do in my opinion in keeping close to the contents of this Letter by endeavouring to obtain in a fair and legal way such a Liberty to all Perswasions as is the Natural Right of Freemen and as our Protestant Successors declare themselves willing to joyn in and if those who have an equal nay a greater Interest than themselves will not agree to such a Liberty because they will be Masters or nothing the Dissenters will have the comfort of having discharged their own Consciences as prudent Men and good Christians ought to do and may safely trust God with the Event Sir I thought I had made an end but looking your Letter over again I find I have forgot to answer a reason or two you give why you doubt whether the Letter be truly M. Fagels You are informed you say that such and such Great Men doubted of it but some might as well pretend to doubt of the Truth of that Letter tho they knew it to be true as believe Her Majesty to be with Child almost before she knew it Her self and that she was quick when the Embryo as Anatomists say is not much above an Inch long I don't think that Popish Successors like certain weeds grow faster than others The Persons you name may Trim and presume on their Merit least they might be thought capable of Resentment A dangerous Reflection I say their Merit you have seen a long relation of the great services some when they were in power did their Highnesses it is bound up with a relation of the true causes of their sufferings for their or rather their Highnesses Religion You know even how one of them the last Summer payed them his reverence with all the Respect and Humility of a due distance and with the same caution with which the Invincible Monarch fights out of Cannon shot But Sir though the character of a Trimmer be ordinarily the character of a Prudent Man there are times and seasons when it is not the Character of an Honest Man. I acknowledge that since their Highnesses Marriage nothing has hapned so much for the good of the Protestant Interest as this Letter of M. Fagels and if I had been either the Writer or Adviser of it I should be very proud of it and think the Nation much in my debt But Sir that was not a very good reason to make you doubt of it for a good cause will have its time tho not so often as a bad one which hath ordinarily the Majority on its side I am confident at present we have all the reason in the world to expect it for my own part though I am neither young nor strong I hope to live to see a day of Jubilee in England for all that deserve it when honest men shall have the same pleasure in thinking on these times that a Woman happily delivered hath in reflecting on the pain and danger she was in But Knaves shall remember them as I am told the damned do their sins Cursing both them and themselves Sir I am Yours January 12 1688. A Letter Writ by Mijn Heer Fagel Pensioner to the Great and Mighty Lords the States of Holland and Westfriesland Writ in French on the 9th of April N. Stile 1688. To the Marquiss of Albeville Envoy Extraordinary of His Majesty of Great Britain to the High and Mighty the States General of the Vnited Provinces To which is prefixt an Account in Dutch of the Letter Writ by Mijn Heer Fagel on the 4th of November in the year 1687. to Mr. Stewart written by the said Pensioner and Published by his Order Printed at the Hague by James Scheltus Printer to the States of Holland and Westfriesland Translated out of the French and Dutch into English READER I Gaspar Fagel having the honour to serve the Great and Mighty States of Holland and Westfriesland in the Quality of their Pensioner cannot any longer delay the giving the Publick this account that in the month of July last 1687. I was very earnestly desired by Mr. James Stewart Advocate to write to him what were the Prince and Princess of Orange's Thoughts concerning the repealing the Test and the Penal Laws but I was not easily brought to put Pen to Paper on this subject because I knew that their Highnesses Thoughts did not agree with his Majesties so that the writing in such matters was extream tender therefore I delayed it till I was more earnestly pressed to it and it was Intimated to me that those pressing desires were made by His Majesties Knowledge and Allowance at last I did according to the mind of their Highnesses draw the Letter which I writ to Mr. Stewart on the 4th of November I transmitted the draught of my Letter to their Highnesses and received upon it their order to send it after that their Highnesses had read and examined the draught in Dutch together with the Translation of it into English upon all this I sent my Letter to Mr. Stewart in the beginning of November and received an answer from him by which he signified that he had shewed my Letter both to the Earl of Melfort and to the Earl of Sunderland and that it was also shewed to the King himself nor did he in the least intimate to me that it was desired that I should make any great secret of it or take care that it should not become publick That Letter was afterwards about the middle of January Printed in England and upon its coming over into this Country it has occasioned a great
Their HIGHNESS the Prince Princess OF ORANGE's OPINION About a GENERAL Liberty of Conscience c. Being a Collection of FOUR SELECT PAPERS VIZ. I. Mijn Heer Fagel ' s First Letter to Mr. Stewart II. Reflexions on Monsieur Fagel's Letter III. Fagel's Second Letter to Mr. Stewart IV. Some Extracts out of Mr. Stewart's Letters which were communicated to Mijn Heer Fagel Together with some References to Mr. Stewart's Printed Letter LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Richard Janeway in Queens-head-alley in Pater-Noster-Row 1689. A LETTER Writ by Mijn Heer FAGEL Pensioner of Holland to Mr. James Stewart Advocate Giving an Account of the Prince and Princess of Orange's thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Test and the Penal Laws SIR I Am extream sorry that my ill health hath so long hindred me from Answering those Letters in which you so earnestly desired to know of me what their Highnesses thoughts are concerning the Repeal of the Penal Laws and more particularly of that concerning the Test I beg you to assure your self that I will deal very plainly with you in this matter and without Reserve since you say that your Letters was writ by the King's knowledge and allowance I must then first of all assure you very positively that their Highnesses have often declared as They did more particularly to the Marquis of Albeville His Majesties Envoy Extraordinary to the States that it is their Opinion That no Christian ought to be persecuted for his Conscience or be ill used because he differs from the publick and and established Religion And therefore they can consent that the Papists in England Scotland and Ireland be suffered to continue in their Religion with as much Liberty as is allowed them by the States in these Provinces in which it cannot be denied that they enâ—â—y a full Liberty of Conscience And as for the Dissenters Their Highnesses do not only consent but do heartily approve of their having an entire Liberty for the full Exercise of their Religion without any trouble or hindrance so that none may be able to give them the least disturbance upon that account And their Highnesses are very ready in case His Majesty shall think fit to desire it to declare their willingness to concur in the settling and confirming this Liberty and as far as it lies in them they will protect and defend it and according to the Language of Treaties They will confirm it with their Guarranty of which you made mention in yours And if His Majesty shall think fit fuether to desire their concurrence in the Repealing of the Penal Laws They are ready to give it provided always that those Laws remain still in their full vigour by which the R. Catholicks are shut out of both Houses of Parliament and out of all publick Employments Ecclesiastical Civil and Military as likewise all those other Laws which confirm the Protestant Religion and which secures it against all the attempts of the Roman Catholicks But Their Highnesses cannot agree to the Repeal of the Test or of those other Penal Laws last mentioned that tend to the security of the Protestant Religion since the R. Catholicks receive no other prejudice from these than the being excluded from Parliaments or from publick Employments And that by them the Protestant Religion is covered from all the Designs of the R. Catholicks against it or against the publick safety And neither the Test nor these other Laws can be said to carry in them any severity against the Roman Catholicks upon account of their Consciences They are only Provisions qualifying men to be Members of Parliament or to be capable of bearing Office by which they must declare before God and Men that they are for the Protestant Religion So that indeed all this amounts to no more than a securing the Protestant Religion from any Prejudices that it may receive from the R. Catholicks Their Highnesses have thought and do still think that more than this ought not to be askt or expected from Them since by this means the R. Catholicks and their Posterity will be for ever secured from all trouble in their Persons or Estates or in the Exercise of their Religion and that the Roman Catholicks ought to be satisfied with this and not to disquiet the Kingdom because they cannot be admitted to sit in Parliament or to be in Employments or because those Laws in which the security of the Protestant Religion does chiefly consist are not repealed by which they may be put in a condition to overturn it Their Highnesses do also believe that the Dissenters will be fully satisfied when they shall be for ever covered from all danger of being disturbed or punished for the free Exercise of their Religion upon any sort of pretence whatsoever Their Highnesses having declared themselves so positively in these matters it seems very plain to me that They are far from being any hindrance to the Freeing the Dissenters from the severity of the Penal Laws since they are ready to use their utmost endeavours for the establishing of it nor do they at all press the denying to the Roman Catholicks the exercise of their Religion provided it be managed modestly and without Pomp or Ostentation As for my own part I ever was and still am very much against all those who would persecute any Christian because he differs from the publick and established Religion And I hope by the Grace of God to continue still in the same mind for since that Light with which Religion illuminates our mind is according to my sense of things purely an effect of the Mercy of God to us we ought then as I think to render to God all possible Thanks for his Goodness to us and to have Pity for those who are still shut up in Error even as God has pitied us and to put up most earnest prayers to God for bringing those into the way of Truth who stray from it and to use all gentle and friendly methods for reducing them to it But I confess I could never comprehend how any that profess themselves Christians and that may enjoy their Religion freely and without any disturbance can judge it lawful for them to go about to disturb the Quiet of any Kingdom or State or to overturn Constitutions that so they themselves may be admitted to Employments and that those Laws in which the Security and Quiet of the Established Religion consists should be shaken It is plain that the Reformed Religion is by the Grace of God and by the Laws of the Land enacted by both King and Parliament the publick and established Religion both in England Scotland and Ireland and that it is provided by those Laws that none can be admitted either to a place in Parliament or to any publick Employment except those that do openly declare that they are of the Protestant Religion and not Roman Catholicks and it is also provided by those Laws that the Protestant Religion shall be in all time coming
months ago that such a Letter was written a Forgery would before this time have been detected esecially such a one as ruines the Designs of the Triumphing Party Thirdly It was written by M. Fagel in Answer to Letters from Mr. Stewart sent by His Majesties special Orders and Mr. Stewart hath both an English and Latin Copy sent him Therefore the English Copy is not called a Translation but it is a sort of Original for you are not to doubt but the matter was ordered so that her Royal Highness might peruse it as well as his Majesty In the next place you would know whether their Highnesses gave Order to Monsieur Fagel to write it I wish Sir you would take the pains to read the Letter over again and consider who this Monsieur Fagel is He is Pensionary of Holland and first Ministor of State raised to that Dignity by the Prince's Favour he Answers Letters written to him which are ordered by His Majesty to be communicated to their Highnesses In his Answer he gives an Aceount of their Highnesses Opinions about the Repeal of the Penal Laws and Test Matters of a National Concern and of the greatest Importance Now you must have a strange Opinion of Monsieur Fagel if you think him capable of so great an indiscretion or rather Imposture as to write such a Letter of his own Head. The Letter it self Demonstrates that whoever writ it is no Fool and the Circumstances I have marked show that he is no Knave And indeed the substance of it is not new it only repeats to His Maiesty the same Answer which the Prince and Princess had formerly given to His Majesties Envoy there In short you may leave the whole Matter to this plain issue if this Letter be a false one it will be disown'd if a true one it will be owned Their Highnesses love not to do things that will not bear the Light. It is Evident they did not intend the Matter of it should be a Secret having told it to Monsieur d'Albeville as often as he in his Discreet Way necessitated them to do it But how it came to be Printed I cannot inform you justly however you shall have my conjecture I remember as soon as it was noised about Town that Mr. Stewart had received a Letter of such a Nature from Monsieur Fagel care was taken that the Writer of the Common News Letters which are dispersed over the Kingdom should insert in them that their Highnesses had declared themselves for the Repeal of the Test This Pias Fraus might I suppose give Occasion to the Printing of the Letter as the Wisdom and Policy of our States-men in putting Mr. Stewart on Writing such Letters had procured it I say Letters for Monsieur Fagel had five or six on that subject before he answered so unwilling were they in Holland to return an Answer since they could not give one that was pleasing or do any thing that look'd like meddling The third Thing you desired to be satisfied in is Whether the Dissenters may rely on their Highnesses Word I am as apt to mistrust Princes Promises as you are But shall now give you my reasons why I think the Dissenters may safely do it And at the same time because of the Affinity of the matter I will tell you why I think we may all rely on their Highnesses for our Civil Liberties as well as the Dissenters may do for Liberty of Conscience Much of what I have to say is equally applicable to them both yet because I know you have had an Account of Her Royal Highness better than I can give you I shall for the most part speak only of the Prince My first Reason is the certainest of all Reasons That it will be His Highnesses interest to settle matters at Home which only can be done by a Legal Toleration or Comprehension in Matters of Religion and by restoring the Civil Liberties of the Nation so much invaded of late That this will be his interest is Evident if his Designs lye abroad as it 's certain they do Designs at home and abroad at the same time are so inconsistent that we see His Majesty though raised above his Fears at home by His late Victory and invited abroad by all that can excite his Appetite for Glory cannot reconcile them The truth is one that would undertake it is in the same Condition with Officers that beat their men to make them fight they have Enemies before and behind But you may happily Object that Princes do not always follow their true Interests of which it is not difficult in this Age to give several Fatal Instances I Answer That it is to be presumed that Princes as well as other men will follow their Interests till the contrary appear and if they be of an Age to have taken their Fold and have till such Age kept firm to their Interests the Presumption grows strong but if their Inclinations the Maxims of their Families the Impressions of their Education and all their other Circumstances do side with their Interest and lead them the same way it is hardly Credible they should ever quit it Now this being the present Case we have all the certainty that can be had in such matters The Prince of Orange has above these 15 years given so great proofs of his Firmness and Resolution as well as of his Capacity and conduct in opposing the Grand Ravisher I may add the Betrayers too of Liberty and Religion that he is deservedly by all Impartial Men own'd to be the Head of the Protestant Interest A Headship which no Princes but the Kings of England should have and none but they would be without it Now one may rationally conclude That when the Prince shall joyn to his present possession of this Headship a more Natural Title by being in a greater capacity to Act he will not degrade himself nor lay aside Designs and Interests which ought to be the Glory of England as they are indeed the Glory of his Family acquired and derived to him by the Blood of his Ancestors and carried on and maintained by himself with so much Honour and Reputation I might add here That the Prince is a Man of a sedate even Temper full of Thoughts and Reflection one that precipitates neither in Thinking Speaking nor Acting is cautious in Resolving and Promising but firm to his Resolutions and exact in observing his Word inform your self and you 'll find this a part of his Character and conclude from hence what may be presumed from his Inclinations Now as to the Maxims of his Family let us compare them a little where it may be decently done The French King broke his Faith to his Protestant Subjects upon this single point of Vain Glory that he might shew the World he was greater than most of his Predecessors who though they had the same Inclinations were not Potent enough to pursue them effectually as he has done to the everlasting Infamy of his
deal of noise yet I have not hitherto concerned my self in all those discourses or in all that has been writ and printed upon it but have let all people reason or write concerning it as they pleased But I have lately seen an English Book entitled Parliamentum Pacificum printed in London in this present year by vertue of a Licence signed by the Earl of Sunderland in which that Letter writ by me is not only called a Pretended Piece but it is said that which I had set forth in my Letter concerning the Prince and Princesses Thoughts relating to the repeal of the Test and the Penal Laws was advanced by me without the knowledge of their Highnesses at least of her Royal Highness and by this the Reader may be perhaps wrought on to believe either that my Letter was a Pretended Piece and Forgery or that I writ it without Order from their Highnesses since it may indeed seem scarce probable that the Author could have obtained a License for the printing of a paper that contains such falshoods in it which the Court and in particular the Earl of Sunderland could not but know to be such for they know well both that the Letter was writ by me and that I was ordered to write it by their Highnesses therefore I could not delay any longer to undeceive the World. Thus I am obliged to publish this account of the matter I have still in my possession those Letters by which I was earnestly pressed to write the fore-mentioned Letter in which it is expresly said that they were writ by His Majesties Knowledge and Allowance I have also that Letter in which notice is given that my Letter had come to hand and that it was shewed not only to the Earls of Melfâ—rt and Sunderland but to his Majesty himself so that they know well that it is no Pretended Piece I have also by me the Letter by which His Highneses desired me to send â—â—â—â—â—ter to Mr. Stewart together with the English Translation of it all which I will print if I find it necessary So that it is a gross abuse put on the World to say that my Letter is a forgery since as it was truly writ by me so it has been avowed by me ever since it first appeared And it is a base Calumny and Slander to say that I writ that account of their Highnesses thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Test and the Penal Laws without their knowledge which appears so much the more evident since it cannot be imagined that their Highnesses would not have expressed their just resentments at so high and extravagant a presumption as I should have committed if I had written any account of their thoughts without their knowledg All this has obliged me for my own Vindication to write the following Letter to the Marquess of Albeville His Majesties Envoy to the States because I have had much discourse with him concerning the writing of that Letter long before this book called Parliamentum Pacificum was published but I will not engage my self any further to examine the reasonings of the Author of that Phmphlet for I know well that in those matters the world is divided into very different sentiments and that men are apt to approve or censure such things according to their preconceived Opinions Of all this I thought it necessary to advertise my Reader and to order this account of my Letter to be printed by a known Printer from a Copy signed by my hand At the Hague the 10th of April 1688. GASPAR FAGEL A Copy of the Letter Writ by Mijn Heer Fagel to the Marquis of Albeville bearing date the 9th of April 1688. SIR THere has appeared here an English book Printed at London this year entitled Parliamentum Pacificum with an Imâ—rimatur before it signed by the Earl of Sunderland â—f which I cannot but complain to you how averse soever I am 〈◊〉 things of that kind It is affirmed in that book that the Letter which I writ to Mr. Stewart the 4th of November last year concerning the Test and the Penal Laws is a Pretended Piece or at least that I writ it without order and without the consent of their Highnesses and more particularly of her Royal Highness the PRINCESS of ORANGE I will not engage my self to examin and refute the particulars that are in that Book for that were as unsuteable to the Character I bear as it is to my own Inclinations which do both concur in making it unfit for me to enter upon a publick dispute in things of this nature But you cannot think it strange if I desire you to call to mind that it was not of my own head that I was engaged to write that Letter which is now called in question it was far from that I was pressed by earnest and often repeated Instances for the space of four months that were made to me in His Majesties name to write upon that subject which at last prevailed with me yet I went about it with all the caution that a matter of such Importance required and I took care not to write one single period in that whole Letter that I apprehended might give His Majesty the least offence yet after all I see this Letter is treated as an Imposture in a Book published by Authority tho both his Majesty and the whole Court know the truth of this matter which Sir I have in particular owned to your self as being the Kings Minister here as I have also owned it to all that have spoke to me upon the Subject But that which troubles more is that I am accused for having made use of their Highnesses name and in particular of her Royal Highnesses without their Order as if I were capable of so Infamous a Forgery and of an Imposture so unworthy of any man of honour and that chiefly in a matter of so great Consequence Sir you must not think it strange if in this I appeal to your self to that which you know and which you have often owned to me your self that their Highnesses and particularly Her Royal Highness have often expreâ—sed to you their thoughts concerning the Test and the Penal Laws conform to that which I writ in their names which you owned to me that you had writ to the Court of England long before I writ that Letter and that therefore you could not imagin upon what reason the Court could press me so much as they did to write to Mr. Stewart I do assure you I find my self very little concerned in what is said in this late Book or in any other of that kind I foresaw well enough from the beginning that I should be attackt upon the account of my Letter in which it was Indifferent to me what any man thought of it But this Book being published by the authoaity of a Licence granted by the Earl of Sunderland President of His Majesties Privy Council and Secretary of State I find my honour is so touched in it that
I am obliged to undeceive the world of the false accusation with which I am charged in it And I thought Sir that I could not do this better than by writing to you that are His Majestys Minister and who know perfectly the truth of the matter that is now called in question and therefore I desire you will write concerning it to the Earl of Sunderland I believe he has not seen or at least that he has not considered the passages of that Book that do concern me For I am sure if he had done that he would never have Licensed it for my Lord Sunderland knows as well as any man alive does that my Letter to Mr. Stewart is no Pretended Piece he himself saw the Letter or at least the English Translation of it that I sent along with it And he could not but know likewise both by your Letters and by what you told by word of mouth that their Highnesses and in particular Her Royal Highness have often owned to you their sense of the Test and the Penal Laws conform to that which I writ in their name to Mr. Stewart So I do persuade my self that My Lord Sunderland will have the Justice and Goodness to recall this Licence which has been obtained of him by a surprise and that the Author of so manifest and so Injurious a Calumny shall be punished as he deserveth I will not likewise conceal from you the design I have of publishing an account of all that has passed in this matter as well as of this Letter which I take the liberty now to write to you in which my design is not to enter into any dispute concerning the matter it self much less to offend any person whatsoever but only to cover my Honour which is struck at by this attrocious Calumny I am Sir your most humble and most obedient Servant GASPAR FAGEL To all which this Attestation of the Printer is added I the under subscribing James Scheltus Printer in Ordinary to the Great and Mighty Lords the States of Holland and Westfriesland dwelling in the Hague do declare and attest by these presents that the Writing here published together with the Copy of the Letter writ in French to the Marquis of Albeville Envoy Extraordinary of His Majesty of Great Brittain to the States were delivered into my hands in order to their being Printed by Mijn Heer Gasper Fagel Pesioner to the above named Lords and States of Holland and Westfriesland and that I have printed them by his express Order At the Hague the 10th of April 1688. J. SCHELTUS Some Extracts out of Mr. James Stewart's Letters which were communicated to Mijn Heer Fagel the States Pensionary of the Province of Holland Together with some References to Mr. Stewart's Printed Letter MR. Stewart staid about seven Months after he had received the Pensionary's Letter before he thought fit to write any Answer to it and then instead of sending one in writing to the Pensioner or in a Language understood by him he has thought fit by a Civility peculiar to himself to Print an Answer in English and to send it abroad into the World before the Pensioner had so much as seen it The many and great Affairs that press had upon that Eminent Minister together with a sad want of Health by which he has been long afflicted have made that he had not the leisure to procure Mr. Stewart's Letter to be translated to him and to compare the Matters of Fact related to in it with the Letters that were writ the last year by Mr. Stwatr which are in his Possession nor did he think it necessary to make too much haste And therefore if he has let as many Weeks pass without ordering an Answer to be prepared as the other had done Months he thought that even this Slowness might look like one that despised this indecent Attempt upon his Honour that Mr. Stewart has made in giving so unjust a Representation of the matter of Fact. He hopes he is too well known to the World to apprehend that any Persons would entertain the hard Thoughts of him which Mr. Stewart's late Print may have offered to them and therefore he has proceeded in this matter with the Slowness that he thought became his Integrity since a greater Haste might have look'd like one that was uneasy because he knew himself to be in Fault As for the reasoning part of Mr. Stewart's Paper he has already expressed himself in his Letter to Mr. d' Albeville that he will not enter into any Arguing upon those Points but will leave the Matter to the Judgement of every Reader therefore he has given order only to examine those Matters of Fact that are set forth in the beginning of Mr. Stewart's Letters that that so the World may have a true Account of the Motives that induced him to write his Letter to Mr. Stewart from the words of Mr. Stewart's own Letters And then he will leave it to the Judgment of every Reader whether Mr. Stewart has given the Matter of Fact fairly or not It is true the Pensioner has not thought fit to print all Mr. Stewart's Letters at their full length there are many Particulars in them for which he is not willing to expose him And in this he has shewed a greater Regard to Mr. Stewart than the Usage that he has met with from him deserves If Mr. Stewart has kept Copies of his own Letters he must see that the Pensioners Reservedness is rather grounded on what he thought became himself than on what Mr. Stewart has deserved of him But if Mr. Stewart or any in his name will take Advantages from this that the Letters themselves are not published and that here there are only Extracts of them offered to the World then the Pensioner will be excused if he Prints them all to a Tittle The Truth is it is scarce conceivable how Mr. Stewart could assume the Confidence that appears in his printed Letter if he have kept Copies of the Letters that he writ last-Year And if he engaged himself in Affairs of such Importance without keeping Copies of what he writ it was somewhat extraordinary And yet this Censure is that which falls the softest on him But I will avoid every thing that looks like a sharpness of Expression for the Pensioner expects that he who is to give this Account to the English Nation should rather consider the Dignity of the Post in which he is than the Advantages that Mr. Stewart may have given for replying sharply on him And in this whole matter the Pensioner's chief Concern is to offer to the World such a Relation of the Occasions that drew his Letter to Mr. Stewart from him as may justify him against the false Insinuations that are given He owed this likewise as an Expression of his Respect and Duty to their Highnesses in whose Name he wrote his Letter and at whom all those false Representations are levelled though they fall first and immediately upon
too great Mislike of that which can never wrong him but will in probability in the event be wholly in his own power I hope you will consider and make your best use of these things I expect an Account of this per first I mean an Answer to this Letter and pray improve it to the best Advantage The Second Letter without a Date THat it is a thing most certain that his Majesty is resolved to observe the Succession to the Crown as a thing most sacred and is far from all Thoughts of altering the same and that his Majesty is very desirous to have the Prince and Princess of Orange to consent to and concur with him in establishing this Liberty So that upon the whole it may be feared that if the Prince continue obstinate in refusing his Majesty he may fall under Suspicions of the greatest part of England and of all Scotland to be too great a Favourer of the Church of England and consequently a person whom they have reason to dread And many think that this Compliance in the Prince might be further a wise part both as to the Conciliating of his Majesty's greater Favour and the begetting of an Understanding betwixt the King and the States and the Parliament will consent to the Liberty so much the rather that they have a Protestant Successor in prospect I cannot on these things make any conclusion but simply leave them to your Reflection and the best use you please to make of them I will expect your Answer per first VVindsor July 18. 1687. THE Hints that I gave you in my two former Letters I shall now explain more fully in this And therefore I heartily wish that the Prince and Princess may understand all that you think needful on this Subject It troubles his Majesty to find them so averse from approving this Liebrty and concurring for its Establishment so that in truth I cannot see why their Highnesses should not embrace cheerfully so fair an Opportunity to gratify both his Majesty and the far greater and better part of the Nation Now upon the whole I expect that you will make all I have written fully known at the Hague especially with the Prince But the main thing I expect from you is to have your mind whether or not his Highness may be so disposed as that a well Chosen Informer sent to himself might perfect the Work. And this Answer I will expect per first where ever the Prince be you know who are to be spoken and how I again entreat your Care and Dispatch in this with your Return London July 29. 1687. MIne of the 19 July with my last of the 26th July V. St. will I am sure satisfy you fully for therein I have indeed answered all can be objected and have given you such an Account of the Confirmation of all I have writ from his Majesty himself that I must think it a Fatality if your people remain obstinate And I again assure you if your people be obstinate it will be fatal to the poor Dissenters and I fear productive of Ills yet unheard of and therefore pray consider my Letters and let me know if there be any place to receive Information by a good Hand but however let us endeavour Good all we can and I assure you I have my Warrant Haste your Answer Windsor Aug. 5. 1687. AND in a word believe me if the Prince will do what is desired it is the best service to the Protestants the highest Obligation on his Majesty and the greatest Advancement of his own Interest that he can think on but if not then all is contrary But pray haste an Answer Windsor Aug. 12. 1687. I Have yours of the 15. Instant long looked for you remark that you have received mine of the 26 of July but say nothing of that of the 19. which was my fullest and which I assure you was writ not only with permission but according to his Majesties Mind sufficiently expressed our Religion ought certainly to be dearer to us than all earthly Concerns It is very true what you say that mistakes about its Concerns especially in such a time may be of the greatest Importance which no doubt should perswade to a very scrupulous Caution But yet I am satisfied That the simple Representing of what was wrote to you which was all I required was no such difficult Task But to be plain with you as my Friend your return was not only long delayed but I observe such a Coldness in it different from the strain of your former that I think I mistake not when I understand by your Letter more than you express I wish the P. may see or hear this from end to end London Aug. 22. 1687. I Have yours of the 16th Instant when I said your last was more Cool I meant not as your Affection but as to your diligence in that Affair for I am perswaded that the establishing of this Liberty by Law is not only the Interest of Protestant Dissenters above all others but that his Highness s consenting to it would be its secure Guarantee both against Changes and Abuses As you love the Quiet of good Men and me leave off Complements and Ceremonies and discourse his Highness of all I have written I am now hastening to Scotland but may return shortly for the Kings is most desirous to gain the Prince and he will be undoubtedly the best Guarantee to us of this Liberty and also to hinder all your Fears about Popery Newwark Aug. 26. 1687. BUT now I must tell you that though I know to be my very good Friend yet he hath not answered my Expectation for you see that to seven of mine he gave me not one Word of Answer although I told him that the substance of them was writ by the King's Allowance and a Return expected by him besides the Answers he makes are either Generals or Complements whereas my desire was that the Prince should know things and that his Answer with his Reasons might be understood but my Friend has delayed and scruffed things From Scotland Septemb. 24. 1687. I Have yours of the 30th of Aug. but have delayed so long to answer because I had written other Letters to you whereof I yet expect the Return my most humble Duty to my Friend at the Hague Edinburg Octob. 28. 1687. AS for that more important Affair wherewith I have long troubled you I need add no more my Conscience bears me Witness I have dealt sincerely for the Freedom of the Gospel I had certainly long e're now written to the Pensioner Fagel were it not that I judged you were a better Interpreter of any thing I could say I know his real Concern for the Protestant Religion and shall never forget his undeserved Respect to me but alas that Providences should be so ill understood London Novemb. 8. 1687. I Have yours of the 1st of November the enclosed from the L. Pensionary surprize me with a Testimony of his Favour and Friendship and also of his sincere Love to the Truth and fair and candid Reasoning upon the present Subject of Liberty beyond what I can express he hath seriously done too much for me but the more be hath done in complience with my insignificant Endeavours the more I judge and esteem his noble and zealous Concern for Religion and Peace which I am certain could only in this Matter be his just Motive I hope you will testify to him my deep Sense of his Favour and most serious Profession of Duty with all Diligence until I be in 〈◊〉 to make his L. a direct Return I showed the Letter to my Lâ—rd Melfort who was satisfied with it London Novemb. 6. 1687. Which it seems is by a mistake of the Date I Have your last but have been so harassed and toiled that I have not had time to write to you much less to my L. Pensionary yet since my last I acquainted the Earl of Sunderland with his Answer as the King ordered me but I see all Hope from your Side is given quite over and Men are become as cold in it here as you are positive there London Novemb. 19. 1687. By my last of the 8th Instant I gave you notice of the Receipt of my Lord Pensionary ' s Letter and what was and is my Sence of his extraordinary Kindness and Concern in that Affair Since that time I have had the Oppertunity to shew them to the King and at his Command did read to him distinctly out of the English Copy all the Account given of her Highnesses mind touching the Penal Statutes and the Test and withall signified the Sum of what was subjoyned especially the Respect and Difference therein Expressed to his Majesty ' s Person and Government but to my own Regret I find that this Answer hath been too long delayed and that now the King is quite over that Matter being no ways-satisfied with the Distinction made of the Tests from the Penal Laws and no less positive that his Highness is neither to be prevailed upon nor so much as to be further treated with in this Matter The Conclusion AND thus all that relates to the Occasion that drew the Pensioners Letter from him appears in its true light If this Discovery is uneasie to Mr. Stewart he has none to blame for it but himself It is very likely the first Article of his merit for the defacing of all that was past was the Pains he took to work on their Highnesses by the Pensioners means But that having failed him the abusive Letter that he has published upon it may come in for a second Article And now the Reproaches to which this Discovery must needs expose him must compleat his Merit If upon all this he is not highly rewarded he has ill Luck and small Encouragement will be given to others to serve the Court as he has done But if he has great Rewards it must be acknowledged that he has paid dear for them the printing and distributing 15000 Copies of his Letter is only the publishing his Shame to 15000 persons though it is to be doubted if so many could be found in the Nation who would give themselves the Trouble to read so ill a Paper FINIS