Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A41183
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A letter to a person of honour, concerning the kings disavovving the having been married to the D. of M's mother
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Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing F750; ESTC R13882
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16,478
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24
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the seclusion of the Duke of Monmouth from all Title to the Crown may be judged sufficient inducements to have prevailed with him if not to have asserted the said Dukes Bastardy yet to have been silent in the case and not to have proclamed the Legittimacy And yet that very Lord being in danger of an Impeachment in Parliament for advising and perswading the King to a Marriage with Queen Katherine excused himself from all sinistrous ends in that affair by affirming That his Majesty had a lawful Son of his own by a former Marriage specifying by name the D. of M. to succeed to his Crown and Dignity Now though it may be supposed that a person may sometimes lye for his Interest yet no man can be thought to do so in order to the prejudice as well of himself as his whole Posterity And if we believe men speaking falshoods in subserviency to their Honour and Profit Shall we not give credit to them when they speak Truth to their own damage and that of all those who are dear unto them Certainly the positive Confession and Testimony of this one Person being against the Interest of his whole Family of more weight than the denyals of any number whatsoever when meerly to promote their safety and advantage or to serve the Exaltation of the Papal Cause These are but few of the many particulars I could acquaint your Lordship with relating to the confirmation of a Marriage between the King and Mrs. Walters But it is a piece of necessary wisdom at this juncture to know what not to say as well as to understand what to say And to tell you plainly I 'm more a Servant and a Friend to my Country than by pretending to plead the Dukes Cause and to be useful to the Nation to discover the Witnesses which are in reserve or betray the farther Evidences which are to be produced when this matter shall come before a competent Judicature Sixthly 'T is matter of no small trouble to such as truly love his Majesty that the Kings Integrity and Honour should be brought to stake in a matter wherein both the present Age and the succeeding may take occasion to question and bring into examination his Truth and sincerity For though it is not impossible but that Princes considering the Temptations with which they are surrounded may sometimes through inadvertency and at other times upon State Motives endeavour to impose upon the credulity if not abuse the Faith of their People Yet the veracity of a Supream Governour is of that importance to himself and so necessary to the Veneration which his People ought to maintain for him that he is not to bring his Credit to Pawn unless it be in such Cases wherein his People may if not apologize for yet connive at the indiscretion and weakness of their Ruler should he be found to delude them Nor hath any thing obstructed the affairs of Princes more and prevented their Peoples believing them when they spake their most inward thoughts than the forfeiture of their Credit in matters wherein their Subjects relyed upon the Honour and Truth of their Word For they who do not mean as they speak when People are prepared to hear them must not expect that their words should be much relyed upon when their Tongues are the true Interpreters of their minds And let me tell your Lordship that this last Declaration hath caused multitudes of his Majesties best Subjects to reflect upon and take a view of many of his former Declarations that from them they may be furnished with reasons for justifying themselves in the suspension of their assent to this And I wish there had not been that cause administred by foregoing ones which may with too many lessen the value of the Royal Word in that bearing date the second of June The first of this kind he ever published after he came in view of being restored to the Sovereignty over these Kingdoms was that dated at Breda the 4 th of April 1660. wherein he promised Liberty to all tender Consciences and engaged the sacred word of a King That no man should be disquieted or called in question for differences in matter of Religion provided they did not disturbe the Peace of the Kingdom Now though I will not dispute about the sence wherein this Declaration was meant nor concerning the End for which it was calculated and fram'd yet this I may be allowed to say that there are a great many of his Majesties Liege People who have tasted dealings directly repugnant unto it and may justly complain of some faileur in the accomplishment of it 'T is true his Majesty is not originally to be blamed that it had not the hoped for effects but withal that Prince that can be over-ruld to recede from a Promise which contributed so much to his happy and peaceable Restoration may be supposed capable of such Impressions from men of ill minds as may make him venture his Royal Word in other cases beyond the measures of Justice But seeing it were a business of too much Fatigue to call over all the Declarations since his Majesty actually occupied the British Throne I shall therefore remind your Lordship only of two more Whereof the first is that of January the second 1671 wherein the King upon shutting up the Exchequer Declares on the Word of a Prince That the restraint put upon payments out of the Treasury should continue no longer than till the last of Decemb. 1672. And yet the fulfilling of this is still Prorogued though it be now above Nine Years since the Royal Word was pledg'd for making it good The other that I shall refresh your memory with is that of the the Twentieth of April 1679. Wherein his Majesty having shrived himself and craved absolution for all past matters solemnly declareth that he would for time to come Lay aside the use of any single Ministry or private Advices or Forreign Committees for the general direction of his Affaires and that he would afterwards Govern his Kingdoms by the Advice of that Counsel which he had then chosen together with the frequent use of his great Council of Parliament as being the true and antient Constitution of this State and Government Far be it from me to blame his Majesty for the disappointment of those hopes which the People had so universally conceived upon that Declaration which was so full of ingenuity and candor and so adapted to the Honour Safety and Interest both of King and Kingdom but this may be said without the least umbrage of irreverence that the same pestilent men who were able to cause his Majesty to violate such a Declaration wherein he spake the most like a wise and good Prince that ever he did may be also able by the same ascendant influence to wrest an unadvised and bad one from him The same Councils which prevailed upon him to go against both his Royal Word and all the Maxims of Pollicy with which he is so richly