Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A63465
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A short account, or state of Mr. Sheridan's case before the late House of Commons in a letter to J.T.
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L. T.; J. T.; Sheridan, Thomas, 1646-ca. 1688.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing T25A; ESTC R203698
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22,220
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33
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the Letter subscrib'd by Fitz James I do sincerely protest I have no Acquaintance with any of the Name nor ever saw the Hand before nor the intended Messenger C. who not finding me left it with the Maid-Servant But in this there is nothing Criminal As to the Computations they are a Transcript from a Paper of Sir Peter Petts containing the number of Conformists Non-conformists and Papists throughout England taken by the Bishops order in or about the time of the General Indalgence and by him produc'd presently after the Plot upon the talk that there were fifty thousand Papists able to bear Arms within Temple-Bar and about Westminster a number near double to what at the taking this survey they were found Men Women and Children in the whole Kingdom For the Copy of my Cousin Wilsons writing I confess it the only thing I endeavour'd to evade having ingenuously and without reserve answer'd all other questions That individual Paper I never saw before the preceding night when meeting it in the Drawer of my Bed-Chamber always open whether I am at home or abroad I laid it uppermost with purpose of inquiring how he came by it and whether he knew the Author but not seeing him till next day in presence of the Members sent to search my Lodgings I cou'd not ask him and was surpriz'd to have so Indiscreet and Reflective a Paper found in his hand and among mine 'T is true that about three weeks before I found another of the same Contents in an old crabbed hand to me unknown which after I had read and concluded it might possibly be left by some of my Acquaintance in their Visits and being unable to guess at the person not knowing how long it had layn there being dated above a Month before I immediately threw it into the Fire Yet in this Paper which has made so great a noise there is neither Felony nor Treason and being the Act of another and never by me publish'd having neither Sub nor Super Scription nor Writ to nor from me nor Copy'd by my order cannot I presume be a Libel nor I hope imputed to me to whom it came perfectly by Accident If it were lawfull to speak ones guesses from the Contents it shou'd seem to have come from a Learned Gentleman one of your own Members then in the Country skill'd in the Spanish Tongue to which both my Cousin and I are perfect strangers nor was either of us out of London then or for some time before If I cou'd as well hit upon the Person as his Quality I wou'd give a more satisfactory account of this matter and I hope this Honourable Assembly will the sooner credit me when they reflect that upon seeing another Paper of my Kinsmans writing I wou'd not by a Lie deny this to be his hand As for my writing to Mr. Gadbury I refer my self to the Letter in Sir William Waller's hands I have told you the accidental occasion I desir'd from him whose Acquaintance I knew large even among the Members of that Parliament the most material of publick News I neither ask'd for Schemes or Figures I have ever laugh'd at the idle and ridiculous Art of Judicial Astrology invented at least practis'd to impose upon and pick the Pockets of the Ignorant and the Credulous And now as to the Cause of my Commitment The story Dr. D. told me as News of Peter Norris his knowing as much of the Plot as any man in England his going or being gone into France to fetch a Priest to be a Witness I can only say as near as I remember I gave the same account to Mr. Secretary not as an Informer but as News for not being look'd upon as such I was not desir'd to Swear nor cou'd I to a hear-say In this I call Heaven to witness I had no Sinister design but an Honest intention of having the full Truth brought to Light Nor do I know nor have I any reason to believe that Mr. Secretary's after proceedings were from any other principle Upon my telling him the Name of Norris and his saying he had never before heard it and commanding me to send the Doctor to him or the others Description As soon as I met with the Doctor which was several days after this Discourse and he as not knowing Mr. Secretary resusing to go I desir'd from him the Description which sometime after he brought me I gave or sent to Mr. Secretary for I cannot tell whether But of this I am certain that all I knew of the Affair was from the Doctor only and that I never communicated it to any but Mr. Secretary and that by what I writ under the Description appears to be near a Month after Norris his departure and consequently cou'd not be design'd to stop his Journey or prevent the Priests coming over or obstruct the fuller discovery of the Plot which no man living desires more than my self believing it the Interest of every honest Subject and Protestant out of which number I cannot be excluded to have all in 't from the highest to the lowest punish'd according to merit and that tranquility it has so long disturb'd re-settl'd in the Kingdom And now I hope none of the Members of this Honourable House can imagine I cou'd be guilty of so Horrid a Crime as having any knowledge of the Priests being poison'd as is suspected or given out he might be I am so ignorant of this or any part of the Conspiracy that I do not so much despise as decline because not needing it the generous offer of Mr. Speaker or other Members Intercession for my Pardon Lacknowledge as I ought the Favour with all fitting respect but I thank God I am so Innocent that I dare as now I do challenge the whole World to make out one partisular where in Word or Action in the whole course of my life I have done or spoken falsly or unjustly and yet no man ever suffer'd more Calumnies without any cause or the least shadow of Truth beyond the witty malice of those whose Eyes are blinded and Consciences sear'd by Envy and Intetest who from pretended Friends are become my real Adversaries contrary to Reason and Justice But surther none can believe I cou'd keep any dangerous Correspondence when it s well known that for these three years and a half all my Letters were no otherwise Directed than for me at the Reyal Coffee-house Besides it appear'd at the Committee by Norris his own Papers that this Priest Dowdall whose Name I never heard before died september laft was twelve month eight months before I heard there was such a man in the World as Norris and at a time when I was in another Country And since you have thought fit to acquit Dr. D. who was my Author and Principal and who own'd himself a Roman Catholick I hope you will not think it equal that I a known sincere Protestant and but an Accessary should stand Committed and Committed after such
Discovery to make the House was ready to receive it To this he reply'd That as to the Plot he cou'd have none but he had another relating to himself viz. To know what was his Crime and who his Accusers and that he might according to the Laws of the Land answer for himself To this was said They knew his Parts were not much short of the Person 's he succeeded and that he must not think to impose upon so great and wise an Assembly by studi'd Words and Speeches Mr. S. reply'd If he cou'd he wou'd not endeavour by any Rhetorical flourishes to deceive them with Falshoods That he design'd nothing but Truth very plainly worded That he hop'd their Justice would give him leave to vindicate himself and shew the unreasonableness of running down a Man upon general Sarmises and malicious Reports or of concluding him guilty before he was Heard or Convicted Hereupon he was order'd to withdraw and after some short Debate call'd in and allow'd the Favour he desir'd but with Caution not to be tedious Being thus permitted he began the following Speech out of which he omitted very little and is the same in Substance with what he writ in several Letters to Members of the Committee appointed for his Examination viz. The Lord Aunesley Sir R. Clayton and Sir Rovel Gwin The Speech of Mr. Tho. Sheridan after his Examination before the late House of Commons On Wednesday the 15th of December 1680. T Is I confess Sir a great Misfortune to fall under the Displeasure of the Honourable House of Commons it is a Burden no Man tho' never so great is able to bear It cannot then be a wonder if so inconsiderable a Person and of so little strength as I shou'd stoop under the weight Not that I fear any Danger to my Person but grieve for the wounds it gives my Reputation which I have always valu'd above my life and that it might be preserv'd spotless I have ever made it my study to keep a good Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Man And Therefore I little expected to be brought as a Criminal to This Bar or any Tribunal But I am convinc'd Innocence is no security against the Darts of Envy or Malice and that he who will hazard his Body or his Soul may take away the Life and Fame of any one at pleasure 't is to men of such principles I owe my present Trouble I do not say this to reflect upon any Member of this Great and Honourable Assembly My Evil is from without Doors and I know the Authors and the Contrivance so well that if it were convenient I cou'd name them and trace the whole Chain Link by Link to the first hammer'd by Prejudice and particular Interest I do not wonder that in the present Circumstances you shou'd have one Ear open to all reports that any way relate to the publick this is due to your Station and to your Prudence And because Justice and your Honour require it I as little doubt your reserving the other Ear for the Pleas and Defence of the Accus'd or that you will Condemn any Man unheard Upon this assurance it is that I am bold to beg with all due respect and reverence that I may have liberty to speak for my self without interruption If you are pleas'd to grant me this favour I will use it as fully and briefly as I can for your satisfaction and my own vindication I have been represented I hope without offence I may say traduc'd for so I can make it appear for a person of no Fortune a Papist a second Coleman and what is more rediculous tho' not more false a Jesuit and the Duke's Confessor In clearing my self from these Aspersions I must be sorc'd to say something which nothing but necessity that either has none or breaks all Laws can excuse from vanity As that I was born a Gentleman of one of the Antientest Families and related to many Considerable in Ireland in one County there is a Castle and a large Demean and in another a greater tract of Land for several Miles together yet known by our Name I need not say who was the head or chief 't is too much that my Grandfather was the last that enjoy'd the Estate and that my Father left an Orphan in the beginning of King Jame's Reign soon found himself dispossess'd and expos'd to the World that whole County with five others in Vlster being intirely escheated to the Crown My Parents Protestants my Mother a Gentlewoman of England of good Fortune a Foster who for my Fathers sake quitted her Country and her Relations both fam'd for honesty for their Loyalty and Sufferings in the late Rebellion when my Father scap'd twice narrowly with his Life and at last was forc'd to fly for relieving and protecting both the Fortunes and Persons of very many English To my Birth I had a suitable Education I have some slender pretence to Letters am not altogether a Stranger to the Civil-law nor the Laws of England the means intended for my Livelihood But without my seeking or knowledge some Friends procur'd for me the Collectorship of the Customs of Cork and the management of most of the Inland Revenue of that County This Imployment and the Accidents attending it together with that of the East-India Prizes and others in the last War with Holland put into Kinsale enabl'd me to bring for my own proportion of Advance-money for the present Revenue-Farm of Ireland 9532 l. as appears upon Record in the Chancery of England and being by a Brother of mine then here without my privity or desire engag'd in this undertaking and a stranger to all the Partnership excepting one June last was three years I sold my Interest for 4000 l. profit This Money I imploy'd in Corporation and Church-Leases in Mortgages and other Securities at 10 l. per cent the Interest of that Kingdom And after this account if I have no visible real Estate I hope no man can doubt but that I may live independently tho' besides I happen to be a younger Brother so far from beinâ—â— prejudice that it 's possible to prove my advantage being design'd the Heir of two elder Brothers who neither have nor are like to have any Children The Bills of Exchange drawn and remitted to and from Ireland by Sir John Frederick and Company Mr. D. Arthur and other known Merchants will shew my proper Fond and no Man's Bounty supported my Expences and therefore because I can with great Truth I do the more freely declare That I neither have nor ever had any Relation to the Duke or Dutchess of York as a Servant or Dependant a Sallary-man or Pensioner and was so far from succeeding Mr. Coleman that his Employment never enter'd into my Thoughts taken up with Affairs of a far different nature My Journey to Flanders was no way criminal and in a great measure the effect of curiosity having before seen very little of that Countrey