done in the Names of the whole by the Commons in Parliament and if it be the Duty of every English man to fight for his King if occasion require against any Party that ever shall hereafter pretend to have the Authority of both or either of the Houses to back them 13 Car. 2. cap. 6. as I humbly conceive is most plain then why may not they right his Majesty with their Pens who must do it with their Swords why may they not Approve his Cause as well as Defend it And if this be not allowed Any King of England may be Deposed and Murthered as the late King was for if there be a Blind Obedience due to all the Votes of Parliament 13 Car. 2. cap. 1. §. 2. and no man may in any Case judge them Illegal and Unreasonable then must all men absolutely Submit to them and obey them and the Consequence is if any future Parliament shall Vote any future King or or Monarchy it self a Grievance to the Nation and those that stand by them Enemies to the Kingdom if no man may Contradict such a Vote nor any Number of Men how great soever Umpire betwixt the King and his Great Council that is Defend him against his Parliament the effect will Certainly follow and as this is the natural Tendance of these Principles as we saw in the Late Troubles so I can conceive no other cause why they should be now again insinuated into the Heads of the Rabble For these Men who pretend to reverence the Three Last Parliaments at such a Prodigious rate The late Long Parliament tho filled with Danby his Pensioners The Modest Vindication of the Two last Parliaments p. 11. do traduce that which went immediately before most abominably and those who are so tender of the Votes of these care as little for the Established Lawes of the former as I do for the Decrees of the Council of Trent or of the Synod of Dort So that it is plain it is not respect to Parliaments as Parliaments that makes them thus obsequious but as made up of such a Sort of men and Driving on such Designs and Interests To return then Gentlemen from this long Digression which I have inserted only to Justifie You I will Conclude That as you have begun bravely so you must go thro with the business or Expect a Revenge from the Opposite Party equal to their Rage and tho I Know you do not fear them yet I would Advise you not to be too Secure of them but let your Vigilance Industry and Application to all Sorts of Men be equal to theirs at least and then it is Ten thousand to one you shall never try either theirs or your own Valour and as your Case is better so let it inspire you with more Resolution to Stand and Fall with it and his Most hearty Prayers for a good Success upon all your Loyal Undertakings and Designs shall never be wanting who is Your most Devoted Servant THE Third Part OF THE ADDRESS TO THE FREE-MEN and FREE-HOLDERS OF THE NATION HIS Majesty by the Blessing of GOD having Supprest the short Scotch Rebellion which in great part miscarried by the timeing of it tho no human fore-sight on their part could have prevented that His Majesty first Proroguing and then Dissolving that Parliament which seem'd to be the occasion of it with such Secrecy and Quickness that their Friends at London could give them no previous Notice of his Intentions so to do So that besides the total disappointing them of all that Countenance Ayd and Assistance they promised themselves from England many of their Friends at home whose Crimes being less had not the same necessity or whose Zeal was not of that fiery temper with theirs and therefore were prudently resolved tho they wished well to the design yet not to hazard their sweet Lives and Fortunes in it till they saw what Success these first Venturers had who hearing of the Prorogation of the Parliament and being doubtless admonished by their London Friends at the same time not to stir during this short Recess as they then thought it would be layd by all thoughts of Joyning with them and Augmenting their Numbers and the Privy Councils in both Nations attending solely to that business it was Extinguished almost as easily as it began Upon which His Majesty by his Royal Proclamation Dissolved this Parliament and Issued out Writs for another to Sit at Westminster the Seventeenth day of October 1679. Hoping his Subjects duly reflecting upon the Miscarriages of the Last House of Commons and the Danger the Nation had so narrowly escaped of Being involved in another destructive Intestine War at a time when the Victorious Arms of France hung like a dreadful Cloud over our heads and the High Discontents of the Popish Party which were inflamed and inraged both by the Discovery and Prosecutions of the late Plot lay broyling in the Bowels of the Nation would proceed with more Prudence and Caution in the Next Elections and send Him up men of Better Tempers or that at least these Gentlemen by that Act seeing He was resolved to keep the Reins in his own hands and to let them Sir or Dissolve them according as they behaved themselves would thereby be kept in better awe for the future and make use of a little more calmness in their Proceedings if it were but to continue their Being But alas His Majesty soon found himself deceived in his Expectation the common people who see with other mens eyes and follow as they are led and that is for the most part the wrong way were easily perswaded to believe in the first place that this Parliament was Prorogued and Dissolved onely to prevent the Tryal of the Popish Lords in the Tower tho the Not Trying of them was one of the greatest Causes that Moved his Majesty to it as appears plainly both by the Journals of both the Houses and his Majesties Speech in the Conclusion of that Session of Parliament and altho these Five Lords were brought to the Bar and the Commons summon'd to give in Evidence against them that very day that they were Prorogued they refused to do it And on the other side the Malecontents rejoyced greatly in it being well assured that the same Men would be chosen again and so made use of this Dissolution as a means to incense the People against the King and the Government and to increase the real or pretended fears of Men by their Loud Clamours against French Pensioners Popery Arbitrary Government and the like which both in discourse and Print the Press being now at Liberty from its former restraint they objected with equal Confidence and Falshood against the Loyal Gentlemen that had opposed them But besides these general Charges they made special use of two things that fell out in the last Parliament and that had a mighty influence upon the Minds of the populace and other Unthinking men The first of which was to
the great Pains which he hath taken With and Among them Lastly In Testimony of the High Esteem that the Inhabitants of That City had of This Gentleman they Met him with a great many Horsemen at his Return from his Persecution in London and bad him Wellcom again to the Place of his Residence with the Highest Expressions of Joy and Acclamation Sir John Lloyd's Certificate concerning Mr. Thompson under the Seal of the Office of his Majoralty WHereas Richard Thompson Vicar of St. Mary Redcliff and St. Thomas two Eminent Churches within the City of Bristol even from the time of his first appearance to officiate in those Churches hath been privily traduced and now of late openly and maliciously branded by the multiforme Fanaticks of this City for a Church-Papist and Jesuite for the Rector of St. Omers so Nick-naming St. Thomas and with many like Terms of Obloquy and Slander the Invention whereof may be reckon'd upon as the very first and peculiar gift of that Party whose great and only Master-piece it hath been and still is by like Maliciously Witty and Wicked Methods and Artifices to expose alike His Loyalty and Ministry and to lessen that Esteem and Reputation he hath thereby gained in the Hearts and Affections of all the Kings Majesties Loyal Loving Subjects within this City These are therefore at the Request of and just Due to the said Richard Thompson to Certifie unto all unto whom these Presents shall come that the said Richard Thompson is well known to me John Lloyd Knight and Major of the said City and to all the Kings Majesties Loyal and Loving Subjects therein to be a Person of most Innocent and Exemplary Life and Conversation a most Constant and Careful Dispenser of God's most Holy Word unto the People under his Charge a most Diligent and Zealous Assertor of the Kings Majesties Supremacy in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil in opposition to all Schismatical and Factious Persons and Principles under what Names soever they pass or prevail amongst us and also of all the Christian Doctrines together with the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England as they are now Owned and Established by Law In Testimony whereof I have caused the Seal of my Office of Majoralty to be affixed Dated the Eighteenth Day of September Anno Dom. 1679 John Lloyd Major The Dean and Chapter of Sarum their Certificate OMnibus quorum interest innotescat per Praesentes Ricardum Thompson in Artibus Magistrum Vicarium de Bedminster juxta Bristoliam quamdiu apud nos commoratus est pie vitam sobrieque laudabiliter tradâ—xisse In concionibus saepe habendis sedulo curam adhibuisse strenue studiis Theologicis navasse operam Nec unquam quod scimus docuisse quicquam vel tenuisse quod Ecclesia Anglicana non etiam appobut atque tuetur Cujus praesertim Disciplinae superioribus quibuscunque ab omni parte conformem morigerumque se praestit it In quorum omnium Testimonium fidem iisdem faciendam nomina nostra cognomina plane ex animo apposuimus Sept. 13. Annoque Salutis reparatae 1679. Thomas Pierce Dec. Sarum Daniel Whitby Praecentor Sarum Ricardus Drake Cancellarius Sarum Ricardus Hill Can. Resid Sarum Franciscus Horton Can. Resid Sarum A Certificate Signed by several of his Auditors upon the Thirtieth of January 1679. being Persons of great Reputation for Loyalty as well as Fortune THese are to Certifie all whom it may concern That we whose Names are hereunto Subscribed were present at the Parish Church of St. Thomas within the City of Bristol on the Thirtieth Day of January 1679. where we then heard Mr. Richard Thompson Preach very solemnly on the Occasion of that Days Fast To which Sermon every one of us for himself doth Declare he was very attentive And we do all hereby Certifie and Declare that we do not remember that the said Mr. Thompson did then say in his Prayer or Sermon That there was no Popish Plot but a Presbyterian Plot or any thing to that or the like effect And we are ready to make Oath of the same if required But on the contrary we have heard him detest and abhor the Popish Plot. And we do further Certifie That the said Mr. Thompson is and by all the time we have known him hath been a True and Loyal Subject to our Most Gracious Soveraign and of a very Sober and Pious Life and Conversation amongst us every way suitable to his Function Witness Our Hands this Thirteenth day of November 1680. John Hicks Alderman Sir Richard Crump Ald. Sir John Knight Kt. George Morgan Thomas Davidge Edmond Brand John Broadway Walter Gunter John Hellier John Oliff John Yeomans John Combes Sheriff George Boucher Thomas Turner George Hart Sheriff James Millerd Ralph Oliff James Twyford Daniel Pym Thomas Hartwell Edmund Arundel Richard Benson Francis Yeomans Thomas Durbin Charles Allen. THE END
judgment as well as others and if I be adjudged an enemy of the Commons of England for my pains I cannot help it only I have not medled with the Validity of the pardon in all this nor I think never will and so I have not offended against that Vote The Conclusion I shall draw from hence is that the Lords had reason to put the Tryal of the five Popish Lords first and that the Commons necessitated them so to do by that Extraordinary Vote by starting a new Controversy about the Jurisdiction of the Bishops in all Capital causes and by refusing them liberty to do as they always had done before that is to withdraw upon Leave with the usual protestations entered all which things were not presently to be given up nor could suddenly be determined The rest of that day was spent in two Conferences the one concerning the Habeas Corpus Act and the other about the Tryals in which the Long reasons I mentioned were delivered On Tuesday the 27th of May The Habeas Corpus Bill was agreed at a Conference betwixt the two Houses Then a Message was sent by the Lords to the Commons to acquaint them that his Majesty was coming in his Robes who accordingly sent for the Commons and having passed 1. An Act for the reingrossing the Records of Fines burnt or lost in the late Fire in the Temple 2. An Act for the better securing of the Liberty of the Subject and for preventing imprisonment beyond Seas Which is that I call the Habeas Corpus Act for shortness Which were all that had been got ready for his Royal assent in this Session of Parliament His Majesty made a short Speech to this effect My Lords and Gentlemen I Was in good hopes that this Session would have produced great good to the Kingdom and that you would have gone on unanimously for the good thereof but to my great grief I see that there are such differences between the two Houses that I am afraid very ill effects will come of them I know but one way of Remedy for the present assuring you that in the mean time I shall shew my sincerity with the same Zeal I met you here and therefore my Lord Chancellor I command you to do as I have Ordered you Who immediately Prorogued both Houses to the 14th day of August following The news of this Prorogation of the Parliament was no sooner spread about the Nation but the cry was taken up by the zealous Impostors that it was done of purpose to hinder the Tryal of the Popish Lords for as for the E. of D. the People were generally unconcern'd what came of him And dreadful Stories were told in Coffee-houses Ale-houses Taverns and Meeting houses of the danger of Popery and what great favourers they had at Court not sparing his Majesty But this was not all the Act for Regulating Printing expiring with this Session of which no care was taken notwithstanding his Majesty recommended it so seriously to the Parliament by the Lord Chancellour at the opening of it The Nation became presently so pestred with a swarm of Lying Seditious treasonable and scandalous Pamphlets Papers and Pictures that a man would have thought Hell had been broken loose His Majesty the Church the Government were represented every day by them in the most odious manner that spite falsehood and malice could invent to beget a disaffection in the people to the Government and to involve us in another Rebellion And if any man presumed to Defend them he was presently a Papist in Masquerade a Tory or Tantivy man and very often threatned with the Parliament All which was done without doubt out of as pure kindness to his Majesty and to beget honour to the Government and tended as apparently to the Interest and Safety of the Protestant Religion as the Jews Crys of Crucify him Crucify him did to the delivery of our Saviour out of the hands of Pilate There was an Accident that began in this Session of Parliament and received its occasional being from some Distemper'd Spirits In March 1679 there was a Speech said to be made in the House of Lords by a certain * This Speech is Printed in a Pamphlet called An impartial account of divers remarkable Proceedings in the last Session of Parliament London 1679. folio Earl and by the Diffenters and Commonwealth Party spread about the three Kingdoms with a mighty Zeal which in Scotland was followed with the usual effects of such like Speeches and in regard that it may administer much consolation to that Party to read it over again that were so well pleased with it before I will reprint it here word for word My Lords You are appointing of the State of England to be taken up in a Committee of the whole House some day next week I do not know how well what I have to say may be received for I never study either to make my Court well or to be popular I always speak what I am commanded by the Dictates of the Spirit within me There are some Considerations that concern England so neerly that without them you will come far short of safety and quiet at home We have a little Sister and she hath no Breasts what shall we do for our Sister in the day when she shall be spoken for If she be a wall we will build on her a palace of silver if she be a door we will enclose her with boards of Cedar We have several Little Sisters without Breasts the French Protestant Churches the two Kingdoms of Ireland and Scotland the Foreign Protestants are a Wall the only Wall and defence to England upon it you may build Palaces of Silver Glorious Palaces The protection of the Protestants abroad is the greatest power and security the Crown of England can attain to and which can only help us to give check to the growing greatness of France Scotland and Ireland are two doors either to let in good or mischief upon us they are much weakened by the Artifice of our cunning Enemies and we ought to Inclose them with Boards of Cedar Popery and Slavery like two Sisters go hand in hand sometimes one goes first sometimes the other in at doors but the other is always following close at hand In England Popery was to have brought in Slavery in Scotland Slavery went before and Popery was to follow I do not think your Lordships or the Parliament have Jurisdiction there it is an Ancient Kingdom they have an Illustrious Nobility a Gallant Gentry a Learned Clergy and an understanding worthy People but yet we cannot think of England as we ought without reflecting on the condition they are in They are under the same Prince and the influence of the same Favourites and Councils when they are hardly dealt with can we that are the Richer expect better usage for 't is certain that in all Absolute Governments the poorest Countries are always most favourably dealt with When the Ancient Nobility
Wherefore we your Majesties Loyal Subjects could not but be sensibly affected with trouble to find such a Person notwithstanding the repeated Addresses of the last Parliament continued in your Counsels at this time when the affaires of your Kingdom require none to be put into such imployments but such as are men of known abilities Interest and esteem in the Nation without all suspition of either mistaking or betraying the true interest of the Kingdom and consequently of advising your Majesty ill We do therefore most humbly beseech your most sacred Majesty for the taking away the great Jealousies Dissatisfactions and Fears amongst your good Subjects that your Majesty will gratiously be pleased to remove the Duke of Lauderdale from your Majesties Counsels in your Majesties Kingdoms of England and Scotland and from all offices imployments and places of trust and from your Majesties Presence for ever This Address they presented to his Majesty the day following to which his Majesty replyed he would consider of it and return an Answer But in the mean time it was doubtless sent after the Speech into Scotland where it found all things rather necessitated to a Rebellion than disposed the Murther of so illustrious a Person as the Primate of that Kingdom and one of his Majesties Privy Counsel there was a Villany not to be smothered And the Proclamation published the day after the fact for the discovery and apprehending of the Assassines representing the Act as it deserved with great detestation had further allarm'd the whole Party who had as they thought no other way to escape the deserved revenge but by justifying the Murther with a Rebellion And finding by this Address that the House of Commons in England were in this critical moment pressing upon their dreadful Enemy the Duke of Lauderdale they took it for granted God had espoused their cause and if they could make a head in Scotland they should be seconded out of England hoping perhaps to be as well rewarded for this as they were for beginning the former Rebellion and so being pushed forward by their destiny and desperation on they went On Tuesday the 27th of May 1679 The Parliament was prorogued and the Thursday following which was the 29th of the same month the Scotch Covenanters who knew nothing of it began their Rebellion at Ragland in Scotland to which place about fourscore men well mounted and armed came and proclaimed the Covenant and burnt several Acts of Parliament and affixed this following Declaration on the Market Cross As the Lord had been pleased still to keep and preserve his Interest in the Land by the Testimony of some faithful Witnesses from the beginning so in our days some have not been wanting who through the greatest of Hazards had added their Testimonies to these who have gone before them by suffering death Banishment Torturings Finings Forfeitures imprisonments c. Flowing from cruel and perfidious Adversaries to the Church and Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Land Therefore we owning the Interest of Christ according to the word of the Lord and the National and Solemn League and Covenant desire to add our Testamony to the Testimonies of the Worthies that has gone before though unworthy yet hoping as true Members of the Church of Christ in Scotland and that against all things that has been done prejudicial to his interest from the beginning of the work of Reformation in Scotland especially from the year 1648 to the year 1660 against these following Acts. 1. The Act of Supremacy 2. The Declaration whereby the Covenants are condemned 3. The Act for Eversion of the established Government of the Church and for establishing Prelacy and for the Outing of Christs Ministers who could not conform thereto by an Act Rescissory of all Acts of Parliament and Assemblies for the Establishment of the Covernment of the Church of Scotland according to the Word 4. As likewise the Act of Council at Glasgow putting that Act recissory in execution where at one time were violently cast out above three hundred Ministers without any Legal procedures 5. As likewise the Act appointing a Holy Anniversary Day to be kept upon the 29th of May for giving thanks for the upsetting of an usurping Power destroying the Interest of the Church in the Land which is to set up the Creature to be worshipped in the room of our Great Redeemer and to consent to the assuming of the power that is proper to the Lord alone for the appointing Ordinances in his Church as particularly the Government thereof and the keeping of Holy-days and all other sinful and unlawful Acts Emitted and Executed by them And for Confirmation of this our Testimony we do hereby this day being the 29th day of May 1679 Publickly burn them at the Cross of Ragland most Justly as they perfidiously and Blasphemously had burnt our Holy Covenants through several Cities of the Covenanted Kingdoms We judge none will take exception at our not subscribing this our Testimony being so solemnly gone about for we are ready always to do it if judged necessary with all the faithful suffering Brethren in the Land They intended to have affixed this Declaration at Glasgow too but were prevented by the Kings Forces there On the Sunday following they Rendevoused upon London Hill being then 14 or 1500 men well armed and in good order the foot commanded by one Weir and the Horse by Robert Hamilton one Patron Balfour and Hackston these two last being of the number of them that murthered the Arch-bishop and consequently most concerned to carry the Rebellion as far as they could being thus disposed and Ordered one Captain Graham of Claver House marched against them with a troop of Horse and a Company of Dragoons upon whose approach the Rebels sent out two Parties to Skirmish with him which he beat into their main body and then they advanced with their whole force upon him So that after a considerable slaughter of them and the loss of his Cornet two Brigadiers and about eight Horse and twenty Dragoons his own horse being killed under him and he mounting another being so much over-powered in number he made his retreat towards Glasgow being in his way forced to fight his way through the Townsmen of Streuin who were got together to oppose it leaving ten or twelve of them dead upon the place On Munday the Second day of June the Rebells in the morning attacked the City of Glasgow at two several times but all the Streets were so well Barracadoed by the Lord Ross and the Souldiers there put into so good a posture that they were beat off with considerable loss besides many Prisoners that were taken and thereupon the Horse and Dragoons in the Town sallied out and pursued them upon their drawing off In the Interim the Council of Scotland having first given an account of this Rebellion to his Majesty published a Proclamation for the suppression of it and that failing Levied what forces they could to oppose them
they might have made a Legal defence and have received a Legal Sentence But here they had nothing but bare affirmations without any witness to defend them and a Sentence founded upon this as sharp chargeable and dishonourable as was possible If this be the Liberty of the Subject and these men our defenders from Arbitrary Government On Friday October 29. Sir George Downing having obtained Leave to bring in a Bill for wearing of the Woollen Manufacture of England The House Ordered that Dr. Tongue should be recommended to his Majesty for the first Considerable Church-Preferment that should happen to become void in the Kingdom And then the Speaker Reported his Majesty's Answer to the Address concerning Pardons which is recited above which Answer was THat he did intend to direct such a Proclamation and was resolved not onely to prosecute the Plot but Popery also and to take Care of the Protestant Religion Established by Law and if We joyn and the Lower House go on Calmly in their Debates without heats He did not doubt but to beat down Popery and all that belongs to it This Answer will stand upon Record against them and Posterity will certainly give them their due for Neglecting this Mild Admonition of this Meek Prince But to go on Mr. Harbord Reported the Address for the Support of the King's Person and Government and the Protestant Religion both at Home and Abroad Which was as followeth WE Your Majesties most Dutiful and Obedient Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled Do with most Thankful Hearts Acknowledg not Onely Your Majesties many former Royal Declarations of Your Adherence to the * * What Protestant Religion why are not the words by Law Established here as well as in his Majesties Answer above Protestant Religion in the Preservation and Protection thereof but Your further Manifestation of the same in Your Gracious Speech to both Houses at the Opening of this present Parliament in which Your Majesty is pleased to Command us strictly and impartially to prosecute the Horrid Popish Plot without which we do fully assent to Your Majesties great Judgment That neither Your Person nor Government can be Safe nor your Protestant Subjects It being part of the very Religion of Popery where it can obtain to Extirpate all Protestants both Prince and People which hath caused in the Times of Your Royal Ancestors since the Reformation that great Care to oblige the Subjects against their return to the Papal Yoke in the very same Oathes wherein they Swear Allegiance to their Prince And as Now the Eyes of all the Protestant Kingdoms and States abroad are upon us and looking upon Your Majesty as the Royal Head of so many Protestant Countries cannot but hope upon a Happy and Solid Security in our Religion at Home That your Majesty will be the greatest Protection to them from whom we may expect a Mutual Assistance as being involved in the same Common Danger So we do humbly assure your Majesty That we shall be always ready to preserve your Majesties Person and Government and to Support the * * What that by Law Established or another As contrary to it as Popery is Protestant Religion both at home and abroad And do Humbly beseech your Majesty to Esteem all persons whatsoever who shall otherwise represent Vs to your Majesty as those who design to divide between the King and his People and to defeat the Meeting and Sitting of Parliaments That those Popish Designs may succeed which they well know cannot otherwise prosper And this they have made Vndeniably Evident in the Interval of Parliaments by Contriving with unparallel'd Insolence a most Damnable and Wicked Design to transfer their own Crimes upon so many of your Majesties Loyal Protestant Nobility and Gentry hoping thereby to destroy those who with the greatest Zeal and Integrity endeavour to prosecute them The Effect of this Specious Address to possess the People what Stout Champions the Presbyterians are against Popery and to Involve all them that had appeared against them as Papists or Favourers of Papists and to let the World know what a horrid opinion they had of that Silly-impossible-Meal-Tub-Sham Plot And Certainly the Popish Party were much to blame to Lay their Treasons to the Presbyterians who have too many of their own to answer for without this Accumulation of guilt from others Crimes But as to their boast of their Great Zeal and Integrity in endeavouring to prosecute the Popish Plot we shall be better able to judge of it in the Conclusion of this Session of Parliament Then the House Proceeded to Examine Sir Francis Wythens business and it appearing by Witness and his own Confession that he had presented an Address to his Majesty expressing an Abhorrency to Petition his Majesty for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments they Voted him a Betrayer of the Undoubted Rights of the Subjects of England and ordered him to be Expelled the House for this High Crime and to receive his Sentence at the Bar upon his Knees Which he submitted to Observe how they misrepresent this Gentleman the Address he presented was drawn by the Bench at Easter Sessions for Westminster and related onely to that Petition and that Parliament in those Circumstances now as they word the business it must signify that the Address was against All Sorts of Petitions for the Sitting of Parliaments in the plural Number which is foul play to misrepresent the Matter of fact in a thing so lately done and well Known to every body in the very place where they Sit but it was necessary it should be so worded to Justify the Severity of the House if that would have done This was the Second Member of Parliament they Expelled in a way that was look't on as Arbitrary and unexampled and this was the use they made of His Majesties Advice to proceed Calmly and without Heats On Saturday the 30th of October They passed a Vote That the Votes of their House should be Printed being first Perused and Signed by Mr. Speaker who was to Nominate and Appoint the persons to Print the same From these Printed Votes I have Extracted what hath gone before and shall follow after and to them I appeal for the truth of this Narrative of their Proceedings and but for this Vote it might have been difficult to have known what they had done so as to have charged them By them also I have been encouraged to speak my Mind more freely of this than of the former Parliaments for this Printing their Votes could be designed for Nothing but to enable the People to pass a Judgment on their Actions one of which Number I am Their next Vote was That they would proceed to the full Examination of the Popish Plot in order to bring the Offenders to Justice And then they Nominated a Committee to Inspect the Journals of the Two last Parliaments and Report their proceedings relating to the Popish Plot and Ordered An Address to his Majesty for
many other such proceedings As the Parliament that is the Commons Courted the City so the City was as kind to them and Calling a Common Councel Voted an Address to his Majesty to declare their Loyalty and to Petition him that the Parliament might Sit until Protestantisme was Secured I believe they might mean innocently tho I am well Secured that this would have perpetuated them to the End of the World if some amongst them might have been Judges of the time when this great work was perfected But this did not Edify with his Majesty who penetrated to the bottom of these little Projects and was not over-pleased with this Correspondency betwixt this and the Commons remembring what ill effects this Conjunction had in the Reign of his Father So he Advised the Common-Councel to meddle with those things that lay before them and assuring them That he would Labour to maintain the Protestant Religion as it was Established by Law which was more than they desired he dismissed them On Munday the 15th day of November A Bill against the Importation of Cattel from Scotland was Read the first time and Ordered a Second Reading the Saturday following at Ten of the Clock This day was delivered the following Message to the Commons CHARLES R. HIS Majesty did in his Speech at the Opening of this Session of Parliament desire your Advice and Assistance in relation to Tangier the Condition and Importance of the Place obliges his Majesty to put this House in mind again That He relies upon them for the Support of it without which it cannot be much longer preserved His Majesty doth therefore Earnestly Recommend Tangier again to the due and speedy Consideration and Care of this House A Debate thereupon arising in the House they Voted That they would proceed in the Consideration of this Message the next Wednesday Morning at Ten of the Clock A Bill sent down from the Lords Intituled An Act for the better Regulating the Tryals of the Peers of England was Read the Second time and Committed upon the Debate of the House This day the Bill for Disabling the Duke of York was Read the first time in the House of Peers and the question being put Whether it should be read again the House divided Noes 63. Yeas 30. So it was Thrown out the Bishops all appearing against the Bill Except three for which some of the Commons Reflected upon them with great Liberty as if no body could be for the Duke but he must be for Popery The House of Commons taking notice of this were so discomposed that they Adjourned themselves on Tuesday Morning and did nothing that day And the day following meeting in a very bad and discontented humour and taking into Consideration the Message about Tangier They Resolved upon an Address to his Majesty upon the Debate of the House Humbly representing to him the dangerous State and Condition of the Kingdom And then it appearing that George Earl of Hallifax had been very Active in the House of Lords against the Bill for Dis-inheriting the Duke they Resolved also upon another Address to his Majesty to remove the Earl from his Majesties Presence and Councils for Ever And this was all they did the Second day after The House being in a perfect Fret and the Country-Party Heating themselves by their Speeches to that height they were scarce able to Consider what was fit to be said or asked And now that the Peers of England have passed their Judgment concerning this Bill I will add some short Reflections upon the Bill which I shall shall submit to my Reader as it is fit I should First Then I do acknowledg it is a great affliction to any Protestant Country to fall into the Hands of a Popish Prince and worse for England then for most other because of the great and implacable Malice the Jesuits and the whole Church of Rome have ever born to the Religion Established amongst us which is more easily defended against them then any other Reformed Church as being founded upon greater Antiquity and more conformable to the Primitive Church of the Three or Four first Centuries then either the Church of Rome or any of the Reformed Churches in these Western Parts of the World and therefore they of the Church of Rome Have left no stone unturned to Subvert her imploying all their own Wit and Power against her ever since the Reign of Queen Elizabeth began and sticking neither at Perjury Treason Murther nor any other Villany that they thought might conduce to that End and when God had by his Gracious Providence defeated all these their Damnable Projects They Transformed themselves into the shapes of our own Protestant Dissenters and so promoted a Rebellion which ended in the seeming Ruine of this Religion and Government to their mighty Content and Satisfaction but tho his Majesty at his Return re-settled this Church yet they did not give over but by a Toleration by spreading Pamphlets written in the Stile of the Dissenters and so very acceptable to them by discouraging all that opposed our Intestine Divisions and a multitude of such other frauds they have in Twenty Years time so shaken her foundations again that his Majesty can hardly now preserve and uphold her against the Popish Party on the one hand and the Dissenters on the other So that if this poor persecuted Church should fall into the hands of a Prince of their Communion She is to Expect whatever the most Enraged Malice armed with his Authority can inflict upon her and She hath all the reason in the world to expect the Dissenters will joyn with them to afflict and ruine her Not out of any Kindness to Popery but out of an implacable hatred they two have Conceived against her So that I must and will Conclude the Church of England hath the greatest reason in the world to dread that day that shall put her into such hands But yet still with this limitation notwithstanding that by Avoiding one Mischief she should not plunge her Self into a greater that is by flying a Persecution from men to fall into a Rebellion against her God and Saviour by whose Providence Kings and Princes of what Religion soever they be rule and by whom they have in all Ages been so Ordered Disposed and Governed as He in his Divine and Holy Wisdom Saw most Expedient for the Prosperity or Chastisement of his Church to the greater encrease of her Glory and Happiness in the world to come Two things I will lay down as Undoubted Rules or Maximes 1. That the Kingdom of England is an Hereditary Kingdom or Monarchy which for many Ages hath gone to the Next Heirs be they Males or Females of the Blood Royal without any Election or Consent of the People otherwise then by acknowledging their Lawful Right derived from God by their Blood to them The Second is That this Hereditary Monarchy was set up at first and hath been since upheld and maintained by the Providence of
Exclusion of the Duke of York will onely Secure them once from a Popish Prince and make them that follow more Cautious how they discover themselves too soon and that if any Actual King of England should turn Papist which is as possible and more probable then that another Heir should do it they would then be in the same state as if the Duke Succeeded They constantly reply That it is unreasonable it should be in the power of one man to reduce us to Popery that is It is not reasonable that Kingly Government should be any Longer Continued amongst us From all which I conclude That the project of Uniting Protestants by remitting the Laws against the Dissenters is impossible and that these Consequences being Obvious and Apparent before-hand there could be no other design in the Attempt but the ruine of the Monarchy and the introducing Confusion and War amongst us at least these would certainly have followed So that the day a Toleration or which is all one an Vnion amongst Protestants upon the terms propounded is settled the Monarchy must be made Absolute or it will not Stand And Provision must be made to maintain a Standing Army bigg enough eo Keep all Parties Quiet how much soever they are averse to it or our Peace at home will not be Maintained And as to all Foreign affairs England must look on and suffer all things to go as they will for Neither King nor Common-Wealth will be in a Condition to do any thing abroad in that unsettled state things will be at home and by that time England comes to settle France if God interpose not by Miracles will have brought under So many of its Neighbours that England will be able to make no effectual resistance if it should be attacked by that Potent Kingdom Conclusion My dearest Countrymen I humbly begg you would be pleased to reflect Seriously upon this in time if it be not Now too late and Unite heartily with His Majesty our most Gracious and Sweet-Natured Soveraign and the Religion Established and not suffer your selves to be led by pretended Fears into real and unavoidable Slavery and Consusion attended with all the Miseries of War and which as much as Man can foresee must end in Popery and a French Conquest of us I have laid the Matter plainly before you not Knowing what may follow as to my Self but this I am sure of that Advantage I can have none by it I am a private person and I Expect so to live and die I have no aim at any Publick Imployment or Place of Trust nor any means to attain it if I had I am Contented with the State God hath Set me In. And the Utmost I wish for is to Leave things to my Posterity as they ought Now to be if the Laws had their due Effects and therefore I am compelled by Nothing but my Zealous affection for my Country which next God and my own Soul I love above all things to run the hazard of giving you this Advice and thereby drawing upon me the Malice and Revenge of all those that seek to Ruine and Enslave You. As to those Gentlemen of the House of Commons who may possibly take offence at What I have written for all I am sure will not I desire they would in cool blood Consider what they have done and then let them think of Me what they please For if ever Faction Anger and ill designs were entertained by so great a Body of Men as the Major part of this House was it is Apparent they were here And I will instance in but a few Particulars tho I might in more Can any mortal man produce either Precedent or Law to Justifie the Imprisonment of the Gentlemen called the Abhorrers Have the meanest people of England a right to Petition the King against his Express Command in a thing of which he is the Sole Judge by all our Laws and that by Multitudes of Hands procured by men that have no authority for that purpose and may not Grand-Juries Justices of the Peace and other such like persons oppose them or which is less disown it But suppose they did more than they ought was it fit to imprison them before they were allowed to defend themselves Gentlemen it served your turn now but it may one day be turn'd against you and then consider how you will take it The Corporations do Now most of them send Gentlemen but they may when they please lay You by and send Mechanicks Trades-men Shop-Keepers How would your high spirits brook it to be sent for in Custody and made to Kneel without being Suffered to Speak and onely for doing your duties to such men and so be sent home again I am sure no English Gentleman can brook this indignity but with such inward Resentments as befit the Generosity and Temper of that Nation or otherwise I must think we are prepared for Slavery and all that Manly Courage that hath made our People Renowned in all Countries in the World is degenerated into the Most Shameful Effeminacy and Cowardise Onely in this case Religion and Loyalty made them yield even to Injustice and Oppression As long as his Sacred Majesty thought fit to Suffer it they Submitted but with such Thoughts as would have taught you more Justice and Moderation if this had not been in the case Your styling all those Gentlemen that had been brought in to the Commission of the Peace in the room of some others displaced MEN of Arbitrary Principles and Countenancers of Papists and Popery and if you could have invented more Odious Names and Words than these you might with as much truth and ingenuity have bestowed them upon them Was it fairly done or was it not Is it one of the Priviledges of your House to Vote Me a Jew or a Turk or that I was one of those men that occasioned the Breach betwixt Charles the First and his Parliament If it be then I will say no more but that I begg your Pardon and Kneel down at the Bar of a House of Commons with the same Submission as if I believed the Speaker Infallible and every Member an Angel But if your Votes ought to be not only Consonant to Law but agreeable to the truth of things then that Passage was hastily and passionately written and not well Considered and care ought to be taken for the future to Write more Cautiously and Speak and Vote like Men that had a little respect to your Places Your Votes of the 7th of January 1680. concerning his Majesties Revenues and borrowing of Money upon them are they justifiable or no may I not lend the King 100 l. if I please without your leave and not incur the danger of being reputed an Enemy to the Sitting of Parliaments Suppose the French should Land in England or Ireland or the Papists or Dissenters rise and the King Want Money to suppress the one or drive out the other must we hazard his and our Ruine rather
by being troublesom to the Government find they can Arrive to an Indulgence will as their Numbers increase be yet more troublesome so at length they may arrive to a general Toleration which Your Majesty hath declared against and in time some prevalent Sect will at last Contend for an Establishment which for ought can be foreseen may end in Popery It is a thing altogether without Precedent and will take away all means of Convicting Recusants and be inconsistent with the Method and Proceedings of the Laws of England Lastly it is humbly Conceived That the Indulgence proposed will be so far from tending to the Peace of the Kingdom that it is rather likely to occasion great disturbance And on the Contrary That the Asserting of the Laws and the Religion Established according to the Act of Uniformity is the most probable Means to produce a Settled Peace and Obedience through the Kingdom because the Variety of Professions in Religion when Openly indulged doth directly distinguish men into Parties and withal gives them Opportunities to count their Numbers which considering the Animosities that out of a religious Pride will be kept on foot by the several Factions doth tend directly and inevitably to open disturbance Nor can Your Majesty have any Security that the Doctrine or Worship of the Several Factions which are all governed by a Several Rule shall be consistent with the Peace of the Kingdom And if any person shall presume to disturb the Peace of the Kingdome We do in all humility declare That we will for ever and upon all occasions be ready with our Vtmost Endeavours and Assistance to Adhere to and Serve Your Majesty according to our bounden Duty and Allegiance The Reason and Loyalty of this Address prevailed with his Majesty at that time to lay aside all his Thoughts of an Indulgence and well had it been for him and us if he had never reassumed them for from his forsaking this Advice in the Year 1671. Sprung all those Miseries that now so much threaten him and us But tho his Majesty Changed the Parliament kept their grounds for in an Address dated the 14th of Feb. 1672. they assert against His Majesties Declaration of Indulgence dated the 15th of March before That Penal Statutes in Matters Ecclesiastical cannot be suspended but by Act of Parliament We therefore say they the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons do most humbly beseech Your Majesty That the said Lawes may have their Free Course until it shall be otherwise provided by Act of Parliament and that Your Majesty would Graciously be pleased to give such Directions herein that no Apprehensions or Jea ousies may remain in the Hearts of Your Majesties good and faithful Subjects The King not being Satisfied with this but still insisting that he had a Right by his Supremacy to Suspend the Execution of Penal Laws in Ecclesiastical Affairs They replyed the 26th of Feb. following That no such Power was ever Claimed or Exercised by any of his Majesties Predecessors and if it should be admitted might tend to the Interrupting of the Free Course of the Laws and altering the Legislative Power which hath always been acknowledged to reside in his Majesty and the Two Houses of Parliament Therefore they did with an Vnanimous Consent become again Humble Suitors unto his Sacred Majesty That he would be pleased to give them a full and Satisfactory Answer to their first Petition and Address and that his Majesty would take such effectual Order That the Proceedings in this Matter might not be for the future drawn into Example To which said last Address his Majesty was pleased to Condescend so far as to Order his Declaration of Indulgence to be taken off the File and Cancell'd Now the use I make of all is to shew first That the Opinion of an Excellent Wise House of Commons was That an Indulgence Toleration or Vnion as they now call it was of a Mischievous Nature and would finally end in Confusion and Popery Secondly That if it should be thought necessary to grant one it being a Legislative Act it must be by the Joynt Consent of the King and the Two Houses and not by any one of them And therefore I will Leave it to the Consideration of the Gentlemen of that House to Judge Whether they did well in passing the Vote of the 10th of January aforesaid for the Suspension of all Penal Laws which relate to the Protestant Dissenters Some pretending to Excuse them have said it was a Vote only in order to a Bill to be brought in for the taking those Laws away But I answer There were several other Bills for that purpose depending and therefore this was in vain Secondly There is no mention of a Bill to be brought in in the Conclusion of the Vote Thirdly They knew they were to be Prorogued as appears by their first Vote and therefore Such a Design would have been impossible Now if they had carried those few Points in this Session First not onely to Deny the King any Supply but to make it Criminal for any man to Lend him any Money upon his Revenues they might then in another Session have gone further and have made it Punishable for any man to have paid him his Just Settled Legal Dues and that would have made them able to have Forced this King or his Successors to what ever they had pleased Secondly If they might have gone on to imprison his Majesty's Subjects in an Illegal and Arbitrary way for Matters that had no relation to Priviledges of Parliament they might afterwards have Extended this to as many Persons and Things as they had pleased and so No man would have dared to have stood by His Majesty against a House of Commons tho they had attempted to Depose his Majesty Nor would his Majesty in a short time have been able to have Protected his Subjects against any injury that they or any of them had been pleased to have done them which would infallibly have Subverted the Monarchy and have introduced a Common-Wealth Thirdly If they had got that great Branch of the Legislative Power into their hands of suspending the Execution of Laws by their Vote they might have driven it as far as they pleased and so have once more Outed the King and the House of Lords as a former Parliament did by the Same Means I will conclude this with the Judgment of a Great and a Learned Man Clarendon's Answer to Hobbs p. 127 128. No Orders made by A House of Commons in England are of any Validity or Force or receive any Submission longer then that House of Commons Continues and if Any Order made by them be against any Law or Statute it is Void when it is Made and receives no Obedience His Majesty then had both Law and Reason on his Side when he ended his Speech to the Next Parliament at Oxford with these Words I WILL Conclude with this one Advice to you That the Rules
in the interim who had with much impatience expected this day of Deliverance from this terrible Parliament and had sought the Dissolution of it so many Years by all those Arts I have described in the former Part now began to lift up their heads expecting to have another tugg for the Day and having before wrought upon the meanest but most Numerous part of the Free-men and Free-holders and the weakest of the Gentry by jading their Ears with tedious canting Discourses against Humane Institutions Persecuting Gods People and Arbritrary Government and now of late with Tragical Representations of the Popish Plot Massacres Popery and Superstition flew from their sullen retirements and Riding Night and Day about the Villages and trudging about the Corporations incited those they found willing and perswaded intreated and sometimes hired those they found less disposed to joyn with them and by the choice of a sober Protestant Parliament as they pretended to deliver the Nation from Popery and Arbitrary Government which were good Words but had a Knavish signification in their Sense and if any Man smelt ir out and told them truly they were neither for Popery nor Arbitrary Government nor yet for Puritanism and a Common-wealth they ran him down with noise or traduced him behind his back to their Neighbours as a Papist in Masquerade and a Man of Arbitrary Principles But if a Man had but chanced to drop a Word by way of questioning the Truth of one Tittle the many Informers had given out concerning the Plot or these Zealots had raised by way of Consequence presently they flew in his face and villified him as a defamer of the Kings Evidence a concealer of the Plot and could hardly forbear saying He was a Party to it and one of the Conspirators in it As if we had not only been bound to submit our Faith and Reason as intirely to Mr. Oats's Relation in every Punctilio as to the Evangelists upon which he Swore it but also to what Inferences a Faction should draw from it From hence they proceeded to insinuate into the Populace That those Loyal Gentlemen who had been Members of the late long Loyal Parliament who were then call'd the Court Party had joyn'd with the Court to hinder the Discovery of the Plot and promote the Designes of the Papists upon us And although there was not one syllable of Truth in this yet they asserted it with that confidence and added so many protestations often interrupting their opposites with such questions as these What you are for Popery you are willing to have all your Throats Cut and the like that they perswaded too great a Number to joyn with them in the Exclusion of those Gentlemen In the next place fearing the greatest hindrance from the conformable Clergy and the Bishops they represented them amongst their Confidents as nothing better than the Papists and amongst the rest as Men that had a mighty kindness for Popery in their hearts where these prying people spied it though they durst not discover it for the present and with great Assurance said that they would certainly all turn Papists if the Plot went on though Mr. Oates had assured them their Places were disposed of to others before hand and they must expect nothing but beggery assassination and Ruine But yet the people who never consider any thing believe them in this too In the next place they were to deal with the Gentry and Magistrates and here the task was harder for these were never to be wrought over generally to them but amongst them some were their friends of old others had come half way over to gain the Reputation of Moderate Men others had been disgusted by the Government and some few had Relations amongst the Dissenters or Children and Brothers Apprentices Journey-men and Factors to them and these Interests prevail'd upon to joyn with them the rest they blasted what they could by the same Arts they did the Clergy averring they were Papists or favourers of Papists and Popery especially if they had any relations of that Religion or had shewed the least kindness to their Popish Neighbours in the first Discovery of the Plot or had had any acquaintance with them before the Plot. And having by all these multiply'd Slanders got over a very considerable part of the meaner people and yet fearing the party might be too weak they made fraudulent Conveyances for Twenty four hours of their Freehold-Lands and Tenements to their Neighbours by this means creating Twenty Mushrom Voters sometimes out of Forty pounds a year and some that were less scrupulous took the Gifts by word of Mouth without Livery or Seizin Lease or Release and some gave Twelve pence in part of payment for those Lands and Tenements they never meant nor were ever able to Purchase further and so became qualified to give their Votes as they thought and others gave their Children that were Infants part of their Estates with them and brought them along for company and in the interim the Wealthy sort of Men hired Horses or gave Mony to the more Needy to give their Votes for the precious Men that were to keep out Popery The Conventicle Teachers rallied up their Flocks all but the Aprons and they were unwillingly enough left at home The old Committee Men Sequestrators Army Officers and Soldiers of the last Rebellion who had kept holes ever since His Majesties Return for Grief Confusion and Fear now all took the Field again to Vote too and with these joyned all those unwilling Conformists whether Clergy or Layety who have complyed with the Religion Established with purpose to ruine it as soon as it is possible and in the interim great gain is godliness with them and does any man believe all these Forces were thus Mustered up for the Service of His Majesty the Safety of the Monarchy and the preservation of the Religion and Government Establish'd The persons they recommended to the people to be chosen again were first all those Gentlemen who calling themselves the Country Party in the former Parliament had appeared most Zealously against the Queen his Royal Highness and the Ministers of State to these they added as many as they could of the Reliques of the old Rebellion or their Children and made up the Number out of the moderate and discontented Gentlemen Burgesses and Trades-men taking in here and there an honest Gentleman in hopes to win him to their side by this kindness and sometimes this pittiful Project took For my part Act. 22. I think nothing could more confirm the Testimony of Mr. Oats who informs us That the Catholick Religion was to be brought in the same way that they had used for the Destruction of the Father of the King and as that could not be effected till much Blood was spilt on BOTH SIDES so this must be effected by effusion of Blood Pag. 64. and this he Expounds was to be done by weakning and dividing the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland
by Civil Wars and Rebellions as in His Majesties Fathers time to make way for the French to Seize these Kingdoms and totally to Ruine their Infantry and Naval Force These are Mr. Oats his Words and whoever had seen the persons Must'red up about the choosing this Parliament would have thought that Forty One had been returned again and that the Jesuits under the shape of Nonconformist Ministers had been turning the Plot that way now God had defeated the close one But though all this Care was taken the Dissenters did not carry the Elections every where nor almost any where without great Resistance For on the other side the Gentry appeared themselves and brought in their Tenants and Dependences and many of the Yeomanry and Free-holders were Zealous for the Church and Government and in Corporations the Magistrates and Free-men had not forgot the old tricks of the Dissenters and were resolved not to be ruin'd twice by the same Arts so that the two Parties were almost equal there and in the Counties the Gentry were certainly the stronger side if Perjury had not been employed against them and in some places they prevailed against that too but not so as to make an equal Party in the House The Persons that stood on this side were Men of Undoubted Loyalty to the King hearty lovers of the Religion Established and great Enemies to Puritanism Faction and Rebellion and for these good qualities were stiled by the contrary Party-men of Arbitrary Principles and favourers of Popery some of these had been Members of the Last Parliament and been of that they call the Court Party who had been guilty of Setling the Monarchy and Suppressing the Rebellion and the Nurseries of it the Conventicles and others were taken in to fill up the vacancies of or very nearly of the same Principles The Elections being thus made the Parliament met the day appointed which was Thursday the sixth of March 1678. and my business is to wait upon them and see how matters went in the Lower House especially and as an Introduction I will take notice of His Majesty's Speech in the first place part of which was as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen I Meet you here with the most earnest desire that man can have to Unite the Minds of all my Subjects both to me and to one another and I resolve it shall be your faults if the Success be not suitable to my desires I have done many great things already in order to that end as the Exclusion of the Popish Lords from their Seats in Parliament the Execution of several men both upon the Score of the Plat and of the Murder of Sir Edmonberry Godfrey and it is apparent that I have not been idle in prosecuting the discovery of both as much further as hath been possible in so short a time I have disbanded as much of the Army as I could get Mony to do and I am ready to disband the rest so soon as you shall reimburse the Mony they have cost me and will inable me to pay off the remainder And above all I have Commanded my Brother to absent himself from me because I would not leave the Malicious Men room to say I had not removed all causes which could be pretended to influence me towards Popish Counsels Besides that end of Union which I am at and which I wish could be extended to Protestants abroad as well as at home I propose by this last great step I have made to discern whether Protestant Religion and the Peace of the Kingdom be as truly aimed at by others as they are really intended by me for if they be you will imploy your time upon the great concerns of the Nation and not be drawn to promote private animosities under pretences of the publique your Proceedings will be calm and peaceable in order to those good ends I have recommended to you and you will curb the motions of any unruly Spirits which would endeavour to disturb them I hope there will be none such amongst you because there can be no man that must not see how fatal differences amongst our selves are like to be at this time both at home or abroad I shall not cease my endeavours dayly to find out what more I can both of the Plot and Murder of Sir Edmondberry Godfrey and shall desire the Assistance of both my Houses in that work I have not been wanting in giving orders for putting all the present Laws in Execution against Papists and I am ready to joyn in the making such further Laws as may be necessary for securing of the Kingdom against Popery And after a short discourse of supply's he goes on I will conclude as I begun with my earnest desires to have this a Healing Parliament and I do give you this Assurance that I will with my life defend both the Protestant Religion and the Laws of this Kingdom and I do expect from you to be defended from the Calumny as well as Danger of those worst of men who endeavour to render me and my Government odious to my people By which last passage I believe his Majesty reflected upon the Dissenters and Common wealth Party who as they were more believed so they had been more busie in traducing him and that with a more Mischievous Malice and effect than the worst Jesuits during this short time betwixt the Dissolution of the last and the Election of this present Parliament and therefore his Majesty had reason to tell the Parliament he expected to be defended by them from the Calumny of the Dissenters as well as from the danger of the Papists both which are the worst of men as who did endeavour to render him and his Government Odious to his people The Lord Chancellor's Speech was for the most part but an enlargement upon his Majestie 's as it uses to be and therefore I shall take notice of some passages only in it He advised them not to overdo their business and by being too far transported with the fears of Popery neglect the opportunities they then had of making sober and lasting provisions against it He told them it was a Custom of the Jesuits first to Murder the fame of Princes and then their persons first slandering them to their people as if they favoured Papists and then to assassinate them for being too Zealous Protestants He represented what a joy it would be to them to see us whom they could not destroy by the conspiracy Ruining our selves after the discovery by incurable jealousies and disturbing the Government And that further care might be taken of Regulating the Press from whence there daily stole forth Popish Catechisms Psalters and Books of Controversie and Seditious and Schismatical Libells too We shall now see how these Counsells were pursued by the Parliament The first thing the House of Commons did was to choose Edward Seymour Esquire their former Speaker their Speaker again But the next day the King disliking the choice and Commanding them to