That he whose Counsels had been so successful in contriving His Restoration might be highly necessary and very much conduce to the Establishment of Him in His Kingdom and to shew the extraordinary Esteem he had for his Parts and Abilities he advanced him to be one of the first Rank in the Council placing him above his Royal Brother the Duke of Gloncester and even General Monke himself whom his Majesty use to 〈◊〉 Political Father And having in sundry respects saith Sir William Dugdale in his History of the Baronage of England whom we cannot suspect of Partiality manifested his Loyalty to Charles the First and his great Affection to his Country in the late perilous and difficult Times and likewise to our present Soveraign by his prudent and seasonable Advice and Consultation with General Monke in order to His Majesties Restoration in consideration of these his acceptable Services he was by Letters Patents bearing date at Westminster upon the 20th day of April in the Thirteenth Year of His Majesties Raign advanced to the Degree and Dignity of a Baron of this Realm by the Title of Lord Ashly of Wimbourne St. Giles and to the Heirs Males of his Body This Honour was conferred upon him in the Banqueting-House at White-hall three days before His Majesties Coronation in order to his assisting in the performance of that splendid Ceremony And when his Majesty was pleased to issue out the Grand Commission of Oyer and Terminer for the Trial of the Regicides directed to several Noble Persons choice was made of this Honourable Lord to be of the number of that Court his Majesty deeming him to be a Person whose Prudence and Loyalty render'd him as deserving of the Honour to which his Majesty therein preferred him as any other contained in that Commission And as if his Majesty had so high a Valuation for his Lordship that he thought his profound Parts and exemplary Loyalty merited a perpetual confluence of Royal Favours he raised him at several times to higher degrees of Honour making him Chancellor of his Exchequer Under-Treasurer of the Exchequer Lord Lieutenant of the County of Dorset and one of the Lord Commissioners of the Treasury But all these being too small to compensate his Merits and demonstrate the Royal Bounty and Princely Gratitude of his Soveraign whose Generous Nature inclines him to delight in nothing more then to reward like a King He was advanced to the Title and Dignity of an Earl being in the year 1672. created Earl of Shaftesbury and Lord Cooper of Paulet to him and the Heirs Males of his Body by Letters Patents bearing date at Westminster upon the 23 d. day of April in the Twenty Fourth Year of his Majesties Raign And in November following upon the Resignation of Sir Orlando Bridgeman his Majesty to gratifie the uninterrupted good Services of the Earl of Shaftesbury Chancellor of his Exchequer and one of the Lord Commissioners of the Treasury was pleased to give unto him the Keeping of the said Great Seal with the Title of Lord High Chancellor of England these are the words of the Gazette being the second Person that had enjoyed that Title since his Majesties Raign Whereby he was placed by his Great Master in the highest Orb that any Subject could possibly move in The Kings Conscience being as it were committed to his Care and Management And with what Prudence and Candour Honour and Integrity he acquitted himself in that great and weighty Imployment the Transactions of the Court of Chancery during the time of his Chancellorship will best testisie Justice then run in an equal Channel so that the Cause of the Rich was not suffer'd to swallow up the Rights of the Poor nor was the strong or cunning Oppressor permitted to devour the weak or unskilful Opposer but the abused found Relief suitable to their Distress and those by whom they were abused a severe Reprehension answerable to their Crimes The mischievous Consequences which commonly arise from the delays and other practices of that Court were by his ingenious and judicious Management very much abated and every thing weighed and determined with such an exact Judgment and Equity that it almost exceeds all possibility of belief And because the Traducers of this Lords Loyalty not only reproach him with the Tap which was an unquestionable Mark of Loyalty and Honour it being got in conducting his Majesty to his Crown and Kingdom but have likewise quarrel'd at his constant Faithfulness to the Royal Interest and endeavour'd to abuse every thing he did for his Majesties Service as they have done the speech he made to the Parliament upon the account of the Dutch War And that the World may see the temper of the Men and upon what ground it is they were his Enemies I have set down the Speech verbatim as follows My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commous THe King hath spoken so fully so excellently well and so like Himself that you are not to expect much from me There is not a word in His Speech that hath not its full weight And I dare with assurance say will have its effect with you His Majesty had called you sooner and His Affairs required it but that He was resolved to give you all the ease and vacancy to your own private Concerns and the People as much respit from Payments and Taxes as the necessity of His Business or their Preservation would permit And yet which I cannot but here mention to you by the Crafty insinuations of some ill affected persons there have been spread strange and desperate Rumours which your Meeting together this day hath sufficiently proved both malicious and false His Majesty hath told you that He is now engaged in an important very expensive and indeed a War absolutely necessary and unavoidable He hath referred you to His Declaration where you will find the Personal indignities by Pictures and Medals and other publique affronts His Majesty hath received from the States their Breach of Treaties both in the Surinam and East-India business and at last they came to that heighth of Insolence as to deny the honour and right of the Flag though an undoubted Jewel of this Crown never to be parted with and by them particularly owned in the late Treaty of Breda and never contested in any Age. And whilest the King first long expected and then solemnly demanded Satisfaction they disputed His Title to it in all the Courts of Christendom and made great Offers to the French King if he would stand by them against us But the most Christian King too well remembred what they did at Munster contrary to so many Treaties and solemn Ingagements and how dangerous a Neighbour they were to all Crowned heads The King and His Ministers had here a hard time and lay every day under new Obloquies Sometimes they were represented as selling all to France to make this War Portsmouth Plymouth and Hull were to be given into the
this Project they next procured young Tongue Son to Dr. Tongue to prove that his Father the Earl of Shaftsbury and Oates invented the Popish Plot Whereupon one of the Lords of the Council asked him If they contrived Coleman's Letters too To which he could make no reply and indeed the whole business was so weak and ridiculous that it effected nothing more than the depressing the Wretch that was to have been the Evidence of it under the weight of his own Guilt he being committed to the King's-Bench where he hath ever since remained Besides their publick Designs they had several secret Projects and Artifices to accomplish his Ruine As forging of his Hand and other such like base and villanous Arts as appears by their intercepting Letters directed to his Lordship and after having incerted Treason in them in a hand as near the Original as they could possibly counterfeit transmitted them to such hands as would certainly acquaint our Ministers of State therewith but more especially a certain Gentleman who had commanded a Regiment of Horse in the Service of his late Majesty for whose sake and his present Majestie 's he suffered the loss of all that he had writ to the Earl about relieving him against the Gout with which he was much afflicted whose Letter was intercepted the person that writ it lived at that time in the Frengch King's Dominions and after they had added to it an account that the Writer was able to furnish the Earl with Forty thousand men from France to oppose the D. Y's Interest it was then convey'd to some of the French Ministers of State presuming they would send a Copy of it hither but by an over-ruling Providence the Letter was strangely return'd into the Gentleman's own hands whereby the mischief they intended was prevented His Majesty having prorogued the Parliament his Lordship together with the Earls of Huntington Clare Stamford c. the Lords North and Grey Chando's Grey Howard and Herbert being introduced to his Majestie 's Presence by his Highness Prince Rupert presented the following Petition and Advice to His Majesty SIR VVE are here to cast our selves at your Majestys feet being Ten of the Peers of Your Realm of England and in our own Names and in the Names of several others of our fellow Peers do humbly beg That Your Majesty would consider the great Danger Your Royal Person is in as also the Protestant Religion and the Government of these Your Nations We humbly pray that in a time when all these are so highly concerned Your Majesty will effectually use Your Great Council the Parliament SIR Out of the deepest sence of Duty and Loyalty to Your Majesty we offer it as our humble Advice and earnest Petition that the Parliament may sit at the time appointed and that Your Majesty would be Graciously pleased to give publick Notice and Assurance thereof that the minds of Your Majestys Subjects may be settled and their fear removed To this Petition and Advice His Majesty answered He would consider of what they had offered and told them that he heartily wished all other people were as solicitous for the peace and good of the Nation as he was and ever would be However he was pleased soon after to Prorogue the Parliament from the 26th of January till the 11th of November following About this time his Lordship was visited with a violent and dangerous fit of Sickness and his recovery was somewhat doubted of but Heaven was pleased to spare him to be a further Scourge and Terrour to the Papists those common Pests of Christendom and sworn Enemies to His Majesty and the English Nation The Romanists having tryed so many ways and different methods for accomplishing his Ruine resolved to try a new Stratagem for the effecting thereof viz. The tampering with Dugdale to retract his Evidence concerning the Popish-plot and endeavour to prevail with him to withdraw himself into some place beyond the Seas and leave a Writing behind him wherein he was to retract all he had sworn against the Papists and pretend that the occasion of his Retraction was an extream trouble and anguish of Conscience for having so unjustly and wickedly injured the Papists and procured the shedding of innocent blood affirming that it was by the instigation of his Lordship and other Protestants of unblemished Loyalty to His Majesty upon whom he was moreover to six the Odium of a Presbyterian Plot not only against the Papists but against His Majesties Person and Government But the mischief of it was they had not then Debauched his Conscience perswaded him to question the Truth of God's Omnisciency or wholly Erradicated the Beleif of a Deity out of his mind and thereby render him hardy enough to undertake so Barbarous a Work without any kind of Hissitation Wherefore being touched with some Remorse at so horrid a Villany he gave an account of the business to his Lordship and some others and so that design suffered the same fate with the rest and produced no other effect than exposing the malice of his Enemies and the informing him what he must live in a dayly expectation of from those indefatigable wretches and purchasers of Perjury by offers of two Thousand Pounds and promises of other Rewards and Gratitudes A Sum so considerable and Arguments so powerful and irresistable that it would have been a rarity much more amazing and would infinitly have transcended any of those called The Seven Wonders of the World if they should alwaies have been so unhappy as not to meet with some Profligate Villain or other who would upon those considerations engage to Swear whatsoever they should dictate and even defie the Almighty and storm Heaven it self to gain so immence a Treasure and acquire a Fortune so far above what their Birth or Education ever gave them a Prospect of In December 1680. he was present at and assisted in the trying William Viscount Stafford upon an Impeachment of the House of Commons for Ploting and Conspiring with the Pope and his Emissaries to Murther the King exterpate the Protestant Religion and subvert the Government of these Kingdoms and after a fair Tryal his Lordship with the Majority of the Peers sound him Guilty of the Treason whereof he stood Impeached upon which he received Sentence to be Hang'd Drawn and Quarter'd the rigour whereof was remitted by the Gracious Pleasure of His Majesty And not long after he was beheaded on a Scaffold erected for that purpose on Tower-Hill On the 10th of Jannuary His Majesty Prorogued the Parliament and on the 18th they were Dissolved by Proclamation and a New one summoned to meet at Oxford on the 21 st of the following March which being looked upon by his Lordship and divers others of the Nobility and Gentry to be ominous and attended with much hazard and danger and was afterwards really found to be so by some To prevent which the Earl joyned with several Noblemen in presenting a humble Petition and Advice full of Tenderness
was not delayed till the thing was worn out of mind but Published whilst it was yet hot and fresh in every Mans Memory And that therefore if any such Horse had been bought and kept by Booth either the person who sold him or those who were present at the buying of him or the Inn-Keeper where he stood or the Ostler that looked to him or some one or other who must undoubtedly have seen him Ride or at least the person to whom he afterwards sold him would certainly either out of a Principle of Love and Loyalty to His Majesty to detect the impudence of the Captain in Publishing this Declaration to vindicate the Honour and Reputation of Booth to despite the Earl and render him the more Guilty or else out of Love and Desire of the Five Guinneys have appeared and given Evidence thereof The same may be said of the Captain 's Horse and therefore it must be granted that neither the one nor the other had any Horse at all and if so how improbable a Story it is That the Captain should command a Troop of Horse when at that same time he had not a Horse to Ride on nor never had been in 20 years at the place where this Troop was to be commanded And yet upon the Evidence of this Man and others of the like temper fome Men would have had his Lordship found Guilty and Convicted of no less Crime than High Treason railing against and villifying the Grand Jury for doing otherwise After a full hearing of all that the Witnesses had to say the Jury thought themselves obliged to return an Ignoramus upon the Bill which occasioned a general joy and satisfaction as plainly appeared by the many Bone-fires which were that Night made almost in every Street and at several Country Towns upon hearing the News thereof The Earl being thus cleared by the Grand Jury moved to be discharged but could not obtain it till 13 of Feb. following and then both he and several others who were Prisoners upon the account of this imaginary Plot were released And having thus gained his Liberty she Arrested several persons whereof some of them were Evidences against him in an Action of Conspiracy and one Cradock and others in an Action of Scandalum Magnatum but was not able to bring any of them to a Tryal For on the 4th of May being the first day of the Term Cradock whose Tryal was expected to be brought on first moved by his Council that the Tryal might not be in London or Middlesex but in some other Country upon which motion the Court ordered That on the Fryday following the Earl should shew cause why it should not be Tryed in another Country Accordingly his Lordship appeared in Court himself and Declared it was his desire to have it Tryed by an indifferent Jury but only desired to have it Tryed that Term by a Middlesex Jury asserting That an indifferent Jury might as well be had there as in any Country in England On the 12th the like motion was made in the behalf of Graham whereupon his Lordship finding he could not have it tryed in London and not willing it should be tryed in any other County in regard an Address of Abhorrence against a certain Paper said to be found in his Lordships Closet importing an Association was preferr'd in most Counties declared That since he could not have the undoubted Priviledge of a Peer to lay his Action in any County in England he would remit it at present and wait till he had a better opportunity to revive it After this his Lordship continued at his house in Aldersgate-street until the _____ November following and then he went over to Holland The Seas were somewhat Tempestuous and some who went over in company with the same Ship were cast away but the Providence of God ordered That to save his life which is often the loss of others viz. An unskilful Pilot who being not well acquainted with the Haven and withal somewhat timerous would not be perswaded to venture in till he had a calmer Sea As soon as he arrived and was known he was visited by some of the States and others of the greatest Quality who welcomed him into that Country and Congratulated his having so happily escaped the danger of the Seas The Earl not long after his Arrival took a spacious House in Amsterdam where he intended to reside he was to pay for it a yearly Rent of an Hundred and fifty pounds per annum but before the House was furnished and fitted for his use his usual Destemper the Gout seized him and handled him with great violence for somedays and then it began to wear away and the Earl was indifferently recovered but suddenly and unexpectedly returning again and getting into his Stomach he fell into a dangerous Relapse which proved mortal and terminated in his Death He discovered in the time of his Sickness abundance of patience and an admirable temper of mind yielding an intire submission to the Divine Will and solacing his Soul in the Contemplation of that Transcending Glory and Happiness whereinto he was passing and wherein he should for ever remain free from the Malice of ambitious and aspiring Favourites and secure from the fatal Consequence of the poysonous and infectious Breaths of all mereinary Villains He expired in the Arms of a Reverend Divine and will certainly prove as great and as universal a Loss as has happened to England in many years He died at Amsterdam January 21. 1682. Or rather like the fairest Fruit which being ripened by Nature and arrived at its perfect Maturity falls of its own accord So this Nobleman being arrived at a full Age was with the more facility and ease shaken down by Death and glided into the Grave without compulsion in the Sixty second year of his Age during the time of his Sickness he was frequently visited by several Persons of Quality and some Lords of the States and others who did not visit him in person sent often to see him and enquire of his Condition and when he was dead many of the States and divers other Gentlemen put themselves into Mourning and ordered that his Corps should be exempted from all Toll Fees and Customs in every place it should be carried thorow within their Dominions in order to its passage to England His Body was first wrapp'd in Sear-cloath and then in Lead all but his Head and Face whereon he had nothing save one of the Perrywigs he used to wear in his life-Life-time and in that manner he was laid in a rich Coffin in the stead whereof just over the Earl's Face was placed a Crystal Glass whereby every one that pleased might view his Face which to the admiration of all that saw it appeared as fresh and beautiful as when he was living nor was there any considerable alteration to be discerned therein The Ship which Transported him to England was hung with Mourning and adorned with mournful Streamers and Escuchions and
to above an Hundred more who had been Members of the former Parliament and had render'd themselves obnoxious to the Usurper by Opposing and Acting in contradiction to his Designs of Establishing his Tyranny They being all Excluded for want of the aforesaid Certificate or Warrant Whereupon after having consulted together they applied themselves for Redress to that part of the Parliament which was admitted to Sit. Acquainting them by way of complaint that above an Hundred of the Members which were chosen by the Country and sent up to serve in the Parliament were not able to obtain admittance into the House being kept out by order of the Protector But those within the House being all of them Cromwells Creatures upon the Questions being put Resolved That those persons ought to make their Application to the Council for Acceptance and Approbation Whereupon finding that they could obtain no relief against those Arbitrary and Illegal Practices of the Usurper they unanimously consented to draw up and publish a Remonstrance wherein they claimed the priviledge of the Ancient Fundamental Laws and their Birth-right as Free-men of England But the Remonstrance being much too large to be here inserted I shall only present you with one or two Paragraphs as a Specimen of those brave Heroes Resolutions against a Protectorian Invasion And the greatness of their Courage and brave English Gallantry will be the more conspicuous if we consider this was done when the then Protector was in his Zenith when he had made almost all Europe tremble before him ahd gave Laws to his Neighbouring Princes and held that Thunder in his Fist wherewith he shook the Nation off her very Foundations And the House too filled with those who either were or seemed to be his Creatures Yet in a general Defiance of this so Potent a Conquerour did those Noble Patriots amongst other things Remonstrate When our Worthy Ancestors have been met in Parliaments and have found Oppression and Tyranny supported by such strong hands that they could not prevail to secure their Countries Lives and Liberties by wholsome Laws they have often made their Protestations against Injustice and Oppression and forewarned the People of their danger In like manner we who have been duly chosen by the People to be Members of the Parliament that should now have met and have an undoubted Right to meet Sit and Vote in Parliament although we are Oppressed by Force of Arms and shut out of the usual place of Parliament Sitting yet having Hearts sensible of that highest Trust reposed in us and being filled with Cares for the Church and Common-wealth which with grief of heart we behold bleeding we do hold our selves bound in duty to God and our Country to declare unto the People of England their and our woful condition and the most evident danger of the utter Subversion of Religion Liberty Right and Property We believe the Rumour is now gone through the Nation that Armed Men employed by the L. P. have prevented the free Meeting and Sitting of the intended Parliament and have forcibly shut out of doors such Members as he and his Council supposed would not be frighted or flattered to betray their Country and give up their Religion Lives and Estates to be at his Will to selve his Lawless Ambition But we fear that the Slavery Rapines Oppressions Cruelties Murthers and Confusions that are comprehended in this horrid Fact are not so sensibly discerned or so much laid to heart as the case requires and we doubt not but as the common practice of the Man hath been the Name of God and Religion and formal Fasts and Prayers will be made use of to colour over the Blackness of the Fact We do therefore in faithfulness to God and our Country hereby Remonstrate First That whereas by the Fundamental Laws of this Nation the People ought not to be bound by any Laws but such as are freely consented unto by their chosen Deputies in Parliament and it is a most wicked Usurpation even against the very Laws of Nature for any man to impose his Will or Discretion upon another as a Rule unless there be some compact or Agreement between the parties for that intent And whereas by the Mercy of God only in preserving this Fundamental Law and Liberty the good People of England have beyond memory of any Record preserved their Estates Families and Lives which had otherwise been destroyed at the will of every wicked Tyrant and by keeping this only as their undoubted Right they have been kept from being brutish Slaves to the lusts of their Kings who would otherwise have despoiled them of their Persons Lives and Estates by their Proclamations and the Orders of themselves and their Council Now the L. P. hath by force of Arms invaded this Fundamental Right and Liberty and violently prevented the meeting of the peoples chosen Deputies in Parliament and he and his Council boldly declare That none of the Peoples Deputies shall meet in Parliament unless they agree to the measure of their Fantasies Humours and Lusts They now render the people such Fools or Beasts as know not who are fit to be trusted by them with their Lives Estates and Families But he and his Council that daily devour their Estates and Liberties will judge who are fit to counsel and advise about Laws to preserve their Estates and Liberties Thus doth he now openly assume a power to pack an Assembly of his Confidents Parasites and Confederates and to call them a Parliament that he may from thence pretend that the People have consented to become his Slaves and to have their persons and Estates at his Diseretion And if the people shall tamely submit to such a Power who can doubt but he may pack such a Number as will obey all his Commands and consent to his taking what part of our Estates he pleaseth and to impose what Yoaks he thinks fit to make us draw in They know it to be the undoubted Right of the People to trust whom they think fit and as much the Right of every man duly chosen and trusted to meet and Vote in Parliament without asking their leave or begging their Tickets And although there have been frequent Secret Designs for many years to subvert Religion Liberty and Property in this Nation and to that end the Designs of Tyranny have attempted to destroy sometimes the Being sometimes the Power Priviledges and Freedom of Parliaments yet the Mercy of God hath almost miraculously preserved the Being Priviledges and Authority of Parliaments and therein Religion Liberty and Property until the time of the Lord Protector But now he hath assumed an absolute Arbitrary Soveraignty as if he came down from the Throne of God to create to himself and his Confederates such Powers and Authorities as must not be under the cognizance of the Peoples Parliaments His Proclamations he declares shall be binding Laws to Parliaments themselves he takes upon him to be above the whole Body and every Member of it
to kill the Earl of Shaftsbury as being the great encourager and influencer of the rest not long after which Matteson pull'd a Pistol out of his Pocket in Mr. Prance's Shop affirming he would therewith do Shaftsbury's business having provided the same for that purpose several others also assures Mr. Prance that he would speedily be destroyed But after this their rage was heigthned and they supposed themselves obliged to a greater vigilancy in accomplishing his ruine upon the account of a Speech which was said to be spoken by him in the House of Lords March 25. 1679. upon occasion of the Houses Resolving it self into State of England which was to the following Effect MY LORDS YOV are now appointing the consideration of the State of England to be taken up in a Committee of the whole House some day the 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 alwaies speak what I am commanded by the dictates of the Spirit within me There are some other considerations that concern England so nearly 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 inclose her with Boards of Caedar We have several little Sisters without Breasts the French Protestant Churches the two Kingdoms of Ireland and Scotland the forraign 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 weakned by the Artifice of our cunning Enemies and we ought to enclose them with Boards of Caedar Popery and Slavery like two Sisters go hand in hand sometimes the one goes first sometimes the other but wherever the one enters the other is always following close at the Heels 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 a Noble and 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 thereof 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 Richer expect better usuage For 't is certain that in all absolute Governments the poorest Countries are most favourably dealt with When the Ancient Nobility there cannot enjoy their Royalties their Shrievaldoms and their Stewardies which they and their Ancestors have possessed for several hundred of years but that now they are enjoyn'd by the Lords of the Council to make Deputations of their Authorities to such as are their known Enemies can we expect to enjoy our Magna Charta long under the same persons and Administration of Affairs If the Council-Table there can imprison any Nobleman or Gentleman for several years without bringing him to Tryal or giving the least Reason for what they do can we expect the same men will preserve the Liberty of the Subject here My Lords I will confess that I am not very well vers'd in the particular Laws of Scotland but this I do know that all the Northern Countries have by their Laws an undoubted and inviolable Right to their Liberties and Properties yet Scotland hath out-done all the Eastern and Southern Countries in having their Lives Liberties and Estates subjected to the Arbitrary Will and Pleasure of those that govern They have lately plundered and harassed the richest and wealthiest Countries of that Kingdom and brought down the barbarous Highlanders to devour them and all this almost without a colourable pretence to do it Nor can there be found a Reason of State for what they have done but that those wicked Ministers designed to procure a Rebellion at any Rate which as they managed it was only prevented by the miraculous hand of God or otherwise all the Papists in England would have been armed and the fairest opportunity given in the nick of time for the execution of that wicked and bloody Design the Papists had and it is not possible for any man that duly considers it to think other but that those Ministers that acted that were as guilty of the Plot as any of the Lords that are in Question for it My Lords I am forced to speak this the plainer because till the pressure be fully and clearly taken off from Scotland 't is not possible for me or any thinking man to believe that good is meant us here We must still be upon our guard apprehending that the Principle is not changed at Court and that those men that are still in place and Authority have that influence upon the mind of Our Excellent Prince that he is not nor cannot be that to us that his own Nature and Goodness would incline him to I know your Lordships can order nothing in this but there are those that hear me which can put a perfect cure to it until that be done the Scottish Weed is like Death in the pot Mors in Olla But there is something too now I consider that most immediately concerns us their Act of Twenty two Thousand Men to be ready to invade us upon all occasions This I hear that the Lords of the Council there have treated as they do all other Laws and expounded it into a standing Army of Six Thousand Men. I am sure we have Reason and Right to beseech the King that that Act may be better considered in the next Parliament there I shall say no more for Scotland at this time I am afraid your Lordships will think I have said too much having no concern there but if a French Nobleman should come to dwell in my House and Family I should think it concerned me to ask what he did in France for if we were there a Felon a Rogue a Plunderer I should desire him to live elsewhere and I hope your Lordships will do the same thing for the Nation if you find Cause My Lords Give me leave to speak two or three words concerning our other Sister Ireland Thither I hear is sent Douglas's Regiment to secure us against the French Besides I am credibly informed that the Papists have their Arms restor'd and the Protestants are not many of them yet recovered from being the suspected Party The Sea-Towns as well as the In-land are full of Papists That Kingdom