Qualities than Popery The Pagans are excusable by their natural Darkness without Revelation The Jews are tolerable who see not beyond the Old-Testament Mahomet was so honest as to own what he would be at That he himself was the greatest Prophet and that his was a Religion of the Sword So that these were all as I may say of another Allegiance if they were Enemies yet they were not Traytors But the Romish Beast avowing Christianity by Profession doth in Doctrin and Practice renounce it and presumeing to be the only Catholick doth presume to prosecute those to death who dare Worship the Author of their Religion instead of his pretended Vicegerent And yet there is nothing more manifest notwithstanding all his most notorious Forgeries and falsifications of all Writers than that the Prelate of Rome was for several hundreds of Years an honest Bishop as other Men are and never so much as dreamed of the Seven Hills of that Universal Power which he is now come to Nay he was the first that opposed that Pretension But some of them at last growing Wiser by foisting a Counterfeit Donation of Constantine and wresting another Donation from our Saviour advancing themselves in a Weak Ignorant and Credulous Age to that Temporal and Spiritual Principality that they are now seized of Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church Of this I may say to your Majesty That never was a Bishoprick and a Text of Scripture so Improved by good Management thus by exercising in the quality of Christ's Vicar the Publick Function under an invisible Prince the Pope like the Maiors of the Palace hath set his Master aside and delivered the power over to a new Line of Papal Succession But who can unless wilfully be ignorant what wretched doings what Bribery what Ambitions there are how long the Church is without a Head upon every Vacancy till among the filthy Crew of bandying Cardinals the Holy Ghost hath declared for a Pope of the French or Spanish Faction Surely Sir your Majesty will judge it one of the greatest Miracles of the Synagogue of Rome that it should still continue and that in all this time the Gates of Heaven should not prevail against it Give me leave Great Sir to observe to your Majesty that it is almost inconceivable how Princes can yet suffer a Power so pernicious and Doctrins so destructive to all Government that so great a part of the Land should be alienated and condemned to Pious Uses as they call it That so many Thousands of the People that are Clergy should by remaining unmarried either frustrate Humane Nature if they live chastly or if otherwise adulterate it that they should be privileged from all Labour and publick Service and exempt from the power of all Secular Jurisdiction that they being all bound by strict Oaths and Vows of Obedience to the Pope should evacuate the Fealty that is due to the Sovereign nay that not only the Clergy but the Laity too if of the Cursed Communion of that Synagogue should be obliged at any time to Rebel at the Pope's pleasure And yet how many of the Neighbouring Princes are content or do choose to Reign upon those Conditions which being so dishonourable and dangerous surely some great and weighty Reason does cause them to submit to whether it be out of personal Fear having heard perhaps of several attempts which the blind Obedience of Popish Zealots hath executed against the Princes or whether aiming at a more absolute and tyrannical Government they think it still to be the Case of an Usurping Emperor and an Usurping Bishop and that this as other Cheats is to be managed by Confederacy But Sir as far as I can apprehend there is more of Sloth than of Policy on the Princes side in this whole matter and all that pretence of enslaving Men by the assistance of Religion is neither more nor less than when the Bramine by having the first Night of the Bride assures himself of her Devotion for the future and makes her more fit for the Husband This Reflection upon the state of our Neighbours in respect to Religion doth sufficiently illustrate our Happiness we enjoy by your Majesties Accession to the Crown of ours Therefore it spares me the labour of describing it further than by the rule of Contraries our Religion and Interest standing upon all points in a direct Opposition to the above-mentioned Errors our Doctrin being true to the Principles of the first Institution of Christ the Ministry being formed upon the Primitive Model and no Ecclesiastical Power justling with the Civil but all concurring in the Common Obedience to the chief Magistrate Nor therefore is there any whether Prince or Nation that can at this time with less probability be reduced back to the Romish Communion than the Protestant Interest here in England For if we respect our Obedience to God what appearance is there that after so durable and general enlightning of our Minds with the sacred Truth of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ we should again put out our own Eyes to wander through the palpable Darkness of that Gross Superstition But for as much as many Men are less concern'd for their Interest in Heaven than on Earth this seeming the nearer and more certain also on this account our Alteration from the Protestant Religion is the more inconsistent with temporal Advantage when besides the common ill Examples and Consequences observable Abroad whereby we might grow wise at the Expence of our Neighbours we cannot but reflect upon our own Experiments at Home which would make even Fools docible The whole Reign of Queen Mary the First in which the Papists made Fuel of the Protestants the Excommunicating and Deprivation of Queen Elizabeth by the Pope pursued by so many Treasons and Attempts upon her Person by her own Subjects and the Invasion of Eighty-Eight by the Spaniard The two Breves of the Pope in order to exclude King James the First from the Succession to the Crown seconded by the Gunpowder-Treason In the time of K. Charles the first besides what they contributed to the Civil Wars in England the Rebellion and Horrid Massacre in Ireland which ended in the Ruin and Destruction of the Person and Government of that King In the time of King Charles the Second we saw several visible Effects of the same Spirit as the Firing of London the Popish Design carried on against the Person and Government of that King not that he was a Protestant but because he came not up to the Measures of the Jesuits and his Brother the late King James But as for him his whole Life was nothing else but a Contrivance or a Plot against our Religion Laws and Liberties But this Horrid Conspiracy against your Majesty's Person and Government being so happily discovered we cannot but hope that the Discovery of such a tremendous Villany will so rivet the Protestant Interest and Religion that it shall stand so sure that
a Field as any of external Felicity wherein to exercise their own Virtue and to reward and encourage it in others In a word your Majesty hath enlarged our Liberties in consenting to the Bill to Regulate Tryals in Cases of High-Treason in which there are large Immunities granted to any that fall under that black Circumstance that their Lives may not be at the mercy of a Mercenary Judge or Judges if God should in his Judgment leave poor England to such Men But your Majesty hath begun and I question not but your Royal inclination will carry you on to compleat our security from such Vermin Therefore to conclude what a Government is this we enjoy than which nothing can come nearer the Divine Perfection The Monarch enjoys a capacity of doing all the good imaginable to Mankind but under a disability of doing any thing that is Evil. This Scheme of the Civil Government the Late King did well know and therefore in Council on the day of his Accession to the Crown he was pleased to say That the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King of England as great a Monarch as he could wish or desire so that your Majesty may see that he could own that the Greatness of the English Monarchy had its Birth and rise from the Laws Who then would have lessened himself as he did by breaking in upon those very Laws that had made him Great And who would have broken so excellent a Government as made him Secure and Happy And what Subject of England Papist or Protestant that would lose such Immunities and Privileges by joyning in with that unhappy Man to destroy themselves Were they so in love with King James that they were not satisfied till they had him Nay he and they waded through King Charles's Blood that he might Reign Why then did they not keep the terms of the Government which would have been the most effectual way of continuing him on the Throne Besides all this we cannot forget that the Parliaments under Queen Elizabeth King James King Charles the First and King Charles the Second made it Treason in whosoever that should attempt to Seduce any one of the meanest of your Majesty's Subjects to the Church of Rome And the Long Parliament held in the time of Charles the Second to all Penalties of the Statute Law added an incapacity for any Man to say that that King was a Papist or an introducer of Popery What Lawless and incapable Miscreants were these What wicked Traytors were those Men who did indeavour to pervert the whole Body of Protestants and to bring that about in effect which even to mention was penal at one Italian stroke attempting to subvert the Government and Religion to kill the Body and damn the Soul of the Nation Your Majesty finds to this day there are such a Set of Men in this Nation who have undertaken and have made it their business under your Majesties happy legal and perfect Government by the intended destruction of your Royal Person to introduce a French Slavery and instead of so pure a Religion that your Majesty ventured hard to preserve to establish the Roman Idolatry either of which Crimes are of the highest nature for if we look upon the Government if the Murther of your Royal Person be a fact so horrid as no Man can find words enough to declare his detestation and abhorrence of it how much more then is the Murther of your Royal Person with an intent to Assassinate the Kingdom And Sir none will deny but that to alter the Monarchy of these Kingdoms into a Republick is High Treason So by the same fundamental Rule the Crime is no less to Murther your Royal Person in order to make the Monarchy Absolute Sir I beg your Majesty's leave to tell you that my Heart is much enlarged to your Majesty I beseech your Majesty that your Royal Heart may be for this one time enlarged to me in your Grace and Pardon for this trouble I now give your most excellent Majesty Let me undertake upon serious inquiry to give your Majesty some satisfaction who these Men are that have from the Year 1660 to this day attempted to Subvert our Government and our Religion Had these Men been the old honest Cavaleers that fought for Charles the I. or suffered much in the time of Charles II. it would have been allowable in them as oft as their Wound did break out at Spring or Fall to think of a more Arbitrary Government as a sovereign Balsom for their Aches or to imagin that no Weapon-Salve but that of the Moss that Grows on an Enemies Skull could cure them or could they to have kept their Hands in ure have fought their Cause over again since they saw they were neglected and left to Starve yet their Age and times they lived in and their unjust usage they met with from two Kings might have pleaded something on their behalf in mitigation of Damages But Sir give me leave to make this Remark to your Majesty concerning those Gentlemen that they were and are still if any of them remain too Generous too good Christians and Subjects too affectionate to the English legal Government to be capable of such an Impression whereas these Conspirators that carried on the design of subverting our Religion into Popery and changing the Government into downright Slavery are such as have not one drop of Cavaleer Blood or no Bowels at least of a Cavaleer in them but such as starved the Cavaleers to revel and surfeit upon their Calamities making their Persons and the very Cause by pretending to it themselves almost Ridiculous Or had these Villains been all of the Popish communion and avowed so to be give me leave to say it over again to your Majesty your danger would have been the less their Religion would in some measure have been answerable for the Errors and Extravgancies they might have been guilty of to promote it but these render their intended Villany more black they were Protestants and of the Church of England too that joyned with Papists to Assassinate your Royal Person What can any Man say for them Your Majesty knows what to do with them These Villains because I perceive they lye under a great difficulty to find Accomplices enough at home to Mutiny and Rebel and Murther your Majesties true and loyal Subjects therefore they put themselves under the Banner and Pay of the French King to compleat their wicked designs and purposes to bring a foreign Enemy to Invade us that King being endowed with all those which in a French Prince or in an Abdicated King may pass for Vertues but in any private Man they would be Capital and moreover so abounding in Zeal for Popery and Slavery above all other Princes that none else could engage both Body and Soul in such a Villanous Undertaking to which Consideration adding that their Interests are both one and the one is and the other would be the Master of
ought to have considered That none of the vain Pamphlets that either Ferguson or L'Estrange or any of that rascally Crew ever writ were ever able to shake the natural and dutiful Affections of our English Nation to your Majesty and of this I am sure they have had sufficient Experience In the next place many of these Conspirators are Priests and Jesuits more fit to manage a Pen than a Launce to dispute of Philosophy than to discourse of War to have a low opinion of their own Parts than to be prodigal in their Assurance and let them say no more than what is true and judge that to be the great truth that is best made out In the last Place if that those have not been of the Tribe of Levi yet then they have been Fellows of desperate Fortunes which they are ambitious to advance by Lies and the ruin of their Country I do not wonder why they traduce and asperse your Majesty's Government for they are and have been for many Years plotting your Ruin and Destrâ—â—tion both before and since you were our King and the business is plain that they can never hurt your Person till they have destroyed your Interest and have withdrawn a considerable Party from your Majesty by which they may make a Stand then they may possibly if not discovered make an attempt upon your Person which they cannot do till your Interest is destroyed by their many traiterous Aspersions and they believed thrown upon your Majesty Nay tho King Charles the Second did comply with them in many things yet because he did not comply in every thing they spared not him but made it their business to traduce him it is true his Government was Censurable because he complied not with the Terms and preserved not the fundamental Constitutions of an English Monarchy therefore his Government was exposed to the Censure of some that opposed even his proceedings when they had liberty as they were Members of Parliament for they had just Ground to believe that he closed with the French Interest against that of his own Kingdom and with the Popish Party in order to betray the Protestant Interest both at Home and Abroad and the Conspirators they let lose their Tongues against him because he was not wholly theirs but ever and anon gave them the slip by which they were disappointed in their Designs therefore in a Letter of theirs to their Party in Scotland they plainly say That he was so addicted to his Pleasure that he was not fit to Govern and in another Letter they charge him with unsteadiness in his Resolutions as to Religion and when they had a design to hasten his Exit then they charge him with all the Falseness and Vileness that might be imagined to be in the worst of Men so that your Majesty is not the only Prince that these Miscreants have Traduced And truly it filled me with great Horror when I saw their Industry in dispersing their filthy and scandalous Libels against your Majesty and Government it being the method of those Men first to beget a disaffection in your Subjects against your Majesty if it were possible that your Destruction might be the more easily accomplish'd by them but your Majesty hath been very happy for nothing these Villains could either Write or Speak ever made the least impression upon the Hearts of your Loving Subjects but on the other hand it filled them with Zeal against that party of Men especially since they were so highly sensible of that Grace and Clemency by which their Lives had been continued to them for we all know that this was not the first Conspiracy that they have been engaged in against your Majesty I pray God it may be the last Give me leave to put your Majesty in mind of a Passage in one of Mr. Coleman's Letters to the French King's Confessor which is this he saith there The Design prospered so well that he doubted not but the Business would be manaaged to the utter ruin of the Protestant Party So the design of these Cut-throats prospered so well that they did not doubt but that in a little time their Business would be managed to the Destruction of your Majesty and your Protestant Subjects for they carried on one Design to Murder your Person and another to Invade your Kingdoms with a Foreign Force and they were much in the right for it would have been impossible for them to have Restored the Late King by an Invasion and to have set up Popery and Slavery without destroying a Protestant King and the Protestant Interest in England All good Protestants I hope will find to their great Satisfaction that these Traitors have brought Destruction upon themselves and their Party and that not a Man of them shall Escape for your Majesty's Proceedings with such will be as quick as their Gunpowder and much more effectual So that your humble Subjects may rejoice in your Majesties Justice upon these Men since Grace and Clemency could not Reform them Sir I was a Discoverer of a Conspiracy carried on by the Popish Party for the Destruction of King Charles the Second and your Majesty when Prince of Orange and for the Subversion of the Government and the Protestant Religion in England and all over Europe but it was my Misfortune to discover a Conspiracy to a King that was engaged in every part thereof but that of his own Life and I met with such Opposition from the then Duke of York and his Conspirators that it was scarce possible for me to have withstood it had not I had a more than an ordinary Presence of Mind to have supported me This Sir I say was my Case yet notwithstanding all the Opposition I met with all I gave the Popish Party such a deadly Wound that they could not be cured of it no not in the Reign of the late King though they had all the Incouragement that Men could have because the Villany of that Party of Men stuck so upon the Minds of the People of England that no Stone was left unturn'd to rid our Hands of them and their Popish King which was effectually done when your Majesty undertook and compleated the Deliverance of this poor bleeding Nation Many Men have wondered that the late King when he was Duke of York should have such an Ascendency over his Brother King Charles the Second since it is well known that when King Charles was upon his return Home to enjoy his Crown that the Duke of York with the Queen Mother was in a Conspiracy to have destroy'd King Charles to the end that he the said Duke of York might have return'd Home and enjoy'd the Crown himself the Lord Arlington discover'd the same and so the design was baffled yet no Man was so much in favour as the Duke of York and as a Testimony of the King's Grace and Favour He was made Lord High Admiral of England and held that Office till he openly refused the subscribing the Test
occasion the lessening the Affections of the People to your Person and for that you were so nearly related to the Crown they desired that your Honour and Esteem should be preserved But had they known of your Trayterous Confederacy with the French King and with him designing to subvert our Religion Laws and Liberties they would sooner have addressed for your being Banished from the King's Presence and his Councils for ever if not to have sent you out of the World as you justly deserved But Sir you may remember that you once were the Darling of the Nation and had the Esteem and Affections of the People upon the Account of your being the Son and Brother of a King and stood in a very near Relation to the Crown of England in the time of your Brothers Reign but when your Traiterous Designs were laid open the Parliament Apr. 27. 1679. Resolved That your being a Papist and the Hopes of your coming such to the Crown had given the greatest Encouragement to the then discovered Conspiracy and Designs of the Papists against his Majesty your Brother and the Protestant Religion Notwithstanding this Vote of the House of Commons you had an impudent Crew that did endeavour to perswade the Nation and not without some Effect through the Power of their bold Asseverations that you were no Papist but of the established Religion only that you were a Prince of more Generosity and Greatness of Mind than to comply with the Capricio's of a Parliament in Renouncing this or Swearing to that as they should in humour enact which Roguery in Conversation passed with a great many Rascally Profligate Protestants who would not believe your being a Papist till the day you opened your Chappel or Oratory the next or next Sunday but one after you took the Crown 5. The Parliament was of an Opinion that for an Age after the Consummation of the said Marriage at the least the People of England would be under continued Apprehensions of the Growth of Popery and the Danger of the Protestant Religion and so they were an Age before For when they saw so many Piracies made on the Dutch Factories in the Years 1663 1664. and a wicked War commenced in the Year 1665. and the City fired by Papists in the Year 1666. and the Papists incouraged not only in the Years aforesaid but in the Year 1667. and 1668. and Persons that had a hand in firing the City of London not only protected but preferred and the Trpiple League broken and another ungodly War proclaimed Priests and Jesuits increasing in their Numbers and their Insolencies and Impudence This increased the Fears and Jealousies of the Nation and your first Lâ—dy turning Papist and dying such but when you married an Italian Papist you had more Eyes upon you and the People by degrees began to see into your Designs against the Protestant Religion and Government That the Protestant Religion was by this means in danger is beyond Disputation for it had three great Enemies conspiring against it that had made a League together to destroy it and all those Princes and States that did intend to maintain and uphold it viz. your Brother Charles the French King and your self and this Confederacy was set up to destroy the Prince of Orange the Government of the States-General and the Parliament of England and this the Parliament feared and therefore they interposed in this marriage Object But here an Objection will arise Why should the Parliament object against this Match and be so zealous in their Interposition to prevent this Match with the Daughter of Modena since it is plain you in view of the World had been for several Months ingaged in a Treaty of Marriage with another Catholick Princess yet a Parliament nay that very Parliament held during the time of the Treaty and not the least Exception taken at it To this I Answer 1. That the Archduchess of Inspruck though she was of the Romish Religion yet she was an avowed Enemy of the French Cause and Interest For observe this there were many Papists which Sir you hated and by your Conspirators were looked upon with an evil Eye for the Lord Castlehaven that was one that served the King of Spain was one that was used very hardly by you Sir Kenelm Digby was also very obnoxious to you and so was my Master the Duke of Norfolk being one of the Spanish Faction and Anderson the Priest and several others that I can when called to it name who were Enemies of the French Faction And this Lady being not of the French Faction and Interest the Match through the Influence of the French King was broken and this Piece of Flesh you have was sent from Modena in her Room 2. The Match between you and that Duchess was never so near a Consummation as this between the Daughter of Modena and you was de non Appaparentibus non existentibus eadem est Ratio the Match did not appear to them therefore they touched not upon it But to make sure they addressed the King that you might not match with Modena or any other Popish Princess for several weighty Considerations 6. The House of Commons considered that your Princess of Modena being so near a Relation and Kindred to the many Eminent Persons of the Court of Rome might give great Opportunities to promote their Designs and carry on their Practices amongst us and by the same means penetrate into the most secret Councils of the King your Brother and more easily discover the State of the whole Kingdom It is observed that it is a standing Rule amongst the Venetians that if one of their Senators have a Relation that is made a Pope or Cardinal or is preferred to any great Dignity in the Court of Rome that the said Senator withdraws from or is dismissed his serving in the said Senate And the Reason is plain First Because they will not be imposed upon by any of that Vermine and Secondly Because they will not have their Councils looked into by any that belong to the Court of Rome nor Thirdly Will they have the Secrets of their Government discovered to them and lastly they will not have the State of their Commonwealth exposed to the Censure of the Ecclesiastical State Sir You were no sooner married but how Letters pass betwixt the Court of Rome and you self and your servant Coleman Jan. 4. 1676. Cardinal Howard writing to Coleman intimates That Sir Henry Tichburn was appointed by you to be your Minister at Rome and rejoyced at the Prorogation of the Parliament and further said That if the King would do well then all would do well Now you know what was meant by the King 's doing well that is if he were removed In that Letter he saith he hoped to do you good Service It is plain that now not only France but Rome was also to be interested in your Councils to destroy the King your Brother and expose the Councils and Secrets of the
the said Persecution were reduced almost to Beggery or to live upon the Charity of Friends Some were forced to fly the Nation and yet were more loyal under their Pressures and Provocations than your Cut-throat Papists were under their then Caresses and Favours received from your Brother and your self Nay a reverend Minister of the Gospel of Christ who had been very instrumental in your Restauration yea and ventur'd his Life for your Brother's Restauration in the year 1650 you suffer'd to perish in Newgate as a Reward for so great a piece of Service to your Brother and your self and Family and for no other reason but because he could not comply with some Rascally Ceremonies that our Ecclesiastical Vermin had borrow'd from the Church of Rome to Adorn our Protestant Worship and because he would not take the Oxford Oath lay'd upon the Nation to enslave it 8. Another Project you had for the ruining the Interest of the Protestant Religion and the Interest of England was the Advancing of Men that were Enemies to the Protestant Interest into the greatest Places of Trust As What a Sett of Villains had you made Judges of the Land by which means you brought all the Matters of Civil Justice into great Uncertainties by reason of the Tenour of their Commissions and the Ignorance of the Rogues you employ'd Therefore how miserable was the Nation who were obliged to Answer to such Judges that were forced to comply in all things with the Directions that were given by you and your Wicked Cut-throats or else to be turned out at yours and their Pleasure If we look further you had in your Brother's time the disposing of all Military Employments And how you did shew your Hatred to the Protestant Religion and the English Interest You did in his time raise a great many Persons to the greatest Military Trusts both by Sea and Land Strangers as well as Natives so that by these measures your Conspirators became Masters of the Affairs of the Government of the Nation and of the course of Justice and you had all the Church Vermin engag'd with you to subject the whole Kingdom to a despotick Arbitrary power and all these joyn'd together to execute your wicked Designs to enslave and debauch the People of the Land 9. To compleat the Work that nothing might stand in your way of Establishing your Popish Religion you murder'd your Brother who was uncertain in his Engagements in the Conspiracy for when he found it was not safe for him to appear in promoting Popery he soon left you Or if a Sum of Money could be gotten from a Parliament he commonly bless'd the Nation with a Proclamation or two against Popish Priests Jesuites and Popish Recusants or pass a Bill or so to the prejudice of the Popish Party as he did in 1673 when the Test-Bill passed as also another in 1678. This obliged you and your Conspirators to hasten his destruction which you had long contrived You found a fit Tool and as fit a Dose to do the Work in it you had your desired Ends and so you mounted the Throne Which brings me to the Second Point What you did in order to the Ruine of the Protestant Religion and the Government after your accession to the Crown II. Your Tyranny was very cruel but short yet full of strange and surprising Circumstances It was highly astonishing to see a Popish Prince ascending the Throne to rule a Protestant Nation and defend a Protestant Church but Sir you had no such Designs in your Head for you shew'd what you would do with our Laws when you could engage your Conspirators to dispense with part of the Oaths that you should have taken It is manifest and notorious that when you were upon the coming to the Crown you was receiv'd by all the People of England Scotland and Ireland as King without the least opposition for our Ecclesiastical Vermin had made your way clear by their Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance and the Divine Right of Succession and the possibility of preserving the Glory and Grandeur of their Church of England by a Popish Prince and that there was more danger from Fanaticks than from Papists and such-like scoundrel Notions You cannot but remember that King Charles your Brother having received the deadly Dose your Conspirators had prepar'd for him on February the 6th 1684 5 he went to his Place that very day Sir you were proclaim'd King to the sorrow of all that wish'd well to England and its Religion Liberties and Laws you then appear'd at the Council-Table as King and by all your Conspirators you was owned and saluted as such to whom you were pleas'd to make a sort of a Speech in which you were pleas'd to declare your self to this effect THat Since it hath pleased Almighty God to place you in that station and that you were now to succeed so Good and Gracious a King as well as so Kind a Brother you thought it fit to declare That you would follow his Example and more especially in that of his great Clemency and Tenderness to all his People That you had been reported to have been a man for Arbitrary Power tho' that had not been the only Story that had been made of you That you would make it your Endeavour to preserve Government both in Church and State as it was by Law establish'd That you knew the Principles of the Church of England were for Monarchy and that the Members of it had shewn themselves good and loyal Subjects and therefore you would take care to defend and support it That you knew the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King as great a Monarch as you could wish and therefore as you would never depart from the Just Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown so you would never invade any Man's Property And that you had ventur'd your Life very often in the defence of the Nation And that you would go as far as any Man in preserving it in all its Just Rights and Liberties This Sir is the sum and substance of what you were pleas'd to say at the Council board and one would have sworn that you would have taken up the Trade of being Speech wright-general to the whole Band of your Conspirators I am confident your old Friends the Jesuites that had been hang'd but a little before could not have outdone you though it had been to have saved their Lives Well it was a Speech and how true you were to this Speech you shall judge and your Conspirators too if you will but consider 1. You said You would not invade any man's Right and Property and that you would preserve the Nation in its Just Rights and Liberties And so you did for you the next day after your accession to the Crown publish'd a Proclamation for the continuing the payment of the Custom and Excise which were expir'd by the death of the King your Brother for several weeks after Did not this shew
of your Brother's time and in the beginning of your time they were given up to such a secure state and judicial blindness that the Protestant Religion was in greater danger of being supprest than ever it was since the Reformation notwithstanding your Promise of maintaining and preserving it 7. Another Indication of your Care for the maintenance of the Ch. of England was the breaking thro' those Laws which forbid the erecting Churches and Chappels for the exercise of the Popish Religion and also against Monasteries and Convents and more particularly against the Order of the Jesuites for you did contrary to your Oath and Promise made to support the Ch. of England give out arbitrary and illegal Orders to erect Monasteries and in contempt of the Law you set up several Colledges of Jesuites to corrupt the Youth of the Nation Nay Sir that you might not leave your self without Witness of your stedfast Resolution of maintaining supporting and defending the Ch. of England you rais'd up a Jesuite that was in the Popish Plot in which the death of the King your kind and loving Brother was plotted and contriv'd and the subversion of the Government both in Church and State to be a Privy Councillor and a Minister of State By all which you did evidently shew that you were restrain'd by no Laws and therefore the Ch. of England must perish you being so well seconded in your Popish Progress by your most excellent Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Affairs But to conclude this Paragraph how those Villains that acted in that Commission of yours can look Mankind in the Face after they have done so many things against all Law Honour and Conscience I do not understand The truth is those that are yet alive have with the Whore in the Proverbs wiped their Mouths and say They have done no wickedness and without all doubt if they might be trusted would with as great earnestness appear against your Cause and Interest as they did wickedly in your time espouse it but they would be such a Reproach to an honest Government as would render the best and most honest Cause suspicious if engag'd in it IV. I come now to consider a 4th Passage in your Speech to the Council wherein you were pleas'd to say That you had been reported to have been a man for Arbitrary Power but you did assure them that you would preserve the Government in Church and State as by Law establish'd And That you knew that the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King as great a Monarch as he could wish How you preserv'd the Government of the Church is plain enough nothing indeed is more plain than this that you intended its Destruction and utter Subversion and that nothing less would serve your turn notwithstanding its Principles were for Monarchy and its Members had shew'd themselves Loyal Subjects How fared it then with the State Surely the Civil Government was preserv'd since the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King as great a Monarch as he could wish In truth Sir there was but a lamentable account to be given to your more than Glorious Successor of your management of Affairs in the Civil Government all things were out of order at his accession to the Crown which you may have forgotten therefore Sir be pleas'd to remember in the first place your Villains of your Council and of your Ecclesiastical Commission As they were in a Conspiracy against the Ch. of England to turn our Religion into downright Popery so they were in a Conspiracy against the State to turn the well establish'd Government of this Land into downright Slavery and this not secretly as if those Rascals were not asham'd of what they did for they had that matchless Impudence to act in an open and undisguis'd manner and to carry on your villanous purposes you and your Accomplices set up the Dispensing Power by vertue of which you might suspend and dispense with the execution of the Laws at your pleasure and in order to give this devilish Maxim of yours and your Conspirators countenance and credit you so manag'd that matter that you obtain'd an Opinion from the Judges most of which were mercenary Rogues who declar'd their opinion That this Dispensing Power was in the Kings of England as if it were in the power of these Villains to offer up the Laws and Liberties of the whole Nation to your self to be dispos'd of by you arbitrarily at your pleasure and expresly contrary to those Laws that were enacted for the liberty of the Subject In order to obtain this Judgment your Conspirators did before hand examine secretly the Sentiments of the Judges and procur'd such of them as could not in Conscience concur in so villanous an opinion or sentence to be turn'd out and others that had neither Law nor Conscience were substituted in their rooms so that by changing of hands they found out 12 matchless Rogues from whom you obtain'd that wicked Judgment which if my Memory fail me not was laid down in these 5 particulars 1. That the Kings of England are Soveraign Princes 2. That the Laws of England are the King's Laws 3. That it is an inseparable Prerogative of the K. of Engl. to dispense with Penal Laws upon necessity and urgent occasions 4. That the K. is the sole Judge of that necessity 5. That this is not in Trust given to the K. but 't is the ancient Remains of the Crown which ne'r was nor can be taken from him Give me leave Sir to examin these Particulars and let the world see how you were abus'd and how you abus'd the Government by the Opinions of these 12 mercenary Rogues 1. That the Kings of England were Soveraign Princes What then Must you by a Dispensing Power do what you list were you not subject to those Laws which you were sworn to keep And if you had not fled might you not have been call'd to an account Might not the People from whom you deriv'd your Authority have had any Power over you And was it not dangerous both to Church and State to have a Popish Prince so mighty that no Protestant House of Peers or Commons dare controul him Truly Sir I own that the Kings of England are soveraign Princes yet the Nation by their Representatives did ne'r allow the Kings of England to do what 12 mercenary Judges should deliver as their Opinions for Sir it was ne'r intended when you assumed the Government that your Will and Pleasure should stand for a Law for the Laws that support the Grandeur of the Crown limited your Will to Reason and ty'd your Commands to the Word of God the Laws of the Realm and the Weal of the People And since Sir you regarded not these things but follow'd the Sentiments of your corrupt Judges your Will was unlawful and Commands unjust The Kings of England always have been and still are Soveraign Princes but what makes them so Is it not the Law of the Land And
that necessity I never took you so much behind hand in Sense and Reason but that you might plainly see that this is but a bantre of these Rogues for they neither stated the necessity and the urgent occasions you had to forswear your self and never inquired whether any necessity or any urgent occasions could excuse you from lying under the guilt of Perjury Then they came off with an impudent lye and say the King is sole Judge of that necessity He is sole Judge of nothing but what he is intitled to by the Law where the Law makes him a sole Judge there I do and own my self bound to obey him as such But once more Sir Where was this necessity of which you were to be sole Judge When did it spring Out of what part of the World I believe if you could have convinced the Nation of this necessity and these urgent occasions they would not so readily concurred to your going to St. Germains were your Popish Friends oppressed And did the necessity arise from thence If it did Why did you not tell the Parliament of this Oppression Were they in want of Places at Court and Imployments under you which they could not hold Truly a great many Protestants went without them notwithstanding their being qualified Oh! but the Priests of the Church of Rome were in danger of the Law I never could yet see that day If they would be quiet and the Religion of the Church of Rome was your Religion Well if it was Had you not better to have refused the Crown rather than to have taken it with such Incumbrances and Clogs as should expose you to such necessities and urgent occasions of Perjuring your self and Damning your Soul and Ruining of three Kingdoms It was well you were the sole Judge of the necessity for if an honest English Parliament had sat in the time of your necessity and urgent occasions they would have made these Rogues have swung for their villainous Advice 5. That this is not in Trust given to the King but the Antient Remains of the Crown which never was nor can be taken from him you nor no King in England ever had any thing but what you received in Trust from the People of England in Parliament assembled therefore this was the greatest of Impudence that these Twelve ignorant Devils could be guilty of for what Authority Power or Riches have the Kings of England but what they received from the People and it is plain the Power and Authority that you received was for the benefit of the People and not for the ruin and destruction of the Laws you consented to you were intrusted with the Conservation of them not to Suspend or Dispense with them at your will and pleasure But what King of England was there since the pretended Conqest that was not Sworn to keep the Laws and defend the Rights and Liberties of the Church and People of England and who Administred this Oath to them but one or more in the behalf of themselves and all the People of England Your Brother though bad enough took the Government as a trust reposed in him by his good People of England what part was it then that was not a Trust they trusted him with vast sums of money they trusted you but with a very little I pray Sir would your Scoundril Conspirators but tell me what parts were the Remains of the Crown and how they came so to be if they cannot it is all Cheat and Nonsence By your management notwithstanding all that might have been said to the contrary even in your Reign without the danger of being hanged you obtained from your Judges this wicked Opinion I suppose you were not Idle but was resolved to proceed according to this Judgment of theirs for you presently invaded the Liberties both of Church and State I have given you some instances of your Invasion upon the Rights of the People of England in relation to Matters of the Church Now let us proceed to see how you carried your self in reference to the Civil Rights and Liberties of the People of England which brings me to a second Instance of your invading our Civil Rights 2. As your Brother did begin and made a very great Progress in so you went on to invade Priviledges and to seize the Charters of the Towns that had a right to be represented in Parliament and by your Tools procured Surrenders of them to be made to you especially where they were poor and not able to defend them And a Gentleman that valued himself upon his Oath that he had made to a Corporation whereof he was a Magistrate and therefore refused to deliver the same you rewarded him with a two or three years imprisonment and had not God interposed it had been to the ruin of himself his Wife and Children By these Surrenders Sir you caused all the Magistrates to give up their Rights and Priviledges to be disposed of at your pleasure and the pleasure of your Villains the Conspirators and by this means you placed in several of these Towns Popish Magistrates notwithstanding their incapacity or such as were Popishly affected and willing to concur with you in all your evil Designs and Purposes assuring your self that when necessity or your urgent Occasions should force you to call a Parliament you might have such a Parliament returned as should at once set up Popery and Arbitrary Power Nay Sir our danger in your time and in the time of your loving and kind Brother did most and doth still arise from those Beggarly and Paltry Borroughs that either are by Charter or Prescription enabled to send Members to Parliament 3. That you might not fail in the Counties of obtaining your wicked ends you gave Orders to Examin all Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and all other that were in any Publick Employments if they would Concur with you in the Repealing the Test and Penal Laws and those whose Consciences would not permit them to comply with your wicked Designs and Purposes were turned out and others who you found would be more compliant to you in your intentions in defeating the End and Execution of those Laws which had been made with so much Care and Caution to preserve not only the Protestant Religion but also our Civil Rights and Liberties and into many of those places you put in Papists and other persons of Arbitrary Principles notwithstanding the Law had incapacitated the former and the other for want of Reputation and Interest could do their Country but little Service unless like Devils they could do mischief by serving your Designs and the Purposes of your Conspirators so that this Nation was in a deplorable Condition and must have perished had not God raised up the Prince of Orange now our King to come over and deliver us out of your Hands 4. As your Brother in his time hated the Peoples Petitioning him for the redress of their Grievances and had a
according to an Act made in the Year 1673 But he enjoying that great and mighty Office of Lord High Admiral of England for several Years He obtain'd the King's Favour the Court was at his Will and Commandment either for love to him or for fear of his Greatness and Authority He so demeaned himself to the King his Brother that that King would never believe that the great Interest that he had acquired by the Greatness of his Office should ever be abused to the prejudice of the Government but for the King's Service and Benefit he increased the number of his Friends and Followers by gratifying some with Naval Preferments and others with Mony always imploying his Purse his Credit and his Countenance for the strengthning his Party and that in such a manner as that the King could not but perceive it yet he so dissembled the Matter and pretended to such a degree of Obedience and Affection to the King and gratify'd him in his sinful Pleasures that the King did not distrust his Proceedings and that he might continue in the King's Favour he made it his business as much as in him lay to comply with his Humours and Humane Frailties And when he was forced to lay down that great Office by reason of his refusal of the Sacramental Test above-mentioned he obtain'd of the King that his Friends and high Church Conspirators might be put in Commissioners of the Admiralty in his place he made all the Ministers of state sure to him so that when he was banished into Flanders a first and a second time and after his return he procured that the Duke of Monmouth should be banished the Court he judging him to be his Enemy and then his Conspirators endeavour'd not in vain to keep the said Duke of Monmouth in discredit with the King But the then Parliament being sensible of the dangerous Conspiracy against the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and the King's Person carried on by the Popish Party and finding that the Duke's being a Papist had incouraged them in that Hellish Plot they having great hopes of his coming such to the Crown they fell upon the Duke and to prevent the Storm from falling upon the Duke the King sends him into Scotland after that he had bridled and sadled that Kingdom in some measure to his Hearts content He applies himself to his Friends to procure his return he is accordingly permitted to return to the great Joy of his Party He fawns upon the King's Whore that he kept in the Matted Gallery at White hall and who he created Dutchess of Portsmouth who had a great Interest in the King and obtain'd at first or last whatsoever pleased her of the King that whosoever he was were he never so high in the King's Favour that displeased her in time lost the King's good Will and good Opinion this Duke carried himself so towards her that he seemed to affect nothing more than her good liking and yet not so desirous thereof as that he would wholly depend thereupon knowing that the King although he always attributed much to this infamous Whore and was pleased that she was Reverenced and Respected yet he could not well bear that her good Will should be sought above his own Royal Favour But the Duke did continue his Friendship with her hoping in time to command them both and when ever he found any of the King's Ministers not throughly complying with him and not ready to follow his Designs he laboured by all means to have them removed and others put in their Places who would not fail him in his wicked Designs and Purposes nor to depend wholly upon his Favour and also to make him privy if need were to whatsoever Business and Affair of State they were commanded by the King to dispatch whereby he came tho he were out of the Councel upon the same account as he had left the Office of Lord High Admiral to the perfect knowledge of all that was purposed and determined by the King 's Privy Council and he was in such Favour and Credit that even the principal Officers about the King either for Faer or Love or by other Mens Examples submitted themselves wholly unto his Devotion and he had such Interest in the King's Court and Courtiers that all or most part of them seemed to be at his sole Disposition and to affect him more than the King himself He having Installed himself in this manner in the Court and in a great measure withdrew the Hearts of the principal Officers thereof from their Duty and Love to their King He thought it also not enough to be invested in their Favours but all the endeavours were used that he might have the Affections of the Common People to procure this he obtains the help of a filthy Strumpet called High-Church whose Blasphemous Preachers of Passive-Obedience and Non-Resistance did him mighty Service in order thereunto And what Feasting there was provided for the Apprentices of the City of London who were a sort of young Men who were to be by his Conspirators debauched in order to his Service and by the great promises of his Grace and Favour he easily and quickly perswaded the Conspirators to favour his Cause and Conspiracy Nay all the legal Force throughout the Kingdom from the Lord Lieutenant of a County to a Deputy Lieutenant and Captains Lieutenants and Ensigns and Serjeants were all and every of them his Creatures the Justices of Peace and Sheriffs were his Admirers and the Custom-house and Excise were all at his Devoire from one end of the the Kingdom to the other and generally Vintners and Ale-drapers were of his Interest and so was old L'Estrange the Guide and his little Scoundrel Clergy of the Church by which means many of the Common People were so ready willing and desirous to perform and accomplish his Pleasure as that in respect of their Obedience to him he seemed to lack nothing but the name of a King to be one Notwithstanding the great Honour and Reverence the Court shewed him in the Reign of his Brother and the Love and Affection the Commonalty did bear him the nearness of his relation to the King and the mighty Interest he had and the unaccustomed Authority he had in so slie a manner Usurped the high Attempts and Imaginations he had lodged in his Heart and the great Opinion he had of himself yet he was so far from appearing puffed up with Pride and Disdain to those that were much below him that he thought not scorn to give Audience to the meanest Man that had business with him Now how could a Man of my Circumstances having provoked him by the Discovery of the Hellish Conspiracy carried on by him and his wicked Popish Party and Popishly affected stand against such a Man of such an Interest for he and his Party when they could not hurt me by their Subborned Witnesses against me not only to destroy my Reputation but my
Life Then they procured King Charles to take away my Maintenance and Protection and this angry Duke he Sued me for charging him to be reconciled to the Church of Rome and then Suborned Witnesses against me and procured me in his Brother's Reign to be Indicted of two pretended Perjuries but he being impatient in his Expectation he snatched the Crown from his Brother's Head and mounted the Throne and then he and his Popish Witnesses his Packt Juries and Impudent Lawless Senseless and Mercinary Judges compleated my Ruin and I must have been destroyed had not God by your Majesty's coming to England rescued me beyond all Expectation Give me leave Sir with the humblest Submission to your Majesty to observe that where there is a Subject of such Credit with the King of such Authority with the Court and such Power in every County of the Kingdom as the Duke of York had when he was a Subject and to have such an Interest in the Church and Civil Government and Military Employments and Naval Preferments Could it be possibly hard or difficult for him to insult over and suppress those Truths I then Revealed for the service and preservation of the Religion Laws and Liberties of my Native Country against him and his numerous Party And how much more was it easie for him to destroy me when he had the Crown it self upon his own Head But above all Great Sir how can it be that such a Subject perverted to such a Villainous Religion should not be most dangerous to his Prince and Country And to what a lamentable State and Condition he brought it when he had Possession your Majesty well knows It was therefore high time for the Protestants of this Kingdom to implore your Majesties Aid and Help in that Hour of Distress that the Nation was brought to by that unhappy Person and his wicked Accomplices and blessed be God for putting it into your Royal Heart to come over to us and to bring along with you a Force sufficient to defend your Person from him and his Conspirators and tho he and they would have insinuated that your Majesty came to Conquer us and Enslave us and notwithstanding the villainous Scribling of some that would to this day assert your Majesty's Title to be by Conquest We that are Protestants do from the bottom of our Hearts believe That your Majesty had no other design in your Royal Undertaking but to procure a settlement of Religion Liberty and Property of the People of this Nation on so sure a Foundation that there might be no danger of this Nation 's Relapsing into the like Miseries at any time hereafter And for the Justice of your Cause your Majesty may appeal to God and to all Protestant Kings Princes States and People in bringing a Force sufficient to suppress the Conspirators and their damnable hellish Conspiracy And with the like Justice your Majesty then might require and adjure all English Protestants to assist you against those Enemies of God his Christ his Gospel and the Rights of this Nation and Liberties of Mankind And your Majesty might with the like Justice have Punished those as Banditi and Free-booters and common Rogues and Traytors to their Country that should have appeared to Oppose your Majesty in so Glorious a Work you had undertaken for the Rescuing three Kingdoms out of the Jaws of Hell Rome and France Since God engaged me in asserting the Laws and Liberties of England and the Protestant Religion and in discovering the Malicious and Hellish Designs of the Popish Party against us the Opposition of that Party and the Passive-Obedience and Non-Resistance Clergy-men grew strong and thick upon me and how those Varlets run in with the Popish Party together with their Guide Sir Roger L'Estrange to decry the discovery of the Popish Plot and would to this day decry by the very same Method they then used the present Discovery of this Hellish Design against your Majesty's Royal Person and the Religion and Government of this Nation if they had but hopes to go off with Impunity and by your Majesty's leave I dear challenge any of these Men to tell me what particular there was by me discovered that did not in process of time come to pass It will be to tedious to recite all particulars of the discovery of the Popish Plot that did come to pass and from the dismal and sad Consequences of that Conspiracy your Majesty under God hath delivered us or else these Villainous Traytors would insult and ask why and to what end your Majesty exposed your Royal Person in your late Glorious Undertaking in the Year 1688 The evil usage I have had from our Popish high Church Non-juring Conspirators hath so hardened and inured me to suffering that I praise God who hath taught me some weak Rudiments of his heavenly Art of drawing Light out of Darkness for mine own use I have not been trampled upon for so many Years to so little purpose as to remain yet either ignorant or insensible of mine own Vileness and to what Element I am nearest allied or so tender or querulous as either to complain of the weight of those who still go over me as the Stones in the Street or to project the suffering of any Man in order to please or solace my self my long Deprivation and want of respects from some that should have treated me as a Christian a Gentleman and a Presbyter of the Church of God is now turn'd into an Athletique habit some what after the manner of those who through long Fasting lose their Appetites and withall either Contract or find an Ability or Contentedness of Nature to live with a little or no Meat afterwards I can through the Strength of Christ suffer my self to be oppressed and from my poor Dunghil whereon I sit behold both Friends and Enemies that with much Contentment and sufficient Enjoyment of my self partaking of the good Things of this Life the more because that God still preserves your Royal Person from the Attempts that the Trayterous Conspirators have so often made to destroy You and the Nation from the intended Invasion by our implacable Enemies that would destroy and enslave us Next to Christ and this Truth I shall with the utmost Breath and Power I have according to my Oath and Duty in what Place and Station soever I am endeavour to be found Loyal and True to your Majesty as my Rightful and Lawful Sovereign Lord and King as all good Subjects and Christians ought to be and I cannot forbear out of the great and sincere Zeal and Affection that I bear to your Majesty bless God for the great Concord there is between your Majesty and Protestant Subjects which your Majesty hath found to have turn'd to a good account to your Ease Comfort and Peace in the managing your Affairs of Government both in Church and State and it is a great Comfort to your good People to see your Majesty relying upon your two Houses
Popery and this was done by our Priests blind admonition to the people of obedience to our Governors be it good they command or be it evil whatever they command it must be obeyed And what Nation soever came under the misfortune of being robb'd of their Rights and Liberties it was chiefly brought to pass by Priest-craft in preaching up blind obedience and extolling Vicious Kings and calling them excellent tho the vilest of Tyrants who were riding Post to swallow them up This was the Practice of our Pulpit-hunters in the time of the Reign of your Brother and in the beginning of your Usurpation of the Government and so they would have done to this day had not the Tythe-pig been in danger Nothing I say contributed more to the confirming and establishing the late King your Brother's Alliances with France as that progress your Priests and Jesuits made in perverting the people as to their Religion and our Ecclesiastical Brokers debauching their Morals by their immorality and looseness of living and enslaving their minds by their damnable Doctrines of Passive Obedience and Non-resistance and the Divine Right of Succession to the Imperial Crown of the Realm 7. He being fully resolved to follow his Pleasure he left the Administration of the Three Kingdoms to your self and Cut-throat Party who were Enemies to the people of England and were in a damnable Conspiracy against his person and Government and the Protestant Religion That he was resolved upon his Pleasures you nor no man can deny and that you had the ascendency of him it is too plain and manifest to admit of the least doubt or scruple But that which was most wicked you kept him plied with those vile Wretches who promoted that Vice in him And tho he was the vilest of all the Kings that went before for his many Immoralities yet how did his Ecclesiastical Parasites flatter him and admire him as a Prince of the greatest Virtues a King of Peace they called him and a King of Righteousness I am sure he engaged the Government in two unjust Wars against the Dutch and thanks be to God he was by them worsted in both those Wars and it proved fatal to the Conspirators for the great Design of ruining the Dutch was the advancement of Popery and Arbitrary Power here in England which you durst not attempt till they were weakened you fearing their joining their Forces together to rescue us from your damnable Designs against our Religion Laws and Liberties as you know they did and that to very good purpose the effects of which will not be gotten out of your old Bones as long as you live Before I conclude this Head give me leave Sir to observe that whilst the King your Brother was swallowed up in his Pleasures you and your Minions did make it your business to beget in the people a low opinion of the method of Governing and by your Priests you taking opportunity by reason of our then villanous Caterpillars of the Church countenancing it in a very high manner to beget in the people a mean opinion of the Protestant Religion and Interest and you may remember you gained not a few to your Party Therefore when we consider our danger we cannot but be astonished at our deliverance For had your Banditti been avowed Papists our danger might more easily have been conquered for some nay the most of them when the Test came in force quitted their Imployment at Court amongst them Sir your sweet self quitted the Office and Title of Lord High Admiral of England but Sir you had gotten a Crew about you that did undertake with you to ruin and destroy the Government which lay under no temptation of Religion these joined their Forces and Interest against King and Kingdom and truly I think our greatest danger was from them You having this fair opportunity of your Brother's being so addicted to his Pleasures and he leaving the Administration of Affairs to you and your Hellborn Crew it was a great wonder you did not strike sooner and leap into the Chair an Age or two before the time you did It 's certain you came not in without Murther and Murther would have been but Murther if it had been done ten or a dozen years before Truly tho you had Villains that one would have thought were bad enough yet you had not enough for so black a Design as the overthrow of the Government and the Protestant Religion they were not I say ripe enough your Popish Party at home were keen enough but they wanted a good back to their edge therefore Sir you fearing your strength at home you applied you self abroad to the French King he being indowed with all those Qualities which in a Prince may pass for Vertues but in any man of a private Station they would be capital He being a Champion for Popery and Arbitrary Power with him you joined to ruin the Government and the Protestant Religion your damnable Conspiracy being a Project every way suitable to the Inclination and Interest of that Bloody Monster of Mankind You may remember the Trayterous Correspondencies you maintained with him and he with you by your most Excellent Secretary Coleman who you honestly left to be hanged for that great piece of secret Service he did you in that time 8. We well remember how careless he was in the maintenance of our Religion Truly when Princes are given up to their Pleasures it is no great matter what Religion they profess you may well call to mind what breaches you and your Party made upon our Religion through his carelesness and remisness how you advanced the Popish Interest and discountenanced the Protestants and as your Secretary Coleman observed that you would not forget the Tricks the Parliament of England had playd with you so we cannot but remember what Tricks you plaid with us for it is plain that there was not a considerable Preferment in the Church that fell but either he that was preferred was one of no Religion or else that which was worse he was a person that engaged in your unrighteous Cause and Quarrel Sir by your means and the means of your Partisans such men were made use of in the Church that through the ignorance and insufficiency of some of them and oscitancy and remisness of others to whom the Guardianship of her was committed our Religion and Worship became lamentably dismantled misfigured and defaced and this well nigh in all the integral and principal parts of it more or less insomuch that a man that understands the Doctrines and holy Intentions of our first Reformers from the Synagogue of Rome and shall compare things with things could nor yet can hardly be able to say this is the Protestant Religion But how can any man wonder that King Charles the Second should be careless in the support and maintenance of our Reformed Religion since that he was in his heart and soul engaged to the Doctrines and Communion of the Church of Rome
Corporate and other Market Port Towns of that Kingdom to the great Terrour of the English Protestants and the Disturbance of their Trade To redress which how many Petitions were presented setting forth the Calamity the Protestant Interest was exposed to and what Danger they were in of losing their Trade both at home and abroad and how they returned without any manner of Redress but were ridiculed by Leyton and abused by your Tool the Lord Lieutenant It is well known that the Irish Papists some few only excepted did not understand Trade and therefore the End for which they were let in to live in Towns Corporate and into other Market-Towns within that Kingdom was that they might over-power the Protestant Party and seize their Effects as they did in the Rebellion They began in the Year 1641 and that they might get into Offices in those Towns Corporate to keep the Protestants so much under as would incapacitate them to stand upon their defence the Irish being well armed and the English being disarmed by a private Order from your self to the then Lord Lieutenant which was discovered in the Papers found at Jolliff's house in Weldstreet in Feb. or Jan. 1678 9 amongst Papers belonging to Sir Ellys Leyton And for two or three Years together great Inquiry was made by some of your Conspirators for News out of Ireland so big they were with the Expectation of a Rebellion there which certainly had been if it had not been for fear of the Scotch who were well planted in the North of Ireland who with all the Bravery and Resolution that became honest Men and good Protestants to stand by the English in opposition to the Irish for which Cause you did use your utmost Efforts to have those Scotch that were so planted in the North of Ireland to be disarmed but whether at that time your Design took effect I cannot well remember 6. Furthermore you to carry on your wicked designs and purposes in that Kingdom for the better establishing of Popery and Arbitrary Power and discouraging of the Protestant Religion and English Interest You procured Letters of the King your Brother bearing date Septemb. 28th 1672. and upon that Letter so procured there was an Order of Council of that Kingdom in which Letter and by which Order the English Protestants were strictly charged and commanded upon pain of his high Displeasure not to prosecute the Irish Papists in any Actions whatsoever for any Wrongs or Injuries committed by them during the late Rebellion Nay Sir you would not have it called a Rebellion but you desired it might be called rather the late Troubles which you could not obtain and rather than your Teagues should lose the Benefit of the said Letter you were content to have it called a Rebellion and the Reason was you and your Brother too were well satisfied who had a hand in it and first stirred it up witness the Parchments that were found in the Red Trunk in Jolliff's House in Weld-street and the Letter written in the behalf of the Marquis of Antrim to your Devilish Court of Claims in which the principal Author of that Rebellion was made manifest but that by the Way only In that Rebellion what Murders Rapines Thefts and barbarous Outrages were for some time daily committed by the Irish Papists upon the poor Protestants some yet alive in both Kingdoms to testifie And yet of your tender Care of those Barbarous Cut-throats you would not have them answer at Law for any of the aforesaid Villanies and why Because what they did was in Zeal for the Catholick Cause to which you by a Miracle was converted insomuch that for the promoting of it you had regard neither to Law or Justice Sence or Reason Nay some that did sue those Murderers before that damnable Court was set up were much discountenanced by your Party there and by your self here in England if they had occasion to make any Application to your self for any Favour or Kindness 7. You constituted Richard Talbot Agent from your self to the Roman-Catholicks and they constituted him their Agent to you from them for which Talbot had a sufficient Pension to whore and game withal and give the Devil his due he answered his Trust with all the Care Fidelity and Diligence both to you and the Popish Party Not only so but you procured for him the said Talbot a Command in Ireland as a Reward for his great Services done Of this Agency of the said Talbot Dr. Tongue and Mr. Thomas Jones your quondam Chaplain having some clear Proof they made Application to the King your Brother and he ridiculed the Business and said That Talbot was not only a Blockhead but was in no manner fit for an Agent for any party he being also a Man too much addicted to his pleasures and you met with Jones and asked him whether he was turned from a Preacher to an Informer and told him he had pitched upon a very unlikely man for an Agent Thus was any Truth that was against Poperty or Papists brought by any honest Man hissed of the Stage by your Brother and your self Sir I confess you would have used me so when I charged him with a Commission from some body to be General Governour and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and the King then told me how Tongue and Jones had been to inform him that Talbot was an Agent from the Popish Party in Ireland to the Duke and an Agent from the Duke to the Popish Party which he rejected as an improbable thing but the Story I told him was more improbable I discovered his Agency and made out that by Letters under the hand of the said Talbot so that Tongue and Jones were justified and you did in a few Years so justifie that part and so many particulars of my Testimony in that Affair that your very Passive Obedience Rogues began when it was almost too late to look about them For in time he was General of the Army in Ireland in the time of the Earl of Clarendon's Regency and after him to the sorrow of many Unbelievers he was by you made Lord Lieutenant 8. Your Conspirators received a Letter from Talbot the pretended-Archbishop of Dublin wherein it was expressly said That your Jesuits in Ireland and others were preparing the Irish Papists to Rise in defence of their Liberties and Religion and to recover their Estates and that if the Parliament that was to sit in England did engage heartily with the King and the King with them in a War against the French King that a place or places should be opened to receive the French King's Army in Ireland whenever his most Christian Majesty should think fit to send one And by Order from Coleman and the Jesuits in London the Fathers at the English College at S. Omers were to advertise the Father Confessor to the French King of the same and other Jesuits that had an Interest in the French King and the Fathers of S. Omers were assured
Member of the Romish Synagogue You in the time of your short Tyranny made a sad Havock with the Protestant Religion and can we expect better usuage from you seeing you having Seven Devils more within you rageing against the Protestant Interest than you had before you left us What I say to you in this particular I speak not without Witness for it is most certain that you have and do to this very day entertain a very great aversness to any Man that bears the name of a Protestant Therefore since by your late behaviour to those whose Principles have led them to espouse your Interest and have followed you into France if they have any Sense of their English Liberties and of the Protestant Religion will abhor the thoughts of your return hither For if you appear so violent against our Religion now you are under so great an estate of Sufferings What will your declared Hatred be against Protestants here in England if we should admit you to reign over us For if you can presume to that degree of Malice as to deny your Protestant Tools your Grace and Favour at St. Germains What can we that are Protestants expect from you whenever you shall return Do you think that any of us should be so stupid to expect fair Quarter from you since your very Religion lays you under the necessity of Converting us with a Fagot and bringing us to your Obedience with the dint of a Dagger Nay Sir your Passive Obedience Curs fare not much better though they saved you from your being prosecuted for your being deeply interested in the Popish Plot and from being excluded from the Succession to the Imperial Crown of this Realm and also from being beaten out of the Kingdom by the late Duke of MONMOVTH What reason than have we not to believe that you will not only in general invade the Protestant Religion but also once again attempt the depressing the Church of England In your short Reign you sent Seven Bishops to the Tower but if ever you should return I will not excuse the whole Twenty Six from being more hardly used Upon which consideration I will appeal then Sir to your Judgment or the Judgment of your Friends here or those with you at St. Germains whether or no it is impossible for you to gain so great a Point as to be received again as a King And whether it would not be the greatest Folly or Madness in you or any of your Party to attempt it For have you any that are with you that are Protestants upon a Principle of Conscience How have you used and treated them and if they have no better usage from you since they follow you in their Afflictions and are contented to share with you in your Hardships as not to enjoy the Liberty of serving God according to their Dictates of their own Conscience How must it fare with them if you should arrive to that State and Condition in which you should stand in no need of them And if so What can we expect from you that have hated your Person and do hunt down your Cause and Interest out of the Nation Therefore the Duty that we owe to Almighty God and the Affection and Zeal we have for the Protestant Religion will oblige us to pursue you as a Murderer and an Assassin of the People of England and a Traytor to the Nation and those who shall be found fighting under your Banner will be used as Banditti and Robbers and Protestants that shall not have the benefit of Repentance 3. Consider we are English Men and that very Consideration might satisfie any Man that will but consult his Reason of the impossibility of your being restored to your pretended Right and of the folly of your many attempt in order thereunto Had your Interest been an English interest than your Conspirators might have had some colour for their attempt of this Nature but your Interest is a French Interst and therefore your Interest that you have espoused is incompatible or inconsistent with your being restored Here are two Points that must be considered 1. That your Interest is a French Interest 2. That a French Interest is not consistent with your Endeavours after a Restoration and both these Points fairly proved will justifie the refusal of the Kingdom of Englands admitting you to act and execute the Office of a King here again amongst us 1. Your Interest is not an English but a French Interest for as you followed your loving and kind Brother in most of his Vertues so you persued the same Interest that he pursued For was not the Interest of your Brother and the Interest of the French King and yours inseperably united Knowing saith your Quondam Secretary the Interest of our King and in a more particular manner of my immediate Master the Duke and his Most Christian Majesty to be so inseperably united that it was impossible to divide them without destroying them all Again his Majesty the French King was pleased to give Order to signifie to his R. H. my Master that his Majesty was fully satisfied of his R. H's good Intentions towards him and that he esteemed both their Interests but as one and the same and that my Lord Arlington and the Parliament were both looked upon as very unuseful to their Interests And again Father Ferier begged his R. H. to propose to his Most Christian Majesty what he thought necessary for his own Concern and the advantage of Religion and his Majesty would certainly do all that he could to advance both or either of them I communicated it to his R. H. to which his R. H. commanded me to answer as I did the 29th of the same Month. That his R. H. was very sensible of his Most Christian Majesty's Friendship and that he would labour to cultivate it with all the good Offices he was capable of doing his Most Christian Majesty That he was fully convinced that their Interests were both one That my Lord Arlington and the Parliament were not only unuseful but dangerous both to England and France and therefore it was necessary they should do all they could to dissolve it I did communicate this Design of mine to Monsieur Ravigney who agreed with me that it would be the greatest Advantage to his Master to have the Duke's Power and Credit so far Advanced Again If we can advance the Duke's Interest one step forward we shall put him out of the reach of Chance for ever Then would Catholicks be at rest and his Most Christian Majesty's Interest secured with us in England beyond all apprehensions whatsoever Our prevailing in these things would give the greatest blow to the Protestant Religion here that ever it received from his Birth If the Duke should once get above them after all the Tricks they have plaied with him they are not sure he will totally forget the usage he hath had at their Hands For my part saith he I can scarce believe my self awake
or the thing real when I think on a Prince in such an Age as we live in to be converted to such a degree of Zeal and Piety as not to regard any thing in the World in comparison of Christ These are the Discoveries of your Old Servant Mr. Coleman but to rivet the Matter I pray consider what Discoveries you were pleased to make of the Union of your Interest with that of the French King which Sir will put the Matter out of dispute Give me leave to put you in mind of your Letter you wrote to the French King's Confessour wherein you were pleased to own that the Interests of the French King and yours were so clearly linck'd together that those that opposed the one should be looked on as Enemies to the other and that the French King had told you that he was of the Opinion that neither the Lord Arlington nor the Parliament were in his Interest nor yours 2. As it is as clear as the Day that your Interest is not an English but a French Interest so now I must tell you in the second place that your Interest being a French Interest it will render your return impossible and the attempt in order to it very foolish and irrational You know that the English Nation is never safe unless a check be put upon the growing Greatness of France Therefore do but observe the Address of the House of Commons March 10. 1676 they put the King your Brother in mind of the great Danger that the Nation was exposed to by reason of the growth of the French King's Power and Greatness Now any Man that is in the Interest of the French King his Interest is no ways reconcileable to the Interest of England 1. As to its Peace 2. As to its Trade And the Consequence of both these are the Riches of the Nation which must be consumed by a Prince that is of an Interest different from that of the People 't is true the present War with France hath proved very chargable to the Nation but here is our Happiness that we have a King that advanceth the Interest of our Trade his People and He go Hand in Hand Their Interests are the same with His and His the same with Theirs which to me is an Argument that when it shall have pleased God by His Arms to reduce the French King to Reason that then no Nation under the Heavens can or will be more happy than the English Nation But if a Prince shall instead of pursuing the Interest of his People pursue their Destruction by setting up and advancing the Interest of a Foreign Power his Government cannot stand This Sir was that which lost you your Crown And can you then expect by that Interest to regain the Crown of England by which you strangely lost it Therefore to conclude this Head let not your Conspirators think that it is either probable or possible that ever the People of England will ever be brought into a French Interest or ever admit you to resume the Throne and Government since that you purely lost it for the sake of that Interest Your Scoundrel Abettors here at Home are such a sort of Animals that the Reformed Nations Abroad are at a stand and cannot tell what to make of them their Carriages of late Years have been so unaccountable and since it hath pleased God to put it into the Hearts of most of the Princes of Europe though of the Romish Communion heartily to embrace the late Revolution in England as the last Effort for the Common Liberty of Europe and have entered into the strictest Alliance with our King though of a different Religion to support it it looks like a Dream to meet with Men that call themselves English Protestants embarqued in your Interest in opposition to the Interest of their Native Countrey A little Priest of the Church of England in a Sermon of his on the Day your Father made his Exit was pleased to threaten us with an endless War that would be entailed on the Nation he is a mighty Votary for your Cause and Interest notwithstanding his Oath to King William to the contrary But Sir a thousand such Fellows can never reconcile your Interest with that of England nor would your Restoration put an end to his supposed War for it is not reasonable to imagine that so many Noblemen and Gentlemen who have associated and by their Association have engaged to support the Interest and Cause of our King will tamely submit to your Restoration Or that King William will ever abandon his Throne or that its possible that the Common Cause of Europe will ever be suffered to sink in such a manner as to comply with the Pride and Ambition of your Self or of him whose Cause you have espoused and whose Interest is the very same with yours When you were upon the Throne your Aim was to destroy the Interest of England but we have been too many for you and the Throne is filled up with one that will maintain and support our Interest notwithstanding the vain Efforts of your Crew both at Home and Abroad to the contrary And therefore that Loggerhead of a Cathedral Priest hath not made one single Convert to your Cause and Interest by the Noise he made of disputed Titles and endless Wars I will observe this to you that the Rascal hath more Preferment than Learning or Honesty but what can we expect of an Apostate 4. We are Freemen and therefore we can never be supposed ever to admit you who have always been a Person of Arbitrary Principles to govern this Nation You cannot but remember that the English Nation hath a very great Security for its Liberties and that is the Government it self with a good King at the head thereof and that is our present Happiness for our King Rules not upon the same Terms as your Brother of France doth for he by Force Usurps that share which his People ought to have in the Government and for several Ages past hath been in possession of an Arbitrary Power which yet no prescription can make Legal and he exerciseth it over the Persons and Estates of his People in a most Tyrannical manner And this your loving and kind Brother and you aimed at Witness your Dispensing Power that you took upon you when you ascended the Throne But our King hath so ordered it that his Subjects shall retain their Proportion in the Legislature the very meanest Commoner of England is represented in Parliament and is a Party to those Laws by which our King is Sworn to govern himself and his People 'T is true you Swore but you made no Conscience of your Oath nor did you in the least boggle at the Violation of our Laws you hated that way of Government which you had solemnly promised to maintain and defend Witness the Names you used to give the Parliament of England Now according to the Laws of the Realm no Money is raised but by
both in their Estates and Families that Scotland was a Field of Blood through many Barbarous Murders that you by the Hands of your Party Committed there Some of your bloody Crew here especially the Tyrant Lauderdale were exceeding glad of the News of these poor Protestants Rising and your Popish Conspirators and their Motly Protestant Admirers and Abettors did prick up their Ears at the News and concluded the Day was their own Our English Popish Army was to cut their Throats first and then the Throats of all English Men that stood in their Way afterwards And Lauderdale highly valued himself upon this Rising for Posts came every day to White-hall to bring the News of their Increasing boasting that now the Fanaticks had shewed themselves in their Colours and that it was by that strict hand that he had kept over them in Scotland that had been the Cause of their being quiet so long hoping by this to get Honour for his prudent Management when all Mankind knows that his Management was with a Design to make them take up Arms And it was you and he that raised that Devil but Sir you know whom you had appointed to betray them Sir you were in Flanders thither the News was sent to you not because you were ignorant of the Contrivance but it was a Watch-word for your Return But that you might lay this Devil which you and your Conspirators had raised and kill two Birds with one Stone therefore you pitch'd upon the Duke of Monmouth that he might destroy the Protestants there and that his Person might either fall in Scotland or his Reputation be ruined here at home therefore by your Advice or rather Direction he is ordered for Scotland in all hast for it was the Grief of your Soul to see him the Darling of the Protestants of both Kingdoms Besides Sir you knew that if he went Armed into Scotland without Assent of Parliament in both Kingdoms by an Act made in the Reign of Charles the Fâ—st was High Treason and therefore the Consequences might be fatal to him every way However he went by the general Consent of the Council and was well received in Scotland by Vertue of his Commission given him and draws the Army in Scotland together and faces these poor Wretches and indeed as Matters had been managed in Scotland it was a great Question if the Forces in Scotland would have been prevailed with with so little Difficulty to be commanded to go out against these innocent and oppressed Country-men of theirs had it not been to go under the Command of the Duke of Monmouth who marches up to the Enemy they by their Petition desire Liberty of Religion and offer to lay down their Arms it being given out by your Party that the Duke of Monmouth had a Power of giving them Terms but that could not be done by him for your Blood-hounds never intended they should have any Quarter given them therefore he had not that Power in his Commission of granting any Terms as was promised him Nay if I am not mistaken after that he had left London the Instructions that he had to grant Terms were recalled before ever he arrived in Scotland so that some of our Counsellors intended well and though all things were promised not long before to be acted before their Faces above-board yet they were mistaken for all the chief of their Consults were privately acted amongst your Popish Crew the French Ambassador and your Priests at the Duchess of Portsmouth's Lodgings and to give them a Reputation the honest Part of the Council sitting as Cyphers all was done as by an Order of the King and Council Well what then The Duke of Monmouth engaged with these poor Creatures but your Rogues and Trickers and Officers amongst these poor Souls soon left them before the Battle was begun so that the Pains of Reducing them was not very great nor hazardous and divers of these poor Protestants were murdered upon the place by one Oglethorpe an eminent Cut-throat yet alive notwithstanding they cried for Quarter which was promised them but how well that Promise was kept was seen many hundreds of them having been murdered in cool Blood under a Colour of Law as if they had been Traytors So that the Duke comes home a Victor in the sence of some and a vanquished Person in the minds and affections of others who would not out of Love to him have had him engaged with such an ill Company of Cut-throats in such a thing in Scotland they knowing it hazardous in many Respects however for his own Security he procured his Pardon for that Action But that Pardon though it was an Act of great foresight in the Duke yet the Judgment of Heaven pursued him for as he contributed to the Murder of so many poor Protestants by the Help of Popish Cut-throats so he himself was murdered and his Friends by you and your Popish Cut-throats It will not be amiss Sir to put you in mind of your Cut-throat Lauderdale of whom you made such use and who complied against his Understanding Judgment and Conscience if he had any with you and your Brother in all those Villainous Acts and Barbarous Inhumanities in Scotland I will now shew the Opinion that our English Parliament had of that Monster of Mankind 1. Remember Sir the Address of the House of Commons to the King your Brother on April 23. 1675. for then they found that some persons in great Employment under that King had fomented Designs against the Interest of the Subject intending to deprive Great Britain of its ancient Rights and Liberties that thereby they might the more easily introduce the Popish Religion and Arbitrary Government to the ruine and destruction of the Subjects thereof amongst whom they had just cause to accuse for a promoter of such Designs the Duke of Lauderdale because it had been testified in their House by several Members of Parliament That in a Hearing before the Council in the Case of Mr. Pennystone Whalley who had committed Mr. John James contrary to the King's Declaration of the 15th of March 1671 the said Duke of Lauderdale did publickly affirm in the presence of the King your Brother and before several then attending the Board that the King's Edicts were to be obey'd for that they were equal with the Laws and ought to be observ'd in the first place thereby justifying the said Declaration and the Proceedings thereupon and declaring his Inclination to Arbitrary Councels in terror of all good Protestants This Sir was not all but they had a farther confirmation of this Opinion by two Acts of Parliament of a very strange and dangerous nature which they had found in the printed Statutes of Scotland the first whereof was in the third Session of the first Parliament held under the King your Brother Cap. 25. and the other in a second Parliament Cap. 2. the like had never passed since the union of the two Crowns and were contrary to an Act passed
in the fourth year of the Reign of James the First your Grandfather which intended the better abolition of all memory of Hostility and the dependencies thereof between England and Scotland and the better repressing the Occasions of Discord and Disorders for time to come and of a like Act passed about the same time in Scotland by the force of which said late Acts there was a Militia setled in that Kingdom of Twenty thousand Foot and Two thousand Horse who were obliged to be in a readiness to march into any part of the Kingdom of England for any service wherein your Brother's Honour and Greatness might be concerned and they were to obey such Orders and Directions as they should from time to time receive from the Privy Council of that Kingdom By colour of which general words the then Parliament did conceive that the Kingdom of England was liable to be invaded upon any pretence whatsoever And this was done by the procurement of that Lauderdale he having been all the time of those Transactions Principal Secretary of that Kingdom and chiefly intrusted with the administration of the Affairs of State there and he being Commissioner for holding the Parliament at the time of passing the latter of the said Acts whereby the providing the said Horse and Foot was effectually imposed upon that Kingdom and that extraordinary Power vested in the Privy Council there so that the Commons of England conceived they had just reason to apprehend the ill Consequences of so great and an unusal Power especially since at that time the Affairs of the Kingdom of Scotland were managed by the said Duke who publish'd himself to be a Person of such pernicious Principles thereupon they pray'd the King your Brother to dismiss him from all his Employments and forbid him his Presence and Counsels for ever as a person obnoxious and dangerous to the Government This Sir is the Character and these are the Qualifications of a person that your Conspirators judg'd meet for a man to serve your Cause and Interest and how near he brought the People of Scotland to the French Government and Interest I must leave an impartial Reader to judge he wanted nothing but a King to make an Example of him and all such profligate Monsters of Mankind But I will give you a second Instance of the good Opinion that the Commons of England assembled in Parliament had of this Varlet and that is as follows 2. Upon the 10th of May 1678 the Commons of England assembled in that Parliament represented to the King your Brother the deplorable condition the state of the Kingdom thro' evil Counsellors which Sir you know were your Conspirators and were designing to overthrow the Protestant Interest in both Kingdoms and were the Cause why the King your Brother follow'd not the Advice of his Parliament for the redressing of Grievances amongst whom they reckon'd John Duke of Lauderdale and pray'd that the King would remove him from his Council and Presence for ever 3. I hasten to a third Instance of the Opinion that the Commons of England had of the said Duke of Lauderdale and that was in a Parliament held in May 10th 1679. They tell the King in their Address That they found the Kingdoms involv'd in imminent dangers and great difficulties by the evil designs and pernicious Counsels of some who had been and were then actually in high Places of Trust and Authority about the Person of the then King who contrary to the Duty of their Places by their arbitrary and destructive Counsels tending to the subversion of the Rights Liberties and Properties of the People of Great Britain and the alteration of the Protestant Religion did endeavour to alienate the Hearts of the People from the then King and his Government amongst whom they had just reason to accuse the Duke of Lauderdale for a chief promoter of such Counsels and more particularly for contriving and endeavouring to raise Jealousies and Misunderstandings between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland whereby Hostilities might have ensued and might have risen between the two Nations They took notice of the many repeated Addresses of the immediate preceding Parliament and were much concerned that notwithstanding those Addresses they found that Duke Lauderdale with all his Qualifications continued in the Councils of the then King for that the Affairs of the Kingdom required that none should be put into such Employments but such as were not only of known Abilities Interest and Esteem in the Nation but also were without all suspicion of mistaking or betraying the true Interest of the Nation Upon these Considerations a new Parliament pray'd the then King to remove him the said Duke Lauderdale from his Employments and Person and Councels for ever You well know that in the Month of February 1678 you were banish'd into Flanders before the meeting of the new Parliament for the good King your Brother parted with his old Pensioners who lowed very loud for want of Fodder and to save Charges that stale Parliament was dissolv'd and a new one call'd whom your Conspirators by the insight they had in the Elections knew it would be such a Parliament as was not for their turns therefore a deep Consult was held how to make the Nation to believe that they were in earnest they resolv'd to discover the Plot and discourage Popery tho' in truth it was the two things you and your Conspirators aimed at to be still supported However to blind the Eyes of Mankind it was resolved that all imaginable symptoms should be publickly professed both for the discovery of the Popish Plot and leaving you and your Conspirators for you were to absent your self from your Brother and go beyond Sea for some time upon these Considerations the one was That you being out of the way might stop the further examination of the Popish Plot then newly discover'd to the King who was in every bit of it but that of his own Life and it had a near relation to your self And by this means your Conspirators thought to preserve the Chief Conspirator alive and safe The other was for a gloss to make Mankind to think that the King your Brother and the Court were such mortal Enemies to Popery that he would not endure you his Popish Brother near him for fear of being influenc'd by Popish Councels But Sir you may remember that your self and Conspirators at St. James's were of a different Opinion some of your Partisans with all their might and skill opposed your leaving the Kingdom for that it would weaken your Party extreamly and make persons more bold to come in and give Evidence against you when you were absent than if you were present and that if you were absent tho' by the Royal Command of your Brother the King yet the People would be ready enough to say you flâ—d for fear and that it was in effect to own your self guilty Such Arguments as these were used by your Conspirators but the Whore Portsmouth
you to be a man for Arbitrary Power to invade the Properties of a great part of the Subjects of England by your Proclamation what Value you had for the Rights of the Nation for whom you had ventur'd your Life in a Coiled Cable and what Regard you had to its Laws that at your first step in your pretended Government you bring in a Proclamation equivalent to those Laws that expir'd as aforesaid by which the Excise and Customs in the time of the Reign of your kind and loving Brother had been setled and paid 2. You said That you would follow the Example of your Brother in his Clemency and Tenderness to the People of England What your Brother's Clemency and Tenderness to the people of England was I am yet to learn What was his Clemency to his old Cavaliers that had serv'd both his Father and him in the Wars to the ruine of themselves and Families spending their Substance in both their Services and not so much as looked upon when you were restor'd After that Sir John Webster a Merchant had lent him 150000 l. Sterling did not he after much Importunity reward the said Sir John with the refusal of a Land-waiter's Place and graciously suffer'd the poor man to starve as a Reward of his Loyalty Was not his Clemency such that within the compass of a very few years all his whole Interest was melted down into a small Regiment of Pimps Whores and Bawds on whom he lavishly confer'd great Honours and on them he profusely spent the Treasure of the Nation Remember Sir how his Clemency was extended to those Ministers that brought him home and to that Party of Men that restor'd him to his Crown and Dignity Mr. Jenkins is a notable Instance of his Clemency who ventur'd his Life for his Restoration in that Cause that Mr. Love lost his What a Tenderness he had for Mr. Jenkins was seen in his murdering him in Prison notwithstanding all the humble application made to your tender Brother for his release in order to preserve his Life His Clemency to Sir Henry Vane was admirable for rather than Vane should not be sent to Heaven he broke through an Act of Parliament lest the Martyr should find delay in his passage thither What can you say of his Clemency to Great Essex and Noble Russel whom he basely and barbarously murder'd I think that Sir Thomas Armstrong is another Instance of his Clemency And so you were as good as your word in following the Example of his Clemency and Tenderness to the People of England For upon your entering into the Regal State you let England have a taste of your Clemency I must begin with my own Case I sufficiently tasted of your Grace and Favour after that with the hazard of my Life I had discover'd a Damnable Conspiracy carried on by the Popish Party for the destruction of the King your Brother and the Protestant Religion and the Government of the Nation how you used me let all the World judge notwithstanding the Credit the Parliament had given me as you may rememember in the Vote of March 15. 1679. Resolved Nemine Contradicente by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled That they do declare that they are fully satisfied by the Proofs they have heard that there now is and for divers years last past hath been an Horrid and Treasonable Plot and Conspiracy continued and carried on by those of the Popish Religion for the murdering of His Majesty's Sacred Person and for subverting the Protestant Religion and the Ancient Establish'd Government of this Kingdom Notwithstanding all your Clemency and Tenderness to the English Nation produce such a Vote for the Justifying your Reputation in the Nation and for ought I know you may perswade your self that the Nation may be enclin'd to receive you into favour again and admit your tender Government of them once more But to return to the Point Notwithstanding the Power of Truth and the Credit of this Vote with what implacable Malice did you and your Banditti pursue me How often did you attempt to take away my Life by the Testimony of False Witnesses With what Importunity did you prevail upon the King your Brother to withdraw that Protection and Subsistance that the said King allow'd me at the request of several Parliaments so that I might starve for want of Bread Nay to express your Clemency and Tenderness how warmly did you prosecute me in an Action of Scandalum Magnatum for speaking this Notorious Truth of you That you were reconciled to the Church of Rome and that it was High Treason to be so reconcil'd And what a noble Verdict a pack'd Jury of your Conspirators upon the prosecution brought in against me of One hundred thousand Pound Damages And thereupon you generously Charged me in Execution in the Kings-Bench Prison And was you afraid that I was Able to have paid the Debt and Charges and as Willing as Able Well to prevent it you resolv'd that I should not want your Clemency and Tenderness you therefore to justifie those Vertues to be inherent in you you prevail'd with King Charles the Second to give you and your Conspirators Leave to prefer two several Indictments of two pretended Perjuries in my Evidence concerning the Popish Plot but your Villains would not let the King your Brother live to see those Indictments try'd therefore they were brought to tryal in your tender Reign What sort of Witnesses did you produce against me but those very men that had been in no less than three Tryals prov'd and judg'd to be False Witnesses the Religion they professed no ways admitting them to be Credible and therefore as they were not believ'd when they gave their Testimony without an Oath so they were not to be believ'd when they were upon their Oaths for you know tender Sir they were of a Religion that could dispense with Oaths tho' false for the sake of your Catholick Cause These Sir were your Witnesses and you had two Juries of Men that had as large a Faith to believe as the Rogues had Consciences to swear and so I must averr Juries and Witnesses to be alike for he is as criminal and is as much damn'd that believes a Lye as he is that makes one and swears it too for the Rogues your mercenary wicked Judges and the Villains that were Witnesses and your pack'd Hell-born Jury-men were all in as it were a Confederacy to be reveng'd on me for the discovery of the Popish Plot and to cast a Reproach upon the Wisdom and Honour of four successive Parliaments and upon the publick Justice of the Nation Well Sir I was convicted notwithstanding the Witnesses I brought in who were brow-beaten abused by that Villain Jefferies who had neither Law nor Sence nor Manners but had the Impudence of Ten Carted Whores therefore nothing now remained for me but Judgment which was your own appointing with the Advice of your twelve Villains that were
doth not the Law set a boundary to their Government as well as to the Peoples Obedience Is there not a mutual Contract between King and People Now when any K. shall by a Suspending or Dispensing Power dissolve this Contract and break in upon our Laws and overturn the Government the People cease to be his Subjects and he to be their King It is your own case Sir by your Dispensing Power you did not only pretend to be above Law but also that you were not bound by Law tho' by your Oath you were as much bound to observe the Law as a King as your People were bound to observe the Laws as your Subjects But the People of England seeing that it was in vain to expect any Justice or Righteousness from you for means of reformation was propounded but was denied to be comply'd withal several noble Lords saw themselves slighted their Counsels rejected and the Protestant Religion upon its last Legs they therefore did implore the help of the Prince of Orange now our Gracious King he comes over seizeth your Treasure your fortified places Navy and Naval Stores and with one Consent of the People of England was made our Sove Lâ—rd and King and hath his health very well without the help and aid of a Dispensing Power God send him a long and prosperous Reign 2. The Laws of England are the Kings Laws if your Dispensing Vermin did mean by the Laws being your Laws that is that you were intrusted with the Conservation and the Execution of them then we agree with the Rogues but how doth this Trust reposed in the King for the time being intitle him to Suspend and Dispense with these Laws but if by the Laws being yours they understood that they were your Property either to Execute or not Execute either to keep or break at your pleasure I pray Sir to what end were they made and to what end were you Sworn to keep and maintain these Laws why was there the trouble of an Oath to keep the Law But Sir here they laid down a notorious falshood for the Laws of England are the Laws made by King and People as the Rule of the Government of the King on the one hand and of the Obedience of the People on the other 3. That it is an inseparable Prerogative of the King of England to Dispense with Penal Laws upon necessity and urgent Occasions this was laid down as good Law But Sir I pray consider were not all the Laws of England Enacted by the King and the People of England met in Parliament for the security of the Government and of the Subject how then could these Villains give you a Power of annulling these Laws at your Will and Pleasure since you could not suspend or dispense with them but by the same Authority by which they were made It is true the King of England for the time being may pardon a Punishment that a Transgressor hath incurred and to which he is condemned as in cases of Fellony and Treason yet it cannot be inferred from hence with any colour of reason that you or any other King could intirely suspend the Execution of those Laws relating to Fellony or Treason unless Sir your villainous Judges could have proved by any other Authority than barely their Opinions that you were cloathed with a Dispotick and Arbitrary Power and that the Lives and Liberties Honours and Estates of the People of England did depend wholly upon your good Will and Pleasure and were intirely subject to you which must infallibly follow on your having a Power to suspend the Execution of the Laws and to dispence with them It may be Sir some of your Dispensers may say That you were not well informed when you took the Coronation-Oath to maintain the Laws of the Land and that you had prejudiced your self greatly by yielding to the Oath and that you had weakened your Authority too much in submitting your self to the observation of those Laws These things were much talked of by some of your Bully Conspirators when they little dreamed of your taking the Air at St. Germains Nay some of the Devils Brokers roared this out of their Pulpits by the direction of Old Hodge their guide But Sir I pray inform me how it could be that you should not be well informed when you yielded to take the Oath at your Coronation to observe and keep the Laws of the Land It is impossible that you should be ignorant of that which all the World knew and all your Predecessors before you as it was almost impossible that you should not be acquainted with the Oath that you were to take and the Laws you were to preserve by that Oath So this know that you were bound to those Laws immediately upon taking the Oath and I wonder much that you should be a stranger to the Coronation Oath and to the Laws by which you were to defend your Government that had been twenty four Years a looker on in the Reign of your Brother Therefore this Plea is as frivilous as the Opinion of your never to be forgiven Judges was Impudent and against Law But this is one of the madest Thoughts that ever you or your villainous Judges could be guilty of that it was a blemish to the Sovereign Power of the Kings of England to submit to the Laws I pray Sir What blemish would it have been to your Sovereign Power to have submitted to the Laws of your Countrey which your Predecessors were contented to acknowledge and observe You derived your Authority to your self by virtue of the Laws Why then was the Observation of the Laws such a prejudice to you and your Sovereign Power But we saw the Laws broken and you forsworn and your Subjects deposed you In this I am sure you have found a greater blemish and prejudice than the observation of the Laws would have been But to be short you may plead for your self and your Judges That were under a necessity and an urgent occasion Well What was that necessity What were those urgent occasions that could put you upon forswearing your self and bringing your self under the guilt of Perjury In truth Sir your necessity you lay under was the subversion of the Protestant Religion and bringing in Popery and the subversion of the Civil Government and bringing in Tyranny and Slavery Is not Perjury a most grievous Offence but much more grievous when it is voluntarily committed And then a King committeh Perjury willingly when he doth any thing willingly against the Oath he hath taken not by force but by freewil not unadvisedly but with great consideration not to his hurt but to his advantage not to perform a thing that was impossible or dishonest but to bind himself to a condition that is honest and possible too Now when a King breaketh such an Oath there can be no colour or pretence of necessity or urgent occasions to excuse his Perjury 4. That the King of England is sole Judge of