he was very much above but meerly from the true respect he had for 'em and a sense of that imminent Danger they were in which his piercing Judgment and long Experience made him more sensible of and his Courage and Vertue more concern'd at than others not only those who sat unconcern'd Spectators or shar'd in their Ruins but even then most of them who were engag'd with him in the same Common Cause of their Defence and Preservation Nothing of such an impatience or eargerness or black melancholy cou'd be discern'd in his Temper or Conversation as is always the Symptom or Cause of such Tragical-Ends as his Enemies wou'd perswade us he came to Lastly What may be said of most of the rest does in a more especial and eminent manner agree to the illustrious Essex and than which nothing greater can be said of Mortality He liv'd an Hero and dy'd a Martyr Upon the Execrable Murther of the Right Honourable Arthur Earl of Essex MOrtality wou'd be too frail to hear How ESSEX fell and not dissolve with fear Did not more generous Rage take off the blow And by his Blood the steps to Vengeance show The Tow'r was for the Tragedy design'd And to be slaughter'd he is first confin'd As fetter'd Victims to the Altar go But why must Noble ESSEX perish so Why with such fury drag'd into his Tomb Murther'd by slaves and sacrific'd to Rome By stealth they kill and with a secrect stroke Silenâ—e that Voice which charm'd when e'er it spoke The bleeding Orifice o'reflow'd the Ground More like some mighty Deluge than a Wound Through the large space his Blood and Vitals glide And his whole Body might have past beside The wreaking Crimson swell'd into a Flood And stream'd a second time in Capel's Blood He 's in his Son again to Death pursu'd An Instance oâ— the high'st Ingratitude They then malicious Stratagems Imploy With Life his dearer Honour to destroy And make his Fame extinguish with his Breath An Act beyond the Cruelties of Death Here Murther is in all its shapes compleat As Lines united in their Centre meet Form'd by the blackest Politicks of Hell Was Cain so dev'lish when his Brother fell He that contrives or his own Fate desires Wants Courage and for fear of Death expires But mighty ESSEX was in all things brave Neither to Hope nor to Despair a Slave He had a Soul too Innocent and Great To fear or to anticipate his Fate Yet their exalted Impudence and Guilt Charge on himself the precious Blood they spilt So were the Protestants some years ago Destroy'd in Ireland without a Foe By their own barbarous Hands the Mad-men dye And Massacre themselves they know not why Whilst the kind Irish howl to see the Gore And pious Catholicks their Fate deplore If you refuse to trust Erroneous Fame Royal Mac-Ninny will confirm the same We have lost more in injur'd Capel's heir Than the poor Bankrupt age can e're repair Nature indulg'd him so that there we saw All the choice strokes her steddy hand cou'd draw He the Old English Glory did revive In him we had Plantagenets alive Grandeur and Fortune and a vast Renown Fit to support the lustre of a Crown All these in him were potently conjoyn'd But all was too ignoble for his Mind Wisdom and Vertue Properties Divine Those God-like ESSEX were entirely thine In his great Name he 's still preserv'd alive And will to all succeeding times survive With just Progression as the constant Sun Doth move and through its bright Ecliptick Run For whilst his Dust does undistinguish'd lye And his blest Soul is soar'd above the Sky Fame shall below his parted Breath supply William Lord Russel THE next who fell under their Cruelty and to whose Death Essex's was but the Prologue was my Lord Russel without all Dispute the finest Gentleman one of 'em that ever England bred and whose pious Life and Virtue was as much Treason against the Court by affronting 'em with what was so much hated there as any thing else that was sworn against him His Family was ancient tho' not rais'd to the Honours it at present enjoys till King Edward's time when John Russel a Dorsetshire Gentlemen who had done many Services and receiv'd many favours from the Crown both in Henry the Seventh and Henry the Eighth's time being by the latter made Lord High Admiral and at his Death Lord High Steward of England for the Solemnity of the Coronation obtain'd such a Victory for his young Master against his Rebels as was rewarded with the Title of The Earl of BeÌ„dford The Occasion of it thu Idolatry and Superstition being now rooting out by the Publick Authority and Images every where pulling down the Loyal Papists mutined and one of their Priests stabb'd a Commander of the Kings who was obeying his Orders and ten thousand of the deluded Rabble rise in the Defence of that barbarous Action and their old Mass and Holy-water Against whom this fortunate Lord was sent with an Army who routed 'em all relieved Exeter which they had besieg'd and took their Gods Banners Crucifixes and all the rest of their Trumpery wherein the deluded Creatures trusted for Victory Thus the Family of the Russels were early Enemies to the Romish Superstition tho' this brave Gentleman only paid the Scores of all his Ancestors The Son and Heir of this John was Francis second Earl of Bedford who was as faithful to the Crown as his Father an Enemy and Terror to the French and a Friend to the Protestant Religion as may appear by the Learned Books of Wickliff which he collected and at his Death bequeath'd to a great Man who he knew wou'd make good use of ' em His eldest Son William Lord Russel the present Earl of Bedford is sufficiently known to every true English-man and his Person and Memory will be honoured by them as long as the World lasts But 't is necessary good men should not be immortal if they were we should almost lose their Examples it looking so like Flattery But to do 'em Justice while they are living with more safety and less censure we may discourse of that Noble Gentleman his Son and Name-sake William Lord Russel who made so great a Figure in our Courts and Parliaments before he was sacrificed to the Cruelty and Revenge of his Popish Enemies If we 'd find his first Offence which lay behind the Scene and was indeed the Cause of his Death though other Colours were necessary to amuse the Publick we must look some years backward as he himself does in his last Speech wherein he tells the World He cannot but think his Earnestness in the matter of the Exclusion had no small influence on his present Sufferings Being chosen Knight of the Shire for Bedfordshire where the evenness and sweetness of his Behaviour and his virtuous Life made him so well-beloved that he 'll never be forgotten He began sooner than most others to see into that danger we were in
could be in some years tho' the writer of them had intended it which did not appear But they being only the present crude and private thoughts of a man for the exercise of his own understanding in his studies and never shewed to any or applied to any particular case could not fall under the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. which takes cognizance of no such matter and could not by construction be brought under it such matters being thereby reserved to the Parliament as is declared in the Proviso which he desired might be read but was refused Several important points of Law did hereupon emerge upon which your Petitioner knowing his own weakness did desire that Council might be heard or they might be referr'd to be found specially But all was over rul'd by the violence of the Lord Chief Justice and your Petitioner so frequently interrupted that the whole method of his Defence was broken and he not suffer'd to say the tenth part of what he could have alledged in his defence So the Jury was hurried into a Verdict they did not understand Now for as much as no man that is oppressed in England can have relief unless it be from your Majesty your Petitioner humbly prays that the Premises considered your Majesty would be pleased to admit him into your presence and if he doth not shew that 't is for your Majesties Interest and Honour to preserve him from the said oppression he will not complain tho' he be left to be destroy'd An Abstract of the Paper delivered to the Sheriffs on the Scaffold on Tower-Hill December 7. 1683. by Algernoon Sidney Esquire before his Execution FIRST having excused his not speaking as well because it was an Age that made Truth pass for Treason for the proof of which he instances his Trial and Condemnation and that the Ears of some present were too tender to hear it as because of the Rigour of the Season and his infirmities c. then after a short reflection upon the little said against him by other Witnesses and the little value that was to be put on the Lord Howard's testimony whom he charges with an infamous life and many palpable perjuries and to have been byassed only by the promise of pardon c. and makes even tho' he had been liable to no exceptions to have been but a single Witness He proceeds to answer the charge against him from the writings found in his Closet by the Kings Officers which were pretended but not Lawfully evidenced to be his and pretends to prove that had they been his they contained no condemnable matter but principles more safe both to Princes and People too than the pretended high-flown plea for Absolute Monarchy composed by Filmer against which they seemed to be levelled and which he says all intelligent men thought were founded on wicked Principles and such as were destructive both to Magistrates and People too Which he attempts to make out after this manner First says he if Filmer might publish to the World That Men were born under a necessary indispensable subjection to an Absolute King who could be restrained by no Oath c. whether he came to it by Creation Inheritance c. nay oâ— even by Usurpation why might he not publish his opinion to the contrary without the breach of any known Law which opinion he professes consisted in the following particulars 1. That God had left Nations at the liberty of Modelling their own Governments 2. That Magistrates were instituted for Nations and not Econtra 3. That the Right and Power of Magistrates was fixed by the standing Laws of each Country 4. That those Laws sworn to on both sides were the matter of a contract between the Magistrate and People and could not be broken without the danger of dissolving the whole Government 5. The Vsurpation could give no Right and that Kings had no greater Enemies than those who asserted that or were for stretching their Power beyond its Limits 6. That such Vsurpations commonly effecting the slaughter of the Reigning Person c. the worst of crimes was thereby most gloriously rewarded 7. That such Doctrines are more proper to stir up men to destroy Princes than all the passions that ever yet swayed the worst of them and that no Prince could be safe if his Murderers may hope such rewards and that few men would be so gentle as to spare the best Kings if by their destruction a wild Vsurper could become Gods Anointed whiâ—â— he says was the scope of that whole Treatise and asserts to be the Doctrine of the best Authors of all Nations Times and Religions and of the Scripture and so owned by the best and wisest Princes and particularly by Lewis 14 th of France in his Declaration against Spain Anno 1667. and by King James of England in his Speech to the Parliament 1603. and adds that if the writer had been mistaken he should have been fairly refuted but that no man was ever otherwise punished for such matters or any such things referred to a Jury c. That the Book was never finished c. nor ever seen by them whom he was charged to have endeavoured by it to draw into a Conspiracy That nothing in it was particularly or maliciously appplied to Time Place or Person but distorted to such a sense by Innuendo's as the Discourses of the expulsion of Tarquin c. and particularly of the Translation made of the Crown of France from one Race to another had been applied by the then Lawyer 's Innuendo's to the then King of England never considering adds he that if such Acts of State be not allowed good no Prince in the World has any title to his Crown and having by a short reflection shewn the ridiculousness of deriving absolute Monarchy from Patriarchal Power he appeals to all the World whether it would not be more advantagious to all Kings to own the derivation of their Power to the consent of willing Nations than to have no better title than force c. which may be over-powered But notwithstanding the Innocence and Loyalty of that Doctrine he says He was told he must die or the Plot must die and complains that in order to the destroying the best Protestants of England the Bench was fill'd with such as had been blemishes to the Bar and instances how against Laâ— they had advised with the King's Council about bringing him to Death suffer'd a Jury to be pack'd by the King's Sollicitors and the Vnder-Sheriff admitted Jury-men no Free-holders received Evidence not valid refus'd him a Copy of his Indictment or to suffer the Act of the 46 th of Ed. 3. to be read that allows it had over-ruled the most important Points of Law without hearing and assumed to themselves a Power to make Constructions of Treason tho' against Law Sense and Reason which the Stat. of the 25 th of Ed. 3. by which they pretended to Try Him was reserved only to the â—arliament and so praying God to forgive
business in a little dark Lane near the Temple as he was passing through it pretty late in the Evening and had no doubt dispatch'd him and either found some way to make the World believe he had done it himself as they wou'd have done in the former instance or started some other Sham to have remov'd the Odium from their own Party But the Gentleman having had apprehension of some such Accident made better use of it than Sir Edmond before him and having luckily a Sute of private Armour on receiv'd several Stabs the Villains gave him upon that and so sav'd his life But they finding their Attempts that way unsuccessful were resolv'd to take another course with him and having got him down with some desperate weapon or other fit for the purpose made several Trials to cut his Throat and gave him some dangerous wounds about that part which while he was strugling with them to preserve a Boy providentially goes by with a Light which their Deeds of Darkness not being able to endure they all ran away and left Mr. Arnold weltering in his Blood who yet by God's Providence recoverâ—d again and liv'd to see Justice done to one of the Villains that used him in that barbarous manner His name was Giles and was discover'd by a wound in his Leg which one of his Accomplices ran through in the scuffle as he was making a Stab at Mr. Arnold He was try'd for the Action found Guilty of it and Sentenced to stand in the Pillory for the same which was accordingly executed with a liberal Contribution over and above from the enraged Rabble who sufficiently made up for the Gentleness of his Sentence though as Severe a one as our mild Laws could inflict upon such Offenders Mr. COLLEDGE NO Body can doubt but that 't was now very much the Interest of the Papists to get off if possible that foul Imputation of a Plot which stuck so deep upon 'em which had been confirm'd by Sir Edmond's Murther Coleman's never to be forgotten Letters Arnold's Assassination and a great deal of Collateral Evidence which fell in unexpectedly many of those who gave it being utterly unacquainted with the first Discoverers After several unfortunate attempts they had made to this purpose after the Living had perjur'd themselves and the Dying done worse to support their desperate Cause after Attempts to blast and ruine some of the Evidence and buy off others of 'em in both which publick Justice took notice of and punish'd 'em being of a Religion that sticks at no Villany to serve an Interest and certainly the most indefatigable and firm People in the World when they set about any Design especially where Diana is concern'd not being yet discouraged they resolv'd to venture upon one Project more which prov'd but too successful to the loss of the bravest and best Blood in the Kingdom and that was to Brand all those who were the steddiest Patriots and so their greatest Enemies of what Rank soever they were with the odious Character of Persons disaffected to the Government or in the old Language Enemies to Caesar They pretended to perswade the World that after all this great noise of a Popish Plot 't was onely a Presbyterian one lay at the bottom This they had endeavour'd in the Meal-tub Intrigue the Names of most of the worthy Persons in England being cull'd out to be sworn into it But this miscarrying like the Mother on 't Mrs. Celiers Miscarriage in Newgate they had by this time taken breath form'd new Designs and procur'd new Witnesses which might do business more effectually and tho' they cou'd not write nor spell their Names and so were not very well skill'd in Book-learning yet at Buke-blawing they were admirable by which Character you may easily guess they were Irish-men Nor did they want Fools to believe any more than Knaves to manage this Design by their continued unwearied Contrivances a great many easie and some well-meaning People having by this time been wrought upon to believe almost as implicitly as they themselves whatever the Priests wou'd have ' em One thing whatever happen'd they were pretty sure of That whether this Plot were believed or no they shou'd carry on their Intrigue by it If 't was they had what they wish'd If it shou'd be discover'd 't wou'd yet confound and amuse Peoples minds and make 'em so sick of Plot upon Plot that it might make 'em almost stagger in their belief of the other They had besides all this a strong Party at Court to favour their Enterprizes The King was the Duke's and the Duke all the World know who 's T was necessary to flesh their Blood-hounds by degrees to bring People on by little and little to attempt some of inferiour Rank for a beginning and not split the Cause for want of good management And who so fit as poor Colledge to be the first Victim of their Perjury and Malice by whose Death besides being rid of a troublesom Fellow and breaking the Ice to make room for those to follow they might also expect this advantage That the middle sort of People wou'd be discourag'd in their just hatred of Popery and Papists and prosecution of the Laws against them 'T was by such Methods as these that Mr. Colledge began to signalize himself in the VVorld Being a Man of Courage Industry and Sharpness he made it much of his Business to serve his Country as far as possible in searching after Priests and Jesuits and hunting those Vermin out of their lurking Holes in which he was very serviceable and successful and for which no doubt they did not fail to remember him The first time we meet with him in Publick is I think in Stafford's Trial where he 's brought in for Mr. Dugdale as a Collateral Evidence But by that time the VVind was a little upon turning and the Tide of Popular Aversion not quite so strong against Popery being by the cunning of our common Enemy diverted into little Streams and private Factions and Arbitrary Power driving on as the best way to prosecute the Designs of Rome to which the City of London in a particular manner made a vigorous Resistance which displeasing the grand Agitators no wonder they endeavour'd as much as possible to do it a mischief their kindness to it having been sufficiently experienced in 66. and even since In order to which the K. was pleas'd by the advice of his Ghostly Brother to alter the common and almost constant course of Parliaments and call one at Oxford instead of London Many of the Members whereof and especiallâ— those of London were apprehensive of some design upon 'em there having formerly in the Gun-powder Treason and ever since sufficiently found the Love of the Papists to Protestant Parliaments and knowing very well what they were to expect from their kindness if they shou'd be attempted upon by 'em and found defenceless And more ground of Suspicion they had because as Colledge protests in
them and to avert the Evils that threatned the Nation to sanctifie those Sufferings to him and tho' he fell a Sacrifice to Idols not to suffer Idolatry to be established in this Land c. He concludes with a Thanksgiving that God had singled him out to be a Witness of his Truth and for that Good Old Cause in which from his Youth he had been engag'd c. His Epitaph ALgernon Sydney fills this Tomb An Atheist by declaiming Rome A Rebel bold by striving still To keep the Laws above the Will And hindring those would pull them down To leave no Limits to a Crown Crimes damn'd by Church and Government Oh whither must his Soul be sent Of Heaven it must needs despair If that the Pope be Turn-key there And Hellcan ne're it entertain For there â—s all Tyrannick Reign And Purgatory's such a pretence As ne're deceiv'd a man of sense Where goes it then where 't ought to go Where Pope and Devil have nought to do His Character THere 's no need of any more than reading his Trial and Speech to know him as well as if he stood before us That he was a Person of extraordinary Sense and very close thinking which he had the happiness of being able to express in words as manly and apposite as the Sense included under ' em He was owner of as much Vertue and Religion as Sense and Reason tho' his Piety lay as far from Enthusiasm as any mans He fear'd nothing but God and lov'd nothing on Earth like his Country and the just Liberties and Laws thereof whose Constitutions he had deeply and successfully inquired into To sum up all He had Piety enough for a Saint Courage enough for a General or a Martyr Sense enough for a Privy-Counsellor and Soul enough for a King and in a word if ever any he was a perfect English man Mr. James Holloway MR. Holloway was by Trade a Merchant but his greatest dealing lay in Linnen Manufacture which as appears from his Papers he had brought to such a heighth here in England as had it met with suitable encouragement would as he made it appear have imployed 80000 poor People and 40000 Acres of Land and be 200000 Pounds a year advantage to the Publick Revenues of the Kingdom The Return of the Habeas Corpus Writ calls him Late of London Merchant though he lived mostly at Bristol He seems to be a Person of Sense Courage and Vivacity of Spirit and a Man of Business All we can have of him is from that publick Print call'd his Narrative concerning which it must be remembred as before that we have no very firm Authority to assure us all therein contained was his own writing and perhaps it might be thought convenient he should die for fear he might contradict some things published in his Name But on the other side where he contradicts the other Witnesses his Evidence is strong since be sure that was not the Interest of the Managers to invent of their own accords tho' some Truth they might utter tho' displeasing to gain credit to the rest Taking things however as we find 'em 't will be convenient for method's sake to take notice first of the Proceedings against him then of some pretty plain footsteps of practice upon him and shuffling dealing in his Case and lastly of several things considerable in his Narrative He was accused for the Plot as one who was acquainted with West Rumsey and the rest and having been really present at their Meetings and Discourses on that Subject absconded when the publick News concerning the Discovery came into the Country tho' this as he tells the King more for fear that if he was taken up his Creditors would never let him come out of Gaol than any thing else After some time he got to Sea in a little Vessel went over to France and so to the West-Indies among the Caribbe-Islands where much of his Concerns lay But writing to his Factor at Nevis he was by him treacherously betray'd and seiz'd by the Order of Sir William Stapleton and thence brought Prisoner to England where after Examination and a Confession of at least all he knew having been Outlawed in his Absence on an Indictment of Treason he was on the 21th of April 1684. brought to the Kings Bench to shew cause why Execution should not be awarded against him as is usual in that case He opposed nothing against it only saying If an ingenuous Confession of Truth could merit the King's Pardon he hoped he had done it The Attorney being call'd for order'd the Indictment to be read and gave him the offer of a Trial waving the Outlawry which he refused and threw himself on the King's Mercy On which Execution was awarded tho' the Attorney who had not so much Law even as Jeffreys was for having Judgment first pass against him which is never done in such cases according to which he was executed at Tyburn the 30th of April It seem'd strange to all men that a Man of so much Spirit as Mr. Holloway appear'd to be should so tamely die without making any manner of Defence when that Liberty was granted him It seemed as strange or yet stranger that any Protestant should have any thing â—hat look'd like Mercy or Favour from the Persons then at the Helm That they should be so gracious to him as 't is there call'd to admit him to a Trial which look'd so generously and was so cry'd up the Attorney calling it A Mercy and a Grace and the Lord Chief Justice saying He 'd assure him 't was a great Mercy and that it was exceeding well Now all this Blind or Mystery will be easily unriddled by two or three Lines which Holloway speaks just after My Lord says he I cannot undertake to defend my self for I have confessed before His Majesty that I am guilty of many things in that Indictment Which was immediately made use of as 't was design'd Good Mr. Justice Withens crying out full mouth'd I hope every body here will take notice of his open Confession when he might try it if he would Surely none but will believe this Conspiracy now after what this man has owned So there 's an end of all tâ—e Mercy A Man who had before confessed in order to be hang'd had gracious Liberty given him to confess it again in Publick because they knew he had precluded all manner of Defence before and this publick Action would both get 'em the repute of Clemency and confirm the belief of the Plot. Now that there had been practice used with him and promises of pardon if he 'd take this method and own himself guilty without Pleading is more than probable both from other practices of the same nature used towards Greater Men and from some Expressions of his which look exceeding fair that way Thus in his Paper left behind him I had he says some other Reasons why I did not plead which at present I conceal as also why I
probably had he been in his Senses have remembred and pleaded many things more which would have invalidated their Evidence against him But had not the mistaken Piety of his Son undertook his Defence certainly they could never have been such Cannibals to have try'd one in his Condition Yet could but what he brought for him been allowed its Weight and Justice he had escaped well enough For as for Lee one Baker Witness'd He had been practic'd upon by him in the year 83. and would have had him insinuate into Bateman 's Company and discourse about State-Affairs to trepan him by which means he should be made a Great Man 'T was urged besides that there was three Years between the Fact pretended and Lee's Prosecution of him which tho' they had but one Witness could have brought him to punishment which would have been judged sufficient by any but those who would be content with nothing but Blood For Goodenough he was but one Witness and pardon'd only so far as to qualifie him to do mischief However he was found Guilty and just before his Execution very much recovered himself dying as much like a Christian and with as great a presence of Mind as most of the others Dr. Oats Mr. Johnson and Mr. Dangerfield WE are now obliged by the thrid of our History to resume a Subject which 't is not doubted will be ungrateful enough to some Persons and that is the Popish Plot the belief of which by the indefatigable Industry of that Party and the weekly pains of their Observator and especially this last pretended Plot against the Government was now almost entirely obliterated out of the minds of the less thinking part of the Nation To accomplish which more fully 't was thought necessary by the Managers either quite to take off or expose to Miseries and Disgraces worse than Death all those few Persons who remain'd honest and firm to their first Evidence the generality of the World judging by outward appearance and thinking it impossible but that one who stood in the Pillory and was whipt at the Carts-Arse must be a perjur'd Rogue without more ado Mr. Bedloe was dead and his Testimony therefore would be easier forgotten tho' at his last Breath after the Sacrament he Solemnly and Juridically confirmed every word of it before one of the Judges who was happily in Bristol at the time of his Death Most of the Under-Evidences in the Plot were threatned or promised or brought off from what they had witness'd or forc'd to leave the Land for the securing their Persons None remain now besides Oats and Dangerfield with whom all means possible fair and foul had been used to make 'em turn Villains and deny their Evidence but to their eternal Praise they still continued firm to their first Testimony to the Rage and Confusion of their Enemies They therefore went first to work with the Doctor and 't will be worth the while to consider the Reason of his first Prosecution by which men that are not very much prejudiced may see the Reason and Justice of those which follow and 't was For scandalizing the Duke of York with that notorious Truth That he was reconciled to the Church of Rome adding What every one knows that 't was High Treason so to be Would but the Doctor 's greatest and most passionate Enemies reflect on this beginning of his Sorrows as well as calmly examine all that 's to come they must form a juâ—ter Judgment of his Person and Actions than what seems too deeply fixed in 'em ever to be rooted out for which he was adjudged to pay that reasonable little Fine of a 100000 Pounds which till he paid tho' there was no great haste for his doing it he was committed to â—he Bench. Having him thus in Limbo they resolved to strike at the root with him and therefore after new fruitless attempts to make him quâ—t and revoke his Evidence they made the last Effort on his Constancy and Honesty and indeed Life it self Indicting him on the 8 th and 9 th of May 1685. for Perjury in some branches of his Evidence given in some of it almost Seven Years before His first Accusation waâ— For-Swearing in Ireland 's Tryal he himself was here in London whereas t was pretended he was at that very time at St. Omers The Second That Ireland was at that time in Town when they would have it believed he was in Staffordshire The Evidence for the first were all Lads of St. Omers who though they blunder'd ill-favour'dly in former Attempts the same way and were accordingly told so by the Court in other Tryals were now grown expert in the Business being all of a Religion that makes Perjury meritorious all Youths and Boys and under such a Discipline as oblige them to obey their Superiors without any reserve or questioning the Reason or Justice of the thing all or most of 'em afterwards rewarded with Places of Trust and Profit under King James as no doubt promised 'em before for their good Service They all swore point blank That Oats was at St. Omers when he swears he was here at the Consult Not one of these Witnesses who had not been bred at St. Omers and but one who pretended to be a Protestant For the second Indictment Of Irelands not being in Town in August as Oats had sworn him They brought several Witnesses to prove it and that he was at that time in Staffordshire most if not all of which were great Papists In answer to which let 's first be persuaded fairly to consider what may be said in his Defence and most part of his Vindication is over And first These were most or all of 'em the self-same Witnesses who in the successive Tryals Whitebreads Harcourts c. and Mr. Langhorns could not find Credit and who had several Witnesses who swore point-blank contrary to what they affirmed some of whom were dead before this last Tryal Let 's then consider what Defence Oats made for himself which in spite of his own and Jeffreys passions seems strenuous and unanswerable He had in the former Tryals produced no less than Eight Persons who swore positively to his being in Town at that very time when the Jesuits and their Younkers would so fain had him been out of it whose Names were Mr. Walker an ancient Minister of the Church of England Sarah Ives Mrs. Mayo Sir Richard Barker Mr. Page Mr. Butler William Smith and Mr. Clay a Romish Priest four of which Mayo Butler Page and Walker he now produced again at his Tryal the two first of whom positively swore the same they did before the Minister was too old to remember and the last too fearful positively to affirm what they had before done As to the 2 d Indictment a Crowd of Witnesses such as they were came to testifie Ireland was in Staffordshire when Oats swore him to be in London To this same Objection he had formerly answerd and prov'd by the Oaths of Mr. Bedloe