Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	french_a	king_n	ship_n	2,882	5	7.7749	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59869	A second letter to a friend, concerning the French invasion in which the declaration lately dispersed under the title of His Majesty's most gracious declaration to all his loving subjects, commanding their assistance against the P. of Orange and his adherents, is entirely and exactly published, according to the dispersed copies : with some short observations upon it.	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.; James II, King of England, 1633-1701. His Majesty's most gracious declaration, to all his loving subjects.	1692 (1692)	Wing S3339; ESTC R8008	19,657	35

Iune 2d 1692. Let this be Printed Nottingham A Second Letter TO A FRIEND Concerning the French Invasion In which the DECLARATION lately dispersed under the Title of His Majesty's most Gracious Declaration to all his Loving Subjects commanding their Assistance against the P. of Orange and his Adherents Is entirely and exactly Published according to the dispersed Copies with some short Observations upon it LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Amen-Corner MDCXCII A Second Letter CONCERNING The Late King Iames's Declaration SIR HAving in the Conclusion of my Letter promised you if you desired it to give you an account of the late King Iames's Declaration I will make no Excuses but like a Sincere Protestant will keep my word with you This Declaration has been industriously scattered about both in French and English by the Enemies of the present Government Now to save them any farther trouble of this kind and that the world may see we dare venture it with all the charms that are by some thought to be in it among the People of England I have thought it the fairest way to print the whole verbatim Paragraph by Paragraph with some short Observations upon it and only desire you to remember That my principal design in it is only to strengthen the Arguments of my former Letter and to make it appear from this very Declaration how little reason English Protestants have to promise themselves That the late King will be kinder to them than he was before should he now return with a French Power DECLARATION WHEREAS the most Christian King in pursuance of the many obliging promises he has made Us of giving Us his Effectual Assistance for the recovering of our Kingdoms as soon as the condition of his Affairs would permit has put us in a way of endeavouring it at this time and in order to it has lent Us so many of his Troops as may be abundantly sufficient to unty the hands of our Subjects and make it safe for them to return to their Duty and repair to Our Standard and has notwithstanding for the present according to Our desire unless there should appear further necessity for it purposely declind sending over Forces so Numerous as might raise any jealousie in the minds of Our good Subjects of his intending to take the Work wholly out of their hands or deprive any true Englishman of the part he may hope to have in so Glorious an Action as is that of Restoring his Lawful King and his Ancient Government all which Foreign Troops as soon as we shall be fully setled in the quiet and peaceable Possession of our Kingdoms We do hereby promise to send back and in the mean time to keep them in such exact Order and Discipline that none of Our Subjects shall receive the least Injury in their Persons or Possessions by any Soldier or Officer whatsoever Tho an Affair of this nature speaks for it self nor do We think Our selves at all obliged to say any thing more upon this occasion than That We come to Assert our Iust Rights and to deliver our People from the oppression they lye under yet when We consider how miserably many of Our Subjects were cheated into the late Revolution by the Art of ill men and particularly by the Prince of Orange's Declaration which was taken upon trust and easily believed then but since appears notoriously false in all the parts of it consisting no less of Assertions that have been evidently disproved than of Promises that were never intended to be performed To prevent the like delusions for the time to come and to do as much as lies in Our power to open the eyes of all Our Subjects We are willing to lay the whole matter before them in as plain and short a manner as is possible that they may not again pretend mistakes or have ignorance to plead for any false steps they shall hereafter make towards the ruin of their own and their Countrey 's Happiness OBSERVATIONS It begins with a thing very surprizing and memorable That the French King hath once in his life made good his Word and kept his Faith for so the late King Iames tells us he hath done with him in pursuance of the many obliging Promises he had made him of giving him Effectual Assistance for the Recovery of his Kingdoms c Effectual Assistance is a big word and more than the Greatest and Most Puissant King is able always to make good However I am glad to see they begin to endeavour to perform their Promises to one another It is a good quality and it is to be hoped they may in time extend it further But this satisfies me that the French King thinks it his Interest to restore the late King Iames for he was never known to keep his Promise against his Interest and it is somewhat surprizing that the French King and English Protestants should have the same Interest He seems sensible that French Troops would not be very welcome in England and therefore to qualifie this matter he says That the French King at his desire has purposely declin'd sending over Forces so Numerous as might raise any jealousie of a French Conquest for that is the plain English of it that they shall be kept under exact Discipline while they are here and that he will send them home again when he is fully setled in the quiet and peaceable Possession of his Kingdoms But I thank God with all my heart that there is no danger now of these French Troops coming into England which is a much greater security to us than both these Kings Promises for their Good behaviour here or for their return home again It is certain that One of them could not keep his Word if he would and it is as certain that the Other would not as it is that it would not be his Interest to do it for there is not the same reason for the French King to keep his Promise of sending Troops into England and to keep his Promise of sending no more than the late King Iames wants or of calling them home again when he wants them no longer But before I proceed to more particular Observations it will not be amiss and the conclusion of this Paragraph requires it briefly to consider what is not in the Declaration which the People of England had all the reason in the world to have expected in it Now I can find but very little in it I might with great truth say nothing which a reasonable man who remembers the late Reign especially the Conclusion of it would have expected in such a Declaration If the Design of such a Declaration be to give satisfaction to the minds of his Subjects it ought at least to have contained as good Words and fair Promises as a Prince could give He knew very well what it was that had alienated his Subjects from him that they apprehended their Laws their Religion and their Liberties to be in

and might have known that they would never fetch him from France again nor willingly receive him with a French Power What a happy Opportunity he now has to recover his Kingdoms again by French Troops I suppose by this time he begins to discern and I hope it may prove a very happy Opportunity for his Dear Ally to lose his He has shewed him by his own example what to do in such cases and the English Parliament has taught the French what name to give it DECLARATION Upon what foundation of Iustice or Common Sense the Prince of Orange's Faction in England were pleased to treat this Escape of Ours out of the Hands of Our Enemies in the stile of an Abdication a word when apply'd to Sovereign Princes that was never before used to signify any thing but a free and voluntary Resignation of a Crown as in the Cases of the Emperor Charles the Fifth and the late Queen of Sweden and what a strange Super structure they raised upon this weak Foundation that a Company of Men illegally met together who had not Power even by their own Confession at that time for it was before they had voted themselves a Parliament to charge the Interest of the meanest Subject should yet take upon them to destroy the whole Constitution of the Government to make an Ancient Hereditary Monarchy become Elective and then assuming to themselves the Right of Election should proceed to settle the Succession in so odd and extravagant a manner are Transactions that need not be repeated They are too well known to the World to the great Reproach of the English Nation and the Grounds upon which they are Built are too vain and frivolous to deserve a Consutation Every Freeholder of England is in this Case able to make his own Observations and will no doubt examine a little better than hit her to he has done what assurance any private Man can have of keeping his Estate if the King himself shall hold his Crown by no better a litle OBSERVATIONS His leaving the Kingdom for the safety of his Person and to preserve himself for better times and for a more happy Opportunity he says was no Abdication as that signifies a voluntary resignation of his Crown nor do I say it was But his withdrawing his Person and Authority was an actual quitting of the Government whatever it is in Law I 'm sure in common sense the Throne is actually empty when no body is in it and no body is in it when there is no Authority in the Nation to administer the Government And when the Throne is empty the Estates of the Realm who are the only Supream Authority when there is no Monarch must fill it again unless the Government must dissolve and then there is an end of all Rights and Claims And this they have done not by turning an Ancient Hereditary Monarchy into an Elective but by placing the next undoubted Heir on the Throne And tho' he never intended to give up his Right and future Claim yet he has done what he never intended to do when the Throne is empty it must be fill'd and when it is declared vacant and fill'd by the Supream Authority of the Nation there is no room for him there As for the Convention of Estates When there was no King on the Throne we do not pretend that they were a formal Parliament for that must have a King at the Head of it and therefore as is observed in the Declaration they could impose no legal Taxes on Subjects nor did they attempt it but yet they were not a company of men illegally met together without Authority to do any thing but they met at the request and under the Protection of the then Prince of Orange upon the Fundamental reasons of the Constitution it self as the sole Judges of all Disputes relating to the Crown Such Disputes will sometimes happen and if there be no legal Judges of it the Sword must decide it and that is a State of War not of Civil Government which all Governments are supposed to provide against and yet if the Convention of the Estates are not the proper Judges in such cases it is certain there are none and then the Civil Government is dissolved we are in a State of War and must submit to the longest Sword But this is so fully and plainly Stated in the late ingenious Reflections on the Case of Allegiance to a King in Possession from p. 26. to p. 34. That to shorten this Letter as much as I can I shall refer you to that Author for further satisfaction So that Free-holders are not at all concern'd in this matter a Convention of Estates without a King cannot meddle with their Properties without a dissolution of the Government But when there is no King or it is a Question whether there be or not or who is King by the Fundamental Constitution of the Government the Convention of the Estates are the sole and proper Judges of it in whose Determination all private Subjects are bound in Conscience to acquiesce And the late King need not complain of this as if it made the Titles of Princes to Their Crowns very uncertain and Arbitrary For he had an unquestionable Title to his Crown and might have held it to this Day if he himself had not undermin'd it by breaking in upon the Laws and even upon the Constitution it self upon which his Right was founded This occasion'd such a Revolution as forced him to Abdicate and to leave it to a Convention to declare his Throne vacant and to fill it DECLARATION But since some Men who could not say one word in defence of the Iustice of these Proceedings would yet take great pains to shew the necessity of them and set forth the extraordinary good effects that were to be expected from so very bad a Cause We do not doubt but the Nation has by this time cast up the Account and when they shall have well consider'd what Wonders might have been perform'd with less Expence of English Blood than that which has been unnecessarily trifled away in this Quarrel that such a Number of Ships of War have been lost and destroy'd in the Three years last past as might alone have been sufficient to have made a considerable Fleet That more Money has been drain'd out of the Purses of our Subjects in compass of that time than during the whole Reigns of many of our Predecessors put together and that not as formerly spent again and circulating among them but transported in specie into Foreign Parts and for ever lost to the Nation When these and many other Particulars of this Nature are cast up it must certainly appear at the Foot of the Account how much worse the Remedy is than the fancied Disease and that at least hitherto the Kingdom is no great Gainer by the Change OBSERVATIONS I doubt his late Majesty is misinformed for there are not only some but a great many who have more

only the Presumptive Heir Perhaps Presumptive Heir in the French Law may be the same with Heir apparent in ours If it be not What did Sir E. H. or whoever was the Penman of this Declaration mean by it Will they set aside the Pretences of the Prince of Wales if the late Queen Mary who is said to be with Child in good truth bring forth a Son this looks very suspiciously as if they did not believe they had given sufficient Satisfaction about the Birth of this Pretended Prince of Wales but however we must presume him Prince of Wales till they have another whom they can by better proof make out to be the unquestionable Son of the late Queen Mary DECLARATION There is another Consideration that ought to be of weight with all Christians and that is the calamitous Condition of Europe now almost universally engaged in a War among themselves at a time when there was the greatest hopes of Success against the Common Enemy and the fairest Prospect of Enlarging the Bounds of the Christian Empire that ever was in any Age since the declining of the Roman And so far from the hopes of a general Peace before our Restoration that no rational Project of a Treaty can be form'd in order to it But that once done the thing will be easie and we shall be ready to offer our Mediation and interpose all the good Offices we can with his most Christian Majesty for the obtaining of it OBSERVATIONS This whole Period is a sharp and perpetual Satyr against the French King For who has been the great Disturber of the Peace of Europe but his most Christian Majesty With whom are all the Princes of Europe at War but with Him Who else has hindered the success against the Common Enemy and the enlarging the bounds of the Christian Empire Who invited the Turk into Europe Who encourages him to continue the War after so many Fatal Defeats which may probably prove the ruin of his whole Empire In a word what other Christian Prince is the Great Turk's Ally and Confederate in this War And is not this War continued and encouraged by all the Power and Interest of the French King on purpose to disturb the Peace of Europe that while the Imperial Forces are otherwise employ'd he may make a Prey of his weaker Neighbours It is decent to spare Crowned Heads and such as have been crowned but the Penman of this Declaration deserves his Reward for putting in so many notorious Falshoods as may justly call the truth and sincerity of the whole in Question I know but one Excuse for him that he has made it almost all of a piece and though he has had little regard to Truth yet he has so ordered the matter that he can deceive no body but those who have a great mind to be deceived and it is not amiss that such should be gratified Who but the late King could hope to perswade the World that to restore him to his Kingdoms is absolutely necessary to the Peace of Europe that before his Restoration no rational Projects of a Treaty can be formed in order to a Peace He may be mistaken in this for the French King may quickly be glad to make Peace and leave Him and his Restoration out of the Treaty For things are come to that extremity now that it is in vain to think of Peace till Lewis the Great be reduced to such a state as to accept it and unable to break it And then this Argument returns upon him for the Peace of Europe is a necessary Reason why he should not be restored as I observed in my former Letter But He who could fancy himself to be a proper and effectual Mediator for a Peace if he were restored must have liberty to fancy any thing and it is happy for him that he has so comfortable an Imagination I do really pity him too much to endeavour to dispossess him of it because that would be to undo Him more than He is already undone DECLARATION Since therefore We come with so good Purposes and so good a Cause the Iustice of which is founded upon the Laws both of God and Man since the Peace of Europe as well as of Our own Kingdoms the Prosperity of present and future Ages is concerned in the success of it We hope We shall meet with little Opposition but that All Our Loving Subjects according to the Duty and the Oath of their Allegiance and as We hereby Command and Require them to do will joyn with Us and Assist Us to the utmost of their Power OBSERVATIONS I can say little to this the Event will best shew whether the People of England will think his Cause so good and the Reasons for his Restauration so pressing as to assist him in it DECLARATION And We do hereby strictly forewarn and prohibit any of Our Subjects whatsoever either by Collecting or paying any of the Illegal Taxes lately imposed upon the Nation or any part of Our Revenue or by any other ways to Abet or Support the present Usurpation And that We may do all that can be thought of to win over all Our Subjects to Our Service that so if it be possible We may have none but the Usurper and his Foreign Troops to deal with and that none may be forced to continue in their Rebellion by despair of Our Mercy for what they have already done We do hereby Declare and Promise by the Word of a King That all Persons whatsoever how guilty soever they may have been except the Persons following viz. The Duke of Ormond Marquess of Winchester Earl of Sunderland Earl of Bath Earl of Danby Earl of Nottingham Lord Newport Bishop of London Bishop of St. Asaph Lord Delamere Lord Wiltshire Lord Colchester Lord Cornbury Lord Dunblane John Lord Churchil Sir Robert Howard Sir John Worden Sir Samuel Grimstone Sir Stephen Fox Sir George Treby Sir Basil Dixwel Sir James Oxendon Dr. Tillotson Dean of Canterbury Dr. Gilbert Burnet Francis Russel Richard Levison John Trenchard Esquires Charles Duncomb Citizen of London Edwards Napleton Hunt Fisherman and all others who offer'd Personal Indignities to Us at Feversham except also all Persons who as Iudges or Iury-men or otherwise had a hand in the Barbarous Murther of Mr. John Ashton and of Mr Cross or of any others who have been illegally Condemned and Executed for their Loyalty to Us and all Spies and such as have betrayed Our Counsels during Our late Absence from England that by an early return to their Duties and by any Signal Mark of it as by Seizing to Our Use or Delivering into Our Hands any of Our Forts or by bringing over to Us any Ships of War or Troops in the Usurper's Army or any new raised and Armed by themselves or by any other Eminent good Service according to their several Opportunities and Capacities shall manifest the sincerity of their Repentance shall not only have their respective Pardons immediately passed under the

England which will be a great Favour indeed from him if he should return with a French Power But the Church of England is protected already by Princes who think it their Duty to do it And we think our selves much safer in the Inclinations of a Protestant King and Quen than we can be in all the Promises of a zealous Papist And therefore this can be no argument in our case because it offers us a worse security for our Protection than what we already have for it is always great odds on Nature's side And yet this Promise to the Church of England seems fainter and cooler than some he has formerly made which is all the reason we have to expect it will be better kept especially there being not the least Intimation of the Breach of his former Promises nor any excuse made for it And it is fit to be observed that whereas he promises that upon all Vacancies of Bishopricks and other Dignities and Benifites within our Disposal care shall be taken to have them filled with the most Worthy of their own Communion there is not one word said of Universities and Colledges though the Case of Magdalen Colledge is so very notorious and so fresh in every Man's Memory that there is hardly a Roman or Artificer in the Nation that has not a lively Remembrance of it Church of England men then shall at present have the Churches and Papists the Colledges to breed up a Roman Catholick Succession of honest Obediah's DECLARATION And whereas more Tumults and Rebellions have been rais'd in all Nations upon the Account of Religion then on all other pretences put together and more in England then in all the rest of the World besides That therefore Men of all Opinions in Matters of Religion may be reconciled to the Government that they may no longer look upon it as their Enemy but may therefore think themselves equally concern'd in the Preservation of it with the rest of their Fellow subjects because they are equally well treated by it and being convinc'd in our Iudgment that Liberty of Conscience is most agreeable to the Laws and the Spirit of the Christian Religion and most conducing to the Wealth and Prosperity of our Kingdoms by encouraging Men of all Countries and Perswasions to come and Trade with us and settle amongst us For these Reasons we are resolved most earnestly to recommend to Our Parliament the settling Liberty of Conscience in so Beneficial a manner that it may remain a lasting Blessing to this Kingdom OBSERVATIONS In this Paragraph for the Peace of the Nation and for the Advancement of Trade he promises earnestly to recommend to the Parliament the settling Liberty of Conscience But this is no Argument to the Dissenters to help forward another Revolution because they have it already in as full and ample a manner as it can be given them All that he can add to this is Liberty of Conscience for Papists and the Repeal of the Test which cost him so much Closetting to no purpose and now is promis'd as a Favour What Protestant Dissenters will think of it I leave them to consider But when he says We are convinc'd in our Iudgment that Liberty of Conscience is most agreeable to the Laws and to the Spirit of the Christian Religion me-thinks these two Kings treat one another with great Freedom For what handsomer Complement could have been made to the most Christian King then to intimate that his Persecution of his Protestant Subjects is not at all agreeable to the Laws or to the Spirit of the Christian Religion This is Plain-dealing if the French King can bear it But I suppose they are agreed that K. I. shall declare as is most fit for his purpose and the French King do what is most convenient for his own DECLARATION Lastly It shall be our great Care by the Advice and Assistance of our Parliament to repair the Breaches and heal the Wounds of the late Distractions to restore Trade by putting the Act of Navigation in effectual Execution which has been so much violated of late in favour of Strangers to put our Navy and Stores into as good a Condition as we left them to find the best ways of bringing back Wealth and Bullion to the Kingdom which of late has been so much exhausted and generally we shall delight to spend the Remainder of our Reign as we have always design'd since our coming to the Crown in studying to do every thing that may contribute to the Re-establishment of the Greatness of the English Monarchy upon its old and true Foundation the united Interest and Affection of the People OBSERVATIONS What these Breaches and Wounds of the late Distractions are he does not tell us and therefore we must suppose they are such as are here mentioned As for restoring Trade it has not been lost yet the Custom house does not complain of it which is commonly the first that feels it The Navy is in a much better Condition than he left it if we may guess at that by its late Exploits But if he be so well skilled in restoring Navies he ought both in Charity and Gratitude now to stay a little longer in France As for his bringing back Wealth and Bullion into the Nation I believe the Nation would have been better pleased if he would have promised to send none out And as for his Concluding promise in these words And generally we shall delight to spend the Remainder of our Reign as we have always design'd since our coming to the Crown in studying to do every thing that may contribute to the Re-establishment of the Greatness of the English Monarchy upon its old and true Foundations the united Interest and Affection of the People This is Plain-dealing and surest to be made good of any thing in the Declaration And if he does this now as he always designed to do it for he could not then do all that he designed to do here is a renewed Promise of popery and Arbitrary Power And those are unpardonable Infidels who will not take his word for it DECLARATION Thus having endeavored to answer all Objections and give all the Satisfaction we can think of to all Parties and Degrees of Men We cannot want our selves the Satisfaction of having done all that can be done on our part whatever the Event shall be the Disposal of which we commit with great Resignation and Dependance to that God who judges Right And on the other side if any of our Subjects after all this shall remain so obstinate as to appear in Arms against us as they must needs fall unpitied under the Severity of our Iustice after having refused such gracious offers of Mercy so they must be answerable to Almighty God for all the Blood that shall be spilt and all the Miseries and Confusions in which these Kingdoms may happen to be involved by their desperate and unreasonable Opposition Given at Our Court at St. Germains this present 20th of April 1692. in the Eighth Year of our Reign Per ipsum Regem manu propriâ