Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A57101
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A Review of the reflections on the Prince of Orange's declaration
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1688
(1688)
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Wing R1199; ESTC R232287
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9,666
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4
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Protestants except when they were forced to it we may believe this and all the other gross things which are here imposed on us The plain case was the Papists resolved to destroy us and to put themselves in case to do it as soon as was possible so they went about it immediately in Ireland only they have delay'd the giving the Signal for a new Massacre till matters were ripe for it in England 12 The Reflector has reason to avoid the saying any thing to the Article of Scotland for even his Confidence could not support him in justifying the King's claiming an Absolute Power to which all are bound to obey without reserve and the Repealing of a great many Laws upon that pretension this is too gross for Human Nature and the Principles of all Religions whatsoever Our Author avoids speaking to it because he does not know the extent of the Prerogative of that Crown But no Prerogative can go to an Obedience without Reserve nor can Absolute Power consist with any Legal Government 13. The Declaration had set forth that the Evil Counsellors had represented the Expedient offer'd by the Prince and Princess as offer'd on design to disturb the Quiet and Happiness of the Kingdom upon which the Reflector bestows this kind Remark on the Ministry And did they not say true as it happens Believe me some Folks think many of them are not often guilty of such foresight The Writer is angry that his side is not uppermost and tho' he includes himself in the Ministry by saying Us when he speaks of them yet here tho' he was to censure the Party that is against him he distinguishes them by saying many of the Counsellors use not to have such foresight But perhaps they can object as much to his foresight and with as much reason But if the King comes up to Mr. Fagel's Letter why was it rejected with so much scorn and answered with so much Insolence Now perhaps they would hearken to it when they have brought both themselves and the Nation to the brink of Ruine by their mad Councils But they ought to be forgiven since they have been true to the Principles and Dictates of their Religion 14. Our Reflector thinks a Free Parliament a Chimera and indeed he and his Friends have been at a great deal of pains to render it impossible But perhaps he may be quickly cured of his Error and a Free One is the sooner like to be chosen when he and such as he are set at a due distance from the publick Councils If Members are sometimes chosen by drinking and other Practices this is bad enough but still it is not so bad as the laying a force upon the Electors and a restraint upon the Election Nor is it very much to the King's Honour to remember how the last Parliament was chosen it was indeed a very disgusting Essay in the beginning of a Reign and gave a sad prospect of what might be look't for but if one Violence was born with when the struggle of another Party seemed to exâ—use it this does not prove that a course of such Violences when the Design is become both more visible and less excusable ought to be endured If the Members of that Parliament proved Worthy Patriots I do not see why they ought not to be remembred with Honour tho' there is a great deal to be said upon their first elevation to that Character which they maintained indeed nobly so that if the first Conception of that Parliament was Irregular yet its End was Honourable since never a Parliament was dissolv'd upon a more Glorious Account 15. The Reflector sets up all his Sail when he enters upon the Article of the pretended Prince of Wales This was a Point by which he hoped to merit highly and upon that to gain ground on that Party of the Court on whom he had reflected with so much scorn Therefore here must the Prince be attackt with all the Malicious force to which his Rhetorick could carry him and all those Men of Honour that went over to wait on him at the Hague and to represent to him the bleeding and desperate Condition of the Nation must be stigmatized as a lewd Crew of Renegadoes tho' I must tell him that the common acception of Renegadoe is one that changes his Religion and by this he will find some near him to whom that Character belongs more justly He almost blames the King for the low step he lately made to prove that Birth It was a low one indeed to make so much adoe and to bring together such a Solemn Appearance to hear so slight a Proof produced which could have no other effect but to make the Imposture so much the more visible when the utmost attempts to support it appear to be now so feeble that as to the main point of the Queen's bearing the Child there is not so much as a colony of a proof produc'd And it is certain that if this had been a fair thing the Court would have so managed it that it should not have been in the power of any Mortal to have called it in question And on the other hand they have so managed it that one must needs see in every step of it broad marks of an Imposture It will not be half Proofs nor Suborned Witnesses that will satisfie the Nation in so great a Point But I will enter into no particulars relating to this Business which will be better laid open when a Free Parliament meets to examine it 16. The Reflector charges upon the Prince all the miseries that may follow on a War as an unsuitable return to the kindness that the Nation has shewed him But if the dissolution of the Government brought on by the Court has given a just rise to his coming then the ill effects that may fall out in the progress of his design are no more to be charged on him than the miseries to which a severe Cure of the ill effects of a wilful disorder expose a Patient ought to be imputed to a Physician that betrays his Patient if he slatters him and that must apply violent Remedies to obstinate Distempers I do not hear from other hands that the Lords and Bishops about the City have disowned their inviting the Prince and I do not believe it the better because our Author affirms it But if it were true there are others in England besides those about the City so the thing may be true tho' a few about the City had not been in it A small Civility is bestowed on the Prince when it is said that he would not have affirmed it if he did not believe it but this is soon taken off and it is said that doubtless he was abused in this If this is to be supposed the Prince is as weak a man as his Enemies for their own sakes ought to wish to be if he could suffer himself to be engaged in a matter of this nature without being well assured of
measure were laid down in which both Protestants and Papists were agreed concerning things that are good or evil of themselves For instance Murther is allowed by all to be evil of it self yet if the Extirpation of Hereticks is a duty incumbent on a Catholick King as we are sure it is then a Commision given to destroy us would be a justifiable Action and so the Laws against Murder and Manslaughter might in that case be Dispensed with since the killing of Hereticks is by the Doctrine of Papists only Malum prohibitum and not Malum in se 7. Our Authour might have spar'd his Rhetorick how well soever he loads it upon the head of Persecution and Liberty of Conscience if it had been but for this reason that it discover'd too plainly who it was that wrote these Reflections which perhaps he may have e're long some Reasons to wish it were not so well known as he has taken pains to do by his luxuriant Stile All that can be said on this head belongs very pertinently to the consideration of a Parliament but is very improperly urged in favour of the bloodiest of all Persecutors who could not begin their breaking in upon our Laws and our Religion more dextrously than at this of Liberty of Conscience tho' they themselves had been the Authors of all the severities that had been acted among us and intended by this shew of ease to bring us under all the Cruelties of an Inquisition which is one of the inseparable Perquisities of that bloody Religion 8. The greatest part of the Invasions made on our Government that are set forth in the Princes Declaration are acknowledged to be such by our Reflector But he thinks they are now redressed The High Commission is at an and Magdalen Colledge is restor'd If the King had of his own motion and from a sense of the justice of the thing done all this while he apprehended no danger and if he had brought the Authors of those Pernicious Councils to condign Punishment then it had been more reasonable to Value those Acts of Justice by which the former Violences had been in some measure repaired but what is done in the present Circumstances shews only a meanness of Spirit and a feebleness in the Government And some Mens Tempers are too well known to suffer us once to doubt of their returning back to all their former Violences and of their carrying them on to greater Excesses if God for the sins of the Nation should blast this Glorious Undertaking And if the Charters are now restor'd we know by the Proceedings of the late Regulators of Corporations that it was far from their thoughts but a little while ago so that this is likewise an effect of the present Fear they are under and it shews that after all their Huffings during their Prosperity they sink under dangers as much as others whose Memory they are so careful to blemish how much soever they are beholding to them It is here said that most of the Charters were taken away in the late King's time But as it is well known under whose Influence the last years of the late Reign were conducted so the limiting the Elections to a special number contrary to Custom and Prescription was the Invention of the present Reign 9. But if the Reflector will not justifie every thing that the Government has done and thinks the present state of things could hardly bear so gross an Abuse yet he insists often upon this that these Illegal things were fit for the Consideration and the Redress of a Parliament and that they do not justific the Prince of Orange's Attempt But the Prince's Design is only to see a Free Parliament Chosen and Assembled according to Law. For our Author and his Complices for he reckons himself in the Ministry Sect. 23. when he names the things objected against the Ministry as objected against us had taken such care to keep off a parliament and to overturn all Corporations to Corrupt all Elections and to provide for false Returns by Popish Sheriffs and Mayors that we were out of all hopes or rather out of a possibility of ever seeing a Free Parliament again so that any nearer Prospect that we now have of one is wholly owing to the Prince's Undertaking and indeed what is given us at present is done with so ill a Grace and the Popish and corrupt Ministry is still preserved and cherished with so particular a Considence that they seem to have a mind to make the Nation see that all is done so grosly that those who are cheated by it will have no excuse for their Folly since the Trick is acted with too bare a 〈◊〉 to pass on any 10. The Reflector thinks that the Prince ought to have complained to the King of these Abuâ—â—â— tho' in other places of this Paper he pretends that the Prince was not a proper Judge in thâ—se Matters he Aggravates the Prince's 〈…〉 an Uncle and a Father-in-Law without warning giv'n Indeed if this were the Case all that could be said upon it was that he had copied from the Pattern that was set him in 1672. in that famous Attempt on the Sâ—â—â—na Fleet What Complaints the Prince â—â—â—de or what encouragement he had to make any and how they were entertain'd and Answer'd are Domestick matters of which the World knows little since all that has appear'd in publick was in Mr. Fagel's Letter and how well that was received and how civilly it was answer'd all England saw It is true the Prince is very nearly related to the King but there are other Ties stronger than the Bonds of Flesh and Blood He owes more to the Protestant Religion and to the Nation than can be defaced by any other Relation whatsoever and if the failing in one Relation excuses the other then enough might be said to shew at what pains the Court of England has been to free the Prince from all other Engagements except those of Loving Enemies and doing good to those who Despitefully use us for upon this account the Prince lies under all possible Obligations 11. The Reflector thinks that those who left Ireland were driven by a needless fear but tho' he has no reason to apprehend much from the Irish Papists yet those who saw the last Bloody Massacre may be forgiv'n if they have no mind to see such another He faintly blames that great Change that was lately made in the whole Government of Ireland but he presently excuses it since it was Natural for the King and his Friends to desire to be safe some where till they had fair Quarter in England they must make sure of Ireland but he adds that as soon as that was done the thing must have returned into its old Channel again This ought to be writ only to Irish men for none of a higher size of Understanding can bear it if it can ever be shewed that Papists have yielded up any thing which they had once wrung out of the hands of