themselves that they had erred with their Fathers the Power of that House concerning taking Men into Custody had not then nor to this Day has received an exact Adjustment and therefore wants not Precedents of the like Nature and if they were Arbitrary Orders they were such as had been executed by Parliaments many a fair Year before your Sires of the antient Kingdom of Scotland were born and since Orders of the same nature had been made by Parliaments in the times of our antient Kings these Orders might have been passed by and not branded with the reproachful Name of being Arbitrary 2. Tho we have supposed that the Commons might issue out those Orders yet they took none into Custody by such Orders but what might well be supposed guilty of Breaches of Privilege in the highest Degree the Truth is when Parliaments met annually or at least frequently we find few or no Complaints but when they were not frequent but there were long Intervals of Parliament the Consequence of which was long sitting which began within these two hundred Years there were some Complaints of the Breaches of Privilege as in the time of Hen. 8. the 4th of Edw. 6. and in the time of Q. Eliz. when the Justice of the Commons hath been applauded by our former Kings for asserting their Privileges and not stigmatized for exerting an Arbitrary Power 'T is true the most notorious thing that could be fixed upon that House was the Fees extorted by the Serjeant of the House who tho he attends the House of Commons yet he ought to have considered that he was the King's Officer and by Law no Officer of the King 's shall take any Fee or Reward for doing his Office but what he receives from the King upon Penalty of returning double to the Plaintiff and being further punished at the Will of the King but of this you and your Party took no notice because the then Serjeant was a Creature of your own tho I think he smarted for it and your Brother laughed at his Calamity in the Case of an Under-Sheriff of Norfolk Therefore I say that to assert that their Orders that were made for the taking Men into Custody were for Matters that had no relation to Privileges of Parliament was an impudent Lie for there were a Number of Men who to distinguish themselves from the rest of their Countrey had basely given their Hands for Abhorrences of Parliaments and of those who most humbly petitioned for their sitting in a time of such extream Necessity their Names I will give that you may put a Mark of Favour upon those of them that are alive whenever they shall have occasion to meet you at St. Germains You may remember that House did fall upon such as had countenanced the Popish Plot and were Abhorrers of petitioning for the sitting of Parliaments and voted that it was and ever had been the undoubted Right of the Subjects to petition the King for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments and Redress of Grievances and that to traduce such Petitioning as a Violation of Duty and to represent it to his Majesty as tumultuous and seditious is to betray the Liberty of the Subject and contributes to the subverting the antient and legal Constitution of this Kingdom and introducing Arbitrary Power The first that fell under these Votes was Withens that was knighted for his Abhorring and after made a Judg he was expelled the House and voted a Betrayer of the undoubted Rights of the Subjects of England and received his Sentence at the Bar of the House he is yet alive I suppose he and his Brother Jenner may set up at St. Germains for Expounders of our Law in good time The next was Sir George Jefferies then Recorder of London against whom they voted an Address to the King to remove him out of all publick Offices and that the Members which served for the City should communicate the Vote to the Court of Aldermen There were several others that upon the same Account were taken into Custody as Sir Giles Phillips Mr. Coleman Capt. William Castle Mr. John Hutchinson Mr. Henry Walrond Mr. William Stawel Mr. Thomas Herbert Mr. Sheridon and Parson Thompson of Bristol And because Sir Francis North the Chief Justice of the Common-pleas advised and assisted in drawing up a Proclamation against petitioning for the sitting of the Parliament the Commons voted it a sufficient Ground to proceed against him for high Crimes and Misdemeanours the like Vote passed against Sir Thomas Jones one of the Judges of the King's Bench and upon Sir Richard Weston one of the Barons of the Exchequer but they went higher with Scroggs for they impeached him of High Treason for discharging the Grand Jury of Middlesex before they had finished their Presentments and for the Order made in the King's-Bench against Care 's Pacquet of Advice from Rome That it should be no more printed or published by any Person Well Sir what say you now to these Vermine Those now alive are still the same Rogues and your very humble Servants and Admirers and I could wish you had them with you at St. Germains being pretty Company and worthy of your Favour indeed to give them their Due they have been pretty false in their Oaths to King William whom some of your Party stile Prince of Orange These were the Men that House of Commons did censure I pray Sir on with your Spectacles and see whether the Crimes they were guilty of had no Relation to Privileges of Parliaments surely your Friends when they charged the House of Commons with this Crime were not in good earnest if they were they shall have a Rowland for their Oliver I 'll be in good earnest too and let them know that if the Privileges of Parliament be concerned when an Injury is done to a particular Member how much more when they strike at Parliaments themselves and endeavour to wound the very Constitution Nay in the Case of Sheridon who afterwards troubled the Nation with a Litter of scandalous Pamphlets upon that Account 't is plain that his Commitment was only in order to examine him about the Popish Plot and his Endeavours to stifle it Do not you know that Sheridon Say you never did yet let me tell you it was you instructed him how he should behave himself to the House whose Behaviour indeed was with as much Contempt and Insolency as if you or your Father had been demanding some of the Members and therefore they had reason surely to commit him Thompson you know him too very well he was zealous in divers Breaches of Privilege to serve you and the Popish Party witness his Usage of poor Bedlow and the rest of the Discoverers of the Popish Plot yet his Commitment was only in order to an Impeachment and as soon as they had gone through with his Examination he was set at Liberty giving Security to answer the Impeachment they had voted against him But 3. What if the Matters
by a set of wicked Rogues yet before they had ravished this Prince and weaned him from his Peoples Love he made this excellent Law in which Sir you may observe 1. A Complaint of former Remisness their Bills afore-time have not been passed and their Grievances unredressed by unseasonably dissolving of Parliaments before their Laws could pass 2. That a Law might pass in that very Parliament to rectify that Abuse for the future And 3. that it should not pass for a Temporary Law but to last for ever being of such absolute Necessity that before Parliaments be dismissed Bills of Common Right might pass to which the then King Richard did freely agree 5. I have another Proof which is from that great Oracle of the Law the Chief Justice Coke in Institut 4. B. p. 11. asserting That Petitions may be truly preferred tho very many have been answered by the Law and Custom of Parliament before the end of the Parliament This that Great Lawyer delivers not as his own single Opinion but tells us that what he laid down in this Particular appeared in an Antient Treatise de modo tenendi Parliamentum in these words faithfully translated The Parliament ought not to be ended while any Petition dependeth undiscussed or at least to which a determinate Answer is not made And again That one Principle of calling Parliaments is for the redressing Grievances that daily happen Further yet concerning the departing of Parliaments It ought to be in such a manner saith Modus Tenendi demanded yea and publickly proclaimed in the Parliament and within the Palace of the Parliament whether there be any that hath delivered a Petition to the Parliament and hath not received answer thereto If there be none such it is to be supposed that every one is satisfied or else answered unto at the least so far forth as by the Law he may be This Custom was observed in after Ages as you heard before Once more and I have done Observe what this Great Judg saith concerning the Authority and Antiquity of this Antient Treatise called Modus tenendi Parliamentum which we often make use of in our Institutes Certain it is this Modus was rehearsed and declared before William I. called the Conqueror and by him approved for England upon which according to the Modus he held a Parliament for England as appears 21 Edw. 3. Fo. 60. Well Sir how do you by this time and how doth my old Mistress and the little Welch Gentleman Are you not satisfied of the Necessity of the Meeting and Sitting of Parliaments I pray call Tom Jenner and Frank Withens those two Rascals and all the Crew of Villains that misled your Brother and you or were misled by you for they were willing Vermin I confess to do what they were bid upon pain and peril of losing their Places And lest these Scoundrels should be too ignorant let us call in Old Pemberton that did several Jobs of Journey-work for your Brother and you he impudently tried Fitz-Harris tho he was impeached in Parliament which Scroggs would not undertake and he tried the Great and never-to-be forgotten Lord Russel and how he carried himself let the World judg I am sure my Ld Russel was murdered But I have heard Pemberton talk as like a Villain as any of the rest which was not because of his Ignorance I say let us summon them all that remain in the Land of the Living for the Devil hath not fetch'd them all yet and tho they are not prating upon the Bench yet the Rogues are getting a Penny at the Bar These Vermin I dare say with a little drubbing will aver that it is most certain these wholsome Laws are not only in full Agreement with the Common Law and declarative thereof but fully agree with the Oath and Office of our Kings who have that great Trust by the Law lodged with them for the Good and Benefit and not Hurt and Mischief of the People But if these Dunghil Rascals should be fullen because not imployed once more to oppress and murder the People under a Form and Colour of Law and refuse to satisfy you I will with that little Law I have propose these three things upon the whole of what has been said upon this fifth Head 1st These Laws are very sutable to the Office and Duty of a King and the End for which he was instituted by God himself who commands him to do Justice and Judgment to all especially the Oppressed but not deny them any request for their Relief Protection or Welfare It had not been below you to have obey'd the Laws as a Subject nor your Brother to have kept them as a King and had he relied more upon his Parliament than he did upon your Counsel and that of his wicked Ministry he might have liv'd to this Day But you and your Crew perswaded him he was above Laws and that the Statutes of the Realm signified nothing no longer than they would serve his Turn who therefore made no Conscience of the Sitting of Parliaments for redress of Grievances 2ly These Laws relating to Parliaments do also fully agree with the Coronation Oath your Brother took and solemnly made to his People viz. To grant fulfil and defend all rightful Laws which the Commons of the Realm shall chuse and to strengthen and maintain them to the utmost of his Power But Sir suppose any of the Learned in the Laws of the Realm should stand at your Elbow as Tom Jenner or Old Holloway or any of that Crew and tell you that your Brother did not take any such Oath To this I may say that if he did not the Nation had the more wrong but I never heard yet that any had the Impudence to deny it I confess when you shuffled on the Crown it was said some things were abated for which those concerned in that Ceremony ought to have been hanged 3ly Those Laws do also fully agree with Magna Charta it self which hath been confirmed to us by 40 Parliaments at least which saith We shall deny nor defer to no Man Justice and Right much less to the whole Parliament and Kingdom in denying and deferring to pass such necessary Bills the Necessities of the People call for Had Old Brown had but half the Honesty of an Irish Rapparee he would not have consented to your Brother's dropping of a Bill in the Year 1680 it was intituled An Act for repealing an Act of the 35th of Q. Elizabeth a good Bill to have preserved the Protestant Dissenters But your Party had some barbarous Murders and Outrages to commit and could not well go on with their Show unless such a Bill as that of Q. Elizabeth was in Force so that it might now and then aid and assist your everlasting Holy Cut-throats in their bloody Conspiracy against God and his Christ Object But you may say That your Brother and Father and several other Princes have otherwise practised by dissolving or proroguing Parliaments at
Factions that put General Cromwell to the Necessity of taking upon him the Government of the Nation by a single Person by the Name and Title of Lord Protector Those who would destroy the Constitution of the House of Lords do endeavour the Destruction of the Ballance of the English Government 3. Consider the King gives Life and Vigour to all the Proceedings in Parliament the Wills and Desires of the People tho approved by the Lords and Commons in Parliament without the King signify nothing unless he bids them be an Act they are abortive Therefore he that shall attempt the Subversion of any of the other two Estates is no more a King but a Tyrant and useless to God and Man You see that your Father undid himself to all Intents and Purposes by following such Measures as subverted his own Government and so have you and if you will not believe it you may ask the French King and he will soon satisfy you of the Matter But from hence Sir you may see that you cannot destroy any one Estate in this Government but the whole is subverted and therefore I may lay down this Proposition that Parliaments are the Essential Part of the Government In a word then to conclude this Head let me ask you or any of your Plotters these two Questions 1. If this be so that by so great Authority viz. so many Statutes then and now in Force the Fundamentals of the Common Law the Essentials of the Government it self Magna Charta your Brother's Coronation-Oath and so many Laws of God and Man the Parliament ought to meet and sit to redress Grievances provide for Common Safety especially in times of Common Danger and that this was so in a most eminent manner none can doubt that did believe the King so many Parliaments the Cloud of Witnesses the publick Judicatures their own Sense and Experience of the manifold Mischiefs acted and the apparent Ruin and Confusion that threatned the Nation by the restless Attempts of you and your bloody Party Then Sir I ask you Whether after the People of England had the Point of the Dagger thus set to their Breasts and the Knife at their Throats Cities and Habitations fired Invasions and Insurrections threatned to destroy the King and Government your villanous Popish Party did not design to destroy the only Remedy hoped for under God to give us Relief that is our Parliaments who with so much Cost and Pains were elected sent up and intrusted for our Help and to turn them off without answering the Ends for which chosen by those frequent Prorogations and Dissolutions Consider Sir the Point in hand Were not the People of England justified in their important Cries humble Petitions to the King your Brother fervent Addresses to their Members and earnest Claims for this their Birthright pleaded with all the Modesty imaginable which the Laws of the Kingdom consonant to the Laws of God and Nature had given them How impudent then were your Abhorrers of such Petitions and Claims What can Withens who was expelled the House for the same say for himself What can the Rascal plead in behalf of himself and a rascally Crew that joined with him in signing an Address of Abhorrence and that Villain Jefferies who did that in London which Wythens had done in Westminster Which brings me to a second Question 2. If it be fo that by so great Authority Parliaments ought to meet and sit to redress Grievances c. what shall we say to those who advised your Brother to this high Violation of their Countries Rights to the infringing so many just Laws and to the exposing the Publick to those desperate Hazards even almost a total Ruine which was done with all the Impudence and Barefacedness imaginable the Advisers not having the least Remorse upon them If K. Alfred as Andrew Horne in his Mirror of Justice tells us hanged Darling Segnor Cadwine Cole and forty Judges more for judging contrary to Law and yet all those faise Judgments were but in particular and private Cases what Death did those deserve who offer'd Violence to the Law it self and all the sacred Rights of their Country If the Lord Chief Justice Thorpe iâ— Edward Ill 's time for receiving the Bribery of 100 l. was adjudged to be hanged as having made the King break his Oath to the People how much more guilty were they that made your Brother break his Coronation-Oath and perswaded him to act against all Laws for holding of Parliaments and passiâ—g 〈◊〉 therein which â—e was so solemnly sworn to do And if the Lord Chief Justice Tresillian was drawn hang'd and quartered for advising the King to act contrary to some Statutes only what did those deserve that advised your Brother to act not only against some but all the antient Laws and Statutes of the Realm Moreover Sir I would say this further to you if you will have a little Patience If Blake the King's Counsel only for assisting in the Matter and drawing up Indictments by the King's Command against Law tho it's like he might plead the King's Order and Command for so doing was drawn hang'd and quartered what was due to them that assisted your Brother in the total Destruction of all the Laws of the Kingdom and as much as in them lay their King and Country too And if Vske the Under-Sheriff whose Office it is to execute the Laws for but endeavouring to aid Tresillian Blake and their Accomplices against some of the Laws was also with five more drawn hang'd and quarter'd what Punishment did they deserve that not only aided your Brother but endeavour'd to subvert all the Laws of the Kingdom And if Empson and Dudley in the time of Henry VIII tho of the King 's Privy Council were hanged for procuring and executing an Act of Parliament contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and to the great Vexation of the People when yet they had an Act of Parliament on their Side what ought to have been done to those who had no such Act to shelter themselves and who not only acted contrary to but to the Destruction of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom I can expect Sir no Answer from you but this The Men that did these things should surely have died if they had been discovered they should have perished without Mercy Is it so then I come to the last Particular to be debated and that is III. You are the Man and your Party was the Party that did endeavour to break the Use of Parliaments by inveighing against that way of Government In a word therefore I shall descend unto Particulars and shew you 1st That your Inclinations were not for Parliaments or that Way of Governing 2ly What those Parliaments were that you and your Party procured to be dissolved 3ly What Arts and Methods you used to expose the three last Parliaments your Brother held in 1679 1680 and 1681. 4ly Your Unreasonableness in so doing 5ly The ill Consequences
Justice which are Officina Legis and particularly of the High Court of Parliament so called from Parlerlament speaking judicially his Mind And amongst others he gives us the following Law of K. Alfred who reigned in 880 and ordained for a Usage perpetual That twice a Year or oftner if need be in time of Peace they shall assemble themselves at London to treat in Parliament of the Government of the People of God how they should keep themselves from Offences should live in quiet and should receive Right by certain Laws and holy Judgments And thus saith this Great Coke you have the Law of K. Alfred as well concerning the holding this Court of Parliament here every Year at the City of London as to manifest the threefold End of this Great and Honourable Assembly 1. That Men might be kept from offending that is that Offences might be prevented both by good and provident Laws and by the due Execution of them Truly Sir here is Grief in one Hand and Sorrow in the other for your Brother and you you hated the one and despised the other Provident Laws you hated as much as you did an honest Woman and the other you despised as much as you did an honest Man And you were never more at ease than when thrô the want of a good Law or so you and your Party were not only emboldned but enabled to do Mischief 2. That all Men might live safely and quiet This is another End of Parliament Old Wright your quondam Justice of the Kings-Bench used to say That the Man that resigned himself up to the Will of his Prince was always safe and quiet But yet that Loggerhead of a Judg with Old Hodg and all his Inferior Crew could never find one such Saying in the Reports or Institutes of Judg Coke for the Saying was so silly that a Man must have judged it to have been his own unless he had humbly borrowed that wise Saying from Sir your sweet understanding Self for he understood as little of the Design and End of a Parliament as your self The Wretch is gone to his Place but as for Law and Parliaments no Man no not Jenner himself understood less than his Worship 3. That all Men might receive Justice by certain Laws and Holy Judgments not by Proclamations or French Edicts as you and your Brother did design but by certain Laws to the end Justice might be the better administred that Questions and Defects in Laws might be by the High Court of Parliament explained and reduced to certainty Your Brother and you if you had understood this would not have sent for a set of Rogues clothed in Purple to have gained their Opinion about suspending the Penal Laws against a parcel of Papists and Popish Priests no you would have applied your selves to Parliament to have explained the difficult and dark Parts of the Laws in force against those Men but you loved Darkness and dark Judges and therefore what you did was dark for Sir your Brother and you little thought and believed that the High Court of Parliament was the Supream Court of the Realm and that it was a part of the Frame of the Common Laws and that in some Cases Parliaments do proceed legally according to the Course of the Common Laws Had your Brother or you understood or believed the Antiquity of Parliaments you would not have preferred a Privy Council before them nor if you had valued the Dignity of Parliaments would you have preferred the Opinion of a parcel of Lambskin Rogues before a plain and positive Law nor if you had learned the Sovereign Jurisdiction of Parliaments would you have followed the Advice and Direction of your villanous Ministers of State tho against the Fundamental Constitution of the Government I wonder you did not take the Villains along with you to St. Germains your Ministers Judges and your Counsellors Learned in the Law your Wrights Jenners Miltons Withers Sawyers and the rest of the Hellish Crew I do not name them all but you might have had the Honesty not to have left them to disgrace their Profession which is well improved since I saw you last and to have procured an Apartment for them that your Ministers might have thought upon some better Politicks and your Roguy Judges and Lawyers might have understood the Law a little better than scribere est agere If that Bird had been but hang'd up in a Cage in your Presence-Chamber he would have sung another Tune For all his Brave-alls he and the rest of his Crew might have found some Expedient or another to have helped you to some other Kingdom since by the Law of some of them and the Politicks of others they fairly walked you out of three Kingdoms at once I do not see any great Reformation of their Manners or any great Improvement they have made of their Law since you was graciously pleased to take up your Residence at St. Germains and if you had taken the Vermin along with you there might have been a parcel of Dragoons that might have drub'd them to their Books so that by their Scribere's and Agere's they might have found some convenient Government for you which they might have kept you in to better purpose than did by their Law and Counsel keep you here Nay if you had advanced them a little above their Neighbours they might have seen the difference between a Declaration of Indulgence and a Statute-Law for Liberty of Conscience and between an Act of Parliament and a Proclamation A good Whip dear Sir would have been of admirable Use and Instruction for it would have made them to understand and they would have told you tho somewhat too late 1. That Parliaments are part of the Frame of the Common Law which is founded on the Law and Light of Nature right Reason and Scripture 2. That according to this Law of Equity and Righteousness Parliaments ought freely to meet for the Common Peace Safety and Benefit of the People and Support of the Government 3. That Parliaments have been all along esteemed the Essential Part of the Government as being the most Antient Honourable and Sovereign Court in the Nation which ought frequently to meet and sit for the making and abolishing of Laws redressing Grievances and to see to the due Administration of Justice 4. That as to the Place of the meeting it ought to be at London not at New-Market at London not at Windsor at London not at St. Germains because London is the Capital City the Eye and Heart of the Nation as being not only the Royal Seat but the principal Place of Judicature and Residence of the chief Officers and Courts of Justice where also the Records are kept as well as the principal Place of Commerce and Concourse in the Nation and to which the People may have the best Recourse and where they may find the best Accommodation 5. They would have instructed you in the Antiquity of Parliaments which have been so
the People is very evident Therefore Sir abruptly to dissolve Parliaments when nothing but the Legislative and united Wisdom of the Kingdom could relieve the Protestant Party from their just Fears or secure their Religion from its certain Dangers is very inconsistent with the great Trust reposed in your Brother and seems to express but little of that Love and Tenderness which the People of England might justly have expected from him 5. Would not the Constitution of Parliament as by the Laws and Customs of England established have been equally imperfect and destructive of it self had it been left to the Arbitrary Will of a wicked King whether he would summons a Parliament or had it been put into his Power to dismiss them at his pleasure or at the Pleasure of two rascally French Whores or a little scoundrel French Ambassador And therefore was not your Brother's dissolving the Parliaments at Westminster and Oxford by your procurement a most unreasonable thing 6. Was not the Kingdom so alarm'd at the Wickedness of your Brother in dissolving those Parliaments that Men began to be exceedingly concerned not knowing where it would end insomuch that your Brother was necessitated in a sneaking Declaration to let the Nation see he was conscious to himself that his Dissolution of those Parliaments stood in need of an Apology so that it was but at the best an Appeal from his Parliament to the People of England And if your Brother and you could not justify your Usage of these Parliaments because so destructive to the Liberty of the Subject what assurance did your two French Whores Portsmouth and Mazarine and Barillon give you and the rest of your Party that your Brother's Declaration shewing Reasons for such a Violation to our English Government would make the Nation in love with such Treatments of their Representatives For Sir could you think in your Conscience that the People of England did not see themselves hereby exposed to the restless Malice of their Enemies and resented it highly since they could not but be sensible of the languishing Condition of the three Kingdoms and that nothing but a Parliament could cure the Distempers with which we were infected by you and your Party both as to Religion and Morals And had they not with great Charge and Difficulty chosen three Parliaments on whom they placed their Hopes And those being suddenly dissolved could they believe your Brother or you designed any thing less than a total Subversion of the Government Come Sir sit down put on your Irish considering Cap and judg why since Ned Coleman's Protestant Declaration was so unhappily published before its time the Nation should not be as much alarmed at Barillon's Declaration in April 1681 as they were at Coleman's in 1678. And could you and your Irish Teagues imagine that one French Declaration should so soon succeed another nay could you without being confounded see your Servant Coleman's Original fairly drawn by the Advice of the French King's Confessor to bring in Popery and Slavery so much outdone by Barillon's Copy since you judged it could never be outdone by any Man whatever And since the former exposed you and your Brother as the worst of Men how could you expect the latter should not have the same effect upon the English Nation and put them into such a Ferment as to deal by you and your Party just as we did in 1688 7. Did not your Brother April 20. 1679 not only in Council but Parliament declare how sensible he was of the ill Posture of his Affairs and the great Jealousies and Dissatisfaction of his good Subjects whereby the Crown and Government was become too weak to preserve it self which proceeded from his use of a single Ministry and of private Advices and therefore professed his Resolution to lay them wholly aside for the future and to be advised by those able and worthy Persons whom he had chosen for his Council in all his weighty and important Affairs Now Sir consider was it not most unreasonable in you and your French Vermine to put the King upon such a manifest Violation of his Royal Word and Promise to the Nation But to put the Matter out of dispute Did not your Brother on that Choice of his Council tell the Parliament of his Resolution of meeting his People often in Parliament And who was it that changed his mind and made him alter those Gracious Purposes but you and your wicked Party Would you make us believe that your Brother could so soon forget his Promises or that upon the meeting of these Parliaments there were no weighty Matters to be debated 8. Did not you and your Party in prevailing with the King shew the World that your Cunning kept not pace with your Malice since by this wicked usage of our Representatives in those Parliaments you and your Cutthroats made your selves known tho you had secretly and cautiously given that wicked Advice to your Brother only to be protected from the publick Justice of the Nation But in time you discovered your selves and told your own Names when Case-hardned enough to pull off the Mask and let us see what you would be at But what Offence did you take at those Parliaments Surely it was because the repeated Treasons and traiterous Designs of you and your Conspirators rendred you obnoxious to them And did you not put the King upon dissolving those Parliaments thinking thereby not to have been judged the Authors of that villanous Counsel Alas good Sir you have so exposed your self in that Matter that you left your self and Party not only without Justification but without all pretence hereafter but thanks be to God I lived to see the Justice of the Nation take place upon you and some of your Party There are some yet lurking and basking themselves in good Imployments but I hope our King will rid himself of the Vermine in time I am confident Sir you may reflect upon these Considerations and pronounce your self guilty of this unreasonable Usage of three as great Parliaments as ever England saw Now how can we conclude otherwise than that you then was and still continue an Enemy to Parliaments Fifthly The ill Consequences attending the Dissolution of those three Parliaments are worthy your Consideration and that I may be brief herein take notice 1. What Divisions you and your Party caused amongst the People of England thereby you made such Breaches in Families that I fear are not made up to this day unless Death hath reconciled them this you did by the Advice of your Priests Jesuits and Popish Council at St. James's and the wicked Ministry at White-hall who rather than the People should not be divided took their several Copies by your Original and came in a most comfortable manner to your Assistance hoping to make the People rebel These Differences you nourished with all the Industry imaginable to the great Hazard of the whole Kingdom But Sir this was to betray us into the Hands of our
know what ground you had to raise such a foul Report and Slander upon so considerable a part of the Legislative Power I confess I can give no other name to these Proceedings of yours than a Conspiracy to destroy the use of Parliaments therefore had your Brother called another upon the Dissolution of the Oxford Parliament all English Protestants would have joined as one Man in humble Applications to that Assembly that you and your infamous Crew might have a due Punishment for such scandalous Reflections and false Accusations of those Parliaments It is well known Sir notwithstanding your said usage of these Parliaments that many of those honourable Persons sent up to serve as Members of those Assemblies had ventured their Lives and lost their Estates in endeavouring to restore the Monarchy in opposition to that very thing you charged them withal Nay they were all Lovers of Monarchy not only upon true English Principles but from their own Inclinations for deceive not your self they had too sad experience of a Common-wealth to be in love with that way of Government which they well knew was inconsistent with the Genius of this Nation and that nothing more agreed with the Peoples Temper than a well-regulated Monarchy as ours is by the fundamental Laws of the Realm and if your Brother had but considered the Point he could not have believ'd otherwise than that they were not nor could be true to the Monarchy that joined with you and your Conspirators to subvert the Rights and Privileges of Parliaments 2. The Parliaments not only lay under this filthy Calumny but your Party did also traduce those brave Men that stedfastly asserted the Power and Privileges of Parliament the Protestant Religion and the Liberties of the People as being in a Conspiracy against the King and Government but 't is plain that you knew not one Soul engaged in any such Conspiracy if you did why did you not according to your Duty and Allegiance discover them that they might have been brought to Justice If not why was all that noise made of a Conspiracy against the King's Person and Government But I believe you were afraid that your Folly as well as Knavery would have been manifested to the World and your Malice too into the Bargain Nay Sir let me tell you that upon the Intimation given by your Devil's Broâ—ers and the special Direction of old Hodg the Fidler to your little Parasitical Clerks the Pulpits rung with the noise of a Presbyterian Plot in order to betray us into Popery and Arbitrary Power for many if not all but especially those who made some sort of Figure in the Country hung their Tongues and set the tune of their Preaching to the humour of the Times and like the Devil's Messengers being instigated by your High Priests all they preached was against the Dissenters charging them with a Design to bring in a Common-wealth and Confusion But why was all this noise about a Prebyterian Plot Come I 'll tell you the Reason You may remember that your Popish Party were by me and others charg'd with a Hellish Conspiracy against the Person of the King our Religion and Government and the Lives of all the Protestants in England and this proved against them to the satisfaction of all sober Men as well by their own Papers as the Testimonies of several Witnesses and finding all your devilish Arts and Practices could not bring your selves off from the Reproach you justly lay under or the Punishment you must have suffered had a Parliament been permitted to sit you made this noise of a Dissenters Plot as your last Refuge which you and your Crew said was against the Monarchy under pretence of prosecuting a Popish Conspiracy And therefore with what Application did you form the Intrigue of the Meal-tub and also those Shams of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey's murdering himself and Lord Howard's penning Fitz-Harris's Libel all which discovered your Purposes as well as your Disappointments at once Surely Sir your Party never considered what a notorious Scandal they endeavour'd to fasten not only upon the most considerable People of England but the whole Kingdom which you caused to suffer much in its Reputation abroad as broken and divided against it self and relapsing into Confusion and Anarchy Nay let me tell you that you and your Party hereby brought your Brother and his Government and Prudence under the greatest Disreputation for must not our Neighbours stand amazed to see a King restored by unanimous Consent to the great Joy of the Nation in so few Years lose that Esteem Honour and Reverence for so great a number of his Subjects as you had caused to be accused What Nation would maintain an Alliance with such a King who had so much sunk his Interest How could they expect he should be able to support and answer the ends of such an Alliance Your great Ally the French King could not but laugh in his Sleeve to see the Nation in such a Posture Nay further what Jealousies did you create in the Peoples Minds so that the Popish Party were strengthned to destroy both Conformists and Nonconformists who were both Hereticks to them Hereby also that Impudent Tyrant the French King was emboldned to proceed in his Ravages upon his Neighbours Countries and if your Brother should have had the least Inclination to put a stop to this Nimrod what a Condition would he have been in since you and your French Pensioners had created such Feuds amongst us 8. Another Evil happening upon the Dissolution of those Parliaments was your Endeavours to perswade the People that they were in a secure State with relation to their Religion Laws and Liberties that so the Nation might be a Prey to your Popish Crew Now Sir how can your Party answer the so doing when we were in the midst of so many notorious Dangers Do you not remember that four Parliaments had represented the manifold Dangers the Nation was threatned with And hath it not been one of the greatest Difficulties that ever a Nation groaned under to preserve it self from your Popish Rage and Fury Nay all thinking Men judged it impossible but God with whom all things are possible did the Work his own way you know well enough to your woful experience I remember your Conspirators used to wipe their Mouths and mimp them up with a maidenly God damme the Nation was in no danger from the Popish Party tho the King in several Proclamations had signified the same and if your Rascals had not the manners to believe the Parliament they might have believed the King since he not only published his Proclamations to let the Nation know its danger but also in divers Speeches to both Houses of Parliament acquainted them therewith and upon the whole not only required their Advice and Counsel but proposed that some effectual Laws might be made to prevent those Dangers and Mischiefs that then attended the Nation But Sir you and your Party may say What danger
upon which the House of Commons did commit Men were not relating to the Privilege of Parliament and had been without Precedent yet you and your Crew carrying on a Design to root out the Protestant Religion in which you had engaged your Brother which was a Plot without Precedent why might not the House of Commons proceed against the Abettors of it without Precedent Other Parliaments before you were born had made Precedents for particular Offenders and why might not that Parliament without asking your Leave If it be in the Power of one Parliament to make Precedents why not in another I am sure there was as much Occasion for new Precedents in that House of Commons as ever in any Your mealy-mouth'd Cattel used to wipe their Mouths and say they were as great Lovers of Parliaments as any Men but thought it strange that the Commons should be so zealous against Arbitrary Power in the King and take such a Latitude to themselves These Hogs-heads have their Buts a Parcel of Coxcombs that would not consider under what Circumstances the then House of Commons lay there was a Plot laid before them for the bringing in of Popery and Arbitrary Power and to kill the King and that it was a Plot and a villanous one none yet could with any Sense or Reason deny but such Rogues as were either in it or Well-wishers to it When the Commons came to consider of this devilish Conspiracy they found Criminals that had been by a side-Wind Abettors of it and others that had been Sinners above the common rate therefore they were forced to take a Latitude in their Dealings with them that the Nation might not be undone by them and where there were Criminals of this Standard certainly a House of Commons if they could not find Precedents how to manage such unruly Monsters might make some in order to tame them Sir I could give Instances of such Precedents made by former Parliaments and if that House of Commons made new Precedents they did but follow the Steps of their Predecessors who made Precedents as the Necessity of Affairs required and if the House of Commons had not taken such Courses they had betrayed their Trust if by those Precedents whether new or old they had not asserted the Rights of those that sent them thither Now what becomes of this your Pretence of illegal and arbitrary Orders in Matters not relating to Privileges of Parliament for which you procured their Dissolution 6ly A sixth Pretence for dissolving that Parliament was for their Addresses to the King which I am sure were with all the Duty and Humility that could be nevertheless to allenate the King from them you and your Party called them Remonstrances rather than dutiful Answers to those Messages sent them by the King Surely Sir it was a strange Age in which that Parliament sat and they could not but judg themselves under very unhappy Circumstances when notwithstanding their extreme Caution and Prudence yet all was under an ill Construction at Court Now if the Commons had returned Answers to his Majesty's Messages without shewing on what Grounds they proceeded they had been and that justly too accused as Men proceeding peremptorily and without Reason but when they expressed with all becoming Modesty the Reasons of their Resolutions they were accused of Remonstrating But what if we should give your Ministers at St. James's and your Brother 's at White-Hall this Word and so I will for once if those of them that are alive will but tell me what they understoood by that Word and with what Crime they would charge that House of Commons for my part I am at a Loss in the Point perhaps Portsmouth and Barillon that understood French might have given you the Meaning of the Word Remonstrance and it may be told you there was some pernicious thing in it as the Carnegey or some Pox like it and therefore it might prejudice your Brother as it had done you you know when take it so and much good may it do you but if by Remonstrance you mean a declaring the Causes and Reasons of what they were doing where was the Fault that was so unworthily imputed to them since it was a way they learned from your own Brother in his Messages to his former Parliaments This is another Pretence much of the same Value with the rest and so let them go together 7ly A seventh Pretence you had for dissolving that Parliament was the falling foul upon several of your Friends and giving them their due Character the Ministers at White-Hall would never forgive the last Westminster Parliament for the Vote passed upon some Men then much in fashion at yours and your Brother's Courts which gall'd you to the Heart and Soul truly I would not have you think this a Character the House of Commons only had fixt upon them no every honest Man had done it long before the whole Current of their Lives Practices and Counsels being a full Proof of that Charge Therefore why did your Paltroons call these Votes illegal Was it illegal for that Parliament to impeach Persons that were Enemies to the King and Kingdom or to determine by a Vote who were wicked Counsellours and did deserve to be impeached so to find out the Sense of the House But since you are my old Friend my never-failing Friend and upon that Consideration I have an old Kindness for you and your Party I will with you suppose the Votes that passed against those Beasts of Prey were not in order to an Impeachment yet still there was nothing of Illegality in them nor nothing extraordinary for the Commons in Parliament have always had two Ways of delivering the Countrey from such Vermine either to bring them to a publick Trial that they may have publick Justice done upon them or give the Rogues an ill Name in an Address to the King that the Court and Council may not be plagued with such Rubbish and hereby the Countrey will know them again and treat them accordingly You were very tender of the Lives and Liberties of these Favourites and so was your Brother but I conceive their Lives and Liberties were never in danger till they had forfeited them and the Forfeiture could not appear till they had received a fair Trial Now Sir it 's plain they durst not stand one unless it were a Trial of Skill whether the Parliament should sit and see Justice done or be dissolved and the Nation undone this was the Trial they were in danger of and no other for that was concluded on by the King and Barillon in the Lodgings at the lower end of the matted Gallery But suppose their Lives and Liberties had been in danger by an Impeachment there was just Cause for the Parliament's proceeding that way with those Traitors and if they had been but endowed with Courage to have stood Trial there would have been legal Evidence to have proved the Matter of Fact upon them that they were Enemies to the
King and Kingdom but if there was not Evidence truly then they had been acquitted with more Honour to themselves and Families than they acquired by sending home that Parliament Again Sir do but consider a little and set your own Mother-Wit at work and you will find that a Parliament may act as the great Council of the King and the Wisdom of the Nation I use your Brother 's own Phrase and when they saw Affairs ill administred and their Advice rejected the Course of Justice perverted the King's Counsels betrayed Grievances multiplied and the Government it self managed in a most weak and disorderly Manner who should they have charged the King No you will say he could do no Wrong Who then should they accuse but those that had the Administration of Affairs that had the King's Ear as the villanous Authors of those Evils that hung over our Heads And ought they not to have applied themselves to the King by humble Addresses to remove such Persons from his Presence and Councils for ever You may say they had no Testimony against them you know to the contrary but suppose they had not legal Proof yet you know to your woful Experience there were many things plain and evident even beyond the Testimony of Witnesses so that it was impossible as well as unnecessary to have had legal Proof What if it was your Brother's Pleasure to hear those Villains was it therefore unlawful for the Commons to conclude that all the Evils the Nation groaned under came from their wicked Advice and Counsel and then might they not represent those things to the Nation that it might appear they had not been negligent in making Inquisition after those Men who had been for several Years carrying on their wicked Designs with you and your Popish Party They imagined to secure themselves by whispering in the King's Ear What then must not a Parliament inquire into the Names of these Whisperers and tho they had not legal Proof to make these Men publick Examples yet they had so much Certainty of the Matter of Fact as was Ground enough to stigmatize them as Promoters of the French Interest and Enemies to the King and Kingdom Come Sir to be plain with you the People of England were highly interested in all those great Officers of State and as they were your Brother's Servants so they were Servants to the whole Kingdom therefore who should have detected the Treachery and Villany of those Servants but their Representatives in Parliament whose Business it was to represent all the Nation 's Grievances to the King Certainly such a Representation ought to have been esteemed by him worthy of Consideration and not to have treated them as having made illegal Votes but this you and your Brother made a Pretence for dissolving that Parliament and preferred your secret Counsels before the publick Council of the Kingdom In a word therefore to conclude this Head let me tell you in all Faithfulness that those Votes your Party was pleased to term strange and illegal were not so strange as honest and not illegal but very righteous The House of Commons had before addressed the King for their removal from his Person and Councils but he was graciously pleased to take no notice of their Addresses tho made with all Humility and Duty nay Sir he was so far from that that it was observed even by that House of Commons and many other sober Men that an Address from the Commons against any evil Man at Court was a fore-runner of his being preferred to a Place of greater Profit or Honour if not both it proved so thrice to that old Traitor Lauderdale and on the other hand if those three Parliaments had addressed on behalf of any Man he was sure to receive no Favour and came off very well if he was not mark'd out for some Vengeance Now I think it no Crime to tell you that your Brother ought not to have entertained any of those Vermin after they had a Blast of angry Breath from that or any other House of Commons for certainly if a House of Commons declar'd any number of Men Persons that put the King upon Arbitrary Counsels or Betrayers of the Interest of the Nation there needed no Process of Law and Legal Proof against them before they are dismissed tho it was but reasonable if they had proceeded against them in order to fine imprison or put them to death but to remove them from the King certainly the Advice and Opinion of the Nation by their Representatives was enough if not you would have allowed them time to act their Villany to the Hazard of the Government it self and till this was done with what face could your Brother expect Supplies from the Parliament Your Cattel at St. Germains can tell you there are some things so reasonable that they are above any written Law and will at all times have their Effect in despite of all Power on Earth whereof this was one so that from the whole Matter this Pretence of yours falls to the Ground with the others before named 8ly Your eighth Pretence was the Parliament's Behaviour in the Case of Fitz-Harris and this was rendered a very hanious Crime and just Cause hereby was given to your Brother and you to send that Parliament packing which accordingly after 8 days sitting was dissolved for no other reason but because the House of Commons impeached him of High Treason Truly Sir I 'll appeal to Jack Caryl or any of your ragged and outlawed Crew at St. Germains whether that House of Commons had not reason to judg the Treasons of that wretched Man of such a nature as to deserve Examination in full Parliament and the reason was as plain as the Sun at noon-day if you but remember that this Fitz-Harris was one of your own dear Religion and an Irish Teague and appeared to the House of Commons as made use of by you know who to set up a Counterfeit Protestant Conspiracy in order to stifle the Popish Plot and to destroy those worthy Patriots who had kept their Consciences chaste and had not bowed the Knee to Rome and France and betrayed the Interest of their Countrey for Preferments at Court There had been many such polite Designs on foot before a Particular of which you shall have in its proper place but they proved abortive but your principal Conspirators avoided the Discovery as others had the Punishment in what manner and by whose assistance the Nation was then very sensible but your Villains being warned by their ill Success in former Shams grew more cautious and therefore that this damnable Treason might not look like a Popish Design your Tools by your Appointment composed a Libel full of the most bitter Invectives against Popery and your sweet self this Libel carried as much Zeal for the Protestant Religion as ever your Declaration penn'd by your quondam Servant St. Coleman did and had as much concern for our Laws and Liberties as Portsmouth