singly ordered when he sate in Council and came forth without the stamp of the great Seal gave them a sufficient warrant to read it publickly Clergy-men seldom make Reflections of this kind least they should be thought to dispute the commands of their Superiors It hath been observed that they who allow unto themselves the liberty of doubting advance their fortunes very slowly whilst such who obey without scruple go on with a success equal to their ambition And this carries them on without fear or shame and as little thought of a Parliament as the Court Favorites who took care to Dissolve that at Oxford before they durst tell us the faults of that at Westminster We have already answer'd the miscarriages objected to the first and may now take a view of those imputed to the other which they say was Assembled as soon as that was Dissolved and might have added Dissolved as soon as Assembled The Ministers having employ'd the People forty days in chusing Knights and Burgesses to be sent home in eight with a Declaration after them as if they had been called together only to be affronted The Declaration doth not tell us of any gracious expressions used at the opening of that Parliament perhaps because the store was exhausted by the abundance which His Majesty was pleased to bestow on them in his former Speeches But we ought to believe that His Majesties Heart was as full of them as ever and if he did not express them it is to be imputed unto the Ministers who diverted him from his own inclinations and brought him to use a language until that day unknown unto Parliaments The Gracious Speech then made the Gracious Declaration that followed are so much of a piece that we may justly conclude the same Persons to have been Authors of both How ever His Majesty failed not to give good advice unto them who were called together to advice him The Parliament had so much respect of their K. as not particularly to complain of the great invasion that was made upon their liberty of proposing debating Laws by his telling them before hand what things they should meddle with and what things no reasons they could offer should perswade him to consent unto But every man must be moved to hear it charged upon them as an unpardonable disobedience that they did not obsequiosly submit to that irregular Command of not touching on the busines of the succesion Shall two or three unknown Minions take upon them like the Lords of the Articles of Scotland to prescribe unto an English Parliament what things they shall treat off Do they intend to have Parliaments inter instrumenta servitutis as the Romans had Kings in our Country This would quickly be if what was then attempted had succeeded and should be so pursued hereafter that Parliaments should be directed what they were to meddle with and threatned if they do any other thing For the loss of Liberty of Freedom of debate in Parliament will soon and certainly be followed by a general loss of Liberty Without failing in the respect which all good Subjects owe unto the King it may be said that His Majesty ought to divest himself of all private inclinations and force his own Affections to yeild unto the publick concernments And therefore His Parliaments ought to inform him impartially of that which tends to the good of those they represent without regard of personal passions and might worthily be blam'd if they did not believe that he would forgo them all for the safety of his people Therefore if in it self it was lawful to propose a Bill for excluding the Duke of York from the Crown the doing it after such an unwarrantable signification of his pleasure would not make it otherwise And the unusual stifnes which the King hath shown upon this occasion begins to be suspected not to proceed from any fondnes to the Person of his Brother much less from any thought of danger to the English Monarchy by such a Law but from the influence of some few ill men upon his Royal Mind who being Creatures to the Duke or Pensioners to France are restless to prevent a good understanding betwen the King and his people justly fearing that if ever he comes to have a true sence of their affections to him he would deliver up to justice these wicked wretches who have infected him with the fatal notion that the interests of his people are not only distinct but opposite to his His Majesty does not seem to doubt of his power in conjunction with his Parliament to exclude his Brother He very well know's this power hath been often exerted in the time of his Predecessors But the reason given for his refusal to comply with the interests and desires of his Subjects is because it was a point which concerned him so near in Honour Justice and Conscience Is it not honourable for a Prince to be True and Faithful to his Word and Oath To keep and maintain the Religion and Laws established Nay can it be thought dishonourable unto him to love the safety wel-fare of his People and the true Religion established among them above the Temporal Glory and Greatness of his personal Relations Is it not just in conjunction with his Parliament for his Peoples safety to make use of a power warranted by our English Laws the examples of former Ages Or is it just for the Father of his Countrey to expose all his Children to ruine out of fondness unto a Brother May it not rather be thought unjust to abandon the Religion Laws and Liberties of his People which he is sworn to maintain and defend and expose them to the Ambition and Rage of one that thinks himself bound in Conscience to subvert them If His Majesty is pleased to remember what Religion the Duke professeth can he think himself obliged in Conscience to suffer him to ascend the Throne who will certainly endeavor to overthrow it and set up the worst of Superstitions and Idolatry in the room of it Or if it be true that all obligations of Honor Justice and Conscience are comprehended in a grateful return of such benefits as have been received can His Majesty believe that he doth duly repay unto his Protestant Subjects the kindness they shewed him when they recalled him from a miserable helpless banishment and with so much dutiful affection placed him in the Throne enlarged his Revenue above what any of his Predecessors had enjoyed and gave him vaster sums of Money in twenty years than had been bestowed upon all the Ks. since William the first should he after all this deliver them up to be ruin'd by his Brother It cannot be said that he had therein more regard unto the Government than to the Person seeing it is evident the Bill of exclusion had no ways prejudiced the legal Monarchy w ch his Majesty doth now enjoy with all the Rights and Powers which his wise and brave Ancestors did ever claim
to have prevailed with him to Dissolve two Parliaments only to protect them from Publick Justice do now hope to excuse themselves from being thought the Authors of that Counsel by making him Openly to Avow it But they have discovered themselves to the Kingdom and have told their own Names when they number amongst the great Crimes of the House of Commons their having Declared divers Eminent Persons to be Enemies to the King and Kingdom 'T is our happiness that the Cunning of these Eminent Persons is not equal to their Malice in that they should thus unwarily make themselves known when they had so secretly and with so much Caution given the Pernicious Advice None could be offended at the proceedings of the Parliaments but they who were obnoxious none could be concern'd to vindicate the Dissolution but they who had Advised it But they have perform'd this last undertaking after such a sort that they have left themselves not only without a Justification but without all pretence herafter The People were willing to think it the Unfortunate effect of some suddain and precipitate Resolution but since they have now publickly assured us that it was the result of Counsel and Deliberation they cannot blame us for hoping one day to see Justice done upon such Counsellors But though to the dishonour of our Country it does appear that some English men were concern'd in the unhappy Advice of breaking the two last Parliaments and setting out this pretended defence of it yet the Gallicisms which are found in the Paper shew the Writer to have been of another Nation or at least to have had his thoughts so much taken up for the interests of France whilst he was laboring this way to heighten and perpetuate the differences between the King and his People that he could not express himself in any other idiom then theirs he would not otherwise have introduced the King saying That it was a matter extreamly sensible to Vs a form of speech peculiar to the French and unknown to any other Nation The Reader who understands that Language will observe so many more of this Kind as will give him just cause to doubt whether the whole Paper was not a Translation and whether the English one or that which was published in French was the Original Let us then no longer wonder that the time of Dissolving our Parliaments is known at Paris sooner then at London since 't is probable the Reasons now Given for it were formed there too The Peers at Oxford were so totally ignorant of the Council that they never once thought of a Dissolution till they heard it pronounced but the Dutchess of Mazarine had better Intelligence and published the News at St. James's many hours before it was done This Declaration was not Communicated to the Privy Council till Friday the 8. of April when His Majesty according to the late method did Gratiously declare to them his pleasure to set it forth without desiring from them any Advice in the matter but Monsieur Barillon the French Ambassador did not only Read it to a Gentleman the fifth of April but advised with him about it and demanded his Opinion of it which his Excellency will the better remember because of the great liberty which the Person took in Ridiculing it to his Face Good God to whâ—t a Condition is this Kingdom reduced when the Ministers and Agents of the only Prince in the World who can have Designs against us or of whom we ought to be afraid are not only made acquainted with the most secret Passages of State but are made our Cheif Ministers too and have the Principal Conduct of our Affairs And let the World judge if the Commons had not Reason for their Vote when they Declared those Eminent Persons who manage things at this rate to be Enemies to the King and Kingdom and Promoters of the French Interest Whosoever considers the Actions of our Great Men will not think it strange that they should be hard put to it to find out Reasons which they might give for any of them and they have had very ill luck when ever they went about it That Reason which they have given for Dissolving three several Parliaments successively is now grown ridiculous that the King was resolved to meet his People and to have their Advice in frequent Parliament since every Man took notice that as soon as the Ministers began to suspect that His Majesty was inclined to hearken to and pursue their Advice those very Parliaments were presently Dissolved This was all the Ground and Cause which was thought of for breaking the last Parliament at Westminister when the Proclamation of the 8th of Jan. 1680 was published but they have now considered better and have found out faults enough to swel into a Declaration and yet as much offended as they are with this Parliament they seem more highly Angry with that which followed at Oxford Nor is it at all strange that it should fall out so for the Court did never yet Dissolve a Parliament abruptly and in a heat but they found the next Parliament more Averse and to insist upon the same things with greater eagerness then the former English Spirits resent no Affronts so highly as those which are done to their Representatives and the Court will be sure to find the Effects of that Resentment in the next Election A Parliament does ever participate of the present temper of the People Never were Parliaments of more different Complexions than that of 1640. And that of 1661. Yet they both exactly answered the humors which were predominant in the Nation when they were Respectively chosen And therefore while the People do so universally Hate and Fear France and Popery and do so well understand who they are who promote the French and Popish Interest the Favourites do but Cozen themselves to think that they will ever send up Representatives less Zealous to bring them to Justice then those against whom this Declaration is published For surely this Declaration what great things soever may be expected from it will make but very few Converts not only because it represents things as high Crimes which the whole Kingdom has been Celebrating as Meritorious Actions but because the People have been so often deceived by former Declarations that whatsoever carries that Name will have no Credit with them for the future They have not yet forgotten the Declaration from Breda though others forgot it so soon and do not spare to say that if the same diligence the same earnest sollicitations had been made use of in that Affair which have been since exercised directly contrary to the Design of it there is no doubt but every part of it would have had the desired success all His Majesties Subjects would have enjoyed the fruits of it and have now been extolling a Prince so careful to keep Sacred His promises to His People If we did take notice of the several Declarations Published since that which we have
other ways which were darkly and dubiously intimated in His Majesties Speech unto the Parliament at Oxford and repeated in the Declaration and His Majesty in his Wisdom could not but know that they signified nothing And those who spake more plainly in proposing a Regency as an expedient did in publick and private declare they believed the Duke would not consent unto it nor unto any unusual restriction of the Royal Power So that they could have no other design therein than a plausible pretence to delude the Parliament and People Some such consideration induced them to revive the distinction between the Kings personal and politick capacity by separating the power from the Person which we have reason to believe they esteemed unseasable However it is more than probable that the Jesuites Casuists and Popish Lawyers would reject it as well as any thing else that might preserve us from falling under his power And the Pope who could absolve King John Henry the third and others from the Oaths they had taken to preserve the Rights and Liberties of their Subjects might with the same falicity dissolve any that the Duke should take And as our Histories restifie what bloody Wars were thereby brought upon the Nation we have reason to believe that if the like should again happen it would be more fatal unto us when Religion is concerned which was not then in question Would not his Confessor soon convince him that all Laws made in favour of Heresie are void And would he not be liable to the heaviest Curses if he suffered his power to be used against his Religion The little regard he hath to Laws whilst a Subject is enough to instruct us what respect he would bear to them if he should be a King Shall we therefore suffer the Royal Dignity to descend on him who hath made use of all the power he has been entrusted with hitherto for our destruction And who shall execute this great Trust The next Heir may be an Infant or one willing to surrender it into his hands But should it be otherwise yet still there is no hope of having any fruit of this expedient without a War and to be obliged to swear Allegiance to a Popish Prince to own his Title to acknowledge him Supream Head of the Church and defender of the Faith seems a very strange way of Entitling our selves to fight with him The two reasons which the Declaration pretends to give against the exclusion are certainly of more force against the expedient A standing Force would have been absolutely necessary to have plac'd and kept the Administration in Protestant hands and the Monarchy it self had been destroy'd by a Law which was to have taken all sort of Power from the King and made him not so much as a Duke of Venice How absurdly and incoherently do these men discourse Sometimes the Government is so Divine a thing that no human Law can lessen or take away his Right who only pretends in Succession and is at present but a Subject But at other times they tells us of Acts of Parliament to banish him out of his own Dominions to deprive him of all power of his whole Kingship after he shall be in possession of the Throne The cheat of this expedient appear'd so gross in the House of Commons that one of the Dukes professed Vassals who had a little more Honour than the rest was asham'd of it and openly renounced the project which they had been forming so long and thought they had so Artificially disguised But though it was so well exposed in the House yet the Ministers thought the men without doors might be still deceived and therefore they do not blush to value themselves again upon it in their Declaration As for the insinuation which follow 's that there was reason to beleive that the Parliament would have passed further to attempt other great and important Changes at present If it be meant any change of the Constitution of the Government 't is a malicious suggestion of those men who are ever instilling into His Majesties mind ill thoughts of his Parliament since no Vote nor Proposition in either House could give any ground for such suspicion and therefore in this matter the People may justly accuse the Court who so often cry out against them for it of being moved by causeless Fears and Jealousies And for His Majâ—sty to be perswaded to Arraign the whole Body of his People upon the ill grounded surmises or malicious and false suggestions of evil and corrupt men about him doth neither well become the Justice of a Prince nor is agreeable to the measures of Wisdom which he should Govern himself as well as Rule his People by And if an attendance to the slanderous accusations of Persons who hate Parliaments because their Crimes are such that they have reason to fear them govern and sway his Royal mind there can never want grouds for the Dissolution of any Parliaments But if they mean by attempting great and important Changes that they would have besought His Majesty that the Duke might no longer have the Government in his hands that his dependents should no longer preside in his Councils no longer possess all the great Trusts and Offices in the Kingdom that our Ports our Garrisons and our Fleets should be no longer governed by such as are at his Devotion that Characters of Honour and Favour should be no longer plac'd on Men that the Wisdom of the Nation hath judged to be Favourers of Popery or Pensioners of France These were indeed greâ—t and important Changes but such as it becomes English men to believe were designed by that Parliament Such as will be designed and prest for by every Parliament and such as the People will ever pray may at last find success with the King Without these Changes the Bill of Exclusion would only provoke not disarm our Enemies nay the very Money which we must have paid for it would have been made use of to secure and hasten the Dukes return upon us We are now come to the consideration of that only fault which was peculiar to the Parliament at Oxford and that was their behaviour in relation to the business of Fitz-Harris The Declaration says he was impeached of High-Treason by the Commons and they had cause to think his Treasons to be of such an extraordinary Nature that they well deserved an Examination in Parliament For Fitz-Harris a known Irish Papist appear'd by the Informations given in the House to be made use of by some very great persons to set up a counterfeit Protestant Conspiracy and thereby not only to drown the noise of the Popish Plot but to take off the Heads of the most eminent of those who still refused to bow their knees to Baal There had been divers such honest contrivances before which had unluckily fail'd but the principal contrivers avoided the discovery as the others did the punishment in what manner and by what helps the whole Nation is
now pretty sensible Being warned by this experience they grew more cautious than ever and therefore that the Treason which they were to set on Foot might look as unlike a Popish Design as was possible they fram'd a Libel full of the most bitter invectives against Popery and the Duke of York It carried as much seeming zeal for the Protestant Religion as Coleman's Declaration and as much care and concern for our Laws as the Penners of this Declaration would seem to have But it was also filled with the most subtile insinuations and the sharpest expressions against His Majesty that could be invented and with direct and passionate incitements to Rebellion This Paper was to be conveyed by unknown Messengers to their hands who were to be betray'd and then they were to be seized upon and those Libels found about them were to be a confirmation of the Truth of a Rebellion which they had provided Witnesses to swear was designed by the Protestants and had before prepared men to believe by private whispers And the credit of this Plot should no doubt have been soon confirmed by speedy Justice done upon the pretended Criminals But as well laid as this contrivance seems to be yet it spoke it self to be of a Popish extraction 'T is a policy the Jesuites have often used to divert a storm which was falling upon themselves Accordingly heretofore they had prepared both Papers and Witnesses to have made the Puritans guilty of the Gunpowder Treason had it succeeded as they hoped for The hainous nature of the Crime and the greatness of the Persons supposed to be concern'd deserved an extraordinary examination which a Jury who were only to enquire whether Fitz-Harris was guilty of framing that Libel could never make and the Commons believed none but the Parliament was big enough to go through with They took notice that the zeal or courage of inferiour Courts was abated and that the Judges at the Trial of Wakeman and Gascoign however it came to pass behaved themselves very unlike the same men they were when others of the Plotters had been Tryed They had not forgot another Plot of this nature discovered by Dangerfield which though plainly proved to the Council yet was quite stifled by the great deligence of the Kings Bench which rendred him as an incompetent Witness Nor did they only fear the perversion of Justice but the misapplication of Mercy too For they had seen that the Mouths of Gadbury and others as soon as they began to confess were suddainly stopt by a gracious Pardon And they were more jealous than ordinary in this case because when Fitz-Harris was inclined to Repentance and had begun a Confession to the surprize of the whole Kingdom without any visible cause he was taken out of the lawful Custody of the Sheriffs and shut up a close Prisoner in the Tower The Communs therefore had no other way to be secure that the Prosecution should be effectual the judgment indifferent and the Criminal out of all hopes of a Pardon unless by an ingenuous Confession he could engage both Houses in a powerful Mediation to His Majesty in his behalf but by impeaching of him They were sure no Pardon could stop their suit though the King might release his own Prosecution by his Pardon Hitherto the Proceedings of the Commons in this business could not be lyable to exception for that they might lawfully Impeach any Commoner before the Lords was yet never doubted The Lords themselves had agreed that point when the day before they had sent down the Plea of Sir William Scroggs to an Impeachment of Treason then depending before them And they are men of strange confidence who at this time of day take upon them to deny a Jurisdiction of the Lords which hath been practised in all times without controul and such a fundamental of the Government that there could be no security without it Were it otherwise it would be in the power of the King by making Commoners Ministers of State to subvert the Government by their contrivances when he pleased Their greatness would keep them out of the reach of ordinary Courts of Justice and their Treasons might not perhaps be within the Statutes but such as fall under the cognisance of no other Court than the Parliament and if the People might not of Right demand Justice there they might without fear of punishment act the most destructive villanies against the Kingdom As a remedy against this evil the Mirrour of Justice tells us that Parliaments were ordained to hear and determine all Complaints of wrongful Acts done by the King Queen or their Children and such others against whom common Right cannot be had elsewhere Which as to the King is no otherwise to be understood than that if he erre by illegal personal Commands or Orders he is to be admonished by Parliament and Addressed unto for remedy but all others being but Subjects are to be punished by Parliaments according to the Laws of Parliaments If the ends were well considered for which Parliaments were ordained as they are declared in the Statute Item for maintenance of the said Articles and Statues viz. Magna Charta c. a Parliament shall be holden every year by them as well as by the forgoing ancient Authority none could be deceived by the Parliament Rol. of 4 Ed. 3. Where it is mentioned as accorded between the King and his Grands that is his Lords that Judgement of death given by the Peers against Sir Simon de Beresford Matrever and others upon the Murder of King Ed. 2. and his Uncle should not be drawn into example whereby the Peers might be charged to judge others than their Peers contrary to the Law of the Land if such a case should happen For whereas from this Record some would perswade us that the Lords are discharged from judging Commoners and that our ancient Government is alter'd in this case by that Record which they say is an Act of Parliament The stile and form of it is so different from that which is used in Acts of Parliament that many are inclined to beleive it to be no other thing than an agreement between the King and the Lords But to remove all future scruples in the case let it be admitted to be an Act of Parliament and if there be nothing accorded in it to acquit the Lords from trying Commoners Impeached before them by the Commons in Parliament then we hope that shame will stop their mouths who have made such a noise against the Commons with this Record First it is evident from the Roll it self with other Records that the Lords did judge those Commoners contrary to the Law of the Land that is at the instance of the King and the Prosecution of their Enemies without the due course of the Law or calling them to make their defence and for ought appears without legal Testimony Secondly It is evident that they were driven upon this illegal proceeding by the Power
with Treasons of an extraordinary nature But above all that it was a matter extreamly sensible to the whole Kingdom to see such Un-Parliamentary mean Solicitations used to promote this pretended Rejection of the Commons Accusation as are not fit to be remembred 'T is there that the delay of the Tryal is to be laid for had the impeachment been proceeded upon and the Parliament suffered to Sit Fâ—tz-Harris had been long since executed or deserved Mercy by a full Discovery of the secret Authors of these malicious designs against the King People For though the Declaration says a Tryal was directed yet we are sure nothing was done in order to it till above a month after the Dissolution And it hath since raised such questions as we may venture to say were never talk't of before in Westminster Hall Questions which touch the judicature of the Lords the Priviledges of the Commons in such a degree that they will never be determined by the decision of any inferior Court but will assuredly at one time or other have a farther Examination We have seen now that the Commons did it not without some ground when they Voted the Refusal of the Lords to proceed upon an Impeachment to be a denial â—f Iustice and a violation of the Constitution of Parliaments and the second Vote was but an application of this Opinion to the present case The third Vote made upon that occasion was no more than what the King himself had allowed and all the Judges of England had agreed to be Law in the case of the five impeached Lords who were only generally impeached the Parliament Dissolved before any Articles were sent up against them Yet they had been first indicted in an Inferior Court and preparations made for their tryal but the Judges thought at that time that a prosecution of all the Commons was enough to stop all prosecutions of an Inferior Nature The Commons had not Impeached Fitz Harris but that they judged his case required so publick an Examinaon and for any other Court to go about to try condemn him tho it should be granted to be for another Crime is as far as in them lies to stifle that Examination By this time every man will begin to question whether the Lords did themselves or the commons Right in the refusing to countenance such a proceeding But one of the penmen of this Declaration has done himself and the Nation Right and has discovered himself by using his ordinary phrase upon this occasion The Person is well known without naming him who always tells men they have done themselves no Right when he is resolved to do them none As for the Commons nothing was carried on to extremity by them nothing done but what was Parliamentary They could not desire a conference till they had first stated their own case and asserted by Votes the matter which they were to maintain at a conference And so far were those Votes from putting the Two Houses beyond a possibility of Reconciliation that they were made in order to it and there was no other way to attain it And so far was the House of Commons from thinking themselves to be out of a capacity of transacting with the Lords any farther that they were preparing to send a Message for a conference to accommodate this difference at the very instant that the Black Rod called them to their Dissolution If every difference in Opinion or Vote should be said to put the two Houses out of capacity of transacting business together every Parliament almost must be dissolved as soon as called However our Ministers might know well enough that there was no possibilty of Reconciling the Two Houses because they had before resolved to put them out of a capacity of transacting together by a suddain Dissolution But that very thing justifies the Commons to the world who cannot but perceive that there was solemn and good ground for them to desire an inquiry into Fitz Harris's Treason since they who influence our affairs were so startled at it that in order to prevent it they first promoted this difference between the two Houses and then broke the Parliament lest it should be composed There is another thing which must not be past over without observation that the Ministers in this Paper take upon them to decide this great dispute between the two Houses and to give iudgment on the side of the Lords We may well demand what Person is by our Law Constituted a Judge of their Priviledges or hath authority to censure the Votes of one House made with reference to matters wherein they were contesting with the other House as the greatest violation oâ— the Constitution of Parliaments They ought certainly to have excepted the power which is here assumed of giving such a judgment and publishing such a Charge as being not only the highest violation of the Constitution but directly tending to the destruction of it This was the Case and a few days continuance being like to produce a good understanding between the Two Houses to the advancing all those great and publick ends for which the Nation hop'd they were called the Ministers found it necessary to put an end to that Parliament likewise We have followed the Writers of the Declaration through the several parts of it wherein the House of Commons are Reproached with any particular Miscarriages and now they come to speak more at large and to give caution against two sorts of ill Men. One sort they say are men fond of their old beloved Common-wealth Principles and others are angry at being disappointed in designs they had for accomplâ—shing their own Ambition and Greatness Surely if they know any such Persons the only way to have prevented the mischiefs which they pretend to fear from them had been to have discovered them and suffered the Parliament to Sit to provide against the evils they would bring upon the Nation by prosecuting of them But if they mean by these lovers of Common-wealth Principles men passionately devoted to the Publick good and to the common service of their Country who believe that Kings were instituted for the good of the People and Government ordained for the sake of those that are to be governed and therefore complain or grieve when it is used to contrary ends every Wise Honest man will be proud to be ranked in that number And if Common-wealth signifies the Common Good in which sence it hath in all Ages been used by all good Authors and which Bodin puts upon it when he speaks of the Government of France which he calls a Republick no good man will be asham'd of it Our own Authors The Mirror of Justice Bracton Fleta Fortescue and others in former times And of latter years Sir Thomas Smith Secretary of State in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth in his Discourses of the Common-wealth of England Sir Francis Bacon Cook and others take it in the same sence And not only divers of our
a number of fast Friends Men who having first sold themselves would not stick to sell any thing after And we may well suspect they mean very ill at Court when their designs shock't such a Parliament For that very Favourite Parliament no sooner began in good earnest to examin what had been done and what was doing but they were sent away in hast and in a fright though the Ministers know they lost thereby a constant Revenue of extraordinary Supplies And are the Ministers at present more innocent than at that time The same interest hath the ascendant at Court still and they have heightned the Resentments of the Nation by repeated affronts and can we beleive them that they dare suffer a Parliament now to Sit. But we have gain'd at least this one Point by the Declaration that it is own'd to us that Parliaments are the best Method for healing the distempers of the Kingdem and the only means to preserve the Monarchy in credit both at home and abroad Own'd by these very men who have so maliciously rendred many former Parliaments ineffectual and by this Declaration have done their utmost to make those which are to come as fruitless and thereby have confessed that they have no concern for healing the distempers of the Kingdom and preserving the credit of the Monarchy which is in effect to acknowledge themselves to be what the Commons called them Enemies to the King and Kingdom Nothing can be more true then that the Kingdom can never recover it's strength and reputation abroad or its ancient Peace and Settlement at home His Majesty can never be releived from his fears and his domestick wants nor secure from the Affronts which he dayly suffers from abroad till he resolves not only to call Parliaments but to Hearken to them when they are called For without that it is not a Declaration it is not repeated promises nay it is not the frequent calling of Parliaments which will convince the world that the use of them is not intended to be laid aside However we rejoyce that His Majesty seems resolved to have frequent Parliaments and hope he will be just to Himself and us by continuing constant to this Resolution Yet we cannot but doubt in some degree when we remember the Speech made 26 Jan. 1679. to both Houses wherein he told them that he was Vnalterably of an Opinion that long intervals of Parliaments were absolutely necessary for composing quieting the minds of the People Therefore which we ought rather to beleive the Speech or the Declaration or which is likely to last longest a Resolution or an unalterable opinion is a matter too Nice for any but Court Criticks to Decide The effectual performance of the last part of the promise will give us assurance of the first When we see the real fruits of these utmost endeavours to extirpate Popery out of Parliament when we see the D. of York no longer first Minister or rather Protector of these Kingdoms and his Creature 's no longer to have the whole direction of Affairs when we see that Love to our Religion and Laws is no longer a crime at Court no longer a certain forerunner of being Disgrâ—c'd and Remov'd from all Offices and Employments in their Power whâ—n the word Loyal which is faithful to the Law shall be restored to its old meaning no longer signifie one who is for subverting the Laws when we see the Commissions fill'd with hearty Protestants the Laws executed in good earnest against the Papists the Discoverers of the Plot countenanc'd or at least heard and suffered to give their Evidence the Courts of Justice steady and not Avowing a Jurisdiction one day which they Disown the next no more Grand Juries discharg'd least they should hear Witnesses nor Witnesses hurried away least they should inform Grand Juries when we see no more Instruments from Court labouring to raise Jealousies of Protestants at home and some regard had to Protestants abroad when we observe somewhat else to be meant by Governing according to Law then barely to put in Execution against Dissenters the Laws made against Papists then we shall promise our selves not only frequent Parliaments but all the blessed effects of pursuing Parliamentary Counsels the Extirpation of Popery the Redress of Greivances the flourishing of Laws and the perfect Restoring the Monarchy to the Credit which is ought to have but which the Authors of the Declaration confess it wants both at Home and Abroad There needs no time to open the Eyes of His Majesties good Subjects and their Hearts are ready prepared to meet him in Parliaments in order to Perfect all the good Settlement and Peace wanting in Church and State But whilst there are so many little Emissaries imployed to sow and encrease Divisions in the Nation as if the Ministers had a mind to make His Majesty the Head of a Faction and joyn himself to one Party in the Kingdom who has a just right of Governing all which Thuanm lib. 28. says was the notorious folly and occasioned the Destruction of his great Grand Mother Mary Queen of Scots whilst we see the same Dâ—fferences promoted iudustriously by the Court which gave the rise and progress to the late troubles and which were once thought fit to be buried in an Act of Oblivion VVhilst we see the Popish interest so plainly Countenanced which was then done with Caution when every pretence of Pretogative is strained to the utmost Height when Parlaiments are used with contempt and indignity and their judicature all their Highest Priviledges brought in Question in inferior Courts we have buâ— too good cause to believe that though every Loyal and Good man does yet the Ministers and Favourites do but little consider the Rise and Progress of the late Troubles and have little desire or care to preserve their Country from a Relapse And who as they never yet shewed regard to Religion Liberty or Property so they would be little concern'd to see the Monarchy shaken off if they might escape the vengeance of Publick Justice due to them for so long a Course of pernicious Counsels and for Crowning all the rest of their faults by thus Reflecting upon that High Court before which we do not doubt but we shall see them one Day brought to Judgment Thus have we with an English plainness expressed our thoughts of the late Parliaments and their Proceedings as well as of the Court in Relation to them and hope this Freedom will offend no man The Ministers who may be concern'd through their appealing unto the People cannot in Justice deny unto any one of them the Liberty of weighing the reasons which they have thought fit to publish in vindication of their actions But if it should prove otherwise and these few sheets be thought as weak and full of errors as those we endevour to confute or be held injurious unto them we desire only to know in what we transgress and that the Press may be open for our justification Let the People to whom the Appeal is made judge then between them and us and let Reason and the Law be the Rules according unto which the Controversie may be decided But if by denying this they shall like Beasts recurr to force they will thereby acknowledge that they want the Arms which belong to rational Creatures VVhereas if the Liberty of Answering be left us we will give up the Cause and confess that both Reason and Law are wanting unto us if we do not in our Reply satisfie all reasonable and impartial men that nothing is said by us but what is just and necessary to preserve the interests of the King and his People Nor can there be any thing more to the Honour of His Majesty than to give the Nations round about us to understand that the King of England doth neither Reign over a Base servile People who hearing themselves Arraign'd and Condemned dare not speak in their own Defence and Vindication nor over so silly foolish and weak a People as that ill designed and worse supported Paper might occasion the VVorld to think but that there are some Persons in his Dominions not only of true English Courage but of greater intellectuals as well as better Morals than the Advisers unto and Penners of the Declaration have manifested themselves to be FINIS 4 Edw. 3 c. 14. 36 Ed. 3. c. 10. 2 R. 2. Nu. 28. Speech 21 Oct 1680 Speech 30 Apr. 1679 Speech 26 Oct. 1662 Speech 26 Dec. 1662 Speech 6 March 1679 Lord Chancellors Speech 23. May 1678. Address presented 21 Dec. 1680. Address presented 29 Nov. 1680. Rot Part 5. H. 4 Nu. 16. Traitte des droits de la Reine On t cette bien heureuse impuissance de ne pouvoir rien faire contre les Loys de leur Pali Postâ—â—lâ—â— de Rebâ— Turcicis 1. R 3. cap. 2. 12 Car. 2. c4 4. confirm'd 13. Car. 6 7. 12 Car. 2. c. 23. an 33 14 Car. c. 10. Tacit. Cap. 1. Sect. 2. pag. 9. 36 Ed. 3. 10. Rot. Parl. 4 Ed. 3. Nu. 6. Rot. Parl. â—â— Edw. 3. M. 18. Rot Parl. 26 Edw. 3. M. 25. Co. 2. Iust. 29.