look'd upon by our Laws as persons of no less Integrity than Honour in the distribution of Justice and besides are assisted by all the Judges of England by the 12 Masters of Chancery by the Kings Learned Council and by His Attorney and Solicitor General in consideration whereof the same Laws have repos'd that extraordinary trust in this August Assembly that to them alone it belongs to redress delays and reform the erroneous Judgments of other Courts of Justice and give a final decision to all manner of Appeals Now by the Laws of other Nations as well as ours 't is the nature of Superior Courts that they may determine matters tryable by an Inferior and therefore it must be allow'd that tho the House of Commons cannot because no Court of Judicature yet the House of Lords the dernier resort of all Suits and Actions may if they please punish the Invaders of their Priviledges notwithstanding that the Law directs them to be try'd in Inferiour Courts Having thus sufficiently demonstrated that the House of Commons have neither Common nor Statute-Law nor yet any legal Precedents to warrant their Fining or Imprisoning the meanest of their Fellow-subjects 't is high time I think tho a great deal more might be said on this subject very useful to be known to give you a brief account of other Particulars and examine whether the Remedies propos'd in Parliament by our late Mountebanks of State be not equally dangerous if not really worse than our Disease But to expose the designs of some ill men there and the unwarrantable Votes and Resolves they got pass'd in the Lower House is a task no less tedious than difficult for me to undertake I will therefore tell you in short that notwithstanding all the noise and clamour they made about the Protestant Religion and the Liberty of the Subject the Nation had too much reason to believe they minded more their own ends than the common good of the People The Kings best Subjects who having so many years experience of His Majesties most happy Government declar'd themselves satisfi'd with His prudent management of Affairs and in Obedience to His Royal Proclamation express'd their aversion to all Tumultuous Petitions were no more run down on the one side than the Factious Fanaticks even such as signaliz'd themselves in the late Rebellion were countenanc'd and favour'd on the other insomuch that many were of opinion people had no surer way to ingratiate themselves with some of the Leading Memberr than openly to asperse the Government and reflect upon the King and His Ministers as Favorers of Popery and Designers of Arbitrary Power 'T is almost incredible what pains they took to get the Notorious Anabaptist Ben. Harris discharg'd out of Prison for no other reason that I find but because a Dissenter who with a great deal of favour was condemn'd only to the Pillory instead of Tyburn for publishing that Treasonable Pamphlet The Appeal Neither is this all the main Bulwark of our Church must be broke down the Penal Laws against the Non-conformists Repeal'd to let in a Deluge of Sectaries the scandal of the Reformation who have nothing of Christianity but the Name to Profane the Temple of God And because this Project luckily miscarry'd their Friends in the House endeavour'd to leave them a new kind of Dispensation and the very last day of their sitting that with their dying breath they might testify to the World their great zeal for the Dissenters in general of what sect or perswasion soever to the admiration of most men they pass'd the following Vote Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House that the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws is at this time grievous to the Subject a weakening of the Protestant Interest an encouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom I need not comment upon this unwarrantable Resolve by which our worthy Patriots even without the King and House of Lords once more were pleas'd to assume to themselves a Power of suspending and consequently of making Acts of Parliament The encouragement this gave to the Republicans to pursue their wicked Designs against the Crown and the Church like to have prov'd fatal to both is enough to convince the World they cou'd hardly do the Nation a greater mischief and that their confining several Gentlemen tho contrary to Law and Reason was not near so dangerous to the Government as their breaking down the Rails of the Church to let a swarm of Sectaries creep in at the Windows It was observ'd with some admiration how during this Session of Parliament there was not one Fanatick Imprison'd nor so much as question'd by the Commons for any Crime or Insolence whatsoever very few Papists molested but the true Sons of the Church of England daily Prosecuted in vast numbers to their great loss and vexation tho it prov'd at last the eternal shame and confusion of the Authors I cou'd not but smile to see the perplexity they were in when one of the Judges to his never-dying fame for giving the first Precedent of that kind made application to the House of Commons about the Execution of his Trust and desir'd their Opinion whether he shou'd do Justice to one of their Prisoners by granting the Writ of Habeas Corpus to Mr. Sheridan then in the Custody of Serjeant Topham Three several days the Case was stifly debated in the House the Act read twice or thrice over and yet no resolution taken The Warrant of Committment which order'd the Gentleman to be confin'd without any Cause shown During the Will and Pleasure of the House of Commons was look'd upon so Illegal and Arbitrary a Procedure even by several Members of the House that Serjeant M. till he heard it was already made publick wou'd have them immediately recal the Old and grant a New Warrant more conformable to Law Besides the words of the Statute were so full as admitted of no Comment and so plain for the Liberty of the Subject as made it undenyable that Prisoners unless for Treason or Felony were still Bailable by what Person or Persons soever Committed not excepting the King and Council much less the House of Commons who had no Legal Power to Commit any Criminal But still the point was very nice and the Leading Members no less uncertain what resolution to take for if they openly declar'd against the Habeas Corpus the Nation wou'd be much alarm'd and suspect these Gentleman instead of securing intended to invade the Subjects Liberty but if they allow'd the Writ the delicious power of Imprisoning such as they had a picque to was utterly lost and all persons referr'd to the ordinary Courts of Justice or upon their failure to the House of Lords the suprem Tribunal of England At last Sir William Jones like an Imperious Dictator starts up to decide the matter and having made a bawling Harangue concerning the Power of the House and their Intention of not
His Crown and His Regalty in the cases aforesaid and in all other cases attempted against Him His Crown and His Regalty in all points to live and to die These and several other Statutes too tedious 〈◊〉 to be inserted have been provided in former ages when the Pope's power was at the highest and provided even by Popish Kings and Popish Parliaments to secure themselves and the Nation from all Papal encroachments Neither have our Judges been less severe against the Popes unwarrantable pretensions who in pursuance of the Common-Law of the Land tho' no Statute had been made to that purpose judg'd it a very hainous Crime in any Subject of England to obey or put them in execution In the Reign of King Edward I when a Subject brought a Bull of Excommunication from Rome against another Subject of this Realm and publish'd it to the Lord Treasurer of England this was by the Common-Law of the Land adjudg'd Treason against the King his Crown and Dignity 30 lib. Ass. pla 19. Brook tit Praemunire pl◠10. An Excommunication by the Archbishop albeit it be disallow'd by the Pope or his Legate is to be allow'd neither ought the Judges give any allowance of any such Sentence of the Pope or his Legate 16 E. 3. tit Excom 4. An Excommunication under the Popes Bull is of no force to disable any man in England And the Judges said That he that pleadeth such Bulls tho they concern the Excommunication of a Subject were in a hard Case if the King would extend his Justice against him 30 E. 3. lib. Ass. pl. 19. The King presented to a Benefice and his Presentee was disturb'd by one that had obtain'd Bulls from Rome for which offence he was confin'd to perpetual Imprisonment 21 Ed. 3. f. 40. One Morris being elected Abbot of Waltham sent to Rome for a Bull of confirmation But it was resolved by all the Judges that this Bull was against the Laws of England and that the Abbot for obtaining the same was fallen into the King's mercy whereupon all his Possessions were seiz'd into the King's hands 46 Ed. 3. tit Praemunire 6. In the Reign of Ed. 4. the Pope granted to the Prior of St. Johns to have Sanctuary within his Priory But it was resolved by the Judges that the Pope had no power to grant Sanctuary within this Realm and therefore by judgment of the Law the same was disallowed 1 H. 7. f 20. In the same King's Reign a Legate from the Pope came to Callis to have come into England But the King and his Councel would not suffer him to come within the Kingdom until he had taken an Oath that he should attempt nothing against the King or his Crown 1 H. 7. f. 10. And in the Reign of H. 7. the Pope had excommunicated all such persons whatsoever as had bought Allom of the Florentines But it was resolved by all the Judges of England that the Popes Excommunication ought not to be obeyed or to be put in execution within the Realm of England 1 H. 7. f. 10. These and many other such Cases you may see in the first part of Coke's 5 th Reports Now if not only the Judges but the Representative-wisdom of the Nation even King Lords and Commons in the thickest mist of Popish ignorance were so resolute against the Bishop of Rome and so careful to preserve their own Rights and Liberties inviolable who can be so silly as to believe that a Popish Prince in this Kingdom and at this time of the day when Popery it self is much refin'd and the whole Nation irreconcilably bent against it will ever submit to any Papal Usurpation much less make himself or his People Slaves to the Court of Rome Alas says one but our sweet Abbey-Lands are in danger to be lost and reassum'd by the Popish Clergy what course then shall we take to secure them Believe me if the Law will not do it I know no other way but a project I hear shortly to be set on foot for Insuring all the Church-Lands in the Kingdom these 40 years to come The parties concern'd will propose very reasonable terms and will undertake the squinting Trimmer who maliciously whispers about he wou'd take seven years purchase for his Church-Lands in case of a Popish Successor shall have fourteen well secur'd whenever the Duke succeeds But why our Abbey-Lands more in danger than any other part of our Estates since we have the same security for the one as for the other and both as firmly secur'd as the Law can make them or the wit of man devise 'T is well known that the Popish Clergy in Queen Maries time the better to forward the peoples reconciliation with the Church of Rome by their Petition to the Queen consented that all the Church-Lands dispos'd of to Lay-men shou'd be settl'd on the Possessors and their Heirs for ever without any danger of revocation And this was approv'd of by the Pope's Legate a latere Cardinal Pool willing and ordaining as he says that the present possessors of Ecclesiastical Goods as well movable as immovable shall not at this time nor in time to come be disquieted nor molested in the possession of the said Goods either by the disposal or order of any General or Provincial Councils or by the Decretal Epistles of the Bishop of Rome or by any other Ecclesiastical Censure whatsoever And besides this to crown the work beyond all exception and bind it with a triple Cord which is not easily broken all is confirm'd in full Parliament by the Queen by the Cardinal and Clergy and by the Lords and Commons by whom 't is enacted That all and every Article Clause Sentence and Proviso contained or specified in any Act or Acts of Parliament concerning or touching the assurance or conveyance of any the said Monasteries Priories Nunneries Commandries Deanries Prebends Colledges Chantries Hospitals Houses of Fryers Rectories Vicarages Churches Chappels Archbishopricks Bishopricks and other Religious and Ecclesiastical houses and places or any of them or in any ways concerning any Manors Lands Tenements Profits Commodities Hereditaments or other the things before specified to the said K. H. 8. or K. Ed. 6. or either of them or any other person or persons or Body-politick or Corporate and every of them and all and every Writing Deed and Instrument concerning the assurance of any the same shall stand remain and be in as good force effect and strength and shall be pleaded and taken advantage of to all intents constructions and purposes as the same should might or could have been by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm in case this present Act had never been had or made 1. 2 Phil. Mar. c. 8 § 39. And 't is further enacted That whosoever shall by any Process obtained out of any Ecclesiastical Court within this Realm or without or by pretence of any spiritual Jurisdiction or otherwise contrary to the Laws of this Realm inquiet or molest
odious names of Abhorrers are forc'd to bear the brunt and suffer as Betrayers of the peoples Rights and Liberties for obeying their Sovereigns Proclamation tho' not repugnant to any known Law or Statute but approv'd of by the Judges and other Sages of the Law and conformable to an express Act of Parliament in the like case provided 13 Car. 2. c. 5. 'T is the peoples Right I know or to speak more properly 't is their Duty to petition their Prince for relief and redress of their Grievances but still 't is the undoubted Prerogative of the Sovereign to judge whether such Grievances be real or pretended fit to be granted or necessary to be rejected And when upon weighty considerations as the Subject ought in duty to suppose the Prince openly expresses his dislike to such Petitions to importune him any further is very unmannerly and plainly tending to Sedition 'T is an undutiful part in Subjects saith our British Solomon to press their King wherein they know before-hand he will refuse them In his Speech to the Parliament anno 1609. The evil consequences of these tumultuous Petitions are too well known to those that remember our late unhappy Confusions to be dwelt upon or describ'd in so small a Treatise 'T is enough that the wisdom of the Nation both King and Parliament after His Majesty's miraculous Restauration have declar'd It hath been found by sad experience that tumultuous and other disorderly soliciting and procuring of hands by private persons to Petitions Complaints Remonstrances Declarations and other Addresses to the King or to both or either Houses of Parliament for alteration of matters establish'd by Law redress of pretended Grievances in Church or State or other publick Concernments have been made use of to serve the ends of Factious and Seditious persons gotten into power to the violation of the publick Peace and have been a great mens of the late unhappy Wars Confusions and Calamities in this Nation 13 Car. 2. c. 5. Besides our Lawyers tell us and King James declares in his Speech to the Parliament on the last of March 1607 That Rex est Lex loquens and where the Law is silent the King's will is a temporary Law Upon what account then were the Abhorrers of the late tumultuous Petitions so exactly resembling those of Forty and so contrary to His Majesty's express Orders and Proclamation censur'd or imprison'd what Crime have they committed or Law have they violated or can there be any transgression where there is no Law or Punishment where there is no Transgression Oh! say they tho' there be no positive Law directly against Abhorrers yet 't is the great Fundamental Law Lex consuetudo Parliamenti and the Priviledge of Parliament that they may judge what Crimes are punishable ex post facto and by their arbitrary Power punish any man for what they please This I must confess is a pretty knack to help us off at a dead lift and will serve as well to vindicate the most exorbitant proceedâ—ngs of a mad Parliament as self-preservation is generally wrested to justifie the horrid Conspiracies of Rebellious Subjects It proves the great Earl of Strafford has been lawfully Executed tho' his very Enemies then gave us reason to believe and both King and Parliament since have declar'd him Innocent And the known Laws of the Land are at this rate very defective since they are not the entire Rule of the peoples Civil Obedience but are further liable to be try'd by that mysterious Riddle Lex consuetudo Parliamenti which neither our Fathers nor We were able to understand 'T is an undoubted Maxim both in Law and Reason that promulgation is absolutely necessary to the obligation of all positive constitutions insomuch that the immediate Laws even of the Almighty are not obligatory where they were never preach'd or made known How then comes it to pass that so many Loyal Subjects and good Protestants have been troubl'd upon the account of those mystical Riddles Lex consuetudo Parliamenti and the Priviledges of Parliament which were never publish'd or made known to the people but lie dormant in the House of Commons till started up as occasion requires It were to be wish'd that Honourable Senate wou'd so far oblige the Nation as to give them a true description of this Law and Custom of Parliament and an exact account of their Priviledges that people might in some measure for the future be able to shun those dangerous rocks and not be surpriz'd or shipwrack'd on such hidden shelves Till then all those loud pretences of securing the Subject from Slavery and Arbitrary Government must seem very ridiculous to the sober and judicious who as they cannot be easily impos'd upon by outward appearances to believe peoples words not suitable to their actions will be apt to mistrust that what these Gentlemen so stifly oppose in others they design wholly for themselves But to come closer to the purpose let us suppose the Parliament has this Arbitrary Prerogative to turn our most innocent actions into misdemeanors and make what they please a breach of Priviledge yet by what Authority can the House of Commons alone pretend to execute that Power or take upon them to be sole Judges that cannot act as Justices of the Peace Our Ancestors it seems have brought their Hogs to a fair Market who have struggled for many Ages to preserve themselves and Posterity from the unbounded rule of Arbitrary pleasure and having wrested that Power from their Soveraign like wise Politicians have left it in the hands of their Fellow-Subjects nay of their Attorneys and Servants to whom as such they always allow'd their daily wages for their attendance in Parliament 'T is certainly an odd kind of Liberty that the people can neither be Fin'd nor Imprison'd by their Soveraign unless for transgressing some known penal Law of the Land but their Deputies and Trustees may uncontroulably punish them for any thing they are pleas'd to call Criminal Is this the great happiness of Freeborn Subjects instead of one to have five hundred Masters and see the Fundamental Laws of the Nation Magna Charta and all the good Statutes confirming and explaining the same thus eluded and made useless by a pretended Custom of Parliament What are we the better at this rate that by the Great Charter of the Liberties of England c. 29 't is declar'd That no Freeman shall be taken or Imprison'd or be disseiz'd of his Freehold or Liberties or his Free Customs or be Outlaw'd or Exil'd or in any manner destroy'd but by the lawful Judgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Land Or that 28 Edw. 3. c 3. 't is enacted That no man of what estate or condition he be shall be put out of his Land or Tenements nor taken nor Imprison'd nor disinherited nor put to death without being brought to Answer by due Process of Law Or to omit many others that 42 Ed. 3. c. 3. It is assented
against any of their Pretensions yet I must say the power they claim now-a-days to punish all sorts of misdemeanors and what they please to term a breach of Priviledge is not to be endur'd by any free-born Subject For besides that 't is needless because such offences may and by Law ought to be try'd in the ordinary Courts of Justice 't is very dangerous to the Publick least the Grand Inquest of the Nation appointed to represent the Peoples Grievances and pray redress shou'd upon this account be diverted from pursuing those weighty affairs by every sawcy Footman belonging to the meanest Burgess in their House I confess it were somewhat tolerable in the Commons to imprison and punish their own Members for words by them spoken or misdemeanors committed in the House 1. Because by 4 H. 8. c. 8. they are not punishable elsewhere for any rashness in Parliament that does not amount to Treason Felony or breach of the Peace which the Commons neither can nor I hope will as in Forty-One endeavour to protect 2ly Because 't is suppos'd the Members upon their entring into that Assembly unanimously agreed the lesser number shou'd always submit to the greater and the major Vote be observ'd as the Act and Sense of the whole House if therefore by consent and original compact every single Member submits himself to the rest he cannot complain tho' otherwise they had no authority if they imprison him for his misdemeanors because scienti volenti non fit injuria provided always they exceed not the common Rules of Justice nor the bounds of our establish'd Laws for then no private Act can bind a Subject tho' made with his own free consent as appears by Clark's Case against the Mayor and Burgesses of St. Albans Coke lib. 5. p. 64. I cannot therefore but think the power assum'd of late years by the House of Commons over their fellow-Members to expel them the House when and for what they please without any legal Tryal which the Lords never practic'd against any of their Peers is in it self most unreasonable and of very dangerous consequence as Mr. Prynne tho' otherwise a great Champion for the Priviledges of Parliament proves at large in divers of his Treatises The practice saith he of sequestring and expelling Commons by their fellow-Commons only is a late dangerous unparliamentary Usurpation unknown to our Ancestors destructive to the Priviledges and Freedom of Parliaments and injurious to those Counties Cities and Boroughs whose Trustees are secluded the House of Commons being no Court of Justice to give either Oath or final Sentence and having no more authority to dismember their fellow-Members than any Judges Justices of the Peace or Committees have to dis-Dis-judge dis-Dis-justice or Dis-committee their fellow Judges Justices or Committee-men being all of equal Authority and made Members only by the King 's Writ and the Peoples Election not by the Houses or other Members Votes who yet now presume both to make and unmake seclude and recal expel and restore their fellow-Members at their pleasure contrary to the practice and resolution of former Ages to patch up a Factious Conventicle instead of an English Parliament In his legal Vindication of the Liberties of England p. 10. But whatever Power the Commons can pretend to have over their own Members to say they can lawfully punish others tho for a breach of Priviledge much less for any other Crime seems to me a very groundless Assertion not warrantable by the Ancient Law and Custom of Parliament but rather contrary to the Fundamental Constitutions of our Government First because 't is impossible to make out from whom this Power is deriv'd From the King The Factious will not own it and none can prove it For they have neither Patent nor Statute to shew for 't nor yet any Legal Prescription which is a constant immemorial Custom such as the Lords have in point of Judicature to warrant it the Ancientest President they can alledge being that of 4 Ed. 6. or the Case of Ferrers referr'd to them by the Lords in the 34 H. 8 about sevenscore years ago Do they deriâ—e it then from the People from the Freeholders and Freemen their Electors These have no such Power of themselves they can Imprison none without His Majesties Commission and what they have not sure they cannot give Nemo dat quod non habet As for the Power given by the Electors to their chosen Members who are order'd by the Writ of Summons to have from the persons they represent Plenam sufficientem potestatem 't is no Judicial Power nor Political Jurisdiction which the People have not and consequently cannot give but only a Power of consenting as well for their Principals as for themselves to the Kings Laws and Ordinances And certainly if the King be the Suprem and the only Suprem Governour of this Realm as we affirm in the Oath of Supremacy and if all Authority and Jurisdiction Spiritual and Temporal be derived and deducted from the Kings Majesty as 't is expresly declarâ—d 1 Ed. 6. c. 2. § 3. Or as Old Bracton saith Ea quae sunt Jurisdictionis pacis ad nullum pertinent nisi ad regiam dignitatem lib. 3. c. 24. Unless the Commons can make out they have their Power from the King they can have no manner of Jurisdiction and by consequence cannot lawfully Punish or Imprison any Criminal if not perchance their own Members in the Cases aforesaid Besides in the first Parliament of Queen Mary 't is declar'd That the most Ancient Statutes of this Kingdom do give assign and appoint the correction and punishment of all Offenders against the Regality and Dignity of the Crown and the Laws of this Realm unto the King 1 Mar. Sess. 3. c. What then are the breakers of the Commons Priviledges are they Offenders against the Dignity of the Crown or the Laws of the Realm If so they ought according to this Act to be punish'd by the King if not they are not punishable at all for to trouble any that does not offend against the Crown or the Law of the Land is very Illegal and Arbitrary and a high breach of the Liberty of the Subject Secondly because the Law has expresly provided where and how breaches of Priviledge ought to be punish'd and gives the House of Commons no power to take any cognizance of them for by several Statutes it appears that if a Parliament-man or his Menial-servant be Assaulted Beaten or Wounded in Parliament-time Proclamation shall be made where the deed is done that the Offendor shall render himself to the Kings-Bench within half a year after there to be tryed and if the Offendor will not appear he shall be Attainted of the Deed and pay to the Party griev'd his double Damages to be tax'd by the discretion of the Judges of the said Bench for the time being or by Inquest if need be and also make Fine and Ransom at the Kings will Moreover it is
binding themselves by that Act which yet must bind the King tho it might as well be alleadg'd He did not intend it he boldly concludes with threatning and daring the Judges to do their duty Precibusque minas regaliter addit The same reasons says he which may be given for discharging such as are not Committed for breach of Priviledge if it be grounded on the Act for the Habeas Corpus will hold as strong for discharging of Persons Committed for breach of Priviledge and so consequently deprive this House of all its Power and Dignity and make it insignificant This is so plain and obvious that all the Judges ought to know it and I think it below you to make any Resolve therein but rather leave the Judges to do otherwise at their Peril and let the Debate fall without any question See the Debates of the House pag. 217. Was not this a rare Assertor of our Liberties who instead of allowing us the benefit of the Laws wou'd have us all made Beasts of burden to maintain the Grandeur of some Arbitrary Demagogues in the House of Commons and be content to turn Gally-Slaves rather than their Power shou'd become useless or insignificant But I find this daring Speech did not frighten all the Judges for Baron Weston to his immortal Renown had still the courage to grant the Habeas Corpus and rather expose himself to the malice of the Faction than deny or delay Justice contrary to his Oath Our Religion and Liberty being thus secur'd have we not reason to be fond of these worthy Patriots who tugg'd so hard against Popery the better to bring in Presbytery and to make sure that the Prince shou'd not use Arbitrary Power took all possible care to keep it in their own possession It was the Kings Prerogative in the days of yore to have the Power of making War and Peace and declaring who shou'd be counted Friends and who reputed Enemies to the Kingdom But now the Tribunes of the People are willing to ease him of that trouble and take upon themselves by the following Vote to declare some of His Majesties best Subjects and most Faithful Friends Enemies to the King and Kingdom Resolved That all persons who advis'd His Majesty in His last Message to this House to insist upon an Opinion against the Bill for excluding the Duke of York have given pernicious Councel to His Majesty and are promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdom And this extravagant Vote they are pleas'd particularly to apply to four Noble Peers of the Realm exposing them to the Rable without the least colour of proof for Promoters of Popery and Enemies to their Soveraign for no other reason but because they were truly Loyal and free from the contagious leaven of the Faction What a happiness it is to live within the Walls of the House of Commons where the Knave becomes Honest and the Fool a Politician where People are sure never to be in the wrong but always impeccable and may freely rail and reflect upon their Betters which without doors wou'd cost them very dear Yet I cannot but wonder why these Noblemen unless they as well as many others took that Character for a mark of Honour from the givers have taken no course at least with the Printer and Bookseller if not with the then Speaker for ordering such Scandalous Votes to be publish'd contrary to express Acts of Parliament For if the Kings immediate Command cannot be allow'd as a good excuse in Law for any Illegal Act so that altho the Prince be unaccountable yet the Minister is to suffer for his Obedience sure a Vote of the House of Commons shall not be thought of force at least out of Parliament-time to Protect any Offender from Justice because whatever Title the Members within the sacred Walls of the House may claim in some Cases to impunity their Officers and Servants who execute their Illegal Commands abroad cannot in the least pretend to have any But how shou'd these Noblemen be enemies to the King and Kingdom for their advising His Majesty against the Bill of Exclusion when the whole House of Peers few discontented Lords Dissenting who by their Lives and Conversation never shew'd themselves the truest Protestants nor the best Subjects openly declar'd against it and upon the first reading threw it out of doors is a Mystery not easily to be understood His Majesty in His Message to the Commons declar'd He was confirm'd in His Opinion against that Bill by the Judgment of the House of Lords who rejected it why then are four Lords singl'd out and not the whole House declar'd Promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdom The reason some will guess that the Leading Members saw matters were not yet ripe to shew themselves bare-fac'd or discover the bottom of their Designs and once more to Vote the House of Lords dangerous and useless and therefore to be laid aside But why the Opposers of the Bill of Exclusion enemies to the King and Kingdom When 't is made plain even to Demonstration in several Treatises publish'd these four years past about the Succession that the Promoters of that Bill tho some perhaps meant otherwise were in fact Enemies to the Monarchy and no Friends to the King nor to the True Protestant Religion 'T is strange that such as loudly exclaim against Popery shou'd have the face at the same time to practice the worst of Popish or rather Jesuitical Principles and endeavour to force their Soveraign to disinherit His only Brother upon a bare suspicion of his being of another Religion which Henry the 3. of France being tender of the Monarchy and of the Hereditary Right of Succession was so far from offering to the King of Navarre tho a known Protestant and but a remote Kinsman that he cou'd never be perswaded to give the Royal Assent to the Bill which the powerful influence of the Factious Duke of Guise got pass'd by the three Estates for his Exclusion Oh! but say they Popery and Slavery will break in upon us if the Duke succeeds And I am sure Anarchy and Presbytery and an Intestine Civil War will undoubtedly follow if he be excluded the King expos'd to danger and the Kingdom to ruine How fatal it prov'd to Henry 6. that he suffer'd the good Duke of Gloucester to be made away by his Prosecutors which made way for his own Deposition and consequently for his untimely end Historians do abundantly testify and Baker tells us how the great Duke of Somerset then Protector by Sacrificing his Brother the Lord Admiral to the malice of his Enemies in hopes to stop their mouths by yielding to their demands clear'd the way for himself to the Scaffold A Warrant saith this Historian was sent under the hand of his Brother the Protector to cut off his Head wherein as afterwards it prov'd he did as much as if he had laid his own Head upon the Block For