Plot And though the Time of our Sitting abating what must necessarily be spent in the chusing and presenting a Speaker appointing grand Committees and in taking the Oaths and Tests appointed by Act of Parliament hath not muâ—h exceeded a Fortnight yet we have in this Time not only made a considerable Progress in some Things which to us seem and when presented to your Majesty in a Parliamentary Way will we trust appear to your Majesty to be absolutely Necessary for the Safety of your Majesty's Person the effectual Suppression of Popery and the Security of the Religion Lives and Estates of your Majesty's Protestant Subjects But even in relation to the Tryals of the Five Lords impeached in Parliament for the execrable Popish Plot we have so far proceeded as we doubt not but in a short Time we shall be ready for the same But we cannot without being unfaithful to your Majesty and to our Country by whom we are intrusted omit upon this Occasion humbly to inform your Majesty that our Difficulties even as to these Tryals are much encreased by the evil and destructive Counsels of those Persons who advised your Majesty first to the Prorogation and then to the Dissolution of the last Parliament at a Time when the Commons had taken great Pains about and were prepared for those Tryals And by the like pernicious Counsels of those who advised the many and long Prorogations of the present Parliament before the same was permitted to sit whereby some of the Evidence which was prepared in the last Parliament may possibly during so long an Interval be forgotten or lost and some Persons who might probably have come in as Witnesses are either dead have been taken off or may have been discouraged from giving their Evidence But of one mischievous Consequence of those dangerous and unhappy Counsels we are certainly and sadly sensible namely That the Testimony of a material Witness against every of those Five Lords and who could probably have discovered and brought in much other Evidence about the Plot in general and those Lords in particular cannot now be given Viva voce Forasmuch as that Witness is unfortunately dead between the calling and the sitting of this Parliament to prevent the like or greater Inconveniences for the future we make it our most humble Request to your Excellent Majesty that as you tender the Safety of your Royal Person the Security of your Loyal Subjects and the Preservation of the true Protestant Religion you will not suffer your self to be prevail d upon by the like Counsel to do any thing which may occasion in Consequence though we are assured never with your Majesty's Intention either the deferring of a full and perfect Discovery and Examination of this most wicked and detestable Plot or the preventing the Conspirators therein from being brought to speedy and exemplary Justice and Punishment And we humbly beseech your Majesty to rest assured notwithstanding any Suggestions which may be made by Persons who for their own wicked Purposes contrive to create a Distrust in your Majesty of your People that nothing is more in the Desires and shall be more the Endeavours of us your faithful and loyal Commons than the promoting and advancing of your Majesty's true Happiness and Greatness In which the Parliament laid before the King your Brother these following Particulars 1. The grateful Sense they had of his Care in his Message to them by Jenkins his Secretary inviting the Parliament to expedite the Matters that were then before them relating to Popery and the Plot. 2. That they were convinced that it was a Duty incumbent upon them to suppress Popery and to bring to Justice all such as should be found Guilty of the horrid and damnable Popish Plot. 3. That the King by his frequent Prorogations and Dissolutions of his Parliaments had rendered the Tryals of the Popish Lords more difficult by reason that a material Witness was dead 4. That the Person of the King your Brother was not safe till the Criminals in the Popish Plot were brought to Justice 5. That notwithstanding the wicked Suggestions of your self and villanous Party they were resolved to be true and faithful to the King your Brother 8. Observe the Address of the House of Commons to the King your Brother on the 29th of Nov. 1680. upon the Message he sent to the House of Commons about the Affair of supplying Tangier in which they laid before the King these following Particulars worthy of your remembring 1. They laid before the King that since Tangier had become part of his Dominions it had been formerly under the Command of Popish Governours but more particularly it had been for some time under the Command of a certain Lord that stood impeached by Parliament and a Prisoner in the Tower for the execrable and horrid Popish Plot. 2. That the Supplies sent thither were made up of Popish Officers and Irish Papists and that the Popish Party there were the Persons most countenanced and incouraged 3. The restless Endeavours of the Popish Party within this Kingdom to introduce the Romish Religion and to extirpate the Protestant Religion 4 The Assistance they had received from some perfidious Protestants in the Approaches they made for the Compassing their Designs viz. The Devil's Brokers and their nasty Passive Obedience Vermine that it was a Wonder of Wonders they had not dispatched old Pious for some time before 5. That the Popish Party made use of their being discharged from Offices by their not taking the Test to give themselves up to the practising their Idolatry and Superstition without controul in many Parts of the Kingdom and great Swarms of Priests and Jesuits had resorted hither in order to carry on the Plot and exercised their Jurisdiction and had been daily tampering to pervert the Consciences of the Subjects of England and the Judges and Justices of the Peace that had opposed them were in disgrace and turned out of the Commission in contempt of the known Laws of the Land and if they could not corrupt Men they attempted nothing less than to destroy them 6. That several Papists to serve a Popish Turn had not only taken the Oaths but subscribed the Test and held the Offices themselves or else there were those put in that were so favourable to the Popish Interest insomuch that Popery had rather gained Ground since the making the Test Act than lost 7. The Correspondences that your Secretary held with Cardinal Howard and the Courts abroad 8. That when the Plot began to be discovered the Popish Party began to smother it by the Murther of a Justice of the Peace within one of the King's Palaces 9. That the Papists reckoned the Life of the King your Brother the only Obstacle in the way and having you in their Eye whom they had gained to their Religion and Interest they were resolved to begin with the Assassination of the King your Brother and to carry it on with the Murther of the Protestant
that you and they were impatient to be in possession and they hoping and believing you right for their turn they drove on a secret â—lot with you to remove the King your Brother into another World whilst this Army was being which you so much coveâ—ed And tho' Charles your Brother and his Villain were concern'd in the grand Plot yet none but the Popish party were in this Wheel within a Wheel and therefore when this came to be discover'd by me to the King and Council tho' the persons to whom I discover'd knew well enough what I said to the general Plot to be true yet they being kept ignorant of the other secret Wheel within their Wheel were much startled and amazed at the discovery and were inclin'd not to believe that part of the Testimony they being all of them your most humble Admirers But this you may call to mind that some of your deep-dy'd surseited Rogues had laid their design with you for their bringing to pass what you had designed about the King your Brother he having so often failed you and therefore you found that he was not any longer to be trusted and you had engaged them by several Demonstrations that they might trust you therefore his dispatch into the other World was determined and further that they would cast the Odium of it upon the dissenting Protestants in order to which Claypool as I have observed both in my first and this Memorial was committed to the Tower and I seeing the Jesuits so resolved to destroy your Brother I resolved to do what I did The King had private Information as I said before in the month of August but he made light of it and instead of making strick enquiry after the Discovery and the person accused I found that was like to be ruined for going so far by the Jesuits who because Dr. Tongue had been with the King they thought it had been my self who had the discovery communicated to you and you communicated it to the Jesuits and the Monks at the Savoy and though the Affair was not communicated to the Council till the Jesuits should have time enough if possible to stifle the discovery and find out amongst themselves who it was that had designed to betray them I being the man they mistrusted I thought it necessary to withdraw from their Company and so with Dr. Tongue I went to Justice Godfrey as before who had the Scheme of the Conspiracy that was against the King's Life which was so home and so full that the said Justice communicated it to an old friend of yours who because he would be in the Fashion slighted it as much as your gracious Brother had done at the first discovery of it to him and the said Justice Godfrey communicated it to your sweet self and you to your Priests and Jesuits with you at Windsor you know upon what account and when Coleman came out of the Country he had notice to do away his Papers but the vain glorious Puppy kept them but some of the Conspirators obeyed you and conveyed themselves away but Justice Godfrey being in some measure Master of the Information tells Coleman with whom he was intimate of the thing but Câ—leman knew more of the point than Godfrey could tell him and much better and being well assured that such discoveries and such discoverers could not hinder the design did in effect â—onfirm all to the said Justice that I had said to him and much more and advised the Justice to meddle no further in the Business for that he would find but little Encouragement or Thanks for his pains for their Game was sure and gone too far and too great persons concerned in it to value any thing that could be done This surprised Sir Edmund-Bury Godfrey who was always looked upon a very fair Gentleman and zealous for the Church of England and not any way inclining to Popery but carried it fair to all and the Papists themselves had a great esteem of him as well as others but he finding your Friend who was privy to the discovery had done nothing in the Affair communicated it to the Privy Council on the 28 of September in the morning and as I told you before I was attending the Council at night how I carried my self if any of that Council be alive they will justifie me that although I was sufficiently Brow-beaten and met with great opposition from some yet I stood to my point and gave such clear Demonstrations that they were constrained tho' full fore against their will to grant their Warrants to seize some of the Traytors that night which made some talk of a Popish Plot but few or none except the Conspirators themselves knew at first what to make of it the Papists were so bold as to laugh at it and deride it and Coleman who was your Factor in all the Popish Plot did go into the City and strutted as if he knew as little of the Business as your self however there were thirty six Bags of his Papers seized and he appearing before the Council in the afternoon upon a Summons only such was his Interest with the Grand Conspirators that he himself thought it was out of the Power of Man to hurt him especially since many of that Council then alive were themselves engaged in the General Plot upon this Presumption he appeared and began to hector and bounce at the Council telling them that in accusing him they struck at his Master yet for all his heâ—torng they sent him to Newgate for his Fellow Rogues could say nothing for him We having got your great Goliah into Newgate you thought it convenient that all possible care should be taken both as to the cause in general and your friend in particular you gave Instructions to all you could to hide their Papers and several of them were brought to Whitehall where they were carefully preserved and to send away all you durst not trust nay rather than fail old Coventry your never-failing League-breaker he lent you a cast of his Office and granted your Conspirators passes if they were disposed to beat upon the Hoof nay you took great Care that the Witnesses should not want all the discouragement that might be nay rather than fail some of the Clerks of the Council were set as Spies upon them and the very Minutes of the Council were made use of to insnare them and the Honest Clerks themselves witnesses against them for the Conspirators Oh! but your dear friend Coleman was committed Ay he was what then was it not high time Yes he was committed and you were not idle yet for all this you and your Rogues did not doubt but to rub it off and to carry your Point for all your Creatures were in Places of Trust about your Brother the King and his Council by whose help you and they got your writings of the chiefest Import that concerned your self and greater Conspirators so well secured that whatever became of the scoundrel
Robinson and my self that he had been Dogg'd several Days and Prance said that he had Dogg'd him and that Gerald the Priest had Resolved to Dogg him to his own Door and to have Killed him in the Lane that leads to his own House this was one of the Priests of your Church who counts it an Act of Chariâ—y to Murder a Christian to Propagate Christianity but to the Point they way-laid him and watched his coming from a Place which Prance could not tell but I can it was Sir you know from the Duke of Norfolks on whom you would have laid the Murther because he was not of the French Interest though of Rome's Religion and the said Justice Godfrey coming from the Duke of Norfolks was to pass by Sommerset-House alias Godfrey-Hall or the Pope's and your Slaughter house into which place they inticed the Poor Innocent Gentleman pretending that there were two men fighting and that he being a Justice of the Peace would with much greater ease keep the Kingâ— Peace than another could truly Sir if they had been of your Immediate Councel at St. Jameses they could not have found out a better way for it knowing that this Gentleman was according to his Office and Duty ready to do all Acts of Justice as any one then in that Post and as little affraid of the Persons of Men as any of his Office for he had said if any man did him a Mischeif they must do it basely for he did not fear the best of them all upon fair play therefore you will do well to observe that when his Friends in faithfulness desired him to get a man he slighted their advice and all that knew him knew that he was a man of singular Courage and therefore your Villains were not at much trouble to lay a trap for him Well Sir they got him in and what was the next intention Hill flings the Cravat about his Neck and was assisted in that Pious Work by Gerald the Priest and the rest of the Murderers that were there and so the Gentleman was Strangled and least he should come to life again which they feared from the motion that his Body made Green Twisted his Neck round and you know the Chirurgions did testifie his Neck was Broke and that none of the Wounds which were in his Body were given him whilst he was alive then his Body was Carried to Hills Chamber and your Murtherers helped and left his Body there and then to Consecrate the Villainy he was Carried into Baals house where the Mistriss and her Maids made themselves Obscenely merry with his Body on the Sunday Night for you know the better Day the better Deed Prance further said that he come on Munday Night and found the Body in another Room hard by Hills Lodgings and some thing thrown over his Face but nothing over yours for you and your party were as impudent as so many Carted Whores having no sence of the Murder you Committed come on then upon the Tuesday Night following they removed his Body to Hills Lodgings where it lay till Wednesday Night your Friend Prance said he saw him there that Night for he was the man that helpt to carry him out Prance and Gerald carried him first and Green and Kelly went before and took him up afterward he Confessed that they set him on Horseback and Hill behind him From all which Sir you may Observe that Prancâ— tells the whole Story from Top to Toe and nothing was Objected against Prance but these two things first that he recanted his Testimony that he had first given this Sir was no Argument at all of his Falsehood but of his Fear for you must needs Know that it was no good Argument to say he was not to be believed because he denyed what he once said for he then had not his Pardon from the King and the Horrour of the Fact had caused a dread and consternation to have seized upon his Soul I say the blackness of the Fact it Self and the fear of being destroyed by his own Party and the loss of his Trade and Lively-hood by them was enough to have Affrighted a better Man than Prance out of his Wits you know that his denyal was short and so his Recantation of that denyal was on the otherhand as quick the former without an Oath and the latter upon Oath for when he had retracted his Evidence he was no sooner got to Prison with his Keeper but he fell on his Knâ—es to his Keeper and begged of him for Gods sake to carry him back to the King Protesting that what he had said at first was true and that his denyal was false and his Keeper gave the Court to know that after this Prance was pardoned that he was Quiet and Sedate in his Mind and all this was not forced from Prance by Torture as that Villain Lestrange would Suggest and all by the Assistance of an old white-liver'd Baals Priest was of another Opinion till a new measure of the Holy Ghost fell upon him in a rainy Morning he was a false Witness and helped to stifle that Murther for which he received the Wages of his Villainy and since hath been Advanced for nothing as I know of but being an impudent false Prophet 6. A Sixth Witness that I shall present to your Consideration is Mr. Bedlow who tells you That before the Murther Lefever Pritchard Keins and other Priests treated with him to be Assisting in the Murther of Mr. Edmund Bury Godfrey but He tho he promised relented and did not come till Munday Octo. 14th he met with Lefever in Red Lyon Court who charged him with not keeping his Word but charged him the said Bedlow to meet him at Nine of the Clock at Night and there told Bedlow that though he was not Assisting as he had promised at the killing Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey yet if he would be Assisting in the carrying him off he should have a considerable Reward whether it was 2000 l. or 4000 l. I do not well remember he then desired â—o know of Lefeâ—er whether he might not see the Body who told him yes which â—â—low did and then they advised about the Disposal of iâ— and Bedlow advised the â—inking of the Body in the River with Weights which was not agreed to but in seeâ—â—g the Body Bedlow sâ—w Prance there in Company but did not know him before you may remember that Bedlow says he was troubled in Conscience having twice taken the Sâ—crament to conceal the business and went to Bristol where God put it into his Heart that some Murders were past and greater were to come for the prevention whereof he was convinced that it was his duty to come to London to reveal the wickedness which he did you know to as much purpose as ever any Man came I pray Sir for your Edisication and Comfort be pleased to take notice that Sir Charles Harbord and Sir Richard Everard having examined Prance and the House being set
by us except only the Descent upon the Person of the Duke of York who by the wicked Instruments of the Church of Rome has been manifestly perverted to their Religion And we do humbly represent to your Majesty as the Issue of our most deliberate Thoughts and Consultations That for the Papists to have their Hopes continued That a Prince of that Religion shall succeed in the Throne of these Kingdoms is utterly inconsistent with the Safety of your Majesty's Person the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Prosperity Peace and Welfare of your Protestant Subjects That your Majesty's Sacred Life is in continual Danger under the Prospect of a Popish Successor is evident not only from the Principles of those devoted to the Church of Rome which allow That an Heretical Prince and such they term all Protestant Princes excommunicated and deposed by the Pope may be destroyed and murthered but also from the Testimonies given in the Prosecution of the horrid Popish Plot against divers Traytors attainted for designing to put those accursed Principles into practice against your Majesty From the Expectation of this Succession has the Number of Papists in your Majesty's Dominions so much increased within these few Years and so many been prevailed with to desert the true Protestant Religion That they might be prepared for the Favours of a Popish Prince as soon as he should come to the Possession of the Crown And while the same Expectation lasts many more will be in the same Danger of being perverted This it is that has hardned the Papists of this Kingdom animated and confederated by their Priests and Jesuits to make a common Purse provide Arms make Application to foreign Princes and solicit their Aid for imposing Popery upon us and all this during your Majesty's Reign and while your Majesty's Government and the Laws were our Protection It is your Majesty's Glory and true Interest to be the Head and Protector of all Protestants as well abroad as at home but if these Hopes remain What Alliances can be made for the Advantage of the Protestant Religion and Interest which shall give confidence to your Majesty's Allies to join so vigorously with your Majesty as the state of that Interest in the World now requires while they see this Protestant Kingdom in so much Danger of a Popish Successor by whom at the present all their Counsels and Actions may be eluded as hitherto they have been and by whom if he should succeed they are sure to â—e destroyed We have thus humbly laid before your Majesty some of those great Dangers and Mischiefs which evidently accompany the Expectation of a Popish Successor the certain and unspeakable Evils which will come upon your Majesty's Protestant Subjects and their Posterity if such a Prince should inherit are more also than we can well enumerate Our Religion which is now so dangerously shaken will then be totally overthrown nothing will be left or can be found to protect or defend it The Execution of old Laws must cease and it will be vain to expect new ones The most sacred Obligations of Contracts and Promises if any should be given that shall be judged to be against the Interest of the Romish Religion will be violated as is undeniable not only from Argument and Experience elsewhere but from the sad Experience this Nation once had upon the like Occasion In the Reign of such a Prince the Pope will be acknowledged Supreme though the Subjects of this Kingdom have sworn the contrary and all Causes either as Spiritual or in order to Spiritual Things will be brought under his Jurisdiction The Lives Liberties and Estates of all such Protestants as value their Souls and their Religion more than their secular Concernments will be adjudged Forfeited To all this we might add That it appears in the Discovery of the Plot that foreign Princes were invited to assist in securing the Crown to the Duke of York with Arguments from his great Zeal to establish Popery and to extirpate Protestants whom they call Hereticks out of his Dominions and such will expect performance accordingly We further humbly beseech your Majesty in your great Wisdom to consider Whether in case the Imperial Crown of this Protestant Kingdom should descend to the Duke of York the Opposition which may possibly be made to his possessing it may not only endanger the further Descent in the Royal Line but even Monarchy it self For these Reasons we are most humble Petitioners to your most Sacred Majesty that in tender Commiseration of your poor Protestant People â—â—ur Majesty will be graciously pleased to depart from the Reservation in your said Speech and when a Bill shall be tender'd to your Majesty in a Parliamentary Way to disable the Duke of York from inheriting the Crown your Majesty will give your Royal Assent thereto and as necessary to fortify and defend the same That your Majesty likewise will be graciously pleased to assent to an Act whereby your Majesty's Protestant Subjects may be enabled to associate themselves for the Defence of your Majesty's Person the Protestant Religion and the Security of your Kingdoms These Requests we are constrained humbly to make to your Majesty as of absolute Necessity for the safe and peaceable Enjoyment of our Religion Without these Things the Alliances of England will not be valuable nor the People encouraged to contribute to your Majesty's Service As some farther means both of our Religion and Property we are humble Suiters to your Majesty That from hence-forth such Persons only may be Judges within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales as are Men of Ability Integrity and of known Affection to the Protestant Religion And that they may hold both their Offices and Salaries Quam diu bene se gesserint That several Deputy Lieutenants Justices of the Peace fitly qualified for those Employments having been of late displaced and others put in their Room who are Men of Arbitrary Principles and Countenancers of Papists and Popery such only may bear the Office of a Lord Lieutenant as are Persons of Integrity and known Affection to the Protestant Religion That Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace may be also so qualified and may be moreover Men of Ability of Estates and Interest in their Country That none may be imployed as military Officers or Officers in your Majesty's Fleet but Men of known Experience Courage and Affection to the Protestant Religion These our humble Requests being obtained we shall on our part be ready to assist your Majesty for the Preservation of Tangier and for putting your Majesty's Fleet into such a Condition as it may preserve your Majesty's Sovereignty of the Seas and be for the Defence of the Nation If your Majesty hath or shall make any necessary Alliances for defence of the Protestant Religion and Interest and Security of this Kingdom this House will be ready to assist and stand by your Majesty in the Support of the same After this our
of Commerce the said Lord Protector had made to the great advantage of the English Nation and graciously left his people to be treated in their trade to France at the pleasure of the French King In a word your Brother was no sooner sixt at Whitehall and you at St. James's but the French King was become your Confident and the King of Spain slighted which as it was against justice and humanity so it was against the maxims of Policy and Prudence the French Nation being natural Enemies of the English and the next Neighbour to it and of all Nations the most formidable all these considerations should have made you to have made a firm alliance with Spain at that time for their condition was very low being brought to that sad state in a great measure upon the account of your Family both in your Grand fathers and Fathers Reigns insomuch that notwithstanding the largeness of the Dominions of that King yet out of them all he could not find an Army to fight against the Portuguese this I must say that God did visit that Crown with severe Judgments for their unjust dealings with the Americans both in respect of the War they made with them and the cruelties they exercised towards them You will say the King of Spain was poor yes so he was and the Proverb was good That Vermin will quit a falling house you well knew that the Popish party could not bear up in their undertakings in the design of changing our Religion into Popery nor our Government into Slavery upon the Credit Purse and Interest of the King of Spain but upon the Purse Interest and Credit of the French King your party thought they might with the better success and with more ease accomplish their wicked designs and purposes against the Religion Laws and Liberties of these three Kingdoms Let me tell you Sir that notwithstanding all the efforts the Popish party made in the years 1660 and 1661 they all proved abortive for they have not their expectation fully answered for they wanted some considerable person to head them but you know your Brother and you thought it convenient to be plaguy Godly for a little time and therefore the Red-Letter-men were to expect a little longer 4. That all might not be lost for want of looking after your Mother comes from France to give those of the Church of Rome some countenance and to be head of that Council that was appointed to sit at Somerset-house you know the pretence of her coming over was a Treaty with her Son about the Marriage of Madam her Daughter with the Monsieur of France but the real cause was to make earnest solicitations on the behalf of the Popish party that they might in some measure receive the benefit of those promises your Brother and you had made to them and to most of the Popish Princes in Christendom upon their account and though you could not engage your self to appear bare-faced you at that time wearing a Protestant face as did also your dear Brother the King so that she to encourage them came over and resided here in England for some time and that the interest might be strengthened the Marriage of her Son the King with the Daughter of Portugal was no less designed than that of her Daughter with Monsieur Give me leave to tell you in this affair the Queen your Mother did testifie more love to her Daughter your Sister than she did to the King your Brother and more like a Daughter of France than a Queen Mother of England by her coming over she did not only secure the interest of France in England but she secured all the Popish party to be true to the French interest and secured the French King to be their great friend that would not cease to do all good offices between them and his dear Brother the King of England and they might be assured of you in a short time and also by her coming a great number of Priests Jesuits Monks and Fryers came over who were caressed with part of the Treasure of the Nation amongst whom was one Kirton a Fryar that had two hundred pound a year Pension given him the pretence was that he was an excellent Chocolate-maker for your Brother the King She also spurred on the Council that sat at Somerset-house to use that diligence that became them that they might answer those ends that their meeting together required This plainly shews what encouragement the Popish party received by the coming of your Mother from France 5. Your Brothers Marriage with the Daughter of Portugal was another considerable encouragement for though she brought no considerable Fortune to the Crown yet still she strengthened the French interest the French King in order thereunto proposed and promoted the Match for never was one word said of it till the Arrival of the Queen Mother and then you know that affair was driven on with all the Zeal imaginable insomuch that if any of the Church of Rome that were of the Spanish Faction had offered any thing against the Match with Portugal he or she or they were in danger of being forbid the then Court at Somerset-House Sir Kenelm Digby was one of the Council at Somerset-House and he was in danger of losing your Mothers favour and his place at that board only for expressing himself not with the due respects that she expected to the intended Match with Portugal and the Lord Castlehaven was forbidden her presence for asserting that Match could never tend to the Honour and Advantage of the English Nation and the late Duke of Norfolk though he was a Papist and Loyal enough yet because he was not of the French Interest and was against the Match your Mother did but look sowrely upon him nay you may remember that for some time all the Honour he could get was but to be made the Son of a Duke and it was some time before he could obtain that mark of Royal Favour The Match was concluded on and over came that peice of Portugal Flesh for His Majesty's use and she was no sooner arrived and fixed at St. James's but behold another Council was appointed there upon the account of the Catholicks and so they had now two Councils one at St. James's and one at Somerset-House and truly all things run on merrily on their side they having two Queens to Espouse their Cause then finally you were reconciled to the Church of Rome and so your Brother and you being both of a Religion what greater incouragement could that villainous party of Men expect and then came all the Ambassadors Envoys Agents they had the Priviledge of open Chapels so that London it self was made a Nursery for Popery 2. You now may see what encouragements the Popish party had to engage in the design of changing our Religion and Government in order to bring in Popery and Arbitrary power when you being reconciled to the Church and See of Rome did establish a third Council
you desire more truly Sir it was not well enough yet for not only Arlington put a great many tricks upon you and your French Pensioners had not been so close to you as they might have been if they would have put on Courage enough these you thought you might have weathered but alas Sir here was a Parliament yea a Parliament in the way that had done a thousand Rogueries against you and your party Truly Sir I pity you much what was to be done in this case I have you much in my heart for all your barbarous civilities you have shewed me yet I cannot in the abundance of my grief for you forbear laughing to see what a sad pickle you were in but as angry as you were with Arlington you could not avoid grinning at your tools to see what a distress you had brought them to for if they left you you were resolved to destroy them and if they engaged with you the Parliament would do the like therefore nothing could save you and your interest but the dissolution of that haughty Parliament Come chear up in the midst of these troubles and afflictions the old enemy of mankind stood by you for the Cause was not so low but you found a revivate you know that the French King did dispatch Letters to your Brother and pressed him to a dissolution of the Parliament and promised him a good Pension provided he would never call another was not here a friend at a pinch well what did you do in return of this favour Truly you make him a French Grimace and promise that you will improve this Royal favour of his truly it was but fit you should for there was a necessity that you should be rid of the Parliament for your Pensioners had plaid you several Jades tricks and had been very resty for several Sessions so that you could neither make them lead nor drive therefore by the advice of your Council at St. James's the French King was heartily applied to and pressed with much earnestness to write his thoughts freely to the King your Brother which you know he did and a summ of Money was sent as an earnest of the French Kings affection to your Brother and now you were in hopes all would do well but April comes and the Parliament met and no Parliament dissolved but another prorogation you upon this was very warm with your Brother upon the matter and how could he answer this to the French King At last your Brother dealt freely with you as the French King had done with him and told you that he could not tell which way to incline the Arguments indeed you and your party had used as also the French King for the dissolution were exceeding strong and not well to be answered and the Arguments for its continuance were as strong but to your great grief there was one standing Argument that carried the King your Brother on to continue them and that was this if he did try them once more they might give him Money if they did then your Brother would have gained his point and Portsmouth hers if they did not then your Brother told you he could dissolve them upon their refusal and be as he was so that he told them he was in a possibility of getting Money by their continuance But did you not see the cheat of your Brothers Argument and if you had had any Brains you would have turned the Argument upon him and have told him plain that a dissolution would have certainly procured Money and the certainty of three hundred thousand pound a year was better than the bare possibility of getting Money by the continuance of the Parliament Your Brother repented of his refusing the French Kings offer for in the year 1676 a gracious Compliance of Governing without Parliaments a la mode de France But the French Kings Maw was not set that way at that time but you good man according to your Propositions got what you aimed at in order to have your party ready to rise to do the work and tho the French King could not dissolve the Parliament he went thorow-stitch with you to dissolve both our Religion and Government this was the first great support you had 2. You had the General of the Jesuits that was another great support in your design for you did not only make application to the French King but also to him the said General of the Jesuits divers Letters were written at which time the state of the Jesuits was such that they could not contribute much they were content to part with what they were able but there was a necessity of a great Sum to begin the War to which end they were very confident that his most Christian Majesty notwithstanding the great and chargeable War in which he was ingaged against the Confederates would do what in him lay for the Restauration of the Catholick Religion in England and that therefore his Reverence was applied to do his part you may remember that Coleman your Secretary not only in your name but I suppose also by your Order did make application to his Reverence about the same Affair you did not wait long but you had the Sum of Eight Hundred Thousand Crowns that was transmitted to Coleman your Secretary by Bills under the name of Dr. Gibbs a Physician that lived at Rome and they was paid at four payments the Bills were received by one Busby a Merchant then living in London and some other of your faithful Crew in that City and at that time you may remember that the said General of the Jesuits was with much difficulty perswaded to take upon himself the Signing Commissions that were to be Issued for the Offices both Civil and Military and Ecclesiastical too so that no damage might accrue to you in case any should be so wicked as to discover the Design and that this thing might appear in its self improbable and at the time of the advice of the Monies being returned he was pleased to signifie the same to Barrillon at which you were much offended that he had not done it to your Secretary this particular passage may satisfie all mankind that you were resolved to quit the Cause with as much Honour as you could but notwithstanding when the Plot was discovered the Word saw that it was not the General of the Jesuits that was so much the leader of this Conspiracy tho' heartily engaged in it as your self and the French King and that his Signing the Commissions was but a blind to screen you from the publick Justice of the Nation and also to defend your Villainous Ally from the vengeance of the whole Protestant Interest of Europe in which quarrel those Princes that were not of the Romish Church would have not have stood neuters in so Just a Cause 3. The Bishop of Rome was another Support for when the said General of the Jesuits had undertaken the point relating to Money and had transmitted the same he
to the Murther and Plot made such Discoveries that the two Houses began to look about them with more diligence and caution than ever in regard it plainly appear'd that you as well as the Jesuites were at the bottom of all this Villany or the Wheel within the Wheel which some of your Protestant Rogues were not privy to Well here you have an account of the Discovery Prance confesseth the Murther Dugdâ—le comes in and Jennison and Smith and many others I shall speak of them in their proper places Methinks you droop take a Glass of true Nants and give Mrs. Pugg another if it be not good for her Milk it may be good for her Water and so it 's all one bring the Sucking bottle to the little Welch Cub that we may have no noise for if he doth I will call for Will. Fuller your Puggs Page of Honour to jerk the young Kâ—ave if he be not quiet for he is as intimately acquainted with his true Mother if the Gentleman says the Truth or can speak Truth as your sweet self I suppose he was one of your Privy-Councellors once at St. Germain's and may pretend to have Authority in that case But I must stick to my point and come to a second thing I promised and that is to shew the reason of this Discovery 2. Was there such a Design on foot to destroy the King extirpate the Protestant Religion and subvert the Government and ought not this to be discover'd What if the Queen-Dowager were in it and you and the Court-Whores and the Court pimps and Court-Bawds and some of the Ministers of State and Justice and your villanous Council at St James's must they not be detected Were we to be afraid to speak the Truth No Sir it was not high time to speak Truth Yes Sir it was high time and more than high time But yet your Brother good man to save you and your party did in the month of November 1678 offer me at Secretary Coventry's Apartment the Bishoprick of Chichester and also promised me the Favour of advancing me if I would desist this Enterprize as he call'd the discovery of the Popish Plot assuring me that it would not be for his Service because of the heat it would put the people into and further told me That the Parliament would forsake me and not do any thing for me and if I had a Thought of complying with him I should meet him at the Prince's Lodgings but I went to the Prince and told him what the King had said who when he heard me give him an account of what the King had offer'd me and upon what terms The poor man said the Prince doâ—h court his own Ruine the most of any man I know And the Prince advis'd me not to meddle nor make with any thing of that Nature for said the Prince either he will cheat or expose you or if he be real there is an old Wife in the case who will be set on you to draw you off from the good work you have began or perhaps to do that which is worse and so I refused that offer and let me tell you farther that upon the discovery of the Plot several Papers were found at the House of one Jolliff a Taylor I did observe that CHARLES I. of Blessed Memory had commissionated several of the Irish to Rise and withal I saw the Instructions that were given to them to give the English no quarter and I saw a Letter of your Fathers to the Bishop of Casal as near as I can remember wherein he promised his Catholick Subjects that if he were driven through the necessity of Affairs to cause a Cessation of Arms it should not be for the Disadvantage of his Irish Catholick Subjects but to let them have a little time to breath so that they might be the better able to serve him and themselves against the Factious English there if there should be any remaining amongst them all which were carried to White-hall and what became of them I know not I saw also in those Papers found as aforesaid at the House of the said Jollife several Passes given to those of the Rebels that fled out of Ireland upon the reducing of that Country and notwithstanding they had shed much Protestant Blood they were by your Brother and you recommended to several Ministers of the Court of Spain and several other Princes of the Romish Religion as persons that had served your Father in reducing their Country to the Obedience of the Catholick Church and that had contributed much to the destroying of the English Hereticks that had planted themselves in that Kingdom Give me leave to observe farther to you that the Jesuits did tell me that the coming over of the Princess Henrietta was in order to make way for restoring the Catholick Religion here in England and that the Breach of the peace with the Dutch was by you and her contrived and by the late King consented to in order to reduce those States to the Catholick Faith and that it was thought fit to begin the Exercise of the Romish Religion in Ireland and to grant a general Toleration here in order to which sixteen hundred Priests of all orders were sent over from divers Nations and that the most of 'em were kept here on a maintenance for secret Service and others by your self in half Pay as disbanded Officers but this being all defeated by Parliament by your Brothers Assent they were much irritated against the King your Brother and so was your sweet self and furthermore the Jesuits acquainted me that the King your Brother had dispatched an Envoy to the King of Poland to engage him in the Catholick League for at that time the Catholick Princes as he said were resolved to extirpate the Protestant Religion and that the French King and your Brother and your self were Heads of this League which League they said your Brother had not carefully kept and observed but had given way to his impertinent Parliaments but that they might not hinder this good Design the French King had agreed to your Request of 300000 l. per Ann. for 3 years if by any means your Brother might be dispatched out of the way there being no manner of trust to be put in him and that he was not only unfaithful in all his Promises and Oaths made to them the said Jesuits and Catholicks but was an Apostate from the Catholick Religion and therefore not to be endured any longer This Negotiation of the mony Part of the Conspiracy and killing your Brother was carried on by the Lord Powy's and the late Earl of Berkshire and Coleman and St. Germain the Jesuit by and with the advice of the Jesuits and those of your Council at St. James's and your good worthy self It will not be inconvenient to put you in mind that your Brother was a mortal Hater of the Protestant Religion and the way of Governments by Parliaments for do but observe a Letter
of his to the French King bearing date in June 1676. in which he saith to this Effect That if he could be assured of a Pension that might continue he should not continue that way of governing viz. by frequent Parliaments which at the best was but a clamorous Rabble that took upon them to direct Kings but as he was resolved to be like his Neighbours in Riches and Grandeur so he was resolved to be like them in Religion too This was the Effect and Substance of that Letter that was shewed to me by John Keins and Basil Langworth but said Keins the French King was too old to be cullied out of his Mony by a man that was so uncertain All these things I communicated to the King your Brother in private in the Princes Lodging in White-hall who gave me Thanks for not communicating these Things to the Parliament and told me that he was now fully convinced of the Reasons and Grounds the Papists had of taking away his Life and the Prince said I pray God continue your Majesty on that Opinion for now you may see they are a â—ort of people that are not to be endured in a civil Government Good God said the King your Brother is this the kindness that is to be shewed me for all the favours that I have shewed that people At which his Majesty wept the Prince then bid me withdraw and sent for me the next day and conjured me not to communicate one word of the Discourse I had with the King for saith he it will be neither safe for the King nor you nor any of us if this should be reported And also his Highness the Prince had often enjoyned and engaged me that when I met with any thing that might reflect upon the King to be sparing there because the Publication of those things might tend to alienate the King's Heart from the frequent use of Parliaments without which the Kingdom could never rid it self from the apparent Danger of Popery But when the Prince saw how the Parliaments and the whole Nation were treated by him and your self and villanous Party he heartily repented of his Injunction laid on me and so did I of my Promise made to him there were three great Reasons why it was necessary that this Plot should at that time be discovered 1. That the Life of the King your Brother might be preserved if he had so pleas'd 2. To shew to the World what a sort of men you herded withal and what we were to expect from you when ever you should come to the Crown 3. To prevent iâ— possible your coming to the Crown since you were in your own Nature such an Enemy of our Religion and Government 4. For the Discharge of my Conscience to God and my Country and that such Malefactors might be brought to publick Justice 1. That the Life of your Brother might have been preserved if his Majesty had been so pleased in order to this it was highly necessary that the Kingdom should be awakened to provide in all legal and due ways for the Protection of the person of the King your Brother you may if you will remember that you had brought the Nation into such a Lethargick State and Condition as did not only amaze those that loved it but encouraged also those that hated it they were much out who thought that your villainous Crew had laid their Designs aside when your Brother sent out a sham Proclamation against Priests and Jesuits or when the Pensioners had given Popery a broad side in the House of Commons in order to make their Measures come in the more freely or when the last Bill passed in the year 1673 though that Bill did them no manner of Service in the World but hurt Alas good Sir you and your Villains by these sleepy proceedings of the then Parliament were prick'd on to be the more industrious in the pursuit of your wicked Designs you and your Accomplices had so stated your Case that there could be no retreat and rather than you would be deseated of your Hopes you and your Villains were resolved to pawn your Lives and Fortunes and your all upon your great Adventure for you had laboured too long in the Design which you had brought to bear so well to lose in a moment the Fruits of Seven Eight or Ten years Toils and Endeavours for suppose Sir the Protestant Party should have been so good natured as to have forgiven you and your Accomplices yet you could not have relyed upon their mercy because you had proceeded so far in this Conspiracy and therefore you being well fraught with such a Cargo of Guilt what could be expected from you but your being desperate to the last degree And therefore since you knew that not Lawrel but Hemp was the reward of Treason your Party were resolved not to be dismayed at the Horrour of your Treasons but were rather inflamed to revenge your selves upon the Parliament that sometimes barked against Popery and Arbitrary Power you knew very well what you and your Villains had deserved and rather than â—amely to suffer the publick Justice of the Nation you were resolved not to be without the Aid and Assistance of a Forreign Power and every man that was not a Stranger to Conversation could not but hear what large Contributions were provided for you in all Popish Countries upon which you and your party were notoriously impudent which was no sign of your Innocence but of your Villany and the Assurance you had of compleating the Nations Râ—ine and though they had brought the King your Brother to that State that he would not believe if any Malecontent should discover your Designs either against him or the Government both in Church and State yet there was none but in that Day before any discovery was made saw the Design in general and that your Brother as well as you was engaged in it and because he had forseited his Credit with you and your Accomplices your Popish Party thought him not â—it to live and therefore since the Case waâ— so it was then necessary that the Government should not only disengage him from that wicked Enterprise and that he might not perish it was necessary that your Designs against him in particular should also be detected 2. Another Reason of this discovery was to shew to the world what sort of Men they were with whom you herded and what we were to expect from you when ever you came to the Crown for you that was a Traytor to the Kingdom by those cursed Designs of yours when you was a Subject would of Consequence be a Tyrant whenever you mounted the Throne many that judged you a bigotted Papist did not conclude you a Traytor till your designs were discovered and then they could expect nothing less of you than an Arbitrary and Dispotick Reign when you should come to wear the Crown hence it was that upon the discovery of the Popish Plot that the Parliament voted
if it were so necessary to have it known that your Crew were not men of that Loyalty they pretended why then were not the Witnesses better receiv'd by the King your Brother who the last moment of his Life was satisfied of the Innocency of the Roman Catholicks Truly Sir there were several reasons why the King your Brother it may be might not receive the witnesses so well and believe them as he ought to have done 1. Because he was engag'd in the whole Conspiracy of introducing Popery and Slavery but was not privy to that part which related to his own Life 2. Your Brother lov'd to appear a Prince of Mercy and Clemency tho' he had not one dram of those Princely Virtues but what his meer Cowardice compel'd him to 3. The Nature of the Evidence given 4. The Interest of the Conspirators These you shall have in due time and not before tho' you cry your Eyes out 3 Reason why it was necessary that your Conspiracy should be discover'd was to prevent your coming to the Crown for certainly it could be neither safe nor proper to set a Popish Head over a Protestart Interest especially since you had made so many Attempts upon the Protestant Religion to destroy it and in order to its destruction made such an Alliance with France as I have at large already made out in which I think you are as fully expos'd as your Heart and Soul can wish and therefore Sir I think you noâ— your Party can never blame those Parliaments that intended and attempted your Exclusion when you was Duke of York 4 That I might discharge a good Conscience and that such Malefactors might be brought to publick Justice It is well known Sir that the King your Brother was a Favourer of the Popish Interest as being the greatest Favourers of Monarchy and he was pleas'd himself to offer to reconcile me to that Party and told me That if I would engage upon the word of a Minister not to bear any Testimony against those I had accused before the Council but would be rul'd by him I should have Ten thousand pounds to buy me an Annuity and if I would I should retire to any College in either University and live there quietly urging to me that a Parliament would never gratifie me and that it was in his power only to shew me Favour and therefore advised me to follow his Directions and if I did it would be impossible for me to miscarry To this I thus reply'd I humbly thank your Majesty for your Grace and Favour and I should willingly accept of your Royal Offer were it not the highest Breach of Trust reposed in me by your Commons in this Parliament besides Sir said I your Nobles in the House of Peers must and so will all Mankind judge me the worst of Men if I should so basely desert my Cause It is plain that the Popish Party have a Design against your Majesties Life and all our Lives Liberties and Religion and therefore by the Grace of God I will stand by the Cause to the uttermost of my power to the last minute of my Life I bless God for the Grace of Perseverance I have discharg'd a good Conscience and tho' I was left by your Brother and persecuted by you yet your Villains were some of them brought to publick Justice and made Examples for their many notorious Treasons against the Religion Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom 7. I now come to shew you what Evidence there was to prove this Conspiracy that you were engag'd in for the destruction of the Person of the King and for the bringing in of Popery and Aâ—bitrary Power Your Popish Traytors were so impudent in their ways that there was no manner of difficulty of finding Proof against them had but your Brother and you stood Neuters but you were both equally engag'd with Lewis the French King to bring in Popery and Slavery But that it may appear to all the World that the Popish Plot was not short of being duly proved but on the contrary it was made so plain and evident that the Lords and Commons of England did receive the Proofs and the Evidence upon no terms could be contradicted therefore now I shall produce the Evidence of the Guilt of those who were accused to be concern'd in the same 1. The constant bloody Principles of the Church of Rome was a Testimony sufficient to have convicted them of being guilty of such a horrid Conspiracy for do but remember how that Apostatical Synagogue of Satan will not bear with any Kingdom Common-wealth or Community of Men that differs from them in Matters of Religion and declares against them as Antichristian and Idolaters but those who so declare are immediately pronounced Hereticks and de jure they are excommunicated as such according to the Council of Lateran in the time of Pope Innocent the third and by an Edict of Pope Paul the fourth in the Year of our Lord 1558 and if that be not sufficient you may remember that we are in the Bulla Coena Domini which your Holy Father at Rome causeth to be read every Maunday Thursday and there we are solemnly cursed and thereupon Sir your bloody Party and your self and all other Papists living under the Dominions of Protestant Princes were not only discharg'd from all Allegiance to Protestant Princes but all of you were and still are bound by the strictest Bond of Conscience upon pain of being damn'd to depose such Heretical Princes And Vrban the third hath taught you and them that they are so far from being guilty of Murder that they are obliged to kill any who stand excommunicate and are bound to extirpate Hereticks as they would be esteem'd Christians themselves Nay further do but observe the Bull of Clement the tenth wherein you may if you please see plainly that it is a Crime of the deepest dye for a Roman Catholick to be loyal to a Protestant Prince nay such are publickly cursed in the view of the World so that it is apparent that no Protestant Government can be safe where such a number of Men have a Being and are in any manner countenanc'd Again Bellarmin your great Cardinal tells you in words at length and is so impudently plain that a man of an Irish Understanding may know his meaning his words are these Hereticks are to be destroy'd Root and Branch if it can possibly be done but if it appears that the Catholicks are so few that they cannot conveniently with their own safety attempt such a thing then in such a case it is best to be quiet de Laicis Lib. 3 Ep. 22. Lest upon opposition made by Hereticks the Catholicks should be worsted And from hence Bannes another of the Supporters of your murdering principles hath no other Apology to make for the English Papists why they do not forcibly rise up against a King and his Subjects proâ—essing the Protestant Religion but that they are not powerful enough for such an
your Brother had dâ—coyed a Parcel of honest Lords into his Councel and had exposed them for their goâ—d will to preserve his Hâ—nour and Reputation wiâ—h his People if it had â—een pâ—ssible but your party grew stâ—ong upon us even to that degree that no flesh was abâ—e to bear it as for my Lord Barkshires Letters I had not the opportuniâ—y of seeing them and therefore I must reâ—er my self to them that are yet alive that were of that Committe when it was first Constituted if there be any such 8. Testimony that Justified the truth of the Popish Plot was the Murder of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey whom you and your Villains got sent into another world to tell Tales there for you and your Cutthroars resolved that he should tell none in this of which as I said before you got some way or another I know not how for your deeds were deeds of darkness that Coleman should have notice of his being Secured which certainly did much allay the Poor Rogues Melancholy and prevented his Evidence just then turning against your self of which you were much affraid and began to smell in your Harness and all your Blood-hounds began to Stink for fear you may remember that you and your Blood hounds had for several days been Contriving the dispatch of that Magistrate at last you know that a Letter was sent by some of your Crew to Engage this Gentleman to meet several Persons of quality at a place that was well known in those days where he staying somewhat laâ—e and having some business at another house was forced to go by Somerset house he was decoyed in by those rogues of yours that were afterward your Executioners who told him there were two men a fighting and he was by them desired to appease the Quarrel no sooner being entred within the Yard but they got him Seized and immediately Strangled him and then they Carried him into the House of Bael where some of the Muâ—derers were merry with the dead Body whether Mrs. Morley and her Kennel of Whores pissed upon him I cannot say and others they Spitt upon him as the Story goes but no more of that I am fully assured he was basely and villainously Murthered by your contrivance and by the Contrivance of your Bloody Cutthroats for do but Observe first you know that his Body was Carried to Dr. Goddens Lodgings a Bloody Rogue that would have been talked withal had he been within the reach of the Law after that he was Carried to Greenbury-hill where he was found with his Sword run through his Body but the relations of this Gentleman missing him they applied to the Councel then sitting for at that time your Brother and you and soâ—â— other of the Court were at Newmarket and a Proclamation was Ordered but care was taken to deceive an honest English Nobleman who through his Credulity of a rascally Cabinet maker comes and tells the Councel that Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey was Married to the Widdow Offley and was found in Bed with her this Device put off the Proclamation for one Councel day and by the next your Villains had got his Body conveyed to the Place where it was found which being brought home and a Coroner sent for and a Jury impanelled to Consider how he came by his Death But Sir It is worthy of your Consideration and therefore I pray observe this That this poor Gentleman being found in this Condition the thinking sort of Mankind were all much Concerned and Multitudes went to see the dead Body but your Villains with a wide Mouth gave out that he was a melancholly Man and that it was incident to his Family to make away with themselves but the Gentleman's Brother and Friends knew the falsity of that Story and disproved it and were resolved to look narrowly into the thing and accordingly took so much Pains to have the Truth found out that you were much offended at it yet for all that they let his Body lye Exposed for several days when his Body was found you had a good Natur'd Villain that sent for One of Sir Edmunds Brothers and spoke with him concerning his Brothers Estate Mr. Godfrey came tho full of Confusion and Trouble and mâ—â— with the Spark who told him he was heartily Sorry for the loss of his Brother but withal told him he was a melancholly Man and out of Friendship and Respect he bore to Sir Edmund he would be so much a Friend to his Relations as to endeavour to save his Estate and find a way to Prevail upon the Coroner to return him Distracted that the Estate might not be forfieted to the King or he would beg the Estate of the King for him and his Relations this was the Sum and Substance of the Rogues discourse with Mr. Godfrey but Sir you may Remember that this Villain had agreed with you that Collonel Legg should beg the Estate and accordingly did beg the Estate of the King your Brother and the Estate was given to the said Legg upon Condition the Coroners inquest returned Justice Godfrey a Pelo de se and that was the Game you played to the utmost of your Power so that as you and your Villains had robbed him of his Life his Estate also must go to maintain the Luxury of One of your Minions Well then how did Mr. Godfrey Carry himself in this Affair Truly he was much Concerned at this white-liver'd Devil and his diabolical Suggestions and honestly despised the Offers made him by this filthy Suborner Nay if the Duke of Buckingham himself had been in his Place he could not have shewed a greater Abhorrence of this Devil incarnate and therefore more fully he was resolved to pursue his Point and did with the utmost Vigor and you was graciously pleased all this time not to be Idle and you had good reason Honest Man therefore you joyned in with Mrs. Remarkable his Spouse and abroad you send your Rogues who were extreamly busie with the Coroner and Jury whom you could Bribe as well as your white-liver'd Spark could Suborn and between the one and the other you gave your selves great hopes of a return of a Felo de se and were mighty Merry at the Chopps as if Gallows Wood had been all your own but the Coroner and his Jury finding his Neck broke and the Shoes on his Feet clean with other apparent Proofs which were so Manifest that all the Tricks you and your Villains had used to smother this Murther were to no Purpose for the Jury brought it in a Barbarous Murther and so Legg went without the Estate and you were defeated of your Expectations he was solemnly buried and all Mankind but the Conspirators believed that he was Murthered by the Papists and the Councel Issued out a Proclamation to Discover the Murderers But how do you Strut and Vapour like a Pig in a Sty that hath had two breakfasts in a Morning and say I how doth it appear that the Papists Murdered Sir
since the Execution of Ireland Mr. Jenison a Gentleman of Grays-Inn who was a Papist till about January in the Year 1678 9. affirmed that Mr. Ireland was in Town about the middle of August and that he was with him then at a Scriveners at the Sign of the White Hart in Russel-street in Covent Garden which relation he confirmed with several other notable circumstances Mr. Chetwind having heard this went to Whitehall and there attended on the Earl of Shaftsbury then Lord President of your Brother 's Privy Council and acquainted his Lordship with what Mr. Griffith had told him the said Earl told Mr Chetwind that it would be very considerable if it could be made out Mr. Chetwind being thus encouraged by the said Earl went upon thâ— 16th following to find out Sir Michael Wharton and coming to the Coffee-house in Covent Garden where Sir Michael used to be when in Town he met with Mr. Ralph Marshal who is now One of his Majesties Justices of the Peace for Middlesex who upon Discourse told Mr. Chetwind that Sir Michael lived at Hamstead that Summer Mr. Marshal understanding somewhat of the Matter for which Mr. Chetwind inquired after Sir Michael he said Sir Michael had often related to him and he was sure he would justifie it that Mr. Jenison of Grays Inn told him the said Sir Michael Wharton in the presence of several other Gentlemen of Quality presently after the death of Ireland the several following Particulars which they had hitherto taken no care to discover because they expected not that the Evidence given in against him the said Ireland would after his Execution come into question or debate the Particulars were these 1. That in the Month of August 1678 when the King your Brother was at Windsor Mr. Jenison going to Windsor on the 17th of August and returning the 19th immediately upon his return that night he went to give Mr. Ireland a Visit and found him at the Sign of the Hart in Russel street in Covent Garden and after a Salute Mr. Ireland asked him many questions as what News from Windsor How the King spent his time what Recreation he followed and whether he walked abroad much and how guarded To which Mr. Jenison answered that the King delighted much in Hawking and Fishing but most in the latter which he followed early in the Morning with some few Persons attending him upon which Mr Ireland replyed that he wondred that the King was no better guarded he was easily to be taken off whereupon Mr. Jenison replyed and said God forbid which made Ireland stop his Discourse Mr. Marshall reporting this to Mr. Chetwind in the presence of Mr. Ash and Mr. Spicer Mr. Ash replyed he was the night before this Discourse in Company with Mr. Griffith and Mr. Booth second Son to the then Lord Delamere where he heard them discourse this matter Mr. Booth saying that he heard Mr. Jenison speak the same things whereupon Mr. Marshal undertook to go that very day to Hampstead to Sir Michael Wharton and give Mr. Chetwind an Account of it the next Morning and Mr. Ash and Mr. Spicer also before Mr. Chetwind and they parted having promised to go to Mr. Booth they met him who justified every Syllable of what he said and withal remembred very well that when Sir Michael took some particular notice of it Mr. Jenison seemed to be surprised and was sorry he had uttered those words but Mr. Bowes who was present said Jenison you cannot retract your words for I have a Letter under your hand which will put you in mind of the time and he said Mr. Bowes repeated the very same thing Upon the 20th of June 1679 Mr. Booth and Mr. Bowes met with Mr. Jenison and discoursed the Matter with him who then owned all the questions that Ireland asked him namely what News at Windsor and how the King spent his time but Mr. Jenison desired a days time to consider that he might be exact as to the time when they were spoken for that several had told him that Mr. Ireland had been in Staffordshire from the fifth of August to the seventh of September and therefore he resolved to be serious in thinking upon the time when he had this Discouâ—se with Mr. Ireland in London these Gentlemen above named appointed to dine together on the 21st of June where met Sir Michael Wharton Mr. Jenison Mr. Bowes Mr. Booth Mr. Griffith and Mr. Marshall where by Mr. Bowes Mr. Jenison's Letter was shewed which he acknowledged to be writ by his own hand and further told them that upon the 15th of August he returned to London from Tunbridge and on the 17th day he went to Windsor and returned on the 19th and either that night or the next day he had this discourse with Mr. Ireland at the Sign of the Hart in Russel street in Covent Garden Mr. Jenison was pleased further to relate that upon the fourth of September following he went from London into the North and returned back to London in November following and from thence he removed to Reading from whence he wrot the above mentioned Letter to Mr. Bowes this Confession of his Mr. Marshal took incerting at that very time when they dined together all of them being present as also a tâ—ue Copy of his Letter he wrot from Reading which he brought to Mr. Chetwind who carryed the same on the 22d of June to the Earl of Shaftsbury then Lord President of the Privy Councel and communicated them to several of the then Councel and on the 23. Mr. Chetwind brought Mr. Bowes and Mr. Marshal to the Lord Shaftsbury who produced to his Lordship the Original Letter before whom also the said Mr. Jenison acknowledged the Letter to be his own all which was taken upon Oath by a Justice of the Peace for the County of Middlesex and Liberty of Westminster 2. That this may be clear I shall offer Sir to your Consideration the ensuing Informations of these persons named under the first Head taken by a Justice of the Peace which will be a sufficient confirmation of the whole Matter by which you will be left without Excuse as to the clearness of that point of Ireland's being in Town which was one of the points which I did deeply suffer against all Law and Justice in the time of your Usurpation of the Crown therefore observe the Information of Sir Michael Wharton Kt. who saith That about the month of February last Mr. Bowes and Mr. Burnet of Grays Inn and my self where Mr. Jenison an Acquaintance of Mr. Bowes accidentally came into the room so that we dined together and upon general Discourses at Diner we were talking of Mr. Ireland's Tryal or Execution whereupon Mr. Bowes begun the Discourse of a Letter he had from Mr. Jenison which he thought if he had received timely enough might have very much cleared the point of Mr. Ireland's being in Town in August last Mr. Jenison owned the Letter and continued the Discourse some
Charges of the Government and that whereas they were asâ—ured by the then Marquis of Huntley that they begun pretty well in Scotland and that if four Hundred Thousand Pound Per annum were setled in England upon the King your Brother and his Heirs for Ever that then your Brother would stand no more in need of this Peevish Parliament and when that he was Dispatcht their would be something for a Successor to come to therefore they prayed you in these Letters that you would Perswade the King your Brother to move in Parliament for an Additionall Revenue for such an Additionall Revenue for him and his Heirs Upon your sight of this Letter you did Prevail with the King to move it in Parliament and what became of the Motion we all well know for though your Pensioners were willing to often to grant the King a sum of Money yet for fear of becoming as useless to themselves as they had been Dangerous to their Countrey they fairely denied him such a Revenue but the Jesuits when they found their Expectation Defeated did Write to these Lords that notwithstanding the unwillingness of the Parliament to settle such a Revenue that they questioned not but to find a Sufficient Revenue for the Successor without the help of a Parliament which Letter you saw and was much pleased that the Jesuits were concerned for the support of the Successor 10. That when your villanous Conspiracy was Discovered the said Lord Arundel of VVardour in your presence did chide Justice Godfrey and told him that he had been to forward in taking my Depositions which did put Godfrey into great feares as he told me but a Week before he was missing and that he told him in your Presence the Day before the King went to New-market that the said Justice Godfrey would finde the Parliament would give him no thanks for his paines LORD POWIS It is time to hasten to this Noble Lord and put you in mind how far he was Ingaged with you in your mighty Work that you had upon your Hand and you must own him as necessary a Traytor as you had in the whole bunch therefore to ingage him to you he had your Countenance and in return of such a favour he was as Obsequious as any of them all Therefore 1. You may remember that at your direction he Intertained in his House one William Morgan one of the Consult held in April 1678 and that this Lord Powis knew him to be such for by his then Secretary which was Mr. Peirson he sent a note to speake with Mr. Morgan in which he said he hoped that they had come to a Resolution in the affair it being four of the Clock in the Afternoon by this Peirson the Lord Powis received his Commission to be Lord High Treasurer of England from Feâ—wick and Ireland and this Peirson delivered to them a Letter from the Lord Powis and 300 l. for the use of the Society in which Letter he said that he would venture his Life and Fortune in the affairs and give me leave to tell you that I saw the Commision before that Ireland and Fenwick had it at Langhorn's Chamber in the Temple 2. That there was a Commission from Rome that the Government of the Nation should be in the Hands of the Lord Powis and the Lord Belasys but the Lord Arundel of Wardour who was alwayes to preside in their councels and by the way of Coleman you were to have an account of their Resolution and by the way I pray observe that Powis and Arundel of Wardour had Negotiated between you and the Pope for Eight Years and that Powis and Belasys was also to Execute all such orders that they received from the Generall of the Jesuits and the French King with which you were also acquainted from time to time by Mr. Coleman and some times by the Father Generall himself and from Lachaise on the behalfe of the French King and from both those that you might not appear least the evil that fell upon Coleman might have been your Portion 3. Further to oblige you the good Lord Powis bred up his Soâ— at the Jesuits Colledge at Paris and in order to his better Reception there you recomended him to the care of Father Lachaise and in his Letter to his Son there was one sent to Father Lachaise in which he and the rest of the Popish Lords engaged with you in the Conspiracy against the Religion and Government earnestly importune the aid and assistance of the French King which Letters bore date about the latter part of December 1677 and in his Letters to the Fathers at St. Omers of the same date in which his Lordship protested his Prudence in the managing the design there on Foot and that he had distributed the 2000 Tickets amongst the Catholick Party in the West that were then Well-wishers which were to be their Protection from the Rage of those who were to come from France to Suppress the Protestant Party and that he had a good Friend that had a great authority in Wales and the bordering Counties that would Joyn in with the Catholick Party and in a Particular manner promised that the Militia in Wales should not be in any posture to give them any Opposition and that he had procured severall to be made Deputy Lieutenants by the favour of his good Friend that had promised to appear for the Catholick Party when the Design should take effect and that it did become them to bear a Signall respect to his Friend which he Named but I will not but your old Friend Mr. Arnold can for a need for he hath been an Excellent Friend of his the cleane contrary way and how the said Lord gave a great Incomium of Sr. Politick Fring Mr. Arnold's Friend for that he had made several worthy Justices in those parts that were hearty Men in the cause what ever the World thought of them 4. That in other Letters of more Ancient Date to the Fathers at St. Omers he the said Lord Powis did write to the Jesuits that he had procured severall forward Fellowes to be turned out of the Commission of the peace Particularly Mr Arnold and Mr. Scudamore and others did but Bark against the Catholicks and you told them that you were pleased that a Lieutenancy through out all England should be constituted of such as should be True Men and further assured them that there was great summs would be Expended as soone as you should receive that summ of 300000 l. from the French King to enable you and these Letters bore date 1675. And another of 1675 And furthermore told the Fathers in that of 1675 that great numbers were dayly converted to the Faith and obedience of the Roman Catholick Church 5. In his Letters of June 1678 he the said Lord Powis acquainted the Fathers that Mr. Coleman was to open in his business and did desire the Fathers to admonish Mr. Coleman to be more close and stick more to
very Obsequious to the Strumpets that were about him yet do but observe what Credit the Parliament of England gave the Witnesses and that through the Power of Truth and Energy that was in the Testimony they gave 1. Upon the Testimony they received from me when I was a single Testimony upon the first of November 1678 the Lords and Commons past this Vote viz. Resolved Nemine Contradicente That upon the Evidence that hath already appeared to this House that this House is of Opinion that there hath been and still is a Damnable and Hellish Plot Contrived and Carried on by the Popish Recusants for the Assassinating and Murthering the King and for the Subverting the Government and Rooting out and Destroying the King To which Vote the Lords agreed Nemine Contradicente 2. The Lord Chancellour Finch that famous Tool reported upon the 28th of November 1678 the effect of a Conference desired by the Commons that upon hearing of the Testimony of Mr. Bedloe and my self that they were in an Amazment when they considered in what danger the Person of the King your Brother was and his Government whereupon they prepared an Address to be presented to the King your Brother to which they desired the Concurrence of the House of Lords and they had the Concurrence of the House of Lords in the said Address and it was accordingly presented to the said King on the 29th by both Houses so that you and your Villains may see that the Discovery of the Popish Plot was not so small a Matter as you would seem to make of it 3. Observe the Address of Parliament on the 21st of March 1679 in which the Parliament did lay before the King your Brother the great Sence they had of the sad and Calamitous Condition of this Kingdom occasioned chiefly by the Impious and Malicious Conspiracies of the Popish Party who had not only Plotted and intended the Distruction of the King your Brother but the total Subversion of the Government and the true Religion established amongst us and therefore they Prayed that a Day might be set a part for Fasting and Prayer and accordingly a Day was set apart but I suppose though you knew of that Day you nor none of your Villains ever kept it 4. Observe the Vote of the 24th of March 1679 Resolved Nemine Contradicente by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and by the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled That they are fully satisfy'd by the Proofs that they have heard that there now is and for divers Years last past hath been a horrid and Treasonable Plot and Conspiracy contrived and carried on by those of the Popish Religion for the Murthering of his Majesties Sacred Person and for the Subverting of the Protestant Religion and the ancient and well established Government of this Kingdom To which Vote Sir give me leave to remind you of the Impeachment of the five Popish Lords upon which Impeachment the Lord Viscount Stafford was tried and found Guilty and suffered the Pains of Death as a Traytor to the King and Kingdom and so fully satisfyed was the Parliament of the Integrity and Truth of the Witnesses that they intended to have proceeded against the rest of the Traytors that none of them could have escaped the Justice of the Nation had not they been dissolved in a most Arbitrary manner 5. Observe the Proceedings of the Parliament against Nathaniel Reading Esq who Corresponded with the Lords in the Tower that stood Impeached for the Popish Plot in their Address to the King your Brother upon the 8th of April 1679 in which they set forth the Inquiry they had made into the Hellish Design that was carried on by the Papists against the Person and Government of the King your Brother and upon Examination they found that he the said Reading had used his utmost endeavours to prevent and suppress the Kings Evidence and as much as in him lay to stifle the Discovery of the said Plot and and thereby to render the same Fallacious and of no Reality and by such undue Means to prevent the Malefactors from coming to Justice therefore they prayed that a Commission of Oyer and Termâ—er might be issued forth for the trying of the said Reading for that Offence Reading was tried and was found Guilty and therefore would have you take notice of what was said by the then Lord chief Justice North when he gave Judgment upon the said Reading I will tell you says he your offence is so great and hath such a Relation to that which the whole Nation is concerned in because it was on attempt to baffle the Evidence of that Conspiracy which if it had not been by the mercy of God detected God knows what might have befallen us all by this time and still the Parliament have it under their Consideration how to prevent any farther mischief by it but this Villain of a Cut-throat had the grace to join with your Brother and you to stifle it as I shall shew you in the next Part of this your sweet Picture 6. Observe the Address of the House of Commons upon the 14th of May upon the Assurance that the King your Brother had given the then Parliament of his constant Care to do every thing that might preserve the Protestant Religion and Government they did upon the said Assurances represent to the King your Brother the deep Sense they had of the state of Religion and shewed the King that the Papists by their Designs against his Person and Government which the said Parliament was resolved to defend gave themselves hopes of Success therefore the Parliament were resolved to apply themselves to the making such Laws as might defeat those Popish Adversaries of their Hopes of gaining any Advantage by any Attempt they should at any time Form against the Person of the King your Brother 7. Another Instance of the Credit the Discovery of the Popish Plot had you may see in this Address of the House of Commons to the King your Brother The ADDRESS to his Majesty from the Commons Saturday Nov. 13 th 1680. May it please your most Excellent Majesty WE your Majesty's most loyal and obedient Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament assembled having taken into our most serious Consideration your Majesty's gracious Message brought unto us the Ninth Day of this instant November by Mr. Secretary Jenkins do with all Thankfulness acknowledg your Majesty's Care and Goodness in inviting us to expedite such Matters as are depending before us relating to Popery and the Plot. And we do in all humility represent to your Majesty that we are fully convinced that it is highly incumbent upon us in discharge both of our Duty to your Majesty and of that great Trust reposed in us by those whom we represent to endeavour by the most speedy and effectual Ways the suppression of Popery within this Kingdom and the bringing to publick Justice all such as shall be found guilty of the horrid and damnable Popish
sort of Vermine that are branded for infamous Rogues and so it is no great matter what they say but for the generality of Protestants they have received the Discovery of the Popish Plot with Hearts that were thankeful both to God and their Deliverers And let me tell you for all your Sneering that our sober Protestants are Men of as much Learning and Knowledge and as acute in Judgment as ever your Party were since the Usurpation of the Bishop of Rome Sit down and once in your Life time look like Men. Protestants are Men free from silly Superstition Men of a clearer and more noble Religion which inspires a clearer and a more Illuminated Reason that ever Popery could ever pretend to do and truly you and your Party must Imagine that the sence of the Protestant Party within these three Kingdoms was so stupid that they could not understand Truth from Fals-hood without the assistance of your gracious Vindication but Truly you had better have let the business alone for you and your Popish Crew have so weakly defended the Point of your Innocency that you have Spoiled your Cause but you have your Reward for the great peice of Service you did your selfe and Party and so good Night Mr. Innocency and let us heare what you have further to say to this Charge in hand why the World should not believe you and your Party guilty of carrying on that Horrid Design to Murder the King your Brother and subvert our Laws Liberties and Religion Obj. 2. You and your Papists used to say that it is not the Clamour of the Hainousness and Horrour of a crime impuâ—ed but the Guilt and cleare Conviction of a crime proved that renders Man accountable to Justice What a prâ—tty sort of an Irish Evasion you have found ouâ— One would think that Tom Jenner or Franck Wyâ—hens or old Robin Wright your famous Chief Justice had been teaching you some weak Rudiments of that little cunning they had to help you in the time of Need but whether they had or have not it s much alike to me let me aske you this one fair Question Did Coleman and the rest of those Traytors that suffered for that Conspiracy lie only under the single imputation of a Crime Were not some indicted fairly tryed fully heard and were not wanting to themselves in the least to make their Defence Nor did the Courts Judicatures want patience to heaâ— them and they were upon full Evidence Convicted and Condemned others impeached in Parliament by the Commons of England why sure Mr. Wise-acre you will not make this a single Imputation Nay I will appeal to Jack Carâ—yll himself if this be not many degrees beyond a single Imputation come Sir by your leave and the leave of Mrs. Pugg and his Welsh Highness it was no Clamour that prosecuâ—ed your Villaines but by a Proof allowed by all the Courts of Justice and by the High Authority of both Houses of Parliament bring but half so much proof of your Honesty for ought I know you may yet do mighty things for your Self and Party Obj. 3. That as Treason is the worst of Crimes so is the stain of Innocent Blood when shed by Perjury hard to be washed of Ans. I suppose you â—udge this to be a Peice of Newes I pray Sir was it not put into the last Paris Gazette or into your friend Dyers News Letter I suppose you thinke the Sons of Men here as ignorant as you and your Party have been foolish and Knavish but to put the Matter out of doubt you and your Crew say no thing but what all the World knowes already But where was â—your Proof of any Act of Perjury Committed its true you by your St. Omers Boyes did make three or four Attempts up on me and by a number of Whores and Rogues you battered at me twice and you were defeated and your forces fled to the place from whence they came in six or seven Years after when my Witnesses were Dead or durst not Appear and you having two Villanous Juries you made a fresh Attack Rallied all your Forces and then you carried your Point by the help of your four â—ambskin Rogues then sitting in the Kings Bench and you paid dear for it it cost you 3037 l. 9 s. 6 d. besides the Subornation Money old Hodge received to make him and his inferiour Bumms merry and for half the Money with such Judges and two such Juries a Man might have Convicted twenty Men of a far greater and better Reputation in the World then ever I could pretend too nevertheless I defie the worst of my Enemies to charge me with any hard Thing that was in my Power to have avoided But pray Sir what was my being in Town or my not being in Town in the Month of April or Irelands being in Town or not being in Twon in the Month of August 1678 to the whole Discovery of the Popish Plot though Truth of both those Points for which you like a Villain Suborned Witnesses against me so that I suffered the greatest Barbarities that ever were heard of or seen since the supposed Conquest What I say was all this to the purpose to Colemans Letters and those of the then Lord Berkshire that Confest upon his Death-Bed the whole Conspiracy therefore you and your Party shall not need to make such a stir about the Convicting of me of two pretended Perjuries but you might as well have Convicted me for being one of my Lord Mayor of Londons Coach Horses or Jack Gibbons for writing a Traytorous Letter against your Brother that was never blessed with the Gift of Writing and Reading in his whole Life time yet he was Accused upon Oath by some of your Suborned Crew and lay in Prison upon the said Accusation for six Months and you would have blessed the poor honest Man with a decent hanging had not the Villany of your self and Party been detected but as I said before so I say again I shall stand by the Truth of what I have Sworn to the last Minute of my Life and could you have brought five Parliaments to have owned and justified your Honesty and your keeping your Coronation Oath you took or should have taken you would not have been driven ouâ— of your native Country from the enjoyment of your Crown you acquired by the Murther of your own Brother to be a Fugitive and Vagabond as a just reward for all your Perjuâ—y and villanous Conspiracy against the Religion Laws and Liberties of these three Kingdoms Therefore you have no such Cause if the matter were well examined to make such a noise about Perjury and my being Convicted for Perjury nor nor Mr. Prate-apace your broken Colonel nor Mr. Wind and stink your Logger head of a Warden nor Dr. Tickle-pitcher his Name-sake no nor Mr. Pass-maker That was so lewd that he was capable of nothing but the Priesthood for being to bold with a certain Seal of a Friend of his when he