These things Gentlemen I in particular recommend to you not as all you business but yet as things that cry aloud for redress for there does fall within your Enquiry High-Treasons Petty-Treasons Felonies of all sorts whether against the Person Possession or Goods of a man Riots Routs and unlawful Assemblies and every thing that is an Offence against the Publick Peace in which I am not more particular because I fear I have held you too long already and therefore I will trouble you no farther but pray God to direct you in your Business FINIS BOOKS Printed for R. Baldwin MErcurius Britannicus Or the New Observator Containing Reflections upon the most Remarkable Events falling out from time to time in Europe and more particularly in England The Fifth Volume Printed for Ric. Baldwin where are also to be had the First Second Third and Fourth Volumes with the Appendix to them The Speech of the Right Honourable Thomas Earl of Stamford Lord Gray of Grooby c. at the General Quarter-Sessions held for the County of Leicester at Michaelmas 1691. His Lordship being made Custos Rotulorum for the said County by the late Lord Commissioners of the Great Seal Bibliotheca Politica Or a Discourse by way of Dialogue Whether Absolute Non-Resistance of the Supreme Powers be enjoined by the Doctrine of the Gospel and was the Ancient Practise of the Primitive Church and the constant Doctrine of our Reformed Church of England Collected out of the most approved Authors both Ancient and Modern Dialogue the Fourth Printed for R. Baldwin where also may be had the First Second and Third Dialogues A Project of a Descent upon France By a Person of Quality A True Relation of the Cruelties and Barbarities of the French upon the English Prisoners of War being a Journal of their Travels from Dinant in Britany to Thoulon in Provence and back again With a Description of the Scituation and Fortifications of all the Eminent Towns upon the Road and their Distance Of their Prisons and Hospitals and the number of men that died under their Cruelty c. Europe's Chains broke or a sure and speedy Project to rescue her from the present Usurpations of the Tyrant of France Reflections upon the late King James's Declaration lately Dispersed by the Jacobites Truth brought to Light or the History of the first 14 years of King James I. In Four Ports I The happy state of England at his Majesty's Entrance the corruption of it afterwards With the Rise of Particular Favourites and the Divisions between this and other States abroad II. The Divorce betwixt the Lady Frances Howard and Robert Earl of Essex before the King's Delegates authorized under the King's Broad-Seal As also the Arraignment of Sir Jer. Ellis Lieutenant of the Tower c. about the murther of Sir Tho. Overbury with all Proceedings thereupon and the King 's gracious Pardon and Favour to the Counâ—â—ss III. A Declaration of his Majesty's Revenue since he came to the Crown of England with the Annual Issues Gifts Pensions and extraordinary Disbursements IV. The Commissions and Warrants for the bâ—rning of two Hereticks newly revived with two Pardons one for Theopâ—â—â—â—s Higgons the other for Sir Eustace Hart. A Sermon preached before the General and Officers in the King's Chappel at Portsmouth on Sunday July 24. 1692 Being the day before they Embarqu'd for the Descent upon France By Willam Gallaway A.M. Chaplain to Their Majesties Sea-Train of Artillery THE Lord DELAMERE's CHARGE TO THE GRAND JURY OF CHESTER THE CHARGE Of the Right Honourable HENRY Earl of WARRINGTON TO THE GRAND JURY AT THE QUARTER SESSIONS Held for the County of Chester On the 11th of October 1692. LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1693. THE CHARGE Of the Right Honourable HENRY Earl of WARRINGTON TO THE GRAND JURY c. GENTLEMEN PEACE in a Nation is like Health in a Natural Body whose value is not sufficiently known but by the want of it and herein God Almighty is wonderfully gracious to this Land not only in continuing to us the Blessing of Peace but in teaching us the worth of it by letting us see the Nations round about us in War and groaning under all the miserable Effects of it whilst it is kept at a distance from Us and we are only at some Expence which is unavoidable all Circumstances considered unless we will submit to that Monster the French King And indeed God hath done so many and great things for us that nothing is wanting to compleat our Happiness but our selves Of all the Mercies this Nation hath lately received I think our Deliverance from King James was none of the least if it be a Mercy to be delivered from Popery and Slavery That we were in great danger thereof I think was very evident from what we had suffered and what King James apparently further designed to have done had he been let alone a little longer for his Administration was become so iexorbitant that Men of all persuasions many of the Papists not excepted did think his Yoke intolerable and that it was highly just to be relieved against his Oppressions for when the Prince of Orange landed scarce any Man appeared for King James nay a great many of his Army deserted him which coldness and neglect could not probably proceed from any thing so much as from the ill opinion they had of his Cause Now if any that were then so indifferent and passive have lately conceived a better Opinion of him it may well be suspected that a particular Picque or some Sinister Byas guided their motion at that time and if so it 's no matter what side they are on for those who are governed in such cases by any thing but a publick Principle are easily turned about by every breath of Air Nor can I imagine what can give any man a better opinion of King James now than he had of him before he went into France the only place as he says he could retire to with safety considering how improbable it is that any Instructions which that Tyrant may give him will make him less inclined to Popery and Arbitrary Power Before I come to the Particulars of your Enquiry give me leave to say something of a great Deliverance which God wrought for us this Year To talk of Plots and Conspiracies against the Government may be rather to tell some people News than that which they do believe because we have already heard of many Discoveries of Plots but none that have been prosecuted and for that reason men may be inclined to think they were rather Fictitious than real Plots against the Government Plots sometimes are not prosecuted either because of the great indulgence of the Government being desirous to gain people rather by mercy than by being too extream to mark what is done amiss or it may be because the Government hath a more than ordinary tenderness for that sort of People or it may be because some of
the Ministers of State are concerned in them But whether for any of these Reasons or others it is that we hear of no great Prosecution of those Discoveries that have been made I will not pretend to determine time will best explain this and other Mysteries of the like Nature Yet this I will adventure to say That it is not so safe a Rule to measure Plots by whether they be true or false by the remisness or forwardness of the Government in prosecuting of them as to consider how far it is the interest of the persons accused to carry on such a Design And herein every man of a reasonable understanding is as capable of giving a judgment as the Ministers of State I would not encourage any man to be over-credulous in believing of Plots and yet there are some Conspiracies that carry their own Conviction along with them as it will always be the interest of the Papists to bring in Popery and of the Non-Jurors and those who take the Oaths in a double sense to bring in King James Nor would I be the occasion of pushing on a Prosecution with too much violence and yet to be too remiss is an Errour of the other extream and seems to intimate That either the Government is afraid of them and dare not call them to account or else that it is necessary to oblige that sort of people all it can and when ever either of those cases fall out it is sooner or later mischievous if not fatal to the Government I suppose you have heard that King James intended to land here the last Spring with a French Force tho this seems to be already forgot by some yet I am verily persuaded that many people believe it because of the notoriety of the thing For they that doubt of it may as well question whether there was a Gunpowder Plot for it is as plain as a thing of that nature can be which has not actually taken effect It was wonderfully prevented first by the Easterly Winds that continued so long together and next by the happy success of our Fleet even beyond what any man could have hoped for at that time All things considered it was wholly the work of God and to his ever blessed and holy Name be the praise and glory of it tho the Nation hath not yet made so publick an acknowledgment of it as it usually doth upon less occasions than that was The defeating of that Design is a mercy never to be forgotten for we do not yet know of any Design that was ever formed against this Nation that could have been more bloody and destructive than that would have been For King James in his Declaration doth expresly say That his Intent is to spend the remainder of his Reign as he hath always design'd since his coming to the Crown These Words speak a great deal of comfort to England for they cannot mean less than what he hath already done When he took the Customs against Law Carried on Sham Plots by his countenance and bribery to destroy honest and worthy men When he ravish'd the Corporations of their Liberties and Franchises When he turn'd out Judges for acting according to their Consciences and fill'd the Benches with the Raff of the Gown When he avowedly set up Popery and erected publick Chappels in all parts of the Kingdom When he placed notorious Papists in the Seats of Justice and brought a Jesuit into his Councils to preside publickly there which was more than any Popish Prince ever did When he sate up a High Commission Court When he kept up in time of peace a numerous Army to the terrour of his Subjects and allowed so little for their Quarters as that it amounted to little less than free Quarter When he assumed a Dispencing Power and declared that he would be obeyed without reserve These and a great many other Irregularities were the product of his Reign and it is not very probable that he is brought to a better temper by any thing that he hath seen or learnt from his Conversation with the French King and it is as little probable that that King would have treated him as he hath done had he discovered in King James any disposition to govern more mildly and reasonably for the future How much he is influenced to the contrary is very evident by designing to bring in the French upon us the people of all others this Nation ought most to dread being the old and irreconcilable Enemy of England For whoever looks into History will find that France hath occasioned more trouble to England than all the world besides Nay there has scarce been any ill Design against this Nation but France hath had a hand in it as if their very Climate did necessitate them to be at enmity with us When any of the Kings of England have had a design upon the Peoples Liberties they have entred into a Confederacy with France as the People of all others most likely to serve their Purpose and it has always gone ill with England when our Kings have made an intimate Friendship with the French King as we may remember by woeful experience Let us consider besides that no people under the Sun are at this day so noted for treachery and cruelty as the French of which they have given such pregnant Instances upon the Protestants of their own Nation and in their New Conquests as were never done by the most Barbarous and Uncivilized People For after Terms agreed on and submitted to yet without any new Provocation or other occasion given by those poor Creatures the French have fallen upon them taken from them that little that was left and in cold Blood Murthered them sparing neither Age nor Sex and shall not we then think our selves in a comfortable Condition when we have such Task-Masters as these set over us But it seems these are they by whom King James hopes to be restored to his Kingdoms it is by these that he means to do his Work and they are the Instruments he will imploy to make the Settlement he designs in England for in his Declaration he plainly tells us That if those he brings over with him are not sufficient he has more of the same sort roady at hand Now tho a Reconciliation with King James were practicable under a Supposition that there could be any moral assurance that he would sacredly keep his Word and that he had more just and righteous Intentions then heretofore yet to come in such Company and to bring such a Train along with him makes it impossible to all those who have not abandoned all Sence of Religion and Morality and are not resolved to run into all the Excesses of Cruelty and Oppression But that nothing might be wanting to give Success to this fatal Enterprize and make our Ruin more certain several Persons in England I believe some in every County were not only privy but consenting to it and had prepared Horses and Arms to
BOOKS Sold by Richard Baldwin BIbliotheca Politica Or An Enquiry into the Ancient Constitution of the English Government with respect both to the just Extent of Regal Power and to the Rights and Liberties of the Subject Wherein all the Chief Arguments both for and against the Late Revolution are impartially represented and considered In XIII Dialogues Collected out of the best Approved Authors both Ancient and Modern To which is added An Alphabetical Table to the whole Work The Works of Fr. Rabelais M. D. or the Lives Heroick Deeds and Sayings of Gargantua and Pantagruel Done out of French by Sir Tho. Urchard Kt. and others With a large Account of the Life and Works of the Author particularly an Explanation of the most difficult Passages in them Never before publish'd in any Language Mercury or the Secret and Swift Messenger Shewing how a man may with privacy and speed communicate his Thoughts to a Friend at any distance The second Edition By the Right Reverend Father in God John Wilkins late Lord Bishop of Chester Printed for Richard Baldwin where are to be had The World in the Moon and Mathematical Magick The Antiquity and Justice of an Oath of Abjuration In answer to a Treatise Entituled The Case of an Oath of Abjuration An Essay concerning Obedience to the Supream Powers and the Duty of Subjects in all Revolutions With some Considerations touching the present Juncture of Affairs A Compendious History of the Taxes of France and of the Oppressive Methods of Raising of them An Impartial Enquiry into the Advantages and Losses that England hath received since the beginning of this present War with France A COLLECTION OF SPEECHES OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY Late EARL of Warrington VIZ. I. His Speech upon his being Sworn Mayor of Chester in November 1691. II. His Speech to the Grand-Jury at Chester April 13. 1692. III. His Charge to the Grand-Jury at the Quarter-Sessions held for the County of Chester on the 11th of Octob. 1692 IV. His Charge to the Grand-Jury at the Quarter-Sessions Held for the County of Chester on the 25th day of April 1693. LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick Lane 1694. A Collection of SPEECHES Of the Right Honourable HENRY Late EARL of Warrington THE SPEECH Of the RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY EARL of Warrington Upon his being Sworn MAYOR of Chester In NOVEMBER 1691. I AM much oblig'd to you for the respect you have done me by putting this Trust into my hands and your Kindness is the greater because you did it without any Sollicitation on my part for I did so little expect it that I was extreamly Surpriz'd when I read my Predecessor's Letter which gave me to understand That your Choice of a Mayor for the Year ensuing was fallen upon me it is a great Trust that you repose in me and I hope I shall not Disappoint you in the Considence you have of me It is with some Inconvenience to my private Affairs That I have taken this Journey yet had my particular Occasions suffer'd more I should have made no difficuly in postponing them when an opportunity offers it self of doing any Service to the Publick or to thâ— Corporation neither could I have been excusable if I should have put so great a slight upon the Respect and good Will of my Friends as to refuse to Serve them in this or any other Capacity By the Oath I have now taken I have oblig'd my self before God and the World to that to which my own Inclinations did zealously dispose me for it was with extream Grief when in the late Reigns I beheld your Liberties and Franchises were Ravish'd from you What in me lies shall not be wanting to repair those Breaches that have been made and to prevent the like Invasions for the future I hope during this King's Life we are out of such Dangers since the offering up of Charters can be no acceptable Sacrifice to him because he came to the Crown upon English Principles and Governing by such Politicks is that alone which can make him Safe and Glorious But you may remember that lately we had Two Kings to whom nothing was so acceptable as the submitting our Religion and Liberties to their Arbitrary Wills and Pleasure and this Nation was then so unfortunate as to have a Party in it tho much the least who were industrious to comply with those two Kings in their wicked Desires The first step made by that Party was in their fulsome Addresses where they deliver'd up themselves and all they had to be disposed of at the King's Pleasure Making no other claim to their Liberties and Civil Rights but as Concessions from the Crown telling the King withal That every one of his Commands was Stampt with God's Authority and a great deal of such nauseous Stuff much fitter to be offer'd to some Eastern Monarch or the French King than to a King of England governing by the Laws of the Realm Well had it been if their Falshood and Flattery had gone no further but contrary to their Oath and the Trust reposed in them they proceeded to the Surrendring of Charters a thing so contrary to Justice and inconsistent with the Fundamentals of the Government of England that if such Surrenders can be justified I don't see what can be Dishonest or Vnlawful yet such Proceedings became a Test of Loyalty by which they thought to recommend themselves to the King's Favour whilst those who dissented in this point were accounted disaffected to the Government and were loaded with all manner of Reproaches But Gentlemen till then it was never accounted Liberality to be generous at the expence of others nor the usual way of recommending a man's Fidelity by betraying of a Trust nor to bring a man's word into credit by making light of an Oath These things I mention not that I desire to keep up Divisions amongst us or to discourage any that are sorry for what they have done and are willing to come into the Interest of this Government for I wish from my Soul that we were all of a mind but I mention these things to testify my dislike of such Proceedings and to shew how much I desire to prevent the like for the future For I am sure no man can be hearty for this Government who does not abhor such Proceedings as these were And saying this it puts me in mind of an Observation which I have made for some time which is this That generally those people who refuse to take the Oaths to this King and Queen are such as were active in or consenting to the surrendring of Charters which shews they are men of extraordinary Consciences who think it unlawful to Swear to this Government and yet could think it not only lawful but an Act of unshaken Loyalty to break their Oaths and betray their Trust If there be any such in this Corporation I hope they are but few and will serve as Examples not of Imitation but Admonition to
from Oppressing than to have an Absolute Regal Power And says another The Way of Governing must be both Right and Clear as well as is the End and how this can be expected when a King is guided by no other Rule than that of his unbounded Will and Pleasure I do not see any more than a man can depend upon the Weather Do not all examples of it that ever were prove that Absolute Power and Oppression are inseparable and as naturally proceed the one from the other as the Effect doth from the Cause 'T is a Riddle to me how that Prince can be called God's Ordinance who assumes a Power above what the Law hath invested him with and useth it to the Grieving and Oppressing of his Subjects May not the Plague Famine or Sword as well be called God's Ordinance since one no less than the other is sent by him for the Punishment of that People whom he so visits We may reasonably suppose that Order and Peace are much rather the end of Government than Oppression and Violence because God is a God of order and when he sent the greatest Blessing upon Earth it was Peace and though God was often very wroth with the Kings of Israel and Judah for their Idolatries yet the Innocent Blood they shed and the Violence and Oppression which they committed provoked him more highly and with his severest Judgments he always testified his Displeasure against it I could run out into a large Discourse upon this Subject but I will stop here because I am perswaded that what I have already said is sufficient to convince any one who is unprejudiced That an Absolute Power is so far from being the Right of the King of England that the exercise of such a Power is Unlawful in any King I know very well that in the late Reigns this Doctrine would not have been endured to have said less than this would have cost a man his Head For whoever would not then comply with Arbitrary Power was called a Factious man and an Opposer of the Government but is it not nonsense or very near a-kin to it to call that Seditious that is for bringing things into Order and for maintaining the Laws and supporting the Government Arbitrary desires never did any King good but have ruined many It shook King Charles the Second's Throne and tumbled down his next Successor and though such Kings are left without excuse when Ruined yet I may say they are not only in the fault for their overthrow is in a great measure occasioned by those who Preach up and advise the King to Arbitrary Power Did not other People cocker up and cherish Arbitrary Notions in Kings minds though such Conceptions might sometimes get into their heads yet they would never fructifie nor come to perfection if they were not cultivated by Parasites who make their Court that way in hopes to raise themselves tho with the hazard of their Master's Crown As it befel the late King James whose Male-Administration rendered him unmeet to sway the Scepter And I am very well satisfied that the Judgment upon him was just for unless a People are decreed to be miserable which God Almighty will never do except thereto very highly provoked by their Sins certainly he will never so tye up their hands that they shall not be allowed to use them when they have no other way to help themselves Several Artifices were made use of in the Two late Reigns for the introducing Arbitrary Power and Popery one of which was to insinuate into the minds of the People that the Succession of the Crown was the Chief Pillar of the Government and that the breaking into it upon any pretence whatsoever was no less than a Dissolution of the whole Constitution and nothing but Disorder and Confusion could ensue This Doctrine was boldly then Preached up and prevailed with many and obtained no less than if the Crown had been setled in that Family by an Ordinance or Decree dropt down from Heaven and that every one of that Line or Race had been distinguished from the rest of Mankind by more than ordinary virtues and endowments of Mind and Body But we know not of any such Divine Revelation and happy had it been for this Nation if that Family had been so signal for its Justice and its Piety we might then have prayed That there might not want one of them to fit upon this Throne to all Ages How much this Nation is obliged to that Family we very well remember for the Wounds they gave us are not yet healed Election was certainly the Original of Succession for as the living more safely and with the freer Enjoyment of their Goods was the Original Cause that people associated themselves into a Nation or Kingdom so for the better attaining that End they did set over themselves the best and wisest of their brethren to be their Rulers and Governours and this Administration was trusted in one or more hands according to the Temper and Disposition of the People in which Authority they continued either for their lives or for one year or for some other stated Period of time Where the Government was under a King he usually held it for life and then upon his Decease the people proceeded to a New Election till at last it fell into the hands of some very excellent Person who having more than ordinarily deserved of his Countrey the people as well in Gratitude to him as believing they could not expect a better Choice than in the Branches that would grow out of so excellent a Stock entailed that Dignity upon him and his Posterity And this seems to be the most Natural and Lawful Rise of Succession I do not deny but some Successions have arisen from Force but that was never lasting for it could not subsist or seem Lawful any longer than there was a Force to support it Now when Princes come to the Crown by the first way of Succession I mean by the Consent and Approbation of the People does not that plainly imply That they ought to use that Power for the Good and Advantage of their Subjects and not to their hurt and enjoy the Crown only upon that condition No man would ever suffer a Monster to inherit his Estate and Kings are no more exempted from the Accidents of Human Nature than their meanest Subjects and it is every days practice in private Families to exclude those that will waste their Estates and ruin the Family and if the reason will there hold good then it is so much the stronger in the Descent of the Crown by how much the good of the whole Kingdom is to be preserted to that of one Family Nor is Succession so very Ancient in England as some people may apprehend Till the time of William the First commonly though falsly called the Conqueror it was look'd upon as a very precarious Title the next in Succession could make but little reckoning on the Crown further than his
good Inclinations and Sufficiencies to sway the Scepter did recommend him to the Affections of the People It being then very common not only to break into the Succession but even to set aside all that Family and Line whenever it was known that the Publick might suffer by their being at the Head of the Government the Publick Good being the only Rule and Consideration that governed that Point William the First declared upon his Death-bed and that is a time when men do seldom prevaricate That be did not possess the Crown by an Hereditary Right William the Second must be allowed by all people to come in by Election because Robert his Elder Brother was alive and survived him Next to him was Henry the First who also came in by Election because his Eldest Brother Robert was yet alive and this Henry in his Charter acknowledged that he owed his Crown to the Mercy of God and the Common Council of the Realm King Stephen Henry the Second Richard the First and King John all came in by Election so that till Henry the Third there is scarce to be found any President of Succession and since his Reign the Succession hath been broken into several times and the Crown shifted from one Family to another by Act of Parliament and being so transferred by that Authority it is the greatest proof that can be that Succession is a very feeble Title without something else to support it and I think I may say Defective For says one of great Authority never did any take pains to obtain an Act of Parliament to settle his Inheritance on his Heirs except he were an Alien or Illegitimate and therefore considering that by vertue of an Entail of the Crown by Act of Parliament in Henry the Seventh's time it is that the Four last Kings have swayed this Scepter I could never understand that Divine Right that was by some stampt upon the Title to the Crown or that the Succession was preferable to the Publick Good I have endeavoured to explain this Point the more by reason that some object against the Sufficiency of this King's Title to the Crown because the Succession was broke through to let him into the Throne as if nothing could give a King a good Title to the Crown but Succession For my part I never saw any reason to be of that Opinion and if there be nothing but the Interruption of the Succession to object to this King 's Right if he continue to govern according to the Principle upon which the Crown was given him and according to the good and laudable Customs of the Realm I think every man that wishes well to the Interest of his Countrey ought to bless God for this Revolution In my poor opinion I do not apprehend that a King that comes to the Crown by Election should think worse of his Title than if he had come in by Succession but rather the more securely because the People are under a more immediate Obligation to stand by and support the King they have Elected than any other that takes the Crown by Succession nor that the people should suspect that they hold their Properties and Rights more precariously under a King that is Elective than under one that claims the Crown by Succession but rather the contrary because it more highly imports him as well in point of Gratitude as in that of Policy to preserve the good opinion of the people by Governing well than if his Title was by Succession for I am far from believing that a King who comes in by Election may make more bold with the Laws than he that claims under any other Title or that his Right to the Crown continues any longer than by his Administration it doth appear that his Interest is the same with that of the Nation The next deceit by which the Nation was to be gull'd into Popery and Slavery was by fomenting Divisions amongst Protestants and especially about the Terms of Communion making them so strict and narrow as to exclude the greatest part of the Protestants in England and Nine parts in Ten of the rest in the world That this was not to promote God's Glory and the Salvation of mens Souls but to serve some new Design is clear to me from several Reasons First Because the Laws against Dissenters were stretched and executed beyond their genuine and natural Intent or Construction Where fair Play is intended such Tricks are altogether needless but daily experience proves that when they are made use of some other thing is designed than what is pretended True Religion needs no such methods to support it the nature of which is Peace and Charity and besides such forced Constructions being nothing less than summum Jus are abhorred by our Laws and are looked upon no less than summa Injuria the highest Injustice Secondly The Second Reason for my Opinion is because that several Laws were put in execution against the Dissenters which were plainly and directly made for other purposes by which the Law it self suffered Violence and so it became evident to every man that had a mind to see that some foul Design and not the Church was at the bottom of the business Thirdly Another Reason is this Because more Diligence and Care was employed to Punish People for Non-conformity than to Reform their Lives and Manners For if a man were never so openly Wicked and Debauched and very scarce if ever saw the inside of a Church yet if he could talk loud and swagger bravely for the Church and storm against and pull the Dissenters to pieces he was cry'd up by all means for a good Son of the Church an honest man and truly affected to the Government Whilst those who could not come up to all the Ceremonies enjoined in the Rubrick though their lives in all other respects were upright and their conversations unblameable yet were called Villains and Rogues and Enemies to the Government as if the outside and Ceremonious part of Religion was more to be valued than the substance and essence of it Which puts me in mind of a passage I have met with in a Play which is worthy your hearing if I do not spoil it in the telling it is in the Play called Sir COURTLY NICE betwixt two Persons one is called Mr. Hothead a very Idle Profligate Fellow but who yet sets up for a great Son of the Church and cannot speak or think with patience of any thing that inclines to Moderation the other Person is called Mr. Testimony as Rigid and Ridiculously squeamish on the other hand in his way these Two falling into a great Dispute about their Opinions Hot-head out of his great Zeal to the Church treats Mr. Testimony with very scurrilous Language and bitter Invectives against him and all Dissenters as that they were the plague of the State and that he hoped to see them all Hang'd and declares the mighty concern he hath for the Church To which Testimony replies pray Good
in false and counterfeit Money knowing it to be such to make payment with it is High-Treason by 25 Edw. III. and so it is to clip file or wash Money by 3 Hen. V. and very good reason it should be so for these and every of them is a great Offence against the Publick for Mony being as it were the Sinews of the Nation to impair or counterfeit it is a great Joss and damage to the Publick so that the Offence in so doing is not because it is marked with the King's Image for the French Money and the Spanish Coin and others are current in England which have not the King's Image upon them but the true reason is because of the great interest the Publick has in it and it would be the same thing if the Money had any other Stamp or Size put upon it by Publick Authority To kill the Chancellor Treasurer or the King's Justices being in their Places doing their Offices is High-Treason by 25 Edw. III. It is very great reason that they who serve the Publick in such eminent Stations should have the publick protection for when they faithfully and honestly discharge their several Trusts the Publick receive great advantages by it and therefore this Offence was made High-Treason To counterfeit the Sign-Manual Privy-Signet or Seal is High-Treason by 1 M. 6. and I think it is so by 25 Edw. III. to counterfeit the Privy-Seal And the reason why the Offences in these Cases are made so capital is because of the great detriment they bring upon the Publick To extol a Foreign Power is High-Treason by 1 Eliz. and very fit it should be so for every man will allow it is a great Offence to set up any other Power in opposition to the Publick Authority For a Priest or a Jesuit to come and abide within this Realm is High-Treason by 27 Eliz. I believe a great many people have been under a very great mistake in this matter supposing it was upon the Score of Religion that the Priests and Jesuits were put to death whereas it was quite otherwise for it was upon a Politick account that they suffered it was for an Offence against the Government that they were executed For it having been found by experience that this sort of Vermin by their Doctrine and Practice sowed the Seeds of Division and thereby wrought great Disturbances in the Nation it was therefore thought fit by the Parliament to take this way as the most effectual to keep them out for as what they did amounted to nothing less than Treason so it was highly reasonable that the punishment should be commensurate to the Offence And since it is become a Law of the Realm if this sort of people will be so presumptuous as to break it they have no body to blame but themselves if they suffer by it for it is a very just and reasonable Law To absolve any from their Allegiance or to be absolved is High Treason by 3 Jac. 1. the Law does heighten or abate the Punishment according as the Offence does more or less affect the Publick Peace so that the more it tends to the Publick Prejudice the greater is the Offence and what can strike more directly at the ruin and overthrow of the Nation than to withdraw the People from their Allegiance and to become the Destroyers of their Native Country And since those that absolve and those that are absolved have thereby declared themselves Enemies to the Nation it is very fit the Government should treat them as such The next Offence is Petty-Treason as for a Wife to kill her Husband a Priest his Ordinary a Servant his Master these are made so Capital because of the Obedience and Subjection which they ought to pay by reason of the Power and Authority which the Law gives the other over them The next Offence is Felony and it is either against the Person or the Goods or Possession Against the Person of another To kill another with Malice prepensed either expressed or implyed is Murther Designedly to cut out the Tongue maim or disfigure another is Felony without benefit of Clergy To Stab or Pistol another without a Weapon be drawn or a Blow given by the Party that is slain is also Felony without benefit of Clergy And so is Buggery with Man or Beast a Sin that could never have entered into the thoughts of Man till they were fallen to the lowest degree of Depravity So it is to Ravish a Woman that is to have the Carnal Knowledge of her Body against her Consent and so it is to lye with a Child under Ten years old tho with her Consent So is Witchcraft but it is an Offence very hard to prove So is Poysoning the most Secret and Treacherous way of Murthering of all others an Offence so abhorred by the Law that by Statute 22 Hen. 8. c. 9. it was made Treason and the Judgment was to be boiled to Death but it is since altered and made Felony by 1º Edward 6th c. 12. It is surely an Offence that deserves a severe Punishment because there is no Fence against it In all other Cases a Man has some means of defending himself but in this none All these Felonies are Death without benefit of Clergy Manslaughter is when two fall out and Fight immediately or so soon after as it may be supposed that that heat continued and one of them is Slain Here there is benefit of the Clergy because there does not appear to be any premeditated Malice To kill another by Accident doing a lawful Act is Chance-medly and if a Man is assaulted by another and in his own Defence he happens to kill him these the Law pardons of course Felonies against the Goods or Possession of another are such as these viz. To Rob on the High-way for the Law will protect the Goods and Persons of those who are upon their lawful Occasions and it is very reasonable that those who Travel on the Road should have some such Guard or else the Trade and Business of the Nation would be very much obstructed and suffer great damage To take away any thing privately from the Person of another if the Punishment of this were not great it would become a great Trade for it is so easily done and so hard to be prevented that a Mans Money would be safer any where than in his Pocket To steal a Horse Designedly to burn a Stack of Hay or Corn if it be done by Accident it is but a Trespass but being done by Design it carries so much Malice and Wickedness along with it that it justly deserves to be punished with Death To Rob a Church To break into a House and take any thing thence by Night or by Day for this carries a double Offence along with it for the Goods of another are not only Feloniously taken from him but he is also put in fear of his Life where he ought to be most secure and undisturb'd which the Law accounts a
King concerning the present Affairs Done out of French On Tharsday next will be publish'd Nevil Pain 's Letters THE Lord DELAMERE's CHARGE TO THE GRAND JURY OF CHESTER April 25 1693. ADVERTISEMENT THE Three following Speeches made by the Right Honourable Henry Late Earl of Warrington Viz. I. His SPEECH upon his being Sworn Mayor of Chester in November 1691. II. His SPEECH to the Grand Jury at Chester April 13 1692. III. His CHARGE to the Grand Jury at the Quarter Sessions held for the County of Chester on the 11th of October 1692. Are Sold by Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane THE CHARGE Of the Right Honourable HENRY Earl of WARRINGTON TO THE GRAND JURY AT THE QUARTER SESSIONS Held for the County of Chester On the 25th Day of April 1693. LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1694. THE CHARGE Of the Right Honourable HENRY Earl of WARRINGTON TO THE GRAND JURY c. GENTLEMEN 'T IS a very common Saying that Interest will not lie and yet if you consider it you will find that there is scarce any thing more difficult than to persuade People to their Interest a thing mightily to be wished because if it were universally understood and practised it is the thing of all others that will make this World a happy Place For then there would be no need of Laws and Magistrates to preserve Peace and Good Order by reason that every Man would be restrained by that Law within himself which is the Foundation of all other Laws I mean that Principle of Reason and Justice with which he is born But when Man fell from his primitive Innocency he lost that Guide which should happily have conducted him through this World and instead of following the Dictates of his Reason he suffered himself to be led away by his Passions and without any regard to Justice made his Self-Interest the Standard of his Dealings with others which is the direct way to ruin that which he aimed at for if a Man acts without regard of Justice to others he hath little reason to expect that Justice should be done him For why should he imagine that others should take care to do him Right who hath no other Consideration but for himself So that in point of Interest as well as Justice every Man ought to have a mutual Regard to the Good of each other but because it is so entirely neglected therefore were Laws made to withhold Men from committing those Acts of Injustice and Violence which their own Consciences tell them ought not to be done From this depraved Inclination do proceed all those Disturbances and Disorders that infest any Government and have often been fatal to the whole Constitution there having at all Times and in all Places been found those who have been disposed to sacrifice their Liberties and Civil Rights to serve the Desires and Lusts of Arbitrary Princes 'T is surely a great Sickness of the Mind when a Man gives up his Birth-right in exchange for something else that depends upon another Man's Breath and he must be besides his Wits who little esteems his Liberty which is the thing that chiefly distinguishes him from a Beast for when a Man is a Slave he must submit his Will and Reason to the Humour of him who govern's him and then what Difference is there between him and a Brute only that his Condition is the worse of the two If no Body but themselves were to feel the Effects of their Servile Compliances the Matter would not be much if they perished by their own Folly For why should they expect to thrive better than Esau did who sold his Birth-right to save his Life and therefore instead of a Blessing received a Curse For can they who reject God's Mercies hope to entail a Blessing upon their Posterity These are the sowre Grapes that set the Childrens Teeth on edg for though the Father may be so fortunate as to go to his Grave in his Prince's Favour a Happiness to which few have attained who have purchased it by being false to their Country yet it is a dangerous Experiment for their Posterity to whom there is seldom left any thing more than to inherit the Wind. Now if the Mischief of this Time serving had ended with this sort of Men and their Posterity the Complaints against it might have been buried with them and their Families for his Infamy ought to be had in remembrance so long as the Sun and Moon endure who is the Instrument of his Country's Ruin for by this Treachery have whole Kingdoms been brought to Desolation which were before in a flourishing Condition as namely where Justice was duely executed full Imployments for all Hands a quick Trade no sort of complaining in the Streets but every Man sate with Security and Pleasure under his own Vine This is so deplorable a Change as no Tongue is able to express then let every Man consider it in his own Thoughts and he will discover how valuable a thing his Liberty is even preferable to any thing else this World affords For Liberty is the Foundation of Vertue and Industry What doth any thing else signify without it For when that is gone as our Lives and Fortunes depend upon another Man's Pleasure so we hold our Religion as precariously because a Prince can impose upon Slaves what Religion he pleases France is so pregnant an Instance of this that it puts the thing out of dispute for whilst the Protestants kept their Liberty all was well with them yet no sooner was that wrested out of their hands but it was quickly seen what became of their Religion And therefore I have always thought that they began at the wrong End who reckon themselves out of all other Danger whilst they enjoyed the Exercise of their Religion It will not be denied but that Liberty is a great Security to the free Exercise of Religion but if our Civil Rights are assaulted I do not see by what means Religion can rescue them out of violent Hands because there are many Instances where Religion has been used as a Stalking Horse to introduce Slavery For did ever any Man pretend to have a greater Concern for the Church than Charles the Second and yet no Man more designed the Ruin of the Nation than he did which Example may occasion the People to suspect some Design upon their Liberties when the Prince pretends the greatest care for Religion unless he be a Man of great Morality and that Religion appears in his Life and Practice as well as in his Words and Promises for it is scarce possible to enslave a free People by down-right Force and therefore they must be gulled out of their Liberties by Art and under-hand Practices and there cannot be a better Blind than a pretended Care for Religion to keep the People from observing what is designed against them So that if any thing is worthy of their Care it is their Liberty and in doing