Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A32264
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His Majesties gracious speech to both houses of Parliament together with the L. Chancellors in Christ-Church-Hall in Oxford on Tuesday, October 10, 1665
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England and Wales. Sovereign (1660-1685 : Charles II); Charles II, King of England, 1630-1685.; England and Wales. Parliament.
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1665
(1665)
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Wing C3053; ESTC R29958
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10,764
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14
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but that the Prisoners and wounded men should bring upon us so prodigious an expence and of which we can yet see no bottom insomuch as in one place I think Colehester that charge comes to Twelve hundred pounds the week I say such an Expence never came into our computation The King tells you He hath enabled the Prince Bishop of Munster to demand Justice from those who have so notoriously oppressed him with such outragious Circumstances of Insolence and Scorn as are enough known to the World and he hath demanded it bravely in such an Equipage as hath not been made for little Money in which he can take as well as ask satisfaction After all this since there is a Justice due to the worst Enemies We must do them this right that they do not at all seem weary of the War they do not discover the least inclination to Peace It is true the French King hath offered His Mediation and truly if he intends no more then a Mediation it is an Office very worthy The Most Christian King I wish with all my heart that as a Mediatour he would make Equal Propositions or that he would not so importunately press His Majesty to consent to those he makes upon an Instance and Argument that he holds himself engaged by a former Treaty of which we never heard till since the beginning of this War and had some reason to have presumed the contrary to assist the Dutch with Men and Money if His Majesty doth not consent His Majesty tells you that He hath not an appetite to make War for War sake but will be always ready to make such a Peace as may be for his Honour and the Interest of His Subjects and no doubt but it will be a great trouble and grief to him to find so great a Prince towards whom he hath manifested so great an affection in conjunction with his Enemies yet even the apprehension of such a War will not terrifie him to purchase a Peace by such Concessions as he would be ashamed to make you acquainted with of which nature you will easily believe the Propositions hitherto made to be when you know that the Release of Poleroone in the East-Indies and the demolishing the Fort of Cabo-Corso upon the Coast of Guiny are two which would be upon the matter to be content with a very vile Trade in the East-Indies under their comptroll and with none in Guiny And yet these are not Propositions unreasonable enough to please the Dutch who reproach France for Interposing for Peace instead of Assisting them in the War boldly Insisting upon the advantage the Contagion in London and some other parts of the Kingdom gives them by which they confidently say the King will be no longer able to maintain a Fleet against them at Sea and as if God Almighty had sent this heavy visitation upon the Kingdom on their behalf and to expose it to their malice and Insolence They load us with such reproaches as the civility of no other Language will admit the relation the truth is they have a Dialect of rudeness so peculiar to their Language and their People that it is high time for all Kings and Princes to oblige them to some Reformation if they intend to hold Correspondence or Commerce with them My Lords and Gentlemen You see in what posture we stand with reference to our Neighbours abroad who are our declared Enemies their malice activity to make others declare themselves so too the great preparations they make and even Declarations that they will have another Battel towards which they have in readiness an equal number of new greater and better ships to those they have lost furnished with larger and greater Artillery so that if they were to be manned with any other Nation then their own they might be worthy our apprehension What preparations are to be made on our part you can best judge I have fully obeyed the Command that was laid upon me in making you this plain clear true narrative of what hath passed I have no Order to make any reflection upon it nor any deduction from it The King himself hath told you that the noble unparalleld Supply you have already given him is upon the matter spent spent with all the Animadversions of good Husbandry that the nature of the affair would bear What is more to be done He leaves intirely to your own Generous understanding being not more assured of any thing that is to come in this world then that the same Noble indignation for the Honor of the King and the Nation that first provoked you to enflame the King himself will continue the same passion still boyling in your Loyal Breasts that all the world may see which they hoped never to have seen that never Prince and People were so intirely united in their Affections for their true joynt inseparable Honor as the onely sure infallible Expedient to preserve their distinct several Interest My Lords and Gentlemen You have great reason to be weary yet having onely presented you a short view of your Forreign Enemies it may not be altogether unseasonable that you take a little prospect of those at home those unquiet restless Spirits in your own Bowels upon whose Infidelity I doubt your Enemies abroad have more dependence then upon their own Fleets I must appeal to every one of your Observations whether the countenances of those men have not appeared to you more erected more insolent in all places since the beginning of this war then they were before in what readiness they were if any misfortune had befallen the Kings Fleet which they promised themselves to have brought the Calamity into your Fields and into your Houses is notoriously known The horrid Murtherers of Our late Royal Master have been received into the most secret Councels in Holland and other infamous prostituted Persons of our Nation are admitted to a share in the Conduct of their affairs and maintain their Correspondence here upon liberal allowances and Pensions Too many of His Majesties Subjects who were lent by this Crown to assist defend this ingrateful State against their enemies have been miserably wrought upon for the keeping a vile mean Subsistence rather then Livelihood to renounce their Allegiance and become enemies to their Native Countrey Some of whom have wantonly put themselves on Board the Enemies Fleet without Command or Office purely out of appetite and delight to rebel against their King and to worry their Countrey It is great pity these men should not be taught by some exemplary brand that their Allegiance is not circumscribed within the four Seas but that they have Obligations upon them of Duty and Loyalty towards the King in what part soever of the world they shall inhabit Their Friends at home impatient of longer delayes for the successes they had promised themselves and for the Succours which others had promised to send to them made no doubt of doing the business themselves if they could appoint but a lucky day to begin the work and you had heard of them in all places upon the third of the last moneth their so much celebrated Third of September if the great vigilance and indefatigable industry of the Good General who is alwayes watchful for the Kings Safety and the Peace of the Kingdom had not two days before apprehended the Seditious Leaders and given Advertisements for the securing others in most parts of the Kingdom by the Confessions of many of whom their wicked Design is enough manifested and ready for Justice Yet some of the Principal Persons are not yet taken and some others got themselves rescued after they were apprehended My Lords and Gentlemen Let it not I beseech you be said of us what was heretofore said of the Senate of Rome when they were prosperous enough and when they had obtained greater Victories over their enemies abroad then we have done Excellentibus ingeniis citius defuit ars qua Civem regant quam qua hostem perdant Let not these Scorpions be kept warm in our bosoms till they sting us to death Let not those who hate the Government would destroy the Government be sheltred under the Shadow and Protection of the Government It is possible and God knows it is but possible that some men who are not friends to this or that part of the Government for you are not to believe that they alwayes discover what they are in truth most angry with who would not buy these Alterations they most desire at the price of a Civil Warre they would bring it fairly about wait for a Godly Parliament and do all by their consent Yet those persons must not take it ill that we cannot desire they should ever have it in their Power to bring these Alterations to pass by those means they now seem to abhor And I do heartily wish I am sure they will not be the worse men nor the worse Subjects for it that they would a little reflect upon what is past remember how much they have once done more then they intended to have done nay what they did heartily abhor the thought of doing and they will then find the only way to preserve themselves innocent is to keep their minds from being vitiated by the first impressions by Jealousies Murmurings and Repinings and above all by the conversation with those men or indulgence towards them who would sacrifice the peace of the Kingdom to their own Ambition Pride and even to their Humour If you carefully provide for the suppressing your enemies at home which will put you to little other expence then of Courage Constancy and Circumspection You will find your enemies abroad less exalted and in a short time more inclined to live in Amity with you then to make War upon you especially when they see you do in bello pacis gerere negotium and that you take the carrying on the War to heart as the best and the only expedient to produce a happy and an honest Peace FINIS