a Parliament to ease their burthens and to rectifie their Grievances But though it be the Kings undoubted Prerogative to call and dissolve Parliaments we may now say since the Votes of this Honourable House now sitting has given us new boldness that notwithstanding the assertions and Opinions of these Abhorrers that it is the undoubted Right of the People of England humbly to Petition their Sovereign when Grieved for the calling of a Parliament and to redress their Grievances But Mr. L'Estrange doth not abuse the late Petitioners by no means have a care of that he abuses no body though he gives them never so vile terms and renders them odious and ridiculous Cit says p. 2. speaking of Subscriptions There was hardly a Register about the Town that escaped us for Names Bedlam Bridewell all the Parish Books nay the very Goals and Hospitals we had our Agents at all publick meetings Courts Church Change and all the Schools up and down Masters underwrit for their Children and Servants Women for their Husbands in the West Indies nay we prevail'd upon some Parsons to engage for their whole Congregation we took in Jack Straw Wat Tyler and the whole Legend of Poor Robins Saints into our List of Petitioners and some Names served us for 4 or 5 several places And then Bumpkin replies and you shall see how now that we were put to our shifts in the Country as well as you in the City I was employed you must know to get Names at 4 shillings an hundred and I had all my real subscriptions written at such a distance one from another that I could easily clap in a name or two betwixt them and then I got as many School-boys as I could to underwrite after the same manner and after this I fill'd up all those spaces with Names that I either remembred or invented my self or could get out of 2 or 3 Christening Books There are a World you know of Smiths Browns Clarks Walkers Woods so that I furnished my Catalogue with a matter of 50 a piece of these Sir-Names which I Christned my self And besides we had all the Non-Conformist Ministers in the Country for us and they brought in a power of Hands Thus the Gentleman plays with the Petitions and shews his abhorrency of Petitioning seeking to deter the People from using their modest Rights in Petitioning their Sovereign But now if all or most of these scurrilous things which he has made Cit and Bumpkin say be false and falsly applyed to and fixed upon the late Petitioners is not this man Guilty of scandalously misrepresenting the late Petitioners and the Promoters of the late Petitions let all the World judge To the last of his Charge he says That he is extreamly out of his Measures to be still Creating misunderstandings in the very Act of endeavouring either to rectifie or prevent them And to be indangering the Peace of the Kingdom in the design of preserving it No doubt but Mr. L'Estrange is the unhappy man if those were his measures as to be utterly mistaken in them for I know not what could have created a greater misunderstanding or more tended to the embroyling of the Nation Not in asserting the Law and Government against all Opposers as he would make you believe but in ridiculing the Plot abusing the Kings Evidence writing against Petitioning railing against the Presbyterians and raking in all the old Dunghills Not by laying open the Malice of many bold Libells against his Majesties Person Authority and Government but by railing against every body that gives an Answer to his Scurrilous Pamphlets and by abusing all that he believes not of his way and Faction not by maintaining the Apostolical Order and Constitution of the Church against Schism but in rendring the whole body of Dissenters odious factious and seditious Not by maintaining the Powers and Priviledges of the State against all Principles of Sedition but by making his Cits and Bumpkins to blow about the Coals of Sedition Not by inculcating Reverence and Obedience to Superiours but by abusing scoffing at and terrifying Inferiours Not by recommending the Blessings and Duties of Vnity but by widening the breaches and making greater the gap of Dissention These are the things that have created ill blood and have tended to the embroyling the Kingdom but whether defignedly or whether he mistook his measures I shall not say The next thing he passes to is to give you a scurrilous Description of the Quality of his Libellers as he calls them for all those who write in Answer to his idle and abusive Pamphlets he calls so And here he is Satyrical and abusive and the things touching particular persons I shall leave him for whether the things he charges them with be true or false it shews his railing disposition and foul mouth nothing becoming the Gentility and breeding he would pretend to But yet I cannot but take notice of his extream Pride and Vanity in thinking and ranking himself as a State and Church Martyr and his justly suffering for his abusive Pen he calls suffering with the King and with the Church and for their sakes also The Jesuites say as much and it is a vanity inherent to such Martyrs But it now appears that the Representatives of the whole Kingdom have no such Opinion of the Service he has done either to King or Church but rather to the contrary by his many abuses put upon the people in his Pamphlets has much disserted either He says it is the part of the Devil himself to blacken and defame and after he has thus said Grace falls to with open mouth and blackens and defames all he can with the spleen and rancour of a Cynick especially one little Creature as he calls him which little Creature indeed has been a Goad in his side and has prick'd the Bull so hard as has made him bellow full loudly But he is not only Splenetick at Mr. Care for writing smartly against him but has also put Mr. Curtis in several of his Pamphlets among the Libellers for exercising his Trade of Publishing Printed Books and Pamphlets He is so very dogged a Cynic that he will let no body live in Peace that he thinks loves not him or believes not well of his railing The very acquaintance of any that writes against him is enough to make him a Libeller and there are several to my own knowledge that hardly spake of him that he has abused because Friends or Relations to those who have answered some of his Scurrilities But he is no ways genteelly Satyrical but a down right abuser and scoffer without Salt or Wit and where he cannot charge 'em with any thing of Crime or dishonesty rather than be wanting to his own Malice he will seek for natural defects which also if he cannot find he will Create and rather than want matter for his Buffoonery will play with the Visage of a man and render it like a Visard an Ape or a Monky or any thing
Jesuitical cunning and so think there is no such thing We know that none knows better that there has been a Plot and an horrid Plot and Conspiracy against the Kings Life and Government than the Jesuits and several of the Papists and yet who I pray is there that more laughs at a Plot than they Who more hard to believe any such thing Who more ready to turn it into ridicule to Lampoon it and to write against it Therefore this can be no Argument that you could not ridicule the Plot because you have own'd it and indeed it hath been too manifestly made evident that this Plot was no fiction and since you had undertaken its History you must of necessity own the matter of Fact and you could do no less than justify your proceedings thereon Yet in the very entrance of your Narrative you are so full of it that you cannot forbear jeering at the Narratives of the Plot which were set forth for the Satisfaction of the People Yet there you say Those Authors should hang a Table at their Doors and say Here you may have a very good Narrative for threepence a groat or sixpence a piece or higher if you please for we have 'em of all sorts and sizes The only danger is of popping upon us Cat and Dogs flesh for Venison for take 'em one with another at the Common rate of Narratives there 's hardly one in five will pass Muster Then by and by we have Narratives of things Visible and Invisible Possible and Impossible one of Fact and another of Imagination so by and by he plays again with the word PLOT Plots of Interest Plots of Passion Plots to undermine Governments Plots to support them Plots simple and Counter-Plots Plots Jesuitical Plots Phanatic and such like stuff And then pag. 4. he plays upon Dr. Otes and as one says serenades him but as he says himself improving his Plot and raising a Superstructure out of his own words of a Schismatical Plot and this pag. 21. he calls the transmigration of Conspiracy It would be too tedious to trace him in his own Steps throughout neither have I all his Pamphlets by me as not thinking them worth the keeping that I might quote the particular pages for enough of his Ridicule might be gathered together and in his Cit and Bumpkin p. 11. his Cit says If we were but once at the bottom of this Plot which Bumpkin is a most hideous one and wanted matter for another Then he cunningly jibes at the belief of it by shewing many ridiculous and impossible things imposed on the people on purpose by Cit. And pag. 12. a fourth fancies two Plots Now all this and a great deal more in the sense of a great many seems a Laughing and Jeering at the Plot and did lessen the esteem of it in many people that were too credulous of what Mr. L'Estrange writes But it is not enough to laugh at it and to jest and jibe with it but the drift of the latter part of his Narrative is to lessen this Plot by representing to you the several false belief of it concerning Powels being Trepann'd on Ship-board and of the Arms found at Sir Henry Tuchburns of Bedingfields being dead and yet alive The Conspiracy of the Apprentices The Stories of the Booksellers and the miscarriages of some forward Magistrates To what did all this tend in the understanding of any Judicious and Loyal person but to the lessening the Plot or putting it wholly on the Presbyterians whilst a suspicion is so fiercely raised of their dangerousness to the State and of their cunning and malicious Inventions that the Plot might be forgot or be lessened in the esteem of the People And this Truth a few Quotations of Mr. L'Estranges of his belief of the Plot will never blot out nor will all honest men be so blind as not to see he hath sufficiently nay too too much for one that pretends to so much Loyalty laugh'd at the Plot and turn'd it into ridicule In the second place as to shamming the Plot this is a new invented word and asks explaining but if I am not mistaken it signifies belying or discrediting the Plot or making it a blind only to some other Plot in hand viz. that of the Presbyterians which he has been always so careful to remind the World of even as he says himself p. 6. ever since 61 and here he quotes what he then said and I think has as good as said nothing for everybody that knows him is sufficiently convinced of his dear love to those people but still to be harping on the same String and especially at this time when it was so palpably known as he himself confesses that there was a most horrid and damnable Popish Plot to murder the King and to subvert the whole Protestant Religion when all parties of the Reformed Church were concerned then I say to reap up the old gleanings and evil miscarriages of the Rump of Presbyterians concatinated with some few other Sectaries and others of desperate Principles and Fortunes and at this time to put them upon the whole body of Dissenters who have hitherto shewed themselves Loyal in all respects and hate and abhor those Principles he would fling upon them and with so much earnestness with great labour and pains almost in every Pamphlet represent these persons doing and acting the same things over again to stir up Jealousies in the King and to make them odious to the people and this to be as he calls it pag. 2. the Superfoetation of another Plot. Now let the World judge how far this Gentleman agrees with that most horrid Design of the Jesuites and Papistical party of framing a Sham-Plot in which Mrs. Celliers was so stirring an Agent and putting it upon the Presbyterians by which means they would have cut off the chief and most Loyal of the Nation by telling the World and endeavouring to make the World believe that these persons whom he calls dissenters are framing a Plot and have a Plot in hand to ruine the King and the Bishops and to set up themselves and a Common Wealth in their stead If this be not shamming the Plot as he calls it I know not what is for unless his Papers had been found in the very bottom of Mrs. Celliers Meal tub they could not have been more like those so evenly are they yoak'd and draw both one way to make the King and Kingdom believe it was the Presbyterians not the Papists that were in hand of a desperate Plot and therefore he says pag. 5. he is convinc'd there are several Sham-Plots Contriv'd and Started where there is no colour or pretence at all for a blind to the advancing of a Fanatical Design and as he is convinc'd so he endeavours to convince others but what these Sham-Plots are unless those of his and the Jesuits framing we are yet Ignorant of As to the third charge of endeavouring to discredit the Kings Witnesses Mr. L'Estrange has
that will render the person ridiculous An old Jesuitical trick who upon the Reformation in England and the establishing of the Protestant Religion made the Common People of Spain believe that all the English were turned into Mâ—nsters and were all metamorphised into strange Creatures with Asses heads and Monkies tails so that when our late Sovereign arrived there with all his Train they were not a little amazed to find hanâ—some men instead of Monsters as the Jesuites had sworn them all to be Just so does this Satyrical Wit play upon the Visages and postures of several persons rendring them almost as disguised as his own but this is pitiful and mean However they have since thought it good par pari referre and to Answer his Skeldri as he had made others Owls and Monkies so have they changed him into the Cur Towzer As for his particular malice to Dr. Oates that plainly appears to be the business of the party who set him on who thrust this silly scratching Cats foot of his into the fire to pull out the Nut that is to abuse him and to render him ridiculous and to endeavour to make him in little esteem with the People that his Evidence might be slighted or else he certainly would never have so publickly scofl'd at a person that has merited so much of all good men and all Protestants in this Kingdom in first discovering this most Horrid Popish Plot. Now to use his own words Is not the World come to a fine pass now when such a Fellow as this shall hold the Ballance of Empires That shall be the Pillar to support the Crown and Miter that shall charge the whole Body of Presbyterians with Fanaticism and Rebellion That makes sport with that Tool the Plot as the Buffoon calls it and to canton out all people that write against him or the Plot to be Libellers Fools Egyptian Locusts and what not But as to his Reasons of his Libellers Rancour against him first he says That they say he began with them But that I suppose is not the true ground of the Quarrel they endeavoured to take up the Cudgels against him seeing him lay about him so furiously that he might not sight with his own shadow and like an over-grown Colossus of Wit terrifie an whole Nation as if none durst Cope with him But the chief and true ground was indeed to undeceive the People and to let them see this Papist in disguise and as he says himself for harping so unseasonably on that one String of 41 without any ground at all and this he terms their Rancour This he would evade by his old way if you will believe him he 'l make you think the Moon is made of green Cheese for he tells you the weighty reasons of all his frivolous scurrilous and scandalous scribling which were either to defend himself or to unmask the fallacy of imposing on the people that is that you might believe him and no body else or to lay open the Arts by which the City of London was formerly betrayed to Slavery and Faction that is to have most of them thought Rascals or for the undeceiving the credulous people that had been misled unhappily by the accursed Libel called the Appeal and therefore he wrote his Cit and Bumpkin which grosly abuses both City and Country Glorious ends and as well acquitted As for Dr. Otes he has but improved his Discoveries and help'd his Evidence towards the rooting out all the Priests and Jesuites out of the Land that is by destroying Presbytery and all the disguised Romish Priests and Papists amongst them that the Protestants Masqueders may throw off their Vâ—zards and appear bare fac'd He still proceeds to tell you his good intent and meaning in putting forth his many Pamphlets nay and the good they have effected by making some Converts and satisfying and confirming others if you will believe him It is very hard that he should do those things by those very means which has offended most of the Nation especially the more sober and moderate sort and rendred himself of being suspected no true Son of the Church nor faithful Servant of the King but all the while serving another Interest He says p. 24. he has lived long enough in the World to understand in some measure both Men and Books and that popular passions are moved by popular Discourses as the Waves of the Sea by the power of the Winds It is the first Office of Political Pamphlets in all case of design upon any eminent alteration of the State to possess the people with false Notions c. Now may not we suppose that Mr. L'Estrange well knowing these Maxims has followed them or at least seems so in the eyes of many and now when so great a design of the alteration of the Government was in hand which is the PLOT has most fairly and opportunely taken the time of troubling and muddying the waters with the silth of 41 nothing but all the Miscarriages of the Schismaticks and Sectaries must be now laid open afresh to beget disgusts and murmurings and jealousies of one part against another and instead of closing up the breach as a good man ought to have done and of calling to Unity he nothing but roars out 41 41 in every paper whilst the Jesuitical Design in the mean time is working the ruine of 3 Kingdoms Divide Impera set them together by the ears and we shall do the work but yet do it under the notion of serving the King and Kingdom by all means The Gentleman is angry at the liberty of the Press I cannot blame him but 't is hoped whatever restraint should be put thereon by Authority that it shall never fall under Mr. L'Estranges hand to be a Licenser for then 't will be very hard to get any thing Licensed that should be wrote against the Papists but should be stifled as he had served several when he had power Writing against the Plot he calls writing against the Government and writing against him he calls writing against Superiours and Magistrates writing against Papists is an undutiful and intemperate practice against the publick peace to the extream hazard and dishonour of the State And yet this is the Doctor who professes in his Papers Antidotes against all Pestilent and Poysonous Infusions The State Quack who purges the Nation of its errors The Hocus Pocus that resolves all its riddles and expounds their meaning The zealot for the Church and one who has Dedicated Soul Body Fortune Interests to the Service of his Prince and Country He next proceeds to discover the Designs and Practices on the publick Peace by the spreading Scandalous and dangerous Libels a great many of which he quotes and we agree with him that such pernicious Libellers do much mischief in a State but as they have always been and ever will be as Vermine in a State so they are liable to the Laws and answerable to them let such be punished but let not all that write against Mr. L'Estrange be thrust among these pack of Libellers nor let it be in the power of Mr. L'Estrange to be the only Judge of what is sit to be Printed and what not In the last place he troubles himself to little purpose how far in Honour and Justice a Prince or State ought to countenance and protect the Assertors of their Rights or Priviledges we grant 't is much to their Honour and great Justice to do it but yet we will not say Therefore Mr. L'Estrange ought to be countenanced or rewarded as such an Assertor of the Rights or Priviledges of the King and Kingdom I shall leave him with his Politicks and draw to a Conclusion which is That I have wrote this very brief Answer to Mr. L'Estrange's plausible Appeal without any thing of rancour or malice or particular Spleen against the man but to shew the World that all is not Gold that glisters and that Mr. L'Estrange is not the Loyal Person he pretends to nor a State Martyr but one that suffers in the Opinion of most justly for his own folly FINIS London Printed for T. Davis 1680.