the Dead shall arise and wonder to behold themselves Living this was the Common Cry Incomperable Advice But why this Dissimulation Why not in plain English might it not be said Rise and Defend your selves bring in your Plate your Spoons your Thimbles and your Whistles is the Publick Credit of less value than formerly Where are the Drums and Trumpets your Levies and Musters Why are the unnecessary Guards spared say the Word speak your Intentions in Intelligible Sillables Your Noble Peer is ready to Assist you Dastardly Leaders and deluded Cockscombs But Fate had not Ripened their Aimes their Party wanted the Courage they wished them and like cunning Men and more to be feared Traytors e're they leapt they view'd the Precipice and for want of Resolution mist their Opportunities which the Prudence and Care of His Majesty by the seasonable Publishing his Gracious Declaration for the future Abrigded them of 't was this that opened the Eyes of the Cheated Nation and drew the Loyal upon their Knees in grateful Acknowledgments of his Fatherly care of their Lives Liberties and Estates 't was this dispelled those Mists and Fogs of Delusion which arose from the Stenchy Vapours of their Nauseous Principles Designs and clearly discovered their Malevolent Intentions But yet so far had they spread their Poyson amidst their Dissenting Brethren that the botches and blains thereof but too plainly appeared and were not so soon cured the chief Magistrates were such as they themselves had set up and Cajoled into their Service so that here Treason was Indemnified provided the same was carefully Committed within the Circuite of those Walls and tho taken notice of and brought to light they had a free shelter from the Judgment the Law pronounced thereon being Skreened on the Dark side of an Ignoramus Conscience Happy days indeed when to discharge a Thief his Jury shall be Summoned from amidst his Brother Criminals though he sees the Halter he need not tremble at it let the Law threaten him he is assur'd that the same is but like the Cords of Sampson which he can break at his pleasure But Justice will not be so satisfied the voice of Treason like that of Blood is never quiet till the Traitor meets his due Reward nor did we long want an Instance thereof in the Fate of that unhappy Wretch who slipt the Noose here when he was removed to another County and came before Persons of Religion and Integrity they soon saw and as soon abhorred his Crimes regarding the quiet of their threatned Country beyond the Clamorous Instigation of a Rebellious Throng who neither weighed the Crime nor danger of admitting such extravagant Scandals which he had too freequently dispersed in order to the Corruption of that fair Intelligence that ought to be managed between the King and his People The unavoidable obloquy on the reputation of the Nations best and surest Friends and in short the intended Ruin of the Government he lived under to the preservation of which who is it can blame that Necessary Just and Single Execution when he lays it in the Ballance with those designs that threatned the whole Where 's the severity which the Physitian uses in cutting off an Infected Limb to preserve the Body where the Imprudence in drawing a little Blood to prevent the Frenzy of the Patient and then especially when he is inclined thereunto and the usual Symptoms that forerun the Fit are too visible and more then remarkably growing every hour upon him If this be an Error farewel Policy our Ancestors were then in the wrong when to restrain the undue Liberty that Men had taken to themselves in the late times of Licenciousness when the unclosed Wounds of the Nation were Fresh and Bleeding to Enact a prevention of those Causes which too far contributed to the same in making Traiterous Words Positions that aimed at the Life or Person of his Sacred Majesty or the Roots of his Establisht Government tho no overt Act besides demonstrated the same to be adjudged High-Treason yet had this been wanting sufficient was the proof against our present sufferer and so palpable were his Treasons that all good Men cry out with as much Justice against those who first acquitted him as the very Crimes themselves of which he stood Indicted High time therefore was it for our Gracious Monarch to look about himself and Assume the Rein of Empire into his own hands when such mad Jehu's strove to Ascend the Chariot and Cariere us to Ruin Nor indeed was less to be expected as quickly afterwards was discovered in that dangerous Association which was found in the Custody of one of the greatest Patriots of this Disaffected Party a Villany so close laid that no Record perhaps to future Ages shall be more Authoritative to convince Infidelity it self of their then Designs which that the Reader may be further satisfied in I think it not Impertinent to Abbreviate the same and present a short view thereof to his Prospect In the first part of which tho the same seems somewhat plausibly Penned in setting forth the dangers we are in from the Popish Priests and Jesuits with the Papists and their Adherents and Abettors who for several Years last past had pursued a most Pernicious and Hellish Plot to Root out the True Protestant Religion as a Pestilent Heresie and take away the Life of His Sacred Majesty to Subvert our Laws and Liberties and set up Arbitrary Power and Popery c. yet is the same continued with all Obloquy imaginable against his Royal Highness Aspersing his Person and loading him with False and Scandalous Designs and Counsels whereby he had created to himself Dependants in Church and State under expectation of his Succession to the Crown as also that by his Influence Mercenary Forces had been Levied and kept on Foot for his secret Designs and Parliaments unreasonably Prorogued and Dissolved when in the hot pursuits of Popish Conspiracies and ill Ministers of State with many other Considerations that hereby the Treasure Strength and Reputation of the Kingdom was intricately Wasted and Consumed for which ends they had in a Parliamentary way endeavoured to Exclude the said Duke from the Succession to the Crown and Banish him for ever out of these Kingdoms of England and Ireland but the said Means being Rejected they thereupon thought fit to Unite themselves by a Solemn and Sacred Promise of mutual Defence and Assistance in the Preservation of the Protestant Religion the Kings Person and their Rights in the Form Ensuing I A. B. do in the presence of God Solemnly Promise Vow and Protest to maintain and defend to the utmost of my Power with my Person and Estate the True Protestant Religion against Popery and all Popish Superstition Idolatry or innovation and all those who do or shall endeavour to spread or advance it within this Kingdom I will also as far as in me lies Maintain and Defend His Majesties Royal Person and Estate as also the Power
here is a plain and awowed Principle of Rebellion Established upon the strongest reason he hath to back it which with the other Evidence against him was sufficient to prove his Compassing the Death of the King The Affirmations he makes is when Kings break their Trusts they may be called to an Account by the People this is the Doctrine he Brooks and Argues for and in another part of the Book he says That the Calling and Dissolving of Parliaments is not in the Kings Power So that the King having Called and Dissolved Parliaments in so doing he hath broke his Trust and Consequently by his Arguments may be called to an Account by the People and Deposed which is certainly a Treason of the Deepest Tincture and which the Jury upon Consideration thereof and the other sufficient Prooffs against him so found and brought him in Guilty upon the whole we have here met with an Account of one of the most Atrocious and Villanous Designs as any Recor'd in the whole World can furnish us with and particularly in this last Gentlemans Case wherein it was the more Dangerous in that he proceeded upon the Foundation of his Reason it was his beloved Principle the avowed Guide of his Actions that by which he led the stedy course of his Life and he that is convinced of these Principles what will he not do what will he leave undone to accomplish and bring about his Designs how wary will he be in his Actions which way to bring them securely about and so much the more dangerous is the Conspiracy in him by how much more it is rooted and how deep it is you have heard he Writes it as his Principle that it is lawful to Depose Kings who breaks their Trust and that the Revolt of the whole Nation in that case deserves not the Name of Rebellion sad must our state then surely be when People are Impious for Conscience sake and Ruin and Destroy the Government for the good of it Having thus far Travelled through the preceeding particulars I doubt not but every impartial Eye will clearly behold the Malevolent Intentions of this Phanatical Frenzy and accordingly Eschew all such Doctrines and Principles as shall secretly connive at or openly abet the same which had they now taken Effect let us stay alittle to consider the condition this Miserable Nation and People would have thereby been Immersed in But here Imagination must supply the defect of my Discription for 't is not enough to say we should have lost the best of Kings the best of Governments the best of Religions and the best Friends and Maintainers of each but alas who of us had been safe unless we could have yeilded to have Joyn'd with this Impious and abominable Faction which had to any considering or good Man been less Eligible then Martyrdom it self It had been enough to have Condemn'd us that we had any thing to loose the Extravagant Heir would never have complained his Fathers hours too slowly wasted but have turn'd Parricide and correpted them the Servant would scarce have yeilded to have borne the Remainder of his Seven Years Yoke but have eased himself thereof in the Slaughter of his Master the Slave had dominioned o're his Lord the Base and Scoundrel World have seated themselves on the Benches of State and Justice whilst our Streets had been channelled with Bloud our Fields been fill'd with Slaughter our Houses with Rapine and our selves Mourning over their Fates who had got the start of us only some few tiresom and melancholly minutes which had been spent in the Expectation of our threatned and advancing danger This I say had been the Case of the most Innocent amongst us and may not we therefore as on the one hand Praise our God for our Deliverance so on the other with a Just and Pregnant Indignation set our mark of regret and abhorrerenc on those Principles and Parties that endeavoured nay give me leave to say as far as we can Pry into the Closets of their Breast or Judg of what is there stored by their words and Actions do but yet too much endeavour to accomplish the same upon us Why otherwise should there be any one amongst mankind so much an Infidel to Sense and Reason as to proclaim his Doubts or Hesitations which by the way are only to amuse the Vulgar of the Credit of this Phanatical Conspiracy which hath been so demonstratively made Evident that the Light in the Heavens is not more obvious to our natural then this to out Intellectual Capacities But least the Poyson of such Amusements should too far spread themselves Amusements which the Promoters understands to be so I shall take a short view of the Parties Condemn'd as they were too fatally by their Treasons drove to the outmost brink of Life and stood ready to Launch into the Ocean of Eternity at which time it might be well expected however their carriages had represented them to the World as Traytors and Injurious Persons to the Government they liv'd under the Dread of that Tribunal to which the Rope and Ax had summoned them would in some measure work them to a True and Penitent Confession of those Crimes for which they came thither As to the Three first Walcot Hone and Rouse who suffered together at Tyburn on Friday 20th of June 1683. these three severally confessed the Crimes that brought that unhappy Fate upon them whose Evidence in the sight of that grim Messenger that then stood before them was more to be considered against themselves then 10000. Witnesses and which were it only single is more then sufficient to take off all Cavilling Infidelities the worst of Men can raise against it yet least their Objections which are upon the same structure raised as to the Speech of my Lord Russell may prevail upon the Ignorant and misinformed let us look alittle into the same and hear the Objectors Arguments say they If then the Facts whereof my Lord Russell was found Guilty by the Jury upon such Pregnant proof be so Evident how is it possible for a Dying Man before God and Men to assert his Innocency with such assurance and so frequently repeated in his Speech to the Sheriff First God knows how far I was always from Designs against the Kings Person or of altering the Government Secondly I profess I know of no Plot either against the Kings Life or the Government In the Paper delivered it is thus Expressed What ever Apprehensions I had of Popery and my own severe and heavy share I was like to have under it when it should prevail I never had a thought of doing any thing against it basely or inhumanely but what would consist with the Christian Religion the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom Again I have always Loved my Country much more then my Life and never had any Design of changing the Government and would have suffered any extremity rather then have consented to take away the Kings Life c. Specious
well Guilded pretences drawn by a cunning Pencil to please and quiet the Conscience of a Dying Criminal and cast a mist before the purblind Eyes of the unthinking Croud to possess them with his Innocency and lay the Load of Envy and Aspersion on the Government for a Malicious and Cruel Prosecution against him for otherwise what need all these careful Restrictions and Limitations to usher in his Innocency might lie not as well have said in a few plain words as became a Dying Man I know of no Design to make an Insurrection or Rebellion in this Kingdom which had been more a-kind to the Crime he came to Suffer for but proceeds he God knows how far c. God knows all things that 's true and without doubt was privy to the guilt he then lay under this amounts to no denial nor further when he says In the words of a Dying Man I profess I know of no Plot either against the Kings Life or the Government pray take notice I know of no Plot how could he then the same was put by and defeated but this is restrained against the Kings Life or Government very well but might not the unnecessary Guards be seized and no personal harm in their Sense done the King suppose they should have deposed or imprison'd him or put away other Indignity on him short of Life This might have been done too without any change of Government the Crown might have been Translated from one Head to another yet Monarchical Government unaltered So that the Snare is sufficiently Evident to our Discovery that the same was cautiously penn'd to glare the Eyes of the Multitude and deceive their Apprehensions but I intend not to insist in the taking to peices the said Speech only thence prove that by my Lords own Confession therein contained he hath said sufficient to Evince the Truth of this History as to the Plot in general and likewise as to his own particular and fatal concern therein For That he agreed he was at Mr. Shepherds when such Persons were met as Colonel Rumsey and Mr. West both Swear That there was a Discourse of Seizing the Guards of the Feasableness thereof and the said Two Witnesses both add his Undertakement and in a clause or two further add that he remembers the like Discourse at my Lord Shaftsburies at which time he saith he flew out and exclaimed against it and lookt upon it as a horrid thing and a little afterwards says that several things were spoken in his hearing with more Heat than Judgment and that nothing was Sworn against him but some Discourses about making some stirs and this is not Levying of War c. which is Treason by the Statute of Edward the 3d. and not Consulting and Discoursing about it which by a fetch was Construed a Design of Killing the King and so he was cast In Answer to which I would state clearly what the Law of the Land is on these Points to the Understanding of all Men. The Meeting and Consulting to make an Insurrection against the King or Raise a Rebellion within the Kingdome be the end thereof never so specious for the publick good tho the Rebellion be not raised it is High Treason by the Law of the Land It was so at Common Law by the consent of all Books that Treat of that matter and no one Authority against it It is so since the Statute of the 25 of Edward the 3d Chapter the 2d within the first Branch of that Law Against Compassing and Imagining the Death of the King The Death of the King in that Law is not restrained to the Killing of His Natural Person but extends as well to Civil Death as Natural to Conspire to Depose the King is equally High Treason with that of Killing Him so for Imprisoning Seizing or Taking Him into the Power of His Subjects or for laying any Force or Restraint upon Him until He do what His Subjects would have Him These are all High Treasons for Compassing His Death either Natural or Civil and all Overt-Acts which declare the Intent of Effecting any of these Crimes as all Meetings Consultations and Agreements to Rise in Rebellion and Seize upon the Kings Guards which are His Defence against Force and Invite the Aid and Assistance of the Kings Subjects of any other Kingdoms are plainly Overt-Acts and have been at all times so Adjudged In the 2d and 3d of Philip and Mary One Constable dispersed divers Bills in the Night about the Streets in which was written That King Edward the Sixth was Alive and in France and at another time in Coleman-street pointed to a Young Man and said he was King Edward the Sixth These things tending only to Depose the Queen were Adjudged High Treason for Conspiring Her Death and Constable Indicted Attainted and Executed The Case is Cited in Calvin's Case Cooks Reports Fol. 106. 13 Eliz. Dyer 293 Doctor Story practiced with the Governour of Flanders to Invade the Realm with Force and declared by what means in what manner and place the Invasion might be No Invasion following it was referred to all the Judges to Consider what Crime it was who Resolved it High Treason because an Invasion with Power could not be but of Necessity It must tend to the Destruction of the King vide the Lord Cobhams Case 1 Jac. the Lord Greys the same Year in Sir Henry Vane's Case Meeting and Consulting about Treason was held sufficient Overt-Acts Nor could my Lord Russell's Case be only Misprision of High Treason for this is only the Concealment thereof by a Person without any mixture of his Consent But if the Person be present at the Debates and Consultations tho he say nothing if he doth not immediately Reveal it but continues to Meet and be present at their Debates he is a Principal Traytor Where a Person was not present at the Debates and Resolves but is afterwards acquainted with them and gives Consent thereto it is High Treason This was the Case of George Brook to whom the Lord Cobham related the whole Conspiracy of setting up the Lady Arabella who Consented to the same and was Attainted as a Principal Traytor for the same Now my Lord Russell as he puts his own Case of being present at several Meetings where seizing the Guards was treated of and horrid things spoken Argues himself Guilty of Treason though he make a false conclusion from those premisses that it was Misprision only But the Witnesses proving his frequent Meetings and Consults and the last of them at his own House and his express consent to the matters debated put it beyond a Questian to any Man that desires not to be wilfully Blind that his Crime was high Treason in the highest degrees For which Crime the said Lord Russell on Saturday the 21th of July 1683 had his Head severed from his Body upon a Scaffold erected for that purpose in great Lincolnes-Inn-Fields Having thus Answered this Objection I proceed to the Death of Collonel