Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A54973
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Plain dealing is a jewel and honesty the best policy both set forth in an answer to a letter received by a gentleman in London, from his friend in the countrey : wherein is planly demonstrated the grounds and reasons of our present distractions and methods proposed for preventing the same for the future / by a lover of truth and a hearty well-wisher to the prosperity of the King and his three kingdoms.
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Lover of truth and a hearty well-wisher to the prosperity of the king and his three kingdoms.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing P2352; ESTC R8001
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28,621
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25
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such Danger they upon the opening of every Parliament or Session of Parliament would have put the several Members of the House of Commons as well as the Lords upon a right Course of preventing the Mischiefs they seemed to fear and delivering us from the Grievances they pretended the Kingdom suffered under but as if they had not believed what they reported they took the contrary Course and instead of perswading the Parliament to moderate sober Councils and Proceedings studied to put them into Heats and Passions and upon Exclaiming against particular Persons to whom they owed prejudice as being His Majesties Servants and Ministers These upon common Fame before heard or Witnesses examined against them must be Removed from the Kings Presence and Councils for Ever on Addresses from the House of Commons no Body knew for what save I ancies and Immaginations But some of them being too Great and their Integrities and Abilities for His Majesties Service better known to him then them His Majesty not thinking fit to Remove them Thereupon some of these worthy Patriots of their Countrey for several Sessions of Parliament made it their business to doe nothing save to contrive Differences between the Two Houses of Parliament for which purpose they questioned the Lords Jurisdiction in matters of Appeals particularly in the Cases of Sherly and Fag and others which Controvercy they carried so high that Sir John Fag and several Lawyers were Committed by the House of Commons to the Tower for only appearing before the Lords at their Bar and owning their Judicature in Cases of Appeals from Courts of Equity this single Point caused several Prorogations and rendred several Sessions Fruitless though the same was never before called in question since His Majesties Restauration Now if those Gentlemen who so highly concerned themselves in these matters had been of such publick Spirits as to spend their time in laying open the Dangers they apprehended we were in and the Grievances we suffered under with Design to have prevented those Dangers and redressed those Grievances They would certainly then have applied to the several Members of Parliament prest for Moderation desired them to avoid all Heats and Passions and to look into the Plot search it to the bottom Try the Lords in the Tower and examine the Truth of the several Grievances complained of and find means to prevent the Danger of the former and secure us for the Future against the latter in doing whereof they must necessarily have found who had occasioned both and after securing the Subjects then to have fallen on the Persons Guilty would have been more proper for if then these Persons had been too great for the Parliament and procured Prorogations and Dissolutions yet had the Parliament discharged their Consciences done their Duty preserved their Countrey and deserv'd Thanks and Honour from those they Represented But to fall upon particular Persons first and to doe nothing for our Security because they could not have their Ends against those Persons they had prejudice too give me leave to say for them to be perswaded to this method of Proceedings in my apprehension did not argue that either they themselves or those persons that informed them of the Grievances and Dangers the Nation was said to lie under believed the truth of either and if so then was it a Barbarous Act to amuse alarm and frighten the People from their Duty to their Prince with groundless Noise and Clamor If really there were at those times such Grievances and Dangers as Represented how could the Parliament have answered it to God and their Countrey if through their private Heats and Animosities the Mischiefs threatned and which the Nation seared had fallen upon us if they had then believed our Danger so great as they discoursed it to be and had not known that more Noise and Clamor was made then there was just occasion for I am of opinion they would for their own Honour as well as the publick Good have first endeavoured to have secured our future Happiness rather than hazarded the same out of some private Peak they had to particular Persons Again If these Gentlemen by the Endeavors they used to have obtained an Act for Secluding his Royal Highness from the Imperial Crown of England had designed to secure the Protestant Religion against a Popish Successor had that I say been their single Intention certainly they would have made the Act general to bar for the future all Persons of the Popish Religion from Inheriting or wearing the Imperial Crown of England but to bring in a Bill against James Duke of York alone by name and that whether he be Papist or Protestant at the time of the Kings Death provided he should happen to survive him this kind of procedure seems rather to be the effect of the Malice and Revenge of some particular persons against the Dukes Person who have gone so far as that they judg they cannot be safe if ever he Reigns than a Design to secure the Protestant Religion against a Popish Successor For First If such Bill was past and his Royal Highness should die before the King that Act dies with him Secondly If the Duke survive the King he being near as Old it cannot be expected he should live long after him so it would do little good nor will it be any great Security to the Kingdom to have him bar'd and no Body else Besides the offering of such Bill was unmannerly and put a hardship upon the King to Exclude by a Law his only Brother from Inheriting the Crown of England though he should be a Protestant and at the same time out of Zeal to the promotion and preservation of the Protestant Religion leave room for the King of Spain or any other Popish Successor except the Duke of York to Succeed our present King and bring in the Spanish Inquisition with him What savors this of or looks it like but a malicious Design of particular persons against the Duke of York I am sure I can find nothing of a real Design in it to Secure the Protestant Religion and Interest Whereas if the Bill had been made general to have barred all Popish Successors it would have been more excusable and might perhaps have been judged the effect of the Parliaments Care of the Protestant Interest and it may be would not have appeared so difficult for the King to have past if he had found reason to believe it for his Subjects Good and with tendency to the Security and Happiness of his Kingdoms Because in such Case His Majesty had done his Royal Brother no wrong only by advice of Parliament had past a general Law for the publick Good and Security of his Kingdoms That could neither hurt the Duke or bar him the Succession without his own consent by Declaring himself a Papist Besides if this Bill had past into an Act what would it have signified has not many of the like nature been past against several former Princes who
Plain Dealing IS A JEWEL AND HONESTY THE BEST POLICY Both set forth In an Answer to a Letter received by a Gentleman in London from his Friend in the Countrey Wherein is plainly demonstrated the Grounds and Reasons of our present Distractions And Methods proposed for preventing the same for the Future By a Lover of Truth and a hearty well-wisher to the Prosperity of the King and his Three Kingdoms LONDON Printed for the Author 1682. Plain Dealing IS A JEWEL AND HONESTY the best POLICY SInce the Arguments I have used for obtaining your excuse have been so far from prevailing that on the contrary you are pleased by your last positively to Command my sentiments of the Present Conjuncture of Affairs and Thoughts concerning those scandalous reports industruously spread throughout the Kingdom of His Majesties having had for many years past a design carrying on and which is still kept on foot for the Introducing Arbitrary Power setting up Popery Invading Liberty and Property and extirpating if possible the Protestant Religion Establisht by Law I shall with sincerity account to you my oJudgment and offer such Reasons as I hope will convince all sober and unbyassed Readers to be of opinion that these reports are as false as malitious having nothing of truth in them 〈◊〉 occasioned as followeth There are a sort of Malecontents amongst us most of them men of mean Fortunes turbulent and restless Spirits who design Troubles and Commotions in the Kingdome in hopes thereby to gain advantage to themselves by the miseries and sufferings of others These make it their whole business to create in the minds of the Kings Subjects Fear and Jealousies of His Majesties designing to Govern Arbitrarily Introduce Popery Extirpate the Protestant Religion and Invade Property by setting up Abbyes and Monasteries and restoring to them their Anciant Lands and Revenues now disperst into the hands of most of the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom In process of time by these and such like evil Practices the Ignorant and unthinking mens minds whose Capacities will neither give them leave to examine whether these Reports be true or false reasonable or unreasonable to be believed possible or impossible to be accomplished are become greatly disturbed and such jealousies are risen in them concerning the King as hath abated the fervency of their former affection to his Royal Person and their Zeal for his Service and Government occasioned such Divisions Animosities and Contentions between Subject and Subject put their Spirits upon such firmentations divided and subdivided them into so many several Parties Factions and Interests each Diamatrical opposite to the other that unless Almighty God in his Infinite mercy goodness and wisdom please to direct a speedy way for the Uniting them in Love together I fear the consequence may in a short time prove pernicious if not fatal both to King and People which it is dreadful to consider should be the Effect and Consequence of some mens Credulity on the one hand and others Impudent falsity on the other Pardon me Sir I beseech you if I happen to differ from you in Opinion when I possitively affirm that by all my own observations and the Scrutiny I have made by inquiring of and conversing with others I never yet found the least ground to believe His Majesty had ever really any design as is falsly suggested to set up Arbitrary Power or Introduce Popery nor is there any shadow or coulor for the Fears and Jealousies of this Nature with which mens minds are so â—trangly possest If His Majesty had ever designed so to Govern sure it would have been showâ— at his first â—â—turn into England to take Possession of his Royal Crown 〈◊〉 Government for having lived most part of the time of his horrid Sufferings under an Illegal and Unjust Banishment in those Countries where the Government was absolute or nearest to absolute their Laws being Enervated and deprest by their Princes it might have been reasonably expected he would then have brought over considering how barbarously his Royal Father had been murdered and himself and the whole Royal Family been dealt with in their Exile a Scheme of such Government with him the which if he had done no Prince in Christendome ever had such an opportunity to have accomplisht the same as our King then had Was he not upon his return to his Kingdoms absolute Lord and Master of all his Subjects Lives and Estates by the Law of the Land occasioned by their own forfeiture either by open Actings or silent acquiessing under the late Rebellion Services done for or Taxes paid to the late Userpors whereby they were all guilty of high Treason and stood in need of His Majesties Royal Pardon Might not His Majesty after his Restauration when all his Subjects either adored or feared him being brought in with the Hearts and most Zealous Affections of his People have had at that time any thing from his Parliament that he could have demanded If therefore he had then had a Design ever to Govern Arbitrarily there never was such an opportunity for accomplishing thereof as when he first came over when he could not have askt that Sum of Mony for his present supply or annual Revenue for the future Support of his Royal Prerogative and such his intended Government but it would have been granted by his Friends in hopes of Reward and durst not have been opposed by his Enemies tho never so unreasonoble for fear of being called to account for their Treasons no Act of Oblivion being then past of which the meanest Subject stood in need and could not have been long safe without So that if His Majesty had any Intention ever tho not at that time to set up for Arbitrary Government he lost it for want of asking for His Majesty well knew that the Interest he then had in his People was such that he need but to have demanded and it would certainly have been given to him Notwithstanding all which to show his Subjects that he valued Reigning in their Hearts and Affections much more than to be Master of their Lives and Fortunes forfeited to him as aforesaid he was graciously pleased himself to press his two first Parliaments to pass a general Act of Indemnity which they did with great regret and threw himself upon his Parliaments for such supplies as they then thought necessary for the present support of the Government without making any Bargain or entring into any Capitulation with them as he might have done for a constant and certain Revenue for the future Nor did His Majesty if he had any such design deny himself in his respect only but in many other that were in his power whereby he might have Inricht himself and brought Immence Sums of Mony into his Coffers to have been kept in readiness when ever he had been pleased to set up for such a Government wherewith to have defrayd the necessary Charges thereof as for Instance His Majesty might have taken all the