Nation he tells the Parliament That he had been obliged to kâ—ep up his Troops to keep his Neighbâ—urs from absolute Despair and that he had been solicited from abroad not to disband them Now was ever such a Story told by a Prince and vouched in the face of the Nation by a Bred Lawyer viz. his Chancellor to justifie the Breach of a Law of the Three Estates of the Kingdom as soon as made and then to flâ—m the Parliament off with Christendom and the Worlds commending us for breaking our own Laws to patch up a Peace which tended to nothing but the Ruine of those for whom it was made The sum of which was in short That the King to serve his own Arbitrary Ends had run hâ—mself 〈…〉 〈…〉 that many Papers of great Importance had with a more than ordinary Industry been convey'd away yet by those that were found so much appeared that the House Voted it to be a damable Plot to root up and destroy the Religion and Government of the Kingdom and privately got the Lord Chief-Justice Sâ—broggs to sign Warrants for the Apprehending the Popish Lords which was done accordingly And for their further Security they prepared a Bill for putting the Nation into a posture of Defence and for raising the Militia throughout the Kingdom to be in Arms for so many days Which passed Both Houses without any difficulty but the King out of his Zeal to the Protestant Religion refused to pass it And then it was that the Parliament found too late the Compliment which they had pass'd upon him in returning him the Power of the Militia which he made use of to keep up Standing Armies for their Destruction but refused for the Security of the Nation This therefore not prevailing they began to provide against Papists sitting in either House and fram'd a Bill with a Test to be taken by every Member of both Houses or else to lose their Seats This though his Protestant Majesty durst not openly oppose himself yet after a close Consultation held at St. Iames's he ordered all his Instruments in the Lords House to withstand the passing of it there which though they could not effect yet they prevail'd so far that they got a Proviso in it for the D. of York whereby they did him the kindness as to declare him a Papist to all the World After this the Parliament proceeded to the impeaching of such Persons as they had found to be deepest in the Contrivance of all our Mischiefs but That His Majesty lookt upon as a Business that so nearly concerned his own Honour that like his Father when the D. of Buckingham was accus'd of poysoning his Father he would not endure the Parliament in such a Iehu-like Chace after the Popish Conspirators but foot-ball'd them again with a Prorogation for several Months So careful was his Protestant Majesty to stifle as much as in him lay and to prevent the Prosecution of an Infernal Plot which he knew was so deeply laid like the Axe of Popery to the root of all his Protestant Dominions Nor was this all for so soon as he had dismiss'd the Parliament and had secur'd his Accomplices he took all the care imaginable to discredit Oates and Bedlow's Evidence Forty One was again inculcated into all the Ignorant Pates about the Town and Merry-Andrew Roger had his Pension out of the Gazetts continued to ridicule the Plot which he did in a most leud and shameless manner and Money given to set up a new Divinity Academy in a Publick Coffee House to act the Protestant Whore of Babylon and give about his Revelation-Cup to the Raw Inferior Clergy and instruct them in better Doctrine than ever they learnt in the University Nor did he stop at the endeavouring to discredit the Testimonies of those Witnesses but sent his Head-Emissaries to corrupt them to a denial and retracting what they had discovered and when that would not do Knox and Lane were suborn'd to accused Otes of Buggery thereby to bave taken him Acts of the foulest ignominy which whether a Protestant King would have encouraged to the ruine of the Religion which he professed in partial postcrity will determine with a clearer and more unclouded sight For we God knows are so dazled with those Illustrious Beams of feigned Protestant Majesty that we are not able to stare upon those Rays without blinding our Eyes out of a false Devotion to the Sun of our vain Imagination Add to this his endeavouring to corrupt the yet untainted Members of the House and buy their Votes to the utter exhausting of his Treasure for that which was then call'd Secret Service And which was more than all the rest his Dissolution of this Enquiring Parliament at the Sollicitation of the Duke and the rest of his guilty Minions by the Advice of a certain Lady who to save her Husband from the Impeachment he lay under persuaded them to get the King totally to Dissolve the Parliament using this Argument That in regard the Nation were so dissatisfied in this it would be a means to gain him the favour of the people and baffle the Impeachment by getting it Dissolv'd especially when it should be known that it was done by his procurement So that the Lady's Advice being followed the Parliament was as easily Dissolv'd as it had been a little before lasciviously Prorogued after a continuance of Seventeen Years to the great Admiration of all men tho indeed it proved in some measure a happy day for England For the Dissolution so enraged the Band of Pensioners finding their Service so slighted and their livelihood lost that they began to talk loud and discovered those things which were no way for the disadvantage of the Nation But here we are t observe the extraordinary Diligence of his Protestant Majesty to get the next Parliament fit for his Turn which was suddenly to be called to stop the mouths of the People To which purpose all the Money that could possibly be spared out of the Chequer was issued out to C. B. to manage the Elections all over the Kingdom under the old Notion of secret Service in one Article 1500 l. in another 2000. and the Guinea's stew about the Countrey far and near to the Corporations to hire places and get fit men the Heads of the Counties and Corporations were sent for and told what men would be serviceable and acceptable to the King and particularly the Gentlemen of Essex were sent to by the Ch. Just. Schroggs and cautiones that they should not chuse Mildmay whatever they did And new Charters were obtained foâ— some Corporations with new Privileges and 〈◊〉 them down to be hung out at the Windows to animate the People to chuse such men as they were directed What could more have been done by a Protestant Prince to destroy his Protestant Subjects and advance the Roman-Catholick Cause But when the Conspiraters saw that nothing would but that they perceived that they were deceived in their Expectations by
subvert their Laws and Liberties to undermine and impoverish their Estates and Fortunes and to reduce a Plump Wealthy and Well-nourish'd Nation into a Skeleton of a Kingdom what could be more infernally ingrateful Yet that this was the Study and Practice of his whole Reign the following Passages will make Geometrically demonstrable The King was not ignorant that he was furnish'd already with a stock of Gentlemen who being forc'd to share the Misfortunes of his Exile and consequently no less imbitter'd against those whom they lookt upon as their Oppressors he had moulded them to his own Popish Religion and Interests by corrupting them in their Banishment with him to renounce the Protestant Doctrine and Worship and secretly reconcile themselves to the Church of Rome Insomuch that Mr. R. offer'd to prove one day in the Pensionary House of Commons that of all the Persons yet Persons all of Rank and Quality who sojourn'd with the King abroad there were but three then alive viz. P. Rupert the Lord M. and Mr. H. Coventry who had not been prevail'd upon by his Majesty to go to Mass. Nor could their being restor'd to their Estates at his return separate them from their Masters Interests for that besides the future Expectations with which the King continually fed them and the Obligations that the Principles of the Religion to which they had revolted layd them under they had bound themselves by all the Oaths and Promises that could be exacted from them to assist and cooperate with him in all his Designs for the Extirpation of the Protestant Religion and introducing of Popery though they were dispenced with from appearing bare-fac'd So soon therefore as the Parliament that gave him admittance into the Kingdom was Dissolv'd the King call'd another the first of his own Calling and so ordered the Matter that the greatest part of the Mask'd Revolters got in amongst the Real Protestants By which means all things went trim and trixy on the King's side They restor'd him the Militia which the Long Parliament had wrested out of his Fathers hands they sacrific'd the Treasure of the Nation to his Profuseness and Prodigality the only Vertue in him that sav'd us from utter Ruin for had he been more sparing he had done us more mischief They offer'd up the Rights and Liberties of the People by advancing his Prerogative and what was most conducing to the King 's Popish Designs they made him by private Instructions those Penal Statutes which divided the two prevailing Protestant Parties and set them together by the Ears by arming one Party of the Protestants against all the rest such a darling advantage to the Papists and upon the obtaining of which he set so high a value that neither the necessity of his Affairs at any time afterwards nor the Application and Interposure of several Parliaments for removing the grounds of our Differences and Animosities by an Indulgence to be past into a Law could prevail upon him to forego the advantages he had got of keeping the Protestants at mutual Enmity one with another and making them useful to their own Designs of supplanting the Protestant Religion and re-establishing the Idolatry of Rome Nor was this all but that he might carry on his Popish Designs the more safely and covertly under the cursed Mask of Hypocrisie he procur'd the passing of an Act in his Pensionary Parliament 1662. whereby it was made forfeiture of Estate and Imprisonment for any to say the King was a Papist or an Introducer of Popery Nevertheless notwithstanding he was thus become a Protestant by the Law of the Land to repeat how he exerted the Power given him by the P2rliament how he persecuted and prosecuted the Protestant Nonconformists from one end of the Kingdom to the other how he caus'd them to be Excommunicated imprison'd and harrass'd when nto a Papist in the Three Kingdoms was so much as troubled or molested is a thing that would be altogether needless as being so well known to the World and still too sadly remembred by Thousands of Families that to this day too deeply wear the Scars of his Cruel Dilaniations However it shew'd sufficiently the aim of our dear Defender of the Protestant Faith which was to weaken and enervate the Protestant Party that so they might be come the more easie Prey to Popish Rage and Cruelty when the blessed Hour should arrive for the putting in Execution those bloody designs with which he had been so long travailing which because he could not carry on without assistance therefore although he were sometimes oblig'd by the necessity of his Affairs and in complyance with the Times to palliate his Contrivances to make use of sincere and real Protestants yet they who were admitted into his secrets and in whom he placed his chiefest Trust and Confidence were always Papists He who would needs have himself enacted the best Protestant in his Dominions took no notice that whosoever was reconciled to Rome stood debarr'd from all Offices and obnoxious to several kinds of punishment but still out of the number of Papists or else such as were of no Religion at all which was the same thing for his purposes chose his Embassadors Generals Ministers of State and many of his greatest Bishops too What else recommended Sir W. Godolphin to be Embassador in Spain or Sir Lionel I. to be his Plenipotentiary at Nimeguen and afterwards his drudging Sham-plot Secretary It was his being a zealous Roman Catholick that preferr'd the Lord Clifford to the Treasurers Staff with several others of the same stamp to other high Preferments more Eminent for their Dignities than for their Parts and lastly what was it but this Indulgence and finding ways to dismiss the Papists without any harm or damage when Indicted or Presented at the Sessions that advanced so many Beneplacito Judges and continued them in their Places I had almost forgot another very great kindness which the same Parliament did him which was at the Private Instance of the King to abrogate the Triennial Act by which the sitting of Parliaments once in three years was infallibly secur'd to the Kingdom So well did his Majesty know where the Shoe pinch'd him and so crafty was he to take his Advantage from the Delirium and Frenzy the Nation was in upon his Restoration to obtain the repealing of the Principal Laws by which his wriggling into Arbitrary Government would have been curb'd and restrain'd But whether it were that the Prodigal Zeal of those Members began to cool conscious perhaps that they had already open'd too large a Gap to Tyrannous Invasion upon the Liberties of the People which they had so treacherously laid at the Kings Mercy or whether it were that the King resolv'd to quicken his pace to Arbitrary Rule to the end he might see Popery flourish in his own Days certain it is that his next Attempt was to make the Parliaments themselves the Ministers and Instruments of his own Popish Ambition and our Slavery In order
hereunto he falls a buying and purchasing at certain and annual Rates the Votes of the Members at what time the greatness of the number of those who stood ready for Sale as well as their Indigencies and Lusts made the Price at which they were to be bought so much the easier Now being thus hir'd by his Majesty with their own free Offerings of the Nations Money How many Bills did they pass into Acts for enslaving and ruining a third part of the Kingdom under the Notion of Phanaticks and Dissenters and all this in gratitude for their Sallaries and to accomplish the Will and Pleasure of their Lord and Master the King whose bought and purchas'd Vassals and Slaves they were All this while what can we say or think other but that the Purchaser as well as the Sellers were equally guilty of betraying the People who had entrusted them And then to make a President by Law for Tyranny those Hirelings empower'd the Iustices of the Peace to disseize Men of their Estates without being convicted and found guilty by Legal Juries of the Transgressions whereof they stood accus'd By which they not only overthrew all the Common and Statute Law of the Land but they subverted and altered the Fundamental Constitution in making English Men liable to be ruin'd at the Arbitrary Pleasure of the King And as an addition to this those Mercinary Members by the Orders and Directions of their most Pious and Protestant Paymaster the King past another Law which was stiled the Act for Corporations by which Men of Principles and Integrity were debarred all Offices of Magistracy in Cities and Corporate Towns The woful Effects of which the Kingdom not long after both saw and felt in the Surrenders of Charters and betraying of Franchises by Persons upon whom the Government of the Corporations came to be devolv'd by Vertue of that Act. For that had it not been for that Act which excluded so many honest able and vertuous Men the Persons whom the King for his by-ends nominated for fit and loyal Men would never have risen above the Office of Scavengers or Headboroughs or Constables at the highest To this as a thing that mainly contributed to the King's design of enslaving us we may subjoyn their passing an Act whereby they did both limit and confine the number of those that were to present Petitions to the King not to exceed Ten Persons Let the Matter to be represented be ne're so important or the Grievance to be redress'd never so illegal and oppressive yet it was made no less then a Riot if above Ten Persons address'd themselves to the King to crave the Benefit of the Law A Trouble which the King carefully provided against knowing how many Laws he had to break and how burthensom and oppressive he must be to the People before he could compleat the Fabrick of Slavery and Popery which he was erecting Nor was this all for the King strenuously pursuing his Design of being sincere and cordial to the destruction of his People had so bephilter'd them with his Potions of Aurum Potabile that they pass'd another Act to his Hearts desire whereby they plac'd the whole and sole Power of the Militia in the King not only encouraging him to use Force in compassing his Arbitrary Designs but binding up the Hands of the People from defending themselves against armed Violence upon their Religigion Liberties and Lives Add to this the vast sums which they gave him beyond what the Support of the Government or the Defence of the Nation requir'd Which might have produc'd fatal Consequences but that the King knew as little a Measure in spending as that unhappy Parliament did in giving The King therefore conscious of his own Failing and finding that through his own Wastfulness and the Importunities of his consuming Misses he could not depend upon any limited and definite Sum for accomplishing his Promises to his Holy Father the Pope and his trusty Confederate the French King got Two Bills prepar'd and carry'd into the House the Passing of which had compleated the Nations Misery and made him Absolute The one was to empower his Majesty upon Extraordinary Occasions of which he would not have fail'd to have been the Judge as often as he pleas'd to raise Money without a Parliament And the other was for setling a Universal Excise upon the Crown The Passing either of which the King well knew would have soon â—nabl'd him to have govern'd by Basha's and Ianizaries and redeem'd him from having any further need of Parliaments or any apprehension of having the Instruments of his Tyranny impeach'd by Them But what the King had so finely projected to enslave the Nation and obtain whatever he had a mind to prov'd the Ground of their Disappointment and the Occasion of the Nations Escape from the Snare that was laid for it For the Mercenary Members foreseeing that the passing these Bills would have put an end to their Pensions by rendring them useless for the time to come consulted their Gain and preferring it above what the Court styl'd their Loyalty fell in with the Honest Party and so became assistant in throwing out the Bills However the very bringing the Bills into the House was as clear an Evidence of the King's Intention to alter the Government and enslave the Nation as if they had pass'd into Laws And some of his Minions that knew the King's Drift and the inside of his Heart were so zealous for him to have gain'd this Arbitrary Power that they would have it argu'd and spoken to in the House of Lords And who but the Popish Lord Clifford should be the Man that ventur'd to undertake the Business And accordingly he made a long Harrangue in praise of Absolute Monarchy and how much it would be for the Interest of the Kingdom to have his Majesty entrusted with a more unlimited Authority Which some of the Lords resenting with a Warmth and Indignation becoming Persons who by the Constitutions of the Governmeut were design'd for a Bulwark against the Encroachments of Regal Power and as a Fence about the Liberties of the People the Motion not only dy'd without being seconded but Clifford even by him who had encourag'd him in his Attempt was call'd a rash Fool for his pains However Pious AEneas finding the Nation grew sensible of his covert Intentions and Encroachments upon their Laws and Liberties and despairing to get any more Acts pass'd in Parliament toward the promoting his Designs resolv'd to husband the Laws he had already obtain'd as much as he could to the Ruine of the Nation and where they fail'd of being serviceable to his Ends to betake himself to other Methods and Means And therefore besides the daily impoverishing confining and destroying of infinite numbers of honest and peaceable People under pretence of executing the Laws he made it his Business to invent new Projects to tear up the Rights and Liberties of the People by ways and means which had not the least
been acquitted All which severities were palpable demonstrations of that Innocent Man's being determined to Destruction right or wrong on purpose to lay the foundation of farther Butcheries So that being fleshed by this Success the next attempt of the King's Justice was upon the Earl of Shaftsbury for the same pretended Treason for which Colledge had suffered And here posterity will make the same Observations and Conclusions in general as in Colledge's Case But more particularly will after Ages easily conclude from hence that it was not for any Contrivance of his Lordship but by a project of Court and Popish Revenge to destroy a person who by his Courage Wisdom and Good Intelligence had Opposed and Defeated so many of their Designs against the Religion and Welfare of the Nation For that this Plot upon his Lordship was so early Communicated to Rome and other Foreign parts That it was talked of at Paris and in Flanders some time before his Lordship was Imprisoned in England They will observe the Injustice done his Lordship in refusing to let him see or know the persons that deposed against him which was not denied either to Coleman or the Iesuites and which being so contrary to Law was a plain Demonstration that either the Witnesses were not thought of credit sufficient to support the Confinement of so great a Peer or else that it was not convenient to trust the general course of their Lives to be scrutinied too soon They will admire at the horrid Injustice done his Lordship in refusing to give an Oath to those that offered to have sworn two Indictments of Subornation against the False Testimonies produced against his Lordship The first president of such an Illegal Obstruction of Justice They will observe the Treachery that was used to have betrayed his Lordship into the Snare For what greater piece of Treachery could there be than after they had intercepted a Letter directed to his Lordship out of France from a Gentleman that had commanded a Regiment of Horse in the Service of C. the I. which Letter was only to desire his Lordship to befriend him with a Receipt of the Gout they added to it a Postscript wherein the Gentleman is made to tell his Lordship That he was able to furnish him with Forty Thousand Men from France to oppose the D. of York and so sent it back again into France to have been returned into England and intercepted a second time but that by a strange providence the Letter happened into the Gentleman's own hands who was not a little consternated at the alteration The Motives that induced the Court to begin with this Great and Eminent Peer will be easily discernible to succeeding Ages For to what man of Sense and Reason is it not apparent that it was the Policy of the Court That their Revenge against this Earl should not be adjourned till they had tried the Credit of their Witnesses upon other considerable Persons for fear lest by his Lordship's Industry and Abilities he should not only have detected and exposed the whole Intreague but have broken the Engine by which the two Brothers thought to have made themselves Absolute Lords of the Laws and Religion of the Kingdom For which reason it was thought best to assault him by way of surprise and to hurry him to prison upon a pretended Conspiracy which People would be astonished at but not have time to unravel For the King and his Brother were assured That the convicting of the E. of Shafâ—sbury upon a Charge of Levying War and Conspiring to seize his Person would be a kind of moral proof against every other Person whom they had a mind to accuse of the same Crime Since people would be easily persuaded That a Person of his prudence and conduct would not easily embark himself in such a dangerous Enterprise without a proportionable number of persons who by their Power Quality and Interest might be supposed to be able to carry it on So that all the Noblemen and Gentlemen of England that ever had any Converse or Acquaintance with the Earl supposing them to be persons obnoxious to the Court were involved in his Ruine But it will remain an Eternal Monument of Reproach upon Royal Subornation That after all the Industry of the Court and their obsequious Instruments after all their laying their heads together to form cohering and probable Proofs of the charge intended to be laid against him after an Illegal Trick devised to have Tryed him within their own Jurisdiction of the Verge which was so contrary to Law that it was exploded by their own Bene placito Lambskin men that at length he was acquitted by a Grand Jury the most Substantial for Estates Integrity and Soundness of Judgment that had been returned for many years in the City to the never dying praise of the two Sheriffs Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Shute A Disappointment which so incensed the King and his Dear Brother That they resolved to make an Islington Village of the Chief Metropolis of the whole Nation and what they could not do by Fire to effect by wresting from them their Franchises and Privileges far more Ancient than the descent of those that wrested them for a time out of their hands For this Reason the Attorney General was ordered to bring a Quo Warranto against the City Charter under the pretence of their Petitioning for the Sitting of the Parliament a thing so far from being a Crime that it was the undoubted Right of the Nation And yet such was the awe which the Antiquity and Legality of the Charter had upon the Judges that the Fountain of Justice was forcâ—d to shift his Chief Justice till he could fix upon one that durst adventure to pronounce Sentence against it Which as it was the greatest Invasion that could be against the Ancient and Fundamental Constitutions of the Kingdom so it plainly laid open the King 's Pious intentions of Governing by Law which according to the new Interpretation of the Court was the downright Subverting all that was most Sacred and Valuable in the Nation For what was all this Bustle for But as Charters of all other Cities and Corporations were chopt and changed throughout the Nation to the end the King might have it in his power to violate the electing of a Parliament and nominate and obtrude upon all Persons of the Kingdom his own Slaves and Creatures Papists and Traytors to their Countrey so by reducing one of the most Ancient Corporations and levelling it with one of the meanest Villages in the Kingdom that he might command the Mayor and Sheriffs and by their means the Juries of the City on purpose to have the Lives of all his Protestant Subjects at his mercy And that this was his end was apparent by the Consequences for when once the King by the overthrow of the Charter had made sure of his own Sheriffs and Juries Heavens how were the Laws of God and the Kingdom wrested by misinterpretation how were
under the notion of Presbyterians and Fanaticks Which how well it pleased the King will afterwards appear The first Project had this effect That many of the Leading Men for the Country of both Houses for the same alterations were made among the Commissioners of the Treasury and Lords of the Admiralty being inveagled and drawn aside by the Temptations of Places both of Profit and Honour their vigour began to cool and the unbiassed Party in both Houses were left to stand by themselves Four or five of the most Popular in the Council were wrought off and whatever Matters were of importance for carrying on the Popish Cause were first agreed on in the Private Cabal and then brought into the Council where if such Matters met with strong opposition the King's Pleasure that it should be so over-rul'd the Debates and all things pass'd as ordered by the King in Council not with the Advice of his Council And then such as did not heartily join had good words given them and were told that all was meant well which made several give credit and believe the rest were real By which means all that was done by the King and His Coadjutors was acted behind the Curtain and the Popular Gentlemen were only made use of as Vmbrello's to shade the Conspirators from the scorching Heat of the Peoples Discontent So fine and subtil were the Wiles of Popery above the reach of plain and downright Protestant Politicks But in the midst of these Court-Intriegues to run down the Plot the House of Commons went on vigorously both against the Plot and the Popâ—sh Delinquents which grated so hard upon the Popish Party and was such an obstruction to their Designs That the King compassionating their Grievances more than those of his Protestant Subjects gave way to the Dissolution of the Parliament yet with promise of another to meet toward the latter end of the year under pretence of frequent Parliaments but in reality to try if He could get another fitter for his turn And now the King having laid aside the Parliament and freed his Instruments from the Terrour of it was so far from not permitting himself to be influenced by Popish-Councellors that he began to play his old pranks and first of all the popular Protestant Lords of the Council were by degrees decently laid aside and the Duke was sent for home the Lord Shaftsbury for opposing it being severely reprimanded in Council with a wonder how any person that sate at that Board durst so boldly affront his Royal Highness For the Face of Affairs was changed and the King was now swimming in his own Element again Only it was strange that he was no more concerned to see the strain of the whole Kingdom run against him For notwithstanding all his industry to have brought in his Band of Pensioners again it was found the new-chosen Parliament which was by this time ready to sit was likely to prove worse for his turn than any of the former Which made him have recourse to his old shift of Prorogueing which was done by Proclamation to gain a little time for the acquitting of Sir G. Wakeman which the C. J. Scroggs had engaged to his Prince for a Gracious Smile and to the Portugal Ambassador for a round sum of Guinea's to help him out with his purchase in Essex To which purpose how he acted his part is so well known that I need not here repeat it only thus much That as it redounded very much to the Butcherly Indigent Chief Justice and together with many other good Offices continued him for a while in his Place so it was no less for the advantage of the Papists who from thence took the boldness to affirm there was no Popish Plot. So kind was His Protestant Majesty to help out his desponding Friends at a dead lift in order to the Sham-plot which he was afterwards designing For now the Parliament being put off was at leisure to advise with his Popish Instruments who were no less sedulous to give their advice to the utmost that their active Brains could reach By this sedulity it was that the Meal-Tub Anti-Plot was contrived and hatch'd Only Tools were wanting to manage and carry on the Treacherous Design Therefore not knowing where else to find Miscreants fit for such Diabolical Enterprises all the Goals about the Town were raked for needy Profligates It will be needless to give a particular History of that which has been so sufficiently discover'd for an abominable Imposture It shall only therefore suffice to give the World an account when the King and his Accomplices had laid the Contrivance to trepan the chiefest part of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation that would not comply with his Popish and Tyrannical Designs what Favourites those Rakehells were to His Sacred Majesty upon the account of the Villany which they had undertaken to go through with For it is well known that when Dangerfield was fetch'd out of Newgate and presented to Old Rowley at White-hall as a fit Instrument for the Devillish work of the Meal-tub-Plot then resolv'd upon the King was so overjoy'd he had found such a Rascal for his turn That he set him down on a Couch kiss'd him hugg'd him and embrac'd him with all the caresses of Love imaginable insomuch that the Newgate-Bird himself could not chuse but be surprized at his Soveraigns kindness His entertaining afterward the same unpardon'd Coyner and common Cheat privately in his Closet for an hour together at a time and ever and anon giving him his hand to kiss was no less an argument of his pious Indulgency to premeditated Villany while his Princely Favours and Familiarity were only reserv'd to encourage audacious Treachery and his Frowns only bestowed upon the Detectors of the publick Enemies to God and his Kingdom To which we may add the severity us'd in checking the Lord Mayor for taking Dangerfield's Discovery after he was committed to Newgate for medling as it was term'd with that which nothing concern'd him And indeed it may be said of the Meal-Tub-Plot That it was a piece of Treachery so foul and ignominious that it would have hardly passed for currâ—nt in open War against a publick Enemy and which aggravates the Crime yet more was His Majesty's Liberality of several times to Dangerfield besides his allowance of Twelve pound a week out of the Privy-purse The miscarriage of this blessed Design caused a second proroguation of the Parliament upon hopes of 200000 l. from France whiâ—h was dexterously prevented by the Duke of Buckingham which the King so ill resented that his Attorney-General had Orders in Council to Indict him of Buggery with a Design to have taken away his Life and repair the French disappointment by the Confiscation of his Estate had the project taken Never so much Villany in contrivance never so much Money ill spent and never worse luck But nothing could daunt the Popish Projectors and therefore though the Meal-Tub-Conspiracy was quite baffled
yet there was another quickly hatch'd of the same stamp and nature though carried on by other Instruments Nell Wall an Irish Papist and a Wench formerly employed only to empty Close-stools at White-Hall but afterwards for her Religion advanced to be one of the French Dutchesses Women and so to the King's Favour by which she became a great States-Woman as well as a common Whore To this Woman a great part of the Popish Secrets were discovered and by her means Fitz-Harris was first introduced to the Dutchess and then to the King where he was told That the Plot would undo them unless a way could be found to make a Counter-plot therefore he was bid to try all ways to effect it for that no Cost should be spared but such Rewards should be given as were fit for so great a Service Draw Painter here England's pious Protestant Monarch Counter-plotting with his Popish Concubine and her Close-stool Wench against his Parliament and Kingdom in favour of those that sought the destruction of both The business of this Irish Tool was to find out Seditious Lampoons and Pamphlets and carry them to White-Hall where he had Audience and private Conferences with Nell Wall the Dutchess and the King himself and where he had sometimes given for secret service a Hundred and Two Hundred Pound at a time and was no less slabber'd by his Gracious Soveraign than Dangerfield had been before So zealous were We for the Popish Cause that rather than miss of the Designs of enslaving the Nation by Arbitrary Government and Popery that We would have declar'd our selves even to have kiss'd the Tail as well as the Cheeks of the most Contemptible Creatures in the World Nor must it be omitted as an Argument of His Majesty's great Zeal for the Protestant Religion That when one Sergeant a Priest made a discovery of the Popish Plot from Holland which he caus'd to be transmitted to the Court with an intention to have discovered several others he was first brib'd off by Pillory-Carr then sent for into England slightly and slily examined had his Pardon given him and sent back with Five Pound a week to say no more And in this game that we may understand by whose Countenancing the thing was done Sir L. Ienkins shewed the utmost of his Parts and Fidelity being just enter'd Secretary in the room of another who did not care to venture so far as that both Fool as well as Knave did Among whose good Services to his Master we may reckon his endeavours as much as lay in his Power to conceal the Murther of the Priest at Abbeville in France upon intimation that he was coming into England to make a farther discovery of the Plot Which together with his fasting and other infallible tokens shewed him to be plainly what was well enough known before Father Goff's Creature as well as the King 's and Duke's Nor was it a thing less astonishing to the Nation to see the Parliament prorogued from time to time no less than seven times before permitted to sit on purpose to get time for the Popish Duke to settle the Protestant Religion in Scotland and to the end the Conspirators might get heart and footing again and retrieve their Losses in England and in this Interval it was that Messengers were sent to their Friends at Rome and others their Associates for Money to strike while the Iron was hot in regard that Scotland by this time was secur'd and all things in such a forwardness that now or never was the time but the Pope had such an ill opinion of our Soveraign's Fidelity that he slipt his neck out of the Collar and in imitation of him the rest excused themselves upon the score of their poverty Thus missing money from Rome and the rest of their Popish Associates and the King of France refusing to part with any more Cash there was no way but one at a forc'd-put which was to let the Parliament sit and to make them the more willing to give money to undo the Nation the King in a framed Speech told them of the wonderful Advantageous Alliances for the Kingdoms good he had made with Foreign Princes and particularly with Hâ—lland and how necessary it was to preservâ— Tangier which had already run him in Debt Upon which Considerations the Burden of his Song was More Money But the Parliament Incensed at the frequent Prorogations fell upon Considerations more profitable for the Kingdom such as were the bringing to Condign punishment the Obstructers of their Sitting the Impeaching of North for Drawing the Proclamation against Petitioning and three of the Judges for dismissing the Grand Jury before whom the Duke was Indicted of Recusâ—ncy before they could make their presentments the prosecution of the Popish-Plot and the Examination of the Meal-Tub-Sham all which they lookt upon to be of greater moment than the King's Arguments for his wants For it was well known that by His perâ—idious Dealings abroad he had so impaired his Credit with all the Foreign Princes to whom he sent that they slighted his Applications as one upon whose Word they could never Rely And as for the preservation of Tangier there was nothing less in his Thoughts A fine Credit for a Prince and an excellent Character to recommend him to Posterity that he had no other than his own Sinister ends upon the Grand Council of his Kingdom nor no other way to work them to â—hose ends unless by forging untruths to make them accessary to the betraying of the â—eople that had entrusted them The Parliament therefore bent all their Cares to secure the Kingdom from Popery â—oncluding that the Dukes Apostâ—tizing from â—is Religion was the sole Evil under which â—he Nâ—â—â—ons in a more particular manner â—roaned and consequently that he was to 〈◊〉 Dismoâ—â—ted But the King being reâ—â—lved not to forsake his Brother whatever â—â—came of the Kingdom out of a proâ—ense â—alice to the Nation and â—oresight of the Miseries which his Brother's Government would bring upon the people rather than out of any natural Affection that he bore him took such a high Resentment against these honest and just proceedings of the Houses that after he had Sacrificed the Lord Stafford to his hopes of obtaining money upon the Dukes undertaking to furnish him he Dissolved this Parliament too with promise of another at Oxford to sweeten the bitter Pill which he had made the Nation to swallow In the mean time all the Care imaginable was taken to bring the Protestant-Plot to perfection preparative to which Judges were selected with Dispositions Thoughts and Minds as Scarlet as their Gowns And the Choice of Sheriffs was wrested by force from the people that they might pick out Juries without Conscience and Honesty A Plot contrived by Perfidiousness and Treachery beyond the parallel of History A Plot with Parisian Massacre in the Belly oâ— it designing no less an Innundation of Innocent Protestant Blood under the colour and forms of Justice and yet
the Precepts even of Morality it self transvers'd the Witnesses for the King caressed and countenanced in their known Subornations the Testimonies for the pretended Criminals brow-beaten and run down and all the Arguments of Law and Reason urged by the most Learned Council of the Nation over-ruled by Hectoring and Swaggering Judges to take away the Lives of the Lord Russel Coll. Sidney Armstrong Cornish and several others merely to gratify the Rage of Popish Revenge Such were the Violences of the Court at that time in the defiance of Justice as if all fear of giving account to future Parliaments had been thrown off or that they never intended to be troubled with them more till they had framed the Nation into such a posture as to chuse such Members as would not only forgive such Villanies but go sharers with them in the Spoil of the Kingdom And indeed the eager Thirst of all the Great Men at White-hall was so apparent that nothing could be more by the violent Contests for Sheriffs fit for their Turns before they were Masters of the Charter insomuch that they laboured it with that Zeal as if they had been contending pro Aris Focis and some of them were heard to say That upon that hung all their hopes and without it they were undone For by the Verdicts of such Juries that such Sheriffs should return they were in hopes to cut off all that in their Stations had appeared for the Exclusion of the Duke or had shewed their constant Zeal for the Protestant Religion and the Laws of the Land which is easily demonstrable from the Catalogues of those that suffered or were forced to shelter themselves in Foreign Countries from the Malice of their Revengeful Prosecutors Nor was it less remarkable that as all along they embarked themselves in Designs pernicious and destructive to the King and Kingdom So that the structure of this was built upon as wicked a foundation was evident from the Instruments selected and encouraged by the favour of the King and his Brother to promote it For as they made use of the Scum of the World to perjure men out of their lives so they made use of the Scum of the City such as Dodson Masters Cradock Mern and others of the same stamp to give them the command of Juries proper to complete the Tragedies A most ready and clever way to extirpate by degrees the Patriots of our Religion and Liberties But that this was the Design of getting Court-Sheriffs Sir G. Iefferies who well knew the minds of his Superiors at White-hall was neither afraid nor ashamed to own For having after the Tryal of Sir Patience Ward desir'd him to give his Worship a Meeting at Sir Robert Claytons he there told him after an insulting manner That he had satisfied his Revenge for the Loss of the Recordership and besides that having such Sheriffs as they desir'd they had now the Law in their hands and could have the Life of whomsoever they pleas'd Otherwise it had been impossible but for the Treachery of the Judges that encouraged the Injustice of a packed Iury to have found the Lord Russel guilty of death when the whole of what was villanously sworn against him was in the opinion of far more honest and equally Learned Lawyers but Misprision of Treason or to have convicted Collonel Sydney upon Innuendo's made out of old Papers found in his Study and never published But then follow'd the barbarous and horrid Murther of the Earl of Essex which how far it could be laid to the King's Charge is somewhat as yet in the dark However that the King could find no other Morning to accompany his Brother to the Tower but that very Morning that the Earl was murther'd will no doubt very much augment the Suspicion of future Ages and it will be as odly look'd upon that when Letters and Proposals were sent to some Great Persons near the King That if His Majesty would but grant a Pardon to two or three Men that should be nam'd when the Favour was granted the whole Mystery of the Contrivance should be discovered and the Contrivers and Actors be particularly detected such a Proposal should be slghted and neglected There was also another Letter containing the same Offers addressed to the Countess of Essex and sent open to one Cademan a Bookseller in the New-Exchange which was also carried to one of the Secretary's notwithstanding all which there was not the least syllable published to encourage any Inquisition after that Nobleman's Blood which as it amazed all rational people at that time so it will reflect upon the King himself and his memory to all succeeding Ages Now after all these Tricks and Stratagems of the King to introduce Tyranny and Slavery to stifle the Popish-Plot by throwing it upon his Protestant Subjects after such an obstinate and stedfast Conjunction with the sworn Enemy of the Nation the French King for the Subversion of our Laws Liberties and Religion after so many Slights and Contempts to put upon the Grand Council of the Kingdom which he never Assembled but to empty and drain the Purses of the Nation so that there was not a Law which he consented to for the publick Good not a gracious Speech or Declaration to protect and preserve the Protestant Religion which the people did not purchase at a dear rate while the Dissenters among the rest paid for the very Thorns and Briars that tore their own Backs all this designed on purpose to render the Name of Parliaments odious and lastly a League concluded with the French King for their total Subversion After so many Bloody Executions of the chiefest Patriots and constant Assertors of the Protestant Faith to believe the King by whose Authority and by whose Countenance and Permission all this was done to be that sincere Protestant which he profest himself to be is for a Man to shut the Windows of his Understanding against the Light of common Reason But to shut the Door against all Objections that can be made in his behalf there is one proof yet remaining behind which must be an undeniable Convincement to all the World of the truth of what has been hitherto said as standing still recorded under his own Hand if the Original of the Instructions be Exant and that is the following Memorial of his Ambassador to the King of Poland in the year 1667. Most Illustrious Prince THE King my Master has Commanded me to let Your Majesty know the Resolution he has taken in all Points to concur with the Most Christian King in giving Your Majesty all possible Assâ—stance for the Establishing Your Majesties Title in such ways as Your Majesty shall think most effectual for the securing Your Crown and Dignity and the further Honour of Your Queen and Royal Issue The King my Master being truly sensible of the Great Misfortunes of those Princes whose Power must be bounded and Reason regulated by the fantastick Humours of their Subjects Till Princes can be freed