Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	french_a	king_n	time_n	3,290	5	3.6745	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59869	A second letter to a friend, concerning the French invasion in which the declaration lately dispersed under the title of His Majesty's most gracious declaration to all his loving subjects, commanding their assistance against the P. of Orange and his adherents, is entirely and exactly published, according to the dispersed copies : with some short observations upon it.	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.; James II, King of England, 1633-1701. His Majesty's most gracious declaration, to all his loving subjects.	1692 (1692)	Wing S3339; ESTC R8008	19,657	35

Iune 2d 1692. Let this be Printed Nottingham A Second Letter TO A FRIEND Concerning the French Invasion In which the DECLARATION lately dispersed under the Title of His Majesty's most Gracious Declaration to all his Loving Subjects commanding their Assistance against the P. of Orange and his Adherents Is entirely and exactly Published according to the dispersed Copies with some short Observations upon it LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Amen-Corner MDCXCII A Second Letter CONCERNING The Late King Iames's Declaration SIR HAving in the Conclusion of my Letter promised you if you desired it to give you an account of the late King Iames's Declaration I will make no Excuses but like a Sincere Protestant will keep my word with you This Declaration has been industriously scattered about both in French and English by the Enemies of the present Government Now to save them any farther trouble of this kind and that the world may see we dare venture it with all the charms that are by some thought to be in it among the People of England I have thought it the fairest way to print the whole verbatim Paragraph by Paragraph with some short Observations upon it and only desire you to remember That my principal design in it is only to strengthen the Arguments of my former Letter and to make it appear from this very Declaration how little reason English Protestants have to promise themselves That the late King will be kinder to them than he was before should he now return with a French Power DECLARATION WHEREAS the most Christian King in pursuance of the many obliging promises he has made Us of giving Us his Effectual Assistance for the recovering of our Kingdoms as soon as the condition of his Affairs would permit has put us in a way of endeavouring it at this time and in order to it has lent Us so many of his Troops as may be abundantly sufficient to unty the hands of our Subjects and make it safe for them to return to their Duty and repair to Our Standard and has notwithstanding for the present according to Our desire unless there should appear further necessity for it purposely declind sending over Forces so Numerous as might raise any jealousie in the minds of Our good Subjects of his intending to take the Work wholly out of their hands or deprive any true Englishman of the part he may hope to have in so Glorious an Action as is that of Restoring his Lawful King and his Ancient Government all which Foreign Troops as soon as we shall be fully setled in the quiet and peaceable Possession of our Kingdoms We do hereby promise to send back and in the mean time to keep them in such exact Order and Discipline that none of Our Subjects shall receive the least Injury in their Persons or Possessions by any Soldier or Officer whatsoever Tho an Affair of this nature speaks for it self nor do We think Our selves at all obliged to say any thing more upon this occasion than That We come to Assert our Iust Rights and to deliver our People from the oppression they lye under yet when We consider how miserably many of Our Subjects were cheated into the late Revolution by the Art of ill men and particularly by the Prince of Orange's Declaration which was taken upon trust and easily believed then but since appears notoriously false in all the parts of it consisting no less of Assertions that have been evidently disproved than of Promises that were never intended to be performed To prevent the like delusions for the time to come and to do as much as lies in Our power to open the eyes of all Our Subjects We are willing to lay the whole matter before them in as plain and short a manner as is possible that they may not again pretend mistakes or have ignorance to plead for any false steps they shall hereafter make towards the ruin of their own and their Countrey 's Happiness OBSERVATIONS It begins with a thing very surprizing and memorable That the French King hath once in his life made good his Word and kept his Faith for so the late King Iames tells us he hath done with him in pursuance of the many obliging Promises he had made him of giving him Effectual Assistance for the Recovery of his Kingdoms c Effectual Assistance is a big word and more than the Greatest and Most Puissant King is able always to make good However I am glad to see they begin to endeavour to perform their Promises to one another It is a good quality and it is to be hoped they may in time extend it further But this satisfies me that the French King thinks it his Interest to restore the late King Iames for he was never known to keep his Promise against his Interest and it is somewhat surprizing that the French King and English Protestants should have the same Interest He seems sensible that French Troops would not be very welcome in England and therefore to qualifie this matter he says That the French King at his desire has purposely declin'd sending over Forces so Numerous as might raise any jealousie of a French Conquest for that is the plain English of it that they shall be kept under exact Discipline while they are here and that he will send them home again when he is fully setled in the quiet and peaceable Possession of his Kingdoms But I thank God with all my heart that there is no danger now of these French Troops coming into England which is a much greater security to us than both these Kings Promises for their Good behaviour here or for their return home again It is certain that One of them could not keep his Word if he would and it is as certain that the Other would not as it is that it would not be his Interest to do it for there is not the same reason for the French King to keep his Promise of sending Troops into England and to keep his Promise of sending no more than the late King Iames wants or of calling them home again when he wants them no longer But before I proceed to more particular Observations it will not be amiss and the conclusion of this Paragraph requires it briefly to consider what is not in the Declaration which the People of England had all the reason in the world to have expected in it Now I can find but very little in it I might with great truth say nothing which a reasonable man who remembers the late Reign especially the Conclusion of it would have expected in such a Declaration If the Design of such a Declaration be to give satisfaction to the minds of his Subjects it ought at least to have contained as good Words and fair Promises as a Prince could give He knew very well what it was that had alienated his Subjects from him that they apprehended their Laws their Religion and their Liberties to be in

and might have known that they would never fetch him from France again nor willingly receive him with a French Power What a happy Opportunity he now has to recover his Kingdoms again by French Troops I suppose by this time he begins to discern and I hope it may prove a very happy Opportunity for his Dear Ally to lose his He has shewed him by his own example what to do in such cases and the English Parliament has taught the French what name to give it DECLARATION Upon what foundation of Iustice or Common Sense the Prince of Orange's Faction in England were pleased to treat this Escape of Ours out of the Hands of Our Enemies in the stile of an Abdication a word when apply'd to Sovereign Princes that was never before used to signify any thing but a free and voluntary Resignation of a Crown as in the Cases of the Emperor Charles the Fifth and the late Queen of Sweden and what a strange Super structure they raised upon this weak Foundation that a Company of Men illegally met together who had not Power even by their own Confession at that time for it was before they had voted themselves a Parliament to charge the Interest of the meanest Subject should yet take upon them to destroy the whole Constitution of the Government to make an Ancient Hereditary Monarchy become Elective and then assuming to themselves the Right of Election should proceed to settle the Succession in so odd and extravagant a manner are Transactions that need not be repeated They are too well known to the World to the great Reproach of the English Nation and the Grounds upon which they are Built are too vain and frivolous to deserve a Consutation Every Freeholder of England is in this Case able to make his own Observations and will no doubt examine a little better than hit her to he has done what assurance any private Man can have of keeping his Estate if the King himself shall hold his Crown by no better a litle OBSERVATIONS His leaving the Kingdom for the safety of his Person and to preserve himself for better times and for a more happy Opportunity he says was no Abdication as that signifies a voluntary resignation of his Crown nor do I say it was But his withdrawing his Person and Authority was an actual quitting of the Government whatever it is in Law I 'm sure in common sense the Throne is actually empty when no body is in it and no body is in it when there is no Authority in the Nation to administer the Government And when the Throne is empty the Estates of the Realm who are the only Supream Authority when there is no Monarch must fill it again unless the Government must dissolve and then there is an end of all Rights and Claims And this they have done not by turning an Ancient Hereditary Monarchy into an Elective but by placing the next undoubted Heir on the Throne And tho' he never intended to give up his Right and future Claim yet he has done what he never intended to do when the Throne is empty it must be fill'd and when it is declared vacant and fill'd by the Supream Authority of the Nation there is no room for him there As for the Convention of Estates When there was no King on the Throne we do not pretend that they were a formal Parliament for that must have a King at the Head of it and therefore as is observed in the Declaration they could impose no legal Taxes on Subjects nor did they attempt it but yet they were not a company of men illegally met together without Authority to do any thing but they met at the request and under the Protection of the then Prince of Orange upon the Fundamental reasons of the Constitution it self as the sole Judges of all Disputes relating to the Crown Such Disputes will sometimes happen and if there be no legal Judges of it the Sword must decide it and that is a State of War not of Civil Government which all Governments are supposed to provide against and yet if the Convention of the Estates are not the proper Judges in such cases it is certain there are none and then the Civil Government is dissolved we are in a State of War and must submit to the longest Sword But this is so fully and plainly Stated in the late ingenious Reflections on the Case of Allegiance to a King in Possession from p. 26. to p. 34. That to shorten this Letter as much as I can I shall refer you to that Author for further satisfaction So that Free-holders are not at all concern'd in this matter a Convention of Estates without a King cannot meddle with their Properties without a dissolution of the Government But when there is no King or it is a Question whether there be or not or who is King by the Fundamental Constitution of the Government the Convention of the Estates are the sole and proper Judges of it in whose Determination all private Subjects are bound in Conscience to acquiesce And the late King need not complain of this as if it made the Titles of Princes to Their Crowns very uncertain and Arbitrary For he had an unquestionable Title to his Crown and might have held it to this Day if he himself had not undermin'd it by breaking in upon the Laws and even upon the Constitution it self upon which his Right was founded This occasion'd such a Revolution as forced him to Abdicate and to leave it to a Convention to declare his Throne vacant and to fill it DECLARATION But since some Men who could not say one word in defence of the Iustice of these Proceedings would yet take great pains to shew the necessity of them and set forth the extraordinary good effects that were to be expected from so very bad a Cause We do not doubt but the Nation has by this time cast up the Account and when they shall have well consider'd what Wonders might have been perform'd with less Expence of English Blood than that which has been unnecessarily trifled away in this Quarrel that such a Number of Ships of War have been lost and destroy'd in the Three years last past as might alone have been sufficient to have made a considerable Fleet That more Money has been drain'd out of the Purses of our Subjects in compass of that time than during the whole Reigns of many of our Predecessors put together and that not as formerly spent again and circulating among them but transported in specie into Foreign Parts and for ever lost to the Nation When these and many other Particulars of this Nature are cast up it must certainly appear at the Foot of the Account how much worse the Remedy is than the fancied Disease and that at least hitherto the Kingdom is no great Gainer by the Change OBSERVATIONS I doubt his late Majesty is misinformed for there are not only some but a great many who have more

great danger and could not but know that he had given them too just occasion for such Jealousies and Fears and it is wonderful that he should think of publishing a Declaration and not think fit to give the least satisfaction about these matters not to say one word about Popery and Arbitrary Power nor to give any express promise that he would remove these fears The only thing he appeals to is the justice of his Cause and does not think himself obliged to say any thing more upon this occasion than that he comes to assert his own just Rights c But this was not the Controversy between Him and his People they did not dispute then his Right to the Crown tho they have some Reason to do it now and yet were willing to part with him when he thought fit to leave them and if he knew what made them so and hoped to return again by their Assistance and with their good-liking any one but those of his own Council would have thought him obliged to say something of it The Prince of Orange's Declaration put him in mind of this which he says cheated his Subjects into the late Revolution and it had been much more to the purpose to have discovered the cheat of that Declaration or to have said nothing of it than to affirm without any proof that now it appears to be notoriously false in all the parts of it for English Protestants know nothing to this day but that it is all true still Were there not in the late Reign open and bold attempts made against the Laws the Liberties and the Religion of these Kingdoms Was not the Dispensing Power set on foot for those purposes Were not the Iudges tamper'd with to obtain a sentence in favour of the Dispensing Power and placed and displaced till they could find fit Tools for that Work men who would sacrifice the Laws and Religion of their Countrey to the Will of their Prince or to their own Covetousness and Ambition Were not the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test Dispensed with upon this pretence and men unqualified by Law put into Ecclesiastical Civil and Military Preferments to the apparent danger both of Church and State Was there no Ecclesiastical Commission set up no Popish Chappels Monasterys and Convents erected and endowed contrary to Law Were not the Nobility and Gentry Closeted and Examined about the repeal of the Test and those disgraced and turned out of all Offices and Employments who would not comply Were not the Bishops sent to the Tower and Tried in Westminster-Hall for their Humble Petition to him against reading the Declaration Was not the Administration of Justice and the greatest Military Trusts put into the hands of Papists Were not the Charters of Cities Towns and Corporations seized into the King's hands and so new-modelled that the King might chuse what Burgesses he pleased and have a House of Commons of his own Creatures Were there not visible grounds of suspition concerning the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales And has there been sufficient satisfaction given the Nation about it to this day These are the Grievances complain'd of in the Prince's Declaration which were believed then not upon the Authority of the Declaration but because they were seen and felt and are believed still because they are still remembred by those who saw and felt them and how they have since been evidently disprov'd I cannot guess But if such things as these are not thought fit to be owned as mistakes in Government if it was not thought fit to promise the redress of any one of them no not in his Declaration whereby he commands and invites his Subjects to Assist him in recovering his Kingdoms I can easily guess that they will not be thought faults much less be redress'd if he should return They must be his very Loving Subjects indeed that can be thus imposed upon DECLARATION And therefore to take the matter from the beginning it cannot be forgotten That as soon as We had certain Notice of the Prince of Orange's unnatural design of Invading Our Kingdoms with the whole Power of the United Provinces We first took the best care We could to provide for Our Defence which We seem'd effectually to have done when We had put Our Fleet and Army into such a condition that tho his most Christian Majesty who well saw the bottom of the Design against Us against Himself and indeed against the Peace of Europe offered Us considerable Succours both by Land and Sea We did not think it at all necessary to accept them at that time as resolving to cast Our selves wholly next to the Divine Protection upon the Courage and Fidelity of Our English Army which had been with so much care and tenderness form'd and obliged by Us. And having thus prepared to oppose Force to Force We did in the next place apply Our selves to give all reasonable satisfaction to the minds of Our good Subjects by endeavouring to undeceive them and to let them see be times and whilst the mischief might easily have been prevented how fatal a Ruin they must bring upon their Countrey if they suffered themselves to be seduc'd by the vain pretences of the Prince of Orange's Invasion However so great was the infatuation of that time that We were not believ'd till it was too late But when he was oblig'd to throw off the Mask by degrees and that it began to appear plainly that it was not the reformation of the Government which yet was a matter that did not at all belong to him to meddle with but the Subversion of it that he aim'd at that so he might build his own Ambitions designs upon the Ruins of the English Nation And when the Poyson had insinuated it self into the vital Parts of the Kingdom When it had spread over our whole Army and so far got into Our Court and Family as not only to corrupt some of Our Servants that were nearest Our Person and had been most highly obliged by us but not even to leave Our own Children at that time uninfected When Our Army daily Deserted on the one hand and on the other hand Tumults and Disorders increased in all Parts of the Kingdom And especially when shortly after the Revolution came on so fast that We found Our selves wholly in Our Enemies Power being at first confin'd by them in our Own Palace and afterwards rudely forced out of it under a Guard of Foreigners We could not then but be admonished by the Fate of some of Our Predecessors in the like circumstances of the danger We were in and that it was high time to provide for the security of Our Person which was happily effected by Our getting from the Guard that was set upon us at Rochester and Our arrival in France the only Part in Europe to which We could retire with safety that so We might preserve Our selves for better times and for a more happy opportunity such as is that

than one word to say both for the Iustice and the Necessity of these Proceedings and the whole Nation already feels the extraordinary good effects of them notwithstanding the expence of Blood and Treasure of which he complains for we know whom we are to thank for that And the best way to prevent the effusion of more Blood and the expence of more Money is to keep out his French Troops and to know when we are well Revolutions are and will be Bloody and Chargeable and therefore one Revolution is enough for one Age The Dutch are already pay'd and we don't desire to pay the French too which is a much longer Account and we shall get less by it We have hitherto had something for our Money and something that is very valuable our Laws and Liberties and Religion but I believe the Nation will think it a hard bargain to pay ten times the price for French Popery and Slavery The Nation as he says has cast up the Account and I believe above Nineteen parts in Twenty have consider'd the matter so well that they are come to a fixt Resolution to oppose the intended Invasion to the utmost of their Power As for the loss of the Ships of War it now appears God for ever be praised for it that Their Majesties have a Fleet still left Considerable enough and Faithful too notwithstanding all the Arts and Endeavours of our Enemies to Debauch them from their Allegiance to deal with and even to destroy the Naval Power of France DECLARATION The next Consideration is What may reasonable be expected for the time to come And as to that no better judgment can be made of any future Events than by Reflecting upon what is past And doubtless from the Observation of the Temper and Complexion the Methods and Maxims of the present Usurper from the Steps he has already taken when it was most necessary for him to give no distaste to the People as well as from the Nature of all Usurpation which can never be supported but by the same ways of Fraud and Violence by which it was first set up there is all the Reason in the World to believe that the beginning of this Tyranny like the Five first Years of Nero is like to prove the mildest part of it and all they have yet suffer'd is but the beginning of the Miseries which those very Men who were the great Promoters of the Revolution may yet live to see and feel as the Effect of that Illegal and Tyrannical Government which they themselves first impos'd upon the Kingdoms OBSERVATIONS There is no Answer needs be given to this which may always be said of the best Beginnings of the best Government We for our part find no fault with His Majesty's Government yet and see no reason to suspect it for the future Taxes are the only Cause of Complaint now and yet few complain of them but Iacobites who out of their great Zeal for the late King pay double Taxes to the present Government to keep him out which does him more mischief than Iacobite Oaths could do and yet thanks be to God we have a hopeful Prospect of the end of these Taxes and have been so well repaid of late that we shall not grudge to clear the Account that we may have something to call our own But of all Men in the World excepting always His most Christian Majesty the late King should not attempt to frighten us with the Dangers of Misgovernment for a good Reason in which himself is too nearly concern'd and which all English Protestant Subjects very well know As to what relates to the first five Years of Nero This certainly is a piece of the Secretary's own Pedantry to shew his great Reading and to impart to us one of the choicest Secrets in the Roman History All Comparisons of Princes with Nero are very odious but I know not how he could have made one more to the advantage of King William than to compare his Reign hitherto with the five first Years of Nero which the Roman Historians tells us may compare with that of the best of their Emperors But however this I am sure of that it is better to begin a Reign as Nero did than to begin where he ended as two other Kings have done and to go on to improve and perfect that ill Pattern to which if God had not mercifully prevented it they were not above a Month ago just ready to have given their last hand and the finishing strokes DECLARATION And yet the Consideration must not rest here neither For all wise Men ought and all good Men will take care of their Posterity and therefore it is to be remembred that if it should please Almighty God as one of his severest Iudgments upon these Kingdoms for the many Rebellions and Perjuries they have been guilty of so far to permit the Continuation of the present Usurpation that we should not be restor'd during our life-Life-time yet an indisputable Title to the Crown will survive in the Person of our dearest Son the Prince of Wales our present Heir apparent and his Issue and for default of that in the Issue of such other Sons as we have great reason to hope the Queen being now with Child we may yet leave behind us And what the Consequences of that is like to be may easily be understood by all that are not strangers to the long and bloody Contentions between the two Houses of York and Lancaster and whoever shall read the Histories of those Times and there shall have presented to him as in one view a Scene of all the Miseries of an Intestine War the perpetual harrassing of the poor Commons by Plunder and Free-quarter the ruine of many noble Families by frequent Executions and Attainders the weakning of the whole Kingdom in general at home and the losing those advantages they might in the mean time have procur'd for themselves abroad cannot but conclude that these are the natural Effects of those Strugglings and Convulsions that must necessarily happen in every State where there is a Dispute entail'd between an injured Right and an unjust Possession OBSERTATIONS This will need but a very short Answer For as to the Civil Wars he threatens our Posterity with from the Pretences of the Prince of Wales I must needs say I had rather if it must come to fighting that they should fight for the Crown twenty or thirty Years hence then now Give Peace in our days O Lord. I had rather our Posterity should enslave themselves if they shall have a mind to be enslaved then that we should enslave our selves and our Posterity with us There is no such haste of bringing in Popery and Slavery and it is to be hoped if we be true to our Religion and Liberties our Posterity may grow wise by our Example But I must observe that whereas the Prince of Wales in this English Declaration is called the Heir apparent in the French Declaration he is called