Priviledges of Parliament If the Priviledge of Parliament be concern'd when an injury is done to any particular Member how much more is it touched when Men strike at Parliaments themselves and endeavour to wound the very Constitution If this be said with Relation to Sheridon who has since troubled the World with so many idle impudent Pamphlets upon that account 't is plain that his Commitment was only in order to examine him about the Popish Plot and his Endeavors to stifle it though his contemptuous Behaviour to the House deserved a much longer Confinement and 't was Insolence in him to Arraign their Justice because they did not instantly leave all their great Debates to dispatch the business relating to him Thompson of Bristol was Guilty of divers great Breaches of Priviledge but yet his Commitment was only in order to an Impeachment and as soon as they had gone through with his Examination they ordered him to be set at Liberty giving Security to answer the Impeachment which they had voted against him But is it a thing so strange and new to the Authors of the Declaration that the House of Commons should Order Men to be taken into Custody for matters not relating to Priviledg Have they not heard that in the 4 Edw. 6. Cricketost was Committed for Confedertaing in an Escape that 18 Jac. Sir Francis Mitchel was Comitted for Misdemeanors in procuring a Patent for the Forfeitures of Recognizances together with Fowles Gerrard and divers others none of which were Members of Parliament that 20 Jac. Dr. Harris was taken into Custody for misbehaving himself in Preaching and that 3 Car. Burgesse was Committed for Faults in Catechizing and Levet for presuming to exercise a Patent which had been adjudged a Grievance by a Committee of the Commons in a former Parliament There would be no end of giving Instances of those Commitments which may be observed in almost every Parliament so that the House of Commons did but tread in the Steps of their Predecessors and these sorts of Orders were not new though the Declaration takes the Liberty to call them Arbitrary The Commons had betrayed their Trust if they had not asserted the Right of Petitioning which had been just before shaken by such a strange Illegal and Arbitrary Proclamation But now we come to the Transcendent monstrous Crimes which can never be forgiven by the Ministers the giving them their due Character which every Man of Understanding had fix'd upon them long before the whole Current of their Counsels being a full Proof of the Truth of the Charge But what colour is there for calling these Votes illegal Is it illegal for the Commons to impeach persons whom they have good reason to judg Enemies to the King and Kingdom Is it Illegal to determin by a Vote which is the only way of finding the Sence of the House who are Wicked Counsellors and deserve to be impeach'd Could the Commons have called the Parties accused to make their Answer before themselves Had they not a proper time for their Defence when they came to their Tryals and might they not have cleared their Innocence much better if they durst have put that in Issue by a Tryal than a Dissolution of the Parliament But should we grant that these Votes were not made in Order to an Impeachment yet still there is nothing Illegal nothing extraordinary in them For the Commons in Parliament have ever used two ways in delivering their Country from pernicious and powerful Favorites the one is in a Parliamentary Course of Justice by Impeaching them which is used when they judg it needful to make them publick Examples by Capital or other high Punishments for the terror of others The other is by immediate Address to the King to remove them as unfaithful or unprofitable Servants Their Lives their Liberties or Estates are never endangered but when they are proceeded against in the former of these ways Then legal evidence of their Guilt is necessary then there must be a proper time allowed for their defence In the other way the Parliament act as the Kings great Council and when either House observe that Affairs are ill administred that the advice of Parliaments is rejected or slighted the Course of Justice perverted our Councels betray'd Grievances multiplyed and the Government weakly and disorderly managed of all which our Laws have made it impossible for the King to be guilty They necessarily must and always have charg'd those who had the Administration of Affairs and the Kings Ear as the Authors of these mischiefs and have from time to time applyed themselves to him by Addresses for their Removal from his Presence and Councils There be many things plain and evident beyond the Testimony of any Witnesses which yet can never be proved in a legal way If the King will hearken to none but two or three of his Minions must we not conclude that every thing that is done comes from their Advice And yet if this way of representing things to the King were not allowed they might easily frustrate the enquiries of a Parliament It is but to whisper their Counsels and they are safe The Parliament may be busied in such great Affairs as will not suffer them to pursue every Offender through a long Process and besides there may be many reasons why a man should be turn'd out of a service which perhaps would not extend to subject him to punishment The People themselves are highly concern'd in the great Officers and Ministers of State who are Servants to the Kingdom as well as to the King. And the Representatives of the People the Commons whose business it is to present all Grievances as they are most likely to observe soonest the Folly and Treachery of those publick Servants the greatest of all Grievances so this Representation ought to have no little weight with the Prince This was understood so well by H. 4. a wise and brave Prince that when the Commons complain'd against four of his Servants and Councellors desiring they might be removed he came into Parliament and there declared openly that though he knew nothing against them in particular yet he was assured that what the Lords and Commons desired of him was for the good of himself and his Kingdom and therefore he did comply with them and banish'd those four Persons from his Presence and Councils declaring at the same time that he would do so by any others who should be near His Royal Person if they were so unhappy to fall under the Hatred and Indignation of his People The Records and Histories of the Reigns of Edward the first Edw. II. Edw. III. and indeed of all other succeeding Kings are full of such Addresses as these but no History or Record can shew that ever they were called illegal or Un-Parliamentary till now Then the Ministers durst not appeal to the People against their own Representatives but ours at present have either got some new Law in the point or have attained
THE Design of Enslaving ENGLAND DISCOVERED Licensed and Entred according to Order THE Design of Enslaving ENGLAND DISCOVERED In the Incroachments upon the Powers and Privileges of Parliament by K. Charles II. BEING A New corrected Impression of that Excellent Piece INTITULED A Just and Modest VINDICATION of the PROCEEDINGS OF THE Two Last Parliaments OF King CHARLES the Second LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Black Bull in the Old-Baily MDCLXXXIX A Just and Modest Vindication of the Proceedings of the two last PARLIAMENTS of K. CHARLES the Second THE Amazement which seiz'd every good Man upon the unlook'd-for Dissolution of two Parliaments within three Months was not greater than at the sight of a Declaration pretending to justify and give Reasons for such extraordinary Proceedings It is not to be denied but that our Kings have in a great measure been intrusted by the Kingdom with the appointment of the Times of Parliaments Sitting and declaring their Dissolutions But lest through defect of Age Experience or Understanding they should at any time forget or mistake our Constitution or by Passion private Interest or the Influence of ill Counsellors be so far misled as not to Assemble Parliaments when the Publick Affairs require it or to declare them Dissolved before the Ends of their Meeting were accomplished The Wisdom of our Ancestors has provided by divers Statutes both for the holding Parliaments annually and oftner if need be and that they should not be Prorogued or Dissolved till all the Petitions and Bills before them were answered and redressed The Constitution had been equally imperfect and destructive of it self had it been left to the Will and Choice of the Prince whether he would ever summon a Parliament or put into his Power to dismiss them Arbitrarily at his pleasure That Parliaments should be called and sit according to the Laws is secured to us by the same Sacred Tie by which the King at his Coronation obliges himself to let his Judges sit to distribute Justice every Term and to preserve inviolably all other Rights and Liberties of his Subjects Therefore abruptly to Dissolve Parliaments at such a Time when nothing but the Legislative Power and the united Wisdom of the Kingdom could relieve us from our Just Fears or secure us from our certain Dangers is very unsuitable to the great Trust reposed in the Prince and seems to express but little of tha tffection which we will always hope his Majesty bears towards his People and the Protestant Religion But 't is not only of the Disolution it self that we complain the manner of doing it is unwarranted by the Precedents of former Times and full of dangerous Consequents We are taught by the Writ of Summons that Parliaments are never called without the Advice of the Council and the Usage of all Ages has been never to send them away without the same Advice To forsake this safe Method is to expose the King personally to the Reflections and Censures of the whole Nation for so ungrateful an Action Our Laws have taken care to make the King always dear to his People and to preserve his Person Sacred in their Esteem by wisely preventing him from appearing as Author of any thing which may be unacceptable to them 'T is therefore that he doth not Execute any considerable Act of Regal Power till it be first debated and resolved in Council because then 't is the Counsellors must answer for the Advice they give and are punishable for such Orders as are Irregular and Illegal Nor can his Ministers justify any unlawful Action under the colour of the King's Commands since all his Commands that are contrary to Law are void which is the true Reason of that well-known Maxim That the King can do no Wrong A Maxim just in it self and alike safe for the Prince and for the Subject there being nothing more absurd than that a Favourite should excuse his enormous Actings by a pretended Command which we may reasonably suppose he first procured to be laid upon himself But we know not whom to charge with Advising this last Dissolution It was a Work of Darkness and if we are not misinform'd the Privy Council was as much surpriz'd at it as the Nation Nor will a future Parliament be able to charge any Body as the Author or Adviser of the late printed Paper which bears the Title of His Majesty's Declaration though every good Subject ought to be careful how he calls it so For his Majesty never speaks to his People as a King but either personally in his Parliament or at other times under his Seal for which the Chancellor or other Officers are responsible if what passes them be not warranted by Law. Nor can the Direction of the Privy Council enforce any thing upon the People unless that Royal and Legal Stamp gives it an Authority But this Declaration comes abroad without any such Sanction and there is no other Ground to ascribe it to his Majesty than the uncertain Credit of the Printer whom we will easily suspect of an Imposture rather than think the King would deviate from the approved course of his Illustrious Ancestors to pursue a New and Unsuccesful Method The first Declaration of this sort which I ever met with being that which was published in the Year 1628 which was so far from answering the Ends of its coming out that it filled the whole Kingdom with Jealousies and was one of the first sad Causes of the ensuing unhappy War. The Truth is Declarations to justify what Princes do must always be either needless or ineffectual Their Actions ought to be such as may recommend themselves to the World and carry their own Evidence along with them of their usefulness to the Publick and then no Arts to justify them will be necessary When a Prince descends so low as to give his Subjects Reasons for what he has done he not only makes them Judges whether there be any weight in those Reasons but by so unusual a submission gives cause to suspect that he is conscious to himself that his Actions want an Apology And if they are indeed unjustifiable if they are opposite to the Inclinations and apparently destructive of the Interest of his Subjects it will be very difficult for the most Eloquent or Insinuating Declaration to make them in love with such things And therefore they did certainly undertake no easy Task in pretending to perswade Men who see themselves exposed to the restless Malice of their Enemies who observe the languishing Condition of the Nation and that nothing but a Parliament can provide Remedies for the great Evils which they Feel and Fear that two several Parliaments upon whom they had placed all their hopes were so suddenly broken out of kindness to them or with any regared to their Advantage It was generally believed that this Age would not have seen another Declaration since Coleman's was so unluckily published before its time Not only because thereby the World was
forgot it so soon and do not spare to say that if the same Diligence the same earnest Solicitation had been made use of in that Affair which have been since exercised directly contrary to the Design of it there is no doubt but every part of it would have had the desired Success and all his Majesty's Subjects would have enjoyned the Fruits of it and have now been extolling a Prince so careful to keep sacred his Promises to the People If we did take notice of the several Declarations published since that which we have last mentioned we shall find they signifie as little and therefore we will only remember the last made the 20 th of April 1679 and declared in Council and in Parliament and after published to the whole Nation Wherein his Majesty owns that he is sensible of the ill posture of his Affairs and the great Jealousies and Dissatisfaction of his good Subjects whereby the Crown and Government was become too weak to preserve it self which proceeded from his use of a single Ministry and of private Advices and therefore professes his Resolution to lay them wholly aside for the future and to be advised by those able and worthy Persons whom he had then chosen for his Council in all his weighty and important Affairs But every Man must acknowledg that either his Majesty has utterly forgotten this publick and solemn Promise or else that nothing weighty and important has happen'd from that time to this very day As for the Declaration read in our Churches the other day there needs no other Argument to make us doubt of the reality of the Promises which it makes then to consider how partially and with how little sincerity the things which it pretends to relate are therein represented It begins with telling us in His Majesty's Name That it was with exceeding great Trouble that he was brought to Dissolve the two last Parliaments without more benefit to the People by the calling of them We should question his Majesty's Wisdom did we not believe him to have understood that never Parliaments had greater Opportunities of doing good to himself and to his People He could not but be sensible of the Dangers and of the Necessities of his Kingdom and therefore could not without exceeding great Trouble be prevailed upon for the sake of a few desperate Men whom he thought himself concern'd to love now only because he had loved them too well and trusted them too much before not only to disappoint the Hopes and Expectations of his own People but of almost Europe His Majesty did indeed do his part so far in giving Opportunities of providing for our Good as the calling of Parliaments does amount to and it is to be imputed to the Ministers only that the success of them did not answer His and Our Expectations 'T is certain it cannot be imputed to any of the Proceedings of either of those Parliament which were composed of Men of as good Sence and Quality as any in the Nation and proceeded with as great Moderation and managed their Debates with as much temper as was ever known in any Parliament If they seem'd to go too far in any thing His Majesty's Speeches or Declarations had misled them by some of which they had been invited to enter into every one of those Debates to which so much Exception has been since taken Did he not frequently recommend the Prosecution of the Plot to them with a strict and impartial Inquiry Did he not tell them That he neither thought himself nor them safe till that matter was gone through with Did he not in his Speech of the 30 th of April 1679 assure them that it was his constant Care to secure our Religion for the future in all Events and that in all things which cencern'd the publick Security he would not follow their Zeal but lead it Has he not often wish'd that he might be able to exercise a Power of Dispensation in reference to those Protestants who through Tenderness of misguided Conscience did not conform to the Ceremonies Discipline and Government of the Church And promised that he would make it his special Care to incline the Wisdom of the Parliament to concur with him in making an Act to that purpose And lest the Malice of ill Men might object that these Gracious Inclinations of his continued no longer than while there was a possibility of giving the Papists equal benefit of a Toleration Has not his Majesty since the Discovery of the Plot since there was no hopes of getting so much as a Convenience for them in his Speech of the 6 th of March 1679 exprest his Zeal not only for the Protestant Religion in general but for an Vnion amongst all sorts of Protestants And did he not command my Lord Chancellor at the same time to tell them that it was necessary to distinguish between Popish and other Recusants between them that would destroy the whole Flock and them that only wander from it These things considered we should not think the Parliament went too far but rather that they did not follow his Majesty's Zeal with an equal pace The Truth is if we observe the daily provocations of the Popish Faction whose Rage and Insolence were only increased by the Discovery of the Plot so that they seemed to defy Parliaments as well as Inferior Courts of Justice under the Protection of the Duke their publickly avowed Head who still carried on their Designs by new and more detestable Methods than ever and were continually busy by Perjuries and Subornations to charge the best and most considerable Protestants in the Kingdom with Treasons as black as those of which themselves were guilty If we observe what vile Arts were used to hinder the further Discovery what Liberty was given to reproach the Discoverers what Means used to destroy or to corrupt them how the very Criminals were encouraged and allowed to be good Witnesses against their Accusers We should easily excuse any English Parliament thus beset if they had been carried to some little Excesses But yet all this could not provoke them to do any thing not justifiable by the Laws of Parliament or unbecoming the Wisdom and Gravity of an English Senate But we are told That his Majesty Opened the last Parliament which was held at Westminster with as Gracious Expressions of His Readiness to satisfy the Desires of his Subjects and to secure them against all their just Fears as the Weighty Consideration either of preserving the Established Religion and Property of his Subjects at Home or of supporting his Neighbours and Allies Abroad could fill his Heart with We must own that his Majesty has Opened all his Parliaments at Westminster with very Gracious Expressions Nor have wanted that Evidence of His Readiness to satisfy the Desires of his Subjects but that sort of Evidence will soon lose its Force if it be never followed by Actions correspondent by which only the World can judg of
could be so ignorant of our Laws none but a French-man could have confidence to declaim against a proceeding so regular and Parliamentary as this Where was the disregard to the Laws Established for the Commons to attempt the abrogating of a Law that is grievous to the Subject and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom Is it a suspending Acts of Parliament if they declare a Law to be grievous and dangerous in their Opinion before they set about the Repeal of it And is there any ground to doubt but that a Bill would have pass'd that House pursuant to this Vote had it not been prevented by a Dissolution Nor was there the least direction or signification to the Judges which might give any occasion for the Reflection which follows in the Declaration The due and impartial Execution of the Laws is the unquestionable Duty of the Judges and we hope they will always remember that duty so well as not to necessitate a H. of Commons to do theirs by calling them to account for making private Instructions the Rule of their Judgments and acting as men who have more regard to their Places than their Oaths 'T is too well known who it is that sollicites and manages in favour of Judges when a H. of Commons does demand Justice against them for breaking their Oaths And therefore the Publishers of this Declaration had said something well if when they tell us the Judges ought not to break their Oaths in Reverence to the Votes of either H. they had been pleased to add not in respect of any Command from the K. or Favorites Then we should have no more Letters from Secretaries of State to Judges sitting upon the Bench. Then we should have no more Proclamations like that of the 14th Oct. 1662. forbidding the Execution of the Laws concerning High-ways Nor that of the 10th of May 1672. dispensing with divers Clauses in the Acts of Parliament for increase of Shipping Nor any more Declarations like that of the 15. of March 1672. suspending the Penal Laws in matters Ecclesiastical But the Judges are sworn to execute all Laws yet there is no obligation upon any man to inform against another And therefore though the Ministers prevented the Repeal of those Laws 't is to be hop'd that this Vote will restrain every Englishman from prosecuting Protestants when so wise and great a body have declared the pernicious effects of such a Prosecution 'T is most true that in England no Law is abrogated by desuetude but it is no less true that there are many Laws still unrepeal'd which are never Executed nor can be without publick detriment The Judges know of many such dormant Laws and yet they do not quicken the People to put them in Execution nor think themselves Guilty of Perjury that they do not such are the Laws for wearing Caps for keeping Lent those concerning Bowes and Arrows about killing Calves and Lambs and many others And those who vex men by Information on such antiquated Laws have been ever lookt upon as Infamous and Disturbers of the publick quiet Hence it is that there are no Names remembred with greater detestation than those of Empson and Dudley the whole Kingdom abhorr'd them as Monsters in the time of H. VII and they were punish'd as Traitors in the Reign of his Son. The alteration of the circumstances whereupon a Law was made or if it be against the genius of the People or have effects contrary to the intent of the Makers will soon cause any Law to be disused and after a little disuse the reviving of it will be thought Oppression Especially if experience has shewn that by the non-execution the quiet the safety and Trade of the Nation have been promoted of all which the Commons who are sent from every part of the Kingdom are able to make the clearest Judgment Therefore after they have declared their Opinions of the Inconvenience of reviving the Execution of these Laws which have lain asleep for divers years tho' the Judges must proceed if any forward Informers should give them the trouble yet they would not act wisely or honestly if they should Encourage Informers or quicken Juries by strict and severe charges Especially if it be considered that the Lords also were preparing Bills in favor of Dissenters and that the King has wish'd often it was in his power to ease them So that tho' there be no Act of Repeal formerly passed we have the consent and desire of all who have any share in making Acts. But let this Vote have what consequence it will yet sure the Ministers had forgot that the Black Rod was at the door of the House to require them to attend His Majesty at the very time when it was made otherwise they would not have numbred it amongst the causes which occasioned the King to part with that Parliament And those that knew His Majesty was putting on his Robes before that Vote passed might imagine a Dissolution thus foreseen might occasion it but cannot be brought to believe that the Vote which was not in being could occasion the Dissolution These are the proceedings which the Ministers judg unwarrantable in the Parliament at Westminster and for which they prevailed with His Majesty to part with it But since it is evident upon Examination that the principles of our Constitution the method of Parliaments and the precedents of every Age were their Guide and Warrant in all those things surely the K. must needs be alike offended with the Men about him for perswading him to Dissolve that Parliament without any cause and for setting forth in his Name a Declaration of such pretended cause as every man almost sees through and contrived only to cover those Reasons which they durst not own But with what face can they object to the House of Commons their strange Illegal Votes declaring divers Eminent Persons to be Enemies to the King and Kingdom when at the same time they arrogate to themselves an unheard of Authority to Arraign one of the three Estates in the face of the World for usurping power over the Laws Imprisoning their fellow Subjects Arbitrarily exposing the Kingdom to the greatest dangers and endeavouring to deprive the King of all possibility of supporting the Government and all this without any order or process of Law without hearing of their defence and as much without any reason as Precedent We have had Ministers heretofore so bold yet ever with ill success as to accuse a pretended Factious party in the House but never did any go so high as openly to Represent the whole H. of Commons as a Faction much less to cause them to be denounced in all the Churches of the Kingdom that so the People might look upon it as a kind of Excommunication But if they erred in the things they judged rightly in the choice of the Persons who were to publish it Blind Obedience was requisite where such unjustifiable things were imposed and that could be no where so
taught how little they ought to rely upon the sincerity of such kind of Writings but because that was a Master-piece which could hardly be equall'd and our present Ministers may well be out of Countenance to see their Copy fall so very much short of the Original But should this Declaration be suffered to go abroad any longer under the Royal Name yet it will never be thought to have proceeded from his Majesties Inclination or his Judgment but to be gained from him by the Artifices of the same ill Men who not being content to have prevailed with him to Dissolve two Parliaments only to protect them from publick Justice do now hope to excuse themselves from being thought the Authors of that Counsel by making him openly to avow it But they have discovered themselves to the Kingdom and have told their own Names when they number amongst the great Crimes of the House of Commons their having Declared divers Eminent Persons to be Enemies to the King and Kingdom 'T is our happiness that the Cunning of these Eminent Persons is not equal to their Malice in that they should thus unwarily make themselves known when they had so secretly and with so much Caution given the pernicious Advice None could be offended at the proceedings of the Parliaments but they who were obnoxious none could be concerned to vindicate the Dissolution but they who had advised it But they have performed this last Undertaking after such a sort that they have left themselves not only without Justification but without all pretence hereafter The People were willing to think it the Unfortunate Effect of some suddain and precipitate Resolution but since they have now publickly assured us that it was the Result of Counsel and Deliberation they cannot blame us for hoping one day to see Justice done upon such Counsellors But though to the Dishonour of our Country it does appear that some English-men were concerned in the unhappy Advice of breaking the two last Parliaments and setting up this pretended Defence of it yet the Galliscims which are found in the Paper shew the Writer to have been of another Nation or at least to have had his Thoughts so much taken up for the Interests of France whilst he was labouring this way to heighten and perpetuate the Differences between the King and his People that he could not express himself in any other Idiom than theirs he would not otherwise have introduced the King saying That it was a Matter extreamly sensible to Vs a Form of Speech peculiar to the French and unknown to any other Nation The Reader who understands that Language will observe so many more of this kind as will give him just cause to doubt whether the whole Paper was not a Translation and whether the English one or that which was published in French was the Original Let us then no longer wonder that the time of Dissolving our Parliaments is known at Paris sooner than at London since 't is probable the Reasons now given for it were formed there too The Peers at Oxford were so totally ignorant of the Council that they never once thought of a Dissolution till they heard it pronounced but the Dutchess of Mazarine had better Intelligence and published the News at St. James's many hours before it was done The Declaration was not communicated to the Privy Council till Friday the 8th of April when his Majesty according to the late Method did graciously declare to them his pleasure to set it forth without desiring from them any Advice in the matter but Monsieur Barillon the French Ambassador did not only read it to a Gentleman the fifth of April but advised with him about it and demanded his Opinion of it which his Excellency will the better remember because of the great Liberty which the Person took in ridiculing it to his Face Good God! to what a Condition is this Kingdom reduced when the Ministers and Agents of the only Prince in the World who can have Designs against or of whom we ought to be afraid are not only made acquainted with the most secret Passages of State but are made our Chief Ministers too and have the principal Conduct of our Affairs And let the World judg if the Commons had not reason for their Vote when they declared those Eminent Persons who manage things at this rate To be the Enemies to the King and Kingdom and Promoters of the French Interest Whosoever considers the Actions of our Great Men will not think it strange that they should be hard put to it to find out Reasons which they might give for any of them and they have had very ill luck whenever they went about it That Reason which they had given for Dissolving three several Parliaments successively is now grown ridiculous That the King was resolved to meet his People and to have their Advice in frequent Parliaments since every Man took notice that as soon as the Ministers began to suspect that his Majesty was inclined to hearken to and pursue their Advice those very Parliaments were presently Dissolved This was all the Ground and Cause which was thought of for breaking the last Parliament at Westminster when the Proclamation of the 18 th of January 1680 was published but they have now considerred better and have found out faults enough to swell into a Declaration and yet as much offended as they are with this Parliament they seem more highly angry with that which followed at Oxford Nor is it at all strange that it should fall out so For the Court never did yet Dissolve a Parliament abruptly and in a Heat but they found the next Parliament more averse and to insist upon the same things with greater eagerness than the former English Spirits resent no Affronts so highly as those which are done to their Representatives and the Court will be sure to find the Effects of that Resentment in the next Election A Parliament does ever participate of the present Temper of the People Never were Parliaments of more different Complexions than that of 1640 and that of 1661. Yet they both exactly answered the Humours which were predominant in the Nation when they were respectively chosen And therefore while the People do so universally hate and fear France and Popery and do so well understand who they are who promote the French and Popish Interests the Favourites do but cozen themselves to think that they will ever send up Representatives less zealous to bring them to Justice than those against whom this Declaration is published For surely this Declaration what great things soever may be expected from it will make but very few Converts not only because it represents things as high Crimes which the whole Kingdom has been celebrating as meritorious Actions but because the People have been so often deceived by former Declarations that whatsoever carries that Name will have no Credit with them for the future They have not yet forgetten the Declaration from Breda though others
to say that the use of Parliaments is already laid aside For tho His Majesty has owned in so many of His Speeches and Declarations the great danger of the Kingdom and the necessity of the Aid and Counsel of Parliaments he hath nevertheless been prevailed upon to Dissolve four in the space of 26 Months without making provision by their advice suitable to our dangers or wants Nor can we hope the Court will ever love any Parliament better than the first of those four wherein they had so dearly purchased such a number of fast Friends Men who having first sold themselves would not stick to fell any thing after And we may well suspect they mean very ill at Court when their designs shock't such a Parliament For that very Favourite Parliament no sooner began in good earnest to examine what had been done and what was doing but they were sent away in haste and in a fright though the Ministers know they lost thereby a constant Revenue of extraordinary Supplies And are the Ministers at present more innocent than at that time The same interest hath the ascendant at Court still and they have heightned the Resentments of the Nation by repeated affronts and can we believe them that they dare suffer a Parliament now to Sit But we have gain'd at least this one Point by the Declaration that it is own'd to us that Parliaments are the best Method for healing the distempers of the Kingdom and the only means to preserve the Monarchy in credit both at home and abroad Own'd by these very men who have so maliciously rendred many former Parliaments ineffectual and by this Declaration have done their utmost to make those which are to come as fruitless and thereby have confessed that they have no concern for healing the distempers of the Kingdom and preserving the credit of the Monarchy which is in effect to acknowledge themselves to be what the Commons called â—hem Enemies to the King and Kingdom Nothing can be more true than that the Kingdom can never recover its strength and reputation abroad or its ancient Peace and Settlement at home His Majesty can never be relieved from his fears and his domestick wants nor secure from the Affronts which he daily suffers from abroad till he resolves not only to call Parliaments but to Hearken to them when they are called For without that it is not a Declaration it is not repeated promises nay it is not the frequent calling of Parliaments which will convince the world that the use of them is not intended to be laid aside However we rejoyce that his Majesty seems resolved to have frequent Parliaments and hope he will be just to Himself and us by continuing constant to this Resolution Yet we cannot but doubt in some degree when we remember the Speech made 26 Jan. 1679. to both Houses wherein he told them that he was Unalterably of an Opinion that long intervals of Parliaments were absolutely necessary for composing and quieting the minds of the People Therefore which ought we rather to believe the Speech or the Declaration or which is likely to last longest a Resolution or an unalterable opinion is a matter too Nice for any but Court-Criticks to Decide The effectual performance of the last part of the promise will give us assurance of the first When we see the real fruits of these utmost endeavours to extirpate Popery out of Parliament when we see the D. of York no longer first Minister or rather protector of these Kingdoms and his Creatures no longer to have the whole direction of Affairs when we see that Love to our Religion and Laws is no longer a crime at Court no longer a certain forerunner of being Disgrac'd and Remov'd from all Offices and Employments in their Power when the word Loyal which is faithful to the Law shall be restored to its old meaning and no longer signifie one who is for subverting the Laws When we see the Commissions fill'd with hearty Protestants and the Laws executed in good earnest against the Papists the Discoverers of the Plot countenanc'd or at least heard and suffered to give their Evidence the Courts of Justice steady and not Avowing a Jurisdiction one day which they disown the next no more Grand Juries discharg'd lest they should hear Witnesses nor Witnesses hurried away lest they should inform Grand Juries when we see no more Instruments from Court labouring to raise Jealousies of Protestants at home and some regard had to Protestants abroad when we observe somewhat else to be meant by Governing according to Law than barely to put in Execution against Dissenters the Laws made against Papists then we shall promise our selves not only frequent Parliaments but all the blessed effects of pursuing Parliamentary Councels the Extripation of Popery the Redress of Grievances the flourishing of Lawâ— and the perfect Restoring the Monarchy to the Credit which it ought to have but which the Authors of the Declaration confess it wants both at Home and Abroad There needs no time to open the Eyes of His Majesties good Subjects and their Hearts are ready prepared to meet him in Parliament in order to perfect all the good Settlement and Peace wanting in Church and State. But whilst there are so many little Emissaries imployed to sow and encrease Divisions in the Nation as if the Ministers had a mind to make His Majesty the Head of a Faction and joyn himself to one Party in the Kingdom who has a just right of Governing all which Thuanus lib. 28. says was the notorious folly and occasioned the Destruction of his great Grand Mother Mary Queen of Scots whilst we see the same Differences promoted industriously by the Court which gave the rise and progress to the late troubles and which were once thought fit to be buried in an Act of Oblivion Whilst we see the Popish Interest so plainly Countenanced which was then done with Caution when every pretence of Prerogative is strained to the utmost Height when Parliaments are used with contempt and indignity and their judicature and all their highest Priviledges brought in question in Inferior Courts we have but too good cause to believe that tho every Loyal and Good Man does yet the Ministers and Favourites do but little consider the Rise and Progress of the late Troubles and have little desire or care to preserve their Country from a Relapse And who as they never yet shewed regard to Religion Liberty or Property so they would be little concern'd to see the Monarchy shaken off if they might escape the Vengeance of publick Justice due to them for so long a Course of pernicious Counsels and for Crowning all the rest of their faults by thus Reflecting upon that High Court before which we do not doubt but we shall see them one day brought to Judgment Thus have we with an English plainness expressed our thoughts of the late Parliaments and their Proceedings as well as of the Court in Relation to them and hope this Freedom will offend no man. The Ministers who may be concern'd through their appealing unto the People cannot in Justice deny unto any one of them the Liberty of weighing the Reasons which they thought fit to publish in Vindication of their Actions But if it should prove otherwise and these few Sheets be thought as weak and full of Errors as those we endeavour to confute or be held injurious unto them we desire only to know in what we transgress and that the Press may be open for our Justification Let the People to whom the Appeal is made judg then between them and us and let Reason and the Law be the Rules according unto which the Controversy may be decided But if by denying this they shall like Beasts recur to force they will thereby acknowledg that they want the Arms which belong to rational Creatures Whereas if the Liberty of Answering be left us we will give up the Cause and confess that both Reason and Law are wanting unto us if we do not in our Reply satisfy all reasonable and impartial men that nothing is said by us but what is just and necessary to preserve the Interests of the King and his People Nor can there be any thing more to the Honour of His Majesty than to give the Nations round about us to understand that the King of England doth neither Reign over a Base Servile People who hearing themselves Arraign'd and Condemned dare not speak in their own Defence and Vindication nor over so silly foolish and weak a People as that ill designed and worse supported Paper might occasion the World to think but that there are some Persons in his Dominions not only of true English Courage but of greater intellectuals as well as better Morals than the Advisers unto and Penners of the Declaration have manifested themselves to be FINIS 4 Edw. 3. c. 14.36 Ed. 3. c. 10. See the Parliament Roll 2 Ric. 2. num 28. See the Antiq. modo tenend Parliament * See the Declaration prepared by Coleman by the Advice of the French King's Confessor for dissolving the Parliament to prepare for Popery Speech 21. Octob. 1680. Speech 30. Apr. 1679. Speech 26. Dec. 1662. Speech 6. March 1679. Lord Chancellor's Speech 23 May 1678. Address presented 21 Dec. 1680. Address presented 29 Nov. 1680. Rot. Parl. 5 H. 4. Nu. 6. Traitte des droits de la Reine On t cette bien beuâ—euse impuissance de ne pouvoir rieâ— faire contre les Loys de leur Pais Postelius de Rebus Turcicis 1 R. 3. cap. 2. 12 Car. 2. c. 4.4 confirm'd 31 Car. c. 7. 12 Car. 2. c. 23 an 33 14 Car. c. 10. Tacit. Cap. 1. Sect. 2. pag. 9. 36 Ed. 3.10 Rot. Parl. 4 Ed. 3. Nu 6. Rot. Parl. 19 Ed. 3. M. 18. Rot. Parl. 26 Ed. 3. M. 25. Co. 2. Inst. 29.
which sence it hath in all Ages been used by all good Authors and which Bodin puts upon it when he speaks of the Government of France which he calls a Republick no good man will be asham'd of it Our own Authors The Mirror of Justice Bracton Fleta Fortescue and others in former times And of latter years Sir Thomas Smith Secretary of State in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth in his Discourses of the Commonwealth of England Sir Francis Bacon Cook and others take it in the same Sense And not only divers of our Statutes use the Word but even King James in his first Speech unto the Parliament acknowledgeth himself to be the Servant of the Commonwealth and King Charles the I. both before and in the time of the War never expresseth himself otherwise To be fond therefore of such Commonwealth Principles becomes every Englishman and the whole Kingdom did hope and were afterwards glad to find they had sent such Men to Parliament But if the Declaration would intimate that there had been any design of setting up a Democratial Government in Opposition to our legal Monarchy it is a Calumny just of a piece with the other things which the penners of this Declaration have vented in order to the laying upon others the blame of a design to overthrow the Government which only belongs unto themselves It is strange how this Word should so change its signification with us in the space of twenty years All Monarchies in the World that are not purely Barbarous and Tyrannical have ever been called Commonwealths Rome it self altered not that Name when it fell under the Sword of the Caesars The proudest and cruellest of Emperors disdained it not And in our days it doth not only belong to Venice Genoua Switzerland and the United Provinces of the Netherlands but to Germany Spain France Sweden Poland and all the Kingdoms of Europe May it not therefore be apprehended that our present Ministers who have so much decried this Word so well known to our Laws so often used by our best Writers and by all our Kings until this day are Enemies to the thing And that they who make it a brand of Infamy to be of Commonwealth Principles that is devoted to the good of the People do intend no other than the hurt and mischief of that People Can they in plainer terms declare their fondness of their beloved Arbitrary Power and their design to set it up by subverting our Ancient Legal Monarchy instituted for the benefit of the Commonwealth than by thus casting reproach upon those who endeavour to uphold it Let the Nation then to whom the Appeal is made judg who are the men that endeavour to Poison the People and who they are who are guilty of designing Innovations Bracton tells us that potestas Regis is potestas Legis It is from the Law that he hath his Power it is by the Law that he is King and for the good of the People by whose consent it is made The Liberty and welfare of a great Nation was of too much importance to be suffered to depend upon the will of one Man. The best and wisest might be transported by an excess of Power trusted with them and the experience of all times showeth that Princes as men are subject to Errors and might be misled Therefore as far as mans Wit could foresee our Constitution hath provided by annual Parliaments 36 Edw. 3. cap. 10. that the Commonwealth might receive no hurt and it is the Parliament that must from time to time correct the mischiefs which daily creep in upon us Let us then no longer wonder when we see such frequent Prorogations and Dissolutions of Parliaments nor stand amazed at this last unparallell'd effort of the Ministers by this Declaration to render two Parliaments odious unto the people They well know that Parliaments were ordain'd to prevent such mischiefs as they design'd and if they were suffered to pursue the ends of their Institution would endeavour to preserve all things in their due order To unite the King unto his People and the hearts of the People unto the King to keep the Regal Authority within the bounds of Law and perswade his Majesty to direct it to the publick Good which the Law intends But as this is repugnant to the introduction of Arbitrary Power and Popery they who delight in both cannot but hate it and choose rather to bring matters into such a state as may suit with their private Interests than suffer it to continue in its right Channel They love to fish in troubl'd Waters and they find all Disorders profitable unto themselves They can flatter the humor of a misguided Prince and increase their Fortunes by the excesses of a wastful Prodigal the frenzy of an imperious Woman is easily rendred propitious unto them and they can turn the Zeal of a violent Bigot to their advantage the Treacheries of false Allies agree with their own corruptions and as they fear nothing so much as that the King should return unto his People and keep all things quiet they almost-ever render themselves subservient to such as would disturb them And if these two last Parliaments according to their Duty and the Trust reposed in them have more steddily than any other before them persisted in the pious and just endeavours of easing the Nation of any of its Grievances the Authors of the Declaration found it was their best course by false colours put upon things and subtil misrepresentations of their actings to delude the People into an abhorrence of their own Representatives but with what candor and ingenuity they have attempted it is already sufficiently made known And if we look about us we shall find those who design a Change on either hand fomenting a misunderstanding between the King his Parliament and People whilst persons who love the legal Monarchy both out of choice and conscience are they who desire the frequent and successful meetings of the Great Council of the Nation As for the other sort of peevish men of whom the Declaration gives us warning who are angry at the disappointment of their ambitious Designs if these words are intended to reflect on those men of Honour and Conscience who being qualified for the highest employments of State have either left or refused or been removed from them because they would not accept or retain them at the price of selling their Country and Enslaving posterity And who are content to Sacrifice their safety as well as their interest for the publick and expose themselves to the malice of the men in power and to the daily Plots Perjuries and Subornations of the Papists I say if these be the ambitious men spoken of the people will have consideration for what they say and therefore it will be wisdom to give such men as these no occasion to say that they intend to lay aside the use of Parliaments In good earnest the behaviour of the Ministers of late gives but too just occasion