had your spiritual Myrmidons throughout the Kingdom roaring from their Pulpits against the Proceedings of those Parliaments by the Instruction of some of their Superiours this by the help of new Matter the Court instructed them in lasted several years so that they were rather Court-Agents to carry on some design than Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God But alas when the Tithe-pig began to squeak they turned their Discourses another way Truly Sir to give the pious Herd of your Ecclesiastical Swine their due they will do any thing to serve you if they can but enjoy their Swill and Grains poor Wretches I never met with any of them that would lose a Meal to save either King or Kingdom 8. You had your Rascals in the most publick Coffee-houses who spent their time chiefly in railing at Parliaments that they were unuseful and were bringing 40 and 41 again upon the Stage that they had a Design to ruin the King by giving no Money and starving his Servants nay Sir they were so insolent as to offer all Indignity to those Gentlemen that had served in any of those Parliaments for doing of which they were not only incouraged by your Grace and Favour in your Smiles but were also well rewarded The Particulars might be set down but I leave them to reply upon those that shall pretend to answer this or any part of it provided they put their Names to their Answer as I have done to this my Memorial otherwise I shall not take notice of any Scribler in your Party You have your Friend Sherridan one of your Devil's Brokers in Ireland and honest Togra Smith another excellent Partisan of yours nay you have a Set of Case-hardned Villains that would if they durst be barking at the Government the Rogues stand still for want of Business I pray give them orders to disprove any part of the truth of what I now write if you do you have a notorious Rogue the Quondam Bp. of Kilmore that walks in your Quondam Park of St. James's he is still a Malignant and hates our English Government you would do well to send for him for he would be a main Champion with you in the Case of governing by Parliaments The Sum of all which is this You may reflect upon the various ways you and your Party took to expose three Parliaments by which you shewed your self an Enemy of all English Parliaments and therefore we could not but judg who were the Men that would poison the People and change the Government even the Enemies of the Constitution and of those who endeavoured to preserve the old English Government Fourthly The unreasonableness of the ill usage of those Parliaments shews you an Enemy to Parliaments in general You cannot but remember what amaâ—â—ment seized every good Man to see two of the greatest Parliaments England ever knew dissolved within the space of three Months I confess the Kings of England have in a great measure been intrusted by the Kingdom with appointing the times of the Sitting and Dissolving of Parliaments but lest thro' defect of Age Experience or Understanding they should forget or mistake our Constitution or by Passion private Interest or the Influence of evil Counsellors be so far misled as not to assemble Parliaments when the publick Affairs require it or should declare them dissolved before the Ends of their Meeting were accomplished the Wisdom of our Forefathers has provided divers Laws both for holding Parliaments annually and oftner if need be and that they should not be put off till all the Bills were passed all Petitions answered and Grievances â—edressed But to be more particular with you I will ask you a few Questions which if any of your Teagues can answer me on your behalf they shall be my Counsellors I assure you if ever I come to be Duke of Modena 1. What Precedent can be produced for such a Dissolution amongst our antient Records in Parliament held in the times of our antient English Kings 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 never been to send them away without the same Advice Now if these Methods of calling and dismissing Parliaments were safe then not to pursue them was to expose the King to the Censures and Reflections of the whole Nation for an Action not only illegal and uncustomary but also very ungrateful to the People 2. Have not the Laws of the Land taken great care to make the King always dear to the People and to preserve his Person sacred in their Esteem by wisely preventing his appearing in any Action that may be unacceptable to them Now was the Dissolution of three Parliaments nay four in the compass of 26 Months acceptable to the People Ought you not then to have used your Interest with him to have acted according to the Laws and Customs of Parliaments which would have rendred you both acceptable to the People And had he given himself leasure to have had this debated in Council because then his Counsellors must have answered for their Advice you and your Brother had remained Honourable in the Eyes of the Nation and not have been judged guilty of such Orders as were not only irregular but also very illegal 3. Suppose you should say the King commanded it to be done and his Ministers were bound to obey and therefore are justified yet Sir let me tell you that the Ministers that advised and assisted in the Administration of Affairs could not justify an unlawful Action under Colour of the King's Commands since all his Commands contrary to Law were in themselves void which is the true reason of that old Maxim in the Law That the King can do no wrong a Maxim not only true in self but safe for a Prince and Subject too for certainly it was Nonsense in your Brother's Favourites to think of excusing their many Enormities under pretence of their Master's Command The truth is it was so unreasonable that the Privy Council was ignorant of the thing and surprised at it not being worthy to be trusted with it but the French Whore near St. James's House had the News of the Parliament's being to be dissolved two days before we knew of it at Oxford so that it was a Work of darkness concerted between Barillon and Portsmouth and the King resolved upon it by their Advice 4. Would it not have been unreasonable in your Brother and you to have dismissed the 12 Judges from sitting in Term-time and from going the several Circuits that Justice and Judgment might not be done Now that Parliaments should meet and sit for Redress of Grievances and making good and wholesome Laws by the same Sacred Tie whereby at his Coronation he obliged himself to let his Judges sit to distribute Justice every Term and in both the Seasons of the Year in their Circuits and to preserve inviolably all the Rights and Liberties of
Kingdom Nay the Government there did in a manner protect you from the Parliament in England that would have excluded you Nay Dr. Nasty-Gusts the then Bishop of Edinburgh found they had done the Business so well that he blest God the Parliament of Scotland had made such a happy Progress in reducing the Laws of Scotland to the Will of the King Now after all this Pother that was made about you pray how came it that you found no more Friends in Scotland Truly at one time I thought the Courtiers there would have pull'd out both their Eyes to have served you yet when you stood in need of them there were but few that appeared for you Truly poor Pilgarlick did stand and wonder at the thing and advising with a parcel of honest Fellows over a Dish of Coffee at a Coffee-house near the Old House out of which the Prince of Orange warned you to be gone without any more to do one of the Company was very frank in the Point and told the Company plainly that Fear and Interest were the two great Hinges on which the Actions of Mankind did turn and thereby insinuated that Fear made them stand for you against the Parliament of England and Interest made them be against you with K. William Well what then Truly I thought with my self that the Princes of this World ought to be vertuous to a very high degree and to have a Magazine of Assurance because their Favours are more acceptable than their Persons are beloved I confess Princes are in a fair way to be beloved when they put themselves in a Posture of doing much good and that Prince is sure of the Affections of his People who will endeavour with all sweetness to gain their Hearts I have therefore this one thing to say that if you had secured your Antient Kingdom of Scotland you might have done mighty things I pray Sir why did you not cultivate your natural Qualities in order to have secured you an Interest in that Kingdom Truly the Reason is plain because you had none about you but mercenary Rascals that ruined you by their Flatteries And did you not find your self in a most forlorn Solitude notwithstanding their Scots Caresses when you really stood in need of their help And should K. William have any of your Rogues about him I can not but think they would serve him as they did you leave him when he has most need of them 2. You having conversed in Scotland and the Bishops there hanging about you and giving you all the Scots Government could afford I pray resolve me what Religion those Rogues were of Certainly if they were Protestants they have shewed themselves to have as little Brains as your Worship for I find by their management of themselves whilst you afforded them your Gracious Presence as well as before and since you left us they neither understood the Interest of their Traiterous Hierarchy nor of Religion In a word one would think by the Current of their Actions they had been a parcel of Irish Teagues trick'd up with the Dress of a true Scots Clergy-man for they must surely be judg'd Sots to the highest Degree if ignorant of the Disgust they had caused in the People of that Kingdom by embracing your Gracious Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in favour of the villanous Popish Crew It may be you will say that to your own knowledg they were Protestants at the Bottom To this I answer That what either your Brother or you ever said weighed no more with me than if you had sworn Mary Queen of Scots had lived and died an honest true English Virgin But what is it to the Point what they were at the Bottom I am sure they and you were a parcel of Sowce-Crowns to think the Scots would long endure Popery and Arbitrary Power always to domineer over them Truly Experience hath taught us tho you and your villanous Scots Bishops were above such Teachings that the poor Scots wanted but a Leader of Resolution and Bravery and they had thrown off your Brother's Yoke and yours long before the Prince of Orange's coming Object You may say because they wrote to you and told you that the Enterprize of the Prince of Orange was a detestable Invasion therefore you judg'd them Protestants they also having been always against such things Answ It seems they were for Passive-Obedience and Non-resistance For I do not find that they or any of their Admirers stirred one step to serve you and you know that Gracious Doctrine has saved the Credit of many a Coward in the World and therefore your Brother and you promoted it with all the Zeal two such Babes of Grace could shew lest the true Protestant Interest should have storm'd Babylon and all the Hellish Crew she has nourished ever since your Restoration till this Day But they were pleased to say that the Glorious Enterprize of the Prince of Orange was a detestable Invasion What! did this bespeak them to be Protestants Well then let me tell you that your Great Ally might as well wear the Name and all the French Court and your villanous Party here at home for I believe they have said so ten thousand times But I do no more believe they were Protestants than I believe Old Hodg an honest Man or R. Ferguson to be without three false Quarters I pray Sir what did they do for the Protestant Interest We had seven Bishops good Lord went to the Tower and all for the sake of the Protestant Religion I was not a bit sorry nor should I have been if all the twenty six had gone upon the same Account tho they had lain by it as long as I and the rest of my fellow Prisoners did in the Kings-Bench for the Testimony of a good Conscience But what your English-Bishops did for the Interest of the Protestant Religion I will leave to better Pens but for your Scots Tools did they not by their Treachery and Lewdness render themselves the Abomination of the People 3. I pray let me ask you a third Question What was the Reason that notwithstanding the Advice of your Devilish Jesuits to the contrary you would not stay and see the joyful Sight the People of England saw and that after so many Divisions occasioned by your Brother's Reign and yours viz. Our King and the Parliament so happily united together You say you ventured your Life on behalf of the Nation and since your Grace and Favour was such as not to strike one Stroke to keep the Crown upon your Head you might have been so good-natur'd as to have staid and seen our King leaving his Interest to the management of his Parliament on purpose to take care of theirs and his and the Welfare of all Europe The King God bless him remitted Chimney-money and entirely threw himself upon the Affections of his People and you threw your self upon the Affection of the French King I pray try his Affection and let me know by
basely debar his Countrey-men from speaking with the King otherwise than he pleased for fear they might tell Tales of his exorbitant Power by which he disobliged them in the highest and by reason of his being mostly here at Court the Scots Noblemen and Gentlemen were subjugated to a base and vile dependance upon his Creatures and Favourites nay often-times upon his Servants with whom it 's well known they transacted for obtaining and dispatching Gifts and Sign-manuals and that it was by the said Lauderdale's Servants that Protections to Debtors were so villanously obtained Give me leave Sir to put you in mind how hurtful he was to the Nation as High Commissioner of that Kingdom in order to which we may note that the Office of High Commissioner is altogether extraordinary and for a particular Occasion viz. The holding of a Parliament in the King's Absence therefore scarce known in Scotland till James I. came to the Crown and when the Session of Parliament was upon its determination that Office also determined with it Now when you had made Middleton so great he brought in that Innovation of adjourning Parliaments for a long time that he might tamper with them to betray the Religion Laws and Liberties of the People whereby he most illegally continued his Commission in the Interval of Parliament so that he might fit and prepare that poor People for Destruction Truly he had gone a pretty way in it and that he might finish his Work and serve your Purposes upon that Kingdom he did as I said lengthen the Adjournment of that Parliament for about two Years or so a thing never before known in Scotland for which Sir your old Bandog Lauderdale accused him as a Criminal to the King and you with the reproachful Title of a Subverter of the Government But however the Matter was hush'd up for Middleton having done your Business so well there in time he was rewarded with the Government of Tangier But when Lauderdale got into the same Station he far outwent Middleton in continuing his Commission for he spun it out for four Years and a half for which there was no manner of Necessity if you consider but the State of Affairs then in that Kingdom Nay it was so far from being necessary that it was a notorious Grievance for by it he not only hindred the Proceedings of the Parliament but endeavoured to frustrate all its Meetings which as it was a known Violation of the Antient Constitution of that Government so the unnecessary Continuance and Arbitrary long Adjourments of the Parliament contributed exceedingly to the increase of the Peoples Burdens and Distresses Truly Sir it is plain that the villanous Deportment of that Lauderdale was such in the Trust your Brother and you reposed in him which in time appear'd to be his best Security And why so The Reason Sir is plain for what he had proudly plotted and contrived through his matchless Ambition being conscious to himself that he might be reckoned withal for his devilish Proceedings in that Station he was under some necessity of maintaining by his Power in a most tenacious way that he might perfect the Ruin of that People making good the old Proverb Over Shoes over Boots it would be all one at the Gallows at last So that the Relief of that poor and abandon'd People from the Disorders which you and your wicked Party had made in that Kingdom by those two Men remained only with Almighty God there being no Hopes from your Brother Therefore Sir after the Adjournment of a Parliament which was held if I am not misinformed in 1674. and adjourned in December that Year Duke Hamilton the Earl of Tweddale and some Gentlemen being sensible of the notorious Villanies of old Lauderdale and to prevent his Lies from taking place with the King repair to the Court in England with the Approbation of those to whom they communicated their Intentions being confident they should be delivered from the Oppressions occasioned by Middleton and Lauderdale and hoping the King would receive their faithful Representation of the Affairs of that Nation both as to Religion and Government But Lauderdale who was an Enemy of all Righteousness and Truth omitted no Obstruction he could lay in the way For 1. by a Proclamation he procured that no Scots-man should go out of the Kingdom without Licence from the Council that so the King might not have the Truth of Affairs laid before him whereby to see the State and Condition that poor People were in in order to give them some Legal Redress Again 2. it is well known he imployed a pitiful Rascal at Berwick as a Spy to intercept all free Correspondence who being impowred by him did seize and search Sir William Carnegie a Member of Parliament and detain'd him a Lord of his Name you well remember in his Passage thrô that Town to London 3. Lauderdale having by means of this Rogue got some Packets intercepted he like a base Villain transmitted them to our Court not considering the Violation done to the common Intercourse and good Understanding of the two Nations nor regarding that Tenderness which honest Men have for the Honour of their Country and obtained of the King for this Fellow for such Rogueries instead of a Pillory or Gallows the Reward of 50 l. Sterling to be paid out of the Exchequer in Scotland to the great Satisfaction of the King your Self and wicked Party 4. By the same Means and in the same Place he endeavoured to affront Duke Hamilton and his Company in their Passage by questioning their Retinue and refusing them a Night's lodging which was not known to the Governour of that Town he being absent But at the return of these Noble Persons both Governour and People of the Place testified their Respects to them 5. This Lauderdale incensed the King and you against a Gentleman Duke Hamilton sent before him as one that had been a Sequestrator in the Time of Oliver sometime Lord-Protector of these three Nations and a Person disaffected to the Government But notwithstanding all these Obstacles and many other Discouragements the same Persons arrived at Court and did with all Submission and Sincerity and in all Faithfulness and Truth acquit themselves giving a full Account of the State of Affairs both as to the King 's and Countrey 's Interest What was the Event of all this Truly they were dismissed with fair Words and had positive Promises that the Parliament in Scotland should meet and sit an the Day appointed that Grievances should be redressed and that the Commission Lauderdale held as Commissioner should be revoked Upon which they hasten home the Duke with extraordinary Difficulty both in respect of the rigour of the Season and his weakness of Body that they might attend the Parliament in their respective Places on the 3d of March to which Time the Parliament was adjourned which was the very next Day after their arrival But Sir instead of a Session so much expected by the
I should have much wondered if Scotland had escaped that Grace and Favour of yours which was generally speaking pretty impartial For why should the Administration of Justice be in better Hands there than it was here You were resolved that the doing of Justice in the three 〈…〉 be of a Piece and therefore play'd your Game there tho with more 〈…〉 as you did here To prove this you procured your Brother's Letters â—â— Lauderdale to constitute one Sir Andrew Ramsey one of the Lords of the Sessions who never was bred up to the Law but to Merchandizing Which extravaâ—â—ant Proceeding being complained of in Parliament as of dangerous Consequence Ramsey parted with his Place resigning it up to Lauderdale and was said to have more Knowledg than the other three And by reason of the Insufficiency of the Lords of the Session thereupon Partiality so manifestly crept into that as well as other Courts of Justice that the Foundations of Law and Justice were much shaken as was once ready to be proved in full Parliament in that Kingdom in the Time of Lauderdale's Ministry Now Sir you may see it was not a Fault in a Man to serve the late Protector if he would but join with Lauderdale and you to subvert the Government of that Kingdom and enslave the People in order to establish Popery For this Ramsey had been Provost of Edinburgh in the Protector 's Time and complied with him to the height of being knighted and after that got to be reknighted and reentred Provost by the Favour of Earl Middleton to whom he was a villanous Tool in assisting him to defraud the People of their Religion Laws and Liberties all at once But upon Middleton's Disgrace this Fellow strikes in with Lauderdale who had a greater Sacrifice to offer to Baal than Middleton had yet offered with whom and the Tradesmen of Edinburgh by his long-practised Arts of Flattery and Bribery he so mightily prevailed that continuing Provost for ten Years in that time he so domineered over the poor Citizens and so enriched himself by their Rents and Moneys at his Pleasure that by Lauderdale's Assistance and yours he cheated the King of near 20000 l. Sterling and had an Opportunity of obtaining to be constituted one of the Lords of the Session And tho he with the other three who as I said before were more unskilful in the Law made such Havock that Lauderdale himself could not keep him in that Station so many notorious Corruptions and illegal Proceedings being proved against him and them yet there was not a Change made in that Court without some difficulty And after all their signal Villanies they were let fall by your self and Lauderdale as Men that had overdone your Business 3. Another Step taken to ruin the People of Scotland was the Gift of a Part of your Brother's Revenue called the King's Casualties which is the Wards and Marriages to another of your Creatures there procured by Lauderdale thrô your Interest with the King tho contrary to all the Laws of that Kingdom in that Case which was not only prejudicial to the Government but extreamly vexatious to the People For these Casualties were an Arbitrary Revenue and paid or not as the King pleased Therefore the giving it to any one Man to make his most of it was both against Law and Reason and the Interest of the Subject This Creature of yours was the Earl of Kincaerden who the more to oppress the People in this Point was by the King's Letters by you procured joined in Commission with Lauderdale in the Treasury and also with the extraordinary Lords of the Session by which they went on without controul to grieve the People Sir It is apparent to those that understand the Constitution of that Kingdom that this Gift of the Casualties was never known in Scotland till attempted 〈…〉 Ministry who not being so bad as to join with you in such a piece of â—â—â—â—â—quency it proved one Cause of his Disgrace 4. You know it was your Rogues Design here in England to diminish and debase the Coin and Plate of the Kingdom the direful Effects whereof we feel at this Day and for which this Nation is bound to curse the Names and Memory of you and your wicked Adherents Thus you proceeded in Scotland tho your Father 's own dear Country where you corrupted the Mint and Coinage For by the King's Letters the Lord Hatton Brother to Lauderdale was constituted chief in that Office I think they call the Master of the Mint General but if I am mistaken in the Names I may be in some measure excused But as to the thing I am sure I am in the right for the Corruption of the Mint and Coinage was so great that the Scots People grew very uneasy and made a fearful Complaint in Parliament proving in that August Assembly that for several Years they had found to their sorrow the intrinsick Value of the Silver Coin sensibly diminished both in Weight and Fineness to the great Damage of that Kingdom Nay the thing rested not here but to vex the People care was taken by Hatton to over-charge the Country with a sort of base Coin without considering the Weight and Value of that sort of Money to the manifest hindering of the Trade of that Kingdom and it was an Artifice your Conspirators used for enslaving that People to impoverish them so that you might the more easily bring them under the Yoke of an Arbitrary Power But Sir that you might help on this Lord of the Mint in depraving the Silver Coin you may remember the Dutch Dollars commonly called Leg-Dollars usually imported by their Merchants and currant with them at 58 d. per Piece were cried down by your Bandog Lauderdale to 56 d. for no other reason but because he procured your Favour to obtain a Command from the King for so doing that the said Dollars might be brought as Bullion into the Mint for the Advantage of the Lord Hatton his Brother and your Favorite And notwithstanding the great Complaint of the People there was nothing done But upon the Adjournment of the Parliament a Sham-Trial was obtained and the Lord Hatton indemnified tho it was proved that none of the Money coined in his Time was either Weight or Standard 5. A fifth Step you took to overturn the Government of that Kingdom and defraud that People of their Religion Laws and Liberties was a certain Monster your Brother and you set up a Body of Villains called the Lords of the Articles The most valuable and considering Men of that Nation some of whom I have had the Honour to be acquainted with have judged this Body of Men to be nothing else but a virtual Subversion of the Power and Liberties of Parliament and highly prejudicial to the King and Kingdom I pray Sir observe 1. That this meeting of the Articles when reestablished by you and your Conspirators consisted of 8 Bishops chosen by the Lords and 8 Lords chosen by the
hated Parliaments for your Father of ever-notorious Memory hated them and therefore tried Conclusions with Parliaments for 12 Years together 'T is true he did call that blessed Parliament in 1640 that would have redressed England's Grievances had they not been prevented by the factious Spirits of some whose Zeal was not according to Knowledg Dr. Gauden tells you that your Father call'd that Parliament in Novemb. 3. 1640. Not more by the Advice of others or by the Necessity of his own Affairs than by his own Choice and Inclination I could expect no better from a Baal's Priest than to begin with a Lie For what Man that lived in that Time knew not how the Case stood with Charles the First And besides if I had not Access to a King yet I could discover his Inclinations either by those that were about him and in favour with him or by the Currant of his Actions all which I say testified to the World your Father's strange aversness to a Parliament Those that were near him and most in favour with him were Courtiers and Rascally Prelats Vermin whose chief study was to find out how he stood inclined and to imitate him exactly and that which was his Will was their Doctrine concerning Parliaments and so it was with you But that I may proceed in some Method I shall shew 1. That Parliaments are the Right of the People 2. That they are an essential Part of the Government 3. That you hated them tho such and by consequence was an Enemy to the Government of England 1. That Parliaments are the Right of the People of England which they may claim in order to have their Grievances redressed the common Safety of the Nation provided for and their Religion Laws and Liberties secured For call to mind with delight if you can the wonderful Discovery and undeniable Confirmation of the Popish Plot which designed so much Ruin and Mischief to these Nations in all things both Civil and Sacred and the unanimous Sense and Censure of so many Parliaments upon it together with some Acts of Publick Justice upon many of the Traitors The Nation was not without hopes that since that cursed Design of introducing Popery and Slavery and the Murder of your Brother was discovered for the space of 30 Months at least some effectual Remedies should have been applied to prevent the Attempts of your Cut-throat Party upon us the better to secure the Religion and Government of the Nation and the Person of the King But by sad Experience we found that notwithstanding the vigorous endeavours of three Parliaments â—o provide proper and wholsome Laws to answer both Ends by your influencing a pack of Villains you and your Party were so prevalent as to stifle in the Birth those Righteous Endeavours of our Parliaments by many surprizing Prorogations and Dissolutions whereby the Fears and Dangers of the People daily encreased and the Spirits of you and your Party heightned to renew and multiply fresh Plots against the Religion Laws and Liberties of the Realm I will lay down some known Maxims that relate to a King and Parliament of England 1. You know the Kings of England can do nothing as Kings but what of Right they ought to do 2. The King can neither do wrong nor die 3. The King's Prerogative and the Subjects Liberty are determined by Law 4. The King has no Power but what the Law gives him and is called King from ruling well Rex à benè Regendo viz. according to Law and is only a King whilst he rules well but a Tyrant when he oppresses 5. That the Kings of England never appear more in their Glory and Majestick Sovereignty than in Parliaments 6. That the Prerogative of the Crown can do no wrong nor can it be a Warrant for so doing Now Sir having laid down some Truths relating to the Kings of England give me leave to lay before you some that relate to the Parliament 1. Then I say that the Parliament of England constitutes and gives a Being to the Government of England 2. A Parliament of England is to the Government what the Soul is to the Body which is only able to apprehend and understand the Symptoms of all Diseases threatning the Body Politick 3. A Parliament is the Bulwark of our Liberty the Boundary which keeps the People of England from the Inundation of Tyrannical Power and Government 4. Parliaments do make new and abrogate old Laws reform Grievances settle the Succession grant Subsidies and in a word may be called the Great Physician of the Kingdom From all which it appears if Parliaments are necessary in our Constitution that they must have their Times of Session and Continuation to provide Laws essentially needful for the being and well-being of the People and for redressing all Publick Grievances arising either for want of Laws or of undue execution of those in being or otherwise And sutable hereunto are those Provisions made by the Wisdom of our Forefathers as recorded by them both in the Common and Statute Law 1. Sir you was an excellent Man at the Common Law and so were your Gang at St. Germains and tho they have little occasion for it there yet I may refresh their Memories for having had so much leasure to study the Excellency of the French Religion and Government our Common Law may be forgotten by them Nay Rhyming Jack Carryl himself since the loss of his Estate may have resolved to forget the Law since he will not have so much occasion for it as he might have had if he had chosen Sussex instead of St. Germains and so may be at a loss to inform you I therefore give you a touch or so not that I pretend to cure the King 's Evil of the Common Law what it saith concerning Parliaments I pray Sir remember what old Coke saith one of your Grand-father's Judges who was a famous Lawyer and persecuted by him for you know what but never had the Courage to run away he tells us in one of his Law Books which your old Friend Jenner swears he never understood That the Common Law is founded in the immutable Law and Light of Nature agreeable to the Law of God requiring Order Government Subjection and Protection containing certain antient Vsages warranted by the Holy Scriptures and because given to all is therefore called Common Sir if you will send for your old Drudg Frank Withens I dare aver he cannot give you a better for his Life But you will say What is this to Parliaments Well Sir since this may pass the Understanding of your Dispensing Rogues I will tell you what he saith in his 9th Book in the Preface they are his own Words in the Book called the Mirror of Justice in which appears the whole Frame of the Antient Common Laws of this Realm from the Time of K. Arthur An. 516 till near the Conquest which treats also of the Officers as well as the Diversity and Distinction of the Courts of
Factions that put General Cromwell to the Necessity of taking upon him the Government of the Nation by a single Person by the Name and Title of Lord Protector Those who would destroy the Constitution of the House of Lords do endeavour the Destruction of the Ballance of the English Government 3. Consider the King gives Life and Vigour to all the Proceedings in Parliament the Wills and Desires of the People tho approved by the Lords and Commons in Parliament without the King signify nothing unless he bids them be an Act they are abortive Therefore he that shall attempt the Subversion of any of the other two Estates is no more a King but a Tyrant and useless to God and Man You see that your Father undid himself to all Intents and Purposes by following such Measures as subverted his own Government and so have you and if you will not believe it you may ask the French King and he will soon satisfy you of the Matter But from hence Sir you may see that you cannot destroy any one Estate in this Government but the whole is subverted and therefore I may lay down this Proposition that Parliaments are the Essential Part of the Government In a word then to conclude this Head let me ask you or any of your Plotters these two Questions 1. If this be so that by so great Authority viz. so many Statutes then and now in Force the Fundamentals of the Common Law the Essentials of the Government it self Magna Charta your Brother's Coronation-Oath and so many Laws of God and Man the Parliament ought to meet and sit to redress Grievances provide for Common Safety especially in times of Common Danger and that this was so in a most eminent manner none can doubt that did believe the King so many Parliaments the Cloud of Witnesses the publick Judicatures their own Sense and Experience of the manifold Mischiefs acted and the apparent Ruin and Confusion that threatned the Nation by the restless Attempts of you and your bloody Party Then Sir I ask you Whether after the People of England had the Point of the Dagger thus set to their Breasts and the Knife at their Throats Cities and Habitations fired Invasions and Insurrections threatned to destroy the King and Government your villanous Popish Party did not design to destroy the only Remedy hoped for under God to give us Relief that is our Parliaments who with so much Cost and Pains were elected sent up and intrusted for our Help and to turn them off without answering the Ends for which chosen by those frequent Prorogations and Dissolutions Consider Sir the Point in hand Were not the People of England justified in their important Cries humble Petitions to the King your Brother fervent Addresses to their Members and earnest Claims for this their Birthright pleaded with all the Modesty imaginable which the Laws of the Kingdom consonant to the Laws of God and Nature had given them How impudent then were your Abhorrers of such Petitions and Claims What can Withens who was expelled the House for the same say for himself What can the Rascal plead in behalf of himself and a rascally Crew that joined with him in signing an Address of Abhorrence and that Villain Jefferies who did that in London which Wythens had done in Westminster Which brings me to a second Question 2. If it be fo that by so great Authority Parliaments ought to meet and sit to redress Grievances c. what shall we say to those who advised your Brother to this high Violation of their Countries Rights to the infringing so many just Laws and to the exposing the Publick to those desperate Hazards even almost a total Ruine which was done with all the Impudence and Barefacedness imaginable the Advisers not having the least Remorse upon them If K. Alfred as Andrew Horne in his Mirror of Justice tells us hanged Darling Segnor Cadwine Cole and forty Judges more for judging contrary to Law and yet all those faise Judgments were but in particular and private Cases what Death did those deserve who offer'd Violence to the Law it self and all the sacred Rights of their Country If the Lord Chief Justice Thorpe iâ— Edward Ill 's time for receiving the Bribery of 100 l. was adjudged to be hanged as having made the King break his Oath to the People how much more guilty were they that made your Brother break his Coronation-Oath and perswaded him to act against all Laws for holding of Parliaments and passiâ—g 〈◊〉 therein which â—e was so solemnly sworn to do And if the Lord Chief Justice Tresillian was drawn hang'd and quartered for advising the King to act contrary to some Statutes only what did those deserve that advised your Brother to act not only against some but all the antient Laws and Statutes of the Realm Moreover Sir I would say this further to you if you will have a little Patience If Blake the King's Counsel only for assisting in the Matter and drawing up Indictments by the King's Command against Law tho it's like he might plead the King's Order and Command for so doing was drawn hang'd and quartered what was due to them that assisted your Brother in the total Destruction of all the Laws of the Kingdom and as much as in them lay their King and Country too And if Vske the Under-Sheriff whose Office it is to execute the Laws for but endeavouring to aid Tresillian Blake and their Accomplices against some of the Laws was also with five more drawn hang'd and quarter'd what Punishment did they deserve that not only aided your Brother but endeavour'd to subvert all the Laws of the Kingdom And if Empson and Dudley in the time of Henry VIII tho of the King 's Privy Council were hanged for procuring and executing an Act of Parliament contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and to the great Vexation of the People when yet they had an Act of Parliament on their Side what ought to have been done to those who had no such Act to shelter themselves and who not only acted contrary to but to the Destruction of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom I can expect Sir no Answer from you but this The Men that did these things should surely have died if they had been discovered they should have perished without Mercy Is it so then I come to the last Particular to be debated and that is III. You are the Man and your Party was the Party that did endeavour to break the Use of Parliaments by inveighing against that way of Government In a word therefore I shall descend unto Particulars and shew you 1st That your Inclinations were not for Parliaments or that Way of Governing 2ly What those Parliaments were that you and your Party procured to be dissolved 3ly What Arts and Methods you used to expose the three last Parliaments your Brother held in 1679 1680 and 1681. 4ly Your Unreasonableness in so doing 5ly The ill Consequences
often demanded in vain was according to the Law of Nations and the Rules of Justice nay Sir we might have been engaged in his Quarrel with old Kate's native Country which we ought to have had special regard of for the Blessing they sent us in 1662. And pray what was the Quarrel Truly nothing but a treacherous seizing the Island of St. Gabriel which the Portuguese had peaceably enjoyed several Years upon which you know Jack the Portuguese invaded some part of the Spanish Country Also by virtue of this Alliance we were even obliged to assist the Spaniard in case of any disturbance in his own Dominions You and your Brother were admirable good at secret Articles and in one of those it is plainly expressed we were to furnish him 8000 Men for 3 Months so that if he inclin'd to make his Subjects as great Slaves to the Crown as they are to the Church our good King was to assist him in so good a Work Truly Sir when I reflect on Philip the Second's Barbarity to the People of the Low Countries whom our Ancestors thought fit to succour I could not but think this Alliance now under debate was for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Good of the Nation because my Lord Hallifax and old Lauderdale told me so and therefore as the Stars would have it it was not fit the League should be laid before the Parliament lest they should think so too and find a blind side or two in it and think it would contribute but little to the Good of the Nation or securing the Peace of poor Flanders Well Sir your Cake proved Dough that bout for there was Death in the Pot a standing Army aimed at in England that would not down with us at that time of which you were to have been General that would have done more good Business upon Hounslow-Heath than in Flanders for they were not to help the Spaniard till the French had invaded them three Months and it 's well known he could then have been Master of a considerable part of that Country But yet no Money came nor can I help it if I should cry my Eyes out let me therefore be a little more particular with you and ask two or three Questions it may be we may find some Expedient they might have used to allay the matter on your side Now supposing this League the best that ever could be made yet 1. Had not the Parliament just Cause to be very jealous of your Brother's Sincerity in this Alliance and the more because he would not declare what it was nor suffer it to be laid before them Therefore had it been the best in Christendom nay as good as that between him and Cleveland and Mother Knight the Bawd which he had broken for several years or that that was then in being between Mrs. Portsmouth and her Woman Nell Waall yet what could they say to such a League or what Security could they have that it should be kept more than the Triple League or that with the Prince of Orange or that with the States General which were all broken almost as soon as made 2. The Parliaments of England had been ill used by you and your Banditti and therefore you must allow this not to meet with that Temper you desir'd who after they had heard of this Alliance were not suffered so much as to have it laid before them to consider of tho it had been before your Council at St. James's and Barillon the French Ambassadour had perused it and was privy to the secret Article in it and had not like a Man of Truth given a Copy of it to one that let some have a sight of it Surely Sir you and your Party could not but provoke a Parliament by these Carriages and how then could you expect Money to support this new Alliance 3. I pray Sir how was it possible any good could come to Christendom in general or to these Nations in particular by this new Alliance It is plain that all Christendom after the separate Peace with the Dutch could not preserve Spain and the Spanish Netherlands from falling under the Dominion of the French King how then could your Brother by this new Alliance be in a Condition to support them without the Dutch since by the help of you and your Traitors he brought this Nation into a distracted and deplorable Condition Nay Sir one word more What good could these Kingdoms expect by this Alliance since thereby all the Hardships imaginable were put upon our Traders both to Spain and the West-Indies and had that King been as able as willing he would have let you known it ' ere this time 4. Was it not unreasonable to ask Money for the support of this League tho we suppose it the best that ever was made Your Brother was the first King that ever asked Money to support Alliances I have read of Kings when by the Advice of Parliament they have made War upon any of their Neighbours they have called for Money to carry it on with Vigour but I never find any of our Kings that ever called for Money to support Alliances especially when they were justly ashamed to declare what they were 5. Again Your Crew I confess at that time made a horrid noise about the Spanish Alliance and wondered the Parliament would give no Money to maintain it Alas Sir there was never yet an Alliance made with any State in Christendom if a good one but would earn its own living and therefore needed no Money to support it if it were a bad one I am sure it deserved none 6. Once more and I 'll conclude this Point since your Party made such a noise about the Spanish Alliance pray Sir how was it kept If my Memory fails not it was not over-well observed for I think in 1682. your Ally the French King blocked up Luxemburgh and in the year my Lord Russel was murdered took Courtray one of the six Towns delivered up by the French to the Spaniard and keeps it to this Day as he doth Luxemburgh which he took by force in 1684. Now I do not find your Brother ever assisted this Confederate of his according to the tenour of the Alliance or as he was Guarantee in the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle which in his excellent Declaration of War against the Dutch he declared he would maintain Upon the whole I see no reason why the Parliament should have given any Money to support this Alliance 2. As the Parliament would give no Money for the support of this Alliance so neither for the support of Tangier this stuck mightily in your Stomach and in the Maws of all your Party Now Sir Tangier being most valiantly deserted it deserves not to be mentioned but because it so highly offended your Friends who to this day mention it with reluctancy I will say a word or two to it It is some years since that the Commons of England to
which means in a great measure they lost their old brave English Courage When our Seamen grow Effeminate and lose that Courage which with God's Blessing made them victorious England is but in a lamentable Condition 7. You punished or at least discountenanced such Officers as stood for the Honour of the Flag How often did the French refuse it And when some Broad-sides were exchanged and the French came off by the Lee their Ambassador used to complain and the Captain was severely check'd if not turned out For you were converted to such a Degree of Zeal to the French King that we must lose the Dominion of the Seas rather than the Holy Alliance with that Monster should in the least be intrenched and in the Private League your Brother made with that King the Business of the Flag was not mentioned and how indifferent your Brother and you were in the Case when it was in relation to the French is not yet forgotten Article XXV YOU stand charged with refusing the Test that was provided by Parliament and passed tho very unwillingly by your Brother to prevent Popery Truly we could not but laugh in our Sleeves when we saw your self with a sort of Irish Magnanimity quit your great Imployments for a Religion that makes Men Fools and renders them as the Sport of the Age But great Examples go a great way in such Cases When the Popish Party saw your Resolution to quit all rather than your Religion scarce worth the keeping several of them took up the Cross and quitted their Imployments also rather than be false to your Cause and Interest They did not do as your Brother did retain the Popish Religion and yet ever and anon to get a little Money of the Parliament was content to pass a Bill or emit a Proclamation or two to the Prejudice of that Religion his Soul was most affected with if with any Alas good Man he was for securing the main Chance If he had not complied for a little Money the Noble Fleet at Whitehall must have lain by the Walls without rigging to the great Disparagement of the old Trade of Whoring But as for your part you were resolved to give up your self to Rome and the French King which you could not have done if you had swallowed the Test Therefore as a great piece of Self-denial away go all Imployments by which you had ruined the Nation for you question'd not but to carry on your Conspiracy against the Protestant Religion and Interest by the help of your good and loving Brother notwithstanding your acquittal of them And 1. You engaged the French King to a closer Friendship with you by which you were sure not only of his Interest but his Purse to assist you against your Enemies and his even that Parliament that advanced this new State-Purgatory in opposition to you and your cursed Villains by which they had declared themselves the French King 's and your mortal Enemies who both of you drove on so furiously to have that Parliament dissolved in revenge for their laying such a Stumbling-block in the way of your Self and Party For as long as these Purgatory-makers were in being it was scarce possible for you to subdue the Northern Heresy that had so long domineer'd in the World And he and you proposed by that Method to be put into such a Condition as should enable you to give the Protestant Religion such a Blow as it had not received since its first Birth and to give you your due your Design of ruining the Protestant Religion was not ill laid and had you not over-done your Design would not have been so soon undone 2. By your not taking the Test you engaged a Party of Case-hardned Villains to espouse your Cause and Interest and for true proof of their Integrity they entered with you into a strict Conspiracy against our Religion Laws and Liberties For seeing they had met with such a terrible Blow from that Parliament they were resolved to try what they could recover by way of Reprisal from the Dutch and hoped some good would come of continuing the War with them but finding themselves defeated there you and they resolved with the gracious Consent of your Brother that England it self rather than fail should be made a Reprisal Which Design prospered so well upon your Hands that you went on as merrily as might be in your Plous Work and accordingly exposed the Nation to the Fury of the French And had old Clifford had the Grace not to have hang'd himself he would have appeared a very deserving Person and eminent in that Holy Confederacy However you did not fail of your Enterprize in some measure of ruining the Nation because of the Protestant Purgatory that was found out for its Service tho you could not find such a one in all your Romish Library 3. By this Example you engaged a great number of Priests and Jesuits to infest the Kingdom in order to storm the Church of England and would have ravished her poor Gentlewoman had she not held up her Smock to save them the trouble and these Varlots with the Argument of your Stedfastness to the Catholick Religion perverted very many of the lewder sort of People both Male and Female And seeing such a Number brought into your Ark you used to say you doubted not of an Army of Roman Catholicks to establish the Popish Religion 4. You made these Villains thus perverted so bold and daring that they drove on with such Fury as it was scarce possible for a Protestant that was any ways known to be zealous for his Religion and for the Interest of his Country to walk near Whitehall or St. James's without the danger at least of being affronted or beaten Whence it was that even that Purgatory-making Parliament thought they had not done enough to expel that Religion whose Professors in all Kingdoms stuck at nothing to establish their Superstition and to that End have troubled the Peace of the Christian World and had at that time by your espousing their Cause sufficiently strengthned as was feared their villanous Party to the overthrow of the Protestant Interest but resolved to use farther means to prevent the Practices of these Rascals that were so notoriously wicked as not any longer to be born One would have thought this Purgatory-Act should have done the Business yet it was backt with a multitude of Gracious Assurances to the Nation from your Brother a Person of great Integrity and Honour in his Promises to maintain and defend the Protestant Religion for a Testimony whereof observe and remember that the Cliffordian and French Designs were carried on notwithstanding the Test-Act in 1673 74 75 76 77 and part of 78 in as pernicious tho different manner from your first Design whose Method you were forc'd to change by reason of that Act which was so made as to execute it self And the Means of introducing that Religion seeming then at a stand you thought of a new Project
been naturally dead For if any of the young Fry had preached against it he was rebuked as too Pragmatical and Sawcy and truly so they were that presum'd to preach against a Religion your Brother and you had ventur'd Soul and Body to advance in order to pox the whole Nation both Men and Women for the French Disease was so Epidemical that a Man could scarce find fair Quarter no not in the-Church or Chancel unless he was of the French Interest Thus you may remember what Success attended your Design in proroguing the Parliament by which the Liberty of Conscience intended was defeated and how its Defeat with the Consequences thereof prospered upon your Hands But what signifies all this since there was a French Interest the Romish Religion and an Italian Comrade to support all So much for your second Reason for proroguing that Parliament 3. And lastly Your great Design in carrying on this Match by the Prorogation of the Parliament was to create a Jealousy between the King and them exasperating him with their Impertinency and by your prevailing with him to countenance that wicked Match you exasperated the Parliament against the King For tho that Parliament should for ever after that Match have denied to give Money yet you were so sure of the French King that you hoped by the help of his Forces to have brought Popery in upon us and with it Arbitrary Government the first of which your Popish Tools cried up as the best Religion and our High Church-Rogues in conjunction with them cried up the last as the best of Governments yet at the same time they would deny it to be practicable here unless it pleased God to find out some way for both these great Churches to unite together to suppress Phanaticism But the Parliament saw into your Game and observed your Steps You sunk much in their Opinion therefore you resolv'd they should sink in the King's Opinion which occasioned so many Prorogations when you and your Party had any Villany in hand I might have said more to this Point but that I have spoken to it in my First Part. Article XXVII YOUR Brother and you made a French-Man General of your Army to the great Dishonour of the English Nobility This French General was then Count Schomberg and one of the Mareschals of France and he was chosen to bear that Trust before many valuable Noblemen we had at that Day It 's true he was a great Souldier and worthy to have commanded a better Army than you had at Black-Heath but when he saw what Vermin you and your Crew had got together and that their Design was to plunder the City of London and not to fight against the Dutch he fairly quitted his Post and left you tho Sir it is not to be forgotten what Designs you would have engaged that Noble Person in for you proposed to your self and Friends that he being a French Man would have joined with you in the Design of Arbitrary Government but when the thing was put to him he abhorred it and would not therefore continue in the Command But what a Dishonour was this to the Nobility of England that not one of them could be found to take upon him such a Command 1. Were they such Cowards that they dare not undertake it Or 2. Were they so unskilful in the Affair that they could not with Honour do it Or 3. Was the Design so villanous that they were not to understand any part of it Were you-resolved upon the French Government Then Schomberg you judged would join with you in that Affair Or were you resolved that Popery should proceed Then you had the Judicious Major General Fitzgerald that was to have done it I believe Sir you despaired of any of our Noblemen joining with you in these two Parts of your Design Popery and Arbitrary Power and therefore sought for other Persons that might give better hopes of approving themselves fit for your turn which turned to an ill Accompt for it bred ill Blood in the Nobility against you and your villanous Party Article XXVIII YOUR Brother and you oppressed the Kingdom of Scotland in order to ruin the Protestant Interest there Be pleased Sir to call to mind that when in the Year 1660 it pleased God to restore your Brother to the Throne in that Antient Kingdom the news of it was grateful to that People hoping his Restoration would prove a great Blessing and Comfort to them and he had been so if you and your wicked Party had let him taken such Measures as would have settled that Kingdom in Peace and Quietness There are several Particulars relating to that Kingdom worthy your Consideration and supposing you may by Mrs. Abigail's leave have now some time of thinking I pray remember 1. Upon your Brother's Restoration notwithstanding the Troubles and hard Usage the Scots had met with from your Father which cost him his Life at long-run and from Monk who for several Years had acted the part of a Tyrant in his Government of that Kingdom yet they took no advantage of these Miscarriages but with all chearfulness put their Necks under your Brother's Yoke of Absolute Prerogative of chusing all Officers of State Counsellors and Judges in making War and Peace and calling and dissolving Parliaments and Conventions of State It is well known how they had been provoked to renounce your Father's Government and put themselves under the Protection of some other Prince and might have defeated your Brother's Pretensions to that Kingdom since he renounced the Covenant he swore to maintain But they forgot all this and gladly received him their King and for Peace sake parted with many Immunities which that Kingdom antiently had hoping thereby to have engaged him to be a Nursing Father to their Church as then constituted according to the Examples of the Reformers and as they judged to the Word of God 2. You cannot but remember that this was not the only Demonstration of the great Loyalty of that People For tho it is well known that a limited Power in the Prince and the support of it by the Peoples Purse was the just Ballance of the Government of that and all other Kingdoms yet forgetting all Differences in your Father's Reign they testified an affectionate Zeal to your Brother in making the Revenue above double what your Father or he possessed and had they given themselves up to an intire Vassalage he could scarce have desired such a Bounty nay he thought it such a piece of exuberant Liberality that he was pleased to declare it was enough and that he would have no more Yet the Commissioners that held the Parliaments notwithstanding the King was sensible of the greatness of their Benevolence have drawn forth several Taxes pretending the King 's great Necessities even beyond the Ability of that People 3. They also complied with the desire of your Brother by your procurement to submit to the Bondage and Slavery of a villanous standing Army which
they called in an Act that raised it An humble Tender to his Sacred Majesty of the Duty and Loyalty of his antient Kingdom of Scotland And as a Testimony of the same they did offer to the King 20000 Foot and 2000 Horse sufficiently armed with 40 days Provision to be ready upon the King 's call and in the same Act they declared that if the King should have farther Use and Occasion for their Service the Kingdom would be ready every Man between Sixty and Sixteen and hazard their Lives and Fortunes if called for by his Majesty for the Safety and Preservation of his Person Authority and Government Sure one would think you had given them some State Philtre to create in them such a slavish Loyalty and Love to your Brother's Person and Government 4. Nay they went a step farther to please your Brother and your self being resolved not to fall short in expressing their Loyalty and Affection to him therefore do but observe them in another Act of Parliament wherein they most dutifully and humbly recognize his Majesty's Prerogative Royal and declar'd in the said Act That the ordering and disposal of Trade with Foreign Nations and the laying Restraints and Impositions upon Foreign Imported Commodities did belong to his Majesty and his Successors as an undoubted Privilege and Prerogative of the Crown and that therefore they might do therein as they should judg fit for the good of the Kingdom 5. These People certainly were bewitch'd with the thing called Loyalty and made it appear to the World that they placed the Security of all their Interests more in their Confidence of the King's Goodness than the firmest Provision of the best Laws for tho in the Parliament held by your Father in Person in 1641 many Acts were signed by him for settling their Religion Properties and Liberties which the deepest Consideration and Maturity of Judgment imaginable grounded upon long and well-weighed Experience many and well-managed Treaties and the Mediation of England could afford and furnish yet because the Glory of those Laws appeared to these Blockheads to be stain'd by the remembrance of some previous Contentions wherein they thought themselves very infortunate by having your Father differ from them to please your Brother at one blow they repealed the whole Proceeding of that Parliament and all the Laws then and there made for the Preservation of Religion as aforesaid 6. Those whom God will destroy he delivers up to Madness first and s he did these People in evidencing an unparallel'd Submission to the King and a Resignation of all that was near and dear to them into his Hands for tho that Nation since its first Reformation from Popery did continually oppose Prelacy yet after they had destroyed it and enjoyed their Church under a Constitution and Ministry according to their Hearts desire in compliance with your Brother they parted with the Presbyterian Government and reestablished Episcopacy to the Amazement of most Men so acceptable was he to the Scots Parliament at that Time And for the carrying on your cursed Designs you know how your Brother made James Sharp Mr. Hamilton Mr. Farwell and another whose Name occurs not at present to renounce their Presbyterian Ordination who were made Deacons and Priests and then consecrated Bishops by the Bishop of Winchester and two others of that Gang and four Scots Prelates thus made the King fixed the Government of that Church by Arch-bishops and Bishops as in his Father's time in 1637 who had the same Authority derived to them as they had in your Grandfather's Reign so by Proclamation bearing date Sept. 6. 1661. the Presbyterian Government ceased to be to all Intents and Purposes and the Council suspended the Meeting of the Presbyteries till they had received Power not from Heaven but from the Arch-bishops and Bishops who were in a short Time to enter upon their Government To compleat this Work the Parliament in the 2d Session reinstated the Bishops in the exercise of their Functions and restored them to all their Privileges Dignities Possessions c. Now one would think this Compliance of the Nation should have obliged your Brother and you to have treated them in some measure sutable to their Loyalty and slavish Resignation of themselves Your great Instrument in carrying on this blessed Work of inslaving the Kingdom of Scotland in these particulars in order to your farther Designs was the Earl of Middleton the first High Commissioner after your Brother's return who was most violent in pursuing this Change but by his impetuous Violence in this mighty Work on which he much valued himself he rendered himself obnoxious and despising Lauderdale who took hold of some of his Miscarriages in a short Time he was unhorsed by him and Lauderdale procured the Commission of Lord High Commissioner for the Earl of Rothes by whom Middleton's Parliament was dissolved upon which Madam Van Harlot their new Church appeared in its proper Colours and being made Triumphant 't is well known what Pranks the Whore played what Tumults her Guides excited and what Tragedies her Reverend Clergy acted in your Brother's Reign Nay old Hodg was not so much as advised withal in the Case and every thing was carried on with that Fury that had not Sir Robert Murray come in to the Relief of the People who were on the very brink of Destruction they must have inevitably perished But Sir I will not dwell here any longer only tell you that Lauderdale was the third Lord High Commissioner of Scotland by whom a lamentable Scene of Rogueries were acted and by whom you made your blessed Steps to ruin that poor Nation 1. Your first Step to ruin Scotland was the making Middleton and Lauderdale so excessively great In truth to give the Beasts their due as the Scotish Nation was not able to bear their Greatness so neither they to bear their own You remember that before Lauderdale was Commissioner by reason of his being sole Secretary of State for that Nation and Court-minister he had the absolute Rule and disposing of the Affairs and Concerns of that Kingdom which gave great Offence to the Scots who in the particulars abovesaid had shewed themselves so abominably Loyal as to quit their Religion Laws and Liberties to please your Brother and you As for Middleton he was invested with such Powers that Lauderdale was jealous of his Greatness who seeing him exercise his Power to the utmost imagined there would be nothing for him to do and therefore as I said justled Middleton out by whose Greatness Scotland by Consent of Parliament delivered up all as if Hallifax himself had issued forth Quo Warranto's against their Franchises both as to Liberty and Religion and you having had enough of Middleton's prostituting himself to your Brother's Will and yours exit Middleton and enter Lauderdale a case-hardened Rogue a Villain fit for the Devil's Service to all Intents and Purposes who the more easily to compleat your wicked Designs you may remember did
Bishops 8 Commissioners of the Shires and 8 Burgesses chosen by the 8 Lords and 8 Bishops to which the Commissioner added the Officers of State 2. That those who contended for this Body of Men have asserted that not only all Business must be by the Lords of the Articles and them only registred in Parliament but also that if in the Debates upon their Reports any new thing should be started the Parliament ought to take no notice of it further than to return the whole Matter to the meeting of the Articles to be there entertained or suppressed at their pleasure 3. It is manifest from all the Records of that Antient Kingdom that the Original Constitution of this Meeting or Body of Men was at first by the free appointment of their Parliaments who thought fit to name certain of their Number for framing such Overtures as were offered for the Publick Good into Articles in order to be turned into Laws according to the Antient Form And therefore it being at first devised by the Parliament as a simple Expedient for Order and Dispatch it was not always used but the Number was changeable as also its Method according as the Parliament saw Cause 4. You could not be so ignorant but that at one time or other when you was in that Kingdom you must be informed that as this Body of Men was in effect the Committee of Parliament to prepare and bring in Laws so that there was another of more antient Date called the Committee of Complaints or the Lords of the Grievances which was of use in all times and never laid aside till the second Session of the Parliament called in 1661 in the time of Middleton's Ministry 5. The Act of Parliament of K. James your Grandfather appointing four of every State to meet 20 days before the Parliament to receive all Articles and Petitions and deliver them to the Clerk of the Register to be presented to the Parliament for their Consideration that things reasonable might be formally made and presented to the Lords of the Articles in Parliament-time and frivolous Matters rejected doth no ways countenance that exorbitant Power these Lords of the Articles did assume to themselves it being manifest by the Order therein set down of preparing Matters by a Meeting before-hand and their subsequent forming and presenting by the Parliament to these Article-men that the Parliament's Power of first receiving and then committing Matters to that Body of Men was not then so much as the Subject of the Question But the only thing intended was the orderly setting down of things in Parliament as is apparent in the words of that Act of your Grandfather That no Article or Petition wanting a special Title or unscribed by him that presented the same shall be read or answered in that Convention or Parliament following the same Which was Sir a Provision so clearly preparatory to the Meeting and Business of the Lords of the Articles that 't is very strange your Brother should be so imposed upon by you and your Conspirators to prove this pretended Meeting had a Prerogative above that of the Parliament and it has been affirmed by several Persons of that Kingdom that understood the Scotish Parliament and Constitution that this villanous Authority was never intended by the King or Parliament to be in the Lords of the Articles nor had they the Impudence to pretend to it till they were countenanced in that Pretension by you and your Conspirators 6. You cannot but remember that Lauderdale had a great Influence on that Parliament that was called in 1663 when a particular Act passed for settling the Constitution and chusing Lords of the Articles for the time to come in which it was expresly provided that the Lords of the Articles are to proceed in the discharge of their Trust in preparing of Laws Acts and Proposals and ordering all things remitted to them by the Parliament which words remitted them imported no more nor less than that the Power of proposing was in the Body of the Parliament and that the Lords of the Articles were to act upon the things referred to them by Parliament as a Committee of Parliament 7. And lastly These Lords of the Articles were but the Parliament's Delegates and Servants and therefore how could they determine the Points the Parliament was to debate or not as they should see fit Therefore Sir if you consider but a little of this Matter you will find that your Fellow-Conspirator by attributing so much to these Lords of the Articles of Power and Prehemince over the Parliament design'd in time to destroy the Use of Parliaments For what was the Liberty Authority and Dignity of a Parliament if thus trampled on by these Miscreants who were by this Insolency become a great Grievance to the Kingdom Truly Sir I cannot but think that this Conspirator Lauderdale by his many Villanies had put himself under some Necessity of those Men and was prompted by some cogent Reasons to promote that exuberant Power in them For 1. I suppose he could not but be filled with the Terror of the Guilt he contracted thrô his wicked Proceedings and therefore might rationally suppose these Men thrô the base Compliance of the wicked Bishops would be a Refuge to him as they always were to Rogues and Traitors in that Kingdom And truly had he not improv'd the Use of these Tools his Actions might have been set in order before him in order to his severe Punishment by a faithful Parliament And 2. he knew that some warm Men as he called them had an itching to have him by the Collar and only forbore him because of your Brother's Respect and Kindness for him These Reasons were sufficient for him to keep up the Power of those Lords for the Parliament was so kind that when there was a vacancy in the Committee of the Articles he had the nominating of one to succeed 3. Because contrary to the Custom of the Parliament there he caused all such Members as were not named Lords of the Articles to be excluded the Meetings of the Lords of the Articles which you know was to no other End than that the Parliament being less prepared might the more implicitly go along with their Conclusions Thus you may see what a Grievance these Lords of the Articles were Sir by this time you cannot but see what havock you made of the Laws and Liberties of Scotland by those two great Villains Middleton and Lauderdale I might have enlarged upon this Subject but 't would fill a Volume to give account of every little Passage of yours there in order to enslave that People and establish Popery in that Kingdom Article XXIX YOU stand charged with many villanous Attempts to break the use of Parliaments and ridiculing that way of Government O Sir it was the more hateful to you because it preserv'd Liberty and Property which of all Men in your Day you most hated But you were not the first Man of Figure that
their Pleasures before Grievances were redressed and publick Bills of Common-Safety passed because to dissolve and prorogue at Pleasure is a Privilege which belongs to the Crown Answ This word Prorogue is but a new-fangled Business a thing brought up in latter Days but as for dissolving Parliaments at Pleasure that has been the Practice of our former wicked Kings by the Advice of their Roguish Ministers and Judges who laid aside all Law Honour Honesty and Conscience to prostitute themselves to the abominable Lust of a filthy Prince who designed nothing less than the Ruin of the Kingdom What your Father did I will not here concern my self but what your Brother did by your Procurement is my Province at this Time Your Brother when he held his French Parliament at New-Market in 1677 where most of the Rogues and Whores of the Court were present and your gracious Self waiting on him did much aggrandize himself by that Glorious Assembly Upon April 16. the Parliament at Westminster was adjourned till May 21. following Immediately upon the Recess the Duke of Crequi aâ—d that modest sober chaste Man of God the A. Bp of Rheims and Monsâ—eur Barillon and a Train of 3 or 400 Persons of all Qualities appear'd there so that the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of France with so many of their Commons made it look like an old-fashioned French Parliament And the Parliament at Westminster had been adjourned for their better Reception But what Address they made to the King or what Acts passed at that Noble Parliament I cannot tell they having not been yet published But I suppose they were these that follow 1. An Act for continuing his Majesty's Subjects in the Service of France 2. An Act for enabling the Dutchess of Cleveland to use the Arch-Bishop of Paris for her Father-Confessor c. 3. An Act to discharge her Grace from farther Attendance upon the King 4. An Act to constitute the French Gentlewoman to be Whore in her room and a Spy for the French King 5. An Act to enable Nell Waal to be Woman and Bawd in ordinary to the said French Gentlewoman and his Sacred Majesty 6. An Act to supply the Extraordinary Occasions of that Whore Portsmouth and her Woman Nell Waal 7. An Act to enable the Dutchess of Portsmouth in order to her Health to possess and enjoy a certain Apartment in a House-Royal called the Lock situate at the end of Kent-street and Nell to have the Reversion after her decease in case of Necessity 8. An Act for the further Supply of French-Money in order to enslave the Kingdom of 3000000 Livres per Annum 9. An Act for enabling James Duke of York to go on with his Conspirators in the Conspiracy against the Laws Liberties and Religion of the People of England and to demand the French King's Purse Credit and Interest for his Help and Assistance 10. An Act to invest Edward Coleman with the Sum of 20000 l. and a good Pension from the French King for his great Services done and to be done for the Catholick Religion and French Interest 11. An Act of Abolition of all Claims and Demands from the Subjects of France on Account of all Prizes made of the English at Sea since the Year 1674 till that Day and for the future 12. Act to supply the extraordinary Needs of the Pensioners at Westminster 13. An Act to continue the Sham-Alliance with the States-General of the Vnited-Provinces There were I suppose several Private Bills in favour of the Pimps Bawds and Whores that were not sworn in Ordinary but passed the Royal Assent as I may suppose because at that time all things between England and France moved with that punctual Regularity that it was like the Harmony of the Spheres so consonant with themselves tho I could not hear the Musick I pray Sir let us know in your next Declaration what other Secret Bills were passed in that August Assembly wherein the Affairs of Peace and War were transacted with the greatest Confidence and when good Boys they had done their Master's Business with your Brother's Aid and Help they were adjourned from New-Market to London where they dissolâ—ed themselves without your Brother's Prerogative to make way for the Westminster Parliament and so rubb'd off with all Demonstration of mutual Affection and Friendship Alas Sir these were Matters of that Import that they required all imaginable Expedition and Secresy and it would have been the highest Presumption for the poor Pensioners in the Westminster Parliament to have intermedled with them Alas if they had been admitted to end the Work it might have ended in their own Dissolution in order to a couragious running away You say by way of Objection Your Partisans made that which your Brother and other Kings did by their Prerogative Royal dissolve Parliaments before Grievances were redressed and necessary Bills past because things did not move with that punctual Regularity between your Brother and them that was between him and the French King I pray what was the Reason Had they not had Gratuities at the Charge of the Nation Or had the Dutchess of Portsmouth jilted them out of the French King's Blessing which the Duke of Crequi and the Arch-Bishop of Rheims brought them of 200000 Lewis d' Ores Who can tell what to say to these things It is no wonder then that Crew of Voters were grown resty and did not move regularly Well what then the Parliament must not sit till some State-Clockmaker had mended their Motions and made them go true the House then had some good Bills over which they roared only and then were sent Home by a blast of Prerogative-Breath Had your Brother any other Prerogative but what the Law gave him and what he was invested with at his Coronation If he had let us know it but for once I will grant he prorogued and dissolved Parliaments at his Pleasure to serve you and your Cut-throat Crew It doth not therefore follow that he had a Right so to do according to a Maxim I learned almost 30 Years since A facto ad jus non valet consequentia especially when such Prorogations and Dissolutions are against so many express and positive Laws such Principles of Common Right and Justice and so many particular Ties and Obligations to the contrary Your Brother might by the Advice of wicked Statesmen and villanous Judges pretend to a Prerogative the Law had given him of which nothing ever was known unless revealed by some French Maxims learned abroad in his Travels Yet such a Prerogative could not justify such Practices for if he had been invested with such Prerogatives by the Law yet the Law could give none to destroy it self and those it protects But Old Hodg and his Inferior Clergy may interpose and say Had not King Charles his Prerogative founded upon Law Who questions Sir but the Kings of England had their Prerogatives Yet observe what Old Bracton saith Pag. 487. That tho the Common Law allows many
that attended the Dissolution of those Parliaments 6ly What Pretences you and your Party used for procuring the Dissolution of those Parliaments with Answers thereto First Your Inclinations shew'd you an Enemy to a Parliamentary Way of Government and this appears in the following Particulars 1. From your Nature and Temper 2. From your Usage even of the Pensioner-Parliament 3. From the Notions and Practices of your traiterous Party in relation to Parliaments 4. From the daily Breaches you made upon our Laws 5. By your Unwillingness to let that Parliament meet and sit 6. By the Opinion you had of their Affection to you 1. From your own Nature and Temper which I shall set forth before you in relation to 1. Your Religion 2. Your Politicks 3. Your Morals 1. Let us consider your Nature and Temper in respect to your Religion and this will prove your Aversion to English Parliaments and that way of Government Your Nature and Temper inclined you to set up the Popish Religion How was this to be done was it by an English Parliament If any of your Party should suppose this let me tell you the Supposition in it self was Nonsense Your Religion was such and I am perswaded you are no Changeling as went not altogether in the Old Primitive Apostolical Way of Preaching and Praying and teaching all Nations c. but Scourging Wracking and Broiling Men into the Fear of God Nay is not your Religion such that for its own Propagation it will make its Champions divest themselves of Humanity and act worse than Devils in order to be Saints Now Sir where could you get a Parliament to have established such a Religion by a Law And can any Man judg you in love with Parliaments who are such Enemies to this excellent Religion of yours I pray Sir reflect upon your Servant Coleman's Words in his Letter to Father La Chaise the French King's Confessor We have a mighty Work upon our Hands no less than the Conversion of three Kingdoms and by that perhaps the utter subduing of a Pestilent Heresy which hath domineered over great Part of this Northern World a long time there were never such Hopes of Success since the Death of our Queen Mary as now in our Days What Reason gives Coleman for this Doctrine when saith he God hath given us a Prince who is become I may say to a Miracle zealous of being the Author and Instrument of so glorious a Work but the Opposition we are sure to meet with is also like to be great so that it imports us to get what Aid and Assistance we can for the Harvest is great and the Labourers but few Here was a mighty Work and a mighty zealous Prince engaged in this Work I pray Sir why did you not apply to your mighty Band of Pensioners in your Long Parliament for Aid and Assistance No your Religion would not comply with that nor their Religion advance your mighty Work tho they were Villains enough in some Sense yet you did not think fit to trust them with the managing this mighty Work or to let them know your mighty Mind and Zeal in this great Work To whom then do you apply your self Why truly to the mighty Lewis the French King for do but observe your Agent 's Words in the same Letter where he saith That which we rely upon most next to Almighty God and the Favour of my Master the Duke is the mighty Mind of his Christian Majesty whose Soul inclines him to great Vndertakings Truly Sir I think the Case is plain that the subtle Jesuits had formed a Design to bring in Popery and to kill the King which they would never have been such Sots to attempt had they not been sure you would engage in this mighty Work Yet you were not privy to it Let who will believe that I cannot for do you think the Jesuits and Coleman would have ingaged in that mighty part of the Conversion had not they seen into your very Heart and Soul Now upon the whole Matter can any one think if there were no such thing in Nature as a mighty English Parliament to have joined with your mighty Zeal in the mighty Work you had upon your Hands that ever the Religion which you profest would incline you to be in love with an English Parliament that was ever averse to Popery and Slavery since the Reformation And because of your Aversion to an English Parliament as an Enemy to your Religion you apply your self to the French King which I am sure was not consistent with a hearty Love to an English Parliament 2. Let us consider your Nature and Temper as to your Politicks and by that I shall shew your natural Aversion to Parliaments and a Parliamentary way of Government As your Religion so your Judgment leads you to Arbitrary Government for it was not only Rome's Religion but the French Mode of Governing that was your Design and the end of all those Counsels you had with your Jesuits and your Servant Coleman who was a main Agent in that Affair yet when your glorious Enterprize was discovered you graciously left him to be hanged for all his good Secret Services done you in furthering the mighty Work you had upon your Hands But some of your Party may say That in opposition to a Parliament it was impossible to bring in Popery and Arbitrary Power it being inconsistent with the Rules of Policy to attempt such a thing in England To this I answer Let the Popish Crew say so if they dare I am certain they must bely their Consciences in this point whatever they do in other Points in their Politicks the hellish Popish Plot being a plain Demonstration that your Cut-throat Papists did believe it possible or else Coleman and others would not have on your Behalf so far engaged the French King's Aid and Assistance in the Affair for you attempted to be restored to all your Commissions and how came it to pass that you did not effect your Restoration It was not saith Coleman hindred by reason of any Aversion they had to your Person What then it was because of the Dissatisfaction the Faction entertained against you Who was this Faction but the English Parliament to whom you were so averse that the Popish Party could make no brisk Attempt on your Behalf for the Parliament then was very sensible that the French King's Interest was much attracted to yours which declared you to be no Friend to them and engaged them to provide for themselves against you and your cursed Party Again Sir by your leave could any thing be plainer than the Design that Coleman and the Jesuits had formed and had Hopes of effecting since they had joined you so close to the French King's Interest I am sure 't was contrary to Reason and Nature it self for them to attempt your Brother's Life and thereby commit the basest of all Murders for Murder-sake and tho natural Affection might interpose in that Design had you
been privy to it yet the Jesuits well knew it was impossible for you that was converted to that degree of Zeal for the Romish Religion and French Interest to have given ground in that Affair Now Sir I hope your Villains here will be fully satisfied that it was possible for the Popish Party to carry on such a Design as this in opposition to a Parliament which is a great Proof of your Aversness to Parliaments But to come close to the Point That your Nature and Temper in relation to your Politicks demonstrated your Aversness to English Parliaments the Jesuits you know were very industrious with you for the Promotion of their Religion which you consented to and what did you in order to this Did you not lay some Foundations for Popery in order to its being established Were there not Judges Justices of the Peace Sheriffs and other Judiciary Officers of your procuring in order to deprave the Law of the Nation and defile the Throne of Justice I pray how did the villanous Judges use even the Protestant Laws to open the first Gate to Slavery and our Laws being in their Hands did they not use them as barbarously as they could to the Discouragement of Vertue and promoting Vice Did not your Brother's Ministers of State betray our Liberties What Remedy had the People If a Session of Parliament was near you so hated them upon this very Principle of Arbitrary Power that either the Session was put off for a longer time or else it was to be so short that Grievances could not be redressed and when you got a Period put to a Session your wicked Judges were to play their Parts with the Laws whilst your Ministers were ravishing all our Liberties from us and as for Religion you had a Set of Apostolical Caterpillars who were to manage that for your Service and Interest These Measures of yours taken from your Popish Crew had rendred you so out of love to an English Parliamentary Government that you were at one time looked upon by Parliament the greatest Grievance of the Nation the universal Object of their Hate and Fear and the Subject of their Clamours and Curses At whose door did all the Discontents and Murmurs lie but at yours Were not the Murmurs so violent against you that they became a great part of the Complaints of good Men to Heaven in their own and their Country's Behalf Nay Murmurs were so bold that your Brother was attackt with them for did they not look upon you as Jupiter's Stork amongst the Frogs Notwithstanding all your former Glories and Conquests your whole Stock of Fame was lost and buried in your Apostacy from the Protestant Religion How all this and an innate Love to your Country and its Government could stand together I leave to wiser Men to judg We saw you design'd to make us submit to an Arbitrary Power Our Magna Charta was to have been destroyed by you and your Cut-throats our Religion and Liberties to have been abolished Popery and a Despotick Power set up the Lords and Commons extirpated and all to have devolved into you when they had given the fatal Blow that you might have set up Idols and Molten Calves and we have bowed down to them Now Sir consider who the Man was that took such Measures and laid such Designs and if it were possible for him to love an English Protestant Parliament I 'll be his Slave To conclude this Head Did you not by these Politicks of yours fet the whole Kingdom in a Flame and then please your self with it When you burnt our City you and your Party sung Te Deum for Joy whilst others were astonished at the dismal Sight Did not your unbounded Thirst for innocent Blood make the Kingdom of England a Slaughter-house And might you have had your Will you would have made Smithfield your Original Shambles It is well known Sir how you loved humane Sacrifices and what Measures you took from France and Rome to propagate your Cause is not yet forgotten nor I hope never will 3. Let us consider your Nature and Temper as to your Morals from which we will demonstrate your Disaffection and Aversion to Parliaments What Morality could we expect from you that was and still is a Papist and a bigotted one too And being so all your Morals are but Slaves to your Zeal Nay had you been Master of all the Cardinal Vertues there 's not one but must have been used to destroy our Religion Laws and Liberties Your Fortitude and Courage if ever you had any made you the more daring to push on Rome's Religion and the French Interest and to withstand the Opposition you met withal in Parliament Your Justice you made use of to restore the Power and Authority of the Bishop of Rome believing him to be Christ's lawful Vicar and Peter's true Successor and the said Office including the Ecclesiastical Supremacy you declared it your Duty to give the Pope the same Right over the Consciences of the People of England as you had to succeed your Brother tho through his Blood Let us consider Sir your Temperance which for once I will suppose you to be Master of too not for the publick Good but only to testify that you could conceal your Passions which were great enough to do publick Mischief for you had always a most firm Resolution to ruin these Kingdoms As for your Constancy it was no more than fixed Obstinacy But it may be your Party may say you were never heard to rage or scarce seen to frown how true that may be I cannot tell for I never was your Pimp or Admirer and therefore cannot pretend to that Familiarity with you that some may Yet what was your Temperance and Constancy but fit Pillars to support your damnable Designs against the Religion and Government of these three Kingdoms But Sir if we should again take a view of your admirable Temperance in its larger Signification that is a Denial of worldly Desires it was still worse and worse for when you voluntarily took up your Cross and quitted your great Employments under your Brother you left the Management of those Offices to Villains of a deeper dye than the rest of Mankind who still carried on your Design to destroy us you only quitted the toil of the Power and left it to your subordinate Villains In the last place we will comply with your Admirers and Flatterers and own you had Prudence if you had it was the worse for us because that and that alone could be your Trump-Gard the only leading Vertue that managed your Conduct in all your Hellish Plots and Designs with that Care and Art that you made a fair Progress in effecting the Business of Rome as to Religion and of the French King as to Arbitrary Power to enslave and pox us both in Religion and Liberty To give you your due you ripened that mighty Work you and Coleman had upon your Hands to a mighty Perfection
joined to that of the French King Shew me such a Parliament and I will then say I can shew you one that you would have a good Opinion of and since you could retain no good Opinion of your Band of Pensioners you can certainly have none of those that are for preserving the English Protestant Interest So that I think I have sufficiently shewed your Inclinations and by them your Enmity to Parliaments Secondly I now come to shew what those Parliaments were to which you were so averse and which you procured to be dissolved whereby your hatred to Parliaments and that way of Government did appear Were they Men of Common-wealth-Principles or did they aim at the Promotion of their own Ambition and Greatness did you or your Rogues know of such Persons why then did you not discover them The Nation would have charged the Account to themselves and have made your Party some recompence for so signal a Piece of Service to the Publick Nay if your Crew had brought these People to light and let the Parliament sat to have tossed them in a Blanket they would have found a little severer quarter than the Mayor of Scarborough did from one of your Apostles whom you sent to plant a Colony of Red-coat-Christians in that Place But Sir in plain English your Common-wealth-Christians we found were a number of Men that were in a most zealous manner devoted to the publick Good and common Service of their Country who believed Kings were instituted for the Good of their People and Government ordained for the sake of the Governed and therefore complained or were grieved when it was used to contrary ends Every wife and honest Man would then and still be proud to be of that Rank and Number And if Common-wealth signifies Common Good in which sense it has been taken in all Ages by most good Authors as Bodin speaking of the Government of France calls it a Common-wealth as do our own Authors the Mirrour of Justice Bracton Fleta Fortescue c. in former times as well as those of later Years particularly Sir Thomas Smith in the time of Q. Elizabeth and not only several Statutes use the word Common-wealth but K. James your Grandfather in his first Speech to an English Parliament own'd himself the Servant of the Common-wealth and K. Charles I. your dearest Father of famous Memory both before and in the time of the War never exprest himself otherwise to be fond then of such Common-wealth Principles becomes every good English Man and the whole Kingdom were glad to find they had sent such Men to Parliament But Sir your Villains used to call those Parliaments which you procured to be dissolv'd Persons conspiring to set up a Democratical Power in opposition to Monarchy that would overthrow the Government both in Church and State tho it was that which you and your Rogues designed in that villanous Alliance you made with France to destroy the King and the Protestant Religion The Nation saw it was not those they had sent up to Parliament but you that had a Design to overthrow the Government for you were so fond of your beloved Arbitrary Power and therefore resolved to subvert our legal Monarchy instituted for the Benefit of the Common-wealth by destroying the Honour and Reputation of our English Parliaments I pray Sir call to mind the Band of Pensioners you had in that Parliament which your Brother kept so long yet you could not bear with their Proceedings against your Party when your Designs were laid open before them and so plainly proved that they could not withhold Justice from being executed upon several of your Case-hardned Traitors When they were dissolved it is manifest that three greater Parliaments were never known in England since the time of William I than what succeeded them viz. those two that met at Westminster and that at Oxford they were I dare say the Flower of the whole Kingdom and might with all Justice be termed the Wisdom of the Nation their Debates and Votes which were printed and published shewed them to be Gentlemen of very great Ability and Integrity those that sent them knew them to be Persons of great Estates not beggarly Rascals such as were in your Pensionary Parliament that had betrayed us to you and your Party in a great measure these did not please you because they would not perpetrate so great a Piece of Villany how then could those please you that met together afterwards and approv'd themselves Well-wishers to the Protestant Religion and duly consider'd the State of the Nation and the many Dangers to which it was exposed by you and your Villains Therefore Sir if any one can inform me how all this doth not prove you an Enemy to the Constitution of Parliaments let him come forth and he shall be heard or let us know what sort of Men you are inclined to for I believe if you could obtain 513 Papists that were not of the French Interest to establish Popery separate from Arbitrary Power even such could not please you but would soon be exposed as others have been and if you should have met with 513 Men that could have complied with you in both you must have met with such as would have destroyed their own Constitution and put a Period to all Parliaments Now if any of your Party can say this would be a Demonstration of your Affection to Parliaments and proveâ—t Erit mihi magnus Apollo Thirdly Remember what Arts and Methods you and your Party used to expose the three last Parliaments your Brother held in 1679 1680 1681. It is worth your considering that when you had a great desire to have the long Parliament dissolved some objected that if that was dissolved the Crown was in danger because a new one was to be called But those that made the Objection did not consider a new one must be chosen which if they did yet they did not consider what the Men were that would in all probability be chosen and those new Parliaments if they might have been suffered to redress Grievances would have stuck at nothing to have rendred themselves acceptable both to Prince and People for it was first the best way your Brother took to become acquainted with the Nation to dissolve that Parliament that had so long continued Secondly the King might if he would have let his Parliaments sat obtained a great Sum of Money for Payment of his Debts nay they would have given it him as a Pledg of Endearment between him and the People they resolved to give freely and hoped he would receive as graciously in truth Sir they would have been generous even to your self for they would have excluded you from being King that you might enjoy the greater Security of your Person and Estate as a Subject which if you would have believed you had not at this day been rattling your Beads at St. Germains the People would have been free under their King as the King would have been
could there be since the Laws of the Land were the Rule of his Government To which I answer 1. Suppose K. Charles had all his days governed according to the Laws of the Land was his having governed according to the Laws already sufficient to discourage you and your Villains from plotting to destroy us And when your Conspiracy was detected did the King's governing according to Law remove the Fears we had of the Popish Party Object But you will say We had an ill Opinion of your Brother and his Government and thence came our pretended Fears and Jealousies Answ Alas Sir you are mistaken our Fears did not proceed so much from our ill Opinion of him as from the sense we had of the implacable Hatred you and your villanous Popish Party had to him and your Resolution to destroy him because he made not such haâ—â—â— to destroy us as you would have had him But suppose we had entertain'd all evil Opinion of the King we had just Cause for it he having left us in the hands of such as were so far from protecting the Nation that not one Law made to preserve the Protestant Religion was put in execution and you had so filled the Courts of Westminster-Hall with a Set of Rogues that perverted the Law to the hazard of the whole Nation that your Traitors escaped those Punishments due to them for their many Treasons 2. Could the Laws we then had without some additional Provision contribute to our safety since you were to succeed him Were not you and your Party then the worst of Men to declare to the World that we were in no danger notwithstanding your vigorous Application to extirpate the Northern Heresy which you were in a more effectual way to effect than ever Hence may appear the Malice of your Party in preaching Peace when they were preparing to make War upon us I might enumerate other Evils that happened on Dissolving those Parliaments but these at present shall serve and therefore I come to the last Particular of the third Head of this Article viz. Sixthly The foolish Pretences you and your Party made for procuring these 3 Parliaments to be dissolved in so reproachful a manner all which prove you an Enemy to Parliaments and that way of Governing I pray Sir let me put you in mind that your Brother hated Parliaments mortally which appears by his Letter to the French King in June 1676. to this purpose That if he could be assured of his Pension that it might continue he should not continue that way of Governing viz. by frequent Parliaments which at the best was but a clamorous Rabble that took upon them to direct Kings but as he was resolved to be like his Neighbours in Riches and Grandeur so he was resolved to be like them in Religion too Thus it seems at the long-run you were both of a mind except that he was not so hardy in observing his own word to ruin the Nation all at once as you were and what your goodly Pretences were for Dissolving three Parliaments to effect the same you have laid before you in these following Particulars 1st The first Pretence was their too vigorous prosecuting the Popish Plot. Now with what colour could you charge this upon them for as I told you before so I must again that those Parliaments were composed of Men of as good Sense and Quality as any in the whole Kingdom who proceeded and managed their debates with as great Moderation and Gravity as became their Place if they went too far in any thing relating to that cursed Design you might have instanced in the Particular and not have suffered your Hell-born Crew to censure their whole Proceeding in it But let me tell you they were so far from going too far that your Brother and you suffer'd 'em not to sit till they could do any thing considerable in any part of the Discovery Now Sir let me ask you one Question Why did not you and your Party rather fall upon the King and his Ministers for those Speeches and Declarations he made concerning the Popish Plot of which you shall have your full in its proper place But pray observe 1. Your Brother did frequently recommend the Prosecution of the Popish Plot to them with a strict and impartial Inquiry and can you think that a Parliament consisting of so many worthy Patriots would be such Traitors to their King and Country as not to comply in â—ome measure with his Commands especially since in his Speech Octob. 21. 1680. he used that prevailing Argument That he neither thought himself nor them safe till the Matter was gone through with Was not the King's Person nor Government safe and would you not have them zealous in inquiry into the said Plot to prevent the threatning Dangers 2. Did not your Brother in his Speech to his Parliament April 30. 1679. assure them of his constant Care to secure our Religion for the future in all Events and that in all things which concerned the publick Security he would noâ— follow their Zeal but lead it Therefore Sir you may see that by making this a Pretence for dissolving three Parliaments you did fly in the very Face of the King and his leading Zeal to have that Plot discovered and the Criminals brought to publick Justice 2ly A second Pretence you and your Banditti had for dissolving the three last Parliaments was because they would give no Money for supporting the Alliance your Brother had made for preserving Christendom in Peace and the keeping of Tangier by which the Nation might see the true Reason for which those Parliaments were called The truth is Sir you had almost perswaded the King not to use that Parliament which sat down Octob. 21. 1680. and in order to that you made Application to the French King for a Sum of 300000 l. Sterling and promised if your Brother was supplied with it the Parliament should not meet The French King agreed and the Money was to be paid at two Paiments Upon this the Parliament newly chosen in August 1679 was prorogued till November following and your great Ally assuring your Brother of the Paiment of the Money the Parliament was further prorogued till October 21. 1680. so that we had no Parliament sitting from May 1679 till October 1680. but the Duke of Buckingham getting Intelligence of this Contrivance and being in danger of his Life by the Subornation of a Villain to whom he had given Bread as also to his whole rascally Family finding his Head must fly for it if a Parliament did not meet makes a Journey over to France and so prevailed with the French King that the Money promised was not transmitted so that of Necessity not of Choice you permitted your good Brother that one time to meet his People in Parliament Well then Supplies were demanded to maintain the Alliance made for the Support of the General Peace of Christendom the Preservation of Tangier and for the Paiment of your
themselves that they had erred with their Fathers the Power of that House concerning taking Men into Custody had not then nor to this Day has received an exact Adjustment and therefore wants not Precedents of the like Nature and if they were Arbitrary Orders they were such as had been executed by Parliaments many a fair Year before your Sires of the antient Kingdom of Scotland were born and since Orders of the same nature had been made by Parliaments in the times of our antient Kings these Orders might have been passed by and not branded with the reproachful Name of being Arbitrary 2. Tho we have supposed that the Commons might issue out those Orders yet they took none into Custody by such Orders but what might well be supposed guilty of Breaches of Privilege in the highest Degree the Truth is when Parliaments met annually or at least frequently we find few or no Complaints but when they were not frequent but there were long Intervals of Parliament the Consequence of which was long sitting which began within these two hundred Years there were some Complaints of the Breaches of Privilege as in the time of Hen. 8. the 4th of Edw. 6. and in the time of Q. Eliz. when the Justice of the Commons hath been applauded by our former Kings for asserting their Privileges and not stigmatized for exerting an Arbitrary Power 'T is true the most notorious thing that could be fixed upon that House was the Fees extorted by the Serjeant of the House who tho he attends the House of Commons yet he ought to have considered that he was the King's Officer and by Law no Officer of the King 's shall take any Fee or Reward for doing his Office but what he receives from the King upon Penalty of returning double to the Plaintiff and being further punished at the Will of the King but of this you and your Party took no notice because the then Serjeant was a Creature of your own tho I think he smarted for it and your Brother laughed at his Calamity in the Case of an Under-Sheriff of Norfolk Therefore I say that to assert that their Orders that were made for the taking Men into Custody were for Matters that had no relation to Privileges of Parliament was an impudent Lie for there were a Number of Men who to distinguish themselves from the rest of their Countrey had basely given their Hands for Abhorrences of Parliaments and of those who most humbly petitioned for their sitting in a time of such extream Necessity their Names I will give that you may put a Mark of Favour upon those of them that are alive whenever they shall have occasion to meet you at St. Germains You may remember that House did fall upon such as had countenanced the Popish Plot and were Abhorrers of petitioning for the sitting of Parliaments and voted that it was and ever had been the undoubted Right of the Subjects to petition the King for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments and Redress of Grievances and that to traduce such Petitioning as a Violation of Duty and to represent it to his Majesty as tumultuous and seditious is to betray the Liberty of the Subject and contributes to the subverting the antient and legal Constitution of this Kingdom and introducing Arbitrary Power The first that fell under these Votes was Withens that was knighted for his Abhorring and after made a Judg he was expelled the House and voted a Betrayer of the undoubted Rights of the Subjects of England and received his Sentence at the Bar of the House he is yet alive I suppose he and his Brother Jenner may set up at St. Germains for Expounders of our Law in good time The next was Sir George Jefferies then Recorder of London against whom they voted an Address to the King to remove him out of all publick Offices and that the Members which served for the City should communicate the Vote to the Court of Aldermen There were several others that upon the same Account were taken into Custody as Sir Giles Phillips Mr. Coleman Capt. William Castle Mr. John Hutchinson Mr. Henry Walrond Mr. William Stawel Mr. Thomas Herbert Mr. Sheridon and Parson Thompson of Bristol And because Sir Francis North the Chief Justice of the Common-pleas advised and assisted in drawing up a Proclamation against petitioning for the sitting of the Parliament the Commons voted it a sufficient Ground to proceed against him for high Crimes and Misdemeanours the like Vote passed against Sir Thomas Jones one of the Judges of the King's Bench and upon Sir Richard Weston one of the Barons of the Exchequer but they went higher with Scroggs for they impeached him of High Treason for discharging the Grand Jury of Middlesex before they had finished their Presentments and for the Order made in the King's-Bench against Care 's Pacquet of Advice from Rome That it should be no more printed or published by any Person Well Sir what say you now to these Vermine Those now alive are still the same Rogues and your very humble Servants and Admirers and I could wish you had them with you at St. Germains being pretty Company and worthy of your Favour indeed to give them their Due they have been pretty false in their Oaths to King William whom some of your Party stile Prince of Orange These were the Men that House of Commons did censure I pray Sir on with your Spectacles and see whether the Crimes they were guilty of had no Relation to Privileges of Parliaments surely your Friends when they charged the House of Commons with this Crime were not in good earnest if they were they shall have a Rowland for their Oliver I 'll be in good earnest too and let them know that if the Privileges of Parliament be concerned when an Injury is done to a particular Member how much more when they strike at Parliaments themselves and endeavour to wound the very Constitution Nay in the Case of Sheridon who afterwards troubled the Nation with a Litter of scandalous Pamphlets upon that Account 't is plain that his Commitment was only in order to examine him about the Popish Plot and his Endeavours to stifle it Do not you know that Sheridon Say you never did yet let me tell you it was you instructed him how he should behave himself to the House whose Behaviour indeed was with as much Contempt and Insolency as if you or your Father had been demanding some of the Members and therefore they had reason surely to commit him Thompson you know him too very well he was zealous in divers Breaches of Privilege to serve you and the Popish Party witness his Usage of poor Bedlow and the rest of the Discoverers of the Popish Plot yet his Commitment was only in order to an Impeachment and as soon as they had gone through with his Examination he was set at Liberty giving Security to answer the Impeachment they had voted against him But 3. What if the Matters