having in his forementioned Paper mentioned the Opinion of King James the first delivered in his Speech to the Parliament in the Year 1603. I shall here to gratifie the Reader 's Curiosity transcribe a Paragraph or two of that Learned King's Speech viz. I do acknowledge that the special and greatest point of difference that is betwixt a rightful King and an usurping Tyrant is in this That whereas the proud and ambitious Tyrant doth think his Kingdom and People are only ordained for the satisfaction of his Desires unreasonable Appetites The righteous and just King doth on the contrary acknowledge himself to be ordained for the procuring of the Wealth and Prosperity of his People and that his great and principal Worldly Felicity must consist in their Prosperity That I am a Servant it is most true That as I am Head and Governour of all the People in my Dominion who are my natural Subjects considering them in distinct Ranks So if we will take in the People as one Body Then as the Head is ordained for the Body and not the Body for the Head so must a righteous King know himself to be ordained for his People and not his People for him Wherefore I will never be ashamed to sonfess it my principal honour to be the great Servant of the Common-wealth To this I shall subjoyn a few Words to the same purpose out of that King's Speech to the Parliament in 1609 Every just King in a settled Kingdom is bound to observe that Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeable thereunto And therefore a King governing in a settled Kingdom ceases to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant as soon as he leaves off to rule according to the Laws Notes upon the Tryal of Sr Samuel Barnardiston Baronet at Guild-Hall London Before Sr George Jefferies Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench upon the 14 th day of February 1683. upon an Information to the effect following viz. THat there having been a Horrid Plot lately discovered the Defendant to scandalize the Evidence wrote a Letter to this effect viz. That the return of the Duke of Monmouth and his being received into Favour with the King had made a great alteration at Court and that those who before spoke indecently of him did now court and creep to him Yesterday being the last of the Term all the Prisoners in the Tower upon the late Sham Protestant Plot were Bailed The Information against Mr Bavddon who Prosecuted the Murder of the Earl of Essex for a Subornation was not prosecuted and his Bail was discharged and the passing Sentence upon the Author of Julian the Apostate and the Printer of the late Lord Russel's Speech was passed over with silence Great Applications are made to the King for the pardoning Mr Sidney The Lord Howard appears despicable in the eyes of all men The Papists and high Tories are quite down in the Mouth Their Pride is abated and themselves and their Plot confounded but their Malice is not Asswaged It s generally said the Earl of Essex was Murdered The brave Lord Russel is afresh Lamented The Plot is lost here except you in the Country can find it out amongst the Addressers and Abhorrers And that he wrote in another Letter to this effect The King is never pleased but when the Duke of Monmouth is with him His Pardon was Sealed and delivered to him last Wednesday 't is said he will be restored to be Master of the Horse c. He treats all his old Friends with great Civility they are all satisfied with his Integrity and if God spare his Life doubt not but he will be an Instrument of much good to the King and Kingdom he said publickly that he knew my Lord Russel was as Loyal a Subject as any in England and that his Majesty believ'd the same now it would make you laugh to see how strangely our high Torys and Clergy are mortified their Countenances speak it Sr George is grown very humble It s said Mr Sidney is reprieved for forty days which bodes well And that in a third Letter he wrote thus The late change here in publick Affairs is so great and strange that we are like men in a Dream and fear we are not fit for so great a Mercy as the present Juncture seems to promise the Sham Protestant Plot is quite lost and confounded And that in a fourth Letter there are these expressions Contrary to all mens expectations a Warrant is signed for beheading Colonel Sidney at Tower-Hill next Fryday great endeavours have been used to obtain this Pardon but the contrary party have carried it which much dasheth our Hopes but God still governs The King's Counsel to prosecute this matter were The Recorder of London Mr Herbert quickly after made Lord Chief Justice Mr Jones Counsel for Sr S. Barnardiston were Mr Williams Mr Thompson and Mr Blackerby The Jury pick'd out to try this Cause were Thomas Vernon Knighted soon after the Service done in this Cause and then made Fore-man of a Jury to convict Dr Otes of Perjury Percival Gilburne one of the Jury upon the Guildhall Riot Edward Bovery William Withers senior A well qualified Jury-Man for this Cause James VVood Robert Masters A principal Witness against Colledge Samuel Newton Another of the Riot Jury George Toriano One of the Lord Russell's Jury Kenelm Smyth Thomas Goddard Thomas Amy and Richard Blackburne The Rocorder of London and Mr Herbert having aggravated the charge in the Information Mr Blaithwait Atterbury the Messenger and Nehemiah Osland Sr Samuel's Servant gave evidence of the writing those Letters and sending them by the Post for Sr Philip Skippon Mr Gael and Mr Cavel in Suffolk Then Mr Williams Counsel for Sr Samuel applied to the Jury to this effect That the question was Whether Sr Samuel were knowingly guilty of the Writing and publishing the four Letters That as to his publishing them he saw no evidence and he put it to the Court whether the sending them to the Post-House could amount to the publishing a Libel and he added to the Jury that he supposed they would not take it upon their Oaths that he was guilty of what he was there accused of many things being laid in the Information to inhanse the Crime of which there was no proof The Clamorous Chief Justice proceeding to dierct the Jury expressed himself to this effect That the Information took notice of a horrid Conspiracy lately hatcht for the destruction of the King and subversion of the Government and that the Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney who were ingaged in that damnable Conspiracy were convicted and executed That the Defendant being dissaffected and a man of ill Principles to disturb the Government did cause the four Letters to be writ and published That the Letters were Factious Seditious and Malitious and as base as the worst of mankind could have invented That it was a work of time and thought fixt in his
A DISPLAY OF Tyranny OR REMARKS UPON The Illegal and Arbitrary Proceedings in the Courts of Westminster and Guild-Hall London From the Year 1678. To the Abdication of the late King James in the Year 1688. In which time the Rule was Quod Principi placuit Lexesto First Part. London Printed Anno Angliae Salutis primo 1689. Sold by Book-Sellers in London VVestminster TO The Eminently Deserving and Highly Honoured Sr Samuel Barnardiston Baronet Sir THat I do inscribe these my summary Collections of some few of the Exorbitancies and of the arbitrary illegal and pernicious Practices of the late unhappy Reigns to your Name will as I hope be forgiven when you reflect upon your own dear bought share in the melancholy and tragical Transactions upon which I have spent my thoughts The Names of the late Earl of Shaftesbury of my Lord Russel Col. Sidney and other great Men who were run upon and destroyed by a Race of Men who were raised to the Bench from being the Scandal of the Bar and by ignorant corrupt and partial Jury-Men will be remembred with eternal honour And by consequence it must be yours that you were my Lord Russel's endeared Friend That you served as Foreman of that great Jury which guarded the Earl of Shaftesbury's Life and that you expressed your self with some transport of Joy at the hopes of the brave Colonel Sidney's deliverance and that the sham Protestant Plot was confounded That from hence immediately your late Troubles sprung is fresh in every Bodies remembrance but 't is not so well known that you had the guilt of Original Sin upon you you were a Barnardiston descended of a Family well known and highly esteemed in Suffolk and Lincolnshire for many hundreds of years past which no History remembers to have been clouded but in times when the Laws of England have suffered an Eclipse Your never to be forgotten Father Sr Nathaniel Barnardiston was in the worst of times those in which we have lived excepted a Champion a Resolute Assertor of the English Liberties He in the year 1626 when King Charles the first in a most arbitrary way required money by way of Loan with many other good Patriots refused to subscribe and lend and was thereupon as a refractory Person as was the Language of the Privy Council of that day confined far enough from home in the County of Sussex however he stiffly adhered to his honest resolution against that arbitrary attempt and continued under confinement till the beginning of the year 1628 when that King's straits necessitating a Parliament the Gentlemen imprisoned for refusing the Loane-Money were then released and generally throughout the Kingdom elected to present the Grievances and assert the Liberties of the People in that Parliament as was Sr Nathaniel Barnardiston for his County of Suffolk Sir The Remembrance of this when you were first invited by that County to represent them in Parliament upon the death of Sr Henry North might in all propability provoke a great Minister of State to say that there was reason of State why you must not be Knight of your Shire and therefore he would appoint an easie Gentleman whom he could manage Sheriff to keep you out and so he did as long as he could at a time when that Parliament was corrupted to such a degree that the Fate of the Nation seemed almost to depend upon the Vote of one or two good Members your Country had upon that occasion a manifest demonstration of your Fidelity and Zeal in their Service you did worthily assert the right of that Election than which there never was any more clearly made after a tedious and very expensive attendance in prosecuting your Complaint of that abuse your Election was affirmed in the House of Commons tho' opposed by the united power of Tories Pensioners and Papists you then came into Parliament at a most Critical Juncture When the Protestant Religion and the Laws were eminently beset and dangerously threatned you did most faithfully and unweariedly labour there for some years against very great Discouragements It being in that day a mighty conquest if the true English Gentlemen of that House could for the saving of the Kingdom carry a Question by five or six Voices against the numerous Pensioners who were there listed and fed and paid to betray their Countries Liberties Your demeanour and great desert in that day of England's Distress merited a Title to the Hearts of your Country-Men who with very little opposition if not with an unanimous Voice Elected you for one of their Representatives to the three succeeding Parliaments in which your avowed Opposition to Popery and undaunted Adhesion to the Bill of Exclusion as the only expedient for securing the Protestant Religion markt you out to the Popish Rage These Sir. were in truth your heinous actual transgressions These provoked Jefferies whose Talent lay in facing all things down with Noise and Impudence to discharge a load of Slime and Choler at you your Crimes were complicated and they lie under a very great mistake who think that your Imprisonment and Fine of 10000 l. were only for writing to a Friend what you believed and all good Men passionately desired Having thus mentioned your great Oppression I shall take leave not for your own but for the Reader 's Information to insert the Reasons upon which the House of Lords did lately reverse that unjust and wicked Judgment upon you 1st The Information in this Case being grounded upon Letters which in themselves were not material but made so by Innuendo's their Lordships declared that Innuendo's or supposed or forced Constructions ought not to be allowed for all Accusations should be plain and the Crimes ascertained 2dly That the Fine of 10000 l. is exorbitant and excessive not warranted by legal Precedent in former Ages for all Fines ought to be with a Salvo Contenemento and not to the Parties Ruin. 3 d. That the demanding Sureties for the good Behaviour during Life except in very great and very often repeated Crimes wherein the Publick Peace of the Realm is very much concerned is contrary to the Liberty of the Subject Sir to detain you no longer upon a subject so well known as is that of your own Sufferings and Desert I know not whether I ought to apologize for my frequent using the name of Tory I am conscious that Names of Discrimination and Reproach are offensive to the Ears of good Men therefore to explain my self I intend not thereby to expose the well-deserving and pious Members of the Church of England but I mean the Men who being forsaken of common Sense and Honesty seemed ready to renounce the name of Protestant and gloried in Ranting Damning Swearing Loyalty The Men who encouraged and triumphed in the Murders of late committed amongst us and who to this hour go on to palliat and excuse if not to justifie them The Men who cryed up a Popish Successor as the only means to preserve
purposes of that Juncture THat the Conspiracy to introduce Popery and Arbitrary Government in England took life in the Year 1660. and was from that time carried on is now little doubted by any English-man who was not a well-wisher to it We are not to question the late King Charles the second 's dying a Papist and 't is as true that he so lived but upon his Restoration that the Duke's turn might be served he must not then declare An Act of Parliament was made to forbid our talking of it under most severe Penalties Then another Act put the Sword into his Hands by Vesting the Militia solely in him The Pulpits of the Kingdom generally speaking were filled with Gentlemen who had imbibed the Doctrine of passive Obedience and Non-Resistance An Oath was imposed That it was not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King or against any commissionated by him About two thousand sober and pious Ministers were thrust from the Churches and Corporations and many of them into loathsome Goals for Non-conformity to that Oath and to a few slight and as they judged unwarranted Ceremonies and the best Members were thrown out of all the Corporations of England by a pretended Regulation much more early then that of the late King James Matters being thus ripened and the Nation sufficiently dehauched by the Court-Example what was wanting but an actual execution This the Conspirators well knowing as they did that the famous City of London was the chief if not the only obstacle to their Hellish design a Resolution was taken to destroy it which they effectually accomplished discovery of this horrid Villany being made not to mention anything of the worthy Sr Robert Brookes Chair-man of the Committee of Inspection into the firing of London Hubert a poor French Papist being thereof Convict the House of Commons knowing that such a contemptible Varlet was not alone in that Fact resolved to take him the next day into Examination for discovery of his Accomplices and Directors but to prevent it that Wretches Mouth was stopt at Tyburn in the Morning before the House met I am conscious that there are Persons now in being who do not only pretend to doubt of this part of the Popish Plot the burning of London but of the Plot it self I shall therefore here subjoyn the Sence of one of the best Houses of Commons which ever met at Westminster January the 10th 1680. Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House that the City of London was burnt in the Year 1660 by the Papists designing thereby to introduce Arbitrary Power Popery into this Kingdom It may also be here observed that at this as at every other juncture when any Popish Plot was near the point of Execution The Papists had constantly the Fanaticks at hand to answer for their Villanies without doubt the Burning this Nest of Hereticks had been concerted both at Paris and at Rome and the time for puting it in execution approaching In April 1666 a Fanatick plot is brought upon the Stage seven or eight were Condemned at the Old-Bayly for Ploting to kill the King and to Burn the City upon the 3 d day of September then following For a more full account of this the Reader is referred to the London Gazette of April the â—0 th 1666. Numb 48. The whole Kingdom bring alarmed and put into a serment by this accursed Enterprize the Plot was post-poned however it was kept alive and the unwearied Conspirators carried it on and in the Year 1678 the blow was ready to be given but then by the Providence of the Almighty Dr Otes detected their Machinations He gave his first Information thereof to that worthy and never to be forgotten Justice of the Peace Sr Edmundbury Godfrey of which the Conspirators having notice for the stifling so fatal a discovery they in a most barbarous manner hurried him out of the World and did with effronted Impudence attempt to perswade the World to believe that that Gentleman was Felo de se but Heaven bringing that matter to light and his Murderers to justice The Plot maugre all oppositions and discouragements began to be searched into and was made out beyond contradiction by some loose Letters and Papers found in the House of Colman the Duke of York's Secretary who had early notice of the discovery and thereupon had carried his most material and as it may be reasonably concluded he thought all Papers which might endanger him or his Master's Cause to the Chamber of Mr Wright a Profligate Lawyer of Lincoln's-Inn where they were burnt for which assistance and good service Wright was afterwards preferred to sit by turns in every of the Courts of Westminster and at length to the place of Lord Chief Justice of England then whom a Person more scandalous and ignorant was never in any Age placed there Well Colman was indicted the Plot proved by Dr Otes and other Witnesses thereby by his own Papers he was convicted and executed as were by degrees several others but for the sake of the Duke and of the Roman Catholick Cause the game must be retrived in order thereto fit Engines were employed some of the Clergy who had long asserted that Popery was more tolerable than Presbytery with their guide the Observator made it their business to decry the Evidence of the Plot impudently affirming as in particular did one Scotred a grand Jury-Man in the Isle of Ely who at the time of the Assizes there began the Pope's health to his Brethren of the Grand Jury That there was no Popish but a Presbyterian Plot. A great part of the unwary and loose Church of England Men throughout the Kingdom appeared to be infected with this mad Doctrine so that to offer Instances thereof may seem impertinent however I shall take the liberty to inform the Reader that upon complaint to the Judge sitting in Court in September 1679. of the above-named Scotred's discourse and drinking the Pope's health a Justice of the Peace then upon the Bench fell upon the Person who made that complaint with great rage and swore By the Name of God there is a Presbyterian Plot. To this I shall only subjoyn that which will be a more authentick Evidence of what is above asserted viz. October the 28th 1680. In the House of Commons Resolved That it doth appear by the evidence this day given to this House that Sr Robert Can is guilty of publickly declaring in the City of Bristol in October 1679. That there was no Popish Plot but a Presbyterian Plot. Ordered That Sr Robert Can a Member of this House be committed to the Prison of the Tower and that he be expelled this House Ordered That Sr Robert Yeomans be sent for in Custody to answer for publickly declaring in Bristol That there was no Popish Plot but a Presbyterian Plot. These easie mis-guided Gentlemen were Disciples of famous Parson Thompson of Bristol whose Breath infected that great City
and upon whom the following Vote passed in the House of Commons December the 24th 1680. Resolved Nemine contradicente That Richard Thompson Clerk has publickly defamed his Sacred Majesty preached Sedition Vilified the Reformation promoted Popery by asserting Popish Principles denying the Popish Plot and turning the same upon the Protestants and endeavoured to subvert the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament and that he is a Scandal Reproach to his Function Resolved That the said Richard Thompson be Impeached thereupon Men of this Kidney having made way for its belief We were from this time entertained with a Succession of sham Presbyterian-Plots the first thereof known by the name of the Meal-tub-Plot being happily discovered by Mr Dangerfield both Lords and Commons taking the Alarm did set themselves with double diligence to the Prosecution of the Popish-Plot and to find out ways for the Uniting Protestants and for Easing Dissenters so little had the opinion of a Presbyterian-Plot prevailed within their Walls and the Commons seeing a Dissolution at hand passed these Votes December the 15 th 1680. Resolved Nemine contradicente That a Bill be brought in for an Association of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects for the safety of his Majesties Person the defence of the Protestant Religion and the preservation of his Majesties Protestant Subjects against all Invasions and Oppositions whatsoever and for reventing the Duke of York or any Papist from succeeding to the Crown January the 7 th 1680. Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House that there is no security or safety for the Protestant Religion the King's Life or the well Constituted and Established Government of this Kingdom without passing a Bill for disabling James Duke of York to inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and to rely upon any other means or remedies without such a Bill is not only insufficient bâ—… dangerous January the 10 th 1680. Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House that the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws is at this time grievous to the Subjects a weakning of the Protestant Interest and encouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom The next Moment after the passing this Vote the Parliament was prorogued for ten days and quickly after dissolved A new Parliament was forthwith Summoned to meet at Oxford the 21 st of March following but though the place was changed the Conspirators found there most of the Zealous Protestant Members of the Westminister Parliament who came thither animated to prosecute the Popish Plot the Exclusion of the Duke and the Uniting of Protestants by Addresses from those whom they represented whereof take an Instance To the Honourable Sr Samuel Barnardiston and Sr William Spring Baronets Knights of the Shire for the County of Suffolk Gentlemen WE the Freeholders of this County having chosen you our Representatives in the last Parliament in which We had satisfactory demonstration of your Zeal for the Protestant Religion of your Loyalty to his Majesties Person and Government and of your faithful Endeavours for the preservation of the Laws our Rights and Properties We now return you our most hearty Thanks and have Vnanimously chosen you to Represent this County at the Parliament to be holden at Oxford the 21 th of March next and though We have not the least distrust of your Wisdom to understand or of your Integrity and Resolution to maintain and promote our common Interest now in so great hazard yet We think it meet at this time of eminent danger to the King and Kingdom to recommend some things to your Care and particularly We do desire First That as hitherto you have so you will vigorously prosecute the execrable Popish Plot now more fully discovered and proved by the Tryal of William late Viscount Stafford Secondly That you will promote a Bill for Excluding James Duke of York and all Popish Successors from the Imperial Crown of this Realm as that which under God may probably be a present and effectual means for the preservation of his Majesties Life which God preserve the Protestant Religion an the well Established Government of this Kingdom Thirdly That you will endeavour the frequent Meeting of Parliaments and their sitting so long as it shall be requisite for the dispatch of those great Affairs for which they are convened as that which is our only Bulwark against Arbitrary Power Fourthly That you will endeavour an happy and necessary Vnion amongst all his Majesties Protestant Subjects by promoting those several good Bills which were to that end before the last Parliament And that till these things be obtained which We conceive necessary even to the Being of this Nation you will not consent to bring any Charge upon our Estates And We do assure you that We will stand by you with our Lives and Fortunes in prosecâ—…ion of the good Ends before recited This Parliament beginning where the former left and being found to adhere unalterably to the Resolution of rooting out the Plot and of Excluding the Duke as the only adequate remedy for all the threatning Evils to the Kingdom they were after a very few days Sitting upon the sudden Dissolved and followed into their own Countries with a Declaration bearing date April the 8 th 1681 pretending to set forth the â—…ses and Reasâ—… that moved the â—…ng to Dissolve that and the preceedâ—… Parliament bâ—…cally designed to expose and blacken those worthy Patriots and to that end it was ordered to be read in all Churches and Chappels throughout the Kingdom which was readily obeyed To wheadle the Nation till it might be noosed that Declaration according to the mode of that Reign spoke and promised fare tho the train was then laid to blow up our Religion Laws and Liberties It exhorted us that the restless malice of Ill Men who were labouring to poison the People might not perswade us that the King did intend to lay aside the use of Parliaments and declared that no Irregularities in Parliaments should ever make him out of love with Parliaments And that he resolved by the Blessing of God to have frequent Parliaments and both in and out of Parliament to use his utmost Endeavours to extirpate he means Establish Popery †Note this was after his Fathers Copy who by a Declaration in the year 1626. to justifie his Arbitrary way of Leveing Money by way of Loane said that his Occasions would not give leave for the calling a Parliament but assured his People that he intended not to serve himself by such ways to the abolishing of Parliaments and yet the Nation saw not a Parliament from the 3 d to the 16 th year of that Reign vide Rushworth's Collections first Part page 418. This Royal Grace or rather Slander upon one of the three Estates was not only proclaimed from the Readers Desks but was promulgated from both Pulpit and Press five days after the emiting this Declaration
part of those Forces with great difficulty caused by them to be Disbanded at the Kingdoms great Expence and it being evident that notwithstanding all the continual endeavours of the Parliament to deliver his Majesty from the Councils and out of the power of the said Duke yet his interest in the Ministry of State and others have been so prevalent that Parliaments have been unreasonably Prorogued and Dissolved when they have been in hot pursuit of the Popish Conspiracies and ill Ministers of State their Assistants And that the said Duke in order to reduce all into his own Power hath procured the Garrisons the Army and Ammunition all the Power of the Seas and Souldiery and Lands belonging to these three Kingdoms to be put into the hands of his Party and their Adherents even in opposition to the Advice and Order of the 〈◊〉 Parliament And as we considering with heavy hearts how greatly the Strength Reputation and Treasure of the Kingdom both at Sea and Land is wasted and consumed and lost by the intricate expensive management of these wicked destructive Designs and finding the same Councils after exemplary Justice upon some of the Conspirators to be still pursued with the utmost devillish Malice and desire of Revenge whereby his Majesty is in continual hazard of being Murdered to make way for the said Duke's advancement to the Crown and the whole Kingdom in such case is destitute of all security of their Religion Laws Estates and Liberty Sad Experience in the Case of Queen Mary having proved the wisest Laws to be of little force to keep out Popery and Tyranny under a Popish Prince We have therefore endeavoured in a Parliamentary way by a Bill for that purpose to Bar and Exclude the said Duke from the Succession to the Crown and to Banish him for ever out of these Kingdoms of England and Ireland But the first means of the King and Kingdoms safety being utterly rejected and We left almost in Despair of obtaining any real and effectual Security and knowing our selves to be intrusted to advise and act for the preservation of his Majesty and the Kingdom and being perswaded in our Consciences that the dangers afore-said are so eminent and pressing that there ought to be no delay of the best means that are in our power to secure the Kingdom against them We have thought fit to propose to all true Protestants an Vnion amongst themselves by solemn and sacred Promise of mutual Defence and Assistance in the preservation of the true Protestant Religion his Majesty's Person and Royal State and our Laws Liberties and Properties and we hold iâ— our bounden Duty to joyn our selves for the same intent in a Declaration of our united Affections and Resolutions in the form ensuing I A. B. do in the Presence of God solemnly Promise Vow and Protest to maintain and defend to the utmost of my Power with my Person and Estate the true Protestant Religion against Popery and all Popish Superstition Idolatry or Innovation and all those who do or shall endeavour to spread or advance it within this Kingdom I will also as far as in me lies maintain and defend his Majesty's Royal Person and Estate as also the Power and Priviledge of Parliaments the lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subjects against all Incroachments and Vsurpation of Arbitrary Power whatsoever and endeavour entirely to Disband all such Mercenary Forces as we have reason to believe were raised to advance it and are still kept up in and about the City of London to the great Amazement and Terror of all the good People of the Land. Moreover James Duke of York having publickly propessed and owned the Popish Religion and notoriously given Life and Birth to the damnable and hellish Plots of the Papists against his Majesty's Person the Protestant Religion and the Government of this Kingdom I will never consent that the said James Duke of York or any other who is or hath been a Papist or any ways adhered to the Papists in their wicked Designs be admitted to the Succession of the Crown of England But by all lawful means and by force of Arms if need so require according to my Ability will oppose him and endeavour to Subdue Expel and Destroy him if he come into England or the Dominions thereof and seek by Force to set up his pretended Title and all such as shall adhere unto him or raise any War Tumult or Sedition for him or by his Command as publick Enemies of our Laws Religion and Country To this end We and every one of Vs whose hands are here-under written do most willingly bind our selves and every one of Vs â—nto the other joyntly and severally in the Bond of one firm and loyal Society or Association and do Promise and Vow before God that with Our joynt and particular Forces We will oppose and pursue unto Destruction all such as upon any Title what soever shall oppose the Just and Righteous ends of this Association and Maintain Protect and Defend all such as shall enter into it in the just performance of the true intent and meaning of it And least this just and pious VVork should be any ways obstructed or hindred for want of Discipline and Conduct or any evil minded Persons under pretence of raising Forces for the Service of this Association should attempt or commit Disorders We will follow such Orders as we shall from time to time receive from this present Parliament whilst it shall be sitting or the major part of the Members of both Houses Subscribing this Association when it shall be prorogued or dissolved and obey such Officers as shall by Them be set over Vs in the several Countries Cities and Burroughs until the next meeting of this or another Parliament and will then shew the same Obedience and Submission to it and those who shall be of it Neither will we for any respect of Persons or Causes or for Fear or Reward separate our selves from this Association or fail in the prosecution thereof during our Lives upon pain of being by the rest of us prosecuted and suppressed as perjured persons and publick Enemies to God the King and our native Country To which Pains and Punishments we do voluntarily submit our selves and every one of us without benefit of any colour or pretence to excuse it In witness of all which Premisses to be inviolably kept we do to this present Writing put our Hands and Seals and shall be most ready to accept and admit any others hereafter into this Society and Association It is to be observed that this Paper had neither date nor any Hand to it nor did it appear of whose Hand-writing it was but Sr Francis Wythens aggravated the matter saying That tho' the Paper began very plausibly and went a great way so yet in the last clause but one they came to perfect levying of War declaring that they would joyn to destroy the mercenary Forces about London the words by the way were to
disband the mercenary Forces raised and kept up to advance arbitrary Power but such a mistake may be remitted to Sr F. Wythens and also to that smooth Lord Chief Justice North who in suming up the Evidence to the Grand Jury did wilfully no doubt of it make the same mis-representation of that matter Mr Saunders added that the design of the Paper was pretended to oppose Popery and Arbitrary Power and destroy the Papists which seemed not so much in it self but that their Witnesses would shew who those Papists were that were to be destroyed And now the Witnesses are called who were John Booth a most notorious and scandalous Villain who had been guilty of several Felonies Edward Turbervile and John Smyth an Irish Priest who were manifestly perjured in the Tryal of honest Colledge Brian Haynes John Macnamar Dennis Macnamar Edward Ivey and Bernard Dennis Profligate Irish Witnesses who according to every season had traded in Swearing and Counter-swearing It may suffice to present the Impartial Reader with the Names of these scandalous Fellows for 't would be nauseous to detain him in reading the non-sensical incredible contradictory stuff sworn by them as That the Earl would raise the Kingdom to compel the King to give Haynes a Pardon That the Government was to be changed to a Common-wealth and the Duke of Buckingham to be King. That the Earl should tell Macnamar and Ivey that he would bring the King's Head to the Block That a Person of the Earl of Shaftesbury's extraordinary caution should talk Treason or any thing else with so infamous a Fellow as Haynes for an Hour together in a Cook 's Shop in Ironmonger-Lane It seems here worthy of Observation that the Conspirators clap'd this Noble Lord into the Tower in the beginning of July 1681 but the Term coming on when they must prosecute him or he would be bailed out they were then to seek for English Witnesses to back the trusty Irish so Booth and the rest were rak'd together and Captain Wilkinson one of the honestest Men then or now living was tempted and threatned at a more then ordinary rate to come in to back and credit their Testimony as was evidently made out by his Information which to his eternal honour he published before this prosecution an Abstract whereof I do hereunto subjoyn to evince the cursed practises of those dayes and to mind an ungratful Generation of the merit of that worthy upright Person It may also deserve Remark that the Treasonable discourses Sworn against his Lordship by these Varlets were fix'd by them to February and March before the Instructors of these Witnesses well remembring that that was a time when the Nation was in no small ferment upon the trifling with Parliaments for the introduceing Popery and Tyranry yet most of these Witnesses upon their examination were forced to acknowledge that they gave or rather sold their Informations after my Lord of Shaftesbury was committed in July upon a Warrant for high Treason which Secretary Jenkins who managed this whole Intrigue and the Witnesses thereof gloried that he had the honour to sign I shall here take occasion to declare what I have long believed that the amusing us in England with the Irish Popish Plot did proceed from the depth of the Jesuits Counsels with design to trip up the Heels of their execrable Plot here that they sent us these wretches on that very errand I do also think that the Conspirators then at Whitehall did in the management of this Intrigue over-reach this great and wise Lord the Earl of Shaftesbury and that his zeal to extirpate Popery in both the Kingdoms disposed him to be too credulous in that matter of the Irish Plot at least as to the honesty of the Witnesses thereof But what Man endued with the least grain of Honesty and Sense could ever credit the Evidence against this Noble Peer after the reading Mr Colledge's Tryal and the Information of worthy Captain Wilkinson about this very affair As to the Paper found in the Earl's House and upon which so great stress was laid I shall here note that at this time it was notoriously known even in every Coffee-House that an Association and very probably this now given in evidence had been resolved upon and read in Parliament and the Fore-man of the Grand-Jury who was a Member well knowing that the Plot-Secretary was then of the House of Commons examined him strictly about it but he appeared very reserved and cautions in his answers and could not at first remember that he had heard of the Association but as Town-talk but being closely followed with Questions by the worthy Fore-man he very unwillingly went a little further saying That to the best of his remembrance he was not present in the House at the Reading the Association though 't is notoriously known that he did there make Speeches against it To evince that the project of an Association was no new thing I cannot hinder my self from a small digression to shew that one of this formal Secretary's Confidents Nathaniel Thompson the Popish Printer had published the news of this Association near two Years before this prosecution it is in his Intelligence of December the 9th 1679 in these Words A form of an Association is preparing for People to subscribe for the defence of the King 's sacred Person the present Established Form of Government and the Protestant Religion paralel to that in Queen Elizabeth's time which was afterward confirmed by Act of Parliament This seems to take its Rise from the Resolve of the late Parliament This very Advertisement may be well supposed to put such as were curious to know the transactions of that time to get a sight of the Association so notified to be on foot and 't is very probable that by that means it might as news be handed to the Earl of Shaftesbury and so come to be thrown by amongst his old Papers however had not an upright understanding English Jury interposed it had as certainly destroyed the Honour Estate and Life of this never to be forgotten Noble Lord as the Westminster Carpenter in disguise with his little Presbyterian Band and his eleven Brethren did destroy the brave Colonel Sydney upon the evidence of old loose Papers found in his House enforced with a Maxim in three cramp Words Scribere est Agere as unintelligible in all probality to that pack'd Jury as was the Treatise of that great Man or as the Maxim it self is to learned Lawyers Well to conclude after much contrasting between the Jury and the Court whether the Jury might consider the credibility of the Witnesses which the Chief Justice denyed and Mr Papillon with much tugging having gained a great point of the Court viz. That they were within the compass of their own Vnderstanding and Consciences to give their Judgment Which is in truth no more than the giving them leave to see with their own Eyes hear with their own Ears and judge by their own
Plot against the Lives of the King and the Duke and for subversion of the Government The end of this business was to have had a commotion for the accomplishing their great Conspiracy but Parturiunt Montes For after this Tragical Out-cry their own Witnesses only proved that Mr Brome the Coroner went to my Lord Mayor and told him that he had a Writ against him at the suite of Mr Papillon and another at the Suite of Mr Dubois and prayed him that he would please to give an appearance and that upon his refusing to do it his Lordship went in his own Coach to the Coroner's House Mr Serjeant Maynard then offered to the Jury That my Lord Mayor if he mistake in his Office and doth not that which belongs to him to do he is as much subject to the process of the Law as any private Citizen That the question they were to try was Whether Mr Papillon had probable Cause of Action against the Mayor That the Case was thus Vpon the contest about the choice of Sheriffs the Judges of the Election certifie to the Mayor and Aldermen that Mr Papillon had most Suffrages thereupon he conceived himself rightly chosen and that surely gave him a probable cause to proceed upon it and if so no doubt he might well take the course he did here is no Arrest without legal Process nay their own Witnesses say there was an offer to take an appearance without an Arrest but that being refused the process of the Law was executed He had no other course to take but to bring his Action against the Mayor This course he took here is a great deal of stir made that a Coroner of London should Arrest my Lord Mayor he might do it lawfully doth this prove that this was malitiously done Have they proved any particular discontent and malice that was between them No the quite contrary appears did he Violently Arrest him That he might do and no offence in Law no but he did it not but only desired from time to time that he would give an appearence that would have put a Conclusion to this dispute Besides the Sheriffs having made a return of Mr Papillon's Election to the Aldermen they being of another opinion gave order that those who thought themselves agrieved should take their remedy at Law which has been pursued in the regular course the Law prescribes Here is a great noise of Damage and Disrepute and Disgrace and the Plaintiff has been pleased to reckon his own Damages at 10000 l. We say he has sustained no Damage The very Court of Aldermen and the Lord Mayor bidding them take their course at Law We sure shall not be punished for doing it Mr Williams then insisted that the Plaintiff's Action must fall if they shewed that it was not Malitious and that Mr Papillon had a probable cause to bring his Action Mr Ward then observed to the Jury that Mr Papillon had been greatly reflected upon That by way of Crimination against him there was a most unjust reflection as if he were privy to an intended Insurrection and Conspiracy against the King's Life and procured the Mayor to be Arrested to promote an Insurrection That this was only insinuated for Reflection sake and not one word of any such thing proved He then added that the Case before them depended upon this point Whether Mr Papillon had a reasonable cause or probable ground to bring an Action against Sr William Pritchard If so all that was desired was only an Appearance but that would not be given That the Jury had been told of the great dangers in the Case as to the Infringment of the Peace c. but had Sr William Pritchard complyed with the reasonable and oft repeated request of ordering an Appearence the Peace of the Kingdom had been in no peril from such a design as this Arrest Here the Chief Justice told Mr Ward a Person never esteemed to come short of Sr George Jefferies in any thing but Insolence and Impudence That he had made a long Speech and nothing at all to the purpose and that he did not understand what he was about and that made him ramble in his Discourse and did then in a raving and most impetuous manner repeat his expression six or seven times that Mr Ward did not understand the Business Mr Brome the Coroner being called to give an account of the manner of his Arresting my Lord Mayor testified That he had a former Writ in Hillary Term and went to my Lord Mayor and desired him that he would appear to it but he said he would give no Appearance That he gave his Lordship a week or ten days to consider of it and then waited upon him at the Court of Aldermen and had his answer that he had considered of it and would give no appearance That a little before Easter Term the Attorney brought him another VVrit and threatned to complain to the Court of him for neglecting the Execution of two of the King's VVrits That thereupon he went again to my Lord and told him that the VVrit was renewed and he was pressed to make a return and desired that his Lordship would please to give an Appearance and that he told him that he was ready to submit to the King 's Writ but would not give an Appearance and thereupon the Officers named in the Warrant Arrested him by his Command Then Mr Crisp the common Serjeant aiming at Alderman Cornish falls to interrogating Mr Brome who were present at the meeting when the Arresting the Mayor was agreed upon he having named two or three the Common Serjeant further pressed him to name others and then the Chief Justice explained the Common Serjeant's meaning by demanding whether Mr Cornish was there Alderman Cornish and Mr Serjeant testified That Mr Papillon and Mr Duboiâ— being at the Alderman's House their At orney came to them and told them that he had addressed himself from time to time to my Lord Mayor to get him to give an Appearance but he would not and that thereupon they told him it was fit the matter should be brought to an Issue and ordered him to get an Appearance if he could and to remember that the Lord Mayor was the Chief Magistrate of the City and that he should carry it with all imaginable respect and regard to him Here the Chief Justice and Attorney General made long and extravagant excursions running upon Alderman Cornish with abundance of Questions wholly foreign to the matter in Question and Jefferies told him that he had as much cause as any Man to remember the manner of his own being chosen Sheriff for several reasons that he knew A plâ—… Indication of what he designed against this honest Gentleman And then his Lordship added that he only asked things by the by to satisfie the World what sort of Men these are that pretend to Saintship and with his wonted blustering Impudence said Do you think the Government will ever suffer it self to be