being put Whether the Witnesses shall be now called in It was resolved in the Affirmative There being a Paper made mention of in the House which was said to be a Copy of what the Earl of Shaftsbury said in the King's Bench but not permitted to be read Robert Blaney was called in and sworn as a Witness who being asked whether he was present in the Court of King's Bench when the Earl of Shaftsbury moved for his Habeas Corpus And whether he heard all that the Earl of Shaftsbury said there He answered to this effect That he was present in the King's Bench when the Earl of Shaftsbury was there and he heard the most part what his Lordship said but he cannot tell now what he said but he took some Notes and that afternoon compared Notes with Mr. Rushworth who also had taken Notes and thereupon they perfected a Copy which he gave to the Lord Treasurer He also says That he cannot for a thousand worlds say that he heard all that is in the Paper nor he cannot now say what it was that he took and what it was that he had from Mr. Rushworth it being so long since by reason of the many Interlineations made in the Paper by comparing Notes with Mr. Rushworth Then the said Robert Blaney withdrew After this the House agreed what acknowledgment the Earl of Shaftsbury should make at the Bar for his Offences which if his Lordship should make the House would then Declare their Satisfaction in his Submission and Acknowledgment The Submission is as followeth I Do acknowledge that my endeavouring to maintain that the Parliament is Dissolved was an ill advised Action for which I humbly beg the pardon of the Kings Majesty and of this most Honourable House And I do also acknowledge that my bringing of an Habeas Corpus in the Kings Bench during this Session was a high Violation of Your Lordships priviledges and a great Aggravation of my former Offence for all which I likewise most humbly beg the pardon of this most Honourable House The Earl of Shaftsbury was brought again to the Bar and the Lord Chancellor told him the Lords had prepared a particular Acknowledgment which the House expected he should make and read the same to him And the Earl of Shaftsbury made the said Acknowledgment in these words viz. I Do acknowledge That my endeavouring to maintain that the Parliament is Dissolved was an ill advised Action for which I humbly beg the pardon of the Kings Majesty and of this most Honourable House And I do also acknowledge that my bringing of an Habeas Corpus in the Kings Bench during this Session was a high Violation of Your Lordships priviledges and a great Aggravation of my former Offence for all which I likewise most humbly beg the pardon of this most Honourable House His Lordship being again with-drawn IT is Ordered That the Lords with the white Staves now present wait on His Majesty to give his Majesty an Accompt that this House hath received Satisfaction from the Earl of Shaftsbury in the matter of the Habeas Corpus and the other Contempt for which he stood imprisoned and are humble Suitors to His Majesty That he would be pleased to discharge him from his Imprisonment And that their Lordships do acquaint the House to Morrow what they have done in this matter Ordered that the Earl of Shaftsbury be in the mean time Remitted to the Tower Die Martis 26 Feb. 1677. The Lord Treasurer Reported to the House That the Lords with the white Staves according to the Order of this House have astended His Majesty to give His Majesty an Accompt that this House hath received Satisfaction from the Earl of Shaftsbury in the matter of the Habeas Corpus and the other Contempt for which he stood Imprisoned and are humble suitors to His Mrjesty That he will be pleased to Discharge him from his Imprisonment To which His Majesty was pleased to give this Answer That He will give Order for the Earl of Shaftsbury's Discharge NOw that you have perused the manner of the Earl of Shaftsbury's Deliverance out of the Tower I shall for Illustration of the Great Clemency of His Majesty and of the most Noble House of Peers pursue my purpose signified in the beginning upon the enumerated Particulars that the Government of this Monarchy may not lose the benefit which may be improved out of an Accident of State so memorable and so necessary to be remembred for Prevention of the like in future 1. I shall give an Account of the peaceful condition of this Kingdom a little before the Earl of Shaftsbury began to offend His Majesty before that time had enjoyed as calm and quiet a Reign as could possibly be imagined to have been had in the midst of a Nation so divided into various Opinions A Reverence was paid to his Government by the Parliament Nemine contradicente And it was a much more comfortable Season for all His Great Officers and others intrusted with the Management of Affairs under him The Publick Purse was frankly open'd to Him upon all occasions without grumbling or delay and the hearts of men were in the best sence Simple Open and Chearful in their Sentiments about all his Royal Purposes and Proceedings Fears and Jealousies were confined in the breasts of those only who never loved him nor his Government and those Fears never shifted their Quarters among the Factions to take up new ones in the Old Royal Party The House of Peers was as the Temple of Old Not an Ax nor a Hammer no Noise was heard there Nor were the Waters of the Sanctuary there troubled nor any of the Vesses of it exposed to Scorn nor any of its Utensils nor Offices in danger of profanation But all things went smoothly there Next As for the House of Commons I may say much to the same purpose in the like strain of its wondrous Quiet and Calmness for Twelve Years together before the time of the said Earls Offences its admirable harmony and consent among themselves as well as its unparallel'd Loyalty Liberality and Duty to the King the great assurance of mind they shewed all along about his Majesties Royal Intentions towards the Securing of Us against Popery and in the Enjoyment and Confirmation of our Legal Rights and Liberties What a mutual confidence was there betwixt King and Commons So those secret Snakes that were crept into the Common Hedge durst not so much as peep forth a head to shew either their Factious Fork Venom or hissing against the Wisdom and Conduct of him or his Ministers And who I pray you was more Triumphantly transported to behold those happy days than this Penitent Earl When being exalted in the bright Orb of Chancellor he most worthily proclaimed before both Houses Anno 1672. A publick Praise and Blessing to the Almighty that he hath given us such a King That while War and Misery rages in our Neighbour's Countries our Garners are full and no
complaining in our Streets So that a man can hardly know there is a War Let God be blessed that he hath given this King signally the Hearts of his People and most particularly of this Parliament who in their Affections and Loyalty to their Prince have exceeded all their Predecessors A Parliament with whom the King hath lived many years with all the Garesses of a happy Marriage Has the Kings had a Concern you have wedded it Has his Majesty wanted Supplyes you have readily chearfully and fully provided for them you have relyed upon the Wisdom and Conduct of His Majesty in all His Affairs So that you have never attempted to exceed your Bounds or to impose upon him On the other side He hath been so tender of you that He hath upon his own Revenue and Credit endeavour'd to support even Forein Wars lest he might become uneasie to you or burdensome to His People I can assure you 't is as impossible for the King to part with this Parliament as it is for you to depart from that Loyalty Affection and Dutiful behaviour you have hitherto shewed towards him Let us bless the King for taking away all ur Fears and leaving no room for Jealiasies for those Assurances and Promises he hath made us Let us bless God and the King our Religion is safe That the Church of England is the Care of our Prince and that Parliaments are safe What more hath a good Englishman to ask but that this King may long Reign and that the Triple Alliance of King Parliament and People may never be Dissolved What more eloquently and truly could have been said than was said here in short by our noble Penitent to set forth the happy peaceful Estate and Condition of this Kingdom But note the time it was in the year 1672 that all was well that the King had the hearts of his Parliament and People So that they were like Man and Wife it was impossible to part or Dissolve them that the Parliament kept within their Bounds meddled not with the Affairs of his Prerogative nor imposed upon him being confident of his Wisdom and Conduct and not â—apt out of Tune with Fears and Jealousies Religion Church Parliaments Properties Liberties all was safe in that Golden Year 72. And his Lordship having thus generously done the King all that Right had reason to believe himself safe too II. Having seen in what a peaceful happy state all things were before the Earl of Shaftsbury's Offending 't is meet that in the next place you should see what the Offences were when they began the tendency and dangerous Consequences of them that others may be Converted who through had Doctrine have been corrupted and the like be avoided for the future Ingenious men use to have quick Motions and Emotions of mind into Acts and by this means oftentimes a sudden Turn of their Minds and Fortunes even to the tossing of all things Topsie-turvy in a fit of ill humour It was you see but in 72. That his Lordship had nothing to find fault with at Court how it hapned presently after this that he was commanded to render up the Great Seal and Office of Chancellor is not here to be discoursed let it sussice to know That it was in the very next year 1673 that it was done and his Lordship laid aside and 't is no part of my business to meddle with the Faults that occasioned it because my desire is rather to cherish him in his Repentance having often long'd to find him in so good a humour It is for me only to give a few Observations about the Affairs which preceeded his Lordships departure from Court while he was a prime Man in the Counsels of His Majesty which have since been made the Subject of many a loud Clamor by the Factious Party Some Observations also I shall make of divers particulars pointing out to you how as soon as his Lordship went out the World also it self was troubled and began to grow out of Order Perhaps it hapned so because his Lordship went out of Office his great Wisdom and Conduct not being any longer at the Helm A Poet of our own fancies the Frame of the World to be bolted together with a smal Pin or two if that be put out all falls to pieces therefore when he brings in Catiline in the Third Act in a great chase because himself was rejected and Cicero chosen Consul he makes him thus vent himself in a lofty Rant Repulse upon Repulse Oh that I could reach the Axel where the Pins are Which bolt this Frame that I might pull them out And pluck all into Chaos with my self So that you see if but a Pin or so be out all falls into Confusion if there be any Truth in Poetry And it may be this was our Case Who can tell For Poets have unlucky Hits many times as well as Polititians So have Historians too For the Record-keeper or Recorder of the Faction I mean the Author of the New Directory for Petty States-men that is to say The Account of the growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government c. Reporteth to us that the present Lord Chancellor another Cicero came in his Lordships Place before the end of 1673 as the former Cicero came into that which was aim'd at by Catiline And then the Golden times before and in 72. being gon the Iron age came on But I must return where I left As to my Observations about the Affairs preceeding his Lordships voidance from Court I find the aforesaid Recorder hath been very punctual to record them and one may well think he is not like to say any thing in prejudice of his Lordship because I perceive in page 44. of his Pamphlet he seems as if he would speak like a Friend of his and says the Parliament having met the 5th of February 1672. prepared an Act by which the Papists were obliged to pass through a new State-Purgatory to become capable of any publick Employment and that the Earl of Shaftsbury then Lord Chancellor of England Engaged so far in Defence of that Act and of the Protestant Religion that it cost him his Place and that it was upon this occasion that he was laid aside My Lord being now a Penitent I would not upon any terms say ought in prejudice to him by telling what the Occasions and Causes were that he was laid aside But appearing against Popery could not be the Cause because 't is known there had been many years before as great an out-cry among the Factious Party against Popery and Popish Counsellers and yet it never appeared all along those times that ever his Lordship appeared against or thought of any such matter for had there been any Cause for it can we think that a Lord so Pious and Zealous of Religion would be guilty of concealing it and have stood still and look't on while it grew up in the fair Sun-shine of all his good Offices Sure it could not be
may see to the Confusion of all their Slanders against the King and his Ministers and his Counsels about the several particulars aforementioned how fairly and prudently things were carried at Whitehall concerning them Only one Point more is to be cleared that is the Black-heath Army a thing much babbled about as a Grand Bugbear by the same Generation and a black Business to this day My Lord will do this for us too Those few Forces which some will needs call an Army during the Dutch War were if I forget not to have been made about 6000 to have been sent to make a descent upon some part of Holland and were rendezvou'd at Black-heath for that design O but there was more in it the Commander in chief was Monsieur Schomberg a French man What then But he war a Protestant also and judged fit for that Work In answer to this let me mind you what the King himself said in his Speech spoken the same day before the Earl of Shaftsbury began his His Majesties words were There is one Jealousie more that is malitiously spread abroad and yet so weak and friâ—â—lous that I once thought it not of moment enough to mention but it may have gotten some ground with some well-minded People And that is that the Forces I have raised in this War were designed to control Law and Property I wish I had raised more Forces the last Summer the want of them then convinces me I must raise more But I conclude with this Assurance to you That I will preserve the true Reformed Protestant Religion and the Church as it is now established in this Kingdom and that no mans property or Liberty shall be invaded You see the Jealousies raised about those Forces the King slights as a frivolous piece of Malice hardly worth mention But however gives all Assurance for Religion Liberty and Property And as for my Lord he in page 13th of his Speech calls it a Jealousie foolishly spread abroad of the Frees the King had raised in that War And he saith It was so great an Error in the King not to have raised more Forces at that time that nothing but the true Reason want of Mony could have justified the defect in the number of those Forces And then as to the blame of their not doing the work that they had been raised for his Lordship answers that the preceeding Summer was a miracle of Storms and Tempests such as thereby secured their East India Ships and protected their Sea coasts from the descent designed by those Forces And if you will not believe so Noble a Patriot as his Lordship about these matters then go on to report and scatter your Scandals till your throats grow hoarse and sore with reporting and become as incurable as your Faction Nevertheless with men not madly obstinate these Evidences ought to pass that there were no such great Offences in Whitehall nor in his Lordship neither in the years before 1673. Now for the other part of my Observations in and after 1673 Divers great Offences grew up from time to time to put the World much out of Order And verily these should not be repeated were it not of so high importance for Publick Service to prevent falling into the like again and to restore the minds of such as are fallen Never was more work done to put a Nation out of Order in so little time as two or three years considering the good and happy condition it was in by his Lordships own Confession for from 73. to 1576 was no long space and by that time his Lordship had taken up Lodgings in the Tower It seems as if he bestirred himself to purpose and began betimes to offend because notice was taken presently after a Court of his Lordships behaviour insomuch that it is said he was forbidden coming to Court But to be even with them for this and for other purposes he took heart and hied as fast as he could into the City with Resolution to become a Citizen and trod the Exchange as a Merchant and as constantly as any being then to drive a great Trade in small Wares of Popularity how it came about you may guess but as to a Common place for all People there flockt the Factors of every Faction Soon after this Clubs and Committees of good Fellowship and Sedition were erected and there all and more than all the Infirmities of Court and Errors of State were Arraigned and Condemned The old Sore also want of Trade was rubbed and the only Remedy resolved on viz. The removing of Evil Counsellers and a crying down France Ministers of State and French Pensioners Arbitrariness and Property yea all that was not at Court was to be brought on the Stage and the Bishops too and to be stript of their Lawn-sleeves Oracles likewise were given out to be delivered in Common Council at Guildhall by Mr. Jenks and his fellow Wiâ—secres and Orders issued out for a general Muster of Grievances against the Session of Parliament besides many a costly Dinner and deep Potations for the putting as many Members as they could out of their Senses There the Contrivances were first set on Foot to Institute Offices of Intelligence to coyn News for the Coffee-houses and an Academy for inventing Seditious and Treasonable Pamphlets with Directions how to Print and Spread them to edifie both City and Kingdom into an Oblivion of their Allegiance and a belief of meere Inventions that so they might be rendred tractable towards any design of their Factious Leaders and for the quickning of a diligent Correspondence of their Countrey-Agents with the supream Council of the Directors at London These were the blessed fruits of the Years 1674. and 76. I am far from charging his Lordship with any of them but I may only observe that all these beginnings of Disorder follow'd his Lordships laying aside at Court and were the unhappy Consequents in time of his Courtship in the City After a while ill humours like ill Weeds grew so fast that now they began to think themselves both powerful and skilful enough to play a Prize in Parliament and therefore seeing the Memorable Session of 13th of April 1675. was at hand they provided their pranks so to play that the Parliament should not be in Condition to do any work but both Houses only embroil one another with hard Speeches and Disputes about Priviledges c. and thereby being in no capacity to make dispatch of Publick Business be rendred altogether impracticable and unuseful to the King and Kingdoms pressing Occasions This device was driven high and with heat for an artifical blowing up of this Parliament because the But-end of it was to induce upon the King a necessity of calling a new One in this Point entred all the Crafts-Masters of every Male-contented Party as the grand Medium wherein they could agree against the present Establishment of the Court and â—overnment both of Church and State because each Party having prepared men
to serve it self by new Elections doubted not but so plausible a Plea as a New Parliament would easily take place and afford every one the advantages they hoped for by a Change His Majesty and His Conncil and the Parliament soon smelt out the desperate meaning of this Privy Conspiracy under cover of so publick a Plea and the Faction was soon made to understand that their Plot was understood and that Crafty Tricks with Loud Popular Clamors and Long Speeches of their Correspondents in Parliament with other Machinations under the Sacred shelter and Claim of Free speaking and Priviledge was no honest English way to bring on New Parliaments the Law having left it wholly to the Judgment and Power of the King who hath at all times had a willingness to call one as soon as the Publick work lying before this Parliament can be finished and the Heats high Cants and Traiterous designs of Factions to make an uproar can be evaporated The working of all these Evils was plainly seen so soon as in this April-Session of 75. to be the wretched effect of those Principles and Doctrines of State which by the care of the Conspirators had been most industriously spread in Prints and otherwise for Poysoning the Opinion of City and Countrey about the King and His Parliament and the Government all exposed for a subversion Some Noble Lords at that Season reflecting on their own Allegiance and Obligation to prevent this brought into the House of Peers a Bill in which was that Oath so much clamour'd at called the Oath of Test or Tryal conceiving it would be a good security to Church and State if men thereby renewed their Allegiance It seems the Plot after the Rate of 1641. was so forward that the Masters of it were touched to the quick and feared this Oath would touch too home also upon their Proselytes who by it were to swear down the Principles and Doctrines of 41. which were now again to be made use of such as allowed of taking Arms against the King upon Parliamentary pretences and by His Authority against His Person and of making Alterations without Him in Church and State If the Book called A Letter from a Person of Quality to his Friend in the Countrey published this year 75. be of any Credit it hath these words in page 9. That the Earl of Shaftsbury was the man in the House that opened at large the Mischievous and ill Designs as he calls it and Consequences of the Bill and convinced many other Lords into a humour of Protesting against the Bill Now the design was bare-faced And because the Church was to have been alter'd as well as State therefore he who will believe that Book may if he please when as in 20. and 21. and 22 pages it saith That his Lordship spake things in disgrace of those old repositories of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England the 39 Articles the Liturgy the Catechism the Homilies and the Canons And I am sure the same Book which condemned these and vilified the Bishops too bestows very high commendations of his Lordships Parts Pains and Labour about these matters which to the praise of his and some other mens Lungs took up the House of Lords with a debate of Sixteen or Seventeen whole days together the House sitting many times till Eight or Nine a clock at night and sometimes till midnight However they could not save the Book which makes report of this Noble Prize from being by Order of the Peers burnt by the hand of the Hangman And indeed it well deserved so because it charged the main stress of the Debate upon the shoulders of his Lordship though the Author wrote as if he had been his Friend by reason of the immoderate Praises that he loads him with in divers places 'T is an unhappy thing and looks ill that his Lordship should have such dangerous Friends as deserve Execution by the Hangman for what praise soever the fore-going Author may have fallen short in another Author endeavours to make up who seems a Friend too of his Lordship by an excess of praising him for the opposing of that Oath as may be seen in pages 17 58 59 69. and 61 62 of that Author whom a little before we named the Record-Keeper or Recorder of the Faction that is more plainly the Author of that most Villainous Book Entitulep An Account c. in the 61 page whereof are these very words It might be injurious where all of them did so excillently well to attribute more to any one of those Lords than to another unless because the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Shaftsbury have been the more reproached for this brave Action it being requisite by a double proportion of praise to set them two on equal terms with the best of their Companions in Honour And in page 62. He glorieth in these words concernâ—ng the Issue of these doings That by this means the Test Dyed and the Matter in conclusion was so Husbanded betwixt this business and the business of Dr. Shirly and Sir John Fagg that any longer converse between the two Houses grew impracticable so that His Majesty was necessitated to Prorogue them till the 13th of October 1675. following Let the World judge then to what height of Crime such mens behaviour doth tend when it must puzzle the most exquisite Politician to distinguish in point of Treason betwixt a Frustrator and a Subverter of the Meetings of Parliament And so you have seen what Friends his Lordship hath and if their Prints are to be believed you see what he did and how he did and how he bestirred himself during that April-Session of the year 1675 Now we pass on to October-Session of the same year and in this it will appear how the work of publick Disturbance and of Frustrating this Meeting of Parliament likewise proceeded for it also came to nothing but by whose means let the Reader judge by what followeth in short The Parliament being met the first Artifice of some was to set on Foot again the late Quarrel betwixt both Houses about their Priviledges In which Master-piece if we may credit a Speech Printed in the name of the Earl of Shaftsbury his Lordship acted a principal part and it was improved from being a private Cause between Shirly and Fagg to become a cause of too much concern to the King the whole Parliament and Kingdom Therefore divers Lords argued in their House to lay aside for a while that Cause as a matter that would revive their Contest with the Commons and thereby hinder the Kingdoms business of preparing a Navy and other pressing Affairs and Occasions and so most of the Lords spake for adjourning that Cause for six weeks But saith the printed Speech in my Lord Shaftsbury's name Take heed what you do and argued these Particulars following That then the Money-Bill for the King to build Ships would be passed Oh take heed of that for though in a