other aggravating Circumstances Bonds have been imposed by Authority of Council without Warrant of Parliament as may appear from 〈◊〉 publick Proclamations and many Thousands of Soldiers have been maintained upon free Quarter and for many Months together countenanced and abetted in it by the Government and the Funds for reimbursing the Countrey which were appointed by Parliament have been otherways diverted The Commissionating the Officers of the Army to sit as Judges upon the Lives and Estates of the Subjects and the putting People to death without a legal Tryal Jury and Record were complained of in the Declaration were thought good Reasons for Fore-faulting of K. J. and were provided against upon this last Setlement of the Crown And yet both the caution given by the Sentence against K. J. and the future Provision made by the Estates prove to weak to restrain this Government from practising the same things by ordering and impowering Colonel Hill and Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton to put Glencou and all the Males of his Clan under Seventy to death which was partly executed upon them without any legal Tryal Jury or Record Neither can their former Enmity and opposition to the Government furnish any Apology for so barbarous a Murther since they had all either actually taken the benefit of the Indemnity then granted and so were Pardoned or had Protections in their Pockets which put them under the immediate care and safeguard of the Government It may pusle the best Heads to find out the reason why Irish Papists though stated Enemies should be indulged to the prejudice of our Laws and Rights and yet Protestants though formerly Enemies barbarously Massacred when indemnify'd and under protection unless K. W. be resolved from the Obligations he is under and the Deference he must pay to the Pope and Popish Princes to imbrace every occasion of destroying the one and cherishing the other By the Declaration we are assured That the Prince will concur in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happiness of these Nations and which a free and lawful Parliament shall determine and yet how many necessary and useful Bills for the Happiness of the Nation have been stifled by the Interest Intreigues and Sollicitations of the King himself his Ministers and Courtiers and the Royal Assent refused to many Bills in our Neighbouring Kingdom And in this to the Bill about Judges which was thought so necessary an expedient for the Establishing of Justice and to cut off their servile Dependance upon the Court which was charged as such a blemish upon the Judges in K. James's Reign and was always look'd upon as dangerous to the Lives and Liberties of the English Subjects We were assured that the only design of the Prince's Undertaking was The preservation of the Protestant Religion the covering all Men from Persecution for their Consciences and the securing to the whole Nation the free injoyment of all their Laws Rights and Liberties under a just and legal Government How well and truly he hath confined himself within these Limits and other Bounds he prescribed to himself in his Declaration may partly appear from what hath been said and shall yet be made more clear and evident by a true and impartial Enquiry into his Conduct and some considerable Stretches which have been made in Points not glanced at by the Declaration because they were Strains of Absolute and Despotick Power which K. James's Reign did not furnish us with any Instances of the like The Power of imposing Taxes is unquestionably lodg'd in Parliament and the People of this Island have a natural Right unto and Dominion over their Properties and the Prince cannot share with them in it in whole or in part except in so far as they consent to it themselves by their Representatives in Parliament And our Parliaments though abundantly liberal in other respects have never indulged the least Liberty to our Monarchs on that head being so far tight to their Trust and their Constituents Interest And the Estates of both Kingdoms judg'd it necessary upon the present Settlement of the Crown to assert the Peoples Right in it and plainly to express it as one of the Conditions of that Settlement And yet the Privy Council of the Kingdom of Scotland have openly and avowedly in Contempt of the antient Laws and late Original Contract by their publick Proclamations commanded and appointed under the severest Penalties the Subjects of that Kingdom at their own Charge and Expence to furnish a great number of Horses for the use and service of the Army and for carrying Ammunition and Provision of Victuals with Men to attend the said Horses And I am informed That when upon cool and second Thoughts the Council considering what they had done how illegal it was and the danger they had run themselves into by it thought fit to apply unto the Parliament for an Approbation it was refused them Extravagant Bail was complained of and provided against by the States of both Kingdoms and yet it is daily and frequently imposed and exacted many times far above the Value of their Estates The Freedom of Elections to Parliament from the Bribes and Directions of Court and Courtiers was expresly conditioned by the States of both Kingdoms upon their Tender of the Crown How well that is kept and observed may appear from the bare faced and open Applications made to Counties Corporations and particular Electors for the Choice of such and such Persons with Threats and promises of Reward Nay I have known Three thousand Pounds expended for secret Service to prevent the Election of a Person who had been eminently Serviceable to this Government becâ—me he was found tighter to the â—nterest of his Country than to the Court for there never was a Reign wherein the Interest of King and People are more confidently stated as contradistinct than in this though it be only the Consent and pretended Interest of the People gives Birth Rise and Title to it The frequency of Parliaments for redressing of Grievances the amending strengthning and preserving of the Laws with all Freedom of Speech and Debates in them was insisted upon and fundamentally established by the States of both Kingdoms when they elected their present Majesties to the Throne How well this is observed and made good to both Kingdoms is obvious enough It is not for redressing of Grievances amending or preserving the Laws they are assembled but for giving of Money The craving Necessities of the State the pressing Circumstances of the Consederates and foreign Affairs the early Preparations of the French King an honourable Peace the Good of the Protestant Religion and Fears of King James are become the cruel and everlasting Topicks the common and ordinary Stale whereby the true Intent of Parliaments is baffled and the Money business quickened and finished The last is now so much the business of Parliaments and the firit so little that it is an equal Wager that this Court may come at last to plead Prescription against
doing of which I must look higher than the begining of King James's Reign the early and unnatural Ambition of the Pr of Orange as well as the necessary connection and series of Affairs oblige me unto it It was not the danger which our Religion and Liberties were threatned with from the Designs and bad Administration of King James and a tender regard to the British Subjects for their Love and Respect to his dearest Consort and Himself with the Interest which his Birth and Marriage gave him in us first induced the Prince of Orange to look towards these Kingdoms and our Affairs The late King Charles notwithstanding of all the tenderness he had discovered for that Prince's Education and care for his Interests in espousing them so vigoursly upon all occasions against the States of Holland who would gladly have secured themselves by depressing him and his Family against those prophetick Fears they lay under for their beloved Rights and Liberties was the first that felt the Effects of his Nephew 's towring and boundless Ambition No sooner did the Prince of Orange find himself reinstated by the Authority and Interest of his Uncle in the Posts of Grandure possessed by his Father and Predecessors and so put into a Condition to appear upon the Stage and mingle in the greatest Affairs of Europe but he gave loose Ranes to his Ambition to range where-ever it could perch and fix without being restrained or frightned by those common Rules or Barriers which Morality and Religion had placed as Spoaks too mean in his Opinion to stop the Careere of a bold and daring Spirit Britain was the Place he fixed his Eye upon neither could Relation or Gratitude place any rubs in his way The lazy Temper of that Monarch addicted to his Pleasures and his being without Children the Religion of his Brother and want of Male Issue together with his own Allyance with the Royal Blood and some Discontents of the People which were begotten and heightned by the Addresses and Malice of a few Grandees promised him a plentiful Harvest in return to his Cabals and Cajoling Insinuations upon which those Grandees were applied unto and as quick and hearty returns made by them with assurance of Zeal Dependance and Fidelity being glad of so considerable a Support Hence sprang all those fatal Divisions which so long time exercised that Prince his Councils and Parliaments To spirit this Party in England and to fix himself one Degree nearer the Crown which he so much long'd for the Prince made his Addresses and was Married to the Lady Mary much against the inclination both of the King and Duke who did very well foresee the Consequence and were afraid of so near a Conjunction with so restless a Spirit But it is well known who disposed the King to agree to the Match for which and other good Services then in betraying his Master he is well rewarded now rather than for any Merits he had to plead upon this Revolution After this Match our Divisions and Discontents past all Bounds nothing less than the interruption of the Royal Line by a Bill of Exclusion would satisfie I know the danger of our Religion from a Popish Successor was pretended but the Prince of Orange's immediate Succession to the Crown in the Right of his Princess was the thing truly intended by the Prince's Agents and Privadoes Nothing else but such a hidden secret Design could have inclined so many Men of Sense and Reason to refuse the great Concessions was offered 'em which without Danger or the bad Consequences of neglecting a just Title did equally secure Religion and Liberty To this Project were Sacrificed all those great and mighty Securities which K. Charles would willingly have Granted in favour of our Religion and Liberties to be rid of that troublesome Bill of Exclusion and thus we lost the greatest and best Establishment we ever had in our view and which would legally peaceably and willingly have been setled upon us without any farther trouble danger or expence So early did this Prince's Ambition become fatal to our Liberties and Properties Hence sprang all those Councils and Measures which did so much Discontent the People and put that King upon the Quo Warranto Project thereby to temper and qualifie Parliaments which the Cabals and Machinations of the Prince had render'd so warm and uneasie to him Hence sprang that Ferment and those bad Humors which gave Life and Motion to the Duke of Monmouth's Invasion and Pretences who all a long had been made a Stale by some though the Prince lay close at the bottom and seemed to favour the Man until at last he perceived that the Duke did in earnest catch at that he so much longed for himself With what regret yea indignation must every English Breast be filled upon that blessed occasion we lost which might have prevented our present Expence of Blood and Treasure and all those Fears and Miseries we are now groaning under and know not when we shall be at an end of It is with unspeakable Grief I am obliged to remember so great a Loss nor do I mention any thing but what is very well known for a Truth to some Persons yet alive and which I have seen clearly verified by some convincing Dispatches which are yet extant and which shall be carefully preserved until they may be with safety produced Doth not Sir W. Temple in his Memoirs licenced and published of late acknowledge the greatest part of what is here asserted as if in this reforming Age People were to make their Court by publishing of Services for which their Posterity may have reason to curse their Ashes Thus we see what fatal Influences the Prince of Orange's Ambition had scattered upon our Councils and Measures during the later end of K. Charles his Reign Neither will he be found less active and successful by himself and Agents during K. James's Administration as will appear from a particular Enquiry into the pretended Abdication This strange and mysterious word which to this day is not well understood neither can be explained nor rightly fitted to what was intended by it either by the Authors of it or by any body else was first made use of in the Kingdom of Naples some Ages ago and begot that fatal Sruggle between the Anjouin and Arroganian Factions which at last quite ruined that flourishing Kingdom and brought it under a foreign Yoke under which it continues to this day I shall not criticize upon it nor examin how improperly it is applied in the Case of King James though that be obvious enough to any Man who understands the Civil Law or the proper and genuine signification of the Word but shall only enquire into the subject matter which according to the Sense of our Reformers amounted to Abdication a Vacancy and that is King James's Disertion and Invasion of the fundamental Laws and Liberties of England As to the first how properly his being forced away may be called a
Parliaments as to any other business but Money-bills As to freedom of Speech and Debates though there be none questioned for it yet Members are so frequently Discouraged and Frowned upon at Court Disgraced and turn'd out of Employments whenever they launch out into an enquiry after Grievances or the present Administration And upon the other hand the Places of Honor and Trust and the Money of the Nation are so openly and visibly employed for debauching of Members from a sense and feeling of the true Interest of the People and for divesting them of all the publick and generous Notions Zeal unwearied and bold Endeavours for the Rights and Privileges of the Subject the joynt Good and Interest of King and Kingdom which hath been hitherto so much the Glory and Entertainment of brave English Spirits in our Parliaments that this native and necessary Freedom of Speech and Debates is more visibly threatned and more effectually destroyed than ever could have been done by Force Sentence or Imprisonment We are sooner wheedâ—ed with false if gilded Pretences than hectored or huffed into a Court Compliance Lastly was there ever a Reign wherein the plunderings and Free quâ—â—terings of Soldiers was more counteranced and the People more grievously oppressed by them than in this The Complaints of Scotland upon that head already hinted at the irregular and unheard of Abuses and Miscarriages of the Irish Army the Desolations brought upon that miserable Kingdom by them and the daily Instances we moâ—t with of that nature in this Kingdom are convincing and undeniable Evidences of the Truth of it Nay to such a pass is it already come that when a Secretary of State was applied unto by persons injured who were intirely in the Interest of the Government and presented by the Knight of the Shire with Complaints against the Abuses and free Quartering of Soldiers they were scornfully rejected with this Answer That Men and Horses must eat Meaning no doubt that since the Taxes designed by the Parliament for that end were necessarily to be applied unto the use of the Consederates the people must be doubly burdened for the Subsistence of the Troops Such brave Guardians are our present Rulers become of the English Liberties Here we have a sad but true Catalogue of our Miseries only it is not full and compleat The present Administration can furnish us with a great many more Instances But I have confined my self to a Deduction of those grosser Errors which visibly infringed the Pretences of the Prince's Declaration and the Petition of Rights the securing and preserving of which was the Reason expresly assigned for his Election into the Throne If in the Infancy of his Government when his sense of Gratitude for the Gift of Three Crowns if ever must be fresh in his Memory when the Hearts and Hands as well as the Purses of the People were necessary for his Support when his Honour as well as Interest called for a different Conduct he run so warmly into such Measures what must we feel when he comes to sit sure and be fixt upon his Throne We may certainly conclude upon the Inclinations and future Designs of a Prince by his preceeding Conduct and the choice of his Ministers and from both these Reflections in the present Case we have but a melancholy View of our future Condition Are not those very Men who in both Kingdoms were the Authors Contrivers and Actors of the most Arbitrary and grievous Proceedings which were complained of during the Reigns of our two last Monarchs become the Ministers the Darlings the Favourites of this Reign Have they changed their Principles and Maxims The former Instances in which they have their share may convince us to the contrary Is it to be imagined that a Prince who signalized his Entry upon the Stage of publick Affairs with a breach of the most solemn Oaths to the contrary the Destruction of the Liberties of his Native Country and by grasping at a Power which the Nature Law and Constitutions of that Government denied to his Character in it will be more tender of his Oaths to us and of our Constitution His past Conduct may clear it up unto us we are Strangers to him and he to us his Affections as well as his Birth are foreign he distrusts and despiseth us as treacherous to our former King He may love the Treason but hates the Traytors It is not a single Crime can entitle us 〈◊〉 his Favour it is by a Sacrifice if 〈◊〉 of King and Country we can touch his heart it is only by this double Treason we can get into his Confidence The Fate and Disgrace of those Persons who upon this Revolution frankly sacrificed the first but knew not how to subdue their Scruples as to the last may sufficiently prove this Truth We have none but our selves to blame for this Mischief By our Abdicating Vote and subsequent Measures our antient just and legal Government is destroyed and overturned and in so doing we have disingaged him from the Promises he made in his Declaration since it was only under a just and legal Government that we were assured of his Endeavours to preserve our Laws Rights and Liberties Let us yet a little farther examine the Benefits we shall reap from this Revolution the Means we have to support it and what will probably be the Issue of all these great Transactions The malignant aspect of our late Measures towards our beloved Rights and Privileges seems to be pretty well cleared already and scarce admits of an aggravating Thought more unless we consider that we are like to pay the Price of a perfect and lasting Cure for downright Poyson and a mortal consuming Feavor But perhaps this Victorious Prince by his Conquests and admirable Conduct will raise the Military Glory of this Nation so high and enlarge her Territories and Command so far as shall quite darken and eclipse the Lustre and Fame of our greatest and most fortunate Kings and thereby alleviate or quite bury our Sense and Feeling of past present and future Miseries If the Lawrels and Conquests of a Monarch which are first drenched in Tears and are founded upon the Slavery of the People can atone for such Miseries the French at this Day would be the happiest People in Europe This will not pass upon English Men who observe from their Histories that the most Victorious of their Monarchs have always been most render and careful of their Liberties and I am afraid that even this faint Comfort shall not be afforded us What reason have we to expect that by the Conduct and Military Knowledge of a Prince against whom the Naked and Undisciplined Irish made Head for three Campaigns together we shall be able to gain Troops and Provinces from the more Numerous better Disciplined and Conducted Troops of France For though the Author of A Letter to a Friend concerning a French Invasion flatters us with our Victories over the French at the Boyn Athlone Agrim and Limrick
his imprisonment of the E. of Feversham who was a publick Messenger and Peer of England and under the Cognizance of none but the King his imprisoning and banishing King James from his own Pallace though acknowleged as the just Monarch by his own Declaration his banishing the French Embassador out of England as soon as he came to London and before the Administration was put into his Hands by which these Kingdoms were ingaged without their own Consent in a War with France without so much as any pretence of Entertainment given to their Abdicated Monarch being a considerable time before K. James's retreat thither were direct possitive and most Solemn Acts of Sovereignty before ever the Crown was confer'd upon him and are so many plain and evident Indications of that early Ambition I have charged upon him And in farther Evidence that all his Designs from the very first were aimed at the Crown and the Crown Vested too with the most towring Prerogatives When the Convention was Deliberating upon some future Provisions against Arbitrary Power the Prince sent my Lord Wharton to several Lords and Mr. Coulin to Sir Edward Seymor and Mr. Hambden and other Commoners to let them known That if the House insisted so much upon Limitations that he would return again and leave them in the lurch to the Mercy of King James So generously Tender was this great Deliverer of our Religion and Liberty As to the Dispencing Power assumed by King James I do not pretend to justifie it I am heartily sorry that so bad a Measure was taken to carry on and establish so desirable and necessary a Good and Birth right of Mankind as Liberty of Conscience which carries its own native Beauty and Usefulness so visibly stampt upon it as could never have failed to obtain an Establishment from the Reason and Judgement of an English Parliament But this would have so much united the Hearts and Affections of English Subjects with their King and laid such an invincible rub in the Way of the Prince's ambitious Designs that it became one of the nicest and most sicklish Points to manage the hardest to ward off and the most dextrous and artful part of their Game there was no downright opposing of so general and desirable a Good 〈◊〉 was easier to poyson and divert 〈◊〉 The King was first put upon Establishing this Liberty by a Proclamation that so the Parliament might be prejudiced against a Thing which otherwise they would have granted upon the account of the first Measure taken about it but finding that the general Good and Benefit which was to be reaped from this Liberty would have digested and sweetned this Pill from a pretence of saving the King's Honor from a Foyl and making all sure though really with a design to ruin Him and baffle the Thing they put him upon the Regulating and Closetting Projects and upon obliging the Clergy to read his Proclamation for Liberty of Conscience from their Pulpits This did alarm the Bishops as was designed and obliged them to think upon Petitioning against it upon which those Beautefeux being afraid lest the KING should call in his Proclamation having always found it hard enough to bring Him to such Methods they ordered the business so that the Bishops were so long in presenting of their Petition to the King that though their Reasons had convinced and satisfied Him there was not time enough to countermand his former Orders though never so willing Upon which they took occasion to incense the King against them as if they had delay'd their Petition so long with design to embroyl Him with his People and so they run the Bishops into the Tower and from thence to the Barr. This is the true History of the Dispencing Power and of the Bishops Persecution which was so warmly and bitterly urged against the King as undeniable Proofs that his Inclination to Catholicks was too strong for the Laws But to speak plain English I hope those Stretches in favour of Catholicks which were Criminal in King James are not become more Legal and Meritorious in King William the exercise of the Dispencing Power in their favours I hope is as much a fault now as ever The Charge will be denied but I shall make it good when I come to discourse upon the Third Motive to the King's Restauration Are not Catholicks employ'd now in the Army thô not qualified by Law It will be alleg'd they are Foreigners so much the worse for an English Catholick will still have some regard for the Laws and Liberties of his Countrymen whereas a mercenary Foreigner is absolutely at the disposal of his Master Are not the Catholicks as much Countenanced and in the exercise of as much Liberty for their Religion as ever The necessity of humouring a Confederacy which must support us the great Strength of which are Catholicks may be urged as a very good Reason for this but if we examine it to the bottom this threatens our Religion more than any Indulgence was granted them by King James When the Catholicks of England hold their Liberty merely from the favour of the Protestants of England they must be thankful for it and humble under it but when they come to derive their Favours Immunities and Liberty from the necessity of our Circumstances and humble Regard and Deference we must pay to Catholick Princes without whose Assistance and Friendship we cannot Subsist their Spirits Hopes and Haughtiness will be enlarged by it They must make grateful acknowlegements to those Catholick Princes by whose kind Influences they injoy their Liberty This begets a Correspondence with and Dependance upon Foreign Princes and we do not know how far by the Instigation of Catholicks here those Princes may be prevailed upon to improve the necessity we have of their Allyance to the advantage of those of their own Religion amongst us The House of Austria within our remembrance was the most zealous Champions for the Roman Religion and the dependance of the Catholicks of England upon that House hath been always terrible and troublesom to this State And though their Losses and the growth of France hath humbled and levelled all the towring Thoughts and Ambition of that Family which did so much exercise both the Councils and Forces of their Neighbours yet since by our Assistance that House is to recover its Losses and France to be reduced within its ancient bounds with their lost Provinces the House of Austria may resume their old Designs They were but covered up not extinguished concealed through Weakness to be discovered upon a greater Encrease of Strength and Vigour in which case we may come to be whipt for our present Politicks May the great God avert those dangers and difficulties which inviron us and visibly threaten the Religious and Civil Concerns of these Kingdoms We have been pulling Destruction with both our hands upon our selves and desperately risking our Religion and Civil Rights without any necessity and unless we repent and repair
and Quality in October 1690. and which was delivered into many of the Members Hands besides the times and circumstances of Affairs were the most â—â—â—sonable for such an Enquiry It was not to be supposed that the Witnesses could either then be bribed or overawed into a partial Testimony and there was all imaginable incouragement for freedom of Questions for confronting the Deponents and producing Counter Evidences if there were any such so that the whole Matter might have been laid open and cleared to the satisfaction of all Persons concerned The vindicating the Honor and Justice of the Nation the quieting of so many Peoples Consciences who think themselves bound by their Oaths of Allegiance to the King 's next and immediate Heirs the regard due to an innocent Child if the Imposture be not cleared the satisfaction of the Christian World and the securing these Kingdoms from those great Dangers and Confusions which are certain and infallible upon Competitions in point of the Royal Succession were great and unanswerable Motives for an Enquiry nay amounted to the Weight of a Duty due from them to their Constituents themselves and Posterity What can any thinking Man conclude from such a Neglect and Omission but that the Evidence for the reality of the Prince of Wales his Birth was clear and convincing and the Counter Evidence which was pretended against it false and forged that the Prince of Orange in his Declaration had rather Studied to amuse the World with great and specious Pretences than to satisfie them as to the realty and truth of his Grounds and that the Convention and Parliament have followed the Dictates of Passion and Prejudice more than the Rules of Prudence and Justice It cannot be supposed they forbore to trace this Imposture from any tenderness to the King's Reputation which would have been so deeply Wounded by a discovery of the Cheat. So much time and pains spent unsuccessfully in laying open the Earl of Essex's pretended Murther shews evidently how glad they would have been of any occasion or probable pretence whereby to blacken King James So that the Nation must even rest satisfi'd without any further Evidence of this Imposture than some pretended Suspicions which were both groundless and raised industriously by those publick Agitators for this Revolution As for Instance The Princess of Denmark being forced out of the way to the Bath at the time of the Queen's Delivery whereas it is very well known and can be made appear by Persons of undoubted Honor and Integrity that the King was against it that her Physitians in Ordinary were against it and that pains was taken to search about for Physitians who would advise her going as expedient for her Health so early were they contriving Pretences for this Calumny But the Prince and Princess of Orange were all along Suspicious that the Queen was with Child and yet no care was taken to satisfie them about it Did they ever acquaint the King with their Suspicions and desire some Method might be taken to remove them And were they refused it This was the proper and usual way in such Cases And since it was not taken there is no ground for Complaint The King could not dive into Suspicions which in my Conscience I am persuaded they never entertain'd And lastly it is alleged no care was taken to satisfie the Nation who were full of doubts about the reality of his Birth But why did they doubt Were any Methods neglected which used to be observed Or any Persons secluded who ought to have been present Did they give any intimation of their Suspicions by humble Petition or Remonstrance and desire to be satisfied about ' em The Queen had formerly brought forth Children without any pretended Jealousies Who could foresee that such a black and hellish Calumny would be then invented Yet the Wisdom of God Almighty knowing how far the Wickedness of this Age would extend and as an earnest I hope of his good and kind Intentions to this Nation hath Providentially furnished us with a better and more numerous Evidence of the Birth of this Prince than can be brought for the realty of the Birth of any Prince or private Person in Europe and hath yet fortified and confirmed it by another Conception and Pregnancy of the Queens to the Birth of which Child many Persons of all Qualities have been called and invited in an extraordinary manner so willing is the King to satisfie even our malitious groundless Complaints But it seems our Rulers have no doubts upon that Head in which they desire to be satisfied or find it not for their interest to have them cleared From what hath been said it is evident that there is a real Prince of Wales who must be considered as such so long as the pretended Imposture is not cleared to us and who hath Injustice done him by the Convention of Estates for though the Abdicating Vote were well founded against the Father it was only personal to Him and cannot reach the Son In which Case the Princess of Orange's Right being only from the Guift and by the Election of the People is a manifest Breach of the Royal Line and hath quite altered the Nature and Frame of our Hereditary Monarchy As to the Title given to the Prince during Life at her Request the Princess of Denmark by the Rules of Succession in an Hereditary Monarchy is unquestionably â—ex Heir to her Sister the Princess of Orange if she dye without Children By the Survivancy of Royalty lodged in the Prince after the Princess's Death there is another manifest Injury done to the Princess of Denmark and her Children there is another unquestionable Breach made upon the Royal Line and the antient Constitution of our Monarchy and there is a second Election of a Monarch by the Convention to the Prejudice of the next undoubted Heir lest the first Instance had not made a stro g enough President for an Elective Monarchy for the future And whereas it is pretended That the Prince had his Title at the request of the Princess who was the next Heir and willing to give him Place where is this request and Concession of the Princess to be seen When was it presented to the Convention or where is it recorded But thô it were real what is that to the Princess of Denmark and her Heirs Can a Compliment intended by the Princess of Orange from her self to her Husband cut off their Rights Again is it not evident That by such a request it 's confessed the present Settlement of the Crown is by the Election and from the Gift of the People and plainly acknowledged that there is a Right in them to alter the Succession and make a Breach of the Royal Line at their Pleasure But it is alledged We have the practise of our Predecessors to warrant our present Measures who have made much greater Breaches in the Lineal Succession deposed Kings and given the Crown to Persons remoter from the Royal Blood than
the Prince of Orange and that in the Cases of Hen. IV. and Hen. VII In this the Author discovers himself to be ignorant of the History and Affairs of his own Country in mistaking the Case of Hen IV. in giving us an Instance in Hen. VII of a Breach of the Lineal Succession to the Prejudice of the surviving King and next Heir since it is very well known that Richard the Usurper was killed in Battel and lest no Heir behind him and King Henry being undoubt d Heir of the House of Lancaster by his Marriage with the Heiress of the House of York united the two Roses and had an unquestionable Title to the Crown without any Breach in the Lineal Succession And also in omitting to give us the Instance of Edw. III. which are all the Examples our History affordeth and are very far from making a Precedent in our Case Edw. III. was the eldest Son and undoubted and nearest Heir of the Crown and thô he mounted the Throne during his Father's Life yet it was upon his Father's Resignation And though he had all the Heat and Ambition of a young Man and discovered during his Reign a largeness and greatness of Soul more than ordinary yet he constantly refused the Crown until his Father's Resignation was obtained This can be none of those greater Breaches of the Succession hinted at by our Author and doth not at all sute the Case of King William And Hen. IV. makes as bad a Precedent for our Practise King Ri. II. resigned in the favour of Hen. had no Children to be prejudiced by his Resignation King Henry was the next Heir the Pretences of the House of York being not then set on foot but that Family acquiesced in his Right as well as the rest of the Kingdom So that our own Histories can as little furnish us with Examples to justifie our present Practise as those of other Nations If in the Instances assigned the horrid Violences of Richard the Third the Male Administrations of Richard the Second and Edward the Second could not in the Opinion of this Author warrant their Dethronnig from the Character of Injuries done them he must certainly be jesting all along with us in his Pamphlet in justifying an Abdication for less and shorter Errors and the Tory Nottingham is forced at last to peep out from under his Republican Disguise As to the Pretence That by saving the Succession to the Princess of Denmark and her Heirs the Convention hath sufficiently shewn how far they were from designing any Alteration in the Succession or the ancient Constitution of our Monarchy it is equally weak and frivolous with any of the rest and lays a Foundation for another Election as it is expressed in the Vote For the Provision is not to the Princess of Denmark's Heirs simply as the Author falsly and disingenuously represents but runs thus To the Princess Ann of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body which failing to the Heirs of the Body of the said K. William which excludes all collateral Pretenders of the Orleans and Palatine Families who would have been comprehended under the general Notion of Heirs It was not possible for the Wit of Man to contrive a Vote which in so few Words could more visibly alter the Nature of our Hereditary Monarchy make more and stronger Precedents for an Elective occasion more Interruption in the Succession and lay a better Foundation for the like for the time to come For in this Sentence we have a Breach in the Person of the reigning King by the Abdication we have another Breach in the Person of the Prince of Wales we have the People conferring the Crown by Election upon the Princess of Orange to the Prejudice of that Prince his Title we have a Survivancy of the Government settled in the Prince of Orange by a second Act of this Elective Power of the People to the prejudice of the Princess of Denmark and her Heirs which makes a third Breach in the Succession and lastly we have all the Collateral Heirs of this Crown quitâ— cut off by the Entale by which the Monarchy is to b extingu shed or a Series of Elective Monarchs buckled upon this Nation us â—trongly as those good Patriots could do it by their Sentence Let any wise and thinking Man judge if this be not such a palpable and visible â—â—â—inging of all the antient Frame and Constitution of our glorious Monarchy as deserves the warmest Endeavours and most diligent Application of every honest Man for the settling of this our antient English Government upon its old Basis by the Restauration of K. James The Author of A Letter to a Friend concerning the French Invasion did certainly foresee these Difficulties the former Author had run himself into and being unwilling to shipwrack his Reason upon such gross Absurdities he broadly hints at Conquest And in this he but seconds the Author of the Answer to the Paper delivered by Mr. Ashton at his Execution Licenced by a Secretary of State who boldly and without Disguise pleadeth upon that Title This Plea though it be not liable to the same Absurdities with the other yet labours under greater since by one blow and with one dash of his Pen he levels at the Birth-rights of the Subjects as well as of the Monarch and undeavours to extinguish the Freedoms of Englishmen as well as the antient Government and certainly to entail upon and place us actually under that Slavery the fear of which is the best Reason they assign for restraining us from assisting our King in his Return as if such remote fears of Slavery were more dreadful than present Servitude which is the necessary consequence of Conquest These Champions make very bold with their Prince and wound his Honour and Interest deeper than the keenest Enemies could do Such Blunders must fall in when Men reason rather from Passion than from steady and generally received Maxime and labour to defend a deeply tinctured Republican Revolution by Tantivy Monarchical Principles It is strange to see a Man who is indued with a rational Soul whose greatest Prerogative and Excellency consists in a clear unbyassed and distinct Exercise of Reason so blinded with foolish Prejudice as rather than submit to plain and convincing Truth chuse to betake himself to this unaccountable notion of Conquest which is absolutely inconsistent with the Prince's Declaration destroys the Maxims and Grounds upon which the Convention of Estates from whom the Prince derives his Title did proceed overturns the Subjects Claim to Rights and Privileges the pretended care of which is the best Support of this Government brings home to our Fancies and Imaginations the most frightful Ideas which a free-born People can form to themselves of Tyranny and Slavery with all the terrible and desolating Consequences which attends them and consequently lays us under Obligations from a due regard to our selves and Posterity and Duty to our Country to shake off the Yoak with all Speed though with
It seems God Almighty did always discover more of Passion and Worldly Designs than true Zeal for Religion in those Undertakings and I am afraid That since we deserve the like Charge our Punishment may be the same unless by a seasonable and early Repentance we prevent it The first Example I find in History is Zisca's War in Bohemia against the Emperor Sigismond which thô managed as successfully in the beginning as any thing we can flatter our selves with yet had an end very fatal to the Reformation in that Kingdom The Civil Wars in Germany managed by the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse against Charles V. had no better Issue many Imperial Cities and Provinces were lopt off from our Communion and the principal Actors themselves were remarkably Sufferers by it and their Families wear the Scars of it to this day The second Bohemian War under the Elector Palatine whom they had chosen for their King was yet more fatal to that Kingdom than the first and almost ruined the King of Denmark did exceedingly weaken the Protestant Interest in Germany and laid the Foundation for the present Grandure of France which is so terrible to Europe at this time Upon the Event of that War the Civil Rights and Liberties of the Subject as well as the Protestant Religion in the Kingdom of Bohemia were intirely ruined and extinguished The principal Electorate of the Empire together with the Palatinate of Bavaria were wrested out of a Protestant and placed in a Popish Family Several other Protestant Princes and States were lost and the French possessed of both the Alsatias which hath since given infinite Disturbances to that Empire And the Hungarian War commenced first upon pretence of Religion and came at last to be managed by Tekely hath quite buried the Protestant Religion in Hungary and Transilvania and it is very Remarkable That so long as they kept Petitioning as Subjects Though with Arms in their Hands for the free Exercise of their Religion they were constantly Victorious and got into the absolute Possession of the greatest part of that Kingdom and might have fully secured their Religion and Liberties by Concessions and Immunities which the Emperor offered them in repeated Treaties And yet no sooner was the Crown given to Tekely and an Allyance made with the Turks to support him in it but by a series of Misfortunes all their former Successes were unravelled and their Affairs reduced to the miserable Condition we now see them in What sad alarms may such Instances give us How truly do they point at our Case and perhaps our Fate Can any of the above-mentioned Examples discover such plain and visible Marks of worldly Ambition Self-interest and corrupted Designs and Artifices for their Original as have evidently actuated the Contrivers of and principal Agitators in our Revolution And yet how fatally were they punished And can we hope to escape The Emperor Ferdinando was in a worse Condition to resist the Elector Palatine backed by the Protestant Princes of Germany countenanced by Brâ—â—an and Holland and the present Emperour Rodolph was under harder Circumstances to support a War against his Hungarian Rebels and the Turkish Power than any that France hath to graple with from Us and our Allies and yet their numerous Armies and strong Allies could not secure them from those Miseries which did at last overtake them There is no way for us to get safe from the Precepices we have been walking upon to retrieve our Religion from the desperate Danger we have run it into and to setle and secure it but by a National returning to our Duty which will sufficiently atone for so general a Defection by resuming that Treaty we so foolishly br k off and refused and thereby securing Religion and Property by those Concessions which our Sovereign is still ready to grant us Let us put it home to him and lay it at his own Door let him have it in his Choice to return by his People if he pleaseth convince him that his Protestant Subjects upon securing their Religion and Liberties will repair their former Errors by contributing heartily towards his Restauration And if he decline to return upon a Protestant and English Foot there is an end of the Controversie and of all Disputes amongst Protestants for Religion and Liberty will never be Sacrificed by true English Men. I am come in the last place to the Objections raised by the new Authors against King James's return which are stuffed with virulent false and sophistical Reasonings and in a great Measure taken off by what hath been already said The first thing they endeavour to frighten us with is a Conquest and with Popery and Slavery as the necessary Consequences of it since it is impossible K. James can return otherways because K. William will not Abdicate I abhor the thoughts of Conquering my native Countrey as much as any Man more it seems than The Author of a Letter to a Friend who would allow of it in the Person of K. William and I am against it in any Case But by whom are we to be Conquered and to whom must the Conquest belong Are we to be Conquered by such Troops as K. James in point of Prudence and according to the practises of all Ages in the like Case must bring with him for the defence of his Person and the untying of that Force which the Prince hath put upon us I know no reason why it may not be as Lawful for K. James to bring Fifteen thousand Men to assist him in recovering his Throne as it was for the P. of O. to bring the like Number to chase him out of it and that without giving any Jealousie to us of a Conquest Thrice that Number were too few to make a Conquest of this Island and I hope they will be so well seconded and so far out numbered by the Accession of his own Subjects upon a feeling Discovery of the Pr. of Orange's Tyranny as well as of the Injustice done their King as may justly Stamp it a Revolution brought about by English Men who have Conquered their Passions and not their Countrey rescued and not enslaved the Nation and who have preserved and not endangered their Religion Is this imaginary Conquest to make us Slaves to the Fr. King or Catholicks and Slaves to K. James I cannot believe the first For I do not think K. James so much in love with the French King as to make him a Present of Three Crowns to the prejudice of Himself and his Posterity and so become either his Subject or his Vassal These are suppositions fit only to pass upon Children deserves no serious Answer and plainly shews the weakness of the Cause which can furnish no better Reasons wherewith to defend it As to the last The French King will never force us to be Catholicks for the Reasons already assigned and it doth as little agree with his Interest to have us Slaves to our Monarch Friendships are
Disertion will best appear from a true Narrative of Matter of fact which I shall give the Reader And though it may contain several things which are not generally known and yet contribute exceedingly to the clearing of this point I shall deliver nothing but Truths which can be made evident either by Letters or Evidence above all exception No sooner was the Prince of Orange landed but it quickly appeared to the World how strangely successful his Agents had been in their Negotiations The Poyson was universally spread and the Pretences of his Declaration greedily swallowed down without Examination though I shall make it appear before I have done That it was partly forged and nothing of it ever intended to be performed There was nothing sound or untainted in the whole Kingdom His Children run away from him the Clergy juggle with him his domestick and menial Servants betray him his Subjects flock in to the P. of Orange his Army disert and the very Creatures which he had raised from the Dust form Designs to deliver up his Person Was not this a Scene the most wonderful and astonishing that was ever presented upon the Stage of human Affairs What ground had the King to think that his Person could be with any manner of Safety amongst a People who had thrown off all Tyes and Duties which could rationally be depended upon in the like case When that natural Affection which was due from Children to their Parents was quite forgotten when the Love Respect Service and Gratitude which is due from Servants to their Master and Benefactor was entirely thrown off and unheard of Treachery cherished in their places When that Allegiance which is due from Subjects to their Prince was debauched and running into another Channel When that Fidelity which was due from Soldiers both as Subjects and Men who make a particular Profession of Honour to their Prince General and Nursing Father was so generally corrupted that he was advertised by his General Officers That the Army was quite poisoned and would not fight When his own Ministers and Counsellors were in Pay and Correspondence with the Invader and pushing him into Councils and Measures which might encrease the present Ferment and facilitate the Prince's Designs What hopes of Accommodation or Assurance of Safety could remain without renouncing all Reason Sense and Discretion especially if we consider that as soon as the account came that Oxford's and St. Alban's Regiment of Horse commanded by Langston and Cornbury and Heyfort with their Dragoons were deserted and gone into the Prince he called his General Officers and Colonels together at London amongst which were Churchil Kirk Trelauny Grafton and others and acquainted them he had called a free Parliament that he was resolved to secure Religion Liberty and Property at their Sitting He obtested these Officers to let him know if there was any thing farther which they desired for the Security of their Religion and Liberties and he would most willingly grant it and withal desired That if there was any amongst them who could not be satisfied to let him know it and he would frankly grant them Passes for themselves and Equipage to go in to the Prince Upon which they all answer'd chearfully and unanimously That they were fully satisfied and would hazard their Blood to the last drop in his Service And yet how basely and ungratefully some of them afterwards dealt by him is too well known and was enough to give that Prince just Jealousies of his own Safety amongst Men so lost as to all sense of Honour and Integrity And yet so loth was this Monarch to part from a People who had forsaken him first though surrounded with Fears and Distractions under which any other Person would have sunck that he made offers of a Treaty which the Prince accepted not that he designed to come to any Settlement upon it but because he durst not unmask himself so far as to refuse it and was in hopes to find some Pretext or other to break it off Upon this the Commissioners met on both sides but with so little Inclination on the Prince's side to come to an Accommodation which would have bereaved him of that sweet Morsel he had been so long labouring for nay he discovered so firm a Resolution to attain his ends without scrupling any thing how severe soever which could compass them that those noble Lords who were empower'd by the King to treat for him did acquaint his Majesty with the insuperable Difficulties they met with in their Negotiation and that they thought themselves bound in Duty to let him know that his Person was not in Safety under the Power of a Prince who by the haughty and rigid Conditions he proposed or rather imposed and his still marching on notwithstanding the Treaty did visibly enough discover some farther hidden Design This must certainly be thought Warning enough from Persons who were even then leaning to the strongest side and so would not have hazarded such advice unless forced to it by Truth and Horror of the Design or put upon it by the Prince himself to frighten the King away who was sensible his Stay did check his Designs and so was resolved to be rid of his Person some way or other Upon this the King thought fit to withdraw and afterwards sent the E. of Feversham from that place with such ample Concessions and such real discoveries of a sincere Intention to satisfie his People to the full that the Prince was extreamly alarmed upon it and did plainly see the miscarriage and ruin of all his Designs if Feversham's Message should be imparted to the English that were about him for though there were some who upon all occasions were forward enough to advise the utmost Severities against the King's Person yet by far the greatest part for Number Interest and Quality were at the bottom for an Accommodation with the K. which would have setled and bettered the Nation but at the same time would have quite dashed the Prince's Hopes and Expectations and therefore some bold Stroke must be given that so much Patience so great Labour and so many Crimes might not be lost the Publick Faith must be broken and Feversham must be secured without so much as acquainting the Persons of Quality of the English Nation who were about him with it though all a long he had pretended to act by their Advice But in so nice a Conjunction he was afraid to trust to their Affection as knowing very well they would have pâ—y'd more than was fitting for his Interest into the pretended Cause of the Earl's Confinement and his Message the Goodness of which would certainly have preserved the Publick Faith inviolable in the Earl's Person notwithstanding of the Crime alleg'd against him and continued in the Treaty whereas by this Method the Message was concealed the Treaty was quite broken off and the King would most certainly be frightned to steal away After such a series of Defection amongst all sorts of People
after such an Advice sent by Persons whom he had trusted with the most important Concerns of his Crown and Kingdom after such an open Breach of the publick Faith and after such visible and open discoveries of the Prince's secret Designs and unlimited Ambition a Passion which never scruples to sacrafice every Remora to its Establishment where it Predominates Is there any cool and rational Man will censure the King's Conduct in disbanding that Army which had for the most part made a Defection from him and in taking care of his Person by a speedy Retreat from amongst such wavering Subjects dangerous and disingenuous Enemies But in farther Evidence of the King's unwillingness to part from his People and of the Prince's fix d and determinate Resolutions to force him to as great a distance as he could being always jealous of a Reconcilement which would have quite buried his ambitious Thoughts and Designs I shall give the World a particular account of the most important Steps taken by either Relative to their several Designs The King when he came to London sent a Message to Sir Thomas Stamp now Mayor and to Sir Simon Lewis two eminent Aldermen of that City desiring them to acquaint their Brethren and others of the Common Council That he was resolved to put himself into the hands of the City there to remain until by a free Parliament he had given all Satisfaction to his People by securing their Religion Liberties and Properties to the full hoping that in the mean time they would take care to guard and secure his Person The foresaid Persons communicated this Message as they were desired but by the influence and interest of Sir Robert Clayton the offer was refused and the security of his Person would not be assured to him Here is plain demonstration both of the King's Willingness to piece up with his People and of the Danger which threatned his Person When the King came from Feversham to Whitehall Monsieur Zuylestein delivered him at Somerset house a Letter from the Prince which was designed to have reached him before he came from Feversham wherein he was desired but in the Style of a Command not to come any nearer London than Rochester To which the King very meekly returned an Answer That he would have complied with the Letter had it come sooner to his hands Can there be any more doubt after this of the Prince's unjust and ambitious Designs to put such a Restraint upon a Monarch in his own Dominions whose undoubted Title he had acknowleged both by his Declaration and a Treaty This was a piece of Haughtiness and Insolence above all Example except what his own future Practices hath furnished us with As soon as the King came to Whitehall he wrote to the Prince inviting him to St. James's allowing him his own Dutch Guards to secure his Person and assuring him That upon their Interview he would fully satisfie the intent of his Declaration But this was no satisfaction to the Prince He had a secret and concealed aim at the Crown and provided he could gain that point he liked it the better that it were Vested with all the Power he so much complained of in his Declaration His Conduct since hath sufficiently cleared this to these Nations An Interview which was so much desired by the King did not suit with this darling Project he could neither well ask it nor expect to have it granted Besides he found the Torrent of the Peoples Affections which had run so swiftly towards himself was then at a Stand and in danger to be turned into another Channel if the King remained at Whitehall and at liberty to apply himself to the regaining of his Subjects Hearts which he was sincerely resolved to court and acquire at any rate being free from the bad Influences and Advices of those Ministers which were in Confederacy with the Prince Upon all which it was resolved that Count Solmes should possess the several Posts at Whitehall with Dutch Guards and make the King a Prisoner And about two a Clock in the Morning he received Orders from the Prince by the Mouths of three noble Lords to be gone immediately from his own Palace and accordingly he was sent Prisoner to Rochester attended by Dutch Guards and all this performed with unspeakable Rudeness and Indignities done to his Person He was disturbed at an unseasonable hour with a Sentence of Banishment from his own Palace passed upon him by his Son-in-law who pretended only to settle and fix his Crown by redressing of Grievances and that Sentence pronounced unto him by three of his own Subjects who accompanied it with some unmannerly Severities which their fears of a courser Treatment if he staid put them upon He was refused his own Guards to attend him and his own Coach to carry him to Rochester though he declared That he could not travel by Water in so cold a Season against Wind and Tide without greatly endangering his Health Good God! that such Barbarities should be practised and afterwards justified by Christians which Pagans and Infidels would be ashamed of Whilst the King staid at Rochester and during the Sessions of those Lords and Commons who first put the Administration of Affairs into the Prince's Hand and moved for calling of the Convention he sent a Message to the present B of Winchester which he desired might be communicated to the rest of the Bishops acquainting him with his Resolutions to come either publickly or privately and put himself into the Hands of my Lords the Bishops to be under their Protectionâ— until at their Sight and by their Advice he had fully settled and secured every thing in a free Parliament This Message the Bishop of Winchester did impart to the rest and their return to it was That they could not receive him either publickly or privately under their Protection for in that case they would be responsible for his Safety and they were not in a Condition to secure him against the Ambition of the Prince who was resolved to accomplish his Designs and surrounded with so many Troops after so many Advertisements given him of the danger his Person was in by People who might know it and whose Testimony was not to be suspected and those Advertisements fortified and confirmed by the Prince's strange and unaccountable Carriage in breaking the publick Treaty in imprisoning my Lord Feversham contrary to the publick Faith thereby to elude the Effects of his Message in refusing a personal Treaty depriving him of his Liberty putting him under Guards and in banishing him imperiously and unmannerly from his own Houses After so many fruitless Applications to the Prince to the City and to the Bishops only to be secured as to his Person until by a free Parliament he had given full Satisfaction to his People Can there be any Person who is not become Bankrupt as to common Sense and Reason who will blame the King for withdrawing and thereby endeavouring to put himself in