will please to pardon my Frailties to accept of my faithful Endeavours and always to look favourably on the Work of Your own hands And now Sir my first Entrance upon this Service obliges me to make a few necessary but humble Petitions on the behalf of Your most Loyal and Dutiful House of Commons 1. That for our better Attendance on the Publick Service we and our Servants may be free in our Persons and Estates from Arrests and other Disturbances 2. That in our Debates Liberty and Freedom of Speech be allowed us 3. That as occasions shall require Your Majesty upon our humble Suit and at such times as Your Majesty shall judge seasonable will vouchsafe us access to Your Royal Person 4. That all our Proceedings may receive a favourable Construction That God who hath brought You back to the Throne of Your Fathers and with You all our Comforts grant You a long and a prosperous Reign and send you Victory over all Your Enemies and every good mans heart will say Amen To which the Lord Chancellour reply'd Mr. Speaker THe Kings Majesty hath heard and well weighed your short and Eloquent Oration And in the first place much approves that you have with so much advantage introduced a shorter way of speaking upon this occasion His Majesty doth well accept of all those dutiful and affectionate Expressions in which you have delivered your Submission to his Royal Pleasure And looks upon it as a good Omen to his Affairs and as an Evidence that the House of Commons have still the same Heart that have chosen such a Mouth The conjuncture of time and the King and Kingdoms Affairs require such a House of Commons such a Speaker for with Reverence to the holy Scripture upon this occasion the King may say He that is not with me is against me for he that doth not now put his Hand and Heart to support the King in the common cause of this Kingdom can hardly ever hope for such another opportunity or find a time to make satisfaction for the Omission of this Next I am commanded by his Majesty to answer your four Petitions whereof the first being The freedom of you and your Servants in your Persons and Estates without Arrest or other disturbance the King is graciously pleased to grant it as full as to any of your Predecessors The Second for Liberty and Freedom of Speech the Third for Access to his Royal Person And the Fourth That your proceedings may receive a Favourable construction are all freely and fully granted by his Majesty During the time of his Chancellourship he lived at Exeter-House in the Strand and managed and maintained all things with a Port and Bravery suitable to the Greatness and Dignity of his place exceeding therein all who have enjoyed that Honour in his Majesties Raign as will appear by the manner of his proceeding from his House to Westminster-hall the first day of Hilary Term January 23. being the first Term after his receiving the Seal In the Morning the Twelve Judges and the several Officers of the High Court of Chancery together with the whole Body of the Law repaired to Exeter-house where they were entertain'd at a splendid and magnificent Treat by his Lordship which being ended he proceeded according to the ancient and laudable Custom to Westminster in the following Order First went The Beadles The Constables The High Constable The Tipstaffes The Cryer of the Court The Gentlemen Clerks The Sixty Clerks of the Chancery The Master of the Subpoena Office The Master of the Affidavit The Students of the Inns of Court The Cursitors The Clerk of the Patents The Registers The Barristers at Law The Clerks of the Hanaper The Prothonotary The Clerk of the Crown The Examiners The Clerks of the Petty Bag. The Six Clerks Then proceeded the following Officers being all of them bare The Sealer to the Great Seal The Chafe Wax to the Great Seal The Usher of the Court The Master of the Rolls's Gentlemen The Lord Chancellors Gentlemen The Secretaries The Steward of the House and Warden of the Fleet The Gentleman Usher The Seal-bearer carrying the Purse wherein was the Great Seal The Serjeant at Arms attending the Great Seal carrying the Mace After whom came the Lord High Chancellor himself on Horse-back being richly Array'd The Gentleman of his Horse attended by a Page a Groom and Six Footmen walking along by his Stirrup Next to the Lord High Chancellor followed The Lord Chief Justice The Master of the Rolls The Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and the rest of the Judges according to their Seigniority And last of all came The Kings Serjeant at Law The Kings Attorny-General The Kings Solicitor-General The Kings Council The Duke of Yorks Attorny and his Solicitor together with the several Masters of Chancery In which Order they passed all along the Strand by White-hall through Kings-street and so to Westminster-hall the Streets being Lined with abundance of crouding Spectators who were exceedingly pleased with the Decency and Gallantry thereof All the time he enjoyed the Chancellorship he managed it with as much Honour and Advantage to his Majesty as any that ever did or will enjoy it And that not only upon the Bench but in the Senate too wherein he endeavoured to the uttermost of his Power to vindicate his Majesties Actions and by his admirable Eloquence labour'd to prevent or remove any Misunderstandings and Jealousies between the King and his Parliament as appears by the many excellent Speeches he made to the Two Houses when he was the mouth of the King to his People and had the Honour to be more successful therein then any who have succeeded him in that Honourable Station His sentiments of and veneration for his Soveraign and the smooth and charming Eloquence wherewith he fluently expressed himself upon all occasions sufficiently appear in that Speech which he made to the Lord Treasurer December the 5th 1672. upon his taking his Oath before him in the Exchequer My Lord Treasurer THe Kings most Excellent Majesty knowing your Integrity Abilities and Experience in his Affairs and particularly those of his Treasury hath thought fit to make choice of you to be his Lord High Treasurer of England and what necessarily accompanies that place hath by his Letters Patents under the Great Seal made you Treasurer of his Exchequer The Lord High Treasurer of Englands Office is held by the Kings delivery of the White-Staff The Treasurers of the Exchequer hath ever been held by Letters Patents And is that by which your Lordship is more immediately intituled to be a Chief Judge of this Court It were too nice and tedious and peradventure too formal to give an account of the several distinct Powers of these two Offices Reason and the length of time hath now so woven them together But as they are both in your Lordship I may justly say you are in a place of the first Rank as to Dignity Power Trust and Influence of Affairs
you will take into your consideration this necessary addition of charge And after His Majesties conclusion of His Speech let me conclude nay let us all conclude with blessing God and the King Let us bless God that he hath given us such a King to be the Repairer of our Breaches both in Church and State and the restorer of our paths to dwell in That in the midst of War and Misery which rages in our Neighbour Countries our Garners are full and there is no complaining in our Streets And a Man can hardly know that there is a War Let us bless God that hath given this King signally the hearts of His People and most particularly of this Parliament who in their Affection and Loyalty to their Prince have exceeded all their Predecessors A Parliament with whom the King hath many years lived with all the Caresses of a happy Marriage Has the King had a concern You have wedded it Has His Majesty wanted Supplies You have readily chearfully and fully provided for them You have relied 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 whilest the King on the other hand hath made your Counsels the foundations of all His proceedings and hath been so tender of you that he hath upon His own Revenue and Credit endeavoured to support even Foreign Wars that he might be least uneasie to you or burdensom to His People And let me say that tho' this Marriage be according to Moses's Law where the Husband can give a Bill of Divorce put her away and take another Yet I can assure you it is as impossible for the King to part with this Parliament as it is for you to depart from that Loyalty Affection and Dutiful Beha viour you have hitherto shewed towards Him Let us bless the King for taking away all our Fears and leaving no room for Jealousies For those Assurances and Promises He hath made us Let us bless God and the King that our Religion is safe That the Church of England is the care of our Prince That Parliaments are safe That our Properties and Liberties are safe What more hath a good English man to ask but that this King may long Reign and that this Triple-Alliance of King Parliament and People may never be dissolved The King having about that time made Si Edward Turner Speaker of the House of Commons Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer the Lord Chancellor acquainted them therewith and recommended to them His Majesties Pleasure for their Electing a new Speaker in the following Speech My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons HIs Majesty hath commanded me to tell you That he hath many things to say to you but he thinks not this a proper time but will defer it till the House of Commons be compleated with a new Speaker For His Majesty hath since the last Session as a mark of His Favour to His House of Commons and that he might reward so good a Servant taken their late Speaker Sir Edward Turner to be Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and called him by Writ to be an Assistant to this House I am therefore commanded to acquaint you Gentlemen of the House of Commons That it is the Kings Pleasure you repair to your House and Elect a Discreet Wise and Learned man who after he hath been by you Presented and that Presentation by His Majesty admitted shall then possess the Office of your common Mouth and Speaker And the King is pleased to be here to Morrow in the Afternoon to receive the Presentment of him accordingly The Commons having Elected Sir Job Charlton to be their Speaker who being by them Presented to the King Addressed himself to His Majesty in the following words Most Gracious Sovereign THe Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons in Obedience to your Royal Command have proceeded to the Choice of a Speaker They have among them many worthy Persons eminently qualified for so great a Trust yet with too favourable an Eye have cast it upon me who am really conscious to my self of so many infirmities rendring me much unsit for so great an Imployment And although my endeavours of excusing my self before them have not been successful yet they have been so Indulgent as to permit me to continue my endeavours therein before Your Majesties most piercing and discerning Judgment The Veneration due to Majesty which lodgeth in every Loyal Breast makes it not an easie matter to speak before Your Majesty at any time or in any capacity But to speak before Your Majesty in Your Exaltation thus gloriously supported and attended and that as Speaker of Your House of Commons requires greater Abilities then I can pretend to own I am not also without fear That the Publick Affairs wherein Your Majesty and Your Kingdom in this Juncture of time are so highly concern'd may receive detriment through my weakness I therefore with a plain humble heart prostrate at Your Royal feet beseech That You will Command them to review what they have done and to proceed to another Election To which the Lord Chancellour made the following Answer Mr. Serjeant Charlton THe King hath very attentively heard your discreet and handsome Discourse whereby you endeavour to excuse and disable your self for the place of Speaker In answer whereof His Majesty hath commanded me to say to you That he doth in no sort admit of the same For his Majesty hath had long experience of your Abilities good Affection Integrity and Resolution in several employments of great Trust and Weight He knows you have been long a Parliament-man and therefore every way fitted and qualified for the Employment Besides he cannot disapprove the Election of this House of Commons especially where they have expressed so much Duty in choosing one Worthy and Acceptable to him And therefore the King doth allow of the Election and admits you for Speaker Sir Job Charlton seeing his excuse could not be admitted but that notwithstanding his Majesty had confirmed the Commons Choice by his Royal Approbation spake as follows Great SIR SInce it is Your Gracious Pleasure not to accept of my humble Excuse but by Your Royal Approbation to six me under this Great though Honourable Weight and to think me sit to be invested with a Trust of so high a nature as this is I take it in the first place to be incumbent upon me that I render Your Majesty all possible thanks which I now humbly do with a heart full of all Duty and affected with a deeper sense of Gratitude then I can find words to express Next from Your Royal Determination in this Affair whereby you have imprinted a new Character upon me I take courage against my own diffidence and chearfully bend my self with such strength and abilities as God shall give to the Service so graciously designed me no way doubting that Your Majesty
to His Majesty And may it please Your Lordships as Heaven has been so propitious to the Earl to remove him far above the reach of his Enemies Fury so I am firmly assured that the same Almighty Power will always protect your Lives and Honours from the dire effects of Romish Policy and all the Jesuitical Crafts and subtle Artifices of the Antichristian Crew And render the implacable malice of those whom all intelligent Men begin now to see are Your Enemies without cause unable to effect any thing to Your prejudice And make it serve only as a File to set off the Glory of Your Loyalty or like an Eclipse to the Sun make the Lustre of Your Innocence appear to the whole World with the more Brightness and Splendour or at least enable You to take an extraordinary pleasure and satisfaction in the delightful contemplation That Your Name shall live when theirs are dead and survive with Honour whilst theirs with Infamy and Shame shall be buried in Oblivion and that the remembrance of your Virtues shall be to all succeeding Ages as Odoriferous as the Aramalick Spices and the exhilerating Perfumes of Arabia or the delightful fragrancy which naturally flows in the Months of April and May from a Garden of Roses When the remembrance of their wicked and treacherous Enterprises shall be nauseous and offen five to all Men. But the Fabrick being so small I must not suffer the entrance into it to exceed an equal proportion nor by enlarging my dull praises of the deceased Earl injuriously detain your Lordships too long from the Harmony of his Actions the Reviewing whereof afford abundantly more delight and satisfaction than any thing I am able to say in his commendation can probably yield And therefore wishing your Lordships may long shine as Stars in our British Hemisphere and in conjunction with our glorious Sun send forth such Illustrious Beams and powerful Rayes as may effectually dispel those sable Clouds which have so long overspread and darkened our Island I commend Your Lordships to the protection of him that sits in the Heavens and laughs at the Machivilian Plots of Rome and sees and derides all their subtile Enterprises hoping he will graciously defend you from all impending dangers by hiding you in the hollow of his Hand and under the shadow of his Wing And humbly beg you would put a candid construction upon my presuming so rudely to obtrude a Dedication upon you and intreat a favourable Acceptance of the mean and incongruous Present of him who is really ambitious to subscribe himself Your Lordships Most hnmble most obedient and most devoted Servant S.N. RAWLEIGH Redivivus Or the STATE Polititian BEING An Historical Account of the Life and Death of that Wise and Loyal States-man Anthony Earl of Shaftsbury PART I. STate Policy is a kind of Heavenly Knowledge which is by God and Nature locked up as a sacred Jewel in a few very rare Cabinets purposely framed and designed for that use by the all wise God and is so essential to the peace and flourishing condition of a Nation that we ought to pay it all the reverence and veneration imaginable and account it too sacred to be exposed and prostituted to the view of base and vulgar eyes But as the best things converted into putrefaction are the most nauseous and hurtful so this Noble and Angelical Science hath been strangely abused by some sordid pretenders to it And every Age hath produced some Achitophels who have abused the divine treasure bestowed upon them by the great Jehovah for the Service of their Country and the promoting the Civil and Sacred Interest of the Common-wealth wherein they live by making it only subserviant to their base and wicked ends These are a sort of men that have indeed the Wisdom of the Serpent but not a Dove-like innocency and can like him clothe all their cursed Designs and Hellish Machinations whereby they intend the ruin of their Prince the Religion they pretend to own and practice together with the famous and flourishing Kingdom wherein they live unhappy in nothing so much as the producing such unnatural and ungrateful Animals with subtil and specious pretences of Loyalty Prerogative Decency and Order and what not accounting Heaven and future bliss a meer bubble and the checks of Conscience too inconsiderable a trifle to impede sacrificing all that is Sacred to Ambition and aspire to Wealth and Grandeur by others ruine and destruction since if the Great Alexander the Conquering Pomp or the Victorious Caesar had boggled at invading other Mens Rights they could never have obtain'd so much Renown and Glory Nor had their Names swelled or looked so big in the Rolls of Fame Whilst the honest Politician is the Atlas of the falling State cures her when sick cements it when dis-joynted meets her in her several Emergencies with suitable reliefs And like a skilful Pilate manages the Helm with such skill and dexterity that he carries her safely through all perplexing intricasies and secures her in the Harbour of Peace and Tranquility where she Rides free from the danger of those boisterous Storms that threatned her Ruine Such an one was Philip de Comines to Lewis 11. and Cromwell to Henry 8. Such was Burleigh to our late Protestant Queen whose sedate Councils like a sacred Oracle very much influenced the prosperity of her Raign which was so extraordinary that no History affords a paralel and future Ages will read her happy Annals with a Divine Wonder And such an one was our paralel the ingenious Sir Walter Rawleigh to King James for whom he did several eminent pieces of Service as well in order to the bringing him to and placing him upon the English Throne as afterwards Notwithstanding which he was so unhappy as to lose the Favour of his Prince and be abandoned to the rage and malice of his Enemies And such an one was the unparalell'd Shaftesbury whose Policy was always founded upon the solid Basis of Piety and Judgment upon which firm Foundation he endeavour'd to raise the admirable superstructure of Royal Government in the Prince free from all manner of Arbitrary severity and a willing subjection in the People without any kind of force or compunction so uniting the Interest of the Governour with that of the governed and knitting both with such reciprocal mixtures that the welfare of the one might be unavoidably involv'd in the good of the other That Majesty might be maintained in its just Splendour and the Royal Prerogatives of the Crown preserved from suffering any kind of diminution And yet the Liberty of the Subject remain and Property be no way infringed or violated In a word his Wisdom in contriving the peaceable Restoration of his Majesty to his Crown and Kingdom his sagacity in Counselling whilst in that capacity his Faithfulness in the discharge of places of Trust his exact Administration of Justice to his Fellow Subjects his Loyalty and Obedience to his Majesty at all times his invincible
A place that requires such a Man as our great Masters Wisdom hath found for it from whose Natural temper we may expect Courage Quickness and Resolution from whose Education Wisdom and Experience and from whose Extraction that Noble and Illustrious House of the Cliffords an Heroick Mind a large Soul and an unshaken Fidelity to the Crown My Lord it 's a great Honour much beyond even the place it self that you are chosen to it by this King who without Flattery I may say is as great a Master in the knowledge of Men and Things as this or any other Age hath produced And let me say farther It is not only your Honour that you are chosen by Him but it is your Safety too that you have him to serve with whom no subtile Insinuations of any near him nor the aspiring Interest of a Favourite shall ever prevail against those that serve him well Nor can his Servants fear to be sacrificed to the Malice Fury or Mistake of a more swelling Popular greatness a Prince under whom the unfortunate fall gently a Prince in a word that best of all Mankind deserves that Title Deliciae humani generis My Lord I will not hold you long for you have a Journey to go after you have taken your Oath and your place in this Court you are according to ancient Custom to visit all the Offices in the upper and lower Exchequer and therefore let me end with this Wish or rather Prophesie That you may exceed all your Predecessors the Abilities and Fidelity of the Renowned Lord Burleigh the Sagacity Quickness and great dispatch of his Son the Lord Salisbury and the Uprightness Integrity and Wisdom of that great Man that went last before you the Earl of Southampton And as the E. endeavors were incessant to serve his Soveraign so he was no less solicituos to serve the Publick good endeavoring to make the Courts of Judicature as much as possible answer the Ends for which they were designed viz. The ease of the Subject labouring to have the Kings Prerogative and the Subjects Property so interwoven that they might always be inseparable as appears by that excellent Speech made by him in the Exchequer January 24. 1673. at Serjeant Thurlands taking the Oath in order to be made a Baron as followeth Mr. Serjeant Thurland THe King of his Grace and Favour hath made choice of you to be one of the Barons of the Exchequer he designed to place you in a Court of more profit though not of more Dignity but your own modesty hath chosen this Court where you thought you could serve the King best and I could not choose but mention it here to your Honour it being the greatest Instance of a good Man That he had rather be found serviceable than rich His Majesty hath had large proof of your former Service besides he takes you upon the Credit of that Recommendation that hath justly the best place with him I mean his Royal Brothers Some few things it is fit I should here mention to you and leave with you as Admonitions or rather Remembrances In the first place you are to maintain the Kings Prerogative and let not the Kings Prerogative and the Law be two things with you for the Kings Prerogative is Law and the principal of it Therefore in maintaining that you maintain the Law The Government of England is so excellently interwoven that every part of the Prerogative hath a broad mixture of the Interest of the Subject the ease and safety of the People being inseparable from the greatness and security of the Crown In the next place let me advise you that you acquaint your self with the Revenue as also the ancient Records Precedents and Practices of this Court for want of which knowledge I have seen this Court a most excellent Common Pleas when at the same time I could not say so much for it as an Exchequer In the Third place Let me recommend to you so to manage the Kings Justice and the Revenue as the King may have most profit and the Subjects least Vexation Raking for old Debts the number of Informations Projects upon Concealments I could not find in the Eleven years Exprerience I have had in this Court ever to advantage the Crown but such proceedings have for the most part delivered up the Kings good Subjects into the hands of the worst of Men. There is another thing I have observed in this Court which I shall mind you of which is when the Court hearkens too much to the Clerks and Officers of it and are too apt to send out Process when the Money may be raised by other ways more easie to the People I do not say that the Kings Duty should be lost or that the strictest course should not be taken rather then that be for when you consider how much the Officers of this Court and the Under-sheriffs get by Process upon small Sums more then the Kings Duty comes to and upon what sort of People this falls viz. The Farmer Husbandman and Clothier in the Country that is generally the Collector Constable and Tyshingman and so disturbs the Industrious part of the Nation you will think it fit to make that the last way when no other will serve Give me leave also to mind you of one thing more it is in your Oath That the Kings Needs ye shill speed before all others that is the business of the Revenue of the Crown you are to dispatch before all other and not turn your Court into a Court of Common-Pleas and let that justle out what you were constituted for In the last place Let me conclude with what concerns all my Lords the Judges as well as you let me recommend to you the Port and Way of Living suitable to the Dignity of your Place and what the King allows you There is not any thing that gains more Reputation and Respect to the Government then that doth and let me tell you Magistrates as well as Merchants are supported by their Reputation To his successful Counsel do both King and Kingdom owe the happy Conduct of Affairs for many years together the events of his Advices always agreeing with and answering the Ends for which they were at first proposed so that the King seldom fail'd of any thing that was carried on by his direction for which reason his wise Administration and management of Things had as it were incorporated him into the very Heart of his Prince So that all Men began now to conclude That this great Man whose constant Loyalty had render'd him so dear to His Majesty was too firmly fix'd and rooted in the Royal Favour than ever to be removed or alienated therefrom since he did as most Men imagin'd sit so high and withal so safely that he was above the reach of Envy or the possibility of being undermined by any subtle and false Insinuations or sacrific'd to the malice of any aspiring Favourite Yet Fortune who is always fickle and constant in
proceedings thereon by ordering the Commitment and all things that concerned that Affair to be expung'd and raz'd out of their Jornal Books that so if possible the very memory of them might be extinguished And thus this illusterous Peer did at length regain his Liberty although somewhat sooner perhaps than his Popish Enemies desired or expected he should but not without being severaly burlesqued by a second Advice to the Men of Shaftsbury Written by the Author of the former hoping by a frequent and unwearied charging him with many fictitious Crimes slyly insinuated and audatiously affirmed with all the confidence and formality imaginable they should at length get them believed to be real ones The whole Composition both of this and the former Advice was made up of nothing in the World but malice and revenge carefully infused into the mercinary wretch by the same aspring Favourite who had improved the Earls Application to the Court of Kings-Bench into a Crime and were inbibed by him with all imaginable greediness hoping thereby to relieve his wants and supply his necessity and as liberally cast out in those two scurilous Libels to poyson and infect the froth of the Town and the scum of the Universities and that they might be the more successful the Name of the Author is carefully conceal'd not from any sparks of modesty but that he might thereby with the more advantage and security exercise his Impudence in defaming the Earl wisely considering That if his Name which justly deserves to be Intom'd and Rot in his own infamy should have been perfixed to them it would certainly have spoiled the Design by making it appear too bare-fac'd And indeed it redounds very much to the Earls Honour and Renown that his Enemies could procure no other to Write against him than one whose Pen had been so long implyed against his Soveraign But notwithstanding all those devices the Earls Honour and Reputation was above the reach of their malice as well as his Loyalty had been above the reach of their poyson and infection Nor was he thereby discouraged from opposing the Designs of the Papishes as vigorously as ever but endeavoured notwithstanding in the several Sessions of Parliament to procure the passing such wholsome Laws as might restrain Debauchery and secure us against the growing Designs of Rome and France which tended to undermine the Protestant Religion the interest of the English Nation and prejudice and endanger His Majesties Person and Government But more especially those two admirable Bills The first whereof provided That no Papish should hold any Offices or enjoy any places of profit or trust either Civil or Military upon which His Royal Highness laid down several great Offices and Places which were held and enjoyed by him And the second for the disabling any Papish from siting as a Member in either House of Parliament although this latter could not pass without a Proviso that it should not extend to the Duke of YORK However these Acts of Parliament did not prevent there proceeding in those monstrous Designs which they had so long been forming in their secret Cabals To Murther the King subvert the Government Massacre the Protestant Nobility and Gentry extirpate the Protestant Religion and introduce Popery into this Kingdom Having for that purpose maintained Correspondence with a Neighbouring Prince procured indulgences from Rome to dispence with their taking the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance together with all other Tests when it should be necessary for the management of their Affairs collected Mony appointed Officers delivered out Commissions procur'd a Bull from the Pope for the Excommunicating of His most Sacred Majesty held divers Consults at Wild-House the White Horse Tavern and several other places to consider of the methods which they were to take in this Conspiracy and appoint every one the part which he was to act in the Plot. Wherein those vile 〈◊〉 and Traytors with an Hellish Impudence adventur'd to Declare the best of Kings to be Excommunicated and Condemned as an Heretick by the pretended power of the Pope to lose both his Crown and Life together with all the Protestant Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of England who had rendered themselves any way obnoxious by their endeavours to suppress Popery especially His Grace the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Shaftsbury Nor were their Designs discovered till they were just ready to be put in Execution all things being in as much readiness as they were in the Gunpowder Treason against King James But yet the watchful Providence of the Almighty by whom and not by that Grand Impostâ—â— at Rome Kings Reign and Princes Decree Justice it was seasonably discovered to their amazement and confusion whereby they were driven to the very depths of despair fearing that their Villany being so plainly discovered and their Cruelty and Treason exposed and undeniably proved by Coleman's Letters Godfrey's Murther Arnald's Assassination c. they should never be able to clear themselves and retrieve their Plot. However they Resolved to attempt both the one and the other by charging his Lordship and others who had been the most Zealous Prosecuters of the Plot not only of having invented this Plot which they affirmed was altogether a fiction but also with carrying on a Treasonable Design against the King's Majesty under colour thereof The Plot being thus discovered his Lordship being moved by a Principal of Loyalty to His Majesties Love to his Country and Zeal to the Protestant Religion endeavoured to the utmost of his power to have it narrowly enquired into and searched to the bottom that so the mischevious Consequences of it might be the better provided against and the King's Person and Government the Protestant Religion and the English Nation might by an early Provision be secured against the like attempts for the future as well as the present frustrated which so much enraged them that it added fuel to their malice and sharpened their desire of accomplishing his ruine Assuring themselves as the Lords in the Tower told Mr. Dangerfield That if they were as well rid of him as they were of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey they should then be able to conquer all difficulties stifle the Popish Plot and bear down all before them Wherefore finding him the greatest hinderance to their Designs and the most active Man in prosecuting their Plot they entered into a Resolution to dispatch him into another World as was affirmed by Messenger Gentleman of the Horse to the Lord Arundel of Warder about three Weeks or a Month before Mr. William Stayley was apprehended even so early did they begin their Designs of Murthering him for endeavouring to expose their Plot. And not long after Stayley and Mattisson being together at the Cross-Keys Tavern in Covent Garden Declared That to prevent the severities which might be the event of this discovery they must take a speedy course to destroy some particular persons who were the most active Men at that juncture of time and that it was resolved on
the Truth that they were framed and conveyed thither by himself since it would have been impossible otherwise to have known the Contents of Letters in a Gentlemans Chamber with whom he had never exchanged two words in his Life wherefore refusing to make Affidavit he was forced to go away without a Warrant Whereupon he repaired to the Lord Peter telling him what had happened and that he had been twice at the Earl of Shaftsburys His Lordship seemed to be well pleased therewith and promised that when any Forces were raised he would put in for a Regiment of Horse and would give him a Troop in the same but withal bid him be sure to do the Earls business the third time However the Countess of Powis and Mrs. Cellier were extreamly angry with him for refusing to make such Affidavit as the Secretary required for the obtaining a Warrant telling him he might safely have sworn since he had formerly seen and been at the Writing of some of them that at the worst it could not be Perjury because the Oath was not made in a Court of Record perswading him to make amens for that oversight by repairing again to Thannet House and there without any hissitation or fear stab the Earl of Shaftsbury He desired to be excused in that Affair assuring her that his two former disappointments had so discouraged him that he could not possibly perswade himself ever to make any further attempts in that kind At which her Ladyship seeming very much concerned obraided him with Cowardice and said she would go her self No Madam replyed Mrs. Cellier that shall not be for I will go and do the business so effectually that there shall be no occasion for a second attempt whereby I will convince the World that some of our Sex are braver and more couragious and daring than the Men. Then the Countess asked him if he had learned where Mr. Mansel's Lodgings were yes said he with a great deal of trouble I have he Lodgeth at Westminster Why then you timerous person said she pray take these Papers and convey them privately into some part of his Chamber Closet or Trunks He told her it was impossible to do that in regard he had no manner of knowledg of him You must said her Ladiship find out some way or other to get acquainted with him and then you must invite him to the Tavern and Drink smartly whereby you may doubtless have an opportunity to Lodge the Papers in some part of his Cloaths and so soon as you have done that you must immediately upon pretence that he has spoke Treason call for a Constable and get him apprehended and searched and the Papers carryed to the King and Council and so get him committed This was to have been the Introduction to their Conspiracy for destroying not only this Illustrious Lord whose vertue and firm and stedy cleaving to the Interest of His Majesty and the Protestant Religion had rendered him the greatest Object of their hatred and malice but likewise of all the chief English Protestant Nobility and Gentry who had any way discovered their Aversation to Popery by endeavouring to have their Hellish Designs against the Sacred Life of His Majesty and the Protestant Religion throughly searched into and prosecuted For upon this he was to have moved the King and Council to have impowered him to search the Lodgings and Houses of several other Gentlemen whither they were to have conveyed the like Treasonable Papers Then she delivered him fifteen Letters and a List of Names but one of the Letters and the List of Names being Written by her own hand she desired him to get them Transcribed which he offering to do himself was told by her that it must not be done by him because they were to be brought before the King and Council and the King having received from him some Remarks Written with his own hand already would thereby discover the whole to be forged Wherefore having got a Scrivener over-against Sommerset House to Transcribe them he went to Ax-yard in Kings-street Westminster where inquiring for Lodgings he was directed to Mr. Harris's which was the very House where the Colonel Lodged and there under the feigned Name of Thomas desired to know what Chambers they had to dispose of and being shewed all the Rooms in the House none would please him but the two Rooms up one pair of Stairs but was told that Colonel Mansel Lodged in them and therefore they could not be disposed of without his consent which could not then be obtained in regard he was not at home so that he could not effect any thing at that time Wherefore the Female Hero resolving to approve her self the Champion of the Popish Cause went with a feigned Complement to his Lordship hoping before her return to give him a Wound somewhat more fatal than that which she had formerly given to some others of our Sex But his Lordship according to his usual custom when he Treated with Strangers kept a strict Eye upon her during the whole time they were discoursing together and perceiving her to be busily fumbling about her Pockets he gently laid his hand upon hers and pleasently drol'd with her concerning the business she pretended to visit him about whereat being very much troubled and discouraged she presently took leave of his Lordship But being advanced almost as far as the Door and reflecting upon the disgrace she should bring upon her self by having promised never to return but with the happy News of Victory and yet accomplishing as little or less than Dangerfield whose Cowardice she had exclaimed against with so much scorn and contempt she suddenly returned towards his Lordship resolving not to stir from the spot until she had laid him at her Foot But the Earl seeing her come back steps to her and as if guided by the direction of some superior influence laid his hand upon hers as before which so dashed her out of countenance that she was forced to depart without success Heaven having Decreed that this Illusterous Peer who had been so useful to the King and Kingdom should not loose his Life so tamely and fall a Sacrafice to papal Rage Nor that the English Anals should ever report to succeeding Ages that the great Shaftsbury was slain by the feeble hand of an Impeous Strumpet This disappointment heightened their Rage and made them resolve to hasten the finishing of their Plot not doubting but to involve him in the common ruine of the rest of the Protestant Nobility Wherefore Dangerfield went presently and took the two Rooms where Mansel Lodged he having consented to remove one pair of Stairs higher that so he might not hinder the House of so benificial a Lodger as he seemed to be And being conducted into the Room where the Colonel was to Lodge whilst his own was put in order and fitted for him he laid hold of that opportunity to place those Treasonable Papers behind the Colonel's Beds-head and then
this Project they next procured young Tongue Son to Dr. Tongue to prove that his Father the Earl of Shaftsbury and Oates invented the Popish Plot Whereupon one of the Lords of the Council asked him If they contrived Coleman's Letters too To which he could make no reply and indeed the whole business was so weak and ridiculous that it effected nothing more than the depressing the Wretch that was to have been the Evidence of it under the weight of his own Guilt he being committed to the King's-Bench where he hath ever since remained Besides their publick Designs they had several secret Projects and Artifices to accomplish his Ruine As forging of his Hand and other such like base and villanous Arts as appears by their intercepting Letters directed to his Lordship and after having incerted Treason in them in a hand as near the Original as they could possibly counterfeit transmitted them to such hands as would certainly acquaint our Ministers of State therewith but more especially a certain Gentleman who had commanded a Regiment of Horse in the Service of his late Majesty for whose sake and his present Majestie 's he suffered the loss of all that he had writ to the Earl about relieving him against the Gout with which he was much afflicted whose Letter was intercepted the person that writ it lived at that time in the Frengch King's Dominions and after they had added to it an account that the Writer was able to furnish the Earl with Forty thousand men from France to oppose the D. Y's Interest it was then convey'd to some of the French Ministers of State presuming they would send a Copy of it hither but by an over-ruling Providence the Letter was strangely return'd into the Gentleman's own hands whereby the mischief they intended was prevented His Majesty having prorogued the Parliament his Lordship together with the Earls of Huntington Clare Stamford c. the Lords North and Grey Chando's Grey Howard and Herbert being introduced to his Majestie 's Presence by his Highness Prince Rupert presented the following Petition and Advice to His Majesty SIR VVE are here to cast our selves at your Majestys feet being Ten of the Peers of Your Realm of England and in our own Names and in the Names of several others of our fellow Peers do humbly beg That Your Majesty would consider the great Danger Your Royal Person is in as also the Protestant Religion and the Government of these Your Nations We humbly pray that in a time when all these are so highly concerned Your Majesty will effectually use Your Great Council the Parliament SIR Out of the deepest sence of Duty and Loyalty to Your Majesty we offer it as our humble Advice and earnest Petition that the Parliament may sit at the time appointed and that Your Majesty would be Graciously pleased to give publick Notice and Assurance thereof that the minds of Your Majestys Subjects may be settled and their fear removed To this Petition and Advice His Majesty answered He would consider of what they had offered and told them that he heartily wished all other people were as solicitous for the peace and good of the Nation as he was and ever would be However he was pleased soon after to Prorogue the Parliament from the 26th of January till the 11th of November following About this time his Lordship was visited with a violent and dangerous fit of Sickness and his recovery was somewhat doubted of but Heaven was pleased to spare him to be a further Scourge and Terrour to the Papists those common Pests of Christendom and sworn Enemies to His Majesty and the English Nation The Romanists having tryed so many ways and different methods for accomplishing his Ruine resolved to try a new Stratagem for the effecting thereof viz. The tampering with Dugdale to retract his Evidence concerning the Popish-plot and endeavour to prevail with him to withdraw himself into some place beyond the Seas and leave a Writing behind him wherein he was to retract all he had sworn against the Papists and pretend that the occasion of his Retraction was an extream trouble and anguish of Conscience for having so unjustly and wickedly injured the Papists and procured the shedding of innocent blood affirming that it was by the instigation of his Lordship and other Protestants of unblemished Loyalty to His Majesty upon whom he was moreover to six the Odium of a Presbyterian Plot not only against the Papists but against His Majesties Person and Government But the mischief of it was they had not then Debauched his Conscience perswaded him to question the Truth of God's Omnisciency or wholly Erradicated the Beleif of a Deity out of his mind and thereby render him hardy enough to undertake so Barbarous a Work without any kind of Hissitation Wherefore being touched with some Remorse at so horrid a Villany he gave an account of the business to his Lordship and some others and so that design suffered the same fate with the rest and produced no other effect than exposing the malice of his Enemies and the informing him what he must live in a dayly expectation of from those indefatigable wretches and purchasers of Perjury by offers of two Thousand Pounds and promises of other Rewards and Gratitudes A Sum so considerable and Arguments so powerful and irresistable that it would have been a rarity much more amazing and would infinitly have transcended any of those called The Seven Wonders of the World if they should alwaies have been so unhappy as not to meet with some Profligate Villain or other who would upon those considerations engage to Swear whatsoever they should dictate and even defie the Almighty and storm Heaven it self to gain so immence a Treasure and acquire a Fortune so far above what their Birth or Education ever gave them a Prospect of In December 1680. he was present at and assisted in the trying William Viscount Stafford upon an Impeachment of the House of Commons for Ploting and Conspiring with the Pope and his Emissaries to Murther the King exterpate the Protestant Religion and subvert the Government of these Kingdoms and after a fair Tryal his Lordship with the Majority of the Peers sound him Guilty of the Treason whereof he stood Impeached upon which he received Sentence to be Hang'd Drawn and Quarter'd the rigour whereof was remitted by the Gracious Pleasure of His Majesty And not long after he was beheaded on a Scaffold erected for that purpose on Tower-Hill On the 10th of Jannuary His Majesty Prorogued the Parliament and on the 18th they were Dissolved by Proclamation and a New one summoned to meet at Oxford on the 21 st of the following March which being looked upon by his Lordship and divers others of the Nobility and Gentry to be ominous and attended with much hazard and danger and was afterwards really found to be so by some To prevent which the Earl joyned with several Noblemen in presenting a humble Petition and Advice full of Tenderness
and Affection Duty and Loyalty to His Majesty's Person and Government humbly requesting that the Parliament summoned to meet at Oxford might be Graciously permitted to meet and sit at Westminster It was presented to His Majesty by the Earl of Essex who acquainted the King with the design and intent of their Petition in the following words May it please Your Majesty THe Lords here present together with divers other Peers of the Realm taking notice that by your late Proclamation Your Majesty hath Declared an Intention of calling a Parliament at Oxford and observing from Histories and Records how unfortunate many such Assemblies have been when called at a place remote from the Capital City as particularly the Congress in Henry the Seconds time at Clarendon Three several Parliaments at Oxford in Henry the Thirds time and at Coventry in Henry the Sixths time with divers others which have proved very fatal to those Kings and have been followed with great mischief to the whole Kingdom And considering the present posture of Affairs the many Jealousies and Discontents which are among the People we have great cause to apprehend that the Consequences of the sitting of a Parliament now at Oxford may be as fatal to Your Majesty and the Nation as those others mentioned have been to the then Reigning Kings and therefore we do conceive that we cannot answer it to God to Your Majesty or to the People if we being Peers of the Realm should not on so important an occasion humbly offer our Advise to Your Majesty that if possible Your Majesty may be prevailed with to alter this as we apprehend unseasonable Resolution The Grounds and Reasons of our Opinion are contained in this our Petition which we humbly present to Your Majesty To the Kings most excellent Majesty The humble Petition and Advice of the Lords undernamed Peers of the Realm Humbly sheweth THat whereas Your Majesty hath been pleased by divers Spechees and Messages to Your Houses of Parliament rightly to present to them the dangers that threaten Your Majesties Person and the whole Kingdom from the mischievous and wicked Plots of the Papists and the suddain growth of a forreign Power unto which no stop or remedy could be provided unless it were by Parliament and an Vnion of Your Majesties Protestant Subjects in one Mind and one Interest And the Lord Chancellor in pursuance of Your Majesties Commands having more at large demonstrated the said dangers to be as great as we in the midst of our fears could imagine them and so pressing that our Liberties Religion Lives and the whole Kingdom would certainly be lost if a speedy provision was not made against them And Your Majesty on the 21st of April 1679. having called unto Your Council many Honourable and Worthy Persons and Declared to them and to the whole Kingdom That being sensible of the Evil Effects of a single Ministry or private Advice or forreign Committee for the general Direction of Your Affairs Your Majesty would for the future refer all things unto that Council and by the constant Advice of them together with the frequent use of Your great Council the Parliament Your Majesty was hereafter resolved to govern the Kingdom We began to hope we should see an end of our Miseries But to our unspeakable grief and sorrow we soon found our expectations frustrated the Parliament then subsisting was Prorogued and Dissolved before it could perfect what was intended for our relief and security And tho' another was thereupon called yet by many Prorogations it was put off till the 21st of October past and notwithstanding Your Majesty was then again pleased to acknowledge that neither your Person nor your Kingdom could be safe till the Matter of the Plot was gone through It was unexpectedly Prorogued on the 10th of this Month before any sufficient Order could be taken therein All their just and pious endeavours to save the Nation were overthrown the good Bills they had been industriously preparing to Vnite Your Majesties Protestant Subjects brought to nought The discovery of the Irish Plots stifled The Witnesses that came in frequently more fully to Declare that both of England and Ireland discouraged Those forreign Kingdoms and States who by a happy Conjunction with us might give a check to the French Powers disheartned even to such a despair of their own security against the growing greatness of that Monarch as we fear may enduce them to take New Resolutions and perhaps such as may be fatal to Vs the Strength and Courage of our Enemies both at home and abroad encreased and our selves left in the utmost danger of seeing our Country brought into utter desolation In these extremities we had nothing under God to comfort us but the hopes that Your Majesty being touched with the groans of your perishing People would have suffered Your Parliament to meet at the day unto which it was Prorogued and that no further interruption should have been given to their proceedings in order to their saving of the Nation But that failed us too so then we heard that Your Majesty had been prevailed with to Dissolve it and to call another to meet at Oxford where neither Lords nor Commons can be in safety but will be dayly exposed to the Swords of the Papists and their Adherents of whom too many are crept into Your Majesties Guards The Liberty of speaking according to their Consciences will be thereby destroyed and the validity of all their Acts and Proceedings consisting in it left disputable The straitness of the place no way admits of such a concourse of persons as now follows every Parliament The Witnesses which are necessary to give Evidence against the Popish Lords such Judges or others whom the Commons have impeached or had resolved to impeach can neither bear the charge of going thither nor trust themselves under the Protection of a Parliament that is it self evidently under the power of Guards and Souldiers The Premises considered We Your Majesties Petitioners out of a just abhorrence of such a dangerous and pernicious Council which the Authors have not dared to avow and the direful apprehensions of the calamities and miseries that may ensue thereupon do make it our most humble Prayer and Advice that the Parliament may not sit at a place where it will not be able to Act with that freedom which is necessary and especially to give unto their Acts and Proceedings that Authority which they ought to have amongst the people and have ever had unless impaired by some Awe upon them of which there wants not presidents and that Your Majesty would be Graciously pleased to order it to sit at Westminster it being the usual place and where they may consult with Safety and Freedom And Your Petitioners c. Monmouth Kent Huntingdon Bedford Salisbury Clare Stamford Essex Shaftsbury Mordent Ewers Paget Grey Herbert Howard Delamer BUt His Majesty resolving not to alter His Resolution for the Parliaments setting at Oxford and the time of their metting