Law to escape unpunish'd Then they concluded it was high time to bring their Devilish Purposes to a quicker issue and once for all to strike boldly at the Heart of the KING and Kingdom Particularly the Earl of Shaftsbury being conscious to himself of the blackness of his Crimes and of the Iniquity of the Verdict by which he had for that time escaped and finding he was now within the compass of the Justice he had so lately frustrated and contemn'd thenceforth gave over all his quieter and more plausible Arts of Sedition whereby he proudly bragg'd he should in time as his Expression was Leisurely walk his Majesty out of his Dominions and on a sudden betook himself to more precipitate Enterprises Alarming his Companions with a prospect of their common danger thence inflaming some to Insurrections others to Assassinations supposing now there was no way left for him or them to justifie their former Misdemeanors and Treasons but by attempting and succeeding in greater Mischiefs This was found by evident Proof to have been the principal rise and occasion of ripening the Horrid Conspiracy in the Kingdom of England Nor could there possibly have happen'd a stronger Justification of his Majesties Counsels in attempting to rectifie the City-Juries and Elections since it is apparent his principal Enemies laid so much stress on the unjust Power they had therein usurp'd that being once fairly driven from that Strength they immediately resolv'd nothing less than a bare-fac'd and avow'd Rebellion could repair the Loss their Party sustain'd by so great a Blow As for his Majesties Kingdom of Scotland it is notorious there has been long shelter'd in it a desperate Faction of furious Zealots that under the old Professions of the Cause of Christ and a purer way of Gospel-Worship has grown up by degrees to a Violation at last not only of all the Rules and Institutions of true Religion but of common Humanity For does not the whole Christian World at this day behold with Horrour that the most Villanous Tenets of the fiercest Scottish Covenanters and even of their Remonstrators have been out-done by their Successors and Disciples in the Field-Meetings and Armed Conventicles Have they not thence proceeded to all the Execrable Rage of Rapine and Violence In so much that some of them have lived and died glorying in the most barbarous Murders and basest Cruelties refusing obstinately with their last Breath so much as to pray for his Majesty or to say God save the King though by an unexampled Mercy they had their Pardons assur'd to them at the very place and moment of their Execution upon that single Condition And besides the remains of those Bloody Enthusiasts whose Principles are not yet entirely extinguish'd though their force has been twice vanquish'd in open Field by Gods Providence prospering his Majesties Arms It is certain also the Peace of that Kingdom has of late been much indanger'd by other great Numbers of Factious and Seditious Spirits who though at first they would not venture to incourage publickly the others declared Treasons yet stuck not secretly to Favour and foment their Cause and as the event infallibly proves would soon have Own'd and Headed their Fury had it prosper'd Wherefore the wise care of former Sessions of Parliament there having sufficiently provided by a due severity of Good Laws against the dreadful Consequences of continuing the Field-Meetings for the farther securing the Reformed Religion and the Antient Rights of the Crown and the Royal Family in that Kingdom it was judg'd adviseable by the Wisdom of his Majesties great Council the last Session of Parliament to appoint and Authorise a Solemn Test to be taken by all Persons in place of publick Trust or Power In that Session the Test was soon pass'd into an Act of State without any considerable opposition Though there were not wanting some turbulent Men in the Assembly who took that occasion of shewing how ill they were affected to the establish'd Government of their Country Which they could have no other inducement to be but either a desire of Commotions by reason of the desperate State of their own ill-spent Fortunes or Envy at the better Condition of Honester Men or some inveterate Contagion of Treason derived down to them from the last unhappy Age of Confusions Of that unquiet and seditious Party the chief and declared Head was the late Earl of Argyle who during the very sitting of the Parliament had by many indirect ways attempted to hinder his Majesties Service the said Earl and the then President of the Session and their Complices taking their opportunity in wording the Test to add thereto all the very same Clauses that have since given any Colour of scruple to themselves But when all his crafts for obstructing the Bill were defeated by the far greater Number of well disposed Members the Loyal Voters for it being at least Ten to one of the disaffected then no sooner was the Parliament adjourn'd but the said Earl of Argyle first at Edenburgh next in traversing several Shires did make it his Chief Business to insinuate every where into the minds of the Clergy and Laity the most malicious prejudices imaginable against the whole tenour of the Test. And afterwards on his return to Edenburgh he often presumptuously declared he would either not take it at all or take it only with a reserve of his own explanation which he put in Writing and dispers'd the contrivance of it being such as dissolves all the Obligations of the Oath and makes his own present Fancy and private Opinion the only Standard whereby he meant to be guided in all the publick Duties of his Loyalty and Allegiance At length his Majesties High Commissioner the Duke and the Privy Council of that Kingdom having been well inform'd of the said Earls seditious Carriage in City and Country and being fully confirm'd in their Judgments and Consciences of his Trayterous Purposes in that fallacious and equivocating Paraphrase on the Test which he own'd in their presence perverting thereby the sound sense and eluding the force of his Majesties Laws in order to set the Subjects loose from their Obedience and to perpetuate Schism in the Church and Faction in the State Upon these Grounds he was most deservedly Prosecuted by his Majesties Advocate before the Soveraign Justice-Court according to the known Laws of his Country and after a full and equal Tryal he was found guilty of Treason by the Learned Judges and a Jury not only of his Peers but also many of them his own nearest Relations Soon after Judgment given albeit the King was far from any thought of taking away his Life and that no farther prejudice was design'd against him but the forfeiture of some Jurisdictions and Superiorities which he and his Predecessors had surreptitiously acquired and most tyrannically exercis'd besides the disposal of part of his Estate to pay his just Creditors and some few moderate Donatives to those whom he and his Father had formerly ruin'd for
way that Money might be collected without Administring Jealousie That after this the Deponent met no more with them but when he return'd out of the Country he was inform'd Aaron Smith was come back and that Sir John Cockran was also come to Town Then Attherbury the Kings Messenger deposed that the foresaid Cambel and his Son were taken in London making their escape out of a Window in a Woodmongers House four Days after they had been in Town during which space they confess'd they had chang'd their Lodgings three Times and that they and Mr. Baillie of Jerviswood came to Town together Against this Evidence the Lord Russel's defence besides some Objections in point of Law wherein he was over-ruled by the Opinion of all the Judges there present was to this purpose That the two times they met was upon no form'd Design only to talk of News and of things in general That the Lord Howard having a voluble Tongue they delighted to hear him discourse That he knew of no such Council of Six chosen for who should chuse them That the Witnesses against him swore to save their own Lives and therefore could not be credible That Romzey was notoriously known to have been highly obliged by the King and the Duke and it was strange he should be capable of such a Design as to Murder the King that no Body then could wonder if to save his own Life he should endeavour to take away anothers That the time by the 13th of the King was elapsed since the Prosecution was not made in the six Months That a Design of Levying War is no Treason except it appear by some Overt Act That there was but one Meeting at Shepard's House nor was he ever there but once That then he came late staid not above a quarter of an hour tasting Sherry with Shepard and that there ought to be two VVitnesses to one and the same thing at the same time Then he produced VVitnesses to prove that the Lord Howard before he was taken declar'd He believ'd the Lord Russel innocent and knew nothing against him The rest of his Justification consisted of the Testimony of several Persons concerning the Virtue and Sobriety of his former Life As to what concern'd the Lord Howard's saying He believed the Lord Russel not to be guilty it was answer'd by the Lord Howard himself That he confess'd he had said so being then himself not a cused so that he intended to out-face the thing both for himself and the Party but now his Duty to God the King and his Country requir'd it he must say the Truth and that though the Council of Six were not chosen by any Community yet they did erect themselves by mutual Agreement one with another into that Society The rest was answer'd by the Kings Learned Council at Law That he was not Try'd upon the 13th of the King but upon the 25th of Edward the Third That to Raise a Conspiracy within the Kingdom is what is call'd Levying War by that Statute That to design to seize on the King or to depose him or to raise the Subjects against him hath been setled by several Resolutions of the Judges to be within that Statute and Evidences of a Design to kill the King That in Cases of Treason it is not necessary there should be two VVitnesses to the same individual Fact at the same time but if there be two VVitnesses of things tending to the same Fact though at several times and upon several occasions it is sufficient That if there be one Witness of one Act of Treason another of a second another of a third they will be enough to Convict a Man of High Treason That so it was determin'd by the Opinion of all the Judges in England and by the Lords in Parliament in the Lord Stafford's Case It was farther urged That the VVitnesses against the Lord Russel were not profligate Persons nor Men who wanted Faith and Credit before that time but such against whom there had been no legal Exceptions made by himself That there was no Contradiction no Correspondence or Contrivance at all between them and that it cannot be imagined such Men should Damn their own Souls to take away the Life of a Gentleman against whom they had no Quarrel As for Romzey's being much obliged to the King and the Duke That it was apparent by many Instances that no such though the greatest Obligations had hinder'd ill Men from Conspiring against his Majesty For was not the Earl of Essex were not divers others of the Conspirators in like manner obliged and advanced in Estate and Honour by the King As to their coming only to Shepard's to taste VVine it was said That could not have been the end of their Meeting VVhy did they then come so privately VVhy then did they order none of the Servants to come up It was plain the Design they met on requir'd only such Persons to be present as had an Affection for the Cause It was also urg'd That it is not a good Objection against a Mans being Evidence in High Treason that he himself was engaged in it but that such Men are the most proper Persons to be Evidence none but they being able to detect such Counsels As for the several Divines and Men of Honour and Quality produced to testifie the Virtue and Sobriety of the Lord Russel's Conversation it was answer'd That an Affectation of Popularity has often proved a Snare strong enough to tempt many Men who have otherwise been of great Temperance and Virtue Nor indeed can there be any more dangerous Enemies to a State or Kingdom than such as come sober to endeavour its Destruction VVhich old and true Observation was signally exemplified in this particular Case of the Lord Russel For West deposed That the Underacters in the Treason most depended on the said Lord for this very reason because they look'd on him as a Man of great Sobriety Upon the whole Process he was found guilty of High Treason But in stead of Drawing Hanging and Quartering the usual and legal Penalty of that Crime the Execution was by his Majesties Clemency chang'd into that of Beheading Though it is well known this very Prerogative of the Kings having it in his Power to alter the Punishment of High Treason had been vehemently disputed by the Party and particularly by the Lord Russel himself in the Lord Stafford's Case The said Lord Russel at the time of his Death which was the 21st of that Month deliver'd a Paper to the Sheriffs and left other Copies of it with his Friends whereby it was immediately dispers'd amongst the People the general drift of it being to make odious Insinuations against the Government invidious Reflections on the Ministers of his Majesties Justice and undue Extenuations of his own Fault As to the whole Matter of it Time the best Discoverer and Light of Truth has since shewn it to be full of Enormous Falshoods And for the manner of its Composure
That those Scotch-men came up soon after Smith arrived there This was sworn by Sir Andrew Foster that Cockran Monroe and the two Cambels came to Town about the end of the Spring or the beginning of Summer Cockran and Monroe pretending their Business was a Purchase in Carolina and that upon the very first rumour of a Plot Cockran absconded Monroe and the Cambels were taken To this purpose Attherbury the Messenger also deposed That about the end of June or the beginning of July 1683. he was sent by his Majesties VVarrant into London upon a discovery of some Scotch-men lodging in Black-Friers but the Common-Sergeant of the City and others having been there before him found them making their escape in a Boat That the Persons were Sir Hugh Cambel Cockran and another That this was after they had been in Town but a little while The next Head of the Accusation concern'd the Treasonable Pamphlet found in Colonel Sydney's Study at the time of his Apprehension To this first Sir Philip Lloyd Clerk of his Majesties Council deposed That having been sent by the King and Council to seize Colonel Sydney's Papers he did go and put up what he found in his Closet That he found those Papers now given in Evidence lying upon his Table where he usually writ That he seiz'd them towards the later end of June That having put them up he offer'd Colonel Sydney that he might Seal them with his own Seal but he refusing the Deponent set his Seal to them and so deliver'd them to the Council Next it was made out by as firm Proof as such a matter will bear That all the Sheets produced were of Colonel Sydney's own Hand-writing which was evidenc'd by Mr. Shepard Mr. Cook and Mr. Cary Men of known Repute and Credit who had long dealt with Mr. Sydney in Matters of Money and had paid divers Bills of Exchange for him upon Notes written in the same Hand and were never call'd to any account for Mis-payment Then were the Papers read containing rank Treason almost in every Line For therein were broach'd and asserted many horrible Doctrines both against Monarchy in general and the English Monarchy in particular which according to the usual false Reasoning of all Republican Writers he endeavour'd to justifie by divers Quotations and Examples of Sacred and Prophane History grosly perverted and misapplied against the present Government of his Country In short the whole design of those Papers was to maintain That Tyrants may be justly deposed by the People and that the People are the only Judges who are Tyrants And peculiarly concerning this Nation there are these Expressions The Power originally in the People of England is delegated to the Parliament He the King is subject to the Law of God as he is a Man to the People that makes him a King in as much as he is a King The Law sets a Measure to that Subjection The Parliament is Judge of the particular Cases thereupon arising He must be content to submit his Interest to theirs since he is no more than any one of them in any other respect than that he is by consent of all rais'd above any other If he doth not like this Condition he may renounce the Crown But if he receive it upon this Condition as all Magistrates do the Power they receive and swear to perform it he must expect the Performance will be exacted or Revenge taken by those he hath betray'd And in another place he says We may therefore change or take away Kings without breaking any Yoak or that is made a Yoak which ought not to be one The Injury is in making and imposing and there can be none in breaking it And in another That the People must needs be the Judge of what happens between them and the King whom they did constitute And in another that as for the Peoples being Judges in their own Cases it is plain they ought to be the only Judges And in another That the Power of calling and dissolving Parliaments is not in the King And in another That the general revolt of a Nation from its own Magistrates can never be call'd a Rebellion These are some of the Treasonable Tenets contain'd in Mr. Sydney's Papers amongst many other Assertions that are equally Criminal but too long to be here inserted Concerning all which Villanous Opinions this is certainly known and confess'd by all good Men That as they laid the Foundations of the late miserable War against his Majesties blessed Father and thereby occasion'd the spilling so much Blood even of the Royal Blood it self so when-ever the Multitude shall be infected with the like Antimonarchical Doctrines it will be impossible for the best Kings or the most happy Kingdoms in the VVorld to be free from perpetual Treasons and Rebellious Plottings To all this Colonel Sydney's Answer being only made up of most of the same Pleas in Law that had been over-ruled and the same Objections against the Lord Howard which were satisfactorily repell'd in the former Tryals besides that he only barely deny'd the sending of Aaron Smith and his having any hand in or knowledge of that Message And as for his Treasonable Papers he would not grant them to be his or if they were found in his Study he affirm'd That they might have been written many Years ago in answer to Sir R. Philmer ' s Book of Monarchy and written with no intention of publishing them but only for private diversion and the exercise of his Pen. In short his Defence consisting rather in Nice Cavils at the known Forms of Law or Discourses ridiculing the Design of a Council of Six and the whole Conspiracy it self than in any solid Arguments or Evidence to invalidate the VVitnesses or to clear himself from the Crimes proved upon him he was presently found Guilty His Execution in respect of his Quality his Majesty alter'd from the usual Punishment of High Treason into that of Severing his Head from his Body At the time of his Death on December the 7th he also deliver'd the Sheriffs a Written Paper Wherein after having excused his not speaking what he wrote by alledging this reason among others That this was an Age which makes Truth pass for Treason he objects against the Lord Howard the Infamy of his former Life which Objection no Man in England had less cause to make than himself the Lord Howard and he having been known to be entire Confidents Familiars and Friends for many Years past of their Lives and till the very time of the Discovery Touching his Papers produced against him he gives an account full of manifest Equivocations and ambiguous Reservations He sufficiently intimates they were his own but implies they were written long ago against a Book of Controversie in Matters of Government Thereupon he goes on openly to justifie those Papers by Positions dangerous enough to the Publick Peace but quite different from what was laid to his charge at his Tryal and was quoted word
soon after died in Amsterdam having few or no other Companions of the last part of his Life but several miserable English and Scotch Fugitives who had formerly been the Instruments of his Trayterous Practises and were forc'd to fly the stroke of Justice on that Account So that he could not but know that all those about him in his Sickness and Death had Just reason to hate and curse him as their principal Seducer and cause of their Ruine Nor can such an end of such a Life be justly reflected on without a special Adoration of the secret Counsels of the Divine Providence That he who a little before was generally esteem'd the Head and Protector of all the Factious in the Kingdom whom he vouchsafed to distinguish and Honour by the Title of Worthy Men and the Terror and Scourges of all the Good and the Loyal whom he mark'd out and design'd for Destruction and Slaughter under the Name of Men worthy He who in his own conceit had so much the absolute disposal of the Hearts and Hands of all the Disaffected as to be able to subvert the Establish'd Government when he pleased and had really once gone very far to effect it had not his own Presumption Defeated his Malice That this very Man having seen all his hopes and contrivances dash'd in Pieces at home should have nothing left to do but to take shelter in that Commonwealth which in his former Greatness he had so mortally provok'd there to lead a Life of Disgrace and Misery and to Dye neglected in a Country of which he had formerly express'd so great a Hatred And yet still retaining so much Venemous Rancour against his most Gracious Master as to profess with his last Breath that he had deservedly receiv'd his Deaths Wound meaning the bruise in his Side and now his Death in that Country where he had done his own so much Mischief When he was one of the Commissioners sent thither in the Year 1660 to invite his Majesty home freely and without Terms After this though the Earl of Shaftsbury was gone yet the impressions of Mischief he had left behind on the minds of the Confederates would not so easily vanish They soon reflected on his last advise that so many having been made Conscious to the Design they should certainly find more safety in pushing it on boldly than in too late a Retreat Upon this immediately they recover'd their Spirits and Resolution which his hasty flight had somewhat Damp'd thenceforth they renewed their Consultations with greater vigour than before The Principal Managers having their frequent Meetings as also the inferior Instruments theirs whilst some of each Number gave secret intimations to the other of what was passing in their separate Assemblies Of the great Council of Six the Consults that have been hitherto plainly testifi'd and sworn to were those at Mr. Hambdens at the Lord Russels and at Mr. Shepherds The Subordinate Cabals were kept in divers places in and about the City As in the December of that Year at Colonel Romzey's House in the Soho Square in the next February at West's Chamber in the Temple about which time it was agreed that Ferguson should be sent for as he was and came over accordingly Then their Meetings were more frequent upon the Kings being at Newmarket and after Usually at West's Lodgings for the conveniency of its situation Or in common Taverns As at the Miter within Aldgate The Horse-Shooe on Tower-Hill The Fortune at Wapping The Syracusa-House The Kings-head in Atheist-Alley the Salutation and the George in Lumbard-Street on June the Twelfth the very Day of the Discovery they met at the Sun-Tavern behind the Exchange on June 14 they met at Bailly of Jerviswood's Chamber and again in Bartholomew-Lane and at the Green-Dragon on Snow-hill and so continued to do some where or other till they totally dispers'd from Walcot's Lodging in Goodman's Fields Their Meetings being so generally in places of Publick Entertainment Therefore to prevent the Observation of Drawers and Servants they often discours'd of their whole Bloody Business in a Canting Language of their own making The King was sometimes call'd the Church-Warden of Whitehall The King and Duke the Black-Bird and the Gold-Finch the Captain and Lieutenant Provisions of Arms as Blunderbusses Muskets Pistols were talk'd of under the disguis'd Names of Swan-Quills Goose-Quills Crow-Quills The Insurrection was styled the General Point the Assassination the Lopping Point and striking at the Head And because several of the Conspirators were Lawyers it was sometimes agreed that their wicked intentions against the King and the Duke should be veil'd under the terms of Disseising him in Possession and barring him in Remainder At other times the Killing of both pass'd for executing a Bargain and Sale as being a short manner of conveyance and the Rising in Arms as the longer and more tedious way for executing a Lease and Release The Villains thus wantonly abusing the Innocent Terms of the excellent Profession of the common Laws of England to cover their horrid Designs against his Majesties Person and Crown whose Preservation and Prosperity is the great end and sense of all those Laws But for the most part when they were free and amongst themselves they discours'd of the whole contrivance in plain Language and without reserve their common Healths being such as these To the Man who first draws his Sword against Popery and Slavery in defence of the Protestant Religion Confusion to the two Brothers Popery and Slavery explaining the same to be meant of the Royal Brothers of Whitehal And when some of them who were less harden'd in Cruelty express'd some kind of consternation and dread of the Consequences of so dire a Stroak and desir'd the Infamy of it might be thrown on the Papists others particularly Ferguson declared They thought the Action too good to have the Papists carry away the Honour of it and often applauded it as a Glorious Work That it would be an Admonition to all Princes to take heed how they Oppressed their Subjects That he hoped to see the Fact rewarded by a Parliament and the Actors in it have the Honour of Statues erected to them and the Title of Preservers of their Country So also when Nelthrop Walcot and some few others readily declar'd themselves willing to joyn in the Insurrection but shrunk a little at first at the horrour of the Assassination R. Rumbald and R. Goodenough with monstrous impiety maintain'd the Kings and the Dukes Murder as the more pious Design of the two and recommended it as keeping one of the Ten Commandments and the best way to prevent shedding Christian Blood In these their private Cabals the Matters they promiscuously treated of were either a general Insurrection or the Assassination of the Kings and his Royal Highnesses Persons Of the Assassination divers ways were consulted till they fix'd on that of the Rye The Insurrection was proposed to be made at the same time in England and Scotland The