to above an Hundred more who had been Members of the former Parliament and had render'd themselves obnoxious to the Usurper by Opposing and Acting in contradiction to his Designs of Establishing his Tyranny They being all Excluded for want of the aforesaid Certificate or Warrant Whereupon after having consulted together they applied themselves for Redress to that part of the Parliament which was admitted to Sit. Acquainting them by way of complaint that above an Hundred of the Members which were chosen by the Country and sent up to serve in the Parliament were not able to obtain admittance into the House being kept out by order of the Protector But those within the House being all of them Cromwells Creatures upon the Questions being put Resolved That those persons ought to make their Application to the Council for Acceptance and Approbation Whereupon finding that they could obtain no relief against those Arbitrary and Illegal Practices of the Usurper they unanimously consented to draw up and publish a Remonstrance wherein they claimed the priviledge of the Ancient Fundamental Laws and their Birth-right as Free-men of England But the Remonstrance being much too large to be here inserted I shall only present you with one or two Paragraphs as a Specimen of those brave Heroes Resolutions against a Protectorian Invasion And the greatness of their Courage and brave English Gallantry will be the more conspicuous if we consider this was done when the then Protector was in his Zenith when he had made almost all Europe tremble before him ahd gave Laws to his Neighbouring Princes and held that Thunder in his Fist wherewith he shook the Nation off her very Foundations And the House too filled with those who either were or seemed to be his Creatures Yet in a general Defiance of this so Potent a Conquerour did those Noble Patriots amongst other things Remonstrate When our Worthy Ancestors have been met in Parliaments and have found Oppression and Tyranny supported by such strong hands that they could not prevail to secure their Countries Lives and Liberties by wholsome Laws they have often made their Protestations against Injustice and Oppression and forewarned the People of their danger In like manner we who have been duly chosen by the People to be Members of the Parliament that should now have met and have an undoubted Right to meet Sit and Vote in Parliament although we are Oppressed by Force of Arms and shut out of the usual place of Parliament Sitting yet having Hearts sensible of that highest Trust reposed in us and being filled with Cares for the Church and Common-wealth which with grief of heart we behold bleeding we do hold our selves bound in duty to God and our Country to declare unto the People of England their and our woful condition and the most evident danger of the utter Subversion of Religion Liberty Right and Property We believe the Rumour is now gone through the Nation that Armed Men employed by the L. P. have prevented the free Meeting and Sitting of the intended Parliament and have forcibly shut out of doors such Members as he and his Council supposed would not be frighted or flattered to betray their Country and give up their Religion Lives and Estates to be at his Will to selve his Lawless Ambition But we fear that the Slavery Rapines Oppressions Cruelties Murthers and Confusions that are comprehended in this horrid Fact are not so sensibly discerned or so much laid to heart as the case requires and we doubt not but as the common practice of the Man hath been the Name of God and Religion and formal Fasts and Prayers will be made use of to colour over the Blackness of the Fact We do therefore in faithfulness to God and our Country hereby Remonstrate First That whereas by the Fundamental Laws of this Nation the People ought not to be bound by any Laws but such as are freely consented unto by their chosen Deputies in Parliament and it is a most wicked Usurpation even against the very Laws of Nature for any man to impose his Will or Discretion upon another as a Rule unless there be some compact or Agreement between the parties for that intent And whereas by the Mercy of God only in preserving this Fundamental Law and Liberty the good People of England have beyond memory of any Record preserved their Estates Families and Lives which had otherwise been destroyed at the will of every wicked Tyrant and by keeping this only as their undoubted Right they have been kept from being brutish Slaves to the lusts of their Kings who would otherwise have despoiled them of their Persons Lives and Estates by their Proclamations and the Orders of themselves and their Council Now the L. P. hath by force of Arms invaded this Fundamental Right and Liberty and violently prevented the meeting of the peoples chosen Deputies in Parliament and he and his Council boldly declare That none of the Peoples Deputies shall meet in Parliament unless they agree to the measure of their Fantasies Humours and Lusts They now render the people such Fools or Beasts as know not who are fit to be trusted by them with their Lives Estates and Families But he and his Council that daily devour their Estates and Liberties will judge who are fit to counsel and advise about Laws to preserve their Estates and Liberties Thus doth he now openly assume a power to pack an Assembly of his Confidents Parasites and Confederates and to call them a Parliament that he may from thence pretend that the People have consented to become his Slaves and to have their persons and Estates at his Diseretion And if the people shall tamely submit to such a Power who can doubt but he may pack such a Number as will obey all his Commands and consent to his taking what part of our Estates he pleaseth and to impose what Yoaks he thinks fit to make us draw in They know it to be the undoubted Right of the People to trust whom they think fit and as much the Right of every man duly chosen and trusted to meet and Vote in Parliament without asking their leave or begging their Tickets And although there have been frequent Secret Designs for many years to subvert Religion Liberty and Property in this Nation and to that end the Designs of Tyranny have attempted to destroy sometimes the Being sometimes the Power Priviledges and Freedom of Parliaments yet the Mercy of God hath almost miraculously preserved the Being Priviledges and Authority of Parliaments and therein Religion Liberty and Property until the time of the Lord Protector But now he hath assumed an absolute Arbitrary Soveraignty as if he came down from the Throne of God to create to himself and his Confederates such Powers and Authorities as must not be under the cognizance of the Peoples Parliaments His Proclamations he declares shall be binding Laws to Parliaments themselves he takes upon him to be above the whole Body and every Member of it
French hands for Caution The next day news came that France and Holland were agreed Then the obloquy was turned from treachery to folly The Ministers were now Fools that some days before were Villains And indeed the Coffee-houses were not to be blamed for their last apprehensions since if that Conjunction had taken effect then England had been in a far worse case then now it is and the War had been turned upon us But both Kings knowing their Interests resolved to Joyn against them who were the Common Enemies to all Monarchies and I may say especially to ours their only Competitor for Trade and Power at Sea and who only stand in their way to an universal Empire as great as Rome This the States understood so well and had swallowed so deep that under all their present distress and danger they are so intoxicated with that vast ambition that they slight a Treaty and refuse a Cessation All this you and the whole Nation saw before the last War but it could not then be so well timed or our Alliances so well made But you judged aright that at any rate Delenda est Carthago That Government was to be brought down And therefore the King may well say to you 'T is your War He took his measures from you and they were just and right ones and He expects a suitable assistance to so necessary and expensive an Action which He has hitherto maintained at His own charge and was unwilling either to trouble you or burden the Country until it came to an inevitable necessity And His Majesty commands me to tell you that unless it be a certain Sum and speedily raised it can never answer the Occasion My Lords and Gentlemen Reputation is the great support of War or Peace This War had never begun nor had the States ever slighted the King or ever refused Him Satisfaction neither had this War continued to this day or subsisted now but that the States were deceived in their measures and apprehended His Majesty in that great want of money that He must sit down under any Affronts and was not able to begin or carry on a War Nay at this day the States support themselves amongst their People by this only falshood that they are assured of the temper of England and of the parliament and that you will not supply the King in this War And that if they can hold out till your meeting they will have new life and may take new measures There are lately taken two of their principal Agents with their Credentials and Instructions to this purpose who are now in the Tower and shall be proceeded against according to the Law of Nations But the King is sufficiently assured of His people Knows you better and can never doubt His Parliament This had not been mentioned but to shew you of what importance the frankness and seasonableness of this Supply is as well as the fulness of it Let me say the King has brought the States to that condition that your hearty conjunction at this time in supplying His Majesty will make them never more formidable to Kings or dangerous to England And if after this you suffer them to get up let this be remembred The States of Holland are Englands eternal Enemy both by Interest and Inclination In the next place to the supply for the carrying on of the War His Majesty recommends to you the taking care of His Debts What you gave the last Session did not near answer your own expectation Besides another confiderable Aid you designed His Majesty was unfortunately lost in the birth so that the King was forced for the carrying on of His affairs much against His will to put a stop to the payments out of the Exchequer He saw the pressures upon himself and growing inconveniencies to His People by great Interest and the difference through all His Business between Ready money and Orders This gave the King the necessity of that proceeding to make use of His own Revenue which hath been of so great effect in this War But though he hath put a stop to the trade and gain of the Bankers yet he would be unwilling to ruine them and oppress so many Families as are concerned in those Debts Besides it were too disprortionable a burden upon many of His good Subjects But neither the Bankers nor they have reason to complain if you now take them into your care and they have paid them what was due to them when the Stop was made with Six per Cent. Interest from that time The King is very much concern'd both in Honour and Interest to see this done And yet he desires you not to mis-time it but that it may have only the second place and that you will first settle what you intend about the Supply His Majesty has so fully vindicated His Declaration from that Calumny concerning the Papists that no reasonable scruple can be made by any good man He has sufficiently justified it by the time it was published in and the effects He hath had from it and might have done it more from the agreeableness of it to His own natural disposition which no good English man can wish other then it is He loves not bloud or rigorous severities but where mild or gentle ways may be used by a wise Prince He is certain to choose them The Church of England and all good Protestants have reason to rejoyce in such a Head and such a Defender His Majesty doth declare His care and Concerns for the Church and will maintain them in all their Rights and Priviledges equal if not beyond any of His Predecessors He was born and bred up in it It was that his Father died for We all know how great temptations and offers He resisted abroad when He was in His lowest condition And He thinks it the Honour of His Reign that He hath been the Restorer of the Church 'T is that He will ever maintain and hopes to leave to posterity in greater lustre and upon surer grounds then our Ancestors ever saw it But His Majesty is not convinc'd that violent ways are the Interest of Religion or the Church There is one thing more which I am commanded to speak to you of Which is the jealousie that hath been foolishly spread abroad of the Forces the King hath raised in this War Wherein the King hath opened himself freely to you and confessed the fault on the other hand For if this last Summer had not proved a miracle of Storms and Tempests such as secured their East-India Fleet and protected their Sea-coast from a discent nothing but the true reason want of Money could have justified the defect in the number of our Forces 'T is that His Majesty is providing for against the next Spring having given out Orders for the raising of seven or eight Regiments more of Foot under the Command of Persons of the greatest Fortunes and Quality And I am earnestly to recommend to you that in your Supplies
by no other Rule or Law than his pleasure as if he were their Absolute Lord and had bought all the People of England for his Slaves Doubtless he would pretend only to have Conquered England at his own Expence and were there as much Truth as there is Falshood in that pretence yet he could not but know that the Right of the Peoples Deputies to their Antient Powers and Priviledges would remain good against him as against their publick capital Enemy Whom every man ought to destroy until by some agreement with the Body of the People in Parliament some sort of governing Power in him were submitted unto that hereby he might cease to be a publick Enemy and Destroyer and become a King or Governour according to the conditions accepted by the People and if he would so pretend he could not be so discharged from his publick Enmity by any Condition or Agreement made with a part of the Peoples chosen Deputies whilst he shut out the other part for no part of the Representatives Body are trusted to consent to any thing in the Nations behalf if the whole have not their free Liberty of Debating and Voting in the Matters propounded If he would pretend no higher than to be our Conquerour who for Peace and his own safeties sake was content to cease from being a publick Enemy and to be admitted a Governour he would not compass those ends by forcibly excluding as now he does whom he pleases of the Representative Body of People who were to submit to him on the Peoples behalf therefore he either takes upon him to be such a Conqueror as scorris the Peoples acceptance of him by their Representative as their Governour and fears not to remain a publick Enemy or else he takes himself to be such an unheard of Soveraign that against him the People have no claim of Property or Right in themselves or any thing else for he hath now declared that the Peoples choice cannot give any man a Right to sit in Parliament but the Right must be derived from his gracious Will and Pleasure with that of his Councellors and his Clerks Ticket only must be their evidence for it Thus hath he exalted himself to a Throne like unto God's as if he were of himself and his power from himself and we were all made for him to be commanded and disposed of by him to work for him and serve his Pleasure and Ambition A little after there is an Instance of Chief-Justice Tresilian who was executed at Tyburn in the time of Richard the Second for advising the King that he might at any time dissolve the Parliament and command the Members to depart under the penalty of Treason Divers other Protestations were contained in that Instrument against the Arbitrariness and Tyranny of that proceeding and in conclusion they declare they will pour out their complaints before the Lord against their powerful Oppressors hoping he will redeem his People out of the hands of wicked and deceitful Men. This Protestation was Signed by One hundred and seventeen persons whereof Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper was chief and many others of great Loyalty and Integrity some whereof are since dead but many yet survive and as a reward of their Loyalty enjoy Places of Honour and Profit under his present Majesty By this we may easily discern the Opinion he had of the Illegal and Arbitrary proceedings of Cromwell and how much of the sufferings of the Loyal Party would have been prevented had that point of a free Parliament been then gained and consequently His Majesties Restauration must have happened sooner than it did This Remonstrance had not power enough however to work their present admission into the House so that that part of a Parliament which was suffered to sit did every thing to the desire of Cromwell answering both those ends for which they were Convened viz. the raising Money and confirming his Title which was no sooner done but he Prorogued them until he had occasion to Fleece them again which interval was laid hold on by this true English Gentleman as a fit opportunity to engage them when they met again to do themselves and the Nation Justice by admitting him and the rest of the Members that were kept out by the Protector to take their place in Parliament and so managed some of the Members who were moderate men that they resolved not to be so basely trampled on by the Tyrant any longer The Prorogation being expired the Parliament make their appearance at Westminster where the Protector makes a fair Speech to them promising them strange things if they would go on and prosecute his Designs But notwithstanding this Speech the Commons were no sooner retired to their House than Cromwell discovered to his no small perplexity that the Face of his beloved Parliament from whose tractableness and compliance he had promised himself the greatest happiness imaginable was strangely altered For they presently fell to Voting That no Member legally Chosen and Returned could be excluded from performing their Duty but by consent of Parliament and thereupon immediately proceeded to the calling over their House and admitted Sir Anthony and the rest who had subscribed the Remonstrance to the no good liking of the Protector who were no sooner in and the House full but they so influenced the rest that they soon became the majority and began to undo what the others had done in their absence and presumed so far as to question the Tyrants Power Wherefore finding them so bold he concluded it would not be convenient to let a business of so high a nature run too far lest it should if neglected put a period to all his ambitious Designs Wherefore going to his Pageant House of Lords he sent for them and after having made a large Speech to them in the conclusion told them That it did concern his Interest as well as the publick Peace and Tranquility of the Nation to terminate that Parliament and therefore he did then dissolve them and put an end to their Sitting The constant correspondence he alwaies maintained with the Royal Party and that almost to the hazard of his Life and Family are sufficient Testimonies of his sincerity to his Masters Interest and Service his House was a Sanctuary for distressed Royalists and his correspondence with the Kings Friends though closely managed as the necessities of those times required are not unknown to those that were the principal managers of his Majesties Affairs at that time This made Cromwell so apprehensive of this great Assertor of his Countries Rights and Opposer of Arbitrary Government and Enthusiasm that though his vast Abilities were known at least to equal the ablest Pilot of the State which was the only motive that induced the Usurper in the infancy of his Usurpation to nominate him for one of his Council in hope thereby to allure him to his Interest and wheadle and Wire-draw him into a compliance with his ambitious and mischievous designs yet we cannot
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
cannot long continue in the English hands if some better care be not taken of it This is in your Power and there is not bing there but is under your Laws Therefore I beg that this Kingdom at least may be taken into consideration together with the State of England for I am sure there can be no safety here if these Doors are not shut up and made sure But His Majesty had another kind of esteem for his Lordship for not long after the making of this Speech having Dissolv'd His Privy Council and chosen a new one he was pleased to constitute the Earl President thereof a Place so considerable for Honour and Trust that it hath not been enjoyed by any Subject for many years and was improv'd by him as much to the advantage of His Majesty and the Protestant Interest as possible And when the Bill for excluding the Duke of York had passed the House of Commons as the only expedient they could find out to suppress the Designs of the Papists and prevent their ever introducing the Popish Religion into England they sent it up to the House of Lords where his Lordship was one of those Honourable Lords who Voted for its passing that House in order to its being offered to His Majesty for His Royal Assent The Grand Jury returned for the Hundred of Osalstone in the County of Middlesex in June the 2d 1680. finding the Constables defective in not presenting the Papists as they ought it was ordered they should make further presentments by the 16th of that Instant upon which day they met again to receive them when likewise a Bill against D. Y. for not coming to Church was brought before them together with the following Reasons for his being indicted subscribed by the persons undernam'd First Because the 25th Car. 2d when an Act was made to throw Popish Recusants out of all Offices and Places of Trust the Duke did then lay down several great Offices and Places as Lord High Admiral of England Generalissimo of all His Majesties Forces both by Land and Sea Governour of the Cinque Ports and divers others thereby to avoid the punishmant of that Law against Papists Secondly 30. Car. 2d when an Act was made to disable Papists to sit in either House of Parliament there was a Proviso incerted in that Act That it should not extend to D. Y. on purpose to save his right of sitting in the Lords House though he refused to take those Oaths which the Protestant Peers ought to do Thirdly That His Majesty in His Speech March 6th the 31st year of his Reign doth give for a Reason to the Parliament why he sent His Brother out of England Viz. Because he would leave no Man Room to say that he had not remov'd all Causes which might influence him to Popish Councils Fourthly That there hath been divers Letters read in both Houses of Parliament and at the secret Committee of both Houses from several Cardinals and others at Rome and also from other Popish Bishops and Agents of the Pope in other Forreign Parts which do apparently shew the great Correspondencies between him and the Pope and how the Pope could not choose but weep for joy at the reading of some of his Letters and what great satisfaction it was to the Pope to hear that he was advanced to the Catholick Religion as likewise that the Pope hath granted him Briefs sent him Beads and ample Indulgencies with much more to this purpose Fifthly The whole House of Commons hath Declared him to be a Papist in their Votes Sunday April 6th 1679. wherein they resolv'd nemine contradicente that the Duke of York's being a Papist and his hopes of coming such to the Crown had given the greatest countenance and encouragement to the present Conspiracy and Designs of the Papists against the King and the Protestant Religion Sixthly That besides all this Proof and much more to this purpose it is most notorious and evident he hath for many years absented from Protestant Churches during Religious Worship These are the Reasons why we believe him to be a Papist this was subscribed and delivered by his Lordship together with the Earl of Huntington and the Lords Grey of Wark Russel Cavendish Brandon and Wharton as also by Sir William Cowper Barronet Sir Gilbert Gerrard Barronet Sir Edward Hungerford Knight of the Bath Sir Scroop How Thomas Thinn Esq William Forrester Esq and John Trenchard Esq But whilst the Jury were in debate of the Matter they were sent for up by the Court of Kings-Bench and dismist so that nothing was done upon it more than the Juries having receieved the presentment Wherefore on Wednesday July the Thirtieth the former Lords Knights and Gentlemen with the addition of the Lord Clare Sir John Cope Barronet Sir Rowland Gwynne and Mr. Wandsford presented the same to a second Grand Jury who were discharged as the former But whilst his Lordship was thus vigorously prosecuting the Popish Plot in the face of danger the Papists were as vigilent in contriving his ruine though with somewhat more secrecy and silence resolving to seize the Prey before they gave the least Alarm or Notice of their intention as appear'd by their close Caballistical Designs carryed on against this Earl and all the rest of the Protestant Nobility and Gentry in England wherein Mr. Dangerfield was a considerable Agent having been for that purpose fetcht out of Newgate by the Papists who hoping to reap a vast advantage by having him to manage their Affairs willingly disburst a large sum to discharge his Debts The first sangunary work they imployed him in was to attempt the Murther of his Lordship promising him 500 pounds for so acceptable a service as they apprehended it to be he inquired the Reason why they thirsted after his Life and how there might be any probable way proposed whereby it might be accomplished to which it was answered That as to the first they should be glad to have him out of the way because if they were rid of him as they were of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey it would be no difficult thing to bear down all the rest of their Opposers As to the second They affirmed it to be as easie as desirable since said the Lord P s my Man Wood was at Thannet House two nights since upon pretence of an Errand but his business was to view the House and observe what conveniences there were to make his escape after the fact was done assuring him that Wood found the thing so feasable that after he came back he declar'd himself sorry that he was not provided to have done it then And to encourage him to undertake this sanguinary enterprise with the more chearfulness he gave him Ten Guinneys in hand as an assurance that the full reward should be paid so soon as the fatal stroak should be given Promising moreover that Mr. Regaut a Virginia Merchant of Mrs. Celliers acquaintance should come to him on Sunday following to instruct him in
a company of Obscure Varlets Irish Bogtrotters Skip-kennels and Indigent Extravagants who having profusely wasted their own Fortunes would gladly imbrace any opportunity to repair them by the ruine of others and treated each other with no less than the assurances of vast and mighty Fortunes and being advanced to places of Profit and Honour And some of them in a bravary and to excite others to an imitation of them in their wicked Practices chinks their Guinneys and exposes their Golden Rewards affirming that so should be done to the Man who was beloved with other encouragements and invitations to perswade and allure them to come over and labour at the work of Transubstantiating the Plot. And indeed to such a heigth of Ambition and vain Glory they arrived over that they commonly discoursed of being advanced to Captains and Ensigns Places Deanries and Prebendaries and putting a mighty value upon themselves scorned to think of less than great Preferments and as much Mony as they would demand Not long after the Dissolution of the Oxford Parliament one Brian Hans came to his Lordships pretending to be some Gentleman of Quality and that he could make very considerable discoveries of the Popish Plot and the Murther of Sir Edmond bury Godfrey and desired his Lordship in order thereunto to procure him a blank Pardon being very unwilling as he pretended to have his Name known until he had his Pardon procured for him The Earl who was alwaies ready to serve His Majesty and the Protestant Interest and supposing that this could be no inconsiderable Peach of Service to discover the Murther of the aforesaid Knight more fully than had been hitherto done which must necessarily give a greater light into the Plot he endeavoured to get him one but it could not be obtained And not long after this pretended Gentleman of Quality dwindled into a mean and obscure Wretch and of a pretended Evidence of the real Popish Plot degenerated into a blustering Witness of a fictious Protestant one For being apprehended and carried before the Council instead of discovering any thing about the Death of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey he accused his Lordship and others of having endeavoured to suborn him to do it Whereupon Mr. Rouse a Gentleman who had been some time employed by Sir Thomas Player in paying off the Army which had been Disbanded not long before and Mr. College who had attended some of the Parliament Men to Oxford And Saturday July the 2d 1681. in the Morning his Lordship was apprehended by a Messenger by Vertue of a Warrant from the Council and his Papers all seized and carried to Whitehall where the King likewise arrived from Windsor about Ten of the Clock and then he was examined before His Majesty and the Council some of the Judges likewise were present His Lordship knowing himself clear of what was laid to his charge boldly affirmed and solemnly protested his Innocency adding as it was reported That were he Guilty of those Crimes whereof he was accused he was certainly a mad-Man and had thereby rendered himself more fit for Bedlam than the Tower whither upon the Sequel he was committed close Prisoner for High Treason and conveyed thither by Water in a Barge and the King returned the same day to Windsor And now the better to prepare peoples minds to believe what he was to be charged withal the Jesuites and Condemned Priests in Newgate and some other of the Popish Crew privately dispersed divers Hellish and Lying Pamphlets wherein they maliciously aspersed him with Conspiring Treason against His Majesty one whereof which was somewhat more impudent and mischievous than the rest and was called Articles against the Earl of Shaftsbury was dispensed with some privacy and caution The Articles were as follows I. That he had imagined to compass and procure the Death of the King the Subvertion of the Government and the known Laws of the Land by reducing this Antient Monarchy into a Republick II. That he used great endeavours to possess the People that His Majesty was a Papist and design'd to introduce Popery and Arbitrary Power and to that end had promoted several Seditious and Treasonable Libels against His Majesties Person and Government purposely to bring His Majesty into an odium and Contempt with His loving Subjects III. That He endeavoured to Levy War against the King both in England and Ireland and bring Blod-shed and Confuston upon His Majesties good People under pretence of prosecuting the Popish Blot and preserving the Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of the Subject as He and His Confederates have done in the late Rebellion IV. That he endeavoured to render the Church of England as Rediculous as Popery and Defam'd all His Majesties Officers both by Land and Sea and all others who out of a due senfe of Loyalty adhere to the Crown stiling them Tories Tantivies Masqueraders c. purposely to frighten them from their Duty and wean them from their Soveraign to adhere to Him and His Faction V. That He countenanc'd harbour'd and hired persons to Swear against the Queen and His Royal Highness VI. That He procured several Sums of Mony to be Raised ond Collected to carry on these most abominable Designs And to represent him as monstrously unnatural and bloody as themselves and render him hateful and detestable to all Men who would be so Brainless as to believe the silly and rediculous Shams the Articler adds in the close of his Libel this strange and improbable Rodemantado that when the Sergeant at Arms apprehended him he desired him to eat something before he appeared before the King and Council whereupon saies the Libeller his Lordship answered I have no Stomach to eat unless I could get a Roasted Irish-Man The Sessions of the Peace for London and Middlesex beginning on the Wednesday following he presented a Petition to the Court desiring to be brought to a speedy Tryal or else admitted to Bail Upon the 8th Stephen Colledge had an Indictment presented against him to the Grand Jury who were all of them substantial Men And after having heard all that could be said on both sides they returned an Ignoramus upon the Bill but being removed to Oxford and tryed there was found Guilty and was accordingly Condemned and Executed and a forged Paper presented and published by one Thompson a Printer and supposed to be Writ by some Jesuite who are alwaies so good at inventing of Shams called His last Speech wherein he was made to confess all that he was charged with although it afterwards appeared that he absolutely denied he was any way Guilty affirming his Innocency to the last Breath August 31st his Lordship presented another Petition to the Judges at the Sessions at the Old-Bayly desiring that he might be either Tried or Bailed pursuant to the Act of Habeas Corpus to which the Court returned answer That being charged with no Crime in that Court and being Prisoners in the Tower they could take no Cognizance of them but they