industry noise and clamour served to no other purpose than the exposing there own folly and wickedness and the making His Loyalty and Justice shine with the more brightness and splendour and the giving him a fresh provocation as well as future opportunity to pry more narrowly into and with the greater vigour oppose their Machivilian Designs against His Soveraign the Protestant Religion the interest of Brittain and thereby sadly frustrate their BVDDING HOPS Nor was it long before their pregnant and groaning Designs gave him an occasion to demonstrate his Zeal therein for about April or May 1675. an odd kind of a Bill was unexpectedly offered one Morning in the House of Lords whereby all such as enjoyed any beneficial Offices or Imployments Ecclesiastical Civil or Military to which was added Privy-Councellor Justices of the Peace and Members of Parliament were under a penalty to take the Oath and make the Declaration and Abhorrence ensuing I A. B. Do Declare That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King And that I do abhor that Trayterous position of taking Arms by His Authority against His Person or those that are Commission'd by Him in pursuance of such Commission And I do Swear That I will not at any time endeavour any alteration of Government either in Church or State So help me God The same Oath was brought in the House of Commons in the Plague Year at Oxford and great endeavours used to have it imposed upon the Nation but was strenuously opposed by the very same persons that now introduced it into the House of Lords and by their assistance thrown out as a pernicious thing tending to the general infecting the Vitals of the Kingdom And although it then passed in a particular Bill commonly known by the Name of the Five Mile Act because it only concerned the Nonconformist Preachers yet even in that it was mightily opposed by that faithful Friend to the Crown the late Earl of Southampton whose sentiments and judgment in an Affair of that Nature might certainly have been accounted the Platform and Standard of Prudence and Loyalty This Oath they said was but a little thing being only a moderate security to the Church and Crown Yet their so stifly defending it when opposed by His Lordship and others together with their fierce and united endeavours to have it pass the House made all thinking men suspect that there was some extraordinary Design wrapt up in it and therefore contended for by them not as a triffle but a thing of that weight that the whole stress of Affairs depended thereon And indeed the Word Commission as it was there to be taken was of an extraordinary Extent and Latitude for if it should have been for taking away Estate or Life by force or if the perion Commissionated were under never so many disabilities by Acts of Parliament yet the taking that Oath would have removed all those Incapacities or his Commission would have ended the despute So that it came at last to be one of the greatest Contest perhaps that ever happened in Parliament wherein his Lordship and divers other Illustrous Peers being assured of their own Loyalty and Merit stood up against the Oath and pleaded for the Antient English Liberties with the same Pious Vertue and Heroick Courage and Resolution wherewith their Noble Ancestors had formerly defended the great 〈◊〉 of England only they deserved far greater Commendation and Honour in regard they grapled with far greater difficulties and had not so fair a Field to engage in but fought it out under all the disadvantages imaginable being overlaid by numbers and the noise of the House like the wind baring hard upon them nor being so few could they as their Adversaries withdraw to refresh themselves in a whole days engagement yet never was there a fuller demonstration How dull a thing humane loquence is and how small and inconsiderable The most towering and insulting greatness when bright Truth discovers all things in their proper colours and dementions and like the Sun shoots its enlightning Rayes through all their fallacies The Dispute lasted many days with much eagerness on both sides and was so warmly opposed that the Parliament was Prorogued before the Lords came to any Resolution about it but in the next Sessions they ordered it to be burnt It might be injurious to the rest of the Noble Lords who took part with him therein to attribute the whole success to him yet the Promoters accused him of having first opposed it and that he and the Duke of Buckingham stirred up and influenced the rest And therefore the Popish Party who it 's probable hop'd to have reaped the greatest advantage by that Oath banded against him with as much fierceness as ever and although they had failed of Murthering his Person yet resolved to accomplish the ruine of his Reputation influencing several Protestants as well Clergy as Laiety to lend their helping hand to this great Work The former were to bespatter him in their Pulpits as if they were Conjuring down the Devil instead of commending the Blessed Jesus in the Tenders of the Gospel The other were to bespatter him with their Pens thereby to procure him the hatred of the Vulgar who commonly take up things upon Trust and believe every thing they read to be true and because they could procure no better they employed Needham a mercenary Wretch who had with an audacious impudence and unparalell'd virulency Writ against two Kings Viz. Our present Soveraign and His Royal Father and therefore the more fit for such an undertaking His first Essay was in a Libellous Pamphlet called Advice to the Men of Shaftsbury wherein he falsely charged him with many fictitious Crimes and imaginary Designs against the Government And thus having prepared the way to his ruine as they imagined they hoped to accomplish by it an accident which happened quickly after in the ensuing Parliament which met February 15th 1676. after 15 months Prorogation upon this occasion As soon as the King had finished his Speech the Commons withdrew and the Lords had taken their Respective Seats The Duke of Buckingham who usually says what he thinks stood up and argued with great strength of reason that according to the Laws and Constitution of Parliaments that unpresidented Prorogation was null and the Parliament consequently Dissolved offering moreover to maintain it to all the Judges and desiring as hath been usual in such Cases That they might give their Opinions but a certain Lord fancying himself a better Judg of that weighty Point in Law moved that the Duke of Buckingham might be called to the Bar whereupon his Lordship stood up and opposed it as an extravagant motion and ascertain'd the validity of Buckingham's Proposals with all the Cicilian height of Courage and Reason Whereupon another Lord of no less consideration than the former who had called the Duke to the Bar stood up in as great pet as if the Salt had been
Council who argued very learnedly that the passing an Act by the Kings Royal Assent can not make a Session because the usual Promise was not in it It was without any instruction of mine that he mentioned that Point The Kings Council tells your Lordships of the Laws and Customs of Parliaments and if this were so I should submit but this Case of mine is primae impressionis and is a new way such as neither Mr. Attorney nor Mr. Solicitor can shew any President of and I have no other remedy or place to apply my self to than the way I take Mr. Attorney confesseth that the Kings Pleasure may Release me without the Lords if so this Court is Coram Rege This is the proper place to determine the Kings Pleasure This Court will and ought to judge of an Act of Parliament null and void if it be against Magna Charta much more may judge an order of the House that is put in Execution to deprive any Subject of his Liberty And if this Order or Commitment be a Judgment as the King's Council affirms then it is out of the Lords hands and properly before your Lordships as much as the Acts which were lately passed which I presume you will not refuse to Judge of notwithstanding Mr. Attorney General saith this Parliament is yet in being yet I take it something ill that he tells me I might have applied elsewhere My Lords they speak much of the custom of Parliament but I do affirm there is no custom of Parliament that ever their own Members should be put out of their own power and the inconveniences will be endless Mr. Attorney was pleased easily to ansiver the Objection of one of my Council if a great Minister be so committed he hath the Cure of a Pardon a Prorogation or a Dissolution But if the Case should be put why forty Members or a greater number may not as well be taken away without Remedy in any of the King's Courts he will not so easily answer And if there can be no relief in this Case no Man can foresee what will be hereafter I desire your Lordships well to consider what Rule you make in my Case for it will be a president that may in future Ages concern every Man in England My Lord Mr. Attorney saith you either can release or remand me I differ from him in that Opinion I do not insist upon a Release I have been a Prisoner above five Months already and came hither of necessity having no other way to get my Liberty and therefore am very willing to tender your Lordship Bail which are in or near the Court as good as any are in England either for their Estate or Quality and I am ready to give any sum or member My Lords this Court being now possest of this business I am now your Prisoner The Court having heard all that could be said pro and con on both sides delivered their Opinions Seriatim one of the Judges indeed was not there in Person but he adventured hower to shew the exactness of his Justice to depute Judge Jones to speak for him when it came to his turn and declare although he had not heard what his Lordships Council or himself could say that it was his Opinion his Lordship ought to be remanded and the rest of the Court unanimously concurring with the Opinion of their absent Brother he was by them remanded back again to the Tower according And thus his Lordship being denied redress in the Court of Kings-Bench remained a Prisoner in the Tower until the February following and then on the fourteenth of that Month the Parliament being then sitting he presented a Petition to the House of Lords wherein he makes a very humble submission both to His Majesty and the House of Peers but they objecting against the Petitions he had presented to His Majesty as not having made a satisfactory acknowledgment of his Crimes after some debate rejected this Petition Whereupon the weak condition he was then brought into by his confinement requiring speedy enlargement he presented another Petition to His Majesty and likewise to the House of Lords in both which he renued his Supplication to be released from his imprisonment And not only acknowledged with all humble submission That his endeavouring to maintain the Parliaments being Dissolv'd was an ill advised Action and so must every Man acknowledg who will strive in vain to sail against Wind and Tide but in the most submissive Terms assured them that he was ready to make what further acknowledgment and submission they should require and that in the way and manner too which they should please to direct yet unfortunate Earl he could not obtain his Liberty upon these Terms neither another pretence being then laid hold on for the prolonging his Imprisonment Which was the horrid Crime of endeavouring his enlargment by applying himself to the Court of Kings-Bench in order to his being admitted to Bail And yet a certain Gentleman in the World who had at that time a mighty influence upon Affairs and improved this imaginary fault as much as possible to the prejudice of the Earl hath since that time been himself guilty of the supposed Crime And not only so but hath rendred himself also more pertinacious therein by his reiterated applications to that Court to take Bail for him His Lordships Second Petition to the House of Lords was as follows To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled The humble Petition of Anthony Earl of SHAFTSBVRY Sheweth THat your Petitioner on the 16th of February 1676. was committed Prisoner to the Tower of London by your Lordships because he did not obey your Lordships Order where he hath continued in close confinement to the great decay of his Health and danger of his Life as well as prejudice of his Estate and Family In all humble Obedience therefore unto your Lordships he doth acknowledge That his endeavouring to maintain that this Parliament is Dissolved was an ill advised Action for which he humbly begs the Pardon of the King's Majesty and of this most Honourable House and doth in all humble Duty and Observance to your Lordships beseech you to believe that he would not do any thing willingly to incur your displeasure Wherefore your Petitioner in all humble Duty and Obedience both to His Majesty and your Lordships hath made his humble submission and acknowledgment in his most humble Petition unto the Kings most Sacred Majesty and is ready to make his further submission to His Majesty and this Honourable House according to the direction thereof And he doth most humbly implore your Lordships that you will be pleased to restore him to your favour and discharge him from his Imprisonment And your Petitioner c. SHAFTSBVRY THis Petition being read the Lord Chancellor acquainted the House that His Majesty had received a Third Petition from the Earl of Shaftsbury more submissive than the two former But His Majesty understanding
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
nothing but inconstancy never proved more false to any then she did to him And his unshaken faithfulness to His Majesty from whose Interest no Temptation could ever allure him together with the Figure he made and the High Station wherein he deservedly stood was so far from defending him against that it subjected him to the Euvy and exposed him to the spleenful hate and insatiable Revenge of those who became his inveterate and implacable Enemies for no other reason then his extraordinary Zeal to have His Majesty safe in his Person by being Great in the Hearts of his Subjects and Raign without a Competitor and thereby become Formidable to his Enemies and be able like his Predecessors to give Laws to the Neighbouring Princes The only way to promote the publick Good maintain the Security of Religion the Safety of the Government and advance the Honour of the English Nation Wherefore they having resolved upon his ruine and knowing that the higher he mounted the more likely he would be to fall and if he did fall it would be with the greater precipitancy and danger They rack'd all their Inventions and improved all their Interest at Court to have him advanc'd to higher Honour although he was already exalted even above his own Ambition and thereby involved into so much danger that he was forced every Night to keep a constant Guard about his House thereby to secure his Person from the bloody Attempts of Popish Raviliacks or Roman Godfredizers So that this hopeful project not succeeding according to expectation may he rend by the future Ages in the British Chronicles to his immortal Glory and the shame and infamy of his Enemies But although they were not able with all their combinated strengths to trample him into an Ignominious Grave yet they quickly after found an occasion of Triumph upon the taking from him his Honourable Employment to which he ascended upon abundance of Merit used with abundance of Impartiality and resigned with as much Innocency and Honour in the following manner About November 1673. The King was pleased to send for his Lordship to Whitehall where upon His Majesties Command he resigned the Great Seal of England to be disposed of as His Majesty should think fit And thus this mighty Minister of State who had to the satisfaction and admiration of all good Men and to the hurt and prejudice and therefore to the hate and envy of none but the Papists improved that Power whereunto the Grace and Favour of his Soveraign had raised him did without any kind of murmuring or repining lay it down again at the Feet of him from whom he at first derived it Never abating of his usual Briskness nor altering the natural chearfulness of his Temper upon the loss of his Honorary Places but on the contrary when he had delivered the Seal he put on his Sword accounting it as much Honour and Happiness to walk with that by his side unenvied as to have the Mace and Purse carried before him with abundance of Emulation and Grudge besides danger In the Afternoon he was visited at his Mansion-house by his Highness Prince Rupert and divers other Peers and Gentlemen of Quality who gratefully acknowledged themselves to be extreamly oblig'd by his just and honest discharge of that Trust which had been reposed in him for which they returned him thanks And many whose tedious or difficult Suits were discharged by his dexterity and wisdom will ever remember him with Honour and Veneration For by his admirable Prudence deep Judgment and quick Apprehension he used presently and that with abundance of Facility and Ease to penetrate into the most intricate and difficult Causes and disperse those Cloudy Mists wherewith the subtile Lawyer had darkened and perplexed the Just and Honest Title as the Author of the Character of a Loyal States-man ingeniously expresses it His choice sagacity Strait salv'd the knot that subtle Lawyers ty'd And through all Foggs discern'd the oppressed side Banish'd delays and so this Noble Peer Became a Star of Honour in our Sphere A needful Atlas of our State c. And indeed he manag'd the Court of Chancery with such an unbyass'd Judgment and Uprightness that forced even those who lost the Cause to admire his sagacity and confess the equality of his Justice THE SECOND PART OF RALEGH Redevivus THE discarding the great SHAFTSBVRY was some abatement to the excessive sorrow of his Papist Enemies and proved a seasonable allay to that tormenting Grief which peradventure might otherwise Vulter-like have prey'd upon and fretted and consumed their Vitals and thereby have saved the World from that trouble it hath already felt and may expect from them But not containing themselves with his being discarded resolved still to prosecute his ruin and thereby render their revenge the more full and compleat And in order thereunto they first vainly attempted to Murder his unblemished Reputation and bring his Loyalty into Suspicion and then with an insernal Impudence accused him of High-Treason the same Project whereby they have since so often unsuccessfully attempted his ruin obligeing Collonel to pursue and prosecute the Accuation and to make him the more capable of performing it they did with all the Art and Industry wherewith Hell and Rome could furnish them make a narrow search and exact scrutiny into the several Offices he had passed through hoping there to find some casual accident or other which might by their Hellish Pollicy have been improved to High-Treason well knowing that suddain surprize the want of a true information or the falling short of a full and clear underderstanding of some material Circumstances might expose the most profound and exactest Judge in the World to a mistake in Judgment Yet to their amazement and anguish and the glory and of that Divine Providence whereby the Almighty who fore-sees the issue and events of all sublunary Actions wisely orders and disposes all things to the advantage of the favourites of Heaven they found no such casual flips or oversights in his management that could any way answer the pains they had taken in searching the Records of his Actions or favour the Designs they were carrying on against him For having with a complicated malice and impatiency of destroying him who of all others stood most in the way of their other Designs amaz'd together and mustered up all the worst things which those Infallible Vipers by the force of their Roman Venom were able to draw and attract out of the Court Rolls so disgested and phrased as might best serve the purpose to which they were designed and presented them to the King 's Learned Council in the Law for their judgment whether there were any thing contained therein upon which they might find matter whereon to ground an accusation of Treason They did after a serious perusal of the several particulars and pretended Crimes affirm to their everlasting Honour that there was nothing which amounted to Treason contained therein So that all their pains and
to kill the Earl of Shaftsbury as being the great encourager and influencer of the rest not long after which Matteson pull'd a Pistol out of his Pocket in Mr. Prance's Shop affirming he would therewith do Shaftsbury's business having provided the same for that purpose several others also assures Mr. Prance that he would speedily be destroyed But after this their rage was heigthned and they supposed themselves obliged to a greater vigilancy in accomplishing his ruine upon the account of a Speech which was said to be spoken by him in the House of Lords March 25. 1679. upon occasion of the Houses Resolving it self into State of England which was to the following Effect MY LORDS YOV are now appointing the consideration of the State of England to be taken up in a Committee of the whole House some day the next Week I do not know how well what I have to say may be received for I never study either to make my Court well or to be popular I alwaies speak what I am commanded by the dictates of the Spirit within me There are some other considerations that concern England so nearly that without them you will come far short of Safety and Quiet at home We have a little Sister and she hath no Breasts what shall we do for our Sister in the day when she shall be spoken for If she be a Wall we will build on her a Palace of Silver if she be a Door we will inclose her with Boards of Caedar We have several little Sisters without Breasts the French Protestant Churches the two Kingdoms of Ireland and Scotland the forraign Protestants are a Wall the only Wall and Defence to England upon it you may build Palaces of Silver glorious Palaces The protection of the Protestants abroad is the greatest power and security the Crown of England can attain to and which can only help us to give check to the growing greatness of France Scotland and Ireland are two Doors either to let in good or mischief upon us they are much weakned by the Artifice of our cunning Enemies and we ought to enclose them with Boards of Caedar Popery and Slavery like two Sisters go hand in hand sometimes the one goes first sometimes the other but wherever the one enters the other is always following close at the Heels In England Popery was to have brought in Slavery in Scotland Slavery went before and Popery was to follow I do not think your Lordships or the Parliament have Jurisdiction there It is a Noble and Ancient Kingdom they have an Illustrious Nobility a Gallant Gentry a Learned Clergy and an understanding worthy People but yet we cannot think of England as we ought without reflecting on the condition thereof They are under the same Prince and the influence of the same Favourites and Councils When they are hardly dealt with can we that are Richer expect better usuage For 't is certain that in all absolute Governments the poorest Countries are most favourably dealt with When the Ancient Nobility there cannot enjoy their Royalties their Shrievaldoms and their Stewardies which they and their Ancestors have possessed for several hundred of years but that now they are enjoyn'd by the Lords of the Council to make Deputations of their Authorities to such as are their known Enemies can we expect to enjoy our Magna Charta long under the same persons and Administration of Affairs If the Council-Table there can imprison any Nobleman or Gentleman for several years without bringing him to Tryal or giving the least Reason for what they do can we expect the same men will preserve the Liberty of the Subject here My Lords I will confess that I am not very well vers'd in the particular Laws of Scotland but this I do know that all the Northern Countries have by their Laws an undoubted and inviolable Right to their Liberties and Properties yet Scotland hath out-done all the Eastern and Southern Countries in having their Lives Liberties and Estates subjected to the Arbitrary Will and Pleasure of those that govern They have lately plundered and harassed the richest and wealthiest Countries of that Kingdom and brought down the barbarous Highlanders to devour them and all this almost without a colourable pretence to do it Nor can there be found a Reason of State for what they have done but that those wicked Ministers designed to procure a Rebellion at any Rate which as they managed it was only prevented by the miraculous hand of God or otherwise all the Papists in England would have been armed and the fairest opportunity given in the nick of time for the execution of that wicked and bloody Design the Papists had and it is not possible for any man that duly considers it to think other but that those Ministers that acted that were as guilty of the Plot as any of the Lords that are in Question for it My Lords I am forced to speak this the plainer because till the pressure be fully and clearly taken off from Scotland 't is not possible for me or any thinking man to believe that good is meant us here We must still be upon our guard apprehending that the Principle is not changed at Court and that those men that are still in place and Authority have that influence upon the mind of Our Excellent Prince that he is not nor cannot be that to us that his own Nature and Goodness would incline him to I know your Lordships can order nothing in this but there are those that hear me which can put a perfect cure to it until that be done the Scottish Weed is like Death in the pot Mors in Olla But there is something too now I consider that most immediately concerns us their Act of Twenty two Thousand Men to be ready to invade us upon all occasions This I hear that the Lords of the Council there have treated as they do all other Laws and expounded it into a standing Army of Six Thousand Men. I am sure we have Reason and Right to beseech the King that that Act may be better considered in the next Parliament there I shall say no more for Scotland at this time I am afraid your Lordships will think I have said too much having no concern there but if a French Nobleman should come to dwell in my House and Family I should think it concerned me to ask what he did in France for if we were there a Felon a Rogue a Plunderer I should desire him to live elsewhere and I hope your Lordships will do the same thing for the Nation if you find Cause My Lords Give me leave to speak two or three words concerning our other Sister Ireland Thither I hear is sent Douglas's Regiment to secure us against the French Besides I am credibly informed that the Papists have their Arms restor'd and the Protestants are not many of them yet recovered from being the suspected Party The Sea-Towns as well as the In-land are full of Papists That Kingdom
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