Brother's Debts and the Parliament would give no Money Come Sir a word or two to the point in general and then I will descend to some Particulars 1. What would not the Parliament give Money to support the Alliances I 'll assure you they were a parcel of naughty Boys indeed to be so refractory I pray Sir with whom were those Alliances made with the Dutchess of Cleveland Alas pious chaste Lady she had been a Cast-whore for several Years the triple League between your Brother her Grace and Mother Knight had been broke for many Years and she had made a new Alliance with her good Confessor the Archbishop of Paris and had given him all she had for a Guaranty What Alliances then were they Were they new ones with the Dutchess of Portsmouth and Nell Waal Truly your Band of Pensioners had so often supplied their extraordinary Occasions that one would think they should not have asked any more and if they knew not when they had enough the Nation could tell them they had too much and wanted nothing but an Apartment at a convenient Mansion-house in Tuttle-fields and the civil Usage of that House once a Week or so as the Ladies of their Profession use to be serv'd as a just Reward of their Diligence in their Calling It may be Sir there were Alliances of another nature as with Barillon your old Friend that were to be supported Alas the Parliament knew full well that your Brother and you could not want a Supply for such Alliances and that rather than fail you might have got a new Bill to have passed Intituled An Act to enter into an actual War with France with which you might haâ—e beg'd Money of the French King as you did in 1678. It may be you will say They were Alliances your Brother had made for Preservation of the General Peace of Christendom You say well and it is a wonder since your Brother was graciously pleased to demand Money that he was not as graciously pleased to tell the Parliament what those Alliances were Surely Sir you did not expect a blind Obedience from that Eagle-ey'd Parliament to contribute to the Support of what they were wholly ignorant of or if they had had some Hints from the Court it would not have been amiss to have used them as civilly as your Band of Pensioners were and to have had those Alliances laid before them those humble Curs never parted with Money for the support of Leagues till acquainted with the Nature and Tendency of them And if the Alliances were not designed for the end pretended you might have asked Money with as good Success for the two Whores at the lower end of the matted Gallery both Mistress and Woman as for those Alliances Let me good Sir ask you one fair Question Did your Brother expect Money for these Alliances and nothing else and for once we will suppose Portsmouth and her Woman not to have had one Great no nor Fitz-Harrris so much as a Sop in the Pan tho he had a hopeful Plot upon the Stocks that deserved two but that it should be applied only for Alliances made to preserve the General Peace of Christendom truly then ought not the Parliament to consider well of the General Peace it self and its Influence upon our Affairs before they came to any Resolution or so much as to debate about it since you had a Tool in the Ministry that told us it was more fit for Meditation than Discourse nay he impudently said the Peace was but the effect of Despair and I think he was not much out in it but he might have been so honest as to have told us the true Cause of that Despair yet for all his Worship's Rhetorick the Nation learn'd by whose means they were reduced to so low a Thought of their Condition nay if that Loggerhead were alive I could tell him what Price you and your Brother demanded of the Fr. King for that noble and most Christian piece of Service In a word Sir we had no reason to simper upon the Business unless with the wrong side of our Mouths for we could not sing any Tune but that lamentable one of a bad Market we all knew the effect of this General Peace of Chistendom that it was the Dissolving the Confederacy against the French King the Enlarging his Dominions and his gaining time to refresh his Souldiers almost harassed out of their Lives by long Service the settling and composing the Minds of his Vassals at home increasing his Fleet and filling his Exchequer for new and greater Designs but your Rogues that were Pensioners to the French King grew impudent upon it and expected he might have a spare hour or so to assist you in ruining the Religion Laws and Liberties of England and to have fairly laid aside the use of Parliaments and broke them up as you would have done a Field-meeting in Scotland or a private Conventicle in England and treated them like Traitors and Villains and not like the great Assembly and Wisdom of the Nation Was it the Alliance your Brother had made with the States General Truly your Band of Pensioners had so stigmatized that that neither the first Westminster nor the Oxford-Parliament would foul their Fingers with it much less give any Money towards the Support of it for the Pensioners speaking modestly could not believe it tended to the safety of the Nation Truly I must look again and see what this new Alliance was and good Sir I beg your pardon it was a new Alliance with Spain and would they not give Money to support this Well let us then see how the Case stood in relation to it I confess Alliances to a Parliament make a very pretty noise and may be as diverting as ever old Hodg's Fiddle was to any of his Tory Gang. Indeed old England stood in need of some new Friends being so beset with Enemies abroad and with Pensioners to those Enemies at home but what shall I say to this Point When I view the Speech at the opening of that Parliament that sat down Octob. 21. 1680. there is nothing said of any new Ally except the poor Spaniard whose Affairs at that time thro' the Defects of his own Government and the villanous falseness of our Ministers were reduced to such Extremities that he might sooner have been a Burden to the Nation than a Help unless you let us judg that this Name of a new League was necessary to recommend our Ministers to a new Parliament and bubble our honest Country Gentlemen out of their Money for by it we were like to have trouble enough being to espouse without any Limitation all the Quarrels of the Spaniards tho in the Philippina Islands and the West-Indies or that he had drawn upon himself by any of his Barbarities there or elsewhere nay his difference with the Elector of Brandenburgh was not excepted tho all that Elector had done in Reprisals upon the Spanish Ships for a just Debt
upon which the House of Commons did commit Men were not relating to the Privilege of Parliament and had been without Precedent yet you and your Crew carrying on a Design to root out the Protestant Religion in which you had engaged your Brother which was a Plot without Precedent why might not the House of Commons proceed against the Abettors of it without Precedent Other Parliaments before you were born had made Precedents for particular Offenders and why might not that Parliament without asking your Leave If it be in the Power of one Parliament to make Precedents why not in another I am sure there was as much Occasion for new Precedents in that House of Commons as ever in any Your mealy-mouth'd Cattel used to wipe their Mouths and say they were as great Lovers of Parliaments as any Men but thought it strange that the Commons should be so zealous against Arbitrary Power in the King and take such a Latitude to themselves These Hogs-heads have their Buts a Parcel of Coxcombs that would not consider under what Circumstances the then House of Commons lay there was a Plot laid before them for the bringing in of Popery and Arbitrary Power and to kill the King and that it was a Plot and a villanous one none yet could with any Sense or Reason deny but such Rogues as were either in it or Well-wishers to it When the Commons came to consider of this devilish Conspiracy they found Criminals that had been by a side-Wind Abettors of it and others that had been Sinners above the common rate therefore they were forced to take a Latitude in their Dealings with them that the Nation might not be undone by them and where there were Criminals of this Standard certainly a House of Commons if they could not find Precedents how to manage such unruly Monsters might make some in order to tame them Sir I could give Instances of such Precedents made by former Parliaments and if that House of Commons made new Precedents they did but follow the Steps of their Predecessors who made Precedents as the Necessity of Affairs required and if the House of Commons had not taken such Courses they had betrayed their Trust if by those Precedents whether new or old they had not asserted the Rights of those that sent them thither Now what becomes of this your Pretence of illegal and arbitrary Orders in Matters not relating to Privileges of Parliament for which you procured their Dissolution 6ly A sixth Pretence for dissolving that Parliament was for their Addresses to the King which I am sure were with all the Duty and Humility that could be nevertheless to allenate the King from them you and your Party called them Remonstrances rather than dutiful Answers to those Messages sent them by the King Surely Sir it was a strange Age in which that Parliament sat and they could not but judg themselves under very unhappy Circumstances when notwithstanding their extreme Caution and Prudence yet all was under an ill Construction at Court Now if the Commons had returned Answers to his Majesty's Messages without shewing on what Grounds they proceeded they had been and that justly too accused as Men proceeding peremptorily and without Reason but when they expressed with all becoming Modesty the Reasons of their Resolutions they were accused of Remonstrating But what if we should give your Ministers at St. James's and your Brother 's at White-Hall this Word and so I will for once if those of them that are alive will but tell me what they understoood by that Word and with what Crime they would charge that House of Commons for my part I am at a Loss in the Point perhaps Portsmouth and Barillon that understood French might have given you the Meaning of the Word Remonstrance and it may be told you there was some pernicious thing in it as the Carnegey or some Pox like it and therefore it might prejudice your Brother as it had done you you know when take it so and much good may it do you but if by Remonstrance you mean a declaring the Causes and Reasons of what they were doing where was the Fault that was so unworthily imputed to them since it was a way they learned from your own Brother in his Messages to his former Parliaments This is another Pretence much of the same Value with the rest and so let them go together 7ly A seventh Pretence you had for dissolving that Parliament was the falling foul upon several of your Friends and giving them their due Character the Ministers at White-Hall would never forgive the last Westminster Parliament for the Vote passed upon some Men then much in fashion at yours and your Brother's Courts which gall'd you to the Heart and Soul truly I would not have you think this a Character the House of Commons only had fixt upon them no every honest Man had done it long before the whole Current of their Lives Practices and Counsels being a full Proof of that Charge Therefore why did your Paltroons call these Votes illegal Was it illegal for that Parliament to impeach Persons that were Enemies to the King and Kingdom or to determine by a Vote who were wicked Counsellours and did deserve to be impeached so to find out the Sense of the House But since you are my old Friend my never-failing Friend and upon that Consideration I have an old Kindness for you and your Party I will with you suppose the Votes that passed against those Beasts of Prey were not in order to an Impeachment yet still there was nothing of Illegality in them nor nothing extraordinary for the Commons in Parliament have always had two Ways of delivering the Countrey from such Vermine either to bring them to a publick Trial that they may have publick Justice done upon them or give the Rogues an ill Name in an Address to the King that the Court and Council may not be plagued with such Rubbish and hereby the Countrey will know them again and treat them accordingly You were very tender of the Lives and Liberties of these Favourites and so was your Brother but I conceive their Lives and Liberties were never in danger till they had forfeited them and the Forfeiture could not appear till they had received a fair Trial Now Sir it 's plain they durst not stand one unless it were a Trial of Skill whether the Parliament should sit and see Justice done or be dissolved and the Nation undone this was the Trial they were in danger of and no other for that was concluded on by the King and Barillon in the Lodgings at the lower end of the matted Gallery But suppose their Lives and Liberties had been in danger by an Impeachment there was just Cause for the Parliament's proceeding that way with those Traitors and if they had been but endowed with Courage to have stood Trial there would have been legal Evidence to have proved the Matter of Fact upon them that they were Enemies to the
Fleet but then what Use 1250000 l. was put to the Seamen not being paid is worth the knowing You may remember little was done in the War in 1666 it being famous for Sir Robert Holms's admirable Expedition to the Fly where he burnt 150 Fisher-boats and the never-to-be-forgotten Fire of London But your Brother and you having occasion for the aforesaid Sum you fitted out no Fleet in 1667 for your Mother had assured your Brother and you that the French King had told her the Dutch would not be out that Year and so we lay still But the Dutch provided for War and came to save us some Charges and burnt our Ships in Chatham-Harbour But Sir I observe that tho your Brother was merry and feeding his Ducks yet there was not a Penny of Money and therefore the Parliament was called and when the time of their Sitting came they provided Money for the Dutch who wanted our Money and we wanting Peace were forced to take such a Peace as the French King would give us Now Sir do but observe that had we applied the Money given to carry on the Dutch War to that use our Ships had not to our great Dishonour been burnt in Port. But I pray what use was 1250000 l. put to You know your Brother had contracted a great Debt with Cleveland that nasty Whore and another Debt to the Pimps who poor Rogues had had no great matter of Pay in two Years and the poor Men that fired London were not to be slighted for the Labourer was worthy of his Hire Your Priests complained and their Mouths were to be stop'd and the Queen-Mother must have a Present for interposing with the French King for that base Peace So that truly there was little or no Money left Thus you may see what was the dismal Effect of this misapplying the Publick Money Nay Sir you may remember that the Seamen came down in great Bodies to you for Pay and some of them were in a most gracious manner apprehended and hanged for only asking for their Own which they had so dearly earned with the hazard of their Lives 5. I must not omit telling you that after the Peace with the Dutch was concluded tho but a base one yet we that espoused their Cause at that time were exceeding glad of the Peace There was a Triple League concluded between the Swede the Dutch and our Selves for which great Sums of Money were given as well for a Compensation to the King's Grace in making it as to help him to support it in order to bridle the French King's Insolence So that your Brother had two Millions and a half Sterling in one Year's time for this Triple League but it is well known that upon the strength of this Stock a Peace was clapt up with the French King the Triple League shamefully broken the second wicked War made upon the Dutch and the Exchequer shut up and all this thrô the Misapplication of the Treasure of the Nation Sir let me observe this to you that your Brother by this Triple League had gained much of the Love of his People and you your self shared in it too tho you had no hand in that League unless it were to break it which the People did not see for some time The Design of your Sister 's coming being very dark it past only for a bare Interview But Coventry was a considerable Gainer whilst another lost 2200 l. in the Treaty of Nimeguen and Coventry had 10000 l. and above 100000 Pistols of the French King for his special Service in that Affair All the Ministers sent to Foreign Courts to damn that good Work were rewarded even Sir William Lockyard escaped not the French King's Favour for the Service he did in that Affair But tho your Brother had not only reconciled his Parliament to him by severely treating the Earl of Clarendon for all the good Service and united them so to him by this League that they were ready to give him all they had yet the Tables were quite turned when they saw into his Proceedings and hated him and you too as such Villanous Tools to satisfy if possible the French King's Pride and Ambition Nay some of your Favorites were so offended at these ungodly Miscarriages that they could not but declare their Resentments of this villanous Misapplication of the Treasure of the Nation that it cost them their Places in the Committee of Foreign Affairs 6. Remember that your Band of Pensioners gave the King another small Spell of 1250000 l. for his extraordinary Occasions one would have thought those Liberal Givers designed it for carrying on the War but it was so ill a One that those Scoundrels were ashamed of it and would not say it was for that Use tho they had a pretty deal of Cabbage out of it for their own extraordinary Occasions How was the rest spent Was it applied to the fitting out your Fleet No there was a French Supply for that and this was made use of for an Army that was to have paid themselves out of the Treasure not of Amsterdam but of London which being smoaked in time the Army was in part ordered to be disbanded and Money given for that Use but you made bold to send them into the French Service and the Money was made use of to other Purposes of far greater Advantage to the Conspirators at Whitehall 7. There was a Tax of 600000 l. given for building and furnishing of Ships with very great Ease for your Pensioners were willing to confirm their Continuation or else they had been undone and since their Hand was in they gave the additional Excise of Beer Ale and other Liquors for three Years Which Liberality of theirs was an absolute Orvietan against a Dissolution I pray Sir what Ships were built that were of Service I think you had better have called it an Act for the extraordinary Occasions of the villanous Builders for they got part of the Money and we but a few useless Ships Nay I think some of the Ship-money was applied to supply the extraordinary Occasions of Portsmouth that nasty Whore and the rest of the Pimps and Bawds at Whitehall And upon the strength of the Additional Excise you and your Conspirators most bravely matured your Counsels in order to make the Nation die the second Death 8. There was 1200000 l. given your Brother to enter into an actual War with France yet with that you clapt up a more close Alliance with France and with the Act you and your Conspirators begged a Million of Money this is another instance of your Misapplication of the Nation 's Treasure But this by the way observe that this Peace which you and your Conspirators made with France was but a Treacherous one and it manifested both your Brother and you to be such Persons with whom the Nation 's Money was not to be trusted since the trusting you with such immense Sums tended so much to the endangering the Kingdom
King and Kingdom but if there was not Evidence truly then they had been acquitted with more Honour to themselves and Families than they acquired by sending home that Parliament Again Sir do but consider a little and set your own Mother-Wit at work and you will find that a Parliament may act as the great Council of the King and the Wisdom of the Nation I use your Brother 's own Phrase and when they saw Affairs ill administred and their Advice rejected the Course of Justice perverted the King's Counsels betrayed Grievances multiplied and the Government it self managed in a most weak and disorderly Manner who should they have charged the King No you will say he could do no Wrong Who then should they accuse but those that had the Administration of Affairs that had the King's Ear as the villanous Authors of those Evils that hung over our Heads And ought they not to have applied themselves to the King by humble Addresses to remove such Persons from his Presence and Councils for ever You may say they had no Testimony against them you know to the contrary but suppose they had not legal Proof yet you know to your woful Experience there were many things plain and evident even beyond the Testimony of Witnesses so that it was impossible as well as unnecessary to have had legal Proof What if it was your Brother's Pleasure to hear those Villains was it therefore unlawful for the Commons to conclude that all the Evils the Nation groaned under came from their wicked Advice and Counsel and then might they not represent those things to the Nation that it might appear they had not been negligent in making Inquisition after those Men who had been for several Years carrying on their wicked Designs with you and your Popish Party They imagined to secure themselves by whispering in the King's Ear What then must not a Parliament inquire into the Names of these Whisperers and tho they had not legal Proof to make these Men publick Examples yet they had so much Certainty of the Matter of Fact as was Ground enough to stigmatize them as Promoters of the French Interest and Enemies to the King and Kingdom Come Sir to be plain with you the People of England were highly interested in all those great Officers of State and as they were your Brother's Servants so they were Servants to the whole Kingdom therefore who should have detected the Treachery and Villany of those Servants but their Representatives in Parliament whose Business it was to represent all the Nation 's Grievances to the King Certainly such a Representation ought to have been esteemed by him worthy of Consideration and not to have treated them as having made illegal Votes but this you and your Brother made a Pretence for dissolving that Parliament and preferred your secret Counsels before the publick Council of the Kingdom In a word therefore to conclude this Head let me tell you in all Faithfulness that those Votes your Party was pleased to term strange and illegal were not so strange as honest and not illegal but very righteous The House of Commons had before addressed the King for their removal from his Person and Councils but he was graciously pleased to take no notice of their Addresses tho made with all Humility and Duty nay Sir he was so far from that that it was observed even by that House of Commons and many other sober Men that an Address from the Commons against any evil Man at Court was a fore-runner of his being preferred to a Place of greater Profit or Honour if not both it proved so thrice to that old Traitor Lauderdale and on the other hand if those three Parliaments had addressed on behalf of any Man he was sure to receive no Favour and came off very well if he was not mark'd out for some Vengeance Now I think it no Crime to tell you that your Brother ought not to have entertained any of those Vermin after they had a Blast of angry Breath from that or any other House of Commons for certainly if a House of Commons declar'd any number of Men Persons that put the King upon Arbitrary Counsels or Betrayers of the Interest of the Nation there needed no Process of Law and Legal Proof against them before they are dismissed tho it was but reasonable if they had proceeded against them in order to fine imprison or put them to death but to remove them from the King certainly the Advice and Opinion of the Nation by their Representatives was enough if not you would have allowed them time to act their Villany to the Hazard of the Government it self and till this was done with what face could your Brother expect Supplies from the Parliament Your Cattel at St. Germains can tell you there are some things so reasonable that they are above any written Law and will at all times have their Effect in despite of all Power on Earth whereof this was one so that from the whole Matter this Pretence of yours falls to the Ground with the others before named 8ly Your eighth Pretence was the Parliament's Behaviour in the Case of Fitz-Harris and this was rendered a very hanious Crime and just Cause hereby was given to your Brother and you to send that Parliament packing which accordingly after 8 days sitting was dissolved for no other reason but because the House of Commons impeached him of High Treason Truly Sir I 'll appeal to Jack Caryl or any of your ragged and outlawed Crew at St. Germains whether that House of Commons had not reason to judg the Treasons of that wretched Man of such a nature as to deserve Examination in full Parliament and the reason was as plain as the Sun at noon-day if you but remember that this Fitz-Harris was one of your own dear Religion and an Irish Teague and appeared to the House of Commons as made use of by you know who to set up a Counterfeit Protestant Conspiracy in order to stifle the Popish Plot and to destroy those worthy Patriots who had kept their Consciences chaste and had not bowed the Knee to Rome and France and betrayed the Interest of their Countrey for Preferments at Court There had been many such polite Designs on foot before a Particular of which you shall have in its proper place but they proved abortive but your principal Conspirators avoided the Discovery as others had the Punishment in what manner and by whose assistance the Nation was then very sensible but your Villains being warned by their ill Success in former Shams grew more cautious and therefore that this damnable Treason might not look like a Popish Design your Tools by your Appointment composed a Libel full of the most bitter Invectives against Popery and your sweet self this Libel carried as much Zeal for the Protestant Religion as ever your Declaration penn'd by your quondam Servant St. Coleman did and had as much concern for our Laws and Liberties as Portsmouth