the unanimous choice of the People then all ways were studied to put them upon Rocks and to set them together by the Ears and throwing in Bones among them and by working them to fly upon the Ministers of State as the only infallible means to blow them up as being sure of the King's Resolutions to interpose between them and danger whatever became of the Parliament and Kingdom If this fail'd the King was furnish'd with another contrivance which was so cajole and delude them by pretending all the Sincerity and Reality in the World when he meant quite the contrary and rather than miss of his Designs to publish himself to Posterity the greatest Knave in nature and to let the world know how much he could out-do Tiberius in dissimulation To this purpose when the Project of the King 's rejecting the Commons Choice of their Speaker fail'd tho it were done on purpose by the King to pick a quarrel with the House as soon as they sate the King pursuing his old methods of speaking with his Lips what was farthest from his heart went to the House of Lords and there tells the Parliament a plausible Story how he had consented to the Exclusion of the Popish Lords from their Seats in Parliament to the Execution of several Criminals both upon the score of the Plot and the Murder of Sir Ed. B. Godfrey but above all how he had commanded his Brother to absent himself from him because he would not leave the most malicious men room to say he had not removed all Causes which could be pretended to influence him towards Popish Counsels In all which there was not one word of Thruth as to the Motives that engaged him to do what he did For as to the Exclusion of the Popish Lords he knew it was what he could not avoid unless he would have absolutely thrown off his Protestant Mask which he was sensible it was not seasonable for him then to do As for the Jesuits that were hang'd for the Plot he pleas'd himself as well as the people by sacrificing a few inconsiderable Miscreants to his own Revenge for ingratefully plotting against his Life who had all along been so faithâ—ul to their Cause and indeed it was but just they should dye like Knaves and Traytors who had been such fools to mistrust so true a Protestant Prince As to the Murtherers of Sir E. B. G. what could he have done less except he would have exposed himself to the Clamour of the whole Nation That would have been the greatest folly in the world for a Man that loved to sleep in a whole skin as he did for the preservation of three or four Rascals convicted of a bloody Murder to have sacrificed his Honour and his Safety to publick Scandal and Resentment And then as for the Removal of his Dear Brother it was done after a long and deep Consultation upon these Considerations First That the Duke's being out of the way might stop the farther Examination of the Plot in relation to himself and thereby one of the Chief Conspirators be preserved safe And secondly For a shew that the King was such an Enemy to Popery and Popish Councels that he would not suffer so much as the Breath of a Brother near him for fear of infection For in these Gracious Protestant Acts lay all his hopes of making the Parliament give Credit to his Words and getting Money from them at a time when the French King most treacherously failed him Tho while the King was thus endeavouring to cast a Mist before the Parliament's Eyes it was most certain that before the Duke went the King had promised him That nothing should be acted or done without being first imparted to him insomuch that the Speech which was to be made to the Parliament was concluded on before he went and tho he were absent in Flanders where Expresses reached him almost every hour yet the Grand Politicians of the Conspiracy staid behind and watched his Affairs at home as diligently as if he had been here in person Nevertheless the Parliament not being to be deluded by all those seeming Acts of Protestant Grace took little notice of those gaudy Trappings of the King's Discourse but fell briskly to work upon the Plot and the Murther of Sir E. B. G. to which purpose they made choice of a Secret Committee to pursue that Business by whose means great things were discovered insomuch That there were very few of the chiefest of those who were nearest about the King and most effectually possessed His Ear but were found to have some hand or finger in the Grand Conspiracy According to the Proverb Shew me the Company and I 'll tell thee the Man which put the Parliament to lay all other Considerations aside but those of securing the Nation against Popery and Arbitrary Government in order whereunto they began to think of bringing the Lords and others in the Tower to their Tryals And upon a report of their Committee of the D. of York's Letters wherein it appear'd what great joy had been conceived at Rome for the Duke's Conversion even to draw Tears from his Holiness's Eyes with several other Papers discovering much of the Court-Intreagues with Rome and the Fathers they Voted the hopes of his coming to the Crown to be one of the chief Causes of the Popish-Plot and ordered a Bill to disinable him to inherit the Imperial Crown of the Realm These Proceedings were of so high a Nature and so directly tending to the overthrow of that structure which the King and the Duke with the assistance of their Popish Counsels had been so long and so assiduously erecting that it was thought requisite to treat them with all the Art and Subtilty imaginable which produced two of the greatest Master-pieces that ever were acted by the Conspirators ever since their first designing Popery and French Tyranny The first was to blind and cozen the House of Commons by seeming to shew an utter dislike of all former Councils that had brought the Nation to the condition it was in In pursuance of which the old Council was dissolved and the greatest Sticklers against the Plot and for the Protestant Religion chosen into their room to the end the King might not be thought to be any longer influenced by Popish Advice and that if any miscarriages happen'd they might be all laid to their charge or that miscarriages might receive a more candid interpretation as being done by such good men against whose fidelity the Nation had no exception And thus were those Gentlemen gull'd in under pretence of the King 's more particular trust and favour to countenance many illegal contrivances to retrieve the bad condition of the Papists under the notion of their Approbation So that if Dissimulare be Regnare never had any Monarch more of Kingcraft in him than ours had to the destruction of his own Subjects The next Device was to turn the whole Plot and the Odium of it upon the Protestants
yet there was another quickly hatch'd of the same stamp and nature though carried on by other Instruments Nell Wall an Irish Papist and a Wench formerly employed only to empty Close-stools at White-Hall but afterwards for her Religion advanced to be one of the French Dutchesses Women and so to the King's Favour by which she became a great States-Woman as well as a common Whore To this Woman a great part of the Popish Secrets were discovered and by her means Fitz-Harris was first introduced to the Dutchess and then to the King where he was told That the Plot would undo them unless a way could be found to make a Counter-plot therefore he was bid to try all ways to effect it for that no Cost should be spared but such Rewards should be given as were fit for so great a Service Draw Painter here England's pious Protestant Monarch Counter-plotting with his Popish Concubine and her Close-stool Wench against his Parliament and Kingdom in favour of those that sought the destruction of both The business of this Irish Tool was to find out Seditious Lampoons and Pamphlets and carry them to White-Hall where he had Audience and private Conferences with Nell Wall the Dutchess and the King himself and where he had sometimes given for secret service a Hundred and Two Hundred Pound at a time and was no less slabber'd by his Gracious Soveraign than Dangerfield had been before So zealous were We for the Popish Cause that rather than miss of the Designs of enslaving the Nation by Arbitrary Government and Popery that We would have declar'd our selves even to have kiss'd the Tail as well as the Cheeks of the most Contemptible Creatures in the World Nor must it be omitted as an Argument of His Majesty's great Zeal for the Protestant Religion That when one Sergeant a Priest made a discovery of the Popish Plot from Holland which he caus'd to be transmitted to the Court with an intention to have discovered several others he was first brib'd off by Pillory-Carr then sent for into England slightly and slily examined had his Pardon given him and sent back with Five Pound a week to say no more And in this game that we may understand by whose Countenancing the thing was done Sir L. Ienkins shewed the utmost of his Parts and Fidelity being just enter'd Secretary in the room of another who did not care to venture so far as that both Fool as well as Knave did Among whose good Services to his Master we may reckon his endeavours as much as lay in his Power to conceal the Murther of the Priest at Abbeville in France upon intimation that he was coming into England to make a farther discovery of the Plot Which together with his fasting and other infallible tokens shewed him to be plainly what was well enough known before Father Goff's Creature as well as the King 's and Duke's Nor was it a thing less astonishing to the Nation to see the Parliament prorogued from time to time no less than seven times before permitted to sit on purpose to get time for the Popish Duke to settle the Protestant Religion in Scotland and to the end the Conspirators might get heart and footing again and retrieve their Losses in England and in this Interval it was that Messengers were sent to their Friends at Rome and others their Associates for Money to strike while the Iron was hot in regard that Scotland by this time was secur'd and all things in such a forwardness that now or never was the time but the Pope had such an ill opinion of our Soveraign's Fidelity that he slipt his neck out of the Collar and in imitation of him the rest excused themselves upon the score of their poverty Thus missing money from Rome and the rest of their Popish Associates and the King of France refusing to part with any more Cash there was no way but one at a forc'd-put which was to let the Parliament sit and to make them the more willing to give money to undo the Nation the King in a framed Speech told them of the wonderful Advantageous Alliances for the Kingdoms good he had made with Foreign Princes and particularly with Hâ—lland and how necessary it was to preservâ— Tangier which had already run him in Debt Upon which Considerations the Burden of his Song was More Money But the Parliament Incensed at the frequent Prorogations fell upon Considerations more profitable for the Kingdom such as were the bringing to Condign punishment the Obstructers of their Sitting the Impeaching of North for Drawing the Proclamation against Petitioning and three of the Judges for dismissing the Grand Jury before whom the Duke was Indicted of Recusâ—ncy before they could make their presentments the prosecution of the Popish-Plot and the Examination of the Meal-Tub-Sham all which they lookt upon to be of greater moment than the King's Arguments for his wants For it was well known that by His perâ—idious Dealings abroad he had so impaired his Credit with all the Foreign Princes to whom he sent that they slighted his Applications as one upon whose Word they could never Rely And as for the preservation of Tangier there was nothing less in his Thoughts A fine Credit for a Prince and an excellent Character to recommend him to Posterity that he had no other than his own Sinister ends upon the Grand Council of his Kingdom nor no other way to work them to â—hose ends unless by forging untruths to make them accessary to the betraying of the â—eople that had entrusted them The Parliament therefore bent all their Cares to secure the Kingdom from Popery â—oncluding that the Dukes Apostâ—tizing from â—is Religion was the sole Evil under which â—he Nâ—â—â—ons in a more particular manner â—roaned and consequently that he was to 〈◊〉 Dismoâ—â—ted But the King being reâ—â—lved not to forsake his Brother whatever â—â—came of the Kingdom out of a proâ—ense â—alice to the Nation and â—oresight of the Miseries which his Brother's Government would bring upon the people rather than out of any natural Affection that he bore him took such a high Resentment against these honest and just proceedings of the Houses that after he had Sacrificed the Lord Stafford to his hopes of obtaining money upon the Dukes undertaking to furnish him he Dissolved this Parliament too with promise of another at Oxford to sweeten the bitter Pill which he had made the Nation to swallow In the mean time all the Care imaginable was taken to bring the Protestant-Plot to perfection preparative to which Judges were selected with Dispositions Thoughts and Minds as Scarlet as their Gowns And the Choice of Sheriffs was wrested by force from the people that they might pick out Juries without Conscience and Honesty A Plot contrived by Perfidiousness and Treachery beyond the parallel of History A Plot with Parisian Massacre in the Belly oâ— it designing no less an Innundation of Innocent Protestant Blood under the colour and forms of Justice and yet
Lives Liberties Laws and Religion of his People And how he employ'd his wooden Billet afterwards may easily be understood by his many acts of barbarous Tyranny over those poor People and the Slavery under which the whole Nation began so lately to groan Being admitted to the Scepter of Scotland at what time the Scourge of English Victory hung hourly over his Head tho he was diligently watched and observ'd by Men of Piety and Vertue he could not forbear the satisfaction of his Youthful Inclinations to all manner of Wantonness and Lasciviousness insomuch that having in the Year 1650 to the many Fornications and Adulteries which he there committed added the perpetration of a Rape upon a modest and vertuous Lady he had incurr'd the general disatisfaction of his best Friends However since they had brought him in and restored him to the Regal Dignity and that what was done could not now be undone they deem'd it no less their Duty to retrieve him if possible from those infamous and violent Courses and to that purpose concluded that the Danger as well as the Sin and Scandal of the Crimes he had committed should be privately represented to him by some of the most sober Noble Men and Ministers But some declining the Office as apprehending it would be ungratefully received by the young King others not deeming they had that Awe upon him which was sufficient it came at length to be devolv'd upon the Marquiss of Argyle For they suppos'd that if he hearkned to any Person it would be to him not only by reason of his Quality but because he had been the chief Instrument of perswading and prevailing with the Parliament to call him home to inherit the Crown of his Ancestors when most of the Members were thinking to exclude him But tho that Noble and Prudent Peer manag'd the Address which upon that Occasion he made to the King with the highest Piety of a Christian and the greatest Submission of a Subject yet the King look'd upon it as so Sacrilegious a Crime that any one should presume to rebuke him for his Darling Pollutions and Impurities that he resolv'd that nothing should expiate the Offence but the Blood of that Great and Vertuous Nobleman It is true he was destroyed upon a pretended legal Process but they who consider'd that it was for strain'd Faults and Failings of a Person who never acted but in a publick joint way without any sinister or treasonable Design against the King or his Father and against which he was either able to defend himself by Acts of Approbation or Oblivion in verbo principis then which there could not be a more Supream Sacred and inviolable Security or by an insuperable Necessity They who remembred the Marquisse's faithful Endeavours for restoring the King to the Crown of Scotland thought it a severe Case and look'd upon his Condemnation as unjust and his Life an ungodly Sacrifice to the angred Lust of a Lascivious Prince He had called God and all the Records of Heaven to witness his Innocency as to the most pungent Articles against him and to avoid giving the Parliament the trouble of a Defence in all humility he threw himself down at the Kings Feet and wholly submitted himself to his Mercy Nay when all this would not do he put in a Justification for himself so full of Reason and good Proof as was thought would have satisfied all Mankind But notwithstanding all this such was the remorceless Cruelty of our good natur'd Prince of Mercy and Clemency that nothing but so Noble a Person must be a Victim to his private Animosity Nor does the getting him put to death by a seeming Course of Law excuse or extenuate the Guilt of the Fact but is rather an Aggravation of it before God and Men in regard the Law which is design'd for the security of Men's Lives was here wrested and perverted to their Destruction And in imitation of this unjust Prosecution it was that when the D. of York hunted the Son of this Noble Man to death and was told by the Scot's Lawyers that there was nothing in what the Earl had said or done which could be made Criminal by the Law of the Land his Highness was pleas'd to reply But cannot it be wrested to Treason Nor was the King less early in Hypocrisie and breach of Promise For the confirmation of which to be a Solemn Truth there needs no more than to lay the Foundation of the Proof upon his own Words and Solemn Engagements For in the Kings Letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons just before his Restauration he has these Words We assure you upon our Royal Word that none of our Predecessors have had a greater esteem of Parliaments than We have as well in Our Judgments as from Our Obligation We do believe them to be so Vital a part of the Constitution of the Kingdom and so necessary for the Government of it that We well know neither Prince nor People can be in any tolerable degree happy without them and therefore you may be confident that We shall always look upon their Counsels as the best We can receive and shall be as tender of their Priviledges and as careful to preserve and protect them as of that which is most near our Self and most necessary for our own Preservation This in part demonstrates his Prevarications with Man Now for his Prevarication with Heaven we must produce another Paragraph of the same Letter wherein he uses these flattering Expressions If you desire the Advancement and Propagation of the Protestant Religion We have by our constant Profession of it given sufficient Testimony to the World That neither the unkindness of those of the same Faith towards Us nor the Civilities and Obligations from those of a contrary Profession could in the least degree startle Us or make Us swerve from it and nothing can be propos'd to manifest Our Zeal and Affection for it to which we will not readily assent And We hope in due time our Self to propose something to you for the Propagation of it that will satisfie the World that We have always made it both Our Care and Study and have enough observed what is most like to bring disadvantage to it As for the first his Veneration for Parliaments the succeeding Transactions of his Reign which are to be related will manifestly make it appear how far those Words were from his Heart when dictated by his Lips And as for the second his Zeal for the Protestant Religion nothing could render him more a Hypocrite then such a Profession when at the same time he was both himself a Papist and under Promises and Obligations to the Pope and the Romish Clergy to destroy the Protestant and introduce the Roman Catholick Religion as afterwards appear'd by the Attestations of Ocular Witnesses who often saw him at Mass during his Exile and was yet more evident by a Letter under his own Hand written in the Year 1652. to the
Nation he tells the Parliament That he had been obliged to kâ—ep up his Troops to keep his Neighbâ—urs from absolute Despair and that he had been solicited from abroad not to disband them Now was ever such a Story told by a Prince and vouched in the face of the Nation by a Bred Lawyer viz. his Chancellor to justifie the Breach of a Law of the Three Estates of the Kingdom as soon as made and then to flâ—m the Parliament off with Christendom and the Worlds commending us for breaking our own Laws to patch up a Peace which tended to nothing but the Ruine of those for whom it was made The sum of which was in short That the King to serve his own Arbitrary Ends had run hâ—mself 〈…〉 〈…〉 that many Papers of great Importance had with a more than ordinary Industry been convey'd away yet by those that were found so much appeared that the House Voted it to be a damable Plot to root up and destroy the Religion and Government of the Kingdom and privately got the Lord Chief-Justice Sâ—broggs to sign Warrants for the Apprehending the Popish Lords which was done accordingly And for their further Security they prepared a Bill for putting the Nation into a posture of Defence and for raising the Militia throughout the Kingdom to be in Arms for so many days Which passed Both Houses without any difficulty but the King out of his Zeal to the Protestant Religion refused to pass it And then it was that the Parliament found too late the Compliment which they had pass'd upon him in returning him the Power of the Militia which he made use of to keep up Standing Armies for their Destruction but refused for the Security of the Nation This therefore not prevailing they began to provide against Papists sitting in either House and fram'd a Bill with a Test to be taken by every Member of both Houses or else to lose their Seats This though his Protestant Majesty durst not openly oppose himself yet after a close Consultation held at St. Iames's he ordered all his Instruments in the Lords House to withstand the passing of it there which though they could not effect yet they prevail'd so far that they got a Proviso in it for the D. of York whereby they did him the kindness as to declare him a Papist to all the World After this the Parliament proceeded to the impeaching of such Persons as they had found to be deepest in the Contrivance of all our Mischiefs but That His Majesty lookt upon as a Business that so nearly concerned his own Honour that like his Father when the D. of Buckingham was accus'd of poysoning his Father he would not endure the Parliament in such a Iehu-like Chace after the Popish Conspirators but foot-ball'd them again with a Prorogation for several Months So careful was his Protestant Majesty to stifle as much as in him lay and to prevent the Prosecution of an Infernal Plot which he knew was so deeply laid like the Axe of Popery to the root of all his Protestant Dominions Nor was this all for so soon as he had dismiss'd the Parliament and had secur'd his Accomplices he took all the care imaginable to discredit Oates and Bedlow's Evidence Forty One was again inculcated into all the Ignorant Pates about the Town and Merry-Andrew Roger had his Pension out of the Gazetts continued to ridicule the Plot which he did in a most leud and shameless manner and Money given to set up a new Divinity Academy in a Publick Coffee House to act the Protestant Whore of Babylon and give about his Revelation-Cup to the Raw Inferior Clergy and instruct them in better Doctrine than ever they learnt in the University Nor did he stop at the endeavouring to discredit the Testimonies of those Witnesses but sent his Head-Emissaries to corrupt them to a denial and retracting what they had discovered and when that would not do Knox and Lane were suborn'd to accused Otes of Buggery thereby to bave taken him Acts of the foulest ignominy which whether a Protestant King would have encouraged to the ruine of the Religion which he professed in partial postcrity will determine with a clearer and more unclouded sight For we God knows are so dazled with those Illustrious Beams of feigned Protestant Majesty that we are not able to stare upon those Rays without blinding our Eyes out of a false Devotion to the Sun of our vain Imagination Add to this his endeavouring to corrupt the yet untainted Members of the House and buy their Votes to the utter exhausting of his Treasure for that which was then call'd Secret Service And which was more than all the rest his Dissolution of this Enquiring Parliament at the Sollicitation of the Duke and the rest of his guilty Minions by the Advice of a certain Lady who to save her Husband from the Impeachment he lay under persuaded them to get the King totally to Dissolve the Parliament using this Argument That in regard the Nation were so dissatisfied in this it would be a means to gain him the favour of the people and baffle the Impeachment by getting it Dissolv'd especially when it should be known that it was done by his procurement So that the Lady's Advice being followed the Parliament was as easily Dissolv'd as it had been a little before lasciviously Prorogued after a continuance of Seventeen Years to the great Admiration of all men tho indeed it proved in some measure a happy day for England For the Dissolution so enraged the Band of Pensioners finding their Service so slighted and their livelihood lost that they began to talk loud and discovered those things which were no way for the disadvantage of the Nation But here we are t observe the extraordinary Diligence of his Protestant Majesty to get the next Parliament fit for his Turn which was suddenly to be called to stop the mouths of the People To which purpose all the Money that could possibly be spared out of the Chequer was issued out to C. B. to manage the Elections all over the Kingdom under the old Notion of secret Service in one Article 1500 l. in another 2000. and the Guinea's stew about the Countrey far and near to the Corporations to hire places and get fit men the Heads of the Counties and Corporations were sent for and told what men would be serviceable and acceptable to the King and particularly the Gentlemen of Essex were sent to by the Ch. Just. Schroggs and cautiones that they should not chuse Mildmay whatever they did And new Charters were obtained foâ— some Corporations with new Privileges and 〈◊〉 them down to be hung out at the Windows to animate the People to chuse such men as they were directed What could more have been done by a Protestant Prince to destroy his Protestant Subjects and advance the Roman-Catholick Cause But when the Conspiraters saw that nothing would but that they perceived that they were deceived in their Expectations by
under the notion of Presbyterians and Fanaticks Which how well it pleased the King will afterwards appear The first Project had this effect That many of the Leading Men for the Country of both Houses for the same alterations were made among the Commissioners of the Treasury and Lords of the Admiralty being inveagled and drawn aside by the Temptations of Places both of Profit and Honour their vigour began to cool and the unbiassed Party in both Houses were left to stand by themselves Four or five of the most Popular in the Council were wrought off and whatever Matters were of importance for carrying on the Popish Cause were first agreed on in the Private Cabal and then brought into the Council where if such Matters met with strong opposition the King's Pleasure that it should be so over-rul'd the Debates and all things pass'd as ordered by the King in Council not with the Advice of his Council And then such as did not heartily join had good words given them and were told that all was meant well which made several give credit and believe the rest were real By which means all that was done by the King and His Coadjutors was acted behind the Curtain and the Popular Gentlemen were only made use of as Vmbrello's to shade the Conspirators from the scorching Heat of the Peoples Discontent So fine and subtil were the Wiles of Popery above the reach of plain and downright Protestant Politicks But in the midst of these Court-Intriegues to run down the Plot the House of Commons went on vigorously both against the Plot and the Popâ—sh Delinquents which grated so hard upon the Popish Party and was such an obstruction to their Designs That the King compassionating their Grievances more than those of his Protestant Subjects gave way to the Dissolution of the Parliament yet with promise of another to meet toward the latter end of the year under pretence of frequent Parliaments but in reality to try if He could get another fitter for his turn And now the King having laid aside the Parliament and freed his Instruments from the Terrour of it was so far from not permitting himself to be influenced by Popish-Councellors that he began to play his old pranks and first of all the popular Protestant Lords of the Council were by degrees decently laid aside and the Duke was sent for home the Lord Shaftsbury for opposing it being severely reprimanded in Council with a wonder how any person that sate at that Board durst so boldly affront his Royal Highness For the Face of Affairs was changed and the King was now swimming in his own Element again Only it was strange that he was no more concerned to see the strain of the whole Kingdom run against him For notwithstanding all his industry to have brought in his Band of Pensioners again it was found the new-chosen Parliament which was by this time ready to sit was likely to prove worse for his turn than any of the former Which made him have recourse to his old shift of Prorogueing which was done by Proclamation to gain a little time for the acquitting of Sir G. Wakeman which the C. J. Scroggs had engaged to his Prince for a Gracious Smile and to the Portugal Ambassador for a round sum of Guinea's to help him out with his purchase in Essex To which purpose how he acted his part is so well known that I need not here repeat it only thus much That as it redounded very much to the Butcherly Indigent Chief Justice and together with many other good Offices continued him for a while in his Place so it was no less for the advantage of the Papists who from thence took the boldness to affirm there was no Popish Plot. So kind was His Protestant Majesty to help out his desponding Friends at a dead lift in order to the Sham-plot which he was afterwards designing For now the Parliament being put off was at leisure to advise with his Popish Instruments who were no less sedulous to give their advice to the utmost that their active Brains could reach By this sedulity it was that the Meal-Tub Anti-Plot was contrived and hatch'd Only Tools were wanting to manage and carry on the Treacherous Design Therefore not knowing where else to find Miscreants fit for such Diabolical Enterprises all the Goals about the Town were raked for needy Profligates It will be needless to give a particular History of that which has been so sufficiently discover'd for an abominable Imposture It shall only therefore suffice to give the World an account when the King and his Accomplices had laid the Contrivance to trepan the chiefest part of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation that would not comply with his Popish and Tyrannical Designs what Favourites those Rakehells were to His Sacred Majesty upon the account of the Villany which they had undertaken to go through with For it is well known that when Dangerfield was fetch'd out of Newgate and presented to Old Rowley at White-hall as a fit Instrument for the Devillish work of the Meal-tub-Plot then resolv'd upon the King was so overjoy'd he had found such a Rascal for his turn That he set him down on a Couch kiss'd him hugg'd him and embrac'd him with all the caresses of Love imaginable insomuch that the Newgate-Bird himself could not chuse but be surprized at his Soveraigns kindness His entertaining afterward the same unpardon'd Coyner and common Cheat privately in his Closet for an hour together at a time and ever and anon giving him his hand to kiss was no less an argument of his pious Indulgency to premeditated Villany while his Princely Favours and Familiarity were only reserv'd to encourage audacious Treachery and his Frowns only bestowed upon the Detectors of the publick Enemies to God and his Kingdom To which we may add the severity us'd in checking the Lord Mayor for taking Dangerfield's Discovery after he was committed to Newgate for medling as it was term'd with that which nothing concern'd him And indeed it may be said of the Meal-Tub-Plot That it was a piece of Treachery so foul and ignominious that it would have hardly passed for currâ—nt in open War against a publick Enemy and which aggravates the Crime yet more was His Majesty's Liberality of several times to Dangerfield besides his allowance of Twelve pound a week out of the Privy-purse The miscarriage of this blessed Design caused a second proroguation of the Parliament upon hopes of 200000 l. from France whiâ—h was dexterously prevented by the Duke of Buckingham which the King so ill resented that his Attorney-General had Orders in Council to Indict him of Buggery with a Design to have taken away his Life and repair the French disappointment by the Confiscation of his Estate had the project taken Never so much Villany in contrivance never so much Money ill spent and never worse luck But nothing could daunt the Popish Projectors and therefore though the Meal-Tub-Conspiracy was quite baffled
hereunto he falls a buying and purchasing at certain and annual Rates the Votes of the Members at what time the greatness of the number of those who stood ready for Sale as well as their Indigencies and Lusts made the Price at which they were to be bought so much the easier Now being thus hir'd by his Majesty with their own free Offerings of the Nations Money How many Bills did they pass into Acts for enslaving and ruining a third part of the Kingdom under the Notion of Phanaticks and Dissenters and all this in gratitude for their Sallaries and to accomplish the Will and Pleasure of their Lord and Master the King whose bought and purchas'd Vassals and Slaves they were All this while what can we say or think other but that the Purchaser as well as the Sellers were equally guilty of betraying the People who had entrusted them And then to make a President by Law for Tyranny those Hirelings empower'd the Iustices of the Peace to disseize Men of their Estates without being convicted and found guilty by Legal Juries of the Transgressions whereof they stood accus'd By which they not only overthrew all the Common and Statute Law of the Land but they subverted and altered the Fundamental Constitution in making English Men liable to be ruin'd at the Arbitrary Pleasure of the King And as an addition to this those Mercinary Members by the Orders and Directions of their most Pious and Protestant Paymaster the King past another Law which was stiled the Act for Corporations by which Men of Principles and Integrity were debarred all Offices of Magistracy in Cities and Corporate Towns The woful Effects of which the Kingdom not long after both saw and felt in the Surrenders of Charters and betraying of Franchises by Persons upon whom the Government of the Corporations came to be devolv'd by Vertue of that Act. For that had it not been for that Act which excluded so many honest able and vertuous Men the Persons whom the King for his by-ends nominated for fit and loyal Men would never have risen above the Office of Scavengers or Headboroughs or Constables at the highest To this as a thing that mainly contributed to the King's design of enslaving us we may subjoyn their passing an Act whereby they did both limit and confine the number of those that were to present Petitions to the King not to exceed Ten Persons Let the Matter to be represented be ne're so important or the Grievance to be redress'd never so illegal and oppressive yet it was made no less then a Riot if above Ten Persons address'd themselves to the King to crave the Benefit of the Law A Trouble which the King carefully provided against knowing how many Laws he had to break and how burthensom and oppressive he must be to the People before he could compleat the Fabrick of Slavery and Popery which he was erecting Nor was this all for the King strenuously pursuing his Design of being sincere and cordial to the destruction of his People had so bephilter'd them with his Potions of Aurum Potabile that they pass'd another Act to his Hearts desire whereby they plac'd the whole and sole Power of the Militia in the King not only encouraging him to use Force in compassing his Arbitrary Designs but binding up the Hands of the People from defending themselves against armed Violence upon their Religigion Liberties and Lives Add to this the vast sums which they gave him beyond what the Support of the Government or the Defence of the Nation requir'd Which might have produc'd fatal Consequences but that the King knew as little a Measure in spending as that unhappy Parliament did in giving The King therefore conscious of his own Failing and finding that through his own Wastfulness and the Importunities of his consuming Misses he could not depend upon any limited and definite Sum for accomplishing his Promises to his Holy Father the Pope and his trusty Confederate the French King got Two Bills prepar'd and carry'd into the House the Passing of which had compleated the Nations Misery and made him Absolute The one was to empower his Majesty upon Extraordinary Occasions of which he would not have fail'd to have been the Judge as often as he pleas'd to raise Money without a Parliament And the other was for setling a Universal Excise upon the Crown The Passing either of which the King well knew would have soon â—nabl'd him to have govern'd by Basha's and Ianizaries and redeem'd him from having any further need of Parliaments or any apprehension of having the Instruments of his Tyranny impeach'd by Them But what the King had so finely projected to enslave the Nation and obtain whatever he had a mind to prov'd the Ground of their Disappointment and the Occasion of the Nations Escape from the Snare that was laid for it For the Mercenary Members foreseeing that the passing these Bills would have put an end to their Pensions by rendring them useless for the time to come consulted their Gain and preferring it above what the Court styl'd their Loyalty fell in with the Honest Party and so became assistant in throwing out the Bills However the very bringing the Bills into the House was as clear an Evidence of the King's Intention to alter the Government and enslave the Nation as if they had pass'd into Laws And some of his Minions that knew the King's Drift and the inside of his Heart were so zealous for him to have gain'd this Arbitrary Power that they would have it argu'd and spoken to in the House of Lords And who but the Popish Lord Clifford should be the Man that ventur'd to undertake the Business And accordingly he made a long Harrangue in praise of Absolute Monarchy and how much it would be for the Interest of the Kingdom to have his Majesty entrusted with a more unlimited Authority Which some of the Lords resenting with a Warmth and Indignation becoming Persons who by the Constitutions of the Governmeut were design'd for a Bulwark against the Encroachments of Regal Power and as a Fence about the Liberties of the People the Motion not only dy'd without being seconded but Clifford even by him who had encourag'd him in his Attempt was call'd a rash Fool for his pains However Pious AEneas finding the Nation grew sensible of his covert Intentions and Encroachments upon their Laws and Liberties and despairing to get any more Acts pass'd in Parliament toward the promoting his Designs resolv'd to husband the Laws he had already obtain'd as much as he could to the Ruine of the Nation and where they fail'd of being serviceable to his Ends to betake himself to other Methods and Means And therefore besides the daily impoverishing confining and destroying of infinite numbers of honest and peaceable People under pretence of executing the Laws he made it his Business to invent new Projects to tear up the Rights and Liberties of the People by ways and means which had not the least