kind and loving Brother for he joined with you in those wicked Designs and Purposes which you were carrying on to destroy and enslave us and too often took your Faults upon himself to screen you from the publick Justice of the Nation 4. They saw old Officers unjustly displaced and men of base Quality unworthily advanced by which Contrivance you Sir may very well remember you created a great disaffection in the King 's best Friends both of the old Nobility and Gentry and others that had espoused the King your Brother's Quarrel upon just English Principles and chose rather to advance a parcel of base Irish Papists and vile Frenchmen to the great discouragement of the English and those that heartily would have served the King your Brother upon English Protestant Principles It is well known that some of those you preferred were so insolent that when they came to have and enjoy great Places in the Ministry of King Charles the Second's Government that they assumed to themselves by your direction the Regal Power treating in Matters of War and Peace with Foreign Ministers and Ambassadors giving Instructions to the said King Charles's Ministers abroad without communicating them to those that ought to have been privy to the same contrary to Law and all this I can prove hath been done by your direction How many honest Old Servants were displaced by the influence you had on the King your Brother some are yet alive to tell especially those who were well affected to the Protestant Religion and in Parliament had appeared for the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom in opposition to Popery and Slavery 5. They saw King Charles the Second carried away with Vanities and wholly governed by his Whores You may remember that some of those Whores you your self put upon him as Jenny Roberts who was in part kept by you as a Spy upon him and for this end at your Command she turned Papist and when she could be of no use to you nor was constant to King Charles you and he put her off and left her to starve Cleveland and Porismouth two Metropolitan Whores that governed him as they pleased and what Sums of Money through the ascendency they had over him they obtained from him I shall not need to tell you and how many Bishopricks they disposed of we have not forgotten And in all this Sir it is plain you promoted them to advance your Cause and Interest 6. He entred into a League with England's mortaâ— Enemies the French and such strong Alliances were made with that Savage Prince and Nimrod of Europe by which means we were hurt in our Trade and impaired in our Riches and Greatness and to effect this Work what Arts and Contrivances you and your Conspirators did use by introducing French Whores French Fashions and Customs and French Officers and French Servants whom we have nourished and cherished with all the Caresses imaginable and to the meanest Valet de chamber or Contemptible Lacquey or Fidler who pretended to be but alamode de France your Parasites paid more respect to than to our brave Englishmen nay so amorous too had your fine but debauched Ladies been of a French Kick shaw that they have even hugged them in their very Bosoms and have lamented the loss tho but of the meanest French Skips witness the Tears that fell from divers great Personages of the Feminine Sex that on their Knees made supplication for that insipid High way-man Du Vall who at last though with great difficulty was hanged at Tyburn for Robberies committed on the Highway It is true he was a man of excellent Parts and singular Learning only he could neither Write nor Read But had this been all I should not have mentioned this Particular There wae more in this then some unthinking men at that time were aware of for you and your Accomplices made further steps to maintain this strong Alliance with the French our mortal Enemies for you did not only introduce the Modes and Customs of France amongst us but the Yoke of France that must be put on too I have heard of a cer certain Knight called Sir James that in a Coffe-house was heard to say That it would never be well in England till our King was as Absolute as the King of France He was an Alderman of London and Sir your very humble Admirer and at that time you had made a very gracious promise to him of obtaining of your Brother the great Park near Dublin for him for the great Services he had done your self and the French Interest And truly Sir he hath deserved that Boon at your hands were it but for the aforesaid wise Saying of his and had that Rascal had but Brains suitable to his Impudence a man might easily have taken him for one of the Chief of the Conspirators with your self against the Religion Laws and Liberties of the People of England This Fellow I say was an Alderman of London and his Residence was in the City but by his Discourse a man would have sworn he had always lived with your Conspirators at St. James's or at Whitehall or with the French Taylor an old Companion of yours who thanked God That his great King of France could send for his Head and his Estate when he pleased Blessed be God Sir your Residence is in that sweet place of St. Germains where you enjoy your self and Friends in a most comfortable manner and you have your health as well as if you had 100 Sail of Ships at your Devotion and an Army of 50000 men which is a mercy I pray let me ask you What sort of People are your French Neighbours Is there not such a slavish temper in those poor Wretches as is astonishing Just to such a slavish and knavish Temper you were about to bring the People of this Nation to your Conspirators had made a considerable progress in this mighty Work and had not Divine Providence interposed you had compleated the same Your Party to compleat this Work found out the only true way which was first to enslave our Souls by subjecting them and our Reason to the blind Superstition of the Church for that Priest craft having once so far won upon Englishmen as to make them trust and pin their Faith and Reason upon their Sleeves they may after that bring them to any thing that they shall direct and therefore as in your Day so in all Ages heretofore nothing did shew more the Cunning of your Banditti than to drive on these two together Popery and Slavery only sometimes they have driven on the one by the other sometimes Popery led the Van to bring on French Slavery and sometimes French Slavery led the Van to bring on Popery Your Friends well knew that Popery and Slavery like two Sisters they go hand in hand sometimes one goes first and sometimes the other In England your Council resolved that Popery was to bring in Slavery in Scotland Slavery was to have brought in
good account of them would he but have joined Sir Edward Spragg's assistance to his own Conduct for Sir Edward was in sight of them at the same time with another Squadron and Captain Legg making sail totward him to acquaint him with the Design till called back by a Gun from his Admiral of which several Persons have their Conjectures possibly Sir Robert Holmes considering that Sir Edward had sailed all along in consort with the Dutch and did but now return from bringing the Pirates of Algiers to reason thought him not proper to engage in this Enterprize before he understood it better But some have believed that it proceeded partly from that jealousie of admitting a share of Honour and Profit in this Piracy and partly out of too strict a regard to preserve his Commission secret but two of a Trade could not agree and by this means the whole Affair miscarried and through the Bravery of the Dutch Merchant-men and their little Convoy Sir Robert was forced to quit the Enterprize and all that was got by this piece of Piracy never answered the great damage his Fleet and Seamen sustained When the News arrived of Sir Robert's Fate I well remember with what a sad Countenance the Conspirators walked about St. James's Park and Whitehall you your self was much out of humour at the Defeat Your Confessor Beddingfield told me That that Defeat was of such ill consequence to their Design that it had almost broke all their Measures 4. Notwithstanding all this a War the Conspirators were resolved upon And if Sir you will give me leave to descend to the bottom of your Hellish Conspiracy and that was that of Religon for so Pious and so Just an Action in which Sir you imployed Sir Robert Holmes could not be better accompanied than by a Declaration of Liberty of Conscience you doubting that he could not find that admirable Commodity in the Hole of an Amsterdam Flyboat therefore while he was trying his Fortune in Battel with the Smyrna Merchant-men on the 13th and 14th of March 1672. the Indulgence was printing off with all haste and was published on the Fifteenth as a more proper means than Fasting and Prayer to obtain a Blessing from Heaven upon his Enterprize and upon a wicked War that was to second it upon which you may remember that the King your Brother at your persuasion and the Counsels of your Conspirators took upon him the Dispensing Power just as you did when you usurped the Throne for by this Indulgence all the Penal Laws against the Papists for which former Parliaments had given so many Supplies to the Crown and against Nonconformists for which the Pentionary Parliament had paid more largely were at one instant suspended in order to cheat the whole Nation at once of all their Religion which they had so dearly purchased But you and your Conspirators may say How was Liberty of Conscience to get Money You well remember Sir that the Popish Party were so well affected to this Point of suspending the Penal Laws and Statutes that were against them and that the King your Brother and your self making such solemn Protestations to the Gentlemen and Noblemen and the Monks and the Dominicans that this Indulgence was but a step to the establishing the Catholick Religion That several Gentlemens Estates were so impaired in contributing to this wicked War that they have not recovered the same to this day The Monks at the Savoy were so undone that they could scarce hold up their heads And the Dominicans having parted with their All were forced to fly for the Debts they had contracted in that Juncture of Affair But the whole amounted to so little that it did turn to little account for the whole you got and paid into the Conspirators Bank amounted to no more than 356000 l. As for the Protestant Dissenters tho they made use of the Liberty you procured for them yet they parted with no Money they remembring what a Cheat was so lately put upon the Nation in the business of the shutting up the Exchequer And considering that the Indulgence it self was but an Arbitrary Act in the King your Brother and would never pass for currant Law when ever a Parliament should meet your Jesuits they pleaded that they had no Cash they having let great Sums upon the security of several Estates belonging to the Noblemen and Gentlemen that were of the Catholick Church And besides all this they had met with a loss from one that had lately fallen from them so that then they had not ready Money to part with all this Project did not answer your Expectation Tho your Conspirators did assure you If it were done it would bring a Million into your Conspirators Bank but such a Sum as it was it hath caused many a Popish Gentleman to sing Lachrymae till your Accession to the Crown and as a Reward and Plaister they were put into Imployments both Civil and Military which Imployments never let them see the fortieth part of the Interest of their Money the Principal being totally lost A War being proclaimed you must now carry it on What did you do with the small Stock you had you equip out a Fleet. The French King seeing you and your Conspirators ingaged beyond retreat comes into the War according to agreement and proclaims War against the Dutch not in so sneaking a manner as you did for he would assign no Cause but said It was for his glory and that such was his pleasure But by his Ambassador to the Pope he gave the Pope the true Cause which you durst not for your Ears give to the Pope or any body else tho that was the Design of King Charles and your self His Ambassador said That his Master had not undertaken the War against the Hollander in conjunction with the English but for the extirpating of Heresie And the French King to the Emperor of Germany saith The Hollanders were a People that had forsaken God and were Hereticks and that all Christian Princes ought to associate together for their Extirpation That it was a War of Religion in order to propogate the Catholick Faith You know that your Brother's the French King's and your Interest and Religion were the same And what other Design then could you have in that wicked War but to advance the Religion of Rome's Church and Power of France both at home and abroad and that the Declaration of Indulgence was but a step towards the setting up the Romish Religion according to the Agreement that was made with Madam your Sister at the Interview in June 1670. and by that means you met with that Contribution from the Romish Party to carry on this War of Religion against the Dutch who you judged to be Hereticks Give me leave Sir to make a little digression You know that the late Duke of Buckingham who was then in the Conspiracy with you was sent into France to borrow 40 Sail of French Ships and by agreement our King
was to Man them The French King judged that too great a Point to be gained by King Charles upon him and wheedles with the Duke of Buckingham and offers him 100000 l. Sterling to consent that he should Man the Fleet against which the Duke urged it was against the Agreement the King his Master had made with him the French King and so would not accept the 100000 l. withal telling the French King That if he would let us be Neptune at Sea he should be Jove by Land The French King seemed contented and so the Discourse ended But the French King deals then with the Lord Arlington and gives him 60000 l. and Arlington prevailed Sir with you to press the King your Brother not to insist upon Manning the French Fleet with English for that it would be less charge to him if the French King did Man the Fleet himself and withal urged to the King That they were but low and they should have occasion enough for Money otherwise So Arlington got by the Bargain his 60000 l. and the French King the advantage of setting out his own Fleet. Well Sir you remember the French Fleet was set out and joined the English the English Fleet was commanded by your self and the French Fleet by Monsieur d' Estree and upon the 28th of May 1672. you were attacked in Soul-Bay by De Ruyter who commanded the Dutch with a great deal of Bravery and the Attack was made with great advantage on the Dutch side you did what you could to have beaten the Dutch and the French Admiral did what he was sent for and that was to look on till you both were well worried Vice-Admiral Montague was sacrificed and your Fleet so damnably mangled that a man would have thought you had met with another Smyrna Fleet but our Bells did ring for joy but God know there was no occasion on your side to boast of a Victory but you may see what it is to be in ill Company and I think they served the Dutch the same Trick when they joined with them in the Year 1666. a remarkable Year you know for what but of that in its proper place What is next You may be will not own you were beaten by the Dutch but it is plain that if you had a Victory it was not worth the name of one but we have no more fighting under your Command How fared it with your Brother of France truly very well for the rest of the Year passed with great success to the French but none to the English What shall we do now What did you begin that War upon Hopes yes and great hopes too the French King 's supplying us towards the carrying of it on and taking the Smyrna Fleet and a multitude of Dutch Prizes but Prob Dolor all these Hope 's vanished and the Revenue exhausted and the Exchequermoney spent then Sir you were put to your last shifts Since Liberty of Conscience turned to so little account well you resolved once more to permit your Brother's Calling his Parliament to set down on the 4th of February 1672 3. the very day appointed for God knows you were so disappointed that I wonder you were able to set out a Fleet that Year 5. You come to your last Project for the carrying on the War and that is the Parliament and so by the good leave of your Banditti they do set down but that which is the greatest astonishment to me that they could look a Parliament in the face after they had advised and compleated so many Rogueries in an interval of Parliament and how you your self could sit with ease in the House of Peers whereas you could not but be conscious to your self of abetting and joining in with these these Rogues in their Villany Well then What said your Conspirators to the Parliament truly they communicated the War to them and the Causes of the War the Necessity of the War and the Danger of the War if not supplied but not a word of your hopes of never wanting them any more not a word of the Design of Propogating the Catholick Cause you mentioned the Medals and Pictures and the Flag but the Devil a word of the Northern Heresy and the reducing the States-General to the Popish Religion Truly Sir this House of Commons took pity upon you and according to their never failing Loyalty to the Crown knowing that a good Gratuity would appear to themselves put you off with the small Pittance of 1250000 l. tho those Pensioners would wash their hands of the War and therefore would not give this Money for the carrying a War against the Dutch but for the King 's Extraordinary Occasions But was this all they did no it was not all there was something else done that did some what allay the growing Greatness of you and your Conspirators for tho they were to be supplied for their private Occasions out of the 1250000 l. they had given yet they were sensible that the Nation began to smoak the true Causes of this wicked War and the End for which it was undertaken There was an Act prepared before the Money-Bill was passed by which your Popish Conspirators were obliged to pass through a new State-Purgatory or to be uncabable of any Publick Imployment I remember when I was abroad what Curses were laid upon the Parliament for that scurvy Bill and upon the Earl of Shaftsbury who tho then Lord Chancellor yet engaged so far in that Act and in defence of the Protestant Religion that in due time it cost him his Place which notwithstanding the Popish Parties bitter Curses he won a fair Reputation and became to their great grief a zealous Assertor of the Rights of the People of England Was this all No your first step to the Establishment of Popery the Indulgence I mean was called in question and tho the Popish Party had contributed more than it was worth for the carrying on of the War the King was pleased to cancel it and promised that he never would do so any more and passed the Test-Bill Did he so Had he not promised the Princess your Sister that he would restore the Roman Catholick Religion and that he would begin first in Ireland in order to which you know the Lord Roberts was removed and another that was base enough to do such a Jobb was sent in his room and you in your Brother's Name engaged the same to your Popish Contributors and he engaged in his own name the like It is scarce possible to believe it how could he answer this to Lewis the French King For it was his Agreement with him to have the same Government and the same Religion truly he could not tell how to help it the Sons of Zerviah were too many for him And 1250000 l. was not to be lost for want of a compliance with the Parliament and to you the King promised that he would make it up to the Roman Catholicks another way but how and when I
doth not the Law set a boundary to their Government as well as to the Peoples Obedience Is there not a mutual Contract between King and People Now when any K. shall by a Suspending or Dispensing Power dissolve this Contract and break in upon our Laws and overturn the Government the People cease to be his Subjects and he to be their King It is your own case Sir by your Dispensing Power you did not only pretend to be above Law but also that you were not bound by Law tho' by your Oath you were as much bound to observe the Law as a King as your People were bound to observe the Laws as your Subjects But the People of England seeing that it was in vain to expect any Justice or Righteousness from you for means of reformation was propounded but was denied to be comply'd withal several noble Lords saw themselves slighted their Counsels rejected and the Protestant Religion upon its last Legs they therefore did implore the help of the Prince of Orange now our Gracious King he comes over seizeth your Treasure your fortified places Navy and Naval Stores and with one Consent of the People of England was made our Sove Lâ—rd and King and hath his health very well without the help and aid of a Dispensing Power God send him a long and prosperous Reign 2. The Laws of England are the Kings Laws if your Dispensing Vermin did mean by the Laws being your Laws that is that you were intrusted with the Conservation and the Execution of them then we agree with the Rogues but how doth this Trust reposed in the King for the time being intitle him to Suspend and Dispense with these Laws but if by the Laws being yours they understood that they were your Property either to Execute or not Execute either to keep or break at your pleasure I pray Sir to what end were they made and to what end were you Sworn to keep and maintain these Laws why was there the trouble of an Oath to keep the Law But Sir here they laid down a notorious falshood for the Laws of England are the Laws made by King and People as the Rule of the Government of the King on the one hand and of the Obedience of the People on the other 3. That it is an inseparable Prerogative of the King of England to Dispense with Penal Laws upon necessity and urgent Occasions this was laid down as good Law But Sir I pray consider were not all the Laws of England Enacted by the King and the People of England met in Parliament for the security of the Government and of the Subject how then could these Villains give you a Power of annulling these Laws at your Will and Pleasure since you could not suspend or dispense with them but by the same Authority by which they were made It is true the King of England for the time being may pardon a Punishment that a Transgressor hath incurred and to which he is condemned as in cases of Fellony and Treason yet it cannot be inferred from hence with any colour of reason that you or any other King could intirely suspend the Execution of those Laws relating to Fellony or Treason unless Sir your villainous Judges could have proved by any other Authority than barely their Opinions that you were cloathed with a Dispotick and Arbitrary Power and that the Lives and Liberties Honours and Estates of the People of England did depend wholly upon your good Will and Pleasure and were intirely subject to you which must infallibly follow on your having a Power to suspend the Execution of the Laws and to dispence with them It may be Sir some of your Dispensers may say That you were not well informed when you took the Coronation-Oath to maintain the Laws of the Land and that you had prejudiced your self greatly by yielding to the Oath and that you had weakened your Authority too much in submitting your self to the observation of those Laws These things were much talked of by some of your Bully Conspirators when they little dreamed of your taking the Air at St. Germains Nay some of the Devils Brokers roared this out of their Pulpits by the direction of Old Hodge their guide But Sir I pray inform me how it could be that you should not be well informed when you yielded to take the Oath at your Coronation to observe and keep the Laws of the Land It is impossible that you should be ignorant of that which all the World knew and all your Predecessors before you as it was almost impossible that you should not be acquainted with the Oath that you were to take and the Laws you were to preserve by that Oath So this know that you were bound to those Laws immediately upon taking the Oath and I wonder much that you should be a stranger to the Coronation Oath and to the Laws by which you were to defend your Government that had been twenty four Years a looker on in the Reign of your Brother Therefore this Plea is as frivilous as the Opinion of your never to be forgiven Judges was Impudent and against Law But this is one of the madest Thoughts that ever you or your villainous Judges could be guilty of that it was a blemish to the Sovereign Power of the Kings of England to submit to the Laws I pray Sir What blemish would it have been to your Sovereign Power to have submitted to the Laws of your Countrey which your Predecessors were contented to acknowledge and observe You derived your Authority to your self by virtue of the Laws Why then was the Observation of the Laws such a prejudice to you and your Sovereign Power But we saw the Laws broken and you forsworn and your Subjects deposed you In this I am sure you have found a greater blemish and prejudice than the observation of the Laws would have been But to be short you may plead for your self and your Judges That were under a necessity and an urgent occasion Well What was that necessity What were those urgent occasions that could put you upon forswearing your self and bringing your self under the guilt of Perjury In truth Sir your necessity you lay under was the subversion of the Protestant Religion and bringing in Popery and the subversion of the Civil Government and bringing in Tyranny and Slavery Is not Perjury a most grievous Offence but much more grievous when it is voluntarily committed And then a King committeh Perjury willingly when he doth any thing willingly against the Oath he hath taken not by force but by freewil not unadvisedly but with great consideration not to his hurt but to his advantage not to perform a thing that was impossible or dishonest but to bind himself to a condition that is honest and possible too Now when a King breaketh such an Oath there can be no colour or pretence of necessity or urgent occasions to excuse his Perjury 4. That the King of England is sole Judge of
fit to lay you aside as a Person useless and dangerous to the publick Weal of the Three Kingdoms Your Pretences therefore to the Imperial Crown of this Realm are very foolish and frivolous for by the Laws of all Nations you having been guilty of the most notorious Perjury you are therefore Infamous and the Laws of your own Synagogue say that no Infamous Person is fit for the Execution of an Office of Honour and Dignity a perjured Man is always repelled from bearing witness in any Cause whatsoever because that being Convicted to have Forsworn himself in one Cause it is not only a Presumption but a sufficient Proof that he will Depose falsly in another And this is so true that altho he hath amended his Life yet he cannot be admitted for a Witness be it either in a Civil or a Criminal Cause So Sir you having once Forsworn your Self in subverting our Religion Laws and Liberties by the advice of a parcel of Men that feared not God nor reverenced Men How do you think that we can ever trust you again For if the Nation should be brought under such dismal and deplorable Circumstances which God avert as once more to submit to your Administration of the Government it would not only be a strong presumptive Conclusion but Proof that admits of no Objection that you would run again into the same Enormities if not worse for I fear and so do all True Protestants that by your Crew that you have with you you are possessed with strange and very vile Opinions And these are such as have not only in times past but are still entertained by you and your villainous Conspirators both at home and abroad about the Coronation Oath which you took when you entered upon the Administration of the Government of this Realm And they are these Four 1. That Subjects cannot receive an Oath of their Prince without the Authority of some Judge and that a Promise made before no competent Judge can bind any Man much less a Prince and they have affirmed that this was your Case I would have you remember Sir that he that administred you the Oath was a lawful and competent Judge because that Law and the Custom of the Realm had made him so and therefore to him you Swore and in Swearing to him you Swore to the whole Nation that you would defend their Laws and Liberties In a word this Coronation Oath you took was a lawful Oath and not only so but it was lawfully taken as well because general Custom hath the force and strength of a Law for the persons present do stand and are taken by general Custom to have Power to give and receive that Oath But a bold Assertor of your Cause was pleased once to tell me that there was no Parliament in being when you took this Oath What then When you took the Coronation Oath there were persons who upon your taking the Oath that did take the Oath of Fealty and Homage to you in the behalf of themselves and all the Nobility and Commons of England and this Oath must avail them though absent as though they were present and if they were to be bound by the one though absent then certainly you were bound by yours though they were not present 2. These wicked Conspirators of yours have Asserted That Princes being above the Law are not bound to observe Oaths and Contracts which have their full force and strength from the Law and that Princes may alter and change their own Laws at their Pleasure This Doctrine was carefully propogated by your trusty Roger and his inferiour Clergy by your Direction in order to bring about that wicked Design of yours of Subverting of the well established Government of this Realm and introducing French Slavery But Sir this you must now know that the Princes of England are not above the Law and therefore cannot alter them at their Pleasure without the manifest breach of their Coronation Oath I confess they may by their Judges interpret the Law in an Interval of Parliament and in time of Parliaments The Parliament are the best interpreters of the Law and not only so but the Kings of England by and with the advice and consent of Parliament and by the Authority of the same may Repeal and Abrogate Laws as they shall think fit But what you did was against Laws in force to the manifest breach of your Oath and you rendered your self odious to God and dispenced with those Laws that were for the preservation of Persons Honours Estates and Religion of the People of England and by this means you dissolved the Government and for which Cause you were hated of the People and at last the Kingdom departed from you you provoked that God that made you a Man and that People that made you a King But Sir your trusty Guide Hodge with his inferiour Clergy deceived you much and those who believed this Doctrine when they taught that your Oaths made to and contract made with the People of England had their full force and strength from the Law of the Land for they had their strength and force from the Law of Nature which binds Kings Princes Lords Priests and all Men whatever Therefore Sir did you not against the very Laws of Nature break your Contract with the People of England and the Oath you made to them Doth not the Law of Nature oblige all Princes to keep their Contracts even with their Enemies How much more ought you to have kept your Contract with your Friends and People How could you expect to wear the Name of an honest Man since that the Laws of Honesty charge Princes to keep their Oaths and Contracts There is nothing becomes them better nothing commendeth them more and nothing that Men require so much at their hands In the last place Princes Oaths to and Contracts with their Subjects and Allies are as good as Laws they have the same force as Laws they have the same strength and vertue against their Successours which they have against themselves nay let me tell you that they are of greater strength than Princes Laws for Laws may be Repealed but Contracts can never be Revoked and why so The Reason is plain That Laws may alter according to the necessity of Affairs but Contracts and Oaths can never be Revoked they admit of no Change no Alteration if once perfected they can neither receive Addition Substraction Diminution or Enlargement they must not be wrested but taken according to the true meaning of King and People But Sir you may say Why may not Princes break their Oaths and dissolve their Contracts made with their Subjects at their Coronation To this I give you this Answer Before you had Sworn to maintain our Laws Liberties and Religion you were free and before you made a Covenant with us you were at your liberty But when you had Sworn and when you had perfected your Contract then of necessity you were bound to keep and perform
or the thing real when I think on a Prince in such an Age as we live in to be converted to such a degree of Zeal and Piety as not to regard any thing in the World in comparison of Christ These are the Discoveries of your Old Servant Mr. Coleman but to rivet the Matter I pray consider what Discoveries you were pleased to make of the Union of your Interest with that of the French King which Sir will put the Matter out of dispute Give me leave to put you in mind of your Letter you wrote to the French King's Confessour wherein you were pleased to own that the Interests of the French King and yours were so clearly linck'd together that those that opposed the one should be looked on as Enemies to the other and that the French King had told you that he was of the Opinion that neither the Lord Arlington nor the Parliament were in his Interest nor yours 2. As it is as clear as the Day that your Interest is not an English but a French Interest so now I must tell you in the second place that your Interest being a French Interest it will render your return impossible and the attempt in order to it very foolish and irrational You know that the English Nation is never safe unless a check be put upon the growing Greatness of France Therefore do but observe the Address of the House of Commons March 10. 1676 they put the King your Brother in mind of the great Danger that the Nation was exposed to by reason of the growth of the French King's Power and Greatness Now any Man that is in the Interest of the French King his Interest is no ways reconcileable to the Interest of England 1. As to its Peace 2. As to its Trade And the Consequence of both these are the Riches of the Nation which must be consumed by a Prince that is of an Interest different from that of the People 't is true the present War with France hath proved very chargable to the Nation but here is our Happiness that we have a King that advanceth the Interest of our Trade his People and He go Hand in Hand Their Interests are the same with His and His the same with Theirs which to me is an Argument that when it shall have pleased God by His Arms to reduce the French King to Reason that then no Nation under the Heavens can or will be more happy than the English Nation But if a Prince shall instead of pursuing the Interest of his People pursue their Destruction by setting up and advancing the Interest of a Foreign Power his Government cannot stand This Sir was that which lost you your Crown And can you then expect by that Interest to regain the Crown of England by which you strangely lost it Therefore to conclude this Head let not your Conspirators think that it is either probable or possible that ever the People of England will ever be brought into a French Interest or ever admit you to resume the Throne and Government since that you purely lost it for the sake of that Interest Your Scoundrel Abettors here at Home are such a sort of Animals that the Reformed Nations Abroad are at a stand and cannot tell what to make of them their Carriages of late Years have been so unaccountable and since it hath pleased God to put it into the Hearts of most of the Princes of Europe though of the Romish Communion heartily to embrace the late Revolution in England as the last Effort for the Common Liberty of Europe and have entered into the strictest Alliance with our King though of a different Religion to support it it looks like a Dream to meet with Men that call themselves English Protestants embarqued in your Interest in opposition to the Interest of their Native Countrey A little Priest of the Church of England in a Sermon of his on the Day your Father made his Exit was pleased to threaten us with an endless War that would be entailed on the Nation he is a mighty Votary for your Cause and Interest notwithstanding his Oath to King William to the contrary But Sir a thousand such Fellows can never reconcile your Interest with that of England nor would your Restoration put an end to his supposed War for it is not reasonable to imagine that so many Noblemen and Gentlemen who have associated and by their Association have engaged to support the Interest and Cause of our King will tamely submit to your Restoration Or that King William will ever abandon his Throne or that its possible that the Common Cause of Europe will ever be suffered to sink in such a manner as to comply with the Pride and Ambition of your Self or of him whose Cause you have espoused and whose Interest is the very same with yours When you were upon the Throne your Aim was to destroy the Interest of England but we have been too many for you and the Throne is filled up with one that will maintain and support our Interest notwithstanding the vain Efforts of your Crew both at Home and Abroad to the contrary And therefore that Loggerhead of a Cathedral Priest hath not made one single Convert to your Cause and Interest by the Noise he made of disputed Titles and endless Wars I will observe this to you that the Rascal hath more Preferment than Learning or Honesty but what can we expect of an Apostate 4. We are Freemen and therefore we can never be supposed ever to admit you who have always been a Person of Arbitrary Principles to govern this Nation You cannot but remember that the English Nation hath a very great Security for its Liberties and that is the Government it self with a good King at the head thereof and that is our present Happiness for our King Rules not upon the same Terms as your Brother of France doth for he by Force Usurps that share which his People ought to have in the Government and for several Ages past hath been in possession of an Arbitrary Power which yet no prescription can make Legal and he exerciseth it over the Persons and Estates of his People in a most Tyrannical manner And this your loving and kind Brother and you aimed at Witness your Dispensing Power that you took upon you when you ascended the Throne But our King hath so ordered it that his Subjects shall retain their Proportion in the Legislature the very meanest Commoner of England is represented in Parliament and is a Party to those Laws by which our King is Sworn to govern himself and his People 'T is true you Swore but you made no Conscience of your Oath nor did you in the least boggle at the Violation of our Laws you hated that way of Government which you had solemnly promised to maintain and defend Witness the Names you used to give the Parliament of England Now according to the Laws of the Realm no Money is raised but by
the Gates of Hell and Rome shall not prevail against it 'T is true Sir before the Discovery of the Popish Plot in the time of King Charles the Second many loose People some also of Note were perverted to the Church of Rome but when that Villany was detected then a Check was put for a time to the Popish Parties making such a number of Converts till the Priests saw that King Charles the Second did not Prosecute the Discovery of that Conspiracy he being in every part and particular thereof but that of his own Life then they let loose their Seducers who were not only incouraged but also recompensed for such a piece of Treachery But when the late King invaded the Crown then large steps were taken to ruin the People and to Pox them in their Religion Upon your Majesties Landing in the Year 1688 the Keeper of the Prison of the King's-Bench gave me some liberty and I went amongst some of the most substantial of my Friends who did inform me under what a Consternation our Great Conspirators were and how ready they were to have given up all their Ill-gotten Estates by which they had been enabled to prosecute the wicked Designs of the late King to subvert our most Excellent Religion and none of us did question but that they would have been called to an account for all those trayterous Devices of theirs of this I am sure they would have given up their All to have saved their Lives But your Majesty being resolved not to begin your Reign with Blood was inclined not to make any severe Examples of these Men which a thinking Man might judge would lay such an Obligation upon them all of Gratitude and Obedience to your Majesty and Government nay these above-named fresh Instances of the Papal Tyranny in Religion might have been enough to have cautioned the Kingdom from giving them little hopes of being able of being brought to restore King James who was so bigotted to the Arbitrary Proceedings of the Romish Synagogue our Noble-men some of them had a great part of Church Lands in their hands our Clergy-men great Preferments all which must have gone notwithstanding their Zeal for the Divine Right of Succession and Passive Obedience and Non-resistence Therefore the Consideration of Temporal Interest one would have thought might have gone a great way to have engaged them to be true to their own Cause and Quarrel In a word a Man that observed the Insolencies of the Popish Party against those Prelates that were committed to the Tower would have made them for ever to have declared an everlasting War against that Party of Red-letter'd Men and heartily have come into your Majesties Interest in order to have secured our Liberties Properties and Religion But to conclude this Head the Excellency of that Religion of which some of the Conspirators had made a Profession since they were English that had Bodies Souls and Estates to save and found your Majesty resolved if they had pleased to save all they upon the score of your Royal Grace and Mercy to them shewed at the beginning of your Reign and continued Clemency would have invited to have joined in with your Majesty to have preserved that Religion they profess and not in stead of that to have attempted the Murther of your Person and the Invasion of your Realm with a Foreign Power in order to restore an Abdicated King who hates their Religion and will violate their Liberties I come Sir now to observe to your Majesty the Excellency of this Civil Government which these Conspirators would change into Slavery The Kings of England Rule not upon the same Terms with those of our Neighbour Nations who having by Force or by Fraud Usurped that due share which their Subjects had in the Government are now for some Ages past in Possession of an Arbitrary Power which yet no Presciption can make legal and Excercise it over their Persons and Estates in a most Tyrannical Manner but here in England the Subjects do retain their Proportion in the Legislature and the very meanest Commoner of England is represented in Parliament and is a Party to those Laws by which the Prince is sworn to Govern himself and his Subjects No Mony is to be levied but by common Consent no Man is for Life Limb or Goods or Liberty at the discretion of the Supream Magistrate but we have the same Right modestly understood to our Property that the Prince hath to his Regality In all Cases where the King is concerned we have our just Remedy as against any private Person in the Neighborhood in the Courts of Westminster-Hall or in the High-Court of Parliament his very Prerogative is no more than what the Law hath determined His Great Seal which is the Stamp of his Legitimate Pleasure yet is no longer current than upon the tryal it is found legal he cannot commit any Person by his particular Warrant he cannot himself be Witness in any Cause the ballance of Publick Justice being so delicate that not the Head only but even the Breath of the Prince would turn the Scale nothing is to be left to the King's Will but all is subjected to his Authority by which it follows that he can do no wrong nor receive wrong and a King of England keeping these measures may without Arrogance be said to remain the only Intelligent Ruler over a Rational People in recompence therefore and acknowledgment of so good a Government under his Influence his Person is most Sacred and Inviolable and whatever Excesses are committed against so high a Trust nothing of them is imputed to him as being free from the necessity or temptation but his Ministers only are accountable for all and must answer it at their Perils He hath a vast Revenue constantly arising from the Sweat of the Labourers and the Rent of the Farmer and the Industry of the Merchant and consequently out of the Estate of the Gentleman a large competence to defray the ordinary Charge of the Crown and maintain its Grandure and Lustre and if any extraordinary occasion happen or be but with any probable descency pretended the whole Land at whatsoever season of the Year doth yield them a plentiful Harvest So forward are the People to give that a Foreigner would think that they could neither will nor chuse but that the asking of a Supply was a meer piece of Formality the People of England being so ready to give it The King of England is the Fountain of Honour and hath the distribution of so many profitable Offices of the Houshold of the Revenue of State of Law of Religion of the Navy and when it is necessary that the King hath an Army he disposeth of a multitude of Military Offices that it seems as if this Nation had scarce Men of Abilities to supply all these Employments So that the Kings of England are nothing inferior to other Princes saving in being abridged in injuring their own Subjects but have as large
a Field as any of external Felicity wherein to exercise their own Virtue and to reward and encourage it in others In a word your Majesty hath enlarged our Liberties in consenting to the Bill to Regulate Tryals in Cases of High-Treason in which there are large Immunities granted to any that fall under that black Circumstance that their Lives may not be at the mercy of a Mercenary Judge or Judges if God should in his Judgment leave poor England to such Men But your Majesty hath begun and I question not but your Royal inclination will carry you on to compleat our security from such Vermin Therefore to conclude what a Government is this we enjoy than which nothing can come nearer the Divine Perfection The Monarch enjoys a capacity of doing all the good imaginable to Mankind but under a disability of doing any thing that is Evil. This Scheme of the Civil Government the Late King did well know and therefore in Council on the day of his Accession to the Crown he was pleased to say That the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King of England as great a Monarch as he could wish or desire so that your Majesty may see that he could own that the Greatness of the English Monarchy had its Birth and rise from the Laws Who then would have lessened himself as he did by breaking in upon those very Laws that had made him Great And who would have broken so excellent a Government as made him Secure and Happy And what Subject of England Papist or Protestant that would lose such Immunities and Privileges by joyning in with that unhappy Man to destroy themselves Were they so in love with King James that they were not satisfied till they had him Nay he and they waded through King Charles's Blood that he might Reign Why then did they not keep the terms of the Government which would have been the most effectual way of continuing him on the Throne Besides all this we cannot forget that the Parliaments under Queen Elizabeth King James King Charles the First and King Charles the Second made it Treason in whosoever that should attempt to Seduce any one of the meanest of your Majesty's Subjects to the Church of Rome And the Long Parliament held in the time of Charles the Second to all Penalties of the Statute Law added an incapacity for any Man to say that that King was a Papist or an introducer of Popery What Lawless and incapable Miscreants were these What wicked Traytors were those Men who did indeavour to pervert the whole Body of Protestants and to bring that about in effect which even to mention was penal at one Italian stroke attempting to subvert the Government and Religion to kill the Body and damn the Soul of the Nation Your Majesty finds to this day there are such a Set of Men in this Nation who have undertaken and have made it their business under your Majesties happy legal and perfect Government by the intended destruction of your Royal Person to introduce a French Slavery and instead of so pure a Religion that your Majesty ventured hard to preserve to establish the Roman Idolatry either of which Crimes are of the highest nature for if we look upon the Government if the Murther of your Royal Person be a fact so horrid as no Man can find words enough to declare his detestation and abhorrence of it how much more then is the Murther of your Royal Person with an intent to Assassinate the Kingdom And Sir none will deny but that to alter the Monarchy of these Kingdoms into a Republick is High Treason So by the same fundamental Rule the Crime is no less to Murther your Royal Person in order to make the Monarchy Absolute Sir I beg your Majesty's leave to tell you that my Heart is much enlarged to your Majesty I beseech your Majesty that your Royal Heart may be for this one time enlarged to me in your Grace and Pardon for this trouble I now give your most excellent Majesty Let me undertake upon serious inquiry to give your Majesty some satisfaction who these Men are that have from the Year 1660 to this day attempted to Subvert our Government and our Religion Had these Men been the old honest Cavaleers that fought for Charles the I. or suffered much in the time of Charles II. it would have been allowable in them as oft as their Wound did break out at Spring or Fall to think of a more Arbitrary Government as a sovereign Balsom for their Aches or to imagin that no Weapon-Salve but that of the Moss that Grows on an Enemies Skull could cure them or could they to have kept their Hands in ure have fought their Cause over again since they saw they were neglected and left to Starve yet their Age and times they lived in and their unjust usage they met with from two Kings might have pleaded something on their behalf in mitigation of Damages But Sir give me leave to make this Remark to your Majesty concerning those Gentlemen that they were and are still if any of them remain too Generous too good Christians and Subjects too affectionate to the English legal Government to be capable of such an Impression whereas these Conspirators that carried on the design of subverting our Religion into Popery and changing the Government into downright Slavery are such as have not one drop of Cavaleer Blood or no Bowels at least of a Cavaleer in them but such as starved the Cavaleers to revel and surfeit upon their Calamities making their Persons and the very Cause by pretending to it themselves almost Ridiculous Or had these Villains been all of the Popish communion and avowed so to be give me leave to say it over again to your Majesty your danger would have been the less their Religion would in some measure have been answerable for the Errors and Extravgancies they might have been guilty of to promote it but these render their intended Villany more black they were Protestants and of the Church of England too that joyned with Papists to Assassinate your Royal Person What can any Man say for them Your Majesty knows what to do with them These Villains because I perceive they lye under a great difficulty to find Accomplices enough at home to Mutiny and Rebel and Murther your Majesties true and loyal Subjects therefore they put themselves under the Banner and Pay of the French King to compleat their wicked designs and purposes to bring a foreign Enemy to Invade us that King being endowed with all those which in a French Prince or in an Abdicated King may pass for Vertues but in any private Man they would be Capital and moreover so abounding in Zeal for Popery and Slavery above all other Princes that none else could engage both Body and Soul in such a Villanous Undertaking to which Consideration adding that their Interests are both one and the one is and the other would be the Master of
absolute Dominion and both are inveterate Enemies to your Majesty and this Protestant Kingdom and the French King is in all respects the most likely to support maintain and uphold them in those Attempts they being so exactly suitable to the inclinations of his Soul yea and of the Late King's Soul too notwithstanding your Majesty's being his Nephew and Son-in-Law into the bargain Sir these Conspirators have made it their business to asperse your Majesty's Government because of the great Taxes that are upon the Nation but I never find them to take notice of the Treasure that K. Charles II. wasted It 's true he was engaged in two most impious Wars against the Dutch and these Wars were very chargable to the Nation But besides those two Wars he spent abundance upon his Whores Pimps and Bauds under the notion of secret Service and yet we find nothing to be said of that Our Taxes are greater than ever the Nation paid but your Majesty's Loyal Subjects do not believe them so heavy but that they can and will hold it out many Years In a word there are none that retain their Loyalty and Duty to your Majesty but are highly pleased with your Majesty's being fully supplied to carry on so necessary a War and there is no good Man but will rather hazard his Person to keep the Enemy abroad than see either a French or Irish Army within your Kingdom of England destroying our Substance burning our Habitations and committing those Barbarities that were done in the Palatinate by the one or in Ireland in 41 by the other so that your Majesty may see that we that are English Men are not so much concerned at our Taxes as at the imminent Dangers your Majesty is daily exposed to both at home and abroad And being more confident than perhaps becomes me to judge the thoughts of Men I believe the Conspirators are more concerned that your Majesty is yet in the Land of the Living than at any of these Taxes of which I suppose their proportion is but small But your Majesty is not the first and only Prince that Fugitive Conspirators have traduced as these have filled the Ears of the French King and the Late King with monstrous Stories of your Majesty's Oppressing the Nation with unheard of Taxes thereby insinuating to him and his chargeable Guess how easy it would be to reduce the Nation that they might have farther opportunity of revelling and surfeiting upon his Treasure So the Fugitive Conspirators in the time of Q. Elizabeth were perpetually whispering in the Ears of the then King of Spain with prodigious Stories as false as Hell thereby to Exasperate that then great and Powerful Monarch against the Kingdom and did disparage the Forces of the said Queen and the posture and conduct of her Affairs in order to make him believe that the Conquest of England to be a matter of no great difficulty They did calumniate that Queen's Justice and blamed her proceedings against Seminaries and Romish Priests and for having a jealous eye upon those of their Communion for receiving those Priests and Jesuits thus sent into this Realm to seduce her Subjects and to withdraw them from their Obedience but our Conspirators could not traduce your Majesty or blacken your Government with those Points none might have been more easie and quiet under your happy Government than they if their Villainous Principles would have suffer'd them and not only so but they might have had Preferments too whilst poor Sufferers and your hearty Friends were Starving had not their damnable Insolencies and implacable hatred of your Majesty's Person and the welfare of the Kingdom been an obstacle in their way but that which I shall observe to your Majesty that they traduced that Queen with overcharging her Subjects with heavy and unaccustomed Taxes But it was then well known that no Prince could maintain such a Fleet at Sea and such an Army at Land without great Expence and Charge for her main end was to prevent a Foreign Invasion by which that wise Queen certainly knew would be more Expensive and Chargeable to the Nation than a Maintenance of a Force at Sea and Land would be to prevent it It is not unknown that your Majesties Prudence and Conduct hath appeared that tho your Majesty found the Nation in a Lamentable Condition the Trade Sunk Liberties Seized the People in a Ferment the Ensigns of the many Murders committed in the Reign of the Late King upon the Gates of the City and upon your Majesty's accession to the Throne a necessary War to be commenced yet the Trade hath in some measure been preserved Liberties restored the condition of the Nation much mended and like to be more and more improved both as to its Honour and Interest the People Quieted and Reprizals about to be made for the Murder of our Friends Your Majesty hath Reigned now Seven Years and never raised one Penny without the consent of Parliament and by the Authority of the same and the Late King had not Reigned seven Hours but he Levied Mony without Parliament But I would fain have these Fugitive Cut-throats that envy and malign your Majesty's easie Government to compare the necessities of Queen Elizabeth with the urgent occasion your Majesty hath of greater Taxes than ever that Princes could pretend to for it is most plain beyond all contradiction First that Wars are now more chargeable in this Age than in that which she Reigned Then it is plain your Majesty hath had but little or no Assistance the Dutch excepted from any Protestant Prince or any other Prince of the Confederacy but you have been rather necessitated to help them in the last place your Majesty hath every year of your Reign been obliged to have great Forces both at Sea and Land the Charges of your Majesties Predecessors have been for the most part Voluntary their Soldiers fought upon these Terms no Purchase no Pay and therefore the Subjects were not so much burthened by Foreign Wars but they went forth to Conquer Now its plain that for a King to defend his own Realm and the Liberties thereof is more Expensive than to Conquer other Princes Countries for the Conqueror would always pay himself and Army in his new Conquest But Sir that which is a wonder to me is this that they should complain to King Lewis and King James of the greatness of the Taxes here caâ—â—hey think that although he should comply with them once more to Invade us yet at the same time to charge your Majesty with that thing as a high Crime must be an unmannerly Charge since the French King himself doth the same every Year by his own Arbitrary Despotick Power that your Majesty hath only done by the Advice and Consent and Authority of a dutiful and loyal Parliament But truly Sir I must here acquaint your Majesty that some People have condemned the French King and King James too for giving Credit to these Conspirators for first they
according to an Act made in the Year 1673 But he enjoying that great and mighty Office of Lord High Admiral of England for several Years He obtain'd the King's Favour the Court was at his Will and Commandment either for love to him or for fear of his Greatness and Authority He so demeaned himself to the King his Brother that that King would never believe that the great Interest that he had acquired by the Greatness of his Office should ever be abused to the prejudice of the Government but for the King's Service and Benefit he increased the number of his Friends and Followers by gratifying some with Naval Preferments and others with Mony always imploying his Purse his Credit and his Countenance for the strengthning his Party and that in such a manner as that the King could not but perceive it yet he so dissembled the Matter and pretended to such a degree of Obedience and Affection to the King and gratify'd him in his sinful Pleasures that the King did not distrust his Proceedings and that he might continue in the King's Favour he made it his business as much as in him lay to comply with his Humours and Humane Frailties And when he was forced to lay down that great Office by reason of his refusal of the Sacramental Test above-mentioned he obtain'd of the King that his Friends and high Church Conspirators might be put in Commissioners of the Admiralty in his place he made all the Ministers of state sure to him so that when he was banished into Flanders a first and a second time and after his return he procured that the Duke of Monmouth should be banished the Court he judging him to be his Enemy and then his Conspirators endeavour'd not in vain to keep the said Duke of Monmouth in discredit with the King But the then Parliament being sensible of the dangerous Conspiracy against the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and the King's Person carried on by the Popish Party and finding that the Duke's being a Papist had incouraged them in that Hellish Plot they having great hopes of his coming such to the Crown they fell upon the Duke and to prevent the Storm from falling upon the Duke the King sends him into Scotland after that he had bridled and sadled that Kingdom in some measure to his Hearts content He applies himself to his Friends to procure his return he is accordingly permitted to return to the great Joy of his Party He fawns upon the King's Whore that he kept in the Matted Gallery at White hall and who he created Dutchess of Portsmouth who had a great Interest in the King and obtain'd at first or last whatsoever pleased her of the King that whosoever he was were he never so high in the King's Favour that displeased her in time lost the King's good Will and good Opinion this Duke carried himself so towards her that he seemed to affect nothing more than her good liking and yet not so desirous thereof as that he would wholly depend thereupon knowing that the King although he always attributed much to this infamous Whore and was pleased that she was Reverenced and Respected yet he could not well bear that her good Will should be sought above his own Royal Favour But the Duke did continue his Friendship with her hoping in time to command them both and when ever he found any of the King's Ministers not throughly complying with him and not ready to follow his Designs he laboured by all means to have them removed and others put in their Places who would not fail him in his wicked Designs and Purposes nor to depend wholly upon his Favour and also to make him privy if need were to whatsoever Business and Affair of State they were commanded by the King to dispatch whereby he came tho he were out of the Councel upon the same account as he had left the Office of Lord High Admiral to the perfect knowledge of all that was purposed and determined by the King 's Privy Council and he was in such Favour and Credit that even the principal Officers about the King either for Faer or Love or by other Mens Examples submitted themselves wholly unto his Devotion and he had such Interest in the King's Court and Courtiers that all or most part of them seemed to be at his sole Disposition and to affect him more than the King himself He having Installed himself in this manner in the Court and in a great measure withdrew the Hearts of the principal Officers thereof from their Duty and Love to their King He thought it also not enough to be invested in their Favours but all the endeavours were used that he might have the Affections of the Common People to procure this he obtains the help of a filthy Strumpet called High-Church whose Blasphemous Preachers of Passive-Obedience and Non-Resistance did him mighty Service in order thereunto And what Feasting there was provided for the Apprentices of the City of London who were a sort of young Men who were to be by his Conspirators debauched in order to his Service and by the great promises of his Grace and Favour he easily and quickly perswaded the Conspirators to favour his Cause and Conspiracy Nay all the legal Force throughout the Kingdom from the Lord Lieutenant of a County to a Deputy Lieutenant and Captains Lieutenants and Ensigns and Serjeants were all and every of them his Creatures the Justices of Peace and Sheriffs were his Admirers and the Custom-house and Excise were all at his Devoire from one end of the the Kingdom to the other and generally Vintners and Ale-drapers were of his Interest and so was old L'Estrange the Guide and his little Scoundrel Clergy of the Church by which means many of the Common People were so ready willing and desirous to perform and accomplish his Pleasure as that in respect of their Obedience to him he seemed to lack nothing but the name of a King to be one Notwithstanding the great Honour and Reverence the Court shewed him in the Reign of his Brother and the Love and Affection the Commonalty did bear him the nearness of his relation to the King and the mighty Interest he had and the unaccustomed Authority he had in so slie a manner Usurped the high Attempts and Imaginations he had lodged in his Heart and the great Opinion he had of himself yet he was so far from appearing puffed up with Pride and Disdain to those that were much below him that he thought not scorn to give Audience to the meanest Man that had business with him Now how could a Man of my Circumstances having provoked him by the Discovery of the Hellish Conspiracy carried on by him and his wicked Popish Party and Popishly affected stand against such a Man of such an Interest for he and his Party when they could not hurt me by their Subborned Witnesses against me not only to destroy my Reputation but my
of Parliament for your necessary Ease and Help in this day of your Just War with the French Nimrod and Destroyer of Mankind It was a great Blemish in the two last Reigns to those two Kings for that rather than they would trust in a Parliament according to the fundamental Constitution of this Realm they chose rather to follow the Advice of their never to be forgotten corrupt Ministers of State who pretended great Loyalty to those Princes in their several Reigns or rather Compliance with the Humours and Humane Frailties of those two Monarchs but they were neither true to those Kings nor their Country or themselves herein for they erected and preferred an Imperial Paramount Self-end or Lust before all which those two Kings were brought unworthily to serve and promote to the disturbance of the Publick Peace and Welfare of the Nation It was a false Suggestion that those Conspirators did use to those Kings that a King that Rules by his Will is more great glorious or strong than a King that Rules by Law the quality of the Retinue best proves the State of the Lord the one being but a King of Slaves while the other like God is a King of Kings and Hearts notwithstanding that Hellish and Trayterous Doctrin made such an Impression upon the Hearts and Souls of those Princes that nothing prevented them from putting that sort of Doctrin into Practice but the want of a competent Stock with which they would have certainly set up the Trade especially since they saw the Example of such an Allie whose Interest and theirs was all one but God that hath preserved your Majesty in so many Dangers hath also preserved you from such wicked Councils and Councellors too which is a great Specimen of your long and happy Reign over us Sir my Pen hath transgressed the Line and Law of my Intentions these confined me to a much narrower Compass in this my Epistle Dedicatory to your Majesty and prohibited me the troubling your Majesty to such a degree as now I have done the truth is my Zeal Duty Loyalty and hearty Affection to your Majesty hath interposed and occasioned this Transgression Your Majesty knows that Love is bountiful and I trust will produce a Pardon from your Majesty as it hath brought forth this Transgression from me in which I have with all my Heart designed nothing but what may be consistent with your Service and Interest And I must say thus much that your Majesty being thus often marked out for Destruction by these Conspirators shews that your Majesty is neither a Friend to these Men nor their Principles either in Religion or in Politicks and that we ought to make use of it as a proof of your Majesty's Affections to the English Nation and as an acknowledgment thereof by me be pleased to accept of this poor Endeavour of mine and give me leave in all Humility to lay these Papers at your Royal Feet Many of your Loyal Subjects are capable of presenting your Majesty with what is more Suitable to the greatness of your Understanding but nothing can be laid before you that may satisfie your Majesty of the truth of those things which these Conspirators stood guilty of for these twenty Years last past and have now given your Majesty a plain demonstration how Restless they have been and still are notwithstanding all the Arguments of Grace and Mercy that have been used to reduce them to Reason and Obedience There is now no more danger if your Majesty pleases from these Men that have Conspired against your Life for the danger of Conspiracies lyes in being Concealed none ever Perished by a detected Plot but such as have abandoned themselves to be Destroyed and this was the Case of Charles the Second he chose rather to desert himself and Safety rather than the Discoverer should not be exposed to the implacable Malice of those who Conspired against his Person and Government But Sir with your Majesty it is clear another thing you will let the World know that you are not joyned in this Conspiracy by any Personal Accession as that unhappy Prince was in that that was against him Therefore Sir it is past the Malice and Strength of your Adversaries either to destroy your Royal Person or subvert your Government Besides Sir your Majesty using those Endeavours that becomes so great a Prince to have these Conspirators farther detected and brought to Justice puts your Majesty within the promise of the immense Wisdom and Almighty power to interpose to save and preserve you I have great grounds of assurance that your Majesty is fully satisfied of the Duty and Affection of your ever dutiful and Loyal Protestant Dissenting Subjects who have been for many Years Persecuted for the Testimony of a good Conscience in the two last Reigns for no other reason but because they would not part with their Civil Rights as English Men nor their Spiritual Rights as Christians to these Murderers of the Soul and Body of the Nation Nevertheless in the two late Reigns they continued more quiet under their many and great Persecutions and Oppressions than the Conspirators did under their daily Favours and Caresses The Principles of your Dissenting Subjects teach them to obey a Lawful Authority whilst the Principles of these High-Church Non-Juring and Popish Cut-throats carry them on to Murder Kings and Invade their Countries with a Foreign Force and Power They could not find one of these Loyal Men that would so far undervalue themselves as to have the least acquaintance with these Villainous Cut-throats much less to engage with them in such a barbarous Design and no Man questions but that your Majesty will now put a distinction between those Men who would if they might serve your Majesty and those who would have Traiterously destroyed your Person and subverted your Government by introducing Popery and Slavery among us That your Majesty may long Live to assert and preserve Laws the Laws of the most High God in your own Soul to your Eternal and the Laws of the Land to the Temporal high Peace and Felicity of your Majesty and People and abound in all the Blessings of this and the other Life Health Grace Wisdom Wealth Power and Victory over all your Enemies both at home and abroad shall ever be the Prayers of Great SIR Your Majesty's most Humble most Loyal and Dutiful Subject and Servant TITUS OATES 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or The Picture of the Late King JAMES SIR THE Kingdom in general and my self in particular having received so many indearing Obligations from you and your Partisans that I judge my self concerned to take notice to you and your Friends at St. Germains That since you left us or rather by the Just Judgment of Heaven that the Kingdom was departed from you you were pleased not to forget us but from Year to Year till 1693. you were pleased to bless your old Friends with a Declaration or Letter in which you were pleased to express
witness his being reconciled to that Church by Father Richard Huddleston who was related to John Huddleston of whom the said King Charles had such a tender care and not only so but Receiv'd the Sacrament from Father Ireland the Jesuit in the Duchess of Portsmouth's Lodgings and the same day afterwards he receiv'd it according to the Usage of the Church of England it being the Sunday called Easter-day In the last place witness those Papers that were found under his own hand in his Strong Box all which testify his inclinations were bent that way and therefore how can any man wonder at his being careless of supporting the Protestant Religion Nay Sir I must not forget one Instance more of his being of the Romish Persuasion that is that most Excellent Memorial that he put in by his Protestant Envoy to the Court at Poland wherein there was a passage to this effect That he had a great Esteem of the Roman-Catholick and Apostolick Religion as being most consistent with Monarchy give me leave to Cite a passage of a Letter of his to the Governor of St. Omers when it was by Conquest reduced to the Obedience of the French King which was That he should take care of the Jesuits according to the Contract he had made with his Master they being men upon whom the hopes of England did depend Give me leave Sir to put you in mind of his promises he made to the Jesuits in Spain after he was reconciled to the Church of Rome upon their Contributing Three thousand Pistols for his support of restoring the Catholick Religion when ever he should come to the Enjoyment of his Right in England and not only to them but to the Nuns in Ghent when he borrowed Money of them for which they waited several Years Then I say he declared he would restore their Religion when ever he should come to his Right When the Princess Henrietta came to Dover you know what her Errand was to press the King to restore the Romish Religion here in England and that the breach of the Peace with the Dutch was then and there contrived by you and your Conspirators and consented to by the King and all in order to the reducing those State to the Catholick Faith And it was determined to begin the Publick Exercise of the Romish Religion in Ireland and to facilitate that work you may well remember who was sent over Lord Lieutenant Upon all these Considerations a Man may not now wonder at King Charles's carelesness in the Support and Maintenance of the Protestant Religion You well remember that you your self and your other Conspirators had begot in the King your Brother a full persuasion of the Truth of this Proposition That the Roman-Catholicks were the greatest favourers of Monarchy therefore in his Letter to the French King bearing Date June 1676. that he resolved to be like his Neighbours in Religion but you know that he was prevented by the Lord Arlington and the Parliament for which you were pleased to tell Father Lacheise in your Letter of July 1676. that the Lord Arlington and others by a Thousand deceits endeavoured to break the good Intelligence that was betwixt the King your Brother and his most Christian Majesty and your self to the end they might deceive you all Three and therefore the Parliament and the said Lord Arlington and his party were by you declared in that Letter as useless and dangerous for that the said Arlington and his Friends did work incessantly to advance the Interest of the Prince of Orange and the Dutch and to lessen the Interest of the French King Now the King your Brother being a man unsteady in his resolutions he sometimes failed your Brother of France as well as your self and other Conspirators 9. We in his Life-time saw there was no likelihood of his having any legitimate Issue to Succeed him in the Government Truly Sir I think I may say that was contrived by your Father Clarendon and your self and in it you intended the hurt of the People of England but God who governs the World hath made his want of legitimate Issue to be the greatest Blessing that ever England saw for by that means we have a King that well knows that it is most certain and evident to all men that the publick Peace and Happiness of any State or Kingdom cannot be preserved where the Laws Liberties and Customs Established by the Lawful Authority in it are openly Transgressed and Annulled more especially when the alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced Upon which those who are immediately concerned in it are indispensably bound to endeavour to Preserve and Maintain the Established Laws Liberties and Customs and above all the Religion and Worship of God that is Established among them and to take such an effectual care that the Inhabitants in that State or Kingdom may not be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civil Rights which is so much the more necessary because the Greatness and Security both of Kings and Royal Families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the Happiness of their Subjects and People depend in a most especial manner upon the exact Observation and Maintenance of these their Laws Liberties and Customs This Sir is the Sentiment and Blessed Resolution of King William and this he and his Ministers put in Execution which is a blessed Change which we could not have lived to enjoy had Charles your Brother left any Issue behind him that had been capable of the Crown but that which you contrived for our Mischief is turned to our greatest Good for we have the best of Kings upon the Throne and the worst of Men taking of the Air at St. Germains 10. The late King Charles your Brother did obstinately refuse to enter into a League with those who intended to uphold and maintain the Protestant Religion This I must say of the Dutch that ever since they delivered themselves from the intollerable Yoke of the Crown of Spain their great aim and design hath been to promote the Interest of the Reformed Religion and have endeavoured to make Alliances with those Princes that were and are of the Reformed Religion and have endeavoured to make good these Alliances but how King Charles your Brother your self and the rest of your Partisans treated the Dutch ever since his Restoration to the Crown it is well known and how he in the compass of Ten years made Two ungodly Wars but as I said before I must say again The Dutch did most commonly send us home with broken bones Our Cause was Wicked and God gave us Success suitable thereunto and for what ends and purposes these Wars were made you and your most Christian Brother can very well tell but least Sir you should have forgotten those Wars give me leave to give you a brief note of them In the year 1665. it is well known that
could never learn But Sir was it not hard that they should be incapable of Offices and Employments since they had purchased them at so dear a rate but these Arguments prevailed not so the Bills were passed and the Parliament was dismissed till the 27th of October 1673. and good reason there was for their dismission for their sitting was grown very uneasy to your Popish Conspirators But Sir we could not but laugh in our Sleeves to see some of the Conspirators take up the Cross and quit their Imployments as the Lord Clifford the Lord Bellasis and Sir Thomas Strickland and others who had long appeared zealous Sons of our Church yet discovered to be of the Synagogue of Rome as soon as the Test or Purgatory Bill passed and truly Sir we were not sorry when you appeared to be of the same Complexion with those other Conspirators tho at the same time I must tell you That your going off did astonish many men there being no Record in History of any Prince that changed his Religion in your Circumstances But did your Conspirators stand still and put up the Sword that was drawn against the Dutch No they had got 1250000 l. therefore you and they strove with all imaginable strength to regain by the War that part of the Cursed Design that was lost by Parliament tho some of you forsook your Places rather than your Consciences yet Sir you never wanted some double-dy'd Sons of the Church of England to succeed in your Places upon the same Terms your Popish Conspirators held them so that they were but your Conspirators Deputies who followed the same Councels and carried on the same Design for this Year was a fruitful Year of Engagements with the Dutch the French carries all before him by Land but we got nothing from the Dutch but maimed Ships and broken Bones we had indeed changed our General but our Success was the same For you remember with whom we were in Conjunction we may thank our selves for keeping such ill Company So that in a word I may say those Heretick Dogs as they were termed by the Great Lewis were too many for our English Popish Conspirators What then Did we nothing by land had we not an Army at Black-Heath and General Schomberg at the head of them Yes we had but that good Gentleman when he saw the Army and understood that they were not an Army against the Dutch but were designed against London he fairly quitted his Post and the Kingdom at the same time as being ashamed of your Conspirators Intentions in the raising that Army He being a French-man you imagined he would join with you in bringing in the French mode of Government and your Irish Papist that was Major-General was to have brought in the Irish Religion the latter would have been true to the uttermost of his power and Irish Discretion but the former was a Protestant and so washed his hands of the business You will say that the French were on our side yes Sir they were but it is as plain as the Sun shining at Noon-day that the French in this second War against the Dutch intended nothing less than really to assist us for he was no Changeling for he had practised the same Art at Sea in the first War the Conspirators had against the Dutch when he was in league with them for his Navy never did them any service for his business was only to see us batter one another and it 's well known that when he pretended to be on our side and to assist us they then only took an opportunity to sound our Seas to spy our Ports and to learn our Building and contemplate our way of Fight to consume our Navy and preserve his own to increase his own Commerce and to order all so that the two great Naval Powers of Europe being crushed together that he might remain Prince and Lord of the Ocean and by consequence Master of all the Isles and the Continent into the bargain To which purpose you and your Banditti furnished him with all possible Opportunities as I shall by and by relate as well to put you in mind of what you and the rest of the Conspirators did do as to inform those of your Party here that are still ignorant of the Transactions of those Times Notwithstanding that we were always worsted by the Dutch yet they having a regard to the preservation of our Religion and Liberties which you had agreed to part withal to the French Court made strong Applications for a Peace and the Conspirators for a Supply to carry on the War and all Endeavours were by you and your Friends used to render the Dutch odious to the Parliament witness the Importunities that were used and great Assurances given In a word nothing but the Voice of War was in their Mouths But you know that there was an unhappy Accident fell out which I shall show you in its proper place that made the King put off the Parliament that sat down the 27th of October till the 7th of January following and in the mean time what Artifices your Accomplices used for to prepare the Parliament to have an ill Opinion of the Dutch you may see in the Speech made by that Villain of a Keeper who was your Tool to all intents and purposes you may remember how he represented the Dutch how averse they were to Peace and Reason and how uncivil and indirect in their Overtures of Treaty with His Majesty and therefore a demand was made of a proportionable and speedy Supply But the Dutch who sound themselves abused and obstructed and hitherto in a manner excluded from all manner of Application and whatever means they had used was still misinterpreted and ill represented they were so wise and industrious as by this time to have undeceived most of the Members of Parliament therefore the House of Commons were for a Peace to be made with the Dutch and in order thereunto would not part with one Penny judging that to be the best means for a Peace to follow and began to call some of your Rogues to an account that had been principal Contrivers of that most ungodly War this was an excellent but a new way of negotiating a Peace with the States-General I well remember that some of your Friends began to look blew upon the business looking every day to be called to an account for their Conspiracy against our Laws Liberties and Religion in the contriving and carrying on this War as aforesaid By this means Sir but full against your will I can tell how it grieved your Soul to see the general bent of the whole Nation to be against the War especially because the French were engaged in it In a word The House of Commons advised your Brother to a Just and an Honourable Peace with the States-General which the King put off till it could be no longer opposed then a Peace was concluded with the Dutch and when that was done the
Commons still had an evil Eye upon the Conspirators and got eight New Regiments to be disbanded that as the Exchequer had been shut up London might not be plundred and the Citizens might not be Dragooned out of their Estates Liberties and Religion all at once Upon this Peace being concluded with the Dutch oh what complaining Letters did you send to your Friends at St. Omers charging the King your Brother with the greatest breach of Promises and Oaths made to Madam the Princess and also Letters were sent to Doway to the Monks there yet assuring them you would never leave the Cause so for you still hoped that his Most Christian Majesty would do the work and ruin the Dutch States that they might not be a Nest for Rebels and Hereticks I was saying just now How could King Charles answer the Cancelling the Declaration of Indulgence and the passing the Test-Bill to Lewis his great Ally But now Sir I much more wonder how he could answer to that King his Concluding a Peace with the States-General of the Vnited Provinces for this seemed to me and many others the greatest Riddle how this would stand with the Holy League that he had made with that King to root out Heresy and to set up Popery for could we have but ruined the Dutch the work had been done to all intents and purposes Your Party well knew that Charles your self and the then Lords of the Admiratly fell under the displeasure of the French King by consent and since you could not humble the Dutch how willingly you condescended that the High and Mighty Monarch of France should have the humbling of the English Nation for by your Advice and Procurement it was agreed That he should let loose his Privateers among our Merchant-men so that from that time there was no security of Commerce and Navigation notwithstanding the publick Amity that was between the two Crowns but at Sea they murthered plundered made Prize and confiscated those they met with their Pyrats laid before the Mouths of our Rivers hovered all along upon our Coasts took our Ships in the very Ports insomuch that we in a manner were blockt up by Water and if any made application at his Sovereign Port for Justice they were insolently baffled if not cruelly beaten This you know and the Nation well knew that Charles your self and the Admiralty were Accomplices in this matter and that it did turn to a good account to the Conspirators as can be made appear even Sir to your face at St. Germains And this way of using the Nation continued till the latter end of the Year 1676. even from our concluding the Peace with the States-General of the Vnited Provinces Was this all No this way of Pyrating was only a mark of his Most Christian Majesty's Displeasure It was no reparation for our good King Charles's not keeping his word with him therefore all diligence was used to supply him with Recruits and those who would go voluntarily over were incouraged others that would not were pressed imprisoned and carried over by main force even as the Parliament here was ready to set down notwithstanding all the former frequent Applications to the contrary Nay yet further How did you empty all the Magazines of the Kingdom to furnish the French with all sorts of Ammunition of which Sir a particular Account was taken and can be given if demanded It is Sir well known that King Charles having broken the Tripple League and made a War upon the Dutch without Cause and had made Peace with them he would never enter into a League Offensive and Defensive with them yet he could make one with the French tho he had taken the Kingdom 's Money to enter into an actual War Nay that Conspirator Conventry had the League Offensive and Defensive made with the French King in his Pocket when the House of Commons voted the Money for an actual War with France It may be Sir you may say that King Charles did make an Alliance with Holland and the Articles of the League were on April 30. 1678. laid before the House by the King 's especial direction It may be so But will your Party call that a League Offensive and Defensive fit for a Parliament of England to agree to No for see how the House resented that Sham-League and to this end observe their Vote May the 4th 1678. Resolved That the League Offensive and Defensive with the States-General of the United Provinces with the Articles relating thereunto are not pursuant to the Addresses of this House nor consistent with the Good and Safety of the Kingdom That was one Resolve But there was a second Resolution of the House upon the same day Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That His Majesty be humbly advised and desired forthwith to enter into the present Alliances and Confederations with the Emperor the King of Spain and with the States-General of the United Provinces for the vigorous carrying on the War against the French King and for the good and safety of His Majesty's Kingdoms and particularly That effectual Endeavours be used for continuing the States-General in the present Confederation And that it be agreed by all Parties Confederate to prohibit all Trade between their Subjects and Countries and France and all other Dominions of the French King And that no Commodities of France or of the Dominions of the French King be imported into their Countries from any place whatsoever And also that all endeavours be used to invite all other Princes and States into the said Confederation and that no Truce or Peace be made or agreed to with the French King by His Majesty or any of the Confederates without the general Consent of all the Confederates had first therein Both which Resolves were sent to His Majesty by the Members of Parliament that were of the Privy Council and what a message they receive on the 6th of May following shews plainly his unwillingness to enter into League with the Confederates against France And Sir you know the Reason why Because the Interest and Religion of Lewis the French King was the Interest and Religion of the King your Brother and your self and Conspirators But Sir that which testifies your Brother's Obstinacy is refusing to enter into such a League Offensive and Defensive with the States-General of the Vnited Provinces c. For notwithstanding the Treaty of Peace with the States General had not you and your Conspirators furnished the French King with Men and Arms and Ammunition against the very Tenure and Intent of the said Treaty Therefore the Lords and Commons join in an Address on the 10th of November 1675. in which they earnestly pressed the King your Brother to call home his Subjects from the Service of the French King but instead of that more were sent and many of them by force or fraud call to mind the Address made by the House of Commons on May 20 1675. where great Complaints were made
by the House of the Conspirators supplying the French King with Men not a few but considerable numbers to the great discouragement of the Confederates engaged in the Common Cause against that proud Monster of Mankind So the Vote of May 23 1677. Resolved That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty That he would be pleased to enter into a League Offensive and Defensive with the States-General of the United Provinces and to make such other Alliances with such other Confederates as His Majesty shall think fit against the Growth and Power of the French King and preservation of the Netherlands And what was done upon all these Addresses truly very little but up starts a League made with the Dutch that was not worth one Farthing and how that Sham-League was kept we all very well remember But as a further proof of your Brother's Being unwilling to enter into any firm and hearty League with the Confederates engaged against the French King remember this Thâ—â— through yours and the Power the rest of the Conspirators had over him he could never be brought to enter into and be engaged in an actual War with France notwitstanding all the humble Applications made to him by Parliaments nay tho he passed a Bill to enter into a War with France and had the benevolence given in that Bill in order to the same yet a firm League was made with France the Interest and Religion of the French King and the King your Brother and your self being all one In the first place be pleased Sir to remember that the Parliament that was adjourned to the Third of December 1677. and then put off till the Fifteenth of January 1677 78 but that day being come both Houses met but by a Message to the House of Commons they are ordered to adjourn till the Twenty eighth and the pretended reason the then King gave or rather you and your Conspirators that his Majesty had matters of great Importance in order to the satisfaction of their Addresses for the Preservation of Flanders but it so fell out that things were not then so ripe as in a few days they would be therefore it was his Majesties Royal Will and Pleasure that the House do immediately Adjourn till the Twenty eighth of the same Month. The Message was very Grateful to the House of Commons and to many others who understood not the Conspiracy for the design was clear another thing than what they had conceived The day of their meeting comes and they are entertained with a Speech full of good Words yet he Reprimands them for their distrust and to shew them how they were mistaken they are told what a great care the King had taken of the Protestant Religion And in order thereunto he had concluded a Match with the Lady Mary to the Prince of Orange but you know Sir thaâ— it was full sore against his and your Wills a Prince Professing the same Religion wâ—â—â— us which by King Charles's good leave was a great mistake for I dare say that the Prince of Orange now our King never Receiv'd the Sacrament from the Church of Rome in all his days which to my certain knowledge King Charles did and afterwards Receiv'd it from the hands of a Bishop of the Church of England the self-same day But to go on with his Speech he told them that the Prince of Orange was a Prince ingaged in Arms to Defend the Common Cause of Chridendom and so he goes on and talks of Alliances and forgets not to call for a fresh supply that he might carry on his Alliances made and to be made Well Sir What was the effect of this Most Gracious Speech I remember that the House in return made an humble but a sharp Address and the Speech was not answered with Thanks in General but only in Particular relating to the King's care he had of the Protestant Religion which Address was Concluded on January 31st following In that Address they promise the King Supplies provided he would enter into an actual War with France and join in with the Confederates and Exclaim against the growing Greatness of the French King and that if it must be Peace that they would have the French King left in no better condition than he was upon the Conclusion of the Pyrenean Treaty I remember when this Address was made I was at St. Omers but we had news from Coleman how you resented it nay Sir it 's well known that the Address stuck terribly in your stomach as well as the Match between the Prince of Orange and the Lady Mary our Late Gracious Queen by which Sir you could not but easily perceive that the House of Commons had got some scent of the Damnable Plot that was carrying on against our Religion Laws and Liberty and your underhand-dealing with France and the Popish Interest But that men might not understand you too well your Agents were busy both in City and Countrey to nâ—â—â—ish a Report of Alliances with the Confederates and a War with France and so big they pretended to be of the War with France that they avowed the certainty of it both in words and in Print all this I say was to keep the Nation in horrid Ignorance To this end Sir you hired a Tool that had pawned his Soul for Bread to write against the French King but all was not gold that glistered there was no Money like to come because that the House was resolved to be satisfied that the Alliances were made and the War proclaimed This Sir you and your Party looked upon as a great hardship put upon the King and that the House of Commons took too much upon them but your Rogues made use of this Address to be a poor Cripple to beg Money even from France it self you know who undertook in that Affair to get Money from France upon the strength of that Address and was in a fair way of succeeding had not something happened between the Cup and the Lip In a word Nothing but War with France is talked of the French is content it should be a Bill passed for a War and Money was given the French King concurred with you in it a Law passes against the Importation of French Goods he wills that too for you had so ordered the matter that notwithstanding that Act by the diligent care of the Officers of the Custom-House there was more French Goods brought into the Custom-House than before But Sir you were not idle all this time for while the People of England were talking of War and Alliances you and your Conspirators were busie both at home and abroad oh the multitude of Messages that were sent to Rome and France and you know what Advice was given you that upon the account of the pretended War you should raise Forces for the Priests doubted not through the assistance of the Saints the work would be done you raised Forces and got Money tho for other ends than the Parliament gave it
Kingdoms what mischief you pleased Therefore it follows that you now be put in mind what Steps you took for the ruin of the Protestant Religion and the Established Government of these three Nations I shall only name these few that follow 1. The first great Step that your Conspirators took to the ruin of these Nations and subjugate them to Hell and Rome was that wicked Fire of London which was begun and carried on by your Popish Conspirators to ruin this great and populous City that had been for many years the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion which they compleated without the least remorse or pity You your self beheld its Flames with Joy and viewed its Ruins with much rejoycing as old Gray the Jesuite was pleased to say in a Letter of his in November 1666. to the Jesuits at St. Omers Sir I will not charge you with the actual burning of London because it was below you to be ingaged in the very Act and you had Rogues mean enough to serve you in so base a piece of Villany but of this I am certain That when any were taken in the Fact you your self discharged them and not only so but you and your Guards actually hindered many of the poor Citizens from saving their Goods from the Flames and protected those that did aid and abet the Fire and some of them you preferred and since you usurped the Throne you gave them marks of your Favour As for instance the Chyrurgeon that lived in the Savoy a Frenchman that went by the name of Châ—queaux and others whose Names occur not to my memory and several Irish-men in gaged in that Hellish Villany you caused to be preferred Upon the whole Whether you had not a hand in that Fire I leave all the World and your own Conscience to judge It will not be unnecessary Sir to put you in mind of the account I have had of it from some of those who were Conspiratos and were engaged in the Fact Richard Straâ—ge a great Favourite of yours and sometimes your Father Confessor in Ordinary used it as a great Argument to me to go on to assist the Design of the Society who told me that they got 14000 l. in the Fire of London in the Year 1666. and not only so but you your self was in their Counsels when it was determined yea and your Brother too which I durst not for my life discover because of the Promise I had made to Prince Ruport not to mention any thing to the Parliament that might touch the King but he afterwards heartily repented of his giving and I did also of taking that Counsel and so you escaped for I could not Charge you but must Charge him too But the Prince knew of it and so did King Charles himself but this let me tell you That in a Letter of yours Signed Lieutenant to Father Courtney of Aug. 12. 1667. you did declare your Resentment of the Dutch siring our Ships at Chatham and what a dishonour it was to the King and his Friends but this you said was your Comfort that London's Pride was sufficiently pull'd down and as the burning the Ships at Chatham had been the cause of much trouble at Court but it was much allayed by the hopes that Factious City would scarce be built again unless to the ruin of the Undertakers the Fanaticks said you may now studdy again the number of the Beast Langhorne that had a hand in the Fire by being Privy to it who sollicited King Charles more in his behalf than your self and imployed Portsmouth that French Spy and Whore to use her Interest to procure his Pardon I shall add the Promise that I had of your Favour by Sir Allen your Trusty Tool if I would spare that part of my Evidence concerning John Grove about his Firing of Southwark and how you sollicited for his Life in conjunction with Portsmouth you cannot forget I am sure and the King asked you whether you had a desire to bring the whole Nation about his Ears for after the Firing of Southwark was Sworn against him the King told You and Portsmouth too he durst not Pardon Grove You cannot forget Conyers the Benedictine Monk who whilst you were a Votary of that Order was one of your Father Confessors him you brought into White-Hall though Evidence was given in against him of being to be one of the Murderers of King Charles the Second and the King himself told the then Lord Chancellor That if there was no other Evidence against him but that of his being to have a hand in his Murder the said Conyers would surrender himself but the Lord Chancellor told the King That there was other Evidence against him of Matters of high Concern and the Lord Chancellor told you in your Ear That he would be Charged with the Fire of London at which you were much appaled and went to Conyers who you had planted in the Dark Lobby before the Council Chamber that opened into the Privy Gallery and you came out to Conyers and bad him shift for himself and when the Council sat down I was called in and asked if I could make out any thing against Conyers as to the Fire of London I told the King I could and so Sir you must stand Charged in some respects to have had a hand in Firing of London 2. A second Step which you and the unwearied Enemies of the Protestant Religion in these Realms took towards the Extirpation of it and the Subverting the Government was to interest the French King in your Councels and you having in a great measure engaged him to assist you with Money and with what else might be convenient for the Executing your Wicked Enterprises I must justifie this Point from your Letter to Lechaise the French King's Confessor wherein you say thus Hâ— Most Christian Majesty offered me most Generously his Friendship and the use of his Purse to my Assistance against the Dâ—signs of my Enemies and His And professed unto me That His Interest and Mine were so clearly linkt together that those who opposed the one should be loâ—kt upon as the Enemies of the other Arlington tho a Papist in his heart yet he was not of your Interest therefore the French King told you his Opinion of that noble Lord therefore you say thus to the French King's Confessor and told me moreover his Opinion of my Lord Arlington and the Parliament which is That neither the one nor the other is in his Interest or mine and thereupon he desired me to make such Proposals as I should think fit in this Conjuncture Sir give me leave to observe this to you the Jesuits in the Reigns of Q. Elizabeth and of K. James l. till the Match of his Son with France laboured nothing more diligently than the advancing the King of Spain to the Universal Monarchy of Europe but that Crown being by various ways and means much weakened and rendred wholly uncapable of aspiring any farther in that matter
the false and treacherous Jesuits have of late years applied themselves with mighty diligence to serve the Interest and to promote the Grandeur of the French Monarch In which your own Engagements do sufficiently appear for how have you with those first-born of Pride and Treachery kindled those Flames of War which have not only laid the most flourishing Provinces in Europe waste and rendered the Kingdoms of Europe Fields of Blood and with them do still nourish them to the Ruin and the Destruction of so many millions of men For Sir did not you and your Party by the Interests you had in almost all the Courts of the Princes of Christendom influence some Princes to a Neutrality and others to an open Confederacy with France so that now the French Monarchy is in truth become very troublesome to all his Neighbours But Sir give me leave to make this Observation to you that the French King being arrived at this formidable Greatness which he hath for several Years last past stood in you that plotted and contrived the ruin of these three Nations drew him into your Councels and obtained his promise of Assistance to the rooting out of Heresy and nourishing a misunderstanding between the King your Brother and his People and this you and your Conspirators conceived to be a main advance towards the attaining your wicked Ends and Purposes for otherwise you would not have so much laboured the compassing that point by your self and your Servant Coleman who was taken in the midst of his pious Labour and rewarded with the Triple-tree to your great satisfaction for if he had lived he might have told all and some body else might have tasted Death in his place But Sir I must come closer to the Point in hand that is your interesting the French King in your Councils and in your Letter to the said Father Confessor to the French King you say I was much satisfied to see his most Christian Majesty altogether of my Opinion so I made him answer by the same means he used to write to me that is by Coleman who addrest himself to Father Ferier and intirely agreed to his most Christian Majesty as well to what respect he had to the Vnion of our Interests as the unusefulness of my Lord Arlington and the Parliament in order to the Service of the King my Brother and his most Christian Majesty and that it was necessary to make use of our joynt and utmost use of our Credits to prevent the success of those evil Designs resolved on by the Lord Arlington and the Parliament against his most Christian Majesty and my self which on my side I promise really to perform of which since that time I have given reasonable good proof I pray Sir what was your Opinion It was the French King's Opinion which was that your Interests were so clearly linkt together that those that opposed the one should be looked upon as Enemies to the other Did you agree with the French King in any thing else Yes That the Lord Arlington and the Parliament were not in your Interest nor in the Interest of the French King And I agree with you Sir in omnibus but what of this Then the Designs of Arlington and of the Parliament must be prevented What I pray were those They were to engage the King if possible to enter into a League offensive and defensive with the States General of the Vnited Provinces and to joyn with the Confederate Princes and to enter into an actual War with France and to advance the Prince of Orange by marrying your eldest Daughter to him This last was done full sore against yours and your Brother's Will but the other were not done so zealoufly you had engaged your Brother in the French Interest That these were the Lord Arlington's designs and the designs of that Part of the Parliament that gave themselves Leisure to design is apparent from what you say in the same Letter thus Moreover I made some Proposals which I thought necessary to bring to pass what we were obliged to undertake assuring him that nothing could be so firmly established our Interest with the King my Brother as that very same Offer of the help of his Purse by which means I had much Reason to hope to perswade him to the Dissolving of the Parliament and to make void the Designs of my Lord Arlington who works incessantly to advance the Interest of the Prince of Orange and the Hollanders and to lessen that of the King your Master And did my Lord Arlington do so It seems he did and I think it was the only good thing that ever he did for which he was to be destroyed and the Parliament dissolved and every thing that stood in the way of France and your self nay a Parliament that is not in your Interest must not stand We have seen into my Lord Arlington's Designs I pray what were yours and the French King's for which you had made some Proposals and compare them together Yours and the French King's Designs were to ruin the Protestant Religion as Coleman in his Letter to the Pope's Internuncio at Bruxels Aug. 21. 74. But Arlington's was to lessen and if possible he was to destroy the Interest of the French King You had a mighty Work upon your hands no less than the Conversion of three Kingdoms and the utter Subduing of a pestilent Heresie which had for some time domineered over this Northern part of the World and you had never so great hopes of it since your Queen Mary 's Days The Lord Arlington he had a mighty Work in hand too and that was to advance the Interest of the Prince of Orange and the Dutch who were much in danger of being subdued by the French King You for your Designs next to God Almighty you relyed upon the mighty Mind of his Most Christian Majesty for his Aid and Assistance But Arlington did rely upon the mighty Mind of an English Parliament for their Aid and Assistance Your Design was to get the Parliament dissolved and never to have another His design was to have this dissolved and speedily to call another Yours was for advancing the French Interest and his tho he was a Papist was for advancing the Interest of the Confederates and to lessen the Interest of the French King You were for Three hundred thousand Pounds advanced by the French King to give the Protestant Religion such a Blow as it could not subsist but he for nothing was to give the French King and his Interest such a Blow as that should not subsist The French King by La Chaise gives you and your Secretary thanks for your Zeal and Service in order to the promoting the Popish Religion and I do not question but the Prince of Orange and the Dutch were as thankful by their Ministers at our Court to the Lord Arlington and his Party for promoting their Cause and Interest with the Parliament Your design was to establish a good Understanding
between the King your Brother and his Most Christian Majesty and your self which you say Arlington and his Party endeavoured by a thousand Deceits to break to the end they might supplant all three of you but Arlington's Design was to establish a good Understanding and Intelligence between the Parliament the Prince of Orange and the States-General You say that Arlington and his Party had used a thousand Deceits to carry on his Rogueries to betray the Councils of France and England and you and your Party used Ten thousand Rogueries to betray England Holland and the Prince of Orange to the French King You said through the Deceits of the Lord Arlington your Designs succeeded not but through your Violence and Folly his Designs succeeded to the Honour of God and the Happiness of the three Kingdoms and you are living upon the Charity of that Monster of Mankind whose Interest you advanced whilst you were here But you will say what is all this to the Purpose Yes it is much to the Purpose You may see that the Nation knows well how you interested the French King in all your Councils to change the Protestant Religion into down-right Popery and the well established Government into French Arbitrary Power and were not your Party grown to such a height of Insolence that they boasted openly of the Aid and Assistance the French was to give for the setting up the Romish Religion 3. A Third Step you took to ruin the Protestant Religion and the well established Government of England was your unhappy Match with the Daughter of Modena I must put you in mind what the Opinion of the then Parliament entertained of that Match and that you may see in these following Particulars 1. That it would disquiet the Minds of the Protestants at home and fill them with endless Jealousies and Discontents and would bring the King your Brother into such Alliances abroad as might prove highly prejudicial if not destructive to the Protestant Religion it self Now Sir it was your main Design to inflame the hearts of the People and put them upon a Ferment And you engaged the King in the said Marriage as might put him upon those Alliances as might weaken his Esteem with his People and strengthen you and your Popish Cut-â—hroats in your Conspiracy against the Peace and Tranquility of the Nation For Sir in a Letter of Coleman's to Ashby the Rector of S. Omers he saith you commanded him to let the Fathers know that that Match was to strengthen the Catholick Cause and Interest and that now the King your Brother who had ingaged in it would be engaged to unite himself in a more near Alliance to his Majesty of France and the Princes of Italy Apr. 2. 1674. 2. That they had found by sad experience that such Matches had encouraged Popery within this Kingdom and had given Opportunity to Prieists and Jesuits to propagate their wicked and devilish Doctrines and to seduce great numbers of the King's Protestant Subjects You that had such a mighty Work upon your hands as the Conversion of three Kingdoms and the Subduing of a pestilent Heresie which had so long domineered in these Kingdoms and it being a great Work and the Labourers in your great Harvest being but few and you being like to meet with mighty Opposition as indeed you did and an effectual one too so that it did import you to have all the Assistance you could that your Labourers might not be out of breath and tho' next to Gods or rather the Devil's Providence you did rely on the mighty Mind of his Most Christian Majesty whose Generous Soul had inclined him to many Barbarous and Traiterous Undertakings and tho' his Temper was in that very much like your own yet three or four Strings to your Bow were more than one for the more Alliances abroad with Catholick Princes would increase the Number of your Labourers in the Devil's Harvest Therefore in order to this what Alliances you were engaging your Brother in you well know and you cannot forget how all that Design was dashed and by whom But Sir you must be stone-blind and so must your whole Party if you did not see that Experience had taught my Lord Arlington and the Parliament how such Matches had been fatal to this Kingdom and to their Designs The Match of the King your Father with the Daughter of France was the first Step that was taken to advance Popery and the French Interest in England and when she came over what a Swarm of Priests and Friars followed her and what Numbers of Priests and Jesuits she protected and what Numbers were seduced in hopes of Employment under her or of Preferment by her Grace and Favour and how that unhappy Prince was influenced by her Councils till she had promoted a War in Scotland by the Influence of that old Incendiary Cardinal Richlieu and the Rebellion in Ireland and the bloody Civil Wars here which terminated in the Ruin and by the Just Judgment of God in the untimely end of your Father 2. The Match of the King your Brother with the Daughter of Portugal by whom he could through the Blessing of God have no Issue This Lady what she wanted in Understanding to be a Councellour she had made up to her in the blessed Gifts of Malice and Treason and Revenge which she exercised to the utmost And what Swarms of Priests Jesuits Monks and Friars were by her protected and with what Zeal she promoted the Romish Religion and protected Men that were in a Conspiracy against our Religion Laws and Liberties and how great Numbers were by her Priests perverted to the Romish Faith to the great disquiet of the Government the Parliament well knew And therefore Sir you must know that the Experience they had of these two considerable Matches how fatal they had been to these Kingdoms was a sufficient Motive for to interpose in yours 3. The Parliament observed how your Devilish Popish Party were animated by the hopes of this Match before it was consummate which were discouraged by the King's Concessions at the last meeting of that Parliament you know what they were the Breaking the Indulgence and the Passing the Test Bill My Lord Arlington and the Parliament were very prosperous in their Rogueries as you called them those Sons of Zerviah were then too many for you and your damnable Crew It is remembred upon the hopes of this Match that a Protestant could scarce come within your Court at S. James's but he was affronted by your Popish Crew and scarce a better Word than Damn you for a Heretick Dog and when Complaints were made to you of these Insolencies the Complainer found no other Redress than What Business had you there insomuch that this sort of Carriage was observed by the Parliament and upon this Consideration they interposed with all their Might to hinder if possible the Consummation of the intended Marriage to that Italian Princess 4. They did greatly fear it would
occasion the lessening the Affections of the People to your Person and for that you were so nearly related to the Crown they desired that your Honour and Esteem should be preserved But had they known of your Trayterous Confederacy with the French King and with him designing to subvert our Religion Laws and Liberties they would sooner have addressed for your being Banished from the King's Presence and his Councils for ever if not to have sent you out of the World as you justly deserved But Sir you may remember that you once were the Darling of the Nation and had the Esteem and Affections of the People upon the Account of your being the Son and Brother of a King and stood in a very near Relation to the Crown of England in the time of your Brothers Reign but when your Traiterous Designs were laid open the Parliament Apr. 27. 1679. Resolved That your being a Papist and the Hopes of your coming such to the Crown had given the greatest Encouragement to the then discovered Conspiracy and Designs of the Papists against his Majesty your Brother and the Protestant Religion Notwithstanding this Vote of the House of Commons you had an impudent Crew that did endeavour to perswade the Nation and not without some Effect through the Power of their bold Asseverations that you were no Papist but of the established Religion only that you were a Prince of more Generosity and Greatness of Mind than to comply with the Capricio's of a Parliament in Renouncing this or Swearing to that as they should in humour enact which Roguery in Conversation passed with a great many Rascally Profligate Protestants who would not believe your being a Papist till the day you opened your Chappel or Oratory the next or next Sunday but one after you took the Crown 5. The Parliament was of an Opinion that for an Age after the Consummation of the said Marriage at the least the People of England would be under continued Apprehensions of the Growth of Popery and the Danger of the Protestant Religion and so they were an Age before For when they saw so many Piracies made on the Dutch Factories in the Years 1663 1664. and a wicked War commenced in the Year 1665. and the City fired by Papists in the Year 1666. and the Papists incouraged not only in the Years aforesaid but in the Year 1667. and 1668. and Persons that had a hand in firing the City of London not only protected but preferred and the Trpiple League broken and another ungodly War proclaimed Priests and Jesuits increasing in their Numbers and their Insolencies and Impudence This increased the Fears and Jealousies of the Nation and your first Lâ—dy turning Papist and dying such but when you married an Italian Papist you had more Eyes upon you and the People by degrees began to see into your Designs against the Protestant Religion and Government That the Protestant Religion was by this means in danger is beyond Disputation for it had three great Enemies conspiring against it that had made a League together to destroy it and all those Princes and States that did intend to maintain and uphold it viz. your Brother Charles the French King and your self and this Confederacy was set up to destroy the Prince of Orange the Government of the States-General and the Parliament of England and this the Parliament feared and therefore they interposed in this marriage Object But here an Objection will arise Why should the Parliament object against this Match and be so zealous in their Interposition to prevent this Match with the Daughter of Modena since it is plain you in view of the World had been for several Months ingaged in a Treaty of Marriage with another Catholick Princess yet a Parliament nay that very Parliament held during the time of the Treaty and not the least Exception taken at it To this I Answer 1. That the Archduchess of Inspruck though she was of the Romish Religion yet she was an avowed Enemy of the French Cause and Interest For observe this there were many Papists which Sir you hated and by your Conspirators were looked upon with an evil Eye for the Lord Castlehaven that was one that served the King of Spain was one that was used very hardly by you Sir Kenelm Digby was also very obnoxious to you and so was my Master the Duke of Norfolk being one of the Spanish Faction and Anderson the Priest and several others that I can when called to it name who were Enemies of the French Faction And this Lady being not of the French Faction and Interest the Match through the Influence of the French King was broken and this Piece of Flesh you have was sent from Modena in her Room 2. The Match between you and that Duchess was never so near a Consummation as this between the Daughter of Modena and you was de non Appaparentibus non existentibus eadem est Ratio the Match did not appear to them therefore they touched not upon it But to make sure they addressed the King that you might not match with Modena or any other Popish Princess for several weighty Considerations 6. The House of Commons considered that your Princess of Modena being so near a Relation and Kindred to the many Eminent Persons of the Court of Rome might give great Opportunities to promote their Designs and carry on their Practices amongst us and by the same means penetrate into the most secret Councils of the King your Brother and more easily discover the State of the whole Kingdom It is observed that it is a standing Rule amongst the Venetians that if one of their Senators have a Relation that is made a Pope or Cardinal or is preferred to any great Dignity in the Court of Rome that the said Senator withdraws from or is dismissed his serving in the said Senate And the Reason is plain First Because they will not be imposed upon by any of that Vermine and Secondly Because they will not have their Councils looked into by any that belong to the Court of Rome nor Thirdly Will they have the Secrets of their Government discovered to them and lastly they will not have the State of their Commonwealth exposed to the Censure of the Ecclesiastical State Sir You were no sooner married but how Letters pass betwixt the Court of Rome and you self and your servant Coleman Jan. 4. 1676. Cardinal Howard writing to Coleman intimates That Sir Henry Tichburn was appointed by you to be your Minister at Rome and rejoyced at the Prorogation of the Parliament and further said That if the King would do well then all would do well Now you know what was meant by the King 's doing well that is if he were removed In that Letter he saith he hoped to do you good Service It is plain that now not only France but Rome was also to be interested in your Councils to destroy the King your Brother and expose the Councils and Secrets of the
Government to the View of the Court of Rome Cardinal Howard in his Letter to Coleman Feb. 8. 1676. saith He doth all he can to serve you He hath writ to Mr. Haies at his Brothers moves that your Brother's Ministers may joyn with the Pope's Ministers about P. Furstenburg and about the Peace and that the Pope will send a Minister on purpose In a Letter on March 1676. signed Cardinal Norfolk which was sent by an Express that was to return with what his Master and Mistress had to communicate This was a Letter of Credence and your Servant Coleman was to be he asked who this Messenger was and was accordingly asked and would not tell but Sir I will and it was Signior Con that went under the notion of an Italian but was an old Scotch Priest that was in the Conspiracy against Charles the First and discovered by Habernfield to Sir William Bozwell the English Ambassador at Holland who discovered the same to the Archprelate of Canterbury who was in a most Reverend Manner pleased to conceal the same by that King's Advice and Direction This Con that was near 80 years of age was intrusted with some Secrets from Rome to your self and Dutchess and what you had to communicate you were to communicate it to him And what was that The King your Brother had promised to dissolve the Parliament Coleman with your Brother's Approbation and yours drew up the Declaration and a Copy was sent to Cardinal Howard and the Resolutions you had taken to establish the Popish Religion and what Measures were taken for the Destroying the Interest of the Lord Arlington and the Prince of Orange and the Dutch at our Court and this Con was to take an Account of the State and Condition of our Fleet and of the Exchequer and these were the things that you and your Spouse were to communicate to the Messenger that brought the Letter dated March 1676. March 14. 1676. The Cardinal in his Letter saith That he ordered Mr. Leybourn his Auditor to write He understood that you had received his That he used to direct his Letters for the Portugal Ambassador For Mr. Coleman takes notice that Plunket had received Letters from Archbishop Talbot at Rome who offers his Service to you and the Catholicks whether they will or no He tells Coleman that Talbot is enough to spoil all His constant Custom is forging Letters Saith if you make use of him you would disgrace your self and put the Catholicks in Derision which is the way to destroy them which if then the Cardinal and his Confriars must shut up their Shops if he had not taken care the Match between you and the Daughter of Modena had been broken off that a Friend of his at Paris first set the Match on foot he saith he promoted the Match to serve you and the Catholick Religion in England and saith that he and his are in great Power at Rome and Spain And saith that it would prejudice you if you were partial Complains of want of Countenance from the King your Brother Proposeth a Barony to be got of the King for him to get Money for Saith that it would be no Scandalum Magnatum tho' for a Catholick than when Sir Francis Radcliff was in motion Takes notice that the Pope is not satisfied with the Education of your Daughters Despairs not of getting a Pension from Rome for your Duchess's Secretary In Cardinal Howard 's Letter of March 24. 1676. he takes notice of the Receipt of Letters on the 17th and the 20th of March and also of your advancing the Catholick Religion to the Joy of the Pope by his of the 27th fully compleated their Joy Hopes your Duchess would bring forth a happy Roman-Catholick Thus Sir you see what Destruction you were then bringing upon the Nation by exposing the King 's Secret Councils and the State and Condition of the Nation to the grand Enemy of the Protestant Religion and Interest Now I have done with the Steps you took for the Destruction of these three Nations and the Protestant Interest in general I come now to every particular Countrey and Nation in which you may behold your Attempts there in particular by which it will appear to what Ruine and Misery you had brought the Protestant Interest to First I will begin with Holland I. HOLLAND YOU may remember Sir with what Respects that Protestant State received and protected your Brother and your self as long as they durst and what particular Friends your Family found there who contributed in some measure to your Support and made what Friends they could for your self and Brothers when you were by the French King Banished France But how you have since treated the States-General by engaging the King your Brother in two most unjust Wars to their great Impoverishing and the Weakning the Protestant Interest But you dealt with them as you did by all your other Friends and Allies You no sooner received the Testimony of their Affections but you forget it and therefore it was well observed of Kirton your old Friend and Fryar that the only way for a Man to ruin his Family was to engage in your Cause and Quarrel You will do well to call to mind the Heats that you and your Incendiaries created in Holland and the Animosities you caused which cost the De Wits their Lives Several Letters of Coleman's to the Jesuits of S. Omers do highly magnifie your prudent Conduct in that Affair and what was the End of all those Heats and Flames you kindled but to exasperate a considerable Party of Men against your Nephew the Prince of Orange nay your Malice against that Prince did not cease here but most unnaturally you engaged the King your Brother to abandon him and to comply with his and the mortal Enemies of this Nation which was so unnatural that an Infidel would not have been guilty of such Ingratitude as your self if you do but remember how the Prince's Father served yours Your Malice yet went further for the Lord Arlington using some Arguments with the King to have a more Regard to his Nephew the Prince of Orange and the States-General of the United Provinces What Care on the contrary did you use to prevent any good Intention of the said Lord Arlington towards the said Prince of Orange and in order to this you dispatch'd Letters to Ashby the Rector of the English College of S. Omers and require him to write to the Confessor of the Emperor to satisfie him that the King your Brother intended no less than the Ruin of the Confederates especially of the Empire and of his Catholick Princes under him and that underhand he furnished the Hungarian Rebels against his Imperial Majesty and found them Money to go on with their Rebellion and that his Design was not to have any Alliances with his Imperial Majesty but only in Shew that he might advance his Nephew the Prince of Orange and in order to that he had brought him over
to that of England Holland and the Reformed Churches of Europe to the Support of the Protestant Religion which You and the French King were to destroy by the Name and Title of the Northern Heresie I pray then what signifies a Nephew and a Son-in-law in such a Case as this Can any Man that ever knew you believe that natural Affection should interpose and prevent your destroying him since your natural Affection and Bigotry were and are still no Strangers in England or Holland Consider once more and then I have done with this Point You may remember that the French King did most generously offer you the use of his Purse to assist against the Designs of those that were Enemies to you and that Monarch Nay you know he protested That those that opposed you he should look on them his Enemies and you did as well protest That those who opposed him you would look upon them as your Enemies and it was the Opinion of the French King that the Parliament of England was neither in his Interest nor yours and you entirely agreed with him in that Thought of his so that it was your Opinion that it was necessary for you both to make use of your joint and utmost Credits to prevent the Success of the Parliaments Evil Designs against you both What Designs against you and the French King Yes Designs against you and the French King nay that which is more a dangerous Plot. Who are the Plotters And what was the Plot my Lord Arlington was at work without ceasing to advance the Interest of the Prince of Orange and the Hollanders and to lessen that of the French King And that he and several others were endeavouring to break the good Intelligence between Charles the Second the French King and your self wherefore you earnestly solicited the French King to assist with the Help of his Purse to prevent such Rogueries Thus Sir you make a Tripple League and set it up in Opposition to another In the one King Charles the French King and your sweet Self are engaged in the other the Parliament of England the States of Holland and the Prince of Orange are engaged The French is to furnish you with Money which is the Sinews of War the Parliament are declared Enemies King Charles stands as a Cypher only and therefore the French King and your self put your selves under the solemn Engagements to perform what was stipulated and strenuously to assist each other against the Designs of your and the French King's Enemies for that there was a dangerous and desperate Design on foot to advance the Prince of Orange and to lessen the French King And therefore can any think that it was unreasonable in you to endeavour to destroy him since his Advancement was of such a desperate and dangerous Consequence to the French King your Self and Romish Religion These things duly considered no Man that hath his Thoughts and Judgment keeping pace with each other but must from the Premisses rationally conclude That you and your Incendiaries must have a design of destroying the Prince and his Party and Protestant Interest in Holland notwithstanding any Excuses you may make to the contrary or your Party for you II. IRELAND Since Sir you have not left so good a Name in Holland as you might have pretended to it is much to be feared that upon enquiry your Name and Memory will not be very precious here in Ireland If you please to give me your Company thither I 'll assure you if you deserve it you shall have my good Word from thence for all the old Favours I receiv'd from you in the Day of your Power here amongst us but I suppose I shall find sad havock there made by you and your Plotters of the Protestant Religion and of the Civil Rights Liberties and Customs of the English and Protestant Interest Sir it pleased King Charles the Second to send the Lord Roberts as his Vicegerent into Ireland who was a warm Man and not at all Popishly affected and therefore not for your Turn or one that would gratifie the Conspirators in any one Point of countenancing Popery and therefore you procured him to be removed so that Ireland was put into such Hands as your Heart and Soul could wish for For whoever was Deputy or Lieutenant your Conspirator Boyle an Archbishop was the Governor a Fellow ' tho' of the Communion of the Church of England yet was a well-wisher to the Romish Mathematicks So Ireland was in a fair way to be Over-run and Ruined to all Intents and Purposes by yours and the Procurement of the Jesuites Upon the Removal of the Lord Robarts afterwards Earl of Radnor you remember who succeeded him and what Promises was made by this Successor and what Terms you required from him and how he complied and who it was that recommended this new Lieutenant as a Person fit to all Intents and Purposes to execute your Designs These things are worthy of consideration I assure you for we have considered them and what could be done in so little time as our King hath had many of those Abuses have been corrected and amended This Tool brought the Kingdom of Ireland into a sad condition by encouraging the Popish Recusants who are the profess'd Enemies to the Protestant Religion and English Interest by his or rather your Encouragement they grew more Insolent and Presumptuous than before that Tool of a Lieutenant came there which was of a dangerous Consequence to that Kingdom and the Protestant Religion and English Interest And it was like to have proved Fatal to that Kingdom had it not been in some measure prevented by the sending in his room that Great and never-to-be-forgotten Earl of Essex whom you and your Party procured to be Murthered in the Tower to make the Murther of the Good Lord Russel less difficult 1. For in the First Place in the Month of January 1672 3. you procured a Commission of Enquiry into Irish Affairs containing many Powers that were new and extraordinary not only Prejudicial to the English whose Estates and Titles were liable to be questioned but in a manner to Overthrow the King's Acts of Settlement which Commission you caused to be pursued to the great Charge and Attendance of many of the Protestants there And by this means you shook the Peace and Security of the whole Kingdom of Ireland It is well known Sir that you gave the Jesuites great Hopes of making a fair Step to establish the Romish Religion and old Gray the Jesuite in a Letter of February 1672. exhorts the Fathers at St. Omers to be very thankful to God that he had put it into the Hearts of the King and Duke to remember the sad Estate of the Catholick Religion in Ireland and that now there was some Hopes of Establishing it there since the Lord-Lieutenant was so well disposed towards it by the especial Care of His Royal Highness II. You were pleased to cause the Popish Party to be armed
that the King your Brother was brought to that state of Security that if any Male-content among them should not prove true to them and their Design his Majesty would not give ear to their Information and therefore prayed them to be diligent for now was the time or never and accordingly Messengers were sent to Father La Chaise viz. Edward Nevil your Confessor and William Busby to carry the aforesaid Letters to La Chaise and these did bring home La Chaise's Answer and withal several Letters that Coleman had written to him upon that Affair in your Name and by your Command that bore date in the month of January as these also did in the month of January 1677 8. some little time before the Parliament sat down And then Sir there was a Pension obtained for Coleman your diligent Secretary of 2000 Crowns a Year and another from Rome but what that was I do not so well remember But this is not to be forgotten that the Fathers of S. Omers had great Assurance of considerable Sums from the Pope and from the General of the Jesuits if any Progress were made in that Glorious Attempt Here Sir you and your Party signalize your selves in several particulars worthy of your being put in mind of 1. The great Preparations that were made for the Rising of the Irish Papists 2. That the great Design of Rising was for the Defence of their Liberties and Religion 3. You were not certain but that your Brother might engage in earnest with the Parliament for entring into an actual War with France 4. That in case he should your Conspirators would let in French Forces into Ireland 5. That your Brother was brought to such a state of Security that if any Malecontent amongst you should not prove true to you or your Design he would not give ear to their Information 1. The great Preparations that were made for the Rising of the Irish Papists and this your Agent Talbot was engaged in and your Secretary Coleman was privy to it and you too by the Letters that Coleman wrote by your Order to the said La Chaise with whom you your self left this Jesuit to correspond Coleman being a Servant to you and a trusty one too But there were many Protestants that had their Eyes opened and made their Observations of the Carriage of your Teagues how imprudently insolent they had been and how they were Armed and Countenanced by some in the Government and therefore they can attest the Truth of this Proposition of mine and they are Men of unexceptionable Credit So that if you will try the Merits of the Cause you may come forth and be heard 2. That the great Design of Rising was for the Defence of their Liberties and Religion and the Recovery of their Estates You know Sir that you were converted to the Religion of the Church of Rome and you were so zealous for it even to a Miracle that you regarded nothing in the World in Comparison of your Religion And so it was with your Friends here in Ireland and whilst the English Protestants were uppermost you had instilled this Principle in them by your Jesuites and other Conspirators that they were but Slaves And as for those that could not recover their Estates forfeited by Rebellion by the dint of Perjury they must try by the dint of the Sword to destroy the English Protestant Interest or else they were not only Slaves but Beggars too into the bargain 3. They were not certain but that the King your Brother might engage in earnest with the Parliament in an actual War against France you know Sir he had been but uncertain in his Proceedings with you in this damnable Conspiracy for he had broke the Engagements that he had made with Madam your Sister in the Establishing the Popish Religion in Ireland and that he had passed the Test Bill in England and that he refused to sign Coleman's Declaration for the dissolving the Parliament notwithstanding his solemn Engagements to you and your Party to do it and that he received the Sacrament in his Chappel according to the Usage of the Church of England though he had received the same but that morning from Ireland the Jesuit according to the Rites of the Church of Rome and therefore neither Teague nor your self were sure of him 4. In Case he should heartily engage with the Parliament in an actual War against France your Conspirators would let in French Forces into Ireland and so they did when you Trayterously Invaded that Kingdom and what they did for you then they would have done as much for you eight or ten Years before They were zealous for the Popish Religion and so were you and your Interests were both one and they are to this day I think I need not go further to prove that Point 5. The King your Brother was brought to such a state of Security that if any Malecontent amongst you should not be true to you or your Design he would not give ear to their Information you know who it was that so governed the King and led him by the Nose but you supposed your selves safe But this remember that when Information was made of this Hellish Conspiracy the King your Brother heard it and the Evidence was so strong and the Plot made so plain that he could not gainsay it he being in every part of it himself excepting that of his own Life and was convinced that the Parliament ought to have the Examination of the same put into their hands which was accordingly done And what the Parliament that was within some few days after the Discovery thereof to sit did do and what Credit they gave to it and three other Parliaments you and your Followers cannot forget 9. Your Conspirators the Jesuites from St. Omer's were made acquainted by Letters from those of London in conjunction with your Servant Coleman That William Morgan and one Lovel Jesuites were dispatched as Messengers into Ireland to see how Affairs stood there and this Morgan's and his Companion 's Charges were paid by the said Coleman who gave them Instructions in your Name to encourage the Irish Papists to defend their Religion and Liberties And Coleman and the Jesuites transmitted 2000 Pound for the Supply of their present Wants and a Promise of 4000 Pound was in your Name made by Coleman and the Jesuites in case there should be any Action But Sir these Messengers Morgan and Lovel they went away on the last of January 1677 8. and returned the latter part of March following and gave such a melancholy Account of Peter Talbot's lavishing the Money that you had in a special manner entrusted him withal and not applying the same for the use of the Irish as you had directed that it strook a great Damp upon the Minds of your Conspirators here in London and That the said Talbot had forged Receipts of several Summs of Money by him pay'd to several of their Officers though the same were
both in their Estates and Families that Scotland was a Field of Blood through many Barbarous Murders that you by the Hands of your Party Committed there Some of your bloody Crew here especially the Tyrant Lauderdale were exceeding glad of the News of these poor Protestants Rising and your Popish Conspirators and their Motly Protestant Admirers and Abettors did prick up their Ears at the News and concluded the Day was their own Our English Popish Army was to cut their Throats first and then the Throats of all English Men that stood in their Way afterwards And Lauderdale highly valued himself upon this Rising for Posts came every day to White-hall to bring the News of their Increasing boasting that now the Fanaticks had shewed themselves in their Colours and that it was by that strict hand that he had kept over them in Scotland that had been the Cause of their being quiet so long hoping by this to get Honour for his prudent Management when all Mankind knows that his Management was with a Design to make them take up Arms And it was you and he that raised that Devil but Sir you know whom you had appointed to betray them Sir you were in Flanders thither the News was sent to you not because you were ignorant of the Contrivance but it was a Watch-word for your Return But that you might lay this Devil which you and your Conspirators had raised and kill two Birds with one Stone therefore you pitch'd upon the Duke of Monmouth that he might destroy the Protestants there and that his Person might either fall in Scotland or his Reputation be ruined here at home therefore by your Advice or rather Direction he is ordered for Scotland in all hast for it was the Grief of your Soul to see him the Darling of the Protestants of both Kingdoms Besides Sir you knew that if he went Armed into Scotland without Assent of Parliament in both Kingdoms by an Act made in the Reign of Charles the Fâ—st was High Treason and therefore the Consequences might be fatal to him every way However he went by the general Consent of the Council and was well received in Scotland by Vertue of his Commission given him and draws the Army in Scotland together and faces these poor Wretches and indeed as Matters had been managed in Scotland it was a great Question if the Forces in Scotland would have been prevailed with with so little Difficulty to be commanded to go out against these innocent and oppressed Country-men of theirs had it not been to go under the Command of the Duke of Monmouth who marches up to the Enemy they by their Petition desire Liberty of Religion and offer to lay down their Arms it being given out by your Party that the Duke of Monmouth had a Power of giving them Terms but that could not be done by him for your Blood-hounds never intended they should have any Quarter given them therefore he had not that Power in his Commission of granting any Terms as was promised him Nay if I am not mistaken after that he had left London the Instructions that he had to grant Terms were recalled before ever he arrived in Scotland so that some of our Counsellors intended well and though all things were promised not long before to be acted before their Faces above-board yet they were mistaken for all the chief of their Consults were privately acted amongst your Popish Crew the French Ambassador and your Priests at the Duchess of Portsmouth's Lodgings and to give them a Reputation the honest Part of the Council sitting as Cyphers all was done as by an Order of the King and Council Well what then The Duke of Monmouth engaged with these poor Creatures but your Rogues and Trickers and Officers amongst these poor Souls soon left them before the Battle was begun so that the Pains of Reducing them was not very great nor hazardous and divers of these poor Protestants were murdered upon the place by one Oglethorpe an eminent Cut-throat yet alive notwithstanding they cried for Quarter which was promised them but how well that Promise was kept was seen many hundreds of them having been murdered in cool Blood under a Colour of Law as if they had been Traytors So that the Duke comes home a Victor in the sence of some and a vanquished Person in the minds and affections of others who would not out of Love to him have had him engaged with such an ill Company of Cut-throats in such a thing in Scotland they knowing it hazardous in many Respects however for his own Security he procured his Pardon for that Action But that Pardon though it was an Act of great foresight in the Duke yet the Judgment of Heaven pursued him for as he contributed to the Murder of so many poor Protestants by the Help of Popish Cut-throats so he himself was murdered and his Friends by you and your Popish Cut-throats It will not be amiss Sir to put you in mind of your Cut-throat Lauderdale of whom you made such use and who complied against his Understanding Judgment and Conscience if he had any with you and your Brother in all those Villainous Acts and Barbarous Inhumanities in Scotland I will now shew the Opinion that our English Parliament had of that Monster of Mankind 1. Remember Sir the Address of the House of Commons to the King your Brother on April 23. 1675. for then they found that some persons in great Employment under that King had fomented Designs against the Interest of the Subject intending to deprive Great Britain of its ancient Rights and Liberties that thereby they might the more easily introduce the Popish Religion and Arbitrary Government to the ruine and destruction of the Subjects thereof amongst whom they had just cause to accuse for a promoter of such Designs the Duke of Lauderdale because it had been testified in their House by several Members of Parliament That in a Hearing before the Council in the Case of Mr. Pennystone Whalley who had committed Mr. John James contrary to the King's Declaration of the 15th of March 1671 the said Duke of Lauderdale did publickly affirm in the presence of the King your Brother and before several then attending the Board that the King's Edicts were to be obey'd for that they were equal with the Laws and ought to be observ'd in the first place thereby justifying the said Declaration and the Proceedings thereupon and declaring his Inclination to Arbitrary Councels in terror of all good Protestants This Sir was not all but they had a farther confirmation of this Opinion by two Acts of Parliament of a very strange and dangerous nature which they had found in the printed Statutes of Scotland the first whereof was in the third Session of the first Parliament held under the King your Brother Cap. 25. and the other in a second Parliament Cap. 2. the like had never passed since the union of the two Crowns and were contrary to an Act passed
in the fourth year of the Reign of James the First your Grandfather which intended the better abolition of all memory of Hostility and the dependencies thereof between England and Scotland and the better repressing the Occasions of Discord and Disorders for time to come and of a like Act passed about the same time in Scotland by the force of which said late Acts there was a Militia setled in that Kingdom of Twenty thousand Foot and Two thousand Horse who were obliged to be in a readiness to march into any part of the Kingdom of England for any service wherein your Brother's Honour and Greatness might be concerned and they were to obey such Orders and Directions as they should from time to time receive from the Privy Council of that Kingdom By colour of which general words the then Parliament did conceive that the Kingdom of England was liable to be invaded upon any pretence whatsoever And this was done by the procurement of that Lauderdale he having been all the time of those Transactions Principal Secretary of that Kingdom and chiefly intrusted with the administration of the Affairs of State there and he being Commissioner for holding the Parliament at the time of passing the latter of the said Acts whereby the providing the said Horse and Foot was effectually imposed upon that Kingdom and that extraordinary Power vested in the Privy Council there so that the Commons of England conceived they had just reason to apprehend the ill Consequences of so great and an unusal Power especially since at that time the Affairs of the Kingdom of Scotland were managed by the said Duke who publish'd himself to be a Person of such pernicious Principles thereupon they pray'd the King your Brother to dismiss him from all his Employments and forbid him his Presence and Counsels for ever as a person obnoxious and dangerous to the Government This Sir is the Character and these are the Qualifications of a person that your Conspirators judg'd meet for a man to serve your Cause and Interest and how near he brought the People of Scotland to the French Government and Interest I must leave an impartial Reader to judge he wanted nothing but a King to make an Example of him and all such profligate Monsters of Mankind But I will give you a second Instance of the good Opinion that the Commons of England assembled in Parliament had of this Varlet and that is as follows 2. Upon the 10th of May 1678 the Commons of England assembled in that Parliament represented to the King your Brother the deplorable condition the state of the Kingdom thro' evil Counsellors which Sir you know were your Conspirators and were designing to overthrow the Protestant Interest in both Kingdoms and were the Cause why the King your Brother follow'd not the Advice of his Parliament for the redressing of Grievances amongst whom they reckon'd John Duke of Lauderdale and pray'd that the King would remove him from his Council and Presence for ever 3. I hasten to a third Instance of the Opinion that the Commons of England had of the said Duke of Lauderdale and that was in a Parliament held in May 10th 1679. They tell the King in their Address That they found the Kingdoms involv'd in imminent dangers and great difficulties by the evil designs and pernicious Counsels of some who had been and were then actually in high Places of Trust and Authority about the Person of the then King who contrary to the Duty of their Places by their arbitrary and destructive Counsels tending to the subversion of the Rights Liberties and Properties of the People of Great Britain and the alteration of the Protestant Religion did endeavour to alienate the Hearts of the People from the then King and his Government amongst whom they had just reason to accuse the Duke of Lauderdale for a chief promoter of such Counsels and more particularly for contriving and endeavouring to raise Jealousies and Misunderstandings between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland whereby Hostilities might have ensued and might have risen between the two Nations They took notice of the many repeated Addresses of the immediate preceding Parliament and were much concerned that notwithstanding those Addresses they found that Duke Lauderdale with all his Qualifications continued in the Councils of the then King for that the Affairs of the Kingdom required that none should be put into such Employments but such as were not only of known Abilities Interest and Esteem in the Nation but also were without all suspicion of mistaking or betraying the true Interest of the Nation Upon these Considerations a new Parliament pray'd the then King to remove him the said Duke Lauderdale from his Employments and Person and Councels for ever You well know that in the Month of February 1678 you were banish'd into Flanders before the meeting of the new Parliament for the good King your Brother parted with his old Pensioners who lowed very loud for want of Fodder and to save Charges that stale Parliament was dissolv'd and a new one call'd whom your Conspirators by the insight they had in the Elections knew it would be such a Parliament as was not for their turns therefore a deep Consult was held how to make the Nation to believe that they were in earnest they resolv'd to discover the Plot and discourage Popery tho' in truth it was the two things you and your Conspirators aimed at to be still supported However to blind the Eyes of Mankind it was resolved that all imaginable symptoms should be publickly professed both for the discovery of the Popish Plot and leaving you and your Conspirators for you were to absent your self from your Brother and go beyond Sea for some time upon these Considerations the one was That you being out of the way might stop the further examination of the Popish Plot then newly discover'd to the King who was in every bit of it but that of his own Life and it had a near relation to your self And by this means your Conspirators thought to preserve the Chief Conspirator alive and safe The other was for a gloss to make Mankind to think that the King your Brother and the Court were such mortal Enemies to Popery that he would not endure you his Popish Brother near him for fear of being influenc'd by Popish Councels But Sir you may remember that your self and Conspirators at St. James's were of a different Opinion some of your Partisans with all their might and skill opposed your leaving the Kingdom for that it would weaken your Party extreamly and make persons more bold to come in and give Evidence against you when you were absent than if you were present and that if you were absent tho' by the Royal Command of your Brother the King yet the People would be ready enough to say you flâ—d for fear and that it was in effect to own your self guilty Such Arguments as these were used by your Conspirators but the Whore Portsmouth
was a great mistake for your Crimes were so plain and notorious that an honest man would have thought the Laws of the Land and publick Justice would have reach'd you both without such irregular Methods as these were but I discover'd the Letter and the Trappan escap'd for a while and then God cut him off with Infamy and Disgrace 9. I must entreat your patience to remember another Instance and that is the particular Case of Mr. Thomas Dangerfield who was maintained by you and your Conspirators with Twelve pounds per week to invent a Plot against the Protestants the better to colour or hide your own What Papers you and the rest of your Conspirators contrived to be put upon the Duke of Buckingham The Gentleman of his Horse was Mansfield and he was prepared to be a second Witness against the said Duke as Dangerfield was suborned to be the first so that you might have the Blood of that great man as being one in a Conspiracy to destroy the King your Brother But Dangerfield had not been so mindful of his Lesson as he ought and fixeth himself upon one Mansel who had been a Retainer to the Earl of Essex who at that time was carried away with the dissimulation of the Popishly-affected Party but instead of leaving them in Mansfield's Chamber left them in Mansel's Chamber In these Papers there was a List of Noblemen and Gentlemen that were to be sworn against as being in a Conspiracy against the Life of the King your Brother and your self and Church of England And to make the World believe that these Papers were not forged this Dangerfield repairs to Secretary Coventry your old League-breaker and informs the Secretary who was privy to the whole Concern of a dangerous Plot against the Government and that there were dangerous Papers in the Chamber of Coll. Mansel that would make the same out but the fellow tho' he had been a Rogue all his days as God would have it scrupl'd the Oath tho' if he had said in Mansfield's Chamber he should have had a Warrant without an Oath but mentioning the Name of Mansel the Secretary was startled because that Mansel was a Favourite of the Earl of Essex against whom this Conspiracy was not at first to appear therefore Coventry would do nothing without an Oath in relation to Mansel because of the Earl of Essex who was then actually a Privy Councillor therefore Dangerfield was resolv'd to have the papers brought to light and therefore gets an Officer or Officers of the Customhouse to search Mansel's Chamber for prohibited Goods and then these papers were seiz'd And Mansel hearing of what was done when he came to his Lodging and that papers of dangerous consequence was found in his Chamber behind his Beds-head where he had never laid any he immediately repairs to the Council and complains of his usage before Dangerfield had told his Story Well then what becomes of this Affair so foolishly miscarrying in its first birth I must observe to you that Dangerfield is called in question and tho' he had many Friends in the Council and many that knew the Design well enough yet the Blunder that Dangerfield made was so great and his Story hung so ill together that the Conspirators that were at the Board began to be confounded and were much dejected that their Tool had succeeded no better for besides all his self-contradictions shrewd proofs were brought against him Yet notwithstanding the aforesaid blunder and his being so confronted with Major Richardson and others Dangerfield was as bold as his Folly was great and stood in it that the Papers taken in Mansel's Lodgings were not put there by him till at last the proof of the Customhouse Officer that searched and Dangerfield's own words the Cheat and the Roguery was most manifest so that the Council tho' many of them your Conspirators and his intimate Friends were of necessity obliged to commit him to Newgate who being there was still upheld by that Whore Cellier and the rest of your Conspirators who had redeem'd him out of Newgate for this very end and purpose and had forbad him to discover but some Letters being discover'd and he being out of all hopes made his application to the then Lord Mayor to take his discovery which was done and upon that Discovery it plainly appear'd who set him on work to frame such a piece of Villany You were so nettl'd at the Discovery that instead of the Lord Mayor's having Thanks return'd him for his Service to the King and the Nation that he met with a Check at Court for meddling in that which concerned him not But by this Trick the Earl of Essex's Eyes were open'd and he fairly left you and the Council abhorring such Villanies as never was to be parallel'd in future nor heard of in past Ages Your Sham-Plot thus miscarrying and the Book found in the Meal-Tub shewing who they were that was to be sworn out of their Lives falsly appearing you know Sir that you were with your Accomplices at a stand for Sir you know that this Villany if it had been placed with Mansfield the Duke of Buckingham's Servant who was to have been a second Witness with Dangerfield and both these to have been corroborated by Blood Butler and Seely you would have cut off by a Form of Justice all such persons as had stood in opposition to your wicked Designs and Practices so that a new Parliament should have been open'd with the noise of a Presbyterian Plot therefore you know the Parliament was prorogued for a longer time and your self forced to part with a small Spell to get this thing done and the French King pressed for a bigger Seame which was happily prevented by the Duke of Buckingham 10. I must beg your Pardon if I put you in mind of another piece of Roguery your restless Conspirators undertook For a new Parliament being to meet at Oxford in the year 1680 1 they were resolved to welcom that Parliament with a Protestant Plot in good earnest to the end with more ease you might bring your cursed Designs to pass In order to this it was agreed by your Crew that Papers containing Treasonable Matters should be got to be written and lodg'd in the Houses of private men and shuffled into Gentlemen's Pockets at Oxford and before the meeting of the Parliament they should be seiz'd with such Papers about them and one Fitz-Harris who was to be their Tool was well acquainted with one Everard that was a Villain much of the said Fitz-Harris's stature or standard for it was a hard matter to know which was the greatest of the two This Everard had been countenanc'd by the Earl of Shaftsbury and therefore the said Everard was judg'd the most fit to joyn with him in the Roguery And Everard had agreed with this Fitz-Harris to be seized with these Papers about him when they had dispersed as many of them as would do the business but those that employ'd
you to be a man for Arbitrary Power to invade the Properties of a great part of the Subjects of England by your Proclamation what Value you had for the Rights of the Nation for whom you had ventur'd your Life in a Coiled Cable and what Regard you had to its Laws that at your first step in your pretended Government you bring in a Proclamation equivalent to those Laws that expir'd as aforesaid by which the Excise and Customs in the time of the Reign of your kind and loving Brother had been setled and paid 2. You said That you would follow the Example of your Brother in his Clemency and Tenderness to the People of England What your Brother's Clemency and Tenderness to the people of England was I am yet to learn What was his Clemency to his old Cavaliers that had serv'd both his Father and him in the Wars to the ruine of themselves and Families spending their Substance in both their Services and not so much as looked upon when you were restor'd After that Sir John Webster a Merchant had lent him 150000 l. Sterling did not he after much Importunity reward the said Sir John with the refusal of a Land-waiter's Place and graciously suffer'd the poor man to starve as a Reward of his Loyalty Was not his Clemency such that within the compass of a very few years all his whole Interest was melted down into a small Regiment of Pimps Whores and Bawds on whom he lavishly confer'd great Honours and on them he profusely spent the Treasure of the Nation Remember Sir how his Clemency was extended to those Ministers that brought him home and to that Party of Men that restor'd him to his Crown and Dignity Mr. Jenkins is a notable Instance of his Clemency who ventur'd his Life for his Restoration in that Cause that Mr. Love lost his What a Tenderness he had for Mr. Jenkins was seen in his murdering him in Prison notwithstanding all the humble application made to your tender Brother for his release in order to preserve his Life His Clemency to Sir Henry Vane was admirable for rather than Vane should not be sent to Heaven he broke through an Act of Parliament lest the Martyr should find delay in his passage thither What can you say of his Clemency to Great Essex and Noble Russel whom he basely and barbarously murder'd I think that Sir Thomas Armstrong is another Instance of his Clemency And so you were as good as your word in following the Example of his Clemency and Tenderness to the People of England For upon your entering into the Regal State you let England have a taste of your Clemency I must begin with my own Case I sufficiently tasted of your Grace and Favour after that with the hazard of my Life I had discover'd a Damnable Conspiracy carried on by the Popish Party for the destruction of the King your Brother and the Protestant Religion and the Government of the Nation how you used me let all the World judge notwithstanding the Credit the Parliament had given me as you may rememember in the Vote of March 15. 1679. Resolved Nemine Contradicente by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled That they do declare that they are fully satisfied by the Proofs they have heard that there now is and for divers years last past hath been an Horrid and Treasonable Plot and Conspiracy continued and carried on by those of the Popish Religion for the murdering of His Majesty's Sacred Person and for subverting the Protestant Religion and the Ancient Establish'd Government of this Kingdom Notwithstanding all your Clemency and Tenderness to the English Nation produce such a Vote for the Justifying your Reputation in the Nation and for ought I know you may perswade your self that the Nation may be enclin'd to receive you into favour again and admit your tender Government of them once more But to return to the Point Notwithstanding the Power of Truth and the Credit of this Vote with what implacable Malice did you and your Banditti pursue me How often did you attempt to take away my Life by the Testimony of False Witnesses With what Importunity did you prevail upon the King your Brother to withdraw that Protection and Subsistance that the said King allow'd me at the request of several Parliaments so that I might starve for want of Bread Nay to express your Clemency and Tenderness how warmly did you prosecute me in an Action of Scandalum Magnatum for speaking this Notorious Truth of you That you were reconciled to the Church of Rome and that it was High Treason to be so reconcil'd And what a noble Verdict a pack'd Jury of your Conspirators upon the prosecution brought in against me of One hundred thousand Pound Damages And thereupon you generously Charged me in Execution in the Kings-Bench Prison And was you afraid that I was Able to have paid the Debt and Charges and as Willing as Able Well to prevent it you resolv'd that I should not want your Clemency and Tenderness you therefore to justifie those Vertues to be inherent in you you prevail'd with King Charles the Second to give you and your Conspirators Leave to prefer two several Indictments of two pretended Perjuries in my Evidence concerning the Popish Plot but your Villains would not let the King your Brother live to see those Indictments try'd therefore they were brought to tryal in your tender Reign What sort of Witnesses did you produce against me but those very men that had been in no less than three Tryals prov'd and judg'd to be False Witnesses the Religion they professed no ways admitting them to be Credible and therefore as they were not believ'd when they gave their Testimony without an Oath so they were not to be believ'd when they were upon their Oaths for you know tender Sir they were of a Religion that could dispense with Oaths tho' false for the sake of your Catholick Cause These Sir were your Witnesses and you had two Juries of Men that had as large a Faith to believe as the Rogues had Consciences to swear and so I must averr Juries and Witnesses to be alike for he is as criminal and is as much damn'd that believes a Lye as he is that makes one and swears it too for the Rogues your mercenary wicked Judges and the Villains that were Witnesses and your pack'd Hell-born Jury-men were all in as it were a Confederacy to be reveng'd on me for the discovery of the Popish Plot and to cast a Reproach upon the Wisdom and Honour of four successive Parliaments and upon the publick Justice of the Nation Well Sir I was convicted notwithstanding the Witnesses I brought in who were brow-beaten abused by that Villain Jefferies who had neither Law nor Sence nor Manners but had the Impudence of Ten Carted Whores therefore nothing now remained for me but Judgment which was your own appointing with the Advice of your twelve Villains that were
that necessity I never took you so much behind hand in Sense and Reason but that you might plainly see that this is but a bantre of these Rogues for they neither stated the necessity and the urgent occasions you had to forswear your self and never inquired whether any necessity or any urgent occasions could excuse you from lying under the guilt of Perjury Then they came off with an impudent lye and say the King is sole Judge of that necessity He is sole Judge of nothing but what he is intitled to by the Law where the Law makes him a sole Judge there I do and own my self bound to obey him as such But once more Sir Where was this necessity of which you were to be sole Judge When did it spring Out of what part of the World I believe if you could have convinced the Nation of this necessity and these urgent occasions they would not so readily concurred to your going to St. Germains were your Popish Friends oppressed And did the necessity arise from thence If it did Why did you not tell the Parliament of this Oppression Were they in want of Places at Court and Imployments under you which they could not hold Truly a great many Protestants went without them notwithstanding their being qualified Oh! but the Priests of the Church of Rome were in danger of the Law I never could yet see that day If they would be quiet and the Religion of the Church of Rome was your Religion Well if it was Had you not better to have refused the Crown rather than to have taken it with such Incumbrances and Clogs as should expose you to such necessities and urgent occasions of Perjuring your self and Damning your Soul and Ruining of three Kingdoms It was well you were the sole Judge of the necessity for if an honest English Parliament had sat in the time of your necessity and urgent occasions they would have made these Rogues have swung for their villainous Advice 5. That this is not in Trust given to the King but the Antient Remains of the Crown which never was nor can be taken from him you nor no King in England ever had any thing but what you received in Trust from the People of England in Parliament assembled therefore this was the greatest of Impudence that these Twelve ignorant Devils could be guilty of for what Authority Power or Riches have the Kings of England but what they received from the People and it is plain the Power and Authority that you received was for the benefit of the People and not for the ruin and destruction of the Laws you consented to you were intrusted with the Conservation of them not to Suspend or Dispense with them at your will and pleasure But what King of England was there since the pretended Conqest that was not Sworn to keep the Laws and defend the Rights and Liberties of the Church and People of England and who Administred this Oath to them but one or more in the behalf of themselves and all the People of England Your Brother though bad enough took the Government as a trust reposed in him by his good People of England what part was it then that was not a Trust they trusted him with vast sums of money they trusted you but with a very little I pray Sir would your Scoundril Conspirators but tell me what parts were the Remains of the Crown and how they came so to be if they cannot it is all Cheat and Nonsence By your management notwithstanding all that might have been said to the contrary even in your Reign without the danger of being hanged you obtained from your Judges this wicked Opinion I suppose you were not Idle but was resolved to proceed according to this Judgment of theirs for you presently invaded the Liberties both of Church and State I have given you some instances of your Invasion upon the Rights of the People of England in relation to Matters of the Church Now let us proceed to see how you carried your self in reference to the Civil Rights and Liberties of the People of England which brings me to a second Instance of your invading our Civil Rights 2. As your Brother did begin and made a very great Progress in so you went on to invade Priviledges and to seize the Charters of the Towns that had a right to be represented in Parliament and by your Tools procured Surrenders of them to be made to you especially where they were poor and not able to defend them And a Gentleman that valued himself upon his Oath that he had made to a Corporation whereof he was a Magistrate and therefore refused to deliver the same you rewarded him with a two or three years imprisonment and had not God interposed it had been to the ruin of himself his Wife and Children By these Surrenders Sir you caused all the Magistrates to give up their Rights and Priviledges to be disposed of at your pleasure and the pleasure of your Villains the Conspirators and by this means you placed in several of these Towns Popish Magistrates notwithstanding their incapacity or such as were Popishly affected and willing to concur with you in all your evil Designs and Purposes assuring your self that when necessity or your urgent Occasions should force you to call a Parliament you might have such a Parliament returned as should at once set up Popery and Arbitrary Power Nay Sir our danger in your time and in the time of your loving and kind Brother did most and doth still arise from those Beggarly and Paltry Borroughs that either are by Charter or Prescription enabled to send Members to Parliament 3. That you might not fail in the Counties of obtaining your wicked ends you gave Orders to Examin all Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and all other that were in any Publick Employments if they would Concur with you in the Repealing the Test and Penal Laws and those whose Consciences would not permit them to comply with your wicked Designs and Purposes were turned out and others who you found would be more compliant to you in your intentions in defeating the End and Execution of those Laws which had been made with so much Care and Caution to preserve not only the Protestant Religion but also our Civil Rights and Liberties and into many of those places you put in Papists and other persons of Arbitrary Principles notwithstanding the Law had incapacitated the former and the other for want of Reputation and Interest could do their Country but little Service unless like Devils they could do mischief by serving your Designs and the Purposes of your Conspirators so that this Nation was in a deplorable Condition and must have perished had not God raised up the Prince of Orange now our King to come over and deliver us out of your Hands 4. As your Brother in his time hated the Peoples Petitioning him for the redress of their Grievances and had a
this Nation which I prove to you and your Villainous Crew both at home and abroad For did you not try the Members of the pack'd Parliament that sat down in the Year 1685 to gain them to consent to the repeal of the Test and Penal Laws And did you not dissolve that Parliament when you found that you could neither by Promises nor by Threatnings prevail with these very Members to comply with your wicked Designs and those who would not comply were branded as if they were Disturbers of the publick Peace For you may remember that though the Prince and Princess of Orange did endeavour to signifie in terms full of Respects and Duty to your self the just and deep regret all your wicked and ungodly Proceedings had given them and in compliance to your desires they had signified their Thoughts concerning your Repealing the Penal Laws and Test which though they did it in such a manner that they had just Ground of hope that they had proposed an Expedient by which the Peace of England Scotland and Ireland and a happy Agreement among the Subjects of all Perswasions might have been certainly settled You and your Hellborn Crew put such Villainous Constructions upon their honest and sincere Intentions as that you were not ashamed to condemn them both as persons that designed to disturb the Quiet and Happiness of the Kingdom But Sir the people of England always Testified a most singular Affection and Esteem for the Prince and Princess of Orange as persons zealously Affected with and concerned for the Advancement of the Protestant Religion and Interest and therefore many of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and many Gentlemen and other persons of Note laid our miserable Case before them and beged their Aid and Assistance The Prince of Orange upon due consideration of our deplorable State to which we were brought by you and your wicked Accomplices found that in point of that Duty he owed to God and in return of the great Value the people of England had for him that he could no way excuse himself from espousing our Cause or Quarrel in a Matter of such high Consequence and from Contributing to the utmost of his Power for the maintaining both of our Religion and our Laws and our Liberties and to secure us in the perpetual Enjoyment of all our Rights Therefore he came over with a Force sufficient which through the Blessing of the Great God was sufficient to suppress you and your villainous Conspirators You know Sir that as you and your Conspirators were not only full of Cruelty and Guilty of the greatest Inhumanities and Barbarities So you and they were full of lies and deceit for upon the coming over of this Great Prince you were sensible of the Greatness of your Guilt and had no great Confidence in your own Forces which induced you to offer to the City of London some seeming Relief from their great Oppression you hoping thereby to beguile us of a firm Establishment and full Security of our Laws Liberties and Religion and finding that the Kingdoms Eyes were fully opened then you and your Hellborn Crew gave out with as much Mallice as Falseness that the Prince of Orange intended to Conquer and Enslave the Nation No Sir the Design of that mighty Deliverer was the security of our enjoying our Religion Laws and Liberties and that there might be no danger of the Kingdoms relapsing into the like Miseries for the time to come Well Sir you remember that the Prince arrives and you fled before him He no sooner comes but he was bid welcome by all True Protestants You run away A Convention was called and he to our great Joy was chosen our King A Parliament sits down and his Majesty joyned with them in making such Laws as have secured us and our All he Fights our Battles he Loves our Nation and we Love our King and we shall not refuse any thing that may be for his Honour Greatness and Content You are deposed as useless in the sight of God and driven from amongst Protestants to graze at St. Germains where you may take your ease till the French King shall be as weary of your Company as we were of your Wicked and Tyrannical Government You have made many attempts to be restored sometimes you Threaten us at other times you would Flatter us to a second Entertainment but that is but a foolish thought of your Counsellers at St. Germains which brings me to the last point of my Memorial which is to shew you 3. The Unreasonableness of your attempting of your Return hither on which particulars I hope you have leisure enough to reflect and to advise about with your worthy Ministry you have attending your Person there but least they should not have Honour and Honesty enough to deal plainly with you I will lay down Six undeniable Arguments why it is morally impossible that you should be ever readmitted to reign over us 1. Because we cannot bind you by the most Solemn Oaths 2. Because we are Protestants 3. Because we are English-men And 4. Because we are Free-men 5. Because we have a King of our own Religion and Judgment to whom we have sworn Allegiance who goeth out and in before us and fights our Battles for us 6. Because of your Attempt upon the Person of our King in employing your Traiterous Assassins to murder him 1. Because we cannot bind you by the most Solemn Oaths we saw our Laws over-turned our Liberties seized our Religion corrupted and subverted and you Forsworn The Laws of Nature taught us to provide for the defence of our All which was at Stake And can any Man think it hard that the Kingdom laid you aside And we laying you aside for the Breach of your Contract and Oath made to the People of England Can you expect that we should in the least be guilty of so base a Compliance as to submit our selves to the Government of a Man that by his Abominable Perjury dissolved his own Government You have time now to consider that Perjury in a King is a most Grievous Offence against God and his Own Crown and Dignity but much more Grievous when it is volantarily committed And when a Prince committeth Perjury willingly when he doth any thing willingly against his Coronation-Oath taken not by Force but by Free-will not unadvisedly but with great Consideration not to his Hurt but to his Advantage not to perform a Thing Dishonest or Impossible but that which is both Possible and Honest For when a Prince not being forced thereunto by just Fear or irrisistible Necessity breaketh such an Oath as there can be no colour to excuse his Perjury it arguing him and convincing him of Fraud and Deceit and gave occasion to all thinking Men that you had no manner of regard to your Coronation-Oath so it puts you under an absolute Incapacity of being Restored since the both Houses of Parliament upon the breach you made of your Contract have thought
Member of the Romish Synagogue You in the time of your short Tyranny made a sad Havock with the Protestant Religion and can we expect better usuage from you seeing you having Seven Devils more within you rageing against the Protestant Interest than you had before you left us What I say to you in this particular I speak not without Witness for it is most certain that you have and do to this very day entertain a very great aversness to any Man that bears the name of a Protestant Therefore since by your late behaviour to those whose Principles have led them to espouse your Interest and have followed you into France if they have any Sense of their English Liberties and of the Protestant Religion will abhor the thoughts of your return hither For if you appear so violent against our Religion now you are under so great an estate of Sufferings What will your declared Hatred be against Protestants here in England if we should admit you to reign over us For if you can presume to that degree of Malice as to deny your Protestant Tools your Grace and Favour at St. Germains What can we that are Protestants expect from you whenever you shall return Do you think that any of us should be so stupid to expect fair Quarter from you since your very Religion lays you under the necessity of Converting us with a Fagot and bringing us to your Obedience with the dint of a Dagger Nay Sir your Passive Obedience Curs fare not much better though they saved you from your being prosecuted for your being deeply interested in the Popish Plot and from being excluded from the Succession to the Imperial Crown of this Realm and also from being beaten out of the Kingdom by the late Duke of MONMOVTH What reason than have we not to believe that you will not only in general invade the Protestant Religion but also once again attempt the depressing the Church of England In your short Reign you sent Seven Bishops to the Tower but if ever you should return I will not excuse the whole Twenty Six from being more hardly used Upon which consideration I will appeal then Sir to your Judgment or the Judgment of your Friends here or those with you at St. Germains whether or no it is impossible for you to gain so great a Point as to be received again as a King And whether it would not be the greatest Folly or Madness in you or any of your Party to attempt it For have you any that are with you that are Protestants upon a Principle of Conscience How have you used and treated them and if they have no better usage from you since they follow you in their Afflictions and are contented to share with you in your Hardships as not to enjoy the Liberty of serving God according to their Dictates of their own Conscience How must it fare with them if you should arrive to that State and Condition in which you should stand in no need of them And if so What can we expect from you that have hated your Person and do hunt down your Cause and Interest out of the Nation Therefore the Duty that we owe to Almighty God and the Affection and Zeal we have for the Protestant Religion will oblige us to pursue you as a Murderer and an Assassin of the People of England and a Traytor to the Nation and those who shall be found fighting under your Banner will be used as Banditti and Robbers and Protestants that shall not have the benefit of Repentance 3. Consider we are English Men and that very Consideration might satisfie any Man that will but consult his Reason of the impossibility of your being restored to your pretended Right and of the folly of your many attempt in order thereunto Had your Interest been an English interest than your Conspirators might have had some colour for their attempt of this Nature but your Interest is a French Interst and therefore your Interest that you have espoused is incompatible or inconsistent with your being restored Here are two Points that must be considered 1. That your Interest is a French Interest 2. That a French Interest is not consistent with your Endeavours after a Restoration and both these Points fairly proved will justifie the refusal of the Kingdom of Englands admitting you to act and execute the Office of a King here again amongst us 1. Your Interest is not an English but a French Interest for as you followed your loving and kind Brother in most of his Vertues so you persued the same Interest that he pursued For was not the Interest of your Brother and the Interest of the French King and yours inseperably united Knowing saith your Quondam Secretary the Interest of our King and in a more particular manner of my immediate Master the Duke and his Most Christian Majesty to be so inseperably united that it was impossible to divide them without destroying them all Again his Majesty the French King was pleased to give Order to signifie to his R. H. my Master that his Majesty was fully satisfied of his R. H's good Intentions towards him and that he esteemed both their Interests but as one and the same and that my Lord Arlington and the Parliament were both looked upon as very unuseful to their Interests And again Father Ferier begged his R. H. to propose to his Most Christian Majesty what he thought necessary for his own Concern and the advantage of Religion and his Majesty would certainly do all that he could to advance both or either of them I communicated it to his R. H. to which his R. H. commanded me to answer as I did the 29th of the same Month. That his R. H. was very sensible of his Most Christian Majesty's Friendship and that he would labour to cultivate it with all the good Offices he was capable of doing his Most Christian Majesty That he was fully convinced that their Interests were both one That my Lord Arlington and the Parliament were not only unuseful but dangerous both to England and France and therefore it was necessary they should do all they could to dissolve it I did communicate this Design of mine to Monsieur Ravigney who agreed with me that it would be the greatest Advantage to his Master to have the Duke's Power and Credit so far Advanced Again If we can advance the Duke's Interest one step forward we shall put him out of the reach of Chance for ever Then would Catholicks be at rest and his Most Christian Majesty's Interest secured with us in England beyond all apprehensions whatsoever Our prevailing in these things would give the greatest blow to the Protestant Religion here that ever it received from his Birth If the Duke should once get above them after all the Tricks they have plaied with him they are not sure he will totally forget the usage he hath had at their Hands For my part saith he I can scarce believe my self awake
common Consent But you were pleased to raise Money upon the People by your Proclamation The very Day after you had promised to invade no Mans Property Now no Man is for Life Limb Goods or Liberty at the Sovereigns Direction but how soon it would have been had not a period been put to your Tyranny For your Sycophant Parasites were very zealous to have delivered up those Priviledges in to your Hands judging it would not be well with England till you were as Absolute as the Monster of France by which we might easily understand your Intentions For Sir who knows not that the inclination of a Prince is best known either by those that are about him and most Favour with him or by the current of his own Actions Those who were nearest to you and most your Favourites were your Irish and French Courtiers and your Popish Priests and Prelates who these Men stood affected to Your Discretionary Dispotick Power can never be forgotten No Man but may remember that in their common Discourse were for advancing your Will and Pleasure over your Subjects to be equal with that of the King of France is over his This was but a Copy which those Villains had industriously taken from your own Words and Actions In Scotland you did publickly set up for that Power and openly declared you would be obeyed without reserve The attempt you and your Conspirators made in the time of the Lord Chancellor Hyde upon our Liberties is never to be forgetten a Bill was prepared to enable the King your Brother in the time of any interval of Parliament to raise what Money he pleased upon an extraordinary occasion as the Dutch War was pretended to be This had taken its much desired effect had not that Lord Chancellor been awakened by an intimate Friend of his who understanding what was doing in the House of Commons came to him and shewed him what the Consequences were which such an unheard thing would produce and he using one Argument above all the rest in telling him he came to his Honour and Greatness by the Gown and not by the Sword and if that Bill passed he advised him to consider what his Gown or all the Lawyers Gowns in England were worth which that Lord Chancellor though one of the Actors with you to enslave the Nation being a Man of Sense had that Honor as to think it no Dishonor to retreat from that Devilish Invention which he to comply with your Ambition and Pride had set on foot to destroy us at once So that Bill though once read in the House for enabling the King your Brother to raise Money at pleasure was by the Providence of God and the Prudence of that Noble Penitent Lord droped so far as that it dwindled into a Bill of 75000 l. not exceeding a Months Tax No doubt but you had procured this Bill to be dressed in the French Mode for emergent Occasions yet had it passed in the same manner as you and your Accomplices designed there would not have wanted emergent Occasions and extraordinary Services to have given Colour for keeping that Power on foot until Dooms Day in the Afternoon The French King whose Example you followed in this particular got his Power by such a villainous Stratagem but he hath not been at leisure yet to call his Parliament to dispute that Point I question not but that your loving Brother and you would have found other Matters of moment to have diverted you from that way of raising Money so England must have taken leave of Parliaments for ever and we must have submitted all we had to your French Discretion But through the Blessing of Heaven and the Care of our Legislators we are delivered not only from your Government and your intended French way of Governing for we continue to have the same Right modestly understood in our Propriety that our Prince hath in his Royalty and in all Cases where the King himself is concerned we have our just Remedy as against any private Person in the Nation in the Courts of Westminster-hall or in the High Court of Parliament for his Prerogative is not like that you would have usurped but what the Law hath only determined His great Seal which is the legitimate Stamp of his Royal Will and Pleasure yet it is no longer currant than upon the Tryal it is found to be according to Law and Justice The King cannot commit any Man by his own particular Warrant he cannot be himself a Witness in any Cause whatever tho your Brother would have been one against me The Ballance of publick Justice being so delicate that not the Head only but even the Breath of the King would turn the Scale nothing is left to the Win of the King but every thing is subject to his legal Authority by which means it follows that as he can do no Wrong nor can he receive Wrong But you by your Dispensing Power put your self in a state of Wronging the Nation and destroying your self and Government but had you kept to the Measures of an English King you might have remained to this Day to have been the only intelligent Ruler over a rational People your Person had been Sacred and Inviolable and whatever Excess had been committed in your Reigh would not have been imputed to you as being free from the Necessity and Temptations Your Ministers would have been only accountable for all and must have Answered it at their Perils You had a vast Revenue and if any emergency of Affair should have appeared you had at your Call a number of Men to have advised with a supply would have been readily granted You were the Fountain of Honour the disposer of many profitable Places both in Church and State but this would not serve your turn for you would not be abridged the Power of injuring the People of England but against all Law invaded our Rights and designed nothing so much as enslaving us and our Posterity for ever And we that have tasted so much of the sweetness of Liberty and on the other hand have smarted under your short but cruel Tyranny will never be intangled again with the French Popish Yoke of Bondage but stand in defence of the King we have chosen and the Liberty we have recovered as long as we have a Being in this World Therefore consider with your self the impossibility of your return to that Government you abused to the Administration of those Laws you violated to a Nation that you made a Field of Blood and if you had remained for ought I know England might have been a Howling Wilderness In fine then I am sure if you should make any attempt to return it will be in vain and appear very rediculous 5. We have Sworn Allegiance to King William who is of the same Religion and Interest with us who delivered us out of your Hands and the Hands of your villainous Conspirators and hath fixed us upon those Foundations against which France Rome nor