by being troublesom to the Government find they can Arrive to an Indulgence will as their Numbers increase be yet more troublesome so at length they may arrive to a general Toleration which Your Majesty hath declared against and in time some prevalent Sect will at last Contend for an Establishment which for ought can be foreseen may end in Popery It is a thing altogether without Precedent and will take away all means of Convicting Recusants and be inconsistent with the Method and Proceedings of the Laws of England Lastly it is humbly Conceived That the Indulgence proposed will be so far from tending to the Peace of the Kingdom that it is rather likely to occasion great disturbance And on the Contrary That the Asserting of the Laws and the Religion Established according to the Act of Uniformity is the most probable Means to produce a Settled Peace and Obedience through the Kingdom because the Variety of Professions in Religion when Openly indulged doth directly distinguish men into Parties and withal gives them Opportunities to count their Numbers which considering the Animosities that out of a religious Pride will be kept on foot by the several Factions doth tend directly and inevitably to open disturbance Nor can Your Majesty have any Security that the Doctrine or Worship of the Several Factions which are all governed by a Several Rule shall be consistent with the Peace of the Kingdom And if any person shall presume to disturb the Peace of the Kingdome We do in all humility declare That we will for ever and upon all occasions be ready with our Vtmost Endeavours and Assistance to Adhere to and Serve Your Majesty according to our bounden Duty and Allegiance The Reason and Loyalty of this Address prevailed with his Majesty at that time to lay aside all his Thoughts of an Indulgence and well had it been for him and us if he had never reassumed them for from his forsaking this Advice in the Year 1671. Sprung all those Miseries that now so much threaten him and us But tho his Majesty Changed the Parliament kept their grounds for in an Address dated the 14th of Feb. 1672. they assert against His Majesties Declaration of Indulgence dated the 15th of March before That Penal Statutes in Matters Ecclesiastical cannot be suspended but by Act of Parliament We therefore say they the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons do most humbly beseech Your Majesty That the said Lawes may have their Free Course until it shall be otherwise provided by Act of Parliament and that Your Majesty would Graciously be pleased to give such Directions herein that no Apprehensions or Jea ousies may remain in the Hearts of Your Majesties good and faithful Subjects The King not being Satisfied with this but still insisting that he had a Right by his Supremacy to Suspend the Execution of Penal Laws in Ecclesiastical Affairs They replyed the 26th of Feb. following That no such Power was ever Claimed or Exercised by any of his Majesties Predecessors and if it should be admitted might tend to the Interrupting of the Free Course of the Laws and altering the Legislative Power which hath always been acknowledged to reside in his Majesty and the Two Houses of Parliament Therefore they did with an Vnanimous Consent become again Humble Suitors unto his Sacred Majesty That he would be pleased to give them a full and Satisfactory Answer to their first Petition and Address and that his Majesty would take such effectual Order That the Proceedings in this Matter might not be for the future drawn into Example To which said last Address his Majesty was pleased to Condescend so far as to Order his Declaration of Indulgence to be taken off the File and Cancell'd Now the use I make of all is to shew first That the Opinion of an Excellent Wise House of Commons was That an Indulgence Toleration or Vnion as they now call it was of a Mischievous Nature and would finally end in Confusion and Popery Secondly That if it should be thought necessary to grant one it being a Legislative Act it must be by the Joynt Consent of the King and the Two Houses and not by any one of them And therefore I will Leave it to the Consideration of the Gentlemen of that House to Judge Whether they did well in passing the Vote of the 10th of January aforesaid for the Suspension of all Penal Laws which relate to the Protestant Dissenters Some pretending to Excuse them have said it was a Vote only in order to a Bill to be brought in for the taking those Laws away But I answer There were several other Bills for that purpose depending and therefore this was in vain Secondly There is no mention of a Bill to be brought in in the Conclusion of the Vote Thirdly They knew they were to be Prorogued as appears by their first Vote and therefore Such a Design would have been impossible Now if they had carried those few Points in this Session First not onely to Deny the King any Supply but to make it Criminal for any man to Lend him any Money upon his Revenues they might then in another Session have gone further and have made it Punishable for any man to have paid him his Just Settled Legal Dues and that would have made them able to have Forced this King or his Successors to what ever they had pleased Secondly If they might have gone on to imprison his Majesty's Subjects in an Illegal and Arbitrary way for Matters that had no relation to Priviledges of Parliament they might afterwards have Extended this to as many Persons and Things as they had pleased and so No man would have dared to have stood by His Majesty against a House of Commons tho they had attempted to Depose his Majesty Nor would his Majesty in a short time have been able to have Protected his Subjects against any injury that they or any of them had been pleased to have done them which would infallibly have Subverted the Monarchy and have introduced a Common-Wealth Thirdly If they had got that great Branch of the Legislative Power into their hands of suspending the Execution of Laws by their Vote they might have driven it as far as they pleased and so have once more Outed the King and the House of Lords as a former Parliament did by the Same Means I will conclude this with the Judgment of a Great and a Learned Man Clarendon's Answer to Hobbs p. 127 128. No Orders made by A House of Commons in England are of any Validity or Force or receive any Submission longer then that House of Commons Continues and if Any Order made by them be against any Law or Statute it is Void when it is Made and receives no Obedience His Majesty then had both Law and Reason on his Side when he ended his Speech to the Next Parliament at Oxford with these Words I WILL Conclude with this one Advice to you That the Rules
shall not follow your zeal but lead it The Lord Chancellor spoke thus My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons THat Royal care which his Majesty hath taken for the general quiet and satisfaction of all his Subjects is now more evident by these new and fresh instances of it which I have in command to open to you His Majesty hath considered with himself that it is not enough that your Religion and Liberty is secure during his own Reign but he thinks he owes it to his people to do all that in him lies that these blessings may be transmitted to your posterity and so well secured to them that no succession in after Ages may be able to work the lest alteration And therefore his Majesty who hath often said in this place that he is ready to consent to any Laws of this kind so that the same extend not to alter the descent of the Crown in the Right Line nor to defeat the Succession hath now commanded this to be further explained And to the end it may never be in the power of any Papist if the Crown descend upon him to make any change either in Church or State I am commanded to tell you that his Majesty is willing that provision may be made first to distinguish a Papist from a Protestant Successor then to limit and circumscribe the Authority of a Popish Successor in these cases following that he may be disabled to do any harm first in reference to the Church his Majestie is content that care may be taken that all Ecclesiastical and spiritual Benefices and promotions in the Gift of the Crown may be conferred in such a manner that we may be sure the Incumbents shall always be of the most Pious and learned Protestants And that no Popish Successor while he continues so may have any power to controul such preferments In reference to the State and civil part of the Government as it is already provided that no Papist can sit in either House of Parliament so the King is pleased that it be provided too that there may never want a Parliament when the King shall happen to dy But that the Parliament then in being may continue indissolvable for a compleat time or if there be no Parliament then in being then that the last Parliament which was in being before that time may reassemble and sit a competent time without any new Summons or Elections And as no Papist can by Law hold any place of trust so the King is content that it may be further provided that no Lords or other of the Privy Council no Judges of the common Law nor in Chancery shall at any time during the Reign of any Popish Successor be put in or displaced but by the Authority of Parliament And that care also be taken that none but sincere Protestants may be Justices of the Peace In reference to the Military part the King is willing that no Lord Lieutenant or Deputy Lieutenant nor no Officer in the Navy during the Reign of any Popish Successor be put out or removed but either by Authority of Parliament or of such persons as the Parliament shall intrust with such Authority 'T is hard to invent another restraint to be put upon a Popish Successor considering how much the Revenue of the Successor will depend upon consent of Parliament and how impossible it is to raise mony without such consent But yet if any thing else can occur to the Wisdom of the Parliament which may further secure Religion and liberty against a Popish Successor without defeating the Right of Succession it self his Majesty will most readily consent to it Thus watchful is the King for all your safety and if he could think of any thing else that you do either want or wish to make you happy he would make it his business to effect it for you God Almighty long continue this blessed Union between the King and his Parliament and people The House of Commons returning resolved to Adjourn the consideration of his Majesties Speech till the next Monday Morning And now let any man but seriously consider the Condescention of these proposals and that they were franlly and freely offered before the House of Commons had obliged themselves in point of Honour to stand to any Vote of Exclusion for that was not then made and he must then be amazed to see to what extremities matters have proceeded during that and the two last Parliaments But who can brook the impudence of those men who have notwithstanding this by Tales and Pamphlets endeavoured to represent his sacred Majesty to his people as a favourer of Papists and Popery Some men may possibly say that all this will not infallibly secure us against Popery and I say nothing can make any thing in this lower world steady and unalterable but it is more likely to do it than the exclusion Bill because it disarms a Popish Successor of the tempration and opportunity of enslaving us by force where as the other puts the Sword into his hand and compells him to try his fortune for the whole the event of which is much more uncertain than some pretend who trusting now to force and number will in likelyhood find themselves disappointed by men and punished by God for their distrust of his providence and reliance on the Arm of Flesh if not ruined by their over great confidence in the number of their party which often have deceived men in such occasions But this it not the place of these considerations but that they broke loose here against my will On Thursday the Commons gave leave to bring in a Bill 1. of May. that when any Member of their House is preferred to any Office or place of profit a new Writ should immediately issue out for Electing of a Member to serve in his stead This was to keep the party together and to prevent the Ministers from bying off any of them by preferment Seasonable Address to both Houses p. 10. and it is to be wished it had passed for that would have lessened their Numbers and have taken off all those that hoped to rise by opposition to the Court as they call it but indeed to the King and the Morarchy In the interim it may be a caution to the Country that they take not all these Gentlemen to be what they pretend to be for that apparently some of them were driving a Market for Preferments how much soever they had clamoured their predecessors on that account This day also Dr. John Nalson who had been a long time Imprisoned and put to vast charge for Writing the Letter of Advice from a Jesuite in Paris to his correspondent in London was discharged without assigning any reason or Law for this way of proceeding against him which was never yet used against any of the Writers of the most virulent Libells against the Government and Religion by Law established and they Voted also that an
Address should be made to his Majesty by such Members of their House as were of his Majesties Privy Counsel to desire his Majesty to Command the Lord Chancellor to put him out of the Commission of the Peace Because it seems his Imprisonment was not punishment enough for so great an offence as this Exact Coll. of the most considerable debates c. p. 337. And the Writing several other books to revive the memory of 1641. as one of the Members expressed it in the following Parliament when it seems they meant to have another fling at him for though his Majesty can pardon and forgive there are that cannot But I believe they have got no great matter by this Nor was the Doctor turn'd out of the Commission for all their Address his Majesty knowing this would not suit his Interest On Saturday the Lords sent down a Bill entituled May 3. An Act for freeing the City of London and parts adjacent from Popish Inhabitants and providing against other dangers which may arise from Papists And in the Afternoon May 5. an Account that the Earl of Danby would insist upon his Pardon and that he desired his Council might be heard to the Validity of it On Monday His Majesty sent this message to the Commons by the Lord Russell His Majesty hath commanded me to let the House know that his Majesty is willing to comply with the request made to him by the House concerning Pickering and that the Law shall pass upon him accordingly and as to the Condemned Priests the House of Peers have sent for them in order as his Majesty conceives to some Examinations and further to acquaint you that he repeateth his instances to you to think of putting the Fleet in such a posture as may quiet mens fears and at least secure us from any sudden attempt which his Majesty doubts not but you will do And though the streights and difficulties he lyeth under are very great he doth not intend during this Sessions to press for any other Supply being willing rather to suffer the Burdens that are upon him some time longer than to interrupt you whilst you are imployed about the discovery of the Plot the Tryal of the Lords and the Bill for securing our Religion The same day the Commons went up to the Bar of the Lords house to demand Judgment against the Earl of Danby upon the Illegality of his pardon May the 6. On Tuesday John Wilson and Roger Bockwith Esquires two Justices of the Peace of the County of York were sent for in Custody for saying that this Parliament was no Parliament and they would justify it Of which more hereafter May 22. A Message was sent to the Lords by the Commons that the House was ready to make good the Impeachments against the five Popish Lords in the Tower and the Committee of Secrecy belonging to the Commons was appointed to manage the evidence against them at their Tryals Wednesday The 7. of May the Lords sent down a Message that they had appointed Saturday to hear the Earl of Danby's Plea for the Validity of his Pardon that they had Addressed to the King for the naming a Lord High Steward at his Tryal and that of the Popish Lords which was appointed by their Lordships to be that day seven-night On Thursday The 8. of May. the Commons agreed an Address to his Majesty against John Duke of Lauderdale upon general pretences of fears and jealousies desiring he might be removed from his Majesties Counsels in England and Scotland putting his Majesty in mind of the Address of the last Parliament to that purpose and resolved they would attend his Majesty in a body The Commons desired a Conference with the Lords to state before hand the manner of proceedings in the Tryal of the Earl of Danby and of the five Popish Lords and took exceptions to their motion for a Lord High Steward On Friday his Majesty sent for the Commons and passed the Bill for Disbanding the Army and such other Bills as were ready which was wisely done for by this surprize other debates were prevented which might have prov'd of dangerous consequence After this they appointed a Committee to inspect the Journalls and search Presidents touching the carrying up of Bills and what previous intimation ought to be given to them of his Majesties intention to pass Bills and from and by whom such notice hath usually been given and whether the House may debate after the message delivered by the Black Rod for attendance of the House upon his Majesty It would have been very unhappy if by reason of these Debates the Forces then on foot should have continued undisbanded By all which as much as is possible to conjecture it would have been very unhappy if by reason of these Debates the Forces then on foot should have continued undisbanded to the great damage of the King and Kingdom notwithstanding the common clamour against them if his Majesty had not thus prevented it The same day the Commons passed this Vote that no Commoner whatsoever should presume to maintain the Validity of the pardon pleaded by the E. of Danby without the leave of their house first had and that the persons so doing should be accounted betrayers of the Liberties of the Commons of England and Ordered this Vote to be posted up at Westminster-hall Gate Serjeants-Innes and Innes of Court His Lordships Friends called this a depriving him of all counsel to defend himself but what was appointed by his Enemies and Accusers in a matter of Law insisting upon the Rules of proceedings in all other Courts and the ordinary methods of Common and Natural equity and right it seeming hard to ruine a man if not some diffidence of the case to deny him those Priviledges the meanest and worst of Rogues have which is to choose such Councel as the Court before whom they are to be tryed will allow the Kings Councel excepted And when the humour was stirr'd they voted that the Answer delivered by the Lords that day at the Last Conference about the manner of trying the Peers whereby their Lordships had not consented to a Committee of the Houses because they did not think it Conformable to the Rules and Orders of their Court of which they said they had reason to be tender in matters relating to their Judicature tended to the Interruption of the good correspondency between the two Houses May 10. The first thing the Commons did on Saturday morning was the Reading of an Address to the King for the raising of the Militia of London Westminster the Tower Hamlets and Counties of Middlesex and Surrey for the security of his Majesties Person at the Tryal of the Popish Lords by reason of the Great Resort of the Jesuits Popish Priests and other Popish Recusants at that time in contempt of his Majesties Laws and Royal Proclamation to which they desired the Concurrence of the Lords to which they unanimously agreed The E. of
Danby sending a Petition to the Lords that his Counsel durst not appear to defend his case by reason of the Vote of the Commons the Lords at a Conference desired to know if there were any such Vote to which the Commons would not answer Sir Robert Howard acquainting them there had been paid from our Lady-day 1676 to the 20th of March 1679 the Sum of 252467 lb. 1 s. 9 d. for Secret Services They ordered that Mr. Charles Bertie should be taken into Custody of the Sergeant at Armes attending their House And in the Next place they ordered that all the Members that were of the Long Robe of their house should prepare themselves with Reasons against the pardon pleaded by the E. of Danby Which was very necessary now that no body durst defend it So the Lords Ordered the E. to be returned to the Tower in safety On Sunday the Lords agreed to the demand of the Commons for the appointing a Committee of both Houses to state the Preliminaries of the tryals to be had to meet the next day May 11. And then the Commons proceeded to Vote that a Bill be brought in to disable the Duke of York to inherit the Imperial Crown of this Realm and appointed a Committee to draw the same Which was in pursuance of their former Vote on Sunday the 27th of April Though the Lords who had been twise desired to concur in that vote had given no answer to it Out of an apprehension perhaps that his Majesties Life might be indangered upon this Vote they resolved Nemine Contradicente That in defence of the Kings person and the Protestant Religion this house doth declare that they will stand by his Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes and that if his Majesty should come by any violent death which God forbid that they will revenge it to the utmost upon the Papists As if it had been impossible his Majesty should be murthered by any other then a Papist or that it had been any consolation to his Majesty to have known that his death should have been revenged to the utmost on them who ever had been the cause or procurers of it This prov'd the occasion of breaking all the following Parliaments to this day and thereby to secure the Popish Lords in the Tower from Tryal and to prevent all the excellent Laws that were then under consideration against Popery from ever being brought to pass And finally it prov'd an obstacle of union between the King and the Houses to the great advantage of our Enemies at home and abroad to the great hazard of the Nation and more especially of the Protestant Religion which was pretended to be secured by it I shall say more of this Vote and the former hereafter when the effects of them will appear better then they did at first On Wednesday his Majesty sent another Message to the Commons to put them again in mind of the Fleet May 14. and let them know he would acquit himself of the evil consequences which the want of a Fleet in such a juncture might produce and that the entering upon it could be no hinderance to the other great affairs on their hands but rather a Security in the dispatch thereof Upon which a debate arising they adjourn'd the Consideration of this Message till Monday Sennight after which had the appearance of a denial On Thursday there arose a Controversy betwixt the two Houses about the Bishops May 15. for the Lords having Voted that the Lords Spiritual have a right to stay and sit in Court till the Court proceed to the Vote of Guilty or not guilty The Commons opposed it and said that the Lords Spiritual ought not to have any Vote in any proceedings upon impeachments against the Lords in the Tower involving the E. of Danby's case with the other Lords though it was vastly different And indeed from hence arose this contest the Commons imagining that the Bishops would be for the validity of his pardon and so make a major Vote in that House and therefore as they had deprived him of his Counsel before so now the business was to out the most favourable part as they thought of his Judges The same day the Bill to disinherit the D. of York was read the first time and Ordered a second reading On Saturday a Vote of the House of Lords was read in the House of Commons May 17. 16 May 1679. Resolved by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled that Thursday next be appointed to begin the Tryals of the five Lords in the Tower viz. the E. of Powis c. After which resolution the Lords Spiritual asked the leave of that house that they might withdraw themselves from the Tryals of the said Lords with the Liberty of entring their usual Protestations Upon which the Commons Resolved That it be given as an instruction to their Committee to insist upon the former Vote of this House That the Lords Spiritual ought not to have any vote in any Proceedings against the Lords in the Tower and when that matter shall be setled as they please for the Lords had setled it and the method of proceedings adjusted this House shall then be ready to proceed upon the Tryal of the E. of Danby against whom the House hath already demanded judgment and afterwards to the Tryal of the other five Lords in the Tower So here was the two Houses in their Votes point blank against one another I shall here take notice of some Arguments that passed betwixt the Lords and the Commons as they are expressed in the Lords Journal On Tuesday the 13th of May The Commons desired to know concerning the Bishops being present at the Tryals of the Lords impeached to which the Lords made this Answer That it belonged not to the Commons to be concerned in the Constituting parts of the Court upon such Tryals but that the judgment of this matter belongs entirely to the Lords and when they have adjudged it the Commons cannot alter it and therefore should not debate it Upon which the Commons acknowledged that Judgment after Tryal is in the Lords but their Lordships are not to give judgment unless the Commons demand it and that the Commons desire to know whether the Lords will proceed in these Tryals as their Lordships did anciently for if the Bishops should sit upon these Tryals they should not demand Judgment but being dissatisfied with their being there and it may be the Commons may proceed by Bill To which the Lords made Answer that after the Evidence is fully heard they are bound to give judgment of Condemnation or Acquittal but this being a matter of Judicature the Lords declared that they would impose silence upon themselves and debate it no further The Commons further desired to know whether the Bishops should be allowed to vote upon the Validity of the pardon of the E. of Danby which they account no Preliminary but the very essence of the Tryal On
and Gentry there cannot enjoy their Royalties their Shreivaldoms and their Stewardaries which they and their Ancestors have possessed for several Hundreds of years but that now they are enjoyned by the Lords of the Council to make deputations of their Authorities to such as are their known Enemies Can we expect to enjoy our Magna Charta long under the same Persons and Administration of affairs If the Council Table there can imprison any Noble-man or Gentleman for several years without bringing him to Tryal or giving the least reason for what they do can we expect the same men will preserve the Liberty of the Subject here I will acknowledge I am not well vers'd in the particular Laws of Scotland but this I do know that all the Northern Countreys have by their Laws an undoubted and inviolable Right to their Liberties and Properties yet Scotland hath outdone all the Eastern and Southern Countreys in having their Lives Liberties and Estates subjected to the Arbitrary will and pleasure of them that Govern They have lately plundered and harassed the Richest and Wealthiest Countries of that Kingdom and brought down the Barbarous Highlanders to devour them and all this without a most colourable pretence to do it Nor can there be found a reason of State for what they have done but that those wicked Ministers designed to procure a Rebellion at any rate which as they managed was only prevented by the miraculous hand of God or otherwise all the Papists in England would have been armed and the fairest opportunity given in the just time for the execution of that wicked and bloody design the Papists had and it is not possible for any man that duly considers it to think other but that those Ministers that acted that were as guilty of the Plot as any of the Lords that are in question for it My Lords I am forced to speak this the plainer because till the pressure be fully and clearly taken off from Scotland 't is not possible for me or any thinking man to believe that good is meant us here We must still be upon our guard apprehending that the Principle is not changed at Court and that these men that are still in place and Authority have that influence upon the Mind of our excellent Prince that he is not nor cannot be that to us that his own Nature and Goodness would incline him to I know your Lordships can order nothing in this but there are those that hear me can put a perfect cure to it until that be done the Scotch Weed is like Death in the Pot. Mers in Olla But there is something too now I consider that most immediately concerns us their Act of Twenty two Thousand men to be ready to invade us upon all occasions This I hear that the Lords of the Council there have treated as they do all other Laws and expounded it into a Standing Army of six thousand men I am sure we have reason and right to beseech the King that that Act may be better considered in the next Parliament there I shall say no more for Scotland at this time I am afraid your Lordships will think I have said too much having no concern there But if a French Noble-man should come to dwell in my House and Family I should think it concerned me to ask what he did in France for if he were there a Felon a Rogue a Plunderer I should desire him to live else-where and I hope your Lordships will do the same thing for the Nation if you find the same cause My Lords give me leave to speak two or three words concerning our other Sister Ireland thither I hear is sent Douglas's Regiment to secure us against the French Besides I am credibly informed that the Papists have their Arms restored and the Protestants are not many of them yet recovered from being the suspected Party the Sea-Towns as well as the Inland are full of Papists that Kingdom cannot long continue in the English hands if some better care be not taken of it This is in your power and there is nothing there but is under your Laws therefore I beg that this Kingdom at least may be taken in consideration together with the State of England for I am sure there can be no safety here if these doors be not shut up and made sure Whether any such Harangue was made in that August assembly or not I cannot say but I am sure that all the Seditious and Treasonable Pamphlets that have been since Printed are but flourishes upon this Text and an extract of those that went before them the very model of the last Rebellion and probably the design of an other But England and Ireland are not as yet ripe for so generous an undertaking But to shew you how matters past in Scotland I will Transcribe the very words of my Author and leave the credit of them with him By the very next post after this Speech was said to have been spoken The Spirit of Popery speaking in the Phanatical Protestants pag. 73. London 1680. fol. Forty written Coppies of it were sent from London to Edenbrough and the Fanaticks grew so insolent and so daring upon it that several Loyal Gentlemen wrote up accounts to what height of Insolences this Speech had blown up the Enemies of the Church and the Monarchy and that they had just reasons to fear that very dangerous attempts if not a down-right Rebellion would speedily ensue thereupon but those reports found not too much credit at London where the world was made to believe by men whose interest it was that they should not be credited that they were but the inventions of the Duke of Lauderdale for whose advantage in that conjucture it was that they should be believed My Author goes on that he is confident such is his charity he that made it The Effects would not have done so had he known the true State of Scotland which few English men do or foreseen the evil effects which it immediately had in encouraging the Covenanteers to Assassinate Massacre and Rebel For now they begin to look and speak big in Edenbrough and many of them were heard and seen upon the Crown of the Causway who had sneeked about in darkness before And as for the disaffected parts of the Country they now display'd the Banners of Jesus Christ as they Blasphemously call'd their colours at their Conventicles every where and their Preachers now told them that the time of their deliverance and of Gods taking Vengeance upon his Enemies was now at hand only they must repent and be strong and of a great courage and fight the Battles of the Lord. They also threatned in all places such as they thought were seriously active against them talking of great Changes and Revolutions in England and in Publick Places dropt Lists of the Names of those men whom they had a mind should fall by Heroical Hands And in the first place naming Dr. Sharp the Archbishop of
future Be it Enacted by the Kings Most Excellent Majesty by and with the Consent of the Lords Commons assembled in Parliament and by the Authority of the same That no person or persons whatsoever shall from and after the First of August One thousand six hundred sixty and one sollicite labour or procure the getting of Hands or other Consent of any persons above the number of Twenty or more to Petition Complaint Remonstrance any Declaration or other Address to the King or both or either Houses of Parliament for alteration of Matters Established by Law in Church or State Unless the Matter thereof have been first Consented unto and Grdered by Three or more Justices of the County or by the Major part of the Grand Jury of the County or Division of the County where the same matter shall arise at their Publick Assizes or General Quarter-Sessions or if arising in London by the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons in Common Councel assembled And that no person or persons whatsoever shall repair to his Majesty or both or either of the Houses of Parliament upon pretence of presenting or delivering any Petition Complaint Remonstrance or Declaration or other Addresses accompanied with Excessive Numbers of People * * Nor. not at any one time above the number of Ten persons upon pain of Incurring a penalty not exceeding the Sum of One hundred pounds in Money and Three Moneths Imprisonment without Bail or Mainprise for every offence to be prosecuted at the Court of Kings-Bench or at the Assizes or General Quarter-Sessions within Six Months after the Offence committed and proved by two or more Credible Witnesses Provided always That this Act or any thing therein contained shall not be Construed to Extend to debar or hinder any person or persons not exceeding the Number of Ten aforesaid to represent any publick or private Grievance or Complaint to any Member or Members of Parliament after his Election and during the Continuance of the Parliament or to the Kings Majesty for any Remedy thereupon to be had or to Extend to any Address whatsoever to his Majesty by all or any of the Members of both or either Houses of Parliament during the Sitting of the Parliament but that they may enjoy their Freedom of Access to his Majesty as heretofore hath been used Now had this Act of Parliament been pursued I believe there would have been no Controversie in this case and there was great reason it should * Because By reason of the Unquietness of the Times when every thing seemed to tend to the renewing of those Calamities the Act mentions in the Preface and was made to prevent But supposing it had been never so Regular what reason can be assigned why one part of the People should be freer to Petition for any thing than the other was against it if one party may for the instance Petition the King to change his Mind after he hath declared it in any cause why is not the other part as free to desire him not to change now that which may seem a publick Grievance to one County or Place may be a great Advantage to another and they are totally debarred of all means of Maintaining their present advantage if they may not Counter-Petition But in this case here the persons that Petitioned were private men and contrary to the express Letter of this Act solicited hands in an irregular way and such sort of hands as besides their Number were of No Consideration for the directions that they sent with the Petitions were That it mattered not whether they were Gentlemen or so much as Free-holders so they were Numerous Now let any man consider whether it be reasonable that a company of Rude Country Clowns and a parcel of Pragmatical Apron-men should contrary to his Majesty's Proclamation pretend themselves wise enough to Advise his Majesty when the Parliament should Sit. But if it be alledged That there were others besides these why were not these totally left out why was there such care that the Subscriptions should be so Numerous did these small Folk add any weight to the Advise No surely On the other Hand they that appeared against them were Parliament-men themselves Justices of the Peace Grand Juries at Assizes and Sessions Common-Councels and Magistrates in Corporations men full as likely to Understand what was fit to be done and as Unlikely to betray the true Liberties of the People on the one hand or to invade the just Prerogatives of the Crown on the other but then these were men true to the Religion and Government by Law established and the Petitioners were of the same sort for the most part with them that had brought on the former Calamities by this and other such specious and popular pretences to the ruine both of King and People Prerogative and Liberty and therefore the more justly suspected to be playing over the Old Game Thus much may suffice concerning the Votes And now let us see how they proceeded against the pretended Offenders And in the first place Sir Francis Withens a Member of their House being accused on this Account as an offender against the Rights of the Subject who was not then present It was Ordered That Notice should be given him to attend in his place the next Morning On Thursday October 28. Sir F. Withins appearing in his place It was ordered that the Clerk of the Peace for Westminster should attend the House the next Morning at Ten of the Clock with the Roll of the Orders for the Last Easter Sessions for the City of Westminster Then they fell upon an Information which had been given the House against Sir Robert Yeomans of Bristol and Sir Robert Cann a Member of the House That they did in October 1679 Publickly declare That there was no Popish Plot but a Presbyterian Plot. Which was attested against them by Mr. Row Sword-Bearer of Bristol and Sir John Knight a Member of the House Sir Robert Cann being to make his defence Uttered several Reproachful and Reflecting words against Sir John Knight for which he was called to the Bar and received a Reprehension on his Knees and then being ordered to withdraw they Voted he should be committed to the * Where he lay till the 8th of Novemb. then was discharged Tower and Expelled the House and that Sir Robert Yeomans should be sent for in Custody of the Serjeant attending their House This weighty affair took up the whole day and it had been well spent if the Popish Plot had been made one jot the plainer or the Presbyterian Plot ever so little taken off by it but the World was full as well satified of the truth of the former before notwithstanding what these Gentlemen had said to the Contrary and much confirmed in the truth of the latter by this Violent if not Arbitrary way of proceeding against them For if these Gentlemen had offended against any Law why were they not prosecuted in a Legal way where
then supply him by a Lone in the Intervals of Parliament have we a Property in what is our own and may we not use it as we see cause without breach of Priviledge of Parliament Your Vote of the 10th of January That the Prosecution of the Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws was at that time Grievous to the Subject a Weakning of the Protestant Interest an Incouragement to Popery and Dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom is as little understood as any of the rest Why was it made To what Subject is it Grievous To the Dissenters Why then let them leave their Dissenting to the Church of England and all will be well What Protestant Interest doth it weaken for there are more Protestant Interests then one in the Nation doth it weaken that Protestant Interest which is Settled by Law Then say so But how it doth encourage Popery or endanger the Peace of the Nation is yet Harder to be understood but Suppose it did what then You may repeal the Laws and Bills you had afoot that would have Repealed them if they would have passed but you were to be adjourned and had not time to finish them And did you think to have laid them asleep by your Single Vote without the Consent of the Lords or the King You should have done well then to have told the Nation that you have the whole Legislative Power in your hands and that it is Contrary to Law for any man to Act against a Vote of the House of Commons tho in Obedience to an Act of Parliament But that I may not seem to set up my own Single Judgment against a Whole House of Commons I will insert an Authority or two Equal to them in better Times tho they be Long. The first of which shall be an Address of the House of Commons the 28. of Febr. 1663. May it please your Most Excellent Majesty WE Your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons in Parliament Assembled having with all Fidelity and Obedience Considered of the Several Matters Comprised in Your Majesties late Gracious Declaration of the 26. of Decemb. Last and your most Gracious Speech at the beginning of this presenâ— Session Do in the first place for our Selves and in the Names of all the Commons of England render to your most Sacred Majesty the Tribute of our most hearty Thanks for all that infinite Grace and Goodness wherewith Your Majesty hath been pleased to publish your Royal Intentions of adhering to your Act of Indemnity and Oblivion by your Constant and Religious observance of it And our Hearts are further enlarged in these returns of Thanksgivings when we Consider Your Majesties most Princely and Heroick Professions of relying upon the Affections of your People and Abhorring all Sort of Military and Arbitrary Rule But above all we can never enough remember to the Honour of Your Majesties Piety and our own unspeakable Comfort those Solemn and most endearing Invitations of us Your Majesties Subjects to prepare Laws to be presented to Your Majesty against the Growth and encrease of Popery and withal to provide more Laws against Licentiousness and Impiety at the same time declaring Your Own Resolutions for Maintaining the Act of Vniformity And it becomes us always to acknowledg and Admire Your Majesties Wisdom in this your Declaration whereby Your Majesty is pleased to resolve not onely by Sumptuary Laws but by your Own Royal Example of Frugality to restrain that Excess in mens Expences which is grown so general and so exorbitant and to direct our endeavours to find out fit Laws for Advancement of Trade and Commerce After all this We humbly beseech Your Majesty to believe that it is with Extream Vnwillingness and Reluctancy of Heart that we are brought to differ from any thing which your Majesty hath thought fit to propose And though we do no way doubt but that the unreasonable distempers of Mens Spirits and the Many Mutinies and Conspiracies which were carried on during the late Interval of Parliaments did reasonably incline Your Majesty * * I suppose here is a word wanting to ill humours till the Parliament assembled and the hopes of an Indulgence if the Parliament should Consent to it Especially seeing the pretenders to this Indulgence did seem to make some title to it by virtue of Your Majesties Declaration from Breda Nevertheless your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects who are Now returned to Serve in Parliament from those Several Parts and Places of Your Kingdom for which we were Chosen do humbly offer to Your Majesties Great Wisdom That it is in No Sort Adviseable that there be any Indulgence to such persons who prefume to dissent from the Act of Uniformity and Religion Established for these Reasons We have Considered the Nature of Your Majesties Declaration from Breda and are Humbly of Opinion that Your Majesty ought not to be pressed with it any further Because it is not a Promise in it Self but onely a Gracious declaration of Your Majesties Intentions to do what in you lay and what a Parliament should Advise Your Majesty to do and No such Advice was ever given or thought fit to be offered nor could it be otherwise Vnderstood because there were Lawes of Vniformity then in being Note this Which Could not be dispeused with but by Act of Parliament They who do pretend a right to that Supposed Promise put their right into the Hands of their Representatives whom they chose to Serve for them in this Parliament who have passed and your Majesty Consented to the ACT of Vniformity If any shall presume to Say That a right to the benefit of this Declaration doth still remain after this Act passed it tends to dissolve the very Bonds of Government and to Suppose a disability in Your Majesty and your Houses of Parliament to make a Law contrary to any part of your Majesties Declaration though both Houses should Advise Your Majesty to it We have also Considered the Nature of the Indulgence proposed with reference to those Consequences which must Necessarily attend it It will Establish Schism by a Law and make the whole Government of the Church precarious and the Censures of it of No Moment or Consideration at all It will no way become the Gravity or Wisdom of a Parliament to pass a Law at One Session for Vniformity and at the Next Session the reason for Vniformity Continuing still the same to pass another Law to frustrate or Weaken the Execution of it It will Expose Your Majesty to the restless Importunity of every Sect or Opinion and of every single person also that shall presume to dissent from the Church of England It will be a cause of increasing Sects and Sectaries whose Numbers will weaken the true Protestant profession so far that it will at last become difficult for it to defend it self against them And which is yet further Considerable those Numbers which
cannot possibly better represent this than in the Words of Camden The State of England was most miserable at that time as being involved in a War with Scotland on the one side and France on the other oppressed with the Debts which Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth had Contracted the Exchequer was Exhausted Calis and the County of Oyen and in them a great Magazine were lost to the dishonour of the English Name and the People were divided in their Opinions concerning Religion The Queen had no Potent Friends nor was fortified with the * Cognatione Alliance or Kindred of any Foreign Princes The Trade of England must of necessity be very small when the Nation was thus Near ruine But when the Queen had once setled the business of Religion and afterwards had taken care to preserve it from Foreign Violence by Repairing her Navy Royal so that it was far Superiour to any other which gave her Reputation at home and Fame abroad and also from the Attempts of the Papists and Dissenters by severe Laws constantly put in Execution and had thereby Won the Affections of her People and stilled their Fears They being secur'd thus at home began to search all the corners of the World for Trade and sent forth their Fleets to the East and West Indies to Muscovy by the Bay of St. Nicholas by them Discover'd and Green-Land and indeed whether not whence they returned with Honour and Wealth and made her and themselves Happy One thing that gave a great Advantage to the Trade and consequently to the Wealth of England in her time was the Devastations which the severity of the Duke de Alva and the Wars of Flanders thereby occasion'd caused in those Countries by which means we gained some Addition to our People the knowledge of some Manufactures which we had not before and also a vast stock of Mony and Treasure which altogether had like to have totally ruin'd the Spanish Netherlands but however this concurring with the rest helped to advance England to that height of Wealth and Reputation in the World that it was in her days the Bulwark of Christendom and without any considerable forrein Assistance humbled and brought down the House of Austria which then aimed at an Universal Monarchy But then it cannot be denyed that together with these Low Countrymen Factions and Common-Weath Principles entred England And although the severity of that Queen and the great Affection and Veneration the People had for her added to her Constancy whose Motto was Semper eadem Always the same kept them both under so as they were never able to give her any considerable disturbance yet they grew and encreased and in the Reign of her Successor tugged stoutly in the House of Commons for the Victory with the Court Party as they then stiled all that stood to the Crown and kept King James at Bay and destitute of those Supplies that were necessary to preserve the Grandeur of the Crown and the Reputation of England and forced him to spend Seven Years of his Reign without calling any Parliaments and the last he called which was in his One and Twentieth Year involved him in War And the next basely Betray'd his Son who succeeded presently after to the Necessity of clapping up a Dishonourable Peace for want of Means to carry on a War When King James came to the Crown the Dissenters of England expected a mighty advantage by it because Scotland had been always Presbyterian from whence he came during his time and they hoped his Education might have strongly influenced him to favour them above the Religion Established and upon this intuition Jan. 14. 1603. they procured the Conference at Hampton Court but alass they had so basely and Traiterously used him in Scotland and he was a Prince of that great Learning and Prudence that when they desired a kind of Presbyterie to be Setled here He replyed If you aim at a Scotch Presbyterie Full. C.H. L. 10. p. 18. it agreeth with Monarchy as God and the Devil then Jack and Tom and Will and Dick shall meet and Censure me and my Council Therefore I reiterate my former Speech Le Roy S' avisera the King will be advised stay I pray for one Seven Years before you demand it and then if you find me grow pursie and fat I may perchance hearken unto you for that Government will keep me in breath and give me work enough And in the next Paragraph he tells them That he had learned by the Example of his Mother and their dealings with him in his Minority this Maxime NO BISHOP NO KING So they totally failed of their expected advantage and were kept under though with a gentle hand in all his time But when his Son Succeeded and in his Parliaments found how strong these Factions were who had in a great measure prevailed upon the Free-men and Free-holders of the Nation to send up thither great Numbers of good Common wealth men as they then stiled them that is Factious Ambitious Disloyal Persons that hated the Religion and Monarchy by Law Established and when he saw these made it their business to encrease the necessities of the Crown and then denyed just and necessary supplies but upon such terms as would have ruined him and when he also perceived that one great design of theirs was to render him and his Government odious by clamoring eternally against his Conduct and Ministers of State He then saw there was an absolute necessity of a more effectual and vigorous Execution of the Laws against them Hereupon these godly men grew impatient Roger Cokes Englands improvement part 3. p. 13. and one part of them in the years 1636 37 and 38 fled over into Holland and planted themselves at Leyden Alkmare and other places where they instructed the Dutch in our Woollen Manufactures of Norfolk and Suffolk and I have heard saith my Author who is a credible person Sir Charles Harbord a person of great Wisdom and Insight in Forreign as well as the Interest of this Nation say That if all the Bishopricks of England were sold and given to the Nation it would not near compensate the loss the Nation sustained thereby And page 32 of the same discourse he informs us That in the time of our late Wars the Dutch by the means of these Manufactures got from the English the East-land Trade the Company of which heretofore was above all others the most flourishing and by Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the First was termed the Royal Company for it supplied Muscovy Sweden Denmark Poland and Lifeland with our Woollen Manufactures and made very advantagious Returns by Treasure especially Hungaria Duckets and the Commodities of those Countries into England This Trade till King Charles his Reign the English solely injoyed About the beginning of King Charles his Reign the Dutch began to be Interlopers rather than Traders with the English in it but in the time of the Wars by
the aforesaid means the Dutch allmost totally excluded the English We may observe how much the Trade of the Nation in general suffered by all this and especially that of Norfolk Suffolk and Essex of which the said Author gives an instance pag. 33. and from thence we may conclude how far the Trade of the Nation hath been and consequently may again be impaired by Factions if they be encouraged still amongst us I ought not to pass over in silence that my last quoted Author Ascribes this to the severe injunctions of Ecclesiastical discipline which these Zealous people would not indure And I know that many have used this as an Argument against Persecution and for a Toleration Comprehension or as the new Name is an Union But I reply if there were no Factions there could be no Persecution as they stile it nor any such dammage of our Trade and Commerce Secondly that they were not thus persecuted till they had provoked that King to the uttermost by rendring all Parliaments dangerous to the Crown and brought things into that State that neither the Monarchy nor the Religion Established could be any longer preserved without that severity So we may see if they be treated gently they grow Numerous and endeavour to subvert the Government if they be dealt severely with they over into forreign Countries and destroy our Trade so that both waies our ruine is almost assured by them and therefore should be no more incouraged than Pyrates and the common enemies of Mankind But to go on Another part of these people had before Planted themselves in New England in the West Indies 1629. where they have since grown Numerous and Rich and have abundantly practised that severity upon others who have dissented from them which they clamoured against and called persecution when it was used with more reason against themselves The Dutch being much exalted by the peace they had made with Spain whereby they were owned and acknowledged for a free and independent State by their old Sovereign and having acquired a vast Treasure by their Trade over all the World and by redeeming the places which were put into Queen Elizabeths hands for security of repayment of the Expence she was at to protect their feeble infant State out of the Hands of King James having so cut off their former obligations of respect to the Crown of England and lastly being grown strong in Shipping and knowing very well upon what ill terms King James and King Charles the Martyr stood with their Parliaments fell to plot the intire destruction of the English Trade and Navigation and in Order to this fell to endeavour the ruine of the English Fishery upon our own proper Seas His Majesties propriety and dominion on the Brittish Seas p. 26. They had formerly never Fished till they had begged leave of the King or of his Governour of Scarborough Castle this was now thought beneath the Magnificence of the Hogan Mogans and therefore they refused it Ib. pag. 29. 30. 55. They had formerly been limited by our Kings both for the number of the Vessells they should Fish with and the time Now they were resolved to be their own Carvers and in order to that denyed the English the Soveraignty of the British Seas Ib. p. 6. And as if all this had not been enough grew nearer and nearer upon the English Shores year by year than they did in preceding times without leaving any bounds for the Country people and Natives to Fish upon their Princes Coasts and oppressed some of his Subjects with intent to continue their pretended possession and had driven some of their great Vessells through their Netts to deter others by fear of the like Violence from Fishing near them c. as Secretary Nanton Pag. 58. January 21. 1618. acquaints the Lord Ambassador Carlton And to justify all this they sent out Men of War with their Fishermen to maintain that by force which they might have had of Courtesie for the asking To prevent these disorders of the Dutch King James Published a Proclamation in the seventh year of his Reign to assert his Right and exclude all Persons from Fishing upon our Seas without particular License but they neither valued this nor his Remonstrances by his Ambassadors nor the like Proclamation made in the twelfth year of his Sons Reign but went on by all the Crafts and Violences imaginable to ruine our Fishery to subvert the Right and Soveraignty the Kings of England have ever had to the Narrow Seas And all this only upon a presumption that those Princes would never be able to call them to an account by a War for all these Injuries And in the year 1639 The Reign of King Ch. fol. London 1655. pag. 163. they fell upon a Fleet of Spaniards in our Ports and Harbours with Canon and Fire-ships so furiously as made them all cut their Cables and being 53 in Number 23 ran on shore and stranded in the Downs whereof Three were burnt Two sunk and Two perished on the Shoar the remainder of the Twenty three being deserted by the Spaniards who went to Land were Manned by the English to save them from the Dutch and the other Thirty Ships put to Sea of which only Ten escaped thus far for the Narrative in short And now be pleased to read the Opinion of the Historian upon this These Two Potent Enemies Ibid. p. 165. being both Friends to England the British Seas ought by rule of State to have been an Harbour of Retreat to secure the Weaker from the Stronger not the Scene of their Hostile Ingagement and had this presumptuous Attempt of the Hollander met with a King or in times of another temper it would not it's like have been so silently connived at and their Victory might have cost them the loss of Englands Correspondence c. besides the King the Dutch well knew was of a Genius as not querulous so if provoked very placable and the Disposition of his Affairs as well as of his Mind disswaded from expostulating the Matter with them To that height of injustice and insolence were the Dutch then grown by the Divisions of England and the ill understanding betwixt the King and his Subjects This unfortunate Prince had made many brave Attempts before for the Honour and Safety of the English Nation without any good success for want of such Effectual Supplies from his Parliaments as might enable him to go through with them and he had taken up a generous Resolution to encrease the Navy Royal to a greatness proportionable to the Dutch and other neighbour Nations who were now striving for the Mastery of the Seas by out-building each other He got nothing from the Commons in Parliament that was considerable but with great difficulty and accompanied with Remonstrances Impeachments of the Chief Ministers complaints of Grievances and lowd Clamours of pretended fears and jealousies of Popery Arminianism Innovations in matters of Religion and as fast as
this Prince gratified them in one thing they started another Game hoping at last to ruine this Excellent Prince by his own Concessions as at length they did for these sober Protestants were resolved never to leave asking till they had brought their King to be their Equal first and at last under them This procedure did in part discover the Design and necessitated him to stretch his Prerogative to find some small Relief for his urgent and pressing Necessities by Monopolies Knight-mony Loans upon Privy Seals and at last Ship-money great parts of which Moneys were employed upon the Building Ships for the encrease of the Royal Navy which he did to that height that it was so Invincible to any Humane Power that though Sir William Batten in 1648. carried a very Considerable part of it to his Now Majesty yet the remainder of it with a small Addition beat the Dutch for all their many years Preparations Yet first all those that signalized themselves by opposing the King in these Levies most were chosen into the following Parliaments as the best Patriots and Common-wealth-men and these again made it their business in Parliament by joyning with the Rebellious Scots to involve us in that accursed War which endangered not only the ruine of our Government and Trade but our very Being In the beginning of that War the Parliament-side went down and in likelihood the King and his Party had finally prevailed if the Scots had not broke out again upon the solicitation of the English Parliament without the least cause given them by the King And during this time and afterwards too * Page 12. Sect. 19. Of the Relations and Observations upon the Parliament begun in 1640. pag. 143. Sect. 5. And in the Remonstrance of many Thousands in and about the City of London dated Mar. 22. 1648. to the Army is this Passage Then shall those faithful Persons who hazarded all for the Parliament and many of them lent more than their whole Estates and now live in Prison nay starve for want of it not be put to devour Cathedrals and ransack the Monuments of the Dead but be honestly paid with thanks and requitals then shall not the Publick Faith be out pawned and so little care taken to Redeem it whilst Millions of Treasure have been conveyed beyond the Seas Pag. 3. I suppose this was not all private Treasures though the loss is the same to the Nation if it were so Walker in his History of Presbytery and Independency hath acquainted us That many of the Parliament Grandees who besides their own Wealth which was great had drawn in most of the Treasure and Plate of the Nation on specious pretences and the Publick Faith sent huge sums over to the Banks in Holland and the Western Plantations that in case the King should finally prevail they might have a place of Retreat where they might enjoy the Blood and Tears of the poor deluded People in safety and security But this was not all during this War the English Trade both at home and abroad was almost totally Ruin'd many Thousands of Tradesmen were either Undone or Killed and Destroyed or forced to seek quieter Habitations beyond the Seas above one half of the Nation the West and the North were almost totally ruined and depopulated by the War and the other half by excessive Taxes Excise Sequestrations c. by all which ways I have seen an Account Printed Relation of the Parliament begun 1640. p. 8. Sect. 14. That there was about Forty Millions of Money Collected and Spent within the space of a few years by that Parliament side only not one farthing of which turned to any account to the Nation But in the interim the wise Dutch drive on the Trade of almost the whole World and only furnished the King with Armes and Ammunition for the Jewels of the Crown and dealt with the Parliament for Timber The last cited Remonstrance to the Army p. 4. which they sold of the Crown-Lands Church-Lands and the Sequestred Estates of the Gentry and Nobility which Timber the Dutch wisely employed in Building Ships to ruine the prevailing side when the War was done and then they did not question but to be the Soveraigns of the Ocean and of all the Trade and Commerce that is exercised on it and to speak the truth they had then some reason to hope it might have happened so For if England had once been brought under no other State could have disputed the point with them and England was then preparing it self for ruine by giving the Hollanders more advantages than their Modesty could have wished for And the Dutch were so confident that the Success would answer their Expectations that they grew impatient to have Possession of their almost assured Mastery and before our Internal Broyls were over and the Nation setled any way in the Year 1652. set upon our Fleet in the Downs and if the Advantage of almost two to one and an unexpected Assault had not been over-ruled by the Providence of God and the unparallell'd Valour of the English they had certainly destroyed them as they did the Spanish Fleet in the same place about Ten Years before and although the English fortune and Courage prevailed then and in the whole Course of that War and brought down the Craft Treachery and Pride of the Hollanders yet was the whole Glory of these Victories in which the Rump boasted so much next Gods Mercy to these poor Nations owing solely to the Providence of that Prince they had but a little before so basely Murdered as an Enemy to God and his People and then stiled the Tyrant As Mr. Coke hath well observed in his Preface to the fourth Treatise Of the Improvement of England To which excellent Discourses I refer my Reader All that I shall infer from hence is that I hope the Nation will never run the same hazard of losing all their Foreign Trade again by siding with factious Men against the Monarchy The Rump having beaten the Dutch found a more dangerous Enemy at home and being generally now hated by the People were without any difficulty turned out by Oliver Cromwel their Hypocritical Servant 1654. who to secure himself in his ill gotten Possession of the Government made an unsetled and dishonourable Peace with the Dutch Which they imployed in Building much larger and more Men of War than they had before to prevent the Ruine of their States by another English War which could not be concealed from Oliver who likewise encreased the English Fleet with many more and considerable Men of War as the last Cited Author tells us As O. C. lost the English the Advantage of their Naval Victories by that Peace he made with the Dutch which left the English nothing but a little unprofitable Glory and the blows they had received from the Hollanders whilst it gave them opportunity to grow rich and prepare for another Attempt So our Tyrant fell soon after into another
by Civil Wars and Rebellions as in His Majesties Fathers time to make way for the French to Seize these Kingdoms and totally to Ruine their Infantry and Naval Force These are Mr. Oats his Words and whoever had seen the persons Must'red up about the choosing this Parliament would have thought that Forty One had been returned again and that the Jesuits under the shape of Nonconformist Ministers had been turning the Plot that way now God had defeated the close one But though all this Care was taken the Dissenters did not carry the Elections every where nor almost any where without great Resistance For on the other side the Gentry appeared themselves and brought in their Tenants and Dependences and many of the Yeomanry and Free-holders were Zealous for the Church and Government and in Corporations the Magistrates and Free-men had not forgot the old tricks of the Dissenters and were resolved not to be ruin'd twice by the same Arts so that the two Parties were almost equal there and in the Counties the Gentry were certainly the stronger side if Perjury had not been employed against them and in some places they prevailed against that too but not so as to make an equal Party in the House The Persons that stood on this side were Men of Undoubted Loyalty to the King hearty lovers of the Religion Established and great Enemies to Puritanism Faction and Rebellion and for these good qualities were stiled by the contrary Party-men of Arbitrary Principles and favourers of Popery some of these had been Members of the Last Parliament and been of that they call the Court Party who had been guilty of Setling the Monarchy and Suppressing the Rebellion and the Nurseries of it the Conventicles and others were taken in to fill up the vacancies of or very nearly of the same Principles The Elections being thus made the Parliament met the day appointed which was Thursday the sixth of March 1678. and my business is to wait upon them and see how matters went in the Lower House especially and as an Introduction I will take notice of His Majesty's Speech in the first place part of which was as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen I Meet you here with the most earnest desire that man can have to Unite the Minds of all my Subjects both to me and to one another and I resolve it shall be your faults if the Success be not suitable to my desires I have done many great things already in order to that end as the Exclusion of the Popish Lords from their Seats in Parliament the Execution of several men both upon the Score of the Plat and of the Murder of Sir Edmonberry Godfrey and it is apparent that I have not been idle in prosecuting the discovery of both as much further as hath been possible in so short a time I have disbanded as much of the Army as I could get Mony to do and I am ready to disband the rest so soon as you shall reimburse the Mony they have cost me and will inable me to pay off the remainder And above all I have Commanded my Brother to absent himself from me because I would not leave the Malicious Men room to say I had not removed all causes which could be pretended to influence me towards Popish Counsels Besides that end of Union which I am at and which I wish could be extended to Protestants abroad as well as at home I propose by this last great step I have made to discern whether Protestant Religion and the Peace of the Kingdom be as truly aimed at by others as they are really intended by me for if they be you will imploy your time upon the great concerns of the Nation and not be drawn to promote private animosities under pretences of the publique your Proceedings will be calm and peaceable in order to those good ends I have recommended to you and you will curb the motions of any unruly Spirits which would endeavour to disturb them I hope there will be none such amongst you because there can be no man that must not see how fatal differences amongst our selves are like to be at this time both at home or abroad I shall not cease my endeavours dayly to find out what more I can both of the Plot and Murder of Sir Edmondberry Godfrey and shall desire the Assistance of both my Houses in that work I have not been wanting in giving orders for putting all the present Laws in Execution against Papists and I am ready to joyn in the making such further Laws as may be necessary for securing of the Kingdom against Popery And after a short discourse of supply's he goes on I will conclude as I begun with my earnest desires to have this a Healing Parliament and I do give you this Assurance that I will with my life defend both the Protestant Religion and the Laws of this Kingdom and I do expect from you to be defended from the Calumny as well as Danger of those worst of men who endeavour to render me and my Government odious to my people By which last passage I believe his Majesty reflected upon the Dissenters and Common wealth Party who as they were more believed so they had been more busie in traducing him and that with a more Mischievous Malice and effect than the worst Jesuits during this short time betwixt the Dissolution of the last and the Election of this present Parliament and therefore his Majesty had reason to tell the Parliament he expected to be defended by them from the Calumny of the Dissenters as well as from the danger of the Papists both which are the worst of men as who did endeavour to render him and his Government Odious to his people The Lord Chancellor's Speech was for the most part but an enlargement upon his Majestie 's as it uses to be and therefore I shall take notice of some passages only in it He advised them not to overdo their business and by being too far transported with the fears of Popery neglect the opportunities they then had of making sober and lasting provisions against it He told them it was a Custom of the Jesuits first to Murder the fame of Princes and then their persons first slandering them to their people as if they favoured Papists and then to assassinate them for being too Zealous Protestants He represented what a joy it would be to them to see us whom they could not destroy by the conspiracy Ruining our selves after the discovery by incurable jealousies and disturbing the Government And that further care might be taken of Regulating the Press from whence there daily stole forth Popish Catechisms Psalters and Books of Controversie and Seditious and Schismatical Libells too We shall now see how these Counsells were pursued by the Parliament The first thing the House of Commons did was to choose Edward Seymour Esquire their former Speaker their Speaker again But the next day the King disliking the choice and Commanding them to
it should be committed the House divided and there were for the Yeas 207. Noes 128. And so it was resolved in the affirmative And the Bill was committed to a Committee of the whole House which was to sit the Friday following On Thursday the 22th of May John Wilson and Roger Beckwith Esquires the two Yorkshire Justices of the peace who were sent for into custody for saying this was no Parliament exhibited in the House a Petition under the Hands of Eight Justices of the peace of the North Riding of the County of York certifying that they were all present at the Sessions at Thirske the first of May 1679 when John Wilson Esq being desired to give his opinion whether the Act for Settlement of the poor of the 14 of Car. 2 which was to continue to the end of the first Session of the next Parliament was still in force to which he answered it was doubtful in regard they had not yet made any Act and is not a Parliament in Law because no Record remains of it to which it seems the other assented and all the said Justices certify that neither of them did then speak any words derogatory to the Parliament Now this doubt did arise by reason of the prorogation in the beginning of this Parliament before the Speaker was chosen which seemed to make a Session Hereupon the Commons Ordered that they should be discharged paying their fees But who should make these Gentlemen any Recompence for the trouble charge and injury they had sustained by this imprisonment was a matter they were not then at leisure to consider But in the interval of a Parliament it may be worth their while to look into the authorities that enabled them to imprison their fellow Subjects upon a bare and it may be false and malicious Suggestion who are no members of their house But if they shall not be pleas'd to consider of it themselves the rest of the Gentry will and take other Measures perhaps for the future in regard that no man is secure of his Liberty in time of Parliament at this boundless rate of Priviledge On Friday 23 of May 1679 the House being informed that Sir Stephen Fox had paid several Sums of Money to some of the Members of the last Parliament and that he had books of Accounts to evidence the same first they ordered That he should be immediately sent for to attend the House and to bring with him all the Books and Papers of Accounts of any moneys he has paid to any Members of the last Parliament And presently again Ordered That Sir S.F. do forthwith produce to this House his Leiger Book Cash Book and Journal and his Receipts for money by him paid for secret Services and that he be injoyned not to go out of the Company of the Members they sent with him before they return to the House Ordered again That no Members depart the Service of the House until Sir S.F. and the other Members return Ordered again That Sir F. Winnington do to morrow morning make a report of the informations given to the Committee of Secresy touching Money paid for Secret Services to the members of the last Parliament Ordered again That Sir S. Fox do upon his Memory name to the House such Members of the last Parliament as he paid any money to for Secret Service There is no Entry of the Persons by them named but many Lists of them in writing were presently spread about the Nation some of which had more Names and others fewer according to the affection of the Transcribers and so the Honour of many an honest Gentleman was under-hand blasted with the people especially there being no way left to rectify this falsehood but by repairing to Sir Stephen Fox for a Certificate and that would not have been believed neither by their Enemies whilst their friends did not need it As I recommended one consideration before to our Parliament men relating to our Liberties so they may be pleased to take another along with them for our honours for it seems if a man be imprisoned or accused by the Order of the Commons in Parliament though never so wrongfully he shall hardly obtain any relief and therefore great care ought to be taken not to precipitate matters of this Consequence Now Sir Stephen Fox might possibly have given a better account next morning in Writing then thus hastily upon his memory and there the Gentlemen accused might have been heard what they could say for themselves before they had been defamed to the whole Nation and after that an exact account might have been given in Print without leaving it to the Liberty of every man to add and diminish as he pleased Such inconveniences as these will ever follow hasty Counsels which therefore ought to be avoided if they be not the injury will at one time or another be repay'd with Interest To conclude this matter as there was never any Law to prohibit Parliament-men from taking the liberality of our Princes in time of Parliament so there was the greater reason for it in this Parliament which lasted too long to the Ruine of many Gentlemen of small estate who were Members of it the custom of taking Wages being then wholly laid aside and as this tended to make them odious to the People so it reflected upon his Majesty and therefore ought to have been pursued with great Tenderness and care also ought to have been taken for the time to come by allowing better Wages and making it duely paid without which this thing will never be prevented All which is said not to accuse Sir Stephen Fox or the Gentlemen that were accused by him but to show what injuries may and will happen as often as that great Body acts with too much warmth and how difficult it is to redress what might easily enough have been prevented which I desire may end in the honour of Parliaments by making them Act with all possible reservedness and caution for the future On Saturday May the 24th the Commons ordered an Answer to be return'd to the last Message of the house of Peers touching the Appointment of Tuesday the 27th of May for the Tryal of the five Lords in the Tower with reasons why they could not proceed to the Tryal of those five Lords before judgment given upon the E. of D's plea of his Pardon and the point of the Bishops not Voting in any proceedings upon impeachments for Capital offences were setled and the methods of Proceedings adjusted and that a Committee should be appointed to draw up these reasons A Petition being exhibited the same day to the Commons by Sir Thomas Hare John Trinham Esq and others on the behalf of themselves and the major part of the Freeholders of the County of Norfolk Complaining of several rude and illegal practises in Electing and Returning Sir John Hobart to serve in that Parliament as Knight of the Shire for the said County of Norfolk and the Petitioners having in their
speaking out of the Mouths of Phanatical Protestants or the last Speeches of John Kid and John King c. pag. 11. The matter of fact being thus stated the Reader need not wonder they were severely treated when they suffered the pains of Treason and Rebellion but besides those they had committed a vast number of Massacres and Assassinations before they murthered the Primate and this aggravated their sufferings Now all the cunning of this Declaration lies in this that they tell us what they suffered and perhaps truly but not a tittle of the case Which is just as if all the Rogues in the Nation should joyn and pen a complaint ennumerating how many of them since his Majesties Return have been Hanged Quartered Whipped Branded Transported Pillored Imprisoned which never meant any hurt to his Majesty or the Government but only to get a Living the best and easiest way they could Now to one that is as little vers'd in our ways of Punishment as we are in the Scotch it would seem a rueful Story whilest an English man would smile as knowing why they suffered all these hardships I need not apply it but shall add this they have deserved ten times more then they have felt as being the bloudiest Cut-throats in the world So that in Scotland no man dare to offend them openly for fear of assassination but such as either must by the necessity of their places or else have good means of defending their Lives against them Next I observe this Declaration is nothing but a large flourish upon the Speech and drawn just at that loose general rate which that is calling those Taxes and Punishments Arbitrary which they acknowledg were according to several Acts of Parliament and then pretending the persons that do constitute their Parliaments or States are overawed But then I must commend their ingenuity in this that they do not with the Commons of England lay the blame of all this upon the Duke of Lauderdale or their Ministers but upon the total change of their Government and State both Sacred and Civil and upon the Parliament of Scotland and the King whom they supplicate with menaces to restore him into the same State he found them in without which they were sensible the removing of the Duke of Lauderdale or any other of the great Ministers of State would signify nothing as to their Designs which was as they plainly tell us to set up the Presbyterian Doctrine and Church Government to serve the King in nothing else any further then he would serve them in that And lastly to obtain a free and unlimited Parliament and Assembly that is such as it might not be in his Majesties power to dissolve or frustrate by prorogation till they had extirpated Popery and Prelacy both together which was freely and roundly to tell us what they would have without canting and amusing us with general terms and hints but then I must not deny they had swords by their sides to justify these demands which our Gentlemen want and I wish ever may do but yet the Reader may observe that Speech that was so hugged in England and the Scotch Declaration meant the same thing though in different terms Observe also that they call the Presbyterian Doctrine and Government the Religion established though they own it to be taken away by a rescissory Act of Parliament for they believe all those Acts that have or shall be made against it are Null and Void and the former Acts are still in force though repealed which is an odd sort of Establishment consisting in the fancy of the people that own it and not in Law or Nature They lay the stress of their Justification upon necessity and yet own the greatest part of it to arise from hence that they must be deprived of the Gospel preached by the faithful Ministers and be made Slaves if they did not rebel Now as to their civil interest they would be in the same State with their Country men who are so far from rebelling that they have several times chastised them for it with a very little assistance from England And as to their Preachments I wonder in what part of the Gospel they learned to defend Christs Religion by rebellion but we must know this is pure Scotch Calvinistical Jesuitical Doctrine begun by the Devil and his Vicar the Pope not many hundred years ago and for which Bellarmine acknowledges there is neither Precept nor Example in the Bible nor in all Church History till near a thousand years after our Saviour's time and he gives this reason why the Gospel taught patience and submission because the contrary would have ruined Christianity then when but a few professed it but tells us St. Paul would have taught otherwise if he had lived in our days I shall not dispute how the Cardinal or the Scotch Gentlemen who talk at the same rate came to know this but I say it is equally destructive of any other Doctrine a man hath no mind to practise as of this of submission to Princes and suffering patiently for the truth without resistance As suppose I have a mind to revenge and they tell me of the Doctrine of meekness and forgiving injuries and Enemies if I reply this Doctrine was adopted to the Infant state of Christianity when Professors were few and exposed to persecution and could have got nothing by revenging their quarrels but ruine but the state of things is otherwise now and I may revenge my self with security both as to my self and as to my Religion and from thence infer that that Doctrine is ceased and I am at liberty to do in that particular as I see cause and that St. Paul would have taught so if he had lived in these times I say if I should argue thus upon their principles it could never be answered and a man might say as much for any other Gospel precept he had no mind to obey But to return The Covenanters in their first Declaration date the rise of all their troubles from the year 1648 and that is true and worth a Note You must know Charles the first had given them by the pacification all that they asked and the long Rebel Parliament had sent them home loaden with thanks Money and the spoils of England before our wars began * A View of the late Troubles cap. 18. but things going ill on the Parliament side after the King had routed Waller in the West and almost totally subdued the North by the valour of the E. of Newcastle the Parliament having no other way to turn them were forced to call in the Scots once more with Money and Promises yea and Oaths too to settle the Presbyterian Church Government here in England These two things prevailing upon them in they came and that ruined the King and his Party who at last surrendring himself to the Scots they dutifully sold him to the Parliament for 300000 lb. as all the World knows but the Chapmen fell out and
Second time which God prevent My Intentions were to have ended this Epistle here it being but too long already but there is one Passage in this Pamphlet I judge absolutely necessary to be Considered the words are These Sect. 2. Tho men are to be esteemed capable of knowing their own Wants Fears and Dangers and ought to be justified in begging those means of Relief and Redress which the Law hath provided for them yet every one is not to be accounted Sufficiently qualified to Determine concerning the Reasonableness and Legality of Parliamentary Proceedings and Resolves nor is any Number of Men whatsoever Impowred to Umpire differences between his Majesty and his Great Council This is the pretence that justified the last War and as long as it stands for a Maxime at this loose rate it is here pen'd will justifie Ten thousand one after another and therefore it cannot but be worth a small parcel of your time to Enquire and Consider how much truth or falsehood there is in it And in the first place it cannot be denyed but that every man ought to have the Liberty to propose his own personal Wants Fears and Dangers to his Superiors and to be allowed thereupon to beg such Redress as the Law hath provided but then to infer from hence that he hath an Equal right or ability to Consider of the Publick and National Wants Fears and Dangers and to beg the Enacting of New Laws or the Repeal of Old Laws for the removing of them or which is all one the Calling or Sitting the Continuance or Changing of Parliaments to that purpose is so gross a delusion so full of Danger and doth so immediately tend to Sedition and Rebellion Especially if Multitudes of Factious men may be allowed to pretend what Fears Wants and Dangers they please and then in a Tumultuary way to beg what Redress they think fit by Petitions signed by 40 50 or 60 thousand men at a time that it was prohibited by an Act of Parliament upon Experience of the Mischief it hath done 13 Car. 2. cap. 5. and the foresight of what it will do as often as it is used it being destructive to any Government whatsoever As to the Second Proposition It is to be acknowledged That every one is not to be accounted Sufficiently qualified to Determine concerning the Reasonableness and Legality of Parliamentary Proceedings and Resolves But then 't is not fit to infer from thence First That no man is so qualified nor Secondly That it is impossible but that all their Proceedings should be Legal and Reasonable Nor Thirdly That any man ought to approve of and submit to them whether they be so or no. For tho it is most certain there are but few men are so qualified yet it is as Certain that some men even amongst the Addressers were if many Years Sitting in Parliament will qualifie a person of great abilities for it And it is no less certain That of 1640 1649 1653 1656. in none of which Except the first was there any Royal Writ at all Lord Chancell Speech May the 8th 1661. That the Proceedings of Two or Three Parliaments within the Memory of Man have been not onely Unreasonable and Illegal but Trayterous and Rebellious and we are not sure but that we may have more such if God be not the Mercifuller to us and if any such should happen to be and we should joyn with them tho but out of a Modest Opinion that we are not sufficiently qualified to Determine concerning the Legality and Reasonableness of Parliamentary Proceedings and Resolves yet it would neither Excuse the Guilt nor prevent the Punishment that is due by Law to them who shall Rebel against the King tho in Obedience to a Parliament To the Third That no Number of Men whatsoever is Impowred to Umpire betwixt his Majesty and his Great Council may be answered That there is an ambiguity in the word Umpire and it may be taken not only different but contrary wayes and therefore it ought not to have been used in this place And Secondly That if any difference should happen to arise betwixt him and them we ought not to resist the King nor to assist his Great Council against him with Force and Arms tho the King should be in the Wrong and they in the Right for that is Determined in Parliament already 13 Car. 2. cap. 6. Thirdly It is true That no Number of men whatsoever have any authority to hear and determine their Differences in a Judicial way so as to compel them to submit to their judgment for then that Number of men should be Superior both to King and Barliament but all this notwithstanding seeing the House of Commons Appealed to the People by Printing their Votes c. and the King by publishing his Gracious Declaration why might not the Addressers so far approve of His Majesties Proceedings as to Thank Him for the Satisfaction he had given them and to promise him to stand by him with their Lives and Fortunes which they were bound to do however Fourthly It may be answered That besides the Differences betwixt the King and the Commons and the Lords and Commons there were some Differences betwixt the Commons and some of them that Addressed afterwards they had Imprisoned several Gentlemen and other Subjects which they conceived then as perhaps they do still were Illegal and unreasonable Proceedings and they were as capable of Knowing their want of Protection and as sensible of the Dangers and Fears of further Oppression as other men and therefore they ought to have been Justified if they had begged those means of Relief and Redress which the Law had provided for them but yet they Patiently and Silently Expected the Issue till GOD put it into His Mejesties Royal Breast in whose hands are the Hearts of Kings to declare these their Proceedings ARBITRARY and might they not then rise up and Thank their Soveraign for the Favour he had shown them It is hard to conceive upon this Man's principles they might not have Petitioned His Majesty for Relief and Redress before this time but yet no man did it And in Relation to the Differences betwixt His Majesty and the Commons and the Upper and the Lower House what necessity is there that the Addressers should approve of them for tho the Commons were their Representatives and Trustees the King is their Soveraign and the Lords are not Aliens and Foreigners but the Two highest States of this our Native Country and altho the Addressers pretend no Authority over that Supreme Court of Jurisdiction yet what reason is there why they may not approve of what the Lords have done well tho the Commons will not Upon the whole therefore I crave Leave to Conclude That the Addressors in General have done nothing but what may be fairly Justified and was necessary to Satisfie his Majesty and the World that there was a Considerable Part of the Nation did not approve of what was
done in the Names of the whole by the Commons in Parliament and if it be the Duty of every English man to fight for his King if occasion require against any Party that ever shall hereafter pretend to have the Authority of both or either of the Houses to back them 13 Car. 2. cap. 6. as I humbly conceive is most plain then why may not they right his Majesty with their Pens who must do it with their Swords why may they not Approve his Cause as well as Defend it And if this be not allowed Any King of England may be Deposed and Murthered as the late King was for if there be a Blind Obedience due to all the Votes of Parliament 13 Car. 2. cap. 1. §. 2. and no man may in any Case judge them Illegal and Unreasonable then must all men absolutely Submit to them and obey them and the Consequence is if any future Parliament shall Vote any future King or or Monarchy it self a Grievance to the Nation and those that stand by them Enemies to the Kingdom if no man may Contradict such a Vote nor any Number of Men how great soever Umpire betwixt the King and his Great Council that is Defend him against his Parliament the effect will Certainly follow and as this is the natural Tendance of these Principles as we saw in the Late Troubles so I can conceive no other cause why they should be now again insinuated into the Heads of the Rabble For these Men who pretend to reverence the Three Last Parliaments at such a Prodigious rate The late Long Parliament tho filled with Danby his Pensioners The Modest Vindication of the Two last Parliaments p. 11. do traduce that which went immediately before most abominably and those who are so tender of the Votes of these care as little for the Established Lawes of the former as I do for the Decrees of the Council of Trent or of the Synod of Dort So that it is plain it is not respect to Parliaments as Parliaments that makes them thus obsequious but as made up of such a Sort of men and Driving on such Designs and Interests To return then Gentlemen from this long Digression which I have inserted only to Justifie You I will Conclude That as you have begun bravely so you must go thro with the business or Expect a Revenge from the Opposite Party equal to their Rage and tho I Know you do not fear them yet I would Advise you not to be too Secure of them but let your Vigilance Industry and Application to all Sorts of Men be equal to theirs at least and then it is Ten thousand to one you shall never try either theirs or your own Valour and as your Case is better so let it inspire you with more Resolution to Stand and Fall with it and his Most hearty Prayers for a good Success upon all your Loyal Undertakings and Designs shall never be wanting who is Your most Devoted Servant THE Third Part OF THE ADDRESS TO THE FREE-MEN and FREE-HOLDERS OF THE NATION HIS Majesty by the Blessing of GOD having Supprest the short Scotch Rebellion which in great part miscarried by the timeing of it tho no human fore-sight on their part could have prevented that His Majesty first Proroguing and then Dissolving that Parliament which seem'd to be the occasion of it with such Secrecy and Quickness that their Friends at London could give them no previous Notice of his Intentions so to do So that besides the total disappointing them of all that Countenance Ayd and Assistance they promised themselves from England many of their Friends at home whose Crimes being less had not the same necessity or whose Zeal was not of that fiery temper with theirs and therefore were prudently resolved tho they wished well to the design yet not to hazard their sweet Lives and Fortunes in it till they saw what Success these first Venturers had who hearing of the Prorogation of the Parliament and being doubtless admonished by their London Friends at the same time not to stir during this short Recess as they then thought it would be layd by all thoughts of Joyning with them and Augmenting their Numbers and the Privy Councils in both Nations attending solely to that business it was Extinguished almost as easily as it began Upon which His Majesty by his Royal Proclamation Dissolved this Parliament and Issued out Writs for another to Sit at Westminster the Seventeenth day of October 1679. Hoping his Subjects duly reflecting upon the Miscarriages of the Last House of Commons and the Danger the Nation had so narrowly escaped of Being involved in another destructive Intestine War at a time when the Victorious Arms of France hung like a dreadful Cloud over our heads and the High Discontents of the Popish Party which were inflamed and inraged both by the Discovery and Prosecutions of the late Plot lay broyling in the Bowels of the Nation would proceed with more Prudence and Caution in the Next Elections and send Him up men of Better Tempers or that at least these Gentlemen by that Act seeing He was resolved to keep the Reins in his own hands and to let them Sir or Dissolve them according as they behaved themselves would thereby be kept in better awe for the future and make use of a little more calmness in their Proceedings if it were but to continue their Being But alas His Majesty soon found himself deceived in his Expectation the common people who see with other mens eyes and follow as they are led and that is for the most part the wrong way were easily perswaded to believe in the first place that this Parliament was Prorogued and Dissolved onely to prevent the Tryal of the Popish Lords in the Tower tho the Not Trying of them was one of the greatest Causes that Moved his Majesty to it as appears plainly both by the Journals of both the Houses and his Majesties Speech in the Conclusion of that Session of Parliament and altho these Five Lords were brought to the Bar and the Commons summon'd to give in Evidence against them that very day that they were Prorogued they refused to do it And on the other side the Malecontents rejoyced greatly in it being well assured that the same Men would be chosen again and so made use of this Dissolution as a means to incense the People against the King and the Government and to increase the real or pretended fears of Men by their Loud Clamours against French Pensioners Popery Arbitrary Government and the like which both in discourse and Print the Press being now at Liberty from its former restraint they objected with equal Confidence and Falshood against the Loyal Gentlemen that had opposed them But besides these general Charges they made special use of two things that fell out in the last Parliament and that had a mighty influence upon the Minds of the populace and other Unthinking men The first of which was to
represent all those Gentlemen of the House of Commons who had Voted against the Bill for Excluding his Royal Highness the Duke of York as Papists or at least Popishly affected and for my part I believe it was the principal Motive of bringing in that Bill for it is scarce possible but that they must see after that Second Declaration that his Majesty made in that very Session concerning the Succession and the House of Lords refusing to joyn with them in the first of these Votes that introduced that Bill that they should never be able to get it pass into an Act but then they might easily foresee however it would be a powerful means of inciting the People against all that should oppose it and prevail with them to pass a Sentence upon them as Popishly affected at least if not down-right Arrant Papists and herein they had great part of their design and there was no Motive more frequently used than this and for the most part it was driven a little higher and urged against his Majesty too as by the bye thus What will you give your Voice for who is a Papist and Voted for the Duke of York in the last Parliament who is an Arrant Papist and the King is little better Which words were actually spoken by one of that Party and Sworn upon him at his Majesty's Suit and for which the party was Fined Five hundred Marks in the Kings-Bench And by this Sole Argument they prevailed to Exclude almost all those Gentlemen and to fill up their places with men of their own principles and traduced his Majesty the Court and all the Ministers of State and almost all the Gentry and Loyal Clergy too for endeavouring to have these men chosen again The Second Thing that they made great advantage of was the pretended discovery of Sir S. Fox of the Pensioners in the Long Loyal Parliament which discovery being hastily made and No Record of it being entred they took the Confidence to Add to it whomsoever they were pleased to have so thought by the small Free-men and Free-holders and that was a Number it may be double and treble to that Sir S. mentioned however I am sure that the Written Lists that were then spread abroad and which were all of Equal Authority or pretended to be so did not agree some having more Names than other and I am well assured that some Persons Named were not Pensioners nor could be so and therefore I believe Sir S. never said they were but they were added by the Transcribers according to their private Interests or Passions but they made the People believe they knew who would be Pensioners too which was somewhat difficult and led the diffidence to that height as to Exclude as far as they could possibly not onely all the Courtiers and other Persons who had any Places of Profit and Advantage under his Majesty but their Relations too and Wanted not much that they had Excluded all those who bore any honorary Imployments or Offices such as Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace So that nothing now recommended a man so effectually for a Parliament-man as that he had not been thought fit to be trusted in the least by his Majesty or their Neighbour Gentry or having been so had been turned out all which were applauded as Men not to be bought Enemies to the Court and Ministers and therefore true Friends to the Protestant Religion and the Country All which tended as they said to the Advancement of his Majesties Service and to the increasing the Love of the People towards him and the Government and he was a hard-hearted man who called the Sincerity of their Loyal intentions in question These two being added to all the Ill ways they had made use of in the former Election no wonder if his Majesty was not Satisfied with the Returns when he faw by them what men he was to meet in his next House of Commons Whereupon his Majesty Prorogued them at the day of their meeting till a further time and so kept them from meeting to Sit till the 21th of October 1680. And now let us see how they behaved themselves in this Interval Wherein I shall desire the Reader 's Excuse if I do not relate things in that precise order they fell out it being nothing material to my purpose His Majesties Intentions of Proroguing the Parliament from time to time so as not to permit a Session till the time he had designed which was a Year being once known the great Contrivers of all our Disturbances who met and ordered all things in Clubbs and close Cabals fell into the greatest Passion imaginable they had carried things to that height out of design to force the King to Dissolve that Parliament or yield more than he could either spare or recall but then they had made their count he could not continue long without another Parliament and the quick choyce and the temper of the Men generally Returned was Appeal from the Country to the City as they gave out in their Pamphlets according to their hearts desire But then if they might be dissolved or prorogued when ever they came to Redress the Grievances of the People that is when ever his Majesty pleased to think it Expedient and especially for so long a time the heat the People were then in might cool other thoughts might arise the fears of an immediate Execution of the Plot upon them might appear as they knew they were vain and salse His Majesty might Recover his Estimation with his People and shew he was able to Subsist without present Supplies from a Parliament and which grieved them most of all he might in this time Root up the Reliques of the Scotch Rebellion in such manner that no assistance would afterwards be to be had from those Northern Brethren what need soever they might have of them which is as good as confest by the Author of the Appeal to the City To prevent these and several other dreadful Consequences of this Nature they cast their heads what course they should take the way of Pamphlets was slow and uncertain and they had almost Cloyed the Appetite of the Nation with that Crude sort of Rebellious and Disloyal Discourses which served rather for the divertisement to Idle men then gave them any great Advantage at least for the present and they had need in this affair of some very quick and powerful Expedient that might work upward upon the King and downward upon the People Neither could they then bethink themselves of any better remedy than to revive the old way of Tumultuous Petitions signed by all sorts of people and that in vast Numbers The first of which sort as I believe An. 1603. C. His Book 9. Pag. 7. was the Mille manus Petition Presented to King James Tho as Fuller acquaints us there was onely 750 * But after this the Author saith other Petitions were set a foot about the same time for
Abolishing Episcopacy and setting up Presbytery To which no Hand that had five Fingers was Refused and that George Lord Goring then a Boy set his hand to one of them in the right I believe of his Mother a good Lady much Addicted to that Party Fuller Ib. pag. 24. Preachers hands set to it and those Collected out of 25. Counties Yet afterwards Especially in the beginning of the Last Rebellion when they had any great Design to bring about which they had reason to expect would be opposed Next to bringing great Numbers of mean and tumultuous people down to White-Hall and Westminster-Hall with rude and loud Clamours to Say over again what they had first inspired into them This I now mention of Sending into the City of London and the Remoter Corporations and Counties of Petitions Complaints Remonstrances and Declarations to the King or both or either Houses of Parliament 13 Car. 2. cap. 5. for alteration of Matters established by Law redress of Pretended Grievances in Church or State or other publick Concernments was one special means they often made use of and that with great Success These Petitions as the Learned Dr. Hammond tells us Vind. of the Liturgy Sect. 28. cap. 2. Short View of the late Troubles p. 83 pro 81. were for the most part framed and put into the Peoples hands even in set prescribed forms and then committed to certain Confiding men who carried them to the places appointed and there solicited as many as they could possibly to Sign the same not regarding so much the Quality as the Number of the Subscribers who for the most part were mean Mechanicks Illiterate ignorant Countrymen Servants Apprentices Journeymen and Children which Petitions they after delivered with great Numbers of People to the King or Parliament and were designed by them that then set them afoot not so much to perswade or intreat as to terrifie and compel every Petitioner being as it were Listed to force if he could not otherwise obtain his desire And accordingly this way was made use of when either the King or the Major part of either House would not be drawn otherwise to Comply with these Republicans Short View of the Late Troubles pag. 85 86. 89. 234. and afterwards when they came to be imployed against them or to cross their humours or Interests they discountenanced them as much as they could tho all this would have been too little if they had not made use of Arms against these bold Suiters the Apprentices of London July the 26. 1647. shutting up the Commons Doors and Compelling them to yield the City the Ordering of their own Militia and also to pass a Vote Ibid. 248. Ib. 282 283. That the King should be admitted to come to London to Treat which tho it were sufficiently revenged yet when afterwards Essex and * May 26 48. Surrey Petitioned again for a Peace in that manner they sent the Guards to beat them away whereupon divers were wounded and some slain And as to the Kentish-men who by their Grand Jury about the same time had framed a Petition for Peace in the Name of the whole Shire they by the Committee for that County prohibited the same by a Printed Paper published in all the Churches Branding it to be SEDITIOUS and TUMULTUOUS and saying that They would hang up two in every Parish that were promoters of it and Sequester the rest Which was to declare themselves Abhorrers with a Vengeance Yet this Unruly Engine was the only tool our Sober Protestants could at this time think powerful enough to Compel his Majesty to recede from his declared Resolution and permit the Parliament to Sit forthwith and the method they used was precisely the same that had been imployed against his Majesty's Father of Blessed Memory viz. these Petitions were drawn by their Clubbs and Cabals in London or some say onely transcribed from an Old 41. Copy and then sent down by trusty men who had five shillings per Centum for procuring hands and * The Instructions were That it mattered not tho they were neither Gentlemen nor Free-holders but that they the Procurers of Subscriptions should get as many Hands as they could that of all Sorts and Ages Degrees and Qualities not caring who they were so the Number was great And I have been told this Story from Credible hands One of these Procurers coming to a Godly Weaver in Essex to get his hand to the Petition bethought himself that the Weaver had a Boy to his Son and asked if he would not Subscribe too Yes replyed the Weaver if he were at home but he is now gone with a Cow to a Neighbour's Bull. That is nothing said the Petition-Monger I can set his hand Which he accordingly presently did and made the poor Boy become an humble Supplicant to the King when he thought of nothing less But I must confess they varied in one thing from the Old method for they did not present them as heretofore by the hands of great Multitudes of the Petitioners but sent them by some few persons of the better sort which was a Civility was not so much paid to his Majesty as his Guards who might have endangered these Gentlemen Orators Skulls if they had made as bold with the Son as their Predecessors did with the Unarmed Father For my part when I reflect seriously on this Stratagem I cannot perswade my self they had any great hope to prevail upon the King by it who too well remembred what ill Consequences had followed this way of proceeding in the Reign of his Father to Countenance it in his own by granting any thing that was so asked And therefore I conceive the Cunningest of them had these further ends in it First to Engage men by these Subscriptions to be more fast to them and their designs Secondly To Try whether the People might be brought to Tumult if they had occasion for it Thirdly To incense them the more against the Government if these Petitions were denyed by representing it as a personal injury to them every man being Naturally more fond of his own than anothers Counsel Fourthly to shew the Number and Strength of their Adherents Fifthly To make them known each to other to which end the Odd Phrases Whining Tones Devout shruggs of old and the Green Ribbans of late were taken up also But whatever the design was his Majesty having the Authority of a Statute on his side wisely provided in better times had the Address to disappoint this Project 13 Cor. 2. c. 5. as also by the Judgment of all the Judges 2 Jacobi First by a Proclamation which prohibited this * Practise Exercise as Illegal and Tumultuous and tending to Sedition and Rebellion Secondly by discountenancing and sharply reprehending those that were so silly as to present them Thirdly by encouraging another Sort of persons who upon better grounds were as ready to detest and abhor them in a more Regular and Legal way and
Commons and so the King was not to be blamed and all that would Inform any thing concerning the Plott in these Intervals had been as Kindly used by the King and Councel as they could have been by the Parliament So that this was as I said an Injurious Reflection upon His Majesty and the Government and was an Argument of an ill temper and could not but disgust his Majesty Their limiting their Petition of Pardon to onely such persons as made any Discovery to their House was look't upon as much restrain'd for if the Discovery were really and effectually made what matter was it to what house or person it was made But it may be this might not be intended by them for any such purpose as the limiting of the thing to them tho in effect it did so and therefore I shall pass it over From this Address the House proceeded to the Votes about the Petitions which were as followeth Resolved Nemine Contradicente Which shewes the Strength of the party and not the Consent of the whole House That it is and Ever hath been the Vndoubted Right of the Subjects of England to Petition the King for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments and Redressing of Grievances Resolved N. C. That to traduce such Petitioning howsoever managed for so it must signifie or else it will conclude nothing from the Other as a Principle as a Violation of Duty and to represent it to his Majesty as Tumultuous and Seditious is to betray the Liberty of the Subject and Contributes to the Design of Subverting the Antient Legal Constitutions of this Kingdom and introducing Arbitrary Power Ordered That a Committee be appointed to inquire of all such persons as have offended against these Rights of the Subjects Resolved That an Address be made to his Majesty declaring the Resolution of this House to Preserve and Support the King's Person and Government and the Protestant Religion at home and abroad This last seemed to sweeten the Crudity of the former Votes and to Countenance and Justifie one of the greatest disorders that Contributed to the Ruine of his Father As to their first Vote which is their Principle it is granted modo forma as they have set it down But the Second is too general and an Undeniable foundation for Rebellion as hath been Experimented for all the Controversie was here about the manner of Petitioning viz. Whether a few private men might agree upon a Petition and then send Emissaries abroad to procure Hundreds and Thousands of Ignorant people to Subscribe it and then tender it to his Majesty as it were by the Number to fright him into a Complyance with them against his declared Resolution to the Contrary if this might be allowed the Liberty of the Subject would soon eat up the Prerogative of the King and disorder this or any other Government in the World In the Reign of Henry the Seventh one Thomas Flammock Lord Bacon 's Hist of H. 7. a Lawyer thought he could make a Rebellion and never break the Peace and the People of Cornwall being discontented about some Subsidies granted to the King he perswades them that it was not good they should stand like Sheep before the Shearers but put on Harness and take Weapons in their hands yet to do no Creature hurt but go and deliver the King a Strong Petition for the Laying down of those grievous Payments and for the Punishment of those that had given him that Counsel and to make others beware how they did the like in time to come And he said for his part He did not see how they could do the Duty of true Englishmen and good Liege-men except they did deliver the King from such Wicked ones that would destroy both him and the Country or in the Language of our dayes introduce Arbitrary Power And accordingly 16000 men armed assembled and marched from Cornwal to Black-Heath in Kent Modestly and Quietly enough Except that at Taunton in Somersetshire they killed in fury an Officious and Eager Commissioner for the Subsidy whom they called the Provost of Perin but by that time they came at Black-Heath they Threatned either to bid Battle to the King for now the Seas went higher than his Councellors or to take London within his View imagining themselves there to find no less fear than wealth And accordingly they persisted till the King having drawn out his Forces and Surrounded them he fought them and killed 20000 and took all the rest Prisoners Now I would Know whether this Strong Petition was Justifiable and whether if any body in our dayes should perswade a Number of Men to Act this over again it would be an offence against the Rights of the Subjects to abhor such Petitioning as a Violation of Duty and represent it to his Majesty as Tumultuous and Seditious or rather plainly Rebellious and it would be worth the while to try whether Flammock's Strong Petition may not be Justified by these Votes as they now stand penned for it doth not appear that any sort of Petitioning whatsoever may be opposed by the Votes But it may be replyed That here were no men in Arms in the case of the Petition in hand but what then if there should be for the future these Votes will Justify them too for if the People may Petition for the Calling or Sitting of a Parliament or Redressing of Grievances when and howsoever they please and no man may hinder them then is Honest Old Father Flammock's Strong Petition which was for the Redress of two Notable Grievances fairly Justifiable if it were now to be acted over again But if the People be allowed to Petition but not any way it had been fit to have told us and them what manner of way they were allowed to Petition as well as for what for that was the main thing in question But seeing they were not so kind to the People I will try if I cannot direct them into a better course the next time they shall have an Occasion to Petition the King for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments and Redressing of Grievances And to that purpose I will here insert a whole Act of Parliament XIII Car. 2. Cap. V. An Act against Tumults and Disorders upon pretence of Preparing or Presenting Publick Petitions or Addresses to His Majesty or the Parliament WHEREAS it hath been found by Sad Experience That Tumultuous and other Disorderly Soliciting and Procuring of Hands by private persons to Petitions Complaints Remonstrances and Declarations and Other Addresses to the King or both or either Houses of Parliament 1. For Alteration of Matters Established by Law 2. Redress of pretended Grievances in Church or State 3. Or other Publick Concernments have been made use of to serve the ends of Factious and Seditious persons gotten into power to the Violation of the Publick Peace and have been a great means of the late Unhappy Wars Confusions and Calamities in this Nation For preventing the like Mischiefs for the
they might have made a Legal defence and have received a Legal Sentence But here they had nothing but bare affirmations without any witness to defend them and a Sentence founded upon this as sharp chargeable and dishonourable as was possible If this be the Liberty of the Subject and these men our defenders from Arbitrary Government On Friday October 29. Sir George Downing having obtained Leave to bring in a Bill for wearing of the Woollen Manufacture of England The House Ordered that Dr. Tongue should be recommended to his Majesty for the first Considerable Church-Preferment that should happen to become void in the Kingdom And then the Speaker Reported his Majesty's Answer to the Address concerning Pardons which is recited above which Answer was THat he did intend to direct such a Proclamation and was resolved not onely to prosecute the Plot but Popery also and to take Care of the Protestant Religion Established by Law and if We joyn and the Lower House go on Calmly in their Debates without heats He did not doubt but to beat down Popery and all that belongs to it This Answer will stand upon Record against them and Posterity will certainly give them their due for Neglecting this Mild Admonition of this Meek Prince But to go on Mr. Harbord Reported the Address for the Support of the King's Person and Government and the Protestant Religion both at Home and Abroad Which was as followeth WE Your Majesties most Dutiful and Obedient Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled Do with most Thankful Hearts Acknowledg not Onely Your Majesties many former Royal Declarations of Your Adherence to the * * What Protestant Religion why are not the words by Law Established here as well as in his Majesties Answer above Protestant Religion in the Preservation and Protection thereof but Your further Manifestation of the same in Your Gracious Speech to both Houses at the Opening of this present Parliament in which Your Majesty is pleased to Command us strictly and impartially to prosecute the Horrid Popish Plot without which we do fully assent to Your Majesties great Judgment That neither Your Person nor Government can be Safe nor your Protestant Subjects It being part of the very Religion of Popery where it can obtain to Extirpate all Protestants both Prince and People which hath caused in the Times of Your Royal Ancestors since the Reformation that great Care to oblige the Subjects against their return to the Papal Yoke in the very same Oathes wherein they Swear Allegiance to their Prince And as Now the Eyes of all the Protestant Kingdoms and States abroad are upon us and looking upon Your Majesty as the Royal Head of so many Protestant Countries cannot but hope upon a Happy and Solid Security in our Religion at Home That your Majesty will be the greatest Protection to them from whom we may expect a Mutual Assistance as being involved in the same Common Danger So we do humbly assure your Majesty That we shall be always ready to preserve your Majesties Person and Government and to Support the * * What that by Law Established or another As contrary to it as Popery is Protestant Religion both at home and abroad And do Humbly beseech your Majesty to Esteem all persons whatsoever who shall otherwise represent Vs to your Majesty as those who design to divide between the King and his People and to defeat the Meeting and Sitting of Parliaments That those Popish Designs may succeed which they well know cannot otherwise prosper And this they have made Vndeniably Evident in the Interval of Parliaments by Contriving with unparallel'd Insolence a most Damnable and Wicked Design to transfer their own Crimes upon so many of your Majesties Loyal Protestant Nobility and Gentry hoping thereby to destroy those who with the greatest Zeal and Integrity endeavour to prosecute them The Effect of this Specious Address to possess the People what Stout Champions the Presbyterians are against Popery and to Involve all them that had appeared against them as Papists or Favourers of Papists and to let the World know what a horrid opinion they had of that Silly-impossible-Meal-Tub-Sham Plot And Certainly the Popish Party were much to blame to Lay their Treasons to the Presbyterians who have too many of their own to answer for without this Accumulation of guilt from others Crimes But as to their boast of their Great Zeal and Integrity in endeavouring to prosecute the Popish Plot we shall be better able to judge of it in the Conclusion of this Session of Parliament Then the House Proceeded to Examine Sir Francis Wythens business and it appearing by Witness and his own Confession that he had presented an Address to his Majesty expressing an Abhorrency to Petition his Majesty for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments they Voted him a Betrayer of the Undoubted Rights of the Subjects of England and ordered him to be Expelled the House for this High Crime and to receive his Sentence at the Bar upon his Knees Which he submitted to Observe how they misrepresent this Gentleman the Address he presented was drawn by the Bench at Easter Sessions for Westminster and related onely to that Petition and that Parliament in those Circumstances now as they word the business it must signify that the Address was against All Sorts of Petitions for the Sitting of Parliaments in the plural Number which is foul play to misrepresent the Matter of fact in a thing so lately done and well Known to every body in the very place where they Sit but it was necessary it should be so worded to Justify the Severity of the House if that would have done This was the Second Member of Parliament they Expelled in a way that was look't on as Arbitrary and unexampled and this was the use they made of His Majesties Advice to proceed Calmly and without Heats On Saturday the 30th of October They passed a Vote That the Votes of their House should be Printed being first Perused and Signed by Mr. Speaker who was to Nominate and Appoint the persons to Print the same From these Printed Votes I have Extracted what hath gone before and shall follow after and to them I appeal for the truth of this Narrative of their Proceedings and but for this Vote it might have been difficult to have known what they had done so as to have charged them By them also I have been encouraged to speak my Mind more freely of this than of the former Parliaments for this Printing their Votes could be designed for Nothing but to enable the People to pass a Judgment on their Actions one of which Number I am Their next Vote was That they would proceed to the full Examination of the Popish Plot in order to bring the Offenders to Justice And then they Nominated a Committee to Inspect the Journals of the Two last Parliaments and Report their proceedings relating to the Popish Plot and Ordered An Address to his Majesty for
York Onely and that Committee was appointed on the next Munday Morning at Ten of the Clock And accordingly it was that day Debated and some Clauses added to it On Tuesday the Ninth of November his Majesty sent the Commons another Message by Mr. Secretary Jenkins which was as followeth CHARLES R. HIS Majesty desires this House as well for the Satisfaction of his People as of Himself to Expedite such Matters as are depending before them relating to Popery and the Plot and would have them rest assured That all Remedies they can tender to his Majesty conducing to those Ends shall be very acceptable to him Provided they be such as may Consist with preserving the Succession of the Crown in its Due and Legal Course of Descent On Wednesday the 10th of November A Bill for Regulating the Elections of Members to Serve in Parliament for the House of Commons was read the first time and ordered to be read the second time And the same day the Bill for prohibiting the Importation of Irish Cattel was read the third time and passed and sent up to the Lords Now let the Reader observe there was not one Publick Bill passed through the House of Commons in all this time but this and yet no Bill was more opposed than this but here the priyate Concerns of the North and West Country Gentlemen were Engaged and therefore they carried it on Might and Main against all opposition but as for any Bills against Popery they took no care or thought for that against the Duke of York may perhaps be made to appear to be of another Nature then was pretended and rather against any thing then Popery The same day the Lords sent down to the Commons a Bill which they had passed for Freeing the City of London and his Majesty's Court and the Parts adjacent from Popish Inhabitants and providing against other Dangers which may arise from Papists To which they desired their Concurrence Note That this Bill had been sent down from the Lords before and the Commons had lost the opportunity of passing it as you will see they will in this Session also tho there were Tragical representations made of the Danger the City and Nation were in from the Vast Numbers of them which were Seated in and about the City of London The truth is it was not convenient to loose any thing that might serve to fright the People and much better to have Papists in London for that purpose than to have them sent elsewhere and loose the means of Fermenting the Rabble But if men were not as willing to be or at least seem to be cheated as others are to delude them they would soon perceive whose interest it is to keep them in Fears and Jealousies and after discharge their Bug-bears or turn their rage another way The same day they Voted an Address to his Majesty in answer to his last Message And that they would proceed in the prosecution of the Lords in the Tower beginning with William Viscount Stafford On Thursday the 11th of November 1680. A Bill to prevent the offences of Bribery and Debauchery in Elections of Members to Serve in the Commons House of Parliament was Read the first time and ordered to be read again the Monday following with the Bill for Regulating Elections of Members to Serve in the said House formerly mentioned This day the Bill against the Duke of York was read the third time and passed The Title whereof was resolved to be An Act for Securing of the Protestant Religion by Disabling James Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging And it was ordered that the Lord Russel should carry it up to the Lords for their Concurrence The Bill sent down by the Lords for Freeing the City of London from Popish Recusants was read the first time on Friday 12. Nov. and Ordered a second reading in a full House This day the Commons sent a Message to the Lords to Acquaint them with their Intentions to begin with the Viscount Stafford and to desire them to appoint a Convenient time for the Tryal and that the Lords in the Tower might be Confined and kept from holding Correspondence with one another as persons impeached and committed for High Treason by Law ought to be The Lords answered As to the latter part of this Message They had taken Care already in it and as to the former They appointed Tuesday the Thirtieth day of the same Moneth And they further resolved to Address to his Majesty for a Sum of Money for defraying the Charges of Summoning of Witnesses and other Expences Incident to the Prosecution and Tryals of the Lords in the Tower and appointed Mr. Charles Clare to Receive and Expend the same for which purpose his Majesty gave Order that 100 l. should be Issued out of the Exchequer On Saturday the 13th of November Sir Robert Yeomans being upon his own Petition called to the Bar he Acknowledged his offence and was ordered to receive the Censure of the House upon his Knees to which he submitted and was discharged paying his Fees The Lords returned the Bill against Importing of Irish Cattel agreed to Commons the same day The City of London having Petitioned the House against Sir George Jeffereys their Recorder and it being referred to a Committee they passed this Vote Resolved That this Committee is of Opinion That by the Evidence given to this Committee it does appear that Sir George Jeffereys Recorder of the City of London by traducing and obstructing Petitioning for the Sitting of This Parliament hath betrayed the Rights of the Subject To which the House agreed and Ordered That an Humble Address be made to his Majesty to remove him out of all Publick Offices and appointed a Committee to draw up the same As if it had been likely his Majesty would have so far complyed with them as to have punished the Recorder for obeying his Laws and Proclamation against a Tumultuous and Seditious Sort of men But however his Majesty might Act they had another aim in this for they Voted That the Members of their House that Served for the City of London should communicate this Vote and Resolution of their House to the Court of Aldermen for the City of London This was a sure way to bespeak a Party in the City to Joyn with the House against the Abhorrers They further Ordered That this Committee should enquire into all such persons as have been Advising or Promoting of the late Proclamation stiled A Proclamation against Tumultuous Petitioning Thus having passed thus far without any check from any person they thought they might proceed as far further as they pleased And it is very probable that they were spurred on to this by their Friends and Enemies the one designing to make them Terrible and the other being willing to make them Hated However I am sure they they became more hated than feared by this and
is founded are weak and unconcluding and that no Malice could have Contrived a more effectual way to hasten those Calamities upon us it pretends to prevent and to ascertain what is full as likely never to happen without it So I conclude the Lords did well and wisely in rejecting the Bill and the Bishops in joyning with them so to do And now I will proceed with the rest of the Votes having made this short Digression to Express my thoughts on this great affair which I submit to the Judgment of wiser men and shall willingly retract or amend any thing if I have erred for I seek nothing by all this but the Peace and Prosperity of my Country There being little done of importance on Thursday the 18th day of November the next day the Commons fell upon the business of the Abhorrers of the Petitions and began with the Grand-Juries for the Counties of Somerset and Devon which had both detested and abhorred the said Tumultuous Petition So they Ordered That Sir Giles Philips and William Coleman being the Fore-men of the said Grand-Juries should be sent for in Custody of the Serjeant at Arms attending their House to answer at the Bar of their House for Breach of Priviledge by them committed against their House Before in Sir George Jeffereys Case it was for betraying the Rights of the Subject and Now 't is become a Priviledge of Parliament for the People to Petition by Hundreds and Thousands for the Sitting of a Parliament At this rate of Proceeding there will be Priviledges of Parliament enough at last At the same time they ordered Captain William Castle and Mr. John Hutchinson and Mr. Henry Walrond the two last being of the said Grand-Juries to be Sent for in Custody too So this was a pretty handsom begining But the next day they found that Mr. William Stawell was Fore-man for the Grand-Jury for Devon and not Mr. Coleman so they ordered his Name to be put out of the Warrant and Mr. Stawell's to be put in This shews with what heat and haste they managed this affair But why should the Fore-men of the Grand-Juries be sent for rather than all or any of the rest the Foreman having no more Authority than the Last man nor being any way inabled by his place to Help or Hinder any thing but being Concluded by the Major part be his own Opinion what it will but they could not tell who promoted this affair and therefore Right or Wrong Singled them out to be made Examples not thinking it convenient to send for the whole Number who yet were punished in these and not only they that suffered but every Gentleman in the Nation suffer'd in them their Liberties being at the Mercy of every Corporation who when they please may send Taylors Grocers c. to enjoy these exorbitant priviledges and Send for the best Knights and Gentlemen in England for not having payd respects great enough to them The Bill of Importation of Cattel from Scotland was read the second time and Committed Then they proceeded in the business of the Abhorrers and Voted That one Thomas Herbert Esq should be sent for in Custody for prosecuting John Arnold Esq at the Council Table for promoting the said Petition and procuring Subscriptions To him they added Sir Thomas Holt Serjeant at Law and Mr. Thomas Staples as Betrayers of the Liberties of the Subject The same day one Eld was discharged out of Custody who had been taken for not Making a good Search for Arms at the Lord Aston's House at Taxall in Staffordshire Notice being taken that he was a Sober Protestant what that means I must leave to my Reader for I never heard that any sort of Protestants made Drunkenness or Debauchery or any other sort of Insobriety a part of Protestantisme and I should have liked it better if it had been a Confiding Man and an Enemy to the Popish Faction It were worth the while to enquire how he stood affected to the Puritan Faction On Munday the 22 of November Two Bills for Regulating Elections were read the second time and Committed to a Committee to unite or divide them as they should see cause The day following Sir Thomas Holt petitioning the House was called in and Censured upon his Knees and Discharged The same day a further Address was Voted to Petition his Majesty to remit a Fine of 500 l. that had been set upon Mr. Benjamin Harris for Printing Seditious Libels Such men were not to be discouraged in an Age when so few were to be found who would undertake that dangerous Imployment for the good of the Nation The same day a Bill was brought in for Repeal of an ACT made in the 35 of Eliz. Cap. 1. Against Seditious and Disloyal Sectaries and Conventicles this Bill passed both Houses but was taken away before it was Signed by the King So that Statute Escaped then to the terror of those Protestants There having been a design to Indict the Duke of York for a Popish Recusant in Trinity Term this Year and the same being prevented by the Court of Kings-Benches discharging the Grand-Jury before they had found the same the House made this Vote That the discharging of a Grand-Jury by any Judge before the end of the Term Assizes or Sessions whilest Matters are under their Consideration and Not presented is Arbitrary Illegal and Destructive to publick Justice a manifest Violation of his Oath what Oath and is a Means to Subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Resolved That a Committee be appointed to Examine the Proceedings of the Judges in Westminster-Hall c. On Wednesday November 24. After Orders for the sending for George Bell an Attorney at Law Arthur Yeomans William Jordan John Laws and Henry Aulnett for Breach of Priviledge of Parliament without assigning wherein Order was given to bring in a Bill 1. To Supply the Laws against Bankrupey 2. And another to take away the Court held before the Lord President and Council in the Marches of Wales Then the Bill for Repeal of the 35 Eliz Cap. 1. was read the Second time and Ordered to be ingrossed Ordered That an humble Address be made to his Majesty from this House by such Members thereof as are of His Majesties Most Honourable Privy Council to desire his Majesty to give Orders That all Protestant Dissenters who are prosecuted upon any Penal Laws made against Popish Recusants in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James may be Admitted to a Composition in the Exchequer without paying any Fees Which was granted by his Majesty Ordered That Leave be given to bring in a Bill declaring that those Laws shall not be Extended to P. Dissenters and that it be referred to the Committee appointed to bring in the Bill for the better Vniting of his Majesties Protestant Subjects The Attorney-General being ordered formerly to attend and This day Called in and Examined touching the Manner of Issuing forth of the P. stiled A Proclamation against Tumultuous
for Repeal of the Laws de Scandalis Magnatum It was Ordered That a Committee should be appointed immediately to withdraw and prepare such a Clause Which was done and passed the same day If the Peers had passed this Clause they had reduced themselves into the Condition of the Gentry and Commoners and a man might have called the greatest Lord in England Knave more Safely perhaps than his Taylor but if they did not then that Excellent Bill was to be lost to which they had tacked this Clause which was quite of another Nature And it ought to be Considered also That the Lords were Soon Voted down by the Commons once before when by Separating themselves from the Crown they had lost their Support and they may be sure the same thing will follow again when ever the Commons shall prevail so far upon them as to bring the Peerage into as Low a Condition as the Gentry their Priviledges being to speak the truth too little already to support and maintain their Dignity and Honour but of this I need say no more The Bill for Uniting his Majesties Protestant Subjects to the Church of England was read the first time and ordered to be read again the Munday following after Ten of the Clock in a full House Another Bill for Exempting his Majesties Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the penalties of the Laws against Popish Recusants was read the first time and ordered to be read at the same time with the former again Friday Decemb. 17th Captain Castle petitioning to be discharged was Censured on his Knees at the Bar of the House and dismissed paying his Fees A Petition of one Richard Haines desiring Leave that a Bill should be brought in for restraining Vngrants and promoting the Woollen Manufactures was read and committed to a Committee to prepare the said Bill Leave also was given to bring in a Bill for the more easy Collecting of the Hearth-Money The Additional ACT for Burying in Woollen was read and passed and sent up by Sir George Downing to the Lords for their Concurrence A Bill for Continuance of two Acts The one Entituled An Act for preventing the planting of Tobacco in England and Regulating the Plantation Trade The Other An Act for Exporting Beer Ale and Mum was read a second time and committed Then the House agreed the Articles of Impeachment against Edward Seymour Esq a Member of their House and Ordered him to be taken into Custody of the Serjeant till he should give Sufficient Security to their House to answer the said Impeachment and the Serjeant at Arms was Ordered to take the said Security The Bill for restraining Papists from coming or residing within the Cities of London or Westminster c. was read the second time and committed Then the House resolved into a Committee of the whole House and passed these three Resolves 1. That a Bill be brought in for the more effectual Securing of the Meeting and Sitting of Frequent Parliaments as one means to prevent Arbitrary Power 2. That a Bill be brought in that the Judges hereafter to be made and Appointed may hold their Places and Salaries quam diu se bene gesserint and also to prevent the Arbitrary Proceedings of the Judges 3. That a Bill be brought in against Illegal Exaction of Money upon the People and to make it High Treason And a Committee was appointed to bring in a Bill or Bills pursuant to the said Resolves It may appear from hence great care was taken to put the Monarchy out of a possibility of Arbitrary Power but what then is it impossible that there should be any Such Thing as Arbitrary power Exercised by any but a Monarch Is not a Common-Wealth or a House of Commons as capable of Arbitrary power as a King Were the Proceedings of the Long rebel-Rebel-Parliament Arbitrary or No Were not Some of the Actions of this very House of Commons Arbitrary I dare Say those that suffered by them thought them so and the rest will be of the same mind if ever it comes to be their Turns to be so treated which they are not sure but at one time or other may happen At least I am sure the pulling down the Monarchy did Once before bring in Arbitrary power with a Vengeance and those that had clamoured against it as they do now when there was no cause for it durst not mutter a Sillable when there was and if they did really believe there were any danger of it Now we should hear much less than we do of it On Saturday the 18th of December The Bill for taking away the Court holden before the President and Council in the Marches of Wales was read the third time and passed and sent up to the Lords The rest of this day was spent in returning an Answer to his Majesties Speech On Munday following a Bill to prohibit the Importation of Foreign Guns was read the first time and Ordered a second reading And Mr. Aulnutt and Mr. Herbert were Ordered to be discharged being first Censured on their Knees and paying their Fees And that Sir John Lloyd Mayor and William Jackson and William Clutterbuck late Sheriffs of Bristol be sent for into Custody On Tuesday the 21 of December The Bill for Vniting his Majesties Protestant Subjects to the Church of England was read the second time and committed upon the Debate of the House And it was Ordered That Leave be given to bring in a Bill or Bills for Inspecting and Correcting Pluralities and Non-Residences relating to Ecclesiastical Benefices The same day they delivered their Answer to his Majesties late Speech on Wednesday the 15th of December which I will here insert according to my promise My Lords and Gentlemen AT the Opening of this Parliament I did acquaint you with the Alliances I had made with Spain and Holland as the best Measures that could be taken for the Safety of England and the Repose of Christendom But I told you withall That if Our Friendship became Unsafe to trust to it would not be wondred at if Our Neighbours should begin to take new Resolutions and perhaps such as might be fatal to Us. I must tell you That Our Allies cannot but see how little hath been done since this Meeting to Encourage their Dependance upon Us and I find by them That Unless We can be So United at home as to make Our Alliance valuable to them it will not be possible to Hinder them from Seeking some other Refuge and making Such New Friendships as will not be Consistent with Our Safety Consider that a Neglect of this Opportunity is Never to be repaired I did likewise lay the Matter plainly before You touching the Estate and Condition of Tangier I must Now tell you again That if that Place be thought worth the Keeping you must take such Consideration of it that it may be speedily Supply'd it being impossible for Me to Preserve it at an Expence so far above My Power I did
Experience this Nation once had on the like occasion In the Reign of such a Prince the Pope will be acknowledged Supream What shall the Pope be acknowledged as the King now is Supream in all Causes as well Temporal as Ecclesiastical Can any man that will stick to his Oath be forced to acknowledg this New minted Papal Supremacy which never had any being but onely in St. Peter's Patrimony where the Pope is a Temporal Prince Must all Cases forthwith be drawn under his Jurisdiction Then Wo be to Westminster-Hall though the Subjects have Sworn the contrary and all Causes either as Spiritual or in order to Spiritual things will be brought under his Jurisdiction The Lives Had the House any Prophets amongst them to fore-see this If a Protestant Prince should have a mind to play such a Freake it would not be possible to effect it whence then shall the Popish one get so much more Power Liberties and Estates of all such Protestants as value their Souls and their Religion more than their Secular Concernments will be Adjudged forfeited To all this we might Add That it appears in the Discovery of the Plot Who invited these Princes Assistance Who used these Arguments From whom is the performance to be Expected In all the Discovery I never see the Duke Himself Charged to have Done or Said any of these things and if Coleman and the Jesuits have Treated about them in his Name but without his Order from them onely the performance is to be Expected who have no power but if the Duke had promised these things himself the impossibility of the thing will Excuse him Sufficiently from the obligation of so wicked and foolish an Engagement That Foreign Princes were Invited to Assist in Securing the Crown to the Duke of York with Arguments from his great Zeal to establish Popery and to Extirpate Protestants whom they call Hereticks out of his Dominions and Such will expect performance Accordingly We further humbly beseech Your Majesty in your Great Wisdom to Consider It is not likely but that his Majesty did think of this before this Address had a being and they should do well to Consider That the Nature and Temper of the English Nation is Such as Experience shewed us in the late Times That an absolute Monarchy may be much more Easily Set up and Continued amongst us than a Common-Wealth and therefore it is as possible that in case of Such an Opposition the Duke may prevail and become Absolute it he please as that he should be Overcome and it is much more probable that this Royal Line will finally prevail if he do not and obtain the Succession then that an Oliver Cromwell will be able to Settle it in a New Family whom all will Hate and Envy And it ought also to be Considered France may Strike in and Settle The Monarchy Duke Popery and Arbitrary Government in case of opposition which is not likely without it Or it May be may endeavour to get the Crown for himself or his Brother However Rebellion and Civil War are as destructive as Popery and therefore Never to be chosen Whether in Case the Imperial Crown of this Protestant Kingdom should descend to the Duke of York the opposition which may possibly be made to his possessing it may not onely Endanger the further descent in the Royal Line But even Monarchy it self For these Reasons we are most humble Petitioners to Your most sacred Majesty I shall in the Conclusion shew his Majesty had much better Reasons in tender Commiseration to his Poor Protestant Subjects to deny their Petition and stick to the Reservation tho I believe he may grant their Bill when it be tender'd in a Parliamentary way But as for the Association I suppose His Majesty will desire to be Excused as long as ever he is able to remember how the Associated Counties and London defended His Fathers Person and the Protestant Religion and Kingdom and how difficult it will be to give him a Competent Security That this Association against his Royal Brother shall not be turned at one time or other upon one pretence or other against himself or his Government of which no care it seems is to be taken Especially after Such a Menace to the Monarchy which I believe may be Immortal if it remains till such an Act of Parliament pass That in Tender Commiseration of your Poor Protestant People Your Majesty will be Graciously pleased to depart from the Reservation in your said Speech and when a Bill shall be tendered to Your Majesty in a Parliamentary way to Disable the Duke of York from Inheriting the Crown Your Majesty will give your Royal Assent thereto and as Necessary to fortify and defend the same That Your Majesty will likewise be Graciously pleased to Assent to an ACT whereby Your Majesties Protestant Subjects may be enabled to Associate themselves for the defence of Your Majesties Person the Protestant Religion and the Security of Your Kingdoms These Requests we are Constrained Humbly to make to Your Majesty as of absolute Necessity for the Safe and Peaceable enjoyment of Our Religion That is come what will of Tangier and Flanders the Peace of Christendome and the Power of France till Your Majesty grant us these we are resolved to concern our selves for Nothing And when his Majesty hath granted them and what follows he need as little concern himself for the remainder Without these things the Alliances of England will not be Valuable nor the People encouraged to Contribute to Your Majesties Service And as some further Means for the preservation both of our Religion and PROPERTY we are Humble Suiters to Your Majesty These two Paragraphs smell so strong of the 19 Propositions at Vxbridge that I wonder more at them then all the rest of this Address for tho they do not in terms ask the Nomination of all these Civil Military and Naval Officers yet that must be the Consequence of it for if His Majesty be Judge of the Qualities of the Men which he imployes he may say they are at present all of them so qualified as they desire and then there is no Need of this Address in that particular or if on such general terms they may be allowed to have these Changed and His Majesty shall consent to it they may Except in the same manner against any other men his Majesty shall appoint ad infinitum till his Majesty shall Nominate themselves or such men as they shall please to Nominate and Appoint and they that shall be so Nominated by the Commons will without doubt pay their respects and obedience to them from whom they receive their preferment and all others that hope to succeed them that are So appointed at first will regard the profit arising from such preferments more than the glittering splendor of a Crown and so his Majesty being deprived of the dependance and Consequently of the defence of these Officers
of Parliaments I know the Legislative is very great and it ought to be so But yet I am of opinion That Parliaments cannot dis-inherit the Heir of the Crown and that if such an ACT should pass it would be invalid in it self And therefore I hope it will not seem strange that I should offer my Judgment against this Bill while it is in Debate in which I think I do that which is my Duty as a Member of this House Henry the Fourth of France was a Protestant his People most Papists who used some endeavours to prevent his coming to the Crown but when they found they were not likely to perfect their design without occasioning a Civil War they desisted concluding that a Civil War would probably bring on them more misery than a King of a different Religion and therefore Submitted Sir I hope we shall not permit our Passions to Guide us instead of Reason c. Thus far that Great Person To these Reasons if we please to add this other That it is so far from preventing our Calamities that it will Ascertain them at his Majesties Death with the Addition of a Civil War and in all likelyhood bring that upon us before that time for so soon as ever the Bill pass the Duke will have a Right to make a War upon England even in his Majesty's Life-time and what may be the event of that God onely Knows However to prevent Surprize there must be A Standing Army or an Association Kept up as long as the Duke Lives and what the Consequences of them are may be foreseen without difficulty the first Ruining the Liberties of the People and the Second Endangering the Prerogatives of the Crown and both of them in the divided Condition England now is in point of Religion tending to raise such Fears and Jealousies as will be almost as Uneasie and as Unsafe as a Popish Successor and all this brought upon us immediately whereas the other is future and Contingent On Thursday the 23 d. of December The Commons Ordered That the Thanks of the House should be given to Dr. Burnett for his Sermon Preached the day before and likewise for his Book relating to the History of the Reformation of the Church of England and that he be desired to Print his said Sermon And on Thursday the 5th of January following they Voted that he should be desired to proceed with and Compleat that good Work by him begun in Writing the History of the Reformation of the Church of England They Ordered That Leave should be given to bring in a Bill or Bills to Correct and Punish Atheisme Blasphemy Swearing and Debauchery and for the better Observation of the Lords Day These and several other Crimes have grown and prevailed upon this Nation for want of a Church Discipline and by reason of the Divisions amongst us in Points of Religion and till these things be taken care of all Laws against them will signifie Nothing Yet it might deliver the Government from the guilt of them and therefore it is heartily to be wished that Care may be taken to perfect this good Design and when further Care is taken of the Lords Day some care would be taken of the other Feasts and Fasts by Law Established in the Church of England This day also the Lords returned the Additional Act for Burying in Woollen passed without Amendment And by another Message Certified to the Commons That at their Rising they would Adjourn to the Next Munday Seven-night after And by another Message they sent down Mr. Seymour's Answer to the Articles of Impeachment against him The same day the Commons also passed a Vote of an Extraordinary Nature which was as followeth Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That Mr. Joseph Brown ought to be restored to all the Offices and Places which were taken from him by occasion of a Judgment given against him in the Court of Kings-Bench in Trinity Term 29 Caroli Secundi upon an Information for publishing an Vnlicensed Book called The Long Parliament Dissolved These Sorts of Writers were Now to be encouraged what might be but what Benefit Brown had by this Vote I never heard But the Next day being the 24th of December they took occasion to Chastise one Richard Thompson Clerk very Severely for he having been Complained of by some of the Dissenters who were Now the White Boys and the Sober Loyal Protestants and it having been remitted to a Committee to enquire into his Misdemeanors the House upon the return of the Committee passed these Votes Reselved N. C. That Richard Thompson Clerk has publickly defamed His Sacred Majesty Preached Sedition Vilified the Reformation Promoted Popery by Asserting Popish Principles Decrying the Popish Plot and turning the same upon the Protestants and endeavoured to Subvert the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliament and that he is a Scandal and Reproach to his Function Resolved That he be Impeached and a Committee appointed to prepare the said Impeachment and that the Report and the Resolution of the House thereupon be forthwith Printed This Thompson was accused for several Expressions both in Preaching and Discourse But they mostly fixed upon a Sermon Preached the 30th of January 1679. See the Printed Papers wherein he said it seems the Presbyterians were such persons as the Devil Blusht at Accused Hamden for chocsing to Rebel rather than pay the Ship-Money which he said was the King's Right by Law Accused Mr. Calvin to have been the first that Preached the King-Killing Doctrine And from thence inferred That a Presbyterian qua talis is as great a Traytor as any Priest or Jesuit But one Witness saith he said Worse And that he had also frequently cast Evil Aspersions against Several Divines at Bristol of Great Note viz. Mr. Chetwind Mr. Standfast Mr. Crossman and Mr. Palmer and others saying That such as went to their Lectures were the Brats of the Devil 2. That he had spoken in Sermons and elsewhere several hard Things against the Petitions for the Sitting of the Parliament as That it was the Seed of Rebellion and like to 41. c. 3. That he had said There was great Noise of a Popish Plot but there was Nothing in it but a Presbyterian Plot c. 4. He was Accused to have approved of the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in the Points of Justification Auricular Confession Penance Extream Vnction and Crisme in Baptisme and the Single Life of the Clergy saying That if he were as well Satisfied of other things as he was of these he would not have been so long Separated from the Catholick Church 5. He had spoken as they said some ill things of Queen Elizabeth and Henry the 8th as Church-Robbers and against his Majesty too which tho I care not to repeat yet they are nothing in comparison to what the Dissenters have published in Print against his Majesty What Answer the Man would have made
and Ordered others to be drawn against Sir Francis North Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas Sir Thomas Jones one of the Justices of the Kings-Bench and Sir Richard Weston one of the Barons of the Exchequer So they were resolved to find themselves work tho they had refused to do the King's Business till that was granted which was impossible to be had this Session of Parliament Thursday the 6th of January A Bill for the more Easie Collecting the Duty of Hearth-Money was read a second time and committed upon the Debate of the House A Bill for Repealing the Act for the Well-Governing of Corporations was read the second time and committed Sir Philip Skippon was Excused from being taken into Custody for his Default in not attending the House in the Call there of the Tuesday before Colonel Birch reporting from the Committee appointed to receive Informations relating to the Popish Plott in Ireland That the Committee having proceeded upon the Matters to them referred had taken several Examinations and received the Answer of Sir John Davis and had also perused several Informations transmitted from the House of Lords relating to the said Plott All which he read in his place and afterwards delivered the same in at the Clerks Table where the same were again read The House then took into Consideration the Message sent from the Lords the Tuesday before wherein they desired the Concurrence of the House and Resolved That the House did agree with the Lords with the addition of these Words That the Duke of York being a Papist and the Expectation of his coming to the Crown hath given the Greatest Countenance and Encouragement thereto as well as to the Horrid Popish Plot in this Kingdome of England And they resolved to deliver the said Vote to the Lords at a Conference and Appointed a Committee to draw up Reasons to be offered at the said Conference Ordered That the several Informations of John Macnamara Maurice Fitz-Gerrald and James Mash that day read to the House relating to the Irish Plot be forthwith Printed Resolved That Rich. Poure Earl of Tyrone in the Kingdom of Ireland be Impeached of High Treason And that the Lord Dursley do go up to the Bar of the Lords and Impeach him c. and pray that he may be Committed to Safe Custody And further Ordered That the Committee appointed to prepare the Evidence against the Popish Lords in the Tower do prepare the said Impeachment Ordered That the further Consideration of the said Report in relation to Arthur Earl of Anglesey and Sir John Davis be Adjourned to Saturday Morning next at Ten of the Clock in a full House When it was Adjourned to Munday following which was their last day and gave them occasion for other Thoughts On Friday the 7th day of January The ingrossed Articles of Impeachment against Sir William Scroggs were Read and sent up to the Lords by the Lord Cavendish A Bill to prevent Vexatious Actions was read the first time and Ordered a second reading A Bill to prevent the Symony of one person from prejudicing another was read the first time and Ordered a second reading The Bill of Discovery of Settlements of Estates for Superstitious Uses was read the second time and committed upon the debate of the House Then the House according to their Order entred into Consideration of his Majesty's Message sent to the House the Tuesday before and Voted as followeth Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That there is no Security or Safety for the Protestant Religion the King's Life or the Well Constituted and Established Government of this Kingdom without passing a Bill for disabling James Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging and to rely upon any other means or remedies without such a Bill is not onely Insufficient but dangerous Resolved That his Majesty in his last Message having assured this House of his readiness to Concur in all other means for the preservation of the Protestant Religion this House doth declare That until a Bill be likewise passed for Excluding the Duke of York this House cannot give any Supply to his Majesty without Danger to his Majesties Person Extream Hazard of the Protestant Religion and Vnfaithfulness to Those by whom this House is trusted It seems the loss of Tangier and of all our Alliances abroad did not at all Hazard the Protestant Religion or Endanger his Majesties Person Resolved That all Persons who Advised his Majesty in his last Message to this House to insist upon an Opinion against the Bill for Excluding the Duke of York Have given pernicious Counsel to his Majesty and Are Promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdome Resolved That George Earl of Halifax Henry Marquess of Worcester Henry Earl of Clarendon in the Opinion of this House are persons who Advised his Majesty in his last Message to this House to insist upon an Opinion against the Bill for Excluding the Duke of York and have therein given pernicious Counsel to his Majesty and are Promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdom Resolved That an Humble Address be presented to his Majesty to remove Lawrence Hide Esq from his Majesties Councils and Presence and from his Office in the Treasury for ever Resolved That an Humble Address be presented to his Majesty to remove Henry Marquess of Worcester from his Presence and Councils and all the Offices and Imployments of Honour and Profit for ever Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That Lewis Earl of Feversham is a Promoter of Popery and of the French Interest and a Dangerous Enemy to the King and Kingdom Resolved That an Humble Address be made to his Majesty to remove him from all Military Offices and Commands and from all other Publick Offices and Imployments and from his Majesties Councils and Presence for ever But here was no Addresses Voted against George Earl of Halyfax nor Henry Earl of Clarendon A Motion being made also for an Address to his Majesty to remove Edward Seymour Esq from his Majesties Council and Presence it was Adjourned to the Munday following Having taken all this care to Chastise the Great Men who as they believed had opposed them in this great business in the Next place they undertook to Chastise his Majesty Himself and if their design had taken effect as it is to be hoped it Never will his Majesty and all his Successors should have Known what it is to Anger a House of Commons However they meant well for they Resolved That whoever should hereafter Lend or cause to be lent by way of Advance any Money upon the Branches of the King's Revenue arising by Customs Excise or Hearth-Money that is all the principal Branches shall be Adjudged to hinder the Sitting of Parliaments and shall be responsible for the same in Parliament Resolved That whoever shall accept or buy any Tally of Anticipation upon
any part of the King's Revenue or whosoever shall pay such Tally hereafter to be struck shall be adjudged to hinder the Sittings of Parliaments and shall be responsable therefore in Parliament First they Resolve they would give nothing themselves and then they terrify all others as much as in them lyeth from Lending or Advancing any Money to him which was not according to their Writ of Election to Advise his Majesty but by duress to force and compel him to Submit to their better Judgment as became Loyal and Dutiful Subjects So that his Majesty might well say of these Votes That instead of giving him assistance to Support his Allies or enabling him to Preserve Tangier they tended rather to disable him from contributing towards either by his own Revenue or Credit not only exposing him to all Dangers that might happen either at home or abroad but endeavouring to deprive him of the possibility of Supporting the Government it Self and to reduce him to a more helpless condition than the meanest of his Subjects A Sad and a very Just Complaint and Accordingly resented by that vast Number of People that have since Addressed to thank his Majesty for that Declaration On Saturday the 8th of January The Lords sent a Message to the Commons to acquaint them that their Lordships had appointed that day Sevennight for hearing the Cause upon the Impeachment of Mr. Seymour and that their House might reply if they thought fit but they had no leisure to take notice of it Information being given to the House by the Serjeant at Arms that Sir John Lloyd Sir Edward Philips Herbert Herring Miles Baspole _____ Iles and Arthur Yeomans who for divers great Misdemeanors by them committed as was pretended against the Priviledge of their House were Ordered to be taken in Custody of the said Serjeant did Abscond themselves that the said Order could not be put in Execution against them hereupon they Ordered That an Humble Application should be made to his Majesty from their House by Such Members thereof as were of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council desiring his Majesty to Issue out his Royal Proclamation for the Apprehending the said several persons in case they should not render themselves to the Serjeant by a certain day therein to be limited The same day they Ordered That a Committee should be Appointed to inspect the Journals of their House and of the House of Lords and Precedents to Justify and Maintain That the Lords ought to Commit Persons to Safe Custody when Impeached for High Treason by the Commons in Parliament and to make report thereof to the House Which Vote had relation to Sir William Scroggs And so we are come to the day that finally put an End to all their Proceedings which was Munday the 10th day of January and a great Wonder it was that his Majesty could endure them so long They began the day with a Vote which shews the Meaning and Tendance of all the rest Resolved That whosoever Advised his Majesty to Prorogue this Parliament to any other purpose than in order to the passing of a Bill for the Exclusion of James Duke of York is a betrayer of the King the Protestant Religion and of the Kingdom of England A Promoter of the French Interest and a Pensioner to France They Knew then that they were to be Prorogued but they Knew not by whose Advice and so if his Majesty did it without any Advice then all these Hard words were thrown at him but by whomsoever it were done this Vote could have no good meaning or effect and must end in Smoke or Tumults and Confusion 2. Resolved That the Thanks of this House be given to the City of London for their Manifest Loyalty to the King their Care Charge and Vigilancy for the Preservation of his Majesties Person and of the Protestant Religion Ordered That the Members that Serve for the City of London do accordingly give them the Thanks of the House Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That the City of London was Burnt in the Year 1666 by the Papists designing thereby to Introduce Arbitrary Power and Popery into the Kingdom Resolved That the Commissioners of the Customes and other Officers of the Custom-House have Wilfully broken the Law prohibiting the Importation of French Wines and other Commodities and that if they shall hereafter Wilfully or Negligently break that Law they shall be questioned therefore in Parliament Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That James Duke of Monmouth hath been removed from his Offices and Commands by the Influence of the Duke of York Ordered That an humble Application be made to his Majesty from this House by such Members thereof as are of his Majesties Honourable Privy-Council to desire his Majesty to restore the said James Duke of Monmouth to his said Offices and Commands This was excellently timed and they had so obliged his Majesty they might be sure he would not deny them Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House That the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws is at this time Grievous to the Subject a weakning of the Protestant Interest and incouragement to Popery and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom Here their Mouths were stopt by a Message from the King by Edward Carteret Usher of the Black-Rod Acquainting them that the King Commanded them to Attend him immediately in the House of Peers And there his Majesty Prorogued them to the Thursday Sevennight being the 20th of that Instant January 1680. 1. His Majesty gave his Royal Assent to the Act Prohiting the Importation of Cattle from Ireland 2. To the Act for Supplying the late Act for Burying in Woollen 3. And to an Act To rectifie Errors in Sir Charles Houghton 's Settlement There was another Act for Repeal of the Act of the 35 of Elizabeth ready to be passed and it was Lost No body knew how and was never tendred to his Majesty Soon after this Parliament was Dissolved by Proclamation to the great Satisfaction of all but the Dissenters who if they had been able to consider things Aright had as little reason to be pleased with their Proceedings as any of the rest for they did them no other Service then to Exasperate the King and the Government against them and have made them to be more prosecuted and less pitied than they were before The Popish Party received almost as little damage by them as the Dissenters did Advantage for they bending their force Equally against the Succession and Popery all their Designs if they had any beyond clamour against the Papists were broken Their Arbitrary and Illegal Proceedings against the Abhorrers of the Tumultuous Petitions for the Sitting of the Parliament procured more Friends to the Duke of York then perhaps he would otherwise have had and gave the English Gentry an Excellent Prospect what they might Expect from these Warm Gentlemen if ever they fell into their hands The King had
a fair Warning also to look to Himself and the Religion by Law Established when he saw with how little Reverence these Protestants at Large treated him while his Prerogatives were intire and wholly in his Own Hands and had he but yielded to them in the Point of the Duke of York they would Soon have taught him how little was to be gotten by Complying with men of their temper The only Service they did was to the French King for our Allies beyond Seas seeing that No Assistance was to be Expected from England Surrendred their strongest Towns to him for the Asking and so suffered the worst effects of War in Peace The City of London Lost the hopes of having any more Parliaments amongst them till Times be better and more Settled by their grateful Applications to them for their Loyalty and Care of the Protestant Religion at Large The Trade of a Considerable part of the Nation is ruined not for want of Laws but by too many which have restrained that intercourse and freedom that ought to be betwixt Us and our Neighbour Nations yet I cannot say that this Parliament would have relieved the Nation in that point if they had Continued Longer when it is considered with what care and industry the Act for the prohibition of Irish Cattel was carried against all opposition tho it is damageable to a very considerable part of the Nation if not to the whole and had these Gentlemen been equally concerned for the Suppressing of Popery as they were for this ACT Some of those Bills at least that were sent down from the Lords or began by the Commons might have been ready as well as this for the Royal Assent Yet they had some very good Bills relating to Trade under consideration but they were not so Zealous in that Concern as they ought to have been but rather seemed to fear the State of the People on that account should be made too easie before they had obtained their other Ends of his Majesty and the Government Of this their Vote about the Act for prohibition of the French Trade may be an instance for however that Act might be of great use if the Dutch would consent to prohibit all Trade with them as well as We yet as Long as they go on to Trade with them and we do not it onely tends to impoverish the King and Us and Inrich them and therefore ought to have been left at liberty till they and we can mutually agree to stop it Nor did the Protestant Religion by Law established fare any better for that being equally opposed by the Dissenters on one hand and the Papists on the other under pretence of Uniting us against the latter the former were encouraged by their Votes and Bills to endeavour her ruine The Bill for Uniting his Majesties Protestant Subjects is a perfect Toleration of almost all other Religions which are or shall be amongst us except Popery and had it and the other Bill for Exempting them from the Penalties of the Laws made against the Popish Recusants passed it would not have been possible to have Executed them or any other against the Papists For it cannot be imagined that the Papists could not have been able to have got themselves Listed amongst some of our Dissenters or other and then upon making the Declaration and producing two Persons as Witness that they believed them to be Protestant Dissenters they would have had the liberty to have inflamed both those Dissenters that were Comprehended and those that were Tolerated against the entire Conformists and these again against them And so both Popery should have gone unpunished and the Feuds amongst our selves would have grown to that height that nothing but a standing Army would have been able to have kept us in any tolerable quiet If the Ministers of the Church of England had been part of them entire Conformists and part of them Presbyterians those that were of the first sort would have kept up the Religion Established as high or higher then now and the other Party must have laid aside totally the use of the Common-Prayer as well as the Surplice Cross and Kneeling at the Lords Supper or else their whole Party which now follow them would have all left them and so another Faction would have risen in the Church of Semi-Conformists and all those that are without the Church would have continued as now they are under other Teachers only more insolent and more turbulent and so instead of uniting us against the Papists and Popery which is the pretended cause of the Act we should have been more divided and Animated against each other then now we are It was one of the Rules prescribed by that Bill That no person should be admitted to take the Declaration who refused the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy when tendred unto him Now this would have left all the Quakers Anabaptists and several other Sects in the same state of Persecution as they call it as they now are and great Numbers of the Other Sects too when they had considered of it would have Scrupled it as well as they in Scotland have done and so those that were totally Excluded would have been enraged against those that had been tolerated as having betrayed them first and then left them to the Severity of the Law and by that time all these Parties viz. the Rigid Conformists 2. Semi-Conformists 3. Tolerated and Non-Tolerated Protestants all enraged against each other had for some time been fermented by the Jesuits and Popish Party a man may guess what kind of Vnion there would have been amongst Protestants in England And when they had gained all this what Security could have been given that they would have rested here that Act which one Parliament makes another may Repeal and they would never have been Secure of Keeping what they had gained but by taking care to fill the House of Commons in every Parliament with the most Factious men they could pick out and they could never have maintained their reputation with the Party but by pushing things forward and so every Sessions something more must have been granted for the better Security of the Union and removing of Fears and Jealousies till at last we had been brought to the same state of Confusion his Majesty found us in at his Return That a considerable number of these Dissenters are as much against Monarchy as Conformity is Apparent by their Books discourses and former practice Now what Security should his Majesty have had that when this Party had by impunity and time been strong enough to have dealt with the Loyal Party they would not have endeavoured to be dispensed with from obeying him or any other King but Christ Jesus and then Nothing could have united Protestants and Secured us against Popery but the Laying aside the Kingly Government and the Setting up a Common-wealth and of this they have already given some Notable hints in their Pamphlets and when they are told the
Exclusion of the Duke of York will onely Secure them once from a Popish Prince and make them that follow more Cautious how they discover themselves too soon and that if any Actual King of England should turn Papist which is as possible and more probable then that another Heir should do it they would then be in the same state as if the Duke Succeeded They constantly reply That it is unreasonable it should be in the power of one man to reduce us to Popery that is It is not reasonable that Kingly Government should be any Longer Continued amongst us From all which I conclude That the project of Uniting Protestants by remitting the Laws against the Dissenters is impossible and that these Consequences being Obvious and Apparent before-hand there could be no other design in the Attempt but the ruine of the Monarchy and the introducing Confusion and War amongst us at least these would certainly have followed So that the day a Toleration or which is all one an Vnion amongst Protestants upon the terms propounded is settled the Monarchy must be made Absolute or it will not Stand And Provision must be made to maintain a Standing Army bigg enough eo Keep all Parties Quiet how much soever they are averse to it or our Peace at home will not be Maintained And as to all Foreign affairs England must look on and suffer all things to go as they will for Neither King nor Common-Wealth will be in a Condition to do any thing abroad in that unsettled state things will be at home and by that time England comes to settle France if God interpose not by Miracles will have brought under So many of its Neighbours that England will be able to make no effectual resistance if it should be attacked by that Potent Kingdom Conclusion My dearest Countrymen I humbly begg you would be pleased to reflect Seriously upon this in time if it be not Now too late and Unite heartily with His Majesty our most Gracious and Sweet-Natured Soveraign and the Religion Established and not suffer your selves to be led by pretended Fears into real and unavoidable Slavery and Consusion attended with all the Miseries of War and which as much as Man can foresee must end in Popery and a French Conquest of us I have laid the Matter plainly before you not Knowing what may follow as to my Self but this I am sure of that Advantage I can have none by it I am a private person and I Expect so to live and die I have no aim at any Publick Imployment or Place of Trust nor any means to attain it if I had I am Contented with the State God hath Set me In. And the Utmost I wish for is to Leave things to my Posterity as they ought Now to be if the Laws had their due Effects and therefore I am compelled by Nothing but my Zealous affection for my Country which next God and my own Soul I love above all things to run the hazard of giving you this Advice and thereby drawing upon me the Malice and Revenge of all those that seek to Ruine and Enslave You. As to those Gentlemen of the House of Commons who may possibly take offence at What I have written for all I am sure will not I desire they would in cool blood Consider what they have done and then let them think of Me what they please For if ever Faction Anger and ill designs were entertained by so great a Body of Men as the Major part of this House was it is Apparent they were here And I will instance in but a few Particulars tho I might in more Can any mortal man produce either Precedent or Law to Justifie the Imprisonment of the Gentlemen called the Abhorrers Have the meanest people of England a right to Petition the King against his Express Command in a thing of which he is the Sole Judge by all our Laws and that by Multitudes of Hands procured by men that have no authority for that purpose and may not Grand-Juries Justices of the Peace and other such like persons oppose them or which is less disown it But suppose they did more than they ought was it fit to imprison them before they were allowed to defend themselves Gentlemen it served your turn now but it may one day be turn'd against you and then consider how you will take it The Corporations do Now most of them send Gentlemen but they may when they please lay You by and send Mechanicks Trades-men Shop-Keepers How would your high spirits brook it to be sent for in Custody and made to Kneel without being Suffered to Speak and onely for doing your duties to such men and so be sent home again I am sure no English Gentleman can brook this indignity but with such inward Resentments as befit the Generosity and Temper of that Nation or otherwise I must think we are prepared for Slavery and all that Manly Courage that hath made our People Renowned in all Countries in the World is degenerated into the Most Shameful Effeminacy and Cowardise Onely in this case Religion and Loyalty made them yield even to Injustice and Oppression As long as his Sacred Majesty thought fit to Suffer it they Submitted but with such Thoughts as would have taught you more Justice and Moderation if this had not been in the case Your styling all those Gentlemen that had been brought in to the Commission of the Peace in the room of some others displaced MEN of Arbitrary Principles and Countenancers of Papists and Popery and if you could have invented more Odious Names and Words than these you might with as much truth and ingenuity have bestowed them upon them Was it fairly done or was it not Is it one of the Priviledges of your House to Vote Me a Jew or a Turk or that I was one of those men that occasioned the Breach betwixt Charles the First and his Parliament If it be then I will say no more but that I begg your Pardon and Kneel down at the Bar of a House of Commons with the same Submission as if I believed the Speaker Infallible and every Member an Angel But if your Votes ought to be not only Consonant to Law but agreeable to the truth of things then that Passage was hastily and passionately written and not well Considered and care ought to be taken for the future to Write more Cautiously and Speak and Vote like Men that had a little respect to your Places Your Votes of the 7th of January 1680. concerning his Majesties Revenues and borrowing of Money upon them are they justifiable or no may I not lend the King 100 l. if I please without your leave and not incur the danger of being reputed an Enemy to the Sitting of Parliaments Suppose the French should Land in England or Ireland or the Papists or Dissenters rise and the King Want Money to suppress the one or drive out the other must we hazard his and our Ruine rather
shall be Exposed Naked and Friendless to the Fury of those Reipublicans that Murthered his Royal Father and the Religion by Law Established to the Mercy of those that have Sworn the Ruine of it And finally the Property and Liberty of the Subject shall be Exposed to those men who have given the World too good an Account already what Trusty Guardians of them they are ever to be trusted with them again till the Memory of the late Times shall perish not onely as to the Memories of Men but Books and Records But yet after all this the branding those Gentlemen that were brought in without the Least Exception to Supply the places of those that were turned out of the Commission of the Peace and Lieutenancy with the odious Titles of Men of Arbitrary Prineciples and Favourers of Papists and Popery is in my poor Judgment Much worse and as it was impossible the Major part of the House should think so of them all so I am fully perswaded if Passion had not had too great a dominion over them they would Never have vented so Crude an Assertion in So August a place in So Serious a Manner to his Majesty and the whole World they may be pleased to think of this again Now the heat perhaps is over for as they have worded it it can never be maintained it being impossible to be known or proved nor is any favourable Construction to be allowed to an Expression and Declaration so publickly and deliberately made by so many men in so publick a Trust That from henceforth such Persons only may be Judges within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales as are men of Ability Integrity and Known Affection to the Protestant Religion and that they may hold their Offices and Salaries quam diu se bene gesserint That several Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace fitly qualified for those Imployments having been of late displaced and others put in their room Who are MEN of Arbitrary Principles and Countenancers of Papists and Popery Such onely may bear the Office of a Lord-Lieutenant as are persons of Integrity and Known Affection to the Protestant Religion That Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace may be also So qualified and may be moreover Men of Ability of Estates and Interest in their Country That none may be imployed as Military Officers or Officers in Your Majesties Fleet but Men of Known Experience Courage and Affection to the Protestant Religion These our Humble Requests being obtained we shall on our parts be ready to Assist Your Majesty for the preservation of Tangier and for putting your Majesties Fleet into Such a Condition as it may preserve your Majesties Soveraignty of the Seas and be for the Defence of the Nation If Your Majesty hath or shall make any Alliances for Defence of the Protestant Religion and Interest and Security of this Kingdom this House will be ready to Assist and Stand by your Majesty in the Support of the same AFTER this our Humble Answer to Your Majesties Gracious Speech Doubtless after all this fine Language and strong Reason if any Evil Instrument any man of Arbitrary Principles or favourer of Papists or Popery or finally if his Majesty or any Considerable part of the Nation should thro humane infirmity happen to Suspect either your Prudence in delaying the Care of these Great Things to so long a day or your Loyalty in making these demands of your Natural Soveraign or your Charity and Candor in bestowing Commendations on your fellow Subjects his Majesties Officers at the rate you have done I say if any such misfortune should happen you are not to Wonder much at it for great Merits and great Virtues great Attempts and Heroick Undertakings are Seldom well received at present but Posterity will Admire and Applaud them according to their Deserts we hope no Evil instruments whatsoever shall be able to lessen your Majesties Esteem of that Fidelity and Affection we bear to Your Majesties Service but that Your Majesty will always retain in your Royal Breast that Favourable Opinion of Vs your Loyal Commons that those other good Bills which we have now under Consideration Conducing to the great Ends we have before Mentioned as also all Laws for the Benefit and Comfort of Your People which shall from time to time be tendred for Your Majesties Royal Assent shall find acceptance with Your Majesty I will here insert those Reasons I mentioned above against the Bill of Exclusion which were delivered in the House of Commons the Fourth day of November before this Address by a Great Person a Member of that House Sir L. J. by which letters I understand Sir Leoline Jenkins one of the Principal Secretaries of State Sir I have spent much of my time in studying the Laws of this Land and I pretend to know something of the Law of Foreign Countries as Well as of our own and I have upon this occasion well considered of them but cannot find how we can Justifie the passing of this Bill rather much against it First I think it contrary to Natural Justice that We should proceed to Condemnation not only before Conviction but before we have heard the Party or Examined any Witness about him I am sure none in his defence And to do this by making a New Law of purpose when you have Old Laws in being that have appointed a Punishment to his Crime I humbly conceive is very Severe and contrary to the usual Proceedings of this House and the Birth-Right of every English-man Secondly I think it is Contrary to the Principles of Our Religion that we should dispossess a man of his Birth-Right because he differs from us in point of Faith For it is not agreed by all that Dominion is sounded in Grace For my part I think there is more of Popery in this Bill than there can possibly be in the Nation without it for none but Papists and Fifth-Monarchy-men did ever go about to dis-inherit men for their Religion Thirdly I am of opinion that the Kings of England have their Right from God alone and that no Power on Earth can deprive them of it And I hope this House will not attempt to do any thing which is so precisely contrary not only to the Law of God but the Law of the Land too For if this Bill should pass it would Change the Essence of the Monarchy and Make the Crown Elective For by the same reason that this Parliament may dis-inherit this Prince for his Religion other Parliaments may dis-inherit another upon some other pretence which they may Suggest and so Consequently by such Exclusions elect whom they please Fourthly It is against the Oath of Allegiance taken in its own sense without Jesuitical Evasions For by binding all persons to the King his Heirs and Successors the Duke as Presumptive Heir must be understood And I am of opinion that it cannot be dispensed withal Sir I will be very cautious how I dispute the Power