OBSERVATIONS Upon a late LIBEL called A Letter from a Person of Quality to his Friend concerning the Kings Declaration c WE live in an Age where ill humor and Malice to the Government do so prevail that men rail without any manner of distinction and without examining what things are good or bad in themselves there seemeth to be no other Rule allowed by one sort of Men than that they cannot Err and the King cannot be in the Right This general Maxim is so easie by taking the trouble of any further enquiry that no wonder if it is cherished and entertained and those who are so prepossessed are ready to turn the best things to a wrong sense and to receive such an interpretation of every thing that comes from the Court as their Misleaders are pleased to impose upon them The Wiser sort of them knowing nothing is so destructive to their ends as that the Government should take such measures as might silence their Objections have an interest to blast every thing that is done on that side and to disfigure with the colours they put upon them all such things as might undeceive the People and reconcile them to the Crown for at the same time they appear so eager to have Grievances redressed their more secret Prayers are that they may be increased If the Court maketh any false steps or giveth any provocation it raiseth Noise and Clamour the voice against it is loud but the killing grief that afflicteth them inwardly and galleth them to the soul is when the King doth a gracious or a plausible Act to the Publick Of this there cannot be a greater instance than their being so afflicted at the Kings late Declaration It was an evidence of their grief that it was so long before they answered it It was received with a silent indignation that the Court should presume to out-argue them and though they had rage enough to rail yet they were for some time restrained from their usual Dialect by the reverence that is due to Reason even when it is contrary to our Passions or Interests At last when they saw the effect it had in the Nation and being not without reason apprehensive that mens eyes might be so opened as to see them through their popular Disguise they thought of two ills it was advisable to chuse the least and rather than lie under the general reproach of having nothing to say they chose to venture a Reply though they could not make a good one presuming upon the success they had met with in their imposing upon the world and believing it would be so favourably disposed on their side that where their false Arguments could not pass they would at least be connived at This being after more than one Meeting resolved at a Consult out cometh a Letter to a Friend which of late signifieth little less than a Proclamation set out by the Authority of the high and mighty Conservators of England there is only this difference which is for their advantage that if these Letters take in the world they are imputed to the wisdom of these great Governors if not they are easily laid upon some foolish fellow that would be scribling by which means the veneration due to these Princes of the People remains unblemished and entire This coming with other Pamphlets to me in the Country I was tempted to make some short Observations which are submitted to the censure of the unbyassed Reader First they are troubled that though Parliaments are frequent they are short and useless The King hath done his part in calling Parliaments often for which he is to be thanked except it can be made evident it was his fault that they were of no longer continuance so far from that it is plain these men who complain have been so much the cause of the late Dissolutions that one would swear they designed to provoke the King to them and that he hath had in these cases so much patience he can hardly answer it to the Nation whose peace he is entrusted with and bound to preserve The Excesses of the Commons were beyond the cure of lower Remedies and there was no other choice left than either to part with the Parliament or let the two Houses continue sitting in a state of Hostility hardly possible to be reconciled of which the consequences are so obvious and might have been so fatal that we are to thank God the Constitution of the Government hath lodged this necessary Power in the Crown to preserve us from Ruine upon such occasions But fain they would have Parliaments sit as long as they please and I cannot blame them Authority is sweet and a Member of Parliament that would have us believe he bringeth all the sense of his Country or Corporation along with him cometh to teach the King better manners and to advise him to keep better company I say for such a dignified Creature as this is by one word of the Kings mouth to be reduced into his own single self again is so cruel a change that no wonder if men so degraded are angry at it and would be glad instead of being as little men as their Neighbors to gain that superiority which Nature denied them by virtue of an Authority to continue for their lives It seemeth then by this that a long Parliament is not in it self a Grievance for now they would have one that they think their Party shall prevail in it And it is observable that those who were for the first Long Parliament and against the second are now the chief men that would have a third How far this should recommend the opinion either to the King or the Nation I leave every man to judge but to do these men right they are for the present so modest they will not speak out so I will do it for them The little thing they would have is a House of Commons that may do what they will how they will and as long as they will that is for ever whether the King liveth or dieth they must not be discomposed nor their Authority interrupted for I would fain know where lieth the real difference between having a Parliament sit for ever or till all Grievances are redressed the distinction will be very nice in an Age where it is Treason against the People not to grumble against the Government These rich Mines of Fears and Jealousies can never be exhausted in our time so that the Workmen are sure not only to be employed for their lives but to secure their Posterities being so after them The Monarchy in the mean time would be in a good case to be under the continual Wardship of such severe Guardians and these very Gentlemen who have upon another occasion affirmed that the very name of King must of necessity carry the authority along with it would not fail to give a full instance to the contrary if they could ever catch our Master in the Net of a Perpetual Parliament They
where is the Justice of doing that for which they have no authority or the Wisdom of doing that which hath no effect only it sheweth their good will by throwing the greatest indignity they could upon the Government Men will lend still notwithstanding this mighty Vote and perhaps upon easier terms than these Gentlemen would require for any money they part with in Parliament In the mean time would these equitable men take it well if by their example the King should send to all the Burroughs and Counties in England not to chuse such and such men nor to trust those with a share in making Laws who have in the late Parliaments assumed to themselves the priviledge of breaking them The argument is at least as strong on the Kings side without any Complement to Majesty as they can pretend to make theirs upon the pretence of distrust or the mis-application of the Publick Money and yet I persuade my self they would hardly allow such a proceeding or commend it as they do their own to be wise and justifiable They take so much care of the Houshold that one would ordinarily suspect they had some Correspondence with the discontented Reformadoes of the Green-Cloth I who live in the Country will never speak against the smell of Beef no more than I will recommend that of Match to be at White-Hall instead of it But I am far from apprehending the Country Farmer to be concerned in the late Retrenchments for ever since the Tables were removed out of the Hall and the Brewis turned into Fricassees they have lost their part in them and especially since the Kings coming in not only the Country Farmer but the Country Gentleman and if you will the Country Lord too might have been shrewdly disappointed if they had depended upon the Hospitality of the White-Staves for a Dinner That whole business was brought into so unpopular a shape that the Nation will hardly take up Arms to restore three or four Tables they are rather pleased to see them put down since they were so transformed and wholly altered from their first institution The Bankers are called the Bane of the Nation if so I have a great mind to believe if it was possible it was for that reason alone the Earl of Shaftsbury broke them I never was partial to that sort of men and so will leave them to make their own Apologies but I must say it seemeth a little hard to me to make these Positions The Bankers nor any body else must lend the King Money The Kings Wants are only to be supplied by Parliament The Parliament is not to give the King a farthing These laid together have in my judgment a very odd appearance Ay but the King shall have money enough upon good terms from the Parliament Shall he so These good terms are to come for those that have hitherto been offered are so far from tempting that they may rather fright the King from dealing with the same Chapmen Would these Gentlemen grow a little kinder and treat for a Mortgage of the Crown allowing equity of Redemption it might incline the King to hearken to them but by all that appeareth yet we may conclude nothing less will satisfie than a total surrender and passing away his title to them In the case of 35 Eliz. it is pretended the Commons did not assume the power of suspending Acts of Parliament what was it then They did a thing they had a mind to in a manner they cannot justifie they have as much right to make a Law as they have singly to declare what is Law but because they seem to give up the cause by the flatness of their answer I will only add that as their zeal in this case transported them beyond their bounds it is to be hoped time and second thoughts will reduce them to a better temper against the next Meeting In Mr. Fitz-barrls's Case it is said the Commons could not come to a Conference before they came to a Resolution suppose it what then must that Resolution of necessity produce such Votes If they had upon a cool Debate resolved that they were in the right and sent to confer with the Lords either to have brought them to their opinion or laid it aside if the Lords could have used arguments strong enough to convince them they had prevented all objection But to say the Commons could not resolve this amongst themselves without such injurious and unparliamentary terms as they were pleased to make use of in their Votes is to say if I have a difference with another man and would discourse with him to compose it I must needs for the better asserting my own right send him word beforehand he is a Rogue and a Villain as a fitting Preliminary for a friendly Conference in order to an Agreement For their Votes upon this occasion have as much as in them lay put the House of Lords under an Interdict and fixed such a Character upon their whole Body that if were not a little sanctified by that chosen Remnant of Protesting Lords I do not know but it might bear an Action to be called by the Scandalous name of a Peer after a Sentence that putteth all the Lords in as i◠a condition as those few that in the former Parliament they bestowed their Votes upon How much soever these Gentlemen may flatter themselves in this matter I can assure them we in the Country understand it otherwise than they would have us for by the infinite heat and strugling to put off his Tryal both in and since the Parliament and by the Character of the Persons who principally appear in it we are apt to conclude so warm a Contention must be grounded upon something very considerable and we take it to be that could this point be gained men might either speak or act Treason with impunity and that would be of such excellent use to some men that no wonder if they are very earnest to compass it I am very glad to hear there is nothing to be said for those angry Men who have particular designs if any thing could have been said I am confident it might concern some of those who have had a hand in this Paper so far as to have persuaded them to venture at their Apology There is an Assertion made with the modesty and truth which belongeth to their Party viz. That all who are out of their places might have kept them If I am either rightly informed or may be allowed to guess from what they deserved it is perhaps the only excuse those men have for their ill manners that from the prospect they had of being turned out they chose to prevent the Kings Justice and to gain popularity by endeavouring asmuch as in them lay to threw the affront upon him The Court hath long lain under the scandal of Popery but it was news to me that they were for a Common-wealth too This is so very unlikely that for the sake of our Religion which dependeth so much upon their credit I must give them warning to be a little more cautious in their Accusations and take care that one part of their charge may agree with another else as it happeneth to their Mufti Dr. Oats men will be tempted by their alledging things impossible to have doubts even of that part of their Evidence which may be true The last Paragraph telleth us how we shall be happy and the King be himself I was eager to know this receipt having a great mind for my own sake and for every bodies else to have such a thing compassed but by taking the sense of the words as well as I can it is no more than this in short All will be well if the King will be entirely governed by the House of Commons for we know they alone signifie the Parliament as they have more than once given us to understand by their Votes and that their Advices are to be Commands is no more a doubt than that their Orders are to be Laws I shall give no answer to this but may be permitted to guess the Kings will be 〈◊〉 Roy s'avisera In the mean time I have so great a desire to be happy my self and that the Nation may be so too that if any thing may be received under the unwelcome name of Expedients I would beg leave to offer a few to their better consideration I. That no man who hath by notoriety of the fact within seven years last past promoted or connived at Popery be thought now in earnest when he bawleth against it or ever be admitted into Publick Employment II. That no man who hath Principles against all Kings may pretend to advise Ours III. That none who would have Places for themselves shall have any Vote to put others out of them IV. That none who have thought fit to leave the Council should ever so disparage themselves as to return into it V. That none may ever be thought fit for Counsellors or any other Employment who have so little wit as to expect the Nation should be angry with the King because they are afraid for themselves VI. That no Member of either House who in former Parliaments never consulted his Conscience be now allowed to be a Martyr for it VII That no man who is a known Ass in his own business may be thought fit to meddle with the Kings These things being granted it is clearly my opinion the King should stick at nothing the next Parliament can ask of him Mens minds would be so quieted when they saw a Foundation laid of such impartial Justice that we might hope for Peace and Union and when the Vizzard of Popularity is taken off to see England look like it self again This is to be desired for many reasons and besides those which relate to the Publick I wish it for a particular satisfaction to my self who being void either of the ambition or the merit of pretending to any share in business should think my self very happy in the enjoyment of those mens Conversations whose Politicks I cannot so well agree with being confident that this would be a kind of Act of Exclusion upon these measures and that the greatest number of the complaining men would be at liberty and unemployed Printed for C. M. 1681.
are troubled that the Declaration should be read in Churches from which this Observation naturally ariseth that they apprehend the making it so publick may both expose them and do the King right to the People else sure they would not of a suddain be so well natured as to discourage the reading it if they had thought the weakness of the Argument might have brought any disadvantage upon the King This Paper hath laid down Maxims that are very new in our Constitution The King can make no ill Orders because they must be by advice of his Council This is a new Government and the Monarchy put so much into the Venetian shape that a man would have much ado to distinguish them It will be granted that the King is to hear the Advice of his Council but for him to be bound by it would make that greater than the Parliament where if the King hath right to refuse any Bill that is offered sure he may in Council reject any Opinion I am confident it is not their meaning to attribute such an Authority to the present Council I am persuaded it is far from their thoughts to wish the King should be swayed by a number of men who are so little in their favour and especially since it wanteth the help of those whose abilities and other Vertues in their opinion did formerly support it This Complement must therefore be intended for another Council a confiding Council that is to be made up with the rest of the New Model we may suppose is prepared against the Bill of Exclusion is pass'd and then they do not care how much power they give to themselves or take away from the King To excuse the not giving Money for Tangier they pretend they could not be secure of its being disposed to that use It is hard they should expect the world should believe them in this when it is certain they do not believe themselves The experience we have had in our own time may sufficiently convince them of the injustice of that Objection and to say Paper Laws are nothing is to say our Liberties and Properties are nothing since we hold them chiefly by that tenure But the truth is these men would impose upon us that an Act of Parliament will secure nothing they do not like and do every thing they have a mind to For instance An Act for excluding the Duke is all-sufficient An Act for limiting him Impossible An Act of Exclusion will secure all All other Laws are but Cobwebs not to be relied upon These Riddles are delivered to us with such authority that we are to receive them as Oracles and it is become a mortal sin for any man to question the sense of them This slender way of reasoning being so openly liable to consutation and the disguise so thin that every body must see through it they have recourse to that common place the PLOT for a Butteress and a support to Arguments that are too weak to bear up themselves It is a retreat when they are beaten in Dispute an answer to any question at a pinch it is but saying there is a horrid Plot against our Religion the Kings Life is in danger the Pilgrims are coming from St. Jago and the Earl of Shaftsbury is to be murthered and the Popular Champion triumpheth without the help of Sense against his Adversary That there hath been a Plot is as certain as that the men who most exclaim against it are of all men living the most unwilling to part with it they cherish and nurse it up with more care than the Jesuites themselves they hug it so fast that it sheweth how much they value it as the dear instrument they make use of to destroy the Government The Day of Judgment would not be much more terrible to some men how little soever they are prepared for it than that day which should wind up the bottom of this beloved Plot that men might come into their wits again Ungrateful men then that speak ill of the only thing in this world that supporteth them But the good men in their hearts are far from meaning it any harm Were the Plot once over the Earl of Shaftsbury would be quite degraded lose his respect at Wapping and his authority in the Coffee-Houses His Lordship would put off his dissembling-shape and in this be a true mourner for never man could have a greater loss and no doubt it would out of grief make him retire into some hidden corner rather than see himself reduced to the miserable necessity of being quiet for want of sufficient matter to trouble himself and the world with so that when these men pretend to desire an end of the Plot it is a Jest fitter for a Smile than an Answer It is said Dangerfield was a Rogue granted and yet as I hear this Rogue was brought into both Houses just before the Debate to whip them up into the Bill of Exclusion but now they tell a very strange thing which is that Dangerfield is become truly honest It is much and in my opinion it is a lower kind of Transubstantiation to believe Dangerfield is honest when nothing in visible but the Knave That this man should be made honest would be a mighty Cure and such a one as some of his Doctors would be loth to work upon themselves In the mean time I cannot but put them in mind that it looketh a little Popish not only to give a general Indulgence to such a known sinner but immediately to make a Saint of him If the Gathered Churches can do such Miracles it is well but if they should endeavour to put false ones upon the world it might disparage their prudence and lessen their reputation of which I am so tender that in kindness to them I give them this warning of it It is true that in some respects the Maxim is not inconvenient for these good men That there can be neither Fools nor Rascals on their side and that the being of their opinion like the Crown taketh away all Defects By virtue of this charm Dr. Oats is a Divine Mr. Mountague a Protestant Lord Lovelace a Saint Sir Thomas Armstrong a Patriot and Sir Harry Capel a Statesman I cannot but take notice of the fears the Earl of Shaftsbury hath for himself and in good nature would be glad to ease him of them in order to it I beg of him to believe the Papists are as tender of his life as his Lordship is of the Plot and for the same reason because he is of use to them he hath absolutely saved them by spoiling a good Plot and dressing it so scurvily by the help of his under-Cook that now it maketh even the best mens stomachs rise at it He serveth up things so much above the strongest digestion that few men can be persuaded to swallow them So that a man may affirm that if it was a folly in the Papists to kill Sir Edmond Godfrey it would be a madness