Confidence does most notoriously appear in the contrivance of the Raree-Show which in truth looks liker a Song of Triumph as for a thing already done then a bare Project and Exhortation toward the doing of it Insomuch that they have in this Ballad delineated the very Scheme of their Intentions It is a thing very remarkable too that the same Pulse beats still in all their Pamphlets of Appeal to the Multitude which speaks them clearly to be animated with the same souls and directed to the same end As Vox Patriae for the purpose among forty others What is it but under the Notion of Petitions and Addresses in the name of the People of England a certain Compendium of Instructions toward the Forming and carrying on of a Conspiracy This Libel lays out the very Model of the Plot for which College was Try'd Condemn'd and Executed It prescribes the Removal of Councellors and Officers the ordering of the Militia the Retrenching the Power of the King the Dissolving the Order of the Church the setting all sorts of Heretiques at liberty the Calling and Continuing of Parliaments at the Peoples pleasure And all this Address'd to the Commons in Parliament in such a manner as if his Majesty were scarce worth Consulting upon the matter only instead of Seizing the King and Governing without him they have found out a way of giving their Representatives some blind and general hints of what they would be at and then honestly tell them that they 'l stand by them with their Lives and Fortunes let them do what they please It is also a further Confirmation of this Plot the Correspondence betwixt Mr. Fitz-Harris's Declaration and the several Points given in Evidence against College Mr. Fitz-Harris declar'd that there was a design to Seize the King Of this he spake often and said when the Party had Seiz'd the King they would have oblig'd him to call a Parliament which should sit until the Bill of Exclusion against the Duke were pass'd all evil Councellors remov'd and men of their Chusing put into places of Trust the Militia settled and the Navy put into Good hands all Grievances Redress'd and all things order'd to their own liking And had this Design succeeded he said the Bishops and others of the Clergy would have suffer'd severely Dr. Hawkins's Narrative Pag. 4 This Account of a Combination does not only Nick the several parts of the Evidence against College but it does most exactly answer the Method of One and forty which College justifies and consequently approves of the same thing over again in so doing Now Mr. Fitz-Harris being demanded as a Dying man whether this that he had declared concerning the Design to seize the King were true He call'd God to witness that it was every word true And does not the Information against George Wetheridge taken September 21. 1681. speak as home to the same effect Is not the tyde strangely turn'd says he Were not the Parliament men at Oxford and those that were with 'em being to the number of 40000 men Arm'd great Fools that they did not seize the King there And if that they had wanted strength says he I would have been one to have assisted them And that they should have brought the King to London to Guild-Hall and there the Parliament should have sat and have kept his Majesty there till they had made their own Terms with him And the same Information adds further that Wetheridge said the King was a Papist and had a design to bring in Popery and Arbitrary Power and Reign as the King of France c To mâ—ltiply Instances would be to over-do the thing that I pretend wherefore this shall suffice If I were bent upon unnecessary Cavils I might enlarge my self abundantly in farther Observations upon the Insincerity both of College himself and some of his Evidence and prove that one of his prime Compurgators how honest a man soever he reputed him in the Court has more than once declar'd what warnings he had given him to have a care of his tongue and that he talk'd at such a desperate rate that it was not safe for any man to keep him company Colleges dying words are that he rode his own Horse spent his own Money and neither was invited or had dependency on any person whatsoever When yet the People of the Red Lyon in Henly do affirm that he and a Companion of his drank one quart of raw Sack one of Mull'd one of Butter'd and then a Pint more of the last beside one Quart of Butter'd Sack in the Morning which was all plac'd to the Account of another Person It will not become me to descant upon any Inconsistencies among Colleges Evidence's at his Tryal out of the Respect and Veneration that I both owe and bear to the Honour of the Court and to the Methods of Publique Justice I could otherwise in the case of Lun and even of Dr. Oats himself find Mr. Colleges Advocates picking-work Nay they were so hard put to 't that they brake in upon Justice Warcup himself a Person that has been even by themselves celebrated all along for his zeal in the Discovery of the Horrid Plot a Person particularly Interessed by the Lords in several Examinations and by their Lordships particularly recommended to the King for his Faith and Sedulity in that great affair But these People understand no other measures of Honesty then as it squares with their designs As to Turbervile and Dugdale the two Principal Evidences College himself had very little to say against them In one word the matter is here plainly and nakedly set forth The Protestant Ioyner has left the World wholly at a loss for his Religion He has both in his Words and Practices declar'd himself a deadly Enemy to the Government His last Speech is a Compound of Equivocations and Disguise He Justifies those that destroy'd the late King and by the same reason he may justifie the same design upon This. To conclude let the Reader judge upon what is here deliver'd whether or no there was a Design against the King at Oxford and how far College was engag'd in the Conspiracy THE END
Sworn against me that I had a design to pull the King out of Whitehal and to serve him as his Father was serv'd or to that purpose The Loggerhead his Father or that kind of Language I did deny it then and do now deny it upon my Death Last Speech This Denial I suppose speaks to both the Members of this Period The Design upon the Person of the King and the Villany of the Foul Language upon his Late Blessed Father To the Former we have allotted a Section by it self and the Latter may be fairly concluded I think out of his own mouth First says he I thought that the Parliament that sate last at Westminster did stand up for the Peoples Rights after the same manner that the Parliament in Forty did Tryal Page 83. So that after a most abominable Scandal upon the last Parliament at Westminster in the Comparison he justifies the Rebellion in the Application And then again I did maintain says he that they the Parliament of Forty were an Honest Good Parliament and much of opinion with the Parliament that sate last at Westminster which was for the true Interest of the Nation Page 81. Now if I understand this matter aright It is Tacitly to call the King all the Tyrants and Murderers which that Traiterous Faction call'd him And besides What 's the meaning of Like Father Like Son in his Raree Show But First as appears by the Context to Involve them both in the same Fate And Secondly to represent them both under the same Character That is to say in short to apply all those Brutalities of Language which he has in that Libel and elsewhere bestow'd upon the Son to the Reproach and Dishonour of his Martyr'd Father To finish this point He had a kind of Idiome by himself and seldom Discours'd of his Majesty his Royal Highness the Hierarchy or the Privy Council but in the Style of Old Rowley Mack Tantivies and Tories Old Rowley says he is as errant a Papist as his Brother And this was his note at every turn Old Rowley says he again cares not a half-penny what becomes of the Crown or how he leaves it in Debt or what becomes of his People as to matter of Religion c. At an other time They are come says he to change Candles at Court already but we 'l make them eat 'em too before we have done When we have done with the Papists says he in another Company We 'l do well enough with the Bishops Now here 's another Passage to a very honest man of his own Trade and a Loyal Subject This person being out of Town about a week before the opening of the Oxford-Parliament fell into Company with College well Mounted and a Case of Pistols before him not far from Enfield Mr. College says he what will the Parliament do at Oxford By God says College I know what they 'l do They 'l begin with the Bill of Exclusion The King has no money and he gets not a penny without it Well says the other but what if his Majesty will not pass it We shall see then says College who are the Papists We 'l run them down first and then we shall do well enough with the Clergy We 'l level them with the Ground We are Ten to One. Is not this a Broad sign made at the King And does it not precisely answer the very Pinch of the Evidence And methinks he spake home to another Ioyner too that charg'd him with the neglect of his Trade and all the reply he made was the laying his hand upon his Sword as if he had said This is it that I intend to trust to There are so many instances of his Pragmatical medling Humor that the recital of them would cost more Time and Paper than the thing is worth A Gentleman in discourse with College in the Castle at Oxford was telling him after many professions of his Innocency Mr. College says he you know I have my self at Cornbury heard you many times talk undutifully of the Government Now methinks you that are but a Mechanick should not presume to meddle with things so much above ye Was it any harm says he for Amos to leave his Cows Nay he was so Bold and Inconsiderate when things went otherwise than he would have them that upon the Dissolution of the Last Westminster Parliament he went presently away to Dick's Coffee-House in a Hufl Well says he I perceive here 's no good to be done We must e'en draw our Swords and Fight it over again These were the words or to this effect The Turbulence of his Spirit was seen upon all occasions where there was but the least colour for the fastening of a Scandal upon the King the Church and his Majesties Ministers of State and Justice His Vein lay much toward Doggerel and Designing as he has plentifully given the world to understand in his Learned Drawings which are still charged with the utmost Rudeness Malice and Scurrility imaginable Insomuch that the Treason of his Heart is laid as open in those Cuts as that of his Tongue was at his Trial with this single Difference that the one was only a wish and the other an Overt Act and a declared Resolution This device call'd the Catholique Gamesters is a venemous Libel upon all the Orders of the Government and first upon the King himself charging all the Pretended Miscarriages of State in Shew upon the Papists but in Truth and Effect upon his Majesty It is a Libel upon the House of Peers by the Culling out of so many Lords by Name under the Title of Protestants and Representing in that number only Two Bishops that is to say Hereford and Lincoln implying all the rest to be Papists In the House of Commons he tells us of Pensioners who Voted by Contents got Bills to Pass against the Common Good c. And then he descends to the Bench and the Iury where he brings in the Pope speaking of the Priests and Jesuites in these words Hell keep the rest from Justice we call Fury And send them Wakeman's or a Gascoign Jury Pick'd Brib'd Instructed how to murther Truth From Grand St. Martins Bull and Cits Wide Mouth And take them quite through they are all of the same Style and Design And I would have any man tell me now if a body may not charitably enough conclude that whosoever Defames the Government at This rate wishes it Overturn'd and if he had but Power and Opportunity would do his part toward it I should be ungrateful now I am upon this subject if I should not acknowledge the Honor he has done me in divers of his Emblematical Pieces He has presented the world with Six Towzers and L'Estrange with Four Fair pair of Gallows Here 's nothing hitherto but what may very well pass for the Preamble to a Conspiracy and he that considers his Haunts the Company he kept the Access he had to the Private Cabals and Consultations of the
Faction together with his forwardness to thrust himself into all Popular Brawls and Contests and that Stubborn Obstinacy which was natural to him will undoubtedly look upon him as an instrument every way qualified for such a purpose As they were carrying away Sam. Harris about the Treasonous Libel that cost Mr. Fitz-Harris his Life and a Crowd of People about him a very honest Gentleman a friend of mine saw College whispering with a Person then in Power from whom he went immediately to make his way to Harris but the press was so great that he was forc'd to deliver his Message to him over Three or Four Heads and so call'd to him just over the shoulder of the Gentleman my friend Come Sam. says he take a good heart Mr. Such a one naming the person makes no doubt but to bring ye off And to shew ye now what Credit College had with his Party but to what purpose in this particular I cannot say He took his Hat which was very broad Brim'd and holding it in his hands with the inside upward I have given away says he twice as much money as this Hat would hold Brims and all Now I suppose this money was not thrown away to make Ducks and Drakes so that I cannot reconcile this Declaration of his to a certain Passage in his Last Speech viz. I take God to witness I never had one Six-pence or any thing else to carry on any Design and if it were to save my life now I cann't Charge any man in the world with any design against the Government as God is my Witness or against his Majesty or any other Person The Explication of this Clause depends upon the knowledge of what is meant by these words ANY DESIGN for the Expression is too large to be True if it be taken in the Latitude and if it be understood with a Restriction i.e. that he knew of no Design against the King or the Government the Principle of Forty one by him asserted in his Tryal brings him off when the Rebellion it self was declared to be FOR the King and the Government so that 't is but his placing the Government in the People or the Two Houses to Countenance the Equivocation And finally The disclaiming of a Design against any other person goes a little too far methinks for by his own Confession there was a Design carried on against the Papists It would be proper enough in this place to render some Account of his Deportment at Oxford in the Prison He was at first coming Stubborn and Captious Insisting upon the Rights of an English-man and Menacing his Keeper till he was brought to better Terms by telling him plainly what he was to trust to Nothing put him more out of Patience then telling him of his Pictures In his behaviour in Company he seem'd always to be very little concern'd but his Keeper says he had terrible Agonies when he was by himself that kept him waking sometimes whole nights A little before he dy'd Mr. Gregory the Sheriff came into his Room with an Order to have his Body deliver'd whole to his Friends Upon the sight of the Seal he leapt from his Bed with a great deal of Joy expecting it might have been a Pardon but upon finding the mistake he threw himself down again in a deep Disquiet He says in his Dying words Printed for E. College That the Messenger who brought him the Message of his Death told him he might save his Life if he would confess who was the cause of his coming to Oxford and upon what Account which was ill done of the Messenger for it was not only without but contrary to Orders He was in the main very ignorant of any thing of Religion and he would say that he found and that he was guided by the Spirit and this was his perpetual Refuge What Principles he had were Enthusiastical As for Instance He said that Eating and Drinking in the Eucharist and so washing in Baptism was to be understood in a Spiritual Sense aud declar'd that he receiv'd no benefit by the Prayers of the Church He spake of the Quakers as the People of God and particularly of one that had been with him as the honestest man that ever he knew It was reply'd to him by a Reverend Divine that the Quakers deny'd in effect Christianity it self As the Two Sacraments and a Succession of Ministers And next they deny'd both the Divinity and Satisfaction of our Saviour naming Pen whom College said he very well knew but did not own him in that Principle His Favourite was Mr. Baxter whom he heard more than Dr. Owen and his Opinion was that God had a Church in all the Sects in England § 7. College Iustifies the Grounds and the Proceedings of the late Rebellion AFter these Pregnant and Undeniable Proofs of so many Virulent and Audacious Outrages upon the Person and Dignity of his Majesty and the very Form as well as the Administration of the Government It remains now only to be considered how far the Malefactor was Principled toward the Actuating of that Malice and by what Methods he proponnded the putting of those Disloyal Inclinations into Execution First As to his Opinion of the Sovereignty according to the Constitution of this Kingdom we shall not need to look any further for 't than into his own words and the inevitable Conclusion which naturally arises from them He appeals from Mr. Masters to Mr. Charlton in St. Paul's Church-yard about his Justifying the Parliament of Forty and yet it is a known Truth that he has several times justify'd that Parliament in the hearing of Mr. Charleton He does acknowledge in his Tryal Page 82. That he said That Parliament did nothing but what they had Just Cause for and that the Parliament that last sate at Westminster was of the same opinion Now in saying this he takes upon himself the Owning of all the Principles whereupon they proceeded in that Controversie betwixt the King and the Two Houses And in so doing strips the King of all his Regalities and Lodges the Supremacy in the Lords and Commons The Papists began the War he says The Papists broke off the Treaty at Uxbridge and the Papists cut off the Kings Head Page 81. And in that case He Justifies the Old Parliament What can be clearer now than that if this King should have been press'd upon the same Terms with his Royal Father After the same manner as the Papists Began and Pursu'd the Former War and brought his Late Majesty to the Block Just so it should have been call'd another Popish Exploit the Reducing of this King to the same Extremities And as they made the Late King the Church and the Royal Party Papists in the One Rebellion they would have treated this King Church and all his Faithful Subjects too as Papists too in another Rebellion These are the Oxford Papists fairly Expounded And under this Ambiguity it is that he Covers and Disguises his pretext
of Faith and Affection to the King and his Government That is to say as he intends the Kings Authority to be Virtually Resolv'd into the Two Houses And this Seditious Maxim is a little more expresly set forth in his Raree Show In which Libel there is a Figure of a Man with a Chests at 's Back which he Explains to bemeant of the King with the Lords and Commons in a Box and Pluck'd down in the Mire by Three Fellows with these words to illustrate that Passage So so the Gyant 's down Let 's MASTERS out of Pound c. In which two Verses is laid open both the Design of Dethroning the King and in the word MASTERS the Doctrine of the Supremacy of the Two Houses Now for a further Confirmation of his Opinion He declar'd to Mr. Crosthwait in the Castle at Oxford That he believ'd it lawful to Resist the King in case he should invade his Property and he endeavour'd to defend it by several Arguments till at length he was at least seemingly Convinc'd of his Mistake This makes it abundantly Evident what he thought of the Lawfulness of such Resistance if the Case of Property should come to be the Question And it rests only now to make it out that he did take Property to be the Question and then all his Pretensions of Respect to the King and to the Government fall to the Ground As what 's the meaning of that Passage in his Raree Show where he charges the King with Fleecing Englands Flocks Long Fed with Bits and Knocks c. but to denote the King to be a Tyrant and an Oppressor Now to sum up briefly what is already delivered Here are all the Fore-runners of and Dispositions to a Rebellion as clear as the Noon-day and College deeply engag'd in every Point First the General Pretence of a Design upon the Protestant Religion as the Foundation of a Popular Discontent 2dly That General Religion in such a manner as it is represented is not any where to be found 3dly Under the Notion of the Papists to Invade this Religion the Church Establish'd the King and his Party are most apparently struck at 4thly All manner of Defamatory Libels are Contriv'd Publish'd and Promoted by College himself toward the Enflaming of a Sedition 5thly It is Remarkable Colleges Shuffling and Equivocating to Evade the Charge which is nevertheless made out against him at last 6thly There is an Undeniable Discovery of his Disaffection even to the Degree of a Mortal Hatred both to Church and State And 7thly Considering the Method of Colleges Proceedings with the Tendency of his Practices Principles and Persuasions what could any man believe less even without any further Evidence than that College Meditated and Designed the Improvement of all Occasions to the Subverting of the Government and in such manner too as it is imputed to him §. 8. There was a Design upon the King at Oxford and College manifestly Engag'd in the Conspiracy THat there was a Plot to be Executed at Oxon will be granted I presume by any man that has but eyes in 's head and looks that way And this a Republican Plot too carried on under the pretended Apprehension of a Popish one But the Multitude were to be mov'd and prepar'd for 't And see the course now that they took to work upon the Passions of the Common People The first thing to be done was throughly to possess them that the Papists had a Design upon the Parliament at Oxford and consequently upon the Protestant Religion the Liberties and Properties of the English Nation To this purpose How many Impudent and Ridiculous Shams by Counterfeit Tickets and Letters were Expos'd in the daily Papers of Intelligence which at that time were swallowed whole as the very Oracles of the Vulgar Several Papers says the Protestant Mercury Numb 24. have been dropt about the City that there would be a Massacre at Oxford on the 25th instant and that the 5th of November will be turned into the 25th of March 1681. and one of these was thrown into a Shop in Grace-Church-street But you shall now have the Letter it self at large with all its appertinences London March 16. This very morning Letters were found in several places in this City unseal'd purporting a warning of a Dangerous Design to Destroy the Parliament particularly one Letter was found in Mr. Brett's Shop a Linnen-Draper in Grace-Church-street which was supposed to be put in at a Cleft in the Window His man finding it when he open'd the Shop Communicated the same to his Master who caused him to subscribe the Paper that he might be able to testifie it was the same that he found and then Presented it to one of our City Magistrates who we suppose by this time has made his Majesty acquainted with the Contents which were as followeth To all the Noble Members of this most Honorable ensuing Parliament in General Noble Lords and Gentlemen Though I dare not nor am I in a condition to discover the whole substance of some Hellish Designs now on foot against his Majesties Royal Person and against you all at Oxford yet though I was sure to be Racked for it I must and will give you a Hint of them as followeth Remember the Fifth of November which is now to be the 25th of March which if not prevented will be the utter destruction of both King and Parliament and all True Protestants in his Majesties Dominions And if that fail beware of many thousands that lie in wait for your Lives whose Design is so closely carried that it will I doubt be a hard matter to discover it until it be too late Mark well what I say and make not slight of it as ye tender your Lives and Fortunes and the Kingdoms safety I say make not slight of it as you tender your Lives and Fortunes and the Kingdoms safety I am in a mean condition and under many Afflictions but cannot discover my self as yet Thus wishing you all happy success I take leave This Letter was Superscribed as followeth To all True Protestants who love the King and Parliament whosoever finds this Note let him with all speed repair to some Elected Members of the Parliament and present it to them Ben. Harris ' s Protestant Domestique Numb 107. You shall see now how the humor is followed Numb 110. A Letter importing some Cursed and Treasonable Designs still Carrying on by the Ever Plotting Papists against his Majesties Royal Person and the Protestant Religion being lately found in the Wood of Bally-Holly in the County of Cork in the Kingdom of Ireland by a Gentleman of the County of Lymrick as he Travelled through that Wood He thought it of that Concern to the Publique that he immediately gave it to the Earl of Barrimore to be by him transmitted to his Grace the Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom which was done as we are inform'd by the said Earl accordingly A True Copy of which Letter
followeth viz. Brother David I received a Letter lately wherein I understand that we shall go on with our Design before Easter-day We shall have Encouragements to destroy Heretiques Lord Br. will be one of the Persons to destroy the Heretical King and Monmouth Encourage all our Friends to keep their Arm private I am Yours till death Allen Condon Jan. 8. Superscribed to David Raach Parish-Priest of Bally-Holly This was Publish'd April 1. 1681. There would be no end if I should go through with all the Cheats upon that Juncture of the same stamp One more only and I have done Letters from Ireland say that there was a Great Leading Priest a man of great Request among the Popish Party having been very Active in carrying on their Designs was somewhat troubled in Conscience being upon his Death-bed at some things which he had kept secret sent for some Protestants of the Neighborhood unknown to the Papists whom he had formerly been obliged to to come and see him e're he departed who coming according to his request the Priest Expressed himself to this Effect God hath put it in my heart to warn ye to have a care of your selves for you and all the rest of the Protestants are design'd to be Massacred It was to have been done some time since but an accident obstructed it so that the day is not certainly appointed though the thing is fully concluded on therefore defend your selves as well as you can The same thing is designed in England Ib. Numb 112. Now as all these Stories were only Forgeries and Contrivances to put the Hot-headed and credulous Fools of the Faction into a Ferment and prepare them for any violent Attempt the Project did so far also take effect as to draw together armed multitudes into a Resolution and Confederacy to oppose whatsoever should be presented unto them under the colour of a Popish Design And they that had so little Wit or Honesty as to run to Oxford and so Accoutred upon such an April-Errand would undoubtedly have gone through with their work upon a good occasion when they were so far onward in their way Here was a very extraordinary Concurrence of Palpable Impostures accommodated to the same End and meeting upon the same nick of time too And this is not all neither for there were several Printed Papers of Clamor and Complaint against the Kings taking his Guards with him under a Pretext that they would hinder the Liberty of Debates and over-awe the Parliament This Circumstance does very much favour the Presumption of a Plot upon the Government far if they were afraid of a Popish Attempt his Majesties Guards would have been a good Security against it and no inconvenience to them at all unless in case of a Phanatical Conspiracy so that their apprehension of the Guards is a very fair Interpretation of what they meant by the Papists If there was not a Plot what meant the Distinguishing Marks of the same-Colour'd-Ribbon in their Hats with No Popery No Slavery in them for their Motto and such quantities of them distributed for the discrimination of the Party And why that Motto either but first to intimate a notorious Scandal upon the King as if his Majesty were Popishly and Tyrannically Inclin'd And 2dly As an Ostentation of their Force and Resolution to Oppose any Power whatsoever even under the colour of that Bare Pretence From this Probability of a Seditious Design we shall come closer now to a Proof of the thing it self and see how far College was concern'd in 't both from his own Words and Actions and from the Agreement of other Evidences with the Points of his Accusation Not medling at all with the merits of his Cause as they appeared upon his Tryal As for what Arms I had says he and what Arms others had they were for our own Defence in case the Papists should make any Attempt upon us by way of Massacre or any Invasion or Rebellion that we should be ready to defend our selves God is my Witness this is all I know If this be a Plot This I was in but in no other But never knew of any Numbers or Times appointed for Meeting but we said one to another that the Papists had a Design against the Protestants when we did meet as I was a man of General Conversation and in case they should rise we were ready But then they should begin the Attempt upon us Last Speech It is to be noted first that they were all Armed 2dly That they Communicated among themselves and enter'd into a kind of League of Conjunction 3dly That they Reputed themselves strong enough to Encounter such a Body of men as if we may believe them threatned Destruction to the Government And 4thly That they were resolv'd to put it to the hazard if the Papists should attempt any thing So that here 's a Form'd Conspiracy acknowledg'd and so many men as good as listed but however link'd in a common Design without any Authority or Commission And we know very well what the Law says in this case let the intent of it be what it will We said to one another says he that the Papists had a design against the Protestants and then that we were Ready but They should begin the Attempt which may seem to qualifie the matter by making it only a Defensive War But still even that War it self without the Kings Commission is a plain Rebellion And this is not yet the worst on 't for in Vindicating the War of the Two Houses in 1640. c. and their Proceedings under the same disguise of calling the Kings Friends Papists and pretending that the King in his Person made War against his Authority in the Lords and Commons and under that colour representing themselves to be only upon the Defensive In Vindicating that War I say which was a Hellish Rebellion it is but Consonant to their Principles to justifie the same Proceedings over again under the same Pretensions He says further in his other Speech I never was engag'd in any manner of Plot or Conspiracy whatsoever in my life against the Kings Person Laws or Government or know of any that is or was the Papists only excepted It is utterly false that I was to have seiz'd the King either at White-Hall or at Oxon and I do here solemnly declare I knew not of so much as one single Person on Gods Earth that was or would have stood by me in that Attempt And to the same effect he says over again in his last Speech I shall not force these words of his beyond a fair Congruity with the tenour of what he says in other places upon this subject though the liberty he has taken throughout of speaking more or less than the just and naked Truth and wrapping himself up in Disguises and Reserves so as best to serve his purpose might justifie me in the freedom of taking him at the worst where there is any place for a double meaning He never
engag'd against the Kings Person he says c. Did not that Parliament whose Cause Doctrine and Proceedings College has so highly approved say the same thing And not only Disclaim their being AGAINST the Person of the late King but declare openly to the World the greatest Tenderness and Veneration for him that was possible What shall we say then of him that speaks their very Words upon the same Grounds and under the same Circumstances but that he has the same Thoughts also which he in truth Confesses too with those who under that pretence advanc'd a Rebellion against their Sovereign What does he mean again by saying that HE was not to have Seiz'd the King c. Is it that He himself was not to do it with his own hands Or that the Sovereignty being lodg'd in the Two Houses his PERSON might be Seiz'd and the KING remain untouch'd There is another Sentence in the same Speech that speaks a little plainer yet I did not understand says he but when I serv'd the Parliament I serv'd the King too Which in the Acceptation of Forty and Forty-One sounds as much as King and Parliament on the one side in opposition to Charles Stuart on the other Now as to the Plot of Seizing the Person of the King if the Witnesses had not made it out accordingly to the very Letter I should rather have suspected a design under the countenance of Loyal Service to interpose a Force betwixt his Majesty and some Pretended Danger And this officious zeal to be follow'd with seizing half a dozen perhaps of his Majesties most necessary Ministers and Friends And then a Proclamation immediately of some damned Hellish Plot a parcel of good Statutable Knights of the Post to make it good and there had been the work done This would have been no Ridiculous thing to imagine if his Majesty had not had over and above his Guards the Honour and Fidelity of the Two Houses of his Security There are a great many slippery Passages in Colleges two Speeches Had the Papists says he or their Party offer'd to destroy the Parliament as was sworn and fear'd they would I was there to have liv'd and dy'd with ' em Here 's a Disjunction of the Papists OR their Party which I cannot tell what to make of unless he ranges the Servants of the King and the Church in a Confederate subserviency to the Papists which is but consonant to what he has said elsewhere There is a doubtful Clause too in his last Speech Men says he speaking of the Presbyterians without any manner of design but to serve God serve his Majesty and keep their Liberties and Properties Now Colleges way of keeping his Property is to Fight for 't in case the King should Invade it as he profess'd to a Divine a little before his Execution Beside that the word KEEP seems to lean a little that way especially from a man that first supposes his Property to be Invaded and then declares his resolution to resist the King in case of such Invasion We shall now as briefly as may be apply matter of Fact to the Capital parts of his Charge The Designing of the Sculpture to his Raree-Show is prov'd upon him so point blank that he himself had not the face to deny it And that Draught made him as Guilty of and as Answerable for the Malicious intent of it as if the Ballad had been originally his own His Publishing of it was a further Aggravation of the Crime and the Pleasure he took in Singing it up and down as he did to several eminent Persons of quality and in Exposing it made all that was in it his own too In that Doggrel Copy there is Chalk'd out the very Train of the whole Conspiracy and so plainly too that it will not bear any other Construction As for example Help Cooper Hughs and Snow with a Hey with a Hey To pull down Raree-Show with a Ho. So so the Gyant 's down Let 's Masters out of Pound With a Hey Tronny Nony Nony No. Here 's first the King to be pull'd down under the Rarce-Show and Cooper Hughs and Snow being Officers belonging to both Houses are to represent the Lords and Comâ—â—â—â—s in the doing of it which reflects as odious a scandal upon the Two Houses as upon his Majesty In the next place he supposes the King to be down and to answer that phansie there are three Fellows in the Plate lugging of him in the Dirt And then follows Let 's Masters out of Pound which is only to say That now the King is down the Lords and Commons are to take upon them the Administration of the Government But let us see how he goes on And now y 'ave freed the Nation with a Hey c. Cram in the Convocation with a Ho With Pensioners All and some Into this Chest of Rome With a Hey c. The first line here makes the Freedom of the Nation to ensue upon the Deposing of the King The second sends the Convocation after him The third all those whom he is pleas'd to call Pensioners And the fourth makes them all to be Papists Here 's the King the Convocation and the Pensioners gone already Now see what 's next And thrust in Six and twenty with a Hey c. With Not Guilty good plenty with a Ho And Hoot them hence away To Cullen or Breda We have here the very Track of the Conspiracy as it was prov'd at his Tryal The Bishop's are to be dispatch'd away too and the Not Guilty-Lords in the Vote upon my Lord Stafford And at best to be all of them driven out of the Nation as the Late King was and a great part of his Adherents We shall now conclude this point with the two last lines Halloe the Hunts begun with a Hey c. Like Father like Son with a Ho c. I have in my hand the Manuscript of Colleges own writing from whence this Ballad was Printed where it is to be noted that instead of Halloe it was in the Original Stand to 't but that struck out and Halloe interlin'd in the place of it the other being too broad a discovery of the Violence they intended Let me further observe that this Song was Calculated for Oxford that is to say both for the Time and the Place When and Where this Exploit was to have been executed And now for a close What can be the meaning of Like Father like Son but a design and encouragement as appears from the Connexion to serve them both alike and to conclude both Father and Son under one and the same Condemnation The Faction did without dispute flatter themselves that they should find Friends even in the Parliament it self to Authorize them in their Enterprize but they were egregiously mistaken it seems in their measures And they grounded their Hopes upon the Interest they had made in most places of the Kingdom to secure an Election for their turn This Prospect and