Abdication and our late Measures I come next to examine how exactly the Prince hath fulfilled and made good unto us the pretended Ends and Designs of his Declaration how well he hath kept the Original Contract we made with him and what benefit we may expect to reap for the future by this Revolution I shall take his Conduct in both Kingdoms joyntly under Consideration since he hath not only united them in the same Declaration but likewise issu'd out a Declaration apart for Scotland intimating thereby That the Oppressions in that Kingdom were more weighty and numerous than here and that the Arbitrary Designs of our Prince did always first commence there to make a Precedent for this Kingdom and that the Conduct and Posture of Affairs there did always certainly Prognosticate to the curious Observer what was designed to be Copied and Executed here I do not pretend to give a particular detail of the present Administration in that Kingdom but there are some considerable Errors have been acted there which have made a Noise and rais'd such publick Complaints there as hath convey'd the Knowledge of them here to us The assuming a Power of Dispensing with the due Execution of Laws enacted by King and Parliament for Security of Religion Liberty and Happiness of the Subject is much urged against King James as a great Motive to the Prince's undertaking A Dispensing Power assumed by any Prince doth fatally threaten the Liberties of a People where it is practised and makes them Tenants at Will for those Privileges which the Laws of the Land hath given them a Freehold in This is really such an important Point and of such Consequence for the Subject to have been cleared that it was indispensably the Duty of a Reforming Prince Convention of Estates and Parliament to have decided this Controversie and placed such Marks and Boundaries for the future so plain and obvious both to Prince and People that each might have known their particular Rights and governed themselves for the future accordingly But our Parliaments have thought fit to leave it where they found it dark and undecided to this day and the Prince hath discovered he was well enough pleased with this Omission by taking as large and broad Steps that way as any can be charged upon King James The Irish Treaty furnisheth us with a convincing Proof of this where such Indulgences were granâ—ed unto them solely and siâ—gâ—y by his own Authority with relation to the exercise of their Religion proâ— of their Arms dispensation from Oaths and security against â—rsuits for their Plunderings as were directly contrary to the Laws of the Land the Safety Rights and Privileges of the Protestant Subjects of that Kingdom This Treaty I do acknowledge was afterwards ratified by Parliament but though in some Cases the Authority of Parliament may give a legal Being for the future yet that new Life commenceth only from the date of their Sanction and doth not justifie preceeding Errors and the many Difficulties which arose in both Houses about the Ratification was a clear Innuendo how dangerous and illegal they judg'd the Treaty to be How strangely are we altered King James's exercise of this Dispensing Power could neither be forgotten nor attoned for but King William's stretch that way shall obtain a Parliamentary Approbation such is the Justice and unbyassed Integrity of these Times But we need not look so far as Ireland for Instances We have our personal Liberties secured to us by positive and express Statutes and Methods appointed by our Law whereby to recover our Liberties when lost with such severe Animadversions against those who obstruct the due course of Law in obtaining of our Freedom with such great and considerable Damages appointed in that case as plainly enough Points out unto us the Value and Worth of this true English Privilege It is the choisest piece of our Magna Charta and Original Contract and for my part I should much rather allow a Prince to dispence with Penal Statutes and issue out a Proclamation for Liberty of Conscience than to sport himself at Pleasure with my personal Freedom without which there can be no relish in any other Enjoyment and yet there never was a Reign wherein our Birth-right in this hath been more abused spoiled and broken in upon The English Subjects have been put into Proclamations and clapt into Prisons for High Treason and refused the benefit of their Habeas Corpus though there was no Information upon Oath against them according as the Law appoints to warrant such a Procedure Nay so grosly frequently and impudently have our publick Ministers affronted the Laws upon this Head that they have found themselves obliged to apply to Parliament for Pardon For we have found out a new Trick in this Government and reforming Age first to act all imaginable Violences against the best and choisest of our Laws and than to obtain either a Ratification or Pardon in Parliament whereby they have struck our English Constitution and the Liberty of the Subject Dead at one Blow by Debauching our Parliaments into a Confederacy against in place of Protecting the Liberties of the People and so making the Nation as it were Felo de se No period of History doth furnish us with such wholesale Merchants for our best and most valuable Rights neither do we know when this Trade shall be at an end or when our Rulers will be weary of Tricking us out of our Liberties We have a fresh Instance of late of the Knowledge and Learning of our Judges When the Earls of Huntington Midleton and others moved at the Barr for their Habeas Corpus there was no Information upon Oath against them to warrant a refusal otherways to be sure we should have heard of it But Aaron Smith must make Affidavit that they had Evidence for the High Treason charged against them which could not be got ready and so by his Liberty and Freedom of Conscience save in some measure the Credit of the Court By this fine new Knack they were all remitted back to Prison again Such Judges may at last come to be fit enough for the Bench even under a Conquest but in the mean time all such Expedients which are not warranted from the Statutes do rather prove the Injustice of the Court than fulfil the Law and however it may be Gilded we cannot but see and feel the bitter Pill we must swallow Was not the Habeas Corpus Act suspended for many Months It 's true this was done by Parliament but so much the worse if our own Delegates in whose Hands we trust the care but not the intire surrender of our Liberties make a Complement of that which is not in their Power to the Ambition or Necessities of any Prince Parliaments can no more justly over-turn Foundations than the Prince can Such Privileges as are derived from King and Parliament upon the account of the Subjects Temporary Conveniences are trusted to the review of the same Court
doing of which I must look higher than the begining of King James's Reign the early and unnatural Ambition of the Pr of Orange as well as the necessary connection and series of Affairs oblige me unto it It was not the danger which our Religion and Liberties were threatned with from the Designs and bad Administration of King James and a tender regard to the British Subjects for their Love and Respect to his dearest Consort and Himself with the Interest which his Birth and Marriage gave him in us first induced the Prince of Orange to look towards these Kingdoms and our Affairs The late King Charles notwithstanding of all the tenderness he had discovered for that Prince's Education and care for his Interests in espousing them so vigoursly upon all occasions against the States of Holland who would gladly have secured themselves by depressing him and his Family against those prophetick Fears they lay under for their beloved Rights and Liberties was the first that felt the Effects of his Nephew 's towring and boundless Ambition No sooner did the Prince of Orange find himself reinstated by the Authority and Interest of his Uncle in the Posts of Grandure possessed by his Father and Predecessors and so put into a Condition to appear upon the Stage and mingle in the greatest Affairs of Europe but he gave loose Ranes to his Ambition to range where-ever it could perch and fix without being restrained or frightned by those common Rules or Barriers which Morality and Religion had placed as Spoaks too mean in his Opinion to stop the Careere of a bold and daring Spirit Britain was the Place he fixed his Eye upon neither could Relation or Gratitude place any rubs in his way The lazy Temper of that Monarch addicted to his Pleasures and his being without Children the Religion of his Brother and want of Male Issue together with his own Allyance with the Royal Blood and some Discontents of the People which were begotten and heightned by the Addresses and Malice of a few Grandees promised him a plentiful Harvest in return to his Cabals and Cajoling Insinuations upon which those Grandees were applied unto and as quick and hearty returns made by them with assurance of Zeal Dependance and Fidelity being glad of so considerable a Support Hence sprang all those fatal Divisions which so long time exercised that Prince his Councils and Parliaments To spirit this Party in England and to fix himself one Degree nearer the Crown which he so much long'd for the Prince made his Addresses and was Married to the Lady Mary much against the inclination both of the King and Duke who did very well foresee the Consequence and were afraid of so near a Conjunction with so restless a Spirit But it is well known who disposed the King to agree to the Match for which and other good Services then in betraying his Master he is well rewarded now rather than for any Merits he had to plead upon this Revolution After this Match our Divisions and Discontents past all Bounds nothing less than the interruption of the Royal Line by a Bill of Exclusion would satisfie I know the danger of our Religion from a Popish Successor was pretended but the Prince of Orange's immediate Succession to the Crown in the Right of his Princess was the thing truly intended by the Prince's Agents and Privadoes Nothing else but such a hidden secret Design could have inclined so many Men of Sense and Reason to refuse the great Concessions was offered 'em which without Danger or the bad Consequences of neglecting a just Title did equally secure Religion and Liberty To this Project were Sacrificed all those great and mighty Securities which K. Charles would willingly have Granted in favour of our Religion and Liberties to be rid of that troublesome Bill of Exclusion and thus we lost the greatest and best Establishment we ever had in our view and which would legally peaceably and willingly have been setled upon us without any farther trouble danger or expence So early did this Prince's Ambition become fatal to our Liberties and Properties Hence sprang all those Councils and Measures which did so much Discontent the People and put that King upon the Quo Warranto Project thereby to temper and qualifie Parliaments which the Cabals and Machinations of the Prince had render'd so warm and uneasie to him Hence sprang that Ferment and those bad Humors which gave Life and Motion to the Duke of Monmouth's Invasion and Pretences who all a long had been made a Stale by some though the Prince lay close at the bottom and seemed to favour the Man until at last he perceived that the Duke did in earnest catch at that he so much longed for himself With what regret yea indignation must every English Breast be filled upon that blessed occasion we lost which might have prevented our present Expence of Blood and Treasure and all those Fears and Miseries we are now groaning under and know not when we shall be at an end of It is with unspeakable Grief I am obliged to remember so great a Loss nor do I mention any thing but what is very well known for a Truth to some Persons yet alive and which I have seen clearly verified by some convincing Dispatches which are yet extant and which shall be carefully preserved until they may be with safety produced Doth not Sir W. Temple in his Memoirs licenced and published of late acknowledge the greatest part of what is here asserted as if in this reforming Age People were to make their Court by publishing of Services for which their Posterity may have reason to curse their Ashes Thus we see what fatal Influences the Prince of Orange's Ambition had scattered upon our Councils and Measures during the later end of K. Charles his Reign Neither will he be found less active and successful by himself and Agents during K. James's Administration as will appear from a particular Enquiry into the pretended Abdication This strange and mysterious word which to this day is not well understood neither can be explained nor rightly fitted to what was intended by it either by the Authors of it or by any body else was first made use of in the Kingdom of Naples some Ages ago and begot that fatal Sruggle between the Anjouin and Arroganian Factions which at last quite ruined that flourishing Kingdom and brought it under a foreign Yoke under which it continues to this day I shall not criticize upon it nor examin how improperly it is applied in the Case of King James though that be obvious enough to any Man who understands the Civil Law or the proper and genuine signification of the Word but shall only enquire into the subject matter which according to the Sense of our Reformers amounted to Abdication a Vacancy and that is King James's Disertion and Invasion of the fundamental Laws and Liberties of England As to the first how properly his being forced away may be called a
Safety And it is evident notwithstanding all those ineffectual Applications he was resolved upon every occasion to court his Subjects to return to their Duty Witness his Letters addressed to several Members of his Privy Council and also that Letter written from St. Germains and designed for the Convention of Estates which they would not so much as receive or read I would now gladly know after what manner and upon what account in what sense and for what reason the King can be said to have deserted Desertion according to common sense and acceptation is a voluntary Neglect and Withdrawing his Person Care and Influences from attending that Administration Protection and Exercise of the Government which is due from him to the People committed to his Charge when no Force compell'd him no Danger threatned him and the People were willing to râ—tain him Is this applicable to the King's Case May not the Invading his Dominions with foreign Troops and an armed Power the Imprisonment of his Person putting him under Guards of Foreigners and banishing him from his own Houses be properly enough called a Force May not those extraordinary Indignities done him by the Prince and those Advertisements given him by several Persons of Quality Knowl dge and Interest of his hard and difficult Circumstances be very well called Dangers according to the common Rules of Prudence and Discretion With what Sense can the universal Defection of his Children Servants Soldiers and Subjects the rejecting all Treaties whether personal or by Proxie the Refusal of all Applications made by him to the City Bishops and Convention of Estates be understood an unwillingness in his Subjects to part with him or a voluntary Withdrawing or Neglect on his side We must renounce common Sense and quite invert the Nature of things before a Withdrawing so circumstantiated will pass upon the sober part of Mankind for a Desertion Besides it is a Maxim laid down by the Author of the Pretences of the French Invasion examined p 4 l. 3. and downwards That where a King or Queen is submitted to and owned by Oaths and other Methods required in such Cases the King himself is not at Liberty to give up his own Power and consequently cannot Desert much less can the People wrest it from him A Man hath himself much more Right to lay down that Power which is legally vested in him than any other Person or Persons can have to take it from him I hope this learned Gentleman will allow us the Benefit of his own Maxims which we are willing to admit of It cannot be denied King James was submitted unto and owned by Oaths and all other Methods required in such Cases and so not at Liberty to give up his own Power thô never so willing And consequently this pretended Desertion must march off the Stage according to the Author 's own Rules But the Disbanding of the Army in the Sense of this Author and others was so illegal a Step that it must pass for his dissolving of the Government Why truly common Prudence advised the Discarding of an Army which had dealt so treacherously with their Prince and Benefactor And I would gladly know what Statute this Measure of the King 's trespassed upon I challenge the Author to point it out to us I have heard it alleged That the King could not raise and maintain an Army without the Consent of Parliament But his power of Disbanding was never yet questioned much less made a Crime If the first be justifiable the last must be much more so From what has been said I hope the Desertion is quite shut out of doors The Reasons adduced make unanswerably against it and the Pamphleteer's own Maxims knock it dead without Mercy by which the greatest part of the Author's Pamphlet and Reasonings falls to the ground since he goeth all along upon the Supposition that the People were still willing to have acknowleged his Rights and secured their own to have treated and come to an Accommodation with him as also that the Prince never proposed any thing but to have Grievances fairly redressed which was still insisted on by the Prince and People in the most humble and usual Methods But that the King wilfully deserted threw up the Government refused all Treaties and left them in a perfect Anarchy to shift for themselves The Falsity of all which is already plainly enough demonstrated and the Abâ—ication must halt having lost the better half of its Foundation I come next to examine the Male-Administration which makes up the other part of this Structure in prosecution of which I do not intend to play the Advocate to defend and justifie any Breaches made upon the Laws and Liberties of my Country I am as tender of those great Concerns as any Man can be I love them as well I value them as high and shall be always ready to hazard as far for their Establishment as a good Englishman who knows their Worth ought to do And perhaps I have given better Evidences of this than the Authors of these Pamphlets can bring for themselves notwithstanding their Fustian Words and high Pretences But Mistakes in Government will be slipping in under the best Reigns and it is not every Error can furnish a good Reason for such important Revolutions such general Defections such deviations from that Duty which is due to Princes from the Obligation of Oaths the Tyes of Nature and the Laws of the Land and for dethroning of Kings inverting the nature of the Monarchy and the interrupting the Royal Line and Succession Such Alterations have been accompanied in all Ages with such Confusions Convulsions Blood Ruine and Desolation that nothing but the necessary Rescue of the Government it self and of all the publick and private Rights which are wrapt up in it from a clear plain visible undeniable and otherwise unavoidable Ruine and Destruction with a Certainty and Conviction that the Remedy proposed will prove feasible and successful without running us into the same dangers and difficulties â—â—n furnish the least shadow or pretence for Experiments which are to be attended with such Dangers founded upon the Breach of so many sacred Tyes and Obligations and Supported with such Expence of Blood and Treasure We ought to be very sure That the Errors complained of would certainly have overturned all Foundations and entirely robbed us of our Rights That those Errors did certainly arise from the natural Disposition of the Prince himself obstinately and incorrigibly bent to pursue them to the utmost whatever the Consequence might be and not rather from the Impulse of corrupted Ministers from a Design to ruine him and make a Property of us in serving the ambitious but guilded Pretences of some other Person before we run headlong into such Measures But alas I am afraid we are not able to stand this Tryal which every cool and thinking Man must allow to be very reasonable and upon an exact and impartial Enquiry it will be found That with all this
his imprisonment of the E. of Feversham who was a publick Messenger and Peer of England and under the Cognizance of none but the King his imprisoning and banishing King James from his own Pallace though acknowleged as the just Monarch by his own Declaration his banishing the French Embassador out of England as soon as he came to London and before the Administration was put into his Hands by which these Kingdoms were ingaged without their own Consent in a War with France without so much as any pretence of Entertainment given to their Abdicated Monarch being a considerable time before K. James's retreat thither were direct possitive and most Solemn Acts of Sovereignty before ever the Crown was confer'd upon him and are so many plain and evident Indications of that early Ambition I have charged upon him And in farther Evidence that all his Designs from the very first were aimed at the Crown and the Crown Vested too with the most towring Prerogatives When the Convention was Deliberating upon some future Provisions against Arbitrary Power the Prince sent my Lord Wharton to several Lords and Mr. Coulin to Sir Edward Seymor and Mr. Hambden and other Commoners to let them known That if the House insisted so much upon Limitations that he would return again and leave them in the lurch to the Mercy of King James So generously Tender was this great Deliverer of our Religion and Liberty As to the Dispencing Power assumed by King James I do not pretend to justifie it I am heartily sorry that so bad a Measure was taken to carry on and establish so desirable and necessary a Good and Birth right of Mankind as Liberty of Conscience which carries its own native Beauty and Usefulness so visibly stampt upon it as could never have failed to obtain an Establishment from the Reason and Judgement of an English Parliament But this would have so much united the Hearts and Affections of English Subjects with their King and laid such an invincible rub in the Way of the Prince's ambitious Designs that it became one of the nicest and most sicklish Points to manage the hardest to ward off and the most dextrous and artful part of their Game there was no downright opposing of so general and desirable a Good 〈◊〉 was easier to poyson and divert 〈◊〉 The King was first put upon Establishing this Liberty by a Proclamation that so the Parliament might be prejudiced against a Thing which otherwise they would have granted upon the account of the first Measure taken about it but finding that the general Good and Benefit which was to be reaped from this Liberty would have digested and sweetned this Pill from a pretence of saving the King's Honor from a Foyl and making all sure though really with a design to ruin Him and baffle the Thing they put him upon the Regulating and Closetting Projects and upon obliging the Clergy to read his Proclamation for Liberty of Conscience from their Pulpits This did alarm the Bishops as was designed and obliged them to think upon Petitioning against it upon which those Beautefeux being afraid lest the KING should call in his Proclamation having always found it hard enough to bring Him to such Methods they ordered the business so that the Bishops were so long in presenting of their Petition to the King that though their Reasons had convinced and satisfied Him there was not time enough to countermand his former Orders though never so willing Upon which they took occasion to incense the King against them as if they had delay'd their Petition so long with design to embroyl Him with his People and so they run the Bishops into the Tower and from thence to the Barr. This is the true History of the Dispencing Power and of the Bishops Persecution which was so warmly and bitterly urged against the King as undeniable Proofs that his Inclination to Catholicks was too strong for the Laws But to speak plain English I hope those Stretches in favour of Catholicks which were Criminal in King James are not become more Legal and Meritorious in King William the exercise of the Dispencing Power in their favours I hope is as much a fault now as ever The Charge will be denied but I shall make it good when I come to discourse upon the Third Motive to the King's Restauration Are not Catholicks employ'd now in the Army thô not qualified by Law It will be alleg'd they are Foreigners so much the worse for an English Catholick will still have some regard for the Laws and Liberties of his Countrymen whereas a mercenary Foreigner is absolutely at the disposal of his Master Are not the Catholicks as much Countenanced and in the exercise of as much Liberty for their Religion as ever The necessity of humouring a Confederacy which must support us the great Strength of which are Catholicks may be urged as a very good Reason for this but if we examine it to the bottom this threatens our Religion more than any Indulgence was granted them by King James When the Catholicks of England hold their Liberty merely from the favour of the Protestants of England they must be thankful for it and humble under it but when they come to derive their Favours Immunities and Liberty from the necessity of our Circumstances and humble Regard and Deference we must pay to Catholick Princes without whose Assistance and Friendship we cannot Subsist their Spirits Hopes and Haughtiness will be enlarged by it They must make grateful acknowlegements to those Catholick Princes by whose kind Influences they injoy their Liberty This begets a Correspondence with and Dependance upon Foreign Princes and we do not know how far by the Instigation of Catholicks here those Princes may be prevailed upon to improve the necessity we have of their Allyance to the advantage of those of their own Religion amongst us The House of Austria within our remembrance was the most zealous Champions for the Roman Religion and the dependance of the Catholicks of England upon that House hath been always terrible and troublesom to this State And though their Losses and the growth of France hath humbled and levelled all the towring Thoughts and Ambition of that Family which did so much exercise both the Councils and Forces of their Neighbours yet since by our Assistance that House is to recover its Losses and France to be reduced within its ancient bounds with their lost Provinces the House of Austria may resume their old Designs They were but covered up not extinguished concealed through Weakness to be discovered upon a greater Encrease of Strength and Vigour in which case we may come to be whipt for our present Politicks May the great God avert those dangers and difficulties which inviron us and visibly threaten the Religious and Civil Concerns of these Kingdoms We have been pulling Destruction with both our hands upon our selves and desperately risking our Religion and Civil Rights without any necessity and unless we repent and repair
these Errors the Punishments we deserve will certainly overtake us We have turned away our King whose Right and Title was certain and unquestioned nay we have chased him from us with unspeakable Indignities upon the Pretence of Errors in Government which he was put upon by the Artifice of his Enemies and which he was willing to have repair'd at our own Sight He courted us by repeated Applications to carve out our own Securities for our Religion and Civil Rights but we have obstinately refused any Treaty with him We have set our selves up for a Mark of Reproach to future Ages by our foolish and invincible Malice and matchless Impudence in Vacating a Throne by a pretended Abdication which imports a Voluntary Resignation and yet the Abdicated M narch never made any but asserts his â—itle to this day We have ground d this Abdication upon a wilful Desertion in our Prince when we forced him away for the Preservation of his Life and upon Mistakes in Government which he was trapan'd into and which he was willing to have repaired but we would not as if every Error in Government had been a Sin against the Holy Ghost which neither can be attoned for nor forgotten The Injury done to our Sovereign is very visible from what I have written and so Reparation ought to be speedily made notwithstanding all the Reasons given by these two Pamphleteers against it But before I enter upon answering their Objections I shall discourse upon the other three Motives assigned for the King's Restauration and make them equally plain with the first I have already handled which will in a great measure prevent or take off all Objections can be made The second Motive was the Setling the Government upon its old Basis which is visibly interrupted and quite unhinged by this Abdication We have turned our Hereditary Monarchy into an Elective We have cut the Royal Line interrupted the Succession and destroyed the just Rights of innocent Persons upon a pretended Abdication which thô well founded is but personal and cannot be extend d any farther To this it is answered by the Author of The Pretences of the French Invasion examined p 10. l. 1. and downwards That the Breach as to the Person of the Reigning King was made by himself having deserted That the Convention did not make but found the Throne vacant That in Regard there were so many clear Indications of the Imposture of the Prince of Wales the Conventiâ—n applied to the present Queen who was the next and undoubted Heir and at her Request a Title was given to her Husband and that 〈◊〉 for Life though he was much nearer in Blood than Henry IV. and Henry VII successively made Kings of England That much greater Breaches have been made since the Conquest in the Lineal Succession by deposing the Reigning King and setting up his Son or a remoter Person which he acknowlegeth an Injury to the King so deposed and that the saving the Succession to the Princess of Denmark and her Heirs shews how far the Convention was from any such thing as is alledged By such Reasonings the Author of this Pamphlet discovers but small Knowlege in History and the Affairs of his own Country little Judgment and Veracity joyned with a great deal of Disingenuity and Impudence How truly the Breach made in our Monarchy by the Abdicating Vote is to be laid at King James's door upon the Account of his Desertion may appear from what I have already said And though this Author doth very confidently assert That the Throne was void by Desertion it seems the Convention were not of that Opinion but found it necessary to declare it so by a Vote before there was Access to fill it again and the Eâ—rl of Nottingham was then quite another Man and of other Principles than we find him now as an Author or Licenser only A Regency was not in the least akin to a Vacancy But to humour the Author suppose there was a Vacancy either before or after the Vote which he pleaseth a Vacancy in a Monarchy is a certain infallible Mark of its being elective For in a Hereditary Monarchy such as this of England upon the Natural or Civil Death too if the Author pleaseth of the Regnant Monarch the Right of the next Successour doth immediately take place and the People whether by their Representatives in Parliament or otherwise do humbly submit to and acknowledge not declare and authorize his Native Title Our Law-books teach us That the Kings of England can never dye The meaning is That in an Hereditary Monarchy the Throne cannot be without a Possessor were it but for a Moment so that where either there is the least Vacancy or where the next Possessor wants a Sentence of the People to give him a Title that very Sentence however disguised is an Election and together with the preceeding Vacancy doth certainly and indispensably stamp the Monarchy Elective Is it not highly impudent in this Author to tell us that there are many clear Indications of the Prince of Wales being an Imposture and at the same time not to let us know what they are and upon what Grounds they are so clear and evident Can this Author be so vain as to think we must take his Word for a Thing upon which so much depends no less than the justice or injustice of a Sentence which must stand the Nation in so much Blood and Treasure so many Perjuries and repeated Acts of Violence and Oppression to support and maintain Or doth he therein follow the Example of the Prince of Orange in his Declaration Which tells us of many just and visible Grounds of Suspicion that the Prince of Wales was not Born of the Queen and refers the Inquiry of that Truth to a free Parliament King James also hath made the same reference in a Letter from St. Germains nay desired the last Parliament to look narrowly into that Affair and yet the Prince hath never to this day desired the Parliament to fall about this important Search nor acquainted us with any of those just and visible Grounds of Suspicion Is it not very strange That the only plausible Pretence in all the Declaration for his undertaking should be so much over-look'd whâ—n a clear and plain discovery of such an infamous Cheat and Imposture would have fully justified the Proceedings of the Convention of Estates the present Settlement of the Crown given us all peace of Conscience and Satisfaction under it and would really and truly have Abd cated King James for ever in the Hâ—arts and Affections of every honest Englishman The Prince in Honor was concerned to have press'd it and the suprâ—am Senate was oblig'd in 〈◊〉 and Ju tice to have made a fuâ—â— Discovery of the Truth or Fals hood oâ—â—t espâ—cially when they have 〈◊〉 so much press'd and challeng'd 〈◊〉 it were in the face of the World 〈…〉 about it by King James and 〈◊〉 Petitioned so to do by seveâ—â—â— rioâ—s of Honor
but these Fundamental Privileges which are the Birth-right of Nations and derived Originally from the Laws of Nature it self such as the Freedom of our Persons and Dominion over our Properties fall only under the Cognizance of Parliaments for their better Establishment against such Breaches as the depraved Nature of Princes and their Ministers will be making upon them The Nature and Design of Societies hath occasioned a partial Submission of these two great native Privileges to the safety of that Body Politick by punishing of Crimes and to the support of it by Taxes which we grant our selves but in no Construction of Reason Sense or Justice can Delegates be understood to be impowered to make an intire surrender of those Rights into the Hands of any Prince were it but for a moment It may be alledged That the safety and necessity of the Government put our Rulers upon such extraordinary Measures If reasons and pretences of State the Secrets of which are always locked up in the Prince his Brâ—ast can apoligize for such bold Strok s against our most Fundamental Priviâ—eges and Laws Where is there any Right or Immunity which we can call our own or be â—ssured off Since such pretences shall never be wanting to entitle the Prince to an absolute Dominion over 〈◊〉 Property as well as over our Liberty since the last is more valuable than the first Why may not Reasons of State as justly render him Master of the one as of the other If it was to preserve our Liberties from the insults of King James we placed the Prince upon the Throne we have certainly either mistaken the Disease or the Cure since he cannot be preserved upon it at a cheaper rate than a Sacrifice of what we intended to preserve we are to learn nothing from this Revolution but a surer and more infallible way of enslaving the Subject King James never dreamt of such a Method An English Parliament was hitherto esteemed a Court inseparable from the true Interest of Englishmen but a little more Training under so good a Master may make them change Principles and become in time as complacent and good natur'd as ever the French and Swedish States were Nothing it seems in Gratitude can be refused to our Deliverer But thô Gratitude be a Virtue it ought to have its Bounds lest it run us farther than designed or intended at first even to the destruction of those Rights for the Preservation of which we desire to appear so grateful The King of Denmark in our time by the Merit of some Actions performed for his People and during their first Raptures of gratitude for it sound the way to Enslave them by changing an Elective and Limited into an Hereditary and Despotick Monarchy The admitting of unqualified Persons into Places of Employment and the erecting the High-Commission-Court were thought great Crimes in King James and mighty Errors in Government and yet the first is as frequently practised in the Army as ever and how much further the Prince's dependance upon Popish Confederates may lead him in favour of Catholicks must be owing to their Moderation for we lie at their Mercy upon that head and may come to be made sensible that our Foreign Allyances may prove as troublesome and uneasie to us in favour of Papists as King James's Religion was And as to the last the Prince must either look upon that Court to be no Crime or by favouring the most active Members in it he must destroy and invert that old English Maxim That our Kings can neither Err nor be Punished but that evil Counsellors are liable to both The turning out the Fellows of Magdalen College from their Freeholds contrary to that Provision in Magna Charta That no Man should lose his Life or Goods but by the Law of the Land is not to be justified and yet falls much short of the putting People to death under this Government by Martial Law before it was Enacted Few Men will ever scruple to secure their Lives with the loss of their Places The Quo Warranto and Regulation Projects were much to be complained of but we may very easily imagine to whose Practises they were owing by the Countenance and Preferments the Authors and Promoters of those Councils received from this Government neither can the Quo Warrantoing of Charters be so illegal as the Declaration would make us believe since King William himself treads in the same Path by imposing a Governor upon New England upon the Quo Warranto Foot contrary to the Opinion of his Privy-Council Whereas by the Declaration the slighting and rejecting of Petitions delivered by Subjects with Submission and Respect is considered as a high Strain of absolute Power yet when the People of Scotland had secured to themselves the Privilege of Petitioning by their claim of Rights and in pursuance and by virtue of that Privilege the greatest part of that Parliament which placed the Crown upon his Head had humbly addressed unto the present King for his assent to some Votes which they had passed for Establishing of Religion and Liberty and which were agreeable to their antient Laws and Privileges they were scornfully and disdainfully refused and rejected If by the Declaration it was a fault to treat a Peer of England as a Criminal for asserting that the Subjects were not bound to obey a Popish Justice of Peace it cannot be a piece of Justice in King William to pass a Sentence of Banishment upon the Earl of Feversham who is a Peer of England within these few Weeks without so much as alleging a Crime against him Since by the Declaration the obliging People to deliver their Opinion before hand as to the repealing the Test and Penal Laws and the turning out of Employments such as would not promise lustily is represented as so fowl a piece of Collusion The Closetting of Members of Parliament now to pre-engage their Votes in Affairs depending before them and the Disgraces which some obstinate Persons fell under upon it should have been forborn unless King William be dissatisfied with the Prince of Orange's Declaration and the Rules and Maxims therein Established According to the Scottish Declaration the appointing of Judges in an unusual manner and giving 'em Commissions which were not to continue during Life or good Behaviour was highly illegal yet K. William after he got the Crown found he was mistaken in that Paragraph and nominated the whole Bench without subjecting them to a Tryal and Approbation of Parliament according as Law and Custom required did not think fit to continue their Commissions during Life or good Behaviour and appointed them a Lord President thô by express Statute he was to be elected by the Bench. By the Declaration the imposing of Bonds upon whole Counties without Act of Parliament and the permitting of free Quarters to the Soldiers are declared to be high and intollerable Stretches of Government The same hath been practised in this Government with greater Confidence less Compassion and
other aggravating Circumstances Bonds have been imposed by Authority of Council without Warrant of Parliament as may appear from 〈◊〉 publick Proclamations and many Thousands of Soldiers have been maintained upon free Quarter and for many Months together countenanced and abetted in it by the Government and the Funds for reimbursing the Countrey which were appointed by Parliament have been otherways diverted The Commissionating the Officers of the Army to sit as Judges upon the Lives and Estates of the Subjects and the putting People to death without a legal Tryal Jury and Record were complained of in the Declaration were thought good Reasons for Fore-faulting of K. J. and were provided against upon this last Setlement of the Crown And yet both the caution given by the Sentence against K. J. and the future Provision made by the Estates prove to weak to restrain this Government from practising the same things by ordering and impowering Colonel Hill and Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton to put Glencou and all the Males of his Clan under Seventy to death which was partly executed upon them without any legal Tryal Jury or Record Neither can their former Enmity and opposition to the Government furnish any Apology for so barbarous a Murther since they had all either actually taken the benefit of the Indemnity then granted and so were Pardoned or had Protections in their Pockets which put them under the immediate care and safeguard of the Government It may pusle the best Heads to find out the reason why Irish Papists though stated Enemies should be indulged to the prejudice of our Laws and Rights and yet Protestants though formerly Enemies barbarously Massacred when indemnify'd and under protection unless K. W. be resolved from the Obligations he is under and the Deference he must pay to the Pope and Popish Princes to imbrace every occasion of destroying the one and cherishing the other By the Declaration we are assured That the Prince will concur in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happiness of these Nations and which a free and lawful Parliament shall determine and yet how many necessary and useful Bills for the Happiness of the Nation have been stifled by the Interest Intreigues and Sollicitations of the King himself his Ministers and Courtiers and the Royal Assent refused to many Bills in our Neighbouring Kingdom And in this to the Bill about Judges which was thought so necessary an expedient for the Establishing of Justice and to cut off their servile Dependance upon the Court which was charged as such a blemish upon the Judges in K. James's Reign and was always look'd upon as dangerous to the Lives and Liberties of the English Subjects We were assured that the only design of the Prince's Undertaking was The preservation of the Protestant Religion the covering all Men from Persecution for their Consciences and the securing to the whole Nation the free injoyment of all their Laws Rights and Liberties under a just and legal Government How well and truly he hath confined himself within these Limits and other Bounds he prescribed to himself in his Declaration may partly appear from what hath been said and shall yet be made more clear and evident by a true and impartial Enquiry into his Conduct and some considerable Stretches which have been made in Points not glanced at by the Declaration because they were Strains of Absolute and Despotick Power which K. James's Reign did not furnish us with any Instances of the like The Power of imposing Taxes is unquestionably lodg'd in Parliament and the People of this Island have a natural Right unto and Dominion over their Properties and the Prince cannot share with them in it in whole or in part except in so far as they consent to it themselves by their Representatives in Parliament And our Parliaments though abundantly liberal in other respects have never indulged the least Liberty to our Monarchs on that head being so far tight to their Trust and their Constituents Interest And the Estates of both Kingdoms judg'd it necessary upon the present Settlement of the Crown to assert the Peoples Right in it and plainly to express it as one of the Conditions of that Settlement And yet the Privy Council of the Kingdom of Scotland have openly and avowedly in Contempt of the antient Laws and late Original Contract by their publick Proclamations commanded and appointed under the severest Penalties the Subjects of that Kingdom at their own Charge and Expence to furnish a great number of Horses for the use and service of the Army and for carrying Ammunition and Provision of Victuals with Men to attend the said Horses And I am informed That when upon cool and second Thoughts the Council considering what they had done how illegal it was and the danger they had run themselves into by it thought fit to apply unto the Parliament for an Approbation it was refused them Extravagant Bail was complained of and provided against by the States of both Kingdoms and yet it is daily and frequently imposed and exacted many times far above the Value of their Estates The Freedom of Elections to Parliament from the Bribes and Directions of Court and Courtiers was expresly conditioned by the States of both Kingdoms upon their Tender of the Crown How well that is kept and observed may appear from the bare faced and open Applications made to Counties Corporations and particular Electors for the Choice of such and such Persons with Threats and promises of Reward Nay I have known Three thousand Pounds expended for secret Service to prevent the Election of a Person who had been eminently Serviceable to this Government becâ—me he was found tighter to the â—nterest of his Country than to the Court for there never was a Reign wherein the Interest of King and People are more confidently stated as contradistinct than in this though it be only the Consent and pretended Interest of the People gives Birth Rise and Title to it The frequency of Parliaments for redressing of Grievances the amending strengthning and preserving of the Laws with all Freedom of Speech and Debates in them was insisted upon and fundamentally established by the States of both Kingdoms when they elected their present Majesties to the Throne How well this is observed and made good to both Kingdoms is obvious enough It is not for redressing of Grievances amending or preserving the Laws they are assembled but for giving of Money The craving Necessities of the State the pressing Circumstances of the Consederates and foreign Affairs the early Preparations of the French King an honourable Peace the Good of the Protestant Religion and Fears of King James are become the cruel and everlasting Topicks the common and ordinary Stale whereby the true Intent of Parliaments is baffled and the Money business quickened and finished The last is now so much the business of Parliaments and the firit so little that it is an equal Wager that this Court may come at last to plead Prescription against
Parliaments as to any other business but Money-bills As to freedom of Speech and Debates though there be none questioned for it yet Members are so frequently Discouraged and Frowned upon at Court Disgraced and turn'd out of Employments whenever they launch out into an enquiry after Grievances or the present Administration And upon the other hand the Places of Honor and Trust and the Money of the Nation are so openly and visibly employed for debauching of Members from a sense and feeling of the true Interest of the People and for divesting them of all the publick and generous Notions Zeal unwearied and bold Endeavours for the Rights and Privileges of the Subject the joynt Good and Interest of King and Kingdom which hath been hitherto so much the Glory and Entertainment of brave English Spirits in our Parliaments that this native and necessary Freedom of Speech and Debates is more visibly threatned and more effectually destroyed than ever could have been done by Force Sentence or Imprisonment We are sooner wheedâ—ed with false if gilded Pretences than hectored or huffed into a Court Compliance Lastly was there ever a Reign wherein the plunderings and Free quâ—â—terings of Soldiers was more counteranced and the People more grievously oppressed by them than in this The Complaints of Scotland upon that head already hinted at the irregular and unheard of Abuses and Miscarriages of the Irish Army the Desolations brought upon that miserable Kingdom by them and the daily Instances we moâ—t with of that nature in this Kingdom are convincing and undeniable Evidences of the Truth of it Nay to such a pass is it already come that when a Secretary of State was applied unto by persons injured who were intirely in the Interest of the Government and presented by the Knight of the Shire with Complaints against the Abuses and free Quartering of Soldiers they were scornfully rejected with this Answer That Men and Horses must eat Meaning no doubt that since the Taxes designed by the Parliament for that end were necessarily to be applied unto the use of the Consederates the people must be doubly burdened for the Subsistence of the Troops Such brave Guardians are our present Rulers become of the English Liberties Here we have a sad but true Catalogue of our Miseries only it is not full and compleat The present Administration can furnish us with a great many more Instances But I have confined my self to a Deduction of those grosser Errors which visibly infringed the Pretences of the Prince's Declaration and the Petition of Rights the securing and preserving of which was the Reason expresly assigned for his Election into the Throne If in the Infancy of his Government when his sense of Gratitude for the Gift of Three Crowns if ever must be fresh in his Memory when the Hearts and Hands as well as the Purses of the People were necessary for his Support when his Honour as well as Interest called for a different Conduct he run so warmly into such Measures what must we feel when he comes to sit sure and be fixt upon his Throne We may certainly conclude upon the Inclinations and future Designs of a Prince by his preceeding Conduct and the choice of his Ministers and from both these Reflections in the present Case we have but a melancholy View of our future Condition Are not those very Men who in both Kingdoms were the Authors Contrivers and Actors of the most Arbitrary and grievous Proceedings which were complained of during the Reigns of our two last Monarchs become the Ministers the Darlings the Favourites of this Reign Have they changed their Principles and Maxims The former Instances in which they have their share may convince us to the contrary Is it to be imagined that a Prince who signalized his Entry upon the Stage of publick Affairs with a breach of the most solemn Oaths to the contrary the Destruction of the Liberties of his Native Country and by grasping at a Power which the Nature Law and Constitutions of that Government denied to his Character in it will be more tender of his Oaths to us and of our Constitution His past Conduct may clear it up unto us we are Strangers to him and he to us his Affections as well as his Birth are foreign he distrusts and despiseth us as treacherous to our former King He may love the Treason but hates the Traytors It is not a single Crime can entitle us 〈◊〉 his Favour it is by a Sacrifice if 〈◊〉 of King and Country we can touch his heart it is only by this double Treason we can get into his Confidence The Fate and Disgrace of those Persons who upon this Revolution frankly sacrificed the first but knew not how to subdue their Scruples as to the last may sufficiently prove this Truth We have none but our selves to blame for this Mischief By our Abdicating Vote and subsequent Measures our antient just and legal Government is destroyed and overturned and in so doing we have disingaged him from the Promises he made in his Declaration since it was only under a just and legal Government that we were assured of his Endeavours to preserve our Laws Rights and Liberties Let us yet a little farther examine the Benefits we shall reap from this Revolution the Means we have to support it and what will probably be the Issue of all these great Transactions The malignant aspect of our late Measures towards our beloved Rights and Privileges seems to be pretty well cleared already and scarce admits of an aggravating Thought more unless we consider that we are like to pay the Price of a perfect and lasting Cure for downright Poyson and a mortal consuming Feavor But perhaps this Victorious Prince by his Conquests and admirable Conduct will raise the Military Glory of this Nation so high and enlarge her Territories and Command so far as shall quite darken and eclipse the Lustre and Fame of our greatest and most fortunate Kings and thereby alleviate or quite bury our Sense and Feeling of past present and future Miseries If the Lawrels and Conquests of a Monarch which are first drenched in Tears and are founded upon the Slavery of the People can atone for such Miseries the French at this Day would be the happiest People in Europe This will not pass upon English Men who observe from their Histories that the most Victorious of their Monarchs have always been most render and careful of their Liberties and I am afraid that even this faint Comfort shall not be afforded us What reason have we to expect that by the Conduct and Military Knowledge of a Prince against whom the Naked and Undisciplined Irish made Head for three Campaigns together we shall be able to gain Troops and Provinces from the more Numerous better Disciplined and Conducted Troops of France For though the Author of A Letter to a Friend concerning a French Invasion flatters us with our Victories over the French at the Boyn Athlone Agrim and Limrick
by the natural Boldness Spirit and Courage of the English far surpassing that of the French but more especially from the Inclination of the French themselves to live under a Government which was so much easier and more agreeable than their own it being natural for People to covet the same Plenty and Freedom which they see is injoyed and possessed by their Neighbour Hence it was that though we lost all our Footing in France yet still our Forces and Enmity was more dreadful to those Monarchs than that of any other State in Europe though more considerable for its native Strength and consining by dry Marches upon 'em and they always Courted our Friendship and Allyance with the greatest Submissions and Applications imaginable And until the Reign of Q. Elizabeth the French did always chuse rather to divert our Invasions with their Money and Treaties than to encounter them by Force being afraid to graple with that Power which they had so often felt to their Cost Since that time neither our Friendship hath been so much Courted nor our Enmity so carefully Avoided as formerly This doth not proceed from the increase of the French Power and decrease of ours though the Revenues and Military Force of France be strangely augmented since ours in proportion hath received the same increase Our Treasure is augmented and that being the Sinews of War quickly furnisheth and maintains every thing else And the other States of Europe are from the Circumstances of Affairs better disposed for Allyances with us than ever they were in the time of our Ancestors So that France is but still France and England in the same Proportion with it as to Force and Revenue and in a more promising Condition of making Allyances and of being more usefully served by them Our Pretences are still the same and every whit as Strong and Just and we as willing and desirous to make Advantage of them and yet we are in no respect so formidable to that Crown as formerly nor in a Condition to shake that State and make such impressions into the Heart of France as our Ancestors have done The true Reason is our difference in Religon for we being Protestants and France Popish this sets the Two Nations at a greater distance from mutual Correspondence and Contrivances which must necessarily preceed and occasion important Revolutions than all their former Animosities Emulation and Duty to their natural Prince could ever do Loyalty to Princes National Considerations and Point of Honor and Reputation do many times give way to present and future Advantages But when Religion and Point of Conscience comes in to gather and cement all those divided Interests together and unite them as it were into one bundle they become the more hard and difficult to overcome This plain and evident Reason cannot escape the Knowledge and Reflection of so wise a Prince as the French King is acknowledged to be The difference in Religion is a much greater Security to him against our Attempts than his Armies Fleets or Strength of his Towns The Sense of Religion doth many times rouze and influence the Courage and Resolutions of Men when other humane Considerations prove to weak to quicken their drooping Spirits Catholicks will fight to the last to escape the Dominion of such as they believe Hereticks when perhaps French Men would be willing enough to come under the English Government which is so much easier and better than their own I do not question but this very Consideration alone will prove strong enough to keep the French King from endeavouring our Reunion to the Roman Church which would make the Pretences of an English Monarch more dangerous than ever by our Union with Scotland which formerly gave such notable Diversions to our Forces both at Home and in France That Prince's Disputes with the Pope for Point of Prerogative shews plainly that he never will indanger his Crown in his own Person or Posterity to serve the Interests and Desires of the Papal Chair from all which we may safely conclude that the Protestant Religion in Britain was in no great danger of being ruined by King James though really as bad as he was represented If our Religion and Liberties were placed so much out of danger of being overturned by the Laws and Franchises we were then in Possession of how much better might we have established them for the future and placed them above the shadow of any Danger by embracing and improving the Offers which our lawful Prince made us of carving out our own Satisfaction and Securities He was surprized with an astonishing Defection of his Subjects with a Conspiracy of a great many Princes and States against him He knew no place but France to retire unto where he might have a Cover for his Head but could have no great Expectations of being quickly restored to his Throne by a Power which had so much other Diversion He was unwilling in his old Age to go into Exile was very desirous to leave a perfect Calm to his Son before his own Death which by the Co rs of Nature and the ordinary Destiny of his Family he could not believe was very remote and had a Love and Kindness to us still as a Father for his disobedient Children All which would have procured us from our lawful King a lasting legal full and happy Settlement would have established our Religion bettered and secured our Liberties upon lasting Foundations without any trouble and with a great deal of innocency How many crimes would have been avoided by following this Method and how many more prevented which will be necessary if we be obstinate to support and maintain the Injustice we have done How many Millions of Money and how many Lives might have been saved or at least more profitably employed by the Conduct and good Husbandry of our Lawful King for the Honour of England restraining the unbounded Pretences of ambitious Neighbours and in giving Peace and Quiet to Europe There is no question but a King who was so unwilling to leave us and had so much of an English Spirit would have gone into any Measures with relation to foreign Affairs that his Paliament should have thought fitting in which case what returns of Glory and Profit would this Nation and Monarchy have reaped from this Blood and Treasure which is now absolutely lost and thrown away and our future Expences and Dangers daily growing upon us with as little hope of Success My heart is so rent and torn with the thoughts of it that my Pen is ready to drop out of my hand as I write But we wantonly longed for an Abdication without examining the true Value of what we refused and the Consequences were to follow upon the other Measures We have made a religious War of it which may be fatally returned upon us and we never considered that Defections upon Pretences for the Protestant Religion seldom or never terminate othervvise than by the Destruction of Religion and Pretenders both
Reasonings which more perfectly resembled the Pretences Motives and Grounds of this Revolution by their Weakness Falshood and Prevarications How well our present Payments secure our native Countrey and Religion from Destruction may appâ—ar from the ruine of Ireland the Plunderings and free Quarters practised in Britain the Breaches made upon our ancient Monarchy and Constitution whereby a War is entailed upon Us and our Posterity from the Violences done to our Laws Rights and Liberties and Original Contract made with K. William and from the present visible and eminent Dangers which our Religion and Liberties are threatned with by any probable Issue of this War under a Prince who hath quite overturned the Liberties of his own native Countrey made fair advances towards the ruine of ours and was never yet Successful in any Enterprise he undertook except when he invaded his Father in Law contrary to all Divine and Humane Rules which perhaps God designed as a Scourge to these Nations for our Sins and when he fought Luxemburgh's Out-guards at St. Denis with the Peace in his Pocket contrary to the publick Faith and Law of Nations as if he were Predestinated to be Successful only in Crimes but unfortunate in heroick brave and generous Actions such as restraining the ambitious Encroachments of Princes and vindicating the Rights and Liberties of oppressed Nations having always practised in his own Case what he pretended to reform in another's How little the Deliverance of Europe is carried on by our present Payments is but too evident from the growing Successes of France in Flanders and the taking their most considerable Towns and Fortresses in the sight and under the nose of our present Monarch and those mighty Consederate Armies It is equally false to insinuate That our Payments during King Charles the Second's Reign bore any proportion with the Taxes under this and that they were employed only for assisting France to ruine Europe For the Subsidies we have already paid to this K. which Sir Edward Sâ—ymer who might very well know it assured the House of Commons did amount to 18 Millions before the last Impositions which were granted do far exceed all the Taxes paid to K. Charles joyn'd with the several Payments made to our Edwards our Henries and our Elizabeth who raised the Honour and Reputation of this Nation so high and spread our Conquests so far And it was to King Charles his Authority and Mediation the Peaces of Aix-la-Chapelle and Nimiguen were due which put then a Stop to the French Carreer And I am afraid our present Payments will very hardly bring about a Peace again upon the Foot of those Treaties and we are to take it as a very great Favour for which we are to be thankful to God and our present King if the Taxes we pay during this Government fall any thing short of the French Oppressions and Four Millions a Year over and above an Allowance for the Abatement of Chimney-Money and the ordinary Revenues of the Crown are but inconsiderable Payments in the opinion of these Authors It seems their Court Preferments are great and rich that they are so little sensible of those Taxes which are already become so heavy to this Nation and of which we see no end But the growing Debt to the French King for those Sums already spent upon K. â—ames 's Subsistance and the defence of Ireland and to be farther Expâ—nded for his Restauration will quite sink and undo this Nation It appears that these Authors take it for granted That the mercenary Temper of the Dutch in demanding and obtaining Satiâ—faction for their Expences which 〈◊〉 of a tender regard forsooth to our Liberties they bestowed upon our Deliverance will be exactly copied by other Princes But this is the first Instance of such Merchandise and it is not to be believed that great Princes who study Fame and tenderly regard their Honor and Glory will imitate so base an Example But suppose they should our Author is as wide in his Estimate of this Expence as in his other Reasonings We are frightned with a Charge Ten times bigger for many Years than our present Payments and yet will very much fall short of the half of one Years Tax we pay now The Sums spent upon the King's Subsistence and Ireland doth not amount to Three hundred thousand Luâ—dores and as for the Charge of his return I wish and heartily pray that all true English Men would unanimously concur together to prevent the pretence of demanding any such Charges the necessity of Foreign Troops and even the remotest Fears of French Popery and Slavery by returning our King with as general a Consent as he was forced from us which will vindicate the Protestant Religion from the reproach of Deposing Principles and establish it for the nature will reseâ—â—e the ancient Monarchy and Constitution of this Nation upon its old Basiâ— will repair the Injury done to our lawful King whereby we may legaly obtain those Securities for our Religion and Liberties which we are Courting unsucces fully amidst so many desperaâ—e Dâ—â—gâ—rs and Diffâ—â—â—lâ—â—s will infallibly relieve us from the weighty Oppressions and manifest Infractions of our choicest and most valuable Rights which we at present feel and have so much reason to be apprehensive of for the future will deliver us from the heavy Burthen of so many Taxes which we have already paid and which yet must be continued if we design to support a crazy and unjust Settlement any longer which after all our Blood and Expence must certainly fall to the ground and give place to the natural Force and Weight of our ancient Government and Monarchy to the just Title and undoubted Rights of our lawful Sovereign and his Posterity to the Love Affections and native Inclinations of English Men when the present fit is over and to the Interests of our Neighbouring Princes and States which lie visibly cross unto it so soon as their present Differences are at an end And lastly by this Method we shall be secured against those fatal Influences upon our Liberties which never fail to accompany all forced irresistable and unexpected returns of Exiled Monarchs I do humbly beseech Almighty God That of his Infinite Mercy for the good of these Nations and of all Europe he would open the Prince of Orange's Eyes give him a sight and discovery of the Vanity as well as Injustice of possessing his Father's Throne and incline his Heart to establish Religion and Liberty among us and give Peace to all Europe by doing an Act which would bury in Oblivion the famed Instances of Dioclesian and Charles V. and immortalize his Name even by restoring his old Father to his Right and Inheritance Was it really the Danger our Religion and Liberties were in which put him upon coming to Britain this would be an infallible way fully to secure them by new Laws and Concessions against which there lay no Objection Or was it to put himself at the head of the British Forces thereby to give a Check to the towring Ambition of the French Monarch this would more effectually do it for either that King would think himself obliged out of Gratitude to a Prince who is truly a Martyr for a supposed French League to give a reasonable Peace to Europe in order to King James's Restauration or by a Refusal our King was at Liberty to consult his own Interest and to unite with the Consederates by the Advice of Parliament which would make such a general and vigorous Application of the English Forces that way without any fear of Domestick Distraction as would quickly oblige that great Monarch to give ear to Reason and a Peace to his Neighbours And the Glory of having given Peace to Europe and subdued himself would place the Prince of Orange's Name upon the highest Pinnacles of Fame furnish the greatest Character imaginable for History give a great and noble Example to future Ages declare him the Benefactor of the Christian World and oblige all British Subjects to acknowlege that he had most generously contributed his best Endeavours for the securing of the Protestant Religion and the free Enjoyment of all our Laws Rights and Liberties under a just and legal Government according to his Declaration FINIS ERRATA PAge 5. Col. 1. Line 23. r. upon a Review of that bl ssed Occasion p. 8. c. 1. l. 37. deâ—e in p. 10. c. 2. l. 9. after Troops add to support 〈◊〉 p. 13. c. 2. l. 16. 〈◊〉 it r. th y. p. 14. c. 2. l. 39 r. easie p. 21. c. 1. l. 38. r. was not with p. 22. c. 1. l. â—â— lâ—â—e anoth r. p. 26. c. 1. l. 13. dele our p. 27. c. 2. l. 21. r. Princes p. 32. c. 1. l. 13. r. the. p. â—2 c. 1. l. 30 dele upon whole Counties p. 37. c. 1. l. 6. after in add the. dele are l. 23. r. Towns p. 41. c. 2. l. 3. r. scrâ—ening p. 43. c. 2 l. 4. dele and his Designs p. 4â— c. 2. l. 9. r. instanc p. 54 c. 2. l. 32. 〈…〉 fail to furnish