THE Prince of Orange HIS DECLARATION SHEWING THE REASONS Why he Invades ENGLAND WITH A Short PREFACE AND SOME MODEST REMARKS on It. LONDON Published by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall MDCLXXXVIII The Prince of Orange's Declaration shewing the Reasons why He invades England with a short Preface and some modest Remarks on it THERE having been various Discourses about the Reasonableness and Iustice of the Dutch Invasion the Prince's great Love and special Care of the Protestant Religion and English Protestants set forth in the most Charming manner and the Desperateness of the Protestant State and Condition painted in the blackest and most frightful Colours Our Natural Leige Lord notwithstanding his Unparallel'd Grace to all represented as designing the greatest Cruelty against his own Subjects strange Stories of ill things whispered and nothing less than a Secret Lâ—â—gue between His Majesty of Great Britain and the French King to Extirpate all Protestants entred into These Reports are with so much Art and Cunning spread as to startle the most Considering Protestants of all Persuasions whence nothing could be more eagerly desired than a Sight of the Prince of Orange's Declaration For the Expectations of most Men are That some Extraordinary Secrets some hidden Works of Darkness should be reveal'd and brought to Light as generally those who yet never saw the Prince's Declaration do still believe But there not being one word of any such Treaty we cannot see why it is that the Prince comes Over and if others impartially Peruse the Declaration we doubt not but 't will Convince them that they give no Reason powerful enough to Iustifie so Bloody an Enterprise as this in the Issue must needs be We will therefore give you a true Copy of the Prince's Declaration word for word as it runs in the West THE DECLARATION OF HIS HIGHNES William Henry By the Grace of GOD PRINCE of ORANGE c. Of the REASONS inducing Him To appear in Armes in the Kingdome of England for Preserving of the Protestant Religion and for Restoring the Lawes and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland IT is both certain and Evident to all men that the Publike Peace and Happines of any State or Kingdome can not be preserved where the Lawes Liberties and Customs established by the Lawfull authority in it are openly Transgressed and Annulled More especially where the alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced Upon which those who are most Immediatly Concerned in it are Indispensably bound to endeavour to Preserve and maintain the established Lawes Liberties and Customes and above all the Religion and Worship of God that is Established among them And to take such an effectual care that the Inhabitants of the said State or Kingdome may neither be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civill Rights Which is so much the more Necessary because the Greatnes and Security both of Kings Royall families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the Happines of their Subjects and People depend in a most especiall manner upon the exact observation and maintenance of these their Lawes Liberties and Customes Upon these grounds it is that we cannot any longer forbear to Declare that to our great regret we see that those Councellours who have now the chieffe credit with the King have overturned the Religion Lawes and Liberties of those Realmes and subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liberties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and Indirect waies but in an open and undisguised manner Those Evil Councellours for the advancing and colouring this with some plausible pretexts did Invent and set on foot the Kings Dispencing power by vertue of which they pretend that according to Law he can Suspend and Dispence with the Execution of the Lawes that have been enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament for the security and happines of the Subject and so have rendered those Laws of no effect Tho there is nothing more certain then that as no Lawes can be made but by the joint concurrence of King and Parliament so likewise lawes so enacted which secure the Publike peace and safety of the Nation and the lives and liberties of every subject in it can not be repealed or suspended but by the same authority For tho the King may pardon the punishment that a Transgressour has incurred and to which he is condemned as in the cases of Treason or Felony yet it can not be with any colour of reason Inferred from thence that the King can entirely suspend the execution of those Lawes relating to Treason or Felony Unless it is pretended that he is clothed with a Despotick and Arbitrary power and that the Lives Liberties Honours and Estates of the Subjects depend wholly on his good will and Pleasure and are entirely subject to him which must infallibly follow on the Kings having a power to suspend the execution of the Lawes and to dispence with them Those Evill Councellours in order to the giving some credit to this strange and execrable Maxime have so conducted the matter that they have obtained a Sentence from the Judges declaring that this Dispencing power is a Right belonging to the Crown as if it were in the power of the twelve Judges to offer up the Lawes Rights and Liberties of the whole Nation to the King to be disposed of by him Arbitrarily and at his Pleasure and expressly contrary to Lawes enacted for the security of the Subjects In order to the obtaining this Judgment those Evill Councellours did before hand examine secretly the Opinion of the Judges and procured such of them as could not in Conscience concurre in so pernicious a Sentence to be turned out and others to be substituted in their Rooms till by the chances which were made in the Courts of Judicature they at last obtained that Judgment And they have raised some to those Trusts who make open Profession of the Popish Religion though those are by Law Rendred Incapable of all such Employments It is also Manifest and Notorious that as his Majestie was upon his coming to the Crown received and acknowledged by all the subjects of England Scotland and Ireland as their King without the least opposition tho he made then open profession of the Popish Religion so he did then Promise and Solemnly Swear at his Coronation that he would maintain his subjects in the free enjoyment of their Lawes and Liberties and in particular that he would maintain the Church of England as it was established by Law It is likewise certain that there have been at diverse and sundry times several Lawes enacted for the preservation of those Rights and Liberties and of the Protestant Religion and among other Securities it has been enacted that all Persons whatsoever that are advanced to any Ecclesâ—astical Dignity or to bear Office in either University as likewise all other that should be put in
any Imployment Civill or Military should declare that they were not Papists but were of the Protestant Religion and that by their taking of the Oaths of Allegance and Suprermacy and the Test yet these â—vill Councellours have in effect annulled and abolished all those Lawes both with relation to Ecclesiasticall and Civill Employments In order to Ecclesiasticall Dignities and Offices they have not only without any colour of Law but against most expresse Lawes to the contrary set up a Commission of a certain Number of persons to whom they have committed the cognisance and direction of all Ecclesiasticall matters in the which Commission there has been and still is one of His Majesties Ministers of State who makes now publike profession of the Popish Religion and who at the time of his first professing it declared that for a great while before he had believed that to be the only true Religion By all this the deplorable State to which the Protestant Religion is reduced is Apparent since the Affairs of the Church of England are now put into the hands of Persons who have accepted of a Commission that is manifestly Illegal and who have executed it contrary to all Law and that now one of their chieffe Members has abjured the Protestant Religion and declared himself a Papist by which he is become Incapable of holding any Publike Imployment The said Commissioners have hitherto given such proof of their submission to the directions given them that there is no reason to doubt but they will still continue to promote all such designs as will be most aggreable to them And those Evill Councellours take care to raise none to any Ecclesiasticall dignities but persons that have no zeal for the Protestant Religion and that now hide their unconcernedness for it under the specious pretence of Moderation The said Commissioners have suspended the Bishop of London only because he refused to obey an order that was sent him to suspend a Worthy Divine without so much as citing him before him to make his own Defence or observing the common formes of Processe They have turned out a President chosen by the fellows of Magdalen Colledge and afterwards all the Fellows of that Colledge without so much asciting them before any Court that could take legall cognissance of that affair or obtaining any Sentence against them by a Competent Judge And the only reason that was given for turning them out was their refusing to choose for their President a Person that was recommended to them by the Instigation of those Evill Councellours Tho the right of a free Election belonged undoubtedly to them But they were turned out of their freeholds contrary to Law and to that expresse provision in the Magna Charta that no man shall lâ—se life or Goods but by the Law of the land And now these Evill Councellours have put the said Colledge wholly into the hands of Popists tho as is abovesaid they are Incapable of all such Employments both by the Law of the Land and the statutes of the Colledge These Commissioners have also cited before them all the Chancellours and Archdeacons of England requiring them to certifie to them the names of all such Clergymen as have read the Kings declaration for Liberty of Conscience and of such as have not read it without considering that the reading of it was not enjoined the Clergy by the Bishops who are their Ordinaries The Illegality and Incompetency of the said Court of the Ecclesiasticall Commissioners was so notoriously known and it did so Evidently appear that it tended to the Subversion of the Protestant Religion that the Most Revernd Father in God William Archbishop of Canterbury Primate and Metropolitan of all England seeing that it was raised for no other end but to oppresse such persons as were of Eminent Vertue Learning and Piety refused to sit or to concurre in it And tho there are many expresse Lawes against all Churches or Chapells for the exercise of the Popish Religion and also against all Monasteries and Convents and more particularly against the order of the Iesuites yet those Evill Councellours have Procured orders for the building of severall Churches and Chappels for the Exercise of that Religion They have also procured diverse Monasteries to be Erected and in contempt of the Law they have not only set up severall Colledges of Iesuites in diverse places for the corrupting of the youth but have raised up one of the Order to be a Privy Councellour and a Minister of State. By all which they do evidently shew that they are restrained by no rules of Law whatsoever but that they have subjected the Honours and Estates of the subjects and the Establisht Religion to a Despotick power and to Arbitrary Government In all which they are served and seconded by those Ecclesiasticall Commissioners They have also followed the same methods with Relation to Civill affairs For they have procured Orders to examine all Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants Sheriffs Justices of Peace and all others that were in any Publike Imployment if they would concurre with The King in the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and all such whose Consciences did not suffer them to comply with their designes were turned out and others were put in their places who they believed would be more Compliant to them in their Designes of defeating the Intent and Execution of those Laws which had been made with so much care and caution for the Security of the Protestant Religion And in many of these places they have put professed Papists though the Law has disabled them and warranted the subjects not to have any regard to their Orders They have also invaded the Priviledges and seised on the Charters of most of those Towns that have a right to be represented by their Burgesses in Parliament and have procured surrenders to be made of them by which the Magistrates in them have delivered up all their Rights and Priviledges to be disposed of at the pleasure of those Evill Councellours who have thereupon placed new Magistrates in those Towns such as they can most entirely confide in and in many of them they have put Popish Magistrates notwithstanding the Incapacities under which the Law has put them And whereas no Nation whatsoever can subsist without the administration of good and impartiall Justice upon which mens Lives Liberties Honours and Estates doe depend those Evill Councellours have subjected these to an Arbitrary and Despotick power In the most important affairs they have studied to discover before hand the Opinions of the Judges and have turned out such as they found would not conform themselves to their intentions and have put others in their places of whom they were more assured without having any regard to their abilities And they have not stuck to raise even professed Papists to the Courts of Judicature notwithstanding their Incapacity by Law and that no Regard is due to any Sentences flowing from them They have carried this so far as to
contrary to the Ancient custome shall be considered as null and of no force and likewise all Magistrates who have been Injustly turned out shall forthwith resume their former Imployments as well as all the Borroughs of England shall return again to their Antient Prescriptions and Charters And more particularly that the Antient Charter of the Great and Famous City of London shall again be in Force and that the Writts for the Members of Parliament shall be addressed to the Proper Officers according to Law and Custome That also none be suffered to choose or to be chosen Members of Parliament but such as are qualified by Law And that the Members of Parliament being thus lawfully chosen they shall meet and sit in Full Freedome That so the Two Houses may concurre in the preparing of such Lawes as they upon full and free debate shall Judge necessary and convenient both for the confirming and executing the Law concerning the Test and such other Lawes as are necessary for the Security and Maintenance of the Protestant Religion as likewise for making such Lawes as may establish a good aggrement between the Church of England and all Protestant Dissenters as also for the covering and securing of all such who will live Peaceably under the Government as becomes gâ—od Subjects from all Persecution upon the account of their Religion even Papists themselves not excepted and for the doing of all other things which the Two Houses of Parliament shall find necessary for the Peace Honour and Safety of the Nation so that there may be no more danger of the Nations salling at any time hereafter under Arbitrary Government To this Parliament wee will also referre the Enquiry into the birth of the Pretended Prince of Wales and of all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession And Wee for our part will concurre in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happines of the Nation which a Free and Lawfull Parliament shall determine Since wee have nothing before our eyes in this our undertaking but the Preservation of the Protestant Religion the Covering of all men from Persecution for their Consciences and the Securing to the whole Nation the free enjoyment of all their Lawes Rights and Liberties under a Just and Legall Government This is the designe that wee have Proposed to our selves in appearing upon this occasion in Armes In the Conduct of which Wee will keep the Forces under our Command under all the Strictnes of Martiall Discipline and take a speciall Care that the People of the Countries thro which wee must march shall not suffer by their means and as soon as the State of the Nation will admit of it Wee promise that we will send back all those Forreigne Forces that wee have brought along with us Wee doe therefore hope that all People will judge rightly of us and approve of these our Proceedings But wee chiefly rely on the blessing of God for the successe of this our undertaking in which Wee place our whole and only Confidence Wee do in the last place invite and require all Persons whatsoever All the Peers of the Realme both Spirituall and Temporall all Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants and all Gentlemen Citisens and other Commons of all ranks to come and assist us in order to the Executing of this our Designe against all such as shall Endeavour to Oppose us that so wee may prevent all those Miseries which must needs follow upon the Nations being 〈◊〉 vnder Arbitrary Government and Slavery And that all the Violeâ—ces and disorders which have overturned the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a FREE AND LEGALL PARLIAMENT And Wee do likewise resolve that as soon as the Nations are brought to a state of Quiet Wee will take care that a Parliament shall be called in Scotland for the restoring the Ancient Constitution of that Kingdom and for bringing the Matters of Religion to such a Settlement that the People may live easy and happy and for putting an end to all the Injust Violences that have been in a course of so many years Committed there We will also study to bring the Kingdom of Ireland to such a State that the Settlement there may be Religiously observed and that the Protestant and British Interest there may be secured And we will endeavour by all possible means to procure such an establishment in all the Three Kingdoms that they may all live in a happy Union and Correspondence together and that the Protestant Religion and the Peace Honour and Happiness of those Nations may be established upon lasting Foundations Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague the Tenth day of October in the year of our Lord 1688. WILLIAM HENRY PRINCE OF ORANGE By his Highnesses special Command C HUYGENS. THus you have an exact and full Account of the Prince of Orange's Declaration And can you find one word of a Treaty with France to extirpate all Protestants Or can you imagine that if they had the least reason for such a Talk they who aggravate every little thing would let this Declaration pass without the least mentioning of what is so momentous and important And is there any thing more than a Violent Presumption suggested about the Prince of Wales And is the very Noise of such a Presumption reason enough to justifie a real War As for the other things urg'd are they not Redressable by a Parliament and so far as it 's possible without one already Redressed 'T is a Parliament then that is the main thing to be insisted on which though Chosen as the last was would be too feeble an Argument to clear the present Invasion from the charge of being Injust and Unrighteous The Great Men of this Kingdom ever thought a Parliament Irregularly chosen more eligible than either a War or a rash Enquiry into the manner of the choise Did Queen Elizabeth's Parliament admit of a Words being spoken to bring Queen Mary's Parliament into doubt Did they not look on it as most dangerous to do so And although by the Triennial Bill the long Parliament in the late Kings Reign was actually dissolved Nine Months before it thought on the Repeal thereof yet even after 't was destroy'd by it the Dissolved Parliament sate and repealed the Dissolving Bill and made the Conventicle-Act the Test-Laws repealed the Writ De Haeretico Comburendo and pass'd the Habeas Corpus Bill into a Law. But was the Assembly that Acted thus Irregularly ever call'd to an Account for it or any of their Laws declared Void and Null Or was it ever esteemed a Good Reason for a War And yet this is much more than hath been ever done by His Present Majesty Besides 't was the late King that took away the Charters and those who were entring on Violent Courses for their Restauration were proclaimed Traytors and several executed for it whilst all the Pulpits throughout England sounded of the Horridness Blackness Vileness
World knows Of the Endeavours we used for the Vnited Provinces when they were invaded in a most unjust War in 1672 Of the particular Esteem and Affection which the English Nation has ever testified to both their Highnesses And therefore cannot excuse himself from espousing our Interests to the doing of which he is earnestly solicited by a great many Lords both Spiritual and Temporal by many Gentlemen and Subjects of all Ranks In all which the only thing we can understand is the Succession to which their Highnesses do severally stand iâ— that degree which all the World knows But there is not a Man in the World who can understand how those who espouse the interest of another because they have an interest of their own espouse any interest but their own nor could his Highness have told us more plainly that he comes for himself not us that all alledged besides is only for fashion-sake and that we might sink or swim for any care of his if he had not been concerned himself Again because we did what we could for the Dutch when they were unjustly invaded no body can understand how Gratitude obliges them to invade us unjustly themselves nor how the particular Affection and Esteem which we have ever testified to their Highnesses should deserve that he should become our Enemy and ruine us for our pains As much Esteem and Affection as the great Qualities of his Highness are like to meet every where he will please to be informed that the strongest Band of ours is his Alliance to the Royal Bloud and must pardon the English if they love not a Man who hates our King the very King whose Sister and Daughter tyed our Affections to him Then who can understand how making War upon us is espousing our Interest our Religion our Laws our Liberties and Properties our Interest and we beseech his Highness to have a little Mercy on us and not oblige us to believe he espouses our Interest by subjecting all we have to the mercy of a lawless Sword. He must likewise pardon us if we believe not on his Word that many Lords many of the Gentry and of all Ranks are Traytors which if it were true he rewards them betimes and by exposing them to be punished by others till it be seasonable to do it himself informs them what they must expect at last But the Spiritual Lords and their Principles are well known and his Highness has experience what they are in the first Bishop near whom he approached He is like to meet the Temporal Lords whom Age keeps not at home or the King's Service employs not elsewhere with the Gentry and all Ranks in the Field and be better informed from themselves that the English are no Traytors and will take care to wipe off this Aspersion from the Nation Alas how little does his Highness know us Many an unwary and many a heated Man speaks Treason here who is for all that honest at Heart and will make it well appear he is when there is occasion But Therefore it is that his Highness hath thought fit to go over to England and carry with him a Force sufficient by the Blessing of God to defend him from the Violence of Evil Counsellors Unintelligible Language of Declarations of War To Invade us is called Defending Himself and this where there is no fear of an Assault or any danger save from that very Force which he must needs bring to defend him For without it his single Name not guarded so much as by a Footman had found security and veneration all England over After this true account â—f inducing Reasons Reasons if it please his Penmen For nothing looks like a Reason but one viz. Interest his Highness thinks sit to declare his Intentions As if there needed a Declaration to inform us what Pikes and Muskets intend An Army intends nothing but to Master where it comes the very same which the Saxons and Normans and all Invaders from the beginning of the World to this day intended But his Design is a free and lawful Parliament And for a Preparative the annulling of new and returning of old Charters particularly that of the City of London Restoring of former Magistrates addressing Writs a proper Officers And suffering note to chuse or be chosen but such as are qualified by Law. A Man no wiser than I would think that if his Highness designed nothing but this he might very well have staid at home For all these Preparatives were and he knew were made before he went aboard And a free and lawful Parliament had now been sitting or ready of sit if he would have let it Without more ado it is palpably impossible his Highness should come only to do over again what he knew was done to his hand only to get us a Parliament which he will not suffer us to have and this pretence must of necessity cover some Design thought less taking with Englishmen This Parliament his Highness declares shall meet and sit in full freedom but perhaps not act so For the two Houses must it seems prepare Laws to confirm and execute the Test for the security and maintenance of the Protestant Religion and for a good Agreement between the Church of England and all Protestant Dissenters and covering such from Persecution as will live peaceably not excepting Papists But how will his Highness keep his Word if a Parliament should happen to think the Test needs no Confirmation nor Religion more Laws than are already nor that any Laws can make the Church of England and Dissenters agree However it be they love to have it in their power to confirm or alter or abrogate or let the Laws alone as they are according as the good of the Nation shall require without having their Task prescribed They take themselves for Master-Workmen and who can cut out their Work themselves not for bare Journeymen to make up Work cut out by others But I would gladly know what Protestant Religion means in the Mouth of his Highness In the Language of the Country where he was Born and Bred right Protestancy signifies Presbytery and he is said to be surrounded by Men who so understand it whereof some perhaps might have a hand in this Declaration As the Religion or Church Established by Law had been easily said if it had been meant to my thinking the suspicion is vehement that this free Parliament with a Holland Trumpet in the Speakers Chair is to set up Presbytery at least I am very sure it must if that Trumpet sound it and there is but too much reason to expect it will sound here as it does at home especially when there is not the least intimation to the contrary The pretended Invitation of the Spiritual Lords will be well rewarded with a good agreement with their Dissenting Masters and being covered from Persecution provided they hold themselves content and live peaceably But the comfort is nothing can better shew their Invitation is but pretended To
we had proposed an Expedient by which the Peace of those Kingdoms and a happy agreement among the Subjects of all Persuasions might have been setled but those Evil Councellours have put such ill Constructions on these our good Intentions that they have endeavoured to alienate the King more and more from us as if Wee had designed to disturb the quiet and Happiness of the Kingdome The last and great Remedy for all those Evils is the Calling of a Parliament for securing the Nation against the evil practises of those wicked Councellours but this could not be yet compassed nor can it be easily brought about For those Men apprehending that a lawful Parliament being once assembled they would be brought to an account for all their open violations of Law and for their Plots and Conspiracies against the Protestant Religion and the Lives and Liberties of the Subjects they have endeavoured under the specious Pretence of Liberty of Conscience first to Sow divisions among Protestants between those of the Church of England and the Dissenters The design being laid to engage Protestants that are all equally concerned to preserve themselves from Popish Oppression into mutual quarrellings that so by these some advantages might be given to them to bring about their Designs and that both in the Election of the Members of Parliament and afterwards in the Parliament it selfe For they see well that if all Protestants could enter into a mutual good Understanding one with another and Concurre together in the preserving of their Religion it would not be possible for them to compasse their wicked ends They have also required all Persons in the several Counties of England that either were in any Imployment or were in any Considerable Esteem to declare before hand that they would concur in the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws and that they would give their voices in the Elections to Parliament only for such as would concurre in it Such as would not thus Preingage themselves were turned out of all Imployments And others who entred into those engagements were put in their places many of them being Papists and contrary to the Charters and Priviledges of those Burroughs that have a Right to send Burgesses to Parliament they have ordered such Regulations to be made as they thought fit and necessary for assuring themselves of all the Members that are to be chosen by those Corporations and by this means they hope to avoid that Punishment which they have Deserved tho it is apparent that all Acts made by Popish Magistrates are null and Void of themselves So that no Parliament can be Lawful for which the Elections and Returns are made by Popish Sheriffs and Majors of Touns and Therefore as long as the Authority and Magistracy is in such hands it is not possible to have any Lawful Parliament And tho according to the Constitution of the English Government and Immemorial Custome all Elections of Parliament men ought to be made with an Entire Liberty without any sort of force or the requiring the Electors to choose such Persons as shall be named to them and the Persons thus freely Elected ought to give their Opinions freely upon all Matters that are brought before them having the good of the Nation ever before their Eyes and following in all things the dictates of their Conscience yet now the People of England can not expect a Remedy from a free Parliament Legally Called and Chosen But they may perhaps see one Called in which all Elections will be carried by Fraud or Force and which will be composed of such Persons of whom those Evil Councellours hold themselves well assured in which all things will be carried on according to their Direction and Interest without any regard to the Good or Happiness the Nation Which may appear Evidently from this that the same Persons tried the Members of the last Parliament to gain them to Consent to the Repeal of the Test and Penal Lawes and procured that Parliament to be dissolved when they found that they could not neither by Promises nor Threatnings prevail with the Members to Comply with their wicked Designs But to Crown all there are Great and Violent Presumptions inducing us to Beleeve that those Evil Councellours in order to the carrying on of their ill Designs and to the Gaining to themselves the more time for the Effecting of them for the encouraging of their Complices and for the discouraging of all Good Subjects have published that the Queen hath brought forth a Son tho there have appeared both during the Queens pretended Bigness and in the manner in which the Birth was managed so many just and Visible grounds of suspicion that not only we our selves but all the good Subjects of those Kingdoms do Vehemently suspect that the pretended Prince of Wales was not born by the Queen And it is notoriously known to all the world that many both doubted of the Queens Bigness and of the Birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to Satisfy them or to put an end to their Doubts And since our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princesse and likewise we Our Selves have so great an Interest in this Matter and such a Right as all the world knows to the Succession to the Crown Since also the English did in the year 1672. when the States General of the Vnited Provinces were invaded in a most unjust warre use their utmost Endeavours to put an end to that Warre and that in opposition to those who were then in the Government and by their so doing they run the hazard of losing both the favour of the Court and their Imployments And since the English Nation has ever testified a most particular Affection and Esteem both to our Dearest Consort the Princesse and to Our selves Wee cannot excuse our selves from espousing their Interests in a matter of such high Consequence and from Contributing all that lies in us for the Maintaining both of the Protestant Religion and of the Laws and Liberties of those Kingdomes and for the Securing to them the Continual Enjoyment of all their just Rights To the doing of which wee are most Earnestly Solicited by a Great many Lords both Spirituall and Temporall and by many Gentlemen and other subjects of all Ranks THEREFORE it is that wee have thought fit to goe over to England and to Carry over with us a force sufficient by the blessing of God to defend us from the Violence of those Evill Councellours AND WEE being desirous that our Intentions in this may be Rightly Understood have for this end prepared this Declaration in which as wee have hitherto given a True Account of the Reasons Inducing us to it So wee now think fit to DECLARE that this our Expedition is intended for no other Designe but to have a free and lawfull Parliament assembled as soon as is possible and that in order to this all the late Charters by which the Elections of Burgesses are limited