they have not consulted him they ought to satisfie the King how they can warrant a Cessation of Arms on the Prince's side or how they can hinder him from advancing further to awe Debates in the Houses or what assurance they can give that he will acquiesce in the free Decision of the matters proposed or that he will peaceably depart out of the Land when things are setled and will not pretend a stay here till the vast Sums be paid him that he hath expended on this occasion or lastly will not find new occasions of questioning the security of Performance of any Agreement to be made If they have consulted the Prince they ought to shew his Commission authorizing them to make Proposal or shew the Heads of those Grievances he demands to be redressed for some they urge in their Petition there are which distract the People but I suppose they are more careful of their Heads than to own any such correspondence If these Noble Persons would have effectually saved Effusion of Blood they would rather have used all their Interest to have kept the Prince of Orange in his Country tho' with his Army and Fleet in readiness and have obtained his sending his demands and have waited like dutiful Subjects till the King had convened his Parliament and have tried how Gracious the King would have been in redressing Grievances and securing Religion and Property and after the King's refusal there might have been some colour for his Invasion but none upon any pretence whatsoever to have invited him to it Fifthly Those who will not openly and with a bare face justifie the Prince of Orange's Pretensions cannot think it consistent with the Honour of the King to stoop so low as to summon a Parliament at the direction of an Invader who can never be conceived to desire it with that eagerness if he did not judge it very much conduceable to his Interest for which very reason the King ought to be jealous of such Councils And I humbly conceive those Peers have not sufficiently considered how prejudicial this sort of Address may be to the King's Affairs and how much it will conduce to the further alienating of the Affections of the Subjects from the King when they shall hear of his denial to comply at present with this Expedient and never hear the reasons thereof since they have not divulged his Majesties Gracious Answer together with their Petition and I am sure at this time the putting the King upon such a Dilemma is the greatest dis-service can be done him and very little inferior to joining with his Enemies I might add many more Arguments to prove that the King cannot in Honour yield to this Advice without quitting that undeniable Prerogative the Laws give him of making War or concluding peace if those matters should be submitted to the Arbitriment of the two Houses or owning that the Allegiance of his Subjects did not bind them to assist him in the defence of his Crown and Dominions without the Votes of a Parliament But I shall conclude with some few Considerations I humbly offer to those Right Reverend and Noble Lords and all those who are of the same Judgment with them to reflect upon First then I desire them to consider whether it will not be more glorious and agreeable to the Principles of our Religion effectually to assist our undoubted lawful Soveraign than to suffer him to be dethroned solely because he is a Roman Catholick since the Papists themselves tho' they never take the Oath of Allegiance or Supremacy yet do and ever have declared that if any Roman Catholick Prince yea the Pope himself in person should invade any King of England tho' a Protestant yet that they are bound to defend such a King against them as much as if they were Turks Secondly Whether since the true and original Cause of this Invasion and consequently of all the Blood-shed these Lords so earnestly desire to prevent hath not been the denying to concur with the King in establishing of Liberty of Conscience even with such security to the Protestant Religion and Church of England as could be desired and whether in all human probability that would not be more conduceable to establish the publick Tranquility of the Kingdom and its increase in Wealth and People and consequently the most efficacious means to reduce the Dutch to be just and tractable Allies and Neighbours rather than any thing can be effected by this Invasion or the truckling to such avowed Enemies to our Country our Religion and our King. Thirdly Whether the King 's entire Trust in the Fidelity of his own Subjects for his defence and not admitting of foreign Aids that were unsought for proffered do not oblige all that have any sense of Gratitude or Duty to aid him to the very utmost against such Foreigners as so unnaturally and so unjustly invade him and when it hath pleased God to give success to the King 's just Arms we are not to doubt but the King according to his solemn promise in his late Royal Declaration will speedily call a Parliament and in it redress all such Grievances as his people can justly complain of with a full and ample security to the Church of England and all his Protestant Subjects which it will much more be our Interest to have in a truly harmonious and Free-parliamentary way at that time established than at this present in a tumultuary and precipitate haste so patched up as will not be durable and the more earnestly we desire to see this good work to be set upon the more haste the Nobility and Gentry should make to expel those who hindred the Convention of that Parliament which was much more likely to have setled matters to the content of the King and his People than this Invasion can ever hope to effect The Prince of Orange's Declaration could be no longer suppress'd and therefore it was suffered about this time to be printed with a short Preface and some modest Remarks as the Author pretends on it In 4to 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 Justice 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 Liege 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 League 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 Perswasions 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 justifie 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 Highness WILLIAM HENRY by the Grace of God PRINCE of ORANGE c. of the Reasons inducing him to appear in Arms in the Kingdom of England for preserving of the Protestant Religion and for restoring the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland 1. IT is both certain and evident to all men that the publick Peace and Happiness of any State or Kingdom cannot be preserved where the Laws Liberties and Customs established by the lawful 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 immediately concerned in it are indispensably bound to endeavour to preserve and maintain the established Laws Liberties and Customs 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 Kingdom may neither be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civil Rights Which is so much the more necessary because the Greatness and Security both of Kings Royal Families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the Happiness of their Subjects and People depend in a most especial manner upon the exact observation and maintenance of these their Laws Liberties and Customs 2. Upon these grounds it is that we cannot any longer forbear to declare that to our great Regret we see that those Councellors who have now the chief Credit with the King have overturned the Religion Laws and Liberties of those Realms and subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liberties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and indirect ways but in an open and undisguised manner 3. Those evil Councellors for the advancing and colouring this with some plausible Pretexts did invent and set on foot the Kings Dispensing Power by Virtue of which they pretend that according to Law he can suspend and dispence with the Execution of the Laws that have been enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament for the security and happiness of the Subject and so have rendred those Laws of no effect tho' there is nothing more certain than that as no Laws can be made but by the joint concurrence of King and Parliament so likewise Laws so enacted which secure the publick Peace and safety of the Nation and the Lives and Liberties of every Subject in it cannot be repealed or suspended but by the same Authority 4. For tho the King may pardon the Punishment that a Transgressor has incurred and to which he is condemned as in the Cases of Treason or Felony yet it cannot be with any colour of Reason inferred from thence that the King can entirely suspend the Execution of those Laws 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 King 's having a Power to suspend the Execution of the Laws and to dispense with them 5. Those Evil Counsellors in order to the giving some Credit to this strange and execrable Maxim have so conducted the Matter that they have obtained a Sentence from the Judges declaring that this Dispensing Power is a Right belonging to the Crown as if it were in the power of the Twelve Judges to offer up the Laws Rights and Liberties of the whole Nation to the King to be disposed of by him Arbitrarily and at his Pleasure and expresly contrary to Laws enacted for the Security of the Subjects In order to the obtaining this Judgment those Evil Counsellors did before hand examine secretly the Opinion of the Judges and procured such of them as could not in Conscience concur in so pernicious a Sentence to be turned out and others to be substituted in their rooms till by the Changes 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 tho those are by Law rendred incapable of all such Employments 6. It is also manifest and notorious That as his Majesty 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 Laws 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 divers and sundry times several Laws 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 Ecclesiastical Dignity or to bear Office in either University as likewise all other that should be put in any Imployment Civil or Military should declare that they were not Papists but were of the Protestant Religion and that by their taking of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test yet these Evil Councellors have in effect annulled and abolished all those Laws both with relation to Ecclesiastical and Civil Employments 7. In order to Ecclesiastical Dignities and Offices they have not only without any colour of Law but against most express Laws to the contrary set up a Commission of a certain number of Persons to whom they have committed the Cognisance and Direction of all Ecclesiastical matters in the which Commission there has been and still is one of his Majesties Ministers of State who makes now publick 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
being now Assembled in a full and Free Representative of this Nation taking into their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the Ends aforesaid do in the first place as their Ancestors in like case have usually done for the vindicating and asserting their Ancient Rights and Liberties declare That the pretended power of suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without consent of Parliament is illegal That the pretended power of Dispensing with Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority as it hath been assumed and exercised of late is illegal That the Commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes and all other Commissions and Courts of the like nature are illegal and pernicious That Levying of Money to or for the use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative without Grant of Parliament for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be Granted is illegal That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are illegal That the raising or keeping a standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace unless it be by consent of Parliament is against Law. That the Subjects being Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their condition and as allowed by Law. That the Election of Members of Parliament ought to be Free. That the freedom of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parliament That Excessive Bail ought not to be required nor Excessive Fines imposed nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted That Jurors ought to be duly Impannel'd and return'd and Jurors which pass upon men in Trials for High Treason ought to be Freeholders That all Grants and Promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular persons before Conviction are illegal and void And that for Redress of all Grievances and for the amending strengthing and preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be held frequently And they do claim demand and insist upon all and singular the Premises as their undoubted Rights and Liberties and that no Declarations Judgments Doings or Proceedings to the prejudice of the people in any of the said Premises ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into consequence or example To which demand of their Rights they are particularly encouraged by the Declaration of his Highness the Prince of Orange as being the only means for obtaining a full redress and remedy therein Having therefore an intire confidence that his said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the Deliverance so far advanced by him and will still preserve them from the violation of their Rights which they have here asserted and from all other attempts upon their Religion Rights and Liberties The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled at Westminster do resolve That William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange be and be declared King and Queen of England France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging to hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to them the said Prince and Princess during their Lives and the Life of the Survivor of them and that the sole and full exercise of the Regal power be only in and executed by the said Prince of Orange in the Names of the said Prince and Princess during their joynt Lives and after their Deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Princess and for default of such Issue to the Princess Anne of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body and for default of such Issue to the Heirs of the Body of the said Prince of Orange And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do pray the said Prince and Princess of Orange to accept the same accordingly And that the Oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all persons of whom the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy might be required by Law instead of them and that the said Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy be abrogated I A. B. Do sincerely Promise and Swear That I will be Faithful and bear true Allegiance to Their Majesties King WILLIAM and Queen MARY So help me God. I A. B. Do Swear That I do from my heart Abhor Detest and Abjure as Impious and Heretical this Damnable Doctrine and Position That Princes Excommunicated or Deprived by the Pope or any Authority of the See of Rome may be Deposed or Murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do Delare that no Forreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminece or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm So help me God. Jo. Brown Clericus Parliamentorum The same day this Delaration bears Date Her Royal Highness the Princess of Orange arrived in the River of Thames in the Afternoon and was received with all the Hearty Demonstrations and Expressions of Joy by the City that are usual on such Occasions The 13th of February The Lords and Commons Ordered the following Proclamation to be published and made WHereas It hath pleased Allmighty God in his Great Mercy to this Kingdom to Vouchsafe us a Miraculous Deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that our Preservation is Due next under GOD to the Resolution and Conduct of His Highness the Prince of ORANGE whom GOD hath Chosen to be the Glorious Instrument of such an Inestimable Happiness to us and our Posterity And being Highly Sensible and Fully Perswaded of the Great and Eminent Vertues of Her Highness the Princess of ORANGE whose Zeal for the Protestant Religion will no doubt bring a Blessing along with Her upon this Nation And Whereas the Lords and Commons now Assembled at Westminster have made a Declaration and Presented the same to the said Prince and Princess of ORANGE and therein Desired Them to Accept the Crown who have Accepted the same accordingly We therefore the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons together with the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London and others of the Commons of this Realm do with full Consent Publish and Proclaim according to the said Declaration WILLIAM and MARY Prince and Princess of ORANGE to be KING and QUEEN of England France and Ireland with all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging Who are Accordingly so to be Owned Deemed and Taken by All the People of the aforesaid Realms and Dominions who are from henceforward bound to acknowledg and pay unto them All Faith and True Allegiance Beseeching GOD by whom Kings Reign to Bless King WILLIAM and Queen MARY with Long and Happy Years to Riegn over us GOD Save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY John Brown Clericus Parliamentorum The 15th of February The Lords and Commons Ordered That His Majesties most Gracious Answer this day be added to the Engrossed Declaration in Parchment to be
those whose Right it is to chuse Members of Parliament should be under any Prejudices and Mistakes thro' the Artifices of disaffected Persons We think fit to declare That it is Our Royal Purpose to endeavour a legal Establishment of an Universal Liberty of Conscience for all Our Subjects it is also our Resolution inviolably to preserve the Church of England by such a Confirmation of the several Acts of Uniformity that they shall never be altered by any other ways than by repealing the several Clauses which inflict Penalties upon Persons not promoted or to be promoted to any Ecclesiastical Benefices or Promotions within the meaning of the said Acts for using and exercising their Religion contrary to the Tenor and Purport of the said Acts of Uniformity And for the further securing not only the Church of England but the Protestant Religion in general We are willing the Roman Catholicks shall remain incapable to be Members of the House of Commons whereby those Fears and Apprehensions will be removed which many persons have had That the Legislative Authority would be engrossed by them and turn'd against Protestants We do likewise assure all our loving Subjects that We shall be ready to do every thing else for their safety and advantage that becomes a King who will always take care of his People and if they desire the happiness of their Country We exhort them to lay by all Animosities and dispose themselves to think of such Persons to represent them in Parliament whose Abilities and Temper render them fit for so great and good a Work. And for the preventing any Disorders Irregularities or undue Proceedings whatsoever that may happen either before or at the time of Election of Members for the insuing Parliament We do hereby strictly require and command all Mayors Sheriffs Bailiffs and other Officers whatsoever to whom the execution of any Writ Summons Warrant or Precept for or concerning the choice of Members for the ensuing Parliament shall belong That they cause such Writ Summons Warrant or Precept to be duly published and executed according to the Tenor thereof And the Members that shall be chosen to be fairly return'd according to the Merits of the Choice The Nation was by this time become so distrustful of all the Proceedings of the Court that this Declaration was thought absolutely necessary to assure them a Parliament should be holden and yet after all it was little believed The Preparations in Holland had made it necessary to wheedle the Church of England-men and therefore they were told only the Penalties of the Acts of Uniformity should be repeal'd that an Universal Liberty of Conscience might be established And the Roman Catholicks not being likely to be chosen for Members of the lower House in this Parliament they were contented to continue uncapable of being chosen in there intimating they intended however to sit in the House of Lords The 26th of September there was an Order made to authorize and empower the Lords Lieutenants many of which were Roman Catholicks or unqualified persons of the several Counties to grant Deputations to such Gentlemen as had been lately removed from being Deputy-Lieutenants and his Majesty also gave directions to the Right Honourable the Lord Chancellor of England to put into the Commission of the Peace such Gentlemen as had been lately laid aside and shall be recommended by the said Lords-Lieutenants In the Interim certain Intelligence being brought that the Preparations in Holland were designed against England The 24th of September were summoned the Bishop of London Winchester Ely Chichester Rochester and Bristol and the Archbishop of Canterbury and the 28th of Septemb. they appeared at Whitehall and there waited accordingly that day upon the King in a Body Winchester Ely Chichester Rochester Bath and Wells and Peterborough but London and Bristol came not then to Town and the Archbishop was sick and came alone the next day There passed nothing then but general Expressions of his Favour and Promises of Duty on the Bishops part Whereupon they all desired the Archbishop to beg a second-Admission which was appointed on Tuesday the 2d of October but was put off till the next day The 28th of September his Majesty put out this following Declaration WE have received undoubted Advice That a great and sudden invasion from Holland with an armed Force of Foreigners and Strangers will speedily be made in an hostile manner upon this Our Kingdom and altho' some false Pretences relating to Liberty Property and Religion contrived or worded with Art and Subtilty may be given out as shall be thought useful upon such an Attempt it is manifest however considering the great Preparations that are making that no less matter by this Invasion is propos'd than an absolute Conquest of these Our Kingdoms and the utter subduing and subjecting Us and all Our People to a foreign Power which is promoted as We understand altho' it may seem almost incredible by some of Our Subjects being persons of wicked and restless Spirits implacable Malice and desperate Designs who having no sense of former intestine Distractions the Memory and Misery whereof should endear and put a value upon that Peace and Happiness which hath long been enjoyed nor being moved by Our reiterated Acts of Grace and Mercy wherein we have studied and delighted to abound towards all Our Subjects and even towards those who were once avowed and open Enemies and who do again endeavour to imbroil this Kingdom in Blood and Ruine to gratifie their own Ambition and Malice proposing to themselves a Prey and Booty in such a publick Confusion We cannot omit to make it known that altho' We had notice some time since that a foreign force was preparing against Us yet We have always declined any foreign Succours but rather have chosen next under God to rely upon the true and ancient Courage Faith and Allegiance of our own People with whom we have often ventur'd Our life for the honour of this Nation and in whose defence against all Enemies We are firmly resolved to live and die And therefore We solemnly conjure Our Subjects to lay aside all manner of Animosities Jealousies and Prejudices and heartily and chearfully to unite together in the defence of Us and their native Country which thing alone will under God defeat and frustrate the principal Hope and Design of Our Enemies who expect to find Our People divided and by publishing perhaps some plausible Reasons of their coming hither as the specious tho' false pretences of maintaining the Protestant Religion or asserting the Liberties and Properties of Our People do hope thereby to conquer this great and renowned Kingdom But albeit the design hath been carried on with all imaginable Secresie and Endeavour to surprize and deceive Us We have not been wanting on our part to make such Provisions as did become Us and by Gods Blessing We make no doubt of being found in so good a Posture that Our Enemies may have cause to repent such their
however the Roman Catholicks from this time forward were studiously avoided no man fearing any trouble from any body else as in truth I never heard of any man that was prosecuted on this account The 28th of October the Earl of Sunderland was removed from the Office of Principal Secretary of State and the Lord Viscount Preston put in his room This Change pleased all men but it came too late As the Cause of the Dismission of the Earl of Sunderland was then wholly unknown so it gave occasion to the reviving a Report that had been spread not long before upon the Imprisonment of Sir Bevil Skelton the English Ambassador in France that there had lately been a League concluded between the King of England and France for the Extirpation of the Protestant Religion here and the establishing Popery and Arbitrary Government to which end the French King was as was said to send a considerable Army and great Sums of Money into England and as it was before pretended that Skelton being a Protestant had discovered this Transaction to the Prince of Orange So it was now said Sunderland had lost the Original League out of his Scritore and that it was carried over to the Prince of Orange who would produce it to the Parliament of England But since that the Earl of Sunderland has published a Letter wherein he has given a larger Account of the true Cause of his being laid aside than is any where else to be met with and therefore I think it reasonable to add it here The Earl of Sunderland 's Letter to a Friend in London published March 23d 1689. TO comply with what you desire I will explain some things which we talked of before I left England I have been in a Station of a great noise without Power or Advantage whilst I was in it and to my Ruin now I am out of it I know I cannot justifie my self by saying though it is true that I thought to have prevented much Mischief for when I found that I could not I ought to have quitted the Service neither is it an Excuse that I have got none of those things which usually engage men in publick Affairs My Quality is the same it ever was and my Estate much worse even ruin'd tho' I was born to a very considerable one which I am ashamed to have spoiled tho' not so much as if I had encreased it by indirect means But to go on to what you expect The pretence to a Dispensing Power being not only the first thing which was much disliked since the death of the late King but the foundation of all the rest I ought to begin with that which I had so little to do with that I never heard it spoken of till the time of Monmouth's Rebellion that the King told some of the Council of which I was one that he was resolved to give Employments to Roman Catholicks it being fit that all persons should serve who could be useful and on whom he might depend I think every body advised him against it but with little effect as was soon seen That Party was so well pleased with that the King had done that they perswaded him to mention it in his Speech at the next meeting of the Parliament which he did after many Debates whether it was proper or not in all which I opposed it as is known to very considerable Persons some of which were of another opinion for I thought it would engage the King too far and it did give such offence to the Parliament that it was thought necessary to prorogue it after which the King fell immediately to the supporting the Dispensing Power the most Chimerical thing that was ever thought of and must be so till the Government here is as absolute as in Turkey all Power being included in that one This is the sense I ever had of it and when I heard Lawers defend it I never changed my Opinion or Language however it went on most of the Judges being for it and was the chief business of the State till it was looked on as setled Then the Ecclesiastical Court was set up in which there being so many considerable men of several kinds I could have but a small part and that after Lawyers had told the King it was legal and nothing like the High Commission Court I can most truly say and it is well known that for a good while I defended Magdalen Colledge purely by care and industry and have hundreds of times begg'd of the King never to grant Mandates or to change any thing in the regular course of Ecclesiastical Affairs which he often thought reasonable and then by perpetual Importunities was prevailed upon against his ownsense which was the very case of Magdalen Colledge as of some others These things which I endeavoured though without Success drew upon me the Anger and Ill-will of many about the King. The next thing to be try'd was to take off the Penal Laws and the Tests so many having promised their concurrence towards it that his Majesty thought it feasible but he soon found it was not to be done by that Parliament which made all the Catholicks desire it might be dissolv'd which I was so much against that they complained of me to the King as a man who ruined all his Designs by opposing the only thing could carry them on Liberty of Conscience being the Foundation on which he was to build That it was first offered at by the Lord Clifford who by it had done the work even in the late King's time if it had not been for his weakness and the weakness of his Ministers Yet I hindred the Dissolution several Weeks by telling the King that the Parliament in Being would do every thing he could desire but the taking off the Penal Laws and the Tests or the allowing his Dispensing Power and that any other Parliament tho' such a one could be had as was proposed would probably never repeal those Laws and if they did they would certainly never do any thing for the support of the Government whatever exigency it might be in At that time the King of Spain was sick upon which I said often to the King that if he should die it would be impossible for his Majesty to preserve the peace of Christendom that a War must be expected and such a one as would chiefly concern England and that if the present Parliament continued he might be sure of all the help and service he could wish but in case he dissolv'd it he must give over all thoughts of fereign Affairs for no other would ever assist him but on such terms as would ruine the Monarchy so that from abroad or at home he would be destroy'd if the Parliament were broken and any accident should happen of which there were many to make the aid of his People necessary to him This and much more I said to him several times privately and in the hearing of others But being over-power'd
Collector of the Excise at Exeter and committed the Officer to Custody and that not one Person of Quality was yet come in to them This last was again confirm'd by another Express the next day The 13th an Account came from Cirencester That the Lord Lovelace going to the Prince with between 60 and 70 Horse was there seised by the Militia by Order of the Duke of Beaufort with about 13 of the Party one Major Lorege being slain in the Action together with his Son Captain Lee and Leiutenant Williams and six Common Soldiers wounded but notwithstanding this Resistance the Lord Lovelace was at last forced to yield and secured by the Duke of Beaufort and this was very acceptable News at Whitehall but the Joy was short and not well founded The 14th there came an Account from Salisbury That upon the 12th the Lord Cornbury pretending to have received Orders from his Majesty caused the Royal Regiment of Horse the Royal Regiment of Dragoons whereof he was Colonel and the Duke of St. Albans Regiment of Horse commanded by Colonel Langston to march from Salisbury to Dorchester where they refreshed themselves and then they went to Bridport and Axminster Several of the Officers thereupon apprehending some Design asked the Lord Cornbury as was said whither they were going Who answered To beat up the Enemies Quarters at Honiton But he finding the Royal Regiment of Horse and several Officers of the Dragoons did more and more suspect him he marched with those that would follow him towards Honiton Langston going before with the Regiment of St. Albans but the Royal Regiment of Horse and several of the Dragoons return'd to Bridport And the same day the Earl of Feversham came to Salisbury to Command the Forces in Chief The next day these Regiments return'd from Bridport to Salisbury and we were told there was not ten Troopers of the Royal Regiment wanting which sufficiently shews how firm they were in their Fidelity to his Majesty But notwithstanding this Flourish this News caused a great Consternation at Whitehall The 16th there was published a Proclamation to prohibit the keeping of Exeter Fair and other Fairs thereabouts because many on that Pretence went over to the Prince of Orange The same day the Reverend Dr. Lamplu then Bishop of Exeter was Translated to the Archbishoprick of York and Dr. Trelawny from the See of Bristol to that of Exeter And his Majesty also ordered a Publick Collection to be made thorow the City of London the Liberties and Suburbs thereof for the Relief of the poor and distressed Inhabitants of the City who were by the Distractions of the Times and the Interruption of Trade reduced to great Want and Misery The 17th of November the Archbishop of Canterbury the Archbishop of York Elect the Bishop of Ely and the Bishop of Rochester presented this Petition to the King. May it please Your Majesty WE Your Majesties most Loyal Subjects in a deep sense of the Miseries of a War now breaking forth in the Bowels of this Your Kingdom and of the Danger to which Your Majesties Sacred Person is thereby like to be exposed as also of the Distractions of Your People by reason of their present Grievances do think our selves bound in Conscience of the Duty we owe to God and our Holy Religion to Your Majesty and our Country most humbly to offer to Your Majesty That in our Opinion the only visible way to preserve Your Majesty and this Your Kingdom would be the Calling a Parliament Regular and Free in all its Circumstances We therefore most earnestly beseech Your Majesty That You would be graciously pleased with all speed to call such a Parliament wherein we shall be most ready to promote such Counsels and Resolutions of Peace and Settlement in Church and State as may conduce to Your Majesties Honour and Safety and to the quieting of the Minds of Your People We do likewise humbly beseech Your Majesty in the mean time to use such Means for the preventing the Effusion of Christian Blood as to Your Majesty shall seem most meet W. Cant. Grafton Ormond Dorset Clare Clarendon Burlingten Anglesey Rochester Newport Nom. Ebor. W. Asaph F. Ely. Tho. Roffen Tho. Petriburg T. Oxon. Paget Chandois Osulston It was said there was a sharp Answer given to this excellent Petition which was the Sense of all the King's Friends in the Nation except a few desparate Men whose Crimes had rendred them uncapable of the Mercy of a Parliament and some others who designed the Ruine of the English Liberties and Religion with the utmost hazard of the King and Kingdom The same day in the Afternoon the King left the City and with his Royal Highness Prince George of Denmark went to Windsor and the next Morning he went to Salisbury appointing in his absence the Privy-Council to meet for the Dispatch of all Affairs as occasion should require The 19th of November the Lords for their own Vindication published the Petition afore-represented and the next day the King's Answer to it was printed also which was this His Majesties most Gracious Answer My Lords WHat you ask of Me I most passionately desire and I promise you UPON THE FAITH OF A KING That I will have a Parliament and such an one as you ask for as soon as ever the Prince of Orange has quitted this Realm For how is it possible a Parliament should be Free in all its Circumstances as you Petition for whilst an Enemy is in the Kingdom and can make a Return of near an hundred Voices This was sufficiently disobliging considering the State of Affairs and the Temper of the Nation at that time but the Jesuits were so enraged at the printing the Petition that they published a Paper with this Title Some Reflections upon the Humble Petition to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal who subscribed the same presented November 17th 1688. which follows in these words THat the Peace-makers are blessed is a Truth our Saviour hath left recorded in the holy Scriptures and those are truly to be honoured who can contribute any thing to so happy a work But that either this way of Petitioning or the matter in it desired is likely to produce so great a Blessing is a Question worthy thy serious Consideration I shall first therefore take notice of some of the dubious Expressions in the Petition and then lay down some few Reasons why I judge the Petition in it self unseasonable and lastly endeavour to shew how unpracticable the summoning of a Parliament is at this present The Expression That a War is now breaking forth in the Bowels of the Kingdom shews that their Lordships either know or foresee that a Civil War is fomenting and I pray God this Petition do not more than any thing else occasion it or that the Prince of Orange intends to carry on the War through the Bowels of the Kingdom whereas those that wish well to the King hope it will be
such Laws as may establish a good agreement 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 good 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 falling at any time hereafter under Arbitrary Government To this Parliament we will also refer the Enquiry into the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales and of all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession 22. And We for our part will concur in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happiness of the Nation which a Free and Lawful Parliament shall determin Since we 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 Laws Rights and Liberties under a Just and Legal Government 23. This is the Design that we have proposed to our selves in appearing upon this occasion in Arms In the Conduct of which We will keep the Forces under our Command under all the strictness of Martial Discipline and take a special care that the People of the Countries through which we must march shall not suffer by their means and as soon as the state of the Nation will admit of it We promise that we will send back all those Foreign Forces that we have brought along with us 24. We do therefore hope that all People will judge rightly of us and approve of these our Proceedings But we chiefly rely on the Blessing of God for the Success of this our Undertaking in which we place our whole and only Confidence 25. We do in the last place invite and require all Persons whatsoever all the Peers of the Realm both Spiritual and Temporal all Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants and all Gentlemen Citizens and other Commons of all ranks to come and assist us in order to the Executing of this our Design against all such as shall endeavour to Oppose us that so we may prevent all those Miseries which must needs follow upon the Nations being kept under Arbitrary Government and Slavery And that all the Violences and Disorders which have overturned the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a FREE AND LEGAL PARLIAMENT 26. And we do likewise resolve that as soon as the Nations are brought to a state of Quiet We 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 easie and happy and for putting an end to all the injust Violences that have been in a course of so many years committed there 27. 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 Highness's special Command C. HUY GENS 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 tâ—e 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 see le an Argument to clear the present Invasion from the charge of being Injust and Vnrighteous 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 Choice 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 King's Reign was actually Dissolved Nine Months before it thought on the Repeal thereof yet even after 't was destroyed 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 Traytâ—rs and several executed for it while all the Pulpits throughout England sounded of the Horridness Blackness Vileness Devilishness of that Conspiracy And is what was Black and Horrid then become Noble Great Generous and Glorious now Thus much was also a part of the late Duke of Monmouth 's Declaration and yet as Parliament chosen by the Garbled Corporations proclaim'd him a raytor and Attainted him But doth the Blood of Monmouth as well as of the fore-mentioned Conspirators and of all those in the West lye on the Judges Juries Nobility and other Gentry of the Church of England that had a hand in condemning such as by violent Methods would have restor'd the Charters If these things could not vindicate the Presbyterian Plotters in the late King's Reign or Monmouth 's Rebellion it cannot excuse the present Vndertaking for this doth infinitely exceed those and the Civil War too for neither of them brought in a Foreign Power upon us as now is done But it must be observed that how great soever our Grievances have been yet now all that Relief that can reasonably de desired
Nation in which we shall make a great distinction of those that shall come seasonably to joyn their Arms with ours and you shall find us to be your well wishing and assured Friend W. H. P. O. This Letter was spread under-hand over the whole Kingdom and read by all sorts of Men and the reason of it being undeniable it had a great force on the Spirits of the Soldiery so that those who did not presently comply with it yet resolved they would never strike one stroke in this Quarrel till they had a Parliament to secure the Religion Laws and Liberties of England which the Court on the other side had resolved should not be granted till the Prince of Orange with his Army was expelled out of the Nation and all those that had submitted to him which were not many then were reduced into their Power to be treated as they thought fit In the mean time the Fleet came about from the Buoy and Ore to Portsmouth under the Command of the Lord Dartmouth where it arrived the Seventeenth of November and on Monday the Ninteenth day of November the King entred Salisbury which was then the Head Quarters of the Army The Sixteenth of November the Lord Delamere having received certain Intelligence of the landing of the Prince of Orange in the West and seeing the Irish throng over in Arms under pretence of Assisting the King but in reality to Enslave us at home as they had already reduced our Country men in Ireland to the lowest degree of Danger and Impusance that they have at any time been in since the Conquest of Ireland in the Reign of Henry Il. he thereupon assembled fifty Horsemen and at the Head of them marched to Manchester and the next day he went to Bodon Downs his Forces being then an hundred and fifty strong declaring his design was to joyn with the Prince of Orange This small Party of Men by degrees drew in all the North and could never be suppress'd Before his Royal Highness the Prince of Orange left Exeter there was an Association drawn up and Signed by all the Lords and Gentlemen that were with him the Date of which I cannot assign WE whose Names are hereunto subscribed who have now joyned with the Prince of Orange for the defence of the Protestant Religion and for the maintaining the Ancient Government and the Laws and Liberties of England Scotland and Ireland do engage to Almighty God to his Highness the Prince of Orange and to one another to stick firm to this Cause and to one another in the defence of it and never to depart from it until our Religion Laws and Liberties are so far secured to us in a Free Parliament that we shall be no more in danger of falling under Popery and Slavery And whereas we are engaged in this common Cause under the Protection of the Prince of Orange by which in case his Person may be exposed to danger and to the cursed attempts of Papists and other bloody Men we do therefore solemnly engage to God and one another That if any such attempt be made upon him we will pursue not only those who make it but all their Adherents and all that we find in Arms against us with the utmost severity of a just Revenge to their Ruine and Destruction And that the execution of any such Attempt which God of his infinite Mercy forbid shall not divert us from prosecuting this Cause which we do now undertake but that it shall engage us to carry it on with all the rigour that so barbarous a Practice shall deserve November the Twentieth there happened a Skirmish at Wincanton between a Detachment of seventy Horse and fifty Dragoons and Grenadiers commanded by one Colonel Sarsfeild and about thirty of the Prince of Orange's Men commanded by one Cambel where notwithstanding the great inequality of the Numbers yet the latter fought with that desperate bravery that it struck a terror into the Minds of the Army who were otherwise sufficiently averse from fighting and besides the Action was every where magnified so much above the real truth that it shew'd clearly how much Men wished the Prosperity of that Prince's Arms. The Twenty second of November the King at Salisbury put out a Proclamation of Pardon which was regarded by no body FOrasmuch as several of our Subjects have been seduced to take up Arms and contrary to the Laws of God and Man to joyn themselves with Foreigners and Strangers in a most unnatural Invasion upon us and this their Native Country many of whom we are persuaded have been wrought upon by false Suggestions and misrepresentations made by our Enemies And we desiring as far as is possible to reduce our said Subjects to Duty and Obedience by Acts of Clemency at least resolving to leave all such as shall persist in so wicked an Enterprize without Excuse do therefore promise grant and declare and by this our Royal Proclamation publish our Free and Absolute Pardon to all our Subjects who have taken up Arms and joyn'd with the Prince of Orange and his Adherents in the present Invasion of this our Kingdom provided they quit and desert our said Enemies and within the space of twenty days from the Date of this our Royal Proclamation render themselves to some one of our Officers Civil or Military and do not again after they have rendred themselves as aforesaid return to our Enemies or be any way aiding or assisting to them And they who refuse or neglect to lay hold of this our Free and Gracious Offer must never expect our Pardon hereafter but will be wholly and justly excluded of and from all hopes thereof And lastly We do also promise and grant our Pardon and Protection to all such Foreigners as do or shall come over to us whom we will either entertain in our Service or otherwise grant them if they shall desire it freedom of passage and liberty to return to the respective Countries from whence they came The same day the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty then assembled at Nottingham made this Declaration WEE the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of these Northern Counties assembled at Nottingham for the Desence of the Laws Religion and Properties according to the free born Liberties and Priviledges descended to Us from our Ancestors as the undoubted Birth-right of the Subjects of this Kingdom of England not doubting but the Infringers and Invaders of our Rights will represent us to the rest of the Nation in the most malicious Dress they can put upon us do here unanimously think it our Duty to declare to the rest of our Protestant fellow-Subjects the grounds of our present Undertaking We are by innumerable Grievances made sensible that the very Fundamentals of our Religion Liberties and Properties are about to be rooted out by our late Jesuitical Privy Council as has been of late too apparent First by the King 's dispensing with all the Establish'd Laws at his pleasure 2. By displacing all Officers out of
was sent down to Portsmonth with Orders to the Lord Dartmouth to send him under a good Convoy with his Nurse into France This he was said to have utterly refused whereupon he was brought back to London again on Saturday Doc. 8. and the Queen resolved to go over with him her self and not contented with this extorted from the King a Promise to follow her himself Which was the very worst Counsel the worst Enemy he had in the World could possibly have given him But to return back Scotland was by this time almost in as bad a condition as England and some of the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland were sent up with a Petition for a Free Parliament and the Popish Chapels at York Bristol Glocester Worcester Shrewsbury Stafford Woolverhampton Bromidgham Cambridge and St. Edmond's Bury were about this time demolished and whereever the Lords in Arms came the Papists were disarmed And in Norfolk the Duke of Norfolk their Lord-Lieutenant had a great appearance of the Gentry with him where he and they declared for a Free Parliament and the Protection of the Protestant Religion This meeting was at Norwich the First of December and after that the same Declaration was renewed at Yarmouth and the Suffolk men approved of it but wanted a Lord Lieutenant to assemble and head them in order to the shewing their concurrence with safety Bristol was seized by the Earl of Shrewsbury and Sir John Guise the Lord Lovelace was delivered by the Gentry of Gloucestershire out of the Castle of Gloucester where till then he had been imprisoned The Lords Molineux and Aston in the mean time seized Chester for the King being R. C's and Berwick stood firm to him too but New-Castle received the Lord Lumley and Declared for a Free Parliament and the Protestant Religion York was in the hands of the associated Lords and the Garrison of Hull seized the Lord Langdale their Governour a Papist and the Lord Montgomery and disarmed some Popish Forces newly sent thither and then Declared for a Free Parliament and the Protestant Religion And Plimouth had long before submitted to the Prince of Orange And the Army at Reading upon another false Alarm on Saturday the 8th of December retired in great haste to Twyford Bridge and endeavouring to regain their post a Party of the Prince's men who were sent for by the Inhabitants of Reading upon their threatning to plunder and fire the Town attacked the Irish Dragoons and slew Fifty of them the Irish making little Defence tho' the Prince's Party were much fewer in number because they believed the whole Army was at hand The Popish Party was become so contemptible in London that on Thurday the Sixth of December there was an Hue and Cry after Father Peters publickly cried and sold in the Streets of London But this was not the worst neither for about the same time came forth this following Declaration in the Name of the Prince of Orange By his Highness William Henry Prince of Orange A Third Declaration WE have in the course of our whole life more particularly by the apparent hazards both by Sea and Land to which we have so lately exposed our Person given to the whole World so high and undoubted Proofs of our fervent Zeal for the Protestant Religion that we are fully confident no true Englishman and good Protestant can entertain the least Suspicion of our firm Resolution rather to spend our dearest Blood and perish in the Attempt than not to carry on the blessed and glorious Design which by the favour of Heaven we have so successfully begun to rescue England Scotland and Ireland from SLAVERY and POPERY and in a Free Parliament to Establish the Religion the Laws and the Liberties of these Kingdoms on such a sure and lasting Foundation that it shall not be in the Power of any Prince for the future to introduce Popery and Tyranny Towards the more easie compassing this great Design we have not been hitherto deceived in the just Expectation we had of the concurrence of the Nobility Gentry and People of England with us for the Security of their Religion and the Restitution of the Laws and the Re-establishment of their Liberties and Properties Great numbers of all Ranks and Qualities having joyned themselves to us and others at great distances from us have taken up Arms and Declared for Us. And which we cannot but particularly mention in that Army which was raised to be the Instrument of Slavery and Popery many by the special Providence of God both Officers and common Soldiers have been touched with such a feeling sense of Religion and Honour and of true Affection to their Native Country that they have already deserted the illegal Service they were engaged in and have come over to Us and have given us full assurance from the rest of the Army That they will certainly follow this Example as soon as with our Army we shall approach near enough to receive them without hazard of being prevented and betray'd To which end and that we may the sooner execute this just and necessary Design we are engaged in for the publick Safety and Deliverance of these Nations We are resolved with all possible diligence to advance forward that a Free Parliament may be forthwith called and such Preliminaries adjusted with the King and all things first setled upon such a foot according to Law as may give us and the whole Nation just reason to believe the King is disposed to make such necessary Condescension on his part as will give entire Satisfaction and Security to all and make both King and People once more happy And that we may effect all this in the way most agreeable to our desires if it be possible without the effusion of any Blood except of those execrable Criminals who have justly forfeited their Lives for betraying the Religion and subverting the Laws of their Native Country we do think fit to declare that as we will offer no violence to any but in our own necessary defence so we will not suffer any injury to be done to the Person even of any Papist provided he be found in such place and condition and circumstances as the Laws require So we are resolved and do declare That all Papists who shall be found in open Arms or with Arms in their Houses or about their Persons or in any Office or Employment Civil or Military upon any pretence whatsoever contrary to the known Laws of the Land shall be treated by Us and our Forces not as Soldiers and Gentlemen but as Robbers Free-booters and Banditti They shall be incapable of Quarter and intirely delivered up to the Discretion of our Soldiers And we do further declare That all Persons who shall be found any ways aiding and assisting to them or shall march under their Command or shall joyn with or submit to them in the discharge or execution of their illegal Commissions or Authority shall be looked upon as Partakers of their Crimes Enemies to
the Laws and to their Country And whereas we are certainly informed that great numbers of Armed Papists have of late resorted to London and Westminster and Parts adjacent where they remain as we have reason to suspect not so much for their own Security as out of a wicked and barbarous Design to make some desperate Attempts upon the said Cities and the Inhabitants by Fire or a sudden Massacre or both or else to be the more ready to joyn themselves to a Body of French Troops designed if it be possible to land in England procured of the French King by the Interest and Power of the Jesuits in pursuance of the Engagements which at the Instigation of that pestilent Society his Most Christian Majesty with one of his Neighbouring Princes of the same Communion has entred into for the utter Extirpation of the Protestant Religion out of Europe Though we hope we have taken such effectual care to prevent the one and secure the other that by God's assistance we cannot doubt but we shall defeat all their wicked Enterprises and Designs We cannot however forbear out of our great and tender concern we have to preserve the People of England and particularly those great and populous Cities from the cruel Rage and bloody Revenge of the Papists to require and expect from all the Lord-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace Lord Mayors Mayors Sheriffs and other Magistrates and Officers Civil and Military of all Counties Cities and Towns of England especially of the County of Middlesex and Cities of London and Westminster and Parts adjacent that they do immediately disarm and secure as by Law they may and ought within their respective Counties Cities and Jurisdictions all Papists whatsoever as Persons at all times but now especially most dangerous to the Peace and Safety of the Government that so not only all power of doing Mischief may be taken from them but that the Laws which are the greatest and best Security may resume their force and be strictly executed And we do hereby likewise declare That we will protect and defend all those who shall not be afraid to to do their Duty in Obedience to these Laws And that for those Magistrates and others of what condition soever they be who shall refuse to assist Us and in Obedience to the Laws to execute vigorously what we have required of them and suffer themselves at this juncture to be cajolled or terrified out of their Duty we will esteem them the most Criminal and Infamous of all Men Betrayers of their Religion the Laws and their Native Country and shall not fail to treat them accordingly resolving to expect and require at their hands the Life of every single Protestant that shall perish and every House that shall be burnt and destroyed by Treachery and Cowardize Given under our Hand and Seal at our Head Quarters at Sherburn Castle the Twenty eight of November 1688. WILLIAM HENRY PRINCE OF ORANGE By his Highness's special Command C. HUYGENS. This was the boldest Attempt that ever was made by a private Person for it is certain the Prince knew nothing of this Declaration and disowned it so soon as he heard of it but yet it was printed in London and a quantity of them were sent in a Penny-Post Letter to the Lord Mayor of London who forthwith carried them to the King to Whitehall and it is thought this sham Paper contributed very much to the fixing and hastning his Resolution of leaving the Nation however there was no enquiry made after the Author or Printer of it that I could take notice of On Sunday the Ninth of December it is said Count Dada the Pope's Nuncio and many others departed from Whitehall and the next Morning about three or four of the Clock the Queen the Child and as was said Father Peters crossed the Water to Lambeth in three Coaches each of six Horses and with a strong Guard went to Greenwich and so to Gravesend where they imbarked on a Yatch for France And it is supposed she carried the Great Seal of England with her it having never appeared after this Before this the Marquiss of Hallifax the Earl of Nottingham and the Lord Godolphin had been sent by the King and Council to treat with the Prince of Orange and to adjust the Preliminaries in order to the holding of a Parliament who the Eighth of December sent these Proposals to him SIR THe King commanded us to acquaint you That he observeth all the differences and causes of Complaint alledged by your Highness seem to be referred to a Free Parliament His Majesty as he hath already declared was resolved before this to call one but thought that in the present state of Affairs it was advisable to defer it till things were more composed yet seeing that his People still continue to desire it he hath put forth his Proclamation in order to it and hath issued forth his Writs for the Calling of it And to prevent any cause of Interruption in it he will consent to every thing that can be reasonably required for the Security of all those that come to it His Majesty hath therefore sent us to attend your Highness for the adjusting of all Matters that shall be agreed to be necessary to the Freedom of Elections and the Security of Sitting and is ready to enter immediately into a Treaty in order to it His Majesty proposeth that in the mean time the respective Armies may be retained within such Limits and at such distance from London as may prevent the Apprehensions that the Parliament may be in any kind disturbed being desirous that the Meeting may be no longer delay'd than it must be by the usual and necessary Forms Hungerford the 8th of December 1688. Hallifax Nottingham Godolphin To this his Royal Highness the Prince of Orange return'd this Answer WE with the Advice of the Lords and Gentlemen assembled with Us have in Answer made these following Proposals I. That all Papists and such Persons as are not qualified by Law be Disarmed Disbanded and removed from all Employments Civil and Military II. That all Proclamations that reflect upon Us or at any time have come to Us or declared for Us be recalled and that if any Persons for having assisted Us have been Committed that they be forthwith set at Liberty III. That for the Security and Safety of the City of London the Custody and Government of the Tower be immediately put into the Hands of the said City IV. That if His Majesty should think fit to be in London during the Sitting of the Parliament that We may be there also with an equal number of our Guards and if his Majesty shall be pleased to be in any place from London whatever distance he thinks fit that We may be the same distance and that the respective Armies be from London forty Miles and that no further Forces be brought into the Kingdom V. And that for the Security of the City of London and their Trade
Tilbury Fort be put into the Hands of the City VI. That a sufficient part of the Publick Revenue be assigned us for the Support and Maintenance of our Troops until the Sitting of a Free Parliament VII That to prevent the landing of the French or other Foreign Troops Portsmouth may be put into such Hands as by His Majesty and Us shall be agreed on Tilbury-Fort was then Garison'd by the Irish and there were a great many of them and other Papists in Portsmouth This Answer was sent to His Majesty on Monday the Tenth of December by an Express yet he resolved to leave the Town and ordered all those Writs for the Sitting of the Parliament that were not sent out to be burnt and a Caveat to be entred against the making use of those that were sent down And at the same time he sent Order to the Earl of Feversham to Disband the Army and Dismiss the Soldiers The Letter to the Earl of Feversham was in this Form. THings being come to that Extremity that I have been forced to send away the Queen and my Son the Prince of Wales that they might not fall into the Enemies Hands which they must have done if they had stay'd I am obliged to do the same thing in hopes it will please God out of his infinite Mercy to this unhappy Nation to touch their Hearts again with true Loyalty and Honour If I could have rely'd on all my Troops I might not have been put to the Extremity I now am in and would at least have had one blow for it But though I know there are many and brave Men among you both Officers and Soldiers yet you know that both you and several of the General Officers and Soldiers and Men of the Army told me It was no ways advisable for me to venture my self at their Head or to think to fight the Prince of Orange with them And now there remains only for me to thank you and all those both Officers and Soldiers who have stuck to me and been truly Loyal I hope you will still retain the same Fidelity to me and though I do not expect you should expose your selves by resisting a Foreign Army and a Poyson'd Nation yet I hope your former Principles are so inrooted in you that you will keep your selves free from Associations and such pernicious things Time presseth so that I can add no more Jamex Rex The Earl of Feversham presently after the receit of this Letter Disbanded Four thousand Men which was all the Army he had then with him and under his Command after which he sent this Letter to the Prince of Orange SIR HAving received this Morning a Letter from His Majesty with the unfortunate News of his Resolution to go out of England I thought my self obliged being at the Head of his Army and having received his Orders to make no Opposition against any body to let your Highness know it with the Advice of the Officers here so soon as was possible to hinder the effusion of Blood. I have ordered already to that purpose all the Troops that are under my Command which shall be the last Order they shall receive from Feversham This was to all intents and purposes a clear and full Abdication or Desertion of the Army and put them under an inevitable necessity of submitting to the Prince of Orange they having no body to Lead or Head them against him And it is not conceivable how they could keep themselves from entring into an Association or Oath of Allegiance to the Prince now he was gone without exposing themselves by resisting a Foreign Army and a Poyson'd Nation For neither could the Nation long continue without a Prince nor would any Person that succeeded in that Capacity have ever suffered them to live within his Government without giving him Security by Oath for their Submission and Loyalty to him So that the whole design of this Letter seems to be the Sowing a Division in the Nation that at the same time he left us we might not unite or settle our selves under the other but by our Principles be divided that so he might the more easily reduce us again into the State we were in when the Prince first designed his Expedition against England This being done about Three of the Clock in the morning December the 11th the King went down the River in a small Boat towards Gravesend The principal Officers of the Army about the Town thereupon met about Ten of the Clock at Whitehall and sent an Express to the Prince of Orange to acquaint him with the Departure of the King and to assure him that they would assist the Lord Mayor to keep the City quiet till his Highness came and made the Souldiery to enter into his Service Much about the same time the Lords Spiritual and Temporal about the Town came to Guildhall and sending for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen made the following Declaration The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster Assembled at Guild-Hall the 11th of December 1688. WE doubt not but the World believes that in this great and dangerous Conjuncture we are heartily and zealously concerned for the Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land and the Liberties and Properties of the Subject And we did reasonably hope that the King having issued out his Proclamation and Writs for a Free Parliament we might have rested secure under the expectation of that Meeting But His Majesty having withdrawn himself and as we apprehend in order to his departure out of this Kingdom by the pernicious Counsels of Persons ill affected to our Nation and Religion we cannot without being wanting to our Duty be silent under those Calamities wherein the Popish Counsels which so long prevailed have miserably involved these Realms We do therefore unanimously resolve to apply out selves to his Highness the Prince of Orange who with so great Kindness to these Kingdoms so vast Expence and so much Hazard hath undertaken by endeavouring to procure a Free Parliament to rescue us with as little effusion of Christian Blood as possible from the imminent Dangers of Popery and Slavery And we do hereby declare That we will with our utmost Endeavours assist his Highness in the obtaining such a Parliament with all speed wherein our Laws our Liberties and Properties may be secured the Church of England in particular with a due Liberty to Protestant Dissenters and in general the Protestant Religion and Interest over the whole World may be supported and encouraged to the Glory of GOD the Happiness of the Established Government in these Kingdoms and the Advantage of all Princes and States in Christendom that may be herein concerned In the mean time we will endeavour to preserve as much as in us lies the Peace and Security of these great and populous Cities of London and Westminster and the parts adjacent by taking care to disarm all Papists and secure all Jesuits and
by the Specious Pretences of Religion and Property I hope it will please GOD to touch their Hearts out of His Infinite Mercy and to make them sensible of the ill condition they are in and bring them to such a Temper that a Legal Parliament may be call'd and that amongst other things which may be necessary to be done they will agree to Liberty of Conscience for all Protestant Dissenters and that those of my own Perswasion may be so far considered and have such a share of it as they may live peaceably and quietly as English men and Christians ought to do and not to be obliged to Transplant themselves which would be very grievous especially to such as love their Country And I appeal to all men who are considering men and have had experience whether any thing can make this Nation so great and flourishing as Liberty of Conscience Some of our Neighbours dread it I could add much more to confirm what I have said but now is not the proper time Rochester Decemb. the 22. 1688. Having now attained that period of time I designed what followed being the Methods of Redressing the Disorders we fell into by the Desertion and the resettling the Government again I must desire my Reader to make a Stand with me and to consider what it was could possibly work upon the Apprehensions of this Prince to perswade him at first to entertain the Thoughts of leaving his People and withdrawing into a Foreign Country When the Prince's Expedition was first certainly made known to him he was resolved to have had a Parliament upon a Belief that he should have been intirely Master of the Lower House by reason of the Regulations and other means then lately used but yet it is probable he would have examined them man by man before they should have met But when all this was out of doors and the Charters restored he dreaded nothing more than a Parliament and the rather because the Prince had in his Declaration insisted That all the Violences and Disorders which have overturned the whole constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a Free and Legal Parliament This contained under it these things which he would certainly have perished rather than to have submitted to them by concurring with a Parliament 1. The first thing is The Examination of the Birth of the Prince of Wales as he is call'd the but Questioning of which was a Stab at the Heart of this Prince as appears by his last Letter And the Reflections on the Bishop's Petition mention that as a thing not fit to be referr'd then to a Parliament I will not blame them for this considering the proof they were able to make of it II. The next thing was that Justice would certainly have been demanded against all the Instruments of our former Calamities whom he had pardoned and was in Honour bound to protect at least not to punish those whom he had hired or perswaded or perhaps forced almost to become Criminals III. The third was the consenting to the intire Ruine of the Means or Hopes of ever settling Popery in England and to the hanging some and attainting others of the Priests and Jesuits for doing their kind and what their Rules Oaths and Vows oblige them to IV. He foresaw such a Parliament would not only for ever damn the Ecclesiastical Court and Dispensing Power but would in all probability retrench much of his Revenue and more of his Legal and Ancient Prerogatives especially after the Prince had got all the Forts into his Hands and reduced the English Army to nothing And this alone was a thing he would hardly have consented to though nothing else had been asked V. The Prince he foresaw would have insisted on the having some Forts in his hands and the Parliament for their own security and for the fixing a Faith which had not been over nice would have joined with him So said he if I stay I shall be a Nominal rather than a real King of England and only serve as an Instrument to ruine my Religion my Friends the Monarchy and the Child and after all do and hear what is worse to me than a Thousand Deaths At first he alledged That the Disorders the Preparations to repel the Invasion caused would not suffer a Parliament to meet Secondly After the Prince was landed that all the Countries he had under him would not be free Thirdly That all that had joyned with him ought not to sit but when he saw the whole Army and Nation the Roman Catholicks excepted of the same mind mere force drove him to consent to Call a Parliament and when he had again considered the Consequences of it he at last resolved to throw up the Crown all at once rather than to submit to all these Hardships He seems to have had at the same time a fluttering hope that 1. We would never be able long to agree after he had made it impossible for us to have a Legal Parliament by burning the Writs 2. That the Church of England Principles would when the fear and disorder was over form for him a potent Army in the Nation And 3. That the French King would lend him potent Forces and good store of Money and if he recovered the Throne by force he should be freed of all these Miseries and have what he only wanted before a Popish Army to insure the Slavery of England for ever Now I would desire those Protestants who pretend now too late to be so zealous for him to consider whether what I have said would not have been expected from him by them for their Security and what they would have done had he called a Parliament and refused them all these things and have insisted That they should have taken his Word as to the Birth of the Prince of Wales have suffered him to have been educated in France and have suffered the Army the Prerogative the Ministers and the Revenues to have continued entirely as they were upon a Promise He would have used them better for the future If they say No They would have had the best Security that Law or Reason could have required Then all the hard things I have mentioned must have been granted them and I much question whether he would how return to the Throne on those terms If they say we ought however to have treated with him ' have offered him terms I say it would have come to a separate Treaty and the Church the Liberties of the Nation and the Government would have been ruined that way and when all had been done no Bond that he could have broken would have held him longer than the Necessity had continued The only Advantage we could pretend to have by the coming over of the Prince of Orange with an Army was to force the King to what he would never have yielded without that Force Now when he had accordingly passed his Word to the Nation in the Proclamation of the Thirtieth
II. having endeavoured to subvert the Constitution of this Kingdom by breaking the Original Contract between King and People and by the Advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons having violated the Fundamental Laws and having withdrawn himself out of this Kingdom have abdicated the Government and that the Throne is thereby vacant Resolved That this Vote be sent up to the Lords-House tomorrow morning for their Concurrence This Vote occasioned the Letter I am to Examine Hereupon followed several Conferences between the Lords and the Commons none of which being Printed and the Written Copies dispersed about the Town being of no good Authority I must leave them unrelated month February The sixth of February the Lords at last assented to the Vote above The 29th of January this Question was proposed in the Lords-House Whether a Regency with the Administration of Regal power under the name and stile of King James the Second during the Life of the said King James be the best and safest way to preserve the Protestant Religion and the Laws of the Kingdom Upon which the House divided Contents 48. Non-contents 51. This very much facilitated the Concurrence of the two Houses in the other Vote The Throne being thus declared vacant some were for the Prince of Orange to be Elected King alone others for the Princess to be forthwith proclaimed and acknowledged as next Immediate Heir of the Crown of England and others were for a Commonwealth But the two strongest parties were those who were for the Prince and those that were for the Princess so that at last there was a way found to twist these two into one by giving the Title indifferently to both and the Administration solely to the Prince to avoid the inconvenience of two co-ordinate Soveraigns Whilest these things were warmly debated in the Convention and the Town and all men were yet in suspence which way they would be determin'd some that were over zealous set a foot the following Petition the first of February and endeavoured to have it subscribed by the Multitude indifferently going up and down to publick places to solicite Subscriptions To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled in the Grand Convention the Humble Petition of Great Numbers of Citizens and other Inhabitants of the Cities of London and Westminster WHereas we are in a deep sense of the danger of Delays and perplext Debates about settling the Government at this time Vacant by reason whereof the necessary ends of Government cannot be duly administred We humbly desire that his most Illustrious Highness the Prince of Orange and his Royal Consort the Princess may be speedily setled in the Throne by whose Courage Conduct and Reputation this Nation and the Protestant Religion may be defended from our Enemies at Home and abroad And that Ireland now in a bleeding and deplorable condition may be rescued from its miseries and these Kingdoms settled on a lasting foundation in Peace and Liberty Whereupon his Highness being informed of the ill consequences and scandal of this way of proceeding caused this Order to be made and published to suppress it By the Mayor WHereas his Highness the Prince of Orange hath been pleased to signifie to me this day That divers persons pretending themselves to be Citizens of London in a tumultuous and a disorderly manner have lately disturbed the present Convention of the Lords and Commons at Westminster upon pretence of Petitioning It being regular and usual for the Citizens of this City that are under the apprehension of any Grievance to make their application to my self and the Court of Aldermen Therefore with the Advice of my Brethren the Aldermen of this City these are to require you That you command within your Ward that they forbear any such tumultuous Disturbance or Assembly as they will answer the contrary at their utmost peril Dated the third day of February 1688. The twelfth of February the two Houses at last fully agreed all things in dispute between them in this manner The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster WHereas the late King James the Second by the Assistance of divers evil Counsellors Judges and Ministers employ'd by him did endeavour to subject and extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom By assuming and exercising a power of Dispensing with and suspending of Laws and the Execution of Laws without consent of Parliament By committing and prosecuting divers worthy Prelates for humbly Petitioning to be excused from concurring to the said Assumed Power By issuing and causing to be Executed a Commission under the Great Seal for erecting a Court call'd The Court of Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs By Levying Money for and to the use of the Crown by pretence of Prerogative for other time and in other manner than the same was Granted by Parliament By raising and keeping a standing Army within the Kingdom in time of Peace without consent of Parliament and Quartering Soldiers contrary to Law. By causing several good Subjects being Protestants to be disarmed at the same time when Papists were both Aimed and imployed contrary to Law. By violating the Freedom of Elections of Members to serve in Parliament By Prosecutions in the Court of Kings-Bench for matters and causes cognizable only in Parliament and by divers other Arbitrary and Illegal courses And whereas of late years partial corrupt and unqualified persons have been returned and served on Juries in Trials and particularly divers Jurors in Trials for High Treason which were not Freeholders And Excessive Bail hath been required of persons committed in Criminal cases to elude the Benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subject And Excessive Fines have been imposed And Illegal and cruel punishments inflicted And several Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Conviction or Judgment against the persons upon whom the same were to be levied All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws and Statutes and freedom of this Realm And whereas the late King James the Second having abdicated the Government and the Throne being thereby vacant His Highness the Prince of Orange whom it hath pleased Almighty God to make the Glorious Instrument of Delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by the Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and divers principal persons of the Commons cause Letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being Protestants and other Letters to the several Counties Cities Universities Burroughs and Cinque-Ports for the chusing of such persons to represent them as were of right to be sent to Parliament to meet and sit at Westminster upon the 22d day of January 1688 in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being subverted upon which Letters Elections have been accordingly made And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their Respective Letters and Elections
us to the Ruin of Europe The King of England saith the Prince of Orange in his Declaration have given the greatest credit to those Counsellors who have overturned the Religion Laws and Liberties of his Realms And subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liherties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and indirect ways but in open and undisguised manner §. 2 Pag. 10. § 17. he informs us That both he and his dearest and most entirely beloved Consort the Princess have endeavoured to signifie in terms full of respect to the King the just and deep regret which all these proceedings have given us c. But those evil Counsellors 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 we had designed to disturb the peace and happiness of the Kingdom Sect. 19. To crown all there are great and violent presumptions inducing us to believe that these evil Counsellors in order to the carrying on 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 they have published that the Queen have 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 satisfie them or to put an end to their Doubts Things being in this state He resolved to go over to England Sect. 21. and to carry with him sufficient force to defend him from the violence of those evil Counsellors and then he declares that this Expedition was intended for no other design but to have a free and lawful Parliament assembled as soon as is possible Sect. 25. To the end that all the violences and disorders which have overturned the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully redressed in a Free and Legal Parliament to which he would also refer the Enquiry into the Birth of the Pretended Prince of Wales and all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession Now if all this is true which no English man can deny then had the Prince of Orange the justest cause that ever man had to do what he did and the King of England was bound in justice to have Summoned a Parliament and to have referr'd the things in question to them there being no other competent Judg on Earth of the things in dispute but if he would not suffer a Parliament to meet then the Sword must determine the Question between them for they were both Soveraign Princes and had no Superior over them to decide it The King accordingly referr'd it to the Sword for he refused to the last to suffer a Parliament to meet till the Invasion was over and the Prince had no reason to take his word for it The Protestants of England had no reason to fight against this Prince who came to right their Cause and offered to refer all to a Parliament of English Nobility and Gentry and the Papists alone were not able to resist the Prince's Army especially after many of the King's Army were gone over to the Prince so that the King was at last forced to call a Parliament in the manner I have set forth and he promised both the Nation and the Prince the Parliament should meet and act freely but before this was possible to be brought about without any cause given or alledged he disbanded his Army sent away the Queen the Child and the Seals and then followed them himself leaving the Nation in Anarchy and confusion Now I will refer this to the World whether this absence was not voluntary unforced and criminal after he had thus passed his word For supposing he had stayed on the Princes terms and the Parliament had met no Act could have passed without his own consent and if any thing had been required that had not been just and legal if then he had withdrawn his case would have been more justifiable and perhaps he should have found enough to have defended it and so needed not to have withdrawn The Story of the French League and the Prince of Wales are not passed so over tho they are postponed but we may hear more of them in due time tho when all is done there will be no reason to expect that all the Prate of this populous Town should be proved to be true it will be sufficient if his now Majesty justifie his own Publick Declarations which I believe no man doubts but he can and has done the Three Estates having in their Declaration subscribed to the truth of all the main parts of his The King being thus gone some way or other must be taken to bring us again to a settlement and that of a Convention of the Three Estates was taken as least liable to Exception and Mistake but then he tells us Sect. 2. That the Necessity alledged for their justification is either of their own making or of their own submitting to which is the same thing and therefore ought not to be pleaded in justification of their Proceedings Now this is not True The King would never have left his people if he had not first lost their hearts by the things charged upon his Counsellors nor then neither if he had not first resolved never to do them right against those Counsellors because he had reason to believe this would have satisfied them so that his late Majesty was not driven out of his Dominions by his Enemies as he stiled them but by his pretended Friends who put him upon doing ill things and then would not suffer him to Redress them Well but If he had been invited back upon Honourable Terms they needed not have had recourse to these singular Methods Why how does he know that The King had Honourable Terms offered him before he went and they would not stop him from going and if they had sent more Honourable Terms after him who can tell whether he would have accepted or have stood to them He had passed his Word before that a Parliament should meet yet he Burnt the Writs and withdrew Well but however our Author is resolved the late Kings withdrawing himself is no resigning of his Crown or discharging of his Subjects of their Allegiance In order to which he undertakes to shew that his late Majesty before his withdrawing had sufficient Grounds to make him apprehensive of danger and therefore it cannot be call'd an Abdication 2. That the leaving any representative behind him
THE HISTORY OF THE DESERTION LICENSED April 10. 1689. James Fraser THE HISTORY OF THE DESERTION OR An Account of all the Publick Affairs IN ENGLAND From the beginning of September 1688. to the Twelfth of February following WITH AN ANSWER To a Piece call'd The DESERTION Discussed In a LETTER to a Country Gentleman By a Person of Quality Provida severitate cavisti ne fundata legibus Civit as eversa legibus videretur C. Plin. Pan. Trajan Cap. XXXIV London Printed for Ric Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXIX TO THE READER I Am perswaded that those of the Church of England who now seem discontented at the Present State of Affairs in England are mistaken in the matter of Fact and that they do imagine the Religion Laws and Liberties of this Nation might have been secured to us and our Posterity by other and those more legal Methods Now if this Conceit of theirs were true their Dissatisfaction would not be wholly unreasonable but to me who have considered every Step of this Great Revolution with the utmost Attention of Mind it seems altogether false and groundless But whether they or I are mistaken it is absolutely necessary that the matter of Fact should be truly and fairly stated which cannot be done but by representing in one View all the Papers which passed on both sides with the Actions which hapned the present State of Affairs at home and abroad when the Revolution began and the temper of Mens Minds in all the Occurrences as they hapned And this I have endeavoured to do with all the Brevity Perspicuity and Fidelity which was possible As I am the first that have attempted it so it is not impossible there may be some Mistakes Omissions or Errors but there is not one wilful Error and I will rectifie any involuntary Stumble I may have made upon the first Advice of it To have fully cleared this Question it was perhaps necessary that I should have begun with the Year 1600. and the Restitution of Charles the Second or at least at his Death but this would have taken too much time to have presently gone about it and if I find this is well received and encouraged I will in a convenient time do it especially if I may have the liberty of the Council-Book and the Paper-Office and such other helps as are necessary And in the mean time I conceive this short Abstract of the Publick Printed Papers is sufficient to convince any Man that the Popish Party were resolved we should be Rebels as they now account us or Slaves and His late Majesty was so far prevailed upon by them that he chose rather to desert his Throne than to lose all the Possibilities of Establishing an absolute Soveraignty over the Nation and Popery with it I suppose it is not pretended in England His late Majesty forfeited his Right to Govern by his Misgovernment but that the sense of it prevail'd upon him rather to throw up the Government than to concur with an English Free-Parliament in all that was needful to re-establish our Laws Liberties and Religion and this is a proper legal Abdication as it is distinguished from a Voluntary Resignation on the one hand and a Violent Deposition on the other He was bound to govern us according to Law and we were not bound to submit to any other than a legal Government but be would not do the one and saw he could not force us to submit to the other and therefore deliberately relinquished the Throne and withdrew his Person and Seals dissolving as much as he could the whole Frame of our Government The Reader may observe tho' he give Reasons why he withdrew the second time he never gave any why he went away at first nor can any be assigned as I verily believe but that which I have expressed Now if this be the true state of this great Affair then we were legally discharged of our Allegiance to James the Second the Eleventh of December last past and his Return afterwards which was forced and involuntary could have no Influence upon us and if he were now to be restored again he must be re-crowned and sworn de novo as Henry the Sixth was after he was restored by the Earl of Warwick There may possibly be some few Men so superlatively Loyal that rather than they would not still be under the Government of James the Second they would throw up all the English Liberties and Priviledges and submit to an absolute and unlimited Soveraignty either out of Scruple of Conscience Vanity or Humour now to these I have nothing to say but that if they are willing to be Slaves they may but it is unreasonable that they should enslave all the rest of the Nation too and as the Number is not great so I am perswaded if Patience and gentle Methods are used these Men will in a short time be convinced by their own Interest and acquiesce at least if they do not heartily joyn with the rest in the Defence of the present Government As to the small Piece which I have answered I cannot but admire at the Encomiums have been given it I hope there is nothing in it worth regarding which I have not fairly answered at least I am sure it is very answerable it being wholly founded on Mistakes either as to the matter of Fact or the Laws of England But be this as it will I submit to it the Reader to judge between us April 6th 1689. THE HISTORY OF THE DESERTION AND AN ANSWER to a DISCOURSE Intitled The Desertion discuss'd In a Letter to a Country Gentleman THE late Transactions of that part of our Nation which have espoused the Interests and Principles of the Church of Rome are so full of Wonder that I perswade my self Posterity will look upon the Story of the last ten years as a meer Romance and will very hardly believe so small a Party durst attempt or so great a Body would ever so long suffer what we have born with a Stoical Patience I had almost said Insensibility But then this Assurance was not owing either to their Courage or their Cunning but a strong Perswasion that how ill soever they used us of the Church of England the Doctrine of Non-resistance would keep us in awe and if the other part of the Protestants should offer to rescue the Nation out of their Claws our Zeal for the Monarchy and the Royal Family would have the same effect it had in the Monmouth Invasion and end in the Ruin of them However to prevent the worst they resolved to keep up a numerous Army to suppress betimes any Party that might stir in the Nation and to fix them the more to their Interest they not only exempted the Souldiers from the Civil Jurisdiction but suffer'd them to out-rage and injure whom they they pleased almost without restraint To divide us yet more they procured a Toleration for the Dissenters and made such fulsom Applications
to them and they again returned the Complement in such Rhetorical Addresses that it was verily thought the Church of England Party would very easily have been given up for a Sacrifice to the kind sincere well-meaning Catholicks But our Dissenters were not so easily wheedled into a forgetfulness of what they had so lately suffered and altho' they gave the Fathers many good words and fair Promises yet when they had opportunity they gave such bold hints of their Resolution to defeat the Expectations of these Gentlemen that I protest I wondred at nothing more than to see them so sar infatuated as to believe they should ever reap any Advantage from our Non-cons They were however ingaged and therefore they must go on be the Event what it would and finding it would be a work of time and that it was not possible James II. should live to see it effected and that after his death the Succession of the then Princess of Orange would put an end to all this Babel of Confusion they had with so much Labour and Hazard erected They resolved in the next place to take care for a Catholick Successor to finish this great Work. And in truth it was a Project worthy of such bold Undertakers if they could have as easily deluded the English Nation as they frequently do those who have a mighty fondness for Miracles and had rather be deceived than find out the Legerdemains of the Priesthood But then this was so highly improbable that I wonder they ever entred into it and that none of the Fathers have yet told us that we ought not to think it possible for them to be such Fools as to attempt to impose in a matter of that Consequence upon so learned so curious so distrustful and fierce a Nation as this of England is I assure them this Argument would have more force than all the Depositions they have printed in that case and engage many to espouse their Quarrel out of pure Piquantry How far they might yet have gone and what would in the end have been the consequence of this formal Plot upon our Lives Liberties and Religion is known to none but God They looked upon the Protestant or British Interest in Ireland as wholly at their Mercy Scotland was in such a condition that nothing could be begun there which would not termiin the ruin of the Undertakers And England was so divided in Interest and Religion that they expected a considerable Body of the Protestants would lend them their assistance to ruine the rest and therefore call'd them their Scaffolds France the most Potent of our Neighbours was apparently engag'd in the same Design Denmark and Sweden engaged against each other in the Quarrel of the Duke of Holstein The Protestant Princes in Germany were either awed by the French or divided between the Northern Crowns Spain was weak and unable to defend it self and too Catholick at last to espouse heartily the Interests of a Protestant Nation against a Roman Catholick Prince so that they had nothing to fear but the States of Holland and the Prince of Orange And they looked upon the States as a knot of Merchants more intent upon their Trade than concern'd for the Fate of England and yet if they should attempt any thing England and France by Sea and Land would easily reduce them into the same state they were in in the year 1672. Now supposing the French King who is so zealous a Roman Catholick had not so vigorously and as far as I can see so impolitickly carried on the Controversie with the Pope about the Franchises of his Ambassador at Rome and that he had had the patience to suffer the Emperor to recover what his Ancestors had lost to the Turks and left the Controversies between the Elector Palatine who is a Roman Catholick and the Dutchess of Orleans to the determination of the Pope what had France lost in all this And who then could have made one step to the Recovery of England I know very well it is said the Emperor would certainly begin a War with France so soon as ever he had ended this with the Turks to his mind And in truth he had just reason so to do But it is more probable he would have spent first some years in fortifying peopling and setling his new Conquests to secure himself on that side against his most formidable Neighbour rather than that he would presently transfer his Arms and victorious Armies from the East to the West and pass so suddenly from one long and ruinous War to another of no less hazard and expence And yet if he had done so the Princes of the Empire would never so heartily and generally have joyned with him against France if he had been the Aggressor how just soever his cause had been as it might easily have been foreseen they would when they were first attack'd and as it were forced to flie to the Emperor for his Protection So that it was apparently the Interest of France to have sate still and to have taken the first opportunity had offered it self to have enslaved the first of his Neighbours that had call'd him to their assistance and our English Jesuits did not doubt but that he would In the Interim it was well for England that the French King acted as he did for to him in a great measure our Delivery is owing tho' he never intended it his Breach with the Pope and the Empire having not only given the Dutch a pretence to arm by Sea and Land and so blinded the Eyes of our English Court that they never saw nor would believe themselves concern'd in it till it was too late to help it But it also united not only all the Protestant but all the Catholick Princes too except France in the Project of delivering us for their own security that we might be in a condition to unite with them again for the preservation of Europe from following the triumphant Chariot of France in Chains His late Majesty seems to have been the only Prince in Christendom who made it his great and almost only design to advance the Interests of the Church of Rome without and against his own temporal Interest The rest of the Princes and their Council look in the first place to their own Concerns at home and abroad and make the Affairs of Religion subservient to their other Designs The Pope is not so fond of his old Mumpsimus or of the Decrees of the Council of Trent it self as to suffer France to conquer Italy Spain or Germany no nor England nor Holland neither how much soever it might seem to facilitate their Reduction to the See of Rome because he knows very well the first Prince that shall make himself the Universal Monarch of Europe or gain such a power over the rest as is not to be disputed or opposed will certainly put an end to the Soveraignty Wealth Grandeur and Independency of the Court of Rome and the Pope will
become as subject to him notwithstanding his Infallibility as the Mufty is to the Grand Signior who never makes any Scruple to depose or bow-string the Infallible Gentleman whenever he crosseth his Designs and to set up another in his stead whose Infallibility will be more complaisant The Emperor of Germany is as religious and as zealous a Prince for the Roman Catholick Religion as ever sprung out of that Family But he has no mind after all to lose his Life his Empire and his Liberty he had rather there should be some Hereticks in Germany than to suffer the French King to send his Apostolick Dragoons to convert them and drive him into Exile The King of Spain values the poor dispeopl'd share he has yet left him in Europe too well to put it into the Hands of the French in order to the reducing the Northern Hereticks to the See of Rome No wonder then that these Princes should all unite with his now Majesty of England against a Prince of their own Religion when they saw he had embraced a design which would certainly end in his and all their Ruins and which would raise France to such an height of Power as could never be retrieved This was very near the state of Affairs at home and abroad when Monsieur the Comte d' Avaux the French King's Ambassador at the Hague the 9th of September last published this Memorial which first opened the Eyes of our small States-men here in England My Lords THe sincere desire the King my Master has to maintain the Tranquility of Europe will not suffer his Majesty to see the great Preparations for War both by Sea and Land made by your Lordships without taking the measures that Prudence the continual Companion of all his Actions inspires him with to prevent the Mischiefs these War-like Preparations will certainly draw after them And altho' the King perswaded of the Wisdom of your Councils would not imagine that a Free state should so easily resolve to take up Arms and to kindle a War which in the present Juncture cannot but be fatal to all Christendom Nevertheless his Majesty cannot believe your Lordships would engage your selves in so great Expences both at home and abroad to entertain in pay so many Foreign Troops to put to Sea so numerous a Fleet so late in the year and to prepare so great Magazines if you had not a design form'd answerble to the greatness of these Preparations All these Circumstances and many others that I may not here produce perswade the King my Master with reason that this Arming threatens England Wherefore his Majesty hath commanded me to declare to you on his part That the Bands of Friendship and Alliance between him and the King of Great Britain will oblige him not only to assist him but also to look on the first act of Hostility that shall be committed by your Troops or your Fleet against his Majesty of Great Britain as a manifest Rupture of the Peace and a Breach with his Crown I leave to your Lordships Prudence to reflect on the Consequences that such Enterprises may have his Majesty not having ordered me to make you this Declaration on his Part without his sincere Intention to prevent as I have already had the Honour to tell you all that may trouble the Peace of Europe Given at the Hague the 9th of September 1688. month September In England all things were then in the utmost degree of Disorder and Security the Army committing the utmost degree of Insolence in all places where they were quartered and the People making frequent and loud Complaints Whereupon his late Majesty issued out again an old Order which had been frequently and to no good purpose published before commanding that no Souldier should be lodged in any private House without the free and voluntary Consent of the Owner and that all Houses should be deem'd private Houses except Victualling-Houses and Houses of publick Entertainment or such as have License to sell Wine or any other Liquor c. Under this pretence they brought in all Bakers Cooks c. This Order bears date the 2d of September at Windsor Tho' the English Army were become thus intolerable to the Nation and there was so great a Storm gathering in Holland yet so stupid were our Drivers that nothing would serve our then Masters but the filling the Army with Irish men who were likely to be more disorderly and more hated to that end Major Slingsby Lieutenant Governour of Portsmouth under his Grace the Duke of Berwick had ordered the Regiment there quartered to take in about thirty Irish Gentlemen which was opposed by John Beaumont Lieutenant Coll. Thomas Pastor Simon Parke Thomas Orme William Cook and John Port Officers and Commanders in that Regiment which they had rais'd at their own Costs and Charges during the Monmouth Invasion The first of these made this Speech by their appointment and in all their names to the Duke of Berwick Sir I am desired by these Gentlemen with whose Sense I concur to inform your Grace that we do not think it consistent with our Honours to have Foreigners imposed upon us without being complain'd of that our Companies were weak or Orders to recruit them not doubting but if such Orders had been given us We that first in very ill times raised them Hundreds could easily now have made them according to the Kings Complement We humbly Petition we may have leave to fill up our Companies with such men of our Nation we may judge most suitable for the Kings Service and to support our Honours or that we may be permitted with all imaganable Duty and Respect to lay down our Commissions The Account of this Opposition being forthwith sent to Windsor where the Court then was the Rage and Fury against these rebellious heretical Officers was unspeakable and in truth nothing could be more contrary to their Designs which was by degrees to fill up the English Army with Irish and Roman Catholicks because they found it was not possible to do it at once as they had done in Ireland And now nothing would serve them but the hanging the six honest Gentlmen by Martial Law and accordingly a Party of Horse were ordered to go down to Portsmouth to bring them up in custody and a Court Martial was ordered to proceed against them and if the Memorial of the French Ambassador had not â—ome in that very Morning to shew them their danger â—n all probability they had been so treated but upon this the â—0th of September they were only casheer'd after they had on the Road been treated with great Severity and Indignity However this was one of those things which contributed very much to what followed The 20th of September the King being then returned with the Court to Whitehall published this Declaration HAving already signified Our pleasure to call a Parliament to meet at Our City of Westminster in November next and Writs of Summon being issued accordingly lest
kept in and about the parts where he landed Secondly As to the distraction of the People under their present Grievances it seems to many true Members of the Church of England that it had been every whit as agreeable to your Lordships Character to have rather thank'd his Majesty for his late extraordinary and gracious Favours than to have amus'd the Subjects at this time with the Apprehensions of Grievances without any intimation what they were for it is most manifest that by such remonstrating of Grievances the People were instigated to that bloody Rebellion in 1641. As to the Expression That your Lordships think your selves bound in Conscience of the Duty you owe to God and our holy Religion and to his Majesty and our Country most humbly to offer to his Majesty That in your opinion the ONLY visible way to prehis Majesty and his Kingdom would be the calling of a Parliament regular and free in all its Circumstances I hope to make out that the summoning of a Parliament now is so far from being the Only way to effect these things that it will be one of the principal causes of much Misery to the Kingdom and I am sure both our Duty to God and our holy Religion as well as to his Majesty and our Country doth plainly enjoyn us to use One other effectual means to obviate the Miseries of a Civil or Invasive War which is the keeping inviolably our Allegiance to our Soveraign and effectually joyning with him to resist all his Enemies whether ther Foreign Aggressors or Native Rebels And it is much to be wondred at that this Duty so well known to your Lordships should never be mention'd As to the Regular and Free Parliament in all its Circumstances I shall now proceed to prove that at this Season all our Wishes for such a one are impotent and must be ineffectual First it is a known Truth and sadly experienced That whenever the People are in a great Ferment and contrary Parties are bandying one against another the giving liberty to the People to meet in great Bodies is dangerous to the Government and you your selves not long since were of that opinion when you oppos'd the vehement Addresses to King Charles II. for summoning a Parliament when he judged it would strengthen the Faction against him and you very well know when great heats were among the Members and unreasonable Votes were pass'd against the Lineal Succession and other matters endangering the Government the King was obliged to prorogue some Parliaments from time to time that such separation might produce more sober Counsels And then the great cry was That for the Preservation of the King's Person and our Religion they were so earnest to have a Parliament meet Secondly it is impossible there can be a Regular and Free Election while the Electors are so violently divided one part of them being so vehement Wishers of the Success of the Prince of Orange that they slight all the Miseries that unavoidably will fall on the Country thereby upon the bare hope that he will preserve Religion and Property Now in such a time as this when if we will give credit to the Prince's Declaration there are so many that have invited him can it be safe for the King to grant a Commission even to the People to assemble in such great Confluxes as may afford them opportunity of listing themselves against him Thirdly If we yield that Elections can be without outragious Routs yet when the Parliament is met it is requisite by the very Constitution that every part of that August Assembly should be free in their Assent or Dissent to what is to be debated and that Freedom is as fundamentally necessary in the Person of the King as in the Members of either House and that one of the proper and necessary Circumstances of that Convention ought to be that all the Members shall be present I shall therefore shew that at this time none of these can be practicable First As to the King While such powerful Enemies are in the Country and so many ready to catch any opportunity to joyn with them how can the King be absent from his Army The providing for cherishing animating and ordering of which will sufficiently employ the most indefatigable of Princes And none can think that any Prince can watch the motions of such an Enemy and time his opportunities of assaulting them or defending himself and at the same time be embarass'd with a Party in the Houses that may as dangerously be levelling their Votes against him as the Invaders are their Artillery However there can be no freedom to the King how undaunted soever because the impending Storm may so affright his Council that they may advise to the yielding of some things that may be of ill consequence to the Government for whatever lessens the King 's just Prerogative as this may do in depriving him of exercising his Negative Voice is at one time or other prejudicial to his Subjects Secondly As to the Lords There can be no free Convention of them since several of them have so far forgot their Allegionce that they are actually in the Orange's Army and many other Lords are attending the King and their Charges so that while these Armies are in Being they cannot meet in their House but by their Proxies which I suppose none can expect will be allowed to the Peers that are in Rebellion if we may be allowed to call that such which all our Laws so adjudgeth The like may be said for the House of Commons All the Gentlemen of Interest in their Country by their Allegiance are bound to serve the King in his Wars at his Command and will be few enough to keep their respective Counties in peace And I am confident none will think such a Parliament as this ought to be that is desir'd should consist of such who have been little conversant in publick Affairs or have small Interests in their Counties So that upon the whole I cannot see how any Free Parliament can meet unless it be such a Convention as the Saxons obtained of the Britains on Salisbury-Plains where the eminentest of both People were to meet unarmed and there amicably adjust matters in difference but it is well known that the Saxons under their long Coats had their Weapons wherewith they slew the Flower of the British Nobility and thereby rendred their Conquest more easie It is true such a Stratagem is now like to take ffect but the King and those that wish well to the Succession of the Monarchy and the preservation of their Country must needs fear that there will be as dangerous Contests within the Houses as may be in the open Fields and thereby little can be expected from such a Parliament which can redound to the publick good of the Kingdom Fourthly Those Spiritual and Temporal Lords that have signed this Petition either have not or they have consulted the Prince of Orange before they proposed this Advice If
of a Commission that is manifestly illegal and who have executed it contrary to all Law and that now one of their chief Members has abjured the Protestant Religion and declared himself a Papist by which he is become uncapable of holding any publick 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 agreeable to them And those Evil Counsellors take care to raise none to any Ecclesiastical 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 forms of Process They have turned out a President chosen by the Fellows of Magdalene Colledge and afterwards all the Fellows of that Colledge without so much as citing them before any Court that could take legal Cognisance 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 chuse for their President a person that was recommended to them by the Instigation of those Evil Councellors tho' the Right of a Free-Election belonged undoubtedly to them But they were turned out of their Free-holds contrary to Law and to that express Provision in the Magna Charta That no man shall lose Life or Goods but by the Law of the Land. And now these Evil Councellors have put the said Colledge wholly into the hands of Papists 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 Chancellors and Archdeacons of England requiring them to certifie to them the Names of all such Clergy-men as have read the King's 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 Ecclesiastical Commissioners was so notoriously known and it did so evidently appear that it tended to the Subversion of the Protestant Religion that the Most Reverend Father in God William Archbishop of Canterbury Primate and Metropolitan of all England seeing that it was raised for no other end but to oppress such persons as were of eminent Virtue Learning and Piety refused to sit or to concur in it 8. And tho' there are many express Laws against all Churches or Chappels for the exercise of the Popish Religion and also against all Monasteries and Convents and more particulary against the Order of the Jefuits yet those Evil Counsellors have procured orders for the building of several Churches and Chappels for the exercise of that Religion They have also procured divers Monasteries to be erected and in contempt of the Law they have not only set up several Colledges of Jesuits in divers places for the corrupting of the Youth but have raised up one of the Order to be a Privy Counsellor 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 establish'd Religion to a Despotick Power and to Arbitrary Government In all which they are served and seconded by those Ecclesiastical Commissioners 9. They have also followed the same Methods with relation to Civil affairs for they have procured orders to examine all Lords Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants Sheriffs Justices of Peace and all others that were in any publick Imployment if they would concur 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 designs were turned out and others were put in their places who they believed would be more compliant to them in their designs 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 tho' the Law has disabled them and warranted the Subjects not to have any regard to their Orders 10. They have also invaded the Priviledges and seized 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 Evil Councellors 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 11. And whereas no Nation whatsoever can subsist without the administration of good and impartial Justice upon which mens Lives Liberties Honours and Estates do depend those Evil Councellors 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 deprive such Judges who in the common administration of Justice shewed that they were governed by their Consciences and not by the Directions which the others gave them By which it is apparent that they design to render themselves the absolute Masters of the Lives Honours and Estates of the Subjects of what rank or dignity soever they may be and that without having any regard either to the Equity of the Cause or to the Consciences of the Judges whom they will have to submit in all things to their own Will and Pleasure hoping by such ways to intimidate those who are yet in Employment as also such others as they shall think fit to put in the rooms of those whom they have turned out and to make them see what they must look for if they should at any time act in the least contrary to their good liking and that no failings of that kind are pardoned in any Persons whatsoever A great deal of Blood has been shed in many places of the Kingdom by Judges governed by those Evil Counsellors against all the Rules and Forms of
Law without so much as suffering the Persons that were accused to Plead in their own Defence 12. They have also by putting the Administration of Justice in the hands of Papists brought all the matters of Civil Justice into great uncertainties with how much Exactness and Justice soever that these Sentences may have been given For since the Laws of the Land do not only exclude Papists from all Places of Judicature but have put them under an Incapacity none are bound to acknowledge or to obey their Judgments and all Sentences given by them are null and void of themselves So that all Persons who have been cast in Tryals before such Popish Judges may justly look on their pretended Sentences as having no more force than the Sentences of any private and unauthorised Person whatsoever So deplorable is the case of the Subjects who are obliged to answer to such Judges that must in all things stick to the Rules which are set them by those Evil Counsellors who as they raised them up to those Employments so can turn them out of them at pleasure and who can never be esteemed Lawful Judges so that all their Sentences are in the Construction of the Law of no Force and Efficacy They have likewise disposed of all Military Employments in the same manner For though the Laws have not only Excluded Papists from all such Employments but have in particular Provided that they should be disarmed yet they in contempt of these Laws have not only armed the Papists but have likewise raised them up to the greatest Military Trusts both by Sea and Land and that Strangers as well as Natives and Irish as well as English that so by those means having rendred themselves Masters both of the Affairs of the Church of the Government of the Nation and of the Courts of Justice and subjected them all to a Despotick and Arbitrary Power they might be in a capacity to maintain and execute their wicked Designs by the assistance of the Army and thereby to enslave the Nation 13. The dismal effects of this Subversion of the Established Religion Laws and Liberties in England appear more evidently to us by what we see done in Ireland where the whole Government is put in the Hands of Papists and where all the Protestant Inhabitants are under the daily fears of what may be justly apprehended from the Arbitrary Power which is set up there which has made great numbers of them leave that Kingdom and abandon their Estates in it remembring well that Cruel and Bloody Massacre which fell out in that Island in the Year 1641. 14. Those evil Counsellors have also prevailed with the King to declare in Scotland That he is cloathed with Absolute Power and that all the Subjects are bound to Obey him without Reserve upon which he has assumed an Arbitrary Power both over the Religion and Laws of that Kingdom from all which it is apparent what is to be looked for in England as soon as matters are duly prepared for it 15. Those great and insufferable Oppressions and the open Contempt of all Law together with the Apprehensions of the sad Consequences that must certainly follow upon it have put the Subjects under great and just Fears and have made them look after such lawful Remedies as are allowed of in all Nations yet all has been without effect And those Evil Counsellors have endeavoured to make all Men apprehend the loss of their Lives Liberties Honours and Estates if they should go about to preserve themselves from this Oppression by Petitions Representations or other means authorised by Law. Thus did they proceed with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other Bishops who having offered a most humble Petition to the King in terms full of Respect and not exceeding the number limited by Law in which they set forth in short the Reasons for which they could not obey that order which by the Instigation of those Evil Counsellors was sent them requiring them to appoint their Clergy to read in their Churches the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience were sent to Prison and afterwards brought to a Tryal as if they had been guilty of some enormous Crime They were not only obliged to defend themselves in that pursuit but to appear before professed Papists who had not taken the Test and by consequence were Men whose Interest led them to condemn them and the Judges that gave their Opinion in their favours were thereupon turned out 16. And yet it cannot be pretended that any Kings how great soever their Power has been and how Arbitrary and Despotick soever they have been in the exercise of it have ever reckoned it a Crime for their Subjects to come in all Submission and Respect and in a due number not exceeding the limits of the Law and represent to them the Reasons that made it impossible for them to obey their Orders Those Evil Counsellors have also treated a Peer of the Realm as a Criminal only because he said That the Subjects were not bound to obey the Orders of a Popish Justice of Peace though it is evident that they being by Law rendred incapable of all such Trusts no regard is due to their Orders This being the security which the People have by the Law for their Lives Liberties Honours and Estates that they are not to be subjected to the Arbitrary Proceedings of Papists that are contrary to Law put into any Employments Civil or Military Both We our selves and our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princess have endeavoured to signifie in terms full of respect to the King the just and deep Regret which all these Proceedings have given us and in Compliance with his Majesty's desires signified to us We declared both by Word of Mouth to his Envoy and in Writing what our Thoughts were touching the Repealing of the Test and Penal Laws which we did in such a manner that we hoped 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 Counsellors 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 We had designed to disturb the Quiet and Happiness of the Kingdom 18. The last and great Remedy for all those Evils is thâ— calling of a Parliament for securing the Nation against the evil Practices of those wicked Counsellors 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 their 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 self For they see well that if all Protestants could enter into a mutual good understanding one with another and concur together in the preserving of their Religion it would not be possible for them to compass their wicked Ends. They have also required all Persons in the several Counties of England that either were in any Employment 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 concur in it Such as would not thus preingage themselves were turned out of all Employments And others who entred into those Engagements were put in their places many of them being Papists And contrary to the Charters and Privileges 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 though 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 Mayors of Towns and therefore as long as the Authority and Magistracy is in such hands it is not possible to have any Lawful Parliament And though according to the Constitution of the English Government and Immemorial Custom all Elections of Parliament-men ought to be made with an entire Liberty without any sort of Force or the requiring the Electors to chuse 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 cannot 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 Counsellors 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 of 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 Laws 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 19. But to Crown all there are great and violent Presumptions inducing us to believe that those Evils Counsellors 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 though there have appeared both during the Queen's 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 Queen's Bigness and of the Birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfie them or to put an end to their Doubts 20. And since our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princess 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 War use their utmost Endeavours to put an end to that War 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 Employments And since the English Nation has ever restified a most particular Affection and Esteem both to our Dearest Consort the Princess and to Our Selves We 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 Kingdoms and for the securing to them the continual enjoyment of all their just Rights To the doing of which We are most earnestly solicited by a great many Lords both Spiritual and Temporal and by many Gentlemen and other Subjects of all Ranks 21. THEREFORE it is that We have thought fit to go 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 Evil Counsellors AND WE being desirous that our Intentions in this may be rightly understood have for this end prepared this Declaration in which as we have hitherto given a True Account of the Reasons inducing us to it So we now think fit to DECLARE That this our Expedition is intended for no other Design but to have a Free and Lawful 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 contrary to the ancient Custom shall be considered as null and of no force And likewise all Magistrates who have been unjustly turned out shall forthwith resume their former Employments as well as all the Burroughs of England shall return again to their Ancient Prescriptions and Charters And more particularly that the Ancient Charter of the Great and Famous City of London shall again be in force And that the Writs for the Members of Parliament shall be addressed to the proper Officers according to Law and Custom 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 Freedom That so the Two Houses may concur in the preparing of such Laws 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 Laws as are necessary for the Security and Maintenance of the Protestant Religion as likewise for making
is granted us The Ecclesiastical Commission actually broken up the Bishop of London the Master and Fellows of Magdalen Colledge and the Ancient Charters of Cities and Burroughs actually restored all things on the ancient Bottom for the calling a Free Parliament which His Majesty would have done before this time had not the Prince of Orange hindred him and as soon as the Prince of Orange departs the King will call one whereby all the Prince's Pretensions are taken away and nothing more remains for him to do but to return home or contend for the Crown Yet the Prince would have us believe that though he is not satisfied in this yet he intends no such thing as the Crown or a Conquest of it as appears by his Highness's Additional Declaration His Highness's Additional Declaration AFter we had prepared and printed this our Declaration we have understood that the Subverters of the Religion and Laws of those Kingdoms hearing of our Preparations to assist the People against them have begun to retract some of the Arbitrary and Despotick Powers that they had assumed and to vacate some of their Injust Judgments and Decrees The sense of their Guilt and the distrust of their Force have induced them to offer to the City of London some seeming Relief from their great Oppressions hoping thereby to quiet the People and to divert them from demanding a Re-establishment of their Religion and Laws under the shelter of our Arms They do also give out That we do intend to Conquer and Enslave the Nation and therefore it is that we have thought fit to add a few words to our Declaration We are confident that no Persons can have such hard thoughts of us as to imagine that we have any other Design in this Undertaking than to procure a Settlement of the Religion and of the Liberties and Properties of the Subjects upon so sure a Foundation that there may be no danger of the Nations relapsing into the like Miseries at any time hereafter And as the Forces that we have brought along with us are utterly disproportioned to that wicked Design of Conquering the Nation if we were capable of Intending it so the great numbers of the Principal Nobility and Gentry that are Men of Eminent Quality and Estates and Persons of known Integrity and Zeal both for the Religion and Government of England many of them being also distinguished by their constant Fidelity to the Crown who do both accompany us in this Expedition and have earnestly solicited us to it will cover us from all such malicious Insinuations For it is not to be imagined that either those who have Invited us or those that are already come to Assist us can joyn in a wicked attempt of Conquest to make void their own lawful Titles to their Honours Estates and Interests We are also confident that all Men see how little weight there is to be laid on all Promises and Engagements that can be now made since there has been so little regard had in time past to the most solemn Promises And as that imperfect Redress that is now offered is a plain Confession of those Violations of the Government that we have set forth so the Defectiveness of it is no less apparent For they lay down nothing which they may not take up at pleasure and they reserve entire and not so much as mentioned their Claims and Pretences to an Arbitrary and Despotick Power which has been the Root of all their Oppression and of the total Subversion of the Government And it is plain that there can be no Redress nor Remedy offered but in Parliament by a Declaration of the Rights of the Subjects that have been invaded and not by any Pretended Acts of Grace to which the extremity of their Affairs has driven them Therefore it is that we have thought fit to declare That we will refer all to a Free Assemby of the Nation in a Lawful Parliament Given under our Hand and Seal at our Court in the Hague theTwenty fourth day of October in the Year of our Lord 1688. WILLIAM HENRY PRINCE OF ORANGE By his Highness's special Command C. HUYGENS. THis Addition doth very fully unfold the Design the Prince will abide among us with a Foreign Power and make the Choice of a Parliament impracticable and therefore the Call of one a weak and foolish thing and yet oblige us to distrust every Promise the King makes us lessening what is done and insinuating that all things shall be soon undone And why all these Insinuations but to help us to Vnravel the whole Intriegue which if it be not for the Crown must be thus The Dutch knowing how the Prince hath ravished from them their Liberties and Privileges and what danger they are in of being utterly undone if Liberty of Conscience be setled among us in England precipitate the Prince on this hazardous Vndertaking not doubting but they shall be either delivered from the Prince's Exercise of a Despotick Power over them or spoil our Liberty to the Continuance and Advance of their own Trade which may be the reason why in the entrance into the Declaration what relates to Religion is so worded as to gain the Bishops over to them the more easily to effect their Design for says the Declaration The Alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced It is not said that the Popish Religion but a Religion contrary to the Law and it 's well known that the Laws are against the Religion of the Dissenters and the Prince's endeavour shall be to preserve and maintain above all the Religion and Worship of God that is Established among us which cannot be understood of the Worship the Dissenters use but of the Hierarchical way that is as contrary to the Prince's own Religion as 't is to that of the Dissenters in England And to persuade the Church-men to close with him he Declares That he was most earnestly solicited to come over by the Lords Spiritual not doubting but that if the Belief thereof prevail among the Mobile they 'll be all of an Opinion that the Prince's Grounds are most Just and Reasonable so that though it cannot be made out by any thing particularly known yet this general carrying a thousand unheard of Arguments in its Bowels cannot fail of success But what if this prove not True May we afterwards venture to believe his Highness in any thing which under a violent Temptation he may be as now moved to declare The Prince insists on it That many of the Lords Spiritual did most earnestly solicite him to Invade us and yet the Lords Spiritual do not only declare That they look on this Invasion to be sinful but that they never solicited his coming And it must be acknowledged That they could do no such thing without acting most contrary to their avowed Principles and contrary to most solemn Oaths and Declarations and Men should take heed how
all Offices of Trust and Advantage and placing others in their room that are known Papists deservedly made incapable by the Establish'd Laws of this Land. 3. By destroying the Charters of most Corporations in the Land. 4. By discouraging all Persons that are not Papists and preferring such as turn to Popery 5. By displacing all honest and consciencious Judges unless they would contrary to their Consciences declare that to be Law which was meerly Arbitrary 6. By branding all Men with the name of Rebels that but offered to justifie the Laws in a legal course against the Arbitrary Proceedings of the King or any of his corrupt Ministers 7. By burthening the Nation with an Army to maintain the Violation of the Rights of the Subjects and by discountenancing the Established Religion 9. By forbidding the Subjects the benefit of Petitioning and construing them Libellers so rendering the Laws a Nose of Wax to serve their Arbitrary ends And many more such-like too long here to enumerate We being thus made sadly sensible of the Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government that is by the influence of Jesuitical Councils coming upon us do unanimously declare That not being willing to deliver our Posterity over to such a condition of Popery and Slavery as the aforesaid oppressions do inevitably threaten we will to the utmost of our power oppose the same by joining with the Prince of Orange whom we hope God Almighty hath sent to rescue us from the Oppressions aforesaid will use our utmost endeavours for the recovery of our almost-ruin'd Laws Liberties and Religion and herein we hope all good Protestant Subjects will with their Lives and Fortunes be assistant to us and not be bug bear'd with the opprobrious Terms of Rebels by which they would fright us to become perfect Slaves to their Tyrannical Insolencies and Usurpations For we assure our selves that no rational and unbyass'd Person will judge it Rebellion to defend our Laws and Religion which all our Princes have Sworn at their Coronation which Oath how well it hath been observed of late we desire a Free Parliament may have the consideration of We own it Rebellion to resist a King that governs by Law but he was alwaies accounted a Tyrant that made his Will the Law and to resist such a one we justly esteem no Rebellion but a necessary Defence And in this Consideration we doubt not of all honest mens assistance and humbly hope for and implore the Great God's protection that turneth the Hearts of His People as pleaseth Him best it having been observed that People can never be of one mind without His Inspiration which hath in all Ages confirmed that Observation Vox Populi est vox Dei. The present Restoring the Charters and reversing the oppressing and unjust Judgment given on Magdalen-College Fellows is plain are but to still the People like Plumbs to Children by deceiving them for a while But if they shall by this Stratagem be fooled till this present Storm that threatens the Papists be past as soon as they shall be re-settled the former Oppression will be put on with greater vigour but we hope In vain is the Net spread in the sight of the Birds for First The Papists old Rule is that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks as they term Protestants tho the Popish Religion is the greatest Heresie And 2ly Queen Mary's so ill observing her Promises to the Suffolk men that help'd her to her Throne And above all 3ly the Pope's dispensing with the Breach of Oaths Treaties or Promises at his pleasure when it makes for the Service of Holy Church as they term it These we say are such convincing Reasons to hinder us from giving credit to the aforesaid Mock shews of Redress that we think our selves bound in Conscience to rest on no Security that shall not be approved by a freely-elected Parliament To whom under GOD we referr our Cause In the mean time the Nobility about the King having used all the Arguments they could invent to perswade him to call a Free Parliament and finding him unmoveably fixed in a contrary resolution and the Army in great discontent disorder and fear and the whole Nation just ready to take fire Prince George of Denmark the Duke of Grasion the Lord Churchil and many others of the Protestant Nobility left him and went over to the Prince of Orange who was then at Sherborn the Prince left this Letter for the King. SIR WIth an Heart full of Grief am I forced to write what Prudence will not permit me to say to your Face And may I e'er find Credit with Your Majesty and Protection from Heaven as what I now do is free from Passion Vanity or Design with which Actions of this Nature are too often accompanied I am not ignorant of the frequent Mischiefs wrought in the World by factious pretences of Religion but were not Religion the most justifiable Cause it would not be made the most specious pretence And your Majesty has alwaies shewn too uninterested a Sense of Religion to doubt the just effects of it in one whose practices have I hope never given the World cause to censure his real Conviction of it or his backwardness to perform what his Honour and Conscience prompt him to How then can I longer disguise my just Concern for that Religion in which I have been so happily educated which my Judgment throughly convinceth me to be the Best and for the Support of which I am so highly interested in my native Country and Is not England now by the most endearing Tye become so Whilst the restless Spirits of the Enemies of the REFORMED RELIGION back'd by the cruel Zeal and prevailing Power of France justly alarm and unite all the Protestant Princes of Christendom and engage them in so vast an Expence for the support of it Can I act so degenerous and mean a part as to deny my concurrence to such worthy Endeavours for the disabusing of your Majesty by the re-inforcement of those Laws and re-establishment of that Government on which alone depends the well being of your Majesty and of the Protestant Religion in Europe This Sir is that irresistable and only Cause that could come in competition with my Duty and Obligations to your Majesty and be able to tear me from you whilst the same affectionate desire of serving you continues in me Could I secure your person by the hazard of my Life I should think it could not be better imployed And wou'd to God these your distracted Kingdoms might yet receive that satisfactory compliance from your Majesty in all their justifiable pretensions as might upon the only sure Foundation that of the Love and Interest of your Subjects establish your Government and as strongly unite the Hearts of all your Subjects to you as is that of SIR Your Majesty's most humble and most obedient Son and Servant The Lord Churchil left a Letter to the same purpose which runs thus SIR SInce Men are seldom
Romish Priests who are in or about the same And if there be any thing more to be performed by Us for promoting his Highness's Generous Intentions for the Publick Good we shall be ready to do it as occasion requires Signed W. Cant. T. Ebor. Pembrook Dorset Mulgrave Thanet Carlisle Craven Ailesbury Burlington Sussex Berkeley Rochester Newport Weymouth P. Winchester W. Asaph F. Ely. Tho. Roffen Tho. Potriburg P. Wharton North and Grey Chandois Montague T. Jermyn Vaughan Carbery Culpeper Crowe Osulston Whereas His Majesty hath privately this Morning withdrawn himself we the Lords Spiritual and Temporal whose Names are hereunto Subscribed being assembled in Guild-Hall in London having agreed upon and Signed a Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster assembled at Guild-Hall the 11th of December 1688. do desire the Right Honourable the Earl of Pembrook the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Weymouth the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of Ely and the Right Honourable the Lord Culpeper forthwith to attend His Highness the Prince of Orange with the said Declaration and at the same time to acquaint His Highness with what we have further done at this Meeting Dated at Guild-Hall the 11th of December 1688. The same day the Lieutenancy of London Signed this following Address to the Prince of Orange at Guild-Hall and sent it by Sir Robert Clayton Knight Sir William Russel Sir Basil Firebrace Knights and Charles Duncomb Esquire May it please your Highness WE can never sufficiently express the deep Sense we have conceived and shall ever retain in our Hearts that your Highness has exposed your Person to so many Dangers by Sea and Land for the preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom without which unparallel'd Undertaking we must probably have suffered all the Miseries that Popery and Slavery could have brought upon us We have been greatly concerned that before this time we had not any seasonable opportunity to give your Highness and the World a real Testimony That it has been our firm Resolution to venture all that is dear to us to attain those Glorious Ends which your Highness has propos'd for restoring and settling these distracted Nations We therefore now unanimously present to your Highness our just and due acknowledgments for that happy relief you have brought to us and that we may not be wanting in this present Conjuncture we have put our selves into such a posture that by the Blessing of God we may be capable to prevent all ill Designs and to preserve this City in Peace and Safety till your Highness's happy Arrival We therefore humbly desire that your Highness will please to repair to this City with what convenient speed you can for the perfecting the Great Work which your Highness has so happily begun to the general joy and satisfaction of us all After his Highness had certain Intelligence that the King was gone back to London he came forward by easie Journeys and entered Salisbury on Tuesday the 4th of December The 5th the Earl of Oxford came thither to him The same day the Lord Herbert of Cherbury and Sir Edw. Harley and most of the Gentry of Worcestershire and Hereford shire met at Worcester and Declared for the Prince of Orange Ludlow Castle was also taken in for him by the Lord Herbert and Sir Walter Blunt and the Popish Sheriff of Worcester secured in it by that Peer The 7th of December his Highness came on to Hungerford the 8th the Lords sent by the King came thither to him and had the Dispatch I have mentioned and after Dinner he went to Lidcot The 14th his Highness entered Windsor about Two of the Clock in the Afternoon The King in his departure put himself aboard a small Yatch or Smack commanded by one Captain Sanders but was forced for shelter to take into East Swale the Eastern part of the Isle of Sheppy in order to the taking in Ballast where the Inhabitants of Feversham in Kent being out to take up Jesuits and other suspected Persons found this small Vessel and seized it on Wednesday the 12th of December there were then present with him Sir Edward Hales and Mr. Labady and none of them being known at first they were very ill treated by the Seamen and brought up to Feversham as suspicious Persons The King being come there and by that time known he lodged that night at the Mayor's House and sent for the Earl of Winchelsea the Lord Lieutenant of that County to come to him The Lord Feversham having received a Letter from the King the 11th of December disbanded Four Thousand Men which was all the Army was left at Vxbridge where their head Quarters then were as I have said The same day the Dutch Officers taken in the Fly-boat and till then Imprisoned in Newgate were Discharged The 12th of December the Lords Spiritual and Temporal fate in the Council-Chamber at Whitehall and it was absolutely necessary they should the noise of the King 's withdrawing having put the Rabble of London into such a Ferment as has scarce been seen That Night they demolished the Popish Convent and Chappel at St. John's which they had attempted before the King went away and had hardly been prevented from destroying it by the Death of three or four Persons the Convent and Chapel of Fryars in Lincolns Inn-Fields and the Popish Chapels in Lime-street and Bucklers-Berry and the Chapel at Wild-house which was the Residence of the Spanish Ambassador Out of the Materials of these Buildings they made great Piles and at Night fired them instead of Bon-fires and the number that ran together was incredible and very terrible not only to the Roman Catholicks but to all considering men who did reflect seriously on the nature of the Times and the rage of the People The same day therefore the Lords put out an Order for the discovery of the Goods taken from the Spanish Ambassador promising a good Reward and commanding all Books and Papers taken out of his Library to be brought to the Council-Chamber in Whitehall The same day the late Lord Chancellor Jeffreys was taken at Wapping in a disguise and sent to the Tower first by the Lord Mayor which after was confirm'd by the Peers and Privy Council The 13th an Account being brought that the King was taken at Feversham several of his Servants went down to him but I do not find the Peers or Council sate that day The 14th the Privy Council and Peers met again and made this Order WE the Peers of this Realm assembled with some of the Lords of the Privy-Council do hereby require all Irish Officers and Souldiers to repair forthwith to the respective Bodies to which they do or did lately belong and do hereby declare that behaving themselves peaceably they shall have Subsistence pay'd them till they shall be otherwise provided for or imployed And the said Officers and Souldiers are to deliver up
their Arms to some of the Officers of the Ordnance who are to deposite the same in the Stores in the Tower of London And we do require and command all Justices of the Peace Constables and other Officers whom it may concern that they apprehend and seize all such Souldiers as shall not repair to their respective Bodies and that they be dealt with as Vagabonds Given at the Council-Chamber at Whitehall the Fourteenth of December 1688. Tho. Ebor. Hallisax Dorset Carlisle Craven Nottingham Rochester N. Duresme P. Winchester North and Grey J. Trever J. Titus It was but time to put out this Order for on Thursday morning the 13th of December about Three of the Clock there was a dreadful Alarm that the Irish in a desperate Rage were approaching the City putting Men Women and Children to the Sword as they came along whereupon the Citizens all rose placing Lights in their Windows from top to bottom and guarded every man his own Doors with his Musquet charged with Bullet and all the Trainbands in the City were assembled and there was nothing but shooting and beating of Drums all night This Alarm spread it self the whole length and breadth of the Kingdom of England and all that were able to bear Arms appeared at their several places vowing the Defence of their Lives Religion Laws and Liberties and resolving to destroy all the Irish and Papists in England in case any injury were offered them but then there were very few Papists slain in these Tumults and Frights but their Houses were generally rifled on pretence of searching for Arms and Ammunition The Lords after this sent the Lords Feversham Ailes bury Yarmouth and Middleton most humbly to entreat the King to return to Whitchall and ordered his Guards to go down to him to see him safe on board any Ship he should chuse if he persisted in his Resolution to go out of the Nation With them went the Servants of his Houshold to carry him Money and Cloaths all he had of the former being taken from him by the Seamen and his Cloaths rent and torn in the searching of him before he was known as he had in part signified in a Letter to the Lord Feversham Now considering the whole Nation in a manner had submitted to the Prince of Orange before the King was heard of after he had withdrawn himself it had perhaps been but reasonable to have suspended the inviting him back to Whitchall till they had received his Consent or at least asked it or had called a greater Assembly of the Peers than that day met The 12th day the four Lords sent by the Peers with four Aldermen and eight of the Common Council of London parted to wait upon the Prince of Orange with the Declaration signed by the Body of the Peers the day before at Guildhall The 15th the King removed to Rochester in order to his Return to London and some of his Troops of Guard went down thither to him And the next day being Sunday he returned about Five in the Evening to Whitchall attended by one Troop of Grenadiers and three Troops of Life Guard a Set of Boys following him through the City and making some Huzza's whilst the rest of the People silently looked on His Highness the Prince of Orange who was then at Windsor had sent Monsieur Zulestein to the King to desire him to continue at Rochester but he missing him the King came to Whitehall and from thence sent the Lord Feversham with a Letter to the Prince to Windsor to invite him to St. James's with what number of Troops he should think fit to bring with him he could now do no otherwise his own Army having been disbanded by his own order all the Forts in England except Portsmouth being in the Prince's hands and London and almost all the Peers in his absence having sent their Submission and inviting him to come forthwith to Town to take upon him the Care of the City This Letter being by the Prince referred to the Peers that were then at Windsor they concluded that the shortness of the time could admit no better Expedient than that the King might be desired to remove to some place within a reasonable distance from London and Ham a House belonging to the Dutchess of Landerdale was pitched upon and a Note or Paper to that purpose drawn up which was ordered to be delivered after the Prince's Guards were in Possession of the Posts about Whitchall WE desire you the Lord Marquiss of Hallifax the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Lord Delamere to tell the King That it is thought convenient for the great quiet of the City and the greater safety of his Person that he do remove to Ham where he shall be attended by his Guards who will be ready to preserve him from any disturbance Given at Windsor the Seventeenth of December 1688. W. Prince de Orange Monsieur Zulestein followed the King to London and there delivered his Letter and the Sixteenth returned to Windsor The Earl of Feversham went the same day with the Letter to the Prince which was mentioned above and was by him committed to the Castle of Windsor The King so soon as ever he came to Whitehall issued out this Order of Councill At the Court at Whitehall the Sixteenth day of December 1688. Present The King 's most Excellent Majesty Duke Hamilton Earl of Craven Earl of Berkley Earl of Middleton Lord Viscount Preston Lord Godolphin Master of the Rolls Mr. Titus HIS Majesty being given to understand That divers Outrages and Disorders are committed in several Parts of the Kingdom by Burning Pulling-down and otherwise defacing Houses and other Buildings and Rifling and Plundering the same to the great terror of His Majesty's Subjects and manifest Breach of the Peace His Majesty in Council is pleased to Direct and Command all Lord Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants Justices of the Peace Mayors Constables and all other Officers whom it may concern to use their utmost endeavours for the preventing of such Outrages and Disorders for the future and for the suppressing all riotous and tumultous Meetings and Assemblies whatsoever William Bridgeman There having been sufficient care taken for this by the Council before it was not consistent with his Interest thus to shew his Zeal for the Popish Party in the very first Act he did upon his return as if he had come back only to serve them During the time the King stay'd at Whitehall it was crowded with Irishmen Priests Jesuits and Roman Catholicks afrer the old wont and it is said one of the Priests sent an imperious Message to the Earl of Mulgrave the Lord Chamberlain to furnish his Lodgings with new Furniture for he meant to continue in them And the King also as was said discharged Leiburn a Popish Bishop out of Newgate on Monday the Seventeenth of December So that all things were returning apparently into the old Chanel and we were to expect nothing but what we had already seen and felt and
of November That there should be a Free Parliament and to the Prince of Orange in his Message by the three Lords That he would consent to every thing that could reasonably be required for the Security of those that come to it and yet without any Provocation would burn the Writs and resolve to withdraw his Person before these Lords could possibly return him any Answer for he promised the Queen to follow her who went away the day before him I say this breach of his Word so solemnly made and given both to the Nation and the Prince shew that he was not Master of himself but turned about by others whither they pleased Now suppose the Prince had suffered him to continue at Whitehall and to call a Third Parliament what assurance could he have given that in the end of another forty days we should not have the same trick play'd us and then in March or April have been left in the same state of Confusion we were in in December to the certain ruine of these three Kingdoms and Holland into the bargain And when all had been done the Scruples would have been the same they are now the Obligations of the Oath of Allegiance the same and the sin of Deposing a Lawful Prince who resolved to do the Nation no Right would have been much greater and more scandalous than barely to take him at his Word and since he had left the Throne empty when he needed not to resolve he should ascend it no more Lastly Suppose the Prince had been Expelled by the King Would the King have then granted us what he would not grant us now Would he not have Disbanded his Protestant Army and have kept the Irish Forces in Pay and have every day encreased them What Respect would he ever after this have shewn to the English Laws Religion or Liberties when he had had no longer any thing to fear The memory of what happened after the Monmouth defeat though effected only by Church of England Men will certainly never be forgotten by others whatever these Bigots of Loyalty may pretend or say That Expression of the Lord Churchill's in his Letter That he could no longer joyn with Self-interested Men who had framed Designs against His Majesty's true Interest and the Protestant Religion to give a pretence by Conquest to bring them to effect ought to be seriously considered by all the Protestants of the Nation This one Argument prevailed upon him when he ran the hazard of his Life Reputation and Fortunes and now they are all on the other side I should consider very seriously if I were one of them what Answer I could make to this turned into a Question in the Day of Death and Judgment before ever I should act the direct contrary to what he has done For my part I am amazed to see Men scruple the submitting to the present King for if ever Man had a just cause of War he had and that creates a Right to the thing gained by it the King by withdrawing and disbanding his-Army yielded him the Throne and if he had without any more Ceremony ascended it he had done no more than all other Princes do on the like occasions and when the King after this was taken and brought back by force he was no longer then bound to consider him as one that was but as one that had been King of England and in that capacity he treated him with great Respect and Civility how much soever the King complained of it who did not enough consider what he had done to draw upon himself that usage But when all is said that can be said there may possibly be some Men to whom may be applied the Saying of Job Thou lovest thine enemies and hatest thy friends for thou hast declared this day that thou regardest neither princes nor servants for this day I perceive that if Absolons had lived and all we had died this day then it had pleased thee well Had the Protestant Religion the English Liberties the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation been all made an Holocaust to their Reputations and Humours their Scruples and School-niceties and the Prince of Orange perished or returned Ruin'd or Inglorious into Holland we should then have had the Honour of cutting up our Religion our Laws and our Civil Rights with our own Swords and we should have been the only Church under Heaven that had refused a Deliverance and Religiously and Loyally had Destroyed it self In truth the Men that would have purchased Popery and Slavery so dear ought to have enjoyed both to the End of the World. PART the SECOND A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE METHODS Used for the RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF OUR GOVERNMENT WITH REFLECTIONS ON A Pamphlet stiled The Dissertion Discussed In a Letter to a Country Gentleman THE Prince of Orange being thus received in London the 18th of December The Common Council of that City the same day assembled and passed an Order that all the Aldermen and their several Deputies and two Common Council men for each Ward should wait upon and congratulate his Highness the Prince of Orange upon his Happy Arrival to the City at such time and place as His Highness should appoint and that the two Sheriffs and Mr. Common Serjeant should wait upon the Prnice to know his Pleasure when they should attend him which was done the day after his Entry at St. James's who appointed them the next day The Committee of the Common Council came accordingly the 20th of December and Sir George Treby their Recorder made him this Speech in their Names May it please your Highness THe Lord Mayor being disabled by Sickness your Highness is attended by the Aldermen and Commons of the Capital City of this Kingdom Deputed to Congratulate Your Highness upon this Great and Glorious Occasion In which Labouring for Words we cannot but come short in Expression Reviewing our late Danger we remember our Church and State overrun by Popery and Arbitrary Power and brought to the point of Destruction by the Conduct of Men that were our true Invaders that brake the Sacred Fences of our Laws and which was worst the very Constitution of our Legislature So that there was no Remedy left but the Last The only Person under Heaven that could apply this Remedy was Your Highness You are of a Nation whose Alliance in all times has been agreeable and prosperous to us You are of a Family most Illustrious Benefactors to Mankind to have the Title of a Soveraign Prince Stadt-holder and to have worn the Imperial Crown are amongst their lesser Dignities They have long enjoyed a Dignity singular and transcendent viz. To be the Champions of Almighty God sent forth in several Ages to vindicate his Cause against the greatest Oppressions To this Divine Commission our Nobles our Gentry and among them our brave English Soldiers rendred themselves and their Arms upon Your Appearing GREAT SIR WHen we look back to the last Month and contemplate the Swiftness and
Fulness of Our Present Deliverance astonished we think it Miraculous Your Highness led by the Hand of Heaven and call'd by the Voice of the People has preserved our dearest Interests The Protestant Religion which is Primitive Christianity Restored Our Laws which are our Ancient Title to our Lives Liberties and Estates and without which this World were a Wilderness But what Retribution can we make to Your Highness Our Thoughts are full charged with Gratitude Your Highness has a lasting Monument in the Hearts in the Prayers in the Praises of all good men amongst us And Late Posterity will Celebrate Your ever Glorious Name till time shall be no more The first care of his Highness was the English Army for which he made this Order Whereas upon the late Irregular Disbanding of the Forces divers Souldiers carried away the Arms belonging to their respective Regiments and have since lost or imbezilled the same We do hereby direct and require all Persons to whose hands the said Arms or any of them are come or with whom they now remain forthwith to deliver them to the said Souldiers or their Officers upon Demand and in default thereof forthwith to bring them to the Officers of the Ordnance now attending at Uxbridge Hounslow or the Tower of London in order to the returning the said Arms into the Stores of the Ordnance Given at St. James's the 21 of December 1688. His next care was the appointing Quarters for the several English Scots and Irish Regiments and the ordering them accordingly to repair to the places therein named The same Day was also a great Council of the Nobility about Sixty of the Peers then Meeting at St. James's who all except two Subscribed a Paper in the nature of an Association After which His Highness thus expressed himself My Lords I Have desired you to meet here to advise the best manner how to pursue the Ends of My Declaration in Calling a Free Parliament for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and restoring the Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom and settling the same that they may not be in danger of being again Subverted Upon which it was resolved That the said Proposals should be further Debated the next Day in the House of Peers at Westminster And Sir John Maynard Mr. Holt Mr. Polexfen Mr. Bradford and Mr. Atkinson five Counsellors at Law were odered to attend them for their Advice The 22. the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled at Westminster in the House of Lords and appointed Francis Gwin Esq to Sign such Orders as should be from time to time by them made which was thus signed by Tho. Ebor. Northfolk Somerset Grafton Ormond Beauford Northumberland Hallifax Oxford Kent Bedford Pembrooke Dorset Devonshire Bullingbrook Manchester Rivers Stamford Thanet Scarsdale Clarendon Burlington Sussex Maclesfield Radnor Berkeley Nottingham Rochester Fauconberg Mordant Newport Weymouth Hatton W. Asaph F. Ely. La Ware. R. Eure. P. Wharton Paget North and Grey Chandos Montague Grey Maynard T. Jermyn Vaughan Carbery T. Culpeper Lucas Delamer Crew Lumley Carteret Osulston These Peers thus Assembled the 25th day of December Signed and Presented to His Highness this Address WE the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled in this Conjuncture do desire Your Highness to take upon You the Administration of Publick Affairs both Civil and Military and the Disposal of the Publick Revenue for the Preservation of our Religion Rights Laws Liberties and Properties and of the Peace of the Nation And that Your Highness will take into Your particular Care the present Condition of Ireland and endeavour by the most speedy and effectual means to prevent the Dangers Threatning that Kingdom All which we make our Requests to Your Highness to undertake and exercise till the meeting of the intended Convention the 22d Day of January next in which we doubt not such proper Methods will be taken as will conduce to the Establishment of these things upon such sure and legal Foundations that they may not be in Danger of being again Subverted Dated at the House of Lords Westminster the 25th of December 1688. WE the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled at Westminster in this Extraordinary Conjuncture do Humbly desire Your Highness to Cause Letters to be Written Subscribed by Your Self to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being Protestants and to the several Counties Universities Cities and Burroughs Cinque Ports of England Wales and Town of Berwick upon Tweed The Letters for the Counties to be directed to the Coroners of the Respective Counties or any one of them and in default of the Coroners to the Clerk of the Peace of the Respective Counties And the Letters for the Universities to be directed to the respective Vice Chancellors and the Letters to the several Cities Burroughs and Cinque Ports to be directed to the Chief Magistrates of each Respective City Burrough and Cinque Port containing Directions for the choosing in all such Counties Cities Buroughs and Cinque Ports within ten days after the receipt of the said Respective Letters such a Number of Persons to represent them as are of Right to be sent to Parliament of which Elections and the times and places thereof the Respective Officers shall give notice within the space of five days at the least Notice of the intended Elections for the Counties to be Published in the Churches immediately after the time of Divine Service and in all Market Towns within the Respective Counties and Notice of the intended Elections for the Cities Universities Burroughs and Cinque Ports to be Published within the Respective Places The said Letters and the Execution hereof to be returned by such Officer or Officers who shall Execute the same to the Clerk of the Crown in the Court of Chancery so as the Persons so to be chosen may meet and sit at Westminster on the 22d day of January next Dated at the House of Lords Westminster December the 25th 1688. Both which were Signed by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal then Assembled and presented to His Highness the Prince of Orange the same day at St. James's The 28th of December the Prince of Orange returned this Answer to the Peers then Assembled at St. James's My Lords I Have considered of your Advice and as far as I am able I will endeavour to Secure the Peace of the Nation until the Meeting of the Convention in January next for the Election whereof I will forthwith Issue out Letters according to your desire I will also take care to apply the Publick Revenue to the most proper uses that the present Affairs require and likewise endeavour to put Ireland into such a condition as that the Protestant Religion may be maintained in that Kingdom And I assure you that as I came hither for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of these Kingdoms so I shall always be ready to expose my self to any Hazard for the Defence of the same The 26th The Knights Citizens and Burgesses who had served in
any of the Parliaments in the time of His late Majesty Charles II. As also the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Fifty of the Common Council of the City of Lrndon being desired by His Highness to attend Him this day One hundred and Sixty Members and the rest came call but the Mayor who was sick to St. James's and were by Him acquainted with the State of things and desired to repair to the Commons House at Westminster where they chose Mr. Powle for their Speaker then sending to know what the Peers had done the Addresses as above recited were delivered to them with which they concurred And the 27th they also presented them to the Prince to whom He gave the same Answer he had given to the Lords the 28th in the Afternoon The 30th His Highness put out the usual Proclamation for the continuance of the Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and other Officers and Ministers not being Papists to act in their Respective places till the Meeting of the Convention or other Order to the contrary Excepting also all such Offices or Places where since His Arrival in this Kingdom he had already or should hereafter otherwise provide month January The 2d of January He put out a Declaration for the better Collecting the Publick Revenue which I need not transcribe The 5th of January His Highness put out this following Order FOR the better Preventing Disorders that may happen in any Burrough Corporation or other place of Election of Members for the intended Convention by any Souldiers Quartered in those places And that such Elections may be carried on with the greater Freedom and without any colour of Force or Restraint We do hereby strictly charge and require all Collonels and Officers in chief with any Regiment Troop or Company to cause such Reigments Troops or Companies to march out of the Qaurters where such Election shall be made the several Garrisons only Excepted the day before the same be made to the next Adjoyning Town or Towns being not appointed for any Election and not to return to their first Quarters until the said Respective Elections be made and fully compleated wherein they are not to fail as they will answer the contrary at their peril The Scotch Nobility and Gentry in or about London were also by His Highness's Order Summoned to St. James's where they met the 7th of January at Three in the Afternoon to whom the Prince made this Speech My Lords and Gentlemen THE only reason that induced me to undergo so great an Undertaking was That I saw the Laws and Liberties of these Kingdoms overturned and the Protestant Religion in eminent Danger And seeing you are here so many Noblemen and Gentlemen I have called you together that I may have your Advice what is to be done for the securing the Protestant Religon and Restoring Your Laws and Liberties according to my Declaration Then they withdrew to the Council Chamber at Whitehall and chose the Duke of Hamilton their President And after some Debates Agreed the heads of a Paper which they ordered to be drawn The 8th they met again and the Paper was Read and Approved and ordered to be Ingrossed The Earl of Arran proposed in this second Meeting That it was his Advice that the Prince of Orange should be moved to desire the King to return and call a Free Parliament for the securing our Religion and Property according to the known Laws of the Kingdom which said he in my humble opinion is the best way to heal all our Breaches which was Disgusted by all and seconded by none of them The 9th They met again and Signed the Paper which was in these Words WE the Lords and Gentlemen of the Kingdom of Scotland Assembled at Your Highness's desire in this Extraordinary Conjunction do give Your Highness our humble and hearty thanks for Your Pious and Generous Undertaking for preserving of the Protestant Religion and Restoring the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom In Order to the attaining of these Ends Our humble Advice and Desire is That Your Highness take upon You the Administration of All Affairs both Civil and Military The disposal of the Publick Revenues and Fortresses of the Kingdom of Scotland and the doing of every thing that is necessary for the preservation of the Peace of the Kingdom until a General Meeting of the States of the Nation which we humbly desire Your Highness to call to be holden at Edinburgh the 14th day of March next by Your Letter or Proclamation to be Published at the Market Crosses of Edinburgh and other Head Burroughs of the several Shires and Stewartries as sufficient intimation to all concerned according to the Custom of the Kingdom And that the Publication of these Your Letters or Proclamation be by the Sheriff or Stewart-Clerks for the Free-Holders who have the value of Lands holden according to Law for making Elections and by the Town Clerks of the several Burroughs for the Meeting of the whole Burgesses of the Respective Royal Buroughs to make their Elections at least Fifteen days before the Meeting of the Estates at Edinburgh and the Respective Clerks to make intimation thereof at the least ten days before the Meetings for Election And that the whole Electors and Members of the said Meeting at Edinburgh qualified as above expressed be Protestants without any other Exception or Limitation whatsoever To deliberate and resolve what is to be done for securing the Protestant Religion and restoring the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom according to Your Highness's Declaration Dated the 10th day of January 1689. at the Council Chamber at White-Hall It was Signed by about Thirty Lords and Eighty Gentlemen and was presented in their presence at St. James's by the Duke of Hamilton their President The 14th His Highness met the Scotch Lords and Gentlemen in the same place again and spake to them as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen IN pursuance of Your Advice I will until the Meeting of the Estates in March next give such Orders concerning the Affairs of Scotland as are necessary for the calling of the said Meeting for the preservation of the Peace the applying of the Publick Revenue to the most pressing uses and puting the Fortresses in the hands of Persons in whom the Nation can have a just confidence And I do further assure you that you will always find me ready to concur with you in every thing that may be found necessary for securing the Protestant Religion and restoring the Laws and Liberties of the Nation The Earls of Crawford and Louthain being present in this last Meeting but coming up to London after the former desired they might Sign the said Address and they accordingly did so The 8th day January His Highness put out a Declaration against quartering Soldiers on private Houses And that all Houses should be deemed Private Houses except Victualling Houses and Houses of Publick Entertainment or such as sell Wine or any other Liquor by Retail In all which Houses We do think
fit That all Officers and Souldiers be Lodged by the Direction and Appointment of the Magistrates Justices of the Peace or Constables of the place where such Forces shall come and not otherwise And we do hereby strictly forbid all Officers and Souldiers upon any pretence whatsoever to take up any Quarters for themselves or others without such Direction or Appointment upon pain of being Casheired or suffering such other punishment as the offence shall deserve The Prince found the Treasury very empty of Money the Cash in it being said to be but 40000 l. Whereupon he desired the City of London to advance a Sum for His present Occasions and the 10th of January they agreed to lend 100000 l. but it being raised by Subscriptions it amounted to above 150000 l. The 16th of January the Prince put out a Declaration to assure the Mariners and Seamen of their Pay and suppress the false reports had been spread to the contrary by the Discontented Party The Elections of the Members for the Convention in the mean time went on with the greatest Liberty that could possibly be conceived every man giving his Vote for whom he pleased without the least Solicitation from the Prince or any of his there had been Writs before this twice for a Parliament in a few Months and almost every place had before this fixed their Members so that the difference was not great between the Men that were and those that would have been chosen if the King had suffered the first or second Parliament he called to have met and this gives the truest Idea that can be desired of the temper of the Nation and what would have been the event if either of those Parliaments had sate The two Houses met the 22d of January and the Upper House there being no Lord Chancellor chose the Marquess of Hallifax for their Speaker and the Commons chose Henry Powle Esq after which a Letter was read in both Houses from His Highness the Prince of Orange on the Occasion of their Meeting which was as followeth My Lords I Have endeavoured to the utmost of my power to perform what was desired from me in order to the publick peace and safety and I do not know that any thing hath been omitted which might tend to the preservation of them since the Administration of Affairs was put into my hands It now lieth upon you to lay the foundations of a firm security for your Religion your Laws and your Liberties I do not doubt but that by such a full and free Representative of the Nation as is now met the Ends of my Declaration will be attained And since it hath pleased God hitherto to bless my good intentions with so great success I trust in him that he will compleat his own work by sending a spirit of Peace and Union to influence your Counsels that no interruption may be given to an happy and lasting Settlement The dangerous condition of the Protestants in Ireland requiring a large and speedy succour and the present state of things abroad oblige me to tell you that next to the danger of Unseasonable Divisions amongst our selves nothing can be so fatal as too great delay in your Consultations The States by whom I have been enabled to rescue this Nation may suddenly feel the ill effects of it both by being too long deprived of the service of their Troops which are now here and of your early assistance against a powerful enemy who hath declared a War against them And as England is by Treaty already engaged to help them upon such Exigencies so I am confident that their chearful concurrence to preserve this Kingdom with so much hazard to themselves will meet with all the Returns of Friendship and assistance which may be expected from you as Protestants and Englishmen whenever their condition shall require it Given at St. James's the 22d day of January 1688. To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled at Westminster Will. H. P. d' Orange The first thing the Houses took care of was by mutual consent to draw up and present the following Address The Address of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster in this present Convention to his Highness the Prince of Orange Die Martis 22º Januarii 1688. WE the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled at Westminster being highly sensible of the Great Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that our Preservation is next under God owing to your Highness do return our most humble thanks and acknowledgments to your Highness as the Glorious Instrument of so great a Blessing We do further acknowledg the great care your Highness has been pleased to take in the Administration of the Publick Affairs of the Kingdom to this time and we do most humbly desire your Highness that you will take upon you the Administration of Publick Affairs both Civil and Military and the Disposal of the Publick Revenue for the Preservation of our Religion Rights Laws Liberties and Properties and of the Peace of the Nation And that your Highness will take into your particular care the present state of Ireland and endeavour by the most speedy and effectual means to prevent the Dangers threatning that Kingdom All which we make our Request to your Highness to undertake and exercise till further Application shall be made by us which shall be expedited with all convenient speed and we shall also use our utmost endeavours to give dispatch to the matters recommended to as by your Highness's Letter To this Address thus presented by both Houses at St. James's the Prince of Orange made this Reply the same day My Lords and Gentlemen I Am glad that what I have done hath pleased you And since you desire me to continue the Administration of Affairs I am willing to accept it I must recommend to you the consideration of Affairs abroad which maketh it fit for you to expedite your business not only for making a Settlement at home upon a good foundation but for the safety of all Europe The Houses also ordered that Thursday the 21th of January Instant be appointed for a day of Publick Thanksgiving to Almighty God in the Cities of London and Westminster and ten miles distance for having made his Highness the Prince of Orange the Glorious Instrument of the Great Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that Thursday the 14th of February next be appointed for a Publick Thanksgiving throughout the whole Kingdom for the same The 23d of January the Lords passed this Order Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Assembled at Westminster That no Papist or Reputed Papist do presume to come into the Lobby Painted Chamber Court of Requests or Westminster-Hall during the sitting of this Convention And it is further Ordered That this Order be Printed and Published and set upon the Doors of the said Rooms The 28th of January the Commons passed this Vote Resolved That King James the
enroll'd in Parliament and Chancery which is as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen THis is certainly the Greatest Proof of the Trust you have in us that can be given which is the thing that maketh us value it the more and we thankfully accept what you have offered And as I had no other intention in my coming hither than to Preserve Your Religion Laws and Liberties So you may be sure that I shall endeavour to Support them and shall be willing to concur in any thing that shall be for the Good of the Kingdom and to do all that is in my Power to Advance the Wellfare and Glory of the Nation Thus ended that Stupendious Revolution in England which we have so lately seen to the great Joy of the Generality of the Protestants of Europe and of many of the Catholick Princes and States who were at last convinced that the attempting to force England to return under the Obedience of the See of Rome in the present conjuncture of Affairs would certainly end in the ruine of this potent Kingdom and whilest it was doing the present French King would possess himself of the remainder of the Spanish Netherlands and the Palatinate and perhaps of the Electorates of Cologne Ments and Triers a great part of which he hath actually seized whilest the Prince of Orange was thus Gloriously asserting the English Liberty The true reasons of the Swiftness of this Change may easily be assigned by shewing the temper and designs of James the II. The Temper of William the III. our Present Soveraign and The Nature of the English Nation and of the times all concurring with Wonderful Harmony to produce this wonderful effect For had James the II. undertook any thing but the subjecting England to Popery and the Exercise of an Arbitrary Power to that end his vast Revenue and personal Valour and the Reputation he had gained at home and abroad by the defeat of the Monmouth Invasion would have gone near to have effected it and after all this if he had in the beginning of October frankly granted all the Ten Proposals made by the Bishops and suffered a Parliament to have met and given up a confiderable number of his Ministers to Justice and suffered the pretended Prince of Wales his Birth to be freely debated and determin'd in Parliament It would in all probability have prevented or defeated the then intended Invasion But whilest he thought to save the Pretended Succession the Dispensing and Suspending power and the Ecclesiastical Commission to carry on his former design with when he had baffl'd the Prince of Orange the Nation saw through the project and he lost all Had a Prince of less secrecy prudence courage and interest than the Prince of Orange undertaken this business it might probably have miscarried but as his cause was better so his reputation conduct and patience infinitely exceeded theirs he would not stir till he saw the French Forces set down before Philipsbourg and then he was sure France and Germany were irrevocably ingaged in a War and consequently he should have no other opposition than what the Irish and English Roman Catholicks could make against him For no English Protestant would fight his Country into Vassalage and Slavery to Popish Priests and Italian Women when a Parliament sooner or later must at last have determin'd all the things in Controversie except we resolved once for all to give up our Religion Laws Liberties and Estates to the will of our King and submit for ever to a French Government A Nation of less sense than the English might have been imposed upon of less bravery and valour might have been frighted of a more servile temper might have neglected its Liberties till it had been too late to have ever recovered them again But none but a parcel of Jesuits bred in a Cloister and unacquainted with our temper as well as Constitution would ever have hoped to have carried two such things as Popery and Arbitrary power both at once upon so jealous a Nation as the English is which hates them above any other people in the World. The cruel slaughter they had made of the poor wretches they took after the defeat at Bridgwater ought to have made them for ever despair of gaining any credit with the Dissenters who rarely forgive but never forget any ill treatment Yet these little Politico's had so little sense as to build all their hopes on the Gratitude and Insensibility of these men as if they should for Liberty of Conscience arbitrarily and illegally granted and consequently revocable at the will of the Granter have sold themselves to everlasting slavery They were equally mistaken in their carriage towards the Church of England party for when some of them had pursued both Clergy and Laity with the utmost obloquy hatred oppression and contempt to the very moment they found the Dutch storm would fall upon them Then all at once they passed to the other extream the Bishops are presently sent for the Government intirely to be put into their hands and all places Presses and Papers fill'd with the Encomiums of the Church of England's Loyalty and Fidelity who but three days before were Male-contents if not Rebels and Traytors for opposing the Kings Dispensing power and the Ecclesiastical Commission And which was the height of folly the same Pen which had been hired to defame and blacken the Church of England the Author of the Publick Occurrences truly stated was ordered to magnifie its Loyalty By which they gained nothing but the intire and absolute disobliging the whole Protestant party in the Nation so that for the future no body would serve or trust them To compleat their folly and madness they perswaded the King to throw up the Government and retire into France pretending we would never be able to agree amongst our selves but would in a short time be forced to recal him and yield to all those things we had so violently opposed or if not he might yet at least force us to submit by the succours he might gain in France without ever considering how possible it was we might agree and how difficult it would be to force us by a French Army which was equally contrary to the Interest of England and all Europe besides and to all intents and purposes destructive of the Interest of that Prince they pretended thus to exalt and re-establish Had France been now in Peace there might yet have been some colour for this but when all Europe was under a necessity to unite against him for its own preservation then to perswade the King of Great Britain to desert his Throne and fly thither for succour upon hopes of recovering his Kingdoms again by the assistance of the French the mortal and hereditary enemies of the English this was so silly a project that there seems to have been something of a Divine Infatuation in it However certainly no rational man will think that all the Princes of Europe would sit still and
After this Edward the Fourth returned into England and pretending to lay aside all Claim to the Crown and only to seek the recovery of his Lands which belonged to him as Duke of York which he confirmed to the men of York by his Oath being thus received in the North he won over his Brother Clarence and hasted to London and there he took poor King Henry his Prisoner again and in a Battel slew the Earl of Warwick who came to rescue King Henry and in another Battel defeated Margaret the Wife of Henry the Sixth took and in cold blood murdered Prince Edward the Eldest Son of Henry the Sixth and not long after Henry the Sixth himself Now what saith our Letter-man to all this If it had been a known Law of England that a Prince had Ipso facto forfeited his Crown by going beyond Sea without leaving a Deputation tho his departure should happen to be involuntary it would have been a great Advantage to Henry the Sixth Yes doubtless his departure did facilitate the Recrowning of Henry the Sixth for he was not so well beloved as Edward the Fourth was and it is apparent the Nation swore Allegiance to Henry the Sixth de novo for that very cause for no body then questioned but that Edward's was the better Title and the Crown was Entailed to Henry and his Heirs Male and for want of such Issue to George Duke of Clarence and his Heirs and when Edward the Fourth after this came up to London every body forsook Henry the Sixth and he was retaken and imprisoned without any resistance Now after two Victories what wonder was it if Edward the Fourth exercised all Acts of Soveraignty and Tyranny too before the calling of a Parliament and in it restored all his own party and attainted King Henry's He might as well have proved it lawful to stab and murder Kings and Princes and to swear and forswear from the same story His next Instance is the flight of Charles the second from Worcester fight which was nothing to the purpose neither for that Prince had done nothing to forfeit his right and was ready to have done any thing to assure his subjects of theirs But James the Second had as is confessed on all hands violated the rights of his Subjects above any Prince that ever swayed this Scepter and would rather throw up the Government than suffer a Parliament to meet to redress their Grievances and this was the only reason why he as our Author saith Had fewer friends to stand by him than his Brother had after the unfortunate Battel of Worcester in 1651. The true Fountain of the Law that is to Determin this difficult and rare Case is our Fundamental Constitution and the General Laws and Practise of other Nations in the like or simular Instances And as there is an Analogy of Faith in Theology so there is an Analogy here too for those who are sufficiently Qualified to judge by but then they must be no young smatterers in Law History or State Politicks Nor was this Question determin'd by such but by the whole three Estates upon Reasons altogether unknown perhaps to this Gentleman but which may be sufficient to satisfie all the Princes in Christendom when they shall be laid before them In the mean time the Judgment of the States is conclusive to us and tho' we know not all the Reasons they might have yet we now know enough to acquiess and be satisfied But then this has been so very well laid down and pursued by the Author of the Case of Allegiance in our present Circumstances considered in a Letter from a Minister in the City to a Minister in the Country that I will rather refer my Reader to that Book than transcribe it to no purpose In the 29. Sect. He tells us the last refuge of the Case of Dereliction are the Laws of Nature but a very little storming will serve to drive it from this last Retrenchment Bold and like an Hero considering whom he engageth with For saith he the Law of Nature is nothing but the reason of the thing very true Now Impartial reason has always a regard to the circumstances of Action and makes allowances for Surprize for streightness of time for resentment upon Extraordinary Provocation and never takes Advantage of an Omission which may be fairly Interpreted from any or all of these causes Now tho he saith the present case needs not any such allowances Yet I will be so fair as to give all these Advantages and put it upon this fair Issue 1. Was not the whole English constitution acknowledged by the Late King to be so much in his favour That he said in his First Speech to the Council I have been reported a Man for Arbitrary power but that is not the first Story that has been made of me And I shall make it my endevour to preserve this Government both in Church and State as it is now by Law Established I know the Principles of the Church of England are for Monarchy and the Members of it have shewed themselves good and Loyal Subjects Therefore I shall always take care to defend and Support it I know too that the Laws of England are Sufficient to make the King as Great a Monarch as I can wish and as I shall never Depart from the Just rights and prerogatives of the Crown So I shall never invade any Mans Property Yet after all this Look upon nine of the ten Proposals made by the the Bishops Look upon the Prince of Orange's Declaration Look upon the Declaration made by the Lords and Commons the 12th of February last past and you will soon be satisfied in how many instances he had violated the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom and Sought the Ruine and utter Subversion of this Loyal Monarchical Church of England This conduct Lasted to the very moment they knew the Dutch preparations were made against him After this what could be done or said that was omitted to obtain a Redress in Parliament Was there any other way to Secure us than that of a Parliament Was this granted before it became Impossible to hinder it And when all mens Eyes were upon this did he not then Deliberately resolve to defeat our Expectations and to withdraw and leave us in a State of Anarchy and Confusion Here was no Surprize streightness of time no just resentment except he were angry that we could not contribute to our own Ruin and enslaving that we would not cut up our Laws Liberties and Religion with our Swords and Sacrifice our Deliverers to our Oppressors Nor were these violations only personal Injuries but they extended to the whole Church and Kingdom and to the whole Constitution and every branch of it nor were they such as would have ended with his Late Majesties life but were to have been intailed upon us and our posterity for ever for the Queen might have brought forth every year at that rate the Pretended Prince of Wales
his birth is proved We have saith he an excellent Church and we do well to take due care to continue its Establishment but to dispossess our Prince upon this score has as little Divinity as Law in it I may answer this in the words of the Apostle But if the unbelieving depart let him depart A Brother or a Sister is not under bondage in such a case but God hath called us to Peace 1. Cor. 7. 15. We did not dispossess our Prince but he deserted us because we would not give up the Legal Establishment of our Church and our Civil Liberties to boot To endeavour to Preserve our Religion by such methods will make it more fatal to us in the Event than Atheism it self That is it were better to renounce the whole Apostles Creed and every article of it than to endeavour to preserve our Religion by a defection from a Persecuting Prince In truth this is Loyalty with a Vengeance 'T is a mistake to think the World was made for none but Protestants and if Dominion was founded in Grace I am afraid our share would not be great in the Division As to the first of these it is a silly insinuation and concludes nothing For tho it be true the world was not made for any one fort of men yet I may assert that part of it which is fallen to my Lot against the Invasion of the Jesuits and Roman Catholicks who pretend that the whole world ought to be Subject to the Vicar of Jesus Christ St. Peter's Successor and upon that Score will suffer no body to Live in Peace by them who will not be Subject to that old Gentleman and his Emissaries And if Dominion were founded in grace we of the Protestant Religion should be able to maintain our possession of what we have against any Religion that should pretend to out us if we were to be tried by any other Christian Judge but the Infallible Gentleman at Rome When I first read these two passages I concluded the piece was written by a R. C. but some of our own Brethren can sometimes speak as ill things of us as the worst of our Enemies so violent are the transports of a Friend when throughly insensed If it be objected that his Majesty not sending to his People upon his removal is an Argument that he intended to Govern them no Longer First He Answers that the objecter doth not believe it In truth if any body did ever think or say that he was weary of Reigning or quitted England with a design to trouble himself no more about it he must be very Ignorant of the temper of the Late King and of the managment of affairs in the Last Scene of his Government We were not so happy he was resolved to be our Master when he was most resolutely bent not to do us that Justice which we had so much right to his going to France Added to that Expression in his Letter from Rochester Tho I have ventured my Life very frankly on several occasions for the Good and Honour of my Country and am as free to do it again and which I hope I shall yet do as old as I am to redeem it from the Slavery it is like to fall under Yet I think it not Convenient to Expose my self to be secured as not to be at Liberty to effect it and for that reason do withdraw my self These shew clearly he went away with a resolution to return and make a conquest of us and then we may conjecture at what rate we shall be redeemed from Slavery Secondly That his Majesty was scarcely Landed in France before the Administration was Conferred upon the Prince of Orange which Action might very well discourage his Majesty from sending any message so scon as he intended But since it is Known his Majesty has sent Letters to If not to the Privy Council as some affirm yet to the Convention There was in truth a Letter to the Privy Council Two to the Convention of England which I am informed were sealed up in Covers and never opened but there has since been a pretended copy of it printed and spread about the Town and another Letter has since that been sent to the Convention of Scotland and they all of them as far as is Known confirm his resolution of attacking England Thirdly They that were the occasion of his Majesties Departure should one would think have waited upon him and invited him back For without question the injuring person ought to make the first step towards an Accommodation Especially when wrong is done to a Prince Now whether his Majesty has been well used in this Revolution or not I leave to the World to Judge now but God will do it afterwards This Conclusion will serve me and him differently And therefore I shall add no more but this The Author of this Letter wrote it in an heat before things were well understood or at all Determin'd and therefore deserves much Compassion much that I have said in Answer to it was not known to him and I am perswaded he himself will now see and acknowledge too the weakness of many things which he then Advanced In short I design nothing by this Answer but the Service of their Majesties the Peace of England And the Preservation of our Religion our Laws and Ancient Government And could these have been preserved any otherways the Memory of his Late Majesty should have been still sacred to me notwithstanding his Mis-Government Whilest this Piece was preparing to the Press there was an Answer to his Paper printed in two sheets in Quarto wherein the Author has taken notice of some passages in this Letter which I thought fit to omit as not being of any moment as to the main question depending and therefore if the reader is not satisfied without so minute an Answer he may have recourse to that Paper FINIS N. S. October 30. 1688. ☞ ☜ The Bishop of Bath Wells * Dutch Design Anatomized p. 29. The Bishops Proposals are the contrivance of the King's Enemies framed of purpose to amuse the people as if till they be granted we are not safe ☞ ☜ ☜ ☞ ☞ N. S. Second Letter pag. 49. ☜ * The Means here hinted at was a Treaty with the Prince and the Nobility and Gentry who had Declared for him * They did so whilst the danger hung over our heads tho' now nothing less dreadful * This Modesty of the Expression is a Justification of the Sincerity and Civility of the Declarer †Nothing but a Free Parliament could re-establish our shattered Privileges and Liberties and therefore it was so stiffly denied ¶ True the Charters were taken away to secure the Succession and Monarchy then but now to ruine the English Liberty and Protestant Religion * Their Loyalty or rather Credulity had been too notoriously abus'd to be now again imposed on by this Argument So it fell on the Offerer and raised a just Indigration instead of Submission to a second Cheat. The Redresses granted had no certainty because the Dispersing Power was still defended the Bishop of London's Sentence remitted but not declared Illegal the Charters were restored but still subject to new Warranto's And as for the promised Parliament thoÌ„ it was after granted yet so dreadful it was that the abandoning the Throne was more eligible than the sight of that Assembly So all this Cant produced no good effect on the exasperated Minds of Mâ—n How the Bishops were uâ—ed on thâ—s score is set down in ' its proper place * These Gentlemen who now pretend to such extraordinary Loyalty should do well to consider this ☜ †It is said Prince George came back with the King to Andover and went away with the Duke of Ormond on Sunday night the 25th of Nov. from that place ☜ ☜ ☞ The Conclusion Declaration at Guild-Hall * The Administration of Affairs was in truth conferred on the 〈◊〉 Prince of Orange the very day the King left London by the Declaration made at Guild hal And all that followed till the 12th of February was but a confirming that first Act by after Acts.