you will take into your consideration this necessary addition of charge And after His Majesties conclusion of His Speech let me conclude nay let us all conclude with blessing God and the King Let us bless God that he hath given us such a King to be the Repairer of our Breaches both in Church and State and the restorer of our paths to dwell in That in the midst of War and Misery which rages in our Neighbour Countries our Garners are full and there is no complaining in our Streets And a Man can hardly know that there is a War Let us bless God that hath given this King signally the hearts of His People and most particularly of this Parliament who in their Affection and Loyalty to their Prince have exceeded all their Predecessors A Parliament with whom the King hath many years lived with all the Caresses of a happy Marriage Has the King had a concern You have wedded it Has His Majesty wanted Supplies You have readily chearfully and fully provided for them You have relied upon the Wisdom and Conduct of His Majesty in all His affairs so that you have never attempted to exceed your bounds or to impose upon Him whilest the King on the other hand hath made your Counsels the foundations of all His proceedings and hath been so tender of you that he hath upon His own Revenue and Credit endeavoured to support even Foreign Wars that he might be least uneasie to you or burdensom to His People And let me say that tho' this Marriage be according to Moses's Law where the Husband can give a Bill of Divorce put her away and take another Yet I can assure you it is as impossible for the King to part with this Parliament as it is for you to depart from that Loyalty Affection and Dutiful Beha viour you have hitherto shewed towards Him Let us bless the King for taking away all our Fears and leaving no room for Jealousies For those Assurances and Promises He hath made us Let us bless God and the King that our Religion is safe That the Church of England is the care of our Prince That Parliaments are safe That our Properties and Liberties are safe What more hath a good English man to ask but that this King may long Reign and that this Triple-Alliance of King Parliament and People may never be dissolved The King having about that time made Si Edward Turner Speaker of the House of Commons Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer the Lord Chancellor acquainted them therewith and recommended to them His Majesties Pleasure for their Electing a new Speaker in the following Speech My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons HIs Majesty hath commanded me to tell you That he hath many things to say to you but he thinks not this a proper time but will defer it till the House of Commons be compleated with a new Speaker For His Majesty hath since the last Session as a mark of His Favour to His House of Commons and that he might reward so good a Servant taken their late Speaker Sir Edward Turner to be Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and called him by Writ to be an Assistant to this House I am therefore commanded to acquaint you Gentlemen of the House of Commons That it is the Kings Pleasure you repair to your House and Elect a Discreet Wise and Learned man who after he hath been by you Presented and that Presentation by His Majesty admitted shall then possess the Office of your common Mouth and Speaker And the King is pleased to be here to Morrow in the Afternoon to receive the Presentment of him accordingly The Commons having Elected Sir Job Charlton to be their Speaker who being by them Presented to the King Addressed himself to His Majesty in the following words Most Gracious Sovereign THe Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons in Obedience to your Royal Command have proceeded to the Choice of a Speaker They have among them many worthy Persons eminently qualified for so great a Trust yet with too favourable an Eye have cast it upon me who am really conscious to my self of so many infirmities rendring me much unsit for so great an Imployment And although my endeavours of excusing my self before them have not been successful yet they have been so Indulgent as to permit me to continue my endeavours therein before Your Majesties most piercing and discerning Judgment The Veneration due to Majesty which lodgeth in every Loyal Breast makes it not an easie matter to speak before Your Majesty at any time or in any capacity But to speak before Your Majesty in Your Exaltation thus gloriously supported and attended and that as Speaker of Your House of Commons requires greater Abilities then I can pretend to own I am not also without fear That the Publick Affairs wherein Your Majesty and Your Kingdom in this Juncture of time are so highly concern'd may receive detriment through my weakness I therefore with a plain humble heart prostrate at Your Royal feet beseech That You will Command them to review what they have done and to proceed to another Election To which the Lord Chancellour made the following Answer Mr. Serjeant Charlton THe King hath very attentively heard your discreet and handsome Discourse whereby you endeavour to excuse and disable your self for the place of Speaker In answer whereof His Majesty hath commanded me to say to you That he doth in no sort admit of the same For his Majesty hath had long experience of your Abilities good Affection Integrity and Resolution in several employments of great Trust and Weight He knows you have been long a Parliament-man and therefore every way fitted and qualified for the Employment Besides he cannot disapprove the Election of this House of Commons especially where they have expressed so much Duty in choosing one Worthy and Acceptable to him And therefore the King doth allow of the Election and admits you for Speaker Sir Job Charlton seeing his excuse could not be admitted but that notwithstanding his Majesty had confirmed the Commons Choice by his Royal Approbation spake as follows Great SIR SInce it is Your Gracious Pleasure not to accept of my humble Excuse but by Your Royal Approbation to six me under this Great though Honourable Weight and to think me sit to be invested with a Trust of so high a nature as this is I take it in the first place to be incumbent upon me that I render Your Majesty all possible thanks which I now humbly do with a heart full of all Duty and affected with a deeper sense of Gratitude then I can find words to express Next from Your Royal Determination in this Affair whereby you have imprinted a new Character upon me I take courage against my own diffidence and chearfully bend my self with such strength and abilities as God shall give to the Service so graciously designed me no way doubting that Your Majesty
a company of Obscure Varlets Irish Bogtrotters Skip-kennels and Indigent Extravagants who having profusely wasted their own Fortunes would gladly imbrace any opportunity to repair them by the ruine of others and treated each other with no less than the assurances of vast and mighty Fortunes and being advanced to places of Profit and Honour And some of them in a bravary and to excite others to an imitation of them in their wicked Practices chinks their Guinneys and exposes their Golden Rewards affirming that so should be done to the Man who was beloved with other encouragements and invitations to perswade and allure them to come over and labour at the work of Transubstantiating the Plot. And indeed to such a heigth of Ambition and vain Glory they arrived over that they commonly discoursed of being advanced to Captains and Ensigns Places Deanries and Prebendaries and putting a mighty value upon themselves scorned to think of less than great Preferments and as much Mony as they would demand Not long after the Dissolution of the Oxford Parliament one Brian Hans came to his Lordships pretending to be some Gentleman of Quality and that he could make very considerable discoveries of the Popish Plot and the Murther of Sir Edmond bury Godfrey and desired his Lordship in order thereunto to procure him a blank Pardon being very unwilling as he pretended to have his Name known until he had his Pardon procured for him The Earl who was alwaies ready to serve His Majesty and the Protestant Interest and supposing that this could be no inconsiderable Peach of Service to discover the Murther of the aforesaid Knight more fully than had been hitherto done which must necessarily give a greater light into the Plot he endeavoured to get him one but it could not be obtained And not long after this pretended Gentleman of Quality dwindled into a mean and obscure Wretch and of a pretended Evidence of the real Popish Plot degenerated into a blustering Witness of a fictious Protestant one For being apprehended and carried before the Council instead of discovering any thing about the Death of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey he accused his Lordship and others of having endeavoured to suborn him to do it Whereupon Mr. Rouse a Gentleman who had been some time employed by Sir Thomas Player in paying off the Army which had been Disbanded not long before and Mr. College who had attended some of the Parliament Men to Oxford And Saturday July the 2d 1681. in the Morning his Lordship was apprehended by a Messenger by Vertue of a Warrant from the Council and his Papers all seized and carried to Whitehall where the King likewise arrived from Windsor about Ten of the Clock and then he was examined before His Majesty and the Council some of the Judges likewise were present His Lordship knowing himself clear of what was laid to his charge boldly affirmed and solemnly protested his Innocency adding as it was reported That were he Guilty of those Crimes whereof he was accused he was certainly a mad-Man and had thereby rendered himself more fit for Bedlam than the Tower whither upon the Sequel he was committed close Prisoner for High Treason and conveyed thither by Water in a Barge and the King returned the same day to Windsor And now the better to prepare peoples minds to believe what he was to be charged withal the Jesuites and Condemned Priests in Newgate and some other of the Popish Crew privately dispersed divers Hellish and Lying Pamphlets wherein they maliciously aspersed him with Conspiring Treason against His Majesty one whereof which was somewhat more impudent and mischievous than the rest and was called Articles against the Earl of Shaftsbury was dispensed with some privacy and caution The Articles were as follows I. That he had imagined to compass and procure the Death of the King the Subvertion of the Government and the known Laws of the Land by reducing this Antient Monarchy into a Republick II. That he used great endeavours to possess the People that His Majesty was a Papist and design'd to introduce Popery and Arbitrary Power and to that end had promoted several Seditious and Treasonable Libels against His Majesties Person and Government purposely to bring His Majesty into an odium and Contempt with His loving Subjects III. That He endeavoured to Levy War against the King both in England and Ireland and bring Blod-shed and Confuston upon His Majesties good People under pretence of prosecuting the Popish Blot and preserving the Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of the Subject as He and His Confederates have done in the late Rebellion IV. That he endeavoured to render the Church of England as Rediculous as Popery and Defam'd all His Majesties Officers both by Land and Sea and all others who out of a due senfe of Loyalty adhere to the Crown stiling them Tories Tantivies Masqueraders c. purposely to frighten them from their Duty and wean them from their Soveraign to adhere to Him and His Faction V. That He countenanc'd harbour'd and hired persons to Swear against the Queen and His Royal Highness VI. That He procured several Sums of Mony to be Raised ond Collected to carry on these most abominable Designs And to represent him as monstrously unnatural and bloody as themselves and render him hateful and detestable to all Men who would be so Brainless as to believe the silly and rediculous Shams the Articler adds in the close of his Libel this strange and improbable Rodemantado that when the Sergeant at Arms apprehended him he desired him to eat something before he appeared before the King and Council whereupon saies the Libeller his Lordship answered I have no Stomach to eat unless I could get a Roasted Irish-Man The Sessions of the Peace for London and Middlesex beginning on the Wednesday following he presented a Petition to the Court desiring to be brought to a speedy Tryal or else admitted to Bail Upon the 8th Stephen Colledge had an Indictment presented against him to the Grand Jury who were all of them substantial Men And after having heard all that could be said on both sides they returned an Ignoramus upon the Bill but being removed to Oxford and tryed there was found Guilty and was accordingly Condemned and Executed and a forged Paper presented and published by one Thompson a Printer and supposed to be Writ by some Jesuite who are alwaies so good at inventing of Shams called His last Speech wherein he was made to confess all that he was charged with although it afterwards appeared that he absolutely denied he was any way Guilty affirming his Innocency to the last Breath August 31st his Lordship presented another Petition to the Judges at the Sessions at the Old-Bayly desiring that he might be either Tried or Bailed pursuant to the Act of Habeas Corpus to which the Court returned answer That being charged with no Crime in that Court and being Prisoners in the Tower they could take no Cognizance of them but they
Patience under the Calumnies wherewith he was unjustly loaded His Charity Affability c. when it shall be conveyed by History to the knowledge of the following Ages it will procure him such a just and deserved Esteem that they will be ready to Adore him and wonder at our stupidity and make them with a disdaining abhorrence reflect upon our Folly in slighting such an inestimable Treasure This Great and Illustrious Peer was Nobly descended from the two Ancient Families of the Coopers and Ashleys being Son and Heir to Sir John Cooper of Rockburn in the County of Wilts by Ann his Wife Daughter and sole Heir to Sir Anthony Ashley of Wimborn St. Giles in the County of Dorset Knight and Baronet For which reason he was call'd Anthony Ashley Cooper thereby to bear up the name of his Mothers Family as well as his Fathers which would otherwise have been extinct He was Born in the Month of July Anno Dom. 1621. being the 19th year of the Raign of King James At his Baptism his Mother desir'd Sir Anthony Ashly to stand for Godfather which he willingly consented to and having no more Children but that Daughter named him Anthony Ashley for the aforesaid reason Great care was taken in the Education of this young branch of Honour who was to enjoy the Fountains and maintain the Honour and Name of two such Rich and Illustrious Families his Father being worth about Eight Thousand Pounds per Annum So that he was not raised from a mean Fortune as some of his Adversaries would maliciously perswade the World but born to a large one In his very Childhood his Activity quick Apprehension and ready Wit made an early discovery even at that tender Age of those extraordinary parts wherewith God and Nature had so liberally enriched his capacious Soul He had a natural inclination to Learning wherein he made such a surprising Progress that it was the wonder and amazement of all that knew him and his Father to encourage and improve those pregnant Parts wherewith this happy Youth was blest sent him to the University of Oxford and placed him in Trinity-Colledge under the eare of an Ingenious and Learned Tutor where neglecting all things that served only for idle and vain speculatitions and denying himself that Liberty which other Youths allowed themselves for Recreation he fell to those Studies that were more useful and necessary and tended to fit and prepare him for the serving his King and Country in any imployment or capacity whatsoever which he followed so hard and made such an unusual progress therein that it is almost incredible so that every one admired him and he was by all Men accounted the most prodigious Youth in the whole University And those who knew him began to believe that what had been predicted of him by a German Gentleman might in time prove true This Gentleman being a Protestant and Persecuted upon that account left Germany and fled to England for succour and falling by accident into the company of Sir John Cooper Sir John being an Hospitable Gentleman especially to those that were sufferers upon the account of the True Religion gave him an Invitation to his House which the Gentleman accepting went accordingly and was entertain'd by Sir John with abundance of Respect and Generosity for a considerable time The Gentleman was extreamly pleased with his Entertainment in general but was more especially delighted with that pleasant and 〈◊〉 Diversion which the extraordinary Parts of his young Son afforded him And would frequently after having entertained him with various difficult and intricate Discourses which required the most mature and profoundest Judgment to determine wherein he always found him so ready and expert that it exceeds all belief say to Sir John I can do no less than contemplate your Felicity in this Son and almost envy you the happiness He is certainly the Phoenix of his Age. I find him endow'd with such a deep Judgment and capacious Understanding that I am confident if he live to years of Maturity he will be the profoundest Politician and the most prodigious States-man that ever this Nation did produce But more especially once directing himself to the young Gentleman he spake to the effect following as if guided thereto by some strange and unaccountable impulse and if we compare it with the circumstances of this Lords Life it will appear to be prophetick Child said he as it was his custom to call him if thou wilt be Religious and keep close to God and take care to avoid the vain and distractive allurements of Prophaneness and Debauchery and entertain a fixed resolution to improve all thy Parts and Abilities for the advancing the Protestant and the prejudice of the Romish Religion you shall be a Man of the largest Parts in Christendom and shall be an instrument of doing an extraordinary piece of Service to your Prince which shall be very acceptable to him whereupon you shall stand high in his Favour and be promoted to very great Honour yet should afterwards lose the Princes Favour and be as much dis-respected as before Honoured and Admired yet at the same time you shall be one of the most Popular Men under Heaven c. And that you may know that this will fall out according to my Prediction pray remember this that I am now going to tell you and Write it down in your Pocket-book that you may not forget it Not long after your coming from the University you shall be in extream danger of Drowning telling him the very day when it should happen Whereupon although he gave no extraordinary credit to these Predictions yet having a great Love and Veneration for the Gentleman upon the account of his Piety and Wisdom he endeavoured to the uttermost of his power as much as possible to avoid the Watery Eliment When he had spent some years at the University he was removed from Trinity Colledge to Grays-Inn where with the like pains and industry he applyed himself to the Study of the Law in the knowledge whereof he arrived at such Perfection that several Judicious Men and great Lawyers did affirm That he understood the nature of our Britanick Laws and ancient Customs and Constitutions of the Kingdom as well if not better than any Man living and could express himself with so much Eloquence and deliver his Sentiments of things with so much clearness and smoothness interwoven with such convincing Arguments deduced from Philosophy and Reason that there was a perfect harmohy in his words Whilst he was at Grays-Inn he appointed to go with several young Gentleman of his Acquaintance to Greenwich by Water but when he was upon the Stairs going to take Boat some of his company being already in the Boat it came suddenly into his Mind that that was the day whereof the Gentleman had foretold him and pausing a little he remembred several circumstances that confirm'd him therein the Gentlemen who were in the Boat seeing him to stand in a study
nothing but inconstancy never proved more false to any then she did to him And his unshaken faithfulness to His Majesty from whose Interest no Temptation could ever allure him together with the Figure he made and the High Station wherein he deservedly stood was so far from defending him against that it subjected him to the Euvy and exposed him to the spleenful hate and insatiable Revenge of those who became his inveterate and implacable Enemies for no other reason then his extraordinary Zeal to have His Majesty safe in his Person by being Great in the Hearts of his Subjects and Raign without a Competitor and thereby become Formidable to his Enemies and be able like his Predecessors to give Laws to the Neighbouring Princes The only way to promote the publick Good maintain the Security of Religion the Safety of the Government and advance the Honour of the English Nation Wherefore they having resolved upon his ruine and knowing that the higher he mounted the more likely he would be to fall and if he did fall it would be with the greater precipitancy and danger They rack'd all their Inventions and improved all their Interest at Court to have him advanc'd to higher Honour although he was already exalted even above his own Ambition and thereby involved into so much danger that he was forced every Night to keep a constant Guard about his House thereby to secure his Person from the bloody Attempts of Popish Raviliacks or Roman Godfredizers So that this hopeful project not succeeding according to expectation may he rend by the future Ages in the British Chronicles to his immortal Glory and the shame and infamy of his Enemies But although they were not able with all their combinated strengths to trample him into an Ignominious Grave yet they quickly after found an occasion of Triumph upon the taking from him his Honourable Employment to which he ascended upon abundance of Merit used with abundance of Impartiality and resigned with as much Innocency and Honour in the following manner About November 1673. The King was pleased to send for his Lordship to Whitehall where upon His Majesties Command he resigned the Great Seal of England to be disposed of as His Majesty should think fit And thus this mighty Minister of State who had to the satisfaction and admiration of all good Men and to the hurt and prejudice and therefore to the hate and envy of none but the Papists improved that Power whereunto the Grace and Favour of his Soveraign had raised him did without any kind of murmuring or repining lay it down again at the Feet of him from whom he at first derived it Never abating of his usual Briskness nor altering the natural chearfulness of his Temper upon the loss of his Honorary Places but on the contrary when he had delivered the Seal he put on his Sword accounting it as much Honour and Happiness to walk with that by his side unenvied as to have the Mace and Purse carried before him with abundance of Emulation and Grudge besides danger In the Afternoon he was visited at his Mansion-house by his Highness Prince Rupert and divers other Peers and Gentlemen of Quality who gratefully acknowledged themselves to be extreamly oblig'd by his just and honest discharge of that Trust which had been reposed in him for which they returned him thanks And many whose tedious or difficult Suits were discharged by his dexterity and wisdom will ever remember him with Honour and Veneration For by his admirable Prudence deep Judgment and quick Apprehension he used presently and that with abundance of Facility and Ease to penetrate into the most intricate and difficult Causes and disperse those Cloudy Mists wherewith the subtile Lawyer had darkened and perplexed the Just and Honest Title as the Author of the Character of a Loyal States-man ingeniously expresses it His choice sagacity Strait salv'd the knot that subtle Lawyers ty'd And through all Foggs discern'd the oppressed side Banish'd delays and so this Noble Peer Became a Star of Honour in our Sphere A needful Atlas of our State c. And indeed he manag'd the Court of Chancery with such an unbyass'd Judgment and Uprightness that forced even those who lost the Cause to admire his sagacity and confess the equality of his Justice THE SECOND PART OF RALEGH Redevivus THE discarding the great SHAFTSBVRY was some abatement to the excessive sorrow of his Papist Enemies and proved a seasonable allay to that tormenting Grief which peradventure might otherwise Vulter-like have prey'd upon and fretted and consumed their Vitals and thereby have saved the World from that trouble it hath already felt and may expect from them But not containing themselves with his being discarded resolved still to prosecute his ruin and thereby render their revenge the more full and compleat And in order thereunto they first vainly attempted to Murder his unblemished Reputation and bring his Loyalty into Suspicion and then with an insernal Impudence accused him of High-Treason the same Project whereby they have since so often unsuccessfully attempted his ruin obligeing Collonel to pursue and prosecute the Accuation and to make him the more capable of performing it they did with all the Art and Industry wherewith Hell and Rome could furnish them make a narrow search and exact scrutiny into the several Offices he had passed through hoping there to find some casual accident or other which might by their Hellish Pollicy have been improved to High-Treason well knowing that suddain surprize the want of a true information or the falling short of a full and clear underderstanding of some material Circumstances might expose the most profound and exactest Judge in the World to a mistake in Judgment Yet to their amazement and anguish and the glory and of that Divine Providence whereby the Almighty who fore-sees the issue and events of all sublunary Actions wisely orders and disposes all things to the advantage of the favourites of Heaven they found no such casual flips or oversights in his management that could any way answer the pains they had taken in searching the Records of his Actions or favour the Designs they were carrying on against him For having with a complicated malice and impatiency of destroying him who of all others stood most in the way of their other Designs amaz'd together and mustered up all the worst things which those Infallible Vipers by the force of their Roman Venom were able to draw and attract out of the Court Rolls so disgested and phrased as might best serve the purpose to which they were designed and presented them to the King 's Learned Council in the Law for their judgment whether there were any thing contained therein upon which they might find matter whereon to ground an accusation of Treason They did after a serious perusal of the several particulars and pretended Crimes affirm to their everlasting Honour that there was nothing which amounted to Treason contained therein So that all their pains and
that he had endeavoured to free himself from the censure of this House by appealing to the Kings-Bench to have there judgment thereupon during the late Adjournments doth not think fit as yet to signifie his pleasure as to his discharge until this House hath taken that matter into consideration Upon which the Lords refusing to make an Address to His Majesty for his Lordships discharge entered into a debate concerning his Appeal from their House to the Kings-Bench for an Habeas Corpus but not being able to come to any Resolution about it that day the next day it was resumed again and the Records of the Kings-Bench produced by which it did appear that two Rules of Court had been obtain'd upon the motion of his Lordships Council and the returns thereupon were read by which it did appear that the Earl had been committed the 16th of February 1676. for a Contempt committed against the House of Lords and then the remitture of the Earl to the Tower was read After this a Petition from his Lordship to the House was read wherein he took notice of an Order of the House for bringing thither the Records of the Kings-Bench Court concerning the matter of an Habeas Corpus brought by him acquainting them that he took himself to be very much concern'd that they should enter into a debate of that Nature in his absence since he had an undoubted Right to be present and plead for himself when a debate of any new matter against him was entred upon and that although he could not pretend but that there might be a probability of his having err'd for want of a President to guide him and being deprived of the benefit of Council by reason of his close confinement yet he resolved not to do any thing willingly that might in the least offend His Majesty or their Lordships and therefore humbly laid hold of that opportunity to give further Evidence thereof by casting himself at their Lordships feet and as he humbly begg'd the Pardon of His Majesty so he also implored the forgiveness of their Lordships for offending them in any thing whatsoever The debate was somewhat long but at last it came to this Issue They Resolved and Declared That it was a breach of the priviledge of that House for any Lord committed by them to bring an Habeas Corpus in any inseriour Court to free himself from that Imprisonment during the Session of Parliament and that the Earl of Shaftsbury should have Liberty to make his full defence notwithstanding the Resolution and Declaration aforesaid Friday February 22d The Lords directed a Warrant to the Constable of the Tower to bring his Lordship to their Bar on the Monday following The Earl of Northampton then Constable of the Tower accordingly brought him where kneeling at the Bar he received an account from the Lord Chancellor of the Resolutions of the Lords concerning his Appeal to the Court of Kings-Bench whereupon his Lordship stood up and made his reply to this Effect MY LORDS I Have presum'd to present two Petitions to this Honourable House The first your Lordships mention I do again here personally renew humbly desiring that I may be admitted to make that humble submission and acknowledgment your Lordships will please to Order And that after a Twelvemonths close Imprisonment to a Man of my Age and Infirmities your Lordships will Pardon the folly and unadvisedness of any of my Words or Actions And as to my Second Petition I most humbly thank your Lordships for acquainting me with your Resolution and Declaration in the Point and though Liberty be in it self very desireable and as my Physitian a very Learned Man thought absolutely necessary to the preservation of my Life yet I do profess to your Lordships upon my Honour that I would have perish'd rather than have brought my Habeas Corpus had I then apprehended or been inform'd that it had been a breach of the Priviledge of this Honourable House it is my Duty it is my Interest to support your Priviledges I shall never oppose them My Lords I do fully acquiesce in the Resolution and Declaration of this Honourable House I go not about to justifie my self but cast my self at your Lordships feet acknowledge my Error and humbly begg your Pardon not only for having brought my Habeas Corpus but for all other my Words and Actions Then was one Blany called into the House who had delivered a Paper to the Lord Treasurer pretending to give an account of some words spoken by his Lordship in the Court of Kings-Bench when he moved to be bailed there But though this whole Transaction was no longer than since last Hillary Term yet Blany could not affirm that what was Written in the said Paper was really spoken by his Lordship so that the Treasurer not being able to to make any thing of Blanys Story which was an hard Case that so much pains should be taken to so little purpose the House of Lords proceeded to a Resolution in what form his Lordship should make his submission and acknowledgment which being drawn up imported much the same with which he had before Declared which being read to him by the Lord Chancellor his Lordship repeated the same at the Bar and than withdrew Whereupon the House ordered That the Lords with white sleeves should wait upon His Majesty and acquaint him the House had received satisfaction from his Lordship in the matter of the Habeas Corpus and the other Contempt for which he stood committed and were become humble Suters to His Majesty that he would be pleased to discharge him from his Imprisonment and that their Lordships acquaint the House with His Majesties Answer All which was done accordingly and the Lord Treasurer reported to the House That the Lords with white sleeves had waited upon His Majesty according to their Lordships Order And that His Majesty was pleased to make this Answer That he would give Order for his Lordships discharge which was accordingly performed and his Lordship by regaining his Liberty made more capable of serving His Majesty and the Protestant Religion against the dark and misterous designs which were then carrying on against both But although the Lords proceeded with so much rigure and severity against his Lordship who deserved to have been more kindly dealt withal by any who pretend to any Loyalty to their Prince since he made so considerable a Figure and had so great a share in the contriving and management of the happy Revolution in 1666. when they were in an unusual heat artificialy kindled and carefully blown into a Flame by some unseen hand who secretly manag'd the Bellows yet when that heat had spent it self and the House acted with more freedom and deliberation they acknowledge the wrong and injury done to his Lordship and the other Noblemen who were committed upon that account and to prevent that illegal preceeding from being made use of as a President in future times they damned the several
proceedings thereon by ordering the Commitment and all things that concerned that Affair to be expung'd and raz'd out of their Jornal Books that so if possible the very memory of them might be extinguished And thus this illusterous Peer did at length regain his Liberty although somewhat sooner perhaps than his Popish Enemies desired or expected he should but not without being severaly burlesqued by a second Advice to the Men of Shaftsbury Written by the Author of the former hoping by a frequent and unwearied charging him with many fictitious Crimes slyly insinuated and audatiously affirmed with all the confidence and formality imaginable they should at length get them believed to be real ones The whole Composition both of this and the former Advice was made up of nothing in the World but malice and revenge carefully infused into the mercinary wretch by the same aspring Favourite who had improved the Earls Application to the Court of Kings-Bench into a Crime and were inbibed by him with all imaginable greediness hoping thereby to relieve his wants and supply his necessity and as liberally cast out in those two scurilous Libels to poyson and infect the froth of the Town and the scum of the Universities and that they might be the more successful the Name of the Author is carefully conceal'd not from any sparks of modesty but that he might thereby with the more advantage and security exercise his Impudence in defaming the Earl wisely considering That if his Name which justly deserves to be Intom'd and Rot in his own infamy should have been perfixed to them it would certainly have spoiled the Design by making it appear too bare-fac'd And indeed it redounds very much to the Earls Honour and Renown that his Enemies could procure no other to Write against him than one whose Pen had been so long implyed against his Soveraign But notwithstanding all those devices the Earls Honour and Reputation was above the reach of their malice as well as his Loyalty had been above the reach of their poyson and infection Nor was he thereby discouraged from opposing the Designs of the Papishes as vigorously as ever but endeavoured notwithstanding in the several Sessions of Parliament to procure the passing such wholsome Laws as might restrain Debauchery and secure us against the growing Designs of Rome and France which tended to undermine the Protestant Religion the interest of the English Nation and prejudice and endanger His Majesties Person and Government But more especially those two admirable Bills The first whereof provided That no Papish should hold any Offices or enjoy any places of profit or trust either Civil or Military upon which His Royal Highness laid down several great Offices and Places which were held and enjoyed by him And the second for the disabling any Papish from siting as a Member in either House of Parliament although this latter could not pass without a Proviso that it should not extend to the Duke of YORK However these Acts of Parliament did not prevent there proceeding in those monstrous Designs which they had so long been forming in their secret Cabals To Murther the King subvert the Government Massacre the Protestant Nobility and Gentry extirpate the Protestant Religion and introduce Popery into this Kingdom Having for that purpose maintained Correspondence with a Neighbouring Prince procured indulgences from Rome to dispence with their taking the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance together with all other Tests when it should be necessary for the management of their Affairs collected Mony appointed Officers delivered out Commissions procur'd a Bull from the Pope for the Excommunicating of His most Sacred Majesty held divers Consults at Wild-House the White Horse Tavern and several other places to consider of the methods which they were to take in this Conspiracy and appoint every one the part which he was to act in the Plot. Wherein those vile 〈◊〉 and Traytors with an Hellish Impudence adventur'd to Declare the best of Kings to be Excommunicated and Condemned as an Heretick by the pretended power of the Pope to lose both his Crown and Life together with all the Protestant Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of England who had rendered themselves any way obnoxious by their endeavours to suppress Popery especially His Grace the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Shaftsbury Nor were their Designs discovered till they were just ready to be put in Execution all things being in as much readiness as they were in the Gunpowder Treason against King James But yet the watchful Providence of the Almighty by whom and not by that Grand Impostâ—â— at Rome Kings Reign and Princes Decree Justice it was seasonably discovered to their amazement and confusion whereby they were driven to the very depths of despair fearing that their Villany being so plainly discovered and their Cruelty and Treason exposed and undeniably proved by Coleman's Letters Godfrey's Murther Arnald's Assassination c. they should never be able to clear themselves and retrieve their Plot. However they Resolved to attempt both the one and the other by charging his Lordship and others who had been the most Zealous Prosecuters of the Plot not only of having invented this Plot which they affirmed was altogether a fiction but also with carrying on a Treasonable Design against the King's Majesty under colour thereof The Plot being thus discovered his Lordship being moved by a Principal of Loyalty to His Majesties Love to his Country and Zeal to the Protestant Religion endeavoured to the utmost of his power to have it narrowly enquired into and searched to the bottom that so the mischevious Consequences of it might be the better provided against and the King's Person and Government the Protestant Religion and the English Nation might by an early Provision be secured against the like attempts for the future as well as the present frustrated which so much enraged them that it added fuel to their malice and sharpened their desire of accomplishing his ruine Assuring themselves as the Lords in the Tower told Mr. Dangerfield That if they were as well rid of him as they were of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey they should then be able to conquer all difficulties stifle the Popish Plot and bear down all before them Wherefore finding him the greatest hinderance to their Designs and the most active Man in prosecuting their Plot they entered into a Resolution to dispatch him into another World as was affirmed by Messenger Gentleman of the Horse to the Lord Arundel of Warder about three Weeks or a Month before Mr. William Stayley was apprehended even so early did they begin their Designs of Murthering him for endeavouring to expose their Plot. And not long after Stayley and Mattisson being together at the Cross-Keys Tavern in Covent Garden Declared That to prevent the severities which might be the event of this discovery they must take a speedy course to destroy some particular persons who were the most active Men at that juncture of time and that it was resolved on