sufficient caution to the Kings of England and of the People there is as little hopes to seduce them the Protestant Religion being so interwoven as it is with their Secular Interest For the Lands that were formerly given to superstitious uses having first been applyed to the Publick Revenue and afterwards by severall Alienations and Contracts distributed into private possession the alteration of Religion would necessarily introduce a change of Property Nullum tempus occurrit Ecelesiae it would make a general Earth-quake over the nation and even now the Romish Clergy on the other side of the water snuffe up the savoury odour of so many rich Abbies and Monasteries that belonged to their predecessors Hereby no considerably Estate in England but must have a piece torn out of it upon the Titile of Piety and the rest subject to be wholly forfeited upon the account of Heresy Another Chimny mony of the old Peter pence must again be payed as tribute to the Pope beside that which is established on his Majesty and the People instead of those moderate Tithes that are with too much difficulty payed to their Protestant Pastors will be exposed to all the exactions of the Court of Rome and a thousand artifices by which in former times they were used to draine away the wealth of ours more then any other Nation So that in conclusion there is no English-man that hath a Soul a Body or an Estate to save that Loves either God his King or his Country but is by all those Tenures bound to the best of his Power and Knowledge to maintaine the established Protestant Religion And yet all this notwithstanding there are those men among us who have undertaken and do make it their businesse under so Legal and perfect a Government to introduce a French slavery and instead of so pure a Religion to establish the Roman Idolatry both and either of which are Crimes of the Highest nature For as to matter of Government if to murther the King be as certainly it is a Fact so horred how much more hainous is it to assassinate the Kingdome And as none will deny that to alter our Monarchy into a Commonvvealth were Treason so by the same Fundamenttal Rule the Crime is no lesse to make that Monarchy Absolute What is thus true in regard of the State holds as well in reference to our Religion Former Parliaments have made it Treason in whosoever shall attempt to seduce any one the meanest of the Kings subjects to the Church of Rome And this Parliament hath to all penalties by the Common or Statute Law added incapacity for any man who shall presume to say that the King is a Papist or an Introducer of Popery But what lawless and incapable miscreants then what wicked Traytors are those wretched men who endevour to pervert our whole Church and to bring that about in effect which even to mention is penal at one Italian stroke attempting to subvert the Government and Religion to kill the Body and damn the Soul of our Nation Yet were these men honest old Cavaliers that had suffered in his late Majesties service it were allowable in them as oft as their wounds brake out at Spring or Fall to think of a more Arbitrary Government as a soveraign Balsom for their Aches or to imagine that no Weapon-salve but of the Moss that grows on an Enemies Skul could cure them Should they mistake this Long Parliament also for Rebells and that although all Circumstances be altered there were still the same necessity to fight it all over again in pure Loyalty yet their Age and the Times they have lived in might excuse them But those worthy Gentlemen are too Generous too good Christians and Subjects too affectionate to the good English Government to be capable of such an Impression Whereas these Conspiratours are such as have not one drop of Cavalier Blood or no Bovvels at least of a Cavalier in them but have starved them to Revel and Surfet upon their Calamities making their Persons and the very Cause by pretending to it themselves almost Ridiculous Or were these Conspiratours on the other side but avowed Papists they were the more honest the less dangerous and the Religion were answerable for the Errours they might commit in order to promote it Who is there but must acknowledge if he do not commend the Ingenuity or by what better Name I may call it of Sir Thomas Strickland Lord Bellassis the late Lord Clifford and others eminent in their several stations These having so long appeared the most zealous Sons of our Church yet as soon as the late Test against Popery was inacted tooke up the Crosse quitted their present imployments and all hopes of the future rather then falsify their opinion though otherwise men for Quality Estate and Abilityes whether in Warre or Peace as capable and well deserving without disparagement as others that have the art to continue in Offices And above all his Royal Highnesse is to be admired for his unparallelled magnanimity on the same account there being in all history perhaps no Record of any Prince that ever changed his Religion in his circumstances But these persons that have since taken the worke in hand are such as ly under no temptation of Religion secure men that are above either Honour or Consciencs but obliged by all the most sacred tyes of Malice and Ambition to advance the ruine of the King and Kingdome and qualified much better then others under the name of good Protestants to effect it And because it was yet difficult to find Complices enough at home that were ripe for so black a desing but they wanted a Back for their Edge therefore they applyed themselves to France that King being indowed with all those qualityes which in a Prince may passe for Virtues but in any private man would be capital and moreover so abounding in wealth that no man else could go to the price of their wickednesse To which Considerations adding that he is the Master of Absolute Dominion the Presumptive Monarch of Christendom the declared Champion of Popery and the hereditary natural inveterate Enemy of our King and Nation he was in all respects the most likely of all Earthly Powers to reward and support them in a Project every way suitable to his one Inclination and Interest And now should I enter into a particular retaile of all former and latter Transactions relating to this affaire there would be sufficient for a just Volume of History But my intention is onely to write a naked Narrative of some the most considerable passages in the meeting of Parliament the 15 of Febr. 1676. Such as have come to my notice which may serve for matter to some stronger Pen and to such as have more leisure and further opportunity to discover and communicate to the Publick This in the mean time will by the Progresse made in so few weeks demonstrate at what rate these men drive over the necks of King
time it cost him his Place and was the first moving Cause of all those Misadventures and Obloquy which since he lyes ABOVE not Under The Declaration also of Indulgence was questioned which though his MAJESTY had out of his Princely and Gracious Inclination and the memory of some former Obligations granted yet upon their Representation of the Inconveniencies and at their humble Request he was pleased to Cancel and Declare that it should be no President for the Future For otherwise some succeeding Governour by his single Power Suspending Penal Laws in a favourable matter as that is of Religion might become more dangerous to the Government than either Papists or Fanaticks and make us Either when he pleased So Legal was it in this Session to Distinguish between the King of Englands Personal and his Parliamentary Authority But therefore the further sitting being grown very uneasie to those who had undertaken for the Change of Religion and Government they procured the Recess so much sooner and a Bill sent up by the Commons in favour of Dissenting Protestants not having passed thorow the Lords preparation the Bill concerning Papists was enacted in Exchange for the Money by which the Conspiraiors when it came into their management hoped to frustrate yet the effect of the former So the Parliament was dismissed till the Tvventy seventh of October One thousand six hundred seventy three In the mean time therefore they strove with all their might to regain by the VVar that part of their Design which they had lost by Parliament and though several honourably forsook their Places rather than their Consciences yet there was never wanting some double-dyed Son of our Church some Protestant in grain to succeed upon the same Conditions And the difference was no more but that their Offices or however their Counsels were now to be administred by their Deputies such as they could confide in The business of the Land Army was vigourously carried on in appearance to have made some descent in Holland but though the Regiments were Compleated and kept Imbodyed it wanted effect and therefore gave cause of sufpition The rather because no Englishman among so many well-disposed and qualified for the work had been thought capable or fit to be trusted with Chief Command of those Forces but that Monsieur Schomberg a French Protestant had been made General and Collonel Fitsgerald an Irish Papist Major General as more proper for the Secret the first of advancing the French Government the second of promoting the Irish Religion And therefore the dark hovering of that Army so long at Black-Hearth might not improbably seem the gatherings of a Storm to fall upon London But the ill successes which our Fleet met withall this Year also at Sea were sufficient had there been any such design at home to have quasht it for such Gallantries are not to be attempted but in the highest raptures of Fortune There were three several Engagements of ours against the Dutch Navy in this one Summer but while nothing was Tenable at Land against the French it seem'd that to us at Sea every thing was impregnable which is not to be attributed to the want of Courage or Conduct either the former Year under the Command of his Royal Highness so Great a Souldier or this Year under the Prince Robert But is rather to be imputed to our unlucky Conjunction with the French like the disasters that happen to men by being in ill Company But besides it was manifest that in all these Wars the French ment nothing less than really to assist us He had first practised the same Art at Sea when he was in League with the Hollander against us his Navy never having done them any service for his business was only to see us Batter one another And now he was on the English side he only studied to sound our Seas to spy our Ports to learn our Building to contemplate our way of Fight to consume ours and preserve his own Navy to encrease his Commerce and to order all so that the two great Naval Powers of Europe being crushed together he might remain sole Arbitrator of the Ocean and by consequence Master of all the Isles and Continent To which purposes the Conspirators furnished him all possible opportunities Therefore it was that Monsieur d' Estree though a Person otherwise of tryed Courage and Prudence yet never did worse than in the third and last Engagement and because brave Monsieur d' Martel did better and could not endure a thing that looked like Cowardise or Treachery though for the Service of his Monarch commanded him in rated him and at his return home he was as then was reported discountenanced and dismissed from his Command for no other crime but his breaking of the French measures by adventuring one of those sacred Shipps in the English or rather his own Masters Quarrel His Royal Highnesse by whose having quitted the Admiralty the Sea service thrived not the better was now intent upon his Marrige at the same time the Parliament was to reassemble the 27th of October 1673. the Princesse of Modena his consort being upon the way for England and that businesse seemed to have passed all impediment Nor were the Conspirators who to use the French phrase made a considerable Figure in the Government wholly averse to the Parliaments meeting For if the House of Commons had after one years unfortunate War made so vast a Present to his Majesty of 1250000 l. But the last February it seemed the argument would now be more pressing upon them that by how much the ill sucesses of this year had been greater they ought therefore to give a yet more liberal Donative And the Conspirators as to their own particular reckoned that while the Nation was under the more distresse and hurry they were themselves safer from Parliament by the Publick Calamity A supply therefore was demanded with much more importunity and assurance then ever before and that it should be a large one and a speedy They were told that it was now Pro Aris Focis all was at stake And yet besides all this the Payment of the Debt to the Banckers upon shutting the Exchequer was very civilly recommended to them And they were assured that his Majesty would be constantly ready to give them all proofes of his Zeal for the true Religion and the Laws of the Realm upon all occasions But the House of Commons not having been sufficiently prepared for such demands nor well satisfied in several matters of Fact which appeared contrary to what was represented took check and first interposed in that tender point of his Royall Highuesse's Match although she was of his own Religion which is a redoubled sort of Marriage or the more spiritual part of its Happynesse Besides that she had been already solemnly married by the Dukes Proxcy so that unlesse the Parliament had been Pope and calmed a power of Dispensation it was now too late to avoide it His Majesty by a
short Prorogation of six days when he understood their intention gave them opportunity to have disisted But it seems they judged the National Jnterest of Religion so farre concerned in this matter that they no sooner meet again but they drew up a second request by way of Addresse to his Majesty with their Reasons against it That for his Royal Highnesse to marry the Princesse of Modena or any other of that Religion had very dangerous consequences That the mindes of his Majesties Protestant subjects will be much disquieted thereby filled with infinite discontents and Jealousies That his Majesty would thereby be linked into such a foraine Alliance which will be of great disadvantage and possibly to the Ruine of the Protestant Religion That they have found by sad experience how such mariages have always increased Popery and incorraged Priests and Jesuits to prevert his Majesties subjects That the Popish party already lift up their heads in hopes of his marriage That they fear it may diminish the affection of the people toward his Royal Highnesse who is by blood so near related to the Crown That it is now more then one Age that the subjects have lived in continual apprehensions of the increase of Popery and the decay of the Protestant Religion Finally that she having many Kindred and Relations in the Court of Rome by this means their enterprises here might be facilitated they might pierce into the most secret Counsells of his Majesty and discover the state of the Realm That the most learned men are of opinion that Marriages no further Proceeded in may lawfully be Dissolved And therefore they beseech his Majesty to Annul the Consummation of it and the Rather because they have not yet the Happiness to see any of his Majestyes own Lineage to Succeed in his Kingdomes These Reasons which were extended more amply against his Royal Highnesses Marriage obtained more weight because most men are apt to Judge of things by Circumstances and to attribute what happens by the Conjuncture of Times to the Effect of Contrivance So that it was not difficult to Interpret what was in his Royal Highness an ingagement only of Honour and Affection as proceeding from the Conspirators Counsels seeing it made so much to their purpose But the business was too far advanced to retreat as his Majesty with great reason had replyed to their former Address the Marriage having been celebrated already and confirmed by his Royal Authority and the House of Commons though sitting when the Duke was in a Treaty for the Arch Dutchess of Inspruck one of the same Religion yet having taken no notice of it Therefore while they pursued the matter thus by a second Address it seemed an easier thing and more decent to Prorogue the Parliament than to Dissolve the Marriage And which might more incline his Majesty to this Resolution the House of Commons had now bound themselves up by a Vote that having considered the present State of the Nation they would not take into Deliberation nor have any further Debate upon any other Proposals of Aide or any Surcharge upon the Subject before the payment of the Tvvelve hundred and fifty thousand pounds in eighteen Months which was last granted were expired or at least till they should evidently see that the Obstinacy of the Hollanders should oblige them to the contrary nor till after the kingdom should be effectually secured against the dangers of Popery and Popish Counsellours and that Order be taken against other present Misdemeanours There was yet another thing the Land-Army which appearing to them expensive needless and terrible to the People they addressed to his Majesty also that they might be disbanded All which things put together his Majesty was induced to Prorogue the Parliament again for a short time till the seventh of January One thousand six hundred seventy three That in the mean while the Princess of Modena arriving the Marriage might be consummated without further interruption That Session was opened with a large deduction also by the new Lord Keeper this being his first Experiment in the Lords House of his Eloquence and Veracity of the Hollanders averseness to Peace or Reason and their uncivil and indirect dealing in all Overtures of Treaty with his Majesty and a Demand was made therefore and re-inforced as formerly of a proportionable and speedy Supply But the Hollanders that had found themselves obstructed alwayes hitherto and in a manner excluded from all Applications and that whatever means they had used was still mis-interpreted and ill represented were so industrious as by this time which was perhaps the greatest part of their Crime to have undeceived the generallity of the Nation in those particulars The House of Commons therefore not doubting but that if they held their hands in matter of money a Peace would in due time follow grew troublesome rather to several of the great Ministers of State whom they suspected to have been Principal in the late pernicious Counsels But instead of the way of Impeachment whereby the Crimes might have been brought to Examination Proof and Judgment they proceeded Summarily within themselves noting them only with an ill Character and requesting his Majesty to remove them from his Counsels his Presence and their Publick Imployments Neither in that way of handling were they Impartial Of the three which were questioned the Duke of Buckingham seemed to have muoh the more favourable Cause but had the severest Fortune And this whole matter not having been mannaged in the solemn Methods of National Justice but transmitted to his Majesty it was easily changed into a Court Intrigue where though it be a Modern Maxime That no State Minister ought to be punished but especially not upon Parliamentary Applications Yet other Offenders thought it of security to themselves in a time of Publick Discontent to have one Man sacrisiced and so the Duke of Buckingham having worse Enemies and as it chanced worse Friends than the rest was after all his Services abandoned they having only heard the sound while he felt all the smart of that Lash from the House of Commons But he was so far a Gainer that with the loss of his Offices and dependance he was restored to the Freedom of his own Spirit to give thence-forward those admirable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vigour and Vivacity of his better Judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though to his own Imprisonment the due Liâ—… of the English Nation 〈◊〉 manner of proceeding in the House of Commons 〈◊〉 a new way of negotiating the Peace with Holland but the â—…ost effectual the Conspirators living all the while under continual apprensions of being called to further account for their Actions and no mony appearing which would either have prepetuated the War or might in case of a Peaâ—…e be misapplied to other uses then the building of Ships insinuated by the Lord Keeper The Hollanders Proposalls by this means therefore began to be thought more reasonable and the Marquis del Fresno the Spanish Minister in this Court labourd
Grimass for his Majestys service And now to proceed rather according to the Coherence of the matters then to the particular Date of every days action By this good humour and the House being so free of the Liberty of their fellow Commoners it might be guessed that they would not be lesse liberal of their Monythis Session The Bill therefore for 600000 l. Tax for eighteen month towards the building and furnishing of Ships easily passed without once dreaming any more of appropriating the Customes For the Nation being generally possessed by the Members with the defects of the Navy and not considering at all from what neglect it proceeded the House of Commons were very willing and glad to take this occasion of confirming the Authority of their sitting and to pay double the summe that in the former Sessions they had thought necessary towards the Fleet hereby to hedg in and purchase their own continuance And for the same purpose they ingrossed the Act with so numerous a list of Commissioners that it seemed rather a Register or Muster-roll of the Nation and that they raised the whole kingdom to raise the mony For who could doubt that they were still a lawful Parliament when they saw so many gentlemens names though by the Clerks hand onely subscribed to an Act of their making Onely Mr. Seymour the speaker would have diminished the number in his own Country For he had entred into a Combination that none should serve the King or their Country thorow Devonshire in any capacity but under his approbation and therefore he highly inveighed against many Gentlemen of the best rank there that ought him no homage as persons disaffected oppossing their names at a Committe of the whole House before he heard them But being checked in his careere he let fall the contest with as much judgment and modesty as he had begun it with boldnesse and indescretion This Bill was not enough but though the Nation had hoped to be relieved from the Additionall Excise upon Beer and Ale which the Tripple League had foold them into but was now of course to expire the 24th of June 1677. Yet a Bill for the continuing of it for three years more passed them likewise with little Difficulty For the late fear of Dissolution was still so fresh upon them that they would continue any thing to buy their own Continuance and this Bill might considering their present want of Legality have been properly intituled An Act for the Extraor dinary Occasion of the House of Commons But that they might seem within this tendernesse to themselvs not to have cast of all toward the People they sunk all former Grievances into a Bill of Chancery knowing well that a sute in that Court would be sooner ended then a Reformation of it be effected and that thereby they might gain work enough to direct the whole Session And of their usuall Bills for the Liberty of the Subjects they sent up only that of Habeas Corpus pretending and perhaps truly that they durst not adventure them either in their own or the Lords House as they were now governed lest they should be further ensnared by struging for freedome But least they should trouble themselves too much with Religion the Lords presented them with two Bills of a very good name but of a strange and unheard of nature The one intituled An Ast for securing the Protestant Religion by educating the Children of the Royall Family and providing for the continuance of a Protestant Clergy The other An Act for the more effectuall Conviction and Prosecution of Popish Recusants And with these they sent down another for the further regulation of the Presses and suppressing all unlicensed Books with clauses most severe and generall upon the subject whereof one for breaking all Houses whatsoever on suspicion of any such Pamphlet where by Master L' Estranges Authority was much amplifyed to search any other House with the same liberty as he had Sir Thomas Dolemans But as to those two Bills of Religion although they were of the highest consequence that ever were offered in Parliament since Protestancy came in and went out of fashion yet it is not to be imagined how indisputable and easy a passage they found thorow the House of Peers to the House of Commons which must be ascribed to the great unanimity among them after the committing of the four Lords and to the Power of those two noble Peers their Adversaries which was now so established that their sense being once declared the rest seemed to yeild them an Implicite Faith and Obedience and they were now in such Vogue that whatsoever was spoken or done any where abroad in perfection with great weight and judgement men said it was A la Fraischeville But if gentily and acutely A la Trerise That Intituled An Act for the more effectual Conviction and Prosecution of Popish Recusants is too long to be here inserted and the Fate it met with makes it unnecessary for as soon as it was first read a Gentle-man of great worth and apprehension spake short but roundly and thorow against it A second immediately moved that it might not onely be thrown out but with a particular mark of infamy And it being without any more ado ready to be put to the Question a third demanded that they should stay a while to see whether there were any one so hardy as to speak a word for it Which no man offerring at it was forthwith rejected with this censure added to the Journal And because the Body of the Bill was contrary to the Title This unusual sentence of the House of Commons though excusable by the Crimes of the Bill yet was not to be justified by the Rules of entercourse between the two Houses But because all men have hence taken occasion to accuse the Lords Spiritual as the Authours both of this Bill and the other it is necessary to insert here the true Fact in their just vindication It was above two years ago that a select Caball of great Ministers had been consulting about Church matters tho it seldom happens nor did it in this instance that the Statesmen are more fortunate in meddling with Religion then the Churchmen with Government but each marrs them with tampering out of their Provinces This only difference that what Ecclesiastical persons may do by chance or consequence that harm the others commit on set purpose For it was by these politicians that these two Cockatrice Eggs were layd by their assiduous incubation hatched It is true indeed afterwards they took some few of the Bishops into Communication and as it were for advice upon what was before resolved And to make this Bill go the better down they flatterd them with the other as wholy calculated forsooth to the Churches Interest And by this means possibly they prevailed so far that the Bishops both there and in the House lesse vigorously opposed But that the Bishopes were either the Contrivers or Promoters of the
have been respited again as it had in former Sessions and for the whole long Prorogation But their House was farr from such Obstinacy And the news being come of the taking both of Valenciennes and St. Omar with the defeate of the Prince of Orange at Mont-Cassel so that now there was no further danger of preventing or Interrupting the successes of the French-King this Campagn at last therefore upon the 11 of Aprill this following answer was offerred to their House from his Majesty by Master Secretary Coventry C. R. HIs Majesty having considered your last Addresse and finding some late alteration in affaires abroad thinks it necessary to put you in mind That the only vvay to prevent the dangers vvhich may arise to these Kingdoms must be by putting his Majesty timely in a Condition to make such fitting preparation as may enable him to do vvhat may be most for the security of them And if for this reason you shall desire to fit any longer time his Majesty is content you may Adjourn novv before Easter and meet again suddenly after to ripen this matter and to perfect some of the most necessary Bills novv depending Given at our Court at White-Hall the 11. of April 1677. Somewhat was said on both these matters but the Greater debate of them was Adjorned till next day and then reassumed Then it was moved that the House should Adjorn till after Easter and then meet again with a Resolution to enable the King to make such preprations as should be thought necessary and also passe some necessary Bills for the Kingdome which if they did not the blame of the neglect must rest upon themselves and it would be observed they had not sat to any effect this four yeares and that now they had a session and had given a Million they did take little care to redresse Greviances or passe Good Laws for the People and that they should not be able to give any account of themselves to their Neighbours in the Country unlesse they should face them down that there was no Greviance or Mischeife in the Nation to be Redressed and that the King had stopped their mouths and laid it to them by offering to them to sit longer Others said they should perfect the two money Bills and give the King Ease and take another time to consider further of Religion Liberty and Property especially seeing all Bills now depending would be kept on foot the Intended Recesse being to be but an Adjournment that they had very good Laws already and would give their shares in any new ones they were making to be in the Country at the present time that it was necessary for them to be there the 10th of May to Execute the Act for 600000 l. c. And some time was to be allowed for their Journyes and rest after it that the passing some necessary Bills came in the end of the Kings Message and by the by For his Majesty saith That if for this Reason that is for making of preparations c they should desire to sit longer and if so then also take the opportunity of passing such Bills So the sence and inclination of the House was to rise before Easter as had been before intimated and expected Then they fell upon the main consideration of the Message and to make a present Answer The Secretary and other Ministers of State said that the Alteration of Affaires which his Majesty took notice of was the successe of the French against the Prince of Orange in the Battel and their proceeding to take Cambray and St. Omars Thus by Inches or rather great measures they were taking in Flanders which was reckoned the Out-work of England as well as Holland and they said plainely nothing could put his Majesty in a condition to make fitting preparations to preserve the Kingdom but ready money To this it was answered that it was not proper nor usuall to aske money at the end of a Session and it was fit that Alliances should be first made and that they should Adjourn rather till that were done for they ought not to give money till they knew for what and it was clearely spoken and made out to them that if there were no Summers War there was money enough given already It was replyed That they had not direction from his Majesty as to what he had resolved and it might be not convenient to discover and publish such things but they would offer their Guesse and Ayme at some things if there were any Approaches towards War though they ought to consider and compute like him in the Gospel whether with such a force they could encounter a King that came against them with such a force they should think of providing a Guard for the Isle of Wight sersey Carnsey and Ireland and secure our Coasts and be in a defensive posture on the Land we might be Attaqued in a night Also there would be a necessity of an extraordinary Summer Guard at Sea his Majesty did use to apply 400000 l. vearly out of the Customes upon his Fleets the very harbour Expence which in Anchorage Mooring Docks and Repaires c. was 110000 l. per annum and he was now setting forth 40 Ships for the Summer Gard but if there were a disposition towards War there must be more Shipps or at least those must be more fully manned and more strongly appoynted and furnished the more especially if the Breach were sudden for otherwise our Trading Ships at Sea as well as those Ships and Goods in the French Ports would be exposed Now it is reasonable that the remander which was above and beyond the Kings ordinary Allowance should be supplyed by the Parliament and the Extraordinary preparations of this kind for the present could not amount to lesse than 200000 l. It was answered that it was a Mealancholy thing to think Jersey c. Were not well enough secured at least as well as in the year 1665 when we alone had War with the French and Dutch too and yet the Kings Revenue was lesse then than now That the Revenue of Ireland was 50000 l. per annum beyond the Establishment that is the Civill Military and all payments of the Government which if not sent over hither but disposed there would suffice to defend that Kingdom and they remember that about a moneth ago they were told by some of these Gentlemen that the French King would not take more Townes in Flanders if he might have them but was drawing off to meet the Germans who would be in the field in May and therefore it was strang he should be represented now as ready to Invade us and that we must have an Army raised and kept on our Islands and Land No they would not have that it would be a Great matter in the Ballance if the Kings Subjects were withdrawn from the French service and applyed on the other side and tell that were done that we did continue to be Contributary to the Greatnesse
and People of Religion and Government and how near they are in all humane probability to arrive Triumphant at the end of their Journey Yet that I may not be too abrupt and leave the Reader wholly destitute of a thread to guide himself by thorow so intriguing a Labyrinth I shall summarily as short as so copious and redundant a matter will admit deduce the order of affaires both at home and abroad as it led into this Session It is well known were it as well remembred what the provocation was and what the successe of the warre begun by the English iâ—… the Year 1665. against Holland what vast supplyes were furnished by the Subject for defraying it and yet after all no Fleet set out but the Flower of all the Royal Navy burnt or taken in Port to save charges How the French during that War joyned themselves in assistance of Holland against us and yet by the credit he had with the Queen Mother so farre deluded his Majesty that upon assurance the Dutch neither would have any Fleet out that year he forbore to make ready and so incurred that notable losse and disgrace at Chatham How after this fatall conclusion of all our Sea Champaynes as we had been obliged to the French for that warre so we were glad to receive the Peace from his favour which was agreed at Breda betwixt England France and Holland His Majesty was hereby now at leisure to remarke how the French had in the year 1667. taken the time of us and while we were imbroled and weakned had in violation of all the most solemn and sacred Oaths and Treatyes invaded and taken a great part of the Spanish Nether-Land which had alwayes been considered as the natural Frontier of England And hereupon he judged it necessary to interpose before the flame that consumed his next neighbour should throw its sparkles over the water And therefore generously slighting all punctilious of ceremony or peeks of animosity where the safty of his People and the repose of Christendom were concerned he sent first into Holland inviting them to a nearer Alliance and to enter into such further Counsells as were most proper to quiet this publick disturbance which the French had raised This was a work wholy of his Majestys designing and according to that felicity which hath allways attended him when excluding the corrupt Politicks of others he hath followed the dictates of his own Royal wisdom so well it succeeded It is a thing searse credible though true that two Treatyes of such weight intricacy and so various aspect as that of the Defensive League with Holland and the other for repressing the further progresse of the French in the Spanish Netherland should in five days time in the year 1668. be concluded Such was the Expedition and secrecy then used in prosecuting his Majesty particuler instructions and so easy a thing is it for Princes when they have a mind to it to be well served The Svvede too shortly after made the third in this Concert whether wisely judging that in the minority of their King reigning over several late acquired dominions it was their true intrest to have an hand in all the Counsells that tended to pease and undisturbed possession or whether indeed those ministers like ours did even then project in so glorious an Alliance to betray it afterward to their own greater advantage From their joyning in it was called the Triple Alliance His Majesty with great sincerity continued to solicite other Princes according to the seventh Article to come into the Guaranty of this Treaty and delighted himself in cultivating by all good means what he had planted But in a very short time these Counsells which had taken effect with so great satisfaction to the Nation and to his Majestyes eternal honour were all changed and it seemed that Treatyes as soon as the Wax is cold do lose their virtue The King in June 1670 went down to Dover to meet after a long absence Madam his onely remaining sister where the days were the more pleasant by how much it seldomer happens to Princes then private persons to injoy their Relations and when they do yet their kind interviews are usually solemnized with some fatlity and disaster nothing of which here appeared But upon her first return into France she was dead the Marquess of Belfonds was immediately sent hither a Person of great Honour dispatched thither and before ever the inquiry and grumbling at her death could be abated in a trice there was an invisible Leagle in prejudice of the Triple one struck up with France to all the height of dearnesse and affection As if upon discecting the Princess there had some state Philtre been found in her bowells or the reconciliation wiah France were not to be celebrated with a lesse sacrifice then of the Blood Royall of England The sequel will be suitable to so ominous a beginning But as this Treaty was a work of Darknesse and which could never yet be understood or discovered but by the effects so before those appeared it was necessary that the Parliament should after the old wont be gulld to the giving of mony They met the 24th Oct. 1670. and it is not without much labour that I have been able to recover a written Copy of the Lord Bridgmans speech none being printed but forbidden doubtlesse lest so notorious a Practise as certainly was never before though there have indeed been many put upon the Nation might remain publick Although that Honourable person cannot be persumed to have been accessory to what was then intended but was in due time when the Project ripened and grew hopeful discharged from his Office and he the Duke of Ormond the late Secretary Trevor with the Prince Rupert discarded together out of the Committee for the Forraign Affaires He spoke thus My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons WHen the two Houses were last Adjourned this Day as you well know was perfixed for your Meeting again The Proclamation since issued requiring all your attendances at the same time shewed not only his Majesties belief that his business will thrive best when the Houses are fullest but the importance also of the Affaires for which you are so called And important they are You cannot be ignorant of the great Forces both for Land and Sea-service which our Neighbours of France and the Low-Countries have raised and have now in actual Pay nor of the great Preparations which they continue to make in Levying of Men Building of Ships filling their Magazines and Stores with immense quantities of all sorts of Warlike Provisions Since the beginning of the last Dutch War the French have increased the Greatness and Number of their Ships so much that their Strength by Sea is thrice as much as it was before And since the end of it the Dutch have been very diligent also in augmenting their Fleets In this conjuncture when our Neighbours Arm so potently even