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
this Project they next procured young Tongue Son to Dr. Tongue to prove that his Father the Earl of Shaftsbury and Oates invented the Popish Plot Whereupon one of the Lords of the Council asked him If they contrived Coleman's Letters too To which he could make no reply and indeed the whole business was so weak and ridiculous that it effected nothing more than the depressing the Wretch that was to have been the Evidence of it under the weight of his own Guilt he being committed to the King's-Bench where he hath ever since remained Besides their publick Designs they had several secret Projects and Artifices to accomplish his Ruine As forging of his Hand and other such like base and villanous Arts as appears by their intercepting Letters directed to his Lordship and after having incerted Treason in them in a hand as near the Original as they could possibly counterfeit transmitted them to such hands as would certainly acquaint our Ministers of State therewith but more especially a certain Gentleman who had commanded a Regiment of Horse in the Service of his late Majesty for whose sake and his present Majestie 's he suffered the loss of all that he had writ to the Earl about relieving him against the Gout with which he was much afflicted whose Letter was intercepted the person that writ it lived at that time in the Frengch King's Dominions and after they had added to it an account that the Writer was able to furnish the Earl with Forty thousand men from France to oppose the D. Y's Interest it was then convey'd to some of the French Ministers of State presuming they would send a Copy of it hither but by an over-ruling Providence the Letter was strangely return'd into the Gentleman's own hands whereby the mischief they intended was prevented His Majesty having prorogued the Parliament his Lordship together with the Earls of Huntington Clare Stamford c. the Lords North and Grey Chando's Grey Howard and Herbert being introduced to his Majestie 's Presence by his Highness Prince Rupert presented the following Petition and Advice to His Majesty SIR VVE are here to cast our selves at your Majestys feet being Ten of the Peers of Your Realm of England and in our own Names and in the Names of several others of our fellow Peers do humbly beg That Your Majesty would consider the great Danger Your Royal Person is in as also the Protestant Religion and the Government of these Your Nations We humbly pray that in a time when all these are so highly concerned Your Majesty will effectually use Your Great Council the Parliament SIR Out of the deepest sence of Duty and Loyalty to Your Majesty we offer it as our humble Advice and earnest Petition that the Parliament may sit at the time appointed and that Your Majesty would be Graciously pleased to give publick Notice and Assurance thereof that the minds of Your Majestys Subjects may be settled and their fear removed To this Petition and Advice His Majesty answered He would consider of what they had offered and told them that he heartily wished all other people were as solicitous for the peace and good of the Nation as he was and ever would be However he was pleased soon after to Prorogue the Parliament from the 26th of January till the 11th of November following About this time his Lordship was visited with a violent and dangerous fit of Sickness and his recovery was somewhat doubted of but Heaven was pleased to spare him to be a further Scourge and Terrour to the Papists those common Pests of Christendom and sworn Enemies to His Majesty and the English Nation The Romanists having tryed so many ways and different methods for accomplishing his Ruine resolved to try a new Stratagem for the effecting thereof viz. The tampering with Dugdale to retract his Evidence concerning the Popish-plot and endeavour to prevail with him to withdraw himself into some place beyond the Seas and leave a Writing behind him wherein he was to retract all he had sworn against the Papists and pretend that the occasion of his Retraction was an extream trouble and anguish of Conscience for having so unjustly and wickedly injured the Papists and procured the shedding of innocent blood affirming that it was by the instigation of his Lordship and other Protestants of unblemished Loyalty to His Majesty upon whom he was moreover to six the Odium of a Presbyterian Plot not only against the Papists but against His Majesties Person and Government But the mischief of it was they had not then Debauched his Conscience perswaded him to question the Truth of God's Omnisciency or wholly Erradicated the Beleif of a Deity out of his mind and thereby render him hardy enough to undertake so Barbarous a Work without any kind of Hissitation Wherefore being touched with some Remorse at so horrid a Villany he gave an account of the business to his Lordship and some others and so that design suffered the same fate with the rest and produced no other effect than exposing the malice of his Enemies and the informing him what he must live in a dayly expectation of from those indefatigable wretches and purchasers of Perjury by offers of two Thousand Pounds and promises of other Rewards and Gratitudes A Sum so considerable and Arguments so powerful and irresistable that it would have been a rarity much more amazing and would infinitly have transcended any of those called The Seven Wonders of the World if they should alwaies have been so unhappy as not to meet with some Profligate Villain or other who would upon those considerations engage to Swear whatsoever they should dictate and even defie the Almighty and storm Heaven it self to gain so immence a Treasure and acquire a Fortune so far above what their Birth or Education ever gave them a Prospect of In December 1680. he was present at and assisted in the trying William Viscount Stafford upon an Impeachment of the House of Commons for Ploting and Conspiring with the Pope and his Emissaries to Murther the King exterpate the Protestant Religion and subvert the Government of these Kingdoms and after a fair Tryal his Lordship with the Majority of the Peers sound him Guilty of the Treason whereof he stood Impeached upon which he received Sentence to be Hang'd Drawn and Quarter'd the rigour whereof was remitted by the Gracious Pleasure of His Majesty And not long after he was beheaded on a Scaffold erected for that purpose on Tower-Hill On the 10th of Jannuary His Majesty Prorogued the Parliament and on the 18th they were Dissolved by Proclamation and a New one summoned to meet at Oxford on the 21 st of the following March which being looked upon by his Lordship and divers others of the Nobility and Gentry to be ominous and attended with much hazard and danger and was afterwards really found to be so by some To prevent which the Earl joyned with several Noblemen in presenting a humble Petition and Advice full of Tenderness
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
the Truth that they were framed and conveyed thither by himself since it would have been impossible otherwise to have known the Contents of Letters in a Gentlemans Chamber with whom he had never exchanged two words in his Life wherefore refusing to make Affidavit he was forced to go away without a Warrant Whereupon he repaired to the Lord Peter telling him what had happened and that he had been twice at the Earl of Shaftsburys His Lordship seemed to be well pleased therewith and promised that when any Forces were raised he would put in for a Regiment of Horse and would give him a Troop in the same but withal bid him be sure to do the Earls business the third time However the Countess of Powis and Mrs. Cellier were extreamly angry with him for refusing to make such Affidavit as the Secretary required for the obtaining a Warrant telling him he might safely have sworn since he had formerly seen and been at the Writing of some of them that at the worst it could not be Perjury because the Oath was not made in a Court of Record perswading him to make amens for that oversight by repairing again to Thannet House and there without any hissitation or fear stab the Earl of Shaftsbury He desired to be excused in that Affair assuring her that his two former disappointments had so discouraged him that he could not possibly perswade himself ever to make any further attempts in that kind At which her Ladyship seeming very much concerned obraided him with Cowardice and said she would go her self No Madam replyed Mrs. Cellier that shall not be for I will go and do the business so effectually that there shall be no occasion for a second attempt whereby I will convince the World that some of our Sex are braver and more couragious and daring than the Men. Then the Countess asked him if he had learned where Mr. Mansel's Lodgings were yes said he with a great deal of trouble I have he Lodgeth at Westminster Why then you timerous person said she pray take these Papers and convey them privately into some part of his Chamber Closet or Trunks He told her it was impossible to do that in regard he had no manner of knowledg of him You must said her Ladiship find out some way or other to get acquainted with him and then you must invite him to the Tavern and Drink smartly whereby you may doubtless have an opportunity to Lodge the Papers in some part of his Cloaths and so soon as you have done that you must immediately upon pretence that he has spoke Treason call for a Constable and get him apprehended and searched and the Papers carryed to the King and Council and so get him committed This was to have been the Introduction to their Conspiracy for destroying not only this Illustrious Lord whose vertue and firm and stedy cleaving to the Interest of His Majesty and the Protestant Religion had rendered him the greatest Object of their hatred and malice but likewise of all the chief English Protestant Nobility and Gentry who had any way discovered their Aversation to Popery by endeavouring to have their Hellish Designs against the Sacred Life of His Majesty and the Protestant Religion throughly searched into and prosecuted For upon this he was to have moved the King and Council to have impowered him to search the Lodgings and Houses of several other Gentlemen whither they were to have conveyed the like Treasonable Papers Then she delivered him fifteen Letters and a List of Names but one of the Letters and the List of Names being Written by her own hand she desired him to get them Transcribed which he offering to do himself was told by her that it must not be done by him because they were to be brought before the King and Council and the King having received from him some Remarks Written with his own hand already would thereby discover the whole to be forged Wherefore having got a Scrivener over-against Sommerset House to Transcribe them he went to Ax-yard in Kings-street Westminster where inquiring for Lodgings he was directed to Mr. Harris's which was the very House where the Colonel Lodged and there under the feigned Name of Thomas desired to know what Chambers they had to dispose of and being shewed all the Rooms in the House none would please him but the two Rooms up one pair of Stairs but was told that Colonel Mansel Lodged in them and therefore they could not be disposed of without his consent which could not then be obtained in regard he was not at home so that he could not effect any thing at that time Wherefore the Female Hero resolving to approve her self the Champion of the Popish Cause went with a feigned Complement to his Lordship hoping before her return to give him a Wound somewhat more fatal than that which she had formerly given to some others of our Sex But his Lordship according to his usual custom when he Treated with Strangers kept a strict Eye upon her during the whole time they were discoursing together and perceiving her to be busily fumbling about her Pockets he gently laid his hand upon hers and pleasently drol'd with her concerning the business she pretended to visit him about whereat being very much troubled and discouraged she presently took leave of his Lordship But being advanced almost as far as the Door and reflecting upon the disgrace she should bring upon her self by having promised never to return but with the happy News of Victory and yet accomplishing as little or less than Dangerfield whose Cowardice she had exclaimed against with so much scorn and contempt she suddenly returned towards his Lordship resolving not to stir from the spot until she had laid him at her Foot But the Earl seeing her come back steps to her and as if guided by the direction of some superior influence laid his hand upon hers as before which so dashed her out of countenance that she was forced to depart without success Heaven having Decreed that this Illusterous Peer who had been so useful to the King and Kingdom should not loose his Life so tamely and fall a Sacrafice to papal Rage Nor that the English Anals should ever report to succeeding Ages that the great Shaftsbury was slain by the feeble hand of an Impeous Strumpet This disappointment heightened their Rage and made them resolve to hasten the finishing of their Plot not doubting but to involve him in the common ruine of the rest of the Protestant Nobility Wherefore Dangerfield went presently and took the two Rooms where Mansel Lodged he having consented to remove one pair of Stairs higher that so he might not hinder the House of so benificial a Lodger as he seemed to be And being conducted into the Room where the Colonel was to Lodge whilst his own was put in order and fitted for him he laid hold of that opportunity to place those Treasonable Papers behind the Colonel's Beds-head and then
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
to above an Hundred more who had been Members of the former Parliament and had render'd themselves obnoxious to the Usurper by Opposing and Acting in contradiction to his Designs of Establishing his Tyranny They being all Excluded for want of the aforesaid Certificate or Warrant Whereupon after having consulted together they applied themselves for Redress to that part of the Parliament which was admitted to Sit. Acquainting them by way of complaint that above an Hundred of the Members which were chosen by the Country and sent up to serve in the Parliament were not able to obtain admittance into the House being kept out by order of the Protector But those within the House being all of them Cromwells Creatures upon the Questions being put Resolved That those persons ought to make their Application to the Council for Acceptance and Approbation Whereupon finding that they could obtain no relief against those Arbitrary and Illegal Practices of the Usurper they unanimously consented to draw up and publish a Remonstrance wherein they claimed the priviledge of the Ancient Fundamental Laws and their Birth-right as Free-men of England But the Remonstrance being much too large to be here inserted I shall only present you with one or two Paragraphs as a Specimen of those brave Heroes Resolutions against a Protectorian Invasion And the greatness of their Courage and brave English Gallantry will be the more conspicuous if we consider this was done when the then Protector was in his Zenith when he had made almost all Europe tremble before him ahd gave Laws to his Neighbouring Princes and held that Thunder in his Fist wherewith he shook the Nation off her very Foundations And the House too filled with those who either were or seemed to be his Creatures Yet in a general Defiance of this so Potent a Conquerour did those Noble Patriots amongst other things Remonstrate When our Worthy Ancestors have been met in Parliaments and have found Oppression and Tyranny supported by such strong hands that they could not prevail to secure their Countries Lives and Liberties by wholsome Laws they have often made their Protestations against Injustice and Oppression and forewarned the People of their danger In like manner we who have been duly chosen by the People to be Members of the Parliament that should now have met and have an undoubted Right to meet Sit and Vote in Parliament although we are Oppressed by Force of Arms and shut out of the usual place of Parliament Sitting yet having Hearts sensible of that highest Trust reposed in us and being filled with Cares for the Church and Common-wealth which with grief of heart we behold bleeding we do hold our selves bound in duty to God and our Country to declare unto the People of England their and our woful condition and the most evident danger of the utter Subversion of Religion Liberty Right and Property We believe the Rumour is now gone through the Nation that Armed Men employed by the L. P. have prevented the free Meeting and Sitting of the intended Parliament and have forcibly shut out of doors such Members as he and his Council supposed would not be frighted or flattered to betray their Country and give up their Religion Lives and Estates to be at his Will to selve his Lawless Ambition But we fear that the Slavery Rapines Oppressions Cruelties Murthers and Confusions that are comprehended in this horrid Fact are not so sensibly discerned or so much laid to heart as the case requires and we doubt not but as the common practice of the Man hath been the Name of God and Religion and formal Fasts and Prayers will be made use of to colour over the Blackness of the Fact We do therefore in faithfulness to God and our Country hereby Remonstrate First That whereas by the Fundamental Laws of this Nation the People ought not to be bound by any Laws but such as are freely consented unto by their chosen Deputies in Parliament and it is a most wicked Usurpation even against the very Laws of Nature for any man to impose his Will or Discretion upon another as a Rule unless there be some compact or Agreement between the parties for that intent And whereas by the Mercy of God only in preserving this Fundamental Law and Liberty the good People of England have beyond memory of any Record preserved their Estates Families and Lives which had otherwise been destroyed at the will of every wicked Tyrant and by keeping this only as their undoubted Right they have been kept from being brutish Slaves to the lusts of their Kings who would otherwise have despoiled them of their Persons Lives and Estates by their Proclamations and the Orders of themselves and their Council Now the L. P. hath by force of Arms invaded this Fundamental Right and Liberty and violently prevented the meeting of the peoples chosen Deputies in Parliament and he and his Council boldly declare That none of the Peoples Deputies shall meet in Parliament unless they agree to the measure of their Fantasies Humours and Lusts They now render the people such Fools or Beasts as know not who are fit to be trusted by them with their Lives Estates and Families But he and his Council that daily devour their Estates and Liberties will judge who are fit to counsel and advise about Laws to preserve their Estates and Liberties Thus doth he now openly assume a power to pack an Assembly of his Confidents Parasites and Confederates and to call them a Parliament that he may from thence pretend that the People have consented to become his Slaves and to have their persons and Estates at his Diseretion And if the people shall tamely submit to such a Power who can doubt but he may pack such a Number as will obey all his Commands and consent to his taking what part of our Estates he pleaseth and to impose what Yoaks he thinks fit to make us draw in They know it to be the undoubted Right of the People to trust whom they think fit and as much the Right of every man duly chosen and trusted to meet and Vote in Parliament without asking their leave or begging their Tickets And although there have been frequent Secret Designs for many years to subvert Religion Liberty and Property in this Nation and to that end the Designs of Tyranny have attempted to destroy sometimes the Being sometimes the Power Priviledges and Freedom of Parliaments yet the Mercy of God hath almost miraculously preserved the Being Priviledges and Authority of Parliaments and therein Religion Liberty and Property until the time of the Lord Protector But now he hath assumed an absolute Arbitrary Soveraignty as if he came down from the Throne of God to create to himself and his Confederates such Powers and Authorities as must not be under the cognizance of the Peoples Parliaments His Proclamations he declares shall be binding Laws to Parliaments themselves he takes upon him to be above the whole Body and every Member of it
cannot long continue in the English hands if some better care be not taken of it This is in your Power and there is not bing there but is under your Laws Therefore I beg that this Kingdom at least may be taken into consideration together with the State of England for I am sure there can be no safety here if these Doors are not shut up and made sure But His Majesty had another kind of esteem for his Lordship for not long after the making of this Speech having Dissolv'd His Privy Council and chosen a new one he was pleased to constitute the Earl President thereof a Place so considerable for Honour and Trust that it hath not been enjoyed by any Subject for many years and was improv'd by him as much to the advantage of His Majesty and the Protestant Interest as possible And when the Bill for excluding the Duke of York had passed the House of Commons as the only expedient they could find out to suppress the Designs of the Papists and prevent their ever introducing the Popish Religion into England they sent it up to the House of Lords where his Lordship was one of those Honourable Lords who Voted for its passing that House in order to its being offered to His Majesty for His Royal Assent The Grand Jury returned for the Hundred of Osalstone in the County of Middlesex in June the 2d 1680. finding the Constables defective in not presenting the Papists as they ought it was ordered they should make further presentments by the 16th of that Instant upon which day they met again to receive them when likewise a Bill against D. Y. for not coming to Church was brought before them together with the following Reasons for his being indicted subscribed by the persons undernam'd First Because the 25th Car. 2d when an Act was made to throw Popish Recusants out of all Offices and Places of Trust the Duke did then lay down several great Offices and Places as Lord High Admiral of England Generalissimo of all His Majesties Forces both by Land and Sea Governour of the Cinque Ports and divers others thereby to avoid the punishmant of that Law against Papists Secondly 30. Car. 2d when an Act was made to disable Papists to sit in either House of Parliament there was a Proviso incerted in that Act That it should not extend to D. Y. on purpose to save his right of sitting in the Lords House though he refused to take those Oaths which the Protestant Peers ought to do Thirdly That His Majesty in His Speech March 6th the 31st year of his Reign doth give for a Reason to the Parliament why he sent His Brother out of England Viz. Because he would leave no Man Room to say that he had not remov'd all Causes which might influence him to Popish Councils Fourthly That there hath been divers Letters read in both Houses of Parliament and at the secret Committee of both Houses from several Cardinals and others at Rome and also from other Popish Bishops and Agents of the Pope in other Forreign Parts which do apparently shew the great Correspondencies between him and the Pope and how the Pope could not choose but weep for joy at the reading of some of his Letters and what great satisfaction it was to the Pope to hear that he was advanced to the Catholick Religion as likewise that the Pope hath granted him Briefs sent him Beads and ample Indulgencies with much more to this purpose Fifthly The whole House of Commons hath Declared him to be a Papist in their Votes Sunday April 6th 1679. wherein they resolv'd nemine contradicente that the Duke of York's being a Papist and his hopes of coming such to the Crown had given the greatest countenance and encouragement to the present Conspiracy and Designs of the Papists against the King and the Protestant Religion Sixthly That besides all this Proof and much more to this purpose it is most notorious and evident he hath for many years absented from Protestant Churches during Religious Worship These are the Reasons why we believe him to be a Papist this was subscribed and delivered by his Lordship together with the Earl of Huntington and the Lords Grey of Wark Russel Cavendish Brandon and Wharton as also by Sir William Cowper Barronet Sir Gilbert Gerrard Barronet Sir Edward Hungerford Knight of the Bath Sir Scroop How Thomas Thinn Esq William Forrester Esq and John Trenchard Esq But whilst the Jury were in debate of the Matter they were sent for up by the Court of Kings-Bench and dismist so that nothing was done upon it more than the Juries having receieved the presentment Wherefore on Wednesday July the Thirtieth the former Lords Knights and Gentlemen with the addition of the Lord Clare Sir John Cope Barronet Sir Rowland Gwynne and Mr. Wandsford presented the same to a second Grand Jury who were discharged as the former But whilst his Lordship was thus vigorously prosecuting the Popish Plot in the face of danger the Papists were as vigilent in contriving his ruine though with somewhat more secrecy and silence resolving to seize the Prey before they gave the least Alarm or Notice of their intention as appear'd by their close Caballistical Designs carryed on against this Earl and all the rest of the Protestant Nobility and Gentry in England wherein Mr. Dangerfield was a considerable Agent having been for that purpose fetcht out of Newgate by the Papists who hoping to reap a vast advantage by having him to manage their Affairs willingly disburst a large sum to discharge his Debts The first sangunary work they imployed him in was to attempt the Murther of his Lordship promising him 500 pounds for so acceptable a service as they apprehended it to be he inquired the Reason why they thirsted after his Life and how there might be any probable way proposed whereby it might be accomplished to which it was answered That as to the first they should be glad to have him out of the way because if they were rid of him as they were of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey it would be no difficult thing to bear down all the rest of their Opposers As to the second They affirmed it to be as easie as desirable since said the Lord P s my Man Wood was at Thannet House two nights since upon pretence of an Errand but his business was to view the House and observe what conveniences there were to make his escape after the fact was done assuring him that Wood found the thing so feasable that after he came back he declar'd himself sorry that he was not provided to have done it then And to encourage him to undertake this sanguinary enterprise with the more chearfulness he gave him Ten Guinneys in hand as an assurance that the full reward should be paid so soon as the fatal stroak should be given Promising moreover that Mr. Regaut a Virginia Merchant of Mrs. Celliers acquaintance should come to him on Sunday following to instruct him in