AN ACCOUNT OF Mr. blunt's late Book, ENTITLED, King William AND Queen Mary CONQUERORS, Now under the Censure OF THE PARLIAMENT.  
London, Printed in the Year, 1693.   

An Account of Mr. BLUNT's late BOOK, etc.  
ROyal Prerogative is a subject of that nice and tender Quality, that 'tis undoubtedly an unpardonable Presumption for any common unhallowed Pen to touch. 'Tis not the Pretensions of Zeal and Loyalty that takes up the Pen, that can apologise for the Bold Hand that guides it, any more than Zimri that held up the Ark. If an Examination of the Fountain and Boundaries of Supreme Power fall under any Cognizance, 'tis unquestionably in the Legislative Body. The opening the Cabinet of such Records belongs to their Hands that keep the Key. If therefore the forementioned Presumption, even simply considered, is an Offence of that high Nature, certainly the Transports of that mad Scribble that outruns all the Bounds of Truth and Reason; and Launches into those unaccountable Mistakes and Frenzies, as utterly to destroy the very Fundamentals of the Constitution, must deserve a double Lash. A more notorious Instance whereof has not been matched in the late Licentious Pamphlet that has made such a Noise in the Town, of which not only the Author but Licenser have fallen under the just Displeasure of our worthy Patriots in Parliament assembled; a Rebuke so proper from 'em, in a Cause where Their own and the Nations Honour is so highly concerned, and which deserved a Repremand from no Less a Hand than Theirs.  
'Tis the Boldness of that hardened Piece that we presume in some few Remarks to examine; a Piece which certainly nothing but Infatuation (Infatuation the Pen-man's best Excuse) could dictate. For besides the egregious Unreasonableness of the whole Foundation of that Discourse, 'tis absolutely impossible the Author in his Right Wits should ever hope that such a subject on such a Basis should please any thing Living, himself only excepted.  
For instance; Suppose it in the favourablest Sense, a well-meaning Loyal Harangue, with both these fair Aspects, viz. First, as intended a Court-service to Their Majesties, by fixing the Crown upon their Heads by so formidable a Right and Tenure as That of Conquest. And Secondly, Settling the People's Obedience in a firm and duteous Resignation to the Sovereign Authority; founded on that Claim and Possession: Yet both ways has the Author instead of the least gaining his Point, utterly lost his Aim.  
For Example, He is so far from caressing Their Majesties in it, that 'tis possibly the coursest and most disrelishing Compliment (to give it no worse Name) he could have picked them out, in writing them Conquerors. That way of Acquiring a Crown being the remotest from their Thoughts from the first Step towards the Revolution, and through the whole Course of their Accesses and Advances to the Throne. The Prince's Declarations all utterly abjured any such Pretention; nor indeed were the Forces he brought over a competent Strength for the least Shadow of such an Attempt. And though 'tis true, several contributing Providences, to our never to be forgotten Happiness, all conspired to enable the Gratitude of England to reward their Champion and Deliverer with the Presentation of a Diadem; yet I am certain in his proudest Triumph (pardon the Barbarity of that Epithet) he would have taken it very disdainfully to have been saluted with the Address of the Thief to Alexander, viz. to be Entitled that Greatest of Robbers, however otherwise glorious Name, a Conqueror. No; thanks to Heaven, a softer and gentler Coronation Glory, Oblation and Gift, not Rapine and Violence, encircled that Brow.  
Non Rapit Imperium Vis tua, sed Recipit.  
And if after all this, thls doughty Penman has endeavoured to lay so ungrateful a Load upon the Royal Shoulders, he has made the most mistaken Piece of Work on't that Folly and Ignorance could ever be guilty of; at least if intended as a Favour.  
Nor indeed is his intended popular Service herein a much more welcome Obligation, For  
First, Here's the whole Glory of England totally eclipsed for ever, when a poor handful of 14000 Men, such wonderful Victors, could make so entire a Subjection of the little-hearted Great Britain with so much Ease, and so small Trouble.  
'tis possible if such a Feather would stick in the Hoilanders Caps, there would not want that Vanity in some of our Hogan Neighbours, that partly in Respect and Favour to their Royal State-Holder, and a little in pride to themselves, would perk up and plume with such a Title, As Third William, the Second Conqueror. And yet as matters stand, so much to the contrary, and so far from such a Thought, I fancy, there's not the poorest Dutchman, even in his very Ale, but has long since learned better English; though our Enthusiastic Englishman this sober Author, has pleased so wilfully and so strangely to forget himself, and his Mother Tongue.  
This State-Casuist little considers what a Blow he has given to the whole English Army, provided they are of that opinion as to join with him in Glorifying their Majesties with his Attribute of Conquerors. For their Martial Memorials will furnish but a poor homely Record, viz. That 25000 not one of them durst strike a stroke, nay, so many of them run off to the Prince of Orange; for all this Submission and Desertion, to a Conquer or, is downright Dread and Terror, no Kindness and Inclination, which are only due to Guests and Friends. 'Tis well for him, that the Parliament by way of Civil Magistracy have taken him into Consideration; for were he under Martial Judgement, I would not run his Gauntlet, for twice the honour of being Author of his Pamphlet.  
Nay the Parliament themselves are not much in his Debt, I mean as to any over great kindness owing for Civilities received from him; for he has made bold to put a damnable Slur upon the whole Convention of England: For at his rate of Faith, or Front rather; (for we hope he believes better things) they were all very impertinently busy, in bestowing of Imperial Crowns upon the Prince of Orange, when God knows they were his own before. For if he claimed by Conquest, having before that time the whole Power, every Fort, Town, Stengh, etc. thro' all England in his hands; and consequently the Universal submission of the Nation in yielding all to this to him, the whole Royal Regalia of Conquest being then already his own, the Conventionary Donation was but Trifle and Mimickry: Nay, Their Majesties themselves are a little overseen (if like our Author I may make so bold with them) in Commencing their Anniversary of their Reign from the 13th of February.  
In short, the Confusion's arising from his Hypothesis are too numerous to recite: All that we can think worth Commendation in it is that he has made His Majesty doubly a Conqueror. For First belike he Conquered King James, and then himself: For notwithstanding all the peculiar claims and privileges of Conquest, he has entirely waved them all, and has sat down contented with a plain English limited Monarchy, without assuming the least Jewel of Conquest for adorning his Diadem.  
'Tis true our Author bound himself to a more modest Circle in the notion of Conquest, his position being confined to this narrow Compass. viz. That King William Conquered King James, but not the Nation; and that therefore he acquired a Title to all the Rights of King James, but not to any Rights of the Nation. That King James had a Right to Govern this Natton, but by being Conquered he lost that Right, and in short, King William won it. The business therefore of this short Paper is to fathom and examine the depth of this Position, being indeed the Grand Thesis of the whole Book.  
Now to begin with the Incongruities in the very Foundation of his Discourse: For to Conquer a King and all his Rights, and those Rights being granted to intend to his Government of his Kingdom, and yet to make that distinct and wholly separate from the Rights of the Nation, is so near to a contradiction that nothing possibly can be nearer, the Right of Governing over a People being at least their highest and dearest Concern, and the Conquest of that Right, and the Latitudes of Power annexed to such a Conquest, being undoubtedly their tenderest and nearest Consideration.  
Well, as great as it was, King William conquered all this, which in every vulgar Apprehension, was conquering as much as King James had to lose; a very fair Prize, let me tell ye, for by Birthright, and all the ties of Succession, his Right extended to the Supreme Administration of three Realms, as far as the Landmarks of Law reached in the Rule and Sway of a limited Monarchy: A goodly Conquest, the People's unconquered Rights remaining, being only Duty and Obedience to their Sovereign Conqueror accordingly, which how far agreeing with the Circumstances of Their Majesty's Accession to the Crown will soon be examined.  
If King James his Desertion upon all the Premises suggested by this Author, viz. That, seeing the People's Universal Inclination for, an Adherence to the Prince of Orange, Theirs and his Armies total Defection and Revolt, the Forces, Strengths, Garrisons, all things committed and yielded up to the Prince, and consequently, all the Regalia of Conquest invested in him; and that thereupon, looking upon himself as a vanquished Prince, he fled before the Conqueror, left London, & retired to Feversham in order to make his escape from Subjection, and being there taken Prisoner, attempted, and succeeded in his second escape at Rochester, etc. If all these Premises, I say, Intitule our present Sovereign to the Style of Couquerour; by the same parallel Reasons urged by this Author, I will as strongly prove, that there never was a Change from the Lancastrian to the York, or from the York to the Lancastrian Line, in all the Successions from the Conquest, but every such Change equally might challenge the claim of Conquest.  
For first, we must take it for granted, (and therein our Author agrees with us) that every possessing Yorkist, or Lancastrian Prince was lawfully King, more especially if his Right was confirmed by several unbroken Successions in the same Descent and Family. And if so, undoubtedly, whatever contesting Dispute lay between the red and white Rose, the Non-possessing Family had all their Pretensions swallowed, and silenced in the Possessors prevailing Interest and Title.  
Hereupon, supposing the possessing Lancastrian-Prince dies, as soon as the Breath is out of his Body, the whole Regalia, the Imperial Claims are all, ipso momento, in the nex Lancastrian Heir: (for in that Sense the King never dies) and therefore, such Heir as rightfully King, upon the starting up of a York Branch into the Throne, which cannot be done, but as the Prince of Orange's Case, with the total Bent and Byass of the People's Inclination or Concession at least. (for what Motives or Reasons persuaded, it matters not) Here's the Lancastrian Right Heir, and as Heir, now rightful King of England dispossessed: And whether the Case exactly quadrate in all particulars with that of King James, viz. That the thus Dispossessed Abdicates, flies the Kingdom, or absconds in it, at least, he utterly runs before the prevailing Prince, and Volens Nolens, quits all Claim, to the possessing Arm of Power, perhaps more entirely in that point than King James has done. Nay, all this too (to parallel Circumstances yet a little nearer) possibly after tougher & longer Disputes than the Two Battles urged by the Author for Preliminaries to the Prince's Victory, viz. The Skirmish at Wincanton, where Thirty of the Prince of Orange's Men defeated Seventy Horse, and Fifty Dragoons under Sarsfield; and the other at Reading, where another Party of the Prince's killed Fifty of King James ' s Dragoons. Now, I say, if such Circumstances as these are enough to make the Alienation of the Crown a Conquest, how many Crowned Heads since First William must write conquerors! Nay, not in England only; for the whole Chronicles of all Nations would be swelled with Revolutions that with full as much Reason would fall under that Denomination. For instence, The present King of Portugal may with full as much Right justify the Title of Conqerour, his elder Brother his Predecessor, being unfortunately Delirious, and thereby guilty of Misgovernment, was by the People and the States of the Kingdom, removed, and expelled from the Throne, and the younger Brother planted in his Seat, and not only made Possessor of his Brother's Kingdom, but of his Brother's Wife the Queen too.  
And what matters the distinction between King James and the Portugal King's Misgovernment,, one through a crazed, and the other a Religious Frenzy, let it suffice both of them were laid aside, both their Subjects abandoned and deserted them, both were equally forced to Abdicate, and consequently both their Successors might claim an equal Title of conquerors, only with a little Advantage on the Portugal's side: For had our Author been his Historian, he must have added one little Gem more to his Diadem, than he has done to King William's, for as belike King William only conquered King James, the King of England, but not the People of England, the Portugal Conqueror, in the like Conquest, outshot him a whole Bows length, for he conquered both King of Portugal and Queen too.  
In short, the extravagant Follies, and ridiculous Absurdities from such an Hypothesis would be endless, for granting King William was justly entitled Conqueror from that Hour he had King James in his Power, under Restraint and Subjection, as our Author terms it; by the same parity of Power and Subjection, there's never a civil Broil or most unnatural Rebellion, to instance too many, where Kings have been often in the prevailing Subjects Power, but during that Mastery the Subjects, by his way of Reasoning, might style themselves Royal Conquerors: For though as our Author distinguishes in our present Sovereign's Case, by the long recited Plea of Justice in his entering the Kingdom with an Armed Power; yet, in the forementioned Rebellious Inurrections, the Prevalence os the Sword, whether in a right or wrong Cause, may equally pretend to Conquest: This I am certain the French King makes no such Distinction, and his very Enemies are pleased to write him Conqueror even in the vilest of his Triumphs, the very Towns and Acquisitions he has bought with his Levidores, and Conquest at best, how strong soever a Title, is not the most sparkling Crown Jewel.  
But to leave this remoter Discourse, I shall come to one entire and utter Confutation of our Author's whole Chain of Argument. The Prince of Orange was not properly the Conqueror of King James even in his own Restriction and Limitation of Conquest, viz. The Conqueror of King James, but not of England.  
For Example, after King James had looked upon himself as a vanquished and an abandoned Prince, as he terms it; and therefore, whither out of shame of standing a too critical Enquiry into his Male Administration, or detected Intrigues, refused the proffered Retreat of Ham House; or out of any other Fear or Motive, deserted his Kingdom, and fled, and escaped into France; yet even then was not the Prince of Orange, in his highest Power, any way King James' Conqueror; for instead of his being Conquered, it than lay in the Breast of the whole People and Community of England, in Convention assembled, to have recalled him back again, (that is, if so minded) to have treated him still, as King of England, to have received and refixt him again on his Throne on such and such Terms and Articles of Security, for better Administration, and future Amendment, if any such could have been hoped or expected, and the Prince all the while (though invited over by them, as their Deliverer) so far from claiming Conquest, or being his own Chooser, by Virtue of any such Pretention; that on the contrary, it lay wholly in the People's Breast, how far their Gratitude would reward their Protector of their Religion and Liberties.  
So that upon the upshot, If King James was Conquered, 'twas by his own fearful or wilful running away from his Kingdom, whereby the People Seizing his quitted, abandoned, and relinquished Crown into their own then Rightful Possession, by such Disertion and Relinquishment, made a generous and grateful Present of it to their most Honoured Champion, then fully and lawfully empoured to accept so Glorious a Gift; insomuch, that if, according to our Author's Notion, there be any thing of Conquership in the Case, to Humour our Author's Fancy, it lies between King James, and the Victorious Convention; for King William and Queen Mary have the least, or rather no part at all of any such Claim or Challenge. And if there were any such thing as Conquest in the Case, alas, the Conquering blow was not given till the Convention was pleased to declare, the Imperial Crown of England was for such & such Causes devolved into theirs and their only Hands, and as such they were pleased to dispose it, where and to whom, as their indisputable Will and Pleasure seemed Meet and Reasonable.  
So that, to draw Matters towards a Conclusion, our Author has involved himself in the most unaccountable Labyrinth and Confusion, from his Chimerical distinction of Conquering King James, but not the Kingdom of England, which strictly examined, is little more than just nothing. For, How did he Conquer King James? Yes, he frighted his Person out of his Kingdom; (that is, if his own conscious terrifying Faults did not do it for him) but as to his Crown, Title, Kingship, Royalty, those he conquered not; all those were purely and wholly the Concession and Grant of the People, and no ways his own Atchivement or Acquisition. So that, to sum up the whole, in styling our Gracious Sovereigns, King William and Queen Mary conquerors in our present Circumstances, he has given them a Title of neither Honour nor Service, for they hold both by a stronger and fairer Claim, derived from the Original Fountain of Power, the universal Donation of the People under the Possession and Devolution aforesaid, etc.  
And thus this unhappily started Notion of Conquest-Tenure must not only be an ungrateful Theme to the Nation, as so notoriously derogating from the Glory of their own Act and Deed, the aforesaid Donation of the Crown; but likewise, be a nauseous and irksome Apprehension to the English People's Constitution and Kidney, who are not possibly overfond of such a Qualification of Imperial Majesty reigning over them; and therefore, our Author has very unfortunately managed so untowardly an Argument, intended for the indearing and inducing a more Zealous Devotion and Obedience to their Majesties, from so weak and so unattractive an Invitation, as the Title of conquerors.  
This Gentleman, take the whole Mass of his Discourse together, I must do him that right, has a very honest Meaning. He has made it his Business to assert the Right of their present Majesties in as vigorous a Manner as the warmest Zeal and Affection could Inspire, has throughly evinced from his Positions laid down.  
That King James hath totally lost his Right to these Kingdoms; and therefore, if he comes again with an Army, he is to be looked upon by the Subjects with no other Eyes than any other Invader, but is to be resisted by them. Our Fleets and Armies, without any scruple of Conscience to weaken their Hands, may and aught to fight as becomes Valiant Men, in the defence of their present Sovereigns, and their Country; and that not only against the French King, but likewise against the late King James, if he should come along with a Fleet, or head an Army against us.  
But after all, as there is no occasion or want of the Claim of Conquest, either to strengthen their Majesty's Interest, or weaken the Pretence of his Enemies, under what Name or Class whatever. All this Duty to the one, and Resistance against the other, are equally, if not more strongly enforced from that softer and gentler Royal Right, invested and lodged in Their present Majesties, from the forementioned clearer Fountain of Power.  
FINIS.