An Account of some Transactions in this present Parliament, in a Letter to a Person of Quality in the Country.  
SIR,  
I Received yours ten days since, but could not sooner inform you of the Proceed of this Parliament; some expected they would have examined and undone all the last had done, and that several of the Members would have refused the new Oaths, and taken the old Ones, without naming the King; but in a little time they saw their mistake, and that this truly reputed Church of England-Parliament is well pleased with their glorious Deliverer from Popery and Slavery, and secure that the Church of England, as established by Law, will flourish and be safe under his Protection.  
A Noble Duke, who formerly personated a singularity of Humour to preserve himself for great Services, as yet not arrived to be a Minister of State, though very active and instrumental in preserving our new Establishment, brought in a Bill to Recognize their Majesties the Lawful and Rightful King and Queen of these Realms, and to declare the Acts of the late Parliament, begun Feb. 23. 1688. were, are, and of right aught to be, by the Laws of this Realm; which certainly (if any thing his Grace undertakes can be so) seemed altogether needless; for the Bill of Rights Recognized them, and the Votes of the last Parliament, having the Authority of Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled, as well as the Royal Assent, were received for Laws, and the Lives, as well as Estates and Liberties of many have been determined accordingly; therefore this declaring and enacting of them now, in the Opinion of many, seemed not only needless, but dangerous, as striking at the Foundations and rendering the Authority of the late Meetings questionable, as well as the Establishment of this Government: For if the Convention, however called without what some Men style Legal Authority, could make or Vote an Abdication and Vacancy of the Throne, dispose of the Crown, and abrogate the Oaths essential to such Meetings, they might surely, without the formality of Writs, be created or transformed into a Parliament, and be, de Facto, a good Parliament, otherwise their Majesty's Title is founded only in Possession, or, which I dare not say, Usurpation.  
In that famous Precedent of Richard II. we find 35 Articles of Miss government charged on him, by a Parliament called by Writ in his own Name, and he by them declared unfit for Government, who like a good natured Prince submitted, and resigned his Kingship, released his Subjects from their Allegiance, and transferred his Right and Title to Henry of Lancaster, who thereupon claimed it, was vested therein, Recognized and Crowned, held nine Parliaments, and his Son Henry held as many, and his Grandchild lineally succeeded, was Crowned, and held nineteen Parliaments; yet as soon as Edward iv claimed his Hereditary Right, all the confirmations of the 3 preceding Kings, amounted to no more than to be owned by the Statute King's de Facto, in Deed, but not the Jure, of Right.  
This some fancied would have puzzled, or slackened proceed, but it did not consist with the Wisdom of the House to misspend their more precious time in untying Gordian knots, or to lay much stress upon such Cobweb Laws, as were spun out of the Brains of such a Temporising Parliament, as that of Edward iv Our more refined Age is not to take Precedents from our doting Ancestors, but make them. There are always Maxims suited to Times, Circumstances, Convenience, and Necessity. In former times diversity of Religion gave no Bias to Revolutions of State; Faction among the Nobility, and Secular Interest, and Dubious Titles, or Ambition only disturbed the Succession of the Crown.  
But the prevailing consideration now, among some moderate Men, is this, that though they did not contribute to the Revolution, yet they would preserve it; and though the things done cannot be justified according to the old Laws of the Land, yet because dangers may attend the return of the late King, they adhere to the present Government; which reasons will justify other things, which neither give Credit nor Authority to this; but will oblige us to persevere in the way we are in, and bid defiance to Repentance, because there may be less ease and quiet in a new course of Life.  
They who have been active in the Change, and have Dependencies, Offices, and Expectances, must not give place to any Scruples, as others may, but must think and say, He is Lawful and Rightful King; for although according to our Modern Politics, a King de Facto signifies an Usurper; yet the P. of Orange's concurrence, and agreement with the 3 Estates of the Kingdom, can create a Right: Besides, when we see so many, upon this consideration, buy or take Offices, Employments, and Honours under this Government, it must be a sufficient demonstration that the Acts of the late Parliament need no Confirmation, but stand firm upon an Original Right; and that it may clearly be proved beyond doubt, that the People's Sovereign Power may fill, as well as declare the Throne Vacant; so that it is of no mement to insist upon Hereditary Right, or the examples of former times, or the Authority of Ancient Laws.  
These matters occasioned some days debate in the House of Lords; but the Bill had an unexpected dispatch among the Commons, who did not scruple the Words are and were, as some protesting Lords had done; for the Authority of both Houses justifies the good Sense and English of whatever passeth with them; and there is no obligation, I know of, upon the Members to gratify the Captious with an explication of their meaning, since the Nation reaps the benefit of their Wise results.  
There is great reason that they who are entrusted with our Religion, our Estates, our Liberties, and Lives, should Recognize Him whom so many invited, and so few resisted, whom they have enabled to recover one of the four Provinces of Ireland, and will soon Conquer the rest, and Triumph over France it seif, which assists the Rebels there. In short, the Convention represented the whole Body of the People; they declared, or created, the P. of Orange King, and he being once constituted the Head, there must result as proper a Leviathan of Government, as Mr. Hobbs could describe, and I think the Authority of such a Writer should satisfy all Men where the Supreme Power resides.  
Yet notwithstanding what I have hitherto Writ, there were many, who thinking the King no Wiser than themselves, judged he would not have passed the Bill, since, in their Opinion, it being built upon a Republican Foundation, might be a Precedent hereafter to some popular Lord, who being Master of the Art of deceiving, alluring, and cajoling the People, may arrive to be the Captain of the Mob, and thence be encouraged to send out his Circular Letters for Election of a Representative, which having the same fondness for him that the Choosers have, (the fittest and best Men in suh case● often declining the employment,) they who were chosen might Vote an Abdication, and Vacancy, and Elect another King.  
But, I think, we have little reason to fear this in our present Master's days, who is so well served by Foreigners.  
Surely they are mistaken, who say, that the Act of Settlement, which entailed the Crown, is repealed by the Recognition; for it is established by the latter clause otherwise, by Recognising that their Majesties were, are, and of Right aught to be, by the Laws of this Realm, our Sovereign Liege Lord and Lady, King and Queen, etc. Her Royal Highness the Princess of Danmark, who passed, resigned, or disclaimed her Right, by preferring her dear Sister's Husband to the Throne, may be excluded, with her hopeful Issue, from the Succession; which otherwise might devolve to the King's Heirs; especially, if our King were capable of an unjust Act; since it might be suspected, under any other Prince, that where many Foreign Troops have the Guard of a Country, they will be better affected to, and readilier aid a Foreign Prince, than any of the Princes of the Blood, who are Natives.  
I dare not go any further in the account I have from the House of Lords, nor tell the censures passed upon them, lest I should encourage the Enemies of our Gracious King.  
I forbear also to give you an account of the Heats in the House of Commons, their Zeal for the Church of England, and the rejecting the Oath of Abjuration, which was an odd project, and I wonder the King's Friends so much favoured it, which seemed a fatal blow to our Liberties; and, in the Opinion of a most Reverend Divine, was a setting ourselves against Providence, and I am sure was destructive to our Liberties, since the Monarchy is Elective, as by the chusiing a Foreign Prince is evident, it would be very hard to incapacitate a Native, for if a Toy should take the People in the Head again, to think of King JAMES, (which would not be so strange as the Abdication,) this Oath would have put the Negative upon the People, who commonly are troubled with the Disease, called, Nitimur in vetitum, which would mad them that they could not have their Wills.  
But leaving these matters, I will touch upon some things done by the House of Commons, which seems to concern you and all the Preeholders of England in their Estates, for that they have liberally given the King Money; but you must not think them too free in their supply; nor blame them for taking no more notice of the multitude of Strangers, who must be maintained at our charge, since so few English-Men are fit for, or to be trusted with the defence of the Government, or our Country. Indeed, the concern for Religion, and our obligations to the Preserver thereof, aught to make us les● tender, for the Prorogation of the last Parliament, the very day the Money Bill was passed, and the unexpected Dissolution, (before the Act of Indemnity was finished, or several Grievances redressed,) merely to draw on this Parliament to give more Taxes, and own the Authority of the last.  
In King Charles the Second time, we found several things tacked to the Money Bill, lest they should give to, without taking from the Crown: But the House is now more generous, because we have a Prince we can trust with all that is most valuable, and they are abundantly satisfied with the several ways there are to expend the Treasure raised and granted: They know what Sums have passed the Texel, the Pampus, the mosel, Elb, and the Rhine; how much is sent to Copenhagen, and Berlin, besides what Count Conningseck expected, and the Dutch yet want, the equipping of the F●eet, the discharge of the vast Arrears to it, and the Army, and the growing charge to both, till Ireland be reduced, and Scotland throughly subjected to his Majesty's Obedience; so that we are not to Murmur at their liberal Aids, seeing some compute that no less than five Millions in a Year can defray these unavoidable Charges, which would exhaust the Revenue of Potosa, if it were not in the Hands of extraordinary Managers.  
If we may believe the public account, given us in the Foreign Intelligences, we may compute how great a Charge the whole must be, from that Negotiation of Mr. Cox at Zurick for the Aid of 4000 Suissers, contracted for there; which as is expressed, is, that near upon 200000 l. English must be paid, the one half down, the other in two equal portions some time after, as a cautionary pawn for performance of Covenants, which is to be deposited in the Treasury Chamber of their States, with many other circumstances too tedious to relate, whereby we may learn how much must be drained from us by Foreign Troops, which we might fear would prolong the War extravagantly, if they were not such as our King hath chosen.  
I know this galls the Country, which considers the decay of Trade, and losses at Sea, and that while our Traffic was as free and profitable as ever it had been known; yet for near 15 years by past, there were neither Subsidies, Polls, or Taxes: But to balance this we must consider, that we have a new and better Government, which being hastily, though necessarily raised, requires extraordinary supports, to secure it from the fate other new Buildings have had, least by its fall it crash those who promise themselves security under it.  
Upon these Considerations, and for the sake of those brave Patriots, who were the Contrivers and Architects of this great Structure, we must not think Taxes any Charge. The success of this Summer may recompense all, especially, if according to his Promise, and declared Resolution, our Godly Sovereign will adventure to Ireland, no doubt, but, according to the example of England, it will submit, or be easily reduced; from whence he may pass to the Conquest of France, and become the Emperor of the West, or the first Prince in the fifth Monarchy, and the destroyer of Antichrist; which the Great Great Grandchild of the old British Merlin, the Reverend Bishop of St. As. can make out, by his own Dreams, Daniel 's Vision, or the Revelations.  
But if these Glorious Things should not happen in our Times, we have our Religion secured, so that none can hurt or destroy it but ourselves; for indeed we have so dressed and made it our own, that if some Reverend Fathers were not Sponsors, we should think it changed; for the old fashioned Church of England-Men say, it is not that which was at the first Reformation, nor what our Forefathers or Primitive Christians professed.  
But so long as we have our Religion as it is, let our Ships, our Trade, our Estates, Lives, and Liberties go which way they will, we cannot be unhappy, having the same evidence and assurance for our Country, some good Men have had for their own Salvation: And if Hurricanes wreck our Ships, pestilential Diseases destroy our Forces by Sea and Land, our Powder-Mills be blown up, whereby, besides the loss of so great a proportion of that so necessary Commodity, and some lives, (at which our Religious Q. was so affrighted:) If the French take our Ships, and the Dutch our Trade, they are to be thought acdents, and misfortunes, or any thing besides marks of the Divine displeasure, whose favour we have Insured by taking so great care, and doing such extraordinary things for his Honour, and the preservation of his Truth.  
Let not pressing Men be compared to spiriting, and kidnapping, nor imprisoning Men so Pressed in the Round-houses or Goals, nor forcing Women to attend the Camp, as Laundresses, Nurses, etc. be thought any breach of our English Liberties. We know Necessity hath no. Law; Old Forms must not hinder our Safety. It is our our comfort that our necessity was our choice, and we cannot reasonably complain of any but ourselves; which for good Reasons we ought not to do, lest it should look like discontent, or inconstancy, though if the half of our present Burdens had been Imposed, or threatened, by the Abdicated King, it would have been intolerable.  
I cannot forbear condemning some, who studying the Improvement of their Country, made the increase of Inhabitants necessary thereto, and yet complain of Foreigners coming in; for though we want many thousand Mouths to spend the product of our Country, which were sent to Scotland, Ireland, and our Plantations; yet this defect is supplied with the better, and more numerous supply of Danes, Dutch, and Strangers of other Nations, with their Wives and Children; so that we are in hopes, though we may want Natives, yet we shall not want numbers of Inhabitants, even such as will ease us of our cares, and hazards of Trade and War. Our courteous and civilised Neighbours will Fight for, and defend us, will Trade for, and supply us; and those Commodities which, with danger of crosing the Seas, we fetch from all parts of the World, may be brought us from Holland, and our Countrymen may be trained to Husbandry; and when our running Cash is gone, we may supply our want of Money by the old way of Trade, and Traffic by exchange of Commodities.  
And indeed more Foreign Forces will be necessary to keep us poor, till we are better accustomed to, and prepared to relinquish that too long, yet Factious Pride, whereby we have been so uneasy to our Kings, and we are not like to quit that Vice, which Peace and Plenty hath Nursed us in, till we are brought to some degree of Slavery. Poverty will keep of Envy, and Popish Emissaries will no more trouble us, when we are well settled, than Bees do the Mustard Pot.  
So long as our Religious King and Queen encourage long Praeyers before Sermons, and like Preaching so well, as to have Afternoon-Sermons at White-Hall, though he be forced to keep many Papists in pay, and hath been reconciled to, and communicated, as some confidently affirm, with the Church of Rome; we must not doubt but he hath cleared himself of all his Engagements of that kind to the late Pope, and is wholly in the true Protestant Interest, having allowed the deprivation of the Bishops, and wilful Clergy in Scotland, abolished Episcopacy itself, and we may reasonably expect the like Settlement and Reformation here, after he hath reduced Ireland, and expelled his Rebellious FATHER out of that part of his Dominions: And if we supply him with Money enough, he will be Victorious over the French, and extinguish all hopes of his Enemies.  
Our late Kings have been so unfortunate with that ancient Motto, Dieu & mon Droit, as they claimed the Government from God and their Right, that our Wise King had no reason to keep it; but being resolved to support us by his own Arm and Interest, he hath not only covered some of the Royal Arms of England with his Eschucheon of Pretence; but, as a Motto of better Proof, has substituted his, instead of the other, and the Wagons carry upon them these Words, Je meinteindra: I will maintain it. And this Family, which from a small Principality, attained to the Dignity of Stadholder. is in him advanced to possess a Title to 4 Crowns, which he and his Posterity will maintain; and we have great cause to think ourselves happy under his Government, who adventured his Life and Fertunes to deliver us from Popery and Slavery, and will again hazard his Sacred Person, an Infirm Body, and Great Soul, for our Preservation.  
FINIS.