Obsequium & Veritas: 
 OR A DIALOGUE Between LONDON and SOUTHWARK, Concerning the Sitting and Dissolution of the Last PARLIAMENT at Oxford, March 21st. 1681.  
In a Dialogue betwixt a Shoemaker, and a Tailor.  Shoom. 
GOod morrow, Jack! how stands the case of your Affairs at your end of the Town!  Taylor. 
Stand! Believe me, we are like to have a blessed Parliament; and we don't doubt, but we shall have hopeful Resolutions, and a brave Result of all their Consultations.  Shoom. 
Well; but let us not stand here, let Affairs stand how they will; let us take one Cup of good Ale together, and discourse it further. Let us step here into the Kings-Head, here's a glass of good liquor.  Tay. 
Come, allons donc.—  Shoom. 
Well; we were talking of hopeful Resolutions; and a successful Issue to all the Consultations of the Parliament. This, you say, the City hop's for, nay doubts not of.  Tay. 
Yes, indeed; for to show you how great an Exeem, and sublime regard we have for our Parliament, we have had the Major part of the City, all true Protestants, and good Patriots; who offered their services to, and accordingly did accompany our Sheriffs and Members of the Parliament to Oxford.  Shoom. 
'Sdeath! that's an unwonted Ceremony, and it smells plaguy rank of Rebellion. Bless me! what were you afraid of, that made you enter upon such a tumultuous Compliment? I heard indeed you were all richly equipt, and made a most glorious show, I was then in the Country, and so, did not understand it.  Tay. 
Why not understand it? had we not a great deal of reason, to secure the safety of those worthy Persons, who were to deliver us out of the Fears, Distractions and Disorders, which the cursed Popish Plot, and the Succession of a Popish Prince, by which would follow the Subversion of our Religion, Laws, and Liberties, and consequently the yoke of Popish Servitude, did put us into:  Shoom. 
I faith; you are brave fellows! you talk of the safety of His Majesty's Person, and how great Loyalty and Zeal tends to it; but for aught I see, the subject is preferred before the Prince; the King is not at all intimidated, though in the midst of the most Implacable Enemies, but he can & did venture his Journey to Oxford, attended with not Twenty of his Guards, when Mr. Parliament Man has forsooth about Three or Four hundred for his suit! Well, but what News have you from Oxford, what, are we like to have a longer Session than they had last?  Tay. 
They are Dissolved!  Shoom. 
Dissolved? 'Sdeath, when?  Tay. 
On Monday last, being on the 28th. of March.  Shoom. 
Really, I'm glad of it. Indeed, I heard how their Procedings were, and what measures they took in their Votes. I thought the King's speech would have had that Influence upon them, that they would have Regulated their Actions according to that Rule, which His Majesty told them, should be ever his, viz. The Law of which, they, with the King were the Fathers; and not have pretended to make themselves a particular (nay, Supreme) Court of Judicature, in Cases of Treason; that no Person Impeached of Treason by the Commons of England in Parliament, and stands so Impeached, could be tried by any other inferior Court, without a high Breach of the privilege of Parliaments. Good God I find then the King and the Lords, are but Ciphers; and what the King has declared aught to be, must not be done, because the Commons will not have it so. So that, they who make so great an Outcry against Arbitrary Proceedings, make themselves the great Favourers of it. What, I pray, was the cause of this? And who the Plague was it, they stickled about then?  Tay. 
Fitz. Harris; would the Devil had him, ere we had been troubled with him, and his Depositions too, with a pox to 'em.— But I'll tell thee, there's somewhat else, that was the more immediate Reason of their Dissolution; 'twas, concerning a Business of the—  Shoom. 
Ay, ay, of the Devil, I think; you Citizens, if you cannot hear of the true genuine Reasons, forsooth, you'll make them; and shall pass Authentic too, as if you had been intimately acquainted with the King's Cabinet, or had known his Resolutions before he thought upon them. Faith, I'll tell thee plainly; would but you (Sir Formals) learn this old Maxim, that Sua quemque alit ars, which perhaps is too much Latin for a third part of our Mechanic News-mongers; who make it the greatest part of their Business to run from the Coffee-house to the Alehouse, and thence to the Tavern; and so buzzing about, till they lose their sense, as well as Reason; I say, would every Man but mind his own private Affairs, erect a Tribunal in his own Closet, and let his Domestic Oeconomy be his greatest Study, we should have the Public Peace less disturbed, and the Government less obnoxious to Censure and Contempt. 'T has never been good times, since every Cobbler and Porter pretend to understand State-Policy, and every Finical Mechanic, and proud Tradesman, to be verseed and knowing in the Arcana's of the Privy-Councel. Introth, Jack, my name's Veritas; and I must speak like myself; I case not for popular Applause, nor will I suffer Hypocrisy veil my Nakedness; though I have, what I must always expect, an Odium, or Hatred: For my part I am a good honest Southwark Borough, and I thank God, we love our King, and our Country; and our Public Peace, Utility, and Order; and, as we said in our Addresses to our Elected Burgesses; Though we did not like your accompanying to Oxford, them in such Pomp and Splendour; yet we assured them, we were as ready to stand by them, in the discharge of the Trust we reposed in them, as the best Life-and fortune-men of them all.  Shoom. 
But prithee Jack, are they all returned home yet from Oxford?  Tay. 
Yes, a great part of them; but they are not all come yet.  Shoom. 
Ha, ha, ha! Faith I can't choose but laugh, to see how silly and sneaking they looked, with their Heads hanging downwards, and their Hats Flapping about their Ears, their hopes frustrated, and their Designs infatuated; when in their Setting out, they appeared brisk and airy, and their Equipage showed them like Men designed for a Camp, rather than an Assembly of Peace.  Tay. 
Well, well, come, talk no more of it: Quod factumest, infectum fieri nequit, Prithee hold thy Tongue.  Shoom. 
Hold my Tongue, I Gad, it would make a Stone speak, to see how hot brained Men are; and forsooth, to make their Designs more plausible, a needless fear of the Subversion of the Government, the Protestant Religion, and the Liberties of the Subjects, must still be the specious pretence for all their unwarrantable and unlawful Practices, and every half wited Scoundrel, must pretend to censure the management of those at the Helm. A fine age I' Faith! Come, come, Jack, be of my mind; Bene vixit, qui bene latuit: let us keep at home with our wives, and leave frequenting the News-mongers; and let us administer what we can to public Utility and Peace.  Tay. 
I' Faith, thou sayest very well? Come, here's a health to thee, which I am confident thou wilt pledge; God bless King Charles, and send us all Peace and Tranquillity, now, and at the hour of Death.  Shoom. 
Come, with all my Soul, and hang up all the Roundheads, as the Oxford Blades said, and let every true Englsh-man, Loyal Heart, and Honest Protestant, say, Amen,  By R. Hearn.  

LONDON, Printed for the Author in the year, 1681.