〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: OR, THE PICTURE OF THE Late King James Further drawn to the LIFE.  
In which is made manifest by several ARTICLES, That the whole Course of his Life hath been a continued Conspiracy against the Protestant Religion, Laws and Liberties of the Three Kingdoms.  
In a Letter to Himself.  
PART The Third.  
By TITUS OATS, D. D.  
LONDON, Printed by J. D. to be sold by Richard Baldwin, near the Oxford-Arms Inn in Warwick-Lane. M. DC. XCVII.   

TO His most Excellent Majesty WILLIAM III. By the Grace of God, And the Choice of the Good People of England, Of Great-Britain, France, and Ireland, Rightful and Lawful KING, Defender of the Faith, and the Restorer of our LAWS and LIBERTIES, As well as the Victorious PROTECTOR of Oppressed Europe; TITUS OATS, D. D. His Faithful, Dutiful and Loyal Subject and Servant, most humbly dedicates this ensuing MEMORIAL.   

The Contents of this Third Part.  


INtroduction, on K. James' being deserted by the Pope; the Scotish Bishops, Pag. 1. etc.  
Article XXII. He's charged with Misapplication of the Taxes, etc. in his Brother's Time, 5.  
XXIII. With suspending the Laws against Priests and Jesuits, 9  
XXIV. With the Loss of the Dominion of the Seas, 11.  
XXV. With refusing the Test against Popery, 13.  
XXVI. With marrying the Daughter of Modena, 14.  
XXVII. With making a French General over the English Army, 19  
XXVIII. With oppressing the Kingdom of Scotland, with the several Means he made use of, 20.  
XXIX. With attempting to break the Use of Parliaments, which is branched out into many Divisions and Subdivisions, 30.  
Conclusion, giving some Account of King James' Friends here in England, etc. 94.     

ERRATA.  
Pag. 1. and some following Pages for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Pag. 30. l. antepenu●t. for with. r. without.   

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Or, The Third Part of the Picture of the Late King JAMES.  
SIR,  
I Cannot but acquaint you, that many of your Friends here in England are much concerned that the Whore of Rome (that is, Mystical Babylon) laboured no more to support you when you usurped the Imperial Crown of this Realm; and that when God gave the Nation Grace to drive you and your Italian Triggrimate and Welsh Cub from amongst us, he did not move both Heaven and Earth to restore you again: And that since you have fought many a bloody Battle for the Honour of the English Nation, you would not venture one more as an additional One to save the Crown on your Head. Truly, Sir, Rome's Prelate did not deal well by you, nor you by yourself. You may remember it appeared to your Redletter Friends, as if the Grandeur of the Popish Religion and Superstition had been your Gracious Aim and Design, and that not without Reason; for in a most decent manner you lost the Crown, and the little Gentleman his Dominion: Nay, they hold up their Hands, lift up their Eyes, and curse that old Coxcomb Innocent XI. as the worst and basest of Men, that betrayed the Interest of the Church, in not doing his Duty to which he was obliged, viz. in seconding such a Glorious Design and Undertaking: But this thing he never did, nor do I believe any of his Successors ever will; for in my Conscience I believe they have too much Sense to attempt the Support of a falling House, notwithstanding the Conduct and Courage they may pretend to, in Cases that are of that Weight and Difficulty. It's true, Odescalchi pretended he was to act, but 'twas according to his own Reason, not according to your Sense, which if he had followed, he might have abdicated Rome the very Day you were driven out of England: Therefore what a Varlet you had to do withal judge you. Truly he saw that you were losing, and that you did in time in a comfortable way quit the Kingdom of England, and therefore aught to have sacrificed even the Papacy on your behalf: But he was so far from that piece of Heroic Justice, that I am persuaded the old Priest would scarce have sacrificed a Sop in his Dripping-Pan to your Service. Well then, what's next? Since the Church left you, I pray what hath the French Monarch done for you? I must confess he hath done more for you than the Church did, for she left you betimes, but he allows you a good Pension, and hath not as yet taken it away; he does not give and take away Pensions at pleasure, and say, he hath no Money; no, it is below him. But what is the Reason he doth not come over with you, and fix your sweet Bum in the Royal Chair, and return (as you said he would) to France again, without putting us to the Charge of a Jack of small Beer for his Pains? Or since both the Pope and French King have not done their Duties, what's the Reason that you, being a Man of Courage, (ask Tom Jenner else) that has fought so many bloody Battles for the Honour to the English Nation, and on behalf of the Crown, (though Old Hodge, and a Conclave of Inferior Clergymen consulted all the History of your Life, but could not find one Word of it, except that which saved them from the Gallows) did not fight one single Battle to keep the Crown upon your Head? You might have done it, and your Clothes have sat never the worse upon your Back. Well, you had the Courage to run, and needs must when the Devil drives, and so there is the End of an old Song.  
I have thought upon your Case with as much deliberation as ever the Cathedral Loggerhead of a Priest did of getting a Bishopric, by threatening us with disputed Titles, and an endless War, and yet could never make any thing you ever said or did to be of a Piece: Therefore I shall ask you a few Questions, and hope you will give me the Satisfaction that one Gentleman ought to give another; I do not mean thereby to challenge you, for I am no Swords-man I assure you, and I think you never took any great delight in one, unless it was to hang by your Side. As for your Enemies, I think you scarce ever fought with any, unless it were at the Old-Baily, Kings-Bench Court, or Western-Circuit, where the Odds were ten thousand to one on your Side: therefore I mean by Satisfaction, a plain honest Answer to the following Questions.  
1. I remember the villainous Bishops of Scotland took it as a great Affront, that our Parliament in England could not reconcile the Security of the Protestant Religion with the admitting of you to be King. Now these Bishops, poor Rogues, had clear another Notion of the Business, and thought it might be done with as much ease, as for an English Man to catch the Itch in a Scotish Laird's House, and therefore went roundly to work, and procured your Brother to call a Parliament, and constitute you High-Commissioner; which was no sooner said but done, and your Succession settled; and truly you appeared very formidable in that Kingdom: Nay, the Government there did in a manner protect you from the Parliament in England that would have excluded you; Nay, Dr. Nasty-Gusts, the then Bishop of Edinburgh, found they had done the Business so well, that he blessed God the Parliament of Scotland had made such a happy Progress in reducing the Laws of Scotland to the Will of the King. Now after all this Pother that was made about you, pray how came it that you found no more Friends in Scotland? Truly at one time I thought the Courtiers there would have pulled out both their Eyes to have served you; yet when you stood in need of them, there were but few that appeared for you. Truly poor Pilgarlick did stand and wonder at the thing; and advising with a parcel of honest Fellows over a Dish of Coffee at a Coffee-house near the Old House, out of which the Prince of Orange warned you to be gone without any more to do; one of the Company was very frank in the Point, and told the Company plainly, that Fear and Interest were the two great Hinges on which the Actions of Mankind did turn, and thereby insinuated that Fear made them stand for you against the Parliament of England, and Interest made them be against you with K. William. Well, what then? Truly I thought with myself, that the Princes of this World ought to be virtuous to a very high degree, and to have a Magazine of Assurance, because their Favours are more acceptable than their Persons are beloved. I confess Princes are in a fair way to be beloved when they put themselves in a Posture of doing much good; and that Prince is sure of the Affections of his People, who will endeavour with all sweetness to gain their Hearts. I have therefore this one thing to say, that if you had secured your Ancient Kingdom of Scotland, you might have done mighty things. I pray, Sir, why did you not cultivate your natural Qualities, in order to have secured you an Interest in that Kingdom? Truly the Reason is plain, because you had none about you but mercenary Rascals that ruined you by their Flatteries. And did you not find yourself in a most forlorn Solitude, notwithstanding their Scots Caresses, when you really stood in need of their help? And should K. William have any of your Rogues about him, I can not but think they would serve him as they did you, leave him when he has most need of them.  
2. You having conversed in Scotland, and the Bishops there hanging about you, and giving you all the Scots Government could afford, I pray resolve me what Religion those Rogues were of? Certainly if they were Protestants, they have showed themselves to have as little Brains as your Worship; for I find by their management of themselves whilst you afforded them your Gracious Presence, as well as before and since you left us, they neither understood the Interest of their Traitorous Hierarchy, nor of Religion. In a word, one would think by the Current of their Actions, they had been a parcel of Irish Teagues tricked up with the Dress of a true Scots Clergyman; for they must surely be judged Sots to the highest Degree, if ignorant of the Disgust they had caused in the People of that Kingdom, by embracing your Gracious Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, in favour of the villainous Popish Crew.  
It may be you will say, that to your own knowledge they were Protestants at the Bottom. To this I answer, That what either your Brother or you ever said, weighed no more with me than if you had sworn Mary Queen of Scots had lived and died an honest true English Virgin. But what is it to the Point what they were at the Bottom? I am sure they and you were a parcel of Sowce-Crowns, to think the Scots would long endure Popery and Arbitrary Power always to domineer over them. Truly Experience hath taught us, (though you and your villainous Scots Bishops were above such Teachings) that the poor Scots wanted but a Leader of Resolution and Bravery, and they had thrown off your Brother's Yoke and yours long before the Prince of Orange's coming.  
Object. You may say, because they wrote to you, and told you that the Enterprise of the Prince of Orange was a detestable Invasion, therefore you judged them Protestants, they also having been always against such things.  
Answ. It seems they were for Passive-Obedience and Nonresistance: For I do not find that they, or any of their Admirers, stirred one step to serve you; and you know that Gracious Doctrine has saved the Credit of many a Coward in the World; and therefore your Brother and you promoted it with all the Zeal two such Babes of Grace could show, lest the true Protestant Interest should have stormed Babylon, and all the Hellish Crew she has nourished ever since your Restoration till this Day. But they were pleased to say, that the Glorious Enterprise of the Prince of Orange was a detestable Invasion. What! did this bespeak them to be Protestants? Well then let me tell you, that your Great Ally might as well wear the Name, and all the French Court, and your villainous Party here at home, for I believe they have said so ten thousand times: But I do no more believe they were Protestants, than I believe Old Hodge an honest Man, or R. Ferguson to be without three false Quarters. I pray, Sir, what did they do for the Protestant Interest? We had seven Bishops (good Lord) went to the Tower, and all for the sake of the Protestant Religion: I was not a bit sorry, nor should I have been if all the twenty six had gone upon the same Account, though they had lain by it as long as I and the rest of my fellow Prisoners did in the Kings-Bench for the Testimony of a good Conscience: But what your English-Bishops did for the Interest of the Protestant Religion, I will leave to better Pens; but for your Scots Tools, did they not by their Treachery and Lewdness render themselves the Abomination of the People?  
3. I pray let me ask you a third Question, What was the Reason that, notwithstanding the Advice of your Devilish Jesuits to the contrary, you would not stay and see the joyful Sight the People of England saw, and that after so many Divisions occasioned by your Brother's Reign and yours, viz. Our King and the Parliament so happily united together? You say you ventured your Life on behalf of the Nation; and since your Grace and Favour was such, as not to strike one Stroke to keep the Crown upon your Head, you might have been so good-natured as to have stayed and seen our King leaving his Interest to the management of his Parliament, on purpose to take care of theirs and his, and the Welfare of all Europe. The King (God bless him) remitted Chimney-money, and entirely threw himself upon the Affections of his People, and you threw yourself upon the Affection of the French King. I pray try his Affection, and let me know by the next how he uses you, and why you would not gratify your sweet self with this goodly Sight.  
4. Your Villains are ever and anon checking me with my being convicted for two pretended Perjuries, especially a Friend of yours in a certain Place where your Name is sometimes mentioned, but not much to the Advantage of you or your Villainous Crew. You being a Man of great Judgement and Conscience, I ask you whether or no for such a Villain to be in a Conspiracy against the Life of the King with three Cousin-germen at once, or to have a Hand in, or justifying the forging of a Seal to hold an Estate, or suborning of Witnesses to swear that that was as false as any thing under the Sun could be true, whose own dear Relation died upon the Spot with a false Oath in his Mouth, ought not rather to have held his Tongue, and let me alone, and sat down with silence, till he had cleared himself and Family in the first place? The Fellow had once a Command, but wanting Courage, Conduct, Honour and Honesty, he was fairly dismissed. If you are willing, I suppose he is ready to serve you in a mean Capacity, a Footman rather than fail, being conscious in himself that his Reputation in the World will not engage him to a much greater Trust: Nay, Sir, he may make a Priest if you please, for I think he is too lewd to be a Layman.  
I have more Questions to ask you, but I will not give you the trouble now, but ask you only how you do, and how my Landlady and the little Cub have their Health? I suppose you have kept a merry Christmas at St. Germains; and I hope you will keep Christmas there or elsewhere abroad till you draw your last Breath. I understand the French King takes much pleasure in your Company; I do not envy his Happiness in the least, and shall no more mourn for it than an old Friend of yours did for his Father's Death, after he had cheated the old Gentleman of a fair Estate, and left him four hundred Pounds per Annum as a sine Cura▪ the better to enable him to drink Ale in his old Age: He now and then bellows for you as loud as some  do when they want Fodder, with whom he hath had to do in his Life-time. O had the Courage of his Hands kept pace with the Rhodomontades of his villainous Tongue, for aught I know he and Sir John Fenwick might have done Wonders towards your changing the Air you live in. I have seen him hugging that Traitor as the Devil hugged the Witch; and being a dutiful obedient Child to his old Sire, you would do well to send the Tiler's Son to learn of him. But I hasten to your Charge, and proceed to the twenty second Article, which you will do well to consider.  

Article XXII.  
YOUR Brother and you were very industrious in misapplying of the Taxes and Subsidies given by Parliament: When they gave Money for any one or more particular Uses, it is well known that for the most part they were not answered, to the great hazard of the Kingdom: But here I must particularise.  
1. The Parliament in lieu of several Advantages the Crown made, by which public House-keeping was maintained in your Father's Reign, to the Glory of the English Nation, gave the Hereditary Excise, and took those Advantages away by Act of Parliament, who thought of nothing less than that the Public Tables should have been kept up: But you and your Brother having traveled abroad, and having not been much troubled with the smell of Victuals, when you were come home you began your Show with open House-keeping; but it was so offensive to your tender Stomaches that it was laid aside, judging your manner of living at Brussels more suitable to the Constitutions of your Bodies: And upon laying down of House-keeping, you know what use the Hereditary Excise was put to, against the Intent and Meaning of the Act of Parliament that settled it.  
2. The Customs were given by Parliament in a great measure for the Support of the Navy, which is the Bulwark of England: But how they were applied to that Use, let all the World judge; part of the Customs of England having been paid in Pensions, and a great part for secret Services. I am sure when the King had occasion either to repair or fit out a Fleet, or build Ships, a particular Tax was made for those Purposes.  
3. Your Brother was forced to borrow a great Sum of Money of the City, nay several in the Year 1664, at which many stood in admiration how he should lie under such a necessity of Money. 'Tis true, there was a great Army to be paid off and disbanded, but for that the Convention had made a good Provision, had it not been misapplied; and he had the Excise settled on him, valued at 500000 l. per Annum, the Customs then valued at 600000 l. the Chimney-Money 150000 l. the Arrears of twelve months' Assessment commencing the 25th of December 1659.: The Post-Office, which was valued at 50000 l. per Annum; and the Arrears of the Excise and new Imposts: And in the second Session of the Long Parliament, he had given him 1270000 l. and a Benevolence, and 60000 l. to the poor Cavaliers, to gratify them in some measure for drinking the King's Health, and a farther Relief to the poor maimed Officers who had served your Father in the late Wars he wickedly raised against his People; and also four entire Subsidies by the Laity, and four by the Clergy; besides the forfeited Estates of those that put your Father to death, whether in England or Ireland. Now seeing after all this your Brother was in Debt so soon after his Restoration, can we conclude any otherwise than that you joined together to spend those Revenues, Taxes, etc. in other ways than the Parliament intended? Pray how much did you receive out of the Treasury for Secret Service, to maintain a whole Regiment of Trapans, from one end of the Kingdom to the other? If there was such a necessity of trapanning, why was not the Parliament moved for an Establishment to keep those Rogues (that drew poor Men into Plots, and then swore against them, nay for hearing the Treason they themselves spoke) in constant pay? But when the Parliament had given Money for the Honour and Safety of the Government, you spent it upon these Men that disturbed its Peace, and rendered it vile and contemptible: And the Money given to fit out a Fleet, was expended chief in rigging up a Fleet of Land Fireships, a parcel of nasty Whores that were even the Scandal of their own Profession of Whoring, as also the much admired Pimps and Bawds.  
4. You know the Parliament at Oxford in 1665, gave a mighty Tax of 2500000 l. by which we thought the War against the Dutch would have been carried on with great Vigour and Application, the Money being given for that End; and truly we did provide a Fleet, but then what Use 1250000 l. was put to, the Seamen not being paid, is worth the knowing. You may remember little was done in the War in 1666, it being famous for Sir Robert Holms' admirable Expedition to the Fly, where he burned 150 Fisher-boats, and the never-to-be-forgotten Fire of London: But your Brother and you having occasion for the aforesaid Sum, you fitted out no Fleet in 1667, for your Mother had assured your Brother and you, that the French King had told her the Dutch would not be out that Year, and so we lay still: But the Dutch provided for War, and came to save us some Charges, and burned our Ships in Chatham-Harbour. But, Sir, I observe, that though your Brother was merry and feeding his Ducks, yet there was not a Penny of Money, and therefore the Parliament was called, and when the time of their Sitting came, they provided Money for the Dutch who wanted our Money; and we wanting Peace, were forced to take such a Peace as the French King would give us.  
Now, Sir, do but observe, that had we applied the Money given to carry on the Dutch War to that use, our Ships had not (to our great Dishonour) been burnt in Port. But, I pray, what use was 1250000 l. put to? You know your Brother had contracted a great Debt with Cleveland that nasty Whore, and another Debt to the Pimps, who, poor Rogues, had had no great matter of Pay in two Years; and the poor Men that fired London were not to be slighted, for the Labourer was worthy of his Hire. Your Priests complained, and their Mouths were to be stopped; and the Queen-Mother must have a Present for interposing with the French King for that base Peace: So that truly there was little or no Money left. Thus you may see what was the dismal Effect of this misapplying the Public Money. Nay, Sir, you may remember that the Seamen came down in great Bodies to you for Pay; and some of them were in a most gracious manner apprehended, and hanged for only ask for their Own, which they had so dearly earned with the hazard of their Lives.  
5. I must not omit telling you, that after the Peace with the Dutch was concluded, though but a base one, yet we that espoused their Cause at that time, were exceeding glad of the Peace: There was a Triple League concluded between the Swede, the Dutch, and ourselves, for which great Sums of Money were given, as well for a Compensation to the King's Grace in making it, as to help him to support it, in order to bridle the French King's Insolence: So that your Brother had two Millions and a half Sterling in one Year's time for this Triple League; but it is well known that upon the strength of this Stock a Peace was clapped up with the French King, the Triple League shamefully broken, the second wicked War made upon the Dutch, and the Exchequer shut up, and all this through the Misapplication of the Treasure of the Nation.  
Sir, let me observe this to you, that your Brother by this Triple League had gained much of the Love of his People, and you yourself shared in it too, though you had no hand in that League, unless it were to break it, which the People did not see for some time. The Design of your Sister's coming being very dark, it passed only for a bare Interview: But Coventry was a considerable Gainer, whilst another lost 2200 l. in the Treaty of Nimeguen; and Coventry had 10000 l. and above 100000 Pistols of the French King, for his special Service in that Affair: All the Ministers sent to Foreign Courts to damn that good Work, were rewarded, even Sir William Lockyard escaped not the French King's Favour for the Service he did in that Affair: But though your Brother had not only reconciled his Parliament to him, by severely treating the Earl of Clarendon for all the good Service, and united them so to him by this League, that they were ready to give him all they had, yet the Tables were quite turned when they saw into his Proceed, and hated him and you too as such Villainous Tools to satisfy (if possible) the French King's Pride and Ambition: Nay, some of your Favourites were so offended at these ungodly Miscarriages, that they could not but declare their Resentments of this villainous Misapplication of the Treasure of the Nation, that it cost them their Places in the Committee of Foreign Affairs.  
6. Remember that your Band of Pensioners gave the King another small Spell of 1250000 l. for his extraordinary Occasions; one would have thought those Liberal Givers designed it for carrying on the War, but it was so ill a One, that those Scoundrels were ashamed of it, and would not say it was for that Use, though they had a pretty deal of Cabbage out of it for their own extraordinary Occasions. How was the rest spent? Was it applied to the fitting out your Fleet? No, there was a French Supply for that, and this was made use of for an Army that was to have paid themselves out of the Treasure, not of Amsterdam but of London; which being smoked in time, the Army was in part ordered to be disbanded, and Money given for that Use; but you made bold to send them into the French Service, and the Money was made use of to other Purposes of far greater Advantage to the Conspirators at Whitehall.  
7. There was a Tax of 600000 l. given for building and furnishing of Ships with very great Ease; for your Pensioners were willing to confirm their Continuation, or else they had been undone; and since their Hand was in, they gave the additional Excise of Beer, Ale, and other Liquors, for three Years: Which Liberality of theirs was an absolute Orvietan against a Dissolution. I pray, Sir, what Ships were built that were of Service? I think you had better have called it an Act for the extraordinary Occasions of the villainous Builders, for they got part of the Money, and we but a few useless Ships: Nay, I think some of the Ship-money was applied to supply the extraordinary Occasions of Portsmouth, that nasty Whore, and the rest of the Pimps and Bawds at Whitehall: And upon the strength of the Additional Excise, you and your Conspirators most bravely matured your Counsels, in order to make the Nation die the second Death.  
8. There was 1200000 l. given your Brother to enter into an actual War with France, yet with that you clapped up a more close Alliance with France, and with the Act you and your Conspirators begged a Million of Money; this is another instance of your Misapplication of the Nation's Treasure. But this by the way observe, that this Peace which you and your Conspirators made with France was but a Treacherous one; and it manifested both your Brother and you to be such Persons with whom the Nation's Money was not to be trusted, since the trusting you with such immense Sums tended so much to the endangering the Kingdom.  
9 Your Pensioners finding there was no War made against France in pursuance of the said Act, and that the Army was a great Grievance to the Nation, gave six hundred and odd thousand Pounds to disband them; yet with that Money you rather augmented your Forces, and kept up your Army to the great hazard of the Peace of the Kingdom. Nay, Sir, in a word, to order the Money in a Bill so as to prevent its being embezeled, was argument enough to make it miscarry, for you chose rather to go without it than it should be appropriated to any particular use.  
10. The Pensioner Parliament having been your Drudges for eighteen Years, and beginning to have their Eyes a little too much opened, it was high time to part with them: therefore having granted the aforesaid Sum of 600 and odd thousand Pounds to disband the Army, and the additional Duty upon Wines for three Years, and being that Sessions disposed to give no more Money, your Brother having sworn on the 29th of December (laying his Sacred Hands upon Portsmouths bare B— for the greater solemnity of the Business) that he would dissolve the Parliament, came to the House on Monday the 30th of December 1678, and prorogued them to the 4th of February; but on the 25th of January that Parliament was by Proclamation dissolved, and the same Day Writs issued out for the Meeting of a new one at Westminster the 6th of March following, which was just forty Days between the Test and Return.  
This Parliament being sat down, and finding the Army was a great Grievance to the Nation, and like to be of fatal Consequence if maintained, passed a Bill for the raising one hundred and ninety odd thousand Pounds to disband it: and though this was but a new Parliament, yet they understood your Brother's old Practices, and yours too, of putting the moneys to uses never intended by Parliament, and therefore resolved never to trust you any more in the Matter of Money; for as this was the least Tax, so it was the last that ever your Brother saw from any Parliament in his Reign.  
11. Another demonstration of the Point in hand, was the immense Sums Chiffinch and the Privy Purse issued out for those Uses the Parliament never intended, who designed the Money they had so freely given to defray the public Charge of the Nation: but since Chiffinch had the disposal of so much, why did not the Parliament give that Rascally Pimp, and the Whore his— who was Whore and Papist enough (as well as a Duchess) to serve you, Sir, a swinging Sum for their extraordinary Occasions, for they were both Labourers in this Vineyard? And truly the work of the Night lying upon their Hands somewhat too hard, they took in a Rogue that was a Fellow-labourer with them till the Death of Charles II. And who had the gracious Opportunity of robbing his Closet we cannot tell; but old Chiffinch, if alive, could: and, Sir, if you will have it examined who robbed yours, I believe a little Matter might find you out the Man; I have seen the Rogue go to Chappel-Prayers, now Mass is out of Fashion, as devoutly as any Pimp or Bawd about Whitehall ever did in yours or your Brother's Time.  
But, Sir, you may see the just Judgement of Almighty God upon you; for as you joined with your Brother and a parcel of thoroughpaced Rogues to embezle the Nation's Money to support a Crew of Pimps, Bawds, Whores, and Traitors, Cutthroats, and Murderers; so your grand Pimp, and his villainous Deputy, embezled 〈◊〉 your Brother and you entrusted him or them with, to other Uses and Purposes than ever you intended: for how Chiffinch could acquire such an Estate honestly, since his way of living was so profuse, I cannot tell, unless by these Courses; and whether that little scabby Rascal could attain to the Estate he has without fingering some of your Jewels, when you did us the Honour to leave us, I pray, Sir, let us join together to examine: if we carry our Cause, it may for aught I know, be a Travelling Penny in your Pocket when you leave St. Germaini.   

Article XXIII.  
YOUR Brother and you joined together to have all the Laws made against the Popish Priests and Jesuits suspended. Truly, Sir, there need not many Arguments to satisfy the Nation of the Truth of this Charge. For,  
1. What Numbers came into the Realm notwithstanding the many severe Laws made against them in the Times of Queen Elizabeth and James I. and that not secretly, but barefacedly owning themselves to be such?  
2. How many taken up by your Brother's Warrant, in Rose-Alley in Holborn, and other Places, were discharged contrary to all Law, and the common Practice thereof?  
3. How many were protected by the Queen Dowager, and entertained as if they were in her Service, which she could not have done, had not you and your Brother withheld the Laws from being executed against them?  
4. Those that did not know your Brother's and your Religion, apprehending some of these Priests, were well chid by you; and several of them that owed Money, you set their Creditors upon to their utter Ruin.  
5. If the Justices in the Country did, according to their Oaths and Duty, attempt the putting the Laws in Execution that were made to prevent England being overstocked with that sort of Vermin, were they not turned out with this Brand, of being disturbers of the Peace of the Government? Witness Mr. Arnold, Mr. Scudamore, cum multis aljis.  
6. If any of your Brother's Whores, Pimps, or Bawds, or yours, were pleased to turn Papist to oblige you, and continue in your Favour, had not they leave to keep a stiff-rumped Priest, or so, to help them in their great Affairs of procuring a Catholic By-Whore, or Whores, with whom through Confession they were acquainted? And, Sir, did they not pimp at a more reasonable Rate than Chiffinch or his Deputy did, in order to promote the Catholic Cause?  
7. Did you not support and maintain a great number of them, to the Tune of eighteen Pence a Day, at St. James', for the Service of your Italian Comrade, at the Expense of the Public, for secret Service? And what secret Service they did, Mrs. Junipor can tell, I suppose, as well if not better than your sweet self: and these being well paid, was it not your Care to have them Men of good Parts, though of little or no Learning?  
8. Did not your Brother and you, and your Council, put a Test upon these Priests, that they should be true to yours and the French King's Interest, and not refuse any Service in order thereunto that lay in their Power?  
9 Were not these Priests your Spies and Trapans about the Kingdom, to draw Men into Plots and Conspiracies? And did they not do your Business in those Cases with that Dexterity, that you gained your point of murdering several Persons, and rendering the poor Dissenters obnoxious to your Pensioner Parliament, in order to get severe Laws made against them, whilst your villainous Romish Priests slept in a whole Skin; and Meetings of Protestants used with all the Violence imaginable, whilst these Men walked about the Streets, going from House to House, and exercising their Functions with impunity? Whence it is plain the Laws were not let lose against them.  
10. When the Popish Plot was discovered, and several Priests, Friars, Monks and Jesuits were Indicted, Arraigned, Tried, Convicted, and Condemned, were they not discharged out of Prison? And were not Alderman Pilkington, and Mr. Shute, when Sheriffs of London, commanded to discharge them out of Newgate, and upon refusal of such an Arbitrary and Illegal Command, committed Prisoners to the Tower? And were they not then pardoned, as also several Priests in the King's-Bench, and divers parts of the Kingdom, though some did at that juncture dance the Rope full sore against your Brother's Will and yours? And those who you procured to be pardoned, were suffered to come into Prison to insult over us poor Protestants, who were committed to Prison for the Truth and Testimony of a good Conscience.   

Article XXIV.  
THE Loss of the Dominion of the Seas was wholly owing to the Treachery of you and your villainous Party. 'Tis true, your Brother did attempt the Security of the Seas, in supplying the defect of his Coin by a few Copper Farthings, whereby his Sacred Resolution was made public, of claiming and preserving the Dominion of the Seas: but finding that sort of Metal would not do, he changed them into Lead, and so the Business was done to all intents and purposes, as if your Minister Ned Petre had contrived the Business himself, without the help of his Fellow-labourer of Pensilvania in that mighty Work. But I shall be very plain in this Point, and show the Steps you took, whilst Lord High Admiral of England, to betray the English Nation into the Loss of the Dominion of the Seas, which was never attempted till your Brother was called Home by the People of England, in company with yourself, when you were advanced to that great Place of Trust, which you held for several Years to the Nation's great Dishonour; and when you quitted the Employment, you procured Persons of your own Nomination to succeed you, who like Villains pursued the Measures you gave them in executing that Office, by which the aforesaid Loss was, to your Heart's content, in a great measure completed. I remember shortly after your Brother's Restoration, the French King obtained leave of him and you to bring 12 Ships of War through the Channel; but I do not remember of late Years he ever asked such a Boon of either of you, nor indeed do I find that any of his Men of War did willingly observe you so far, as to give ours the Honour of the Flag, or strike to us in the Channel. Now pray observe,  
1. Did you not, instead of able Seamen of known Experience and Courage, prefer a parcel of ignorant and cowardly Rascals, Footmen, Pages, Pimps, etc. to be Captains and Lieutenants, to the great discouragement of the Seamen? And for a Man to be an able Seaman, was enough to incapacitate him for a Commission, you judging the Commands of the Royal Navy too great and high for such Men. Did not your Creatures then and since say, that the King's Castles were not built to be commanded by tarpaulins? And what Conduct there was since your disposing of the Commands of the Fleet, is well remembered, as also how ridiculous it was judged, both by the Dutch, French, and other Nations, that did, and still do advance their Navigation.  
It is true, when your Brother came home, he found a Noble Navy in good Order, and the Fleet in good Hands: But as Captains and Lieutenants died, or were discharged the Service, either by Age or otherwise, the aforesaid Rogues were put in their Places, who when they came home from any Voyage, have many times put themselves under the protection of the Friars, that with peace they might spend their Money in Whoring and Drinking, and have lived so lewdly as to be a Reproach even to the Friars where they sheltered themselves.  
2. As you took no Care of good Officers, so neither of the Breed of Seamen, for all the Fishery of England is sunk to nothing. You let the French ravish the Newfoundland Trade, by which that Fishery is lost, and the Greenland Trade is gone, and the Northern Fishery is come to nothing, as is also the Iseland Trade. The French and Dutch are Masters of these Fisheries, and we have nothing now lest but the Yarmouth-Fishery, which is fallen above 70 in the Hundred. It is most notorious that your Brother and you were Enemies to the Happiness, Glory and Strength of the Nation, and therefore made it your Business to destroy every thing that might contribute to the Advancement thereof.  
3. In order to lose the Dominion of the Seas, as you took no Care of the Increase of Seamen, so how were those that you impressed aboard the Fleet under your Command, used by your Land-loping Rascals, that could signalise themselves no other ways than by breaking the Seamens Bones? Nay, their Warrant-Officers, it may be, did not escape their Hands. This Usage made Men choose rather to lose their Pay, and run from their Ships: An Instance of which we had in the Success, a Fifth-rate Frigate, (besides other Ships) where 50 Seamen, together with the Watch that looked to them, went away in the Night because of their ill usage by these mean Rascals that knew not the Worth and Value of a Seaman. This was the Disease that raged in a great part of the Fleet, which made them quit the English Service, and go into Foreign Services, where they expected better Usage.  
4. How have our Seamen been destroyed by those wicked Wars you made against the Dutch, and base Compliance with the Pirates of Algiers, etc. in suffering our Seamen to lie in Captivity till they died, or were useless, unless they could redeem themselves at the Market-price? By this means we lost the use of several hundred Seamen. The last good Peace that was made, was by Sir John Lawson, but ever since we have been betrayed by your Villains in that Particular. I remember that several times Letters Patents were granted to collect the charitable Benevolence of well-disposed People; but that when considerable Sums have been gathered, they have been put into the Hands of Cheats, who perverted the Money to their own Uses, and let the poor Seamen perish in most miserable Slavery.  
5. How have you taught the French to understand our Coasts, and way of fight, and building Ships? Your Brother and you furnished them with Timber, Builders, and Models of our Ships; nay, you permitted them to rob and plunder us, to beat and murder our Seamen, and never would seek Redress: How could you expect the Dominion of the Seas upon these Terms?  
6. Was it not your Brother's Design to debauch the Nation? And did you not place in the Fleet such Commanders as debauched our Seamen? by which means in a great measure they lost their old brave English Courage. When our Seamen grow Effeminate, and lose that Courage which with God's Blessing made them victorious, England is but in a lamentable Condition.  
7. You punished, or at least discountenanced such Officers as stood for the Honour of the Flag. How often did the French refuse it? And when some Broadsides were exchanged, and the French came off by the Lee, their Ambassador used to complain, and the Captain was severely checked, if not turned out: For you were converted to such a Degree of Zeal to the French King, that we must lose the Dominion of the Seas, rather than the Holy Alliance with that Monster should in the least be entrenched; and in the Private League your Brother made with that King, the Business of the Flag was not mentioned; and how indifferent your Brother and you were in the Case when it was in relation to the French, is not yet forgotten.   

Article XXV.  
YOU stand charged with refusing the Test that was provided by Parliament, and passed (though very unwillingly) by your Brother to prevent Popery. Truly we could not but laugh in our Sleeves when we saw yourself with a sort of Irish Magnanimity quit your great Employments for a Religion that makes Men Fools, and renders them as the Sport of the Age: But great Examples go a great way in such Cases. When the Popish Party saw your Resolution to quit all rather than your Religion, (scarce worth the keeping) several of them took up the Cross, and quitted their Employments also, rather than be false to your Cause and Interest: They did not do as your Brother did, retain the Popish Religion, and yet ever and anon (to get a little Money of the Parliament) was content to pass a Bill, or emit a Proclamation or two to the Prejudice of that Religion his Soul was most affected with, if with any. Alas good Man, he was for securing the main Chance: If he had not complied for a little Money, the Noble Fleet at Whitehall must have lain by the Walls without rigging, to the great Disparagement of the old Trade of Whoring: But as for your part, you were resolved to give up yourself to Rome, and the French King, which you could not have done if you had swallowed the Test. Therefore as a great piece of Self-denial, away go all Employments, by which you had ruined the Nation; for you questioned not but to carry on your Conspiracy against the Protestant Religion and Interest, by the help of your good and loving Brother, notwithstanding your acquittal of them. And,  
1. You engaged the French King to a closer Friendship with you, by which you were sure, not only of his Interest, but his Purse, to assist you against your Enemies and his, even that Parliament that advanced this new State-Purgatory in opposition to you and your cursed Villains, by which they had declared themselves the French King's and your mortal Enemies, who both of you drove on so furiously to have that Parliament dissolved, in revenge for their laying such a Stumbling-block in the way of yourself and Party: For as long as these Purgatory-makers were in being, it was scarce possible for you to subdue the Northern Heresy, that had so long domineered in the World: And he and you proposed by that Method to be put into such a Condition as should enable you to give the Protestant Religion such a Blow as it had not received since its first Birth; and to give you your due, your Design of ruining the Protestant Religion was not ill laid; and had you not overdone, your Design would not have been so soon undone.  
2. By your not taking the Test, you engaged a Party of Case-hardned Villains to espouse your Cause and Interest; and for true proof of their Integrity, they entered with you into a strict Conspiracy against our Religion, Laws and Liberties: For seeing they had met with such a terrible Blow from that Parliament, they were resolved to try what they could recover by way of Reprisal from the Dutch, and hoped some good would come of continuing the War with them; but finding themselves defeated there, you and they resolved, with the gracious Consent of your Brother, that England itself rather than fail should be made a Reprisal: Which Design prospered so well upon your Hands, that you went on as merrily as might be in your Ploughs Work; and accordingly exposed the Nation to the Fury of the French: And had old Clifford had the Grace not to have hanged himself, he would have appeared a very deserving Person, and eminent in that Holy Confederacy. However, you did not fail of your Enterprise in some measure of ruining the Nation, because of the Protestant Purgatory that was found out for its Service, though you could not find such a one in all your Romish Library.  
3. By this Example you engaged a great number of Priests and Jesuits to infest the Kingdom, in order to storm the Church of England, and would have ravished her, poor Gentlewoman, had she not held up her Smock to save them the trouble; and these Varlets, with the Argument of your Steadfastness to the Catholic Religion, perverted very many of the lewder sort of People, both Male and Female: And seeing such a Number brought into your Ark, you used to say, you doubted not of an Army of Roman Catholics to establish the Popish Religion.  
4. You made these Villains thus perverted so bold and daring, that they drove on with such Fury, as it was scarce possible for a Protestant, that was any ways known to be zealous for his Religion, and for the Interest of his Country, to walk near Whitehall or St. James', without the danger at least of being affronted or beaten: Whence it was that even that Purgatory-making Parliament thought they had not done enough to expel that Religion, (whose Professors in all Kingdoms stuck at nothing to establish their Superstition, and to that End have troubled the Peace of the Christian World; and had at that time, by your espousing their Cause, sufficiently strengthened, as was feared, their villainous Party to the overthrow of the Protestant Interest) but resolved to use farther means to prevent the Practices of these Rascals that were so notoriously wicked as not any longer to be born.  
One would have thought this Purgatory-Act should have done the Business, yet it was backed with a multitude of Gracious Assurances to the Nation from your Brother (a Person of great Integrity and Honour in his Promises) to maintain and defend the Protestant Religion; for a Testimony whereof observe and remember that the Cliffordian and French Designs were carried on (notwithstanding the Test-Act) in 1673, 74, 75, 76, 77, and part of 78, in as pernicious, though different manner from your first Design, whose Method you were forced to change by reason of that Act, which was so made as to execute itself. And the Means of introducing that Religion seeming then at a stand, you thought of a new Project, that in all probability might not attract that Envy that the preferring of Papists in several great Places of Trust had done, yet that the same Ends might be more certainly and easily, though not so soon obtained. Which brings me to   

Article XXVI.  
IN order to strengthen the Popish and French Interest, you were pleased to take to Wife the Daughter of the Duke of Modena, whom you have and hold to this Day, which was in itself a Scoundrel Match; but that it might appear somewhat considerable, the French King declared her an adopted Daughter of France, and promised to give her a Portion suitable thereunto, for her Father could not give her a Groat: And whether he gave her a Portion or no at that time, I cannot tell; if he did not, I suppose you will eat it out before you leave St. Germains. Your Brother consented to the Match, without much difficulty, by a good Lord, a Friend of yours, who consummated the Marriage by the Royal Consent and Authority of your Brother, according to the Form used amongst Princes, as your good Protestant Brother was pleased to express it.  
Before this precious Bit of Italian Flesh could arrive in England, your Conspirators who advised this Marriage, perceived that the 20th of October would come, and that it might probably receive some Obstruction from the Parliament, and that some other things were prepared against their meeting for the curbing your Rogues, who were grown (as observed to you in the First Part) damnably Insolent; for the Check the Test-Bill had given, was far less than the Encouragement from this wicked Marriage: And that a fatal Blow might be given to the Preparations of the then House of Commons in prejudice of your Conspirators, you procured a Prorogation to the 27th of October 1673, whereby to put an End to that Session, and all the Business unperfected in March 1671/3 should fall to the Ground. But pray what was the Matter? Why must some good Bills fall to the Ground that were so well prepared in March 1672/3? Why truly your Reasons for the Prorogation, if I am not much out, were these three.  
1. To prevent and remove from your Brother all Temptations to break the intended Marriage, and the French Alliance, the Parliament being like to use their utmost endeavour to hinder the Consummation of that Marriage, which might render the Popish Religion and the French Alliance impregnable. You know, Sir, that Cardinal Howard promoted the Match to serve the Catholics, and the Catholic Religion was your end too, since you were converted to such a degree of Zeal, that Coleman your Secretary knew not his Head from his Heels, or whether he was awake, or in a Dream: and then to strengthen the Interest of the French King must be your design, since his Interest and yours were so inseparably united, that he that was your Enemy, was an Enemy to his Interest; and he that was an Enemy to his, was to your Interest also. Now what a wicked Parliament was it that would have separated such an Interest, and oppose such a Religion, in endeavouring to prevent so hopeful a Match, whereby, 1. The Folly; 2. The Malice of you and your Party did appear?  
(1.) The Folly of your Party did appear, for that Parliament did never fail to give Money whenever called for, if they were but indifferently well used; and the King was generally unwilling to let a Session go off without some Pocket-money for the modest Gentlewomen at Whitehall: therefore your Partisans should rather have adjourned the Marriage, than prorogued the Parliament, who having notice of the Conspiracy, (which you had managed more like an Irish Teague than an English Statesman) were very angry at the King's breach of his Word and Royal Promise made to them in March before: Therefore notwithstanding the King's Speech, Octob. 20. for a swinging Supply for carrying on the War against the Dutch, the Parliament would vote nothing but an Address against this Match of yours with the Daughter of Modena; for they considered the Nation was not able always to lie under the dispensation of parting with Money, to secure the Popish Religion, and French Interest: And as a preparation to the Address, you know they passed this Vote, viz. This House taking into consideration the Condition of the Nation, will not take into any further Debate or Consideration any Aid, Supply, or Charge upon the Subject, before the time of the Payment of the eighteen months' Assessment, granted by a late Act of Parliament, entitled, An Act for raising the Sum of 1238750 l. for the Supply of his Majesty's present Occasions, be expired, unless it shall appear that the obstinacy of the Dutch shall render it necessary; nor before this Kingdom be effectually secured from the Danger of Popery, and Popish Counsels and Counsellors, and other present Grievances be redressed.  
You having by your little Vermin given out with all Folly and Impudence, that you stood in no need of a Parliament but to give Money; by this Vote they were even with you, who with your Crew were so nettled at their Vote, that you were resolved to give them a remove from your Councils: but that it might not seem altogether upon the account of denying Money, you let the Parliament proceed, and the Address was prepared with Reasons against this Match of yours, which I have laid down in my first Part, and therefore wave them now; the Parliament being assured that this Marriage at that time was not so far concluded, but that for Reasons of State it might be rejected, as has been practised in divers Nations, and even by the French themselves in several Examples, as manifestly appears in the French Histories.  
I having an Opportunity of discoursing about the Match, the Jesuits condemned the Conduct of your Friends at St. James', in deferring it till the Session was so nigh, and then putting the Parliament off; whereas the Marriage ought rather to have been suspended till the Parliament had given Money; and one Million well husbanded, would have enabled your Brother to set up Arbitrary Power, for the French King would have stood by him: And further, That your Counsellors had been too open in the steps they took in this Match, and had too publicly boasted of the Advantage they should have by it, both as to France and Religion, and had too much undervalved the Parliament, since you could not at that Time subsist without one.  
(2.) As your Party shown their Folly, so their Malice; for as the King was unwilling to part without Money, and also to quit the French Interest, all the Grievances of the Nation must be postponed, which were judged by you to be but Trifles; if any difference did arise, it was their Faults to insist on such small things: therefore with Indignation you procured them to be prorogued, that they might recollect themselves, and basely comply with your wicked Designs of destroying the Dutch, and advancing the Fr. Interest in this Match, that they might for the future be of no use to you; for a moderate Sum of Money, a Million or two, would, by the French King's Assistance, have been a competent Stock to open Shop withal, that our Laws, Liberties and Religion too, should have perished at one stroke, such was your Rage against us at that Day. Your Bullies about the Town had the aid of your Purse to swagger against the Parliament, and to admire the French King, and tell us how happy we were by being embarked in the French Interest through this Match; and why should a damned Parliament be suffered to sit till it was consummated beyond the Power of their interposing in it? And the King was not to be trusted in this Affair, if a Parliament were to sit, for he would be wheedled by the House of Commons, upon the account of Money, to break off this hopeful Match, yea, and with the King of France too; but keep him without a Parliament, and he would do any thing to please the French King or yourself. Now, Sir, from all this we may conclude how foolish and malicious your Crew did show themselves in the Prorogation of the Parliament, that the King might not be engaged by them to break off that Match to the projudice of the Popish Religion, or the French Interest.  
2. This was not the only Reason, for you had another before you, viz. The consideration that the Bill for ease of Protestant Dissenters (whereby a major part of them should have Liberty of Conscience, and be capable of Church-preferment) had passed the Commons, and was sent up to the Lords in March 1672/3, where it then remained, and would not long stick, as you and your Party feared, before it would obtain the Royal Assent; which if once effected, you foresaw the uniting the Protestant Interest would tend greatly to the suppression of Popery, and consequently no hopes of that Religion's being replanted here: but if you could any how prevent the passing that Bill, you doubted not for all the Parliament could do, to be safe amongst so many Dissenters, and drive on your Designs underhand for the destruction of all Protestants. From hence, Sir, let me observe,  
(1.) That this was a time when you and your Party were not for Liberty of Conscience, because the uniting of Protestants by Liberty would be very fatal to you, and therefore you got the Parliament prorogued, that this Blessing might not fall upon you and your Friends. But how comes it to pass that you gave God thanks that it was always your Judgement that all Men ought to have the Liberty of their Consciences in Matters of Religion and Worship? Were not you a most notorious Hypocrite to say so?  
(2.) You must needs be engaged in a most Hellish Design against the Protestant Religion, and your Party be resolved to proceed-no farther in any other Work, but that must be destroyed, or else what needed so much Care for proroguing the Parliament, that the Bill for Liberty of Conscience, then in the House of Lords, might of course come to nothing? By which Prorogation you so offended the Parliament, that you lost at least the Gift of a Million of Money.  
(3.) It argued you certainly very full of Revenge, that because your Brother was forced to break his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, you would procure the Prorogation of a Parliament to break the Bill for it, though it was more legal and commendable in the Parliament, (notwithstanding the Loggerheaded Reasons given against it in 1664, in a Session of the same Parliament) for by it we saw plainly that an Arbitrary Declaration for Liberty of Conscience was the Sense of your Soul, but a legal Liberty of Conscience you hated from the bottom of your Heart, and would rather incur the Displeasure of a Parliament, than they should have the doing of that which they would not suffer your Brother, yourself and wicked Party to do in a most illegal manner, without the Authority of Parliament.  
(4.) I perceive at that time it was the Sense of the Lords, as well as of the Commons, that such a Bill was necessary to secure the Protestant Religion, and therefore it would have passed that House, and the King have given his Royal Assent to it, if there had been but a Million or 1200000 Pounds in the Case: Therefore that they might be better informed concerning the Conveniency of your Italian Match, and the Inconveniency of that Bill for Liberty of Conscience, you obtained a Prorogation, though your Brother, good Man, lost a swinging Tax by the Bargain.  
(5.) That you gained your Point in reference to Liberty of Conscience; for Time you know is often Life to a Cause: And as the Protestant Interest run high in the Session of Parliament in 1672/3, and this Act came from the Commons to the Lords in favour of them, who had passed it but for want of Time, and another Bill passed against Popery by which Clifford fell, and you and your Party put out of Humour; so that Clifford's Fall might be gentle, an end was put to that Session, the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience was broke or cancelled; and in revenge you put a stop to the passing the Bill that would have established Liberty of Conscience by a Law, by breaking up the Parliament from Octob. 20. to 27. and then to Jan. 7. following. In this Recess you not only completed the Italian Design, but so ordered the Matter, that when the Parliament met in January, all Favour to Dissenters was killed as dead as a Door-nail, and not one word of reviving the Bill for Liberty of Conscience was heard of; but on the contrary our Prick-eared Priests were instructed to preach this to be as true as the Gospel, that now there was no more Danger from the Papists, but that the fanatics were the only dangerous Enemy; and you and the Devil's Brokers had found out a Scots Lord, and 2 Men who then made a mighty Figure at Court, that were impudent and desperate enough to put the King's Affairs on so narrow and weak a Bottom: Nay, Old Lawderdale, rather than fail, becomes a Patron of the Church; and who but he with his Guts was cried up by our Parasitical Pulpit-hunters? Nay, I will say this for Clifford, that though Villain enough, yet his Principles were very generous in comparison of your new Set of Jugglers, whose Business it was to ruin those this Year they had supported but the last; nay, give them their due, they would never forgive a Man that had been but once in the Right. Those, Sir, were your trusty Cards, and they agreed with our Spiritual Guides, and Roger their Master, not only in Principles, but Passion too; therefore you presently joined with them in directing the Judges to put the Laws in Execution against Dissenters; which was done as you required.  
(6.) Our Holy Churchmen, as their Zeal was much increased by your Influence to suppress the Dissenters, so their Zeal against Popery was to all Intents and Purposes extinguished, as if you and your Italian Mistress had been naturally dead: For if any of the young Fry had preached against it, he was rebuked as too Pragmatical and Saucy; and truly so they were that presumed to preach against a Religion your Brother and you had ventured Soul and Body to advance, in order to pox the whole Nation, both Men and Women: for the French Disease was so Epidemical, that a Man could scarce find fair Quarter, no not in thechurch or Chancel, unless he was of the French Interest. Thus you may remember what Success attended your Design in proroguing the Parliament, by which the Liberty of Conscience intended was defeated, and how its Defeat, with the Consequences thereof, prospered upon your Hands. But what signifies all this, since there was a French Interest, the Romish Religion, and an Italian Comrade to support all? So much for your second Reason for proroguing that Parliament.  
3. And lastly, Your great Design in carrying on this Match by the Prorogation of the Parliament, was to create a Jealousy between the King and them, exasperating him with their Impertinency; and by your prevailing with him to countenance that wicked Match, you exasperated the Parliament against the King: For though that Parliament should for ever after that Match have denied to give Money, yet you were so sure of the French King, that you hoped by the help of his Forces to have brought Popery in upon us, and with it Arbitrary Government; the first of which your Popish Tools cried up as the best Religion, and our High Church-Rogues in conjunction with them, cried up the last as the best of Governments; yet at the same time they would deny it to be practicable here, unless it pleased God to find out some way for both these great Churches to unite together to suppress Phanaticism. But the Parliament saw into your Game, and observed your Steps: You sunk much in their Opinion, therefore you resolved they should sink in the King's Opinion, which occasioned so many Prorogations when you and your Party had any Villainy in hand. I might have said more to this Point, but that I have spoken to it in my First Part.   

Article XXVII.  
YOUR Brother and you made a Frenchman General of your Army, to the great Dishonour of the English Nobility. This French General was then Count Schomberg, and one of the Mareschals of France, and he was chosen to bear that Trust before many valuable Noblemen we had at that Day. It's true, he was a great Soldier, and worthy to have commanded a better Army than you had at Black-Heath; but when he saw what Vermin you and your Crew had got together, and that their Design was to plunder the City of London, and not to fight against the Dutch, he fairly quitted his Post, and left you; though, Sir, it is not to be forgotten what Designs you would have engaged that Noble Person in, for you proposed to yourself and Friends that he being a French Man, would have joined with you in the Design of Arbitrary Government; but when the thing was put to him, he abhorred it, and would not therefore continue in the Command.  
But what a Dishonour was this to the Nobility of England, that not one of them could be found to take upon him such a Command? 1. Were they such Cowards that they dare not undertake it? Or, 2. Were they so unskilful in the Affair, that they could not with Honour do it? Or, 3. Was the Design so villainous, that they were not to understand any part of it? Were you-resolved upon the French Government? Then Schomberg you judged would join with you in that Affair: Or were you resolved that Popery should proceed? Then you had the Judicious Major General Fitzgerald that was to have done it. I believe, Sir, you despaired of any of our Noblemen joining with you in these two Parts of your Design, Popery and Arbitrary Power, and therefore sought for other Persons that might give better hopes of approving themselves fit for your turn; which turned to an ill Account, for it bred ill Blood in the Nobility against you and your villainous Party.   

Article XXVIII.  
YOUR Brother and you oppressed the Kingdom of Scotland in order to ruin the Protestant Interest there. Be pleased, Sir, to call to mind that when in the Year 1660 it pleased God to restore your Brother to the Throne in that Ancient Kingdom, the news of it was grateful to that People, hoping his Restoration would prove a great Blessing and Comfort to them; and he had been so, if you and your wicked Party had let him taken such Measures as would have settled that Kingdom in Peace and Quietness. There are several Particulars relating to that Kingdom worthy your Consideration; and supposing you may by Mrs. Abigails leave have now some time of thinking, I pray remember,  
1. Upon your Brother's Restoration, notwithstanding the Troubles and hard Usage the Scots had met with from your Father, (which cost him his Life at long-run) and from Monk who for several Years had acted the part of a Tyrant in his Government of that Kingdom, yet they took no advantage of these Miscarriages, but with all cheerfulness put their Necks under your Brother's Yoke of Absolute Prerogative, of choosing all Officers of State, Counsellors and Judges, in making War and Peace, and calling and dissolving Parliaments and Conventions of State. It is well known how they had been provoked to renounce your Father's Government, and put themselves under the Protection of some other Prince, and might have defeated your Brother's Pretensions to that Kingdom, since he renounced the Covenant he swore to maintain: But they forgot all this, and gladly received him their King, and for Peace sake parted with many Immunities which that Kingdom anciently had, hoping thereby to have engaged him to be a Nursing Father to their Church, as then constituted according to the Examples of the Reformers, and (as they judged) to the Word of God.  
2. You cannot but remember that this was not the only Demonstration of the great Loyalty of that People: For though it is well known that a limited Power in the Prince, and the support of it by the People's Purse, was the just Balance of the Government of that and all other Kingdoms; yet forgetting all Differences in your Father's Reign, they testified an affectionate Zeal to your Brother, in making the Revenue above double what your Father or he possessed; and had they given themselves up to an entire Vassalage, he could scarce have desired such a Bounty; nay he thought it such a piece of exuberant Liberality, that he was pleased to declare it was enough, and that he would have no more: Yet the Commissioners that held the Parliaments, (notwithstanding the King was sensible of the greatness of their Benevolence) have drawn forth several Taxes, (pretending the King's great Necessities) even beyond the Ability of that People.  
3. They also complied with the desire of your Brother (by your procurement) to submit to the Bondage and Slavery of a villainous standing Army, which they called in an Act that raised it, An humble Tender to his Sacred Majesty, of the Duty and Loyalty of his ancient Kingdom of Scotland: And as a Testimony of the same, they did offer to the King 20000 Foot, and 2000 Horse sufficiently armed, with 40 days Provision, to be ready upon the King's call; and in the same Act they declared, that if the King should have farther Use and Occasion for their Service, the Kingdom would be ready every Man between Sixty and Sixteen, and hazard their Lives and Fortunes, if called for by his Majesty, for the Safety and Preservation of his Person, Authority, and Government. Sure one would think you had given them some State Philtre, to create in them such a slavish Loyalty and Love to your Brother's Person and Government.  
4. Nay they went a step farther to please your Brother and yourself, being resolved not to fall short in expressing their Loyalty and Affection to him: therefore do but observe them in another Act of Parliament, wherein they most dutifully and humbly recognize his Majesty's Prerogative Royal, and declared in the said Act, That the ordering and disposal of Trade with Foreign Nations, and the laying Restraints and Impositions upon Foreign Imported Commodities, did belong to his Majesty and his Successors, as an undoubted Privilege and Prerogative of the Crown, and that therefore they might do therein as they should judge fit for the good of the Kingdom.  
5. These People certainly were bewitched with the thing called Loyalty, and made it appear to the World that they placed the Security of all their Interests more in their Confidence of the King's Goodness, than the firmest Provision of the best Laws: for though in the Parliament held by your Father in Person, in 1641, many Acts were signed by him for settling their Religion, Properties, and Liberties, which the deepest Consideration and Maturity of Judgement imaginable, grounded upon long and wellweighed Experience, many and well-managed Treaties, and the Mediation of England, could afford and furnish; yet because the Glory of those Laws appeared to these Blockheads to be stained by the remembrance of some previous Contentions, wherein they thought themselves very infortunate, by having your Father differ from them, to please your Brother, at one blow they repealed the whole Proceeding of that Parliament, and all the Laws then and there made for the Preservation of Religion as aforesaid.  
6. Those whom God will destroy he delivers up to Madness first, and s he did these People, in evidencing an unparallelled Submission to the King, and a Resignation of all that was near and dear to them into his Hands: for though that Nation since its first Reformation from Popery, did continually oppose Prelacy, yet after they had destroyed it, and enjoyed their Church under a Constitution and Ministry according to their Heart's desire, in compliance with your Brother, they parted with the Presbyterian Government, and reestablished Episcopacy, to the Amazement of most Men; so acceptable was he to the Scots Parliament at that Time. And for the carrying on your cursed Designs, you know how your Brother made James Sharp, Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Farewell, and another whose Name occurs not at present, to renounce their Presbyterian Ordination, who were made Deacons and Priests, and then consecrated Bishops by the Bishop of Winchester, and two others of that Gang: and four Scots Prelates thus made, the King fixed the Government of that Church by Archbishops and Bishops, as in his Father's time in 1637, who had the same Authority derived to them as they had in your Grandfather's Reign: so by Proclamation bearing date Sept. 6. 1661. the Presbyterian Government ceased to be to all Intents and Purposes; and the Council suspended the Meeting of the Presbyteries till they had received Power, not from Heaven, but from the Archbishops and Bishops, who were in a short Time to enter upon their Government. To complete this Work, the Parliament in the 2d Session reinstated the Bishops in the exercise of their Functions, and restored them to all their Privileges, Dignities, Possessions, etc. Now one would think this Compliance of the Nation should have obliged your Brother and you to have treated them in some measure suitable to their Loyalty and slavish Resignation of themselves.  
Your great Instrument in carrying on this blessed Work of enslaving the Kingdom of Scotland in these particulars, in order to your farther Designs, was the Earl of Middleton, the first High Commissioner after your Brother's return, who was most violent in pursuing this Change: but by his impetuous Violence in this mighty Work, (on which he much valued himself) he rendered himself obnoxious; and despising Lauderdale, who took hold of some of his Miscarriages, in a short Time he was unhorsed by him; and Lauderdale procured the Commission of Lord High Commissioner for the Earl of Rothes, by whom Middleton's Parliament was dissolved; upon which Madam Van Harlot, their new Church, appeared in its proper Colours, and being made Triumphant, 'tis well known what Pranks the Whore played, what Tumults her Guides excited, and what Tragedies her Reverend Clergy acted in your Brother's Reign. Nay, old Hodge was not so much as advised withal in the Case; and every thing was carried on with that Fury, that had not Sir Robert Murray come in to the Relief of the People, who were on the very brink of Destruction, they must have inevitably perished. But, Sir, I will not dwell here any longer, only tell you that Lauderdale was the third Lord High Commissioner of Scotland, by whom a lamentable Scene of Rogueries were acted, and by whom you made your blessed Steps to ruin that poor Nation.  
1. Your first Step to ruin Scotland, was the making Middleton and Lauderdale so excessively great. In truth, to give the Beasts their due, as the Scotish Nation was not able to bear their Greatness, so neither they to bear their own. You remember that before Lauderdale was Commissioner, by reason of his being sole Secretary of State for that Nation, and Court-minister, he had the absolute Rule and disposing of the Affairs and Concerns of that Kingdom, which gave great Offence to the Scots, who in the particulars abovesaid had showed themselves so abominably Loyal as to quit their Religion, Laws, and Liberties, to please your Brother and you. As for Middleton, he was invested with such Powers, that Lauderdale was jealous of his Greatness, who seeing him exercise his Power to the utmost, imagined there would be nothing for him to do, and therefore (as I said) justled Middleton out; by whose Greatness Scotland, by Consent of Parliament, delivered up all, as if Hallifax himself had issued forth Quo Warrantoes against their Franchises, both as to Liberty and Religion: and you having had enough of Middleton's prostituting himself to your Brother's Will and yours, exit Middleton, and enter Lauderdale, a case-hardened Rogue, a Villain fit for the Devil's Service to all Intents and Purposes; who the more easily to complete your wicked Designs, you may remember did basely debar his Countrymen from speaking with the King otherwise than he pleased, for fear they might tell Tales of his exorbitant Power, by which he disobliged them in the highest; and by reason of his being mostly hear at Court, the Scots Noblemen and Gentlemen were subjugated to a base and vile dependence upon his Creatures and Favourites, nay oftentimes upon his Servants, with whom it's well known they transacted for obtaining and dispatching Gifts, and Sign-manuals, and that it was by the said Lauderdale's Servants that Protections to Debtors were so villainously obtained.  
Give me leave, Sir, to put you in mind how hurtful he was to the Nation as High Commissioner of that Kingdom; in order to which we may note, that the Office of High Commissioner is altogether extraordinary, and for a particular Occasion, viz. The holding of a Parliament in the King's Absence, therefore scarce known in Scotland till James I. came to the Crown; and when the Session of Parliament was upon its determination, that Office also determined with it. Now when you had made Middleton so great, he brought in that Innovation of adjourning Parliaments for a long time, that he might tamper with them to betray the Religion, Laws, and Liberties of the People; whereby he most illegally continued his Commission in the Interval of Parliament, so that he might fit and prepare that poor People for Destruction. Truly he had gone a pretty way in it; and that he might finish his Work, and serve your Purposes upon that Kingdom, he did (as I said) lengthen the Adjournment of that Parliament for about two Years or so, a thing never before known in Scotland; for which, Sir, your old Bandog Lauderdale accused him as a Criminal to the King and you, with the reproachful Title of a Subverter of the Government: But however, the Matter was hushed up, for Middleton having done your Business so well there, in time he was rewarded with the Government of Tangier. But when Lauderdale got into the same Station, he far outwent Middleton in continuing his Commission, for he spun it out for four Years and a half; for which there was no manner of Necessity, if you consider but the State of Affairs then in that Kingdom: Nay, it was so far from being necessary, that it was a notorious Grievance, for by it he not only hindered the Proceed of the Parliament, but endeavoured to frustrate all its Meetings; which as it was a known Violation of the Ancient Constitution of that Government, so the unnecessary Continuance, and Arbitrary long Adjourments of the Parliament, contributed exceedingly to the increase of the People's Burdens and Distresses.  
Truly, Sir, it is plain that the villainous Deportment of that Lauderdale was such, in the Trust your Brother and you reposed in him, which in time appeared to be his best Security: And why so? The Reason, Sir, is plain; for what he had proudly plotted and contrived through his matchless Ambition, (being conscious to himself that he might be reckoned withal for his devilish Proceed in that Station) he was under some necessity of maintaining by his Power, in a most tenacious way, that he might perfect the Ruin of that People, making good the old Proverb, Over Shoes over Boots, it would be all one at the Gallows at last: So that the Relief of that poor and abandoned People, from the Disorders which you and your wicked Party had made in that Kingdom by those two Men, remained only with Almighty God, there being no Hopes from your Brother.  
Therefore, Sir, after the Adjournment of a Parliament, which was held (if I am not misinformed) in 1674. and adjourned in December that Year, Duke Hamilton, the Earl of Tweddale, and some Gentlemen (being sensible of the notorious Villainies of old Lauderdale, and to prevent his Lies from taking place with the King) repair to the Court in England, with the Approbation of those to whom they communicated their Intentions, being confident they should be delivered from the Oppressions occasioned by Middleton and Lauderdale; and hoping the King would receive their faithful Representation of the Affairs of that Nation, both as to Religion and Government. But Lauderdale, who was an Enemy of all Righteousness and Truth, omitted no Obstruction he could lay in the way: For, 1. by a Proclamation he procured that no Scots-man should go out of the Kingdom without Licence from the Council, that so the King might not have the Truth of Affairs laid before him, whereby to see the State and Condition that poor People were in, in order to give them some Legal Redress. Again, 2. it is well known he employed a pitiful Rascal at Berwick, as a Spy to intercept all free Correspondence; who being empowered by him, did seize and search Sir William Carnegie a Member of Parliament, and detained him (a Lord of his Name you well remember) in his Passage through that Town to London. 3. Lauderdale having by means of this Rogue got some Packets intercepted, he like a base Villain transmitted them to our Court, not considering the Violation done to the common Intercourse and good Understanding of the two Nations, nor regarding that Tenderness which honest Men have for the Honour of their Country, and obtained of the King for this Fellow for such Rogueries (instead of a Pillory or Gallows) the Reward of 50 l. Sterling to be paid out of the Exchequer in Scotland, to the great Satisfaction of the King, yourself, and wicked Party. 4. By the same Means, and in the same Place, he endeavoured to affront Duke Hamilton and his Company in their Passage, by questioning their Retinue, and refusing them a Night's lodging; which was not known to the Governor of that Town, he being absent: But at the return of these Noble Persons, both Governor and People of the Place testified their Respects to them. 5. This Lauderdale incensed the King and you against a Gentleman Duke Hamilton sent before him, as one that had been a Sequestrator in the Time of Oliver, (sometime Lord-Protector of these three Nations) and a Person disaffected to the Government: But notwithstanding all these Obstacles, and many other Discouragements, the same Persons arrived at Court, and did with all Submission and Sincerity, and in all Faithfulness and Truth, acquit themselves, giving a full Account of the State of Affairs both as to the King's and country's Interest. What was the Event of all this? Truly they were dismissed with fair Words, and had positive Promises that the Parliament in Scotland should meet and sit an the Day appointed, that Grievances should be redressed, and that the Commission Lauderdale held as Commissioner should be revoked. Upon which they hasten home, (the Duke with extraordinary Difficulty, both in respect of the rigour of the Season, and his weakness of Body) that they might attend the Parliament in their respective Places on the 3d of March, to which Time the Parliament was adjourned, which was the very next Day after their arrival. But, Sir, instead of a Session so much expected by the People, you and this wicked Wretch procured of your Brother another Adjournment, though the Members waited four Months, and were all got together in hopes the King's Word would have been kept; and so the Parliament was put off till October the 14th following. Upon this I pray remember the Carriages of this notorious State-Villain, by which you might see the Nature of the Beast, that you yourself at last hated.  
1st. Call to mind, that to please you and your Villainous Party, he did in the most insolent manner undervalue Parliaments, which he discovered by that rascally Expression to the King against the Earl of Middleton, lessening what he had done, as if he had not been serviceable enough to Baal; Sir, if you had sent down a Dog with your Commission about his Neck to your Scots Parliament, he would have done all the Earl of Middleton had done; who one would have thought had been Villain enough for doing what he did in the Innovations he brought into Scotland, both in Church and State: But it seems, Sir, you found Lauderdale to be a Rogue of a deeper Die, and therefore Middleton was laid aside, and Covenant-Lauderdale made use of to carry on Designs more wicked than ever Middleton was acquainted withal.  
2ly. Call to mind how he treated some of the Scots Members of Parliament with most unsufferable Insolence; for truly had he done as much by me, I should, upon Consideration of his other Virtues, have done his Country and my own that Service that two Parliaments by the Means of your Power could not do. But, Sir, to return to our Scots Parliament-men, he sent one to Prison, whose Name was Mr. William Moor, because he desired (after the Order of the English Parliament) their Acts might be at least thrice read before they were voted, or somewhat to that purpose; and using the word We for I, said Lauderdale to him, What, are there any more in your Arse? Which base speaking provoked most of the Members as very indecent and unmannerly, and not to be used to Gentlemen. I will say that for the Earl of Middleton, that he understood how to use a Gentleman, though bade enough; but this Rascal, when in Power, understood no body.  
3ly. I suppose, Sir, you have not forgot his-slighting Duke Hamilton in the most contemptible manner, and most of the Ancient Nobility of the greatest Interest and Value in that Kingdom, whom he did not so much as allow to be named among the Commissioners chosen for the Treaty of Union betwixt the two Kingdoms, though many were named that ought not to have been, unless in a dead Warrant, which was his desert for many a fair Year, and you yourself thought so at last.  
4ly. After your Brother and you had made him thus great, you may remember how inconstant this Villain was to those with whom he professed the greatest Friendship; for in the time of his Greatness he acted according to his Humour and Advantage, not according to the Measures and Rules an honest Man should use in Conversation with Mankind, witness his dealing with the late Duke of Ormond, Earl of Shaftsbury, Earl of Rothes, Tweddale, Sir Robert Murray, and others, whom (as it served his Turn) he carest with all open Flattery, or rejected, when you had given him direction to slight and contemn them.  
5ly. To serve the wicked Designs of you and your Conspirators, you may remember how he neglected the Interest of his Country, and gratified a parcel or beggarly Rascals that depended on him for Bread, by procuring them Gifts upon the Forfeitures of the Penal Statutes then in Force: As to Sir John Moncreif a Gift of the Fines upon those who were convicted for Nonconformity in the Shires of Fife and Perth; and to one Scot of Ardress, and Major Bothwick, a Gift upon the Maltmen and Brewers; and to the said Bothwick another vexatious Gift commonly called of Peck and Bole. These were known Rogues and Spies for him, and were great Persecutors of the People of God in those Parts: and to one Carmichel he gave large Sums to accuse Sir Patrick Hume falsely, since a Peer of that Kingdom; this Carmichel since that died of a languishing Disease in the Kings-Bench Prison, where he confessed to me upon his Deathbed his many Villainies against the People of God in that Kingdom.  
6ly. Give me leave to put you in mind of his horrid Profaneness; witness his Compliment to that Firstborn of all Villainy and Falseness the Archbishop of St. Andrews, that was executed for his many Villainies, by a number of injured Men that could not have Justice done otherwise; to whom Lauderdale was pleased to say, Come in my Lord, sit down here at my right Hand, and I will make all your Enemies your Footstool. This was so profane, that those who heard the Villain utter these words, trembled, and were so filled with Horror, that one of them was sick almost to death. Nay, Sir, you yourself was pleased to say, that Lauderdale had an odd way of profaning the Scriptures, which was not to be endured by a chaste Ear.  
7ly. You have heard his rascally, insipid, and malicious way of jes●ing, at and against his old Practices and Acquaintance, when the Villain was a Professor of Religion: One Day at his Table he said, He could pray and cant as well as any Nonconformist in the Christian World; and to entertain his Company in contempt of the Most High, he began a Complaint to God, and in derision would confess his Covenant-breaking, and other Sins; at which many of his Companions left him (though perhaps otherwise lewd enough) for fear the House should fall upon them, and they perish with him for his abominable Wickedness. You may remember how he used his old Acquaintance that kept their Integrity in Religion, how he insulted over them when they appeared before him in Council, by a reproachful remembrance of former Practices in religious Duties; so that some of 'em have used the old Proverb concerning him, No Turk like to a Renegado.  
This, Sir, was a fit Tool for you to use for introducing your base Designs of Slavery into that Kingdom, in order to establish Popery. Alas, Middleton was but an Ass to this Fellow, for he had some Grains of a Gentleman; but this Villain was the Compound of all Unrighteousness, and an Enemy of God and Mankind: This was the Man you advanced by Middleton, and by him and your sweet self Scotland was bravely bridled and saddled to your Heart's content. Thus I conclude the first step you took to the Ruin of that Ancient (and your Father's native) Kingdom. Concerning these two Men it may be said, that Middleton served Baal a little, but Lauderdale served him much.  
2. A second Step you took to ruin that Kingdom, and your Brother's Government, was the filling the Courts of Judicature there (especially their Session, which is the Supreme Court of Justice) with ignorant and insufficient Men. This, Sir, was the Method you pursued, not only in England, but in Ireland; and therefore I should have much wondered if Scotland had escaped that Grace and Favour of yours, which was generally speaking pretty impartial: For why should the Administration of Justice be in better Hands there than it was here? You were resolved that the doing of Justice in the three 〈…〉 be of a Piece, and therefore played your Game there (though with more 〈…〉 as you did here. To prove this, you procured your Brother's Letters ●● Lauderdale to constitute one Sir Andrew Ramsey one of the Lords of the Sessions who never was bred up to the Law, but to Merchandizing: Which extrava●●ant Proceeding being complained of in Parliament, as of dangerous Consequence, Ramsey parted with his Place, resigning it up to Lauderdale, and was said to have more Knowledge than the other three: And by reason of the Insufficiency of the Lords of the Session thereupon, Partiality so manifestly crept into that, as well as other Courts of Justice, that the Foundations of Law and Justice were much shaken, as was once ready to be proved in full Parliament in that Kingdom in the Time of Lauderdale's Ministry. Now, Sir, you may see it was not a Fault in a Man to serve the late Protector, if he would but join with Lauderdale and you to subvert the Government of that Kingdom, and enslave the People, in order to establish Popery: For this Ramsey had been Provost of Edinburgh in the Protector's Time, and complied with him to the height of being knighted, and after that got to be reknighted, and reentred Provost, by the Favour of Earl Middleton, to whom he was a villainous Tool in assisting him to defraud the People of their Religion, Laws and Liberties, all at once: But upon Middleton's Disgrace, this Fellow strikes in with Lauderdale, who had a greater Sacrifice to offer to Baal than Middleton had yet offered, with whom and the Tradesmen of Edinburgh, by his long-practised Arts of Flattery and Bribery, he so mightily prevailed, that continuing Provost for ten Years, in that time he so domineered over the poor Citizens, and so enriched himself by their Rents and Moneys at his Pleasure, that by Lauderdale's Assistance and yours he cheated the King of near 20000 l. Sterling, and had an Opportunity of obtaining to be constituted one of the Lords of the Session: And though he with the other three (who, as I said before, were more unskilful in the Law) made such Havoc, that Lauderdale himself could not keep him in that Station, so many notorious Corruptions and illegal Proceed being proved against him and them, yet there was not a Change made in that Court without some difficulty. And after all their signal Villainies they were let fall by yourself and Lauderdale as Men that had overdone your Business.  
3. Another Step taken to ruin the People of Scotland, was the Gift of a Part of your Brother's Revenue, called the King's Casualties (which is the Wards and Marriages) to another of your Creatures there, procured by Lauderdale through your Interest with the King, though contrary to all the Laws of that Kingdom in that Case; which was not only prejudicial to the Government, but extremely vexatious to the People: For these Casualties were an Arbitrary Revenue, and paid or not as the King pleased: Therefore the giving it to any one Man to make his most of it, was both against Law and Reason, and the Interest of the Subject. This Creature of yours was the Earl of Kincaerden, who, the more to oppress the People in this Point, was by the King's Letters by you procured, joined in Commission with Lauderdale in the Treasury, and also with the extraordinary Lords of the Session, by which they went on without control to grieve the People. Sir, It is apparent to those that understand the Constitution of that Kingdom, that this Gift of the Casualties was never known in Scotland till attempted 〈…〉 Ministry, who not being so bad as to join with you in such a piece of ●●●●●quency, it proved one Cause of his Disgrace.  
4. You know it was your Rogues Design here in England to diminish and debase the Coin and Plate of the Kingdom, the direful Effects whereof we feel at this Day, and for which this Nation is bound to curse the Names and Memory of you and your wicked Adherents. Thus you proceeded in Scotland, (though your Father's own dear Country) where you corrupted the Mint and Coinage: For by the King's Letters the Lord Hatton (Brother to Lauderdale) was constituted chief in that Office. I think they call the Master of the Mint General; but if I am mistaken in the Names, I may be in some measure excused. But as to the thing I am sure I am in the right, for the Corruption of the Mint and Coinage was so great, that the Scots People grew very uneasy, and made a fearful Complaint in Parliament, proving in that August Assembly, that for several Years they had found to their sorrow the intrinsic Value of the Silver Coin sensibly diminished both in Weight and Fineness, to the great Damage of that Kingdom: Nay, the thing rested not here, but to vex the People, care was taken by Hatton to over-charge the Country with a sort of base Coin, without considering the Weight and Value of that sort of Money, to the manifest hindering of the Trade of that Kingdom; and it was an Artifice your Conspirators used for enslaving that People, to impoverish them, so that you might the more easily bring them under the Yoke of an Arbitrary Power.  
But, Sir, that you might help on this Lord of the Mint in depraving the Silver Coin, you may remember the Dutch Dollars, commonly called Leg-Dollars, (usually imported by their Merchants, and currant with them at 58 d. per Piece) were cried down by your Bandog Lauderdale to 56 d. for no other reason, but because he procured your Favour to obtain a Command from the King for so doing, that the said Dollars might be brought as Bullion into the Mint, for the Advantage of the Lord Hatton his Brother, and your Favourite. And notwithstanding the great Complaint of the People, there was nothing done: But upon the Adjournment of the Parliament, a Sham-Trial was obtained, and the Lord Hatton indemnified, though it was proved that none of the Money coined in his Time was either Weight or Standard.  
5. A fifth Step you took to overturn the Government of that Kingdom, and defraud that People of their Religion, Laws and Liberties, was a certain Monster your Brother and you set up, a Body of Villains called the Lords of the Articles. The most valuable and considering Men of that Nation (some of whom I have had the Honour to be acquainted with) have judged this Body of Men to be nothing else but a virtual Subversion of the Power and Liberties of Parliament, and highly prejudicial to the King and Kingdom. I pray, Sir, observe,  
1. That this meeting of the Articles, when reestablished by you and your Conspirators, consisted of 8 Bishops chosen by the Lords, and 8 Lords chosen by the Bishops, 8 Commissioners of the Shires, and 8 Burgesses chosen by the 8 Lords and 8 Bishops: to which the Commissioner added the Officers of State.  
2. That those who contended for this Body of Men, have asserted, that not only all Business must be by the Lords of the Articles, and them only, registered in Parliament, but also that if in the Debates upon their Reports any new thing should be started, the Parliament ought to take no notice of it further than to return the whole Matter to the meeting of the Articles, to be there entertained or suppressed at their pleasure.  
3. It is manifest from all the Records of that Ancient Kingdom, that the Original Constitution of this Meeting, or Body of Men, was at first by the free appointment of their Parliaments, who thought fit to name certain of their Number for framing such Overtures as were offered for the Public Good, into Articles, in order to be turned into Laws, according to the Ancient Form: And therefore it being at first devised by the Parliament as a simple Expedient for Order and Dispatch, it was not always used, but the Number was changeable, as also its Method, according as the Parliament saw Cause.  
4. You could not be so ignorant but that at one time or other, when you was in that Kingdom, you must be informed that as this Body of Men was in effect the Committee of Parliament to prepare and bring in Laws, so that there was another of more ancient Date, called the Committee of Complaints, or the Lords of the Grievances, which was of use in all times, and never laid aside till the second Session of the Parliament called in 1661., in the time of Middleton's Ministry.  
5. The Act of Parliament of K. James your Grandfather, appointing four of every State to meet 20 days before the Parliament, to receive all Articles and Petitions, and deliver them to the Clerk of the Register to be presented to the Parliament for their Consideration, that things reasonable might be formally made and presented to the Lords of the Articles in Parliament-time, and frivolous Matters rejected, doth no ways countenance that exorbitant Power these Lords of the Articles did assume to themselves; it being manifest by the Order therein set down of preparing Matters by a Meeting beforehand, and their subsequent forming and presenting by the Parliament to these Article-men, that the Parliament's Power of first receiving, and then committing Matters to that Body of Men, was not then so much as the Subject of the Question: But the only thing intended was the orderly setting down of things in Parliament, as is apparent in the words of that Act of your Grandfather, That no Article or Petition wanting a special Title, or unscribed by him that presented the same, shall be read or answered in that Convention or Parliament following the same: Which was, Sir, a Provision so clearly preparatory to the Meeting and Business of the Lords of the Articles, that 'tis very strange your Brother should be so imposed upon by you and your Conspirators to prove this pretended Meeting had a Prerogative above that of the Parliament; and it has been affirmed by several Persons of that Kingdom, that understood the Scotish Parliament and Constitution, that this villainous Authority was never intended by the King or Parliament to be in the Lords of the Articles; nor had they the Impudence to pretend to it till they were countenanced in that Pretention by you and your Conspirators.  
6. You cannot but remember that Lauderdale had a great Influence on that Parliament that was called in 1663., when a particular Act passed for settling the Constitution, and choosing Lords of the Articles for the time to come; in which it was expressly provided that the Lords of the Articles are to proceed in the discharge of their Trust in preparing of Laws, Acts and Proposals, and ordering all things remitted to them by the Parliament; which words remitted them imported no more nor less than that the Power of proposing was in the Body of the Parliament, and that the Lords of the Articles were to act upon the things referred to them by Parliament, as a Committee of Parliament.  
7. And lastly, These Lords of the Articles were but the Parliament's Delegates and Servants; and therefore how could they determine the Points the Parliament was to debate, or not, as they should see fit? Therefore, Sir, if you consider but a little of this Matter, you will find that your Fellow-Conspirator, by attributing so much to these Lords of the Articles of Power and Prehemince over the Parliament, designed in time to destroy the Use of Parliaments: For what was the Liberty, Authority and Dignity of a Parliament, if thus trampled on by these Miscreants, who were by this Insolency become a great Grievance to the Kingdom?  
Truly, Sir, I cannot but think that this Conspirator Lauderdale by his many Villainies, had put himself under some Necessity of those Men, and was prompted by some cogent Reasons to promote that exuberant Power in them. For, 1. I suppose he could not but be filled with the Terror of the Gild he contracted through his wicked Proceed, and therefore might rationally suppose these Men (through the base Compliance of the wicked Bishops) would be a Refuge to him, as they always were to Rogues and Traitors in that Kingdom: And truly had he not improved the Use of these Tools, his Actions might have been set in order before him, in order to his severe Punishment by a faithful Parliament. And, 2. he knew that some warm Men (as he called them) had an itching to have him by the Collar, and only forbore him because of your Brother's Respect and Kindness for him: These Reasons were sufficient for him to keep up the Power of those Lords; for the Parliament was so kind, that when there was a vacancy in the Committee of the Articles, he had the nominating of one to succeed. 3. Because, contrary to the Custom of the Parliament there, he caused all such Members as were not named Lords of the Articles, to be excluded the Meetings of the Lords of the Articles, which you know was to no other End, than that the Parliament being less prepared, might the more implicitly go along with their Conclusions. Thus you may see what a Grievance these Lords of the Articles were.  
Sir, by this time you cannot but see what havoc you made of the Laws and Liberties of Scotland, by those two great Villains Middleton and Lauderdale. I might have enlarged upon this Subject, but 'twould fill a Volume to give account of every little Passage of yours there in order to enslave that People, and establish Popery in that Kingdom.   

Article XXIX.  
YOU stand charged with many villainous Attempts to break the use of Parliaments, and ridiculing that way of Government. O, Sir, it was the more hateful to you, because it preserved Liberty and Property, which of all Men in your Day you most hated: But you were not the first Man of Figure that hated Parliaments; for your Father of ever-notorious Memory hated them, and therefore tried Conclusions with Parliaments for 12 Years together. 'Tis true, he did call that blessed Parliament in 1640, that would have redressed England's Grievances, had they not been prevented by the factious Spirits of some whose Zeal was not according to Knowledge. Dr. Gauden tells you that your Father called that Parliament in Novemb. 3. 1640. Not more by the Advice of others, or by the Necessity of his own Affairs, than by his own Choice and Inclination. I could expect no better from a Baal's Priest than to begin with a Lie: For what Man that lived in that Time knew not how the Case stood with Charles the First? And besides, if I had not Access to a King, yet I could discover his Inclinations, either by those that were about him, and in favour with him, or by the Currant of his Actions; all which, I say, testified to the World your Father's strange averseness to a Parliament. Those that were near him, and most in favour with him, were Courtiers and Rascally Prelates, Vermin whose chief study was to find out how he stood inclined, and to imitate him exactly; and that which was his Will, was their Doctrine concerning Parliaments: and so it was with you. But that I may proceed in some Method, I shall show, 1. That Parliaments are the Right of the People. 2. That they are an essential Part of the Government. 3. That you hated them, though such, and by consequence was an Enemy to the Government of England.  
1. That Parliaments are the Right of the People of England, which they may claim in order to have their Grievances redressed, the common Safety of the Nation provided for, and their Religion, Laws and Liberties secured: For call to mind, with delight if you can, the wonderful Discovery, and undeniable Confirmation of the Popish Plot, which designed so much Ruin and Mischief to these Nations, in all things both Civil and Sacred, and the unanimous Sense and Censure of so many Parliaments upon it, together with some Acts of Public Justice upon many of the Traitors. The Nation was not without hopes, that since that cursed Design of introducing Popery and Slavery, and the Murder of your Brother, was discovered for the space of 30 Months at least, some effectual Remedies should have been applied to prevent the Attempts of your Cutthroat Party upon us, the better to secure the Religion and Government of the Nation, and the Person of the King: But by sad Experience we found, that notwithstanding the vigorous endeavours of three Parliaments ●o provide proper and wholesome Laws to answer both Ends, by your influencing a pack of Villains, you and your Party were so prevalent as to stifle in the Birth those Righteous Endeavours of our Parliaments, by many surprising Prorogations and Dissolutions; whereby the Fears and Dangers of the People daily increased, and the Spirits of you and your Party heightened to renew and multiply fresh Plots against the Religion, Laws and Liberties of the Realm. I will lay down some known Maxims that relate to a King and Parliament of England. 1. You know the Kings of England can do nothing as Kings, but what of Right they ought to do. 2. The King can neither do wrong, nor die. 3. The King's Prerogative and the Subjects Liberty are determined by Law. 4. The King has no Power but what the Law gives him; and is called King from ruling well, Rex à benè Regendo, viz. according to Law, and is only a King whilst he rules well, but a Tyrant when he oppresses. 5. That the Kings of England never appear more in their Glory, and Majestic Sovereignty, than in Parliaments. 6. That the Prerogative of the Crown can do no wrong, nor can it be a Warrant for so doing.  
Now, Sir, having laid down some Truth's relating to the Kings of England, give me leave to lay before you some that relate to the Parliament. 1. Then I say, that the Parliament of England constitutes and gives a Being to the Government of England. 2. A Parliament of England is to the Government what the Soul is to the Body, which is only able to apprehend and understand the Symptoms of all Diseases threatening the Body Politic. 3. A Parliament is the Bulwark of our Liberty, the Boundary which keeps the People of England from the Inundation of Tyrannical Power and Government. 4. Parliaments do make new, and abrogate old Laws, reform Grievances, settle the Succession, grant Subsidies, and in a word may be called the Great Physician of the Kingdom. From all which it appears, if Parliaments are necessary in our Constitution, that they must have their Times of Session and Continuation, to provide Laws essentially needful for the being and well-being of the People, and for redressing all Public Grievances arising, either for want of Laws, or of undue execution of those in being, or otherwise: And suitable hereunto are those Provisions made by the Wisdom of our Forefathers, as recorded by them both in the Common and Statute Law.  
1. Sir, you was an excellent Man at the Common Law, and so were your Gang at St. Germains; and though they have little occasion for it there, yet I may refresh their Memories; for having had so much leisure to study the Excellency of the French Religion and Government, our Common Law may be forgotten by them: Nay, Rhyming Jack Carryl himself, since the loss of his Estate, may have resolved to forget the Law, since he will not have so much occasion for it as he might have had, if he had chosen Sussex instead of St. Germains, and so may be at a loss to inform you. I therefore give you a touch or so, not that I pretend to cure the King's Evil of the Common Law what it saith concerning Parliaments. I pray, Sir, remember what old Coke saith, (one of your Grand-father's Judges, who was a famous Lawyer, and persecuted by him for you know what, but never had the Courage to run away) he tells us in one of his Law Books, (which your old Friend Jenner swears he never understood) That the Common Law is founded in the immutable Law and Light of Nature, agreeable to the Law of God, requiring Order, Government, Subjection and Protection; containing certain ancient Usages warranted by the Holy Scriptures; and because given to all, is therefore called Common. Sir, if you will send for your old Drudge Frank Withens, I dare aver he cannot give you a better for his Life. But you will say, What is this to Parliaments? Well, Sir, since this may pass the Understanding of your Dispensing Rogues, I will tell you what he saith in his 9th Book in the Preface, they are his own Words in the Book called the Mirror of Justice, in which appears the whole Frame of the Ancient Common Laws of this Realm from the Time of K. Arthur, An. 516, till near the Conquest; which treats also of the Officers, as well as the Diversity and Distinction of the Courts of Justice, (which are Officina Legis) and particularly of the High Court of Parliament, so called from Parlerlament, speaking judicially his Mind: And amongst others, he gives us the following Law of K. Alfred, who reigned in 880, and ordained for a Usage perpetual, That twice a Year, or oftener if need be, in time of Peace, they shall assemble themselves at London to treat in Parliament of the Government of the People of God; how they should keep themselves from Offences, should live in quiet, and should receive Right by certain Laws and holy Judgements. And thus (saith this Great Coke) you have the Law of K. Alfred, as well concerning the holding this Court of Parliament here every Year at the City of London, as to manifest the threefold End of this Great and Honourable Assembly.  
(1.) That Men might be kept from offending, that is, that Offences might be prevented, both by good and provident Laws, and by the due Execution of them. Truly, Sir, here is Grief in one Hand, and Sorrow in the other; for your Brother and you, you hated the one, and despised the other. Provident Laws you hated, as much as you did an honest Woman; and the other you despised as much as you did an honest Man: And you were never more at ease, than when through the want of a good Law, or so, you and your Party were not only emboldened, but enabled to do Mischief.  
(2.) That all Men might live safely and quiet. This is another End of Parliament. Old Wright, your quondam Justice of the Kings-Bench, used to say, That the Man that resigned himself up to the Will of his Prince, was always safe and quiet. But yet that Loggerhead of a Judge, with Old Hodge and all his Inferior Crew, could never find one such Saying in the Reports or Institutes of Judge Coke; for the Saying was so silly, that a Man must have judged it to have been his own, unless he had humbly borrowed that wise Saying from (Sir) your sweet understanding Self; for he understood as little of the Design and End of a Parliament as yourself: The Wretch is gone to his Place, but as for Law and Parliaments, no Man (no not Jenner himself) understood less than his Worship.  
(3.) That all Men might receive Justice by certain Laws and Holy Judgements, not by Proclamations, or French Edicts, as you and your Brother did design, but by certain Laws, to the end Justice might be the better administered, that Questions and Defects in Laws might be by the High Court of Parliament explained, and reduced to certainty. Your Brother and you, if you had understood this, would not have sent for a set of Rogues clothed in Purple to have gained their Opinion about suspending the Penal Laws against a parcel of Papists and Popish Priests; no, you would have applied yourselves to Parliament to have explained the difficult and dark Parts of the Laws in force against those Men; but you loved Darkness, and dark Judges, and therefore what you did was dark; for (Sir) your Brother and you little thought and believed that the High Court of Parliament was the Supreme Court of the Realm, and that it was a part of the Frame of the Common Laws, and that in some Cases Parliaments do proceed legally according to the Course of the Common Laws. Had your Brother or you understood or believed the Antiquity of Parliaments, you would not have preferred a Privy Council before them; nor if you had valued the Dignity of Parliaments, would you have preferred the Opinion of a parcel of Lambskin Rogues before a plain and positive Law; nor if you had learned the Sovereign Jurisdiction of Parliaments, would you have followed the Advice and Direction of your villainous Ministers of State, though against the Fundamental Constitution of the Government. I wonder you did not take the Villains along with you to St. Germains, your Ministers, Judges, and your Counsellors, Learned in the Law, your wright's, Jenners, milton's, Withers, sawyer's, and the rest of the Hellish Crew: I do not name them all, but you might have had the Honesty not to have left them to disgrace their Profession, which is well improved since I saw you last, and to have procured an Apartment for them▪ that your Ministers might have thought upon some better Politics, and your Roguy Judges and Lawyers might have understood the Law a little better than scribere est agere: If that Bird had been but hanged up in a Cage in your Presence-Chamber, he would have sung another Tune: For all his Brave-alls, he and the rest of his Crew might have found some Expedient or another to have helped you to some other Kingdom, since by the Law of some of them, and the Politics of others, they fairly walked you out of three Kingdoms at once. I do not see any great Reformation of their Manners, or any great Improvement they have made of their Law since you was graciously pleased to take up your Residence at St. Germains; and if you had taken the Vermin along with you, there might have been a parcel of Dragoons that might have drubbed them to their Books; so that by their Scribere's and Agere's they might have found some convenient Government for you, which they might have kept you in to better purpose, than did by their Law and Counsel keep you here: Nay, if you had advanced them a little above their Neighbours, they might have seen the difference between a Declaration of Indulgence, and a Statute-Law for Liberty of Conscience, and between an Act of Parliament and a Proclamation. A good Whip (dear Sir) would have been of admirable Use and Instruction; for it would have made them to understand, and they would have told you, though somewhat too late; 1. That Parliaments are part of the Frame of the Common Law, which is founded on the Law and Light of Nature, right Reason and Scripture. 2. That according to this Law of Equity and Righteousness, Parliaments ought freely to meet, for the Common Peace, Safety and Benefit of the People, and Support of the Government. 3. That Parliaments have been all along esteemed the Essential Part of the Government, as being the most Ancient, Honourable and Sovereign Court in the Nation, which ought frequently to meet and sit for the making and abolishing of Laws, redressing Grievances, and to see to the due Administration of Justice. 4. That as to the Place of the meeting, it ought to be at London, not at Newmarket; at London, not at Windsor; at London, not at St. Germains, because London is the Capital City, the Eye and Heart of the Nation, as being not only the Royal Seat, but the principal Place of Judicature, and Residence of the chief Officers and Courts of Justice; where also the Records are kept, as well as the principal Place of Commerce and Concourse in the Nation; and to which the People may have the best Recourse, and where they may find the best Accommodation. 5. They would have instructed you in the Antiquity of Parliaments, which have been so Ancient that no Record can give an Account of their beginning. Upon my word I will tell you, that a little Chastisement upon these Villains, by a parcel of your Dragoons, would have wrought a mighty Change upon them. Therefore (Sir) since you have nothing else to do, send for them; you shall have every one of them that are above Ground; and if they do not answer Expectation, then hang 'em all, and I do think they should be content: For Passive-Obedience and Nonresistance, and the Divine Right of Ignorance, are so fixed in their Bones, that nothing but a good dragooning Flux will fetch them out.  
In a word, Sir, now it is easily known why your Brother in his Reign did not suffer Parliaments to meet and sit, for those Ends for which a Parliament was at first constituted; for such Rogues as I have mentioned, used to teach him the same Doctrine that they taught you, only with these different Effects, which wrought more upon you than it did upon him: For all the brave Notions they gave him of Prerogative and Absolute Power, and the Excellency of the Romish Religion above all other Religions, could neither give him Strength enough to get Old Catherine with Child, nor Courage enough to run away. Now the same Doctrine that your Lawyers, Judges, and Ministers of State taught you, had these wonderful Influences upon you of getting a Child for us, or shamming one upon us, and running from us without the Aid and Assistance of an old English Parliament. The Rogues were running after you; it had been no great matter if he, she, or they had been hanged that stopped them. But the Vermin by this time are come to themselves, and can tell you for a need, that not to suffer Parliaments to sit to answer the great Ends for which they were instituted, was and still is expressly contrary to the Common Law, and so consequently of the Law of God as well as the Law of Nature; and thereby Violence hath been by your Brother and you offered to the Government itself, and an Infringement of the Peopl●●●ndamental Rights and Liberties. We have in some measure made ourselves ●●●aration for the Damage done us; but more of that in its proper place.  
2. We have laid before you what the Common Law saith concerning Parliaments; therefore it will (in the second place) be convenient to observe what our Statute Law acquaints us withal concerning Parliaments. I know you had a great Love to our Laws; and therefore I suppose you have read them, that when you come again you may make better use of them than you did before, and not have the Courage to dispense with them as you did before. Old Jenner thought a Wife and nine Children was an admirable Argument for the Dispensing Power, and swears when you come again, he will never set up for an Expounder of the Law any more; he will rather turn Priest, to put you into the way of gaining the Kingdom of Heaven, since he expounded the Law in so learned a manner as to make you lose the Kingdom of England. But to the Point:  
The Statute Laws (the Learned say) are Acts of Parliament, which are or aught to be only declaratory of the Common Law; which, as you have it told you, is founded upon right Reason and Scripture; and I think our Learned in the Law have told us, That if any thing be enacted contrary thereunto, it is null and void, and of no Effect. Certainly Jenner and the rest of the Dispensing Crew were bewitched, in not telling you that any Dispensation against Law was in itself null and void: But there was a Wife and nine Children in the Case, and Law was not his Business. Truly for all his hussing Speech to the Precedent and Fellows of Magdalen College in Oxford, he knew as little Law as yourself that sent him down: But since some of the Villains were ignorant of the Law, and the rest of them that had some Law and no Honesty, did not inform you, I pray let me entreat your Patience, and observe what I say to you. There are several Statutes that require frequent meetings of Parliament agreeable to the Common Law.  
1. The first of which is 4 Edw. III. cap. 14. in these words; Item, it is accorded that a Parliament shall be holden every Year once, or more often if need be. Alas, that good King never sent to the French King for leave to call a Parliament, nor did he sell him a Session of Parliament for a small Spell of 300000 l. per Ann. it never entered into the old Judges Noddles in his Reign, that Parliaments were to be held sooner or later, oftener or seldomer, as the King pleased; no, it was your Lambskin Crew you set up in Charles the 2d's Time that taught that Doctrine: Nay, there were a Set of Rogues in your Father's Time who favoured that Heresy in the Government, that the meeting and sitting of Parliaments was at the Will and Pleasure of the King; but your Rogues went a Note above Ela, for they would have the Laws to be dispensed with, or suspended, when the gracious Pleasure of the King was such.  
2. I have another Statute Law in my green Bag, that is at your Service, it is 36 Edw. III. cap. 10. read it, and if you do not put on your Dispensing Spectacles, you will find the Law to speak these words: Item, For the Maintenance of the said Articles and Statutes, and redressing of divers Mischiefs and Grievances which daily happen, a Parliament shall be holden every Year; as at another time it was ordained by a Statute. What Statute, good Sir? I pray ask your Dispensing Judges; let them look into their Law-Books, not upon their Wives and nine Children, nor 〈◊〉 durante bene placito Commissions, and they will find this Statute of the 36th of that King has reference to the Statute of the 4th of the said King .  
Well, Sir, what's the English of all this? Your Judges have told you what the French of it is already to your Cost: Now it shall cost you nothing if we tell you the English of it, viz. That a Parliament ought Annually to meet to support the Government, and to redress Grievances happening in the interval of Parliaments, that being the great End proposed in their said meeting. Now for Parliaments to meet Annually, and not be suffered to sit to answer the Ends, but to be prorogued or dissolved, (as Gammer Carwell or Nell Waal should direct) before they had finished their Work, was and would be nothing but an eluding the Law, and striking at the Foundation of the Government, and rendering Parliaments altogether useless. You know there is no great difference between having no Meat at all, and having it in abundance without being suffered to eat; so I think it is to no purpose to have frequent Parliaments, and they not suffered to sit and do the Business of the Nation, for which they were sent by the People, as well as called by the King. You had got such a Trick in your Brother's Time to put off Parliaments, that I doubt if we should try you once more, and take in those durante bene placito Rogues, you would never leave it off: First you got one Session put off, and a truly loyal Band of Pensioners dissolved; then three Parliaments dissolved one upon the neck of another, as you and Nell Waal pleased. Now our Forefathers, and our Ancient Kings of England, to prevent Arbitrary Power, and such intolerable Mischiefs as these, did hearty agree to have a Proclamation made in Westminster-Hall before the End of every Session, not to dissolve the Parliament to get a Sum of French Money, but to tell the People that all who had any Matter to present to the Parliament, should bring it before such a Day, for otherwise the Parliament should determine. This was done in the Reigns of Hen. 4. Hen. 5. Hen. 6. So that you may see, and so might that Villain Jefferies, that the People were not to be eluded or disappointed by surprising Prorogations and Dissolutions, to frustrate the great Ends of Parliament.  
But, Sir, suppose all your Brother's Crew of Judges and Ministers of State, nay I would allow him half a dozen Priests, and Dr. Finch the Warden of All-Souls into the Bargain, who is an excellent Preacher and Pimp to the Whore of Babylon and Arbitrary Power; nay I will allow you to have the French Parliament held at Newmarket in 1677; and suppose they should have roared with open Mouth, and said there was no Record, nor Statute upon Record extant concerning the sitting of Parliaments to redress Grievances: What then? And suppose Finch the last 29th of May had told such a Story as this in his loggerheaded Sermon, where he applauded the eminent shining Virtues of Charles TWO, above those of his Royal Father and yours, his Chastity, Integrity, Peaceableness, and the like; and provided all he had said were true, that Charles was a Man of those Virtues, and that there were neither Common nor Statute Laws extant for the sitting of Parliaments; yet by Warden Finch's leave it is more certain that Parliaments are to sit and redress Grievances by the Fundamental Laws of the Government, than that his Father presented the Grand Signior with a Pendulum Clock so small, that the Grand Signior hung it at his Ear, as the Ladies here used to hang their Pendants at theirs.  
It may be, Sir, you will ask what Reason I could have to believe the sitting of Parliaments for redress of Grievances was our Right by the Fundamental Law of England? I tell you, Sir, why, because the Government must be lame without it, and a Prince and his villainous Ministers might have done what they pleased, and their Wills might have been their Laws. Your Brother and you bid fair for such a Government, had your Friend Coleman's Advice been taken, and had K. Charles signed his Declaration for dissolving the Parliament. Coleman had not Jenner's Courage of running away, and so the Declaration was not signed, but to your great Comfort he was graciously left to dance a Christmas Gambrel at Tyburn for his great pains in the mighty Work your Brother, yourself, and he had upon your Hands. Therefore, my good Friend, it was provided for in the very Essence and Constitution of the Government itself; this we may (if Frank Withens and the rest of your Crew will give leave) call Common Law, though Jefferies once was pleased to call it a Common Where: This (notwithstanding the filthy Expression of that impudent Villain, that had neither Law, Manners, nor Honesty, but the Impudence of ten carted Whores) is of as much Value (if not more) as any Statute, and of which all our good Acts of Parliament, and Magna Charta itself, are but declaratory: So that though your Brother, or any King else, had been entrusted with the formal Part of summoning and pronouncing the Dissolution of Parliaments, which is done by Writ; yet the Laws that oblige the King as well as the People, have determined when and how it is to be done. This is enough to show you, that your Brother as King shared in the Sovereignty that was in the Parliament, and that it was cut out to him by Law, and not left at his Disposal: I must therefore tell you that Thomas and Francis, and the rest of the Bloodhounds, and murdering Dispensing Judges, were much out in point of Law, when they told your Brother; that Parliaments, both as to Calling and Dissolving, were at his Will and Pleasure.  
3. There is another Statute, viz. 25 Edw. III. cap. 23. that was Law in your Brother's Reign, which the Judges, if they had been acquainted with the Law, who truly (except a few that had but little Honesty, and were generally Strangers to the Law) must have told him and you too, did oblige him and you to suffer the Meeting and Sitting of Parliaments: Therefore I make use of that Statute to prove that the Meeting and Sitting of Parliaments is the Fundamental Right and Privilege of the People of England. This Statute, Sir, was called the Statute of Provisors, and was made to prevent and cut off the Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome, whose Usurpations in disposing of Benefices had occasioned intolerable Grievances: In the Preamble of which Statute it is expressed as follows.  
Whereupon the Commons have prayed our said Sovereign Lord the King, That since the Right of the Crown of England, and the Law of the Realm is such, that upon the Mischiefs and Damage which happen to this Realm, he ought, and is bounden of the Accord of his said People in his Parliament, thereof to make Remedy and Law in avoiding the Mischiefs and Damage which thereof cometh, that it may please him thereupon to provide Remedy. Our Sovereign Lord the King, seeing the Mischiefs and Damage beforenamed, and having regard to the said Statute made in the Time of his said Grandfather, and to the Causes contained in the same; which Statute holdeth always its Force, and was never defeated or annulled in any Point, and by so much is bound by his Oath to do the same, to be kept as the Law of this Realm, though that by sufferance and negligence it hath since been attempted to the contrary; and also having regard to the grievous Complaints made to him by his People in divers Parliaments holden heretofore, willing to ordain Remedy for the great Damages and Mischiefs which have happened, and daily do happen by the said Cause, etc. by the Assent of the Great Men and Commonalty of his said Realm, hath ordained and established.  
Come, Sir, what say you to all this? Where is your Holloway, your Withens, and your Walcots? And where is Tom Jenner, with his Sorrow in one Hand and his Grief in the other, an ignorant Rascal like the rest of his Brethren? Where is your Herbert, your Heath, and your Milton? Some of them are gone to their Places, but they lived long enough to enslave the People; and those that yet live, own a Debt for their Rogueries, the Gallows groans for their perverting of Justice and Judgement. Where are your murdering Judges of the West? Some of them yet live: They might (without the Consent of a pair of Spectacles) have seen, and might without fear have told you, they could not choose but see what was contained in this Preamble now recited. Were the Rogues ignorant? Then why did not your Pemberton, your Scroggs, your Levins, your Charlton, and the rest of that Crew, instruct your Brother and you what was contained and pointed at in this Preamble? But alas, they did not; they were able enough, but they had rascally durante bene placito Commissions, that indisposed them to be plain and honest in that Affair; they were more afraid of losing their Places, than of being damned for not doing their Duties: But since they had not the Honour, Honesty and Conscience of upright Judges, give me leave to be plain with you. Therefore, Sir, observe,  
(1.) The intolerable Grievance and Burden occasioned by the illegal Encroachments of the See of Rome, to which Yoke you and your Villains endeavoured to reduce and subjugate these Kingdoms. You fired our City, and murdered our Friends; you promoted Men of Villainous Principles, and worse Morals, to the Judgment-Seat, and made them Vassals to your Will and Pleasure; who, if they complied not, were reproachfully dismissed their Employments, and ruined if possible: Nay, if any of them attempted but to prosecute Popery; alas, they were not for your Turn, for your Design was by them to revive that intolerable Grievance, by encouraging the illegal Encroachments of the See of Rome.  
(2.) Observe the many Complaints the People had made, who in those dark Times under Popery groaned under such Burdens: What Burdens, I pray you, under the Encroachments of the See of Rome? Why truly in disposing of Benefices. Ay, it is a good Observation, for the Pope would present none but such as should advance his usurped Power and Interest; and if the People were so bold as to complain of these things, were they not a parcel of Rebels and Traitors for their pains? No, they complained without being called or treated as such. What Remedy had they? A Parliament. Now, Sir, had not we as much need of an Act of Provisors against you? for in your Brother's Time, how many of your Rogues were presented to the best Live in the Realm at your Procurement; and how many Villains were made Bishops by the Whores Cleveland and Portsmouth, and the Pimps and Bawds at Court? Did not we stand in need of Statutes of Provisors? Name me one Man of these that were not to advance the Power and Interest of France, and to wink at the Progress and Growth of Popery. Had we not reason to complain? Yes: To whom? to the King? No, he was engaged for Popery and the French Interest, and Arbitrary Power, as well as yourself: His Metropolitan Whores were Papists too please him, or he one to please them: Therefore to what purpose was it? We had none to complain to but a Parliament; and how you used them, we have not forgot; and how our Application to them was not only useless, but dangerous, is not unknown. In a word, Sir, the Condition of the Complainants in the Time of Edw. III, though they lived in the dark Times of Popery, were in a far better Condition than we were in your Brother's Reign; for notwithstanding the Religion of Edw. III, his Interest was his People's, and therefore held frequent Parliaments, to whom they might complain, and from whom they might find Redress, without being judged Traitors and Rebels to the Government.  
(3.) Observe the Endeavours used in vain by former Parliaments to redress the same, and to bring their Laws in being to have their Force and Effect. You know that when the Kings of England were wicked, then to gain the Point, they used to fly to Rome for Countenance, and advance that usurped Power to the Prejudice of the People. So it was with your Brother and you, when you had a Design in hand to enslave the Nation; than you set up the Power and Interest of France, and none were to be preferred in our good Church but Villains, that were case-hardned enough to join with your Brother and you in ravishing the People's Rights and Franchises. Had we good Laws in being against Popery? They were suspended. Had we any good Laws against the growing Greatness of France? Yes, we got one poor Act of Parliament against France, and that was eluded. Nay, now I think on't, we got an Act to enter into an actual War against France, with which your Party did impudently beg Money from France. We got a poor sorry Act for the Liberty of the Subject, called the Habeas Corpus Act; this was by you and your Villains evaded; so that we were under a necessity of Complaining. Those in the Time of Edw. III, had redress; we had none, till we drove you and the French Interest and Popery out of the Kingdom.  
(4.) Observe the Acknowledgement of the King and Parliament, that the Obligation to this Duty was upon the King, who you know is entrusted by the Law to preserve the Peace and Liberties of the Realm, and to rectify all Miscarriages in the Government: Which is apparent, 1. From the Right of the Crown, obliging him to pass good Laws. 2. There were good Laws committed to his Trust in full Force, which he was to execute. 3. There is the King's Oath to pass new Laws for the People's Safeguard which they should tender to him, as well as to execute old Laws already made. 4. From the Sense of the People expressed in their Complaints. And, 5. From the Mischief and Damage that would otherwise ensue; and therefore it is said, that by the Desire and Accord of his People he passed this famous Law, the Preamble of which I have recited to you in part.  
4. There is another Statute worthy of your Consideration, and pretty much to the same purpose; you will find it in the 2d of Rich. II. in Nᵒ 28. Also the Commons of England in Parliament desire, that forasmuch as Petitions and Bills presented in Parliament by divers of the Commons, could not heretofore have their respective Answers; that therefore both their Petitions and Bills in this present Parliament, as also all others which shall be presented in any future Parliament, may have a Good and Gracious Answer, and Remedy ordained thereupon, before the departing of every Parliament; and to this purpose a due Statute be ensealed (or enacted) at this present Parliament, to be and remain in Force for all Times to come. To which the King replied thus, The King is pleased that all such Petitions delivered in Parliament of Things or Matters which cannot otherwise be determined, a good and reasonable Answer shall be made and given before the departure of the Parliament. This King, you know, left not a very good Name behind, being drawn away from loving his People, just as you and your Brother were by a set of wicked Rogues; yet before they had ravished this Prince, and weaned him from his People's Love, he made this excellent Law: in which, Sir, you may observe, 1. A Complaint of former Remissness; their Bills afore-time have not been passed, and their Grievances unredressed, by unseasonably dissolving of Parliaments before their Laws could pass. 2. That a Law might pass in that very Parliament to rectify that Abuse for the future. And, 3. that it should not pass for a Temporary Law, but to last for ever, being of such absolute Necessity, that before Parliaments be dismissed, Bills of Common Right might pass: to which the then King Richard did freely agree.  
5. I have another Proof, which is from that great Oracle of the Law the Chief Justice Coke in Institut. 4. B. p. 11. asserting, That Petitions may be truly preferred, though very many have been answered by the Law and Custom of Parliament before the end of the Parliament. This that Great Lawyer delivers not as his own single Opinion, but tells us that what he laid down in this Particular, appeared in an Ancient Treatise de modo tenendi Parliamentum, in these words faithfully translated; The Parliament ought not to be ended while any Petition dependeth undiscussed, or at least to which a determinate Answer is not made. And again, That one Principle of calling Parliaments is for the redressing Grievances that daily happen. Further yet concerning the departing of Parliaments; It ought to be in such a manner (saith Modus Tenendi) demanded, yea and publicly proclaimed in the Parliament, and within the Palace of the Parliament, whether there be any that hath delivered a Petition to the Parliament, and hath not received answer thereto: If there be none such, it is to be supposed that every one is satisfied, or else answered unto at the least, so far forth as by the Law he may be. This Custom was observed in after Ages, as you heard before. Once more, and I have done: Observe what this Great Judge saith concerning the Authority and Antiquity of this Ancient Treatise called Modus tenendi Parliamentum, which we often make use of in our Institutes: Certain it is, this Modus was rehearsed and declared before William I. called the Conqueror, and by him approved for England; upon which, according to the Modus, he held a Parliament for England, as appears 21 Edw. 3. Fo. 60.  
Well, Sir, how do you by this time, and how doth my old Mistress and the little Welsh Gentleman? Are you not satisfied of the Necessity of the Meeting and Sitting of Parliaments? I pray call Tom Jenner, and Frank Withens, those two Rascals, and all the Crew of Villains that misled your Brother and you, or were misled by you; for they were willing Vermin, I confess, to do what they were bid, upon pain and peril of losing their Places: And lest these Scoundrels should be too ignorant, let us call in Old Pemberton that did several Jobs of Journeywork for your Brother and you; he impudently tried Fitz-Harris, though he was impeached in Parliament, which Scroggs would not undertake; and he tried the Great and never-to-be forgotten Lord Russel; and how he carried himself, let the World judge: I am sure my Ld Russel was murdered: But I have heard Pemberton talk as like a Villain as any of the rest, which was not because of his Ignorance. I say, let us summon them all that remain in the Land of the Living, for the Devil hath not fetched them all yet; and though they are not prating upon the Bench, yet the Rogues are getting a Penny at the Bar: These Vermin I dare say with a little drubbing will aver, that it is most certain these wholesome Laws are not only in full Agreement with the Common Law, and declarative thereof, but fully agree with the Oath and Office of our Kings, who have that great Trust by the Law lodged with them for the Good and Benefit, and not Hurt and Mischief of the People. But if these Dunghill Rascals should be sullen, because not employed once more to oppress and murder the People under a Form and Colour of Law, and refuse to satisfy you, I will with that little Law I have, propose these three things upon the whole of what has been said upon this fifth Head.  
1st. These Laws are very suitable to the Office and Duty of a King, and the End for which he was instituted by God himself, who commands him to do Justice and Judgement to all, especially the Oppressed, but not deny them any request for their Relief, Protection or Welfare. It had not been below you to have obeyed the Laws as a Subject, nor your Brother to have kept them as a King; and had he relied more upon his Parliament than he did upon your Counsel, and that of his wicked Ministry, he might have lived to this Day: But you and your Crew persuaded him he was above Laws, and that the Statutes of the Realm signified nothing no longer than they would serve his Turn; who therefore made no Conscience of the Sitting of Parliaments for redress of Grievances.  
2ly. These Laws relating to Parliaments do also fully agree with the Coronation Oath your Brother took, and solemnly made to his People, viz. To grant, fulfil and defend all rightful Laws which the Commons of the Realm shall choose, and to strengthen and maintain them to the utmost of his Power. But, Sir, suppose any of the Learned in the Laws of the Realm should stand at your Elbow, as Tom Jenner, or Old Holloway, or any of that Crew, and tell you that your Brother did not take any such Oath: To this I may say, that if he did not, the Nation had the more wrong; but I never heard yet that any had the Impudence to deny it. I confess when you shuffled on the Crown, it was said some things were abated, for which those concerned in that Ceremony ought to have been hanged.  
3ly. Those Laws do also fully agree with Magna Charta itself, which hath been confirmed to us by 40 Parliaments at least, which saith, We shall deny nor defer to no Man Justice and Right, much less to the whole Parliament and Kingdom, in denying and deferring to pass such necessary Bills the Necessities of the People call for. Had Old Brown had but half the Honesty of an Irish Rapparee, he would not have consented to your Brother's dropping of a Bill in the Year 1680, it was entitled, An Act for repealing an Act of the 35th of Q. Elizabeth; a good Bill to have preserved the Protestant Dissenters: But your Party had some barbarous Murders and Outrages to commit, and could not well go on with their Show unless such a Bill as that of Q. Elizabeth was in Force; so that it might now and then aid and assist your everlasting Holy Cutthroats in their bloody Conspiracy against God and his Christ.  
Object. But you may say, That your Brother and Father, and several other Princes, have otherwise practised, by dissolving or proroguing Parliaments at their Pleasures, before Grievances were redressed, and public Bills of Common-Safety passed, because to dissolve and prorogue at Pleasure, is a Privilege which belongs to the Crown.  
Answ. This word Prorogue is but a new-fangled Business, a thing brought up in latter Days; but as for dissolving Parliaments at Pleasure, that has been the Practice of our former wicked Kings, by the Advice of their Roguish Ministers and Judges, who laid aside all Law, Honour, Honesty and Conscience, to prostitute themselves to the abominable Lust of a filthy Prince, who designed nothing less than the Ruin of the Kingdom. What your Father did I will not here concern myself; but what your Brother did by your Procurement, is my Province at this Time.  
Your Brother when he held his French Parliament at Newmarket in 1677, where most of the Rogues and Whores of the Court were present, and your gracious Self waiting on him, did much aggrandise himself by that Glorious Assembly. Upon April 16. the Parliament at Westminster was adjourned till May 21. following. Immediately upon the Recess the Duke of Crequi, a●d that modest, sober, chaste Man of God the A. Bp of Rheims, and Mons●eur Barillon, and a Train of 3 or 400 Persons of all Qualities, appeared there; so that the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of France, with so many of their Commons, made it look like an old-fashioned French Parliament. And the Parliament at Westminster had been adjourned for their better Reception: But what Address they made to the King, or what Acts passed at that Noble Parliament, I cannot tell, they having not been yet published: But I suppose they were these that follow.  

(1.) An Act for continuing his Majesty's Subjects in the Service of France.  
(2.) An Act for enabling the Duchess of Cleveland to use the Archbishop of Paris for her Father-Confessor, etc.  
(3.) An Act to discharge her Grace from farther Attendance upon the King.  
(4.) An Act to constitute the French Gentlewoman to be Whore in her room, and a Spy for the French King.  
(5.) An Act to enable Nell Waal to be Woman and Bawd in ordinary to the said French Gentlewoman, and his Sacred Majesty.  
(6.) An Act to supply the Extraordinary Occasions of that Whore Portsmouth, and her Woman Nell Waal.  
(7.) An Act to enable the Duchess of Portsmouth, in order to her Health, to possess and enjoy a certain Apartment in a House-Royal called the Lock, situate at the end of Kent-street, and Nell to have the Reversion after her decease in case of Necessity.  
(8.) An Act for the further Supply of French-Money, in order to enslave the Kingdom, of 3000000 Liures per Annum.  
(9) An Act for enabling James Duke of York to go on with his Conspirators in the Conspiracy against the Laws, Liberties and Religion of the People of England, and to demand the French King's Purse, Credit and Interest, for his Help and Assistance.  
(10.) An Act to invest Edward Coleman with the Sum of 20000 l. and a good Pension from the French King, for his great Services done, and to be done, for the Catholic Religion and French Interest.  
(11.) An Act of Abolition of all Claims and Demands from the Subjects of France, on Account of all Prizes made of the English at Sea since the Year 1674 till that Day, and for the future.  
(12.) Act to supply the extraordinary Needs of the Pensioners at Westminster.  
(13.) An Act to continue the Sham-Alliance with the States-General of the united-provinces.   
There were, I suppose, several Private Bills in favour of the Pimps, Bawds, and Whores, that were not sworn in Ordinary, but passed the Royal Assent, as I may suppose, because at that time all things between England and France moved with that punctual Regularity, that it was like the Harmony of the Spheres, so consonant with themselves, though I could not hear the Music. I pray, Sir, let us know in your next Declaration what other Secret Bills were passed in that August Assembly, wherein the Affairs of Peace and War were transacted with the greatest Confidence; and when, good Boys, they had done their Master's Business, with your Brother's Aid and Help, they were adjourned from Newmarket to London, where they dissolved themselves without your Brother's Prerogative, to make way for the Westminster Parliament, and so rubbed off with all Demonstration of mutual Affection and Friendship.  
Alas, Sir, these were Matters of that Import, that they required all imaginable Expedition and Secrecy; and it would have been the highest Presumption for the poor Pensioners in the Westminster Parliament to have intermeddled with them. Alas, if they had been admitted to end the Work, it might have ended in their own Dissolution, in order to a courageous running away.  
You say by way of Objection, Your Partisans made that which your Brother and other Kings did by their Prerogative Royal, dissolve Parliaments before Grievances were redressed and necessary Bills passed, because things did not move with that punctual Regularity between your Brother and them, that was between him and the French King. I pray what was the Reason? Had they not had Gratuities at the Charge of the Nation? Or, had the Duchess of Portsmouth jilted them out of the French King's Blessing, which the Duke of Crequi and the Archbishop of Rheims brought them of 200000 Lewis d' Oars? Who can tell what to say to these things? It is no wonder then that Crew of Voters were grown resty, and did not move regularly. Well, what then? the Parliament must not sit till some State-Clockmaker had mended their Motions, and made them go true; the House then had some good Bills, over which they roared only, and then were sent Home by a blast of Prerogative-Breath.  
Had your Brother any other Prerogative but what the Law gave him, and what he was invested with at his Coronation? If he had, let us know it; but for once I will grant he prorogued and dissolved Parliaments at his Pleasure to serve you and your Cutthroat Crew: It doth not therefore follow that he had a Right so to do, according to a Maxim I learned almost 30 Years since, A facto ad jus non valet consequentia, especially when such Prorogations and Dissolutions are against so many express and positive Laws, such Principles of Common Right and Justice, and so many particular Ties and Obligations to the contrary.  
Your Brother might, by the Advice of wicked Statesmen and villainous Judges, pretend to a Prerogative the Law had given him, of which nothing ever was known, unless revealed by some French Maxims learned abroad in his Travels: Yet such a Prerogative could not justify such Practices; for if he had been invested with such Prerogatives by the Law, yet the Law could give none to destroy itself, and those it protects.  
But Old Hodge and his Inferior Clergy may interpose and say, Had not King Charles his Prerogative founded upon Law? Who questions, Sir, but the Kings of England had their Prerogatives? Yet observe what Old Bracton saith, Pag. 487. That though the Common Law allows many Prerogatives to the King, yet it allows none by which to hurt or prejudice any. Therefore with the Learned in the Law I will assert, That whatever Power or Prerogative your Brother had, aught to have been used according to the true Intent of the Government, that is, to preserve the People and their Interest, and not to hinder a Parliament in reforming Grievances, and providing for the future Execution of the Laws; and whenever he applied his Prerogative to frustrate these Ends, by the Advice of you or any wicked Person, it was a Violation of Right, and the Breach of his Coronation Oath, since he stood obliged to Pass or Confirm those Laws his People should choose in the Time of his Reign.  
6. Your Brother and you had little or no regard to the Laws: All the Cry of your Villains was Prerogative, and nothing was endured that was according to Law: Therefore, Sir, I will give you a Proof, by Dr. Gauden's leave, from the Words of your own Father, who when in Prison began to recollect himself a little, and gave your Brother this Advice when he should come to the Crown; That Prerogative is best showed and exercised in remitting, rather than exacting the Rigour of the Laws, there being nothing worse than Legal Tyranny; nor would he have him entertain any Aversion or Dislike of Parliaments, which in their Right Constitution with Freedom and Honour, will never injure or diminish his Greatness, but will rather be as interchanging of Love, Loyalty, and Confidence between a Prince and his People.  
Surely, Sir, if the Reports and Opinions of the best Lawyers could not, yet the Counsel of his Father the King, or his Father in God, might have wrought upon him and you: But the Truth is, in the Time of Richard TWO, there were some Flatterers and Traitors that presumed, in defiance of their Country's Rights, to assert such a boundless Prerogative in the Kings of England, as Chief Justice tresilian, and others, advising him that he might dissolve Parliaments at Pleasure, and that no Member should be called to Parliament, nor any Act passed in either House without his Approbation in the first place; and that whoever did advise otherwise were Traitors: But this Advice was no less fatal to himself, than pernicious to his Prince. To which let me add a Saying of your Grandfather in his Speech to his Parliament in 1609, in which he gives them Assurance, That he never meant to govern by any other Law than the Law of the Land: And though it be disputed among them as if he intended to alter the Law, and govern by the absolute Power of a King, yet to put them out of doubt, he tells them that all Kings, who are not Tyrants or Perjured, will bind themselves within the Limits of their Laws; and they that persuade the contrary, are Vipers, and Pests both against them and the Commonwealth. Thus, Sir, I have plainly proved, that Parliaments are the Right of the People of England, and that no King, without the Breach of his Coronation-Oath, can govern without them. I come now to show,  
II. That they are the Essential Part of the Government. Truly, Sir, I have had occasion to prove that as a necessary Consequence of the foresaid Right: but something may be offered to prove this Point, which will aggravate your Crime, and the Villainy of your Party in attempting to render this Essential Part of the Government useless. Therefore, Sir, when you are at leisure, consider with yourself the Constitution of the Government, which your Brother did wound, and you attempted utterly to destroy, but therein lost yourself and this Government, which would have been worth your keeping. Take a View therefore of the Constitution of the English Government, where the King is the Head, from whom the Government itself receiveth its Life, as he from the Law receiveth his Power: He has the Care of the whole, and it is his Interest to seek its Welfare: The Strength of the Nation is his Strength, and the Riches of the Nation his Riches: The Glory and Honour of the Nation is his Glory and Honour. So on the contrary, when the Nation is weak, he is weak; if it be impoverished, he is impoverished; if it lose itsses Honour and Glory, he loses his likewise. But lest Passion, Mistakes, Flatteries, or the ill Designs of some about him, should make him forsake his Zeal, and follow a destructive imaginary Interest, there is an Estate of Hereditary Nobility, who are by Birthright the Kingdom's Counsellors, whose main Interest and Concern it is to keep the Balance of the Government steady, that the Favourites and great Officers exceed not their Bounds, and oppress the People, that Justice be duly administered, and that all Parts of the Government be preserved entire: yet even these may grow insolent; a Disease to which great Men are liable, or may by Offices, Hopes of Preferment, or other Accidents, become (as to the Majority of them) rather the obsequious Flatterers of the Court, than true Supporters of the Public and English Interest. Therefore the Excellency of our Government affords us another Estate of Men, which are the Representatives of the Freeholders, Cities, Boroughs and Corporations of England, who by the old Law were to be chosen yearly, if not oftener, whereby they perfectly gave the Sense of those that chose them, and did the same as if the Electors were present, coming so newly from them, and so quickly returning to give account of their Fidelity, under the Penalty of Shame and no further Trust. Therefore, Sir, consider,  
1. If the Constitution of the House of Commons had been destroyed, 'twould have been impossible the Sense of the Nation, and their Complaints, and the Grievances of the People should have beer represented. To what Estate of Men must we have had Recourse? Must it have been to the Nobility? It may be they might not have understood our Grievances, being in a Sphere above the Rank of Common People. And the House of Commons being the Constitution, how could Money be raised to support the Government without them, unless by a total Subversion of the whole Frame of our Constitution? for by the Law the sole Power of giving Money remains in the House of Commons, none being concerned in that but the Commons of England.  
2. Those that would overthrow the Constitution of the House of Commons, will not stick to subvert that of the House of Lords, who are so essential a Part of the Government, that to part with them, was to part with the second State, which is the Wisdom and Counsel of the Nation, to which their Birth, Education, and constant Employment in every Parliament being the same, fits and prepares them. I have read of a House of Commons in the 2d Parliament of Mary I. that was bribed to consent to the receiving and owning of the Pope's Power; but I never yet heard of a House of Lords that were so bribed: and the House of Lords in 1649 being voted useless, the Commons run into so many Factions, that put General Cromwell to the Necessity of taking upon him the Government of the Nation by a single Person, by the Name and Title of Lord Protector. Those who would destroy the Constitution of the House of Lords, do endeavour the Destruction of the Balance of the English Government.  
3. Consider, the King gives Life and Vigour to all the Proceed in Parliament; the Wills and Desires of the People, though approved by the Lords and Commons in Parliament, without the King signify nothing; unless he bids them be an Act, they are abortive. Therefore he that shall attempt the Subversion of any of the other two Estates, is no more a King but a Tyrant, and useless to God and Man. You see that your Father undid himself to all Intents and Purposes, by following such Measures as subverted his own Government; and so have you: and if you will not believe it, you may ask the French King, and he will soon satisfy you of the Matter. But from hence, Sir, you may see that you cannot destroy any one Estate in this Government, but the whole is subverted; and therefore I may lay down this Proposition, that Parliaments are the Essential Part of the Government. In a word then, to conclude this Head, let me ask you or any of your Plotters these two Questions.  
(1.) If this be so, that by so great Authority (viz. so many Statutes then and now in Force, the Fundamentals of the Common Law, the Essentials of the Government itself, Magna Charta, your Brother's Coronation-Oath, and so many Laws of God and Man) the Parliament ought to meet and sit to redress Grievances, provide for Common Safety, especially in times of Common Danger; and that this was so in a most eminent manner, none can doubt that did believe the King, so many Parliaments, the Cloud of Witnesses, the public Judicatures, their own Sense and Experience of the manifold Mischiefs acted, and the apparent Ruin and Confusion that threatened the Nation by the restless Attempts of you and your bloody Party: Then, Sir, I ask you, Whether, after the People of England had the Point of the Dagger thus set to their Breasts, and the Knife at their Throats, Cities and Habitations fired, Invasions and Insurrections threatened to destroy the King and Government, your villainous Popish Party did not design to destroy the only Remedy hoped for, under God, to give us Relief, that is our Parliaments, who with so much Cost and Pains were elected, sent up, and entrusted for our Help, and to turn them off without answering the Ends for which chosen, by those frequent Prorogations and Dissolutions? Consider, Sir, the Point in hand: Were not the People of England justified in their important Cries, humble Petitions to the King your Brother, fervent Addresses to their Members, and earnest Claims for this their Birthright, pleaded with all the Modesty imaginable, which the Laws of the Kingdom (consonant to the Laws of God and Nature) had given them? How impudent then were your Abhorrers of such Petitions and Claims? What can Withens (who was expelled the House for the same) say for himself? What can the Rascal plead in behalf of himself and a rascally Crew that joined with him in signing an Address of Abhorrence; and that Villain Jefferies, who did that in London which Wythens had done in Westminster? Which brings me to a second Question.  
(2.) If it be fo, that by so great Authority Parliaments ought to meet and sit to redress Grievances, etc. what shall we say to those who advised your Brother to this high Violation of their Country's Rights, to the infringing so many just Laws, and to the exposing the Public to those desperate Hazards, even almost a total Ruin; which was done with all the Impudence and Barefacedness imaginable, the Advisers not having the least Remorse upon them?  
If K. Alfred (as Andrew Horn in his Mirror of Justice tells us) hanged Darling, Segnor, Cadwine, Cole, and forty Judges more for judging contrary to Law, and yet all those faise Judgements were but in particular and private Cases; what Death did those deserve who offered Violence to the Law itself, and all the sacred Rights of their Country? If the Lord Chief Justice Thorpe i● Edward Ill's time, for receiving the Bribery of 100 l. was adjudged to be hanged, as having made the King break his Oath to the People, how much more guilty were they that made your Brother break his Coronation-Oath, and persuaded him to act against all Laws for holding of Parliaments, and passing 〈◊〉 therein, which ●e was so solemnly sworn to do? And if the Lord Chief Justice tresilian was drawn, hanged, and quartered, for advising the King to act contrary to some Statutes only, what did those deserve that advised your Brother to act, not only against some, but all the ancient Laws and Statutes of the Realm?  
Moreover, Sir, I would say this further to you, if you will have a little Patience: If Blake the King's Counsel, only for assisting in the Matter, and drawing up Indictments by the King's Command against Law (though its like he might plead the King's Order and Command for so doing) was drawn, hanged and quartered; what was due to them that assisted your Brother in the total Destruction of all the Laws of the Kingdom, and as much as in them lay, their King and Country too? And if Vske the Under-Sheriff (whose Office it is to execute the Laws) for but endeavouring to aid tresilian, Blake, and their Accomplices, against some of the Laws, was also with five more drawn, hanged and quartered; what Punishment did they deserve, that not only aided your Brother, but endeavoured to subvert all the Laws of the Kingdom? And if Empson and Dudley in the time of Henry VIII. though of the King's Privy Council, were hanged for procuring and executing an Act of Parliament contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom, and to the great Vexation of the People, when yet they had an Act of Parliament on their Side; what ought to have been done to those who had no such Act to shelter themselves, and who not only acted contrary to, but to the Destruction of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom? I can expect, Sir, no Answer from you but this; The Men that did these things, should surely have died; if they had been discovered, they should have perished without Mercy. Is it so? then I come to the last Particular to be debated, and that is,  
III. You are the Man, and your Party was the Party that did endeavour to break the Use of Parliaments by inveighing against that way of Government. In a word therefore I shall descend unto Particulars, and show you, 1st. That your Inclinations were not for Parliaments, or that Way of Governing. 2ly. What those Parliaments were that you and your Party procured to be dissolved. 3ly. What Arts and Methods you used to expose the three last Parliaments your Brother held in 1679, 1680, and 1681. 4ly. Your Unreasonableness in so doing. 5ly. The ill Consequences that attended the Dissolution of those Parliaments. 6ly. What Pretences you and your Party used for procuring the Dissolution of those Parliaments, with Answers thereto.  
First; Your Inclinations showed you an Enemy to a Parliamentary Way of Government; and this appears in the following Particulars: 1. From your Nature and Temper. 2. From your Usage even of the Pensioner-Parliament. 3. From the Notions and Practices of your traitorous Party in relation to Parliaments. 4. From the daily Breaches you made upon our Laws. 5. By your Unwillingness to let that Parliament meet and sit. 6. By the Opinion you had of their Affection to you.  
1. From your own Nature and Temper, which I shall set forth before you, in relation to, (1.) Your Religion; (2.) Your Politics; (3.) Your Morals.  
(1.) Let us consider your Nature and Temper in respect to your Religion, and this will prove your Aversion to English Parliaments, and that way of Government. Your Nature and Temper inclined you to set up the Popish Religion. How was this to be done? was it by an English Parliament? If any of your Party should suppose this, let me tell you the Supposition in itself was Nonsense. Your Religion was such (and I am persuaded you are no Changeling) as went not altogether in the Old Primitive Apostolical Way of Preaching and Praying, and teaching all Nations, etc. but Scourging, Wracking and Broiling Men into the Fear of God. Nay, is not your Religion such, that for its own Propagation it will make its Champions divest themselves of Humanity, and act worse than Devils, in order to be Saints? Now, Sir, where could you get a Parliament to have established such a Religion by a Law? And can any Man judge you in love with Parliaments, who are such Enemies to this excellent Religion of yours? I pray, Sir, reflect upon your Servant Coleman's Words in his Letter to Father La Chaise, the French King's Confessor : We have a mighty Work upon our Hands, no less than the Conversion of three Kingdoms, and by that perhaps the utter subduing of a Pestilent Heresy, which hath domineered over great Part of this Northern World a long time: there were never such Hopes of Success since the Death of our Queen Mary as now in our Days; (What Reason gives Coleman for this Doctrine?) when, saith he, God hath given us a Prince, who is become (I may say to a Miracle) zealous of being the Author and Instrument of so glorious a Work: but the Opposition we are sure to meet with is also like to be great, so that it imports us to get what Aid and Assistance we can; for the Harvest is great, and the Labourers but few. Here was a mighty Work, and a mighty zealous Prince engaged in this Work. I pray, Sir, why did you not apply to your mighty Band of Pensioners in your Long Parliament for Aid and Assistance? No, your Religion would not comply with that, nor their Religion advance your mighty Work: though they were Villains enough in some Sense, yet you did not think fit to trust them with the managing this mighty Work, or to let them know your mighty Mind and Zeal in this great Work. To whom then do you apply yourself? Why truly to the mighty Lewis, the French King: for do but observe your Agent's Words in the same Letter, where he saith; That which we rely upon most, next to Almighty God, and the Favour of my Master the Duke, is the mighty Mind of his Christian Majesty, whose Soul inclines him to great Undertake. Truly, Sir, I think the Case is plain, that the subtle Jesuits had form a Design to bring in Popery, and to kill the King, which they would never have been such Sots to attempt, had they not been sure you would engage in this mighty Work. Yet you were not privy to it: Let who will believe that, I cannot; for do you think the Jesuits and Coleman would have engaged in that mighty part of the Conversion, had not they seen into your very Heart and Soul? Now upon the whole Matter, can any one think, if there were no such thing in Nature as a mighty English Parliament to have joined with your mighty Zeal in the mighty Work you had upon your Hands, that ever the Religion which you professed would incline you to be in love with an English Parliament, that was ever averse to Popery and Slavery since the Reformation? And because of your Aversion to an English Parliament as an Enemy to your Religion, you apply yourself to the French King, which I am sure was not consistent with a hearty Love to an English Parliament.  
(2.) Let us consider your Nature and Temper as to your Politics, and by that I shall show your natural Aversion to Parliaments, and a Parliamentary way of Government. As your Religion, so your Judgement leads you to Arbitrary Government: for it was not only Rome's Religion, but the French Mode of Governing that was your Design, and the end of all those Counsels you had with your Jesuits, and your Servant Coleman, who was a main Agent in that Affair; yet when your glorious Enterprise was discovered, you graciously left him to be hanged for all his good Secret Services done you in furthering the mighty Work you had upon your Hands.  
But some of your Party may say, That in opposition to a Parliament it was impossible to bring in Popery and Arbitrary Power, it being inconsistent with the Rules of Policy to attempt such a thing in England. To this I answer:  
Let the Popish Crew say so if they dare: I am certain they must belly their Consciences in this point, whatever they do in other Points in their Politics, the hellish Popish Plot being a plain Demonstration that your Cutthroat Papists did believe it possible, or else Coleman and others would not have on your Behalf so far engaged the French King's Aid and Assistance in the Affair: for you attempted to be restored to all your Commissions; and how came it to pass that you did not effect your Restoration? It was not, saith Coleman, hindered by reason of any Aversion they had to your Person. What then? it was because of the Dissatisfaction the Faction entertained against you. Who was this Faction but the English Parliament, to whom you were so averse, that the Popish Party could make no brisk Attempt on your Behalf? for the Parliament than was very sensible that the French King's Interest was much attracted to yours, which declared you to be no Friend to them, and engaged them to provide for themselves against you and your cursed Party.  
Again, Sir, by your leave, could any thing be plainer than the Design that Coleman and the Jesuits had form, and had Hopes of effecting, since they had joined you so close to the French King's Interest? I am sure 'twas contrary to Reason and Nature itself for them to attempt your Brother's Life, and thereby commit the basest of all Murders for Murder-sake: and though natural Affection might interpose in that Design, had you been privy to it, yet the Jesuits well knew it was impossible for you that was converted to that degree of Zeal for the Romish Religion and French Interest, to have given ground in that Affair. Now, Sir, I hope your Villains here will be fully satisfied that it was possible for the Popish Party to carry on such a Design as this in opposition to a Parliament, which is a great Proof of your Averseness to Parliaments.  
But to come close to the Point, That your Nature and Temper, in relation to your Politics, demonstrated your Averseness to English Parliaments: the Jesuits you know were very industrious with you for the Promotion of their Religion, which you consented to; and what did you in order to this? Did you not lay some Foundations for Popery, in order to its being established? Were there not Judges, Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, and other Judiciary Officers of your procuring, in order to deprave the Law of the Nation, and defile the Throne of Justice? I pray how did the villainous Judges use even the Protestant Laws, to open the first Gate to Slavery? and our Laws being in their Hands, did they not use them as barbarously as they could, to the Discouragement of Virtue, and promoting Vice? Did not your Brother's Ministers of State betray our Liberties? What Remedy had the People? If a Session of Parliament was near, you so hated them upon this very Principle of Arbitrary Power, that either the Session was put off for a longer time, or else it was to be so short, that Grievances could not be redressed: and when you got a Period put to a Session, your wicked Judges were to play their Parts with the Laws, whilst your Ministers were ravishing all our Liberties from us; and as for Religion, you had a Set of Apostolical Caterpillars, who were to manage that for your Service and Interest.  
These Measures of yours taken from your Popish Crew, had rendered you so out of love to an English Parliamentary Government, that you were at one time looked upon by Parliament the greatest Grievance of the Nation, the universal Object of their Hate and Fear, and the Subject of their Clamours and Curses. At whose door did all the Discontents and Murmurs lie but at yours? Were not the Murmurs so violent against you, that they became a great part of the Complaints of good Men to Heaven in their own and their Country's Behalf? Nay, Murmurs were so bold, that your Brother was attacked with them? for did they not look upon you as Jupiter's Stork amongst the Frogs? Notwithstanding all your former Glories and Conquests, your whole Stock of Fame was lost, and buried in your Apostasy from the Protestant Religion. How all this, and an innate Love to your Country and its Government, could stand together, I leave to wiser Men to judge. We saw you designed to make us submit to an Arbitrary Power: Our Magna Charta was to have been destroyed by you and your Cutthroats; our Religion and Liberties to have been abolished; Popery and a Despotic Power set up; the Lords and Commons extirpated; and all to have devolved into you, when they had given the fatal Blow, that you might have set up Idols and Molten Calves, and we have bowed down to them. Now, Sir, consider who the Man was that took such Measures, and laid such Designs; and if it were possible for him to love an English Protestant Parliament, I'll be his Slave.  
To conclude this Head, Did you not by these Politics of yours fet the whole Kingdom in a Flame, and then please yourself with it? When you burned our City, you and your Party sung Te Deum for Joy, whilst others were astonished at the dismal Sight. Did not your unbounded Thirst for innocent Blood make the Kingdom of England a Slaughter-house? And might you have had your Will, you would have made Smithfield your Original Shambles. It is well known, Sir, how you loved humane Sacrifices; and what Measures you took from France and Rome to propagate your Cause, is not yet forgotten, nor I hope never will.  
(3.) Let us consider your Nature and Temper as to your Morals, from which we will demonstrate your Disaffection and Aversion to Parliaments. What Morality could we expect from you, that was and still is a Papist, and a bigoted one too? And being so, all your Morals are but Slaves to your Zeal. Nay, had you been Master of all the Cardinal Virtues, there's not one but must have been used to destroy our Religion, Laws and Liberties. Your Fortitude and Courage (if ever you had any) made you the more daring to push on Rome's Religion and the French Interest, and to withstand the Opposition you met withal in Parliament. Your Justice you made use of to restore the Power and Authority of the Bishop of Rome, believing him to be Christ's lawful Vicar, and Peter's true Successor; and the said Office including the Ecclesiastical Supremacy, you declared it your Duty to give the Pope the same Right over the Consciences of the People of England, as you had to succeed your Brother, though through his Blood. Let us consider, Sir, your Temperance, which for once I will suppose you to be Master of too, not for the public Good, but only to testify that you could conceal your Passions, which were great enough to do public Mischief, for you had always a most firm Resolution to ruin these Kingdoms. As for your Constancy, it was no more than fixed Obstinacy. But it may be your Party may say, you were never heard to rage, or scarce seen to frown; how true that may be, I cannot tell, for I never was your Pimp, or Admirer, and therefore cannot pretend to that Familiarity with you that some may. Yet what was your Temperance and Constancy but fit Pillars to support your damnable Designs against the Religion and Government of these three Kingdoms? But, Sir, if we should again take a view of your admirable Temperance, in its larger Signification, that is, a Denial of worldly Desires, it was still worse and worse: for when you voluntarily took up your Cross, and quitted your great Employments under your Brother, you left the Management of those Offices to Villains of a deeper dye than the rest of Mankind, who still carried on your Design to destroy us; you only quitted the toil of the Power, and left it to your subordinate Villains. In the last place, we will comply with your Admirers and Flatterers, and own you had Prudence: if you had, it was the worse for us, because that, and that alone, could be your Trump-Gard, the only leading Virtue that managed your Conduct in all your Hellish Plots and Designs with that Care and Art, that you made a fair Progress in effecting the Business of Rome as to Religion, and of the French King as to Arbitrary Power, to enslave and pox us both in Religion and Liberty. To give you your due, you ripened that mighty Work you and Coleman had upon your Hands, to a mighty Perfection: and had it not met with a mighty Blast, you might by your supposed Prudence have ruined three mighty Kingdoms. Now, Sir, if we grant you were endued with these mighty Virtues of Fortitude, Temperance and Prudence, yet we must say they were the absolute Hinges that opened the Gates to Rome and France, where Superstition ruled the Day. Your moral Virtues were but lesser Lights, that took their Light from that greater Orb above: but how these moral Virtues did shine in you, your old Friend Tom Jones (if alive) could plainly tell, for he knew your Virtues very well, even to his dying Day.  
I must mind you of one thing more, viz. your Oath of Allegiance that you took to your Brother as your Sovereign Lord. Did you keep that Oath to him? If you did, surely the only Motive that prompted you was some Obligation you believed was in the Oath. But pray tell me, did not you Apostasy to the Church of Rome not only require a Renunciation of that Oath, but also absolve you from the Ties of it? Therefore I ask you again, Can your Conspiracy with the French King against our Laws and Liberties consist with that Oath? Or if you looked upon yourself released from it, pray what Security could the Government have, when you should come to the Crown, that you would keep your Faith with an Heretical People, that would not keep Faith and true Allegiance to your Brother, who was of the same Religion with yourself? This, Sir, was your Morality, of which your Party so much boasted. And how the Exercise of these Virtues, that were so used in the Drudgery of France and Rome, could be consistent with an English Parliamentary Government, I cannot tell.  
Thus, Sir, the Consideration of your Nature and Temper in all these Respects, shows you were a Person in whom it was impossible there could be any love for Parliaments. Let your Party say what they will, and boast of your Virtues till doomsday, yet I must say that your Nature and Temper shown you a Man of no good Morals, your Conscience being ready at all times to transmigrate as you found occasion. Those near you, that understood the Pulse of your Opinion, did not in the least doubt your Heart, which (whilst you professed to be a Protestant) conveyed Symptoms of Inflammation against the Reformed Religion, because it was not so ready to consume a Party of Men you hated, according to a Maxim of your dearest Great Grandmother of notorious Memory, Mary Queen of Scots; to which purpose you zealously promoted about the time of your Brother's Restoration, abundance of Church-Caterpillars, that with the fiercest Wrath might devour those of the Reformed Religion: nay, how often did you fall upon these Vermin, as not zealous enough in persecuting those that differed from them only in a few rascally Ceremonies, not worthy of wiping a Porter's Breech? by which means those base Creatures ruined several thousands of Families in the space of twenty odd Years, and brought them to great want. And for all the Pretences you ever made for Liberty of Conscience, you used to discover to your Brother the Ardency of your Zeal against poor dissenting Protestants, and the Moderate Churchmen, that they were the greatest Enemies against his Government; and for no other Reason, but because they would not part with their Religion as Christians, nor their Liberties as English-Men, but preserve both chaste and inviolable, that they might approve themselves Men of Uprightness before God and Man.  
2. Your Inclinations published you an Enemy of all Parliaments, from your Usage of that very Parliament in which you had such a Band of Pensioners. One would think you should never have parted with such a Parliament, where you and your Villains had purchased such an Interest: truly some of them were so fond to aid and abet the Destruction of the Nation, that the Charges in their Elections were defrayed, whatever they amounted to; any some of them were so profligate, that as they had no Estates, so they had neither Conscience nor Honour, but were such as you picked out as necessary Men, whose Votes you most relied upon. You procured Tables for many of them at Whitehall and Westminster, and had them for their great Loyalty in their Votes received into Pension. What vast Sums did they give? a great part of which was by you obtained to carry on your wicked Designs and Purposes: And what Sums did you obtain to carry on your first wicked War against the Dutch, and to supply your extraordinary Occasions in the second? How well they supplied the Necessities of the Court-Whores, Pimps and Bawds, is well known. You not sooner demanded, but they complied; so that your Brother and you once thought yourselves exceeding happy in a House of Commons: notwithstanding the Exchequer was shut up, and by a Proclamation that you procured, the Crown was published a Bankrupt in the midst of so many Aids and Revenues given by them. Yet what humble Slaves were these to you and your Interest, that when you ought to have shared in the Public Justice of the Nation due to Traitors, they not only passed by all your Miscarriages, but stood by you as far as they durst: and though your Sins cried aloud, yet nothing moved them to call you to an account for them. If your Brother asked, they gave, till even they themselves were near the point of becoming useless, and their Pensions too in danger. In recompense of this you aimed at their Dissolution; and how you branded them in a certain Declaration drawn up by Coleman by your Privity, (which your Brother had promised to sign, but not being a Slave to his Word, did not) is yet remembered.  
In that Declaration you charge the House of Commons (that had given your Brother such Testimonies of their Loyalty and Bounty) with misconstruing all his Endeavours to preserve the Nation in Ease and Prosperity, and against all Reason and Evidence represented them to the Nation as Arguments of Fear and Disquiet; and that under pretence of securing Property and Religion, they had demanded unreasonable things from the Crown, to bring those Men that had so well served your Brother and you, out of all Esteem with the Protestant Dissenters. You declared them Enemies to Liberty of Conscience, and to the Proceed of the Government; and that they made seditious Constructions of the same, and many other Charges of a very high Nature, especially for opposing your Match with Mrs. Modena your Italian Comrade. Nay, you charged them for being Enemies to the Church of England, and therefore you laboured to the utmost to have them dissolved, though you well knew that if these poor Dogs were not in a Parliament, they must be in a Prison. If this were your usage of a Parliament, in which you were so happy, if we may believe the King's Message to the Commons, Feb. 28. 1663. what can any Man judge from hence but this, that if this Parliament could not please you, none could? This I think sufficiently demonstrates what Inclination you had for any Parliament; for certain you nor your rascally Party could never expect to see a Parliament more ready to assist you in all your wicked Designs.  
3. Your Inclination to Parliaments was seen by the Notions and Practices of your Party in relation to Parliaments, especially from those of them that knew you best. Were not Coleman, Beddingfield, Whitebread, Strange, Nevil, and several other Villains, of your Privy Council at St. James'? and did not these study to find out your Inclinations, and to imitate you exactly? And how these and the rest of your villainous Crew stood affected to Parliaments in general, is not yet forgotten by some that knew them. Was it not their common discourse, that they hoped there would be no more need of Parliaments? did not your Popish Priests and Jesuits go from Coffee-house to Coffee-house, and ridicule Parliaments? Alas, Sir, this was but the Copy which your Villains took from your own Words; who sometimes, when they wanted a Supply for their extraordinary Occasions, would be seemingly content that a Parliament should meet and sit to raise such a Supply, but never to redress Grievances: nay, some of them have said that a King's Proclamation ought to be sufficient to raise Money, and that it would never be well with us till the whole Government was reduced to the Model of that of France.  
4. Your Inclinations to a Parliament were seen in your daily Breaches upon the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom. You knew the Parliament had made an Act of Uniformity, and several Laws against Dissenters in 1663., and several Laws were made against Papists in former Kings Reigns; yet to oblige the Popish Party, you broke in upon all these Laws at once, and procured your Brother in the said Year to put forth an Indulgence for tender Consciences, not for the Encouragement of Protestant Dissenters, but the Increase and Growth of Popery. And as a necessary thing to usher in your second wicked War against the Dutch, you put your Brother upon issuing forth another Declaration of Indulgence in 1671. Many other Instances I could give of this Matter, but this shall suffice. Now how this could consist with an innate Love to English Parliaments, I must leave to better Judgements.  
5. Your Inclinations to Parliaments were seen in your Unwillingness to let that Parliament meet and sit, in which you had so great a Band of Pensioners. To my certain Knowledge Messenger after Messenger has been sent to France with begging Letters, to get Money from the French King to put off the Sitting of the Parliament. Give your Brother his due, he never cared for their Sitting, unless it was to get a Supply, that he might exercise his Talon you know where, without Molestation, which he could not well do at a Session of Parliament. Sir, when the Parliament was by Prorogation to have met in Feb. 1672/3, O what Interest was used to put it off till October following? and it had been done, if your Party had brought in a Million as they promised; but bringing in but 356000 l. there was no help but a Parliament must meet; who I think made up the Defect in the Supply you expected from the Popish Party. You know the Parliament was put off from Octob. 1670, till Feb. 1672/3. by which long Interval you had a competent Scope for the mighty Work you had upon your Hands, that you and the rest of the Architects of our Ruin might be so long free from their odious and busy Inspection, till it were finished. A drinking Companion of your Brother's telling you that the Session of Parliament drew near, and ask you what you thought of the Humour the Parliament-men would be in at next Session? you answered, you trusted there might be no Occasion for their meeting any more, for you had hopes to bring the Cause to bear without a Parliament; and took it as a great Affront that the Question was asked. You know the old Squire your Brother laughed at you for that Capricio of yours, though your Jesuits thought it a piece of Impudence in that Gentleman so much as to mention the name of a Parliament in your Presence, he knowing your Opinion as to that way of Government. I must conclude that Man to be at a perpetual War with Mankind, that will not admit of the sight of either Friends or Enemies. If, Sir, you could not bear the Congress of your Friends that had been so loyal and bountiful, you must certainly be averse to the meeting of a Parliament, that would call you and your wicked Party to account for your many traitorous Designs against our Laws and Liberties.  
6. And lastly, Your Inclination to Parliaments was seen in your Opinion of the Affection which your Band of Pensioners did bear to you and your Cause. You know, Sir, you had put yourself under the Protection of the French King, and therefore it was scarce possible for you to engage any more in a Parliamentary way, for all English Parliaments are haters of the French Interest. Your Friend Coleman in his Letter to La Chaise, Sept. 29. says, That in Father Ferier 's time he had inculcated the great danger the Catholic Religion and the Interest of his most Christian Majesty would be in at the next Session of Parliament, which was to be in Oct, 1673. at which I fore saw that the King my Master would be forced to do somewhat in Prejudice to his Alliance with his most Christian Majesty; which I saw so evidently, and particularly that we should make Peace with Holland, that I urged all the Arguments I could, which to me were Demonstrations to convince your Court of that Mischief, and pressed all I could to persuade his most Christian Majesty to use his utmost Endeavours to prevent that Session of our Parliament. Again, you find him pressing him for the Dissolution of the Parliament, in order to bring the Confederates to a Peace upon the French King's Terms. Then he plainly tells you, That the Parliament, as it was managed by the then Ministry, was both unuseful to England and France, and the Catholic Religion. In another Part he tells you, That Prorogations were but loss of time, and a means to strengthen those who opposed the Crown; and therefore still presses for a Dissolution, which would give the Protestant Religion the greatest Blow that ever it received since its first Birth. So that we may see by your Servant Coleman what Opinion you had of the then Parliament. But that we may rivet the Matter, I pray, Sir, take but a Note or two of your own Letter to La Chaise, wherein you express yourself extremely pleased, That the French King was satisfied of the unusefulness of the Parliament in order to the Service of the King your Brother, and his most Christian Majesty. In another place you say, that his Christian Majesty was of Opinion that the Parliament was neither in his Interest nor yours. Pray let me know what Parliament would be in your Interest joined to that of the French King: Show me such a Parliament, and I will then say I can show you one that you would have a good Opinion of: and since you could retain no good Opinion of your Band of Pensioners, you can certainly have none of those that are for preserving the English Protestant Interest. So that I think I have sufficiently showed your Inclinations, and by them your Enmity to Parliaments.  
Secondly; I now come to show what those Parliaments were to which you were so averse, and which you procured to be dissolved, whereby your hatred to Parliaments, and that way of Government, did appear. Were they Men of Common-wealth-Principles, or did they aim at the Promotion of their own Ambition and Greatness? did you or your Rogues know of such Persons? why then did you not discover them? The Nation would have charged the Account to themselves, and have made your Party some recompense for so signal a Piece of Service to the Public. Nay, if your Crew had brought these People to light, and let the Parliament sat to have tossed them in a Blanket, they would have found a little severer quarter, than the Mayor of Scarborough did from one of your Apostles, whom you sent to plant a Colony of Red-coat-Christians in that Place. But, Sir, in plain English your Common-wealth-Christians we found were a number of Men that were in a most zealous manner devoted to the public Good and common Service of their Country, who believed Kings were instituted for the Good of their People, and Government ordained for the sake of the Governed, and therefore complained or were grieved when it was used to contrary ends. Every wife and honest Man would then and still be proud to be of that Rank and Number. And if Commonwealth signifies Common Good, in which sense it has been taken in all Ages by most good Authors; as Bodin, speaking of the Government of France, calls it a Commonwealth, as do our own Authors (the Mirror of Justice, Bracton, Fleta, Fortescue, etc.) in former times, as well as those of later Years, particularly Sir Thomas Smith in the time of Q. Elizabeth; and not only several Statutes use the word Commonwealth, but K. James your Grandfather in his first Speech to an English Parliament owned himself the Servant of the Commonwealth; and K. Charles I. your dearest Father of famous Memory, both before and in the time of the War, never expressed himself otherwise: to be fond then of such Commonwealth Principles becomes every good English Man, and the whole Kingdom were glad to find they had sent such Men to Parliament. But, Sir, your Villains used to call those Parliaments, which you procured to be dissolved, Persons conspiring to set up a Democratical Power in opposition to Monarchy, that would overthrow the Government both in Church and State, though it was that which you and your Rogues designed in that villainous Alliance you made with France to destroy the King and the Protestant Religion. The Nation saw it was not those they had sent up to Parliament, but you that had a Design to overthrow the Government; for you were so fond of your beloved Arbitrary Power, and therefore resolved to subvert our legal Monarchy instituted for the Benefit of the Commonwealth, by destroying the Honour and Reputation of our English Parliaments.  
I pray, Sir, call to mind the Band of Pensioners you had in that Parliament which your Brother kept so long; yet you could not bear with their Proceed against your Party, when your Designs were laid open before them, and so plainly proved, that they could not withhold Justice from being executed upon several of your Case-hardned Traitors. When they were dissolved, it is manifest that three greater Parliaments were never known in England since the time of William I: than what succeeded them, viz. those two that met at Westminster, and that at Oxford; they were, I dare say, the Flower of the whole Kingdom, and might with all Justice be termed the Wisdom of the Nation: their Debates and Votes which were printed and published, shown them to be Gentlemen of very great Ability and Integrity; those that sent them knew them to be Persons of great Estates, not beggarly Rascals, such as were in your Pensionary Parliament, that had betrayed us to you and your Party in a great measure: these did not please you, because they would not perpetrate so great a Piece of Villainy; how then could those please you that met together afterwards, and approved themselves Wellwishers to the Protestant Religion, and duly considered the State of the Nation, and the many Dangers to which it was exposed by you and your Villains? Therefore, Sir, if any one can inform me how all this doth not prove you an Enemy to the Constitution of Parliaments, let him come forth, and he shall be heard; or let us know what sort of Men you are inclined to, for I believe if you could obtain 513 Papists, that were not of the French Interest, to establish Popery separate from Arbitrary Power, even such could not please you, but would soon be exposed as others have been: and if you should have met with 513 Men, that could have complied with you in both, you must have met with such as would have destroyed their own Constitution, and put a Period to all Parliaments. Now if any of your Party can say, this would be a Demonstration of your Affection to Parliaments, and prove●t, Erit mihi magnus Apollo.  
Thirdly; Remember what Arts and Methods you and your Party used to expose the three last Parliaments your Brother held in 1679, 1680, 1681. It is worth your considering that when you had a great desire to have the long Parliament dissolved, some objected, that if that was dissolved, the Crown was in danger, because a new one was to be called. But those that made the Objection, did not consider a new one must be chosen; which if they did, yet they did not consider what the Men were that would in all probability be chosen: and those new Parliaments, if they might have been suffered to redress Grievances, would have stuck at nothing to have rendered themselves acceptable both to Prince and People: for it was, first, the best way your Brother took to become acquainted with the Nation, to dissolve that Parliament that had so long continued. Secondly, the King might, if he would have let his Parliaments sat, obtained a great Sum of Money for Payment of his Debts; nay, they would have given it him as a Pledge of Endearment between him and the People; they resolved to give freely, and hoped he would receive as graciously: in truth, Sir, they would have been generous even to yourself, for they would have excluded you from being King, that you might enjoy the greater Security of your Person and Estate as a Subject, which if you would have believed, you had not at this day been rattling your Beads at St. Germains: the People would have been free under their King, as the King would have been happy in his People; and both secured by frequent Parliaments, which therefore could never endanger your Brother's Crown. Mistake not yourself, nor think that we could be cheated with that Nonsense; for nothing could endanger his Crown but your advancing the Religion of Rome, and the Arbitrary Power of France in England. It was these things endangered your Brother's Government, nothing else could: but, good Gentleman, he was engaged with you in these things beyond recovery, to the ruin of himself, and the endangering of all our Laws and Liberties.  
The Devil's Brokers did not join with you in dissolving the Long Parliament, but cried out, if that Parliament was dissolved, the Church would fall: but, Sir, I will say that for you, you had as little regard for the Church as you could, considering how the Rogues had espoused your Quarrel, and thought that Passive-Obedience, Nonresistance, and the Divine Right of Succession would have been admirable Orv●etans against the Plague of Rebellion. But why must this Church fall with the Pensioners? Alas, alas, the poor distressed Church, and the poor distressed Band of Pensioners! For the latter, they were a Parcel of matchless Villains, and she Whore enough not to be in the Nation's Interest: but dissolved they were, and what escaped the Jail, were secured by the Friars; those who had stood by the Interest of their Country, were sent again, and such a Set of Gentlemen as no King would have sent home in so ignominious a manner but your Brother at your procurement; and being sent home, you and your Party made it your Business to expose them.  
1. You had them exposed on your Stages, in your rascally Playhouses, by a Parcel of mercenary Rogues and Whores, who you and your villainous Party set up to debauch the Nation, and to ridicule the essential Parts of the Government, as if the Votes and Debates of that August Assembly were to be ridiculed by such Vermin, who were Tools you made use of in some part to do your Drudgery. But stay, it is not fit the Whores that are Stage-players should be reflected on, left there should be a more severe Act made for cutting of Noses; for a Parliament-Man, you know, had his Nose cut for speaking against that sort of Vermin: but I will not be afraid to mention their contemptuous reproaching of Parliaments.  
2. You had Monsieur Barillon, who managed the Intrigue of charging the principal leading Members of both Houses of those three Parliaments with being in a Conspiracy against your Brother and yourself; and this he, and your Jesuits, Priests, and other Vermin contrived by Subornation and Perjury, a Proceeding not unusual to some Persons and Courts: all the Mischiefs, Poison and Villainies in all the European Courts, were owing chief to his and his Master's most Christian Politics: he was used as a main Agent fit to expose three as great Parliaments as England ever knew, to all the Courts of Christendom, as a Confederacy of Men in a Plot to destroy the King and yourself, and as Enemies to Monarchy. And what was this but to render Parliaments odious to all the Princes of Europe?  
3. Notwithstanding those three Parliaments had nothing before them but to secure the Government against the Depredations that Popery and Arbitrary Power would have made upon it; and notwithstanding their great Duty to the King, yet what a scandalous Declaration was emitted, wherein the said Parliaments were most villainously treated, as if they had aimed at nothing but the change of the Government? This Declaration may be supposed to be drawn by that Villain, the French Ambassador, in his own Mother-Tongue, because though it was turned into English, yet the French way of wording it shows there was a French Counsellor in the case, which could be none but he, who was the chief Counsellor your Brother and you used in the management of your Conspiracy; yet it is but the Copy of your Grandfather's and Father's way of Proceeding, which your Brother and you thought fit to use to asperse Parliaments; you were all Friends alike to that Constitution of the English Government.  
4. It is very remarkable, that your villainous Judges were instructed in their Circuits to spit their Venom against the Proceed of the said Parliaments; and in their respective Stations they were to let their Grand Juries know what reason the King had to dissolve them: and how they recommended the King's most Gracious Declaration to their Consideration, and what Converts they made, I was never curious to inquire; for I could not suppose but the Country knew the Men, and their Character, and under what necessity they lay to be Villains, from the tenor of their illegal Commissions, and that they must prostitute themselves to the Will of the Court, or be dismissed from their Employments: but they chose rather to be Scandals to the Bench, than to appear as so many Reproaches to their Professions at the Bar. Upon all which Considerations I cannot believe they ever made any farther proselytes against the English Parliaments, than a paltry Sheriff of a County, or a villainous Grand Jury, packed on purpose to draw up an Address of Thanks for the Court's attempting to ruin the Government as established by Law.  
5. Since, Sir, the City of London could not be debauched, but the eminent Merchants and Traders in it stood firm to their Laws and Liberties, and to the Government of England by Parliaments, so that you could not influence the Masters, you took an unheard-of Course to debauch the Servants and Apprentices in their Morals, and procured a Day of Feasting for them, wh●re they were encouraged to huzza it away against Parliaments, and to reproach the Senators as a Herd of Men set upon the Destruction of the Government both in Church and State: but it pleased God to open the Eyes of several of those young Gentlemen, to see that this Feasting and Rioting was carried on by ill Men, and that the dissolving of Parliaments was only to screen some public Offenders from Justice; and by degrees quitting themselves of that scandalous Congress, in a year or two their Feasting fell to the ground.  
6. You employed old Hodge, your Buffoon in ordinary, to write against the Proceed of those Parliaments: the Rogue by his Lies, Equivocations and Prevarications, did much Mischief, having called in a parcel of little Priests, who engaged themselves to rail at Parliaments, and admire the Loyalty of old Hodge their Guide, whose Observators were the Subjects of their Discourses every Lord's day; nay, they would scarce look upon a Sacramental Discourse, the first Sunday in the Month, to be well dished up, unless some of Roger's Frippery was mingled with it: so that the old Villain was not unsuccessful in his traitorous Papers which he published several times a week, till God in his Mercy opened the Eyes of some of our Passive-Obedience-Puppies, and let them see the Villain was aiming at Popery, and destroying the Church of England, notwithstanding his specious Pretences to defend it.  
7. You had your spiritual Myrmidons throughout the Kingdom, roaring from their Pulpits against the Proceed of those Parliaments, by the Instruction of some of their Superiors: this by the help of new Matter the Court instructed them in, lasted several years; so that they were rather Court-Agents to carry on some design, than Ministers of Christ, and Stewards of the Mysteries of God. But alas, when the Tithe-pig began to squeak, they turned their Discourses another way. Truly, Sir, to give the pious Herd of your Ecclesiastical Swine their due, they will do any thing to serve you, if they can but enjoy their Swill and Grains; poor Wretches, I never met with any of them that would lose a Meal to save either King or Kingdom.  
8. You had your Rascals in the most public Coffeehouses, who spent their time chief in railing at Parliaments, that they were unuseful, and were bringing 40 and 41 again upon the Stage; that they had a Design to ruin the King by giving no Money, and starving his Servants: nay, Sir, they were so insolent as to offer all Indignity to those Gentlemen that had served in any of those Parliaments; for doing of which they were not only encouraged by your Grace and Favour in your Smiles, but were also well rewarded. The Particulars might be set down, but I leave them to reply upon those that shall pretend to answer this or any part of it, provided they put their Names to their Answer, as I have done to this my Memorial, otherwise I shall not take notice of any Scribbler in your Party. You have your Friend Sherridan, one of your Devil's Brokers in Ireland, and honest Togra Smith another excellent Partisan of yours; nay, you have a Set of Case-hardned Villains, that would if they durst be barking at the Government; the Rogues stand still for want of Business: I pray give them orders to disprove any part of the truth of what I now write; if you do, you have a notorious Rogue, the Quondam Bp. of Kilmore, that walks in your Quondam Park of St. James'; he is still a Malignant, and hates our English Government: you would do well to send for him, for he would be a main Champion with you in the Case of governing by Parliaments. The Sum of all which is this: You may reflect upon the various ways you and your Party took to expose three Parliaments, by which you shown yourself an Enemy of all English Parliaments; and therefore we could not but judge who were the Men that would poison the People, and change the Government, even the Enemies of the Constitution, and of those who endeavoured to preserve the old English Government.  
Fourthly; The unreasonableness of the ill usage of those Parliaments, shows you an Enemy to Parliaments in general. You cannot but remember what ama●●ment seized every good Man, to see two of the greatest Parliaments England ever knew dissolved within the space of three Months. I confess the Kings of England have in a great measure been entrusted by the Kingdom with appointing the times of the Sitting and Dissolving of Parliaments: but lest through defect of Age, Experience, or Understanding, they should forget or mistake our Constitution, or by Passion, private Interest, or the Influence of evil Counsellors be so far misled, as not to assemble Parliaments when the public Affairs require it, or should declare them dissolved before the Ends of their Meeting were accomplished, the Wisdom of our Forefathers has provided divers Laws both for holding Parliaments annually, and oftener if need be, and that they should not be put off till all the Bills were passed, all Petitions answered, and Grievances redressed. But to be more particular with you, I will ask you a few Questions; which if any of your Teagues can answer me on your behalf, they shall be my Counsellors I assure you, if ever I come to be Duke of Modena.  
1. What Precedent can be produced for such a Dissolution amongst our ancient Records in Parliament, held in the times of our ancient English Kings? We are taught by the Writ of Summons that Parliaments are never called without the Advice of the Council; and the usage of all Ages has never been to send them away without the same Advice. Now if these Methods of calling and dismissing Parliaments were safe, than not to pursue them, was to expose the King to the Censures and Reflections of the whole Nation for an Action not only illegal and uncustomary, but also very ungrateful to the People.  
2. Have not the Laws of the Land taken great care to make the King always dear to the People, and to preserve his Person sacred in their Esteem, by wisely preventing his appearing in any Action that may be unacceptable to them? Now was the Dissolution of three Parliaments, nay four in the compass of 26 Months, acceptable to the People? Ought you not then to have used your Interest with him to have acted according to the Laws and Customs of Parliaments, which would have rendered you both acceptable to the People? And had he given himself leisure to have had this debated in Council, because than his Counsellors must have answered for their Advice, you and your Brother had remained Honourable in the Eyes of the Nation, and not have been judged guilty of such Orders as were not only irregular, but also very illegal.  
3. Suppose you should say, the King commanded it to be done, and his Ministers were bound to obey, and therefore are justified: yet, Sir, let me tell you that the Ministers that advised and assisted in the Administration of Affairs, could not justify an unlawful Action under Colour of the King's Commands, since all his Commands contrary to Law were in themselves void; which is the true reason of that old Maxim in the Law, That the King can do no wrong; a Maxim not only true in self, but safe for a Prince and Subject too: for certainly it was Nonsense in your Brother's Favourites to think of excusing their many Enormities under pretence of their Master's Command. The truth is, it was so unreasonable, that the Privy Council was ignorant of the thing, and surprised at it, not being worthy to be trusted with it: but the French Whore near St. James' House had the News of the Parliament's being to be dissolved two days before we knew of it at Oxford; so that it was a Work of darkness concerted between Barillon and Portsmouth, and the King resolved upon it by their Advice.  
4. Would it not have been unreasonable in your Brother and you to have dismissed the 12 Judges from sitting in Termtime, and from going the several Circuits, that Justice and Judgement might not be done? Now that Parliaments should meet and sit for Redress of Grievances, and making good and wholesome Laws, by the same Sacred Tie whereby at his Coronation he obliged himself to let his Judges sit to distribute Justice every Term, and in both the Seasons of the Year in their Circuits, and to preserve inviolably all the Rights and Liberties of the People, is very evident. Therefore, Sir, abruptly to dissolve Parliaments, when nothing but the Legislative and united Wisdom of the Kingdom could relieve the Protestant Party from their just Fears, or secure their Religion from its certain Dangers, is very inconsistent with the great Trust reposed in your Brother, and seems to express but little of that Love and Tenderness which the People of England might justly have expected from him.  
5. Would not the Constitution of Parliament, as by the Laws and Customs of England established, have been equally imperfect, and destructive of itself, had it been left to the Arbitrary Will of a wicked King, whether he would summons a Parliament, or had it been put into his Power to dismiss them at his pleasure, or at the Pleasure of two rascally French Whores, or a little scoundrel French Ambassador? And therefore was not your Brother's dissolving the Parliaments at Westminster and Oxford, by your procurement, a most unreasonable thing?  
6. Was not the Kingdom so alarmed at the Wickedness of your Brother in dissolving those Parliaments, that Men began to be exceedingly concerned, not knowing where it would end; insomuch that your Brother was necessitated in a sneaking Declaration to let the Nation see he was conscious to himself that his Dissolution of those Parliaments stood in need of an Apology; so that it was but at the best an Appeal from his Parliament to the People of England? And if your Brother and you could not justify your Usage of these Parliaments, because so destructive to the Liberty of the Subject, what assurance did your two French Whores Portsmouth and Mazarine, and Barillon give you and the rest of your Party, that your Brother's Declaration, showing Reasons for such a Violation to our English Government, would make the Nation in love with such Treatments of their Representatives? For, Sir, could you think in your Conscience that the People of England did not see themselves hereby exposed to the restless Malice of their Enemies, and resented it highly, since they could not but be sensible of the languishing Condition of the three Kingdoms, and that nothing but a Parliament could cure the Distempers with which we were infected by you and your Party, both as to Religion and Morals? And had they not with great Charge and Difficulty chosen three Parliaments, on whom they placed their Hopes? And those being suddenly dissolved, could they believe your Brother or you designed any thing less than a total Subversion of the Government? Come, Sir, sit down, put on your Irish considering Cap, and judge why since Ned Coleman's Protestant Declaration was so unhappily published before its time, the Nation should not be as much alarmed at Barillon's Declaration in April 1681, as they were at Coleman's in 1678. And could you and your Irish Teagues imagine that one French Declaration should so soon succeed another? nay, could you, without being confounded, see your Servant Coleman's Original (fairly drawn by the Advice of the French King's Confessor, to bring in Popery and Slavery) so much outdone by Barillon's Copy, since you judged it could never be outdone by any Man whatever? And since the former exposed you and your Brother as the worst of Men, how could you expect the latter should not have the same effect upon the English Nation, and put them into such a Ferment, as to deal by you and your Party just as we did in 1688?  
7. Did not your Brother, April 20. 1679, not only in Council, but Parliament, declare how sensible he was of the ill Posture of his Affairs, and the great Jealousies and Dissatisfaction of his good Subjects, whereby the Crown and Government was become too weak to preserve itself; which proceeded from his use of a single Ministry, and of private Advices; and therefore professed his Resolution to lay them wholly aside for the future, and to be advised by those able and worthy Persons whom he had chosen for his Council in all his weighty and important Affairs? Now, Sir, consider, was it not most unreasonable in you and your French Vermin to put the King upon such a manifest Violation of his Royal Word and Promise to the Nation? But to put the Matter out of dispute, Did not your Brother, on that Choice of his Council, tell the Parliament of his Resolution of meeting his People often in Parliament? And who was it that changed his mind, and made him alter those Gracious Purposes, but you and your wicked Party? Would you make us believe that your Brother could so soon forget his Promises, or that upon the meeting of these Parliaments there were no weighty Matters to be debated?  
8. Did not you and your Party, in prevailing with the King, show the World, that your Cunning kept not pace with your Malice, since by this wicked usage of our Representatives in those Parliaments you and your Cutthroats made yourselves known, though you had secretly and cautiously given that wicked Advice to your Brother, only to be protected from the public Justice of the Nation? But in time you discovered yourselves, and told your own Names, when Case-hardned enough to pull off the Mask, and let us see what you would be at. But what Offence did you take at those Parliaments? Surely it was because the repeated Treasons and traitorous Designs of you and your Conspirators rendered you obnoxious to them. And did you not put the King upon dissolving those Parliaments, thinking thereby not to have been judged the Authors of that villainous Counsel? Alas, good Sir, you have so exposed yourself in that Matter, that you left yourself and Party not only without Justification, but without all pretence hereafter; but thanks be to God, I lived to see the Justice of the Nation take place upon you, and some of your Party. There are some yet lurking, and basking themselves in good Employments; but I hope our King will rid himself of the Vermin in time. I am confident, Sir, you may reflect upon these Considerations, and pronounce yourself guilty of this unreasonable Usage of three as great Parliaments as ever England saw. Now how can we conclude otherwise, than that you then was, and still continue an Enemy to Parliaments?  
Fifthly; The ill Consequences attending the Dissolution of those three Parliaments are worthy your Consideration: and that I may be brief herein, take notice;  
1. What Divisions you and your Party caused amongst the People of England thereby: you made such Breaches in Families, that I fear are not made up to this day, unless Death hath reconciled them; this you did by the Advice of your Priests, Jesuits, and Popish Council at St. James', and the wicked Ministry at Whitehall, who, rather than the People should not be divided, took their several Copies by your Original, and came in a most comfortable manner to your Assistance, hoping to make the People rebel. These Differences you nourished with all the Industry imaginable, to the great Hazard of the whole Kingdom. But, Sir, this was to betray us into the Hands of our Popish Adversaries, which they could not do but by inflaming the Differences between the Conforming and Nonconforming Protestants, that we might not unite our Forces against the Common Enemy.  
2. You and your Party by this means weakened the Protestant Interest. There can be nothing more plain than this: for upon the Dissolution of the Oxford Parliament, Swarms of Priests and Popish Conspirators returned home, and fell to work, to pervert the People to the Obedience and Communion of the See of Rome. What Pensions then you got for some, and Employments for others; and with what care you maintained their Interest, and defended their Cause and Quarrel against those that pursued them for their many Treasons against the Government, we all saw to our great Sorrow. And what help was there, since you and your Party had so much countenance from your Brother, who was engaged with you in the whole Popish Conspiracy, saving that of his own Life?  
3. You procured a severe Persecution against Protestant Dissenters which you nor none of your rascally Crew durst do during the Session of Parliament; but immediately upon their Dissolution you fell upon them, either because they had occasioned the sending of good Men to Parliament, or because they were zealous Assertors of the Protestant Religion against Popery, and of our English Liberties against Slavery: these were indeed high Crimes, for which you and your Villains made them smart, to the ruin of several thousand Families; and had you continued somewhat longer in that glorious Adventure, you might have made poor England a howling Wilderness, though when your Brother and you came home, you found it a Land flowing with Milk and Honey. Nay, you had rather all should have run into Confusion, than the Dissenters should not be ruined, because they could not comply with a few Ceremonies, for which your Party had no other Authority than a few Acts of Parliaments.  
4. You advanced Arbitrary Proceed in Westminster-Hall, where you had a Set of rognish Judges exactly of a size for that turn, who had as much Impudence for the Court, as they had had Dread of being called to Account in Parliament for all their Villainies. And though it was a standing Constitution, that if any Man stood impeached by the Commons of England before the Lords in Parliament, no inferior Court could take Cognizance of that Cause, or try him for that Treason in Westminster-Hall, for which he stood impeached in Parliament, (which upon the Dissolution of the Oxford-Parliament, was Fitz-Harris his Case) yet for all this, you found out your Pemberton, your Jones, and your Raymond, that had Impudence enough to try the said Fitz-Harris, and condemn him; for, alas, good Men, they were not to lose their Places for every small Peccadillo, if it were to serve the Government, especially to do a Job for you and your Crew.  
5. Upon the Dissolution of the 3 last Parliaments, to alienate the King from his People, you and your Party did industriously revive the Memory of the late unhappy Civil War between your Father and the Parliament; which was your Brother's Interest as well as the Nation's to have buried in oblivion: the mentioning that unhappy War served only to put us in mind of the sudden Dissolution of 3 Parliaments, and the 12 years' want of one, and what the Villains had done in your Father's Reign: and the better to colour your procuring the Dissolution of those three Parliaments, you had your Parties abroad to asperse and brand the Members, as being of the same Complexion with those that met Nou. 3. 1640; but none of your Cutthroats did ever mention the bloody Massacre in 1641, because begun and carried on by your Father's Command, and for his Service.  
But, Sir, let me tell you, that none lived more peaceably under your Brother's Government than they who were engaged in that War on the Parliament's side: therefore I cannot tell by what prudent Topick you went, when you discouraged those Men in their obedient living by such villainous Reflections, and upbraided them with what the Law had pardoned, and they had expiated by their Loyalty since, supposing they had been Criminals, which yet I think they were not. But this is plain beyond all dispute, that the Parliament that restored your Brother to his Throne, and you to be a constant Plague to this Nation, made an Act of Indemnity, wherein many things were enacted, which they judged necessary for the Settlement of the Nation; they prohibited, under a Penalty, one Man's reproaching another with being concerned in that War, for the space of three years after the Date of the said Act: sure then they never intended Men should afterwards take the liberty to upbraid one another with it.  
6. Another ill Consequence of dissolving those three Parliaments was, that by this means you made a way to succeed your Brother in the Government. If those Parliaments had sat, and their Counsels not been defeated by their unexpected Dissolutions, you must have been disabled from ever inheriting the Imperial Crown of these Realms: and it was plain, those Whores and other Traitors that procured the Dissolution of those Parliaments, aimed at your coming to the Throne. But, Sir, I think your Party should have shown so much Ingenuity and Candour, as to have owned that all the People of England, particularly those that were for your Exclusion, were as zealous for Monarchy, even in the Royal Line, as any of your clamorous Bullies durst for their Ears be. I am sure, nothing so much endangered the legal Monarchy of England as your coming to the Crown, which the Wisdom of the Nation foresaw; and therefore, that it might be preserved, resolved to pass you by, and let it descend to another Heir. Nay, Sir, if you had continued James Duke of York, I am sure you might have lived with more Honour and Comfort than you can propose by putting your Feet under the French King's Table: but God having ordained you to be a Plague to us for our Sins, I think you let us see what you aimed at in your four Years Tyranny. There are some blind Puppies, whose Eyes are not yet opened; I could wish you had their Company at St. Germains, being confident you would soon lick them open.  
7. Another Consequence of the Dissolution of those three Parliaments, was the possessing the King of a Design carried on by the dissenting Party for his Destruction, and to introduce a Democratical Power, which they called a Commonwealth: nay, that you might hasten the Dissolution of the Oxford-Parliament, you made use of this Lie for an Argument, which your Brother was willing to believe, that he might have some Pretence for quitting that way of Government. There were two sorts of Persons charged: (1.) The Parliaments themselves. (2.) Those who steadfastly asserted the Power and Privileges of Parliaments, the Protestant Religion, and Liberties of the People, in opposition to Popery and Slavery.  
(1.) These Parliaments were charged with a Design against his Majesty's Person and Government. Now, Sir, let us know what ground you had to raise such a foul Report and Slander upon so considerable a part of the Legislative Power. I confess I can give no other name to these Proceed of yours, than a Conspiracy to destroy the use of Parliaments: therefore had your Brother called another upon the Dissolution of the Oxford Parliament, all English Protestants would have joined as one Man in humble Applications to that Assembly, that you and your infamous Crew might have a due Punishment for such scandalous Reflections, and false Accusations of those Parliaments.  
It is well known, Sir, notwithstanding your said usage of these Parliaments, that many of those honourable Persons, sent up to serve as Members of those Assemblies, had ventured their Lives, and lost their Estates in endeavouring to restore the Monarchy, in opposition to that very thing you charged them withal: Nay, they were all Lovers of Monarchy, not only upon true English Principles, but from their own Inclinations; for deceive not yourself, they had too sad experience of a Commonwealth, to be in love with that way of Government, which they well knew was inconsistent with the Genius of this Nation, and that nothing more agreed with the People's Temper than a well-regulated Monarchy, as ours is by the fundamental Laws of the Realm; and if your Brother had but considered the Point, he could not have believed otherwise, than that they were not, nor could be true to the Monarchy, that joined with you and your Conspirators to subvert the Rights and Privileges of Parliaments.  
(2.) The Parliaments not only lay under this filthy Calumny, but your Party did also traduce those brave Men that steadfastly asserted the Power and Privileges of Parliament, the Protestant Religion, and the Liberties of the People, as being in a Conspiracy against the King and Government: but 'tis plain that you knew not one Soul engaged in any such Conspiracy; if you did, why did you not (according to your Duty and Allegiance) discover them, that they might have been brought to Justice? If not, why was all that noise made of a Conspiracy against the King's Person and Government? But I believe you were afraid that your Folly as well as Knavery would have been manifested to the World, and your Malice too into the Bargain. Nay, Sir, let me tell you, that upon the Intimation given by your Devil's Bro●ers, and the special Direction of old Hodge the Fiddler to your little Parasitical Clerks, the Pulpits rung with the noise of a Presbyterian Plot, in order to betray us into Popery and Arbitrary Power: for many, if not all, but especially those who made some sort of Figure in the Country, hung their Tongues, and set the tune of their Preaching to the humour of the Times, and like the Devil's Messengers, being instigated by your High Priests, all they preached was against the Dissenters, charging them with a Design to bring in a Commonwealth and Confusion.  
But why was all this noise about a Prebyterian Plot? Come, I'll tell you the Reason: You may remember that your Popish Party were by me and others charged with a Hellish Conspiracy against the Person of the King, our Religion and Government, and the Lives of all the Protestants in England, and this proved against them to the satisfaction of all sober Men, as well by their own Papers as the Testimonies of several Witnesses; and finding all your devilish Arts and Practices could not bring yourselves off from the Reproach you justly lay under, or the Punishment you must have suffered, had a Parliament been permitted to sit, you made this noise of a Dissenters Plot as your last Refuge, which you and your Crew said was against the Monarchy under pretence of prosecuting a Popish Conspiracy: And therefore with what Application did you form the Intrigue of the Meal-tub, and also those sham's of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey's murdering himself, and Lord Howard's penning Fitz-Harris's Libel? all which discovered your Purposes, as well as your Disappointments at once.  
Surely, Sir, your Party never considered what a notorious Scandal they endeavoured to fasten not only upon the most considerable People of England, but the whole Kingdom, which you caused to suffer much in its Reputation abroad, as broken and divided against itself, and relapsing into Confusion and Anarchy. Nay, let me tell you, that you and your Party hereby brought your Brother, and his Government and Prudence under the greatest Disreputation: for must not our Neighbours stand amazed to see a King (restored by unanimous Consent, to the great Joy of the Nation) in so few Years lose that Esteem, Honour and Reverence for so great a number of his Subjects as you had caused to be accused? What Nation would maintain an Alliance with such a King, who had so much sunk his Interest? How could they expect he should be able to support and answer the ends of such an Alliance? Your great Ally the French King could not but laugh in his Sleeve, to see the Nation in such a Posture. Nay further, what Jealousies did you create in the People's Minds, so that the Popish Party were strengthened to destroy both Conformists and Nonconformists, who were both Heretics to them? Hereby also that Impudent Tyrant the French King was emboldened to proceed in his Ravages upon his Neighbour's Countries; and if your Brother should have had the least Inclination to put a stop to this Nimrod, what a Condition would he have been in, since you and your French Pensioners had created such Feuds amongst us?  
8. Another Evil happening upon the Dissolution of those Parliaments, was your Endeavours to persuade the People that they were in a secure State, with relation to their Religion, Laws and Liberties, that so the Nation might be a Prey to your Popish Crew. Now, Sir, how can your Party answer the so doing, when we were in the midst of so many notorious Dangers? Do you not remember that four Parliaments had represented the manifold Dangers the Nation was threatened with? And hath it not been one of the greatest Difficulties that ever a Nation groaned under, to preserve itself from your Popish Rage and Fury? Nay, all thinking Men judged it impossible: but God, with whom all things are possible, did the Work his own way, you know well enough, to your woeful experience. I remember your Conspirators used to wipe their Mouths, and mimp them up with a maidenly God dam, the Nation was in no danger from the Popish Party, though the King in several Proclamations had signified the same: and if your Rascals had not the manners to believe the Parliament, they might have believed the King, since he not only published his Proclamations to let the Nation know its danger, but also in divers Speeches to both Houses of Parliament acquainted them therewith; and upon the whole not only required their Advice and Counsel, but proposed that some effectual Laws might be made to prevent those Dangers and Mischiefs that then attended the Nation.  
But, Sir, you and your Party may say, What danger could there be, since the Laws of the Land were the Rule of his Government? To which I answer:  
(1.) Suppose K. Charles had all his days governed according to the Laws of the Land; was his having governed according to the Laws already, sufficient to discourage you and your Villains from plotting to destroy us? And when your Conspiracy was detected, did the King's governing according to Law remove the Fears we had of the Popish Party?  
Object. But you will say, We had an ill Opinion of your Brother and his Government, and thence came our pretended Fears and Jealousies.  
Answ. Alas, Sir, you are mistaken, our Fears did not proceed so much from our ill Opinion of him, as from the sense we had of the implacable Hatred you and your villainous Popish Party had to him, and your Resolution to destroy him, because he made not such ha●●● to destroy us as you would have had him. But suppose we had entertained all evil Opinion of the King, we had just Cause for it, he having left us in the hands of such as were so far from protecting the Nation, that not one Law made to preserve the Protestant Religion was put in execution: and you had so filled the Courts of Westminster-Hall with a Set of Rogues, that perverted the Law to the hazard of the whole Nation, that your Traitors escaped those Punishments due to them for their many Treasons.  
(2.) Can the Laws we then had (without some additional Provision) contribute to our safety, since you were to succeed him? Were not you and your Party then the worst of Men to declare to the World, that we were in no danger, notwithstanding your vigorous Application to extirpate the Northern Heresy, which you were in a more effectual way to effect than ever? Hence may appear the Malice of your Party in preaching Peace, when they were preparing to make War upon us.  
I might enumerate other Evils that happened on Dissolving those Parliaments, but these at present shall serve, and therefore I come to the last Particular of the third Head of this Article, viz.  
Sixthly; The foolish Pretences you and your Party made for procuring these 3 Parliaments to be dissolved in so reproachful a manner; all which prove you an Enemy to Parliaments, and that way of Governing. I pray, Sir, let me put you in mind that your Brother hated Parliaments mortally, which appears by his Letter to the French King in June 1676. to this purpose, That if he could be assured of his Pension, that it might continue, he should not continue that way of Governing, (viz. by frequent Parliaments) which at the best was but a clamorous Rabble, that took upon them to direct Kings: but as he was resolved to be like his Neighbours in Riches and Grandeur, so he was resolved to be like them in Religion too. Thus it seems at the long-run you were both of a mind, except that he was not so hardy in observing his own word, to ruin the Nation all at once, as you were: and what your goodly Pretences were for Dissolving three Parliaments to effect the same, you have laid before you in these following Particulars.  
1st. The first Pretence was their too vigorous prosecuting the Popish Plot. Now with what colour could you charge this upon them? for as I told you before, so I must again, that those Parliaments were composed of Men of as good Sense and Quality as any in the whole Kingdom, who proceeded and managed their debates with as great Moderation and Gravity as became their Place; if they went too far in any thing relating to that cursed Design, you might have instanced in the Particular, and not have suffered your Hellborn Crew to censure their whole Proceeding in it. But let me tell you, they were so far from going too far, that your Brother and you suffered 'em not to sit till they could do any thing considerable in any part of the Discovery. Now, Sir, let me ask you one Question; Why did not you and your Party rather fall upon the King and his Ministers for those Speeches and Declarations he made concerning the Popish Plot, of which you shall have your full in its proper place? But pray observe.  
(1.) Your Brother did frequently recommend the Prosecution of the Popish Plot to them with a strict and impartial Inquiry: and can you think that a Parliament, consisting of so many worthy Patriots, would be such Traitors to their King and Country, as not to comply in ●ome measure with his Commands, especially since in his Speech, Octob. 21. 1680. he used that prevailing Argument, That he neither thought himself nor them safe, till the Matter was gone through with. Was not the King's Person nor Government safe; and would you not have them zealous in inquiry into the said Plot, to prevent the threatening Dangers?  
(2.) Did not your Brother in his Speech to his Parliament, April 30. 1679. assure them of his constant Care to secure our Religion for the future in all Events, and that in all things which concerned the public Security, he would no● follow their Zeal, but lead it? Therefore, Sir, you may see that by making this a Pretence for dissolving three Parliaments, you did fly in the very Face of the King and his leading Zeal to have that Plot discovered, and the Criminals brought to public Justice.  
2ly. A second Pretence you and your Banditti had for dissolving the three last Parliaments was, because they would give no Money for supporting the Alliance your Brother had made for preserving Christendom in Peace, and the keeping of Tangier: by which the Nation might see the true Reason for which those Parliaments were called. The truth is, Sir, you had almost persuaded the King not to use that Parliament which sat down Octob. 21. 1680. and in order to that you made Application to the French King for a Sum of 300000 l. Sterling, and promised if your Brother was supplied with it, the Parliament should not meet. The French King agreed, and the Money was to be paid at two Payments. Upon this the Parliament newly chosen in August 1679, was prorogued till November following; and your great Ally assuring your Brother of the Payment of the Money, the Parliament was further prorogued till October 21. 1680. so that we had no Parliament sitting from May 1679, till October 1680. but the Duke of Buckingham, getting Intelligence of this Contrivance, and being in danger of his Life by the Subornation of a Villain, to whom he had given Bread, as also to his whole rascally Family, finding his Head must fly for it if a Parliament did not meet, makes a Journey over to France, and so prevailed with the French King, that the Money promised was not transmitted; so that of Necessity (not of Choice) you permitted your good Brother that one time to meet his People in Parliament.  
Well then, Supplies were demanded to maintain the Alliance made for the Support of the General Peace of Christendom, the Preservation of Tangier, and for the Payment of your Brother's Debts; and the Parliament would give no Money. Come, Sir, a word or two to the point in general, and then I will descend to some Particulars.  
1. What, would not the Parliament give Money to support the Alliances? I'll assure you they were a parcel of naughty Boys indeed to be so refractory. I pray, Sir, with whom were those Alliances made? with the Duchess of Cleveland? Alas, pious chaste Lady, she had been a Cast-whore for several Years; the triple League between your Brother, her Grace, and Mother Knight, had been broke for many Years, and she had made a new Alliance with her good Confessor the Archbishop of Paris, and had given him all she had for a Guaranty. What Alliances then were they? Were they new ones with the Duchess of Portsmouth and Nell Waal? Truly your Band of Pensioners had so often supplied their extraordinary Occasions, that one would think they should not have asked any more; and if they knew not when they had enough, the Nation could tell them they had too much, and wanted nothing but an Apartment at a convenient Mansion-house in Tuttle-fields, and the civil Usage of that House once a Week or so, as the Ladies of their Profession use to be served, as a just Reward of their Diligence in their Calling. It may be, Sir, there were Alliances of another nature (as with Barillon your old Friend) that were to be supported: Alas the Parliament knew full well that your Brother and you could not want a Supply for such Alliances; and that rather than fail, you might have got a new Bill to have passed, Entitled, An Act to enter into an actual War with France, with which you might ha●e begged Money of the French King, as you did in 1678.  
It may be you will say, They were Alliances your Brother had made for Preservation of the General Peace of Christendom. You say well; and it is a wonder, since your Brother was graciously pleased to demand Money, that he was not as graciously pleased to tell the Parliament what those Alliances were. Surely, Sir, you did not expect a blind Obedience from that Eagle-eyed Parliament, to contribute to the Support of what they were wholly ignorant of; or if they had had some Hints from the Court, it would not have been amiss to have used them as civilly as your Band of Pensioners were, and to have had those Alliances laid before them: those humble Curs never parted with Money for the support of Leagues, till acquainted with the Nature and Tendency of them. And if the Alliances were not designed for the end pretended, you might have asked Money with as good Success for the two Whores at the lower end of the matted Gallery, both Mistress and Woman, as for those Alliances.  
Let me, good Sir, ask you one fair Question; Did your Brother expect Money for these Alliances, and nothing else? and for once we will suppose Portsmouth and her Woman not to have had one Great, no nor Fitz-Harrris so much as a Sop in the Pan, though he had a hopeful Plot upon the Stocks that deserved two, but that it should be applied only for Alliances made to preserve the General Peace of Christendom: truly then, ought not the Parliament to consider well of the General Peace itself, and its Influence upon our Affairs, before they came to any Resolution, or so much as to debate about it, since you had a Tool in the Ministry that told us, it was more fit for Meditation than Discourse; nay, he impudently said the Peace was but the effect of Despair, and I think he was not much out in it; but he might have been so honest as to have told us the true Cause of that Despair: yet for all his Worship's Rhetoric, the Nation learned by whose means they were reduced to so low a Thought of their Condition; nay, if that Loggerhead were alive, I could tell him what Price you and your Brother demanded of the Fr. King for that noble and most Christian piece of Service.  
In a word, Sir, we had no reason to simper upon the Business, unless with the wrong side of our Mouths; for we could not sing any Tune but that lamentable one of a bad Market: we all knew the effect of this General Peace of Chistendom, that it was the Dissolving the Confederacy against the French King, the Enlarging his Dominions, and his gaining time to refresh his Soldiers almost harassed out of their Lives by long Service, the settling and composing the Minds of his Vassals at home, increasing his Fleet, and filling his Exchequer for new and greater Designs: but your Rogues, that were Pensioners to the French King, grew impudent upon it, and expected he might have a spare hour or so to assist you in ruining the Religion, Laws and Liberties of England, and to have fairly laid aside the use of Parliaments, and broke them up, as you would have done a Field-meeting in Scotland, or a private Conventicle in England, and treated them like Traitors and Villains, and not like the great Assembly and Wisdom of the Nation.  
Was it the Alliance your Brother had made with the State's General? Truly your Band of Pensioners had so stigmatised that, that neither the first Westminster nor the Oxford-Parliament would foul their Fingers with it, much less give any Money towards the Support of it; for the Pensioners, speaking modestly, could not believe it tended to the safety of the Nation. Truly I must look again, and see what this new Alliance was; and, good Sir, I beg your pardon, it was a new Alliance with Spain: and would they not give Money to support this? Well, let us then see how the Case stood in relation to it.  
I confess Alliances to a Parliament make a very pretty noise, and may be as diverting as ever old Hodg's Fiddle was to any of his Tory Gang. Indeed old England stood in need of some new Friends, being so beset with Enemies abroad, and with Pensioners to those Enemies at home: but what shall I say to this Point? When I view the Speech at the opening of that Parliament that sat down Octob. 21. 1680. there is nothing said of any new Ally, except the poor Spaniard, whose Affairs at that time, through the Defects of his own Government, and the villainous falseness of our Ministers, were reduced to such Extremities, that he might sooner have been a Burden to the Nation than a Help; unless you let us judge that this Name of a new League was necessary to recommend our Ministers to a new Parliament, and bubble our honest Country Gentlemen out of their Money: for by it we were like to have trouble enough, being to espouse, without any Limitation, all the Quarrels of the Spaniards, though in the Philippina Islands and the West-Indies, or that he had drawn upon himself by any of his Barbarities there or elsewhere; nay, his difference with the Elector of Brandenburg was not excepted, though all that Elector had done in Reprisals upon the Spanish Ships for a just Debt often demanded in vain, was according to the Law of Nations, and the Rules of Justice: nay, Sir, we might have been engaged in his Quarrel with old Kate's native Country, which we ought to have had special regard of for the Blessing they sent us in 1662. And pray what was the Quarrel? Truly nothing but a treacherous seizing the Island of St. Gabriel, which the Portuguese had peaceably enjoyed several Years; upon which you know Jack the Portuguese invaded some part of the Spanish Country. Also by virtue of this Alliance we were even obliged to assist the Spaniard, in case of any disturbance in his own Dominions. You and your Brother were admirable good at secret Articles, and in one of those it is plainly expressed we were to furnish him 8000 Men for 3 Months; so that if he inclined to make his Subjects as great Slaves to the Crown as they are to the Church, our good King was to assist him in so good a Work.  
Truly, Sir, when I reflect on Philip the Second Barbarity to the People of the Low Countries, whom our Ancestors thought fit to secure, I could not but think this Alliance now under debate was for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion, and the Good of the Nation, because my Lord Hallifax and old Lauderdale told me so; and therefore (as the Stars would have it) it was not fit the League should be laid before the Parliament, lest they should think so too, and find a blind side or two in it; and think it would contribute but little to the Good of the Nation, or securing the Peace of poor Flanders. Well, Sir, your Cake proved Doughty that bout, for there was Death in the Pot, a standing Army aimed at in England, that would not down with us at that time, of which you were to have been General, that would have done more good Business upon Hounslow-Heath than in Flanders, for they were not to help the Spaniard till the French had invaded them three Months, and it's well known he could then have been Master of a considerable part of that Country. But yet no Money came, nor can I help it if I should cry my Eyes out; let me therefore be a little more particular with you, and ask two or three Questions; it may be we may find some Expedient they might have used to allay the matter on your side. Now supposing this League the best that ever could be made, yet,  
(1.) Had not the Parliament just Cause to be very jealous of your Brother's Sincerity in this Alliance, and the more because he would not declare what it was, nor suffer it to be laid before them? Therefore had it been the best in Christendom, nay as good as that between him, and Cleveland, and Mother Knight the Bawd, which he had broken for several years, or that that was then in being between Mrs. Portsmouth and her Woman Nell Waall; yet what could they say to such a League, or what Security could they have that it should be kept more than the Triple League, or that with the Prince of Orange, or that with the State's General, which were all broken almost as soon as made?  
(2.) The Parliaments of England had been ill used by you and your Banditti, and therefore you must allow this not to meet with that Temper you desired; who after they had heard of this Alliance, were not suffered so much as to have it laid before them to consider of, though it had been before your Council at St. James', and Barillon the French Ambassador had perused it, and was privy to the secret Article in it, and had (not like a Man of Truth) given a Copy of it to one that let some have a sight of it. Surely, Sir, you and your Party could not but provoke a Parliament by these Carriages; and how then could you expect Money to support this new Alliance?  
(3.) I pray, Sir, how was it possible any good could come to Christendom in general, or to these Nations in particular, by this new Alliance? It is plain that all Christendom after the separate Peace with the Dutch, could not preserve Spain and the Spanish Netherlands from falling under the Dominion of the French King; how then could your Brother by this new Alliance be in a Condition to support them, without the Dutch, since by the help of you and your Traitors he brought this Nation into a distracted and deplorable Condition? Nay, Sir, one word more; What good could these Kingdoms expect by this Alliance, since thereby all the Hardships imaginable were put upon our Traders both to Spain and the West-Indies? and had that King been as able as willing, he would have let you known it 'ere this time.  
(4.) Was it not unreasonable to ask Money for the support of this League, though we suppose it the best that ever was made? Your Brother was the first King that ever asked Money to support Alliances. I have read of Kings, when by the Advice of Parliament they have made War upon any of their Neighbours, they have called for Money to carry it on with Vigour; but I never find any of our Kings that ever called for Money to support Alliances, especially when they were justly ashamed to declare what they were.  
(5.) Again; Your Crew, I confess, at that time made a horrid noise about the Spanish Alliance, and wondered the Parliament would give no Money to maintain it: Alas, Sir, there was never yet an Alliance made with any State in Christendom, (if a good one) but would earn its own living, and therefore needed no Money to support it; if it were a bad one, I am sure it deserved none.  
(6.) Once more, and I'll conclude this Point: since your Party made such a noise about the Spanish Alliance, pray, Sir, how was it kept? If my Memory fails not, it was not over-well observed: for I think in 1682. your Ally the French King blocked up Luxemburgh; and in the year my Lord Russel was murdered, took Courtray, one of the six Towns delivered up by the French to the Spaniard, and keeps it to this Day, as he doth Luxemburgh which he took by force in 1684. Now I do not find your Brother ever assisted this Confederate of his according to the tenor of the Alliance, or as he was Guarantee in the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, which in his excellent Declaration of War against the Dutch he declared he would maintain. Upon the whole, I see no reason why the Parliament should have given any Money to support this Alliance.  
2. As the Parliament would give no Money for the support of this Alliance, so neither for the support of Tangier: this stuck mightily in your Stomach, and in the Maws of all your Party. Now, Sir, Tangier being most valiantly deserted, it deserves not to be mentioned; but because it so highly offended your Friends, who to this day mention it with reluctancy, I will say a word or two to it. It is some years since that the Commons of England (to the best of my remembrance 'twas in 1680) gave it a due Consideration; nay, they were so candid as to represent to the King how that important Place came to be in so miserable a Condition, after so vast a Treasure consumed to make it useful; and that nothing better could be expected of it, since it consisted most of Papists, and such as were Enemies to the Religion, Laws and Liberties of England. These Inconveniencies might have been redressed by your Brother, had he so pleased; and truly the Parliament advised him to it: nay, Sir, you may put on your Spectacles, and read the Address of Parliament November 1680, wherein they promised to assist him in the Defence of that Place, if they might have a tolerable Security that any Supply for it should not be applied to augment the Strength of our Popish Adversaries, and to increase our Dangers at home from that villainous Faction: and could you with any reason blame them, since they had to their Sorrow seen Money employed contrary to those Ends, for which given by your Band of Pensioners? But above all, the Popish Party's Insolences, and the Impudence of those that espoused the French Interest, threatened the Nation with total Ruin at home; and therefore they judged it not prudence to leave the Consideration of England, to provide for Tangier, it looking like securing one single Cabin, whilst the whole Ship was on fire. Therefore to conclude this Head, let me ask you these plain Questions:  
(1.) Whether it could be judged consistent with the Wisdom of a Parliament, that had seen the dismal Consequences of the Encouragement your Popish Party had received from your Brother and you, to give Money to supply a Garrison, which was used to augment their Strength, and increase the danger of the Nation? and whether you would not have laughed as much at them for such a Compliance, as you did at your Band of Pensioners for giving 1250000 l. for the King's extraordinary Occasions in 1673, or for that vast Sum they gave for a War with France in 1678?  
(2.) Had you not several Regiments in pay, besides the Guards, in England, which might be transported and maintained as cheap there as here? and would it not have been more honourable for them to have been sent to Tangier, to have beaten the Moors, than to stay at home to beat their Landlords and Landladies in their Quarters?  
(3.) Had you not a Company of Popish gentlemen's Sons to be employed in that Service, whose Fathers were undone by the Supply they gave for maintaining Liberty of Conscience, and the Dutch War, in order to destroy the Protestant Religion all over Europe? And could you and your Teagues think, on any rational ground, that ever a Protestant Parliament would give Money to preserve that Place, which was nothing else but a Nursery of Popish Officers and Soldiers? I believe your Popish young Gentlemen might want the Charity of those Employments; but the Parliament had a foresight of the fatal Consequences that would attend the placing their Bounty upon such Vermin, who would have been ready to return home for those ends designed by you and your Council at St. James'.  
3. The Parliament would not part with Money for Payment of the Debt of the Exchequer to the Bankers, which your Crew urged did put your Brother out of a Possibility of supporting the Government: This is the Charge, and a heavy one too. Now what was this Government that was to be supported, but a parcel of nasty Whores, Pimps, Bawds, Informers, Suborners of Perjury, Murderers, and Thiefs? This was your Government in your Brother's days, was it not? Nay, did he not consume more Money upon such Vermin in one year, than would serve the Government of England ten? Did the Credit of the Crown both at home and abroad depend upon Portsmouth's having 52000 l. Sterling a Year, and Nell Waal, for being Bawd in ordinary, getting 30 or 40000 l. in Money, and other Cattle of the same Profession being maintained in all manner of Luxury, for no other merit but having had a hand in the ruin of the Nation? No, Sir, the Credit of the Government did not depend thereupon; the Parliaments did not settle Revenues, nor give Taxes for such Ends: but your Brother and you had advanced the Credit of the Government, if you had sent such Vermin to Bridewell, to have been set to work for their living, as Whores ought to be, and to have the Correction of the House, all Titles of Honour to the contrary notwithstanding. Come, Sir, to be plain with you, the Honours of England are entrusted with the King, but were never designed for such Vermin as Portsmouth, that was but the Daughter of a poor French Fellow, or a Bastard of some Body, I name not who, nor to have whole Families advanced for providing or pimping another Man's Wife to be a Whore Royal, that has had no less (to speak modestly) than 20 Stallions to attend her, besides your dear Brother of blessed Memory.  
Sir, it is certain, notwithstanding the noise your Party made of your Brother's being (through the Parliaments refusing to give Money) put out of a Possibility to pay his Debts, that he never would pay them, which was his Resolution: and therefore what Faith could be given to his Promises, though he knew the Honour of the Nation would suffer highly in his taking up his Brother of France's Custom of not being a Slave to his Word? The truth is, had the People always been to pay his Debts, there might have been Taxes without end: this, Sir, your Band of Pensioners well knew, who therefore, as mercenary as they were, would never pay the Debt due to the Bankers: and the last Westminster Parliament, having so fair and fresh an Instance before their Eyes, and their Ears filled with the daily Cries of the Widows and Orphans, were obliged in duty to give a public Caution to the People not to run again into the same Error, because they judged all Securities of that Nature absolutely void, and that no future Parliament could without breach of Trust repay that Money that was at first borrowed to prevent the sitting of a Parliament. Thus I have gone through all the Particulars of the second Pretence, that is, that the Parliament would not supply your Brother with Money to support the Spanish Alliance, preserve Tangier, and to pay his Debts.  
3ly. You had another Pretence for procuring those three Parliaments to be dissolved, viz. two Votes that passed the Commons Jan. 7. 1680. 1. That whosoever should lend, or cause to be lent by way of Advance, any Money upon the Branches of the King's Revenue arising by way of Customs, Excise and Hearth-money, shall be adjudged the hinderer of the sitting of Parliaments, and be responsible for the same. 2. That whosoever should accept or buy any Tally, or Anticipation upon any part of the King's Revenue, or shall pay such Tally hereafter to be struck, shall be adjudged to hinder the sitting of Parliaments, and be responsible therefore in Parliament.  
Notwithstanding these Votes, you had a Rogue that risen from a Kitchin-boy to possess (as some say) 14000 l. per annum, of which he wronged the Nation, having had the Opportunity to cheat three Governments, and suck their Blood, to whom the City of London owes much of her Misery; he, I say, furnished your Brother with Money in contempt of these Votes: but he has wiped his Mouth, and hugs himself, as if not one of the greatest Villains that ever England bore: I leave him, he was a Friend of yours, and you have reason to remember him. I remember the Votes very well, and certainly they were justifiable to the whole Kingdom: for consider a little, did you take the Revenue to be disposed of at your Brother's pleasure? Was it for his private use, or the public Good? Sir, the Revenue the Parliament had fixed was a public, not a private one: your Brother was trusted with the disposing of part only, and that not without the Advice of some of his great Ministers of State, as a Secretary of State, and the Lord Privy Seal, for smaller Sums; and for all great Payments, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Keeper, or Commissioners of the Great Seal, were to have been added: the other part of the Revenue was assigned to other Uses; the Customs to the maintenance of the Navy. The Maintenance of the Household, the Tables at Court, and Wages of the King's Servants, were in our former Kings Reigns so established by Parliament, that the Cofferer had his Money paid him out of the Exchequer, under great Penalties to be inflicted for the neglect thereof; and the House of Lords judged it a great part of their immediate Care: It maintained the Dignity and Honour of the Government, and contributed much to Love and good Understanding between the King and People; no Country Farmer had Business at Court, but he found those who bade him welcome, and so had all Degrees; therefore the King's Servants had justly the same Return wherever they came: the outward Rooms of the House did not smell of Match, nor was the Language of the Court, Who goes there? there used to be the Smell of better Hospitality: this was plain even in your Father's time.  
Besides, Sir, 'tis well known, that by the evil Counsel and Course your Brother and you took, you made the Bankers of London and elsewhere become the very Bane of the Nation; not only to the Gentleman and Farmer, but I doubt to the Merchant too, they raised and kept up the Interest of Money; they drained the Country, and bought Warrants, so that your Brother paid 25 per Cent. for all his Expenses. You know the Revenue was in many of its Branches appropriated, and provision made that they should not be alienated: and if rascally Fellows that had decoyed into their Custody the ready moneys of Merchants, Gentlemen and others, did by the Strength of their Cash anticipate the Revenues of the Government, who could have provided for the Nation? Can any but a Parliament do it? Now, Sir, it plainly follows, that if your Brother had found out another way to supply his Wants than by Parliament, the great hinge on which the Government turned was lost: therefore what ground you and your Party had to make this a Pretence to put off those Parliaments, especially the last Westminster-Parliament, I cannot tell; and how you could make them Criminals for these two Votes, I leave to the Judgement even of your ragged Ministry at St. Germains.  
4ly. A 4th Pretence you had for dissolving the Parliaments aforesaid, was a Vote concerning Protestant Dissenters, That the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws, is at this time grievous to the Subject, a weakening the Protestant Interest, an Encouragement to Popery, and dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom. This was the Vote of the Commons in the last Westminster-Parliament: Truly, Sir, they could not but pass the Vote as their Opinion, since they judged themselves invited to it by your Brother himself, who had often wished, whilst his Band of Pensioners sat, that he might be able to exercise a Power of Dispensation in reference to Protestants, who through the tenderness of a misguided Conscience did not conform to the Ceremonies, Discipline and Government of the Church; and promised he would make it his special Care to incline the Wisdom of the Parliament to concur with him in making an Act to that purpose. But, Sir, I know your Party usually said, that these Inclinations of the King lasted no longer than he had a Prospect of giving the Papists an equal Benefit of Toleration also: I doubt it was too true, and that they had that honourable Notion of the King from your sweet self; but whether true or no, I will not insist here, but shall only mind you, that your Brother after he parted with you, did on the 6th of March, in his Speech to the first Westminster-Parliament (after the disbanding your small Officers) express his Zeal not only for the Protestant Religion in general, but for a Union amongst all sorts of Protestants: and did he not command the then Tool of a Chancellor at the very same time to tell them, that it was necessary to distinguish between Protestant and other Recusants, between them that would destroy the whole Flock, and those that wander from it? I am much disposed to believe, and that on good ground, that your Brother was not sincere in the thing; yet whatever his Heart was in the Case, the following Parliament might justly encourage that Vote from the aforesaid Declarations.  
You and your wicked Party, especially your Church-Bums, did attack that last Westminster-Parliament, as if that Vote relating to Protestant Dissenters, was to show that the Commons had in themselves a Power of suspending the Penal Laws established by the three States of the Realm, who yet said it was a Power not to be allowed in the King, and caused to be canceled all that he had done in relation to the ease of Dissenters from the Church of England: and if the King had not Power to suspend the execution of the Penal Laws, than had not they. To this I answer:  
1. A few Years before that Parliament sat, your wicked Ministers did remember that the whole Nation was justly alarmed upon the King's assuming to himself by their Advice an arbitrary Power of suspending the Penal Laws; upon this they thought it very popular to charge the House of Commons with an Usurpation on that Attempt. Now, Sir, if they did by a Vote declare the Inconvenience of prosecuting Protestant Dissenters at that time, or at any time hereafter, I cannot see where the Crime was, or of what Usurpation they stood guilty, since they made the Vote for the very same Reason which your Brother had for expressing himself as he did in his foresaid Speech, supposing his Heart had kept pace with his Tongue: they had with great Trouble of Soul perceived that the Design of the Popish Party was not against any one Sort of Protestants, but against all; they were sensible what Advantages your Popish Crew had made of our Divisions, and observed with what Subtlety they had escaped Prosecution by the Laws in force against them, by fomenting our Jealousies: they saw the Strength and Greatness of the French King, and how his Interest had been advanced by your Brother and you, and judged of his Inclinations by his bloody Usage of his own Protestant Subjects: they considered the Number of the Irish Papists, and their bloody Principles and Practices, and what Conspiracies were form in that Kingdom, and were ripe for Execution; and that Scotland was in the Hands of you and your Villains; and that you was the Head of the Popish and Popishly affected Party in the three Kingdoms: they had with Grief observed that all the Places of Trust both Civil and Military were in the Hands of the avowed Enemies of the Laws and Liberties of England; and notwithstanding all the humble Addresses made to the King, and all his Proclamations for a strict Execution of the Penal Laws against Papists, yet your villainous Faction evaded those Laws, and went scotfree, and only the poor Protestant Dissenters smarted under their Severity.  
The Case being thus, certainly that House of Commons had as much Reason to think of an Union amongst Protestants in 1680, as your Brother had (if ever he spoke Truth) in 1679. And can you think they had any just Ground to believe that the Protestant Dissenters, whilst under such Pressures and Provocations, should cheerfully and courageously undertake the Defence of their Country, since by it they had been, and then were so ill treated? Experience taught them it was in vain to force us to be of one Opinion, and therefore the Commons took a very probable way to unite us in Affection.  
2. It is true, they made this Vote, not to arrogate to themselves a suspending Power, but to show they had a repealing Power: They well knew that your busy Rascals would be striking whilst there were Weapons at hand; and therefore (that the Land might be in Peace) they designed to take away all Occasions of Provocation from each other, and resolved to take away those Penal Laws that occasioned them, and accordingly began with a Vote, declaring the Necessity of it; to which (if I am not much mistaken) there was not one Negative in the House: and a Vote of this nature did but precede the bringing in a Bill for the Repeal of that, or those Laws they had voted grievous and inconvenient. With what Face could you or your Party revile a Parliament for so regular a Proceeding, according to the Custom and Usage of Parliaments? How could you call the voting of a Law or Laws grievous and inconvenient, a suspending of Acts of Parliament, and charge them with Contempt of the Law established?  
3. We will suppose the Commons did not intent to bring in a Bill to repeal the Laws then in force against Dissenters; for the Vote was not made to assume a Power of suspending Acts of Parliament; neither did they require the Judges to forbear the Execution of them, who were bound to see them performed; but they only delivered their Opinion as a Matter of great Concern in that Juncture: and notwithstanding the Noise your  made, it was wise and pious Counsel; and though it could neither command nor secure the Judges or Justices from doing their Duties, if required, yet we might have justly expected those that had the Management of Affairs to have harkened in so plain a Case to the Voice of the Nation, or given them or other Parliaments a Measure how to confide in them: and the Judges and Justices, had they not received Direction from your Brother and you, were in Discretion and Conscience as much obliged to omit the Execution of those Laws, as that of Bows and Arrows, and several other Statutes, then, if not still in force, but out of Use.  
If our Ceremony-mongers had but given themselves leave to think, and their Romish Zeal would have let them remembered they were obliged to put on Bowels of Compassion, they would have found their Proceed against their Protestant Brethren could not be justified either by Scripture, or the Practice of the Primitive Church, where nothing was so common as different Rites and Ceremonies, nay Doctrines amongst them, and yet the Band of Charity and Love maintained; and Christians never learned to persecute, till Wealth and Secular Power did attend Religion, and the Prince and Church made use of each other to enslave the World.  
4. Had not the Parliament reason to make that Vote (charge them with what Usurpation you please) since it was your constant Practice to inflame the Differences you had made, thereby to betray us into the Religion of Rome, and the Government of the French King? therefore the united Strength of all Protestants was little enough to withstand you. I pray let me ask you one Question, why might not a Parliament attempt to make Abatements in the Terms of Conformity, or dispense with the Ceremonies of the Church, when those Ceremonies, the Form of Worship, and the very Hierarchy itself could plead no other Authority by which they are enjoined than some Acts of Parliament? Nay Sir, the Commons saw there was a Necessity of passing this Vote, for your Popish Crew had poxed a Number of Men that pretended to be so zealous for the Protestant Religion, that nothing could serve the turn for its Preservation but a Popish Head; and though the sorry Rogues were a Disgrace to any Religion, yet they were so dangerously infected, that they thought the Dissenters were equally, if not more dangerous than the Papists to the Government, though they well knew the Dissenters had never sworn to any foreign Jurisdiction or Power. The Parliament therefore seeing such a Division made in order to weaken our Hands, and make us a Prey to your Teeth, made this Vote in order to strengthen the Protestant Interest, by which they manifested a Resolution of repealing those Laws that were used as Scorpions by our Clergymen and scoundrel Justices to destroy their quiet and peaceable Neighbours.  
5. A fifth Pretence starts up in your Vindication, and pricks up its Ears; one would have thought some Country Vicar in his Study over the Oven had contrived and sent it up to you sweetly dressed; and it struts so daintily, that I must not let it go without its due Consideration: What is it then? truly the House of Commons issued out Arbitrary Orders for taking Persons into Custody for Matters that related not to Privileges of Parliament: Truly this is a pretty sort of Pretence, surely the Parson's Wife or Daughter had a Hand in finding this Business out; but it shall have its due Weight, and therefore I shall say these three things.  
1. We will suppose they did issue forth Orders for taking Men into Custody for Matters that had no relation to Privileges of Parliament; yet that House of Commons might have had this to say for themselves, that they had erred with their Fathers; the Power of that House concerning taking Men into Custody had not then, nor to this Day has received an exact Adjustment, and therefore wants not Precedents of the like Nature; and if they were Arbitrary Orders, they were such as had been executed by Parliaments many a fair Year before your Sires of the ancient Kingdom of Scotland were born: and since Orders of the same nature had been made by Parliaments in the times of our ancient Kings, these Orders might have been passed by, and not branded with the reproachful Name of being Arbitrary.  
2. Tho we have supposed that the Commons might issue out those Orders, yet they took none into Custody by such Orders but what might well be supposed guilty of Breaches of Privilege in the highest Degree: the Truth is, when Parliaments met annually, or at least frequently, we find few or no Complaints; but when they were not frequent, but there were long Intervals of Parliament (the Consequence of which was long sitting, which began within these two hundred Years) there were some Complaints of the Breaches of Privilege, as in the time of Hen. 8. the 4th of Edw. 6. and in the time of Q. Eliz. when the Justice of the Commons hath been applauded by our former Kings for asserting their Privileges, and not stigmatised for exerting an Arbitrary Power. 'Tis true, the most notorious thing that could be fixed upon that House, was the Fees extorted by the Sergeant of the House, who though he attends the House of Commons, yet he ought to have considered that he was the King's Officer, and by Law no Officer of the King's shall take any Fee or Reward for doing his Office but what he receives from the King, upon Penalty of returning double to the Plaintiff, and being further punished at the Will of the King; but of this you and your Party took no notice, because the than Sergeant was a Creature of your own, though I think he smarted for it, and your Brother laughed at his Calamity in the Case of an Under-Sheriff of Norfolk. Therefore I say, that to assert that their Orders that were made for the taking Men into Custody were for Matters that had no relation to Privileges of Parliament, was an impudent Lie; for there were a Number of Men, who to distinguish themselves from the rest of their Country, had basely given their Hands for Abhorrences of Parliaments, and of those who most humbly petitioned for their sitting in a time of such extreme Necessity: their Names I will give, that you may put a Mark of Favour upon those of them that are alive, whenever they shall have occasion to meet you at St. Germains. You may remember that House did fall upon such as had countenanced the Popish Plot, and were Abhorrers of petitioning for the sitting of Parliaments, and voted that it was and ever had been the undoubted Right of the Subjects to petition the King for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments, and Redress of Grievances; and that to traduce such Petitioning as a Violation of Duty, and to represent it to his Majesty as tumultuous and seditious, is to betray the Liberty of the Subject, and contributes to the subverting the ancient and legal Constitution of this Kingdom, and introducing Arbitrary Power. The first that fell under these Votes was Withens, that was knighted for his Abhorring, and after made a Judge; he was expelled the House, and voted a Betrayer of the undoubted Rights of the Subjects of England, and received his Sentence at the Bar of the House; he is yet alive: I suppose he and his Brother Jenner may set up at St. Germains for Expounders of our Law in good time. The next was Sir George Jefferies, than Recorder of London, against whom they voted an Address to the King to remove him out of all public Offices, and that the Members which served for the City should communicate the Vote to the Court of Aldermen. There were several others that upon the same Account were taken into Custody, as Sir Giles Phillips, Mr. Coleman, Capt. William Castle, Mr. John Hutchinson, Mr. Henry Walrond, Mr. William Stawel, Mr. Thomas Herbert, Mr. Sheridon, and Parson Thompson of Bristol. And because Sir Francis North the Chief Justice of the Common-pleas, advised and assisted in drawing up a Proclamation against petitioning for the sitting of the Parliament, the Commons voted it a sufficient Ground to proceed against him for high Crimes and Misdemeanours: the like Vote passed against Sir Thomas Jones one of the Judges of the King's Bench; and upon Sir Richard Weston one of the Barons of the Exchequer: but they went higher with Scroggs, for they impeached him of High Treason for discharging the Grand Jury of Middlesex before they had finished their Presentments, and for the Order made in the King's-Bench against Care's Packet of Advice from Rome, That it should be no more printed or published by any Person.  
Well, Sir, what say you now to these Vermin? Those now alive are still the same Rogues, and your very humble Servants and Admirers; and I could wish you had them with you at St. Germains, being pretty Company, and worthy of your Favour: indeed to give them their Due, they have been pretty false in their Oaths to King William, whom some of your Party stile Prince of Orange. These were the Men that House of Commons did censure: I pray, Sir, on with your Spectacles, and see whether the Crimes they were guilty of had no Relation to Privileges of Parliaments; surely your Friends, when they charged the House of Commons with this Crime, were not in good earnest; if they were, they shall have a Rowland for their Oliver; I'll be in good earnest too, and let them know, that if the Privileges of Parliament be concerned when an Injury is done to a particular Member, how much more when they strike at Parliaments themselves, and endeavour to wound the very Constitution? Nay in the Case of Sheridon, who afterwards troubled the Nation with a Litter of scandalous Pamphlets upon that Account, 'tis plain that his Commitment was only in order to examine him about the Popish Plot, and his Endeavours to stifle it. Do not you know that Sheridon? Say you never did; yet let me tell you it was you instructed him how he should behave himself to the House; whose Behaviour indeed was with as much Contempt and Insolency, as if you or your Father had been demanding some of the Members; and therefore they had reason surely to commit him. Thompson you know him too very well, he was zealous in divers Breaches of Privilege to serve you and the Popish Party, witness his Usage of poor Bedlow and the rest of the Discoverers of the Popish Plot; yet his Commitment was only in order to an Impeachment; and as soon as they had gone through with his Examination, he was set at Liberty, giving Security to answer the Impeachment they had voted against him. But,  
3. What if the Matters upon which the House of Commons did commit Men were not relating to the Privilege of Parliament, and had been without Precedent, yet you and your Crew carrying on a Design to root out the Protestant Religion, in which you had engaged your Brother, which was a Plot without Precedent, why might not the House of Commons proceed against the Abettors of it without Precedent? Other Parliaments, before you were born, had made Precedents for particular Offenders, and why might not that Parliament without ask your Leave? If it be in the Power of one Parliament to make Precedents, why not in another? I am sure there was as much Occasion for new Precedents in that House of Commons as ever in any. Your mealy-mouthed  used to wipe their Mouths, and say, they were as great Lovers of Parliaments as any Men, but thought it strange that the Commons should be so zealous against Arbitrary Power in the King, and take such a Latitude to themselves. These Hogsheads have their Butts, a Parcel of Coxcombs that would not consider under what Circumstances the then House of Commons lay: there was a Plot laid before them for the bringing in of Popery and Arbitrary Power, and to kill the King; and that it was a Plot, and a villainous one, none yet could with any Sense or Reason deny, but such Rogues as were either in it, or Wellwishers to it. When the Commons came to consider of this devilish Conspiracy, they found Criminals that had been by a side-Wind Abettors of it, and others that had been Sinners above the common rate; therefore they were forced to take a Latitude in their Deal with them, that the Nation might not be undone by them: and where there were Criminals of this Standard, certainly a House of Commons, if they could not find Precedents how to manage such unruly Monsters, might make some, in order to tame them. Sir, I could give Instances of such Precedents made by former Parliaments; and if that House of Commons made new Precedents, they did but follow the Steps of their Predecessors, who made Precedents as the Necessity of Affairs required; and if the House of Commons had not taken such Courses, they had betrayed their Trust, if by those Precedents (whether new or old) they had not asserted the Rights of those that sent them thither. Now what becomes of this your Pretence of illegal and arbitrary Orders in Matters not relating to Privileges of Parliament, for which you procured their Dissolution?  
6ly. A sixth Pretence for dissolving that Parliament, was for their Addresses to the King, which I am sure were with all the Duty and Humility that could be; nevertheless to allenate the King from them, you and your Party called them Remonstrances rather than dutiful Answers to those Messages sent them by the King. Surely, Sir, it was a strange Age in which that Parliament sat; and they could not but judge themselves under very unhappy Circumstances, when notwithstanding their extreme Caution and Prudence, yet all was under an ill Construction at Court. Now if the Commons had returned Answers to his Majesty's Messages, without showing on what Grounds they proceeded, they had been (and that justly too) accused as Men proceeding peremptorily and without Reason; but when they expressed with all becoming Modesty the Reasons of their Resolutions, they were accused of Remonstrating. But what if we should give your Ministers at St. James', and your Brother's at White-Hall this Word, and so I will for once, if those of them that are alive will but tell me what they understood by that Word, and with what Crime they would charge that House of Commons; for my part I am at a Loss in the Point: perhaps Portsmouth and Barillon that understood French might have given you the Meaning of the Word Remonstrance, and it may be told you there was some pernicious thing in it, as the Carnegey, or some Pox like it, and therefore it might prejudice your Brother, as it had done you, you know when; take it so, and much good may it do you: but if by Remonstrance you mean a declaring the Causes and Reasons of what they were doing, where was the Fault that was so unworthily imputed to them, since it was a way they learned from your own Brother in his Messages to his former Parliaments? This is another Pretence much of the same Value with the rest, and so let them go together.  
7ly. A seventh Pretence you had for dissolving that Parliament, was the falling foul upon several of your Friends, and giving them their due Character; the Ministers at White-Hall would never forgive the last Westminster Parliament for the Vote passed upon some Men then much in fashion at yours and your Brother's Courts, which galled you to the Heart and Soul: truly I would not have you think this a Character the House of Commons only had fixed upon them; no, every honest Man had done it long before, the whole Current of their Lives, Practices and Counsels, being a full Proof of that Charge: Therefore why did your Paltroons call these Votes illegal? Was it illegal for that Parliament to impeach Persons that were Enemies to the King and Kingdom, or to determine by a Vote who were wicked Counselors, and did deserve to be impeached, so to find out the Sense of the House?  
But since you are my old Friend, my neverfailing Friend, and upon that Consideration I have an old Kindness for you and your Party, I will with you suppose the Votes that passed against those Beasts of Prey, were not in order to an Impeachment; yet still there was nothing of Illegality in them, nor nothing extraordinary: for the Commons in Parliament have always had two Ways of delivering the Country from such Vermin, either to bring them to a public Trial, that they may have public Justice done upon them, or give the Rogues an ill Name in an Address to the King, that the Court and Council may not be plagued with such Rubbish; and hereby the Country will know them again, and treat them accordingly. You were very tender of the Lives and Liberties of these Favourites, and so was your Brother; but I conceive their Lives and Liberties were never in danger till they had forfeited them, and the Forfeiture could not appear till they had received a fair Trial: Now, Sir, it's plain they durst not stand one, unless it were a Trial of Skill whether the Parliament should sit and see Justice done, or be dissolved and the Nation undone: this was the Trial they were in danger of, and no other; for that was concluded on by the King and Barillon in the Lodgings at the lower end of the matted Gallery. But suppose their Lives and Liberties had been in danger by an Impeachment, there was just Cause for the Parliament's proceeding that way with those Traitors; and if they had been but endowed with Courage to have stood Trial, there would have been legal Evidence to have proved the Matter of Fact upon them, that they were Enemies to the King and Kingdom; but if there was not Evidence, truly than they had been acquitted with more Honour to themselves and Families than they acquired by sending home that Parliament. Again, Sir, do but consider a little, and set your own Mother-Wit at work, and you will find that a Parliament may act as the great Council of the King, and the Wisdom of the Nation (I use your Brother's own Phrase) and when they saw Affairs ill administered, and their Advice rejected, the Course of Justice perverted, the King's Counsels betrayed, Grievances multiplied, and the Government itself managed in a most weak and disorderly Manner, who should they have charged? the King? No, you will say he could do no Wrong: Who then should they accuse, but those that had the Administration of Affairs, that had the King's Ear, as the villainous Authors of those Evils that hung over our Heads? And ought they not to have applied themselves to the King by humble Addresses to remove such Persons from his Presence and Councils for ever? You may say they had no Testimony against them; you know to the contrary: but suppose they had not legal Proof, yet you know to your woeful Experience there were many things plain and evident even beyond the Testimony of Witnesses; so that it was impossible as well as unnecessary to have had legal Proof. What if it was your Brother's Pleasure to hear those Villains? was it therefore unlawful for the Commons to conclude that all the Evils the Nation groaned under came from their wicked Advice and Counsel? and then might they not represent those things to the Nation, that it might appear they had not been negligent in making Inquisition after those Men, who had been for several Years carrying on their wicked Designs with you and your Popish Party? They imagined to secure themselves by whispering in the King's Ear: What then? must not a Parliament inquire into the Names of these Whisperers? and though they had not legal Proof to make these Men public Examples, yet they had so much Certainty of the Matter of Fact, as was Ground enough to stigmatize them as Promoters of the French Interest, and Enemies to the King and Kingdom.  
Come, Sir, to be plain with you, the People of England were highly interested in all those great Officers of State; and as they were your Brother's Servants, so they were Servants to the whole Kingdom: therefore who should have detected the Treachery and Villainy of those Servants but their Representatives in Parliament, whose Business it was to represent all the Nation's Grievances to the King? Certainly such a Representation ought to have been esteemed by him worthy of Consideration, and not to have treated them as having made illegal Votes: but this you and your Brother made a Pretence for dissolving that Parliament, and preferred your secret Counsels before the public Council of the Kingdom. In a word therefore, to conclude this Head, let me tell you in all Faithfulness, that those Votes your Party was pleased to term strange and illegal, were not so strange as honest, and not illegal, but very righteous: The House of Commons had before addressed the King for their removal from his Person and Councils, but he was graciously pleased to take no notice of their Addresses, though made with all Humility and Duty; nay, Sir, he was so far from that, that it was observed even by that House of Commons, and many other sober Men, that an Address from the Commons against any evil Man at Court, was a forerunner of his being preferred to a Place of greater Profit or Honour, if not both; it proved so thrice to that old Traitor Lauderdale: and on the other hand, if those three Parliaments had addressed on behalf of any Man, he was sure to receive no Favour, and came off very well if he was not marked out for some Vengeance. Now I think it no Crime to tell you, that your Brother ought not to have entertained any of those Vermin after they had a Blast of angry Breath from that or any other House of Commons: for certainly if a House of Commons declared any number of Men, Persons that put the King upon Arbitrary Counsels, or Betrayers of the Interest of the Nation, there needed no Process of Law and Legal Proof against them before they are dismissed, though it was but reasonable if they had proceeded against them, in order to fine, imprison, or put them to death: but to remove them from the King, certainly the Advice and Opinion of the Nation by their Representatives was enough; if not, you would have allowed them time to act their Villainy to the Hazard of the Government itself: and till this was done, with what face could your Brother expect Supplies from the Parliament? Your  at St. Germains can tell you, there are some things so reasonable, that they are above any written Law, and will at all times have their Effect in despite of all Power on Earth, whereof this was one: so that from the whole Matter, this Pretence of yours falls to the Ground with the others before named.  
8ly. Your eighth Pretence was the Parliament's Behaviour in the Case of Fitz-Harris; and this was rendered a very heinous Crime, and just Cause hereby was given to your Brother and you to send that Parliament packing, which accordingly after 8 days sitting was dissolved for no other reason, but because the House of Commons impeached him of High Treason. Truly, Sir, I'll appeal to Jack Caryl, or any of your ragged and outlawed Crew at St. Germains, whether that House of Commons had not reason to judge the Treasons of that wretched Man of such a nature as to deserve Examination in full Parliament; and the reason was as plain as the Sun at noonday, if you but remember that this Fitz-Harris was one of your own dear Religion, and an Irish Teague, and appeared to the House of Commons, as made use of by you know who, to set up a Counterfeit Protestant Conspiracy, in order to stifle the Popish Plot, and to destroy those worthy Patriots who had kept their Consciences chaste, and had not bowed the Knee to Rome and France, and betrayed the Interest of their Country for Preferments at Court. There had been many such polite Designs on foot before (a Particular of which you shall have in its proper place) but they proved abortive; but your principal Conspirators avoided the Discovery, as others had the Punishment, in what manner, and by whose assistance, the Nation was then very sensible: but your Villains being warned by their ill Success in former sham's, grew more cautious; and therefore, that this damnable Treason might not look like a Popish Design, your Tools by your Appointment composed a Libel full of the most bitter Invectives against Popery and your sweet self; this Libel carried as much Zeal for the Protestant Religion as ever your Declaration, penned by your quondam Servant St. Coleman, did; and had as much concern for our Laws and Liberties, as Portsmouth, Nell Waal, or Barillon could have for their Lives. Notwithstanding all this, you may remember how it inveighed against the King with all the bitterness imaginable, and incited all Men to rebel against him, in order to destroy his Person and yours. This Paper, as villainous as it was against the King, was by him, Portsmouth, and her Bawd Nell, and Barillon, ordered to be conveyed into the Pockets and Lodgings of several Noblemen, Gentlemen, and others, that (when they were seized, and this found upon them) they should be charged with Treason and Rebellion, and the finding of this upon them should be a Proof of the same. The Tool that was to carry on this Roguery was Fitz-Harris, who was to be one of the Witnesses to swear this Conspiracy designed by the Protestants: and your Conspirators had prepared the Business to be laid in Oxford-shire, Buckingham-shire, and Bark-shire, that this Villainy might not miscarry, but be believed by the Juries that should be packed in those Counties, in order to a speedy Justice upon the pretended Criminals. But, Sir, as well laid as this Design was, it proved to be a Brat of Popish Extraction, and the Midwives were that Whore Portsmouth and trusty Nell her Bawd, with whom you would have engaged in Person, had not the Catholic Cause called for your Presence in Scotland: but I suppose, let who will believe it that you know nothing of the Business, I shall prove you in it in its proper place.  
Well then, the nature of the Crime, and the King your Brother, Barillon, and the two Strumpets aforenamed being engaged in this piece of Villainy, and several great Persons being to be destroyed, surely deserved an Inquiry, which an Oxford-Jury neither could or would ever make; for they, it may be, in the Multitude of their Mercies, would have dealt with other Protestants as they did by poor College, whom they basely murdered, to please your Brother and you. That House of Commons, as if endowed with a Prophetic Spirit, unanimously agreed that none but the Parliament was capable of looking into the bottom of this Affair, both in its Original and Tendency; and the more zealous they were for that, the more they saw the Zeal of the Judges, and the inferior Courts in Westminster-Hall, abated in relation to the Popish Plot, and its Discovery, but heightened for you and your Party against the Protestants; and that those Bloodhounds thirsted after their Blood, that asserted the Laws and Liberties of England. Truly, to speak the best I can of those Judges, they were much changed for the worse, as appeared in the Trials of Wakeman, Gascoigne, and others that were in the Popish Conspiracy; and in good truth, Sir, the Oxford House of Commons were the more jealous: and could you blame them? for when this Fitz-Harris was sensible of his Crime, or at least of his Danger, and had begun to tell Tales, he was removed out of the Legal Custody of the Sheriffs, and illegally committed close Prisoner to the Tower, to the great astonishment of all sober Men. That Parliament therefore had no other way to have the Prosecution effectual, and the Judgement according to the Laws of the Land, and that Fitz-Harris should not lie under any hopes, but by impeaching him; for they well knew that no Pardon could stop their Sail, though it might the King's. Now, Sir, consider how this Pretence of yours could justify the Dissolution of that Parliament.  
9thly. The last Pretence I shall mention which you had for dissolving the three last Parliaments, was their bringing in a Bill to exclude you, and to render you incapable of inheriting the Imperial Crown of this Realm. This was the best Pretence you and your Party could make for doing so wicked a thing, so pernicious to the Peace of the Kingdom: but if I destroy this Goliath, I trust you will quit it, and let it take its fate with the others. There were many of your Party that used several Arguments against that Bill, which I shall take notice of.  
1. The Conspirators did impudently assert, that the Bill of Exclusion was unlawful, and therefore in itself null and void, especially since the King had declared against it. Some of them were pretended Protestants, and had been for some time educated in the University under a Parcel of High-church-Loggerheads; they, even they were tainted with this Notion, that was fit for none but such as believed Transubstantiation. Now, Sir, if it were against Law, it must be against a written or an unwritten Law: if it were against a written Law, your Party should have named it; which when they had done, they should have named that Parliament that ever was bound up by any written Law, if we take them in their Legislative Capacity, as we must do in this Case: and to declare that a Parliament is bound up by written Laws in their Legislative Capacity, is both destructive and absurd.  
(1.) It was destructive; the Parliament being the fundamental Court and Law of the Kingdom, and ordained to make Laws, and see them executed, or to supply their Deficiency according to the present Exigency, for Preservation of the Peace and Safety of the People, which is universally in them, but not so in particular Laws and Statutes, which cannot provide against future Exigencies as the Law of Parliaments doth, and therefore were not Limits to those Parliaments: and it would have been farther destructive, by depriving those Parliaments of half their Power at once, whenever they should be circumscribed by written Laws in their Legislative Capacity, which is a peculiar Property belonging only to inferior Courts of Law and Justice, but not to the Parliament of England, which is the Supreme Court, but must have ceased to be so, and have divested itself of that inherent and uncircumscribed Power, which the Safety of the People comprehends and requires.  
(2.) It was absurd in the Conspirators to urge that the Bill of Exclusion was against Law, and therefore null and void of itself: for the Legislative Power of Parliament is to give Laws to England, and not to receive any, saving from the Nature and End of their own Constitution; which as they give Parliaments a Being, so the Parliaments make Laws for Preservation of themselves, and the whole Kingdom they represent.  
As for your unwritten Law, it is to me like your unwritten Verities in the Church of Rome, and the paltry Ceremonies of a Church, that cannot be proved lawful either from the Command of Christ, or the Practice of his Apostles: if therefore by unwritten Law, you mean Custom of Inheritance, that's against your Party by the Practices that have been both at home and abroad; or if you mean the Equity of the thing, than the Parliament in their Legislative Capacity were Judges of that; or if you mean Prudence, the Parliament being the Wisdom of the Nation, are certainly Judges of that also.  
From all which it undoubtedly follows, that the Proposal of a Bill to exclude you from inheriting the Crown of this Realm was in itself lawful, because of the uncircumscribed Power of Parliaments in judging what is lawful, and what is necessary for the Safety of the People, by whom they are sent to Parliament for redress of Grievances; which not written Law could provide against in an universal way. So than it being lawful in itself to propose a Bill to exclude you from the Crown, the doing it after your Brother had signified his Pleasure against the Bill, could not make it against Law: for I remember no Law written or unwritten, that ever constituted him Lord of the Articles upon the Parliament, which they were to debate and propose, or not: But what was his Will and Pleasure, or the Pleasure of two or three Villains and Whores that joined with him in usurping such a Power, altogether strange to our English Constitution of Parliament? And I must tell you, your Brother's intolerable Stiffness in that Particular I cannot think was out of Kindness to you, or from any suspicion he had of the Danger of the English Monarchy by such a Law, but from the Influence of some ill Men engaged in the Conspiracy with you to destroy that Constitution; who knowing your Brother's Inclination in that Particular as well as yours, made it their Business to nourish in your Absence a Misunderstanding between him and the People, whom you and he mortally hated, justly fearing if he should ever have come to the due Temper of an English Monarch, and to have a Sense of the People's Affection to him as the Father of the Kingdom, he would have delivered up you and your Rogues, who had infected him with that deadly Notion, that the Interest of an English Parliament was not only distinct from, but opposite to his Interest and Designs.  
2. Your Conspirators used to urge another Argument against the Bill of Exclusion (no doubt your own first, or they would never have presumed to use it so long till it was become threadbare) viz. that the King could not comply with the House of Commons in it, though the Interest as well as the Desire of the People of England, because it so nearly concerned him in point of Honour, Justice and Conscience. Your Brother and you were both Men of Honour, Conscience and Justice, of which you both made this Nation sensible. Well, since it was so, let me argue upon the Topics of Honour, Justice, and Conscience with you: Had it not been honourable in your Brother to be true and faithful to his Word and Oath, to keep and maintain the Religion and Laws established? Nay, Sir, could any Man have thought it dishonourable in him to have loved the Safety and Welfare of his People, and the true Religion established amongst them, above the temporal Greatness of his Relations? Was it not just, in conjunction with his Parliament for his People's Safety, to make use of a Power warranted by our English Laws, and the Examples of former Ages? Or where was his Justice, that was the Father of his Country, to expose his Children to ruin, out of Fondness to a perverse Brother; and to abandon the Religion, Laws and Liberties of these Kingdoms, which he was sworn to maintain, and expose them to the Rage of you and your traitorous Jesuits, who thought yourselves in Conscience bound to subvert them? Your Brother by his own, might have remembered your Religion; and what your Brother's Conscience was in relation to your Succession, a cunning Man could scarce find out: but if he had been a Protestant, I might have asked, what Conscience obliged him to ascend the Throne to overthrow the Protestant, and set up the Popish Religion? ●ir, since your Brother insisted so much upon Honour, Justice and Conscience, I'll say of him, as I ought, that he was a Papist; yet I am sure he was bound in Honour, Justice and Conscience, to have preserved to the People of England their Religion, Laws and Liberties, and in conjunction with this Parliament to have secured them from being subverted by you and your Followers, since with●● much Duty and Affection they recalled him from a miserable Banishment, attended with Poverty and Dishonour, and cheerfully placed him upon the Throne, and enlarged his Revenue above what any of his Predecessors had enjoyed, and gave him vaster Sums in 20 Years than had been given to all the Kings since William the Norman. Where then was his Honour, Conscience and Justice, in leaving them to be destroyed by you? It cannot be said he had therein more regard to the Government than to the Person that succeeded him, seeing if he had passed the Bill of Exclusion, he had no ways prejudiced the legal Monarchy, which he did enjoy with all those Rights, Prerogatives and Powers which his Ancestors did ever claim, besides what he usurped against Law, which yet the People quietly submitted to.  
3. A third Argument your Party used, was, That it was a hard Case that a Man should lose his Inheritance because of this or that Persuasion in Matters of Religion. Truly, Sir, had your Case been only so, I should have thought your Argument pretty strong: but alas, Popery was not in you and your Conspirators, an innocent Persuasion of Men differing from others in religious Matters, but a real Conspiracy against Christianity itself; nor was this Inheritance your  used to mention, a bare Inheritance of a private Person, without the Consideration of an O●●●ce annexed to it, which required you to be Par Officio. I pray what did your Loggerheads mean, when they made such a Noise about an Inheritance? nothing less than a Government of three Kingdoms, the Protection of several Nations, the making of War and Peace for them, the Preservation of their Religion, the disposal of all public Places and Revenues, the Execution of all Laws, with many other things of the greatest Importance. Truly, Sir, these inconsiderate Persons were mightily out in their Claim: for the three Parliaments had reason to look about them, when they had reflected upon the Bloody Tenets of the Church of Rome, and more particularly upon the hellish Conspiracy then discovered, and at that Time carrying on with Vigour by your Popish and Popishly affected Traitors: and finding you to be the avowed Head of this devilish Party, could you with any Justice think they should not prevent as much as in them lay your being a Shepherd, since you had declared yourself a Wolf? And since you were a Papist, how could they believe you would ever appear in the Defence of the Protestant Religion? I think this may suffice for this Argument.  
4. A fourth Argument against the Bill of Exclusion was the Oath of Allegiance taken to your Brother by the Parliament of England. Truly I never heard the Argument from any but an Irish Man, not but we had then Fools enough to invent such an Argument, as we have at this Day to attempt your Restoration. But their Arguments were as silly as their Plots; and this is one of the most foolish Arguments could be used against such great and wise Assemblies as those Parliaments were composed of. Give me leave, Sir, to put this Question to you: Suppose you had been found guilty of Treason by your Peers in Parliament, or in any Court of Peers, and the Case so plain, that you had been condemned and executed for that Treason; whether or no that Parliament or Court of Peers that had condemned you, had been guilty of a Breach of their Allegiance, and Murder? This you cannot say: then I must tell you, that since whilst you were Duke of York, you had made yourself obnoxious to the Government in a lower degree, why might not the same Authority proportion the Punishment, and leave you your Life, and debar you of the Succession? This is to show the Absurdity your Crew were guilty of in this Argument.  
Now I will speak one Word by way of Answer: Whereas your Conspirators did say the Bill of Exclusion was diametrically opposite to the Oath of Allegiance taken to your Brother and his Heirs; no Man could bear Allegiance to two Persons at once, nor could Allegiance be due to a Subject: the Word Heirs obliges no Man till the Heir is in Possession of the Crown, than the Obligation is fixed by virtue of the Oath made to his Predecessor. Now, Sir, do but consider what Mischief your Party did to the Succession itself for the next Heir by their way of prating: for by it they let lose yourself from all the Restrictions and Penalties of human Laws; so that you had no other Ties upon you not to snatch the Crown from off your Brother's Head, than purely those of your own Conscience; and what they were, the Nation quickly saw.  
5. A fifth Argument you and your Conspirators used against the Bill of Exclusion, was, That it argued a Distrust of the Providence of God. Now, Sir, was our Care to preserve the Protestant Religion a Mistrust of God's Providence? and must those that were thus zealous, be judged Men of little Faith? God forbidden. 'Tis true, I cannot allow the least Evil to be done, that Good may come of it; but the Bill against you was justifiable by the Laws of God, and the Constitution of the Government: for, Sir, look back and consider how the Protestant Religion was first established here in England; it was indeed by the mighty Hand of God influencing the public Counsels of the Nation, so that all imaginable Care was taken both by Prince and People to rescue themselves from the Romish Yoke, and accordingly most excellent Laws were made against the Usurpation and Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome; our noble Ancestors in those Days did not manifest a want of Zeal for their Religion, with a lazy Pretence of trusting God's Providence, but together with their Prayers to, and Affiance in the great Jehovah, joined the Acts of their own Duty, without which they well knew they had no reason to expect a Blessing. And a young Whipper-snapper, a Friend of yours, in a certain Coffee-house had prated at this rate till he was plentifully kicked for his Pains, which was the best Way of answering such a Coxcomb, that was not to be answered any other way.  
6. Another Argument against the Bill of Exclusion was this: A standing Force would have been absolutely necessary to place and keep the Administration of the Government in Protestant Hands; and the Monarchy itself would have been destroyed by a Law, which was to have taken all sort of Power from the King, and made him not so much as a Duke of Venice. This I have heard your Brother talk, but it was when he was drunk; and this was the Talk of your Party, drunk or sober: truly they had little in their Discourses but Absurdity and Incoherence. Sometimes they would say, the Government, and Succession to the Crown was of such Divine Right, that nothing could lessen your Right: nay, some of them were so fulsome and nauseous as to talk of Acts of Parliament to banish you out of your own Dominions, and to deprive you of your whole Power of Kingship, after your being actually King: but truly this nasty Cheat appeared so plain to the Parliament, that one of your professed Vassals, who had more Honour than the rest of your nonsensical Parasites, was ashamed of it, and openly renounced that self-contradicting Project, which they had been so long contriving, and thought they had so artificially disguised; but though it was so well-favouredly exposed in the House, yet your Coxcombs thought the Nation might be deceived, and therefore blushed not to offer it in their common Discourses in all Places and Companies: but who they converted to the Cause, I never was curious to inquire.  
But, Sir, was a standing Force so necessary in case of your being excluded? suppose it was: nay, I will go farther; suppose a War had been necessary, yet would it not have been a War justified by the Authority of Law, and against a banished excluded Pretender? There would have been no fear of its Consequence; no true English Men could have joined with you, or countenanced your Usurpation after such an Act; and as for your Popish and French Adherents, they would neither have been more angry nor more strong by the passing that Bill.  
Truly, Sir, I must be plain, and tell you, that your being excluded when Duke of York, would by no Means have necessitated a standing Army for the Preservation of the Government and Peace of the Kingdom; the whole People of England would have been an Army for that Purpose, and every Heart and Hand would have been prepared to maintain that so necessary and much desired Law, for which those three Parliaments were so earnest with your Brother, not only in pursuance of their own Judgements, but by the Directions of those that sent them, to remove so great a Grievance from the Nation, as you then was, and continued to be till you were graciously pleased to let us know that one pair of Heels was worth two pair of Hands. Your notorious great Grandmother was excluded by Act of Parliament, yet Queen Elizabeth enjoyed the Crown with much Comfort and Peace for 44 Years, and needed no standing Force to secure her from that pretty conditioned Gentlewoman's pretended Right.  
Again, a Word more to this standing Army: I wonder that you and your Party should be so afraid of what you so eagerly desired; nay, some of them almost ventured a hanging to get one established: If I am not much mistaken, I have seen two Armies raised for no other Design than to bring in Popery and Slavery, as was proved to the Shame of him that raised them; and the first was as shamefully disbanded, as it was impudently and against Law raised: but the last Army you procured to be raised, you and your Party were so unwilling to part with, that two Acts were passed before we could get them disbanded. And after your Brother had thrown off the use of Parliaments at your Instance, he so increased the Number of his Guards, that they became formidable to the People of England; who being a free People, hated such a standing Force. Now why your dissembling Rascals should use this as an Argument, I am yet to learn.  
And as for that Objection, that it would have destroyed the Monarchy by a Law, and taken all sort of Power from the King, and made him less than a Duke of Venice; this was as false as could be: for, as I have said before, so I must again, that it is evident beyond Contradiction, that the Bill of Exclusion could not prejudice the legal Monarchy, which your Brother did enjoy, with all the Rights and Powers that his Ancestors ever claimed, because many Acts of like nature have passed not only in England, but in your quondam ancient Kingdom of Scotland, without danger of diversting the Monarches of their legal Power. The Preservation of a Government consists in, and depends upon an exact Adherence to its Principles on which it was founded: and the essential Principle of the English Monarchy being that well-proportioned Distribution of Powers, whereby the Law at once provides for the Greatness of the Sovereign, and the Safety of the People, for this Reason our Ancestors have been more careful to preserve inviolable the Government, than to favour any personal Pretences. And in your Case we followed the Examples of other Nations; I meet with none in Story so slavishly addicted to any Person or Family, as to admit of a Prince who openly professed a Religion contrary to that established amongst them: it would be easy to produce a Multitude of Examples of those who have rejected Princes for Reasons of far less Weight than the Difference of Religion, and this without endangering the Monarch's Power, or the Subject's Right: therefore your Party talked like Fools when they said the Bill of Exclusion would have divested the King of his Power; nothing could have made a King of England so much look like a Duke of Venice as one of the lousy Expedients your Party proposed to the Houses of Parliament.  
7. Another Argument against the Bill of Exclusion, was, That it would have led the Parliament to attempt other great and considerable Changes, and thereby endangered the whole Government, and the Peace of the Nation. Now what your Villains would have had the Nation to understand by this Change, is worthy of Consideration: Therefore, first, if by a Change they meant a Change of the Constitution of the Government, let me tell you that Hell could never have forged a more villainous Lie than those wicked Wretches did, that they might in conjunction with you instil such Thoughts into the Mind of the King, as might effectually alienate his Soul from the Use of Parliaments. It is evident even to these Hellborn Wretches, that there was no Vote or Proposition in either of those Parliaments that could give any Ground for such a malicious Reflection; and therefore in this Matter we that were Lookers-on might reasonably charge your Brother and you, and your whole Party, with a malicious Design against all Parliaments, in thus arraigning the whole Body of the Nation upon those ill grounded and malicious Suggestions. I am sure this did not become the Grandeur and Justice of Princes, nor was agreeable to the Measures of Prudence and Wisdom, by which you should have governed yourselves. And now, Sir, I will give the true Reason why you thus delighted in these Men, viz. your hating Parliaments, being afraid they should have called you and them to account for your high Crimes and Misdemeanours: by this Means, together with the Inclinations of your dear Brother, you so swayed him, that you could never want Grounds to dissolve not only three such Parliaments, but threescore, if there had been Occasion.  
In the second Place, Sir, If you and your Admirers had understood by attempting great and important Changes, that the Parliament would have besought the King, that you might no longer have the Government in your Hands; that your villainous Conspirators should no longer preside in his Councils, nor possess all the great Offices of Trust in the Kingdom; that our Ports, Garrisons and Fleet should no longer be governed by those that were at your Devotion; that Marks of Favour, and Characters of Honour should no more be placed upon such as the Wisdom of the Nation had adjudged Favourers of Popery, or Pensioners to the French King; these, I confess, were great and important Changes, such as became English Protestant's to believe were designed by those Parliaments, and would have been by any other Parliament your Brother should have called in his time, and such as the People of England would have prayed for, and left the Success to Almighty God, who governs the Hearts of Kings and Princes. Truly without these Changes, the Bill of Exclusion would have signified little; it might have provoked, but not disabled your wicked Party: Nay, the Money the Nation must have paid for it, would have been used to hasten your Return upon us.  
8. Another Argument used against the Bill of Exclusion, was your great Grace and Favour for your Country, and the Excellency of your Temper and Virtue. Surely, Sir, if you had heard these Men magnify you for your excellent personal Qualifications, you would have spit in their Faces, and told them they lied; for the Violence of your natural Temper was sufficiently known, and your Vehemency in exalting the Prerogative in your Brother's Reign beyond its due Bounds; and the Principles of your cursed Religion, which carried you to all imaginable Excesses of Cruelty, convinced all Mankind that there was a Necessity of excluding you, rather than to leave you the Name, and place the Power in a Protector: for in good truth, they must have looked upon it as the greatest Folly to have made such a Change in the Government, which would have been a Means to destroy, and not preserve the Government. Sir, they saw your Temper, that you, who was bred up in such Principles of Politics as made you in love with Arbitrary Power, and  to that Religion which always propagates itself by Blood, could never bear with such Shackles as would even disgust a Prince of the meekest Disposition: this was your Temper; and how it is amended since you placed yourself at St. Germains, I suppose your Followers can tell better than I  
But what Regard and Favour you have born to this Nation, was well seen from your first Return to England in 1660, to your leaving it in 1688. You engaged it in two wicked Wars with the Dutch, and a third with France. I would not have your  low too much of your Grace and Favour: but truly if you had any for this Nation, you was pleased to conceal it, except in two things, in which you did England the most signal Service that ever Man did; the one was destroying your Brother, and the other your running away: and if you will keep on the other Side of the small River that parts France from us, we will forgive you all the Faults of your Life. But notwithstanding all the Noise your Party have made about your Exclusion, I think they are now fully satisfied, or at least may be, that those three Parliaments that did proceed to exclude you, had just Grounds for it; so that all your Pretences stand convict as foolish and impertinent. Now these things being thus, can any Man judge you otherwise than an Enemy to Parliaments, and that way of English Government, which made you and your Traitors so much inveigh against their most just Proceed?  
I must confess I intended to have made an end this time with you, but there is so much yet behind, that I must have another Touch with you before I leave you: for you know a Picture that is not to all Intents and Purposes perfect, is but a silly Business, and not worth the viewing; and what Faults there are in your Picture, your worthy Ally will seek to have mended. Old Hodge I hear, as old as he is, swears rather than you shall not sit again, he will (now the Trade of Observatoring is out of doors) turn Fidler again in Ordinary to you, he may help you to many a penny worth of Farthings by doing a Job at a Country Wedding for your Neighbours at St. Germains; who, though poor, yet are much affected with fiddling: I pray send for him, for I question not but he is Rogue enough to be employed by you in that excellent Function.  
Another thing I request is, When your humble Servant the broken Soldier bauls against me about Perjury, and Perjury upon Record, that you would advise him to put in a civil Word about forging the Seal; you know it is not unusual to lay the Hare's Head to the Goose-giblets: they say he can dance better than he can talk; let him attend his old Friend Hodge; we can spare him, Sir, to serve you when you shall command him, for I think he is lewd enough for you to make what you please of him: his three Cousins were once in hold, and it vexes him to the Heart that he cannot get them again to engage in a fresh Plot, no not so much as to make a Swear that the Seal was a good Seal, if his Life lay on it: good Man, I pity his Misfortune; I am afraid the scarlet Cloak must once more go to pawn at some Pawdy-House or other, but it can procure no great Sum, for it is as threadbare as my old Gown; and how to help myself I know not, till our King shall be pleased to do me right.  
There is your other Friend, that would have been a Lord in your Brother's Reign and yours, or the Lord knows what; he used to walk with Sir J. Fenwick in the Mall; and though Sir J. is decently sent out of the World, yet he's a constant Advocate to bless his Memory, either for fear or for love, with his good word, by defending whose villainous Cause he pleaded his own. You know he was a dutiful Child to his old Dad, and let him have 400 l. per Annum to drink Ale withal in his elder Days; the old Gentleman could have dispensed with a Bottle of Claret if his dutiful Child would have let him enjoyed his own: you would do well to move your Brother of France to make him a French Count, or some such Business; for I am afraid if he should wait till Doomsday in the Afternoon, he will not get any Title here, unless that of a Case-hardened impudent Knave. Upon my Word, if you would have his Company, I do not think any of our East-land Merchants would mourn for him, except in Sack and Claret. When he was in play, he was such a false Card, that a whole Pack of them was laid aside; and ever since he bellows and roars like a Town-Bull, that the Children here cannot sleep for the direful Noise he makes: he has had his old Friend Hodge, with some of the inferior Clergy, to give him Ghostly Counsel; but he swears and damns, that nothing can do his Business, or give him any Content like being made a Lord, therefore what to do for him I know not; the poor Man is in a great Distress, and 'tis high time you give him some ease, before yo● gang over the Alps, for I understand you must amble to Rome, there to end your wicked Life.  
Be not in a heat, but let me tell you of another humble Servant of yours, that wants your good Company, and that is Dr. Grains, a very sweet-faced honest Priest as ever broke up a Church; his Father was a poor honest Hoy-man, and gave the Rogue a little Learning, and in time he ascended the Pulpit, and made some Earnings; he hath a small Concern in Wales, where he brews now and then a little Ale to refresh his wicked Soul: but the Man is extraordinary wary in his way, and sells his Grains to the Poor, in propriâ Personâ, at a Halfpenny and a Penny per Bowl. I conceive he got more by his incomparable Warehouse, he knows where, than by the Merchandise before mentioned: the Man was popular, and the Neighbourhood where he once lived, brought him with great Honour to a certain Place where he was well known, and better trusted than with his Gardener, whose Pockets he would have picked of sixteen Shillings; but the Gardener was as jealous of his Honesty, as all honest Men that know him are of his Truth and Sincerity to the Government and the Protestant Religion, and therefore secured his Money, and disappointed the poor Priest of his Design. I once had hopes, that since you was so gracious as to send him into Wales, you would have had his Company with you, for you used to say he was Company for any King in Christendom: it is therefore much he should be left behind, having been a mighty Tool for you in your time; and therefore Sarsfield, and a certain other Person of some Quality, did give him all the countenance they could, and procured an Opportunity for him to breathe in Wales sometimes for the Health of his sweet Countenance. The Man is humble, and therefore refused not to lie in a Friend's House of yours, though he was but poorish, he being a hearty Rogue that hath ventured hanging for you, as may be testified in due time.  
I once happened into the Company of this Northern Welsh Priest, and he gave account to some Ladies of the good Company he had at his House when in the height of his Glory, and complained of a prodigious Quantity of Damask Linen he lost, all made up by his own Mother, and marked with the Crest of his Family. I am not to question the Veracity of this goodly Parson, for his Father was an honest Hoy-man, and his Mother was a Pudding-wright in the Town he was born, and now and then brewed a Bushel of Malt against a good Time; and whether she sold her Grains or no I cannot tell: but as for Damask Linen, whether she ever saw any in her Life, I must leave that to your Friends to believe if they please; but this I know, he never deserved so great a Favour at her Hands, for I remember when he was ashamed both of Father and Mother. But let him go as he is, I could wish you had him with you, as also that loggerheaded Priest, who for his Learning, Parts and Honesty, might have been Fenwick's Chaplain in Extremis, he having been so deeply engaged with him in that glorious Design, for which he hath justly suffered Death as an abominable Traitor to God, his King and Country. This Priest lives and wipes his Lockrum-jaws, as the Whore in the Proverbs; and like an impudent Rogue saith, he has done no Wickedness. I do not question, Sir, as infirm as I am through your Grace and Favour, but to live to see an end of his supposed endless War, and a happy Determination of his disp●●ed Titles; for the Villain, notwithstanding his black mouthed Sermon, may be made to know that the Election of the People of England is the best Title most of our Kings ever had: if he cannot be convinced with rational Arguments, a Halter may chance to be his Portion, which is oftener the Reward of a Traitor than a Laurel. I am of opinion that his Plotting against the Government hath been more his Masterpiece than any Sermon he ever preached. I conceive him so well fixed here, that I doubt you will not have his Company, though I do not find him a Fellow of any great use to his Party, unless to lead a Mob to disturb an Election of Parliament Men in Westminster; but notwithstanding the Bustle he made in the last, he could do you no great Service.  
But to return to the Matter of Fact, with which you and your Brother and villainous Party stand charged to the end of the 29th Article, I ask you, What you think of all these things, and how could your Party behold the Face of the English Nation, or your Scots Villains their Country, which they have so basely abused and betrayed? Come, Sir, what say you to all this? Was not the Prince of Orange right in those few Passages of his Declaration, that more particularly related to your Personal Virtues? Truly had he said nothing, yet these Articles are sufficient, which are so fully proved, that I defy your old Observator to confute any one thing mentioned, or your Scotish Scribbler that is become a hearty Rogue in your Cause; he hath ventured hanging for you, and I hope will in due time meet with his long-deserved Reward for all his Villainies. Dr. Wilkinson's Lady, notwithstanding his great Care of her Husband's Library, will not put in a Petition against it.  
If you are not satisfied, we hold four Campagns in a Year at Westminster-Hall, and six or eight at the Old Bailie, Hixes-Hall, and Guildhall, where are very notable Combatants, who use to be too many for those they engaged in former times: I pray come and try your Skill and Fortune, it may turn to some account to you in time. Poor Pilgarlick fought two Days together at one of the Campagns that you opened, and came off by the lee, though he had a good Sword, and fenced as well as any Man in Christendom: but you may far better than many an honest Man; and I conceive my old Landlady will be content that you should rather retain your old Name, than be guilty of such a Piece of Rashness; she may come and act your part for you, unless the Virago Part in her Ladyship be decayed for want of its due Exercise, and may win more Credit than ever you had. But do what you will, it's all one to me, I am ad arma paratus, I dare try a touch with you and your Party at any time. I would have you know I do not tell you this now you are at such a distance, for you and your Villains have had several Trials of Skill with me, and in seven or eight Fights I never lost the day but twice, notwithstanding all the Efforts you and your Rogues by their Perjuries and Subornations of Perjury made against me: and let me tell you, that as ill as you have used me, I may live to see a day wherein our King and his Government will do me right, though I confess I have waited a long time for the Benefit of the Justice of the Nation, due to those Men that have served and saved their Country.  
It may be you will knock under board, and grant that you have been guilty so far as you have been charged hitherto; truly it's well you are so honest: then I pray be not offended if I have another fling at your ●●cket as soon as possible, that I may do you Right; and when that is done, I pray let me desire you, that if you leave another Letter at St. Germains, as you did at Rochester, not to say that the Prince of Orange endeavoured to make you as black as Hell, but confess the Truth, and say, that it was you yourself, instigated by the Devil himself, and all his wicked Angels and Instruments, that had done it to his Hand many Years before, more effectually than he could have done it, had he had the Advice even of those honest Gentlemen that drew up the third Declaration in his Name, which was dated from Sherborn Castle; that was a Tickler I'll assure you, and did your Business as effectually as Cromwell did your Brother's at Worcester Fight; it sent you packing in the Devil's Name, and half such a one in France would send you over the Alps, without the Help of a strong Guard, unless it were to keep you from being torn in pieces by the French Mob, who if they were not three quarters starved, would have as much a Mind to it as ever the English Nation had, and I am sure you deserved it many a Year before you wore the Crown.  
I cannot ye● take my leave of you, for you are sensible that my hearty Affection to you and your Cause, entitles me to do you all the Service I can; therefore I will give you the best Information I can how your Party stand affected. Your Friend Robin was no sooner out of Pound, but he made an Elopement to the loyal Club at the Pope's Head in Cornbil, and it's supposed did give but a melancholy Account of his Confinement, but a far better than he gave of the Lady Wilkinson's Books, or of the Widow's Bond of a hundred Pounds, which in a most Christian manner he forswear, hoping to have paid her with a false Oath the whole Sum he was entrusted with. The Villain once set up for a Saint, and then your Villains hated him to the same Degree that God and all good Men do at this time. I suppose he hopes that if you should make your Abode in Partibus Transmarinis, you may procure him to be made a Popish Bishop or so, which is the least you can do for him, for I assure you he is Rogue enough to wear the Title of an Archbishop, though it be of Bell-Isle, Vshant, or some such Place: he is yours, dear Sir; I pray take him to you, and if he has any Hairs growing on the Palms of his Hands, you may safely swear by the Lady of Loretto's old cast Smock, that he is an honest Scot, and as fit for your turn as the Deel can make him.  
I have much wondered he did not face about in your Brother's time; he might and would have served to join with old Mapleface in the Trade of Book-cutting, and have given you a Scots Palm for a tickling Sum, and that in a more decent way than the Irish Bogtrotter did: but the Truth of it is, he was as one born out of due time, for he came not into your Villainous Cause till Hanging came in fashion on your side, and so he was forced for a time to take up his Quarters at the old College: he has been an eminent Confessor, but has not yet arrived at Martyrdom, but in good time the Gallows may have its Due, and then good night poor Robin, the most excellent Manager of my Lady Wilkinson's Books.  
I sometimes see Tumbledown Dick, that is a pretty Fellow I assure you, and very well shaped, for he is almost as thick as he is long, and very acceptable to your villainous Party, and understands something of Heraldry, as he pretends: you put him into a pretty Employment, and made him a Colonel, and he would have been Governor of a certain Place, but was prevented by a seasonable Imprisonment, though the Rascal never understood any thing of military Discipline but what he learned from a certain Bookseller's Boy, with whom he would have been very familiar, but the Boy escaped his Love; so that my Gentleman had not the Understanding requisite for a good Soldier. He was once a Professor of a great deal of English Truth; but your Brother and you had a cogent way of bringing over such  to your Cause and Interest. There was a Gentleman he would have been sweet upon, but he courteously refused the Compliment, notwithstanding the Offer of a good Place in the Band of Pensioners, and the Enjoyment of his Wife into the Bargain. I see him rump along the Court of Requests, and straddle like a Pair of Compasses over a Map, but looks as if he could not say bough to a Goose. He hath sworn to this Government, but you know that is nothing to him that could turn a Rogue, get a good Place, and had turned Papist to hold it, had he not been prevented by the coming of our Protestant King, for he can turn any thing: nay, I question not but if he could regain his lost Place, he would be a true Williamite, and would not for the best Jack of small Beer Whitehall can afford him, quit it, though your Life, and the ●●ar Life of the Bookseller's Boy lay upon it. I once called upon him for his Testimony to the Truth of Fact; but the Villain having without reason abandoned it, forswore himself, and so let him go like a Rogue as he is; for he that once espoused an honest Cause without a Principle, might quit it without a Reason: Tho he hath sworn to this Government, as several have done, he is as much your humble Servant as the best of 'em all, and looks very sorrowfully to see his Friends hang so decently, and not yet see the desired Effect of so hopeful a Plot. But old Nick and John of Kent can never make him leave his old Conundrums, unless the Bookseller's Boy, now he is somewhat mannish, do buffet him to some purpose; this may chance to lay the Devil, that hath been sometimes very unruly. He is something older than when you left him, but his long Face is just where it was, and would be as ready to sneer upon you as ever. I pray, Sir, send for him, and let him have the Blessing of your Company.  
I understand that when our honest Feversham-men met with you in your intended Passage to France, they did not only make you show your Shapes, but compelled you to part with your Gold: in this lamentable Adventure, your Friends say you lost your Crucifix, which had in it a Piece of the Wood of the Cross on which our Saviour suffered: truly I am mighty sorry for your Loss; it seems you are more sensible of the Loss of that Relic than of the three Crowns you for a short time usurped. Alas, good Man, what shall we do to make up this great Loss to you? for a Piece of that Cross may easily be worth thirteen Crowns for aught I know. But you may see what a trusty Card you had of Odescalchi, that he did not furnish you with a Cross, since for his Religion and the French. Interest you parted with your Crown. But now I think on't, I can tell how you may be supplied; I understand you are going to Rome, and if you repair to St. John of Lateran, that was dedicated to St. Silvester, a Pope God wots, there is a good Gobbet of Christ's Cross, where you may have a good Sliver for one of your Irish Crown Pieces; and if the Rogues should be saucy, and refuse your Money because it is Brass, than I pray repair to the Church of St. Eustathius, and there you may be fitted with a Piece to your Heart's Content, where is a considerable Quantity, and very good Penny worths may be had: but those Rogues it may be may be stubborn, and not make you as welcome as you made them, the you had old Hodge with you to fiddle them into a good Humour. But rather than you should want a good Piece of Wood, what think you if we sent a Piece of Tyburn Tree, or a Piece of the Pillory I stood upon in ●our time? Or if that will not do, what think you of a Piece of your Father's Scaffold, or of Sir John Fenwick's? Come, come, if you can't meet with what you would, you must take what you can. If you would send Scotch Robin, he might as easily rob some Church or other for the Good of yours or his own Soul, as he cheated Madam Wilkinson of her Books. If you once get to Rome, you may be furnished with Crosses enough: but where you will find a Crown, God knows, unless it be one of Thorns, and there you may meet with good Store.  
It may be honest Robin may be afraid to steal; then I think you may send him to beg a Piece ●● this Cross you make such a Stir about: I could be content you had a House full of Crosses, so we were certainly sheared clear of you, and your Villains. But what need you make such a Stir for a little Cross, when you have my old Landlady so near you? If that good Lady has not been a great Cross to you, the Devil's in the Dice: but in my poor Judgement you had more need get clear of these Articles if you can, and get a good Name if possible, than go whining about for a lousy Cross. I have offered you my Thoughts upon the matter; and if you cannot be satisfied but you must have a Cross, I have told you the way: you may do what you please; and if all I have said will not do, than I pray write to honest Robin, who may find you out some Scots Trick or another, that may do your Business more effectually: but if the Villain should not be as good at stealing as he has been at lying, cheating, and plotting, than he that broke up your Brother's Closet and yours, may have a good Hand at breaking up a Church or so for your Service; I pray, Sir, do not let him lie here, for certainly his Hand will be out of use: the Rogue has got a good Estate by these Courses, therefore I advise you to send for him over, that he may be an absolute Master of his Trade, there may be many a Penny got; and were it not for hanging, I believe the Villain could like the Trade better than if he were to continue in his Secretary's Place, he knows where well enough, and where he meets with many a hearty Curse.  
If my old Landlady wants a female Servant, I can more easily help her than I can you to your Crucifix: she is a worthy Person I assure you, and a Woman of an excellent Reputation; she knows how to plant behind the Hang as well as you can for your Heart's Blood, and has given as good Proof of her Dexterity in that Piece of Service upon a Relation of hers, as she has of her Reputation for many Years last passed, notwithstanding the wicked Aspersions thrown upon her, good Woman. I pray be pleased to admit her into my Gammer Sweetapple's Service; I believe you are all so much alike in Virtue, Honour and Truth, that it is pity she should be a Minute from you, though her quondam Gallant should cry his Eyes out. Your old Eavesdropper shall attend her, and you may take him as Paper and Packthread into the Bargain, and the rather because he is a French Man, and stood behind the Hang to serve you and your Brother's wicked Designs upon an honest French Protestant, that applied himself to him and you (not knowing you to be a Papist) for the Security of the Protestant Interest in France. Now I rather propose this, because you yourself were planted behind the Hang or Wainscot with old Coventry and your old Chemist, to hear what passed between your Brother and myself, when there was some Discourse to be in relation to your sweet self, and old Kate of Lisbon. What Advantage you got by your Eavesdropping, I know not; if you got any, much good may it do you: but upon the whole Matter, I think I have made you a pretty Proposal, and should be glad if it takes, for I would fain have you easy and comfortable in your Company; for you know the old Proverb, like to like, as the Devil said to the Collier. Now for all this Piece of Good Will, I desire nothing of you but a Coat the Virgin Mary made for her Son, which is at present in the Church of St. Martinellus; for my Coat is very threadbare, and I have been told it is as fresh as when it was first made: now such a Coat that will never be old, would do my Business, for I cannot tell when I shall have a new one. When you come to Rome, you will be ambling from Church to Church; I pray call in there, and beg it for me; since I have been such a Friend to Rome's Chair and yourself, they will not deny me that Favour, being sensible of the great Value I have for you for the many gracious Obligations you have laid upon me in particular, as well as upon this Nation in general, for whose Honour you have fought many a bloody Battle; but old Hodge swears and damns too by his Treble and Base Viols, that he cannot tell the Time when, or the Place where you entered upon these noble Adventures, except it were between a Pair of Sheets with Jenny Roberts, or some of those noble Fireships that were rigged at White-Hall or St. James': and if by any of those noble Adventures you did the Nation any Honour, you have met with a competent Return of our Gratitude, especially since you were so great a Sufferer by one of them, for whose sake you wear a Memorandum to this day, you know what I mean, and a Word to the Wise is enough.  
Now, Sir, I have but one thing more to say, and then you may go and dry the Clouts whilst my Landlady gets the Welsh Tiler to Bed, and that is this: Doth it not appear as plain as the Sun at noonday, how you have not only in conjunction with your Brother shamed the Nation, but been also shamed by your Priests and Rogues, and by your Pope and French King, and your Passive-Obedience and Non-resistance-Rogues here in England? For the former, that is your Popish Priests and Jesuits, how were you fooled with their lying Fables? And had you not been blest with an Irish Understanding, you might have seen they were Forgeries and mere Fopperies: they told you of their Houses being the Houses of Cloe, and their Households the Households of Onesiphorus; but alas, they were but the Sons of Sodom, and villainous Offspring of cursed Gomorrah; and take them from their Uncleanness, what they study is nothing but imposture and Legerdemain. These were the Men you countenanced: Beddingfield your Jesuit was a Pimp, a Drunkard, a Whoremonger, and a Sodomite; yet you used to say he was a holy, humble Man. What say you to your Sabran, that was a Reproach to Sodom, and the Scandal of Gomorrah? or to your trusty Ned Petre, and his Brother Charles, two notorious Villains, one famous for his Ignorance, and the other for his Impudence, Drunkenness, and Blasphemy against God and his Word? What say you to your four ignorant Popish Bishops you procured to be made? these were your Counselors. As to your Religion, I pray what have your Popish Crew done for you in your Distress? Nay, how did your old Odescalchi leave you in the lurch? 'tis true he told Porter you should have his Prayers; but if they had been worth a Groat, or half the Money, you must have gone without them; half the Money would have persuaded him to have given you a Ma●nday Curse. What Subsidies have you had from St. O●●irs and Liege, and from your Popish Party? Alas, like Rats, they forsake a falling-House, or a sinking Ship.  
But I pray in the next place, what's become of your mighty Ally, Lewis the Great? How stands his Friendship with you? What use have you of his Purse and Assistance against your Enemies? how fares it with your inseparable Interests? Come, come, tell me plainly, how is the Pension paid, that you and my good Landlady may chew the Cud comfortably together? If it be no better paid than mine, you may ●ang yourself for aught I know, and no body be the wiser or better for it. ●●ray how do the Funds hold out? for ours have fallen so short, that I have lost above three Parts in five of mine, and cannot tell how to help it for my Life. But I suppose the Purse his most Christian Majesty offered you the use of in 1675, is not yet drawn dry; if it be, the Lord have mercy upon you, you have no other way but to try whether the Officers of the Treasury in France can with old Mapleface fall to the Trade of Book-cutting, and cheat the French King of a good Sum: for if Begging will not do, Cheating must; and 'tis all one between you and the French King, since your Interests are the same. I pray how is my Landlady's Interest? Is hers and the French King's the same too? If it be, old Boy, you have no reason to fear but she will get her Living and yours too, not by the Sweat of her Brows, for that is too mean for an adopted Daughter of France, but in a ●●●re cleanly way I assure you: be of good Cheer, Man, for you have two strings to your Bow, two such Interests, your Pug's and your own; and if the old Villain should at last leave you, we will have him cursed by Bell, Book and Candle. Yet now I think on't, Pug is somewhat stricken in Years; therefore I must ●ell you he will shame you off, or play the Rogue with you and send you upon the ●●●ble, and so good night Nicholas the Leather weaver. What must we do then? Do you rely upon the Loyalty of your Party here in England? Come over a little, and behold what a Set of Rogues you depended upon.  
Here is old ●mkin the Hen-groper swears by his Pen, Ink and Paper, he turned Papist on purpose to betray you, and mimps up his Mouth as if he had acted the Part of a very honest Fellow: but those that hear him, though your Enemies, count him a Villain for his Pains. I see him sometimes, and he mimps up his Lockrum-Jaws as if he had never been of any Religion in his Life but that of Mother-Church: truly to give the Villain his due, you ought to have hanged him rather than employed him; he wears the Wages of his Unrighteousness, but you must thank yourself, for he was one of your Household Gods: If you trust him now, you trust on a broken Reed. And what think you of old Sir John Greazy-guts, he that had the most comfortable Opportunity of cheating your Brother and yourself? he is in his old Post; but if you should trust in him, all Mankind must say you are at your last Prayers. Old Stiff Jaws he got into Preferment with all the Speed he could. And truly there is not one of your old Friends, but if he can get into a good Place, would in a decent manner cut your Throat to keep in. Nay, I am confident, Mr. Wind and Stink, the Warden of All Souls, would help keep you out by the same Power you forced him into that Employment: That Fellow hath given the best account of your Father's Virtues of any of the Devil's Brokers I know; for he told his Auditory upon May 29th ●696, that the Virtues of your Father were more resplendent, and did shine forth more eminently in your Brother than in your Father. Truly I have heard of many of your Father's good Qualifications, but I could not tell what they were till this Logger head of a Warden gave us such Information, and directed us to view the Virtues of your Brother: now you will give me leave to tell you that I was pretty well acquainted with Old Pious his Virtues; and so by the Pai●s of this Sermon-spoiling and nonfensical Blockhead of a Warden, we may clearly see the excellent Virtues of Old Blessed Memory. I pray return the Booby your Thanks, especially for not blazoning yours into the Bargain, no, nor so much as taking notice of the great Virtues of the Troop that fix●● him against all Law in the Possession of his Place. I understand the Coxcomb quits his Post very often for hearsay: he is a Debtor to the Jew and the Greek, to the Wise and Unwise, to the Bond and the Free. When he will be otherwise, I cannot tell: but let him go like a Blockhead as he is; we can never expect a Horse ●● s●ite Oats till he hath eat some. He made bold with me, but was laughed at for his Pains; and in good truth I have learned to despise such Scoundrel Vermin. There are more of his Stamp; but you may as soon trust the Devil or the Pope as any of them, for they all bid you farewel, and so they did your Father before you, except a few that were hanged for his Cause; and so thanks be to God have some for yours, though it was a long while first. I hope you have canonised them by this time, for the Rogues were in earnest to have you home again; and if their Actions had been suitable to their Words, they might have done Wonders: but now your Cause is lost here, without the least Hopes of Recovery.  
I should have detained you somewhat longer, but the young Cu● will how I for his Pap, and I doubt you begin to smell in your Harness: nay Landlady will open her Mouth if you do not assist her in getting ready his Whittles, that he may quietly be put into his Crib. But do not break your Heart, for you shall with all convenient speed consider of what I have here offered to your View; and what Lines are wanting in this, shall be supplied in my next, which I reckon will be by Trinity-Term: by that time you will see whether or no you are not apretty black Spark. I pray recommend to my old Acquaintance the Business you have given a new Name to; I forget his old one: he was once in Limbo for the same Cause you are now at St. 〈◊〉. Le● 〈…〉 be forgone 〈…〉 old Mistress and the young Welsh Gentleman; and let him know that Will. 〈…〉 my Landlady's Page of Honour, if he saith true, hath told us a formal Story of his Mother Mrs. Marry Grey: how true or false it is you know best, 'tis all one to me, I have nothing to say to the Point, but only shall pray you to instruct him in his old Uncle's Virtues, that he may be the better able to judge of those that were in his Grandfather: if you cannot do it yourself, I pray send for Mr. Warden's Worship, and he will tell him what they were, and where they did shine. And so farewell till you hear from me again.   
FINIS.   

BOOKS published by Thomas Percival, Author of Ludlow's Letters.  
1. Reason's humbly ●●ered for the Liberty of Unlicens'd Printing. To which is subjoined. The just and the Character of Edmund Bohun, the Licenser of the Press.  
2. A Collection of some memorable and weighty Transactions in Parliament, in the Year 1678; and afterwards, In relation to the Impeachment of the Earl of Danby.  
3. A Collection of the Debates and Proceed in Parliament, 1694, and 1695, upon the Inquiry into the Late Briberies and Corrupt Practices. 1695.  
4. A Supplement to it.  
5. A New Year's Gift for Dr. Birch; or a Mirror discovering the different Opinions of some Doctors in relation to the present Government, as laid down in Dr. Birch's Sermon before the Commons, Jan. 3●. 1693/4 Dr. Hayley's Fast-sermon Dec. 11. 1695. before the Commons; and Mr. Als●p's Thanksgiving-sermon at Westminster, Sept. 8. 1695.  
6. The Rye-house travesty; or the History of the late Jacobite Plot. In a Letter to the Bishop of ●●chester.  
7. A Tragedy, called The Popish Plot, revived: Detecting the secret League between the Late 〈…〉 James and the French King; the Popish Conspiracy to murder his present Majesty K. William; And the wicked Contrivance for Adultor 〈…〉 the Coin of this Kingdom; With many other Hellish Practices. Dedicated to Sir Roger L' Estrange, the Fellows of St. John's College in Cambridg (〈…〉 and the rest of the Jacobite Crew.  
Wherein is contained (besides sides some general Account of the Popish 〈…〉 Abstract of Dr. ●●tes's Narrative, etc.) the Doctor's Second 〈…〉 drew up just before his Sufferings, with his Letters to K. 〈…〉 and some. Great Ministers both in Church and State, which were 〈…〉 made public.