A SPEECH Lately Made by a Noble PEER OF THE REALM.  
My Lord,  
IN this great Debate concerning the King's Speech, the sad State and Condition we are in, and the Remedies thereof; I have Offered You my Opinion, and many Lords have spoken admirable well to it, with great Freedom and Plainness, as the Case requires.  
Give me leave to offer you some few words, in answer to two or three of my Lords of the Earls Bench, that have maintained the contrary Opinion.  
My Lord, near me, hath told your Lordships, that the Precedent of Hen. the 4. that I offered to you (who was a Wise and Magnanimous Prince; and yet upon the Address of his Parliament, put away a great part of his Family, and Councils at one time,) is no proper instance, because he was an Usurper, had an ill Title, and was bound to please the People.  
My Lords, I meddle not with his Title. I am sure our King hath a very undoubted one; But this My Lord must allow, that that wise Prince having need of the People, knew no better way to please them, and to create a good intelligence between them and him, than to put a way those from Court and Council that were unacceptable to them.  
If our King hath the same Necessity to please the People, (though for other Reasons than want of a Title;) Yet I am sure the Precedent holds, that a Wise Prince, when he hath need of his People, will rather part with his Family and Counsellors, than displease them.  
My Lords, This Noble Lord near me, hath found fault with that Precedent, that he supposes I offered your Lordship's concerning the Chergeable Ladies at Court; But I remember no such thing, I said; but if I must speak of them, I shall say as the Prophet did to King Saul, What means the bleating of this kind of cattle? And I hope the King will make me the same answer, that he reserves them for Sacrifice, and means to deliver them up to please his People,  
For there must be, (in plain English) My Lords, a change; We must neither have Popish Wife, nor Popish Favourite, nor Popish Mistress, nor Popish Counsellor at Court, or any new Convert. What I spoke was about another Lady that belongs not to the Court, but like Simpronia in Catiline's Conspiracy, does more Mischief than Cethegus.  
In this time of Distress, I could humbly advise our Prince would take the same course that the Duke of Savoy did, to suffer neither Strangers nor Ambassadors to stay above some few weeks in his Country; for all the Strangers and Ambassadors here, have served the Plot, and Design against us; I am sure they have no tye to be for us.  
But my Lords, what I rose up to speak, was more especially to my Lord of the Earls Bench, that spoke last, and sits behind me: Who, as he hath the greatest influence in our present Councils, so he hath let fall to you the very Root of the matter, and the hinges upon which all turns; He tells you that the House of Commons have lately made offers to the King, and he wonders we do not expect the Kings Answer to them, before we enter into so hot and high Debates.  
He tells you, if the King be assured of Supplies we cannot doubt of his Compliance in this and all we can ask; for otherwise the King should fall into that that is the worst condition of a Prince, to have his People have no confidence in him. My Lords, This is that I know they put the King upon, and this is that we must be ruined by, if we may not with Freedom and Plainness open our Case.  
My Lords, 'Tis a very hard thing to say that we cannot trust the King; and that we have already been deceived so often, that we see plainly the apprehensions of Discontent in the People, is no Argument at Court. And though our Prince be in himself an Excellent Person, that the People have the greatest Inclinations imaginable to Love; yet we must say he is such an one, as no Story affords us a parallel of: How plain and how many are the proofs of the Design to murder him? How little is he apprehensive of it?  
The Transactions between him and his Brother are Admirable, and Incomprehensible; His Brother designs being early Known, to aim at the Crown, before his Majesty's Restauration to this Kingdom.  
This Match with a Portugal Lady, not like to have Children, Contrived by the Duke's Father-in-Law; and no sooner effected but the Duke and his Party make Proclamation to the World, that we are like to have no Children, that he must be the certain Heir.  
He takes his Seat in Parliament as Prince of Wales, His Guards about him; The Prince's Lodgings at Whitehall, his Guards upon the same Floor, without any Interposition between him and the King; so that the King was in his Hands, and in his Power every Night: All Offices and Preferments being bestowed by him, Not a Bishop made without him.  
This Prince changes his Religion to make himself a Party, and such a Party that his Brother must be sure to die and be made away, to make room for Him, nothing could preserve him, but that which I hope he will never do, give greater earnest to that wicked Party than his Brother could; and after all, this Plot breaks out, plainly headed by the Duke, his interest and his Design.  
How the King hath behaved himself ever since the breaking ou● of it, the World knows; we have expected every hour that the Court should join with the Duke against us: And it is evident more hath been done to make the Plot a Presbyterian Plot, than to discover it.  
The Prorogations, the Dissolutions, the Cutting short of parliaments, not suffering them to have time or opportunity to lo●k into any thing, hath showed what reason we have to have confidence in this Court. We are now come to a Parliament again, by what Fate or what Council, for my part I cannot guests; neither do I understand the R●ddle of it.  
The Duke is quitted and sent away; the House of Commons have brought up a Bill to disable him of the Crown; and I think they are so far extremely in the right; but your Lordships are wiser than they, and have rejected it; yet you have thought fit, and the King himself hath made the Proposition, to make such Expedients as shall render him but a Nominal Prince.  
In the mean while where's this Duke, that the King and both Houses have declared unanimously thus dangerous? Why he is in Scotland raising of Forces upon the Terra firma, that can enter dry foot upon us, without hazard of Winds or Seas, the very place he should be in to raise a party there, to be ready when from hence he shall have notice: So that this being the case, where is the trust? We all think the business is so ripe, that they have the Garrisons, the Arms, the Ammunition, the Seas and Souliery all in their hands; they want but one good Sum of Money to set up, and Crown the Work, and then they shall have no more need of the People; and I believe whether they are pleased or no will be no great trouble to them.  
My Lords, I hear of a Bargain in the House of Commons, and an Address made to the King but this I know, and must boldly say it and plainly, that the Nation is Betrayed if upon any Terms we part with our Money till we are sure the King is ours; have what Laws you will, and what Conditions you will, they will be of no use but waste Paper before Easter, if the Court have Money to set up for Popery and Arbitrary Designs in the mean while.  
On the other hand give me leave to tell you my Lords, the King hath no reason to distrust his People; no man can go home and say, that if the King Comply with his People they will do nothing for him, but ●are all up from him; we want a Government and we want a Prince that we may trust, even with the spending of half our Annual Revenues, for some time, for the Preservation of these Nations.  
The growing Greatness of the French can not be stopped with a little Expense, nor without a real and hearty Union of the King and his People. It was never known in England that our Princes wanted Supplies either for their Foreign designs, or for their Pleasures; nothing ever shut the English Purses but the fears of having their Money used against them.  
The hour that the King shall satisfy the People, that what we give is not to make us Slaves and Papists, he may have what he will, and this your Lordships know and all mankind that know us: Therefore let me plainly tell your Lordships, the Arguments that the present Ministers use, is to Destroy the King and not Preserve him: For if the King will first see what we will do for him, it is impossible if we are in our Senses we should do any thing.  
But if he will first show that he is entirely ours, that he Weds the Interest and the Religion of the Nation, 'tis impossible he should want any thing that we can give.  
But I see how the Argument will be used: Sir, they will do nothing for you, what should you do with these men? But on the other hand I am bold to say.  
Sir, You may have any thing of this Parliament; put away these Men, change your Principles, change your Court, and be yourself; for the King himself may have any thing of us.  
My Lords, if I have been too plain, I beg your Pardon; I thought it was the Duty of an English Nobleman at this time to speak plain or never.  
I am sure I mean well: and if any man can answer or oppose Reason to what I say, I beg they would do it; for I do not desire or propose any Question.  
I Beg this Debate may last for some days, and that we may go to the bottom of the matter, and see if these things are so or no, and what Cur● there is of the Evil we are in; and then th● Result of your Debates may produce som● proper Question.  
However, we know who hears, and I am glad of this, that your Lordships have dealt s● Honourably and so clearly in the King's presence and in the Kings hearing, that he cannot say h● wants a right State of thsngs; he hath it befor● him, and may take Council as he thinks fit.   

London, Printed for F. S. at the Elephant and Castle near the Royal Exchange in Cornhill, 168●