THE Earl of Anglesey's STATE of the Government & Kingdom: Prepared and intended for His MAJESTY, King Charles II. In the Year 1682. but the Storm Impending growing so high prevented it then. With a short VINDICATION of His Lordship from several Aspersions cast upon Him, in a pretended LETTER that carries the Title of His MEMOIRS.  
By Sir JOHN THOMPSON, Baronet.  
LONDON: Printed for Samuel Crouch at the Corner of Pope's-Head-Alley in Cornhill. 1694.   

TO THE King and Queen  
May it please Your Majesties,  
THIS Paper was at first intended a Present to Your Royal Uncle; in which the Noble Author has studiously contracted his many and large Experiences into a compass suitable to the Leisure and View for which he designed it. How Wise and Great a Statesman he was, and how fitted for an Argument of this Nature, by his great insight into Men and Business, [having from his Youth breathed scarce any other Air than that of Courts] how Valued and Esteemed by King Charles the Second for his Wisdom and Dexterity in reducing Things to their True Temper and Legal Standard, especially at an Emergency, when either the Folly or Design of False or Weak Ministers had puzzled his Majesty's Affairs, and made them almost desperate, Those who knew him can better tell, it becomes me to be silent, left I should Injure his Memory by saying too little, or Displease others by saying too much; if any have so much Curiosity they may themselves make the Judgement by this Taste that is left us of his Mind, Thoughts, and Manly, Noble way of Expressing himself, [a thing wherein his Lordship had a peculiar Happiness, not disguised in the Taudry Dress, wherein he has been of late Injuriously Exposed.]  
I have nothing to say in Excuse for my Presumption in this Dedication to Your Majesties, but that it was designed for the Service of the Throne, and certainly a Discourfe of this Nature (wherein you will see the wide differences between the Faithful and Wise Councils of the Dead, free from Flattery, Fear or Design, and those of the Living, which are subject to them all) cannot but be acceptable to Your Majesties, especially in a Time of so much Action, Danger, and Disappointment.  
Your Majesty's Obedient Subject and Servant. John Thompson.   

THE PREFACE.  
THE Tombs and Dormitories of the Dead have always been held Venerable; to Invade their Silence, or Disturb their sleeping Dust, much more to Mangle, and then Expose them, yet scarce cold, is a Crime so detestably odidious, nothing but a French Barbarity 
* See the Account of the Inhumanity of the French this Summer at Heidelberg.  could ever be guilty of; but for a Wise and Great Man to be abused in his Thoughts, to be Presented to the World as one that took pleasure in deceiving and imposing upon the understanding of others, to be made to think and speak things so low and mean, so dull and insipid, nay quite contrary to his own Sense and Apprehension, is a cruelty and savageness so much greater, as that to be Mortal, and thereby subject to Violence and Injury, it the common Lot of all, but to be a Fool a Knave is the particular Curse but of some few.  
And yet it bas been the Misfortume of a late Noble Lord to be thus represented to the World in a Book that bears the Title of, The Earl of Anglesey 's Memoirs, but is indeed so very unlike him, 'tis strange any should have the Confidence to Impose such supposititious thing on the World; certainly this Lord might have expected better Treatment, after an Age worn out with Toil and Pain for the Public, than to have his Study plundered, his Papers rifled, his Thoughts debased by a dull and course allay, and bis Reputation set to sale for a little private Advantage. Is there no Original left of such a Man to show him to the World but this little miniature, these few Sheets? Where is that expected Work 
† His History of Ireland, just finished, as it were, before his Death.  the Expense of so much Oil and Thought, in which he might have hoped to Live to future Times? How can any that have either Value for the Memory of the Dead, or Regard for the Censure of the Living, detain any longer so usful and so finisbed a Piece, which was at first undertaken for the Service and Information of the Public.  
The Publisher perhaps might not design so maliciously, but this altars not the Case; whoever reads that Pamphlet, and believes it to be my Lord Anglesey's, must think him not only a knave and Fool, but somewhat more. His intention seems only to make the best of his absent Friend, by borrowing his Name to get a Penny, or to Ingratiate himself with a Party in hopes of Preferment when time shall be; and withal, to let the World know what otherwise they were like ever to be ignorant of, what a Man of Worth and Weight he is. Hence are those so frequent and repeated Praises of himself. 
Pag. 4.  It is he that knows how softly to insinuate his Notions with the gentleness of a Philosopher, 
Pag 6  that has all the curious soft strokes of Rhetoric and Reason, and all the Structures of a great Judgement and Fancy, 
Pag. 31.  all the mixtures of great and noble Colours, able not only to prop up the great Characters of King Charles his Ministers, but to gild the Pillory for Offenders, whose short hints, like the sclanting of Lightning, 
Pag. 6. & 22  or sudden glances by their quick movement, have power to create the Passions of Love and Admiration. And in short, in the late Conjuncture, while the Vulgus of Writers and Lachrimists were associated in Intailing the Popular Nuisance of Fears and Jealousies upon us, 
Pag. 29. & 37, 39  it was be alone who found out the way to remove them, by Predicting from Natural Causes the Happy future state of our Country. And that the then Fermentation would be perfective to it; instead of which had he told us K. James' forsaking and deserting the Party that put the Crown upon his Head, the disregarding the Opinion of his People, doing Actions that raised their Distrust, Fears and Jealousies, the choice of Weak and False Ministers, the taking into his Cabinet such as had Abjured their Religion, the Closeting and Tampering with Parliaments, so that Nation had no hopes of having any, but such as the Court were very well assured of, the appropriating and taking upon himself the Faults and Miscarriages of his Favourites and Ministers, and in the midst of all this, the deepest Security and Unconcernedness imaginable, would at length prove Fatal to him, the Consequence had certainly been much more Natural, and the Event justified the Prediction.  
But how easily might this have been prevented had be followed the wise Examples of his great Predecessors Edw. III. and Henry IU. who Learning by the Misfortunes of Edward II. Richard II. and to whom he immediately succeeded, how dangerous the Strains of Power, and loss of the People's Affections were, did the more carefully maintain themselves in the good Opinion and Love of the People, by granting them all the reasonable Securities they desired, Redressing their Grievances, and Removing those (tho' Innocent) that were the least distasteful to the Commons, of which we will mention a few Precedents.  
In 15 Edw. 3. Declaration was made, That such as found themselves Aggrieved with the King or his Officers, should upon Complaint find Remedy; and in the same Parliament at the Request of the Commons, that the Chancellor, and all other Officers there named, may be Chosen in open Parliament, and be openly Sworn to observe the Laws. It was Enacted, That if any such Officer died, or otherwise his Place fall void, the King will have the Assent of his Nobles, and such Officers shall be sworn the next Parliament according to their Petition; and that at every Parliament the King will Assume into his Hands all such Offices, so as the said Officers shall answer to the said Objections.  
In 17 Edw. 3. The Commons Complain of the Transporting the Treasure, the Discovery of the Secrets of the Realm, and that they neither Can nor Would (they are the Words of the Record) any longer bear so strange Oppressions, hereupon the Act of Provision was made.  
21 Edw. 3. N. 58. The Commons Complain, That whereas divers Merchants were Slain and Rob on the Sea by the King's Enemies of France, they which undertook the Coundct may be made come into this present Parliament to make Greenshield to the Merchants, who by their default have lost their Goods; To which the King answers, Let Persons and Places be assigned for hearing the Plaints of all that will Complain, to the end Right and Reason may be fully done to the Plaintiff.  
22 Edw. 3. N. 7. The Commons Petition, That all Wool and other Merchandise may freely pass; To which the King answers, That the passage shall be free, paying to the King his due.  
So in the 36th of Edward the 3d. the King consents to a Statute for the yearly holding a Parliament. 
Note, According to the practice and usage of that time, a Parliament signifies a new Parliament; the sense and meaning of the Law was, That there should be a new Parliament chose in the time prescribed, which appears by this, that from the first of Edward the Third to the 14th of Henry the Fourth, which was but 87 years; there are yet remaining, besides what are lost by the injury of Time, and carelessness of Keepers, about 72 Original Writs.   
So the 45 of Edward 3d Numb. 31. when Commons affirm the decay of the Navy to arise by three Causes; viz. (1st.) For that sundry men's Ships are stayed for the King long before they serve, whereby the Owners are driven at their Charges to find their Mariners to their undoing. (2dly.) For that Merchants, the Nourishers of the Navy, are often restrained their Shipping; whereby Mariners are driven to seek other Trades and Live. (3dly.) For that the Masters of the King's Ships do take up Masters of other Ships, as good as themselves are; whereby the most of these Ships do lie still, and the Mariners are enforced to seek new Live; whereof they pray Remedy: The King promises to provide Remedy.  
Thus also in 1 of Hen. 4. Thomas Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury, by the King's Command, tells them in Parliament, That it is the King's Will to Govern by the Honourable, Discreet and Sage of the Realm, and by their Common Consent, and not by his own Will, nor after his own Fashion to Rule the same; and further enforced, That this Realm of any under the Sun might best Live of itself.  
And in the 5th of Hen. 4. At the Request of the Commons, the Lords According that Four special Persons should be removed out of the King's House, viz. The King's Confessor, the Abbot of Door, Mr. Richard Durham and Crosby of the Chamber; whereupon Saturday the 9th of February the said Confessor, Durham and Crosby came in to the Parliament before the King and Lords, where the King excused them, saying, That he than knew no Cause wherefore they should be removed, but only for that they were hated of the People, and therefore charged them to departed from his House according to the Agreement; and the like he would have also procured against the Abbot, if he had been present.  
I am the more particular in these things, in Answer to that Assertion of the Industrious Mr. Prynn, 
See Prynn's Preface to Sir R. Cotton's Records, Sect. 14.  That the King's Created and set up merely by Parliaments, and their own Power in them, without any True and Hereditary Title, have seldom answered the Lords and Commons Expectations in the Preservation of their Just Laws and Answers to their Petitions.  
It would exceed the bounds of a Preface to go through the rest of these Memoirs. The drift of the whole, however it be disguised, is to tell the World in my Lord Anglesey's Name, that the Business of Sir Edm. Godfrey, the Firing of London. the Popish Plot, were only Fears, Jealousies and Surmises. 
Man P. 112.  That Evidence did not rise high and clear enough to charge any Papist withit, however the Parliament, and a great Minister, threw the Gild on them. But how probable it is that my Lord Anglesey should be of this Opinion, That he should believe nothing of the Popish Plot, that without Malice, Motive or Evidence, he should give his Voice for the Condemnation of my Lord Stafford, a Person he himself thought Innocent, that he should be, first, so much a Monster, and then so mere a Natural, as under his own Hand to testify as much? Whether all this looks not more like the Fiction and Forgery of the Publisher, than the Genuine Sense of that Great Lord, let every unprejudiced Reader judge.   

The Account of Arthur Earl of Anglesey, Lord Privy Seal to your most Excellent Majesty, of the true State of your Majesty's Government and Kingdoms. April 27th 1682.  
HAving by the Obligations of your Royal Predecessors to my Ancestors and me, for several Generations lain under the strictest Bonds of Duty and Allegiance, to employ my Studies, long Observation and Experience, for the furtherance of the Service of the Crown and Weal Public, I could not contrive how to do it better and more effectually, than by offering the same to your Majesty's View and Royal Consideration, by this Scheme thereof, which is without Intreigue for any Parties Animosity, or Envy against and Persons, or Design of Advantage or Advancement to myself or any Relation or Friends of mine. And the Nature of true Gratitude being to acknowledge and render Service for Favours received, without Ambitious practice or expectation of further Reward or Recompense, then what shall freely flow from your Majesty's Spontanious Goodness and Consideration, how to dispose of your Subjects, so as may most advance your Glory, and render you a redoubted King to your own People, and highly esteemed and courted by all your Allies and other Princes abroad. I have spent many hours to do it in the best manner I am able by the following Discourse; which is not the result of Melancholy and Discontented Thoughts, but of the most Serious and Dutiful Consideration of the present State of your Majesty's Affairs, and how I might best serve you in contributing to render your Reign Happy and Peaceable.  
Your Majesty's discerning Judgement cannot but perceive, of what high esteem with all your People, the Wise and Prosperous Government of Queen Elizabeth over these Kingdoms is to this Day, and by what able Councillors (generally the choice of her own Wisdom and Knowledge, not private Inclinations or Respects) She swayed the Sceptre thereof during a long Reign, to the universal satisfaction of her Subjects, and her great Honour over all the World: And how in Her time She made the right use of Parliaments, (Her great Council) delighting in the frequency and faithfulness thereof, and in the unanimity of her People, whereof that most Honourable Assembly well managed, will ever be the surest bond to your Majesty and all your Successors. In her time England Flourished, Religion the Darling thereof Prospered, and was firmly settled; none durst attempt Encroachment upon the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects: The Laws had their uninterrupted Course, and the several Benches were supplied with most able Judges, who held it their Honour and Duty to serve that Renowned Queen, on the Profits arising Legally by their Places, without further charge to the Crown or reward, but advancement to higher degrees, after long and faithful Service, which the Queen was a great Observer and Judge of. Your Majesty's Royal Grandfather King James, as he followed her Steps, continued most of her Council, built upon the happy Foundations She had laid; had a Prosperous and Peaceable Reign, without other Interruption then what arose by Heats between his Majesty and some of his Parliaments, which 'tis some blemish on that time, that they were not managed so Dexterously as they had been in his Predecessors times, and was an Introduction to succeeding Mischiefs.  
Your Majesty's Royal Father was under some Impression from the same cause, and by the long discontinuance of Parliaments, discontents increased, Jealousies were fomented, and Affairs by Ill Ministers, and the unhappy accidents, and Juncture of the times brought to such a Crisis, that when a Parliament was called in the Seventeenth Year of his Majesty's Reign, and soon dissolved in heat and dissatisfaction, the necessity of Affairs and Intervening Misfortunes, and unhappy Circumstances, soon brought on the great Council of the Peers, and by their advice, as the only Remedy for growing Evils, and to prevent Impending Mischiefs, another Parliament was called and Sat the same Year; but by an unadvised Act therein Passed, Derogatory to the King's Prerogative, relative to Parliaments, and temporarily changing the very Constitution thereof, a Foundation was laid for those Divisions and Miseries which ensued, and ended with the Ruin of that Parliament, and the Destruction of that Great Prince, to the high Dishonour of the English Nation, but were continued by many changes of Hands and Powers, till by the wonderful Providence of God, and Love and Duty of your Subjects, your Majesty was (by a Parliament assembled as the Neceslity of the time required, by your honest Subjects Usurping that Incommunicable Prerogative of the Crown, for the restitution of Monarchy itself) called home from your Banishment, and restored to the Throne of your Ancestors, with the greatest and most unanimous Joy and Acclamation of your People, that had been in any Age or Kingdom. And your Majesty Reigned many Years since, Fond of and in Love with Parliaments, and received those marks and effects of their Affection and Freeness to your Majesty by the settlement of a large Revenue, and otherwise, which all your Predecessors from the very Original of Parliaments put together had not done, to the Envy no doubt of all other Kings and Princes, especially of the Ancient Enemies of England.  
The unhappy Interruption that seems to be of late to those halcyon days, and the occasions thereof, are secrets of State which none must presume to be bold with, till your Majesty's Royal Heart, which cannot but be touched with a just and sad sense thereof, shall incline to call for serious and free Councils thereupon; by which it is not impossible to be informed how the change hath come, and by what means your Majesty's Reign may continue suitable to those beginnings and former happiness, till the aged conclusion thereof, which all your good Subjects wish you.  
Towards this nevertheless as far as I may adventure in generals (and out of an honest and dutiful mind) without being called, give me leave to unburthen my Soul to your Majesty as followeth.  
I know nothing more inclines a People to reverence and admire their King, then to see his Affairs, so governed that he needs not the Supplies of his Subjects; and that he lets them find that he is so far from a mind to invade their Liberties, or to advance his own Condition and Greatness by the Dimunition of theirs; that he counts himself in this happy, above the most absolute Monarches; that he is King of a Rich, Free, Stout, and Mighty People; and that he takes content Bountifully to expend his whole Royal Revenue (as your Majesty doth, though it be double to that of any your famous Progenitors) for the Honour, Greatness, and Safety of your Kingdoms, and in Bounties to your Subjects; wherein if your Majesty hath exceeded (to the contracting of a troublesome and dangerous Debt) Councils ought to be offered how you may be extricated, and Supplies come from your Subjects in Parliament, not as the fruits of Practice and Importunity, but as grateful returns for beneign and good Government, as they were in the time of Queen Elizabeth.  
Towards the accomplishing hereof, your Majesty may please to consider and be informed by means that may be offered, of all the particular Bounties and Favours that have flown from you since your Restoration:  
And have a Book prepared for you as K. H. 7. a Wise Prince had, of all that have Merited from, or been Obliged and Rewarded by the Crown, which your Majesty may consult as a Guide to you, additional to your personal Knowledge of Men (which is greater than any your Predecessors had) before you resolve on any Grant or Bounty; wherein none ought to Importune the King, but leave him to his own time and consideration; else the condition of Modest Men will be desperate, and the boldest Beggars (though perhaps the unfittest Persons) will be the surest Speeders. Princes through their Bountiful Inclination and uneasiness at Trouble, being more subject to be wrought upon by Importunity then other Men; but when your Majesty upon deliberation hath said the Word, let it be sacred and unchangeable, except upon just cause avowed to the Parties shame.  
In my time many are grown to great Estates under your Majesty's Royal Father and yourself, and many are in a course to arrive at the like, whilst your Majesty sinks into a Debt; from such you may confidently require diligent and faithful Service and Care, to ease your Majesty and do your work; so that your Honour and Dignity may be supported, and so that all your Subjects may see and Rejoice, that you have conferred your Favours on fuch as render themselves Worthy thereof, and ease the great pains and troubles that attend so weighty a Crown as your Majesties is, to which their Duty as well as Obligations bind them; and the strife among them should be only who should serve so good a Master best. I am sure I will have no difference with nor offend any of them but upon that account, and therein I shall never doubt of Protection and Countenance from your Majesty as far as I am trusted.  
I know your Majesty hath received much disquiet by the attempts to weaken or shake the Legal Succession of the Crown, against your Majesties deelared Resolution to the contrary; and cannot forget that I have often assured your Majesty, such endeavours will be best diverted by wise and gentle handling of Parliaments, and the right use of your house of Peers in such contests, wherein I have and shall ever be ready in a Parliamentary way, to do your Majesty all the Faithful service I am capable of, and to find out such Expedients as may satisfy your People, that their Religion and Liberties may be secured by other ways, that shall neither displease nor discompose your Majesty, nor so much as raise in you a Jealousy, that there is the least aim to invade your Prerogative, or give you disquiet or disturbance.  
It is within my Memory, that the great case of Habeas Corpus, the business of the Loans, etc. were bandied in Parliament, viz. 3 of your Father's Reign, which produced the Petition of Right to be made a Law. After that the Case of Ship Money, which for more assurance after Judgement in the House of Peers against it by their ordinary Authority and Power of Judicature, was branded and condemned by Act of Parliament as Illegal and Arbitrary and all the Judges questioned for their Extrajudicial Opinions; and yet in this Case, not only his Majesty's Learned Council, but all the Judges upon a Case stated, were unanimous for the King Right; but being drawn Ex parte (as the other Cases were also) it was very easy through Fear or weakness of Judgement, or want of the due Ventilation and digestion, that causes of such import were wont to have, after many Days hearing of Council on both sides, and Arguments at the Bar and Bench to engage in mistakes; which therefore afterwards came to a public Disquisition in the Court of King's Bench, and by Writ of Error in the Exchequer Chamber, upon the opposition of private Subjects, who would not sit down in a Case of that Consequence, where they conceived and were advised the right lay on their sides, against the Opinion of the Judges; who being preingaged by Exjudicial Opinions, had before both in the King's Bench, and all the Judges of England, excext Three or Four in the Exchequer Chamber, upon the Writ of Error, given Judgement against the Subject, yet by the Division of the Judges when it came to be a Chequer Chamber Case, (which I heard entirely) and the Free and Learned arguing thereof, and view of the Records for supporting of the Liberties of the Subjects, the Eyes of People were so opened, that the opposition to the payment of it grew general; and the first Parliament which was called after, (as is before mentioned) put an end to that controversy for ever. The Progress and conclusion of this Case ought to sway with your Majesty, to be wary and circumspect in all Cases of Law for the future, that are not warranted by known Law and Practice, appearing upon mature consideration and debate. For here was more than ordinary caution used, before the King would impose a new Burden upn his Subjects, though his Necessities were by the long discontinuance of Parliaments, and intervening accidents very great. And he had better vouchers than are ever like to be had again in a Controversy between the King and the Subject; and yet all came to a sad reckoning, and raised Jealousies which are not quite Extinguished to this Day. And by attempts in new Cases, which draw consequences that will raise apprehensions of insecurity to the Subject may unhappily revive. I have always thought it more dangerous to the Crown, by colour and pretence of Legal Authority, to do a thing of general and standing import and alarm to the Subject, then without consideration to do transcient Acts of Violence, which I am well assured your Majesty never will.  
And your Majesty having not only by your Coronation Oath (at which I was present) Legally and Solemnly obliged yourself to the Law and Customs and good Government of England, but by many Declarations since in Parliament and otherwise, to the great satisfaction of your People of all degrees, removed the apprehensions some had taken up to the contrary, and are by too many still retained and improved, from the late unexpected Dissolution of divers Parliaments, and their proving Abortive.  
I cannot but in Zeal to your Majesty's Honour and Safety, and that it may not be in the power of any wicked instruments to foment Jealousies or to raise Doubts any longer, humbly beseech your Majesty (since it cannot be supposed that your Majesty is skilled in the Knowledge of all the Laws) that in all cases of Difficulty, and which are not of ordinary Cognizance and Practice, but such, wherein the Lives, Liberties and Properties of your Subjects in general may be concerned: your Majesty to the end you may perform what you intent to your People, will require the debates and advice of your Council at Law, and your Privy Council, before your Majesty be engaged in points of Law, that upon further Consideration and Trial will not hold, but raise Disputes and bring Blemish upon your Majesty's Proceed; which else must light upon those whose Duty it is Faithfully to advise your Majesty, and within the bounds of your Oath and Legal Pleasure so often declared.  
The late War between your Royal Father and his Parliament, was little expected (as any is now) to arise in this Kingdom; but it came on insensibly and by degrees, and the intervening of unlooked for accidents, till it raised a Current that carried all before it, and had a dreadful Progress and Conclusion; yet the rise of it was but Fears and Jealousies (no bigger I may say then a Man's Hand Visible to us) whasoever might be in the Womb of Providence. It's true not Arming or Gathering of Forces now appears, there is no Parliament in Being, not Act in Force, for any to continue till they will dissolve themselves: But the same English People which they were wont to represent, live in their own Houses, claim their good old Laws and Liberties, and are watchful over them; who knows what the present Licentious paper War may produce, It's come to open quarrelling already, and quarrels bring Bloodshed. The scence is only changed, from Skirmishes and Battles in the Fields, and Sieges of Cities and Towns, it's come now to contention in every House, to altercations and Fightings between Sheriffs and other Officers, Grand Juries and Petty Juries and they and the Courts of Justice, who by Law are the Conservators of our Peace, are engaged in the quarrels, and Verdicts are found and Judgements given as the litigant parties exceed one the other in power and practice, more than by the Merits of the Cause, which engageth almost the whole People of one side or other in every Case.  
So that now Justice hath lost its old deep still Channel, and all Causes are carried by a Fierce Impetuous Torrent, which in time (if not diverted) may break all our Banks, and prove a general Inundation; for it's come to this already, that all Reverence to Ministerial Officers, Juries, Judges, is lost; and there is now no case of moment almost wherein there is not mustering of Parties, and instead of Parliaments, Appeals are made to the People, who can neither meet nor judge in a Body, and therefore end all Controversies by quarrelling Parties, whose Judgement if it were legal can neither be known nor executed but in Parliament, where the Collective Body of your People meet by representation, and where these ill symptoms of a divided and distempered Kingdom, can only hope for and receive a Cure, which God and your Majesty Grant.  
The Oracle of Truth hath said, That a Kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Things Frame as if it were the design on all Hands, to increase and foment Divisions instead of pacifying them; whence else is the intolerable Licence of giving Nick Names, and Marks of Distinction and Reproach to one another, to challenge and publish Chartels of Defiance, to Scuffle and Fight in the very Streets and Coffee Houses, and the Dissenters in Religion blamed and suffer for all this, as of old the cry was, Christianos ad Leones, when there is such a general ferment of Ranchor and Malice throughout the Kingdom, as is never like to be removed, but by such Remedies as shall be offered before I Conclude.  
To the discomposed Estate of your Majesties own Kingdoms, the disjointed and dangerous condition of Christendom, by the overgrown Greatness and Usurped Dominion of the French King over other Princes and States, doth not a little contribute, and when he shall have leisure and power, to finish his secret Councils and Intrigues, to Corrupt and Engage in his Designs, your Majesties Disaffected or Ambitious Subjects, or prevail with your Majesty to believe that his Purse or Power and strict Friendship with your Majesty are necessary, or but probable means to support your Crown and Dignity, and bridle the Subjects which his Artifices and Insinuations have raised a Jealousy of; it will occasion such a Paroxysm and such Couvulsions in the State, as may dangerously Shake and Hazard the Peace of your Kingdoms, if not render your Great and Renowned Government a Prey to Foreigners.  
But the Fatal Cause of all our Mischiefs present or apprehended, and which if not by Wisdom Antidoted, may raise a Fire which will Burn and Consume to the very Foundation; is the unhappy Perversion of the Duke of York (the next Heir to the Crown) in point of Religion, which naturally raises Jealousy of the Power, Designs, and Practices, of the old Enemies of our Religion and Liberties, and Undermines and Emasculates the Courage and Constancy even of those and their Posterity, who have been as Faithful to, and Suffered as much for the Crown, as any the most pleased or contented in our impending Miseries, can pretend to have done.  
In short, though the Supreme Wheel of Providence must be owned in all that is or may come upon us, yet every one seems to be at Work to dig the Kingdoms Grave; and if God hath determined our Confusion, the least accidental disorder will too naturally bring things to a general Complaint and Quarrel about Religion, Laws, Liberties and Properties, unless before the Gangreen spread further, it be by competent and wise Council and steady Government made appear, that all these are secured, past the Fear or Apprehension of all Good and Prudent Men, and thereby that handle of Contention wrested from the Enemies Foreign and Domestic of our Religion and Peace.  
Towards the attaining that wished for end, and the delivering us from our Divisions and Fears, and rendering your Majesty and Kingdom Safe, Glorious and Happy; I shall now set before your Majesty, the most proper Means and Remedies that occur to me, upon the most serious Consideration.  
1. To begin with Parliaments, where your Majesty is in your greatest Glory, and your Kingdom in its greatest Strength, Activity and Usefulness; your Majesty by your many Declarations of your Love to and delight in them, and Resolution of frequent Assembling them, hath set such an edge upon the Spirits of your People (ever fond of Parliaments) that hope deferred will make their Hearts Faints, and raise Jealousies which may breed Ill Blood before their Meeting. But preparatory to a better understanding, it were to be wished, that the licentious Liberty now taken to asperse the Memory and weaken the very Constitution and Power of Parliaments were seasonably Discountenanced and Corrected. The blaming and reprehending of Parliaments, or either House thereof, is a peculiar and prerogative fit for your Majesty alone (who are the Head of them, and whose great Counsels they are) and which is to be exercised according to the example of your Majesty's most Wise and Prosperous Predecessors only in Parliament time, when they may be heard and acquit themselves, or any Slips, Errors or Faults that shall appear may be reform, amended or redressed, or in cases disputable, new Remedies applied to prevent future Contests. And as the Peopls in general out of Parliament have no Authority herein, much less a part of them; so I count it of very pernicious Example and Consequence, and no ways serviceable to your Majesty by whomsoever encouraged, that any Numbers or Degrees of Men, have presumed (under what Colour soever) to trample upon the Honour of Dissolved Parliaments, and Arraign their Proceed, which are only to be Examined and Judged by Parliament, who can alone rectify the same, if found Erroneous and Unwarrantable.  
And I hearty wish this Innovation may not prove one of the greatest Obstacles to a good Intelligence, the next Parliament, and that it may never be questioned with two much heart and resentment, which whosoever shall be chosen to serve therein, may think it their concern to do effectually, for the safety and preserving the chief Privileges and Rights of Parliament, which are Freedom and Protection (so that none may entertain and vent dishonourable Thoughts of them, to the violation of their good Names or Persons) and an Examption from being questioned or impeached in any other Court or Place but in that, the only Supreme Court of the Kingdom.  
2. It will be your Honour and Safety, to encourage and employ your Ancient and deserving Nobility and Gentry, whose interest in their Countries will be of more use and avail to your Majesty, than all the bold and confident undertake of those, who seek themselves chief in all their pretences of Love and Duty to your Majesty, and really weaken and diminish the Admiration, Affection and Esteem, which otherwise (from your Gracious and Wise Government) your Majesty may have will all your People, who are the most Dutiful and fond of their Prince in the World, if well and kindly used, as the most Turbulent and Fierce under the Sun, if by ill or unsteady management of Affairs, and too much subjecting of them to the Will and Humour of their fellow Subjects, and the oppressions which their too much presuming on his Favour brings upon them (which they easily discover (being a discerning People) they find themselves transferred from the Clemency, Bounty and Kindness of their Sovereign, and abandoned to the Pride, Malice, and Imperious Arbitrariness and Will of those who are but Subjects as well as they, and who want that natural Affection and Tenderness which their Sovereign Liege Lord cannot but retain towards them, and whose Wisdom (which God who advanceth them to the Throne, usually endues them with (must needs persuade him, that he is weakened and made a less Monarch, by loss of the Love and Duty of his meanest Subject.  
3. The Two Great Instruments of Government, with which your Majesty in Right of your Imperial Crown, is solely entrusted by the Law, are Reward and Punishment. Let the first be always dispensed freely, freely, as your Personal Knowledge or the best information that may be had shall Guide you, by your own immediate Hand, that others may not receive the Thanks and Dependence due to you alone.  
Sir Henry Sidney (Great Sir Philip's Father) who was Lord Deputy of Ireland many times, and my Great Grandfather Sir John Parrot, who succeeded him in the same Great Charge and Trust; and divers others, though they refused not to serve your Predecessors, yet grew weary of the place, when in those troubled and dangerous Times, they were forced to spend of their own to support the Dignity and Honour of the Crown: Such as serve your Majesty so, in expectation of future regard to be had to their deserts, ought not to be forgotten, when higher Preferments or more profitable permanent and easy happen, than those they served in with Submistion and patiented expectation. Nothing is more discouraging and offensive to the generality of Subject, then to see Men rise over hastily, and before their Merits are known or taken notice of, perhaps whilst their Demerit hath brought them into disesteem; wherewas, those that are advanced by just degrees, are seen Shining in Merit before they are clothed with Honour or Preferment, rejoice the Kingdom, and are no more Maligned, than those who have served their Apprenticeships, and come to be Lord Mayor.  
Thus in the best time, Men have risen in the King's Household, and in other Establishments from low Degree, and after long approved Service and Faithfulness, to high Preferment and Trust. And this encourageth Industry and Dutiful Service, and is a Bond of Safety; whereas bought preferment, or attained by Ill Arts, is Odious, and Dangerous to the Master; and when Money is the only qualification, People mind solely how to come by that, let the means to compass it be what they will.  
As for the other, which is Punishment, let your Majesty's Love and Clemency to your People make it appear to proceed from you unwillingly and of necessity, for the support and strenthning of Government, and be so executed, that it may not seem or so much as be suspected, to come from any Principle of Cruelty, or Delight in the Pressures of Fall of any Persons. The known Clemency of a Prince and Inclination to Mercy, doth more to oblige Subjects, than the strongest Impressions of Dread or Fear; it being natural to the veriest Worm to turn again, if he be unmercifully trod upon, and despair to Please, or causelessly conceived Jealousy, many times occasions the loss of most Useful and Honest Servants.  
4. I know your Majesty to be a great Patron of the Church and Churchmen, and therefore for their sakes (who are seldom wise for themselves) I presume to implore, that you will never Countenance and of them, that shall busy themselves with matters of State and Government, out of their Sphere. In all my Reading and Experience, I find, that in the most dangerous Disorders and Revolutions of the World, they have ever had a principal Hand; when their chief work should be to pray for and promote the Peace of Church and State, in the Calling God hath set them. And it never yet came under my Observation or Knowledge, that any Kingdom was Happy or Prosperous, where they had too great and influence, since the Primitive Time and Zeal, nor that ever it succeeded well to themselves, or gained upon those under their Charge, when they shown themselves Active in Temporal Affairs, having a Calling competent to employ the whole Man, and are to give themselves to all diligence and piety, wherein they are promised a Blesling; as their great Master hath warned them, that his Kingdom is not of this World; and that they should not Fight, nor Strive, nor Entangle themselves with the Affairs of this Life. It's observable, what the pretended power of one to do so, In ordine ad Spiritualia, hath brought the World to, and how difficultly Encroachments of that Tribe are removed; your Majesty is not to scruple the distinct and incommunicale exercise of that Authority, which the Law gives your, and all your People have bound themselves to acknowledge your peculiar.  
It's a hard Imposition on your Majesty, that you should (who are the Father of your People) be called upon to Imprison, Confiscate, Banish or otherwise Afllict and Distress any of your Peaceable and Industrious Subjects, because other taken upon them (by what right let them consider) to denounce them Excommunicate; that were to punish their Bodies because their Souls are punished; for the Clergy cannot so much as pretend a Power to go further. And the Magistrate hath little reason to hearken to those Clergymen, who are so diffident of their pretended Authority, that though they cry up the power of the Keys as their Office, yet when they have done, yield it to be so uneffectual a shadow of Power, as can do nothing without the Civil Magistrates force, below whom it is to be debased, to be the Clergies Executioner in punishing, before he have tried the Cause. The Magistrate that seethe a Man Excommunicated for this fault, should rather delay his Civil Force against that Man, to see what effect his Excommunication will have, for the Conjunction of the Sword with the Excommunication makes the fruit of it undiscernible, so that none can see whether it did any thing at all, or whether all was done by the fear of the Temporal Sword. And to force Ministers to absolve or give the Holy Sacrament to such as had rather take it then lie in Goal and be undone, is to set up such new Terms of Christian Communion, as Christ never instituted, nor will approve, Church-Communion being a privilege due only to Volunteers and true Penitents.  
It were worthy your Majesty to recommend for the Clergies Practice and Experience, the Grace of Self Denial, they Preach to others; for generlaly none live more easy and pleasurable Lives than they; instead of the Primitive Austerity, Mortification and Piety, or less pity, or oppose differences and disorders; well were it if too many of them did not Forment and Encourage them; these things have brought that Contempt upon many of the Clergy, that I am sorry to see, who remember the times, when for their unblamable Life, painful discharge of their Calling, Hospitality and Watchfulness over men's Souls, those of their Flocks thought nothing too much, and were ready to pull out their right Eyes for them.  
5. As a prime Foundation of your Majesty Greatness and Honour, Let the Setriement and Increase of your Majesty's Revenue be laid to Heart, I have often secretly Lamented to see your Majesty, who have the greatest and surest Revenue of any Potentate in Christendom, but one, many times brought to such great straits by the ill management thereof, that I know not whether your Majesty did not enjoy yourself more in the time of your Exile, being deprived of all your own, than you do now; and your Servants and Followers better contented with Hopes and Expectations, than they are now with their lank Enjoyments, Retrenchments, and Suspensions.  
Towards the redress hereof, such should be sought out and encouraged, that are able and willing to improve your Revenue to the best advantage, without greedy pursuit of their own priate gain, such Men no doubt your Majesty's Kingdom doth afford, and may be found, and by a just Calculation of the vast Estares some have raised to themselves, by a lose, and despicable way of ordeing it, it will appear, how and by what means your Majesty becomes Poor, whilst others wallow in your Riches; and what a vast detriment you are at, till this great Work be vigorously taken in hand and regulated, by which no doubt your Revenue may be raised to some Hundred Thousands of pounds Sterling, above what it now amounts to. Let me bear the disgrace of being accounted an Imposter, if I Evince not what I have said; and then your Majesty will be the best Judge how you have been served since your Restoration; though I accuse none that have served you hitherto, but desire all Errors and Failings may be remitted and forgotten, upon condition that they who have had the misfortune (to give it no worse a Character) of coming short of doing your Majesty that Service which is now propose, may with Patience and without Envy or Practice, see you better served by others for the future.  
The Shrunk Sinews of your Government being thus enlarged and strengthened, and the design appearing certain to your Majesty, I do humbly propose, 

1. That the greatness of your Household may be restored to that of your most renowned Predecessors, this will indeed advance your Honour and Esteem bot at home and abroad. I who have live to see the great Hall of the King's House, and his Sollars, Buttery and Pantry full of Strangers at Dinner, and between Meals, have been hearty ashamed to see the times, when a Dinner or a Cup of Wine is hardly to be had for the best Guests, nor so much as Food for his Council and other great Persons that attend in progress, and when the Court is in the Country. When in Parliament your Majesty had a full and ample recompense given you for purveyance, and which will more than double supply the want thereof, it was little expected things would come to this pass; but though there was then no appropriating of the Hereditary Excise granted in recompense, their intention that it should so applied did sufficiently appear, and hath been generally expected.  
2. The plentiful provision for your Household, having set your Majesty and Family at ease, the second thing to be cared for, is the Security of your Majesty and Government, by a well established provision for your new Guards, till the unanimous Love of your People, which I will not despair to see, may make your Majesty judge it a Superfluous Charge, and the old Guards your Majesty's Anecstors were safe in, with the united affection of all your Subjects (which your will deserve as well as any that ever swayed the Sceptre of this Kingdom) sussicient.  
3. To uphold your Sovereignty of the Seas, and to procure your Majesty's being feared and redoubted abroad, and your Subjects accounting themselves safe at home, and in their Trade and Commerce to all parts of the World, whether they shall carry your Name and Fame, nothing will contribute more than a powerful Fleet, which the circumstances of Affairs, and the change thereof in that point all the World over require, should much exceed those of your Predecessors; though they ever claimed the Dominion of the Seas; and that the best use may be made thereof, and with best Husbandry and most certainty, that your Storehouses, Yards and Wharves, may be timely replenithed with all Warlike Provisions and Necessaries whatsoever, for thespeedy setting cut of Fleets to Sea, and you Ships kept always in good repair for that end; without which such surprises may happen as we have formerly felt, and occasions for Service never again to be recovered, may be lost, both being equally Dishonourable and Mischievous to your Majesty and Kingdoms.  
4. The next thing to assure the Obedience of your Subjects, and to advance your Majsesties Honour of Justice may run uninterrupted, this being the chief end that the chief Magistrates or Kings are advanced above their Brethren, and have a divine stamp set upon their Authority as as Bond of Awe and Obedience. In order hereunto let your Majesty's principal Care be to choose freely, the most able and honest Men, and of the greatest Integrity for Judges in all the Courts; they who punish others had need be very unblamable themselves; and here it ought to be well considered, whether of all Persons Judges should not hold by the freest Tenure, and enjoy their places quamdiu se beme gesserint, at least, and never be discountenanced or displaced, but upon good proof of Crimes or Offences, which render them unworthy that Trust and Dignity, and their Punishment for which will rejoice your Subjects; they of all Men ought to be placed above the Tempations of Hopes or Fears, as much as is possible, than Judgement will run down like a Stream, and Righteousness like mighty Waters.    
And where Justice is to slow immediately from your Majesty, as towards all Officers and Domestics that hold by no Tenure but your Royal pleasure, care would be taken of every step leading thereunto; Pickthank Informers and Sycophants, are the worst Instruments that can get into Prince's Courts; but if they do, they are not to be admitted to the King's Ear nevertheless if Intruders happen, let your Majesty be so upon your Guard, that no Man be undermined, born down, or ruined by a Whisper: It is but Justice, for your Majesty to heart. Servant you have esteemed, or perhaps rewarded as Faithful, before you condemn or grieve him, or to make way it may be, for a worse prejudice yourself, and undo him and his Family; such Errors many times cost Princes dear: and your Resolution being known, to hear before you Judge, you will be delivered from Tale-bearers and mean Spirits, that have not the Courage of Honesty to avow the Accusations they make; and when just Complaints are brought before your, by honest and owned Informations, your Majesty may be Judge yourself; whereas, otherwise your Majesty is but made the Executioner of Vile-mens' Malice, Villainy or Ambition, and your best, and most useful, and faithful. Servants may be Whispered from your, and your Majesty lest in the hand of those who for Ends, Human Frailty, and designing Ambitious Men are subject to, will not spare to runine or betray your Majesty for advantage; the same secret way they destroyed their fellow Subjects unseen.  
Whereas, those who intent your Majesty real Service, will openly, and like Men of Honour (who fear the Frown of no Man) charge the Guilty for Justice sake.  
Another main branch of Justice is (that you may be King of all your Subjects Hearts) To find out ways to unite your People, and for that Happy end, to avoid countenancing divided and dividing Addresses, and Invasions upon the Liberties and Franchise of your People, granted by your Royal Predecessors or yourself, especially when the train and design of them is visible, or hath its rise from your own Court, or tend to foment heats and discontents, and raise jealousies.  
The great Lord Bacon Viscount St. Alban, who was not only a Wise Statesman, but Lord Chancellor of England, adviseth the King to be of no Faction or Party, but to make use of and be above all, if any be in his Kingdom, or they will much prejudice his Authority and Business. If any great Man or others, be suspected on good Grounds Guilty of dangerous Practice or Crime, let the Authority of the Law and not the Cry of the People (whether by Art of Inclination drawn to it, bear them down) who bawl Hosanna and Crucify with equal Zeal even against their Saviour; better it were that Ten Malesactors escaped then one Innocent Person should suffer by Practice, Injustice or Violence.  
I should rejoice to see your People unanimously kind to your Majesty, but for any to pretend it in diminution of better Subjects than themselves, and in ways provoking, Offensive and Reproachful, tending to the disquiet of your Majesty, and disturbance of the Peace of the Kingdom, all Good and Wife Men from their very Souls abhor, as time will shaw, when this Land Flood of Contention and Humour, if not Jesuitical Practice hath spent itself, which it will soon do it not dangerously kept up and countenanced; in which Case as a Kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, so if my Fears upon such Intrigues, succeed till the breach be wide as the Sea, I have delivered my own Soul by this timely warning, which I hope you will graciously consider. And the working Pens of Libelers being daily at work, to undermine our Peace and foment Divisions, not unlikely employed by the worst Enemies of this Kingdom and Government, it will be the highest recomendation of your Majesty's Kindness to and Care of your People, that this soul common-sewer of distempered Brains and tainted Hearts, be diverted or shut up, lest it Infect and Poison the whole Kingdom past Recovery, and render the happiest Church and State in the World a Scorn to Fools. And to prevent so great Mischief, it will be Glorious in your Majesty, to discountenance even the Libelers boldly, pretending to write in support of the Crown (which God be thanked stands os untaken upon your Majesty's Head, as upon that of the greatest of your Ancestors) as to punish others upon vain pretences, taking the same Licence; so that the Silencing and Confusion of all Libelers, as far as the Law will warrant, may be one happy effect of your Majesty's good and powerful Government, and when the make-bates and Sowers of Division cease, then mutual Love may be restored.  
5. The last thing I shall trouble your Majesty with, is concerning the provident management of your Revenue, which will be the greatest help to keep all the parts of your Government in order.  
I know well, and can make it manifest beyond Contradiction, that vast Reducements may be of your charge in England, to general satisfaction, and with the discontent only greedy Officers and Suitors, whose places may be better supplied of Meritorious Persons or their Issue, who being entailed to the Crown by former Favours to them or their Ancestors for just Merit, must be accounted better and stronger supports to your Majesty, than those whose Ambition or Covetousness makes them crowd the Court, yet never entail your Favours to any, will beget Diligence and raise expectation in your Followers and Dependants.  
I beseech your Majesty to consider, what great things the Crown of England hath done in former Ages, with its own bare Revenue and by the Love of his Subjects, both in England, Ireland and Foreign Countries; how your Majesty comes now to be in pinching wants, and none of those great undertake upon your Hands is fit to be inquired: one thing is obvious to me, which will persuade that other instances of ill management and mispense may be produced. Your Majesty spends now Yearly in Ireland's full Peace, more than served to defray the Charges of the Crown, in the greatest Rebellions of the Oneils Tirones, Desmond, and others; nay, I want not good warrant to assure your Majesty, that the chief Governors prosits alone in that Kingdom, amount to more now then maintained the Government of Ireland, both in the Civil and Military Estate thereof, in some of the troubled and dangerous times of that Kingdom, and hath incident to his Office divers Favours, Civil, Ecclesiastical and Military, to oblige your Subjects both Great and Small with, which should most properly be dispensed by your Majesties own Hand, to weaken dependence on fellow Subjects, and fix greater and stronger on your Majesty.  
To Conclude, Though your Majesty is in your own Person above the reach of Law, and Sovereign of all your People, yet the Law is your Master and Instructor how to Govern, and your Subjects assure themselves, you will never attempt the enervating that Law by which you are King, and which your have not only by frequent Declarations, but by solemn Oath upon your Throne, been obliged in a most Glorious Presence of your People to the maintenance of; and that therefore you will look upon any that shall propose or advise to the contrary, as unfit Persons to be near you; and on those who shall persuade you it is Lawful, as Sordid Flatterers, and the worst and most dangerous Enemies your and your Kingdom have. What I set before your Majesty, I have written freely and like a Sworn Faithful Councillor; perhaps not like a wise Man, with regard to myself as things stand, but I have discharged my Duty, and shall count it a Reward if your Majesty vouchsafe to read what I durst not but write, and which I beseech Good to give a blessing to.