A DISCOURSE, or PARLEY, continued betwixt Partricius and Peregrine (upon their landing in France) touching the civil Wars of England and Ireland.  Peregrine. 
GEntle Sir, you are happily arrived on this shore; we are now upon firm ground, upon the fair Continent of France: we are not circumscribed or cooped up within the narrow bounds of a rheumatic Island; we have all Europe before us. Truly I am not a little glad to have shaken hands with that tumbling Element the Sea; And for England, I never intent to see her again, unless it be in a Map; nay, In statu quo nunc, while this Faction reigns, had I left one eye behind me, I should hardly return thither to fetch it; therefore if I be missing at any time, never look for me there. There is an old Proverb, From a black Germane, a white Italian, a red Frenchman, I may add one member more, and, from a Round-headed Englishman, The Lord deliver us.  Partricius. 
I have often crossed these Seas, and I found myself always pitifully sick; I did ever and anon tell what Wood the Ship was made of; but in this passage I did not feel the least motion or distemper in my humours: for, indeed I had no time to think on sickness, I was so wholly taken up, and transported with such a pleasing conceit, to have left yonder miserable Island.  Pereg. 
Miserable Island indeed; for I think there was never such a tyranny exercised in any Christian Country under Heaven; a tyranny that extends not only to the body, but the brain also; not only to men's fortunes and estates, but it reaches to their very souls and consciences, by violented new coercive Oaths and Protestations, composed by Laymen, inconsistent with the liberty of Christians. Never was there a Nation carried away by such a strong spirit of delusion; never was there a poor people so purblinded and Puppified, if I may say so, as I find them to be; so that I am at a stand with myself, whether I shall pity them more, or laugh at them. They not only kiss the stone that hurts them, but the hands of them that hurl it; they are come to that passive stupidity, that they adore their very persecutors, who from polling fall now a shaving them, and will flay them at last, if they continue this popular reign. I cannot compare England, as the case stands with her, more properly, then to a poor beast, sick of the staggers, who cannot be cured without an incision. The Astronomers, I remember, affirm that the Moon (which predominates over all humid bodies) hath a more powerful influence o'er your British Seas then any other; so that according to the observation of some Navigators, they swell at a spring tide in some places, above threescore cubits high: I am of opinion, that that inconstant humorous Planet, hath also an extraordinany dominion over the brains of the Inhabitants; for when they attempt any Innovation (whereunto all Insulary people are more subject than other Citizens of the world which are fixed upon the Continent) they swell higher, their fancies work stronglier, and so commit stranger extravagancies than any other: witness these monstrous barbarismes and violences, which have been, and are daily offered to Religion and justice, (the two grand supporters of all States) yea, to humane Reason itself, since the beginning of these tumults.  
And now, noble Sir, give me leave to render you my humble thanks for that true and solid information you pleased to give me in London of these commotions.  
During my short sojourn there, I lighted on divers odd Pamphlets upon the Seamstresses stalls, whom I wondered to see selling Paper sheets in lieu of Holland: one the one side I found the most impudent untruths (vouched by public authority) the basest scurrillities, and poorest jingles of wit, that ever I read in my life; on the other side I met with many pieces that had good stuff in them, but gave me not (being a stranger) a full satisfaction, they looked no further than the beginning of this Parliament, and the particular emergences thereof: But you have, by your methodical relation, so perfectly instructed and rectified my understanding, by bringing me to the very source of these distempers, and led me all along the side of the current by so straight a line, that I believe, whosoever will venture upon the most intricate task of penning the story of these vertiginous times, will find himself not a little beholden to that piece, which, in deed may be termed a short Chronicle rather than a Relation. We are come now under another clime, and here we may mingle words, and vent our conceptions more securely, it being, as matters stand, in your Country, more safe to speak under the Lily than the Rose; we may here take in, and put out freer air; I mean, we may discourse with more liberty: for, words are nought else but air articulated, and coagulated, as it were, into letters and syllables.  Patr. 
Sir, I deserve not these high expressions of your favourable censure touching that poor piece; but this I will be bold to say; That whosoever doth read it impartially, will discover in the Author the Genius of an honest Patriot, and a Gentleman. And now me thinks I look on you unfortunate Island, as if one did look upon a Ship tossed up and down in distress of wind and weather, by a furious tempest, which the more she tugs and wrestles with the foamy waves of the angry Ocean, the more the fury of the storm increaseth, and puts her in danger of shipwreck; and you must needs think, Sir, it would move compassion in any heart, to behold a poor Ship in such a desperate case, specially when all his kindred, friends and fortunes; yea, his Religion, the most precious Treasure of all, are aboard of her, and upon point of sinking. Alas I can contribute nothing now to my poor country but my prayers and tears, that it would please God to allay this tempest, and cast over board those that are the true causers of it, and bring the people to the right use of Reason again. It was well observed by you, Sir, That there is a Nationall kind of indisposition, and obliquity of mind that rageth now amongst our people, and I fear it will be long ere they return to their old English temper, to that rare loyalty and love which they were used to show to their Sovereign: for all the Principles of Monarchy are quite lost amongst us, those ancient and sacred flowers of the English Diadem are trampled under foot; nay, matters are come to that horrid confusion, that not only the Prerogative of the Crown, but the foundamentall Privilege of the freeborn subject is utterly overthrown, by those whose Predecessors were used to be the main supporters of it. so that our King is necessitated to put himself in Arms for the preservation not only of his own Regal rights, but of Magna Charta itself, which was never so invaded and violated in any age, by such causeless tyrannical imprisonments, by such unexampled destructive taxes; by stopping the ordinary processes in Law, and awing all the Courts of Justice, by unheard of forced oaths and Associations, and a thousand other acts, which neither precedent, Book case or Statute can warrant, whereof, if the King had done but the twentieth part, he had been cried up to be the greatest Tyrant that ever was.  Pereg. 
Sir, I am an Alien, and so can speak with more freedom of your Country. The short time that I did eat my bread there, I felt the pulse of the people with as much judgement as I could; and I find, that this very word Parliament is become a kind of Idol amongst them, they do, as it were pin their salvation upon't; it is held blasphemy to speak against it. The old English Maxim was: The King can do no wrong; another Nominative case is now stepped in; That the Parliament can do no wrong, nor the King receive any: And whereas there was used to be but one Defender of the Faith, there are now started up amongst you, I cannot tell how many hundreds of them. And as in the sacred profession of Priesthood we hold, or at leastwise should hold, That after the Imposition of hands, the Minister is inspired with the Holy Ghost in an extraordinary manner for the enabling of him to exercise that Divine Function: so the English are grown to such a fond conceit of their Parliament members, that as soon as any is chosen by the confused cry of the Common people to sit within the walls of that House, an inerring spirit, a spirit of infallibility presently entereth into him (so that he is thereby become like the Pope, a Canon animatus) though some of them may haply be such flat and simple animals, that they are as fit to be Counsellors there, as Caligula's Horse was to be Consul, as the Historian tells us.  Patr. 
Touching Parliament, there breathes not a Subject under England's Crown, who hath a higher esteem of it then I, it makes that dainty mixture in our government of Monarchy, optimacy and Democracy, betwixt whom, though there be a kind of co-ordination of power during the sitting of Parliament, yet the two last, which are composed of Peers and People, have no power, but what is derived from the first, which may be called the soul that animates them, and by whose authority they meet, consult and departed: They come there to propose, not to impose Laws; they come not to make Laws by the sword; they must not be like Draco's Laws, written in blood. Their King calls them thither to be his Counsellors, not Controllers; and the Office of Counsel is to advise, not to enforce; they come thither to entreat, not to treat with their Liege Lord; they come to throw their Petitions at his feet, that so they may find a way to his heart.  
'Tis true, I have read of high things that our Parliaments have done, but 'twas either during the nonage and minority of our Kings, when they were under protectorship, or when they were absent in a foreign war, or in time of confusion, when there were competitors of the blood-royal for the Crown, and when the number of both Houses was complete and individed; but I never read of any Parliament that did arrogate to itself such a power Paramount, such a Superlative superintendence, as to check the Prerogative of their Sovereign, to question his negative voice, to pass things, not only without, but expressly against his advice and royal command: I never heard of Parliament, that would have their King, being come to the meridian of his age, to transmit his intellectuals, and whole faculty of reason to them. I find some Parliaments have been so modest and moderate (And moderation is the Rudder that should steer the course of all great Counsels) that they have declined the agitation and cognizance of some state affairs, humbly transferring them to their Sovereign and his privy Counsel: a Parliament man then, held it to be the adequate object of his duty, to study the welfare, to redress the grievances, and supply the defects of that place for which he served; the Burgeois of Linne studied to find out something that might advance the trade of Fishing; he of Norwich, what might advantage the making of Stuffe; he of Rye, what might preserve their Harbour from being choked up with Sand; he of Taveston, what might further the Manufacture of Kerseyes, and they thought to have complied with the Obligation, and discharged the consciences of honest Patriots, without soaring above their reach, and roving at random to treat of universals, to bring Religion to their bar, to pry into the Arcana Imperii, the cognizance of the one belonging to the King, and his intern Counsel of State: the other to Divines, who, according to the Etymology of the word, use to be still conversant in the exercise and speculation of holy and heavenly things.  Pereg. 
I am clearly of your opinion in these two particulars; for, secrecy being the soul of policy, matters of State should be communicated but to few; and touching Religion, I cannot see how it may quadrat with the calling, and be homogeneous to the profession of Laymen, to determine matters of Divinity, who, out of their incapacity and unaptness to the work, being not pares negotio; and being carried away by a wild kind of Conscience without Science, like a Ship without a Helm, fall upon dangerous quicksands; so that whilst they labour to mend her, they mar her, whilst they think to settle her, they confound her, whilst they plot to prevent the growth of Popery, they pause the way to bring it in, by conniving at, and countenancing those monstrous Schisms, I observed to have crept into your Church since the reign of this Parliament: so that one may justly say, These your Reformers are but the executioners of the old project of the Jesuits, the main part whereof was, and is still, to hurl the ball of discord, and hatch new opinions still 'twixt the Protestants, to make fractions and scissures between them, and so render their Religion more despicable and ridiculous.  
But me thinks, matters are come to a strange pass with you in England, that the judges cannot be trusted with the Law, nor the Prelates with the Gospel; whereas from all times, out of their long experience and years, these two degrees were of men used to be reverenced for the chief Ttruch-men, and unquestionable Expositors of both, which another power seems now to arrogate to itself, as the inerring Oracle of both: but I pray God that these grand Refiners of Religion, prove not Quacksalvers at last; that these upstart Politicians prove not Impostors: for I have heard of some things they have done, that if Machiavelli himself were alive, he would be reputed a Saint in comparison of them. The Roman ten, and Athenian thirty, were Babies to these; nay, the Spanish Inquisition, and the Bloet-Rade (that Council of blood) which the Duke of Alva erected in Flanders, when he swore, That he would drown the Hollanders in their Butter-tubs, was nothing to this; when I consider the prodigious power they have assumed to themselves, and do daily exercise over the bodies, the estates and souls of men.  
In your former Discourse you told me, that amongst multitudes of other mischiefs, which this new Faction hath wrought, they have put division twixt all sorts and sexes, twixt all conditions, both of men and women; one thing more I may say they have done in this kind: for, they have laboured to put division between the Persons of the holy Trinity, by making the first Person to be offended at that voluntary genuflexion and reverence which hath been from all times practised in the Christian Church to the name of the second Person; so that jesu-warship, as I have read in some of your profane Pamphlets, is grown now to be a word of reproach amongst you.  
But to the point; there is one thing I can never cease to wonder at: that whereras at the beginning of this Parliament, there were as able and experienced, as stout and well spoken Gentlemen, as any in the whole Kingdom, that sat in the House, and made the far major part, I wonder I say, that they would suffer this giddyheaded Faction to carry all before them in that violent manner, that they did not crush this Cockatrice in the shell.  Patr. 
First, Sir, you know there is nothing so agreeable to the nature of man, as novelty; and in the conduct of humane affairs, it is always seen, that when any new design or faction is afoot, the Projectors are commonly more pragmatical and sedulous upon the work; they lie centinel to watch all advantages, the Sand of their brains is always running this hath caused, this upstart Faction, to stick still close together, and continue marvellously constant to their ends; they have been used to tire and outfast, to weary and outwatch the moderate and well-minded Gentlemen; sometimes till after midnight, by clancular and nocturnal sit; so that as his Majesty says in one of his Declarations, most of their Votes may be said to be nought else, but Verdicts of a starved Iury.  
Another reason is, That they countenanced the flocking together of the promiscuous rabble from London, notwithstanding the two several motions the Lords made unto them, that they might be suppressed by Parliamentary Order: This rioous crew awed the wont freedom of speech in both Houses, cried up the names, and confronted many of their Members: yet these new Politicians not only connived at them, but called them their friends; and so they might well enough, or rather their Champions; for they had ordered the matter so, that they were sure to have them ready at their devotion, at the heaving of a finger: and from this tumultuous mongrel crew, they derived their first encouragements to do such high prodigious insolences they have committed since. Add hereunto, that they complied exceedingly besides with the Common Council of the City, they used to attend them early and late, and knock heads together; and if any new thing was to pass in the House, they would first wait on them, to know their pleasure, and afterwards it should be propunded and put to Vote in the House: And how derogatory it is to the high Law-making council, to make their chiefest Members wait from time to time on the Magistrates of the City, who in former times were used to attend them upon all occasions in Westminster, I am ashamed to think on; nor am I less ashamed to remember those base Artifices and indirect courses that were practised at the election of this pretended Major; here they tacked about to a second choice after the the first was legally made, and how the Common-council was packed up of the arrandest Schismatics up and down the City. And to that mutinous wealth-swolne City, and the said unbridled pack of Oppidans (seconded afterwards by the Country clowns) who offered such outrages to God's House, the King's house, and the Parliament house, may be ascribed all our miseries, and the miscarriage of things: for they caused his Majesty to forsake his own standing palace, to absent himself from his Parliament, and make that unusual progress up and down his Kingdom ever since, it put all Counsel at a stand, and in a confusion: But because the business may take better impression in you for the further illustration of it, I will relate unto you an old Egyptian Fable which comes pat to this purpose:  Upon a time, the Stars complained to Apollo, that he displayed his beams too much upon some malignant Planets; That the Moon had too great a share of his influence, and that he was carried away too much by her motion: They complained also, that the constellation of Libra (which holds the balance of justice) had but a dim light, and that the Astrean Court was grown altogether destructive with divers other grievances. Apollo hereupon, commanded Mercury to summon a general Synod, where some out of every Asterisme throughout the whole Firmament were to meet; Apollo told them, I am placed here by the finger of the Almighty, to be Monarch of the Sky, to be the measurer of Time, and I go upon his errand round about the world every four and twenty hours: I am also the Fountain of heat and light, which, though I use to dispense and difofuse in equal proportions throughout the whole universe; yet I make difference twixt objects, a Castle hath more of my light then a Cottage, and the Cedar hath more of me then the Shrub: But touching the Moon, (the second great Luminary) I would have you know, that she is dearest unto me, therefore let none repine that I cherish her with my beams, and confer more light on her, then upon any other. Touching the malignant Planets, or any other Star, of what magnitude soever, that moves not in a regular motion, or hath run any excentrique exorbitant course, or that would have made me to move out of the Zodiac, I put them over unto you, that upon due examination, and proof, they may be unspheared, or extinguished. But I would have this done with moderation; I would have you to k epe as near as you can between the Tropiques and temperate Zones: I would have things reduced to their true principles, reform, not ruined; I would not have the whole government of the Sky overturned for redress of a few petty abuses; I would have the spirit of malice and lying, the spirit of partiality and injustice, the spirit of tyranny and rigour, the base spirit of fear and jealousy to be far from this glorious Synod; I would have all private interests reflecting upon revenge or profit, to be utterly banished hence: moreover, I would not have you to make grievances, where no grievances are, or dangers, where no dangers are, I would have no creation of dangers; I would have you to husband time as parsimoniously as you can, lest by keeping too long together, and amusing the world with such tedious hopes of redress of grievances, you prove yourselves the greatest grievance at last, and so from Stars, become Comets: Lastly, I would have you to be very cautious how you tamper with my Sovereign power, and chop Logic with me in that point; you know what became of Him, who once presumed to meddle with my Chariot: Hereupon the whole host of Heaven being constellated thus into one great Body, fell to a serious deliberation of things; and Apollo himself continued his presence, and sat amongst them in his full lustre, but in the mean time, whilst they were in the midst of their consultations, the lesser sort of the mongrel Stars which make up the Galaxia (the milky way in Heaven) gather in a tumultuous disorderly manner about the body of Apollo, and commit many strange insolences, which caused Apollo (taking young Phosphorus with him) to retire himself, and to withdraw his light from the Synod: so all began to be involved in a strange kind of confusion and obscurity; they groaped in the dark, not knowing which way to move, or what course to take, all things went Cancerlike, retrograde, because the Sun detained his beams from them? 
Such as the Sun is in the Firmament, a Monarch is in his Kingdom: for, as the Wisest of men saith, In the light of the King's countenance there is life, and I believe that to be the moral of this Astrean Fable.  Pereg. 
I thank you a thousand times for this rare high fetched Apologue; there is nothing illustrates things better, or fasteneth them more firmly in the mind, and makes the memory of them more pleasing to the fancy, than Apologues, Emblems, Allegories and Parables: And now, that you compare a Monarch to the Sun, I remember to have read in your story, of a compliment that Martial Byron put upon Q Elizabeth, who, after a splendid audience, where the choicest Ladies about the town were commanded to wait, when she asked him, how he liked her Maids, he answered, Mad me, There is no body able to judge of the light of the Stars whilst the Sun is up. A handsomer compliment than that Lord (whom I will forbear to name) who was sent from his late Majesty to condole the Archduke Albertus his death, did put upon the late Infanta at Bruxel, who when the Infania had made an Apology, That she could not entertain him then, in that high degree that the Ambassador of so great a King deserved, it being a time of mourning: he answered, Madam, This turns to my advantage; for it were dangerous to look upon the Sun, unless some cloud interposed. Your Britannic Sun, though he be now o'reset with these unlucky clouds, engendered of the vapours of distempered brains, and the rotten hearts of many of his own menial servants, who have proved like the sons of Serviah unto him, ingrateful monsters, yet is he still in his own Orb, and will, when this foul weather's passed, and the air cleared a little by thunder, shine more gloriously and powerfully then before, it being a maxim of State, That Rebellion suppressed, makes a Prince the stronger; And Rebellion durst never yet look a Prince long in face: for the Majesty of Gods anointed, useth to dart such refulgent piercing beams, that dazzle the eyes of disloyalty, and strikes her stark blind at last. And truly, as you say, I am also clearly of opinion, that these ingrateful Londoners, as they were the comencers, so have they been the continuers and contrivers of this ugly Rebellion ever since; They seem to have utterly forgotten who hath given them the sword, and by, and from whom they hold their Charter. Their Corporations are now grown body politics, and so many petty Republikes amongst them; so that they begin to smell rank of a Hans-town, Poor simple Animals, how they suffer their pockets to be picked, their purses to be cut; how they part with their vital spirits every week; how desperately they post on to poverty, and their own ruin, suffering themselves in lieu of Scarlet-gownes, to be governed by a rude company of Red-coats, who 'twixt plundering, assessments, and visits, will quickly make an end of them. I fear there is some formidable judgement of regal revenge hangs over that City; for the anger of a King is like the roaring of a Lion; and I never read yet of any City that contested with her Sovereign, but she smarted sound for it at last. The present case of London bears a great deal of proportion with that of Monpellier here in France, in Charles the seventh's time; for when that town had refused the publishing of many of the King's Edicts and Declarations, murdered some of his Ministers and Servants, abused the Church, and committed other high acts of insolency; the Duke of Berry was sent to reduce the town to obedience, the Duke pressed them with so hard asiege, that at last 600. of the best Citizens came forth in procession, bareheaded, and , with white wands in their hands, and halters about their necks, to deliver the keys of all the gates to the Duke, but this would not serve the turn, for two hundred of them were condemned to the galleys, two hundred of them were hanged, and two hundred beheaded, the King saying, he offered those as victim for the lives of his servants whom they had murdered with the false sword of Justice.  
But, Sir, I much marvel how your Church-government, which from all times hath been cried up to be so exact, is so suddenly tumbled into this confusion? how your Prelates are fallen under so dark a cloud, considering that divers of them were renowned through all the Reformed Churches in Christendom for their rare learning and piety? At the Synod at Dort, you know, some of them assisted, and no exception at all taken at their degree and dignity; how came it to pass, that they are now fallen under this Eclipse, as to be so persecuted, to be pushed out of the House of Peers, and hurried into prison? I pray you be pleased to tell me.  Patr. 
Sir, I remember to have read in the Irish Story, That when the Earl of Kildare, in Henry the eighth's time, was brought before the Lord Deputy for burning Cassiles Church, he answered, My Lord, I would never have burnt the Church, unless I had thought the Bishop had been in it; for 'twas not the Church, but the Bishop I aimed at. One may say so of the Anglican Church at this present, that these fiery Zelots, these vaporing Sciolists of the times are so furiously enraged against this holy Primitive order: some out of Envy, some out of Malice, some out of Ignorance, that one may say, our Church had not been thus set on fire, unless the Bishops had been in't. I grant there was never yet any Profession made up of men, but there were some bad; we are not Angels upon earth; there was a judas amongst the first dozen of Christians, though Apostles, and they by our Saviour's own election: Amongst our Prelates, peradventure (for I know of no accusation framed against them yet) some might be faulty, and wanting moderation, being not contented to walk upon the battlements of the Church, but they must put themselves upon stilts; but if a golden chain hath happily a copper link, two or three, will you therefore break and throw away the whole chain. If a few Shoemakers (I confess the comparison is too homely, but I had it of a Scots Doctor) sell Calf's skin for Neat's leather, must the Gentle-Craft be therefore utterly extinguished, and must we go barefoot therefore? Let the persons suffer in the Name of God, and not the holy Order of Episcopacy. But because you desire to be further informed of the procedures against Bishops, I will relate unto you another Apologue which principally glanceth at this subject:  
Upon a time the Birds met in Council, for redress of some extravavagancies that had flown into the volatill Empire; Nor was it the first time that Birds met thus; for the Phrygian Fabler tells us of divers meetings of theirs: And after him we read that Apolonius Thyanent, undertook the interpretation of their language, and to be their Dragoman.  
They thus assembled in one great Covey by the call of the Eagle their unquestioned hereditary King, and by virtue of his royal authority. Complaints were brought, that divers Cormorants and Harpies, with other Birds of prey, had got in amongst them, who did much annoy and invade the public liberty: sundry other Birds were questioned, which caused some to take a timely flight into another air.  
As they were thus consulting for advancement of the common good, many Rooks, Horne-Owles and Seagulls flocked together, 
Citizens, Seamen.  and fluttered about the place they were assembled in, where they kept a hideous noise, and committed many outrages, and nothing could satisfy them, but the Griffons head, 
Ear. Straff. Crest.  which was therefore chopped off and offered up as a sacrifice to make them leave their chattering, and appease their fury for the time.  
They fell foul afterwards upon the Pies, who were used to be much reverenced, and to sit upon the highest perch in that great Assembly: they called them Idolatrous and inauspicious Birds, they hated their mixed colour, repined at their long train, they tore their white feathers, and were ready to peck out their eyes: they did what they could to put them in Owls feathers, to make them the more hated, and to be stared and hooted at wheresoever they passed. The Pies being thus scared, presented a Petition to the royal Eagle, and to this his great Counsel, that they might be secured to repair safely thither to sit and consult, according to the ancient Laws of the Volatill Empire continued so many ages without controlment or question: in which Petition they inserted a Protest or Caveat, that no public Act pass should in the interim. This Supplication, both for matter and form, was excepted against, and cried up to be high Treason, specially that indefinite Protest they had made, that no Act whatsoever should be of any validity without them, which was alleged to derogate from the High Law-making power of that great Counsel, and tended to retard and disturb the great affairs which were then in agitation: so the poor Pies, as if by that Petition they had like the Blackbird voided Lime to catch themselves, for Turdus cacat sibi malum, were suddenly hurried away into a Cage, and after ten long Months canvasing of the point, they were unpearched, and rendered for ever uncapable to be members of that Court, they were struck dumb and voyce-lesse, and suddenly blown up away thence without any force of powder, as once was plotted against them. But this was done when a thin number of Birds had kept still together, and stuck close against them, and after that the Bill concerning them had been once ejected, which they humbly conceived by the ancient order of that Court could not be readmitted in the same Session. They Petitioned from the place they were cooped in, that for heaven's sake, for the honour of that noble Counsel, for truth and justice sake, they being as freeborn Denizens of the air Region, as any other Volatils whatsoever, their charge might be perfected, that so they might be brought to a legal trial, and not forced to languish in such captivity. They pleaded to have done nothing but what they had precedents for: And touching the Caveat they had inserted, it was a thing usual in every inferior Court of Judicature, and had they then forborn to have done it, they had bewrayed their own nest, and done wrong to their successors. It was affirmed they had been members of that Body politic, long before those lower parched Birds, who now would cast them out; and that they had been their best friends to introduce them to have any thing to do in that general Counsel. they prayed they might not be so cruelly used, as the Solan-goose, 
Scot  and Redshank had used them, who were not content to braile and clip their wings only, but to sear them so that they should never grow again; to handle them so unmercifully, was not the way to make their adversaries Birds of Paradise: In fine, they advised them to remember what the sick Kite's mother answered him, when he desired her to pray to the gods for him, How canst thou, said she expect any good from the gods, whose temples thou hast so often violated? At last, upon the importunity and pitifulness of their Petitions, the accusation of Treason, which kep● such a noise at first, being declined against them, they were released in the morning, but cooped up again before night: and after the revolution of four full Moons, they were restored again to a conditional liberty, under which they remain till this day.  
There wants not some, who affirm, that in this great Counsel of Birds. there were some Decoys, (and 'tis well known where Decoys were first bred) who called in, 
Holland.  not only these mongrel obstreperous Birds from abroad to commit such outrages as were spoken of before, but drew after them also many of the greatest Birds, who sat in that Assembly, to follow them whither they listed: Others, who were of a more generous extraction, disdained to be such Buzzards, as to be carried away hood-wincked in that manner, to be Birds of their feather. Thus a visible faction was hatched in this great Counsel; as if the said Decoys had disgorged and let fall some grains of Hemlock seeds amongst them: Or, as if some Spinturnix, that fatal incendiary Bird, or some illboding Screech-owl, which as Stories tell us appeared once at Rome, in a famous, though unfortunate great Council (when there was a schism in the Pope doom) had appeared also here. There wanted not also amongst them some Amphibious Birds, as the Barnacle, which is neither Fish nor Fowl; and the cunning Bat, who sometimes professeth himself a Bird, sometimes a Mouse, I will not say there were any Paphlagonian Birds amongst them, who are known to have double hearts: But 'tis certain that in this confusion there were some malevolent Birds, and many of them so young, that they were scarce sledged, who like the Wasp in the Fable, conspired to fire the eagle's nest; and a Wasp may sometimes do mischief to an Eagle, as a Mouse to an Elephant: Moreover, some of these high brained Birds flew so high that they seemed to arrogate to themselves, and exercise the royal power of the Eagle; but let them take heed, we know what became of the Crow upon the Ram's back, when she thought to imitate the Eagle: And it was observed, that they were most eager to attempt those high insolencis against Jove's Bird, who had been stark naked, and as bare as Cootes, unless he had feathered them; so that the little Ant was more grateful to Esop's Bire then those Birds were to the Eagle, their liege Lord. But the high-born Bird with the two golden wings, the noble Falcons, the Martlets, the Rovans, the Swan, the Chough, aed all the ancient Birds of the mountains remained faithful and firm to the Eagle, and scorned to be carried away by such Decoys; As also the generous Ostriches, who unless they had had an extraordinary stomach, could not have digested such iron pills as were ofiered them.  
The foresaid distractions continued still, and increased more and more in that general convention of Birds; therefore the Turle would stay there no longer, there was so much gall amongst them: the Pelican flew away, he saw piety so vilified; the Dove was weary of their company, she found no simplicity and plain dealing amongst them: And the Kings-Fisher, the Halcyon, (the Emblem of Pies) quite forsook them, he found so much jarring dissensions and bandings on all sides; the Swallow also, who had so ancient and honourable a rank amongst them, got into another air, he foresaw the weather was like to be so foul: And lastly, Philomela, the Queen of Volatills, who was partner of the Eagles' nest, abandoned them quite, and put a Sea 'twixt her and them; nay, the Eagle himself withdrew his royal presence from them; so the Decoys aforesaid carried all before them, and compoted themselves by their Orders in that height, as if like the Lapwing, every one had a Crown on his head; they so enchanted in a manner, all the common sort of the Oppidan rural, and Sea-birds, and infused such a credulity into them, that they believed they had an inerring spirit, and what came from them, was as true as the Pentuteuch: Moreover, it was shrewdly suspected, that there was a plot amongst them to let in the Stork, who is never seen to stay long in any Monarchy.  Pereg. 
Sir, by this Ornilogicall Apologue, you have not only confirmed, but also enriched, and much enlarged my understanding in the knowledge of things. Good Lord, how pitifully were those poor Prelates handled; what a Tartarian kind of tyranny it was, to drag twice into prison twelve grave reverend Bishops in that manner, causâ adhuc inaudita, and afterwards afterwards not to be able to frame as much as an accusation of misdemeanour, against them, much less of Treason, whereof they were first impeached with such high clamours: But I conceive it was of purpose, to set them out of the way, that the new Faction might pass things better amongst the Peers. And it seems they brought their work about; for whilst nhey were thus reclused and absent, they were thrust out of doors, and ejected out of their own proper ancient inheritance, as it were. But would not all this, with those unparalleled Bills of Grace you mentioned in your first Discourse, which had formerly passed, suffice to beget a good understanding, and make them confide in their King?  Patr. 
No, but the passing of these Bills of Grace, were termed Acts of Duty in his Majesty; they wet so far, that 'twas not sufficient for him to give up his Tower, his Fleet-Royall, his Magazines, his Porte, and Castles and Servants, but he must deliver up his Sword into their hands, all the Soldiery and Military forces of the Land; nay, he must give up his very Understanding unto them; he must resign his own Reason, and with an implicit Faith and blind Obedience, he must believe, who they did, was to make him glorious; and if at any time he taxed them, or prescribed ways for them to proceed and expedite matters, or if he advised them in any thing, they took it in a kind of indignation, and 'twas presently cried up to be Breach of Privilege.  Pereg. 
There is no way in my conceit, to make a King more inglorious, both at home and abroad, then to disarm him; and to take from him the command and disposing of the Militia throughout his Kingdom, is directly to disarm him, and wrest the Sword out of his hand: and how then can he be termed A Defenders how cand he defend either himself, or others? 'tis the only way to expose him to scorn and derision; truly, as I conceive, it was a thing most unfit for them to ask, or him to grant: But I pray Sir, be pleased to inform me further touching this particular.  Patr. 
Because I find your Genius to be delighted with Apologues, I will go on to illustrate this point unto you that way, I began with the Heavens, I then descended to the lower Region of the Air; and now I will bring you to the Earth.  
Upon a time, The Flowers assembled, and met in one general Counsel, by the authority and summons of the Sovereign Rose, their undoubted natural King, who had taken the Lily for his royal spouse. The dew of Heaven fell plentifully upon this happy conjunction. which made them to Bourgeon, to propagate any prosper exceedingly, in so much, that the sweet fragrant odor which they did cast, diffused itself over all the earth. To this meeting came the Violet, the Gillyflower, Rosemary, the Tulyp, Lavender and Thyme, the cinquefoil (though of an exotique plantation,) had an honourable rank amongst them; and as some observed, got too much credit with the royal Rose. The Flowers of the field were admitted also to the great Counsel: the Cowslip, the Honeysuckle and Daisy had their Delegates there present, to consult of a Reformation of certain abuses which had taken rooting in the Commonweals of Flowers, and being all under the Rose, they had privilege to speak of all things with freedom; complaints were made, that much Cockle Melampod and Darnel, with other noxious Herbs and Tares were crept in amongst them; that the Poppy did pullulat too much with divers other grievances: The success of this Senate, this great Bed or Posy of living Flowers, was like to prove very prosperous, but that the herb Briony, Wormwood, Wolfebane, Rue, and Hemlock, (the emblems of Sedition, Malice, Fear, Anbition and Jealousy) thrust in amongst them, and much distempered their proceed: These brought in with them the Burr, which exceedingly retarded and entangled all businesses; and it was thought that the Thistle was too meddling amongst them, which made matters grow to that acrimony and confusion, as if the herb Morsus diaboli had got in amongst them. Amongst many other goodmorrowes', they propounded to the Rose, that he should part with his prickles, and transmit his strength that way to be disposed of by them; the Rose liked not this bold request of theirs, though couched in very smooth language, but answered, I have hitherto condescended to every thing you have propounded, much more than any of my Predecessors did; but touching these prickles, which God and nature hath given me, and are inherent in me and my stock from the beginning, though they be but excressencies, yet you know they fortify and arm me, Armat Spina Rosam, And by them I protect you and your rights from violence; and what protection I pray can there be without strength? therefore I will by no means part with them to enfeeble my regal Power, but will retain them still, and bequeanh them to my Posterity, which I would be loath to betray in this point; nor do I much value what that silly infected Animal, the King of Bees tells me sometimes, when humming up and down my leaves, he would buzz this fond belief into me, that it added much to his Majesty that nature gives him no sting as all other Bees have, because he should rely altogether upon the love and loyalty of his subjects. No, I will take warning by the Eagle, the King of Volatills, and by the Lion, King of Quadrupedals, who (as the Prince of Moralists report) when by fair insinuations the one had parted with his talons, the other with his teeth tnd angles, wherein their might, and consequently their Majesty consisted, grew afterwards contemptible to all creatures, and qute lost that natural alleigeance and awe which was due unto me, the one from all Birds, and to the other, from all Beasts of Field and Forest.  Pereg. 
This Fable seems to me, like a Nosegay of fragrant flowers, the matter of it is so closely put together and made up; but I pray Sir, What should be the reason, that they made that extravagant proposal for managing the Militia throughout this land.  Patr. 
They cried out that the Kingdom was upon point of being ruined; that it was in the very jaws of destruction; that there were foreign and inland plots against it: all which are proved long since to be nothing else but mere Chimaeras; yet people for the most part, continue still grossly besotted, that they cannot perceive to this day, that these forged fears, these Utopian plots, those public Ideas were framed of purpose, that they might take all the martial power into their hands; that so they might without controlment cast the government of Church and state into what mould they pleased, and engross the chiefest offices to themselves: And from these imaginary invisible dangers proceeded these visible calamities, and grinding palpable pressures which hath accompanied this odious war ever since.  Pereg. 
Herein me thinks, your Stastis have shown themselves politic enough, but not so prudent; for Prudence and Policy, though they often agree in the end, yet they differ in election of the means to compass their ends: The one serves himself of truth, strength of Reason, and integrity, and gallantness in their proceed; the oteer of fictions, fraudulence, lies, and other sinister means; the work of one is lasting and permanent, the other work moulders away, and end in infamy; for fraud and frost always end foul. But how did they requite that most rare and high unexampled trust his Majesty reposed in them when he before passed that (total) Act of continuance, a greater trust than ever English put in Parliament. How did they perform their solemde promise and deep Protestations, to make him the most glorious (at home and abroad) the richest and best belovedst King that ever reigned in that Island.  Patr. 
Herein I must confess, I they held very ill correspondence with him; for the more he trusted them, the more diffident they grew of him; and truly, Sir, herein white differs not so much from black, as their actions have been disconsonant to their words: Touching the first promise, to make him glorius; if to suffer a neighbouring Nation to demand and obtain what they pleased of him; if to break capitulation of peace with a great foreign Prince by the renvoy of the Capuchins, and divers other Acts; if to bring the dregs and riffraff of the City to domindere before his Court gato, notwithstanding his Proclamations; if to confront him and seek his life by fire and sword in open field, by open defiance, and putting him upon a defensive war; if to vote his Queen a Traitress, to shoot at her, to waylay her to destroy her, if to hinder the reading of his Proclamations, and the sleight in of his Declarations enclosed in Letters, signed and sealed with his own hand, for fear they should bring the people to their wits again; if to call them fetters of gold, devilish devices, fraught with doctrines of division, real mistakes, absurd suppositions, though never dropped from Prince's pen, more full, more rational and strong sinewy expressions; if to suffer every shallow brained Scoolist to preach, every Pamphletter to print; every rotten hearted man or woman to prate what they please of him and his Queen; if to slight his often acknowledgement, condissentions, retractations, pronuntiations of Peace, and proffers of Pardon; if to endeavour to bring him to a kind of submission; if to bar him of the attendance of Domestiques, to abuse and imprison his messengers, to hang his servants for obeying his Commission; if to prefer the safety and repute of five ordinary men, before his honove; and being actually impeached of Treason, to bring them in a kind of triumph to his House; if for subjects to Article, Treat and Capitulate hith him; if to tamper with his Conscience, and make him forget the solemn sacramental oath at his Coronation; if to divest him of all regal rights, to take from him the election of his servants and officers, and bring him bacl to a kind of minority; if this be to make a King glorious, our King is made glorious enough. Touching the second promise to make him the richest King that ever was; if to denude him of his native rights, to declare that he hath no property in any thing but by way of trust, not so much property as an Elect King; if to take away his customs of his inheritance; if to take from his Exchequer and Mint; if to thrust him out of his own towns, to suffer a lousy Citizen to lie in his beds within his royal Castle of Windsor, when he himself would have come thither to lodge; if to enforce him to a defensive war, and cause him to engage his Jewels and Plate, and plunge him a bottomless gulf of debt for his necessary defence; if to anticipate his revenue royal, and reduce him to such exigents that he hath scarce the subsistence of an ordinary Gentleman; if this be make a rich King, then is our King made sufficiently rich. Concerning their third promise, to make him the best belovedst King that ever was; if to call all the aspersions that possibly could be devised upon his government by public elaborate remonstrances; if to suffer and give Texts to the strongest lunged Pulpiteers to poison the hearts of his subjects, to intoxicate their brains with fumes of forged jealousies, to possess them with an opinion, that he is a Papist in his heart and consequently hath a design to introduce Popery; if to slight his words his promises; if to his Asseverations, Oaths and Protestations, when he calls heaven and earth to witness, when he desires no blessing otherwise to fall upon himself, his wife and children, with other pathetic deep-fetched expressions, that would have made the meanest of those millions of Christians which are his vessals to be believed; if to protect Delinquants, and proclaimed Traitors against him; if to suscitate, authorize, and encourage all sorts of subjects to heave up their hands against, and levy arms to emancipate themselves from that natural allegiance, loyalty, and subjection, wherein, they and their forefathers were ever tied to his royal Progenitors; if to make them swear and damn themselves into a rebellion; if this be to make a King beloved, than this Parliament hath made King Charles the best belovedst King that ever was in England.  Pereg. 
I cannot compare this Rebellion in England, more properly then to that in this Kingdom; in King John's time, which in our French Chronicle, bears to this day the infamous name of jaqerie de Beauvoisin; Then Peasans then out of a surfeit of plenty, had grown up to that height of insolenco, that they confronted the Gentcie, and gathered in multitudes, and put themselves in arms to suppress them; and this popular tumult never ceased till Charles le Sage suppressed it; and it made the Kings of France more puissant ever since: for it much increased their Finances, in regard that these extraordinary taxes which the people imposed upon themselves for the support of the war, hath continued ever since a firm revenue to the Crown; which makes me think of a fractious speech of the late Henry the Great, to them of Orleans: for whereas a new imposition was laid upon them, during the league by Monseur de la Chastre, who was a great stickler in those wars, they petitioned Henry the fourth, that he would be pleased to take of that tax, the King asked them, Who had laid that tax upon them? they said Mons. de la Castres', during the time of the League, the King replied, Puis que Monsieur de la Chatre vous à ligue qu'il vous dessligue; and so the said tax continueth to this day.  
I have observed in your Chronicles that it hath been the fate of your Kings to be baffled often by petty companions; as jack Stpawe, Wat Tyler, Cade, Warbeck and Symnel. A Wasp may sometimes do a shrew turn to the Eagle, as you said before; your Island hath been fruitful for Rebellions, for I think there happened near upon a hundred since the last Conquest, the City of London, as I remember, in your Story hath rebelled seven times at least, and forfeited her Charter I know not how often, but she bled sound for it at last, and commonly the better your Princes, tre worse your people have been, or the case stands, I see no way for the King to establish a settled peace, the by making a fifth Conquest of you: and for London, there must be a way found to prick that tympany of pride wherewith the swells.  Patr. 
'Tis true, there hath been from time to time many odd Insurrections in England, but our Kings gathered a greater strength out of them, the inconstant people are always accessary to their miseries: Kings Prerogatives are like the Ocean, which as the Civilians tell us, if he lose in one place, he gets in another. Care and Cross ride behind Kings, and the same they say, may be eclipsed awhile, but they will shine afterwards with a stronger lustre. Our gracious Sovereign hath these three or four years passed a kind of Ordeal or fiery trial; he hath been matriculated and served half an Appretiship in the School of Affliction; I hope God will please shortly to cancel the Indenture, and restore him to a sweeter liberty than