THE SECOND PART OF No Protestant Plot.  
By the same Hand.  
LONDON: Printed for R. Smith. 1682.   

AS the Law is both the Measure and Bond of the Subjects Duty and Allegiance, so it is not only the best security which they have to trust unto for their peace and safety, and the established fence and hedge for the protection of their lives and properties; but it was intended, and always ought to be the Rule and Standard by which the Prince is to defend and govern his people. And as Subjects are obliged by their Interest, as well as by the ties of Conscience, to honour and maintain all due Allegiance to their Supreme Governours; so Rulers are not only bound by the Stipulation which they have made with their people, but by the respect which they bear to the preservation of the Constitution and the Safety of their Crowns and Dignities, to preserve and defend all those in their Persons and Fortunes, who decline not from the Duties of Loyalty and Fealty which the Law requires of them. Nor can any sort of men design a more fatal mischief against their Prince, and the stability of his Throne, than to advice him to exclude a company of Innocent persons, from the benefit and protection of the Law; or by an usurpation upon the Kings Authority, to attempt the doing it themselves. For this were in effect, to cancel all bonds, by which Subjects are tied to their Prince;& destroy all Pleas& Arguments, which may influence their Consciences to obedience and subjection. And whensoever Laws cease to be a security unto men, they will be sorely tempted to apprehedn themselves cast into a state of War, and justified in having recourse to the best means they can for their shelter and defence. But blessed be God, his Majesty is so good, as well as so wise, neither to entertain any such thought in his own breast, nor to connive at such barbarous proposals in others, should any have the impudence as well as disloyalty to suggest them. And therefore besides the confidence which all his Majesties Leige-people place in his Coronation Oath, and his many reiterated promises and protestations, that he will always govern his Subjects according to Law; the alone consideration of his wisdom, renders them fully assured, that he neither will, nor can do otherwise.  
But though it would be a very mischievous thing in its self, and extremely dangerous to any Government, to exclude Loyal Persons from the benefit and security which they have from the Laws of the Constitution where they live; yet the perverting that to the ruin of the Subject, which was both designed for, and which he relied upon for his preservation, is not only more dishonourable to Rulers, but infinitely more pernicious to the people, than that would be. For to tell obedient and Loyal Persons, that they are to esteem themselves as outlaws, and that they must expect to be treated as Banditi, though it would be most unjust, and might, if love to their Country did not prevent, prove very unsafe to a Government in the issue; yet even this would both leave men an opportunity, and give them a warning to withdraw to some other place, where they might promise themselves more human and upright dealing; but to assure men of the protection of Laws, and yet apply those Laws to the ruin of the innocent, is that which leaves no man safe, and at the same time by concealing his danger, hindereth his endeavouring an escape. Nor is either the poisoning or assassinating men, half so bad, as the studying to destroy them in a pretended legal way, upon the Testimony and Oaths of suborned and prejured Rascals. For whereas care and watchfulness may contribute something to our security against a mortal dose or stab; we are, in case subornation and perjury be connived at, left at the mercy of every Villain, nor will the discreetest conduct be any means of our safety. Besides, should it come to be any mans misfortune to be destroyed by a stiletto or a pestiferous Drug; he would not only die pitied, but without a taint or slain upon his Name; and withal would convey a right to his Posterity to inherit his Possessions; whereas should the most innocent person be cut off through perjury, under the charge and imputation of Treason, he would not only perish unlamented with a perpetual brand of infamy upon his Name, but leave his offspring shut out from enjoying the inheritance of their Ancestors, as well as deprived of the fruits of their Fathers care and labour. And therefore if the French King hath in order to restraining and punishing the swoonings practised in his Dominions, appointed and erected a Court that shall inquire into that Crime, and adjudge Offenders to a deserved punishment; we may surely hope from the justice of the King of England, that he will command his Courts of Law, either themselves to make a due search into this more detestable villainy of swearing men out of their Lives and Estates by hired and suborned Rascals; or at least to require them to give all due protection and countenance to such as shall be ready to make a discovery of it; and that the Judges shall impartially execute the Laws against all those who upon full and convincing proof, shall be found criminal.  
And as all men who have not renounced their Reason as well as forfeited their Conscience, do perfectly understand who were the Authors of this pretended Protestant Plot; so it is as easy to conjecture what advantages several sorts of persons have promised themselves by it. For tho' they do vastly differ in their ends, yet they all agree, that this is the most proper and effectual means to compass and accomplish what they severally aim at. In the first place, they who advised the Dissolution of the last Parliament, do by obtruding upon the world the belief of a Protestant Plot, hope to justify their Wisdom and Loyalty in giving His Majesty so unseasonable and pernicious Counsel. For as they cannot but observe, that that effort of Royal Power, which they put the King upon, hath 'tis feared, diminished the confidence which the people put in his Prudence and Conduct, and not only embroiled his affairs at home, but lessened his Interest and Reputation abroad; so they could think of no other means to vindicate themselves from the many imputations which they lie under, for influencing His Majesty to so hasty and prejudicial an act of Prerogative and Royal Authority, but by ascribing it unto an indispensible Necessity, occasioned by a Conspiracy of seizing His Person. And the less they find His Majesty considered both by his Friends and his Enemies since that time, the more are they necessitated to promote by all imaginable Arts the belief of a Plot, for the Deposing the King and altering the Government, as judging that nothing else will expiate for an Offence attended with so many direful consequences, not only towards these three Kingdoms, but all Europe. Besides, their Ambition being boundless, and some of their Fortunes not proportionate to their Pride and the port they live at; they hoped by the Forfeiture of Protestants Estates, both to satisfy their own vast desires, and entail Inheritances upon their Posterity, answerable to the Titles they intend to convey to them. And whereas they and divers other persons dread nothing so much as another Parliament, knowing how obnoxious they are to the Justice of the first that comes, they conceived that the Necessities of the Crown would be so plentifully supplied out of the Estates of Peers and Gentlemen, whom they designed to get condemned upon this forged Conspiracy, that His Majesty should never be in any such distress, as to be obliged by the exigency of his Affairs, and the craving of his Exchequer, to call one. And they were firmly resolved that while they had His Majesties ear, provided they could redeem Him from the importunity of want, no other motive should ever be effectual to obtain the meeting of an Assembly, from which they expect some fatal Doom.  
In the next place, there are others who have been long traveling with Designs of making the Crown Arbitrary, and the King Despotical; but finding themselves unable to effect it, while the Treasure is not answerable to the charge and expense that such an undertaking doth require; they also joined in the promoting the belief of this Plot, reckoning to have gotten so many Protestant Peers and Gentlemen convicted of this new and forged Treason, as( were we not secure from his Majesties Goodness, as well as his Truth and Justice, that he will never attempt the enslaving his people) might empower the King to form and maintain Armies that should be sufficient to trample upon the Rights and Liberties of his Subjects, and make him at his pleasure Master of what they have. The regret with which some beholded the Disbanding the Black-heath Army, and the language which they bestowed upon his Majesty for his gracious condescending to discharge a Force which they wished had been employed to subjugate his people, leads us to believe, that they also are in the number of the Fomenters of an opinion of a Protestant Plot, as thinking thereby to retrieve the Design which was then abandoned and lost. And though they despair of prevailing upon his Majesty to countenance an attempt which would at once rob Him of his Honour and the Love of his People; yet they persuade themselves, that the obtaining credit to a Protestant Plot, would render this achievement the more facile and easy to the Presumptive Heir, whose Religion obligeth him to extirpate Protestants, and whose temper byaseth him to be severe over all whom he is advanced to Govern.  
The last sort of persons who expected to have served themselves, and promoted their Interest by the belief of this shame Protestant-Plot, are the Papists, and all such who by virtue either of their Religion, or out of hopes of Gain and Preferment, had embarked in the late Romish Conspiracy. And as these were the first and principal Forgers of this pretended Protestant Plot, so of all men they proposed to themselves the greatest advantages by having credit given unto it. For as by the entertainment which they meet with in the Intervals of Parliament, they apprehended nothing to be feared but the meeting of the great Inquest, High Council, and Supreme Judicature of the Nation; So they wisely conceived that nothing would in more likelihood render his Majesty jealous of their Assembling, than to possess him, that the leading men of the last Parliament intended to depose him. And besides, they hoped that the belief of this Sham-Plot would silence all discourse of their Real one. Nay, they questioned not but that the imposing this design of Protestants against the King, upon the faith of the Nation, would have made most men inclinable to think that all charged upon themselves was only to make the Papists odious to his Majesty and the Kingdom. And by creating in his Majesty by this forged Conspiracy a distrust of his Protestant subjects, they reckoned that they should oblige him in order to his own security, to have placed all his trust and confidence in them. And could they once impose upon the King, that the Protestants have designed to destroy him, they know that this would be the ready way to deprive him of the love of all those of the Reformed and Established Religion; seeing and knowing themselves innocent, they must needs judge that they were not only injured by the entertainment of such an opinion concerning them, but that such a thought could be harboured of them for no other end but in relation to have the principal of them cut off, and all the rest either weakened or made obnoxious to severe oppression. Yea, could they once lessen the peoples concernment for his Majesties Life and Safety, how ready would they be, and that without any apprehension of hazard to themselves, to remove or Murder him, that so they might advance his Brother into his Throne, in whom they place all their confidence for the re-establishing of the Papal Superstition and Idolatry in these Kingdoms.  
Nor could the Contrivers and Promoters of this shame Protestant Plot, have ever fallen or lived in an Age more adapted and suited to their Design, forasmuch as it is beyond any other, replenished with persons prepared and inclined to swear whatsoever they shall be Suborned and Hired unto. For there are so many sunk into all wickedness and profligacy, that it is but to accost them with the promise of a good Reward, and you may prevail upon them to the perpetrating what villainy you please. Can we think but that among the many who blaspheme God, and dare him to damn them a hundred times a day for nothing, there should some be found that will venture upon damnation in the next world, for a Pension, or the hopes of some preferment in this? Will such as Smith, who bid God damn the Gospel, when tempted by a Justices promise of the next deanery, make any scruple of swearing falsely upon it? Or will he that boasted that if he pleased he could prove God Almighty a fool, as the same Smith did, stand in any fear of swearing falsely by his Name? Or can he and Turbervile deserve credit with any men for the future, having slandered Dr. Lower to the world, as if he had acknowledged to them his wronging Dugdale by saying he had the POX, when the Dr. had both affirmed and justified in the presence of the King and Council his having of it? Nor will any men of sense believe that the Dr. should deny that to them, which he had before owned and attested to his Majesty and the Board. In a word, Is it to be imagined, that they who are guilty of Cheating, Coining, Clipping, Polygamy, Theft, Burglary, Murder, all which offences make men liable to the Gallows, should be afraid of being guilty of Perjury, which makes them only obnoxious to a Pillory? Now that the Macknamarra's, Haynes, Ivy, Dennis, Carr, Booth, Sir James hays, and a Gentleman whose Employ lies below the bridge, whom for some reasons at present I forbear to name, besides several others who stand listed in the Register of Witnesses concerning a Protestant Plot, are all of them guilty of one or more of these horrid crimes, is known to divers persons of unquestionable credit, and will be made good whensoever the Earl of Shaftsbury, or any other against whom they are produced, shall be brought upon their Trial.  
Nor is it difficult to conceive how much w— p, Fitzgerald, Booth, banns, and the other little suborning Tools, are advantaged in their prevailing upon mean, indigent and criminal Fellows, by addressing them under the authority of great and honourable 
See No Protest. Plot, p. 23, 25. and Mr. Wilkinson's Information, p. 4, 5.  Names, and by pawning the faith and honour of Noble persons to ensure Pardons and Rewards to whosoever will depose and swear what shall be dictated unto them. For besides the power that the offers of money have upon base and mercenary souls, the conceit that they shall become the Darlings and Favourites of great Ministers, provided they will but swear such a one out of his life, is a temptation that creatures destined by Nature and Education to be Grooms or Footmen, know not how to withstand. And truly the world hath been expecting whether my Lord H. and the Earl of H. would not have called w— p and Booth to an account by what warrant they made their Names a lure to draw in men to perjure themselves, and by what commission they were empowered to dispose of their Lordships favour and friendship in the service and for the encouragement of so villainous designs. And we had thought, that tho' neither the preservation of the lives of innocent Protestants, nor the upholding the honour of the Government, might deserve so great a kindness at their hands, as impartially and truly to inquire whether their Names have been used to contribute and give success to so wicked an attempt as the suborning men to destroy the guiltless by perjury, is every where held and accounted; yet that they would have done something in it out of a regard to their own safety, as well as for maintaining that credit and reputation which both their Quality, and the Figure which they make in the State, ought to make them careful and tender of. But as they do best know what course is most convenient for their Lordships to take, so they will have no reason to be angry if men in the mean time form such a judgement unto themselves of this whole Transaction, as the Informations and Depositions of persons most duly of known honesty, but upon their Oaths do guide and determine them unto.  
Another thing which hath greatly contributed to the success of the Papal Factors in their obtaining Witnesses to swear this forged Conspiracy, is their having applied themselves unto, and dealt with men, either pinched with want, or labouring under some distress, or who at the best were but of a scant and narrow Fortune. Accordingly, not only persons straitned in their condition of living, and such as have been forced to abscond from their creditors, have been by promises and bribes to entrol themselves in the number of Witnesses to swear a Protestant Plot; but the very prisons where Criminals, as well as where Debtors are confined, have been ransacked and searched, to see who could be found that under the assurance of pardon of their crimes, payment of their debts, and being raised into a condition of living plentifully, would list and engage himself in this Forswearing Service. It was from a prison that they fetch and ransomed Mr. Dangerfield, in order to the managing and proving of the Meal-tub Plot, in the guilt and danger whereof, the most Loyal Subjects and best Protestants of the Kingdom were designed to have been involved; and it is in Prisons that they have been hunting for Witnesses, the second Impression, but in another Form, of the same forged Conspiracy. And their Misadventures with some, whose Imprisonment and Necessities they supposed would render them pliable to all they would require of them, especially considering the terms they were authorized to propose, may serve to instruct us what kind of persons they have used to trade amongst, for the obtaining of Evidence against Protestants. For as their application to Capt. Wilkinson, who lies a 
See Capt. Wilkinson's Information.  Prisoner for Debt in the Kings Bench in Southwark, and their endeavouring by taking advantage from his condition, by large Promises to corrupt him to Swear against the Earl of Shaftsbury, plainly tell us, with men of what condition they have used to deal, and by what means and arguments they have been so successful in procuring Witnesses to Depose against that Noble Lord; so it will be matter of perpetual Honour and Praise to the Loyal, as well as honest Captain, that no Temptations from those villainous men that accosted him in a Prison, neither any consideration of the distress that himself and Family were in, could corrupt him to so wicked a thing, as the accusing that Honourable Person falsely of Treason. Yea, are not most of the Witnesses, who have hitherto appeared to prove a Protestant Plot, a company of poor necessitous Fellows, who by by their own acknowledgement, as well as the observation of the whole world, wanted bread? For besides 
See No Protestant Plot, P. 26, 27.  those mentioned elsewhere, whose Debauchery had reduced them to Poverty, and whose Poverty disposed them to engage in any wickedness for Money, we may add Hay's and Booth, two Witnesses lately entred into the same Service, out of more hopes to be enabled thereby to feed their Luxury and Riot, as well as to conquer their Necessities and Wants. For this Hays who pretends himself to be a Knight, and who hath sworn Treason against Mr. Wilson, My Lord Shaftsbury's Servant, and as is thought, merely in design to have made him accuse his Lord; he is known through all London, not only to be a most infamous person, by reason of Cheats put upon Merchants and others; but to have been reduced to the greatest straits imaginable, so that he was forced to abscond because of Crimes and Debts. And as for Booth, who hath sworn Treason against Capt. Wilkinson, in revenge for his refusing to accuse the Earl of Shaftsbury, he is both a fellow whose wickedness had brought him to a morsel of bread, and one who had ere this been Hanged for coining and Murder, if His Majesty had not vouchsafed him his gracious Pardon.  
But to all their other Arts and Methods of obtaining Witnesses to support the belief of a Presbyterian, or Protestant Plot, they have one more, which in a most especial manner deserveth the abhorrence of all mankind; because it leaves no man safe that they have the boldness and impudence to tempt and accost. For as soon as they find that any whom they have endeavoured to corrupt and suborn, are of more Uprightness and Integrity than they apprehended, or were made to believe; they immediately involve them in Trouble and Danger, by advancing some Accusation or Charge against them. For if a person to whom they have addressed themselves in this matter, and by Wheedle and large Promises laboured to Suborn, have either the Wisdom, the virtue, or Grace to scorn their offers and importunities, they do then either by themselves, or by such whom they have debauched or corrupted to be implicitly and universally at their command, swear Treason or Subornation against them. So that if one will not offend God, wrong his Neighbour, and damn his own Soul, in complying to be a false witness and perjure himself, he shall be Deposed against, as one guilty of some horrid Crime against his Majesty and the Government. Thus when Justice w— p could not corrupt Mr. Everard to swear, That my Lord Shaftsbury intended a Commonwealth, and that he with others were preparing Arms to 
See No Protestant Plot, p 22.  alter the Constitution; he immediately gets the poor young Gentleman to be charged with I know what Crimes against His Majesty, his Crown and Dignity, and Warrants to be issued forth to apprehended him. And in the same manner is Capt. Wilkinson served; for when Booth and Bayns could not prevail upon him to forswear himself, in order to the destroying my Lord Shaftsbury; Booth( who had he received his Demerit, had been as certainly Hanged for Murder and Treason, as he was by his Diocesan turned out of his Ecclesiastical Living for scandalous villainies and misdemeanours) undertakes and is admitted to Swear Treason against him. Thus likewise one Mr. Puckle, a person often employed in his Majesties Service, and who hath been always said to have acquitted himself with Fidelity and Diligence, yet because he would not accuse the Earl of Shaftsbury and my Lord Howard of Treasonable Designs against the King and Government, and of their having corresponded with him in pursuance thereof; he is therefore accused himself. And one Mr. Carr, a person well known in England, as having stood in the Pillory here for enormous Crimes, and as well charactered from Holland for tricks and debaucheries, as having lived there these several years, hath, as is commonly reported, deposed something against him. So that every honest man, who hath had the misfortune to be thought capable of being made a knave, and hath been accordingly tempted by those who measure and judge others by themselves, runs the venture of his own life, for not complying to be an instrument in destroying the lives of such as are innocent.  
And as if it were not enough, first to forge a Plot, and then suborn Witnesses to swear it, the managers of this affair have for securing the better success of the whole intrigue, thought of one trick more; namely, the causing those to be accused of one offence or another, who have the courage to endeavour to trace and detect them. It is a most deplorable case and condition that we are in: For as our own innocency is no protection against the perjury of fellows that are suborned; so we do but expose ourselves to new hazards, by labouring to discover by whom and what means such and such were corrupted, and to whose ruin they are to be employed. For as he, who, in the Roman story, would have killed his Neighbour, complained, being hindered and prevented, that the person whom he designed to stab, did not totum gladium recipere; so they who labour to fasten a Conspiracy upon Protestants, against His Majesties Person and Government, are angry that we will not abandon our own innocency, and suffer them without disturbance or molestation, to swear us out of our Lives and Estates. For this and no other crime, that any man knows of, is Mr. John Harrington bound over in a recognisance of 1000. l. to answer at the Kings Bench to whatsoever charge and information shall be brought against him. And whereas we are  told of divers Presentments and Indictments which Justice Warcup hath ready to be preferred against several persons, it is for nothing else in the world, but because they have been too bold and saucy in prying into his secret transactions, for inveigling and suborning Witnesses to depose, and support a Protestant Plot. And though the whole matter of this grand Conspiracy be not only perfectly known by men of wisdom and observation, to be a mere forgery, but fully understood and discerned by the meanest and weakest to be a Popish contrivance, yet no man can sooner publish a few sheets to display and unfold the Combination, and lay open that hellish Intrigue, but he is threatened to have an Information exhibited against him in Westminster-Hall. Alas! if compassion to innocent and loyal persons, whose lives are brought into danger by suborned and perjured fellows; or if regard to the credit and safety of the Protestant Religion, which would be greatly weakened and exposed, should the principal Patrons of it become believed guilty of a Conspiracy against his Majesty and the established Government; be not sufficient inducements to justify all lawful endeavours to detect this forgery, and publish to all mankind the whole shame: yet surely love to the honour of the King, and respect both to the peace of his Kingdom and the glory of his Reign, may be allowed for reasonable motives, why an honest man should study to hinder the pursuance of a design, which, if not seasonably checked, will not only lessen the peoples esteem of the Justice and Wisdom of their Rulers, but by repeated Ignoramus's upon Bills of Indictment for Treason, and by representing the Witnesses personated upon stages and in public shows, may expose the Government itself to too notorious an affront.  
And either so malicious and thirsty of Protestant Blood, or so infatuated and deprived of all understanding, are the managers of this forged Conspiracy, that neither any detection of their villainies, nor disappointment of their Attempts, have been hitherto sufficient to discourage them in their proceedings. But when they are brought to despair of effecting their Design of destroying Innocent persons by one Set of Witnesses, they immediately betake themselves to the finding out and hiring of another. And if the babbling of some hath so far betrayed them, that they are become useless, and must be sent away, new ones are to be Suborned to fill up their room, who shall be taught greater Secrecy and better Conduct. Nor is the Nation or the City so barren of Rogues, but that whosoever is weary of serving himself by one, may for Money be furnished with another. And if the Muster-master-general of the Evidence think it expedient to disband the whole Troop of Witnesses, which he hath hitherto maintained and paid on the prospect and hope of Service from them, he may by the Art of Subornation, and the Attractive of a liberal Advance, and a well settled and large pay, easily fill up his Rolls with others of the same Character and Complexion. But can any think, that more credit will be given to Carr, who( as the report goes) is brought from Holland to support the sinking credit of a Protestant Plot, than would have been given to Callaghan, should he instead of being sent away to Ireland, have been kept here and brought into a Court of Judicature, to prevail upon a Jury by the authority of his Oath, to believe that My Lord Shaftsbury intended to change the Monarchy into a Commonwealth? Or can any apprehended, that the Rascally Fellow Sallacole, that boasts of being a Witness against that Noble Peer, and who to all his other Crimes, hath lately added the hiring and subornig one Peter Brashay to subscribe and swear a false Information, by the name of Daniel Holland, before Sir Thomas Exton, should obtain more credit with a Grand Inquest of honest, wise and discreet men, than Dugdale, whom all the world believes to be perjured, would do, should any have the folly to produce him hereafter as a Witness against Protestants. And should Justice w— p be able by applications to Mr. Manu, to prevail upon him to swear Treason against Capt. Wilkinson, namely, how the said Capt. had  told him of a Design, wherein my Lord Shaftsbury and the Members of the Oxford Parliament, were engaged against His Majesty; yet would any man believe Maud; that hath either known the Capt. or red his late Printed Information. But to do Mr. Maud right, he hath solemnly professed and protested to twenty Gentlemen, that he neither is nor can be a Witness against any Protestant; though, he declares withal, how the Justice both by Promises and threatenings would have influenced him to have been one.  
And as if all the Arts already mentioned, were not base and villainous enough, the Papists and their Abettors, have as men at a desperate pass should this Design miscarry, be thought themselves 〈◇〉 another trick more damnable and Hellish than all the rest. For being jealous of the Credit and Reputation of their Wit●esses, and apprehensive that no Jury will believe what they say, they see that the Project they have so long travailed with, of silencing the Noise of their own Plot, by fathering a forged one upon Protestants, will not only be lost, but themselves made obnoxious to answer for contriving the Death of innocent Persons, unless they can be able to produce Letters and Papers. Nor is it to be questioned, but that as they who take a liberty to suborn Men to perjure themselves, for the destroying of innocent Persons, will also judge it a venial thing, to hire some Miscreant or another to forge and counterfeit Writings in order thereunto. And it will be strange, if the Managers of this Business, having been so successful in obtaining false Witnesses as to Words, should not find one or another, that will be prevailed upon for Money, first to counterfeit his hand to Treasonable Letters, and then depose upon Oath to the Authenticalness of them. For if Granger's old Friend and Complice, who stood in the Pillory, be not skilful and exact enough at it, Granger himself is neither so far off, but that he may be spoken with upon so good an occasion, nor so reformed by long Imprisonment for former Offences of this kind, but that for a good Reward, and especially if they will promise him a Pardon for his old Crimes, he may be persuaded to have one Touch more at the wonted Trade. And considering that we live in a Juncture, when Men of better famed than any who abet the Belief of a Protestant Plot are judged to be, do, by a Writing under their hand, misreport the Actings and Transactions of the two Houses of Parliament to the Court of Kings-Bench, and that in a Business of so great and fatal moment, as the discharging of an impeached Person would infallibly be; we need not be surprised, should one of a profligate Life, an infamous Name, and an obdurate Conscience, endeavour to impose upon a Court of Oyer and Terminer, by a forged Letter or two, especially in order to the accomplishing so meritorious a Work, as the whole Papal Party will esteem the bringing of my Lord Shaftsbury to the Scaffold to be. But the Failure and Error in the managing of this Intrigue is, That some, reckoned very proper Instruments for such a Service, were not only brought over from beyond Sea, at a Season which will awaken in the Minds of Men a Suspicion of the Errand upon which they come; but they have been observed to be very busy in scribbling every day at a certain place since they arrived, which will greatly augment the Belief of what they were framing, should any Papers, fathered upon the Earl of Shaftsbury, and my Lord Howard, be produced in Court. Besides, that noble and wise Peer, whom the Snare is in a special manner laying for, is sufficiently known, to be a Person of another kind of Foresight and Conduct, than, were he traitorously and wickedly disposed, to trust the best Friend in the World with a Paper under his Hand that might destroy him. Nor could there be a more convincing Proof of the villainy of the whole Contrivance against this great and truly politic Statesman, than to offer to bring forth against him Papers pretending to bear his Name, and affirmed upon Oath to be of his own hand-writing. Some little Mushroom-Minister, or young Dabler in politics, may possibly be guilty of such an Oversight; but for a Person of the greatest Sagacity, and wisest Conduct of this Age, and one grown gray in the Study of Men, and Observation of Courts and Civil Affairs, to commit such a Folly, is next to impossible. And if ever Men should be so far forsaken of Wit, as well as Truth and Prudence, as to offer to produce Letters, to prove and enforce his Concernment in a Conspiracy against his Majesty and the Government, there will need no more to detect the Forgery, but the bare naming of the Persons, with whom this Correspondence for changing the Monarchy into a Common-wealth is said to have been held. All Mankind may with as much probability fall delirous, and become distracted in one day, as that a Peer of the Earl of Shaftsbury's Sense, Wisdom, and knowledge of the World, should treat in Writing, about so illegal, ticklish, and hazardous an Affair, as the altering of a Government is, with Persons, that he would blame his own Discretion, and judge his Prudence had failed him, should he so much as speak unto them, save in the presence of Witnesses, that might testify what was said.  
Upon the whole of what hath been discoursed, concerning the Implacableness of our Enemies, and the unjust and wicked Courses which they have steered, to bring the World into a Belief of a Protestant Plot, and that the greatest and wisest Persons in the Nation, as well as the most Loyal Subjects to his Majesty, and the most zealous Patriots of our Religion and Civil Liberties, are guilty of it; nothing can be now more clear and apparent, than that our whole Security, as to Life and Fortune, and what is beyond both, a good Name here, and a worthy and honourable famed hereafter, depends principally( if not solely) upon the having an upright, discreet, and understanding Jury. And blessed be God, who hath cast our Lot in a Land renowned in this above all other Nations, that our Lives and Estates are not subjected to the arbitrary and despotic Pleasure of a Sovereign, nor left to the Discretion of Judges, who may be Vassals to the Will of their Creator and Prince; or being of a covetous and mercenary Temper, may be wrought upon to sell our Lives for a Bribe. Yea, were our Rulers never so benign, gracious, and merciful; and were Judges never so impartial, upright, and just: yet where there are not Juries, the Lives of innocent Men are ever liable to be taken away by the Testimony of suborned and perjured Witnesses. Whereas by this inestimable Privilege of our Constitution, the boldest and most home-swearing of never so many Witnesses, cannot bring a Person within the compass of being condemned, till twelve impartial, honest, and substantial Men of his Neighbours have judged and pronounced him guilty. So that upon this alone account, if there had been no other, our Ancestors, comparing their Condition with the Case of other Nations, had good reason to say, Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari, We will not have the Laws of England abrogated or altered. And 
Vid. Fortescue de landibus Legum Angliae, cap. 26, 27, 28, 29.& Glanvil, lib. 7. cap. 14, 15.  therefore upon this reason, more than upon any other, do Fortescue and Glanvil prefer the Laws of England, to the Laws of all other Countries and Kingdoms whatsoever.  
For the Antiquity of Trials by Juries, there needs no more to prove them co-eval with the first Constitution of our Government, than that no Man is able to assign the Time when they began: For as all agree, this to have been the Way and Course of Trial in Henry the First's Time, according to that Passage in Cap. 31. of the Laws of that King, Unusquisque per pares suos judicandus est,& ejusdem Provinciae. Every Man is to be judged by his Peers; and those to be of the County where he lives. So our Histories tell us of one Roger Fitz-Osborn, who being apprehended by Tiptoft, Sheriff of Worcester-shire, was condemned for Treason in William the Norman's Time, per judicium parium svorum. And that this Method of Trial came not in with the Conqueror, is not only evident from hence, That the Law of Normandy never took any cognisance of Trials by Juries; but from this, That it was one of Ethelred the Saxon's Laws, That none should be acquitted or condemned, 
See Lamb, p. 281.  but by twelve ancient Freemen. And our Ancestors making Trials by the lawful judgement of their Peers, one special part of the great Charter, shows that it was the ancient Law of the Land; forasmuch as Magna Charta contains no new Privileges, wrested from our Kings, but only the ancient Rights of the People, which had been invaded 
See Doderidg's Treatise of Nobility, p. 110.  by the Norman Race. But whence the first Inhabitants of this Land learned this Course and Method of Trial, or whether they were the first inventors and Ordainers of it, I cannot tell: only something of alliance and kin with it, seems to be have been observed in the graecian Trials, as appears by Mars's being tried for Muther by a Jury of Twelve, and acquitted only by reason of the Equality of Votes. So sacred hath the Observation of the Rights of Juries anciently been, that Alfred not only hanged one Justice Freburn, for condemning one Harpin, when the Jury were in doubt of their Verdict; 
See How's Mirror of Justice.  but he also hanged one Justice Codwine, because he adjudged one Hackney to Death, when three of the Jury would have acquitted him. And yet it is remarkable, that the judge did not condemn him without the Verdict of twelve Men; but because he put out the three who would have found him not guilty, and added other three, whom the Person indicted had not put himself upon, to the nine that were for finding him guilty; the King ordered him to be hanged. Yea, so careful have our Predecessors been to revenge all Invasions upon this excellent part of our Birthright, that Empson and Dudley were executed in Henry the Eighth's Time, for proceeding against Men, so as to punish and fine them for Offences and Contempts, without the Verdict of twelve Men, tho they had the Authority of an Act of Parliament, to justify them in what they did.  
Now those returnable upon Juries, ought, first, to be of the Vicinage, where the Party accused liveth, or at least, the Cause of the Charge or Action doth arise; and the reason of it is, Ut rei veritas melius sciri poterit: That what was in issue before them, may be the more fully known and understood by those that are to give their Verdict of it. This was always the common Law of the Land, that Juries should be chosen out of the Neighbourhood, ubi Factum supponitur quod est judicandum. And we have a great Instance of the Benefit hereof, in a Trial before Sir Matthew Hale, when he was Lord Chief-Baron: For as he was riding the Nottingham Circuit, a pretended Mortgagee brought an Action against the Executor of an alleged Mortgager, affirming, that such an one had mortgage such an Estate to him the Plaintiff, for four thousand Pounds; and this he made a Proof of in Court, by three positive Witnesses, who concurred in all Circumstances of Time, Place, and Payment of the Money; nor could any of their Credits be impeached. Yet the Jury being of the Vicinage, and knowing that the Deceased, whose Executor was sued, had Money of his own at use, at that time when it was said he had borrowed the four thousand Pounds, and that he had neither married Son nor Daughter, nor bought nor mortgage any Land, which might make him necessitous of Money, they brought in for the Defendant, notwithstanding the Evidence of three untainted concurring Witnesses. And it was well they did so; for it appeared afterwards, that the Witnesses were forty Miles asunder when the Writings were said to have been sealed; and whereas the Mortgage bore Date at London such a day, he that was then nearest to the City, was at that very time as far off as Stamford in Lincoln-shire.  
Secondly; Those returned to serve on Juries, are to be boni& legales homines, good and lawful Men; whereupon all Persons outlawed, condemned in a praemunire, or attainted of Treason, Felony, or the like, are uncapable of serving upon a Jury, as not being homines legales, and all 
See Lambert's Eireaarcha, p. 376, 377  discredited by Attainder in Conspiracy, Subornation of Perjury, Concealment, or the like, are excluded from being Jury-Men, as not being homines probi. But among all the Exceptions, which by the Law disable a Person from serving on a Jury, I do not find, that differing from the Church of England in a Ceremony, or not attending upon the Common-Prayer, are allowed, much less enjoined to be any. And for any Persons to refuse such returned upon the panel, whom the Law doth not refuse, maketh a very near approach to the assuming to themselves a Legislative Power. And I dare affirm it in the Face of all the World, that notwithstanding the clamour about the Juries returned in London the last Year, and thus far of this, that yet there have not, for these twenty last Years, been better Men returned, both for Quality and Estate, and for Unblameableness and Integrity of Life, than were by the last Sheriffs, and those now in Office. And it is remarkable, that all who have been called on Nisi prius's are exceedingly approved; and why those called to serve on the Grand Inquest, who are usually Men of greater Quality than the other, come to be so much condemned, I desire that others should rather imagine and conceive, than that I should take upon me to pronounce and declare. And when those upon the Bench had cause to approve and commend such as are and have been returned to serve in Civil Causes, I do not well know for what reason they quarrel at Men of that persuasion and Mind, yea sometimes at the very same individual Persons when empaneled to serve in Criminal Causes. Yea, should the little and small differences amongst Protestants, make one Party judge another unqualified to serve in Juries, we might thereby, in case of a Popish Successor, teach the Papists to exclude one sort of Protestants aswell as another from discharging the office of Jury-men. And would we not be in a fine case, should the Papists in due time turn these Arguments against all Protestants, which some out of fondness to the Church of England do now make use of against Protestant Dissenters! And surely Nonconformity to all the Laws of Christ, which common Drunkards, Swearers, and every vicious and profane Person is guilty of, may with as much reason be esteemed an Exception against a Jury-man, as Nonconformity to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, especially if we consider that the one sort of Nonconformity is prohibited and made punishable by the Laws of the Land, as well as the other. And whereas it hath been said, That thro' the late Sheriffs returning fanatics to be Jury-men, it came to pass that during their whole Year not one Popish Recusant was presented in the City. They that make this Objection, would do well to consider, that from the Year 1676 till the Year 1680, there was not one Papist presented in London, and yet it is supposed that the Sheriffs during that long interval were very good Church-men, and returned Juries worthy to be approved. 'tis true, the Dissenters are not in one sense so well qualified to present Papists, as some others are, in that they do not know so many, nor maintain that friendship with them as they may do. But this may be said, that the most fanatical Jury which hath been within these fifteen Months, did never refuse to present Papists who were regularly and upon Oath brought before them.  
But to proceed, having heard what according to Law ought to be the qualification of the Jurors, we are next to consider who is the legal Officer that ought to return them; And this is the Sheriff: For to him is the Venire facias directed, and in him is the trust of returning Juries vested and reposed. Nay, at Goal-deliveries, when there is no writ directed to the Sheriffs, yet he is the Officer that is to return the Panel, for so the Law hath constituted him. The Statute of the 11. Hen. 4. is express to this purpose. Yea, that confidence and power doth the Law place in the Sheriff as to this matter, that in Inquests before Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer, it alloweth not the Judge to except against any whom the Sheriff is pleased to return: and tho' in Juries upon Goal delivery the Statute of the 3 H. 8. empowers the Judge to reform the panel, by excepting agaihst such as they think will be wilfully forsworn and perjured: yet even in that case the Sheriff must still return those who are to supply the places of such as are excepted agninst. Yea, the forfeiture is but 20 l. whereof one half only goes to the King, the other going to the Informer, in case he should refuse to return the panel according to the reformation of the Justices. And so careful is the Law to preserve the right of returning Juries to the Sheriff or his bailiff by his leave and order, that one Robert Scarlet, 10. Jac. not being returned by the Sheriff, yet by confederacy with the Clerk, getting himself to be called on the Grand Inquest when the panel was red in Court, was Indicted upon the Statute of the 11 Hen. 4. So that it being the Sheriffs Right to return Juries, we may justly wonder why men quarrel that the Secondaries in London are not of late suffered to do it. I am sure the High Sheriffs being men of greater Estates, than the Secondaries are, they are less likely to be bribed in making undue returns than the latter. And if the Secondaries complain that they are not permitted to return Juries, it is a ground of shrewd suspicion that that they made some advantage to themselves by doing it. and indeed purchasing their places at great Rates, we may safely imagine that they will be somewhat inclinable to excuse some from serving, and bring on others as shall turn and conduce most to their interest and profit. And were it not that they propose an advantages to themselves by the returning of Juries, instead of complaining that they are deprived of that liberty and privilege, they have cause to be thankful that they are eased of an Office which besides the foil trouble of it, might sometimes expose them to very great inconvniencies. And if any other take it amiss that the Secondaries are not still allowed to return the Juries, it is a plain argument that they think they could have better served a turn or a design by them, than they see they can do by the Sheriffs.  
In the next place it is observable that as in all criminal causes there are two Juries to pass upon the party that is accused and arraigned, fo the difference between them is, that the Grand Jury in finding the Bill, do supponere crimen, and the Petty Jury in finding the person guilty do imponere crimen. And as a Grand jury is never to find any Bill, but either upon personal knowledge, or Evidence; so in case they have no personal knowledge of the Eact of which the party is Indicted, they are not to find the Bill except they believe the Evidence. And to do otherwise is plainly for a Jury man to perjure himself. For how can a man upon his Oath find a Bill to be true, when he believes not the Evidence upon which the Truth of it doth wholly depend. As one of the Petty Jury is not to find the person that is put upon them for his Trial, unless upon hearing of the whole matter he believe the Witnesses; no more is one of the Grand Jury to find the Indictment that lies before them unless he be satisfied in conscience that what the Witnesses say is true. And beside, whosoever finds a Bill, and yet doth not believe the Evidence, he is injurious to the person who is arraigned before him. And there are three injuries which Jury men make themselves Guilty of towards him, nameley of one to him in his liberty, another in his estate and a third in his life. For upon finding the Bill, the Prisoner is liable to be put in closer durance, which is a wrong that the jury occasions to be done him as to his liberty; his goods are subject to be inventor'd, which is an injury that the Grant Inquest causeth him in his estate; and his life is put into hazard, which is the greatest injury we are capable of doing a person next the destroying him.  
And as a Grand Jury is never to find a Bill, unless they believe the Evidence? so they are to be Judges of the matter of Fact that is sworn and given in Evidence? And therefore it hath been heretofore customary, that the witnesses gave their dispositions and Evidence only to the Jury. And indeed there are some passages in the Oath of a Grand Jury Man that are not easily reconciled to the having the Witnesses examined in Court. Nay the Jurors are so far in all Cases the only and sole Judges of matter of fact, that the Judge cannot so much as direct them. Nor are they obliged to make the Testimony of those that swear, the sole measure of the Fact, the truth and reality whereof they are called to judge about, but their own knowledge, and the knowledge that any one of them hath of and concerning the matter of fact in the first place, and in opposition to all that is sworn contrary to their knowledge, is to be the of rule of the judgement they are to make concerning the fact, the truth whereof they are constituted and appointed Judges. Nay, all juries are judges so much as of matter of fact, that the Bench is not so much as to give any direction how or what they are to Judge therein. Nor upon a Trial of life and death are the juries bound up to the judges recapitulation of the evidence much less to his sense of the plaineness& fullness. of it.  
Yea they are not only sole Judges of Matter of Fact, but they are also Judges of the Law so far as it influenceth the Fact or is complicated with it. For they do not, neither are they to find the Fact abstractedly 
See Vaughan's Repts. p. 150. Littleton's tenors Sect. 368.  by itself, and leave the Law to the Court, but they find the party guilty or not guilty, or a Bill to be Billa vera, or ignoramus as the Indictment or the Case in issue contain Law and Fact complicately together. For tho' they may be convinced of the Fact, that the party charged before them did it, yet they are not to find him guilty, unless they be satisfied that he did it as it is laid in the Indictment, that is, that it be such a Crime as it is there styled, and done with that Traitorous and Malicious intention as it is there laid. And were it otherwise, a person might come to be Condemned for the most innocent Fact in the World, provided that it were represented in the Indictment as some mortal offence, and then porved by the Witnesses to have been done. Thus Suppose a person to be indicted for words that are plainly Teason according the Statute of the 13 of Charles 2. Yet if the party charged be not prosecuted within the time provided by that Act, he is not to be brought in as guilty, though it should appear by the Evidence that such and such Words were spoken. And the reason is plain, for as much as the Statute makes not words Tryable but within such a limited and prefixed time, and therefore if the time through the fault of the Informer or neglect of the prosecutor be suffered to elapse, no Jury is afterwards to find an Indictment, were the words charged never so fully proved.  
And as the Jurors are Judges of Matter of Fact, and of Law so far as it is complicated with Fact, so in order to their finding what is either presented or in issue before them; they are in the first place and in a special manner to consider and weigh the quality and creditableness of the Witnesses who are brought to prove the Indictment. For there are some whose Testimony the Law doth not admit, and consequently the Jurors are not to receive their Evidence, or in the least to be influenced by it. And whosever is so branded that he cannot be a Juror, he is also excluded according to law 
Viz Trials perpais p. 138. mirror of Justice p. 192.  from all capacity of being a Witness. There are some whom the Law stiles infamous, nor have such any credit to support what they say. Yea, there are some whom the Law hath not branded with the mark of infamy, and yet Principles of natural light instruct us not to give any faith unto them. Personoe vili, saith the Civil Law, non facile creditur; a beggarly or base person is not to be credited. Such a one, quem fames, magisquam fama incitat, whom hunger and want have a greater power over, than respect 
Vid Cod lib. 4. Tit. 20.  to reputation, is not to be much hearkned unto in what he says. Particularly whosoever is bribed or suborned is both in the sight of the Law and according to the common sense of mankind an infamous person to whom Jurors are to give no belief. Yea, one Witness of whose being suborned the Jury are satisfied, is enough to bring a just suspicion upon the Testimony of never so many other Witnesses, tho there be no Evidence of their being corrupted.  
Nor are Jurors only to consider the quality and credit of the Witnesses; but they are also to consider the probability or improbability of what they depose. 
See Vaughan's Reports, ubi supra.  For as a Witness is to swear nothing but what he hath heard or seen, and is not to be allowed to make any Inferences or Deductions, but is merely to relate matters as they occurred and fell under his senses; so Jurors are not to swallow it without chewing of it, and examining the possibility of the whole, and the consistency of one part with another. For allegans contraria non est audiendus, he who produceth things which interfere with themselves, or with what any other hath said in the same cause, overthrows both the credit of his fellow Witness, and destroys his own Testimony. Some things though positively sworn, yet carry their refutation along with them. For example, that there should be a Protestant Plot to seize the King and alter the Government, and not one of all those know it, who were most likely to have been made acquainted with it. And a conspiracy to apprehended the King at Oxford, and yet no visible force to effect it, nor any thing proportionate to such an undertaking either taken care of before hand, or brought to light since. It is impossible that what my Lord Shaftsbury is charged with should be true, and yet that no man should ever hear of it, but they from whom, if there had been any such thing, it would have been most industriously concealed.  
Nor are the Jurors only to consider of the quality of the Witnesses, and the probability of the matter given in charge, as it lies abstracted from the party that is accused, but they are also to weigh the agreeableness of the Fact to the principles of the party brought and Indicted before them, and whether it be likely that a person of his loyalty, integrity and wisdom should be guilty of it. And therefore it is that the Jurors are to be of the Vicinage, the Law supposing that such are best able to judge of the person and his manner of life, whose cause is to receive its issue according to their sentence and Verdict. And if upon there own knowledge they believe him innocent, they are not to bring him in guilty, nor to find a Bill upon the Testimony of never so many Witnesses.  
Nor is this all that belongs to Jurors, but they are likewise to consider both the motives and the nature and manner of the prosecution. For where there is either malice at the bottom, or unusual and unbecoming rigour and violence in the pursuit, there is just ground administered of a suspicion, that the party accused is not so much nocent, as his enemies out of wrath and revenge would have him thought to be. A Princes interest is to have the Lives of all his subjects preserved, as far as the Law, his own safety, and the welfare of the Society will admit; and therefore the singling out of a person from the rest, as if it were of purpose to run him down, argues that some inducements which his prosecutors do not think fit to mention do influence unto it, and that it is the interest of some secret ministers, rather than the parties own guilt that bring him under obnoxiousness. Besides where all things have been carried with a clandestineness which is neither justified by the Law, nor usual in other Cases, there men may justly fear that there is foul play in that man's affair. Again, when a Si quis, as it were, hath been sent into all parts to invite Witnesses, and when foreign Dominions have been sought into for Evidence, as well as our own Kingdoms, it gives impartial man cause to apprehended that the party pursued. is not so criminal, as his Adversaries endeavour to proclaim him.  
Nor can a Jury of Life and Death bring in any legal Verdict, unless the whole Twelve, which are all that are sworn to pass upon the party Indicted, be agreed and unanimous. So tender have our Ancestors been of their own and the lives of their posterity, that Eleven cannot cast a man, but the whole Twelve must concur in the Verdict. Nor can a Grand Inquest find a Bill, unless also Twelve agree in the in dorsing Billa vera upon it. It is not the opiniof the majority that makes a Verdict; but the Law hath ordained such a precise number as Twelve at the least towards the putting a mans life into hazard: And therefore we red in our Books of a Judge that was condemned, for adjudging a person to death, when only Eleven were agreed in the Verdict.  
And when the Jurors have endorsed their Bill, or declared their Verdict, they are only accountable to God and their own Consciences for what they have done. Nor is their either fine or attaint lies against a Jury in criminal causes. The Law hath taken that care to have only good and lawful men Jurors, that it trusts all upon them, and leaveth them not exposed to be harassed by a Bench of Judges, who many times hold their places at the placitum of a Minister or Courtier that can influence the Monarch, or hath the ear of the Prince. Nor was ever a Jury legally punished in any 
See Vaughan's Reports, ubi supra.  case, where the Jurors were not accused of some offence, besides barely the giving sueh a Verdict.  
Yea, the Law hath made such liable to punishment, who asperse or revile a Jury for what they do in the way of their Office. But of this, and the whole that our Law hath concerning Jurors and Juries, with a vindication of the Verdicts of some late Juries, the world may see something in a little time.  
FINIS.