fay you are to have that Liberty only upon your good Behaviour. If King James comes in, if you will not as induftrioofly as any other Party promote the general Good: If you will not be as zealous for it as your Predeceffors when they got Magna Charta, you will be a hated Faction ftill, and find me too true a Prophet at laft. I think the French never were, but I believe every body will allow that they have now no Reafon to be fo vifionary as to expect to make us a Colony; and if any Catholicks or mad Tories ftill expect Force from abroad fhall fet King James upon the Throne, they are madder than any Set of Men but thofe Whigs that fear a French Conqueft, and from thence Popery and Slavery.

I have treated upon odd Things, and in an unufual Manner, and perhaps shall have tired the Perufer, but to speak in a few Words the Drift of the WholeIt is to invite all my Countrymen to be ready to receive the King upon fuch large and comprehenfive Measures, as ought to fatisfy all Parties; it is to incline all Parties to be reasonable in their Demands, and to perfuade King James to give fuch Terms as the People will thank him for now, and will have, or eternally be refty and uneafy; it is to perfuade all Englishmen to confider Church and Civil Matters apart; it is to incorporate all our Sects into one National Intereft; it does allow Government from God, but the Specification from Men; it is not to quarrel with Hereditary Monarchy, but defires we may be safe in our Lives and Fortunes, and that we should facrifice them for the Publick against Enemies abroad, rather than by inteftine Jars: In a word, all this Ramble is to perfuade to a new Magna Charta; to Peace and Justice, which God grant may be the Conclufion of all our difmal Appearances. I wish Men would rather caft about in their Thoughts how to draw fuch a Magna Charta than to make Oppofition, which can never determine the Controverfy, as long as any one Branch of the Right Line is alive. I wifh they would rather think who fhould represent them, than who should fight for them.

To conclude, I expect to please no one Party, because I appear to be of none bigotly, but write for the general Good. Tho' I think what I have fet down are Truths, yet I fear they are too strong to be digefted, they do not close with the Partialities of any Sort of Men; however, they are well meant, and I leave the Iffue to the great Difpofer of all Things, and Men to jumble and cut, and be unfortunate, till they find by Experience, according to the Title of this Difcourse, That

Honesty, after all, is the beft Policy.

The

The SPEECH of the Right Honourable Henry Powle, Efq; Speaker of the House of Commons: Delivered to the King and Queen's Majefties, at the Banqueting-House in Whitehall, Friday April 12, 1689. With His Majefty's Answer thereto.

You

OUR most loyal and dutiful Subjects, the Commons of England affembled in this prefent Parliament, having to their unfpeakable Joy feen your Majefties placed upon the Imperial Throne of this Kingdom, they have defired Access at this Time to your Royal Prefence, humbly to congratulate your Majefties upon this Occafion, and to wish your Majefties a long and profperous Reign, with all the Bleffings that ever did attend a Crown.

We are all fenfible, that your Majefties Greatness is the Security of your Subjects. It is from your Power that we derive to ourselves an Affurance of being defended from our Enemies, and from your Juftice that we expect a full Enjoyment of our Laws and Liberties: But that which compleats our Happiness is the Experience we have of your Majefties continual Care to maintain the Proteftant Religion; fo that we can no longer apprehend any Danger of being deprived of that ineftimable Bleffing, either by fecret Practices, or by open Violence.

May the fame Divine Providence which bath hitherto preferved your Majefty in the greatest Dangers, and fo often given you Victory over your Enemies, still crown your Undertakings with Success.

And may thofe unparallel'd Virtues, which adorn Your Majefty's + Royal Perfon, be the Admiration of the prefent Age, and an Example to the future.

And may the Luftre of both your Names fo far out-fhine the Glory of your Predeceffors, that the Memory of their greatest Actions may be forgotten, and your People no longer date the Eftablishment of their Laws and Liberties from St. Edward's Days, but from the most Aufpicious Reign of King WILLIAM and Queen MARY.

Gentlemen,

WE

His MAJESTY's Answer.

E return you our hearty Thanks for the Kindness and Refpects that you have upon all Occafions fhewed to both of Us; we shall take care to the best of our Power of all Things that conduce to the Good of the Kingdom; and I do not doubt but by God's Affiftance and yours we shall be able in a fhort Time to make you a flourishing People.

* To the King.

+ To the Queen.

The

The SPEECH of an Honourable Peer in the House of Lords. 1689.

M

Y Lords, your appointing the Confideration of the State of England to be taken up in a Committee of the whole House some time next Week, I do not know how what I have to fay may be received; for I never study to make my Court well, or to be popular: I always fpeak what I am commanded by the Dictates of the Spirit within me. There are fome Confiderations that concern England fo near, that without them you will come far short of Safety at Home. [We have a little Sifter and she hath no Breafts, what will become of our Sifter in the Day when she shall be spoken of all: If she be aWall, we will build upon her a Palace of Silver: If she be a Door, we will clofe her with Boards of Cedar.] We have feveral little Sifters without Breafts; the French Proteftant Church, and the two Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland: The Foreign Proteftants are the only Wall of Defence to England, on which you may build glorious Palaces of Silver; the Protection of the Proteftants abroad are the greatest Power and Security the Crown of England can attain unto, and which can only help us to give a Check to the growing Greatnefs of France. Scotland and Ireland are two Doors that let in either Good or Mischief upon us, they are much weakened by the Artifice of our cunning Enemies, and we ought to inclose them with Boards of Cedar. Popery and Slavery like two Sifters go Hand in Hand, fometimes one goes first, sometimes the other in-a-doors, but the other is always following close at hand. In England Popery was to have brought in Slavery, in Scotland Slavery went before, and Popery was to follow. I do not think your Lordships or the Parliament have any Jurifdiction there: It is a Noble and Ancient Kingdom, they have an Illuftrious Nobility, a gallant Gentry, a learned Clergy, and an understanding worthy People; but yet we can't think of England as we ought, without the reflecting on the Condition they are in. They are under the fame Prince, the fame Favourites and Councils; they are hardly dealt with, can we that are richer expect better Ufage? For 'tis certain, that in all abfolute Governments the poorest Countries are most favourably dealt with. When the Ancient Nobility and Gentry there cannot enjoy their Royalties, Sheriffdoms and Stuarties, which they and their Ancestors have poffeffed for feveral hundred Years, but that they are now enjoined by the Lords of the Council to make Deputation of their Authority to fuch as are their known Enemies, can we expect to enjoy our Magna Charta long under the fame Perfons and Adminiftration of Affairs? If the Council Table there can imprison any Nobleman and Gentleman for feveral Years without bringing them to a Trial, or giving the leaft Reason for what they do, can we expect the fame Men will respect the fame Liberty of the Subject here? I will acknowledge I am not well verfed in the Laws of Scotland, but this I know, that all the Northern Countries have by their Laws an undoubted and inviolable Right to their Liberties and Properties: Yet Scotland hath outdone all the Eastern and Southern Countries, in having their Laws, Liberties and Estates fubjected to the arbitrary Will VOL. III. LII and

and Pleasure of those that govern. They have lately plundered and harraffed the richest and wealthiest Counties in that Kingdom, and brought down the barbarous Highlanders to devour them; and all this without almost a colourable Pretence to do it: Nor can there be found any Reafon of State for what they have done, but that those wicked Ministers defigned to procure a Rebellion at any Rate, which as they managed it was only prevented by the miraculous Hand of God, or otherwise the Papifts in England would have been armed, and the fairest Opportunity given in the juft Time for the Execution of that bloody and wicked Defign the Papifts had; and it is not poffible for any Man that duly confiders to think it other, but that thofe Minifters that acted that, are as guilty of the Plots as any of the Lords that are in queftion for it: My Lords, I am forced to fpeak this the plainer, because till the Preffure be fully and clearly taken off from Scotland, 'tis not poffible for me or any thinking Man to believe that Good is meant us here; we muft ftill be upon our guard, apprehending that the Principle is not changed at Court, and those Men are still in Place and Authority, and have the Influence and Mind of our excellent Prince, who is not nor cannot be that to us, which his own Nature and Goodness would incline him to. I know your Lordships can order nothing in this, but there are those that hear me can put a perfect Cure to it, and till that be done this Scotch Weed is like Mors in Olla; but there is fomething too (now I confider) more immediately concerns us, their Act for two hundred and twenty thousand Men to be ready to invade us on all Occafions; this I hear the Lords of the Council there have enacted as they do all other Laws, and expound it a standing Army of 6000 Men. I answer, we have Reason and Right to befeech the King, that that Act may be better confidered in the next Parliament there. I fhall fay no more for Scotland at this Time, I am afraid your Lordships will think I have faid too much, having no Concern there: But if a French Nobleman fhould come to dwell in my House and my Family, I think it should concern me to ask what he did in France; for if he were there a Felon, Rogue or Plunderer, I should defire him to live elsewhere. I hope your Lordships will think fit to do the fame Thing for the Nation, if you find the fame Caufe.

My Lords, give me Leave to speak a Word or two concerning our other Sister Ireland. Thither I hear is fent Douglas's Regiment to fecure us against the French; befides, I am credibly informed that Papifts have their Arms restored, and the Proteftants are not many of them yet recovered from being the fufpected Party, and the Sea Towns as well as Inlands are full of Papifts; fo that Kingdom cannot long continue in English Hands, if fome better Care be not taken of it. This is in your Power, and there is nothing there but what is under your Laws; therefore I beg this Kingdom at least may be taken into Confideration, together with the State of England, for I am fure there can be no Safety here, if these Doors are not fhut up and safe.

A

A LETTER from a Lawyer in the Country to aMember of Parliament: Or, Indemnity the Effect of Vacancy.

I

SIR,

Remember, in one of your former Letters, you were pleased to desire me to fend you the general Opinion of the Country concerning the Vacancy of the Throne, and how they feemed to ftand affected upon it: And I then returned you in Anfwer, that your Proceedings therein were very well approved of; for it could not be imagined, that so many of the Nobility and Gentry would have been fo ready to have hazarded their Lives and Fortunes as they did, without a juft and reasonable Caufe; nor that fo many Gentlemen of Estate and Quality would have appeared in this Parliament, if they had not been entirely convinced of the Safety and Innocency of their Appearance; neither the People of England who chose them, nor the Perfons elected, could be imagined to admit themselves guilty of High-Treason, the greatest Crime of the Law: And if there had not been a Vacancy of the Throne, by the late King's Abdication of the Government, no lefs a Crime than High-Treafon could have been imputed to them. But fince that Point hath been fo folemnly determined, the Nation is intirely fatisfied, that the Parliament have thereby fet forth a Declaration of Indemnity to themselves and all others; and therefore it was, that by the univerfal Confent of all People their Majefties King William and Queen Mary were proclaimed in all Places with fo much Joy and Satisfaction: There was fomething in that Vote, that pleafed all Manner of Perfons, as foon as they had a right Notion of it; they look'd upon the Nation as newly baptized from all its Sins and Corruptions, and that every Man was to begin the Course of his Life upon a new Basis and Foundation; when they faw no publick Accufation was like to happen, every Man began to condemn himfelf; fome their Ambition, Vanity and Pride, that caft a Mist before their Eyes; others their mistaken Intereft and Fears; fome began to review the Principles of Loyalty and Government, which they had imbibed from their Infancy, under the Doctrine of paffive Obedience; others condemned their unfortunate Compliance of doing Evil that Good might come of it: But all looked back with Safety, as well as Refolution of Amendment, upon their paft Errors. Those who never faw any Changes of Government, and had little Experience in fuch Affairs, thought themfelves fufficiently provided with a Stock of bought Wit, to make them good Subjects for the Publick, as well as cautious and prudent as to themfelves. Thus whilft every body reflected upon their own Mifcarriages, they could not but fee that a few evil Minifters at Helm had been the Caufe of all this Mifery, both to Themfelves in particular. as well as the Nation in general; and therefore fome extraordinary Act of Attainder against thofe evil Counsellors was all that was expected, or can be approved of by the Generality of the People of England: And the rather, because it is fo publickly known with what Zeal His Majefty hath recommended a moft general and exprefs Act of Oblivion for all his Subjects, with Exceptions only of fuch evil Counsellors, as you in your great Prudence and Mercy fhould think fit. Matters