The KING's Letter to the great Council of PEERS.

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1688.

IGHT trufty and right well-beloved Cofins, and right trufty and wellbeloved Cofins, and trusty and right well-beloved, We greet you well: We cannot have better Reason to promise Ourself an End of Our common Sufferings and Calamities, and that Our own juft Power and Authority will (with God's Bleffing) be restored to Us, than that We hear you are again acknowledged to have that Authority and Jurifdiction which hath always belonged to you by your Birth and the Fundamental Laws of the Land; and We have thought it very fit and fafe for Us to call to you for your Help, in the compofing the confounding Distempers and Distractions of the Kingdom, on which your Sufferings are next to thofe We have undergone Ourself; therefore you cannot but be the most proper Counsellors for removing these Mischiefs, and for preventing the like for the future. How great a Trust We repofe in you for the procuring and establishing a blessed Peace and Security for the Kingdom, will appear to you by Our inclofed Declaration; which Truft We are most confident you will discharge with that Juftice and Wisdom that becomes you, and must always be expected from you; and that upon your Experience, how one Violation fucceeds another. When the known Relations and Rules of Juftice are tranfgreffed, you will be as jealous for the Rights of the Crown and for the Honour of the King, as Ourfelf; and then you cannot but discharge your Trust with good Succefs, and provide for, and establish the Peace, Happiness, and Honour of King, Lords, and Commons, upon that Foundation which can only fupport it, and We shall be all happy in each other: And as the whole Kingdom will blefs God for you, alfo We fhall hold Ourfelf obliged, in an efpecial Manner, to thank you in particular, according to the Affection you fhall express towards Us. We need the lefs enlarge to you on this Subject, becaufe We have likewife wrote to the House of Commons, which We fuppofe they will communicate to you; and We pray God blefs your joint Endeavours for the Good of us all. And fo we bid you very heartily Farewell.

V. BAKE R.

A Speech of a Commoner of England, to his Fellow Commoner of the Convention.

Mr. SPEAKER,

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HE prefent Providence deferves our most serious Thoughts; and truly Sir, I cannot but fay that we are extreamly obliged to the great Goodness and Valour of the Prince of Orange, who with fuch Hazard and Expence has brought us fo feasonable and eminent a Deliverance from Popery, and (I hope) from Arbitrary Power allo: Sir, we cannot give him too much, unle

we give him more than our own, the Crown I mean. We have been of a long time taught, that it is not the Gift or Work of Subjects. Soveraign Princes have made bold with one another, but I am of Opinion, whatever Malice may suggeft against his Highnefs, he has too noble a Soul to be guilty of fuch an Attempt; he came not hither for Greatness, he has it of his own, and brought it with him, and values being Optimus more than Maximus; which is the best way of joining that imperial Stile together, Optimus Maximus: I say, I am confident it is more than he will judge proper to receive, and that he will think it more for his Glory to reduce the Monarchy to its juft and legal Establishment, than to be King himself; and to fecure us against Popery, than to lead us into the Errors of it, of which the most peftilent are the depofing Princes, and breaking Faith with Hereticks. The Prince is too great a Difciple both of Religion and Honour, not to be fatisfied with our doing what is agreeable to them, and let not us prefs him out of his own Sentiments, which have been the greatest and most heroick that have appeared in this latter Age of the World; left whilft we have taken Arms to redrefs Grievances, we draw greater upon ourselves, and that as well from abroad as at home; for, Sir, when we believe Catholick Princes to have a Zeal fo unreasonably fierce and unfafe to other People, we cannot at the fame time think they will tamely fuffer a Catholick King to be kept out of his Kingdoms, for little more than being fo; and I am afraid that this Procedure may precipitate Ireland into Extremities, and if it fhould follow the King to France, all fober fenfible Men know of what ill Confequence a Revolt to that Crown may be to this Kingdom: We fhall then, inftead of invading France, find Difficulties to preferve our own; nor for what I fee are we fure of being at Peace here: The Tide has mightily abated fince the King's going from Rochefter. Those that wifhed his Humiliation in the Government will by no Means hear of his Exclufion and Perdition from the Crown; they either believe the Fault none of his, or not of Weight enough to justify fo extraordinary an Example. Kings must see and hear by the Eyes and Ears of others, which makes it their Misfortune rather than their Crime that they do amifs. We are alfo of a Church that has been fingular for her Honour and Deference to Kings, and if we have any for her, I think we ought to tread tenderly on this Point; and that we may be juft, two Things compel us to it for our own fake: The firft is, that most of the Things that made the King's Government so obnoxious have already been done in this; we have had a difpenfing Power exercised both at Exeter and London; we have had Free Quarters conftrained in almost all Places where the Dutch Army has marched; we have in great Part a Popish Army too, tho' that was one of the most crying Offences we objected to the King, and from which we drew the most popular Notions of our Infecurity: The very Money that is now receiving was afked with Two Armies on Foot, and all Men will conclude it was ill refufing a Propofal fo feconded; and how far our famous Petition of Right may be concerned in this, the Gentlemen of the Law muft determine; but I dare fay, this very Loan could not efcape it under a lawful Prince, and under our prefent Circumstances we cannot reasonably think the Cafe better. Nor, Mr. Speaker, is this all; the fecond Reafon for our Temper is, the little Truth that at laft appears in those many Stories that above any thing feemed to alienate the Hearts of the Subjects from his Majefty, and.to diffolve that Tie of Affection and Duty they had to him, as his Subjects: VOL. III.

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Such as the Alarms we had here of a French Invafion; the King's felling the Kingdom for five Millions fterling; the Irish killing Man, Woman and Child upon the Roads; the French embarked for the West, but met and funk by the Dutch; the forty thousand new fashioned Knives of Slaughter; the Queen's Back-Door for bringing to Bed a falfe Child; her cuffing the Earl of Craven and the Princess Ann; with forty more of that Stamp, that Time has proved as malicious as falfe: How much they have influenced to this prefent great Change, is not unworthy of our juft Thoughts and Cenfure; and, in my Opinion, that calls upon us as loudly for a speedy Reparation. Mr. Speaker, thefe are the things that have driven the King out of England, and if it can be proved that the Prince of Wales is an Impoftor, and that there was a League with France to cut off Proteftants, I think nothing that has befallen him too hard Measure for him; but, Mr. Speaker, it is upon no other Terms that the People of England will part with their King, or with any Patience think of the Ufage he has had upon that Suppofition. But it is objected, that fome of those that were in Arms are under Apprehenfion left their Eftates and Lives fhould be at the Mercy of the King, if he returns. I think the King will be fo far from expecting, and the Nation from yielding to it, that they muft not only be all pardoned, but those Lords and Gentlemen, that have been the noble Affertors of our English Liberties at this Juncture, must be posted in the greatest Places of Honour and Trust. I hope the King himfelf will fee it his Intereft to leave off little and parasitical Favourites, and be willing that fuch be employed in all his Affairs as his People can confide in, and as will ufe their Preferment for the Honour of their Prince, and the Good of the Subjects.

The Objection against the King's Return, upon the Account of having deferted his Kingdoms by going into France, I am aftonished at; for if that Kingdom be not his Right, why is it a Part of his Title; and if it be, he may vifit that as well as any other of his Territories, if he has Reafon to apprehend himfelf in Danger, without making a Demife, Forfeiture, Surrender or Abdication of the Crown of England. Mr. Speaker, I fear that if I have not tired your Patience, I have been at leaft over long for fome Members of a contrary Judgment, who fit in this Convention, and therefore I fhall only add this humble Caution, that our Convent on confider well their Power, which I humbly conceive is too fcanty to be able to make a new King, tho' it may call home that to whom we have moft, if not all of us, fworn Allegiance; nay, let me fay further, that if our Cafe was fo defperate, that no Remedy would ferve but creating a new King, our Convention has not enough of our Fellow Subjects for the reft to be concluded by. When Things are tranfacted according to the known Laws and ancient Customs, the ufual Deputies may deliver and state the Intentions of the People, but when fo many and great Alterations must be made in the Building, that is to be for the common Conveniency, every Man thinks himself worthy to be confulted as well as the greatest Architect, when he is to dwell in the Houfe: Parliaments, that are called by Kings, cannot make Kings, and a Convention not called by a King, and as narrow bottom'd as a Parliament, is yet lefs than a Parliament, because it wants the Sanction that a Parliament has. If then it feems a Solecifm, that a Meeting lefs than a Parliament can make a King, without whom a Parliament cannot be; what fhall we think of this Convention making a King of him that makes the Convention?

vention? Can they act lawfully upon an unlawful Call, or an unlawful Convention make him a lawful King? We are taught by an English Proverb, that no Stream rifes higher than its Fountain; how is it then poffible for them to give him Authority to govern that have none but what they receive from him, who by our Law can have none to give. Sir, this is neither more nor less than for his Highness to make himself King, by a Medium of his own; a Thing as much below him to do, as it is above us to think of it. Therefore if we must go to that Work, let us call in more Heads to our Affiftance; but I rather advise, and humbly move, that we pray the Prince, who has been our Deliverer, to be our Arbitrator, to give due Limits to the Prerogative and our Liberty, to fecure us, that are the Proteftant Subjects, in our Religion, and to fhew the King what Sort of Liberty he only ought to expect for his Roman Catholick Subjects. I fay, let us befeech him to call back the King for thofe great Ends, the accomplishing of which will make both King and Kingdom happy, and the great Prince of Orange renowned in all the Hiftories of Europe as well as in our Annals.

Some REFLECTION S upon the humble PETITION to the King's most excellent Majesty, of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal who fubfcribed the fame; prefented November 17, 1688.

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HAT the Peace-makers are blessed, is a Truth our Saviour hath left recorded in the holy Scriptures, and those are truly to be honoured who can contribute any thing to fo happy a Work: But that either this Way of Petitioning, or the Matter in it defired, is likely to produce fo great a Bleffing, is a Question worthy ferious Confideration.

I fhall first therefore take Notice of fome of the dubious Expreffions in the Petition, and then lay down fome few Reasons, why I judge the Petition in itfelf unfeasonable; and laftly endeavour to fhew how unpracticable the fummoning of a Parliament is at this present.

The Expreffion, that a War is now breaking forth in the Bowels of the Kingdom, fhews that their Lordships either know or forefee, that a civil War is fomenting; and I pray God this Petition do not, more than any thing else, occafion it; or that the Prince of Orange intends to carry on the War through the Bowels of the Kingdom, whereas thofe that wifh well to the King hope it will be kept in and about the Parts where he landed.

Secondly, As to the Distraction of the People under their prefent Grievances; it feems to many true Members of the Church of England, that it had been every whit as agreeable to your Lordships Character, to have rather thank'd his Majefty for his late extraordinary and gracious Favours, than to have amused the Subjects at this Time with the Apprehenfions of Grievances, without any In-. Iii 2

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timation what they were; for it is most manifeft, that by fuch remonftrating of Grievances the People were inftigated to that bloody Rebellion in 1641.

As to the Expreffion, That your Lordships think yourselves bound, in Confcience of the Duty you owe to God and our holy Religion, and to His Majefty and our Country, most humbly to offer to His Majesty, That in your Opinion the ONLY vifible Way to preferve His Majesty and his Kingdom, would be the calling of a Parliament regular and free in all its Circumstances-I hope to make out, that the fummoning of a Parliament now is fo far from being the Only Way to effect thefe Things, that it will be one of the principal Caufes of much Mifery to the Kingdom; and I am fure both our Duty to God and our boly Religion, as well as to His Majesty and our Country, doth plainly enjoin us to ufe one other effectual Means to obviate the Miferies of a civil or invasive War; which is, the keeping inviolably our Allegiance to our Sovereign, and effectually joining with him to refift all his Enemies, whether foreign Aggreffors, or native Rebels: And it is much to be wonder'd at, that this Duty, fo well known to your Lordships, fhould never be mention'd.

As to the Regular and Free Parliament in all its Circumftances, I fhall now proceed to prove, that at this Seafon all our Wishes for fuch an one are impotent, and must be ineffectual,

Firft, It is a known Truth, and fadly experienced, that whenever the People are in a great Ferment, and contrary Parties are bandying one against another, the giving Liberty to the People to meet in great Bodies is dangerous to the Government; and you yourfelves not long fince were, when you opposed the vehement Addreffes to King Charles II. for fummoning a Parliament, when he judged it would strengthen the Faction against him; and you very well know, when great Heats were among the Members, and unreasonable Votes were pafs'd against the lineal Succeffion, and other Matters endangering the Government, the King was obliged to prorogue fome Parliaments from Time to Time, that fuch Separation might produce more fober Counfels: And then the great Cry was, that for the Prefervation of the King's Perfon and our Religion, they were fo earnest to have a Parliament meet.

Secondly, It is impoffible there can be a regular and free Election, while the Electors are fo violently divided; one Part of them being fo vehement Wishers of the Success of the Prince of Orange, that they flight all the Miferies that unavoidably will fall on the Country thereby, upon the bare Hope that he will preferve Religion and Property. Now, in fuch a Time as this, when (if we will give Credit to the Prince's Declaration) there are fo many that have invited him, can it be fafe for the King to grant a Commiffion, even to the People, to affemble in fuch great Confluxes, as may afford them Opportunity of lifting themselves against him?

Thirdly, If we yield that Elections can be without outragous Routs; yet when the Parliament is met, it is requifite, by the very Confticution, that every Part of that auguft Affembly fhould be free in their Affent or Diffent to what is to be debated; and that Freedom is as fundamentally neceffary in the Perfon of the King, as in the Members of either Houfe; and that one of the proper and neceffary Circumftances of that Convention ought to be, that all the Members fhall be prefent. I fhall therefore fhew, that at this Time none of these can be practicable.

Firft,