〈◊〉
Lord
Chancellor's
PETITION
To
His
Highness
the
Prince
of
Orange
,
On
His
Entrance
into
LONDON
.
Most
Humbly
Sheweth
,
THAT
your
Petitioner
,
who
was
once
Lord
High
Chancellor
of
England
,
is
now
become
the
Lowest
of
your
Supplicants
;
and
from
the
first
and
chiefest
Councellor
about
the
Throne
,
a
miserable
Dejected
Captive
in
the
Tower.
I
do
not
presume
to
Justifie
my
Integrity
,
that
would
be
an
Arrogance
as
black
as
my
Crimes
.
I
confess
,
I
am
as
unworthy
to
Live
,
as
I
am
unwilling
to
Die
;
and
therefore
I
Prostrate
my self
to
the
Foot-stool
of
your
Grace
and
Clemency
,
that
Fountain
of
Inexhausted
Goodness
,
whence
only
Mercy
can
flow
,
upon
so
Vile
and
Notorious
a
Delinquent
.
To
Innumerate
my
Crimes
,
would
be
as
numberless
as
the
Enemies
I
have
created
by
them
;
nor
will
I
presume
to
Prophane
your
Sacred
Ears
with
so
black
a
Catalogue
,
whose
precious
Minutes
are
more
happily
Imploy'd
in
the
weightier
Affairs
of
the
Nation
;
the
Restitution
of
those
Laws
and
Liberties
which
I
,
by
my
byass'd
and
precipitate
Council
,
endeavour'd
to
Subvert
.
What
cou'd
be
more
pernicious
and
destructive
to
the
Fundamental
Laws
of
the
Nation
,
than
to
Establish
a
Power
in
the
Monarch
,
to
dispence
with
them
?
What
greater
Inlet
to
Popery
,
than
to
take
off
the
Test
and
Penal
Laws
?
What
deeper
stroke
to
the
Protestant
Church
,
than
to
Erect
a
Court
of
Ecclesiastical
Commissioners
,
to
pull
down
Her
Pillars
?
What
sharper
Persecution
of
the
Prelates
,
than
by
publishing
an
Arbitrary
Declaration
;
for
the
Non-obeying
of
which
Illegal
Warrant
,
so
many
since
have
been
treated
as
Criminals
in
the
Tower
:
Nor
cou'd
there
be
a
more
Irregular
Method
than
the
late
Regulating
of
Corporations
for
a
free
Election
of
Parliament
.
In
all
which
,
and
many
others
,
(
to
my
Shame
,
I
must
confess
)
I
have
been
all
along
a
principal
Counsellor
and
Instrument
.
These
(
may
it
please
your
Highness
)
are
the
crying
Crimes
,
which
,
were
they
yet
greater
,
is
in
your
Power
to
mitigate
,
by
your
Intercessions
to
the
Parliament
,
having
already
the
King's
Pardon
.
If
you
vouchsafe
this
Mercy
to
an
humble
Supplicant
,
I
will
promise
in
some
measure
to
make
Retaliation
,
by
discovering
some
Arcana
Imperii
,
or
Intriegues
of
State
,
what
I
am
Capable
of
;
which
may
highly
concern
your
Highness's
Interest
in
this
Kingdom
.