I Have heard much of the sad state and condition we are in , and I am convinced of it , since I see such reflexions made with impunity upon the Kings Person and Government . I shall say little to the Precedent of our Hary the fourth ; Unbridled violence , and mean condescensions , are the unhappy necessities of an Usurper ; but a good and a lawful King is oblieged to maintain His Own Prerogative , as well as the Rights of His Subjects . But is it possible , that the supposed Author of the Printed Speech , should already forget , how lately the King ( after a great Re-trenchment of His Family ) did at once , and ( as it is said ) by his Lordships advice , Change almost His whole Council ? and yet the People ( or those that still make use of their Names ) never were , nor will yet be satisfied . I will not put his Lordship in mind of the Court-Ladyes , since he doth not remember he spoke of them : But unless he make himself a Samuel , I do not know what authority he has to examine Saul , about the bleating of the Cattel ? I cannot believe his Lordship could have the heart , to sacrifice the fairest of them ; His Lordship may read in the same place , That Obedience is better than Sacrifice ; but if a Sacrifice must be made , It is not to the People , but to God and Justice . I would fain understand what is meant by the People ? For now every man calls himself the People ; and when one man calls for one Thing , and another for Something , directly opposite , both cry out , that if this , or that be not done , the People is betrayed ; that is to say , they will endeavour to perswade them so . But the People in this Speech , hath a strange Dialect , such as I hope , no English Man understands ; Must , was never the Language of a good Subject , nor Submission the part of a King ; ( We must , &c. and no new Converts ) I am sorry , that with all our Zeal , we are so unkind to Prosylites , we had a greater value for them not long since ; for though L. B. was accused of the Plot , his Conversion secured him without a Pardon , though either his Lordship was deeply guilty , or the Kings Evidence grossely perjured . Till the Author discover who he means by Sempronia , I shall not tell him who I believe to be as bad as Catiline . But it is prodigious , that while we are frighted with Bugbeares of invisible Dispensations from the Pope , his Lordship with his arbitrary Must , should dispense at once , with the Law of God , as to the Queen ; with the Law of Nations , as to forraign Ministers ; with the Laws of Hospitality , as to Strangers , and all that part of the Oath of Allegiance , that concerns the Heir of the Crown , which is equally binding with the rest , to all whose suspected honesty cannot accept of such an Arbitrary Dispensation . His Lordship seems much concerned to hear of a Bargain between the King and the House of Commons ; and so am I , for things are too ripe for mischief , when Subjects are permitted to capitulate with their Soveraign . The Kings Subjects ( by His permission ) have made Capitulations with forraign Princes ; but his Lordship would not have the King so far trusted , as that His own Subjects may Capitulate with him , because as his Lordship says , he has so often deceived ( that hard Word ) the People . And I beg leave to use the same expression of His Majesties patience , which his Lordship uses of his little care of his Person , That no Story affords a parallel of him . The actings of the Duke are indeed admirable to all , but incomprehensible to such as have not the true Principles of Loyalty rooted in them . But his Lordship ( who in Cromwel's time was much better acquainted with what past at London , then at Bruxells ) avers , That the Duke had an early aim at the Crown , before the Kings Restauration ; this is a high Charge , and ought to be better proved than by a bare assertion : Hath his Lordship any Letters to produce from His Royal Highness to Himself , or any other chief Minister of the Vsurpers ? Or to what Crown could the Duke pretend , when they had robbed the King of His own ? The Duke can show undenyable proofs of his Allegeance , even in those days ; For what could an exiled Prince do more , than leave the great Commands , and Pensions that he had abroad , and all the advantages that his Birth , his Courage and his Reputation promised him , to follow the Fortune , and the Wants of His Majesty ? But how will his Lordship make out , that after the Match with a Portugal Lady ( for that is the only Title his Lordship allows the Queen ) The Duke and his Party made Proclamation to the World , that We were like to have no Children , and he must be the Certain Heir ; Where is the World ? and where is the Proclamation ? He sayes the Duke took his Seat in Parliament , as Prince of Wales ; but his Lordship knows , that the Seat on the Right Hand of the State , was , and is reserved for the Prince of Wales , The Duke took that on the Left Hand ; the Printed Pictures of the House of Peers , sitting upon the Tryal of the Earl of Strafford , show , that this is no Innovation ; And His Royal Highness had the same Seat , when the King , His Father Called the Parliament at Oxford . He urges , That the Duke had his Guards about him , upon the same Floor with the King , and so the King was every Night in his Power ; It was a timerous ambition that lost so many opportunities . But what an Impudence is this ? The Duke never had Guards ; they are the Kings , the King pays them , they wait in their turn upon the King , and have but the Name of the Duke , as the Foot-Regiments have of Collonel Russel , and my Lord Craven ; So the Duke was every Night in the Kings Power . Next he fires his greatest Guns , The Duke is plainly the Head of the Plot ; By whose evidence ? Long before the Duke was Named ▪ Mr. Oats declared to the Lords , that he had no more to accuse ; If he accuse him now , and Oats be divided against Oats , how can his Testimony stand good ? Bedlow said as much ; and here appears no Evidence , where the greatest would be little enough . I say nothing of a Presbyterian Plot ; but ( with his Lordships leave ) what has been , may be . The Calling , the Proroguing , and the Dissolving of Parliaments , are so absolutely in the King , that they ought to be Riddles to a Subject . When the Duke was Commanded to leave the Kingdom , I appeal to all the World , how readily , how Submissively , he obeyed ; and comparing his immediate Obedience , with the obstinate Refusal of others , who still stay in opposition to the Kings Commands , let any Impartial man of Sense decide , which has shewed most Loyalty and Duty . His Lordship and his Party ( for he says , We ) expect every hour , that the Court should joyn with the Duke , against them ; but I find , the Court is as hard a Word , as the People , and as boldly , and as odly used ; If by that Word , he means the King , all his Lordships Rhetorick will scarce perswade us , that the King should Conspire with the Duke , against His own Crown , and His own Life ; If not , what can the Court do without the King , and against the Nation ? Besides , his Lordship has too many Friends among the Courtiers , to suspect them ; and the Duke has met with too much Ingratitude , to trust them . His Lordship avers as truely , that the King has declared the Duke to be dangerous ; as , That His Royal Highness is now raising men in Scotland , that whole Council , that whole Kingdom , will disprove Him ; And by the apparent falshood of this Assertion , let all men judge of the Truth of the rest . If the Arms , the Garisons , &c. be in such hands as the King thinks safe , We are safe too ; But if not , it concerns His Majesty to secure them , since his Lordship declares , the King is to be trusted with nothing , till he has Resigned Himself to his Lordship , and his Party , and is wholly theirs ; and yet then too , He must trust their good Nature , and Surrender upon Discretion ; They will allow Him no other Terms , no , not to be Himself , and have His Senses , unless they can fright Him out of them . I will yet charitably hope , that the pretended Author is abused ; It concerns him to vindicate himself , by wishing , as I do , That the true Author may have the same Fate , that his Speech had , by order of the House of