I Acknowledge your favor , in sending me the Declaration , touching the causes and Reasons that moved His Majesty to dissolve the two last Parliaments .

It seems to me as a Fore-runner of another Parliament to be speedily call'd , and the design of the Declaration as a seasonable advice to the People , not to choose the same Persons again , who had been so unfortunate , and unacceptable to His Majesty these two last Parliaments .

It hath been long the advice of some of the Wisest and Ablest of the Popish and Arbitrary Party , that the King should call frequent , short and useless Parliaments , until the Gentry , weary of the great expence , of so many fruitless Journeys and Elections , should sit at home , and trouble themselves no more , and leave the People expos'd to the practices of them and their Party ; who if they carry one House of Commons for their turn , will in few Months do the Nations business for ever ; and make us slaves and Papists by a Law : In the mean while there is no danger to their Affairs in frequent calling Parliaments ; since the Crown can with so much ease and security dissolve , and throw them off .

It is our great unhappiness that we should have such wicked Councellors , Favorites , and Influences about so gracious a Prince ; who with so exceeding great trouble was brought to the dissolving the two last Parliaments ; since he of himself intended more benefit to his People by them : And 't is not readily to be apprehended what Arguments they could use to so Wise a Prince to perswade him that he had done his part , and that the success not answering Expectation , could not be imputed to him , he having given so many opportunities of providing for their good : We cannot but in reason expect , that the best they can say for their advice , is what they have publish't in this Declaration , which by the new style of His Majesty in Council is ordered to be read in all Churches and Chappels throughout England ; which no doubt the Blind obedience of our Clergy will see carefully performed . Yet if it be true that there is neither Great Seal , Privy Seal , nor order of Council or any thing else but Mr. Gwyn's ( a Clerk of the Councils ) hand to authorize the publishing this Paper , call'd His Majesties Declaration in such a case our officious Clergy-men will prove publishers of false news , and invectives against a third Estate of the Kingdom ; and will be lyable to be questioned for it .

The Government of England is so excellently constituted , that the King can do no wrong : The King in Parliament can make no ill Laws , because they are with the consent and advice of his People ; in Council . He can make no ill Orders because they must be by advice of his Council , and they must be answerable for them . The King in the Treasury can dispose of no Money but wisely , for the Interest of the Government ; and according to such proportions as is every way requisite : If otherwise the Lord Treasuror , a Secretary of State , a Lord Privy Seal , and in great cases a Lord Chancellor are answerable ; because no summ never so small can be issued without them . In the Admiralty the King can do nothing but for the honor and safety of the Nation ; because he acts always with the advice and by the hand of a Lord Admiral or Commissioners , of the Admiralty , who are responsible if any thing be amiss . But the King in Council without the advice of the Council , is a phrase the Law understands not , and is against the safety of the Government , and the honor of the King . This Declaration is primae impressionis , the first of the kind I ever read of : A Prince appealing to the People against their own Representatives ; not against some men in the House of Commons but the House it self ; and that of two Parliaments successively .

It is easily agreed by all that there never was more occasions of a Parliament , then was at the opening of the last which was held at Westminster , never had People juster fears nor of weightier Considerations to be secured against , never were our Liberties and Properties more in danger ; nor the Protestant Religion more exposed to an utter extirpation both at home and abroad . Besides the increasing power of the French Monarchy ; giving terror to the trade and being of all his Neighbors . And the Declaration saith that His Majesty had intentions to have complyed with any thing that could have been proposed to prevent these Evils ; If so , the Ministers or House of Commons ; must be one of them exceedingly to blame .

The Ministers in this Declaration tell us that they asked of that Parliament , the supporting the Alliances they had made for the Preservation of the General Peace in Christendom , and had desired their advice and assistance for the Preservation of Tangier , as also they recommended to them the farther Examination of the Plot : And that His Majesty had offer'd to concur in any Remedies for the security of the Protestant Religion , that might consist with the preserving the Succession of the Crown in its due and legal course of descent : But to all this they met with most unsuitable returns .

But the Ministers very well knew , that their demands of Money for supporting the Alliances , and Preservation of Tangier , was not to be complyed with , till His Majesty was pleased to change the Hands and Councils , by which his Affairs were Administred : Or else we had much more reason to expect that the Assistance or support we should give , should not be imploy'd to either of those Affairs : But rather to the destruction even of His Majesties Person , together with the Protestant Religion , and the enslaving of the whole Nation : The Duke of York , the Queen , and the two French Dutchess's are the great support , and Protectors of the Popish Interest in these Kingdoms ; whilst they and their Creatures are at helme , what can we expect for the security of the Protestant Religion ; or opposition to the ambitious designs of France : Hath England by their means contributed so much to the growing greatness of that Monarchy , and can we or our Allies trust the same hands with our Money and Force ? You will tell me they may be appropriated to these particular ends of supporting our Allies and the relief of Tangier : And it may be so limited by Act of Parliament , that it cannot be diverted to other uses . To this Monsieur Sully the great Treasuror of France made the best answer on the like occasion , when he told his Master Henry the 4th . Sir , Let the States raise the Money , put it into what hands , and under what limitations they please , when they are dissolved and not in being , you that are the only power existing , shall dispose of the Money as you think fit . And the late experience of our own will tell us , that those Acts may Peradventure be good security to those that have advanced Money upon them , but never to the publick ends for which that Money was designed : Besides if we allow that those Persons , and their Creatures have those designs and Interests we justly charge upon them ; such a considerable summ of Money as those occasions would require , we 'le set them free from any Obligation or apprehension to be accomptable to a future Parliament : For it is a certain Maxim in State Affairs , that that Prince hath a good and cheap Bargain that gives Paper Laws in exchange for Money and Power ; for it was never known that Laws signified any thing to a People that had not the sole guard of their own Prince , Government and Laws .

As for the farther Examination of the horrid Popish Plot ; there is nothing in nature or Story so ridiculous as the management the Ministers have shew'd in that . Both Houses of Parliament did at first , and unanimously declare their satisfaction in the clear Evidence of it ; as they had great reason , had they had no other testimony but Colemans , and my Lord Berk-shires Letters , which never were nor could be denyed ; both Houses declare the Kings Life to be in danger , our Religion , Laws , and Government , all endeavors to be utterly overthrown and abolished by it . Monsieur Le Cheese the French Kings Confessor the principal director of it ; yet our Ministers have wrought so far on the good nature of the King that he believes nothing of his own danger ; apprehends the Plot to be at least extreamly improved if not wholly contrived by the Presbyterian ; think's it much more his concern , to have an end of all , then to have it searched to the bottom ; this was certainly the true reason the Ministers had , for dissolving four Parliaments successively during the Examination of this Plot ; exposing the Person of the King and the Nation to the greatest hazard , so that we may say they are by Miracle preserved ; we are like a Brand snatch'd out of the Fire by Gods own hand ; nay so great power have they had with his Majesty , that Dangerfield was brought to him several times alone and in private ; at the same time he owns to have been employ'd by the Lords in the Power to Murther the Earl of Shaftesbury ; and was tempted to have done the same to the King : He gives the King a Paper to accuse several Lords and others , and indeed the whole Protestant party of a Treasonable Conspiracy ; many of those accused being in the Council and greatest employments of the State , yet His Majesty kept the Paper , and gave so much countenance to it as to reward Dangerfield with Eight Pounds a Week ; the Paper whoever considers it , speaks it self to be the Embryo of a Sham-Plot , not a real discovery ; and what makes all worse ; since Dangerfield is become truly honest , he can hardly get the allowance of Forty Shillings a week , and his pardon was with great difficulty obtain'd of His Majesty to pass so as might be effectual to him ; it would make a Volume to tell you the several meetings and discourses that vile Rascal young Tonge had with His Majesty , to prove there was no Popish but a Presbyterian Plot , the King in Council declaring Captain Ely for a very honest Man ; for so he had been represented to him ; though he is well known to be of the vilest and most infamous of men . A Master of Requests sent to Lewis and Zeal Prisoners in the Marshalsea , to take their Examinations to the same purpose against the Earl of Shaftesbury : Fitz Gerald an Irish Witness goes off from his Testimony , declares he has Money from the King , several Hundred pounds , endeavors to draw off the other Witnesses , and prevails on divers for whom he procures Money and sends them back to Ireland ; endeavors to procure false Witnesses against the Lives of the Nobility and others : This Infamous Rascal having been a known Footman to several Masters , not well in his Wits , detected of several Villanies , is seen publickly talking with His Majesty ; so extreamly wrong are representations made to him by those that are near and great about him . Mr. Ray than whom a more Notorious and known Villain lives not , appears in the Town in new Cloaths , and has declar'd to several what his court employment is . Thus you see the Ministers have done their part on this head , and have given several but so short opportunities , that it was impossible to make out the Popish Plot any farther than it already is ; they have been unfortunate only in this , that so many honest and well laid designs have failed , whereby they assured themselves before this to have made it a plain Presbyterian Plot , and the Papists to be owned , the Kings best Friends .

But this Declaration tells us the Protestant Religion shall be preserved , if it may consist with the due Succession of the Crown ; that is the Duke of York must not be excluded ; come what will of Religion or the Nation : But if no Bill pass will not the Laws of Nature and Nations deliver a Protestant Kingdom from a Popish King ; Arniseus and Barclay the two greatest Champions of absolute Monarchy , yet allow two cases wherein Subjects may help themselves ; alienation to a stranger , and Saevitia , or Barbarous Cruelties ; both which must meet in a Popish Prince ; he alienates one half of his Regal power to the Pope , the mortal Enemy of both us and our Estates ; and for cruelty nothing can exceed what we are sure to find from the best of them .

But the Religion established must be preserved , and the Monarchy not destroyed ; that is easily done , give us a Protestant Successor ; and it is worth the Observation that the expedient from court the last Parliament at Oxford , directly destroyed the Monarchy and secured not the Religion ; it only shewed that the Ministers had so great power over the mind of the King , as to perswade him that in Honor , Justice , and Conscience he must never consent to take from his Brother the Name and Right of being King ; but he might Banish him during life , make it death for our Sovereign Lord to set foot on any part of his own Dominions , take away all his Power and Revenue ; by which they plainly confess 't is not right , or the Monarchy they make conscience of ; or else they well know , allow the Title and the right and your expedients will be void of themselves . This were the way indeed to establish another most unnatural War of expediency against an avowed right and title ; and a standing force we may be assured would be continued and increas'd , to maintain the right : But on the other hand , exclude the Duke and all Popish Successors , and put down all those Guards are now so illegally kept up , and Banish the Papists , where can be the danger of a War in a Nation unanimous ?

But if the King could have been brought to give his consent to a Bill of exclusion , 't is said , the intent was not to rest there , but to go further , and to attempt some other great and important changes even in present ; nothing more certain , or more reasonable ; If the King should pass the Bill of exclusion against the Duke , certainly he must put his known Creatures out of Offices both Military , and Civil ; he would at least Banish the Papists absolutely the Court , and in great measure England ; or else it were indeed to nurse up a War in our own Bowels ; and the Bill of Exclusion would prove but a Flanders or a Scotch Journey for him to come back with more Fury ; when the Bounty of the grateful subject to their Prince , shall have enabled them to secure his return ; the delivering us from a Popish Successor is a great mercy ; but 't is a greater as 't is an earnest to us that the King has changed his Councils , and that the Popish Party have no more influence on them ; the Duke of York is certainly more dangerous to us as he is the great Minister of State , then as he is Successor : His Brothers Religion and excellent qualities gives him more opportunities to ruine us and our Religion , whilst he imposeth on his Brother ; then if he were Barefaced to act the game himself .

Thus you have a short view of the demands and offers the Declaration mentions ; the next you are to consider is what the returns were the House of Commons made so unsuitable to them .

The Addresses said to be in nature of remonstrances ; he that reads that of the 21th . of December 1680. will find it as full of duty , and true affection to His Majesty as is possible to be expressed ; the nature and true State of the Affairs , would not bare a milder way of representing it truly to His Majesty in a case of that vast importance both to him and his People ; many wise and good men thought they had ventured too far in mentioning , and assuring Money before our safety was fully provided for , for a House consisting of 500 Persons , are not capable of treating as private and single persons are ; Jealousies easily arise amongst numbers , and 't is difficult to assign who shall act the easie , and who the dsobliging part if an agreement be in view .

As for Arbitrary Orders for taking Men into Custody for Matters , that had no relation to priviledge of Parliament , the House of Commons have this to say for themselves , that they have erred with their Fathers ; the power of that House concerning taking Men into Custody has not yet received an exact adjustment ; and there wants not Presidents of like nature in many former Parliaments ; besides this concerned the rights of the people in suppressing their petitions to the fountain of Justice , for the Assembling that Court wherein it could only be administred , as to those cases the extream danger of his Person , and the Government then lay under ; and to assemble that Council he and his People could only safely confide in ; and to the demand of which to sit annually and effectually they had so good a title by Law ; I should not have expected this head to have been made part of the Declaration , if they had remembred what an illegal Proclamation was published on this occasion that gave the rise of all .

The Strange illegal Votes ; declaring divers eminent Persons to be Enemies to the King and Kingdom , are not so strange but very justifiable , if well consider'd The House of Commons had before Addressed for their removal from about the King ; he was pleased to take no notice of their Addresses ; and indeed it began to be an observation , that an Address from the Commons against any man , was a certain fore-runner of his Advancement ; it had proved thrice so to the Duke of Lauderdale ; and on the other hand their Addresses on the behalf of any , had never had but contrary effects ; yet I think one may affirm by Law the King ought to have no Person near him , that hath the misfortune of such a Vote . If the House of Commons declare they have just reasons to fear such a Person puts the King on Arbitrary Councils , or betrays his and the Nations interest ; must there be order and process of Law , and proofs against them before he be removed ; this is reasonable in case you would fine him , deprive him of Life , Liberty , Lands , or Offices beneficial , and wherein the publick State Affairs are not immediatly concern'd ; but to remove him from the Person of the King or the management of Affaires of State ; certainly the opinion and advice of the nation is enough , or else you must allow him time to act his villany , and the Nation run the hazard ; besides is it possible the King can expect supplies of Men , Money , Hearts , and all which is due to the Father of the People ; if he manage his Affairs , by such persons as they think they have reason to fear and hate ; there are some things so reasonable that they are above any written Law , and will in despight of any power on earth have their effect ; whereof this is one . Besides the King is a publick person , in his private capacity as a Man , he can only eat , and drink , and perform some other Acts of nature ; but all his actings without himself are only as a King , and in his Politick capacity he ought not to Marry , Love , Hate , make War Friendship or Peace , but as a King and agreeable to the People , and their Interest he governs . The wiseest and greatest of our Princes have always hearkned to the Addresses of their People and have removed sometimes a great many Persons at once in pursuance of them .

Besides these proceedings there are three Votes of the last Westminster . Parliament , complained of in this Declaration .

Those two concerning lending or advancing Money on the customs , excise or hearth Money , and buying Tallies of Anticipation are certainly very wise and justifiable Votes , 't is but a new Phrase ; the King will live upon his own ; as if he had like the elective Kings of Poland a private revenue of his Family ; where as 't is all the publick revenue . He is trusted with the disposition of part only , and that too with the advice of certain great Officers ; a Secretary of State and Lord Privy Seal to the smallest summ , to all great payments the Lord Chancellor is added ; the other part of the revenue is assigned to uses ; as the customes to the maintenance of the Navy : The maintenance of the Houshold , the Tables at Court , and wages of the Kings Servants , were in our former Kings Reigns by Acts of Parliament so established , that the cofferer had his Money paid to him out of the Exchequor under very heavy nomine paena's ; and the Parliament , especially the Lords House took it always as part of their immediate care ; it maintained the dignity and honor of the Government , it contributed exceedingly to love and good understanding betwixt the King and his People ; no Country Farmer had business at Court , but he found those bid him welcome , so had all degrees ; therefore the Kings Servants had justly the same return wherever they came ; the Language of the Court was not then ; who goes there , nor their outward Rooms were not to be discerned by the smell of match but of Beef : Besides 't is well known through the Nation that the Bankers ( the only traders in that way ) are the bane of the Gentry and Farmer , if not of the Merchant too , they keep up the Interest of Money draine the Country , buy up warrants , so as the King pays twenty , and five and twenty per cent , for all his expences ; the revenue is in many Branches particularly provided shall not be alienated ; if the Bankers may anticipate it for several years by their usurious loanes , who must provide for the Nation ? must not the Parliament supply the King ; and if there be another way of supplying the Kings wants but by Parliament , the great hinge of the Government is lost ; therefore I do not know a thing more truly criminal and pernicious then what these two Votes provide against .

The Vote concerning the Protestant dissenters ; was not made as an assuming to themselves a Power of suspending Acts of Parliament ; neither are the Judges or Ministers of Justice expected to forbear their duties if His Majesty shall require the Execution of those Laws ; but 't is the delivering the advice and the opinion of that House in a matter of so great concern in this juncture ; and certainly it was a wise and pious Council , which though it could neither command nor secure the Justices and Judges from doing their Duties if required ; yet we may justly expect , that those that manage the Councils should hearken in so plain a case to the voice of the Nation or give the following Parliaments a measure how to confide in them ; and the Judges and Justices if they receive no fresh command from above are indiscretion and conscience , as much obliged to omit the Execution of these Laws as they are , that , of Bows and Arrows , and several other statutes yet in full force but out of use : I have ever thought so well of the Kings temper and goodness to all his People , that I should have thought this a desireable handle for his clemency to have laid hold on ; my Lords the Bishops cannot find this proceeding so severely against dissenting Brethren , to be justified by the practice of the Primitive Church , nothing so common as different Rites , Ceremonies , nay Doctrines amongst them , and yet the Band of Charity and love maintained ; never until Power and Wealth befel Religion , and the Prince and Church made use of each other to enslave the world , did Christianity learn to persecute ; a setled national well endowed Church is a beauty and a bulwark to Religion , if it be not made a Procrustes-bed , to destroy all that either come short or go beyond in any opinions ; they have the advantage in honor , Education and Wealth if they have the piety and prudence to employ that to the protection of Religion , and the charity to bear with weaker Brethren ; they will certainly have the most powerful influence on Mens minds , and make such an unity as to be themselves the center and relyance of the whole Protestant Party .

But this last Vote had certainly no part in the putting off that Parliament , for the King was in his Chair of State , in his Robes before the House of Commons passed the Vote : The reasons for dissolving the last Oxford Parliament are of the same weight .

The business of Fitz-Harris , and the transported Votes of the House of Commons without any conference had ; how shall the House of Commons come to conference before they are come to a resolution or determinate opinion amongst themselves ? How shall they do that without a Vote ? Assemblies cannot think as individual Persons can , they have no mind but their Vote ; the King provided well for the Lords , whose Vote could not have born a conference , and less could not have been expected , since he himself was seen in the Lords House to inform them Man by Man in the point ; did ever a Court of Justice refuse to retain what they had cognizance of ? Until they had heard the nature of the case opened to them ; and this charge brought up by the Commons was only general ; if the House of Commons had to say , they impeached this Man before the Lords , not daring to trust a lower Court or leave the Prosecution to others , because the case concerned those nearest about the King , and of most power with him ; his Favorite Brother and Royal Consort were peradventure accused ; put the case the two French Dutchesses , and honest Barillon had managed an intrigue to make this a Presbyterian Plot , and to prove it by cutting of the Heads of several of the most eminent Members of both Houses by Subornation and Perjury ; a proceeding not unusual to some Courts ; all the mischief poysonings and villanies in all the European Governments being chiefly owing to the most Christian Politicks : If Fitz-Harris were able to discover the bottom of the Horrid Popish Plot and all this to boot , was this to be turned off to Westminster-hall ? Besides the nature of his offence and condition was not such as should enforce a speedy Execution ; nor could the Houses be possibly thought to design a delay of Tryal in favor to him ; no Man can say but 't is probable enough he mought discover that mought deserve his Pardon for more than he or any other Man could offend in writing , but of this whatever either House had done the World was judg of , their reasons could not be in private , and the King was still Master of his own grace and pardon .

But that makes amends for all is the Kings resolution to have frequent Parliaments , without which he cannot govern according to the Laws of the Kingdom , which he is sworn to at his Coronation , and which his Subjects challenge of him as often as we take the Oath of Allegiance ; but Parliaments are like terms , if they be ten in one year , and so short as to hear no Causes , they do no good ; the Nation hath a right to annual Parliaments to dispatch the Affairs necessary and proper only for them ; the Kings Prerogative at what time of the year and place , they should be called , and how long they should last , is but subservient ( if I may use a plain Phrase ) to the great end and design of the Government , and must be accommodated to it ; or we are either denied or deluded of that protection or justice we are born to .

I have nothing to say on the behalf of those Angry Men , whose particular designs for their own ambitions and greatness are disappointed ; only whoever knows those turned out and those now in ; must needs think the first mought have kept their places if they had pleased ; the only difference I can find is , that those could have ruined us and would not , these cannot if they would .

The fondness of old beloved Common-wealth Principles is not to be imputed to either House of Parliament or indeed to the Nation ; there never was a People more desirous of their old Government and Laws , or that have shewed more duty or respect to their Prince ; the Court expedient mongers were indeed setling a Republick , and I fear the change of our Government from none but the Papists ; absolute Monarchy or a levelling Democracy will either serve their turn ; the most Democratical Cantons of the Swiss are Zealous Papists ; those Governments are both Tyrannical , and the Priest hates only truth and liberty , the Bloody Luxurious Tyrant , and the unlearned mean Clown both readily obey his dictates ; whilst the wealthy Free-man thinks for himself , and will not venture his Soul nor his Money against common sense .

The Declaration concludes with this good news , that the King is resolved in all things to govern according to the Laws of the Kingdom . I should almost for joy set my hand to the late Romantick address of the London Tories but that I remember we have had many of these promises before , and they have been all either broke or kept ; if this be of the latter sort , we shall see annual Parliaments sit until the necessary business be dispatch'd ; we shall have the reverend Prelates , Lords Temporal , and Court Members , left free to Vote and advise as they shall in their own reasons , and Judgments think best , and not commanded before hand how to Vote or turned out of their places if they do other ; His Majesty shall not command the Clerks of the Parliament to lay aside Bills pass't both Houses , and never tender them for the Royal assent , as the Bill of repeal of the 35. of Elizabeth was last Westminster Parliament ; the King shall then be advised by his Parliament , and not his Parliament commanded what to advise what not : We shall have no more Decla●●tions against his Parliament , read in Churches without lawful Authority , for the publishing or color of reason for the complaint ; but we shall all be happy and the King be himself .