IT is your Country, your Native Country that Appeals to You; It is you only that repre­sent your Country, and are the Pillars of it, who can Redress its worst of Grievances; and worst of Sins. Wilful Perjury, and secure to its Subjects their Lives, which next to their Religion must be certainly most Dear, Let them Live if only to Enjoy the benefit of that Religion, and Liberty, you have so dearly Purchas'd and Establish'd for them; and leave not Men of Honor, Estates, and Fortunes like your Selves, (and who we see by Young's Association to be also liable) to he Sworn out of their Lives, their Fortunes and Estates, by the Perfidious Breath of Manag'd and Confederate Miscreants, who are [...]ly a sort of more Monstrous Cannibals, that not only make a Meal upon the Man; but devour at once his Fa­mily and Inheritance, Wretches in this only to be pitied, tho' not pardon'd, that they are half famish'd before into the Villanies they commit, and stolen from the [...]als and Gibbets, to bring the better sort to those Halters and Dungeons from whence they are unluckily es­capt, or designedly manumitted.

Among Forreigners that once envied us, [...] was call'd the Ringing Island, and mainly in­deed did we Troule it away in Peace and Plen [...] and destroy'd the pleasantry of that Appella­tion; till that fatal Period in 78. That [...] ▪ Aera, of Irish Oath and Affidavit; since which, we were turn'd into the Hanging [...] have Rung indeed, Changes, and the Round, but in the Blood of one another. [...] [...]ells seem'd to stop while we only made use of the Ropes; and as if there had been no [...] [...]rs in England: but that of London or Tyburn; and so we have continued ever since [...] [...]byterian, Church of England, all [...] the same way; and God know [...] when this [...] of Blood, of Innocent Blood will be [...]op [...] unless the Wisdom of this Parliament will [...] [...]nly limit constructive Treason, but take some c [...]se to prevent instructed Evidence, and to suspend the Ax a while with the Halter. What comfort can Englishmen take in all those Blessings and Benefits You procure them, in the Laws which You make, in the Liberties which You contend for, in the Religion that is dearer to You than Your Lives; when your Lives are in Jeopardy every hour, and when with St. Paul also, after the manner of Men, we are put to fight with Beasts, Irish Welves, (or that is the more devouring Animal) Irish Evidence: The Romans n [...]er exposed their [...]serable Spectacles so naked in their Amphitheatres as we Christians do o [...] another to worse Monsters: They allow'd them Dagger, Sword and Target; when a baited Prisoner at a [...]at a [...]ack'd by a Couple of Confederate Ruffians of the Mouth. shall be bl [...] [...] the very Eyes of these Basilisks, and swallow'd up whole by the [...] [...] ­chre of their Throat; who like David's Euemies, stand staring and gaping up [...] the Enemy of us all, the Devil, go about seeking whom they may devour [...] [...] [...]ing [...]soner in this manner beset, as if not only the Goal, but Hell it self were [...]et [...] [...]on him, shall [...] deny'd a piece of single Paper or Parchment, the bare [...] Indiction [...] for a [...]ield or Buckler; and to hear it by Lawyers urg'd in a Cour [...] of J [...]e, that [...] P [...]actice of the [...]te Reigns made it Law, looks like a Libel, and an [...] of [...] s [...]t Power, that is set up; and set up purely to redress the Grievances of th [...] [...] which pre­tended not to re [...]eem us from Law but Oppression.

The Kings of England have advantage enough (on these occasions) besides, by the Learn­ing of their Judges; The Eloquence of their Council (many times mortal and killing enough) and above all (as the Case stands at present) (or the Practi [...] for which there is no Law) (by the Prisoner's Evidence being not sworn against the King. An unjust; and partial process, and unworthy of a Court of Judicature, and in no Country us'd or practis'd but in our own; for an honest Jury we find, when impos'd upon by a Couple of Perjur'd Villains commonly lay more weight upon what is Sworn upon Oath than testified without it, tho by much more honest Men than the King's Evidence have happen'd to be; and this we are afraid some poor innocents have sadly experienc'd. We know our Judges sometimes in seeming favour to the Prisoners, recommend to the Jurors the weight of their Evidence unsworn; but that, (where the King is concern'd, more especially in High Treason) is commonly so coldly done, that it seldom has its due weight, as wanting the Corroboration of that Oath by which the King's is Countenanc'd and Confirm'd; and therefore 'tis time to give Prisoners favour and fair play, and as much time as the Court can possible, which my Lord Coke, again and again says in Case of Life can never be too long: and especially since false Swearing them out of their Lives is grown a Crime no less common, than notorious, as customary, as if it were a Custom-house Oath, or Entry; and a Bill of Indictment for High Treason is no more re­garded by these sort of Jurors than there a Bill of Loading or Store; and indeed confidering the Lives and Estates that lie at stake; these Affidavit Teagues, or Irish Adventurers that truck for them, have this common with other Merchants and Incorporated Companies, that accordingly their Actions rise and fall proportionably to the Wealth and Cargo they bring to the Bar.

This then Gentlemen, being the Case, (as certainly so it is) This Case is no common one that comes before You, no Case of Tradesmen; Mechanism or Manufacture, no Case of the Chyrurgeons or Physicians, tho' a bleeding Case of the Nation; and what You, only You can stanch, stop, and Cure; It respects no more particular Parties than Persons, for such has been poor England's misfortune; that some of all Parties and perswasions have been sacrificed by these Blood-suckers, these Bogg-Leeches, since they crawl'd into English Ground; and tho Popery here is as hateful as an Irishman, I am afraid some Innocent among the Papist led the Van in this Akeldama, this Field of Blood; and that by some of their Irish Countrimen and Religion, as well as by some of ours that were of no Religion at all; next to these marcht (to make the Body) those that were called Fanaticks; who followed the same way to Golgo­tha, to Tyburn, that place of Skuls; and now some of the strict Church of England Men (as the Jacobites and Non-Jurors think themselves) have been favoured so far by these Monsters as to bring up the Rear; and by a Courte [...]ie like that of Polyphemus, are come to be devour'd at the last; and this is the way indeed to make an Army of Martyrs; but neither from the Justice of their Cause, or the Favour of God Almighty to so many injur'd Persons. The Malice of these Diabolical Men, their Accusers has been openly detected, and as [...]ignally defeated, in about the space of one Year, in two or three of the most flagitions Conspiracies to take a­way their Lives, as ever was offer'd among a Christian people; and what an Infidel would not only blush at, that believes there is no God, but hang himself for the Guilt of so much Inju­stice and Inhumanity; and those that have the greatest Aversion to their persons and princi­ples must admit this for a Truth and matter of Fact, too notorious for any of us to give them the Lye.

That these are no Invidious Reflexions we shall confirm in each Individual party, by so many Matters of Fact, and then only endeavour to enforce the reasonableness of redre [...]ing these miserable Grievances, from the practice of most human Laws; from the practice of Old England's Laws, and the plain direction of God's Law, the most Divine. And first, to begin with the Popish Plot, for we have had such varieties of them in England, that we are grown a Jest by it to all For­reign [Page 3] Nations, for 'tis well known abroad, that when any Wits are dispos'd to be Jocose, and ridicule any unaccountable and ridiculous Discovery, they can find no pleasanter Appellation for it than, Une Plotte d'Angle Terre; and this tho in French is the Language of most other Countries.

That there were endeavours by Mr. Coleman, and some of their Popish Priest to subvert the Establisht Religion, and introduce their own (which could not be done without overturning our Constitution, which in them was Treason (what­ever Mr. Coleman Coleman's Try­al. p. 17, 18, 20. thought to the contrary) no modest Man can doubt even of a Papist that has read his Letters, and for that he deserv'd Death; and the Wisdom of that Court to which we now appeal, did upon the perusal of his Papers, Vote it a Form'd Conspiracy, more than upon any Testimony of Mr. T. O. but whether T. O. had a Patent to open Letters, in which Coleman call'd the King Tyrant and Traytor; and were privy to the Guinea that p. 2. 4. Coleman gave to Expe­dite the Ruffians to kill the King? Or whether he that had Coin'd so ma­ny Letters for him, could not remember his Face by p. 30. Candle Light; or could well in Council declare upon his Oath he did not p. ibid. and 38▪ know him, he was to hang; This may make the Testimony somewhat suspected while the Conspiracy is out of doubt; and that Bedloe, which also swears he had carried several Letters also from him, and discours'd him in p. 43, 44. Somerset-house, should be so for­got by him, as to make him take it to his Death, he had never seen him in all his life; this may detract somewhat from the Cr [...]dit of the Evidence without injuring the Justice of the Nation by which he did, much less lessening the belief of their Design to introduce their Religion: And the several Jesuits that succeeded him in their Trials and Executions, and were probably embarqu'd in the same Design, which as well as Coleman they did confess they had endeavour'd to promote, (tho they were pleas'd to think it no Treason to propagate their Religion) yet all with their last Breath and Imprecations de­nied the measures by which it was Sworn they had endeavour'd to compass it. Their Dying Protestations must startle many a good Protestant when he looks upon them. But as a Christi­an, and that in spight of all the severe Coments and Expositions of our Eminent Divines, our T's, and our Sh's, Bt's, and Pat's, upon the Loyalty of the Papist, and the equivocations of the Jesuits, which they did not then think they should have occasion to practise: Their Plot upon our Religion, we say, was very probably true; but whether the Circumstantial E­vidence were all so, we think yet remains a doubt, and indeed Jesuit's Trial. p. 23, 24. the Forty thousand Black Bills; the Commissions from Paulus de Oliva, the Monk of Coleman's Tryal. p. 23. the Pilgrims from Spain; The killing the King with Silver Bullets, poy­son'd by Chewing; The thirty strokes on Pickering's Bum for failing in it, seem such a mystical Roll of ridiculous Absurdities, as if they had been testified for the Diversion of the Court, rather than as Evidence for the King, yet all these we find liberally sworn; as for our parts, we are really discontented at any honor or kindness done such an Evidence; In God's Name let Oats and Keeling, both enjoy their Annual Pensions together; no man, I believe, will envy either of them their Salaries no further than it may encourage worse Men to aspire to it at the Price of Blood; which if Mr. O. be guilty of, let him know that by all the Laws of God and Man, 'tis what all his me­ritorions Sufferings have not yet expiated.

But the Case that comes nearer to the Case in hand, and upon this head; is Plunket's, A person that seem'd from the Character he had from Eminent Protestants in Ireland, of no such Intemperate Zeal, and to have but little other Crime; but his being a Priest of the Church of Rome; upon which Act they had better Indicted him.

The Trying of him here in a forreign Country tho by an Act of our own subjected to our Jurisdiction; and that after he had been legally acquitted in his, where tho in their own Ire­land his Evidence were asham'd to shew their Faces in a Court of Judicature; The exposing him here naked, and as he told them with his Hands ty'd; The denying him ten days time af­ter his Evidence were upon the Road; and tho our Lawyers were n [...]t pleas'd to answer him to that Point of Poyning's Act; yet that (by their leave) which they gave to that Objection of his being twice Arraign'd for the same Fact seems very insufficient and weak; for I think Arraigment for High Treason puts a Man in danger of his Life with a witness, especially the time and circumstances the Prisoner was in, and such Witnesses to worry him; for if a Man shall not be in danger of his Life, till he is convicted, then he is never so at all, for after Conviction, he is worse than in danger, and as good as gone; For tho the King may pardon, what is an extrajudicial thing; an Act of Grace, and forreign to the Trial; and to see what Creatures they were that appear'd upon it to testify against him, or Take the Swear (as they phra [...]'d it) would induce a man to believe a little better of T. O's Fellows, that seem'd to be rak'd out of their own Irish Boggs, and whom even their own Dispensing, Latitudinarian Re­ligion had spew'd out of their Church; fitter to be carried out with our Night Weddings, than woo'd as they were (about that time) first to come over, of which Lowsie Cattle we would have afterwards been gladly rid, but the Nation was overstockt; and so the Plague and Murrain has continu'd with us ever since; and have produc'd a Race that are like those filthy Creatures that crawl out of Mud with all the Toad-pole train that are Generated out of Slime and putrefaction; and what work was made with those Macwyers, Macmoyers, Frogs, and F [...]yars, with their Duffy's and Mouffy's; let any sober Protestant but consider; the latter of which begins in a right Irish Dialogue † Why look ye Plunket's Tri­al. p. 80, 81. Masters, I am first Discoverer, I▪sh have ten Witness to the Doctor in Ireland, these Witness (I▪sh am sorry) don't know him, and so testifying forward and backward, and at last nothing at all, but that I'sh am indifferent whether I'sh be Papist or Pro­testant: If any one doubt this, let him take the pains to turn to it, insomuch, that the Court, as grave as it was, could hardly contain it self, and tho it was urg'd by them against the Prisoner, that this their Witness they brought for the King had been tamper'd with (which Plunket might as well and have better objected) yet it shew'd what Cattle they had gotten to­gether to gore Men, who could testify forward and backward; and take the Swear, as a Spaniel takes a Stick, according as he is taught and tutor'd. Lewd Irish, Popish Priest whom this Ti­tular Prelate for their Immoralities had censur'd as himself said, and Excommunicated, and it must be great Crimes we know that Church won't Absolve: Here we found the Maclegh's and Phyloneals, &c. Landing the French for him at Corlingford, one of the most unlikeliest Ports of Ireland; up the Bristol Channel, and dangerous Irish Sea, quite out of their way, 70000 Men to be secretly Rais'd and maintain'd by the Poor Titular Prela [...]e, with a little bare Sustsistance-Money squeez'd from a Parcel of Lowsy, Beggarly, Popish, Irish Priests and Cu­rates; a Feat not so easily to be Effected now by the best Lieutenant we could send thither with the largest Commission; and Landing all the French Auxiliaries in a shallow Water where a Man might as well set an Army a shore in an Eggshell, This (to use the Prisoner's own words at his Death, would no more have been believ'd by any Protestant Jury Ex vicineto, (and as by Law and Confession to his Case it ought to have been (i. e.) upon the place) tho' himself had confest it, than if he had sworn he had flew thro' the Air from Dublin [...]o Holy-head; and if a Man does seriously consider it, to give only a matter of a Months or five Weeks time to send to Ireland, cross the Sea to search the Record of five or six Counties as high as Ulster, to be deny'd them till order from England, to return cross the Seas against Wind and Weather, and under the Difficulties that Popish Recusants then especially were in travelling abroad, and then the refusing but ten days Respite when the Witnesses were on the Road; Certainly [Page 5] these were no such wonderful Acts of Favour or Justice to a Person upon his Life, and when all this, after he had been acquitted by a Protestant Jury of his own Country, the best Judges of the Veracity of the Deponents, the Circumstances of Truth, and Human probability, 'twas hard to be Tried and found Guilty by Forreigners, who from their strangeness and distance, must needs be expos'd to the delusions of a probable Lye. And had the angry Sir Robert Arkins, with his un [...]asy Mr. Hawles in their learned Essays been but as impartial in their Writing as they were Writers for a Party, certainly this Trial also, could never have honestly escapt their Animadversion. but now the one being a Judge, and the other (as we hear) King's Council, 'tis to be hop'd we may never have occasion to find fault with any future Trials.

When these Irish Rakehells had almost run themselves out of Breath in running the Popish Party into Newgate, and out to Tyburn; after a little rest in their Kennels, these Hellhounds are out upon the Hunt again, and start another sort of Irish Game, and with full Scent and full Mouths drive about what they call'd the Fanatick Party, that before had drove them on upon Papists: And so Colledge was first singl'd out among them for a Prey, who had been a busie Man among them at the same Sport; and now like another Action without the help of a Metamorphosis, came to be devour'd by his own Hounds. A person Hot and Cholerick, bold and Turbulent, and being of Natural Parts above his Calling, aspir'd to Intreagues of State, and concerted Matters of Government with these Carrions your Witnessmongers, and Nar­rative-men, that made him pay dear at last for his Correspondence. Upon the whole an ill Man, tho▪ made a Martyr, and from his Principles might probably have justified the Decolla­tion of King Charles tho First with the Parliamentary Proceedings that occasion'd; as Mr. Masters swore upon him. A Doctrin that in those Days the Court could not digest so well; General Ludlow had not then appear'd in Print; and little was it thought that Colledge, that Stephen would have come to be a Martyr at VVhite-Hall instead of King Charles; However the proceedings against him might have been less violent, and if the Proof against him were not so credible; to have pardon'd him after Conviction might have been more plausible; But that he was to Charge the Guards, Seize the King, kill him with his own Hands, with all the Canting Extravagancies of your B [...]lrons and Mowbrays, Smiths or Barrys; Haynes and Fitz-Geralds. His Popish Irish Beagles that devour'd him. This indeed does not seem at first sight so plain and conceivable; as plain as it was sworn.

And from this flight of Evidence against this Party; let us look a little upon another piece of Witnessing, as lame as the other was mad; in this self-same Presbyterian-plot. The Two Honourable Houses have seem'd so much dissatisfied with some of the Evidence that was given against the persons that suffer'd for it, as to Repeal some of their Attainders, which may be conceiv'd to be a Tacit Conviction of some of the Evidence being plainly perjur'd; and in­deed we must acknowledge, that among some of these Cases of suspected Swearing, Mr. Cor­nish's would bear a little c [...]nvassing,

For He, tho' several times Attack'd for having been present at the Consult, and taken into Custody so often, insomuch that Mr. Atterb [...]ry and the Alderman were grown very intimate, so far as to be very Jocular and pleasant with one another upon the repealed occasions of his coming into Custody, and the Accused thought himself so safe or Innocent as to keep the Ex­change, from whence he was at last co [...]n'd for good and all; upon Goodenough's being brought in from the Western Insurrection in an ill-time for Him, a Person that might be presum'd to owe him an Ill-turn, where yet what he swears does not seem so Trensonable or True to have justi­fied so precipitous a Trial: And R [...]msey's having sworn at the Lord Russel's Trial, That he came in himself after the Declaration was read, is indeed a Contradiction to his being pre­sent at the reading it to Cornish, and his declaring at the same Trial, that he knew of no o­ther Person besides what he had accused, and accusing the Prisoner so long after (under fa­vour) will not be excus'd from wilful Perjury from a desire he had of favouring the Prisoner; [Page 6] for If he had perjur'd himself to save Him, as he very fairly tells the Court; the Judges sure ought to have judg'd him a less credible Evidence to hang him: And tho' the Print might have past had they been pleas'd, yet the Record of the Trial which he ought to had time to produce must have been manifest proof of the Perjury: and Mr. Shepherd's denying absolute­ly his being of the Consult; denying utterly that he held the Candle, which yet the Evidence circumstantially swore was as much as could be offer'd to the making him forsworn; or be brought an Evidence that is not upon his Oath; unless we could imagin that Rumsey was more sensible of the holding the Candle, than Shepherd that he swore did hold it; and from this un­happy Man's Case perhaps it might well become the Wisdom of a Parliament, to add to those wise Laws we have already (especially as we shall shew there is no Law against it) That ad­vantageous one to the Lives of the Subject; to have his Evidence sworn as well as the King's, that it may have its due weight with a Jury, and not be born down, by the downright swear­ing of another.

We would do Justice to all People and Parties, as it is from You the Nation in this Weighty Point (no less than Life and Death) does expect it.

Come we now to that other Party of the Church of England Men; among whom the Jac [...] ­bites and Nonjurors, who (we don't know upon what secret Considerations) look upon them­selves the purer Part of it, and almost all the poor Remnant God has left of the Church of England; We promis'd you to shew how Hanging and Swearing has gone fairly the Round; and now you are come to see How every Dog has his Day, tho it be to die in a Halter; and one would think it should be time now to compound and agree upon the Matter among our selves who have one after another gone all the same way, if we must again take another Turn, and go the Round, and some of this or that sort be singl'd out to die; Decim [...]tion, Martial Discipline, will do better than such Mockerys of Judicial process, attended with a Force of such flagitious Evidence: The Dice and the Drum will better befit the Cause on such a Stage of Justice, than a formal Tribunal, and then the Prisoner will be sure to have a Cast for his Life, or if such bloody Villains are worthy of their Salaries, Butchers will have a better Right to put in for their Pensions, and then Service need not be so secret: We have seen Gentlemen what Irish E­vidence have done; we had no need certainly of more Cunning, and false ones to come from the Scotch to try what finer Feats your Lunts and Loons could do; and how the Mac [...]'s and Teagues could be out-done.

But yet let us see what a new Set of Harpys would have done, had not the Almighty been the only Hercules to subdue these Monsters; and certainly no Animal has a greater Agreeable­ness to these Creatures than those Birds of Prey, who not only come to defile those Tables that feed them, but devour those that give them Bread.

Pardon Gentlemen this Intemperate Zeal since design'd for Your own Safeties, and the Ser­vice of the Publick; 'tis time to look to this Impending Mischief, High time for your Selves to do it, if you value not only Your Liberties of Debate but Your Lives, by which all our Liberties are asserted; For such Hellish Plots can as infallibly blow up an House of Lords or Commons, as ever could Guide Fauxe, or the Gunpowder; and let these forewarn You, as much as the Letter to the Lord Monteague; for 'tis but such Varlets conspiring against so ma­ny Members, and the most Eminent Patriots are at the mer [...]y of these Cannibals: 'Tis well known how the Parliament in the late Reigns was Alarm'd with the mysteries of the Meal-Tub, and the unintelligible Plot of that Irish Harpy, Fitz Harris: And pardon us again, if we put you in mind that the same sort of Vultures have taken a flight not long since at the same Quarry; and if those Members on whom Young made his villanous Attempt, do not move vi­gorously for the Detecting the Depth of his villany, and for Enacting such Laws as may terrify such V [...]lains▪ they are unworthy of that Mercy by which they are preserv'd, and Contemners of that Providence they ought to Adore: The B. of Rochester, Earl of Marlebourough, Lord [Page 7] Cornbury, Sir Basil Firebrass, are all Members, as we think, that make a part of each House in Parliament; Let them Remember the Flowre-Plot, that ought to s [...]ink in the Nostrils of the Nation; and as little as it looks, is deeper than the Meal-Tub, Let these Gentlemen be glad they are alive, Give God the Glory, And keep each Man his Anniversary; and if they do not now look to preserve others; they do not deserve his Favour by whom they now live, move and have their Being, but to take them in their Order.

The Plot of that Infamous and Flagitious Fellow, Fuller (pardon us if we give him his Title, from a Vote of the House) is no stranger to your Walls; and how many of Quality and Virtue he would have singl'd out, and that perhaps among Your selves, is yet unknown; Give but once half the Encouragement for the finding out these Rogueries that they have for carrying them on, and You'll find this Confederate Evidence as ready to hang their Benefactors; and 'tis a Blot upon the Honour of the Nation not to do it; And to the Honour of both Houses be it spoken, after this infamous Wretch had fill'd the Parliament and the Nation with the Noise of a Plot, which then was Forming its self in the Clouds, the black Forgery of it was by Your sifting Sagacity, and prudential Enquiries soon discover'd, and the perfidious Fellow by Your Justice Order'd to be prosecuted, but unless the Fosterers of these Vipers are found out, and some other Punishment than the Pillory (which is only putting such a Snake to peep thro' a Hedge) We warm that in our Bosom that will certainly sting us to Death.

As this was a Plot in Embrio we miscarried of, come we next, Gentlemen, to another of the kind, but more Enormous Villany; midwif'd into the World at its full Time; but as God would have it, Dead-born. The Bromley Association, Had my late Lord of Shaftsbury been another such, 'tis to be hoped we might have had better Laws before now against such Trea­cherous Conspiracies. Consider, Gentlemen, if not our Cases, yet your Own, and by some severe Sanctions preserve Your selves against this so Sacrilegious a Sin as Wilful Perjury, that robs God of his Honour, and Men of their Lives; Consider in this Case before You Three Temporal Lords, and Two Spiritual in all, Five Lords, and Two Commoners; (and the same Hand, had it not been spy'd, might have Associated so many more Hands) brought in the greatest peril of their Lives, and what they had actually lost, had not providence visibly in­terpos'd) by the Machination of a couple of Varlets and Diabolical Conspirators; that since Judas his days never had their Equals, and which Pror [...]tyne and Ps [...]udo [...] (bating but the preciousness of that Life against which he Conspir'd) These Villains have transcend­ed, for that Primitive Apostolick Witness had some Remorse with him, confest he had sinned in betraying Inncent Blood; brought again the pieces of Silver, and went and hang'd himself, to shew to Posterity (that tho the Sanhedrim said, they had nothing to do with That, or what is that to us) yet before God the Price of Blood, the selling of Innocent Blood, is DEATH; who for want of better Justice on Earth made the Wretch his own Executioner; So that God in this very Instance has made it capital by the Evangelical Law as well as the Mosaical;) But our Young Judas here so far from Repentance, that after the clearest proof of the blackest Contrivance, the obstinate Rogue perseveres in his Villany; and after he was lost in his Blockhead, suborns an Holland and a Lawe to defend a detected Imposture.

The Villany of this hom'd Contrivance, and the infamy of the Person, that coin'd it on, is sufficiently set forth by the Book of the Bishops; and 'tis no such pleasant employment for us to take Hell again and the Kennel, and had that forg'd Association been lodg'd in any other Flowre-Plot but where it was, the Messengers being directed, must certainly have found and met with it. And the miserable Gentlemen been as infallibly lost, and the interposition of Providence very observable to turn their very Exposing it in so publick a place as an open Hall to the very means of concealing it from the Searcher's Hands. But after all that fervent Appeal of the Innocent Prelate in behalf of himself and Fellow-sufferers; for Justice and Pro­secution, for Enacting adequate punishments (if it were possible) to such impropor [...]ionable [Page 8] Crimes, are not both these Vipers suffer'd to escape, Young only like an harmless Robin or Red Breast, with a Paper Ruff about his Neck, or wooden one, and Blackhead without the least Punishment at all; we have that veneration for our Court and Ministry, as not to think them concern'd in such unconscionable Proceedings; yet it will make some severer Animadverters apt to reflect upon Robert Young's being known to be such a very Rogue for six months, for an half Year before, and yet his flagitious Forgery to be so ea­sily entertained, so long after; and it might (on this most horrid Roguery; been expected from our Government that pretend to unravel the Mysteries of the Last and rectify its irregu­larities; that such a Perjury and Forgery should have been as severely prosecuted as any of those Crimes were in the Reign of King James; We mean nothing less than Oats's Discipline upon his Recorded Conviction, let each one judge of that according as he [...]ancies his Suffer­ings either the Resentment of the Court, or the Justice of the Cause; We wish we could but have seen that Justice done on these Goal▪ Birds that was shewn in that so blemisht Reign of King James, on a less Enormous Malefactor, both Houses of Parliament, to whom we appeal were all Wetnesses too of Sh [...]xton,s confuted Evidence on the Trial of the late Lord Dellamere, and all the Town can Witness he was scourg'd for it beyond T. O. tho short of Tyburn, and of which if he was not, we are sure he was reported Dead.

The security indeed of the Discipline shews that the design was not so deeply laid among the Great, or else this Little fellow durst not have been so sever [...]ly handl'd; what may be gather'd from the gentle treatment of these more wicked varlets, we leave to the wisdom of the Highest Court to determine:

And one would have thought that after Hell having broke loose, and so many Innocent Souls preserv'd by the meer providence of Heaven, some course should have been taken to shut those Gates of Hell; that they might never again have been able to prevail; or these Devils; to have been so far muzzel'd that they might not thus gone about seeking whom they might de­vour, but alas to our shame, and the Reproach of the Nation and Christianity; (which should it be told in Gath, and publish'd in the Streets of Askalon, would make the Philistians rejoyce, and the uncircumcised Trimph; Turks Tartars and Mahometans take us to have been bred on the Coasts of Barbary) The Animadversion on these Villains has been so much Neg­leg [...]ted. That another, the very Cub of the same Dam has been Midwif'd into the World in LANCASHIRE; That if all the Witches that County is said to have produc'd, had met in Consult for the destroying of Innocent persons; they could never have thought upon a more malicious or murderous Invention, As first an Essay to the swearing so many substantial persons out of their Estates for the false Alienations of their Lands, and when that mystery of Iniquity was laid open, to attempt their Lives and Estates together.

'Tis hard that those that are Sequester'd to the Government, should not be suffer'd so much as to Live; We are loath to say, had their Lives been lost where the blood must have layn; and their Death had been unavoidable, had not the poor Gentlemen been able to describe the Hue and Shape of these Monsters, and we hope it may Come to Light who lick't them into Evidence, Vid. Albert Gent. S [...] Uni­versitas negligit Emendare illaqueat ipsase: Grot▪ de J [...]r [...] Belli. Z [...]uch de Jure feci [...]le Part. 2 d. Qui non prohibent Jubent, & Tenentur, is a Maxim in the Civil-Law, In our own Law, and in the Law of God;

There was notice enough given of this profligate Evidence in Print, that our Ministers needed not have disparag'd the Good Government so much by bringing them on the Stage, but fince so many Innocent Subjects are brought in Jeopardy of their Lives, It is but fit such a Villanous affair be brought before a Parliament, ▪Tis the D [...]rnier Resort, the last Refuge Englishmen have when their Lives and Estates are both so barbarously Invaded; and how out True Punys and Empericks in the Poli­ticks come to be so f [...]r infatuated; after so signal a Defeat at Bromley, to set up their Stage again at Manc [...]esie [...], is as amazing as the Horrid Perjury of their Knights of the Post, who [Page 9] have nothing to match Theirs; but the Confidence of those Mountebanks, who; after they have Notoriously kill'd in one place, yet Impudently set up in Another.

We can't but look upon this pestilent pack of setters (for whom we ought to set Ginns and Traps, as they do for Vermin and Polecats) to be but a sort of BARRETERS for the Publick, to set the Government and its Subjects in perpetual Animosities, while they Run a­way with the Moneys of Both; And defame the Government more than a Common one does the Country Corporation in which he resides; and since the Vid Coke 1. & 3d Inst. c Bar. 78. Law where it only related to Litigiousness is so severe, what ought it to be where Life and Estates are thus Barrated away to the shame of the Commonwealth, and Common Christianity.

If our Ministers are touch't with Remorse for what is done, or what by Flagitious persons has been impos'd upon them; let the Innocency of the Arraign'd make as great a Noise as their Plot, and their deliverance be publisht as lo [...]d in their Gazetts as would have been their Con­viction. And 'tis to be hop'd that their Judges who some of them have had the Reputation of Learn­ing and Loyalty will secure some of these Ruffians; for his Majesties Service, and the Reputation of our Laws and Constitution, as the best means to make amends for the Disservice that is done him in his Absence.

THE Manner of this second or third Essay to Judicial murder must all come before you, of which you are to take Notice as you will answer it to those Powers upon which the Pris­oners Put themselves to be try'd, That is, God and the Country; and where they prov'd such a Vil­lanous Conspiracy for taking away their Lives, even to the Astonishment of Judges and Jury, and satisfaction of all good men present, who to their Immortal Honour partook in their so signal a deliverance; That nothing less than a publick Act of Terror and Infamy can be past upon the Conspirators, unless we have a mind to defame the Constitution.

Consider but the Creatures that Crawl'd into Court to commit Murder in the very face of it; and the Rest of the Cabal that would have appear'd, but being Characteriz'd, or more cunning, kept behind the Curtain.

In the first place your Dandys must appear, one that has given the Papists an occasion to value him for his Apostacy (that honor'd their Church by relinquishing it, to Disgrace ours by his Conversion; and after this piece of service, it would be well if we could return Him; and just so were we credited by our Converts before in the former Plots: and should they serve their Setters as their predecessors did Colledge, and some others, who can help it?

In the next place, [that Priest of all Religions,] (which God forbid) would be the same; Comes in one Kingston a stancht Church of England Divine, whom in kindness (since Dandy comes over to us) we ought to send to them; In a word, the very Counterparl of Robert Young; Forging sacrilegiously his own sacred Orders, prov'd from the Registry at Bristol's one of Ro­bert's Brethren in Poligamy, and if Sir S. A. be to be believ'd, The Bankers in Lombard­street will as soon trust Robert with their Cash, as the Banker of the Kings-Bench will Kingston with his Coin. And after these Defeats, should this blessed Pair meet in Consult or Partner­ship, their Joint-Stock is enough to break the Nation.

In the next place we come to our Lunts the lag Poligamist, Cousingerman to the two Spiritu­al ones, a lowsy discarded Coachman; with your Ombrals or Whombrals, a Rascally Car­rier; both Carrier and Coachman all driving to the Devil, whom yet the Devil drove: Let but one of these Scotch Evidence (as some of thom are said to be) but feel a little of their own Bo [...]t or Thumkin, The Deel [...] will they or their Irish Associates take the Swear again in England, and what will be an infallible way to squeeze out of their Knuckles and Fingers ends the bottom of all the Villany, and the Top of all their Accomplices; such a Scottish Boot will [Page 10] very well become the Evidence that carried off one of the Gentlemen's Gold in the Leathers of his own. And the [...]humkin a proper Instrument for the Fingers of a Priest that [...]orges Or­ders; and I hope it is time to make Wretches know themselves, that swear against those they do not know; and so let these be the l [...]st of such execrable Villains that are not hang'd.

Let it be but consider'd what a Tool such a Fellow as Lunt was to go to work withal for the taking away Lives; Lives of Value, by his most contemptible Breath; And 'tis to be hop'd his Confederates have burnt their Fingers, now they have found their principal Evidence burnt in the Hand; branded upon the Record of the Court for stealing of Bullocks, prov'd ex con­fesso to have Robb'd on the High-way, Indicted for having two Wives, and what never yet was heard or seen in a Court of Judicature; Evidence that came to swear High Treason against a Person he had never seen in his Life, nor so much as knew from all the rest that was in Court, I think the Villain Lunt has outdone what no person of probity ever thought on this side Hell could have been so much as match't Blackhead and Young, who never pretended to swear be­fore they were acquainted not only with the Phys and Faces of the persons, but also their Hands and Writings; whereas this audacious Varlet swearing he deliver'd Commissions seve­rally to these Gentlemen at the Bar, they severally Read them; that they severally gave him Five pounds apiece; yet being order'd with one of the white Rods in Court to point at Sir R [...]w­land Stanley, very fairly singles out Sir VVill Clift [...], and this a Blunder at Noonday; and not like Oats to be excus'd by Candlelight: 'Tis pity but such a Rogue should meet with his Rowland for his Oliver, for we dare be bold to affirm, that since that Usurper's Days there were never such horrid Conspiracies form'd for the taking away Lives; and VVilson prov'd to have receiv'd the ready Rano Money for encouragement; certainly if piety and Justice are not Abdicated too, The VVages of this Sin ought to be Death.

The Threatnings of Brereton to have the Lives of some of the Prisoners prov'd in open Court; a most fervical way of Revenge; A Stilleto of Poneyard might have done as well; but the Devil ow'd the Evidence a Spite, and so tempted him to add Porjury to his Murder.

After all to clinch close the Nails in this murderous Machine improv'd beyond all what the War has yet produc'd, was provided a Gentleman called Taff, who was as ready to have sworn himself the Count of that Name, but that Vienna was little too far off from M [...]nchest [...]r; but here True Teague appear'd; for with his working and witnessing after his Irish way, all the Mystery of Iniquity came out, and the most horrid Conspiracy to Sacrifice so many Inno­cent Souls to the Amazement as well as Resentment of the whole Court and Country, Inso­much, that even Aaron Smith, that e [...]perienc'd Muster-Master of Plot and Affidavit, that un­derstands, we are sure, what it is to swear and be sworn against, and all that relates to Popish, Irish Evidence and Conspiracy, was astonisht at his flight, and sublime. So transcending all the former Villanies he had seen; (or to his honour been concern'd in, and (to supercede even the shamming the Discovery.) All this deep Design laid so open as those Graves they had digg'd for the Prisoners, and so black as that Hell which gapes for the Evidence.

VVE have laid before You a great deal of horrid Fact, but yet no more than what is Matter of Record, and what every Member of You will find verified beyond Contradiction, and all the Aggravations we can use, can never represent these Villanies more odious than they are to God, and should be so to all Men; and therefore 'tis time to show here how by the Laws of God and Man they are to be punished.

First for the Warrant from the Law of God, we need not go so far from the Text as to Ap­peal to the Dialogue, and God's Express Command in the case of Murder; That he that shed­deth Man's Blood, by Man shall his Blood be shed; and (again in another place) He shall sure­ly be put to Death; Tho' indeed this way of killing is not so wide from downright Murder; and only more propense and malicious, which our own Laws have the greatest regard to punish, [Page 11] but God expresly commanded the Deut. 19. 18. 19. &c. Jews in these words: That their Judges should make dili­gent Inquisition, and if the Witness be a false Witness against his Brother, then shalt thou do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his Brother, thy eye shall not pity him, Life shall go for Life, Eye for Eye, Tooth for tooth, &c. and in another place Prov. 19. 9. False Witness shall not be unpunish'd, and he that sweareth Lyes shall perish: But to go further yet with God's Judgment more severely denounc'd against such Reprobates Equivalent to the Romans Julian Law in punishing of Regicides by rooting out the whole House and Family, and who till the Lex Poma a long time had no Law for that so unnatural a Crime of Para [...]ides, because they thought could not enter into Man's Heart to commit it, and I could wish that had perjury been the Reason, and no State Policy, that we have wanted a new Act so long for Perjury; but as the Romans or­dain'd in Regicide, so has God also denounc'd in this Fratricide, and even in less heinous Perjury, if it has any Gradations; for by the Curse of the Zach. v. 4. fly­ing Roll he has pronounc'd the Destruction of the whole House and Family▪ and declar'd, that it shall enter into the House of him that sweareth falsly▪ and shall con­sume with the Timber and very Stones thereof; and that this Capital Punishment was inflicted on these perjurious Offenders as well as denounc'd, we need go no further than that well known Story of Susanah, and her two Perjur'd Elders, There was what our Law calls a Villanous Conspiracy, and deserves, as my Lord Coke 3 Instit. 66. Coke explains it, a villanous Judgment, and we think that ought to be to forfeit their Lives; and the best Reports are to be read in holy Writ: and 'tis here in this Case you find that as soon as they were Convicted, the Text tells us, according to the Law of God and Mo­ses, they put them to death; and 'tis plain God has interposed in our late Discoveries, as once he did by his Servant Daniel from the Holy Writ; let us but have recourse to prophane Hi­story, for Parallel to God's Curse upon the House and Family for this crying Sin, the Story of Glaucus the Lacedemenian; recorded by Her [...]d. lib. 6. H [...]rodotus, to show what regard was to be had even among Heathens to what they swore, and what dismal Punishment attended their Perjury) for he having only a design to forswear a summ of Money that was deposited in his hands, yet had so much Conscience as to Consult the Oracle before he committed the sin, and was told by it what he was to expect, To be Consum'd, him and his Posterity; and tho' he departed the Judgment as having only intentionally Committed the Crime, how­ever the Vengeance of God fell upon him, and He and his Posterity Perish [...]t.

And now let us but look into the Law of other Nations, and next cast back our Eye upon what was our own.

By the Le [...] Remnia Among the Romans a Common Calumniator or false Accuser in ordi­nary Cases, had first the To▪ K in the Greek Capital burnt in his forehead, a little more severe than our Paper Kite that is put upon our Prances or our Youngs in Westminster-Hall or the Pillory; and besides the Identity of punishment, that the party must have suffer'd by his Perjury, was also inflicted and this appears from their Imperial So Vid. Prov. 19. 9. Zach. v. iv▪ Law, and will be all good mens wishes to see it among our Acts of Parliament, And by their Lex Cornelia made by that famous Dictator Cornelius Sylla, Their Judicium Falsi, D. 48. 161. c. 9. 46. 6. For forg'd Attest­ations, or forg'd Associations (tho' they did not tend to the taking a­way lives) was very fearful, for by that the offender convicted of any such Instrument of forgery; was to suffer Deportation, and their Pub­lication of all their Goods; and if perpetrated by a Servant or Slave, to be condemn'd to their ultimum supplicium, that is to lose his life; and somtimes made Capi­tal in those that were Free; and with the Instit lib. 1. Tit. 18. D. 4 8. 10. 4. C. de. falsis. l. ubi. b. 4. 8. 10. 1. same punishment did they prosecute your Willsons [Page 12] as well as Youngs, that had received any bribe for their evidence, and money for their Testi­mony, and what aggravates the defects of our Laws as vainly as they are ulcerated, these severities or just Retaliation, were inflicted in Civil matters; and in Criminal ones the Per­jury always punish't with the same Death and Torment the I [...]nocent was to have suffer'd, and then we are sure their Punishment of Laesae Majestatis was equally terrible to that of our High Treason, and extended formerly even to the C. 9. 8. 5. Children, and Servants of the Conspirators, tho never so innocent: And these Judgments were also confirm'd by their lex Tali [...]nes, in which the Law of God seem'd to be Copied out of Deter [...]nomy, Eye for Eye, Tooth for Tooth.

These Gentlemen, were the Laws made by a wise and flourishing Republick, and Collected in a Body, by a Renowned Emperor esteemed the Justest Legislator; by which those Laws of Solon himself might seem to be out done, and Rome in Justice as well as Glory to have transcend­ed Athens and Lacedemon, and it was these Laws that made them Victorious abroad, safe and easie at home; and These esteemed so Just and equitable that even since most part, (we may add all the Christian World beside our selves are govern'd by them; nay our own King­dom was; and Scotland that is under the Dominion of our own Prince, as we shall shew, is still governed and guided in this point by the same Antient and Equitable Laws; and if any of these Conspirators be Scottish Cattel of the Irish kind, let them in Gods name swear up Plots and forswear them in their own Country where they may be deservedly hang'd after they are damnably perjur'd, and not bring true Englishmen to be try'd for their Lives by a parcel of false Loons that have abandon'd God, as well as God their Country; The only Good they have left in it being these good Laws by which such forsworn Varlets are to be punish't: and that not only by those Civil Institutions of the Roman and Imperial Law we have cited (which with them take place where their own Municiple ones are de­fective,) but also by their very Parliamentary Acts and Consti­tutions, and particularly by one of Vid. Jac. 6. p. 1. c. 49. King James the 6 th. where he that Calum [...]ates any one of High Treason, and the party acquited, incurs the same Vid. lib. cui. Tit. Reg. major. Punishment the presumed Gullty must have undergone, had he made good his proof.

And now in the next and last place, let us come to our own Legislative; and 'tis well known, especially to this High Court of Parliament compos'd of so much Law and Learning, that antiently, and before the Conquest, by our own Laws Perjury (tho it were not in the Capital Cases) was punish't with Death or Exile, the Romans Ultimum supplicum; or Deportation, and the least penalty that follow'd after that was the Cutting out the Tongue of the Perjur'd, we are no more I hope a Conquer'd People now, than we were before the Conquest, (whatever some Scotish Doctors, or Scotch Evidence may tell us.) And if we be the same Free Subjects the same True English men, In Gods Name let us have the same agree­able Leg. Edward. c. 3. Leg. Aethel. c. 10. Mirror c. 4. Laws, we had before we were a Conquer'd people, the same that in this Case agree so much with the Laws of God and Man; and we would willingly know since the second offence in forging a DEED or publick Instrument is made by the fifth of Eliz. Felony, where but a little Land or Lease is liable to be lost; why not the Forging of Commissions and Associations to the taking away Lives, and then I am sure such Priests as Young and Kingston that forge their order too ought not to have the benefit of their Clergy. So that to Revive these so Antient and Excellent Statutes for Perjury we see is not (as the Parliament once bravely oppos'd,) to change the Old Laws of England but to Restore them.

As our Case stands now, we have not so much as the Hazard the Chance of our fore Fa­thers, the Fire Ordeal to acquit us of the Accusation of a Couple of Conbin'd Conspirators, nor that other favour long since Legally to be granted, or to be demanded by the falsly Accused to defend his Innocency. Vid. 2d. & 3d. Inst. cap. 14. & cap. 72. The Co [...]bate. *but are immediately swallow'd up Quick by these false Crocodiles as soon as they gape with their upper Jaw; for our our Ancestors commonly in Cases of false Accusations of Felony or High Treason, as well as in a Writ of Right had the priviledge of fighting it out with their Calumniators; and so was to be decided that Famous Case Reign of Rich. III. between Thomas Duke of Norfolk, and Henry Duke of Hereford, where the one accused the other as false and Trayterous to the King; and were this in practise at present, Capt▪ Brewerton, that Hervick Calumniator might have had a more honourable way of having the Life and Blood of Sir Rowland and the Gentlemen he so falsly accused, but since all pro­tection is now taken from the Innocent, that they cannot defend themselves against the force of Villanous Affidavit neither by Law nor Arms, what is there left to fence against these devour­ing Animals, but fearful and severe Sanctions, that like the Fire we make in Woods against Wolves and wild Bears, may make them turn away and leave their Prey.

In the Conspiracies indeed of Juries we have a terrible Judgment ( Coke 3 Inst. Ch. Con­spi. 66. as the Lord Chief Justice thinks it) whereby they are put out of Protection of the Laws, to loose their Lands and Goods to have their Houses rais'd and Trees rooted up; and if these are thought so great Villains, as to merit such a Villanous Judgment, only in Civil Actions, what must such Irish or Scotch Evidence merit in Criminal Cases? Creatures that have no more Goods than what they carry on their backs, no other Houses but their last Goal, and not a Tree to hang themselves on, or a Dog, and so far from being aggriev'd by being put out of the pro­tection of the Laws, that they are commonly (as we see in these Bromley and Manchester Evi­dence, outlaw'd to our hands for being Felons or Highway-men; what then can suffice for such transcendent Transgressors, that are uncapable of any other Punishment, but Death.

LET us only on this occasion crave leave to remind You of what was not long since the Re­sult of your own Learned Debates upon the like Emergency, That so solemn 22, 23 Car, II. Act, on the Villanous Attempt on Sir John Coven­try; where no such Punishment was provided for by any Law be­fore▪ Certainly this Case concerns You nearer now; where Your Honours, Your Estates, Your Lives lie at stake; and must needs make a deeper Impression on Your Minds, than an Assault, or Mutilation; and since these Ruffians, these Assassins in Affidavit have adventured to attact no less than four or five Members at once. That Puny Attempt (in respect of these more Bulky and Buteherly Assassination, and the more barbarous in being also more secret) was lookt upon too big for that little Punishment the Law did inflict; so that, that which was only Trespass, Assault or Battery before, was made Felony; and sure Gentlemen, the cutting off a Man's Life, will deserve as considerable a Punishment as the Slitting of a Nose; or the Cutting out his Tongue or Eyes, which was long before made 5 H. IV. 5. 3 I [...]st. 62. Capital.

We are not so severe in our Just desires, as to insist that this so necessary an Act should have any Injurious or revengeful Retrospect, as to regard even Robert Young, a Taff, or a Lunt; a Blackhead, or a Wombrell; tho' one would think they should deserve no favour no more favour than a Dandys, or O brian; a Parry, or a Reeves, Men of better Birth and less Barbarity; at least we might expect, that if with those lesser Criminals, they are not to be hang'd, that for [Page 14] the publick Interest of the Nation, and the Safety of every Individual in it, they may at least be Exil'd with them out of that Land in which they do not deserve to live, Coke's Comm. 3d Inst. Chap. 13. as this will be; as my Lord Coke calls it upon the like occasion, Salutaris severitas & beata securitas; *A severity only for the Safe [...]y of us All, and a most blessed Security indeed for the Publick, the People and the Parliament.

LET our Zeal for the Publick Good, with You (who are Overseers of it, Ne quid detri­menti capiat Respub lica) Supercede the Presumption of these weak Overtures, for the Honour of the Nation, the Reputation of your Two Houses, and the regaining a Repute to our once celebrated Law; which why they should be defective in matters of such main Concern as Life and Estate, is unaccountable.

Let us have the long lookt for Bill for limiting Constructive Treason made at last an Act; and let not the Twelve Men in Scarlet, which were painted so terrible and bloody in the last Reigns be a Terror to the Subjects in This; All the Twelve may not have the Judgment and Moderation, the Learning and the Law of an Hales or an Holt; and when our Lands and our Lives are at stake, Malice and Ignorance may make most wretched Constructions on the 25 of Edward; if we are delivered to eat Manna and Quails, why must we still be fed on Leeks and Onions; and if we must never see our Canaan, 'tis as good to perish in the Wilderness; and 'tis tem­pting God to see those Men that cry'd in their Bondage, to please themselves now with their Shackles; and those that not long since were so afraid of hanging on that Statute of King Edw. to play now with the Halter, as if it were no more than the Garter which he Instituted.

Let the Evidence for the Prisoner by a special Act have his Oath administred him, as well as the Swearer for the King. We have found Villains and Perjury sufficient on the one side to bring Men to the Gallows, and never yet seen so much on the other to save a Man from it: The Crown will have this advantage upon the Reciprocal Oath, That His Evidence if false, must perjure himself to save the Indicted; and if he swears True, 'tis all the reason in the world he should be sav'd: To refuse this for the ridiculous Reason that it is against the King, as is commonly done; and particularly was in Vid. Trial Fitz Har▪ pag. 37. Fitz Harris's Case when demanded, is the highest Refle­ction on the Crown; the very blemish to our Constitution; dero­gatory to a Court of Justice, unworthy of Lawyers, and indeed as shall be shewn, against Law; it looks as if the Prince had it as a part of his Prerogative to have an advantage over the Subject's Lives, expresly against Cap. 29. Coke 2 Inst. Magna Charta; which we dare affirm takes all the Care imagina­ble for the preservation both of Life and Estate even in opposition to the King and Crown; and the Original Contract upon which we now stand has not I hope overturn'd that; and besides this advantage of Swearing, as (we have shewn before) the King is advantageously enough posted upon this Point in a Court of Judicature, in the Learning of his Judges, in the Zeal of his Attorney; the Eloquence of his Council, and it being the King's Court, and too much as it is commonly made, the Subject that comes to contend with him on his own Ground ought to have all the fair play imaginable, and upon Justice and Honour the advantage of the ground given him; for 'tis always judg'd unfair, To Cut, and Chuse too. We are confident some of the King's own Council have been once of this Mind; and we dare engage to shew it under some of their own Hands who by this time may have forgot what fell from their Fingers five Year agone; and whatever were the hardships of Trials before this Revolution, 'tis notorious, there was never such barefac'd Forgery and Villany that offer'd to set up for King's Evidence, tho' some may be, did endeavour to come near it; and if it be true what is reported, that one [Page 15] of the Repriev'd Printers, has own'd himself Author of that Book for which Anderton died, 'twill help to remind some Authors of the Story of those that were hang'd for the Murder of a Person absent; and of my Lord Coke's Heiress that hung her Uncle by running away; and at last both return'd alive: All that can be said in the Case is, 'tis easier to make Remarks on Trials than to regulate and reform them,

But besides all this. the Benefit of an Oath against the King is allow'd in all Civil Actions, and as much the Subjects Right as his Benefit Ticket, tho' the King with ten times the Money should draw all Blanks, and both these by Act of Parliament, and is a Mans Life then of less value to him than a Lot on the Million Adventure, or in a Civil Action have we a better Right to contest it with? The King's Auditor, then in a Criminal one with his Executioner; yet on this slippery ground we stand, notwithstanding our excellent Laws and Constitution, so that the Prisoner seems to be ty'd up before Council or Sentence, at the first false step, to be hang'd for the King.

My Lord Coke that Learned Lawyer, and once Gentleman, in your Station, an Honourable Member of Parliament, is expresly for the Administration of this Oath, to the Evidence for the Prisoner; and says there is neither Author, Act, Book▪ Statute, Record, not so much as Vid. Coke 3d. Inst. Cap. 22. S [...]intitla Jaris, against it. And the Sta­tutes of Eliz. III. and Jacob. IV. are expresly for it, where also in Criminal Cases the Oath is tender'd; and in God's Name, let the Protestant Reign, and the Peaceful Reign be Presidents for our Reigns, tho' at present in a State of War; and moreover partinent to this Purpose do's that Eminent Lawyer add that me­morable Expression of that Celebrated Queen, who when Bur­leigh told Her of him as he was coming into Her Presence; V [...]d. Coke 3d. Inst. ibid. Here comes Your Majesties Attorney General that prosecutes pro Domina Regina: She very readily reply'd, rather let it be pro Domirâ veritate; and was so intent upon it, that she really would have had it alter'd, and run thus in the Record; A charge fit to be given by every Prince to this Minister of his Prosecution.▪ instead of Instructions to Sharp Speeches and bitter Words; as if when they are coming perhaps to Crucify an Innocent, They must also give him Vinegar and Gall to drink.

Gentlemen, We have had Great Boasts that we are come to Queen Bess her Days; and there­fore 'tis but fit we should have Queen Bess Government too.

And Lustly; Let this so necessary a Bill for the very Being of the Subject be past into a Law; Great Things are expected from this Sessi [...]n, and these Laws indeed would mako the Session Great.

Let PERJVRY in Capi [...]al Cases be as Capitally punish'd: Since 'tis God's Law, All Christi­ans Law, and was once our Law; and this no Airy flight or Assertion, but what we have made out from the Law of God, The Law of Nations, and our own Law-Books; 'tis a Jest to talk of our Excellent Laws, when we want one to secure our Lives, and our Constitution goes upon Crutches as stout as we think it, while the People that are to Establish it are thus cramp [...] and crippl'd; What Compensation for God sake can it be to a Peer or Commoner after he has made his Cavalcade to Tower-Hill or Tyburn to have a Young or a Lunt, to look with an Iron Cap thro' a Wooden Cage, and gloriously defended by a Guard from a Rotten Egg, or Turnep; or what kind of Consolation to the Posterity of a Marlebor [...]ugh, or a Molineun, after the Chopping of their Heads, to have had a Snip of Robert's Ear, that would have blemisht the Pillory, or a little of Lunt's Leather, that if Nail'd to the Gibbet must have made it blush: It was pretty oddly observ'd by a Bishop well enough affected to the Government, That the Non-Jurors had pre­serv'd the Nation from Atheism; but by the encrease of these sort of Jurors there is no hopes of keeping out the most Atheistical Infidelity; For never in any Age were such sad Examples of Fall'n Reprobates, that had sunk down to such a degree of Diabolical Atheism; (for the [Page 16] Devils, tho' the false Accusers of the Brethren yet fear and tremble) as has been found out in the Forgers of these two last most Hellish Plots, of which perhaps Fuller, their Foreman would have furnisht us with a finer Original. What will the next Generation think of this in the Revolving our Annals and History, when they shall see so many Perjuries upon Record, and most of them unpunish'd? When they shall find such a Catalogue of uncouth Names, and more unheard of Monsters and Animals than any in Aldr [...]vandus? when they shall meet with so many Mac-Moyers, Mac-Oneals, Mac-Namarac's, Blackheads, and Whombralls, all Tanti­vying it away upon the Sacrament; as if they were so many Spiritual Saints, when all the while nothing less than so many Devils, Incarnate Sons of Belial; for so the very word of God has call'd them that by false Witness dispossess a Naboth or a Neighbour of his Life and Vineyard; Hell-hounds! that in the dark Night pursue their Prey, that like Pestilence Walk in Darkness; till fletch't and sharpn'd like the Arrow, they come to destroy us at Noonday: That Plot how to seize the Heir, and Quarter his Body; only to divide h [...]s Inheritance. These things Gentle­men, have not been done in a corner, and Ye that are Rulers in our Israel; Ye our Legislators, cannot be said to have heard or known none of these things; The Bishop has laid all open in one Book, and there will matter enough come before you to make up another.

If any Members should be so hard, as not to be easily mov'd with so tender a Case, let them but consider the said circumstances of such a dying Innocent amidst his Horror and Distraction, to find himself hurrying away to an infamous and painful Death, thro' all the Gazing Crowd, and gastly Pageantry that attends it; and all the while perhaps so Just and Innocent, that he is only conscious of the Injustice and Injury that is done him, and has in Equity, a Right to that Life and Freedom that every Spectator enjoys, that comes to see him die, and more than many, and (his Accusers especially) that don't deserve to live, it must needs discompose and distract the Sedatest Soul to be thus tor'n from the Body, and to leave that too to be butcher'd abroad; We must confess we look upon this to have been much of Mr. Cornish's Case, whose dying Ago­ny many that were no Enemies to that Reign and Government could not so easily digest; The conflicts and convulsions both of Soul and Body, that Innocent Person must be under in such sad circumstances is unconceivable, whilst a Tacit Guilt; or opinionatre of the Goodness of the Cause in which he suffer'd so long as matters of Fact are truly sworn, makes the Dying and Condemn'd more patiently to expire, either from the Approbation of the Fact for which he suffers, or considering it as the Effect of his own Crime or Indirection; and it is observable in that Man's Case we mention'd, we find that neither Judges nor Jury could defend themselves from the killing force of a false Oath, which from the Lips of a King's Evidence like the Ball from the mouth of a Cannon carries all before it where it is levell'd▪

And thus we hope we have shewn that this is a National Concern, and not the particular Case of a few incensed and uneasy Jacobites, as many that are unwilling to lose the least power of Oppressing may be apt to imagin, but such will then only be best Taught when they come per­haps to find it their own, and have bought more Wit so late, and so dearly. Neither will we imagin, as some perhaps may more maliciously among that Party conclude, that these Ma­chinations against them have been carried on by any of our Eminent Ministers of State; we see how Robert Young's Roguery and Information was rejected, long before it was discover'd and found out; and his Bundle of Papers and Intelligence Branded and stigmatiz'd in the Forehead for that of a Very ROGUE; but these Villanous Evidences in all probability have been In­stigated only by some Punies in the Politicks; some half-witted Underlings, The Fi [...]z Harris's of the Times, that would officiate themselves into favour, by scandalizing those they would pretend to serve▪ and whom our Ministers (if detected) ought to make Examples for their Impudent Presumption, and the disservice that is done the Gove [...]nment; for we may look upon these Creatures and Conjurors more Diabolical than the Evidence; they thus raise us up from the the Devil▪ for if we could have any Charity for them, we might think that they only de­sign'd [Page 17] to live by the Tr [...]do, and to damn themselves for a little Bread; whereas these more malicious Conspirator's Plot to destroy the Innocent at their own Cost, and pay for the pains of their Perjury, with the Price of Blood, and no little Expence for their Preferment may meet perhaps with the mistaken Reward of false Edric's Treachery, who was prefer'd for the Villany he had committed for the sake of King Canutus, above any of the Peers, by putting his Head upon a Pole; and besides all wise Statesmen will know that it is no Policy to exaspe­rate even what they think a contemptible Part of the Nation; For notwithstanding all King James's Army, Monmouth might have made mad work of it, had he took them Napping; so that if we are well wishers to our present Government, we ought to study how to make it easie to all alike, lest we should be mistaken (as our Predecessors have been) in the consequences of any violent Prosecutions. The Gentry and Nobility of the Nation are upon another account oblig'd to take notice of this New way of Swearing; with relation to the true Rules of Ho­nour and Chivalry, or else to restore again the antient practice of turning Champion; and defending ones self, when accused by Combate, and to challenge the Evidence instead of the Jury; for tho' some of these Brood of Witnessess like a body of beggarly Bandity set up to Rob and to kill, but according to Law, and to level at Men of Estates alike as they come in their way; so it seems there are others among them that are irritated into this Villany by way of Animosity and Revenge, and like the Band among the Jews, bind themselves in a Curse neither to eat nor drink till they have slain Paul; and of this humor we find were some of the Mac' [...] and Irish in Colledge's Case, the Duffy's in Plu [...]ket's Case, and our renowned Capt. Brewert [...]n, in Sir Rowland Stanley's Case; so that Perjury at last is like to arrive to a sublime pitch of Hervick Valour; and instead of deciding Quarrels by a Duel it may be thought a piece of Gallantry to get the Blood of a Man, by swearing him out of his Life, what conse­quences this may have upon the Nobility and Gentry we leave to the Determination of both Houses of Parliament that are composed of both.

And now after all that has been said for this so necessary a Law against Wilful Perjury, none ever yet could bring the least objection against it, save only this single one.

That Capital Punishments in Cases of Perjury, would deter all Persons from detecting of capital Crimes, and especially Conspiracies against the King and the Crown.

As to what concerns the Crown and King's Case somewhat has been said already upon ano­ther head, Tho' it may be observ'd here that it was the Practice of our Royal Ancestors to Triumph more in the detecting the Innocence and Quietness of their Subjects, than of an hun­dred horrid Plots and Conspiracies; for those whether true or forg'd, only help to make the Mo­narchs more uneasie to themselves and People; and besides it is the saying of the wise and good Emperour Trajan, to Severus, and a Maxim in the Laws both Divine and Human, That it is better Satius est, impunitum relinqui facinus necentis. quam in nocent [...]m damna­ri sic iniquite Ʋlj [...]ian Trajanus Severo rescripsit. Ten Guilty Persons escape, than one Innocent Man perish: Now we would feign know which way there is for an Innocent Man to be safe, when for the weak Pretence of Regal Prerogative there shall no greater Terror and Restraint be put upon such Villanous Forgeries: The most Innocent Men are commonly the worst Enemies to such Diabolical Varlets, and therefore from them they may expect the most of Mischief, and this has been made out to a mi­racle in some of the foremention'd Conspiracies.

Besides, as Parasitical as the Argument is to the Crown, it is perfidious and Trayterous to our very Constitution; for if the King's Prerogative must stand in opposition to the Lives and Safety of Subjects; We have at once over-turn'd all that Original Contract upon which we settled the very Foundation of the present Government; and we can compare the Unjust No­tion to nothing else, but the Justice some English Gentlemen (we have heard of) met withal in France, who in their passage thro' it, by a Perjurious Wretch that had never seen them be­fore [Page 18] bein [...] sworn to be all Hagonots, and upon that were imprisoned and ill▪ us'd; and contra­ [...]y to the Law of Nations, upon Appealing to the Governour of the next Garrison, and shewing their Authentick Pass-Port, and demanding Reparation for Damages sustain'd, had only this cold Compliment to make them amends, That they must excuse their ill Treatment from the strict Regard was had to the King's Ed [...]ct; and since the Fellow had only perjur'd himself in Zeal for his Majesty▪s Service, he did not see how he could well punish him; Gentlemen! where Life is concern'd too, we hope French Arguments will have no weight with Englishmen. But further, for this only Objection, There is no more Sense or Reason in it than of publick Spirit or Honesty; for what Reason has an honest upright English Evidence, with no Irish Hue, or Scotch Complexion, to decline giving a fair Testimony to what he knows of a Prisoner, since whatsoever Evidence the Prisoner brings to disprove his (being likewise upon Oath, which as my Lord Coke says no Law is against) must run the same Risque of a capital Punishment, if by Forgery or Falshood he goes to invalidate the King's Evidence; so that the Accuser here has the same Security for his Life that the Person has whom he Accuses, and since swearing False is grown so Fashionable, 'tis fit he should have no more; and 'tis certain from the purity of the Punishment the security to both is the same; besides there is this to be consider'd to en­courage any true Witness from being dismay'd, That Truth from probability and circumstances will defend it self, whilst those that falsly come to invade it (as the Success in these Affairs were Evidenc'd) are sooner discover'd in their most secret Conspiracies; So that no Man of Sense or Reason can see the least Reason why notwitstanding this Reciprocal punishment an­nex'd to Perjury, he cannot as boldly proceed in confidence of the Truth of what he Deposes; as if there were no such Retaliation or Identity of punishment annex'd; and that which may be [...]ack'd to this Objection; that this might multiply Swearing and Perjury, Vying and Re­vying on one another by way of Revenge, is so preposterous an Argument that it contradicts the other, and is as false in Fact, for if by this Lex Talionis, Evidence can be terrified (as 'tis objected) from giving True Testimony; How can it disencourage an Impostor to disprove it by Forging a Falshood, since the Terror and Punishment must equally extend to both; and for such Varlets as by way of Revenge would swear Perjury against another for Evidence given in a Capital Case only to take away his Life, has no advantage at all by this Act; for we find by all these sad Examples, that such Villains can as easily swear you into a Plot and High Trea­son: And for which perhaps many a Man's Breath has been stopt, only because the perjur'd Ac [...]user had nothing to choak him but his own Lyes and Forgeries, and many an Innocent brought to a shameful Death▪ because the Informer was never in any danger of his Life.

VVE are none of those your Town-Whiffers (the best in the world at throwing of dirt) commonly call'd Jacobites; new distinctions that may cost us as much as the old ones of Whigg and Tory; for a Jacobite indeed in the common Acceptation is worse than Tory; and I hope we shall give no occasion to make a Williamite worse than a Whigg; 'Tis a known Reproachful Reflexion to make a Jacobite, one that tho' an Englishman would enslave his Country to a Forreign Yoke, and what is worse a French one, but if such Blood-suckers, such Reprobate Svearers are to make their Cavalcade thro▪ the Kingdom; attended with Dutch [...] [...]o destroy peaceable and True Englishmen, Come French or Turk, our Condition cannot [...] worse; and these Irish and Scottish Evidence will certainly bring us to their Scottish or [...] Government, That Absolute Power without Reserve; and tho' some Scotch Priests may [...] such Enemies to the Doctrin of the Bow-string, such Forging, and Swearing will differ [...] from some peremptory Orders to bring in our Heads,

WE are plainly our selves, plain, honest, Country Gentlemen, True and Trusty, Free-born Englishmen, that only plead Magna Charta; The Petition of Right the P. of O [...] Declaration for our Lives and Estates, neither directly nor indirectly known or concern'd with any against whom this Flagitious Evidence have conspir'd; but only engag'd in a Common Concern for the Honour of the Nation, The Interest of their Country, which none but Apo­state Scotc [...]men, or perjur'd Irishmen will offer to betray; therefore since this sort of Cattle have imported themselves of late, and Creatures crawl'd into the Nation with Tongues worse than a two edged Sword, while the Poyson of Asps is under their Lips, what is to be done in so profligate an Age where Atheism is drawing up the Sluces to deluge us in such horrid Impie­ties, and the Air so Tainted with the Breath of [...]hese Animals, that we may expect even a Cloud of Irish Witnesses; what is left to preserve the Land from those Locusts, but the making their Swearing away other Mens Lives to be a Forfeiture of their own; For if Salary shall be the se­cret Price of Blood, 'twill be only the Fool then that does not Commence a Villain: And for this End (with all Submission) to this Great and Wise Body in this great and weigty Case. This Old Englishmen's Address humbly presented; may it have the Effect to Postpon all by ends to the Publick; To make us look like other Nations that understand Civil Law and Equity like other Christians that understand God's Laws, and the Decalogue like True Englishmen that understand their Old Law and own Interest; and then there will be no fear of Irish Inter­lopers, or Scotch Brokers, for the Bartering or Barreting away of Englishmen' [...] Lives; For the Honour of God, for the Credit of the Nation; for the Safety of our Selves, and the saving some of these Atheistical Fellow's Souls, since Perjury is growing as Epidemical as the Plague, and as Mortal too, Let some frightful Mark upon the Door of every Tribunal; and let not the Innocent, but those that would destroy them die.