I Have heard much of the sad state and condition we are in, and I am convinced of it, since I see such Reflections made with impunity upon the Kings Person and Govern­ment. I shall say little to the President of our Henry the IV, unbridled Violence, and mean Condescensions, are the unhappy necessities of an Usurper; but a good and a lawful King is obliged to maintain His Own Prerogative, as well as the Rights of His Sub­jects. But is it possible, that the supposed Author of the Printed Speech, should already forget, how lately the King (after a great Retrenchment of His Family) did at once, and (as it is said) by his Lordships advice, change almost His whole Council? and yet the People (or those that still make use of their Names) never were, nor will yet be satis­fied. I will not put his Lordship in mind of the Court Ladies, since he doth not remem­ber he spoke of them: But unless he make himself a Samuel, I do not know what au­thority he has to examine Saul, about the bleating of the Cattel? I cannot believe his Lordship could have the heart, to sacrifice the fairest of them; his Lordship may read in the same place, that Obedience is better than Sacrifice; but if a Sacrifice must be made, It is not to the People, but to God and Iustice. I would fain understand what is meant by the People? For now every man calls himself the People▪ and when one man calls for one Thing, and another for Something, directly opposite, both cry out, that if This, or That be not done, the People is betray'd; that is to say, they will endeavour to per­swade them so. But the People in this Speech, hath a strange Dialect, such as I hope no Englishman understands; Must, was never the language of a good Subject, nor Sub­mission the part of a King; ( We must, &c. and no new Converts,) I am sorry, that with all our Zeal, we are so unkind to Proselytes, we had a greater value for them not long since; for though L. B. was accused of the Plot, his Conversion secured him without a Pardon, though either his Lordship was deeply guilty, or the Kings Evidence grosly perjured. Till the Author discover who he means by Sempronia, I shall not tell him who I believe to be as bad as Catiline. But it is prodigious, that while we are frighted with Bug-bears of invisible Dispensations from the Pope, his Lordship with his Arbitrary Must, should dispence at once, with the Law of God, as to the Queen; with the Law of Nations, as to Foreign Ministers; with the Laws of Hospitality, as to Stran­gers, and all that part of the Oath of Allegiance, that concerns the Heir of the Crown, which is equally binding with the rest, to all whose suspected honesty cannot accept of such an Arbitrary Dispensation. His Lordship seems much concerned to hear of a Bar­gain between the King and the House of Commons; and so am I, for things are too ripe for mischief, when Subjects are permitted to capitulate with their Soveraign. The Kings Subjects (by His permission) have made Capitulations with Foreign Princes; but his Lordship would not have the King so far trusted, as that His own Subjects may Capitu­late with him, because as his Lordship says, he has so often deceived (that hard word) the People. And I beg leave to use the same expression of His Majesties patience, which his Lordship uses of his little care of his Person, That no Story affords a parallel of him. The actings of the Duke are indeed admirable to all, but incomprehensible to such as have not the true Principles of Loyalty rooted in them. But his Lordship (who in Crom­well's [Page 2] time was much better acquainted with what pass'd at London, then at Bruxels) avers, That the Duke had an early aim at the Crown, before the Kings Restauration; this is a high Charge, and ought to be better proved than by a bare assertion: Hath his Lordship any Letters to produce from His Royal Highness to Himself, or any other chief Minister of the Vsurpers? or to what Crown could the Duke pretend, when they had robbed the King of His own? The Duke can shew undeniable proofs of his Allegiance, even in those days; For what could an exiled Prince do more, than leave the great Com­mands, and Pensions that he had abroad, and all the advantages that his Birth, his Cou­rage and his Reputation promised him, to follow the Fortune, and the Wants of His Majesty? But how will his Lordship make out, that after the Match with a Portugal Lady, (for that is the only Title his Lordship allows the Queen) the Duke and his Party made Proclamation to the World, that We were like to have no Children, and he must be the Certain Heir: where is the World? and where is the Proclamation? He says the Duke took his Seat in Parliament, as Prince of Wales; but his Lordship knows, that the Seat on the Right Hand of the State, was, and is reserved for the Prince of Wales, the Duke took that on the Left Hand; the Printed Pictures of the House of Peers, sit­ting upon the Tryal of the Earl of Strafford, shew, that this is no Innovation; and His Royal Highness had the same Seat, when the King his Father called the Parliament at Oxford. He urges, that the Duke had his Guards about him, upon the same Floor with the King, and so the King was every Night in his Power: It was a timerous ambition that lost so many opportunities. But what an Impudence is this? The Duke never had Guards; they are the Kings, the King pays them, they wait in their turn upon the King, and have but the Name of the Duke, as the Foot-Regiments have of Colonel Russel, and my Lord Craven; so the Duke was every Night in the Kings Power. Next he fires his greatest Guns, The Duke is plainly the Head of the Plot; By whose evidence? Long be­fore the Duke was named, Mr. Oates declared to the Lords, that he had no more to ac­cuse; if he accuse him now, and Oates be divided against Oates, how can his Testimony stand good? Bedloe said as much; and here appears no Evidence, where the greatest would be little enough I say nothing of a Presbyterian Plot; but (with his Lordships leave) what has been, may be. The Calling, the Proroguing, and the Dissolving of Parliaments, are so absolutely in the King, that they ought to be Riddles to a Subject. When the Duke was Commanded to leave the Kingdom, I appeal to all the World, how readily, how Submissively he obeyed; and comparing his immediate Obedience, with the obstinate Refusal of others, who still stay in opposition to the Kings Command, let any Impartial man of Sense decide, which has shewed most Loyalty and Duty. His Lordship and his Party (for he says, We) expect every hour, that the Court should joyn with the Duke, against them; But I find, the Court is as hard a Word, as the People, and as boldly, and as odly used; If by that Word, he means the King, all his Lord­ships Rhetorick will scarce perswade us, that the King should Conspire with the Duke, against His own Crown, and His own Life; If not, what can the Court do without the King, and against the Nation? Besides, his Lordship has too many Friends among the Courtiers, to suspect them; and the Duke has met with too much Ingratitude, to trust them. His Lordship avers as truly▪ that the King has declared the Duke to be Dange­rous; as, That His Royal Highness is now raising men in Scotland, that whole Council, that whole Kingdom, will disprove Him; And by the apparent falshood of his Assertion, let all men judge of the Truth of the rest. If the Arms, the Garrisons, &c. be in such hands as the King thinks safe, We are safe too; But if not, it concerns His Mujesty to secure them, since his Lordship declares, the King is to be trusted with nothing, till he has Resigned himself Himself to his Lordship, and his Party, and is wholly theirs; and yet then too, He must trust their good Nature, and Surrender upon Discretion; They will allow Him no other Terms, no, not to be Himself, and have His Senses, unless they can fright Him out of them. I will yet charitably hope, that the pretended Author is abused; It concerns him to vindicate himself, by wishing, as I do, That the true Author may have the same Fate, that his Speech had, by Order of the House of Peers.