THE Experience I have had of your impartial dealings, encouraged me to make this Address to you; and however assuming if may be thought, yet I am sure 'tis no unseasonable Application: how unhappy soever the several late turns of our Affairs have been, I am sensible you have had no share in them, and therefore when any of those Transactions are brought upon the Stage, I dare in every thing appeal to you as an unprejudiced Spectator.

What you have hitherto done, I doubt: not is the Effect of a most deliberate Conside­ration; and tho' some Objections are made, yet I hope that evident Necessity, which is always able to over-rule Forms, will easily justifie the Integrity of your Actions.

Most Men are by this time satisfied that Popery and Slavery are Vanquished, and that nothing is wanting but a healing Cordial to settle the Constitution, after the strains of a violent Purgation; But in some Men the Humours are so floating, that when one angry part is relieved, another immediately becomes uneasie; and this unhappiness of Temper is so afflicting, that there can never be a perfect state of Health, when by all the Leni­tives you apply, you cannot make the Pain leave the Man, but only change its station.

I was in hopes that our present good Fortune would have made all Protestants so loving, that the memory of former Injuries could never sowre their good Nature; since Men of all divisions among them have been unwarily injurious to each other; this should facilitate their Reconciliation, and instead of ripping up old Sores, should rather hide those, which perhaps may appear of a greener Complexion. 'Tis too much like the common Artifice of Scolding to be quick in throwing Calumnies: and 'twas only the Thief that never entered into Paradice, who could upbraid when he himself was in the same Condemnation.

I must confess, there are some Dealings, that are enough to ferment even the Blood of a Stoick: to hear a Regulator Cant against Surrendring of Charters; to find a Man accused of holding Correspondence with Papists, by one that sat at Meat with the Pope's Nuncio; to see a late Addressor (who in spite of all Laws, would allow of the Dispensing Power) furious for some disputable Customs in particular Corporations; I say to see Men under these Circumstances prosecuting some few Miscarriages, which are so old, that nothing but Malice could remember; must tempt a Man to believe that either they have no sense of their own Faults, or else that they are afraid to be call'd to account, and so by putting others first, would willingly Postpone their Punishment.

I am told that Sir I. M—r, Sir W. P—d, and some others, are accused for Male Administration in their Offices Seven or Eight years since: So stale a Resentment is not worthy of your Consideration; and since their Accusers are so good at Recollecting of Crimes, I wonder they had not run back to Original Sin, and prosecuted them for be­ing the Progeny of Adam: this Fault is much more demonstrable; and if Regeneration be an Excuse, they can in the other Case too produce variety of Pardons.

But when the Matter comes before you, I do not doubt but you will transfer such trivial Grievances to their proper place, and not suffer private Peeks to disturb the Set­tlement of three Kingdoms: This Business is become the Discourse of the whole Town, and doubtless shortly will be that of the Country too; some rejoyce at these Gentlemen's Misfortune; others, and perhaps the more considerate, are exceeding Sorry; such con­trariety of Passions must needs be very clashing, and not fit Ingredients for that happy Union, which His Majesty has graciously designed.

And indeed such unhappy Recollections must needs breed ill blood; for these Gentle­men's Actions for which they are Accused, have been Countenanced by many, and Ap­proved of by most; so that the Censures you pass upon them, will vertually reach all the rest, and upon a fair Poll they will be found too numerous to be disobliged.

If several of those Men to whom this Passage may be very pleasing, should perhaps since the Date of these Miscarriages, be found themselves Criminal in a higher Degree; these provoking Accusations may tempt Men to bring on further Complaints, and when [Page] you are once beset with Indictments, (besides the loss of your time) you must either lye under the Censure of being Partial, or extend your Animadversions perhaps further than you at first intended.

The great Objection against these Gentlemen is, That what they did, was to serve a Popish Interest: I must confess that I think the Papists have been a long time under­mining us, but I believe when these Gentlemen were in Office, they lay deeper under Ground than they have done some time since, when others became the Favourites; and when the design began visibly to appear, they worthily refus'd their Assistance: So that how foul soever you may fall upon their mastakes, their Integrity is Spotless; and tho excess of Loyalty might induce them to be influenced by the King, 'tis plain they had nothing to do with the Papists.

If these Gentlemen consented to some things which were fatal in their consequence, 'tis plain that others receiv'd what they had done, and improved them to greater incon­veniencies: They are accused for an undue Choice of two Sheriffs, others had consen­ted to put upon us four Parliament Men by illegal Elections; now after a due conside­ration of Circumstances, that which appears to be the most dangerous mistake, ought in reason to be the Subject of your first Enquiry; and then in common construction, which do you think is most to blame, he that unwarily sets a House on Fire, or another who feeds the Flame when he sees it kindled.

Perhaps those Persons who would have you censure these Gentlemen, may think their crimes to be Notorious, and that there is nothing to be found on their own side but In­nocence. Whereas 'tis difficult to imagine, that men in such great heats, always kept within their due compass; and if Men of all sides have been faulty, this unreasonable Prosecution will oblige these Gentlemen to discover for their defence, what they are willing to conceal out of Charity; so that the natural consequence of this contest, will be the reviving of old Quarrels, the very thoughts of which to an honest Man must be but a very uncomfortable prospect.

To prosecute old Grudges, at a time when we have Criminals of so high a Nature to encounter, will be both a scandal to our selves, and a comfort to our Enemies; 'twill shew that revenge with us is not so much a Passion, as a Principle; and that we can at any time let Popery gather strength, so that we can but humble one another. Indeed these Gentlemens Accusers may think it too early to call to Account the late Instruments of our Miseries, and since crimes are to be punished according to their Antiquity, ten Years hence may be the proper time of their reckoning. But wise and indifferent Men will think that crimes are to be considered, more according to their bulk than standing; for an old fault has lost its Malignity, time has wiped off the Stain, and the man is be­come Innocent by Prescription; so that to pursue a man with Anger, after a long Truce and a tacit Reconciliation, is neither Just nor Generous; 'tis too much like French Faith, to fall upon the Allies as soon as the common Enemy is vanquished.

Neither can it be for the Interest of their Majestys, to have their Subjects pickeer­ing one with another; their Affairs are not yet so well settled, as to bear the effects of private Animosities; and if their Enemies may expect tenderness from the mildness of their Reign, 'tis a little too preposterous to bring perhaps their best Friends immediate­ly into Trouble. You are now upon a noble project of uniting Protestants, and there­fore I hope you will not think that Anger is a convenient preparative to love, and that the best expedient to make them Friends, is to divide them into factions.

That this will be the probable consequence of so ungrateful a review of former pro­ceedings, seems very evident; for First, a great part of the Nation have not so terrible an Idea of the matter in Question, and then to be severe upon Persons for a moot fault will sound very harsh, especially when their late worthly behaviour had sufficiently at­toned for greater miscarriages; and Secondly, a great many considerable men of the same, and other Corporations are in the same instances culpable; so that if you extend your punishments only to these Gentlemen, and your pardon to the rest, yet you in­volve them too in the same Guilt, which to a generous mind is equally afflicting; and tho you do not punish, yet you will be thought to insult, and expose them to the re­proaches of every insolent reflector.

And therefore I hope for the safety of the Nation, for the sake of their Majesties, and the interest of Religion, you will not countenance every angry Spirit, which by its long continuance seems to be stiffned into Malice and Revenge; that your Glorious En­deavours may not be frustrated by the remembrance of former Misunderstandings, which I am afraid on all sides are easier forgot then justified; that we may henceforth avoid the contrivance of the Jesuite, which is always active and working; for he who hath not strength to conquer, may yet have the cunning to divide.