Vox & Lacrimae Anglorum: OR, The True English—mens COMPLAINTS, To their Representatives in PARLIAMENT.
Humbly tendred to their serious Consideration at their next sitting, February the 6th. 1667-68.
By reason of the Multitude of Oppressions, they make the oppressed to cry. They cry out, by reason of the Arm of the Mighty.
Job 35. 9.
And in every Province whithersoever the Kings Commandment, and his Decree came, there was great Mourning, and Fasting, and Weeping and Wayling.
Esth. 4. 3.
Printed in the Year 1668.
To the Parliament.
THese Lines had kiss'd your Hands
October last,
But were suspended till the time was past;
Because we hop'd you were about to do
That which this just Complaint incites you to;
It is our duty, to put you in mind
Of that great Work which yet doth lag behind:
Our Grief and Woes do force us loud to cry,
And call on you for speedy Remedy;
Which was the moving Cause of these our Tears,
That you may know our Sufferings and our Fears.
And Providence now having led the way
To give it birth; peruse it well we pray.
And do not take it for an old Wives story,
But know the Nations Griefs lie here before ye:
Though in short hints, yet here, as in a Map,
With ease you'l see the cause of our Mishap.
There's not a free-born English Protestant,
But sets both hand and heart to this Complaint.
Vox & Lacrimae Anglorum.
REnowned Partiots, open your Eyes,
And lend an ear to th' Justice of our cries;
As you are
English men (our blood and bones)
Know 'tis your duty to regard our Groans;
On you, next God, our confidence relies,
You are the Bulwarks of our Liberties.
Within your Walls was voted-in our King,
For joy whereof our shouts made
England sing,
And to make him a great and glo
[...]ious Prince,
Both you and we have been at great expence.
Full Five and twenty hundred thousand pound,
(By you enacted) since hath been paid down,
Our
Customs to a vast Revenew come;
Our
Fishing-money, no inferiour sum.
That old Ale-spoiling trade of the
Excise,
Doth yearly to a mass of money rise;
Besides
the Additional of Royal Aid,
And
Chimney-money, which is yearly paid.
Oft have our heads by
Polls been sadly shorn,
With money from poor
Servants Wages torn.
Our
Dunkirk yeelded many a thousand pound,
(Tis easier far to sell than gain a Town.)
With
forc'd Benevolence, and other things,
Enough t'enrich a dozen
Danish Kings,
Million on million on the Nations back,
Yet we and all our Freedoms go to wrack.
We hop'd when first these heavy Taxes rose,
Some should be us'd to scare away our foes,
Or beat them, till (like
Gibeonites) they bring
Their Grandees ready haltred to our King;
[Page 4] Or make them buckle, and their points untruss;
As they did when the Motto,
God with Vs.
But Oh! instead of this, our cruel Fate
Hath made us like a Widow, desolate.
Our Houses sadly burnt about our ears,
Our Wives & Children sensless made with fears;
Our Warlike Ships, in which our safety lay,
Unto our daring foes are made a prey.
Our Forts and Castles, which should guard our Land,
Just like old Nunneries and Abbies stand.
And long before our Inland-Towns demur'd,
That Sea and Land alike might be secur'd.
Our
Magazines, which did abound with store,
Like us (sad English-men) are very poor.
Our
Trade is lost, our
Merchants are undone,
Yeomen and
Farmers, all to Ruine run.
Those that our fatal Battels fought, neglected;
And
swearing, damme, cowardly Rogues protected.
Our
gallant Seamen(once the world did dread)
For
want of Pay, are metamorphosed:
Whilst their sad Widows & poor Orphans weep.
Whose dear Relations perisht in the deep;
And to augment and aggravate their grief,
At the Pay-office find but cold relief;
Many a month are forc'd to wait and stay,
To seek the price of blood, dead Husbands pay.
The sober People, who our Trade advanced,
Throughout our Nation quite discountenanced.
It grieves our hearts that we should live to see
True
Virtue pnnished, and
Vice go free.
Thousands there be that could not hurt a worm,
Imprisoned were, 'cause they cannot conform.
Others exil'd, and from Relations sent,
We know not why, but being innocent.
Whilst
Romes black Locusts menace us with storms
Like
Egypts Frogs, about the Kingdom swarms.
[Page 5] Our penal Laws are never executed
Against those Vermin, which our Land polluted,
Only to blind and hoodwink us (alas)
An Edict passes to prohibir Mass,
With such a latitude, as most men say,
It's like its Sire, the Oath
Et caetera.
But prais'd be God for
Peace, that's very clear;
But on what terms th' Event will make appear;
We dread lest it should be more to our cost,
Than when
Amboyna Spicery was lost.
They treat with
Rod in hand, our
Buttocks bare;
Judge what the issues of such Treaties are.
Thus sick, ye Worthies, sick our Nation lies,
And none but God can cure her maladies.
Those that should chear her in your interval,
Like dull
Quack-salvers, make her spirits fail:
Turn she her wither'd face to whom she will,
All that she gets is but a purging Pill.
If any of her Children for her cry,
Her cruel
Empricks use Phlebotomy.
That wholsom Physick which should cleanse her blood,
They do detain, inflaming what is good.
This for a long time hath bad humours bred,
Which sends up filthy vapours to the head.
All wise men judge, if these extreams endure;
'Twill period in a mad-brain'd
Calenture.
Then, O ye Worthies, now for Heavens sake,
Some pitty on your gasping Country take.
Call to account those Leeches of the State,
Who from their trust deeply prevaricate;
Who have of English Coin exhausted more,
Than would ten
Cuer-de-Lions home restore.
Who like perfideous and deceitful Elves,
Ruine the Nation to enrich themselves,
More ready were our Counsels to disclose,
Then to protect us from our
Belgian foes.
[Page 6] The Fleet divided, shews such treachery,
That
Pagans, Turks and
Infidels decry.
The States Purse cannot but be indigent,
When so much money over-Sea is sent.
No wonder
Dutchmen cry,
Thanks Clarendine,
We are so roundly paid with English Coin.
If
Georges mouth be stopt, think they that we
Have all our eyes bor'd out, and cannot see.
Our foes of Engiish Coin have greater store
Since Wars began, than ere they had before.
Quaint stratagem, for Rulers busied be
To tye a
raw Hide to an
Orange Tree;
With resolution, 'cause he's of that blood,
To lift his head above the
Mogan hood.
Then both the
Kiep-skins would be well bestow'd,
One honour'd here, t'other as much abroad.
These and such Projects have procur'd a War,
Where mortals worry'd were like Dog and Bear.
Then Money works the wonder, that is sure,
The price of
Dunkirk here may much procure.
Dunkirk was sold, but why, we do not know,
Unless t' erect a new
Seraglio,
Or be a Receptacle unto those,
Were once intended our invading foes.
Then let that treacherous Abject Lump of Pride,
With all his joynt-Confederates beside,
Be brought to Justice, tryed by our Laws,
And so receive the merits of their Cause.
Who justly now are made the peoples hate.
That would not do them Justice in the Gate.
[...] We pray your Honours choose out a
Committee
To find the Instruments that
burnt our City;
Can one poor sensless Frenchmans life repair
The losse of
Britains great Imperial Chair?
Many there were in that vile fact detected,
And those that should them
punish, them
protected.
Were all her Senators and People dumb?
Must we be silent, when incompast round
With black-mouth'd Dogs, that would us all confound?
Most hellish Plot! 'twas
Guido Faux in grain,
Hatch'd by the Jesuites in
France and
Spain.
For which your Honours wisely did remember
To keep another fifth day of
November.
When these Delinquents up and down the Nation
You sifted for, then came your Prorogation.
Mean while, though
London in her ashes lies,
Yet out of her shall such a Phaenix rise,
Shall be a scourge and terrour unto those,
Who for this hundred years have been her foes.
Perfideous
Papists! shall your treachery,
Think ye, reduce US to Idolatry?
Blood-thirsty Monsters! we know better things;
Not all the pride of your dark-lanthorn Kings,
Nor all your Counsels of
Achitophel,
Shall make us run your ready road to Hell;
Blind Blockheads, we abhor your rotten Whore;
None but the God of
Jacob we adore.
We beg your Honours to redeem our Trade,
Which in your Intervals is much decay'd;
Regaining that, we hope such fruit 'twill yeeld,
We on our
Ruins chearfully may build.
We pray repeal that
Law unnatural,
That men in question for their
Conscience call:
'Tis cruelty, for you to force men to
The thing, that they had rather die than do,
This is mans All, 'tis Christ's Prerogative,
Therefore against it 'tis in vain to strive.
Distribute Justice with an equal hand
Unto the Peer, as Peasant of the Land;
Many true Commoners murder'd of late,
Yet Justice strikes not the Assassinate.
[Page 8] Why should the just Cause of the Clyent be
Utterly lost, wanting a double Fee?
Why partial Judges on the Benches sit,
And Juries overaw'd, which is not fit?
Why some corrupted, others wanting wit,
And why a Parliament should suffer it?
Why great mens wills should be their only Law;
And why they do not call to mind
Jack Straw?
Why they do let their Reputation rot,
And why
Carnarvan Edward is forgot?
Why
Bloodworth would not let that dreadful Fire
Extinguisht be, as good men did desire?
And why Lifeguard-men at each Gate were set,
Hindring the people thence their goods to get?
Why were our Houses levell'd with the ground,
That fairly stood about the
Tower round?
When many thousand Families were left
Without a house, then we must be berest
Of habitations too with all the rest,
And share with those that greatly were distrest.
Why should our
Mother-Queen exhaust our store,
Enriching
France, and making
England poor
Spending our Treasure in a forreign Land,
Which doth not with our Nations Intrest stand?
Therefore in time stay th' bleeding of this vein,
Lest it our Nations vital spirits drain.
Why
England now, as in the dayes of yore,
Must have an Intercessor, Madam
Shore?
Why upon her is spent more in a day,
Than would a deal of publick charge defray?
Why second
Rosamond is made away?
And that remains a Riddle to this day.
Why
Papists put in places of great trust,
And
Protestants lay by their Arms to rust?
Why
Courtiers rant with Goods of other mens,
And with Protections cheat the
Citizens?
[Page 9] Why drunken Justices are tolerated,
And why the Gospel's almost abrogated?
Why Clergy-men do domineer so high,
That should be patterns of humility?
Why they do Steeple upon Steeple set,
As if they meant that way to Heav'n to get?
Who nothing have to prove themselves devout,
Save only this, that
Cromwel turn'd them out.
Why Tippits, Copes, Lawnsleeves & such like geer
Consume above three millions by the year?
Why
Bell and Dragon Drones, like Boar in sty,
Eat more than all the painful Ministry?
Which is one cause the Nation is so poor,
And when the King will find their
Privy Door?
When
Daniel shews th' impression of their feet,
And gives direction, then hee'l come to see 't.
Why
Englands grand Religion now should be
A Stalking-Horse to blind Idolatry?
Why many thousauds now bow down before it,
That in their Consciences do much abhor it?
Why
Treachery is us'd by Comp
[...]ication,
Fraud and Deceit the
All-a-moad in fashion?
Why ranting Cowards in Bust-coats are put,
And why they Robbers turn, to fill their gut?
Why Fools in Corporations do command,
Who know nor Justice, nor the Law o'th Land?
Why he who brought our necks into this Yoke,
Dreads not the thoughts of
Feltons fatal stroke?
Sure they'r bewitch'd who think us
English men
Have no more courage left us than a Hen.
And why that interest is become the least,
In the year
Sixty greater than the rest?
We know no reason, but do all consent,
These are the fruits of an Ill-Government.
Some think our Judgments do run parallel
With
Davids in the dayes of
Israel.
[Page 10] The difference is, he was a Man of God;
But ours have been his sore afflicting Rod;
To which we turn our naked backs, and say,
Lord, during thy pleasure,
Vive le Roy.
We pray restore our
faithful Ministers,
Whom we do own as Christ's Ambassadors.
Why are our Pulpits pestred with that Crew,
That took up Orders since
black Bartholmew;
Who Mysteries of Gospel know no more,
Than that dumb Calf that
Israel did adore.
Too late for us to you to make our moan,
When they have led us to destruction.
Must all be enemies to King and State,
That from the Church of
England separate?
Must all the Meetings of the
Innocent
Be judg'd unlawful and to Prison sent?
'Twere better all such Edicts you made void,
And grant the Liberty they once enjoy'd;
Confirming that unto them by a Law,
Makes good the Royal Promise at
Breda.
Tread all
Monopolies into the Earth,
And make provision that no more get birth.
In this a Prince's danger chiefly lies,
That he is forc'd to see with others eyes:
From hence our Troubles rose in
Forty one,
When that Domestick War at first begun.
Relieve th' Oppressed, set all Prisoners free,
Who for their Consciences in durance be.
Poor Debtors who have not wherewith to pay,
Break off their Shackles, let them go their way.
And let suborned Witnesses appear
No more against the Innocent to swear.
Let no more Juries that are byassed,
Selected be to do what they are bid;
Who to fulfill mens Lusts and Cruelty,
Regard not though the Innocent do dye.
[Page 11] Why should our just Laws as a Cobweb be,
To catch small flies, and let the great go free?
This
[...]urns true judgment into wormwood gall,
Doth for the
Vengeance of th'
Avenger call.
Then ease those
Burdens under which we groan,
Give
Liberty its Resurrection.
Let painful
Husbandry, the Child of Peace,
Be now encouraged, since Warrs do cease:
Let not the poor enslaved Plow-man crave
Redress from you, and yet no succour have.
'Tis too much like a base
French stratagem,
To make the People poor to govern them.
More happy for a Prince, when Aid he craves,
To hav't from free-born men, than injur'd slaves.
We are free-born, we yet are
English-men,
Let's not like old men boast what we have been;
But make us happy by your gentle Rayes,
And You shall be the tenour of our Praise;
And our posterities with joynt consent,
Shall call you
Englands healing Parliament;
But if you still will make our Bands the stronger,
If Prisoners must remain in durance longer;
If wandring Stars must still by force detrude
(Under Eclipse) those of first Magnitude;
If
Prelates still must ov'r our Conscience ride,
And
Papists bonfires make on us beside.
If he and they (whose Avarice and Pride
So long have rid our backs, and gall'd our side)
Have got so strong an intrest in the State,
That their Commitment costs so long debate;
Until a way be made for his escape
To forreign parts, there to negotiate:
The edge of Justice surely's turn'd aside,
To cut the poor ones flesh, and save the
Hide.
If you mens Lusts and Av'rice gratifie,
And yet our empty Purse-strings will unty;
[Page 12] You are too free of what nev'r was your own,
And know you only make us more to groan,
(Asse-like:) and surely any mortal man,
Will seek to ease his burden when he can.
There's not an
English-man but well hath learn'd,
Your Priviledges are alike concern'd
With all our Liberties; That he that doth
Infringe the one, usurps upon them both.
And shall it on your Door and Tombs be writ,
This was that Parliament so long did sit,
While Conscience, Liberty, our Purse and Trade;,
The Country, City, Ships, and All's betray'd?
That made an Act for building on the Vrn,
But no Inquest who did the City burn;
To feed a Palmer-worm,
who threw away
That publick stock that Seamen should defray.
Since now you have an opportunity,
Redeem your selves and us from Slavery:
If not, (the Wheel goes round) there is no doubt,
You'l also share with those you have turn'd out.
‘Vivat Lex Rex.’
POST-SCRIPT.
IF ere you leave us in a lasting-Peace,
'Tis by redressing all our Grievances.
When Rulers stop their ears to th' Peoples cryes,
Those are sad symptoms of
Catastrophies.
In Watch, or Clock, things made irregular,
Though ne're so small, make all the work to jar.
And in the Body Natural 'tis sound,
That if an Humour doth therein abound,
That the Physician must extenuate,
And make it with the rest co-operate.
[Page 13] So, if in Bodies Politick there be,
Not found 'twixt all Estates a harmony,
They cease not till in tract of time they bring
All to Confusion,
Peasant, Lord and
King.
To make some great, and ruine all the rest,
In this a Commonwealth cannot be blest.
And doth it follow hence,
great Sirs, that we
Must be made Beggars to posteritie.
Let Equity and Justice plead our Cause,
And then refer us to our antient Laws.
If
Magna Charta must be wholly slighted,
We must conclude our Rulers are benighted.
But needs must we be poor, when it is known
We've had a second
Pearce of Gaveston.
Your Power is sovereign, else we durst not quote
His poysonous name, without an
Antidote.
Perfideous
Clarenden! that potent Thief,
His Prince's blemish, and the Peoples grief.
Who once did scorn to plunder by retail,
Who stretch'd the State's purse till the strings did fail.
He and his fellow Juglers found the knack
To plow deep furrows on the Nations back.
Like Glaziars, who incite the roaring Crew
Windows to break, that they may make them new.
So they pick Quarrels with our Neighbor Nations,
Then
baul at you to peel us with
Taxations;
Which having got, stil more and more they crave,
Ev'n like the Horsleech, or devouring Grave.
For Avarice cannot be satisfi'd,
No more than
Belzebub and's Brother
Hide.
That
Machiavil we have not yet forgot,
Who brew'd that wicked, hellish
Northern Plot;
Where many Gentlemen had ruin'd been,
If Providence had not stept in between.
Who then amongst vour selves secure can be,
If this be not check'd by Authoritie,
[Page 14] He was one of that open-handed Tribe
Whose Avarice ne're yet refus'd a Bribe.
What suit of Law soev'r before him came,
He that produc'd most Angels, won the Game;
Be't right or wrong, or Plaintiff or Defendant,
Should have the Cause, if
Gold were at the end on't.
How did he send, without remorse or fear,
Thousands brave
English to that Grave,
Tangier?
What usage had the
Scots, thousands can tell,
When the late
Remonstrators did rebel.
Whilst
Irish Rebels quit their old
O hone.
Poor
English Protestants take up that tone.
Empson and
Dudly's facts compar'd with his,
Were but nights darkness unto Hells Abiss.
The famous
Spensers did in type pourtray
What should be acted by this Beast of prey.
Earth him, and you shall find within his Cell,
Those mischiefs which no Age can parallel;
War, Fire and
Blood, with vast expence of
Treasure,
Ruine of Englishmen, his chiefest pleasure.
In fine, for Mischief he was what you will,
The
perfect Epitome of all ill.
All good men hate his Name; nay (which is worse)
Three Nations doggs him with their heavy curse.
As he regarded not the Widows tears;
So ye, just Heavens, multiply his fears.
Let
Cains most dreadful doom soon overtake him,
And his companion
Gout never forsake him.
Let Heavens Vengeance light upon his pate,
Till all our wrongs it doth retaliate;
Till he himself to Justice doth resign,
Let all men call him,
Cursed Clarendine.
Dexterous Artist, he with little ease,
Transplanted
Dunkirk from beyond the Seas,
And dropt it near that fatal spot of Land,
Where for him now
Tyburn doth weeping stand;
[Page 15] The ecchoing Ax out of the
Tow'r doth call,
To speed this Monster
Epidemical.
But he upon us having plaid his prank,
Follows his Brethren,
Finch and
Windebank.
Thus
Hide by name, is Hide by practice too,
Yet cannot hide from Heav'n, tho hid from You.
And being gone, hath left his Imps behind,
Whose only work is, all your Eyes to blind,
Lest tracing him, you find their villany.
Yet known to few but the All-seeing Eye.
If any thing of common fame be true,
He's only gone our Mischiefs to renew;
And if his practice justifie our fears,
Hee'l sets again together by the ears.
Ambition's of the nature of the Devil,
Alwayes to brood, and hatch, and bring forth evill.
If true that Maxime be,
Kings cannot err;
With modesty we may from thence infer.
Ill thrives that hapless Nation then that shows,
A silent Prince, and Chancellor that crows
Over his Equals, over all his Peers,
Over
Fanaticks, over
Cavaliers;
He was so absolute, 'twas hard to say
Or he, or
Charles, whether we must obey.
Rose from a Gentleman, too near the
Throne;
Sought not the Nations Intrest, but his own.
You are our Bridle in such
Tyrants jaws,
That would destroy us, and subvert our Laws.
Now hold the Beign, now keep the Ballance true,
Find those
Bandetro's that do lie purdue.
If you, like
Cato, for your Country stand,
Three noble Nations are at your command,
Whilst Justice, Truth & Right ousness do guide you
Wee'l be your Guard, whatever shal1 betide you.
Disarm the Papists, and secure our Ports,
Place Protestants iu Garrisons and Forts.
That Enemies to
England are this day?
Let not our Magazines remain with those,
That burnt our City, and abide our Foes;
Whose hellish, bloody principles are such,
To butcher
English-men they think nor much.
What Safety, Peace, or Trade can we expect,
When these protected are, and you neglect
Us to secure against such Cut-throat Dogs,
As swarm now in our Land, like
Egypts Frogs.
What means the flocking of the
French so fast,
Into our Bowels thus with Arms to hast?
And must our Horses, which of value be,
Be unto
France transported, as we see?
Are not our Forts and Castles, all betray'd.
When all their Stores and Guns aside are laid,
Out of the reach of such as would oppose
Forreign Enemies and Domestick Foes?
Did the Dumb Child, when at his Father's throat
He saw a Knife? immediately cry out?
Can we be silent, when the
Train is laid,
And
Fire-works prepared, as 'tis said?
Look through the Vail, and yon will soon espy
The
Romish Councils close at work do lie,
To undermine You, and
Religion too:
Look well about you, lest you do it rue.
Now is the time to quit your selves like men,
Now stand up for our Liberties, and then,
The Lawrel Wreath and never-fading Bayes,
Shall crown your heads, and we shall sing your praise.
‘Is there no Balm in Gilead? is there no Physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?’
FINIS.