that they were together. I dare appeal to any man, if the manner of calling together the three estates of the realm by the prince of Orange's letters was not a much fairer proceeding considering the state of affairs, as to the calling of them together, than was in several cases wherein they were never doubted, to be a parliament when joined with a king. I shall instance only a few of many that might be nained. Edward the second being imprisoned by his queen, son and nobles, they issue forth mon the lords, and to chuse knights, citizens and burgesses to meet at Westminster 16th of Jan. 1325. This one would think was pretty hard, and an absolute force upon the king by making use of his name against his will, so that it could not be said to be his act; yet the lords and commons being met, they deposed Edward the second, and declared his son Edw. king, and this new king, and the lords and commons, so (as I may say) irregularly convened to our capital city of London, addressed themselves to his highness the prince of Orange, desired him to take upon him the administration of public affairs both civil and military, for the preservation of our religion, rights, laws, liberties and properties, and of the peace of the nation, until the then intended convention of the three estates or great council of the realm: they also desired his highness to send letters subscribed by himself to the lords spiritual and temporal that were Protestants to meet on the said 22d of January, at Westminster, the sum-writs in the imprisoned king's name to summons to parliament being always omitted to known popish lords since the Test-Act. And they desired his highness to send the like ietters to the several shires, counties, universities, cities, boroughs and cinque ports of the nation, for electing of such number of persons to represent them, and to meet on the said 22d of January, for the purposes aforesaid, as of right were to be sent to parliaments, with directions that such elections should be made by such persons only as according to the ancient cus-gether, made several acts of parliament, and tom and laws of right ought to chuse mem- have been ever since adjudged a good parliabers for parliament: and accordingly such let- ment to all intents and purposes without any ters were sent, and due notice given, and elec- subsequent act of confirmation. In like mantions accordingly were made, and the said ner Rich. ii. being taken prisoner by Henry lords spiritual and temporal, and the knights, duke of Lancaster, the duke issues forth writs citizens and burgesses so elected met on the in the king's name (the king then in prison) to said 22d of January and after mature and summon the lords and to elect representatives, deliberate consideration, they resolved, That for the people, to meet at Westminster 13 of the prince and princess of Orange should be Sept. 1399. These being met by this irregu king and queen of England, &c. for their na- lar summons they depose Richard ii. and tural lives and life of the longer liver of them, declare the duke of Lancaster king; and that and that the sole and full exercise of the regal the new king, and the lords and commons so power be in the prince only, in the name of irregularly convened, being joined together, both, Now after the prince and princess of were and are to this day adjudged, deemed Orange are proclaimed king and queen of and taken to be a good parliament to all inEngland as aforesaid, and he comes and con- tents and purposes, without any act of confirsults with the three estates so assembled, I mation by any subsequent parliament. The would fain know what is wanting in that as-lords and commons assembled at Westminster, sembly to make them a full and complete parliament; or what can be had more than is in this convention of king, lords and commons, if the said king should issue out writs for calling a new parliament? Certainly nothing more can be had material to the essence of a parlia-judged a parliament, and they enacted that ment. If the substantial parts of a parliament be, and consist of an assembly or convention or meeting together of the king and the three estates, as I have shewed that it is out of the best authorities we have, the difference of the lords and commons being called by writ or by letter is nothing material since both writ and letter are to the same effect; and in some ancient records it is mentioned that parliaments should be summoned by letters, particularly in king John's great charter in the 17th year of his reign, he promises to summon the bishops, abbots, earls, &c. per literas nostras, by our letters. Orig. Jud. 17. The prince of Orange's not being king at the time of his sending forth his letters matters not, for he was the person to whom the administration of the government was then committed. It is evident, that in many parliaments it was not so material how the king, lords and commons came together, as 25th of April, 1660, were convened by writs in the name of the keepers of the liberty of England, who were usurpers; yet when king Charles the second came to them, and they received him as king, he and they together were ad they should be so taken, and they made many laws, which immediately were put in exccution; and they continued as a parliament, until 29th of December following, which was for above eight months; but indeed most or all those acts were afterwards confirmed by a subsequent parliament convened by the king's writs in May 1661: but that confirmation, according to many good judgments, was rather to satisfy some scrupulosity than out of necessity, most of the said acts having in great measure had their effects before the subsequent confirming parliament began. If upon the prince of Orange's being declared and proclaimed king he comes to the convention of lords and commons assembled at Westminster; if the same number of lords be summoned thither that of right ought to be summoned to parliament, if the same number of knights, citizens and burgesses be duly chosen, as ought to be chosen, to represent in parliament, then consequently there are all the substantial and essential parts of a parliament met together, and being so, where's the necessity, where's the advantage, where's the prudence to dissolve these and thereby give new trouble of new summons, of new elections, lose a great deal of time, suffer irrecoverable loss and damage to Ireland and our allies abroad; and after all, at the next meeting, be but where we now are, as to the essential parts of a parliament, there being nothing more to be had at any other time, but what we have already. I can see no material difference as to the making of a parliament, whether the king come to the lords and commons being assembled together and join with them, or the king, by his writ or letters call them to him: and therefore I conclude, if the prince of Orange, after he is declared and proclaimed king, doth come to the lords and commons now assembled at Westminster, and advise with them, in that instance that the king so comes and advises with them, they will be as good a parliament as if he should issue out new writs of summons, and they should meet again by force thereof. No III. The Earl of SUNDERLAND'S Letter to a Friend in the Country, plainly discovering the Designs of the Romish Party, and others, for the subverting of the Protestant Religion, and the Laws of the Kingdom. Licensed and Entered, March 23, 1689.* To comply with what you desire, I will explain some things which we talked of before I left England. I have been in a station of great noise, without power or advantage whilst I was in it, and to my ruin now I am out of it. I know I cannot justify myself by saying, though it is true, that I thought to have prevented much mischief; for when I found that I could not, I ought to have quitted the service neither is it an excuse that I have got none of those things which usually engage men in public affairs: my quality is the same it ever was, and my estate much worse, even ruined, though I was born to a very considerable one, which I am ashamed to have spoiled, though not so much as if I had encreased it by indirect means. But to go on to what you expect: the pretence to a dispensing power being not only the first thing which was much disliked since the death of the late king, but the foundation of all the rest, I ought to begin with that, which I had so little to do with, that I never heard it spoken of till the time of Monmouth's rebellion, that the king told some of the council, of which I was one, that he was resolved to give employments to Roman Catholics, it being fit that all persons should serve who could be useful, and on whom he might depend. I think every body advised him against it, but with little effect, as was soon seen that party was so pleased with what the king had done, that they persuaded him to mention it in his speech at the next meeting of the parliament, which he did, after many debates whether it was proper or not, in all which I opposed it, as is known to very considerable persons, some of which were of ano Somers' Tracts, 1 coll. vol. iii. p. 602. ther opinion, for I thought it would engage the king too far, and it did give such offence to the parliament, that it was thought necessary to prorogue it. After which the king fell immediately to the supporting the dispensing power, the most chimerical thing that was ever thought of, and must be so till the government here is as absolute as in Turkey, all power being included in that one. This is the sense I ever had of it, and when I heard lawyers defend it, I never changed my opinion or language: however it went on, most of the judges being for it, and was the chief business of the state, till it was looked on as settled. Then the ecclesiastical court was set up, in which there being so many considerable men of several kinds, Ï could have but a small part; and that after lawyers had told the king it was legal, and nothing like the high commission court, I can most truly say, and it is well known, that for a good while I defended Magdalen college purely by care and industry, and have hundreds of times begged of the king never to grant Mandates, or to change any thing in the regular course of ecclesiastical affairs, which he often thought reasonable, and then by perpetual importunities was prevailed upon against his own sense, which was the very case of Magdalen college, as of some others. These things which I endeavoured, though without success, drew upon me the anger and ill will of many about. the king. The next thing to be tried, was to take off the penal laws, and the tests, so many having promised their concurrence towards it, that his majesty thought it feasible, but he soon found it was not to be done by that parliament, which made all the catholics desire it might be dissolved, which I was so much against, that they complained of me to the king, as a man who ruined all his designs by opposing the only thing could carry him on; liberty of conscience being the foundation on which he was to build. That it was first offered at by the lord Clifford, who by it had done the work, even in the late king's time, if it had not been for his weakness, and the weakness of his ministers: yet 1 hindred the dissolution several weeks, by telling the king that the parliament in being would do every thing he could desire, but the taking off the penal laws and the tests, or the allowing his dispensing power; and that any other parliament, though such a one could be had as was proposed, would probably never repeal those laws; and if they did, they would certainly never do any thing for the support of the government, whatever exigency it might be in. At that time the king of Spain was sick, upon which I said often to the king, that if he should die, it would be impossible for his majesty to preserve the peace of Christendom; that a war must be expected, and such a one as would chiefly concern England; that if the present parliament continued, he might be sure of all the help and service he could wish; but in case he dissolved it, he must give over all thoughts of foreign affairs, for no other would ever assist him, but on such terms as would ruin the monarchy; so that from abroad, or attrayed him, that I ruined him by persuading home, he would be destroyed, if the parliament were broken, and any accident should happen, of which there were many, to make the aid of his people necessary to him. This and much more I said to him several times privately, and in the hearing of others; but being overpowered, the parliament was broke, the closetting went on, and a new one was to be chosen; who was to get by closetting, I need not say; but it was certainly not I, nor any of my friends; many of them suffered, who I would fain have saved; and yet I must confess with grief, that when the king was resolved, and there was no remedy, I did not quit, as I ought to have done, but served on in order to the calling another parliament. In the midst of all the preparations for it, and whilst the corporations were regulating, the king thought fit to order his Declarations to be read in all churches, of which I most solemnly protest, I never heard one word, till the king directed it in council; that drew on the petition of my lord the arch-bishop of Canterbury, and the other lords the bishops, and the prosecution, which I was so openly against, that by arguing continually to shew the injustice and imprudence of it, I brought the fury of the Roman Catholics upon me to such a degree, and so unanimously, that I was just sinking; and I wish I had then sunk : but whatever I did foolishly to preserve myself, I continued still to be the object of their hatred, and I resolved to serve the public as well as I could, which I am sure most of the considerable Protestants then at court can testify, and so can one eminent man of the country, whom I would have persuaded to come into business, which he might have done, to have helped me to resist the violence of those in power; but he des paired of being able to do any good, and therefore would not engage. Some time after came the first news of the prince's designs, which were not then looked on as they have proved, nobody foreseeing the miracles he has done by his wonderful prudence, conduct, and courage; for the greatest thing which has been undertaken these thousand years, or perhaps ever, could not be effected without virtues hardly to be imagined till seen nearer hand. Upon the first thought of his coming I laid hold of the opportunity to press the king to do several things which I would have had done sooner; the chief of which were to restore Magdalen college, and all other ecclesiastical preferments, which had been diverted from what they were intended for, to take off my lord bishop of London's suspension, to put the countries into the same hands they were in some time before, to annul the ecclesiastical court, and to restore entirely all the corporations of England: these things were done effectually, by the help of some about the king; and it was then thought I had destroyed myself, by engaging against the whole Roman Catholic party, to such a height as had not been seen; they dispersed libels of me every day, told the king that I be him to make such shameful condescensions; but most of all by hindering the securing the chief of the disaffected nobility and gentry, which was proposed as a certain way to break all the prince's measures; and by advising his majesty to call a free parliament, and to depend upon that, rather than upon foreign assistance. It is true, I did give him those councils which were called weak to the last moment he suffered me in his service; then I was accused of holding correspondence with the prince, and it was every where said amongst them, that no better could be expected from a man so related as I was to the Bedford and Leicester families, and so allied to duke Hamilton, and the marquis of Halifax. After this accusations of high treason were brought against me, which, with some other reasons relating to affairs abroad, drew the king's displeasure upon me, so as to turn me out of all without any consideration, and yet I thought I escaped well, expecting nothing less than the loss of my head, as my lord Middleton can tell, and I believe none about the court thought other wise; nor had it been otherwise, if my disgrace had been deferred a day longer; all things being prepared for it, I was put out the 27th of October, the Roman Catholics having been two months working the king up to it without intermission, besides the several attacks they had made upon me before, and the unusual assistance they obtained to do what they thought so necessary for the carrying on their affairs, of which they never had greater hope than at that time, as may be remembered by any who were then at London. But you desired I would say something to you of Ireland, which I will do in very few words, but exactly true. My lord Tyrconnell has been so absolute there, that I never had the credit to make an ensign, or keep one in, nor to preserve some of my friends, for whom I was much concerned, from the least oppression and injustice, though I endeavoured it to the utmost of my power; but yet with care and diligence, being upon the place, and he absent, I diverted the calling a parliament there, which was designed to alter the acts of settlement. Chief justice Nugent, and baron Rice, were sent over with a draught of an act for that purpose, furnished with all the pressing arguments could be thought on to persuade the king, and I was offered 40,000l. for my concurrence, which I told to the king, and shewed him at the same time the injustice of what was proposed to him, and the prejudice it would be to that country, with so good success, that he resolved not to think of it that year, and perhaps never: this I was helped in by some friends, particularly❘ my lord Godolphin, who knows it to be true, and so do the judges before named, and several others. I cannot omit saying something of France, there having been so much talk of a league between the two kings. I do protest I never knew of any; and if there were such a thing, it was carried on by other sort of men last summer. Indeed French ships were offered to join with our fleet, and they were refused; since the noise of the prince's design more ships were offered, and it was agreed how they should be commanded if ever desired. I opposed to death the accepting of them, as well as any assistance of men, and can say most truly, that I was the principal means of hindering both, by the help of some lords, with whom I consulted every day, and they with me, to prevent what we thought would be of great prejudice if not ruinous to the nation. If the report is true, of men, ships, and money, intended lately for England out of France, it was agreed upon since I was out of business, or without my knowledge; if it had been otherwise, I believe nobody thinks my disgrace would have happened. My greatest misfortune has been to be thought the promoter of those things I opposed and detested, whilst some I could name have been the inventors and contrivers of what they have had the art to lay upon others; and I was often foolishly willing to bear what my master would have done, though I used all possible endeavours against it. I lie under many other misfortunes and afflictions extreme heavy, but I hope they have brought me to reflect on the occasion of them, the loose, negligent, unthinking life I have hitherto led, having been perpetually hurried away from all good thoughts by pleasure, idleness, the vanity of the court, or by business: I hope, I say, that I shall overcome all the disorders my former life had brought upon me, and that I shall spend the remaining part of it in begging of Almighty God that he will please either to put an end to my sufferings, or to give me strength to bear them, one of which he will certainly grant to such as rely on him, which I hope I do, with the submission that becomes a good Christian. I would enlarge on this subject, but that I fear you might think something else to be the reason of it, besides a true sense of my faults, and that obliges me to restrain myself at present. I believe you will repent in having engaged me to give you this account, but I cannot the doing what you desire of me. No A VINDICATION of the Proceedings of the late Parliament of England, An. Dom. 1689, being the First in the Reign of their present Majesties King William and Queen Mary.* By JOHN LORD SOMERS. I. THE proceedings of the late parliament | were so fair, so prudent, so necessary, and so advantageous to the nation, to the Protestant interest in general, and in particular to the Church of England, that all true Englishmen must needs acknowledge they owe to the then representatives of the nation, their privileges, their liberties, their lives, their religion, their present and future security from popery, slavery, and arbitrary power, had they done nothing else but enacted the rights and liberties of the subject, and settling the succession of the crown. So that it is now, and perhaps but Somers' Tracts, 1 coll. v. ii. p. 341. now, that we may call ourselves the free-born subjects of England, as being fully secured, for ever, by this act, from the heavy and insupportable yoke of arbitrary power, the necessary consequence of a power of dispensing, or suspending of laws, without consent of parliament. II. Their settling the crown upon the head of a Protestant prince, who is the very centre, the chief prop and pillar of the Protestant reli gion, secures all Protestants not only at home, but likewise in all other parts of Europe; insomuch that it is upon him only that we ground all our hopes of seeing ere long, Lewis xiv, called to a just account for all his unjust, arbitrary, and tyrannical proceedings against b against error and superstition.-V. If this was our condition within ourselves, it was made much worse by the dismal prospect of the threatening French greatness: the French king's known and close engagements with the late king James, the sudden growth of his power, both by sea and by land, seemed to threaten all his neighbours with the utmost de his own subjects, as likewise against his injured | provided and stocked with solid learning, both and weaker neighbours.-III. Their not act ing in the least, after the example of their neighbours, against prelacy, but rather favouring it by such acts as fit only episcopal men for public employments, gives all reasonable satisfaction to the Church of England; without any just offence, either given to the dissenters, who, under the present government, enjoy, to their own hearts desire, their long wished for liber-solation, unless, by laying aside the use of their ty, without being liable to the lash of the law, for serving God after their own way: notwithstanding all this, so hard, yea, so impossible a thing it is to content all parties; not a few vent their malice in every corner, yea, and in print too, against the king and parliament, though all their proceedings hitherto tend so directly to the general good of the nation, that we must either want common understanding not to see it, or prove most ungrateful to our representatives not to acknowledge such an evident truth as this is with our most thankful returns. To proceed with some method in this designed vindication of the late parliament, I shall, first, take a summary view of the late condition of our affairs; and, 2dly, give a full answer to whatever is maliciously suggested to the unthinking multitude; yea, and in printed pamphlets likewise, to the seducing of the simple, and to the great encouragement of the professed enemies and disturbers of the present government.-IV. If we consider in what condition we were in, the two last years of king James's reign, we may remember we were given up for lost by all our friends in Europe, and did think so too ourselves, it being then impossible for us to imagine from whence our relief should come. A power of dispensing with, and suspending of laws, and the execution of laws, was already so fully established, that the very humble petitioning to be excused from concurring to the said assumed power, was crime enough for the commitment and prosecution of divers worthy prelates: the court of commissioners for ecclesiastical causes was a sort of inquisition; or, at least, a certain fore-runner of the new way of converting people, by the irresistible eloquence of armed dragoons: the levying money for, and to the use of the crown, by pretence of prerogative, for other time, and in other manner, than the same was granted by the parliament, was nothing else but a preparatory contrivance, to try afterwards a French experiment upon the gold and silver of the nation: the horrible and illegal punishments inflicted by corrupt judges, excessive fines and bails, and several grants and promises made of fines and forfeitures, before any conviction or judgment against the persons, upon whom the same were to be levyed; and all the other injustices, grievances, and irregularities of those days, were but previous dispositions to the new modelling of the uation into a frame, the more easily to be wrought upon by the Romish priests, in case their weak arguments could not prevail, as it was impossible they should have prevailed, in a nation so well reason, they acted all like fools, and turned papists; which could not secure them neither from oppression and slavery, since none are greater slaves, nor so unmercifully oppressed as the French papists themselves: this is but a short and summary view of the public calamities and miseries we lay under, till our deliverer came over to free us from them, by the best methods our representatives could fall upon for our safety in times to come: which are certainly such as give full satisfaction to all good men, and loyal subjects, that are not still in love with popery and slavery, both of body and soul, which always attends it: so that the present posture of our affairs is now such, that we have all reason to hope, if we can but agree among ourselves, this kingdom may become again, as it was of old, the terror of France. Europe never bid fairer for a level of the French monarch, he being now surrounded on all sides, by those he has made his irreconcileable enemies, by his daily breaches of oaths, by his oppressions and invasions, contrary to all Treaties made with him, either of peace or truce.-VI. We cannot then but highly commend the prudent measures of the last parliament, for supplying his majesty with necessaries, towards a vigorous prosecution of this present war the nation so long wished for in vain; the French interest prevailing too much formerly at the court of England, against the interest of the Protestant religion, and of the English nation. Such then as complain of some present hardships, always unavoidable in time of war, and would fain work the people into a belief of a happier condition under another change of affairs, seem not to understand their true interest; for must we expose ourselves to a certain ruin, to the loss of our lives and liberties, by not contributing liberally to the maintenance of a war, so necessary in this present juncture of our affairs? our all lies now at the stake, our lives, properties, liberties, and religion: should any tax, or impost, put us out of humour, and cause us to wish for a change, as if we could pretend to any security, in case things were settled again upon the same foundation they were on before?— VII. Are we not sufficiently acquainted, from daily experience, with this undoubted popish principle, that a papist is obliged to break his oath taken not to extirpate heresy, as soon as he is in a capacity to root out what he thinks heresy, under a no less pain than that of eter nal damnation? king Lewis has satisfied all the world, by what he has lately done, that this is no calumny; and king James cleared all our |