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33 Car. II.

4.D.168. don, if he would make any further Discove→ ries of that Plot; even Shaftsbury himself plied him very hard to make him a Discoverer : Whereupon the King thought fit to remove the Prifoner from Newgate to the Tower. But I come now to give an Account of the Tranfactions of the Parliament at Oxford, who interested themselves much in this Bufinefs of Fitzharris.

The King's The Parliament affembling at Oxford the Speech to 21ft of March, his Majefty made a Speech his laft Parliament to both Houfes; wherein he told them, That the unwarrantable Proceedings of the House of Commons were the Occafion of his parting with that Parliament; for as he would never ufe Arbitrary Government himfelf, he was refolved not to fuffer it in others; it might be wondered he had Patience with them fo long, rather than that at last he grew weary of their Proceedings; he thought it neceffary to fay thus much, that he might not have any new Occafion given him to remember their Mifcarriages; but they might fee by his calling a Parliament fo foon, that no Irregularities in Parliament fhould make him out of love with them; and he now offered them another Opportunity of providing for their Security, by giving that Countenance and Protection to their Neighbours and Allies, which they could not but know they extremely needed at this Inftant; He advised them alfo, that their juft Care for Religion might not be managed and improved into unneceffary Fears, and made a Pretence for changing the Foundation of the Government: Then he put them in mind of the further Profecution of the Plot, the Trial of the Lords in the Tower, the fpeedy Conviction of Recufants, and, if

33 Car. II.

it was practicable, the ridding themselves 4.D.168. quite of that Party; but advised them not to lay fo much Strefs on any one Expedient against Popery, as to determine that all others are ineffectual; and, among all their Cares for Religion, to remember, that without the Safety and Dignity of the Monarchy, neither Religion nor Property could be preferved; That he would not depart from what he had fo often declared concerning the Succeffion, but to remove all reasonable Fears that might arife from a Popifh Succeffor, he was content that in fuch a Cafe the Adminiftration fhould remain in Proteftant Hands; concluding with this further Advice, That the Rules and Measures of all their Votes might be the known and established Laws of the Land; and he had the more Reafon to require the Laws should be their Rule, because he was refolved they should be his own Rule.

Bill of

The Commons having elected William Williams, Efq; a Barrifter of Gray's-Inn, who was Speaker of the laft Parliament, for their Speaker, it was eafy to difcern, as Williams himself obferved in his Speech to the Throne, That they were not inclinable to change their Measures: And indeed they began where the laft Parliament left off; viz. by preparing a Bill They go againft the Succeffion of the Duke of York, upon the and another for the Repeal of the penal Laws Exclufion against the Diffenters, one of the fame Tenor again. having been mislaid the laft Seffions, whereby A Bill it miffed of receiving the Royal Affent: This miflaid. they were in a great Heat about, as if it had been milaid by Defign; and they were for calling the Clerk of the House of Lords to They iman Account. Then they proceeded to exa- peach Fuz mine the Affair of Fitzharris; and, in order barris.

to

between

A.D.1681 to have the greater Influence over that Wretch and make him fpeak what they should di&ate, 33 Car.II. they impeached him of High-Treafon: Buc The Lords the Lords finding no manner of Reason why reject it: the Profecution of him fhould not be left to the ordinary Courts of Law, rejected the ImWhich oc- peachment: Whereupon the Commons apcafions a peared no lefs difgufted with the Houfe of Difference Peers, than they were with the Court. Sir the two Thomas Littleton faid, The Lords would be a Houses. Court or no Court, to ferve a prefent Turn; Sir William Jones exclaimed against them, and more particularly against the Bishops, affirming they had no Right to vote in this Cafe ; and Serjeant Maynard bauled out, Their Al was at Stake, if they muft not profecute; and after fome other fmart Sayings on the fame Subject, the House refolved, That it was the undoubted Right of the Commons, to impeach any Peer or Commoner before the Lords; and that their R fufal to proceed on this Impeachment of Fitzharris, was a Denial of Justice, and a Violation of the Conftitution of Parliaments; an ObAtruction to the further Difcovery of the Plot, and of great Danger to his Majefty's Perfon, and the Proteftant Religion: And lastly, That if any Inferior Court fhould proceed against Edward Fitzharris, or any other Perfon lying under an Impeachment of Parliament, it would be a high Breach of the Privileges of Parliament. Whereupon the King came on a fudden to the Houfe of Lords on the twenty eighth of March, and having fent for the Commons, told them, He perceived there were great Heats between the Lords and Commons; and their Beginnings had been fuch, as he could expect no good Succels of this Parliament; and therefore he

thought

goes to

Windfor.

tead of the

thought fit to diffolve them. After which the 4.D.1681 King immediately took Coach, and drove to Windfor, not being without Apprehenfions of 33 Car. II. Danger from the Behaviour of the Commons, The King and the arm'd Troops they brought with them. diffolves Indeed his Majefty feems to have conde- them, and fcended to the Commons in this Parliament, beyond what could have been expected, in the Expedients that were offered in the Room of the Bill of Exclufion, and which indeed came very little short of an Exclufion, if Mr. Echard has given us a true Account of them. This Hiftorian relates, that a Paper of Expedients Expediwas read in the Houfe, wherein it was pro- ents propofed, That the Duke of York should be ba- pofed innich'd five hundred Miles from the British Bill of ExDominions: That the whole Government, clution. upon the Demife of the King, should be vested in a Regent, for fuch Time as the Duke fhould furvive: That this Regent fhould be the Princefs of Orange; and in Cafe The should die without Iffue, or with Iffue in Minority, then the Princess Anne fhould be Regent That if the Duke had a Son educated a Proteftant, the faid Princeffes refpectively should fucceed in the Regency during fuch Minority,but no longer: That the faid Regents however should govern in the Name of King James II while he lived: That the Prince and Princefs of Orange, and all Officers, Civil and Military, fhould take their Oaths to fee that A&t duely executed : That a Parliament fhould be called in Scotland, in Order to pass an A&t of the like Nature there: That in Cafe the Duke of York fhould come into thefe Kingdoms, the Crown fhould immediately devolve on the Regent; and he, and his Adherents be deem'd Traytors: That all

Papifts

33 Car. II.

4.D.1681. Papifts of Figure fhould be banish'd, and their Children educated in the Proteftant Religion. But even these Expedients were rejeaed, as infufficient to keep out Popery ; tho' fome are of Opinion, that if they had been accepted, it might have faved the Nation a Hundred Millions of Money; and we might have been in as defirable a Situation as we were afterwards. But to proceed.

Reasons

two last Parliaments.

His Majefty thought fit, on the 8th of for diffolv- April, to publish a Declaration, containing, ing the His Reafons for diffolving the two laft Parliaments; wherein he fays, That having propofed at the Opening of the Parliament held at Westminster, the fupporting fuch Alliances as had been made for the Prefervation of the General Peace of Christendom, recommended the further Examination of the Plot, defired their Advice and Affistance concerning the Prefervation of Tangier, and offered to concur in any Remedies that could be propofed for the Security of the Proteftant Religion, that might confift with preferving the Succeffion of the Crown in its due and legal Course of Defcent, he had met with moft unfuitable Returns from the Houfe of Commons; Addreffes in the Nature of Remonftrances rather than Anfwers, Arbitrary Orders for taking his Subjects into Cuftody, for Matters that had no Relation to Privilege of Parliament, ftrange illegal Votes, declaring divers eminent Perfons to be Enemies to the King and Kingdom, without any Order or Progrefs of Law, any Hearing of their Defence, or any Proof fo much as offered against them.

That

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