out for justice, and to lay by mildness, when it ceases to be a virtue. Almighty God has hitherto miraculously preserved you; but who knows how long the miracle will continue? His ordinary operations are by second causes; and then reason will conclude, that, to be preserved, we ought to use the lawful means of preservation. If on the other side it be thus argued,-that of many attempts one may possibly take place, if preventing justice be not employed against offenders, what remains, but that we implore the Divine assistance to avert that judgment; which is no more than to desire of God to work another, and another, and in conclusion a whole series of miracles. This, Sir, is the general voice of all true Englishmen; I might call it the loyal address of three nations, infinitely solicitous of your safety, which includes their own prosperity. It is indeed an high presumption for a man so inconsiderable as I am, to present it; but zeal and dutiful affection in an affair of this importance, will make every good subject a counsellor. It is, in my opinion, the test of loyalty; and to be either a friend or foe to the government, needs no other distinction, than to declare at this time either for remissness or justice. I said at this time, because I look not on the storm as overblown. It is still a gusty kind of weather; there is a kind of sickness in the air; it seems

8 Our author here alludes to the Ryehouse Plot of the preceding year.

indeed to be cleared up for some few hours, but the wind still blowing from the same corner; and when new matter is gathered into a body, it will not fail to bring it round, and pour upon us a second tempest. I shall be glad to be found a false prophet; but he was certainly inspired, who when he saw a little cloud arising from the sea, and that no bigger than a hand, gave immediate notice to the King, that he might mount the chariot, before he was overtaken by the storm.ꞌ If so much care was taken of an idolatrous King, an usurper, a persecutor, and a tyrant, how much more vigilant ought we to be in the concernments of a lawful prince, a father of his country, and a defender of the faith, who stands exposed by his too much mercy to the unwearied and endless conspiracies of parricides? He was a better prince' than the former whom I mentioned out of the sacred history, (and the allusion comes yet more close,) who stopped his hand after the third arrow; three victories were indeed obtained, but the effect of often shooting had been the total destruction of his enemies.

To come yet nearer, Henry the Fourth, your royal grandfather, whose victories, and the subversion of the League, are the main argument of this History, was a prince most clement in his

9 This notice was given by the prophet Elijah to Ahab. See 1 Kings, ch. xviii. v. 43-45

'Who this prince was, I have not been able to discover.

nature; he forgave his rebels, and received them all into mercy, and some of them into favour; but it was not till he had fully vanquished them; they were sensible of their impiety, they submitted, and his clemency was not extorted from him; it was his free gift, and it was seasonably given. I wish the case were here the same. I confess it was not much unlike it at your Majesty's happy Restoration; yet so much of the parallel was then wanting, that the amnesty you gave produced not all the desired effects. For our sects are of a more obstinate nature than were those leaguing catholicks, who were always for a King : and yet more, the major part of them would have him of the royal stem; but our associators and sectaries are men of commonwealth principles, and though their first stroke was only aimed at the immediate succession, it was most manifest that it would not there have ended, for at the same time they were hewing at your royal prerogatives; so that the next successor, if there had been any, must have been a precarious prince, and depended on them for the necessaries of life.' But of these and

2 See p. 81. n. 3.

› Our author here had probably the following proceedings particularly in view. In 1679 the Commons had voted the standing army and the King's guards to be illegal; and a bill was brought in to exclude from the lower house all persons who possessed any lucrative offices. They also voted that the Bishops had no right to vote on the question concerning the validity of the pardon

more outrageous proceedings, your Majesty has already shewn yourself justly sensible in your Declaration after the dissolution of the last parliament, which put an end to the arbitrary encroachments of a popular faction. Since which time it has pleased Almighty God so to prosper your affairs, that without searching into the secrets of Divine Providence, it is evident your magnanimity and resolution, next under him, have been the immediate cause of your safety and our present happiness. By weathering of which storm, may I presume to say it without flattery, you have performed a greater and more glorious work than all the conquests of your neighbours; for it is not difficult for a great monarchy, well united, and making use of advantages, to extend its limits; but to be pressed with wants, surrounded with granted by the King to the Earl of Danby. They had before denied the right of the King to reject Sir Edward Seymour, whom they had chosen for their Speaker; and had contested his power over the militia.-To prevent the Bill of Exclusion from being passed into a law, Charles proposed various limitations on a popish successor, which Sir William Temple and some others opposed, as subversive of the constitution.

♦ The parliament which met at Oxford, March 21, 1680-81, and was dissolved on the 28th of that month. "The King's Declaration of the causes that moved him to dissolve the two last parliaments," was published on the 8th of April, 1681; and was very ably answered in a pamphlet, entitled "A just and modest Vindication of the two last Parliaments," &c. which is supposed to have been written by Mr. Somers and Sir William Jones.

dangers, your authority undermined in popular assemblies, your sacred life attempted by a conspiracy, your royal brother forced from your arms; in one word, to govern a kingdom which was either possessed, or turned into a bedlam,—and yet in the midst of ruin to stand firm, undaunted, and resolved, and at last to break through all these difficulties, and dispel them, this is indeed an action which is worthy the grandson of Henry the Great.

During all this violence of your enemies, your Majesty has contended with your natural clemency to make some examples of your justice; and they themselves will acknowledge that you have not urged the law against them, but have been pressed and constrained by it to inflict punishments in your own defence, and in the mean time to watch every opportunity of shewing mercy when there was the least probability of repentance: so that they who have suffered may be truly said to have forced the sword of justice out of your hand, and to have done execution on themselves. But by how much the more you have been willing to spare them, by so much has their impudence increased; and if by this mildness they recover from the great frost which has almost blasted them to the roots, if these venomous plants shoot out again, it will be a sad comfort to say they have been ungrateful, when it is evident to mankind that ingratitude is their nature. That sort of pity which is proper for them, and may be of use