formation is either true, or there is fome mistake in it: if it be true, the Perfons which make the Discovery will deferve Thanks and Reward; if there fhould be any mistake in it, your Majefty can lofe nothing but a little Silence.

The Bufinefs (if it be) is extreme foul; the Discovery thus by God's Providence offered, feems fair. I do hereby humbly beg it upon my Knees of your Majefty, that you will conceal this Bufinefs from every Creature, and his Name that fends this to me. And I fent his Letters to me to your Majefty, that you may fee his Senfe both of the Business and of the Secrecy. And fuch Inftructions as you think fit to give him, I beseech you let them be in your own Hand for his Warrant, without imparting them to any. And if your Majefty leave it to his Discretion to follow it therein in the bett way he can, that in your own Hand will be Inftruction and Warrant enough for him; and if you please to return it herewith prefently to me, I will fend an Exprefs away with it prefently. In the mean time I have by this Exprefs returned him this Anfwer, that I think he fhall do well to hold on the Treaty with thefe Men, with all Care and Secrecy, and drive on to the Discovery fo foon as the Business is ripe for it, that he may affure himfelf and them, they fhall not want Reward, if they do the Service; that for my Part he fhall be fure of Secrecy, and that I am moft confident your Majefty will not impart it to any. That he have a fpecial Eye to the eighth and ninth Propofition. SIR, for God's Sake and your own Safety, Secrecy in this Bufinefs, and I beseech you fend me back this Letter, and all that comes with it speedily and fecretly, and truft not your own Pockets with them. I shall not eat nor fleep in quiet, till I receive them, and fo foon as I have them again and your Majefty's Warrant to proceed, no Diligence fhall be wanting in me to help on the Discovery..

This is the greatest Business that ever was put to me, and if I have herein propofed, or done any Thing amifs, I humbly crave your Majefty's Pardon, and I am willing to hope I have not herein erred in Judgment, and Infidelity I never will.

These Letters came to me September Ten at Night, and I fent thefe away according to the Date hereof, being extremely wearied with writing this Letter, copying out thefe other which come with this, and dispatching my Letters back to him that fent thefe, all in my own Hand; once again Secrecy for God's Sake, and your own: To his moft bleffed Protection, I commend your Majesty and all your Affairs, and I am

Your Majesty's most humble
and faithful Servant,

WILLIAM Cant.

The

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The Earl of ESSEX's SPEECH at the Delivery of the Petition to the KING, Jan. 25. 1680.

May it please your Majesty,

THE

HE Lords bere prefent, together with diverfe other Peers of the Realm, taking notice that by your late Proclamation your Majesty has declared an Intention of calling a Parliament at Oxford; and obferving from Hiftories and Records, how unfortunate many fuch Affemblies have been, when called at Places remote from your Capital City; as particularly the Congress in Henry the Second's Time, at Clarendon; three feveral Parliaments at Oxford in Henry the Third's Time; and that at Coventry in Henry the Sixth's Time; with diverfe others which have proved fatal to thofe Kings, and have been followed with great Mifchiefs on the Kingdom; and confidering the prefent Posture of Affairs, the many Jealoufies and Difcontents which are amongst the People, we have great Caufe to apprehend that the Confequences of the Sitting of a Parliament now at Oxford, may be as fatal to your Majesty, and the Nation, as thofe others mentioned have been to the then reigning Kings; and therefore we do conceive that we cannot answer it to God, to your Majesty, or to the People; if we, being Peers of the Realm, fhould not on fo important an Occafion, bumbly offer our Advice to your Majesty, that, if poffible, your Majesty may be prevailed with to alter this (as we apprebend) unfeafonable Refolution. The Grounds and Reasons of our Opinion are contained in this our Petition, which we humbly present to your Majefty.

To the KING's moft Excellent Majefty. The Humble Petition and Advice of the Lords undernamed, PEERS of the Realm.

Humbly fheweth,

HAT whereas your Majefty hath been pleafed, by diverfe Speeches and

T Meffages, to your Houles of Parliament, rightly to reprefent to them the

Dangers that threatened your Majefty's Perfon, and the whole Kingdom, from the mischievous and wicked Plots of the Papifts, and the too fuddain Growth of a Foreign Power, unto which no Stop or Remedy could be provided, unless it were by Parliament, and an Union of all your Majefty's Proteftant Subjects in one Mind and Interest..

And the Lord Chancellor, in pursuance of your Majesty's Command, having more at large demonftrated the faid Dangers to be as great as we, in the midit of our Fears, could imagine them; and fo preffing, that our Liberties, Religion, Lives, and the whole Kingdom, would be certainly loft, if a speedy Provision were not made against them.

And your Majefty on the 21st of April, 1679. having called unto your Council many honourably and worthy Perfons, and declared unto them and your whole Kingdom, that being fenfible of the evil Effects of a fingle Ministry,

ог

or private Advices, or foreign Committees, for the general Direction of your Affairs, your Majefty would for the future refer all Things unto that Council. And by the conftant Advice of them, together with the frequent Ufe of your Great Council the Parliament, your Majefty was refolved hereafter to govern your Kingdoms, we began to hope we fhould fee an End of our Miferies."

But to our unfpeakable Grief and Sorrow, we foon found our Expectations. fruftrated; the Parliament then fubfifting was prorogued and diffolved before it could perfect what was intended for our Relief and Security. And though another was thereupon called, yet by many Prorogations, it was put off to the 21st of October laft: And notwithstanding your Majefty was then again pleased to acknowledge, that neither your Perfon nor the Kingdom could be fafe until the Matter of the Plot was gone through, it was unexpectedly prorogued on the Tenth Day of this Month, before any fufficient Order could be taken therein. All their juft and pious Endeavours to fave the Nation were overthrown; the good Bills they had been industriously preparing to unite all your Proteftant Subjects, brought to naught. The Difcovery of the Irish Plot ftifled. The Witneffes that came in frequently more fully to declare that both of England and Ireland difcouraged. Thofe foreign Kingdoms and States, who by a happy Conjunction with us, might give a check to the French Power difheartened even to fuch a Defpair of their own Security against the growing Greatness of that Monarch, as we fear may induce them to take new Refolutions, and perhaps fuch as may be fatal to us. The Strength and Courage of our Enemies, both at home and abroad increafed; and ourfelves left in the utmoft Danger of feeing our Country brought into utter Defolation.

In thefe great Extremities we had nothing under God to comfort us, but the Hopes that your Majefty being touched with the Groans of your perifhing People, would have fuffered the Parliament to meet at the Day unto which it was prorogued, and that no further Interruptions fhould have been given to their Proceedings, in order to the faving of the Nation: But that failed us too, when we heard that your Majefty, by the private Suggeftions of fome wicked Perfons, Favourers of Popery, Promoters of French Designs, and Enemies to your Majesty and the Kingdom (without the Advice, and as we have good Reason to believe, against the Opinion of your Privy Council) had been prevailed with to diffolve it, and call another to meet at Oxford, where neither Lords nor Commons can be in Safety, but will be daily expofed to the Swords of the Papifts and their Adherents, of whom too many have crept into your Majefty's Guards. The Liberty of speaking, according to their Confciences, will be thereby deftroyed, and the Validity of all their Acts and Proceedings confifting in it, left difputable. The Straitnefs of the Place no ways admits of fuch a Concourfe of Perfons as now follows every Parliament. The Witneffes which are neceffary to give Evidence against the Popish Lords, fuch Judges, or others whom the Commons have impeached, or had refolved to impeach, can neither bear the Charge of going thither, nor truft themfelves under the Protection of a Parliament, that is itself evidently under the Power of Guards and Soldiers.

The Premifes confidered, we your Majefty's Petitioners, out of a just Abhorrence of such a dangerous and pernicious Counfel (which the Authors have not dared to avow) and the direful Apprehenfions of the Calamities and Mileries

that

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that may enfue thereupon, do make it our humble Prayer and Advice, that the Parliament may not fit at a Place where it will not be able to act with that Freedom, which is neceffary and effential to give unto their Acts and Proceedings, that Authority which they ought to have amongst the People, and have ever had, unless impaired by fome awe upon them (of which there wants not Precedents.) And that your Majefty will be graciously pleased to order it to fit at Westminster, it being the ufual Place, and where they may confult and act with Safety and Freedom.

A New NARRATIVE of the POPISH PLOT, fhewing the cunning Contrivance thereof; with a fighal Providence to this Nation in the Discovery of it, and the Plotters; to the Confufion of of the wicked PAPISTS, and to the great Comfort of all good PRO