which, having imposed an absolute necessity upon us to secure our'selves, and the Holy Roman Empire, by the best means we can think on, and that no less against them than against the Turks; we pro'mise ourselves, from your justice, ready assent to this, that it ought ⚫ not to be imputed to us, if we endeavour to procure, by a just war, that security to ourselves, which we could not hitherto obtain by so many treaties; and that, in order to the obtaining thereof, we take 'measures for our mutual defence and preservation, with all those who ' are equally concerned in the same design with us. It remains, that 'we beg of God, that he would direct all things to his glory, and that ' he would grant your majesty true and solid comforts under this your 'great calamity; we embrace you with the tender affections of a • brother.. At Vienna, the 9th of April, 1689.' THE SPEECH OF HIS HIGHNESS THE LORD PROTECTOR, Made to both Houses of Parliament at their first Meeting, on Thursday the 27th of January, 1658, he two following Tracts, which are the genuine Speech and Letter of Richard the Son of Oliver Cromwell, the Protector, as they are very scarce, and the former serving to give us a perfect idea of that new Protector; the desire he had to continue his Father's Usurpation; the Contrivance of gaining the Affections of the People, by acknowledging the Excellency of a mixt Government, composed of a Parliament and Chief Magistrate, as you will find in his Speech, which, abstract from the cant of his education and the fulsome encomiums of his deceased father, is a good one; I here endeavour to preserve it as well as his Letter to the Parliament, when he found it resolved to restore the Royal Family to the throne of its ancestors; which shews how far he was degenerated from the vigorous resolutions of his father, and how soon the greatest tyrants are reduced to a state of submission, when God pleases to release his people from their bondage. MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN, BELIEVE there are scarce any of you here, who expected some months since to have seen this great assembly at this time, in this place, in peace, considering the great and unexpected change which it hath pleased the all-disposing hand of God to make in the midst of us. I can assure you, that if things had been according to our own fears, and the hopes of our enemies, it had not been thus with us; and therefore, it will become both you and me, in the first place, as to reverence and adore the great God, possessor of heaven and earth, in whose hands our breath is, and whose are all our ways, because of his judgments; so to acknowledge him in his goodness to these lands, in that he hath not added sorrow to sorrow, and made the period of his late highness* his life, and that of the nation's peace, to have been in one day. Peace was one of the blessings of my father's government; a mercy after so long a civil war, and in the midst of so great division which that war bred, is not usually afforded by God unto a people in so great a measure. The cause of God, and these nations, which he was engaged in, met in all the parts of it, as you well know, with many enemies and great opposition; the archers, privily and openly, sorely grieved him, and shot at him, yet his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. As to himself, he died full of days, spent in great and sore travail; yet his eyes were not waxed dim, neither was his natural strength abated, as it was said of Moses, He was serviceable even to the last. As to these nations, he left them in great honour abroad, and in full peace at home. All England, Scotland, and Ireland, dwelling safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beershebat. He is gone to rest, and we are entered into his labours; and if the Lord hath still a blessing for these lands (as I trust he hath) as our peace hath been lengthened out to this day, so shall we go on to reap the fruit, and gather the harvest of what his late highness has sown and laid the foundation of. For my own part, being by the providence of God, and the disposition of the law, my father's successor, and bearing that place in the government that I do, I thought it for the public good to call a parliament of the three nations, now united, and conjoined together into one commonwealth, under one government. It is agreeable not only to my trust, but to my principles, to govern these nations by the advice of my two houses of parliament; I find it asserted in the humble petition and advice (which is the corner-stone of this building, and that which I shall adhere to), That parliaments are the great council of the chief magistrate, in whose advice both he and these nations may be most safe and happy. I can assure you I have that esteem of them. And as I have made it the first act of my government to call you together, so I shall further let you see the value I have of you, by the answers that I shall return to the advice that shall be given me by you, for the good of these nations. You are come up from your several countries, as the heads of your tribes, and with hearts, I persuade myself, to consult together their good. I can say I meet you with the same desires, having nothing in my design but the maintenance of the peace, laws, liberties, both civil and christian, of these nations; which I shall always make the measure and rule of my government, and be ready to spend my life for§. • Oliver Cromwell.' This panegyric must be remembered to be made by his son; for, though it is confessed, that Oliver was a great man, in the common acceptation of the word, I intend to present the public with a short political discourse, shewing that his administration laid the foundation of the decay of trade in this nation. The Protectorship. See his following letter to the parliament. We have summoned you up at this time to let you know the state of our affairs, and to have your advice in them; and, I believe, a parliament was never summoned upon a more important occasion. It is true, as I have told you, We are, through the goodness of God, at this time in peace; but it is not thus with us, because we have no enemies. There are enough, both within us and without us, who would soon put an end to our peace*, were it in their powers, or should it, at any time, come into their powers. It will be becoming your wisdoms to consider of the securing of our peace against those who, we all know, are, and ever will be, our implacable enemies†; what the means of doing this are, I shall refer unto you. This I can assure you, that the armies of England, Scotland, and Ireland, are true and faithful to the peace and good interest of these nations, and it will be found so; and that they are a consisting body, and useful for any good ends; and, if they were not the best army in the world, you would have heard of inconveniencies, by reason of the great arrear of pay, which is now due unto them, whereby some of them are reduced to great necessities. But you shall have a particular account of their arrears, and I doubt not but consideration will be had thereupon, in some speedy and effectual way. And, this being matter of money, I recommend it particularly to the house of cominons. You have, you know, a war with Spain, carried on by the advice of parliament. He is an old enemy, and a potent one; and therefore it will be necessary, both for the honour and safety of these nations, that that war be vigorously prosecuted. Furthermore, the constitution of affairs in all our neighbour countries, and round about us, as well friends as enemies, are very considerable, and calls upon us to be upon our guard both at land and sea, and to be in a posture able to maintain and conserve our own state and interest. Great and powerful fleets are preparing to be set forth into these seas, and considerable armies of several nations, and kings are now disputing for the mastery of the Sound, with the adjacent islands and countries; among which is the Roman Emperor, with other Popish states; I need not tell you of what consequence these things are to this state. We have already interposed in these affairs, in such manner as we found it necessary for the interest of England; and matters are yet in such a condition in those parts, that this state may, with the assistance of God, provide that their differences may not prejudice us. The other things that are to be said I shall refer to my lord-keeper Fiennes, and close up what I have to say with only adding two or three particulars to what I have already said. And, first, I recommend to your care the people of God in these nations, with their concernments. The more they are divided among themselves, the greater prudence should be used to cement them. • Meaning the Royalists, who would re-instate the royal family on the throne. Or German. Secondly, The good and necessary work of reformation, both in manners and in the administration of justice; that profaneness may be discountenanced and suppressed, and that righteousness and justice may be executed in the land. Thirdly, I recommend unto you the Protestant cause abroad, which seems, at this time, to be in some danger, having great and powerful enemies, and very few friends; and I hope and believe, that the old English zeal to that cause is still among us. Lastly, My lords, and you gentlemen of the house of commons, that you will, in all your debates, maintain and conserve love and unity among yourselves, that therein you may be the pattern of the nation, who have sent you up in peace, and with their prayers, that the spirit of wisdom and peace may be among you; and this shall also be my prayer for you; and to this let us all add our utmost endeavours for the making this an happy parliament, HIS LATE HIGHNESS'S LETTER TO THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND, Shewing his willingness to submit to this present Government.+ Attested under his own hand, and read in the House on Wednesday the 25th of May, 1659. I HAVE perused the resolve and declaration which you were pleased to deliver to me the other night; and for your information, touching what is mentioned in the said resolve, I have caused a true state of my debts to be transcribed, and annexed to this paper, which will shew what they are, and how they were contracted. As to that part of the resolve whereby the committee are to inform themselves how far I do acquiesce in the government of this commonwealth, as it is declared by this parliament; I trust my past carriage, hitherto, hath manifested my acquiescence in the will and disposition of God, and that I love and value the commonwealth much above my own concernments; and I desire, that by this a measure of my future deportment may be taken, which, thro' the assistance of God, shall be such as shall bear the same witness, having, I hope, in some degree, learned rather to reverence and submit to the hand of God, than to be unquiet under it. And, as to the late providences that have fallen out among us, however in respect of the particular engagements that lay upon me, I could not be active in making a change in the government of these nations; yet, through the goodness of God, I can freely acquiesce in its being made, and do hold myself obliged, as, with other men, I expect protection from the present government, so to demean myself, with all peaceableness under it, and to procure to the utter most of my power, that all, in whom I have any interest, do the same. RICHARD CROMWELL. As it proved by restoring monarchical government. + Intended monarchical government under King Charles II. then to be recalled by the states of the nation. THE PLOTS OF THE JESUITS, VIZ. OF Adam Contzen, a Moguntine, Thomas Campanella, a Spaniard, and Robert Parsons, an Englishman, &c: HOW TO BRING ENGLAND TO THE ROMAN RELIGION, These Jesuitical politicks, which are taken out of the above mentioned authors, were published by Michael Spark, Bookseller, in the year 1653, when there was not that public prospect of Popery, as there is now in this nation; and, therefore, it is, I presume, far from being unseasonable to be reprinted together with "The Protestant's doom in Popish times', when the whole nation is alarmed with the apprehensions of a Popish invasion, and the constant endeavours of the French and Spaniards to deprive us of our religion and liberty, by attempting to set a Popish governor over a Protestant people. And how far these politicks were copied by James II. and his Counsel, I refer my reader to the history of those times. The first of these tracts, which immediately follows, contains the directions of Robert Parsons, the Jesuit, that noted traytor to Queen Elizabeth; and employed by the enemies of our church and nation, to foment division, to illegitimise and dethrone, as far as in his power, her sacred Majesty, and to reduce the English State, under the Papal jurisdiction: as also the subtile intreaguing means of the Jesuit Adam Contzen, and Thomas Campanella, a Dominical Friar, to engage the Popish States to concur in the attempt to reinstate Popery in this land. The other tract, is a most scarce, and ingenious piece; and, as it is supported in every sentence by the best authorities, properly referred to, I need not enter any further into its commendation; only I must do that justice to the memory of the Right Reverend Dr. Bull, to acquaint the reader that it was wrote by his learned and zealous pen, to deter Protestants from adınitting, or so much as desiring a Popish king to rule over them. CONTZEN'S PLOT, To cheat a Church of the Religion established therein, and to bring in Popery without noise or tumult; taken out of the second Book of his Politicks, chap. 18, 19, page 103, 104, &c. IT is difficult to find out truth, but it is more hard to persuade him that erreth: yet, it is the duty of a prince, even in this, to bestir himself earnestly, that wicked opinions be taken away. The first means. What musicians observe in tuning their instruments, gently setting up the strings by little and little, and, what in curing |