274 After which the Commons re- Then the Houfe went upon the Examination of Edward Fitz-Harris, who having been privy to the Popish Plot, was by the Commons impeached for the fame; and the Impeachment ordered to be carried up to the Lords by Mr. Secretary Jenkins, which he efteeming an Affront to the King (whofe Prifoner as I have told you Fitz-Harris then was) did refufe to do it; but at length to avoid Contention, he fubmitted, and accordingly carried the Impeachment to the Lords; but it was there rejected, as a Matter not belonging to them, but to the common Courts of Juftice; this the Commons were pleafed very highly to refent; and voted, 1. That it was the Right of the Commons in Parliament, to impeach any Peer or Commoner for Treason or other Crimes; and that the Refufal of the Lords to proceed upon fuch Impeachment was a Denial of Justice, and a Violation of the Conftitution of Parliaments. 2. That the Refolution of the Lords, That Fitz Harris fhould be proceeded against at common Law, and not by way of Impeachment, was a Violation of the Conftitution of Par liament, &c. 3. That for any inferiour Court to proceed against Fitz Harris, or any Perfon lying under an Impeachment in Parliament, was a high Breach of the Privilege of Parliament. Thefe Proceedings tired the King's Patience, fo that he came to the Houle on the 28th, and fuddenly diffolved the Parliament; and immediately took Coach for Winder, and thence came to London the fame Night; by which he happily de feated the wicked Defign that fome evil Men had upon his Perfon, as will appear hereafter. Shortly after a Proteftation of 29 Lords, the Duke of Monmouth being at the Head c! them, came out against this Proceeding of the Houfe of Lords in Fitz-Harris's Cafe. A. D. 1681, his Majesty, to vindicate himself from the malicous Afperfions of difaffected Per fons, on the 8th of April, fet forth a Declaration of the Reatons th moved him to diff lve the two l Parliaments, which he ordered be read in all Churches, wherein fet forth, With how much Relubas cy he did it, and how abfolute Intentions were to have cemplut, · ances. far as would have confifted with the very Being of the Government, with any thing that could be propofid for preferving the Enabled Religion, the Liberty and Property of the Subject, and supporting the Foreign AlliThen enumerated the unwarrantable Proceedings of the Commons, in arbitrarily taking divers Perfons into Cuftody, in declaring others Enemies to the King and Kingdom with out legal Procels. Their Votes against Lending the King Money, and their Vote against profecuting Diffenters, achereby they affumed a Power of diffenfing with Laws: And that tho' be promised to grant any Limitations of the Power of a Popish Succeffor, yet they would think of no other Expedient, but that of a total Exclufion, which he could not in Honour, Jufice or Confcience, confent to. That the Bufinefs of Fitz Harris was carried to that Extremity, by the Votes of the Commons, that there was no Hope of Reconciliation, which put the two Houfes out of a Capacity of tranfacting Bufinefs together; which Heats and Difappointments of the Publick Ends caused him to put an End to these two Parliaments. Stephen Colledge, a Joyner by Trade, and commonly called the Proteftant Joyner, was indicted of High-Treafon, and the Bill preferred to the Grand-Jury of London, which was fworn to by Dugdale and Smith, two of the Witneffes to the Popish Plot, but could not be brought to a Trial, because the Jury brought in the Bill Ignoramus; however, he was afterwards tried and condemned at Oxford, as will be fhewn in its proper Place. The Impeachment of Fitz Harris, and the Votes thereupon, were esteemed by the King, as he expreffed in his Declarations, as a purpose to delay and binder his being tried. However, on the 27th of April, an Indictment of High-Trea- 1681. fon was prefented against him, and found by the Grand Jury; and after long Arguings concerning the Jurifdiction of the Court, upon account of the abovementioned Votes, he was on the 9th of June brought to Trial; the Evidence against him was Edriund Everard, who depofed, That the Prifoner hired him to write a Pamphlet to fcandalize the King, &c. which he difcovered to Sir William Waller, and others, whom he placed in private Places to over hear Fitz Harris read it, &c. That the Libel was to be prefented to the French Ambassador, and that it was to beget a Diffe rence here, while the French should gain Flanders, &c, Then the Paper was produced with Fitz Harris's Amendments, in which were these Words: If James be guilty, Charles is too, they are Brethren in Iniquity, they are in Confederacy with the Pope and French Let the Englifh Spirit be up, and move us all as one Man to Self-defence; nay and if need be, to open Action, and fling off these intolerable Riders. In another Place, J. and C. both Brethren in Iniquity, corrupt both in Root and Branch. you they fudy to enflave Where is that old English Spirit? O brave Englishmen, look to your own Defence, e'er it be too late! roufe up your Spirits! Again, As it is the Right of Parliaments to make a Law against a Popish Succeffor, fo it is their Right to dethrone any Poffeffor that follows evil Counfellors Then let all be ready; let the City ftand by the Parliament, with Affiftance in any extreme Way, if Occafion, &c. For which Libel he was found Guilty of High-Treafon, and was executed at Tyburn on the 1st of July. On the 3d of May, Oliver Plunket, titular Primate of Ireland, T 2 was 1681. was arraigned at the King's-Bench Bar for High-Treafon, and on the 8th of June brought to Trial for the fame; the Evidence against him were, Florence Wyer, who depofed, That there had been a Plot for feveral Years to introduce a French Army into Ireland, to destroy all the Proteftants, which the Prifoner was privy to, and Affiftant in; Henry ONeal, Neal O Neal, Owen Murfy, and others, who all teftified the fame thing. So he was found Guilty, and executed at Tyburn with Fitz-Harris. Stephen Colledge having commit ted Treafon at Oxford, as well as at London, the King ordered him to be carried thither to be tried for the fame, where he was accordingly indicted on the 17th of Auguft; the Witneffes against him were Stephen Dugdale, who depofed, That he had often heard Colledge rail at the King, faying, He was a Papift, was in the Popish Plot, and had a Hand in the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey: That he would arm himfelf and be at Oxford, having feveral ftout Men that should stand by him, if there fhould be a Rifing That at Oxford, upon the King's not yielding to the Commons, he faid, Let him begin (meaning the King) as foon as he would, he cared not how foon, for their Party [the King's] were but a Handful to his : And that when the King went from Oxford, he faid, · The Rogue was afraid of himself, he was flirked away: ' John Smith, who fwore, that he faid to him, That the King was a Papift; that he doubted not but the King would be brought to the Block, as his Father was; that the Prifoner fhewed him Arms and Armour he had provided, faying, Thefe are the Things which ་ Sport there upon the Divifions 'between the King and Parliament. And he would be one that would 6 feize the King,' &c. That meeting the Prisoner after he came to Oxford, he told him, That he was afraid, and run away like to befhit himself: Hynes, who teftified many Things to the fame Purpofe. Likewife feveral fcandalous Pamphlets were produced, which he acknowledged himself the Author of. The Prifoner endeavoured to invalidate the Evidence, by difcrediting the Perfons of the King's Witneffes. Upon the whole, the Jury found him Guilty; and he was accordingly executed the 3 1ft of Auguft at Oxford. The Earl of Shaftsbury being accufed of Treafonable Practices, was committed to the Tower, and on the 24th of November a Bill of Indictment was preferred against him to the Grand Jury of London, before whom was produced a Paper, importing an Affociation to oppofe the Duke of York's coming to the Crown, by Force of Arms, &. which Paper was found in the Lord Shaftsbury's Clofet, and eight Perfons fwore againft the faid Lord ve ry treasonable and irreverent Words that he had uttered against the King, and that he had hired fifty Men to attend him at the Oxford Parlia ment, where, upon any Difturbance, they were to have feized the Guards, &c. But the Jury brought in the Bill Ignoramus, and fo obftructed his further Trial. The Parliament which fat in Sto land, July the 28th, under the Duke of York, the King's High Commi fioner there, enacted fiveral Laws, and appointed a Teft (which that Nation extremely refented) for fecuring the established Government, and afferting the Right of Succeffion; and did likewife, in Anfwer to his Majefty's Letter, which was read to them at the opening of the Seffions, with all Expreffions of Dury and Loyalty, acknowledge the Honour his Majefty had been pleafed to do them, in fending his Brother to prefide as High Commiffioner among them. A. D. 1682. On the 12th of February, this Year, there happened a very fad Accident, in this Manner; Thomas Thynn, of Longleet, Efq; a Gentleman of a very great Eftate, was fet upon in his Coach near the Hay-market, by three Ruffians, of whom one firing a Blunderbufs at him, difcharg'd two Brace of Bullets into his Belly, whereof he died foon after. The Murtherers were Chrif topher Vratz, George Boroki, and John Stern, all three Foreigners, and DeFendents on Count Conigfmark, a Swedish Lord, who had incited them to the Attempt. They were all apprehended, the three Ruffians in Town, and the Count in Difguife at Gravefend, endeavouring to make his Efcape beyond Sea; and being brought to Trial for the Murther, the principal Actors were condemned to be hanged; but the Count was by the Jury brought in Not Guilty. They were accordingly executed in the Pall-mall, near the Place where they had committed the Fact, and Boroki, a Pole, who fired the Blunderbuis, was afterwards hanged in Chains at Mile-End. The Duke of York came from Scotland in March, and having made fome fhort Stay in England, in the Beginning of May embarked in the Gloucefter Frigate, attended with feveral Perfons of Quality, and fome other Ships and Yachts, and fet Sail again for Scotland; 1682. but when he was out at Sea, and off of Yarmouth Road, the Ship wherein he was, early in the Morning, on the 5th of May, ftruck upon the Lemon Ore Sands, though the Weather was fair, and one Ayres, reckoned the belt Coafter in England, his Pilot; the Duke put off in his Pinnace with fome Perfons of Quality, and faved himself on board a Yacht, where he had not long been before he faw the Frigat fink to the Bottom, in which above an Hundred and Fifty Perfons perifhed, and fome of them Gentlemen of Quality; as the Earl of Roxborough, the Lord Obrian, and the Laird of Hopton, Lieutenant Hyde, Brother to the Earl of Clarendon, and others; he afterwards arrived in Scotland, and on the 27th of the fame Month returned with his Dutchefs and Lady Anne, to Whitehall. The Election of Sheriffs for London, on Midfummer Day this Year, caufed a great Diflurbance; the Occafion thus: It had been an ancient Cuftom for the Lord-Mayor, at the Bridge houfe Feaft, to drink to fome confiderable Citizen, thereby nominating him for Sheriff at the next Election, which the Citizens had ufed to comply with, and commonly chofe that Person with another for their Sheriffs. Sir John Moor, who was Mayor this Year, had, according to this Cuftom, drank to Dudley North, Efq; and iffued his Precept to the Companies to meet at Guildhall for the Confirmation of him, and chufing another to be his Colleague. The Citizens met accordingly, and made a very numerous Affeinbly; but this new Form of Confirmation, which had never before been feen in the Precept, railed fuch an Indignation, that it was re T 3 folved 1682. folved to lay afide the Lord Mayor's Election, and proceed to the Election of two, out of four propofed, viz. North and Box on 'one Side, and Papillon and Dubois on the other; this was very warmly pursued, and was as zealously oppofed by the Lord Mayor's Party, who cryed out for fupporting the Honour of the Chair, and conforming to the ancient Cuftom. And a Poll being demanded, the Lord-Mayor, contrary to all former Practice, provided Books and Clerks to take it; the Sheriffs, as ufual claimed this as their Bufinefs, and provided other Books; fo that there were two Pollings at the fame time, which caufed very great quarrelling and Disorder, and made the Lord-Mayor interpofe his Authority, and by Proclamation to adjourn the Court to another Day, and departed out of the Hall, but not without Indignities and Affaults from fome of the other Party, who notwithstanding the Adjournment, ftaid ftill with the Sheriffs, and polled on till Night. For this the two Sheriffs were by the King and Council committed to the Tower, where they lay from Monday to Friday, that by a Habeas Corpus they were bailed. After their Enlargement, they fill perfifted and declared Papillon and Dubois Sheriffs for the Year enfuing; while the Lord Mayor went on alfo, and Mr. Box having the Majority in his Books, he declared North and Box duly elected Sheriffs for the next Year. The other Party petitioned the Court of Aldermen, that Mr. Papillon and Mr. Dubois might be called forth to give Bond to ferve as Sheriffs the next Year. To which the Court anfwered, That they would maintain the Rights and Privileges of the Chair and the whole City; that they would take care that fuch as were lawfully elected should take upon them the Office of Sheriff, referring the Matter to Law, if the Petitioners thought they did otherwife. All the Buftle was not over, for Mr. Bɔx fined; fo another was to be chofen in his Place; this was rejected by the other Party, who not acknowledging the Election of him valid, refufed to chufe another, but clamoured against it. Nevertheles the Lord-Mayor proceeded, and the Majority of Voices falling upon Pe ter Rich, Efq; he was thereupon declared Sheriff, and the Court dif folved. On Michaelmus Day, at the Election of a Lord-Mayor, the Heats were renewed; for Sir William Pritchard, who was the fenior Alderman below the Chair, being ac cording to the ancient Method, pu: up by one Party, was by the other Party oppofed, and Sir Thomas Goald, who was of a far later ftanding, and Henry Cornish, Efq; who had been Sheriff but the Year before, put up against him, and a Poll being taken, the Majority fell Gold upon and Cornish, till by a Scrutiny it appeared there had been many fale Pollers on their Side, who being rejected, the Election refted upon Sir William Pritchard, who was accor dingly fworn. Mr. Pilkington, the late Sheriff, in the Court of Aldermen, ufed fome indecent Expreffions against the Deke of York; for which being afterwards fued in an Action of Scar dalum Magnatum, in the Court of King's Bench, he was caft, and an Hundred thousand Pound Damages given the Duke, for which he lay feveral Years in the King's-Ben Prifon. Nov. 29, Rupert Prince Palatine of the Rhine, Son to the Princes Elizabeth, Daughter to King Jam I. departed this Life in the Yar |