The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• To the Earl of S———-, &c. &c.
• Preface.
• The Independent Whig.
• Number I.: A View of the Romish Church, In Her Heads, Theology, Canons, Miracles, and Saints; Taken Chiefly From Her Own Writers and Champions.
• Number II.: An Idea of the French Government. the Spirit of Popery, How Terrible to Protestants.
• Number III.: Further Observations Upon the French Government. the Excellence of Our Own, Confess’d By French Writers.
• Number IV.: Persecution and Cruelty, Marks of Apostasy From Christianity. the Doctrine of Transubstantiation, How Impious and Impossible. the Inconsistency, Impotence, and Absurdity of All Popish Miracles.
• Number V.: The Natural and Dreadful Consequences Attending the Success of the Rebellion.
• Number VI.: The Views of the Pretender Not to Be Disguised. His Defence an Insult.
• Number VII.: The Norman Invasion, How Sanguinary and Fatal to England. the Invader How Faithless and Barbarous to Englishmen.
• Number VIII.: The Curious Speech of a Fugitive Protestant - Popish - Jacobite Priest to Lewis the Well-beloved.
• Number IX.: The Loyalty of Papists Never to Be Trusted By Protestants. Religion and Liberty Inevitable Sacrifices to a Popish Revolution.
• Number X.: Remarks Upon the Appeal of the Pretender (young Or Old) to the People.
• Number XI.: Popery Tried By Christianity and Reason, and Proved an Enemy to Both.
• Number XII.: Warning to Britons, Upon the Present Rebellion Supported By France.
• Number XIII.: The Shocking Antipathy of Popery to Common Sense and Christian Charity.
• Number XIV.: Dialogue Between a Noble Convert and His Late Confessor.
• Number XV.: Continuation of a Dialogue Between a Noble Convert and His Late Confessor.
• Number XVI.: Continuation of a Dialogue Between a Noble Convert and His Late Confessor.
• Number XVII.: Remainder of a Dialogue Between a Noble Convert and His Late Confessor.
• Number XVIII.: King James II. His Disgraceful Reign. His Impotence and Cruelty. He Exposes and Deposes Himself.
• Number XIX.: How Boldly the Popish Clergy Abuse Their Followers, By Teaching Them to Deny With a Curse, the Most Obvious Impieties of Their Church.
• Number XX.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Number XXI.: The Following Quotation Is Taken From One of the Political Discourses Upon Sallust the Roman Historian: It Is the Fourth Section of the Discourse, of the Mutability of Government. the Passage Is Extremely Curious, And, I Think, Seasona
• Number XXII.: The Quaker’ S Advice to the Young Pretender.
• Number XXIII.: The Intimate Resemblance Between the Popish Clergy, and Those of Modern Paganism In the East.
• Number XXIV.: Of the Many Good Sermons Preached and Published Against the Rebellion. a Sermon of Singular Tendency, By an Eminent Hand: the Strange Doctrines Advanced, and the Observable Omissions, In It.
• Number XXV.: Our National Sins No Wise Analogous to Those of the Jews, Nor Meriting Equal Punishment. the Rashness and Danger of Ascertaining and Applying Divine Judgments.
• Number XXVI.: The Free Use of Reason the Best Cure For Bigotry, and the Violence of Enthusiasm.
• Number XXVII.: To What I Have Said Above Upon the Excesses and Unchristian Spirit of the Clergy In the Reign of King Charles I. I Shall Add the Following Observations Upon Their Incredible Canon, Injoining an Oath to an Et Cætera.
• Number XXVIII.: Considerations Upon the Mischievous Tendency of Libels; Chiefly Public Libels.
• Number XXIX.: The Subject of Libels Continued.
• Number XXX.: The Subject of Libels Continued and Concluded.
• Number XXXI.: The Absurdity of Jacobitism, the Impiety of Popery, and the Enthusiasm of Party.
• Number XXXII.: The Letter of Monsieur D’argenson to Mynheer Van Hoey, and That of the Mynheer to the Duke of Newcastle, Paraphrased.

Number VIII.

The curious Speech of a Fugitive Protestant - Popish - Jacobite Priest to Lewis the Well-beloved.

THE following Speech in French is handed about in MS. at Paris, and commended for its Smartness and Eloquence. His Excellency Mynheer Van Hoey has sent a Copy of it to the Hague: An important Piece of Intelligence from such an able Hand! A Friend of mine having transmitted a Transcript of it to me, I think it well worth the Perusal of English Readers. In order to be quite exact in my Translation of it, I have even preserved some Gallicisms, that none of the Pith and Scope of so curious a Piece might be lost.

Mr. KELLY, the Nonjuror, Secretary to the late Bishop Atterbury, now Envoy from the Young Pretender in Scotland to the King of France, his Speech to that Monarch.

SIRE,

I HAVE the Honour to wait upon your Majesty from my Royal Master, the Prince Regent, and am fully instructed by him (your Ministers, Sire, have seen my Instructions) to display to your Majesty what a profound and lively Sense he fosters in his princely Heart, of your generous Friendship to himself and his Cause; of your bountiful and seasonable Assistance; and of your Cordiality in continuing to assist him; Assistance, Sire, so signal and successful, as to have raised him from a forsaken Wanderer, to command an Army, to the Possession of almost all one Kingdom, and to the fair Hopes of another.

His R. H. Sire, is so passionately penetrated with a Spirit of Gratitude towards your Majesty, his gracious Benefactor and Founder, that he ardently longs to publish his Gratitude to your Majesty before the Face of the whole World, by returning you your own Gift again, and laying his Crown at your Feet. A Title to it he had before, but, at best, disputed, always ineffectual: Your Majesty, Sire, in giving him Possession, has, as it were, substantially purchased the Title to yourself. His highest Ambition will be, to have the Honour to wear, for your Majesty’s Use, a Crown conferred upon him by your Majesty’s Bounty.

For this pleasing Reason, Sire, he earnestly applies to your Majesty, to facilitate to him the Means of thus signalizing his Thanks to your Majesty. Be pleased, Sire, to enable him to a final Triumph; since he cannot, he will not, triumph finally, but for your Majesty.

He has the Honour, Sire, to offer other Views of Advantage to your Majesty, from such a happy, such a seasonable Revolution in England; as that vain, ill-judging Nation, long infatuated with the deceitful and dangerous Pride of Liberty, and with a damnable Antipathy to the true Apostolic Church, shall then no longer obstruct your Majesty’s paternal Schemes for the Glory of your Crown, and for the just Abasement of such Princes and States, as would, for narrow Interests and presumptuous Ends of their own, dare to dispute your Majesty’s wise Measures for your own Honour and their Humiliation.

His R. H. Sire, incapable of the low Policy of such ungenerous Caution and Neutrality, will ambitiously seek his own Glory in advancing that of your Majesty, in humbling all who are so blind as to refuse to receive Laws from so great a Monarch. In such Assistance given to your Majesty, Sire, for such laudable and pacific Ends, his R. H. besides the Reasonableness of paying a just Debt, will have the Pleasure and Merit of imitating the Examples of his Royal Grandfather, and his Royal Grand Uncle (of pious Memory) in their Behaviour towards your Majesty’s Great Grandfather, Lewis the Great, a glorious Champion against Schismatics and Commonwealths, and against all who stood so obstinately in Defence of their own pretended Rights, as not to submit them to his Godlike Power.

His R. H. Sire, hath planned out Measures for effectually reducing untractable Spirits, when, by your Majesty’s Favour, he is once settled. He likewise hopes and even intreats, your Majesty’s Concurrence in this his noble Design: He the less doubts your Aid, Sire, as it is a Common Cause, almost equally interesting to both your Majesty and himself. He purposes to begin with Persuasions and gentle Methods, and is so moderate as to be content with all his Subjects who will embrace the Apostolic System of the Nonjurors (of whom, Sire, I have the Honour to be one) neither can our Faith or Discipline, though we be Protestants, offend your Majesty, since they so intimately square with those of the Gallican Church, which we have been ambitious to resemble and imitate, in all her essential Tenets and Practices, “Prayers for the Dead; Adoration of the Host; the Invocation of Saints; the Fire of Purgatory; the Power of Priests to open the Gates of Heaven and Hell; the Doctrines of Auricular Confession, Priestly Absolution, Chrism, Penance, Altars, and the Unbloody Sacrifice thereon; but above all, the princely Power, and indelible Character, with their uninterrupted Apostolic Succession, of Bishops and Priests.”

We hold too, Sire, the Divine Hereditary Right and irresistible Authority of Kings. We detest Schismatics, and consider the present Clergy as Intruders, Presbyterians, and Time-servers, ever since the Revolution; and we reclaim the Church Lands from the sacrilegious Usurpers of them.

These Catholic Principles, Sire, will, we hope, warrant us, in the equitable Eyes of your Majesty, for assuming, as we do, the Title of the Catholic Church of Great Britain. These Catholic Principles, Sire, and our steady Loyalty, have so endeared us to his R. H. the P. R. that he professeth to have our Restoration at Heart, as much as we have his. We burn, Sire, with servent Zeal, to see the Churches gloriously filled with a staunch Apostolic Ministry, Confessors, who have a common Claim, common Sufferings, and a common Interest with himself.

He hopes, Sire, that your Majesty will graciously please to behold him, with sympathizing Eyes, in the same tender and just Light as he doth us, engaged, Sire, in a Cause in which your Majesty has an equal Concern with himself; since, as he will rule by you, Sire, he will be ever animated with the same glowing Ambition to rule for you, Sire, according to the illustrious Precedent set him by his last and best Predecessors.

It is thus, Sire, that his R. H. has the pleasing Prospect of lessening, in Part, that immense Heap of Obligations, which have been so long and so plentifully showering upon him and his House from the august House of France, particularly by yourself, Sire, the Representative and living Glory of that Imperial House. As to the literal Method of discharging those Debts, he has the Honour to leave it intirely, Sire, to your Majesty’s Wisdom and Discretion; determined, as he is, when all is paid, still to consider himself your Debtor, and the Debt itself as immortal and irredeemable. For your present Security, Sire, he offers your Majesty his Heart and his Kingdoms, which are indeed already yours; and he graciously consigns to me, Sire, the Glory of making your Majesty that Offer.

It transports my Soul, Sire, and even softens it, as your Majesty may be pleased to perceive by these sincere Tears, to foresee, as I do, with an unchangeable Hope, the blessed Time approaching, when your Majesty shall have given to England a new Face, fixed the true Heir upon the Throne, and Uniformity in the Church; when the Hierarchy shall no longer be invaded and defiled by Schismatics, nor insolent Republicans limit and affront the Crown; when Church and Monarchy shall go Hand in Hand, and give Laws without Controul, except when honoured with your Majesty’s enlightening Commands, or warned by your wise Measures: Both Church and State will be the Work of your own Hands. Condescend, Sire, to enable us to complete your own glorious Work. Be, Sire, be, to our Three Kingdoms what you are so conspicuously to France, Louis the Well-beloved.

Your Majesty’s great Wisdom will acquaint you, Sire, that present Success depends upon present Supplies. The usurped Government in England grows every Day more formidable, especially at Sea, at your Majesty’s grievous Expence, and to our lamentable Misfortune. It wounds us, Sire, it wounds us with Grief, to see Merchants and Republicans so boldly seizing the Ships and Wealth of so great a Monarch. Be speedy, Sire, to avenge yourself and us; shorten their saucy Triumph and immoderate Gains, and give them a rightful Governor; a Governor of your own, who will cure them of their drunken Insolence from Wealth, and of their wild Wantonness from Liberty; teach them, Sire, proper Respect for your Majesty, with due Loyalty and Obedience to his R. H. your Majesty’s grateful Ward and faithful Ally.

It will doubtless touch your Royal Heart, Sire, with the most pleasing Sensations, to heat the agreeable Information which I have the Honour to communicate to your Majesty, that there is an intire and equitable Plan fixed for securing the Royal Throne, as soon as it is recovered. All who served or favoured the Usurpation, are, not only never to be trusted, but to be dispatched and forfeited, like the Regicides, Sire, at the last Restoration. They are, however, to be treated in the mean time with gentle Language, and even to be fed with fair Hopes, since it would be premature and imprudent to terrify them into more desperate Measures of Defence than they are even now taking.

These Forfeitures, Sire, and the Stocks, which have been rather Funds of public Rebellion, than of the public Revenue, will competently exalt and enrich his M———’s Court and Followers. The present Churchmen, who have so long and wilfully lopped themselves off from the ApostolicSuccession, are to be divested of all their usurped Emoluments; their Ministry will be declared Schismatical, and all their Ordinations null. Many of the Church Lands will be resumed, most of them perhaps forfeited, and the rest purchased. Thus, Sire, the Church will be brought to flourish with the Monarchy, and to crush all Sectaries, and all Republicans. For, at present, alas! none but Presbyterians govern the Church; none but Republicans administer the Monarchy.

Permit me, Sire, to acquaint your Majesty with one successful Stroke of our Policy, which hath done us marvellous Service. We have convinced all our Adherents, that the present complying Churchmen, Bishops and Clergy, are Presbyterians; and that Presbyterians are much worse Christians than Papists, a Nick-name which Schismatics give to Catholics. In this Step, Sire, we do but confirm our Esteem and Charity for the Gallican Church, with which we have long studied to unite our own, and even agreed to a Scheme for that Purpose; a Scheme which Mr. Lesly, a celebrated Champion of ours, had the honest Boldness to present to an English Convocation in the Reign of Queen Anne.

We have, Sire, many Writers, and many Books ready written, to prove all our Claims, as soon as we can Master the Kingdom, and the Press; Passive Obedience, and indefeasible Right, shall be again our constant, and our affectionate Themes, loudly and awfully echoed by every Divine from every Pulpit; Doctrines, Sire, ever dear to his R. H.’s best Predecessors, and tenderly nourished by them. We shall produce, Sire, voluminous Histories (purposely composed) to prove the Succession of the Stuarts from the antient Monarchical House of Noah, and that the said Succession was never interrupted, whatever Breaches Time and Violence, Necessity and Accidents, may have made in it. An egregious Performance this, Sire, worthy of the Countenance of all rightful Kings, and of all offended Patriots who oppose Kings whom they cannot approve.

It is the firm Purpose of his R. H. (for to him his Royal Father, your Majesty knows, will resign) it is, Sire, his fixed Resolution, to revive, and even to sharpen the old Laws, and to reign with Vigour, like an absolute Master, at least by the Direction of the greatest of all. For it will be, Sire, his Study and his Pride, always to reign according to your Model, and by your sage Counsel; and to shew himself worthy of such a revered, such a superior Pattern and Director.

Such,Sire, are the Sentiments, Views, Hopes, and Situation of his R. H. the P. R. Heaven and your Majesty have rendered him hitherto victorious. He hopes that the greatest King upon Earth will concur with the King of Heaven, in accomplishing a Work so favoured and forwarded by both.

I shall impatiently wait, Sire, for the Honour of your Majesty’s Commands, and still more impatiently for the Execution of them from your Majesty’s Ministers.