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other dependance, but upon the Crown, and upon the Care of thofe that chofe them, and fuch as in the laft Seffions had manifefted their Affections to him by fuch large Aids and Supplies; adding, that nothing could be more important to his Service, than to make and preferve you ftill popular with thofe that fent you. To which end I took the liberty to tell him, that if the neceflity of his Affairs, (of which 1, having no part in his Council, was no good Judge) could admit of it, he ought not in prudence to let you give him any Money this Sitting, but rather to oblige you wholly to apply yourfelves to the making of fuch Laws as might endear both him and you to the People; by which means, at another Meeting, he would be Mafter of the Hearts and Purles of his Subjects. But that in cafe his Neceflities fhould urge him to prefs you, before the rifing, for a new Supply, that he ought, by all means, to let it be accompanied, if not preceded, by fome eminent Acts for the reformation of former Abuses, and for the fecuring his Subjects from the like for the fuI perfifted, Mr. Speaker, in preffing, upon all occafions, this Advice to His Majefty, till within fome few Weeks after their meeting; when finding myself (I know not by what Misfortune) fallen under fome Prejudice, I thought that a total forbearance from speaking to him of any Bufinefs, would be the best way of my ferving him. And I protest unto you,

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Gentlemen, with all fincerity, that from that time, until that of His Majefty's expreffing to me some displeasure against Sir Richard Temple, I never once opened my Lips to him of any pnblick Affair whatsoever: It is true, Mr.Speaker, that a ground being given me to enter again with His Majefty, upon a Subject which my Heart was ftill full of, I laid hold upon the occafion, and in pursuance of what I had said in behalf of Sir Richard Temple, told His Majefty, perhaps with more freedom and fervour than did become me, that I found his Courtiers gave him wrong Measures, both of the Temper of the House of Commons, and of the Means to attain from them any new Supplies, whether by way of Prefent, Gift, or of fuch Establishments in his Revenues, as might indeed put him out of neceflity; fince there could be no reasonable hopes of obtaining from them any fuch Affiftance, but by a Concomitance, if not a Precedence of fuch Acts, as might be grateful and beneficial to his Subjects, and fecure them, that what shall be given hereafter, fhould be better managed for His Majefty's Service, than those vaft Sums that had been formerly granted: That if His Majefty, in his Princely Wisdom, fhould think fit to drive on his Bufinefs upon folid Grounds, and not upon the falfe and felf-interefted Meafures of fome Courtiers, He had a House of Commons compofed of Members fo full of Affection to his Perfon, and Zeal for his Pro

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fperity and Glory, that not only Sir Richard Temple, but the most unprejudic'd and wifeft Men of the Kingdom, as well as myself, durft undertake for them. See here, Gentlemen,

the bold undertaking that fuch a House of Commons would never let him want fuch prefent Supplies, as the true neceffity of his Affairs fhould require, nor fuch an established Revenue, as fit to fupport the Greatness and Honour of his Crown. If this was a Criminal Undertaking, you have, before you, Gentlemen, Confitentem reum; but whilft I am endeavouring to clear Sir Richard Temple, and to vindicate or arraign myself, according as you shall be pleased to understand it, by telling you what pafs'd from me to His Majefty, I must not omit to give him the Honour due to him for the Kingly reply he made to me upon this occafion, which was, That he had a true fence of the Merit of the Houfe of Commons towards him, even far beyond what I had expreffed, and this was the reafon why relying fo entirely as he did, upon the Affections of that whole Body, he was, and ever fhould be offen ded at any Propofition to carry on his Bufinefs there by officious Undertakings and Cabals, either of his Courtiers or others. An Expreffion fit to be written with the Rays of the Sun, that all the World may read it; an Expreflion which cannot chufe but inflame the Affections of all this Noble Affembly that hear me, and carry you to make good these happy Impreffi

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ons of you, which are fo deeply ftampt in his Royal Breaft: Such as I fhould think it a Crime to doubt, but that all Sufpicions being now vanished of His Majefty's owing the Supply defired to any Acts or Contrivances of others, your own Zeal for his Service will, even in the proportion and timeliness of that, exceed the vain Propofals of all pick-thank Undertakers. Mr. Speaker, I fhould have here put a period to your trouble of hearing me, did I not think I might incur the Imputation of much Weakness and Supineness in my own highest Concernments, if valuing, as I do, above all Earthly Concernments, the Favour and the Efteem of my Country, of which you are the illuftrious Reprefentatives; and knowing what Industry has been used to blast me with you, I fhould not lay hold on this juft occafion to remove from me fome unjuft Prejudice under which I have labour'd. And this, Mr. Speaker, I humbly beg leave to do in a very few words. I appeal, Gentlemen, to numbers of you, that hear me, whether I have not been reprefented unto you for the giver of Advice of a far different Tenor from what you have heard upon this occafion; whether I have not been painted out unto you for an Inflamer of His Majefty against his Parliaments; for an Enemy of the Church of England, and for a dangerous driver on of the Papiftical Intereft. It is true, Mr. Speaker, I am a Catholick of the Church of Rome, but

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not of the Court of Rome; no Negotiator there of Cardinal's Caps for His Majefty's Subjects and Domesticks, a true Roman Catholick as to the other World, but a true Englishman as to this: Such a one, as had we a King inclined to that Profeffion (as on the contrary, we have one the moft firm and conftant to the Proteftant Religion, that ever fate upon the Throne.) I would tell him as freely as the D. of Sully, being a Proteftant, told his Grandfather Henry IV. That if he meant to be a King he muft be a conftant profeffor and maintainer of the Religion eftablished in his Dominions. Believe me, Gentlemen, Roman Catholick as I am, there is no Man amongst you all, more throughly perfwaded than I am, that the true Pillars, that can uphold this Monarchy, muft ever be the maintainance of the Subjects juft Rights and Liberties, and the careful prefervation of that ftate Ecclefiaftical, whereof His Majefty is the Supreme Governour; and I do clearly profess, that should the Pope himfelf invade that Ecclefiaftical Right of his, I fhould as readily draw my Sword against him as against the late Ufurper. Mr. Speaker, one Prejudice more I am under, which ought to have great weight indeed with this Honourable House, if there were a real Ground for it; and that is, that the Earl of Bristol is one of those, who by the vaft Grants that he hath got of the King, hath, in part, contributed to the Groans of the People, to find their King

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