N. B.

you boast the King's Commissioners to have been) Men of Honour and Honesty, Men of Fortunes and Estates, Men of great Parts and Endowments, who understood the bu siness they went about, and were very fond of bealing the Nation's Breaches, and putting things into such a posture as might settle the King upon his just Rights, and the People upon their ancient Priviledges.

The affair of the
Scottish army reti-

the king in

Well, Sir, for my own Comfort, if not for your's, I purpose to trouble myself (at ring to Scotland, and least at this present) with but one thing more in your Tract. You say," That the the hands of the En- Scots, notwithstanding all their Promises and Obligations, SELL THE KING 10 glish Commissioners, THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT." "Tis a Divine Truth, "that Men are not only set in its true light. ignorant because they cannot, but because they will not, know the Truth:" And I cannot conceive that you believe what you here assert. Therefore, that my Country-men may be undeceived, and our Brethren of Scotland vindicated, I will set this Matter in its true Light:-The King had fled to the Scottish Army at Newcastle, then in the Parliament's Service and Pay; and there Propositions for Peace were made unto him, which he rejected. The war being happily ended, the Parliament were in arrear to the Scots, for their assistance in it, Four hundred thousand Pounds: It was agreed, that half that Sum should be presently paid; upon receipt whereof, the Scots were to deliver-up (not the King, but) the towns of Berwick, Newcastle, and Carlisle, to the Parliament. 'Tis far from Truth, that this was the Price of the King. For the Parliament freely granted to the Scots, that they might carry him (if they pleased) to Edinburgh; But they refused it, affirming, that by his Presence, in an unsettled Nation, new Commotions might arise. They rather desired (which was also the King's desire) that he might be carried into the Southern parts of England, and live in some of his Palaces near London, which they thought more convenient for treating of a Peace: So that in all the whole Debate, they seemed to contend, not who should have the King, but who should not have him. Nevertheless, to cast a slander upon both Nations, (for, certainly, 'tis as wicked a thing to buy, as to sell, such Merchandize,) You, Sir, will have it, that the Scots sold him, and the English bought him. But WILFULNESS EVER WAS THE GREATEST BLINDNESS.

Reverend Sir, I shall for the present discharge you and myself from further trouble. You think, I suppose, that you make me a very merciful Offer, That, if I will repent, and do so no more, I may hope to live in Peace, and you will not further lash me with any more such Scourges, as I have been but now tortured with; but, if I shall persist, and appear incorrigible, you have more Rods in Piss, and will pay me off. You have much more to say in the behalf of King Charles the First, ['tis well if you have; for I am sure, 'tis very little that you have hitherto said] and you assure me I shall have it; and resolve, That, as long as you can hold a Pen your Hand, you will not drop his Cause. There's no Remedy then, but I must abide your Fury: For I resolve never to ask Forgiveness and promise to do so no more: But, on the contrary, to write-on, as I have leisure, and you give me occasion, in the defence of the Laws and Liberties of my Country. Upon which Subject I have much more to say, and, if you will not be quiet, you shall have it; I love the

in

Cause

Cause too well to drop it, and will wear my Steel Pen to the stumps, in its cefence. And,

Now, seeing we are eternally to differ in this Point, I desire to settle two things with you, for the more orderly Prosecution of this dreadful War.

1. That we (as Duelists agree upon the length of their Weapons) may resolve how often to trouble the World with our Impertinences. I think once, or, if you will have it so, twice (because there are TWO MADDING-DAYS) in a Year, may suffice.

2. That, after you have fairly answer'd this and my former Letter, by falsifying (which, as a Preliminary, I shall expect from you) the many particular Instances I have brought to shew that your admired Prince was a Tyrant, or else by proving that they are not Acts, or Evidences, of Tyranny, you would then (in the further Prosecution of that Defence which you have undertaken, accompanied with a design of Criminating at the same time one of the greatest and best-deserving Parliaments that ever England saw) lay-aside your loose and general way of discoursing, and come to Particulars. When you shall so proceed, and I shall have failed to give you a clear Answer to every thing you shall have advanced, then, and not till then, the day will be your own. For, tho' (throughout your whole Discourse, which I have been (xamining,) you Rebellize the Lords and Commons, and fly in the Face of the Parli ament, with the King's gracious MESSAGES, SAYINGS, &c;. Others may, upon better grounds, sum-up the humble, condescending, convincing PETITIONS, MESSAGES, DECLARATIONS, &c. of the Parliament, and dash them all into your Face, than you can those Messages and Sayings of the King into the Faces of all who declare that he was a proud Nimrod, a hardened Pharaoh; in plain English, A MERCILESS TYRT.

1

Lastly; To encourage you to further Conversation with me, tho' some Men are so impudent as to say that it is not Day when the Sun itself doth shine, you shall see that I am not resolved against Conviction, but that, being under the Command of good Manners, I rest not satisfied in the Confession which I made in the beginning An acknowledgment of this Letter, of an Error committed in my former Letter in relation to the Noble of a mistake in the former Letter relating Lord Conway, (sometime Secretary of State to King Charles the First) but shall to Lord Conway. more fully do it in this place.

Being misguided by the Printer's Miftake in Rushworth's first Collections, from whence I took it, I was led to say, in my last Year's Letter, page 7, That the Lord Conway said in Parliament that he never bated Popery; whereas, bis words were, that be ever wated it and I have now certain ground to say, that those words were

:

not only consonant to his Speech then made in Parliament, but agreeable to the con- Some particulars of stant Tenour of his whole Life, even unto the last Period. His Father and Mo. his life and character. ther lived and died pious Protestants; such was his Religious Lady, and such are his Grand Children at this day.

This Lord Conway was Knighted at the taking of Cadiz in Spain, in the time of Queen Elizabeth; he was afterwards, for many Years, Governor of the Brill in Holland, where he and his Family lived as became zealous Protestants, and were greatly beloved and esteemed by the Protestant Magistrates and Ministers of that Town.

He

He was greatly favoured by the never-to-be-forgotten MOST PIOUS PRINCE HENRY.

When the Brill and other Cautionary Towns were delivered to the Dutch; upon his return into England, he was employed to Jersey, to compose some Differences there; which he performed to so much Satisfaction, that the good Protestanis of that Place always mentioned him with Honour,

He was then sent Ambassador to Germany, in behalf of the King and Queen of Bohemia, and was very acceptable to those UNHAPPILY-DESERTED Protestant Princes. Upon his return to England the Spanish Match was warmly pressed; against which he spake with so much Reason and Courage, that the Duke of Buckingham (who, for particular ends, resolved to ruin that Project) introduced him as a proper Instrument for that purpose to be Principal Secretary of State,

In that Station he refused many Gifts tendered to him by particular Persons, and' 10,000l. Sterling offer'd and pressed upon him by the Spanish Ambassador.

In the beginning of King Charles I. Reign, at the opening of one of those Parliaments, and according to the Custom then, the Holy Communion being to be received by both Houses of Parliament, by the Contrivance of some LAUDEANS, the SACRAMENT was offered to the Lords, in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, NOT IN BREAD, BUT IN WAFERS. This Lord Conway was one of the Lords who refused the Wafers, and caused them to be taken-away, and Bread to be brought.

*Not long after King Charles I. sent for the Seals of the Secretary's Office from bim; which (as the Lord employed in that Message would often say) the Lord Conway delivered with an admirable Generosity, becoming indeed one that, in that Ministry of State, had served the Publick with extraordinary Ability and Integrity, had performed many noble Offices to particular Persons, without Injury to any, and left that Place and some others of great Profit, without one Farthing advantage to the State of his Family.

When he was upon his Death-Bed, a Lady of great Wit, who was turned Papist, and was the Widow of a near, Relation of his Lordship, very subtilly and earnestly pressed upon him concerning his Religion; whereupon he strengthened himself, and made full profession of his firm Steadfastness in the Reformed Protestant Religion, caused the Servants to convey this Lady out of his House, and commanded them not to suffer any of that Religion to come to him.

And now, Doctor, I assure you at parting, That, as fast as you convince me of any Error, or Mistake, committed in my Scribblings about your Martyr, I shall as openly and frankly retract it, as I have now done this, which relates to my Lord Conway. Might I be made so happy as to find a suitable return from you, and that you would give a free and impartial Liberty to the use of your own Reason, I would yet hope, that we might mutually conclude, as I now do,

Your Friend in and for Truth, Amsterdam, Jan. 30, 1690..

EDMUND LUDLOW.

* He that would not make the necessary Advances to Rome, was to be neither Secretary, nor Minister of State to. King Charles I,