Londonia. Juratores pro domino Rege super sacramentum suum præsentant quod Johannes Starkey nuper de Londonia Stationer machinans et intendens Serenissimum Dominum nostrum Carolum Secundum Dei gratia Angliæ Scotiæ Franciæ et Hiberniæ Regem Fidei Defensorem &c. supremum et naturalem Dominum suum et regimen suum in odium infamiam et contemptum inter subditos suos inducere et inferre ac pacem et communem tranquillitatem hujus regni Angliæ perturbare vicesimo die Junii anno regni dicti domini Regis nunc tricesimo quarto apud Londoniam videlicet in parochia Sancti Dunstani in Occidente in Warda de Farringdon extra London prædicta vi et armis &c. falso seditiose et malitiose impressit et publicavit et imprimi et publicari causavit quendam librum scandalosum intitulatum The continuation of the Historicall and Politicall Discourse of the Laws and Government of England until the end of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth with a vindication of the antient way of Parliaments in England. In quo quidem libro de et concernente præfato domino Rege nunc continentur hæc falsa ficta et scandalosa verba sequentia videlicet, I do easily grant that Kings have many Occasions and Opportunities to beguile their People, yet can they do nothing as Kings, but what of right they ought to doe: They may call Parliaments, but neither as often or seldome as they please, if the Statute-Laws of this Realme might take place. Et in altera parte ejusdem libri continentur hæc falsa et scandalosa verba sequentia videlicet, And though Kings may be chiefe Commanders, yet they are not the chiefe Rulers. In malum et pernitiosissimum exemplum omnium aliorum in consimili casu delinquentium ac contra pacem dicti domini regis nunc coronam et dignitatem suas &c.[226]
Upon this indictment Starkey was outlawed, but in the first year of Will. and Mary he brought a writ of error and the outlawry was reversed.
272.
Mr. Hunt's postscript for rectifying some mistakes in some of the inferiour clergy, mischievous to our government and religion. With two Discourses about the Succession, and Bill of Exclusion. In answer to two Books affirming the unalterable right of Succession, and the unlawfulness of the Bill of Exclusion. London. 1682.
Thomas Hunt, Esq., of London, was prosecuted for publishing this. The information charges that Thomas Hunt, late of London, esquire, being a pernicious and seditious man, and contriving and maliciously intending to disturb the peace of England, and to create false opinions and suspicions among the king's subjects concerning the king and his government, and to cause them to think that the king was an abettor of Papists and most pernicious men conspiring to procure the subversion of the government of the kingdom and also the Protestant religion established by law, called plotters, and to excite rebellious seditions and discords between the king and his subjects, and to bring the king's government into contempt and hatred, did in order to carry out his most wicked and diabolical intentions, on the twentieth day of January in the thirty fourth year of the reign of King Charles the Second, at the parish of St. Michael Cornhill in London, unlawfully, wickedly, maliciously, scandalously, and seditiously make, compose and write, and cause to be printed, published and sold a certain false, scandalous, libellous, seditious, and defamatory book intituled Mr Hunt's Postscript, in which book in writing of and concerning the Papists and the plots in the same book mentioned to have been perpetrated, among other things is contained as follows—Nay, as if they [meaning Papists] did not fear or care to loose the favour of their most indulgent Prince, which they have possest since he used Papists in making his Escape at Worcester; they have contrived these two last Plots with such Art, as to bring them under his Majesties Observation, and represented them as things fit for his encouragement. Sure if they were not urged with the fears of a real guilt, and a restless Conscience of the Plot, they would never have adventured thus to have interested the honor of the King, and to tempt him to abandon them to the publick Justice of the Nation: which begins to grow impatient by the delays of it against this hellish Plot. For we have had four Parliaments dissolved since the discovery of it, one a darling to the Crown. The bringing into question the Dissolution of that Parliament in the House of Peers, upon the reason of an unnatural Prorogation, was not long before censured, and some great Lords imprisoned therefore; proceedings so unwarrantable, that it was after thought fit by that House to obliterate the Memory of them; soe necessary was that Parliament then thought to the service of the Crown. The Dissolution of that Parliament, gave us reason to fear that the King had no more business for Parliaments. By these Dissolutions, no publick ends that are intelligible are served, no Interest but that of the Plot is gratified; no persons of any sort receive their satisfaction but the Plotters, who are respited thereby from publick Justice, and gain time to bring their Plot to effect.[227]
The result of this prosecution does not appear. A copy of the book is preserved in the British Museum Library.
273.
The Presbyterian Paternoster; Creed, and Ten Commandments. 1681.
This is a single sheet printed on both sides. A copy is preserved in the Library of the British Museum.