WHEREAS the Most Christian King, in pursuance of the many obliging promises he has made Us, of giving Us his effectual Assistance for the recovering of Our Kingdoms, as soon as the condition of his Affairs would permit, has put Us in a way of endeavouring it at this time, and in order to it, has lent Us so many of his Troops, as may be abundantly sufficient to untie the hands of Our Subjects, and make it safe for them to return to their Duty, and repair to Our Standard; and has notwithstanding for the present, according to Our desire (unless there should appear further necessity for it) purposely declin'd sending over Forces so numerous, as might raise any jealousie in the minds of Our good Subjects, of his intending to take the Work wholly out of their hands, or to deprive any true Englishman of the part he may hope to have in so Glorious an Action, as is that of Restoring his Lawful King, and His Antient Goverment (all which Forreign Troops, as soon as We shall be fully settled in the quiet and peaceable Possession of Our Kingdoms, We do hereby promise to send back, and in the mean time to keep them in such exact order and Discipline, that none of Our Subjects shall receive the least injury in their Persons or Pos­sessions, from any Soldier or Officer whatsoever) thô an Affair of this nature speaks for it self, nor do We think Our Selves at all oblig'd to say any thing more upon this occasion, than, that We come to Assert Our own just Rights, and to deliver Our People from the oppression they ly under; yet, when We consider how miserably many of Ou [...] Subjects were [...]ed into the late Revolution by the Ar­tifice of ill Men, and pa [...] [...] [...]ince of Or [...] [...]eclaration, which was taken upon trust, and easily believ'd then, [...] [...]otoriously [...] [...]ll the parts of it, consisting no less of Assertions that have been evident [...]v'd, than of Prom [...]es that were never intended to be per­formed; to prevent the like delusions for the time to come, and to do, as much as lies in Our Power, to open the Eyes of all Our Subjects, We are willing to lay the whole matter before them in as plain and short a manner as is possible, that they may not again pretend mistakes, or have ignorance to plead for any false steps they shall hereafter make towards the ruin of their own, and their Countries happiness.

And herefote, to take the matter from the beginning, it cannot be forgotten, that as soon as We had certain notice of the Prince of Orange's unnatural design of Invading Our Kingdoms, with the whole Power of the United Provinces, We first took the best care We could to provide for Our defence [...] which We seem'd effectually to have done, when We had put Our Fleet and Army into such a con­dition, that thô His Most Christian Majesty, who well saw the bottom of the design against Us, against [Page] Himself, and, indeed, against the Peace of Europe, offer'd Us considerable Succours, both by Land and Sea, We did not think it at all necessary to accept 'em at that time, as resolving to cast Our Selves wholly (next to the Divine Protection) upon the Courage and Fidelity of Our English Army, which had been with so much care and tenderness form'd and oblig'd by Us. And having thus prepar'd to oppose Force to Force; We did, in the next place, apply Our Selves to give all reasonable satisfaction to the Minds of Our good Subjects by endeavouring to undeceive them, and to let them see betimes and whilst the mischief might easily have been prevented, how fatal a ruin they must bring upon their Country, if they suffer'd themselves to be seduc'd by the vain pretences of the Prince of Orange's In­vasion However, so great was the infatuation of that time, that We were not believ'd 'till it was too late. But when he was oblig'd to throw off the Mask by degrees, and that it began to appear plainly that it was not the Reformation of the Goverment (which yet was a matter that did not at all belong to him to meddle with) but the Subversion of it that he aim'd at, that so he might build his own Am­bitious designs upon the ruins of the English Nation; and when the Poyson had insinuated it self into the vital parts of the Kingdom, when it had spread over our whole Army, and so far got into Our Court and Family, as not only to corrupt some of Our Servants that were nearest Our Person, and had been most highly oblig'd by Us, but not even to leave Our own Children at that time uninfected; when Our Army dayly deserted on the one hand, and on the other hand Tumults and Disorders increas'd in all parts of the Kingdom; and especially vvhen shortly after, the Reuolution came on so fast, that We found Our Selves wholly in Our Enemies Power, being at first confin'd by them in Our own Pallace, and afterwards rudely forc'd out of it under a Guard of Forreigners, We could not then but be ad­monish'd, by the fate of some of Our Predecessors in the like circumstances, of the danger We were in, and that it was high time to provide for the security of Our Person (which was happily effected by Our getting from the Guard that was set upon Us at Rochester, and Our arrival in France; the only part of Europe to which We could retire with safety) that so We might preserve Our Selves for better times, and for a more happy opportunity; such as is that which, by the Blessing of God, is at present put into Our Hands.

Upon what foundation of Justice or Common sense, the Prince of Orange's Faction in England were plea [...]d to treat this escape of Ours out of the Hands of Our Enemies in the Style of an Abdication; a word, when apply'd to Sovereign Princes, that vvas never before us'd to signifie any thing but a free and voluntary Resignation of a Crown, as in the Cases of the Emperour Charles the Fifth, and the late Queen of sweden; and what a strange superstructure they rais'd upon this weak Foundation, that a Company of Men Illegally met together, who had not Power, even by their own Confession at that time (for it was before they had Voted themselves a Parliament) to charge the Interest of the meanest Subject; should yet take upon them to destroy the whole Constitution of the Goverment, to make an Antient Hereditary Monarchy turn Elective; and then assuming to themselves the Right of Election, should proceed to settle the Succession in so odd and extravagant a manner, are Transactions that need not be repeated: They are too well known to the World, to the great reproach of the English Nation, and the grounds upon which they are Built, are too vain and frivolous to de­serve a confutation. Every Free-holder of England is, in this Case, able to make his own observations: and will, no doubt, examin a little better than hitherto he has done, what assurance any private Man can have of keeping his Estate, if the King himself shall hold His Crown by no better Title.

But since some Men that could not say one word in defence of the Justice of these proceedings, would yet take great pains to shew the necessity of them, and to set forth what extraordinary good effects were to be expected from so very bad a Cause; We do not doubt but the Nation has by this time cast up the account, and when they shall have well consider'd, what wonders might have been perform'd with less expence of English Blood than that which has been unnecessarily trifled away in this Quarrel; that such a number of Ships of War have been lost and destroy'd in the Three Years last past, as might alone have been sufficient to have made a considerable Fleet: That more Mony has been drain'd out of the Purses of Our Subjects in the compass of that time, than during the whole Reigns of many of Our Predecessors put together; and that not as formerly, spent again, and Cir­culating amongst them, but Transported in Specie into Forreign Parts, and for ever lost to the Na­tion: When these and many other particulars of this Nature are cast up, it must certainly appear at the foot of the Account, how much worse the Remedy is than the fancied Disease, and that, at least hitherto, the Kingdom is no great gainer [...] the change.

The next consideration is, what may [...]bly be exp [...] [...] time to come: And as to that, no better Judgment can be made of an [...] [...] events than [...] that is past: And doubt­less from the observation of the Temp [...] [...] Complection [...] [...]s and the Maxims of the pre­sent Usurper, from the steps he has already taken, when it was most necessary for him to give no distast to the People, as well as from the Nature of all Usurpation, which can never be supported but by the same ways of fraud and violence by which it was first set up, there is all the reason in the World to believe that the beginning of this Tyranny, like the Five first Years of Nero, is like to prove much the mildest part of it; and all they have yet suffer'd, is but the beginning of the miseries which those very Men who were the great Promoters of the Revolution may yet live to see and feel, as the effect of that Illegal and Tyrannical Goverment, which they themselves first impos'd upon the Kingdoms.

And yet the consideration must not rest here neither: For all wise Men ought, and all good Men will tkae care of their Posterity, and therefore it is to be remembred, that if it should please Al­mighty [Page] God, as one of his severest Judgments upon these Kingdoms for the many Rebellions [...] Perjuries they have been guilty of, so far to permit the continuance of the present Usurpation, [...] We should not be Restor'd during Our own time, yet an indisputable Title to the Crown will survive in the [...]n of Our dearest Son the Prince of Wales, Our present Heir Apparent, and His Issue and, for default of that, in the Issue of such other Sons as We have great reason to hope (the Queen being now with Child) We may yet leave behind Us; and what the consequence of that is like to be, may easily be understood by all that are not Strangers to the long and bloody contenti­ons between the Houses of York and Lancaster, and whoever shall Read the Histories of those times, and there shall have presented to him as in one view a Scene of all the miseries of an intestine War, the perpetual harrassing of the Poor Commons by Plunder and Free-Quarter, the [...]n of so many Noble Families by frequent Executions and Attainders, the weakning of the whole Kingdom in ge­neral at home, and the losing those advantages they might in the mean time have procur'd for them­selves abroad, cannot but conclude that these are the natural effects of those struglings and convul­sions that must necessarily happen in every State, where there is a dispute entail'd between an injur'd Right and an unjust Possession.

There is another consideration that ought to be of weight with all Christians; and that is the calamitous condition of Europe, now almost universally engag'd in a War amongst themselves at a time when there was the greatest hopes of success against the common Enemie, and the fairest prospect of enlarging the bounds of the Christian Empire, that ever was in any Age since the declining of the Roman: And so far from any hopes of a General Peace before Our Restoration, that no rational Project of a Treatie can be form'd in order to it: But that once done, the thing will be easie, and We shall be ready to offer Our Mediation, and interpose all the good Offices We can with His Most Christian Majesty for the obtaining of it.

Since therefore We come with so good purposes, and so good a Cause, the Justice of which is foun­ded upon the Laws both of God and Man, since the Peace of Europe as well as of Our own Kingdoms, the prosperity of the present and future Ages is concern'd in the success of it, We hope We shall meet with little opposition, but that all Our Loving Subjects according to the Duty and the Oath of their Allegiance, and as We hereby Command and Require them to do, will joyn with Us and assist Us to the utmost of their Power.

And We do hereby strictly forewarn and prohibit any of Our Subjects whatsoever, either by Col­lecting or Paying any of the illegal Taxes lately impos'd upon the Nation, or any part of Our Re­venue, or by any other wayes to abet or support the present Usurpation. And that We may do all that can be thought of to win over all Our Subjects to Our Service, that so, if it be possible, We may have none but the Usurper and his Forreign Troops to deal with, and that none may be forc'd to con­tinue in their Rebellion by despair of Our Mercy for what they have alreadie done; We do hereby Declare and Promise in the Word of a King, that all Persons whatsoever how guilty soever they may have been (except the Persons following) Viz. The Duke of Ormond, Marquess of Winchester, Earl of Sunderland, Earl of Bath, Earl of Danby, Earl of Nottingham, Lord Newport, Bishop of London, Bishop of St. Asaph, Lord Delamere, Lord Wiltshire, Lord Colchester, Lord Cornbury, Lord Dunblane, John Lord Churchill, Sir Robert Howard, Sir John Worden, Sir Samuel Grimston, Sir Stephen Fox, Sir George Treby, Sir Basil Dixwell, Sir James Oxenden, Dr. Tillotson Dean of Canterbury, Dr. Gilbert Burnet; Francis Russel, Richard Levison, John Trenchard, Esquires; Charles Duncomb, Citizen of London, [...] Edwards, [...] Napleton, [...] Hunt Fisherman, and all others who offer'd Personal Indignities to Us at Feversham; except also all Persons who as Judges or Jury-men, or otherwise have had a hand in the Barbarous Murther of Mr. John Ashton, and of Mr. Cross, or of any others who have been Illegally Condemn'd and Executed for their Loyalty to Us; and all Spies and such as have be­tray'd Our Counsels during Our late absence from England) that by an early return to their Duties, and by any Signal Mark of it, as by seizing to Our Use, or Delivering into our Hands any of Our Forts, or by bringing over to Us any Ships of War, or Troops in the Usurper's Army, or any new-rais'd and Arm'd by themselves, or by any other eminent good Service, according to their several op­portunities and Capacities, shall manifest the sincerity of their Repentance, shall not only have their respective Pardons immediately past under the Great Seal of England, but shall otherwise be consider'd and rewarded by Us as the Merit of the Case shall require. And for all others who after the time of Our Landing shall not appear in Arms against Us, nor do a [...] Act or thing in opposition to Our Re­storation, the Persons before-mention'd [...] accepted, We [...] provide in Our first Parliament (which We intend to Call with [...] by a Gene [...] [...] of Indemnity; that so the Minds of all Our Subjects may be as [...] at ease, as [...] [...]sons and Properties will be secure and inviolable under Our Goverment.

Provided always, that all Magistrates who expect any benefit of Our Gratious Pardon, shall im­mediately after notice of Our Landing make some publick Manifestation of their Allegiance to Us, and of their Submission to Our Authority; and also Publish and cause to be Proclaim'd this Our Declara­tion as soon as it shall come to their hands; and likewise that all Keepers of Prisons immediately set at liberty all Persons Committed to their Custody upon the account of their Allegiance and Af­fection to Us, or be excluded from any benefit of our Pardon.

And We do hereby further Declare, that all officers and Soldiers by Sea or Land now engag'd in the Usurpers Service, who shall after notice of our Landing at any time before they engage in any [Page] Fight or Battle against Our Forces, quit the said illegal Service, and return to their Duty, shall not [...]ly have their respective Pardons, but shall likewise be fully-satisfied and paid all the Arrears due to them from the Usurper, and that even the Forreigners themselves, who have been as well in Troops, as single Persons, drawn into the Kingdom, in order to List them as there should be occasion for the op­posing our return, and continuing our People in the oppression they lie under, may not be altogether driven to despair, We do promise, that all such of them who shall, as aforesaid, before they engage against any of our Forces, lay down their Arms, and claim the benefit of our present Declaration, shall have their Arrears satisfied, and care shall be taken for their Transportation to their respective Coun­tries, or elsewhere as they shall reasonably desire.

And We do hereby further Declare and Promise, that We will Protect and Maintain the Church of England, as it is now by Law Establish'd in all their Rights, Priviledges, and Possessions, and that upon all Vacanc [...]s of Bishopricks and other Dignities and Benefices within our disposal, care shall be taken to have them fill'd with the most Worthy of their own Communion.

And whereas more Tumults and Rebellions have been rais'd in all Nations upon the account of Religion, than upon all other pretences put together; and more in England than in all the rest of the World besides; That therefore Men of all opinions in matters of Religion may be Reconcil'd to the Goverment, that they may no longer look upon it as their Enemy, but may therefore think themselves equally concern'd in the Preservation of it, with the rest of their fellow Subjects, because they are equally well Treated by it, and being convinc'd in Our Judgment, that Liberty of Conscience is most agreeable to the Laws and the Spirit of the Christian Religion, and most conducing to the Wealth and Prosperity of Our Kingdoms, by encouraging Men of all Coun­tries and Persuasions to come and Trade with Us, and settle amongst Us: For these reasons We are resolv'd most earnestly to recommend to Our Parliament the settling Liberty of Conscience in so beneficial a manner, that it may remain a lasting Blessing to this Kingdom.

Lastly, It shall be Our great care by the Advice and Assistance of Our Parliament, to repair the Breaches, and heal the Wounds of the late distractions, to restore Trade, by putting the Act of Navigation in effectual Execution, which has been so much violated of late in favour of Strangers, to put Our Navy and Stores into as good a condition as We left them, to find the best ways of bringing back Wealth and Bullion into the Kingdom, which of late has been so much exhausted, and generally We shall delight to spend the remainder of Our Reign (as We have always design'd since Our coming to the Crown) in studying to do every thing that may contribute to the Re-estab­lishment of the Greatness of the English Monarchy upon it's old and true Foundation, the United In­terest and Affection of the People.

Thus having endeavour'd to Answer all Objections, and to give all the satisfaction We can think of, to all Parties and degrees of Men: We cannot want Our Self the satisfaction of having done all that can be done on Our part, whatever the Event shall be, the disposal of which We commit with great resignation and dependance to that God which Judges Right: And on the other side, if any of Our Subjects shall after all this remain so obstinate as to appear in Arms against Us, as they must needs fall unpitied under the severity of Our Justice after having refus'd such Gratious offers of Mercy, so they must be answerable to Almighty God for all the Blood that shall be spilt, and all the Miseries and Confusions in which these Kingdoms may happen to be involv'd by their desperate and unreasonable Opposition.

Given at Our Court at St. Germans, the Twentieth Day of April in the Eighth Year of Our Reign.