Reflections on a paper, intituled, His Majesty's reasons for withdrawing himself from Rochester Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. 1689 Approx. 10 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2004-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A30404 Wing B5850 ESTC R7894 11636461 ocm 11636461 47953 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A30404) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 47953) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 484:38) Reflections on a paper, intituled, His Majesty's reasons for withdrawing himself from Rochester Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. 8 p. ; 21 cm. Printed for John Starkey and Ric. Chiswell ..., London : 1689. Attributed to Gilbert Burnet. Cf. McAlpin Coll., Halkett & Laing. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng James -- II, -- King of England, 1633-1701. England and Wales. -- Sovereign (1685-1688 : James II) 2003-10 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-12 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2003-12 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion REFLECTIONS ON A PAPER , INTITULED , His Majesty's Reasons For withdrawing himself from ROCHESTER . Published by Authority . LONDON : Printed for John Starkey ; and Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown , in S. Paul's Church-yard . MDCLXXXIX . Reflections on a Paper , intituled , His Majesty's Reasons for withdrawing Himself from Rochester . THERE is a Paper spread about the Town , which might be confuted in every particular , not only with Clearness , but with Severity too , if there was not a restraint put upon the full liberty of answering any thing that goeth under a Name , to which Respect will still be paid , even by those to whom it is denied : Therefore nothing will be said to it by way of an intire Answer ; nor any advantage taken of the many Mistakes which lye too open to be Defended . It shall suffice for the present to mention some things which are laid down in the Paper , in such a manner , as may , perhaps , mislead men into a wrong judgment of them , for want of being sufficiently informed in the matter of fact . The particulars are : 1. The Prince sending his Guards at Eleven of Clock at Night , to take possession of the Posts at Whitehall , Without advertising him of it in the least . 2. The sending a kind of an Order by Three Lords , to be gone out of his own Palace before Twelve that Morning . To the first , the matter of fact is , That upon the King 's being Apprehended , when He was going out of the Kingdom , and afterwards being brought to Rochester , whither his Servants and Coaches were sent for by Him , to bring Him up to London , The Prince , who had upon that taken his measures to hasten up to Town , and being fixed in his opinion , That it was , in many respects , improper for the King and him to be there at the same time , in the present state of Affairs ; sent Monsieur Zulestein to meet Him in the way , and to desire Him to return to Rochester ; but Monsieur Zulestein missing Him , by going another way than that by which He came , the King arrived at Whitehall , and at the same time sent a Message by my Lord Feversham to the Prince , inviting him to come to St. James's , with what number of Troops he should think fit to bring with him . The Prince upon this deliberateth with the Lords then at Windsor , the day before he had appointed to be in Town , and having communicated the Message to them , and left them to debate the whole matter , it was agreed , That it was in no kind adviseable for the Prince to accept the invitation ; and on the other side , there being a necessity that the Prince should be in Town next day , the Lords thought that the shortness of time could admit no better Expedient , than that the King might be desired to remove to some place within a reasonable distance from London ; upon which , Ham , a House belonging to the Dutchess of Lauderdale , was pitched upon . In order to this , a Paper was drawn in these words , and Signed by the Prince : We desire you the Lord Marquess of Hallifax , the Earl of Shreusbury , and the Lord Delamere , to tell the King , That it is thought convenient for the great quiet of the City , and for the greater safety of His Person , That He do remove to Ham , where He shall be attended by Guards , who will be ready to preserve Him from any disturbance . Given at Windsor , the 17th day of December , 1688. Prince de Orange . The Prince appointed three Lords to carry this Paper ; and it was resolved , That before the delivery , the Prince's Guards should be possessed of all the Posts at Whitehall , to prevent the possibility of a disturbance from Guards belonging to several Masters ; which besides other ill Consequences might perhaps have involved even the King 's own Person in the danger that might have arisen from any Dispute . It was supposed by computation , that the Prince's Guards might be at London by Eight of the Clock that Night : But it so happened , that it was past Ten before they all arrived , commanded by the Count of Solmes ; and when they were come , there being difficulty made of withdrawing the King's Guards from Whitehall , there was so much time spent , that it was past Twelve of the Clock before the Lords could proceed in their Message . In which , that they might preserve all possible decency and respect ; and that they might not suddenly break in upon the King with a Message of this kind , they sent to my Lord Middleton , His Principal Secretary of State , the following Letter . My Lord , There is a Message to be delivered to His Majesty from the Prince , which is of so great Importance , that we , who are charged with it , desire we may be immediately admitted ; and therefore desire to know where we may find your Lordship , that you may introduce , My Lord , Your Lordship 's most humble Servants , Hallifax , Shreusbury , Delamere . The Lord Middleton told the Messenger , he would be ready at the Stairs of the Guard-chamber to carry the Lords to the King. Upon this they went , and finding my Lord Middleton at the place he had appointed , he brought them to the King , whom they found in bed : After making an Apology for coming at an hour which might give him disturbance , The Prince's Message before recited was delivered Him ; which after He had read , He said , He would comply with . Then the Lords , as they were directed , humbly desired , if it might be done with convenience to His Majesty , That He would be pleased to remove so early , as to be at Ham by Noon ; by this means , to prevent the meeting the Prince in his way to London , where he was to come the same day ; His Majesty readily agreed to it , and then asked , Whether he might not appoint what Servants should attend Him ; to which the Lords replied , That it was left to Him to give order in that as He pleased . And after that , they took their leave . When they were gone as far as the Privy Chamber , the King sent for them again , and told them , That he had forgot to acquaint them with his Resolutions before the Message came , To send my Lord Godolphin next Morning to the Prince , to propose His going back to Rochester , he finding by the Message that Monsieur Zulesteyn was charged with , That the Prince had no mind He should be in London ; and therefore He now desired , that He might rather return to Rochester , than go to any other Place . The Lords replied , That they would immediately send an Account to the Prince of what His Majesty desired , and did not doubt of such an Answer as would be to His satisfaction ; accordingly they sent presently to the Prince , who was then at Sion , to inform Him of all that had passed ; and before Eight of the Clock in the Morning had a Letter from Monsieur Benting , by the Prince's Order , agreeing to the King's Proposal of going to Rochester ; upon which , the Guards being made ready , and the Boats prepared , He went that Night to Gravesend . The Observations which may naturally arise from this whole matter are , First , That the King having been sent to by the Prince by Monsieur Zulesteyn , That He would be pleased to return to Rochester . This Message by the Lords could not possibly be a surprize to Him , but must have been expected as a necessary Inference from the first ; and this is proved in fact by the King 's having given Order to my Lord Godolphin to go to the Prince with an offer to return to Rochester , concluding that his Highness would have less exception to His being there , than he might have to his remaining at London . In the next place , As to the Complaint of the Prince's sending his Guards at such a time of night , and without giving warning ; Let it be considered , whether , since a thing of this kind was judged necessary to be done , it had not better grace even in respect to the King Himself , to do it upon short warning , rather than expose Him more by treating and proposing formally that which His Majesty was in no condition to deny . In all Cases where the means of contesting fail , it is sure a Respect to those who are under such a disadvantage , not to add to their mortification , by drawing it out in length by the deceitful Ceremony of treating where no Power is left to dispute . Then as to the Unseasonable hour , besides other Reasons that have been mentioned ; Would those who make the Objection have been content , a thing of this nature should have been done in broad day-light , and by sound of Drum and Trumpet ? No doubt they would then , with more reason , have complained , That a King , in these unhappy circumstances , should be exposed to such an appearance of a Triumph ; The thing , in the World , the Prince is the least inclined to , and in that respect hath right to the fairest construction such a Proceeding will admit . Whoever will compare the Power of the Prince , with the use he maketh of it , must be sufficiently convinced of his Moderation : And in this particular instance , allowing the necessity of the Prince's coming to Town that very day , of which he was the best Judge , and admitting the consequence , which cannot reasonably be denied , That the King 's remaining there at that time might not only have given an interruption to the Peace of the Town , but to the Respect that ought to be preserved to his Person ; it was not possible to execute what was thought so necessary , with more Decency and Precaution than was observed ; and impartial Judges , who are not carried away by the Sound of things , against the Reason of them , will , no doubt , give their Opinions , That this Proceeding doth not deserve any part of the Censure that hath been put upon it , by those who did not know the Truth of it . THE END .