THE VOTE OF Both Houses of Parliament; Upon the Discovering of the late Design.  
OR, A NARRATIVE OF A Seditious and jesuitical Practice UPON The Parliament, and City of London, Lately discovered; And some Observations upon it by Mr. SOLICITOR.  

Die Sabbathi, 20 Jan. 1643.  
IT is this day Ordered by the Lords and Commons, That the 21. day of this instant January, being the Lord's day, be kept as a day of Public. Thanksgiving, for the great Deliverances which God hath given to the Parliament and City, from the several Plots and Designs against them; and more particularly, in discovering the late Design: And that the Vote of both Houses upon the late Design be printed, and read in the Churches.  
H: Elsing, Cler. Parl. D. Com.   
London, Printed for Peter Cole. january 22. 1643   

A Narrative of a Design and Practise upon the City of London, lately discovered, and some Observation upon it by Mr. Solicitor.  
FOrasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God, out of his good esse within these few days to make a discovery to both the Houses of an intended practice upon the Parliament and City, and so by consequence upon the whole Kingdom. And in respect, that the Stage whereupon this design was to have been acted, were the Houses of Parliament, and principally this City, and that some of the Actors in that Tragedy (for so I may call it) were members of this City: And likewise in respect of that near Conjunction between the Houses and you, That as Hypocritus twins, they are like to live and die together, Therefore they have commanded me and divers other Gentlemen of the House of Commons to make known unto you, what this design and practice was.  
But before I tell you either what it was, or the dangerous consequence of it, I think it will not be amiss, that you should hear it from one of themselves who was an Actor and projector of it, that is, from the Lord Digby, who in a letter writ to Sir Basil Brooke concerning this business doth profess, That since these troubles did begin, There was no design, nor no practice that was so likely to have taken, that was so likely to have produced that good effect (as they style it) as this.  
You may very well remember the bloody Design upon the Parliament and this City discovered about half a year since: he himself said, That this is above all that hitherto hath been in agitation. This is their sense upon it, that were the Projectors, and were to have been the Actors in it.  

The Vote.  The thing in brief is thus: It was a seditious and jesuitical Practice and Design, under the specious pretence of Peace, to have rend the Parliament from the City, and the City from the Parliament; To have severed and disjoined the Parliament within itself, the City within itself, Thereby to render up both Parliament and City to the Designs of the Enemy, which is not all; for the destruction and nulling of this present Parliament was intended; as likewise the engaging ourselves in a Treaty of Peace without the advice or consent of our Brethren of Scotland, contrary to the late Articles solemnly agreed upon by both Kingdoms, to the perpetual dishonour of this Nation, by breach of our public Faith, engaged therein to that Nation, thereby not only utterly to frustrate our expectation of assistance from Scotland, but which is worse (in all likelihood) to engage the two Nations in broils, if not in a war.  
This in brief was the design, the particulars whereupon it was framed, and the parties that were Actors in it, I shall likewise discover to you.  
There was one Read, who called himself Colonel Read, a man I suppose well known by name to this City: He had been heretofore many years since, a common Agent for the Papists, he was a principal person to whom the Packets and addresses from Rome were made; it was he that did disperse them abroad in the Kingdom, with whom for the advancing of the Popish Cause, continued consultations were held, who for advancing of the Catholic Cause (as they call it) went over into Ireland, there fomented the Rebellion, having been one of the Plotters of it, and was taken Prisoner there and sent hither; This was the man, who was the principal contriver and Actor in the present business.  
Who together with Sir Basil Brooke (a known Jesuited Papist, a great Stickler in all the Popish transactions, and Treasurer of the moneys lately contributed by the Papists in the War against Scotland) both prisoners having laid the design here, Mr Reads enlargement must be procured that he might act his part at Oxford; Sir Basil Brooke must lie ledger here.  
But because so great a business required more managers, therefore one Violet a broken Goldsmith, and a Protestant in show, must be brought in as a fit person to go between these Papists and the parties in the City; Mr Ryley by reason of his place of Scoutmaster of the City, and his reputation amongst the Commoners must be gained, who in these respects might be very useful, both in the way of Intelligence between Oxford and them, as likewise by promoting it with the Citizens; others in the City of principal note amongst the people are dealt withal.  
The first thing Mr Ryley must act, is the exchange of Read (a prisoner for the Treason and Rebellion in Ireland) ardour the name of Captain Read, taken prisoner at Burleigh Ho●●● in this Kingdom, for one of no greater rank than a Quartermaster. That being done a Character of Intelligence was agreed on between Read, Ryley, and Violet, Read to be known by the name of Colonel Lee, Ryley by the name of The Man in the Moon, and Violet by the name of James Morton.  
After Reads going to Oxford, the Queen, the Duchess of Buckingham, and the Lord Digby are consulted with; These are the Managers at Oxford with his Majesty's knowledge: Read from Oxford, by Letters to Master Rily by the name of the Man in the Moon assures him, The business goes on well at Oxford; Promises of reward are made to Ryley and Violet: Peace being the pretence; Therefore Propositions are framed and agreed on, six in number, by Read Sir Basil Brooke, Ryley, and Violet, and seen by others, and afterwards sent to Oxford. A Petiton for Peace being intended, the better to induce that, It was agreed that his Majesty must write a powerful and promising letter to the Lord Major and Citizens, to be read at a Common Hall, and fit Instruments thought upon to be employed to prepare my Lord Major before hand: The Letter was written and agreed upon here by Sir Basil Brook, Master Ryley and Violet and sent to Oxford, Violet a prisoner by Master Ryleys means was procured to be exchanged, that he might from Oxford bring the letter and advices, for the carrying on of the business: At Oxford the business was so diligently solicited by Read, that at Violets coming, all things were ready, and after three hours' discourse in his Majesty's presence, with the Queen, the Duchess of Buckingham, & the Lord Digby, Violet the same day, (being the Monday before the discovery) dispatched from Oxford with his Majesty's Letter, altered in nothing save the Title, and with another Letter from the Lord Digby to Sir Basil Brooke, whereby the whole managing of the business is entrusted to Sir Basil Brook, and it is wholly left to his Wisdom and Discretion, whither the letter to the City shall be delivered or not.  
Violet brought both the Letters to Sir Basil Brooke the Wednesday after, and one Wood having formerly brought a Letter from Oxford to the City, the same in matter with this that Violet brought, which will be read unto you; Sir Basil Brook delivered the Letter that came last from Oxford to Wood to be delivered to my Lord Major: the next day after which was Thursday, and with direction, That it should have been published on the Friday; The delivery of it to my Lord Major, by the discovery of it the same day was prevented, and Sir Basil Brooke, Ryley and Violet that night were examined.  
Before the Reading of the Examinations, Letters, and Propositions unto you at large, That the main design to be made out by them, as they are conjoined and have relation to the precedent narrative, may be the better understood, I shall in brief touch upon the matter of them, as likewise upon such Conclusions as may necessarily be deduced from them.  
As first, That no Peace was really intended, appears throughout the whole transaction: The propositions, which upon the Supposition that this is no Parliament, if anything, were to have been the groundwork & foundation of it, which upon the reading you will find so slight and frivolous, that no man can conceive that our Peace could have been built upon such a foundation; Nothing so much as spoken of concerning Ireland, or the disengaging of of ourselves from the Articles of Agreement with our Brethren of Scotland; No provision for Reformation of Religion, or preservation of that we have, or of our Laws and Liberties: But in stead thereof there are quaedam iniqua, the Excise must be continued beyond the war, that out of it the King might have a benefit, and the debts of the Enemies to the Parliament repaid: and the City immediately to be Treated with.  
That no Peace was intended, appears further from the L: Digbies Letter (written within a day or two of that to the City) to the Ki: Agent at Brussels, who writes that the French Treaty was at an end, because the Parliament must not be acknowledged to be a Parliament, that as the King for a long time had taken that for a ground, so he held the same resolution still, being thereunto advised by all his Lords at Oxford; and by his resolution of holding a Great Counsel in the nature of a Parliament at Oxford the 22. of this Month. And when his Majesty's Letter shall be read, you will find no particulars whereupon a Peace should have been built, save only kind words in generals.  
This further appears from the persons who were the first Designers and Contrivers, and were to have been the chief managers from first to last of the business, Read and Sir Basil Brook known jesuited Papists, and always active in promoting Popish practices; This Peace must have been such as these persons shall contrive; The prayer for our deliverance from the Gunpowder Treason agreed upon in Parliament, saith, That the Faith of such Papists is faction, Their practices, the murdering of the souls and bodies of men; Read he hath been a Contriver and prosecutor of of the bloody Tragedies of the Protestants in Ireland; the other not without suspicion to have had his hand in it; what is said concerning the Queen in that particular, is set forth by the Declaration of both or one of the Houses, and the Articles of her Impeachment, the Countess of Buckingham (beside that her husband hath appeared visibly in that Rebellion) is not free of other cause of suspicion: These as was said before, assisted with the Lord Digby, must be the Instruments of this Peace; which as it is set forth in his Majesty's Letter, must be such as that whereby the true Protestant Religion, the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom must be maintained.  
These Papists you see, who had done so good service for the Protestant Religion in Ireland, must lay the foundation for the preservation of it here.  
Sir Basil Brook, and Read, well knew that the Pope and and Popery have been banished this Kingdom by the Parliaments of England, and that the succeeding Parliaments to this time have always endeavoured the suppression of popery, and therefore Degenerating from their Predecessors, who in the Gunpowder Treason endeavoured for that cause to have blown up the parliament, They must now endeavour the Preservation of the Parliament, and the Laws and the Liberties of the Kingdom.  
The things which from this brief Narrative, the reading of the Examinations, Propositions, and Letters, will appear to have been designed, are these;  
First the dividing the Parliament from the City, and the Parliament and the City within themselves.  
First in respect that this Treaty of Peace was to have been immediately between the King and the City, and that whereupon the Peace of the whole Kingdom should have been settled, as appears by his Majesty's Letter, what wide rends such a Treaty must have produced between the City and Parliament is obvious. Again, for the prosecution of the Treaty when entertained by the City; safe conducts were to have been granted, not only to those of the City, but to such of the Members of either House, as would have repaired to Oxford for that purpose; Every man sees by this, what division and confusion would have followed both in City and Parliament. The Projectors were well acquainted with Machivels' maxim, divide & Impera.  
The second was no less than the utter destruction, the nulling and making void of this present Parliament, as will appear by the Lord Digbyes letter to De vic, and the summoning of the great Council or Parliament at Oxford compared with the third of these Propositions. By the letter to De vic this Parliament, as the resolution than was at Oxford, must not be acknowledged; and by this third Proposition for that very cause, the Parliament must be waved, and the Treaty must be immediately between the King and City. The consequence whereof had been no less than the rendering of the Kingdom for ever uncapable of having any more Parliaments; This Parliament, It was called and continued according to the known Laws and Usages of the Kingdom, was afterwards by an Act of Parliament, assented unto by his Majesty, so acknowledged, and made indissolvable without its own consent; (a greater Testimony of the validity of this Parliament, than I think was ever given to any:) If neither the Common Laws and usages of this Kingdom, nor the concurrent Authority of an Act Parliament be able to support this Parliament, when his Majesty shall declare the contrary, I shall without more words leave to your judgements, whether this doctrine doth not at once blow up the fundamentals of all Parliaments, Laws of the Kingdom, Liberty of the Subjects, and of the whole policy and Government of this Kingdom, which being destroyed, what security you could have devised for the maintaining of the Religion, Laws, and Liberties of the Kingdom, as is promised you in his Majesty's letter, I know not.  
3. The third was not only the preventing of the assistance of our Brethren in Scotland; But that which is worse, and must have necessarily followed thereupon, the embroiling of both the Nations in divisions, in all likelihood fat all unto both; this will appear by putting together what hath been done by the Parliament, those at Oxford, and the transactions in this design.  
The Parliament long since have invited that Nation to our assistance in this common cause upon weighty considerations.  
As first, conceiving that by this means through God's blessing, this great cause which concerns our Religion, Laws, Liberties, and all we have, would be assured, and the event of the War, otherwise doubtful, made more certain.  
2. Secondly, that by their assistance the war might be the sooner ended, and so by consequence the calamities which of necessity must accompany it, their assistance adding so considerable a strength to our party, besides the reputation which the concurrence of a whole Nation with us, will add to the justness of the cause.  
3. And thirdly, that as in likelihood by their joint concurrence, a better Peace for present might be procured, so in all probability what shall be agreed upon would be the more lasting and durable, both Nations being equally interested in what should be agreed upon.  
Besides the Covenant maturely sworn and agreed upon by both Nations for the maintenance and defence of Religion, and of the mutual Laws and Liberties of each Kingdom, a solemn league and Treaty hath likewise been mutually agreed upon between the Parliament here and that Kingdom, concerning the manner of their assistance (and great sums of money have been thereupon sent unto them.) In which Treaty one Article is, That neither Nation shall entertain any Treaty of Peace, without the advice and consent of the other. This in brief contains the transactions between that Nation and the Parliament. At Oxford by papers in the form of Proclamations, they have styled this assistance, an Invasion of the Kingdom, and one end of the calling of that great Council or Parliament is for opposing of the same.  
In the carriage of the present design, by one of Reads letters to Pyley he saith, That a door is open by the coming in of the Scots for the destruction of this Kingdom; That therefore this Peace must presently be concluded. That all is lost unless it be done speedily. The main intent of the letter is for the speeding of it to that end. The Lord Digbyes letter to Sir Basil Brooke, referring the delivering of his Majesty's letter to my Lord Mayor to his discretion, he forthwith delivers it to Wood, to be the next day delivered to my Lord Mayor, and the next day after the delivery to be by him published; He saw it necessary, and so resolved at Oxford, That we must speedily break with the Scots.  
Their assistance, how necessary, and by God's blessing how beneficial it is like to be unto us, I think you see, but this must be prevented; The honour and public faith of Nations how Sacred it is, and from the rules of Religion and common policy, how tenderly to be preserved each man knows, But this design must violate and stain our honour in the highest: For contrary to the Article before mentioned, this Treaty must presently be set on foot without them; such violations are always deeply resented by the parties injured: how dangerous therefore the consequence must needs have been, he that runs may read.  
This was the Design: It was too Ugly, It was too Black, Bore faced, to have been presented to your view, and therefore it must be masked; This hook must be baited with the sweet word Peace; It hath been long since observed from the Ecclesiastical proceed of the Romish Church, That in nomine Domini Incipit omne malum, The Holy Name of God must bear out all their Spiritual wickednesses: The end of all Civil Policy is the preserving of just and Honourable Peace; and therefore these men when Divisions, Violence, and what is most contrary to Peace is intended, yet for the compassaing of these ends, Peace must be pretended. So was it by many of them about this time twelvemonth Designed in their Petition to the Parliament for a Peace, and so was it in the bloody plot upon the City, and divers Members of both Houses discovered the last Summer. For upon the examinations of divers of them, It appeared that the ground of that plot was laid in the first Petition, and that the second was to have been guilded over with a Petition for Peace.  
These men, (I speak of these designs) they cry Peace, Peace, that destruction might have come upon you as an armed man: You shall now hear the examinations and other things read at large unto you.  
FJNJS.