I

268 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

c 11 a p. cc For my residence near you, I wish it might

i.v. ££ be safe and honorable, and that I had no cause

« to absent myself from Whitehall : Ask your*

£C selves whether I have not

• “ What would you have ? Have I violated

£c your laws ? Have I denied to pass any bifl

£c for the ease and security of my subjects ? 1 do

£t not ask what you have done for me.

cc Have any of my people been transported£c with fears and apprehensions ? I offer as free“ and general a pardon as yourselves can devise.

“ All this considered , there is a judgment of£c heaven upon this nation, if these distractions£t continue. 1

" God so deal with me and mine as all myt£ thoughts and intentions are upright for the* “ maintenance of the true protestant profession

“ and for the observance and preservation of tire£c laws; and 1 hope God will bless and astist£t those laws for my preservation '° 2 . ”

No sooner did the commons despair of obtain-ing the king’s consent to tsrefc bill , than theyinstantly voted, that those who advised his ma-jesty’s answer were enemies to the state, andmischievous projectors against the safety of thenation; that this denial is of such dangerousconsequence, that, if his majesty persist in it, itwill hazard the peace and tranquillity of all hiskingdoms, unless some speedy remedy be applied

Ru/hworth, vol. v. p. 524.

11,2 idem. vol. v. p. 552.