peace or chief magistrate before whom he shall be convicted, as aforesaid, shall certify the same under his hand and seal, to any justice of peace or chief magistrate of such other county or corporation wherein the said person or persons are inhabitants, or are fled into; (4) which said justice or chief magistrate respectively, is hereby authorized and required to levy the penalty or penalties in this act mentioned, upon the goods and chattels of such person or persons, as fully as the said other justice of peace might have done, in case he or they had been inhabitants in the place where the offence was committed. XIV. Provided also, that no person shall be punished for any offence against this act, unless such offender be prosecuted for the same within three months after the offence committed. (2) And that no person who shall be punished for any offence by virtue of this act, shall be punished for the same offence by virtue of any other act or law whatsoever. XV. Provided, and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that every alderman of London for the time being, within the city of London, and the liberties thereof, shall have (and they and eve every of them are hereby empowered and required to execute) the same power and authority within London, and the liberties thereof, for the examining, convicting, and punishing of all offences within this act committed within London, and the liberties thereof, which any justice of peace hath by this act in any county of England, and shall be subject to the same penalties and punishments, for not doing that which by this act is directed to be done by any justice of peace in any county of England. XVI. Provided, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if the person offending, and convicted as aforesaid be a femme-coverte, cohabiting with her husband, the penalties of five shillings, and ten shillings, so as aforesaid incurred, shall be levied by warrant, as aforesaid, upon the goods and chattels of the husband of such femme-coverte. XVII. Provided also, that no peer of this realm shall be attached or imprisoned by virtue or force of this act; any thing, matter or clause, therein to the contrary notwithstanding. XVIII. Provided also, that neither this act, nor any thing therein contained, shall extend to invalidate or make void his majesty's supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs: (2) but that his majesty, and his heirs and successors, may from time to time, and at all times hereafter, exercise and enjoy all powers and authority in ecclesiastical affairs, as fully and as amply as himself or any of his predecessors have or might have done the same: any thing in this act notwithstanding. By this very law many an honest family was impoverished; for the Quakers did not leave off meeting together publicly, but the most sincere amongst them were the more zealous, and they were the more winnowed from the chaff, which in time of ease gets in amongst religious professors; and none need wonder at it, since the Quakers having gained the repute of an upright hearted people, some for by-ends might creep in amongst them. In London, as well as at other places, many were spoiled of their goods very unmercifully, and many times people of good substance brought even to poverty, seeing not only the shop goods of some, but also their household goods have been seized, insomuch that the very sick have had their beds taken from under them, and they themselves laid upon the floor; nay, they have been so cruel, as to leave them nothing; insomuch that when the child's pap hath stood in a pannikin, they have thrown out the pap to take the pannikin away. Should I sum up all the particulars I have received, and the account I could give, it would make a volume of itself; for the informers were generally poor, and sometimes also the justices, so that they knew how to part their booty berestore that young and magnanimous prince to the honour and dignity of his renowned ances tors. The miserable fate of the two brethren, John and Cornelius de Wit, who had been chief instruments in making the said perpetual edict, and were killed and butchered in a most abominable manner by the inhabitants of the Hague, was not without good reason disapproved by many grave and serious people. It is true, it was a great mistake that they acted so, that they seemed to set limits to the Almighty: though I do not believe their intent was such, but rather that what they did in making void the stadtholdership, they judged conducive to the benefit of their country. After they were murdered, the widow of Cornelius de Wit seemed to have a firm belief that they were entered into everlasting glory: for though for some time after their death she was under a great concern, considering how on a sudden, and at unawares, they were hurried out of this life; yet at length, early in the morning, either in a dream or in a vision, she beheld them both in a cloud in a glorious form, with hands lifted up, and clothed with pure white raiment. By this sight all her former solicitude and fear were taken from her, and she was fully satisfied concerning their eternal well being. I have this relation from several credible persons, who said they had it from her own mouth; and they all agreed in the material circumstances. In England, where it was observed that persecution for religion, during the war, could not but be prejudicial to the public, the king published a declaration, whereby the execution of the penal laws was suspended. But since the Papists, against whom most of these laws had been made, thus got liberty to enter into offices of trust, many of the people grew jealous on this account; insomuch that the parliament, in the year 1673, shewed their dislike to the king, telling him, that the penal statutes about ecclesiastical matters could not be suspended but by an act of parliament. The king wanting money to continue the war, yielded somewhat to the parliament, in respect to the Popish priests and jesuits, consenting that the laws against them should continue in force. This summer G. Fox returned to England, and arrived at Bristol, of which he gave notice to his wife by a letter; and she delayed not to go to him; with her came also her son-in-law Thomas Lower, and two of her daughters : her other son-in-law John Rouse, accompanied by William Penn, &c. came also from London; and since at that time there was a fair at Bristol, many of his friends came thither from other parts of the country, and so were at a |