son and government, did publish the said
pamphlets: in all which books, although the titles seemed to look
as if written in favour of the pretender, and several expressions,
as in all ironical writing it must be, may be wrested against the
true design of the whole, and turned to a meaning quite different
from the intention of the author, yet the petitioner humbly
assures us, in the solemnest manner, that his true and only design
in all the said books was, by an ironical discourse of recommending
the pretender, in the strongest and most forcible manner to expose
his designs, and the ruinous consequences of his succeeding
therein; which, as the petitioner humbly represents, will appear to
our satisfaction by the books themselves, where the following
expressions are very plain: viz:, 'That the pretender is
recommended as a person proper to amass the English liberties into
his own sovereignty; supply them with the privilege of wearing
wooden shoes; easing them of the trouble of choosing parliaments;
and the nobility and gentry of the hazard and expense of winter
journeys, by governing them in that more righteous method, of his
absolute will, and enforcing the laws by a glorious standing army;
paying all the nation's debts at once by stopping the funds and
shutting up the exchequer; easing and quieting their differences in
religion, by bringing them to the union of popery, or leaving them
at liberty to have no religion at all:' that these were some of the
very expressions in the said books, which the petitioner sincerely
designed to expose and oppose, and as far as in him lies, the
interest of the pretender, and with no other intention;
nevertheless, the petitioner, to his great surprise, has been
misrepresented, and his said books misconstrued, as if written in
favour of the pretender; and the petitioner is now under
prosecution for the same; which prosecution, if further carried on,
will be the utter ruin of the petitioner and his family. Wherefore,
the petitioner, humbly assuring us of the innocence of his design
as aforesaid, flies to our clemency, and most humbly prays our most
gracious and free pardon.

"We, taking the premises and the circumstances of the petitioner
into our royal consideration, are graciously pleased to extend our
royal mer