[Rarebooks] fa: CHARLES II & PARLIAMENT on the COLONY OF TANGIER - 1680

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other 17th-19th Century British books and  
pamphlets, auctions ending Sunday, May 2. Details and images can be  
found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://shop.ebay.com/arch_in_la/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340
OR
http://tinyurl.com/yhk74ma

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A., CA USA

His Majesties Message to the Commons in Parliament, Relating to  
Tangier. And the Humble Address of the Commons to His Majesty, In  
Answer to that Message. Presented upon Monday 29. Nov. 1680. London:  
Printed for John Wright... and Richard Chiswell, 1680. FIRST EDITION.  
Disbound folio (11.5 x 7.25 in); [4],71-85,[1]p. (11 leaves total);  
license leaf, woodcut initials...

A remarkable document, not only in that it reminds us of one of  
England's most exotic and little-known possessions — acquired from the  
Portuguese in 1661 as part of the dowry of Charles II's wife,  
Catherine of Braganza — but also for the pugnacious tone of  
Parliament's reply to the king's message. Responding to Charles's  
request for assistance in supplying the shaky colony at Tangier, the  
Commons protest that, "at this time, when a Cloud...is ready to break  
upon our heads in a storm of Ruine and Confusion, to enter into any  
further consideration of this matter; especially to come to any  
Resolutions in it, before we are effectually secured from the imminent  
Dangers arising from the Power of Popish Person and Councils, We  
humbly conceive will not consist either with our Duty to your Majesty  
or the Trust reposed in Us by those we represent." Having thus  
peremptorily dismissed the matter of Tangier (which they suspected of  
being a hotbed of popery anyway), the authors go on at length to scold  
the king for countenancing the pernicious spread of Catholicism in the  
kingdom, with all its "Superstition and Idolatry" and "Great swarms of  
Priests and Jesuits"; they berate him for not strictly enforcing the  
Test Act and remind him of the "Accursed Conspiracy" which aims, by  
"the Assassination of Your Majesty,... to arrive at the Suppression of  
our Religion, and the Subversion of the Government." And most brazenly  
of all, they lay much of the responsibility for this Popish  
skullduggery squarely at the feet of "Your Majesties said Brother the  
Duke of York."