Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	aforesaid_a	parliament_n	say_a	2,406	5	6.5674	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88233	A plea at large, for John Lilburn gentleman, now a prisoner in Newgate. Penned for his use and benefit, by a faithful and true well-wisher to the fundamental laws, liberties, and freedoms of the antient free people of England; and exposed to publick view, and the censure of the unbyassed and learned men in the laws of England, Aug. 6. 1653.	Faithful and true well-wisher to the fundamental laws, liberties, and freedoms of the antient free people of England.; Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1653 (1653)	Wing L2158; Thomason E710_3; ESTC R207176	34,122	24

Verbatim An Act Declaring what offences shall be adjudged Treason WHereas the Parliament hath abolished the the Kingly Office in England and Ireland and in the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging and hath resolved and declared that the people shall for the future be govern●d by its own Representatives or national meetings in councel chosen and intrusted by them for that purpose hath se●tled the Government in the way of a Commonwealth and free State without King or House of Lords Be it Enacted by this present Parliament and by the Authority of the same That if any person shall maliciously or advisedly publish by writing printing or openly declaring That the said Government is tyrannical usurped or unlawful or that the Commons in Parliament assembled are not the Supream Authority of this Nation or shall plot contrive or indeavor o● stir up or raise force against the present government o● for the subversion or alteration of the s●m● and shall declare the same by any o●●n de●d that then every such ofence shal be taken deemed and adjudged by the Authority of this Parliament to b● high treason And whereas the Keepers of the liberties of England and the councel of State construted and ●o be f●om time to time consti●ut●● by A●●uo●…y of Parliam●nt are to be under the said R●presentatives in Parliament ●n ●u●… for the ma●n●…ce of the said government with several powers and Authorities limited given and appo●nt●d unto th●m by the Parliament Be 〈◊〉 likewise Enacted by the authority aforesaid that ●f any person shall maliciously and advisedly ●o or indeavor the subversion of the said Keepers of the liberties of England or the Counc●l of State and the same shall declare by any op●n De●d o● shall move any person o● p●●sons fo● the do●ng ther●of or stir up the people to rise against them or eith●r of them the●… or ei●her of 〈◊〉 au●horities That then every sum off●nc● and off●nces shall be tak●n d●●med and a clored to be high treason And w●●as the Parliam●n● for their just and lawful def●nce hath raised levied the Army and fo●●es now under the command of Thomas Lord Fairfax and are a● present necessitated by reason of the manifold distractions with●n this commonwealth and invasions threatned from abroad ●o continue the same which under God must be the instrumental means of preserving the well-afflicted p●opl● of this Na●●on in peace and safe●y Be it further Enacted by the aut●o●i●y aforesaid that if any person ●o being an Officer Souldier o● Member of the Army shall ●o contrive o● indeavour to stir up any mutiny in the said Army or withdraw any Souldiers o● Officers from their obedience to their super●ou● Officers o● from the pres●nt Governm●nt as afo●●said o● shall procure invite and o● assist any fo●raigners or strangers to invade England o● Ireland or shall adhere ●o any forces raised by the enemies of the Parliamen● or Common wealth o● keepers of the Liberty of England Or if any person shall counterfeit the Great Seal of England for the time being used and appointed by authority of Parliament That th●n every ●uch offence and off●nces shall be taken deemed and declared by the authority of this Parliam●nt to be high-treason and every such person shall suffer pains of death and also forfeit un●o the Keepers of the Liber●y of England to and for the use of the Commonwealth all and singular his and their lands ten●m●n●s and hereditament goods and chattels as in c●s● of high-treason hath been used by the Laws and Statutes of ●●is land to be forfeit and lost Provided always that no persons shall be indicted and arraign●d for any of the off●nces mentioned in this Act unless such offenders shall be indicted or prosecuted for the same within one yeer after the offence committed Die Lunae 14 Maii 1649. Ordered by the Parliament That this Act be forthwith printed and published Hen. Scobel Cleric Parliamenti London Printed by Edw. Husband John Field Printers to the Parl. of England 1649 And the said John Lilburn now prisoner at the Bar for further Plea saith that for supposed violating those two last fore-mentioned Acts of Parliament and that but for supposed words and for the supposed comp●ling writing and caused to be printed Arguments founded and grounded upon the known and declared fundamental laws of England received principles of Reason and the Armies own pr●nted and publ●shed Declarations he the said John Lilburn now prisoner at the bar was arra●gned and ●ndicted as a Traytor for his lite at Guild-hall London in October 1649. and that principally by the inst●gation and means of his Excellencie the present Lord General Cromwel which Tryal was with that violence and fury that the said prisoner at the Bar was absolutely denyed the declared benefit of the known laws of England viz. the help of Counsel learned in the Law and a copie of his Charge and Indictment which were not denied but granted to the Lord Mocqu●● that grand ●●sh●●be and those Arch-trayt●rs as the yeare commonly called Scrasso●c Can●●●bury Hamilton and Cap●l c. which also was granted to the prisoner at Bar as his right by Law when he was pr●●●ner a● O●fo●● and a●●agned by judge Heart c. for his l●● as a traytor So that the said John Lilburn now prisoner at the bar considering the several penalties declared to be due to any person or persons whatsoever that by force or otherwise should but endeavour to dissolve the late Parliament or their Councel of State ●e cannot either in Reason or Law see or apprehend which way his Excellency the said Lord General Cromw●l and Major General Ha●son c. if they continue and persevere as they have begun to execute the said unjust and injurious Act of Parliament upon the said Jo●n Lilbu●n prisoner at the Bar which is one of the most wickedst and unjust that ever the Parliament in their lives made and of the highest and most notorious acts of their breach of trust that ever they committed as is before fully proved can ●n the least either before God or men acquit themselves of being guilty of the highest of treason both by the letter and equity of the two last fore-mentioned Laws lately made in part by themselves but principally by their instigation in forcibly dissolving the late Parliament against their own voluntary wills and consents Therefore John Lilburn the now prisoner at the bar for further plea saith That it is most just equitable and reasonable to indict arraign condemn and execute the foresaid declared Parliament Traytors Olive● Cromwel Esquire Captain General and Mr. Thomas Harison commonly called Major-General Harison before the prisoner at the bar be indicted arraigned condemned and executed for being a supposed Parliament felon especially considering their tran●gressions is a fact committed after the declaring printing and divulging of a visible and plain Law and a● the prisoner at the Bar's supposed crime is for a fact done before there was a Law in being as in searching into

more high and absolute the jurisdiction of Court is the more just and honorable it ought to be in the proceeding and to give examples of justice to inferior Courts And fol. 38. He is confidently perswaded that the rehearseal of this unjust Attainder will hereafter cause the Honorable Members of both Houses of Parliament to be so tender of their duty in perserving the fundamental Laws and Liberties of the people of England as that never hereafter such an unjust Attainder shall be brought where the party is forth coming to condemn him without hearing of him And consonant unto this is the Scripture and the Law of God therein contained as appears by the third of Gen vers 9. where God after Adam had transgressed his law summons him before him to answer for himself before he would pass judgement against him And when Sodom had abominably defiled its wayes with the height of wickedness yet the just God of heaven and earth would not judge condemne or pass sentence against them till he went down to see whether they have done altogether according to the cry that is come up against them or not and saith God I will know Gen. 18 and Deut. 17.6.11 and Chap. 20.15 God saith expresly One witness shall not rise against a man for any iniquity or for any sin in any sin that he sinneth at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established And by the hand of Moses he required the people of Israel to do according to the sentence of the Law and the judgement which shall be given thereupon and not to decline from the law and the judgement which shall be given thereupon and not to decline from the Law to the right hand or to the left And suitable to this is the judicial and legal proceedings of the great congregation of the children of Israel consisting to the number of four thousand able men in the case of the Levite and his ravished and slain concubine who in their judicial proceedings in that case first demanded of him how so great a wickedness came to be committed in Israel And the conclusion after their hearing and examining the cause was to consider consult and then to give sentence And saith Nicodemus that learned man in the law of God against the Scribes and Pharisees in behalf of Christ Doth our law judge any man before it hear him and know what he doth John 7.51 And saith Festus the heathen Roman Governour in Judea that had no other guide to walk by but the light and Law of Nature In the behalf of Paul against his bloody enemies It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any one to dye before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face and have license to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him Acts 25.16 And saith righteous Paul who writ the Oracles of God infallibly by the Spirit of God Where there is no law there is nor can be no transgression Rom. 4.15 But saith that judicious and learned Lawyer Sir Edward Cook in the third part of his Institutes folio 35. of Rhadamanthus that cruel and wicked Judge of hell First he punisheth before he hears like the late Parliament and when he doth hear the denial then he compels the party accused by torture to confess it but saith he far otherwise doth Almighty God proceed for after that the guilty person is accused he calls he examines and then judges or condemns Luk. 16.1 2. But in his fourth part Institutes he proceeds and goeth on and saith in his last fore-recited folio As evil was the proceedings in Parliament in the second of Henry the 6. Number 18. against Sir John Mortimer the third son of Edmund the second Earle of Marsh descended from Lionel Duke of Clarence who was Indicted of high treason for certaine words which Indictment without any arraignment or pleading being meerly feigned to blemish the title of the Mortimers and withall being insufficient in law as by the same appeareth was confirmed by authority of Parliament and the said Sir John being brought into the Parliament without arraignment and answer judgement in Parliament was given against him upon the said Indictment that he should be carried to the Tower of London and drawn through the City to Tiburn and there hanged drawn and quartered his head to be set on London-bridge his four quarters on the four gates of London as by the Record of Parliament appeareth And therefore in the next folio being folio 39. he saith that whereas by order of Law a man cannot be attainted of high treason unless the offence be in law high treason he ought not to be attained by general words of high treason By authority of Parliament as sometime hath been used but the high treason ought to be specially expressed seeing that the Court of Parliament is the highest and most honorable Court of Justice and ought as hath been said to give examples to inferior Courts And further to shew that Parliaments which in their right constitution are the best conservators of our laws and liberties are erroneous things when they walk by their own wills and forsake their true and only guide the fundamental laws of England What need there any more instances then many of the Armies own Declarations in several of which and their frequent discourses they have declared the late Parliament a traiterous Parliament breakers of their trust and imbroylers of the Nation in bloody wars and subverters of the peoples liberties and freedomes yea and in the conclusion the Lord General Cromwel himself and Major Gen. Harison with their own hands have pulled them out by the ears and pluckt them up by the very roots as final breakers of their trust and as a pack of the vilest knaves and villaines that ever breathed in England although they were fenced in and about by an Act of Parliament made before the wars by King Lords and Commons in the seventeenth of the raigne of the late King being in the yeer 1641 that they should not be dissolved but by their own free and voluntary consents And also since they changed the Kingdome into a Commonwealth by two several Acts of Parliament of the 14. of May 1649. and the 17. of July 1649. In which it is expresly made high treason for any Englishman or men by writing printing or words declaring or by endeavouring to raise or stir up force to dissolve the late Parliament or their Councel of State without their own consents or to say that the said late Parliament or their Councel of State is tyrannical usurped or unlawful as by the said Acts of Parliament with reference thereunto being had more at large doth appear which Acts are printed in the first part of the trial or arraignment of the prisoner at the Bar at Guild-hall Oct. 1649. pag. 86 87 88 89. the first of which Acts viz. that of the 14. of May 1649. thus followeth

the bottom of the whole illegal proceedings aga●nst him will eviden●ly appear 2. The prisoner at the bar's tran●gression at most is but a supposed or a real scandal of one Member of Parliament viz. Sir Arthur Haslerig in which at most he was but of Counsel for Mr. Pr●mate upon a Petitionary Appeal which Primate at the open Bar of the Parliament freed John Lilburne the now prisoner at the Bar from drawing his said Petition at which the Parliament took the offence and at whose Bar he avowedly layd the draw●ng of it upon another and yet the prisoner at the Bar must be thought worthy to be banished and robbed by Sir Arthur Hazlerig of all his estate that at the most was but an accessary to a scandal and Primate the principal that owned the Petition for his and justified the printing of it by his own order hath no such punishment at all inflicted upon him n● nor yet his Coun●el that he avowed drew it But the crime of the said Oliver Cromwel Lord General and Major-Gen Harison in forcibly d●ssolving the Parliament is not onely a scandalizing of one Member of Parliament but of all the Members thereof as a pack of Rogues and traytors to their trust and thereby fit for nothing but to be knockt on the head by the enraged people where-ever they meet them and as unsavoury salt that is good for nothing but to be pluckt our by the ears and pluckt up by the roots and thrown to the dunghil 3. The Parliaments Laws were either good and just or they were not If good and just why were they that made them pluckt up by the roots and dissolved without their free consents and that by their hired servants that had no power either in Law or from the people so to do and upon whom out of the peoples moneys they have bestowed many thousand pounds gratuities If they were wicked and unjust why is the basest and vilest of them endeavoured to be executed upon the prisoner at the Bar for supposed Felony and that principally by the means of those that both by the letter and equity of the said Parliaments Laws are guilty of highest of treasons in dissolving the Parliament by force of Arms without their own free consents and who have been and yet are the only principal prosecutors of me the prisoner at the Bar for his life for returning into the land of his Nativity against the Fundamental Laws Liberties which in all his days he never committed the least transgression after he was forced by reason of Sir Arthur Hazlerig's robbing him of all his estate for divers months together to borrow all the money that bought him bread and after he had continued about a yeer a half in constant danger of his life of being murdered beyond the Seas by the hands of the mad or ranting Cavaliers by the cunning artifice and designes of the pensioned Agents of some of the principallest of those that most in Parliament studied his Banishment yet in which Act that they pretend to banish one Lieut. Col. John Lilburn by there is no crime of Law at all in Law layd unto the sayd Lieut. Col. John Lilburn's charge generals being no crimes in law nor signifie nothing as fully appears by the Lord Cook 's second part of his Institutes fol. 52 315 318 590 591 615 616. and third part fol. 12 13 14. and fourth part fol. 39 333 334. as appears by the Act it self which thus verbatim followeth An Act for the execution of a Judgement given in Parliament against Lieut. Col. JOHN LILBVRNE WHereas upon the fifteenth day of January in the yeer of our Lord One thousand six hundred fifty one Judgement was given in Parliament against the said Lieut. Col. John Lilburn for high Crimes and Misdemeanours by him committed relating to a false malicious and scandalous Petition heretofore presented to the Parliament by one Josiah Primate of London Leather seller as by the due proceedings had upon the said Petition and the Judgement thereupon given at large appeareth Be it therefore Enacted by this present Parliament and by the authority of the same That the Fine of three thousand pounds imposed upon the said John Lilburn to the use of the Commonwealth by the Judgement aforesaid shall be forthwith levied by due Proces of Law to the use of the commonwealth accordingly And be it further enacted That the sum of two thousand pounds imposed by the said Judgement upon the said John Lilburn to be paid to James Russel Edw. Winslow William Molins and Arthur Squib in the said Judgement named that is to say to each of them five hundred pounds for their damages shall be forthwith paid accordingly And that the said Sir Arthur Hazlerig James Russel Edw. Winslow William Molins and Arthur Squib their Executors and Administrators shall have the like remedy and proceedings at Law respectively against the said John Lilburn his Heirs Executors Administrators and Assignes for the recovery of the said respective sums so given to them by the said Judgment as if the said respective sums had been due by several Recognizances in the nature of a Statute-staple acknowledged unto them severally by the said John Lilburn upon the said 15 day of January 1651. And be it likewise enacted by the authority aforesaid that the said John Lilburn shall within twenty days to be accounted from the said fifteenth day of January 1651. depart out of England Scotland Ireland and the Islands Territories or Dominions thereof And in case the said John Lilburn at any time after the expiration of the said twenty days to be accounted as aforesaid shall be found or shall be remaining within England Scotland Ireland or within any of the Islands Territories or Dominions thereof the said John Lilburn shall be and is hereby adjudged a Felon and shall be executed as a Felon without benefit of Clergie And it is lastly enacted by the Authority aforesaid 〈◊〉 all and 〈…〉 and persons who shall after the expiration of the said twenty days accordingly relieve harbour or conceal the said John Lilburn he being in England Scotland or Ireland or any of the Territories Islands or Dominions thereof shall be hereby adjudged accessary of Felony after the fact And all Judges Justices Maiors Bayliffs Sheriffs and all other Officers as well Military as Civil in their respective places are hereby required to be aiding and assist●ng in apprehending the said John Lilburn 1651. Ordered by the Parliament That this Act be forthwith printed and published Hen. Scobel Cleric Parliamenti Fourthly the prisoner at the Bar's return into England tends not in the least to the disturbance of the publike peace quietness or tranquillity of the Nation nor to the destruction and overthrow of all the Peoples Fundamental liberties and freedoms and therefore no reasons at all can be drawn from publike utility or profit to try me John Lilburn now prisoner at the bar for his life as a Felon upon the unjust letter of a void

against the King for but to pull him out of his Throne slay him and divide his inheritance amongst him and his accomplices and then to set up his lust will and pleasure as the peoples standing Laws By which apparent and in the face of the ●un avowed practices of his he hath all over the Christian world brought more scorn and contempt upon the zealous profession of God and godliness and all the pretences of strugling for Liberty and Freedom then any one man that ever I read of ●n all the Histories of the world that ever my eyes were fixed upon yea and in the doing of the forementioned things hath given in the face of the sun the absolute and perfect lye to himself and all his many printed Declarations both as he is to be considered as a Parliament-man or as an Officer in Arms. And first consider him as a Parliament-man how many Oaths Covenants Protestations and Engagements hath he formerly taken to maintain the fundamental Laws and Liberties of the people of England and also after he had caused the Parliament to be purged over and over again and again and left none to sit there but those that then pleased his tooth and by their authority taken away the Kings life and altered the form of Government nominally into a Commonwealth or free State did not he and his said friends or Councellors immediately after that publish a solemn Declaration of Febr. 9. 1648. in these very words verbatim A Declaration of the Parliament of England for maintaining the Fundamental Laws of this Nation THe Parliament of England now assembled doth declare That they are fully resolved to maintain and shall and will uphold preserve and keep the fundamental Laws of this Nation for and concerning the preservation of the lives properties and liberties of the people with all things incident thereunto with the alterations touching Kings and House of Lords already resolved in this present Parliament for the good of the people and what shall be further necessary for the perfecting thereof and do require and expect that all Judges Justices Sheriffs and all Officers and ministers of Justice for the time being do administer justice and do proceed in their respective places and Offices accordingly which resolution with the reasons thereof shall be hereafter publ●shed in a larger Declaration touching the same And it is hereby ordered and appointed that this Declaration shall be forthwith proclaimed in Westminster-Hall and at the Old Exchange and the Judges in their respective Courts at Westminster and at the first sitting thereof are to cause this Declaration to be publikely read And the Sheriffs in their several Counties are to cause this Declaration to be likewise published Die Veneris 9 February 1648. Ordered by the Commons assembled in Parliament That this Declaration be forthwith printed and published and that the Members of this House do take care to disperse the said Declaration into the several Counties with all speed H. Scobel Cler. Parl. D. Com. London Printed by Edward Husbands Which said Declaration was backed also with a large pithy one the 17 of March 1648. which expresseth the grounds and reasons of their late proceedings and setling the present Government in way of a Free State Yea John Lilburn now prisoner at the bar for his further plea saith That by the Act of the late Parliament intituled An Act for the abolishing the Kingly Office in England and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging it is there amongst other things enacted and declared that the Office of a King in this Nation shall not henceforth reside in or be exercised by any one single person And that no person whatsoever shall or may have or hold the office stile dignity power or authority of King of the said Dominions or any of them upon pain of high treason against the Parliament and People of England to all such said persons and to all their aiders assisters comforters or abettors Now whether or no that the said actions of laying Taxes and chusing the people Law makers be not the absolute exercising the office dignity power and authority of the greatest King that ever was in England the prisoner at the Bar submits it to the judgement of the learned Judges of the Law And in the last forementioned Act it is further declared and averred that by the abolishing of the Kingly Office a most happie way is made for this English Nation to return to its just and ancient rights of being governed by its own Representatives or National Meetings in Councel from time to time chosen and intrusted for that purpose by the people And further it is therefore there resolved and declared by the Commons assembled in Parliament That they will put a period to the sitting of this present Parliament and dissolve the same as soon as may possibly stand with the safety of the people that hath betrusted them with what is absolutely necessary for the preserving and upholding the Government now setled in the way of a Common-wealth And that they will carefully provide for the certain meeting chusing sitting of the next and future Representatives with such other circumstances of freedom in choice and equality in distribution of Members to be elected thereunto as shall most conduce to the lasting freedom and good of this Commonwealth And in several other Acts immediately made after the last forementioned Acts and particularly those two Acts of Parliament of the 14 of May and the 17 of June 1649. declaring what offences shall be judged treason it is thus expressed Whereas the Parliament hath abolished the Kingly Office in England and Ireland and in the dominions and territories thereunto belonging and hath resolved and declared that the people shall for the future be governed by its own Representatives or National Meetings in Councel chosen and intrusted by them for that purpose And the Prisoner at the Bar for further plea in the second place saith that his Declarations as a Souldier or Commander to this purpose are so full as more cannot be said and particularly that remarkable Declaration of the 14 of June 1647. printed in the Armies Book of Declar. p. 36. 37. c. in which 37. p. there he positively declares that the setling of the liberties and freedoms and peace of the Nation is the blessing of God then which of all worldly things nothing say they is more dear unto us or more precious in our thoughts we having hitherto thought all our present enjoments whether of live or livelihood or nearest relations a price but sufficient to the puchase of so rich a blessing that we and all the free-borne people of this Nation may sit downe in quiet under our Vines and under the glorious administration of justice and righteousness and in full possession of those fundamental rights and liberties without which we can have little hopes as to humane considerations to enjoy either any comforts of life or so much as life it self but at the

Act of Parliament But as for the said Generals and the said Major-General Harisons dissolving the late Parliament by force against their own consents and thereby against several Acts of Parliament afore mentioned partly of their own making committing high-treason against the apparent letter of a known printed and declared Law before their fact committed out of which evil action as it is in it self simply considered though it be granted that that God that can and hath brought light out of darkness and order out of confusion and good out of evil may out of it by his wisdom power and omnipotencie bring abundance of good to this poor nation of England yet already it hath visibly produced this grand mischief and evil viz. to give the said General a colourable pretence of a Necessity of his own making and creating to assume unto himself all the Civil powers in the Nation into his own hands and thereby not onely to make slaves if he please of all his own private souldiers in subjecting them to Tryals for their lives by Military or arbitrary Discipline in times of peace when all the Courts of Justice for administring the Law are or ought to be open which is expresly against the Petition of Right and the declared end wherefore the Wars were engaged in against the late King but also of the free people of England that have fought as heartily and faithfully for the preservation of their Liberties and Freedoms as himself who have already thereby lost two of the chiefest of their fundamental rights and freedoms viz. First to have Taxes layd upon them by the General with the advice of his Military Officers all of whom at most are but the peoples hired and payd servants to kill the Weasels and Polecats that would destroy their Liberties which is not onely contrary to the express tenour of that most excellent Law as the late Parliament in their remarkable Declaration of March 17. 1648. calls it of the Petition of Right which expresly sayth That no Taxes Ayds or Contributions whatever shall by any person or persons or any Authority whatsoever be layd or levyrd upon the people but by common consent of their chosen Deputies or Trustees in Parliament ass●mbled for that end See also the Lord Cooks 4 part Institutes chap. High Court of Parliament fol. 14 34. and by the Statute made in the late Parliament in the 17 yeer being anno 1641 of the late King intituled An Act for declaring unlawful and void the late proceedings touching Ship money The Judgement of the Judges in that case is declared null and void and against the right of Proprieties although their judgements were grounded upon these plausible Questions viz. That when the good and safety of the Kingdom in general is concerned and the whole Kingdom in danger Whether the King might by writ under the Great Seal of England command all the Subjects of his Kingdom at their charge to provide and furnish such number of Ships with Men Victuals and Munition and for such a time as the King should think fit for the defence and safeguard of the kingdom from such peril and danger and Whether by Law the King might compel the doing thereof in case of refusal or ●●f●actari●ss And whether that the King who was then a far more legal Magistrate then the Lord General Cromwel now is were no● the sol● judge both of the danger and wi●●n and ●ow the same is to be prevented and avoided According to which grounds and reasons all the justices of the said Courts of K●ngs Bench and Common pleas and the said Barons of the Exchequer having been formerly con●ul●●d with by his Majesties command had set their hands to an extrajudicial Opinion expressed to the same purpose That he might and yet notwithstanding all this thus decreed and adjudged by all the judges all such Ship-writes and all proceedings thereupon are by King Lords and Commons in full legal and free Parliament declared that they were and are contrary and against the Laws and Statutes of this Realm and the Petition of Right made in the third yeer of the Reign of his Majesty that then was And it is there further declared and enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all and every the particulars prayed or desired in the said Petition of Right shall from henceforth be put in execution accordingly and shall be firmly and strictly holden and observed as in the same Petition they are prayed and expressed And that all the said Judgements and Proceedings about the said Ship money be vacated and cancelled One of the makers of which Law was the said Oliver Cromwel now Lord General and also one of the impeachers of the said Ship money-Judges of high-treason for arbitrary subverters of the free people of England's fundamental Laws Liberties and Proprieties Secondly the General with whom of his Officers by his will he is pleased to joyn with him hath not onely by their late forcible dissolving of the late Parliament assumed the whole Civil power of the Nation into his own hands by means of which already by his Declaration with the advice of his Office●s of the 9 of June 1653. he hath arbitrarily layd a Tax of Sixscore thousand pounds per month upon the free people of England by which all their proprieties are confounded and destroyed For by the same Rule that he lays Sixscore thousand pounds Tax a month upon the people he may when he pleaseth lay six Millions a month upon them and so ad infinitum and ingross into his own coffers and hands and his Officers not onely all the peoples treasure but also their whole lands and estates as Joseph did the slavish Egyptians unto Pharaoh Gen 47. but that which is worse he hath not onely there by created a president to destroy all their proprieties but his chusing the people Legislators or Law-makers though it 's possible the men may prove in their actions the justest men in the Nation and denying those that never forfeited their Liberties in their lives that inherent and natural right he hath created a president to destroy their Laws Liberties and Lives and absolutely subject them to his will and mercy which crimes put together are in the eye of the Law the highest Treason that ever I read any transgressor in the Nation charged with ever since it became a Politick Society or Nation and an act that the highest of three Tyrants or Conquerors either under the Romanes Saxons Danes or Normans durst never attempt to put in execution By means of which he hath given away the just and honest Cause betwixt the King and Parliament and done as much as in him hath to make all those murderers that have since the beginning of the late Civil war engaged in the Parliament-quarrel against the late King his actions as evidently as the ●un declaring it was not in the least for the securing of the people 's incroached upon Liberties and Freedoms that he and his accomplices took up Arms