to Our promise to Our Scotch Subjects with which they were well acquainted to repair into Our Kingdome of Scotland to settle the unhappy differences there Upon this We were earnestly desired by both Our Houses of Parliament to defer Our journey thither as well upon pretence of the danger if both Armies were not first Disbanded as that they had many good Lawes in readinesse for the setling of differences here We were by their intreaty perswaded to defer Our journey to a day agreed on by themselves c. Which relation at large of what followed may satisfie all men of His Majesties extraordinary complyance and when He went He left such a Commission behind him as was agreeable to Law and sufficient to prevent any inconveniences which might arise in His absence whereas That desired by them being to consent to all Acts they should passe before He returned was so monstrous illegall and unheard-of that they were themselves ashamed to presse it farther and rested satisfied with that which His Majesty granted nor does it appeare that there was in any time before any issued out by the means of Secretary Windebanke of a larger extent or that was not agreeable to Law and the policy of that time 15. Now succeeds the high Charge of the businesse of Ireland as if they hoped to perswade the people that the King is accessary to a Treason and Rebellion against Himself and that in a time when there were so great distractions in two of His Kingdoms He should Himself put the third into a flame that so He might have none to help Him to quench the fire that was kindled in the other the particulars out of which this grand Charge is compounded shall be severally examined They who have used no kind of conscience or civility in the publishing all Letters of His Majesties by what ill means soever the same have come into their hands which they imagined might by the simplicity and weaknesse of the people or the most malitious glosses and interpretations they could put upon them beget any prejudice to His Majesty cannot be imagined now to conceale any thing that would contribute to their purpose and therefore their not publishing those Letters which they say the King sent into Ireland by the Lord Dillon immediately before the Rebellion is argument sufficient that either there were no such Letters or nothing in them which can in any sense reflect upon His Majesty nor can it find credit with any not malitiously and stupidly sottish that after so many reiterated infusions into the people by their severall Declarations that the Rebels of Ireland avowed that they had a Commissiion under the great Seale of England for what they did It is now inverted into a Commission under the great Seale of Scotland Sealed at Edenburgh when the King was last there when it is knowne He could no more have affixed that Seale in whose hands soever it was to any such Instrument if He had had the will which no Christian believes He had then He can now dispose of that at London of which Commission the world should long since have been informed by the Scots if they could have found a probable ground for the Suggestion And surely these men would have published the Depositions of those who they say have seen it if they had believed them such as would find credit amongst men What was promised to the Irish Committee at London is like to be much better known to the Authours of this Declaration then to His Majesty the greater part whereof being Papists and since Active Rebels having during their stay in London so great an interest in the powerfull and active Members there that they were able to prevaile with them to interpose in the affairs of that Kingdome in such manner as they desired and very probably then laid the foundation and designe of their future Rebellion upon the principles they then saw introduced and countenanced here By the earnest advice and importunate interposition of some of those principall Members they prevailed that after the death of the Lord Deputy Wansford no such person might be appointed temporarily to succeed as was like by his power and vigilance to prevent the wickednesse they intended and if the King gave away or promised them more then five Counties it was not upon their private mediation but their publique addresse according to their instructions from the Parliament after the House of Commons had made the recovery of and intit'ling His Majesty to those Counties a particular Article of their Impeachment against the Earle of Strafford and so blemished His Majesties just and legall interest and what His Majesty did thereupon was by the full and deliberate advice of His Councell Board according to usuall forms observed in the affairs of that Kingdome It is very probable that His Majesty might think Himself at that time oppressed by the two Houses of Parliament as He had great cause but that He should expresse so much and wish that He could be revenged on them to or before that Committee whom at that time He had reason to believe to be combined with the other is more then very unlikely The not Disbanding the Irish Army is next remembred and indeed ought not to be forgotten the not seasonably disposing that body giving no doubt a great rise and contributing much to the Rebellion that shortly after brake out but where the fault of that was is as evident That Army was justly and prudently raised when the intention in Scotland was clearly known to invade England and with a purpose to restraine or divert that expedition and if need were to reduce that Kingdome to their Allegiance which was the sense and could be no other of those words charged upon the Earl of Strafford if any such words were spoken And after the Scots Army was entred England it was no wonder if the King were not forward to Disband that Army till He could discerne that the other did in truth intend to return and He no sooner was confident of the one then He resolved the other but then He wisely considered that the Disbanding such a body at that time when so much licence was transplanted out of this into that Kingdome was not so like to contribute to the peace of it as the transporting them and therefore His Majesty agreed with the Spanish Ambassadour that he should have leave to transport three or four thousand of them for his Masters service which was no sooner known but the Irish Committee then at London who it may be had otherwise design'd the service of those men prevailed with the House of Commons to interpose and hinder the execution of that Agreement who principally upon consideration of the umbrage the Crowne of France might take at such an assistance given to Spaine pressed the King to revoke that grant and to consent to the Disbanding That objection was easily answered by His Majesty having agreed likewise with the French Ambassadour that
or Congregation of men can have to traduce Him with them Before any discourse be applied to the monstrous Conclusions which are made and for the support and maintenance whereof that Declaration is framed and contrived or to the unreasonable glosses upon His Majesties Propositions and prosecution of his desires of peace and Treaty it will be the best method to weigh and consider those particulars upon which they would be thought to found their desperate Conclusions and in which they say there is a continued tract of breach of trust in the three Kingdomes since His Majesty wore the Crowne 1. The first Charge is that His Majesty in publique Speeches and Declarations hath laid a fit foundation for all Tyranny by this most destructive Maxime or Principle which he saith he must avow That He oweth an account of His Actions to none but God alone and that the Houses of Parliament joynt or separate have no power either to make or declare any Law That which all learned Christians in all ages have taught and all learned Lawyers of this Kingdome have alwaies held and acknowledged is not like to be a destructive principle and a fit foundation for Tyranny and surely this assertion of His Majesties hath no lesse authority For the first the incomparable Grotius upon whom all learned men look with singular reverence saies that even Samuel jus Regum describens satis ostendit adversùs Regis injurias nullam in populo relictam potestatem which saies he rectè colligunt veteres ex illo Psalmi Tibi soli peccavi Because being all ejusà em ordinis the people owe the same obedience to these as they did to those though the absolute power and jurisdiction the Kings of Israel had be no rule for other Princes to claime by And Grotius there cites Saint Ambrose his note upon the same Text Neque ullis ad poenam vocantur legibus tuti imperii potestate homini ergo non peccavit cui non tenebatur obnoxius The wise and learned Lord Chancellor Egerton in his Argument of the Postnati mentions some Texts in the Civill Law of the great and absolute power of Princes as Rex est lex loquens and Rex solus judicat de causa à jure non definita and saies he must not wrong the Judges of the Common Law of the Kingdome so much as to suffer an imputation to be cast upon them that they or the Common Law doe not attribute as great power and authority to their Soveraigns the Kings of England as the Canon Laws did to their Emperours and then cites out of Bracton the Chief Justice in the time of King Hen. 3. and an authentique Authour in the Law these words De Chartis Regiis factis Regum non debent nec possunt Justitiarii nec privatae personae disputare nec etiam si in illa dubitio oriatur possunt eam interpretari in dubiis obscuris vel si aliqua dictio duos contineat intellectus Domini Regis erit expectanda interpretatio voluntas and the same Bracton in another place saies of the King Omnis sub eo est ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo The ground of that excellent law of Premunire in the 16 year of King Rich 2. c. 5. and the very words of that Statute are That the Crown of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly Subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crowne and to none other and upon that Maxime of the Law that good Statute against the Pope was founded If the King were bound to give an Account of his Actions to any person or power whatsoever God excepted he could not be the onely supream Governour of this Realme which he is declared and acknowledged to be by the Oath of Supremacy which every Member of the House of Commons hath taken or if he hath not he ought not to sit there or to be reputed a Member of Parliament by the Statute of 5 Eliz. c. 1. For the other part of this most destructive maxime or principle That the Houses of Parliament joynt or separate have no power either to make or declare any thing to be Law which hath not been formerly made to be so It hath been the judgment and language of the law it self in all Ages and the language of all Parliaments themselves It was the judgment of the Parliament in the 2 year of King Hen. 5. remembred and mentioned by the King in his Answer to the 19 Propositions That it is of the Kings regality to grant or deny such of their Petitions as pleaseth himself which was the forme then usuall to present those desires which by the Kings approbation and consent were enacted into Laws It was the language of the Law in the 36 year of K. H. 6. reported by my Lord Dyer that the King is the head and that the Lords are chief and principall Members and the Commons to wit the Knights Citizens and Burgesses the inferiour Members and that they all make the Body of Parliament and doubtlesse the Priviledge of Parliament was not in that time held so sacred a thing when an Action of Debt was brought against the Sheriffe of Cornwall for having discharged one Trewynnard a Burgesse of Parliament taken in Execution during the Session of Parliament upon a Writ of priviledge directed to the said Sheriffe and the Kings Bench where the Action was brought and the Sheriffe justified was in those daies the proper place to judge what was the priviledge of Parliament the Law being the most proper Judge of that priviledge as well as of all other rights It is the language of the Authour of Modus tenendi Parliamentum who lived before the time of William the Conquerour and it is the language of Sir Edw. Coke in the Chapter of the high Court of Parliament which was published by a speciall Order of the House of Commons since the beginning of this Parliament that there is no Act of Parliament but must have the consent of the Lords the Commons and the royall assent of the King and the same Sir Edward Coke saies in the 11. p. of that Chapter that Innovations and Novelties in Parliamentary proceedings are most dangerous and to be refused It is the language of the Parliament in the 1 year of King James when to the first Act that was past they desired His Majesties royall assent without which they say it can neither be compleat or perfect nor remaine to all posterity c. Lastly it is the language of this present Parliament and in a time in which they were not very modest in their pretences for in their Declaration of the 19 of May they acknowledge that by the constitution of this Kingdome the power is in His Majesty and Parliament together albeit they conclude in the same Declaration that if He refused to
the like number should be likewise transported for France whereby the whole Army would have been disposed of against which the Irish Committee more pressed then against the other alleaging that there were not men in that Kingdome to spare whereupon the House of Commons by their private Agents prevailed with the French Ambassadour who more desired to hinder the supply for Spaine then to procure the like for his Master and it may be to see the King controlled by the Parliament then either of the other to release the King of His promise to him so that they would prevent the Spaniard's having any men And thereupon they re-inforced their importunity to the King for the present Disbanding and not sending any of that Army out of Ireland in such a manner as His Majesty was forced to yeild to it and thereby no question much was contributed to the opportunity and disposition of rebelling and to whose account that advantage is to be put all the world may judge yet it may be fit to observe that of that Irish Army which these men would have believed to be no lesse then a Stratagem against the Protestant Religion not one Officer above the quality of Captaine and not above two of that condition have served in that Rebellion in Ireland against the King In all Rebellions the chief Authors and Contrivers of it have made all fair pretences and entred into such specious Oaths as were most like to seduce and corrupt the people to joyne with them and to put the fairest glosse upon their foulest combination and conspiracy and therefore it is no wonder if the Rebels in Ireland framed an Oath by which they would be thought to oblige themselves to bear true Faith and Allegiance to King Charles and by all meanes to maintain His Royall Prerogative at a time when they intended nothing lesse And Owen Connelly who was the first happy discoverer of that Rebellion in the same Deposition in which he saies the Rebels would pay the King all His Rights saies likewise that they said they took that course to imitate Scotland who got a priviledge by it and Marke Paget in the same Examination in which he saies that the Rebels report that they have the Kings Warrant and great Seale for what they doe saies likewise that they threaten that as soon as they have rooted out the Brittish and English there to invade England and to assist the Papists in England and therefore it is a wonderfull thing that what they sweare or what they say should be imputed to Him against whom they have rebelled and forsworn themselves The Authours of this Declaration have besides their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy in the Protestation of the 5. of May sworn that they would maintaine and defend the Kings royall Person honour and estate and shortly after would perswade the people that they were by that very Protestation obliged to take up Armes against Him in their Declaration of the 19. of May they used these words The providing for the publique peace and prosperity of His Majesty and all His Realmes we protest in the presence of the all-seeing Deity to have been and still to be the only end of all our Counsells and endeavours wherein we have resolved to continue freed and enlarged from all private aymes personall respects or passions whatsoever and the very next day Voted that He intended to make War against His Parliament and that whosoever should serve or assist Him were Traytors by the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome and upon that conclusion of His intention actually leavied an Army and marched against him In their Petition of the 2. of June they tell him that they have nothing in their thoughts and desires more pretious and of higher esteem next to the honour and immediate service of God then the just and faithfull performance of their duty to His Majesty and together with that Petition present the 19. Propositions to Him by which they leave Him not so much power in His Kingdome as the meanest Member of either House reserves to himself Lastly to omit infinite other instances in their Instructions of the 18. of August to the Deputy Lieutenants of Cheshire they required them to declare unto all men that it had been and still should be the care and endeavour of both Houses of Parliament to provide for His Majesty That they doe not nor ever did know of any evill intended to His Majesties Person when the only businesse and end of those directions and instructions were to raise that whole County against Him So that this clause of the Rebels Oath in Ireland is no more to be objected against the King then those other clauses in their own Oaths and Declarations which they have not yet charged His Majesty withall Concerning the Proclamation against the Rebels in Ireland which they say they could not obtaine in divers Months and then that but 40 Copies were printed and expresse Order given that none should be published till further directions hear His Maj. own full Answer to that Charge in His Answer to the Declaration of the 19. of May in these words 'T is well known that we were when that Rebellion brake forth in Scotland That We immediatly from thence recommended the care of that businesse to both Houses of Parliament here after We had provided for all fitting supplies from Our Kingdome of Scotland that after Our returne hither We observed all those formes for that service which We were advised to by Our Councell of Ireland or both Houses of Parliament here and if no Proclamation issued out sooner it was because the Lords Justices of that Kingdome desired them no sooner and when they did the number they desired was but Twenty which they advised might be Signed by us which we for expedition of the service commanded to be printed a circumstance not required by them and thereupon signed more then they desired So that it is an impudent Assertion that they could not obtain a Proclamation in divers Months when they never so much as desired or moved it and it was no sooner moved to the King but He gave Order in it the same Houre But it will not be amisse since this particular hath bin with so much confidence and so often unreasonably objected against His Majesty to speak somewhat of the custome and order usually observed in sending Proclamations into that Kingdome and of the reason why so many and no more were at that time sent except upon any extraordinary reasons the King never signes more then the first draught of the Proclamation fairly ingrossed in parchment which being sent to the Lord Deputy or Lords Justices in Ireland is there printed and the printed Copies dispersed as they are in England His Majesties signe Manuall being not to any of those Copies The Lords Justices and Councell taking notice of the rumour industriously spread amongst the Rebels that they had the Kings authority for what they did
of Ireland nor is there the least colour to affirm the same what directions the Rebels give in their Letters of Mart or whether they gave any such directions as are alleaged is no way materiall as to His Majesty and for Officers and Commanders who left their trust against the Rebels it is sufficiently known that the Earle of Leven who by His Majesties consent was sent Generall of the Scots into Ireland against the Rebels was called from thence to lead an Army into England against His Majesty and when the King's Commissioners at the Treaty at Uxbridge alleaged and complained that many Officers both Scots and English had in the beginning of that War left that Service and been entertained by the two Houses against the King all the Answer they could receive was That they were not sent for This being the case as without any possibility of contradiction it is these Gentlemen had no more reason to believe the Rebels when they did so often swear they did nothing without good authority and Commission from the King then the Rebels had to believe them when they swore on the 22. of October 1642. That no private passion or respect no evill intention to His Majesties person nor designe to the prejudice of His just honour and authority engaged them to raise Forces and the next day gave His Majesty battle at Edge-hill Nor is it more materiall that Sir Phelim Oneale would not be perswaded that Generall Laesly had any authority from the King against the Rebels then that these Gentlemen should be perswaded in the same houre to believe that an Army should be raised for the safety of the King's person and to sweare that they would live and die with the Earl of Essex whom they nominated Generall to lead that Army against the King What information was given divers Months before to the Archbishop and others of the Kings Councel of a designe amongst the Papists for a generall Massacre of all the Protestants in Ireland and England c. is no objection against the King and as the Archbishop was imprisoned divers Months before that Rebellion brake out so it is not like if they had been able to have charged Him with any concealment that they would have forborn accusing him with it at his Triall when they so much wanted evidence against him that they were faine to make his Chaplains not licencing such Books against Popery as they thought did discredit the Protestant cause an Argument of his Treason and they would likewise now have named the others of the King's Counsell if they could have alleaged any matter that could have reflected upon them or their Master Next follows a huddle of the Kings Letters to the Pope when he was in Spaine and of others since on the behalfe of the Duke of Lorainge and of the King 's having an Agent at Rome which it is knowne he never had some Months before the Irish Rebellion all which are so obscurely mentioned and so ridiculous as to any charge against the King that they are not worthy any Answer yet because how impertinently soever by the licence of these times much hath been scandalously discoursed of a Letter written by the King when he was Prince and in Spaine to the Pope and such a Letter translated printed out of a Copy published in the French Mercury it may not be amisse to say somewhat of that businesse The Prince being by the command of his Father sent into Spaine to conclude a Marriage with the Daughter of that Crowne which had been long treated of could not but be obliged whilst he was there to perform all Ceremonies which were requisite to the compassing the businesse he went about The Kingdome where he was had a fast friendship with Rome and such a kind of dependence that a dispensation from thence was thought necessary by the wisdome of that State to the marriage in treaty towards the procuring whereof though the Prince would not contribute the least application of his owne yet he was not reasonably to do any thing which might make that dispensation the more difficult to be procured The Pope that then was writ a Letter to the Prince which was delivered to his Highnesse by his Minister there resident It was a Letter of respect and in the interpretation of that State of great kindnesse and it would have been thought a very unseasonable neglect if the Prince had vouchsafed it no Answer on the other hand it was easier to resolve that it was fit to write then what in the mean time they who were officious that it might be done prepared the draught of a Letter and brought it to him the which when his Highnesse had perused with his own hand he expunged those clauses which might seem to reflect upon the Religion which he professed and having so altered and mended it he caused it to be sent to the Pope Copies of the first draught were spread abroad by which that was inserted in the French Mercury which is so carefully translated and printed and dispersed these late ill years and now is given in evidence against His Majesty But admitting it were the same and that the Prince being in a forain Kingdom with the policy whereof he was then to comply had written that very Letter which is printed with what colour of reason can any man make that an Argument of his inclination to Popery who at that time and ever since hath given the greatest testimony of his affection to the Protestant Religion that any Prince or private person hath done The Authours of this Declaration would not think it just that from their very loving Letters to the Bashaw at Argyers and his to them in which He thanks God that the Agent of the Parliament of England is come thither to make a peace and love betwixt them to the end of the world as appears by the relation of that businesse fol. 15. published by their authority and from the amity with them to that Degree that they have given the Turkes men-of-war the freedome of their Harbours men should conclude that they are resolved to turn Turkes and yet such a conclusion will more naturally result from those Letters and that strict correspondence then of the King's affection to Popery from that Letter to the Pope It is said that the same designe was laid in England at the same time and that many thousands were appointed to cut the Protestants throats in this Kingdom also when the King went into Scotland and that it was confessed by some of the principall Rebels that their Popish Committee with the King had communicated that designe with many Papists in England by whose advice though some things were altered yet it was generally concluded that about the same time there should be the like proceedings of the Papists here all which if true as no sober man believes it to be does no way reflect upon the King and that Popish Committee was sent more to the
power yet they could not break through the Charge of the Army for invading infringing or endeavouring to overthrow the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects of this Nation in arbitrary violent and oppressing waies and for endeavouring by indirect and corrupt practises to delay and obstruct Justice to the great damage and prejudice of divers of the poor Commoners of England Though they were too mighty to be touched upon the Kings accusation of having endeavoured by many foule aspersions upon His Majesty and His Government to alienate the affections of His people and to make His Majesty odious to them yet they were not able to bear the burthen of an Accusation of having endeavoured by false informations mis-representations or scandalous suggestions against the Army to beget mis-understandings prejudices or jealousies in the Parliament against the Army and to put insufferable injuries abuses and provocations upon the Army whereby to provoke and put the Army into dis-temper Though they slighted the King's Charge of having trayterously invited and incouraged a forain power to invade His Majesties Kingdome of England yet they cannot throw off the Charge from the Army of having invited the Scots and other forain Forces to come into this Kingdome in a hostile manner to abet and assist them in the prosecution and effecting of their designes Lastly they may with their eyes hands and hearts lift up to Heaven remember how they contemned and despised the King when he charged them that they had endeavoured as far as in them lay by force and terrour to compell the Parliament to joyne with them in their trayterous designes and to that end had actually raised and countenanced Tumults against the King and Parliament And now their owne Army whereof very many then assisted them in those Tumults to drive away the King and the Members of both Houses accuses them of having invited incouraged abetted or countenanced divers Reformadoes and other Officers and Souldiers tumultuously and violently to gather together at Westminster to affright and assault the Members of Parliament in passing to and from the House to offer violence to the House it self and by such violence outrages and threats to awe and inforce the Parliament As the Charge allowed and countenanced now from their owne Army is upon the matter the same which was with so much noise and insolence rejected when it was presented from the King and is now objected against Him as a hainous crime so with reference to their Priviledges which like the Logitians line is divisibilis in semper divisibilia and serves their turne to inable them to aske any thing from the King they think fit to demand and to refuse any thing to Him He requires from them the progresse and proceedings thereupon hath been very different in stead of suspending and discountenancing them upon the King's accusation they are brought in triumph with an Army to the House the Army upon the bare exhibiting their generall Articles require that the persons impeached may be forthwith suspended from sitting in the House and will receive no deniall it must be consented to for they will not indure that the persons impeached by them shall continue in power and capacity to obstruct due proceedings against themselves and for their own escape from justice to threaten ruine to the whole Nation as by the Letter from the Army of the 21. of June appears The King was checked upon the matter of Priviledge and then imperiously required to send the evidence which He had against those He had accused to the House where they principally governed and could easily judge what was secure for themselves His Majesty desired that before His proofs were discovered against them and lest a new mistake should breed more delaies it might be resolved whether His Majesty were bound in respect of Priviledges to proceed against them by impeachment in Parliament or whether He were at liberty to prefer an Indictment against them at Common Law in the usuall way or had His choice to which they would give no other Answer then that they desired Him to give directions that the Parliament might be informed before Friday next what proof there was against them that accordingly they might be called to a legall triall it being the undoubted right and priviledge of Parliament that no Member of Parliament can be proceeded against without the consent of Parliament The Army tells them plainly by their Letter of the 25. of June That they wish the name of Priviledges may not lie in ballance with the Safety of a Kingdome and the reality of doing justice which as they had said too often they could not expect whilst the persons they had accused were the Kingdomes and their Judges And in the Remonstrance of the Army of the 23. of June that no priviledges ought to protect wicked men in doing wrong to particulars or mischief to the publick and that whoever most adores or tenders those priviledges will best expresse his Zeale towards them in taking care they be not abased or extended to private wrong and publique mischief for they say they clearly find and all wise men may see it that Parliament priviledges as well as Royall prerogative may be perverted abused to the destruction of those greater ends for whose protection and preservation they were admitted or intended viz. the Rights and Liberties of the people and safety of the whole and in case they be so the abuse evill or danger of them is no lesse to be contended against and a remedy thereof no lesse to be endeavoured then of the other And upon these grounds they conclude that they shall be inforced to take such courses extraordinary as God shall enable and direct them to unlesse by Thursday night next they receive assurance and security to themselves and the Kingdome for a more safe and hopefull proceeding in an ordinary way by having those things granted which before they insisted on These have been the proceedings of late in the point of accusing Members and in the case of Priviledge all which are so far justified by the Houses that the Army hath received publique thanks and approbation for all that they have done and their accusations have been received countenanced and promoted and their desires granted against the persons they accused so that as the King did nothing in the accusation of those Members but what was justifiable by the Law and former Presidents of Parliament so whatsoever He did is since justified by the later Presidents which themselves have consented to and approved And so we return to the place from whence this consideration carried us There is a mention of the Lord Digby's appearing in a War-like manner and afterwards his going beyond the Seas and from thence giving advice to the King to retire to some strong place c. which are all so well known have been so often answered and have so little reference to the King that time is not to
without it could never probably have been again exercised in this Kingdome And here the people cannot enough observe and wonder that these grievances should in this manner be objected against the King who removed and abolished them in a time when and by those who have renued and improved the same and introduced new vexations upon His Subjects in an illimited manner and intolerable proportion That They should complain of a designe of bringing in German Horse to enslave us which if any such designs were by the goodnesse of the King was frustrated and rejected who have actually brought in an Army of all Rations upon us and have no pretence of continuing it but that they may subdue us dissolve the Government of the Kingdome and make us Slaves to their own passions and appetite That They should remember the King of inforced Loanes Privy Seales Coat and Conduct mony who since the same have been abrogated by Him have by their Ordinance compelled men to lend the Fifth and the Twentieth part of their Estates for the maintenance of their Armies that fifth and twentieth part to be rated according to such proportion as certain persons named by them shall assesse and if any person shall refuse to pay the mony so assessed upon him then Collectors shall leavy it by distresse and for want of distresse he shall be committed to prison with such circumstances of severity and uncharitablenesse as were never exercised by any Royall Command That They should complaine of the ingrossing of Gunpowder in which His Majesty did nothing but what by His legall Prerogative He might do who by their Ordinance of the 3 of April 1644. for the making of Salt-peter and by the other of the 7 of Febr. 1645. for making Gun-powder have established all those clauses in His Majesties Commission of which there was any colour of complaint to Projectors of their owne with so much worse circumstances as the jurisdiction their Committees exercise to whom appeales are to be made is more grievous chargeable and insupportable then that was of the Councell Table That They should mention the Patent of Wine which was to pay forty Shillings upon the Tun to His Majesty when by the Ordinance of the 22 of July 1643. they have laid an imposition upon it of six pounds over and above all Customes and by the Ordinance of the 9 of October following have authorized the Vintners to sell it at as great and some at greater prices then was ever tolerated during the time of His Majesties imposition Lastly to omit the other particulars of Salt Allum Tobacco and the rest upon every one of which they have by their particular Ordinances laid much heavier taxes then was thought of in those times that they should reproach the King with the Ship mony which by their own computation came not to above 200000l by the year as the compendium of all oppression and slavery for which His Majesty had a judgment in a Court of Law before all the Judges of England and which was alwaies leavied by the due formes of Law and which His Majesty when He was informed of the injustice of it frankly quitted and did His best to pull it up by the roots that no branch of it may hereafter grow up to the disquiet of His people when themselves have almost ever since by that one Ordinance of the 1 of March 1642. imposed a Weekly tax upon the Kingdome of three and thirty thousand five hundred and eighteen pounds which in the year amounts to no lesse then one million seven hundred forty two thousand nine hundred and odde pounds to which they have since added by their Ordinance of the 18 of October 1644. for the relief of the Brittish Army in Ireland a Weekly tax upon the Kingdome of three thousand eight hundred pounds w ch in the year comes to one hundred ninety seven thousand six hundred odde pounds as much as ever Ship mony arose to over and above Free-quarter and all their other Orders for Sequestration and twentieth part and the cruell circumstances in the executing those and all other Ordinances against the irregular doing whereof they will allow no Appeale to the Judges though of their own making but reserve the intire Connusance and direction to themselves It is pity that parenthesis of the Spanish Fleet with a great Army therein brought into the Downes 1639. of which out of their goodnesse they say they will say nothing should receive no Answer That having been often unskilfully spoken of as it is now insinuated as a designe against England whereas they who know any thing know that Fleet was bound from Spaine to Flanders with mony to pay their Army and new leavied Souldiers to recruit it of which there was the greater number because it was purposed to carry many old Soldiers from thence to Catalonia but all those Souldiers in the Fleet were without Armes and without Officers and the Fleet so far from being provided for an invasion that in a little Fight with the Hollanders before the winde brought them into the Downes they had so near spent their Powder that they had a supply for their mony from London which the King could not in honour and justice deny the Hollanders themselves offering them what Powder they wanted for ready mony 6. Next follows the torture our bodies heretofore suffered by whipping cutting off Eares Pillories and the like with close imprisonment aggravated with the Dominion exercised over our Soules by Oathes Excommunications new Canons c. by which they would have it concluded that His Majesties Government was full of cruelty and oppression It is an undeniable evidence of the excellent Government Sobriety and obedience of that time that there were not above six infamous persons from the beginning of His Majesties Reigne to the first day of this unhappy Parliament who were publickly taken notice of to have merited those corporall punishments and shame and of the mercy of that time that those suffered no greater there being not one of them who was not guilty of sedition to that degree that by the Law they were liable to heavier judgments then they underwent And for the Oathes Excommunications Ceremonies and Canons they were no other and no otherwise exercised then was agreeable to the Laws and the Government established Of and for which the Sects Schismes and Heresies the dissolutenesse profanenesse and impiety which have followed that since blessed Order hath bin discountenanced and suppressed hath made a fuller and more sensible Vindication then any discourse can doe And here the people will again take notice that these Judgments and proceedings which alwaies passed in due form of Law in Courts of Justice and in which no innocent man can pretend to have suffered are objected against the King by those who without any colour of jurisdiction but what themselves have assumed and usurped in stead of inflicting any ordinary punishment take away the lives of their fellow
Propositions passed by the Lords for Peace which if allowed would be destructive to Religion Laws and Liberties and therefore desired an Ordinance according to the tenour of an Act of their Common Councell the night before Thanks were given by the Commons whilst the Lords complained of the Tumults and desired a concurrence to suppresse them and to prevent the like many of the people telling the Members of both Houses that if they had not a good Answer they would be there the next day with double the number by these threats and this violence the Propositions formerly received were rejected and all thoughts of Peace laid aside and then surely the freedome of Parliament was as much taken away as on the 26 of Iuly last In a word when the Members of both Houses were compelled to take that Protestation to live and die with the Earle of Essex and some imprisoned and expelled for refusing to take it when they were forced to take that sacred Vow and Covenant of the 6 of Iune 1643. by which they swore that they would to their power assist the Forces raised and continued by both Houses of Parliament against the Forces raised by the KING when they were compelled to take the last solemn League and Covenant that Oath Corban by which they conceive themselves absolved from all obligations divine and humane as their Predecessours the Jewes thought they were discharged by that though they had bound themselves not to help or relieve their Parents and lastly when the Army marched to London in the beginning of August last in favour of the Speakers and those Members who had resorted to them and brought them back to the Houses and drove away some and caused others of the Members of a contrary Faction to be imprisoned and expelled the Houses the liberty and freedome of Parliament was no lesse violated and invaded then it was on the 26 of Iuly last Upon these reasons and for want of the freedome so many severall waies taken from them those Lords and Commons who attended his Majesty at Oxford had withdrawne themselves from Westminster and might then as truly and more regularly have said what the Army since with approbation and thanks have said on the 22 of Iune last That the freedome of this Parliament is no better then that those Members who shall according to their consciences endeavour to prevent a War and act contrary to their waies who for their owne preservation intend it they must do it with the hazard of their lives which being a good reason for those lately to go to St. Albons or Hounslow heath cannot be thought lesse justifiable for the other to go to Oxford Since this objection of calling the Members of Parliament to Oxford is not of waight enough to give any advantage against his Majesty to His Enemies they endeavour to make their entertainment and usage there very reproachfull with His friends and would perswade them to believe themselves derided in that expression of the Kings in a Letter to the Queen where He calls them a Mungrell Parliament by which they infer what reward His own Party must expect when they have done their utmost to shipwrack their faith and conscience to his will and tyranny Indeed they who shipwrack their faith and conscience have no reason to expect reward from the King but those Lords and Gentlemen who attended his Majesty in that convention well know that never King received advice from His Parliament with more grace and candor then his Majesty did from them and their consciences are too good to think themselves concerned in that expression if his Majesty had not Himself taken the pains to declare to what party it related besides it is well known that some who appeared there with great professions of loyalty were but Spies and shortly after betrayed his Majesties service as Sir John Price and others in Wales and some since have alleaged in the House of Commons or before the Committee for their defence to the Charge of being at Oxford at that Assembly That they did the Parliament more service there then they could have done at Westminster So that the KING had great reason to think He had many Mungrels there 23. The last Charge is the making a Pacification in Ireland and since that a Peace and granting a Commission to bring over ten thousand Irish to subdue the Parliament and the rebellious City of London and the conditions of that peace That loud clamour against the Cessation in Ireland was so fully clearly answered by the King's Cōmissioners at the Treaty at Uxbridge that there can no scruple remain with any who have taken the pains to read the transactions in that Treaty it plainly appears that the King could not be induced to consent to that Cessation till it was evident that His Protestant Subjects in that Kingdome could not be any other way preserved The Lords Justices and Councell of that Kingdome signified to the Speaker of the House of Commons by their Letter of the 4 of April which was above six Months before the Cessation That his Majesties Army and good Subjects there were in danger to be devoured for want of needfull supplies out of England and that His Majesties Forces were of necessity sent abroad to try what might be done for sustaining them in the Country to keep them alive till supplies should get to them but that designe failing them those their hopes were converted into astonishment to behold the miseries of the Officers and Souldiers for want of all things and all those wants made insupportable in the want of food and divers Commanders and Officers declaring they had little hope to be supplied by the Parliament pressed with so great importunity to be permitted to depart the Kingdome as that it would be extreame difficult to keep them there and in another part of that Letter they expressed that they were expelling thence all Strangers and must instantly send away for England thousands of poor dispoyled English whose very eating was then insupportable to that place that their confusions would not admit the writing of many more Letters if any for they had written divers others expressing their great necessities And to the end His Majesty and the English Nation might not irrecoverably and unavoidably suffer they did desire that then though it were almost at the point to be too late Supplies of Victuall and Ammunition in present might be hastened thither to keep life untill the rest might follow there being no Victuall in the Store nor a hundred Barrels of Powder a small proportion to defend a Kingdome left in the Store when the out-Garrisons were supplied and that remainder according to the usuall necessary expence besides extraordinary accidents would not last above a Month and in that Letter they sent a Paper signed by sundry Officers of the Army delivered to them as they were ready to signe that dispatch and by them apprehended to threaten imminent danger which mentioned that