Impositions of the King and his Councell in the very beginnings of them and thought themselves bound in Conscience Law Prudence so to do though there were some colourable reasons and precedents of former times pretended to countenance them And if these VVorthies conceived themselves thus obliged to oppose those illegall Impositions of the King and his Councel though countenanced by some Judges opinions as legall to their immortall honour and high esteem both in Country and Parliament who applauded them as the principal maintainers of their Countries Liberties then much more ought I and all other tenderers of their own and Countries Freedom to oppose this illegall dangerous Contribution imposed on us by a few fellow-Subjects only without yea against all Law or Precedent to countenance it being of greater consequence and worser example to the Kingdom then all or any of the Kings illegall projects or Taxes Seventhly the excessivenesse of this Tax much raised and encreased when we are so exhausted and were promised and expected ease from Taxes both by the Army in their Remonstrance November 20. 1648. and by the Imposers of it amounting to a sixt part if not a moiety of most mens estaâ—es is a deep Engagement for me to oppose it since Taxes as well as s Fines and Amerciaments ought to be reasonable so as men may support themselves and their Families and not be undone as many will be by this if forced to pay it by Distresse or Imprisonment Upon this ground in the Parliaments of 1 4 Edward the Third we find divers freed from payment of Tenths and other Taxes lawfully imposed by Parliament because the People were impoverished and undone by the Warres who ought to pay them And in the printed Statutes of 31 Henr. 6. c. 8. 1 Mariae c. 17. to omit others we find Subsidies mitigated and released by subsequent Acts of Parliament though granted by precedent by reason of the peoples poverty and inability to pay them Yea somtimes we read of something granted them by the King by way of aide to help pay their Subsidies as in 25. E. 3. Rastal Tax 9. 36 E. 3. c. 14. And for a direct president in point When t Peter Rubie the Pope's Legat in the year 1240. exacted an excessive unusuall Tax from the English Clergie the whole Clergy of Berk-shire and others did all and every of them unanimously withstand it tendring him divers reasons in writing of their refusall pertinent to our time and present Tax whereof this was one That the Revenues of their Churches scarce sufficed to finde them daily food both in regard of their smalnesse and of the present dearth of Corne and because there were such multitudes of poore people to relieve some of which dyed of Famin so as they had not enough to suffice themselves and the poore Whereupon THEY OVGHT NOT TO BE COMPELLED TO ANY SVCH CONTRIBVTION which many of our Clergy may now likewise plead most truly whose Livings are small and their Tythes detained and divers people of all ranks and callings who must sell their stocks beds and all their houshold-stuffe or rot in prison if forced to pay it Eightly the principall inducement to bring on the payment of this Tax is a promise of taking off the all-devouring and undoing Grievance of Free-quarter which hath ruined many Countreys and Families and yet they must pay this heavy Tax to be eased of it for the future instead of being paid and allowed for what is already past according to u former engagements Against which I have these just exceptions 1. That the taking of Free-quarter by Soldiers in mens Houses is a grievance against the very Common-Law it self which defines every mans House to be his Castle and Sanctuary into which none ought forcibly to enter against his will and which with his goods therein he may lawfully x fortifie and defend against all intruders whatsoever and kill them without any danger of Law Against all the Statutes concerning y Purveyers which prohibit the taking of any mens goods or provisions against their wills or paiment for them under pain of Felony though by Commission under the great Seal of England Against the expresse Letter and Provision of the Petition of RIGHT 3. Caroli Condemned by the Commons House in their z Declaration of the state of the Kingdome of the 15. December 1641 and charged as an Article against King Richard the second when deposed in the Parliament of 1 H. 4 nu 22. Yea it is such a Grievance as exposeth the houses goods provisions moneys servants children wives lives and all other earthly comforts we enjoy to the lusts and pleasure of every domineering Officer and unruly common Souldier And to impose an unjust heavy Tax and induce people to pay it upon hopes of freeing them from Free-quarter is but to impose one grievance to remove another 2. There have been many promises Declarations and Orders of both Houses and the Generall for taking off Free quarter heretofore upon the peoples paying in their Contributions before-hand as now and then none should Free-quarter on them under pain of death Yet no sooner have they pay'd in their Contribution but they have been freequartered on as much or more then formerly the Souldiers when we tell them of any Orders against Free-quarter slighting them as so many wast papers and carrying themselves more unruly And when complaint thereof hath been made to the Officers Members or the Committee for the Army or in the House answer hath still been made That as long as there is an Army on foot there will be freequarter taken and there can be no prevention of it there being a necessity of it and when any have craved allowance of it they have found so many put-offs and delayes and such difficulties in obtaining it that their expences have equalled their allowance and after allowances made the moneys allowed have been called for again So as few have had any allowance for quarters and given over suing for them being put to play an after-game to sue for them after all their contributions first paid and not to deduct them out of their Contributions which they are still put to do This pretext therefore of taking away Free-quarter is but a shoo-horn to draw on the payment of this Tax and a fair pretext to delude the People as they finde by sad experience every-where and in the County and Hundred where I reside For not to look back to the last yeers free-quarter taken on us though we daily paid our Contributions In April and May last past since this very Tax imposed for taking away Free-quarter Colonel Harrisons Troopers under the command of Captain Spencer who quartered six days together in a place and exacted and received most of them 3 s. others 3 s. 6 d. and the least 2 s. 6 d. a day for their Quarters telling their Landlords that their Lands and the whole Kingdom was theirs have put Bathwick Bathford
heavy Taxes they please and renew increase multiply and perpetuate them on us as long as they please to support their own encroached more then Regall Parliamentall Super-transcendent Arbitrary power over us and all that is ours or the Kingdoms at our private and the publique charge against our wills judgments consciences to our absolute enslaving and our three Kingdoms ruine by engaging them one against another in new Civill wars and exposing us for a prey to our Forraign Enemies All which with other particulars lately acted and avowed by the Imposers of this Tax by colour of that pretended Parliamentary Authority by which they have imposed it I must necessarily admit acknowledge to be just and legall by my voluntary payment of it of purpose to maintaine an Army to justify and make good all this by the meer power of the Sword which they can no wayes justify and defend by the Laws of God or the Realm before any Tribunall of God or Men when legally arraigned as they shall one day be Neither of which I can or dare acknowledge without incurring the guilt of most detestable Perjury and Highest Treason against King Kingdom Parliament Laws and Liberties of the People and therefore cannot yeeld to this Assessement Thirdly The principall ends and uses proposed in the pretended Act and Warrants thereupon for payment of this Tax are strong Obligations to me in point of Conscience Law Prudence to withstand it which I shall particularly discusse The First is the maintenance and continuance of the present Army and forces in England under the Lord Fairfax To which I say First as I shall with all readinesse gratitude and due respect acknowledg their former Gallantry good and faithfull Services to the Parliament and Kingdom whiles they continued dutiful and constant to their first Engagements and the ends for which they were raised by both Houses as far forth as any man so in regard of their monstrous defections and dangerous Apostacy from their Primitive obedience faithfulnesse and engagements in disobeying the Commands and levying open warre against both Houses of Parliament keeping an horrid force upon them at their very doors seising imprisoning secluding abusing and forcing away their Members printing and publishing many high and treasonable Declarations against the Institution Priviledges Members and Proceedings of the late and being of all future Parliaments imprisoning abusing arraigning condemning and executing our late King against the Votes faith and engagements of both Houses and disinheriting his Posterity usurping the Regal Parliamental Magistratical and Ecclesiastical power of the Kingdom to their Generall Councel of Officers of the Army as the supreme swaying Authority of the Kingdom and attempting to alter and subvert the ancient Government Parliaments Laws and Customs of our Realm And upon serious consideration of the ordinary unsufferable Assertions of their Officers and Souldiers uttered in most places where they quarter and to my self in particular sundry times That the whole Kingdom with all our Lands Houses goods and whatsoever we have is theirs and that by right of conquest they having twice conquered the Kingdom That we are but their conquered slaves and Vassals and they the Lords and Heads of the Kingdome That our very lives are at their mercy and courtesie That when they have gotten all we have from us by Taxes and Free-quarter and we have nothing left to pay them then themselves will selfe upon our Lands as their own and turn us and our Families out of doors That there is now no Law in England nor never was if we beleeve their lying Oracle Peters but the sword with many such like vapouring Speeches and discourses of which there are thousands of witnesses I can neither in Conscience Law nor Prudence assent much lesse contribute in the least degree for their present maintenance or future continuance thus to insult inslave and tyrannize over King Kingdom Parliament people at their pleasure like their conquered vassals And for me in particular to contribute to the maintenance of those who against the Law of the Land the priviledges of Parliament and liberty of the Subject pulled me forcibly from the Commons House and kept me prisoner about two months space under their Martiall to my great expence and prejudice without any particular cause pretended or assigned only for discharging my duty to the Kingdom and those for whom I served in the House without giving me the least reparation for this unparallell'd injustice or acknowledging their offence and yet detain some of my then fellow-Members under custody by the meer power of the Sword without bringing them to tryall would be not onely absurd unreasonable and a tacite justification of this their horrid violence and breach of priviledge but monstrous unnaturall perfidious against my Oath and Covenant 2. No Tax ought to be imposed on the Kingdom in Parliament it self but in case of necessity for its common Good as is cleer by the Stat. of 25. E. 1. c 6. and Cooks 2 Instit. p. 528. Now it is evident to me that there is no necessity of keeping up this Army for the Kingdoms common Good but rather a necessity of disbanding it or the greatest part of it for these reasons 1. Because the Kingdom is generally exhausted with the late 7 years Wars Plunders and heavie Taxes there being more moneys levied on it by both sides during these eight last years then in all the Kings Reigns since the Conquest as will appear upon a just computation all Counties being thereby utterly unable to pay it 2. In regard of the great decay of Trade the extraordinary dearth of cattel corn and provisions of all sorts the charge of relieving a multitude of poor people who starve with famine in many places the richer sort eaten out by Taxes and Free-quarter being utterly unable to relieve them To which I might add the multitude of maimed Souldiers with the widows and children of those who have lost their lives in the Wars which is very costly 3. This heavie Contribution to support the Army destroys all Trade by fore-stalling and engrossing most of the moneys of the Kingdom the sinews and life of Trade wasting the provisions of the Kingdom and enhansing their prices keeping many thousands of able men and horses idle only to consume other labouring mens provisions estates and the publick Treasure of the Kingdom when as their imployment in their trades and callings might much advance trading and enrich the Kingdom 4. There is now no visible Enemy in the field or Garisons and the sitting Members boast there is no fear from any abroad their Navie being so Victorious And why such a vast Army should be still continued in the Kingdom to increase its debts and payments when charged with so many great Arrears and debts already eat up the Country with Taxes and Free-quarter only to play drink whore steal rob murther quarrel fight with impeach and shoot one another to death as Traytors Rebels and Enemies to the Kingdom and Peoples Liberties
from going yet take free-quarter on the Country and pay too under that pretext And to force the Country to pay Contribution and give Free-quarter to such Cheaters and Impostors who never intend this Service is both unjust and dishonourable 4. If the Relief of Ireland be now really intended it is not upon the first just and pious grounds to preserve the Protestant party there from the forces of the bloody Popish Irish Rebels with whom if report be true these sitting Anti-Monarchists seek and hold correspondence and are now actually accorded with Owen Ro-Oneal and his party of blodiest Papists but to oppose the Kings interest and title to that Kingdome and the Protestant remaining party there adhering to and proclaiming acknowledging him for their Soveraign least his gaining of Ireland should prove fatall to their usurped soveraignty in England or conduce to his enthroning here And by what Authority these now sitting can impose or with what conscience any loyall Subject who hath taken the Oaths of Supremacy Allegiance and Covenant can voluntarily pay any contribution to deprive the King of his hereditary right undoubted Title to the Kingdoms and Crowns of England Ireland and alter the frame of the ancient Government Parliaments of our Kingdoms p Remonstrated so often against by both Houses and adjudged High Treason in Canterburies and Strafffords cases for which they were beheaded and by themselves in the Kings own case whom they decolled likewise without incurring the guilt of Perjury and danger of High Treason to the losse of his life and estate by the very laws and statuts yet inforce transcends my understanding to conceive VVherfore I neither can nor dare in conscience law or prudence submit to this contribution Fourthly The coercive power and manner of levying this contribution expressed in the Act is against the Law of the Land and Liberty of the Subject which is threefold First Distresse and sale of the goods of those who refuse to pay it with power to break open their Houses which are their Castles doores chests c. to distrain which is against Magna Charta cap. 29. The Petition of Right The Votes of both Houses in the case of Ship-mony 1 R. 2. c. 3. and the resolution of our Judges and Law-books 13. Ed. 4.9.20 E. 4.6 Cook 5. Report f. 91.92 Semaines case 4. Inst. p. 176 177. Secondly Imprisonment of the body of the party till he pay the contribution being contrary to Magna charta The Petition of Right The resolution of both Houses in the Parliament of 3 Caroli in the case of Loanes and 17 Caroli in the case of Ship-mony the judgment of our Judges and Law-Books collected by Sir Edward Cook in his 2 Insti. p. 46. c. and the Statu. of 2 H. 4. Rot. Par. n. 6. unprinted but most expresse in point Thirdly Levying of the contribution by souldiers and force of arms in case of resistance and imprisoning the person by like force adjudged High Treason in the cases of the Earl of Strafford and a levying of war within the Statute of 25. Ed. 3. by the late Parliament for which he lost his head and so proved to be at large by Master St. Iohn in his Argument at Law at the passing the Bill for his attainder Printed by Order of the Commons House Fourthly Which heightens the illegality of these illegall means of levying it if any person whose goods are destrained or person imprisoned for this illegall tax shall bring his Action at Law or an Habeas corpus for his relief The Committee of Indempnity will stay his legall proceedings award cost against him and commit him a new till he pay them and release his suits at Law and upon an Habeas corpus their own Sworn Judges created by them dare not bayle but remaund him against Law An oppression and Tyranny far exceeding the worst of the Beheaded Kings under whom the Subjects had Free-Liberty to sue and proceed at Law both in the cases of Loanes Shipmony and Knighthood without any Councel-Table Committee of Indempnity to stop their suits or inforce them to release them and therefore in all these respects so repugnant to the Laws and Liberty of the Subject I cannot submit to this illegall Tax but oppugn it to the utetrmost most invasive on our Laws and Liberties that ever was Fifthly The time of opposing this illegall Tax with these unlawfull ways of levying it is very considerable and sticks much with me it is as the Imposers of it declare and publish in many of their new kind of Acts and devices in the first yeare of Englands Liberty and redemption from thraldom And if this unsupportable Tax thus illegallly to be levied be the first fruits of our first years Freedom and redemption from thraldom how great may we expect our next years thraldome will be when this little finger of theirs is heavier by far then the Kings whole loynes whom they beheaded for Tyranny and Oppression Sixthly The Order of this Tax if I may so term a disorder or rather newnesse of it engageth me and all lovers of their Countries Liberty unanimously to withstand the same It is the first I finde that was ever imposed by any who had been Members of the Commons House after a Parliament dissolved the Lords House voted down and most of their fellow-Commoners secured or secluded by their connivance or confederacy with an undutiful Army VVhich if submitted to and not opposed as illegall any forty or fifty Commoners who have been Members of a Parliament gaining Forces to assist and countenance them may out of Parliament now or any time hereafter do the like and impose what Taxes and Laws they please upon the Kingdom and the secluded Lords and Commons that once sate with them being incouraged thereto by such an unopposed precedent VVhich being of so dangerous consequence and example to the constitution and priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the people we ought all to endeavour the crushing of this new Cockatrice in the shell lest it grow to a fiery Serpent to consume and sting us to death and induce the Imposers of it to lade us with new and heavie Taxes of this kinde when this expires which we must expect when all the Kings Bishops Deans and Chapters Lands are sold and spent if we patiently submit to this leading Decoy since q Bonus Actus inducit consuetudinem as our Ancestors resolved Anno 1240. in the case of an universall Tax demanded by the Pope whereupon they all unanimously opposed it at first r Opprime dum nova sunt subiti mala semina morbi Principiis obsta serò medicina paratur Cum mala per longas invaluere moras being the safest rule of State-physick we can follow in such new desperate Diseases which endanger the whole Body-politick Upon which grounds the most consciencious Gentlemen and best Patriots of their Country opposed Loans Ship money Tonnage Poundage Knighthood and the like late illegall
forbear till I saw what their Officers would do who in stead of punishing any of them permitted them to play the like Rex almost in other places where they quartered since marching but three or four miles a day and extorting what moneys they could from the Country by their violence and disorders Now for me or any other to give moneys to maintain such deboist Bedlams and Beasts as these who boasted of their villanies and that they had done me at least twenty pounds spoil in Beer and Provisions drinking out five barrels of good strong Beer and wasting as much meat as would have served an hundred civill persons to be Masters of our Houses Goods Servants Lives and all we have to ride over our heads like our Lords and Conquerours and take Free quarter on us amounting to at least a full yeares contribution without any allowance for it and that since the last Orders against Free-quarter and warrants for paying in this Tax to prevent it for the future issued is so far against my reason Judgement and conscience that I would rather give all away to suppress discard them or cast it into the fire then maintain such graceless wretches with it to dishonour God enslave consume ruine the Country and Kingdome who every where complain of the like insolences and of taking free quarter since the 9 of June as above two hundred of Colonel Coxe his men did in Bath the last Lords day who drew up in a body about the Majors House and threatned to seise and carry him away prisoner for denying to give them free quarter contrary to the New Act for abolishing it Lastly this pretended Act implies that those who refuse to pay this contribution without distress or imprisonment shall be stil oppressed with freequarter And what an height of oppression and injustice this will prove not only to distrain imprison those who cannot in conscience Law or prudence submit to this illegall Tax but likewise to undoe them by exposing them to free-quarter which themselves condemne as the heighst pest and oppression let all sober men consider and what reason I and others have to oppose such a dangerous destructive president in its first appearing to the world Ninethly The principal end of imposing this Tax to maintain the Army and forces now raised is not the defence and fafety of our ancient and first Christian Kingdom of England its Parliaments Laws Liberties and Religion as at first but to disinherit the King of the Crown of England Scotland and Ireland to which he hath an undoubted right by common and Statute Law as the Parliament of 1 Jacobi ch. 1. resolves and to levy war against him to deprive him of it To subvert the ancient Monarchical Government of this Realm under which our Ancesters have always lived and flourished to set up a New republick the oppressions and greivances whereof we have already felt by increasing our Taxes setting up arbitrary Courts and Proceedings to the taking away of the lives of the late King Peers and other Subjects against the Fundamental Laws of the Land creating new monstrous Treasons never heard off in the world before and the like but cannot yet enjoy or discern the least ease or advantage by it To overthrow the ancient constitution of the Parliaments of England consisting of King Lords and Commons and the Rights and Priviledges thereof To alter the fundamental Laws Seales Courts of Justice of the Realm and introduce an arbitrary Government at least if not Tyrannical contrary to our Lawes Oathes Covenant Protestation a publick Remonstrances and Engagements to the Kingdom and forraign States not to change the Government or attempt any of the premises All which being no less then High Treason by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm as Sir Edward Cook in his 4 Institutes ch. 1. and Mr. St. John in his Argument at Law upon passing the bill of Attainder of the Earl of Strafford both printed by the Commons special order have proved at large by many presidents Reasons Records and so adjudged by the last Parliament in the cases of Strafford and Canterbury who were condemned and executed as Traytors by judgement of Parliament and some of these now sitting but for some of those Treasons upon obscurer Evidences of guilt then are now visible in others I cannot without incurring the Crime and Guilt of these general High Treasons and the eternal if not temporal punishments incident thereunto if I should voluntarily contribute so much as one peny or farthing towards such Treasonable and disloyal ends as these against my Conscience Law Loyalty duty and all my Oathes and obligations to the contrary Tenthly The payment of this Tax for the premised purposes will in my poor judgment and conscience be offensive to God and all good men scandalous to the Protestant Religion dishonourable to our English Nation and disadvantagious and destructive to our whole Kingdom hindering the speedy settlement of our Peace the re-establishment of our Laws and Government establishing of our Taxes disbanding of our Forces revivall of our decayed Trade by the renewing and perpetuating our bloudy uncivill Warrs engaging Scotland Ireland and all forreign Princes and Kingdoms in a just War against us to avenge the death of our late beheaded King the dis-inheriting of his posterity and restore his lawfull Heirs and Successors to their just undoubted Rights from which they are now forcibly secluded who will undoubtedly molest us with continuall Warrs what-ever some may fondly conceit to the contrary till they be setled in the Throne in peace upon just and honorable terms and invested in their just possessions And therefore I can neither in conscience piety nor prudence ensnare my self in the guilt of all these dangerous consequences by any submission to this illegall Tax Upon all these weighty Reasons and serious grounds of Conscience Law Prudence which I humbly submit to the Consciences and Judgments of all conscientious and Judicious persons whom they do or shall concern I am resolved by the assistance and strength of that Omnipotent God who hath miraculously supported me under and carried me through all my former sufferings for the Peoples publick Liberties with exceeding joy comfort and the ruine of my greatest enemies and Opposers to oppugne this unlawfull Contrbution and the payment of it to the uttermost in all just and lawfull wayes I may And if any will forcibly levie it by distresse or otherwise without Law or Right as Theeves and Robbers take mens goods and Purses let them doe it at their own utmost perill And I trust God and men will in due season doe me justice and award me recompence for all the injuries in this kinde and any sufferings for my Countries Liberties How-ever fall back fall edge I would ten thousand times rather lose life and all I have to keep a good conscience and preserve my native Liberty then part with one farthing or gain the whole world with the losse of either of them and
ever breathed by how much more under the pretence of friendship and brotherly kindness they have done all the mischeife they have done in destroying our Lawes and liberties there being no Treason like Judas his Treason who betrayed his Lord and Master with a kisse c. Seventhly He there asserts k That whosoever stoops to their new change of Government and Tyranny and supports it is as absolute a Traytor both by Law and Reason as ever was in the world If not against the King PRINCE CHARLES heir apparent to his Fathers Crown and Throne yet against the peoples Majesty and Soveraignty And if this be true as it is That this purg'd Parliament IS NO PARLIAMENT AT ALL then there is neither legal Judges nor Justices of Peace in England And if so then all those that are executed at Tiburne c. by their Sentence of condemnation are meerly murthered and the Judges and Justices that condemned them are liable in time to be hanged and that justly therefore for acting without a just and legal Commission either from TRVE REGAL OR TRVE PARLIAMENTARY POWER except in corporations only where they proceed by ancient Charters in the antient Legal form And if this be Law and l Gospel as no doubt it is then by the same reason not only all legal proceedings Indictments Judgments Verdicts writs Trials Fines Recoveries Recognisances and the like before any of our new created Judges and Justices since the Kings be heading in any Courts at Westminster or in their Circuits Assisses or quarter Sessions held by new Commissions with all Commissions and Proceedings of Sheriffs ate not only meerly void illegal coram non judice to all intents with all Bills Decrees and Proceedings in Chancery or the Rolls and all Judges Justices Sheriffs now acting and Lawyers practising before them in apparent danger of High-Treason both against King Kingdom they neithver taking the Oathes of Judges Supremacy or Allegiance as they ought by Law but only to be true and faithfull to the new erected State but likewise all votes and proceedings before the pretended House or any of their Committees or Sub-Committees in the Country with all their grants and Offices Moneys Salaries Sequestrations Sales of Lands or goods Compositions c. meer Nullities and illegal acts and the proceedings of all active Commissioners Assessors Collectors Treasurers c. and all other Officers imployed to leavy and to collect this illegal tax to support that usurped Parliamentary Authority and Army which have beheaded the late King dis-inherited his undoubted Heire levyed war against and dissolved the late Houses of Parliament subverted the ancient Government of this Realm the Constitution and Liberties of our Parliaments the Lawes of the Kingdom with the liberty and property of the people of England no less then High Treason in all these respects as is fully proved by Sir Edward Cook in his 3. Institutes ch. 1.2 and by Mr. St. John in his Argument at Law at the attainder of the Earl of Strafford both published by the late Commons House Order which I desire all who are thus imployed to consider especially such Commissioners who take upon them to administer a new unlawful Ex Officio Oath to any to survey their Neighbours and their own estates in every parish and return the true values thereof to them upon the new prov'd rate for the 3 last months contribution and to fine those who refuse to do it a meer diabolical invention to multiply perjuries to damne mens souls invented by Cardinal Woolsy much inveighed against by Father Latymer in his Sermons condemned by the expresse words of the Petition of Right providing against such Oahes and a snare to enthrall the wealthier sort of people by discovering their estates to subject them to what future Taxes they think fit when as the whole House of Commons in no age had any power to administer an Oath in any case whatsoever much less then to conferr any authority on others to give such illegal Oathes and fine those who refuse them the highest kinde of Arbitrary Tyranny both over mens Consciences Properties Liberties to which those who voluntarily submit deserve not only the name of Traytors to their Country but to be m boared through the ear and they and their posterities to be made Slaves for ever to these new Tax-masters and their Successors and those who are any ways active in imposing or administring such Oathes and levying illegal Taxes by distress or otherwise may and will undoubtedly smart for it at last not only by Actions of Trespasse false imprisonment Accompt c. brought against them at the Common Law when there wil be no Committee of Indemnity to protect them from such suits but likewise by inditements of High Treason to the deserved loss of their Estates Lives and ruin of their families when there will be no Parliament of purged Commoners nor Army to secure nor legal plea to acquit them from the guilt and punishment of Traytors both to their King and Country pretended present sordid fears of loss of Liberty Estate or the like being no n excuse in such a case and time as this but an higher aggravation of their crime the o FEARFUL being the first in that dismall List of Malefactors who shall have part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death even by Christs own sentence John 18. vers. 38. To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witnesse unto the truth FINIS Objection IF any object that true it is the Parliament by the Common Law and custome of the Realm determines by the Kings death but by the Statute of 17. Caroli which enaâ—ts That this present Parliament now assembled shall not be dissolved unlesse it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose continues this Parliament stil in being notwithstanding the Kings beheading since no Act of Parliament is passed for its dissolution The only pretext for to support the continuance of the Parliament since the Kings violent death To this I Answer that it is a Maxime in Law That every Statue ought to be expounded according to the intent of those that made it and the mischiefs it intended only to prevent as is resolved in 4. Ed. 4.12 12. Ed. 4.18 1. Hen. 7.12.13 Plowd Com. f. 369. and Cooks 4. Instit. p. 329.330 Now the intent of the Makers of this act and the end of enacting it was not to prevent the dissolution of this Parliament by the Kings death no ways intimated or insinuated in any clause thereof being a clear unavoidable dissolution of it to all intents not provided for by this Law but by any writ or Proclamation of the King by his Regal power without consent of both Houses which I shall manifest by these ensuing reasons First from the principal occasion of making this act The King as the Commons in their *
rather die a Martyr for our Ancient Kingdom then live a Slave under any new Republick or remant of a broken dismembred strange Parliament of Commons without King Lords or the major part of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Realme in being subject to their illegall Taxes and what they call Acts of Parliament which in reality are no Acts at all to binde me or any other subject to obedience or just punishment for Non-obedience thereunto or Non-conformity to what they stile the present Government of the Armies modeling and I fear the Jesuites suggesting to effect our Kingdoms and Religions ruine WILLIAM PRYNNE Swainswick June 16. 1649. PSAL. 26.4 5. I have not sate with vain persons neither will I go with Dissemblers I have hated the Congregation of evill doers and will not sit with the wicked FINIS A POSTSCRIPT SInce the drawing up of the precedent Reasons I have met with a Printed Pamphlet intituled An Epistle written the 8th day of June by Lieutenant Colonel Iohn Lilburn to Master William Lenthall Speaker to the remainder of those few Knights Citizens and Burgesses that Col. Thom. Pride at his late purge thought convenient to leave sitting at Westminster as most fit for his and his Masters designs to serve their ambitious Tyrannical ends to destroy the good old Laws Liberties and Customs of England the badges of our Freedom as the Declaration against the King of the seventh of March 1648 pag. 23. calls them and by force of Armes to rob the people of their lives estates and properties and subject them to perfect vassallage and slavery c. who and in truth no otherwise pretendenly stile themselves The Conservators of the Peace of England or the Parliament of England intrusted and authorized by the consent of all the people thereof whose Representatives by Election in their Declaration last mentioned p. 27. they say they are although they are never able to produce one bit of a Law or any piece of a Commission to prove that all the people of England or one quarter tenth hundred or thousand part of them authorized Thomas Pride with his Regiment of Souldiers to choose them a Parliament as indeed it hath de facto done by this PRETENDED MOCK-PARLIAMENT And therefore it cannot properly be called the Nations or Peoples Parliament but Col. Prides and his Associats whose really it is who although they have beheaded the King for a Tyrant yet walk oppressingest steps if not worst and higher In this Epistle this late great Champion of the House of Commons and sitting Junctoes Supremacy both before and since the Kings beheading who with his Brother a Overton and their Confederates First cryed them up as and gave them the Title of The Supream Authority of the Nation The only Supream Judicatory of the land The only formall and legall Supream power and Parliament of England in whom alone the power of binding the whole Nation by making altering or abrogating Laws without either King or Lords resides c. and first engaged them by their Pamphlets and Petitions against the King Lords and Personall Treatie as he and they print and boast in this Epistle and other late Papers doth in his own and his Parties behalf who of late so much adored them as the only earthly Deities and Saviours of the Nation now positively assert and prove First that Commissary Generall Ireton Colonel Harison with other Members of the House and the General Councel of Officers in the Army did in severall meetings and debates at Windsor immediately before their late march to London to purge the House and after to Whitehall commonly stile themselves the pretended Parliament even before the Kings beheading a MOCK PARLIAMENT a MOCK POWER a PRETENDED PARLIAMENT NO PARLIAMENT AT ALL And that they were absolutely resolved and determined TO PULL UP THIS THEIR OWN PARLIAMENT BY THE ROOT and not so much as to leave a shadow of it yea and had done it if we say they and some of our then FRIENDS in the House had not been the Principall Instruments to hinder them We judging it then of two evils the least to chuse rather to be governed by THE SHADOW OF A PARLIAMENT till we could get a reall and a true one which with the greatest protestations in the world they then promised and engaged with all their might speedily to effect then simply solely and only by the will of Sword-men whom we had already found to be men of no very tender consciences If then these leading swaying Members of the new pretended purged Commons Parliament and Army deemed the Parliament even before the Kings beheading a Mock-Parliament a mock-power a pretended Parliament yea no Parliament at all and absolutely resolved to pull it up by the roots as such then it necessarily follows First that they are much more so after the Kings death as by their suppression of the Lords House and purging of the Commons House to the very dregs in the opinions and consciences of those now sitting and all other rationall men And no wayes enabled by law to impose this or any other new Tax or Act upon the Kingdom creating new Treasons and Penalties Secondly that these grand saints of the Army and Statesmen of the Pretended Parliament knowingly sit vote and act there against their own judgements and consciences for their own private pernicious ends Thirdly that it is a basenesse cowardize and degeneracy beyond all expression for any of their Fellow-members now acting to suffer these Grâ—nâ—eâ—s in their Assembly and Arms to sit or vote together with them or to enjoy any Office or command in the Army or to impose any tax upon the People to maintain such Officers Members Souldiers who have thus vilified affronted their pretended Parliamentary Authority and thereby induced others to contemn and question it and as great a basenesse in others for to pay it upon any terms Secondly he there affirms that d Oliver Crumwell by the helpe of the Aâ—my at their first Rebellion against the Parliament was no sooner put up but like a perfideous base unworthy man c. the House of Peers were his only white boys and who but Oliver who before to me had called them in effect both Tyrants and Vsurpers became their Proctor where ever he came yea and set his son Ireton at work for them also insomuch that at some meetings with some of my friends at the Lord Whartons lodgings he clapt his hand upon his breast and to this purpose professed in the sight of God upon his conscience THAT THE LORDS HAD AS TRUE A RIGHT TO THEIR LEGISLATIVE JURISDICTIVE POWER OVER THE COMMONS AS HE HAD TO HIS COAT UPON HIS BACK and he would pocure a freind viz. Master Nathaniel Feinnes should argue and plead their just right with any friend I had in England And not only so but did he not get the Generall and Councell of War at Windsor about the time that the Votes of no more
undoing This is my first and principall exception against the Legality of this Tax which I desire the Imposers and Levyers of it most seriously to consider and that upon these important considerations from their own late Declarations First themselves in their own Declaration of the 9th February 1648. have protested to the whole Kingdom That they are fully resolved to maintain and shall and will uphold preserve and keep the fundamentall Lawes of this Nation for and concerning the PRESERVATION OF THE LIVES PROPERTIES and LIBERTIES OF THE PEOPLE with all things incident thereunto which how it will stand with this Tax imposed by them out of Parliament or their Act concerning New TREASONS I desire they would satisfie me and the Kingdom before they levy the one or proceed upon the other against any of their fellow-Subjects by meer arbitrary armed power against Law and Right Secondly themselves in their Declaration expressing the grounds of their late proceedings and setling the present Government in way of a Free-State dated 17. Martii 1648. engage themselves To procure the well-being of those whom they serve to renounce oppression arbitrary power and all opposition to the peace and Freedome of the Nation And to prevent to their power the reviving of Tyrannie Injustice and all former evils the only end and duty of all their Labors to the satisfaction of all concerned in it 2. They charge the late King for exceeding all His predecessors in the destruction of those whom he was bound to preserve To manifest which they instance in The Loanes unlawfull Imprisonments and other Oppressions which produced that excellent Law of the Petition of Right which were most of them again acted presently after the Law made against them which was most palpably broken by him almost in every part of it very soon after His solemn Consent given unto it 1 His imprisoning and prosecuting Members of Parliament for opposing His unlawfull Will and of divers 2 worthy Merchants for refusing to pay Tonnage and Poundage because NOT GRANTED BY PARLIAMENT yet 3 exacted by HIM expresly against Law and punishment of many 4 good Patriots for not submitting to whatsoever be pleased to demand though NEVER SO MVCH IN BREACH OF THE KNOWN LAW The multitude of projects and Monopolies established by Him His designe and charge to bring in 5 Germane-Horse to awe us INTO SLAVERY and his hopes of compleating all by His grand project of 6 Ship-money to subject EVERY MANS ESTATE TO WHATSOEVER PROPORTION HE PLEASED TO IMPOSE UPON THEM But above all the English Army was laboured by the King to be engaged against THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT A thing of that 7 STRANGE IMPIETY and VNNATVRALNESS for the King of England to sheath their swords in one anothers bowels that nothing can answer it but his owne being a Foraigner neither could it easily have purchased belief but by his succeeding visible actions in ful pursuance of the same As the Kings coming in person to the 8 House of Commons to seise the five Members whether he was followed with 9 some hundreds of unworthy debauched persons armed with Swords and Pistols and other Armes and they attending at the Doore of the House ready to execute whatsoever their Leader should command them The oppressions of the Councell-Table Star-Chamber High-Commission Court-Martiall Wardships Purveyances Afforestations and many others of like nature equalled if not farr exceeded now by sundry Arbitrary Committees and Sub-Committees to name no others in all manner of Oppressions and Injustice concluding thus Vpon all these and many other unparalleld offences upon his breach of Faith of Oaths and Protestations upon the cry of the blood of England and Ireland upon the tears of Widows and orphans and childlesse Parents and millions of persons undone by him let all the world of indifferent men judge whether the Parliament you mean your selves only which made this Declaration had not sufficient cause to BRING THE KING TO JUSTICE And much more you if you imitate or exceed him in all or any of these even by your own verdit 3. Themselves charge the King with with profuse Donations of salaries and pensions to such as were found or might be made sit Instruments and promoters of Tyranny which were supplied not by the legal justifiable revenue of the Crown but by Projects and illegal ways OF DRAINING THE PEOPLES PVRSES all which mischief and grievance they say wil be prevented in their free State though the quite contrary way as appears by the late large donation of some thousands to Mr. Henry Martin the Lord Lisle ‖ Commissary General Ireton and others of their Members and Instruments upon pretence of Arrears or Service some of them out the moneys now imposed for the releife of Ireland And must we pay Taxes to be thus prodigally expended Fourthly They therein promise and engage That the good old Laws and Customs of England THE BADGES OF OUR FREEDOM the benefit whereof our Ancesters enjoyed long before the conquest and spent much of their blood to have confirmed by the Great Charter of the Liberties and other excellent Laws which have continued in all former changes and being duly executed are THE MOST JVST FREE and equal of any other Laws in the world shall be duly continued and maintained by them the LIBERTY PROPERTY and PEACE OF THE SVBJECT BEING SO FVLLY PRESERVED BY THEM and the common interest of those WHOM THEY SERVE And if those Lawes should be taken away all Jndustry must cease all misery blood and confusion would fellow and greater Calamities if possible then fel upon us by the late Kings misgovernment would certainly involve all persons under which they must inevitably perish 5. They therein expresly promise p. 26. To order the revenue in such a way That the publick charges may be defrayed The Souldiers pay justly and duly setled That free-quarter may be wholy taken away and THE PEOPLE BE EASED IN THEIR BURTHENS and TAXES And is this now all the ease we feel to have all Burthens and Taxes thus augmented and that against Law by pretended acts made out of Parliament against all these good old Lawes and Statutes our Liberties and Properties which these new Tax-Masters have so newly and deeply engaged themselves to maintain and preserve without the least diminution Thirdly Both Houses of Parliament joyntly and the House of Commons severally in the late Parliament with the approbation of all consent of most now sitting did in sundry ‖ Remonstrances and Declarations published to the Kingdom not only Tax the King and his evil Counsellors for imposing illegal Taxes on the Subjects contrary to the forecited acts the maintenance whereof against all future violations and invasions of the Peoples Liberties and Properties they made one principal ground of our late bloody expensive wars but likewise professed * That they were specially chosen and intrusted by the Kingdom in Parliament and owned it as their duty to
hazzard their own lives and estates for preservation of those Laws and liberties and use their best endeavours that the meanest of the Commonalty might enjoy them as their birthrights as well as the greatest Subject That EVERY HONEST MAN especially THOSE WHO HAVE TAKEN THE LATE PROTESTATION and Solemn League and Covenant since IS BOUND TO DEFEND THE LAWS and LIBERTIES OF THE KINGDOM against WIL and POWER which imposed WHAT PAYMENTS THEY THOUGHT FIT TO DRAIN THE SUBJECTS PURSES and supply THOSE NECESSITIES which their il Counsel had brought upon the King and Kingdom And that they would be ready TO LIVE AND DYE with those WORTHY and TRUE-HEARTED PATRIOTS OF THE GENTRY OF THIS NATION and others who were ready to lay down their lives and fortunes for the maintenance of THEIR LAWS and LIBERTIES with many such like heroick expressions Which must needs engage me a Member of that Parliament and Patriot of my Country with all my strength and power to oppose this injurious Tax imposed out of Parliament though with the hazard of my life and fortunes wherein all those late Members who have joyned in these Remonstrances are engaged by them to second me under paine of being adjudged unworthy for ever hereafter to sit in any Parliament or to be trusted by their Counties and those for whom they served And so much the rather to vindicate the late Houses honour and reputation from those predictious and printed aspersions of the beheaded King * That the maintenance of the Laws Liberties Properties of the People were but only guilded dissimulations and specious pretences to get power into their own hands thereby to enable them to destroy and subvert both Lawes Liberties and Properties at last And not any thing like them to introduce Anarchy Democracy Parity Tyranny in the Highest degree and new formes of arbitrary Government and leave neither King nor Gentleman all which the people should too late discover to their costs and that they had obtained nothing by adhering to and compliance with them but to enslave and undoe themselves and to be last destroyed Which royal Predictions many complaine we finde too truely verified by those who now bear rule under the Name and visour of the Parliament of England since its dissolution by the Kings decapitation and the Armies imprisoning and seclusion of the Members who above all others are obliged to disprove them by their answers as wel as declarations to the people who regard not words but reall performances from these new keepers of their Liberties especially in this FIRST YEAR OF ENGLANDS FREEDOM engraven on all their publick Seals which else will but seal their Selfdamnation and proclaim them the Archest Impostors under Heaven Secondly Should I voluntarily submit c. ERRATA Page 2. line 17. read Perusers l. 36. r. argued p. 3. l. 14. r. by l. 16. for 4. r. 14. p 4. l. 29 dele by l. 36. r consenting p. 5. l. 17. for 74 r. 49 H. 3 l. 20. r. and p. 6. l. 2. for Asportatis Religiosorum The Statute of Sheriffs 9. E. 2. and of the Templers 17. E. 2. to mention no more l. 20. dele have p. 7 l. 2. r. swear l. 7. r. 13 E. 3. l. 15. r. sitting l. 27. r. 8 H 6. p. 8. l. 4. r. an. p. 9. l. 9. r. read l 21. dele as p. 10. l. 13. for 27 r. 32. l. 14. r. Banneret p. 11. l. 12. r. God l 37. dele the p. 12. l 27 r. perjutious p. 16. l. 2. r. those a See my humble Remonstrance against Ship-money b See 1 E. 6. cap. 7. Cook 7. Report 30.31 Dyer 165. 4. E. 4.43.44 1 E. 5.1 Brook Commission 19.21 c Cromptons Jurisdiction of Courts fol. 1. Cook 4. Instit. p. 9.10 d 5. Ed. 3.6 part 2. Dors. Claus. Regist. f. 192.200 e 4 Ed. 4.44 1 E. 5.1 Brook Commissions 19.21 Officer 25. Dyer 165. Cook 7. Report 30.31 1 E. 6. c. 7. Daltons Justice of Peace c. 3. p. 13. Lambert p. 71. f 14. R. 2. n. 15. 11. H. 4. n. 30. 13. H. 4. n. 25. g 4 H. 7.18 b. 7. H. 7.14.16 11. H. 7.27 Fortescue c. 18 f. 20. Dyer 92. brook Parliament 76.197 Cooks 4. Institutes p. 25. h See the Freeholders grand inquest and my Plea for the Lords i Cooks 4. Institues p. 1. k Declaration Nov. 28. 30. 1948. l 39. Ed. 3.7 4. H. 4.10 Brook Parlia. 26.40 Cook 4. Instit. p. 1.25.26 1. Jac. ch. 1. m 49. Ed. 3.18 19. 21. H. 7.4 Brooke customs 6.32 Object Answ. n See my Plea for the Lords and Levellers levelled o Collect. c. pag. 599. â—â—6 Object Ans. p See a Collection p 94 95 99 698.700.877 878. q Matt. Paris p. 517. r Ovid de Remed. Amoâ—is s Mag. Chart. c. 14. 14. E. 3. c. 6. Cook 2. Instit. pag. 26.27.169.170 t Matt. Paris p. 516. u A Collection c. pag. 771. x See Cook 5. Report fol. 91 92. Semans Case 7 Rep. Sendels case Lambert f. 179. Daltons Justice of Peace 224. 24 H. 8. c. 5 y See Rastal Title Purveyers z An exact Collection p. 7 a See an Exact collection and a collection of publick Orders and p. 99.698.700.877.878 a His Petition and Appeal and his Arrow of defiance See M. Edwards Gangrena 3. pa. page 154. fol. 204. Pag. 11.29 Pag. 34.35 d Pag. 26 27 e Pag. 34 39 40.56 57. f Pag. 52.53.56.57.58.59 g Pag. 53.54.59 41. h Pag. 2.15.27 29.33.34.35.41.53.57 58 59 64. â—4 75 i See Pag. 31.32 k P. 57.34 l Luk. 19.14 27. c. 12.13 14. m Exod. 21.5.6 n See 1. H. 4 Rot. Parl. n. 97. o Rev. 21.8 This Objection must be added just before Secondly Should I voluntarily submit c. Answ. * Exact Collect. p. 5.6 ‖ 6. E. 3. Parl. 2 Rot. Parl. 3. 6 5. R. 2. n. 64.65 11. R 2. n. 14.16.20 8. H 4. n 2.7 27. H. 6. n. 12 28. H. 6. n. 8.9.11 29. H. 6. n. 10 11. 31 H. 6. n. 22.30.49 * Cook 4. Instit. p 25. Dyer f. 203. * Exact Collect. p. 69.70.736.709.722 * Brook Parliament 80. Relation 85. Dyer 85. 1 Is not this the Armies their own late and present practise 2 Alderman Chambers the eminentest of them is yet since this Declaration discharged by you for his loyalty and conscience only 3 And is it not so by you now and transmitted unto the Exchequer to be levyed 4 And do not you now the same yea some of those very good Patriots 5 Are not the Generals and Armies Horse and Foot too kept up and continued among us for that very purpose being some of them Germans too 6 Not one quarter so grievous as the present Tax imposed by you for the like purpose 7 And is it not more unnaturall in those now sitting to engage the English Army raised by the Parliament of England and covenanting to defend it from violence against the very Parliament of England and its Members and that successively twice after one another and yet to own and support this Army without righting those Members 8 Was not Pride's and the Armies comming thither to seise and actually seising above Forty and secluding above Two hundred Members with Thousands of armed Horse and Foot a thousand times a greater offence especially after so many Declarations of the Houses against this of the Kings 9 Was not Humphrey Edwards now sitting an unduly elected Member one of them thus armed ‖ Hon. Martin is accomptable to the State for above 8700 l. which the Committee of accounts in two years time could never bring him to account for and yet hath 3000. voted him lately for moneys pretended to be disbursted to whom and for whom query Nota. ‖ Exact Collect. p. 5 6.7.14 342.492 * Exact Collect p. 28.29.214.263.270.491.492.495 496.497.660 * Exact Collect p. 285.286.298.320.322.378.379.381.513.514 515. c. 618.619.620.623.647 c. 671.679 c. A Collect. c.p. 100.102 c. 117.