Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	act_n	king_n	parliament_n	4,725	5	6.6957	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91207	A legal vindication of the liberties of England, against illegal taxes and pretended Acts of Parliament, lately enforced on the people: or, Reasons assigned by William Prynne of Swainswick in the county of Sommerset, esquire, why he can neither in conscience, law, nor prudence, submit to the new illegal tax or contribution of ninety thousand pounds the month; imposed on the kingdom by a pretended Act of some Commons in (or rather out of) Parliament, April 7 1649. (when this was first penned and printed,) nor to the one hundred thousand pound per mensem, newly laid upon England, Scotland and Ireland, Jan. 26. 1659 by a fragment of the old Commons House, ...	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1660 (1660)	Wing P3998; Thomason E772_4; ESTC R207282	74,956	90

of mony must of necessity be speedilie advanced and procured for the relief of his Majesties Army and People not his Heirs or Successors in the Northern parts c. And for supplie of other his Majesties present and urgent occasions not his Heirs or Successors future occasions which cannot be so timely effected as is requisite without credit for raising the said monies which credit cannot be attained untill such obstacles be first removed which are occasioned by Fears Iealousies and Apprehensions of divers of his Majesties Royal Subjects that the Parliament may be adjourned prorogued or dissolved not by the Kings sodain or untimelie death of which there was then no fear jealousie or apprehension in any his Majesties loyal Subjects but by his royal Prerogative and advice of ill Counsellors before Justice shall be duly executed upon Delinquents then in being not sprung up since publique Grievances then complained of not others introduced since this Act redressed a firm peace betwixt the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland concluded and before sufficient provisions be made for the repayment of the said Monies not others since borrowed so to be raised All which the Commons in this present Parliament assembled having duly considered do therefore humbly beseech your Majestie that it may be declared and enacted c. All which expressions related TO HIS late Majestie onlie not to his Heirs and Successors and the principal scope of this Act being to gain present credit to raise monies to disband the Scotish and English armies then lying upon the Kingdom manie years since accomplished yea Justice being since executed upon Strafford Canterbury and other Delinquents then impeached the publick Grievances they complained of as the Star-Chamber High-Commission Ship-mony Tonnage and Poundage Fines for Knighthood Bishops Votes in Parliament with their Courts and Jurisdictions and the like redressed by Acts soon after passed a firm peace between both Nations concluded before the Wars began and this preamble's pretensions for this Act all fullie satisfied divers years before the Kings beheading it must of necessity be granted that this Statute never intended to continue this Parliament on foot after the Kings decease especially after the ends for which it was made were all fully accomplished and so it must necessarily be dissolved by his Death Fourthly This is most clear by the body of the Act it self And be it declared and enacted by the King our Soveraign Lord with the assent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the authority of the same That this present Parliament now assembled shall not be dissolved unlesse it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose nor shall any time or times during the continuance thereof be prorogued or adjourned unless it be by Act of Parliament to be likewise passed for that purpose And that the House of Peers shall not at any time or times during this present Parliament be adjourned unlesse it be by Themselves or by their own order And in like manner that the House of Commons shall not at any time or times during this present Parliament be adjourned unlesse it be by Themselves or by their own order Whence it is undeniable 1. That this act was only for the prevention of the untimely dissolving Proroguing and adjourning of that present Parliament then assembled and no other 2. That the King himself was the Principal Member of his Parliament yea our Soveraign Lord and the sole declarer and enacter of this Law by the Lords and Commons assent 3. That neither this Act for continuing nor any other for dissolving adjourning or proroguing this Parliament could be made without but only by and with the Kings Royal assent thereto which the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament in their * Remonstrance of the 26. of May 1642. oft in terminis acknowledge together with his Negative Voyce to Bills 4ly That it was neither the Kings intention in passing this Act to shut himself out of Parliament or create both or either House a Parliament without a King as he professed in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. 5. p. 27. Nor the Lords nor Commons Intendment to dismember him from his Parliament or make themselves a Parliament without him as their foresaid Remonstrance testifies and the words of the Act import Neither was it the Kings Lords or Commons meaning by this Act to set up a Parliament only of Commons much lesse of a remnant of a Commons House selected by Colonel Pride and his Confederates of the Army to serve their turns and vote what they prescribed without either King or House of Peers much lesse to give them any super-transcendent authority to vote down and abolish the King and House of Lords and make them no Members of this present or any future Parliaments without their own order or assent against which so great usurpation and late dangerous unparliamentary encroachments this very Act expresly provides in this clause That the House of Peers wherein the King sits as Soveraign when he pleaseth shall not at any time or times during this present Parliament be adjourned much less then dissolved excluded or suspended from sitting or voting which is greater and that by their inferiours in all kinds a Fragment of the Commons House who can pretend no colour of Jurisdiction over them before whom they alwaies stood bare-headed like so many Grand-Jury-men before the Judges and attended at their Doors and Bar to know their pleasures unlesse it be by Themselves or by their own Order 5. That neither the King Lords nor Commons intended to set up a perpetual Parliament and intail it upon them their heirs or successors for ever by this act which would cross and repeal the Act for triennial Parliaments made at the same time and on the same * day in Law but to make provision only against the untimely dissolving of this till the things mentioned in the Preamble were accomplished and setled as the Preamble and these oft repeated words any time or times during the continuance of this present Parliament concludes and that during His Majesties reign and life not after his death as these words coupled with The Relief of his Majesties Army and People and for supply of his Majesties present and urgent occasions in the Preamble manifest Therefore this Act can no waies continue it a Parliament after the Kings beheading much lesse after the forcible exclusion both of the King and Lords House and majority of the Commons out of Parliament by those now sitting contrary to the very letter and provision of this act by which device the King alone had he conquered and cut off or secluded by his forces the Lords and Commons Houses from sitting might with much more colour have made himself an absolute Parliament to impose what Taxes and Laws he pleased on the people without Lords or Commons or any 40. of the Commons House or any 7. or 8. Lords concurring with

post facto assent to some particulars against my knowledge judgement conscience Oaths of Supremacy Allegiance P●otestation and Solemn League and Covenant taken in the presence of God himself with a sincere heart and real intention to perform the same and persevere therein all the dayes of my life without suffering my self directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terror to be withdrawn therefrom As first That there may be and now is a lawfull Parliament of England actually in being and legally continuing after the Kings death consisting only of a few late Members of the Commons House without either King Lords or most of their Fellow-Commons which the very Consciences and Judgements of all now sitting that know any thing of Parliaments and the whole Kingdom if they durst speak their Knowledge know and believe to be false yea against their Oaths and Covenant Secondly That this Parliament so unduly constituted and packed by power of an army combining with them hath a just and lawfull authority to violate the Privileges Rights Freedoms Customs and alter the Constitution of our Parliaments themselves imprison seclude expel most of their Fellow-Members for voting according to their Consciences to repeal what Votes Ordinances and Acts of Parliament they please erect new Arbitrary Courts of War and Justice to arraign condemn execute the King himself with the Peers and Commons of this Realm by a new kind of Martial law contrary to Magna Carta the Petition of Right and Law of the Land dis-inherit the Kings posterity of the Crown extirpate Monarchy and the whole House of Peers change and subvert the antient Government Seals Laws Writs legal proceedings Courts and coin of the Kingdom sell and dispose of all the Lands Revenues Jewels Goods of the Crown with the Lands of Deans and Chapters as they think meet absolve themselves like so many Antichristian Popes with all the Subjects of England and Ireland from all the Oaths and Engagements they have made TO THE KINGS MAJESTY HIS HEIRS AND SUCCESSORS yea from their verie Oath of Allegiance notwithstanding this expresse clause in it which I desire may be seriously and conscienciously considered by all who have sworn it I do believe and in Conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any person whatsoever hath power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I acknowledge by good and full authoritie to be lawfully ministred unto me and do renounce all pardons and dispensations to the contrary and to dispence with our Protestations Solemn League and Covenant so lately and * zealously urged and injoyned by both Houses on Members Officers Ministers and all sorts of People throughout the Realm to dispose of all the Forts Ships Forces Offices and Places of Honour Power Trust or Profit within the Kingdom to whom they please to displace and remove whom they will from their Offices Trusts Pensions Callings at their pleasures without any legal cause or trial to make what new Acts Laws and reverse what old ones they think meet to insnare inthrall our Consciences Estates Liberties Lives to create new monstrous Treasons never heard of in the world before and declare real Treasons against King Kingdom Parliament to be no Treasons and Loyalty Allegiance due Obedience to our known Laws and consciencious observing of our Oaths and Covenants the breach whereof would render us actual Traytors and perjurious Persons to be no lesse than High Treason for which they may justly imprison dismember disfranchise displace and fine us at their wills as they have done some of late and confiscate our Persons Lives to the Gallows and our estates to their new Exchequer a Tyranny beyond all Tyrannies ever heard of in our Nation repealing Magna Charta c. 29. 5 E. 3. c. 6. 25 Ed. 3. c. 4. 28 Ed. 3. c. 3. 37. E. 3. c. 18. 42 E. 3. c. 3. 25 Ed. 3. c. 2. 11 R. 2. c. 4. 1 H. 4. c. 10. 2 H. 4. Rot. Par. N. 60. 1 E. 6. c. 12. 1 Mar. c. 1. The Petition of Right 3 Caroli the Statutes made in the begining of the Parliament 16 Caroli c. 1 7 8 10 12 14 20. and laying all our * Laws Liberties Estates Lives in the very dust after so many bloody and costly years wars to defend them against the Kings and others invasions raise and keep up what forces they will by Sea and Land impose what heavy Taxes they please and renew increase multiply and perpetuate them on us and on Scotland and Ireland too which no English Parliament ever did before as often and as long as they please to support their own encroached more then Regal Parliamental Super-transcendent Arbitrary power over us and all that is ours or the Kingdoms at our private and the publick charge against our wills judgements consciences to our absolute enslaving and our three Kingdoms ruine by engaging them one against another in new Civil wars and exposing us for a prey to our Forein Enemies All which with other particulars lately acted and avowed by the Imposers of this Tax and sundry others since by colour of that pretended Parliamentary Authority by which they have imposed it I must necessarily admit acknowledge to be just and legal by my voluntary payment of it on purpose to maintain an Army to justifie and make good all this by the meer power of the Sword which they can no waies justifie and defend by the Laws of God or the Realm or the least colour of reason justice honesty religion conscience before any Tribunal of God or Men when legally arraigned as they may 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 yield to this Assesment Thirdly the principal ends and uses proposed in the pr●tended Acts and Warrants thereupon for payment of this Tax and other Taxes since are strong obligations to me in point of Coùscience Law Prudence to withstand it which I shall particularly discusse The First is the maintenante and continuance of the pr●sent Army and Forces in England under the Lord Fairfax Cromwell and other Commanders since To which I say First as I shall with all readinesse gratitude and due respect acknowledge their former Gallantry good and faithfull Services to the Parliament and Kingdom whiles they continued dutifull 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 late monstrous defections and dangerous Apostacies from their primitive obedience faithfulnesse and engagements in disobeying the Commands and levying open war 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 Privileges Members and Proceedings of the late and being of

them and so be a skreen betwixt them and the people with the name of a Parliament and the shadow and imperfect image of Legal and Just Authority to pick their pockets for them by Assesements and Taxations and by their arbitrary and tyrannical Courts and Committees the best of which is now become a perfect Star-chamber High Commission and Councel-board make them their perfect slaves and vessals With much more to this purpose If then their principal admirers who confederated with the Army and those now sitting in all their late proceedings and cryed them up most of any as the Parliament and Supreme Authority of England before at and since the late force upon the House and its violent purgation do thus in print professedly disclaim them for being any real Parliament or House of Commons to make Acts or impose Taxes upon the people or set up High Courts of Justice to try and condemn the King or any Peers or English Preemen the secluded Lord Members Presbyterians Royalists and all others have much more cause and ground to disavow and oppose their usurped Parliamentary authority and illegal Taxes Acts as not made by any true English Parliament but a mock-Mock-Parliament only Fourthly He therein further avets f f Pag. 52. 53. 56. 57. 58. 59. That the death of the King in Law indisputably dissolves this Parliament ipso facto though it had been all the time before never so intire and unquestionable to that very hour That no Necessity can be pretended for the continuance of it the rather because the men that would have it continue so long as they please are those who have created these necessities on purpose that by the colour thereof they may make themselves great and potent That the main end wherfore the Members of the Commons house were chosen and sent thither was To treat and confer with King Charles and the House of Peers about the great Affairs of the Nation c. And therefore are but a third part ot third estate of that Parliament to which they were to come and joyn with and who were legally to make permanent and binding Laws for the people of the Nation And therefore having taken away two of the three Estates that they were chosen on purpose to joyn with to make Laws the end both in reason and law of the peoples trust is ceased for a Minor joyned with a Major for one and the same end cannot play Lord paramount over the Major and then do what it please no more can the Minor of a Major viz. one Estate of three legally or justly destroy two of three without their own assent c. That the House of Commons sitting freely within its limited time in all its splendor of glory without the awe of armed men neither in Law nor in the intention of their Choosers were a Parliament and therefore of themselves alone have no pretence in Law to alter the constitution of Parliaments c. concluding thus For shame let no man be so audaciously or sottishly voyd of Reason as to call Tho. Prides pittiful Juncto A PARLIAMENT especially those that called avowed protested and declared again and again those TO BE NONE that sate at Westminster the 26 27 c. of July 1647. when a few of their Members were scared away to the Army by a few hours tumult of a company of a few disorderly Apprentices And being no representative of the People much less A PARLIAMENT what pretence of Law Reason Justice or Nature can there be for you to alter the constitution of Parliaments and force upon the people the shew of their own Wills lusts and pleasures for laws and Rules of Government made by a PRETENDED EVERLASTING NULLED PARLIAMENT a Councel of State or Star-Chamber and a Councel of War or rather by Fairfax Cromwel and Ireton Now if their own late confederates and creatures argue thus in print against their being and continuing a Parliament their Jurisdiction Proceedings Taxes and arbitrary pleasures should not all others much more do it and joyntly and magnanimously oppose them to the utmost upon the self-same grounds for their own and the publick ease Liberty Safety Settlement and restoring the Rights Priviledges Freedome Splendor of our true English Parliaments Fifthly He there likewise affirms g g P. 53. 54. 59. 41. that those now fiting at Westminster have perverted the ends of their trusts more then ever Strafford did 1. In not ceasing the people of but encreasing their grievances 2. In exhausting their estates to maintain and promote pernicious Designes to the peoples destruction The King did it by a little Shipmony and Monopolies but since they began they have raised and extorted more mony from the People and Nation then half nay all the Kings since the Conquest ever did as particularly 1 By Excise 2 Contributions 3 Sequestrations of lands to an infinite value 4 Fist part 5 Twentyeth part 6 Meal-mony 7 Sale of plundered good 8 Loanes 9 Benevolences 10 Collections upon their fast days 11 New imposittions or customes upon Merchandize 12 Guards maintained upon the charge of private men 13 Fifty Subsidies at one time 14 Compositions with Delinquents to an infinite value 15 Sale of Bishops lands 16 Sale of Dean and Chapters lands and now after the wars are done 17 Sale of Kings Queens Princes Dukes and the rest of the Childrens revenues 18 Sale of their rich goods which cost an infinite sum 19 to conclude all a Taxation of ninety thousand pounds a moneth since that of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds a Moneth and lately of a whole years Tax within three moneths and now of one hundred thousand pound a a moneth for the same six moneths they have payed their Taxes besides Excise Customes Frequent new intollerable Militiaes Payments to increased swa●ms of poor sequestrations Highway money and other charges now all Trade is utterly lost and the three Kingdomes beggar'd and undone and when they have gathered it pretendingly for the Common-wealths use divide it by thousands and ten thousands a piece amongst themselves and wipe their mouths after it like the impudent Harlot as though they had done no evill and then purchase with it publick Lands at smal or trivial values O brave Trustees that have Protested before God and the world again and again in the day of their straits they would never seek themselves and yet besides all this divide all the choicest and profitablest Places of the Kingdome among themselves Therefore when I seriously consider how many in Parliament and elsewhere of their Associates that judge themselves the onely Saints and Godly men upon the earth that have considerable and some of them vast estates of their own inheritance and yet take five hundred one two three four five thousand pounds per annum Salaries and other comings in by their places and that out of the too much exhausted Treasury of the Nation when thousands not onely of the people of the world as they call them but also

and Burgesses and levying of their wages being only PARLIAMENTUM NOSTRUM the Kings Parliament that is dead not his Heirs and Successors and the Lords and Commons being all summoned and authorized by it to come to OUR PARLIAMENT there to be personally present and confer with US NOBISCUM not Our Heirs and Successors of the weighty and urgent affairs that concerned NOS US and OUR KINGDOM of England and Knights and Burgesses receiving their wages for Nuper ad NOS ad PARLIAMENTVM NOSTRUM veniendo c. quod sommoneri FECINUS ad tractandum ibidem super diversis arduis Negotiis NOS Statum REGNI NOSTRI t●ngentibus as the tenor of the d Writs for their wages determines The King being dead and his Writs and Authority by which they were summoned with the ends for which they were called to conferre with US about US and OUR KINGDOMS affairs c. being thereby absolutely determined without any hopes of revival the Parliament it self must thereupon absolutely be determined likewise especially to those who have disinherited HIS HEIRS and SUCCESSORS and voted down our Monarchy it self and they with all other Members of Parliament cease to be any longer Members of it being made onely such by the Kings abated Writ even as all Judges Justices of peace and Sheriffs made only by the Kings Writs or Commissions not by his Letters Patents cease to be Judges Justices and Sheriffs by the Kings death for this very reason because they are constituted Justiciarios Vicecomites NOSTROS ad Pacem NOSTRAM c. custodiendam and he being dead and his Writs and Commissions expired by his death they can be Our Judges Justices and Sheriffs no longer to preserve OUR Peace c. no more than a wife can be her deceased Husbands Wife and bound to his obedience from which she was loosed to his death Rom. 7. 2 3. And his Heirs and Successors they cannot be unlesse he please to make them so by his new Writs or Commissions as all our e Law-books and Judges have frequently resolved upon this very reason which equally extends to Members of Parliament as to Judges Justices and Sheriffs as is agreed in 4 E. 4. f. 43 44. and Brook Office and Officer 25 Therefore this Tax being clearly imposed not in but out of and after the Parliament ended by the Kings decapitation and that by such who were then no lawfull Knights Citizens Burgesses or Members of Parliament but only private men their Parliamentary Authority expiring with the King it must needs be illegal and contrary to all the forecited Statutes as the Convocations and Clergies Tax and Benevolence granted after the Parliament dissolved in the year 1640. was resolved to be by both Houses of Parliament and those adjudged high Delinquents who had any hand in promoting it as the Impeachments against them evidence drawnup by some now acting 2. Admit the late Parliament still in being yet the House of Peers Earls and Barons of the Realm were no wayes privy nor consenting to this Tax imposed without yea against their consents in direct affront of their * most antient undubitable Parliamentary Right and Privileges these Taxmasters having presumed to vote down and null their very House by their new encroached transcendent power as appears by the title and body of this pretended Act entituled by them An Act of THE COMMONS assembled in Parliament Whereas the House of Commons alone though full and free have no more lawfull Authority to impose any Tax upon the People or make any Act of Parliament or binding Law without the Kings or Lords concurrence than the Man in the Moon or the Convocation Anno 1640. after the Parliament dissolved as is evident by the expresse words of the fore-cited Acts the Petition of Right it self the Acts for the Triennial Parliament and against the proroguing or dissolving this Parliament 16 Car. c. 1 7. with all our printed Statutes f Parliament-Rolls and g Law-books they neither having nor challenging the sole Legislative power in any age and being not so much as summoned to nor constitutive M●mbers of our h antient Parliaments which consisted of the King Spiritual and Temporal Lords without any Knights Citizens or Burgesses as all our Histories and Records attest till 49 H. 3. at soonest they having not so much as a Speaker or Commons House till after the beginning of King E. the third's reign and seldom or never presuming to make or tender any Bills or Acts to the King or Lords but Petitions only to them to redress their grievances and enact new Laws till long after R. the seconds time as our Parliament Rolls and the printed Prologues to the Statutes of 1 4 5 9 10 20 23 36 37. and 50 Edw. 3. 1 Rich 3. 1 2 4 5 7 9 11 13 Hen. 4. 1 2 3 4 8 9 Hen. 5. 1 2 3 4 6 8 9 10 11 14 15 29 28 29. 39 Hen. 6. 1 4 7 8 12 17. 22 Ed. 4. and 1 Rich. 3. evidence which run all in this form At the Parliament holden c. by THE ADVICE and ASSENT OF THE LORDS SPIRITUAL and TEMPORAL and at THE SPECIAL INSTANCE and REQUEST OF THE COMMONS OF THE REALM BY THEIR PETITIONS put in the said Parliament as some Prologues have it Our Lord the King hath caused to be ordained or ordained certain STATVTES c. Where the advising and assenting to Laws is appropriated to the Lords the ordaining of them to the King and nothing but the requesting of and petitioning for them to the Commons and that both from King and Lords in whom the Legislative power principally and before 49 H. 3. originally and solely resided as is manifest by the printed Prologue to the Statute of Merton 20 Hen. 3. The Statute of Mortemain 7 E. 1. 31 E. 1. De Asportatis Religiosorum the Statute of Sheriffs 9 Ed. 2. and of the Templers 17 Ed. 2. to cite no more Therefore this Tax imposed by the Commons alone without King or Lords must needs be void illegal and no wayes obligatory to the Subjects 3. Admit the whole House of Commons in a full and free Parliament had power to impose a Tax and make an Act of Parliament for levying of it without King or Lords which they never once did or pretended to in any age yet this Act and Tax can be no waies obliging because not made and imposed by a full and free House of Commons but by an empty House packed swayed over-awed by the chief Officers of the Army and their Confederates in the House who having presumed by mere force and armed power against Law and without President to seclude the major part of the House at least eight parts of ten who by Law and Custom are the House it self from sitting or voting with them contrary to the Freedom and Privileges of Parliament readmitting none but upon their own terms of renouncing their own forme Votes touching the Kings

Concessions and taking their new treasonable Engagements against the King Kingship and House of Lords An usurpation not to be paralel'd in any age destructive to the very being of Parliaments i Where all Members of both Houses are ex debito Justitiae wi●h equal Freedom to meet and speak their mind● injurious to all those Counties Cities Borough● whose Knights Citizens and Burgesses are secluded and to the whole Kingdom yea contrary to all rules of reason justice policy conscience and their own Agreement of the people which inhibit the * far lesser part of any Councel Court or Committee to oversway seclude or fore-judg the major number of their Assessors and fellow-members over whom they can no ways pretend the least jurisdiction it being the high way to usher Tyranny and confusion into all Councels and Realms to their utter dissolution since the King alone without the Lords and Commons or the Lords alone without the King or Commons may by this new device make themselves an absolute Parliament to impose Taxes and enact Laws without the Commons or any other forty or fifty Commoners meeting together without their companions and secluding them by force do the like as well as this remnant of the Commons make themselves a complete Parliament without the King Lords or Majority of their fellow-Members if they can but now or hereafter raise an Army to back them in it as the Army did those sitting 1648. and 1649. and those sitting in 1659 have done secluding the majority of their old fellow-Members by meer armed Violence 4. Suppose this Tax should bind those Counties Cities and Burronghs whose Knights Citizens and Burgesses sate and consented to it when imposed though I dare swear much against the minds and wills of all or most of those they represent who by the k Armies new Doctrine may justly question and revoke their authority for this high breach of Trust the rather because the Knights and Burgesses assembled in the first Parliament of 13. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 8. did all refuse to grant a great extraordinary Subsidie demanded of them though not comparable to this for the necessary defence of the Kingdome against foraign Enemies till they had conferred with the Counties and Burroughs for which they served and gained their assents Yet there is no shadow of Reason Law or Equity it should oblige any of the Secluded Members themselves whereof I am one or those Counties Cities Burroughs whose Knights Citizens and Burgesses have been secluded or scared thence by the Armies or sitting Members fraud force violence or illegal Votes for their seculsion who absolutely disavow this Tax and Act as un-parliamentary illegall and never assented to by them in the least degree since the onely l reason in Law or equity why Taxes or Acts of Parliament oblige any Member County Burrough or Subject is because they are parties and consenting thereunto either in proper person or by their chosen Representatives in Parliament returned and authorized by Indentures under their Seals it being a recieved Maxime in all Laws m Quod tang it omnes ab omnibus debet approbari Upon which reason it is judged in our n Law-books That By-Laws oblige only those who are parties and consent unto them but not strangers or such who assented not thereto And which comes fully to the present case in 7. H. 6. 35. 8. H. 6. 34. Brook Ancient Demesne 20. Patl. 17. 101. it is resolved That ancient Demesne is a good plea in a Writ of Wast upon the Statutes of Wast because those in ancient Demesne were not parties to the making of them FOR THAT THEY HAD NO KNIGHTS NOR BURGESSES IN PARLIAMENT nor contributed to their expences And Judge Brook Parliament 101. hath this observable Note It is most frequently found that Wales and County palatines WHICH CAME NOT TO THE PARLIAMENT in former times which now they do SHALL NOT BE BOUND BY THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND for ancient Demesne is a good Plea in an action of Wast and yet ancient Demesne is not excepted and it is enacted 2. Ed. 6. cap. 28. That Fines and Proclamations shall be in Chester for the former Statutes did not extend to it And it is enacted That a Fine and Proclamation shall be in Lancaster 5. 6. Ed. 6. c. 26. And in a Proclamation upon an e●igent is given by the Statute in Chester and Wales 1 E. 6. c. 20. And by another Act to Lancaster 5. 6. E. 5. c. 26. And the Statute of Justices of Peace extented not to Wales and the County palatine and therefore an Act was made for Wales and Chester 27. H. 8. c. 5. who had Knights and Burgesses appointed by that Parliament for that and future Parliaments by Act of Parliament 27. Hen. 8. cap. 26. since which they have continued their wages being to be levyed by the Statute of 35. H. 8. c. 11. Now if Acts of Parliament bound not Wales and Counties Palatines which had anciently no Knights nor Burgesses in Parliament to represent them because they neither personally nor representatively were parties and consenters to them much lesse then can or ought this heavy Tax and illegal Act 1649 or those of 1659. to bind those Knights Citizens and Burgesses or the Counties Cities and Burroughs they represent who were forcibly secluded or driven away from the Parliament by the confederacy practice orders commands or connivance at least of those now sitting who imposed these Taxes and passed these strange Acts as the recited Lawbooks and the later Clauses in all Writs for electing Knights and Burgesses resolve much lesse to oblige Scotland Ireland who have * Parliaments of their own and have yea ought to have no Members sitting for them in the English Parliaments who seldom or never imposed Taxes on Scotland or Ireland heretofore whose taxes were only imposed by their own Parliaments as is evident by claus. 46 E. 3. m. 25. claus. 47 E. 3. m. 3. My Plea for the Lords p. 426 427 2 R. 2 f. 11 12. Brook Parliament 98. 20 H. 6. f. 8. Fitz. Prescription 7. and Brook Prescription 4. They being not so much as a Parliament of England much lesse of Scotland Ireland as they stile themselves and having no authority by their writs of Elections and Indentures to treat or consult of any businesses but only such as touch and concern the Kingdom of England not the Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland not mentioned in the Writs or Indentures of their Elections Especially because those Taxes are thus imposed by them for the support and continuance of those Officers and that Army who trayterously seised and secluded the Members from the House and yet detain some of them Prisoners against all Law and Justice and have oft secluded them since and because the secluded Members are the far major part above six times as many as those that sate and shut them out by force and would no waies have consented to

sword-men whom we had already found to be men of no very tender conscience And do not the Speaker and all Lawyers and others now sitting in their own Judgments and Consciences and to their friends in private believe say and confess as much that they are no Parliaments and yet have the impudency and the insolency to sit act and Tax yea seclude and imprison us at their pleasures as a real legal and absolute Parliament O Atheisme O Tyranny and Impiety of the worst Edition 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 resoved to pull it up by the roots as such then it necessarily folows First That they are much more so after the Kings death and 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 rational men And no wayes enabled by Law to impose this or any other new Tax or Acts upon the Kingdom or to create any new Treasons Confiscations Sequestrations and Penalties and being themselves in truth the worst and greatest of all Traytors and Tyrants Secondly that these grand Saints of the Army and Steersmen of the pretended Parliament and all Gown-men confederating with them knowingly sit vote and act there against their own judgments and consciences for their own private pernicious ends Thirdly that it is a baseness cowardize and degeneracy beyond all expression for any of their fellow-members now acting to suffer these Grandees in their Assembly and Army to sit or vote together with them or to enjoy any Office or command in the Army under them 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 forcibly excluded and imprisoned the greatest part of the Members and whole House of Peers in order to their own future exclusion and as great a baseness in them and others for to pay it upon any terms Secondly he there affirms that d d P. 26 27. Oliver Crumwel by the help of the Army at their first Rebellion against the Parliament was no sooner up but like a perfidious base unworthy man c. the House of Peers were his onely white boys and who but Oliver who before to me had called them in effect both Tyrants and Usurpers 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 Note and JURISDICTIVE POWER OVER THE COMMONS AS HE HAD TO THE COAT UPON HIS BACK and he would procure a friend viz. Master Nathaniel Fiennes should argue and plead their just right with any friend I had in England And not onely so but did he not get the General and Councel of War at Windsor about the time that the Votes of no more addresses were to pass to make a Declaration to the whole world declaring THE LEGAL RIGHT OF THE LORDS HOUSE and THEIR FIXED RESOLUTION TO MAINTAIN and UPHOLD IT which was sent by the General to the Lords by Sir Hardresse Waller and to indear himself the more unto the Lords in whose house without all doubt he intended to have sate himself he required me evil for good and became my enemy to keep me in Prison out of which I must not stirre unless I would sloop and acknowledge the Lords jurisdiction over Commoners and for that end he sets his agents and instruments at work to get me to do it yet now they themselves have suppressed them Whence it is most apparent 1. That the General Lieutenant General Cromwel Col. Ireton Harison and other Officers of the Army now sitting as Members and over-ruling all the rest * * See my Plea for the Lords and House of Peers yea all other Lawyers Members sitting with them have wittingly acted against their own knowledges Declarations Judgments Consciences in suppressing the Lords House and depriving them of their Legislative and Jurisdictive Right and power by presuming to make Acts pass sentences and impose Taxes without them or their assents in Parliament contrary to the express Acts of 16 17 Caroli c. 1. 7 8 12 14 20. and hundreds of Ordinances Remonstrances Declarations the Protestation Vow and Solemn League and Covenant made this Parliament by the Votes of most now sitting 2. That this Tax enforced upon the Commons and Kingdom for their own particular advantage pay and enrichment and to suppress the House of Lords is in their own judgments and conscience both unjust and directly contrary to the Laws of the Realm being not assented to by the Lords and therefore to be unanimously and strenuously opposed by all the Lords and other Englishmen who love their own or Countries Liberties or have any Nobility or Generosity in them Thirdly he e e Pag. 34. 39 40. 56 47. there asserts in positive terms in his own behalf and his confederates That the purged Parliament now sitting is but a pretended Parliament a mock-Parliament yea and in plaine English NO PARLIAMENT AT ALL but the shadow of a Parliament That those Company of men at Westminster that gave Commission to the high Court of Justice to try and behead the King c. were no more a Parliament by Law or Representatives of the people by the rule of Justice and Reason then such a company of men are a Parliament or Representative of the People that a company of armed Thieves choose and set apart to try judge condemn hang or behead any man that they please or can prevail over by the power of their Sword to bring before them by force of arms to have their lives taken away by pr●tence of JUSTICE grounded upon rules meerly flowing from their VVills and Swords That no Law in England authoriseth a company of servants to punish and correct their Masters or to give a Law unto them or to throw them at their pleasure out of their power and set themselves down in it which is the Armies case with the Parliament especially at Thomas Pride's late purge which was an absolute dissolution of the very Essence and being of the House of Commons to set up indeed a MOCK-POVVER and a MOCK-PARLIAMENT by purging out all those that they were any way jealous of would not Vote as they would have them and suffering and permitting none to sit but for the Major part of them a company of absolute School-boys that will like good Boys say their Lessons after them their Lords and Masters and vote what they would have

others in all manner of Oppressions and Injustice concluding thus Vpon all these and many other unparallel'd 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 ond Orphans and childless 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 Iustice And much more the whole Kingdom and secluded Lords and Members to bring you to publick Justice since you not only imitate but far exceed him in all and every of these even by your own verdict 3. Themselves charge the King with profuse Donations of Salaries and Pensions to such as were found or might be made fit Instruments and Promoters of Tyranny which were supplied not by the legal justifiable revenue of the Crown but by Projects and illegal waies of draining the Peoples purses All which mischiefs and grievances they say will be prevented in their free State though the quite contrarie way as appears by the late large Donations of some thousands to Mr. * Henry Martin the Lord Lisle Commissary General Ireton Cromwell and others of their Members and Instruments upon pretence of arrears or service and that out of the monies now imposed for the relief of Ireland and other publick Taxes Customs Lands and Revenues And must we pay Taxes to be thus prodigally given away and expended 4. They therein promise and engage That the good old Laws and Customs of England the badges of our Freedom the benefit whereof our Ancestors 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 just 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 Subject being so fully preserbed by them and the common interest of those whom they serve And if those laws should be taken away all Industry must cease all misery blood and confusion would follow and greater Calamities then fell upon us by the late Kings Mis-government would certainly involve all persons under which they must inevitably perish How well they have performed this part of their Remonstrance let their proceedings in their High Courts of Justice the long Imprisoments and close Imprisonments of my self and other their Fellow-Members their acts for new Treasons and Delinquents and ejecting their Fellow-Members and Lords out of Parliament without the least Impeachment Tryal Accusation their Imprisonment of Sir Robert Pye the Kentish Gentlemen and others for demanding a Free Parliament fair and free elections restitution of the secluded Members c. determine 5. They therein expresly promise p. 26. To order the revenue in such away That the publick charges may be defrayed The Souldiers pay justlie and duly setled That free-quarter may be wholy taken away and the People eased of their Burthens and Taxes And is this now all the ease we feel to have all Burthens and Taxes thus augmented doubled trebled paid in near a year before hand and then new and greater Taxes imposed on them for those verie Months they have paid in their old proportion before hand beyond all Presidents of Tyranny and oppression in any age and that by pretended acts made out of Parliament against all these good old Laws and Statutes our Liberties and Properties which these worse than Aegyptian Tax-Masters have so newly and deeply engaged themselves to maintain and preserve without the least diminution and violation 6. That this very Juncto in their Act as they stile it made and published Octob. 11. 1659. intituled an Act against the raising of Monies upon the people without their common consent in Parliament enact and declare That no Person or Persons shall after the XI of October 1659. assesse levy collect gather or receive any customs imposts excise assesment contribution tax tallage or any sum or sums of mony or other Imposition whatsoever upon the People or Commonwealth without their consent in Parliament or as by Law might have been done before the 3. of November 1640. And it is further enacted and declared that every Person offending contrary to this Act shall be and is hereby adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer and forfeit as in case of High Treason Which * some of them have declared to be the Fundamental and old Law of England against which no By-Law is to be made and one of the main Birth-rights of England Therefore themselves by assessing and imposing many former Customs Imposts Excises Assesments and contributions on the people and this of one hundred thousand pounds a Month for 6. Month Jan. 26. 1659. without Common consent in Parliament when and whiles 26. of the greatest Counties in England and 11. Shires in Wales 14. whole Cities and most Boroughs in England have not so much as one Knight Citizen or Burgess sitting with them to represent them and 9. English Counties no more but one Knight and but 4. Counties and 2. Cities alone and not above 3. or 4. Boroughs their full numbers of Knights Citizens and Burgesses sitting with them to represent them all the rest to the number of 420. Members besides the whole House of Lords being forcibly excluded or dead by the tenor of their own Act and Decl. are adjudged guilty of High Treason and ought to suffer and forfeit as in case of Treason and all those Commissioners named in their Act amounting to above one thousand and all Assessors Collectors and Treasurers under them who shall assesse levy collect gather or receive the same shall incur the guilt of Treason and suffer and forfeit as in case of High Treason and their real and personal Estates be confiscated to pay the publick debts and Souldiers arrears 7. That this Anti-Parliamentary Convention in their late Declaration of Jan. 24. have published and declared to the world That they are resolved to remain constane and immovable that the people of these Nations may be governed from time to time by Representatives of Parliament chosen by themselves That they should be governed by the Laws That all proceedings touching the Laws Liberties and Estates of the free-people of the Commonwealth shall be according to the Laws of the Land It being their principal care to provideagainst all arbitrarinesse in Government And that it is one of the greatest cares they have upon them how to give the people that ease from their present burthens which their undone condicion calls for Which how well and faithfully they have performed and not rather most notoriously violated let the whole world God Angels Men determin by their imposing a Monthly Tax of one hundred thousand pounds a Month for the 6. next Months they had paid and advanced before hand By ordering

m. 24. dorso n 49. E. 3. 18 19. 21. H. 7. 4. Brook Customs 6. 32. * The 1. part of the Parliamentary writs p. 411 to 422. Cooks 4 Instit. 75 76 1 Iac. c. 1 2. Iac c. 3 4. 7 Iac. c. 1. 12 Car. c. 17. Object Answ a See my Plea for the Lords and House of Peers and Historical Collection of the Great Councils and Parliaments and Fundamental Rights Laws and Liberti●● of all English Freemen b Printed by it self and in a Declaration of the Engagements and Remonstrances c. of the General and General Councill of Officers of the Army London 1647 p. 107. 108. 1 Is there not a greater longer force and violence offered to both Houses ever since Dec 1648. by aimed souldiers than that by the unarmed Apprentices but for a few hours 2 How can you dispence with your self to fit since Dec. 6. passing Votes to seclude exclude the Lords your fellow Members and to Tax them at your pleasure not believe them voyd null * Nor yet by those now sitting against the Lords and our forcible exclusion but new votes in justification thereof 3 The Army could not with all their power and menaces inforce the s●cluded Members to Vote against their Judgements Consciences ec 4. 1648. 4 Why hav and do you yet serve the Juncto in a false and Anti-Parliamentary way near as many years more to abuse and deceive them 5 Have you not done it since in the highest degree by High Courts of Justice securing secluding imprisoning banishing disanheriting thousands and imposing Taxes and Excises on them against all our Laws 6 Have you nor conscientiously observed them by secluding ejecting the Lords and your fellow Members by subverting all Rights Privileges of Parliament and Liberties of the Subject 7 Why do you not now much more absent your selves upon the same account 8 If it was so great a crime to lock and keep them in the House Was yea is it not a far worse and g●eater crime in you and your Juncto to lock the Lords and your fellow Members and keep them forcibly o●t of the Houses for so many years till you have passed what new Vores and set up what new Government and imposed what Tixes you please upon them against their wills 9 And is it not a greater breach of ptivilege for you to vote out most of the Members without hearing them 10 The Major Vote therfore Dec. 4. 1648 ought to carry it as well as then 11 Did you not far worse in seeuring ●●cluding imprisoning ejecting the majority of your fellow-Members onely for voting against the minority Dec. 4 12 And can you discharge them by sitting now when the Majority of the Members Lords are secluded and forcibly kept out by your Orders and not permitted to sit with freedome safetie 1 Was not the armea sorce secluding and keeeping away most of the Members since 1648. sar worse than this 2 Why have not the Army-Officers most Members subscribing this Engagement and making and commending this resolution kept this resolution but apostatized from it ever since December 6. 1648. and acted quite contrary to it 3 Therefore now much more by the Members acting and continuing force upon the majority 4 They have been faithlesse more than once or twice to the secluded Members and the Iuncto too since this 5 Did you really perform this Engagement by ordering the Army to secure and seclude the Majority of you● fellow-members and whole House of Lords heret●fore twice of late 6 Have not the Armie most of those s●bseribers since Dec. 6. 1648. laid the greatest reproach 〈◊〉 sorce upon the Nation brought offered greater contempts to the Honour 〈◊〉 esteem Privileges Members of parliament than the Apprentices or the 〈…〉 men in any age 7 Is not this the case of the secluded and excluded Members in respect of their Electors and the Kingdom 8 Is not this the speech and answer of the secluded Lords Commons to the Kingdom and people 9 Is not this the true stile and Character of all th●se since forcibly secluding the Lords and their fellow Members 10 The secluded Lords and Commons now t●ust so too 11 Most Counties now begin to do it for their secluded Members restitution or a New Free Parliament without limitation * Now sitting as a Commoner 1 That on Dec. 6 7. 1648 and since that till now hath been worse longer and more unparalleld 2 And doth it not gainsay the Armies Officers Professions Commissions Protestations Declarations and other Obligations to protect the Parl. and Secluded Lords Commons 3 The force since on the Houses hath effected it 4 Do not the Officers Members deserve to be so served for securing secluding us * The Armies Declaration p. 120 c. wo Is it not Arrse for the Mmy and sitting bloembers to dock up the thors against me Lords and most of the Comisons and to oeep them fut of the houses or sundry years 2 Was not the Armies seising secluding pulling and keeping those out who gave their Votes against their Designs Dec. 6. 1648. shutting them out ever since imprisoning some of them sundry years far worse than this 4 It was far worse to fill them with Soldiers Troopers Dec. 6 7. and since to seelude the most of the Members by force 5 And now six times more of them are driven away by the Army 5 Do not the people esteem the secluded Members su●h and are not they the supreme Authority by the Armies sitting Members own Votes Jan. 4. 1648 * They went not to them till thus ●●●ited 6 And ought not the Army and English Nation thus to engage much more to the now secluded Lords and Members 7 It is usual and legal in the Speakers absence or sicknesse 8 And a●e you not and the Kingdom too now much more convicted of this truth 9 And are not all since Dec. 6. 1648. till now much more null and void for the same reason * Is not yours of Dec. 27. Jan. 5. 1659. far more unparalleld to the Parliament and all the free-born Subjects 10 Much more then now the excluding Members 11 And ought not the Army and ● Monk n●w to do the like 12 Are not the sitting secluders of the Lords and majority of the Commons far greater Delinquents deserving greater punishment 13 Remember and fulfill these Promises now at least to the Parliament King Kingdom which Crosse your Engagements Abjurations of King and Kingship to set up an Utopian Commonwealth * Ne dhams Interest will not but lye * And more since their secluding and securing Dec. 6. 7. 1648. * Therefore all since Dec. 6. till now are void by the self-same reasons * See my P●ea for the Lords p. 371 to 419. * Par in pa●em non habet Imperium vel Jurisdictionem Bracton l. 5. c. 15. f. 412. Object Answ * Exact Collection p. 5 6. ¶ 61.