or Congregation of men can have to traduce Him with them Before any discourse be applied to the monstrous Conclusions which are made and for the support and maintenance whereof that Declaration is framed and contrived or to the unreasonable glosses upon His Majesties Propositions and prosecution of his desires of peace and Treaty it will be the best method to weigh and consider those particulars upon which they would be thought to found their desperate Conclusions and in which they say there is a continued tract of breach of trust in the three Kingdomes since His Majesty wore the Crowne 1. The first Charge is that His Majesty in publique Speeches and Declarations hath laid a fit foundation for all Tyranny by this most destructive Maxime or Principle which he saith he must avow That He oweth an account of His Actions to none but God alone and that the Houses of Parliament joynt or separate have no power either to make or declare any Law That which all learned Christians in all ages have taught and all learned Lawyers of this Kingdome have alwaies held and acknowledged is not like to be a destructive principle and a fit foundation for Tyranny and surely this assertion of His Majesties hath no lesse authority For the first the incomparable Grotius upon whom all learned men look with singular reverence saies that even Samuel jus Regum describens satis ostendit adversùs Regis injurias nullam in populo relictam potestatem which saies he rectè colligunt veteres ex illo Psalmi Tibi soli peccavi Because being all ejusà em ordinis the people owe the same obedience to these as they did to those though the absolute power and jurisdiction the Kings of Israel had be no rule for other Princes to claime by And Grotius there cites Saint Ambrose his note upon the same Text Neque ullis ad poenam vocantur legibus tuti imperii potestate homini ergo non peccavit cui non tenebatur obnoxius The wise and learned Lord Chancellor Egerton in his Argument of the Postnati mentions some Texts in the Civill Law of the great and absolute power of Princes as Rex est lex loquens and Rex solus judicat de causa à jure non definita and saies he must not wrong the Judges of the Common Law of the Kingdome so much as to suffer an imputation to be cast upon them that they or the Common Law doe not attribute as great power and authority to their Soveraigns the Kings of England as the Canon Laws did to their Emperours and then cites out of Bracton the Chief Justice in the time of King Hen. 3. and an authentique Authour in the Law these words De Chartis Regiis factis Regum non debent nec possunt Justitiarii nec privatae personae disputare nec etiam si in illa dubitio oriatur possunt eam interpretari in dubiis obscuris vel si aliqua dictio duos contineat intellectus Domini Regis erit expectanda interpretatio voluntas and the same Bracton in another place saies of the King Omnis sub eo est ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo The ground of that excellent law of Premunire in the 16 year of King Rich 2. c. 5. and the very words of that Statute are That the Crown of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly Subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crowne and to none other and upon that Maxime of the Law that good Statute against the Pope was founded If the King were bound to give an Account of his Actions to any person or power whatsoever God excepted he could not be the onely supream Governour of this Realme which he is declared and acknowledged to be by the Oath of Supremacy which every Member of the House of Commons hath taken or if he hath not he ought not to sit there or to be reputed a Member of Parliament by the Statute of 5 Eliz. c. 1. For the other part of this most destructive maxime or principle That the Houses of Parliament joynt or separate have no power either to make or declare any thing to be Law which hath not been formerly made to be so It hath been the judgment and language of the law it self in all Ages and the language of all Parliaments themselves It was the judgment of the Parliament in the 2 year of King Hen. 5. remembred and mentioned by the King in his Answer to the 19 Propositions That it is of the Kings regality to grant or deny such of their Petitions as pleaseth himself which was the forme then usuall to present those desires which by the Kings approbation and consent were enacted into Laws It was the language of the Law in the 36 year of K. H. 6. reported by my Lord Dyer that the King is the head and that the Lords are chief and principall Members and the Commons to wit the Knights Citizens and Burgesses the inferiour Members and that they all make the Body of Parliament and doubtlesse the Priviledge of Parliament was not in that time held so sacred a thing when an Action of Debt was brought against the Sheriffe of Cornwall for having discharged one Trewynnard a Burgesse of Parliament taken in Execution during the Session of Parliament upon a Writ of priviledge directed to the said Sheriffe and the Kings Bench where the Action was brought and the Sheriffe justified was in those daies the proper place to judge what was the priviledge of Parliament the Law being the most proper Judge of that priviledge as well as of all other rights It is the language of the Authour of Modus tenendi Parliamentum who lived before the time of William the Conquerour and it is the language of Sir Edw. Coke in the Chapter of the high Court of Parliament which was published by a speciall Order of the House of Commons since the beginning of this Parliament that there is no Act of Parliament but must have the consent of the Lords the Commons and the royall assent of the King and the same Sir Edward Coke saies in the 11. p. of that Chapter that Innovations and Novelties in Parliamentary proceedings are most dangerous and to be refused It is the language of the Parliament in the 1 year of King James when to the first Act that was past they desired His Majesties royall assent without which they say it can neither be compleat or perfect nor remaine to all posterity c. Lastly it is the language of this present Parliament and in a time in which they were not very modest in their pretences for in their Declaration of the 19 of May they acknowledge that by the constitution of this Kingdome the power is in His Majesty and Parliament together albeit they conclude in the same Declaration that if He refused to
at the same time incensed against the Duke in their Impeachment or Remonstrance against him thought fit to insert the giving of that Drink and applying that Plaister which was all that was mentioned in that Pamphlet concerning King James as a transcendent presumption in the Duke as is set forth in this Declaration If they had been ingenuous they would likewise have set forth the Duke's answer to that Clause and then the people would have understood that there was nothing administred to the King without the privity of the Physitians and His own importunate desire and Command the applications being such as unlearned people upon observation and experience in those known and common Diseases believe to do much good and the learned acknowledge can doe no hurt And the Parliament continued above a Week after that Answer was put in and no one person appeared in that time to offer the least evidence concerning that Clause and the King might very well in justice to the honour of a faithfull Servant discharge His owne knowledge to free him from so horrible an imputation And after the dissolution of that Parliament all imaginable care was taken to examine the grounds and to discover the Authours of that Suggestion And it is known the miserable wretch who raised the Scandal with great penitence afterwards acknowledged his Villany and died with the horrour of his guilt In the year following there was another Parliament summoned which continued and sate many Months together before the Dukes death and which was not more devoted to him then the former had been where those two Gentlemen mentioned in the Declaration bore great sway and were nothing reconciled to the Duke or the Court yet in all their Remonstrances not the least word of that aspersion all men believing and knowing it to be the most groundlesse that could be imagined After the beginning of this Parliament when the licence of Talking and Preaching seditiously was introduced it was whisper'd amongst some of the chief Agents for the confusion which hath since followed that they would examine the matter of the Death of King James and shortly after the businesse of the five Members when the King was at Windsor and the two Houses governed so absolutely This Pamphlet written so long since by Eglisham was printed and publickly sold in Shops and about the Streets and a very powerfull person of that Faction with some seeming trouble in his countenance told one of the Secretaries of State that many took the liberty abroad to discourse too boldly of the Death of King James and that he would send one to him a Clergy man who could give him a particular information of it the same night the man came to him who told him that there was a Papist who lived about London or in the nearest part of Surrey who reported that he could prove that King James was poysoned the Secretary required the Informer to attend him at an houre the next day and early in the morning assembled the Privy Councell acquainted them with the Information and the Informer and desired their Lordships advice and opinions what should be done upon it the most of them were very shy in the matter and he who had first spoken of it and sent the Informer seemed wonderfully troubled that it was Communicated so publickly by which it was evident he had in the intimation some Designe either upon that Honourable Person or his Master of which he hoped to have made another use The Secretary immediately after he had received the intelligence sent an Expresse to His Majesty with the account and that he intended forthwith to impart it to the Councell since it was no hard matter to guesse what was meant by those who were privy to it and therefore desired His further pleasure upon it and finding the swaying part of the Councell at that time unwilling to meddle in it he expected the King's Command and in the mean time only sent a Warrant to apprehend that Papist which could not be done without the diligence and advice of the Informer who only knew where he was and whom he required to assist The same or the next day the King returned His positive and expresse Command That the Lords of His Councell should use all possible Industry and diligence in the examination and leave no way unattempted for the full discovery which Command was immediately delivered by the Secretary to their Lordships who thereupon gave some directions but those Lords who desired to conceale them knowing onely who the Authors were though a formall Order was given for the enquiry no further discovery was made or any avowed Discourse of it till this Declaration It being then said privately amongst themselves that the time was not yet come that they might make use of that matter This is too much to be said upon the occasion of this most impossible Calumny and Scandall which hath never nor can make impression upon any sober honest understanding except to beget a horrour against the Contrivers of it And all true English hearts will so far resent it as to expresse a detestation of the Authours who being drunk with the bloud they have spilt and confounded with the sense of their own wickednesse have by this last impotent Act declared that they are at the bottome of their malice and that by the just judgment of God their wits are as near an end as their Allegiance and that they have no other stock left but of despaire and madnesse to carry them through their impious undertakings 4. The next reproach is the businesse of Rochel and that His Majesty let divers of the Navy Royall and other Merchant Ships to be imployed against those whom he was engaged to have assisted and the King's Letter to Captain Penington which they say they can shew under his own hand and that hereby Rochel was betrayed Though the age quality and education of most of those who consented to this Declaration will not admit a Supposition that they knew much of the transaction of this matter yet there are some amongst them who might well have remembred that there was only one Ship of the Navy Royall the Vantguard lent by His Majesty to the French King and that the same was returned long before Rochel was besieged and neer if not full two years before it was rendered and therefore it would not be very easie to prove that it was lost much lesse betrayed by that Action or that the Ships were imployed against those whom His Majesty was engaged to have assisted But because much unskilfull discourse hath been of this Argument to the prejudice of the King and many wel-meaning people have been too credulous in it without considering that Actions of that nature between great Princes are grounded upon deep reasons of State above the apprehension of vulgar understandings and that the King upon this new alliance having at the same time a Warre with Spaine had great reason to gratifie France in all
the act which had been done and willing to doe any thing for the King's service declared That the Thursday night following he should have the Guard at the North Gate and that if an Alarum were given at another Gate called Hessell-Gate he would let those in who came from the King Mr. Beckwith promised if he would perform this he should have a very good reward and that if he could convert his Captain one Lowanger a Dutch-man to joyn with him he should likewise be very liberally rewarded This is all that was alleaged against Mr. Beckwith as appears by Sir John Hothams Letter of the whole information to Mr. Pim entred in the Journall booke of the House of Commons and printed by their Order Fookes as soon as he returned to Hull discovered all to Sir Iohn Hotham and he derived it to the House of Commons as is said and they upon this evidence sent their Sergeant at Armes or his Messenger to apprehend Beckwith as a Delinquent who upon notice of the treachery of his Son-in-law durst not stay at his house but removed to Yorke The Messenger with the confidence of his Masters boldly came thither and finding the Gentleman in the Court and in the Garden where the King himself was walking had the presumption to serve the Warrant upon him and to claim him as his Prisoner it was indeed a great wonder that the Messenger was not very severely handled but the reverence to the King's Person preserved him who bore no reverence to it and His Majesty being informed what had hapned called for the Fellow and having seen his Warrant bid him return to those that sent him and forbear committing the like insolency lest he fared worse this was the beating their Messenger and this the protection Mr. Beckwith had nor was there ever any Posse Comitatus raised the High Sheriffe daily waiting on His Majesty and observing the Orders he received from Him according to the duty of his office Whatever this offence had been it was never knowne before this Parliament that the Messenger of either House ever presumed to serve a warrant within the King's Court much lesse in his Presence which whilst loyalty and duty were in reputation was held too sacred for such presumptions the Law confessing such priviledges and exemptions to be due to those places That the Lord cannot seize his Villaine in the King's presence because the presence of the King is a sanctuary unto him saies my Lord Dyer For the matter it self sure there is no man yet that will avow himself to be so much out of his wits as to say that the King should have suffered Mr. Beckwith to be carried to Westminster as a Delinquent for doing the part of a good Subject and to be tried by those who owned the Treason that was committed nor can there be one person named whom they sent for as a Delinquent and the King protected except those who had been a yeare together attending upon them and demanding justice or those against whom nothing was objected but that they waited on and attended his Majesty For the Traytors and Felons they were only to be found within their owne verge and protected by their owne priviledges Very few lines will serve here to take notice of the difference between the King's usage of their Messengers and their usage of the King 's their Messenger sent by them on an unlawfull imployment to apprehend a person they had no power to send for and for a crime of which if he had been guilty they had no cognisance and executing their commands in an unlawfull manner and in a place where he ought not to have done it though the command had been just was by the King fairly dismissed without so much as imprisonment or restraint The Kings Messenger sent by his Majesty with a legall Writ to London for the adjournment of the Tearme which is absolutely in the King's power to do and can be regularly done no other way for performing his duty in this Service according to his Oath and for not doing whereof he had been punishable and justly forfeited his place without any other crime objected to him was taken imprisoned tried at a Court of War by them condemned to be hanged and was executed accordingly That bloud will cry aloud But they say with those Guards Cannon and Armes from beyond Sea the King attempted to force Hull in a hostile manner and that within few daies after that solemne Protestation at Yorke What the Protestation was is before set downe and his Majesties published resolution in this point before that Protestation nor did his Majesty ever conceal his purpose in this or other cases of that nature or disguised his purpose with any specious promises or pretences but plainly told them and the world what they were to expect at his hands To their expostulatory and menacing Petition delivered to his Majesty at his first comming to Yorke on the 26 of March the King in his Answer used these words As we have not nor shall refuse any way agreeable to justice or honour which shall be offered to Us for the begetting a right understanding between Us so We are resolved that no straits or necessities to which We may be driven shall ever compell Us to doe that which the reason and understanding that God hath given Us and Our honour and interest with which God hath trusted Us for the good of Our Posterity and Kingdomes shall render unpleasant and grievous to Us. In this second Message concerning Hull the second day after the Gates were shut against him his Majesty uses these words If We are brought into a condition so much worse then any of Our Subjects that whilst you all enjoy your priviledges and may not have your possessions disturbed or your titles questioned We only may be spoiled thrown out of Our Townes and Our goods taken from Us 't is time to examine how We have lost those priviledges and to trie all possible waies by the help of God the Law of the Land and the affection of our good Subjects to recover them and vindicate Our self from those injuries In his reply to their Answer concerning Sir Iohn Hotham presented to him on the 9 of May his Majesty told them that He expected that they would not put the Militia in execution untill they could shew Him by what Law they had authority to do the same without His consent or if they did He was confident that He should find much more obedience according to Law then they against Law Lastly in his Answer to a Declaration of the 21 of Iune 1642. about a fortnight before his going towards Hull with his Guards his Majesty told them plainly That the keeping Him out of Hull by S r John Hotham was an act of High Treason against him and the taking away his Magazine and Munition from him was an act of violence upon him by what hands or by whose directions soever
it was done and in both cases by the help of God and the Law he would have justice or lose his life in the requiring it so that certainly the King never concealed or dissembled his purposes and accordingly he did indeed toward the middle of Iuly go with his Guards to Beverly having some reason to believe that Sir Iohn Hotham had repented himself of the crime he had committed and would have repaired it as far as he had been able of which failing to his own miserable destruction without attempting to force it his Majesty again returned to Yorke Having made it now plainly appear how falsly and groundlesly his Majesty is reproached with the least tergiversation or swarving from his promises or professions which no Prince ever more precisely and religiously observed it will be but a little expence of time again to examine how punctuall these conscientious reprehenders of their Soveraigne have been in the observation of what they have sworn or said In the first Remonstrance of the House of Commons of the State of the Kingdome they declare that it is far from their purpose or desire to let loose the golden reines of discipline and government in the Church to have private persons or particular Congregations to take up what forme of divine Service they please for they said they held it requisite that there should be throughout the whole Realme a conformity to that Order which the Laws enjoyne In their Declaration of the 19 of May speaking of the Bill for the continuance of this Parliament they say We are resolved the gratious favour His Majesty expressed in that Bill and the advantage and security which thereby we have from being dissolved shall not encourage us to do any thing which otherwise had not been fit to have been done In the conclusion of their Declaration of the 26 of May 1642. apprehending very justly that their expressions there would beget at least a great suspition of their loyalty they say They doubt not but it shall in the end appear to all the world that their endeavours have been most hearty and sincere for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the Kings just Prerogatives the Lawes and Liberties of the Land and the Priviledges of Parliament in which endeavours by the grace of God they would still persist though they should perish in the worke In their Declaration of the 14 of Iune 1642. the Lords and Commons doe declare That the designe of those Propositions for Plate and Money is to maintain the Protestant Religion the King's Authority and Person in His Royall dignity the free course of Iustice the Laws of the Land the Peace of the Kingdome and Priviledges of Parliament As they have observed these and other their professions to the King and the Publique so they have as well kept their promises to the people in their Propositions of the 10 of Iune 1642. for bringing in Mony or Plate the Lords and Commons do declare That no mans affection shall be measured according to the proportion of his offer so that he expresse his good will to the Service in any proportion whatsoever the first designe was to involve as many as they could in the guilt how small soever the supply was but on the 29 of November following the same Lords and Commons appointed Six persons who or any Four of them should have power to assesse all such persons as were of ability and had not contributed and all such as had contributed yet not according to their ability to pay such summe or sums of mony according to their estates as the Assessors or any Four of them should think fit and reasonable so as the same exceeded not the twentieth part of their Estates Infinite examples of this kind may be produced which are the lesse necessary because whosoever will take the pains to read their own Declarations and Ordinances shall not be able to find one protestation or profession made by them to God Almighty in the matter of Religion or to the King in point of duty and obedience or one promise to the people in matter of Liberty Law and Iustice so neer pursued by them as that they have ever done one composed Act in Order to the performance of either of them which very true assertion shall conclude this Answer to that reproach of his Majesties not having made good his Protestations 21. The next Charge is That His Majesty proclaimed them Traytors and Rebels setting up His Standard against the Parliament which never any King of England they say did before Himself His Majesty never did nor could proclaime this Parliament Traytors he well knew besides his own being the head of it that four parts of five of the House of Peers were never present at any of those trayterous conclusions and that above a major part of the House of Commons was alwaies absent and that of those who were present there were many who still opposed or dissented from every unlawfull act and therefore it were very strange if all those innocent men of whom the Parliament consisted as well as of the rest should have been proclaimed Rebels and Traytors for the acts of a few seditious persons who were upon all occasions named and if the Parliament were ever proclaimed Traytors it was by them only who presumptuously sheltred their rebellious acts under that venerable name and who declared that whatsoever violence should be used either against those who exercise the Militia or against Hull they could not but believe it as done against the Parliament They should have named one person proclaimed Rebell or Traytor by the King who is not adjudged to be such by the Law The King never proclaimed Sir Iohn Hotham Traytor though it may be he was guilty of many treasonable acts before till he shut the Gates of Hull against him and with armed men kept his Majesty from thence and besides the concurrent testimony of all Judgments at Law it appears and is determined by the Lord Chief Justice Coke published by the House of Commons this Parliament in his Chapter of High Treason That if any with strength and weapons invasive and defensive doth hold and defend a Castle or Fort against the King and His power this is leavying of War against the King within the Statute of the 25 year of Edw. 3. The King proclaimed not those Rebels or Traytors who Voted That they would raise an Army and that the Earl of Essex should be Generall of that Army what ever he might have done nor the Earle of Essex himself a Traytor upon those Votes untill he had accepted that title and command of Captaine Generall and in that quality appeared amongst the Souldiers animating and encouraging them in their trayterous and rebellious designes as appears by his Majesties Proclamation of the 9 of August 1642. by which he was first proclaimed Traytor and there was no other way to clear the Earle of Essex from being
offices of friendship It may be worth the labour briefly to set down the truth of that matter and the proceedings thereupon About the time of His Majesties Marriage with the Queen the French King had many designes upon Italy and a particular difference and contest with the States of Genoa and upon conclusion of that Treaty and renewing the antient League and amity confirmed strengthned by this Marriage His Majesty was content to lend the Vantguard and to give licence that six or seven Merchant Ships might be hired if the Owners were willing to serve the French King in the Mediterranean Sea and upon a precise promise that they should not be imployed against those of the Religion in France Accordingly the Vantguard and no other Vessell of the Navy Royall was delivered and the Merchants Ships likewise hired by the French Agents with the full consent of the Owners One of which or one by their nomination Commanded each Ship and carried the same into France and there themselves delivered the Ships into the possession of the French After these Ships were thus engaged in the French service and joyned to their Fleet in which were 20 Ships of Warre likewise borrowed of the Hollanders commanded by Hauthaine the Admirall and Dorpe his Vice-Admirall who it is very probable nor their Masters were privy or consenting to that enterprize and with which they were much superiour to those of the Religion though the English Ships had been away they fell upon the Rochel Fleet and took and destroyed many of them The King was no sooner informed of this then he highly resented it by His Ambassadour and the French King excused it upon those of the Religion who He Alleaged had without cause broken the peace the Duke of Subese having when all was quiet seized all the French Ships at Blauet which very Ships made the best part of the Fleet he had now incountred and broken And that the King of England ought to be sensible of the injury the peace thus broken having been made and consented to by the French King upon His Majesties earnest mediation and interposition Notwithstanding which His Majesty justly incensed that His Ships should be imployed contrary to His pleasure and the promise made to Him immediatly required the restitution of His and all the English Ships the which was no sooner made then to publish to the world how much He was displeased with that Action He entred into Hostility with France the chief ground of that quarrell being that the English Ships had been imployed against those of the Religion contrary to the expresse promise made that they should not be used against them as appears as well by the Manifest of the Duke of Buckingham dated 21 July and printed since this Parliament as by the Records of State of that time Let the world now judge with what colour the losse of Rochel which as is said before hapned not till neer or full two years after the return of the English Ships can be imputed to the King 5. The fifth Article is the designe of the Germane-Horse Loanes Privy Seales Coat and Conduct mony Ship-mony and the many Monopolies all which are particularly mentioned in the first Remonstrance of the House of Commons of the 15 of December 1642. as the effects of evill Counsellours and with a Protestation in that Petition which accompanied it to His Majesty that it was without the least intention to lay a blemish upon His Majesties Royall Person but only to represent how His Royall Authority and trust had been abused And finding that the vile language and aspersions which they cast upon the King were generally censured and ill spoken of The Lords and Commons afterwards in their Declaration of the 19 of May tell the people that if they should say that all the ill things done of late in His Majesties name have been done by Himself they should neither follow the direction of the Law nor the affection of their owne hearts which they say is as much as may be to clear His Majesty of all imputation of misgovernment and to lay the fault upon His Ministers and then finding fault with those who make His Majesty the Authour of evill Counsels they use these words We His Majesties loyall and dutifull Subjects can use no other Stile according to that Maxime of the Law The King can doe no wrong but if any ill be committed in matter of State the Councell if in matters of Iustice the Judges must answer for it So that if they would guide themselves either by the good old or their own new laws from which in truth they swerve no lesse then from the other they have themselves answered and declared against this Article but since that is not currant examine the particulars The time when this designe is supposed to have been was when His Majesty had a War with the two greatest Kings of Christendome France and Spaine and therefore if He had purposed to have drawn auxiliary Forces into His Service it had been no wonder nor more then all Princes use yet in truth there was never any designe to bring in Germane Horse only in those unquiet times when the Kingdom was so much threatned from abroad amongst other expedients for strength and defence such a proposition was made or rather some discourse upon it which the King rejected and did never consent that it should be put in practice and therefore it may seem strange that this designe should be now objected against His Majesty who alone refused and hindred it and that Balfore and Dalbiere who were the principall if not the only Projectors of it should be in such high reputation and esteem with the Declarers The Loanes Privy Seales and other courses of raising Money were upon extraordinary and immergent occasions and of the same nature that have been in all times practiced upon reason and necessity of State And Monopolies are weeds that have alwaies grown in the fat soile which long peace and plenty makes and of that kind they may find a larger Catalogue in their Journall book of the 43 year of Queen Elizabeth a time that no sober man complaines of then in any time since and which was not then nor reasonably can be imputed to the Crowne since new inventions have justly so great encouragements and priviledges by the Law that if those Ministers through whose hands such grants are to passe are not very vigilant it is not possible but upon specious pretences many things unwarrantable of that nature will have the countenance of the Kings hand yet those particulars were no sooner complained of to His Ma ty then He willingly applied the remedies w ch were proposed before these troubles began passed such excellent laws for the prevention of the like inconveniences for the future that a better security cannot be provided So that men must think this Rebellion to have been raised on the behalf of not against those exorbitances which
they were brought to that great exigent that they were ready to rob and spoile one another that their wants began to make them desperate That if the Lords Justices and Councell there did not find a speedy way for their preservation they did desire that they might have leave to go away that if that were not granted they must have recourse to the law of nature which teacheth all men to preserve themselves The two Houses who had undertaken to carry on that War and received all the Mony raised for that Service neglecting still to send supplies thither the Lords Justices and Councell by their Letters about the middle of May advertised the King That they had no Victuall Cloths or other provisions no Mony to provide them of any thing they want no Armes not above forty Barrels of Powder no strength of serviceable Horse no visible means by Sea or Land of being able to preserve that Kingdome And by others of the 4 of Iuly that his Armies would be forced through wants to disband or depart the Kingdome and that there would be nothing to be expected there but the instant losse of the Kingdome and the destruction of the remnant of his good Subjects yet left there This was the sad condition of that miserable Kingdome to whose assistance his Majesty was in no degree of Himself able to contribute and His recommendation and interposition to the two Houses whom He had trusted was so much contemned that when upon their Order to issue out at one time one hundred thousand pounds of the Monies paid for Ireland to the supply of the Forces under the Earl of Essex albeit it was enacted by the Law upon which those Monies were raised that no part of it should be imployed to any other purpose then the reducing the Rebels of Ireland His Majesty by a speciall Message advised and required them to retract that Order and to dispose the Monies the right way the necessities of Ireland being then passionately represented by those upon the place they returned no other satisfaction or Answer to his Majesty but a Declaration That those directions given His Majesty for the retracting of that Order was a high breach of priviledge of Parliament When His Majesty perceived that no assistance was or was like to be applied to them and that the Enemy still increased in strength power He referred the consideration and provision for themselves to those whose safeties and livelyhoods were most immediately concerned and who were the nearest witnesses of the distresses and the best Judges how they could be borne or how they were like to be relieved and so with the full advice and approbation of the Lords Justices and Councell there and concurrent opinion of all the chief Officers of the Army that Cessation was made by which onely the Protestants in that Kingdome and His Majesties interest there could at that time have been preserved Of this Cessation neither His Majesties good Subjects in that or this Kingdom have reason to complain Examine now the peace which they say was afterwards made on such odious shamefull and unworthy conditions that His Majesty Himself blushed to owne or impart to His owne Lieutenant the Earle of Ormond but a private Commission was made to the Lord Herbert to manage it Whilst the King had any hope of a tolerable peace in this or a probable way of carrying on the War in that Kingdome He never gave a Commission to conclude a peace there and it plainly appears by the relation of the Treaty at Uxbridge to the truth of which there hath not been the least objection the Acts of the Commissioners of both sides being extant that there was no expedient proposed though desired often on the King's party for the proceeding in that War but that His Majesty would quit absolutely all His Regall power in that Kingdome and so put all His Subjects there English and Irish out of His protection into that of the two Houses of Parliament here who at the same time were fighting for the same Supremacy in this and who had at the same time disposed a greater power thereof to the Scots then they reserved to themselves it concerned the King then in piety and policy in His duty to God and man to endevour to preserve that Kingdom by a peace which He could not reduce by a war and to draw from thence such a body and number of His own Subjects as might render Him more considerable to those who having put off all naturall allegiance and reverence to his Majesty looked only what power and strength and not what right He had left The peace that was concluded was upon such tearms and conditions as were in that conjuncture of time just and honourable and when it could not be continued without yeilding to more shamefull and lesse worthy conditions the Marquesse of Ormond his Majesties Lieutenant of that Kingdome who had the sole and intire authority from his Majesty to conclude a peace and against whom all their envy and all their malice hath not been able to make the least objection best knowing his Masters mind chose rather to make no peace and to trust providence with his Majesties Rights then to consent to such Propositions nor had the Lord Herbert ever any Commission to make a peace there but being a person whose loyalty and affection to his service the King had no reason to suspect and being of the same Religion with the Enemy might have some influence upon them was qualified with such a testimony as might give him the more credit amongst them to perswade them to reason His restraint and commitment was very reall by the whole Councell board there though when it appeared that his errors had proceeded from unskilfulnesse and unadvisednesse and not from malice he was afterwards inlarged by the same power The unnaturall conclusions and inferences these men make from what the King hath said or done applying actions done lately to words spoken seven years before cannot cast any blemish upon the Kings Religion which shines with the same lustre in Him as it did in the primitive Martyrs and even those Letters taken at Nazeby which no wise Rebel or gallant Enemy would have published will to posterity appear as great Monuments of His zeale to the true Protestant Religion in those straits in which He was driven by those who professed that Religion as any Prince hath left or have been left by any Prince since Christianity was imbraced And if that Religion should prosper with lesse vigour then it hath done and the Christian and Pagan world have lesse reverence towards it then they have had these Reformers may justly challenge to themselves the honour and glory of that declension and triumph in the reproaches they have brought upon the most Orthodox Church that hath flourished in any age since the Apostles time These Charges and reproaches upon the King which have been now particularly examined and answered and of which
Houses and industriously published in print importing as if His Majesty were kept as a Prisoner amongst them and barbarously and uncivilly used they said they could not but declare that the same and all other suggestions of that sort were most false and scandalous and absolutely contrary not only to their declared desires but also to their principles which are most clearly for a generall right and just freedome to all men and therefore upon this occasion they say they cannot but declare particularly that they desire the same for the King and others of His Party and they further cleerly professed that they did not see how there could be any peace to this Kingdome firm or lasting without a due consideration of and provision for the rights quiet and immunity of His Majesties Royall Family and His late partakers And their Generall by his Letter of the 8 of Iuly to the Speaker which was as soon printed as sent freely acquainted them that their Army had made many Addresses to the King to desire His Majesties free concurrence with the Parliament for establishing and securing the common Rights and Liberties and setling the peace of the Kingdome And to assure Him that the publique being so provided for with such His Majesties concurrence it was fully agreeable to all their principles and should be their desires and endeavour That with and in such setling of the Publique the Rights of His Majesties Royall Family should be also provided for so as a lasting peace and agreement might be setled in this Kingdome And that as they have formerly declared for the same in generall termes so if things came to a way of setlement they should not be wanting in their sphears to own that generall desire in any particulars of naturall or civill right to His Majesties Person or Family which might not prejudice or again indanger the Publique By which gawdy professions together with the admission of such Servants and Chaplains to attend His Majesty whom He desired and which had been barbarously denied by the Houses who were by this time so sensible of their error as they desired His Majesties presence amongst them upon His own Conditions they raised themselves to that credit with the Kings party with the City of London and universally with the people that by this Stratagem onely they grew able and powerfull enough to confine Him to Carisbrooke-Castle and to proceed since as they have done And surely when the Army hath throughly weighed and considered the huge advantages they have gotten by those professions and protestations and how far they have been from making the same good to the King they will not suffer themselves to be made a stalking Horse to the vile ends of particular persons nor let their Morall Righteousnesse in which they so much triumph to grow into a Proverb for the highest and most unworthy Craft Hypocrisie and Treachery It remains now since by any endeavours of these men sever'd from the return to their duty and Allegiance it is not possible for them to establish any peace or happinesse to the Kingdome or security to themselves to perswade them that by doing at last the duty of Christians they may not only preserve their Country which no body can doubt but they may be superiour to any difficulties and hazard their guilt suggests they shall be liable to It is yet in their power so absolutely to make the Kings restoration their own work that His Majesty may be obliged even in point of gratitude to acknowledge it and to remember only by whose fidelity He hath recovered what He had lost and not by whose fault He lost it and His party who for Conscience sake have lost all know that charity is so fundamentall a duty of a Christian that there is no excuse for the least degree of animosity and revenge let the injuries they have received be never so great and the Kings owne experience of men hath sufficiently informed Him that as many of good inclinations have by inadvertency credulity been cozened into a combination against Him and it may be the worst of them grown by degrees worse then they intended to be so all who have seemed to follow a good cause are not good men but had ends as ill as they whom they opposed and therefore all mention and memory of former Errors being blotted out it may be presumed He will trust and imploy all His good Subjects according to their severall faculties and abilities without remembring how they have been at any time disposed against Him and they have reason to believe that whatsoever His Majesty shall freely consent to He will most religiously observe and cause all others to observe it Let them therefore seasonably enter into a Treaty with His Majesty attended with such of His Counsell as He shall chuse and let the fullest Articles be agreed upon which may give a mutuall assurance of security to all persons and interests to which His Majesty having given His Assent in such manner as shall be desired all His Counsell and all Ministers of Justice throughout the Kingdome may be solemnly sworn to those Articles the which being done and the same confirmed by such an Act and in that manner passed as they shall conclude may be valid Let this unhappy Parliament be dissolved an intermission of Parliament being at this time more necessary for the vindication of the justice and Lawes of the Kingdome and restoring a happy peace then ever a convention of Parliament was for the reformation and removing of grievances To conclude unreasonable and unjust Propositions may continue the War and the distractions never make a peace which is nothing but the liberty to injoy what in justice and right is our due and as long as the world lasts that Answer of the Ambassadour from Privernum to the Senate of Rome will be found to be reason who when he was asked what peace the Romans might depend upon with them because they had been guilty of some defection answered Si bonam dederitis fidam perpetuam si malam haud diuturnam which that wise Senate confessed to be an honest Answer and that it was madnesse to believe any people or private person in eâ conditione cujus eum poeniteat diutiùs quà m necesse sit mansurum Let us then like English men make up the breach our selves have made and let not our Country and Posterity owe their redemption to any forain power but let us prostrate our selves at the feet of our abused Soveraigne with that hearty acknowledgment and testimony which the King of Tyre sent to Solomon Because the Lord hath loved his people he hath made thee King over them To a profane dissolute and licentious people he hath given the most pious and temperate King to recover reform them by his example and to a wicked and rebellious people the most gentle and mercifull King to preserve them by his goodnesse But if they sin wilfully after that they
Subjects who have not trespassed against any known Law and imprison others with such unusuall circumstances of restraint cruelty and inhumanity that many persons of reputation integrity and fortunes being first robbed and spoiled of all their Estates for not conforming themselves to the wickednesse of the time have perished in prison and very many of the same condition are like to doe so for want of such nourishment as may satisfie nature and whosoever compares the good old Oaths formed and administred by lawful Authority to every clause whereof the consciences of these very men have seemed fully to submit with the Oathes and Covenants injoyned by themselves will have reason to conclude mens Soules were never in so much danger of captivity and that what the worst men underwent for their notorious crimes in the time of which they complain was recreation and pleasure to what all are now compelled to endure for being honest and conscientious men 7. The long intermission of Parliaments is remembred and that at the dissolution of some priviledges have been broken and that followed with close imprisonment and death That long intermission of Parliaments was graciously prevented and remedied for the future long before these troubles by His Majesties consent to the Bill for trienniall Parliaments and the people would think themselves very happy if they had no more cause to complain of the continuance of this then of the former intermission they having during those twelve years injoyed as great a measure of prosperity and plenty as any people in any age have known and an equall proportion of misery since the beginning of this For the breach of Priviledge and imprisonment of Members the Lawes were open for all men to appeale and have recourse to and that single person that died under restraint suffered that restraint by a Judgment of the Kings Bench so that if there were any injustice in the Case it cannot be charged upon His Majesty 8. The Scene is now removed into Scotland and the new Liturgy and Canons with what succeeded thereupon makes up the next Charge aggravated with the Cancelling and burning the Articles of Pacification which had been there made upon the mediation of the Lords If the King had not been so tender of the Act of Oblivion in the Treaty of Pacification between the two Kingdomes that he would not suffer any provocation to incline Him to ravell into that businesse he might easily have freed Himself from all those calumnies and aspersions And it will be but justice and gratitude in that Nation highly to resent that whilst all guilty men shelter themselves under that Act of Oblivion His Majesty who is the only innocent and injured Person should have His mouth stopped by it which is His own expression and complaint in His Answer to the Declaration at Newmarket from any Reply to the reproaches cast on Him in that matter otherwise He might easily have made it appear that that Liturgy and those Canons were regularly made and framed and sent thither by the advice or with the approbation of the Lords of the Councell of that Kingdome and if the putting them in practice and execution was pursued with more passion impatience there then in prudence policy was agreeable the error was wholly to be imputed to those Ministers of that Kingdome who were most proper to be trusted in it however that so generall a defection and insurrection was not in any degree justifiable or warrantable by the Laws of that Kingdom is most certain they having no visible Forme either of Parliament or King to countenance them as the Army hath lately observed And that the Pacification first made by His Majesties mercy and Christian desire to prevent the effusion of the bloud of His Subjects how ill soever was broken by them and thereupon declined by the full advice of the Lords of His Councell by whose unanimous advice the Articles were publickly burned as may appear by the Record in the Councell Book of that transaction 9. In the next is remembred the calling and dissolving the short Parliament and the Kings proceeding after the dissolution That the calling that Parliament was an Act of the Kings great wisdome and goodnesse was then justly and generally acknowledged and that it was in His owne power to dissolve it when He thought fit is as little doubted but that He did unhappily for Himself by false Information in matter of fact and evill advice dissolve that Parliament is believed by all men and upon the matter confessed by Himself and that that information and advice was most pernicious and the rise of all the miseries we have since undergone is not denied and 't is therefore the more wondred at that the charge of that guilt being part of the impeachment against two great persons whose bloud they have since drunk that particular was declined in the prosecution of them both and that though it be enough known by whose false information and instigation that unfortunate counsell was followed extraordinary care hath been taken that he should not be questioned for it which together with the excessive joy that the principall Actors in these late mischiefs expressed at that sad time gives men reason to conclude that it was contrived by those who have reaped the fruit and advantage of the error What the King took from His Subjects by power which He could not otherwise obtain after that dissolution is not particularly set forth and therefore it is very probable there was no ground for the calumny nor indeed was any man a loser by any such Act of His Majesty 10. Thus far the catalogue reaches of the Kings enormous crimes during the first sixteen years of His Reigne to the beginning of this Parliament in which they confesse they proceeded with ease as long as there was any hope that they would comply with His Majesty against the Scots and give assistance to that war but when He found that hope vaine and that they began to question the Authours of those pernicious Counsells His Majesty discovered Himself so strongly and passionately affected to malignant Counsellours and their Councells that He would sooner desert and force the Parliament and Kingdome then alter His course and deliver up His wicked Counsellours to Law and Justice There are not so many years expired since the beginning of this Parliament though it hath been a tedious age of misery and confusion but that all mens memories will recollect and represent to them the folly and the falshood of this Charge It is not imaginable that the King could expect after the beginning of this Parliament that it would comply with Him and give Him assistance in a War against the Scots when He plainly discover'd that they who were like to be and afterwards proved the chief Leaders and Directors in that Councell were of the same party and how far He was from sheltring any Counsellour or Servant from justice or any colourable proceeding of the
Law is as well known neither did He deny His royall assent to any one Bill till after He was by force Tumults driven from White Hall and after he had indeed consented to whatsoever could be honestly asked of Him for the security and benefit of the Kingdome 11. The Queen is too near His Majesty not to bear a part and a share with Him in these calumnies and therefore Her designe to advance Popery is remembred and Her observing a Popish Fast with Secretary Windebanks going beyond Sea by His Majesties Passe after He was questioned by the House of Commons What that designe of Her Majesty was for the advancement of Popery is not particularly mentioned and therefore no Answer can be given to it and having expressed so much undutifulnes malice to Her Majesty throughout the whole course of their Rebellion it is not probable they have concealed any thing they could lay to Her charge For the Fast observed by Her it is well known that the time of it was when the King was in the Field and his Person liable to much danger which piety and devotion was very agreeable to Her goodnesse and exemplar affection towards her Husband And the Kingdome would think it self abundantly blessed if the Fasts since observed by these men had produced no worse effects then that did w ch was observed by her M ty For S. Windebanke the House of Cōmons had it in their power to have proceeded against him to have prevented his escape he being in the House and according to order withdrawn into the Committee Chamber after the report was made and after as much appeared against him as was ever objected or discovered afterwards but the House contrary to custome rose without proceeding upon it and therefore His Majesty might very well give him leave to dispose of himself And the truth is they by whom the House was then guided were best pleased with his absence and purposely declined the proceeding against him when he was in their hands thinking it easier to procure his place for one of their principall Members to whom they had designed it upon the advantage of his flight then if he had staid to abide his Triall which for many reasons they would not have thought fit to hasten or to proceed in 12. The Allegations of Commissions given to Popish Agents for private leavies except they intend the Collections made amongst the Papists of money for the Kings expedition into the North which was likewise amongst and no lesse liberally complied with by the Lords of the Privy Counsell and the other Protestants of the best quality throughout the Kingdom or that the Papists began to rise and arme themselves in the Northwest of England and Wales the raising Soldiers under pretence for Portugal and the seizing of the Tower are so stale vaine and ridiculous that though upon the first contrivance of them the fame served the turn of the Contrivers mens observation and knowledge having since informed them that there was nothing like either of them there needs no further Answer to them 13. The next Article is the great Caball for bringing up the Northerne Army to over-awe the Parliament the chief part of which they can prove they say to come from Himself to the maine Actors though the King did so often and solemnly dis-avow it as nothing but loose discourses of a modest Petition which also vanished two or three Months he saith before they knew of it They doe well to except against the Kings positive denying it when they have onely their owne confident and positive affirming it for proof but they had need suppresse and burn all His Majesties Declarations and Answers in which He hath abundantly satisfied the world in this particular as well as they restrain His Person and as they have concealed all those Depositions taken by themselves in this Argument which would manifest clearly that there was no such designe by His Majesty so they need recall all those they have already published if they desire to have that designe believed The King in His Answer to the Declaration presented to Him at Newmarket uses these words We cannot without great indignation suffer Our self to be reproached to have intended the least force or threatning to Our Parliament as the being privy to the bringing up the Army would imply whereas We call God to witnes We never had any such thought or knew of any such resolution concerning Our late Army And afterwards His Majesty in His Declaration of the 12 of August a Declaration that never was offered to be Answered at large set forth all He ever knew of that businesse or which upon exact inquiry He could imagine to be in it by which it plainly appears that some Officers of the Army of very good and confessed reputation for their affection to their Country observing the strange Petitions every day presented to the House of Commons against the established Laws and Government of the Kingdome and the unlawfull manner in the delivering those Petitions by thousands of disorderly persons in Tumults supposed that a Petition of a most modest and dutifull nature from the whole Army for the composing and setling all grievances in the Church and State by Law might for the reason of it prevaile with the whole House and coming from such a body might confirm those who might be shaken with any fears of power or force by the Tumults and His Majesty being made acquainted with this proposition gave his full approbation to it which He had great reason to do since as there was notable industry used to corrupt His Army and to make it applicable to the ill purposes then resolved on so pains was taken to perswade the people that it was in truth very indevoted to the King and ready to serve the Parliament any way it should direct And as His Majesty saies if in the managery of this debate any rash discourses hapned of bringing up the Army it is evident whether they were proposed in earnest or no that they were never entertained and the whole matter was laid aside above two Months before any discovery so that that danger was never prevented by the power or wisdome of Parliament It appears by the evidence and Depositions published by themselves by the Order of the 19 of May 1642. together with that Declaration that this dangerous Plot began without the least privity of the Kings upon some Officers taking offence dis-like that of fifty thousand pounds Ordred for payment of the Kings Army ten thousand pounds was taken by an after Order out of that summe to satisfie a new motion and importunity from the Scots and that those Officers upon that distast discoursed that they were disobliged by the Parliament and not by the King and thereupon concluded to tender their Services to His Ma ty in all things honourable and agreeable to the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome That in debates afterwards together