A FVLL ANSWER TO AN INFAMOUS AND TRAYTEROUS PAMPHLET ENTITULED A Declaration of the Commons of England in Parliament assembled expressing their Reasons and Grounds of passing the late Resolutions touching no further Addresse or Application to be made to the KING MICAH 3. 11. The Heads thereof judge for reward and the Priests thereof teach for hire and the Prophets thereof divine for mony yet will they leane upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord among us none evill can come upon us Printed for R. ROYSTON 1648. THE CONTENTS THe Authors Method pag. 2. Their severall Charges against the KING ib. 1. That His Majesty hath laid a fit foundation for all Tyranny by this Maxime or Principle 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 p. 3. 2. The private Articles agreed in order to the Match with Spaine and those other private Articles upon the French marriage c. p. 12 3. The Death of King James ib. 4. The businesse of Rochel p. 17. 5. The Designe of the German Horse Loanes Privy-Seales Coat and Conduct-mony Ship-mony and the many Monopolies p. 19. 6. The torture of our bodies by whipping cutting off eares pillories c. with close-imprisonment aggravated with the dominion exercised over our souls by Oaths Excommunications new Canons c. p. 24. 7. The long intermission of Parliaments and at the dissolution of some how Priviledges have been broken and some Members imprisoned p. 26. 8. The new Liturgy and Canons sent into Scotland And the cancelling and burning the Articles of Pacification p. 27. 9. The calling and dissolving the short Parliament and the Kings proceeding after the dissolution therof p. 28. 10. The King summoned the present Parliament to have assistance against the Scots And when He found that hope vaine He was so passionately affected to His Malignant Counsellours that He would rather desert His Parliament and Kingdome then deliver them to Law and Justice p. 29. 11. The Queens designe to advance Popery and Her observing a Popish Fast with Secretary Windebank's going beyond Sea by His Majesties Passe after he was questioned p. 30. 12. Commissions given to Popish Agents for private Leavies p. 31. 13. The bringing up the Northerne Army to over-awe the Parliament ib. 14. Offers made to the Scots of the plunder of London if they would advance or of 4 Northern Counties with three hundred thousand pounds but to stand Neuters p. 36. 15. The businesse of Ireland p. 38. 16. The unusuall preparation of Ammunition and Armes upon the Kings return from Scotland with new Guards within and about Whitehall the Fire-works taken and found in Papists houses the Tower filled with new Guards Granadoes and all sorts of Fire-works Morters and great Pieces of Battery the displacing Sir William Balfore and placing other Officers who were suspected by them and the whole City p. 58. 17. The Charge of Treason against some of both Houses and the Kings going so attended to the House of Commons p. 62. 18. A Parallel between the Kings proceedings against the 5 and the Armies against 11 Members p. 67. 19. Commissions granted to the E. of Newcastle and Colonel Legg for attempting Newcastle and Hull And their intelligence of forain Forces from Denmark p. 72. 20. The Queens going into Holland and her carrying away and pawning the anncient Iewels of the Crowne p. 76. 21. When they first took up Arms against the King ib. 22. Breach of Honour and faith in the King for making so many solemn Protestations against any thought of bringing up the Northerne Army or of Levying Forces to wage war with His Parliament or of bringing in forain Forces or Aids from beyond Sea p. 79. 23. They have not observed their Professions made to the King nor kept their promises to the People p. 95. 96. 24. That His Majesty proclaimed them Traytors and Rebels setting up His Standard against the Parliament which never any King of England did before Himself p. 97. 25. The setting up a Mock-Parliament at Oxford to oppose and protest against the Parliament of England p. 102. 26. A full Relation of the first Tumults p. 107. 27. The Pacification and peace in Ireland p. 113. The King 's severall Messages and their Propositions and Addresses for peace p. 118. Their 4 Bills presented to His Majesty at Carisbrook-Castle p. 132. The Commons Resolutions of making no more Addresses to the King p. 148. The Conclusion Demonstrating That they can never establish a Peace to the Kingdome or any security to themselves but by Restoring the just Power to the KING and dutifully submitting and joyning themselves to His protection p. 156. An ANSWER to an infamous and trayterous Pamphlet entituled A DECLARATION of the Commons of England in Parliament expressing their reasons and grounds of passing the late Resolutions touching no further addresse or application to be made to the KING IF the nature and minds of men were not more inclined to errour and vice then they are to truth and vertue and their memories more retentive of the Arguments and evidence which is administred to pervert then of those applied to reclaime them there would be little need of composing any Answer to this seditious and trayterous Declaration which consists onely of the severall infamous and scandalous imputations and reproaches except the odious and groundlesse discourse of the death of King James which though they have alwaies whisper'd they never thought fit to own till now which have been thrown and scattered against the King throughout their Declarations and Remonstrances and is but the same Calumny and Treason bound up in a lesser Volume to every particular whereof His Majesty whilst he was at liberty to speak for himself and to take the pains to undeceive and inform his people gave full and clear answers in His severall Declarations and Expresses so that from thence all men may gather the most naturall and proper Antidotes to expell this poyson the spirit and malignity whereof it is hoped is so near spent by the stalenesse and palpable unskilfulnesse as well as malice of the Composition that it will neither be received by or work upon any healthfull Constitutions yet it will not be amisse for the information of those who it may be have not taken the pains to read the KING 's former Answers and Declarations and refreshing the memory of others who have forgotten what they have read to collect the Answers formerly given to those particulars with which His Majesty is now charged and to adde to those Answers what the knowledge and observation of most men who have been faithfull inquirers into past Actions with that integrity and duty that becomes Subjects may supply them with For which there will need no great Apology since every honest man hath a more regular and legall qualification to vindicate His Majesty from those foule aspersions then any Combination
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
which might get credit amongst some desired that they might have twenty Proclamations sent over signed by the King's signe Manuall to the end that besides the printed Copies which they would disperse according to custome they might be able to send an Originall with the King's hand to it to those considerable persons whom they might suspect to be misled by that false rumour who when they saw the King 's very hand would be without excuse if they persisted This Letter and desire from the Lords Justices and Councell was communicated at the Councel Board and the resolution there taken that they should have double the number they desired signed by the King and because the ingrossing so many Copies would take up more time directions were given for the printing forty Copies all which were signed by His Majesty and with all possible speed dispatched into Ireland and the caution that there should be no more printed then were sent away thither was very necessary left the Rebels by having notice of it should find some device to evade the end for which they were sent and be prepared to defend their old or raise some new scandall upon His Majesty besides that there was no imaginable reason why any more should at that time be printed in London What was written from Court to the Lord Muskery that His Majesty was well pleased with what He did cannot reflect upon His Majesty nor had the person who is supposed to have written such a Letter whom they have in former Declarations declared to be the Lord Dillon who expresly denied the ever writing any such Letter any place or relation at Court and the King had good reason long after to write to the Marquesse of Ormond to give particular thanks to Muskery and Punket They having bin both at Oxford imployed by the Irish to His Majesty during the Cessation and having made there such professions of their endeavours to reduce the other to reason as might merit His Majesties thank and acknowledgment which His Majesty hath been as forward to give to such of the Rebels here as have expressed any moderation or inclination to return to their obedience and yet He was never well pleased with what they have done nor can give them thanks for it For the delaying and detaining the Earle of Leicester beyond all pretence from going against the Rebels it is wel known how often his Majesty pressed the Houses that he might be dispatched and sent away and that it was one of the reasons which His Majesty gave in His Answer to the Petition of both Houses of the 28. of April of His resolution to go in Person into Ireland because the Lord Lieutenant on whom He relied principally for the Conduct and managing of affairs there was still in this Kingdome notwithstanding His earnestnesse expressed that He should repair to his Command after which it was neer three Months before any preparation was made for his journey and then about the end of July or beginning of August his Lordship came to the King at Yorke to receive his instructions pretending to have his dispatch so fully from the two Houses that he would return no more thither but as soon as he could have His Majesties Command he would immediately to Chester and imbarke This being about the time that the King was preparing Forces for His defence against the Earle of Essex the Earle was detained about a Month before he could receive his instructions and all those dispatches that were necessary and then he took his leave of His Majesty with profession of going directly to Chester but either by command or inclination that purpose was quickly altered and his Lordship returned to London where he was detained full two Months longer and then was Commanded expresly by the Houses to repair to Chester and not to wait on the King in his way though His Majesty being then at Oxford he could not avoid performing that duty but by avoiding the ordinary road when the King heard of his being at Chester where he expected the Ships that were to transport him above three Weeks and that there was no other force in readiness to be sent with him but his own retinue those Regiments of Foot and Troups of Horse which had been raised for that Service having been imployed against His Majesty at Edge-hill and being still kept as a part of the Earle of Essex his Army and that there were none of those provisions or mony to be now sent over which had been importunately desired by the Councell of that Kingdome His Majesty considered that the Rebels having been kept in some awe with the apprehension of the Lord Lieutenant's comming over with all such supplies as were necessary to carry on the War the assurance whereof had likewise kept up the spirits of the Protestants there if he should now arrive there in so private a manner without any addition of a strength or provision for the supply of that strength that was there it would bring at the same time the greatest affliction and dis-heartning to his Protestant Subjects that could be imagined and an equall incouragement to the Rebels and therefore His Majesty sent for him to Oxford till he might receive better satisfaction from the Houses concerning their preparations for that Kingdom So that by whom the Earle of Leicester was delaied and detained the world may judge The Kings refusall of a Commission for the Lord Brooke and Lord Wharton hath been long since Answered by His Majesty the truth of which Answer was never yet denied or replied to That the Forces to be under their Command were raised before His Majesties Commission was so much as desired And then the Commission that was desired should have been independent upon His Majesties Lieutenant of that Kingdome and therefore His Majesty had great reason not to consent to it And how reasonably those persons were to be trusted with such a Command may be judged by their bringing those very Forces which were raised for the relief of the poor Protestants of Ireland against the Rebels there to fight against the King at Edge-hill within a very short time after those Commissions were desired They say they have long since named divers Papists and persons of quality that by the Kings speciall Warrants after the Ports were shut by both Houses of Parliament passed hence and headed the Rebels when they wanted Commanders Examine the truth of this which all men who will take the pains may be judges of His Majesty taking notice of the effect of this Charge to be spoken by Master Pim at a Conference with the Lords about the beginning of February 1641. the Speech being printed by His Message of the 7. of that Month to the House of Commons required to know whether such a thing had been said and if so upon what ground His Majesty being sure He had used all caution in the granting of Passe-ports into Ireland The Commons answered that the Speech delivered
His Majesties Person Crowne and Dignity together with His Majesties just and legall Prerogative against all persons and power whatsoever and that they would not obey any rule Order or Ordinance whatsoever concerning any Militia that had not the Royall assent The first Commission of Array issued out some daies before this Profession and Protestation made by His Majesty and therefore cannot be said to be against it and above three Months after the passing the illegall and extravagant Ordinance for the Militia and after that Ordinance was executed in many parts of the Kingdome notwithstanding His Majesties Proclamation of the illegality and treason of it when He had desired them to produce or mention one Ordinance from the first beginning of Parliaments to this very Parliament which endeavoured to impose any thing upon the Subject without the King's consent of which to this day they never gave or can give one instance The Commission it self of Array is according to Law and so held to be at this time by most learned Lawyers and was so declared to be by Mr. Justice Hutton in his Argument in the Exchequer Chamber in the case of Mr. Hambden The Letter which they say they can produce under His Majesties owne hand to Sir John Heydon Lieutenant of the Ordnance of the 20 of June 1642. is no way contrary to His Majesties professions such as His Majesty in that ill time was necessarily to write being to a sworn Officer and Servant of His owne to send such of His own Goods to Him as were in His custody and which His Majesty so reasonably might have occasion to use and if He wished it might be done privately it is only an instance of the wickednes of that time that the King was forced to use art and privacy to get what belonged to Him lest He might be robbed by those who nine daies before the date of this Letter had published Orders to intercept whatsoever was going to Him His Majesty required not any subscription for Plate Horses or Armes till many daies after they had published their Propositions to that purpose received great sums of mony and vast quantities of plate upon those Propositions against which His Majesty writ His Princely Letter to the City of London on the 14 of June and two daies after published a Declaration with the testimony and evidence of all the Peers with Him in which He said That if notwithstanding so clear declaration and evidence of His intentions these men should think fit by those Alarums to awaken Him to a more necessary care of the defence of Himself and His people and should themselves in so unheard-of a manner provide and seduce others to do so too to offend His Majesty having given Him so lively testimony of their affections what they were willing to do when they should once make themselves able all His good Subjects would think it necessary for His Majesty to look to Himself and He did then excite all His wel-affected people according to their Oaths of Allegiance Supremacy according to their solemn Vow and Protestation whereby they were obliged to defend His Person Honour and Estate to contribute their best assistance to the preparations necessary for the opposing and suppressing of the trayterous attempts c. And then He would take it as an acceptable Service if any person upon so urgent and visible a necessity of His Majesty and such an apparent distraction of the Kingdome would bring in to Him or to His use Mony or Plate or would furnish Horse or Armes c. This was the time and the manner of His Majesties requiring subscription for Plate Horse and Armes which these men impute to Him They say the King raised a Guard of Horse and Foot about Him and by them did not only abuse their Committees sent to Him beat their publique Officers and Messengers protect notorious Papists Traytors or Felons such as Beckwith and others from the Posse Comitatus but also with those guards Cannon Arms from beyond Sea did attempt to force Hull in an hostile manner and that within few daies after that solemn Protestation at Yorke All which suggestions must be particularly examined The raising the King's Guard was on this occasion and in this manner The King residing with His Court at the City of Yorke and being pressed by both Houses of Parliament to consent that His Magazine at Hull might be removed from thence for the better supplies of the necessities for Ireland to the Tower of London which for many reasons He thought not convenient His Majesty resolved to go Himself in Person to His Town of Hull to view His Arms and Munition there that thereupon He might give directions what part thereof might be necessary to remaine there for the security and satisfaction of the Northerne parts the principall persons thereof having petitioned Him that it might not be all removed and what part might be spared for Ireland what for the arming the Scots who were to go thither and what to replenish His chiefest Magazine the Tower of London and going thither on the 23 day of April 1642. He found all the Gates shut against Him and the Bridges drawn up by the command of Sir John Hotham who flatly denied His Majesties entrance from the Walls which were strongly manned and the Cannon mounted thereon and planted against the King His Majesty having in vaine endeavoured to perswade Sir John Hotham and offered to go in with twenty Horse because he alleaged His retinue was too great was at last compelled to returne to Yorke after He had proclaimed Hotham Traytor which by all the knowne Lawes he was declared in that case to be The next day the King sent a Message to the Houses to require justice upon Sir John Hotham to which they returned no Answer till above a fortnight after in the mean time they sent down some of the choice Members to Hull to give Sir Iohn Hotham thanks for what he had done and to assure him that they would justifie him in it and others into Lincoln-shire with directions to their Deputy Lieutenants and all other Officers to assist him if he were in any distresse and then they sent some other Members as their Committee to Yorke with their Answer to the King in which they told Him That Sir John Hotham could not discharge the trust upon which nor make good the end for which he was placed in the Guard of that Towne and Magazine if he had let in His Majesty with such Counsellours and company as were then about Him and therefore upon full resolution of both Houses they had declared Sir John Hotham to be clear from that odious crime of Treason and had avowed that he had done nothing therein but in obedience to the commands of both Houses whereas in truth though they had presumed against law and right to send him thither and constitute him Governour for a time of that place there was
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
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
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
without it could never probably have been again exercised in this Kingdome And here the people cannot enough observe and wonder that these grievances should in this manner be objected against the King who removed and abolished them in a time when and by those who have renued and improved the same and introduced new vexations upon His Subjects in an illimited manner and intolerable proportion That They should complain of a designe of bringing in German Horse to enslave us which if any such designs were by the goodnesse of the King was frustrated and rejected who have actually brought in an Army of all Rations upon us and have no pretence of continuing it but that they may subdue us dissolve the Government of the Kingdome and make us Slaves to their own passions and appetite That They should remember the King of inforced Loanes Privy Seales Coat and Conduct mony who since the same have been abrogated by Him have by their Ordinance compelled men to lend the Fifth and the Twentieth part of their Estates for the maintenance of their Armies that fifth and twentieth part to be rated according to such proportion as certain persons named by them shall assesse and if any person shall refuse to pay the mony so assessed upon him then Collectors shall leavy it by distresse and for want of distresse he shall be committed to prison with such circumstances of severity and uncharitablenesse as were never exercised by any Royall Command That They should complaine of the ingrossing of Gunpowder in which His Majesty did nothing but what by His legall Prerogative He might do who by their Ordinance of the 3 of April 1644. for the making of Salt-peter and by the other of the 7 of Febr. 1645. for making Gun-powder have established all those clauses in His Majesties Commission of which there was any colour of complaint to Projectors of their owne with so much worse circumstances as the jurisdiction their Committees exercise to whom appeales are to be made is more grievous chargeable and insupportable then that was of the Councell Table That They should mention the Patent of Wine which was to pay forty Shillings upon the Tun to His Majesty when by the Ordinance of the 22 of July 1643. they have laid an imposition upon it of six pounds over and above all Customes and by the Ordinance of the 9 of October following have authorized the Vintners to sell it at as great and some at greater prices then was ever tolerated during the time of His Majesties imposition Lastly to omit the other particulars of Salt Allum Tobacco and the rest upon every one of which they have by their particular Ordinances laid much heavier taxes then was thought of in those times that they should reproach the King with the Ship mony which by their own computation came not to above 200000l by the year as the compendium of all oppression and slavery for which His Majesty had a judgment in a Court of Law before all the Judges of England and which was alwaies leavied by the due formes of Law and which His Majesty when He was informed of the injustice of it frankly quitted and did His best to pull it up by the roots that no branch of it may hereafter grow up to the disquiet of His people when themselves have almost ever since by that one Ordinance of the 1 of March 1642. imposed a Weekly tax upon the Kingdome of three and thirty thousand five hundred and eighteen pounds which in the year amounts to no lesse then one million seven hundred forty two thousand nine hundred and odde pounds to which they have since added by their Ordinance of the 18 of October 1644. for the relief of the Brittish Army in Ireland a Weekly tax upon the Kingdome of three thousand eight hundred pounds w ch in the year comes to one hundred ninety seven thousand six hundred odde pounds as much as ever Ship mony arose to over and above Free-quarter and all their other Orders for Sequestration and twentieth part and the cruell circumstances in the executing those and all other Ordinances against the irregular doing whereof they will allow no Appeale to the Judges though of their own making but reserve the intire Connusance and direction to themselves It is pity that parenthesis of the Spanish Fleet with a great Army therein brought into the Downes 1639. of which out of their goodnesse they say they will say nothing should receive no Answer That having been often unskilfully spoken of as it is now insinuated as a designe against England whereas they who know any thing know that Fleet was bound from Spaine to Flanders with mony to pay their Army and new leavied Souldiers to recruit it of which there was the greater number because it was purposed to carry many old Soldiers from thence to Catalonia but all those Souldiers in the Fleet were without Armes and without Officers and the Fleet so far from being provided for an invasion that in a little Fight with the Hollanders before the winde brought them into the Downes they had so near spent their Powder that they had a supply for their mony from London which the King could not in honour and justice deny the Hollanders themselves offering them what Powder they wanted for ready mony 6. Next follows the torture our bodies heretofore suffered by whipping cutting off Eares Pillories and the like with close imprisonment aggravated with the Dominion exercised over our Soules by Oathes Excommunications new Canons c. by which they would have it concluded that His Majesties Government was full of cruelty and oppression It is an undeniable evidence of the excellent Government Sobriety and obedience of that time that there were not above six infamous persons from the beginning of His Majesties Reigne to the first day of this unhappy Parliament who were publickly taken notice of to have merited those corporall punishments and shame and of the mercy of that time that those suffered no greater there being not one of them who was not guilty of sedition to that degree that by the Law they were liable to heavier judgments then they underwent And for the Oathes Excommunications Ceremonies and Canons they were no other and no otherwise exercised then was agreeable to the Laws and the Government established Of and for which the Sects Schismes and Heresies the dissolutenesse profanenesse and impiety which have followed that since blessed Order hath bin discountenanced and suppressed hath made a fuller and more sensible Vindication then any discourse can doe And here the people will again take notice that these Judgments and proceedings which alwaies passed in due form of Law in Courts of Justice and in which no innocent man can pretend to have suffered are objected against the King by those who without any colour of jurisdiction but what themselves have assumed and usurped in stead of inflicting any ordinary punishment take away the lives of their fellow
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
the like number should be likewise transported for France whereby the whole Army would have been disposed of against which the Irish Committee more pressed then against the other alleaging that there were not men in that Kingdome to spare whereupon the House of Commons by their private Agents prevailed with the French Ambassadour who more desired to hinder the supply for Spaine then to procure the like for his Master and it may be to see the King controlled by the Parliament then either of the other to release the King of His promise to him so that they would prevent the Spaniard's having any men And thereupon they re-inforced their importunity to the King for the present Disbanding and not sending any of that Army out of Ireland in such a manner as His Majesty was forced to yeild to it and thereby no question much was contributed to the opportunity and disposition of rebelling and to whose account that advantage is to be put all the world may judge yet it may be fit to observe that of that Irish Army which these men would have believed to be no lesse then a Stratagem against the Protestant Religion not one Officer above the quality of Captaine and not above two of that condition have served in that Rebellion in Ireland against the King In all Rebellions the chief Authors and Contrivers of it have made all fair pretences and entred into such specious Oaths as were most like to seduce and corrupt the people to joyne with them and to put the fairest glosse upon their foulest combination and conspiracy and therefore it is no wonder if the Rebels in Ireland framed an Oath by which they would be thought to oblige themselves to bear true Faith and Allegiance to King Charles and by all meanes to maintain His Royall Prerogative at a time when they intended nothing lesse And Owen Connelly who was the first happy discoverer of that Rebellion in the same Deposition in which he saies the Rebels would pay the King all His Rights saies likewise that they said they took that course to imitate Scotland who got a priviledge by it and Marke Paget in the same Examination in which he saies that the Rebels report that they have the Kings Warrant and great Seale for what they doe saies likewise that they threaten that as soon as they have rooted out the Brittish and English there to invade England and to assist the Papists in England and therefore it is a wonderfull thing that what they sweare or what they say should be imputed to Him against whom they have rebelled and forsworn themselves The Authours of this Declaration have besides their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy in the Protestation of the 5. of May sworn that they would maintaine and defend the Kings royall Person honour and estate and shortly after would perswade the people that they were by that very Protestation obliged to take up Armes against Him in their Declaration of the 19. of May they used these words The providing for the publique peace and prosperity of His Majesty and all His Realmes we protest in the presence of the all-seeing Deity to have been and still to be the only end of all our Counsells and endeavours wherein we have resolved to continue freed and enlarged from all private aymes personall respects or passions whatsoever and the very next day Voted that He intended to make War against His Parliament and that whosoever should serve or assist Him were Traytors by the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome and upon that conclusion of His intention actually leavied an Army and marched against him In their Petition of the 2. of June they tell him that they have nothing in their thoughts and desires more pretious and of higher esteem next to the honour and immediate service of God then the just and faithfull performance of their duty to His Majesty and together with that Petition present the 19. Propositions to Him by which they leave Him not so much power in His Kingdome as the meanest Member of either House reserves to himself Lastly to omit infinite other instances in their Instructions of the 18. of August to the Deputy Lieutenants of Cheshire they required them to declare unto all men that it had been and still should be the care and endeavour of both Houses of Parliament to provide for His Majesty That they doe not nor ever did know of any evill intended to His Majesties Person when the only businesse and end of those directions and instructions were to raise that whole County against Him So that this clause of the Rebels Oath in Ireland is no more to be objected against the King then those other clauses in their own Oaths and Declarations which they have not yet charged His Majesty withall Concerning the Proclamation against the Rebels in Ireland which they say they could not obtaine in divers Months and then that but 40 Copies were printed and expresse Order given that none should be published till further directions hear His Maj. own full Answer to that Charge in His Answer to the Declaration of the 19. of May in these words 'T is well known that we were when that Rebellion brake forth in Scotland That We immediatly from thence recommended the care of that businesse to both Houses of Parliament here after We had provided for all fitting supplies from Our Kingdome of Scotland that after Our returne hither We observed all those formes for that service which We were advised to by Our Councell of Ireland or both Houses of Parliament here and if no Proclamation issued out sooner it was because the Lords Justices of that Kingdome desired them no sooner and when they did the number they desired was but Twenty which they advised might be Signed by us which we for expedition of the service commanded to be printed a circumstance not required by them and thereupon signed more then they desired So that it is an impudent Assertion that they could not obtain a Proclamation in divers Months when they never so much as desired or moved it and it was no sooner moved to the King but He gave Order in it the same Houre But it will not be amisse since this particular hath bin with so much confidence and so often unreasonably objected against His Majesty to speak somewhat of the custome and order usually observed in sending Proclamations into that Kingdome and of the reason why so many and no more were at that time sent except upon any extraordinary reasons the King never signes more then the first draught of the Proclamation fairly ingrossed in parchment which being sent to the Lord Deputy or Lords Justices in Ireland is there printed and the printed Copies dispersed as they are in England His Majesties signe Manuall being not to any of those Copies The Lords Justices and Councell taking notice of the rumour industriously spread amongst the Rebels that they had the Kings authority for what they did
reasons might not as lawfully accuse those Members of high Treason as the Attourny Generall in the first year of this King's Reigne did accuse the Earle of Bristoll upon a Charge more generall who was thereupon committed to the Tower And why His Majesty might not as well have expected that upon his Articles not so generall as a meer verball accusation of high Treason either House would have Committed their severall Members as they had done so many this Parliament and about that time twelve Bishops together upon a confessed ground which every man there who knew what Treason was knew that fact to be none meerly because they were accused His Majesty upon occasion of mentioning this passage saies He could neither then nor yet can understand This being the case there remains nothing but His Majesties own going to the House of Commons for which hear His own words in His Answer to the Declaration of the 19. of May where that matter was loudly laid to His charge When We resolved that it was fit for Our own safety and honour and the peace of the Kingdome to proceed against those persons though We well know there was no degree of priviledge in that case yet to shew Our desire of correspondence with the two Houses of Parliament We chose rather then to apprehend those persons by the ordinary Ministers of Justice which according to the opinion and practice of former times We might have done to command Our Attourny generall to acquaint Our House of Peers with Our intention and the generall matters of Our Charge which was yet more particular then a meer Accusation and to proceed accordingly and at the same time sent a sworn Servant a Sergeant at Armes to Our House of Commons to acquaint them that We did accuse and intended to prosecute the five Members of that House for high Treason and did require that their persons might be secured in custody This We did not only to shew that We intended not to violate or invade their Priviledges but use more ceremony towards them then We conceived in justice might be required of Us and expected at least such an Answer as might informe Us if We were out of the way But We received none at all only in the instant without offring any thing of their Priviledges to Our consideration an Order was made and the same night published in print That if any person whatsoever should offer to arrest the person of any Member of that House without first acquainting that House therewith and receiving further order of that House That it should be lawfull for such Members or any person to assist them and to stand upon his or their guard of defence and to make resistance according to the Protestation taken to defend the Priviledges of Parliament and this was the first time we heard the Protestation might be wrested to such a sence or that in any case though of the most undoubted and unquestionable priviledge it might be lawfull for any person to resist and to use violence against a publique Minister of Justice armed with lawfull authority though we well know that even such a Minister might be punished for executing such authority Upon viewing this Order we must confesse We were somewhat amazed having neither seen nor heard of the like before though We had known Members of either House Committed without so much formality as We had used and upon crimes of a far inferiour nature to those We had suggested And having no course proposed to Us for Our proceeding We were upon the matter onely told that against those persons We were not to proceed at all that they were above Our reach of the Law It was not easie for Us to resolve what to doe if We imployed Our Ministers of Justice in the usuall way for their apprehension who without doubt would not have refused to have executed Our lawfull Commands We saw what resistance and opposition was like to be made which very probable might cost some bloud if We sate still and desisted upon this terrour We should at the best have confessed Our owne want of Power and the weakness of the Law in this strait We put on a sudden resolution to try whether Our own presence and clear discovery of Our intentions which haply might not have been so well understood could remove those doubts and prevent those inconveniences which seemed to be threatned And thereupon We resolved to go in Our Person to Our House of Commons which we discovered not till the minute of our going when We sent out That Our Servants and such Gentlemen as were then in Our Court should attend Us to Westminster but giving them expresse command that no accidents or provocation should draw them to any such Action as might imply a purpose of force in Us and Our self requiring those of Our traine not to come within the Dore went into the House of Commons the bare doing of which We did not conceive would have been thought more a breach of priviledge then if We had then gone to the House of Peers and sent for them to come to Us which is the usuall custome This was His Majesties Answer formerly to this Charge which is therefore here inserted at large as being so full that nothing need be added and it appeared by the Deposition of Barnard Ashly and others taken by them that the King gave His Traine expresse and positive charge that they should give no offence or ill word to any body what provocation soever they met with which Depositions were carefully suppressed and concealed whilst they made use of the testimony of indigent and infamous Fellows to reproach His Majesty from some light and unadvised discourse which was pretended to be uttered by some young Gentlemen who had put themselves into the Traine To conclude it is to be observed that though it were so high a transgression in the King against whom Treason can onely be committed to prefer such a Charge against five Members of the House of Commons who were called together by His Writ and accountable to Him for any breach of Duty that it did absolve them from their Allegiance yet the preferring the like Charge since against Eleven Members by the Army raised and maintained by them and to which they were not accomptable for any thing they did hath been held no crime and it may be no ill exercise for those Gentlemen who with such high contempt of that Soveraigne power to which they owed their allegiance took delight to despise and resist His Majesties just Authority now in their affliction restraint and banishment to consider the hand of God upon them which hath compelled them to submit to the mercenary power raised by themselves to suppresse their King That though they broke through the Kings Article for endeavouring to subvert the fundamentall Laws and Government of this Kingdome and to deprive the King of His legall power and to place on Subjects an Arbitrary and tyrannicall
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
guilty of Treason by that act of his within the expresse words of the 2 Chapter of the 25 yeare of King Edw. 3. but by declaring that by leavying war against our Lord the King in his Realme which in that Statute is declared to be high Treason is meant leavying war against the Parliament and yet Mr. St. Iohn observed in his Argument against the Earle of Strafford printed by Order that the word KING in that Statute must be understood of the King 's naturall person for that person can onely die have a Wife have a Son and be imprisoned The Lord chief Justice Coke in his Commentary upon that Statute saith If any leavy War to expulse Strangers to deliver men out of Prisons to remove Counsellours or against any Statute or to any other end pretending Reformation of their own head without any warrant this is leavying war against the King because they take upon them Royall authority which is against the King and that there may be no scruple by that expression without warrant the same Author saies in the same place and but few lines preceding that no Subject can leavy War within the Realm without authority from the King for to him it only belongeth Preparation by some overt act to depose the King or to take the King by force and strong hand and to imprison Him untill he hath yeilded to certain demands this is a sufficient overt act to prove the compassing and imagination of the death of the King for this is upon the matter to make the King a Subject and to disspoyle Him of His Kingly Office of Royall government as is concluded by the same reverend Authour and likewise that to rise to alter Religion established within the Kingdome or Lawes is Treason These Declarers cannot name one person proclaimed a Rebell or Traytor by the King who was not confessedly guilty of at least one of these particulars and being so the King did no more then by the Law He ought to doe and Mr. St. Johns acknowledged in his Argument against the Earle of Strafford that he that leavies War against the Person of the King doth necessarily compasse His death and likewise that it is a War against the King when intended for the alteration of the Lawes or Government in any part of them or to destroy any of the great Officers of the Kingdome For the setting up the Standard it was not till those persons who bearing an inward hatred and malice against his Majesties Person and Government had raised an Army and were then trayterously and rebelliously marching in battle-array against his Majesty their Liege Lord and Soveraigne as appears by his Majesties Proclamation of the 12 of August 1642. in which He declared His purpose to erect His royall Standard and after they had with an Army besieged his Majesties antient standing Garrison of Portsmouth and required the same in which the King's Governour was to be delivered to the Parliament and after they had sent an Army of Horse Foot and Cannon under the command of the Earle of Bedford into the West to apprehend the Marquesse of Hertford who was there in a peaceable manner without any Force till he was compelled to raise the same for his defence and to preserve the peace of those Counties invaded by an Army and then when his Majesty was compelled for those reasons to erect his Standard with what tendernesse He did it towards the two Houses of Parliament cannot better appear then by His owne words in his Declaration published the same day on which that Proclamation issued out which are these What Our opinion and resolution is concerning Parliaments We have fully expressed in our Declarations We have said and will still say they are so essentiall a part of the constitution of this Kingdome that We can attaine to no happinesse without them nor will We ever make the least attempt in Our thought against them We well know that Our self and Our two Houses make up the Parliament and that We are like Hipocrates Twins We must laugh and cry live and die together that no man can be a friend to the one and an enemy to the other the injustice injury and violence offered to Parliaments is that which We principally complaine of and We again assure all Our good Subjects in the presence of Almighty God that all the Acts passed by Us this Parliament shall be equally observed by Us as We desire those to be which do most concern Our Rights Our quarrell is not against the Parliament but against particular men who first made the wounds and will not suffer them to be healed but make them deeper and wider by contriving fostering and fomenting mistakes and jealousies betwixt body and head Us and the two Houses whom We name and are ready to prove them guilty of High Treason c. And then his Majesty names the persons This was the King's carriage towards and mention of the Parliament very different from theirs who are now possessed of the Soveraigne power the Army who in their Remonstrance of the 23 of June last use these words We are in this case forced to our great grief of heart thus plainly to assert the present evill and mischief together with the future worse consequences of the things lately done even in the Parliament it self which are too evident and visible to all and so in their proper colours to lay the same at the Parliament Dores untill the Parliament shall be pleased either of themselves to take notice and rid the House of those who have any way mis-informed deluded surprized or otherwise abused the Parliament to the passing such foule things there or shall open to us and others some way how we may c. which would not have been mentioned here if they had been onely the extravagant act and words of the Army but they are since justified and made the words of the two Houses by their declaring in their late Declaration of the 4 of March in Answer to the Papers of the Scots Commissioners That if there be any unsound principles in relation to Religion or the State in some of the Army as in such a body there usually are some extravagant humours they are very injuriously charged upon the whole Army whereof the governing part hath been very carefull to suppresse and keep down all such peccant humours and have hitherto alwaies approved themselves very constant and faithfull to the true interest of both Kingdomes and the cause wherein they have engaged and the persons that have engaged therein so that this Remonstrance being the Act of the Generall Lieutenant-Generall and the whole Councell of War which is sure the governing part it is by this Declaration fully vindicated to be the Sense of the two Houses 22. The setting up a mock Parliament at Oxford to oppose and protest against the Parliament of England which his Majesty and both Houses had continued by Act of Parliament is in the
Propositions passed by the Lords for Peace which if allowed would be destructive to Religion Laws and Liberties and therefore desired an Ordinance according to the tenour of an Act of their Common Councell the night before Thanks were given by the Commons whilst the Lords complained of the Tumults and desired a concurrence to suppresse them and to prevent the like many of the people telling the Members of both Houses that if they had not a good Answer they would be there the next day with double the number by these threats and this violence the Propositions formerly received were rejected and all thoughts of Peace laid aside and then surely the freedome of Parliament was as much taken away as on the 26 of Iuly last In a word when the Members of both Houses were compelled to take that Protestation to live and die with the Earle of Essex and some imprisoned and expelled for refusing to take it when they were forced to take that sacred Vow and Covenant of the 6 of Iune 1643. by which they swore that they would to their power assist the Forces raised and continued by both Houses of Parliament against the Forces raised by the KING when they were compelled to take the last solemn League and Covenant that Oath Corban by which they conceive themselves absolved from all obligations divine and humane as their Predecessours the Jewes thought they were discharged by that though they had bound themselves not to help or relieve their Parents and lastly when the Army marched to London in the beginning of August last in favour of the Speakers and those Members who had resorted to them and brought them back to the Houses and drove away some and caused others of the Members of a contrary Faction to be imprisoned and expelled the Houses the liberty and freedome of Parliament was no lesse violated and invaded then it was on the 26 of Iuly last Upon these reasons and for want of the freedome so many severall waies taken from them those Lords and Commons who attended his Majesty at Oxford had withdrawne themselves from Westminster and might then as truly and more regularly have said what the Army since with approbation and thanks have said on the 22 of Iune last That the freedome of this Parliament is no better then that those Members who shall according to their consciences endeavour to prevent a War and act contrary to their waies who for their owne preservation intend it they must do it with the hazard of their lives which being a good reason for those lately to go to St. Albons or Hounslow heath cannot be thought lesse justifiable for the other to go to Oxford Since this objection of calling the Members of Parliament to Oxford is not of waight enough to give any advantage against his Majesty to His Enemies they endeavour to make their entertainment and usage there very reproachfull with His friends and would perswade them to believe themselves derided in that expression of the Kings in a Letter to the Queen where He calls them a Mungrell Parliament by which they infer what reward His own Party must expect when they have done their utmost to shipwrack their faith and conscience to his will and tyranny Indeed they who shipwrack their faith and conscience have no reason to expect reward from the King but those Lords and Gentlemen who attended his Majesty in that convention well know that never King received advice from His Parliament with more grace and candor then his Majesty did from them and their consciences are too good to think themselves concerned in that expression if his Majesty had not Himself taken the pains to declare to what party it related besides it is well known that some who appeared there with great professions of loyalty were but Spies and shortly after betrayed his Majesties service as Sir John Price and others in Wales and some since have alleaged in the House of Commons or before the Committee for their defence to the Charge of being at Oxford at that Assembly That they did the Parliament more service there then they could have done at Westminster So that the KING had great reason to think He had many Mungrels there 23. The last Charge is the making a Pacification in Ireland and since that a Peace and granting a Commission to bring over ten thousand Irish to subdue the Parliament and the rebellious City of London and the conditions of that peace That loud clamour against the Cessation in Ireland was so fully clearly answered by the King's Cōmissioners at the Treaty at Uxbridge that there can no scruple remain with any who have taken the pains to read the transactions in that Treaty it plainly appears that the King could not be induced to consent to that Cessation till it was evident that His Protestant Subjects in that Kingdome could not be any other way preserved The Lords Justices and Councell of that Kingdome signified to the Speaker of the House of Commons by their Letter of the 4 of April which was above six Months before the Cessation That his Majesties Army and good Subjects there were in danger to be devoured for want of needfull supplies out of England and that His Majesties Forces were of necessity sent abroad to try what might be done for sustaining them in the Country to keep them alive till supplies should get to them but that designe failing them those their hopes were converted into astonishment to behold the miseries of the Officers and Souldiers for want of all things and all those wants made insupportable in the want of food and divers Commanders and Officers declaring they had little hope to be supplied by the Parliament pressed with so great importunity to be permitted to depart the Kingdome as that it would be extreame difficult to keep them there and in another part of that Letter they expressed that they were expelling thence all Strangers and must instantly send away for England thousands of poor dispoyled English whose very eating was then insupportable to that place that their confusions would not admit the writing of many more Letters if any for they had written divers others expressing their great necessities And to the end His Majesty and the English Nation might not irrecoverably and unavoidably suffer they did desire that then though it were almost at the point to be too late Supplies of Victuall and Ammunition in present might be hastened thither to keep life untill the rest might follow there being no Victuall in the Store nor a hundred Barrels of Powder a small proportion to defend a Kingdome left in the Store when the out-Garrisons were supplied and that remainder according to the usuall necessary expence besides extraordinary accidents would not last above a Month and in that Letter they sent a Paper signed by sundry Officers of the Army delivered to them as they were ready to signe that dispatch and by them apprehended to threaten imminent danger which mentioned that
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
require to raise what Monies they please and in what way they please All the people of England will say that which the Army said honestly in their Representation agreed upon at Newmarket on the 4 5 of June against the Ordinance of Indempnity We shall be sorry that our relief should be the occasion of setting up more Arbitrary Courts then there are already with so large a power of imprisoning any Free-men of England as this Bill gives let the persons intrusted appear never so just and faithfull Indeed that is asked of his Majesty by this Bill which the King can neither give nor they receive the King cannot give away His Dominion nor make His Subjects subject to any other Prince or power then to that under which they were born no man believes that the King can transfer His Soveraigne power to the French King or the King of Spaine or to the States of the united Provinces nor by the same reason can He transfer it to the States at Westminster And the learned and wise Grotius who will by no means endure that Subjects should take Armes against their Princes upon any specious pretences whatsoever concludes Si rex tradere regnum aut subjicere moliatur quin ei resisti in hoc possit non dubito aliud enim est imperium aliud habendi modus qui ne mutetur obstare potest populus to the which he applies that of Seneca Etsi parendum in omnibus patri in eo non parendum quò efficitur ne pater sit And it may be this may be the only case in which Subjects may take up defensive Armes that they may continue Subjects for without doubt no King hath power not to be a King because by devesting himselfe he gives away the right which belongs to others their title to and interest in his protection The two Houses themselves seemed to be of opinion when in their Declaration of the 27 of May 1642. they said the King by his Soveraignty is not enabled to destroy His people but to protect and defend them and the high Court of Parliament and all other His Majesties Officers and Ministers ought to be subservient to that power and authority which Law hath placed in His Majesty to that purpose though He Himself in His own Person should neglect the same So that by their own judgment and confession it is not in the King's power to part with that which they ask of Him and it is very probable if they could have prevailed with Him to do it they would before now have added it to His charge as the greatest breach of trust that ever King was guilty of They cannot receive what they ask if the King would give it in the Journall of the House of Commons they will find a Protestation entred by themselves in the third year of this King when the Petition of Right was depending in the debating whereof some expressions had been used which were capable of an ill interpretation That they neither meant nor had power to hurt the King's Prerogative And the Lord chief Justice Coke in the fourth part of his Institutes published by their Order since the beginning of this Parliament saies That it was declared in the 42 year of King Edw. 3. by the Lords and Commons in full Parliament that they could not assent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the disherison of the King and his Crowne whereunto they were sworne And Judge Hutton in his Argument against Ship-mony printed likewise by their Order since this Parliament agrees expresly That the power of making War Leagues the power of the Coyne and the Value of the Coynes usurped likewise by these Declarers and many other Monarchicall powers and prerogatives which to be taken away were against naturall reason and are incidents so inseparable that they cannot be taken away by Parliament To which may be added the authority of a more modern Author who uses to be of the most powerfull opinion Mr. Martin who saies that the Parliament it self hath not in his humble opinion authority enough to erect another authority equall to it self And these ambitious men who would impiously grasp the Soveraign power into their hands may remember the fate which attended that Ordinance in the time of King Hen. 3. to which that King metu incarcerationis perpetuae compulsus est consentire and by which the care and government of the Kingdom was put into the hands of four and twenty how unspeakable miseries befell the Kingdom thereby and that in a short time there grew so great faction and animosity amongst themselves that the major part desired the Ordinance might be repealed and the King restored to His just power that they who refused came to miserable ends and their Families were destroyed with them and the Kingdome knew no peace happinesse or quiet till all submission and acknowledgment and reparation was made to the King and that they got most reputation who were most forward to return to their duty So that it is believed if the King would transfer these powers though many persons of honour and fortune have been unhappily seduced into this combination that in truth no one of those would submit to bear a part of that insupportable burthen and that none would venture to act a part in this administration but such whose names were scarce heard of or persons known before these distractions If the King should consent to another of their four Bils He should subvert the whole foundations of government and leave Himself Posterity and the Kingdome without security when the fire that now burns is extinguished by making Rebellion the legitimate Child of the Law for if what these men have done be lawfull and just and the grounds upon which they have done it be justifiable the like may be done again and besides this He must acknowledge and declare all those who have served Him faithfully and out of the most abstracted considerations of Conscience and Honour to be wicked and guilty men and so render those glorious persons who have payed the full debt they owed to His Majesty and their Country by loosing their lives in His righteous cause and whose memories must be kept fresh and pretious to succeeding ages infamous after their deaths by declaring that they did ill for the doing whereof and the irreparable prejudice that would accrue thereby to truth innocence honour and justice all the Empires of the world would be a cheap and vile recompence Nor can this impossible demand be made reasonable by saying It would be a base and dishonourable thing for the Houses of Parliament being in that condition they are to have treated under the Gallows to have treated as Traytors their cause being not justified nor the Declarations against them as Rebels recalled It would be a much more base and dishonourable thing to renounce the Old and New Testament and declare that they are not the word of God