heavy Taxes they please and renew increase multiply and perpetuate them on us as long as they please to support their own encroached more then Regall Parliamentall Super-transcendent Arbitrary power over us and all that is ours or the Kingdoms at our private and the publique charge against our wills judgments consciences to our absolute enslaving and our three Kingdoms ruine by engaging them one against another in new Civill wars and exposing us for a prey to our Forraign Enemies All which with other particulars lately acted and avowed by the Imposers of this Tax by colour of that pretended Parliamentary Authority by which they have imposed it I must necessarily admit acknowledge to be just and legall by my voluntary payment of it of purpose to maintaine an Army to justify and make good all this by the meer power of the Sword which they can no wayes justify and defend by the Laws of God or the Realm before any Tribunall of God or Men when legally arraigned as they shall one day be Neither of which I can or dare acknowledge without incurring the guilt of most detestable Perjury and Highest Treason against King Kingdom Parliament Laws and Liberties of the People and therefore cannot yeeld to this Assessement Thirdly The principall ends and uses proposed in the pretended Act and Warrants thereupon for payment of this Tax are strong Obligations to me in point of Conscience Law Prudence to withstand it which I shall particularly discusse The First is the maintenance and continuance of the present Army and forces in England under the Lord Fairfax To which I say First as I shall with all readinesse gratitude and due respect acknowledg their former Gallantry good and faithfull Services to the Parliament and Kingdom whiles they continued dutiful and constant to their first Engagements and the ends for which they were raised by both Houses as far forth as any man so in regard of their monstrous defections and dangerous Apostacy from their Primitive obedience faithfulnesse and engagements in disobeying the Commands and levying open warre against both Houses of Parliament keeping an horrid force upon them at their very doors seising imprisoning secluding abusing and forcing away their Members printing and publishing many high and treasonable Declarations against the Institution Priviledges Members and Proceedings of the late and being of all future Parliaments imprisoning abusing arraigning condemning and executing our late King against the Votes faith and engagements of both Houses and disinheriting his Posterity usurping the Regal Parliamental Magistratical and Ecclesiastical power of the Kingdom to their Generall Councel of Officers of the Army as the supreme swaying Authority of the Kingdom and attempting to alter and subvert the ancient Government Parliaments Laws and Customs of our Realm And upon serious consideration of the ordinary unsufferable Assertions of their Officers and Souldiers uttered in most places where they quarter and to my self in particular sundry times That the whole Kingdom with all our Lands Houses goods and whatsoever we have is theirs and that by right of conquest they having twice conquered the Kingdom That we are but their conquered slaves and Vassals and they the Lords and Heads of the Kingdome That our very lives are at their mercy and courtesie That when they have gotten all we have from us by Taxes and Free-quarter and we have nothing left to pay them then themselves will selfe upon our Lands as their own and turn us and our Families out of doors That there is now no Law in England nor never was if we beleeve their lying Oracle Peters but the sword with many such like vapouring Speeches and discourses of which there are thousands of witnesses I can neither in Conscience Law nor Prudence assent much lesse contribute in the least degree for their present maintenance or future continuance thus to insult inslave and tyrannize over King Kingdom Parliament people at their pleasure like their conquered vassals And for me in particular to contribute to the maintenance of those who against the Law of the Land the priviledges of Parliament and liberty of the Subject pulled me forcibly from the Commons House and kept me prisoner about two months space under their Martiall to my great expence and prejudice without any particular cause pretended or assigned only for discharging my duty to the Kingdom and those for whom I served in the House without giving me the least reparation for this unparallell'd injustice or acknowledging their offence and yet detain some of my then fellow-Members under custody by the meer power of the Sword without bringing them to tryall would be not onely absurd unreasonable and a tacite justification of this their horrid violence and breach of priviledge but monstrous unnaturall perfidious against my Oath and Covenant 2. No Tax ought to be imposed on the Kingdom in Parliament it self but in case of necessity for its common Good as is cleer by the Stat. of 25. E. 1. c 6. and Cooks 2 Instit. p. 528. Now it is evident to me that there is no necessity of keeping up this Army for the Kingdoms common Good but rather a necessity of disbanding it or the greatest part of it for these reasons 1. Because the Kingdom is generally exhausted with the late 7 years Wars Plunders and heavie Taxes there being more moneys levied on it by both sides during these eight last years then in all the Kings Reigns since the Conquest as will appear upon a just computation all Counties being thereby utterly unable to pay it 2. In regard of the great decay of Trade the extraordinary dearth of cattel corn and provisions of all sorts the charge of relieving a multitude of poor people who starve with famine in many places the richer sort eaten out by Taxes and Free-quarter being utterly unable to relieve them To which I might add the multitude of maimed Souldiers with the widows and children of those who have lost their lives in the Wars which is very costly 3. This heavie Contribution to support the Army destroys all Trade by fore-stalling and engrossing most of the moneys of the Kingdom the sinews and life of Trade wasting the provisions of the Kingdom and enhansing their prices keeping many thousands of able men and horses idle only to consume other labouring mens provisions estates and the publick Treasure of the Kingdom when as their imployment in their trades and callings might much advance trading and enrich the Kingdom 4. There is now no visible Enemy in the field or Garisons and the sitting Members boast there is no fear from any abroad their Navie being so Victorious And why such a vast Army should be still continued in the Kingdom to increase its debts and payments when charged with so many great Arrears and debts already eat up the Country with Taxes and Free-quarter only to play drink whore steal rob murther quarrel fight with impeach and shoot one another to death as Traytors Rebels and Enemies to the Kingdom and Peoples Liberties
forbear till I saw what their Officers would do who in stead of punishing any of them permitted them to play the like Rex almost in other places where they quartered since marching but three or four miles a day and extorting what moneys they could from the Country by their violence and disorders Now for me or any other to give moneys to maintain such deboist Bedlams and Beasts as these who boasted of their villanies and that they had done me at least twenty pounds spoil in Beer and Provisions drinking out five barrels of good strong Beer and wasting as much meat as would have served an hundred civill persons to be Masters of our Houses Goods Servants Lives and all we have to ride over our heads like our Lords and Conquerours and take Free quarter on us amounting to at least a full yeares contribution without any allowance for it and that since the last Orders against Free-quarter and warrants for paying in this Tax to prevent it for the future issued is so far against my reason Judgement and conscience that I would rather give all away to suppress discard them or cast it into the fire then maintain such graceless wretches with it to dishonour God enslave consume ruine the Country and Kingdome who every where complain of the like insolences and of taking free quarter since the 9 of June as above two hundred of Colonel Coxe his men did in Bath the last Lords day who drew up in a body about the Majors House and threatned to seise and carry him away prisoner for denying to give them free quarter contrary to the New Act for abolishing it Lastly this pretended Act implies that those who refuse to pay this contribution without distress or imprisonment shall be stil oppressed with freequarter And what an height of oppression and injustice this will prove not only to distrain imprison those who cannot in conscience Law or prudence submit to this illegall Tax but likewise to undoe them by exposing them to free-quarter which themselves condemne as the heighst pest and oppression let all sober men consider and what reason I and others have to oppose such a dangerous destructive president in its first appearing to the world Ninethly The principal end of imposing this Tax to maintain the Army and forces now raised is not the defence and fafety of our ancient and first Christian Kingdom of England its Parliaments Laws Liberties and Religion as at first but to disinherit the King of the Crown of England Scotland and Ireland to which he hath an undoubted right by common and Statute Law as the Parliament of 1 Jacobi ch. 1. resolves and to levy war against him to deprive him of it To subvert the ancient Monarchical Government of this Realm under which our Ancesters have always lived and flourished to set up a New republick the oppressions and greivances whereof we have already felt by increasing our Taxes setting up arbitrary Courts and Proceedings to the taking away of the lives of the late King Peers and other Subjects against the Fundamental Laws of the Land creating new monstrous Treasons never heard off in the world before and the like but cannot yet enjoy or discern the least ease or advantage by it To overthrow the ancient constitution of the Parliaments of England consisting of King Lords and Commons and the Rights and Priviledges thereof To alter the fundamental Laws Seales Courts of Justice of the Realm and introduce an arbitrary Government at least if not Tyrannical contrary to our Lawes Oathes Covenant Protestation a publick Remonstrances and Engagements to the Kingdom and forraign States not to change the Government or attempt any of the premises All which being no less then High Treason by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm as Sir Edward Cook in his 4 Institutes ch. 1. and Mr. St. John in his Argument at Law upon passing the bill of Attainder of the Earl of Strafford both printed by the Commons special order have proved at large by many presidents Reasons Records and so adjudged by the last Parliament in the cases of Strafford and Canterbury who were condemned and executed as Traytors by judgement of Parliament and some of these now sitting but for some of those Treasons upon obscurer Evidences of guilt then are now visible in others I cannot without incurring the Crime and Guilt of these general High Treasons and the eternal if not temporal punishments incident thereunto if I should voluntarily contribute so much as one peny or farthing towards such Treasonable and disloyal ends as these against my Conscience Law Loyalty duty and all my Oathes and obligations to the contrary Tenthly The payment of this Tax for the premised purposes will in my poor judgment and conscience be offensive to God and all good men scandalous to the Protestant Religion dishonourable to our English Nation and disadvantagious and destructive to our whole Kingdom hindering the speedy settlement of our Peace the re-establishment of our Laws and Government establishing of our Taxes disbanding of our Forces revivall of our decayed Trade by the renewing and perpetuating our bloudy uncivill Warrs engaging Scotland Ireland and all forreign Princes and Kingdoms in a just War against us to avenge the death of our late beheaded King the dis-inheriting of his posterity and restore his lawfull Heirs and Successors to their just undoubted Rights from which they are now forcibly secluded who will undoubtedly molest us with continuall Warrs what-ever some may fondly conceit to the contrary till they be setled in the Throne in peace upon just and honorable terms and invested in their just possessions And therefore I can neither in conscience piety nor prudence ensnare my self in the guilt of all these dangerous consequences by any submission to this illegall Tax Upon all these weighty Reasons and serious grounds of Conscience Law Prudence which I humbly submit to the Consciences and Judgments of all conscientious and Judicious persons whom they do or shall concern I am resolved by the assistance and strength of that Omnipotent God who hath miraculously supported me under and carried me through all my former sufferings for the Peoples publick Liberties with exceeding joy comfort and the ruine of my greatest enemies and Opposers to oppugne this unlawfull Contrbution and the payment of it to the uttermost in all just and lawfull wayes I may And if any will forcibly levie it by distresse or otherwise without Law or Right as Theeves and Robbers take mens goods and Purses let them doe it at their own utmost perill And I trust God and men will in due season doe me justice and award me recompence for all the injuries in this kinde and any sufferings for my Countries Liberties How-ever fall back fall edge I would ten thousand times rather lose life and all I have to keep a good conscience and preserve my native Liberty then part with one farthing or gain the whole world with the losse of either of them and
Claverton Combe Hampton Toustock Walcot and Wedcombe small parishes in our Hundred and Liberty as they will prove upon Oath and given it me under their hands to 94 li. 4 s. 3 d. charge beside what quarters in other parishes of the Hundred Sir Hardresse Wallers Souldiers upon pretext of collecting arrears of Contribution not due from the hundred put it to at least 30 l. charge more for free-quarter they being very rude and disorderly and no sooner were we quit of them but on the 22 and 23 of May last Col. Hunks his Foot under the conduct of Captain Flower and Captain Eliot pretending for Ireland but professing they never intended to go thither marching from Minehead and Dunster the next Westerne Ports to Ireland further from it to oppresse the Country put Bathwick Langridge Witty Batheaston Eutherin and Ford to 28 l. 7 s. and Swainswicke where I live to about 20 l. expences for three dayes Freequarter by colour of the Generals Order dated the first of May being the rudest and deboistest in all kinds that ever quartered since the Warrs and far worse then the worst of Goring's men whereof some of them were the dreggs and their Captain Flower a Cavalier heretofore in arms as is reported against the Parliament Their carriage in all places was very rude to extort money from the people drawing out their swords ransacking their houses beating and threatning to kill them if they would not give them two shillings six pence three shillings three shillings six pence or at least two shillings a day for their quarters which when extorted from some they took free-quarter upon others taking two three and some four quarters a man At my house they were most exorbitant having as their Quarter-Master told me who affirmed to me they had twice conquered the Kingdom and all was theirs directions from some great ones above from some others in the Country intimating some of the Committee and their own Officers who absented themselves purposely that the Souldiers might have none to controll them to abuse me In pursuance whereof some thirty of them coming to my house shouting and hollowing in a rude manner on May 22 when their Billet was but for twenty not shewing any Authority but only a Ticket Mr. Prynne 20 climbed over my walls forced my doors beat my servants and workmen without any provocation drew their swords upon me who demanded whose Souldiers they were by what authority they demanded free-quarter my house being neither Inne nor Alehouse and Free quarter against Law and Orders of Parliament and the Generals using many high provoking Speeches brake some of my windows forced my strong-beer cellar door and took the key from my servant ransacked some of my chambers under pretext to search for Arms taking away my servants clothes shirts stockings bands cuffs handkerchiefs and picking the money out of one of their pockets hollowed roared stamped beat the Tables with their Swords and Muskets like so many Bedlams swearing cursing and blaspheming at every word brake the Tankards Bottles Cups Dishes wherein they fetched strong beer against the ground abused my maid-servants throwing Beef other good provisions at their heads and casting it to the dogs as no fit meat for Souldiers and the Heads and Conquerors of the Kingdom as they called themselves searched the out-houses for Turkies which they took from their eggs and young ones Veal and Mutton being not good enough for them They continued drinking and roaring before at and after Supper till most of them were mad-drunk and some of them dead-drunk under the Table Then they must have 14 beds provided for them for they would lie but two in a bed and all their linnen washed My Sister answering them that there were not so many beds in the house and that they must be content as other Souldiers had been with such beds as could be spared they thereupon threatned to force open her chamber door and to pull her and her children out of their beds unlesse she would give them three shillings a peece for their beds and next dayes quarters and at last forced her for fear of their violence being all drunk to give them eighteen pence a piece assoon as they were forth of doors and six pence a peece the next day if they marched not whereupon they promised to trouble the House no more Upon this agreement all but eight who were gone to bed departed that night and the rest the next morning But I going to the Lecture at Bath some thirty of them in my absence came about ten of the clock notwithstanding the moneys received of my Sister for their Quarters re-entered the house and would have Quarters again unlesse she would give them three shillings a peece which she refusing they thereupon abused and beat the servants and workmen forced them to drink with them all that day and night swearing cursing roaring like so many Furies and Divels brake open my Parlour Milk-house and Garden-doors abused my Pictures and brake an hole in one of them hacked my Table-boards with their swords from one end to the other threw the chairs stools meat drink about the house assaulted my Sister and her little children and Maid-servants with their naked swords threatning to kill them and kick them to gelly shot at them with their Muskets forced them out of the House to save their lives which I hearing of repaired to my house and finding them all so Bedlam mad and that they would not hearken to any reason nor be quieted I thereupon rode to seek their Captain and Officers at Bath who purposely absented themselves and not finding them till the next morning I acquainted the Captain then as I had done the first night by Letter with all these unsufferable outrages of his Souldiers contrary to the Generals Orders to carry themselves civilly in their quarters and abuse none in word or deed which would render him and them odious not onely to the Country and Kingdom but all Officers and Souldiers who had any civility in them and be a disparagement to the Generall by whose Proclamation he ought to be present with his Company to keep them in good order under pain of cashiering And therefore I expected and required Justice and Reparations at his hands the rather because I was informed by some of his own Souldiers and others that they had not been so barbarously rude but by his incouragement which if he refused I should complain of him to his Superiours and right my self the best way I might After some expostulations he promised to make them examples and cashier them and remove them forthwith from my house But the onely right I had was that more of his company repaired thither making all the spoil they could and taking away some brasse and Pewter continuing there till neer four of the clock and then marched away onely out of fear I would raise the Country upon them many of whom profered me their assistance but I desired them to
as now the Levellers and Cromwellists do for want of other imployments and this for the publick good transcends my understanding 5. When the King had two great Armies in the Field and many Garisons in the Kingdom this whole Army by its primitive Establishment consisted but of twenty two thousand Horse Dragoons and Foot and had an Establishment only of about forty five thousand pounds a month for their pay which both Houses then thought sufficient as is evident by their o Ordinances of Febr. 15. 1644. and April 4. 1646. And when the Army was much increased without their Order sixty thousand pounds a month was thought abundantly sufficient by the Officers and Army themselves to disband and reduce all super-numeraries maintain the Established Army and Garisons and ease the Country of all Free-quarter which Tax hath been constantly paid in all Counties Why then this Tax to the Army should now be raised above the first Establishment when reduced to twenty thousand whereof sundry Regiments are designed for Ireland for which there is thirty thousand pounds a month now exacted besides the sixty for the Army and this for the common good of the Realm is a riddle unto me or rather a Mystery of iniquity for some mens private lucre rather then the publick weal 6. The Militia of every County for which there was so great contest in Parliament with the late King and these persons of livelihood and estates in every Shire or Corporation who have been cordiall to the Parliament and Kingdom heretofore put into a posture of defence under Gentlemen of quality and known integrity would be a far better Guard to secure the Kingdom against forraign Invasions or domestick Insurrections then a mercinary Army of persons and souldiers of no fortunes and that with more generall content and the tenth part of that charge the Kingdom is now at to maintain this Army and prevent all danger of the undoing pest of Free-quarter Therefore there is no necessity to keep up this Army or impose any new Tax for their maintenance or defraying their pretended arrears which I dare averr the Free-quarter they have taken in kinde and levied in money if brought to a just account as it ought will double if not treble most of their Arrears and make them much indebted to the Country And no reason they should have full pay and Free-quarter too and the Country bear the burthen of both without full allowance of all the quarters levied or taken on them against Law out of their pretended arrears And if any of the sitting Tax-makers here object That they dare not trust the Militia of the Cities and Counties of the Realm with their own or the Kingdoms defence Therefore there is a necessity for them to keep the Army to prevent all dangers from abroad and Insurrections at home I answer 1. That upon these pretences these new Lords may intail and enforce an Army and Taxes to support them on the Kingdom till Dooms-day 2. If they be reall Members who make this objection elected by the Counties Cities and Burroughs for which they serve and deriving their Parliamental Authority onely from the people the only new fountain of all Power and Authority as themselves now dogmatize then they are but the Servants and Trustees who are to allow them wages and give them Commission for what they act And if they dare not now trust the people and those persons of quality fidelity and estate who both elected intrusted and impowred them and are the primitive and supreme Power it is high time for their Electors and Masters the people to revoke their authority and trusts and no longer to trust those with their purses liberties safety who dare not now to confide in them and would rather commit the safeguard of the Kingdom to mercinary indigent soudiers then to those Gentlemen Free-holders Citizens Burgesses and persons of Estate who elected them whose Trustees and Attourneys only they professe themselves and who have greatest interest both in them and the Kingdoms weal and those who must pay these Mercinaries if continued 3. The Gentlemen and Free-men of England have very little reason any longer to trust the Army with the Kingdoms Parliaments or their own Liberties Laws and Priviledges safeguard which they have so oft invaded professing now that they did not fight to preserve the Kingdom King Parliament Laws Liberties and Properties of the Subject but to conquer and pull them down and make us conquered slaves in stead of free-men averring that all is theirs by conquest And if so then this Army is not cannot be upheld and maintained for the Kingdoms and peoples common good and safety but their enslaving destruction and the meer support of the usurped Power Authority Offices Wealth and absolute Domination only of those who have exalted themselves for the present above King Parliament Kingdom Laws Liberties and those that did intrust them by the help of this trust-breaking Army who have stained all the glory of their former Noble Victories and Heroick Actions by their late degenerous unworthy practices and are become a reproach to the English Nation in all Christian Kingdoms and Churches The second end of this heavie Tax is the support and maintenance of the Forces in Ireland for which there was onely twenty thousand pounds a month formerly allowed now mounted unto thirty thousand To which I answer in the first place That it is apparent by the printed Statutes of 25. E. 1. c. 6. 1 E. 3. cap. 5.7 18. E. 3. c. 7. 25. E. 3. c. 8. 4. H. 4. cap. 13. Cooks 2 Institutes p. 528. and the Protestations of all the Commons of England in the Parliaments of 1 H. 5. nu 17. and 7. H. 5. n. 9. That no freeman of England ought to be compelled to go in person or to finde Souldiers Arms Conduct-money Wages or pay any Tax for or towards the maintenance of any forreign War in Ireland or any other parts beyond the Sea without their free consents in full Parliament And therefore this Tax to maintain Souldiers and the War in Ireland neither imposed in Parliament much lesse in a full and free one as I have proved must needs be illegall and no ways obligatory to me or any other 2. Most of the ancient Forces in Ireland as the Brittish Army Scots and Inchiqueen's towards whose support the twenty thousand pounds a month was designed have been ever since declared Rebels Traytors Revolters and are not to share in this Contribution and those now pretending for Ireland being members of the present Army and to be paid out of that Establishment there is no ground at all to augment but decrease this former monthly Tax for Ireland over what it was before 3. Many of those now pretending for Ireland have been the greatest obstructers of its relief heretofore and many of those designed for this Service by lot have in words writing and print protested they never intend to go thither and disswade others
from going yet take free-quarter on the Country and pay too under that pretext And to force the Country to pay Contribution and give Free-quarter to such Cheaters and Impostors who never intend this Service is both unjust and dishonourable 4. If the Relief of Ireland be now really intended it is not upon the first just and pious grounds to preserve the Protestant party there from the forces of the bloody Popish Irish Rebels with whom if report be true these sitting Anti-Monarchists seek and hold correspondence and are now actually accorded with Owen Ro-Oneal and his party of blodiest Papists but to oppose the Kings interest and title to that Kingdome and the Protestant remaining party there adhering to and proclaiming acknowledging him for their Soveraign least his gaining of Ireland should prove fatall to their usurped soveraignty in England or conduce to his enthroning here And by what Authority these now sitting can impose or with what conscience any loyall Subject who hath taken the Oaths of Supremacy Allegiance and Covenant can voluntarily pay any contribution to deprive the King of his hereditary right undoubted Title to the Kingdoms and Crowns of England Ireland and alter the frame of the ancient Government Parliaments of our Kingdoms p Remonstrated so often against by both Houses and adjudged High Treason in Canterburies and Strafffords cases for which they were beheaded and by themselves in the Kings own case whom they decolled likewise without incurring the guilt of Perjury and danger of High Treason to the losse of his life and estate by the very laws and statuts yet inforce transcends my understanding to conceive VVherfore I neither can nor dare in conscience law or prudence submit to this contribution Fourthly The coercive power and manner of levying this contribution expressed in the Act is against the Law of the Land and Liberty of the Subject which is threefold First Distresse and sale of the goods of those who refuse to pay it with power to break open their Houses which are their Castles doores chests c. to distrain which is against Magna Charta cap. 29. The Petition of Right The Votes of both Houses in the case of Ship-mony 1 R. 2. c. 3. and the resolution of our Judges and Law-books 13. Ed. 4.9.20 E. 4.6 Cook 5. Report f. 91.92 Semaines case 4. Inst. p. 176 177. Secondly Imprisonment of the body of the party till he pay the contribution being contrary to Magna charta The Petition of Right The resolution of both Houses in the Parliament of 3 Caroli in the case of Loanes and 17 Caroli in the case of Ship-mony the judgment of our Judges and Law-Books collected by Sir Edward Cook in his 2 Insti. p. 46. c. and the Statu. of 2 H. 4. Rot. Par. n. 6. unprinted but most expresse in point Thirdly Levying of the contribution by souldiers and force of arms in case of resistance and imprisoning the person by like force adjudged High Treason in the cases of the Earl of Strafford and a levying of war within the Statute of 25. Ed. 3. by the late Parliament for which he lost his head and so proved to be at large by Master St. Iohn in his Argument at Law at the passing the Bill for his attainder Printed by Order of the Commons House Fourthly Which heightens the illegality of these illegall means of levying it if any person whose goods are destrained or person imprisoned for this illegall tax shall bring his Action at Law or an Habeas corpus for his relief The Committee of Indempnity will stay his legall proceedings award cost against him and commit him a new till he pay them and release his suits at Law and upon an Habeas corpus their own Sworn Judges created by them dare not bayle but remaund him against Law An oppression and Tyranny far exceeding the worst of the Beheaded Kings under whom the Subjects had Free-Liberty to sue and proceed at Law both in the cases of Loanes Shipmony and Knighthood without any Councel-Table Committee of Indempnity to stop their suits or inforce them to release them and therefore in all these respects so repugnant to the Laws and Liberty of the Subject I cannot submit to this illegall Tax but oppugn it to the utetrmost most invasive on our Laws and Liberties that ever was Fifthly The time of opposing this illegall Tax with these unlawfull ways of levying it is very considerable and sticks much with me it is as the Imposers of it declare and publish in many of their new kind of Acts and devices in the first yeare of Englands Liberty and redemption from thraldom And if this unsupportable Tax thus illegallly to be levied be the first fruits of our first years Freedom and redemption from thraldom how great may we expect our next years thraldome will be when this little finger of theirs is heavier by far then the Kings whole loynes whom they beheaded for Tyranny and Oppression Sixthly The Order of this Tax if I may so term a disorder or rather newnesse of it engageth me and all lovers of their Countries Liberty unanimously to withstand the same It is the first I finde that was ever imposed by any who had been Members of the Commons House after a Parliament dissolved the Lords House voted down and most of their fellow-Commoners secured or secluded by their connivance or confederacy with an undutiful Army VVhich if submitted to and not opposed as illegall any forty or fifty Commoners who have been Members of a Parliament gaining Forces to assist and countenance them may out of Parliament now or any time hereafter do the like and impose what Taxes and Laws they please upon the Kingdom and the secluded Lords and Commons that once sate with them being incouraged thereto by such an unopposed precedent VVhich being of so dangerous consequence and example to the constitution and priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the people we ought all to endeavour the crushing of this new Cockatrice in the shell lest it grow to a fiery Serpent to consume and sting us to death and induce the Imposers of it to lade us with new and heavie Taxes of this kinde when this expires which we must expect when all the Kings Bishops Deans and Chapters Lands are sold and spent if we patiently submit to this leading Decoy since q Bonus Actus inducit consuetudinem as our Ancestors resolved Anno 1240. in the case of an universall Tax demanded by the Pope whereupon they all unanimously opposed it at first r Opprime dum nova sunt subiti mala semina morbi Principiis obsta serò medicina paratur Cum mala per longas invaluere moras being the safest rule of State-physick we can follow in such new desperate Diseases which endanger the whole Body-politick Upon which grounds the most consciencious Gentlemen and best Patriots of their Country opposed Loans Ship money Tonnage Poundage Knighthood and the like late illegall
Impositions of the King and his Councell in the very beginnings of them and thought themselves bound in Conscience Law Prudence so to do though there were some colourable reasons and precedents of former times pretended to countenance them And if these VVorthies conceived themselves thus obliged to oppose those illegall Impositions of the King and his Councel though countenanced by some Judges opinions as legall to their immortall honour and high esteem both in Country and Parliament who applauded them as the principal maintainers of their Countries Liberties then much more ought I and all other tenderers of their own and Countries Freedom to oppose this illegall dangerous Contribution imposed on us by a few fellow-Subjects only without yea against all Law or Precedent to countenance it being of greater consequence and worser example to the Kingdom then all or any of the Kings illegall projects or Taxes Seventhly the excessivenesse of this Tax much raised and encreased when we are so exhausted and were promised and expected ease from Taxes both by the Army in their Remonstrance November 20. 1648. and by the Imposers of it amounting to a sixt part if not a moiety of most mens estaâ—es is a deep Engagement for me to oppose it since Taxes as well as s Fines and Amerciaments ought to be reasonable so as men may support themselves and their Families and not be undone as many will be by this if forced to pay it by Distresse or Imprisonment Upon this ground in the Parliaments of 1 4 Edward the Third we find divers freed from payment of Tenths and other Taxes lawfully imposed by Parliament because the People were impoverished and undone by the Warres who ought to pay them And in the printed Statutes of 31 Henr. 6. c. 8. 1 Mariae c. 17. to omit others we find Subsidies mitigated and released by subsequent Acts of Parliament though granted by precedent by reason of the peoples poverty and inability to pay them Yea somtimes we read of something granted them by the King by way of aide to help pay their Subsidies as in 25. E. 3. Rastal Tax 9. 36 E. 3. c. 14. And for a direct president in point When t Peter Rubie the Pope's Legat in the year 1240. exacted an excessive unusuall Tax from the English Clergie the whole Clergy of Berk-shire and others did all and every of them unanimously withstand it tendring him divers reasons in writing of their refusall pertinent to our time and present Tax whereof this was one That the Revenues of their Churches scarce sufficed to finde them daily food both in regard of their smalnesse and of the present dearth of Corne and because there were such multitudes of poore people to relieve some of which dyed of Famin so as they had not enough to suffice themselves and the poore Whereupon THEY OVGHT NOT TO BE COMPELLED TO ANY SVCH CONTRIBVTION which many of our Clergy may now likewise plead most truly whose Livings are small and their Tythes detained and divers people of all ranks and callings who must sell their stocks beds and all their houshold-stuffe or rot in prison if forced to pay it Eightly the principall inducement to bring on the payment of this Tax is a promise of taking off the all-devouring and undoing Grievance of Free-quarter which hath ruined many Countreys and Families and yet they must pay this heavy Tax to be eased of it for the future instead of being paid and allowed for what is already past according to u former engagements Against which I have these just exceptions 1. That the taking of Free-quarter by Soldiers in mens Houses is a grievance against the very Common-Law it self which defines every mans House to be his Castle and Sanctuary into which none ought forcibly to enter against his will and which with his goods therein he may lawfully x fortifie and defend against all intruders whatsoever and kill them without any danger of Law Against all the Statutes concerning y Purveyers which prohibit the taking of any mens goods or provisions against their wills or paiment for them under pain of Felony though by Commission under the great Seal of England Against the expresse Letter and Provision of the Petition of RIGHT 3. Caroli Condemned by the Commons House in their z Declaration of the state of the Kingdome of the 15. December 1641 and charged as an Article against King Richard the second when deposed in the Parliament of 1 H. 4 nu 22. Yea it is such a Grievance as exposeth the houses goods provisions moneys servants children wives lives and all other earthly comforts we enjoy to the lusts and pleasure of every domineering Officer and unruly common Souldier And to impose an unjust heavy Tax and induce people to pay it upon hopes of freeing them from Free-quarter is but to impose one grievance to remove another 2. There have been many promises Declarations and Orders of both Houses and the Generall for taking off Free quarter heretofore upon the peoples paying in their Contributions before-hand as now and then none should Free-quarter on them under pain of death Yet no sooner have they pay'd in their Contribution but they have been freequartered on as much or more then formerly the Souldiers when we tell them of any Orders against Free-quarter slighting them as so many wast papers and carrying themselves more unruly And when complaint thereof hath been made to the Officers Members or the Committee for the Army or in the House answer hath still been made That as long as there is an Army on foot there will be freequarter taken and there can be no prevention of it there being a necessity of it and when any have craved allowance of it they have found so many put-offs and delayes and such difficulties in obtaining it that their expences have equalled their allowance and after allowances made the moneys allowed have been called for again So as few have had any allowance for quarters and given over suing for them being put to play an after-game to sue for them after all their contributions first paid and not to deduct them out of their Contributions which they are still put to do This pretext therefore of taking away Free-quarter is but a shoo-horn to draw on the payment of this Tax and a fair pretext to delude the People as they finde by sad experience every-where and in the County and Hundred where I reside For not to look back to the last yeers free-quarter taken on us though we daily paid our Contributions In April and May last past since this very Tax imposed for taking away Free-quarter Colonel Harrisons Troopers under the command of Captain Spencer who quartered six days together in a place and exacted and received most of them 3 s. others 3 s. 6 d. and the least 2 s. 6 d. a day for their Quarters telling their Landlords that their Lands and the whole Kingdom was theirs have put Bathwick Bathford
rather die a Martyr for our Ancient Kingdom then live a Slave under any new Republick or remant of a broken dismembred strange Parliament of Commons without King Lords or the major part of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Realme in being subject to their illegall Taxes and what they call Acts of Parliament which in reality are no Acts at all to binde me or any other subject to obedience or just punishment for Non-obedience thereunto or Non-conformity to what they stile the present Government of the Armies modeling and I fear the Jesuites suggesting to effect our Kingdoms and Religions ruine WILLIAM PRYNNE Swainswick June 16. 1649. PSAL. 26.4 5. I have not sate with vain persons neither will I go with Dissemblers I have hated the Congregation of evill doers and will not sit with the wicked FINIS A POSTSCRIPT SInce the drawing up of the precedent Reasons I have met with a Printed Pamphlet intituled An Epistle written the 8th day of June by Lieutenant Colonel Iohn Lilburn to Master William Lenthall Speaker to the remainder of those few Knights Citizens and Burgesses that Col. Thom. Pride at his late purge thought convenient to leave sitting at Westminster as most fit for his and his Masters designs to serve their ambitious Tyrannical ends to destroy the good old Laws Liberties and Customs of England the badges of our Freedom as the Declaration against the King of the seventh of March 1648 pag. 23. calls them and by force of Armes to rob the people of their lives estates and properties and subject them to perfect vassallage and slavery c. who and in truth no otherwise pretendenly stile themselves The Conservators of the Peace of England or the Parliament of England intrusted and authorized by the consent of all the people thereof whose Representatives by Election in their Declaration last mentioned p. 27. they say they are although they are never able to produce one bit of a Law or any piece of a Commission to prove that all the people of England or one quarter tenth hundred or thousand part of them authorized Thomas Pride with his Regiment of Souldiers to choose them a Parliament as indeed it hath de facto done by this PRETENDED MOCK-PARLIAMENT And therefore it cannot properly be called the Nations or Peoples Parliament but Col. Prides and his Associats whose really it is who although they have beheaded the King for a Tyrant yet walk oppressingest steps if not worst and higher In this Epistle this late great Champion of the House of Commons and sitting Junctoes Supremacy both before and since the Kings beheading who with his Brother a Overton and their Confederates First cryed them up as and gave them the Title of The Supream Authority of the Nation The only Supream Judicatory of the land The only formall and legall Supream power and Parliament of England in whom alone the power of binding the whole Nation by making altering or abrogating Laws without either King or Lords resides c. and first engaged them by their Pamphlets and Petitions against the King Lords and Personall Treatie as he and they print and boast in this Epistle and other late Papers doth in his own and his Parties behalf who of late so much adored them as the only earthly Deities and Saviours of the Nation now positively assert and prove First that Commissary Generall Ireton Colonel Harison with other Members of the House and the General Councel of Officers in the Army did in severall meetings and debates at Windsor immediately before their late march to London to purge the House and after to Whitehall commonly stile themselves the pretended Parliament even before the Kings beheading a MOCK PARLIAMENT a MOCK POWER a PRETENDED PARLIAMENT NO PARLIAMENT AT ALL And that they were absolutely resolved and determined TO PULL UP THIS THEIR OWN PARLIAMENT BY THE ROOT and not so much as to leave a shadow of it yea and had done it if we say they and some of our then FRIENDS in the House had not been the Principall Instruments to hinder them We judging it then of two evils the least to chuse rather to be governed by THE SHADOW OF A PARLIAMENT till we could get a reall and a true one which with the greatest protestations in the world they then promised and engaged with all their might speedily to effect then simply solely and only by the will of Sword-men whom we had already found to be men of no very tender consciences If then these leading swaying Members of the new pretended purged Commons Parliament and Army deemed the Parliament even before the Kings beheading a Mock-Parliament a mock-power a pretended Parliament yea no Parliament at all and absolutely resolved to pull it up by the roots as such then it necessarily follows First that they are much more so after the Kings death as by their suppression of the Lords House and purging of the Commons House to the very dregs in the opinions and consciences of those now sitting and all other rationall men And no wayes enabled by law to impose this or any other new Tax or Act upon the Kingdom creating new Treasons and Penalties Secondly that these grand saints of the Army and Statesmen of the Pretended Parliament knowingly sit vote and act there against their own judgements and consciences for their own private pernicious ends Thirdly that it is a basenesse cowardize and degeneracy beyond all expression for any of their Fellow-members now acting to suffer these Grâ—nâ—eâ—s in their Assembly and Arms to sit or vote together with them or to enjoy any Office or command in the Army or to impose any tax upon the People to maintain such Officers Members Souldiers who have thus vilified affronted their pretended Parliamentary Authority and thereby induced others to contemn and question it and as great a basenesse in others for to pay it upon any terms Secondly he there affirms that d Oliver Crumwell by the helpe of the Aâ—my at their first Rebellion against the Parliament was no sooner put up but like a perfideous base unworthy man c. the House of Peers were his only white boys and who but Oliver who before to me had called them in effect both Tyrants and Vsurpers became their Proctor where ever he came yea and set his son Ireton at work for them also insomuch that at some meetings with some of my friends at the Lord Whartons lodgings he clapt his hand upon his breast and to this purpose professed in the sight of God upon his conscience THAT THE LORDS HAD AS TRUE A RIGHT TO THEIR LEGISLATIVE JURISDICTIVE POWER OVER THE COMMONS AS HE HAD TO HIS COAT UPON HIS BACK and he would pocure a freind viz. Master Nathaniel Feinnes should argue and plead their just right with any friend I had in England And not only so but did he not get the Generall and Councell of War at Windsor about the time that the Votes of no more
addresses were to passe to make a Declaration to the whole world declaring THE LEGAL RIGHT OF THE LORDS HOUSE THEIR FIXED RESOLUTION TO MAINTIAN UPHOLD IT which was sent by the Generall to the Lords by Sir Hardresse Waller and to indear himself the more unto the Lords in whose House without all doubt he intended to have sate himself he requited me evill for good and became my enemy to keep me in Prison out of which I must not stirre unlesse I would stoop and acknowledge the Lords jurisdiction over Commoners and for that end he sets his agents and instruments at work to get me to do it yet now they have suppressed them Whence it is most apparent 1. That the General Liutenant General Cromwel Ireton Harrison and other Officers of the Army now sitting as Members and over-ruling all the rest have willingly acted against their own knowledges Declarations Judgments Consciences in suppressing the Lords House and depriving them of their Legislative and Jurisdictive Right and power by presuming to make Acts pass sentences and impose Taxes without them or their assents in Parliament 2. That this Tax enforced upon the Commons and Kingdom for their own particular advantage pay and enrichment is in their own judgment and conscience both unjust and directly contrary to the Laws of the Realm being not assented to by the Lords and therefore to be unanimously and strenuously opposed by all who love their own or Countries Liberty or have any Nobility or Generosity in them Thirdly he e there asserts in positive terms in his own behalf and his confederates That the purged Parliament now sitting is but a pretended Parliament a mock-Parliament yea and in plain English NO PARLIAMENT AT ALL but the shadow of a Parliament That those company of men at Westminster that gave Commission to the High Court of Justice to try and behead the King c. were no more a Parliament by Law or Representatives of the people by the rules of Justice and Reason then such a company of men are a Parliament or Representative of the People that a company of armed Theeves choose and set apart to try judge condemn hang or behead any man that they please or can prevail over by the power of their swords to bring before them by force of arms to have their lives taken away by pretence of Justice grounded upon rules meerly flowing from their wills and swords That no Law in England authoriseth a company of servants to punish and correct their Masters or to give a Law unto them or to throw them at their pleasure out of their power and set themselves down in it which is the Armies case with the Parliament especially at Thomas Pride's late purge which was an absolute dissolution of the very Essence and being of the House of Commons to set up indeed a MOCK-POWER and a MOCK-PARLIAMENT by purging out all those that they were any way jealous of would not Vote as they would have them and suffering and permitting none to sit but for the major part of them a company of absolute School-boys that will like good Boys say their Lessons after them their Lords and Masters and vote what they would have them and so be a skreen betwixt them and the people with the name of Parliament and the shadow and imperfect image of legall and just Authority to pick their pockets for them by Assessments and Taxations and by their arbitrary and tyrannicall Courts and Committees the best of which is now become a perfect Star-chamber High-Commission and Councel-board make them their perfect slaves and vassals With much more to this purpose If then their Principall admirers who confederated with the Army and those now sitting in all their late proceedings and cryed them up most of any as the Parliament and supreme Authority of England before at and since the late force upon the House and its violent purgation doe thus in print professedly disclaim them for being any reall Parliament or House of Commons to make Acts or impose Taxes upon the people the secluded Members Presbyterians Royallists and all others have much more cause and ground to disavow and oppose their usurped Parliamentary authority and illegall Taxes Acts as not made by any true English Parliament but a Mock-Parliament only Fourthly He therein further averrs f That the death of the King in Law indisputably dissolves this Parliament ipso facto though it had been all the time before never so intire and unquestionable to that very houre That no Necessity can be pretended for the continuance of it the rather because the men that would have it continue so long as they please are those who have created these necessities on purpose that by the colour thereof they may make themselves great and potent That the main end wherefore the Members of the Commons house were chosen and sent thither was To hear and conferr with King Charles and the House of Peers about the great affairs of the Nation c. And therefore are but a third part or third estate of that Parliament to which they were to come and joyn with and who were legally to make paramount and binding Laws for the people of the Nation And therefore having taken away two of the three Estates that they were chosen on purpose to joyn with to make Laws the end both in reason and Law of the peoples trust is ceased for a Minor joyned with a Major for one and the same end cannot play Lord paramount over the Major and then do what it please no more can the Minor or a Major viz. one Estate of three legally or justly destroy two of three without their own assent c. That the House of Commons sitting freely within it's limited time in all its splendor of glory without the awe of armed men neither in Law nor in the intention of their Choosers were a Parliament and therefore of themselves alone have no pretence in Law to alter the Constitution of Parliaments c. concluding thus For shame let no man be so audaciously or sottishly void of reason as to call Tho. Prides pittifull Junto A PARLIAMENT especially those that called avowed protested and declared again again those TO BE NONE that sate at Westminster the 26 27. c. of July 1647. when a few of their Members were scared away to the Army by a few hours tumult of a company of a few disorderly Apprentices And being no representative of the People much less A PARLIAMENT what pretence of Law Reason Justice or Nature can there be for you to alter the constitution of Parliaments and force upon the people the shew of their own wills lusts and pleasures for Lawes and Rules of Government made by a PRETENDED EVERLASTING NULLED PARLIAMENT a Councel of State or Star chamber and a Councel of War or rather by Fairfax Cromwel and Ireton Now if their own late confederates and creatures argue thus in print against their continuing a Parliament
Jurisdiction Proceedings Taxes and arbitrary pleasures should not all others much more doe it and oppose them to the utmost upon the self-same grounds Fifthly He there likewise affirms g That those now sitting at Westminster have perverted the ends of their trusts more then ever Strafford did 1. In not easing the people of but encreasing their greivances 2. In exhausting of their Estates to maintain and promote pernitious Designs to the peoples destruction The King did it by a little Ship-money and Monopolies but since they began they have raised and extorted more mony from the people and Nation then half the Kings since the Conquest ever did as particularly 1. by excise 2 Contributions 3. Sequestrations of lands to an infinite value 4. Fift parts 5. Twenty parts 6. Meal-mony 7. Sale of the plundered goods 8. Lones 9. Benevolences 10. Collections upon their fast days 11. New impositions or customs upon Merchandize 12. Guards maintained upon the charge of private men 13. Fifty Subsidies at one time 14. Compositions with Delinquents to an infinite value 15. Sale of Bishops lands 16. Sale of dean and Chapters lands and now after the wars are done 17. Sale of King Queen Prince Duke and the rest of the Childrens revenues 18. Sale of their rich goods which cost an infinite sum 19. To conclude all a Taxation of ninety thousand pounds a month and when they have gathered it pretendingly for the Common-Wealths use divide it by thousands and ten thousands a peece amongst themselves and wipe their mouthes after it like the impudent Harlot as though they had done no evil and then purchase with it publick Lands at small or trivial values O brave Trustees that have protested before God and the World again and again in the day of their straits they would never seek themselves and yet besides all this divide all the choisest and profitablest Places of the Kingdom among themselves Therefore when I seriously consider how many men in the Parliament and elsewhere of their Associates that judge themselves the only Saints and Godly men upon the earth that have considerable and some of them vast estates of their own inheritance and yet take five hundred one two three four five thousand pounds per annum Salaries and other comings in by their places and that out of the too much exhausted treasury of the Nation when thousands not onely of the People the of world as they call them but also of the precious redeemed lambs of Christ are ready to starve for want of bread I cannot but wonder with my self whether they have any conscience at all within them or no and what they think of that saying of the spirit of God That whoso hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother hath need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him which he absolutely doth that any way takes a little of his little from him how dwelleth the love of God in him 1 John 3.17 These actions and practises are so far from being like the true and reall children of the most High that they are the highest oppression theft and murther in the world thus to rob the poor in day of their great distress by Excise Taxations c. to maintain their Pompe Superfluities and Debauchery when many of those from whom they take it do perish and starve with want and hunger in the mean time and be deaf and Adamant-hearted to all their TEARS CRYES LAMENTATIONS MOURNFUL HOWLINGS GROANES Without all doubt these pretended Godly Religious men have got a degree beyond those Athests or Fools that say in their hearts there is no God Psal. 14.1 and 53.1.3 In quite destroying the peoples essential Liberties Laws and Freedoms in leaving them no Law at all as Mr. Peters their grand Teacher averred lately to my face we had none but their meer will and pleasures saving Fellons Lawes or Martial Law where new Butchers are both informers Parties Jury-men and Judges who have had their hands imbrewed in blood for above these seven years together having served an apprentiship to killing of men for nothing but money and so are more bloody then Butchers that kil sheep and calves for their own livelihood who yet by the Law of England are not permitted to be of any jury for life and death because they are conversant in shedding of blood of beasts and thereby through an habit of it may not be so tender of the blood of men as the Law of England Reason and Justice would have them to be Yea do not these men by their swords being but servants give what Lawes they please to their Masters the pretended Law-makers of your House now constituted by as good and legal a power as he that robs and kills a man upon the hgih-way And if this be the verdict of their own Complices and Partizans concerning them and their proceedings especially touching their exhausting our Estates by Taxes and sharing them among themselves in the times of famine and penury as the great Officers of the Army and Treasurers who are Members now doe who both impose what Taxes they please and dispose of them to themselves and their creatures as they please contrary to the practice of all former ages and the rules of reason and justice too are not all others bound by all bonds of conscience Law Prudence to withstand their impositions and Edicts unto death rather then yeild the least submission to them Sixthly He there avers proves and offers legally to make good before any indifferent Tribunal that the h Grandees and over-ruling Members of the House and Army are not only a pack of dissembling Jugling Knaves and Machevillians amongst whom in consultation hereafter he would ever scorn to come for that there was neither faith truth nor common honesty amongst them but likewise Murtherers who had shed mens blood against Law as well as the King whom they beheaded and therefore by the same Texts and arguments they used against the King their blood ought to be shed by man and they to be surely put to death without any satisfaction taken for their lives as Traytors Enemies Rebels to and i conspirators against the late King whom they absolutely resolved to destroy though they did it by Martial Law Parliament Kingdome and the peoples Majesty and Soveraignity That the pretended House and Army are guilty of all the late crimes in kinde though under a new Name and notion of which they charge the King in their Declaration of the 17. of March 1648. that some of them more legally deserve death then ever the King did and considering their many Oathes Covenants Promises Declarations and Remonstrances to the contrary with the highest promises and pretences of good for the people and their declared Liberties that ever were made by men the most perjured pernicious false faith and Trust-breakers and Tyrants that ever lived in the world and ought by all rationall and honest men to be the most detested and abhorred of all men that