attempt the Destruction and Attainder of the said Earl by an Act of Parliament to be therefore purposely made to condemn him upon Accumulative Treason none of the pretended Crimes being Treason apart and so could not be in the whole if they had been proved as they were not and also adjudged him guilty of Constructive Treason that is of Levying War against the King though it was only the Commanding an Order of the Council-Board in Ireland to be executed by a Serjeant at Arms and three or four Soldiers which was the constant Practice of the Deputies there for a long time to which end they having first presented a Bill for this intent to the House of Commons and finding there more opposition than they expected they caused a multitude of tumultuous Persons to come down to Westminster armed with Swords and Staves to fill both the Palace-Yards and all the Approaches to both Houses of Parliament with fury and clamour and to require Justice speedy Justice against the Earl of Strafford And having by these and other undue Practices obtained that Bill to pass in the House of Commons they caused the Name of those resolute Gentlemen who in a Case of innocent Blood had freely discharged their Consciences being Fifty Nine to be posted up in several Places about the Cities of London and Westminster and stiled them Staffordians and Enemies to their Country hoping thereby to deliver them up to the Fury of the People whom they had endeavoured to incense against them and then procured the said Bill to be sent up to the House of Peers where it having sometime rested under great Deliberation at last in a time when a great part of the Peers were absent by reason of the Tumults and many of those who were present protested against it the said Bill passed in the House of Peers and at length his late Majesty King Charles the First of Glorious Memory granted a Commission for giving his Royal Assent thereunto which nevertheless was done by his said Majesty with exceeding great sorrow then and ever remembred by him with unexpressible Grief of Heart and out of his Majesty's great Piety he did publickly express it when his own Sacred Life was taken away by the most detestable Traytors that ever were And I hope when this is read and considered it will sufficiently vindicate the King and his Conscience and stop the Mouths of such clamorous and seditious Persons as you are You tell us in another place to lessen the King's Grace in granting the Triennial Act that it did not extend so far as by Law the Parliament might have required there being at that time two Acts of Edward the Third for a Parliament to be holden once a Year And what then was it no Act of Grace to grant over and above that if the King did not call a Parliament within such a time that then the Lords Lieutenants the Deputy Lieutenants and so on might do it nay if they neglected their Duty it should at last be in the Power of the very Constables to do it Pray Sir do Justice to the King and let not such an unparalell'd Act of Grace and Favour be buried and hid from the People and therefore I say again and do you reproach me for it as long as you please that the granting this Bill with so many additional Clauses was certainly a greater Condescension than ever was made by any of his Predecessors Another thing you accuse this Good Man for is his tampering with the Officers of the Army to curb the Parliament and to subdue them to his Will and here you tell a long Story of Piercy and Goring c. such a Story indeed as the Faction was wont to make use of upon all occasions to amuse and heat the People against their Prince but the best of it is there are so many incredible things in your Account that I must tell you it hath not gained upon my Belief at all and I hope before I have done with it it will find as great a difficulty to be believed by others Amongst the rest you tell us that two of the Parties concern'd confess that all the French that were about the Town were to be mounted I suppose it was upon Hobby-Horses and were to joyn with the Party but that which is the Nicker is That the Clergy would raise a Thousand Horse to assist them and yet this Conspiracy was under an Oath of Secresie and very likely indeed when so many of the Clergy must be acquainted with it as to raise by their own and their Brethrens Purses a thousand Horse Surely Sir you have a mighty Opinion of your self and fancy the World so very silly as to believe every thing upon your Say so Come Sir give me leave to undeceive the World and to expose your Honesty your Knavery I mean by letting them know the King's Account in this Matter whose Words I must tell you notwithstanding all your barbarous Reproaches ought to find Credit with the World Husband 's Exact Coll. Pag. 523. A New Fright was now found to startle the People and to bring us into Hatred and Jealousie with them the general Rumours of Treasons and Conspiracies began to lose Credit with all Men who began to consider what they felt more than what others feared and therefore they had now found out a Treason indeed even ready to be put in Execution upon the whole Kingdom in the representative Body thereof a Plot to bring up the whole Army out of the Northern Parts to London A strange Plot indeed which considering the Constitution of the Time no Man can believe Us guilty of And though they made great Use of it for the filling the Minds of Our People with Fears and Apprehensions they seemed not then to Charge Us with any Knowledge of or Privity to it What they have done since all the World knows notwithstanding Our many Protestations in that Point and We cannot but say that by those Examinations of Collonel Goring Sir Iacob Ashly and Sir Iohn Conyers and Mr. Piercy's Letter which is all the Evidence we have seen and by which they seem principally to be guided We cannot satisfie Our own private Conscience that there ever was a Resolution of bringing up the Army to London and upon the strictest Examination We can make of that Business we can find it to be no other than this Observation being made of the great Tumults about Westminister which seem'd to threaten the Safety of the Members of both Houses at least of those who were not known to agree with the Designs of the Faction We have before spoken of and the Manner of delivering Petitions by Multitudes of People attested or pretended to be so by the Hands of many Thousands against the known Laws and the Establish'd Government of this Kingdom which yet seem'd to receive some Countenance and to carry some Authority as Instances of the Affections of so many Persons it fell into the Thoughts
this I say upon the greatest deliberation of Mind without passion or prejudice to any Party of Men whatsoever and upon this score have I taken upon me the Defence of this Great Man not in the least wishing ill to or desiring the Oppression of any sort of Men who will live quietly and peaceably under Their Majesties happy Government nor any ways envying their Liberty of Conscience as long as they make a modest and thankful use of it My Lords and Gentlemen Desiring your candid Thoughts of this honest and well-designed Vndertaking I take my leave of you by subscribing myself Your humble Servant and Faithful Country-man Richard Hollingworth A REPLY TO THE Author of a Letter CALLED A LETTER from Ludlow to Dr. Hollingworth c. SIR I Have met with your Book without the Civility of your fencing me one but I quickly found reason not to wonder at that for upon reading you over I found Civility none of your Talent and tho' I am so far from being in the least concerned at your ungentile Behaviour and unhandsome Usage of myself that I think it really an Honour to be reflected on by a Person of your Principles and should have the worse Opinion of myself if I had the good word either of you or those of your Party yet Sir when I read over your barbarous dealing with that excellent Prince King Charles I. your dirty and Tinker-like Names by which you call him and those many undeserved Indignities you load his Sacred Memory withal truly Sir it makes my Heart ake and my Flesh tremble to think at this time of the Day and under such a Government there should be found so bold so impudent and so unmannerly a Person in the Kingdom that dares belch forth such leud such dishonourable and false Things against one who was the Lord's Anointed and your own lawful and undoubted Soveraign What Sir do not you know that the greatest part of the Nobility Gentry and Commons of England do to this very Day continue and preserve a great Veneration for the Name and Memory of King Charles the First Have you forgot when the Nation was restored to its Rights and Laws not over-awed by an Insolent and Threatning Army that they chose a Representative that presently expressed the Sence of the Nation as to that Prince and condemned by an Act of State all those who had any hand in his Murther and appointed a Day which you like yourself scornfully call a Madding-day for ever to bewail the Sin and thereby to prevent those Judgments which they thought that Horrid Act might be justly attended withal Cannot you further remember or have you not heard that Their present Majesties had two Sermons preached before them the last Thirtieth of Ianuary that both They and the rest that heard them might the better be engaged to renew their just Sence of as well as deep Sorrow for the detestable Fact And Sir did not the Lords and Commons appoint two Preachers to help their sorrowful Meditations that Day the one the Right Reverend Bishop Kidder and the other the Reverend Dr. Sherlock And have you not read those Sermons for which the two Houses thanked them and ordered them to be Printed for the Good of the Nation that the Memory of that Great Man might be kept alive and the Sence of his Horrid Murther preserved in the Breasts of the People Come Sir if you have not read them I will give you an Account of some Passages in them both and I beseech you for your Soul 's good to mind them for 't is pity any one Body in the Kingdom should not know them that so they may be preserved from the Poyson and Infection of such scurrilous Books as this of yours is Pag. 20 says the good Bishop On this Day it was that our Soveraign of blessed Memory fell by the Hands of Violence and Wickedness then was his Righteous Blood shed and tho' we gave no explicit Consent to this barbarous Murther and perhaps with the Iews have said That if we had been in the Days of our Fore-fathers we would not have been Partakers with them yet all this while we may deceive ourselves and others if we do not confess this Sin with great humility and abandon all propensity to so great a Wickedness And Pag. 22. says this good Man We may learn what cause we have to be humbled for our Fathers Sins and more particularly for the Wickedness committed on this Day then was the Nation stained with the Righteous Blood of an innocent and excellent Prince that Bloud God will require of the principal Criminals and Accessories also of the first Offenders and their Associates and as we would not be charged with it let us humble ourselves before God the Stain can be removed no otherways than by Tears of Repentance and the Blood of Jesus And truly Sir before I cite the next passage let me tell you here is very bad News for you and all your Adherents and therefore instead of vindicating thorough the hardness of your Hearts I pray you humble yourselves before God that so the continuance in this Sin may not be your Ruin Pag. 25. Speaking further of this Murther he says thus It will admit of no extenuation it was an Action foul and deformed barbarous and cruel without excuse or plea he must be lost to the Reason of a Man and the Tenderness of a Christian whom it strikes not with Horrour Pag 26. We are all concerned in this Day 's Work to bewail the Wickedness of Men and improve the amazing Providence of God And once more We have since this Fatal Blow was given suffered severely and what the Iews say of the Calf in the Wilderness That there is something of it in all their Sufferings may with as much Truth be said of the barbarous Murther of this Day Our Sufferings have been the Product of the horrid Sin of this Day for many of them they bear the Mark and Signatures of it And truly Sir let me tell you if the Bishop be in the right as all good Men conclude he is I am sure you are very much in the wrong and ought to repent and give Glory to God by confessing your great Fault in so villanously bespattering such a Man as this Great and Good King was If after this you look into the Sermon preached the same day before the Commons by that great and well-studied Divine Dr. Sherlock you will find pag. 5. these words The Sin we this Day lament I shall make no scruple to call it what you have this Day in your Publick Prayers to Almighty God confessed it to be the barbarous Murther of an excellent Prince And Pag. 10. If we add to this the Character of his Person and those Princely Vertues which adorned his Life such Vertues as are rarely found in meaner Persons nay which would have adorned even an Hermit's Cell it still aggravates the Iniquity of his Murther And at the bottom
of some Officers of the Army of known and publick Affections to their Country that a Petition of a modest and a dutiful Nature from the whole Army for composing and setling all Grievances in the Church and State by Law might for the Reason of it prevail with the whole House and coming from such a Body might confirm those who might be shaken with any Fears of Power or Force by the Tumults And with this Proposition We being made acquainted gave Our full Approbation of it taking great Care that no Circumstances in the framing or delivering it might be any Blemish to the Matter of it This We call God to witness as We have done before was all We gave Our Consent to or which We believe was ever intended to be put in Practice what attempts other Men made to seduce the Affections of the Army from Us known to many if in the Managery of this Debate any rash Discourses happened of bringing up the Army it is evident whether they were propos'd in earnest or no they were never entertain'd and the whole Matter laid aside above two Months before any Discovery so that the Danger was never prevented by the Power or Wisdom of the Parliament And for the Petion it self which hath been so often press'd against us as a special Argument of Our Privity to the bringing up of the Army after We have so fully and particularly answer'd every particular Circumstances of that Petition Sign'd with C. R. We have Publish'd a true Copy of that Petition that all Our good Subjects may see how unjustly We have been traduced and judge when Petitions of all Natures were so frequently and so willingly receiv'd whether such a Petition might not with Modesty and Duty enough be presented to them And if in truth the Design of bringing up the Army when it was first pretended to be discovered which was about the middle of May they would surely have thought it necessary to have Disbanded that Army sooner than August And we are sure Our Innocence in this Matter would have soon appear'd if the large time to bring the Business to a judicial Trial had been made use of if contrary to all Custom it had not been thought fit to Publish Depositions before the Parties concern'd has been heard to make their Defence or Witnesses cross-examined tho they attended above twelve Months to do it and if some Men had not believ'd that their general and violent Expressions affirming this to be a Plot equal to the Gunpowder Treason would sooner be believ'd if it were not publickly discuss'd but left to every Man's Fancy to heighten according to his own Inclinations and had not fear'd that if the whole Examination taken and not such only as they pleased to select had come to light it would have appeared by the Examination of Mr Goring purposely supprest with what Intention that mention of bringing up the Army was made with what Earnestness it was oppos'd and with what Suddenness it was deserted and many Extenuations of and many Contradictions to what is now Published would have appear'd And this impossible Stratagem with which they have so much disturbed Our Subjects and reproached Us could never have been so much made use of TO THE KING'S most Excellent MAIESTY THE Lords Spiritual and Temporal the Knights Citizens and Burgesses now Assembled in the High-Court of Parliament The Humble PETION of the Officers and Soldiers of the Army Humbly Sheweth THAT although our Wants have been very pressing and the Burthen we are become to those Parts by Reason of those wants very grievous unto us yet so have we demeaned our selves that your Majesties great and weighty Affairs in this present Parliament have hitherto received no interruption by any Complaint either from us or against us a Temper not usual in Armies especially in one not only destitute of Pay but also of Martial Discipline and many of its Principal Officers yet we cannot but attribute it to a particular Blessing of Almighty God on our most hearty Affection and Zeal to the Common Good in the happy Success of this Parliament to which as we should have been hourly ready to contribute our dearest Bloud so now that it hath pleased God to manifest his Blessing so fully therein we cannot but acknowledge it with Thankfulness And we cannot but acknowledge his great Mercy in that he hath inclined your Majesties Royal Heart so to co-operate with the Wisdom of the Parliament as to effect so great and happy a Reformation upon the former Distempers of this Church and Commonwealth as First in your Majesties gracious condescending to the many Important Demands of our Neighbours of the Scottish Nation Secondly in granting so free a Course of Justice against all Delinquents of what Quality soever Thirdly in removal of all those Grievances wherewith the Subjects did conceive either the Liberty of Persons Propriety of Estates or Freedom of Conscience prejudic'd And Lastly in the greatest Pledge of Security that ever the Subjects of England receiv'd from their Sovereign the Bill of Triennial Parliaments These things so graciously accorded unto by your Majesty without Bargain or Compensation as they are more than Expectation or Hope could extend to So now certainly they are such as all Loyal Hearts ought to acquiess in with Thankfulness which we do with all Humility and do at this time with as much Earnestness as any pray and wish That the Kingdom may be Settled in Peace and Quietness and that all Men may at their own Homes enjoy the blessed Fruit of your Wisdom and Justice But may it please your Excellent Majesty and this High-Court of Parliament to give us Leave with Grief and Anguish of Heart to Represent to You That we hear there are certain Persons Stiring and Pragmatical who instead of rendring Glory to God Thanks to his Majesty and Acknowledgments to the Parliament remain yet as unsatisfied and mutinous as ever who whilst all the rest of the Kingdom are arriv'd even beyond their Wishes are daily forging new and unreasonable Demands who whilst all Men of Reason Loyalty and Moderation are thinking how they may provide for your Majesties Honour and Plenty in Return of so many Graces to the Subject are still attempting new Diminutions of your Majesties just Regalities which must ever be no less dear to all honest Men than their own Freedom In fine Men of such turbulent Spirits as are ready to Sacrifice the Honour and Welfare of the whole Kingdom to their private Fancies whom nothing less than a Subversion of the whole Frame of Government can satisfie far be it from our Thoughts to believe that the Violence and Unreasonnableness of such kind of Persons can have any Influence upon the Prudence or Justice of the Parliament But that which begets the Trouble and Disquiet of our Loyal Hearts at this present is That we hear those ill affected Persons are back'd in their Violence by the Multitude and the Power of raising Tumults that