be wasted to reply to them 18. The next Charge is the Commissions granted to the Earle of Newcastle and Colonel Legg for attempting Newcastle and Hull which they say occasioned them to provide for their security to which their intelligence of forain Forces from Denmark contributed and then they take great paines to make that jealousie of Denmarke reasonable and fit to sink into them The Commissions granted by the King to the Earle of Newcastle and Colonel Legg were no other then by Law He might grant neither did He grant any such before He was assured the leading Members in the House of Commons had it in their purpose to procure an Order for the seizing that Towne and after they had caused a power to be placed about the Tower of London both by land and water under the Command of their new Officer Skippon who was required not to suffer any provisions to be brought in thither by what Authority or Warrant soever If there had been any expectation or apprehension of forain Forces to be brought from Denmarke that could be no warrant for them to seize on Hull without and against the King's leave whose peculiar jurisdiction and right it is to provide against forain Invasions but as that discourse of Forces from Denmarke was then looked upon as most ridiculous by all men of sense so experience hath since made it apparent that there was not the least colour for it And the arrivall of that Vessell with Ammunition and Armes for there came no Commanders in her near Hull was near six Months after the Houses had put a Garrison into Hull and neer three Months after Sir John Hotham had shut the Gates of it against His Majesty and if it had not been for that rebellious Act that Ammunition and Armes had not been sent The Invasion of the King of Denmark's Dominions by the Swedes was above two years after the seizing of Hull therefore that could not be any interruption to that designe if it had been intended but that a frivolous report of a discourse between a Servant of the Lord Digby's that was never named with a Mariner whom he had never seen before to conduct a Fleet into England from Denmarke or an intercepted Letter from the Hague to Secretary Nicholas which is pretended to be written the 26 of Novemb. after the Battle of Edge-hill and in which is mention of Armes for ten thousand Foot and for fifteen hundred Horse should be thought of moment to justifie a rebellious jealousie of the King's purpose of countenancing an Invasion of His owne Kingdome is below the folly and sottishnesse of any to whom satisfaction ought to be applied The imploying of Colonel Cockram to the King of Denmark was after the Rebellion was begun and when the Earl of Essex was marching with his Army against His Majesty and the principall instruction given to him was to presse that King to assist His Majesty with Mony Armes and Ammunition the two Houses having seized all which belonged to His Majesty and that the same might be sent by some Ships of that Crowne because all the King 's owne were taken from Him and lay in wait to intercept any Provision that should be sent to His Majesty and it is no wonder if the King indevoured by His instructions to His Agent to make His Uncle of Denmarke as sensible as he could of the injuries and indignities offered to His Majesty nor was that very clause with which these wicked men so insolently and rudely reproach His Majesty without good grounds it being known that they ordinarily whisper'd many things then in their private Caballs which they durst not publiquely avow of which nature were their discourses of the Death of King James which they are now grown up to the wickednesse to publish and the other which was mentioned in that instruction They say they repeat this rather because when they declared their intelligence that Cockram was sent into Denmarke to procure Forces thence the King disavowed it calling it a vile scandall in His Answer to their Decl. of the 22 of Octob. 1642. Their charge upon the King in that Declaration of the 22 of Octob. was That Sir John Henderson and Colonel Cockram men of ill report both for Religion and Honesty were sent to Hanborough and Denmarke as they were credibly informed to raise Forces there and to bring them to Newcastle and to joyne with the Earle of Newcastle c. To this the King made Answer That He had never greater cause to be confident of security in His owne Subjects and therefore He could not believe so vile a scandall could make any impression in sober men And it is known He did desire no other aide or supply at that time from Denmarke or from any of his Allies but Mony Armes and Ammunition but if He had not been confident in the security of His owne Subjects He would have been justly to be blamed if He had not endeavoured to get any forain succours to preserve Himself His Crowne and the Kingdome from being over-run and subdued by the power and strength of His rebellious Subjects In the same instructions to Cockram they say the King declared that He then expected assistance from His neighbour Princes and Allyes in particular the greatest part of the States Fleet from Holland which if it were truly set forth needs no Answer it being very reasonable that the King should have expected that all His neighbour Princes and Allyes should have assisted Him against so odious and horrid a Rebellion and it may be many of them may live to find the inconveniencie of not being sensible of the assault which hath been made upon Soveraignty especially if in stead of assisting the King they have contributed toward the oppressing the Regall power but these men are such enemies to ingenuity that in the very repeating what hath been said or done by the King they will leave out any words that will make the sense otherwise understood then fits their purpose though any man that will take the pains to examine it will quickly find the truth so they who will peruse these instructions by what means soever they came by them published by themselves will find that the King mentioned the Holland Fleet only as allowed by the States to give Her Majesty a Convoy into England which these men would have understood as lent to assist the King against His rebellious Subjects whereas it is too well known that at that time the two Houses found more respect and assistance from those States then His Majesty did and what His Majesty then said of His neighbour Princes and Allyes which they would perswade the people to relate to some present engagement from them to send Forces to Him being only grounded upon His reasonable hope of the sense those Princes would have of the indignities offered to His Majesty His words being He expects and hopes that all His neighbour Princes and Allyes will not look
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
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
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
of Ireland nor is there the least colour to affirm the same what directions the Rebels give in their Letters of Mart or whether they gave any such directions as are alleaged is no way materiall as to His Majesty and for Officers and Commanders who left their trust against the Rebels it is sufficiently known that the Earle of Leven who by His Majesties consent was sent Generall of the Scots into Ireland against the Rebels was called from thence to lead an Army into England against His Majesty and when the King's Commissioners at the Treaty at Uxbridge alleaged and complained that many Officers both Scots and English had in the beginning of that War left that Service and been entertained by the two Houses against the King all the Answer they could receive was That they were not sent for This being the case as without any possibility of contradiction it is these Gentlemen had no more reason to believe the Rebels when they did so often swear they did nothing without good authority and Commission from the King then the Rebels had to believe them when they swore on the 22. of October 1642. That no private passion or respect no evill intention to His Majesties person nor designe to the prejudice of His just honour and authority engaged them to raise Forces and the next day gave His Majesty battle at Edge-hill Nor is it more materiall that Sir Phelim Oneale would not be perswaded that Generall Laesly had any authority from the King against the Rebels then that these Gentlemen should be perswaded in the same houre to believe that an Army should be raised for the safety of the King's person and to sweare that they would live and die with the Earl of Essex whom they nominated Generall to lead that Army against the King What information was given divers Months before to the Archbishop and others of the Kings Councel of a designe amongst the Papists for a generall Massacre of all the Protestants in Ireland and England c. is no objection against the King and as the Archbishop was imprisoned divers Months before that Rebellion brake out so it is not like if they had been able to have charged Him with any concealment that they would have forborn accusing him with it at his Triall when they so much wanted evidence against him that they were faine to make his Chaplains not licencing such Books against Popery as they thought did discredit the Protestant cause an Argument of his Treason and they would likewise now have named the others of the King's Counsell if they could have alleaged any matter that could have reflected upon them or their Master Next follows a huddle of the Kings Letters to the Pope when he was in Spaine and of others since on the behalfe of the Duke of Lorainge and of the King 's having an Agent at Rome which it is knowne he never had some Months before the Irish Rebellion all which are so obscurely mentioned and so ridiculous as to any charge against the King that they are not worthy any Answer yet because how impertinently soever by the licence of these times much hath been scandalously discoursed of a Letter written by the King when he was Prince and in Spaine to the Pope and such a Letter translated printed out of a Copy published in the French Mercury it may not be amisse to say somewhat of that businesse The Prince being by the command of his Father sent into Spaine to conclude a Marriage with the Daughter of that Crowne which had been long treated of could not but be obliged whilst he was there to perform all Ceremonies which were requisite to the compassing the businesse he went about The Kingdome where he was had a fast friendship with Rome and such a kind of dependence that a dispensation from thence was thought necessary by the wisdome of that State to the marriage in treaty towards the procuring whereof though the Prince would not contribute the least application of his owne yet he was not reasonably to do any thing which might make that dispensation the more difficult to be procured The Pope that then was writ a Letter to the Prince which was delivered to his Highnesse by his Minister there resident It was a Letter of respect and in the interpretation of that State of great kindnesse and it would have been thought a very unseasonable neglect if the Prince had vouchsafed it no Answer on the other hand it was easier to resolve that it was fit to write then what in the mean time they who were officious that it might be done prepared the draught of a Letter and brought it to him the which when his Highnesse had perused with his own hand he expunged those clauses which might seem to reflect upon the Religion which he professed and having so altered and mended it he caused it to be sent to the Pope Copies of the first draught were spread abroad by which that was inserted in the French Mercury which is so carefully translated and printed and dispersed these late ill years and now is given in evidence against His Majesty But admitting it were the same and that the Prince being in a forain Kingdom with the policy whereof he was then to comply had written that very Letter which is printed with what colour of reason can any man make that an Argument of his inclination to Popery who at that time and ever since hath given the greatest testimony of his affection to the Protestant Religion that any Prince or private person hath done The Authours of this Declaration would not think it just that from their very loving Letters to the Bashaw at Argyers and his to them in which He thanks God that the Agent of the Parliament of England is come thither to make a peace and love betwixt them to the end of the world as appears by the relation of that businesse fol. 15. published by their authority and from the amity with them to that Degree that they have given the Turkes men-of-war the freedome of their Harbours men should conclude that they are resolved to turn Turkes and yet such a conclusion will more naturally result from those Letters and that strict correspondence then of the King's affection to Popery from that Letter to the Pope It is said that the same designe was laid in England at the same time and that many thousands were appointed to cut the Protestants throats in this Kingdom also when the King went into Scotland and that it was confessed by some of the principall Rebels that their Popish Committee with the King had communicated that designe with many Papists in England by whose advice though some things were altered yet it was generally concluded that about the same time there should be the like proceedings of the Papists here all which if true as no sober man believes it to be does no way reflect upon the King and that Popish Committee was sent more to the
two Houses then to the King and were more owned by them who tooke speciall care for their Accommodation By what is said it sufficiently appears how unjust and unreasonable all the particular Scandals are with relation to the businesse of Ireland in which His Majesty how impudently soever He hath been aspersed never did any or omitted the doing any thing but according to those rules which are most justifiable before God and man it were to be wished that the two Houses of Parliament had but as well performed their duty and obligations but it cannot be forgotten that neer the beginning of this Rebellion when the Houses pretended wonderfull difficulty to raise men for that Service and when a seasonable supply would utterly have broken and defeated the Rebels the King sent a Message to them on the 28 of December 1641. That His Majesty being very sensible of the great miseries and distresses of His Subjects in the Kingdome of Ireland which daily increased and the bloud which had been already spilt by the cruelty and barbarousnesse of those Rebels crying out so loud and perceiving how slowly the succours designed thither went on His Majesty Himself would take care that by Commissions which He would grant ten thousand English Voluntiers should be speedily raised for that service if the House of Commons would declare that they would pay them which offer from His Majesty was rejected and no considerable supplies sent till they had compelled His Majesty to consent to such a Bill for Pressing as might devest and rob Him of a necessary and legall power inherent in His Crowne Nor can it be forgotten that they reserved those men which were raised for Ireland and would not otherwise have been engaged in their Service but on that pretence and brought them to fight against His Majesty at Edge-hill and afterwards retained them still in their Service That they imployed the mony raised by Act of Parliament for the relief of Ireland and with a particular caution that it should be imployed no other way for the support and maintenance of that Army led by the Earle of Essex against the King and that from the beginning of the Rebellion in England though they received vast sums of mony raised only for Ireland they never administred any considerable supply thither that they could apply to the advancement of their owne Designes at home against the King These particulars of which kind every man may call to mind many more nor their notable compliance with the Irish Committee when they came first over are remembred to imply that the two Houses of Parliament were guilty of raising the Rebellion in Ireland otherwise then by their principles and proceedings in diminution of the King 's soveraigne power or that they cherished it after it was begun otherwise then by not wisely and vigorously endeavouring to suppresse it before it spread so universally but that which may be justly laid to their charge is their affecting and grasping the power of carrying on that War which so great a body is not fit for their imprudent and unpolitique declaring an animosity against the whole Nation and even a purpose for their utter extirpation and disposing their Lands to those who would be adventurers for it which Act and Declaration it is known drove many into open Rebellion who were not before suspected or at least declared to be affected to the Rebels and lastly their giving all their minds up to the kindling that horrid and monstrous rebellion here rather then to the extinguishing the other in Ireland 16. Next succeeds the Charge against the King for the unusuall preparation of Ammunition and Armes upon His return from Scotland with new Guards within and about White-hall 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 dis-placing Sir William Balfore and placing other Officers who were suspected by them and the whole City Not to speak of the entertainment they provided for the King against His return out of Scotland when in stead of thanking Him for having passed so many good Acts of grace and favour to them that there was no one thing more that the Kingdome could reasonably aske from Him or requisite to make them the most happy Nation of the world They presented Him a Remonstrance as they called it of the State of the Kingdome laying before Him to use His Majesties own words and publishing to the world all the mistakes and all the mis-fortunes which hapned from His first comming to the Crowne and before to that houre forgetting the blessed condition all His Subjects had enjoyed in the benefit of peace and plenty under His Majesty to the envy of Christendome Not to speak of the licence then used in language when upon debate of some pretended breach of Order one of the principall Promoters of this Declaration publickly said in the House of Commons without controle that their Discipline ought to be severe for the enemy was in view when the King was come within one daies journey of the City His Majesty found a band of Souldiers entertained to guard the two Houses of Parliament which as it had bin never known in age before in that manner so there was not now the least visible cause for it but that there had been a Plot in Scotland against the persons of the Marquesse of Hamilton and Argyle and therefore there might be the like upon some principall Members here Upon the King's return the Earl of Essex resigned up the Commission with which he had been intrusted by His Majesty during His absence to preserve the peace of the Kingdome and thereupon that Guard which was drawn together by vertue of that authority in that Earle was dissolved with it The King came then to White-hall and for what passed afterward heare in His owne words in His Declaration of the 12. of August Great multitudes of mutinous people every day resorted to Westminster threatned to pul down the lodgings where divers of the Bishops lay assaulted some in their Coaches chased others with Boats by water laid violent hands on the Arch-bishop of Yorke in his passing to the House and had he not been rescued by force it is probable they had murdered him crying through the streets Westminster-hall and between the two Houses No Bishops no Bishops no Popish Lords and mis-used the severall Members of either House who they were informed favoured not their desperate and seditious ends proclaiming the names of severall of the Peers as evill and rotten-hearted Lords and in their return from thence made stand before Our gate at White-hall said they would have no more Porters Lodge but would speak with the King when they pleased and used such desperate rebellious discourse that We had great reason to believe Our owne Person Our Royall Consort and Our Children to be in evident danger of violence and therefore were compelled at Our
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
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
of Reading whilst the Earl of Essex continued still at or about Warwicke on the 2 of November they resolved to send an Overture to his Majesty concerning Peace and though it must not be said they were forced to that Addresse yet truly who ever reads that Petition which was brought to his Majesty to Colebrooke will be of opinion by the stile of it that they were fuller of fear or of duty then they were when they rejected his Majesties offer from Notingham or then they were ten daies after or ever since That Petition was answered with all imaginable candor by his Majesty and Windsor chosen if they would remove their Garrison out of it for the place of Treaty But when the Messengers were returned who made not the least mention of a Cessation it appeared by sure intelligence that the Earl of Essex who had the night before brought his Army to or neer London after those Messengers were dispatched to his Majesty had drawn a great part of his Forces and the London Traine bands towards his Majesty and sent others to Acton on the one side and Kingston on the other so that there being likewise a Garrison at Windsor if the King had staid at Colebrooke He had been insensibly hemmed in and surrounded by the Enemy whereupon He took a sudden resolution to advance to Brainceford thereby to compell them to draw their Body together so making His way through that Towne with the defeat of a Regiment or two which made resistance there and thereby causing those at Kingston to remove the King went to His own House at Hampton Court and having there in vaine expected the Commissioners from the Houses to Treat retired to Reading where He staid till He found they had given over all thought of Treaty and they sent Him a new scornfull Petition to returne to His Parliament with His Royall not His Martiall attendance In January following the importunity of the City of London and generall clamour of the people forced them to pretend an inclination to peace and so they sent Propositions to his Majesty which though but 14 in number contained the whole matter of the former 19. with an addition of some Bils ready passed the two Houses to which His royall assent was demanded one of which was for the extirpation and eradication of the whole frame of Church-government and another for the confirming an Assembly of such Divines as they had chosen to devise a new Government which they were so much the fitter to be trusted with because in the whole number which consisted of above one hundred and might be increased as they thought fit there were not above a dozen who were not already declared Enemies to the old to the which notwithstanding there were few of them who had not subscribed and a promise required from his Majesty that He would give His assent to all such Bils which the two Houses should hereafter present to Him upon consultation with that Assembly How extravagant soever these Propositions were the King so much subdued and suppressed His Princely indignation that He drew them to a Treaty even upon those Propositions expecting as He expressed in His Answer when He proposed the Treaty that such of them as appeared derogatory from and destructive to His just Power and Prerogative should be waved and many other things that were darke and doubtfull in them might be cleared and explained upon debate and concluding that if they would consent to a Treaty they would likewise give such authority and power of reasoning to those whom they should trust that they might either give or take satisfaction upon those principles of piety honour and justice as both sides avowed their being governed by How that Treaty was managed how their Commissioners were limited and bound up by their Instructions that they had no power to recede from the least materiall tittle of the Propositions upon which they treated how they were not suffered to stay one houre beyond the time first assigned to them albeit his Majesty earnestly desired the Treaty might be continued till He had received an Answer to Propositions of His owne which He had sent to the Houses because the Committee had no power to answer them and how the same day their Commissioners left Oxford the Earl of Essex marched with his whole Army to besiege Reading is known to all men who may conclude thereupon that they never intended that Treaty should produce a peace On the other side the King proposed only That His Ships might be restored to Him and His Castles and Revenue which by the confession of all had been violently taken from Him and that His Majesty and the Members of both Houses who had been driven from Westminster might either return thither upon such a provision as might secure them against Tumults for the future or that the Parliament might be adjourned to some safe place and so all Armies presently to be disbanded To which Proposition from his Majesty they never vouchsafed to return Answer and the King after He had above a Month in vain expected it from them and in that time received a good supply of Ammunition which He was before thought to want sent another Message by Mr. Alexander Hambden on the 19 of May 1643. in which He told them That when He considered that the scene of all the calamity was in the bowels of His own Kingdome that all the bloud which was spilt was of His owne Subjects and that what victory it should please God to give Him must be over those who ought not to have lifted up their hands against Him when He considered that those desperate civill dissentions might encourage and invite a forain Enemy to make a prey of the whole Nation That Ireland was in present danger to be lost That the heavy judgments of God Plague Pestilence and Famine would be the inevitable attendants of this unnaturall contention and that in a short time there would be so generall a habit of uncharitablenesse and cruelty contracted throughout the Kingdome that even peace itself would not restore His people to their old temper and security His Majesty could not suffer Himself to be discouraged though He had received no Answer to His former Message but by this did again with much earnestnesse desire them to consider what He had before offred which gave so fair a rise to end those unnaturall distractions This most gracious Message from the King met with so much worse entertainment and successe then the former as it was not only ever Answer'd but the Messenger likewise being a Gentleman of quality and singular integrity though he was civilly received by the House of Lords to whom he was directed was by the House of Commons apprehended and imprisoned and never after freed from his restraint till he ended his life after a long and consuming sicknesse This is the Messenger they mean who to excuse their inhumanity and cruelty towards him they say at the
spent at Uxbridge is published to the world in which the last observation made by the King's Commissioners must not be forgotten That after a War of neer foure years for which the defence of the Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the Priviledges of the Parliament were made the cause and grounds in a Treaty of Twenty daies nor indeed in the whole Propositions upon which the Treaty should be there hath been nothing offered to be treated concerning the breach of any Law or of the Liberty or Property of the Subject or Priviledge of Parliament but onely Propositions for the altering a Government established by Law and for the making new Laws by which almost all the old are or may be cancelled and there hath been nothing insisted on of the Kings part which is not Law or denied by the Kings Commissioners that the other required as due by Law For the Protestation which they say was entred about the time of this Treaty in the Councell-Book and of which his Majesty gave the Queen account it is known to be no other then a Declaration that by calling them a Parliament there could be no acknowledgment inferred that he esteemed them a free Parliament which few at that time did believe them to be and they have since upon as small reasons confessed themselves not to be They alleage as a wonderfull testimony of their meeknesse and good nature that after His Majesties Armies were all broken so that in disguise He fled from Oxford to the Scots at Newarke and from thence went to Newcastle they tendred to Him at Newcastle and afterwards when the Scots had left Him to the Commissioners of Parliament at Hampton-Court still the same Propositions in effect which had been presented before in the midst of all His strength and Forces which is rather an Argument that they had at first made them as bad as possibly they could then that they were good since and considering the natures of these Declarers there cannot be a more pregnant evidence of the ilnesse and vilenesse of those Propositions then that they have not made them worse nor is the condition in which they have now impiously put His Majesty for His refusall worse then it had been or would be His Personall liberty only excepted if He consented to them and in one consideration it is much better because it is now a confessed act of violence and treason upon Him which if He once consent to their Propositions they will when ever they find occasion appear legally qualified to do the same They have once again out of their desire of his Majesties concurrence descended to one other addresse to Him and they said they did so qualifie the said Propositions that where it might stand with the publique safety His wonted scruples and objections were prevented or removed and yeilded to a Personall Treaty on condition the King would signe but foure Bils which they judged not only just and honourable but necessary even for present peace and safety during such a Treaty and upon His deniall of these they are in despair of any good by addresses to the King neither must they be so injurious to the people in further delaying their setlement as any more to presse His consent to these or any other Propositions What the former Propositions and Addresses to His Majesty have been and how impossible it hath been for Him to consent to them with His Conscience Honour or Safety appears before and how inconvenient it would have been to the Kingdome if He had done it they themselves have declared by making such important alterations in respect of the English interest in those presented at Newcastle from the other treated on at Uxbridge it will be fit therefore to examine these foure Bils which were to be the condition of the Treaty One of these Bils is to devest His Majesty and His Posterity for ever of any power over the Militia and to transfer this right and more then ever was in the Crown to these men who keep Him Prisoner for it is in their power whether they will ever consent that it shall be in any other and to give them power to raise what Forces they please and what Mony they think fit upon His Subjects and by any waies or means they appoint and so frankly exclude Himself from any power in the making Laws There need no other Answer why it is not fit or possible for the King to consent to this then what the Commissioners from Scotland gave to the Houses when they declared their dissent If the Crownes have no power of the Militia how can they be able to resist their Enemies and the Enemies of the Kingdomes protect their Subjects or keep friendship or correspondence with their Allyes All Kings by their royall Office and Oath of Coronation are obliged to protect their Laws and Subjects it were strange then to seclude the Crown for ever from the power of doing that which by the Oath of Coronation they are obliged to perform and the obedience whereunto falleth within the Oath of Allegiance and certainly if the King and His Posterity shall have no power in making Laws nor in the Militia it roots up the strongest foundation of honour and safety which the Crown affords and will be interpreted in the eyes of the world to be a wresting of the Scepter and Sword out of their hands Nor can this just and honourable Assertion be answered and evaded by saying that the Militia was the principall immediate ground of their quarrell in order to the preservation of Religion and the just Rights and Liberties of the people and that the Scots Commissioners have often agreed with them in it and that the Kingdome of Scotland fought together with them for it and upon the ground thereof and that now they argue against their injoying it almost in the very same words as the King did at the beginning of the War in His Declarations It is no wonder that what these men have done and the horrid confusion they have made have evinced many truths which appeared not so manifest to all understandings by what the King said or that they have not so good an opinion of those who tell them that there is another and a more naturall way to peace and to the ending the war then by Agreement namely by Conquest As they had of them who with all imaginable solemnity swore that they would sincerely really and constantly endeavour with their estates and lives mutually to preserve and defend the King's Majesties Person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdomes that the world may bear witnesse with their Consciences of their Loyalty and that they had no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties Power and Greatnesse which Engagements might perswade many that their purposes were other then they now appear to be For that other power they
profane wicked and tyrannicall Kings and refreshed them again with pious and devout and just Princes but it was a signall mark of their desolation when he declared that the Children of Israel should abide many daies without a King and without a Prince and it was a sure signe when they had no King that they had not feared the Lord and then what should a King do to them If the most notable Ministers of confusion and they who apprehend least the effects of it would but a little consider in their own stations the misery and desolation that must inevitably attend the breach of Order and subjection in little If the Father thought of the impossibility of living in his own house if his Wife and Children might follow the dictates of their own reasons and wills and appetites without observing his rule and directions If the Master would consider the intolerablenesse of his condition if his Servants might question dispute and contemn his commands and act positively against them they would be the more competent Considerers of the mischiefs and miseries that must befall Kingdomes and Common-wealths If Subjects may Rebell against the power and authority of Princes whom God hath appointed to governe over them There is not one of these Declarers who doth not think he hath a prerogative vested in him by nature It is the prerogative of the Husband the Father the Master not to have his pleasure disputed by his Wife his Child his Servant whose piety consists in obedience yet they cannot endure the mention of the Kings prerogative by and under which only it is possible for them to enjoy theirs It was a wel-weighed scoffe by which Lycurgus convinced him who desired him to establish a popular Government in Lacedemon Begin said he first to do it in thine own house and truly though these Ephori whose profession is to curb the power of Kings intended nothing lesse then to part with the least tittle of their own just authority They are appealed to whether they have not felt that power insensibly shrink from them whilst they have been ambitiously grasping at that belonged not to them Is the piety of Children and the obedience of Servants the same it was before these daies of licence Hath not God sent the same defection of reverence kindnesse and affectionate inclinations into Families to the rooting up and extirpating of all possible joy and delight in each other which the heads of those Families have cherished and countenanced in the State It may be there would not be a better or an easier expedient to reduce our selves and recover that Allegiance we have forsaken then by sadly waighing and considering the effects and kinds and species of Gods judgments upon us since we have been guilty of that breach If every Father whose soule hath been grieved and afflicted with the pertinacious undutifulnesse of a Child would believe as he hath great reason to do that God hath sent that perversnesse and obstinacy into his own bowels to punish his peremptory disobedience to the Father of the Kingdom his Soveraign Lord the King If every Master of a Family who hath been injured betrayed and oppressed by the treachery infidelity or perjury of a Servant would remember how false unfaithfull and forsworn he hath been to his Master the King and conclude that his Servant was but the Minister of Gods vengeance upon him for that transgression If the whole Nation would consider the scorn contempt and infamy it now endures and suffers under with all Nations Christian and Heathen in the known world and confesse that God hath sent that heavy judgment upon them for their contempt of him for whose sake they were owned and taken notice of for a Nation It would not be possible but we should bring our selves to that true remorse of conscience for the ill we have done that God would be wrought upon to take off the ill we have suffered and we could not entertaine a fond hope of injoying the least prosperity our selves without restoring to the King what hath been rebelliously taken from Him They say that though they have made those resolutions of making no more applications to the King yet they will use their utmost endeavours to settle the present Government as may best stand with the peace and happiness of this Kingdome What the present Government is no man understands and therefore cannot know what that peace and happinesse shall be which they intend shall accrue to the Kingdome by it The little Cabinet of Peers for the House is shrunk into that proportion hath no share in it as appeares by the giving possession of the Navy to Rainsborough without their consent after they had asked it and by their doing many other things of high moment without so much as asking their concurrence That it is not in the Commons is as plain by their repealing such Acts of their owne and making others as the Army requires them to doe And that the Army is not possest of it needs no other Argument then the invasion and violation of all the Articles ever made by the Army upon any Surrender which if the power were in them would for their own honour have been observed so that the endeavour they promise to use to settle the present Government is to take an effectuall care that all Laws and legall Authority may for the present be so suppressed that there may be no Government at all And truly it may be in their power for some time to improve the confusion that is upon us and to draw on the desolation which attends us but to settle any kind of Government which can bring peace or any degree of happinesse to the languishing Kingdome nay which can be any security to themselves and their posterity except they submit to the good old one under which they were born cannot be within their power nor sink into their reasonable hope Nothing is more demonstrable then 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 and it is as manifest that by that way they may restore the Kingdome to peace and preserve themselves and Families and Posterities in full security and honour The examination and cleering of which two Propositions shall conclude this discourse The reverence and superstition which the people generally paid to the name and authority of Parliament and by which they have been cozened into the miserable condition they now are in is so worn out that without captivating their reasons any longer to it as a Councell they plainly discern the ambition weaknesse vanity malice and stupidity of the particular Members of whom it is and of whom it ought not to be constituted and easily conclude that as they have robbed them of the most happy and plentifull condition any free-man of the world ever enjoyed so they can never be instruments
upon so dangerous a Precedent to their owne Crownes and Monarchies without contributing to suppresse this so pernicious a designe begun in this Kingdome God forgive those Princes who suffered His Majesty to be deceived in so just and Princely an expectation It is here likewise to be remembred that the two Houses had dispatched their Agent Strickland to the States of the united Provinces to invite them to their amity and assistance and to decline their League with His Majesty before Colonel Cockram was sent for Denmarke their Declaration to those Provinces bearing date the 8 of Occtober which was before the time that Cockram went towards Denmarke 19. The Queens going into Holland is next objected to the King and that contrary to His trust He sent the ancient Jewels of the Crowne of England to be pawned or sold for Ammunition and Armes of which they say they had certain knowledge before they took up Armes and that they had not so much as once asked the Militia till the Queen was going for Holland and that Her going beyond Sea was stayed many Months before Her going into Holland by their motions to the King because amongst other reasons they had heard that She had packed up the Crowne Jewels by which they might see what was then intended by that Iourney had not they prevented it till the Winter They are very unwilling to agree upon the time when they first took up Armes and would have their seizing upon the King's Forts possessing themselves of the Militia of the Kingdome of the Royall Navy to be thought only an exercise of their Soveraigne power and no taking up of Armes but though they could perswade the world that their countenancing and bringing downe the Tumults by which they first drove away many Members from the Houses and then the King Himself from Whitehall was not taking up Armes because there was no avowed Act of both Houses to bring downe those Tumults yet sure they cannot deny their marching out of the City with all the Trained bands of London in a hostile manner to Westminster where both Houses gave the chief Officers thanks approved what they had done undertook to save them harmlesse and appointed a new Officer of their own to Command those Traine bands which was on the 11 of Ianuary 1641. to be taking up Armes When they appointed the next day their own new Officer Skippon to besiege the Tower of London with the City Forces by land and water and not suffer any provision to be carried thither when the King's Lieutenant was in it and declared that whosoever should trouble him for so doing was an Enemy to the Common-wealth which was accordingly executed by him they must confesse undoubtedly that they took up Armes and both these high actions which by the expresse Statute of the 25 year of King Edw. 3. are High Treason were before any one Iewell belonging to the Crowne or the King was carried out of the Kingdome For the time of asking the Militia though no circumstance of time could make it justifiable not to speak of the Bill preferred to that purpose many Months before the House of Commons by their Petition of the 26 of Ianuary after the House of Peers had refused to concur with them in so dis-loyall a suit desired His Majesty to put the Tower of London and the principall Forts of the Kingdome and the whole Militia into such hands as they thought fit and the Queen went not into Holland till the 23 of February neither was her journy resolved on till the beginning of that Month so that their assertion of not having so much as asked the Militia till the Queen was going into Holland is utterly untrue and when they were made acquainted of such Her Majesties purpose they never in the least degree disswaded it But what was the Queens going into Holland and the King 's sending with Her the Iewels of the Crown to their taking Armes The Queen might very well go to any place the King thought fit She should go the Princess Mary being at that time to go into Holland to her Husband His Maj. thought it fit that the Queens Maj. should accompany Her Daughter thither And for the Jewels of the Crowne though most of the Jewels carried over by the Queen were Her owne proper goods let them shew any Law that the King may not dispose of those Jewels for the safety of His life and to buy Arms Ammunition to defend Himself against Rebels who have seized all His Revenue and have left Him nothing to live upon but those Jewels which He had only in His power to convey out of theirs or to leave them to be seized on and sold by them who applied all that He had else and His own Revenue to hasten His destruction In their mention of the Queens former purpose of going beyond Seas stayed as they say upon their motion because they had then heard She had packed up the Crown Jewels and Plate they use their old and accustomed licence If they will examine their own Journall they will not find amongst all those reasons which were carried up by Master Pim to the Lords at a Conference on the 14 of Iuly and the next day presented to the King to disswade Her Majesties Journy the least mention of Her having packed up the Crown Jewels and Plate but that they had received information of great quantity of treasure in Iewels Plate and ready Mony packed up to be conveyed away with the Queen and that divers Papists and others under pretence of Her Majesties Goods were like to convey great sums of Money and other treasure beyond the Seas which would not only impoverish the State but might be imployed to the fomenting some mischievous attempts to the trouble of the publike peace And they might remember that the chief reasons they gave to disswade Her Majesty was their profession and Declaration since they heard that the chief cause of Her Majesties sicknesse proceeded from dis-content of Her mind that if any thing which in the power of Parliament might give Her Majesty contentment they were so tender of Her health both in due respect to His most excellent Majesty and Her self that they would be ready to further Her satisfaction in all things and that it would be some dis-honour to this Nation if Her Majesty should at this unseasonable time go out of the Kingdome upon any grief or discontent received here and therefore they would labour by all good means to take away and prevent all just occasions of Her Majesties trouble in such manner as might further Her content and therein Her health which would be a very great comfort and joy to themselves and the rest of His Majesties loving Subjects These obligations they should have remembred and left the world to remember how punctuall they were in the performance The discourse at Burrough Bridge that the King would pawne His Iewels for the Army is as materiall