under favour I crave but one word more heare mee out I know very well and I read in your own law books such a prerogative as that in cases of Treason no Counsell shall plead against the King hath been sometime challenged to be the Kings Right by Law but let me tell you it was an usurpt prerogative of the late King with all other arbitrary Prerogatives and unjust usurpations upon the peoples rights and freedoms which has been pretended to be taken away with him And Sir can it be just to allow me Counsell to help me to plead for my estate the lesser and to deny me the help of Counsell to enable me to plead for my life the greater Nay Sir can it be jâ—st in you Judges to take up 7 years time in ending some suits of law for a little Money or Land and deny me a few dayes to consider what to plead for my life Sir all these pretences of yours were but all the prerogatives of the Kings will to destroy the poore ignorant and harmlesse people by which undoubtedly died with him or else only the name or title is gone with him but not the power or hurtfull tyrannie or prerogative in the least Therefore seeing all such pretended and hurtfull prerogatives are pretended to be taken away with the King by those that took away his life I earnestly desire I may be assigned Counsell to consult with knowing now especially no pretence why I should be denied that benefit and priviledge of the law of just and equitable law of England having put my selfe upon a Triall according to the priviledges thereof And it was declared to me at Oxford upon the Triall of my life there after I was taken prisoner fighting against the King and his partie even almost to handiâ—gripes and to the sword point and to the butâ— end of our Musquets being in person one of that little number that for many hours together at Bâ—â—inford fought with the Kings whole Armie wher 's in the manner without any Articles or composition I was taken a prisoner and immediatly thereupon arraigned at Oxford where notwithstanding all this it was declared to me by Judg Heath to be my right by the law of England to have Counsel assigned me to help me in point of law I had it granted I confesse he is my best Authority that I have and I am sure he was a Judg of the law or else I had never pleaded to him he was upon hisoath to doe justice and right and he was an able and understanding Lawyer and yet did allow me an hostile enemie counsell to help me army right by law before ever any proofe to matter of fact was produced and I beg but the same legall priviledg from you from whom I have more cause to expect itâ— Lord Keble Were you there indicted for Treason L. Col. Lilb Yes that I was for the highest of Treasons by the letter of the law for actuall levying war against the King Judg Thorp And yet for all that you know it was no Treason so did he too for you know that you had committed no Treason at all in obeying the Parliaments command for what you have done was done by the Parliaments speciall authoritie and command and you had your commission to justifie you in your hostile actions and he knew it well enough your Act was no Treason though he did offer you counsell or else he durst not allow you counsell L. Col. Lilb I had nothing to justifie me in that Act but the equitable sense of the law the letter of it being point blank against me and on the Cavalliers side by which if they had prevailed they might have hang'd both you and me for levying War against the King notwithstanding ouâ— Parliament Commissions and this I know Sir you know to be law in the letter or punctillioes of it Judg Thorp It was no Treason in you and he that assigned you counsell knew it was no Treason and this arraignment of you was as illegall as his assigning you counsell L. Coll. Lilb Sir by your favour he was a Judge of the law by legall Authority being made by the King in whom by law that power was invested and he looked upon himself as a legall Judg and so did I too and as a legall Judg he arraigned me for doing that act that by the expresse letter of the law was Treason and as a legall and honest Judge according to his duty in law he allowed me Councell Judg Jerman For that matter that you talke of they knew it was no Treason and therefore gave you more priviledges thâ—n was their right by law very well knowing that whatsoever was done to any of you that did fight for the laws religion and liberties of their Country there might be the like done to others that were prisoners in the Parliaments power and this was the truth of it and you know it very well and therefore it is nothing to us nor in law his willingnesse L. Col. Lil. Vpon my letters after the first day of my Tryall that Declaration of lâ—x tal oâ—is was made as clearly appears by the words and date of it now in print which the Reader may peruse in the 1. part of the Parliaments Declarations p. 802 803. Judg Thorp I wonder they did not proceed in the prosecution of the Indictment and find you guilty of Treason and so to execution L. C. Lil. Vnder-your favour thus I appeared at the Bar I pleaded to my indictment not guilty I made exceptions against my indictment and my selfe and the other 2 Gentlemen arraigned with me had Counsell assigned us as our right by law And the Judges most fairly rationally further told us Because we will not surprize you wee will give you a weeks time to consider with what Counsel you please in Oxford to choose to come unto you what to plead for your lives whatsoever other priviledges you can claim by the liberties of the law of England you shall enjoy them to the utmost Vpon which premise I spoke in open Court to the Judg shewing him the irons upon my hands in which I was arraigned and told him My Lord by the lawes of England no prisoner for any crime soever that behaves himselfe civilly and peaceably in his imprisonment ought to be put in irons or to any other pain or torment before he be legally convicted and therefore I desire as my right by law that my irons may be taken off And I said further My Lord I am shut up a close prisoner in my chamber denyed the use of pen ink and paper which is contrary unto law especially in the time of my Triall Why sayes he you shall be released from your irons from your close imprisonment and have the use of pen inke and paper and Capt Lilburn I tell you you shall enjoy whatsoever other priviledge you can challenge as your right by law for the law of England is a law of
of the danger of the man they may do it before ever they see him The next thing you are upon is the wrong and injustice that you received by the proceedings in the Star-chamber against you you see the proceedings there have been questioned and you justified if there be any thing else that hath been by others in the North or elsewhere acted there is no man here that will justifie them in their evil but for a private man as you are to tell us of them here and to come and tell us to our faces that we are Created and constituted by the Atturny General we will not suffer it nor further hear of it and therefore M. Lilburn although you have spoken fair words and happily more then your friends expected from you I must tell you that words are but words and it were well that you would do as well and as Rationally as becomes a Rational man as you have declared you will Lieut Col. Lilburn With your favour but one word more Judge Jerman M. Lilburn pray spare a word and hear the Court this Court sits here by lawful Authority and that is from the Parliament that are the Supreme Authority of England so that our Power is not derived from those that have no Rightful Authority to constitute us but our Power is from the Publick Authority of England which is now by an Admirable act of Gods providence lately but truly revived and settled by God upon them By that Authority this Court doth now sit and you are brought here before them that are most of us Judges of the Law and we are sworn to do you and every man justice and right according as his cause requires according to Law Judgement equity and reason And it was said truly that which my brother Heath who now is dead did say It s the the duty of the Judges to be of Councel with the Prisoner at the Bar before him and to do that which they are sworn to do and that you shall have and accordingly you have received more favour then ever I heard of a Prisoner that was accused of Treason in my life ever had And as for the Commission I must tell you it is usual to have Commissions of Oyer and Terminer and that even in Terme time for high offences and such as tend to the destruction of the Nation as Overburies did and those that tend to Capital Treason whereof you are now accused by a Grand-jury of London that are Free-men of London Citizens able men men of Religion men of Estate men of Conscience men of quality these are your accusers who have found you upon their Oaths guilty of Treason and cry out to us the Judges for justice against you and it is they not we that proceeds against you And as for our Commission it is according to the good old Laws of the Land founded upon the Statute made in Edward the firsts time called Westminster the second That Statute Authorizeth Commissions according to that Commission we sit by here this day and Edward the first was a wise and a good Prince and consented to the People to let them have such Commissions as ours we sit by is which the People had fought stoutly for in the Barrons wars in his Fathers time and also in his for he himselfe was taken Prisoner at Lewes in the County of Sussex and being a wise Prince he knew that the love of the people was not more to be got then by wholsome and safe lawes that every mans life and every mans estate and every mans liberty might be preserved by and not be subject to any Arbitrary Will or Power but that the sober and discreet and wise Lawes of the Kingdome which our Ancestors won by their swords might be their protectors a speciall one of which was this Statute of Westminster the second made in Edward the Firsts time by vertue of which Statute is this Commission directed to the Justices of the one Bench and the other and they be all here this day but onely those that of necessity must attend at Westminster onely to preserve the Terme Nou you are come to answer to that Charge which hath been the greatest opposition to the settlement of Government that can be I mean the settlement of the Supreme Authority of the Nation in the Commons now assembled in Parliament not newly erected but revived into the right place and hands for it is the Law of England revived that the Supreme Authority is in the * But by his favour never before practised nor used without both King and Lords a president of which he is desired to shew and produce out of any of his Law Books Commons assembled in the Parliament of England For so it was in the Saxons time and in the Romans time and in all times * But there was before the Conquest neither Innes of Court Lawyers nor Term Iudges in England but onely twelve good and legal men chosen in each Hundred finally to decide all controversies which lasted till William the Conqueror subdued that excellent Constitution and instead thereof introduced by His Will and Sword contrary to His Solemn Oath three several times taken the intolerable bondage of Westminster Hall or Term Judges and their Outlandish or Norman Law Practise in the French Tongue as all the English Chronicles universally and truly declare it hath bin as it is now which will sufficiently justifie our present Proceedings against you and therefore I say for the Commission it self it is in general for the Tryal of all Treasons what-soever But the grand Inquest have found out no other Traytor that they may accuse but Master John Lilburn who is now here at the Bar But it is not a bare accusation but it is the solemne Verdict of almost a double Iury that hath appeared upon the Roll and upon their Oaths do conceive those crimes of Treason that are laid against you to be of so dangerous consequence against the State and Common-Wealth that they do call for Iustice against you as a Traytor already found guilty And therefore I do require you as you are an Englishman and a rational man that you do conform your self and tell us plainly what you will do as in reference to the putting your self upon your Tryal by the Law and hear with Patience those Offences of Treason that are laid to your Charge Lieut. Col. Lilburn May it please you Sir by your favor I shall not now trouble you with many words Lord Keeble You go improperly to work Lieut. Colonel Lilburne That Gentleman I do not know his Name pointing to Judge Iarmen you were pleased to say that I have had more Favour then ever you have heard of any before ever had in the like case But Sir by your Favour I shall tell you of some that in the like case have had as much if not more and that was Throgmorton in Queen Maries time who was impeached of higher Treason than now I am
and pistol the late King which by Law was the highest of Treasons did conceive himselfe in regard of his ignorance unable to defend himself singly against his enemies designe which was to take away his life whereupon he becomes an humble suitor to the Lord Chief Barron Wilde that he might have Councel assigned him and the Court before ever the Grand Jury received any testimony against him to find the Bill assigned him Councel who as I understand were one Mr Nichols now a Judge of this Bench and sitting there and Mr Maynard of the Temple they were both assigned his Councell and from Mr Maynard himself I have it yea from his own mouth who being assigned his Councel they came into the court where the grand Jury was called before the Judge M. Maynard and M. Nichols now a Judge here had liberty there to be in the open Court where the witnesses before the Indictment was found was called and in open Court was sworn and in open Court gave in their Evidence before the Grand Jury Major Rolfes Councell being by in open Court to hear all the Evidence that was given against Major Rolfe who in his Indictment was Indicted for two matters of fact the first was that he had declared that in such a moneth and at such a place he had an intent to Pistoll the late King which by the letter of the Law of the 25 Edw 3. chap 2. was Treason then there was another Charge that such a day he had so said or declared to Poison Him in the presence of such a one and they were both put into one Indictment whereupon Mr Maynard being assigned by the L Chief Barron Wilde that now is to be of Councel for Rolfe in the same Case but with abundance of more advantage to him that I am now in Mr Maynard was then of Councel to the prisoner and had liberty to hear what the witnesses swore against him and to make his best advantage of it and that in open Court before the Indictment was found by the Grand inquest and although there were two expresse witnesses against him yet but one of them swore to one thing and another to another Mr Maynard being one that knew the Law better then Major Rolfe did himself he applied the two Statutes of Edward the sixth viz. the 1 Edw 6. chap 12. and 5. and 6. of Edw 6. chap 11. to Rolfes Case which Statutes doe expresly declare That no man ought to be convicted of Treason but by two sufficient witnesses upon plaine and clear evidence to each fact of Treason which evidance as Sir Edward Cook saies in third part of his Institutes ought to be as clear as the Sun at noon-day and not upon one single witnesse and upon conjecturall presumptions or inferences or straines of wit Now Sir I am an English-man as well as Major Rolfe and I have been an Officer in the Parliament Army as well as he and there fought for them as heartily as ever he did in his life and he was accused for the highest of English Treasons and therefore I humbly crave that in regard there are many particular errours in the Indictment as to matter time place that therefore in reference to the illegality of the Indictment according to this President by one of your own fellow Judges that you would according to my birth-right declared in Major Rolfes Case assigne me Councell as he had to help my ignorance that so I may not be destroyed by surprisall and illegall and unjust prerogatives L. Keable You see with what a great deal of favour in stead of a few words we have heard you many this is a priviledge but this that you say upon it it may be it was done but that we doe shall be according to that you and we shall find to he according the Laws of the Land and our conscience and the priviledge of the Subject that that they did before the Grand Jury and the witnesses the witnesses are here sworn in Court in presence of the Grand Jury so far we goe with them that of M. Maynard and M. Justice Nicholls being assigned Councell for what cause it was then they best know it is nothing that doth now concerne us though the Treason was against those Laws that then were in being we must come to proof it may be he confest his fact if you will doe so too it alters the case L. Col. Lilb No Sir he never confest it for if he had he had been found guilty but he was saved meerly by the skill and honesty of his Councel M. Maynard and his Indictment nuld an evaded before ever the Grand Jury found it and that upon this point of Law because by the two Statutes of Edward 6. there ought to be two plain and clear witnesses to every part of Treason and though Rolfe was accused by two witnesses yet there was two facts and but one witnesse to the proof of each of them L. Keable When you come to tryall if we see there be need of Counsel the Court will be instead of Counsel to you nay the Court if they see any matter of Law for Counsel though you doe not ask it they will give you it and therefore set your heart at rest for if there be any thing rationall in Law that we can spie out as well as your Counsel we will help you in it L. Col. Lilb Sweet Sir I crave but one word more I am upon my life and if you deny me what the Law affords me and that which hath been granted to be Law by Cavalier Judges yea and by your fellow Judges who are now in power at this day the Lord deliver me from standing in need of you to be my Counsel Iers L. Keable We are upon our lives too as well as you L. Col. Lilb No by your favour not in so iminent a manner as I am L. Keable We are upon our lives and our souls to all eternity L. Col. Lilb Sir I beseech you hear me one word L. Keable I will hear no more M. Pridiaux My Lord I desire the Court would proceed and not prolong time seeing he has pleaded not guilty and confessed something L. Coll. Lilb No Sir you doe me wrong and abuse me I never confessed any thing neither did I plead not guilty for my Plea was conditionall grounded upon your promises not to take any advantage of my ignorance in your formalities L. Keable Go on be silent M. Lilburn L. Coll Lilb If you take away my life without affording me the benefit of the Law my innocent bloud be upon your heads L. Keable Sir These passionate words will doe you no good you had better forbear them L. Col. Lilb Pray hear me then L. Keable Doe you say that we doe offer to take away your life Sir if we doe take it away contrary to law we are liable to smart for it but we shall judge what you have done the Lievtâ—nant Collonell pressing to speak was
as a Traytor before the Lord Chief Justice Heath for levying Warre at the Command of the then Parliament against the person of the King and when I came before him in the Guild-Hall of Oxford he told me there being present with him as his fellow Judge Mr Gardiner sometimes Recorder of the City of London now Sir Thomas Gardiner and others that sat by a speciall Commission of Oyer and Terminer from the King the which Commission I did not so well then understand as I hope I do now And my Lord Chiefe Justice Heath stood up in the face of all the Court in the face of all the Country present there told me Capt. Lilburne you are brought here before us for High Treason for leavying Warre in Oxfordshire against your Soveraigne Lord and King and though you be now in a Garrison and were taken in Armes in open hostility against the King yea Sir and I must now tell you in such hostility that we were but about 700. men at Branford that withstood the Kings whole Army in the field about five houres together and fought it out to the very Swords point and to the Butt end of the Musket and thereby hindred the King from his then possessing the Parliaments Train of Artillery and by consequence the City of London in which very act I was taken a prisoner without Articles or capitulation and was by the King and his party then lookt upon as one of the activest men against them in the whole company yet said Judge Heath we will not take advantage of that to try you by the rules of arbitrary Marshall Law or any other arbitrary waies but we will try you by the rules of the good old Lawes of England and whatsoever Priviledge in your Tryall the Lawes of England will afford you claim it as your Birth-right and Inheritance and you shall injoy it with as much freedom and willingnesse as if you were in Westminster-Hall to be tryed amongst your own party and this we will do for that end that so at London your friends shall not have any just cause to say we murdered you with cruelty or denied you the benefit of the Law in taking away your life by the rules of our own Wills Nay further said he Capt. Lilburn it is true I am a Judge made by my Soveraigne Lord the King according to his right by †See the 27. of Hen. 8. chap. 24. Law and soin a speciall maner am his Servant and Councellor and am to act for his good benefit and advantage And yet notwithstanding it is by the known Laws of this Land my duty to be indifferent and free from partiallity betwixt my Master and you the prisoner and I am specially bound unto it also by my Oath and therefore you shall have the utmost Priviledges of the Law of England which is a Law of mercy and not of rigor and hath the life of a man in tenderest and highest * See the 2. part Inst fo 28. 30. 42 43. 53. 315. 316. 591 3. part fo 34. estimation and therefore it is the duty of a Judge by Law to be of Councell with the Prisoner in things wherein by his ignorance he falls short of making use of the benifit of the Law especially when he is upon the tryall of his life Yea to exhort him to answer without fear if he perceive him daunted or amazed at the presence of the Court yea it is my duty to carry my self with all fairness and evenness of hand towards you And wherein that there shall seeme any mistakes to appear in circumstances or formalities to rectifie you For it 's my duty to help you and not to use any boisterous or rough language to you in the least to put you in fear or any wayes prevent the freedom of your defence and according to the Lawes of England this is my duty and this is the Law And accordingly he gave me liberty to plead to the errors of my Indictment before ever I Pleaded not Guilty yea and also became willing to assigne me what Councell I pleased to nominate freely to come to prison to me and to consult and advise with me and helpe me in point of Law This last he did immediatly upon my Pleading to the Indictment before any fact was proved all which is consonant to the Declared Judgement of Sir EDWAD COOKE that great Oracle of the Laws of ENGLAND whose Bookes are Published by speciall Orders * Which Orders are dated May 12 1641. Iune 3. 1642. you may at large read at the last end of his 2. part Institutes and Authority of Parliament for good Law who in his 3. part Institutes Chapt. Of high Treason fol. 29. 34. compared with fol. 137. 230. asserts the same Truly Sir I being now come before you to answer for my life and being no professed Lawyer may through my own ignorance of the practick part of the Law especially in the Formalities Nisities and Puntillios thereof run my selfe with over-much hastinesse in snares and dangers that I shall not easily get out of And therefore being all of a sudden bid to hold up my hand at the Barre I cannot chuse but a little demurre upon it and yet with all respect to you to declare my desirablenesse to keep within the bounds of Reason Moderation and Discretion and so to carry my selfe as it doth become a man that knowes what it is to answer for his life And therefore in the first place I have something to say to the Court about the first Fundamentall liberty of an Englishman in order to his triall which is that by the Lawes of this Land all Courts of Iustice alwayes ought to be free and open for all sorts of peaceable people to see behold and heare and have free accesse unto and no man whatsoever ought to be tried in holes or corners or in any place where the gates are shut and bar'd and guarded with armed men and yet Sir as I came in I found the gates shut and guarded which is contrary both to Law and Iustice Sir the Lawes of England and the Priviledges thereof are my Inheritance and Birth-right And Sir I must acquaint you that I was sometimes summoned before a Committee of Parliament where Mr. Corbet and severall others have had the Chaire and there I stood upon my right by the Lawes of England and refused to proceed with the said Committee till by speciall order they caused their Dores to be wide thrown open that the people might have free and un-interrupted accesse to heare see and consider of what they said to me although I think the pretence that I am now brought before you for be the very same in substance that I was convened before Mr. Corbet for which was about Bookes and I am sure there I did argue the case with him and the rest of the Committee soundly out in Law proving that they were bound in Law and Iustice freely to
open their Dores for the free accesse of all sorts and kindes of auditors And I did refuse as of right to proceed with them till by speciall order they did open their Dores For no triall in such cases ought to be in any place unlesse it be publick open and free and therefore if you please that I may enjoy that Legall Right and Priviledge which was granted unto me by Mr. Miles Corbet and the rest of that Committee when I was brought before them in the like case that now I am brought before you which priviledge I know to be my right by the Law of England I shall as it becomes an understanding Englishman who in his actions hates deeds of darknesse holes or corners goe on to a triall But if I be denied this undoubted priviledge I shall rather die here than proceed any further And therefore foreseeing this before hand and being willing to provide against all jealousies of my escape the feare of which I supposed might be objected against me as a ground to deny me this my legal right and therefore before hand I have given my engagement to the Lieutenant of the Tower that I will be a faithfull and true prisoner to him And I hope the Gentleman hath so much experience of my faithfulness to my word that he doth not in the least question or scruple it I am sure he hath often so declared to me that he doth not Nay I have not onely ingaged to be a true prisoner in the Tower to him but I have also solemnly ingaged to him that I will come civilly and peaceably with him and that I will go civilly and peaceably back with him again And that if any tumult or up-roare shall arise in the croud of which I lose him and he me or in case I should be any wayes by force power rescued from him I have also faithfully ingaged to him that I will come again to him by the assistance of God as soon as ever I can get away from that force or rescue And all this I intreated him to acquaint you with that all jealousies and disputes might be avoided Iudge Keble Mr. Lilburn look behind you and see whether the Dore stands open or no. L. Col. Lilb Well then Sir I am satisfied as to that But then in the next place I have read the Petition of Right I have read Magna Charta and abundance of Lawes made in confirmation of it and I have also read the Act that abolisheth the Star-chamber which was made in the yeare 1641. which last recited Act expresly confirmes those stratures that were made in Edward the thirds time which declares all Acts Laws and Statutes that were made against Magna Charta to be null and void in Law and holden for error In the reading of which Lawes I doe not find a speciall Commission of Oyer and Terminer to be Legall and warrantable I beseech you Sir doe not mistake me for I put a vast difference betwixt an ordinary and common Commission of Oyer and Terminer for holding ordinary and common Assises and Sessions and betwixt an extraordinary and special commission of Oyer and Terminer to try an individuall person or persons for a pretended extraordinary crime the Lawes I last recited and the fundamentall or essentiall Basis of freedome therein contained knowes no such names or Commissions of speciall Oyer and Terminer And those Statutes in Edward the first and Edward the thirds time that doth erect those special and extraordinary Commssions and warrant the usage of them are meerly irrationall * And excellent to this purpose is Lieutenant Colonel Lilburnes Argument in his second Edition of his Picture of the Councel of State page 8. against the erection of extraordinary Courts which thus followeth He granting that the Parliament hath power to erect a Court of Justice to administer the Law provided that the Judges confist of Persons that are not Members of Parliament And provided the power they give them be universall that is to say to administer the Law to all the people of England indefinitely who are all equally borne free alike and not to two or three particular Persons solely the last of which for them to do is unjust and altogether out of their power c. which Argument or Reason is most notably illustrated and inlarged in the second Edition of the legall fundamentall Liberties of England revived of the 8. of June 1649. page 72. innovations upon our indubitable Rights contained in Magna Charta and meere Court and Prerogative devices to destroy the best of men by extraordinary Court appointed and prejudge proceedings that should manfully stand in the way of the Prince or any of his great favourites for sure I am from the Petition of Right no ground or foundation for any extraordinary or special Commission of Oyer and Terminer upon any pretended speciall or great occasion cannot be founded but rather the absolute quite contrary as to me clearly appeares by the very plain letter of that most excellent Law and therefore such a speciall Commission upon any pretended speciall occasion being expresly against our undubitable Rights contained in Magna Charta And the Petition of Right viz. that no Englishman shall be subjected to any other Tryall but the ordinary universall and common Tryalls at ordinary Assiâ—es Sessions or Goale-deliveries and not in the least to be tryed by extraordinary and speciall prejudged packed over-awing Commissions of Oyer and Terminer and therefore all such extraordinary and dangerous Tryalls are absolutely abolished by the late excellent â—cts that confirmes the Petition of Right and all and every of the Clauses therein contained and abolisheth the Star-Chamber both made Anno. 1641. And Sir with your favour the then Parliament that made the lastre cited Lawes were so farre from countenancing any special Commissions of Oyer and Terminer upon any special or pretended great occasions whatsoever that I can read of That I rather find and read the Parliaments proceedings in the year 1641. An extream Out-cry of the House of Commons against special Commissions of Oyer and Terminer with a great deal of bitterness and vehemency as may fully and clearly be read in that excellent Argument of Mr. Hide April 1641. Printed and published in a Booke called Speeches and Passages of Parliament page 409. to 417. which I have here at the Barre to produce which Mr. Hide was then the special and appointed mouth of the House of Commons before the Lords who unto them in conformity to his Commission from the then House of Commons complaines to the house of Lords extreamly of a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer that was exercised in the five Northern Counties of England and earnestly in the name of the house of Commons craves the special assistance of the house of Lords to pluck up that Court by the very rootes founded upon a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer being so illegall and unjust in the very foundation of it as
it is inconsistent with the peoples liberties and as that which destroyed and disinherited all the people that were tryed both of their Birth-right and Inheritance viz. Their Liberties and Freedoms contained in Magna Charta And this Sir was the declared and avowed judgement and opinion of the house of Commons in April 1641. in their primitive purity and none-defilement when they acted bravely and gallantly for the universall Liberties and Freedom of this Nation and not selfe-interest when they were in the Virginity of their Glory and Splendor as he there fully and most excellently declares and yet he there gives an extraordinary reason for the original erection of that Court founded upon a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer as can be rendred The originall reason or occasion of which he there declares to be thus that by reason of the suppression of the Abbies in the 27. of Henry the eights time In the North of England through discontent thereat there did arise from the said 27. yeare to the 30. no fewer then six grand insurrections most of them under the Command of some eminent man of those Countries which Insurrections Rebellions occasioned the leavying of great Armies which had like to have set the whole Kingdom in an universall flame for the suppressing and preventing of which in future times King Henry the 8. caused a special Court to be erected by a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer which Court also continued in Edward the sixt time Queen Maries and first and seventh of K. James The Basis of which Commission was founded upon those fore-mentioned innovating Statutes made in Edward the second and Edward the third's time * Which were Westminster the second being the 13. of Ed. 1. c. 29. 2. Ed. 3. c. 2. 34. Ed. 3. c. 1. which special Commission of Oyer and Terminer was several times renewed by the late K. Charles as in the fift eighth and thirteenth yeer of his Reign And the said M. Hide there in his Argument or Speech which I have here in print names several of the Presidents of that illegal Court of special Commission of Oyer and Terminer and he there also declares in what an extraordinary manner and upon what an extraordinary occasion it was granted which was so great as that a greater could not be imagined and yet notwithstanding he declares that this extraordinary Commission which being granted to suppress and quiet those many extraordinary Insurrections and Rebellions which do not admit of so long delay as times of ordinary Tryal in times of Peace when the Ordinary Legal and common Courts of Justice are open and free will do when peace and quiet is in the Nation as now it is and yet for all that he condemns it for illegal And therefore Sir admit my actions in their tendancy to be as dangerous and hainous as any of my adversaries can imagine or declare them to be yet they are but in the ashes but in the harth they are not broke out into visible and violent hostile actions and therefore I say if special Commissions of Oyer and Terminer granted in such special and transcendent cases as those in Henry the 8. time were illegal much more must a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer granted to try me barely for words or at most for pretended Writings or Books at such a time when there is no burning flame of Insurrections or Rebellions in the Kingdom but all in visible peace and all the ordinary Courts of Justice open and I and my Friends have often sought to enjoy the benefit of the Law in a Legal Trial from first to last but could never enjoy it in the least measure although many Sizes and Sessions have past over my head since my first Commitment now seven moneths ago at the first of which in the County where my pretended crime was committed I ought by Law and Justice either to be tryed or acquitted so that Sir by what I have already said you may see the judgement and opinion of the House of Commons upon special Commissions of Oyer and Terminer in their first purity when as a full House there being constantly 400 or 500. of them siting in the House as the deputed and chosen Trustees of the People of England whose opinion was to dam them and pluck them up by the roots as unjust and illegal in their original Institution which they have accordingly done and declared to the whole Nation in the Act that abolished the Star-chamber where that Court spoken against by M. Hide is totally dammed and pulled up by the roots So that now in Law I cannot see how special Commissions of Oyer and Terminer can be legal at this present admit the Power never so just from whom it comes but abundantly much more seing there is no actual Wars nor popular Insurrections which if lately there had bin any and yet were overcome Of which judgment Sir Edw. Cook is positively in part 2. Instit f. 48. and part 3. f. 52. in Th. Earl of Lancasters case which is singular well worth the reading See also part 1. Instit f. 13. a. there is no pretense of ground by the good old Laws of England for any extraordinary proceedings against any man although he had bin in Arms against you but he ought to have the benefit of the ordinary accustomed and common tryals at the Common Law as cleerly appears by the express words of the Petition of Right * But I was never in any hostile manner against those that are the present Governors of the Nation but have bin under their command in several battels in the Nation and have hazarded my life for them and never yet in the least changed my original or first Principles nor never was engaged in the least in any hostility against them but have alwaies since I five yeers ago gave over my command lived in peace and quietness in mine own house and aboad and was the same day at the House of Commons dore that their Votes passed against me declaring me in general which in Law signifies nothing to be a Traytor and spake with a Gentleman that is now a Judge amongst your selves viz. M. Rigby at the House dore who in some great Ones names proffered me large matters if I would do as I should be directed by them after this I went home to mine own house in Southwark where I stayed in peace and quietness well enough knowing the Votes that that day past against me without either particular accusation or accuser or any such thing where I stayed when as I might easily have escaped the hands of mine enemies and bin gone but having the sweet peace of a good Conscience within me which did assure me that I had done nothing that was against the Welfare of the Nation of England in general nor against the welfare of any one particular man in England but really wisht it well and all its well-wishers I say that notwithstanding my certain
knowledge of all that at the House had past against me and although I also knew that the further designe against me which was that the Councel of State as they are called would take me away thereupon with armed force the next morning yet notwithstanding all this I stirred not out of my House but remained there till about five a clock the next morning at which time 200 or 300. armed Horse and Foot without so much as one Civil or Magisterial Officer with them came by force of Arms and haled me out of bed from my Wife and Children not according to the Law of England as is expresly provided in two several Statutes viz. the 1. of Edw. 6. Chap. 12. and the 5. 6. of Ed. 6. Ch. 11. by which rules of the Law and no other they ought to have proceeded against me from first to last and I am sure they both expresly provide that if any man be accused of Treason that he shall be accused first to one of the Kings Councel or to one of the Kings Justices of Assize or else to one of the Kings Justices of the Peace being of the Quorum or to two Justices of the Peace within the Shire where the same offence or offences shall happen to be done or committed * See also to this purpose part 3. of Cooks Instit Ch. High Treason f. 26. 27 28. and part 1. Parl. Declar. in the case of the L. Kimbolton and the 5. members p. 38 39 76 77 But contrary to these and other wholsom and good Laws although there hath bin an eight yeers War in England pretendedly for the preservation of the Laws and Liberties of England yet I say contrary to the express Tenor of these Laws as also of the Petition of Right yea and also of the express Letter of that excellent Law that abolished the Star-chamber this Parliament was I by force of Arms that never fortified my House against the present Power nor never disputed any of their Summons though sent by the meanest man that ever appertained to them and who if they had sent their Warrant for me by a child I would have gone to them I was fetched out of my bed in terror and affrightment and to the subversion of the Laws and Liberties of England and led through London streets with hundreds of armed men like an algier captive to their main-Guard at Pauls where a mighty guard stayed for the further conducting me by force of Arms to White-hall Now Sir if I had committed Treason I ought not to have bin apprehended and proceeded against by armed mercenary Soldiers but by Civil and Magisterial Officers and no other according to those excellent priviledges that the Parliament themselves in the yeer 1641. in their own book of Declarations p. 36 37 76 77. did claim for those six Members viz. the Lord Kimbolton M. Pym M. Hollis M. Stroud Sir Arthur Hasleridge and M. Hamden I say and aver I ought to have had the process of the Law of England due Process of Law according to the fore-mentioned Statutes and Presidents for I never forceably resisted or contended with the Parliament and therefore ought to have had my Warrant served upon me by a Constable or the like Civil Officer and upon no pretense whatsoever ought I to have been forced out of my bed and house by Mercenary armed Officers and Souldiers But Sir comming to White-hall I was there also kept by armed men contrary to all Law and justice and by armed men against Law I was by force carryed before a company of Gentlemen sitting at Darby-house that look upon themselves as Authorized by the Parliament to be a Committee or Councel of State who by the Law I am sure in any kind had nothing at all to do with me in cases of pretended Treasons where I was brought before M. Iohn Bradshaw sometimes a Councellor for my selfe before the House of Lords against my unjust Star-chamber Judges who there in my behalfe Feb. 1645. did urge against the Lords of the Star-chamber as the highest Crime against the liberties of the people that could be as being Illegal Arbitrary and Tyrannical that the Lords in Star-chamber should censure me to be whip'd pillared c. for no other cause but for refusing to answer their Interrogatories against my selfe and when I was brought before the said Councel of State I saw no accuser no prosecuter no accusation nor charge nor inditement but all the Crime that there was laid unto my charge was M. Bradshawe's very seriously examining me to questions against my selfe although I am confident he could not forget that himself and M. Iohn Cook were my Councellers in Feb. 1645. at the Barre of the House of Lords where he did most vehemently aggravate and with detestations condemn the Lords of the Star-chambers unjust and wicked dealing with English freemen in censuring them for their refusing to answer to questions concerning themselves and yet notwithstanding walked with his dealing with me in the very steps that formerly he had bitterly condemned in the Star-chamber Lords yea and there for refusing to answer his questions for any thing he declared to me to the contrary committed me to Prison for Treason in general and you know very well better then I do that by your own Law generalls in Law signifie nothing Judge Jarmen M. Lilburne you very much abuse and wrong your selfe for you very well know M. Bradshaw is now denominated by another name namely Lord President to the Councell of State of England and it would well become you in your condition so to have styled him Lieut Col. Lilburne And although no crime in Law which ought to be particularly expressed was laid unto my charge yet when I was first imprisoned there were thousands of my friends well wishers to the freedomes of England and to the common cause in which they had been ingaged in for these eight yeares together both old and young both masters of families young men and apprentises and abundance of others of the feminine sex too with abundance of cordiall honest men in severall Countries joyned in severall rationall and fair petitions and delivered them to the House in the behalfe of my selfe and my three fellow Prisoners in which they most earnestly intreated them that they would not prejudge us before we were heard and knew our accusers and accusations but rather that they would release us and take off their prejudgeing Votes against us which they had caused to be proclaimed in all the publique places of the Nation against us and let us have a fair and Legall Triall according to the Lawes of England and according to the undenyable Priviledges of the due processe of the Law from first to last and they would put in any security that they would require of them that we should be forthcomming at all times to answer whatsoever in Law could be laid to our charge unto all which petitions which were very many they could get
no manner of satisfying answer but slights abuses and scornes But besides this Gentlemen that you may see that I am rationall and that you may see I have an innocent and quiet Conscience within me that does not accuse me nor rerrifie me therefore I must acquaint you that I again and again proffered my chiefest Adversaries and sent often to them being earnestly desitous to chuse two Members of the House of Commons and let them chuse two more whom they pleased and I would withall my heart freely refer all manner of difference betwixt them and me to the finall determination and judgement of four of their fellow Members but all this would do no good and yet they would not in the least let me understand what was the thing they desired of me but by their Power and Will I had my pockets and Chamber searched to find out advantages against me and also lock'd up close Prisoner with Centinells night and day set at my door and denyed the accesse and sight of my Wife and Children for some certain time and for about twenty weeks together in the heat of summer kept close Prisoner and denyed the liberty of the Prison and my estate with a strong hand taken away from me without any pretence or due process of Law to the value of almost three thousand pounds that was Legally and justly invested in me and in my possession but being I will avoid at this time especially provocations as much as I can I will name no person by whose Power and Will it hath been done although he be notoriously known but the Gentleman that took it away by his pleasure without all rules of Law or justice told my Father to this purpose that I was a Traitor and under the Parliaments displeasure and therefore he would secure it from me although I were not in the least convicted of any crime neither in Law then or for many months after had I the least pretence of crime laid unto my charge And although my own estate by force against Law was taken from me yet was I also denyed in my close imprisonment that Legall allowance that should have kept me alive for in all this miserable condition I never yet received a penny of my Legall allowance but was positively denyed that restimony and Legall Right that the late King constantly allowed to all the Members of the Parliament that were committed in the third of his Reign and severall other times unto whom for their diet he allowed three four and five pounds a week according to their quality although they had great and large estates peaceably in their possession And one of them that is now beyond the Seas a Colonell I have forgot his name but it was Colonell Long confessed in the Lieutenant of the Tower's own Chamber the last year that the King was so bountifull to him and the rest of his fellow Prisoners that he let them injoy the allowance of about four or five pounds a week for diet and that while he was Prisoner in the Tower he spent the King about 1500l for his own particular self in provision but notwithstanding I was denyed all this and to fill up the height of the insufferable provocations put upon me abundance of my own and ancient acquaintance were set upon me to callumniate bespatter and reproach me yea and to indeavour to become instruments to take away my life some of them confessing they were underhand set on by some Parliament men all whose base and wicked petitions papers and books preferred and published against me were hugged and imbraced althongh for my own part I do not know of any man in this world that can justly tax me with any action or maintaining any principles or tenents but what doth becom a man that doth believe all that is contained in the Law and the Gospel and does believe the Resurrection of the dead and life Erernal nay that does believe that I my selfe shall arise and go to the Lord of Glory Yet notwithstanding all these unparaleld provocations put upon me especially by divers of my old acquaintance whom I had upon all occasions faithfully served but never wronged injured nor provoked being instigated as they themselves confesse in some of their owne Congregations by Parliament men so to do Truly sirs I appeal to your own judgements and to your Consciences and to all the people that hear me this day whether all these provocations laid upon a poor man which is but dust and ashes as well as other men be not too insupportable a burden and too much for the causers of them to take advantage of the fruits produced by them to destroy me and take away my life And therefore Sir in the first place I shall humbly crave that favour and right seeing I am brought before you by a piece of parchment that truly I could not read neither could he do it that shwed it me I mean the Lieutenant of the Tower for admit that if I did well understand Latine as indeed I do not onely some ordinary words yet was it in such an unusual strange hand that I could not read it and therefore being I am brought before you implicitly and not as I conceive an Englishman ought to be who ought to see and read the Authority by vertue of which he is convened before any power It s true I know some of you Gentlemen that I see sit before me yet not many of you and truly I have nothing but a piece of un-legeable Parchment which cannot satisfie my understanding of the Legalnesse of my convention before you but being I am not able to dispute that Power that compulsively brought me but here I am and therefore in order to the declaring of my self to be a true Englishman I most humbly crave and that I think is consonant to reason and I hope to Law too that I may see and hear read the Commission by vertue of which you sit here this day and convene my Person before you that so I may compare it to the Law and consider whether or no that by my pleading before you by vertue of it I do not betray my liberties and rherefore I humbly crave that you would let me hear your Commission read for this Court is no ordinary and common Assizes Sessions or Goal-delivery the onely proper Courts for trying me for all criminal faults yea and those also ought to sit where the Crimes are committed and I was imprisoned for a pretended Crime pretended to be committed in the County of Surry where by the common Law of England and expresse Statutes I ought to be tryed therefore and no where else And therefore being brought in an extraordinary manner to such an extraordinary place as this which is no ordinary Assizes nor Sessions no nor yet in mine own County therefore I again humbly desire that you will be pleased to let me see and hear your extraordinary Commission that so I may consider whether the extent
or latitude of the Commission be consonant or no to the Petition of Right and other the good old Laws of England for those that now sit at Westminster exercising the Supreme Power by two special Declarations the one dated the ninth of February last and the other the seventeenth of March last have positively declared and called God to witness that they will maintain preserve and defend that excellentest of Laws the Petition of Right as in the seventh page of the last Declaration they call it and that the people of England shall enjoy all the benefit therein contained whether to Life Liberty or Estate with all things incident thereunto and therefore I humbly beg and crave that favor from you that seing to me you appear to be sent in an extraordinary manner not according to the ordinary Customs of the Lawes of England that you will be pleased to let me hear your Commission read that so I may consider of the consonancy thereof to the Petition of Right and other the good old Lawes of England and after the reading of it I hope I shall return you such an answer as doth become a rational and ingenious man who though he hath right to all the Priviledges of the Laws of England and hath read all the declared and plain Laws of England that are to me the fundamentals of all yet the practick part of the Law which are in other Tongues besides the English I cannot read know nor understand and in the Petition of Right and other the good old Fundamental Lawes of England I can find no Foundation or Bottome for such an extraordinary Court as this before my eyes seems to be and therefore I again make it my most humble suit to hear your Commission read Judge Kebell M. Lilburn you are fully heard M. Prideaux Atturney Gen. My Lord the Prisoner at the Barre nor none else have cause to complain that he hath wanted your patience in being fully heard My Lord that which at the begining of his Arraignment you expected from him which was to hold up his hand he denyed and upon his denyal desired liberty of speech to speak and he hath injoyed it But my Lord how pertinent his discourse is to what was proposed to him the Court and all that hear him will judge My Lord I am not here to justifie the actings of those that here he hath complained against but they are a Court they are a Councel and my thoughts are and so ought his to be honorable of them and what they have done my Lord towards him in ordering this Court to try him is but justice My Lord there is no speciall Commission of Oyer and Terminer but a generall Commission and upon that general Commission here is a special presentment of M. Lilburn here at the Barre the general Commission is according to the Law of the Land and upon that special presentment it is expected he may be proceeded against according to Law And for your Commission my Lord that hath been read and published to the Court before M. Lilburn came to the Court and the Court is satisfied with it that it is in the ordinary way and I hope the judgement you will give will declare it to be according to the Law in the ordinary way And as for the Commission it self in the form of it it is not a tittle varied from the ordinary accustomed form But my Lord the Petition of Right Magna Charta the Statutes and all Declarations that have been spoken of they are all confirmed in this and all do confirm it for in that ordinary tract that hath been practised in this Nation for five hundred years is M. Lilburn now to be tryed and that by the old good Lawes of England M. Lilburns Birth-right and every mans else he has his Triall the beginning of which hath been M. Lilburns presentment which is already found by the Grand inquest who are men of Integrity men of ability men of knowledge My Lord he is now to come to his Tryal not in an extraordinary way but by a Jury of good and Legal men of the Neighbour-hood by men that do know my Lord and understand what is fact what is Law * Mark that well for Judge Jermane caled it a damnable Doctrine when Mr. Lilburn declared the Jury were Judges of Law as well as of fact and to do justice indiffer ently between both And my Lord I do know and publish to all that now hear me that the Commission for Triall of M. Lilburn this day for those differences that arebetween the State and M. Lilburn is free in Law from all those exceptions that he is pleased to put upon it and is unquestionably Legal and used for these many hundred yeares together And as for M. Lilburns declaring the fact for which he was Originally imprisoned for to be committed in Surry and therefore there in Law he ought to be Tryed and not here in London being another County As for M. Lilburns Crimes committed in Surry his own Conscience best knows what they are but M. Lilburn at most can but yet guesse at what we intend to Try him here for or lay unto his charge But my Lord if M. Lilburn will please to put himself upon his Trial according to Law my Lord I hope the Court and all that hears and sees their proceedings will receive full satisfaction in the legality and fairness of their proceedings against him and himself the benefit of justice and Law Lieut Col. Lilburn Sir by your favour in two words I shall not be tedious I now perceive who is my accuser and prosecuter the Gentleman that is a very inequal one for he is one of the Creators being a Member of the House of you that sit here this day to be my Judges and therefore an overawing and unfit accuser or prosecutor Lord Keeble M. Lilburn I pray you hear me a word for now you speak not Rationally nor discreetly you have had a fair respect and hearing what you speak of liberties and lawes we come here to maintain them for all and for you too and we also come for to vindicate our actions and as for that you speak of in reference to the Commission I must let you know the Commission is warrantable by the lawes of England for this five hundred years nay and before five hundred years in substance The second thing that you speak to is that you were apprehended in such an hostile manner understanding by law you should have been taken in an ordinary way by an ordinary Officer But M. Lilburn in all apprehensions of Traitors Fellons and Murderers is not the Power of the County to be raised and the Sherife is to call and take what Power he pleaseth Lieut Col. Lilburn By your favour Sir not unlesse I resist which I did not and besides there was no Sherife nor no other civil Officer at my Apprehension Lord Keeble M. Lilburn spare your felf it is as they are informed
and that in the daies of the commonly accounted bloudiest and cruellest Prince that this many hundreds of years hath reigned in England and yet Sir I am sure in this very place and that by special Commission of Oyer and Terminer who was accused for being one of the chiefest Confederates with Wyat in his Kentish Rebellion which Wyat marched with an Army against the Queen to London for which actual War or Rebellion Throgmorton was in this place arraigned as a Traytor and enjoyed as much if not more favor then I have now enjoyed although his then Judges and Prosecuter were bent to take away * Whose remarkable and excellent Defence you may at large read in Hollingsheads Chronicle in the life of Q. Mary which discourse is excellently well worth the speedy Reprinting especially seeing men are made Traytors for words which cruelty Q. Mary abhorred as may cleerly be read in that excellent Statute of his made in the first yeer of Her Reigne Chap. 1. his life right or wrong and therefore Sir by your favor it is no extraordinary favour that you have afforded me it is but onely my right by law Justice and common Equity But Sir I shall be short and put my business to a plain issue which is this I have here at the Bar given in many strong Arguments against the validity and legality of a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer and supposing that to be such an one by vertue of which you sit and intend to try me for my life and therefore I have humbly desired as in reason and I think in law I may justly do to hear your Commission read But you have positively denyed me that and therefore I desire all my Friends and all the people that hear me this day to bear witness and take notice that you contrary to Reason and common Equity denyed me to let me hear read your Commission by Vertue of which you go about to take away my life which I cannot chuse but desire them to take notice I declare to be very hard measure But Sir to save my self from your fore-lay'd shares and desired advantage against me I will come a little closer to the business You demand I should hold up my hand at the Bar and I know not what it meanes neither what in law it signifies It s true I have read the most part of the lawes that are in English which I take to be the Foundation of all our English legal Priviledges and in them I cannot find any thing that doth cleerly declare unto me the full signification or meaning of a mans holding up his hand at the Bar Therefore if you please but to explain what the meaning and signification of holding up the hand at the Barre is I shall seriously consider of it and I hope returne you a Rational and discreet answer for truly in those lawes which are in the English Tongue that I have read although I find mentioned maid of holding up the hand yet I cannnt finde much of the full signification of it onely I finde it to be of a large extent and as for those lawes or rather the practick part of the law that are in French and Lattin I cannot read them and therefore much lesse understand them in which regard for me to hold up my hand at the Barre before I understand the true signification of it in law which tells me it is in it selfe a ticklish thing were for me to throw away my own life upon a puntillio or nicity that I am ignorant of and therfore truly I think I should be a very fool in my own ignorance to run that danger therefore Sir I humbly desire the clear explination of the meaning of it in law after that I shal give you a fair rational answer Lord Keeble M. Lilburn you shall see we will deal very Rationally with you and not insnare you in the least manner if that be all The holding up of your hand we will tell you what it meanes and signifies in Law the calling to the party to hold up his hand at the Bar is no more but for the special notice that the party is the man inquired for or called on and therefore if you be M. Iohn Lilburn and be the man that we charge do but say that you are the man and that you are there and it shall suffice Lieut. Col. Lilburn I am Iohn Lilburn son to M. Richard Lilburn of Lord Keeble M. Lilburn what you have to say we will hear presently onely take notice that we will take your acknowledging of your name to be sufficient if you will say that you are the man you are called by your name you have come and answered to your name in order to your answering the Charge to be read against you do but this and it shall suffice without holding up your hand therefore let us have no more discourse as to that Judge Jerman M. Lilburn pray spare me a word for you have been heard with patience you have desired to have the Right of the Law of England and yet you do question a Fundamental thing that hath been alwayes used in case of Criminal offences By the Law of England that you desire to have the meaning of it is but just but you must know that the Law of England is the Law of God and if there be any thing in the Law of England but what was by admirable Constitution and Reason we would not meddle with it but I pray know this that the Law of England is no written Law it is the Law that hath been maintained by our Ancestors by the tryed rules of Reason and the prime Lawes of Nature for it does not depend upon statutes or written and declared words * But saith M. Hyde in his fore-mentioned Argument against the Northerne special Commission of Oyer and Terminer pag. 411. Misera servitus est ubi jus est vagum aut incognitum That is to say It is a miserable servitude where the law is uncertain or unknown And the very same saith that great Oracle of the law Sir Edward Cook in the Proem to the third part of his Institutes and in the fourth part fol. 332. and in several places besides But the people may easily see hereby that these present Judges drives to have no other law in being in England but what is in their own and their masters brests that so by pretence of law they may give away all the liberties and proprieties of the people of the Nation as their brother Judges did lately to the King in the case of Ship money and then woe and woe to the people to be brought back again to that Faith that ignorance is the Mother of devotion or obedience or lines and this is our Lawes that have been maintained by our Ancestors and is subordinate to the law â— Wil of God therefore I say again the Law of England is pure Primitive Reason uncorrupted and
declared in print in English which tongue only I can read and understand and seeing by the Law which is in English which I have read and clearly understand that there are a great many snares and a great many niceties in the practick that are formall proceedings of the Law and seeing I know not certainly whether if I proceed to matter of proofe before in Law I make my exceptions against your Inditement as to matter time and place I be not in Law deprived of that benefit which I principally aime at for the preservation of my life therefore I beseech and most earnestly entreat you to assigne me Counsell to consult with before I be too farre insnared and if you will not doe it and give me some reasonable time to prepare my plea and defence then order me to be knock'd in the head immediately in the place where I stand without any further tryall for I must needs be destroyed if you deny me all the meanes of my preservation Judge Jermine Mr. Lilburne It were reasonable to give you satisfaction if you would receive it you say you were present at my Lord of Straffords Triall and you say he had Counsell assigned him not only to stand by him at the Barre but to repair to prison to instruct and advise but that was not a Tryall in such a way as this is It was a Triall by way of Impeachment before the Peers assembled in Parliament and his Attainder was made up into an Act of Parliament but that is not a Triall at the common Law per pares which is that which your self have desired a Tryall by lawfull men according to the Liberties of the Lawes of England After your Answer to your first question that is to say whether you be guilty or not guiltie of the things whereof you are accused no Counsell in the world can follow till the Fact be proved and matter of Law doe arise thereupon So that the first thing that must be done the matter of Fact must be proved against you and then if it shall appear thereupon to the Court that matter of Law doth arise and you doe expect Counsell we must and will performe it the Court are of your Counsell so farre as to fact And then in that case that Law arise thereupon you may and ought to have other Counsell assigned and doe not you doubt but the Court will be as carefull of you as you can be of your selfe and allow you more favour it may be then your friends doe expect L. Col. Lilb Vnder your favour and by your good liking I was once Arraigned at Oxford for my life upon the matter of Treason for leavying war in Oxfordshire against the King as their Indictment then said and my Arraignment was by vertue of a Commission of Oyer and Terminer that was and in Law I am sure of it as legall and as just as yours is and my Lord Chiefe-Justice Heath the chief Commissioner or President who was in the eye of the Law as legall a Judge as any of you and yet he Lo. Keble Mr. Lilburne we doe remember it L. Col. Lilb I beseech you give me leave to speake for my selfe and to goe on for my life lies upon it Lo. Keble Heare me one word and you shall have two This that you did speake but even now doe not you thinke that we have such bad memories as that we have alreadie forgot it your life is by Law as deare as our lives and our soules are at stake if we doe you any wrong L. Col. Lilb I wish you may be sensible of that Sir Judge Jarman Mr. Lilburne you need not to say so our soules are upon it and we are to stand or fall by Justice and righteousnesse as well at your selfe is L. Col. Lilb I say my Lord Heath and the Court at Oxford profered me Counsell before any one witnesse was produc'd to my face or any matter of fact came to the proofe yea and gave me Liberty to make my exceptions to the insufficiencie of the Indictment which was very short in comparison of yours I crave the same priviledge from you the nations pretended friends that I found at Oxford amongst its declared pretended enemies against whom in severall battells I had fought And I hope you that pretend to be the preservators of the Liberties of England will not be more cruell and unrighteous then the declared destroyers of them if you will not allow me Counsell as I had there I have no more to say to you you may murder me if you please Judg Jerman You were pleased to mention some presidents of those that have been accused of high Treason that have had Counsell assigned to them and for one you mention that of my Lord of Strafford whose Tâ—iall I told you was Parliamentarie before the House of Peers upon the impeachment of the Commons of England in Parliament assembled and so it went on in a Parliamentarie way their proceeding is in an ordinarie course of the ordinarie qundam Court of Justice according to the common law Now for my L. of Strafford give me leave to observe this he had no Counsell assigned him untill such time as questions of the law did arise which required Councell and then he had Counsell assigned him but not before for that my Lord doth not say that you shall have no Counsell but that you shall have that which the law allows and as for that which you speake of counsell at Oxford it could not be but when upon the proose of matter of fact it appears to the Court that there is any Question or matter of law arising upon the fact And when it doth so appear unto us then you shall have Councell for that but I beseech you hear me on You are now come before us according to the common law to be tried by your Countrie there is now nothing in question but whether that matter that thing those words contained in the Indictment read to you be true yea or no that is whether they be done or no for wee will not give Counsell to plead to the matter of fact contained in your owne bookes which you remember very well L. Col. Lilb Those books supposed mine pray let me have sair play and not be wound and scru'd up into hazards and snares Lord Keble If they be not yours upon good grounds proved before you you are in no danger and if upon the proofes of the words and deeds done there doe appear matter of law you must and shall have counsell stay till that be done in the meane time the Court will take care that a Jurie shall be returned of honest and sufficient legall men to judge of the proofes L. Col. Lilb There was arraigned with me at Oxford Collonel Vivers of Banbury now alive and Capt. Catesby who is dead I will bring Coll. Vivers to depose here upon his Oath that my Lord Heath the rest of the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer
Out-Cry of the young men and Apprentices of London directed to all the privat Souldiers of the Army c. a third A preparative to an Hue and Cry after Sir Arthur Haslerigg and a fourth The legall fundamentall liberties of the people of England revived that he did in these bookes publish that the said Governement is tyrannicall usurped and unlawfull and that the Commons in Parliament assembled are not the Supream authority of this Nation he stands further indicted that he as a false Traytor did maliciously advisedly and trayterously plot and contrive to raise force against the present Government and for the subversion and alteration of it and for the fulfilling of his most malicious and trayterous designes he did in and by the said trayterous Books falsly maliciously and advisedly utter and declare severall most false and scandalous malicious and trayterous words and writings that in the Indictment are particularly named and expressed And thirdly that as a Traytor not being an Officer nor a Souldier or a member of the Army under the Command of the now Lord Generall Fairfax he did most maliciously and trayterously endeavour to withdraw certaine Souldiers of that Army from their obedience to their superiour Officers which are particularly named in the Indictment and that for the full accomplishment of his contrivances and endeavours he did maliciously advisedly and trayterously publish and deliver the poysonous booke called An Impeachment and in particular directed by the Title of the booke to all the people of England being for that end published by him to publick view in which Book are contained most false and scandalous malicious mutinous and traiterous expressions as in the Indictment are set forth And further that in the said book which he called An Impeachment that the present Government is tirannicall and usurped and that the Commons of England in Parliament assembled are not the Supream Authority And he further stands indicted and the Jury further finds and presents that all these and other expressions written by him and published by him in written Papers and printed books he hath falsly maliciously and trayterously stirred up strife on purpose and to the intent to stir up and raise force against the present Government setled in the way of a Common-wealth and free State without King and Lords on purpose it to subvert and destroy And further he hath also most trayterously endeavoured to withdraw the privat Souldiers from their obedience and subjection to their superiour Officers and all this in manifest contempt of the Lawes of this Common-wealth in that behalf made and provided and to the hazzard of the overthrow and utter subversion of the said Government To this Indictment the Gentleman hath pleaded not guilty and hath put himself upon his Conntry and if we can prove this against his Plea it is at an issue L. Col. Lilb I deny that Sir I never pleaded any such single Plea as not Guilty and you Gentlemen of the Jury I beseech you take notice be extreamly wrongs me in saying so for my Plea was a conditionall Plea as a Plea at large Mr. Atturney My Lord and you Gentlemen of the Jury You have heard the Indictment read unto you and you have heard it opened unto you and you have heard what Mr. Lilburne saies that he did not plead not Guilty and I hope he is ashamed of his Plea now he heares the Indictment opened unto him My Lord in this Indictment there is contained these severall Grand Treasons The first is that he hath advisedly traiterously and maliciously published that the Government that is now established by way of a free State or Common-wealth without either King or house of Lords is tirannic all usurped and unlawfull and further that the present Parliament now assembled arr not the Supreame authority of the Nation The second is this that he hath plotted contrived and endeavoured to stirre up and raise forces against the present Government and for the subversion and alteration of the same The third is this that relates to the Army you have heard what his expressions have been and they have been read unto you concerning them and the rest that he not being an Officer or Souldier or member of the present Army hath offered to stir up mutiny in the Army and to withdraw the Souldiers from their obedience and subjection to their superiour Officer and thereby to stir them up to mutiny and discontent These are the maine parts and substance of what I intend to Charge him with in the evidence to prove that which was contained in the Indictment My Lord you have heard in what hath been read out of the Indictment what expressions they are those that are traiterous to the publicke and have been so declared so judged so executed these are here Mr Lilburns engaged true friends the Parliament the Government the Authority of both Parliament and Army they are Tyrants Vsurpers Mercenaries Janisaries Murderers Traytors standing by their own power and swords and ever-ruling all by their Wills these are the expressions that he hath used My Lords I shall not trouble you with any thing of agravation for my Lords I do conceive that the reading of the Bookes themselves aggravates every thing against him and I thinke there is no English man as Mr. Lilburn so often stiles himself to be will own such words or acts as these are And truly my Lord if I had read the Books and not known the person I should not have thought he had been either a Christian or a Gentleman or a Civill man to have given such base and bitter language but my Lords and you of the Jury I stall hold you no longer the evidence being so plaine and the matter so foule that it will not admit ouer much stand in need of any dispute and to make it plaine and cleere to your judgements and Consciences there is Witnesses in the Court evidently to prove every thing that will stand in need to be proved for the Indictment My Lords the words are maliciously advisedly and traiterously I shall not catch at words but as himself sayes what he prints is of mature and deliberate consideration and such are his books in print that himself hath either printed or caused to be published The first that he is Charged withall is that which is called An Out-Cry it hath a very dangerous Title and in the Direction especially to the Souldiers of the Army but especially to the privat Souldiers of the Generalls Regiment of horse that helped to plunder the true hearted English men traiterously defeated at Burford so that the Rebels at Burford were Mr. Lilburns deare friends My Lord it hath not only a dangerous Title but was published at a dangerous time yea and for a dangerous end which was to stir up the great mutiny that was in the City of Oxford My Lord for the proof of this we shall offer this That Mr. Lilburn himself was Capt. Iones associate in the publishing that Booke For Mr.
Forraigners or Strangers to invade England or Ireland or shall adhear to any Forces raised by the Enemies of the Parliament or Common-wealth or Keepers of the Libertie of England Or if any person shall counterfeit the great Seal of England for the time being used and appointed by Authority of Parliament that then every such offence and offences shall be taken deemed and declared by Authority of this Parliament to be high Treason And every such persons shall suffer paines of death and also forfeit unto the Keepers of the Liberty of England to and for the use of the Common-wealth all and singular his and their Lands Tenements and Hereditaments Goods and Chattles as in case of high Treason hath been used by the Lawes and Statutes of this Land to be forfeit and lost provided alwayes that no persons shall be indicted and araigned for any the offences mentioned in this Act unlesse such offenders shall be indicted prosecuted for the same within one year after the offence committed And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid that if any person shall counterfeit the money of this Common-wealth or shall bring any false money into this Land counterfeit or other like to the money of this Common-wealth knowing the money to be false to marchandize or make payment in deceit of the people of this Nation Or if any person shall hereafter falsly forge and counterfeit any such kind of Coyn of Gold or Silver as is not the proper Coyn of this Common-wealth and is or shall be current within this Nation by consent of the Parliament or such as shall be by them authorised thereunto or shall bring from the parts beyond the Seas into this Common-wealth or into any the Dominions of the same any such false and counterfeit Coyn of money being current within the same as is above said knowing the same money to be false and counterfeit to the intent to utter or make payment with the same within this Common-wealth by merchandize or otherwise Or if any person shall impair diminish falsifie clip wash round or file scale or lighten for wicked lucre or gaines fake any the proper moneyes or Coynes of this Common-wealth or the Dominions thereof or of the moneyes or Coyns of any other realme allowed and suffered to be current within this Common-wealth or the Dominions thereof that then all and every such offences above mentioned shall be and are hereby deemed and adjudged high Treason and the offenders therein their Councellers Procurers Ayders and Abetters being convicted according to the Laws of this Nation of any of the said offences shall be deemed and adjudged Traytours against this Common-wealth and shall suffer and have such pains of death and forfeitures as in case of ligh Treason is used and ordained Provided alwayes and be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid that this Act touching the moneyes and Coyns aforesaid or any thing therein contained nor any attainder of any person for the same shall in any wise extend or be judged to make any corruption of bloud to any the heir or heirs of any such offender or to make the wife of any such offender to lose or forfeit her dower of or in any Lands Tenements or Hereditaments or her Title Action or Interest in the same Mr Atturney My Lords and you Gentlemen of the Jury you have heard these laws read unto you the clauses that we are to make out in proof against Mr Lilburne are these That if any person shall maliciously or advisedly publish by writing Printing or openly declaring that the said Government is Tyrannicall usurped or unlawfull or that the Commons in Parliament assembled are not the Supreme authority of this Nation are Traytors these we shall joyne together with his books My Lord you are here in Court and have received the proofs against him and we shall now make it out that he hath done what this Statute forbids out of his own books that have come from himself as the Author of them My Lord we shall begin with that charge against him in declaring the government Tyrannicall usurped and unlawfull and for that end see his Impeachment of Lieut Gen Cromwell c. page 8. Just Jermin Mr Lilburne Doth your Paper of the 17 of May agree with that which was read or no. L. Col Lilb No. Sir I conceive Sir you ask'd me whether this Act I have in my hand do agree with that which was read Just Jermin Yes Sir I do L. Col Lilburne It does not Just Jermine Then you will make use of it by and by Lieut. Col Lilb I Sir I intend so if you will let me Mr Atturn My Lord The first is that Mr Lilburne hath declared the present Government to be tyrannicall usurped and unlawfull and that in ipsissimis verbis that he hath so declared in a very high way in the very words so his book intituled an impeachment of high treason against Oliver Cromwell and his Son in law Henry Ireton c. Read fol Clerk Fol 8. Yea and the absolute keeping up of a perpetuall everlasting Army under which the people are absolute perfect Slaves and Vassals as by woefull and lamentable experience they now see they perfectly are which slavery and absolute bondage is like daily to encrease under the present Tyrannicall and Arbitrary new erected robbing Government Mr Attur And so My Lord it is here exprest to be a tyrannicall and arbitrary Government which are expresly within the word of the Law for they are a tyrannicall Government My Lords we shall not stick here with him but you shall see the whole Course of all his pens writing hath been to this purpose that goes very far My Lord see the Title page of the last book Clerk Title page Before a legall Magistracie when there shall be one in England which now in the least there is not Mr Prideaux See fol 1. Clerk Pag. 1. I have fully both by Law and Reason undeniably and unanswerably proved that the present Juncto sitting at Westminster are no Parliament at all in any sence either upon the Principles of Law or Reason but are a Company of usurping Tyrants and Destroyers of your Lawes Liberties Freedoms and Proprieties sitting by Virtue of the Power and conquest of the Sword Mr Prid Read the Title page of the same book Clerk An impeachment of high Treason against Oliver Cromwell and his Son in Law Henry Ireton Esquires members of the late forcibly dissolved House of Commons presented to publick view by Lieut. Col John Lilburne close Prisoner in the Tower of London for his reall true and zealous affections to the Liberties of his native Countrey In which following Discourse or impeachment he engageth upon his life either upon the Principles of Law by way of indictment the onely and alone legall way of all Tryals in England or upon the Principles of Parliaments Ancient Proceedings or upon the Principles of Reason by pretence of which alone they lately took away the
Kings life before a legall Magistracy when there shall be one again in England which now in the least there is not Mr Att Indeed My Lord and you of the Jury Mr Lilburne is a very great Rooter not a Leveller but a Rooter to root out the Laws of England by the Rootes J There is not Lieut. Col Lilb By your favour Mr Prideaux I knew the time when others said it as well of you and it is not long since you were penned down in a black bill to my knowledge as unsavory Salt with many others to be thrown out of the House of Commons I pray Sir whether were those Rooters that went about to roote up that House by force of Armes or Mr Prideaux and others to give them cause at least in their apprehensions Mr Att My Lord A legall Magistracy in England as now he saith in the least there is not if there be no Magistracy I will conclude there is no Propriety My Lord left in this Nation but Mr Lilburne saith there is no Magistracy and if so then no Propriety Lieut. Col Lilb It would be a very strange Argument that you would inferre I wish you and I were to dispute that in point of Law for our lives that to deny a Magistracy legally constituted according to the Formalities of the Law does not destroy Propriety for indeed Sir propriety is an antecedent to Magistracy and is first in being before it but Sir to end the dispute he that ownes the Law of England as I do that distinguisheth meum tuum can never be a Destroyer of Propriety I wish your practise were as consonant to Propriety as my Principles Mr Prid Read the 2 Page at the marke Clerk Now I say considering that which is before declared I cannot upon any tearms in the world either with Safety Justice or Conscience as things stand with me at present give my consent but hinder as much as I am able all addresses from me or any other that shall own the usurping Tyrants as a Parliament especially by Petition which was a course saith the pretended Parliament Sollicitour against the King in his case stated pag. 24. which Gods people did not take with Reboboam for they never petitioned him although he was their lawfull supreame Magistrate but advised him he refusing their Counsel and hearkened to young and wicked Counsellours and they cry out to thy Tents O Israel and made quick and short work of it Mr Prid My Lord here is words again to make good as aforesaid that the Parliament are usurping Tyrants read also Page 28. Clerk Read on Page 23. in the margent of the said book And if those very things should now be judged Treason as they are and were in the Earle of Strafford I wonder what should become of all our present Juncto at Westminster and their new thing called a Councel of State undoubtedly the most if not all of them must go to Tiburne or Tower-hill there by a halter or axe to receive their just deserts Amen Mr Att There is an Amen pronounc'd to us let him have it that deserves it but to go on Read the 11. page of his book called the Apprentices Outcry Clerk reads 11. page We say considering what is before premised we are necessitated and compel'd to do the utmost we can for our own Preservation and the Preservation of the Land of our Nativity and never by popular Petitions c. addresse our selves to the Men sitting at West-minster any more or to take any more notice of them then as of so many Tyrants and Usurpers and for time to come to hinder as much and as far as our poor despised interest will extend to all others whatsoever from subscribing or presenting any more popular Petitions to them And onely now as our last Paper refuge mightly cry out to each other of our intollerable Oppressions in letters and remonstrances signed in the behalf and by the appointment of all the rest by some of the stoutest and stiffest amongst us that we hope will never apostatize but be able through the strength of God to lay down their very lives for the maintaining of that which they set their hands to Mr Prid Read page 2. Clerk reads on page 2. But even our Parliament the very marrow and soul of all the peoples native Rights put down and the name and Power thereof transmitted to a picktparty of your forcible selecting and such as your Officers our Lords and Riders have often and frequently stiled no better then a mock Parliament a shadow of a Parliament a seeming Authority or the like pretending the continuance thereof but till a new and equall representative by mutuall agreement of the free people of England could be elected although now for subservancy to their Exaltation and Kingship they prerogue and perpetuate the same in the name and under colour thereof introducing a privy Counsel or as they call it a Counsel of State of Superintendency and Suppression to all future Parliaments for ever erecting a martiall Government by bloud and violence impulsed upon us Mr Prid Read page 3. at the marke Clerk Page 3. Trade is decayed and fled misery poverty calamity confusion yea and beggery grown so sore and so extreame upon the people as the like never was in England under the most Tyrannicall of all our Kings that were before these in present Power since the dayes of the Conquerour himself no captivity no bondage no oppression like unto this no sorrow and misery like unto ours of being enslaved undone and destroyed by our large pretended friends Mr Prid Read page 4. Clerk pag. 4. And yet nothing but the groundlesse wills and humours of those forementioned men of bloud rageth and ruleth over us and is this all the returne and fruit that people are to expect from your hands Mr Prid Take his preparative to an hue and cry after Sir Arthur Haslerigge and read page 2. Clerk reads on The Preparative to the hue and cry after Sir Arthur Haslerigge at pag. 2. in the margent that those men that now sit at West-minster are no Parliament either upon the Principles of Law or Reason Mr Prid Read pag. 3. Clerk pag. 3. They promise to amend and to proceed according to the forme of the Law as fully appears in their last fore-mentioned Declaration and severall others as particularly the present Declaration of this present Juncto against Kingship dated the seventeenth of March 1648. Mr. Prid Read pag. 4. Clerk pag. 4. But the said Sir Arthur Haslerigge c. more arbitrarily and more trayterously the Strafford having no pretence of regall legall or Parliamentary Commissions or Authority no not so much as from the present nothing or illegall Juncto or the present illegall thing called the Councel of State Mr John Iordan now member Mr Att My Lord he doth declare who he meanes by Juncto Mr Jurdon a member of the present Juncto the pretended House of Commons in the third place for
the proofe of this first particular I shall produce his book intituled the legall and fundamentall Liberties of England revived c. Read pag. 41. Clerk reads pag. 41. But Sir I say no wonder all the things foregoing rightly considered they do own you now as Thomas Pride hath made you for the supreame Authority of the Nation although before they would neither submit to King nor Parliament when it was a thousand times more unquestionable both in Law and Reason then now you are but fought against both King and Parliament their setters up conquered them repelled them subdued them and brok them both and so pull'd up by the Roots all the legall and visible Magistracy and Authority in the Nation and thereby left none but themselves who stand in paralell to none as they have managed their businesse but to a company of murderers theeves and robbers who may justly be dispossessed by the first force that are able to do it no pretended Authority that they of themselves and by their Swords can set up having in the fight of either God or man either in Law or Reason any more just Authority in them then so many Argier Pirats and Robbers upon the Sea have L. Col Lilb You read as I take it a second Edition whether is that a second Edition or no Mr Att No No It is not so in the Indictment it is no second Edition but the first Read page 56. Clerk pag. 56. To which I answer first That that Company of men at Westminster that gave Commission to the High Court of Justice to try and behead the King were no more a Parliament by Law nor a representative of the people by the Rules of Justice and Reason then such a Company of men are a Parliament or representative of the people That a Company of armed theeves chuse and set a part to try judge condemn hang or behead any man that they please or can prevaile over by the power of the sword to bring before them by force of armes to have their lives taken away upon pretence of Justice grounded upon Rules meerly flowing from their wills and swords Mr Prid Read the Title page Clerk The legall fundamentall Liberties of the people of England revived asserted and vindicated or an Epistle written the eigth of June 1649 by Lt. Col John Lilburne Arbitrary and Aristocraticall prisoner in the Tower of London to Mr Will Lenthall Speaker to the remainder of those few Knights Citizens and Burgesses that Col Thomas Pride at his late purge thought convenient to leave sitting at Westminster as most fit for his and his Masters designes to serve their Ambitious Tyrannicall ends to destroy the good old Laws Liberties and Customs of England the badges of our Freedome as the Declaration against the King of the 17 of March 1648. page 23. calls them and by force of armes to rob the people of their lives estates and properties and subject them to perfect vassalage and slavery as he clearly evinceth in his present case c. they have done and who in truth no otherwise then pretendedly stile themselves the Parliament of England Mr Prid Read page 2. Clerk Sir For distinction sake I will yet stile you Mr Speaker although it be but to Col Prides Juncto or Parliament sitting at Westminster not the Nations for they never gave him Authority to issue out writs to elect or constitute a Parliament for them and a little below in the same second page I accused Oliver Cromwell for a wilfull murderer and desire you there to acquaint your House therewith who then had some little hand of a Parliament stamp upon it M. Prideaux Read page 28. Clerk page 28. The like of which Tyranie the King never did in his Reigne and yet by S. Olivers means lost his head for a Tyrant but the thing that I principally drive at here is to declare that Oliver and his Parliament now at Westminster for the Nations it is not having plucke up the House of Lords by the Roots page 44. So that if it be Treason to call this a a Mock Parliament yea and to say and if this be true for true it is * These words cannot be found in page 44. but are in the Book it self which time will not permit to read all over and therefore at present it passeth lame and imperfect then there is neither legal Iustice nor Iustice of peace in England M. Prideaux Read page 37. Clerk page 37. For if they ever had intended an Agreement why do they let their own lie dormant in the pretended Parliament ever since they presented it seing it is obvious to every knowing eie that from the day they presented it to this hour they have had as much Power over their own Parliament now siting as any School-master in England had over his boies Clerk page 45. Four Yor Interest and the Kings both being Interests of Trust as your Declarations do plentifully and plainly declare but especially your present Iuncto's late Declaration against the late beheaded King and Kingly Government M. Prideaux Read page 58. Clerk page 58. And let the present generation of swaying men that under pretense of good kindness and friendship have destroyed and trod under foot all the liberties of the Nation and will not let us have a new Parliament but set up by the Sword their own insufferable insupportable tyrannical Tyranie Lieut. Col. Lilburn I pray Sir are all these quotations in the Indictment verbatim I do not remember that I heard them there M. Atturney No We do not offer any Book but what is charged in the Indictment for we do say that he published those things among other clauses and things in those Books so that we bring in no Book that is not contained in the Indictment Read page 64. Clerk page 64. That so that might rule direct and counsel their mock-Parliament M. Prideaux Read page 68. Clerk page 68. That that High Court of justice was altogether unlawful in case these that had set it up had been an unquestionable Representative of the people or a Legal Parliament neither of which they are not in the least but as they have managed their businesse in opposing all their primitive Declared ends are a pack of Trayterous self-seeking Tyrannical men usurpers of the name and Power of a Parliament M. Atturney Read page 72. Clarke page 72. Then with much more confidence say I this that now sits is no Parliament and so by consequence the High Court of justice no Court of justice at all M. Atturney My Lord that which we shall offer you next is the salva libertate which the Lieutenant of the Tower had from M. Lilburn himself read at the mark Clark †A salva libertate although I then told you I judged a paper warrant although in words never so formal comming from any pretended Power or Authority in England now visible to be altogether Illegal because the intruding General Fairfax and his Forces had
no more but self in the highest and to set up the false Saint most desperate Apostate Murderer Traitor Ol. Cromwel by a pretended election of his mercenary Souldiers under the false name of the Godly interest to be King of England c. that being now too apparently all the intended liberties of the people that ever he fought for in his life that so he might rule and govern them by his will and pleasure and so destroy and envassalize their lives and properties to his lusts which is the highest Treason that ever was committed or acted in this Nation in any sense or kind either 1. in the ey of the Law or 2. in the ey of the antient but yet too much Arbitrary proceedings of Parliament or 3. in the ey of their own late declared principles of reason by pretence of which and by no rules of Law in the least they took away the late Kings head which if there were any law or justice in England to be had or any Magistrates left to execute it as in the least there is not c. M. Prideaux Read page 7. Cler. pa. 7. But the Principles of the foresaid Agreement being so detestable and abominable to the present ruling men as that which they know will put a full end to their Tyranny and usurpation and really ease and free the people from oppression bondage that it is somthing dangerous to those that go about the promotion of it yet I shall advise and exhort you vigorously to lay all fear aside and to set on foot the promotion of it in the same method we took for the promotion of the foresaid Petition of Jan. 19. 1649. laid down in the following discourse p. 23 24 25. and write to your friends in every Country of England to chuse out from among themselves and send up some Agents to you two at least from each County with money in their pockets to bear their charges to consider with your culled and chosen Agents of some effectual course speedily to be taken for the setling the principles thereof as that only which in an earthly Government can make you happy or at least to know one anothers minds in owning and approving the principles thereof that so it may become to you and your friends your Center Standard Banner to flock together too in the time of these forraign invasions and domestick Insurrections that are like speedily to bring misery enough upon this poor and distressed Nation and unanimously resolve and ingage one to another neither to side with or fight for the Cameroes fooleries and pride of the present men in Power nor for the Princes will or any other base interest whatsoever the which if you should fight for it would be but an absolute murdring of your brethren and Country-men you know not wherefore unless he or they will come up to those just Righteous and equitable Principles therein contained and give rational and good security for the constant adhering thereunto and upon such terms I do not see but you may justifiably before God or man joyn with the Prince himself yea I am sure a thousand times more justly than the present ruling men upon a large and serious debate joyned with Owen Roâ— Onale the grand bloudy Rebel in Ireland who if we must have a King I for my part had rather have the Prince then any man in the world because of his large pretense of Right which if he come not in by conquest by the hand of Forreigners the bare attempting of which may apparently hazard him the loss of all at once by gluing together the now divided people to joyn as one man against him but by the hands of Englishmen by contract upon the Principles aforesaid which is easie to be done the people will easily see that presently thereupon they will enjoy this transcendent benefit he being at peace with all forreign Nations and having no regal pretended competitor viz. the imediate disbanding all Armies and Garisons saving the old Cinque ports so those three grand plagues of the people will cease viz. Freequarter Taxations and Excise by means of which the people may once again really say they enjoy somthing they can in good earnest call their own whereas for the present Army to set up the false pretended S. Oliver or any other as their elected King there will be nothing thereby from the begining of the Chapter to the end thereof but wars and the cuting of throats yeer after yeer yea and the absolute keeping up of a perpetual and everlasting Armie under which the people are absolute and perfect slaves and vassals as by woful experience they now see they perfectly are which slavery and absolute bondage is daylie like to encrease under the present tyranical and arbitrarie new erected robbing Government M. Att. He hath blown the Trumpet for all that will to come in he hath set up his Center he would have it to be a Standard for all his friends to flock to him and to make them the more quick in betaking them to their Arms he hath falsly and maliciously there said that the Parliament had joyned with Owen Roe Oneale which I can assure all that hear me this day the Parliament alwaies detested abominated disavowed and declared against and never had any thoughts that way My Lord the false imputations of his laid upon the Parliament are almost numberless But in the second place I come to that pretty bauble that 's of his own making The Agreement of the People dated at the Tower 1 of May 1649 and shal desire your Lordships to judge whether this Agreement of the People which he made and his friends then in the Tower and entituled it The Agreement of the People as signed by them for they called it An Agreement of the Free People of England strikes not at the very root of all Government Lieut. Col. Lilburn Pray Sir look whether it be licensed or no according to the Law of the Nation and if it be licensed by publique Authority how comes it to be Treason that 's very strange M. Atturney It is so Lieut. Col. Lilburn Pray Sir go and question the licenser then M. Atturney We must question the Author the licenser will not excuse it read page 2. Clerk reads page 2. This agreement being the ultimate end and ful scope of our desires and intentions concerning the Government of this Nation And a little below after the long and tedious prosecution of a most unnatural cruel home-bred War occasioned by divisions and distempers amongst our selves and those distempers arising from the uncertainty of our Government and the exercise of an unlimited or Arbitrary Power by such as have been trusted with Supreme and subordinate Authority whereby multitudes of grievances and intellerable oppressions have been brought upon us and finding after eight yeers experience and expectation all endeavours hitherto used or remedies hitherto applyed to have increased rather then diminished our distractions
to be the most abhorred and detested of all the people above all men that ever breathed O insufferable and the highest of Treasons Leiut Col. Lilb Sir all the wit of all the Lawyers in England could never bring it within the compasse of high Treason by the old and just laws of this nation that abhors to oppress men contrary to Law then if they seem but to cry out of their oppressions to make them traytors for words Mr. Atturney I am confident the least Lawyer in England would have brought this within the Statute of Treason of the 25. Ed. 3. chap. 2. My Lords you shall see there is none escapt the Parliament with him are Tyrants Traytors and Vsurpers and therefore he stirrs up the people to destroy them But in the third place you shall see what Titles he gives to my Lord Generall Fairfax and his chief Officers that my Lord he that reads the books doth not know the parsons he would think that they were monsters and not men although they are so famous glorious that all the world have rung of them to their praise But saith he never was there more glorious Declarations made by men than by them and yet never performed any of them Nay he doth not only call them also Covenant engagement-breakers but he calls the Lord Generall Tyrant Murtherer and what not and the Officers perfideous Officers My Lords what I observed in the last clause of the Act is that whosoever goes about to draw the Souldiers from their obedience to their superiour Officers or from their obedience to the present Government that is high Treason and this likewise we shall finde him guilty of in his Legall fundamentall liberties of England inserted and vindicated it is in the first side of the Epistle that in the first place I pitch upon read it Clark pag 1. of the Epistle I positively accuse Mr. Oliver Cromwell for a wilfull murtherer and desire you to acquaint your house therewith for murthering Mr. Richard Arnold neare Ware Mr. Atturney Which man my Lord was condemned for a mtinier by a Counsell of Warre where the Lord Leiut of Ireland was but one member and the Parliament gave him and the rest of that Councell thanks for shooting that mutinous Souldier to death and yet Mr. Lilburne calls him murtherer therefore and this is laid to my Lord Leiuts charge for his part L. Col. Lilb Doth not the Petition of Right absolutely condemne all such acts in time of Peace when the Courts of Justice are open and the judgment of the Earle of Strafford doth abundantly condemne it who lost his life for a Traytor for doing the very same act in kind and likenesse at that time when he in the eye of the law was as legal a General as the General was that condemned that man Mr. Atturney My Lords L. Col. Lilb I pray Sir hear me out and sure I am the Declarations of all the powers extant in England ever since hath been to maintain the Petition of Right inviolably yea even those that are now in present power and if the Petition of Right be true to shoot souldiers as Arnold was is absolute murder Nay further if the judgment of the Parl. upon the Earl of Strafford for such an act be legal then all those that had a hand in shooting that Souldier are Traytors and ought to die for it as well as Strafford Clark reads on the second side of the Epistle Of all which crimes and charges and all your others against the King contained in your foresaid Declaration I know not three of them but Cromwel and his confederates in your pretended House and Army are as guilty of the like in kind though under a new name and notion as the King was of the fore-mentioned if not more guilty Mr. Prideaux Read pag. 35. Clerk pag. 35. But alas poor fools we were meerly cheated and cozened it being the principal unhappiness to some of us as to the flesh to have our eyes wide open to see things long before most honest men come to have their eyes open and this is that which turns to our smart reproach and that which we Commissioners feared at the first viz that no tye promises nor engagements were strong enough to the grand-juglers and leaders of the Army was now made clearly manifest for when it came to the Councel there came the General Cromwel and the whole Gang of Creature-Colonels and other Officers and spent many dayes in taking it all in pieces and there Ireton shewed himself an absolute King if not an Emperour against whose will no man must dispute and then Shuttlecock Roe their Scout Okey and Major Barton where Sir Hardress Waller sate President begun in their open Councel to quarrel with us by giving some of us base and unworthy language which procured them from me a sharp retortment of their own baseness and unworthiness into their teeth and a challenge from my self into the field besides seeing they were like to fight with us in the room in their own Garrison which when Sir Hardress Waller in my ear reproved me for it I justified it and gave it him again for suffering us to be so affronted and within a little time after I took my leave of them for a pack of dissembling jugling knaves amongst whom in consultation ever thereafter I should scorn to come as I told some of them for there was neither faith truth nor common honesty among them and so away I went to those that chose and intrusted me and gave publikely and effectually at a set-meeting appointed on purpose to divers of them an exact account how they had dealt with us and cozened and deceived us and so absolutely discharged my self from medling or making any more with so perfideous a Generation of men as the great Ones of the Army were but especially the cunningest of Machavilians Commissary Henrie Ireton Mr. Atturney Reade pag. 37. at the mark Clark pag. 37. Which the General and his Councel knew well enough and I dare safely say it upon my conscience that an Agreement of the People upon foundations of just freedome gone through with is a thing the General and the chiefest of his Councel as much hates as they do honesty justice and righteousness which they long since abandoned against which in their own spirits they are absolutely resolved I do verily believe to spend their heart-bloud and not to leave a man breathing in English ayr if possibly they can that throughly and resolutely prosecutes it a new and just Parl. being more dreadful to them then the great day of judgment so much spoken of in Scripture and although they have beheaded the King yet I am confidently perswaded their enmity is such at the peoples liberties that they would sooner run the hazard of setting the Prince in to reign in his Fathers stead then further really a just Agreement or endeavour a new Parliament rightly constituted Mr. Atturney Read pag. 38.
Clark pag. 38. When as alas it is as visible as the Sun when it shineth in its glory and splendor that Korah Dathan and Abyram of old were never such rebels against authority as the General and his Councel are nor the Anabaptists at Munster with John of Leyden and Buperdullion were never more contemners of Authority nor Jack Straw nor Wat Tyler nor all those famous men mentioned with a black pen in our histories and called Rebels and Traytors can never be put in any skale of equal ballance for all manner of Rebellions and Treasons against all sorts and kinds of Magistracy with the General and his Councel Mr. Atturney See my Lord and you Gentlemen of the Jurie you see Mr. Lilburn gives the General and his Officers as bad titles as he can give the worst of Rebels and Traitors or the worst of men but we go on to his Out-crie reade the Title of it Clark An Outcry of the Young men and Apprentices of London pag. 8. where it is thus Sure all sence and compunction of conscience is not totally departed from you Mr. Atturney If it please you my Lord because the Jurie may observe it The book is directed to the Souldiers of the Armie and that in an Out-crie c. now read pag. 8. Pag. 8. Sure all sence and compunction of conscience is not totally departed from you hear us therefore in the earning bowels of love and kindness we intreat and beseech you with patience and do not abuse us for complaining and crying out for the knife hath been very long at the throats of our liberties and freedoms and our burthens are too great and too many for us we are not able to bear them and contain our selves our oppressions are even ready to make us despair or forthwith to fly to the prime laws of nature viz. the next violent remedy at hand light it where it will or upon whom it will they are become as devouring fire to our bones ready to burn us up rendring us desperate and careless of our lives prisoning those that are already dead above those that are yet living who are rid of that pain and torment that we do and must endure by sensibly seeing and beholding not only the dying but the daily buriall of our Native liberties and freedoms that we care not what becomes of us seeing that we are put into that original state or chaos of confusion wherein lust is become a law envie and malice are become laws and the strongest Sword rules and governs all by will and pleasure all our ancient bondaries and bondmarks are pul'd up by the roots and all the tyes and bonds of humane Society in our English Horizon totally destroyed and extirpated Alas for pitty we had rather dye then live this life of languishing death in which our Masters possess nothing to buy themselves or us bread to keep us alive that they can call their own therefore it s no boot for us to serve out our times and continue at our drudging Trades while these oppressions cruelties and inhumanities are upon us and the rest of the people exposing thereby not only the Nation to domestick broyls wars and bloud-sheds wherein we are sure our bodies must be the principal buts but to forraign invasions by France Spain Denmarke Swethland c. as was well observed by our endeared and faithful friends of the fore-mentioned late treacherously defeated party at Burford in their book of the 20. of August 1649. entituled The Levellers vindicated or the case of their 12. Troops truly stated pag. 11 12. which we cannot but seriously recommend with them to your serious perusall and judgment and desire to know of you but especially the private souldiers of the Generals Regiment of horse which we understand had a hand in seizing upon and plundering our true friends at Burford whethet you do own the abominable and treacherous dealings of your Gen. and Lieu. Gen. Cromwel and their perfidious officers with them or no that so we may not condemn the innocent with the guilty c. Mr. Attorney Read pag. 11. Clarke pag. 11. You our fellow Country-men the private Souldiers of thâ— Army alone being the instrumentall Authors of your own slavery and ours therefore as there is any bowells of men in you any love to your native Country kinred friends or relations any sparkes of conscience in you any hopes of glory or immortallity in you or any pitty mercy or compassion to an enslaved undone dying perishing people O help help save and redeeme us from totall vassalage and slavery and be no more like bruite beasts to fight against us or our friends c. And as an assured pledge of your future cordialnesse to us and the true and reall liberties of the Land of your nativity we beseech and begg of you but especially those amongst you that subscribed the solemne engagement at New-market the 5. of June 1647. speedily to chuse out from amongst your selves two of the ablest and constantest faithfull men amongst you in each Troop and Company now at last by corresponding each with other and with your honest friends in the Nation to consider of some effectual course beyond all pretences and cheats to accomplish the real end of all your Engagements and fightings viz. the setling the liberties and freedoms of the people which can never be permanently done but upon the sure foundation of a popular Agreement who viz. the people in justice gratitude and common Equity cannot chuse but voluntarily and largely make better provision for your future subsistance then ever your Officers or this pretended Parliament intends c. Mr. Atturney Real the Title of his Impeachment Clarke An Impeachment of High Treason against Oliver Crumwell c. Mr. Atturney Read page 2. Clark pag. 2. But I shall rather desire and advise you by letter like your selves to addresse your selves to the Lord Fairfax by the sword of whom and his Souldiers I am now in prison for my honesty and innocency and nothing else and demand my liberty of him if he refuse print it and do as God and Reason shall direct you for it was his and his Souldiers force that fetcht me out of my bed the 28. of March 1649. without all shaddow of Law or justice and against the tenour of all their owne Declarations the particular pages of which you may read in my following letter to Mr. Holland pag. 5. and by force of Arms carried me to White-hall and then to Darby-house before a Company of men that in Law had no more power to commit my body to prison then so many theeves and robbers upon Suiters hill have who by the Rules of their own wills as in the second edition of the picture of them I have fully declared sent me by force of Armes to the Tower for all my short eternity in this world But I entreat you seriously to consider that I cannot advise you to make addresse to him as the General of the
Nations forces for he is no such thing but is meerly a great Tyrant standing by the power of his own will and a strong Sword born by his vassals slaves and creatures having no Commission to be Generall either from Law the Parliament or from the prime Laws of nature and reason Mr Att Read An out-cry of the young men and apprentises page 3. Page 3. Your heart seems to us as obdurate as the flinty Rock as savage and inhumane as if the flesh and bloud the bones and marrow of the people were become your meate Mr Attur Stay Mr Broughton The Jury will take notice that this is directed to the Souldiers of the Generals Regement this speaks to them Clerk reads on Directed August 29. 1649. in an Epistle to the private Souldiery of the Army especially all those that signed the solemne Iugagement at newmarket heath the fifth of June 1649. but more especially to the private Souldiers of the Generalls Regiment of horse Mr Att Now read page the 3. Clerk page 3. Your hearts seem to us as obdurate as the flinty Rock as savage and Inhumane as if the flesh and bloud the bones and marrow of the Peopple were become your meat as already it is in effect and instead of Incouragement and support to our true friends and reall relievers as least in faithfull desire and endeavour as shall stand in the gapp betwixt out destroyers and us alwayes and means are used to impoverish destroy suppresse them and in them to break and vassalage the spirits of all the English which in all ages have had the preheminencies of other Nations that their may not be so much of gallantry or courage left amongst the people that one amongst them shall dare to assert or maintaine their Freedoms And a little below if any do but murmer and complain presently their houses as with furies are beset with armed mercinary Jannisaries Guards and Centinels set upon their doors and passages Mr Att My Lord and you Gentlemen of the Jury you hear what stuff this of Mr Lilburns is yea such stuff as that it would make any man loath to hear it The last clause of the Act is if any person not being an Officer Souldier or Member of the Army shall plot contrive or endeavour to stir up any mutinies in the Army or to withdraw any Officers or Souldiers from their Obedience to their superior Officers or to the present Government It is high Treason you have here the severall books read to you and the Calumniation laid upon the chiefest of them to stir the rest up to mutinies against them but they are very well known and therefore nothing that Mr Lilburn can say will stick upon them to their prejudice But my Lord you see here and you of the Jury how he appeals from the Officers to the Souldiers interrogates to know what they could do and whether they will acknowledge they will own them not fight against them and what aid and assistance they will give to him and his friends against their own General and the rest of their Superiour Officers You see also what he calls that noble Generall that all the world doth honor his fame wrings through the world and yet he cals him a grand Tyrant standing by the power of his own will and a strong sword a destroyer of the Parliament of the Laws and Liberties of England you see what he cals the common Souldiers Furies and Mercinary Jannizaries which none but Turks have You have heard the severall charges proved unto you for my part I think it is as clear as noon-day We have not raised any advantage upon any slipping words that have slipt from him which we might have done and I could I have urged some more witnesses to have proved his books published by him to publick view though when he comes in the face of the publick Court of Justice he will not own them which shewes his design to be the more dangerous he will writ print publish be sputter and reproach yea and raise Tumults and Rebellion in a Clandestine way but if we chance to question him therefore he will not own it you see we have been fain to fetch it out of the fire and yet this is one of Englands and its Liberties valiant Champions L. Col. Lilb You have done no more to me then the Scribes and Pharisees did to Jesus Christ and in my dealing with you I have but walked in the steps of my Lord and Master Jesus Christ and his Apostles For I am sure of it Jesus Christ in his pilgramage on earth freely openly and publickly taught and declared himself to be the Son of God the Messias or Saviour of the world that was prophesied of and yet when he came amongst the Scribes and Pharisees Pilate the Roman Governour who by questions went about to insnare him he confesseth nothing but saith I speak openly to the world I ever taught in the Synagogues and in the Temple whether the Jews alwayes resort and in the Secret have I said nothing why askest thou me ask them which heard me what I have said unto them behold they know what I have said and when Pilate adjured him to answer him whether he was such a one or no well saith he thou sayest it So say I thou Mr Prideaux sayest it they are my books but prove it Mr Att But I think here are enough and to many and therefore Gentlemen of the Jury if you respect the Government of the Parliament the Honour of the Counsel of State the Honour of the Nation or of the Army or the preservation of the Law of the Nation you cannot say but that the prisoner is guilty of such Crines and Treasons as he is now accused of and accordingly find him so for it cannot be supposed that you will lay him in a single Ballance against the Honour of all the powers in the Nation and also the peace thereof Fore-man We desire the Act of Treasons to make use of L. Col Lilb I beseech you hear me a few words they desire to have it along with them Sir with your favour I shall humbly crave Liberty to speak a few words I shall keep me close to that which is my right and my duty and that is to the matter of Law in my Indictment there are many things put into the Indictment by the Testimonies of Witnesses now sworne that are pretended to be acted in severall Counties whether that be according to Law or no I do not know whether you will judge it so or no but sure I am if either those expresse Statutes that I have already cited to the Jury or the third part of Cooks Instituts be Law I ought not to be tryed for Treason but by a Jury of the next Neighbour hood in the self-same County the fact is pretended to be committed in and therefore it is very questionable to me whether my Indictment be legall for that it chargeth me with facts
the formalities of the Law yet are the punctillioes and nicities thereof more urged against me then they have been against hostile enemies and yet for my part no man can tax me for being in hostility at any time against them in present power yet opon my life I am deni'd that which I had from these as my right by Law against whom I have been in armes and fought against in the field yea and that which in a higher nature then I desire hath been acknowledged just and legall by some of your own brother Judges but the last year which they have granted to some of my own Countrey-men Free-men of England but this last year in a higher nature by many degrees then I plead for There is Judge Nichols that I understand was one of Major Rolphes Counsell and I understand from Mr Maynards own mouth that he and Mr Maynard was by Baron Wild assigned of Rolphes Counsel in case of the highest Treason that the Law of England ever knew and that before the grand Inquest found the Indictment and that Mr Maynard c. had Liberty as Major Rolphs Counsel by Baron Wilds order to stand in the Court not onely to hear the witnesses sworne but also to hear the words of their Testimonie then caused by the Judge to be given in open Court and there being but two witnesses to two Fact contained in the Indictment Mr Maynard upon the Allegation of the two Statutes of Edward the sixth that requires two witnesses to the proofe of every Fact of Treason and that to be plain and clear overthrew Rolphs Indictment in Law that it was never found and so saved the poor Mans life who in likely hood had perished had it not been for the Ability Integritie of his Counsel And all this Mr Justice Nichols knowes is very true and that I have told you nothing about it but what is just It 's true I have read part of the plain Law of England that is in English but I am ignorant of that part of your Law which is three times so much as that which is in English and that Law or the practick part of the Law is in French and Latine which I have truly told you I can neither read nor understand therefore I humbly crave my priviledge and undoubted Right by the Law of England which in a higher nature was granted to Major Rolph as his unquestionable Right to have Counsel assigned me to help me in those things I am ignorant of I meane the Formalities and bottom of your Law I beseech you Sirs do not put me upon Extremities and upon extraordinary things but consider among your selves that righteous Rule of Jesus Christ and of the Scripture to do as you would be done to and do not put Impossibilities upon me by overruling by your power all my just Claimes and pleas in Law and require more of me then I am capable to performe And therefore I beseech you as you would approve your selves to be as righteous Judges before the eye of that God that sees your heart knows whether malicious fore thoughts of malice harbers theâ—in against me his faithfull servant do not cuningly and designedly destroy me for my Ignorance in the essential or circumstantial matter or forme of that huge Indictment that has so much matter of Law in it as it hath and to take away my life by denying me that which is the unquestionable legall Right of the Free-men of England the which if you will but allow me I do not doubt but to come off clearly and freely Lord Keeble Mr Lilburn You are now at a full point and this you have said now you have said often and we have heard it and that which you say now was answered before L. C. Lil. Sir It 's your own Law Sir Edw. Cook declares I ought to Lord Keeble Mr. Lilburn I shall add this more to it that you at this time have here such a Court which never any of your condition ever had in England so many Grave Judges of the Law L. Col. Lilb Truly I had rather have had an ordinary one Sir I mean a legall and ordinary Assisses or Sessions L. Keeble But this you have this is to take off or prevent that which you would do now if there had been one Judge no more and if you had not had this great presence of the Court you would have been malepart and have out talked them but you cannot do so here L. Col. Lilb Truly Sir I am not daunted at the multitude of my Judges neither at the glittering of your scarlet Robes nor the Majesty of your presence and harsh austere deportment towards me I blesse my good God for it who gives me courage and boldnesse L. Keeb. That your Tryal is so publick as your offence is for this end that all men may take notice that you have fair play therefore according to Law you ought to make your case in matter of fact clear for that I must tell you againe and once is as good as if I had told you a thousand times over unlesse you can clearly do that you say nothing to it if you will take that for clear proofe that hath been alleaged against you you may shorten your self but otherwise make that defence that you judge most sufficient to disprove the Fact for till that time you are clear gone in Law and no Councel must or can been assigned you L. Col. Lilb I have been a great while yesterday pleading my Right by Law for Councel and now I have stood many â—oures to hear your proofes to the Indictment I hope you will not be so cruell to put me to a present answer when bodily strength is spent Lo. Keeble We know it as well as your self you were here and stood divers hours yesterday and to day you have done the like but we came before you and stand after you L. C. Lilb Sir will you put a man to more then a horse is put to or is able to go through with therighteous man is mercifull even to a very beast Lo. Keeble We have been as long as you have L. Col. Lilb But under favour you have sat Lo. Keeble You had that Liberty to dispute no more we must go on L. Col. Lilb I desire but a weeks time to return you â—n answear to your large Indictment and if not so long then give me leave but till to morrow morning to consider of my answer I am upon my life Lo. Keeble No you must dispatch it now L. Col. Lilb Then give me leave but to withdraw into any private roome for an hour to recollect my thoughts peruse my notes and refresh my spirits and here abouts Judg. Jermin did whisper the Lo. Keeble in the eare and presently said Judg. Jermin It 's against the Law to allow you any more time the Jury stand here charged the Evidâ—nce is given you must immediatly go on or yield that for
you allow me liberty to reade your Law O unrighteous and bloody Judges Judge Jermin By the fancy of your own minde you would puzzle the Jury we know the Bookâ— a little better then you do there is no such Booke as Cookes Commentary upon Ployden Lord Keble Sir you shall not reade it Judge Jermin You cannot be suffered to reade the Law you have broached an erronious opinion that the Jury are Judges of the Law which is enough †Yes but there was at Redding when Colonell Martin after they were sworne caused all the Jury before the Judges sitting upon the bench to put on their hats as their right being they were then the chief Judges in the Court and the other inferiour to them to destroy all the Law in the Land there was never such a damnable heresie broached in this Nation before The Cryer Cries out Heare the Court. Lieutenant Colonell Lilburne Do your pleasure then here I le dye Jury take notice of their injustice but seeing they will not heare me I appeale to you and say It is an easie matter for an abler man then I am in so many interruptions as I meet with to mistake Ployden for Littleton I am sure here is Cookes Commentaries upon Littleton and these be his words In this case the Recognitors of the Assizâ— may say and render to the Justices their Verdict at large upon the whole matter which I am sure is good Law forasmuch as we see it continually done in all actions of trespasse or assault where the Jury doth not onely judge of the validity of the proofe of the Fact but also of the Law by assigning what damages they thinke is just Lord Keeble I am sure you are in an errour in a grosse one as possible a man can be in this is so grosse that I thought it could not have come from Master Lilburne that professeth himself to be a rationall and knowing man Lieutenant Colonell Lilburne And in another place he saith For as well as the Jurors may have Cognizance of the Lease they also as well may have Cognizance of the Condition And further there Cooke saith Here it is to bee observed that a speciall Verdict or at large may be given in any Action and upon any Issue be the Issue Generall or Speciall And in Section 368. Littleton hath these words Also in such Case where the Inquest may give their Verdict at large if they will take upon them the knowledge of the Law upon the matter they may give their Verdict generally Cookes words upon it are fully to the same purpose who saith Although the Jury if they will take upon them as Littleton here saith the knowledge of the Law may give a generall Verdict I am sure this is pertinent to my purpose and now I have done Sir Lord Keble You have spent a little time but you have done your selfe no good I thought you had understood the Law better then I see you do Lieutenant Colonell Lilburne Now Sir as to matter of Fact according to your owne desire seeing you will have broke your promise and will allow me no Counsell but lye at catch with me I shall come to it without any Preamble The Statute of the 1 Edward 6. Chap. 12. I desire the Jury may take notice of the Statutes and the 5. and 6. of Edw. the sixth Chap. 11. here 's the Statute Book which doth expresly declare That no man shal be condemned for Treason petty Treason nor any such like Crime but by the Evidence and cleare proofe of two legall and sufficient Witnesses Sir Edward Cooke in his third part Institutes Chapter of High Treason is absolutely of the same opinion fo 12. in this branch saies he 4 things are to be observed First this word provablement proveably that is upon direct and manifest proofe not upon conjecturall presumptions or inferences or straines of wit but upon good and sufficient proofe of two Witnesses and this is Folio 12. And here in the adverb proveablement proveâ—bly hath a great force and signifieth a direct and plain proofe And secondly This word attaint necessarily implyeth that he be proceeded with and attainted according to the â—uâ— course and proceedings of Law and not by absolute power or by other meanes as in former times it hath beene used And Folio 24. Chap. Peâ—ty Treâ—son he saith It hâ—th beene holden that upon the Tryâ—ll of misprision of Treason there must be two lawfull Witnesses as well upon the Tryall as the Indictment as it was resolved by the Justices in the Lord Lumâ—eyes case Hill 14. Eliz. reported by the Lord Dier under his own hand and in the margent hee hath this note upon it That this is the last resolution of the Judges upon it And a little below in the same folio and folio 25. hee saith Therefore upon the Indictment which is in manner of an accusation by the Statutes of 1. Edward 6. Cap. 12. 5. 6. Edward 6. Cap. 11. Two lawfull Witnesses are requisite And in follio 240. hee hath the same his words are these Attainders of TREASON c. ought to bee upon plaine and direct evidence as before is said for if the party be executed restitution may bee had of his lands but never can be had of his life now I have done Sir Lord Keble I hope the Jury hath seene the Evidence so plain and so â—ully that it doth confirme them to doe their duty aâ—d to find the Pâ—â—sâ—ner guilty of what is charged upon him Judge Jermane This that you have said makes much for the Jury Lieutenant Colonell Lilburne Wee shall see that by and by but I shall proceede on to answer your proofe to the Indictment and that in the same method that your Witnesses swore And therefore Sir in the first place to the first which is THOMAS NEWCOME the PRINTER hee sweares in these words That I was present with CAPTAINE JONES from whose hands hee he sayes he received the last sheete of the Booke called the Out-cry of the Young men and Apprentices of LONDON but hee saies Captaine Jones agreed with him for the printing of it and not I for in that particular hee doth not in the least accuse me neither doth hee in the least accuse mee in any manner in the world of being the Authour of it and that I did any more at his house but take away a single sheete of it before it was corrected which sayes he I brought away with me In answer to whose Testimony I returne this and I earnestly entreate you Gendemen of the Jury to observe it well and therefore in the first place hee is but a single Testimony to this But secondly I answered that hee confesses moreover that before hee had compleated that sheete that hee received from Captaine JONES he was taken and not onely hee but his Formes also was taken from him so that by his owne confession that Copy that was brought by Captaine JONES when I was present with him
Justice from a Jury of Citizens of London whom I hope to find men of Consciences and Judgement yea of such righteous Judgement as that they will abhorre to go about to take away my life and my bloud and lay the blemish and staine of Treason upon me and my posterity for ever upon such a thing as this is and this is all and the utmost of all that the Evidence doth witness against me Then in the third place there was Iohn Skinner who was the third and he sayes the same in effect and no more and therefore I need not to go upon that any further but shal leave it I hope to the inlivened Consciences of my Jury my fellow Citizens of London in the next place the second thing layd to my charge is the Salva Libertate delivered to the Lieutenant of the Tower as he sayes The Lieutenants of the Towers Testimonie Now truly the Lieutenant of the Tower is but a single witnesse to this and the Law saith positively there shal be two legal witnesses to prove every Fact of Treason whose Testimonie or evidence ought to be as clear and evident as the Sun at noon-day without any conjecturall presumptions or inferences or straines of witt and truly the Lieutenant is but a single witnesse at most I should be loath to reproach or bespatter the man yet I must say this being upon my life that he is not onely a single witnesse but a Gentleman in whose Custody I was prisoner contrary to Law who kept me prisoner in times by-past above 12. moneths together at the house of Lords illegall command contrary unto Law and Justice for which above a year since I did commence at the Common Law an Action of four or five thousand pound against him as I did also against Collonell Tichbourn that I have seen upon this bench sitting as one of my Judges which I think is not equall nor just nor legall that he with whom I have a suit of four or five thousand pound depending when thereby my profest adversary should be one of my Judges and therefore I desire he may be commanded off the bench and withdraw as being my professed adversary and therefore in Law uncapable to be my Judge and truly having the same Action depending still against the present Lieutenant of the Tower before the Judges of the Kings Bench for his detaining me in prison above a year together contrary to Law he is thereby in the eye of the Law my proefssed Adversary and therefore in Law cannot be admitted as a compitent witnesse against me upon my life yet the Lieutenant of the Tower doth not in the least swear that the hand is mine or that he did see me write it but onely he saith that I did deliver such a Paper to him but he is but a single witnesse and so I say by the Law of the Land not vallid or good but his Testimony is clearly gone and wiped off as also all things that doth depend thereupon There is besides five or six witnesses produced to severall charges but the Law expresly saith that there must be two plain and clear witnesses to every particular Charge or Fact of Treason that must take away my life and this is your own Law and therefore he is but a single one and therefore invalled and altogether not satisfactory or binding and then beside which is considerable truly I think the Tower of London in the place where he saith I gave him those Papers is not within the Jurisdiction of the Citie of London and how I should come to be arraigned by a Jury of fellow Citizens here in London therefore against whom I must confesse that for my part I have nothing for their Honesty and Integrity to object I know not for I know not the faces of any two of them and therefore impossible for me to say any thing against them I say I know not how by a London Jury I can be tried for a Fact fixed upon me to be committed in Middelsex I beseech you Gentlemen of the Jury mistake me not for I have nothing to accuse you of and I hope you will be so conscientious and tender in the Trial of me for my life that you will put your case as my case and do by me as you would be done unto by me if you were in my case and condition And the righteous God of heaven and earth direct you so to do and therefore the Lieutenant of the Tower being but a single witnesse at most and in Law not a compitent one neither being my professed Adversary that hath most illegally kept me in prison for which I have commenced long sence my action at law for my legal reparations against him I say therefore in the eye of the Law his Testimony sticks not and I pope in the righteous Opinion of my Jury can do me no harm and if so his Testimony be invalled then the Salva Libertate can not reach me to do me any hurt but it and all those my pretended books called by my name are all washed away and gone and my Adversaries must go seek new Authours for them or at least procure new and better Testimony to prove them mine for that which they have produced hither to is worth nothing Then the next is Thomas Dafferne and he sayes that the twelfth of August 1649. Thomas Dafferns Testimony he met with Lieut. Col. Lilburne upon the Bridge as he was going home to visit his sick and distressed Family and he went back with him to his house in Southwark at Winchester House which I am sure is not in London And therefore at Guild-hall in London by a London Jury in Law cannot be tried for he positively saith that at Winchester house in Southwark which is in the County of Surry Lieut. Col. John Lilburne gave him a book to carry to Coll Aires a Prisoner at Warwicke Castle but he does give in no Testimony at all that it is mine or that that book was Lieut. Colonell Lilburnes book of his making or penning but a Book he gave him and that is all he sayes which is no more but that he received a Book at Winchester House in Southwark from the hands of Lieutenant Colonell Lilburne so carry to Colonell Ayres now a prisoner at Warwick Castle Now truly he is but a single Testimony and he sweares nothing particularly as to me and besides what he sweares is to a Fact done in another County and therefore his Testimony is not worth a straw it 's gone it 's invallid in Law it signifies nothing it is not so good as a spiders webb by Viritue of which the Marshals Testimony and the Governours of Warwick Castle as also Col. Purfroyes need no other answer from me but to pitty them for the long journey they have made to no purpose The next thing charged upon me is the Preparative to an Hue Cry after Sir Arthur Haslerige The Lieutenant of the Towers second
upon it therefore do not deal with me as Proctors and ingaged men with those that thirst for my bloud and laying aside that evenness of hand betwixt both parties that ought to be in all just and righteous Judges L. Keable 'T is nothing to this if it be any thing in the world to do you good in the way of your course of defence you should have it L. C. Lilburn Well if you let me go on no futther to make my defence I cannot over-rule you though you over-rule me my bloud be upon your heads and the Lord God of heaven and earth reward you for all your bloud-thirsty cruelty towards me his innocent Servant this day and so I have done with it and what I have said I have done with it leave it to the Jury earnestly begging and intreating them to take notice of your cruell and unjust dealing with me in denying me all the priviledges of an English-man when I am upon my life L. Keable What is materiall you shall not be debarred in it L. C. Lilburn O Lord Siâ— What strange Judges are you that you will neither allow me Counsel to help me to plead nor suffer me my self to speak for my own life Is this your law and Justice Sir I have no more to say but this seeing you straiten me although you said you would hear me till midnight I hope I have made it evident to all rationall men that all or any part of the testimony given in against me does not in the exact eye of the law in the least touch me although I have been most unjustly imprisoned and most barbarously used and tyrannized over yea and my estate by will and power taken from me that should have kept me and mine alive and the legal and customary allowance of the Tower denyed me to this day and although I have used all Christian and fair means to compose my differences with my Adversâ—ries but nothing would serve their turns but I must have oppression upon oppression laid upon me enough to break the back of a horse and then if I cry out of my oppressions in any kind I must have new Treasonsnares made to catch me many moneths after their oppressions were first laid upon me that if I so much as whimper or speak in the least of their unjust dealing with me I must dye rherefore as a traytor O miserable servitude and miserable bondage in the first year of Englands Freedom I have now no more to say unto you but onely this your own law tels me Sir Edw. Cook speaks it three or four times over in his 3 part instituts That it is the Law of England that any by stander may speak in the prisoners behalf if he see any thing urg'd against him contrary to Law or do apprehend he fals short of urging any material thing that may serve for his defence and preservation Here 's your own Law for it Sir Cook is full and pregnant to this purpose in his 3. part Institutes fol. 29 34 37. But this hath several times been denyed me in the case of Mr. Sprat my Soliciter and now I demand it again as my right by law that he may speak a few words for me according to his often desire both to â—he and the Court I have almost done Sir onely once again I claim that as my right which you have promised that I should have Councel to matter of law and if you give me but your own promise which is my undoubted right by your own law and I fear not my life But if you again shall deny both these legal priviledges I shall desire my Jury to take notice that I aver you rob me of the benefit of the law and go about to murther me without and against law and therefore as a free-born English man and as a true Christian that now stands in the sight and presence of God with an uprighs hearâ— and conscience with a chearfull countenance cast my life and the lives of all the honest free-men of England nâ—o the hands of God and his gracious protection and into the care and conscience of my honest Jury and Fellow-Citizens who I again declare by the law of England are the Conservators and sole Judges of my life having inherent in them alone the judicial power of the law as well as fact you Judges that sit there being no more if they please but Ciphers to pronounce the Sentence or their Clarks to say Amen to them being at the best in your Original but the Norman Conqueâ—ours Intruders and therefore you Gentlemen of the Jury my sole Judges the Keepers of my life at whose hands the Lord will require my bloud in case you leave any part of my indictment to the cruell and bloudy men And therefore I desire you to know your power and consider your duty both to God to Me to your own Selves and to your Country and the gracious assisting Spirit and presence of the Lord God omnipotent the Governour of Heaven and Earth and all things therein contained go along with you give counsell and direct you to do that which is just and for his glory The People with a loud voyce cryed Amen Amen and gave an extraordinary great hum which made the Judges loâ—k something untowardly about them and coused Major Generall Skippon to send for three more fresh Companiâ—s of Foot Souldiers Mr. Atturney Gentlemen of the Jury You have heard the Evidence in behalf of the State You have heard the insinuations of the prisoner upon them as calling you his Fellow-Citizens and the like He hath said and spoken we have proved and it is in your consciences to believe proof before saying the prisoner begun to cite you two Acts of Parliament the one in the 1. of Edw. 6. and the other the 5 and 6. of Edw. 6. and by those two Acts he would signifie to you that you should have two plain and evident Witnesses to every particular fact yet he did forget to cite another Statute made in the first and sâ—cond year of Philip and Mary that overthrows and annihilates those two Statutes that would have two plain witnâ—sses to every fact of treason and in all cases of treason will have them freed according to the common course of law the common-law for the try all of them if that must â—s materiall or if that stick with you that you cannot determine it my Lords the Judges will direct you in it and in all other points of law But certainly that exception was a little vain too for we did not insist with one particular witnesse in nothing at all For that of Newcome the prisoner did not repeat fully what he said for I remember he said this that Mr. Lilburn and Capt. Iones came together and brought the Copy of the last sheet that was to be printed if one come with him and the other delâ—vered it to the Printer they are both equally guiltie alike they came again the same day
and to you I must appeal for law if you doe believe the evidence is plain and full against him for which he stands indicted and so Gon direct all your judgements I have donâ— L. Col. Lilb Sir by your favour I shall desire to addresse my self in one word to you which is to defire that the Jury may read the first chapter of Queen Mary in the Statute book and the last clause of the Chapter of the thirteenth of Elizabeth where they shall clearly see especially in the Statute of Queen Mary that they abhorred and detested the making of words or writing to be Treason which is such a bondage and snare that no man knows how to say or doe or behave himselfe as is excellently declared by the Statute of Hen. 4. v. 2. I have done Sir Lo. Keeble Gentlemen you of the Jury you are sworn you are men of conscience gravity and understanding to tell you of the duties of your place that have gone through it so often is a vain thing the sacrednesse of an Oath which a man must not transgresse in the least not to save the world you have gone so often through it and understand it that I need say no more the charge you have heard and the proofs but for proofe single or double or treble as some of them doe amount unto a witnesse in this yea that doth double another mans witnesse if I swear this thing and another swear the same a third the same that is doubled upon all their testimonies Mr Lilburn hath cited two Statutes of Ed. the sixt to prove there must be two witnesses but I must tell him were there but one to each fact it were enough in Law for as for that which was cited of King Ed. the sixt you have had it fully answered by a later Law of Queen Mary which doth over-rule that and also in acts that the common Law of England shall be the rule by which all Treasons shall be tried which reacheth to this case too that there need no more but one witnesse and this is Law and therefore Gentlemen of the Jury that must not stick with you that which you have heard to concern you of the truth of the matters is this you are not bound affirmatively to have two witnesses but in that one witnesse with the circumstances concurs that is sufficient that which should prevail with you is to consider the strength of the accusation which rests in the Books and doth consist of three heads which are laid down in the Books themselves which doth in the first place so firmly expresse and so farre vilifie the Parliament and state as it is now established in England the second doth look unto the Counsels and incitations of him for the stirring up of tumults commotions and wars in this Nation and the third are the things cited in his Books to that end and purpose to divide the Army and then the otherwill take the better effect these are the three main charges and these the Books that come from him doe so plainly testifie that the Books are proved to be his you are fit Judges of but it clearly appears by those his Bookes that these things were in his intention For that he sayes it is mens that does make a man guilty the mind that is intended as it is exprest Actus non faciâ— reum nisi mens sit rea Now that mind is rea when there is faith published but I tell you this these Books being admitted true I say that never man that acted the highest of Treasons as he hath done hath had so much liberty as he hath had and as I said before never man of his condition nor any condition in England that was indicted in such a case ever and a Tryall in such a Court in such an Auditory such a presence as he has had Lieut. Col. Lilb The mores my sorrow L. Keeb. The mores your sorrow indeed you have good cause to be sorrowfull indeed for this Act of yours thus declared if your intentions had taken effect your plot was the greatest that ever England saw for it struck at no less then the subversion of this Common-wealth of this State to have laid and put us all in bloud your plot was such that never such was seen in the world before to proceed from a private man as you are therefore it must needs be heavy upon your Conscience therefore my Masters of the Jury look into your Conscience see what that saith unto you which he stands so much upon the witnesses Testimony are now plain and good in Law in this cause they are multiplied I do not know in one particular that there is a Testimony single but it is aggravated with many Circumstances therefore let not that trouble you you are the proper Judges of the matter of Fact being of the Countrey and if you have fully apprehended the dangerous things plotted in those boooks of Mr Lilburns you will clearly find that never was the like Treason hatcht in England and so in Gods name as the Prisoner doth lead to your Consciences so go and do Lieut. Coll. Lilb I desire your favour that there may be a course taken thot neither my Prosecutours nor any belonging to them may have accesse unto the Jury till they have done Just Jermin You Gentlemen of the Jury I did expect it it was expected by the Court that some matter of Law or some question of Law might arise upon the evidence which if it had it was the duty of the Court to have cleared it but there does not appear and therefore there is an end as to the dispute of the Law Fore-man We are no Lawyers indeed my Lord. L. Col. Lilb I have beg'd it and you have promised it that I should have Liberty to plead in Law to the Illegallities of the Indictment but you have denied me that legall right yea you will not permit my Sollicitour to speak a few words for me I dare undertake there was never such a Trial upon English ground as this hath been where a man hath been denied all the legall Rights of an English man as I have been You Gentlemen of the Jury who now are my sole Judges I pray you take notice of it Just Jermin There was never any such kind of abuse offered to a Court as you have given nor never was such Language used to any Court of Justice before that I did hear of as you have given and certainly the Behaviour at the Barre doth set forth what the humours and character of the man is for in this case if any such dangerous thing of Acting of Commotion or Mutiny in the Army or in the Nation should have followed it had been too late then to have thought of the remedy therefore the wisdom of the Parliament hath declared that whosoever shall by writing prenting or by openly declaring publish that the present Government of England is usurp'd or tyrannicall it is Treason there
this honorable house yet since God hath so ordered humane affairs that 't is incident to his people though of reall integrity and of hearty desires of good to the Nation to differ about the means times and seasons requisite for the accomplishing thereof we hope your wisdomes will put the most favourable interpretations to such differences and not to attribute them to any evill intention or design but an over-earnest longing for such a perfect settlement of this Common-wealth which time onely and further opportunity can afford us We humbly conceive he hath formerly given sufficient proof of his faith and fidelity to his Country by his former sufferings both before this Parliament when he bore testimony against Regal and Episcopal tyranny and since also in the frequent exposing his life to the utmost of dangers in your service in all which he did manifest that the temptations of this world were not able to shake his integrity and that for the enjoyment of any outward emoluments he could not forsake the dictates of his own conscience and though we could heartily wish he had forborn those things which have drawn upon him his late sufferings yet are we well assured and that upon the neerest and strictest scrutiny we can make into his heart that no indirect ends or worldly allurements have engaged him therein a manifest argument whereof we humbly conceive to be for that neither the urgency of his necessities which have been very great and which are usually very perswasive to men not guided by conscience not yet the importunity of dear friends which have not been wanting and yet not any whit restrained there-from and therefore we hope this honourable house will distinguish betwixt weakness and design and think of some way of moderation towards such as instigation of conscience and errour of judgment have brought into your displeasure And though the obligation of our particular relations cannot but move us to this address on his behalf yet we humbly conceive it will not only occasion much sadness to many of your friends but much more joy to the common enemy to see his ruine Yet considering his principles are a burthen to this State We do therefore most humbly present our assurance and confidence of his purpose to withdraw himself into some forraign Country desiring he may have his money which is necessary to his and his Families subsistance in their transplantation and convenient time to prepare himself to go and he will wholly betake himself to his particular duty and Calling and that those of his judgment who are free to go along with him have arrears due to them from the Parliament may have their arrears paid unto them and be permitted accordingly to transplant themselves humbly imploring this honourable house to take the premises into speedy and serious consideration and laying all his former merits faithfull services persecutions stripes bonds and imprisonmets with hazard of life and loss of estate in opposition to Regal and Episcopal tyranny in ballance to his late miscarriages to do therein out of your wonted mercy and clemency as may be most for the glory of God frustrating the longing desires of the common enemy to see his ruine rejoycing and satisfying the Spirits of many of your friends and for answering the humble and most earnest request of your Petitioners whereby they shall be for ever engaged This was delivered the 22. of Octob. 1649. but was altogether fruitless the next thing in order thus followeth To pray c. Robert Lilburn Eliz. Lilburn The innocent Mans second Proffer Made unto his present Adversaries Octob. 22 1649. and communicated unto them by his loving Brother Col. Robert Lilburn BROTHER IN answer to your late Letter I can make no other Proposition besides what is in my Letter to Mr. Hevenningham of the 20 present then this That seeing my self and the principles I profess are a burthen to the men in present power therefore for peace and quietness sake only I will engage enjoying my money and my immediate liberty that I will within 6 moneths time transplant my self into some part of the West-Indies provided that all those that are free and willing to go along with me of what quality soever may have free liberty at their pleasure to go and provided seeing many of those I know willing to undertake the Journey are made very poor by reason of their sufferings in the present distractions may have all such monies justly paid unto them as is owing them either upon arrears for faithful service already done or for monies lent to the Publique that so they may be the better inabled for their Journey they engaged thereupon to go and provided that other that are willing to go and are so very poor that they cannot transplant themselves may have from the Publique some reasonable allowance for that end this being the Land of their Nativity where by the Law of Nature they may challeng a subsistance and therefore it is but just seeing their company and principles are a burthen and trouble to the men in present power that they should make their willingness for peace sake able to transport themselves inte a Desart where with industrie and the blessing of God thereupon they may expect a lively hood and this with the engagement of the present Power for a peaceable protection while we stay here in England and for their assistance for a reasonable Convoy in some part of our Journey I will engage in security I will not act against their Power during my stay in England directly or indirectly but for me to engage singly to go alone seeing I know no Plantation already planted but I would sooner chuse to be cut in pieces in England then engage to go to it therefore particularly I shall not engage without the tearms abovesaid come life â—ome death to which I shall stand Witness my hand Tower Octob. 22. 1649. JOHN LILBURN This was sent to Col. Rob. Lilburn who shewed it to several Parlimen but all in vain for nothing would serve their turn but his bloud The next in order is that notable Petition of his Whalebone friends already in Print the Copy of which for its worth I judge fit here to insert which thus followeth To the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament The humble Petition of the wel-affected in and about the City of London Westminster and parts adjacent Presenters and Approvers of the late Petition of the 11. of September c. SHEWETH THat as the Wisdom and Goodnesse of God is the best example to all Authorities in the World so those in Authority can in nothing more resemble God then in their readinesse to heare and receive the complaints and Petitions of any that apply themselves unto them And who in cases of dissatisfaction willingly condescend to a reasoning out of all doubts and differences for so his goodnesse daigned to commune with his Servant Abraham and even to a sinfull and gainsaying People he saith come