Forreign Forces and to surprize seize and destroy His Majesties Navy Forts Magazines and places of strength within this Kingdom whereupon the Calamities of War Murders of Innocent Subjects Men Women and Children Burnings Rapines Devastations and other dreadful Miseries and Mischiefs must inevitably have ensued to the ruine and destruction of this Nation 5. And the said Conspirators have procured and accepted and delivered out several Instruments Commissions and Powers made and granted by or under the Pope or other Vnlawful and Vsurped Authority to raise and dispose of Men Moneys Arms and other things necessary for their wicked and traiterous Designs and namely a Commission for the said Henry Lord Arundel of Wardour to be Lord Chancellor of England another Commission to the said William Earl of Powis to be Lord Treasurer of England another Commission to the said John Lord Bellasis to be General of the Army to be raised another Commission to the said William Lord Petre to be Lieutenant General of the same Army and a Power for the said William Viscount Stafford to be Paymaster of the Army 6. That in order to encourage themselves in Prosecuting their said wicked Plots Conspiracies and Treasons and to hide and hinder the Discovery of the same and to secure themselves from Justice and Punishment the Conspirators aforesaid their Complices and Confederates have used many wicked and diabolical Practices viz. They did cause their Priests to Administer to the said Conspirators an Oath of Secrecy together with their Sacrament and also did cause their said Priests upon Confessions to give their Absolutions upon Condition that they should conceal the said Conspiracy And when about the Month of September last Sir Edmundbury Godfrey a Justice of Peace had according to the Duty of his Oath and Office taken several Examinations Informations concerning the said Conspiracy and Plot the said Conspirators or some of them by Advice Assent Counsel and Instigation of the rest did incite and procure divers Persons to lie in wait and pursue the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey divers days with intent to Murder him which at last was perpetrated and effected by them for which said horrid Crimes and Offences Robert Green Henry Berry and Lawrence Hill have since been Attainted and Dominick Kelly and Girald and others are fled for the same After which Murder and before the Body was found or the Murder known to any but the Complices therein the said Persons falsly gave out that he was alive and privately Married And after the Body found dispersed a false and malitious Report That he had Murdered himself Which said Murther was committed with design to stifle and suppress the Evidence he had taken and had knowledge of and discourage and deter Magistrates and Others from Acting in further Discovery of the said Conspiracy and Plot For which end also the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey while he was alive was by them their Complices and Favourers threatned and discouraged in his proceedings about the same 7. And of their further Malice they have wickedly contrived by many false Suggestions to lay the Imputation and Guilt of the aforesaid Horrid and Detestable Crimes upon the Protestants that so thereby they might escape the Punishments they have justly deserved and expose the Protestants to great Scandal and subject them to Persecution and Oppression in all Kingdoms and Countries where the Romish Religion is received and professed All which Treasons Crimes and Offences above mentioned were Contrived Committed Perpetrated Acted and done by the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford William Lord Petre Henry Lord Arundel of Wardour and John Lord Bellasis and other the Conspirators aforesaid against our Sovereign Lord the KING His Crown and Dignity and against the Laws and Sta tutes of this Kingdom Of all which Treasons Crimes and Offences the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled do in the Name of themselves and of all the Commons of England Impeach the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford William Lord Petre Henry Lord Arundel of Wardour and John Lord Bellasis and every of them And the said Commons by protestation saving to themselves the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Accusations or Impeachments against the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford William Lord Petre Henry Lord Arundel of Wardour and John Lord Bellasis and every of them And also of replying to the Answers which they and every of them shall make to the Premises or any of them or to any other Accusation or Impeachment which shall be by them Exhibited as the cause according to Course and Proceedings of Parliament shall require do pray that the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford William Lord Petre Henry Lord Arundel of Wardour and John Lord Bellasis and every of them be put to Answer all and every the Premises And that such Proceedings Examinations Trials and Judgments may be upon them and every of them had and used as shall be agreeable to Lâ—v and Justice and Course of Parliament The Humble Answer of William Viscount of Stafford now Prisoner in His Majesties Tower of London to the Impeachment of High Treason and other high Crimes and Misdemeanors exhibited against him and others to the Right Honorable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament assembled in the name of themselves and of the Commons of England THe said Viscount saving to himself all advantage and benefit of Exceptions to the generality incertainty and insufficiency of the said Impeachment most humbly beseeching their Lordships thereof to take due notice and thereunto at all times to have a just regard He answereth and saith That he is not Guilty of all or any of the Offences charged against him by the said Impeachment and for his Tryal humbly and willingly putteth himself upon his Peers no ways doubting but that by the Grace of God and their Lordships impartial Justice he shall make his Innocence appear All which he most humbly submitteth unto their Lordships further Consideration Stafford Lord High Steward Gentlemen of the House of Commons be pleased to proceed Then Mr. Serjeant Maynard one of the Committee appointed to manage the Evidence began as followeth My Lords MAy it please your Lordships By the Command of the House of Commons who have imposed upon Us this Task we are here to Prosecute this great Charge against the Prisoner the Lord at the Bar. My Lords There are two Parts that are in this great Charge there is a General which is the Subversion of the whole Nation the King Himself to be Murdered the Protestant Religion to be Suppressed War to be introduced and those other things that are expressed in the Articles This General is charged in particular upon this Lord And my Lords it was in consideration how far it was fit to meddle with this General at this particular Tryal For if this Lord be guilty of such Crimes it will
which he forswears to morrow is not to be believed And the truth of it is as his Brothers prove to your Lordships he came to my Lord Powis's in the year 71 and so he forswears himself in every thing and is in no wise to be believed He swears to your Lordships I writ a Letter to him to acquaint him that I would go by Calice and not by Diep but I have proved I went by Diep and I assure your Lordships I have not been at Calice I think these twelve or fourteen years I conceive these things are very manifest and clear proofs against him that he hath not swore one true word He swears that my Lord Powis my Lady Powis and his friends perswaded him to go to Doway to to be a Frier but not liking it he came over again and was in danger of his life by them but the Evidence is sufficiently strong in proof that he afterwards was at my Lord Powis's and was well received that he lay in the House and was not in the least injured by them And for his other Relations his Brother proves he was not ill used by them They gave him Seven Pound to be gone and trouble them no more He says I said he was a Coward and I 'le tell you why I said so because a Captain that is now out of England told his Sister so who told me But that is not very material My Lords there is one Witness more John Porter that swears to your Lordships this one thing That this Turbervill swore to him at such an Alehouse he knew nothing of the Plot. And then my Lords there is Mr. Yalden and he is a Gentleman of Reputation he said in his company there was no Trade good but that of a Discoverer God damn the Duke of York Monmouth Plot and all for I know nothing of it Truly my Lords whether he got no money by it or is known since he hath been a Discoverer telling what he knew not so many Months ago and therefore I submit it to your Lordships what he is My Lords these people that swear against me there is not one of them a person of any Quality or Condition and whether they have not rather sworn for money than the truth by things that are known and need no proof I shall observe when I come to it to argue that point in Law Whether a man that swears for gain is a credible Witness or no My Lords I have as well as I can summed up that little Evidence that was given against me I cannot better do it in so short a time for indeed I had but a very short time last night and I have not slept I had the Cramp so much in extremity that my next Neighbour heard me roaring out My Lords I submit my self to your Lordships and doubt not but that the matters charged upon me will appear to your Lordships sufficiently answered And I beseech your Lordships well to consider that one thing against Dr. Oats his dissembling with God Almighty and his impudent owning of it This I do insist upon and I protest before God Almighty if I were a Judge I would not hang a Dog upon such Evidence My Lords I have many points in Law to offer to your Lordships and when you please I should do it I 'le name them to you L. H. Steward Name them my Lord if you have any Doubts in Law propound them Lord Lovelace My Lords I would not interrupt my Lord but I think indeed it is no interruption since his Lordship broke off and was going on to another point But I think I see one of the impudentest things that ever was done in a Court of Justice Whilest we are Trying a Person here for a Popish Plot I do see a prosessed Papist standing in the Body of your House and that is Sir Barnard Gascoyne Who thereupon went out of the Court. L. Stafford My Lords I do conceive I have cleared my self to your ' Lordships of what I am accused of My Lords The Course of my whole Life hath been otherwise I defie any Creature in the World to say That I ever used one disobedient or disloyal word of the King or did any such Act. I waited on the King that now is in the Unhappy War that is passed when I was in a low condition enough as to Fortune and my Wife and Family were thereby reduced to great Streights for my Wife and Children lived some five or six years upon some Plate and Jewels that we had whereas if I would have come and been at London and joined with that party I could have saved my Estate and lived quietly as others did But my Conscience told me I ought to wait upon the King and offer him my personal Service when I could do him no other I have shewn how the Witnesses have forsworn themselves I shall now if your Lordships please desire your Opinion in some points of Law And though perhaps I may name to your Lordships many things that are impertinent or not to the purpose I beg your Lordships pardon 't is out of the weakness of my Understanding and I hope you will not think ill neither your Lordships nor the House of Commons if I should through Ignorance move things impertinent The first Point of Law is this First I conceive there is no Example or President for it That Proceedings Criminal ever did continue from Parliament to Parliament and this is continued to three L. H. Steward Speak out my Lord and go on L. Stafford Secondly my Lords I do not question the power of the House of Commons in the least but my Lords I know they Impeach when they find Grounds for it without dispute but I question whether any man by the known Laws of this Kingdom in Capital Cases can be proceeded on but by Indictment first found by the Grand Jury and not by Impeachment by any Person or other body of Men. L. H. Steward Say on my Lord. L. Stafford Thirdly my Lords I conceive there are many defects in the Indictment or the Impeachment Indictment there is none There is no Overt Act alledged in the Indictment or Impeachment I know not well what it is called And my Lords by the Act of Parliament in 1 H. 4. c. 10. nothing from thenceforth is to be Treason but according to the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. which includes an Overt Act. Fourthly my Lords I desire that I may prove that by Law they are not competent Witnesses for they swear for money But my Lords I forgot one thing to say to Your Lordships as to the Evidence that these Gentlemen did endeavour to prove I do not speak whether they did or not a general Plot of the Papists whether they did not I am not concerned in it for I say they have not proved me a Papist which I submit to Your Lordships and though any man may know me so in his private knowledge yet they having not given any
Then when Godfrey was murther'd how came that Discovery out but by the voluntary Confession of one engaged in the whole Plot I mean Bedloe So that though these men had engaged themselves by wicked Oaths yet their own Consciences witnessing against them in themselves they could not forbear coming in to testifie against themselves I shall say no more than that we ought to acknowledge the Hand of God in the Discovery with great Thankfulness for it is He and He alone that out of his own Grace and Goodness hath done it and thereby preserved the Life of our Prince to us and in Him us too But as to the Matter in Law My Lord has been pleased to mention first this That there is no Overt Act. I wonder that my Lord should be so much mistaken When it is charged in the Articles and proved to his Face he received a Commission Is not that an Overt Act He is charged in the Articles of Impeachment with Contriving the Death of the King and being at several Meetings and Consults about the King's Death and Hâ—â—ing Persons to Kill the King And are these no Overt Acts Therefore as to that my Lord is mistaken My Lords another Exception that is taken is That there is no Indictment I conceive that an Impeachment of the House of Commons is more than an Indictment And there cannot be any doubt of that the Impeachment of the House of Commons having always been received and proceeded on by your Lordships But that which is most insisted upon is That this Charge that is made against this Lord was presented in another Parliament It is true but under favour what is once upon Record in Parliament may at any time afterwards be proceeded upon It is a sudden Objection but I conceive it hath been done However in a Case of this Nature when the Life of the King when our own Lives and our Nation and our Religion lies at stake if there were not a Precedent I hope You would make a Precedent But under favour Reason is for it the Charge is before You the Proof is made and we pray You will judge according as the Evidence hath been Sir Will. Jones My Lords as to these Matters of Law I think they are of so little difficulty that my Lord will not desire to have Counsel assigned him I am sure his Counsel will not desire to speak to them For this last Matter which Mr. Serjeant spoke of and which was first named by the Prisoner I desire your Lordship to consider what it is Says my Lord the Prisoner there was an Impeachment begun in the Long Parliament and this is now the Third Parliament in which I am brought to my Tryal It is very true there was a General Impeachment in the Long Parliament the particular one was in the last and this Lord was pleased to plead in the last It may be he was not so well advised then as he is now But my Lords How can this be a doubt when your Lordships have resolv'd and have sent it down to the Commons and it is there entred in their Book as the Law and Constitution of Parliaments that not only Impeachments but all Judicial proceedings continue from Parliament to Parliament in the same state that they were in at the Rising of the last Parliament This is now become the Law of Your House and it is under favour being so the Law of the Kingdom and You having thus declared it and sent it to the Commons I hope the Commons had very good reason to proceed upon this Impeachment at this time The next matter is concerning the Overt Acts I think there are sufficient Overt Acts in proof and sufficient in the Impeachment Will any man deâ—y thaâ— tâ—e Receiving a Commission to be Pay-master of an Army is an Overt ' Act Will any deny that the sending for the Witness and offering him money in order to hire him to kill the King is an Overt Act and which answers to all will any man deny that the meeting and consulting of several men together about killing the King and changing the Government is an Overt Act. My Lords These are all Overt Acts and I cannot but think it was without advice of my Lords Counsel that he made these Objections for indeed these several Overt Acts are laid in the Impeachment as fully as they are made out in proof My Lords there is another Objection that my Lord is pleased to make and that is that there is but one Witness to a particular Fact L. H. Steward Ay What say you to that Sir Will. Jones That my Lords is of little weight with submission for our Impeachments and our Proofs run to this that my Lord had a Design and Intention to destroy the King this was to be done by Force and this was to be done by secret Assassination Now if several Witnesses come and prove each a distinct Act under this Head of killing the King it is so many Proofs or Witnesses to the Treason For my Lords if a man shall intend to kill the King and shall buy a Knife in one County at one time and send for a man out of another County at another time whom he shall hire to kill the King and these distinct Acts are proved by several Witnesses if they concur to the same general Treason they are all but parts of that and so are so many Witnesses to the whole And so I am sure it was resolved in the Case of others of the Conspirators in the Old Baily and before that in the Case of Sir Henry Vane But My Lords in this Case here is first a Proof that he accepted a Commission which I do not use as an Act for the levying of War only but as a Design to change the Government and destroy the King Here is meeting and consulting how to do this wicked Work I mean to kill the King that is another Overt Act Here is offering money to one of the Witnesses for that end that is a third Overt Act and there is attempting another of them though not with Money yet with Promises of Reward in general that is another Overt Act all which are to this end the Killing of the King And I am sure of it your Lordships cannot but receive satisfaction from my Lords the Judges that it hath always been so held that though there need Two Witnesses to prove Treason yet there needs no more than one to one Act and another to another if the several Acts fall under the same Head of Treason Sir Franc. Winn. My Lords I crave your patience but for a word or two and this Noble Lord will have little Reason to say his Objections in point of Law are of any weight I confess he had said a great thing if it were true that the Articles of Impeachment did not alledge an Overt Act for then indeed they had been apparently defective But under his pardon that is not a point of Law but
these be two such Witnesses as the Law requires I pray then my Lords consider the consequence of that doubt A man shall talk with twenty Persons about a Design to kill the King in one and the same Room one after another by taking them into a Corner singly and if ten or all twenty come to prove it here is but one Witness to each Discourse This would be a matter of dangerous Consequence but I hope will remain no manner of doubt with you nor is it fit to be argued As to the Hiring of Witnesses to Swear I think that can be no point of Law till it be so proved in Fact Doth his Lordship think that when His Majesty out of His Grace and Bounty allows a Maintainance to His Witnesses that that is an Objection to their Testimony Doth not every man allow his Witnesses a a Maintainance and yet it never was thought a thing to take away their Evidence It may be every one doth not give so large an allowance as the King because his Dignity is not so great But can it be an Objection to the House of Commons Have we that are the Prosecutors maintained them If His Majesty have been bountiful to His Witnesses what is that to this Cause of the Commons If my Lord can prove any thing of Bribery in us as he has proved for us against himself it may be an Objection But till that Fact be proved I hope there is no ground for a Question in Law and if there be no doubt in Law I hope there will be no need of Counsel Lord High Steward My Lord Stafford What are the Points you would have Counsel too Lord Stafford To all of them my Lords Lord High Steward Would you have Counsel to the first Point to argue what the Law of Parliaments is concerning the continuance of Impeachments from Parliament to Parliament Lord Stafford My Lords if you will declare the Law to be as these Gentlemen say I must acquiesce Lord High Steward Pardon me my Lord I do not declare the Law but ask you whether you would have Counsel to argue that Point Lord Stafford My Lords I do say there is no Example of it I know there have been Impeachments but no Examples of Impeachments continued from Parliament to Parliament Lord High Steward Then in the next place for I shall propose your Objections to their Lordships by and by and desire their Judgment in them Do you desire to argue by your Counsel that every Overt Act ought to be proved by two Witnesses Lord Stafford I do my Lords I desire my Counsel may be heard to all the Points I mentioned to your Lordships Lord High Steward Have you Counsel ready to speak to these Points now Lord Stafford Yes my Lords Lord High Steward Are they prepared to speak to them now Lord Stafford They are my Lords Lord High Steward If they be so what hurt will there be in hearing of them Sir William Jones My Lords Whether you will hear an Argument from Counsel about the Law of Parliaments I hope you will please well to consider Sir Fran. VVinnington My Lords We in the House of Commons do never suffer any Counsel to tell us what is the Course of our House and the Law of Parliaments if your Lordships think fit to allow it 't is in your own power but we who are intrusted with the Management of this Cause by the House of Commons have no direction to consent to such a thing Lord High Steward We will hear Counsel to save time upon that Point whether in proof of a Treason for killing the King every Overt Act ought to be proved by two Witnesses Sir William Jones If your Lordships make a doubt of it Sir Fran. Winnington And if the Prisoner desire it Mr. Serjeant Maynard My Lords We shall not oppose it but I shall wonder if any Counsel do maintain it Lord High Steward Are your Counsel ready to speak to that Point Lord Stafford Here they are my Lords Mr. Wallop of the Middle-Temple Mr. Saunders of the same Society and Mr. Hunt of Gray's Inn appeared by the Prisoner at the Bar as his Counsel Mr. Wallop May it please your Lordships we are here commanded by your Lordships to Attend that if any matter of Law do arise upon a Case proved agreed and judged by your Lordships debateable then in due time we are to conform our selves to your Lordships command and argue those Points for my Lord the Prisoner at the Bar. But if your Lordships do think that the Points urged by my Lord are not debateable in Law I have so high an Opinion of your Lordships Judgment and such a mean opinion of my own Talent that I shall not undertake to Argue Extempore in this great Assembly in a Cause of so high a Nature Lord High Steward Look you Sir you are of my Lords Counsel Mr. Wallop I am my Lords and by the Order of your Lordships do attend here Lord High Steward If you think it an arguable Point you will have the Judgment of my Lords afterwards Will you argue it now Mr. VVallop My Lords I always thought if a Point be stirred in any Court and thought disputable it should be stated and agreed before it be argued Lord High Steward You are to argue for my Lord and to know the Judgment of the Court afterwards would you know our Opinions before hand Mr. VVallop We would know what it is we are to argue if your Lordships please Lord High Steward Why if you are provided for it you are to maintain that by Law every Overt Act ought to be proved by two Witnesses if you are prepared speak to it and my Lords will hear you Mr. VVallop It is true my Lords there have been some publick Resolutions concerning that Point therefore I shall be the warier what I say in that But my Lords it is a matter that has been thought of great import one way or other but I do profess at this time I am not able to undertake a Solemn Argument upon that Point Lord Stafford My Lords I am so far from delaying this Cause that I desire it may be argued now Lord High Steward Then you are not ready to speak to it Mr. VVallop No my Lords I am not for my own part at present for it is impossible we should foresee what would be the Point and to apply our selves to study an unforeseen Case before it be agreed stated and judged worthy of Argument cannot be expected from us I have always observed it in the King's-Bench If the Prisoner urge any thing and the Court think it debateable they first agree and state the Case then Assign Counsel whom they do not urge to deliver an Opinion presently but give them time to prepare for it Lord High Steward Mr. VVallop it is not believed that this Point is moved but by your Advice that are of my Lord's Council and you should be ready to maintain the Advice you give
disturbance But we desire your Lordships to consider whether this practise of having things written down for the Clerk to read may not introduce a Custom which may in time grow inconvenient for future Example I see no great danger in the particular Instance before your Lordships now but it is dangerous in such Cases to do any thing that is new in this Court Lord High Steward All the matter is whether it be read by my Lord who cannot be heard or read by the Clerk Sir Thomas Lee. We only oppose it out of fear of making a President which may be of ill consequence Lord High Steward Read it my Lord and raise your voice for it concerns you to speak out Lord Stafford Reading out of his Paper My Lords when I offered Matter of Law to your Lordships on Saturday last I did in no wise admit the Matter of Fact to be true that was alledged against me and so I desire to be understood And I hope your Lordships will not lay the less weight upon the Testimony of my Witnesses because they are not sworn for the Law does not suffer them to be sworn which is no fault of mine nor ought not to turn to my Prejudice I must appeal to your Lordships Judgments in point of Fact how far the Kings Witnesses are to be believed against me considering the whole matter and my Counter-proof Next I submit to your Lordships Judgments this point That the Impeachment being founded upon the Common Law and the Statute of 25 th Edw. 3. and not upon the Statute of 13 th of this King two of the Witnesses Dugdale and Turbervill do only swear Treasonable words spoken by me and not my Overt Act for they swear only that I promised them Money and Rewards to kill the King Now I humbly pray your Lordships Judgment whether bare speaking of words be an Overt Act and Treason at the Common Law or upon that Statute and whether there be more than speaking of Words in a Consult or otherwise proved by Dugdale and Turbervill I appeal to you then the other Witness Oats is but a single Witness who speaks of the receiving of a Commission This is that I offer to your Lordships now for your Judgments and then I desire I may have your Opinion in other things Lord High Steward Is this all your Lordship hath to say Lord Stafford For the present my Lords Lord High Steward You must say all you have to say now Lord Stafford Is it your Lordships pleasure to hear Counsel to nothing at all I did likwise alledge to your Lordships th' other day that People that swear for Money are not competent credible Witnesses how far that was proved or I may prove by my Counsel I submit to your Lordships Lord High Stewared Look you my Lord you have so far received already the pleasure of the House You have raised several Questions of Law whether every Overt Act require two Witnesses to prove it You have had the Opinion of the Judges and there is no more to be said in it As to that whether Impeachments continue from Parliament to Parliament and the other thing whether Proceedings may be upon an Impeachment without an Indictment these are matters of the Course and Constitutions of Parliaments my Lords will consider of them by themselves and will permit no Counsel to argue them For the other Point That words are no Overt Act that rests for their Opinion in another Case when it shall come for they have now no such Case before them Lord Stafford Thumbly conceive there is Lord High Steward There is a great difference between bare words being an Overt Act and perswasion by Promises of Money and Rewards to kill the King which is a very great Overt Act. Lord Stafford Is it possible to do an Act by Words If it be so I never heard it before Lord High Steward Otherwise men may promise Rewards to â—0 several persons to kill the King and then say 't is all but Words Lord Stafford I say it not but I humbly conceive the Law says it Lord High Steward What say you Gentlemen of the House of Commons Lord Stafford My Lords I have something to say which I desire to speak first My Lords I hope I have cleared to your Lordships that all the Witnesses have swore false against me and this I have made out by Proofs I say not much to that My Lord was searching for his Papers Truly my Lords I am confounded with the Noise and other Circumstances but my Lords I shall if your Lordships please to give me leave humbly represent my Case to you how I take it to be in matter of Fact as to my own Condition not any thing but how I am now before your Lordships I was my Lords committed by my Lord Chief Justices Warrant on the 20. or 21. of October 78. Friday the 25. of October I was brought to your Lordships Bar I was Impeached I do not remember the day my Lords the beginning of December in one Parliament Articles exhibited against me in another Parliament I was brought upon these Articles exhibited and being called to your Lordships Bar the Articles were read to me and I gave in my Answer that was sometime in May 79. and in the end of May the 27. if I mistake not if I do I desire it may be rectified by your Books I with the other Lords were brought to this place in order to our Trial. We staid some time there and then were remanded by your Order to the Tower where I continued till November twelve month after without having heard any thing concerning it so that I was first Impeached in one Parliament Articles brought against me and pleaded to in a second and now brought to my Trial in a third and what your Lordships will say upon this I submit to you and whether these be Proceedings according to Law your Lordships will judge My Lords I humbly conceive that Magna Charta says That Justice shall be denied nor delayed to no man whether it hath not been delayed to me let your Lordships judge If you say the Prorogation of the Parliament is the cause of that delay I hope your Lordships will give me leave to say That from the 5. of December to the 30. when the first Parliament was Prorogued or during the Session of the other Parliament there was time enough sure wherein I might have been brought to my Trial and if these proceedings be lawful and just there is no man living but may be kept off from time to time till some Accidents happen that their ends may be gained I leave it to your judgment whether it may be only my Case now or of some of your Lordships in future Ages to be accused of things that you never heard of before and not brought to justifie your selves but kept in Prison My Lords There is a Statute I have forgot where it is but such a one I have read that though
John Trevor Then we desire they may be produced here and the Copies proved upon Oath and then we shall leave them upon your Lordships Table And my Lords we desire likewise at the same time to save another trouble there may be delivered in the Convictions of Reading Lane Knox and others Then Mr. Clare was Sworn and delivered in the Copies of the Records L. H. Stew. What Record is that Mr. Clare It is the Record of the Attainder of Coleman for high Treason L. H. Stew. Did you examine it Mr. Clare I did examine it L. H. Stew. Is it a true Copy Mr. Clare To the best of my understanding it is Here is likewise a Copy of the Record of the Conviction of Ireland Pickering and Grove for high Treason L. H. Stew. Is there Judgment of Attainder entred upon Record Mr. Clare Yes my Lords there is Judgement entred Here is a Copy of the Indictment Conviction and Attainder of Whitebread Fenwick Harcourt Gavan and Turner for high Treason Here is a Copy of the Record of Attainder of Richard Langhorn for high Treason Here is a Copy of the Attainder of Green Berry and Hill for the Murder of Sir Edmond-bury Godfrey Here is a Copy of the Conviction of Mr. Nathaniel Reading for endeavouring to Suborn Mr. Bedlow to retract his Evidence against some of the Lords in the Tower and Sir Henry Tichbourn L. H. Stew. What is the Judgment there Mr. Clare The Judgment is entred upon it and 't is to pay 1000 l. Fine and to be put in and upon the Pillory in the Palace Yard Westminster for an hour with a Paper upon his head written in great Letters For endeavouring Subornation of Perjury Here is a Copy of the Record of the Conviction of Tasbrough and Price for endeavouring to Suborn Mr. Dugdale and Judgment entred upon it And here is a Copy of the Record of Conviction of Knox and Lane for Conspiring to asperse Dr. Oats and Mr. Bedlow Here is the Record of the Conviction of John Giles for barbarously attempting to Assassinate John Arnold Esq one of His Majesties Justices of the Peace and the Judgment entred thereupon is To stand three times on the Pillory with a Paper on his Hat declaring his Offence to pay â—00 l. to the King to lie in Execution till the same be paid and find Sureties for his Good Behaviour during life L. H. Stew. Deliver them all in And if my Lords have occasion to doubt of any thing being left in the Court they will be there ready â—o be used All which were then delivered in Mr. Treby My Lords we humbly desire that the Record of Coleman may be read because there is more of special matter in it than any of the rest and your Lordships may dispose of the others as you please L. H. Stew. Read the Record of Coleman Then the Clerk read in Latin the Record of the Attainder of Edward Coleman formerly Executed for high Treason by him Committed in this horrid Popish Plot which in English is as followeth viz. Of the Term of Saint MICHAEL in the Thirtieth Year of the Reign of King CHARLES the Second c. Middlesex AT another time to wit on VVednesday next after eight days of St. Martin this same Term before our Lord the King at VVestminster by the Oath of Twelve Jurors honest and lawful Men of the County aforesaid Sworn and Charged to Enquire for our said Lord the King and the Body of the County aforesaid it stands presented That Edward Coleman late of the Parish of Saint Margaret VVestminster in the County of Middlesex Gentleman as a false Traitor against the most Illustrious most Serene and most Excellent Prince our Lord CHARLES the Second by the Grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith c. and his Natural Lord not having the Fear of God in his Heart nor weighing the Duty of his Allegiance but by the instigation of the Devil moved and seduced the cordial Love and the true due and Natural Obedience which true and faithful Subjects of our said Lord the King towards Him our said Lord the King ought and of right are bound to bear utterly withdrawing and devising and with his whole Strength intending the Peace and common Tranquility of this Kingdom of England to disturb and the true Worship of God within this Kingdom of England practised and by Law established to overthrow and Sedition and Rebellion within this Realm of England to move stir up and procure and the cordial Love and true and due Obedience which true and faithful Subjects of our said Lord the King towards Him our said Lord the King should bear and of right are bound to bear utterly to withdraw blot out and extinguish and our said Lord the King to death and final destruction to bring and put the 29 th day of September in the 27 th year of the Reign of our Lord CHARLES the Second by the Grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith c. at the Parish of St. Margaret VVestminster aforesaid in the County aforesaid falsly maliciously subtilly and traiterously proposed compassed imagined and intended Sedition and Rebellion within this Realm of England to move raise up and procure and a miserable Slaughter among the Subjects of our said Lord the King to procure and cause and our said Lord the King from his Kingly State Title Power and Government of His Realm of England utterly to deprive depose deject and disinherit and Him our said Lord the King to Death and final Destruction to bring and put and the Government of the same Realm and the sincere Religion of God in this Kingdom rightly and by the Laws of this Realm established for his Will and Pleasure to change and alter and the State of this whole Kingdom in its universal parts well instituted and ordained wholly to subvert and destroy and War against our said Lord the King within this Realm of England to levy and to accomplish and fulfil these his most wicked Treasons and traiterous Imaginations and Purposes aforesaid The same Edward Coleman afterwards to wit the said Twenty ninth day of September in the abovesaid Twenty Seventh year of the Reign of our said Lord the King at the Parish of Saint Margaret VVestminster aforesaid in the County of Middlesex aforesaid falsly subtilly and traiterously devised composed and writ two Letters to be sent to one Monsieur Le Chese then Servant and Confessor of Lewis the French King to desire procure and obtain to the said Edward Coleman and other false Traitors against our said Soveragin Lord the King from the said French King his Aid Assistance and Adherence to alter the true Religion in this Kingdom then and still Established to the Superstition of the Church of Rome and to Subvert the Government of this Kingdom of England And afterwards to wit the said Twenty Ninth Day of September in the abovesaid Twenty Seventh Year
being asked if he hath any thing or knows what to say for himself why the Court here ought not to proceed to Judgment and Execution of him upon the Verdict aforesaid saith nothing but as before he had said And hereupon instantly the Attorney General of our said Lord the King according to due form of Law demandeth against him the said Edward Judgment and Execution to be had upon the Verdict aforesaid for our Lord the King Whereupon all and singular the Premisses being viewed and by the Court here understood It is considered That the said Edward Coleman be led by the said Keeper of the Gaol of Newgate aforesaid unto Newgate aforesaid from thence directly be drawn to the Gallows of Tyburn and upon those Gallows there be hanged and be cut down alive to the Earth and his Entrals be taken out of hiâ— Belly and be burned he still living and that the Head of him be cut off and that the Body of him be divided into Four parts and that those Head and Quarters be put where our Lord the King will assign them c. L. Staff I do not hear one word he says my Lords L. H. Stew. My Lord this does not concern your Lordship any further than as to the generality of the Plot. Sir Will. Jones My Lords we have now done with our Proofs for the first general head that we opened which was to make it out that there was a Plot in general We now come to give our particular Evidence against this very Lord and before we do begin we think fit to acquaint your Lordships that our Evidence will take up some time if your Lordships will have the patience to hear it now we will give it but if your Lordships will not sit so long till we can finish it it may be some inconvenience to us to break off in the middle And therefore we humbly offer it to your Lordships consideration whether you will hear it now or no. L. H. Stew. If it cannot be all given and heard now it were better all should be given to morrow Sir Will. Jones If your Lordships please then we will reserve it till to morrow L. Staff My Lords I would only have your directions whether I shall answer this General first or stay till all be said against me That which I have to say to this General will be very short L. H. Stew. My Lord you are to make all your Answer entire and that is best for you L. Staff I am very well contented that I may be the better prepared for it L. H. Stew. Is it your Lordships pleasure that we should Adjourn into the Parliament Chamber Lords Ay Ay. L. H. Stew. Then this House is Adjourned into the Parliament Chember And the Lords went away in the same Order they came The Commons returned to their House and Mr. Speaker resumed the Chair and then the House Adjourned to eight of the clock the next morning The Second Day Wednesday December 1. 1680. A Message was sent from the Lords by Sir Timothy Baldwyn and Sir Samuel Clark Mr Speaker The Lords have sent us to acquaint this House That they intend to proceed to the Tryal of William Viscount Stafford at ten of the clock this morning in Westminster-Hall Mr. Speaker left the Chair and the Commons came into Westminster Hall in the new erected Court And the Managers appointed by the Commons went into the Room prepared for them in that Court to proceed to the particular Evidence against William Viscount Stafford About ten of the clock in the morning the Lords came into the said Court in their former Order and Proclamation being made of Silence and for the Lieutenant of the Tower to bring his Prisoner to the Bar they proceeded L. H. Stew. My Lords expect you should go on with your Evidence and proceed in the Tryal of this Noble Lord. L. Stafford My Lords if your Lordships please I humbly desire that my Counsel may be near me for the Arguing of what is fit to them to speak to as to points of Law for points of Fact I do not desire it L. H. Stew. My Lord you have an Order for your Counsel to attend and they must and ought to attend Mr. Serjeant Maynard The Counsel must not suggest any thing to him while the Evidence is giving they are not to be heard as to matter of Fact L. H. Stew. It is not intended to make use of Counsel as to matter of Fact but they may stand by Mr. Serjeant Maynard My Lords they may stand within hearing but not within prompting L. Staff I assure you if I had all the Counsel in the world I would not make use of them for any matter of Fact Mr. Treby My Lords will you please to order them to stand at a convenient distance that they may not prompt the Prisoner Sir Will. Jones My Lords I hope your Lordships will consider that a man in a Capital Cause ought not to have Counsel to matter of Fact 'T is true he may advise with his Counsel I deny it not but for him in the face of the Court to communicate with his Counsel and by them be told what he shall say as to matters of Fact is that which with submission is not to be allowed If your Lordships order they shall be within hearing I do not oppose it but then I desire they may stand at that distance that there may be no means of intercouse unless points in Law do arise L. H. Stew. You were best make that exception when there is Cause for it in the mean time go on with your Evidence Sir Franc. Winn. We did perceive his Counsel came up towards the Bar and very near him and therefore we thought it our duty to speak before any inconvenience happened This Lord being accused of High Treason the allowing of Counsel is not a matter of Discretion If matters of Law arise all our Books say that Counsel ought to be allowed But we pray that there may be no Counsel to advise him in matter of Fact nor till your Lordships find some Question of Law to arise upon the Evidence L. H. Stew. When there is Cause take the Exception but they do not as yet misbehave themselves Mr. Treby My Lords we presume your Lordships did from the strength and clearness of yesterdays Evidence receive full satisfaction concerning the general Plot and Conspiracy of the Popish Party It being an Evidence apparently invincible not out of the mouths of two or three Witnesses only but of twice that number or more credible persons Upon which we doubt not but your Lordships who hear and Strangers and unborn Posterity when they shall hear will justifie this Prosecution of the Commons and will allow that this Impeachment is the proper voice of the Nation crying out as when the knife is at the throat By the Evidence already given I say it is manifeâ—t that there was a general grand Design to destroy our
they have can in the least absolve me of my Allegigiance And I do acknowledge the King is my Soveraign and I ought to obey him as far as the Law of the Land obliges any Subject of his to obey him whether I have taken the Oath of Allegiance I appeal to your Lordships to be my Witnesses and if I did not take it a thousand times for my Allegiance to the King if required I think I should deserve a thousand Deaths and all the Torments in the world for refusing it My Lords These Gentlemen here did begin their Charge Serjeant Maynard and Sir Francis Winnington with telling your Lordships there was an horrid Design to murder the King to alter the Government and introduce the Popish Religon This they say was ingaged in by the Roman Catholicks that all the Church of Rome were the Contrivers of it for they tell your Lordships the whole Body hath been ingaged in it and they have given you many Proofs by Witnesses examined the first day of a General Plot what Credit you will give to them I leave to your Lordships in the end of the Case but still they said it was the Body of the Roman Catholicks in England or the Papists or what they call them that were the Plotters in this Design But I beseech your Lordships how am I concerned in it for I must say to your Lordships they have not offered one proof that I am of that Religion So that though any of you should have seen me at the Exercises of that Religion or otherwise know it of your selves yet if there be no Proof judicially before you you are not to take notice of it I have heard if a man be accused of a Crime and be to be tryed and no Evidence come in if every man of the Jury were sure that the Fact was done yet they must go upon the Evidence produced to them and not upon their own knowledge So then no Evidence being produced before your Lordships about my being a Papist you are not to take me for such an one But my Lords if I were of that Church and that were never so well proved too I hope I have an advantage in it that I have kept my self from being poysoned with so wicked a Principle or ingaged with the rest in so ill a thing My Lords I am here accused of having endeavoured to kill the King I find by the Law upon reading Sir Edward Coke since my Imprisonment That all Accusations of Treason ought to be accompanied with Circumstances antecedent concomitant and subsequent but I conceive my Lords there is no tittle of any such thing proved against me The whole compass of my life from my infancy hath been clear otherwise In the beginning of the late unhappy times the late King of happy and glorious memory did me the honour to make me a Peer and thinking that my presence might rather prejudice him than serve him my Wife and I settled at Antwerp when the War begun where I might have lived though obscurely yet safely but I was not satisfied in my Conscience to see my King in so much disorder and I not endeavour to serve him what I could to free him from his troubles And I did come into England and served his Majesty faithfully and loyally as long as he lived And some of your Lordships here know whether I did not wait upon the now King in his Exile from which he was happily restored which shews I had no ill intention then My Lords I hope this I have said does shew that my life hath given no countenance to this Accusation but clear contrary to what these I hope I may call them so and doubt not to prove them so perjured Villains say against me My Lords After I had this misfortune to be thus accused about a month or six weeks after your Lordships were pleased to send two Members of this honourable Body to me I do not see them at present here to examine me about the Plot they were my Lord of Bridgwater and my Lord of Essex if they be here I appeal to them what I did say These two after they had examined me told me they did believe and could almost assure me That if I would confess my Fault and let them know the particulars of it your Lordships would intercede with the King for my Pardon but I then as I ought asserted my own Innocency Not long after the King out of his Grace and Goodness to me sent six of the Council to the Tower to offer me That though I was never so guilty yet if I would confess I should have my Pardon I did then consider with my self I could not imagine what ground there was to believe your Lordships could have Evidence of what there was not to bring me in Guilty and thereupon I was so far from being able to make a Discovery that I could not invent any thing that might save my life if I would My Lords I was seven days in the Countrey after I heard of the Plot if I had known my self guilty I should surely have run away As I came to London when I was at Lichfield there met me two of my Lords They told me and so did a Gentleman of the House of Commons how much there was in the Plot which if I had had an hand in it would certainly make me fly for it I have ever heard when a man is accused or suspected of a Crime Flight is a great sign of Guilt and that it is often asked of the Jury though there be no certain positive Evidence of the Fact Whether a man fled or no As that is a sign of Guilt so Remaining is a sign of Innocency If then after Notice I come to Town and suffer my self to be taken if after Imprisonment and Accusation I refuse my Pardon and yet had been Guilty I ought to die for my Folly as well as my Crime My Lords 't is a great Offence to commit Treason and a great Addition to continue obstinate when upon Acknowledgment a man can save his life nay my Lords if I should have refused these Offers and yet known my self Guilty I had at the same time been guilty of one of the greatest Sins in the world as being the cause of my own Death And as I hold next to Treason Murder the greatest sin so I hold of all Murders Self-murder to be the greatest nay I do not think any man living can pardon that Sin of Murder And I do profess to your Lordships in the presence of Almighty God that if I could immediately by the Death of this impudent Fellow Dugdale who hath done me so much wrong make my self the greatest man in the world that is or ever was I profess before God I would not I cannot say my Charity is so great but that I should be glad to see him suffer those Punishments the Law can inflict upon him for his Crimes but his Death I would not have
by the Statute Mr. Serjeant Maynard Express your self my Lord for we do not understand you L. Stafford I cannot say more than I do the time which the Statute limits is six months but this is five years I desire the Statute may be read L. H. Stew. What Statute my Lord L. Stafford The Statute of the 13 th of this King L. H. Stew. If your Lordship pleases you shall have it read But your Lordship does not observe you are prosecuted and impeached of High Treason upon the Statute of the 25 th of Edward the 3 d. not upon the Statute of the 13 th of this King made for the Safety of the Kings Person which limits the Prosecution of some Offences to be within six months but the Prosecution for Treason may be at any time L. Staff Does your Lordship say it may be at any time Lord High Steward Yes my Lord. L. Stafford This truly does very much surprise me though I am wholly ignorant in matters of Law My Lords I have ever heard that no man can be prosecuted by that Statute but within so many days in one part of it Thirty Days in another six months and I desire your Lordships that the Statute may be read L. H. Stew. If your Lordship please the Statute shall be read if your Lordship desires the Clause of the Statute of the 13 th of this King which limits the Prosecution to be within six months that shall be read But I conceive your Lordship is not accused upon that Statute Lord Stafford I beseech your Lordships I may know whether I am prosecuted upon the Statute of the 13 th of this King or upon what other Statute L. H. Steward What say the worthy Gentlemen of the House of Commons Is my Lord prosecuted upon the Statute of the 13 th of this King M. Serj. Maynard Not at all my Lord he is not prosecuted upon that Statute but upon the Common Law and the 25 th of Edward the 3 d. which was only Declarative of the Common Law L. Staff This is a point of Law Sir Will. Jones What is the point of Law L. Staff Whether I can be prosecuted after so many days L. H. Steward The Law is very clear If you were prosecuted upon the 13 th of this King for any less Offence than Treason you could not be prosesecuted after six months but if you be prosecuted for Treason either upon the 25 th of Edward the 3 d. or 13. Car. 2 d. there is no time limited and God forbid there should L. Stafford I beseech your Lordships Judgment whether there be not a Statute I think 't is in the Reign of Edward the 6 th that sets the time after which no man shall be prosecuted for any thing of Treason I desire a quarter of an hours time to look into the Statute L. H. Stew. What say you Gentlemen L. Stafford Pray my Lord let me read the Statute of Edward the 6 th Mr. Serj. Maynard We know not of any such Statute L. Stafford I will not say there is but I will say I cannot read if there be not L. H. Stew. Pray Gentlemen of the House of Commons my Lord does suppose he hath some kind of Objection in Law to make which he cannot make out of himself will it be amiss to let his Counsel make and propose the Question for him Sir Will. Jones My Lords we rather would have my Lord propose the Objection for your Lordships know till a matter of Law is proposed he cannot be admitted to have Counsel If he desires time to recollect himself about the Objection we can't oppose it But we desire that he may propose the Objection and after if it be any doubt in matter of Law your Lordships will assign him Counsel to be heard to speak to it Sir Franc. Winn. This would be a way for a Prisoner to have the Advantage of Counsel when they ought not to be allowed for 't is but to say he hath some doubt which he cannot propose himself and so let in his Counsel to make Objections for him If any Question of Law do arise and that Question is stated you will allow the Prisoner Counsel to argue it but at this rate he may make the like pretences in every part of his Defence and so obtain that Counsel shall manage his whole Defence for him L. H. Stew. I suppose my Lord does intend an Objection as to the time of the Prosecution but he does not know how to make it He supposes he is prosecuted after the six months which he thinks is the time limited for the Prosecution But I pray my Lord Stafford will your Lordship take time to recollect your self and make an Objection fit for Counsel to be heard upon and you shall have it L. Staff I beseech you I may have the Statute-Book with me for I have none my self my Lord. Sir Will. Jones With all our hearts we do not oppose it Then my Lord withdrew into the Room provided for him and within a quarter of an hour returned L. H. Stew. Say my Lord. L. Stafford My Lords I do confess I have been very much mistaken ever since I was first committed to the Tower For I did conceive that they would have proceeded as I thought I was impeached upon the Statute of the 13 th of this King I humbly desire your Lordships Judgment whether I ought or no to be prosecuted upon that Statute L. H. Stew. The Gentlemen have told you already They prosecute you upon the Statute of 25 th of Edward the 3 d. and upon the Common Law L. Staff And they lay aside that Statute L. H. Stew. What Statute L. Staff The 13 th of this King L. H. Stew. What say you Gentlemen once more Sir Fr. Winn. My Lords we have declared already to his Lordship and if my Lord had looked well upon the Articles of Impeachment he could not have put that Question but would have found himself impeached for Treason at the Common Law declared by the 25 th of Edward the 3 d. L. Staff So then they lay that aside of the 13 th of this King Mr. Serj. Maynard We do not mention any Statute but we mention the Crime and that Crime is against the Common Law declared by the Statute to wit The attempting the King's Death and the Subversion of the Government L. Stafford My Lords There is no doubt but the attempting the King's Death is a great and hainous Crime but my Lords I do not find that in the Impeachment there is any Overt Act at all And whether I shall answer to a Treason not proved by any Overt Act sworn by two Witnesses I submit to your Lordships But my Lords because your Lordships and the House of Commons may not think that I propose these things out of a desire of delay if your Lordships please it may be saved to me with all other points of Law I will go on to my proofs L. H. Stew. Yes
a point of Fact Let us therefore resort to the Articles themselves In the 2 d Article it is alledged that he with the rest did most wickedly and traiterously agree conspire and resolve to Imprison Depose and Murther His Sacred Majesty and to deprive Him of his Regal State and Government And then the same Article alledges farther that they did contrive and consult to effect the Murther of the King by Shooting by Poisoning and by Stabbing All these particulars are expressed so that when my Lord said the Articles were therein defective all we can say is that he was misinform'd My Lords there was another Exception taken that this is the Impeachment of another Parliament I must not now repeat how this Point was agreed by both Houses at a Conference But it was then declared upon search of Precedents in all ages that it was the Law of Parliaments which is the Law of the Land that if once an Impeachment by the House of Commons were lodged in the House of Lords tho' that Parliament were dissolved the Impeachment remained in the same state It was the Cause of the Commons of England who only change their Representatives in a new Parliament It has been also objected that this Prosecution ought to have been upon an Indictment As if an Accusation of the House of Commons who are the grand Inquest of the Nation were not as effectual to bring Offenders to Justice as the finding of a particular Jury My Lords I should wonder to hear this Objection made were not my Lord to be easily excused for his knowing the Law no better None who know any thing in the Law would have urg'd such a thing His Counsel I dare say did not suggest this matter to him It is true my Lords when a Peer comes to be Tried by way of Commission or in Parliament when it is not at the prosecution of the Commons there an Indictment is first found in the proper County and brought up before the Peers by Certiorari and upon that they proceed But whether the Party be Peer or Commoner if he be Impeach'd for any Crimes surely no one can deny but that by the constant use of Parliaments the Lords have proceeded to Trial and have given Judgment thereupon without an Indictment found So that this Exception will be of no force at all As for the remaining Objection that there are not two Witnesses to prove any one Overt Act the Kings Person would be in no manner of safety if that Doctrine should be once allowed Conspiring to kill the King is the Treason laid in the Impeachment and the several Overt Acts are so many several Evidences of that Treason Words themselves if they signifie an intention to do an Act and express something to be done in futuro are a sufficient Overt Act a legal Evidence of Treason Then we prove by another Witness not words of encouragement only but offers of money and they are both to the same kind of Treason tho' not to the same Act and at the same time And if there must be 2 Witnesses to every single Act the King of England is not only in a far worse condition than any other Prince but than any one of his own Subjects Treasons may be committed every day with Impunity and unless the Traytors be as great Fools as Villains he shall never be safe from them nor capable of punishing them I must say it and I say it with commiseration to the Condition of this Noble Lord that his Exceptions in Law are as weak as the Answers he has given to our Evidence We hope no doubt in Law remains with you and that we have given your Lordships full satisfaction of the reality of the Plot and a convincing Evidence of the great share which my Lord Stafford had in it and we humbly pray your Lordships Justice Lord High Steward You do not take notice of one thing that my Lord Stafford said this morning That is that the Witnesses are not competent Witnesses because they swore for Money and that is fit to be spoken unto not for the Weight of the Objection so much as for the Satisfaction of the Auditory Sir Francis Winnington My Lords I had taken a Note of that but forgot to mention it If my Lord at the Bar will say they have taken Money to swear that is purely a Matter of Fact which he ought to prove and that which is said and not proved ought to go for nothing let him prove his Case to be so and then we will give him an Answer Lord High Stward My Lord Stafford if your Lordship can prove that they have had Money to swear your Lordship urges that which will be material but if it were only Money to maintain them that sure will amount to no Objection Lord Stafford My Lords I submit it to your Lordships whether Dr. Oats and the rest have not had great Sums of Money besides their Charges 10 l. a week a piece But I desire your Lordships to consider and I appeal to many of your Lordships whether it has not been said that it was a defect in Coleman's and Langhorn's Trials that they did not plead that and if they had pleaded it they must have been acquitted I will name no body but I appeal to your Lordships whether some of you have not said so But I desire your Lordships to admit me to plead by my Counsel if not I submit to you I confess here is a piece of Law that I never heard of before that the House of Commons and your Lordships at a Conference have adjudged it to be the Law of Parliaments that Impeachments shall continue from Parliament to Parliament If you will please to hear my Counsel for me so if not I submit Lord High Steward What would you or can you prove Lord Stafford My Lords Those things that I have given in to your Lordships I desire my Counsel may be heard to Lord High Steward Gentlemen what can you object why he should not have Counsel to argue his Objections in Law Sir William Jones My Lords I do think under favour if a Prisoner in a Capital Cause do desire Counsel he must not only alledge matter of Law to introduce that Desire but that which he doth alledge must be also a matter of some Doubt to the Court For if he do alledge matter which in it self is not Disputable he shall have no Counsel allowed him If your Lordships are not satisfied that it is the Law of your House that Proceedings upon Impeachments do continue from Parliament we cannot answer that it lies in your Lordships breasts it is not what we are to argue because it is a matter that concerns the Law and Rules of Parliaments Is there my Lords any doubt of any other Point that is urged Is there any doubt of this thing whether if one Witness speak to one point of Fact and another to another upon the same sort of Treason but that
A wicked beginning it was and it had a wicked end For since our Saviours Death and Murder by the Jews never was so execrable a Murder in the World and whoever had an hand in it without an extraordinary Repentance can have no thoughts of Salvation I never could serve the King 't is true but in my desires and I never disserted him in Thought Word or Deed to my knowledg in my life much less did I ever contrive or consent to his Death I do in the presence of God Angels your Lordships and all Men declare I do know no more of the Plot or any such thing than any one here does That those of the Romish Religion had meetings I believe to obtain those ends that I spake of before Coleman went too far how far he was Criminal in it I cann't tell Meetings I say there were but I was never at one of them nor do I know what was done there I do leave it to your Lordships to do Justice as I know you will and with all submission I resign my self up to you Lord High Steward Have you done my Lord Lord Stafford If your Lordships will not allow me Counsel to argue those Points I have done Lord High Steward What say you Gentlemen of the House of Commons Mr. Serjeant Maynard My Lords some thing that my Lord hath spoken hath been resolved against him that is about two Witnesses to each Overt-act some things are not to be disputed about the Law and Course of Parliaments some things were not to be said now because he had said them before My Lords we had concluded our Evidence and he is pleased to take up the time with repeating what was said before For the other matters that my Lord is pleased to discourse of all he says is but his Obligations and how unreasonable it were for him to do it the Question is whether he hath done it or no if he hath his Obligations are an Aggravation of his Crime not an Excuse His Relations his Family and other things are nothing before your Lordships now in point of Judgment nor is there any thing new said to day that was not said before Sir William Jones My Lords I should not add one word further were it not that this Noble Lord is pleased upon his Memory or rather without to say something of me and that was that speaking of the Continuance of Procâ—edings I should say if your Lordships had no President I hope you would make one My Lords I do appeal to your Lordships Memory whether I said any thing like it I utterly deny it nor was there any occasion for it For there was no need of urging Presidents when your Lordships upon a Conference with the Commons did declare it to be the Law of Proceedings in Parliament and did then fortifie iâ— with many Arguments I know my Lords Memory is not very good I 'm sure in this he is very much mâ—staken My Lord hath been pleased to complain he hath received much disturbance and that the Noise and Shouts have been so great that they have occasioned some lâ—straction in him My Lords I am sure his Lordship cannot mean us for I appeal to your Lordships and all that have heard this Tryal whether he hath received the least disturbance or interruption from us or whether we have not treated him with that respect that becomes his Dignity and the Discretion that ought to be in the Managers of the House of Commons But I must needs say that his Lordship hath received distraction from those Friends or Counsel of his that put those many Papers into his Hand for he hath read one after another that do contain the same matter over and over again These I confess were sufficient to distract him or any other that should make use of them His Lordship hath been pleased to go off from the matter of Law to the matter of Fact and backward and forward so that it is impossible to follow him And as to the matter of Fact we shall decline to follow him for though we have not given his Lordship any disturbance yet we submit to your Judgment whether it be Regular or according to the Course of Proceedings when his Lordship hath sum'd up his Evidence and we that are the Prosecutors have concluded ours he should begin that work again which if it should be admitted we were to reply and he might rejoin upon us and so there would be no end of Proceedings And my Lords I hope though this Lord hath had the favour to do it yet it shall not for the future be brought into Example for it will make Tryals endless My Lords for the matter of Law there is nothing that deserves an Answer for though the Law does admit the Prisoner Counsel in matters of Law yet it must be in things doubtful And if there be any thing of that in our Case I submit it to your Lordships I am sure I have heard nothing new but what hath been over-ruled already unless it be a matter of Law which rises upon a matter of Fact and that not proved to wit the Corruption of Witnesses The last day all was said by his Lordship he could say and all said by us that we thought fit to say and now to begin the same matter again I think ought not to be admitted We shall not follow his Lordship in that way of Proceedings and hope it shall never fall into Example Sir Francis Winnington My Lords I have only one word to say to your Lordships and that is in relation to the Proceedings of the Commons in this Cause for if the Cause had not been of an extraordinary nature we should have stood upon it that the Prisoner ought not after the Prosecutors had concluded to have taken a liberty of reading and repeating what we had said over and over again We know my Lords there are are a sort of men in the world who are willing to lay hold of any pretences to cavil at our Proceedings and therefore we have let my Lord take all this liberty that so his Party might have no colour of Complaint His Lordship was pleased to say the last day that he had not a Witness more to produce nor a Reason to give as I understood him and therefore he must own that we have been very tender to him in all our Proceedings One thing my Lord insinuates to day which I cannot forbear taking notice of as if we had delayed him which is without cause we had used all diligence in preparing our selves and were soon ready when the King was pleased to let the Parliament sit and therefore it can be no imputation on us and truly if my Lord considers the weight of the Evidence I fear he will think his Tryal comes soon enough now Lord Stafford My Lords I desire to be rightly understood in one thing and 't is only this I did not say the House of Commons shouted at me but the
Rabble Lord High Steward Is it your Lordships pleasure to Adjourn Lords Ay Ay. Lord High Steward Then this House is Adjourned to the Parliament Chamber Then the Lords withdrew in their former Order and the Committee of Commons went back to their House Mr. Speaker resumed the Chair A Message was sent from the Lords by Sir Timothy Baldwyn and Sir Samuel Clarke Mr. Speaker The Lords have commanded us to acquaint this House that they have appointed William Viscount Stafford to be brought to the Bar in Westminster-Hall to morrow morning at Ten of the Clock to receive Judgment The Commons Adjourned to Eight of the Clock the next Morning The Seventh Day Tuesday December 7. 1680. ABout the hour of Eleven the Lords Adjourned into Westminster-Hall going thither in their former Order into the Court there erected and Mr. Speaker having left the Chair the Committee of Commons were seated as before The Lords being sate Proclamation was made for Silence and the Lord High Steward being seated on the Wool-pack with Garter Principal King of Arms the Usher of the Black Rod Nine Maces attending him with all the rest of the Solemnity as was at first expressed took the Votes of the Peers upon the Evidence beginning at the Puisne Baron and so upwards in this Order the Lord Stafford being as the Law requires absent Lord High Steward My Lords I am an humble Suitor to your Lordships That you will give me leave to collect your Votes as I sit for I am not able to stand Which being granted the Lord High Steward proceeded Lord High Steward My Lord Butler of Weston Is William Lord Viscount Stafford Guilty of the Treason whereof he stands Impeached or Not Guilty Lord Butler Not Guilty upon my Honour The same Question was put to the rest whose Names and Votes follow Lord Arundel of Trerice Not Guilty upon my Honour Lord Crewe Guilty upon my Honour Lord Cornwallis Guilty upon my Honour Lord Holles Not Guilty upon my Honour Lord Wootton Not Guilty upon my Honour Lord Rockingham Guilty upon my Honour Lord Lucas Not Guilty upon my Honour Lord Astley Guilty upon my Honour Lord Ward Not Guilty upon my Honour Lord Byron Not Guilty upon my Honour Lord Hatton Not Guilty upon my Honour Lord Leigh Guilty upon my Honour Lord Herbert of Cherbury Guilty upon my Honour Lord Howard of Escrick Guilty upon my Honour Lord Maynard Guilty upon my Honour Lord Lovelace Guilty upon my Honour Lord Deincourt Not Guilty upon my Honour Lord Grey of Wark Guilty upon my Honour Lord Brook Guilty upon my Honour Lord Norreys Not Guilty upon my Honour Lord Chandos Guilty upon my Honour Lord North and Grey Guilty upon my Honour Lord Pagett Guilty upon my Honour Lord Wharton Guilty upon my Honour Lord Eure. Guilty upon my Honour Lord Cromwell Guilty upon my Honour Lord Windsor Not Guilty upon my Honour Lord Conyers Guilty upon my Honour Lord Ferrers Not Guilty upon my Honour Lord Morley Not Guilty upon my Honour Lord Mowbray Not Guilty upon my Honour Lord Viscount Newport Guilty upon my Honour Lord Viscount Faulconberge Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Conway Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Berkley Not Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Maslesfield Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Hallifax Not Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Feversham Not Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Sussex Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Guilford Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Shaftsbury Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Burlington Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Ailesbury Not Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Craven Not Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Carlisle Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Bath Not Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Essex Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Clarendon Not Guilty upon my Honour Earl of St Albans Not Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Scarsdale Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Sunderland Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Thanet Not Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Chesterfield Not Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Carnarvan Not Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Winchelsea Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Stamford Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Peterborough Not Guilty upon my Honour Earl Rivers Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Mulgrave Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Barkshire Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Manchester Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Westmorland Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Clare Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Bristol Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Denbigh Not Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Northampton Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Leicester Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Bridgwater Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Salisbury Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Suffolk Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Bedford Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Huntingdon Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Rutland Not Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Kent Guilty upon my Honour Earl of Oxford Guilty upon my Honour Lord Chamberlain Not Guilty upon my Honour Marquess of Worcester Not Guilty upon my Honour Duke of Newcastle Not Guilty upon my Honour Duke of Monmouth Guilty upon my Honour Duke of Albemarle Guilty upon my Honour Duke of Buckingham Guilty upon my Honour Lord Privy-Seal Guilty upon my Honour Lord President Guilty upon my Honour Lord High Steward Guilty upon my Honour Prince Rupert Duke of Cumberland Guilty upon my Honour Lord High Steward My Lords upon telling your Votes I find there are Thirty one of my Lords that think the Prisoner Not Guilty and Fifty five that have found him Guilty Serjeant make Proclamation for the Lieutenant of the Tower to bring his Prisoner to the Bar. which was done and his Lordship came to the Bar. Lord High Steward My Lord Stafford I have but heavy tidings for you your Lordship hath been Impeached of High-Treason you have pleaded Not Guilty my Lords have heard your Defence and have considered of the Evidence and their Lordships do find you Guilty of the Treason whereof you are Impeached Lord Stafford Gods Holy Name be praised my Lords for it Lord High Steward What can your Lordship say for your self why Judgment of Death should not be given upon you according to the Law Lord Stafford My Lords I have very little to say I confess I am surprized at it for I did not expect it but Gods will be done and your Lordships I will not murmur at it God forgive those that have sworn falsly against me My Lords I conceive I have something to say for respit of Judgment I have been at many Tryals in my Life but I never saw any Tryal where the party tried did not hold up his Hand which I was never asked to do I thought it had been a very material point in the Law That by the holding up of the Hand he might be known to be the Person I have read lately since I had the misfortune to be thus accused Sir Edward Coke upon the Pleas of the Crown and he says that Misnomer the not giving a man
prove well enough that there was such a Plot but my Lords withall we did consider when the first Discovery of this Plot was made how afterwards it took cold how rumors were raised against it how there were endeavours to suppress the belief of it and therefore my Lords we do conceive that it is fit we should first settle that that there was a general Plot a Plot of such a Nature as the Articles express Some Objections we thought there might be raised because it hath been so long in the World some years now since the Discovery of it some persons that is some ten or eleven Prosecuted and Atatinted for it and therefore that might have been satisfaction enough that such a Plot there was besides that there have been publick Declarations of the Particulars to the World But being now to proceed before your Lordships in a judicial way We did think fit and we hope your Lordships will approve of it to spend some time in the Proof of the general Plot which we hope will be to the satisfaction of your Lordships and the whole World for we do not think that England only looks into this days Tryal but the whole World one way or other the whole Christian World is concerned in it My Lords after the Publication of these things which were not judicial how far your Lordships will believe them as Judges we know not we will prove it now that their Policies and Contrivances may be laid open to the World And first we offer it to your Lordships because we have made it part of the Charge And secondly we shall do it because we think your Lordships are not obliged to believe things that are in Print till we prove them by Witnesses judicially before you But the main Reason why we do it is because we would touch upon those Endeavours that have been used to make this seem as if it were a kind of State Plot I know not what to call â—t a Chimaera an Imagination and not a real thing This they laboured many ways to effect but we shall prove that it is a very real and a very true one When that Oats first made a Discovery it seems it had not that weight that we think now it will clearly have with your Lordships and had not the Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey followed in the Neck of it the World as it was asleep would have lain so but that awaked us My Lords it fell out in this Case as it did in another when Cateline the Traytor was a great way off Rome and four other Lords with him Cassius Cethegus and others five in all it came to pass that as the great Orator that was at that time said Many were so ignorant that they would not think it many were so unwise they would not believe it some so ill that they would favour it some so much worse that they did Foster it but all of them in not believing it gave strength to the Conspiracy the Treason And so it did here for we look not upon our selves as discharg'd from the Treason when Discover'd but when Prevented My Lords another Reason to induce us into the Proof of the main Plot is this We do not look upon it as a particular Offence as if one Lord was only to be questioned and appear before your Lordships judicially for it he is indeed only before you at this time to receive his Tryal and your Judgment But my Lords this is a Treason of a Faction and of a general Party in the Nation 't is not this or that Lord but a great number 't is not this or that Lord that is mentioned in the Articles but the Conspiracy is of a great Faction This we do think and this makes us so earnest to press the general before your Lordships that we may give satisfaction to your Lordships and the World what this Plot hath been and how carried on every where My Lords The Consequence of that is very great for my Lords if there were a general Design and a general Plot as clearly there was for some were to act in Spain and some in France some in other places some in Ireland Scotland and England and a great number of Jesuits we have a matter of Thirty in Chase about this business I say my Lords if it be so if one Action be in one place and another in another yet if there be a common Consent to accomplish this Plot then what the one does is the Act of All and the Act of All is the Act of every one My Lords The Persons were many and the Places and Times many they acted in and the Designs which they were to accomplish and the means wherewith they were to accomplish them were many too Great and wicked were their Designs to destroy our King to take him out of the World and why upon hopes of better times to them under him that should succeed him Another part of the Design was to destroy not this or that man that stood in their way but the whole Body of the Protestants here in England not a Murder but a Massacre and a Slaughter of all whosoever they were that came near them and none were to escape for if any meant to flee they would be sure to cut them off nay not only to destroy our King though that be the greatest Offence that our Law can take hold off but to destroy our Religion and to destroy us because of our Religon To accomplish this that we may open the generals of it Arms were to be provided Men to be raised an Army was formed in effect and who to Lead and who to Command and who to pay But my Lords not only were Arms to be had here among our selves but a French Aid must be fetch'd in Assistance from France must come too Intelligences and Letters are written and Correspondencies had and Aids promised by the Ministers from thence My Lords 'T is a strange thing that English men should contrive to have an Invasion of Strangers upon their own Country and surely they are the worst Biggots in the world that were so zealous to destroy their own Nation and they were not wise sure to think that if the French did come in they should continue great Lords or great Men and yet thus it was in general It is very strange that it should enter into the heart of any man to destroy so many persons But my Lords if we look upon what did incourage them and what confirmed them in this Design and what they have published to the world about their Religion we shall not wonder at it since they tell us 't is lawful to kill an Heretick King and the King of England is an Heretick they say and so declared so that whosoever would Kill him did a lawful and pious piece of Service to God Nay not only so but a Meritorious and Glorious one too for which they may be Canonized for Saints My Lords
does countenance and encourage the Murdering of Princes the Massacring of such as they miscall Hereticks and the committing of all sorts of Impiety in order to promote their Superstitions and Idolatries has been mentioned by the Gentleman who spoke before me and I should mispend time to say more of a truth so well known in so great and so learned a Presence I will therefore directly apply my self to the Business of the day to represent to your Lordships our Evidence of the Plot in general and of the Guilt of this Lord at the Bar in particular In order to which I shall crave your Lordships leave that I may use this method First To shew what advantageous opportunities the Papists had to enter into and undertake this great and detestable Conspiracy Secondly To prove the reality of the Plot in general which I look upon as a very easie undertaking Thirdly To state the particular Evidence against the Prisoner at the Bar by which he will appear to have been one of the principal Conspirators in this horrid Design to murder our Soveraign whom God preserve to extirpate the Protestant Religion and to subvert totally the Government and Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom My Lords To shew what extraordinary Advantages the Papists had to enter upon this Conspiracy will very naturally lead us into our Proof of it and therefore I shall speak somewhat to that in the first place It is not unknown to your Lordships or to any others who have in the least degree inquired into Affairs that His Majesty has been so unhappy as that unawares to him some Ministers who have been Papists at the Bottom and others that have drove on their Interest have crept into his Councils and thereby gave great opportunities to advance Popery 'T is most true that as soon as these ill Ministers were detected and their ill Designs discovered His Majesty did discharge them But to the misfortune of the King and his People as ill men have been recommended to succeed them and came into their places In the next place my Lords There did appear in some men too easie and favourable a disposition towards the Papists They were grown strangely moderate towards these old Enemies of our Church and State New Projects of Reconciling us were set on foot and Books were written to distinguish the Church of Rome from the Court of Rome One of those Books which was printed the year before the Discovery of the Plot pretends That there ought to be a Difference made between Papists of Loyal and Disloyal â—â—â—nciples This Book as it was written more artificially than the rest and published in so critical and dangerous a juncture deserves and I doubt not in time will have a particular Consideration 'T is easie to believe how great Encouragement this must give to the Romanists to see how very willing men were to meet them and how freely the Pen was drawn in their favour Another great Encouragement my Lords which the Papists had was That by the means of those Ministers who were secretly of their Faction whensoever His Majesty was pleased to command the Laws made against them in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James to be put in due Execution his good Intentions were frustrated and the Severity of those Laws was turned upon the Protestant Dissenters This was a Masterpiece of Rome not only to divert from themselves the edge of those Laws which were designed against them but to turn them upon the Protestants and to make them useful to advance the Romish Interest And when they had thus divided and distracted us then was the fairest time for them to attempt to destroy us utterly and to make sharp their Weapons in order to a Massacre But my Lords That which gave the Papists the greatest encouragement to enter into this detestable Conspiracy was that they had to the great unhappiness of this Kingdom the Protestant Religion the expectation hopes of a Popish Successor This was an opportunity not to be lost They had abundant Experience of His Majesties Firmness in the Protestant Religion both during his Exile and since his happy Restauration and how resolutely he had kept that Promise which he made in his Letter from Breda That neither the Unkindness of some Protestants nor the Civilities of some Papists should in the least degree startle him or make him swerve from his Religion They therefore could have no hopes of arriving at their Point the Re-establishment of their Church whilst the King liv'd and it was too great a hazard to expect His Majesties Death by the Course of Nature And therefore like true Papists that would stick at no wickedness to accomplish their Designs they threw off all Bonds of Loyalty and Allegiance and resolved to destroy our Soveraign whose Life was the only Obstacle in their way This was the last and most wicked part of their Plot which though it consisted of very many parts yet this was the principal and our Evidence against the Lord at the Bar will chiefly run to this part of the Design I have only mentioned some of those Encouragements which the World plainly saw the Papists had before the Plot was detected But since the Discovery it has been abundantly prov'd that it had been carrying on for many years and that so universally that it is a wonderful thing it appeared no sooner My Lords I come now to our Evidence and though it may seem unnecessary to prove to your Lordships general Plot of the Papists who are so well satisfied of it already and have more than once declared so to the world yet because it is the most natural method for us first to prove that there was a Conspiracy before we attempt to prove this Lord to have been one of the Conspirators we shall beg your leave as to that particular and as we shall be careful not to take up too much of your time so we well know your Lordships will allow us all the time necessary to give our Evidence We have many Records things reduced to Judgment whereby the Plot is most undoubtedly proved and which are legal Evidences before your Lordships The Attainders of several Jesuits and Priests the Attainder of Langhorn and of Coleman whom I should have named in the first place We have also the Conviction of those that were prosecuted for the Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and there is a Conviction though not for Murder yet for cutting the Throat of Mr. Arnold 'T is true he is not dead yet as to the publick I count him murdered by the Papists though he be alive in the world My Lords we have Convictions not only of Treasons Murders and cutting of Throats but of almost all other Villanies whatsoever As of Attempts to suborn Witnesses and to scandalize the Kings Evidence and to that we shall produce the Record concerning Readings attempt upon Bedlow that concerning the Suborning of Knox and Lane to Swear Buggery against Dr. Oats and
Oats as to the General Matters which he evidenceth of the Plot. What now doth my Lord object against Dr. Oats He call'd no Witnesses against him but only an Honourable Earl of this House I think I may name him the Earl of Berkely And that which his Lordship was pleased to testifie against him was Object That being examined at the House of Lords after he had given a long Evidence against many persons he was asked this Question whether there were any more Persons of Quality he could speak against or could accuse and he said no. Answ First your Lordships will be pleased to observe that this was after he had accused my Lord Stafford my Lord was secured in the Tower long before that upon Dr. Oats his Testimony and so he could not exclude this Lord. But that which it is brought for I suppose is to make him a person of no Credit For after he had said this he proceeded to an Accusation of the Queen My Lords I humbly conceive this may receive a very fair Answer For First my Lords I appeal to your Lordships Memories for I think the Matter was before you all or at leastwise before some of your Lordships that the Accusation which Dr. Oats made of the Queen was not positive nor of his own certain knowledge but Words which he heard spoken in a Room in which he was not himself but coming in afterwards he saw the Queen was there So it was not positive but circumstantial proof and questionable whether what he testified would amount to the proof of one Witness And I must observe in the second place it might not be so clear to Dr. Oats whether the Queen were a Person capable of an Accusation so as to be proceeded criminally against the King and the Queen are to some purposes but one Person in Law 'T is true some Queens have been tryed for Treason but whether Dr. Oats understood that She might be brought to a Tryal may be a Question But that which I rely upon as an Answer and which I desire may be considered is that Dr. Oats had given an Accompt of a great many persons and a great many things he had sworn against several persons some of which were executed some to be tryed and his Narrative against them and of the whole Plot consisted of a great number of particulars Here is a Question comes to the Doctor on a sudden Have you any more to say or can you speak against any other 'T is possible a man that had said so much and of so many might not upon an instant recollect whether he had said all or against all that he could say Nay ' tit easily to be imagined he could not on a sudden comprehend all he had said or could say Therefore that the Answer of a man to such a Question put suddenly to him having so much in his mind and having said so much should be taken so very strictly and to hold him as perjured because he did not at that instant time remember this particular of the Queen I think is a severe Construction His Lordship is pleased further to object against Dr. Oats that he is of no Credit why Because he went to be of the Romish Religion and so was of that Religion which is Idolatry I suppose his Lordship will not call that Religion Idolatry at another time and in another place but it serves his Lordship upon this particular Occasion to call it so but suppose Doctor Oats did out of Levity or for want of being well grounded in his own turn to another Religion he is not the first man that hath done so There have been Men of great Fame in our Church and of great Learning too that have changed their Religion more than once I think he that knew that Famous Man Mr. Chillingworth could not but know he was first a Protestant and afterwards a Papist and afterwards a Protestant again So that unless my Lord could accuse the Doctor of some great Crime or Immorality it will be hard that the matter of changing his Religion should hurt his Testimony I am sure it was happy for us he did change without that we had not had the first knowledge of the Plot nor of many particulars which he could not come to know but by occasion of that Change My Lord was pleased to object that the Doctor was a man subject to Passion and he brought in the Lieutenant of the Tower to speak of some hot Words that passed between them My Lords I will allow the Doctor to be a Man of Passion Nay if my Lord please a Man that is not of the deepest reach but your Lordships will observe that Passionate Men are not often malicious and that a Man who is not of a deep Judgment could never have contrived and invented a Narrative consisting of so many particulars and they so coherent if they were false And if his Narrative be not true he must be indued with more Subtilty and wicked Policy than upon Tryal we can find in him So that what my Lord hath objected as to his Infirmities is no diminution to the truth of what he says but rather a Confirmation of it My Lords The last Witness whom my Lord endeavoured to impeach is Mr. Turbervill and against him my Lord thinks he hath a great advantage But my Lords by that time I have re-minded your Lordships of what hath been already said and what was before proved in Answer to my Lord's Objections against him Mr. Turbervill will stand as clear in this Court as any of the former Witnesses Your Lordships will be pleased to take Notice That Mr. Turbervill was at the beginning when he came to the House of Commons a little uncertain as to matter of Time For when he had made in his Affidavit the times to be 73 and 76 he craved leave to alter it to 72 and 75. Surely my Lords this will be far from being any Imputation to Mr. Turbervill because First he gives the Reason how he came afterwards to understand the Time bettter by viewing his Papers and Letters he likewise gives you an Account and so did Sir William Poultney when he did this the next Morning before any Man in the World had questioned him upon it So that it shews the Man's Care and Conscience both when he is so careful even in matters of the smallest Moment to set things right There is no Man that knows the Practice of the Court of Chancery but knows that for a Man to mend his Answer after it is sworn in a point of Time or other Circumstance is no disparagement to him Nay to do it before the other Party did except or take notice of it is no Objection but rather a Reputation to him And your Lordships will be pleased to take notice that one of the times rectified is of 7 or 8 years the other of 4 years standing And I do not think the worse of a Witness that is not positive
therefore if you are so speak You have the Protection of the Court for the Counsel you give in matter of Law and whatever Advice you give you should maintain by Law Mr. VVallop Truly my Lords it is a Point that has as I said before received some Settlement but whether ever in this Court or no I cannot tell Therefore I did discharge my thoughts of providing any Argument till your Lordships should have determined whether you will take the Point upon the Resolutions in the Courts below to be finally settled and determined Sir William Jones So then it is agreed to be settled in the ordinary Courts Lord Stafford I desire also it may be argued whether words are an Overt Act. Sir Francis Winnington It seems the Law is with us in case of a Commoner but whether it be so for a Lord is the Question Lord High Steward My Lord Stafford How comes it to pass that your Lordship came prepared with Objections but not with Counsel ready to argue them Lord Stafford Mr. Wallop has given you an Answer I must stand by that Lord High Steward Is it your Lordships pleasure that we Adjourn Lords Ay Ay. Lord High Steward This House is Adjourned into the Parliament Chamber Then the Lords returned to their House in their Order and the Committee of Commons staid in their Places to attend their Resolutions In one hours time the Lords returned and my Lord High Steward being seated upon the Woolpack Silence was proclaimed Lord High Steward My Lord Stafford My Lords since they have been withdrawn have considered of one Point of that point chiefly which your Lordship did move touching the necessity of two Witnesses to every Overt Act alledged as Evidence of High Treason that is the point you have desired Counsel to speak to and that is the point your Counsel desired to know whether it was a doubtful or debateable point before they would argue it and hereupon my Lords did withdraw to consider it And my Lords have directed that all the Judges that assist them and are here in your Lordships presence and hearing should deliver their Opinions whether it be doubtful and disputable or no. Then all the Judges consulted privately together and afterwards gave their Opinion Seriatim beginning with the Lord Cbief Justice North the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs being absent Lord Chief Justice North. My Lords I do here deliver my Opinion and I am cleà r in it That if there be several Overt Acts or Facts which are Evidences of the same Treason if there be one Witness to prove one such Overt Act at one time and another Witness to prove another Overt Act at another time both the Acts being Evidences of the same Treason these are two sufficient Witnesses of that Treason and will maintain an Indictment or an Impeachment of Treason I never knew any doubt made of it in any Inferiour Court of Justice and I have known it often resolved Lord Chief Baron Montague My Lords where ever Treason is to be proved to every Overt Act two Witnesses as I conceive are not required If so be there are two Witnesses to several Overt Acts conducing to a proof of the same Treason I think they are Witnesses in the Judgment of the Law such as the Statute requires Mr. Justice Windham I am of the same Opinion with my Lord Chief Justice North and my Lord Chief Baron That if there be several Overt Acts done at several times tending to the same Treason these several Acts being severally proved by several credible Witnesses though but by one Witness at each time to each Act the said several Acts being Evidences of the same Treason these are sufficient Witnesses of that Treason so proved and will maintain an Indictment or as I conceive an Impeachment Mr. Justice Jones My Lords if several Witnesses speak to the same kind of Treason although they speak to several Overt Acts and give Evidence of several times the one of them speaking to one time and the other to another time yet keeping still to the same kind of Treason they are such two Witnesses as are required by the Statute of Edward the 6 th and this I do take to be the constant Opinion of the Courts below Mr. Justice Dolben My Lords I am of the same Opinion and I know it hath been many times so resolved I have been present when Sentence hath passed upon Persons by whom the same Case hath been urged and it hath been so resolved And it hath been moved in Westminster-Hall and that was the constant Opinion of the Judges there particularly in the Case of Sir Henry Vane It was upon solemn Debate resolved and divers times it hath been held that the same Treason may be proved by two Witnesses to several Overt Acts though one speak of Words or Actions that were spoken or done at one time and in one place and another speak of Words or Actions at another time and in another place those are two good Witnesses in Treason within the intent of the Law and if the Law were otherwise 't were scarce possible to convict any man of Treason and therefore I take it to be very clear Mr. Justice Raymond I am of the same Opinion That where several Cirstances are brought to prove the same Treason one Witness to each of the several Circumstances is sufficient and this I conceive hath been always the Opinion of the Judges Mr. Baron Atkins My Lords I am of the same Opinion That there must be two Witnesses in the Case of Treason is a matter without Question but there are several Overt Acts that may contribute to the effecting of that Treason If a man designs to kill the King and buyes Powder at one place at one time and a Pistol at another place at another time and promises a Reward to one to assist him to do the thing at a third place and a third time these are several Overt Acts but if the Law requires that each be proved by two Witnesses I do not well see how any man can be Convicted of Treason In the Case of Sir Henry Vane and others this very Question was started but was not thought worthy of Debate if it should be otherwise it would touch the Judgments which have been given upon this kind of Proof and what would the Consequence of that be but that those persons who were Executed upon those Judgments have suffered illegally And therefore I am of Opinion that it is not requisite there should be two Witnesses to every Overt Act. Mr. Baron Gregory My Lords I am of the same Opinion it is Treason to Conspire the Death of the King Now each of the Witnesses is a Witness to prove that Treason the one says he offered him such a Reward in such a place that is one Witness to prove that he Conspired the Death of the King and another says that he offered him such a Reward in another place that is another Witness that he Conspired the
Death of the King For the Party is indicted upon one particular Overt Act but he is indicted for Treason in Conspiring the Death of the King and each of thâ— Witnesses being to prove that though they speak to several Acts they are good Witnesses according to the Law Mr. Baron Weston My Lords I am of the same Opinion with my Reverend Brethren who have spoke before me Mr. Justice Charlton My Lords I am of the same Opinion and I think truly it would be the easiest matter for a man to Commit Treason and escape without questioning if it should be otherwise But this is the first time that I have heard it hath been made a Question that to the same Treason there must be two Witnesses to every Overt Act. It hath been adjudged always according to the Law that to prove Treason there must be two Witnesses but to any Overt Act there needs but onâ— Lord High Steward My Lord Stafford By the uniform Opinion of all my Lords the Judges there is no colour to doubt the Law in that point which you desire to argue So that as to that point you must rest satisfied you are not to have Counsel to speak to it For the rest I have no Commission yet from my Lords to say any thing Lord Stafford Will your Lordships give me leave to say one thing to what I have heard I would answer if I might only to one Judge I think they call him Judge Atkins Lord High Steward Your Lordship may say what you please Lord Stafford My Lords I hear a strange Position I never heard the like before in my life and 't is what he said if I am in the wrong I beg your Lordships pardon and his too He told your Lordships the Reason why the Law should be so was because else a great many of those persons that have already been Executed must have been acknowledged unjustly cut off and put to Death that is an Argument I hope will not weigh with your Lordships or any body for 't is better that a Thousand persons that are Guilty should escape than that one Innocent person should die much more then that it should not be declared that such a Judgment was not well given Lord High Steward Look you my Lord where many Reasons are given 't is easie to make a Reply to one of the least among many that was one Reason given but the true Reason is this if the Law were otherwise there would be great safety in Conspiring the Death of the King Lord Stafford My Lords I say nothing further as to the rest but this stuck with me I am sorry to hear a Judge should say any such thing and though I am in such a weak and disturbed Condition I assure your Lordships my Blood rises at it Lord High Steward Is it your Lordships pleasure that we should Adjourn Lords Ay Ay. Lord High Steward Then this House is Adjourned into the Parliament Chamber The Lords withdrew in their Order and the Committee of Commons went back to their House Mr. Speaker resumed the Chair A Message was sent from the Lords by Sir Timothy Baldwyn and Sir Samuel Clarke Mr. Speaker The Lords have sent us to acquaint this House That they have ordered William Viscount Stafford to be brought again to the Bar in Westminster-Hall on Munday morning next at Ten of the Clock After which the House of Commons Adjourned to Eight of the Clock on Munday morning The Sixth Day Munday December 6. 1680. ABout the hour of Eleven in the morning the Lords being Adjourned into Westminster-Hall going thither in their former Order into the Court there Erected and Mr. Speaker having left the Chair the Committee of Commons were Seated as before The Court being Sate Proclamation for Silence was made and the Lieutenant Commanded to bring his Prisoner to the Bar which being done the Lord High Steward began Lord High Steward Read my Lord Stafford's Petition To the Right Honourable the Lords in Parliament Assembled The humble Petition of William Viscount of Stafford Humbly shewing unto your Lordships that he hath some things to offer unto your Lordships in order to clear himself which he hopeth to do Your Petitioner doth therefore with all humility most humbly beseech your Lordships to give him leave to offer some things unto your Lordships Consideration And your Petitioner shall ever pray c. Stafford Lord High Steward My Lord Stafford my Lords have been willing upon your Petition to come and hear what that is that your Lordship hath to offer And they would know whether it be matter of Fact or matter of Law For your Lordship must know that as to Witnesses the Process is closed Lord Stafford I do not pretend any more Witnesses my Lords Lord High Steward Then my Lord what is it that you would say Lord Stafford My Lords I did Yesterday receive an Order from your Lordships and upon that and some other things that I have to trouble your Lordships with I did petition for this favour which I humbly thank your Lordships for granting If I be impertinent I shall beg your Lordships pardon and I hope you will be pleased to consider my Weakness at all times especially in this condition I am now in but I hope by your Lordships favour to be in an happier one quickly For the matters of proof I shall offer not a tittle but my Lords this Order which I received does say That the Lords Assembled in Parliament have ordered that my Counsel shall not be heard touching the continuance of Impeachments from Parliament to Parliament but I hope my Lords you will please without Offence to let me offer to your Lordships my own Conceptions about it which I shall do as briefly as I can My Lords I do not conceive by this Order That your Lordships say it does or it does not continue You have given no Judgment as I know of in it when you have I shall acquiesce but I hope your Lordships will resolve that it does not And my Lords my reasons for it are two the first is because one of the Managers for the House of Commons as I take it Sir William Jones said these words and your Lordships may remember them That if there were no such President your Lordships would make a President whether you will or no that I must submit to your Lordships but then there is none yet The next thing is my Lords this whether an Impeachment be to be prosecuted in Parliament without an Indictment this my Lords I humbly hope your Lordships are resolved it ought not For I see not how truely my Lords it can be by the little reading which I have had in the Law I never found any man prosecuted in a Legal way but by an Indictment I may be mistaken and I beg your Lordships pardon for troubling you with my mistakes but I never read of any that were prosecuted upon an Impeachment so then the Legal usual word being Indictment
his right name or addition is likewise a just Cause to arrest the Judgment There is likewise another Question how far it may be valued I know not I submit it as I do all to your Lordships Though I am tried upon the Act of 25 Edw. 3 d. yet there is nothing more in that Act than what is included in the Act of the 13 th of this King And I humbly conceive my Lords by that Act and the last Proviso in it a Peer that is accused and found Guilty of the Crimes therein mentioned is to lose his Seat in Parliament those are the words and since 't is so put down in the Act it is so to be understood and that is all the punishment And I humbly demand your Lordships Judgment upon these points whether it be so or no And humbly demand your Lordships Judgments upon these Points whether it be so or no Lord High Steward Has your Lordship any more to say Lord Stafford No my Lords I submit to your Lordships and desire your Judgment in these Points Then the Lords adjourned into the Parliament Chamber and the Committee of Commons returned to their own House and the Speaker having reassumed the Chair the whole Body of the House went with their Speaker to the Bar of the House of Lords to demand Judgment of High Treason against William Viscount Stafford upon the Impeachment of the Commons of England in Parliament in the name of the Commons in Parliament and of all the Commons of England The Commons with their Speaker went back to their House Then the Lords took into consideration what Judgment was to be given upon William Viscount Stafford and it was moved that he might be beheaded After some debate the Judges were asked whether if any other Judgment than the usual Judgment for High Treason were given upon him it would attaint his Blood The Judges were of opinion that the Judgment for High Treason appointed by Law is to be drawn hanged and quartered and in the Courts and Proceedings below they can take no notice of any Judgment for High Treason but that Then Sir Creswell Levinz the Kings Attorney-General desired to be heard on his Majesties behalf which the House gave leave for him to be who said he knew no other Judgment by Law for High Treason but Drawing Hanging and Quartering if any other Judgment were given it would be prejudicial to His Majesty and be a Question in the inferiour Courts as to his Attainder of High Treason Whereupon their Lordships ordered That the Lord High Steward do pronounce the ordinary Judgment of Death upon the Lord Viscount Stafford as the Law hath appointed in Cases of High Treason And a Message was sent to the House of Commons from their Lordships by Sir Timothy Baldwyn and Sir Samuel Clark Mr. Speaker We are commanded by the Lords to acquaint this House That their Lordships are going presently into Westminster-Hall to give Judgment against William Viscount Stafford Mr. Speaker left the Chair The Committee of Commons appointed for the Management of the Evidence against the Prisoner with the rest of the Commons went into Westminster-Hall to the Court there erected to be present when the Lords gave Judgment of High Treason against him upon the Impeachment of the Commons of England After a short time their Lordships were adjourned into Westminster-Hall coming in their former Order into the Court there erected where being seated and the Lord High Steward being on the Wool-sack attended by Garter principal King of Arms the Usher of the Black Rod Eight of the Serjeants at Arms kneeling with their Maces the Ninth Macer making proclamation for Silence which being done the Lord High Steward gave Judgment upon the Prisoner as followeth Lord High Steward My Lord Stafford THat which your Lordship hath said in Arrest of Judgment hath been found by my Lords upon due Consideration had of it to be of no moment at all It is no Essential part of any Trial That the Prisoner should hold up his Hand at the Bar there is no Record ever made of it when it is done the only use of it is to shew the Court who the Prisoner is when that is apparent the Court does often proceed against him though he refuse to hold up his Hand at the Bar therefore the omission of that Ceremony in this Case is no legal Exception as all the Judges have declared And as to the Proviso's in the Statute of the 13th year of this King their Lordships do find that they are in no sort applicable to this Case forasmuch as the Proceedings against your Lordship are not grounded upon that Statute but upon the Statute of the 25. E. 3. And yet if the Proceedings had been upon the latter Statute the Proviso's therein could have done your Lordship no service at all My part therefore which remains is a very sad one for I never yet gave Sentence of Death upon any man and am extremely sorry that I must begin with your Lordship Who would have thought that a person of your Quality of so Noble an Extraction of so considerable Estate and Fortune so eminent a Sufferer in the late ill Times so interested in the Preservation of the Government so much obliged to the Moderation of it and so personally obliged to the King and his Royal Father for their particular Favours to you should ever have entred into so Infernal a Conspiracy as to contrive the Murder of the King the Ruin of the State the Subversion of Religion and as much as in you lâ—y the Destruction of all the Souls and Bodies in three Christian Nations And yet the Impeachment of the House of Commons amounts to no less a Charge and of this Charge their Lordships have found you Guilty That there hath been a General and Desperate Conspiracy of the Papists and that the Death of the King hath been all along one chief part of the Conspirators Design is now apparent beyond all possibility of doubting What was the meaning of all those Treatises which were publisht about two years since against the Oath of Allegiance in a time when no man dreamt of such a Controversie What was the meaning of Father Conyers's Sermon upon the same Subject but only because there was a Demonstration of Zeal as they call it intended against the Person of the King which the scruples arising from that Oath did somewhat hinder To what purpose were all the Correspondencies with Foreign Nations The Collections of Money among the Fathers abroad and at home What was the meaning of their Governing themselves here by such Advices as came frequently from Paris and Saint Omers And how shall we expound that Letter which came from Ireland to assure the Fathers here that all things were in a readiness there too as soon as the Blow should be given Does any man now begin to doubt how London came to be Burnt Or by what ways and means poor Justice Godfrey fell And is it not
Representative Body of the Commons of England and I confess my Lords to be accused by them was a load especially being added to what lay before upon me more especially to my â—eak Body and weaker mind that I was so afflicted with it and have so continued that I am scarce able to bear up under it For I look upon the House of Commons as the great and worthy Patriots of this Kingdom I ever held them so and I hold them so still My Lords These things being such great afflictions to me and some other accidents which I shall not trouble your Lordships with the telling you of have so much disordered my sense and reason which before was little that I scarce know how to clear my self to your â—ordships as I ought to do or which way to go about the doing of it therefore I do with all humility beg your Lordships pardon if I say any thing that may give an offence or urge that which may not be to the purpose All which I desire you would be pleased to attribute to the true Cause my want of understanding not of innocency or a desire to make it appear My Lords These Gentlemen the Managers of the House of Commons who are great and able men some I am sure if not all of them very well read and have understanding in the Law have set forth to your Lordships Treason in an horrid shape but I confeâ—s my Lords if they had made it never so much worse it cannot be so horrid as I have often fancied it my self for my Lords I do and did ever hold Treason to be the greatest sin in the World and I cannot use words enough to express it and therefore I hope you will give me leave to clear my self of it and I shall give you one Notion of it which I heard at your Lordships Bar some years ago where you were pleased to here several people of several perswasions give you some reason why Liberty of Conscience should be allowed them And I remember one of them an Anabaptiâ—t I think did tell you that they held Treason to be the sin of Witchcraft and so do â— And next to Treason I hold Murder to be the worst sin But the Murder of the King I looked upon to be so above all others that it is not to be expressed by words My Lords I have heard very much of a thing that was named by these Gentlemen of the House of Commons and that very properly too to wit of the Gun-powder Treason My Lords I was not born then but some years after I heard very much Discourse of it and very various Reports and I made a particular inquiry perhaps more than any one person did else both of my Father who was aâ—ive then and my Uncle and others and I am satisfied and do clearly believe by the Evidence I have received That that thing called the Gun-powder Treason was a wicked and horrid Design among the rest of some of the Jesuits and I think the malice of the Jesuits or the Wit of man cannot offer an excuse for it it was so execrable a thing Besides my Lords I was acquainted with one of them that was concerned in it who had his pardon and lived many years after I discoursed with him about it and he confessed it and said he was sorry for it then and I here declare to your Lordships that I never heard any one of the Churâ—h of Rome speak a good word of it it was so horrid a thing that it cannot be expressed nor excused And God Almighty shewed his Judgments upon them for their wickedness for hardly any of the Persons or their Posterity are left that were concâ—rned in it and even a very great Family too that had collaterally something to do in it is in the Male line extinct totally and I do think God Almighty always shews his Judgments upon such vile Actions And I have been told all those persons that were engaged in this wicked Act were all heartily sorry for it and repented of it before they died without which I am sure there is no Salvation And therefore I think it was not the Interest of Religion but a private Interest put them upon it My Lords As to the Doctrine of King-killing and Absolving persons from their Allegiance I cannot say the Church of Rome does not hold it I never heard it did hold it it may be it does it may be not I say not one thing or other but my Lords there was an English Colledge of Priests at Rhemes that translated the Bible and printed it with Authority according to their Translation and in their Annotations upon the fourteenth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans they do declare their dislike and detestation of that Opinion They say all Subjects ought to obey their Kings as the 〈◊〉 mitive Christians did the Heathen Princes of the Empire and the learned Doctors of the Colledge of Sorbonne did upon an occasion administred to them about that Opinion declare the mistakes that were in it and owned it to be a damnable Principle My Lords I have an Authentical Copy of that Decree of the Sorbonists whether it be here or no I can't tell Yes here it is which does declare that a damnable Position and there is lately come out a Book written by a Priest of the Church of Rome tryed for his life for being in the Plot but acquitted of that in which he says that that Opinion of killing Kings is damnable and herettical and declared so by the Council of Trent My Lords This gives me occasion to believe that the Church of Rome holds it not I do not say that it does not but some particular persons do abhor it which are great in that Church and which weighs far with me but that which further most of all confirms me in my ill Opinion of it is the words of our Saviour when not only he commands us to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars but asserts our Obedience to our Governours in many other passages of the Holy Scripture and what I find there the whole World is not able to alter my Opinion of I do assure your Lordships in the presence of Almighty God That I do extreamly admire when I hear of any thing like it and I did read with great horror what I found the other day in the Gazette of some imprudent people in Scotland and of their wicked Principles and Practices My Lords I do in the presence of Almighty God who knows and sees all things and of his Angels which are continually about us and of your Lordships who are my Peers and Judges solemnly profess and declare that I hate and detest any such Opinion as I do damnation to my self And I cannot be more desirous of Salvation to my self than I am cordial in hating this Opinion My Lords I know no person upon Earth nor all the persons in the world put together nor all the Power