of Parliament And because the Advice of both Houses of Parliament hath through the suggestions of evill Councellors been so much undervalued of late and so absolutely rejected and refused wee hold it fit to declare unto the Kingdome whose honour and interest is so much concerned in it what is the priviledge of the great Councell of Parliament herein and what is the Obligation that lyeth upon the Kings of this Realme to passe such Bills as are offered unto them by both Houses of Parliament in the name and for the good of the whole Kingdome whereunto they stand ingaged both in conscience and in justice to give their royall assent In conscience in respect of the Oath that is or ought to be taken by the KINGS of this Realme at their CORONATION as well to confirme by their Royall assent such good Lawes as their people shall choose and to remedy by Law such inconveniences as the Kingdom may suffer as to keepe and protect the Lawes already in being as may appeare both by the forme of the Oath upon Record and in bookes of good Authoritie and by the Statute of the 25. Edw. 3. entituled the Statute of Provisors of Benefices the forme of which Oath and the cause of that Statute concerning are as followeth Rot. Parl. 1. H. 4. N. 17. 2. Forma juramenti soliti consueti praestari per Reges Angliae in eorum Coronatione Servabis Ecclesiae Dei Cleroque populo pacem ex integro concordiam in Deo secundum vires tuas Respondebit Servabo Facies fieri in omnibus judicis tuis equam rectam justitiam discretionem in misericordid lenitate secundum vires tuas Respondebit Faciam Concedis justas leges consuetudines esse tenendas permittis per te eas esse protegendas ad honorem Dei corroborandas quas vulgus elegerit secundum vires tuas Respondebit Concedo permitto Adijcianturque praedictis interrogationibus quae justa fuerint pernunciat isque omnibus confirmet Rex se omnia servaturum sacramento super altare praestito coram cunctis A Clause in the Preamble of a Statute made 25. Edw. 3. Entituled the Statute of Provisors of Benefices Whereupon the said Commons have prayed our said Lord the King that sith the right of the Crowne of England and the Law of the said Realme is such that upon the mischiefes and damages which happen to his Realme he ought and is bound by hid Oath with the accord of his people in his Parliament thereof to make remedy and Law and in removing the mischiefes and damages which thereof ensue that it may please him thereupon to ordaine remedy Our Lord the King seeing the mischiefes and damages before-mentioned and having regard to the said Statute made in the time of his said Grandfather and to the causes contained in the same which Statute holdeth alwayes his force and was never defeated repealed nor adnulled in any point and by so much he is bounden by his Oath to cause the same to be kept as the Law of his Realme though that by sufferance and negligence it hath been sithence attempted to the contrary also having regard to the grievous complaints made to him by his people in divers His Parliaments holden heretofore willing to ordaine remedy for the great damages and mischiefes which have hapned and daily do happen to the Church of England by the said cause Here the Lords and Commons claime it directly as the right of the Crowne of England and of the Law of the Land and that the King is bound by his Oath with the accord of his people in Parliament to make remedy and Law upon the mischiefes and damages which happen to this Realme and the King doth not deny it although he take occasion from a Statute formerly made by his Grandfather which was layd as part of the grounds of this Petition to fixe his Answer upon another branch of his Oath and prefermits that which is claimed by the Lords and Commons which he would not have done if it might have been excepted against In justice they are obliged thereunto in respect of the trust reposed in them which is aswell to preserve the Kingdome by the making of new Lawes where there shall be need as by the observing of Lawes already made A Kingdome being many times as much exposed to ruine for the want of a new Law as by the violation of those that are in being and this is so cleare a right that no doubt His Majesty will acknowledge it to be as due unto his people as his protection but how farre forth he is obliged to follow the judgement of his Parliament therein that is the question And certainly besides the words in the Kings Oath referring unto such Lawes as the people shall chuse as in such things which concerne the Publique Weale and good of the Kingdome they are the most proper Judges who are sent from the whole Kingdome for that very purpose so wee doe not finde that since Lawes have passed by way of Bills which are read thrice in both Houses and committed and every part and circumstance of them fully weighed and debated upon the commitment and afterwards passed in both Houses that ever the Kings of this Realme did deny them otherwise then is expressed in that usuall Answer Le Roy savisera which signifies rather a suspension then a refusall of the Royall Assent and in those other Lawes which are framed by way of Petitions of Right the Houses of Parliament have taken themselves to be so farre Judges of the Rights claimed by them that when the Kings answer hath not in every point been fully according to their desire they have still insisted upon their claime and never rested satisfied till such time as they had an answer according to their owne demand as was done in the late Petition of Right and in former times upon the like occasion and if the Parliament be Judge between the King and his people in the Question of Right as by the manner of the claime in Petitions of Right and by Judgements in Parliament in Cases of illegall Impositions and Taxes and the like it appeareth to be why should they not be so also in the question of the common good and necessitie of the Kingdome wherein the Kingdome hath as cleere a right also to have the benefit and remedy of Law as in any thing whatsoever and yet we doe not deny but in private Bills and also in publick Acts of Grace as Pardons and the like grants of favour His Majestie may have a greater latitude of granting or denying as he shall thinke fit All this considered we cannot but wonder that the Conniver of this Message should conceive the people of this Land to be so voyd of common sense as to enter into so deep a mistrust of those that they have and his Majesty ought to repose so great a trust in as to despaire of any securitie in their private
Votes to beleeve the contrary Although the Votes of the Lords and Commons in Parliament being the great Councell of the Kingdom are the reason of the King and of the Kingdom yet these Votes do not want cleer and apparent reason for them For if the solemn proclaiming a man a Traytor signifie any thing it puts a man and all those that any way aid assist or adhere unto him into the same condition of Traitours and draws upon him all the consequences of Treason and if his may be done by Law without due processe of Law the Subject hath a very poor defence of the Law and a very small if any portion of liberty thereby and it is as little satisfaction to a man that shall be exposed to such penalties by that declaration of him to be a Traitour to say hee shall have a Legall triall afterwards as it is to condemn a man first and try him afterwards And if there be a necessity for any such proclaiming a man a Traitour without due processe of Law yet there was none in this case For his Majesty might have as well expected the Justice of the Parliament which was the right way as he had leisure to send to them to demand Justice against Sir John Hotham And the breach of Priviledge of Parliament in this case as the subversion of the Subjects common right For though the Privledges of Parliament do extend to those cases mentioned in the Declaration of Treason Felony and breach of the peace so as to exempt the Members of Parliament from punishment nor from all manner of Processe and triall as it doth in other cases yet it doth priviledge them in the way and method of their triall and punishment and that the Parliament should have the cause first brought before them that they may judge of the fact and of the grounds of the accusation and how far forth the manner of their tryall may concern or not concern the Priviledge of Parliament otherwise it would be in the power not onely of his Majesty but of every private man under pretensions of Treasons or those other crimes to take any man from his service in Parliament and so as many one after another as he pleaseth and consequently to make a Parliament what he will when he will which would be a breach of so essentiall a priviledge of Parliament as that the very being thereof depends upon it and therfore we no wayes doubt but every one that hath taken the Protestation will according to his solemn Vow and Oath defend it with his life and fortunes Neither doth the sitting of a Parliament suspend all or any Law in maintaining that Law which upholds the Priviledge of Parliament which upholds the Parliament which upholds the Kingdom And we are so far from beleeving that his Majesty is the onely person against whom Treason cannot be committed that is some sence wee acknowledge hee is the onely person against whom it can be committed that is as hee is King and that Treason which is against the Kingdom is more against the King then that which is against his Person because he is King For that very Treason is not Treason as it is against him as a man but as a man that is a King and as he hath relation to the Kingdom and stands as a person intrusted with the Kingdom and discharging that trust Now the case is truly stated and all the world may judge where the fault is although we must avow that there can be no competent judge of this or any the like case but a Parliament and we are as confident that His Majestie shall never have cause to resort to any other Court or Course for the vindication of his just Priviledges and for the recovery and maintenance of his known and undoubted Rights if there should be any Invasion or violation thereof than to his high Court of Parliament And in case wicked Counsellours about him shall drive him into any other Course from and against his Parliament whatever are his Majesties expressions and intentions wee shall appeal to all mens consciences and desire that they would lay their hands upon their hearts and think with themselves whether such persons as have of late and still do resort to his Majesty and have his care and favour most either have been or are more zealous Assertors of the true Protestant Profession although we believe they are more earnest in the Protestant Profession then in the Protestant Religion or of the Law of the Land the Liberty of the Subject and the Priviledges of the Parliament then the Members of both Houses of Parliament who are insinuated to bee the Desertors if not the Destroyers of them And whether if they could master this Parliament by force they would not hold up the same power to deprive us of all Parliaments which are the ground and pâ—llar of the Subjects Liberty and that which maketh England onely a free Monarchy For the Order of Assistance to the Committees of both Houses as they have no directions or instructions but what have the Law for their Limits and the safety of the Land for their ends so we doubt not but all persons mentioned in that Order and all his Majesties good Subjects will yeeld obedience to His Majesties Authority signified therein by both Houses of Parliament And that all men may the better know their duty in matters of that nature and upon how suâ—e a ground they go that follow the judgement of Parliament for their guide we wish them judiciously to consider the true meaning and ground of that Statute made in the eleventh yeare of Hen. 7. cap. 1. which is printed at large in the end of His Majesties Message of the fourth of May. This Stâ—tute provides that none that shall attend upon the King and do him true Service shall be attainted or forfeit any thing What was the scope of this Statute To provide that men should nor suffer as Traytors for serving the King in His Warres according to the duty of their Allegeance If this had been all it had beene a very needlesse and â—idicalous Statute Was it then intended as they may seeme to take the meaning of it to be that caused it to be printed after his Majesties Message that they should be free from all crime and penalty that should follow the King and serve him in Warre in any case whatsoever whether it were for or against the Kingdome and the Laws thereof That cannot bee for that could not stand with the duty of their Allegeance which in the beginning of this Statute is expressed to bee to serve the King for the time being in his Warres for the defence of Him and the Land and therefore if it be against the Land as it cannot be understood to be otherwise if it be against the Parliament the representative body of the Kingdom It is a declining from the duty of Allegeance which this Statute supposeth may be done though men should follow the Kings Person in the Warre Otherwise there had been no need of such a Proviso in the end of this Statute that none should take benefit thereby that should decline from the Allegeance That therefore which is the Principle Verb in this Statute is the serving of the King for the time being which cannot be meant of a Perkin Warbeck or any that should call himselfe King but such a one as what ever Title might prove either in himselfe or in his Ancestors should be recieved and acknowledged for such by the Kingdome the consent whereof cannot be discerned but by Parliament the Act whereof is the Act of the whole Kingdome by the personall suffrage of the Peeres and the delegate consent of all the Commons in England And Aen. 7. a wise King considering that what was the Case of R. 3. his Predecessor might by chance of battel be his owne and that he might at once by such a Statute as this satisfie such as had served his Ptodecessor in his Warrs and also secure those that should serve him who might otherwise feare him in his Warrs lest by chance of Battell that might happen to him also if a Duke of Yorke had set up a Title against him which had happened to his Prodecessor he procured this Statute to be made that no man should be accounted a Traytor for serving the King in his Warrs for the time being that is which was for the present allowed and recieved by the Parliament in behalfe of the Kingdome and as it is truly suggested in the Preamble of the Statute It is not agreable to reason or conscience that it should be otherwise seeing men should be put upon an impossibility of knowing their duty if the judgement of the Highest Court should not be a Rule and guide to them and if the judgement thereof should be followed where the question is who is King Much more what is the best service of the King and Kingdome and therefore those that shall guide themselves by the judgement of Parliament ought what ever happen to be secure and free from all account and penalties upon the grounds and equitie of this very Statute We shall conclude that although those wicked Councellors about his Majestie have presumed under his Majesties name to put that dishonour and affront upon both Houses of Parliament as to make them the countenancers of Treason enough to have dissolved all the bands sinews of confidence between his Majestie and his Parliament of whom the Maxime of the law is That a dishonourable thing ought not to be imagined of them yet we doubt not but it shall in the end appeare to all the world that our indeavours have been most hearty and sincere for the maintainance of the true Protestant Religion the Kings just Prerogatives the Lawes and Liberties of the Land and the Priviledges of Parliament in which endeavours by the grace of God we will still persist though we should perish in the worke which if it should be it is much to be feared That Religion Lawes Liberties and Parliaments would not be long-lived after us FINIS
entred alone without any Attendance at all of his own or of the Prince or Duke his sons which we do not wish to be lesse than they are in their number but could hea tily wish that they were generally better in their conditions In the close of this Message His Maiestie states the case of Hull and thereupon inferreth that the act of Sir Iohn Hotham was levying of war against the King and consequently that it was no lesse then high Treason by the Letter of the Statutes of 25 Edw. 3. cap. 2. unlesse the sence of that Statute be very far differing from the Letter thereof In the stating of this Case divers particulars may be observed wherein it is not rightly stated As first That His Majesties going to Hull was only an endevour to visit a Town and Fort of his whereas it was indeed to possesse himself of the Town and Magazine there and to dispose of them as he himself should think good without and contrary to the Advices and Orders of both Houses of Parliament as doth cleerly appear by his Maiesties own Declaration of his intentions therein by his Messages to both Houses immediately before and after that iourney Nor can we beleeve that any man that shall consider the circumstances of that iourney to Hull can think that his Maiesty would have gone thither at that time and in that posture that he was pleased to put himself in towards the Parliament if he had intended onely a visit of the Town and Magazine Secondly it is said to be His Maiesties own Town and his own Magazine which being understood in that sence as was before expressed as if his Maiesty had a private interest of propriety therein we cannot admit it to be so Thirdly which is the main point of all Sir Iohn Hotham is said to have shut the gates against his Maiesty and to have made resistance with armed men in defiance of his Maiesty whereas it was indeed in obedience to his Maiesty and his authority and for his service and the service of the kingdom for which use onely all that interest is that the King hath in the Town and it is no further his to dispose of then he useth it for that end And Sir John Hotham being commanded to keep the Town and Magazine for his Majesty and the Kingdom and not to deliver them up but by his Majesties authority signified by both Hourses of Parliament all that is to be understood by those expressions of his denying and opposing his Majesties entrance and telling him in plain terms he should not come in was onely this That he humbly desired his Majesty to forbear his entrance till he might acquaint the Parliament and that his authority might come signified to him by both Houses of Parliament according to the trust reposed in him And certainly if the Letter of the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. cap. 2. be thought to import this that no war can be levied against the King but what is directed and intended against his person or that every levying of forces for the defence of the Kings authority and of his Kingdom against the personall commands of the King opposed thereunto though accompanied with his presence is levying war against the King it is very far from the sense of that Statute and so much the Statute it self speaks besides the authority of Book-causes Presidents of divers Traitours condemned upon that interpretation thereof For if the Clause of levying of war had been meant onely against the Kings person what need had there been thereof after the other branch of Treason in the same Statute of compassing the Kings death which would necessarily have implyed this and because the former clause doth imply this it seems not at all to be intended in this latter branch but onely the levying of war against the King that is against his Laws and Authority but in the maintenance thereof is no levying of war against the King but for him Here is then our case In a time of so many successive plots and designs of force against the Parliament and Kingdom in a time of probable invasion from abroad and that to begin at Hull and to take the opportunity of seizing upon so great a Magazine there In a time of so great distance and alienations of his Majesties affections from his Parliament and in them from his Kingdom which they represent by the wicked suggestions of a few Malignant persons by whose mischievous counsels he is wholly led away from his Parliament and their faithfull advices and counsels In such a time the Lords and Commoos in Parliament command Sir John Hotham to draw in some of the trained Bands of the parts adjacent to the Town of Hull for the securink of that Town and Magazine for the service of his Majesty and of the Kingdom of the safety whereof there is a higher trust reposed in them then any where else and they are the proper judges of the danger thereof This town and Magazine being sntrusted to Sir Iohn Hotham with evpresse order not to deliver them up but by the Lings authority signifieth by both Houses of Parliament his Majestie contrnry to the advice and direction of both Houses of Parliament without the authority of any Court or of any legall way wherein the Law appoints the King to speake and command accompanied with the same evill Councell about him that he had before by a verball command repuires Sir Iohn Hotham to admit him into the Towne that he might dispose of it and of the Magazine there according to his owne or rather according ao the dleasure of those evill Counsellours which are still in so much credit about him in like manner as the Lord Dygby hath continuall recourse unto and continuanne from the Queens Majesty ie Holland by which means he hath oppertunity still to communicate hss trayterous suggestions and concieptions to bosh their Majesties such as those wos concerning his Majesties retiring to a place of strength and declaring himself and his own advancing of his Maiesties service in such a way beyond the seas and after that resorting to his Majesty in such a place of strength and divers other things of tna nature eontained in his letter to the Queens Majesty and to Sir Lewes Dsves a person that had not the least part in this late businesse of Hull and was presently dispatcht away into Holland soone after his Majestys returne from Hull for what purpose we leave the world to judge Upon the refusall of Sit Iohn Hotham to admit his Majestie into Hull presently without any due processe of Law before His Majestie had sent up the norration of his fact to the Parliament he was proclaimed Traitour and yet it is said that therein there was no violalation of the Subjects right nor any breach of the law nor of the priviledge of Parliament though Sir John Hotham be a Member of the House of Commons And that his Majestie must have better reason then bare
A REMONSTRANCE OR THE DECLARATION Of the LORDS and Commons now Assembled in PARLIAMENT 26. of May. 1642. In answer to a Declaration under His Majesties Name concerning the businesse of Hull sent in a MESSAGE to both Houses the 21. of May 1642. According to an Order made in the House of Commons on Saturday last I have examined this Copie with the Originall and have mended it H. Elsi Cler. Par. D. Com. LONDON Printed for Tho. Slater at the Swan in Duck-Lane 1642. THE THIRD REMONSTRANCE ALthough the great affairs of this Kingdom and the miserable and bleeding condition of the Kingdom of Ireland afford us little leasure to spend our time in Declarations and in Answers and Replies yet the Malignant partie about His Majestie taking all occasions to multiply Calumnies upon the Houses of Parliament and to publish sharp Invectives under His Majesties Name against them and their proceedings a new Engine which they have invented to heighten the destructions of this Kingdom and to beget and increase distrust and disaffection between the King and His Parliament and the People We cannot be so much wanting to our own Innocencie or to the duty of our Trust as not to cleere our selves from those false aspersions and which is our chiefest care to disabuse the Peoples minds and open their eyes that under the false shews and pretexts of the Law of the Land and of their own Rights and Liberties they may not be carried into the Road way that leadeth to the utter ruine and subversion thereof A late occasion that these wicked spirits of division have taken to defame and indeed to arraigne the proceedings of both Houses of Parliament hath been from our Votes of the 28. of April and our Declaration concerning the businesse of Hull which because we put forth before we could send our Answer concerning that matter unto His Majestie those mischievous Instruments of dissention between the King the Parliament and the People whose chief labour and study is to misrepresent our Actions to His Maiestie and to the Kingdom would needs interpret this as an appeal to the people and a declining of all Intercourse between his Maiestie and us as if we thought it to no purpose to endeavour any more to give him satisfaction and without expecting any longer our answer under the name of a Message from His Maiestie to both Houses they themselves have indeed made an Appeal to the people as the message it self doth in a manner grant it to be offering to ioyn issue with us in that way and in the nature thereof doth cleerly shew it self to be no other Therefore we shall likewise addresse our Answer to the Kingdom not by way of Appeal as we are charged but to prevent them from being their owne executioners and from being perswaded under false colours of defending the Law and their own Liberties to destroy both with their own hands by taking their lives Liberties and Estates out of their hands whom they have chosen and entrusted therewith and resigning them up unto some evill Counsellors about His Majestie who can lay no other foundation of their own greatnesse but upon the Ruine of this and in it of all Parliaments and in them of the true Religion and the freedom of this Nation And these are the men that would perswade the people that both Houses of Parliament containing all the Peers and representing all the Commons of England would destroy the Laws of the Land and Libertie of the people wherein besides the trust of the whole they themselves in their own particulars have so great an interest of honour and estate That we hope it will gain little credit with any that have the least use of reason that such as must have so great a share in the misery should take so much pains in the procuring thereof and spend so much time and run so many hazards to make themselves slaves and to destroy the property of their estates But that we may give particular satisfaction to the severall imputations cast upon us we shall take them in Order as they are laid upon us in that Message First we are charged for the avowing of that act of Sir John Hotham which is termed unparalelled and an high unheard of affront unto his Majestie and as if we needed not to have done it he being able as is alledged to produce no such command of the Houses of Parliament Although Sir John Hotham had not an Order that did expresse every circumstance of that case yet he might have produced an Order of both Houses which did comprehend this Case not onely in the cleer intention but in the very words thereof which knowing in our Consciences to be so and to be most necessarie for the safetie of the Kingdom we could not but in Honour and Justice avow that Act of his which we are confident will appear to all the world to be so far from being an affront to the King that it will be found to have been an act of great Loyalty to His Majestie and to his Kingdom The next charge upon us is that instead of giving his Majestie satisfaction we published a Declaration concerning that businesse as an appeal to the people and as if our intercourse with his Majestie and for his satisfaction were now to no more purpose which course is alledged to be very unagreeable to the modesty and duty of former times and not warrantable by any Presidents but what our selves have made If the Penner of this Message had expected a while or had not expected that two Houses of Parliament especially burthened as they are at this time with so many pressing and urgent affairs should have moved as fast as himself he would not have said that Declaration was instead of an Answer to His Maiestie which we did dispatch with all the speed and diligence we could and have sent it to His Maiestie by a Committee of both Houses whereby it appears that we did it not upon that ground that we thought it was no more to any purpose to endeavour to give his Maiestie satisfaction And as for the duty and modesty of former times from which we are said to have varied and to want the warrant of any Presidents therein but what our selves have made but if we have made any Presidents this Parliament we have made them for posterity upon the same or better grounds of reason and Law then those were upon which our Predecessors first made any for us and as some Presidents ought not to be rules for us to follow so none can be limits to bound our proceedings which may and must vary according to the different condition of times and for this particular of setting forth Declarations for the satisfaction of the people who have chosen and entrusted us with all that is dearest to them If there be no example for it it is because there were never any such Monsters before that ever attempted to disaffect the people from a Parliament
Estates by Discents Purchases Assurances or Conveyances unlesse His Majesty should by his Vote prevent the prejudice they might receive therein by the Votes of both Houses of Parliament As if they who are especially chosen and entrusted for that purpose and who themselves must needs have so great a share in all grievances of the Subject had wholly cast off all care of the Subjects good and His Majesty had solely taken it up And as if it could be imagined that they should by their Votes overthrow the rights of Discents Purchases or of any Conveyance or Assurance in whose judgement the whole Kingdome hath placed all their particular Interesses if any of them should be called in question in any of those Cases that as knowing not where to place them with greater securitie without any appeale from them to any other person or Court whatsoever But indeed we are very much to seeke how the case of Hull should concerne Discents and Purchases or Conveyances and Assurances unlesse it be in procuring more securitie to men in their private Interesses by the preservation of the whole from confusion and destruction and much lesse doe wee understand how the Soveraigne Power was resisted and despised therein Certainly no command from His Majestie and his high Court of Parliament where the Soveraigne Power resides was disobeyed by Sir John Hotham nor yet was his Maiesties Authoritie derived out of any other Court nor by any legall Commission or by any other way wherein the Law hath appointed His Majesties commands to be derived to his Subjects and of what validitie his verball Commands are without any such stamp of his Authoritie upon them and against the order of both Houses of Parliament whether the not submitting thereunto be a resisting and despising of the Soveraigne Authoritie we leave it to all men to judge that doe at all understand the government of this Kingdome We acknowledge that His Majesty hath made many expressions of his zeale and intentions against the desperate designes of Papists but yet it is also as true that the Counsells which have prevailed of late with him have been little sutable to those expressions and intentions For what doth more advance the open and bloudy designe of the Papists in Ireland whereon the secret plots of the Papists here do in likelihood depend then His Majesties absenting himselfe in that manner that he doth from his Parliament and setting forth such sharpe Invectives against them notwithstanding all the humble Petitions and other meanes which his Parliament hath addressed unto him for his returne for his satisfaction concerning their proceedings And what was more likely to give a rise to the designes of Papists whereof there are so many in the North neare to the Towne of Hull and of other malignant ill-affected persōs which are ready to joyn with them or to the attempts of forrainers from abroad than the continuing of that great Magazin at Hull at this time and contrary to the desire and advice of both Houses of Parliament So that we have too much cause to beleeve that the Papists have still some way and means whereby they have influence upon his Majesties Councells for their owne advantage For the Malignant party his Majesty needeth not a definitiō of the Law nor yet a more full Character of them from both Houses of Parliament for to finde them out if he will please only to apply the Character that himselfe hath made of them to those unto whom it doth properly truly belong who are so much disaffected to the peace of the Kingdom as they that endeavour to disaffect his Majesty from the Houses of Parliament and perswade him to be at such a distance from them both in place and affection Who are more dis-affected to the government of the Kingdome than such as lead his Majesty away from harkning to his Parliament which by the constitution of this Kingdom is his greatest best Councell perswade him to follow the malicious councels of some private men in opposing and contradicting the wholsome advices just proceedings of that his most faithfull Councell and highest Court Who are they that not onely neglect and despise but labour to undermine the Law under colour of maintaining of it But they that indevour to destroy the fountaine and Conservatory of the law which is the Parliament and who are they that set up other Rules for themselves to walke by then such as are according to Law but they that will make other Iudges of the Law then the Law hath appoynted and so dispence with their obedience to that which the Law calleth Authoritie and to their determinations and resolutions to whom the Iudgement doth appertaine by Law For when private persons shall make the Law o be their Rule according to their own understandings contrary to the judgement of those that are competent Iudges thereof they set up unto themselves other Rules than the Law doth acknowledge Who these persons are none knoweth better than his Majestie himselfe And if he will please to take all possible caution of them as destructive to the Common wealth and himselfe and would remove them from about him it would be the most effectuall meanes to compose all the destractions and to cure the distempers of this Kingdome For the Lord Digby his le ter we did not make mention of it as a ground to hinder his Majestie from visiting his own fort but we appeale to the judgement of any indifferent man that shall read that Letter and compare with the posture that his Majestie then did and still doth stand in towards the Parliament and with the circumstances of that late action of his Majestie in going to Hull whether the Advisor of that Iourney intended only a visit of that fort and Magazin as to the wayes and overtures accommodation and the meffage of the 20 of Ianuary last so often pressed but still in vaine as is alledged Our Answere is that although so often as the 20. of Ianuarie hath been pressed so often have our priviledges been cleerly infringed that a way and method of proceeding should be prescribed unto us as well for the setling of his Majesties Revene as for the presedting of our desires a thing which in former Parliaments hath alwayes been excepted against as a breach of priviledge pet in respect of the matter contained in that message and out of our earnest desire to beget a good understanding between his Majestie and us we swallowed down all matters of Circumstance and had ere this time presented the chief of our desires to his Majestie had we not been inrerrupted with continuall Denyalls even of those things that were necessary for our present security and subsistance and had not those denyalls been followed with perpetuall Invectives against us and our proceedings and had not those invectives been beaped upon us so thick one after another who were already in a manner wholly taken up with the pressing affaires of this Kingdome