or Congregation of men can have to traduce Him with them Before any discourse be applied to the monstrous Conclusions which are made and for the support and maintenance whereof that Declaration is framed and contrived or to the unreasonable glosses upon His Majesties Propositions and prosecution of his desires of peace and Treaty it will be the best method to weigh and consider those particulars upon which they would be thought to found their desperate Conclusions and in which they say there is a continued tract of breach of trust in the three Kingdomes since His Majesty wore the Crowne 1. The first Charge is that His Majesty in publique Speeches and Declarations hath laid a fit foundation for all Tyranny by this most destructive Maxime or Principle which he saith he must avow That He oweth an account of His Actions to none but God alone and that the Houses of Parliament joynt or separate have no power either to make or declare any Law That which all learned Christians in all ages have taught and all learned Lawyers of this Kingdome have alwaies held and acknowledged is not like to be a destructive principle and a fit foundation for Tyranny and surely this assertion of His Majesties hath no lesse authority For the first the incomparable Grotius upon whom all learned men look with singular reverence saies that even Samuel jus Regum describens satis ostendit adversùs Regis injurias nullam in populo relictam potestatem which saies he rectè colligunt veteres ex illo Psalmi Tibi soli peccavi Because being all ejusà em ordinis the people owe the same obedience to these as they did to those though the absolute power and jurisdiction the Kings of Israel had be no rule for other Princes to claime by And Grotius there cites Saint Ambrose his note upon the same Text Neque ullis ad poenam vocantur legibus tuti imperii potestate homini ergo non peccavit cui non tenebatur obnoxius The wise and learned Lord Chancellor Egerton in his Argument of the Postnati mentions some Texts in the Civill Law of the great and absolute power of Princes as Rex est lex loquens and Rex solus judicat de causa à jure non definita and saies he must not wrong the Judges of the Common Law of the Kingdome so much as to suffer an imputation to be cast upon them that they or the Common Law doe not attribute as great power and authority to their Soveraigns the Kings of England as the Canon Laws did to their Emperours and then cites out of Bracton the Chief Justice in the time of King Hen. 3. and an authentique Authour in the Law these words De Chartis Regiis factis Regum non debent nec possunt Justitiarii nec privatae personae disputare nec etiam si in illa dubitio oriatur possunt eam interpretari in dubiis obscuris vel si aliqua dictio duos contineat intellectus Domini Regis erit expectanda interpretatio voluntas and the same Bracton in another place saies of the King Omnis sub eo est ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo The ground of that excellent law of Premunire in the 16 year of King Rich 2. c. 5. and the very words of that Statute are That the Crown of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly Subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crowne and to none other and upon that Maxime of the Law that good Statute against the Pope was founded If the King were bound to give an Account of his Actions to any person or power whatsoever God excepted he could not be the onely supream Governour of this Realme which he is declared and acknowledged to be by the Oath of Supremacy which every Member of the House of Commons hath taken or if he hath not he ought not to sit there or to be reputed a Member of Parliament by the Statute of 5 Eliz. c. 1. For the other part of this most destructive maxime or principle That the Houses of Parliament joynt or separate have no power either to make or declare any thing to be Law which hath not been formerly made to be so It hath been the judgment and language of the law it self in all Ages and the language of all Parliaments themselves It was the judgment of the Parliament in the 2 year of King Hen. 5. remembred and mentioned by the King in his Answer to the 19 Propositions That it is of the Kings regality to grant or deny such of their Petitions as pleaseth himself which was the forme then usuall to present those desires which by the Kings approbation and consent were enacted into Laws It was the language of the Law in the 36 year of K. H. 6. reported by my Lord Dyer that the King is the head and that the Lords are chief and principall Members and the Commons to wit the Knights Citizens and Burgesses the inferiour Members and that they all make the Body of Parliament and doubtlesse the Priviledge of Parliament was not in that time held so sacred a thing when an Action of Debt was brought against the Sheriffe of Cornwall for having discharged one Trewynnard a Burgesse of Parliament taken in Execution during the Session of Parliament upon a Writ of priviledge directed to the said Sheriffe and the Kings Bench where the Action was brought and the Sheriffe justified was in those daies the proper place to judge what was the priviledge of Parliament the Law being the most proper Judge of that priviledge as well as of all other rights It is the language of the Authour of Modus tenendi Parliamentum who lived before the time of William the Conquerour and it is the language of Sir Edw. Coke in the Chapter of the high Court of Parliament which was published by a speciall Order of the House of Commons since the beginning of this Parliament that there is no Act of Parliament but must have the consent of the Lords the Commons and the royall assent of the King and the same Sir Edward Coke saies in the 11. p. of that Chapter that Innovations and Novelties in Parliamentary proceedings are most dangerous and to be refused It is the language of the Parliament in the 1 year of King James when to the first Act that was past they desired His Majesties royall assent without which they say it can neither be compleat or perfect nor remaine to all posterity c. Lastly it is the language of this present Parliament and in a time in which they were not very modest in their pretences for in their Declaration of the 19 of May they acknowledge that by the constitution of this Kingdome the power is in His Majesty and Parliament together albeit they conclude in the same Declaration that if He refused to
joyne with them they will doe their work themselves without Him There is no one Proposition that hath more mis-led men then the discourse of the Parliaments being the supream Court of Judicature and therefore that they have the sole power to declare Law It is confessed that the House of Peers in Parliament for any pretence of the House of Commons to judicature is groundlesse and unreasonable and unheard of till within these last seven years is the supream Court of Judicature whither any person that conceives himself oppressed by the judgment of any other Court may by writ of Error remove that judgment of which he Complaines and from the Sentence of that Court there is no Appeale which His Majesty well expressed in His Answer to that Declaration of the 19 of May in these words We deny not but they may have a power to declare in a particular doubtfull case regularly brought before them what Law is but to make a generall Declaration whereby the known rule of the Law may be crossed or altered they have no power nor can exercise any without bringing the Life and Liberty of the Subject to a lawlesse and arbitrary subjection Which assertion the too sad experience of all men hath evinced to be most reasonable The truth is that power of declaring in a particular case so brought before them is rather a power to declare what shall be done in that case then what the law is for if they reverse a judgment brought before them and determine the right otherwise then it hath been judged by the sworne Judges that judgement is no rule to the sworne Judges to judge by but they may in the like case without imputation of Crime or error judge as they did formerly which shews that the Judges are the onely Interpreters of the Law in their severall Courts though in these cases removed regularly before the Lords the party must acquiesce there being no other Court to appeale to Adde to this that there hath been in all times that reverence to the sworne Judges of the Law that the Lords in Parliament have alwaies guided themselves by their opinion in matters of law neither will it be ever found before this Parliament that the House of Peers ever declared or judged the law in any particular case against the unanimous opinion of the Judges who are assistants only for that purpose neither is it reason that any should be thought fit Interpreters or Declarers of the law but they who have studied it and are sworne to doe it truly And to this point though there are multitude of examples and Presidents there shall be one only remembred In the Parliament in the 28 year of Hen. 6. upon the 16 of January the Commons desired That William de la Poole Duke of Suffolk should be Committed to prison for many Treasons other hainous Crimes cōmitted by him The Lords in Parliament were in doubt what Answer to give they demanded the opinion of the Judges their opinion was that he ought not to be Committed And the reason was for that the Commons did not charge him with any particular Offence but with generall Slanders and Reproaches And therefore because the specialties were not shewed he was not to be Committed this opinion was allowed and the Duke was not Committed till a Fortnight after that the Commons had exhibited speciall Articles against him that he conspired with the French King to invade the Realme c. And then he was sent to the Tower So great respect did those times beare to the Judges of the Law and so much courage had the Judges then to declare what the Law was Having now made it manifest that this most destructive maxime or principle is no new position but agreeable to antiquity Conscience truth and Law and therefore not like to be a fit foundation for all Tyranny It will not be unseasonable to observe that these words were spoken by His Majesty at the first Session of Parliament in the 3 year of his Reigne and that though the matter of them hath been often since and must be alwaies averred by him the very words have not been used in Speech or Declaration by His Majesty since the beginning of this Parliament and that that very Parliament continued many Months after and never in the least degree made question of them nor hath any objection been made to them till this new Declaration of the Commons near 18 years after and therefore it is not probable that they have been before mis-interpreted or censured It may be likewise in this place fit to inform the people what these men meane by the power of Declaring Law which they are so ambitious of that they may know how little else they would need to destroy King and people if they were possessed of this power in the sense they intend which will best appear by the instances in which they have assumed it The King proclaimes Sir John Hotham guilty of high Treason for having shut the Gates of Hull and having made resistance with armed men in defiance of His Majesty which he saies is high Treason by the Statute of the 25 year of Edw. 3. c. 2. They declare that Sir John Hotham did not shut the Gates against Him in defiance but in obedience to His Majesty and that the meaning of that Statute is onely against those who levyed War against the Kings laws and authority that the Kings Authority is only in them and they only can judge of the laws and therefore that they who shall levy War by their authority though against the personall Commands of the King and accompanied with his presence incur no danger by that Statute And that they who did attend His Person against them are guilty of Treason within that Statute The King for the information of his Subjects remembers them of the Statute made in the 11 year of K. Hen. 7. cap. 1. by which it is enacted That no manner of person whosoever he be that attends upon the King and Soveraign Lord of this Land for the time being in His Person and doe Him true and faithfull service of allegiance in the same or be in other places by His Commandement in His Wars shall be convict or attaint of high Treason nor lose Lands Goods c. They declare that by the King in this Statute is meant the Parliament If they are told the King is Supreme head and Governour over all persons within His Dominions and that He is so acknowledged to be by the Oaths themselves have taken They presently declare that it is meant of singular persons rather then of Courts or of the collective body of the whole Kingdome Examples innumerable of this kind might be remembred and the consequence needs not be pressed That the absurdity may a little appeare as well as the mischief they apply this faculty of declaring to the satisfying their Curiosity and supporting their Credit to matter of right and matter of
A FVLL ANSWER TO AN INFAMOUS AND TRAYTEROUS PAMPHLET ENTITULED A Declaration of the Commons of England in Parliament assembled expressing their Reasons and Grounds of passing the late Resolutions touching no further Addresse or Application to be made to the KING MICAH 3. 11. The Heads thereof judge for reward and the Priests thereof teach for hire and the Prophets thereof divine for mony yet will they leane upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord among us none evill can come upon us Printed for R. ROYSTON 1648. THE CONTENTS THe Authors Method pag. 2. Their severall Charges against the KING ib. 1. That His Majesty hath laid a fit foundation for all Tyranny by this Maxime or Principle That He oweth an account of His actions to none but God alone and That the Houses of Parliament joynt or separate have no power either to make or declare any Law p. 3. 2. The private Articles agreed in order to the Match with Spaine and those other private Articles upon the French marriage c. p. 12 3. The Death of King James ib. 4. The businesse of Rochel p. 17. 5. The Designe of the German Horse Loanes Privy-Seales Coat and Conduct-mony Ship-mony and the many Monopolies p. 19. 6. The torture of our bodies by whipping cutting off eares pillories c. with close-imprisonment aggravated with the dominion exercised over our souls by Oaths Excommunications new Canons c. p. 24. 7. The long intermission of Parliaments and at the dissolution of some how Priviledges have been broken and some Members imprisoned p. 26. 8. The new Liturgy and Canons sent into Scotland And the cancelling and burning the Articles of Pacification p. 27. 9. The calling and dissolving the short Parliament and the Kings proceeding after the dissolution therof p. 28. 10. The King summoned the present Parliament to have assistance against the Scots And when He found that hope vaine He was so passionately affected to His Malignant Counsellours that He would rather desert His Parliament and Kingdome then deliver them to Law and Justice p. 29. 11. The Queens designe to advance Popery and Her observing a Popish Fast with Secretary Windebank's going beyond Sea by His Majesties Passe after he was questioned p. 30. 12. Commissions given to Popish Agents for private Leavies p. 31. 13. The bringing up the Northerne Army to over-awe the Parliament ib. 14. Offers made to the Scots of the plunder of London if they would advance or of 4 Northern Counties with three hundred thousand pounds but to stand Neuters p. 36. 15. The businesse of Ireland p. 38. 16. The unusuall preparation of Ammunition and Armes upon the Kings return from Scotland with new Guards within and about Whitehall the Fire-works taken and found in Papists houses the Tower filled with new Guards Granadoes and all sorts of Fire-works Morters and great Pieces of Battery the displacing Sir William Balfore and placing other Officers who were suspected by them and the whole City p. 58. 17. The Charge of Treason against some of both Houses and the Kings going so attended to the House of Commons p. 62. 18. A Parallel between the Kings proceedings against the 5 and the Armies against 11 Members p. 67. 19. Commissions granted to the E. of Newcastle and Colonel Legg for attempting Newcastle and Hull And their intelligence of forain Forces from Denmark p. 72. 20. The Queens going into Holland and her carrying away and pawning the anncient Iewels of the Crowne p. 76. 21. When they first took up Arms against the King ib. 22. Breach of Honour and faith in the King for making so many solemn Protestations against any thought of bringing up the Northerne Army or of Levying Forces to wage war with His Parliament or of bringing in forain Forces or Aids from beyond Sea p. 79. 23. They have not observed their Professions made to the King nor kept their promises to the People p. 95. 96. 24. That His Majesty proclaimed them Traytors and Rebels setting up His Standard against the Parliament which never any King of England did before Himself p. 97. 25. The setting up a Mock-Parliament at Oxford to oppose and protest against the Parliament of England p. 102. 26. A full Relation of the first Tumults p. 107. 27. The Pacification and peace in Ireland p. 113. The King 's severall Messages and their Propositions and Addresses for peace p. 118. Their 4 Bills presented to His Majesty at Carisbrook-Castle p. 132. The Commons Resolutions of making no more Addresses to the King p. 148. The Conclusion Demonstrating That they can never establish a Peace to the Kingdome or any security to themselves but by Restoring the just Power to the KING and dutifully submitting and joyning themselves to His protection p. 156. An ANSWER to an infamous and trayterous Pamphlet entituled A DECLARATION of the Commons of England in Parliament expressing their reasons and grounds of passing the late Resolutions touching no further addresse or application to be made to the KING IF the nature and minds of men were not more inclined to errour and vice then they are to truth and vertue and their memories more retentive of the Arguments and evidence which is administred to pervert then of those applied to reclaime them there would be little need of composing any Answer to this seditious and trayterous Declaration which consists onely of the severall infamous and scandalous imputations and reproaches except the odious and groundlesse discourse of the death of King James which though they have alwaies whisper'd they never thought fit to own till now which have been thrown and scattered against the King throughout their Declarations and Remonstrances and is but the same Calumny and Treason bound up in a lesser Volume to every particular whereof His Majesty whilst he was at liberty to speak for himself and to take the pains to undeceive and inform his people gave full and clear answers in His severall Declarations and Expresses so that from thence all men may gather the most naturall and proper Antidotes to expell this poyson the spirit and malignity whereof it is hoped is so near spent by the stalenesse and palpable unskilfulnesse as well as malice of the Composition that it will neither be received by or work upon any healthfull Constitutions yet it will not be amisse for the information of those who it may be have not taken the pains to read the KING 's former Answers and Declarations and refreshing the memory of others who have forgotten what they have read to collect the Answers formerly given to those particulars with which His Majesty is now charged and to adde to those Answers what the knowledge and observation of most men who have been faithfull inquirers into past Actions with that integrity and duty that becomes Subjects may supply them with For which there will need no great Apology since every honest man hath a more regular and legall qualification to vindicate His Majesty from those foule aspersions then any Combination
fact or to any purpose that may advance their Designes They intercept a Letter directed to the Queens Majesty from the Lord Digby before the War began and declare it would be dishonourable to His Majesty and dangerous for the Kingdome if it should not be opened and thereupon with unheard-of presumption they open and peruse the Letter Her Majesty being within a daies journey of them And when the King caused Sir John Hotham's Letters to be opened which were intercepted after he was in Rebellion They declare that it was a high breach of Priviledge which by the Laws of the Kingdome and by the Protestation we are bound to defend with our lives and fortune One Master Booth a Gentleman of quality of Lincolnshire delivered a Petition to the King at Yorke in which he complained of certaine Gentlemen who as Deputy-Lieutenants had put the Ordinance for the Militia in execution in that County and set forth in his Petition severall Actions done and words spoken by them at that time and both himself and one Master Scroope made affidavit before a Master of the Chancery that the Information in the Petition was punctually and precisely true which Petition and Oath being printed the House of Commons frankly declared That it was false Not to speak of their declaring that the Kings comming to the House of Commons was a trayterous design against the King and Parliament and that His Proclamation which He published for the apprehension of those Members was false So that this sole power of declaring would not stand in need of any other power to subvert the whole frame of Government and so dispose of the intire rights of Prince and People according to the variety of their appetites and humour For they say as some presidents of their Predecessours ought not to be rules for them to follow so none can be limits to bound their proceedings And in truth the inconstancy and contradiction in their rules and resolutions is no lesse observable then the other extravagancy In their Petition of the 14 of Decem. 1641. they declared that the King ought not to manifest or declare His consent or dissent approbation or dislike of any Bill in preparation or debate before it be presented to Him in due course of Parliament yet within few daies after in the Petition that accompanied the Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdome they desired His Majesty that He would concur with them for the depriving the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament the Bill for that purpose being still depending in the Lords House and then not like to passe By the Order of the 3 of January 1641. and many Declarations after they declared that if any Person whatsoever shall offer to Arrest or detain the Person of any Member without first acquainting the House that it is lawfull for him to stand upon his defence and make resistance and for any other Person to assist him in so doing but in their Declaration of the 2 of November following they deny that they had said so and acknowledged that a Member in the cases of Treason Felony or the Peace may be Arrested and detained in ordine to his appearance before the Parliament There would be no end of these instances not to speak of those where the House of Peers have declared the Law one way and the Commons an other as in the Order of the 9 of September 2. The next Charge is the private Articles agreed in order to the Match with Spaine and those other private Articles upon the French Marriage so prejudiciall to the Peace Safety Laws c. What those private Articles were or are is not expressed which doubtlesse would have been if a reasonable advantage might have been hoped from it all those Papers being seized and perused by those who have neither respect to the dignity of their Soveraigne or regard of the honour of their Country The Articles with both Kingdomes were transacted by the great wisdome of King James and cannot be imputed to His Majesty that now is neither is there in one or the other any one Article that was not in the Kings power to agree to in the manner in which he did agree and that neither of them were prejudiciall to the Peace Safety Laws and Religion here established is most evident for that Peace and Safety were never more visible nor the Laws and Religion established did ever flourish more in any age then from the time of those Articles to the beginning of this unhappy Parliament which no discourse of correspondence with Rome can hinder from being acknowledged 3. The third matter objected is a Discourse concerning the Death of King JAMES in which there is mention of a Clause in the Impeachment carried up against the Duke of Buckingham by the House of Commons in the 2 year of this King that the King came into the Lords House and took notice of that Charge and said He could be a Witnesse to clear him in every one of them and that shortly after the Parliament was dissolved and they conclude that they leave it to the world to judge where the guilt remaines During the life of King James and to the hour of his death there was no earthly thing He took equall joy and comfort in as in the obedience piety of His Son who was not more reputed and known to be Heire apparent to the Crown then to be the most dutifull and pious Son in the Kingdome and was never known to displease His Father in His life The King died in the 59 year of his age after many terrible fits of an Ague which turned to a quotidian Fever a disease usually mortall to persons of that age and corpulency of body which K. James was of After His death in the 1 year of His Majesties Reigne there was a Parliament called during which time there was never the least whisper or imagination of the King's death to be otherwise then naturall and yet the King had many great persons in His Councel and there were more afterwards in that Parliament who did not pretend any kindnesse to the Duke of Buckingham many of whom must necessarily have observed or at least have been informed of any Arguments for such a notorious and odious practice and would not have suffered any jealousie that could reflect on the Duke to be untaken notice of By that time the Parliament in the 2 year of the King began one George Eglisham an infamous Scotch-man and a Papist having an ambition to be taken notice of as an Enemy to the Duke transported himself into Flanders and from thence about the beginning of that Parliament sent over a small Pamphlet in the form of a Petition in his owne name to the Parliament accusing the Duke of Buckingham of having poysoned the Marquesse of Hamilton and King JAMES which Pamphlet was industriously scattered up and down the streets in the City of London and the House of Commons being
offices of friendship It may be worth the labour briefly to set down the truth of that matter and the proceedings thereupon About the time of His Majesties Marriage with the Queen the French King had many designes upon Italy and a particular difference and contest with the States of Genoa and upon conclusion of that Treaty and renewing the antient League and amity confirmed strengthned by this Marriage His Majesty was content to lend the Vantguard and to give licence that six or seven Merchant Ships might be hired if the Owners were willing to serve the French King in the Mediterranean Sea and upon a precise promise that they should not be imployed against those of the Religion in France Accordingly the Vantguard and no other Vessell of the Navy Royall was delivered and the Merchants Ships likewise hired by the French Agents with the full consent of the Owners One of which or one by their nomination Commanded each Ship and carried the same into France and there themselves delivered the Ships into the possession of the French After these Ships were thus engaged in the French service and joyned to their Fleet in which were 20 Ships of Warre likewise borrowed of the Hollanders commanded by Hauthaine the Admirall and Dorpe his Vice-Admirall who it is very probable nor their Masters were privy or consenting to that enterprize and with which they were much superiour to those of the Religion though the English Ships had been away they fell upon the Rochel Fleet and took and destroyed many of them The King was no sooner informed of this then he highly resented it by His Ambassadour and the French King excused it upon those of the Religion who He Alleaged had without cause broken the peace the Duke of Subese having when all was quiet seized all the French Ships at Blauet which very Ships made the best part of the Fleet he had now incountred and broken And that the King of England ought to be sensible of the injury the peace thus broken having been made and consented to by the French King upon His Majesties earnest mediation and interposition Notwithstanding which His Majesty justly incensed that His Ships should be imployed contrary to His pleasure and the promise made to Him immediatly required the restitution of His and all the English Ships the which was no sooner made then to publish to the world how much He was displeased with that Action He entred into Hostility with France the chief ground of that quarrell being that the English Ships had been imployed against those of the Religion contrary to the expresse promise made that they should not be used against them as appears as well by the Manifest of the Duke of Buckingham dated 21 July and printed since this Parliament as by the Records of State of that time Let the world now judge with what colour the losse of Rochel which as is said before hapned not till neer or full two years after the return of the English Ships can be imputed to the King 5. The fifth Article is the designe of the Germane-Horse Loanes Privy Seales Coat and Conduct mony Ship-mony and the many Monopolies all which are particularly mentioned in the first Remonstrance of the House of Commons of the 15 of December 1642. as the effects of evill Counsellours and with a Protestation in that Petition which accompanied it to His Majesty that it was without the least intention to lay a blemish upon His Majesties Royall Person but only to represent how His Royall Authority and trust had been abused And finding that the vile language and aspersions which they cast upon the King were generally censured and ill spoken of The Lords and Commons afterwards in their Declaration of the 19 of May tell the people that if they should say that all the ill things done of late in His Majesties name have been done by Himself they should neither follow the direction of the Law nor the affection of their owne hearts which they say is as much as may be to clear His Majesty of all imputation of misgovernment and to lay the fault upon His Ministers and then finding fault with those who make His Majesty the Authour of evill Counsels they use these words We His Majesties loyall and dutifull Subjects can use no other Stile according to that Maxime of the Law The King can doe no wrong but if any ill be committed in matter of State the Councell if in matters of Iustice the Judges must answer for it So that if they would guide themselves either by the good old or their own new laws from which in truth they swerve no lesse then from the other they have themselves answered and declared against this Article but since that is not currant examine the particulars The time when this designe is supposed to have been was when His Majesty had a War with the two greatest Kings of Christendome France and Spaine and therefore if He had purposed to have drawn auxiliary Forces into His Service it had been no wonder nor more then all Princes use yet in truth there was never any designe to bring in Germane Horse only in those unquiet times when the Kingdom was so much threatned from abroad amongst other expedients for strength and defence such a proposition was made or rather some discourse upon it which the King rejected and did never consent that it should be put in practice and therefore it may seem strange that this designe should be now objected against His Majesty who alone refused and hindred it and that Balfore and Dalbiere who were the principall if not the only Projectors of it should be in such high reputation and esteem with the Declarers The Loanes Privy Seales and other courses of raising Money were upon extraordinary and immergent occasions and of the same nature that have been in all times practiced upon reason and necessity of State And Monopolies are weeds that have alwaies grown in the fat soile which long peace and plenty makes and of that kind they may find a larger Catalogue in their Journall book of the 43 year of Queen Elizabeth a time that no sober man complaines of then in any time since and which was not then nor reasonably can be imputed to the Crowne since new inventions have justly so great encouragements and priviledges by the Law that if those Ministers through whose hands such grants are to passe are not very vigilant it is not possible but upon specious pretences many things unwarrantable of that nature will have the countenance of the Kings hand yet those particulars were no sooner complained of to His Ma ty then He willingly applied the remedies w ch were proposed before these troubles began passed such excellent laws for the prevention of the like inconveniences for the future that a better security cannot be provided So that men must think this Rebellion to have been raised on the behalf of not against those exorbitances which
without it could never probably have been again exercised in this Kingdome And here the people cannot enough observe and wonder that these grievances should in this manner be objected against the King who removed and abolished them in a time when and by those who have renued and improved the same and introduced new vexations upon His Subjects in an illimited manner and intolerable proportion That They should complain of a designe of bringing in German Horse to enslave us which if any such designs were by the goodnesse of the King was frustrated and rejected who have actually brought in an Army of all Rations upon us and have no pretence of continuing it but that they may subdue us dissolve the Government of the Kingdome and make us Slaves to their own passions and appetite That They should remember the King of inforced Loanes Privy Seales Coat and Conduct mony who since the same have been abrogated by Him have by their Ordinance compelled men to lend the Fifth and the Twentieth part of their Estates for the maintenance of their Armies that fifth and twentieth part to be rated according to such proportion as certain persons named by them shall assesse and if any person shall refuse to pay the mony so assessed upon him then Collectors shall leavy it by distresse and for want of distresse he shall be committed to prison with such circumstances of severity and uncharitablenesse as were never exercised by any Royall Command That They should complaine of the ingrossing of Gunpowder in which His Majesty did nothing but what by His legall Prerogative He might do who by their Ordinance of the 3 of April 1644. for the making of Salt-peter and by the other of the 7 of Febr. 1645. for making Gun-powder have established all those clauses in His Majesties Commission of which there was any colour of complaint to Projectors of their owne with so much worse circumstances as the jurisdiction their Committees exercise to whom appeales are to be made is more grievous chargeable and insupportable then that was of the Councell Table That They should mention the Patent of Wine which was to pay forty Shillings upon the Tun to His Majesty when by the Ordinance of the 22 of July 1643. they have laid an imposition upon it of six pounds over and above all Customes and by the Ordinance of the 9 of October following have authorized the Vintners to sell it at as great and some at greater prices then was ever tolerated during the time of His Majesties imposition Lastly to omit the other particulars of Salt Allum Tobacco and the rest upon every one of which they have by their particular Ordinances laid much heavier taxes then was thought of in those times that they should reproach the King with the Ship mony which by their own computation came not to above 200000l by the year as the compendium of all oppression and slavery for which His Majesty had a judgment in a Court of Law before all the Judges of England and which was alwaies leavied by the due formes of Law and which His Majesty when He was informed of the injustice of it frankly quitted and did His best to pull it up by the roots that no branch of it may hereafter grow up to the disquiet of His people when themselves have almost ever since by that one Ordinance of the 1 of March 1642. imposed a Weekly tax upon the Kingdome of three and thirty thousand five hundred and eighteen pounds which in the year amounts to no lesse then one million seven hundred forty two thousand nine hundred and odde pounds to which they have since added by their Ordinance of the 18 of October 1644. for the relief of the Brittish Army in Ireland a Weekly tax upon the Kingdome of three thousand eight hundred pounds w ch in the year comes to one hundred ninety seven thousand six hundred odde pounds as much as ever Ship mony arose to over and above Free-quarter and all their other Orders for Sequestration and twentieth part and the cruell circumstances in the executing those and all other Ordinances against the irregular doing whereof they will allow no Appeale to the Judges though of their own making but reserve the intire Connusance and direction to themselves It is pity that parenthesis of the Spanish Fleet with a great Army therein brought into the Downes 1639. of which out of their goodnesse they say they will say nothing should receive no Answer That having been often unskilfully spoken of as it is now insinuated as a designe against England whereas they who know any thing know that Fleet was bound from Spaine to Flanders with mony to pay their Army and new leavied Souldiers to recruit it of which there was the greater number because it was purposed to carry many old Soldiers from thence to Catalonia but all those Souldiers in the Fleet were without Armes and without Officers and the Fleet so far from being provided for an invasion that in a little Fight with the Hollanders before the winde brought them into the Downes they had so near spent their Powder that they had a supply for their mony from London which the King could not in honour and justice deny the Hollanders themselves offering them what Powder they wanted for ready mony 6. Next follows the torture our bodies heretofore suffered by whipping cutting off Eares Pillories and the like with close imprisonment aggravated with the Dominion exercised over our Soules by Oathes Excommunications new Canons c. by which they would have it concluded that His Majesties Government was full of cruelty and oppression It is an undeniable evidence of the excellent Government Sobriety and obedience of that time that there were not above six infamous persons from the beginning of His Majesties Reigne to the first day of this unhappy Parliament who were publickly taken notice of to have merited those corporall punishments and shame and of the mercy of that time that those suffered no greater there being not one of them who was not guilty of sedition to that degree that by the Law they were liable to heavier judgments then they underwent And for the Oathes Excommunications Ceremonies and Canons they were no other and no otherwise exercised then was agreeable to the Laws and the Government established Of and for which the Sects Schismes and Heresies the dissolutenesse profanenesse and impiety which have followed that since blessed Order hath bin discountenanced and suppressed hath made a fuller and more sensible Vindication then any discourse can doe And here the people will again take notice that these Judgments and proceedings which alwaies passed in due form of Law in Courts of Justice and in which no innocent man can pretend to have suffered are objected against the King by those who without any colour of jurisdiction but what themselves have assumed and usurped in stead of inflicting any ordinary punishment take away the lives of their fellow
Law is as well known neither did He deny His royall assent to any one Bill till after He was by force Tumults driven from White Hall and after he had indeed consented to whatsoever could be honestly asked of Him for the security and benefit of the Kingdome 11. The Queen is too near His Majesty not to bear a part and a share with Him in these calumnies and therefore Her designe to advance Popery is remembred and Her observing a Popish Fast with Secretary Windebanks going beyond Sea by His Majesties Passe after He was questioned by the House of Commons What that designe of Her Majesty was for the advancement of Popery is not particularly mentioned and therefore no Answer can be given to it and having expressed so much undutifulnes malice to Her Majesty throughout the whole course of their Rebellion it is not probable they have concealed any thing they could lay to Her charge For the Fast observed by Her it is well known that the time of it was when the King was in the Field and his Person liable to much danger which piety and devotion was very agreeable to Her goodnesse and exemplar affection towards her Husband And the Kingdome would think it self abundantly blessed if the Fasts since observed by these men had produced no worse effects then that did w ch was observed by her M ty For S. Windebanke the House of Cōmons had it in their power to have proceeded against him to have prevented his escape he being in the House and according to order withdrawn into the Committee Chamber after the report was made and after as much appeared against him as was ever objected or discovered afterwards but the House contrary to custome rose without proceeding upon it and therefore His Majesty might very well give him leave to dispose of himself And the truth is they by whom the House was then guided were best pleased with his absence and purposely declined the proceeding against him when he was in their hands thinking it easier to procure his place for one of their principall Members to whom they had designed it upon the advantage of his flight then if he had staid to abide his Triall which for many reasons they would not have thought fit to hasten or to proceed in 12. The Allegations of Commissions given to Popish Agents for private leavies except they intend the Collections made amongst the Papists of money for the Kings expedition into the North which was likewise amongst and no lesse liberally complied with by the Lords of the Privy Counsell and the other Protestants of the best quality throughout the Kingdom or that the Papists began to rise and arme themselves in the Northwest of England and Wales the raising Soldiers under pretence for Portugal and the seizing of the Tower are so stale vaine and ridiculous that though upon the first contrivance of them the fame served the turn of the Contrivers mens observation and knowledge having since informed them that there was nothing like either of them there needs no further Answer to them 13. The next Article is the great Caball for bringing up the Northerne Army to over-awe the Parliament the chief part of which they can prove they say to come from Himself to the maine Actors though the King did so often and solemnly dis-avow it as nothing but loose discourses of a modest Petition which also vanished two or three Months he saith before they knew of it They doe well to except against the Kings positive denying it when they have onely their owne confident and positive affirming it for proof but they had need suppresse and burn all His Majesties Declarations and Answers in which He hath abundantly satisfied the world in this particular as well as they restrain His Person and as they have concealed all those Depositions taken by themselves in this Argument which would manifest clearly that there was no such designe by His Majesty so they need recall all those they have already published if they desire to have that designe believed The King in His Answer to the Declaration presented to Him at Newmarket uses these words We cannot without great indignation suffer Our self to be reproached to have intended the least force or threatning to Our Parliament as the being privy to the bringing up the Army would imply whereas We call God to witnes We never had any such thought or knew of any such resolution concerning Our late Army And afterwards His Majesty in His Declaration of the 12 of August a Declaration that never was offered to be Answered at large set forth all He ever knew of that businesse or which upon exact inquiry He could imagine to be in it by which it plainly appears that some Officers of the Army of very good and confessed reputation for their affection to their Country observing the strange Petitions every day presented to the House of Commons against the established Laws and Government of the Kingdome and the unlawfull manner in the delivering those Petitions by thousands of disorderly persons in Tumults supposed that a Petition of a most modest and dutifull nature from the whole Army for the composing and setling all grievances in the Church and State by Law might for the reason of it prevaile with the whole House and coming from such a body might confirm those who might be shaken with any fears of power or force by the Tumults and His Majesty being made acquainted with this proposition gave his full approbation to it which He had great reason to do since as there was notable industry used to corrupt His Army and to make it applicable to the ill purposes then resolved on so pains was taken to perswade the people that it was in truth very indevoted to the King and ready to serve the Parliament any way it should direct And as His Majesty saies if in the managery of this debate any rash discourses hapned of bringing up the Army it is evident whether they were proposed in earnest or no that they were never entertained and the whole matter was laid aside above two Months before any discovery so that that danger was never prevented by the power or wisdome of Parliament It appears by the evidence and Depositions published by themselves by the Order of the 19 of May 1642. together with that Declaration that this dangerous Plot began without the least privity of the Kings upon some Officers taking offence dis-like that of fifty thousand pounds Ordred for payment of the Kings Army ten thousand pounds was taken by an after Order out of that summe to satisfie a new motion and importunity from the Scots and that those Officers upon that distast discoursed that they were disobliged by the Parliament and not by the King and thereupon concluded to tender their Services to His Ma ty in all things honourable and agreeable to the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome That in debates afterwards together
reasons might not as lawfully accuse those Members of high Treason as the Attourny Generall in the first year of this King's Reigne did accuse the Earle of Bristoll upon a Charge more generall who was thereupon committed to the Tower And why His Majesty might not as well have expected that upon his Articles not so generall as a meer verball accusation of high Treason either House would have Committed their severall Members as they had done so many this Parliament and about that time twelve Bishops together upon a confessed ground which every man there who knew what Treason was knew that fact to be none meerly because they were accused His Majesty upon occasion of mentioning this passage saies He could neither then nor yet can understand This being the case there remains nothing but His Majesties own going to the House of Commons for which hear His own words in His Answer to the Declaration of the 19. of May where that matter was loudly laid to His charge When We resolved that it was fit for Our own safety and honour and the peace of the Kingdome to proceed against those persons though We well know there was no degree of priviledge in that case yet to shew Our desire of correspondence with the two Houses of Parliament We chose rather then to apprehend those persons by the ordinary Ministers of Justice which according to the opinion and practice of former times We might have done to command Our Attourny generall to acquaint Our House of Peers with Our intention and the generall matters of Our Charge which was yet more particular then a meer Accusation and to proceed accordingly and at the same time sent a sworn Servant a Sergeant at Armes to Our House of Commons to acquaint them that We did accuse and intended to prosecute the five Members of that House for high Treason and did require that their persons might be secured in custody This We did not only to shew that We intended not to violate or invade their Priviledges but use more ceremony towards them then We conceived in justice might be required of Us and expected at least such an Answer as might informe Us if We were out of the way But We received none at all only in the instant without offring any thing of their Priviledges to Our consideration an Order was made and the same night published in print That if any person whatsoever should offer to arrest the person of any Member of that House without first acquainting that House therewith and receiving further order of that House That it should be lawfull for such Members or any person to assist them and to stand upon his or their guard of defence and to make resistance according to the Protestation taken to defend the Priviledges of Parliament and this was the first time we heard the Protestation might be wrested to such a sence or that in any case though of the most undoubted and unquestionable priviledge it might be lawfull for any person to resist and to use violence against a publique Minister of Justice armed with lawfull authority though we well know that even such a Minister might be punished for executing such authority Upon viewing this Order we must confesse We were somewhat amazed having neither seen nor heard of the like before though We had known Members of either House Committed without so much formality as We had used and upon crimes of a far inferiour nature to those We had suggested And having no course proposed to Us for Our proceeding We were upon the matter onely told that against those persons We were not to proceed at all that they were above Our reach of the Law It was not easie for Us to resolve what to doe if We imployed Our Ministers of Justice in the usuall way for their apprehension who without doubt would not have refused to have executed Our lawfull Commands We saw what resistance and opposition was like to be made which very probable might cost some bloud if We sate still and desisted upon this terrour We should at the best have confessed Our owne want of Power and the weakness of the Law in this strait We put on a sudden resolution to try whether Our own presence and clear discovery of Our intentions which haply might not have been so well understood could remove those doubts and prevent those inconveniences which seemed to be threatned And thereupon We resolved to go in Our Person to Our House of Commons which we discovered not till the minute of our going when We sent out That Our Servants and such Gentlemen as were then in Our Court should attend Us to Westminster but giving them expresse command that no accidents or provocation should draw them to any such Action as might imply a purpose of force in Us and Our self requiring those of Our traine not to come within the Dore went into the House of Commons the bare doing of which We did not conceive would have been thought more a breach of priviledge then if We had then gone to the House of Peers and sent for them to come to Us which is the usuall custome This was His Majesties Answer formerly to this Charge which is therefore here inserted at large as being so full that nothing need be added and it appeared by the Deposition of Barnard Ashly and others taken by them that the King gave His Traine expresse and positive charge that they should give no offence or ill word to any body what provocation soever they met with which Depositions were carefully suppressed and concealed whilst they made use of the testimony of indigent and infamous Fellows to reproach His Majesty from some light and unadvised discourse which was pretended to be uttered by some young Gentlemen who had put themselves into the Traine To conclude it is to be observed that though it were so high a transgression in the King against whom Treason can onely be committed to prefer such a Charge against five Members of the House of Commons who were called together by His Writ and accountable to Him for any breach of Duty that it did absolve them from their Allegiance yet the preferring the like Charge since against Eleven Members by the Army raised and maintained by them and to which they were not accomptable for any thing they did hath been held no crime and it may be no ill exercise for those Gentlemen who with such high contempt of that Soveraigne power to which they owed their allegiance took delight to despise and resist His Majesties just Authority now in their affliction restraint and banishment to consider the hand of God upon them which hath compelled them to submit to the mercenary power raised by themselves to suppresse their King That though they broke through the Kings Article for endeavouring to subvert the fundamentall Laws and Government of this Kingdome and to deprive the King of His legall power and to place on Subjects an Arbitrary and tyrannicall
power yet they could not break through the Charge of the Army for invading infringing or endeavouring to overthrow the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects of this Nation in arbitrary violent and oppressing waies and for endeavouring by indirect and corrupt practises to delay and obstruct Justice to the great damage and prejudice of divers of the poor Commoners of England Though they were too mighty to be touched upon the Kings accusation of having endeavoured by many foule aspersions upon His Majesty and His Government to alienate the affections of His people and to make His Majesty odious to them yet they were not able to bear the burthen of an Accusation of having endeavoured by false informations mis-representations or scandalous suggestions against the Army to beget mis-understandings prejudices or jealousies in the Parliament against the Army and to put insufferable injuries abuses and provocations upon the Army whereby to provoke and put the Army into dis-temper Though they slighted the King's Charge of having trayterously invited and incouraged a forain power to invade His Majesties Kingdome of England yet they cannot throw off the Charge from the Army of having invited the Scots and other forain Forces to come into this Kingdome in a hostile manner to abet and assist them in the prosecution and effecting of their designes Lastly they may with their eyes hands and hearts lift up to Heaven remember how they contemned and despised the King when he charged them that they had endeavoured as far as in them lay by force and terrour to compell the Parliament to joyne with them in their trayterous designes and to that end had actually raised and countenanced Tumults against the King and Parliament And now their owne Army whereof very many then assisted them in those Tumults to drive away the King and the Members of both Houses accuses them of having invited incouraged abetted or countenanced divers Reformadoes and other Officers and Souldiers tumultuously and violently to gather together at Westminster to affright and assault the Members of Parliament in passing to and from the House to offer violence to the House it self and by such violence outrages and threats to awe and inforce the Parliament As the Charge allowed and countenanced now from their owne Army is upon the matter the same which was with so much noise and insolence rejected when it was presented from the King and is now objected against Him as a hainous crime so with reference to their Priviledges which like the Logitians line is divisibilis in semper divisibilia and serves their turne to inable them to aske any thing from the King they think fit to demand and to refuse any thing to Him He requires from them the progresse and proceedings thereupon hath been very different in stead of suspending and discountenancing them upon the King's accusation they are brought in triumph with an Army to the House the Army upon the bare exhibiting their generall Articles require that the persons impeached may be forthwith suspended from sitting in the House and will receive no deniall it must be consented to for they will not indure that the persons impeached by them shall continue in power and capacity to obstruct due proceedings against themselves and for their own escape from justice to threaten ruine to the whole Nation as by the Letter from the Army of the 21. of June appears The King was checked upon the matter of Priviledge and then imperiously required to send the evidence which He had against those He had accused to the House where they principally governed and could easily judge what was secure for themselves His Majesty desired that before His proofs were discovered against them and lest a new mistake should breed more delaies it might be resolved whether His Majesty were bound in respect of Priviledges to proceed against them by impeachment in Parliament or whether He were at liberty to prefer an Indictment against them at Common Law in the usuall way or had His choice to which they would give no other Answer then that they desired Him to give directions that the Parliament might be informed before Friday next what proof there was against them that accordingly they might be called to a legall triall it being the undoubted right and priviledge of Parliament that no Member of Parliament can be proceeded against without the consent of Parliament The Army tells them plainly by their Letter of the 25. of June That they wish the name of Priviledges may not lie in ballance with the Safety of a Kingdome and the reality of doing justice which as they had said too often they could not expect whilst the persons they had accused were the Kingdomes and their Judges And in the Remonstrance of the Army of the 23. of June that no priviledges ought to protect wicked men in doing wrong to particulars or mischief to the publick and that whoever most adores or tenders those priviledges will best expresse his Zeale towards them in taking care they be not abased or extended to private wrong and publique mischief for they say they clearly find and all wise men may see it that Parliament priviledges as well as Royall prerogative may be perverted abused to the destruction of those greater ends for whose protection and preservation they were admitted or intended viz. the Rights and Liberties of the people and safety of the whole and in case they be so the abuse evill or danger of them is no lesse to be contended against and a remedy thereof no lesse to be endeavoured then of the other And upon these grounds they conclude that they shall be inforced to take such courses extraordinary as God shall enable and direct them to unlesse by Thursday night next they receive assurance and security to themselves and the Kingdome for a more safe and hopefull proceeding in an ordinary way by having those things granted which before they insisted on These have been the proceedings of late in the point of accusing Members and in the case of Priviledge all which are so far justified by the Houses that the Army hath received publique thanks and approbation for all that they have done and their accusations have been received countenanced and promoted and their desires granted against the persons they accused so that as the King did nothing in the accusation of those Members but what was justifiable by the Law and former Presidents of Parliament so whatsoever He did is since justified by the later Presidents which themselves have consented to and approved And so we return to the place from whence this consideration carried us There is a mention of the Lord Digby's appearing in a War-like manner and afterwards his going beyond the Seas and from thence giving advice to the King to retire to some strong place c. which are all so well known have been so often answered and have so little reference to the King that time is not to
be wasted to reply to them 18. The next Charge is the Commissions granted to the Earle of Newcastle and Colonel Legg for attempting Newcastle and Hull which they say occasioned them to provide for their security to which their intelligence of forain Forces from Denmark contributed and then they take great paines to make that jealousie of Denmarke reasonable and fit to sink into them The Commissions granted by the King to the Earle of Newcastle and Colonel Legg were no other then by Law He might grant neither did He grant any such before He was assured the leading Members in the House of Commons had it in their purpose to procure an Order for the seizing that Towne and after they had caused a power to be placed about the Tower of London both by land and water under the Command of their new Officer Skippon who was required not to suffer any provisions to be brought in thither by what Authority or Warrant soever If there had been any expectation or apprehension of forain Forces to be brought from Denmarke that could be no warrant for them to seize on Hull without and against the King's leave whose peculiar jurisdiction and right it is to provide against forain Invasions but as that discourse of Forces from Denmarke was then looked upon as most ridiculous by all men of sense so experience hath since made it apparent that there was not the least colour for it And the arrivall of that Vessell with Ammunition and Armes for there came no Commanders in her near Hull was near six Months after the Houses had put a Garrison into Hull and neer three Months after Sir John Hotham had shut the Gates of it against His Majesty and if it had not been for that rebellious Act that Ammunition and Armes had not been sent The Invasion of the King of Denmark's Dominions by the Swedes was above two years after the seizing of Hull therefore that could not be any interruption to that designe if it had been intended but that a frivolous report of a discourse between a Servant of the Lord Digby's that was never named with a Mariner whom he had never seen before to conduct a Fleet into England from Denmarke or an intercepted Letter from the Hague to Secretary Nicholas which is pretended to be written the 26 of Novemb. after the Battle of Edge-hill and in which is mention of Armes for ten thousand Foot and for fifteen hundred Horse should be thought of moment to justifie a rebellious jealousie of the King's purpose of countenancing an Invasion of His owne Kingdome is below the folly and sottishnesse of any to whom satisfaction ought to be applied The imploying of Colonel Cockram to the King of Denmark was after the Rebellion was begun and when the Earl of Essex was marching with his Army against His Majesty and the principall instruction given to him was to presse that King to assist His Majesty with Mony Armes and Ammunition the two Houses having seized all which belonged to His Majesty and that the same might be sent by some Ships of that Crowne because all the King 's owne were taken from Him and lay in wait to intercept any Provision that should be sent to His Majesty and it is no wonder if the King indevoured by His instructions to His Agent to make His Uncle of Denmarke as sensible as he could of the injuries and indignities offered to His Majesty nor was that very clause with which these wicked men so insolently and rudely reproach His Majesty without good grounds it being known that they ordinarily whisper'd many things then in their private Caballs which they durst not publiquely avow of which nature were their discourses of the Death of King James which they are now grown up to the wickednesse to publish and the other which was mentioned in that instruction They say they repeat this rather because when they declared their intelligence that Cockram was sent into Denmarke to procure Forces thence the King disavowed it calling it a vile scandall in His Answer to their Decl. of the 22 of Octob. 1642. Their charge upon the King in that Declaration of the 22 of Octob. was That Sir John Henderson and Colonel Cockram men of ill report both for Religion and Honesty were sent to Hanborough and Denmarke as they were credibly informed to raise Forces there and to bring them to Newcastle and to joyne with the Earle of Newcastle c. To this the King made Answer That He had never greater cause to be confident of security in His owne Subjects and therefore He could not believe so vile a scandall could make any impression in sober men And it is known He did desire no other aide or supply at that time from Denmarke or from any of his Allies but Mony Armes and Ammunition but if He had not been confident in the security of His owne Subjects He would have been justly to be blamed if He had not endeavoured to get any forain succours to preserve Himself His Crowne and the Kingdome from being over-run and subdued by the power and strength of His rebellious Subjects In the same instructions to Cockram they say the King declared that He then expected assistance from His neighbour Princes and Allyes in particular the greatest part of the States Fleet from Holland which if it were truly set forth needs no Answer it being very reasonable that the King should have expected that all His neighbour Princes and Allyes should have assisted Him against so odious and horrid a Rebellion and it may be many of them may live to find the inconveniencie of not being sensible of the assault which hath been made upon Soveraignty especially if in stead of assisting the King they have contributed toward the oppressing the Regall power but these men are such enemies to ingenuity that in the very repeating what hath been said or done by the King they will leave out any words that will make the sense otherwise understood then fits their purpose though any man that will take the pains to examine it will quickly find the truth so they who will peruse these instructions by what means soever they came by them published by themselves will find that the King mentioned the Holland Fleet only as allowed by the States to give Her Majesty a Convoy into England which these men would have understood as lent to assist the King against His rebellious Subjects whereas it is too well known that at that time the two Houses found more respect and assistance from those States then His Majesty did and what His Majesty then said of His neighbour Princes and Allyes which they would perswade the people to relate to some present engagement from them to send Forces to Him being only grounded upon His reasonable hope of the sense those Princes would have of the indignities offered to His Majesty His words being He expects and hopes that all His neighbour Princes and Allyes will not look
His Majesties Person Crowne and Dignity together with His Majesties just and legall Prerogative against all persons and power whatsoever and that they would not obey any rule Order or Ordinance whatsoever concerning any Militia that had not the Royall assent The first Commission of Array issued out some daies before this Profession and Protestation made by His Majesty and therefore cannot be said to be against it and above three Months after the passing the illegall and extravagant Ordinance for the Militia and after that Ordinance was executed in many parts of the Kingdome notwithstanding His Majesties Proclamation of the illegality and treason of it when He had desired them to produce or mention one Ordinance from the first beginning of Parliaments to this very Parliament which endeavoured to impose any thing upon the Subject without the King's consent of which to this day they never gave or can give one instance The Commission it self of Array is according to Law and so held to be at this time by most learned Lawyers and was so declared to be by Mr. Justice Hutton in his Argument in the Exchequer Chamber in the case of Mr. Hambden The Letter which they say they can produce under His Majesties owne hand to Sir John Heydon Lieutenant of the Ordnance of the 20 of June 1642. is no way contrary to His Majesties professions such as His Majesty in that ill time was necessarily to write being to a sworn Officer and Servant of His owne to send such of His own Goods to Him as were in His custody and which His Majesty so reasonably might have occasion to use and if He wished it might be done privately it is only an instance of the wickednes of that time that the King was forced to use art and privacy to get what belonged to Him lest He might be robbed by those who nine daies before the date of this Letter had published Orders to intercept whatsoever was going to Him His Majesty required not any subscription for Plate Horses or Armes till many daies after they had published their Propositions to that purpose received great sums of mony and vast quantities of plate upon those Propositions against which His Majesty writ His Princely Letter to the City of London on the 14 of June and two daies after published a Declaration with the testimony and evidence of all the Peers with Him in which He said That if notwithstanding so clear declaration and evidence of His intentions these men should think fit by those Alarums to awaken Him to a more necessary care of the defence of Himself and His people and should themselves in so unheard-of a manner provide and seduce others to do so too to offend His Majesty having given Him so lively testimony of their affections what they were willing to do when they should once make themselves able all His good Subjects would think it necessary for His Majesty to look to Himself and He did then excite all His wel-affected people according to their Oaths of Allegiance Supremacy according to their solemn Vow and Protestation whereby they were obliged to defend His Person Honour and Estate to contribute their best assistance to the preparations necessary for the opposing and suppressing of the trayterous attempts c. And then He would take it as an acceptable Service if any person upon so urgent and visible a necessity of His Majesty and such an apparent distraction of the Kingdome would bring in to Him or to His use Mony or Plate or would furnish Horse or Armes c. This was the time and the manner of His Majesties requiring subscription for Plate Horse and Armes which these men impute to Him They say the King raised a Guard of Horse and Foot about Him and by them did not only abuse their Committees sent to Him beat their publique Officers and Messengers protect notorious Papists Traytors or Felons such as Beckwith and others from the Posse Comitatus but also with those guards Cannon Arms from beyond Sea did attempt to force Hull in an hostile manner and that within few daies after that solemn Protestation at Yorke All which suggestions must be particularly examined The raising the King's Guard was on this occasion and in this manner The King residing with His Court at the City of Yorke and being pressed by both Houses of Parliament to consent that His Magazine at Hull might be removed from thence for the better supplies of the necessities for Ireland to the Tower of London which for many reasons He thought not convenient His Majesty resolved to go Himself in Person to His Town of Hull to view His Arms and Munition there that thereupon He might give directions what part thereof might be necessary to remaine there for the security and satisfaction of the Northerne parts the principall persons thereof having petitioned Him that it might not be all removed and what part might be spared for Ireland what for the arming the Scots who were to go thither and what to replenish His chiefest Magazine the Tower of London and going thither on the 23 day of April 1642. He found all the Gates shut against Him and the Bridges drawn up by the command of Sir John Hotham who flatly denied His Majesties entrance from the Walls which were strongly manned and the Cannon mounted thereon and planted against the King His Majesty having in vaine endeavoured to perswade Sir John Hotham and offered to go in with twenty Horse because he alleaged His retinue was too great was at last compelled to returne to Yorke after He had proclaimed Hotham Traytor which by all the knowne Lawes he was declared in that case to be The next day the King sent a Message to the Houses to require justice upon Sir John Hotham to which they returned no Answer till above a fortnight after in the mean time they sent down some of the choice Members to Hull to give Sir Iohn Hotham thanks for what he had done and to assure him that they would justifie him in it and others into Lincoln-shire with directions to their Deputy Lieutenants and all other Officers to assist him if he were in any distresse and then they sent some other Members as their Committee to Yorke with their Answer to the King in which they told Him That Sir John Hotham could not discharge the trust upon which nor make good the end for which he was placed in the Guard of that Towne and Magazine if he had let in His Majesty with such Counsellours and company as were then about Him and therefore upon full resolution of both Houses they had declared Sir John Hotham to be clear from that odious crime of Treason and had avowed that he had done nothing therein but in obedience to the commands of both Houses whereas in truth though they had presumed against law and right to send him thither and constitute him Governour for a time of that place there was
no word in his Commission or instructions implying the least direction not to suffer His Majesty to come thither but on the contrary the pretence was for His Majesties especiall service His Majesty made a quick reply to this strange Answer and delivering it to their Committee wished them to return with it to the Houses which they refused telling Him That they were appointed by the Parliament to reside at Yorke but they would send His Answer to Westminster It would be too long in this place and might be thought impertinent to consider whether this custome of sending Committees to be Lieger in the Counties which began at this time be agreeable to law and the just regular power of the Houses for as the like will not be found in the Presidents of former Parliaments so it may be reasonably believed that that Councell which is called by the Kings Writ to assemble at Westminster can no more appoint some of their Members to reside at Yorke or in any other place then they can adjourn themselves thither and it seems against right that those Deputies which are sent by the Counties or Cities to be present on their behalfs in the House of Commons at Westminster may be sent to another place by which they whom they represent are without any Members there Upon this Answer of the Committee as unexpected as the other from the Houses and the other acts done in this conjuncture as the sending another Committee to Hull another into Lincoln-shire all to perswade the people to approve of what Sir Iohn Hotham had done and to assist him if there were any occasion the King began very justly to apprehend a designe upon His owne Person and then and not till then resolved and declared His resolution to have a Guard to secure His Person that Sir Iohn Hotham might not as His Majesty said by the same forces or more raised by pretence of the same authority for he raised some daily continue the War that he had leavied against Him and as well imprison His Person as detain His goods and as well shut His Majesty up in Yorke as shut Him out of Hull This Guard was hereupon raised with the advice of the principall Gentlemen of that County and consisted of one Regiment of their Traine bands commanded by the proper Colonel who was one of the prime Gentlemen of fortune and reputation there and one Troup of Horse which had the honour of being called the Prince of Wales his Troup commanded by the Earle of Cumberland and consisting of near one hundred most if not all of them of the Gentry of that Shire and that the rumour scandall and imputation of entertaining Papists might be clearly answered there was neither Officer or Souldier of the Regiment or Troup who did not take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy and they were punctually payed by the King that there might be no complaint on any side This was the Guard the occasion and manner of leavying it full five Months after the two Houses against Law or President and without the least probable colour of danger had raised a greater Guard for themselves under the command of their new Officer Skippon after they had besieged the Tower and compelled the King to commit the government of it to a man of their own nomination and election after they had put a Governour and Garrison into Hull and that Governour and Garrison kept His Majesty out of the Towne after they had in defiance of His Majesty and against His expresse pleasure signified to them put His Royall Navy into the hands and under the command of the Earle of Warwick after they had in many Counties executed the Ordinance of the Militia and after they had brought the danger to His Chamber dore by their Orders to the very Sheriffe of Yorke-shire to assist Sir John Hotham and imploying their Committee there to the same purpose For abusing the Committees sent to His Majesty they should and no doubt if it had been in their power they would have mentioned one particular abuse offered to them it is very well known that they had all freedome and respect albeit His Majesty well knew the ill and seditious offices they did there and though they appeared publickly at all meetings and when His Majesty proposed any thing to the County they produced their instructions and disswaded the County from complying with His just desires the suffering and induring whereof might more reasonably be imputed to the King then any ill usage they received of which their owne Letters printed by Order will be sufficient testimony and when the King went from Yorke towards Nottingham after He had declared by His Proclamation that He would erect His Royall Standard the Lord Fairfax being one of that Committee by some accident of sicknesse continuing still at his house in that County albeit the King well knew the dis-service he had done Him and that the keeping him in prison might prevent much more that he was like to do Him yet since He had received him there as a Member imployed from the Parliament and that his returne thither was hindred by an indisposition of health he would not suffer him to be apprehended but left him un-disquieted or disturbed to recollect himself and to revolve His Majesties goodnesse So far was that Committee or any Member of it from being abused whatsoever they deserved The next instance of the King's breach of His Protestation or doing somewhat against it is the beating their publique Officers and Messengers and protecting notorious Papists Traytors Felons such as Beckwith and others from the Posse Comitatus since there is no other named it may be supposed that this is the only or most notorious example of that protection and therefore it will be fit to examine what the Case of this man was This Gentleman Mr. Beckwith whether a Papist or no is not materiall lived in Beverly whither His Majesty came that night after Sir John Hotham had refused to suffer Him to come into Hull and was utterly unknown to His Majesty but had the just sense an honest Subject should have of the indignity offered to his Soveraigne and the mischiefe that might befall that County and Kingdome by this rebellious act and was forward to expresse as most of the Gentlemen of that County were a desire to repaire His Majesty and to prevent the inconveniences which were otherwise like to follow He had in the Towne of Hull a Son-in-law one Fookes who was a Lieutenant of a Foot Company in that Garrison whom he supposed being only drawn in with the Traine bands not malitiously engaged in the purpose of Treason and therefore as well to preserve a man who was so near to him innocent as for other respects to his King and Country he sent for him to come to him to his house which the other there being then no intercourse hindred on either side did and upon discourse fully sensible of the unlawfulnesse of
the act which had been done and willing to doe any thing for the King's service declared That the Thursday night following he should have the Guard at the North Gate and that if an Alarum were given at another Gate called Hessell-Gate he would let those in who came from the King Mr. Beckwith promised if he would perform this he should have a very good reward and that if he could convert his Captain one Lowanger a Dutch-man to joyn with him he should likewise be very liberally rewarded This is all that was alleaged against Mr. Beckwith as appears by Sir John Hothams Letter of the whole information to Mr. Pim entred in the Journall booke of the House of Commons and printed by their Order Fookes as soon as he returned to Hull discovered all to Sir Iohn Hotham and he derived it to the House of Commons as is said and they upon this evidence sent their Sergeant at Armes or his Messenger to apprehend Beckwith as a Delinquent who upon notice of the treachery of his Son-in-law durst not stay at his house but removed to Yorke The Messenger with the confidence of his Masters boldly came thither and finding the Gentleman in the Court and in the Garden where the King himself was walking had the presumption to serve the Warrant upon him and to claim him as his Prisoner it was indeed a great wonder that the Messenger was not very severely handled but the reverence to the King's Person preserved him who bore no reverence to it and His Majesty being informed what had hapned called for the Fellow and having seen his Warrant bid him return to those that sent him and forbear committing the like insolency lest he fared worse this was the beating their Messenger and this the protection Mr. Beckwith had nor was there ever any Posse Comitatus raised the High Sheriffe daily waiting on His Majesty and observing the Orders he received from Him according to the duty of his office Whatever this offence had been it was never knowne before this Parliament that the Messenger of either House ever presumed to serve a warrant within the King's Court much lesse in his Presence which whilst loyalty and duty were in reputation was held too sacred for such presumptions the Law confessing such priviledges and exemptions to be due to those places That the Lord cannot seize his Villaine in the King's presence because the presence of the King is a sanctuary unto him saies my Lord Dyer For the matter it self sure there is no man yet that will avow himself to be so much out of his wits as to say that the King should have suffered Mr. Beckwith to be carried to Westminster as a Delinquent for doing the part of a good Subject and to be tried by those who owned the Treason that was committed nor can there be one person named whom they sent for as a Delinquent and the King protected except those who had been a yeare together attending upon them and demanding justice or those against whom nothing was objected but that they waited on and attended his Majesty For the Traytors and Felons they were only to be found within their owne verge and protected by their owne priviledges Very few lines will serve here to take notice of the difference between the King's usage of their Messengers and their usage of the King 's their Messenger sent by them on an unlawfull imployment to apprehend a person they had no power to send for and for a crime of which if he had been guilty they had no cognisance and executing their commands in an unlawfull manner and in a place where he ought not to have done it though the command had been just was by the King fairly dismissed without so much as imprisonment or restraint The Kings Messenger sent by his Majesty with a legall Writ to London for the adjournment of the Tearme which is absolutely in the King's power to do and can be regularly done no other way for performing his duty in this Service according to his Oath and for not doing whereof he had been punishable and justly forfeited his place without any other crime objected to him was taken imprisoned tried at a Court of War by them condemned to be hanged and was executed accordingly That bloud will cry aloud But they say with those Guards Cannon and Armes from beyond Sea the King attempted to force Hull in a hostile manner and that within few daies after that solemne Protestation at Yorke What the Protestation was is before set downe and his Majesties published resolution in this point before that Protestation nor did his Majesty ever conceal his purpose in this or other cases of that nature or disguised his purpose with any specious promises or pretences but plainly told them and the world what they were to expect at his hands To their expostulatory and menacing Petition delivered to his Majesty at his first comming to Yorke on the 26 of March the King in his Answer used these words As we have not nor shall refuse any way agreeable to justice or honour which shall be offered to Us for the begetting a right understanding between Us so We are resolved that no straits or necessities to which We may be driven shall ever compell Us to doe that which the reason and understanding that God hath given Us and Our honour and interest with which God hath trusted Us for the good of Our Posterity and Kingdomes shall render unpleasant and grievous to Us. In this second Message concerning Hull the second day after the Gates were shut against him his Majesty uses these words If We are brought into a condition so much worse then any of Our Subjects that whilst you all enjoy your priviledges and may not have your possessions disturbed or your titles questioned We only may be spoiled thrown out of Our Townes and Our goods taken from Us 't is time to examine how We have lost those priviledges and to trie all possible waies by the help of God the Law of the Land and the affection of our good Subjects to recover them and vindicate Our self from those injuries In his reply to their Answer concerning Sir Iohn Hotham presented to him on the 9 of May his Majesty told them that He expected that they would not put the Militia in execution untill they could shew Him by what Law they had authority to do the same without His consent or if they did He was confident that He should find much more obedience according to Law then they against Law Lastly in his Answer to a Declaration of the 21 of Iune 1642. about a fortnight before his going towards Hull with his Guards his Majesty told them plainly That the keeping Him out of Hull by S r John Hotham was an act of High Treason against him and the taking away his Magazine and Munition from him was an act of violence upon him by what hands or by whose directions soever
it was done and in both cases by the help of God and the Law he would have justice or lose his life in the requiring it so that certainly the King never concealed or dissembled his purposes and accordingly he did indeed toward the middle of Iuly go with his Guards to Beverly having some reason to believe that Sir Iohn Hotham had repented himself of the crime he had committed and would have repaired it as far as he had been able of which failing to his own miserable destruction without attempting to force it his Majesty again returned to Yorke Having made it now plainly appear how falsly and groundlesly his Majesty is reproached with the least tergiversation or swarving from his promises or professions which no Prince ever more precisely and religiously observed it will be but a little expence of time again to examine how punctuall these conscientious reprehenders of their Soveraigne have been in the observation of what they have sworn or said In the first Remonstrance of the House of Commons of the State of the Kingdome they declare that it is far from their purpose or desire to let loose the golden reines of discipline and government in the Church to have private persons or particular Congregations to take up what forme of divine Service they please for they said they held it requisite that there should be throughout the whole Realme a conformity to that Order which the Laws enjoyne In their Declaration of the 19 of May speaking of the Bill for the continuance of this Parliament they say We are resolved the gratious favour His Majesty expressed in that Bill and the advantage and security which thereby we have from being dissolved shall not encourage us to do any thing which otherwise had not been fit to have been done In the conclusion of their Declaration of the 26 of May 1642. apprehending very justly that their expressions there would beget at least a great suspition of their loyalty they say They doubt not but it shall in the end appear to all the world that their endeavours have been most hearty and sincere for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the Kings just Prerogatives the Lawes and Liberties of the Land and the Priviledges of Parliament in which endeavours by the grace of God they would still persist though they should perish in the worke In their Declaration of the 14 of Iune 1642. the Lords and Commons doe declare That the designe of those Propositions for Plate and Money is to maintain the Protestant Religion the King's Authority and Person in His Royall dignity the free course of Iustice the Laws of the Land the Peace of the Kingdome and Priviledges of Parliament As they have observed these and other their professions to the King and the Publique so they have as well kept their promises to the people in their Propositions of the 10 of Iune 1642. for bringing in Mony or Plate the Lords and Commons do declare That no mans affection shall be measured according to the proportion of his offer so that he expresse his good will to the Service in any proportion whatsoever the first designe was to involve as many as they could in the guilt how small soever the supply was but on the 29 of November following the same Lords and Commons appointed Six persons who or any Four of them should have power to assesse all such persons as were of ability and had not contributed and all such as had contributed yet not according to their ability to pay such summe or sums of mony according to their estates as the Assessors or any Four of them should think fit and reasonable so as the same exceeded not the twentieth part of their Estates Infinite examples of this kind may be produced which are the lesse necessary because whosoever will take the pains to read their own Declarations and Ordinances shall not be able to find one protestation or profession made by them to God Almighty in the matter of Religion or to the King in point of duty and obedience or one promise to the people in matter of Liberty Law and Iustice so neer pursued by them as that they have ever done one composed Act in Order to the performance of either of them which very true assertion shall conclude this Answer to that reproach of his Majesties not having made good his Protestations 21. The next Charge is That His Majesty proclaimed them Traytors and Rebels setting up His Standard against the Parliament which never any King of England they say did before Himself His Majesty never did nor could proclaime this Parliament Traytors he well knew besides his own being the head of it that four parts of five of the House of Peers were never present at any of those trayterous conclusions and that above a major part of the House of Commons was alwaies absent and that of those who were present there were many who still opposed or dissented from every unlawfull act and therefore it were very strange if all those innocent men of whom the Parliament consisted as well as of the rest should have been proclaimed Rebels and Traytors for the acts of a few seditious persons who were upon all occasions named and if the Parliament were ever proclaimed Traytors it was by them only who presumptuously sheltred their rebellious acts under that venerable name and who declared that whatsoever violence should be used either against those who exercise the Militia or against Hull they could not but believe it as done against the Parliament They should have named one person proclaimed Rebell or Traytor by the King who is not adjudged to be such by the Law The King never proclaimed Sir Iohn Hotham Traytor though it may be he was guilty of many treasonable acts before till he shut the Gates of Hull against him and with armed men kept his Majesty from thence and besides the concurrent testimony of all Judgments at Law it appears and is determined by the Lord Chief Justice Coke published by the House of Commons this Parliament in his Chapter of High Treason That if any with strength and weapons invasive and defensive doth hold and defend a Castle or Fort against the King and His power this is leavying of War against the King within the Statute of the 25 year of Edw. 3. The King proclaimed not those Rebels or Traytors who Voted That they would raise an Army and that the Earl of Essex should be Generall of that Army what ever he might have done nor the Earle of Essex himself a Traytor upon those Votes untill he had accepted that title and command of Captaine Generall and in that quality appeared amongst the Souldiers animating and encouraging them in their trayterous and rebellious designes as appears by his Majesties Proclamation of the 9 of August 1642. by which he was first proclaimed Traytor and there was no other way to clear the Earle of Essex from being
guilty of Treason by that act of his within the expresse words of the 2 Chapter of the 25 yeare of King Edw. 3. but by declaring that by leavying war against our Lord the King in his Realme which in that Statute is declared to be high Treason is meant leavying war against the Parliament and yet Mr. St. Iohn observed in his Argument against the Earle of Strafford printed by Order that the word KING in that Statute must be understood of the King 's naturall person for that person can onely die have a Wife have a Son and be imprisoned The Lord chief Justice Coke in his Commentary upon that Statute saith If any leavy War to expulse Strangers to deliver men out of Prisons to remove Counsellours or against any Statute or to any other end pretending Reformation of their own head without any warrant this is leavying war against the King because they take upon them Royall authority which is against the King and that there may be no scruple by that expression without warrant the same Author saies in the same place and but few lines preceding that no Subject can leavy War within the Realm without authority from the King for to him it only belongeth Preparation by some overt act to depose the King or to take the King by force and strong hand and to imprison Him untill he hath yeilded to certain demands this is a sufficient overt act to prove the compassing and imagination of the death of the King for this is upon the matter to make the King a Subject and to disspoyle Him of His Kingly Office of Royall government as is concluded by the same reverend Authour and likewise that to rise to alter Religion established within the Kingdome or Lawes is Treason These Declarers cannot name one person proclaimed a Rebell or Traytor by the King who was not confessedly guilty of at least one of these particulars and being so the King did no more then by the Law He ought to doe and Mr. St. Johns acknowledged in his Argument against the Earle of Strafford that he that leavies War against the Person of the King doth necessarily compasse His death and likewise that it is a War against the King when intended for the alteration of the Lawes or Government in any part of them or to destroy any of the great Officers of the Kingdome For the setting up the Standard it was not till those persons who bearing an inward hatred and malice against his Majesties Person and Government had raised an Army and were then trayterously and rebelliously marching in battle-array against his Majesty their Liege Lord and Soveraigne as appears by his Majesties Proclamation of the 12 of August 1642. in which He declared His purpose to erect His royall Standard and after they had with an Army besieged his Majesties antient standing Garrison of Portsmouth and required the same in which the King's Governour was to be delivered to the Parliament and after they had sent an Army of Horse Foot and Cannon under the command of the Earle of Bedford into the West to apprehend the Marquesse of Hertford who was there in a peaceable manner without any Force till he was compelled to raise the same for his defence and to preserve the peace of those Counties invaded by an Army and then when his Majesty was compelled for those reasons to erect his Standard with what tendernesse He did it towards the two Houses of Parliament cannot better appear then by His owne words in his Declaration published the same day on which that Proclamation issued out which are these What Our opinion and resolution is concerning Parliaments We have fully expressed in our Declarations We have said and will still say they are so essentiall a part of the constitution of this Kingdome that We can attaine to no happinesse without them nor will We ever make the least attempt in Our thought against them We well know that Our self and Our two Houses make up the Parliament and that We are like Hipocrates Twins We must laugh and cry live and die together that no man can be a friend to the one and an enemy to the other the injustice injury and violence offered to Parliaments is that which We principally complaine of and We again assure all Our good Subjects in the presence of Almighty God that all the Acts passed by Us this Parliament shall be equally observed by Us as We desire those to be which do most concern Our Rights Our quarrell is not against the Parliament but against particular men who first made the wounds and will not suffer them to be healed but make them deeper and wider by contriving fostering and fomenting mistakes and jealousies betwixt body and head Us and the two Houses whom We name and are ready to prove them guilty of High Treason c. And then his Majesty names the persons This was the King's carriage towards and mention of the Parliament very different from theirs who are now possessed of the Soveraigne power the Army who in their Remonstrance of the 23 of June last use these words We are in this case forced to our great grief of heart thus plainly to assert the present evill and mischief together with the future worse consequences of the things lately done even in the Parliament it self which are too evident and visible to all and so in their proper colours to lay the same at the Parliament Dores untill the Parliament shall be pleased either of themselves to take notice and rid the House of those who have any way mis-informed deluded surprized or otherwise abused the Parliament to the passing such foule things there or shall open to us and others some way how we may c. which would not have been mentioned here if they had been onely the extravagant act and words of the Army but they are since justified and made the words of the two Houses by their declaring in their late Declaration of the 4 of March in Answer to the Papers of the Scots Commissioners That if there be any unsound principles in relation to Religion or the State in some of the Army as in such a body there usually are some extravagant humours they are very injuriously charged upon the whole Army whereof the governing part hath been very carefull to suppresse and keep down all such peccant humours and have hitherto alwaies approved themselves very constant and faithfull to the true interest of both Kingdomes and the cause wherein they have engaged and the persons that have engaged therein so that this Remonstrance being the Act of the Generall Lieutenant-Generall and the whole Councell of War which is sure the governing part it is by this Declaration fully vindicated to be the Sense of the two Houses 22. The setting up a mock Parliament at Oxford to oppose and protest against the Parliament of England which his Majesty and both Houses had continued by Act of Parliament is in the
spent at Uxbridge is published to the world in which the last observation made by the King's Commissioners must not be forgotten That after a War of neer foure years for which the defence of the Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the Priviledges of the Parliament were made the cause and grounds in a Treaty of Twenty daies nor indeed in the whole Propositions upon which the Treaty should be there hath been nothing offered to be treated concerning the breach of any Law or of the Liberty or Property of the Subject or Priviledge of Parliament but onely Propositions for the altering a Government established by Law and for the making new Laws by which almost all the old are or may be cancelled and there hath been nothing insisted on of the Kings part which is not Law or denied by the Kings Commissioners that the other required as due by Law For the Protestation which they say was entred about the time of this Treaty in the Councell-Book and of which his Majesty gave the Queen account it is known to be no other then a Declaration that by calling them a Parliament there could be no acknowledgment inferred that he esteemed them a free Parliament which few at that time did believe them to be and they have since upon as small reasons confessed themselves not to be They alleage as a wonderfull testimony of their meeknesse and good nature that after His Majesties Armies were all broken so that in disguise He fled from Oxford to the Scots at Newarke and from thence went to Newcastle they tendred to Him at Newcastle and afterwards when the Scots had left Him to the Commissioners of Parliament at Hampton-Court still the same Propositions in effect which had been presented before in the midst of all His strength and Forces which is rather an Argument that they had at first made them as bad as possibly they could then that they were good since and considering the natures of these Declarers there cannot be a more pregnant evidence of the ilnesse and vilenesse of those Propositions then that they have not made them worse nor is the condition in which they have now impiously put His Majesty for His refusall worse then it had been or would be His Personall liberty only excepted if He consented to them and in one consideration it is much better because it is now a confessed act of violence and treason upon Him which if He once consent to their Propositions they will when ever they find occasion appear legally qualified to do the same They have once again out of their desire of his Majesties concurrence descended to one other addresse to Him and they said they did so qualifie the said Propositions that where it might stand with the publique safety His wonted scruples and objections were prevented or removed and yeilded to a Personall Treaty on condition the King would signe but foure Bils which they judged not only just and honourable but necessary even for present peace and safety during such a Treaty and upon His deniall of these they are in despair of any good by addresses to the King neither must they be so injurious to the people in further delaying their setlement as any more to presse His consent to these or any other Propositions What the former Propositions and Addresses to His Majesty have been and how impossible it hath been for Him to consent to them with His Conscience Honour or Safety appears before and how inconvenient it would have been to the Kingdome if He had done it they themselves have declared by making such important alterations in respect of the English interest in those presented at Newcastle from the other treated on at Uxbridge it will be fit therefore to examine these foure Bils which were to be the condition of the Treaty One of these Bils is to devest His Majesty and His Posterity for ever of any power over the Militia and to transfer this right and more then ever was in the Crown to these men who keep Him Prisoner for it is in their power whether they will ever consent that it shall be in any other and to give them power to raise what Forces they please and what Mony they think fit upon His Subjects and by any waies or means they appoint and so frankly exclude Himself from any power in the making Laws There need no other Answer why it is not fit or possible for the King to consent to this then what the Commissioners from Scotland gave to the Houses when they declared their dissent If the Crownes have no power of the Militia how can they be able to resist their Enemies and the Enemies of the Kingdomes protect their Subjects or keep friendship or correspondence with their Allyes All Kings by their royall Office and Oath of Coronation are obliged to protect their Laws and Subjects it were strange then to seclude the Crown for ever from the power of doing that which by the Oath of Coronation they are obliged to perform and the obedience whereunto falleth within the Oath of Allegiance and certainly if the King and His Posterity shall have no power in making Laws nor in the Militia it roots up the strongest foundation of honour and safety which the Crown affords and will be interpreted in the eyes of the world to be a wresting of the Scepter and Sword out of their hands Nor can this just and honourable Assertion be answered and evaded by saying that the Militia was the principall immediate ground of their quarrell in order to the preservation of Religion and the just Rights and Liberties of the people and that the Scots Commissioners have often agreed with them in it and that the Kingdome of Scotland fought together with them for it and upon the ground thereof and that now they argue against their injoying it almost in the very same words as the King did at the beginning of the War in His Declarations It is no wonder that what these men have done and the horrid confusion they have made have evinced many truths which appeared not so manifest to all understandings by what the King said or that they have not so good an opinion of those who tell them that there is another and a more naturall way to peace and to the ending the war then by Agreement namely by Conquest As they had of them who with all imaginable solemnity swore that they would sincerely really and constantly endeavour with their estates and lives mutually to preserve and defend the King's Majesties Person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdomes that the world may bear witnesse with their Consciences of their Loyalty and that they had no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties Power and Greatnesse which Engagements might perswade many that their purposes were other then they now appear to be For that other power they
require to raise what Monies they please and in what way they please All the people of England will say that which the Army said honestly in their Representation agreed upon at Newmarket on the 4 5 of June against the Ordinance of Indempnity We shall be sorry that our relief should be the occasion of setting up more Arbitrary Courts then there are already with so large a power of imprisoning any Free-men of England as this Bill gives let the persons intrusted appear never so just and faithfull Indeed that is asked of his Majesty by this Bill which the King can neither give nor they receive the King cannot give away His Dominion nor make His Subjects subject to any other Prince or power then to that under which they were born no man believes that the King can transfer His Soveraigne power to the French King or the King of Spaine or to the States of the united Provinces nor by the same reason can He transfer it to the States at Westminster And the learned and wise Grotius who will by no means endure that Subjects should take Armes against their Princes upon any specious pretences whatsoever concludes Si rex tradere regnum aut subjicere moliatur quin ei resisti in hoc possit non dubito aliud enim est imperium aliud habendi modus qui ne mutetur obstare potest populus to the which he applies that of Seneca Etsi parendum in omnibus patri in eo non parendum quò efficitur ne pater sit And it may be this may be the only case in which Subjects may take up defensive Armes that they may continue Subjects for without doubt no King hath power not to be a King because by devesting himselfe he gives away the right which belongs to others their title to and interest in his protection The two Houses themselves seemed to be of opinion when in their Declaration of the 27 of May 1642. they said the King by his Soveraignty is not enabled to destroy His people but to protect and defend them and the high Court of Parliament and all other His Majesties Officers and Ministers ought to be subservient to that power and authority which Law hath placed in His Majesty to that purpose though He Himself in His own Person should neglect the same So that by their own judgment and confession it is not in the King's power to part with that which they ask of Him and it is very probable if they could have prevailed with Him to do it they would before now have added it to His charge as the greatest breach of trust that ever King was guilty of They cannot receive what they ask if the King would give it in the Journall of the House of Commons they will find a Protestation entred by themselves in the third year of this King when the Petition of Right was depending in the debating whereof some expressions had been used which were capable of an ill interpretation That they neither meant nor had power to hurt the King's Prerogative And the Lord chief Justice Coke in the fourth part of his Institutes published by their Order since the beginning of this Parliament saies That it was declared in the 42 year of King Edw. 3. by the Lords and Commons in full Parliament that they could not assent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the disherison of the King and his Crowne whereunto they were sworne And Judge Hutton in his Argument against Ship-mony printed likewise by their Order since this Parliament agrees expresly That the power of making War Leagues the power of the Coyne and the Value of the Coynes usurped likewise by these Declarers and many other Monarchicall powers and prerogatives which to be taken away were against naturall reason and are incidents so inseparable that they cannot be taken away by Parliament To which may be added the authority of a more modern Author who uses to be of the most powerfull opinion Mr. Martin who saies that the Parliament it self hath not in his humble opinion authority enough to erect another authority equall to it self And these ambitious men who would impiously grasp the Soveraign power into their hands may remember the fate which attended that Ordinance in the time of King Hen. 3. to which that King metu incarcerationis perpetuae compulsus est consentire and by which the care and government of the Kingdom was put into the hands of four and twenty how unspeakable miseries befell the Kingdom thereby and that in a short time there grew so great faction and animosity amongst themselves that the major part desired the Ordinance might be repealed and the King restored to His just power that they who refused came to miserable ends and their Families were destroyed with them and the Kingdome knew no peace happinesse or quiet till all submission and acknowledgment and reparation was made to the King and that they got most reputation who were most forward to return to their duty So that it is believed if the King would transfer these powers though many persons of honour and fortune have been unhappily seduced into this combination that in truth no one of those would submit to bear a part of that insupportable burthen and that none would venture to act a part in this administration but such whose names were scarce heard of or persons known before these distractions If the King should consent to another of their four Bils He should subvert the whole foundations of government and leave Himself Posterity and the Kingdome without security when the fire that now burns is extinguished by making Rebellion the legitimate Child of the Law for if what these men have done be lawfull and just and the grounds upon which they have done it be justifiable the like may be done again and besides this He must acknowledge and declare all those who have served Him faithfully and out of the most abstracted considerations of Conscience and Honour to be wicked and guilty men and so render those glorious persons who have payed the full debt they owed to His Majesty and their Country by loosing their lives in His righteous cause and whose memories must be kept fresh and pretious to succeeding ages infamous after their deaths by declaring that they did ill for the doing whereof and the irreparable prejudice that would accrue thereby to truth innocence honour and justice all the Empires of the world would be a cheap and vile recompence Nor can this impossible demand be made reasonable by saying It would be a base and dishonourable thing for the Houses of Parliament being in that condition they are to have treated under the Gallows to have treated as Traytors their cause being not justified nor the Declarations against them as Rebels recalled It would be a much more base and dishonourable thing to renounce the Old and New Testament and declare that they are not the word of God
of any kind of peace and security to them and that as they have upon the matter dissolved the noblest structure and frame of government in Church and State that hath been at any time in the Christian world so that they are too much transported with passion and guilt and of too little interest experience and understanding to devise and settle a new form or to mend any defects in the old Besides that they plainly discern that they are not the Ministers of their Country for whom they were chosen and deputed but for the Army whose dictates they are obliged and forced to follow so that if their inclinations were good they have not power to execute accordingly And are like the Eagle in Esdras when the voice went not out of her head but from the midst of her body The mutuall confidence between them and their Army is totally dissolved it being not possible for the Houses ever to repose trust in any Army for they can never believe any Army to be more at their devotion then they had reason to think that under Sir Thomas Fairfax nor for the Army to pay a full submission to the Houses for admitting that Party which is most powerfull in the Army for the present is of the same mind and opinion with that Party which is most powerfull in the Houses yet being both still Rivals for the Soveraigne power they can never intirely trust or intirely submit to each other Though the Houses should consist of none but such who were glad at that time that the King was taken from Holmby and that the Army did not disband yet they will alwaies remember that the one was done without their Order or consent and that the Army may do the like again when they think fit and when it may not turn so much to their advantage And that they did not onely not disband at that time but have declared by their solemn Engagement of the Army 5 of June That they will not Disband nor divide nor suffer themselves to be divided or disbanded till they have first security and satisfaction in those things they have desired in such manner as shall be agreed upon by a Councell to consist of those generall Officers of the Army who have concurred with the Army in what they have done and what they have demanded with two Commission Officers and two Soldiers to be chosen for each Regiment who have concurred and shall concur with them in the premises and in this Agreement so that it is evident that the Army will be governed and disposed of only by themselves for which they have very great reason and without which indeed they can have no security for how complying soever the Houses are for the present the Souldiers cannot forget that they were once declared Traytors but for preparing a Petition and they wisely observe that what was done may be done again and by the demurs which have been made concerning the safety and immunity of the Speakers and those faithfull Members who were driven away by violence and the immunity of the Army in advancing to London notwithstanding the publick acknowledgment and thanksgiving to God for it They discern that they are only safe by the want of power in the Houses of what party soever they consist the ambition injustice and tyranny of both being equall The Army have already fully declared against their late Votes and resolutions and therefore it must be presumed they will never concur or contribute to the supporting them The Generall himself in his Letter of the 6 of June from Cambridge to the Speaker tells him That as it is his most earnest and humble desire so he found it to be the unanimous desire and study of the Army that a firm peace in this Kingdome may be setled and the Liberties of the people cleared and secured according to the many Declarations by which they were invited and induced to ingage in the late War And in the Declaration and representation from the Generall and the whole Army of the 14 of June to the Parliament they tell them plainly and honestly That they were not a meer mercenary Army hired to serve any Arbitrary power of State but called forth and conjured by the severall Declarations of Parliament to the defence of their owne and the peoples just Rights and Liberties and so they take up Armes in judgment and Conscience to those ends and have so continued them and are resolved according to the first just desires in their Declarations and such principles as they had received from their frequent Informations and their own Common sense concerning those fundamentall Rights and Liberties and to assent and vindicate the just power and rights of this Kingdome in Parliament for those common ends premised against all Arbitrary power violence and oppression and against all particular parties or interests whatsoever And in their Remonstrance of the 23 of June from S. Albons they say That the Kingdom calls upon them not to disband till they see the Rights Liberties and Peace of the Kingdome setled according to the many Declarations by which they were first called forth and invited to ingage in the late War Now what those ends desires and principles were in their Declarations are set forth before and known to all men who have or will read their Declar to be no other then the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the King 's just Prerogative the Lawes and Liberties of the Land and the Priviledges of Parliament in which endeavours they said they would still persist though they should perish in the work And they were so far from avowing that they would not send to or hear from the King or not suffer His Majesty to come to them that they declare that as they never gave Him any just cause of withdrawing Himself from His great Councell so it had ever been and should ever be far from them to give any impediment to His return And in their Declaration in Answer to the Kings after the Battle at Edghill concerning the allegations that the Army raised by the Parliament was to murther and depose the King they say They hoped the Contrivers of that Declaration or any that professed but the name of a Christian could not have so little charity as to raise such a scandall especially when they must needs know the Protestation taken by every Member of both Houses whereby they promise in the presence of Almighty God to defend His Majesties Person And by that Protestation of the 22 of October 1642. remembred before they declare in the presence of Almighty God to this Kingdome and Nation and to the whole world That no private passion or respect no evill intention to His Majesties Person no designe to the prejudice of His just Honour and Authority engaged them to raise Forces and to take up Armes So that these being the desires ends and principles in their Declarations by which the
Subjects who have not trespassed against any known Law and imprison others with such unusuall circumstances of restraint cruelty and inhumanity that many persons of reputation integrity and fortunes being first robbed and spoiled of all their Estates for not conforming themselves to the wickednesse of the time have perished in prison and very many of the same condition are like to doe so for want of such nourishment as may satisfie nature and whosoever compares the good old Oaths formed and administred by lawful Authority to every clause whereof the consciences of these very men have seemed fully to submit with the Oathes and Covenants injoyned by themselves will have reason to conclude mens Soules were never in so much danger of captivity and that what the worst men underwent for their notorious crimes in the time of which they complain was recreation and pleasure to what all are now compelled to endure for being honest and conscientious men 7. The long intermission of Parliaments is remembred and that at the dissolution of some priviledges have been broken and that followed with close imprisonment and death That long intermission of Parliaments was graciously prevented and remedied for the future long before these troubles by His Majesties consent to the Bill for trienniall Parliaments and the people would think themselves very happy if they had no more cause to complain of the continuance of this then of the former intermission they having during those twelve years injoyed as great a measure of prosperity and plenty as any people in any age have known and an equall proportion of misery since the beginning of this For the breach of Priviledge and imprisonment of Members the Lawes were open for all men to appeale and have recourse to and that single person that died under restraint suffered that restraint by a Judgment of the Kings Bench so that if there were any injustice in the Case it cannot be charged upon His Majesty 8. The Scene is now removed into Scotland and the new Liturgy and Canons with what succeeded thereupon makes up the next Charge aggravated with the Cancelling and burning the Articles of Pacification which had been there made upon the mediation of the Lords If the King had not been so tender of the Act of Oblivion in the Treaty of Pacification between the two Kingdomes that he would not suffer any provocation to incline Him to ravell into that businesse he might easily have freed Himself from all those calumnies and aspersions And it will be but justice and gratitude in that Nation highly to resent that whilst all guilty men shelter themselves under that Act of Oblivion His Majesty who is the only innocent and injured Person should have His mouth stopped by it which is His own expression and complaint in His Answer to the Declaration at Newmarket from any Reply to the reproaches cast on Him in that matter otherwise He might easily have made it appear that that Liturgy and those Canons were regularly made and framed and sent thither by the advice or with the approbation of the Lords of the Councell of that Kingdome and if the putting them in practice and execution was pursued with more passion impatience there then in prudence policy was agreeable the error was wholly to be imputed to those Ministers of that Kingdome who were most proper to be trusted in it however that so generall a defection and insurrection was not in any degree justifiable or warrantable by the Laws of that Kingdom is most certain they having no visible Forme either of Parliament or King to countenance them as the Army hath lately observed And that the Pacification first made by His Majesties mercy and Christian desire to prevent the effusion of the bloud of His Subjects how ill soever was broken by them and thereupon declined by the full advice of the Lords of His Councell by whose unanimous advice the Articles were publickly burned as may appear by the Record in the Councell Book of that transaction 9. In the next is remembred the calling and dissolving the short Parliament and the Kings proceeding after the dissolution That the calling that Parliament was an Act of the Kings great wisdome and goodnesse was then justly and generally acknowledged and that it was in His owne power to dissolve it when He thought fit is as little doubted but that He did unhappily for Himself by false Information in matter of fact and evill advice dissolve that Parliament is believed by all men and upon the matter confessed by Himself and that that information and advice was most pernicious and the rise of all the miseries we have since undergone is not denied and 't is therefore the more wondred at that the charge of that guilt being part of the impeachment against two great persons whose bloud they have since drunk that particular was declined in the prosecution of them both and that though it be enough known by whose false information and instigation that unfortunate counsell was followed extraordinary care hath been taken that he should not be questioned for it which together with the excessive joy that the principall Actors in these late mischiefs expressed at that sad time gives men reason to conclude that it was contrived by those who have reaped the fruit and advantage of the error What the King took from His Subjects by power which He could not otherwise obtain after that dissolution is not particularly set forth and therefore it is very probable there was no ground for the calumny nor indeed was any man a loser by any such Act of His Majesty 10. Thus far the catalogue reaches of the Kings enormous crimes during the first sixteen years of His Reigne to the beginning of this Parliament in which they confesse they proceeded with ease as long as there was any hope that they would comply with His Majesty against the Scots and give assistance to that war but when He found that hope vaine and that they began to question the Authours of those pernicious Counsells His Majesty discovered Himself so strongly and passionately affected to malignant Counsellours and their Councells that He would sooner desert and force the Parliament and Kingdome then alter His course and deliver up His wicked Counsellours to Law and Justice There are not so many years expired since the beginning of this Parliament though it hath been a tedious age of misery and confusion but that all mens memories will recollect and represent to them the folly and the falshood of this Charge It is not imaginable that the King could expect after the beginning of this Parliament that it would comply with Him and give Him assistance in a War against the Scots when He plainly discover'd that they who were like to be and afterwards proved the chief Leaders and Directors in that Councell were of the same party and how far He was from sheltring any Counsellour or Servant from justice or any colourable proceeding of the