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A56321 The declaration of John Pym Esquire upon the whole matter of the charge of high treason against Thomas Earle of Strafford, April 12, 1641 with An argument of law concerning the bill of attainder of high treason of the said Earle of Strafford, before a committee of both Houses of Parliament, in Westminster Hall by Mr. St. Iohn His Majesties solicitor Generall, on Thursday, April 29, 1641 / both published by order of the Commons House. Pym, John, 1584-1643.; St. John, Oliver, 1598?-1673. Argument of law concerning the bill of attainder of high-treason of Thomas Earle of Strafford. 1641 (1641) Wing P4262; ESTC R182279 46,678 116

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THE DECLARATION OF JOHN PYM Esquire VPON THE VVHOLE MATTER of the Charge of High Treason against THOMAS EARLE OF STRAFFORD APRIL 12. 1641. WITH An ARGUMENT of Law concerning the Bill of Attainder of High Treason of the said EARLE of STRAFFORD Before a Committee of both Houses of Parliament in WESTMINSTER Hall BY Mr St-Iohn his Majesties Solicitor Generall on Thursday April 29. 1641. Both Published by Order of the Commons House Printed at London for Iohn Bartlet and are to be sold at the gilt Cup near S. Austins Gate in Pauls Church-yard 1641. THE SPEECH OR DECLARATION OF JOHN PYM Esquire After the Recapitulation or summing up of the Charge of High-Treason AGAINST THOMAS EARLE OF STRAFFORD 12. APRIL 1641. Published by Order of the COMMONS HOUSE LONDON Printed for JOHN BARTLET 1641. THE SPEECH OR DECLARATION OF JOHN PYM Esq c. MY LORDS MAny dayes have been spent in maintenance of the Impeachment of the Earle of Strafford by the House of Commons whereby he stands charged with High Treason And your Lordships have heard his Defence with Patience and with as much favour as Iustice would allow We have passed through our Evidence and the Result of all this is that it remaines clearly proved That the Earle of Strafford hath indeavoured by his words actions and counsels to subvert the Fundamentall Lawes of England and Ireland and to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Government This is the envenomed Arrow for which he inquired in the beginning of his Replication this day which hath infected all his Bloud This is that Intoxicating Cup to use his owne Metaphor which hath tainted his Iudgement and poisoned his Heart From hence was infused that Specificall Difference which turned his Speeches his Actions his Counsels into Treason Not Cumulative as he exprest it as if many Misdemeanours could make one Treason but Formally and Essentially It is the End that doth informe Actions and doth specificate the nature of them making not onely criminall but even indifferent words and actions to be Treason being done and spoken with a Treasonable intention That which is given me in charge is to shew the quality of the offence how hainous it is in the nature how mischievous in the effect of it which will best appeare if it be examined by that Law to which he himselfe appealed that universall that supreme Law Salus populi This is the Element of all Laws out of which they are derived the End of all Laws to which they are designed and in which they are perfected How far it stands in opposition to this Law I shall endeavour to shew in some Considerations which I shal present to your Lordships all arising out of the Evidence which hath been opened The first is this It is an offence comprehending all other offences here you shall finde severall Treasons Murders Rapines Oppressions Perjuries The Earth hath a Seminarie vertue whereby it doth produce all Hearbs and Plants and other Vegetables There is in this Crime a Seminarie of all evils hurtfull to a State and if you consider the reasons of it it must needs be so The Law is that which puts a difference betwixt good and evill betwixt just and unjust If you take away the Law all things will fall into a confusion every man will become a Law to himselfe which in the depraved condition of humane nature must needs produce many great enormities Lust will become a Law and Envie will become a Law Covetousnesse and Ambition will become Lawes and what dictates what decisions such Laws will produce may easily be discerned in the late Government of Ireland The Law hath a power to prevent to restraine to repaire evils without this all kind of mischiefs and distempers will break in upon a State It is the Law that doth intitle the King to the Allegeance and service of his people it intitles the people to the protection and justice of the King It is God alone who subsists by himselfe all other things subsist in a mutuall dependence and relation He was a wise man that said that the King subsisted by the field that is tilled It is the labour of the people that supports the Crowne If you take away the protection of the King the vigour and cheerfulness of Allegeance will be taken away though the Obligation remaine The Law is the Boundarie the Measure betwixt the Kings Prerogative and the Peoples Liberty Whiles these move in their owne Orbe they are a support and security to one another The Prerogative a cover and defence to the Liberty of the people and the people by their liberty are enabled to be a foundation to the Prerogative but if these bounds be so removed that they enter into contestation and conflict one of these mischiefes must needs ensue If the Prerogative of the King overwhelm the liberty of the people it will be turned into Tyrannie if liberty undermine the Prerogative it will grow into Anarchie The Law is the safeguard the custody of all private interest Your Honours your Lives your Liberties and Estates are all in the keeping of the Law without this every man hath a like right to any thing and this is the condition into which the Irish were brought by the E. of Strafford And the reason which he gave for it hath more mischiefe in it then the thing it selfe They were a Conquered Nation There cannot be a word more pregnant and fruitfull in Treason then that word is There are few Nations in the world that have not been conquered and no doubt but the Conquerour may give what Lawes he please to those that are conquered But if the succeeding Pacts and Agreements doe not limit and restraine that Right what people can be secure England hath been conquered and Wales hath been conquered and by this reason will be in little better case then Ireland If the King by the Right of a Conquerour gives Lawes to his People shall not the people by the same reason be restored to the Right of the conquered to recover their liberty if they can What can be more hurtfull more pernicious to both then such Propositions as these And in these particulars is determined the first Consideration The second Consideration is this This Arbitrary power is dangerous to the Kings Person and dangerous to his Crown It is apt to cherish Ambition usurpation and oppression in great men and to beget sedition and discontent in the People and both these have beene and in reason must ever be causes of great trouble and alteration to Princes and States If the Histories of those Easterne Countries be perused where Princes order their affaires according to the mischievous principles of the E. of Strafford loose and absolved from all Rules of Government they will be found to be frequent in combustions full of Massacres and of the tragicall ends of Princes If any man shall look into our owne Stories in the times when the Laws were most neglected he shall find them full of
was full of horror and malignity yet it is past many years since The murder of that Magnanimous and glorious King Henry the fourth of France was a great and horrid Treason And so were those manifold attempts against Qu. Elizabeth of blessed memory but they are long since past the Detestation of them only remains in Histories and in the minds of men and will ever remain But this Treason if it had taken effect was to be a standing perpetuall Treason which would have been in continuall act not determined within one time or age but transmitted to Posterity even from generation to generation The tenth Consideration is this That as it is a Crime odious in the nature of it so it is odious in the judgement and estimation of the Law To alter the setled frame and constitution of Government is Treason in any estate The Laws whereby all other parts of a Kingdome are preserved should be very vain and defective if they had not a power to secure and preserve themselves The forfeitures inflicted for Treason by our Law are of Life Honour and Estate even all that can be forfeited and this Prisoner having committed so many Treasons although he should pay all these forfeitures will be still a Debtor to the Common-wealth Nothing can be more equall then that he should perish by the Justice of that Law which he would have subverted Neither wil this be a new way of bloud There are marks enough to trace this Law to the very originall of this Kingdome And if it hath not been put in execution as he alledgeth this 240. years it was not for want of Law but that all that time hath not bred a man bold enough to commit such Crimes as these which is a circumstance much aggravating his offence and making him no whit lesse liable to punishment because he is the onely man that in so long a time hath ventured upon such a Treason as this It belongs to the charge of another to make it appear to your Lordships that the Crimes and Offences proved against the Earle of Strafford are High Treason by the Lawes and Statutes of this Realm whose learning and other abilities are much better for that service But for the time and manner of performing this we are to resort to the Direction of the House of Commons having in this which is already done dispatched all those instructions which wee have received and concerning further proceedings for clearing all Questions and Objections in Law your Lordships will hear from the House of Commons in convenient time FINIS AN ARGVMENT of Law concerning the Bill of ATTAINDER of HIGH-TREASON of THOMAS Earle of Strafford At a Conference in a Committe of both Houses of Parliament By Mr. St. JOHN his Majesties Solicitor GENERALL Published by order of the Commons House LONDON Printed by G. M. for John Bartlet at the signe of the gilt Cup neare S. Austins-gate in Pauls Church-yard 1641. Mr. St. IOHN's Argument My Lords THE Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament have passed a Bill for the attainting of Thomas Earle of Strafford of High-Treason The Bill hath been transmitted from them to your Lordships It concernes not him alone but your Lordships and the Commons too though in different Respects It is to make him as miserable a man as man or Law can make him Not losse of life alone but with that of honour name posterity and estate Of all that 's deare to all To use his owne expression an eradication of him both root and branch as an Achan a troubler of the State as an execrable as an accursed thing This Bill as it concernes his Lordship the highest that can be in the penall part so doth it on the other side as highly concerne your Lorships and the Commons in that which ought to be the tendrest the Judicatory within that that judge not them who judge him And in that which is most sacred amongst men the publike Justice of the Kingdome The Kingdome is to be accounted unto for the losse of the meanest member much more for one so neare the head The Commons are concerned in their Account for what is done your Lordships in that which is to be done The Businesse therefore of the present Conference is to acquaint your Lordships with those things that satisfied the Commons in passing of this Bill such of them as have come within my capacity and that I can remember I am Commanded from the Commons at this time to present unto your Lordships My Lords in Judgements of greatest moment there are but two waies for satisfying those that are to give them Either the Lex lata the Law already established Or els the use of the same power for making new Lawes whereby the old at first received life In the first consideration of the setled Lawes In the degrees of punishment the positive Law received by generall consent and for the common good is sufficient to satisfie the Conscience of the Judge in giving Judgement according to them In severall Countries there is not the same measure of punishment for one and the same offence Wilfull murder in Ireland is Treason and so is the wilfull burning of a house or stacke of Corne. In the Isle of Man it 's fellony to steale a Hen but not to steale a Horse and yet the Judge in Ireland hath as just a ground to give Judgement of high Treason in those Cases there as here to give Judgement onely of Fellony and in the Isle of Man of Felony for the Hen as heere of pettie Larceny My Lords in the other consideration of using the Supreame power the same Law gives power to the Parliament to make new Lawes that enables the inferiour Court to judge according to the old The rule that guides the conscience of the Inferior Court is from without the prescripts of the Parliament and of the Common Law in the other the rule is from within That salus populi be concerned That therebe no wilfull oppression of any the fellow members that no more blood be taken then what is necessary for the Cure the Lawes and Customes of the Realme as well enable the exercise of this as of the ordinary and Judiciall power My Lords what hath beene said is because that this proceeding of the Commons by way of Bill implies the use of the meere Legis-Lative power in respect new Lawes are for the most part past by Bill This my Lords though just and Legall and therefore not wholy excluded yet it was not the only ground that put the Commons upon the Bill they did not intend to make a new Treason and to condemne my Lord of Strafford for it they had in it other Considerations likewise which were to this effect First the Commons knew that in all former ages if doubts of Law arose upon cases of great and generall Concernement the Parliament was usually consulted withall for resolution which is the reason that many Acts of
Parliament are onely declarative of the Old Law not introductive of a new as the great Charter of our Liberties the Statute of the five and twentieth yeare of Edward the third of Treasons the Statute of the Prerogative and of late the petition of right If the Law were doubtfull in this Case they conceived the Parliament where the old may be altered and new Lawes made the fittest Iudge to cleare this doubt Secondly my Lords they proceeded this way to out those scruples and delaies which through disuse of proceedings of this nature might have risen in the manner and way of proceeding since the Statute of the first of Henery the fourth the seventeenth Chapter and more fully in the Roll number 144. The proceedings in Parliament have usually beene upon an Inditement first found though in Cases of Treason particularly mentioned in the Statute of the five and twentieth yeare of Edward the third which had not been done in this Case Doubts likewise might rise for Treasons not particularly mentioned in the Statute of 25. Edw. 3. whether the declaratory power of Parliament be taken away and if not taken away in what manner they were to be made and by whom They finde not any Attainders of Treason in Parliament for neare this 200 yeares but by this way of Bill And againe they knew that whatsoever could be done any other way it might be done by this Thirdly in respect of the proofes and depositions that have beene made against him for first although they knew not but that the whole Evidence which hath beene given at the Barre in every part of it is sufficiently comprehended within the Charge yet if therein they should be mistaken if it should prove otherwise use may justly be made of such Evidence in this way of Bill wherein so as Evidence be given in it 's no way requisite that there should have beene any Articles or Charge at all And so in the Case of double Testimony upon the Statute of the first of Edward the sixt whether one direct witnesse with others to Circumstances had been single or double testimony and although single Testimony might be sufficient to satisfie private Consciences yet how farre it would have beene satisfactory in a judiciall way where formes of Law are more to be stood upon was not so cleare whereas in this way of Bill private satisfaction to each mans Conscience is sufficient although no Evidence had beene given in at all My Lords the proceeding by way of Bill it was not to decline your Lordships Iustice in the judiciall way In these Exegencies of the State and Kingdome it was to husband time by silencing those doubts they conceived it the speediest and the furest way My Lords These are in effect the things the Commons tooke into their Consideration in respect of the manner and way of proceeding against the Earle In the next place I am to declare unto your Lordships the things they tooke into their consideration in respect of the matter and merits of the Cause They are comprehended within these 6. heads 1. That there is a Treason within the Statute of 25. E. 3. by Levying of warre upon the matter of the fifteenth Article 2. If not by actuall Levying of warre yet by advising and declaring his intention of warre and that by Savils warrant and the advice of bringing over the Irish Army upon the matter in the 23. Article The intending of a Warre if not within the Clause of Levying Warre in the Statute of 25. E. 3. yet within the first Treason of compassing the death of the King 3. If neither of these two single Acts be within the Statute of 25. E. 3. yet upon putting all together which hath beene proved against him That ther 's a Treason within the first clause of compassing the death of the King Et si non prosunt singula juncta juvant 4. That he hath fessed and laid Souldiers upon the Subjects of Ireland against their will and at their Charge within the Irish Statute of the eighteenth yeare of Henry the sixt That both person and thing are within the Statute That the Statute remaines in force to this day That the Parliament here hath Cognizance of it And that even in the ordinary way of Judicature that if there be a Treason and a Traitor that the want of jurisdiction in the Judicall way may justly be supplied by Bill 5. That his endeavouring to subvert the fundamentall Lawes and Governement of the Realmes of England and Ireland and instead thereof to introduce a tyranicall Governement against Law is Treason by the Common Law That Treasons at the Common Law are not taken away by the Statutes of 25. E. 3. 1. H. 4. c. 10. 1● Mar. c. 1. nor any of them 6. That as this Case stands It 's just and necessary to resort to the Supreame power in Parliament in case all the rest should faile Of these six five of them are Treason within the Compasse of the Lawes already established Three within the Statute of 25 E. 3. One within the Irish Statute the other by the Common Law of England If but any one of these 6. Considerations hould The Commons conceive that upon the whole matter they had good cause to passe the Bill My Lords for the first of levying Warre 1. The Case I shall make bold to read the Case to your Lordships before I speake to it it s thus The Earle did by warrant under his hand and Seal give authority to Robert Savill a Serjeant at Arms and his Deputies to sesse such number of Souldiers horse and foote of the Army in Ireland together with an officer as the Serjeant should thinke fit upon his Majesties Subjects of Ireland against their will This warrant was granted by the Earle to the end to compell the Subjects of Ireland to submit to the unlawfull Summons and orders made by the Earle upon paper Petitions exhibited unto him in case of private Interest betweene party and party This warrant was executed by Savill and his Deputies by sessing of Souldiers both horse and foote upon diverse of the Subjects of Ireland against their will in warre-like manner and at divers times the Souldiers continued upon the parties upon whom they were sessed and wasted their goods untill such time as they had submitted themselves unto those Summons and orders My Lords This is a levying of warre within the statute of 25o. E. 3. The words of the Statute are If any man doe levy warre against our Lord the King in his Realm this is declared to be Treason I shall indeavour in this to make it appeare to your Lordships What shall be a levying of Warre in respect of the motive or cause of it What shall bee said a levying of warre in respect of the Action or thing done And in the third place I shall apply them to the present Case It will bee granted in this of levying of warre That forces may bee raised and likewise used in a
My Lords if the Earle had armed two thousand men horse and foot and formed them into companies to this end your Lordships would have conceived that this had beene a warre It 's as much as in the case of Sir Thomas Talbot who armed them in assemblies This is the same with a breach of trust added to it That Army was first raised and afterwards committed to his trust for defence of the people is now destined by him to their destruction This assignation of the Army by his Warrant under his hand and seale is an open Act. My Lords heer 's not onely an open act done but a levying of warre Souldiers both horse and foot with an Officer in warlicke manner sessed upon the Subject which killed their Cattell consumed and wasted their goods Ob. O but five or sixe were the most imimployed at any time a mighty warre of six men scarce a Ryot Your Lordships observe a great difference where six single men goe upon a designe alone and when sent from an Army of six hundred all engaged in the same service so many were sent as were sufficient to execute the Command if upon a poore man fewer more upon a rich if the six had not beene able the whole Army must make it good the reason that the Sheriffe alone or with but one Bayliffe to doe execution is because hee hath the Command of the Law the Kings Writ and the posse Comitatus in case of Resistance heer 's the warrant of the Generall of an Army heer 's the posse exercitus the power of the Army under this awe of the whole Army six may force more then sixty without it and although never above fix in one place yet in the severall parts of the Kingdome at the same time might be above sixty for sessing of Souldiers was frequent it was the ordinary course for execution of his orders The Lord Lievetenant of a County in England hath a designe to alter the Lawes and governement nay admit the designe goes not so high hee onely declares thus much that he will order the freeholds and estates of the Inhabitans of the County at his owne will and pleasure and doth accordingly proceed upon paper petitions foreseeing there will be disobedience he grants out warrants under his hand and seale to the deputy Lievetenants and Captaines of the traine bands that upon refusall they shall take such number of the traine bands thorow the County with Officers as they shall think good and lay them upon the lands and houses of the refusers Souldiers in a warlike manner are frequently sessed upon them accordingly Your Lordships doe conceive that this is a levying of Warre within the Statute The Case in question goes further in these two Respects That it is more against the declared Law in Ireland not onely against the Common Law but likewise against the Statute of the eight and twentieth yeare of Henry the sixt against the Acts of the Commissioners against Proclamations in pursuance of the Law against that himselfe took notice of narrow hearted Comissioners In this that here was an Army the Souldiers Souldiers by profession Acts of hostility from them of greater Terror then from free-holders of the same County My Lords I have now done with the first of levying warre The second is the machination the advising of a warre The Case in this rests upon the Warrant to Savill and the advice in the 23 Article The Warrant shewes a resolution of employing the old Army of Ireland to the opprossion of his Majesties Subjects and the Lawes In the 23 Article having told his Majesty that he was loosed and absolved from rules of Government and might doe every thing which power might admit hee proceeded further in speech to his Majesty in these words You have an Army in Ireland You may employ to reduce this Kingdome My Lords both being put together ther 's a machination a practise an advise to levy warre and by force to oppresse and destroy his Majesties Subjects Object It hath beene said the Statute of 25. Edw. 3. is a penall Law and cannot bee taken by equity and Construction there must be an actuall warre the Statute makes it Treason to counterfeit the Kings Coyne the conspiring the raising of furnaces is no Treason unlesse he doth nummum percutere actually coyne Answ My Lords this is onely said not proved the Law is otherwise 19. of Henry the sixt fol. 47. there adjudged that the conspiring and ayding to counterfeit coyne was Treason and Iustice Stamford fol. 3. 44. is of opinion That this or conspiring to counterfeit the great Seale is Treason The Statute is If any shall counterfeit the great Seale conspiring to doe it by the book is Treason if a man take the broad Seale from one Pattent and put it to another here is no counterfeiting its tuntamount and therefore Treason as is adjudged in 2. Henry 4. fo 25. and by the opinion of Stamford If machination or plotting a warre be not within that clause of the Statute of levying warre yet it s within the first of compassing the death of the King as that which necessarily tends to the destruction both of the King and of the people upon whose safety and protection he is to engage himselfe That this is Treason hath beene adjudged both after the Statutes of the first of Henry the fourth Chapter the tenth the first of Queene Mary the first Chapter so much insisted upon on the other side In the third yeare of King Henry the fourth one Balshall comming from London found one Barnard at plough in the Parish of Ofley in the County of Hertford Bernard asked Balshall what newes he told him the newes was That King Richard the second was alive in Scotland which was false for he was then dead and that by Midsomer next he would come into England Bernard asked him what was best to be done Balshall answered get men and goe to King Richard In Michaelmas Tearme in the third yeare of Henry the fourth in the Kings Bench rot 4. this advise of warre adjudged Treason In Queene Maries time Sir Nicholas Throckmorton conspired with Sir Thomas Wyat to levy warre within this Realme for alteration in Religion he joyned not with him in the execution This Conspiracy alone declared to be Treason by the Judges This was after the Statute of the first of Queene Mary so much insisted upon That Parliament ended in October this opinion was delivered the Easter-Tearme after and is reported by Justice Dyer fo 98. It 's true Sir Thomas Wyat afterwards did levy warre Sir Nicholas Throgmorton hee onely conspired this adjudged Treason Storie in Queene Elizabeths time practised with Forreiners to levy warre within the Kingdome nothing done in pursuance of the practise The intent without any adhering to Enemies of the Queene or other cause adjudged to be Treason and he executed thereupon It 's true my Lords that yeare 13. Elizabeth by Act of Parliament it 's made Treason