bodies and in divers ways the more to distract our Armies where you ought to remember that this State hath both in Scotland and the adjacent parts a very considerable force to encounter these Invaders but admit again that the King advances so far as York though you cannot imagine but that he will be fought with twice or thrice over before he comes thither with fresh men and not unlikely rebeaten as at all places he hath been but let us again admit that he sâ—rmounts all difficulties both by Sea and Land and becomes victorious and triumphantly marches towards London and that the States Force cannot withstand him and that on the noise of such sad news the prevailing party as you are pleased to stile them being confoundâ—d with terrour betake themselves to their heels as their ultimum refugium and the best way to shist for themselves and that after this all is left to the Kings absolute disposement as all this not impossible but exceeding improbable what then on such sudden change of fortune think you may be the issnes thereof and what advantage either to your party or the generality of the people and all Countries through which his Armies shall march and Quarter accompaned with so many Nations diveâ—sly affected Prel I confess the people must neâ—essarily suffer and haply in a greater measure then hitherto they have done yet am I confident his Majesty will be very sensible of their sufferings and in prevention of their farther oppression and for settling of all things will immediately call a new Parliament and reduce it to the antient Form and Institution of the three Estates King Lords Spiritual and Temporal with the Commons and then commit all things to a sober legal and Parliamentary discussion and in what manner restitution may be made of his own Lands and goods the Churches Patrimony with the many other loosers of his own party and after all this in detestation of the foulness of the late War and bloodshed to buâ—y all discontents and heart-burnings as Judge Jenkins very jâ—diciously proposes in an Act of Oblivion with free pardon to all except some special persons that had a principal hand in his Fathers death and for all other of his Subjects to spare and cherish them in what possible his affaits will permit Patri Doctor excuse me since I utterly dissent from your opinion for it stands not with reason or with the Kings then present affaires to take a piece of that course which you suppose and should he be willing there would be so many of the old Cavalry attending his person as well Natives as Forraigners which would thrust in to be served and gratified that he should not be suffered to put in practise a title of that which is by you so vainly surmised but you may build upon 't he would take a clean contrary course and such a one as the necessity of his then urgent occasions would inforce and not tie up himself to his own disadvantage by an Act of Oblivion which necessarily must disable him either to help himself or friends when the power is in his hands to do what he pleaseth and carve as he listeth Prel Since you are so diffident of his Majesties good nature and intentions towards his Subjects tell us I beseech you what you conceive he will do for the speedy settling of peace and amity through the three Kingdoms Patri May I obtain your liceâ—ce and a favourable construction of that which I shall deliver I will tender my opinion and leave you all to make your own judgments thereon In the first place I believe that whereas then he comes in by the sword in order to his necessities he would rule by the sword and by an Army with Garrisons throughout the Land as now the States upon the point do and must do if they mean to go through stitch with their work and thenceforth begin a new Government as in like manner the States here intend to do the Laws of the Land which under the present power the people yet enjoy as they were wont to do in quiet and peaceable times would necessarily be subverted and turn'd topsie-turvie and such introduced in their room as should best sute with the will and pleasure of a Prince that comes in by Conquest and by the same power will have them to be no other then agrees with his Affairs and resolutions or as they are in France if not worse and more absolute where a single paper signed under the Kings hand hath the same efficacy as an Act of Parliament in England and in order to this you must expect that his mercenary Souldiers must and would be remembred If you demand in what I answer with the whole plunder of London as the readiest means to give them all content for their service and if this seem strange to you I pray call to minde that in the late Kings time when no occasion of wars or raising of Armies in any reason were necessary to be levied but such as our late Grandees the Earl of Strafford Canterbury and Cottington would have to be raised against the Scots that Earl spake it openly at the Councel-Table 1640 and to no other man then the Lord Mayor Sir Henry Garway and others of the Aldermen upon their refusing to lend the king 100000 l. for the Scotch War It will never do well says he till the King hangs half a dozen of you Aldermen and then put the whole City to ransome Which was proved against him at his Arraignment neither did the king forbear the seizing of the Mint for supply of that needless War so that 't is evident when Princes have power they will make no scruple to act any thing that conduceth to their designs or to take all things where they can finde it as 't is well known he did in the late barbarous War neither will it be impertinent to put you in remembrance of another instance of this kinde when at or before the beginning of the War the king took his journey towards Scotland and overtook the Scotch Army in their march homewards 1641 where he dealt with the principal Commanders to turn head on the Parliament in reward whereof they should have the plunder of London with Jewels for security an overture which some of them were not so dishonest as to conceal but gave notice thereof to the City and their own Commissioners then here residing Now if you farther demand What the present Pretender would do in the pre-supposed case I shall again answer you that in reason of State which with Kings and Conquerors hath an Of the miserable condition that will befal the Nation especially the City of London in case the Scots Pretender comes in by the sword immense latitude he would and could do no less then to take present order for the satisfaction of his Country-men the Scots as also for gratifying the proscribed and fugitive Lords Cavaleers both English Scotch and Irish which first
took part with his Father and in this supposed Conquest joyn'd in ayd of himself so that the estates of the Parliament Members would be much with the least to make them all compensation for their services and losses sustained by Seisures Sequestrations many total Confiscations nay you may rest assured that there would follow upon such a Conquest a more exact and rigorous search for Delinquents estates against the king then ever the Parliament made for Delinquents against them and you may build upon 't that not a common Souldier whether Native or Stranger but would press the king for some considerable recompence for his service Insomuch that there would necessarily fall out such a strange change of affairs and so much oppression of the people above that which we now suffer as that it would amaze the universal people to look upon the miseries which would befal them neither ought you to esteem of that ridiculous surmise of Judge Jenkins annexed to the conclusion of all his jugling fragments to wit that the late kings Act of Oblivion would have been the readiest and onely way both to reconcile all differences and as he infers settle peace throughout all the three kingdoms that being a subtil kinde of begging the Question and onely for his own private ends having a tacite relation to himself though craftily umbrated under the vail of the common good and in a cunningness to endeer the Souldery to him with a super-indulgent seemingly Of the juglings of Judge Jenkins in Lex terrae care he pretended to have them paid by all means when the crafty fox only intended his own indemnity in freeing himself of all debts acompts and moneys trusted in his hands and for many years most unjustly detained from the right owners * Mr. John Earnly by name of the county of Wilts you may take it in the next degree of an article of your faith that the king comming in by the way of the sword cannot for the reasons alledged be so prodigal of his grace as to spend so lavishly on the stock of his new gotten Conquest to grant a piece of an Act of Oblivion for farther proof whereof I pray remember that when the late king after the battel at Edge-hil fortified Oxford and as then to most mens judgement was in a sairer way to carry all before him there was not any debate in that mungril Parliament as the king in his Letters to the Queen calls them that pleased him and glad he was to be rid of the tumultuous motions there made unto him for even that Conventicle composed of the Fugitive Members of Westminster plotted by himself had not the right measure of his foor but in a confused and streperous manner fell always athawrt his inclinations which were secrets he meant not to discover but to such as could guess at them and comply with his designs before himself came to disclose them and such as had that faculty were the best instruments for his turn and believe it Gentlemen he was too dark and cunning a Prince for any that he ever imployed certain it is could he then or at any other time have destroyed this Parliament he would have altered the Government and hanged by degrees most if not all the Members together with all their adherents and consequently to have made use of their estates as the exegency of his affairs then required to gratifie such of the Nobility and Gentry as he had befool'd in to side with him though to their own loss and that of the universal Nation and this was well known to all men of an ounce of wit that made any resort to his Oxford Garrison as it hath been openly confest by some of his chiefest Commanders * Colonel Leg and others and of greatest trust about his person since the rendition of that City and in this particular I appeal to you Colonel who then waited on his Majesty Colonel That which you now avouch Patriotus is a known truth and the king in reason of State and in reference to his own profit and the designs he had in hand as also for our sakes which stood to him would do no less then change the The change of the Laws and Government which of necessity would follow a Conquest Laws and the Government but especially to quit himself of all Parliaments which throughout most Raigns have been so cross and opposite to their kings and so to any Act of Oblivion after a Conquest obtained and that then a general pardon should have been granted to all sides the Judge was out of his sphear and pratled like a Parrot for admit that the king should so much overshute himself as to grant an Act of Oblivion in what a condition should we of the Souldiery be what then could we expect in reward of our service which for his late Majesties sake and the Kings that now is or shall be in spight of the Devil have hazzarded our lives and fortunes Sure I am my late Master not onely promised me but granted to divers of us his Commanders such and such Parliament mens estates yea and oâ— * Witness Colonel Gunters estate of the County of Pembrook and divers others Delinquents both Lands and Goods and you may be sure more he would have given had he obtained his ends then all of you are aware of and I doubt not but that his Royal Successor in good time will do the same as his Father intended so soon as he comes to be invested with the Septer otherwise he would be the most ungrateful Prince most deficient and wanting to himself that ever was in the world Nay reason perswades me Patriotus to concur with your opinion as touching this treacherous City of London from whence the Parliament in the very beginning of the War had their only assistance and were first enabled to wage War with their King which I hope his now Majestie will never forget whensoever he comes to be Enthroned and then I doubt not but to have a good shane of the Citizens money Gold Chains Rings Plate Jewels Silks Satins Velvets Of the implacable batre the Cavaleers bear to the City of London and that in plentiful measure since I have taken special notice that they bequeathed not all their Riches to the Parliament some I am sure and that good store are left for such as better deserves them then such Mecanicks as knew not how otherwise to use their goods then to the destruction of his Majesty and the Kingdoms detriment Patri Colonel I profess I am bound to honour you for that you have candidly and like your self spoken the truth and what in reason in such a case would befall the City not onely in the total plunder thereof which will be much with the least to satisfie such a multitude both of Natives and Strangers neither can it sink into my understanding that the ransacking of the City will be the worst that may befall it such
Law and presidents he was enabled to do is an assertion so irrational as that I wonder not so much at their ignorance as their audacious language since 't is the known Law of the Land and by two Statutes of near 400 years standing ordained That Parliaments shall be call'd once every year and oftner as the emergency of affairs may give occasion why then it should rest in the kings onely power to call them and that his assent to a Triennial Parliament should be such a boon bestowed on the people surely may encrease the wonder since by our old Laws and the usuages of former times they ought not to be dissolved until all grievances be heard and redrest otherwise to what end or use were Parliaments Instituted which as one calls them are the Beasoms that sweep clean all the nasty corners of the Common-Wealth But observe the sad consequences of this absurdity for suppose the King would not call any Parliament in ten or twelve years together till his necessities inforc't him how then should the publick grievances be redrest and by whom shall the disorders and obliquities of the Church and Commonwealth be rectified Royalists Answer by the king alone or his Councel of State as the suprem Magistrate within his own Dominions A strange task surely for one man to undergo and more then that active Magistrate Moses was able to perform as we may see by * Exo. 18. Iethro's Counsel who advised to take into his assistance the Princes and best of the people to ayd him in the Administration of Justice to the Israelites and all that with the least in a populous Nation Well then let it be considered how many grievous enormities and disorders during that interval of ten years discontinuance at least of Parliaments were crept into the Church and State meerly through their disuse we have sorry cause to remember when through the pangs of the kings necessities the ill managery of the publick affairs the prodigality of the Court the corruption of all Courts of Justice the Judicature with the licentiousness of a dissolute Clergy inforc't him at last to cal the late Parliament yet how soon he endevoured by his many wiles practises to annihilate it nay by all possible means he could invent hindred their endeavors in reducing the Church and Common-wealth into order never ceasing to interrupt their consultations purposly to disorder and thrust all into a Chaos of confusion insomuch as to this day the Parliament have had their hands full to finde out the means how to reduce and settle things in that order as at first they might have been had not the publick affairs been obstructed and all reformation hindred by his onely means so to render them as odious to the future and as contemptible to the people as heretofore they were boloved and desired of them notwithstanding that at their first sitting down he promised to contribute his own Authority to theirs and to leave the re-ordering of all things amiss to their onely managery an overture so acceptable unto them as that in retribution thereof how willing and intentively bent they were in the midst and heat of their distractions to make him rich and glorious and how indulgently ready to cover his faults in the recovery of his honour at home and his reputation abroad none unless blinde men or besotted but may remember But the truth was he could not brook any Rival with himself in the Government pursuing to the last his design of absoluteness so long that in the end the Parliament was inforc't not to retain any longer such a Rival as a King amongst them but rather chose to estate the people in the same peaceable Government as we see it now established then to imagine themselves able to better it by retaining of Kingship Of the Kings Prerogative in granting of Pardons to Murtherers and Fellons WE now come to that Prerogative or rather lawless usuage of our Kings in granting their Charters of pardon to Murtherers and Fellons condemn'd by the Laws of the Land 'T is confest that it hath been practised by all or most of our Kings though as it may be supposed rather permissively then by vertue of any Law extant but by what warrant in Justice they have assumed such a Soveraign power to themselves will be the question for by Gods Law 't is absolutely forbidden Yee shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murtherer which is guilty of death but he shall be surely put to death Numb 35. 31. and vers 33. Ye shall not pollute the Land wherein ye dwell for blood defileth the land and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him that shed it Thus much briefly may suffice as to Gods Law Now as to the Laws of England the King cannot pardon a Murtherer or Fellon condemn'd by the Laws of the Land without a plain breach of those Laws and his Coronation Oath for Anno 2d Edward the Third it was by Act of Parliament ordain'd that Charters of pardon should not be granted but onely where the King may do it by his Oath And further amongst this Kings often breaches of the Laws this very particular of his frequent granting of pardons to Murtherers was complained of in open Parliament and the King by three several * 4. Edw. 3. I dem 16. Acts was restrained in those cases but how faulty both the late Kings were in pardoning both Murtherers Fellons condemn'd by the Laws is too well known and how guilty and insensible the late King was of shedding of innocent blood three Kingdoms have lamentable cause to remember Of Wards Ideots and Mad men AS to the Kings Prerogative in taking of Wards and their Marrages it hath been granted him by Statute Law as hereafter shall appear and as to Ideots incompos mentis and madmen or such as have by accident fallen into destraction for the king to assume to himself their estates doubtless there is no Law for it as I can remember extant otherwise to dispose of their estates but an accompt to be given to the next Heir at Law and this of late years was resolved by Mr. Calthrop his own Aturney in the Court of Wards in the case of the Widdow of whose husband being burnt with powder at a muster in Moorfields dyed his wife for grief falling distracted the King gave her estate to one of his * Mr. Ramsey servants a Scotch-man but she having many children and good friends they petitioned the King therein and in the end he was pleased to retract his grant as to the whole of the estate but with this proviso that Ramsey should have the use thereof during the Widows life in case she continued incompos giving security for the repayment to the children but the Gentlewomans friends found it unsafe to trust so great an estate as 30000. l. in Ramseys hands and therefore with great difficulty they drew
Ramsey to accept of 3000. l. ready money to to be quit of him Of the Kings assertion that he was not accomptable for his actions to any but to God alone AS to that odious position or rather Tyrannical assertion both of the Fathers and the Sons that they were not accomptable for their actions to any but to God alone doubtless 't is an impious position and in the next degree to blasphemy and cannot be without repentance forgiven of God nor forgotten of men and those of their subjects which felt the effects thereof Should we longer insist on this Theam and produce proofs that Kings for their irregularities and Tyrannies have in divers Kingdoms been call'd to account they would amount to a Volumn The Justice of Arragon the Ephori amongst the Lacedemonians the Senate of Rome the Parliaments of England and Scotland will soon evince and put this question out of doubt for Kings as well as subjects both by Gods Laws and mans are under the Law and in this kingdom and many other well regulated Soveraignties they have been often over-ruled withstood in their exorbitancies sued at Law and evicted and some deposed expeld and sentenced to death and should it not be so Subjects would be no other then inanimate slaves sure we are Almighty God never impowered Kings with such absolute Soveraignty that might enable them to trample on their subjects without controule Saul made a rash vow as a Law to the Isaelites that none should eat any food all the day until the evening but he should die Ionathan being then absent not knowing thereof had dipt his rod in a Honey-comb and tasted it but being told of his Fathers Law he answered the people My Father troubles Israel and indeed such troublers there are amongst kings howsoever Ionathan was sentenced to death but the people withstood the king and swore that a hair of his head should not fall and they rescued him in the face of the king certainly should not there be some one other power in a kingdom to curbe and controule the exorbitancies of irregular kings for few of them are Saints no man should be exempted from their oppressions and therefore Bracton delivers it as the law of the Land that in such cases the Barons or Parliament ought not onely to withstand oppressive kings but to call them to account for their misdemeanors which may suffice to show how much the two late kings were mistaken in this their Tyrannous assertion Now Gentleman Royalists these Soveraign Rights as you would have them so often treated on utterly dissonant to the Laws of the Land whereunto particularly I have briefly made answer are those goodly Prerogatives wherewith you would have invested the late king as his indubitable birth-rights and inseparables of his Crown for which you still constantly aver he was compeld to fight and your selves with him to uphold them where I must by the way remember you of a time when he shamed not to * Vide The Kings Coyn at Oxford divulge it to the whole Nation that he fought for the Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land and Priviledges of Parliaament for he was not to seek wherein to please the people and win them to his cause though never so unjust when as in truth he fought against all those three and so long as untill he could fight no more but by what law or reason other then his own none may better know then your selves which as well as infinite others that opposed him have felt the fruits of your unadvisedness the effects of his obduracy his cunning and crafty fetches to attract friends for backing of an unlimited Soveraignty to which had he attained it would have been no other then too heavie a burthen for him to bear a sting in his own conscience a sore in yours which you will all finde whensoever it shall please God to open the eyes of your understanding and enable you to see how you have bin decoyed in with Oathes Protestations and hopes of preferment made the instruments of your own Invassalage This if you believe not to have been the design yet you may finde it legible not onely in the claims and pretences he made to those illegal and irrational Prerogatives before recited but more apparently figured in that bloody Rubrick of a continued War which he so long waged to be absolute master of them and consequenly over all the free people of England Thus have I shewed you how invalid the grounds are whereon you continue to insist in justifying the late king and your selves how dissonant and contrary to the Laws usuages and Statutes of the land such was the wisedom and providence of our ancient Parliaments in all their enactings evermore to prefer the common interest before the kings though they failed not to gratifie them as they found them compliable to the redress of the publick grievances with many Royal immunities as we may finde them registred in the Statutes at large on the Title of Prerogative some whereof I think fit here to present to your view that so you may judge whether Sir Walter Rawly was not in the right who avoucheth that few of our kings but have gotten ground and improved their Soverainties meerely by their Parliaments as I verily believe none more then the late unfortunate King had he been pleased in imitation of Queen Elizabeth to have complyed with the late Parliament But as to his Prerogative of Wardships and Marriages they were first conferr'd on our Kings 17 of Edw. 2d their primer session 52. Hen. 3d the tuition of Ideots and distracted persons 17. of Edw. 2d 32. of Hen. 8th but with several proviso's of accompts to be made to the next Heirs of Ideots and the children of him that was incompos mentis As to wracks of Sea Whales c. they were given by Parliaament to Edward the Second the 17 of his Raign Felons goods the 9 of Hen. 3. power to make Justices of peace 27. of Hen. 8. the Legitimation of the Kings children born beyond the Seas 25. Edw. 3. Tonage and Pondage to Edw. 4. pro tempore yet granted to every of his Successors by the meer indulgence of their Parliaments though the late King challenged it as his own right I may not omit farther to inform you that this Nation hath not been so much abused and deceived by any one proficient in our Laws as by that false and jugling Judge Ienkins who in his Lex * Lex Terrae a most vile and fraudulent peice Terrae by his accumulation of several Statutes insinuates and endeavors to make the Kings power absolute and consequently the people meeâ— Slaves and Vassals alledging this and that to be the Law of the Land which is not or ever was taking his Authorities and Authors by piece-meals curtaling the Statutes in their sense without the explanation of their meanings and intents whereby on my own knowledge he hath deceived and prevailed on the
Keeper Finch Secretary Windibank Piercy Jermine Suckling all of them prime sticklers for the advance of the Kings designs c. In the next place the Kings continued practises to corrupt his own Army and that of the Scots inviting them with great rewards and promises of preferment to march against the Parliament which on any conditions he was then resolved to destroy his then succeding journey into Scotland with the breaking out of the Irish Rebellion during his residence there his assault of the House of Commons on his return his then fortifying and manning of White-hall with the Cavaleers and when he found that by none of these artifices he could break the Parliament he leaves them and departs to York sends Eliot for the Great Seal and procures as many as possibly he could of both Houses to falsifie their trust and adhere to him so to divide and destract them and then raises an Army causing the Lords there attending him to attest that he raised that Army onely for a Guard to his Person and not against the Parliament and immediately sends out his Commissions of Array and marches through several Counties to Nottingham where he erected his Standard of War and after marches to Edgehill where he fought with the Parliaments Army notwithstanding that before from Nottingham he would have perswaded the Parliament by an Express of his own that he did not set up his Standard against them all which and much more of his prodigious Stratagems known to all the World makes it apparant that his intent was to destroy the Parliament and consequently to alter the Government and the Laws as he listed and yet there are at present a new sprung-up number of perverse people amongst us besides the old Royal party that impudently deny the premises and take occasion upon this late change and dissolution of the Parliament and the continuation of the Contributions to asperse the present Parliament with most opprobrious language I wish they would look back to the cause and how diffident soever they are of the kings destructive intentions yet may they please to take a review of his after-actions and what horrible cruelties and oppressions were perpetrated throughout most parts of the Land by his Commanders authorized under his own Commissions after he began the War at Edgehill and made Oxford his Head quarters then questionless they may take the true dimensions of a most unfortunate and tyrannical King neither would it be amiss for them to take it into their remembrance what the Parliament in so perplext times were constrained to put in execution as well for their own safeties as the preservation of the Laws and Liberties of the people Thus far in brief we have made a recital of the principal transactions before that fatal battel at Edgehil whence all Royalists and others diffident of the Kings destructive intentions may evidently see unto what plunges the Parliament was put unto upon the Irish Rebellion in relief of their poor distressed brethren in Ireland that affair by the King himself bring wholy recommended to the Parliaments disposement 400000l in Subsidies assented by himself to be levied to that onely use and the Earl of Leycester by his own approbation design'd for that imployment whom he so long protracted that the term of his Commission was near expired before he went over and as to his proclaiming them Rebels to which the Parliament often prest him he would not in a long time suffer his Proclamations to come forth and at last permitted no more then 40 Copies to be printed notwithstanding these his impediments the Parliament with their best Expedition sent over divers Regiments of foot some horse and cloathes by the way of Minyard and Chester The premises considered by any indifferent man with what honour then or justice could the king countermand those Forces and seize the cloathes horses and money sent to the relief of the poor distressed Irish Protestants against his own Act and Assent and by what law or colour of Reason could he in honor grant the remainder of the third part of that Subsidie to his Lieutenant-General of South Wales for raising of an Army there against the Parliament diverting the use thereof for the relief of Ireland What answer can be made to this other then that which with impudence of the highest strain is commonly alledged by Royalists viz. That the king stood bound both in honour and reason of State to support the Rebellious Irish in what possibly he could so to lessen the Parliaments power by what means soever for advance of his own If this be the reason surely then 't is evident that he not onely favoured the Irish but authorized their Insurrection and that his intent was to incumber and cut out as much work for the Parliament as possibly he could invent and in that course to protract the War in Ireland and to pursue it in England as 't is most manifest he did during full six years together neither would he be induced by the Parliaments many and most humble Petitions really to apply himself to a safe and well-grounded Peace for the Nation though still pretending how willing he was to embrace it when as by the sequel he intended to have it no other then as suted to his own will and pleasure and yet all of the Royal party as constantly defends him as himself obstinately persisted so long as his power lasted to embrew all the three Nations with blood fire and devastation and to his last * Vide The Kings Speech on the Scaffold hour stood stiffly in the affirmative that the absolute command of the Militia was his and that the Parliament on that only ground first began the War and not he contrary to his own acknowledgement in the I le of Wight and elswhere viz. That he had been the cause of all the innocent blood spilt throughout the Land I wish he were not guilty of that in Ireland the presumptions being so pregnant as that thousands of honest and knowing men cannot be otherwise perswaded sure enough he was most notoriously guilty of all the blood spilt in England and Scotland We now come to the kings Prerogatives as the basis on which all Royalists ground the lawfulness of their partaking with him in the late War as bound by Oath their Allegiance and in conscience to support his Soveraign Rights We shall for their better satisfaction present them in a Catalogue and answer them in their order forasmuch as they still constantly maintain them to be the kings inseparably united to the Crown and that full sore against his will he was inforc't to uphold them as invaded by the Parliament since then that as Royalists aver the King onely fought to uphold his inheritance and themselves with him let us briefly examine by what Law and right he claimed them together with the destrctive consequences should he have obtained them by the sword and whether then he had not carved out his own
Parliament observed at the Earls tryal that the Laws were the boundaries and measures betwixt the Kings Prerogative and the peoples Liberty But whether the king throughout the whole course of the late destructive War and â—ome years before was not a prompt disciple in the Deputies doctrine I leave to Royalists to make their own judgement And whether that which after befell the king and his Fathers house was not rather of the justice of heaven then of men I leave to the judgement of all the world Sure we are the best Jurists maintain Si Rex hostili animo arma contra populum gesserit amittet Regnum which is that if a King with an hostile intent shall raise Arms against his people he loseth or forfeits his kingdom Now that the late king assumed to himself such a Royal power as to raise Arms against the great Councel of the Land I suppose no man in his right wits can deny Its most true a moderate Royal power to rule by the Laws is doubtless of Gods Ordinance but a Tyrannical power to cut their throats I am sure is of no Divine Institution and a Dominion fitter for beasts then men yet this is that power which Royalists would have fastned on the king and too many there are which constantly believe that the more injury was done him that he had it not as by the Laws of the Land they erroneously conceive he ought to have had The Power of the Militia how the Kings BRiefly now to the Militia and what kinde of power our kings by the Laws of England have had therein It hath been often told the late king all along the late Controversie that the power of the Militia was in him no other then fiduciary and not at his absolute dispose or that at his own will and pleasure he might pervert the Arms and strength of the kingdom from their proper use and against the intent of the Law as ' its visibly known he did even to the highest breach of trust wherein a king could be intrusted Now for proof that this power was onely fiduciary and by Statute Law first confer'd on * Anno 7. Edw. 1. apud Westminster Edw. 1. in trust and not his by the Common Law is most apparent by the Express words of the Statute it self which as they are commonly inserted were onely for the the defence of the Land and safety of the people salus populi being that grand Law and end of all Laws now such as are verst in our Historie know that this Prince was one of the most magnanimous kings that ever swayd the English Scepter and therefore it cannot be imaginable that he would clip his own power and so great a right belonging to him by the Common Law in accepting a less by Statute Law to his own loss of power or that ever he would have assented thereunto by an after Act of his own as follows in haec verba viz. Whereas on sundry complaints made to us by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament that divers of the standing Bands have been removed and taken out of their respective Counties by vertue of our Commissions and sent to us out of their Shires into Scotland Gascoyn and Gwoyn and other parts beyond the Seas contrary to the Laws of the Land c. Our Soveraign Lord willeth that it shall be done so no more Agreeable to this we finde Anno 1. Edw. 3d. viz. The King willeth that no man henceforth be charged to arm otherwise then he was wont in time of our Progenitors the Kings of England and that no man be compell'd to go out of his Shire but where necessity requireth and the sudden coming in of strange Enemies into the Realm And in the same kings time there being a peace concluded between him and the French king wherein the Duke of Britain was included whom the French king shortly thereupon invaded whereof complaint was made to king Edward he instantly summons a Parliament and there moves the Lords and Commons both for their advice and assistance whereupon it was concluded that the king should be expeditiously supply'd in ayd of the Britton but the Act was made with such provisoes and restrictions as Royallists happily and others of late years would have deemed them too dishonourable and unbefitting the late kings acceptance howsoever this Act shews that the ordering of the Militia of those times was not solely left to the kings disposure but that which is of more note was that both the Treasure then granted was committed to certain persons in trust to be issued to the onely use for which it was given as also that no Treaty or any new peace or agreement with the French King should be made without the consent and privity of the Parliament By these instances all Royalists may make a clear judgement that the Militia of those times and the power of the Arms of the Kingdom were never so absolutely conferr'd on our kings as that their power therein extended to such a latitude as they might use them as they pleased and to turn that power provided for the onely defence of the people against themselves and therefore wheresover we finde the Militia by other Statutes conferr'd and yeelded to the disposal of our kings without any particular mention of the word trust which is necessarily imply'd or exprest in most of the Statutes or their preambles viz. * Note that these words viz. for the defence of the Realm or common profit are afore inserted â—ither in the Stat. themselves or in their preamb. In these wotds For the honour of God the Church common profit of the Realm or defence of our people No man in common reason can conceive the Militia to be such an inseparable flower of the Crown as if it had been brought into the world with the King and chain'd unto him as his birth-right but onely as a permissive power recommended unto him by the people in their Representatives as the most eminent and illustrious person to be intrusted with such choyce weapons in trust and confidence that he will use them no otherwise then to the end for which-they were concredited unto him as the Soveraign of the people and for their onely safety and defence which trusted him in honour of his person and place Many other Statutes there are though some of them repealed which prove the Militia is onely fiduciary and not absolutely inherent to the Crowns of our Kings Now for our conclusion of this senceless illegal Prerogative as to the absolute power thereof let us in a word take notice of the destructive consequence admitting this power should be left to the Kings absolute disposure it then follows that he may take all that the Subject hath for he that hath the power of the sword on the same ground may command the purse which the late King not onely intended but practised witness the many great sums of money plate jewels and other moveables whatsoever