That however you lived yet all may say and witness for you that you dyec well and made a worthy End For it is now no time to flatter you and therefore we deal truly with you Things are at their Issue and either you are dead or our laws are so But our laws we are sure are living and we trust will live to all Generations though there are some Gentlemen of your Assembly so desirous of longer life that they labour mightily to perswade the world That the laws we mention for Annual Parliaments are Repealed But if they are 't is this Prorogation hath Repealed them Forthey were declared to be in force when the Triennal Act was made in 16 Caroli primi and so they are in the Statute for Repealing that Triennal Act in 16 Caroli secundi in these notable words And because by the ancient Lavvs and Statutes of this Reals made in the Reign of king Edw. 3. Parliaments are to be held very often c. And how this Act should title theâ— the Antient Lavvs and Statues of this Realm and say that by them Parliaments are to be held very often if they were Repealed and were no laws and statutes of the Realm is wondrous strange For if they were no laws and statutes then certainly Parliaments are not to be held very often nor at all by them but that law affirms They are the Antient Laws and Statutes of the Realm and such Laws and Statutes that Parliaments are to be held by them So that you see these laws were declared in force even by your seâ—ves in the sixteenth year of his Majesties Reign and we are sure there hath been no new Parliament since to Repeal them however we hope the whole Nation will strictly observe every man among you that to sit a little longer yet would sacrifice to this Prorogation the very best laws and in there all the laws and liberties of England Therefore let not any delude you with such little pittiful Objections that you your selves are ashamed to acknowledge for your own and urge them only as other mens opinions for these sorry doses will never do no nor the highest cordial they can propose your voting your selves alive for Miracles are ceased and if they were not raising a dead Parliament to life again is beyond the power of any mortal and one of those works that ceaseth for ever 'T is very strange to see how these Gentlemen wriggle about and like drowning persons catch at every straw to save them Yesterday they urged these laws were Repealed and now they see they can do no good there to day they acknowledge that they are in force and apply all their wit to prove that the laws may stand and this Prorogation too For say they Those laws do appoint we shall have a Parliament once a year and so we shall have for all this Prorogation for we had a Parliament in 75 and we shall have a Parliament in 76 This is a very fine account But according to this computation there may be 14 16 or 23 months as well as 12 in a year But he is a very novice in our law that knows not that whereever a year every year vvithin a year yearly or once a year is mentioned in any Statute it is to be understood tvvelve Months only and not one day more or less As may be seen in the Statutes of Usury Recusancy Conformity Appeals for Murder and all other Statutes wherein a year is expressed And it is more repugnant to reason to understand by a year in these Statutes more than tvvelve months than in any of the former for the following words And more often if need be And the urging the Reason of their frequency For the maintenance of the Lavvs and the remedying of Grievances and Mischiefs vvhich daily happen do plainly shew that the Laws do not intend that Parliaments should alwayes be intermitted for so long as tvvelve months but never longer But these Gentlemen would rather alter out very Language and the Common acceptation of words than cease to be a Parliament And therefore this last Prorogations is Null in Law in ordering a Parliaments shall not be held till fifteen months contrary to the Laws that order a Parliament shall be held once every year and if the prorogation be Null you are Null'd therewith Now do not think to salve your Authority by your own Vote for we and all men must tell you That no Parliament that is not anâ—ocedently so can make it self a Parliament by Vote and nothing can be the Cause of it self VVell But now since neither the Laws are Recealed to make room for this prorogation nor the prorogation and the Laws are able to stand both together these Gentlemen hunt to find out a third expedient and say That if the prorogation be null because of its illegal length of time yet they are not thereby dissolved but only dismissed sine die and to be recalled by the kings proclamation a subterfuge as vain as either of the former and altogether as unable to answer the ends of those that urge it for if the kings prorogation was Null in Law because it ordered the meeting of the parliament at a day of such an undue length as was contrary to the Law then how can a proclamation ordering their meeting on the same day make it good in Law For the only thing illegal in the prorogation was the length of time for it s not to be doubted but his Majesty may prorogue parliaments so it be not contrary to Law and to think that a proclamation for meeting at the same time or indeed at any time can cure the illegality of the prorogation is but an absurd opinion Et uno absurd dato mille sequuntur And therefore we affirm That a prorogation or dismission sine die was one of the antient Forms of dissolving parliaments for a parliament so dismissed never sat again nor was it ever done in any other case And good reason for otherwise all our Laws would be utterly eluded For if the Laws appoint a Parliament shall be holden once even year and a prorogation comes and sayes no a Parliament shall not be held till a year and a quarter and after you see this prorogation Null and Void in Law you can slide your selves from under the Prorogaâ—ion and are content that there should be a Nullity and shelter your selves under a sine die and urge that on your behalf we say could you do this Our Laws were of no avail but meer Cyphers only And therefore we say first That it is not really so for you were prorogued to a certain day and not sine die and if the Law make that day to which you are prorogued as impossible ever to come as the thirtieth of February we cannot help that but it is the only day upon which your being stands and if by the Law that day can never come then by the same Law you can never come But were
THE LONG Parliament DISSOLVED Deut. 27. 17. Cursed be he that Removeth his Neighbours Land-Mark and all the People shall say Amen Printed in the Year 1676. THE Long Parliament Dissolved WISDOM saith There is as vvell a time to Speak as a time to be Silent And though Wise Men are often hardly put to it to know the Proper seasons of the one or the other Yet where Necessity hath left no Choice but absolutely imposeth One upon us there can be no Srait upon the Judgment And would to God it could not be made most demonstrable that such a Necessity we are under at this time For no less than the Lavvs and with them the Lives Liberties and Properties of every English-Man is at Stake and we with all other our Fellow English-Men are under the highest Obligation to break our guilty Silence or with our Tongues in our Mouthes see all our Antient Rights Raped from Us and our Posterity for ever and our Living Child of Liberty and Property slily stolen from our sides and a Dead One of Vassalage and Misery laid in its room Wherefore on our own behalf and the behalfes of all other the People of England we crave leave to speak As Reason differenceth Men from Bruits so Lavvs which are but the results of Reason doth difference Free-men from Slaves For it is Lavv only which makes and secures our Liberties and Properties that neither they nor we are Governed as Beasts by Will and Pleasure but lays such a Restrant upon the Government as that it cannot do to us or any thing that is ours ad Libitum but must Govern as the Lavv directs Hence was it that the wisdom of our Ancestors laid out itself more to Legally secure our Lives Liberties and Fortunes from all Wrongs from the Government than from the Private Injuries of one Man to another For they knew that occasional and temporary Lavvs would easily be made to restrain these if they did But to secure the other make sure provision of frequent Parliaments For they had so glorious a Value of and kindness for our English Liberty that they would not trust the Guardianship thereof to any under Heaven but to the People themselves And therefore that they might have a continued Assurance and a perpetual Satisfaction that their Liberties should continue in statu quo It was Ordained That for the maintenance of the said Liberties and Remedy of Mischiefs and Grievances that daily happen A Parliament should be held once every year 36. Edw. 3. Cap. 10 'T is true some of our Kings have omitted the holding of Parliaments for a longer time than a year and the People have silently waited and born that Omission And in like manner so have we notwithstanding his Majesties Coronation Oath and his many most solemn and oft repeated Promises for the Keeping of the Lavvs and yet continuing a Parliament of the prodigious length of 15 or 16 years till they were not the Representatives of the one half of the People of England Yet we say we held our Peace And though we know that all the People of England have equal Right to be Represented and could make it demonstrable that a Parliament of that length can never be the Representative of half the People for all from 21 years of age to 37 which are the Major part of the People of England both in number and vigor and the Flower and Strength of the Kingdom and that are only able to Defend it from any Enemies or Invasions were never Represented in this Parliament and that the major part of those that were Represented never so much as thought or intended that the Trust they gave should be continued to such a monstrous duration for the Gentry of England who think themselves born to have their share in Ruling as well as being Ruled judge it a very hard thing upon them That they should be secluded from their hopes of having the honour to serve their King and Country in Parliament the greatest Schole of Knovvledge and improvement in the Kingdom be bound to walk in the Hall or like Laquies wait in the Lobby all their lives long and see 500 persons hold the Seats as if they had each of them a Pattent for his Place whereas if we had annual Parliaments according to Law there might 8000 Gentlemen have served in Parliament since the Kings restoration which had been a great accomplishment to the Kingdom And that there being at least 20000 Gentlemen in the Kingdom and many of them of as good Brains Families and Fortunes as any in the House should be debarr'd from that highest Trust and Honour and should be forced to dance attendance all their dayes on 500 only would have provoked any Nation in the World to have spoke but we And yet for all this we were silent and resolved to wait with patience For we considered though we had not what we ought to have yet it was but still a sin of Omission and did think with our selves that some Circumstances of Affairs abroad and the Poverty and Discontent of the People at home would at last reduce things into their old and proper Order and that we should at length see Parliaments in their Antient Legal Channel again and both King and People reaping the Fruits and Blessings that would flow from thence But in stead thereof to our great amazement all on the suddain we found our selves plunged into a far greater extremity than ever for whereas before Parliaments were only omitted or continued longer than the Law intended but now by the last Prorogation the King hath positively Ordered that a Parliament shall not be held within the time appointed by Law So that the matter is come to this narrow Issue That either this Prorogation is Null and the Parliament as an End or All our LAWS are of no Effect And therefore we Appeal to Mankind in general and more particularly to every Member of the late Parliament Whether we are not reduced to an unavoidable necessity of Breaking our Silence For our Law Viz. 4. Edvv. 3. Cap. 10. 36. Ed. 3. Cap. 14. 5. Edvv. 3. No. 141. 5. Ed. 2. No. 1. Rich. 2. No. 95. Do positively appoint The Meeting of a Parliament once vvithin a year But directly contrary to all these Statutes this last Prorogation doth Order the Parliament not to Meet within a Year but some Months after And therefore either this Prorogation is Null and Void in Law and consequently the Sitting and Acting as a Parliament is at an End or else by your Sitting and Acting you will Admit and Justify That a particular Order of the King is to be obeyed tho contrary to an Act of Parliament of what importance soever and thereby at once subvert the whole Government of England by Law The dreadful Consequences whereof would fill any true English-man with Indignation to consider For if a particular Order of the King is to be obeyed contrary to all those Laws made for holding Parliaments for
the Maintenance of all the Laws of the Kingdom and Remedy of Mischiefs and Grievances which daily happen then another particular Order of the Kings contrary to Magna Charta and another Order of the Kings contrary to the Petition of Right and another particular Order of the Kings contrary to the Statute De Tallagio non concedendo must also be obeyed So that then the King may by his particular Order take away any mans Life Liberty or Estate when ever he pleaseth And our condition is changed from that of Freemen to be worse than that of Villaines For tho the Lord had the power over his Villaines Goods and Liberty yet he had not a power over the Life of his Villaine that the Law secured to him But of the Kings particular Order contrary to Law must be obeyed we have nothing to secure our very Lives unto us For if our Lives Liberties and Estates have their Security from the Lavvs only and the Lavvs have their Maintenance from Parliaments then if a particular Order of the Kings concerning the Sitting of Parliaments must be obeyed contrary to all these Acts made for holding of Parliaments the king when ever he pleaseth may take away both the laws which should Secure us and Parliaments which should secure our Laws and then in what a condition we shall be left we conceive both you and we may easily judge For now if any threatens to take away our lives arbitrarily and without the legal Judgement of our Peers or our liberties without shewing cause in law we can answer Magna Charta will not suffer you If any threaten to violate our Properties we can now answer the Petition of Right will not suffer you If any attempt to raise money without consent in Parliament we can yet say no the law De Tallagio non concedendo will not permit you But if the kings particular Order contrary to these laws must give supercedias to them and be obeyed by us What have we to answer then For you throw the whole People of England on their knees to beg for their lives and for what part of their liberties and propeties Will and Pleasure will please to spare them The Lavvs are the Banks and Fence of our Lives and all that we can call Ours so that no man can wrong us neither in our Persons nor our Properties but we can strait run to them for Right But if contrary to lavv an Order of the kings that breaks down these Banks and Bounds and like an Inundation overflows all our Freedom must be obeyed What end will there be of our Miseries Where will it stop or who or what can stop it Now t is injustice in any person whilest our lavvs govern us to take any thing that is ours illegally from us but if the kings Order against our lavvs must be obeyed 't will be Mercy that any thing of ours is left us Nay to say truth then all is his and we have nothing that we can call ours for 't is lavv alone that makes Property Nor are our written lavvs and statutes only subverted but the Common lavv may also by the same Rule For if an Order of the King must be obeyed against Acts of Parliament of the highest Importance and most Universal concern then also may his Order be obeyed against the Common lavv and then whereas by the Common lavv every Member of Parliament is to have 40 days Summons before the Meeting of Parliament that he may have time sufficient to prepare himself to come up and attend the discharge of his duty that there may be a full Assembly and nothing done upon the catch nor by a Party the kings Order contrary to this law may restrain the 40 dayes to 20 10 5 4 days nay 24 hours if he please and it may be easily supposed he cannot want a Quorum of each House of his own Servants and Officers who may dispatch what lavvs soever he pleaseth though to the total alteration of the Government before any from the Country can come up to hinder it And not only the Statute and Common lavv but lex consuetudo Parliamenti the laws and customs of Parliament is likewise subverted For whereas by that law and custom of Parliament 40 Members and a Speaker makes a House this or any succeeding kings may be the same Power order that 24 nay 14 or any less number shall make a House and then a Parliament may be packt with ease at pleasure And the law and custom of Parliament allowes freedom of debate and indemnisies every Member that speaks his mind from any other Judgement but that of their own Bar from which freedom it hath the denomination of Parliament But if a private Order of the king or his Successors must be obeyed the Members of either House may be brought to answer for their freedom of speech at the kings-bench-bar and from thence at a worse place and they have no law left nor custom of Parliament to relieve them We might instance in many other Laws and Customs of Parliament by which extraordinary Priviledges are given to the whole Parliament and to every Member thereof in particular but that would rather be sit a Volumn than such a Discourse Wherefore we will shut up this Point with this Conclusion That if you do admit that the Kings Order contrary to lavv must be obeyed you do admit that the king and his successors may hold Parliaments only vvhen they please and when they do hold them may make them do vvhat they please Nay that they may vvith or vvithout Parliaments make lavvs or make their particular Orders and Proclamations go for lavvs raise Money and do to Parliaments and all the people of England to their lives to their liberties in to their estates vvhatsoever either the kings themselves their ministers or the vvorst of evil Counsellors can desire An admission so Impudent that the French Tyranny came in more modestly than this For the French king introduced his Absolute Rule by Courtship He pray'd a lavv to order him to raise Money but till their next Meeting and that neither but if there vvere occasion which the Parliament by Inadvertency granted and have never Met since But he did not issue out an Order contrary to the Laws and bare-fac'd impose his Will upon them For tho they were French-men they could never endure that And shall English-men not by Inadvertency but upon Deliberation patiently suffer the self same Yoak to be put upon them on worser Tearms This we say not Gentlemen by way of acknowledgement that you are in a legal Capacity now to do us either good or hurt for your Day is done and your Power-expired but that you may not like a Snuffe smell ill after you are out For the only reason why we more particularly direct our selves to you is because of the Character you have born that therefore you should not so much as seem to give Prerogative the upper hand of the Law
it so yet still it were but as broad as long for a prorogation sine die is nothing but a dissolution neither for there is no other sine die in Nature but that so that look which way you will whether on the Prorogation of the fifteenth of February or a Dismission sine die the Law shews you nothing but Death and you love to be Members of Parliament a great deal better than we if you will adventure your Lives and Fortunes to sit after the Lavv hath put a Dissolution on you Edvvard the Fourth held a Parliament the eighth day of April in the thirteenth year of his Reign which he prorogued to the sixth of October following but being desirous to call them sooner if the urgency of his affaires should require it no other expedient could be found to enable the King to do it but by a special Act of Parliament to adjorn them to that time and yet if occasion did require to summon them sooner which Act was made with that caution and legal formality that in the very Record of that Prorogation there is a Salvo for the Act of Parliament and the Act it self recited in haec verba an the Record Rot Parl. 13 Edw. 4. Cap. 47 Item codem octavo die Apâ—ilis post gratiasreditas ex parte dicto Domini Regis ejus mandato per venerabilem Pâ—â—re Willm Bathon Wellen Episcopum Cancellarium praefact is Dominis omnibus tunc ibidem presentibus de eorum bonis diligentiis laboribus circa ea quo sibi ex parte Regis injunct a fuerunt exhibitis oftend Idem Cancellarius ex mandato ejusdem Dom. Regis ulterius declaravit qualiter Idem Dominus Rex sacrum tempus Quadragesimate tunc instans fere praeteritum ad sacrum Festum Paschae tune quasi in proxinie existens quamque necessarium atque placabile esset tam Dominis quam Communibus dicto Parliament to intendentibus ad suas Libertates existere aliasque causas urgentes ipsum Dominum Regem Regnum suum Angliae concernentes debitae discussionis libramine ponderans Parliamentum suum predictum usque sextum diem Octobris tunc proximum futurum ad idem Palatium apud Westminster quo tunc erat tentam tunc ibideâ—â—teâ—end â—ensuit prorogand adjornand illud realiter sic prorogavit adjornavit omnibus singulis quorum intersuir firmiter injungendo quod ad dictum sextum diem Octobris apud dict Palacium Westmin excusation quaerunque cessante personaliter convenient in negotiis dicti Parliamenti processurus Salva semper praefato Domino Regi conditione in quodam Actu authoritate dicti Parliamenti super hujusmodi prorogatione adjornatione edito contenta Cujus quidem Actus tenor de vero in verbum hic subsequenter inseritur viz. Formsmuch as the King intendeth to prorogue and adjourn this his present Parliament to this his Palace of Westminster unto the sixth day of October next coming then there to be holden It is Ordained by the authority of this present Parliament that all-be-it any such prorogation and adjournment be had yet if for any urgent cause moving his highness it shall be thought to the same behoveful to reasume reassemble and have appearance of this his said Parliament at any time or place within this his Kingdom asore the said fixth day of October that then at his pleasure he may direct his several Writs to the Sheriffe or Sheriffes of every shire of this his Realm to make open Proclamation in every Shire-Town That all Lords spirituall and temporal being Lords of Parliament and all Knights of shires Citizens of Cities and Burgesses of Broughs returned in this present Parliament Personally appear at such day and place as in the same Writs of Proclamation shall be specified so alwayes that every of the said writs be made out twenty days or more before the said day of appearance limited by the same And that such appearance at that day and place to be limited by the said Writs be taken and had of like force and effect as if the same king had prorogued and adjourned this his said Parliament unto the same day and place And that then the said prorogation and adjournment to be had to the said Palace of Westminister unto the said sixth day of October to be void and of none effect And in this Instance there are these two things observable First How careful our Ancestors were in all their concessious to their king that they did no damage their Laws and thereby hurt the people who had entrusted them And next That that was a very learned Age and had the assistance of Littleton and Hussey two as great Lawyers as any one time hath produced And certainly all this trouble care and pains both to King and Parliament might have been saved if either that Age or those learned men could have found out the expedient of a Parliament prorogued or adjourned sine die but there was none And t is well that there is not for if the king by prorogation sine die may hold a parliament but in fifteen months then by a prorogation sine die he may not hold them if he please but in fifteen year nay not hold them if he please but in fifteen year nay but in twice or thrice fifteen if he will And on the other hand If the king by a prorogation sine die may hold a parliament then he may call them in together again in 7 or 8 dayes when all the Country members are returned to their homes and none can attend by reason of the suddennesse thereof but such as the King may hope for any thing from as we have already intimated so infinite are the mischiefs that would attend a sine die prorogation that God be thanked our Laws and Ancestors would never abide it in any other sencethan we have said And therefore do not think the People of England will ever do that indignity to their Lavvs That dishonour to the Finger of God which by so stupendious and over-ruling a Providence hath dissolved you Or that dis-service to their own Interest as ever to acknowledge you any more for their Representative Sine die being thus unable to help in this matter these Gentlemen are forced to return again to the Prorogation as seeing a uecessity to stand or fall by it and either to make that good or to be totally routed and therefore their last labour spends it self in tumbling the Records to find out Presidents as if Presidents could prevail against Law and 't is boasted by them with mighty joy that they have at Last found out one President in Q. Eliz Reign wherein a Parliament was Prorogued for three dayes more than a Year But we say this is no President at all but only one illegal Fact and that there is but one in nigh 400 Years And 300 Prorogations make very little for the honour of those that urge it But if this were a President
what would it avail since it is directly contrary to so many known Lavvs For if a President can make an illegal thing lawful there is no wickedness under the Sun but may bring a President to warrant it And therefore the greatest Sages of the Law have alwayes asserted That the Lavv is the Met-vvand and Standard of Presidents And that all Presidents against the Lavv vvere to be rejected as vvicked and unvvarantable or else you give Presidents the Mastery over the Lavv Nay null the Lavv and set up a new Rule of our practice We have presidents and very anâ—ient presidents to that that this kingdom was of the Romish profession what is it therefore warrantable for us to follow those Presidents contrary to law and turn Papists we have a president that king John contrary to law resign'd the realm of England to the Pope Is it therefore lawful for any other king of England to do the same VVe have also a president that Queen Eliz. from whence your president is fetch'd contrary to law Imprisoned some Members of the House of Commons for speaking their mind in parliament Is it therefore ever the more lawful for the king and his successors to violate your priviledges VVherefore unless the presidents be lawful it is not lawful to follow your presidents unless you your selves would be made presidents to future Ages And therefore it was well said by the Lord chief Justice Brampston We are not to stand upon presidents but upon the lavvs and the presidents look either the one vvay or the other they are to be brought back unto she Lavv. And the Lord Justice Vaughan tells you thus Though Presidents have been so often that they may be called by the Name of Usuage yet that if usuage hath been against the obvious meaning of an Act of Parliament in the vulgar and common acceptation of the Word then is it rather an Oppression of those concerned than an Exposition of the Act. VVherefore unless you will stand upon record as the oppressors of all the people of England for no less than all the people of England are concerned herein you can never admit of any president against the obvious meaning of not one Act alone but so many Acts of parliament and that not in a wrested sence but in the plain vulgar and common acceptation of the word Your duty lying thus manifestly before you there is nothing worthy a man that can obstruct you For it is only the single fear that the people will not choose you again that canmake you deny it and to deceive any in thetrusts they have given you because you doubt they will credit you no more is but an odd kind of honesty neither does the policy thereof look over strong for to be sure your betraying your trusts in opposing the Laws and the Interest of the People is never the way to be chosen again But on the contrary your stout and faithful standing for and defending them is an infallible way to have your trusts renewed And to think to keep it against the peoples will is a weakness too great for any man that would be reckoned more than once removed Pray remember your Elder Brother the former long Parliament they would sit against the peoples desire and yet though they had a special Act of Parliament for their sitting and an Army to back that Act yet you see when the peoples minds were turned against them do they and their Army what they could the people never left till they had unroosted them they took such vengeance on them as cost many of them their Lives their Liberties and the Fortunes of almost all of them All which it is possible might have been saved had they observed their season and instead of imposing themselves let the People have had their yearly Representatives for lack of which the dissatisfaction and revenge of the People was engaged against them so that it was engaged against them so that it was themselves that first pull'd dowin ruine upon their own heads For by their long sitting they wearied the Roundhead as you have done the Cavalire And the worst Omen that befaâ—ls a Government is when its friend falls from it And look what was the reason that turned the Gentlemen that were on the Parliament side against them and you will find the self-fame reason turneth your old Friend against you for as they stomack'd it then to see a few of themselves perpetuating their own Rule to the exclusion of all others so do we now And if the Nation would not endure that parliament though they had a Law for their sitting because of their strange and unwonted length can you think the same people will abide your longer sitting in express and utter defiance of all the laws of the kingdom And shall it be told to future generations That England chose a Parliament in sixty one who after they had sate fifteen years and were by an illegal Prorogation legally dissolved yet out of a wretched unconscionable desire to sit yet longer Betrayed the People that chose them and sate upon a Prerogative account contrary to the knovvn Laws of the Kingdom Nor let any man think it strange that we account it Treason for you to sit and Act contrary to our Laws For if in the first parliament of Richard the second Grimes and Weston for lack of Courage only were adjudged guilty of Treason for suarendring the places committed to their Trust How much more you if you turn Renegadoes to the People that entrusted you and as much as in you lies surrender not a little pittifull Castle or two but all the legal defence the People of England have for their lives liberties and properties at once Neâ—ther let the vain perswasion delude you that no president can be found that one English Parliament hath hang'd up another though peradventure even that may be proved a mistake for an unpresidented crime calls for an unpresidented punishment and if you shall be so wicked to do the one or rather endeavour to do for now you are no longer a parliament What ground of confidence you can have that none will be found so worthy to do the other we cannot understand and do faithfully promise if your unworthyness do provoke us to it that we will use our honest and uttermost endeavours whenever a New parliament shall be called to choose such as may convince you of your mistake The old and infallible Observation That parliaments are the pulse of the people shall loose its esteem or you will find that this your presumption was overfond however it argues but a bad mind to 〈◊〉 because it believes it shall not be punished But all grand offenders against the Law ever were of that belief but it hath faild them very oft For Andrevv Horn in his Mirror of Justice tell us That Alfred hanged Darling Segnor Cadvvine Cole and 40 Judges more for judging contrary to Law And yet all those false judgements were but in
particular and private cases and concernments not upon the Laws themselves And our Histories of later times say That Sir W. Thorp Chief Justice of the Kings Bench in the reign of Edvv. 3. for receiving but one poor hundred pounds in Bribes was for that alone adjudged to be hang'd and all his Lands and Goods forfeited and this reason rendred for his condemnation Becruse thereby as much as in him lay he had broken the Kings Oath made unto the people vvhich the king had entrusted him vvithall And in the 11th year of Richard the second The Lord chief Justice Trisilian was hanged drawn end quartered for giving his judgement that the king might act contrary to one particular Statute And Black the kings Council and Uske the Unde-sheriff of Middlesex with 5 more persons of quality were also hagng'd for but assisting in that Case And in the first year of Hen. 8. Empson and Dadley notwithstanding they were two of the kings privy council were hang'd for procuring and executing an Act of parliament contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the kingdom and to the great vexation of the people And in the of Hen. 8. Cardinal Woolsey was accounted guilty of High Treasor for endeavouring to sublert the Common Laws of the land and to introduce the Civil Law in its stead Divers later instances might be given but that it is not prudence to follow Truth too close at the heels neither will it be necessary to name more if these are well considered For if the Lord Chief Justice Thorp for receiving the Bribery of a hundred pounds was adjudged to be hanged as one that had made the king break his oath to the people how much more guilty are they of making the king break his Coronation Oath that perswad him to actagainst al the laws for holding parliaments which he is sworn to maintain And if the Lord chief Justice Tresilian was hanged drawn and quartered for advising the king to act contrary to one Statute only What do they deserve that advise the king to act not only against one statute but against all thess antient laws and statutes of the Realm And if Blake the kings Council but for assisting in the matter and drawing up Inditements by the kings Command contrary to law though it is likely he pleaded the kings Order for it his duty to do it and that it was but pro forma what he did yet if he was hang'd drawn and quarterd for that what Justice is due to them that assist in the total destruction of all the Laws of the Nation And if Uske the Under-Sheriffe whose Office t is to execute the laws for but in deavouring to aid Tresilian Blake and their accomplices against one single Statute was also with 5 more hang'd drawn and quartered what punishment do they deserve that ayd and endeavour the subversion of no less than all the laws of the kingdom Nay if Empson and Dudley tho they had an Act of Parliament on their side yet that act being against the known laws of the land were hang'd as Traitors for putting that statute in execution and if Woolsey was accounted guilty of high Treason for endeavouring to exchange the laws of England for the Civil laws How great must be your condemnation and of how much sorer punishment must you be judged worthy if you shall but endeavour to sit and act as a Parliament upon this prorogation For you have not only no law to plead as Dudley and Empson had but are directly contrary to all our laws of every kind And you will thereby not onely atempt to exchange our lawes as Woolsey did but to put us into a state of no law at all Having thus faithfully discharged our duty and layd yours before you that through no inadvertency you may be surprised we have done Not at all doubting the issue thereof for if it be his Majesties honour and true intrest to keep the lawes he hath so solemnly sworn and protested to do as assuredly it is we have no Reason to doubt him And if those worthy patriots in the lords house whose names can never be mentioned with that Honor they deserve from the people did desire to addrese to his Majesty fifteen months agoe for the Parliaments dissolution and since all the resons that moved them thereto at that time do still continue and that this main reason is now also added That this parliament can sit and Act no more as a parliament without the total subversion of the laws and the very constitution of the Government of England we have no reason to doubt the lords And if the Commons shall but consider from whence and for what end they received their trust we have no cause at all to doubt them neither for certainely among them as well as among the lords are a greater number of persons of honor wisdom and fortune then of those that are Indigent of all and that will think with themselves that if not above halfe the people of England are represented by them and that two thirds of that halfe that are represented are weary of their siting and desirous of their dissolution and that 5. Parts of 6 do believe they can never more legaly sit as a parliament and that sixth seem doubtful And since that worthy part of the Commons can get nothing to themselves in particular by sitting and that if 5 10 or 20 years hence they should by another parliament be found to have usurped the legislative power of England to the Ruine of our lawes and the destructon of the people they would be sure to answer it with no less then their Lives and Fortunes and since if they should presume to fit so many person of quality are resolved not to pay any taxes or obey any other of their acts without first trying their validity by due process of Law And what pleasure or aduantage his Majesty can take or they themselvs can have in their sitting as a perliament when their very Jurisdiction is like to be questioned in all the Courts of England And whether it be likely that English Juries should find against their neighbours and therin against themselves to uphold a parliament that hath so many yeares imposed it self upon them contrary to their desire And that novv is Legally dissovled we leave to themselves to Judge FINIS Rot. Parl. 13. Edv. 4. No 43.