heavy Taxes they please and renew increase multiply and perpetuate them on us as long as they please to support their own encroached more then Regall Parliamentall Super-transcendent Arbitrary power over us and all that is ours or the Kingdoms at our private and the publique charge against our wills judgments consciences to our absolute enslaving and our three Kingdoms ruine by engaging them one against another in new Civill wars and exposing us for a prey to our Forraign Enemies All which with other particulars lately acted and avowed by the Imposers of this Tax by colour of that pretended Parliamentary Authority by which they have imposed it I must necessarily admit acknowledge to be just and legall by my voluntary payment of it of purpose to maintaine an Army to justify and make good all this by the meer power of the Sword which they can no wayes justify and defend by the Laws of God or the Realm before any Tribunall of God or Men when legally arraigned as they shall one day be Neither of which I can or dare acknowledge without incurring the guilt of most detestable Perjury and Highest Treason against King Kingdom Parliament Laws and Liberties of the People and therefore cannot yeeld to this Assessement Thirdly The principall ends and uses proposed in the pretended Act and Warrants thereupon for payment of this Tax are strong Obligations to me in point of Conscience Law Prudence to withstand it which I shall particularly discusse The First is the maintenance and continuance of the present Army and forces in England under the Lord Fairfax To which I say First as I shall with all readinesse gratitude and due respect acknowledg their former Gallantry good and faithfull Services to the Parliament and Kingdom whiles they continued dutiful and constant to their first Engagements and the ends for which they were raised by both Houses as far forth as any man so in regard of their monstrous defections and dangerous Apostacy from their Primitive obedience faithfulnesse and engagements in disobeying the Commands and levying open warre against both Houses of Parliament keeping an horrid force upon them at their very doors seising imprisoning secluding abusing and forcing away their Members printing and publishing many high and treasonable Declarations against the Institution Priviledges Members and Proceedings of the late and being of all future Parliaments imprisoning abusing arraigning condemning and executing our late King against the Votes faith and engagements of both Houses and disinheriting his Posterity usurping the Regal Parliamental Magistratical and Ecclesiastical power of the Kingdom to their Generall Councel of Officers of the Army as the supreme swaying Authority of the Kingdom and attempting to alter and subvert the ancient Government Parliaments Laws and Customs of our Realm And upon serious consideration of the ordinary unsufferable Assertions of their Officers and Souldiers uttered in most places where they quarter and to my self in particular sundry times That the whole Kingdom with all our Lands Houses goods and whatsoever we have is theirs and that by right of conquest they having twice conquered the Kingdom That we are but their conquered slaves and Vassals and they the Lords and Heads of the Kingdome That our very lives are at their mercy and courtesie That when they have gotten all we have from us by Taxes and Free-quarter and we have nothing left to pay them then themselves will selfe upon our Lands as their own and turn us and our Families out of doors That there is now no Law in England nor never was if we beleeve their lying Oracle Peters but the sword with many such like vapouring Speeches and discourses of which there are thousands of witnesses I can neither in Conscience Law nor Prudence assent much lesse contribute in the least degree for their present maintenance or future continuance thus to insult inslave and tyrannize over King Kingdom Parliament people at their pleasure like their conquered vassals And for me in particular to contribute to the maintenance of those who against the Law of the Land the priviledges of Parliament and liberty of the Subject pulled me forcibly from the Commons House and kept me prisoner about two months space under their Martiall to my great expence and prejudice without any particular cause pretended or assigned only for discharging my duty to the Kingdom and those for whom I served in the House without giving me the least reparation for this unparallell'd injustice or acknowledging their offence and yet detain some of my then fellow-Members under custody by the meer power of the Sword without bringing them to tryall would be not onely absurd unreasonable and a tacite justification of this their horrid violence and breach of priviledge but monstrous unnaturall perfidious against my Oath and Covenant 2. No Tax ought to be imposed on the Kingdom in Parliament it self but in case of necessity for its common Good as is cleer by the Stat. of 25. E. 1. c 6. and Cooks 2 Instit. p. 528. Now it is evident to me that there is no necessity of keeping up this Army for the Kingdoms common Good but rather a necessity of disbanding it or the greatest part of it for these reasons 1. Because the Kingdom is generally exhausted with the late 7 years Wars Plunders and heavie Taxes there being more moneys levied on it by both sides during these eight last years then in all the Kings Reigns since the Conquest as will appear upon a just computation all Counties being thereby utterly unable to pay it 2. In regard of the great decay of Trade the extraordinary dearth of cattel corn and provisions of all sorts the charge of relieving a multitude of poor people who starve with famine in many places the richer sort eaten out by Taxes and Free-quarter being utterly unable to relieve them To which I might add the multitude of maimed Souldiers with the widows and children of those who have lost their lives in the Wars which is very costly 3. This heavie Contribution to support the Army destroys all Trade by fore-stalling and engrossing most of the moneys of the Kingdom the sinews and life of Trade wasting the provisions of the Kingdom and enhansing their prices keeping many thousands of able men and horses idle only to consume other labouring mens provisions estates and the publick Treasure of the Kingdom when as their imployment in their trades and callings might much advance trading and enrich the Kingdom 4. There is now no visible Enemy in the field or Garisons and the sitting Members boast there is no fear from any abroad their Navie being so Victorious And why such a vast Army should be still continued in the Kingdom to increase its debts and payments when charged with so many great Arrears and debts already eat up the Country with Taxes and Free-quarter only to play drink whore steal rob murther quarrel fight with impeach and shoot one another to death as Traytors Rebels and Enemies to the Kingdom and Peoples Liberties
REASONS Assigned by WILLIAM PRYNNE c. BEing on the 7 of this instant June 1649 informed by the Assessors of the Parish of Swainswicke that I was assessed at 2 l. 5 s. for three months Contribution by vertue of a pretended Act of the Commons assembled in Parliament bearing date the 7 of April last assessing the Kingdom at ninty thousand-pounds monthly beginning from the 25 of March last and continuing for six months next ensuing towards the maintenance of the forces to be continued in England and Ireland and the paying of such as are thought fit to be disbanded that so Free-quarter may be taken off whereof 3075 l. 17 s. 1 d. ob is monthly imposed on the County and 2 l. 5 s. 3 d. on the small poor Parish where I live and being since on the 15 of June required to pay in 2 l. 5 s. for my proportion I returned the Collector this Answer That I could neither in Conscience Law nor Prudence in the least measure submit to the voluntary payment of this illegall Tax and unreasonable Contribution after all my unrepaired losses and sufferings for the publick Liberty amounting to six times more then Ship-money the times considered or any other illegall Tax of the late beheaded King so much declaimed against in our three last Parliaments by some of those who imposed this And that I would rather submit to the painfullest death and severest punishment the Imposers or Exactors of it could inflict upon me by their arbitrary power for legall they had none then voluntarily pay or not oppose it in my place and calling to the uttermost upon the same if not better reasons as I oppugned a Ship-money Knighthood and other unlawfull impositions of the late King and his Councel heretofore And that they and all the world might bear witnesse I did it not from meer obstinacy or fullennesse but out of solid reall grounds of Conscience Law Prudence and publick affection to the weal and Liberty of my native Country now in danger of being enslaved under a new vassalage more grievous then the worst it ever yet sustained under the late or any other of our worst Kings I promised to draw up the Reasons of this my refusal in writing and to publish them so soon as possible to the Kingdom for my own Vindication and the better information and satisfaction of all such as are any wayes concerned in the imposing collecting levying or paying of this strange kinde of Contribution In pursuance whereof I immediately penned these ensuing Reasons which I humbly submit to the impartiall Censure of all conscientious and judicious Englishmen desiring either their ingenuous Refutation if erronious or candid Approbation if substantiall and irrefragable as my conscience and judgment perswade me they are and that they will appear so to all impartiall Persons after full examination First By the fundamental Laws and known Statutes of this Realme No Tax Tallage Ayd Imposition Contribution Loan or Assessment whatsoever may or ought to be imposed or levied on the free men and people of this Realm of England but by the WILL and COMMON ASSENT of the EARLS BARONS Knights Burgesses Commons and WHOLE REALM in a free and full PARLIAMENT by ACT OF PARLIAMENT All Taxes c. not so imposed levyed though for the common defence and profit of the Realm being unjust oppressive inconsistent with the liberty and propertie of the Subject Laws and Statutes of the Realm as is undeniably evident by the expresse Statutes of Magna Charta cap. 29.30 25. E. 1. c. 5 6. 34. E. 1. De Tallagio non concedendo c. 1. 21. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 16. 25. E. 3. c. 8. 36. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 26. 45. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 42. 11. H. 4. Rot. Parl. n. 10. 1. R. 3. c. 2. The Petition of Right and Resolutions of both Houses against Loans 3. Caroli The Votes and Acts against Ship-money Knighthood Tonnage and Poundage and the Star-chamber this last Parliament 17. 18 Caroli And fully agreed and demonstrated by Mr. William Hackwell in his Argument against Impositions Judge Hutton and Judge Crook in their Arguments and Mr. St. John in his Argument and Speech against Ship-money with other Arguments and Discourses of that subject Sir Edward Cook in his 2 Instit. published by Order of the Commons House pag. 59.60 c. 527.528.529.532.533 c. with sundry other Records and Law-books cited by these great Rabbies of the Law and Patriots of the Peoples Liberties But the present Tax of Ninety Thousand pounds a Month now exacted of me was not thus imposed Therefore it ought not to be demanded of nor levied on me and I ought in conscience Law and prudence to withstand it as unjust oppressive inconsistent with the Liberty and Property of the Subject Laws and Statutes of the Realm To make good the Assumption which is onely questionable First This Tax was not imposed in but out of any Parliament the late Parliament being actually dissolved above two months before this pretended Act of these Tax-imposers taking away the King by a violent death as is expresly resolved by the Parliament of 1 H. 4. Rot. Parl. n. 1. by the Parliament of 4. H. 4. and 1. H. 5. Rot. Parliam n. 26. Cook 4 Institutes p. 46. and 4. E. 4.44 b. For the King being both the Head beginning end and foundation of the Parliament as Modus tenendi Parliamentum and Sir Edward Cooks 4. Instit. p. 3. resolve which was summoned and constituted only by his Writ now b actually abated by his death and the Parliament as is evident by the clauses of the severall Writs of Summons to c the Lords and for the election of Knights and Burgesses and levying of their wages being onely PARLIAMENTUM NOSTRUM the Kings Parliament that is dead not his Heirs and Successors and the Lords and Commons being all summoned and authorized by it to come to HIS PARLIAMENT there to be present and conferre with HIM NOBISCUM not his Heirs and Successors of the weighty and urgent affairs that concerned NOS HIM and HIS KINGDOME of England and the Knights and Burgesses receiving their wages for Nuper ad NOS ad PARLIAMENTVM NOSTRVM veniendo c. quod sommoneri FECIMVS ad tractandum ibidem super diversis arduis Negotiis NOS Statum REGNI NOSTRI tangentibus as the tenor of the d Writs for their wages determines The King being dead and his Writ and Authority by which they were summoned with the ends for which they were called to confer with HIM about HIS and HIS KINGDOMS affairs c. being thereby absolutely determined without any hopes of revivall the Parliament it self must thereupon absolutely be determined likewise especially to those who have disinherited HIS HEIRS and SUCCESSORS and voted down our Monarchy it self and these with all other Members of Parliament cease to be any longer Members of it being made such onely by the King 's abated Writ
even as all Judges Justices of peace and Sheriffs made onely by the Kings Writ or Commission not by Letters Patents cease to be Judges Justices and Sheriffs by the Kings death for this very reason because they are constituted Justiciarios Vicecomites NOSTROS ad Pacem NOSTRAM c. custodiendam and he being dead and his Writs and Commissions expired by his death they can be his Judges Justices and Sheriffs no longer to preserve HIS Peace c. no more then a wife can be her deceased Husbands Wife and bound to his obedience from which she was losed by his death Rom. 7.2.3 And his Heirs and Successors they cannot be unlesse he please to make them so by his new Writs or Commissions as all our e Law-Books and Judges have frequently resolved upon this very reason which equally extends to Members of Parliament as to Judges Justices and Sheriffs as is agreed in 4 E. 4.43.44 and Brooke Office and Officer 25. Therefore this Tax being cleerly imposed not in but out of and after the Parliament ended by the Kings decapitation and that by such who were then no lawfull Knights Citizens Burgesses or Members of Parliament but onely private men their Parliamentary Authority expiring with the King it must needs be illegall and contrary to all the fore-cited Statutes as by the Convocations and Clergies Tax and Benevolence granted after the Parliament dissolved in the yeer 1640 was resolved to be by both Houses of Parliament and those adjudged high Delinquents who had any hand in promoting it 2. Admit the late Parliament stil in being yet the House of Peers Earles and Barons of the Realm were no ways privy nor concentivg to this Tax imposed without yea against their consents in direct affront of their most ancient undubitable Parliamentary Right and Priviledges these Tax-masters having presumed to vote down and nul their very House by their new encroached transcendent power as appears by the title and body of this pretended Act intituled by them An Act of THE COMMONS assembled in Parliament Whereas the House of Commons alone though full and free have no more lawful Authority to impose any tax upon the people or make any Act of Parliament or binding Law without the Kings or Lords concurrence then the man in the moon or the convocation Anno 1640. after the Parliament dissolved as is evident by the express words of the forecited Acts the Petition of Right it self Acts for the Trienniall Parliament and against the proroging or dissolving this Parliament 17. Caroli with all our printed Statutes f Parliament Rolls and g Law-Books they neither having nor challenging the sole Legislative power in any age and being not so much as summoned to nor constituting members of our h ancient Parliaments which consisted of the King and Spiritual and Temporal Lords without any Knights Citizens or Burgesses as all our Histories and Records attest til 47 H. 3. at soonest they having not so much as a speaker or Commons House til after the beginning of King Edward the third his reign as never presuming to make or tender any Bils or Acts to the King or Lords but Petitions only for them to redress their grievances and enact new Laws til long after Rich. the seconds raign as our Parliament Rolls and the printed prologues to the Statutes of 1.4.5.9.10.20.23.36.37 and 50. Ed. 3. 1. Rich. 2.1.2.4.5.7.9.11.13 Hen. 4.1.2.3.4.8.9 Hen. 5.1.2.3.4.6.8.9.10.11.14.15.29.28.29.39 Hen. 6.1.4.7.8.12.17 22. Ed. 4. and 1. Rich. 3. evidence which run all in this form At the Parliament holden c. by THE ADVICE and AS SENT OF THE LORDS SPIRITUAL and TEMPORAL and at THE SPECIAL INSTANCE and REQUEST OF THE COMMONS OF THE REALM BY THEIR PETITIONS put Ãn the said Parliament as some Prologues have it Our Lord the King hath caused to be ordained or ordained CERTAIN STATUTES c. where the advising and assenting to Lawes is appropriated to the Lords the ordaining of them to the King and nothing but the requesting of and petitioning for them both from King and Lords to the Commons in whom the Legislative power principally if not solely resided as is manifest by the printed Prologue to the Statute of Merton 20. Hen. 3. The Statute of Morteman 7. Ed. 1. 31. Ed. 1. De Aspertatis Religiosorum Therefore this Tax imposed by the Commons alone without King or Lords must needs be void illegal and no ways obligatory to the subjects 3. Admit the whole House of Commons in a full and free Parliament had power to impose a Tax and make an Act of Parliament for levying it without King or Lords which they never did nor pretended to in any age yet this Act and Tax can be no ways obliging because not made and imposed by a full and free House of Commons but by an empty House packed swayed over-awed by the chief Officers of the Army who have presumed by meer force and armed power against law and without president to seclude the Major part of the House at least 8 parts of 10 who by law and custome are the House it self from sitting or voting with them contrary to the Freedom and Priviledges of Parliament readmitting none but upon their own termes An usurpation not to be paralleld in any age destructive to the very being of Parliaments i Where all Members ex debito Justiciae should with have equal Freedom meet and speak their mindes injurious to all those Counties Cities Boroughs whose Knights Citizens and Burgesses are secluded and to the whole Kingdom yea contrary to all rules of reason justice policy conscience and their own Agreement of the people which inhibit the far lesser part of any Councel Court or Committee to over-sway seclude or forejudge the major number of their Assessors and fellow Members over whom they can no wayes pretend the least jurisdiction it being the high way to usher Tyranny and confusion into all Councels and Realms to their utter dissolution since the King alone without Lords and Commons or the Lords alone without King or Commons may by this new device make themselves an absolute Parliament to impose Taxes and enact Lawes without the Commons or any other forty or fifty Commoners meeting together without their companions do the like as wel as this remnant of the Commons make themselves a compleat Parliament without King Lords or their fellow Members if they can but now or hereafter raise an Army to back them in it as the Army doth those now sitting 4. Suppose this Tax should bind these Counties Cities and Buroughs whose Knights Citizens and Burgesses sat and consented to it when imposed though I dare sware imposed against the mindes and wills of all or most of those they represent who by the k Armies new Doctrine may justly question and revoke their authority for this high breach of Trust the rather because the Knights and Burgesses assembled in the first Parliament of E. 3. rot Parl. n. 8. Did all refuse to grant
from going yet take free-quarter on the Country and pay too under that pretext And to force the Country to pay Contribution and give Free-quarter to such Cheaters and Impostors who never intend this Service is both unjust and dishonourable 4. If the Relief of Ireland be now really intended it is not upon the first just and pious grounds to preserve the Protestant party there from the forces of the bloody Popish Irish Rebels with whom if report be true these sitting Anti-Monarchists seek and hold correspondence and are now actually accorded with Owen Ro-Oneal and his party of blodiest Papists but to oppose the Kings interest and title to that Kingdome and the Protestant remaining party there adhering to and proclaiming acknowledging him for their Soveraign least his gaining of Ireland should prove fatall to their usurped soveraignty in England or conduce to his enthroning here And by what Authority these now sitting can impose or with what conscience any loyall Subject who hath taken the Oaths of Supremacy Allegiance and Covenant can voluntarily pay any contribution to deprive the King of his hereditary right undoubted Title to the Kingdoms and Crowns of England Ireland and alter the frame of the ancient Government Parliaments of our Kingdoms p Remonstrated so often against by both Houses and adjudged High Treason in Canterburies and Strafffords cases for which they were beheaded and by themselves in the Kings own case whom they decolled likewise without incurring the guilt of Perjury and danger of High Treason to the losse of his life and estate by the very laws and statuts yet inforce transcends my understanding to conceive VVherfore I neither can nor dare in conscience law or prudence submit to this contribution Fourthly The coercive power and manner of levying this contribution expressed in the Act is against the Law of the Land and Liberty of the Subject which is threefold First Distresse and sale of the goods of those who refuse to pay it with power to break open their Houses which are their Castles doores chests c. to distrain which is against Magna Charta cap. 29. The Petition of Right The Votes of both Houses in the case of Ship-mony 1 R. 2. c. 3. and the resolution of our Judges and Law-books 13. Ed. 4.9.20 E. 4.6 Cook 5. Report f. 91.92 Semaines case 4. Inst. p. 176 177. Secondly Imprisonment of the body of the party till he pay the contribution being contrary to Magna charta The Petition of Right The resolution of both Houses in the Parliament of 3 Caroli in the case of Loanes and 17 Caroli in the case of Ship-mony the judgment of our Judges and Law-Books collected by Sir Edward Cook in his 2 Insti. p. 46. c. and the Statu. of 2 H. 4. Rot. Par. n. 6. unprinted but most expresse in point Thirdly Levying of the contribution by souldiers and force of arms in case of resistance and imprisoning the person by like force adjudged High Treason in the cases of the Earl of Strafford and a levying of war within the Statute of 25. Ed. 3. by the late Parliament for which he lost his head and so proved to be at large by Master St. Iohn in his Argument at Law at the passing the Bill for his attainder Printed by Order of the Commons House Fourthly Which heightens the illegality of these illegall means of levying it if any person whose goods are destrained or person imprisoned for this illegall tax shall bring his Action at Law or an Habeas corpus for his relief The Committee of Indempnity will stay his legall proceedings award cost against him and commit him a new till he pay them and release his suits at Law and upon an Habeas corpus their own Sworn Judges created by them dare not bayle but remaund him against Law An oppression and Tyranny far exceeding the worst of the Beheaded Kings under whom the Subjects had Free-Liberty to sue and proceed at Law both in the cases of Loanes Shipmony and Knighthood without any Councel-Table Committee of Indempnity to stop their suits or inforce them to release them and therefore in all these respects so repugnant to the Laws and Liberty of the Subject I cannot submit to this illegall Tax but oppugn it to the utetrmost most invasive on our Laws and Liberties that ever was Fifthly The time of opposing this illegall Tax with these unlawfull ways of levying it is very considerable and sticks much with me it is as the Imposers of it declare and publish in many of their new kind of Acts and devices in the first yeare of Englands Liberty and redemption from thraldom And if this unsupportable Tax thus illegallly to be levied be the first fruits of our first years Freedom and redemption from thraldom how great may we expect our next years thraldome will be when this little finger of theirs is heavier by far then the Kings whole loynes whom they beheaded for Tyranny and Oppression Sixthly The Order of this Tax if I may so term a disorder or rather newnesse of it engageth me and all lovers of their Countries Liberty unanimously to withstand the same It is the first I finde that was ever imposed by any who had been Members of the Commons House after a Parliament dissolved the Lords House voted down and most of their fellow-Commoners secured or secluded by their connivance or confederacy with an undutiful Army VVhich if submitted to and not opposed as illegall any forty or fifty Commoners who have been Members of a Parliament gaining Forces to assist and countenance them may out of Parliament now or any time hereafter do the like and impose what Taxes and Laws they please upon the Kingdom and the secluded Lords and Commons that once sate with them being incouraged thereto by such an unopposed precedent VVhich being of so dangerous consequence and example to the constitution and priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the people we ought all to endeavour the crushing of this new Cockatrice in the shell lest it grow to a fiery Serpent to consume and sting us to death and induce the Imposers of it to lade us with new and heavie Taxes of this kinde when this expires which we must expect when all the Kings Bishops Deans and Chapters Lands are sold and spent if we patiently submit to this leading Decoy since q Bonus Actus inducit consuetudinem as our Ancestors resolved Anno 1240. in the case of an universall Tax demanded by the Pope whereupon they all unanimously opposed it at first r Opprime dum nova sunt subiti mala semina morbi Principiis obsta serò medicina paratur Cum mala per longas invaluere moras being the safest rule of State-physick we can follow in such new desperate Diseases which endanger the whole Body-politick Upon which grounds the most consciencious Gentlemen and best Patriots of their Country opposed Loans Ship money Tonnage Poundage Knighthood and the like late illegall
rather die a Martyr for our Ancient Kingdom then live a Slave under any new Republick or remant of a broken dismembred strange Parliament of Commons without King Lords or the major part of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Realme in being subject to their illegall Taxes and what they call Acts of Parliament which in reality are no Acts at all to binde me or any other subject to obedience or just punishment for Non-obedience thereunto or Non-conformity to what they stile the present Government of the Armies modeling and I fear the Jesuites suggesting to effect our Kingdoms and Religions ruine WILLIAM PRYNNE Swainswick June 16. 1649. PSAL. 26.4 5. I have not sate with vain persons neither will I go with Dissemblers I have hated the Congregation of evill doers and will not sit with the wicked FINIS A POSTSCRIPT SInce the drawing up of the precedent Reasons I have met with a Printed Pamphlet intituled An Epistle written the 8th day of June by Lieutenant Colonel Iohn Lilburn to Master William Lenthall Speaker to the remainder of those few Knights Citizens and Burgesses that Col. Thom. Pride at his late purge thought convenient to leave sitting at Westminster as most fit for his and his Masters designs to serve their ambitious Tyrannical ends to destroy the good old Laws Liberties and Customs of England the badges of our Freedom as the Declaration against the King of the seventh of March 1648 pag. 23. calls them and by force of Armes to rob the people of their lives estates and properties and subject them to perfect vassallage and slavery c. who and in truth no otherwise pretendenly stile themselves The Conservators of the Peace of England or the Parliament of England intrusted and authorized by the consent of all the people thereof whose Representatives by Election in their Declaration last mentioned p. 27. they say they are although they are never able to produce one bit of a Law or any piece of a Commission to prove that all the people of England or one quarter tenth hundred or thousand part of them authorized Thomas Pride with his Regiment of Souldiers to choose them a Parliament as indeed it hath de facto done by this PRETENDED MOCK-PARLIAMENT And therefore it cannot properly be called the Nations or Peoples Parliament but Col. Prides and his Associats whose really it is who although they have beheaded the King for a Tyrant yet walk oppressingest steps if not worst and higher In this Epistle this late great Champion of the House of Commons and sitting Junctoes Supremacy both before and since the Kings beheading who with his Brother a Overton and their Confederates First cryed them up as and gave them the Title of The Supream Authority of the Nation The only Supream Judicatory of the land The only formall and legall Supream power and Parliament of England in whom alone the power of binding the whole Nation by making altering or abrogating Laws without either King or Lords resides c. and first engaged them by their Pamphlets and Petitions against the King Lords and Personall Treatie as he and they print and boast in this Epistle and other late Papers doth in his own and his Parties behalf who of late so much adored them as the only earthly Deities and Saviours of the Nation now positively assert and prove First that Commissary Generall Ireton Colonel Harison with other Members of the House and the General Councel of Officers in the Army did in severall meetings and debates at Windsor immediately before their late march to London to purge the House and after to Whitehall commonly stile themselves the pretended Parliament even before the Kings beheading a MOCK PARLIAMENT a MOCK POWER a PRETENDED PARLIAMENT NO PARLIAMENT AT ALL And that they were absolutely resolved and determined TO PULL UP THIS THEIR OWN PARLIAMENT BY THE ROOT and not so much as to leave a shadow of it yea and had done it if we say they and some of our then FRIENDS in the House had not been the Principall Instruments to hinder them We judging it then of two evils the least to chuse rather to be governed by THE SHADOW OF A PARLIAMENT till we could get a reall and a true one which with the greatest protestations in the world they then promised and engaged with all their might speedily to effect then simply solely and only by the will of Sword-men whom we had already found to be men of no very tender consciences If then these leading swaying Members of the new pretended purged Commons Parliament and Army deemed the Parliament even before the Kings beheading a Mock-Parliament a mock-power a pretended Parliament yea no Parliament at all and absolutely resolved to pull it up by the roots as such then it necessarily follows First that they are much more so after the Kings death as by their suppression of the Lords House and purging of the Commons House to the very dregs in the opinions and consciences of those now sitting and all other rationall men And no wayes enabled by law to impose this or any other new Tax or Act upon the Kingdom creating new Treasons and Penalties Secondly that these grand saints of the Army and Statesmen of the Pretended Parliament knowingly sit vote and act there against their own judgements and consciences for their own private pernicious ends Thirdly that it is a basenesse cowardize and degeneracy beyond all expression for any of their Fellow-members now acting to suffer these Grâ—nâ—eâ—s in their Assembly and Arms to sit or vote together with them or to enjoy any Office or command in the Army or to impose any tax upon the People to maintain such Officers Members Souldiers who have thus vilified affronted their pretended Parliamentary Authority and thereby induced others to contemn and question it and as great a basenesse in others for to pay it upon any terms Secondly he there affirms that d Oliver Crumwell by the helpe of the Aâ—my at their first Rebellion against the Parliament was no sooner put up but like a perfideous base unworthy man c. the House of Peers were his only white boys and who but Oliver who before to me had called them in effect both Tyrants and Vsurpers became their Proctor where ever he came yea and set his son Ireton at work for them also insomuch that at some meetings with some of my friends at the Lord Whartons lodgings he clapt his hand upon his breast and to this purpose professed in the sight of God upon his conscience THAT THE LORDS HAD AS TRUE A RIGHT TO THEIR LEGISLATIVE JURISDICTIVE POWER OVER THE COMMONS AS HE HAD TO HIS COAT UPON HIS BACK and he would pocure a freind viz. Master Nathaniel Feinnes should argue and plead their just right with any friend I had in England And not only so but did he not get the Generall and Councell of War at Windsor about the time that the Votes of no more
Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom 15. Decemb. 1642. complain had dissolved all former Parliaments during his raign without and against both Houses approbation to their great discontent and the Kingdoms prejudice as his Father King James had dissolved others in his reign and during their continuance adjourned and prorogued them at their pleasure Now the fear and preventing of the like dissolution prorogation or adjournment of this Parliament after the Scotish Armies disbanding before the things mentioned in the preamble were effected by the Kings absolute power was the only gronud and occasion of this law not any fear or thoughts of its dissolution by the Kings untimely death then not so much as imagined being before the wars or Irish Rebellion brake forth The King very healthy not ancient and likely then to survive this Parliament and many others in both Houses judgment as appears by the bil for Triennial Parliaments This undeniable Truth is expresly declared by the Commons themselves in their foresaid Remonstrance Exact Collection p. 5.6.14.17 compared together where in direct terms they affirme The ABRUPT DISSOLUTION OF THIS PARLIAMENT is prevented by another bil by which it is provided it shall not be dissolved or adjourned without the consent of both Hâ—uses In the bil for continuance of this present Parliament there seems TO BE SOME RESTRAINT OF THE ROYAL POWER IN DISSOLVING OF PARLIAMENTS NOT TO TAKE IT OUT OF THE CROWN BUT TO SUSPEND THE EXECUTION OF IT FOR THIS TIME and OCCASION ONLY which was so necessary for THE KINGS OWN SECURITY and the publick Peace that without it we could not have undertaken any of these great charges but must have lest both the Armies to disorder and confusion and the whole Kingdom to blood and rapine In which passages we have a clear resolution of the Commons themselves immediately after the passing of this Act that the scope and intention of it was only to provide against the Kings abrupt dissolution of the Parliament by the meer royal power in suspending the execution of it for this time and occasion only and that for the Kings own security not his Heirs and Successors as wel as his peoples peace and safety Therefore not against any dissolutions of it by his natural much lesse his violent death which can no ways be interpreted an Act of his Royal power which they intended hereby not to take out of the Crown but only to suspend the execution of it for this time and occasion and that for his security but a natural impotency or unnatural disloyalty which not only suspends the execution of the Kings power for a time but utterly destroys and takes away him and it without hopes of revival for ever Secondly The very title of this act An Act to prevent Inconveniences which may happen by the UNTIMELY adjourning proroguing or DISSOLUâ—ION of this present Parliament intimates as much compâ—red with the body of it which provides as wel against the adjourning and proroguing of both or either Houses without an Act of Parliament as against the dissolution of the Parliament without an Act. Now the Parliament cannot possibly be said to be adjourned or prorogued in any way or sence much less untimely by the Kings death which never adjourned or prorogued any Parliament but only his by Proclamation writ or royal command to the Houses or their Speaker executed during his life as all our Journals ‖ Parliament Rolls and * Law-Books resolve though it may be dissolved by his death as wel as by his Proclamation writ or royal command And therefore this title and act coupling adjourning proroguing and dissolving this Parliament together without consent of both Houses by act of Parliament intended only a dissolution of this Parliament by such Prerogative wayes and meanes by which Parliaments had formerly been untimely adjourned and prorogued as well as dissolved by the Kings meer will without their assents not of a dissolution of it by the Kings death which never adjourned nor prorogued any Parliament nor dissolved any formerly sitting Parliament in this Kings reign or his Ancestors since the death of King Henry the 4th the only Parliament we read of dissolved by death of the King since the conquest and so a mischief not intended nor remedied by Act Thirdly The prologue of the act implies as much Whereas great sums of money must of necessity be SPEEDILY advanced procured for the relief of HIS MAJESTIES ARMY and PEOPLE not his Heirs or Successors in the Northern parts c. And for supply of other HIS MAJESTIES PRESENT and URGENT OCCASIONS not his Heirs or Successors future occasions which cannot be so timely effected as is requisite without credit for raising the said monies which credit cannot be attained until such obstacles be first removed as are occasioned BY FEAR JEALOVSIES and APPREHENSIONS OF DIVERS OF HIS MAJESTIES LOYAL SVBJECTS THAT THE PARLIAMENT MAY BE ADJOVRNED PROROGVED OR DISSOLVED not by the Kings sodain or untimely death of which there was then no fear Jealousy or apprehension in any his Majesties Loyal Subjects but by his Royal Prerogative and advice of ill Councellors before justice shall be duly executed upon Delinquents then in being not sprung up since publick grievances then complained off redressed a firm peace betwixt the two Nations of England and Scotland concluded and before sufficient provisions be made for the repayment of THE SAID MONYES not others since so to be raised All which the Commons in this present Parliament assâ—mbled having duly considered doe therefore humbly beseech your Majesty that it may be declared and enacted c. All which expressions related only TO HIS late Majesty only not his Heirs and Successors and the prnicipal scope of this act to gain present credit to raise moneys to disband the Scotish and English Armies then lying upon the Kingdom being many yeers since accomplished yea and justice being since executed upon Strafford Canterbury and other Delinquents then complained of the publick greivances then complained of as Star-chamber High Commission ship-money Tonnage and Poundage fines for Knighthood Bishops votes in Parliament with their Courts and jurisdictions and the like redressed by Acts soon after passed and a firm peace between both Nations concluded before the wars began and this preambles pretentions for this act fully satisfied divers years before the Kings beheading it must of necessity be granted that this Statute never intended to continue this Parliament on foot after the Kings decease especially after the ends for which it was made were accomplished And so it must necessarily be dissolved by his Death Fourthly This is most clear by the body of the Act it self And be it declared and enacted By THE KING OUR SOVERAGIN LORD with the assent of the LORDS Commonsin this PRESENT PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED by the authority of the same That THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT NOW ASSEMBLED shall not be DISSOLVED unlesse it be By ACT OF PARLIAMENT TO BE PASSED FOR THAT PVRPOSE nor
shall any time or times DVRING THE CONTINVANCE THEREOF BE PROROGVED OR ADJOVRNED unless it be By ACT OF PARLIAMENT to be likewise PASSED FOR THAT PURPOSE And that THE HOUSE OF PEERS shall not at any time or times DURING THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT BE ADJOURNED unless it be BY THEMSELVES or BY THEIR OWN ORDER And in like manner that THE HOVSE OF COMMONS shall not at any time or times DVRING THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT be adjourned unless it be BY THEMSELVES or BY THEIR OWN ORDER Whence it is undeniable 1. that this act was only for the prevention of the untimely dissolving Proroguing and adjourning of that present Parliament then assembled and no other 2. That the King himself was the Principal Member of his Parliament yea our Soveraign Lord and the sole declarer and enacter of this Law by the Lords and Commons assent 3. That neither this Act for continuing nor any other for dissolving adjourning or proroguing this Parliament could be made without but only by and with the Kings Royal assent thereto which the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament in their * Remonstrance of the 26. of May 1642 oft in terminâ—s acknowledge together with his Negative voice to bils 4. That it was neither the Kings intention in passing this act to shut himself out of Parliament or create Members of a Parliament without a King as he professed in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. 5. p. 27. Nor the Lords nor Commons intendment to dismember him from his Parliament or make themselves a Parliament without him as their foresaid Remonstrance testifies and the words of the act import Neither was it the Kings Lords or Commons meaning by this act to set up a Parliament only of Commons much less of a remnant of a Commons House selected by Colonel Pride and his confederates of the Army to serve their turns and vote what they prescribed without either King or House of Peers much less to give them any supertranscendent Authority to vote down and abolish the King and House of Lords and make them no Members of this present or any future Parliaments without their own order or assent against which so great usurpation and late dangerous unparliamentary encroachments this very act expresly provides in this clause That the House of Peers wherein the King sits as Soveraign when he pleaseth shall not at any time or times during this present Parliament be adjourned much less then dissolved excluded or suspended from sitting or voting which is the greater and that by their inferiours in all kinds a Fragment of the Commons House who can pretend no coulor of Jurisdiction over them before whom they alwayes stood bare-headed like so many Grand-Jury-men before the Judges and attended at their Doores and Barr to know their pleasures unlesse it be by Themselves or by their own Order 5. That neither the King Lords nor Commons intended to set up a perpetuall Parliament and intayl it upon them their Heirs and Successors for ever by this Act which would cross and repeal the Act for trienniall Parliaments made at the same time and on the same * day in Law but to make provision only against the untimely dissolving of this till the things mentioned in the Preamble were accomplished and setled as the Preamble and those oft repeated words any time or times during the continuance of this present Parliament conclude and that during His Majesties Reign and life not after his death as these words coupled with The relief of His Majesties Army and People and for supply of His Majesties present and urgent occasions in the Preamble manifest Therefore this Act can no wayes continue it a Parliament after the Kings beheading much less after the exclusion both of the King and Lords House out of Parliament by those now sitting contrary to the very letter and provision of this Act by which devise the King alone had he conquered and cut off or secluded by his Forces the Lords and Commons house from sitting might with much more colour have made himself an absolute Parliament to impose what Taxes and Lawes he pleased without Lords or Commons on the people by vertue of this Act then those few Commons now sitting since his tryall and death doe 6. The last clause of this Act And that all and every thing or things whatsoever DONE OR TO BE DONE to wit by the King or His authority for the adjournment proroguing or dissolving of THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT CONTRARY TO THIS PRESENT ACT SHALL BE VTTERLY VOID and of NONE EFFECT Now death and a dissolution of this Parliament by the Kings death cannot as to the King be properly stiled A thing done or to be done by Him for the adjournment proroguing or dissolving of this Parliament contrary to this present Act which cannot make the Kings death utterly void and of none effect by restoring him to his life again Therefore the dissolution of the Parliament by the Kings death is clearly out of the words and intentions of this Act especially so many years after its Enacting 7. This present Parliament and every Member thereof being specially summoned by the Kings Writ only to be HIS Parliament and Councell and to conferre with HIM of the great and urgent affaires concerning HIM and HIS Kingdom and these Writs and Elections of them returned unto HIM and HIS COURT by Indenture and the persons summoned and chosen by vertue of them appearing only in HIS Parliament for no other ends but those expressed in HIS WRITS it would be both an absurdity and absolute impossibility to assert that the Houses intended by this Act to continue this Parliament in being after the Kings beheading or death unless they that maintain this paradox be able to inform me and those now sitting how they can conferr and advise with a dead King of things concerning Him and His Kingdom and that even after they have extirpated Monarchy it self and made it Treason to assert or revive it and how they can continue still HIS Parliament and Councell whose head they have cut off and that without reviving or raising him from his grave or enstalling His right Heir and Successor in His Throne to represent His Person neither of which they dare to doe for fear of losing their own Heads and Quarters too for beheading him This Tax therefore being imposed on the Kingdom long after the Kings beheading and the Parliaments dissolution by it must needs be illegall and meerly void in Law to all intents because not granted nor imposed in but out of Parliament by those who were then no Commons nor Members of a Parliament and had no more authority to impose any Tax upon the Kingdom then any other forty or fifty Commoners whatsoever out of Parliament who may usurp the like authority by this president to Tax the Kingdom or any County what they please and then Levy it by an Army or force of Armes to the peoples infinite endless oppression and