of any kind of peace and security to them and that as they have upon the matter dissolved the noblest structure and frame of government in Church and State that hath been at any time in the Christian world so that they are too much transported with passion and guilt and of too little interest experience and understanding to devise and settle a new form or to mend any defects in the old Besides that they plainly discern that they are not the Ministers of their Country for whom they were chosen and deputed but for the Army whose dictates they are obliged and forced to follow so that if their inclinations were good they have not power to execute accordingly And are like the Eagle in Esdras when the voice went not out of her head but from the midst of her body The mutuall confidence between them and their Army is totally dissolved it being not possible for the Houses ever to repose trust in any Army for they can never believe any Army to be more at their devotion then they had reason to think that under Sir Thomas Fairfax nor for the Army to pay a full submission to the Houses for admitting that Party which is most powerfull in the Army for the present is of the same mind and opinion with that Party which is most powerfull in the Houses yet being both still Rivals for the Soveraigne power they can never intirely trust or intirely submit to each other Though the Houses should consist of none but such who were glad at that time that the King was taken from Holmby and that the Army did not disband yet they will alwaies remember that the one was done without their Order or consent and that the Army may do the like again when they think fit and when it may not turn so much to their advantage And that they did not onely not disband at that time but have declared by their solemn Engagement of the Army 5 of June That they will not Disband nor divide nor suffer themselves to be divided or disbanded till they have first security and satisfaction in those things they have desired in such manner as shall be agreed upon by a Councell to consist of those generall Officers of the Army who have concurred with the Army in what they have done and what they have demanded with two Commission Officers and two Soldiers to be chosen for each Regiment who have concurred and shall concur with them in the premises and in this Agreement so that it is evident that the Army will be governed and disposed of only by themselves for which they have very great reason and without which indeed they can have no security for how complying soever the Houses are for the present the Souldiers cannot forget that they were once declared Traytors but for preparing a Petition and they wisely observe that what was done may be done again and by the demurs which have been made concerning the safety and immunity of the Speakers and those faithfull Members who were driven away by violence and the immunity of the Army in advancing to London notwithstanding the publick acknowledgment and thanksgiving to God for it They discern that they are only safe by the want of power in the Houses of what party soever they consist the ambition injustice and tyranny of both being equall The Army have already fully declared against their late Votes and resolutions and therefore it must be presumed they will never concur or contribute to the supporting them The Generall himself in his Letter of the 6 of June from Cambridge to the Speaker tells him That as it is his most earnest and humble desire so he found it to be the unanimous desire and study of the Army that a firm peace in this Kingdome may be setled and the Liberties of the people cleared and secured according to the many Declarations by which they were invited and induced to ingage in the late War And in the Declaration and representation from the Generall and the whole Army of the 14 of June to the Parliament they tell them plainly and honestly That they were not a meer mercenary Army hired to serve any Arbitrary power of State but called forth and conjured by the severall Declarations of Parliament to the defence of their owne and the peoples just Rights and Liberties and so they take up Armes in judgment and Conscience to those ends and have so continued them and are resolved according to the first just desires in their Declarations and such principles as they had received from their frequent Informations and their own Common sense concerning those fundamentall Rights and Liberties and to assent and vindicate the just power and rights of this Kingdome in Parliament for those common ends premised against all Arbitrary power violence and oppression and against all particular parties or interests whatsoever And in their Remonstrance of the 23 of June from S. Albons they say That the Kingdom calls upon them not to disband till they see the Rights Liberties and Peace of the Kingdome setled according to the many Declarations by which they were first called forth and invited to ingage in the late War Now what those ends desires and principles were in their Declarations are set forth before and known to all men who have or will read their Declar to be no other then the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the King 's just Prerogative the Lawes and Liberties of the Land and the Priviledges of Parliament in which endeavours they said they would still persist though they should perish in the work And they were so far from avowing that they would not send to or hear from the King or not suffer His Majesty to come to them that they declare that as they never gave Him any just cause of withdrawing Himself from His great Councell so it had ever been and should ever be far from them to give any impediment to His return And in their Declaration in Answer to the Kings after the Battle at Edghill concerning the allegations that the Army raised by the Parliament was to murther and depose the King they say They hoped the Contrivers of that Declaration or any that professed but the name of a Christian could not have so little charity as to raise such a scandall especially when they must needs know the Protestation taken by every Member of both Houses whereby they promise in the presence of Almighty God to defend His Majesties Person And by that Protestation of the 22 of October 1642. remembred before they declare in the presence of Almighty God to this Kingdome and Nation and to the whole world That no private passion or respect no evill intention to His Majesties Person no designe to the prejudice of His just Honour and Authority engaged them to raise Forces and to take up Armes So that these being the desires ends and principles in their Declarations by which the
never swarved from his Allegiance To omit infinite other instances which the observation of all men can supply them with the Verdict of God had not been so remarkable and notorious if the King had prevailed with his Army and reduced his rebellious Subjects to their duty which might naturally have been expected from the cause and the fate that Rebels usually meet with as that after a totall defeat of the King's Forces and their gaining all the power into their hands they could possibly propose to themselves they should not only be in more perplexity and trouble then when they had a powerfull Army to contend with but in more insecurity and danger then if they had been overcome by that Army That the City of London should be exposed to all imaginable scorn contempt and danger upon the same Ordinance of the Militia by which their pride and sedition principally exposed the Kingdome to the miseries it hath endured that the same Arts and Stratagems of Petitions and Acts of Common Councell with which they affronted the King and drove Him from them should be applied to their own confusion and ruine That those Members who were the principall Contrivers of our miseries the most severe and uncharitable persecutors of all who were not of that opinion and the greatest cherishers of those Tumults which drove the King and all that wished well and were faithfull to Him from Westminster should themselves be persecuted for their opinions by those whom they had supported and be driven thence by the same force and as they had to make the KING odious to the people against their own consciences cast aspersions on Him of favouring the Rebellion in Ireland so themselves to the same end should be accused of the obstructing the relief of Ireland so that to some of them that Story of Jason which though it be not canonicall Scripture is yet canonicall History may be literally applied who slew his own Citizens without mercy not considering that to get the day of them of his own Nation would be a most unhappy day for him who afterwards flying from City to City was pursued of all men hated as a forsaker of the Laws and being had in abomination as an open Enemy of his Country and Country-men was cast out into Aegypt Thus he that had driven many out of their Country perished in a strange Land and he that had cast out many unburied had none to mourn for him nor any solemn Funerall at all nor Sepulcher with his Fathers That they who told the King that if He should persist in the deniall of the Militia the dangers and distempers of the Kingdome are such as would endure no longer delay but unlesse He would be graciously pleased to assure by those Messengers that He would speedily apply His Royall Assent to the satisfaction of their former desires they should be inforced for the safety of His Majesty and the Kingdomes to dispose of the Militia by the authority of both Houses in such manner as had been propounded and they resolved to do it accordingly and upon that ground did raise the Rebellion against the King That these men should be told by their own Militia That they were cleerly convinced and satisfied that both their duties and trust for the Parliament and Kingdom called upon them and warranted them and an imminent necessity inforced them to make or admit of no longer delaies but they should take such courses extraordinary as God should enable and direct them unto to put things to a speedy issue unlesse by Thursday next they received assurance and security to themselves and the Kingdome that those things should be granted which they insisted on which were to have severall Acts passed by the Houses speedily reversed and other Acts formerly refused to be consented to all which was done accordingly That their own Army should rebell against them upon the principles of their own Declarations which they tell them directed still to the equitable sense of all laws and constitutions as dispensing with the very letter of the same and being supreme to it when the safety and preservation of all is concerned and assuring them that all authority is fundamentally seated in the Office and but ministerially in the persons and that it is no resisting of Magistracy to side with the just principles and law of Nature and Nations All which were the very grounds and assertions upon which they raised and justified their Rebellion against the King Lastly that this very Declaration which they hoped would prepare the minds and affections of the people with so much prejudice to his Majesty that they would concur with them in any desperate Act against Him and His Posterity should so much incense all sorts of people against them that they are since looked on as the most odious scum of men that ever infested a Nation and have lost more by it then they have ever got by any Victory These are the visible instances of Gods Verdict in the cause so that if they had with all their hypocriticall discourses of Religion the least sense of Gods favours or fear of his judgments if they had not said unto him Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy waies they would before this have felt that agony of heart and trembling in their joynts out of the very sense of the hand of God upon them that they would take no rest till they cast themselves at his feet whom they have offended and imploy all their faculties towards repayring their gracious Soveraign and binding up the wounds of their almost ruined Country Instead of which to make their madness as publick and notorious as their Rebellion they have resolved published their resolutions to the Kingdome 1. That they will make no further addresse or application to the KING 2. That no person whatsoever shall make any without their leave 3. That whosoever shall break this Order shall incur the penalties of High Treason 4. That they will receive no more any Message from the KING and that no person shall presume to bring any Message from the KING to them or to any other person By the first and last of which they have made and declared themselves no Parliament for being called by the King 's Writ to Treat with Him if they will neither send to Him or hear from Him they can be no longer a Parliament By the second they have taken away from the Subjects of the three Kingdomes that which themselves acknowledge to be their naturall right and liberty for they say and they say truly in their Declaration of the 6 of May 1643. That to present their humble desires and Propositions to His Majesty is a liberty incident unto them not only as Members of Parliament but as free-born Subjects yet this freedom is by this Vote taken away To the third there needs be no more said then what the Army who no doubt will justifie what they
offices of friendship It may be worth the labour briefly to set down the truth of that matter and the proceedings thereupon About the time of His Majesties Marriage with the Queen the French King had many designes upon Italy and a particular difference and contest with the States of Genoa and upon conclusion of that Treaty and renewing the antient League and amity confirmed strengthned by this Marriage His Majesty was content to lend the Vantguard and to give licence that six or seven Merchant Ships might be hired if the Owners were willing to serve the French King in the Mediterranean Sea and upon a precise promise that they should not be imployed against those of the Religion in France Accordingly the Vantguard and no other Vessell of the Navy Royall was delivered and the Merchants Ships likewise hired by the French Agents with the full consent of the Owners One of which or one by their nomination Commanded each Ship and carried the same into France and there themselves delivered the Ships into the possession of the French After these Ships were thus engaged in the French service and joyned to their Fleet in which were 20 Ships of Warre likewise borrowed of the Hollanders commanded by Hauthaine the Admirall and Dorpe his Vice-Admirall who it is very probable nor their Masters were privy or consenting to that enterprize and with which they were much superiour to those of the Religion though the English Ships had been away they fell upon the Rochel Fleet and took and destroyed many of them The King was no sooner informed of this then he highly resented it by His Ambassadour and the French King excused it upon those of the Religion who He Alleaged had without cause broken the peace the Duke of Subese having when all was quiet seized all the French Ships at Blauet which very Ships made the best part of the Fleet he had now incountred and broken And that the King of England ought to be sensible of the injury the peace thus broken having been made and consented to by the French King upon His Majesties earnest mediation and interposition Notwithstanding which His Majesty justly incensed that His Ships should be imployed contrary to His pleasure and the promise made to Him immediatly required the restitution of His and all the English Ships the which was no sooner made then to publish to the world how much He was displeased with that Action He entred into Hostility with France the chief ground of that quarrell being that the English Ships had been imployed against those of the Religion contrary to the expresse promise made that they should not be used against them as appears as well by the Manifest of the Duke of Buckingham dated 21 July and printed since this Parliament as by the Records of State of that time Let the world now judge with what colour the losse of Rochel which as is said before hapned not till neer or full two years after the return of the English Ships can be imputed to the King 5. The fifth Article is the designe of the Germane-Horse Loanes Privy Seales Coat and Conduct mony Ship-mony and the many Monopolies all which are particularly mentioned in the first Remonstrance of the House of Commons of the 15 of December 1642. as the effects of evill Counsellours and with a Protestation in that Petition which accompanied it to His Majesty that it was without the least intention to lay a blemish upon His Majesties Royall Person but only to represent how His Royall Authority and trust had been abused And finding that the vile language and aspersions which they cast upon the King were generally censured and ill spoken of The Lords and Commons afterwards in their Declaration of the 19 of May tell the people that if they should say that all the ill things done of late in His Majesties name have been done by Himself they should neither follow the direction of the Law nor the affection of their owne hearts which they say is as much as may be to clear His Majesty of all imputation of misgovernment and to lay the fault upon His Ministers and then finding fault with those who make His Majesty the Authour of evill Counsels they use these words We His Majesties loyall and dutifull Subjects can use no other Stile according to that Maxime of the Law The King can doe no wrong but if any ill be committed in matter of State the Councell if in matters of Iustice the Judges must answer for it So that if they would guide themselves either by the good old or their own new laws from which in truth they swerve no lesse then from the other they have themselves answered and declared against this Article but since that is not currant examine the particulars The time when this designe is supposed to have been was when His Majesty had a War with the two greatest Kings of Christendome France and Spaine and therefore if He had purposed to have drawn auxiliary Forces into His Service it had been no wonder nor more then all Princes use yet in truth there was never any designe to bring in Germane Horse only in those unquiet times when the Kingdom was so much threatned from abroad amongst other expedients for strength and defence such a proposition was made or rather some discourse upon it which the King rejected and did never consent that it should be put in practice and therefore it may seem strange that this designe should be now objected against His Majesty who alone refused and hindred it and that Balfore and Dalbiere who were the principall if not the only Projectors of it should be in such high reputation and esteem with the Declarers The Loanes Privy Seales and other courses of raising Money were upon extraordinary and immergent occasions and of the same nature that have been in all times practiced upon reason and necessity of State And Monopolies are weeds that have alwaies grown in the fat soile which long peace and plenty makes and of that kind they may find a larger Catalogue in their Journall book of the 43 year of Queen Elizabeth a time that no sober man complaines of then in any time since and which was not then nor reasonably can be imputed to the Crowne since new inventions have justly so great encouragements and priviledges by the Law that if those Ministers through whose hands such grants are to passe are not very vigilant it is not possible but upon specious pretences many things unwarrantable of that nature will have the countenance of the Kings hand yet those particulars were no sooner complained of to His Ma ty then He willingly applied the remedies w ch were proposed before these troubles began passed such excellent laws for the prevention of the like inconveniences for the future that a better security cannot be provided So that men must think this Rebellion to have been raised on the behalf of not against those exorbitances which
by Mr. Pim was agreeable to the sense of the House and that they had received divers advertisements concerning severall persons who had obtained His Majesties immediate Warrant for the passing into Ireland since the Order of restraint of both Houses some of which as they had been informed since their comming into Ireland had joyned with the Rebels and been Commanders amongst them and some others had been staid and were yet in safe custody the Names of whom they set downe being all in custody and said the particular Names of others they had not yet received but doubted not but upon examination they might be discovered But they said they believed it was by the procurement of some evill Instruments too near His royall Person without His Majesties knowledge and intentions The King hereupon replied That the persons named to be under restraint made not good the assertion in that speech besides that their Passes were granted by His Majesty at His being in Scotland long before the restraint and being persons of whose good affections there was then no suspition and that he was most assured that no such person as was comprehended under that Charge had passed by His Warrant or privity and then He desired His House of Commons to consider whether such a generall information and advertisement in which there was not so much as the Name of any particular person mentioned be ground enough for such a direct and positive affirmation as was made in that Speech which in respect of the place and person and being acknowledged to be agreeable to the sense of the House was of that authority that His Majesty might suffer in the affections of many of His good Subjects and fall under a possible construction considering many scandalous Pamphlets to such a purpose of not being sensible enough of that Rebellion so horrid and odious to all Christians by which in this distraction such a danger might possibly insue to His Majesties Person and Estate as He was well assured his House of Commons would use their utmost endevours to prevent and therefore His Majesty said He expected that they should name those persons who by his Licence had passed into Ireland and were there in the head of the Rebels or that if upon their examination they did not find particular evidence to prove that aspersion as His Majesty was confident they never could as that affirmation which did reflect upon His Majesty was very publick so they would publish such a Declaration whereby that mistake might be discovered His Majesty being most tender in that particular which had reference to Ireland as being most assured that he had been and was from his Soule resolved to discharge his duty which God would require at his hands for the relief of his poore Protestant Subjects there and the utter rooting out that Rebellion It was above a Month before the King could receive any other Answer from them and then they said that they had affirmed nothing but what they had cause to believe was true and presented some of their grounds to His Majesty one of which was that those Licences granted to the persons under restraint were apt to produce such an effect as was mentioned in that positive affirmation and another ground was that His Majesty could not be assured that no other did passe upon his Licence and they had cause to believe that some did because they received such generall Information which reasons with some other of the same kind they said they hoped would be sufficient to perswade His Majesty to believe that as they had some cause to give credit to the said Informations so they had no intention to make any ill use of them to His Majesties dishonour but did impute the blame to his Ministers The King replied again to that Message That there was nothing yet declared that would be a ground for what Mr. Pim had so boldly affirmed for yet there was not any particular person named that was so much as in rebellion much lesse in the head of the Rebels to whom His Majesty had given Licence and therefore He expected that the House of Commons should publish such a Declaration whereby that mistake might be cleared Since that time to the houre of the publishing this Declaration they have never made the least addresse or given the least information or satisfaction to His Majesty in that particular which they then said they had no intention to make use of to his dis-honour so that this last presumption could proceed only from a confidence that the people would believe what they said not examine the truth of it What they mean by the Commanders and Officers whom the King they say called off from their trust against the Rebels and Ships from their guards at Sea that so the Rebels might be supplied with forain aides is not understood except by the Ships they meane those under the command of Captain Kittleby and Captaine Stradling who then attended the Irish Coast when all his Majesties Fleet was seized by the two Houses and imployed against Him and whom His Majesty upon that occasion and confidence of the Loyalty of the Commanders required to attend Him with their Ships about Newcastle or the North of England that He might have two of his owne Ships at his disposall and at the same time that any inconvenience might be prevented by the comming of supply to the Rebels His Majesty gave notice to the two Houses of his command in that particular and required them to take care for the guarding of that Coast which they altogether neglected notwithstanding that they found meanes likewise to seize those two Ships which His Majesty hoped He should have been possessed of Nor is it better understood what they mean by supplies from the Earle of Antrim and Lord Aboyne or of Armes and Ammunition from the King's Magazines or from the Queen which no sober man believes or of which no evidence or instance hath so much as been offered Some few Suits of clothes in the beginning of the War were taken by the Kings Souldiers about Coventry when that City was in open Rebellion which they pretended were prepared for Ireland and which His Majesty did what could be done to cause to be restored but it was not possible and was apparently their fault that would not send for a safe conduct when they were to passe through His Majesties Quarters And how far the King was from consenting to or approving that Action appears by His Majesties expresse Command which was executed accordingly for the transporting into Ireland of three thousand Suites of cloths which He found provided for that Service at Chester after his Majesty was possessed of that City and which had been neglected to be sent and which no necessity of His own Army could prevaile with Him to seize or divert from that necessary use for which they were provided His Maty never denied any Pieces of Battery desired by the Councell
of Ireland nor is there the least colour to affirm the same what directions the Rebels give in their Letters of Mart or whether they gave any such directions as are alleaged is no way materiall as to His Majesty and for Officers and Commanders who left their trust against the Rebels it is sufficiently known that the Earle of Leven who by His Majesties consent was sent Generall of the Scots into Ireland against the Rebels was called from thence to lead an Army into England against His Majesty and when the King's Commissioners at the Treaty at Uxbridge alleaged and complained that many Officers both Scots and English had in the beginning of that War left that Service and been entertained by the two Houses against the King all the Answer they could receive was That they were not sent for This being the case as without any possibility of contradiction it is these Gentlemen had no more reason to believe the Rebels when they did so often swear they did nothing without good authority and Commission from the King then the Rebels had to believe them when they swore on the 22. of October 1642. That no private passion or respect no evill intention to His Majesties person nor designe to the prejudice of His just honour and authority engaged them to raise Forces and the next day gave His Majesty battle at Edge-hill Nor is it more materiall that Sir Phelim Oneale would not be perswaded that Generall Laesly had any authority from the King against the Rebels then that these Gentlemen should be perswaded in the same houre to believe that an Army should be raised for the safety of the King's person and to sweare that they would live and die with the Earl of Essex whom they nominated Generall to lead that Army against the King What information was given divers Months before to the Archbishop and others of the Kings Councel of a designe amongst the Papists for a generall Massacre of all the Protestants in Ireland and England c. is no objection against the King and as the Archbishop was imprisoned divers Months before that Rebellion brake out so it is not like if they had been able to have charged Him with any concealment that they would have forborn accusing him with it at his Triall when they so much wanted evidence against him that they were faine to make his Chaplains not licencing such Books against Popery as they thought did discredit the Protestant cause an Argument of his Treason and they would likewise now have named the others of the King's Counsell if they could have alleaged any matter that could have reflected upon them or their Master Next follows a huddle of the Kings Letters to the Pope when he was in Spaine and of others since on the behalfe of the Duke of Lorainge and of the King 's having an Agent at Rome which it is knowne he never had some Months before the Irish Rebellion all which are so obscurely mentioned and so ridiculous as to any charge against the King that they are not worthy any Answer yet because how impertinently soever by the licence of these times much hath been scandalously discoursed of a Letter written by the King when he was Prince and in Spaine to the Pope and such a Letter translated printed out of a Copy published in the French Mercury it may not be amisse to say somewhat of that businesse The Prince being by the command of his Father sent into Spaine to conclude a Marriage with the Daughter of that Crowne which had been long treated of could not but be obliged whilst he was there to perform all Ceremonies which were requisite to the compassing the businesse he went about The Kingdome where he was had a fast friendship with Rome and such a kind of dependence that a dispensation from thence was thought necessary by the wisdome of that State to the marriage in treaty towards the procuring whereof though the Prince would not contribute the least application of his owne yet he was not reasonably to do any thing which might make that dispensation the more difficult to be procured The Pope that then was writ a Letter to the Prince which was delivered to his Highnesse by his Minister there resident It was a Letter of respect and in the interpretation of that State of great kindnesse and it would have been thought a very unseasonable neglect if the Prince had vouchsafed it no Answer on the other hand it was easier to resolve that it was fit to write then what in the mean time they who were officious that it might be done prepared the draught of a Letter and brought it to him the which when his Highnesse had perused with his own hand he expunged those clauses which might seem to reflect upon the Religion which he professed and having so altered and mended it he caused it to be sent to the Pope Copies of the first draught were spread abroad by which that was inserted in the French Mercury which is so carefully translated and printed and dispersed these late ill years and now is given in evidence against His Majesty But admitting it were the same and that the Prince being in a forain Kingdom with the policy whereof he was then to comply had written that very Letter which is printed with what colour of reason can any man make that an Argument of his inclination to Popery who at that time and ever since hath given the greatest testimony of his affection to the Protestant Religion that any Prince or private person hath done The Authours of this Declaration would not think it just that from their very loving Letters to the Bashaw at Argyers and his to them in which He thanks God that the Agent of the Parliament of England is come thither to make a peace and love betwixt them to the end of the world as appears by the relation of that businesse fol. 15. published by their authority and from the amity with them to that Degree that they have given the Turkes men-of-war the freedome of their Harbours men should conclude that they are resolved to turn Turkes and yet such a conclusion will more naturally result from those Letters and that strict correspondence then of the King's affection to Popery from that Letter to the Pope It is said that the same designe was laid in England at the same time and that many thousands were appointed to cut the Protestants throats in this Kingdom also when the King went into Scotland and that it was confessed by some of the principall Rebels that their Popish Committee with the King had communicated that designe with many Papists in England by whose advice though some things were altered yet it was generally concluded that about the same time there should be the like proceedings of the Papists here all which if true as no sober man believes it to be does no way reflect upon the King and that Popish Committee was sent more to the
two Houses then to the King and were more owned by them who tooke speciall care for their Accommodation By what is said it sufficiently appears how unjust and unreasonable all the particular Scandals are with relation to the businesse of Ireland in which His Majesty how impudently soever He hath been aspersed never did any or omitted the doing any thing but according to those rules which are most justifiable before God and man it were to be wished that the two Houses of Parliament had but as well performed their duty and obligations but it cannot be forgotten that neer the beginning of this Rebellion when the Houses pretended wonderfull difficulty to raise men for that Service and when a seasonable supply would utterly have broken and defeated the Rebels the King sent a Message to them on the 28 of December 1641. That His Majesty being very sensible of the great miseries and distresses of His Subjects in the Kingdome of Ireland which daily increased and the bloud which had been already spilt by the cruelty and barbarousnesse of those Rebels crying out so loud and perceiving how slowly the succours designed thither went on His Majesty Himself would take care that by Commissions which He would grant ten thousand English Voluntiers should be speedily raised for that service if the House of Commons would declare that they would pay them which offer from His Majesty was rejected and no considerable supplies sent till they had compelled His Majesty to consent to such a Bill for Pressing as might devest and rob Him of a necessary and legall power inherent in His Crowne Nor can it be forgotten that they reserved those men which were raised for Ireland and would not otherwise have been engaged in their Service but on that pretence and brought them to fight against His Majesty at Edge-hill and afterwards retained them still in their Service That they imployed the mony raised by Act of Parliament for the relief of Ireland and with a particular caution that it should be imployed no other way for the support and maintenance of that Army led by the Earle of Essex against the King and that from the beginning of the Rebellion in England though they received vast sums of mony raised only for Ireland they never administred any considerable supply thither that they could apply to the advancement of their owne Designes at home against the King These particulars of which kind every man may call to mind many more nor their notable compliance with the Irish Committee when they came first over are remembred to imply that the two Houses of Parliament were guilty of raising the Rebellion in Ireland otherwise then by their principles and proceedings in diminution of the King 's soveraigne power or that they cherished it after it was begun otherwise then by not wisely and vigorously endeavouring to suppresse it before it spread so universally but that which may be justly laid to their charge is their affecting and grasping the power of carrying on that War which so great a body is not fit for their imprudent and unpolitique declaring an animosity against the whole Nation and even a purpose for their utter extirpation and disposing their Lands to those who would be adventurers for it which Act and Declaration it is known drove many into open Rebellion who were not before suspected or at least declared to be affected to the Rebels and lastly their giving all their minds up to the kindling that horrid and monstrous rebellion here rather then to the extinguishing the other in Ireland 16. Next succeeds the Charge against the King for the unusuall preparation of Ammunition and Armes upon His return from Scotland with new Guards within and about White-hall the Fire-works taken and found in Papists houses the Tower filled with New guards Granadoes and all sorts of Fire-works Morters and great pieces of Battery the dis-placing Sir William Balfore and placing other Officers who were suspected by them and the whole City Not to speak of the entertainment they provided for the King against His return out of Scotland when in stead of thanking Him for having passed so many good Acts of grace and favour to them that there was no one thing more that the Kingdome could reasonably aske from Him or requisite to make them the most happy Nation of the world They presented Him a Remonstrance as they called it of the State of the Kingdome laying before Him to use His Majesties own words and publishing to the world all the mistakes and all the mis-fortunes which hapned from His first comming to the Crowne and before to that houre forgetting the blessed condition all His Subjects had enjoyed in the benefit of peace and plenty under His Majesty to the envy of Christendome Not to speak of the licence then used in language when upon debate of some pretended breach of Order one of the principall Promoters of this Declaration publickly said in the House of Commons without controle that their Discipline ought to be severe for the enemy was in view when the King was come within one daies journey of the City His Majesty found a band of Souldiers entertained to guard the two Houses of Parliament which as it had bin never known in age before in that manner so there was not now the least visible cause for it but that there had been a Plot in Scotland against the persons of the Marquesse of Hamilton and Argyle and therefore there might be the like upon some principall Members here Upon the King's return the Earl of Essex resigned up the Commission with which he had been intrusted by His Majesty during His absence to preserve the peace of the Kingdome and thereupon that Guard which was drawn together by vertue of that authority in that Earle was dissolved with it The King came then to White-hall and for what passed afterward heare in His owne words in His Declaration of the 12. of August Great multitudes of mutinous people every day resorted to Westminster threatned to pul down the lodgings where divers of the Bishops lay assaulted some in their Coaches chased others with Boats by water laid violent hands on the Arch-bishop of Yorke in his passing to the House and had he not been rescued by force it is probable they had murdered him crying through the streets Westminster-hall and between the two Houses No Bishops no Bishops no Popish Lords and mis-used the severall Members of either House who they were informed favoured not their desperate and seditious ends proclaiming the names of severall of the Peers as evill and rotten-hearted Lords and in their return from thence made stand before Our gate at White-hall said they would have no more Porters Lodge but would speak with the King when they pleased and used such desperate rebellious discourse that We had great reason to believe Our owne Person Our Royall Consort and Our Children to be in evident danger of violence and therefore were compelled at Our
guilty of Treason by that act of his within the expresse words of the 2 Chapter of the 25 yeare of King Edw. 3. but by declaring that by leavying war against our Lord the King in his Realme which in that Statute is declared to be high Treason is meant leavying war against the Parliament and yet Mr. St. Iohn observed in his Argument against the Earle of Strafford printed by Order that the word KING in that Statute must be understood of the King 's naturall person for that person can onely die have a Wife have a Son and be imprisoned The Lord chief Justice Coke in his Commentary upon that Statute saith If any leavy War to expulse Strangers to deliver men out of Prisons to remove Counsellours or against any Statute or to any other end pretending Reformation of their own head without any warrant this is leavying war against the King because they take upon them Royall authority which is against the King and that there may be no scruple by that expression without warrant the same Author saies in the same place and but few lines preceding that no Subject can leavy War within the Realm without authority from the King for to him it only belongeth Preparation by some overt act to depose the King or to take the King by force and strong hand and to imprison Him untill he hath yeilded to certain demands this is a sufficient overt act to prove the compassing and imagination of the death of the King for this is upon the matter to make the King a Subject and to disspoyle Him of His Kingly Office of Royall government as is concluded by the same reverend Authour and likewise that to rise to alter Religion established within the Kingdome or Lawes is Treason These Declarers cannot name one person proclaimed a Rebell or Traytor by the King who was not confessedly guilty of at least one of these particulars and being so the King did no more then by the Law He ought to doe and Mr. St. Johns acknowledged in his Argument against the Earle of Strafford that he that leavies War against the Person of the King doth necessarily compasse His death and likewise that it is a War against the King when intended for the alteration of the Lawes or Government in any part of them or to destroy any of the great Officers of the Kingdome For the setting up the Standard it was not till those persons who bearing an inward hatred and malice against his Majesties Person and Government had raised an Army and were then trayterously and rebelliously marching in battle-array against his Majesty their Liege Lord and Soveraigne as appears by his Majesties Proclamation of the 12 of August 1642. in which He declared His purpose to erect His royall Standard and after they had with an Army besieged his Majesties antient standing Garrison of Portsmouth and required the same in which the King's Governour was to be delivered to the Parliament and after they had sent an Army of Horse Foot and Cannon under the command of the Earle of Bedford into the West to apprehend the Marquesse of Hertford who was there in a peaceable manner without any Force till he was compelled to raise the same for his defence and to preserve the peace of those Counties invaded by an Army and then when his Majesty was compelled for those reasons to erect his Standard with what tendernesse He did it towards the two Houses of Parliament cannot better appear then by His owne words in his Declaration published the same day on which that Proclamation issued out which are these What Our opinion and resolution is concerning Parliaments We have fully expressed in our Declarations We have said and will still say they are so essentiall a part of the constitution of this Kingdome that We can attaine to no happinesse without them nor will We ever make the least attempt in Our thought against them We well know that Our self and Our two Houses make up the Parliament and that We are like Hipocrates Twins We must laugh and cry live and die together that no man can be a friend to the one and an enemy to the other the injustice injury and violence offered to Parliaments is that which We principally complaine of and We again assure all Our good Subjects in the presence of Almighty God that all the Acts passed by Us this Parliament shall be equally observed by Us as We desire those to be which do most concern Our Rights Our quarrell is not against the Parliament but against particular men who first made the wounds and will not suffer them to be healed but make them deeper and wider by contriving fostering and fomenting mistakes and jealousies betwixt body and head Us and the two Houses whom We name and are ready to prove them guilty of High Treason c. And then his Majesty names the persons This was the King's carriage towards and mention of the Parliament very different from theirs who are now possessed of the Soveraigne power the Army who in their Remonstrance of the 23 of June last use these words We are in this case forced to our great grief of heart thus plainly to assert the present evill and mischief together with the future worse consequences of the things lately done even in the Parliament it self which are too evident and visible to all and so in their proper colours to lay the same at the Parliament Dores untill the Parliament shall be pleased either of themselves to take notice and rid the House of those who have any way mis-informed deluded surprized or otherwise abused the Parliament to the passing such foule things there or shall open to us and others some way how we may c. which would not have been mentioned here if they had been onely the extravagant act and words of the Army but they are since justified and made the words of the two Houses by their declaring in their late Declaration of the 4 of March in Answer to the Papers of the Scots Commissioners That if there be any unsound principles in relation to Religion or the State in some of the Army as in such a body there usually are some extravagant humours they are very injuriously charged upon the whole Army whereof the governing part hath been very carefull to suppresse and keep down all such peccant humours and have hitherto alwaies approved themselves very constant and faithfull to the true interest of both Kingdomes and the cause wherein they have engaged and the persons that have engaged therein so that this Remonstrance being the Act of the Generall Lieutenant-Generall and the whole Councell of War which is sure the governing part it is by this Declaration fully vindicated to be the Sense of the two Houses 22. The setting up a mock Parliament at Oxford to oppose and protest against the Parliament of England which his Majesty and both Houses had continued by Act of Parliament is in the
the world may judge are aggravated by the King 's so often refusing their addresses for peace the truth of which suggestions though for method sake the Order of their Declaration hath been inverted must be now considered and all of that kind which is scattered and dis-jointed in the Declaration shal for the same method sake be gathered together and resolved and in this Argument they seem to think they are so much upon the advantage ground that they are rather to make an Apology to the world for having so often made Addresses to their King then for resolving to doe so no more that is for enduring so long to be Subjects then for resolving hereafter to be so no more The truth is they never yet made any one addresse for peace onely somtime offered to receive his Crown if his Majesty would give it up to them without putting them to fight more for it for other sense or interpretation no Propositions yet ever sent to Him can bear and whereas they say they must not be so unthankfull to God as to forget they were never forced to any Treaty it is affirmed that there are not six Members who concur in this Declaration who ever gave their consent to any Treaty that hath yet been but when they were forced by the major part to consent to it they were so unthankfull to God for the opportunity of restoring a blessed peace to their Country that they framed such Propositions and clogged their Commissioners with such Instructions as made any Agreement impossible Though no Arithmetique but their own can reckon those Seven times in which they have made such applications to the King and tendred such Propositions that might occasion the world to judge they had not only yeilded up to their wills and affections but their reason also and judgment for obtaining a true peace and accommodation yet it will be no hard matter shortly to recollect the overtures which have bin made on both sides and thence it may best appear whether the King never yet offred any thing fit for them to receive or would accept of any tender fit for them to make What Propositions were made by them to prevent the War need not be remembred who ever reads the nineteen sent to Him to Yorke will scarce be able to name one Soveraigne power that was not there demanded from him nor can they now make Him lesse a King then He should have been if He had consented to those After His Standard was set up and by that his Majesty had shewed that He would not tamely be stripped of His Royall power without doing His best to defend it He sent a Message before bloud was yet drawn from Nottingham to desire that some fit persons might be inabled by them to treat with the like number to be authorized by His Majesty in such a manner and with such freedome of debate as might best tend to that happy conclusion which all good men desired The peace of the Kingdome to which gracious overture from His Majesty the Answer was that untill the King called in His Proclamations and Declarations and took down His Standard they could give Him no Answer And at the same time published a Declar to the Kingdome That they would not lay down their Arms untill the King should withdraw His protection from all such persons as had been voted by both Houses to be Delinquents or should be voted to be such that their Estates might be disposed to the defraying of the charges the Common-wealth had been put to And who they meant by those Delinquents they had in a former Declaration to the Inhabitants of York-shire expressed that all persons should have reparation out of the Estates of all such persons in any part of the Kingdome whatsoever who had withdrawn themselves to Yorke and should persist to serve the King c. This was one of their Applications in which they had yeilded up their wills and affections and their reason and judgment for obtaining peace They say they have cause to remember that the King somtimes denied to receive their humble Petitions for peace the which they had rather should be believed in grosse then trouble themselves with setting down the time and manner when it was done but out of their former writings it is no hard matter to guesse what they meane When the KING was at Shrewsbury and the Earle of Essex at Worcester towards the end of September 1642. the two Houses sent a Petition to their Generall to be presented to His Majesty in some safe and honourable way In which Petition they most humbly besought his Majesty to withdraw His Person from His own Army and to leave them to be suppressed by that power which they had sent against them and that He would in peace and safety without His Forces return to His Parliament The Earl of Essex by Letter to the Earle of Dorset who then attended his Majesty intimated that He had a Petition from both Houses to be delivered to his Majesty and for that purpose desired a safe Conduct for those who should be sent with it The Earle of Dorset by his Majesties command returned Answer That as He had never refused to receive any Petition from His Houses of Parliament so He should be ready to give such a reception and Answer to this as should be fit and that the Bringers of it should come and go with safety onely He required that none of those persons whom He had particularly accused of High Treason which at that time were very few should by colour of that Petition be imployed to His Majesty This Answer was declared to be a breach of priviledge and so that Petition which as His Majesty saies in His Answer to the Declaration of the 22 of October was fitter to be delivered after a Battle and full Conquest of Him then in the head of His Army when it might seem somwhat in His power whether He would be deposed or no was never delivered to his Majesty and this is the Petition which they now say He somtimes denied to receive They say that when they desired Him to appoint a place for a Committee of both Houses to attend His Majesty with Propositions for Peace He named Windsor promising to abide thereabouts till they came to Him but presently marched forward so neer London that He had almost surprized it whilst He had so ingaged Himself for a Treaty This likewise refers to the Petition sent to his Majesty at Colebrooke and all the circumstances were fully answered by his Majesty in his Declaration upon that occasion when this aspertion was first unreasonably cast upon Him It is true after the Battle at Edge-hill when they could no longer perswade their friends of the City that the King's Forces were scattered and their Army in pursuit of Him but in stead thereof they had pregnant evidence that his Majesties Army was marching towards them and was possessed