a great extraordinary Subsidie then demanded of them though not comparable to this for the necessary defence of the Kingdom against Forraign enemies till they had conferred with the Counties and Burroughs for which they served and gained their assents Yet there is no shadow of reason Law or Equity it should oblige any of the secluded Members themselves whereof I am one or those Counties Cities or Burroughs whose Knights Citizens and Burgesses have been secluded or scared thence by the Armies violence or setting Members illegall Votes for their seclusion who absolutely disavow this Tax and Act as un-Parliamentary illegall and never assented to by them in the least degree since the only l reason in Law or equity why Taxes or Acts of Parliament oblige any Member County Burrough or Subject is because they are parties and consenting thereunto either in proper person or by their chosen Representatives in Parliament it being a received Maxime in all Laws Quod tangit omnes ab omnibus debet approbari Upon which reason it is judged in our m Law-books That By-Laws oblige only those who are parties and consent unto them but not strangers or such who assented not thereto And which comes fully to the present case in 7 H. 6. 35. H. 6.34 Brooke Ancient Demesne 20. Parl. 17.101 It is resolved That Ancient Demesne is a good plea in a Writ of Waste upon the Statutes of Waste because those in Ancient Demesne were not parties to the making of them FOR THAT THEY HAD NO KNIGHTS NOR BURGESSES IN PARLIAMENT nor contributed to their expences And Judge Brook Parliament 101. hath this observable Note It is most frequently found that Wales and County Palatines WHICH CAME NOT TO THE PARLIAMENT in former times which now they do SHALL NOT BE BOUND BY THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND for ancient Demesne is a good Plea in an action of wast and yet Ancient Demesne is not excepted and it is enacted 2. Ed. 6. c. 28. that fines with Proclamation shall be in Chester for that the former Statutes did not extend to it and it is enacted That a Fine and Proclamation shall be in Lancaster 5. 6. E. 6. c. 26. And a Proclamation upon it a exigent is given by the Statute in Chester and Wales 1. E. 6. c. 20. and by another Act to Lancaster 5. 6. E. 6. c. 26. And the Statute of Justices of Peace extended not to Wales and the County Palatine and therefore an Act was made for Wales and Chester 27. H. 8. c. 5. who had Knights and Burgesses appointed by that Parliament for that and future Parliaments by Act of Parliament 27. H. 8. cap. 26. since which they have continued their wages being to be levyed by the Statute of 35. H. 8. c. 11. Now if Acts of Parliament bound not Wales and County Palatines which had anciently no Knights nor Burgesses in Parliament to represent them because they neither personally nor representatively were parties and consenters to them much lesse then can or ought this Leavie Tax and illegall Act to binde those Knights Citizens and Burgesses or those Counties Cities and Burroughs they represented who were forcibly secluded or driven away from the Parliament by the confederacy practice or connivance at least of those now sitting who imposed this Tax and passed this strange Act especially being for the support and continuance of those Officers and that Army who trayterously seised and secluded them from the House and yet detain some of them Prisoners against all Law and Justice The rather because they are the far major part above six times as many as those that sate and shut them out and would no wayes have consented to this illegall Tax or undue manner of imposing it without the Lords concurrence had they been present And I my self being both an unjustly imprisoned and secluded Member and neither of the Knights of the County of Somerset where I live present or consenting to this Tax or Act one or both of them being forced thence by the Army I conceive neither my self nor the County where I live nor the Burrough for which I served in the least measure bound by this Act or Tax but cleerly exempted from them and obliged with all my might and power effectually to oppose them If any here object That by the custome of Parliament 40 Members onely are sufficient to make a Commons House of Parliament and there were at least so many present when this Tax was imposed Therefore it is valid and obligatory both to the secluded absent Members and the Kingdom I answer First That though regularly it be true that forty Members are sufficient to make a Commons House to begin prayers and businesses of lesser moment in the beginning of the day till the other Members come and the House be full yet forty were never in any Parliament reputed a competent number to grant Subsidies passe or record Bils or debate or conclude matters of greatest moment which by the constant Rules and usage of Parliament were never debated concluded passed but in a free and full House when all or most of the Members were present as the Parliament Rolls Journals Modus tenendi Parliamentum Sir Edward Cooks 4. Institutes p. 1.2.26.35.36 Cromptons Jurisdiction of Courts f. 1. c 39. E. 3.7 Brook Parliament 27. 1. Jacobi c. 1. and the Records I have cited to this purpose in my Levellers levelled my Plea for the Lords and Memento p. 10. abundantly prove beyond contradiction for which cause the Members ought to be fined and lose their wages if absent without special Licence as Modus tenendi Parliamentum as 5. R. 2. Parl. 2. c. 4. 9. H. 8. c. 16. and A Collection of all Orders c. of the late Parliament pa. 294.357 with their frequent summoning and fining absent Members evidence Secondly Though forty Members onely may peradventure make an House in cases of absolute necessity when the rest through sicknesse and publick or private occasions are volutarily or negligently absent and might freely repair thither to sit or give their Votes if they pleased yet forty Members never yet made a Commons House by custome of Parliament there being never yet any such case till now when the rest being above four hundred were forcibly secluded or driven thence by an Army through the practice or connivance of those forty sitting of purpose that they should not over nor counter-vote them much lesse an House to sequester or expell the other Members or impose any Tax upon them Till they shew me such a Law Custom or President of Parliament not to be found in any age all they pretend is nothing to purpose or the present case Thirdly Neither forty Members nor a whole House of Commons were ever enough in any age by the Custom of Parliament or Law of England to impose a Tax or make any Act of Parliament without the King and Lords us I have n already proved much lesse after they
ceased to be Members by the Parliaments dissolution through the Kings beheading Neither were they ever invested with any legall power to seclude or expell any of their fellow-Members especially if duly elected for any Vote wherein the Majority of the House concurred with them or differing in their consciences and judgments from them nor for any other cause without the Kings and Lords concurrence in whom the ordinary judicial power of the Parliament resides as I have undenyably proved by presidents and reasons in my Plea for the Lords p. 47. to 53. and Ardua Regni which is further evident by Claus. Dors. 7. R. 2. m. 27. and Mr. Seldens Titles of Honour p. 737. Baronet Camoyes Case discharged from being Knight of the Shire by the Kings Writ and Judgment because a Peer of the Realm the practice of sequestring and expelling Commons by their fellow-Commons onely being a late dangerous unparliamentary usurpation unknown to our Ancestors destructive to the priviledges and freedom of Parliaments and injurious to those Counties Cities Burroughs whose Trustees are secluded the House of Commons it self being no Court of Justice to give either an Oath or finall Sentence and having no more Authority to dismember their fellow-Members then any Judges Justices of Peace or Committees have to dis-judge dis-justice or dis-committee their fellow Judges Justices and Committee-men being all of equall authority and made Members onely by the Kings Writ and Peoples Election not by the Houses or other Members Votes who yet now presume both to make and unmake seclude and recall expell and restore their fellow-Members at their pleasure contrary to the practice and resolution of former ages to patch up a factious Conventicle in stead of an English Parliament Therefore this Objection no ways invalids this first Reason why I neither can nor dare submit to this illegall Tax in Conscience Law or Prudence which engage me to oppose it in all these respects Secondly Should I voluntarily submit to pay this Tax and that by vertue of an Act of Parliament made by those now sitting some of whose Elections have been voted voyd others of them elected by new illegall Writs under a new kind of Seal since the Kings beheading as the Earl of Pembroke and Lord Edward Howard uncapable of being Knights or Burgesses by the Common Law and Custome of Parliament being Peers of the Realm if now worthy such a Title as was adjudged long since in the Lord Camoyes case Claus. Dors. 7. R. 2. m. 32. and asserted by Master Selden in his Titles of Honour part 2. cha. 5. p. 737. Seconded by Sir Edward Cook in his 4. Institutes p. 1.4 5 46 47 49. As I should admit these lawfull Members so I should therby tacitly admit ex post facto assent to some particulars against my knowledg judgment conscience Oaths of Supremacy Allegiance Protestation and Solemn League and Covenant taken in the presence of Gyd himselfe with a sincere heart and reall intention to performâ— the same and persevere therein all the dayes of my life without suffering my selfe directly or indirectly by whatsoever Combination perswasion or terrour to be withdrawne therefrom As First That there may be and now is a lawfull Parliament of England actually in being and legally continuing after the Kings death consisting only of a few late Members of the Commons House without either King Lords or most of their fellow Commons which the very Consciences and judgments of all now sitting that know any thing of Parliaments and the whole Kingdome if they durst speak their knowledg know and beleeve to be false yea against their Oaths and Covenant Secondly That this Parliament so unduly constituted and packed by power of an Army combining with them hath a just and lawfull Authority to violate the Priviledges Rights Freedoms Customes and alter the constitution of our Parliaments themselves imprison seclude expell most of their fellow Members for voting according to their consciences to repeal all Votes Ordinances and Acts of Parliament they please erect new Arbitrary Courts of war and Justice to arraign condemn execute the King himself with the Peers and Commons of this Realm by a new kind of Martiall Law contrary to Magna Charta the Petition of Right and Law of the Land disinherit the Kings Posterity of the Crowne extirpate Monarchy and the whole House of Peers change and subvert the ancient Government Seals Laws Writs Legall proceedings Courts and coyne of the the Kingdome sell and dispose of all the Lands Revenues Jewels goods of the Crowne with the Lands of Deans and Chapters as they think meet absolve themselves like so many antichristian Popes with all the Subjects of England and Ireland from all the Oaths and engagements they have made TO THE KINGS MAJESTY HIS HEIRS AND SUCCESSORS yea from their very Oath of Allegiance notwithstanding this express clause in it which I desire may be seriously and conscienciously considered by all who have sworne it I do â—eleive and in Conscience am resolved that neither the Pope NOR ANY PERSON WHATSOEVER HATH POWER TO ABSOLVE ME OF THIS OATH OR ANY PART THEREOF which I acknowledge by good and full Authority to be lawfully ministred unto me and DO RENOUNCE ALL PARDONS AND DISPENSATIONS TO THE CONTRARY dispense with our Protestations Solemn League and Covenant so lately zealously uâ—ged and injoyned by both Houses on Members Officers Ministers and all sorts of People throughout the Realme dispose of the Forts Ships Forces Officers and Places of Honour Power Trust or profit within the Kingdom to whom they please to displace and remove whom they please from their Offices Trusts Pensions Callings at their pleasures without any legall cause or tryall to make what new Acts Lawes and reverse what old ones they think meet to insnare inthrall our Consciences Estates Liberties Lives to create new monstrous Treasons never heard of in the world before and declare reall treasons against King Kingdome Parliament to be no treasons and Loyalty Allegiance due obedience to our knowne Lawes and consciencious observing of our Oaths and Covenant the breach whereof would render us actuall Traytors and pernicious persons to be no lesse then High Treason for which they may justly imprison dismember disfranchise displace and fine us at their wills as they have done some of late and confiscate our persons and lives to the Gallowes and our estates to their new Exchequer a Tyranny beyond all Tyrannies ever heard of in our Nation repealing Magna Charta c. 29.5 E. 3. c. 6.25 Edw. 3. cap. 4.28 Ed. 3. c. 3.37 E. c. 18.42 E. 3. cap. 3.25 Ed. 3. cap. 2.11 R. 2. c. 4.1 H. 4 c. 10.2 H. 4. Rot. Par. 11. N. 60. 1. E. 6. c. 12.1 m. c. 1. The Petition of Right 3 Caroli and laying all our Laws Liberties Estates Lives in the very dust after so many bloody and costly years wars to defend them against the Kings invasions rayse and keep up what force they will by Sea and Land to impose what
addresses were to passe to make a Declaration to the whole world declaring THE LEGAL RIGHT OF THE LORDS HOUSE THEIR FIXED RESOLUTION TO MAINTIAN UPHOLD IT which was sent by the Generall to the Lords by Sir Hardresse Waller and to indear himself the more unto the Lords in whose House without all doubt he intended to have sate himself he requited me evill for good and became my enemy to keep me in Prison out of which I must not stirre unlesse I would stoop and acknowledge the Lords jurisdiction over Commoners and for that end he sets his agents and instruments at work to get me to do it yet now they have suppressed them Whence it is most apparent 1. That the General Liutenant General Cromwel Ireton Harrison and other Officers of the Army now sitting as Members and over-ruling all the rest have willingly acted against their own knowledges Declarations Judgments Consciences in suppressing the Lords House and depriving them of their Legislative and Jurisdictive Right and power by presuming to make Acts pass sentences and impose Taxes without them or their assents in Parliament 2. That this Tax enforced upon the Commons and Kingdom for their own particular advantage pay and enrichment is in their own judgment and conscience both unjust and directly contrary to the Laws of the Realm being not assented to by the Lords and therefore to be unanimously and strenuously opposed by all who love their own or Countries Liberty or have any Nobility or Generosity in them Thirdly he e there asserts in positive terms in his own behalf and his confederates That the purged Parliament now sitting is but a pretended Parliament a mock-Parliament yea and in plain English NO PARLIAMENT AT ALL but the shadow of a Parliament That those company of men at Westminster that gave Commission to the High Court of Justice to try and behead the King c. were no more a Parliament by Law or Representatives of the people by the rules of Justice and Reason then such a company of men are a Parliament or Representative of the People that a company of armed Theeves choose and set apart to try judge condemn hang or behead any man that they please or can prevail over by the power of their swords to bring before them by force of arms to have their lives taken away by pretence of Justice grounded upon rules meerly flowing from their wills and swords That no Law in England authoriseth a company of servants to punish and correct their Masters or to give a Law unto them or to throw them at their pleasure out of their power and set themselves down in it which is the Armies case with the Parliament especially at Thomas Pride's late purge which was an absolute dissolution of the very Essence and being of the House of Commons to set up indeed a MOCK-POWER and a MOCK-PARLIAMENT by purging out all those that they were any way jealous of would not Vote as they would have them and suffering and permitting none to sit but for the major part of them a company of absolute School-boys that will like good Boys say their Lessons after them their Lords and Masters and vote what they would have them and so be a skreen betwixt them and the people with the name of Parliament and the shadow and imperfect image of legall and just Authority to pick their pockets for them by Assessments and Taxations and by their arbitrary and tyrannicall Courts and Committees the best of which is now become a perfect Star-chamber High-Commission and Councel-board make them their perfect slaves and vassals With much more to this purpose If then their Principall admirers who confederated with the Army and those now sitting in all their late proceedings and cryed them up most of any as the Parliament and supreme Authority of England before at and since the late force upon the House and its violent purgation doe thus in print professedly disclaim them for being any reall Parliament or House of Commons to make Acts or impose Taxes upon the people the secluded Members Presbyterians Royallists and all others have much more cause and ground to disavow and oppose their usurped Parliamentary authority and illegall Taxes Acts as not made by any true English Parliament but a Mock-Parliament only Fourthly He therein further averrs f That the death of the King in Law indisputably dissolves this Parliament ipso facto though it had been all the time before never so intire and unquestionable to that very houre That no Necessity can be pretended for the continuance of it the rather because the men that would have it continue so long as they please are those who have created these necessities on purpose that by the colour thereof they may make themselves great and potent That the main end wherefore the Members of the Commons house were chosen and sent thither was To hear and conferr with King Charles and the House of Peers about the great affairs of the Nation c. And therefore are but a third part or third estate of that Parliament to which they were to come and joyn with and who were legally to make paramount and binding Laws for the people of the Nation And therefore having taken away two of the three Estates that they were chosen on purpose to joyn with to make Laws the end both in reason and Law of the peoples trust is ceased for a Minor joyned with a Major for one and the same end cannot play Lord paramount over the Major and then do what it please no more can the Minor or a Major viz. one Estate of three legally or justly destroy two of three without their own assent c. That the House of Commons sitting freely within it's limited time in all its splendor of glory without the awe of armed men neither in Law nor in the intention of their Choosers were a Parliament and therefore of themselves alone have no pretence in Law to alter the Constitution of Parliaments c. concluding thus For shame let no man be so audaciously or sottishly void of reason as to call Tho. Prides pittifull Junto A PARLIAMENT especially those that called avowed protested and declared again again those TO BE NONE that sate at Westminster the 26 27. c. of July 1647. when a few of their Members were scared away to the Army by a few hours tumult of a company of a few disorderly Apprentices And being no representative of the People much less A PARLIAMENT what pretence of Law Reason Justice or Nature can there be for you to alter the constitution of Parliaments and force upon the people the shew of their own wills lusts and pleasures for Lawes and Rules of Government made by a PRETENDED EVERLASTING NULLED PARLIAMENT a Councel of State or Star chamber and a Councel of War or rather by Fairfax Cromwel and Ireton Now if their own late confederates and creatures argue thus in print against their continuing a Parliament
undoing This is my first and principall exception against the Legality of this Tax which I desire the Imposers and Levyers of it most seriously to consider and that upon these important considerations from their own late Declarations First themselves in their own Declaration of the 9th February 1648. have protested to the whole Kingdom That they are fully resolved to maintain and shall and will uphold preserve and keep the fundamentall Lawes of this Nation for and concerning the PRESERVATION OF THE LIVES PROPERTIES and LIBERTIES OF THE PEOPLE with all things incident thereunto which how it will stand with this Tax imposed by them out of Parliament or their Act concerning New TREASONS I desire they would satisfie me and the Kingdom before they levy the one or proceed upon the other against any of their fellow-Subjects by meer arbitrary armed power against Law and Right Secondly themselves in their Declaration expressing the grounds of their late proceedings and setling the present Government in way of a Free-State dated 17. Martii 1648. engage themselves To procure the well-being of those whom they serve to renounce oppression arbitrary power and all opposition to the peace and Freedome of the Nation And to prevent to their power the reviving of Tyrannie Injustice and all former evils the only end and duty of all their Labors to the satisfaction of all concerned in it 2. They charge the late King for exceeding all His predecessors in the destruction of those whom he was bound to preserve To manifest which they instance in The Loanes unlawfull Imprisonments and other Oppressions which produced that excellent Law of the Petition of Right which were most of them again acted presently after the Law made against them which was most palpably broken by him almost in every part of it very soon after His solemn Consent given unto it 1 His imprisoning and prosecuting Members of Parliament for opposing His unlawfull Will and of divers 2 worthy Merchants for refusing to pay Tonnage and Poundage because NOT GRANTED BY PARLIAMENT yet 3 exacted by HIM expresly against Law and punishment of many 4 good Patriots for not submitting to whatsoever be pleased to demand though NEVER SO MVCH IN BREACH OF THE KNOWN LAW The multitude of projects and Monopolies established by Him His designe and charge to bring in 5 Germane-Horse to awe us INTO SLAVERY and his hopes of compleating all by His grand project of 6 Ship-money to subject EVERY MANS ESTATE TO WHATSOEVER PROPORTION HE PLEASED TO IMPOSE UPON THEM But above all the English Army was laboured by the King to be engaged against THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT A thing of that 7 STRANGE IMPIETY and VNNATVRALNESS for the King of England to sheath their swords in one anothers bowels that nothing can answer it but his owne being a Foraigner neither could it easily have purchased belief but by his succeeding visible actions in ful pursuance of the same As the Kings coming in person to the 8 House of Commons to seise the five Members whether he was followed with 9 some hundreds of unworthy debauched persons armed with Swords and Pistols and other Armes and they attending at the Doore of the House ready to execute whatsoever their Leader should command them The oppressions of the Councell-Table Star-Chamber High-Commission Court-Martiall Wardships Purveyances Afforestations and many others of like nature equalled if not farr exceeded now by sundry Arbitrary Committees and Sub-Committees to name no others in all manner of Oppressions and Injustice concluding thus Vpon all these and many other unparalleld offences upon his breach of Faith of Oaths and Protestations upon the cry of the blood of England and Ireland upon the tears of Widows and orphans and childlesse Parents and millions of persons undone by him let all the world of indifferent men judge whether the Parliament you mean your selves only which made this Declaration had not sufficient cause to BRING THE KING TO JUSTICE And much more you if you imitate or exceed him in all or any of these even by your own verdit 3. Themselves charge the King with with profuse Donations of salaries and pensions to such as were found or might be made sit Instruments and promoters of Tyranny which were supplied not by the legal justifiable revenue of the Crown but by Projects and illegal ways OF DRAINING THE PEOPLES PVRSES all which mischief and grievance they say wil be prevented in their free State though the quite contrary way as appears by the late large donation of some thousands to Mr. Henry Martin the Lord Lisle ‖ Commissary General Ireton and others of their Members and Instruments upon pretence of Arrears or Service some of them out the moneys now imposed for the releife of Ireland And must we pay Taxes to be thus prodigally expended Fourthly They therein promise and engage That the good old Laws and Customs of England THE BADGES OF OUR FREEDOM the benefit whereof our Ancesters enjoyed long before the conquest and spent much of their blood to have confirmed by the Great Charter of the Liberties and other excellent Laws which have continued in all former changes and being duly executed are THE MOST JVST FREE and equal of any other Laws in the world shall be duly continued and maintained by them the LIBERTY PROPERTY and PEACE OF THE SVBJECT BEING SO FVLLY PRESERVED BY THEM and the common interest of those WHOM THEY SERVE And if those Lawes should be taken away all Jndustry must cease all misery blood and confusion would fellow and greater Calamities if possible then fel upon us by the late Kings misgovernment would certainly involve all persons under which they must inevitably perish 5. They therein expresly promise p. 26. To order the revenue in such a way That the publick charges may be defrayed The Souldiers pay justly and duly setled That free-quarter may be wholy taken away and THE PEOPLE BE EASED IN THEIR BURTHENS and TAXES And is this now all the ease we feel to have all Burthens and Taxes thus augmented and that against Law by pretended acts made out of Parliament against all these good old Lawes and Statutes our Liberties and Properties which these new Tax-Masters have so newly and deeply engaged themselves to maintain and preserve without the least diminution Thirdly Both Houses of Parliament joyntly and the House of Commons severally in the late Parliament with the approbation of all consent of most now sitting did in sundry ‖ Remonstrances and Declarations published to the Kingdom not only Tax the King and his evil Counsellors for imposing illegal Taxes on the Subjects contrary to the forecited acts the maintenance whereof against all future violations and invasions of the Peoples Liberties and Properties they made one principal ground of our late bloody expensive wars but likewise professed * That they were specially chosen and intrusted by the Kingdom in Parliament and owned it as their duty to