spent their Powder Poor King Charles How is he burdened and even pressed downe upon whom not his own Actions onely are charged but those of his Servants those of his Courts those of Strangers nay and those of meer fortune and Contingency If this expedition of the Spaniard were by the Kings contrivance or privity why did he sit still permitting them to be assaulted within his own Harbours why did he suffer his owne Ships to be idle Spectators of their Ruine How comes it that there never followed thereupon the least expostulation for so great a losse from the King of Spaine It is well knowne the Spaniards were wasted in Flanders the Natives began to know their owne strength and were in hand with a Machination to shake off the Spanish yoake from their necks in emulation of their Brethren of the Vnited Provinces There was but need then of a recruit which could not be compassed without sending a strong Fleet to convey men into Flanders And this was the Fleet which we quietly beheld beaten and scatterd Mean time what miserable shifts are these men at home put unto when they are glad to catch after such shadows thereby to bring an envy and hate upon their King The whole Charge of Tyrannicall Government made good upon Themselves 1. If it be exemption from Accompt which constitutes a Tyrannicall Government the two Houses cannot wash their hands of it by their owne Rules no men pretending to higher Priviledge therein no men seeking to fortifie themselves more against all possibility of being reckoned withall 2. If the Characters which Aristotle in the 4. of his Politicks chap. 10. assigneth and most other States-men unto Tyrannicall Rule be true the Parliament have out-done all Tyrants in all Ages The Badges are these First To acknowledge no Boundary of Law to their Actions besides their own will 2. To rule by violence over their Equals and Superiors 3. To regard mainly their owne private Vtility not the Publick Examine their Proceedings by these Marks and you shall find them sutable to a hairs breadth Is not much of this quarrell for the repeal of Lawes formerly established Doth not the King continually invite provoke them to this Touch-stone Nay what law that stood in their way have they not suspended or annulled Their whole Ecclesiasticall Government is besides nay against clear law Their Secular hath been altogether Arbitrary for what law warrants their Militia their dealing thus with His Majesty their Imprisonments Oppressions Extortions And what law had they for alienating the Bishops lands not only from the Bishops but from the whole Clergy for ever Lastly that I be not infinite what Law to cut off Canterbury's Head to murther Tomkins Challoner c. 2. How could they possibly maintaine their Power without an Army do they not trample and revel it over their Lords and Masters we will say nothing now of His Majesty their Soveraigne whom they insult upon Have not they set their feet upon the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdome ruin'd and undone them whereas themselves for a great part are of the basest among the people Among whom except what they can reckon their Places at a hundred cannot make one thousand pounds by the yeare 3. What have they done for the Publick Though it be a bold I feare it is a true Challenge John Lilburne makes which I am tempted once more to observe I here challenge them to shew me one deed they have done from the beginning of their Convention for the benefit of the people We are sure they have not been wanting to themselves All Places of profit are distributed among their Members Our monies to the summe of 3 or 400000l are put up in their bags Our Persons are at their devotion Their Priviledges are what they list The truth is All the evidences of tyranny against all the Kings of England untill this present age could not amount unto so much as the two Houses have bin guilty of within these very few years Nay it was impossible for all the Kings of England ever to attaine unto it so true a Prophet was even Master Hampden who when some expressed much Impatience at the want of a Parliament wished them to pray for a good one for nothing could undoe England but a Parliament The fourth Personall Charge That he hated Parliaments That he was a Hater of Parliaments they do back with these Proofs 1. That he never called any in twelve years 2. Prohibited all speech of any 3. Dissolved them at his pleasure 4. Searched the Closets and Pockets of the Members after Dissolution 5. Imprisoned others which prov'd the occasion of their death 6. Even in Parliament charged 5 of their Members 7. Offered them violence in his owne Person attended by a Train of Papists and others 8. Endevoured to over-awe them by bringing the Northern Army to London and that when he had declared against it 9. Called a Mock-Parliament at Oxford 10. Raised War against this Parliament which never King did against any but He. 11. Vpbraided his owne at Oxford with the Name of a Mungrell-Parliament The Improbability of this Charge 1. This cannot be easily admitted for a truth That the King should hate a Parliament if you consider 1. That he was an Advocate for them in his Fathers time and by his Endevour procured many good Laws for them in his days which was confessed in the Parliament as you may find in the Journall thereof 2. That to give them satisfaction he pressed his Father against his Resolution and Reason to begin a War with the House of Austria and obtained it though King James like a Prophet told him That it was not their Hate toward the House of Austria nor their Zeale to the Protestant Cause which moved them to put him upon that suit But a designe to bring him into a Noose that being in distresse by reason of it they might desert him and then make their Markets of the Crowne And he did particularly acquaint him with the steps and Gradations which they would proceed in first question and strip him of his Tonnage and Poundage then bind his hands from making other Provision for himself afterwards bring him upon his knees to them 3. Since his Reigne never any King called more Parliaments then He for so short a space notwithstanding those twelve years Intermission 4. All the Kings of England never offered more compliance or performed more Acts of Grace then He did 5. Lastly few Kings have testified a greater desire of correspondence with or of condescention to a Parliament then His Majesty hath done by this 1. In resigning up his faithfull Servants to be disposed of according to their will even against his Conscience 2. In offering them as it were a Blanke Jan. 20. 1640. which is to be seen in their own Book of Declarations 3. In giving up so many Bishops whose Votes for the most part were at his devotion to be expelled the House of Lords 4. Lastly In
Paddington upon pretence of businesse of huge Importance but knew not what untill they were come thither and then went on like Geese with the flock Let the Kingdome but seriously consider the Barbarisme herein toward his Majesty and the misery wherein they involve this Nation thereby and I believe there will no more be found to tread in their Steps Imprisonment is the Buriall of a Man alive and that which Private persons hardly endure with patience no Creature will if it be possible to make any Escape And it was formerly a high Charge even in a Subjects case upon the Star-Chamber and other Courts But for a King to be so dealt withall our owne an Innocent and Pious Prince by his owne Subjects to be put under the custody of his desperate implacable Adversaries further to be depriv'd of all Accesse or Entercourse with his Wife Children friends sequestred from all the Comforts of life This is much more then ever was inflicted upon Lilburne Pryn or Bastwick whose hard usages have been thunderd by themselves throughout the Kingdome to be savage barbarous inhumane By the Law of this Land It is Treason to imprison the King though at large 25 Ed. 3. c. 2. What will these men be thought worthy of when that shall recover its own Channell and flow downe our Streets like a Stream when they shall come to their Accounts The Miseries wherein they involve this Nation hereby are obvious to every understanding The Parliament touching the Succession 1 Mariae cap. 1. acknowledgeth That the welfare profit and speciall benefit of the universall people is continu'd and maintain'd in the surety and preservation of the Prince Even in this Parl. in their Declarations they say That the very Safety and Being of both his Kingdomes depends upon His Majesties returne to London Since the King was in their power The very Army could acknowledge There can be no Peace in this Kingdome without a good agreement between the King and his Subjects Now is it possible there should be an Accommodation where there is no Entercourse no Addresses made or entertain'd Those who have felt the Burden of this War need no Admonitour to judge what will be the Burden of another As much as lies in them the Houses have laid a lasting foundation to entaile if not perpetuate the Discord to our Posterity with all the sad Consequences thereof A Collection of all the particular Objections against His Majesty before he came to the Crown Those Objections which are made against His Majesty before his Reign and belongs to the first Classis of his Charges are only soure 1. His Letter to the Pope which he writ in Spaine 2. The Articles of Marriage made with Spaine 3. The Articles of Marriage made with France 4. The Death of King James But because the three first doe relate to that Charge which are against his Majesty as being enclined to Popery we shall give them their answers under that The brief of their Calumny concerning K. James his death is this That when the Duke was charged by the House of Commons of high Misdemeanour and Presumption In that he did contrary to the advice of his Physitians cause a Plaister to be applied and a Drink to be given to K. Iames who was sick but of an Ague and that conceived to be in the Declination by his Physitians whereupon divers distempers and ill symptomes ensued and the King himself did attribute the cause thereof unto the Plaisters That his Majesty who now is took notice of this in the Lords House told them He could be a Witnesse to cleare the Duke in every particular and did interrupt them by frequent Messages in their proceeding afterwards Dissolv'd the Parliament and did imprison Sir I. Eliot and Sir Dudly Diggs and hereupon they desire every one to judge where the guilt lay An Answer to that Calumnie concerning K. James 1. It is known to all that K. James was an aged man and to all the Court that he kept an ill Diet particularly how he was addicted to Excesse of sweet Wines by reason whereof together with ease and want of exercise as also the forbearance of all Physick he grew full of humors corpulent and of an evill constitution For the sicknes he died of it was a kind of Ague mixt of a quotidian and a tertian call'd an Hemitritaea and so determin'd of by all his Physitians six or seven at least Now that Disease though stiled by the name of an Ague is known to be mortall in its owne nature and more to die of it then to recover But in such an Age Constitution and course of Diet as King James was of nothing more certain Especially considering he hated Medicines would conforme to no directions nay was so crosse that when one of his Doctors as the mouth of the rest had told him that he must bleed in a great Rage he ingeminated the Scandal of a Butcher upon him 2. As they agreed this was his Disease so they were convinc'd that his Death was the naturall and genuine effect thereof and they testified the same 3. His Body being opened was found faire and free from any ground of Suspition in the judgment both of his Chyrurgeons of whom Master Hayes is yet living and in the Kings-bench Apothecary's and Physitians There are three of those Physitians yet alive Doctor Hervy Doctor Lister and Doctor Craig all three honest and worthy men the two last resident in the Parliaments quarters about London and in this Breach between the King and them of their party Doctor Craig under a disgust at Court and discharg'd from his Attendance long afore and therefore not likely to be partial to the King Who all doe testifie the truth of this Narrative and I believe are so noble that they will readily give satisfaction to any man that shall but doe his Judgment that right as to informe it 2. Touching the Duke I shall first premise somewhat both about that he administred to K. James and also how far he was accus'd in Parliament then answer the Charge The Duke himselfe had been sick of an Ague and that not long before in which Disease he was attended by three able Physicians but after some wrestling with it by their help the Countesse of Buckingham his Mother shutting them out of dores gives the Duke a Vomit made with Tobacco which wrought violently but recover'd him from his Disease After which finding himself somewhat weak he retires to the Earle of Warwick's house in Essex where either upon change of Aire or some reliques of the disease or what cause soever he suffer'd a relapse and being perswaded by the E. of Warwick sent for one Remington a Physician living thereabout who by a Plaister applyed to his Stomack and Wrists and a Posset-drink taken inwardly recovered him from that Relapse After this K. James being sick his disease an Ague the Duke ignorant of the distinction between Agnes thinking all of the same Nature that
bore the same Name perceiving the Physicians doubtfull other directions unsuccessfull the Kings disposition impatient of many Medicines declareth to the King his owne Cure proposeth to the Physicians to Vomit him with Tobacco But the danger thereof being suggested by reason of the violence of it and the speciall Antipathy of the King against it he forbeares that remedy yet upon the urgent desire of King James himselfe procures for him the aforesaid Plaister and Drinke the one being onely London-Treacle the other no more but Posset-drink boil'd with Harts-horne and Marigold-flowers then sweetned with syrrup of Gilly-flowers which were both discover'd to the Physicians afterwards and obtain'd before not without some assistance of the Earle of Warwick After the application of this whether by the naturall course of the disease or some other cause the King grew worse indeed the Physicians take it not well these Medicines are laid aside Yet the disease not abating upon intermission of the directions the King impatient both of his disease and of his Physicians prescripts importunes again for that Remedy which he had rejected Hereupon a Bed-chamber-man is presently dispatch'd unto the Apothecary Monsieur du Plure Treacle is sent for no tearm of Specification being added he thought it fit to send the best unto his Majesty and by that means sent him Venice-Treacle which as it was better in it selfe so was it worse for the Kings disease This being brought no body there present could order it but the Countesse of Buckingham It was applied again but being hotter then the former Plaister and the Kings hot fit approaching it might somewhat aggravate his Heate whereupon he cryed out That these had done him hurt and were the cause of his Extremity Upon this some one in the roome drank up the Posset-drinke and the Plaister was applied to another who took no manner of hurt but that he was cured of an Ague This is the whole truth concerning that Application and besides others it will be attested by Master Patrick Maule then of the Bed-chamber and in Attendance a Gentleman whom the Parliament hath imployed about the King ever since he hath bin in their hands and therefore one that in all probability would relate nothing to their disadvantage on set purpose For the Duke's Impeachment in Parliament this was the ground of it When that Parliament was summon'd and the Elections were made Sir John Eliot who much honoured the Duke and was reciprocally much esteemed of by him made an addresse unto the Duke in the name of many Members offered him many Arguments to bring him unto their Party made engagements unto him to establish him in all his Places by Parliament and to adde unto his Grandeur But the Duke rejecting these offers and replying with some Scorne according to the Height and perhaps vanity of his Spirit That the King should have that now by no leave of theirs which formerly he would have thanked them for and that the turbulent Spirits were so dasht that there could be no considerable Opposition in their House to his designes and indeed in sight more of the Members of that Election were at the Dukes devotion Whereupon Sir John Eliot like a good Patriot reply'd that he was mistaken in the Spirit of that House the very walls infusing Resolution into them who sate there and rather then the Duke should not be dasht that he himself would break the ice And hereupon was the E. of Bristol countenanced whom in former Parliaments they themselves had cast some frowns upon and threatned with some danger This Impeachment against the Duke is contrived in such a way as that the King must either engage against him or at least stand Neuter or which was worst of all beare the reflection of that Dirt which they would bestow upon the Duke This was the true ground of that Charge and this was the Man who carried it up and did chiefly manage it in the House of Commons and in their Committees 3. These things thus premised I answer First by way of Concession that indeed the Duke was guilty of Imprudence to meddle in an Art he was not Master of And more yet to exhibit any thing that way unto a King so that he was in some measure liable to the Charge against him Secondly by way of Exception 1. This was no cause of the Kings death and so much the very Charge implies which was but of Mis-demeanors and high Presumptions Had it been of his Death it could not have stood on this side High-Treason and therefore it was a malicious intimation to the Kingdome that his Majesty was guilty of what they themselves were ashamed to charge upon the Duke 2. It was done out of a good affection and an intent to recover the King Had he had other Ends he would never have owned the Action as he did He was not so weak a Politician as to doe such a businesse with his owne hands or by those of his Mother or so much above-boord 3. The Medicines of themselves were innocent and could not prejudice I have heard it from learned Physicians that London-Treacle is of a temperate nature and propulsive of Venome from the Heart a Cordial the decoction of Harts-horn with Marygold-flowers and Gilly-flowers is no other Nay this was attested by some of the Physicians upon their Examinations in that Parliament that those Medicines did him no hurt 4. There was a possibility to save the King thereby Experiment is the best Leg and Base of Physick and oftentimes when a learned Doctor hath strugled in vaine a Nurse or a Midwife hath wrought the Cure by an approved Receit How oft hath the Lady of Kent flatter'd her selfe in this kind and the Lady Brooks too or they have done Cures by a Medicine or two which have been blow'd at in vaine by good Physicians 5. It was done by K. James his earnest entreaty and we know how far the Importunity of a great Person a Prince may transport a man his servant even against Reason much more where there was Reason for it We can produce an example of a French K. in a Fever who being prohibited all Wine by his Physicians did so importune his Servants for that liquor as they gave him his fill and that of the strongest too whereby he was not only satisfied but his Fever cured 6. The chief Witnesses against the Duke were Ramsey and Eglisham the first to the Parliament the other to the Kingdome by his pen both of them of so bad a Reputation that their testimony was not to be taken against a private man the former being expell'd or enforced to relinquish the Colledge of London for his ill-behavior who will lie swear flatter do any villany the latter expell'd from his Vniversity a Papist or rather of no Religion and of as little honesty or learning a man of a crackt Braine too 8. For K. James his own Clamour his word that way was no Slander How often hath Treason been
by a Minister why Religion was made a cause of it gave this account that the people would not stir else yet Master Martin hath in the House and divers other places bin so ingenuous as to tel them They need not lie for a good Cause It was not Religion they fought for but Liberty 1. The Charge from the Letter to the Pope answer'd 1. For the Letter to the Pope It is so fully answered in a Book called Vindiciae Caroli and in another Treatise called The Pre-eminence and Priviledge of Parliament that I need not insist thereon The Prince being upon a Match with Spaine it could not be passed in regard of the difference of his Religion but by a Dispensation from the Pope Yet although he had left all that Transaction to the Spaniard to avoid entercourse with him yet the Pope taking his advantage writes a Letter to the Prince Being at this ward I see not how even in Civility especially considering the Precisenes Punctuality of that Nation in all Courtship and Complement as also in safety as being in the hands of Strangers and to the securing of the Match the maine Businesse he came for he could forbeare to answer it Yet was it done by him with that Wisdome and Care as it might give no offence and by the severest Censure of an un-byassed Reader that understands the Language not smell at all of any Complyance in Religion Moreover that it might beare no ill sense as of a clandestine Correspondence he was pleased to publish it to the world It is no strange thing to write even to the Turke which the two Houses have offered our Merchants to doe for them or to the King of Morosco that are Mahumetans to Princes of what Nation or Religion soever But if you doe observe it this their owne Weapon wounds themselves and makes for the King for what needed a Dispensation if the King had been of that Religion 2. The Charge from the Articles of Mariage with Spaine and France Answered The Articles of Marriage with Spain and France are fully satisfied in that fore-mentioned Book Vindiciae Caroli yet if any have not seen or perused that Book Let him take this short account here 1. That a particular Toleration had a former president even in Q. Elizabeth whom they never durst accuse for a favourer of Papists in those Articles of Marriage which were consented to with the Duke of Anjou Where by the way you may take notice that in her time Master Stubs a Lawyer but a great Professour and one Master Page had their hands cut off for writing a Tract against that Match which they had entituled The Mariage of a Child of God with the Son of Antichrist Camb. Elizab. An. 3 4 5 6. 2. That if the Intelligence were true which these Accusers take from an ordinary News-monger or Mercury of an universal Toleration agreed upon it was Intuitu majoris Boni The Palatinate was to be restored again and the Protestants of Germany to be re-enstated in their Possessions upon that Condition 3. That this was King James his Act not King Charles his who was onely passive therein and to whose hand these Articles were beaten before his comming into Spaine 4. That they were never any Prejudice to this Kingdome because the Match with Spaine was broken and therefore should be no Objection The Articles of the Mariage with France which went forward had the same reasons and so are answered 3. That of the Agent at Rome Answered 1. The Agent in Rome if any was from the Queen and not the King 2. Grant it to have been from the King which is not true he may surely claime as much liberty that way as Q. Elizabeth who had an Embassadour or Agent namely Sir Edward Carne with the Pope in Rome Camb. Eliz. 1559. at the beginning of her Reigne yet was never under any Suspition for it Kings have or ought to have their Espyals and Intelligencers in all places from which there is possibility of danger to their Dominions I have heard Q. Elizabeth had even in the Popes owne Family and in the Colledges of the Jesuits Their Projects against us could not better be dis-appointed then by thus picking the Locks of their very Bosomes 4. That of Toleration answer'd That he offer'd a Toleration to the Papists in Ireland contrary to his former Resolutions was but upon great and pressing Necessity which hath no Law and to that degree of Necessity the two Houses had driven him so the consequences were to be set upon their Score not his owne yet even then in his Letters about that Affaire published by themselves he doth insist on it That the Bargain may be made as good as can be for him But I have seen other Letters from one of his Secretaries to the Irish which I am ensur'd were true wherein were these Expressions after Expostulation of their delaies in his Assistance He is inform'd that taking advantage of his low condition you insist on something in Religion more then formerly you were contented with He hath therefore commanded me to let you know that were his Condition much lower you shall never force him to any further Concessions to the prejudice of his Conscience and of the true Protestant Religion in which he is resolved to live and for which he is ready to die and that he will joyne with any Protestant Prince nay with these Rebels themselves how odious soever meaning his two Houses rather then yeild the least to you in this particular The same retorted Besides herein the Parliament doth somewhat justifie him For if the Papists themselves may be believ'd they have been solicited formerly to serve the Parliament and were promised by some of their Agents an universall Toleration and a Repeale of the Penall Statutes which is the more credible because Henry Martin told them in the House not long since That he had a Petition from all the Papists in England for one and was their Advocate for it though unseasonably Nay many of the Independent Writers who never received check for it from the House doe in their Books not onely allow but give reasons for it And in the Compositions for Delinquency though the two Houses pretended them to be without Capacity thereof They were admitted nay and at lower Rates and with more favour then many zealous Protestants who had been lesse active in this warre 5. That of the Nuncio Answered 1. The Nuncio's businesse was meerly to the Queen and he a Lay-man 2. It is no Courtship to forbid an ordinary mans Wife all entercourse with those of her own Religion though different from that of her Husband nor is it the way to convert her I am perswaded divers of both Houses have been guilty of that Allowance Yet the Right of a Queen is greater and it was an Article of Mariage 3. It might have been afforded with lesse Regret for to smooth Her Majesty and to take off the Remembrance of the
and the Tower Answered Vnusuall Provision of Ammunition fire-workes c. about the Tower and White-Hall mounting Ordinance upon the White-Tower c. was made indeed but only in Order to security at that seditious and tumultuous time Would these good men think it a just Challenge against them Now that they have mann'd White-Hall with ten times the number and the Mewes to boote Now that they have raised Batteries in the Tower mounted Canon cleansed the ditches brought in a Garrison of strangers and laid aside or over-sized the ordinary Guard That therefore they intend to destroy the Presbyterians or the rest of the Kingdome 6. That of Commissions to Papists Answered Commissions were indeed given to the Papists but since the war was begun and I would faine learne what Priviledge the Papists have from being imployed in defence of their King and whether it had been wisdome in us to hazard our selves and that the Protestants should spend their Mettle one upon another while they sate still and looked on Yet I cannot compute upon the most severe survey that the hundredth Commission was issued unto Papists What danger could there be in that disproportion 7. The Charge against His Majesty of Tyranny The third Charge against His Person is of Tyranny and an Endeavour to enslave us which is proved 1. By His Principles in regard he holds forth to us in his Declarations That he is liable to Account for nothing he doth to any man and that nor one nor both Houses of Parliament can make or declare a Law 2. By his Practises as 1. In attempting to enslave us by the German-Horse 2. By the Spanish fleet That Charge Answered To the first The Principle which the King holds out was ever taken for Truth heretofore 1. All his Predecessors in this all Soveraigne Princes in other States have made claime hereto and for ought I have heard were never questioned before for it To passe by King James and all others which might admit exception Hear what Queen Elizabeth saith Although Kings and Princes Soveraigne owing their Homage and service only unto Almighty God the King of all Kings and in that respect not bound to yeild account or render a reason of their Actions to any other but God their Soveraigne yet though among the most ancient and Christian Monarchs the same Lord God hath committed unto us the Soveraignty of this Kingdome of England and other Dominions which we hold immediately of the same Almighty God and so thereby accompt only to his Divine Majesty We are notwithstanding this our Prerogative moved to declare c. In a Declaration of the causes moving her to give assistance to the Netherlands printed by her own Printer 1585. 2. The Lawyers of the Kingdome have constantly taught us the same who call the King Caput Principium Parliamenti Pater Patriae the Head and beginning of his Parliament the father of his Country who also tell us expressely Omnis sub Rege Ipse sub nullo nisi Deo Non est inferior sibi subjectis and Rex non habet superiorem nisi Deum satis habet ad panam quòd Deum expectat ultorem The King hath no Peere in this Land and he cannot be judged The Regality of the Crown of England is immediately subject to God and to none other 3. This very Parliament hath made a tacite acknowledgment hereof as well as all others by taking the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance by making their Addresses to the King under the notion of his leige men and most humble subjects and by their very Petitions 4. It hath been the practise of all Ages and was of this present Parliament to decline the King even in those things which had been acted by his Commands and to fall upon the Ministers according to the sense of that Law Maxime The King can do no wrong It were strange now that the Children might call the Father to an account The Hee le lift it self against or the Members question the Head The Subject over-top the Soveraigne The Fable hath a good Morall and I doubt is verified in our times The Taile of the Dragon once made that pretence of Governing against the Head but having obtained the liberty to Lead after a great deale of toyle led all the Body into a ditch But this being granted and proved how will the consequence ensue It is not the exemption from Accompt which makes a Tyrant but owning no Law making his Will and Pleasure to be the standard of all his Actions There is no State wherein there is not an ultimate Judicature which is not to be Accomptable By this rule all Government should be Tyrannous 2. That both Houses can make no Law they themselves confesse I am sure the Lord Cooke in his fourth booke Printed by their own speciall Command doth often That they can declare a Law is against reason If the King be necessary to the making doubtlesse he is also to concur in the Interpretation otherwise to what purpose doth his Councell serve But to arrogate a Power to declare a Law contrary to the evident sense or interpretation received ever since it was made even though a hundred or a thousand years is a monstrous usurpation and the greatest evidence of a Tyrannicall spirit that is possible If they have a power to interpret only according to the evidence of the letter or former acceptation where then is the Priviledge and what need there be a quarrell That of the German Horse Answered 1. The Horse out of Germany was but in Proposall never resolved on much lesse put in execution Now an Embrio is no perfect man nor a Designe to be esteemed a Fact much lesse is a bare Proposall 2. It appears to be rather the Duke's doing who at that time took upon him the managery of most affaires in this Kingdome And why should they make the King black with the Dukes faults if that were one But 3. the true designe of those Horse was onely to discipline our English and make them more expert for forraigne Imployments as it may be remembred we had divers old Foot-soldiers and Officers out of Holland for a while to that purpose and how unskilfull our Nation was therein as also of what Consequence it was Our Army in the Isle of Ree was a fatall evidence and since that their owne Armies have felt at Worcester Edge-hill and other Fights untill by frequent Experience and the great pains of some Dutch and Scotch Officers they were made formidable 4. The Instruments whose Counsels were used in this great pretended Crime who made the first offer to raise and conduct those Horse have been harbour'd in the bosome of the Houses and imployed in Places of signall trust as Sir William Balfours Dalbiere c. That of the Spanish Fleet Answered Rather then they will want a Charge the Spanish fleet shall furnish them with one though brought into our Havens by meer necessity being pursued by the Hollanders and having