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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91317	A vindication of the imprisoned and secluded Members of the House of Commons, from the aspersions cast upon them, and the majority of the House, in a paper lately printed and published: intituled, An humble answer of the Generall Councel of the officers of the Army under his Excellency Thomas Lord Fairfax, to the demands of the Honourable Commons of England in Parliament assembled: concerning the late securing or secluding some Members thereof.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1649 (1649)	Wing P4128; Thomason E539_5; ESTC R7280	23,082	37

obtained and enjoyed in the times of peace The usuall means whereby any of the Kings of this Land have made encroachment upon the good Laws granted to the people and their own agreements have been either by placing corrupt Judges or other Ministers in the Courts of Justice Who though they could not abrogate the Law yet they have made it speak against it self and their good for whom it was made or else by the power of preferring corrupt Courtiers to honour and profit to stop the course of Justice by the Councell-Table for a time Both these meanes are taken away from this King by what is agreed on in this Treatie The first in the Proposition placing the choice of Officers in the Parliament whereby as they have the Lawes they desire so they have the choice of the Judges and Officers that must administer them And the second in the Proposition barring the King from making any new Lords for the future to Vote in the House of Peeres without the consent of the Houses Which are a strong security against a politicke as the M●litia in the Houses is against a forceable breach of this Agreement Lastly we say That it cannot be expected of any Agreement should be made for peace settled after such a Civil War without some hazard of violation or interruption But whether the hazards and dangers be a breach upon such termes as are now in difference betwixt the Houses Propositions and the Kings answer be not more and greater and whether in case endeavours should be used hereafter to violate this agreement the Parliament might not then with more Justice and greater advantage draw the Sword then they can now keepe it unshathed upon the matter in difference Wee leave it to all sober minded men to judge And to what is said That they wanted not good intelligence that had they been suffered to meet all in the House but once more it was designed to have passed some higher resolutions to lay further foundations of such new quarrell so as to carry therein the name and countenance of Parliamentary authority together with the Kings and acceptable pretence of peace to draw men in and then to have adjourned the Parliament for a long time the exclusion of all remedy in the case but by another Warre Wee say the House at the passing Vote upon the Kings Answers immediately appointed a Committee to goe to the Generall and conferre with him and the Officers of the Army to keepe a good understanding betwixt the House and the Army Which shewed the full intent of the House to proceed by all amicable wayes with them not by force but by reason Which they were so far from attending unto as in duty and conscience they ought to have done and to which the Lord Generall promised his readinesse however it was hindered afterwards That they seized upon one of the Commissioners appointed to Treat with them affronted another of them and left no way for any conference that might have given them the the grounds of the Houses proceedings which gives grounds of suspi●ion that they were resolved to do what they had designed whatsoever the Houses had endeavoured to the contrary Thus we have the more largely opened the thoughts of our hearts for their satisfaction if it be possible and especially for the satisfaction of those that intrusted us in what we have done upon the result of this Treaty and in passing that Vote D●●●mb 5. That the Answers of the King to the Prepositions of both Houses are a ground for the House to proceed upon for the settlement of the peace of the Kingdome for which wee are charged to betray our Trust to bee selfe-servers to complect her in our wicked designs and the like For betraying our Trust as our faithfulnesse hath appeared by our services and sufferings so wee hope it will not be accounted belonging our Trust to endeavour the obtaining of a just peace and for serving our selves our owne hearts beare us witnesse that wee had not respect in this Vote or any private byasse towards our selves so all that know what threatnings were cast into the House in the Anmi●s Remonstrance and Declarations in the entrance upon this debate what power of the Army was then in this City what Language was commonly spoke amongst the Souldiers what Guards we then had will judge that we had more cause to be byassed by fear● from doing our duties then at that time to thinke to serve our selves by such a vote as this to which nothing but the forceable impulse of our consciences for the discharge of our duties could have led us And we now appeale even to the Consciences of those even the Army themselves although Souldiers whose advantages arise by Warre are not altogether the most competent Judges of constitutions for peace Whether this were to bring in the King upon his owne Termes or upon the Kingdomes Termes Whether the sixt and last particular of their account be ground of necessity to warrant their extraordinary course in secluding us from the House carrying us along the streets of this City by their Souldiers as if wee were their Captive slaves and to imprison our persons and reproach our names And to what they say in the close That these Members who are yet detained in custody they are either such who have beene formerly impeached and in part judged by the house for Treason and other crimes and never acquitted and against whom they can and very shortly shall produce new matter of no lesse Crime or else such who have appeared most active and united in Councells with them against whom also they are preparing and shall shortly give matter of particular impeachment Wee say as wee doubt not but by what wee have said already wee yet stand cleare in the judgements of all men that are guided by the Rules of Religion Lawes or Reason so when all or any of us know what are those new Crimes they say they can charge some of us with and what those charges are they say they are preparing for others and when we know who those some and others are we doubt not but they will make their innocency and integrity appeare against those Crimes and Charges which they have either in pretence or in preparation against them Lastly the Army who hath done this against us and have strengthened their hands to pursue it say they appeal● to God And wee also appeale unto God who is our strength and besides him wee have none other to cleare our innocency and protect us from violence If in what we have endeavoured wee may bee instrumentall to the settling of this Kingdom in a safe and well grounded peace wherein truth and righteousnesse may flourish If we may contribute to the saving of Ireland the Union betwixt the kingdomes of England and Scotland the peservation of the Parliament the Government and Lawes of the Land the true Protestant Religion and the Liberties of the people wee have our hearts

the Army without Order from the House and the Army advanced against the Parliament they say in their Letter to the House July the 8 1647 There have been severall Officers of the Armie upon severall occasions sent to his Majestie The first to present to him a Copy of the Representations and after that some others to tender him a Copie of the Remonstrance upon b●th which the Officers sent were appointed to ●leer the sense and intentions of any thing in either paper whereupon his Majestie might make any question There they treated with the King and now they offer violence to the Parliament for treating with the King Then in their Remonstrance Ju● 23. 1647 it is said We ch●rly professe we do not see how there can be any peace to this Kingdom firms or lasting without a due consideration of and provision for the Rights quiet and Immunities of his Majesties Royall Family and his late partakers Now they judge the Majority of the House corrupt and proceed violently against them for moving one step towards a peace with the King though he hath granted more then all their Proposals and make this a necessity sharp enough to justifie the using of their swords contrary to their Commissions This were cause enough to make the unsoundnesse of this plea of necessity appear to all the world and even to be suspected by themselves that serves to justifie contradictions which they are put to by making themselve Judgess of those things they have no calling to meddle with and taking them out of those hands to whom of right it belongs to judge them 2. This plea of necessity which is made in this paper is destructive to all Government For by the same reason that the General Officer urgeth necessity for acting against the command and persons of his Superiours and makes himself Judge of that necessity the inferiour Officer may urge the same necessity in his judgement to act against the commands of his Generall and the Souldiers may urge the like for acting against their Officers and any other 20000 men in the Kingdom to act against the Army and this Army to act as against this Parliament so against any other Government of Representative that shall be set up and so in infinitum 3. Did the Members of Parliament proceed in Parliament contrary to their trust in the judgement of those that did elect them yet it is manifest that the power of advising voting and acting being placed in the Members of Parliament by the Law of the Land and ancient Rights of Parliament they are not accountable much lesse censurable for the use of it according to their own judgment and consciences though contrary to theirs that chose them They are only in such cases accountable to and censurable by the House which they could not reasonably be if they were cens●rable by the people that sent them For then the Parliament might judge that good service which the Electors judge evill è convers● the Electors may judge that evill which the House may judge to be good and so no man can be safe or free in the service of the Parliament But were power and trust placed in the Members of Parliament by law only to be used or not used valid or null at the Electors judgment yet in such case the Members of Parliament were only accountable to the Counties Cities or Boroughs for which they serve and not to Strangers and in no case are they accountable to the Army who are so far from being those from whom they received their Trust that they are only persons in a subordinate Trust under them for their defence from force Which how well they have performed we leave to the judgment of all those who observe their present proceedings 4. These actions which they undertake to justifie are contrary not onely to their trust but to the express letter of the Covenant and Protestation which they have taken And breach of Oath being a morall evill it is not to be justified by necessity and good intentions Saul though a King and thereby qualified to do justice yet for executing the Gibeonites against a Covenant made many hundred yeers before and gained subtilly by the Gibeonites who were not of the children of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites with whom he might presume to be more bold and though he did this in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah yet this necessity in his judgment for publick good could not warrant him God brought a Famine upon the Land for this breach of Covenant which ceased not untill it was expiated by the death of seven of his sons that did commit it See here by this instance what legacy they by their present actions may leave to their posterity Having thus laid down these considerations of this plea of Necessity in generall it thereby appears should we say no more though we should be guilty of the ●ensuing particulars with which we are charged yet they could not be innocent nor justified in what they have done against us But for 〈◊〉 furth●● clec●●●g and their further conviction we come now to enquil● in●● those particulars in this Paper in which they h●ld forth the necessity that must bear them one wherein the question betwixt us admitting necessity would justifie th●●● proceedings is thus Whether that which is assigned in the particulars following in their Paper be that necessity wherein we shall joyn issue with them and freely put it to tryall upon the particulars following which are six in number But before we enter upon them we must take notice of what is said from the end of the second page of their Paper unto the end of the fift page wherein are used many words to shew how the Majority of the House came to be formed to serve the Kings and other corrupt Interests The sum of all which is That by the endeavours of some whom they call old Malignant Members and by the practises used in the new Elections there came in a flood of new Burgesses that either are Malignants or Ne●ters To which we answer That what is done by the majority of the House it is the act of the whole House so what is done against the majority of the House is done against the whole House And to the Charge against the new Burgesses as it is cleer the Ordinance for new Elections was not carried by those we call old Malignants if there be any such in the House except the major part of the House was alwayes Malignants and before the new Election so for the Members which came in upon the new Election which are called Neuters or Malignants in generall without fixing upon any one particular Member to which a 〈◊〉 all in generall were sufficient Yet we shall further adde that of all those Members of the new Election that are secluded or imprisoned we know none but whose Elections are allowed by the House and who are proper Judges thereof and who

either by their services as Souldiers for the Parliament or in their Committees or otherwise by imminent services or sufferings in their Cause gave a testimony of their faithfulnesse to the Parliament before they were elected which may free them from the name of Neuters and Malignants And it were not hard to shew that many Officers of the Army who came in upon the last Elections are chosen by those places where they were scarce known and wherein they have no interest of their own and by what other influence they obtained those Elections we leave it to themselves to judge 〈◊〉 whom it is best known and so come to the first of those six particulars wherein is assigned the extraordinary necessity to justifie their proceedings in their own words First The betraying of IRELAND into the enemies bands by recalling the Lord Lisle from his command there and putting the best part of that Kingdom and where the Parliament had the strongest footing Munster into the hands of Inchequin a native Irish man who hath since revolted from the Parliament hath lately united with the Irish Rebels and with them and Ormond again engaged with the King To which we answer That if Munster be that part of Ireland wherein the Parliament had the best interest the Lord Inchequin did come in himself and bring that interest to the Parliament whom he served against the Irish Rebels and preserved a possession in Munster for the Parliament during the heat of their Wars in England when they had little other interest in Ireland and lesse means to relieve them out of England That the Lord Lisle was not recalled from his command there but his Commission for Lord Lieutenant of Ireland expiring about the fifteenth of April 1647. his Lordship on the seventeenth of April took shipping for England After the Lord Lisles departure out of Munster the Lord Inchequin proceeded successively against the Rebels and took from them many considerable Forts and Castles the Garrison of Oramanagh Capp●quin the Town and Castle of Dungarvan the Castle of Calur and others And upon the fourteenth of November following at the battell of Knocknowes he obtained one of the greatest Victories that ever was gotten over the Rebels Army under the command of the Lord Taff wherein were taken of the enemies Horse two hundred slain of the Foot four thousand Officers taken prisoners sixty eight Arms fix thousand the Lieutenant generall slain For all which we refer the Reader to the Letters and Papers concerning these severall services presented to the House and by their Orders published in print These were such testimonies of his reality to the Parliament long after the Lord Lisles coming out of Munster that the House did not call it into question and nothing to the contrary appeared to the Houses untill the third of April 1648. The Army here having disputed the Parliaments Commands the Lord Inchequin began to enter into Remonstrances and engagements against the Parliament for which he made the Remonstrances Engagements and Declarations of the Army the Summer before both the Cause and President as by the Relation made to the House published in print doth appear We mention not these things in the least measure to justifie the Lord Inchequins revolt from the Parliament but have onely related the truth of the matter of fact for our own justification against the Charge in this Paper of betraying Munster and we leave to the Reader to judge whether the Army hath cause to complain of us or reflect upon themselves for the losse of Munster and proceed to the second particular viz. Their endeavours to bring in the King upon his own Terms without satisfaction and security to the Kingdom viz. upon his Message of the twelfth of May 1647. and to this end with so manifest injustice and indignity to di●band the Army before any Peace made or assured For the engagement of the twelft of May it is well known the House of Commons upon the first knowledge of that engagement voted it to be treasonable and afterwards both Houses by Ordinance of the seventeenth of December 1647. put 〈◊〉 inc●patity upon all those in or about the City of London that entred into or contrived acted or ●●etted that engagement of bearing any Office in the City of London for that yeer which we take to be a sufficient Evidence to prove us herein a right majority as in other parts of their Paper they take the Votes of the House to prove us a corrupt majority The Charge here lying onely in generall and not fixed upon any particular Yet for our further cleering besides the Testimony we have given against the bringing in the King upon any such tearms by our continued insisting upon far higher tearms to which the King hath agreed in the late Treaty we doe every one of us for our selves respectively professe our utter dislike of that engagement or any endeavour to bring in the King upon any engagement made or contrived without the House And for what is said concerning disbanding of the Army we say that the Votes of the House that eight Regiments of Foot four of Horse and one of Dragoons should be sent out of the Army to Ireland which was desired might be in one entire Body and their resolution to contain ten thousand Foot and five thousand four hundred Horse under the command of the Lord Fairfax for the necessary defence of the Kingdom as the state of affairs then stood in England and Ireland as it was to no such end as is alledged but for the relieving of poor distressed Protestants in I●eland the easing of the heavy pressures lying upon the poor people of this Kingdom and an honourable and fit imploying the Forces of that Army to prevent the high Distempers that since have ensued so as it was no injustice nor indignity to the Armie To the third Article viz. That they endeavoured to protect the eleven impeached Members from justice and endeavouring with them to raise a new War We say that as we desire no other protection then our own innocency and the Laws under which we live so we never gave any other protection to the eleven Members then what stood with Law and Justice And for the mislending of two hundred thousand pounds or the greatest part thereof which w●● designed chiefly for Ireland We say that about eighty thousand pound of that money was paid to Mast●●Nicholas Loftus and others for the service of Ireland and above fifty thousand pound to the Treasurers at Wa● for the Army which might with more reason be said to be misimployed in regard there is an establishment for their pay another way unlesse part of the Army had gone to do Ireland service for that money then what the Reformado Officers and Souldiers who obeyed the Orders of the House for disbanding who received pressed the more earnestly upon the House for part of their Arrears after their Declarations and Remonstrances by the Army for satisfying the Arrears of all