is your proviso against this strong declared Law truly not worth a button being absolutely weaker then all the other 9 Provisoes But let us a little consider of your proviso the conclusion of which expresly saith That your Fraternitie Charters Customes Corporations Companies Fellowships and Societies and their Liberties Priviledges Powers and Immunities shall be and continue of such force and effect mark it well as they were before the making of this Act and of none other any thing before in this Act contained to the conteary in any wise notwithstanding And truly they were all of them illegall before and therefore of no force and effect as is fully proved and declared in the Preamble so that you get not the breadth of a hair either in point of benefit or power by this proviso But notwithstanding your Pattents Charters c. are not onely declared and enacted to be illegall but also your estates liable to pay treble dammages and double costs to all men that you wrong contrary to this just and excellent Law in which besides the incurring the Premunire to any that shall delay an Action grounded upon this Statute It is also enacted That no Essâ—ign Protection Wager of Law Aid Prayer Priviledge Injunction or order of restraint shall in any wise be prayed granted admitted or allowed nor any more then one imperlance And for the further illustration that the Proviso of London is under both the declaratory and penall part of this Statute seriously read and consider the strength of the five last provisoes which onely are fenced in unquestionably and you shall find their provisoes run clear in another strain to that of London viz. Provided also and be it enacted that this Act or any Declaration provision disablement penalty or other thing before in the Act mentioned shall not extend to c. and in the conclusion of their proviso the words run thus That all c. shall be and remain of the like force and effect and no other and as free from the declarations provisions penalties and forfeitures contained in this Act as if this ACT had never been had nor made and not otherwise But compare the proviso for London which is absolutely the weakest of the rest and you shall find no such words in it at all the words of which Proviso thus followe Provided also and it is hereby further intended declared and enacted that this Act or any thing therein contained shall not in any wise extend or be prejudiciall unto the City of London or to any City Borough or Towns-Corporate within this Realm for or concerning any Grant Charters or Letters-Pattents to them or any of them made or granted or for or concerning any custome or customes used by or within them or any of them or unto any Corporations or Fellowships of any Art Trade Occupation or Mystery or to any Companies or Societies of Merchants within this Realm erected for the maintenance enlargement or ordering of any Trade of Marchandize but that the same Charters Customes Corporations Companies Fellowships and Societies and their liberties priviledges powers and immunities shall be and continue of such force and effect as they were before the making of this Act which was just none at all and of no other any thing before in this Act contained to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding the Statute of 3. James chap. 6. which Statute opens and make free the trade for Spain Portugall and France with Sir Edward Cookes Coment upon the Statute of Monopolies in the 3. part of his Institut fol. 181. and his sayings upon the same subject in his Exposition of Magna Charta 2. part Institut fol. 47. is extraordinary well worth the judicious Readers serious perusall for they will give a great deale of light about these Monopolists c. But in case the Reader have not the bookes by him nor cannot furnish himself therewith without a great deal of money if he please to furnish himself with my fore-mentioned Treatise which for a very small matter he may called Innocencie and Truth justified and read the 55 56 60 61 62. pages thereof you shall finde there both the fore-mentioned Statute at large and the marrow of Sir Edward Cookes Aaguments to which I refer you But if any man shall propound the question and ask what 's the reason that the Statute of Monopolies being a Law of so great concernment to all the people of London is no plainer penned I answer according to that information that I have from every good hand and one that knowes as much of the hammering contriving and passing of that Statute as I think any one man in England doth that in the Parliament before this most excellent Law passed it was in more plainer expressions then now it is sent up to the Lords who judged it so prejudiciall to the Prerogative and divers great Courtyers that with scorne and indignation they tare it in their house and threw it over their Bar so that there was an end of it for that Parliament But it being of so much use to the Common-wealth as it was some Patrons thereof in the next Parliament set it on foot again and prosecuted it very close but judging it impossible purely without clogs to passe the Lords and if it did passe the Lords yet they feared it would stick at the King and therefore put in some colourable provisoes which not one in a hundred could rightly understand but it coming into the Lords house with the provisoes much all alike the subtle crafty Attorney Generall then Sir Thomas Coventry late Lord-Keeper presently found out the fallacie and being put upon it by his Master the King strengthened the five last provisoes as they are which principally served his turn and beating then a good-wil to the Common-wealth and the Law of the Kingdome passed by that proviso of London c. that so the Act might be as beneficiall for the Kingdom as possible it could bee got to be then and to be the promoters of that Statute were willing to please the King and his Courtiers in admitting the five last provisoes having gained London c. being the main and principal of all the rest rather then not to have it passe at all which then it was impossible to do without them and therefore there was an extraordinary great necessity to pen it so ambiguous doubtful as it is not only for casting a mist over the Citizens eyes as indeed they have done it excellently well who if it had been plain perspicuous and easie to their understandings would have interposed with all their might and strength and if they could not have prevailed to stop it in the House of Commons would have gone near to have bribed all the Courtiers about the Court in which practises they are very well versed before it should have passed either with the Lords or King Now seeing the Patentee-Monopolizers are so pernicious and destructive to the lawes and liberties of England as by
ruine and destruction unlesse your speedy and long-expected justice prevent the same Which your Petitioner doth earnestly intreat at your hands as her right and that which in equity honour and conscience cannot be denied her w w col declar 127 174 244 253 282 284 285 312 313 321 322 467 490 514 516 520 521 532 533 534 535 537 539 541 543 555 560. And as in duty bound she shall ever pray that your hearts may be kept upright and thereby enabled timely and faithfully to discharge the duty you owe to the kingdome according to the Great Trust reposed in you And so free your selves from giving cause to bee judged men that seeke your selves more then the publick good To the Honourable the chosen betrusted and representative Body of all the Free-men of England in PARLIAMENT assembled The humble Petition of Lieut. Col. John Lilburn a legall Free-man of England though now unjustly imprisoned by the Lords in the extraordinary chargeable Prison of the Tower of London SHEWETH THAT WHereas the Petitioner is a legall and free-born English-man and ought by the fundamentall lawes of this Land to enjoy the benefit of all the lawes liberties priviledges and immunities of a free-born man and a Commoner of England and whereas by the Lawes and Statutes of this Realm no free-man may be taken imprisoned but by lawfull judgment of his equals who are men of his own condition and the Law of the Land and by the Law of the same no man ought to be imprisoned before he be taken upon indictment or presentment by good men of the same neighbour-hood or by due processe of Law And whereas every man that is taken or imprisoned by the common Lawes of the Land ought to be bayled But he that is taken and convicted for Murder or Felony or for some other offence for which a man ought to lose life or member And by the Statutes of this Realm every man is baylable unlesse he be taken for Treason Murder Felony or some particular case excepted wherof the Petitioner is no wayes guilty But your Petitioner sheweth that he being taken and imprisoned above 4 Moneths by colour of unjust orders and an illegall sentence of the Lords pronounced against him in their house although they have no legall jurisdiction over him for supposed contempts and scandals committed against them which was nothing else then a defence of his own liberty and of all the free-men of England in a plea and defence put into the said house which contained an Appeal to your Honours against their unjust proceedings for which supposed contempts he is by their unjust sentence committed to the Tower there to remain for the space of 7. years and disabled to bear any office either Military or Civill and to pay 4000.l Fine All which proceedings of their Lordships the Petitioner doth protest against as unjust illegall and destructive to the liberties immunities and priviledges of all the Commons of England which he doubts not to free himself and all other free-born English-men of by the Justice of this honourable House to whom he hath formerly and now also doth Appeale and by the assistance of the Lawes of this Land Therefore your Petitioner doth most humbly pray that he may be inlarged at least upon bayle being by Law liable to follow and prosecute his cause depending before you and redemption from the said illegall sentence and to obtain just and legall reparations from the inflictors and executors thereof And he shall pray c. JOHN LILBURN COurteous Reader by reason I am prohibited to have Pen Ink and Paper I am forced now to write a peece and then a peece and scarce have time and opportunity seriously to peruse and correct what I write and in regard I cannot be at the Presse either to correct or revise my own lines which besides is attended with many difficulties and hazards I must intreat thee as thou readest to amend with thy Pen what in sence or quotations may be wanting or false I shal rest thy true and faithfuâ—l Country-man ready to spend my bloud for the fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of England against any power what-ever that would destroy them JOHN LILBVRN From my prerogative and illegall imprisonment in the Tower of London this present Octob. 1646. FINIS
or Vassall by the Lords which they have already done and would further doe I also am a man of peace and quietnessâ— and desire not to molest any if I be not forced thereunto therefore I desire you as you tender my good and your own take this for an answer that I cannot without turning traytor to my liberties dance attendance to their Lordships Barre being bound in conscience duty to God my self mine and my Country to oppose their incroachments to the death which by the strength of God I am resolved to doe Sir you may or cause to be exercised upon me some force or violence to pull and drag me out of my chamber which I am resolved to maintain as long as I can before I will be compelled to go before them and therefore I desire you in a friendly way to be wise and considerate before you do that which it may be you can never undoe Sir I am your true and faire conditioned prisoner if you will be so to me JOHN LILBURN From my Cock-lost in the Presse-yard of Newgate this 13. of June 1646. The Copy of the Order Die Lunae 22 Junij 1646. ORdered by the Lords in Parliament assembled that Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburn now a prisoner in Newgate shall bee brought before their Lordships in the High Court of Parliament tomorrow morning by ten of the clock And this to be a sufficient Warrant in that behalf To the Gent. Usher of this House or his Deputy to be delivered to the Keeper of Newgate or his Deputy Iohn Brown Cler. Parliamentorum Which Letter I sent by my wife and a friend but they not finding Mr. Wollaston within I ordered them to carry it to Mr. Kendrick and Mr. Foot the Sheriffes of London his Masters whom they found at Guild Hall at the Court of Aldermen to whom they delivered the letter with my Protest against the Lords and appeale to to the House of Commons therein mentioned who as they told me carried it in to the Court of Aldermen and as they judged there read them But in stead of any remedy according to my just expectation I had my chamber wall immediatly after broke down by force by Ralph Brisco the Clerk of Newgate and their Officer a violent and forcible entry made into my chamber and my person by force carried away before the Lords who had no Legall or Magisteriall power over me I confesse I was suddenly surprized it being past ten a clock at night before I knew of it and so could neither provide my selfe of victuals or any defensive Armes the which if I had had I would to the death have defended my selfe against all the Officers in London that had come to have fetched me out of my Chamber my legall Castle by vertue of that illegall Warrant to carry me before the Lords who had nothing to doe with me especially coÌ„sidering I had legally protested against them and legally appealed to the House of Commons my proper and legall Judges who had accepted read and approved of my appeale as just and legall And therefore not onely that businesse or proceeding of the Lords but all their after proceedings yea the sentence it selfe in this very particular alone was and is illegall For they ought not neither in law had they any ground to meddle or make with me any further unlesse the House of Commons had judged my proceedings with the Lords illegall and had given mee up to them as my legall Judges to try me And therefore the affront of the Lords in point of right and priviledge is as great to the House of Commons in proceeding to judgement against mee without their leave or so much as ever desiring it as their usurpations are destructive to me and my Liberties and the Liberties of all the CoÌ„mons of England And opportunity they could not have had to have made me so fully as they did the object or subject of their usurpation if it had not been that the prerogative-Sheriffs of London had been as full of prerogative-Principles as the Lords themselves and as desirous to destroy the Lawes and Liberties of England as they for which I will never forgive them till they have acknowledged their great wickednesse therein and made me according to Law and Justice ample reparations which by Gods assistance I will with all the strength and might I have uncessantly seek for But their malice and indignation to mee for standing for the Lawes Liberties and Freedomes of England ceased not here but when the Lords committed me by their tyrannicall order close prisoner to Newgate to be lockt up close in my Chamber These Arbitrary tyrannicall Sheriffes and their Officers executed it upon me to some purpose for 3 weeks together For contrary to all law and justice they kept my wife from me would not so much as suffer her or any of my friends to set their feet over the threshold of my chamber doore nor suffer my wife servant or any of my friends to deliver either meat drink money or any other necessaries And when I pressed the Jaylors to permit my wife to come into the prison yard that so I might in their presence speak with her out of my chamber window they absolutely refused it and told mee I little knew what a strict charge was laid upon them to the contrary by the great ones at Guild-Hall And therefore my wife was forced to speak with me out of the window of a neighbouring house at about fourty yards distance whose cruelty and malice was so enraged that they often threatned to boord and naile up the poore mans windows Yea Brisco the Clerk came up into my chamber and commanded me to forbeare speaking to my wife although it were at such a distance or else hee would boord up my windowes and so deprive me not onely of seeing and speaking to my wife but also rob me of the greatest part of that little aire that I had coming in at my Casements But I bid him doe his worst for I would pull them down as fast as he naild them up or else if I could not I would set â—re to them though it burnt the House down to the ground And also I would speake to my wife in spite of his teeth and all his great Masters unlesse they either sewed up my lips or cut out my tongue And then in a rage hee told me Hee would carry me into Newgate it self and lay mee in a close place where I should speak with none nor see none whereupon I desired him to cease his threatning of me for I scorned him and bid defiance to the malice of him and all the Men and Devils in earth and hell having my confidence fixed in and upon that God that I knew would preserve and keep me and who by his power was able to destroy him and ten thousand such in the twinkling of an eye telling him that to lock me up in such a place was the ready way speedily
can be taken arrested attached or imprisoned but by due processe of law and according to the law of the land these conclusions hereupon doe follow First that a Commitment by lawfull warrant either in deed or in law is accounted in law due processe or proceeding of law and by the law of the land as well as by processe by force of the Kings Writ Secondly That he or they which doe commit them have lawfull authority Thirdly That his warrant or MITTIMVS be lawfull and that must be in writing under his hand and seale Fourthly The CAVSE must bee contained in the WARRANT as for Treason Felony c. or for suspition of Treason or Felony c. Otherwise if the MITTIMVS contain no cause at all if the prisoner escape it is no offence at all Whereas if the MITTIMVS contained the cause the escape were Treason or Felony though he were not guilty of the offence And therefore for the Kings benefit and that the prisoner may bee the more safely kept the MITTIMVS ought to contain the cause Fifthly the Warrant or MITTIMVS containing a lawfull CAVSE ought to have a lawfull CONCLVSION Viz. and him safely to keep untill he be delivered by Law c. and not untill the party commiting doth further order And this doth evidently appeare by the Writs of Habeas Corpus both in the Kings Bench and Common Pleas Exchequer and Chancery which there Hecites But Mr. Briscoe I am a legall man of England who in all my actions have declared a conformity to the lawes thereof and have as freely adventured my life for the preservation of them as any Lord in the Land whatsoever he be hath done And besides I have to doe with those very LORDS that have stiled themselves The Conservators of the Lawes and Liberties of England and wish in their printed Declarations the plague and vengeance of heaven to fall upon them when they indeavour the destruction and subversion thereof And therefore I expect in every particular to be dealt with according to Law my inheritance and the inheritance of all the free Commoners of England and not otherwise and my life and blood I will venture against that man what-ever he bee that shall attempt the contrary upon me for the Free-born men of England yea the meanest of them can neither by the command of the King nor by his Commission nor Councell nor the Lord of a Villain can or could imprison arrest or attach any man without due processe of law or by legall judgement of his equalls viz. MEN OF HIS OWN CONDITION or the Law of the Land against the forme of our defensive great Charter of Liberty Nay in old time a Pagan or an Heathen could not be unjustly imprisoned or attached or arrested without due processe of Law as appeares by the Lawes of King Alfred Chap. 31. and consonant to this doctrine and that forementioned in the Parliaments Declaration is the judgment of Sir Edward Cook in the 186 187. pages of the 2. part of his Institut and which was so resolved for Law as hee there declares 16. H. 6. and yet notwithstanding all the discourse I had with Briscoe the Sheriffes Clerk of Newgate about 9 a clock at night the Sheriffes the next morning sent 30. or 40. of their Varlets that wait upon the Theeves and Rogues and the Hang-man to Tyburn to carry me by force nolens volens to the Lords Bar those Vsurpers and Incrochers to receive my most illegall unjust barbarous and tyrannicall sentence My third reason is because I have not only been so evilly and unjustly dealt with this year by the Sheriffes of London but also the last year by the Lord Major of London Alderman Atkins and Mr. Glyn Recorder thereof when I was committed to Newgate by the House of Commons for what to this day I doe not yet know yet Mr. Glyn so thirsted after my blood that as I was from very good hands credibly informed he was a main stickler to get an Order to passe that House to have me tryed at the Sessions of Newgate for my life saying as I am told in the house to some members thereof turn him over to me and I will hamper him to the purpose of which when I heard it was not for me to sit still and therefore I got published certain Quere's to state my case in one side of a sheet or paper the substance of which you may read in a printed Book called Englands Birth-right And what was the issue of that businesse you may fully and truly read in my fore-mentioned answer to Mr. Pryns notorious lyes falshoods and calumnies especially in pag. 28 29 30 31 32 33 34. to which I refer the Reader And then secondly there was a false and base report raised spread and divulged by Mr. Pryn and some other of my bitter Presbyterian Adversaries those bloudy cozen-Germans to the persecuting Bishops meerly to make me and my friends odious to the people that so instead of enjoying a legall tryall and the benefit of the Law our common Inheritance we might by the rude multitude be either stoned to death or pulled in pieces which report was that I had conspired with other Separates Anabaptists to root out the Members of this Parliament by degrees beginning with Mr. Speaker whom if we could cut off as Pryn saith it in print in his book called The Lyar cōfounded all the rest would follow and if this succeeded not then to suppresse cut off this Parliament by force of Arms set up a new Parliament of our own choice faction my answer to which abominable false charge you may read in my fore-mentioned answer to him pa. 35. And there running divers of his Authentical witnesses and Creatures little better then Knights of the Post up and down London and at last one or more of them came into Houndsditch to one Mr. Rogers c. to insnare him and told him of the plot but he like a wise man apprehended him by a Constable and carryed him before the then Lord Major who dealt neither faire honestly nor justly with me nor them no nor with the Kingdome c. But in regard it may at a distance touch upon some present Member or Members of the House of Commons with whom I do ingeniously confesse I have no desire at all to contest I cease it though it was as mischevous a plot against me as ever in my life was contrived against mee and which had come out to the bottome if my Lord Major had been as just and honest as a righteous Judge ought to be and had not been so full of prerogative-principles as to feare Man more then God My fourth reason is because I have not only been robbed of my trade by the monopolizing Merchant-Adventurers and so evilly hardly and unjustly dealt with by the late Lord Major the two Sheriffes and tho Jaylors of Newgate all Mr. Recorders pride and malice all prerogative Officers in London but also have
customes and practices of the Grandees of London and therefore by prescription of time are become lawes thereto I answer Course of time amends not that which was nought from the beginning And that which was not grounded upon good right and found reason is not made good by continuance of time And therefore to give a definition of the Lawes of England as it may be proved out of the workes of the best and most conscientious Lawyers thereof It consists of the ancient constitutions and modern acts of Parliament made by the States of the Kingdome but of these onely such as are agreeable to the word of God and law of Nature and sound Reason Or the Fundamentall Law of the Land is the PERFECTION of Reason consisting of Lawfull and Reasonable Customes received and approved of by the people and of the old Constitutions and modern Acts of Parliament made by the Estates of the Kingdome But such only as are agreeable to the law Eternall and Naturall and not contrary to the word of God For whatsoever lawes usages and customes not thus qualified are not the law of the land nor are to be observed and obeyed by the people being contrary to their Birth-rights and Freedomes which by the Law of God and the great Charter of Priviledges they ought not to be And therefore Sir Richard Empson and Edm. Dudley Justices of Peace were both hanged in Henry the eighths dayes for putting in execution severall illegall practices grounded upon an unjust law made in the 11. H. 7. chap. 3.1 which as honorable Sir Edw. Cook saith was made against and in the face of the Fundamentall Law of the great Charter 2. part Instit fol. 51. And just it was they should be thus dealt with because it is honorable beneficial and profitable for the Common-wealth that guilty persons should be punished lest by the omission of the punishment of one many men by that ill example may be encouraged to commit more heinous offences And excellent to this purpose is that saying of the Parliament which I desire they may never forget Book Declar pag. 39. which is That they are very sensible that it equally imports them as well to see justice done against them that are criminous as to defend the just rights and liberties of the Subjects and Parliament of England And therefore pag 656. they call the execution of the law the very life and soule of the law as indeed it is without which it is but in truth a dead letter and a sencelesse block But woe unto you prerogative Patentee-Citizens if the Law shall be executed upon you I professe I will not give three pence for an hundred of your estates for all the greatnesse rhereof what-ever become of some of your liberties or lives which many of you have hitherto preserved by bribes and other indirect courses Witnesse some of you in a joâ—nt fraternity like brethren in evill giving above threescore thousand pounds at once for a bribe in the dayes of the Councell-Table to preserve you from Law and Justice and to destroy the Law and to buy and rob your fellow-Citizens as free as your seâ—ves of their liberties franchises trades and livelihoods Read the Discourse for Free Trade Onlye worse then high-way men pick-pockets housebreakers who now would fain transform your selves into Angels of light like your old wicked Father become godly Presbyters that now-sprung-up Sect and Heresie in England whose Lordlinesse and pride was long since as Heathenish and Genâ—ilisme condemned by Christ and his Apostles and zealous Covenanters which you make your stalking horse to disfranchize all honest and tender conscience men that cannot take that impossible to be kept and double-faced Covenant the greatest make-bate and snare that ever the Divell and the Clergy his Agents cast in amongst honest men in England in our age which I dare pawn my head and life so to prove it to be in a fair publike discourse against the greatest maintainer thereof in England But alas If it were ten times worse your wesons are wide enough to swallow it down and your consciences large enough to disgest it without the least danger of vomiting But I hope the true faithfull and just God of Heaven and Earth will raise up heroical Instruments to unvaile and unmask you and bring about wayes means enough for all your jugling and machivel-like endeavours to divide the peoples affections each from other about those unhappy names of Independents and Presbyters to bring you to condigne and just deserved punishments before you have fully sadled and bridled them and made them fit to be rid by you as slaves And therefore for the further discovery of you I judge it not amisse here to insert that excellent Petition of Mr. William Sykes and Thomas Johnson delivered in writing first to the house of Commons and then in print to the Members thereof which thus followeth To the Honourable the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House in Parliament Assembled The humble Petition of William Syeks and Thomas Iohnson Marchants on the behalfe of themselves and all the freemen of England Sheweth THat whereas divers Marchants in the 21. year of the Raign of Queene Elizabeth under the great Seal of England obtained a large and illegall Charter of incorporation for them and their Company to use the traffique and seat of Marchandize out and from any of Her then Majesties Dominions through the Sound into divers Realmes Kingdoms Dominions Dukedoms Countries Cities and Townes viz. Norway Swethiâ— Poland c. Whereby none but themselves and such as they shall think fit and for such fines and compositions as they shall impose shall take any benefit by the said Charter disfranchising thereby all other the free-borne people of England who during the time of all these warres have been in divers respects greatly charged for the defence of this present Parliament the lawes and liberties of their native Country and therefore ought indifferently to enjoy the benefit of the good lawes franchises and immunities by Magna Charta established which great Charter hath been ratified by 31. sessions of Parliament as also this present Parliament being bound by protestations oaths and covenants to maintaine the same by reason whereof and other illegall monopolies they are debarred from that free inlargement of common traffique which the Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland do enjoy the same being destructory to their laudable liberties and priviledges the fundamentall lawes of the Land to the manifest impoverishing of all owners of ships masters mariners clothiers tuckers spinsters and multitudes of poore people besides the decrease of customs the ruine and decay of navigation together with the abating the price of our wools cloth stuffe and such like commodities arising and growing within this Ralm and the inhauncing of all commodities imported from those forraign parts by reason of the insufficiency of the merchants they being few in number and not of ability to keepe the great store
nature no man can binde me but by my own consent neither do I see how in reason or conscience it can be expected from you to pay any taxes c. but that the whole charge that is layd upon this City should totally be borne by the Aldermen and the Livery men till you be actually put in possession and injoy your equall share in the lawes liberties and freedoms thereof as by the law of nature reason God and the land yea and your own antient and originall Charters the meanest of you ought to do as fully and largely in every perticuler as the greatest of them And now I am upon this theame I will make bold humbly to propound or declare to the consideration of the Parliament an insufferable injury and wrong that is done unto thousands of the freemen of England by vertue of Prerogative Charters and corporations and the restrictive and unjust statute of the 8. H. 6. chap. 7. First by Prerogative Charters the King makes corporations of what paltery Townes he pleaseth to chuse two Burgâ—sses for the Parliament in diver of which a man may buy a Burgesship for 40. or 50. l. and in some of which is scarce 3. legall men to be found according to the Statute of 8. H. 6 7. that is to say men that are worth 40. s. in land by the yeare above all charges and in others of them are scarse any but Ale-house-keepers and ignorant sots who want principles to chuse any man but only those that either some lord or great man writes for and recommends or else one who bribes them for their votes and this undenezing of those Corporations is an undenezing to all the towns and villages adjacent in which live thousands of people that by name are free-men of England and divers of them men of great estates in money and stock which also also are disfranchised and undenezed by the fore-mentioned unrighteous Statute because they have not in land 40. s. per annum and so shall have no vote at all in chusing any Parliament man and yet must be bound by their Lawes which is meer vasalage and besides unrighteous it is that Cornwall should chuse almost 50. Parliament-men and Yorkeshire twice as big and three times as populous and rich not half so many and my poor Country the Bishoprick of Durham none at all and so indeed and intruth are meer vassals and slaves being in a great measure like the French Peasants and the Vassals in Turkie but the more fooles they for I professe for my part I would lose life and estate lived I now in that Country before I would pay 6. d. taxation unlesse it might enjoy the common and undeniable priviledge in chusing as others and all the Countries in England besides do Knights and Burgesses to sit and vote in Parliament the greatest hinderer of which at the present I judge to be old Sir Henry Vane the Vaine and unworthy Lord Lieutenant thereof who hath done more mischiefe to that poor Country by his negligence if not absolute wilfulnesse perfidiousnesse and treachery the discovery of which you may partly read in the 19 20 21. pages of Englands Birth-right and which I understand is likely shortly more fully to be anatomized if he turn not the more honester and juster speedily by them or him that to the death will avouch it then his life and estate can make satisfaction And therefore me thinks it were a great deale of more Justice and Equity to fixe upon the certain number of the men that the House of Commons should consist of at 500. or 600. or more or lesse as by common consent should be thought most fit and equally to proportion out to every County to chuse a proportionable number sutable to the rates that each County by their Bookes of Rates are assessed to pay towards the defraying of the Publique charge of the Kingdome and then each County equally and proportionable by the common consent of the People thereof to divide it selfe into Divisions Hundreds or Wapentakes and every Division of and within themselves to chuse one or more Commissioners to sit in Parliament sutable to the proportion that comes to their share which would put an end and period to all those inconveniencies that rarely happen which are mentioned in the foresaid Statute of the 8. H. 6 7. and restore every free-man of England to his native and legall rights and freedomes Oh! that England might enjoy this peace of pure Justice the which if it do not the free-men thereof may blame themselves But now to return back to the City and its prerogative-Monopolizers who and their predecessors I may justly say have been main and principall Instruments of all Englands woe and miserie as I dare pawn my life upon it cleerly justly and rationally to demonstrate for what hath brought all the present wars upon us but the unjust swelling of the Prerogative beyond the just Bounds of the known and established Law and who hath put the arbitrary commands therof in execution but principally the Monopolizing Citizens as in hundred of particulars might cleerly be evidenced and furnished the King from time to time and year to year with vast sums of money to supply his extravagancies and the extravagancies of his extravagant Courtiers which did inable him to break off former Parliaments at his pleasure and to keep them off so long till this poor Kingdome with oppression and injustice was almost destroyed And sure I am if the King had found none to obey or put in execution his illegall commands our former miseries and these present warres had never been and impossible it would have been for the King to have kept off Parliaments so long as he he did if these men and their predecessors had not been beginning originall and ill presidents illegally from time to time for their own particular ends and advantages to supply his necessities with vast summes of money yea I have heard it from very good hands of solid and substantiall Citizens That after the breaking up of the Parliament in the third of this King the Corporation of MERCHANT ADVENTVRERS freely and voluntarily without any compulsion made a most unjust and England-destroying and inslaving order in their Company TO PAY VNTO THE KING CVSTOMES c. for all their Merchandise contrary unto law and the liberties of England Yea and in affront of the late or most excellent Parliament that had made the Petition of Right by which all royall impositions and levies whatsoever are damn'd and not onely enacted but also declared to be against the Fundamentall lawes of the kingdom and yet I never heard of any of these men whose life and estate was made a just sacrifice there-for although to my understanding they as much if not more deserve it then the Earle of Strafford But contrary to their deserts divers of the Grandees of this very Monopoly and illegall Corporation are become the great Treasurers of the kingdomes money both in the
Custome-house and Excise contrary to law right equity and conscience which action of the Parliaments in putting them into those a grand places loseth the Parliament more in the affections of thousands of honest people and will if not speedily prevented make a greater breach in the peace of this distressed kingdome then all their estates confiscated will repay For people doe already very much murmure and begin privatly to question the intentions of the Parliament in reference to these men and many begin to say that this demonstrates unto them that they shall but only have a change of Masters and not of their Bondage slavery and oppression seeing such Varlets Vipers Pests enemies and destroyers of the lawes and liberties of England imployed in the great Places of the kingdom who must needs act according to their old and corrupt principles and drive on their habituated and destructive designes against the weale peace trade and tranquillity of this poore bleeding kingdome And if say the people these worst of men who eat up mens trades and livelihoods and so suck their bloods as Sir Edward Cook in his forementioned discourse well observes and destroy men and this poore kingdome with a secret destruction shall possesse the Custome-house are they not enabled thereby to curb every Merchant that hath any Principles in him for the lawes and freedomes of England are they not enabled hereby to send their agents creatures and servants to all the Ports and Sea-townes of England where they have an influence into the elections of all the Burgesses that in any of them are chosen to sit in Parliament By means of which we may have say they wickednesse bondage slavery and all kind of Monopolies established by a Law and then our last error will be worse then the first and all our money blood and fighting shed and spent in vain And have not the Excise-men the same power in every particular in their hands likewise For can they not yea doe they not sit upon the skirts of every man that hates and opposes their tyrannizing and monopolizing wayes And doe they not authorize and send their Sub-commissioners c. into all the Counties and Corporations in England where they have the same influence into all elections that their brethren at Custome-house have in Sea-ports and Havens Nay these Blades strengthen their interest and make it double Threfore look about you Gentlemen before it be too late For sure I am were it not for those unhappy unnaturall and irrationall divisions that these men with the help of their Monopolizing brethren the Clergy have made amongst us I am assuredly and confidently perswaded that neither the King nor the Scots nor yet the unjust Lords would be so high in the Instep as they are which is like to beget a new warre again For shame therefore unite in affection though you cannot in judgement in matters of Religion and study and stand for your common interest lawes and liberties and take heed the French come not creeping in at a back doore For they have already got Dunkirk and so are furnished with a good Harbor and store of shipping from whence with a faire wind they can in 6 or 8 hours land in the coasts of Kens Essex Suffolk or Norfolk Therefore beware of those two dangerous places Lin the Isle of Lovingland hard by Yarmouth therefore up and as one man to the Parliament with a Petition to displace all those Monopolilizeâ—s and to put honest Englishmen into their places that love the Fundamentall lawes and the common and just liberties of the Nation And also desire the Parliament to reduce the publick treasure of the kingdom into the cheap publick and old good way of the kingdome The Exchequer for these obscure clandestine wayes of these mens receiving and paying moneys is not safe nor profitable for the kingdome if you will beleeve Mr. John Pyms Speech made at the Barre of the House of Peeres against the Duke of Buckingham which is a most excellent speech And also desire the Parliament not onely to remember but also cordially heartily and really to put in execution their selfe-denying Ordinance that they themselves may be examples of self-deniall to all the men in the kingdome For a hard matter is it for any Parliament-man what-ever he be in such times of distresse as these are wherein Souldiers that have ventured their lives for eight pence a day to save both the Parliament and the kingdome and many poore Widowes and fatherlesse children that have lost their husbands and Fathers in the warres and are now ready to sterve and perish for want of bread and yet cannot get their small arreares And when the kingdome is reduced to that poverty that Excise and Taxes must be laid upon poor men that have wives children and families and nothing to maintain them with but what they earn with the labour of their lands and the sweat of their browes and yet then for c. to have great places of 1000. l. 1500. l. or 2000. l. per annum and the salaries and stipends of them paid out of the publick stock when they are able to live in pomp and gallantry of themselves besides and it is possible to get honest faithfull and experienced men that have ventured life and all for the common wealth to officiat in those places as well if not better for 100. l. or 150. l. or 200. l. per annum let such men if there be any professe what honesty or Religion they wil l I professe seriously that to me such actions at such a time as this are cleare demonstration to me that such men have neither honesty Christianity nor Religion but meerly make them pretences for their own unworthy ends And this Parliament being now a standing Parliament and like so to continue it is very hard that the Lawyers thereof should run from Bar to Bar to plead causes before Judges made by themselves who dare not easily displease them for feare of being turned out of their places by their meanes Sure I am well and conscienciously to officiate the single place of a Parliament man is enough for one But to return again to the Monopolizers the endevourers contrivers of Englands destruction If Alex. Archb. of Yorke and Rob. de Veere Duke of Ireland c. deserved to be prosecuted as traytors for but endeavouring at the Kings coÌ„mand to destroy certain members of both Houses How much more doe these law-and-kingdome-destroying Monopolizers deserve the same that have not onely endevoured the destructions of some Parliament-men but also the very Being of all Parliaments themselves and so by consequence the whole kingdome Sure I am if the Commonalty of London will carefully peruse their own ancient and just Charters they shall find That they within themselves have power enough not onely to disfranchise all these Monopolizers but also all other freemen of London that shall endevour the destruction of their ancient fundamentall and just Freedomes Liberties and
beene strong Instruments from time to time to doe the same to the whole Land And the present ground of my putting pen to paper at present ariseth from this ensuing The day the last Lord Major was elected It seemes Major Wansie a Watch-maker in Cornhill a man that in these late wars hath freely and gallantly adventured his life for the preservation of the present Parliament and Englands Liberties and some other free Citizens commonly by the Prerogative-men of London distinguished by the name of Cloak-men intended to have claimed their right to give their Vote in the election of the Lord Major as by Law and the Charters of London every free-man therof ought to do as also in both the Sheriffes c. And in case the prerogative L. Major Adams and the prerogative-Aldermen his Brethren would not permit them They then intended to deliver in a Protest in writing the Copy of which Protest within a day or two after I saw and read and not before and understanding how basely Major VVansey was used by the Marshall of London and of my Lord Majors prerogative-Mastives and how that contrary to Law Guild-Hall Gate was guarded with armed men which rendered the election in no sence to be free as all elections of all publike Officers ought to be and reading the Protest over the reason of it and the injustice offered to its well-willers It inflamed my spirit with indignation and set my very soule as it were all on fire Insomuch that I went immediatly to old Mr. Colet the Record-keeper of the Tower and asked him if hee had the originall Records of the Charters of London and understanding he had them out of my penury I bestowed three or foure pound for the Copies of those that were most usefull for me and also the Copy of H. 5. prerogative and unbinding Proclamation by vertue and authority of which they have invaded the rights of all the free men of London in divers particulars and as much as in them lies annihilated divers of the antient and just Charters and legall priviledges of this City confirmed by Magna Charta and making further inquiry of a man versed in antiquity I understood that there was an antient book in print above 100. yeares agoe containing many of the Liberties and Franchises of London for which I sent into Duck-lane and with some industry found it out which is a most excellent book which with the Records I sent to a true friend of mine to get him to translate the Records into English and all the Latine and French that is in that book who sent unto me the fore-going Discourse which in regard he was a stranger to London he was unwilling to set his name to it and I reading the Discourse and liking it very well judged my self bound in duty to my self and all my fellow-Commoners the Cloak-men of London to publish it in print and in regard by Gods assistance I intend shortly to publish and print the Records with a Cōmentary in point of Law upon them I judged it convenient hereby by way of Post-script to give you the understanding thereof and also to give you the reasons which moved me to resolve to hazard no small adventure there upon which are these First because the Prerogative-Pattentee monopolizing Merchant adventurers have contrary to Right Law and Justice robbed me of my trade whose illegall arbytrary destructive practises to the liberties freedome and prosperity of England I have in my answer to Mr. VVill. Pryn called Innocencie and Truth justified punctually anatomized as there you may reade from page 48. to page 63. Now as Paul saith 1 Tim. 5.8 If any provide not for his own family and specially for those of his own house he hath denied the Faith and is worse then an Infidell In which to me is implyed that a man must not only be provident and industrious to keepe and preserve what hee hath but also to maintain and defend his rights liberties and proprieties that they be not invaded or taken from him and this made honest Naboth that he would not part-with his Vineyard his inheritance to wicked King Ahab although he offered him very good tearmes for it 1 Kings 21.1 2 3. much lesse should I part with my trade to any illegall Monopoliser and every individuall Free-mans of London c. and that not only by the principles of nature and reason but also by the Law of England as is not onely proved by the fore-named Discourse but also by another excellent Treatise called Discourse for free Trade published about two years agoe by a Merchant of London Secondly the readinesse of the Prerogative-Magistrates of London to execute any illegall Commands upon the free-men thereof and particularly upon my self as for instance when I was prisoner in Newgate illegally committed by the house of Lords that had no jurisdiction over me in that case and when upon the 22. of June last by their Warrant they commanded me to dance attendance at their Bar for what cause they did not expresse neither know I any Law extant that authorizeth them so to do Which action I looked upon as a trampling the Lawes of the Land and the Liberties of all the free Commons of England under their feet and therefore for the prevention of further mischiefe I writ this following Letter to Mr. VVoollaston the chiefe Jaylor of Newgate under the Sheriffes of London SJR I This morning have seen a Warrant from the house of Lords made yesterday to command you to bring me this day at ten a clock before them the Warrant expresseth no cause wherfore I should dance attendance before them neither do I know any ground or reason wherefore I should nor any Law that compels mee thereunto for their Lordships sitting by vertue of Prerogative-pattents and not by election or common consent of the people hath as Magna Charta and other good Lawes of the Land tels me nothing to do to try me or any Commoner whatsoever in any criminall case either for life limb liberty or estate but contrary hereunto as incrochers and usurpers upon my freedomes and liberties they lately and illegally endeavoured to try me a Commoner at their Bar for which I under my hand and seale protested to their faces against them as violent and illegal incrochers upon the rights and liberties of me and all the Commons of England a copy of which c. I in Print herewith send you and at their Bar I openly appealed to my competent proper legall tryers and Judges the Commons of England assembled in Parliament for which their Lordships did illegally arbytrarily and tyrannically commit me to prison into your custody unto whom divers dayes agoe I sent my appeale c. which now remains in the hands of their Speaker if it be not already read in their house unto which I do and will stand and obey their commands Sir I am a free-man of England and therefore I am not to bee used as a slave
and may justly be called Simeon and Levi brethren in evill and wickednesse whose tyrannicall mystery wants an Anatomy the beginning of which this is The last reason why I publish this is because that although the fundamentall Lawes of England be rationall and just lawes and so pleasant and delightsome to the people these Prerogative-Monopolizing Patentee-men of London have done as much as in them lies to pervert them and to turn them into Wormwood and Gall And though they be the common birth-right and inheritance of every particular individuall freeman of England yea of the meanest Cobler and Tinker as well as of the greatest Gentleman or Nobleman And therefore justly doth the King call the Law The Birth-right of every subject of this Kingdome Book Declar. 312. and in pag. 328. he saith The Law is the common inheritance of his people And in pag. 385. he calls the Law The common Birth-right of his Subjects to which onely they owe all they have besides And therfore are bound in the defence of it to bee made MARTYRS for it And in pag. 28. he sath The Law is not onely the inheritance of every subject but also the onely security he hath for his life liberty or estate And the which being neglected or disesteemed under what specious shewes soever a great measure of infelicity if not an irreparable confusion must without doubt fall up them The meanest of which he saith p. 650. are born equally free and to whom the Law of the Land is an EQUALL INHERITANCE with the greatest Subject And that the wealth and strength of this Kingdome is in the number and happinesse of the people which is made up of men of all conditions and to whom in duty without Distinction he acknowledgeth he oweth an EQVALL Protection And he in pag. 140. 163. passeth a most superlative high commendation upon those golden expressions of Mr. John Pyms speech against the Earle of Strafford and published in print by a speciall order of the House of Commons which are That the Law is the SAFEGVARD the CVSTODY of all private interests Your honours your lives your liberties and estates are all in the keeping of the Law And without this every man hath alike right to any thing And therefore saith he the Law is that which puts a difference betwixt good and evill betwixt just and unjust If you take away the Law all things will fall into a confusion every man will become a law unto himself which in the depraved condition of humane nature must needs produce many great enormities Lust will become a law and envy will become a law covetousnesse and ambition will become lawes and what dictates what divisions such lawes will produce may easily be discerned And in this very language doth the Parliament speak in their declarations Book Declar. pag. 6. where they speak with a great deal of vehemency and bitternesse against the bold and presumptuous injustice of such Ministers of Justice as before this Parliament made nothing to breake the lawes and suppresse the liberties of the Kingdom after they by the Petition of Right c. had been so solemnly evidently declared Yet they obstructed amongst abūdance of other grievous crimes there enumerated the ordinary course of Justice which they there pag. 7. call the COMMON BIRTH-RIGHT of the Subjects of England And in pag. 38. they speaking of the Kings dealing with the five accused Members who by his Majesties Warrant had their Chambers Studies and Trunkes sealed up Which action they say is not only against the priviledge of Parliament but the common liberty of every Subject And in the same page they say His Majesty did issue forth severall warrants to divers Officers under his own hand for the apprehension of the persons of the said members which by Law he cannot do there being not all this time any legall charge or accusation or due PROCESSE of law issued against them nor any pretence of charge made known to that House whereof they were Members All which are against the fundamentall lawes and liberties of the Subject c. And in pag. 458 459. they declare That in all their endeavours since this Parliament began they have laboured the regaining of the ancient though of late yeares much invaded rights lawes and liberties of England being the Birth-right of the Subjects thereof And therefore pag. 660. they own it as their duty to use their best endeavours That the meanest of the Commonalty may enjoy their own Birth-rights freedome and liberty of the law of the land being equally as they affirm intitled thereunto with the greatest Subject And in pag. 845. they declare that to be assaulted or seised on without due Processe or Warrant is against the legall priviledge of every private man but the Prerogative-Monopolizing arbitrary-men of London as though they had an absolute Deity-power in themselves and were to be ruled and governed by nothing but the law of their own will And as though they were more absolute and soveraigne in power then either the King or Parliament divided or conjoyned dis-franchising the greatest part of the Commons of London of their Liberties Trade and Freedomes at their pleasure which is granted unto them not onely by God and the great Charter of Nature and Principles of Reason but also by the Fundamentall Lawes and Constitutions of this Kingdome by which lawes and by no other is London as well as the rest of England to be governed And therefore Arbitrary Irrationall and Illegall it is for them or any of their brother-hoods Monopolizing Corporations and Companies by the authoirty of any pretended Royall Patent Proclamation or Commission whatsoever to assume unto themselves a power to destroy annihilate and make voyd the Fundamentall lawes of the Land which yet notwithstanding they daily doe And sure I am by the Petition of Right the King of himself can neither make an oath nor impose 6 pence upon any of his people nor imprison nor punish any of them but by the Law by the Statutes of Magna Charta chap. 29. 2. E. 2.8 5. E. 3.8.9 The King shall neither by the great Seal nor little Seale disturb delay nor deferre judgment or common right And though such commandements doe come the Justices shall not therefore leave to do right in any point But yet notwithstanding they meerly by their illegall prerogative both frame oathes absolutely-destructive to the publick law of the kingdome impose arbitrary fines and illegall levies and payments of moneys and act illegall imprisonments and punishments yea and at their pleasure seise upon the goods of free-men All which is constantly practised in their Patentee-Monopolizing Companies Corporations and Fraternities So that to speak properly really and truly their Brotherhoods are so many conspiracies to destroy and overthrow the lawes and liberties of England and to ingrosse inhance and destroy the trades and Franchises of most of the Freemen of London But if it should be objected That these things are the ancient
constant experience they are found to be that both informer Parliaments and this present Parliament the House of Commons have thrown divers Patentee-Monopolists out of the House as altogether unfit to be law-makers who have been such law-destroyers It had been pure Justice indeed if they had made no exceptions of persons but swept the House of all such and then the King in his Declaration of the 12. August 1642. Book Declar. pag. 516. had not had so much cause too justly to hit them in the teeth with being partiall in keeping Justice Laurence Whittaker c. who the King there saith hath been as much imployed as a Commissioner in matters of that nature as any man And by all the information that I can get or heare of from those that knew him well before the Parliament the King in this particular hath spoken nothing but truth and I am sure and will to his face make it good secundum legem terrae that is by the law of the land but not by the arbitrary law of Committees that his estate and head will not make a sufficient satisfaction to the kingdome for those intolerable In-rodes that he hath made since this Parliament into upon the fundamental and essential liberties privileges and lawes of England Therefore to you my fellow-Citizens the Cloke-men of London I make this exhortation to make a petition to the Parliament to bring him all such Delinquents to condigne punishments which both the most of you and the Parliamēt are bound unto not only by your own interest but also by your protestation c. Book Declar. 156. 191. 278 629. And good encouragement you have from their own Declarations so to doe For there they say Book Decl. 656. The execution of Justice is the very soul and life of the law And pag. 39 they say They are very sensible that it equally imports them as well to see justice done against them that are criminous as to defend the just rights and liberties of the Subjects and Parliament of England And in pag. 497. they say Woe unto them if they doe not their duty Therefore never think that the Parliament will be worse then their words or throw their own Declarations behind their backs and therefore if you want the fruit of them blame your selves for not pressing them to make them good unto you For I am sure it is their own Maxime and saying that of the Parliament there ought not to be thought or imagined a dishonourable thing page 28. and therefore as they would have men to believe the truth of this Maxime so undoubtedly they will be very careful and wary not to do a dishonourable action much lesse to protect visible Delinquents and Offendors amongst themselvs in the great Councel of the Kingdom which were not only a dishonourable action but would justly open all rationall mens mouths not only to think but also to speak dishonourably of them But it may be you will say that your Grandees of London tell you the Parliament will receive no Petitions from a multitude of Citizens unlesse it come through the Common-councel I answer true it is there hath been a very strong report of such a thing in London but roguery knavery and slavery is in the bottome of it for if the prerogative-men of London could once bring you to that they might tyrannize over you at their pleasure ten times more then they do Therefore an enemy to the Liberties of England and London in the highest degree hee is that would perswade you to believe any such thing Yea and I say further he is an enemy to the honour dignity and safety of the Parliament that so doth for this were to destroy the fundamentall freedomes of England which the Parliament themselves cannot destroy being appointed to provide for our weal but not for our woe Book Decl. p. 150 81 179 336 361 382 509 663 721 726. and themselves say pag. 700. that all interests of trusts are for the use of others for their good and not orherwise And punishable is he that shal make the people believe any such thing the Parliament judging it the greatest scandal that can be laid upon them that they either do or ever intended such a thing as to inslave the people and rob them of their liberties and freedomes Book Decl. p. 264 281 494 496 497 654 694 696 705 716. And therefore when the King chargeth it upon them as a crime that they have received Petitions against things that are established by Law they acknowledge it to be very true And further say that all that know what belongeth the course and practice of Parliament will say that we ought so to do and that both our Predecessours and his Majesties Ancestors have constantly done it there being no other place wherein lawes that by experience may be found grievous and burthensome can be altered or repealed and there being no other due and legall way wherein they which are agrieved by them can seek redresse Book Decl. pag. 720. Yea and when his Majesty hits them in the teeth with the great numbers of people that used to come up to Westminster the beginning of this Parliament calling them tumultuous numbers They tell him that they do not conceive that numbers do make an Assembly unlawfull but when either the end or manner of their carriage shall be unlawfull Divers just occasions say they might draw the Citizens to Westminster where many publike and private Petitions and other causes were depending in Parliament and why that should be found more faulty in the Citizens then the resort of great numbers every day to the ordinary Courts of Justice we know not Book Decl. p. 201. 202. And therfore pag. 209. they affirme that such a concourse of people carrying themselves quietly and peaceably as they did ought not in his Majesties apprehension nor cannot in the interpretation of the Law be held tumultary and seditious And therefore up and be doing againe as then you did and also petition for the exemplary punishment of those amongst themselves that have robbed you of your Lawes Liberties Franchises and Trades for besides all that is before named a greater is behinde namely the disfranchising of all you Clokemen of London in giving any vote in chusing your Burgesses for Parliament although I am confident you are above three hundred for one Livery-man and although your Persons and Estates I dare say it have been voluntarily ten times more ready and serviceable in these late distractions to preserve the Parliament and the Kingdome and the lawes and liberties thereof then the Gowne or Livery-men although you be rob'd by them of yours Truly for my part I speake from my soule and conscience without feare I know no reason unlesse it can be proved that you are all slaves vassals why you should be concluded by the determinations orders and decrees of those that you have no vote in chusing for it is a true and just maxim in