Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	act_n	parliament_n	person_n	2,736	5	5.0257	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96856	The triall, of Lieut. Collonell John Lilburne, by an extraordinary or special commission, of oyear and terminer at the Guild-Hall of London, the 24, 25, 26. of Octob. 1649. Being as exactly pen'd and taken in short hand, as it was possible to be done in such a croud and noise, and transcribed with an indifferent and even hand, both in reference to the court, and the prisoner; that so matter of fact, as it was there declared, might truly come to publick view. In which is contained all the judges names, and the names of the grand inquest, and the names of the honest jury of life and death. Vnto which is annexed a necessary and essential appendix, very well worth the readers, carefull perusal; if he desire rightly to understand the whole body of the discourse, and know the worth of that ner'e enough to be prised, bulwork of English freedom, viz. to be tried by a jury of legal and good men of the neighbour-hood. / Published by Theodorus Verax.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.; Walker, Clement, 1595-1651.	1649 (1649)	Wing W338; Thomason E584_9; ESTC R203993	161,048	170

House of Commons be a † And w●l might he for Mackwel in his manner of passing of statutes in his preface therunto saith that the Commons had no journals at all before Edward the sixths time record in law or no. Lord Keble Read Cerk Clerk An Act of the 14. of May 1649. Declaring what offences shall be adjudged Treason WHereas the Parliament hath abolished the Kingly Office in ENGLAND and IRELAND and in the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging and hath resolved and declared that the people shal for the future b●● governed by its own Representatives or Nationall meetings in Councell chosen and intrusted by them for that purpose hath setled that Government in the way of a Common-wealth and free State without KING or House of LORDS Be it therefore enacted by this present Parliament and by the Authority of the same that if any person shall maliciously or advisedly publish by writing printing or openly declaring That the said Government is tyrannicall usurped or unlawfull Or that the Commons in PARLIAMENT assembled are not the supreame Authority of this Nation or shall plot contrive or endeavour to stirre up or raise force against the present Government or for the subversion or alteration of the same and shall declare the same by any open deed That then every such offence shall be taken deemed and adjudged by the Authority of this present PARLIAMENT to be High Treason And whereas the Keepers of the Liberty of ENGLAND and the Councell of state constituted and to be from time to time constituted by Authority of PARLIAMENT are to be under the said Representatives in PARLIAMENT entrusted for the maintenance of the said Government with severall powers and Authorities limited given and appointed unto them by the PARLIAMENT Be it likewise enacted by the Authority aforesaid that i● any person shall maliciously and advisedly plot or endeavour the subversion of the said Keepers of the Lebertie of ENGLAND or the Councell of State and the same shall declare by any open d●●d or shall move any person or persons for the doing thereof or 〈◊〉 up the people to rise against them or either of them there or either of their Authorities that the every 〈…〉 and off●●●s shall be taken deemed and declared to be 〈◊〉 Treason And whereas the PARLIAMENT 〈◊〉 their just and lawfull defence 〈…〉 under the Command of THOMAS LORD PAIRFAX and are at present necessitated by reason of the manifold distractions within ●word Common-wealth and invasions threatned from abroad to continue the same which under God must be the instrumental meanes of preserving the wel-affected people of this Nation in peace and safety Be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that if any person not being an Officer Souldier or member of the Army shall plot contrive or endeauour to stirre up any mutiny in the said Army or withdraw any Souldiers or Officers from their obedience to their superiour Officers or from the present Government as aforesaid or shall procure invite aide or assist any Forreigners or Strangers to invade England or Ireland or shall adhere to any Forces raised by the Enemies of the PARLIAMENT or Gommon-wealth or Keepers of the Liberties of ENGLAND Or if any person shall counterfeit the great Seale of England for the time being used and appointed by authority of Parliament That then every such offence and offences shall be taken deemed and declared by the authority of this Parlament to be high treason And every such person shall suffer paine of death and also forfeit unto the Keepers of the Libertie of England to and for the use of the Common wealth all and singular his and their Lands Tenements and hereditaments goods and Chattels as in case of high Treason hath been used by the Lawes and Statutes of this Land to be forfeit and lost provided alwayes that no persons shall be indicted and arraigned for any of the offences mentioned in this act unlesse such offenders shall be indicted or prosecuted for the same within one yeare after the offence committed Mr. Prideaux Read the other statute Clerk Tuesday 17. July 1649. Ordered by the Commons assembled in Parliament that this Act be forthwith printed and published Hen. Scobel Cler. Parl. An Act declaring what offences shall be adjudged Treason Whereas the Parliament hath abolished the Kingly Office in England and Ireland and in the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging and having resolved and declared that the people shall for the future be governed by its own representatives or nationall meetings in Counsel chosen and entrusted by them for that purpose hath setled the Government in the way of a Common-wealth and free State without King or House of Lords Be it enacted by this present Parliament and by the Authority of the same that if any person shall maliciously or advisedly publish by writing printing or openly declaring that the said Government is tyrannicall usurped or unlawfull or that the Commons in Parliament assembled are not the supreame Authority of this Nation or shall plot contrive or endeavour to stir up or raise force against the present Government or for the subversion or alteration of the same and shall declare the same by any open deed that then every such offence shall be taken deemed and adjudged by Authority of this Parliament to be high Treason and whereas the Keepers of the Liberties of England and the Counsel of State constituted and to be from time to time constituted by Authority of Parliament are to be under the said representatives in Parliament entrusted for the maintenance of the said Government with severall Powers and Authorities limited given and appointed unto them by the Parliament Be it likewise enacted by the Authority aforesaid that if any person shall malliciously and advisedly plot or endeavour the subversion of the said Keepers of the Liberties of England or the Counsel of State and the same shall declare by any open deed or shall move any person or persons for the doing thereof or stir up the people to rise against them or either of them their or either of their Authorities that then every such offence and offences shall be taken deemed and declared to be high treason And whereas the Parliament for their just and lawfull Defence hath raised and leavied the Army and Forces now under the Command of THOMAS Lord FAIRFAX and are at present necessitated by Reason of the manifold distractions within this Common-wealth and invasions threatened from abroad to continue the same which under God must be the instrumentall meanes of preserving the well affected people of this Nation in peace safety Be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid that if any person not being an Officer Souldier or Member of the Army shall plot contrive or endeavour to stir up any mutiny in the said Army or withdraw any Souldiers or Officers from their obedience to their superiour Officers or from the present Government as aforesaid Or shall procure invite aid or assist any

declared in print in English which tongue only I can read and understand and seeing by the Law which is in English which I have read and clearly understand that there are a great many snares and a great many niceties in the practick that are formall proceedings of the Law and seeing I know not certainly whether if I proceed to matter of proofe before in Law I make my exceptions against your Inditement as to matter time and place I be not in Law deprived of that benefit which I principally aime at for the preservation of my life therefore I beseech and most earnestly entreat you to assigne me Counsell to consult with before I be too farre insnared and if you will not doe it and give me some reasonable time to prepare my plea and defence then order me to be knock'd in the head immediately in the place where I stand without any further tryall for I must needs be destroyed if you deny me all the meanes of my preservation Judge Jermine Mr. Lilburne It were reasonable to give you satisfaction if you would receive it you say you were present at my Lord of Straffords Triall and you say he had Counsell assigned him not only to stand by him at the Barre but to repair to prison to instruct and advise but that was not a Tryall in such a way as this is It was a Triall by way of Impeachment before the Peers assembled in Parliament and his Attainder was made up into an Act of Parliament but that is not a Triall at the common Law per pares which is that which your self have desired a Tryall by lawfull men according to the Liberties of the Lawes of England After your Answer to your first question that is to say whether you be guilty or not guiltie of the things whereof you are accused no Counsell in the world can follow till the Fact be proved and matter of Law doe arise thereupon So that the first thing that must be done the matter of Fact must be proved against you and then if it shall appear thereupon to the Court that matter of Law doth arise and you doe expect Counsell we must and will performe it the Court are of your Counsell so farre as to fact And then in that case that Law arise thereupon you may and ought to have other Counsell assigned and doe not you doubt but the Court will be as carefull of you as you can be of your selfe and allow you more favour it may be then your friends doe expect L. Col. Lilb Vnder your favour and by your good liking I was once Arraigned at Oxford for my life upon the matter of Treason for leavying war in Oxfordshire against the King as their Indictment then said and my Arraignment was by vertue of a Commission of Oyer and Terminer that was and in Law I am sure of it as legall and as just as yours is and my Lord Chiefe-Justice Heath the chief Commissioner or President who was in the eye of the Law as legall a Judge as any of you and yet he Lo. Keble Mr. Lilburne we doe remember it L. Col. Lilb I beseech you give me leave to speake for my selfe and to goe on for my life lies upon it Lo. Keble Heare me one word and you shall have two This that you did speake but even now doe not you thinke that we have such bad memories as that we have alreadie forgot it your life is by Law as deare as our lives and our soules are at stake if we doe you any wrong L. Col. Lilb I wish you may be sensible of that Sir Judge Jarman Mr. Lilburne you need not to say so our soules are upon it and we are to stand or fall by Justice and righteousnesse as well at your selfe is L. Col. Lilb I say my Lord Heath and the Court at Oxford profered me Counsell before any one witnesse was produc'd to my face or any matter of fact came to the proofe yea and gave me Liberty to make my exceptions to the insufficiencie of the Indictment which was very short in comparison of yours I crave the same priviledge from you the nations pretended friends that I found at Oxford amongst its declared pretended enemies against whom in severall battells I had fought And I hope you that pretend to be the preservators of the Liberties of England will not be more cruell and unrighteous then the declared destroyers of them if you will not allow me Counsell as I had there I have no more to say to you you may murder me if you please Judg Jerman You were pleased to mention some presidents of those that have been accused of high Treason that have had Counsell assigned to them and for one you mention that of my Lord of Strafford whose T●iall I told you was Parliamentarie before the House of Peers upon the impeachment of the Commons of England in Parliament assembled and so it went on in a Parliamentarie way their proceeding is in an ordinarie course of the ordinarie qundam Court of Justice according to the common law Now for my L. of Strafford give me leave to observe this he had no Counsell assigned him untill such time as questions of the law did arise which required Councell and then he had Counsell assigned him but not before for that my Lord doth not say that you shall have no Counsell but that you shall have that which the law allows and as for that which you speake of counsell at Oxford it could not be but when upon the proose of matter of fact it appears to the Court that there is any Question or matter of law arising upon the fact And when it doth so appear unto us then you shall have Councell for that but I beseech you hear me on You are now come before us according to the common law to be tried by your Countrie there is now nothing in question but whether that matter that thing those words contained in the Indictment read to you be true yea or no that is whether they be done or no for wee will not give Counsell to plead to the matter of fact contained in your owne bookes which you remember very well L. Col. Lilb Those books supposed mine pray let me have sair play and not be wound and scru'd up into hazards and snares Lord Keble If they be not yours upon good grounds proved before you you are in no danger and if upon the proofes of the words and deeds done there doe appear matter of law you must and shall have counsell stay till that be done in the meane time the Court will take care that a Jurie shall be returned of honest and sufficient legall men to judge of the proofes L. Col. Lilb There was arraigned with me at Oxford Collonel Vivers of Banbury now alive and Capt. Catesby who is dead I will bring Coll. Vivers to depose here upon his Oath that my Lord Heath the rest of the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer

hath it again Clerk Page 3. Peruse carefully I entreate you the quotations in the 6. and 8. pages of my formentioned Impeachment of High Treason against Cromwell At. also the 12. and 15. pages of the second Edition of my forementioned Booke dated the eighth of June 1649 Intituled The legall fundamentall liberties c. Mr. Atturney Read the 〈◊〉 in the body of the booke Clerk Page 4. At which Tryall by strength of arguments I forced the Judges openly to confesse that Generalls were nothing in Law see also the second Edition of my booke of the eighth of June 1649 Intituled The legall fundamentall liberties of the people of England revived asserted and vindicated page 49. L. Col. Lilb Let him speake whether it be 29. or 49. Clerk Forty nine but there is not so many pages in the booke Mr. Atturny My Lord here is a Salva Libertate which is his owne Booke though he will not owne it My Lord I had thought the great Champion of England for the peoples liberties would never have beene so unworthy as not to have owned his owne hand but read in the 24. page of the Salva in his owne written hand Clerk Page 24. I have by almost 8. years dear-bought experience found the interest of some of my forementioned Judges to be too strong for mee to grapple with and the onely † This was brought in by head and shoulders cause to my apprehension that all this while keepe me from my owne and in the Margent he saith see also the second Edition of my forementioned booke intituled The legal fundamental liberties of England revived c. Mr. Aturny Now my Lord there is the Salva Libertate that was given from his owne hand that ownes it I meane this Booke called The legall fundamentall liberties c. Mr. Aturney Read the Title of it Clerk A Salva Libertate sent to Colonell Francis West Lieutenant of the Tower of LONDON on Friday the fourteenth of Septemb. 1649. by Lieut. Col. John Lilburn Mr. Prideaux Read where it is marked Clerk But if you would produce unto me a written Warrant which hath some more face of legall Magistracy in it then verball command● and according to my right and priviledge let mee read it I would goe with you either by land or water as you please because I was in no capacity to resist you although I then told you I judged a paper-Warrant although in words never so formall comming from any pretended power or Authority in England now visible to be altogether illegall because the intruding Generall Fairfax and his Forces had broke and anihilated all the formall and legall Magistracy of England yea the very Parliament it selfe and by his Will and Sword absolute Conquerour like had most tyrannically exected set up and imposed upon the free people of this Nation a Juncto or mock power sitting at Westminster whom hee and his Associates call a Parliament who like so many armed Thieves and Robbers upon the high way assume a power by their owne will most traiterously to doe what they like Mr. Atturny That 's not the place look towards the latter end Clerk Then here it is sure I cannot chuse but acquaint you that I have long since drawne and published my plea against the present power in my second Edition of my Booke of the 8. of June 1649. intituled The legall fundamentall liberties of the people of England revived asserted and vindicated which you may in an especiall manner read in the 43 44 45. to the 49. page which by the strength of the Lord God omnipotent my large experienced helpe in time of need I will seale with the last drop of my blood Mr. Aturny My Lord for the Book called the legall fundamentall liberties of England his name is to the Booke but I shall not put much weight upon that but in others of his books as in his Preparative to an Hue and Cry which he owns and which is proved he owns by 3 witnesses In severall places of that book he owns this as his book viz. The legal fundamental liberties of Engl. revived c. He calls it mine and his ferementioned booke and in his Salva Libertate he owns it again gives it the very date and the very Title that is in this Booke my Lords we have done with this My Lords now I shall goe on to make use of it and to shew my Lord out of these books his words and language to make good the Charge that hath been read in the indictment against Mr. Lilburne My Lords if you please for that I shall begin first in reading to the Jury the very Act it selfe which makes the fact to be Treason My Lord for that here is the Act that doth declare the Common wealth for the future to become hereafter a free State and the other declaring that fact to be Treason that shall say it is tyrannicall or unlawfull these are generall Acts which need not be proved but if the prisoner does desire it we shall prove it Clerk Die Lunae 14. of May 1649. Ordered by the Commons assembled in Parliament L. C. Lilb Hold Sir prove your Act first whether it be an Act of Parliament Mr. Atturney My Lords I shall not struggle with Mr. Lilubrn in plaine termes but I thought when Acts were published the Courts of Justice were bound in duty to take notice of them but if it be so he will have it proved we will although it be but a slender cavill for this is one of the published copies L. Col. Lilb But under your favour Mr. Prideaux as there may be counterfeit money which wee see there is every day so there may be counterfeit Statutes too and this may be one for any thing I know therefore I desire it may be proved to be a true Statute or Act of Parliament Mr. Nutleigh This is a true copy of the Act of Parliament which I examined with the Record L. Col. Lilb The record where is that to be found Mr. Nutleigh At Westminster with the Clerk of the Parl. L. Col. Lil. Is this Gentleman able to depose it to be a 〈◊〉 Law in all the parts of it for by the Lawes of England the people are not to take any notice of Acts made but by a Parliament neither are they to take notice of those Acts that are not proclaimed Sir I beseech you let me know where the Record and Rolls are and where he examined this and whether he is able to sweare whether they have been proclaimed in every Hundred and Market-towne according to the old and not yet repealed law of England Lo. Keble At Westminster he tels you L. Col. Lilb I beseech you where at Westminster Lord Keble The Clerks of the Parliament are known to the City of London here you know it well enough L. Col. Lillb That is no answer to my questions I pray let me have fair play for it is a question to me whether the bookes of the Clerk of the

Forraigners or Strangers to invade England or Ireland or shall adhear to any Forces raised by the Enemies of the Parliament or Common-wealth or Keepers of the Libertie of England Or if any person shall counterfeit the great Seal of England for the time being used and appointed by Authority of Parliament that then every such offence and offences shall be taken deemed and declared by Authority of this Parliament to be high Treason And every such persons shall suffer paines of death and also forfeit unto the Keepers of the Liberty of England to and for the use of the Common-wealth all and singular his and their Lands Tenements and Hereditaments Goods and Chattles as in case of high Treason hath been used by the Lawes and Statutes of this Land to be forfeit and lost provided alwayes that no persons shall be indicted and araigned for any the offences mentioned in this Act unlesse such offenders shall be indicted prosecuted for the same within one year after the offence committed And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid that if any person shall counterfeit the money of this Common-wealth or shall bring any false money into this Land counterfeit or other like to the money of this Common-wealth knowing the money to be false to marchandize or make payment in deceit of the people of this Nation Or if any person shall hereafter falsly forge and counterfeit any such kind of Coyn of Gold or Silver as is not the proper Coyn of this Common-wealth and is or shall be current within this Nation by consent of the Parliament or such as shall be by them authorised thereunto or shall bring from the parts beyond the Seas into this Common-wealth or into any the Dominions of the same any such false and counterfeit Coyn of money being current within the same as is above said knowing the same money to be false and counterfeit to the intent to utter or make payment with the same within this Common-wealth by merchandize or otherwise Or if any person shall impair diminish falsifie clip wash round or file scale or lighten for wicked lucre or gaines fake any the proper moneyes or Coynes of this Common-wealth or the Dominions thereof or of the moneyes or Coyns of any other realme allowed and suffered to be current within this Common-wealth or the Dominions thereof that then all and every such offences above mentioned shall be and are hereby deemed and adjudged high Treason and the offenders therein their Councellers Procurers Ayders and Abetters being convicted according to the Laws of this Nation of any of the said offences shall be deemed and adjudged Traytours against this Common-wealth and shall suffer and have such pains of death and forfeitures as in case of ligh Treason is used and ordained Provided alwayes and be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid that this Act touching the moneyes and Coyns aforesaid or any thing therein contained nor any attainder of any person for the same shall in any wise extend or be judged to make any corruption of bloud to any the heir or heirs of any such offender or to make the wife of any such offender to lose or forfeit her dower of or in any Lands Tenements or Hereditaments or her Title Action or Interest in the same Mr Atturney My Lords and you Gentlemen of the Jury you have heard these laws read unto you the clauses that we are to make out in proof against Mr Lilburne are these That if any person shall maliciously or advisedly publish by writing Printing or openly declaring that the said Government is Tyrannicall usurped or unlawfull or that the Commons in Parliament assembled are not the Supreme authority of this Nation are Traytors these we shall joyne together with his books My Lord you are here in Court and have received the proofs against him and we shall now make it out that he hath done what this Statute forbids out of his own books that have come from himself as the Author of them My Lord we shall begin with that charge against him in declaring the government Tyrannicall usurped and unlawfull and for that end see his Impeachment of Lieut Gen Cromwell c. page 8. Just Jermin Mr Lilburne Doth your Paper of the 17 of May agree with that which was read or no. L. Col Lilb No. Sir I conceive Sir you ask'd me whether this Act I have in my hand do agree with that which was read Just Jermin Yes Sir I do L. Col Lilburne It does not Just Jermine Then you will make use of it by and by Lieut. Col Lilb I Sir I intend so if you will let me Mr Atturn My Lord The first is that Mr Lilburne hath declared the present Government to be tyrannicall usurped and unlawfull and that in ipsissimis verbis that he hath so declared in a very high way in the very words so his book intituled an impeachment of high treason against Oliver Cromwell and his Son in law Henry Ireton c. Read fol Clerk Fol 8. Yea and the absolute keeping up of a perpetuall everlasting Army under which the people are absolute perfect Slaves and Vassals as by woefull and lamentable experience they now see they perfectly are which slavery and absolute bondage is like daily to encrease under the present Tyrannicall and Arbitrary new erected robbing Government Mr Attur And so My Lord it is here exprest to be a tyrannicall and arbitrary Government which are expresly within the word of the Law for they are a tyrannicall Government My Lords we shall not stick here with him but you shall see the whole Course of all his pens writing hath been to this purpose that goes very far My Lord see the Title page of the last book Clerk Title page Before a legall Magistracie when there shall be one in England which now in the least there is not Mr Prideaux See fol 1. Clerk Pag. 1. I have fully both by Law and Reason undeniably and unanswerably proved that the present Juncto sitting at Westminster are no Parliament at all in any sence either upon the Principles of Law or Reason but are a Company of usurping Tyrants and Destroyers of your Lawes Liberties Freedoms and Proprieties sitting by Virtue of the Power and conquest of the Sword Mr Prid Read the Title page of the same book Clerk An impeachment of high Treason against Oliver Cromwell and his Son in Law Henry Ireton Esquires members of the late forcibly dissolved House of Commons presented to publick view by Lieut. Col John Lilburne close Prisoner in the Tower of London for his reall true and zealous affections to the Liberties of his native Countrey In which following Discourse or impeachment he engageth upon his life either upon the Principles of Law by way of indictment the onely and alone legall way of all Tryals in England or upon the Principles of Parliaments Ancient Proceedings or upon the Principles of Reason by pretence of which alone they lately took away the

and that if not speedily prevented our falling again into factions and divisions will not onely deprive us of the benefit of all those wonderful victories God hath vouchsafed against such as sought our bondage but expose us first to poverty and misery and then to be destroyed by forraign enemies M. Atturney Read page 3. Clerk page 3. Agree to ascertain our Government to abolish all Arbitrary Power and set bounds and limits both to our Supreme and all subordinate Authority and remove all known grievances and accordingly do declare publish to all the World that we are agreed as followeth pag. ibid. That the Supreme Authority of England and the territoryes therewith incorporate shal be and reside henceforward in a Representative of the People consisting of four hundred persons but no more M. Prideaux The manner of the choise of whom c. they leave to this Parliament Read a little below Clerk All things concerning the distribution of the said 400. members proportionable the respective parts of the Nation the several places for clection the manner of giving and taking of voices with all circumstances of like nature tending to the compleating and equal proceedings in elections as also their salary is referred to be setled by this present Parliament in such sort as the next Representative may be in a certain capacity to meet with safety at the time herein expressed and such circumstances to be made more perfect by future Representatives We agree this present Parliament shall end the 1 wednesday in Aug. next 1649 thenceforward to be of no Power or Authority and in the mean time shal order and direct the election of a new and equal Representative according to the intent of this our agreement and so as the next Representative may meet and sit in Power and Authority as an effectual Representative upon the day following namely the 1 Thursday of the same August 1649. Page ib. We agree if the present Parl. shal omit to order such election or meeting of a new Representative or shal by any meanes be hindred from performance of that trust that in such case we shal for the next Representative proceed in electing thereof in those places and according to that manner and number formerly accustomed in the choise of Knights and Burgesses observing onely the exceptions of such persons from being electors or elected as are mentioned before in the 1 3 and 4th heads of this agreement it being most unreasonable that we should either be kept from now frequent and successive Representatives or that the Supreme Authority should fall into the hands of such as have manifested disaffection to our common freedome and indeavoured the bondage of the Nation And for preserving the Supreme Authority from falling into the hands of any whom the people have not or shal not chuse we are resolved and agreed God willing that a new Representative shall be upon the 1 thursday in August next aforesaid the ordering and disposing of themselves as to the choise of a Speaker and the like circumstances is hereby left to their discretion but are in the extent and exercise of Power to follow the direction and rules of this agreement and are hereby Authorized and required according to their best judgements to set rules for future equal distribution and election of Members as is herein intended and injoyned to be done by the present Parliament M. Atturney Read page 8. Clerk page 8. And all Lawes made or that shal be made contrary to any part of this Agreement are hereby made nul and void M. Atturney My Lords heare by this agreement of the People that M. Lilb hath published to the World in which my L. he hath designed how many the Supreme Authority shal consist of the time when the Parl. shal dissolve as also the time when his own Parl. shal meet this Parl. to be dissolved the first wednesday in Aug. 1649. all Lawes contrary to this to be nul and void and in it you shal find some expressions of Treason in the height that whosoever shal do contrary to it shal be most severely punished In the next Book before this it is desired by him that this agreement of the People may be the Center the Banner and Standard of all his friends and that they go on vigorously with it which is my Lord to dissolve this Parliament and to put on this new one of M. Lilburns appointing This we conceive which is of M. Lilbs appointing would if effected be an absolute subversion of this in being and this is high Treason My Lord we shal go on with more yet and that is with his out-cry my Lord if you please to see the title and see to whom it is directed what was intended to be done with it it is intituled An out-cry of the young men and Apprentzes of London directed August 29. 1649. in an Epistle to the Private Souldery of the Army especially all those that signed the solemne ingagement at New-market-heath the 5 of June 1647. but more especially to the private Souldiers of the Generals Regiment of Horse that helped to plunder and destroy the honest and true-hearted Englishmen traiterously defeated at Burford the 15 of May 1649. Mr. Atturny A good incouragement they were Traiterously defeated at Burford but we are Rebells and Traitors and our Army murderers Butchers for giving some of those declared Traitors their due deserts but that you may see his tendency by this booke read page 11. Clarke page 11. We say considering what is before premised we are necessitated and compelled to doe the utmost we can for our owne preservation and for the preservation of the land of our Nativity and never by Popular particulars addresse our selves to the men sitting at Westminster any more or to take any more notice of them then of so many Tyrants and Usurperes and for time to come to hinder as much and as farr as our poore despised interest will extend to all others whatsoever from subscribing or presenting any more Popular petitions to them And only now as our last Paper-refuge mightily cry out to each other of our intollerable oppressions in letters and Remonstrances signed in the behalfe and by the appointment of all the rest by some of the Stoutest stiffest amongst us that we hope will never apostatize but be able through the strength of God to lay downe their lives for the maintaining of that which they set their hands to You our fellow-Countrymen the private Souldiers of the Army alone being the instrumentall authors of your own slavery ours Therefore as there is any bowels of men in you any love to your Native Country Kindred Friends or relations any sparke of Conscience in you any hopes of glory or immortality in you or any pitty mercie or compassion to an inslaved undone perishing and dying People O help help save and redeem us from totall vassalage and slavery and be no more like brute beasts to fight against us or our friends

open their Dores for the free accesse of all sorts and kindes of auditors And I did refuse as of right to proceed with them till by speciall order they did open their Dores For no triall in such cases ought to be in any place unlesse it be publick open and free and therefore if you please that I may enjoy that Legall Right and Priviledge which was granted unto me by Mr. Miles Corbet and the rest of that Committee when I was brought before them in the like case that now I am brought before you which priviledge I know to be my right by the Law of England I shall as it becomes an understanding Englishman who in his actions hates deeds of darknesse holes or corners goe on to a triall But if I be denied this undoubted priviledge I shall rather die here than proceed any further And therefore foreseeing this before hand and being willing to provide against all jealousies of my escape the feare of which I supposed might be objected against me as a ground to deny me this my legal right and therefore before hand I have given my engagement to the Lieutenant of the Tower that I will be a faithfull and true prisoner to him And I hope the Gentleman hath so much experience of my faithfulness to my word that he doth not in the least question or scruple it I am sure he hath often so declared to me that he doth not Nay I have not onely ingaged to be a true prisoner in the Tower to him but I have also solemnly ingaged to him that I will come civilly and peaceably with him and that I will go civilly and peaceably back with him again And that if any tumult or up-roare shall arise in the croud of which I lose him and he me or in case I should be any wayes by force power rescued from him I have also faithfully ingaged to him that I will come again to him by the assistance of God as soon as ever I can get away from that force or rescue And all this I intreated him to acquaint you with that all jealousies and disputes might be avoided Iudge Keble Mr. Lilburn look behind you and see whether the Dore stands open or no. L. Col. Lilb Well then Sir I am satisfied as to that But then in the next place I have read the Petition of Right I have read Magna Charta and abundance of Lawes made in confirmation of it and I have also read the Act that abolisheth the Star-chamber which was made in the yeare 1641. which last recited Act expresly confirmes those stratures that were made in Edward the thirds time which declares all Acts Laws and Statutes that were made against Magna Charta to be null and void in Law and holden for error In the reading of which Lawes I doe not find a speciall Commission of Oyer and Terminer to be Legall and warrantable I beseech you Sir doe not mistake me for I put a vast difference betwixt an ordinary and common Commission of Oyer and Terminer for holding ordinary and common Assises and Sessions and betwixt an extraordinary and special commission of Oyer and Terminer to try an individuall person or persons for a pretended extraordinary crime the Lawes I last recited and the fundamentall or essentiall Basis of freedome therein contained knowes no such names or Commissions of speciall Oyer and Terminer And those Statutes in Edward the first and Edward the thirds time that doth erect those special and extraordinary Commssions and warrant the usage of them are meerly irrationall * And excellent to this purpose is Lieutenant Colonel Lilburnes Argument in his second Edition of his Picture of the Councel of State page 8. against the erection of extraordinary Courts which thus followeth He granting that the Parliament hath power to erect a Court of Justice to administer the Law provided that the Judges confist of Persons that are not Members of Parliament And provided the power they give them be universall that is to say to administer the Law to all the people of England indefinitely who are all equally borne free alike and not to two or three particular Persons solely the last of which for them to do is unjust and altogether out of their power c. which Argument or Reason is most notably illustrated and inlarged in the second Edition of the legall fundamentall Liberties of England revived of the 8. of June 1649. page 72. innovations upon our indubitable Rights contained in Magna Charta and meere Court and Prerogative devices to destroy the best of men by extraordinary Court appointed and prejudge proceedings that should manfully stand in the way of the Prince or any of his great favourites for sure I am from the Petition of Right no ground or foundation for any extraordinary or special Commission of Oyer and Terminer upon any pretended speciall or great occasion cannot be founded but rather the absolute quite contrary as to me clearly appeares by the very plain letter of that most excellent Law and therefore such a speciall Commission upon any pretended speciall occasion being expresly against our undubitable Rights contained in Magna Charta And the Petition of Right viz. that no Englishman shall be subjected to any other Tryall but the ordinary universall and common Tryalls at ordinary Assi●es Sessions or Goale-deliveries and not in the least to be tryed by extraordinary and speciall prejudged packed over-awing Commissions of Oyer and Terminer and therefore all such extraordinary and dangerous Tryalls are absolutely abolished by the late excellent ●cts that confirmes the Petition of Right and all and every of the Clauses therein contained and abolisheth the Star-Chamber both made Anno. 1641. And Sir with your favour the then Parliament that made the lastre cited Lawes were so farre from countenancing any special Commissions of Oyer and Terminer upon any special or pretended great occasions whatsoever that I can read of That I rather find and read the Parliaments proceedings in the year 1641. An extream Out-cry of the House of Commons against special Commissions of Oyer and Terminer with a great deal of bitterness and vehemency as may fully and clearly be read in that excellent Argument of Mr. Hide April 1641. Printed and published in a Booke called Speeches and Passages of Parliament page 409. to 417. which I have here at the Barre to produce which Mr. Hide was then the special and appointed mouth of the House of Commons before the Lords who unto them in conformity to his Commission from the then House of Commons complaines to the house of Lords extreamly of a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer that was exercised in the five Northern Counties of England and earnestly in the name of the house of Commons craves the special assistance of the house of Lords to pluck up that Court by the very rootes founded upon a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer being so illegall and unjust in the very foundation of it as

also the Government thereof to subvert now established without King or house of Lords in the way of a Common-wealth and a free-state and happily Established and the Commons in Parliament assembled being the supreame authority of this Nation of England to disgrace and into a hatred base esteeme infamy and scandall with all the good true and honest persons of England to bring into hatred That is to say that thou the said John Lilburn one the first day of October in the year of our Lord 1649. and in diverse other daies and times both before and after in the parish of Mary the Arches in the ward of Cheap London aforesaid of thy wicked and devilish mind and imagination falsely malitiously advisedly and trayterously as a false Traytor by writing and imprinting and openly declaring that is to say by a certain scandalous poysonous and traiterous writing in paper intituled A salva libertate and hy another scandalous poysonous and trayterous Book intituled An impeachment of high treason against Oliver Cromwell and his son in law Henry Ireton Esquires late members of the late forcibly desolved House of Commous presented to publike view by Lieutenant Colonell John LiIburn close prisoner in the Tower of London for his reall true and zealous affections to the liberties of this Nation and by another scandalous poysonous and traiterous Book imprinted and intituled An out-cry of the young men and apprentices of London or an inquisition after the lost fundamentall laws and liberties of England directed August 29. 1649. in an Epistle to the private soldiers of the Army especially all those that signed the sulemn Engagement at Newmarket-heath the fifth of Iune 1647. but more especially the private Soldiers of the Generals Regiment of Horse that healped to plunder and destroy the honest and true hearted Englishmen traiterously defeted at Burford the fifteenth of May 1649. and also by another scandalous poysonous and traiterous Book intituled The legall fundamentall liberties of the people of England revised asserted and vindicated did publish that the Government aforesaid is tyrannicall usurped and unlawfull and that the Commons Assembled in Parliament are not the supreme Authority of this Nation and further that thou the said John Lilburn as a false Traitor God before thine eies not having but being moved and led by the instigation of the Devil endeavouring and maliciously intending the Government aforesaid as is aforesaid well and happily established thou the said John Lilburn afterwards that is to say the the aforesaid first day of October * Note that Mr. Lilburn was imprisoned by the Counsel of State as a Traytor the twenty eight of March 1649. and they there came and after arraign him as a Traytor for actions done above five months after waving all the pretended crimes for which they first imprisoned him in the year of our Lord 1649. aforesaid and diverse other daies and times as well before as after at London aforesaid that is to say in the parish and ward aforesaid London aforesaid maliciously advisedly and traiterously didst plot contrive and endeavour to stir up and to raise force against the aforesaid Government and for the subverting and alteration of the said Government and to doe those wicked malitious and trayterous advisement to put in execution c. and thou the said Jo. Lilburn afterwards that is to say the aforesaid first day of October in the year of our Lord 1649. aforesaid and divers daies and times as well before as after at London aforesaid that is to say in the parish and ward aforesaid of thy depraved mind and most wicked imagination in and by the aforesaid scandalous poysonous and trayterous Book intituled An Impeachment of high Treason against Oliver Cromwell and his son in law Henry Ireton Esquires late members of the late forcibly dissolved House of Commons presented to puhlike view by Lieutenant Colonell Iohn Lilburn close prisoner in the Tower of London for his reall true and zealous affection to the liberties of his native Country falsely malitiously advisedly and trayterously didst publickly declare amongst other things in the said Book those false scandalous malitious and trayterous words following but my true friends meaning the friends of the said Iohn Lilburn I meaning the foresaid Iohn Lilburn shall here take upon * This passage you may read in that Book page 5. me the holdnesse considering the great distractions of the present times to give a little further advice to our friends aforesaid from whose company or society or from some of them hath been begun and issued out the most transcendent clear rationall and just things for the peoples liberties and freedomes That the foresaid John Lilburn had seen or read in this Nation as your notable and excellent Petition of May the 20th 1647. burnt by the hands of the common-hangman recorded in my Book called Rash Oaths unwarrantable page 29 30 31 32 33 34 35. with divers petitions of that nature and the Petition of the 19th of January 1648. recorded in the following discourse page 45 46 47 48. and the Masculine Petition of the eleventh of September 1648. so much owned by Petitions out of severall Counties yea and by the Officers of the Armies large Remonstrance from Saint Albones the sixteenth of November 1648. page 67 68 69. the substance of all which I thou the foresaid Iohn Lilburn meaning conceive is contained in the printed sheet of paper signed by my fellow prisoners Mr William Walwin M. Richard Overton and M. Thomas Prince and my selfe dated the first of May 1649. and intituled the Agreement of the free People of England which false scandalous and traiterous Book called the Agreement of the people of England tends to the alteration and subversion of the Government aforesaid the principles of the foresaid Agreement I meaning your selfe the said John Lilburn hope and desire you the friends of the foresaid John Lilburn meaning will make the finall centre and unwavering standard of all your desires hazzards and endeavours as to the future settlement of the Peace and Government of this distressed wasted and divided Nation the firm establishing of the principles therein contained being that only which will really and in good earnest marry and knit that interest what ever it be that dwels upon them unto the distressed or oppressed Commons of this Nation But the principles of the foresaid Agreement being so detestable and abominable to the present * These lines are in pag. 7. ruling men as that which they know will put a full end to their tyranny and usurpation and really ease and free the People from oppression and bondage that it is somthing dangerous to those that goe about the promotion of it yet I shall advise and exhort you meaning the friends of him the aforesaid John Lilburn vigorously to lay all fear aside and to set on foot the promotion of it meaning the said Agreement in the same method we took for the promotion of the foresaid Petition of the ninth of

to be the most abhorred and detested of all the people above all men that ever breathed O insufferable and the highest of Treasons Leiut Col. Lilb Sir all the wit of all the Lawyers in England could never bring it within the compasse of high Treason by the old and just laws of this nation that abhors to oppress men contrary to Law then if they seem but to cry out of their oppressions to make them traytors for words Mr. Atturney I am confident the least Lawyer in England would have brought this within the Statute of Treason of the 25. Ed. 3. chap. 2. My Lords you shall see there is none escapt the Parliament with him are Tyrants Traytors and Vsurpers and therefore he stirrs up the people to destroy them But in the third place you shall see what Titles he gives to my Lord Generall Fairfax and his chief Officers that my Lord he that reads the books doth not know the parsons he would think that they were monsters and not men although they are so famous glorious that all the world have rung of them to their praise But saith he never was there more glorious Declarations made by men than by them and yet never performed any of them Nay he doth not only call them also Covenant engagement-breakers but he calls the Lord Generall Tyrant Murtherer and what not and the Officers perfideous Officers My Lords what I observed in the last clause of the Act is that whosoever goes about to draw the Souldiers from their obedience to their superiour Officers or from their obedience to the present Government that is high Treason and this likewise we shall finde him guilty of in his Legall fundamentall liberties of England inserted and vindicated it is in the first side of the Epistle that in the first place I pitch upon read it Clark pag 1. of the Epistle I positively accuse Mr. Oliver Cromwell for a wilfull murtherer and desire you to acquaint your house therewith for murthering Mr. Richard Arnold neare Ware Mr. Atturney Which man my Lord was condemned for a mtinier by a Counsell of Warre where the Lord Leiut of Ireland was but one member and the Parliament gave him and the rest of that Councell thanks for shooting that mutinous Souldier to death and yet Mr. Lilburne calls him murtherer therefore and this is laid to my Lord Leiuts charge for his part L. Col. Lilb Doth not the Petition of Right absolutely condemne all such acts in time of Peace when the Courts of Justice are open and the judgment of the Earle of Strafford doth abundantly condemne it who lost his life for a Traytor for doing the very same act in kind and likenesse at that time when he in the eye of the law was as legal a General as the General was that condemned that man Mr. Atturney My Lords L. Col. Lilb I pray Sir hear me out and sure I am the Declarations of all the powers extant in England ever since hath been to maintain the Petition of Right inviolably yea even those that are now in present power and if the Petition of Right be true to shoot souldiers as Arnold was is absolute murder Nay further if the judgment of the Parl. upon the Earl of Strafford for such an act be legal then all those that had a hand in shooting that Souldier are Traytors and ought to die for it as well as Strafford Clark reads on the second side of the Epistle Of all which crimes and charges and all your others against the King contained in your foresaid Declaration I know not three of them but Cromwel and his confederates in your pretended House and Army are as guilty of the like in kind though under a new name and notion as the King was of the fore-mentioned if not more guilty Mr. Prideaux Read pag. 35. Clerk pag. 35. But alas poor fools we were meerly cheated and cozened it being the principal unhappiness to some of us as to the flesh to have our eyes wide open to see things long before most honest men come to have their eyes open and this is that which turns to our smart reproach and that which we Commissioners feared at the first viz that no tye promises nor engagements were strong enough to the grand-juglers and leaders of the Army was now made clearly manifest for when it came to the Councel there came the General Cromwel and the whole Gang of Creature-Colonels and other Officers and spent many dayes in taking it all in pieces and there Ireton shewed himself an absolute King if not an Emperour against whose will no man must dispute and then Shuttlecock Roe their Scout Okey and Major Barton where Sir Hardress Waller sate President begun in their open Councel to quarrel with us by giving some of us base and unworthy language which procured them from me a sharp retortment of their own baseness and unworthiness into their teeth and a challenge from my self into the field besides seeing they were like to fight with us in the room in their own Garrison which when Sir Hardress Waller in my ear reproved me for it I justified it and gave it him again for suffering us to be so affronted and within a little time after I took my leave of them for a pack of dissembling jugling knaves amongst whom in consultation ever thereafter I should scorn to come as I told some of them for there was neither faith truth nor common honesty among them and so away I went to those that chose and intrusted me and gave publikely and effectually at a set-meeting appointed on purpose to divers of them an exact account how they had dealt with us and cozened and deceived us and so absolutely discharged my self from medling or making any more with so perfideous a Generation of men as the great Ones of the Army were but especially the cunningest of Machavilians Commissary Henrie Ireton Mr. Atturney Reade pag. 37. at the mark Clark pag. 37. Which the General and his Councel knew well enough and I dare safely say it upon my conscience that an Agreement of the People upon foundations of just freedome gone through with is a thing the General and the chiefest of his Councel as much hates as they do honesty justice and righteousness which they long since abandoned against which in their own spirits they are absolutely resolved I do verily believe to spend their heart-bloud and not to leave a man breathing in English ayr if possibly they can that throughly and resolutely prosecutes it a new and just Parl. being more dreadful to them then the great day of judgment so much spoken of in Scripture and although they have beheaded the King yet I am confidently perswaded their enmity is such at the peoples liberties that they would sooner run the hazard of setting the Prince in to reign in his Fathers stead then further really a just Agreement or endeavour a new Parliament rightly constituted Mr. Atturney Read pag. 38.

and to you I must appeal for law if you doe believe the evidence is plain and full against him for which he stands indicted and so Gon direct all your judgements I have don● L. Col. Lilb Sir by your favour I shall desire to addresse my self in one word to you which is to defire that the Jury may read the first chapter of Queen Mary in the Statute book and the last clause of the Chapter of the thirteenth of Elizabeth where they shall clearly see especially in the Statute of Queen Mary that they abhorred and detested the making of words or writing to be Treason which is such a bondage and snare that no man knows how to say or doe or behave himselfe as is excellently declared by the Statute of Hen. 4. v. 2. I have done Sir Lo. Keeble Gentlemen you of the Jury you are sworn you are men of conscience gravity and understanding to tell you of the duties of your place that have gone through it so often is a vain thing the sacrednesse of an Oath which a man must not transgresse in the least not to save the world you have gone so often through it and understand it that I need say no more the charge you have heard and the proofs but for proofe single or double or treble as some of them doe amount unto a witnesse in this yea that doth double another mans witnesse if I swear this thing and another swear the same a third the same that is doubled upon all their testimonies Mr Lilburn hath cited two Statutes of Ed. the sixt to prove there must be two witnesses but I must tell him were there but one to each fact it were enough in Law for as for that which was cited of King Ed. the sixt you have had it fully answered by a later Law of Queen Mary which doth over-rule that and also in acts that the common Law of England shall be the rule by which all Treasons shall be tried which reacheth to this case too that there need no more but one witnesse and this is Law and therefore Gentlemen of the Jury that must not stick with you that which you have heard to concern you of the truth of the matters is this you are not bound affirmatively to have two witnesses but in that one witnesse with the circumstances concurs that is sufficient that which should prevail with you is to consider the strength of the accusation which rests in the Books and doth consist of three heads which are laid down in the Books themselves which doth in the first place so firmly expresse and so farre vilifie the Parliament and state as it is now established in England the second doth look unto the Counsels and incitations of him for the stirring up of tumults commotions and wars in this Nation and the third are the things cited in his Books to that end and purpose to divide the Army and then the otherwill take the better effect these are the three main charges and these the Books that come from him doe so plainly testifie that the Books are proved to be his you are fit Judges of but it clearly appears by those his Bookes that these things were in his intention For that he sayes it is mens that does make a man guilty the mind that is intended as it is exprest Actus non faci● reum nisi mens sit rea Now that mind is rea when there is faith published but I tell you this these Books being admitted true I say that never man that acted the highest of Treasons as he hath done hath had so much liberty as he hath had and as I said before never man of his condition nor any condition in England that was indicted in such a case ever and a Tryall in such a Court in such an Auditory such a presence as he has had Lieut. Col. Lilb The mores my sorrow L. Keeb. The mores your sorrow indeed you have good cause to be sorrowfull indeed for this Act of yours thus declared if your intentions had taken effect your plot was the greatest that ever England saw for it struck at no less then the subversion of this Common-wealth of this State to have laid and put us all in bloud your plot was such that never such was seen in the world before to proceed from a private man as you are therefore it must needs be heavy upon your Conscience therefore my Masters of the Jury look into your Conscience see what that saith unto you which he stands so much upon the witnesses Testimony are now plain and good in Law in this cause they are multiplied I do not know in one particular that there is a Testimony single but it is aggravated with many Circumstances therefore let not that trouble you you are the proper Judges of the matter of Fact being of the Countrey and if you have fully apprehended the dangerous things plotted in those boooks of Mr Lilburns you will clearly find that never was the like Treason hatcht in England and so in Gods name as the Prisoner doth lead to your Consciences so go and do Lieut. Coll. Lilb I desire your favour that there may be a course taken thot neither my Prosecutours nor any belonging to them may have accesse unto the Jury till they have done Just Jermin You Gentlemen of the Jury I did expect it it was expected by the Court that some matter of Law or some question of Law might arise upon the evidence which if it had it was the duty of the Court to have cleared it but there does not appear and therefore there is an end as to the dispute of the Law Fore-man We are no Lawyers indeed my Lord. L. Col. Lilb I have beg'd it and you have promised it that I should have Liberty to plead in Law to the Illegallities of the Indictment but you have denied me that legall right yea you will not permit my Sollicitour to speak a few words for me I dare undertake there was never such a Trial upon English ground as this hath been where a man hath been denied all the legall Rights of an English man as I have been You Gentlemen of the Jury who now are my sole Judges I pray you take notice of it Just Jermin There was never any such kind of abuse offered to a Court as you have given nor never was such Language used to any Court of Justice before that I did hear of as you have given and certainly the Behaviour at the Barre doth set forth what the humours and character of the man is for in this case if any such dangerous thing of Acting of Commotion or Mutiny in the Army or in the Nation should have followed it had been too late then to have thought of the remedy therefore the wisdom of the Parliament hath declared that whosoever shall by writing prenting or by openly declaring publish that the present Government of England is usurp'd or tyrannicall it is Treason there

let us reason together And surely if ever here were need of such a goodnesse now is the time when not onely complaints and distractions abound in all places but multitudes of cordinall friends to the Parl. are exceedingly grieved and sadned in their spirits as not seeing the Common-wealth in a condition of freedom or exemption from grievances and burthens in any measure answerable to the many promises of the Parl. to the affections of those that have assisted them or to the endeavours engagements intentions and desires of the Army Every one believing That in a very short time after the expulsion of the greater number of the Members of this honourable House as betrayers of their trust A new Representative should immediatly have been ordered according to that Moddell of an Agreement of the People tendered by the Councel of the Army or in some other way And that because that honourable Councel in their Declaration of December last Declared That they should not looke on the remaining part as a former standing power to be continued but in order unto and untill the introducing of a more full and formall Power in a just Representative to be speedily endeavoured by an Agreement of the People And we were the more confident hereof because they had formerly declared also That where the Supream Authority was fixt in the same Persons during their own pleasure it rendered that Government no better then a Tyranny and the People subject thereunto no better then Vassals That by frequent Elections men come to taste of subjection as well as Ru●e and are thereby oblieged for their own sakes to be tender of the good of the People so that considering those expressions and those extraordinary things done declaredly for a speedy new Elected Parliament how it should come not onely to be wholly deferred but to be matter of blame for us or any of our friends earnestly to desire what is so evidently just and necessary in it selfe and so essential to the liberties of the Nation perplexeth us above measure and we intreat some satisfaction therein And truly when you had voted the People under God to be the originall of all just Power and the chosen Representatives of the People the Supream Authority we conceived that you did it to convey those Righteous Principles which we and our friends long laboured for to the next full and formal Representative and not that you intended te have exercised the supream Law-making Power Much lesse that such ensnaring Lawes should ever have issued from a house of Commons so often and so exceedingly purged intentionally by the Army for the freedom of the Common-wealth as is your Act against Treason wherein contrary to the course of former Parliaments and to Magna Charta so many things are made Treason that it is almost impossible for any to discourse with any affection for performance of promises and Engagements or for the liberties of the Nation but he is in danger of his life if Judges and Juries should take it for good Law which God forbid Also your Act for continuance and receipt of Excise which every one hoped upon the prevailing of the Army would have had a finall end to Trade more oppressive then all the Pattents Projects and Shipmoney put together Also your Act for continuance and strict receipt of Customs was exceeding crosse to expectation that and the other for Excise being esteemed most destructive to all kind of Commerce Shipping and Navigation and are so chargeable in the Receipt as that if what is disbursed to Offices and Collectors were raysed in an ordinary way of Subsidies it would go very farre towards the publique charge which it was hoped you would have seriously laid to heart and have prepared a way to have eased the Nation of both and to have raised all publique moneys by way of Subsidies It was hoped also That you would have done something towards easing the People of the long complained burthen of Tythes rather then to have enforced the same upon treble dammages It was also expected upon the prevailing of the Army and the reducement of this honourable House That the Printing-Presses should have been fully opened and set at free liberty for the clear Information of the People the stopping of them having been complained of as a great oppression in the Bishops times and in the time of the late unpurged Parl. rather then such an Act against all unlicensed Printing Writing or Publishing as for strictnesse and severity was never before seene in England and is extreamly dissatisfactory to most People And truly when you had declared so highly resolvedly for the maintenance of the Law of the Land as to the defence of every mans Liberty and Property according to that excellent Law of the Petition of Right you may soone conceive what heart-breaking torment of spirit was occasioned by your seizing in an hostile manner such constant cordial Promoters of those excellent Maximes forementioned by the commitment of them in an extrajudicial manner to an Arbitrary Prison where they have been long time Prisoners and most of that time close prisoners their Chambers and Pockets search'd more then once to find matter against them things altogether unparliamentary yea denied a legal Tryal no legal Crime being laid to their Charge nor Accuser or Witnesse ever seene by them face to face as Law requires and this to the Ruine of themselves and Families as to temporall subsistance We professe we are not able to express the grief and amazement that seized on us thereupon and which is daily renewed upon us in that now after extream provocations you seeme Resolved to take away the life of our dear friend Mr. Lilburn and others not by any ordinary way of Trial at the usuall Assizes but by a speciall Commission of Oyer and Terminer the Judges being composed of such as whose interest he hath long opposed a way much complained of in the corrupt times before this Parliament and which we hoped we should have heard no more of in this Nation And although this is too too lamentable yet would this were all but if we understand the Petition of Right truly the putting of Souldiers to death or to other reproachful and painful punishments by Martial-Law in time of Peace is not agreeable thereunto and if we are deceived therein the express words of that Law have deceived us But that such as have ventured their lives for you and thought nothing too deere to be spent in defence of a just Parliamentary-Authority should yet be imprisoned as some such there are in remote Castles and used more barbarously then Mr. Burton Mr. Prinne and Dr. Bastwick in the Bishops time and how soone intended to be proceeded against by special Commission of Oyer and Terminer we cannot but feare This makes our very hearts to bleed and our Bowels to earne within us insomuch as if no Reason Conscience feare of God or sence of Religion will put a speedy stop to these

proceedings but our most deere Friends because ever faithful to their Countrey must thus be ruined and slaughtered under pretence of Tryalls we shall not desire to breath longer in this World as seeing nothing but misery and slavery like to follow after them What a sad thing we beseech you is it that it should be thus in this Nation in the first year of Englands liberty as you would have it esteemed which in our apprehension exceeds in misery and thraldome the worst of Englands bondage For besides what hath been mentioned what is more frequent then to txamine men against themselves to imprison men by Votes of Committees to seize upon mens persons by Pursuivants Messengers to sweare men against themselves Taxes and Impositions never so high and Souldiers not civill Officers set to gather them to the terror of the people and upon the least deniall either violence or an Imprisonment certainly ensueth Lawyers in effect are said to rule all the Lawes are trod under foot by them and wrested to what sence they please and Law suites extended beyond all reason in respect of time and charge then as is verily supposed having m●dded the clear intentions of this House and perverted the just intentions of the Army poor impotent Prisoners for debt and mall offences abound and starve in prisons through poverty the cruelty of Lawyers and Goalers and the poor abroad even perish for want of imployment and through the excessive price of foode and few or none lay these things to heart And if any do and become passionately affected there with and but speak their mindes freely thereof or as hath been usual and commendable endeavour to get People together in meetings and propose Petitions for redresse the Puritans were never more reproached in the Bishops times nor the Independents and Anabaptists in the late defectiou of Parl. then now all such are with more odious Titles or the same in a more odious forme as Atheists Levellers Libertines Introducers of Monarchy Anarchy and Confusion which are poysoned Arrowes shot principally at us and our Friends though must unjustly none hating or abhorring either the Principles or the Practice more then we or our Relations To our understandings this is truly our mise rable condition and the sad condition of the Common-wealth and which is the more grievous because in a time when upon promises made in the presence of God and with appeales to his m●st righteous judgments we justly expected the clea●est and largest Freedoms with even a totall redresse of all grievances and which is no small addition to our sorrow that we are wounded thus sorely by the hands whence we expected our most perfect Cure So that what to say or do either to help our selves or our Friends that are both in misery and danger and the Common-wealth that lyeth in no small degree of thraldom we are exceedingly to seeke and therefore as in fit condition for his help only that is a present help in time of trouble and who maketh mans extremity his oppertunity we most humbly and ardently beseech his divine goodnesse to vouchsafe you a true Christian like Spirit of Condescention whereby you may be inclined to appoint some impartial persons to informe our understandings aright of many things here complained of that if we be we may appear to have been mistaken professing from our Consciences that as yet we are confirmed in these our apprehensions of things not onely from our own Reasons but from the Declarations Promises and Engagements of Parliaments and we trust this way of reasoning out of differences will appear more like unto the wayes of God then by force or threats to stop our mouthes or suppresse our understandings Also that he will both test fie and moll● fie your hearts that you may instantly look back from whence you are fallen To the just ends for which the Army reserved you together and then not despairing but the hand that may heale it being Gods way we would beseech you to render up unto the People their long detained right of new Elections and a new elected Parl. To fulfill your promises concerning Magna Charta and the Petition of Right to unbind every burthen and to break every yoake to give bread to the hungry when you see the naked to cover him and not to hide your selves from those of your own flesh your present humble Petitioners though never so much scandalized and reproached To deliver the Captive and set the oppressed free and if for a testimony of your reall intentions herein you shall release unto us ours and the Nations true Friends though pointed unto death or continuance in bonds we shall rejoyce above measure at so blessed an alteration and then shall your light break forth as the morning you shall finish your Course with joy all we have shall be ever ready to preserve you and we shall ever pray that the Lord our God may be your exceeding great reward REader This foregoing Petition was Octob. 23. 1649. offered unto the House with most earnest and importunate solicitation to have it received but such a face of denial and opposition appeared amongst them that neither the Serjeant at Armes nor any Member would so much as touch it telling the Petitioners that the House would not receive any Petition in L. C. Lilburnes behalf Notwithstanding they have Declared That it is the Right of the People of England to petition and their duty to receive Petitions though against Lawes established part book declar pag. 720. The fift and last of which in order is his Brothers single Petition the Copy of which thus followeth To the Right Honourable the supream Authority of this Nation the Commons of England in Parliament assembled The humble Petition of Col. Robert Lilburn Humbly sheweth THat although of late presenting an humble Petition to this Honorable House in my own and my Sisters name in behalf of my dear brother I had not the happiness to have the same considered yet so strong are my affections towards him not onely as a brother but as confident of his integrity and that he hath been very serviceable formerly in his Generation though possibly accompanied with humane fra●●ties but also exceedingly afflicted with the long continuall sufferings of his faithful dear and now almost distracted wife Hereupon and for that it grieves me above measure that he whom all former powers sought to destroy for his affection to the present members of this honorable house which powers you have abolished and out of whose hands he as it were miraculously escaped should come to receive his sad doom under your Authority when as I verily believe that upon good grounded assurance that could I but obtain so much favour of this honourable house as to suspend all proceedings against him for some reasonable time I should be able to convince him of the evill of any thing that is really evill of it self and whereby possibly upon a mistaken conscience he may unwillingly have