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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88195	An impeachment of high treason against Oliver Cromwel, and his son in law Henry Ireton Esquires, late Members of the late forcibly dissolved House of Commons, presented to publique view; by Lieutenant Colonel Iohn Lilburn close prisoner in the Tower of London, for his real, true and zealous affections to the liberties of his native country. In which following discourse or impeachment, he engageth upon his life, either upon the principles of law ... or upon the principles of Parliaments ancient proceedings, or upon the principles of reason ... before a legal magistracy, when there shal be one again in England ... to prove the said Oliver Cromwel guilty of the highest treason that ever was acted in England, and more deserving punishment and death then the 44 judges hanged for injustice by King Alfred before the Conquest; ... In which are also some hints of cautions to the Lord Fairfax, for absolutely breaking his solemn engagement with his souldiers, &c. to take head and to regain his lost credit in acting honestly in time to come; ... In which is also the authors late proposition sent to Mr Holland, June 26. 1649. to justifie and make good at his utmost hazard ... his late actions or writings in any or all his books.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1649 (1649)	Wing L2116; Thomason E568_20; ESTC R204522	95,549	77

one white cloath in ever tenne * The Statute of 8 Eliz. Chap. 6. that the Merchant Patentee Monopolizers commonly called the Merchant Adventurers sends into the Low-Countries and Denmarke but now by reason that the chiefest of that Law Liberty and Trade-destroying Monopoly are Commissioners of the Custome-House which in justice equity and reason no Trading Merchants whatever never ought to be they are deprived of their right in that particular and crush'd in pieces with potency and great purses whereas in the time of so exceeding great decay of Trade it were more just and necessary to enable them to dresse the other nine to set their poor families at work many of which are ready to starve then to take one piece of the tenth Cloath from them Mr. Speaker All these things with many more that then were minded represented the miseries of this Kingdom very sad and great and made the present Speaker there conclude That if War did come amongst us of necessity Famine would follow and that would occasion all the poor people all over England to rise confusedly in hurly burly and to cut the throats of their rich neighbours to get their riches to buy them bread to keep them alive and whether or no they might not as soon fall upon us that they looked upon as Round-heads Independent Sectaries c. and so destroy us for our cordial and faithful adherence to the Parliament whom now the most of them looked upon as those that had brought all their evils and miseries upon them From all which considerations it was Mr. Speaker with earnestnesse pressed vigorously to promote this Petition all over the Kingdom as the onely means to heal and cure all our diseases and maladies the things therein contained being so just in themselves that none but those that desired to be absolute Tyrants could speak against them the obtaining of which would settle peace and quietnesse amongst us and so cause Trade again to flourish And Mr. Speaker to presse this nail home to the head I do confesse that I further added that if such a generall confusion as before is spoken of should arise it would then I was confident of it be greater security from the rage of the rude multitude to be known to be a vigorous prosecutor of this gallant just and righteous Petition that did as much concern their good as our own then to wear a blue Ribbon in our hats And truly Mr. Speaker I may now with my pen add this That blue Ribbons being Sir Thomas Fairfax his Colours who now with his Army are the grand and strong protection of all those that march under his Colours under which whosoever shall come may probably think to have safety yet I was of opinion and still am That publick knowledge of a vigorous and strong acting in so transcendent gallant and just a Petition as this is in the day of a feared universall storm in England will be of greater security and protection then to be one of Sir Thomas Fairfax his Army and to wear his Colours of blue Ribbons in his hat for the Kingdom generally look upon the Souldiers now as their oppressors and destroyers of their Laws Liberties and Properties but the promoters and procurers of the just things contained in this Petition cannot chuse but be looked on by them as the repairers of their breaches and the restorers of their Laws and Liberties Mr. Speaker When we were coming away there was one of the company said That he heard a rumour abroad as if the Lords had offered me a large sum of money so I would desist from prosecuting this large Petition he therefore desired me to give him a true account whether this report were true or no. Unto which I answered to this effect That it was not true but it was possible it might arise from the report of some Messages I lately had received from the Lord WHARTON And Mr. Speaker for that particular I told him to this effect That not long since there came a Gentleman of some quality and a man I look upon as an ingenuous man to my lodging in London and told me before two other Gentlemen friends of mine to this effect That my Lord Wharton remembred his respect unto me who he told me he was very confident was my very good friend and would willingly serve me and that he did beleeve cordially in any thing that lay within his power and who as he told me did very much consider my long suffering condition by reason of which he did beleeve money was not very plentifull with me and therefore he was come from him to let me know that he hath in readinesse a very considerable token for me which he would send me if he thought it would not be scorned but accepted in love and respect Unto which after a little pause I answered to this effect That I desired him to present my service to his Lordship and from mee to thank him for his civility and courtesie towards me But f●r me to receive his money I could not in the least do it because for me who professed ingenuity and abhorred ingratitude as a most dishonourable thing in any man whatsoever to receive his money it must needs to me become an obliging engagement and tie me one way or another to studie how to requite it which truly I told him to his Lordship as he was now a Patentee prerogative Lord and exercised a Legislative and arbitrary power by vertue thereof which I looked upon as altogether destructive to the very being of the Liberties and Freedoms of the Commons of England I could not in the least do it but was absolutely resolved to professe open War with his arbitrary Prerogative-Lordship as long as I had breath in my body and never to be reconciled unto it And therefore in short tell his Lordship from me that if I were in such great straits that I had not one penny in all the world nor knew not where to borrow it to buy me my Wife and Children bread to save us alive and if in this great strait his Lordship as he now is should send me ten thousand pounds in gold I would scorn to accept or let my fingers so much as touch one peece of it or that any that belonged to me with my consent should do it for me But I desired him to tell his Lordship from me that if he pleased to throw away his arbitrary tyrannical pattentee Lordly power which was and would be the ruine of this Kingdome and would put himself upon the affection of his Countrey to be chosen a Knight of a Shire as a well-deserving Englishman I should then honour him and be willing and ready to accept of the meanest token that he should send me though it were but Five shillings and judg my self obliged to serve him and should readily doe it yea in preserving his reall propriety in his great estate unviolably yea and the title of his Honour hereditary

upon them unto the distressed and oppressed Commons or people of this Nation yea the setling of which principles is that that will thereby make it evident and apparent unto all rationall and understanding people in the world that the reall and hearty good and welfare of the people of this Nation hath cordially and in good earnest been that that their souls have hunted for and thirsted after in all the late bloody civill wars and contests All the Contests of the Kings party for his Will and Prerogative being meerly Selvish and so none of the peoples interest and the contest of the Presbyterians for their ●●ke-bate dividing and hypocriticall Covenant no better in the least and the present contest of the present dissembling interest of Independents for the peoples Liberties in generall read the following Discourse pag. 27 28 29 meerly no more but Self in the highest and to set up the false saint and most desperate Apostate murderer and traytor Oliver Cromwel by a pretended election of his mercinary souldiers under the selfe name of the godly Interest to be King of England c. that being now too too apparently all the intended Liberties of the people that ever he fought for in his life that so he might rule and govern them by his Will and Pleasure and so destroy and envassalize their lives and properties to his lusts which is the highest treason that ever was committed or acted in this Nation in any sense or kinde either first in the eye of the Law or secondly in the eye of the ancient but yet too much arbitrary proceedings of Parliament or thirdly in the eye of their own late declared principles of reason by pretence of which and by no rules of Law in the least they took away the late Kings head and life which it there were any Law or Justice in England to be had or any Magistrates left to execute it as in the least there is not I durst undertake upon my life plainly evidently and undeniably to make good the foresaid unparalleld treasons against the foresaid Ol. Cromwel upon against all the three forementioned principles viz Law Parliament and Reason yea and to frame against him such an Impeachment or Indictment which way of Indictments is the true legall and only just way of England to be tried at the Common Law higher and greater then all the charges against the fourty four Judges hanged for false and illegal Judgments by King Alfred before the conquest which with their crimes are recorded in the Law Book called The mirror of Justice Printed in English for Matthew Walbank at Grayes Inn gate 1646. page 239. 240. 241. 242. 243. 244. 245. See also page 196. 197. 207. ibid. Or then the impeachment or accusation Of the Lord chief Justice Wayland and the rest of his brother Judges and Lawyers tormented in Edward the first his time and mentioned in Speeds Chronicle fol. 635. Or then the impeachment in Parliament against Judg Thorp who for taking small bribes against his oath was condemned to die in Edward the third his time of whom you may read in the 3. part Cooks Institut fol. 155 156. and in Mr. Pyms Speech against the Earl of Strafford in the Book called Speeches and Passages of Parliament pag. 9. Or then the impeachment 〈◊〉 a charge of the dethroned King Edward the second in full Parliament the maner of whose dethroning you may notably read in Speeds Chronicle fol. 665. Or then the many Articles of impeachment of the dethroned King Richard the second in full Parliament recorded at large in the Chronicles or History of Will. Martin fol 156. 157. 158. 159. the 8. 10. 12. 15. 21. Articles of which I conceive must remarkable as to the people which are extraordinary well worth the reading for in them the King himself in those dark days of Popery is charged To have perverted the due course of the Law or Justice and Right and that he destroyed men by information without legal examination or tryal and that he had declared the Laws of the Kingdom were in his own Erest just the same thing do Mr. Peters and other mercenary Agents of the Grandees of the Army now constantly declare of them and that by himself and his own authority just Cromwel and Ireton like onely much short of them he had displaced divers Burgesses of the Parliament and had placed such other in their rooms as would better fit and serve his own turn Or then the impeachment of the Lord chief Justice Tris●lian who had the worship or honor in Richard the second his time in full Parliament to be apprehended in the forenoon and hanged at Tiburn in the afternoon with his brother Judges viz. Fulthorp Belknay Care Hot Burge and Lockton or their associates Sir Nicholas Bramble Lord Mayor of London Sir Simon Burley Sir William Elinham Sir John Salisbury Sir Thomas Trevit Sir James Bernis and Sir Nicholas Dodgworth some of whom were destroyed and hanged for setting their hands to Judgments in subversion of the Law in advancing the Kings will above Law yea and one of them banished therefore although a dagger was held to his brest to compel him thereunto Or then the indictment of those two grand and notorious traitorly subvertors of the Laws and Liberties of England Empson and Dudley Privy Counsellors to Henry the seventh recorded in Cooks 4. part Institut fol. 198. 199 read also fol 41. ibid. and 2. part Instit fol. 51. Or then the impeachment of that notorious wicked and traiterous man Cardinal Woolsey by King Henry the eight his Privy Councel recorded in the 4. part Cooks Instit fol. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. Read especially Artic. 17. 20. 21. 23 25 26. 30. 31. 33. 35. 38. 42. in all which he is charged with Arbitrariness and subversion of the Law Or then the impeachment of the Shipmoney Judges who in one judgment did as much as in them lay destroy all the Properties of all the men in England read the notable Speeches against them in Speeches and Passages Or then the impeachment of the Bishop of Canterbury in the late Parliament Or then the impeachment of the Lord Keeper Finch Earl of Strafford Secretary Windebank Sir Richard Bolton Lord Chancellor of Ireland John Lord Bishop of Derry Sir Gerrard Lowther Knight Lord chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland and Sir George Ratcliff all whose impeachments are recorded in a Book intituled Speeches and Passages of Parliament from November 1640. to June 1641. Pag. 76. 77. to 83. and 117. 118. to 143. and 174. and 256. 257. 258. Or then the Articles or charge against the two Sir John Hothams the elder of which kept the King out of Hull the beginning of these Wars when the House of Commons durst not command him positively to do it although they were effectually put upon it by a motion from the younger then sitting in the House and yet they were both beheaded as Traytors for but endevoring to

is not long since the Army or the leaders thereof charged divers of your principal members as traytors therefore as appears in their Book of Declarations page 83. 85. the liberty of which they reckon amongst the prime Liberties of this Nation for the pretended preservation of which there hath been almost eight 〈◊〉 bloody wars as appears largely in their forementioned pages but especially page 44. 118. yea and waged war with the Parliament their Lords Masters and Impowrers for abridging them thereof as clearly appears in their own Declarations which makes it plain and evident that such a Declaration made by the House of Commons against their Petition as the House made 27. March last against one they supposed me to have a hand in was the original and first declared cause of all the Armies contest with and rebellion against the Parliament But that I should not only be imprisoned for nothing but close imprisoned sometimes from the very society of my wife and children and ever since the ninth of May 1649. to be debarred the society and visits of my friends and acquaintance which the very Pagan Romans would not do to Paul that pestilent fellow and a turner of the world upside down as Tertullus accused him to be yea to be mewed up close in my lodging with a Padlock upon my door and Sentinels set thereat night and day that I shall not so much as speak at a distance with any of my fellow prisoners and worse dealt with besides then the Canibals do with their poor imprisoned Captives who feed them fat with good cheer against the day of slaughter or then the States of Holland do their intended to be executed theeves traytors or murderers whom they largely and plentifully provide for in their imprisonment yea or worse then King Charls whom you have beheaded for a Tyrant did by his prisoners in this very place unto the meanest of whom out of the Exchequer he allowed three pound a week for their maintenance during their imprisonment in this place yea and to divers of your very members that were men of great estates and possessed them peaceably in the third four fifth c. years of his raign he allowed them four pound and more at week apeece for their diet when things were cheap to what they are now and ye for much of my time you proffered me never a peny and when you do you do in a mock and scorn proffer me at most but twenty shillings a week which will do little more then pay for the necessary attendance in the close and extraordinary condition you have put me in which I confess I refused with as much scorn as it was sent me which close and extraordinary tormenting condition in the heat of Summer without permitting me to step out of my lodging to take a little Air admit you were as unquestionable a power as ever was in England and that I had really committed treason cannot in the least by the Law of England he justifiable the equity and justice of which Law abhors any torture or torment whatsoever to any prisoners though never so criminous least that his pain or torture or torment should take away his reason and constrain him to answer otherwise then of his free will torture forcing many times the innocent person to tell lies which Law and Justice otherwise abhor and therefore that never enough to be magnified Lawyer Sir Edward Cook saith That there is no one opinion in all our Law Books or Judiciall Records that he hath seen and remembers for the maintenance of torture or torments c. persons being meerly instituted by Law for safe keeping in order to a speedy triall but not in the least for punishment or torment as is most excellently declared by him in the 1. Part Instit fol. 260. 2. and 2. Part fol. 42. 43. 186. 315. 316. 589. and 3. Part fol. 3435. and 4. Part fol. 168. And all this present unjust usage of me to come not onely from the hands of my large pretended friends whose just interest according to their own published Declarations I have with all faithfulness in the midst of many deaths for many yeers together faithfully served and advanced with all my might But also of those that would seem to abhor and abominate the Ruling and Governing by will and Arbitrary power as the wickedest and detestablest thing in the world and so declare it to be 1. Part. Book Declarations pag. 172. 195. 214. 264. 281. 342. 464. 492. 494. 496. 498. 663. 666. 690. 699 728. 750. And that have raised and maintained a bloody war for seven yeers together principally for the pretended preservation of the Laws and Liberties of England that have pulled down the Star Chamber High Commission Councel Table and House of Peers for oppression and arbitrary injustice nay and beheaded the King the quondam glory of some of your great ones eyes * * As is undeniably demonstrated in my following impeachment of Lieutenant General Cromwel and his son Ireton at the Bar of the House of Commons the 19. Janu. 1647. And offered again and again there upon my life to make it good as cleerly appears by Putney projects Mr. John Wildemans Truths Triumph pag. 7 8. and Major Huntingtons charge delivered to the Parliament August 2. 1648. against Lieutenant General Cromwel c. pretendedly for Tyranny and Oppression as your selves state his Case in your notable Declaration about Non-Addresses dated the 11. of Febr. 1647. and your remarkable Declaration of the 17. of March 1648. Yea and have suffered your Solicitor General Mr. John Cook notably in Print to state his Oppressions yea and to draw most notable pregnant and cutting inferences from them as he doth in the 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 11 14. 15. 17. 20. 22. 26. 31. 36. 39. 42. pages thereof two of which onely I shall now make use of The first is in pag. 22. where he arguing of the right execution of Trusts saith That when any is intrusted with the sword for the protection and preservation of the people if this man shall imploy it to their destruction which was put into his hands for their safety by the Law of that Land he becomes an enemy to that people and deserves the most exemplary and severe punishment that can be invented and this is the first necessary and fundamental Law of every Kingdom Which if it be true as you cannot contradict it it being your own doctrine then it is easie to make Application a majore ad minus The second is in pag. 42. where he declares That in pronouncing Sentence against the King and executing Justice upon him you have not onely pronounced Sentence against one Tyrant alone but against Tyranny it self therefore saith he there if any of them meaning the High Court of Justice and the Parliament shall turn Tyrants or consent to set up any kinde of Tyranny by a Law or suffer any unmerciful domineering over the Consciences Persons and Estates of

reallest and best service that ever with my tongue I did them in my life And as I said I was very sure I had done them some real and unspotted services For the occasion of that meeting as I told them was upon this ground there being a large Petition a promoting some Copies of them came into the hands of some cordial honest active men about Wappin who though they had nothing to object against the Petition it self yet one or more of them did very much scruple as I was told not maliciously but conscienciously how they could lawfully act to promote any more Petitions to this House of Commons seeing that in their Declarations they had declared in answer to the Kings Objections about tumultuous meetings about Petitions That desired the abolition of things established by Law That they did conceive that numbers do not make an assembly unlawful but when either the end or the maner of their carriage shall be unlawful Divers just occasions say they might draw the Citizens to Westminster where many publique 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 in the Term to the ordinary Courts of Justice we know not * These are their own words in their Declaration of the nineteenth of May 1642. 1. Part. Book Declar. pag. 201 202 See also pag. 123. 533. 548. 691. See the Armies Declarations to this purpose Book Declar. pag. 10. 11. 17. 23. 33. 35. 44. 60. 61. 62. 83. 85. 118 but especially read the notable Arguments in Master Nathaniel Fines his Speech in the House the ninth of February 1640. To justifie popular Petitions and multitudes deliv●ring of them for the abolition of the things established by Law which you may read in Print in the 22. 23. 24. 25. pages of a Printed Book intituled Speeches and Passages of Parliament Printed 1641. for William Cook And in the same Declaration Pag. 209. they say That such a concourse of people as is before mentioned cannot in the interpretation of the Law be held tumultuary and seditious And in their Declaration of the second of November 1642. 1 Part. Book Declar. pag. 720. They do acknowledg that they have received Petitions for the removal of things established by Law and say they we must say and all that know what b●longeth to the course and practice of Parliament will say That we ought so to do and that both our Predecessors and His Majesties Ancestors have constantly done it there being no other place wherein Laws that by experience may be found grievous and burthensom can be altered or repealed and there being no other due and legal way wherein they which are aggrieved by them can seek redress And yet notwithstanding all this That this very Parliament or House of Commons that had made these Declarations Should declare men Traytors for endevoring to Petition burn their Petitions and imprison the persons of divers honest men meerly for Petitioning for those things they had made us fight for viz. Our Liberties and Freedom * When formerly they received the poor mens Petitions with threatning language in it with a great deal of thankfulness as appears 1. Part. Book Declarat pag. 289. 364. 365. 398. 533. 548. 557. All these things laid together were such discouragements to the Objecter or Objecters That at the present as it was said they could not in Conscience nor Honor go about to Petition so unworthy an Apostatized House any more Whereupon some of their Neighbors in and about Wappin that were zealous in promoting the Petition appointed a meeting to debate and satisfie these Scruples if it were possible that so they might go unanimously to work to promote the Petition which was now much retarded by the foresaid Scruples the party or parties scrupling being of some eminency amongst their Neighbors Unto which meeting by some Friends I was earnestly desired to come and if I could to bring Mr. John Wildeman with me which I did And the substance of that Discourse was to convince our scrupling friends or friend That the Kingdom was in exceeding great distractions and the people under general Oppressions and Burthens and trading generally decayed which had occasioned mighty heart-burnings and dividings of Spirit amongst the people and the present House of Commons though sufficiently corrupted was the visibly best and justest Authoritie that was extant in England the overthrowing of which as things stood would bring in such a present Inundation of misery and confusion into the whole Kingdom that there would be nothing in the eye of Reason but cutting of throats every where and all return into its first Chaos and the longest Swords to be Judges of all and we might be as soon destroyed in such a general confusion and hurly burly as any others And therefore I and my friend pressed That if they either wished well unto themselves or their Native Countrey they were tied in duty and conscience to the uttermost of their power to preserve the Interest and Being of the House of Commons so long as it continued a House and yet in such a way That they might not invassalize the people Both of which they were told was provided for in this Petition and to do any thing that might pull down or destroy the present Power and Being of the House of Commons in the eyes of the people before things are in some settledness which would sufficiently be done if they should disclaim them as unworthy to be Petitioned unto any more were to undo and destroy our selves especially considering That they had so lately engaged so high against the King and the Scots and therefore it behoved us not so to act as to increase their adversaries but rather to strengthen their hands and the rather at this juncture of time and yet so to do it as that the generality of the Commons of England might be gainers by it in the knowledg of their particular Liberties that so if it were possible they might be united therein and might thereupon as one man in the Spirit of Englishmen stand up and live and die each with other against all Forraign Interests whatsoever And as I further told my said acquaintance and friends That I was confident there was never any one Discourse in England wherein the true and just Interest of the House of Commons was more firmly cordially and strongly maintained then in that And if they should punish me for my actions or speeches at that meeting I should be punished for doing as great and as real a peece of service to the Interest of the House of Commons and consequently to the Interest of the Kingdom as ever was done in any meeting by any Member of the House And this I told them I doubted not but to make as evident as the Sun when it shined if the House would hear me but speak for my self At which my Friends were very much

to speak So preparing for the journey I arrived with other of my friends at Westminster and being not long at the House door where was many friends come downe from London and Southwark to hear and see how things went I addressed my self to the Sergeant of the House to let him know I was there to tend upon the Houses pleasure And he immediately after came out with his Mace and CALLED FOR Mr. MASTERSON THE JUDAS PRIEST and my selfe so in we went and also the Lieutenant of the Tower as my guardian and having given them that due respect that I conceived is due unto their just and true authority though I owe little or none unto the persons that sat there by reason of their grosse abusing and most abominable of their righteous authority the thing that passed so near as my memory to the utmost punctilio will serve me I shal faithfully relate unto you Upon our comming to the Bar where both my lying accuser and my selfe stood the Speaker stept up in his Chaire and commanded Mr. MASTERSON in the name of the House of Commons to give them again a narrative of what he yesterday declared to them So he very formally begun and spoke as freely as if he had learned his Lesson without book and truly I could not but stand amazed at the mans impudence that he durst with so much confidence tell so many lies as he did But giving not much regard unto his accusation to treasure it up in my memory being resolved before hand to take no cognizance of his verball impeachment which in Law was nothing I fixed my mind very seriously upon the Lord Jehovah my old experienced refuge strength and support and was a wrestling with him for the incomes of his own self that so I might speak freely and boldly in his might and power if it were possible to the amazement and terrour of his enemies amongst those that should hear me divers of whom I was confident would lye in wait to catch and intrap me And now and then the House in my apprehension being very full I cast my eie about me to look upon the countenances of the Members and to observe their behaviours most commonly fixing my eie stedfastly upon the Speaker in the Chair Who assoon as he perceived Mr Masterson had done beckoned his hand unto me as I conceived to have me answer the Priest but I stood still and took no notice of his beck at last he wished me to say what I could answer for my self unto it whereupon pausing a little after a congey made unto him I opened my mouth to this effect Mr Speaker I desire in the first place to premise this That I look upon and own this honourable House in its constitution and power as the best legallest and justest interest power and authority that is established in this Kingdom or that all the Commons of England visibly hath for the preservation of their lives liberties and estates And I doubt not but so to speak unto you and so to behave my self before you this present day as thereby to demonstrate to you that I am an honourer an owner and a prizer of this greatest English authority and interest in which as a free Commoner of England I have a little share And therfore if this honourable House please to afford me Paulis PRIVILEDGE that he enjoyed amongst the Heathen and Pagan Roman Governours or Magistrates which was to hear him speak freely for himself before they would condemn him Which liberty and priviledge I freely and largely enjoyed at the hands of the Cavalier Judges at Oxford when I was arraigned in irons before the Lord chief Justice Heath and Sir Thomas Gardiner late Recorder of London for drawing my sword and at your comand adventuring my life for the great interest of the Kingdom involved and single represented in this honourable House in the destruction of which it perisheth who before all the City and Country then assembled in Guild-hall in Oxford gave me free liberty without the least interruption to say what I pleased and to plead for my life in the best manner that all those abilities God had given me would inable me * The enjoyment of which was but my right by Law as appears remarkably in the third part of Cooks Institutes fol. 29. 137. 230. to do The which priviledge and legall and naturall right if you please to grant me I shall speak freely WITH THIS PROTESTATION AND SALVO That I do not speak nor answer out of any dutie or tie that lies upon me by LAW FOR ALL CHARGES IN LAW OUGHT TO BE IN WRITING under the hand or hands of him or them that chargeth and in that form that the Law requires and proceeded in according to the form of the Law of the Land expressed in the 29 Chapter of the great Charter and these Laws which expound it which are mentioned † Which you may at large read in my plea before Mr Corbet recorded in the 8 9 10 pages of it being called The Resolved mans Resolution and Mr John Wildmans notable defence against Masterson called Truths triumphs pag 2. 11 12 13 14. and my late Book of June 8. 1649. entituled The Legall Fundamentals c. p. 6 7 8 9. and nominated in the Petition of Right Which this pretended Vergall charge is not in the least And indeed Mr Speaker in Law it is no charge at all neither in the way this Informer is in can I well have any remedy against him in case he abuses me for as I understand if he tell twenty lies against me I cannot punish him but if he maliciously swear one against me I have his ‖ See Sir Edward Cooks 1 part Institutes fol. 294. b. and 3 part chapt Conspiracy is very remarkable fol. 143. ch Perjury fol. 163 164 165 166. and 4 part fol. 66. ears as my mercy c. therfore a Betraier of my Liberties I should be if I should look upon it as any charge at all and in that consideration return an answer to it and therfore again saving unto me the rights and priviledges of an English man which is to be tried by no other rules or methods for any reall or pretended crime whatsoever then what is declared by the known established and declared Laws of England nor by nor before any other Authority or Magistracy then what the Law hath authorized to be the executors * Which I am sure the House of Commons are not in the least See my Book called The Peoples prerogative p. 40. 41 72 73. and my Book called The Laws Funerall pag. 15 16. And my second Edition of my Picture of the Councel of State pag. 7 8. And my Book of the 8 June 1649. entituled The Legall Fundamentall Liberties of the People of England revived pag. ● 16 17. And Mr Wildmans Truths Triumph pag. 2. 17 18. And the Laws subversion or Sir John Maynards case stated pag. 33 34 35 36.

could not continue their pride and tyrannicall domination over their Souldiers and the rest of the people of the Kingdom and absolutely I conceive their interest to be war But it was our interest and the generality of the people of the Kingdom to prevent wars if it were possible But if we must engage in war again it was our interest and wisdom so to engage if it were possible as that meerly as English men we might be unanimous in our engagements either against the Scots or any other interests whatsoever that would rob us of our English liberties and freedoms And Mr Speaker I told them both these things were contained in the Petition For First if those things were granted unto us that were desired in the Petition it was impossible for us to conceive of any thing else the want of which is worth the going to war for And if the Petition were vigorously promoted and pursued to the House without all controversy it hath such excellent things in it so good in themselves for all sorts and kinds of English men that if the House and the people should be united in those gallant just and rationall things the generall heart-burnings of the Kingdom would be alaied and confidence in love and respect to each other would be raised up amongst us and our union of hearts thereby each to other as Englishmen would be as a wall of brasse for securing the common interest of our Nation So that neither Scotchman nor any forraign power in Europe durst to invade us so that in the vigorous prosecuting of this Petition union and love would be increased and war prevented thereby whereas nothing in the world will occasion wars so much as our dis-union and heart-burnings each at other which is impossible ever to be alaied but either by the active prosecuting of this Petition or something like it that so something that is good for all men as English-men might be setled But in the second place if we could not be so speedy in the prosecution of this Petition so as to get those universall good and just things therein contained setled before the Scots begun to Invade us yet if upon their march we should enjoy the possession of them it would make the generality of English-men stand together as one man and all of them in the spirit and with the principles of English-men oppose them so that the War if it must be would be carried on with that vigor and strength that it were impossible for all the power in Scotland if they did the worst they could to destroy our Nation Whereas now in our divided condition they will be sure if they come in to make a prey of us for in their comming in they declare for the King's Interest which absolutely unites and knits their owne Kingdom as one man against us and glues unto them in England all the Kings party and of necessity the Presbyters must joyne with their Masters of the Covenant and risings there will be of necessity and without all peradventure all over the Kingdome and if the Army be united within themselves as it is a very great question whether they be or no and were able to deale and grabble with all that opposition it is like to meet with from those severall parties and interests that here are like to rise up against it yet truely Mr Speaker though I do not like the late apostatized actions of the great men in the Army I do as little like the Scotch high flown expressions to instate the King absolutely into the Militia as His right and His absolute Negative Voice And indeed Mr Speaker it sounds not wel nor justly in my eares for the Scots who are and will be free men at home and will neither as I am told allow the King the exercise of the Militia in their Kingdome nor His Negative Voice no nor yet the benefit of His Revenue that they should notwithstanding all this go about to make us all slaves by fettering us with His mischievous Negative Voice and His absolute exercise of our Militia which seemes to me to be nothing lesse then a desire to pick a quarrell with us that so Mr Speaker they might come in againe for some more of our guids therefore Mr Speaker I cry out for union and peace upon just principles For the very beginnings of War againe amongst us would presently destroy that little Trade that is left and then undoubtedly comes in famine which is already at our very doores for Mr Speaker they were told a story to this effect That some Wilke-shire Cloathiers comming to the Sarazens head in Friday-street had for a truth reported to the Master of the house that Trading was already so decayed in their Country that that Cloathier that used to set an hundred poor people at worke could now scarce set twelve insomuch that the poor peoples necessities were growne so great in that Country that they already begin in companies of six ten 12. 20 c. to meet together in the Market Roads and to take away the Country-mens Corne as they carried it to sell at the Market and before their faces to divide it amongst themselves but give them their Horses and Sacks againe and withall tell them that meer hunger forced and necessitated them to do what they did And truely Mr Speaker things are like shortly to be as bad at London for want of Trade for I have heard such grievous complaints from two sorts of people especially that it would pitty any mans heart that hath the heart of a man to hear of the wants and necessities of divers families amongst them that formerly had lived in good fashion and they are the Weavers Cloathworkers and as for the Weavers their Trade consisting principally in Ribbons and Laces but superfluities in such things being laid aside their Trade was growne exceeding dead and many hundreds of their families falne into great miseries and wants by reason that the most part of that little remaining part of their Trade that is left them is taken from them by French men Walloons c. and that which adds unto their misery Mr Speaker is this That the Lord Major and Court of Aldermen do put in execution of late A MOST WICKED ILLEGAL Order or Ordinance of their owne making by reason of which their Catchpoles seize upon the goods of the said poor Free-men of London and beat and wound them yea and have committed murder upon some of them if they come to any Innes c. and offer to sell their goods to any but Shop-keepers who will give them but what they please for them so that the poor Weavers though Free-men of London are not only in miserable poverty but in the miserablest slavery in the City where they by name are Free-men that it is possible for men to be in and to bear it with patience And Mr Speaker the poor Cloathworkers who by the expresse Statute-Law of the Kingdom ought to dresse