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A56321 The declaration of John Pym Esquire upon the whole matter of the charge of high treason against Thomas Earle of Strafford, April 12, 1641 with An argument of law concerning the bill of attainder of high treason of the said Earle of Strafford, before a committee of both Houses of Parliament, in Westminster Hall by Mr. St. Iohn His Majesties solicitor Generall, on Thursday, April 29, 1641 / both published by order of the Commons House. Pym, John, 1584-1643.; St. John, Oliver, 1598?-1673. Argument of law concerning the bill of attainder of high-treason of Thomas Earle of Strafford. 1641 (1641) Wing P4262; ESTC R182279 46,678 116

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to intend the levying of warre this Case was adjudged before the Parliament The Case was adjudged in Hillary Terme the Parliament began not untill the Aprill following This my Lords is a Case adjudged in point That the practising to levy warre though nothing be done in execution of it is Treason Object It may be objected that in these Cases the conspiring being against the whole Kingdome included the Queene and was a compassing her destruction as wel as of the Kingdomes heere the advise was to the King Answ 1 The Answer is first that the warrant was unknowne to his Majesty that was a machination of warre against the people and Lawes wherein his Majesties person was engaged for protection That the advice was to his Majesty aggravates the offence it was an Attempt not only upon the Kingdome but upon the Sacred Person and his office too himselfe was host is patriae he would have made the Father of it so too nothing more unnaturall more dangerous To offer the King poyson to drink telling him that it is a Cordiall is a compassing of his death The poyson was repelled there was an antidote within the malice of the giver beyond expression The perswading of Forreiners to invade the kingdome holds no proportion with this Machination of warre against the Lawes or kingdome is against the King they cannot be severed My Lords if no actuall warre within the The 3. Generall Head Statute if the counselling of a warre if neither of these single Acts be Treason within the Statute The Commons in the next place have taken it into their consideration what the addition of his other words Counsells and Actions do operate in the Case and have conceived That with this addition all being put together that he is brought within the Statute of 25. Edward 3. The words of the Statute are if any man shall compasse or imagine the death of the King the words are not if any man shall plot or consult the death of the King no my Lords they go further then to such things as are intended immediately directly and determinatively against the life and person of the King they are of a larger extent to compasse is to doe by Circuit to consult or practice another thing directly which being done may necessarily produce this effect However it be in the other Treasons within this Statute yet in this by the very words there is roome left for constructions for necessary Inferences and Consequences What hath beene the judgement and practice of former times concerning these words of compassing the Kings death will appeare to your Lorships by some Cases of attainders upon these words One Owen in King James his time in the 13. yeare of his raigne at Sandwich in Kent spake these words That King James being excommunicated by the Pope may be killed by any man which killing is no murther being asked by those he spake too how he durst maintaine so bloudy an assertion hee answered that the matter was not so heynous as was supposed for the King who is the lesser is concluded by the Pope who is the greater and as a Malefactor being condemned before a Temporall Judge may be delivered over to be Executed so the King standing convicted by the Popes sentence of excommunication may justly be slaughtered without fault for the killing of the King is the execution of the Popes supreame sentence as the other is the execution of the Law for this judgement of High-Treason was given against him and execution done My Lords here is no cleere intent appearing that Owen desired the thing should bee done onely Arguments that it might bee done This is a Compassing there is a cleare Endeavour to corrupt the judgement to take off the bonds of Conscience the greatest security of the Kings life God forbid saith one of better judgement then he That I should stretch out my hand against the Lords annointed no saith he the Lord doth not forbid it you may for these reasons lawfully kill the King He that denies the Title to the Crowne and plots the meanes of setting it upon another head may doe this without any direct or immediate desiring the death of him that then weares it yet this is Treason as was adjudged in 10. Henry 7. in the case of Burton and in the Duke of Norfolkes case 13. Elizabeth This is a compassing of his death for there can no more be two Kings in one Kingdome then two sunnes in the Firmament he that conceives a title counts it worth ventring for though it cost him his life hee that is in possession thinkes it as well worth the keeping John Sparhauke in King Henry the fourths time meeting two men upon the way amongst other talke said that the King was not rightfull King but the Earle of March and that the Pope would grant indulgencies to all that would assist the Earles title and that within halfe a yeare there would be no Liveries nor Conizances of the King that the King had not kept promise with the people but had layed taxes upon them In Easter Tearme in the third yeare of Henry the fourth in the Kings Bench Rot. 12. this adjudged Treason This denying the title with motives though but implyedly of Action against it adjudged Treason this is a compassing the Kings death How this was a compassing the Kings death is declared in the reasons of the judgement That the words were spoken with an intent to withdraw the affections of the people from the King and to excite them against the King that in the end they might rise up against him in mortem destructionem of the King My Lords in this Judgement and others which I shall cite to your Lordships It appeares that it is a compassing the Kings death by words to indeavour to draw the peoples hearts from the King to set discord between the King and them wherby the people should leave the King should rise up against him to the death and destruction of the King The cases that I shall cite prove not onely that this is Treason but what is sufficient evidence to make this good Upon a Commission held the 18. yeare of Ed. 4. in Kent before the Marquesse of Dorset others an Inditement was preferred against Iohn Awater of High-Treason in the forme before mentioned for words which are entred in the enditment sub hâc formâ That he had been servant to the Earle of Warwick that though he were dead the Earle of Oxford was alive and should have the government of part of the Country That Edward whom you call King of England was a false man and had by art and subtilty slain the Earle of Warwick and the Duke of Clarence his brother without any cause who before had beene both of them attainted of High-Treason My Lords this Inditement was returned into the Kings Bench in Trinity Tearme in the eighteenth yeare of Edward the fourth and in Easter Tearme in the two and twentieth yeare of Edward
would have done to others It s true we give law to Hares and Deeres because they be beasts of Chase It was never accounted either cruelty or foul play to knock Foxes and Wolves on the head as they can be found because these be beasts of prey The Warrener sets traps for Powlcats and other Vermine for preservation of the Warren Further my Lords most dangerous diseases if not taken in time they kill Errors in great things as Warre and Marriage they allow no time for repentance it would have been too late to make a law when there had been no law My Lords for further answer to this objection he hath offended a law a law within the endeavouring to subvert the lawes and politie of the state wherein he lived which had so long and with such faithfulnesse protected his Ancestry himself and his whole family it was not malum quia prohibitum it was malum in se against the dictates of the dullest conscience against the light of nature they not having the law were a law to themselves Besides this he knew a law without That the Parliament in cases of this nature had potestatem vitae necis Nay he well knew that he offended the promulged and ordinary rules of law Crimes against law have been proved have been confessed so that the question is not de culpa sed de poena what degree of punishment those faults deserve we must differ from him in opinion that twenty felonies cannot make a treason if it be meant of equality in the use of the Legislative power for he that deserves death for one of these felonies alone deserves a death more painful and more ignominious for all together Every felony is punished with losse of life lands and goods a felony may bee aggravated with those circumstances as that the Parliament with good reason may adde to the circumstances of punishment as was done in the case of John Hall in the Parliament of 1. H. 4. who for a barbarous murder committed upon the Duke of Glocester stifling him between two feather-beds at Calice was adjudged to be hanged drawn and quartered Batteries by Law are punishable only by fine and single dammages to the party wounded In the Parliament held in 1. H. 4. cap. 6. one Savadge committed a Battery upon one Chedder fervant to Sir John Brooke a knight of the Parliament for Sommersetshire It s there enacted that he shall pay double dammages and stand convicted if he render not himselfe by such a time The manner of proceedings quickned the penalty doubled the circumstances were considered it concerned the Common-wealth it was Battery with breach of priviledge of Parliament This made a perpetuall Act no warning to the first offendor And in the Kings Bench as appears by the booke case of 9. H. 4. the first leafe double dammages were recovered My Lords in this of the Bill the offence is high and generall against the King and the Common-wealth against all and the best of all If every Felony be losse of life lands and goods what is misuser of the Legislative power by addition of Ignominie in the death and disposall of the lands to the Crowne the publicke patrimony of the kingdome But it was hoped that your Lordships had no more skill in the Art of killing of men then your worthy Ancestors My Lords this appeale from your selves to your Ancestors we admit of although we do not admit of that from your Lordships to the Peers of Ireland He hath appealed to them your Lordships will be pleased to heare what Judgement they have already given in the Case that is the severall attainders of treason in Parliament after the Statute of 25. E. 3. for treasons not mentioned nor within that Statute and those upon the first offendors without warning given By the Statute of 25. E. 3. its treason to levy war against the King Gomines and Weston afterwards in Parliament in 1. R. 2. num 38. 39. adjudged traitors for surrendring two severall Castles in France onely out of feare without any compliance with the Enemy this not within the Statute of 25. E. 3. My Lords in 3. R. 2. John Imperiall that came into England upon letters of safe conduct as an Agent for the state of Genoah sitting in the Evening before his doore in Breadstreete as the words of the Records are paulo ante ignitegium John Kirby and another Citizen comming that way casually Kirby trode upon his Toe it being twilight this grew to a quarrell and the Embassadour was slaine Kirby was indicted of high treason the inditement findes all this and that it was onely done se defendendo and without malice The Judges it being out of the Statute of 25. E. 3. could not proceede the Parliament declared it treason and judgement afterwards of high treason there 's nothing can bring this within the Statute of 25. E. 3. but it concernes the honour of the Nation that the publicke faith should be strictly kept It might endanger the trafficke of the Kingdome they made not a Law first they made the first man an example This is in the Parliament roll 3. R. 2. num 18. and Hilary Terme 3. R. 2. Rot. 31. in the Kings Bench where judgment is given against him In 11. R. 2. Tresilian and some others attainted of treason for delivering opinions in the subversion of the Law and some others for plotting the like My Lords the case hath upon another occasion beene opened to your Lordships only this is observable That in the Parliament of the first yeare of Henry the third where all treasons are again reduced to the Statute of 25. E. 3. these Attainders were by a particular Act confirmed and made good that the memory thereof might bee transmitted to succeeding ages They stand good unto this day the Offences there as here were the endeavouring the subversion of the lawes My Lords after 1. H. 4. Sir John Mortimer being committed to the Tower upon suspicion of treason brake prison and made an escape This no way within any Statute or any former Judgment at common Law for this that is for breaking the prison only and no other cause in the Parliament held the second yeer of Henry the sixth hee was attainted of high treason by Bill My Lords Poysoning is only murder yet one Richard Coke having put poyson into a pot of pottage in the kitchin of the Bish of Rochester whereof two persons died hee 's attainted of treason and it was enacted that he should bee boyled to death by the Statute of 22. H. 8. cap. 9. By the Statute of 25. H. 8. Elizabeth Barton the holy maid of Kent for pretending revelations from God that God was highly displeased with the King for being divorced from the Lady Katherine and that in case he persisted in the separation and should marry another that he would not continue King above one moneth after because this tended to the depriving of the lawfull succession to the Crowne shee is attainted of treason In the Parliament 2. 3. H. 6. cap. 16. the Lord Admirall of England was attainted of treason for procuring the Kings Letters to both Houses of Parliament to be good to the said Earle in such matters as hee should declare unto them for saying that hee would make the Parliament the blackest Parliament that ever was in England endevouring to marry the Lady Elizabeth the Kings sister taking a bribe of Sherrington accused of treason and thereupon consulting with Councell for him and some other crimes none of them treason so cleerely within the Statute of 25. E. 3. or any other Statute as is the case in question My Lords All these Attainders for ought I know are in force at this day the Statutes of the first yeere of Henry the fourth and the first of Qu. Mary although they were willing to make the Statute of the five and twentieth yeere of Edward the third the rule to the inferiour Courts yet they left the Attainders in Parliament precedent to themselves untoucht wherein the Legislative power had been exercised There 's nothing in them whence it can be gathered but that they intended to leave it as free for the future My Lords In all these Attainders there were crimes and offences against the Law they thought it not unjust circumstances considered to heighten and add to the degrees of punishment and that upon the first offender My Lords We receive as just the other Lawes and Statutes made by these our Ancestors they are the rules wee goe by in other cases why should we differ from them in this alone These My Lords are in part those things which have satisfied the Commons in passing of the Bill It is now left to the Judgement and Justice of your Lordships FINIS
THE DECLARATION OF JOHN PYM Esquire VPON THE VVHOLE MATTER of the Charge of High Treason against THOMAS EARLE OF STRAFFORD APRIL 12. 1641. WITH An ARGUMENT of Law concerning the Bill of Attainder of High Treason of the said EARLE of STRAFFORD Before a Committee of both Houses of Parliament in WESTMINSTER Hall BY Mr St-Iohn his Majesties Solicitor Generall on Thursday April 29. 1641. Both Published by Order of the Commons House Printed at London for Iohn Bartlet and are to be sold at the gilt Cup near S. Austins Gate in Pauls Church-yard 1641. THE SPEECH OR DECLARATION OF JOHN PYM Esquire After the Recapitulation or summing up of the Charge of High-Treason AGAINST THOMAS EARLE OF STRAFFORD 12. APRIL 1641. Published by Order of the COMMONS HOUSE LONDON Printed for JOHN BARTLET 1641. THE SPEECH OR DECLARATION OF JOHN PYM Esq c. MY LORDS MAny dayes have been spent in maintenance of the Impeachment of the Earle of Strafford by the House of Commons whereby he stands charged with High Treason And your Lordships have heard his Defence with Patience and with as much favour as Iustice would allow We have passed through our Evidence and the Result of all this is that it remaines clearly proved That the Earle of Strafford hath indeavoured by his words actions and counsels to subvert the Fundamentall Lawes of England and Ireland and to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Government This is the envenomed Arrow for which he inquired in the beginning of his Replication this day which hath infected all his Bloud This is that Intoxicating Cup to use his owne Metaphor which hath tainted his Iudgement and poisoned his Heart From hence was infused that Specificall Difference which turned his Speeches his Actions his Counsels into Treason Not Cumulative as he exprest it as if many Misdemeanours could make one Treason but Formally and Essentially It is the End that doth informe Actions and doth specificate the nature of them making not onely criminall but even indifferent words and actions to be Treason being done and spoken with a Treasonable intention That which is given me in charge is to shew the quality of the offence how hainous it is in the nature how mischievous in the effect of it which will best appeare if it be examined by that Law to which he himselfe appealed that universall that supreme Law Salus populi This is the Element of all Laws out of which they are derived the End of all Laws to which they are designed and in which they are perfected How far it stands in opposition to this Law I shall endeavour to shew in some Considerations which I shal present to your Lordships all arising out of the Evidence which hath been opened The first is this It is an offence comprehending all other offences here you shall finde severall Treasons Murders Rapines Oppressions Perjuries The Earth hath a Seminarie vertue whereby it doth produce all Hearbs and Plants and other Vegetables There is in this Crime a Seminarie of all evils hurtfull to a State and if you consider the reasons of it it must needs be so The Law is that which puts a difference betwixt good and evill betwixt just and unjust If you take away the Law all things will fall into a confusion every man will become a Law to himselfe which in the depraved condition of humane nature must needs produce many great enormities Lust will become a Law and Envie will become a Law Covetousnesse and Ambition will become Lawes and what dictates what decisions such Laws will produce may easily be discerned in the late Government of Ireland The Law hath a power to prevent to restraine to repaire evils without this all kind of mischiefs and distempers will break in upon a State It is the Law that doth intitle the King to the Allegeance and service of his people it intitles the people to the protection and justice of the King It is God alone who subsists by himselfe all other things subsist in a mutuall dependence and relation He was a wise man that said that the King subsisted by the field that is tilled It is the labour of the people that supports the Crowne If you take away the protection of the King the vigour and cheerfulness of Allegeance will be taken away though the Obligation remaine The Law is the Boundarie the Measure betwixt the Kings Prerogative and the Peoples Liberty Whiles these move in their owne Orbe they are a support and security to one another The Prerogative a cover and defence to the Liberty of the people and the people by their liberty are enabled to be a foundation to the Prerogative but if these bounds be so removed that they enter into contestation and conflict one of these mischiefes must needs ensue If the Prerogative of the King overwhelm the liberty of the people it will be turned into Tyrannie if liberty undermine the Prerogative it will grow into Anarchie The Law is the safeguard the custody of all private interest Your Honours your Lives your Liberties and Estates are all in the keeping of the Law without this every man hath a like right to any thing and this is the condition into which the Irish were brought by the E. of Strafford And the reason which he gave for it hath more mischiefe in it then the thing it selfe They were a Conquered Nation There cannot be a word more pregnant and fruitfull in Treason then that word is There are few Nations in the world that have not been conquered and no doubt but the Conquerour may give what Lawes he please to those that are conquered But if the succeeding Pacts and Agreements doe not limit and restraine that Right what people can be secure England hath been conquered and Wales hath been conquered and by this reason will be in little better case then Ireland If the King by the Right of a Conquerour gives Lawes to his People shall not the people by the same reason be restored to the Right of the conquered to recover their liberty if they can What can be more hurtfull more pernicious to both then such Propositions as these And in these particulars is determined the first Consideration The second Consideration is this This Arbitrary power is dangerous to the Kings Person and dangerous to his Crown It is apt to cherish Ambition usurpation and oppression in great men and to beget sedition and discontent in the People and both these have beene and in reason must ever be causes of great trouble and alteration to Princes and States If the Histories of those Easterne Countries be perused where Princes order their affaires according to the mischievous principles of the E. of Strafford loose and absolved from all Rules of Government they will be found to be frequent in combustions full of Massacres and of the tragicall ends of Princes If any man shall look into our owne Stories in the times when the Laws were most neglected he shall find them full of
The Kings writ runs not within the County Palatine of Chester and Durham nor within the five Ports neither did it in Wales before the union in Henry the eighth's time after the Lawes of England were brought into Wales in King Edward the first 's time suits were not originally commenced in Westminst Hall for things done in them yet this never excluded the Parliament suits for life lands and goods within those jurisdictions are determinable in Parliament as well as in any other parts of the Realme Ireland as appeares by the Statute of the thirtieth yeer of Henry the third before mentioned is united to the Crowne of England By the Statute of the eight and twentieth yeere of Henry the sixth in Ireland it is declared in these words That Ireland is the proper Dominion of England and united to the Crowne of England which Crowne of England is of it selfe and by it selfe fully wholly and entirely endowed with all power and authority sufficient to yeeld to the subjects of the same full and plenary remedy in all debates and suits whatsoever By the Statute of the three and thirtieth yeer of Henry the eighth the first Chapter when the Kings of England first assumed the title of King of Ireland it is there enacted That Ireland still is to bee held as a Crown annexed and united to the Crown of England So that by the same reason from this that the Kings writ runs not in Ireland it might aswell bee held that the Parliament cannot originally hold plea of things done within the County Palatine of Chester Durham nor within the five Ports Wales Ireland is part of the Realme of England as appears by those Statutes aswell as any of them This is made good by constant practice In all the Parliament rolls from the first to the last there are receivers and tryers of petitions appointed for Ireland For the Irish to come so farre with their petitions for justice and the Parliament not to have cognizance when from time to time they had in the beginning of the Parliament appointed receivers and tryers of them is a thing not to bee presumed An appeale in Ireland brought by William Lord Vescye against John Fitz Thomas for treasonable words there spoken before any Judgement given in the case there was removed into the Parliament in England and there the defendant acquitted as appeares in the Parliament pleas of the two and twentieth yeere of Edward the first The suits for lands offices and goods originally begun here are many and if question grew upon matter in fact a Jury usually ordered to try it and the verdict returned into Parliament as in the case of one Balliben in the Parliament of the five and thirtieth yeere of Edward the first If doubt arose upon a matter triable by Record a writ went to the Officers in whose custody the Record remained to certifie the Record as was in the case of Robert Bagot the same Parliament of the five and thirtieth yeere of Edward the first where the writs went to the Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer Sometimes they gave judgement here in Parliament and commanded the Judges there in Ireland to doe execution as in the great case of petition between the coparceners of the Earle Marshall in the Parliament of the three and thirtieth yeere of Edward the first where the writ was awarded to the Treasurer of Ireland My Lords The Lawes of Ireland were introduced by the Parliaments of England as appeares by three Acts of Parliament before cited It is of higher jurisdiction dare Leges then to judge by them The Parliaments of England doe binde in Ireland if Ireland bee particularly mentioned as is resolved in the Book case of the first yeere of Henry the seventh Cokes seventh Report Calvins case and by the Judges in Trinity Terme in the three and thirtieth yeere of Queene Elizabeth The Statute of the eighth yeere of Edward the fourth the first Chapter in Ireland recites that it was doubted amongst the Judges whether all the English Statutes though not naming Ireland were in force there if named no doubt From King Henry the third his time downward to the eighth yeere of Queene Elizabeth by which Statute it is made felony to carry sheepe from Ireland beyond seas in almost all these Kings reignes there be Statutes made concerning Ireland The exercising of the Legislative power there over their lives and estates is higher then of the Judiciall in question Untill the nine and twentieth yeere of Edward the third erroneous judgements given in Ireland were determinable no where but in England no not in the Parliaments of Ireland as it appeares in the close rolls in the Tower in the nine and twentieth yeere of Edward the third membr 12. Power to examine and reverse erroneous judgements in the Parliaments of Ireland is granted from hence Writs of errour lie in the Parliament hereupon erroneous judgements after that time given in the Parliaments of Ireland as appears in the Parliament rolls of the eighth yeere of Henry the sixth no. 70. in the case of the Prior of Lenthan It is true the case is not determined there for it 's the last thing that came into the Parliament and could not be determined for want of time but no exception at all is taken to the jurisdiction The Acts of Parliament made in Ireland have bin confirmed in the Parliaments of England as appears by the close rolls in the Tower in the two and fortieth yeere of Edward the third memb 20. dorso where the Parliament in Ireland for the preservation of the Countrey from the Irish who had almost destroyed it made an Act that all the land owners that were English should reside upon their lands or else they were to bee forfeited This was here confirmed In the Parliament of the fourth yeer of Henry the fifth chap. 6. Acts of Parliament in Ireland are confirmed and some priviledges of the Peeres in the Parliaments there are regulated Power to repeale Irish Statutes power to confirme them cannot be by the Parliament here if it hath not cognizance of their Parliaments unlesse it be said That the Parliament may doe it knowes not what Garnesey and Jersey are under the Kings subjection but are not parcels of the Crowne of England but of the Duchy of Normandy they are not governed by the Lawes of England as Ireland is and yet Parliaments in England have usually held plea of and determined all causes concerning lands or goods In the Parliament of 33. H. i● there be plactia de Insula Jernesey and so in the Parliament 14. E. 2. and so for Normandy and Gascoyne and alwaies as long as any part of France was in subjection to the Crown of England there were at the beginning of the Parliaments receivers and tryers of petitions for those parts appointed I beleeve your Lordships will have no cases shewed of any plea to the jurisdiction of the Parliaments of England in any things done in any