Londons Liberty In Chains discovered AND Published by Lieutenant Golonell JOHN LILBURN prisoner in the Tower of London Octob. 1646. JER 22.15.16.17 Shalt thou reign because thou closest thy selfe in Cedar Did not thy Father eat and drinke and doe judgement and justice and then it was well with him He judged the cause of the poore and needy then it was well with him was not this to know me saith the Lord But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousnesse and for to shed innocent blood and for oppression and violence to doe it Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Iehoiakim the sonne of Iosiah King of Iudah They shall not lament for him saying Ah my brother or ah my sister they shall not lament for him Ah Lord or ah his glory IT is to be obsebserved That the illegall election of great Ministers and Officers for the administration and execution of Justice and where the people have been and are deprived of this their just right and liberty there have ever all actâ—ons and practises of injustice and oppressions abounded Freedome and Liberty being the onely Jewels in esteem with the Commonalty as a thing most pretious unto them and meriting that men should expose themselves to all danger for the preservation and defence thereof against all tyranny and oppression of what nature and condition soever For prevention therefore of these mischiefes and miseries which through evill government of magistrates by their injustice and other oppressive practices doe usually fall upon Kingdomes and Cities And for that all lawfull powers reside in the people for whose good welfare and happinesse all government and just policies were ordained And forasmuch as that government which is violent and forced not respecting the good of the common people but onely the will of the commander may be properly called Tyranny the people having in all well ordered and constituted Comon-wealths reserved to themselves the right and free election of the greatest Ministers and Officers of State Now although the tyranny whereby a City or State oppresseth her people may for the present seem to be more moderate then that of one man yet in many things it is more intollerable And it will clearly appeare that the miseries wherewith a Tyrant loadeth his people cannot bee so heavy as the burthens imposed by a cruell City Therefore all free Cities lest their government should become a tyranny and their Governours through ambition and misgovernment take liberty to oppresse and inslave the people to their lusts and wils have in their first Constitutions provided that all their Officers and Magistrates should be elective By Votes and Approbation of the free people of each City and no longer to continue then a yeare as the Annuall Consuls in Rome By which moderation of Government the people have still preserved their ancient Liberty enjoyed peace honour and accord and have thereby avoyded those calamities incident to people subjected to the Lawes and Arbitrary Dominion of their insulting Lords and Magistrates or Masters of all which this Honorable Citie and Metropolis of this Kingdome upon the first erecting of this Island into a Monarchy or Kingdome by that valiant wise and victorious Prince Alfrede who first freed the Land from under the Danish yoke and slavery under which it had a long time groaned did with the approbation of their King and States then assembled in Parliament for their well-being and more peaceable good government agree and by a perpetuall law ordaine That all their Governours and Magistrates should be Annuall and Elective by the free votes of the free men of the Citie Then and Yet called by the Names of Barons and Burgesses of London as appeares by their generall Charters of Confirmation of their Liberties by severall Princes before and since the Conquest although in processe of times their Titles and Names of their Offices bee changed yet the power and right of election still remains and ought to continue in the body of Commonalty and not in any particular or select persons of any Company or Brotherhood whatsoever And for illustration and more cleare manifestation hereof I need none other Evidence or Proofe then the Charter of King John granted to the Citizens before the Incorporation of any Company The first Company that was incorporate about the yeare of our Lord 1327. being more then an hundred yeares after the date and grant of the aforesaid Charter which hath been since by sundry Kings and Parliaments confirmed Their Charter I have here set down at large which compared with the Protestation will make good your right and Justifie your claime to vote In electing the Major of this Citie The Charter IOhannes Dei gratia Rex Angliae Dom. Hiberniae Dux Norman Aquitania Comes Anjou Archiepisc Episcop Abbatis Com. Baron Justic Vic. Prapositis omnibus Ballivis fidelib suic Salutem Sciatis nos concessisse praesenti Charta nostra confirmassa Baronibus nostris de London quod eligant sibi Majorem de seipsis singulis annis qui nobis sit fidelis discreâ—us idoneus ad regimen Civitatis ita quod cum electus fuerit nobis vel Justic nostro si praesentes non fuerimus praesentetur nobis Juret fidelitatem quod liceat eis ipsum in fine Anni amovere alium substituere si voluerunt vel eundem retinere Ita tamen quod nobis ostendatur idem vel Justic nostr si praesentes non fuerimus Concessimus etiam eisdem Baronibus nostris hac Charta nostra confirmavimus quod habeant bene in pace quiete integre omnes libertates suas quibus hactenus usi sunt tam in Civitate quam extra tam in terris quam aquis omnibus aliis locis Salva nobis Chamblengeria nostra Quare volumus firmiter praecipimus quod praedicti Barones nostri Civitatis nostrae London eligant sibi Majorem singulis Annis de seipsis praedicto modo quod omnes praedictas Libertates c. bene in pace habeant sicut praedict c. Testibus c. Anno regni decimo sexto JOHN by the grace of God King of England Lord of Ireland Duke of Normandy Aquitain and Earl of Anjeou To his Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbots Earls Barons Justices Sheriffes Stewards and all his Bayliffes and faithfull Subjects greeting Know ye rhat We have granted and by this present Charter have confirmed to our Barons of London That they may chuse to themselves every year a Maâ—oâ— of themselves who is faithfull to Us being discreet and fit for government of the City So that when he shall be chosen he be presented to Vs or to Our Justice if We be not present and swear to Us fidelity and that it may be lawfull for them at the end of the Year to remove him and and appoint another or retain him if they please yet so as the same be shewed to Us or to Our Justice if Wee bee not present Moreover We have granted
to get me my liberty For then all my friends and acquaintance would conclude that the Lords had set his Masters and him on to murder me as the Earle of Northampton and the Earle of Sommerset set Sir Gervis Elvis the Lieutenant of the Tower and Weston his servant to murder Sir Thomas Overbury in his imprisonment in the Tower of London for which act they were both deservedly and justly hanged which might hazard at the least either the pulling down or breaking open the prison to see what was become of me Therefore I wished him to be advised what he did for I assured him I would improve all the interest I had in the world to effect it For before I will be murdered I would sell my life at as deare a rate as it was possible for me to sell it at And at another time I turned him to the Parliaments Declaration 2 N. 1642. Book Declar. pag. 722.723 Where speaking of the difference betwixt the King and themselves in answer to something said by him about the interpretation of the Statute of 25. E. 3. that they would take away his power from him they demand a question How that doth appeare And they answer Because we say it is treason to destroy the Kingdome of England as well as the King of England and because we say that the King of England hath not a power to destroy the lawes and people of England And what is that interpretation of that Statute that no learned Lawyer will set his hand to That treason may be committed against the Kings Authority though not directed against his Person Doe there want say they presidents or Book-cases to make this good Or is it not that they cannot see wood for trees that look after presidents to prove this which at length is acknowledged in his Majesties Proclamation of the 18. of June Is it then that interpretation of the Statute that the raising of force in the maintenance of his Majesties Authority and of the Lawes against those that would destroy both it and them is no treason though such acts of traitors and rebels should be in pursuance of his Majesties personall commands and accompanied with his Presence And have we cited no presidents to this purpose What are those then of Alexander Archbishop of Yorke Robert de Veere Duke of Ireland and the rest in the time of Richard the second which we caused to be published whose levying of Forces against the authoriy of the Parliament and to put to death divers principall members of both Houses by the Kings expresse command which he promised to accompany with his presence was by two Acts of Parliament judged Treason And the Act of such levied forces to suppresse them was judged good service to the Common-wealth These presidents are said to be grounded upon repealed Statutes and wee have indeed heard it said so twice but wee never heard the Statute that repealed them cited once And whether the Parliament of the eleventh of Richard the second was a more forced Parliament then that of the twenty first of Richard the second which repealed the Acts thereof And whether that of the first of Henry the fourth which repealed that of the twenty first of Richard the second and all the acts thereof and revived that of the eleventh of Richard the second and all acts made therein was ever yet repealed And consequently whether those two acts of the eleventh of Richard the second and the first of Hen the fourth doe not still stand in force None that are acquainted with the Records and History of that time can deny or so much as doubt But doe we need Presidents in this case Is it not a known Rule in Law That the Kings illegall commands though accompanied with his presence doe not excuse those that obey him And how then say they shall it excuse Rebels and Traytors and how shall it hinder the Kings Courts and Ministers to proceed against them judicially if they submit or by force if they make opposition with force If the King might controll all the Courts in Westminster Hall and the High Court of Parliament it selfe and make it good by force what were become of the known legall government of this Kingdome or what a Jewell had we of the Law or what benefit of being Governed according to Law if all Lawes might by force be overthrown and by force might not be upheld and maintained Now Mr. Brisco said I if the Kings commands and power cannot overthrow the Law much lesse can the Lords commands who are farre inferiour in power unto him their absolute earthly Creator and Master from whom they have derived all that they have and therefore cannot be above him For it is a maxime in Nature and Reason That there is no Being beyond the power of Being And another Maxime it is That every like begets its like but not more And therefore impossible it is that their power should be above the power of their begetter or Improver the King Again Mr. Brisco said I if here by the confession of the Lords themselves for they joyned in the making of this very Declaration it be a known Rule in Law That the Kings illegall commands though accompanied with his presence doe not excuse those that obey him then much lesse are you your Master Wollaston nor his Masters the Sheriffes of London excusable for executing the Lords illegall and barbarous Warrants and Orders upon me which they doe not accompany with their presence to see put in execution Therefore Mr. Brisco assure your selfe that if I live I will turn all the stones in England that possibly I can turne but I will have justice satisfaction and reparations from you and all your masters for executing the Lords illegall Orders and Commands upon me At which hee told me he and his Masters were Officers and must execute the commands the Lords gave them without the disputing the illegality of them Wel then said I by the same Rule if the Lords who have no legall authority over me send you a Warrant to hang strangle or stab me or cut off my head in prison although I have had no legall triall according to the Law of the Land you will put it in execution And as well said I may you doe that as to doe to me as you have done and besides I know no Ground they had to receive mee a prisoner upon the Lords Warrant at all especially considering according to Magna Charta the Petition of Right c. none of their Warrants of commitments of me have either legall beginning or legall conclusions And excellent to this purpose are those Golden expressions of the most worthy Lawyer Sir Edward Cook in his exposition of the 29. chap. of Magna Charta in his 2. Part. Instit fol. 52. Where expounding what is meant by per legem terrae that is the law of the land having spoken of divers things he comes to speak of Commitments and saith Now seeing no man
is your proviso against this strong declared Law truly not worth a button being absolutely weaker then all the other 9 Provisoes But let us a little consider of your proviso the conclusion of which expresly saith That your Fraternitie Charters Customes Corporations Companies Fellowships and Societies and their Liberties Priviledges Powers and Immunities shall be and continue of such force and effect mark it well as they were before the making of this Act and of none other any thing before in this Act contained to the conteary in any wise notwithstanding And truly they were all of them illegall before and therefore of no force and effect as is fully proved and declared in the Preamble so that you get not the breadth of a hair either in point of benefit or power by this proviso But notwithstanding your Pattents Charters c. are not onely declared and enacted to be illegall but also your estates liable to pay treble dammages and double costs to all men that you wrong contrary to this just and excellent Law in which besides the incurring the Premunire to any that shall delay an Action grounded upon this Statute It is also enacted That no Essâ—ign Protection Wager of Law Aid Prayer Priviledge Injunction or order of restraint shall in any wise be prayed granted admitted or allowed nor any more then one imperlance And for the further illustration that the Proviso of London is under both the declaratory and penall part of this Statute seriously read and consider the strength of the five last provisoes which onely are fenced in unquestionably and you shall find their provisoes run clear in another strain to that of London viz. Provided also and be it enacted that this Act or any Declaration provision disablement penalty or other thing before in the Act mentioned shall not extend to c. and in the conclusion of their proviso the words run thus That all c. shall be and remain of the like force and effect and no other and as free from the declarations provisions penalties and forfeitures contained in this Act as if this ACT had never been had nor made and not otherwise But compare the proviso for London which is absolutely the weakest of the rest and you shall find no such words in it at all the words of which Proviso thus followe Provided also and it is hereby further intended declared and enacted that this Act or any thing therein contained shall not in any wise extend or be prejudiciall unto the City of London or to any City Borough or Towns-Corporate within this Realm for or concerning any Grant Charters or Letters-Pattents to them or any of them made or granted or for or concerning any custome or customes used by or within them or any of them or unto any Corporations or Fellowships of any Art Trade Occupation or Mystery or to any Companies or Societies of Merchants within this Realm erected for the maintenance enlargement or ordering of any Trade of Marchandize but that the same Charters Customes Corporations Companies Fellowships and Societies and their liberties priviledges powers and immunities shall be and continue of such force and effect as they were before the making of this Act which was just none at all and of no other any thing before in this Act contained to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding the Statute of 3. James chap. 6. which Statute opens and make free the trade for Spain Portugall and France with Sir Edward Cookes Coment upon the Statute of Monopolies in the 3. part of his Institut fol. 181. and his sayings upon the same subject in his Exposition of Magna Charta 2. part Institut fol. 47. is extraordinary well worth the judicious Readers serious perusall for they will give a great deale of light about these Monopolists c. But in case the Reader have not the bookes by him nor cannot furnish himself therewith without a great deal of money if he please to furnish himself with my fore-mentioned Treatise which for a very small matter he may called Innocencie and Truth justified and read the 55 56 60 61 62. pages thereof you shall finde there both the fore-mentioned Statute at large and the marrow of Sir Edward Cookes Aaguments to which I refer you But if any man shall propound the question and ask what 's the reason that the Statute of Monopolies being a Law of so great concernment to all the people of London is no plainer penned I answer according to that information that I have from every good hand and one that knowes as much of the hammering contriving and passing of that Statute as I think any one man in England doth that in the Parliament before this most excellent Law passed it was in more plainer expressions then now it is sent up to the Lords who judged it so prejudiciall to the Prerogative and divers great Courtyers that with scorne and indignation they tare it in their house and threw it over their Bar so that there was an end of it for that Parliament But it being of so much use to the Common-wealth as it was some Patrons thereof in the next Parliament set it on foot again and prosecuted it very close but judging it impossible purely without clogs to passe the Lords and if it did passe the Lords yet they feared it would stick at the King and therefore put in some colourable provisoes which not one in a hundred could rightly understand but it coming into the Lords house with the provisoes much all alike the subtle crafty Attorney Generall then Sir Thomas Coventry late Lord-Keeper presently found out the fallacie and being put upon it by his Master the King strengthened the five last provisoes as they are which principally served his turn and beating then a good-wil to the Common-wealth and the Law of the Kingdome passed by that proviso of London c. that so the Act might be as beneficiall for the Kingdom as possible it could bee got to be then and to be the promoters of that Statute were willing to please the King and his Courtiers in admitting the five last provisoes having gained London c. being the main and principal of all the rest rather then not to have it passe at all which then it was impossible to do without them and therefore there was an extraordinary great necessity to pen it so ambiguous doubtful as it is not only for casting a mist over the Citizens eyes as indeed they have done it excellently well who if it had been plain perspicuous and easie to their understandings would have interposed with all their might and strength and if they could not have prevailed to stop it in the House of Commons would have gone near to have bribed all the Courtiers about the Court in which practises they are very well versed before it should have passed either with the Lords or King Now seeing the Patentee-Monopolizers are so pernicious and destructive to the lawes and liberties of England as by
beene strong Instruments from time to time to doe the same to the whole Land And the present ground of my putting pen to paper at present ariseth from this ensuing The day the last Lord Major was elected It seemes Major Wansie a Watch-maker in Cornhill a man that in these late wars hath freely and gallantly adventured his life for the preservation of the present Parliament and Englands Liberties and some other free Citizens commonly by the Prerogative-men of London distinguished by the name of Cloak-men intended to have claimed their right to give their Vote in the election of the Lord Major as by Law and the Charters of London every free-man therof ought to do as also in both the Sheriffes c. And in case the prerogative L. Major Adams and the prerogative-Aldermen his Brethren would not permit them They then intended to deliver in a Protest in writing the Copy of which Protest within a day or two after I saw and read and not before and understanding how basely Major VVansey was used by the Marshall of London and of my Lord Majors prerogative-Mastives and how that contrary to Law Guild-Hall Gate was guarded with armed men which rendered the election in no sence to be free as all elections of all publike Officers ought to be and reading the Protest over the reason of it and the injustice offered to its well-willers It inflamed my spirit with indignation and set my very soule as it were all on fire Insomuch that I went immediatly to old Mr. Colet the Record-keeper of the Tower and asked him if hee had the originall Records of the Charters of London and understanding he had them out of my penury I bestowed three or foure pound for the Copies of those that were most usefull for me and also the Copy of H. 5. prerogative and unbinding Proclamation by vertue and authority of which they have invaded the rights of all the free men of London in divers particulars and as much as in them lies annihilated divers of the antient and just Charters and legall priviledges of this City confirmed by Magna Charta and making further inquiry of a man versed in antiquity I understood that there was an antient book in print above 100. yeares agoe containing many of the Liberties and Franchises of London for which I sent into Duck-lane and with some industry found it out which is a most excellent book which with the Records I sent to a true friend of mine to get him to translate the Records into English and all the Latine and French that is in that book who sent unto me the fore-going Discourse which in regard he was a stranger to London he was unwilling to set his name to it and I reading the Discourse and liking it very well judged my self bound in duty to my self and all my fellow-Commoners the Cloak-men of London to publish it in print and in regard by Gods assistance I intend shortly to publish and print the Records with a Cōmentary in point of Law upon them I judged it convenient hereby by way of Post-script to give you the understanding thereof and also to give you the reasons which moved me to resolve to hazard no small adventure there upon which are these First because the Prerogative-Pattentee monopolizing Merchant adventurers have contrary to Right Law and Justice robbed me of my trade whose illegall arbytrary destructive practises to the liberties freedome and prosperity of England I have in my answer to Mr. VVill. Pryn called Innocencie and Truth justified punctually anatomized as there you may reade from page 48. to page 63. Now as Paul saith 1 Tim. 5.8 If any provide not for his own family and specially for those of his own house he hath denied the Faith and is worse then an Infidell In which to me is implyed that a man must not only be provident and industrious to keepe and preserve what hee hath but also to maintain and defend his rights liberties and proprieties that they be not invaded or taken from him and this made honest Naboth that he would not part-with his Vineyard his inheritance to wicked King Ahab although he offered him very good tearmes for it 1 Kings 21.1 2 3. much lesse should I part with my trade to any illegall Monopoliser and every individuall Free-mans of London c. and that not only by the principles of nature and reason but also by the Law of England as is not onely proved by the fore-named Discourse but also by another excellent Treatise called Discourse for free Trade published about two years agoe by a Merchant of London Secondly the readinesse of the Prerogative-Magistrates of London to execute any illegall Commands upon the free-men thereof and particularly upon my self as for instance when I was prisoner in Newgate illegally committed by the house of Lords that had no jurisdiction over me in that case and when upon the 22. of June last by their Warrant they commanded me to dance attendance at their Bar for what cause they did not expresse neither know I any Law extant that authorizeth them so to do Which action I looked upon as a trampling the Lawes of the Land and the Liberties of all the free Commons of England under their feet and therefore for the prevention of further mischiefe I writ this following Letter to Mr. VVoollaston the chiefe Jaylor of Newgate under the Sheriffes of London SJR I This morning have seen a Warrant from the house of Lords made yesterday to command you to bring me this day at ten a clock before them the Warrant expresseth no cause wherfore I should dance attendance before them neither do I know any ground or reason wherefore I should nor any Law that compels mee thereunto for their Lordships sitting by vertue of Prerogative-pattents and not by election or common consent of the people hath as Magna Charta and other good Lawes of the Land tels me nothing to do to try me or any Commoner whatsoever in any criminall case either for life limb liberty or estate but contrary hereunto as incrochers and usurpers upon my freedomes and liberties they lately and illegally endeavoured to try me a Commoner at their Bar for which I under my hand and seale protested to their faces against them as violent and illegal incrochers upon the rights and liberties of me and all the Commons of England a copy of which c. I in Print herewith send you and at their Bar I openly appealed to my competent proper legall tryers and Judges the Commons of England assembled in Parliament for which their Lordships did illegally arbytrarily and tyrannically commit me to prison into your custody unto whom divers dayes agoe I sent my appeale c. which now remains in the hands of their Speaker if it be not already read in their house unto which I do and will stand and obey their commands Sir I am a free-man of England and therefore I am not to bee used as a slave
can be taken arrested attached or imprisoned but by due processe of law and according to the law of the land these conclusions hereupon doe follow First that a Commitment by lawfull warrant either in deed or in law is accounted in law due processe or proceeding of law and by the law of the land as well as by processe by force of the Kings Writ Secondly That he or they which doe commit them have lawfull authority Thirdly That his warrant or MITTIMVS be lawfull and that must be in writing under his hand and seale Fourthly The CAVSE must bee contained in the WARRANT as for Treason Felony c. or for suspition of Treason or Felony c. Otherwise if the MITTIMVS contain no cause at all if the prisoner escape it is no offence at all Whereas if the MITTIMVS contained the cause the escape were Treason or Felony though he were not guilty of the offence And therefore for the Kings benefit and that the prisoner may bee the more safely kept the MITTIMVS ought to contain the cause Fifthly the Warrant or MITTIMVS containing a lawfull CAVSE ought to have a lawfull CONCLVSION Viz. and him safely to keep untill he be delivered by Law c. and not untill the party commiting doth further order And this doth evidently appeare by the Writs of Habeas Corpus both in the Kings Bench and Common Pleas Exchequer and Chancery which there Hecites But Mr. Briscoe I am a legall man of England who in all my actions have declared a conformity to the lawes thereof and have as freely adventured my life for the preservation of them as any Lord in the Land whatsoever he be hath done And besides I have to doe with those very LORDS that have stiled themselves The Conservators of the Lawes and Liberties of England and wish in their printed Declarations the plague and vengeance of heaven to fall upon them when they indeavour the destruction and subversion thereof And therefore I expect in every particular to be dealt with according to Law my inheritance and the inheritance of all the free Commoners of England and not otherwise and my life and blood I will venture against that man what-ever he bee that shall attempt the contrary upon me for the Free-born men of England yea the meanest of them can neither by the command of the King nor by his Commission nor Councell nor the Lord of a Villain can or could imprison arrest or attach any man without due processe of law or by legall judgement of his equalls viz. MEN OF HIS OWN CONDITION or the Law of the Land against the forme of our defensive great Charter of Liberty Nay in old time a Pagan or an Heathen could not be unjustly imprisoned or attached or arrested without due processe of Law as appeares by the Lawes of King Alfred Chap. 31. and consonant to this doctrine and that forementioned in the Parliaments Declaration is the judgment of Sir Edward Cook in the 186 187. pages of the 2. part of his Institut and which was so resolved for Law as hee there declares 16. H. 6. and yet notwithstanding all the discourse I had with Briscoe the Sheriffes Clerk of Newgate about 9 a clock at night the Sheriffes the next morning sent 30. or 40. of their Varlets that wait upon the Theeves and Rogues and the Hang-man to Tyburn to carry me by force nolens volens to the Lords Bar those Vsurpers and Incrochers to receive my most illegall unjust barbarous and tyrannicall sentence My third reason is because I have not only been so evilly and unjustly dealt with this year by the Sheriffes of London but also the last year by the Lord Major of London Alderman Atkins and Mr. Glyn Recorder thereof when I was committed to Newgate by the House of Commons for what to this day I doe not yet know yet Mr. Glyn so thirsted after my blood that as I was from very good hands credibly informed he was a main stickler to get an Order to passe that House to have me tryed at the Sessions of Newgate for my life saying as I am told in the house to some members thereof turn him over to me and I will hamper him to the purpose of which when I heard it was not for me to sit still and therefore I got published certain Quere's to state my case in one side of a sheet or paper the substance of which you may read in a printed Book called Englands Birth-right And what was the issue of that businesse you may fully and truly read in my fore-mentioned answer to Mr. Pryns notorious lyes falshoods and calumnies especially in pag. 28 29 30 31 32 33 34. to which I refer the Reader And then secondly there was a false and base report raised spread and divulged by Mr. Pryn and some other of my bitter Presbyterian Adversaries those bloudy cozen-Germans to the persecuting Bishops meerly to make me and my friends odious to the people that so instead of enjoying a legall tryall and the benefit of the Law our common Inheritance we might by the rude multitude be either stoned to death or pulled in pieces which report was that I had conspired with other Separates Anabaptists to root out the Members of this Parliament by degrees beginning with Mr. Speaker whom if we could cut off as Pryn saith it in print in his book called The Lyar cōfounded all the rest would follow and if this succeeded not then to suppresse cut off this Parliament by force of Arms set up a new Parliament of our own choice faction my answer to which abominable false charge you may read in my fore-mentioned answer to him pa. 35. And there running divers of his Authentical witnesses and Creatures little better then Knights of the Post up and down London and at last one or more of them came into Houndsditch to one Mr. Rogers c. to insnare him and told him of the plot but he like a wise man apprehended him by a Constable and carryed him before the then Lord Major who dealt neither faire honestly nor justly with me nor them no nor with the Kingdome c. But in regard it may at a distance touch upon some present Member or Members of the House of Commons with whom I do ingeniously confesse I have no desire at all to contest I cease it though it was as mischevous a plot against me as ever in my life was contrived against mee and which had come out to the bottome if my Lord Major had been as just and honest as a righteous Judge ought to be and had not been so full of prerogative-principles as to feare Man more then God My fourth reason is because I have not only been robbed of my trade by the monopolizing Merchant-Adventurers and so evilly hardly and unjustly dealt with by the late Lord Major the two Sheriffes and tho Jaylors of Newgate all Mr. Recorders pride and malice all prerogative Officers in London but also have
nature no man can binde me but by my own consent neither do I see how in reason or conscience it can be expected from you to pay any taxes c. but that the whole charge that is layd upon this City should totally be borne by the Aldermen and the Livery men till you be actually put in possession and injoy your equall share in the lawes liberties and freedoms thereof as by the law of nature reason God and the land yea and your own antient and originall Charters the meanest of you ought to do as fully and largely in every perticuler as the greatest of them And now I am upon this theame I will make bold humbly to propound or declare to the consideration of the Parliament an insufferable injury and wrong that is done unto thousands of the freemen of England by vertue of Prerogative Charters and corporations and the restrictive and unjust statute of the 8. H. 6. chap. 7. First by Prerogative Charters the King makes corporations of what paltery Townes he pleaseth to chuse two Burgâ—sses for the Parliament in diver of which a man may buy a Burgesship for 40. or 50. l. and in some of which is scarce 3. legall men to be found according to the Statute of 8. H. 6 7. that is to say men that are worth 40. s. in land by the yeare above all charges and in others of them are scarse any but Ale-house-keepers and ignorant sots who want principles to chuse any man but only those that either some lord or great man writes for and recommends or else one who bribes them for their votes and this undenezing of those Corporations is an undenezing to all the towns and villages adjacent in which live thousands of people that by name are free-men of England and divers of them men of great estates in money and stock which also also are disfranchised and undenezed by the fore-mentioned unrighteous Statute because they have not in land 40. s. per annum and so shall have no vote at all in chusing any Parliament man and yet must be bound by their Lawes which is meer vasalage and besides unrighteous it is that Cornwall should chuse almost 50. Parliament-men and Yorkeshire twice as big and three times as populous and rich not half so many and my poor Country the Bishoprick of Durham none at all and so indeed and intruth are meer vassals and slaves being in a great measure like the French Peasants and the Vassals in Turkie but the more fooles they for I professe for my part I would lose life and estate lived I now in that Country before I would pay 6. d. taxation unlesse it might enjoy the common and undeniable priviledge in chusing as others and all the Countries in England besides do Knights and Burgesses to sit and vote in Parliament the greatest hinderer of which at the present I judge to be old Sir Henry Vane the Vaine and unworthy Lord Lieutenant thereof who hath done more mischiefe to that poor Country by his negligence if not absolute wilfulnesse perfidiousnesse and treachery the discovery of which you may partly read in the 19 20 21. pages of Englands Birth-right and which I understand is likely shortly more fully to be anatomized if he turn not the more honester and juster speedily by them or him that to the death will avouch it then his life and estate can make satisfaction And therefore me thinks it were a great deale of more Justice and Equity to fixe upon the certain number of the men that the House of Commons should consist of at 500. or 600. or more or lesse as by common consent should be thought most fit and equally to proportion out to every County to chuse a proportionable number sutable to the rates that each County by their Bookes of Rates are assessed to pay towards the defraying of the Publique charge of the Kingdome and then each County equally and proportionable by the common consent of the People thereof to divide it selfe into Divisions Hundreds or Wapentakes and every Division of and within themselves to chuse one or more Commissioners to sit in Parliament sutable to the proportion that comes to their share which would put an end and period to all those inconveniencies that rarely happen which are mentioned in the foresaid Statute of the 8. H. 6 7. and restore every free-man of England to his native and legall rights and freedomes Oh! that England might enjoy this peace of pure Justice the which if it do not the free-men thereof may blame themselves But now to return back to the City and its prerogative-Monopolizers who and their predecessors I may justly say have been main and principall Instruments of all Englands woe and miserie as I dare pawn my life upon it cleerly justly and rationally to demonstrate for what hath brought all the present wars upon us but the unjust swelling of the Prerogative beyond the just Bounds of the known and established Law and who hath put the arbitrary commands therof in execution but principally the Monopolizing Citizens as in hundred of particulars might cleerly be evidenced and furnished the King from time to time and year to year with vast sums of money to supply his extravagancies and the extravagancies of his extravagant Courtiers which did inable him to break off former Parliaments at his pleasure and to keep them off so long till this poor Kingdome with oppression and injustice was almost destroyed And sure I am if the King had found none to obey or put in execution his illegall commands our former miseries and these present warres had never been and impossible it would have been for the King to have kept off Parliaments so long as he he did if these men and their predecessors had not been beginning originall and ill presidents illegally from time to time for their own particular ends and advantages to supply his necessities with vast summes of money yea I have heard it from very good hands of solid and substantiall Citizens That after the breaking up of the Parliament in the third of this King the Corporation of MERCHANT ADVENTVRERS freely and voluntarily without any compulsion made a most unjust and England-destroying and inslaving order in their Company TO PAY VNTO THE KING CVSTOMES c. for all their Merchandise contrary unto law and the liberties of England Yea and in affront of the late or most excellent Parliament that had made the Petition of Right by which all royall impositions and levies whatsoever are damn'd and not onely enacted but also declared to be against the Fundamentall lawes of the kingdom and yet I never heard of any of these men whose life and estate was made a just sacrifice there-for although to my understanding they as much if not more deserve it then the Earle of Strafford But contrary to their deserts divers of the Grandees of this very Monopoly and illegall Corporation are become the great Treasurers of the kingdomes money both in the