to you from hence and not yet receiving any Answer to what I then desired I cannot but now again renew the same unto you And indeed concerning any thing but the necessary duty of a Christian I would not thus at this time trouble you with any of my desires But my being attended with some of my Chaplains whom I esteem and reverence is so necessary for me even considering my present condition whether it be in relation to my conscience or a happy setlement of the present distractions in Religion that I will slight divers kinds of censures rather then not to obtain what I demand nor shall I do you the wrong as in this to doubt the obtaining of my wish it being totally grounded upon reason For desiring you to consider not thinking it needfull to mention the divers reasons which no Christian can be ignorant of for point of conscience I must assure you that I cannot as I ought take in consideration those alterations in Religion which have and will be offered unto me without such help as I desire because I can never judge rightly of or be altered in any thing of my opinion so long as any ordinary way of finding out the truth is denied me but when this is granted me I promise you faithfully not to strive for victory in Argument but to seek and submit to Truth according to that judgment which God hath given me alwaies holding it my best and greatest conquest to give contentment to my two Houses of Parliament in all things which I conceive not to be against my conscience or honour not doubting likewise but that you will be ready to satisfie me in reasonable things as I hope to find in this particular concerning the attendance of my Chaplains upon me CHARLS R. Holdenby 6. March 1646. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be Communicated to the two Houses of Parlialiament at Westminster AS an evill man out of the evill treasure of his heart bringeth forth evill things such are causlesse Jealousies railing Accusations and evill surmizings against the good So a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things such are favourable opinions meek expressions and charitable constructions and from hence it was that His Majesty writes in this manner to and of these men as if He still hoped there might possibly be some good sparks of grace nature or manners in them for as they cannot believe Him to be so good as He is so He cannot yet fancy them so bad as they be and mean to prove themselves He tels them in this His Message that He would not have troubled them at this time with any of His desires did not this particular concern the necessary duty of a Christian and relate so neerly to His Conscience conceiving is it seems that they would be the more inclinable in this regard whereas alas their dispositions are to be the more averse their aimes being as hath appeared by all their dealings to destroy His Conscience and to keep Him from serving God at all Have they not often said unto Him in their language Go serve other Gods they would at least occasion a strangenesse betwixt His God and Him that God might be further off from His assistance and so His spirit might sink more under the Burdens which they lay upon Him they have not forgot Balaams project against the Israelites and fain would they put it in practice upon their King for they well see they shall never be able to do Him the mischief they intend while God is with Him in this mighty manner to guide and strengthen Him and therefore they must first endevour to bring Him out with His God and since by all their compulsions and temptations they cannot prevail to drive Him upon comissions of evill they would fain force Him to be guilty of some omissions of good and keep Him from performing the necessary duties of a Christian and therefore they will not suffer Him to injoy the service of His own Chaplains Again His Majesty desires to have their service as means relating to an happy setlement of the present distractions in Religion and as necessary helps to His Conscience in the Consideration of those Alterations in the same which had been already and He knew would still be offered unto Him and this He urgeth as another Argument of His wish or desire and it being totally grounded upon Reason He saies He doubts not to obtain it from them But His Majesty hath since found that His Charity was much mistaken in this too and indeed 't is the greatest wrong that ere He did them His thinking so well of them as to conceive Himself likely to obtain any of His requests at their hands because grounded upon Reason or to hope for any helps from their allowance towards the setlement of the present distractions in Religion for should they yeild to undoe their own work did not they make all these distractions in Church and State were any of them in being before they sat do they not live by them could they injoy their power and Lord it as they do if things were setled in Religion would not all things return to their proper chanels if that were well composed no no if these be the Kings ends of desiring His Chaplains He must learn to know at length that they have more subtilty and self-love in them then to listen to Him Let Him rest contented therefore in this particular He must enter the lists and fight the Bataile himself alone for they are resolved to put Him to it of His friends or people there shall be none with Him no not so much as one of His own Chaplains And whereas He promises not to strive for victory in Argument but to seek and submit to Truth He must know that they do not look for victory that way against Him yet they mean to have it too that without any seeking or submitting to truth at all for it And He may for His part if He please hold it His best and greatest conquest to give contentment to His two Houses of Parliament in all things that are not against His Conscience and Honour yet they who are the domineering faction in His two Houses and call themselves the Parliament will still hold it their best and greatest conquest to discontent and vex His spirit nor will they think their Conquest compleat unlesse they can prevail to inforce some breaches upon His Conscience and Honour and therefore He may even cease from henceforth thus to fancy any readinesse in them to satisfie His desires in any reasonable thing for they will not do it in this poor particular concerning the Attendance of His Chaplains upon Him These these are the men that contemn God that say in their hearts Tush God seeth not nor doth he regard such things nor will He ever require an account for them But thou dost see and thou hast seen O
and to devise a prevention of this three years confirmation lest they should feel the lash so long and be kept under worse then an Aegyptian Bondage and in order to this they began to find fault as there was cause at the Presbyterians ill usage of the King for they indeed were His chief Tormenters at Holdenby Master Marshall and his fellow-Minister being then also of that faction because at that time it was the most prevailing they exclaimed on them for handling His Majesty so hardly in keeping Him as a Prisoner denying Him the freedome of His Conscience and service of His Chaplains they remembred also with much regret of spirit as then seemed the wicked tenents of Buchanan Knox and others the erectors and propugnators of the Presbyterian Discipline in Scotland about excommunicating deposing arraigning and killing Princes and their practices against Iames his Grand-mother his Mother and himself in his Infancy and they did plainly observe as themselves said by the carriages of these Presbyterians towards His Majesty at this present that they resolved to tread in the same steps as their predecessours had done before notwithstanding their so many solemn professions and protestations to the Contrary And hereupon they said they thought it their duty according to their first ingagement in this war to bring the King to His Parliament with Safety and Honour that He might injoy the just rights of His Crown as well as of His Conscience largely promising and protesting to be instruments of the same to the content of His Majesty and the whole Kingdome and upon these pretences the King was delivered by them from that particular thraldome at Holdenby And afterward brought with the applause and joy of His people to His Manour of Hampton where His Servants and Chaplains at first were allowed accesse to Him and many of His Subjects permitted to glad their hearts with the sight of Him And this gleame of prosperity blazed well till the Houses were thinned of the chief Heads of the contrary faction for in very deed all this was done to another end then was pretended and ordered by other Councels then yet appeared it being the nature of some men to envy that any should be more injurious then themselves or have a greater hand in acting evill then they There were in the Houses and elswhere some Grandees as they are since called that were ambitious of ingrossing the sole power over King and Kingdom which others as yet had as large a share in managing of if not a larger then themselves to exclude whom they made use of the Independent humour in the inferiour Officers and Souldiers layed the plot for them in that manner as it was acted secretly provoked them to the undertaking and countenanced them in it when it was done by pretending to be of their Religion clouding their maine Designe all the while from the body of the Army whom they set a work to make certaine Proposals partly in their owne behalf and partly tending to those things which had been promised to the King while themselves in the interim were dressing or making ready to act the very same part which those they disliked had done before and had been thus intermitted for a season till those others were ejected or cast over-board for the very same Propositions in Effect that had formerly assaulted His Majesty at Newcastle and were answered by Him from Holdenby as we have seen are to renew His trouble remitted to Him which His Majesty returns Answer unto in these words His Majesties seventeenth Message His Majesties most gracious Answer to the Propositions presented to Him at Hampton-Court CHARLS R. HIs Majesty cannot chuse but be passionately sensible as He believes all His good Subjects are of the late great distractions and still languishing and unsetled state of this Kingdome and He calls God to witnesse and is willing to give testimony to all the world of His readinesse to contribute His utmost endevours for restoring it to a happy and flourishing condition His Majesty having perused the Propositions now brought to Him finds them the same in effect which were offered to Him at Newcastle To some of which as He could not then consent without violation of His Conscience and Honour So neither can He agree to others now conceiving them in many respects more disagreeable to the present condition of affairs then when they were formerly presented unto Him as being destructive to the main principall Interests of the Army and of all those whose Affections concur with them And His Majesty having seen the Proposals of the Army to the Commissioners from His two Houses residing with them and with them to be treated on in order to the clearing and securing of the Rights and Liberties of the Kingdome and the setling of a just and lasting Peace To which Proposals as He conceives His two Houses not to be strangers So He believes they will think with Him that they much more conduce to the satisfaction of all Interests and may be a fitter foundation for a lasting Peace then the Propositions which at this time are tendred unto Him He therefore propounds as the best way in His judgment in order to a Peace That His two Houses would instantly take into consideration those Proposals upon which there may be a Personall Treaty with His Majesty and upon such other Propositions as his Majesty shal make hoping that the said Propositions may be so moderated in the said Treaty as to render them the more capable of his Majesties full concession Wherein He resolves to give full satisfaction to His people for whatsoever shall concern the setling of the Protestant Profession with liberty to tender Consciences and the securing of the Laws Liberties and Properties of all His Subjects and the just Priviledges of Parliaments for the future and likewise by His present deportment in this Treaty He will make the world clearly judge of his intentions in matters of future Government In which Treaty His Majesty will be well pleased if it be thought fit that Commissioners from the Army whose the Proposals are may likewise be admitted His Majesty therefore conjures his two Houses of Parliament by the duty they owe to God and his Majesty their King and by the bowels of compassion they have to their fellow-subjects both for the relief of their present sufferings to prevent future miseries that they will forthwith accept of this his Majesties Offer whereby the joyfull newes of Peace may be restored to this distressed Kingdome And for what concerns the Kingdome of Scotland mentioned in the Propositions his Majesty will very willingly Treat upon those particulars with the Scotch Commissioners and doubts not but to give reasonable satisfaction to that his Kingdome At Hampton-court the 9. of Septemb. 1647. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated c. It appeares by this Message of His Majestie and more fully by the Propositions themselves which it relates unto that
sorrow like unto his sorrow for such a cause Were there ever wrongs like unto these that are done unto our King because He will not consent to the utter undoing of us his people Assuredly never was people more wretched and accursed then we shall be and that meritoriously both of God and Men if we suffer this and doe not stand up and appeare for His deliverance For what are these men that thus tyrannize over our Soveraign and over us are they not his vassals and our fellowes nay our servâ—nts entrusted by us to manifest and present the tenders of our duty and reverence unto him and doth it not concerne us therefore to bring them to correction as the case now stands with the King for these their grosse enormities will not their impieties and exorbitancies else be laid to our charge Nay doe they not in their impudencie act all their wickednesses in our names would they not have their late defamatory Libell to be understood as the expression of our senses Doe they not call it The Declaration of the Commons scil of England as if we at least gave allowance to it or set them a work to make it When as God and our consciences doe beare us witnesse we loathe it with our very soules as the most horrid heap of the most shamelesse lies blasphemies and slanders that ever was spued up against Majesty and Innocencie by men or devils since the first Creation Nay have they not since their publication of it tempted and provoked many of the ignorant of us in divers Countries to set our Hands to Papers coyned by themselves of Gratulations to themselves for venting the same and for making those their wicked Votes against our Soveraigne the Lords Anointed Doe they not hereby plainly endeavour Satan-like to involve our soules in their owne guilt and to plunge them for ever in the same pit of damnation with themselves As if it were not enough that they have already wasted us all in our estates and wounded the consciences of too many of us by ingaging us through their false pretences of Religion Liberty and Previlege of Parliament to associate with them in this unnaturall War unlesse they doe this also And have they not menaced others of us because we refused to approve of this their late most abominable wickednesse and went about rather to move for His Majesties Liberty and restoration Have they not threatned to plunder and sequester us of all we have yet remaining if we proceeded to make any motions or requests to that purpose as if they had a spight and malice at Almighty God himselfe for opening our eyes at length and bringing us out of that darknesse wherein they had shut us and hoped alwayes to keep us and for his touching our hearts with remorse and sorrow for our former complyance with them as if also we must never dare to speak more but onely such words as they shall suggest and put into our mouthes nor to set our hands unto any thing but what they forsooth shall frame and dictate to us And is this the Freedome of the Subject so much cryed up Is this the Liberty which the people of England have so fought for Is this our so flourishing state of happinesse which was promised by our blessed Reformers Serò sapiunt phryges fooles may grow wise at length and so from henceforth shall we for ever following them any farther or being guided by them any more who by their glorious professions and protestations have seduced us already so far from the wayes of God We cannot but call to mind the proceedings of this Palliament or of this Thing which so calls it selfe being in very deed but a corrupt faction in it How at first they framed a Protestation Generall for the matter of it good we still confesse and acknowledge but the deep subtilty and intrige of it was not then apparent to us But now we consider how they did without the Kings sanction and ratification little lesse then impose it upon the whole Kingdome whereby they slily crept into a kind of unexampled authority no way belonging to them which they cunningly masked under the specious pretences of pious respects to the Protestant Religion Loyall regards to His Majesties Person and Dignity and of their serious care of the Priviledges of Parliament Properties and Liberties of the Subject no one of which as we now see by their actions was ever in their thoughts to preserve for their whole endeavours have since been and stil are to destroy and suppresse all these but hereby at first they catch'd us in their net and carryed us downe the streame with them And having thus surprised us Jealousies and Fears presently began to surprise them which also the whole Kingdome must be sensible of as if all the things to be defended by the Protestation were in some eminent danger of sodaine destruction to prevent which a Petition is framed in all haste by themselves and sent downe into all Countries to be subscribed there and sent back as the unanimous desire of the whole Kingdome that Bishops and Popish Lords who must be apprehended the conjoynt and deadly enemies to all good things contained in the Protestation might be put out of Parliament that the Kingdome might be put into a posture of defence or war against them and their Complices and the better to colour and credit the businesse we must desire in the same Petition to have a monethly fast Authorized And we well remember there was care taken at that very time lest this mistery of Iniquity that was in working should be discovered to us that the Learned Seers or watchmen of God who were most likely to to make it known should be exposed to scorne and contempt under the name of Prelaticall Scandalous and Malignant Clergie that so their Testimonies might be of no esteeme with us and a generation of men full of ignorance covetousnesse or discontents were countenanced and advanced over us as fitly instrumentall and subservient to the designe on foot which now we finde was only to ruine our King and us The Consequents of this Petition appeared soon after to be these 1. An alteration or change of military Officers the Train-Bands being committed into the hands onely of such as were called Confiding men 2. The appointment of a Guard to defend our worthies of Parliament as they were entitled And 3. An exposall of the Kings Person and Government to all possible danger and disgrace And that 1. By a most scandalous Remonstrance wherein the sins of themselves and others who had been His ill Officers were all layed to His Charge 2. By setting the Tumultuous People upon Him to drive Him from Westminster And then 3. By raising an Army to fetch Him back again as was pretended though in very deed we finde now it was to destroy Him rather We remember how they told us then that the King was amongst them in His politick Capacity whereby they had
the manner of Addresse which is now made unto Him Unlesse his two Houses intend that his Majesty shall allow of a Great Seal made without his Authority before there be any consideration had thereupon in a Treaty Which as it may hereafter hazard the security it self so for the present it seems very unreasonable to his Majesty And though his Majesty is willing to believe that the intention of very many in both Houses in sending these Bils before a Treaty was only to obtain a trust from Him and not to take any advantage by passing them to force other things from Him which are either against His Conscience or Honour Yet his Majesty believes it clear to all understandings that these Bils contain as they are now penned not only the devesting Himself of all Soveraignty and that without possibility of recovering it either to Him or his Successours except by repeal of those Bils but also the making his Concessions guilty of the greatest pressures that can be made upon the Subject as in other particulars so by giving an Arbitrary and Vnlimited power to the two Houses for ever to raise and levie Forces for Land or Sea service of what persons without distinction or quality and to what numbers they please And likewise for the payment of them to levy what Monies in such sort and by such waies and means and consequently upon the Estates of whatsoever Persons they shall think fit appoint Which is utterly inconsistent with the Liberty Property of the Subject and his Majesties trust in protecting them So that if the Major part of both Houses shall think it necessary to put the rest of the Propositions into Bils His Majesty leaves all the world to judge how unsafe it would be for Him to consent thereunto And if not what a strange condition after the passing of these four Bils his Majesty and all his Subjects would be cast into And here his Majesty thinks it not unfit to wish his two Houses to consider well the manner of their proceeding That when his Majesty desires a Personall Treaty with them for the setling of a Peace they in answer propose the very subject matter of the most essentiall part thereof to be first granted A thing which will be hardly credible to Posterity Wherefore his Majesty declares That neither the desire of being freed from this tedious and irksome condition of life his Majesty hath so long suffered nor the apprehension of what may befall him in case his two Houses shal not afford him a Personal Treaty shall make him change his resolution of not consenting to any Act till the whole Peace be concluded Yet then he intends not only to give just and reasonable satisfaction in the particulars presented to him but also to make good all other Concessions mentioned in his Message of the 16. of Novemb. last Which he thought would have produced better effects then what he finds in the Bils and Propositions now presented unto him And yet his Majesty cannot give over but now again earnestly presseth for a Personal Treaty so passionately is he affected with the advantages which Peace wil bring to his Majesty and all his Subjects of which he will not at all despair there being no other visible way to obtain a wel-grounded Peace However his Majesty is very much at ease within himself for having fulfilled the offices both of a Christian and of a King and will patiently wait the good pleasure of Almighty God to incline the hearts of his two Houses to consider their King and to compassionate their fellow Subjects miseries Given at Carisbrook-Castle in the Isle of Wight Decemb. 28. 1647. For the Speaker of the Lords House pro tempore to be communicated to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland HIs Majesties Afflictions have been much increased by manifesting His care as an equall Father that satisfaction might be given to all ingaged interests therefore Presbyterians Independents Army Scots and all whoever they be that acknowledge a part in them and remain yet unsatisfied have reason as Christians as Subjects as men for meer gratitude sake were there no other reason to endeavour the vindication of those wrongs at least which His Majesty hath suffered since He stood forth as their Common Advocate To prevent their Audience upon the Kings motion were these Bills devised and sent in this sort unto His Majesty And for His not consenting so far to their damage and to the undoing of all the rest of His Subjects as these Bils required was His Majesty cast into a more hard and miserable Condition by some degrees then ever before having all His Servants on the sodain by violence thrust out from Him not so much as one of His Divines allowed unto Him Himself confined to two or three Roomes within the walls of a loathed Prison assaulted frequently He is with evil language and tormented with the spightfull behaviours of the Enemy permitted to see or speak to none but rude Souldiers who are set to watch Him and whom He hath hourly cause to look upon as Assassinates appointed for to murder Him His friends are not suffered to write unto Him nor His Children to send the remembrance of their duties yet His Trunks and Pockets are often searched for Letters with the highest insolency and rudenesse that can be shewn And all this with much more of like nature then can be expressed is come upon Him as it seemeth for moving in the behalf of all ingaged interests and therefore most truly did His Majesty in the Beginning of this Message say for He hath felt it since that He found the complying with all ingaged interests in these great distempers none of the least difficulties He met withall since the time of His Afflictions and therefore also as was said before were there no other cause they are all bound to ingage for Him till they have set Him free from His present Thraldome And indeed the Scotch Commissioners for their parts began well in their protesting in the name of their whole Kingdome against those unreasonable Bils at the same time that they were by the English Commissioners presented to His Majesty as being prejudiciall to Religioâ— to the Crown to the union and interest of both Nations and directly different from their former mutuall proceedings and ingagements now His Majesty for taking notice of this which was uttered in His presence and in the name of a whole Kingdome is extreamly quarrelled at and because He did not signe the said Bils notwithstanding the said protest He is immediately made close Prisoner and sensible of more then barbarous usage the Method of which is in part expressed in the following Declaration which twenty daies after His close confinement was written by His Majesties own hand and some twenty daies aftâ—r that by the speciall order and providence of him who is the preserver of Princes brought to light
and published to our view if any of His people can read or heare the same without melting hearts and yearning bowels towards their King and inflamed spirits against these tormenters of Him assuredly they may be suspected to have nothing of Christ or goodnesse in them The Kings Declaration from Carisbrook-Castle Jan. 18. 1647. To all my people of whatsoever Nation Quality or Condition AM I thus laid aside and must I not speak for my selfe No! I will speak and that to all my People which I would have rather done by the way of my two Houses of Parliament but that there is a publike Order neither to make addresses to or receive Message from me and who but you can be judge of the differences betwixt Me and my two Houses I know none else for I am sure you it is who will enjoy the happinesse or feel the misery of good or ill Government And we all pretend who should run fastest to serve you without having a regard at least in the first place to particular Interests And therefore I desire you to consider the state I am and have bin in this long time and whether my Actions have more tended to the Publick or my owne particular good for whosoever will look upon me barely as I am Man without that liberty which the meanest of my Subjects enjoyes of going whither and conversing with whom I will As a Husband and Father without the comfort of my Wife and Children or lastly as a King without the least shew of Authority or Power to protect my distressed Subjects Must conclude me not only void of all Naturall Affection but also to want common understanding if I should not most cheerfully embrace the readiest way to the settlement of these distracted Kingdoms As also on the other side doe but consider the forme and draught of the Bils lately presented unto me and as they are the conditions of a Treaty ye will conclude that the same spirit which hath still been able to frustrate all my sincere and constant endeavours for Peace hath had a powerfull influence on this Message for though I was ready to grant the substance and comply with what they seeme to desire yet as they had framed it I could not agree thereunto without deeply wounding my Conscience and Honour and betraying the trust reposed in me by abandoning my People to the Arbitrary and Vnlimited Power of the two Houses for ever for the leavying and maintaining of Land or Sea Forces without distinction of quality or limitation for Mony taxes And if I could have passed them in termes how unheard-of a condition were it for a Treaty to grant before-hand the most considerable part of the subject matter How ineffectuall were that debate like to prove wherein the most potent Party had nothing of moment left to aske and the other nothing more to give So consequently how hopelesse of mutuall complyance Without which a settlement is impossible Besides if after my concessions the two Houses should insist on those things from which I cannot depart how desperate would the condition of these Kingdomes be when the most proper and approved remedy should become ineffectuall Being therefore fully resolved that I could neither in Conscience Honour or Prudâ—nce passe those foure Bâ—ls I onely endeavour'd to make the Reasons and Justice of my Denyall appeare to all the world as they doe to Me intending to give as little dis-satisfaction to the two Houses of Parliament without betraying my own Cause as the matter would beare I was desirous to give my Answer of the 28. of December last to the Commissioners Sealed as I had done others heretofore and sometimes at the desire of the Commissioners chiefly because when my Messages or Answers were publickly known before they were read in the Houses prejudiciall interpretations were forced on them much differing and sometimes contrary to my meaning For example my Answer from Hampton-court was accused of dividing the two Nations because I promised to give satâ—sfaction to the Scots in all things concerning that Kingdome And this last suffers in a contrary sense by making me intend to interest Scotland in the Lawes of this Kingdome then which nothing was nor is further from my thoughts because I took notice of the Scots Commissioners protesting against the Bils and Propositions as contrary to the interests and engagements of the two Kingdomes Indeed if I had not mentioned their dissent an Objection not without some probability might have been made against me both in respect the Scots are much concern'd in the Bill for the Militia and in severall other Propositions and my silence might with some Justice have seemed to approve of it But the Commissioners refusing to receive my Answer Sealed I upon the engagement of their and the Governors Honour that no other use should be made or notice taken of it then as if it had not been seen read and delivered it open unto them Whereupon what hath since passed either by the Governour in discharging most of my Servants redoubling the Guards and restraining me of my former liberty and all this as himselfe confest meerly out of his owne dislike of my Answer notwithstanding his before said Engagement or afterwards by the two Houses as the Governour affirmes in confining me within the circuit of this Castle I appeale to God and the World whether my said Answer deserved the reply of such proceedings besides the unlawfulnesse for Subjects to imprison their King That by the permission of Almighty God I am reduced to this sad condition as I no way repine so I am not without hope but that the same God will in due time convert these Afflictions into my advantage in the meane time I am confident to beare these crosses with patience and a great equality of Minde but by what meanes or occasion I am come to this Relapse in my Affaires I am utterly to seek especially when I consider that I have sacrificed to my two Houses of Parliament for the Peace of the Kingdome all but what is much more deare to me then my Life My Conscience and Honour desiring nothing more then to performe it in the most proper and naturall way A Personall Treaty But that which makes me most at a losse is the remembring my signall complyance with the Army and their interests and of what importance my Complyance was to them and their often repeated Professions and Ingagements for my just Rights in generall at Newmarket and S. Albans and their particular explanation of those generals by their Voted and Re-voted Proposals which I had reason to understand should be the utmost extremity would be expected from me and that in some things therein I should be eased herein appealing to the Consciences of some of the chiefest Officers in the Army if what I have said be not punctually true and how I have failed of their expectations or my professions to them I challenge them and the whole World to produce the least colour