publike service as well to prove a sentence not then in rerum natura both Law and charity in a benigne construction of these two ends will allow the more favourable Another objection is whispered that the entrance is not found in the Clerk of the Parliaments Role This is no matter to the validity of his election for his priviledge commenced 40 dayes before the Parliament therefore this and the like are to be judged of as accidentia quae possunt abesse adesse sine subjecti interitu Truely Mr. Speaker my memory and lungs begin to prove Traytors to me Another objection if omitted may be judged by these of what strength and maturity they even as by the coynage of a penny one may iudge of a shilling What hinders then since here is waâ—er but that he may be baptized Here are no non obstant's to be admitted in his new Pattent of Denization the common law the Statute law the Canon the Civill law plead for his admittance the writ of election the exemplification of the Sheriffs return all presidents of all ages all reports plead for his admittance our fore-fathers Ghosts the present practice of Parliaments in England plead for his admittance the Kings successive commands command and confirm his admittance Away then Serieant and with the hazarding power of our Mace touch the Marshals gates and as if there were Divinity in it they will open and bring us our Olive branch of peace wrested from our stock that with welcome Art we may ingraft him to be nourished by a common root Thus the King shall receive the benefit of an able subject who is otherwise civiliter mortuus we enjoy the participation of his labour and posterity both ours and this CAPTAINE AVDLEY MERVINS Speech to the Lords in the Upper house in the Parliament March 40. 1640. Concerning the impeachment of Sir Richard Bolton Knight Lord Chancellor of Ireland Iohn Lord Bishop of Derry Sir Gerrard Lowther Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and Sir George Ratcliffe Knight with high Treason by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House My LORDS I Am commanded by the Knights Citizens and Bur-Burgesses of the Commons House to present unto you Irelands Tragedie the gray headed Common Lawes funerall and the Active Statutes death and obsequies this dejected spectacle answers but the prefiguring Type of Caesars murther wounded to the death in the Senate And by Brutus his bosome friend our Caesars image by reflexion even the fundamentall Lawes and Statutes of this Kingdome the sole means by which our estates are confirmed our liberties preserved our lives secured are wound to death in the Senate I mean in the Courts of Justice and by Brutus too even by those persons that have received their beings and subsistence from them so that here enters those inseparable first Twins Treason and Ingratitude In a plain phrase My Lords I tender unto you Treason High Treason such a Treason that wants nothing but words to expresse it To counterfeit the Kings Seale to counterfeit the Kings money it is Treason but this dyes with the individuall partie To betray a Fort is Treason but it dies with a few men To betray an Army is a Treason but it dyes with a limited number which may be reinforced again by politique industry To blow up both Houses of Parlament is Treason but succeeding ages may replant Branches by a fruitfull posterity but this High Treason which I do move in the name of the Houses of Commons charge and impeach Sir Richard Bolion Knight Lord Chancellour of Ireland and Sir Gerard Lowther Knight Lord Chief Iustice of the Common Pleas Iohn Lord Bishop of Derry Sir George Ratcliffe Knight is in its nature so far transcending any of the former that the rest seem to be but petty Larcenies in respect of this What is it to subvert the fundamentall Lawes of this Kingdome High Treason What is it with a contumacious malice to trample under feet the rich legacies of our forefathers purchased with sweat and expence I mean the Statute lawes what is it but High Treason What is it through an Innate Antipathie to the publick good to incarcerate the liberty of the Subject under the Iron and weighty chains of an arbitrary Government High Treason What is it since his Majestie the most amiable and delightful portraiture of flourishing and indulgent Justice to his Subjects to present him personated in their extrajudiciall censures and judgements but to possesse it possible the hearts of his loyall Subjects of this Kingdome That he is a bloody and devowring Tyrant and to provoke their never dying alleageance into a fatall and desperate Rebellion What is it to violate the sacred Graunts of many of his Majesties Progenitors Kings and Queenes of England confirmed under the broad Seale being the publique faith of this Kingdome by an extrajudiciall breath grounded upon no record What is it to insent a surreptitious clause forged by some servile brain in the preamble of our last Act of Subsidies by which the Kings most excellent Majesty and the Earl of Stofford are placed in one and the same sphear allowing them but equall influencies to nourish the alleageance of this Kingdome what is this but to extoll other then Regall Authority and to crucifie the Majestie of our most gracious Soveraign betwixt the two Theeves of Government Tyranny and Treason My Lords having such a full and lasting Gale to drive me into the depth of these accusations I cannot hereby steere and confine my course within the compasse of patience since I read in the first volumes of their browes the least of these to be the certain ruine of the Subject and if prov'd a most favorable Prologue to usher in the Tragedie of the Actors Councellers and Abetters herein What was then the first and main question it was the subvertion of the fundamentall Lawes of this Kingdome let then magna Charta that lies prostrated besmeared and groveling in her own gore discount her wounds as so many pregnant and undeniable proofs mark the Epethite Magna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confirmed by 30. Parliaments in the succession of eight Kings the violation of which hath severall times ingaged the Kingdome of England in a voluntary sacrifice a Charter which imposeth that pleasant and welbecomming oath upon all Soveraigntie to vindicate and preserve the Immunitie thereof before the Crown incircle their Royall Temples in this oath of so high consequence and generall interest his Majesty doth in a manner levie a fine to his Subjects use for avoiding all fraudulent conveyances in the Administration of Justice And this oath is transplanted unto the Judges as the Feoffees in trust appointed between his Majestie and the Subject and sealed by his Majesties provident care with that imphaticall penalty that their estates and lives shall be in the Kings mercy upon the violation of the same either in whole or in part neither hath the deserved punishment for the breach of this oath
into the mouth of the Prophet to Abab to speak delusions to subvert the host of God The most vehement and trayterous encounter of Sathan is lively deci hered in the true example of Job where first I observe the dismologie he overthrowes not Jobs Magna Charta he dâ—sseizes him not of his inheritance nor dispossesses him of his Leases but only disrobes him of some part of his personall estate when he proceeds to infringe Jobs liberty he doth not pillorie him nor cut off his ears nor bore him through the tongue he only spots him with some ulcers here Sathan stains when these persons by their traiterous combinations envie the very bloud that runs unspilt in our veines and by obtruding bloody Acts damn'd in the last Parliament will give Sathan size ace and the Dice at Irish in inthralling the lives of the Subjects by their arbitrary Judicature I would not my Lords be understood to impute to the Judges and infallibilitie of error nor in impeaching these to traduce those whose candor and integrity shine with more admired lustre then their white furres who like trophees of virgin-virgin-justice stood fixt and unmov'd in the rapid torrent of the times while these like strawes and chips plai'd in the streams untill they are devolv'd in the Ocean of their deserved ruine No my Lords humanum est errare and the Law allowes Writs of Error and arrest of Judgement but where there is crassa ignorantia against their Oath against the Fundamentall Elementary and known Lawes of the Kingdome Nay my Lords where it is rather praemeditaâ—a malitia where there is an emulating policie who should raze and embessell the Records in the practique that are for the tender preservation of our liberties estates and lives seeking only to be glorious in a nationall destruction as if their safety were only involved in our ruine there I have command to pitty but not excuse them To kill a Judge quatenus a Judge is not Treason but to kill a Judge sitting in the place of Iudicature is Treason not for that the Law intends it out of any malice against the party but for the malice against the Law where then can an intensive or an extensive malice be exprest or implyed against the Law then the practicall dialect of these persons impeach't speaks with a known and crying accent The Benjamites slang stones with their left hands yet they would not misse a hairs breadth these extrajudiciall proceedings are slung with the left I meane they are sinistrious and imprint their blacke and blew marks more certaine and more fatall for that they may say Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris Though these things be familiar unto us yet I cannot but admire how this unproportionable body of Iudicature should swell up into such a vast and ulcerous dimension but why should I considering this excentrick motion of the body of the Law had his birth obscure resembling the tares that were sowed in the night time but here is the difference they were sowne by the enemy in the absence of the Master but these are sowne by the Grand-masters themselves purposely to overtop and choak the expected Harvest Innovations in Law and consequently in government creep in like heresies in Religion slily and slowly pleading it the end a sawcy and usurp't legitimacy by uncontrol'd prescription My Lords this is the first sitting and I have onely chalked out this deformed body of high Treason I have not drawn it at length least it might fright you from the further view thereof in conclusion it is the humble defire of the Commons that the parties impeached may be secured in their persons sequestred from this House from the Counsell Table and all places of Iudicature as being Civiliter mortui that they may put in their answers to the Articles ready now to be exhibited against them and that all such further proceedings may be secretly expedited as may be sutable to Iustice and the precedents of Parliaments so his Majesty may appeare in his triumphant goodnesse and indulgency to his people and his people may be ravisht in their dutifull and cheerefull obedience and loyalty to his Maiesty your Lordships may live in Records to Posterity as the instrumentall reformers of those corrupted times and that the Kingdome and Common-wealth may pay an amiable sacrifice in retribution and acknowledgement of his Maiesties multiplyed providence for our preservation herein Articles of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in the Parliament assembled against Sir Ric Bolton Kt. Lord Chancellor of Ireland John Lord B. of Derry and Sir Gerard Lowther Kt. L. Chief Justice of his Majesties Court of Common-Pleas and Sir George Radcliffe Kt. in maintenance of the accusation whereby they and every of them stand charged with high Treason FIrst that they the said Sir Richard Bolton Knight Lord Chancellor of Ireland John L. Bishop of Derry Sir Ger. Lowther Kt. Lord Chief Justice of his Majesties Court of Common-Pleas and Sir George Radcliffe Knight intending the destruction of the Common-wealth of this Realm have trayterously confederated and conspired together to subvert the Fundamentall Laws and Government of this Kingdom and in pursuance thereof they and every of them have trayterously contrived introduced and exercised an arbitrary and tyrannicall Government against Law thorowout this Kingdom by the countenance and assistance of Thomas Earl of Strafford then chief Governour of this Kingdom II. That they and every of them the said Sir Richard Bolton Kt. L. Chancellor of Ireland John L. Bishop of Derry Sir Gerard Lowther Kt. L. chief Justice of the Common Pleas and Sir George Radcliffe Kt. have trayterously assumed to themselves and every one of them regall power over the goods persons lands and liberties of his Majesties Subjects in this Realm and likewise have maliciously perfidiously and trayterously given declared pronounced and published many false unjust and erroneous opinions Judgements Sentences and Decrees in extrajudiciall manner against Law and have perpetrated practised and done many other trayterous and unlawfull acts and things whereby as well divers mutinies seditions and rebellions have been raised as also many thousands of his Majesties liege people of this Kingdom have been ruined in their goods lands liberties and lives and many of them being of good quality and reputation have been utterly defamed by Pillory mutilation of members and other infamous punishments By means whereof his Majesty and the Kingdom have been deprived of their service in Juries and other publike imployments and the generall trade and traffique of this Island for the most part destroyed and his Majesty highly damnified in his customes and other revenues III. That they the said Sir Rich. Bolton John L.B. of Derry Sir Ger. Lowther K. and Sir G. Radcliffe and every of them the better to preserve themselves and the said Earl of Strafford in these and other trayterous courses have laboured to subvert the rights of Parliament and the ancient course of Parliamentary proceedings all which
offences were contrived committed perpetrated and done at such time as the said Sir Richard Bolton Sir Gerard Lowther and Sir George Radcliffe Knights were privy Counsellors of State within this Kingdom and against their and every of their oathes of the same at such times as the said Sir R. Bolton Kt. was Lord Chancellor of Ireland or chief Baron of his Majesties Court of Exchequer within this Kingdom and Sir Gerard Lowther Knight was Lord chief Justice of the said Court of Common Pleas and against their Oathes of the same and at such time as the said John L. Bishop of Derry was actuall Bishop of Derry within this Kingdom and were done and speciated contrary to their and every of their allegiance severall and respective oathes taken in that behalf IV. For which the said Knights Citizens and Burgesses do impeach the said Sir Richard Bolton Lord Chancellor of Ireland Iohn L. B. of Derry Sir Gerard Lowther Kt. L. chief Justice of his Majesties said Court of Common Pleas and Sir George Radcliffe Kt. aforesaid and every of them of high Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity The said Knights Citizens and Burgesses by Protestation saving to themselves the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any accusation or impeachment against the said Sir Rich. Bolton Iohn L. Bishop of Derry Sir Gerard Lowther and Sir George Radcliffe aforesaid and every of them and also of replying to them and every of their answers which they and every of them shall make to the said Articles or any of them and of offering proof also of the premisses or of any other impeachment or accusation as shall be by them exhibited as the case shall according to the course of Parliament require And the said Knights Citizens and Burgesses do pray that the said Sir Richard Bolton Knight Lord Chancellor of Ireland Iohn Lord Bishop of Derry Sir Gerard Lowther Knight Lord chief Justice of his Majesties said Court of Common Pleas and Sir George Radcliffe Knight and every of them be put to answer to all and every of the premisses and that all such Proceedings Examinations Triall and Iudgement may be upon them and every of them had and used as is agreeable to Law and Justice Copia vera Signed PHILIP PHERNESLY Cler. Parliamenti Sir Thomas Wentworths speech XXij d. Martij 1627. MAy this dayes resolution be as happy as I conceive the proposition which now moves me to rise is seasonable and necessary for whether we shall look upon the King or the people it did never more behove this great Physitian the Parliament to effect a true consent towards the parties then now This debate carryes with it a double aspect towards the Soveraign towards the Subject though both innocent both injured both to be cured In the representation of injuries I shall crave your attention in the Cures I shall beseech your equall cares and better judgements surely in the greatest humility I speak it these illegall waies are marks and punishments of indignation The raising of Leavies strengthned by Commission with unheard of instructions the billetting of Souldiers by Lievetenants without leave have been as if they could have perswaded Christian Princes nay Worlds the right of Empire had been to take a way by strong hand and they have endeavoured as far as was possible for them to do it This hath not been done by the King under the pleasing shade of whose Crown I hope we shall ever gather the fruits of Justice but by Projectors They have extended the prerogative of the King beyond the just Center which was the sweet harmony of the whole They have rent from us the light of our eyes inforced a company of Guests worse than the Ordinaries of France vitiated our wives and daughters before our faces brought the Crown to greater want than ever it was by anticipating the Revenue and can the Shephard be thus smitten and the flock not scattered They have introduced a Privie Counsell ravishing at once the Spheers of all ancient government imprisoning us without Bail or Bond. They have taken from us what shall I say indeed what have â—hey left us all mean of supplying the King and ingratiating our selves with him taking up the roots of all propriety which if it be not seasonably set into the ground by his Maiesties hand we shâ—ll have instead of beauty baldnesse To the making of them whole I shall apply my self and propound a remedy to all these diseases by one and the same thing hath the King and people been hurt and by the same must they be cured to vindicate what New things No. Our ancient sober vitall liberties by reinforcing of the ancient Lawes made by our Ancestors by setting such a Character upon them as no licentious spirit shall dare hereafter to enter upon them And shall we thinke this away to break a Parliament Nâ— Our desires are modest and iust I speak truly both for the interest of the King and People If we enjoy not those it will be impossible to relieve him Therefore let us never fear that they shall not be accepted by his goodnesse Wherefore I shall descend to my motions which conconsists of four parts two of which have relation to the persons two to the propriety of goods for the persons the freedome of them from imprisoning Secondly from employments abroad contrary to the ancient customes for our goods that no leavies may be made but in Parliament Secondly no billetting of Souldiers It is most necessary that these be resolved that the Subiects may be secured in both Then for the manner in the second place it will be fit to determine it by a Grand Committee Sir Thomas Wentworths Speech 21. of Aprill Anno 1628. Right wise Right worthy TOo many instigations importune the sequell of my words First the equitie of your proceedings Secondly the honesty of my request for I behold in all your intendments a singularity grounded upon discretion and goodnesse and your consultations steered as well by Charity as extremity of justice This order and method I say of your procedings together with the importunity offered of the Subject in hand have emboldned me to solicite an extension of the late granted protections in generall The lawfulnesse and honesty of the propositions depends upon these two particulars I. The present troubles of the parties protected having run themselves into a further and almost irrecoverable hazards by presuming upon and feeding themselves with the hopes of a long continuing Parliament II. Let the second be this consequence That that which is prejudiciall to most ought to minister matter of advantage to the rest sith then our interpellations and disturbances amongst our selves are displeasing almost to all if any benefit may be collected let it fall upon those for I think the breach of our Session can befriend none but such nor such neither but by means of the grant before hand And because it is probable that his Majesty may cause a Remeeting
which time the sayd Iustice Seate was called by adjournment the sayd Iohn Lord Finch then Lord Chiefe Iustice of his Majesties Court of Common Pleas and was one of the Iudges assistants for them he continued by further unlawfull and unjust practices to maintaine and confirme the said verdict and did then and there being assistant to the Iustice in Eyre advise the refusal of the traverse offered by the County and all their evidences but onely what they should verbally deliver which was refused accordingly IV. That hee about the Moneth of November 1635. hee being then Lord Chiefe Iustice of the Common Pleas and having taken an oath for the due administration of Iustice to his Majesties Liege people according to the Lawes and statutes of the Realme contrived in opinion in haec verba when the good and safety c. and did subscribe his name to that opinion and by perswasions threats and false suggestions did solicite and procure Sir Iohn Bramstone Knight then and now Lord Chiefe Iustice of England Sir Humfrey Davenport Knight Lord chiefe Baron of his Majesties Court of Exchequer Sir Richard Hutton Knight late one of the Iustices of his Majesties Court of Common Pleas Sir Iohn Denham Knight late one of the Barons of his Majesties Court of Exchequer Sir William lones Knight late one of the Iustices of the said Court of Kings Bench Sir George Crock then and now one of the Iudges of the said Court of Kings Bench Sir Thomas Trevor Knight then and now one of the Barons of the Exchequer Sir George Vernon Knight late one of the Iustices of the said Court of Common Pleas Sir Robert Barkley Knight then and now one of the Iustices of the said Court of Kings Bench Sir Francis Crawly Knight then and now one of the Justices of the said Court of Common Pleas Sir Richard Weston Knight then and now one of the Barons of the said Court of Exchequer some or one of them to subscribe with their names the said opinion presently and enjoyned them severally some or one of them secresâ— upon their allegeance V. That he the fifth day of Iune then being Lord Chiefe Iustice of the said Court of Common Pleas subscribed an extrajudiciall opinion in answer to questions in a letter from his Majesty in haec verba c. And that he contrived the said questions and procured the said Letter from his Majesty and whereas the said Iustice Hutton and Iustice Crook declared to him their opinions to the contrary yet hee required and pressed them to subscribe upon his promise that hee would let his Majesty know the truth of their opinions notwithstanding such subscriptions which neverthelesse he did not make knowne to his Majestie but delivered the same to his Majesty as the opinion of all the Iudges VI. That hee being Lord Chiefe Iustice of the said Court of Common Pleas delivered his opinion in the Chequer Chamber against Master Hampden in the case of Ship-money that hee the said Master Hampdâ—n upon the matter and substance of the case was chargeable with the money then in question a Coppy of which proceedings the Commons will deliver to your Lordships and did solicite and threaten the said sudges some or one of them to deliver their opinions in like manner against Master Hampden and after the said Baron Denham had delivered his opinion for Master Hampden the said Lord Finch repaired purposely to the said Baron Denhams Chamber in Serjeants Inne in Fleetstreet and after the said Master Baron Denham had declared and expressed his opinion urged him to retract the said opinion which hee refusing was threatned by the said Lord Finch because hee refused VII That hee then being Lord chiefe Justice of the Court of Common Pleas declared and published in the Exchequer Chamber and westerne circuit where he went Judge that the Kings right to Ship-money as aforesaid was so inherent a right to the Crowne as an Act of Parliament could not take it away and with divers malicious speeches inveighed against and threatned all such as refused to pay Ship-money all which opinions contained in the foure five sixth Articles are against the Law of the Realme the Subjects right of property and contrary to former resolutions in Parliament and to the petition of right which said resolutions and petition of right were well knowne to him and resolved and enacted in Parliament when he was Speaker of the Commons house of Parliament VIII That hee being Lord chiefe Justice of the Court of Common Pleas did take the generall practice of that Court to his private Chamber and that hee sent warrants into all or many shires of England to severall men as to Francis Giles of the County of Devon Rebert Renson of the County of Yorke Attorneys of that Court and to divers others to release all persons arrested on any utlawry about 40. shillings fees whereas none by Law so arrested can be bailed or released without Supersedeas under seale or reversall IX That hee being Lord Chiefe Iustice of the Court of Common pleas upon a pretended suit begun in Michaelmas Terme in the 11. yeare of his Majesties Reigne although there was no plaint or Declaration against him did notoriously and contrary to all Law and Iustice by threats menaces and imprisonment compell Thomas Laurence an Executor to pay 19 pound 12 shillings and likewise caused Richard Bernard being onely over-seer of the last Will of that Testator to bee arrested for the payment of the said Money contrary to the advice of the rest of the Iudges of that Court and against thâ— knâ—wne and ordinary course of Iustice and his said Oath and knowledge and denyed his Majesties Subjects the common and ordinary Iustice of this Realme as to Mr. Liâ—â—rick and others and for his private benefit endammaged and ruined the estates of very many of his Majesties Subjects contrary to his oath and knowledge X. That hee being Lord Keeper of the great Seale of England and sworne one of his Majesties Privie Counsell did by false and malicious slanders labour to incense his Majestie against Parliaments and did frame and advise the publishing the Declaration after the dissolution of the last Parliament All which Treasons and misdemeanors above mentioned were done and committed by the said Iohn Lord Finch Baron of Fordwich Lord Keeper of the great Seale of England and thereby he the aforesaid Finch hath trayterously and contrary to his allegiance laboured to lay Imputations and Scandalls upon his Majesties government and to alienate the hearts of his Majesties liege people from his Majestie and to set a division betweene them and to ruine and destroy his Majesties Realme of England for which they doe impeach him the said Lord Finch Baron of Fordwich Lord Keeper of the Great Seale of England of high Treason against our Soveraigne Lord the King his Crowne and Dignity of the misdemeanours above mentioned And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves the libertie of exhibiting at any time
the making of this Act and as if this Act had never been had or made Saving alwayes unto all and singular persons and bodies politique and corporall their Heirs and Successors others than the said Earl and his heirs and such as claim by from or under him all such right title and interest of in and to all and singular such of the said Lands Tenements and Hereditaments as he they or any of them had before the first day of this present Parliament any thing herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding Provided that the passing of this present Act and his Maiesties assent thereunto shall not be any determination of this present Sessions of Parliament but that this present Sessions of Parliament and all Bills and matters whatsoever depending in Parliament and not fully enacted or determined And all Statutes and Acts of Parliament which have their continuance untill the end of this present Session of Parliament shall remain continue and be in full force as if this Act had not been The first Speech concerning the the right of Bishops to sit in Parliament May 21. 1641. My Lords I Shall take the boldnesse to speak a word or two upon this subject first as it is in it self then as it is in the consequence For the former I think he is a great stranger in Antiquity that is not well acquainted with that of their sitting here they have done thus and in this manner almost since the conquest and by the same power and the same right the other Peers did and your Lordships now do and to be put from this their due so much their due by so many hundred yeers strengthned and confirmed and that without any offence nay pretence of any seems to me to be very severe if it be jus I dare boldly say it is summum That this hinders their Ecclefiasticall vocation an argument I heare much of hath in my apprehension more of shadow then in substance in it if this be a reason sure I am it might have been one six hundred yeers ago A Bishop my Lords is not so circumscribed within the circumference of his Diocesse that his sometimes absence can be termed not in the most strict sense a neglect or hindrance of his duty no more than that of a Zievetenant from his Count y they both have their subordinate Ministers upon which their influences fall though the distance be remote Besides my Lords the lesser must yeeld to the greater good to make wholesome and good Lawes for the happy and well regulating of the Church and Common-wealth is certainly more advantagious to both then the want of the personall execution of their office and that but once in three years and then peradventure but a moneth or two can be prejudiciall to either I will go no further to this which experience hath done so fully so demonstratively And now my Lords by your Lordships good leave I shall speak to the consequence as it reflects both on your Lordships and my Lords the Bishops Dangers and inconveniencies are ever best prevented è longinquo this president comes neer to your Lordships and such a one mutato nomine de vobis Pretences are never wanting nay sometimes the greatest evils appeare in the most faire and specious out-sides witnesse the Shipmony the most abominable the most illegall thing that ever was and yet this was painted over with colour of the Law what Bench is secure if to alleage be to convine and which of your Lordships can say then he shall continue a member of this House when at one blow twenty six are cut off It then behoves the Neighbour to look about him cum proximus ardet Vcalegon And for the Bishops my Lords in what condition will you leave them The House of Commons represents the meanest person so did the Master his slave but they have none to do so much for them and what justice can tie them to the observation of those Lawes to whose constitution they give no consent the wisdome of former times gave proxies unto this House meerly upon this ground that every one might have a hand in the making of that which he had an obligation to obey This House could not represent therefore proxies in roome of persons were most justly allowed And now my Lords before I conclude I beseech your Lordships to cast your eyes upon the Church which I know is most dear and tender to your Lordships you will see her suffer in her principall members and deprived of that honor which here and throughout all the Christian World ever since Christianity she constantly hath enjoyed for what Nation or Kingdome is there in whose great and publike assemblies and that from her beginning she had not some of hers if I may not say as essentiall I am sure I may say as integrall parts thereof and truly my Lords Christianity cannot alone boast of this or challenge it only as hers even Heathenisme claims an equall share I never read of any of them Civill or Barbarous that gave not thus much to their Religion so that it seems to me to have no other originall to flow from no other spring than Nature it selfe But I have done and will trouble your Lordships no longer how it may stand with honor and justice of this House to passe this Bill I most humbly submit unto your Lordships the most proper and only Juges of them both The second Speech about the lawfulnesse and convenieny of their intermedling in Temorall Affaires My Lords I Shall not speake to the Preamble of the Bill that Bishops and Clergie men ought not to intermeddle in temporall offairs For truly my Lords I cannot bring it under any respect to be spoken of Ought is a word of relation and must either refer to humane or divine Law to prove the lawfulnesse of their intermedling by the former would be to no more purpose than to labour to convince that by reason which is evident to sense It is by all acknowledged The unlawfulnesse by the latter the bill by no means admits of for it excepts Universities and such persons as shall have honour descend upon them And your Lordships know that circumstance and chance alter not the nature and essence of a thing nor can except any particular from an universall proposition by God himself delivered I will therefore take these two as granted first that they ought by our Law to intermeddle in temporall affairs secondly that from doing so they are not inhibited by the Law of God it leaves it at least as a thing indifferent And now my Lords to apply my self to the businesse of the day I shall consider the conveniency and that in the severall habitudes thereof but very briefly first in that which it hath to them meerly as men qua tales then as parts of the Common-wealth Thirdly from the bâ—st manner of constituting laws and lastly from the practice of all times both Christian and Heathen Homo sum nihil humanum
The Lord Digby's Speech to the House of Commons concerning Bishops and the City petition the 9. of February 1640. Mr. Speaker I Know it is a tender subject I am to speake of wherein I beleeve some within these Walls are engaged with earnestnesse in contrary opinions to mine and therefore it will be necessary that in the first place I beseech the patience of this House that they will bee pleased to heare mee without interruption though somewhat I say should chance to be displeasing I hope there will be somewhat from mee ere I conclude that may be of Service to this House Sir if I thought there were no further designe in the desires of some that this London Petition should be committed then meerely to make use of it as an Index of grievance I should winke at the faults of it and not much oppose it There is no man within these wals more sensible of the heavy grievance of Church government then my Selfe nor whose affections are keene to the clipping of those wings of the Prelates whereby they have mounted to such insolencies nor whose zeale is more ardent to the searing them as that they may never spring againe But having reason to beleeve that some aime at a totall extirpation of Bishops which is against my heart and that the committing of this Petition may give countenance to that Designe I cannot restraine my selfe from labouring to divert it or at least to set such notes upon it as may make it ineffectuall to that end Truely Sir when this Petition was first brought into the House I considered it in its nature in the manner of the delivery in the present conjuncture of affâ—â—es both Ecclesiasticall and Civill to bee a thing of the highest Consequence that any Age hath presented to a Parliament and the same thoughts I have of it still I professe I looked upon it then with terrour as upon a Comet or blazing starre raysed and kindled out of the stench out of the poysonous exhalation of a corrupted Hierarchy Mee thought the Commet had a terrible Tayle with it Sir and poynted to the North the same feares dwell with mee still concerning it and I beseech God they may not prove Propheticall I feare all the Prudence all the Fore-cast all the Vertue of this House how unitedly soever collected how vigorously applyed will have a hard worke of it Yet to hinder this Meteor from causing such Distempers and Combustions by its Influence as it then portended by its appearance what ever the Event bee I shall discharge my Conscience concerning it freely and uprightly as unbyast by popularity as by any Court respects Sir I could never flatter the sense of this House which I Reverence so much as to suppresse a single No that my heart dictated though I knew the venting of it might cast prejudices upon mee had my Fortune placâ—d mee neere a King I could not have flattered a King and I doe not intend now to flatter a multitude I shall desire those worthy Aldermen and the rest here of the City of London not to take any thing I shall say in the least way of disparagement or reflection on the City I looke not upon this Petition as a Petition from the City of London but from I know not what 15000. Londoners all that could be got to subscribe When this Petition was first presented there might bee more reason for the Commitment of it as being then the most comprehensive Catalogue wee had of Church grievance but now that the Ministers by their Remonstrance have given us so faire and full an Index of them without those mixtures of things contemptible irrationall and presumptuous wherewith this Petition abounds I do not know I professe to what good end it can be committed being full of contemptible things but first let me recall to your minde the manner of its delivery And I am confident there is no man of judgement that will thinke it fit for a Parliament under a Monarchy to give countenance to irregular and tumultuous assemblies of people be it for never so good an end Besides there is no man of the least insight into Nature or History but knowes the danger when eyther true or pretended stimulation of conscience hath once given a multitude agitation Contemptible things Sir swarme in the 8.13.14.15 16.17 Articles of this Petition Did ever any body thinke that the gaites of Ovid or Tom. Caryes muse should by 15000. have beene presented to a Parliament as a motive for the extirpation of Bishops the scandall of the Rochet the Lawne-sleeves the foure corner Cap the Cope the Surplesse the Tippet the Hood the Canonicall Coat c. may passe with arguments of the sune weight onely thus much let me observe upon it Mr. Speaker that one would sweare the penners of the Article had the pluming of some Bishops already they are so acquainted with every feather of them In a word I know not whether be more preposterous to inferre the extirpation of Bishops from such weake Arguments or to attribute as they doe to Church government all the civill grievance not a Patent not a Monopoly not the price of a commodity moditie raysed but these men make Bishops the cause of it For the irrationall part Mr. Speaker first they Petition us in a Method only allowable with those whose Iudgement or Iustice is suspected that is Iniquum petere ut aequum feras There is no Logick no reasoning in their demands It were want of Logick in mee to expect it from a multitude but I consider the multitude in this is led by implicite faith to that which hath beene digested and contrived but by a few and in them truely I cannot but wonder at the want of Reconciliation here A Petition Mr. Speaker ought in this to bee a kinde of Syllogisme that the Conclusion the Prayer ought to hold proportion with the premisses that is with the Allegations and Complaints and to beeasonably deduc't from them But what have we here a multitude of Allegations a multitude of instances of abuses and depravations of Church Government And what inferred from thence let the use be utterly abolisht for the abuses sake As if they should say that because Drunkennesse and Adultery are growne so epidemicall as is alledged in the Petition Let there be no more use of Wine nor of Women in the Land Christs Discipline hath beene adulterated 't is true the whole Church inebriated by the Prelates therefore infer our Petitioners let not so much as the chaste the sober use of them be suffered Give me leave to continue one of the Comparisons a little further should it be demonstrated unto us that Wine could not be made use of without Drunkennesse and withall some such Liquor presented as healthy and as nourishing from which no distemper could arise I should not blame any man for desiring to pluck up the Vine by the roots But for the moveable ills-sake to take away the solid good of a thing
Ratcliffe was not the man alone but others joyned with him in that Assembly and I am sure my Lord of Strafford moved it for the breach of Parliament I shall addresse myselfe to the body of his answere Now give me leave my Lords that I may open the nature of this great offence My Lords it is a charge of Treason which is a Treason not ended or expired by one single Act but a trade enured by this Lord of Strafford ever since the Kings favor hath been bestowed upon him My Lords it hath two parts to deprive us that which was good And secondly to bring in a Tyrannicall government it takes away the Lawes of the Land and it hath an arbitrary government bounded by no law but what my Lord of Strafford pleaseth It is the law my Lords which we reverence and cheerefully render to our gracious Soveraigne The Law as it is the ground of our libertie so it is the distribution of Iustice My Lords in all this my Lord of Strafford hath endeavoured to make them uncapable of any benefit it is true my Lords that Treason against the person of a Prince is high Treason and the highest Treason that can be to man but it falls short of this Treason against the State When blessed King Iames was taken to heaven he commended the lawes to his sonne our gracious Soveraigne But my Lords if such a design as this should take effect that the law of Iustice shouldbe taken from the Throne we are without hope of ever seeing happy dayes power is not so easily laid downe unlesse it be by so good and just a Prince as we have My Lord of Straffords accusation is conveyed into twenty eight Articles and I shall but touch the heads that wee shall insist upon and I thinke the best way to this is to consider what he did before he went into Ireland what then and what since He hath encroached jurisdiction where none was taking upon him a power to repell the lawes and to make new lawes and in domineering over the lives and goods and what ever else was the subjects My Lords this he hath not done onely upon the meaner sort but upon the Peeres and auncient Nobilitie and what may your Lordships expect but the same measure at his hands here as they have found there when he committed any to prison if a Habeas Corpus were granted the Officers must not obey and if any Fine were put upon the Officer for refusing them there was a command that he should bee discharged so that he did not onely take power to himselfe but the Scepter of Iustice out of the Kings hand When he was a member of the house of Commons it was his owne motion all Ministers of state should serve the King according to the lawes which he hath broken himselfe He doth as much as say that Fines shall not be payed by Officers if in this they fulfill his commands but those that release a prisoner upon a Habeas Corpus shall finde his displeasure My Lords if this had been a single Act we should not have accused him of high Treason but this hath beene his common course and this we present to your Lordships consideration The next thing is that in the North the people attending for Iustice you shall see what a dishonour he flung upon the sacred Majestie of the King that did advance him some of the Iustices saith he are all for Law but they shall finde that the Kings little fingers is heavier then the Loynes of the Law My Lords what a sad speech was this and what sad Accidents happened upon it you all know and he said in a solemne speech That Ireland was a conquered Nation and that the King might do with them what he would their Charters were nothing worth they did binde the King no longer then he pleased Surely you may see what hee would do if he had power but we hope never such counsell shall have acceptation in so gracious an Eare as our Soveraignes and he doth not stay in words but proceeds to Actions when a Peere of the Kingdome was expelled the Kingdome for suing at Law for recovering of his Right he saith he would have Ireland know that neither Law nor Lawyers should question any thing that he ordered My Lords he goes higher for when there was an occasion to speake of an Act of State he said it should bee as binding as an Act of Parliament My Lords he cannot goe higher then this hee tells them in Parliament they were a Conquered Nation and they must expect the usage of a Conquered Nation The Lord Mountnorris for a few words that fell from his mouth spoken privately at his Table had a Counsell of warre called against him and was judged to death My Lords it is no marvaile that he saie That the Kings little finger should be so heavie when his little too was so heavie to tread downe a Peere under his foote My Lords he makes Lawes of himselfe and hee makes a difference in matters of Iustice betweene the poore and the rich but when he hath executed his power upon the poore he will fall upon the rich My Lords he hath made that which was worth but five shillings to the value of twenty and my Lords by this he doth in effect take away what ere this commoditie is worth he saith he doth it for the Kings gaine but we shall make it appeare that the Crowne hath lost and he hath gained And for the Commodity of Flax my Lords it is but a Womans Commodity but yet it is the staple Commodity of Ireland Now my Lords this Commondity he hath gotten wholly into his owne hands for he made such a Proclamation that it should be used in such wayes as the Women could not doe it and if it were not used in such ways that it should bee seised upon no he doth not onely put impositions upon the Subject but take away the goods too and thus he hath levyed warre against the Kings Subjects and this is his course that if a Decree were made by him and not obeyed there issued a warrant to Souldiers that they should make Garrison and that they should goe to the houses of those that were pretended to be disobedient My Lords they have killed their sheep and their Oxen and bound their horses and took them Captives till they have rendered obedience which is expressely contrary to Law for it saith If any man set horse or foot upon the Kings Subject in a Military way it is high Treason My Lords it doth not onely oppresse them in their estates but provoke and incite his Majesty to lay downe his mercy and goodnesse and to fall into an offensive war against his Subjects and to say they are Rebels and Traytors He tels his Counsell that the Parliament having forsaken the King and the King having tryed the Parliament hee might use other wayes to procure money to supply his necessities My Lords the same day
studied Speech I come to speake my heart and to speake it clearely and plainely and then leave it to your clemencie and Justice and I hope if any thing shall slip from me to work contrary to my meaning or intention disorderly or ill placed you will be pleased to make a favourable construction and leave me the liberty of explanation if there shall be any but I hope there shall be no cause for it I hope for my affection in Religion no man doubteth me what my education what and under whom for many yeares is well knowne I lived neere 30 yeares in the Society of Grayes Inn and if one that was a reverend Preacher in my time Doctor Sibbs were now alive hee were able to give testimony to this House that when a party ill affected in Religion sought to weary him and tyer him out hee had his chiefest encouragement from me I have now Master Speaker been 15 yeares of the Kings Councell from the first houre to this minute no man is able to say that ever I was Author Advisor or Consentor to any project It pleased the King my gracious Master after I had served him divers yeares to preferre mee to two places to be chiefe Justice of the Common Pleas and then Keeper of his great Seale I say it in the presence of God I was so far from the thought of the one and from the ambition of the other that if my Master his grace and goodnesse had not been I had never enjoyed those Honours I cannot tell Master Speaker nor I doe not know what particulars there are that may draw me into your disfavour or ill opinion and therefore I shall come very weakly armed yet to those that either in my owne knowledge or by such knowledge as is given me and not from any in this House I shall speake somewhat that I hope being truth and accompanied with clearenesse and ingenuity will at last procure some allay of that ill opinion which may perhaps be conceived of me Master Speaker I had once the Honour to sit in the place that you doe from the first time I came thither to the unfortunate time I doe appeale to all that were here then if I served you not with candor Ill office I never did to any of the House good offices I have witnesses enough I did many I was so happy that upon an occasion which once happened I received an expression and testimony of the good affection of this House towards me For the last unhappy day I had a great share in the unhappinesse and sorrow of it I hope there are enough doe remember no man within the walls of this House did expresse more symptomes of sorrow griefe and distraction then I did After an adjournment for two or three dayes it pleased his Majestie to send for me to let me know that he could not so resolve of things as hee desired and therefore was desirous that there might be an adjournment for some few dayes more I protest I did not then discerne in his Majestie and I beleeve it was not in his thoughts to think of the dissolving of this Assembly but was pleased in the first place to give me a command to deliver his pleasure to the House for an adjournment for some few dayes till the Monday following as I remember and commanded me withall to deliver his pleasure that there should be no further speeches but forth with upon the delivery of the Message come and wait upon him hee likewise commanded me if questions were offered to be put upon my Alleageance I should not dare to doe it how much I did then in all humblenesse reason with his Majestie is not for me here to speake onely thus much let me say I was no Author of any counsell in it I was onely a person in receiving commission I speake not this as any thing I now produce or doe invent or take up for my owne excuse but that Which is knowne to divers and some Honourable persons in this house to be most true All that I will say for that is humbly to beseech you all to consider That if it had beene any mans cause as it was mine betweene the displeasure of a gracious King and the ill opinion of an Honourable Assembly I beseech you lay all together lay my first actions and behaviour with the last I shall submit to your Honourable and favourable constructions For the Shipping businesse my opinion of that cause hath layne heavy upon me I shall clearely and truly present unto you what every thing is with this protestation that if in reckoning up my owne opinion what I was of or what I delivered any thing of it be displeasing or coÌ„trary to the opinion of this House that I am farre from justifying of it but submit that and all other my actions to your wisedomes and goodnesse Master Speaker the first Writs that were sent out about Shipping businesse I had no more knowledge of it and was as ignorant as any one Member of this House or any man in the Kingdome I was never the Author nor Advisor of it and will boldly say from the first to this houre I did never advise nor counsell the setting forth of any Ship-writs in my life Master Speaker it is true that I was made chiefe Justice of the Common Pleas some foure dayes before the Ship-writs went out to the Ports and Maritine places as I doe remember the 20 of October 1634. they doe beare Teste and I was sworne Justice the 16 of October so as they went out in that time but without my knowledge or privity the God of heaven knowes this to be true Master Speaker afterwards his Majestie was pleased to command my Lord chiefe Justice of the Kings Bench that then was Sir Thomas Richardson and chiefe Baron of the Exchequer that now is and my selfe then chiefe Justice of the Common Pleas to take into consideration the Presidents then brought unto us which we did and after returned to his Majestie what we had found out of those Presidents It is true that afterwards his Majestie did take into consideration that if the whole Kingdome were concerned that it was not reason to lay the whole burthen upon the Cinque Ports and Maritine Townes Thereupon upon what ground his Majesty took that into his consideration I doe confesse I doe know nothing of it His Majesty did command my Lord chief Justice that now is my Lord chiefe Baron and my selfe to returne our opinions whether when the whole Kingdome is in danger and the Kingdome in generall is concerned it be not according to Law and reason that the whole Kingdome and his Majestie and all interessed therein should joyne in defending and preserving thereof This was in time about one 1634. In Michaelmas Terme following his Majesty commanded â—e to goe to all the Judges and require their opinions in particular He commanded mee to doe it to every one and to charge them upon their
duty and allegiance to keepeâ—t secret Master Speaker it was never intended by his Majesty so professed by him at that time and so declared to all the Judges that it was not required by him to be such a binding opinion to the Subject as to hinder him from calling it in question nor to be binding to themselves but that upon better reason and advise they may alter it but desired their opinions for his owne private reason I know very well that extrajudiciall opinions of Judges ought not to be binding But I did think and speake my heart and conscience freely my selfe and the rest of the Judges being sworne and by our Oaths tyed to counsell the King when he should require advise of us that we were bound by our oaths and duties to returne our opinions I did obey his Majesties command and doe here before the God of heaven avow it I did never use the least promise of preferment or reward to any nor did use the least menacy I did leave it freely to their owne consciences and liberty for I was left the liberty of my owne by his Majesty and had reason to leave them the liberty of their owne consciences And I beseech you be pleased to have some beliefe that I would not say this but that I know the God of heaven will make it appeare and I beseech you that extravagant speeches may not move against that which is a positive and cleare truth Master Speaker in the discourse of this as is betweene Judges some small discourses sometimes yet never any cause wherein any Judges conferred that were so little conference as between me and them Master Speaker against a Negative I can say nothing but I shall affirme nothing unto you but by the grace of God as I affirme it to be true so I make no doubt of making it appeare to be so This opinion was subscribed without Solicitation there was not any man of us did make any doubt of subscribing our opinion but two Master Justice Hutton and Master Iustice Crooke Master Iustice Crooke made not a scruple of the thing but of the introduction for it was thus That whereas the Ports the Maritine Towns were concerned there according to the Presidents in former times the charge lay on them So when the Kingdome was in danger of which his Majesty was the sole Iudge whether it was not agreeable to Law and reason the whole Kingdome to beare the charge I left this case with Iudge Crooke The next Terme I spake with him hee could give me no resolution because hee had not seene the Writs in former times but did give his opinion that when the whole Kings dome was in danger they of the defence ought to be borne by all So of that opinion of his there was no need of a Solicitation I speake no more here than I did openly in my argument in the Chequer Chamber This is the naked truth for Master Iustice Hutton he did never subscribe at all I will onely say this that I was so farre from pressing him to give his opinion because he did ask time to consider of it that I will boldly say and make it good that when his Majesty would have had him sometimes sent for to give his opinion I beseeched his Majesty to leave him to himselfe and his conscience and that was the ill office I did The Iudges did subscribe in November or December 1635. I had no conference nor truly I think by accident any discourse with any of the Iudges touching their opinions for till February 1636 there was no speech of it for when they had delivered their opinions I did returne according to my duty to my Master the King and delivered them to him in whose custody they be in In February 1636 upon a command that came from his Majesty by one of the then Secretaries of State the Iudges all assembled in Grayes-Inn we did then fall into a debate of the case then sent unto us and wee did then returne our opinion unto his Majesty there was then much discourse and great debate about it Mine opinion and conscience at that time was agreeable to that opinion I then delivered I did use the best arguments I could for the maintainance of my opinion and that was all I did It is true that then at that time Master Iustice Hutton and Master Justice Crooke did not differ in the maine point which was this When the Kingdome was in danger the charge ought to be borne by the whole Kingdome But in this point whether the King was the sole Judge of the danger they differed So as there was betweene the first subscription and this debate and consultation some 15 moneths difference It is true that all of them did then subscribe both Justice Hutton and Justice Crooke which was returned to his Majestie and after published by my Lord Keeper my predecessour in the Star-chamber For the manner of publishing it I will say nothing but leave it to those whose memories wil call to mind what was then done The reason of the subscription of Iustice Hutton and Iustice Crooke though they differed in opinion grew from this that was told them from the rest of the Iudges That where the greater number did agree in their vote the rest were involved and included And now I have faithfully delivered what I did in that businesse till I came which was afterwards to my argument in the Exchequer Chamber for the question was A scire facias issued out of the Exchequer in that case of Master Hampdens of which I can say nothing for it was there begun and afterwards rejourned to have advice of all the Iudges Master Speaker among the rest according to my duty I argued the case I shall not trouble you to tell you what my argument was I presume there are Copies enough of it onely I will tell you there are foure things very briefly what I then declared First concerning the matter of danger and necessity of the whole Kingdome I professe that there was never a Judge in the Kingdome did deliver an opinion but that it must be in a case of apparant danger When we came to an argument of the case it was not upon a matter or issue but it was upon a demurrer Whether the danger was sufficiently admitted in pleading and therefore was not the thing that was in dispute that was the first degree and step that led unto it I did deliver my selfe as free and as cleare as any man did that the King ought to governe by the positive Lawes of the Kingdome that hee could not alter nor change nor innovate in matters of Law but by common consent in Parliament I did further deliver that if this were used to make a further revenue or benefit to the King or in any other way but in case of necessity and for the preservation of the Kingdome The judgement did warrant no such thing My opinion in this businesse I did in my
conclusion of my argument submit to the judgement of this House I never delivered my opinion that mony ought to be raised but Ships provided for the defence of this Kingdome and in that the Writ was performed And that the charge ought not to be in any case but where the whole Kingdome was in danger And Master Justice Hutton and Master Iustice Crooke were of the same opinion with me I doe humbly submit having related unto you my whole carriage in this businesse humbly submitting my selfe to your grave and favourable censures beseeching you not to think that I delivered these things with the least intention to subvert or subject the common Law of the Kingdome or to bring in or to introduce any new way of government it hath bin farre from my thoughts as any thing under the heavens Master Speaker I have heard too that there hath bin some ill opinion conceived of me about Forrest businesse which was a thing farre out of the way of my study as any thing I know towards the Law But it pleased his Majesty in the sicknesse of Master Noy to give some short warning to prepare my selfe for that imployment When I came there I did both the King and Common-wealth acceptable service for I did and dare be bold to say with extreame danger to my selfe and fortune some doe understand my meaning herein run through that businesse and left the Forrest as much as was there A thing in my judgement considerable for the advantage of the Common-wealth as could be undertaken When I went downe about that imployment I satisfied my selfe about the matter of perambulation There were great difficulties of opinions what perambulation was I did arme my selfe as well as I could before I did any thing in it I did acquaint those that were then Iudges in the presence of the noble Lords with such objections as I thought it my duty to offer unto them If they thought they were not objections of such waight as were fit to stirre them I would not doe the King that disservice They thought the objections had such answers as might well induce the like upon a conference with the whole Country admitting mee to come and conferre with them the Country did unanimously subscribe It fell out afterwards that the King commanded me and all this before I was chiefe Iustice to goe into Essex and did then tell me he had beene enformed that the bounds of the Forrest were narrower then in truth they ought to be and I did according to his command I will here professe that which is knowne to many I had no thought or intention of enlarging the bounds of the Forrest further then H. and that part about it for which there was a perambulation about 26 Edward 4. I desired the Country to confer with me about it if they were pleased to doe it and then according to my duty I did produce those Records which I thought fit for his Majesties service leaving them to discharge themselves as by Law and Justice they might doe I did never in the least kind goe about to overthrow the charter of the Forrest And did publish and maintaine Charta de Foresta as a sacred thing and no man to violate it and ought to be preserved for the King and Common-wealth I doe in this humbly submit and what I have done to the goodnesse and Justice of this House FINIS Mr. Herbotle Grimstones second Speech in Parliament the 18. of December 1640. Master Speaker THere hath been presented to the house a most faithfull and exact report of the conference wee had with the Lords yesterday together with the opinion of the Committees that we imployed in the service that they conceaved it fit that the Archbishop of Canterbury should be sequestred and I must second the motion And with the favour of this House I shall be bold to offer my reasons why I conceive it more necessary wee should proceed a little further then the desire of a bare sequestration onely Master Speaker long Introductions are not suitable to waâ—ghty businesses wee are now fallen upon the great man the Archbishop of Canterbury looke upon him as hee is in highnesse and he is the Stye of all pestilentiall filth that hath infected the State and Government of this Common wealth Looke upon him in his dependances and he is the man the onely man that hath raised and advanced all those that together with himselfe have beene the Authors and Causers of all our ruines miseries and calamities wee row groane under Who is it but he only that hath brought the Earle of Strafford to all his great places and imployments a fit spirit and instrument to act and execute all his wicked and bloudy Designes in these Kingdomes Who is it but hee onely that brought in Secretary Windibank into this place of service of trust the very Broker and Pander to the Whore of Babylon Who is it Master Speaker but hee onely that hath advanced all our Popish Bishops I shall name but some of them Bishop Manering the Bishop of Bath and Wells the Bishop of Oxford and Bishop Wren the least of all these birds but one of the most uncleane ones These are the men that should have fed Christs Flock but they are the Wolfes that have devoured them the Sheepe should have fed upon the Mountaines but the Mountaines have eaten up the Sheepe It was the happinesse of our Church when the Zeale of Gods house eat up the Bishops glorious and brave Martyrs that went to the Stake in defence of the Protestant Religion but the Zeale of the Bishops hath beene onely to persecute and eat up the Church Who is it Master Speaker but this great Archbishop of Canterbury that hath sitten at the helme to steere and to mannage all the projects that have beene set on foot in this Kingdome this tenne yeares last past and rather then hee would stand out he hath most unworthily trucked and chafered in the meanest of them as for instance that of Tobacco wherein thousands of poore people have beene stripped and turned out of their Trades for which they have served as Apprentizes wee all know he was the Compounder and Contracter with them for the Licences putting them to pay Fines and a fee Farme rent to use their Trade certainly Master Speaker hee might have spent his time much better and more for his Grace in the Pulpit then thus sherking and raking in the Tobacco-shops Master Speaker we all know what he hath been charged withall here in this house crimes of a dangerous consequence and of a transcendent nature no lesse then the subversion of the Government of this Kingdome and the alteration of the Protestant Religion and this is not upon bare information onely but much of it is come before us already upon cleare and minifest proofes and there is scarce any grievance or complaint come before us in this Place wherein we do not find him intermentioned and as it were twisted into
This it was Master Speaker His advising the King to employ the Army of Ireland to reduce England This I was assured would be proved before I gave my consent to his accusation I was confirmed in the same beliefe during the prosecution and fortified in it most of all since Sir Henry Vaines preparatory examinations by the assurances which that worthy member Mr. Pymme gave me that his Testimony would be made convincing by some notes of what passed at the Junto concurrent with it which I ever understanding to be of some other Counsellour you see now prove but a Copie of the same Secretaries notes discover'd and produc't in the manner you have heard and those Such disioynted fragments of the venemous part of discourses no results no conclusions of Counsels which are the onely things that Secretaries should register there being no use at all of the other but to accuse and to bring men into danger But Sir this is not that which overthrowes the evidence with mee concerning the Army of Ireland nor yet that all the rest of the Iunto upon their oathes remember nothing of it But this Sir which I shall tell you is that which works with mee under favour to an utter overthrow of his evidence as unto that of the Army of Ireland Before whil'st I was a prosecutor and under tye of Secrecie I might not discover any weakenesse of the cause which now as a Judge I must Master Secretary was examined thrice upon Oath at the preparatory Committee The first time he was questioned to all the Interrogatories and to that part of the seventh which concernes the Army of Ireland he said positively in these words I cannot charge him with that But for the rest he desires time to recollect himselfe which was granted him Some dayes after he was examined a second time and then deposes these words concerning the Kings being absolved from rules of government and so forth very clearely But being prest to that part concerning the Irish Army againe can say nothing to that Here wee thought wee had done with him till divers weeks after my Lord of Northumberland and all others of the Junto denying to have heard any thing concerning those words of reducing England by the Irish Army it was thought fit to examine the Secretary once more and then he deposes these words to have beene said by the Earle of Strafford to his Majestie You have an Army in Ireland which you may imploy here to reduce or some word to that sence this Kingdome Mr. Speaker these are the circumstances which I confesse with my Conscience thrust quite out of dores that grand Article of our charge concerning his desperate advice to the King of employing the Irish Army here Let not this I beseech you be driven to an aspersion upon Master Secretary as if he should have sworn otherwise then he knew or beleeved hee is too worthy to doe that onely let thus much be inferr'd from it that hee who twice upon Oath with time of recollection could not remember any thing of such a businesse might well a third time misremember somewhat and in this businesse the difference of one Letter here for there or that for this quite alters the case the latter also being the more probable since it is confest of all hands that the debate then was concerning a warre with Scotland and you may remember that at the Bar he once said to employ there And thus Mr. Speaker I have faithfully given you an account what it is that hath blunted the edge of the Hatchet or Bill with me towards my Lord of Strafford This was that whereupon I accused him with a free heart prosecuted him with earnestnesse and had it to my understanding beene proved should have condemned him with innocence Whereas now I cannot satisfie my conscience to doe it I professe I can have no notion of any bodies intent to subvert the Lawes treasonably or by force and this designe of force not appearing all his other wicked practises cannot amount so high with me I can finde a more easie and more naturall spring from whence to derive all his other Crimes then from an intent to bring in Tyrannie and to make his owne posterity as well as us Slaves as from revenge from Pride from Avarice from Passion and insolence of Nature But had this of the Irish Army been proved it would have diffused a complexion of Treason over all it would have beene a With indeed to bind all those other scattered and lesser branches as it were into a Faggot of Treason I doe not say but the rest may represent him a man as worthy to dye and perhaps worthier then many a Traytor I doe not say but they may justly direct us to Enact that they shall be Treason for the future But God keepe mee from giving judgement of death on any Man and of ruine to his innocent Posterity upon a Law made â posteriori Let the mark be set on the dore where the Plague is and then let him that will enter dye I know Master Speaker there is in Parliament a double power of life and death by Bill a judiciall power and a Legislative the measure of the one is what 's Legally just of the other what is prudentially and politickly fit for the good and preservation of the whole But those two under favour are not to be confounded in Judgement Wee must not peece up want of Legality with matter of convenience nor the defailance of prudentiall fitnesse with a pretence of legall Justice To condemne my Lord of Strafford judicially as for Treason my conscience is not assured that the matter will bear it And to doe it by the Legislative power my reason consultively cannot agree to that since I am perswaded neither the Lords nor the King will passe the Bill and consequently that our passing it will be a cause of great divisions and combustions in the State And therefore my humble advice is that laying aside this Bill of Attainder we may think of another saving only life such as may secure the State from my Lord of Strafford without endangering it as much by division concerning his punishment as he hath endangered it by his practices If this may not be hearkned unto let me conclude in saying that unto you all which I have throughly inculcated to mine owne conscience upon this occasion Let every man lay his hand upon his heart and sadly consider what we are going to doe with a breath either justice or murther justice on the one side or murther heightned and aggravated to its supreamest extent For as the Casuists say that he who lyes with his sister commits incest but he that marries his sister sinnes higher by applying Gods Ordinance to his crime So doubtlesse he that commits murther with the sword of Justice heightens that crime to the utmost The danger being so great and the case so doubtfull that I see the best Lawyers in diametrall opposition concerning it
enacted as fulgura ex vitrio or as bugbears to inforce the obedience of Children no my Lords the just execution of it upon their Predecessors though in breaches not so capitall might have warned them to have strangled their ill born resolutions in the Cradle before they now proclaim their infancie and petition for their punishment Witnesse Sir Thomas Weyland his banishment confiscation of his goods and lands only for his mercenarie Justice contrary to his oath who was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the time of Edward the first Witnesse Sir William Thorpe Cheif Iustice of the Kings Bench in the time of Edward the third who was adjudged to be hanged because he had broken the Kings oath made unto the people wherewith he was intrusted in the Roll. Now my Lords though Magna Charta be sacred for antiquity though its confirmation be strengthned by oath though it be the proper Dictionarie that expounds meum tuum and assignes a Subiect his birth right yet it only survives in the Rolls but now miserable rent and torn in the practice These words Salvo cantenemento live in the Rolls but they are dead in the Castle Chamber These words Nullus liber bujus ejicitur è libero sue tenemento in praejudicium parium live in the Rolls but they are dead where property and free-hold are determined by paper Petitions These words Nulli vendemus nulli differemus Justitiam live in the Rolls but they are dead when the Suites Iudgements and excecution of the Subiect are wittingly and illegally suspended retarded and avoyded Shall we desire to search the mortall wounds inflicted upon the Statute Lawes who sees them not lying upon their death bed stab'd with Proclamations their primitive and genuine tenures escheated by Acts of State and strangled by Monoplies Will you surveigh the liberties of the Subiects every prison spues out illegad attachments and commitments every Pillory is dyed with the forced bloud of the Subiects and hath ears though not to hear yet to witnesse this complaint Do you doubt of the defacement of the amiable Offices of his Maiesties most transplendent and renowned Iustice and grace let then that Microcosme of Letters Patents confirmed under his Maiesties and his Predecessors broad Seale of the Kingdome being the publique faith thereof and yet unchristened by frivolous and private opinions rise up in iudgement let the abortive Iudgement of the tenure in Capite where no tenure was exprest nay let the Hereticall and Traiterous opinions where the Tenure was exprest yet to draw in all by Markets and Faires granted in the same Patents rise up in Iudgements What glasse hath this unhappy divided Kingdome from his Maiesties presence and andience to contemplate the fair and ravishing form of his royall intentions in but in the cleer and diaphanous administration of his Iustice and what do these traytrous and illegall practise ayme at but in affront to his Maiesty which we most tenderly resent and discontent to his Subiects to multiply as by a Magick glasse the royall dispensation of his favours into the ugly and deformed visage of their suppression of the liberties devastations of the estates and the deprivation of the lives of his loyall Subiects so that it may be sayd Regali Capiti cervicem consul equinanâ— Jungere sic vellet variasque inducere plumas My Lords these ought to be considered with as serious an eare as they were practised by mischievous experiments Inquire of the Netherlands why their fields are growne fertile by the inundation of bloud why the pensive Matrons solemnize too too frequent funeralls of their Husbands and issue and they will answer you it was for the preservation of their hereditary Lawes which Tyranny would have innovated This Kingdome personated in the sable habit of a widdow with dishelved hayrs seems to Petition your Lordships that since she is a Mother to most of us yet cerâ—ainly a Nurse unto us all that you would make some other for redresse of her Tyrannicall oppression These persons impeached resemble the opacious body of the earth interposed to eclipse that light and vigour which the solar aspect of Maiesty would communicate unto his Subiects They imitate the fish Sepia that vomits a darke liquor out of her mouth to cloud the waters for her securer escape They are those to whom the keyes have been committed yet they have barred the door to them that knoc't They are those unnaturall Parents that give their children stones in stead of bread and scorpions for fish Was it for this purpose that the royall authority scituated them in these eminent places that like Beacons upon high Hills they should discover and proclaim each innovation and stratagem against the publique weale whilest they in the mean time imploy therein fire to publique Incendiary or like Ignes fatui seduce the easie and beleeving Traveller into pits and unexpected Myres Were they sworne to seale their damnation and not their confirmation of our libertie estates and lives Shall a man be censured for perjury in that breach of his private Faith and those be justifiable in Treason aggravated by perjury against the dignity of the Crownes and publique faith of the Kingdomes No my Lords the grave judicious and mature examination and deserved punishment of these traiterous proceedings will speak these times as glorious to posterity in their information as they are now lamented in their persecution The bloud-thirsting sword of an hostile enemy by a timely union and a defensive preparation may be prevented The thin rib'd Carcasse of an universall famine may have his consumption restored by a supply from our neighbouring Nations The quick spreading venome of infectious pestilence may be prevented by Antidotes and qualified by phisicall remedies But this Catholick grievance like a snake in the most verdant walks for such are the unblemished lawes truly practised stings us to death when we are most secure and like the Kings evill can only be cured by his Majesties free and gracious permission of our modest and gentle proceedings for his vindication and our preservation therein concluded Spencer and Gamston who have left their names monumentally odious for the evill counsell they fed the Kings ear with yet did possibly advantage their own friends while these dart their envie and Treason for a common Center equally touching the bounds of every superficies for as concerning the valide estates they have illegally overthrown when the Lawes by your Lordships industry receive their native vigour they will re-assume their confirmation but the estates happily in themselves legall that they have in an extrajudiciall forme established will haste as speedily to their dissolution so that Judas-like they betray their best friends with a kisse My Lords I cannot finde any surviving Cronologie of times this season to be parallel'd with all circumstances which makes me view the Records amongst the infernall spirits to finde if match't there I might extenuate their facts where 1. they appear like the false spirit sent
in the North yet I dwell in England Sir BENJAMIN RUDYERDS Speech concerning the QUEENS Joynture Jan. 1640. Mr. SPEAKER GOD hath blessed the Queens Majestie with a blessed Progeny already whereby she hath relieved and fortified this Kingdome which may put us in minde in a fit time to provide according to their birth and interest Shee is the daughter of a great and famous King she is the wife of our King which to us includes all expressions But in one thing Mr. Speaker her Majestie is singular in that she is the Mother to the greatest Prince that hath beene borne amongst us above these hundred yeers which cannot but work a tendernesse in us The Queene likewise may be another Instrument of happinesse to us in her good affection to Parliaments by a good hansell in this And I beleeve we shall see effects of it for it neerly and wisely concernes her Majestie even in all the Relations that are most deare to her to contribute her best Assistance to Uphold the Government and greatnesse of the kingdome By which meanes also the king will be better enabled to make a further enlargement of his bounty towards her in some degree proportionable Wherefore Mr. Speaker it will become this House to shew our cheerfulnesse in passing of the Bill Articles against Doctor Piercie Bishop of Bath and Wells exhibited by Mr. James Minister within his Diocesse 1 HEE hath Ex officio convented mee before him for having two Sermons preached in my Church on Michaelmas day to the great disturbance hinderance of the sale of the Church Ale as his Lordship pretended and further examined me upon Oath whether I had not the said Sermons preached for the same purpose and intent admonishing me for the future neither to preach my selfe nor suffer any other to preach in my Cure in the afternoon of either the Lords-day or holy dayes 2 I heard him say to his Register That whereas Information had been given concerning certain Ministers that they expounded upon the Catechisme this Information was too narrow to catch them and therefore it should have runne thus that they Catechised or expounded upon the Catechisme Sermon-wise and then they would have been obnoxious to censure 3 At the meeting to elect Clerks of the Convocation he threatned to send forth Censures of the Church against all that would not pay in the Benevolence late granted in the late Synod within a fortnight after the second day of November last past And further at the said election his sonne gave eight single voyces two as Arch-Deacon of Bath two as Prebend of the Church of Wells two as Parson of Buckland Saint Mary two as Vicar of Kingsbury and many others also there present gave as many double voyces as they had Benefices and Dignities against which one Mr. Rosnell protested saying that it was illegall The Bishop replyed that they gave in severall capacities and thereupon commanded him silence saying that he was a young man 4. That upon the meer Information of Mr. Humphry Sydenham Rector of Buckington that in a certain Sermon Preached at the Visitation of the Arch Deacon of Taunton I bespattered the Clergie The Bishop summoned me before him down to Wells and there objected unto mee that I had preached a scandalous Sermon wherein I had cast some aspersions on some of the Clergy Upon which charge I proferd to bring in an exact Copy of the Sermon I preacht and to depose that I spake neither more nor lesse then was contained in the said Copy This the Bishop would not accept of saying that he would not have the Ministers who came to witnesse against mee troubled with a second journey One of my Proctors desired time till the next Court day for me to give in my answer the Bishop commanded him to hold his Peace and the other Proctor though he was retained by me had received a Fee never opened his mouth pretending unto me that because the Bishop was so highly displeased with mee he durst not appeare in my behalf being denyed time to give in my answer at the next Court day I desired respit untill the afternoon this also was denyed In fine contrary to the rules of their own Court he examined witnesses against me and proceeded to Censure me before he received my full answer he would not heare the answer which I could give to the Articles objected to me which I proferd to give and which he had by oath required me to give further by vertue of the oath he administred unto me he questioned me not only concerning matters of outward fact but also concerning my most secret thoughts intentions and aymes Moreover whereas the witnesses confessed that I only said in the foresaid Sermon that some put the Scriptures into a staged dresse the Bishop perswaded them that that expression was equivalent with the Article objected that some mens Sermons were Stage Playes and they by his perswasion swore down right that I saidsome mens Sermons were Stage Playes The Doctor made an Act and Order that I should make publique retractation which I refused to doe and appeald unto the Arches But upon either the Bishops or M. Sidenhams Information my Procter Hunt renounced my appeale and Sir John Lambe dismissed the same cause without hearing unto the Bishop againe 5 The Churchwardens of my Parish by order from the Bishop were enjoyned to turn the Communion Table and place it Altar-wise c. Now they that they might neither displease the Bishop nor transgresse against the Rubrick of the Liturgie made it an exact square Table that so notwithstanding the Bishops order the Minister might still Officiate at the North side of the Table M. Humphry Sydenham informed against this and upon Information the Bishop sent to view it and upon his view he certified the Bishop that it was like an Oyster Table whereupon the Bishop ordered the Churchwardens to make a new one 6 Upon M. Humphry Sydenhams Information that M. John Pym was a Parliamenteer the Bishop would not suffer me any longer to sojourn in his house although before such Information he gave me leave And when I demanded of some of his servants the reason why his Lordship had thus changed his minde they told me that his Lordship was informed by M. Sydenham that M. Pym was a Puritane The Lord Andevers speech in March 1640. concerning the Star-Chamber MY Lords since your Lordships have already looked so farre into priviledges of Peers as to make a strict inquisition upon forraign honours Let us not destroy that among our selves which we desire to preserve from strangers And if this greivance I shall move against have slept till now It is very considerable lest custome make it every day more apparent than other your Lordships very well know there was a Statute framed 3 Hen. 7. Authorizing the Chancellor Treasurer and Privy Seale and the two Chiefe Justices calling to them one Bishop and a temporall Lord of the Kings Councell to receive complaints
of many a 14th in the silver and a 25th part in all the gold they after shall receive so shall the Nobilitie Gentry and all other landed men in all their former setled Rents Annuities Pensions and sums of money the like will fall upon the labourers and workemen in their statute wages And as their receipts are lessened hereby so are their issues increased either by improving all prices or disfurnishing the Market which must necessarily follow for in the 5th of Edw. 6th 3º Mary 4 to Eliz. as appeareth by their Proclamations That a Rumour only of alteration caused such effects punishing the author of such reports with Imprisonment and Pillory It cannot be doubted but the proiecting of such a change must be of far greater consequence and danger to the State and would be wished that the Actors and authors of such disturbances in the Common-wealth at all times hereafter might undergo a punishment proportionable It cannot be held I presume an advise of best iudgement that layeth the losse upon our selves and the gain upon our enemies for who are like to be in this the greatest thrivers is not visible that the strangers who support or money for bullion our own Gold-smiths who are their Brokers and the Hedgminters of the Netherlands who tearmed them well will have a fresh and full trade by this abasements And we do not the Spanish King our greatest enemy a greater favour than by his who being Lord of these commodities by his West-Indies we shall so advance them to our impoverishment for it is not in the power of any State to raise of the price of their own but the value that their neighbours set upon them experience hath taught us that the enfoebling of Coyn is but a shift for a while as drinke to one in a dropsie to make him swell the more but the state was never thorowly cured as we saw in Henry the Eighths time and the late Queens untill the Coyn was made rich again I cannot but then conclude my honorable Lords that if the proportion of Gold and Silver to each other be wrought to that purity by the advice of the Artists that neither may be too rich for the other that the Mintage may be reduced to some proportion of neighbour parts and that the issue of native commodities may be brought to over-ballance the entrance of the forraigne we need not seek any shift but shall again see our trade to flourish the Mint as the pulse of the Common-wealth again to bear and our Materialls by Industry to be Mynes of Gold and Silver which we all wish and work for supported unto us and the honor of Justice and Profit of his Maiesty Certain general Rules collected concerning Money and Bullion out of the late Consultation at Court GOld and silver hath a two fold estimation in the extrinsique as they are moneys and Princes measures given to his people and this is a Prerogative of Kings in the Intrinsique they are commodities valewing each other according to the plenty or scarcity and so all other commodities by them and that is the sole power of Trade The measure in a Kingdome ought to be constant It is the Justice and honor of the King for if they be altered all men at that time are deceived in the precedent contracts either for lands or moneys and the King most of all for no man knoweth either what he hath or what he oweth This made the Lord Treasurer Burleigh in Anno 1573. when some Projectors had set on foot a matter of that nature to tell them that they were worthy to suffer death for attempting to put so great a dishonor upon the Queen and detriment and discontent on the people for to alter this publike measure is to leave all the Markets of the Kingdome unfurnished and what will be the mischiefe the Proclamation of 5. and 6. 3o. Mary and 4th of Eliz. will manifest when but a rumor produced that effect so farre that besides the faith of the Princes to the contrary delivered in their Edicts they were inforced to cause the Magistrates in every Shire respectively to constrain the people to furnish the Market to prevent a mutiny To thinke then this measure at this time short is to raise all prices or to turn the measure or money now current into disuse and Bullion for who will depart with any when it is by seven more in the hundred in the masse then the now moneys and yet of no more value in the Market Hence the necessitie of it will follow that there will not of a long time be Minted of the new to drive the exchange of the Kingdome and so all trade at one instance at a stand and in meane time the Markets unfurnished and thus far as money is a measure Now as it is a commoditie it is respected and valued by the intrinsique qualitie and first the one mettall to the other All commodities are priced by plenty or scarcity by dearenesse or cheapnesse the one to the other If then we desire our silver to buy gold as it hath lately been we must let it it be the cheaper and lesse in proportion valued and so contrary for one equivalent proportion in both will bring in neither we see the profit there of the unusuall quantitie of gold brought lately to the Mint by reason of the price we rate it at above all other Countries and gold may be bought too dear to furnish then this way the Mint with both is impossible And at this time it was apparantly proved both by the best Artists and marchants most acquainted with the Exchange in both the examples of the Mint-masters in the Rix-dolor and Royall of Eight that silver here is of equall valew and gold above with forreine parts in the intrinsique but that the fallacie presented to the Lords by the Mint-masters is only in the nomination of extrinsique qualitie But if we desire both it is not the raysing the valew that doth it but the balancing the Trade for we buy more then we sell of all other commodities be the money never so high priced we must part with it to make the disproportion even if we sell more then the contrary will follow And this is plain in Spanish necessities for should that King advance to a double his Royall of Eight yet needing it by reason of the barrennesse of his Country more of forreign wares then can countervaile by exchange with his wares he must then part with his money and gain the more by enhaunsing his coyn but he payeth a higher price for the commodities he buyeth if this work of raysing be his own But if we shall make improvement of gold and silver being the Staple-commodities of this Kingdome we then advancing the the price of his abase to him our own commodities To shape this kingdome to the fashion of the Netherlands were to frame a Royall Monarchie by a society of Marchants their Country is a continuall Faire and so
price of moneys must rise and fall to fit their occasions we see this by raising the Exchange of Franckford and other places of their usuall time of the Marts This frequent and daily change in the Low-Countries of their moneys is no such injustice to any there as it would be here for there they being all Merchants or mechanicks they can rate accordingly their labour and their Ware whether it be Coyne or other merchandize to the present condition of their own money in Exchange And our English Merchants to whose profession it properly belongeth do so according to their just intrinsique valew of their forreign Coyn in all barter of commodities or Exchange except usance which we that are rated and tyed by the extrinsiques measure of moneys in all our constant reckonigs and annuall bargains at home cannot do And for us then to raise our Coyn at this time to equall their proportions were but to render our selves to a perpetuall incertainty for they will raise upon us daily them again which we of course shall follow else receive no profit by this present change and so destroy the Policie Justice honor and tranquilitie of our State for ever To the Right Honourable the Lord Deputy The â—â—mble and just Remonstrance of the Knights Cittizens and Burgesses in Parliament assembled SHewing that in all ages since the happy subjection of this Kingdome to the Imperiall Crowne of England it was and is a principall study and Princely care of his Majesty and his most noble Progenitors Kings and Queens of England and Ireland to the vast expence of treasure and blood That their loyall and dutifull people of this Land of Ireland beeing now for the most part derived from Brittish Ancestors should be governed according to the municipall and fundamentall Lawes of England That the statute of Magna Charta or the great Charter of the liberties of England and other laudable lawes and statutes were in severall Parliaments heere enacted and declared that by the means thereof of the most prudent benign government of his Majestie his Royall Progenitors this Kingdome was untill of late in its growth a flourishing estate whereby the said people were heretofore enabâ—ed to aâ—â—iver their humble and naturall desires to comply with his Majesties Princely and royall occasions by their free gift of 150. thousand pounds sterling and likewise by another free gift of 120. thousand pounds more during the government of the Lord Viscount Faulkland and after by the gift of 40. thousand pounds and their free and cheerefull gift of siâ—â— intire Subsidies in the tenth yeare of his Majesties Reignâ— which to comply with his Majesties then occasions signified to the then house of Commons they did allow should ammount in the Collections unto 2 hundred and fifty thousand pounds although as they confidently believe if the Subsidies had been levyed in a moderate Parliamentary way they would not have amounted to much more then halfe the sum aforesaid besides the foure intire Subsidies graunted in this present Parliament Soe it is may it please your Lordship by the occasion of insuing and other grievances and Innovations though to his Majesty no considerable profit this Kingdome is reduced to that extreame and universall poverty that the same is lesse able to pay 2 Subsidies then it was hertofore to satisfie all the before-recyted great payments his Majesties most faithfull people of the Land do conceive great fears that the said grievances and consequences thereof may be hereafter drawne into presidents to be perpetuated upon their posterity which in their great hopes and strong beliefe they are perswaded is contrary to his Royall and Princely intention towards his said people of which greivances are as followeth 1 First the generall apparant decay of Trades occasioned by the new and illegall raising of the booke of rates and impositions upon native and other Commodities exported and imported by reason whereof and of extreame usage and censures Merchants are beggered both and disinabled and discouraged to Trade and some of the honourable persons who gaine thereby often Iudges and parties And that in the conclusion his Majesties profit thereby is not considerably advanced 2. The arbitrary decision of all civill causes and controversies by paper petitions before the Lord Lieutenant and Lord Deputy and infinite other Iudicatories upon references from them derived in the nature of all actions determinable at the Common Law not limited into certaine time cause season or thing whatsoever And the consequences of such exceeding by immoderate and unlawfull fees by Secretaries Clarkes Pursivants Serjeants at Armes and otherwise by which kinde of proceedings his Majesty looseth a considerable part of his revenue upon originall writs and other wise and the Subject looseth the benefit of his writ of Error bill of reversall vouchees and other legall and just advantages and the ordinary course and Courts of Iustice declined 3. The proceedings in civill causes at Counsell board contrary to the Law and great Charter not limited to any certaine time or season 4 That the Subject is in all the materiall parts thereof denyed the benefit of the Princely graces and more especially of the statute of limitations of 21. of Iac. Graunted by his Majesty in the fourth yeare of his Raigne upon great advice of Counsell of England and Ireland and for great consideration and then published in all the Courts of Dublin and in all the Counties of this Kingdome in open assizes whereby all persons doe take notice that contrary to his Majesties pious intentions his Subjects of this land have not enjoyed the benefit of his Majesties Princelie promise thereby made 5. The extrajudiciall avoyding of Letters Pattents of estates of a very great part of his Majesties subjects under the great Seale the publique faith of the Kingdome by private opinions delivered at the Counsell board without legall evictions of their estates contrary to the law and without president or example of any former age 6. The Proclamation for the sole emption and uttering of Tobacco which is bought at every low rates and uttered at high and excessive rates by meanes whereof thousands of families within this Kingdome and of his Majesties Subjects in severall Ilands and other parts of the West Indies as your Petitioners are informed are destroyed and the most part of the coyn of this Kingdome is ingross ed into particular hands Insomuch as the petitioners do conceive that the proffit arising and engrossed thereby doth surmount his Majestyes revenue certain or cosuall within this Kingdome and yet his Majesty receiveth but very little profit by the same 7. The universall and unlawfull increasing of Monopolies to the advantage of a few to the disprofit of his Majesty and Impoverishment of his people 8. The extream and cruell usage of certain late Commissioners and other stewards the Brittish Farmers and Inhabitants of the City and County of London Derry by meanes whereof the worthy Plantation of that Country is almost destroyed and the
submit it to your Lordships wisdome and goodnesse and seeing there is no malignity in it nor prejudice to the state That your Lordship would vouchsafe me your favour and protection and preserve me from perishing Callis January 11. 1640. Your Lordships most humble and faithfull though much distressed servant Fran. Windebanck The Lord Andevers speech concerning the pacification the 6 of March. My Lords I Did lately move your Lordships that the breach of the pacification might be speedily reviewed as the â—num necessarium and truly my opinion at that time is yet nothing altered although upon better thoughts me thinks it would first be known who did actually engage us in these fruitles dissentions and so derive the mischiefe from some originall For my Lords the kingdome cannot now long stant at gaze or undergoe new burthens Wherefore what is to be done if you intend it should prosper must presently receive life from the whole people otherwise we shall expire in a dream and when the successe differs from expectation it is not enough to cry quod non put ar am My Lords the wiseman saies there is a proper season for all things under the Sun and we often finde the experiment in naturall bodies which are voluntarily weakned to recover strength yet with a restriction to such bounds and limits as the Physitian prescribes himself and truly I think it is your Lordships case at this point either to consider what should further be done then is already or else how to get out of those labyrinths we now are in lest the words of the Psalmist come home to our selves Vendidisti populum sinepretio My Lords I am confident the House of Commons doth throughly see both into the prejudice and vast expence that these two armies lay upon the land and undoubtedly so many Gentlemen of worth as sit there will have tender eyes upon the Commonweale It will therefore become your Lordships to second them in your way and whilest they apply to publique wounds the care of this house may search the intestines for if they be not cleansed it will be but a superficiall Cure and break out againe My Lords it seems the Earle of Strafford and the Archbishop of Cant. have gone the high waies of iniquity and every one knows how to trace them but Mines under ground are most considerable which unlesse they be likewise found out may at any time spring and supplant the whole fabrick of all our labours Let us then examine this fantastick warre ab initio lest as the Duke of Burgundy made a few Sheepskins the cause of his quarrel so we shall find those sheets of paper sent under the name of a Liturgy and book of Canons were but the Mopsas of the story to divert our eyes from the main designe Therefore my humble motion shall be for a selected Committee of no great number who may have power from the House to begin ab origne mali revise every mans negotiations who was either an Actor or Counsellor since the first appearance of those troubles in Scotland and that they may examine the Scottish Counsell upon such Articles as the heavy pressure of this Kingdome shall upon common fame administer unto them By the Major The Order of the House of Commons to the Lord Major for the due observing the Sabbath day IT is this day ordered by the House of Commons the Aldermen and Citizens that serve for the City of London shall intimate to the Lord Major from this House that the Statutes for the due observing of the Sabbath be put in execution And it is further ordered that the like intimation from this House be made to the Justices of Peace in all the Counties of England and Wales And the Knights of the Shire of the severall Counties are to take care that the Copies of this Order be accordingly sent to the Justices of Peace in the severall Counties FOasmuch as the Lords Day commonly called Sunday is of late much broken and prophaned by a disorderly sort of People in frequenting Taverns Ale-houses and the like and putting to sale victuall and other things and exercising unlawfull games and pastimes to the great dishonor of God and reproach of Religion whereof the House of Commons now assembled hath been pleased to take notice and by their order intimation hath been given unto me that the Statutes for the due observing of the Sabbath be put in execution These are therefore in his Majesties name to will and require you forthwith upon the sight hereof that you give strict charge and command unto all and every the Churchwardens and Constables within your Ward that from henceforth they doe not permit or suffer any person or persons in the time of divine service or at any other time upon the Sunday to be drinking or playing in any Tavern Inne Tobacco-shop Ale-house or other victualling house whatsoever nor suffer any Fruiterer Milkwoman or Hearbwomen to stand with fruit milk herbs or any other Victuall or Wares in any the streets lanes or allies within your ward or any other wayes to put those things or any other to sale upon the Sunday at any time of the day or in the evening not to permit or suffer any Person or Persons to use or exercise upon that day any unlawfull exercises and Pastimes within your ward and that expresse charge be given to every keeper of any Tavern Inne Cookshouse Tobaccohouse Alehouse or any other tipler or victualler whatsoever within your ward that hereafter they receive not or suffer to remain any person or persons whatsoever as their guests or customers to tiple eate drinke or take Tobacco in their houses upon any Sunday other then that Inholders may receive their ordinary guests or Travellers and such like who come to remain for a time in their Inne for dispatch of their necessary businesse And if any person or persons shall be found offending in the premisses that then they be brought before me the Lord Major or some other of his Majesties Justices of Peace to the end they may receive such punishment as to justice shall appertaine And hereof not to faile as you will answer the contrary at your perill This thirteenth of Aprill 1641. Occasionall Speeches made in the House of Commons this Parliament 1641. Concerning Religion Novemb. 12. 1640. Mr. SPEAKER IT was well observed by my Lord Keeper that a multiplying Glasse may deceive but the right English Glasse of the Common-wealth never In which I discern so comely and active a Motion that out of all question some great work is here to be done some thing extraordinary is here to be decreed or else God and the King beyond all our expectations at the last breath would never so soon have cemented us again to meet in in this great Councell Mr. Speaker What an happy sight will it be to see the King and his People accord A threefold cord is not easily broken and I hope King Charles his threefold Kingdomes shall never
be so divided as to breake in peeces Mr. Speaker God knows the divisions of great Brittain have halfe untwisted our long Union and I feare that God is angry with our Nationall lukewarme temper The zeale of his house hath not kindled that flame in our hearts which our seeming good actions have blown abroad much like the walking of a Ghost or livelesse body which affrights many but pleaseth no beholder Omnia honesta opera voluntas inchoat It is the heart or will which gives the beginning to every good action and I hope our constant resolutions will be to settle religion in his splendor and purity by pulling Dagon from the Altar and whipping the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple Pars prima bonitatis est velle fieribonum The first part of goodnesse is to have the will of being good God knows all our hearts and takes notice of our inward resolutions and for what ends we come hither if to propagate and advance his glory and Gospel blessed shall this Parliament and Nation be and then most happy we whose God is the Lord all things shall work together for our good For Mr. Speaker he that turns the hearts of Kings like the rivers of waters will make the King and his kingdomes all of one mind Long live King Charles the Great and his numerous Royall Issue to defend the true faith which will protect and keep him and his safe in his fathers Throne Never King gave more full content to his people than his Majesty now hath done and I hope never subjects came with better hearts and affections to their King and Countrey then we doe let it then appeare M. Speaker by our outward actions and practise that our inward obedience both of heart and hand is true loyall and currant coyn not false nor counterfeit for Nemo veraciter dicit volo qui non facit illud quod potest no man truly saies I am in will and heart resolved unlesse according to his ability he endeavor to perform his resolution which to speak the hearts of us all in this renowned Senate I am confident is fully fixed upon the true reformation of all disorders innovations in Church or religion and upon the well uniting and close rejonting of the now dis-located great Brittaine For let me tell you Mr. Speaker that God be thanked it is but out of joynt and may be yet well set by the skilfull Chirurgions of this Honorable House to whose loving and Christian care and to whose tender and upright hands I leave it onely with this Aviso let brotherly love continue and be constant and of good courage for the keeper of Israel who neither slumbers nor sleeps who delivered us from Romes November powder-blast will no doubt still preserve his Annoynted our gracious King and us his loyall Subjects from all dangers of fire or sword For Si Deus nobiscum quis contra nos Upon the Scotch Treaty January 21. 1640. Mr. Speaker THere is no malady more destructive to the naturall or politick body than the mal Caduque or falling sicknesse nor is there any Physitian or compound more to be esteemed than that which can cure it in either M. Speaker this unknown remedy if we be wise to apply it and take the receipt with all the ingredients without any scruple of distast I am confident the recovery will be perfect and the whole body of great Britaine safe and sound Mr. Speaker the happy Union of Scotland and England hath thus long ever since flourished in interchangeable blessings of plenty and mutuall love and friendship But of late by what fatall disasters and dark underminings we are divided and severed into Scotish and English Armies let their well composed preambles speake for mee which I wish were printed as an excellent embleme of brotherly love that discovers who hath wounded us both and how each should strive to help the other in distresse seeing their and our Religion and Lawes lie both at stake together Thinke of it what you will Noble Senate their subsistence is ours we live or die rise or fall together Let us then finde out the Boutefaux of this Prelaticall warr and make them to pay the shot for their labour who no doubt long for nothing more than that we should breake with them who worship but one God and serve but one Master with us Nor need we feare that they intend to dispossesse the English of their inheritance or freehold being ready to withdraw their forces upon reasonable terms referring their demands of reparation for losses to the justice and courtesie of this House which I assure my self will give both a bountifull cheerfull and speedy supply in this case of necessity for Bis dat qui citò dat is the best motto or motion at this time Upon the Impeachment of the Lord Strafford and Canterbury c. February 26. 1640. Mr. Speaker I Take it we have now sate in this great Councell 15. or 16. weeks a longer time than any Parliament hath done these many yeers God hath given us a faire and blessed opportunity if we lay hold of it and call to minde the best Motto for a Parliament which is Non quam diu sed quà m benè Mr. Speaker We have had thus long under our Feathers many Estriges Egges which as some observe are longest in hatching but once hatched can digest Iron and we have many Irons in the fire and have hammered some upon the anvill of justice into nayles but we have not struck one stroak with the right hammer nor riveted one nayle to the head Mr. Speaker God forbid we should be cruell or vindicative to any but let us take heed we be not so to our selves and them the sent us if we doe not mend our pace and so run as we may obtaine Mr. Speaker I hope we shall make good the work we have undertaken and win that prize and goale we aime at else if we faile in this our pursuit of justice it is time to look about us for then I feare that we our selves shall hardly scape scot-free It will not be our fixe Subsidies that will help us unlesse we be good husbands and cut off all superfluous charges disband all needlesse Armies and dis-arme all Papists and banish all Priests and Jesuits and then we shall thrive and prosper Provided alwayes that we deny our selves and trust not too much in the arme of flesh but be carefull to preserve brotherly love and concord lest discord and faction break divide and ruine us but I hope God will make us all of one minde and one publick spirit that as we are descended from that ancient and noble English quiver we may prove our selves a right sheafe of English Arrows well united well feathered and sharply piled for publick use stoutly to defend and preserve the publick good and safety of this famous Iland of great Britaine and that is my humble prayer and motion Upon the Straffordian knot March 10.
sometimes to the great discomfort of many poore soules who for want of money can get no absolution 12 They claim their Office and Jurisdiction to be jure divino and doe exercise the same contrary to Law in their own names and under their own Seals 13 They receive and take upon them temporall Honours Dignities Places and Offices in the Common wealth as if it were lawfull for them to use both swords 14 They cognizance in their Courts and elswhere of matters determinable at the Common Law 15 They put Ministers upon Parishes without the Patrons and without the peoples consent 16 They doe yearly impose Oaths upon Churchwardens to the most apparent danger of filling the land with perjuries 17 They doe exercise Oaths Ex Officio in the Nature of an inquisition even unto the thoughts of mens 18 They have apprehended men by Pursevants without ciration or missives first sent they break up mens houses and studies taking away what they please 19 They doe aw the Judges of the Land with their greatnesse to the inhibiting of prohibition and hindering of Habeas Corpus when it is due 20 They are strongly suspected to be confederated with the Roman party in this Land and with them to be Authors Contrivers or Consenters to the present Commotions in the North and the rather because of a Contribution by the Clergy and by the Papists in the last year 1639. and because of an ill-named benevolence of six Subfidies granted or intended to be granted this yeare 1640. thereby and with these monies to ingage as much as in them lay the two Nations into blood It is therefore our humble and earnest prayer that all this Hierarchicall power may be totally abrogated if the wisdome of this Honourable House shall finde that it cannot be maintained by Gods word and to his glory And your Petitioners shall ever pray c. The Petition of the Citizens of London to both house of Parliament wherein is a Demonstration of their grievances together with their desires for Justice to be excuted upon the Earle of Strafford and other DELINQUENTS To the most Honorable Assembly of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament The humble Petition of divers Citizens of London SHeweth that notwithstanding his Majesties gracious Answer to the humble Petition of his Loyall Subjects in summoning this Parliament with the great care and endeavoured pains taken by both Houses for the removing the heavy Grievances in Church and Commonwealth whereof the Petitioners have already received some fruit for which they desire to return their most humble and utmost thanks yet neverthelesse they are inforced with all Humility to represent to this most Honourable assemblly some of these Obstructions which doe still hinder that freedome and fulnesse of Trade in this City they have formerly had which considering the numerous Multitude thereupon depending they conceive it not able comfortably to subsist As the unsetled Condition of the Kingdome even since the troubles in Scotland hath caused both strangers and also of our own who did furnish great summs of money to Use to call it in and remit much of it by Exchange unto Forraine pars and stands now in Expectation of what the issue of things may be The stopping money in the Mint which till then was accompted the safest place and surest staple in these parts in the world still doth hinder the importation of Bullyon the Scots now disabled to pay such debts as they owe to the Petitioners and others in the City and by reason of the oppressions exercised in Ireland their debts also are detained there The English Trade by reason of our generall distractions and fears is so much decayed that Country tradesmen can not pay their debts in London as formerly The great summs of money unduly taken by his Majesties Officers and Farmers for impositions upon Merchandize exported and imported and the want of reliefe in Courts of Justice against them The drawing out from the City great summs of money which is the life and spirit of Trade for his Majesties service in the North and being there imployed is not yet returned Besides all which from what strong and secret opposition the Petitioners know not they have not received what so much time and pains might give and cause to hope but still incendiaries of the Kingdoms and other notorious offenders remain unpunished the affaires of the Church notwithstanding many Petitions concerning it and long debate about it remains unsettled the Papists still armed the Laws against them not executed some of the most active of them still at Court Priests and Jesnits not yet banished the Irish Popish army not yet disbanded Courts of Justice not yet reformed and the Earle of Strafford who as now appears hath counselled the plundering of this City and putting it to fine ransome and said it would never be well till some of the Aldermen were banged up because they would not yeeld to illegall levies of moneys hath so drawn out and spent his time in his businesse to the very great charge of the whol Kingdome and his endeavour to obtain yet more all which makes us fear there may be practices now in hand to hinder the birth of your great endeavours and that we lie under some more dangerous plot then we can discover All which premisses with their fears and distractions growing there-from and from things of the like nature the Petitioners humbly offer to the most grave consideration of this most honorable assembly as being the true causes of decay of Trade discouragement of Tradesmen and of the great scarcity of monies with the consequences they labour under And do humbly pray that their said grievances may be redressed the causes of their fears removed Justice executed upon the said Earle and other incendiaries and offenders the rather in regard till then the Petitioners humbly conceive neither Religion nor their lives liberties or estates can besecured And as in duty bound they shall ever pray c. Subscribed to this Petition 20000. all men of good ranke and quality Sir John Wrayes Speech concerning Bishops 1641. THE first challenge for Lordly Primacy hath of old been grounded out of the great Charter by which they hold an Episcopall Primacy or Jurisdiction to be long to their state of Prelacy this is their temporall soundation and main object Here I demand of them unto what Church this great Charter was granted and whether it were not granted unto the Church of GOD in England Let the words of the Magna Charta decide this which are these Concessimus Deo proâ—nobis in perpetuum quod Ecclesia Anglicana libera sit habeat omnia Jura sua iutegra libertates suas illaesas Now by this Charter if it be rightly interpreted there is first provision made that honour and worship be yeelded unto God as truly and indeed belong unto him Secondly that not only such Rights and Liberties as the King and his Progenitors but also that such as
Reprieve him till Satterday May 11th 1641. THis Letter all written with the Kings own hand the Peers this day received in Parliament delivered by the hand of the Prince It was twice read in the House and after serious and sad consideration the House resolved presently to send 12. of the Peers Messengers to the King humbly to signifie that neither of the two intentions expressed in the Letter could with duty in them or without danger to himselfe his dearest Consort the Queene and all the young Princes their Children possibly be advised With all which being done accordingly the reasons shewed to his Maiesty He suffered no more words to come from them but out of the fulnesse of his heart to the observance of Justice and for the contentment of his people told them that what he intended by his Letter was with an if if it may be done without discontentment of his People if that cannot be I say againe the same that I writ fiat justitia My other intention proceeding out of charity for a few dayes respite was upon certain information that his Estate was so distracted that it necessarily required some few dayes for setlement thereof Whereunto the Lords answered their purpose was to be Suitors to his Maiesty for favour to be shewed to his innocent Children and if himselfe had made any provision for them that the same might hold This was well liking to his Maiesty who thereupon departed from the Lords at his Maiesties parting they offered up into his hands the Letter it selfe which he had sent but He was pleased to say my Lords what I have written to you I shall content it be Registred by you in your House In it you see my minde I hope you will use it to my honor This upon returne of the Lords from the King was presently reported to the House by the Lord Privy Seal and ordered that these Lines should go out with the Kings Letter if any copy of the Letter were dispersed THAT BISHOPS ought not to have Votes in PARLIAMENT 1 BEcause it is a very great hinderance to the exercise of their Ministeriall Function 2 Because they doe vow and undertake at their Ordination when they enter into holy Orders that they will give themselves wholly to that Vocation 3. 4 Because Counsells and Canons in severall Ages do forbid them to meddle with secular affairs because 24 Bishops have dependancie on the two Archbishops and because of their Canonicall obedience to them 5 Because they are but for their lives and therefore are not fit to have legislative power over the honors inheritance persons and liberties of others 6 Because of Bishops dependancie and expecting translations to places of great profit 7 That severall Bishops have of late much incroached upon the consciēnces and liberties of the Subjects and they and their Successors will be much incouraged still to incroach and the Subjects will be much discouraged from complaining against such incouragements if 26 of that Order be to be Judges of those complaints the same reason extends to their legislative power in any Bill to passe for the regulation of their power upon any emergent inconveniencie by it 8 Because the whole number of them is interessed to maintaine the jurisdiction of Bishops which hath beene found so grievous to the three Kingdomes that Scotland hath utterly abolished it and multitudes in England and Ireland have petitioned against it 9 Because Bishops being Lords of Parliament it setteth too great a distance betweene them and the rest of their Brethren in the Ministry which occasioneth pride in them discontent in others and disquiet in the Church To their having Votes a long time Answ If inconvenient Time and usage are not to be considered with Law-makers some Abbots voted as anciently in Parliament as Bishops yet are taken away Therefore the Bishops Certificate to plenary of Benefice and loyalty of Marriage the Bill extends not to them For the secular Jurisdictions of the Deane of Westminster the Bishops of Durbam and Ely and the Archbishop of Yorke which they are to execute in their owne persons the former reasons shew the inconveniencies therein For their Temporall Courts and Jurisdictions which are executed by their Temporall Officers the Bill doth not concerne them The Lord Keepers Speech in the Upper House of Parliament Novemb. 3. 1640. My Lords ANd you the Knights Cittizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons you have been summoned by His Majesties Gracious Writ under the great Seal of England and you are here this day assembled for the holding of a Parliament The Writ tels you t is to treat and consult of the High Great and weighty affairs that concern the estate and safety of the Kingdom It tels you true that since the Conquest never was there a time that did more require and pray for the best advice and affection of the English people It is ill viewing of objects by viewing them in multiplying Glasse and it is almost as mischievous in the speech of such a broken Glasse which represents but to the half The onely and the perfect way is to look in a true Mirror I will not take upon me to be a good looker in it I will onely hold it to you to make use of it The Kingdom of England is this multiplying Glasse you may there see a State which hath flourished for divers hundred yeers famous for time of peace and warre glorious at home and ever considerable abroad A Nation to whom never yet any Conqueror gave new Laws nor abolished the old nor would this Nation ever suffer a Conqueror to meddle with their Laws no not the Romanes who yet when as they subdued all the people made it part of the Conquest to leave their Laws in triumph with them For the Saxons Danes and the Normans if this were a time to travell into such particulars it were an easie task to make it appear that it never changed the old established Lawes of England nor ever brought in any new so as you have the frame and constitution of a Common-wealth made glorious by antiquity And it is with States as with persons and families certainly an interrupted pedigree doth give lustre It is glorious in the whole frame wortth your looking upon long and your consideration in every part The King is the head of the Common-wealth the Fountain of Justice the life of the Law He is anima deliciae legis Behold Him in His glorious Ancestors that have so swayed the Scepter of the Kingdome Behold Him in the high attributes and the great prerogatives which so ancient and unalterable Laws have given and invested him with Behold Him in the happy times that we have so long lived under His Monarchiall government For His excellent Majesty that now is our most Gratious Soveraign you had need wipe the Glasse and wipe your eyes and then you shall truely behold him a King of exemplary Pietie and Justice and a King of rare endowments and
abilities of nature and what he hath got by acquisition depth of judgement quicknesse of apprehension unparaleld moderation in great Councels and great affaires such as you my Lords that had the happinesse to attend Him at the Councell of the Peeres at York to your great joy and comfort can witnesse and after ages will remember to His eternall honour and same For His just and pious Government I dare boldly say that if any under Him as our Instrument have had the distributing of justice to His people have not done as they ought the fault is their own and they have done contrary to the Royall Nature and expresse Command of our Gratious Soveraign from whom I have often learned this golden Rule and Maxim he serves me best that serves me with honesty and integrity Behold Him in another part of Himself in His dearest comfort our Gracious Queen the mirror of Vertue from whom since Her happy arrivall here now above three lustres of yeetes never any Subject record other then gratious and benigne Influence and I dare a vow as She is neerest and dearest to our Soveraign so there is none whose affections and endeavours His Majesty onely excepted hath or doth or can cooperate more to the happy successe of this Parliament and the never to be equalled joy and comfort of a right understanding between the King and His people Behold Him in His best image our excellent young Prince and the rest of the Royall and lively Progeny in whom we cannot but promise to our selves to have our happinesse perpetuated From the Throne turn your eyes upon the two supporters of it on the one side the Stemne of honour the Nobility and Clergy on the other side the Gentry and Commons Where was there or is there in any part of the world a nobility so numerous so magnanimous and yet with such a temper that they neither ecclipse the throne nor overtop the people but keep in a distance fit for the greatnesse of the Throne Where was there a Common-wealth so free and the ballance so equally held as here And certainly so long as the beam is so held it cannot be otherwise in right Anglis if you turn the line never so little it groweth quickly accute or obdure and so in States the least deviation makes a great change But His Majesties great wisedome and goodnesse and the assistance of the Honourable Assembly I do not doubt will be a means to make us stear between the Teophick of moderation that there be no declension from the poole of severity I am by His Maiesties Command to relate to you some proceedings since the last Assembly here You may remember the Summer preceding this last His Majesty went with an Army into the North ingaged in honour so to do by reason of the câ—urses that were taken by divers of the Subjects in Scotland in the prejudice of Monarchy and rendring lesse glorious this Kingdom I know not under what pretence but all that time they came very neer England with an Army so neer that it was believed they would have then entred and invaded the Kingdome They did professe the contrary neither did they want remonstrations and declarations to infuse this opinion into the hearts of His Majesties people before it would by the effects What their intentions from the beginning were His Maiestie by His goodnesse and wisedome settled a Peace and made a pacification at Barwick upon which both Armies were disbanded which pacification and every Article of it His Maiesty for His part hath been so far from violating that whensoever any question shall be made of it shall plainly and clearly appear it was His care to see it in all things performed On the contrary those Subiects of His not contented with that grace which His Maiesty then gave them in those Articles of pacification they have strained them beyond the bounds and limits of the intention and meaning but they over and above attempted and acted divers things so prejudiciall to Monarchy and contrary and repugnant to the Law and settled constitution and usage of that Kingdome that His Maiesty could not in honour continue at it This being made known unto His Maiesty and to His Privy Councell by those who best knew the State and affairs of that Kingdom and that were most trusted and imployed by His Maiesty His Maiesty by the unaminous consent of His Privy Councell resolved to raise an army to reduce them to their modest and iust condition of true obedience and subiection to defend this Kingdome from all damage and danger that by their means how specious soever they shaddow their pretences they might fall upon it His Maiesty then foresaw and foretold that the raising of an Army at this time was but to stand upon their own defence as they professed and they had an intention to enter this Kingdome and to seize upon some place of importance and eminency and His Maiesty in particular named Newcastle Had His Maiesty then had means and money aswell as he had certain knowledge of their intentions I do beleeve that these calamities that have fallen upon that Town and the Counties adioyning had been prevented Perhaps the misinterpretation of His Maiesties intentions and the misunderstanding of His actions and I am a fraid the two benigne interpretation of the attempts actions and professions of the Subiects in Scotland added sâ—me impediment to that which the most of us I hope have lived to repent of His Maiesty howsoever wâ—nt in Person to the North to see His Army ordered and to take care for the safety and defence of this Kingdom asmuch as he possible could He had not long been there but that which he foresaw and foretold fell out for the Scots passed with their Army the Rivers Tweed and Tine and seized upon Newcastle which of what importance it is you all know And that they force contribution of the Counties of Noâ—thumberland and the Bishoprick of Durbâ—m besides many other spoiles and distructions that were committed His Maiesty well considering of what weight and importance this was and then having neither time nor place to call this assembly of Parliament He did resolve as had been frequently used to summon a great Councell of all the Peeres that by their advice and assistance there might be some interruption given to the calamity that was likely to spread over the whole Kingdome And commanded Writs to issue accordingly That was not done to prevent but to prepare for a Parliament It was not to clash or entor fire with this assembly by acting or ordering any thing which belongeth to this high and supream jurisdiction but onely to give their assistance for the present to render things more fit for this great assembly That His Maiesties intention was so it is cleer for before ever any petition was delivered or ever any speech of petition for a Parliament His Maiesty had resolved to call one The Lords understood It so will plainly appear by the