expresse termes to the maintenance of them and these undoubtedly are the true Foundations of the publique Jnterest and the Supporters also of the Kings person and Authority By the Lawes of the Land the King is the only Soveraign and supreame and above the reach of all penall statutes which make it high Treason for any to attempt the least force upon his person Therefore to make such a construction of the Covenant upon pretence of any Clause in it that shall clash with the Lawes of the Land the maintenance whereof is one of the primary ends of it is absurd and rediculous And therfore as long as by the fundamentall Lawes and Constitutions of the Kingdom the King is exempt from all Criminall proceedings against him by his Subiects certainly all men that have taken the Covenant are absolutely and undeniably bound by it to defend his Maiestie from such horrid and treasonable intents and practises to the dammage of his person and destruction of Kingly power Moreover the Scotish nation who were the first Founders of the Covenant and both Houses of Parliament have published in severall Declarations and all their Priests in the Pulpits that the intent of the Covenant in respect of his Maiestie was only that His Throne should be established in righteousnesse and though they made use of that Clause thereby to suspend him from the Exercise of regall power till satisfaction given to the desires of the Parliament of both Kingdomes yet it was never in their thoughts to strain it so farr as that in case he stood out against their desires they would proceed in a Criminall way against their Lord and Soveraigne And therefore it is cleare against these Anarchists both from the primary civill end of the Covenant and the practise of its Founders that it obligeth all those which have taken it to defend the Person of the King 's most Excellent Maiesty according to the Fundamentall Lawes and Constitutions of the Kingdom against all treasonous illegall and arbitrary Proceedings by way of Criminall Accusation Now we are come at length to the Conclusion of this tedidious Remonstrance which consists of severall Propositions grounded upon the frivolous premises already confuted They are of two sorts In the first they propound such things as they pretend are for the satisfaction of publique Iustice In the second such as are for the setling or rather un-setling of the Kingdom In order to justice first they propound That the person of the King may be speedily brought to Iustice If I should cite the innumerable Testimonies of Antiquity and our Modern writters against this prodigious principle I might swell into a volumne it is contrary to the very law of nature reason the constitutions of all Kingdomes and the whole tenor of the Scriptures Impunity being an inseparable adiunct of Kings as they are Supreme in their Kingdomes For if there can be no true kingdome where the King is not invested in the Supremacy As King he is Iudge of Iudges and subiect to the judgement of none other but God himself For it is contrary to nature that the Superior should be judged by the Inferior but the people take them collective are Inferior to their Monarch for that cannot bee called a Monarchy which admits either of a Superior or an equall And therefore the People cannot exercise any power or Iurisdiction over their Soveraigne forasmuch as it proceeds from himself and cannot subsist one moment without him he being as it were the Fountain of Authority As say all our statute and Law-Books S. Peter bids us Submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreme or unto Governours as those that are sent by him As free and not using your liberty for a Cloake of maliciousnesse but feare God Honour the King A text which plainly shewes that the people should not stretch their liberty to the preiudice of the royall authority Thou shalt not speak ill of the Governour of the people much lesse destroy him Give the people liberty once of iudgeing their King and all things are presently out of Order considering the ignorance the audacity the levity and inconstancie of the vulgar For by this meanes it falles out oftentimes that those Princes which diserve best are worst handled as histories do witnesse concerning Coriolanus Camillus Themistocles Phocian and divets others both antient and modern Scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus For such is the nature of the multitude that they are greedy still after Novelties and great admirers of them till they have a little experience and then they would willingly change again being led with vaine hopes of advantage upon every Innovation And therefore if Princes were under the correction of their Subjects both good and bad would suffer alike Such was the insolence of the Lacedemonian Ephori toward their Kings that they would call them to accompt for every Trifle and punished King Archidamus for no other cause but because he took a little woman to wife and it was usuall among the Goths in Spain to murther their Kings as oft as they distasted them Moreover should all Kings of this Nation remain lyable to question by the people as our Remonstrants require in time to come they must ever be subject to Slanders and Snares because then every ambitious popular person would be ready to pick holes in their Coates to bring them into disfavour of the People and so that would be sufficient cause of condemnation Admit these things once and who sees not how all things would run to confusion and how great mischiefes such a dissolute and licentious Liberty would bring upon Kings and Kingdomes But it happens also most often in these Cases That not all the People nor the major part do consent to the condemning of their King but some few perhaps that have gotten the power into the hands of their Faction These to set off their Actions cry up their own Interest for the Interest of the Common-wealth and so under pretence of the publick Good prosecute their private ends to the ruine of the Prince and condemne him as an Enemy to the People Quis furor ô populus quae tanta licentia Ferri An example of this we have among our neighbours in Henry the Third of France against whom some few Cities revolted at first which were headed by some small number of the Nobility afterwards more and more till at length the Rebels grew formidable and though they were but a contemptible part in comparison of the rest yet they assumed the Reputation of the whole pretended the publique Good declared against their King as a Tyrant to defend the Rights and Liberties of the People and at length proceeded so high as to give Sentence against Him and renounce the Allegiance to Him give publick Command that none should dare to acknowledge Him their King The Parallel to this was the Conspiracy occasioned by the Bastard Murray against that unfortunate
The first is the Government of a Monarch or King the second that of States the third is Democraticall or Popular Now though it cannot be denied that the power of a King may be more or lesse absolute according to the severall Qualifications or Restrictions laid upon it by the mixture of any other Power with it as by the constitution of this Kingdome there is a mixture of all the three Powers in King Lords and Commons yet if either of these Powers incroach upon the other they change their nature As for example if the Aristocraticall part prescribe rules to the Monarch and take away his Negative Voice it can be no longer a Monarchie or Kingdome and so if the Popular presume to take away Ius imperii from the Aristocracy it can be no longer a Government by States so that the Remonstrants in allowing us an elective King but denying Him a Negative voice the very substance of Soveraignty do but delude us with a Mockery and by placing the supreme power of making and repealing Lawes in the People do aime to establish a meere popular Tyrannie which they will assume unto themselves under the Nation of the PEOPLE to the destruction of our Laws and Liberties For it is a sure Rule That those that seeke to make themselves Lords by force of Armes over their fellow-subjects under pretence of reforming their Princes defects in government are alwaies if they have successe more cruell and tyrannous then those against whose government they fancied Exceptions and regard the common-good no further then it conduceth to their own wicked ends and purposes There are too many evidences of this Truth to be found in History I shall instance onely in two most notable and which come close to our Time The first is fetch'd from the City Syracusa which had been long governed by hereditary Kings virtuous and just save onely Thrasihulus the last of the race of Gelon was suspected to be a Tyrant and therefore the Syracusians deposed him after ten monethes government After they had deposed him to prevent the greatnesse of any one among them for the future they devised a kind of Banishment of such among them as should at any time be suspected taking pattern from the Athenian ostracisme and this their new devised judgement they called Petalismus wherein every one wrote upon an Olive-leafe as at Athens they did upon shels the name of him whom they would have expelled the City and he that had most suffrages against him was banished the City for five years Hhereby in a short time it came to passe that the Nobility having learned to banish one another the State became wholly popular which was a curse sufficient to their City since nothing is so terrible in any State as a powerfull and authorised ignorance This Democracy carried it self so wickedly that God raised up Dionysius the Tyrant to take vengeance as well of their cruelty toward strangers as their owne best Citizens for they had made it their pastime to reward the worthiest with disgrace or death So that the meanes by which Dionysius got their favour grew from his accusing the principal men It is the delight of base people to domineere over their betters wherefore he helpe them to breake as Fetters imprisoning their liberty the Bars that held it under safe Custody And after that he had usurped the Government to himselse I pray God our Cromwell take not after him for he hath traced him thus far already he spared none of his known nor suspected Enemies he was the greatest Robber that ever lived in any State and the most impartially cruell rnd so proved a fit scourge to them for expelling their Kings and erecting a popular Government But my second instance and the most notorious one is from Athens This City and Territory of Attica had been originally governed and very prosperously by hereditary Kings And because that Codrus the thirtieth King of that Race willingly died for the safety of his People he was therefore so honoured as thinking none worthy to succeed him they changed their former government from Monarchicall to Princes for tearme of life of which Medon the son of Codrus was the first of whom his successours by election which were twelve in number were called Medontidae But after experience that those Elective Princes who had no hereditary right to the Crowne but only a limitation of government to their lives and for that onely reason made a prey of the People studied more to rob them for particular advantage then to manage the government for the publique good they laid aside that forme of Government and appointed Archons or Decennall Governors that is one Prince for ten years but finding the like inconvenience in that with somewhat a more swift rapine because their time of gaine was shorter then after the tryall of seven of these Decennall Governors they buried that Forme and set up annuall or yearly Magistrates But their oppression was so great that that Forme continued but seven successions of whom Solon that most excellent Lawgiver was the last And and so after many experiments this giddy People finding no better rest then in Monarchy submitted againe to it under Pisistratus who left the Crowne to his Son Hippias and then another Toy taking these inconstant Athenians they drove him out of his Kingdome and enforced him to flye unto Darius King of Persia to crave aid for restitution which was the onely cause of all the Wars Commotions and Troubles that followed in Greece for 300. yeares after to the utter ruine and inslaving of the Nation After Hippias was thus driven out they erected a pure Democracy or Government by the people Herein they were so insolent that no Integrity no good desert was able to preserve the estate of any such as had born any great Office longer then by flattering the rascall Multitude he could form all his words and Actions to their good liking behold here O ye Nobles and Gentry of England and yee wealthy Citizens of London what ye must come to Nay they banished their famous Generall Themistocles looke to it then Fairfax who had been their only deliverer from the fury of the Persian onely for indeavouring to restraine by wise counsels the riotous excesse of their extreame folly and Madnesse At length the principall men of Athens conspiring with the Captaines abroad caused them to set up the Forme of an Aristocracy in the Townes of their Confederates in a short time the Majesty of Athens was usurped by foure hundred men who imbroyled the State in a bloody and furious War with the Peloponesians which was the ruine of their City and subversion of their Wals. After a time reviving againe in hope to better their distracted condition they chose thirty Governours commonly called the thirty Tyrants of Athens These having by degrees drawne all Power into their hands were more carefull to hold it then deserve it and imployed it onely to oppression and shedding the Blood of all those whom they made or counted their Enemies that they might in rich themselves and friends with their Lands and possessions And the better to maintaine and secure themselves in these cruell courses after they had by Force over-awed all the Territories of that State round about they made a Faction of their owne in the City of Athens as our Remonstrants have now in London which being done they disarmed all others whom they could not draw to their Party and setled a Militia of three thousand Citizens to keepe the rest of their fellows in subjection Looke to thy selfe then London for if they cannot worke thee to ingage with them they must of necessity take the same course with thee to carry on their designe And then thou must looke to fare no better then did the poor Athenians For when the thirty Tyrants had thus established their Tyrannie they far exceeded their former Villanies plundring all without fear or shame dispoyling them of Lands and Goods and forcing them to flye into Banishment to save their lives In conclusion the City being tired out with these outrages and extremities when they had smarted sufficiently began to find their owne strength and all as one man rose up and slew them which done to avoid future inconveniences all was salved up with a generall Act of Oblivion and the State recovered its former Peace and Tranquillity Many more instances might be given but none more pat then these for the present occasion wherein as in a glasse every man may behold those fatall miseries and confusions that must needs ensue a change of the Kingly to a popular or as the case now stands with us to a Military Government which I have proved clearly unto the world to be the designe of this Remonstrance to the utter subversion of our Laws the fundamentall constitutions and Priviledges of Parliament with the destruction of the King and His Posterity and the inslaving of the Kingdome What remaines then but that the Lords and Commons in Parliament doe stand up now for their Priviledges the Laws and the maintenance of Monarchy and yet if it be possible revive the dying hopes of the Nation with an Agreement by this Treaty for as much as His Majesty is and of necessity must be the Basis of a settlement Let the people understand how much you abhor the contrary and then you can never want their hearts and hands to assist you And if any of you should miscarry and be purged out of the House as some of you have been heretofore by this Faction and forced to banishment it will be your chiefest glory in time to come that you suffered in the behalfe of your King and Country If I perish I perish Nec me vidêre superbum Prospera fatorum nec fractum Adversa videbunt FINIS
A PLEA for THE KING AND KINGDOME By way of Answer to the late Remonstrance of the Army Presented to the House of Commons on Monday Novemb. 20. Proving that it tends to subvert the Lawes and fundamentall Constitutions of this Kingdom and demolish the very Foundations of Government in generall Seneca Prosperum ac faelix Scelus virtus vocatur Ius est in Armis Merc. Prag Now prosp'rous mischief makes it good Against both LAVV and REASON Not to spill ROYALL-LOYALL Blood But to be Conquer'd's TREASON Printed in the Yeere 1648. To the Commons assembled in Parliament Gentlemen SInce the Abettors of this Remonstrance have had the confidence to addresse themselves and prescribe Rules to you in such peremptory language give me leave under your favour and connivence to publish an Answer thereunto by Pen since for ought I see you dare not give it your selves by word of mouth because if you should declare a sense contrary to theirs as in honor and conscience you must they have as good as told you in plain termes that they will make your House too hot to hold you I observe their Remonstrance is founded upon these principles that their own Faction whom alone they call the well-affected and the honest men excluding all others are the People Secondly that their Interest is the only Interest of the People Thirdly that the Safety of the People is to be respected before any Kings or Governers or Governments whatsoever Lastly that themselves are the only competent Judges of the Peoples Safety and so by consequence may drive on their Designe against all Powers and Forms of Government and Law whatsoever upon pretence of that old Aphorisme Salus Populi suprema Lex the safety of the People is the soveraigne Law which hath been the fruitfull mother of Rebellions in all ages to serve the corrupt ends of ambitious persons who usually fisht in troubled waters to attain those ends which they could not hope for in a setled State of Commonweales and Kingdoms And such now it is apparent to all the world were some of you in the beginning of this Parliament from whose plea and practices this upstart Faction have learned to rebell against your selves upon the very same principles and pretences that you first bandied against his Maiesty I need not repeat here how they have terrified and quell'd you from time to time as often as you durst but offer to speak your consciences in the behalf of the Publike against their corrupt and private Interest But all that is past is nothing to what they have presented to you now wherwith they have affronted you to your very faces in this Remonstrance Do they not challenge you as inconstant to your own Votes and Resolutions perfidious to that trust reposed in you and such as will not or know not which way to settle the just Rights and Liberties of the People And therefore they undertake to new-mold the fundamentall Constitutions of the Kingdom and conjure you to comply with them and renounce your King or any Agreement with him and settlement by him or otherwise they say they shall be constrained to set a period to your Authority and provide themselves of another Parliament which shall be elected of persons of their humor and so establish themselves in a kind of legall Tyrannie by the Law of their own wills and the Sword It is high time Sirs then to look about you and vindicate the Lawes of the Land the Priviledges and Freedom of Parliament and the just Rights of the People thus impiously invaded Acquit your selves like men and if you must perish it will be your glory and Crowne in the midst of calamity that you suffer in defence of the Liberties of your Country Proceed to an happy Accommodation with his Majesty He hath granted more than ever the world supposed you would have demanded then let not those Differences which he by his Concessions hath brought into so narrow a Compasse hinder a Peace any longer but meet him now at length with an honorable Complyance and leave the successe to God who will scatter those that delight in War and to this end how small soever the meanes be at present yet ere long you shall have the hearts hands and Purses of Thousands to assist you I am not ignorant that your Debates and Resolutions are extremely stagger'd by a pack of Sectaries which have crept into the House to that purpose by undue elections and that you feare if you should declare against the designe of this Remonstrance they should take this occasion to purge you out of the House and make use of the same way of unjust elections to put others in your Places But howsoever put it to the venture and do your duty As for me I should reckon it the greatest glory I could be born unto to be accounted worthy to suffer in so noble a Cause and since they are arrived to this height of Impiety to tread all Authority under foot as well yours as the King s do you but agree with his Majesty upon just and equall Termes then whatever I have been heretofore I shall list my selfe henceforth For King and Parliament Mercurius Pragmaticus Novem. 27. 1648. A Plea for the King and Kingdom by way of Answer to the late Remonstrance of the Army THe Contexture of this tedious Remonstrance is much like that of the new Government which they aime at having neither forme nor fashion in it and is so replenished with confused Repetitions that it brings more trouble to recollect the scattered Fancies into some orderly Frame than to blast them with a Confutation No lesse than 60. Pages are spent in a Preamble before they come to the things intended and all to win the world quorum magn apars capitur Ambagibus with a world of smooth Pretences the vanity whereof I shall indeavour to demonstrate in a few sheetes which they have wrap't up in so many that when the Monster appeares without disguise it may become abominable in the eyes of all good men In the first place they insinuate their tender Regard to the Priviledges and freedom of Parliament in not interposing in their Councells and determinations c. For the falshood of this I shall give you two Instances of famous or rather in famous memory The first is taken out of their Remonstrance dated June 23. 1647. at S. Albans wherein they threatned to march up against the Parliament in case the 11. Members were not suspended the House by a short certain day and their desires not granted The second may be collected out of the prodigious carriage of the Army and their Creatures in the Houses when the Ordinance was debated for nulling and making void all things whatsoever done in the absence of the two Renegado Speakers when they ran to the Army This Ordinance was set forward by the Army-party and had been debated five or six severall times and still rejected in the Negative yet they brought it in play
a good conscience fight against them both By these fore going Passages then it appeares plainly to the shame of this Râ—monstrance First that the Army first sought to the King and not he to them Secondly that their dealings with the King were pretended as high and absolute for his Interest as ever were the indeavours of his own party And lastly That their only aim in all this was to give advantage to suppresse the Presbyterian party and advance their own and then to cast off the King and domineer over him and his People This last Particular will be more cleare by that saying of Cromwell's in his Chamber at Kingston when he had plaid all his Prankes and brought his design to perfection That he knew nothing to the contrary but that himself was as able to govern the Kingdom as Hollis and Stapleton did before him So that you see Dominion and Rule was the only end of this unparallel'd Hypocrisie he and his Son Ireton being both apt Schollars of Machiavell and follow his rules who counsells those that meane to effect great matters to make small reckoning of keeping their words and to know by their craft to turn and wind men about Also that such men ought not to keep their faith given when the observance there of turnes to the disadvantage of their designes and the occasions that made them promise are once past Likewise that it is advantagious to seeme pittifull faithfull mild religions and of integrity and indeed to be so Provided they be of such a composition that if need require them to use the contrary they can and know how to apply themselves thereto and now and then to doe contrary to faith charity humanity and religion and to have a mind so disposed as to turn and take the advantage of all winds and fortunes These are Maximes which the godly ones of our Age have thriven by this is the Gospel which our new Saints have practised to attaine unto this height of Tyrannys And now nothing will satisfie but the destruction of that gracious Prince to whom they made such high promises Hee must be brought to the Block to secure their Ambition or else have at the Parliament For it is a professed Maxim of their own as Maior Huntington hath discovered That it is lawfull to passe through any formes of Government for the accomplishing of their ends and therefore either to purge the Houses and support the remaining Party by power everlastingly or put a period to them by Force Nor doth Maior Huntington only discover this but themselves do as good as declare thus pag. 45. when they make another Argument against the safety of an Accommodation with his Maiesty because say they if the King return and this Parliâ—ment continue long and unlimited he will be able to make a party among them Nay say they he hath bid fair for it among the Commons already the Lords are his own out of question therfore we dare not trust the King among them which is as much as to say that if they close with the King they shal not sit any longer but be dissolved by Force which must be looked for at last it being a necessary preparative to that devilish design of bringing al under the military power that is the Power of themselves and their Creatures And therefore it is that they declare for a dissolution of this Parliament after a certaine time and they will so order the matter that the next Parliament ensuing shall be altered from the fundamentall Forme to be meerly popular and none but those of their own Faction to be elected and then farewel for ever the glory of the kingdom But more of this by and by when I come to examine the severall Propositions in the close of their Remonstrance Their last Argument against the safety of an Accommodation by this Treaty is because no Provision is made by the Houses against the Impunity of Kings in time to come so as that they may remaine accountable for their Actions and lyable to Iustice or against the Impunity of this King in particular which they conceive would be the only meanes of security to themselves and the publique and here they take occasion to inveigh against those maxims of our Law that say the King can doe no wrong which were founded upon the same equitable Considerations of Policie in our own as in other Kingdoms it having been presumed ever by all Legislators That Kings who are the common Fathers of the people cannot be so unnaturall as to doe any thing willingly to their preiudice and that if by accident they did yet for the reverence due to royall Maiesty it should rather be imputed to the ill Councell of those about them than their own Inclination forasmuch as if a Soveraign Prince should be left lyable to Accompt in a Criminall way it would introduce confusions in government and the putting it once in execution would bring more dammage and Inconveniences upon the Common-wealth than all the Enormities and Tyrannies he could commit throughout his whole Reigne Upon which considerations it is that all wise Statesmen of our own and other Nations have reckoned Impunity as a part of the Princes Prerogative and inseparable from his Crown and Dignity And therefore away with the vanity of these puny Politicians whom nothing will satisfie but that transcendent piece of Treason on which the Jesuits themselves durst never venture to bring the sacred persons of Kings to publique tryall and Execution Having heitherto driven on the designe of their Remonstrance not upon matter of equity but Iealousies concerning their own security and prosecuted it so farre as that to save themselves from supposed afterclaps of Revenge they make it lawfull to destroy their Prince they in the next place proceed to answer what may be obiected against this Course from the Covenant which binds all that have taken it to the preservation of the Kings person and Authority This they say is not to be understood absolutly but in a way subordinate to Religion and the publique Interest which were the principall and supreme matters ingaged for by Covenant as appeares by that Clause viz. In the preservation of the true Religion and liberties of the kingdoms It hath been alwayes feared that some such use would be made one time or other of that clause of the Covenant And therefore it was that many learned and pious men refused the taking of it witnesse those incomparable Reasons of the Vniversity of Oxford against it among which this is one that they knew not what construction might be put upon that large clause to the preiudice of his Maiesties royall person and authority But though they indeavour to make a nose of wax of it and turne it any way by interpretations most suitable to their Antimonarchicall principles and Designs yet they cannot found any pretence thereupon to subvert the Lawes of the Land and Fundamentall constitutions of the Kingdome the Covenant obliging in
again still and not being able to prevail by reason they had recourse to Menaces and Threats Sollicitor S. Johns threatned that they must have recourse to the power of the Sword the longest sword take all since they were ingaged to live and die with the Army Sir Arthur Haslerige said then some heads must flie off and he feared the Parliament of England would not save the Kingdom of England so that they must look another way for safety They could not satisfie the Army but by declaring all void ab Initio and the Lords were so far ingaged that no middle way would serve And when it was answered that this was an Appeale from the Parliament to the Army then the Threats were re-doubled by Sir John Evelyn Junior Sir Harry Vane Junior Prideaux Gourdon Sir Harry Mildmay Scot Holland and divers others When nothing would doe at length the Speaker pulled a Letter out of his pocket together with the Remonstrance from the Army full of vilanous Language and Threats against those Members that sate while the two Speakers were in the Army calling them pretended Members charging them in generall with Treason Treachery and Breach of Trust And protested that if they should presume to sit before they had cleared themselves that they did not give their Assents to such and such Votes they should sit at their perill and be taken prisoners of Warr and tryed at a Councell of Warr. Certainly never any King of England ever offered so great a violence to the fundamentall priviledges of Parliament as to deny them the liberty of voting yea and no freely And yet this very same Army hath the confidence to alledge their tender regard of the Priviledges and Freedom of Parliament And that the world may take notice how they intend to behave themselves toward the Houses in time to come in the very next Paragraph you may read a strange kind of construction of that old abused Maxim Salus populi suprema Lex which they say many have made use of in these times but none with so much justice as themselves and of this they make their successe the only Argument in justification of their Rebellion against both King and Parliament as if happy events were the only Touchstones of lawfull enterprizes and that by these God had given the verdict on their side Careat successibus opto Quisquis ab eventu Facta not and a putat And therefore they proceed to pronounce themselves magisterially to be the onely competent Judges of the safety of the People which to be is the inseparable Prerogative of the supreme Magistrate or Magistrates only in all Governments whatsoever And in prosecution of their humor they do as good as tell the House in case those pretences of danger be not remedied and those remedies which they remonstrate not followed they shall not feare to make such Appeales to God that is their sword as formerly they have done From whence we may collect these following tenets destructive to all Government First That the People or as the case now stands that part of the People which are prevalent in Armes are the true and sole Judges of their owne safety Secondly That they may appeale to the Sword against the Authority of their Governers in order as they conceive to the publique safety which two Conclusions if admitted must needs open a Gap to perpetuall Faction and Rebellion forasmuch as the People who are ever floating and apt to find Fault will upon such a liberty never be content and satisfied with their Governers Neverthelesse upon these Anarchicall Grounds they proceed in the next place to tax the House for quitting their Votes of non-Addresse unto his Majesty and admitting of a personall Treaty and hereunto they subjoyne no lesse than three notorious Fictions to strengthen the Votes of Non-Addresse and gain them a new Reputation to the prejudice of the Treaty First they steele their Fore-heads with this bold Assertion that the House was in a condition of Freedom and not Acted beyond their own Judgements nor by any Impulsion from the Army when they passed those Votes Secondly that before the passing of those Votes the People and Soldiery were full of discontents and distempers throughout the Kingdom but that after the passing of them they were re-setled in good Order and discipline and the whole Affaires of the Kingdom in an hopefull posture for a Settlement Thirdly That when the Houses recalled those Votes and took Resolutions for a Treaty their Judgement was not with due and former Freedom c. To the first I answer and shall make it evident that the Parliament was acted beyond their free Judgments and by Impulsion from the Army when the 4. Votes of Non-Addresse were passed in either House For the designe of these Votes was driven on first in the Army Sir Harry Vane Junior Sir John Evelyn of Wilts Nath. Eines and Soll. S. Johns having been imployed by the Independent Grandees to joyne with a select Committee of the Army to debate the meanes of procuring the passage of those 4. Votes in the House which when they had contrived they hastned to put in execution at Westminster having a pat occasion offered them on Monday January 3. when the King's Answer of deniall to the four Bills presented to him in the Isle of Wight came to be debated in the House of Commons At which time Commissary Ireton the wise pen-man of this Remonstrance made bold to speak the sence of the Army under the notion of many thousand godly men who had ventured their lives to subdue their Enemies and said The King had denyed safety unto his people by denying the foure Bills That subjection to him was but in lieu of his protection to his People which being denyed they might well deny any more Subjection to him and settle the Kingdom without him That it was now expected after so long patience they should shew their Resolution and not desert those valiant men who had ingaged for them beyond all possibility of Retreat and would never forsake the Parliament unlesse the Parliament forsook them first And what was the intent of this I pray you but to deliver the sence of the Army against the King and to insianute a cunning close Threat that if they did not joyn Issue with them they should be look't upon as Enemies But when divers exceptions were taken at this Speech of Ireton's and the Debate drawing to an up-shot his Father-in-law Cromwell be ought up the Reare in very furious Laâ—guage and to signifie that the Gainsayers must expect more then words he laid his hand upon his sword and stood in a threatning posture saying It was now expected the Parliament should defend and govern the Kingdom by their own power and resolutions and not teach the people any longer to expect safety and government from an obstinate man whose heart God had hardned That those men who had defended the Parliament from so many dangers with expence of their Bloud
would defend them herein with fidelity and courage against all opposition Teach them not by neglecting your own and the Kingdomes safety in which their own is involved to think themselves betrayed and left hereafter to the rage and malice of an irreconcileable Enemy whom they have subdued for your sake and therefore are likely to find his future government of them insupportable and fuller of revenge than Justice lest despaire teach them to seek their safety by some other meanes than by adhering to you who will not stick to your selves And how destructive such a Resolution in them will be to you all I tremble to think and leave you to judge Upon the concluding of Oliver the Question was immediately put and not a man daring to mutter it was concluded that no further Applications should be made unto the King The other 3. Votes followed of course as depending thereupon Now the grand difficulty was to make them passe with the Lords they having very hotly debated against them insomuch that there were ten Lords to ten But to turne the Scales at the very instant a Regiment of Foot and another of Horse came to garrison White-Hall and the Newes which frighted their Lordships to a quick condescention So that now I leave the world to judge the falshood of the Remonstrance in this particular it being cleare that that the Houses were acted beyond their free Judgement and by Impulsion from the Army in passing the Votes of Non-Addresse unto his Majesty And the truth is they have acknowledged among themselves That they rule by Power only and that the House is no longer theirs than they over-awe them which is the very reason why they appear now upon the very Close of the Treaty with this high-flowne Remonstrance To the second whereas the Remonstrance sayes that before the passing those 4. Votes the people were full of discontents and distempers but after they were passed the Kingdom was in a hopefull posture of settlement I answer That though the people generally distasted the Proceedings of the Grandees upon the Imprisonment of their King yet they were not so inraged as to rush into Arms till the passing these 4. Votes which were so far from promoting a settlement that they inflamed the minds of the whole Commonalty with Revenge and suspicion what Form of Government the Grandees intended to erect now they had laid by the King and every mans mind presaged a new War which indeed the Independent Grandees were willing to have to colour their keeping up this Army and raising money to maintain them It is moreover That the whole Kingdom was so far out of charity with the Grandees for those four Votes that every man even among the moderate well-affected as they call them did detest the proceedings insomuch that none would second them by Petition or otherwise though they proceeded almost so far as to compel them Witness the Designe of Prideaux to ingage the whole County of Sommerset but could prevail no further then with a few Sectaries of the Town of Taunton to thank the House for those Votes by a Petition which was seconded through the inoustry of Serjeant Wilde as he rode the Circuit by the subscription of a packt grand Jury for the County Colonel Puresoy was at the same work in Warwickshire and Sir Arthur Haslerig about Newcastle but all with as small success as Sir Harry Mildmay had in the County of Essex For the people instead of countenancing the four Votes began every where openly to protest against them and to turn their Petitions into a contrary strain for recalling the Votes and appointing a Personal Treaty with His Majesty the rejecting of which Petitions murthering some of the Petitioners as the Surrey men and discountenancing the rest was the true cause of all the late Insurrections So that it appears evident against the sence of the Remonstrance That the four Votes rather unsettled the Kingdom then brought it into a hopeful posture of settlement To the third Falshood of the Romonstrance That when the Houses recalled the four Votes their judgment was not with due Freedom I answer That when the face of affairs changed so that the Army could no longer over-aw the House then having liberty to Vote with Freedom and according to their Consciences they immediatly recalled the Votes of Non-Address upon the Petitions of the City of London and other Counties about which were debated in the Houses freely being then released from that terror wherein they were held formerly by the Army as appears when they were first passed by the Lords and communicated by them unto the Commons on Wednesday the 16 of August where they received a full and free Concurrence with very little contradiction Thus the falshood of these three Particulars being cleared all the superstructures of Discourse upon them in this fiâ—st part of the Remonstrance must fall to nothing Having caluminated the just and honorable proceedings of the Houses in recalling the Votes of Non-Addresse and yielding to a Personal Treaty with His Majesty in the next place they insinuate the great evil or danger of seeking to the King by Treaty and of an Agreement or Accommodation with him including his impunity and restitution to his Freedom Revenue and Dignity and all under pretence that sufficient provision is not made thereby for the publike Interest Herein they tacitly condemne the Propositions of both Houses as if in them they had not been carefull of the good and welfare of the People and propouâ—d another way of their own as the only meanes to preserve the publike Interest of the Nation which they say consists in these Principall Heads 1. That for all matters of supreme Trust or concernment to the Safety of the whole there be a supreme Councell or Parliament 2. That the power of making and repealing Lawes and the finall power of Judgment in all things without further Appeal many rest in that Councell or Representative Body of the People and that it may not be in the will of the King or any other particular Persons to oppose or make void their determinations These things they set down as the Epitome of the publike Interest and the true Subject of the Contest betwixt the King and Parliament But that a Supreme Councell so quallified is no part of the publike Interest in this Kingdom I shall make cleare when I come to handle those particulars which they propound in the winding up of the Remonstrance Nor hath it been the Subject of the Contest betwixt King and Parliament and therefore they cannot ground any just accusation or charge upon them against the King as they indeavour here to doe For the first Contest betwixt the King and Parliament was about the possession of the Militia which they claimed to have in their hands for a time under pretence of danger c. Yet never proceeded so far as to question the Kings negative voice in Parliament but acknowledged in severall Declarations that their Ordinances
the People But if we do but scand the Proceedings of the Abbettors of this Remonstrance since their Faction came in power the World cannot produce greater or more odious Examples of Hypocrisie Treachery and fained Protestations then they have manifested by their Breach of Faith and Promise with the King and Kingdom as I shall prove in due place by and by Another Argument of theirs why an Agreement now cannot be safe is The Facility of a Prince's finding occasion and quarrel after such an Agreement to make a Breach when he 〈◊〉 his Advantage And this they fear the King may easily do for several Reasons which I shall but touch because I must be brief First because the King is conceived to be in prison still at least not so free as he ought to be during the Treaty it being so expressed by the Prince in his Declaration in Answer to the Earl of Warwick's Summons and so nothing can be concluded now but may upon that pretence be broken hereafter Besides they say The Inlargement now afforded the King with the pettit State added is but a Mock-liberty and Counterfeit of State onely to set him up in a colourable posture to Treat but not being free from Force be cannot be so free in what he grants as to render it oblieging when granted Where take notice of the desperate Hypocrisie and cunning of these Followes that they should declaime against Force as rendring the Treaty in vaine when themselves have put this Force upon it so that it is evident That all those additional Forces lately joyned to the ordinary Guards of the Iland were sent thither unpurpose to raise a prejudice upon the Treaty that so they might have some plausible Pretence to except against an Agreement by it Secondly Because if the King comes in with the Reputation of having long sought Peace by a Personal Treaty he will be looked upon as the Repairer of Broaches the Restorer of Trade Peace and Plenty and if the Army should keep up as it must to be maintained by Taxes then the Houses and they would be lookâ—ed on as Opprâ—ssors and so the Jealousies and Discontents of the People be raised and 〈◊〉 against them and make them apt to joyn Issue with the Kings Interest again against the Publike Let the World take notice of this strange way of Arguing Because the King is like to be hugg'd and beloved by his People therefore they cannot trust Him but fear by His Interest in their Afflictions they may be called to Accompt for all their Doings Observe likewise that they make it their Interest to keep their King in prison the Kingdom out of Settlement and the People in perpetual Taxes and Payments to support these their Taskmasters in their new established Tyranny in opposition to His Majesty So that the People of England so long as they have no King shall have neither Trading Peace nor Plenty Thirdly they insinuate how easie it is not onely for a Prince to make a Breach to the prejudice of the publike Interest but also the hazard of those that ingaged for it against Him by making use of the Peoples Affections after an Accommodation For they say 't is possible the People may yield them up a sacrifice to appease the King and his inraged Party Here indeed the shoe wrings Them and the Curse of Cain pursues Them supposing their Iniquities are greater then can be forgiven and being of the same Faith with the Italian Atheist that Injuries done to Princes may sleep a while in their mâ—mories but revive again sooner or later as they finde an Opportunity to Revenge Them Some Examples there are indeed of this Nature but very few among the Princes of this Nation The most notorious Rebellion next to this that ever was in our Iland happened against Henry the third whose sufferings were parallel to those of King CHARLES in every point He was bandied against in Parliament driven thence forced to Surrender the Royal Authority into the hands of twenty four Persons taken Prisoner and carried up and down in an Army afterward was confined close upon the very same Pretences and so continued till the People being tired out by the new Tyrants in Arms and Taxes he recovered their Affections and His Crown both together And now when the chief Ring-leaders expected nothing but Revenge from their abused Prince He pardoned those lives which were forfeited to His Mercy not so much as one man of them being executed but had a general Act of oblivion and liberty to sue out their Pardons upon very moderate Fines of which incomparable piece of Clemency that ancient Record called Dictum de Kenelworth remains a Monument to this day And though the Beateseus of our Age being conscious of their heinous guilt might hope as little for pardon as those their Elder Brethren yet I am confident were our King restored to His pristine power they should all of them the worse of them even the very Cromwelites among them taste of the same Bounty and Mercy For look upon him impartially in all the Passages of his life and you may dismisse him with a Quo nihil in terris clementius aspicit aether even with this Character that the world cannot produce a more rare patern of piety patience and humanity But suppose that we grant all they pretend to That King 's are such faithlesse Creatures as they would make them and that our King intended to make a Breach hereafter and to recover that by Fraud which he lost by Force and to be revenged c. yet what ground of Iealousie will be left when their safety is so fairely provided for in the Propositions of both Houses For if there be an Agreement upon them his Maiâ—sty it is apparent to all the world must return so naked and devested of all power and with his hands so tyed behind him that he will remaine no more but a Cipher of Kingly power not able to help himself or friends and become far lesse than Buchanan's King or a Duke of Venice He will not have so much as a voice in the Senate nor an Office in the Common-wealth nor so much Power left as the meanest petty Constable further than his Guardians shall be pleased to indulge him his Person and regall Authority being wholly surrendred up to them in Wardship Hence then we may justly conclude against the sence of the Remonstrance that were the King led by principles of Falshood and Revenge yet being so bound up in point of power by the Propositions it will be safe as well as iust for the Houses to make an Agreement with him by the Treaty I am sure it must be done one time or another why then not now an Accommodation with the King being the only Basis of a settlement in the Nation except the Houses have so little courage as to comply with our Remonstrants and let it continue no longer a Kingdome but change the whole Frame of Government and turn all
Lady Mary Queen of Scots our Kings Grandmother so likewise is his own case at present being at the mercy of a mercilesse petty Faction that have usurped the power of the Kingdome into the power of their hands cry up their own corrupt Interest to be the Interest of the Kingdome Themselves to be the People and so by a new kind of Logick conclude him to be the publique Enemy of the People and a Tyrant because they have no way to establish their own Tyranny but by destroying His Person under pretence of Justice and cashiere Kingly Government to introduce a new Forme of their owne wherein themselves will be Princes In order whereunto it is and not out of any consideration of equity for in this there can be none that they would bring His Majesty to publique Execution because they well know this one stroke would give the fatall Blow to Monarchy For it would take away the very life of Majesty which consists in the Impunity or exemption from penall Statutes Subject a King once to be judged and condemned by the People upon any pretence whatsoever then it followes presently that the power is declared in their Hands and so the Kingly Government is defunct and changed ipso facto to a popular And therefore it is apparent that the Army by Remonstrating against their King and demanding Him thus to Justice intend no lesse then the ruine of Monarchy and the rearing up of a kind of a military-democraticall Forme of Government which by abolishing our old Lawes and leaving none but that of the Sword must needs be absolutely Tyrannicall over our Estates Lives and Liberties This is the true drift of their first Proposition Give ear and regard O ye Commons of England lest under a specious pretence for the Liberty of the People which Cromwell himself once called a meer Chimaera and a thing not to be contended for ye be drawne into Parricide and perpetuall Slavery Nor doe they rage only against the Person of the King but in the second Proposition they endeavour to shake off His Posterity and therefore they propound these harsh Conditions concerning the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York either to yeild themselves up to their mercy at a certaine day to acquit themselves of their Capitall Delinquency as they call it or else to be at their discretion whether they shall follow their Royall Father to the Shambles These are fine Conditions for the two Princes to be summoned in upon are they not But knowing these wil never be accepted this Summons is but pretended to blear the eyes of the People and insinuate their Guilt if they refuse to appear that so they may exclude the next Heires of the Crown the more plausibly in order still to their designe of changing the Government And therefore it is likewise that in this Proposition they demand the Revenue of the Crown may continue still in Hucksters hands and the Pomp of it be suspended to make amends they say for publique Debts which are all in the Pockets of their Faction and repaire the losses of the People but indeed to be shared among them and their Creatures who usurpe the name and reputation of the PEOPLE all which whosoever seriously considers will see these things are but preparatory to the cashiering of Kingly Government In Order to this designe still it is also That in the third and fourth-Propositions they demand the bringing of His Majesties Principall Friends to the Block not reckoning themselves safe as long as their Heads are on their shoulders And for the rest that have served Him though they claw with them in pressing that moderate Fines may be set upon them for Delinquency yet they deprive them of their native Birth-rights so long as shall seeme good unto these new Conquerors and so they shall be no more but in the condition of Slaves to this insolent Faction all over the Kingdome And thus you see what is the designe and like to be the Issue of their pretended publique Justice Next they proceed to propound towards the Settlement of the Kingdome both in relation to the Parliamentary and Kingly power in time to come First as the Parliamentary they demand That some reasonable and certaine period may be set to this Parliament by which time that Supreme Trust in them may return unto the People That is themselves and their Faction for They only will be the People But the People of England may do well to consider that the King being outed of all Power there is no visible Authority left at present but that in the two Houses who are now the only Bulwarks against military Tyranny and the dissolving them before the King be re-invested will leave us all in the power of the Army and then as that Leveller Major White said at Putney in the Generall Councell for he knew it was designed then and could not chuse but utter it there will be no visible Authority left in the Kingdome but the power of the Sword which will introduce a new Parliament of its own Creatures as appeares by what followes wherein they exclude all from the power of Election or being elected that are not of their Faction And so farewell the Government and glory of our Nation For proof of this observe next what they propound concerning the Sucession of future Parliaments First that none shall be capable of electing or being elected that have ingaged against the publique Interest nor any that oppose them in this Agreement Secondly that Elections may be so distributed as to render the House of Commons as near as may be a Representative of the whole People and that the certainty of the Peoples meeting to Elect may be provided for So farewell the ancient Legall way of Electing by the Kings Writ or Summons it being inherent in the Prerogative of all Kings to call and dissolve the Supreme Assemblies If this course also be taken to give all men voices in Electing then it will seldome happen that they wil ever agree which will be the cause of innumerable Riots and Confusions at every Election Thirdly That it be declared that the Representatives of the People by them Elected shall have the Supreme Trust and Power as to making of Lawes So farewell the Negative Voice of the King and Nobility and with it the Ancient and Legall Constitutions of Parliament Lastly They propound that our Kings in time to come may be Elective and upon their Coronation disclaime any Negative Voice to the determinations of the said Representatives and subscription to this Agreement And so instead of Kings they would set up meere Scare-crowes of Royaltie But alas this is to amuse the People with the name of King when as they intend no such matter for an Elective Kingship without a Negative Voice is none at all it being a received Maxim among all Polititians That there is a necessity the Supreme Power should reside in the hands of one or of few or of many