heavy Taxes they please and renew increase multiply and perpetuate them on us as long as they please to support their own encroached more then Regall Parliamentall Super-transcendent Arbitrary power over us and all that is ours or the Kingdoms at our private and the publique charge against our wills judgments consciences to our absolute enslaving and our three Kingdoms ruine by engaging them one against another in new Civill wars and exposing us for a prey to our Forraign Enemies All which with other particulars lately acted and avowed by the Imposers of this Tax by colour of that pretended Parliamentary Authority by which they have imposed it I must necessarily admit acknowledge to be just and legall by my voluntary payment of it of purpose to maintaine an Army to justify and make good all this by the meer power of the Sword which they can no wayes justify and defend by the Laws of God or the Realm before any Tribunall of God or Men when legally arraigned as they shall one day be Neither of which I can or dare acknowledge without incurring the guilt of most detestable Perjury and Highest Treason against King Kingdom Parliament Laws and Liberties of the People and therefore cannot yeeld to this Assessement Thirdly The principall ends and uses proposed in the pretended Act and Warrants thereupon for payment of this Tax are strong Obligations to me in point of Conscience Law Prudence to withstand it which I shall particularly discusse The First is the maintenance and continuance of the present Army and forces in England under the Lord Fairfax To which I say First as I shall with all readinesse gratitude and due respect acknowledg their former Gallantry good and faithfull Services to the Parliament and Kingdom whiles they continued dutiful and constant to their first Engagements and the ends for which they were raised by both Houses as far forth as any man so in regard of their monstrous defections and dangerous Apostacy from their Primitive obedience faithfulnesse and engagements in disobeying the Commands and levying open warre against both Houses of Parliament keeping an horrid force upon them at their very doors seising imprisoning secluding abusing and forcing away their Members printing and publishing many high and treasonable Declarations against the Institution Priviledges Members and Proceedings of the late and being of all future Parliaments imprisoning abusing arraigning condemning and executing our late King against the Votes faith and engagements of both Houses and disinheriting his Posterity usurping the Regal Parliamental Magistratical and Ecclesiastical power of the Kingdom to their Generall Councel of Officers of the Army as the supreme swaying Authority of the Kingdom and attempting to alter and subvert the ancient Government Parliaments Laws and Customs of our Realm And upon serious consideration of the ordinary unsufferable Assertions of their Officers and Souldiers uttered in most places where they quarter and to my self in particular sundry times That the whole Kingdom with all our Lands Houses goods and whatsoever we have is theirs and that by right of conquest they having twice conquered the Kingdom That we are but their conquered slaves and Vassals and they the Lords and Heads of the Kingdome That our very lives are at their mercy and courtesie That when they have gotten all we have from us by Taxes and Free-quarter and we have nothing left to pay them then themselves will selfe upon our Lands as their own and turn us and our Families out of doors That there is now no Law in England nor never was if we beleeve their lying Oracle Peters but the sword with many such like vapouring Speeches and discourses of which there are thousands of witnesses I can neither in Conscience Law nor Prudence assent much lesse contribute in the least degree for their present maintenance or future continuance thus to insult inslave and tyrannize over King Kingdom Parliament people at their pleasure like their conquered vassals And for me in particular to contribute to the maintenance of those who against the Law of the Land the priviledges of Parliament and liberty of the Subject pulled me forcibly from the Commons House and kept me prisoner about two months space under their Martiall to my great expence and prejudice without any particular cause pretended or assigned only for discharging my duty to the Kingdom and those for whom I served in the House without giving me the least reparation for this unparallell'd injustice or acknowledging their offence and yet detain some of my then fellow-Members under custody by the meer power of the Sword without bringing them to tryall would be not onely absurd unreasonable and a tacite justification of this their horrid violence and breach of priviledge but monstrous unnaturall perfidious against my Oath and Covenant 2. No Tax ought to be imposed on the Kingdom in Parliament it self but in case of necessity for its common Good as is cleer by the Stat. of 25. E. 1. c 6. and Cooks 2 Instit. p. 528. Now it is evident to me that there is no necessity of keeping up this Army for the Kingdoms common Good but rather a necessity of disbanding it or the greatest part of it for these reasons 1. Because the Kingdom is generally exhausted with the late 7 years Wars Plunders and heavie Taxes there being more moneys levied on it by both sides during these eight last years then in all the Kings Reigns since the Conquest as will appear upon a just computation all Counties being thereby utterly unable to pay it 2. In regard of the great decay of Trade the extraordinary dearth of cattel corn and provisions of all sorts the charge of relieving a multitude of poor people who starve with famine in many places the richer sort eaten out by Taxes and Free-quarter being utterly unable to relieve them To which I might add the multitude of maimed Souldiers with the widows and children of those who have lost their lives in the Wars which is very costly 3. This heavie Contribution to support the Army destroys all Trade by fore-stalling and engrossing most of the moneys of the Kingdom the sinews and life of Trade wasting the provisions of the Kingdom and enhansing their prices keeping many thousands of able men and horses idle only to consume other labouring mens provisions estates and the publick Treasure of the Kingdom when as their imployment in their trades and callings might much advance trading and enrich the Kingdom 4. There is now no visible Enemy in the field or Garisons and the sitting Members boast there is no fear from any abroad their Navie being so Victorious And why such a vast Army should be still continued in the Kingdom to increase its debts and payments when charged with so many great Arrears and debts already eat up the Country with Taxes and Free-quarter only to play drink whore steal rob murther quarrel fight with impeach and shoot one another to death as Traytors Rebels and Enemies to the Kingdom and Peoples Liberties
ever breathed by how much more under the pretence of friendship and brotherly kindness they have done all the mischeife they have done in destroying our Lawes and liberties there being no Treason like Judas his Treason who betrayed his Lord and Master with a kisse c. Seventhly He there asserts k That whosoever stoops to their new change of Government and Tyranny and supports it is as absolute a Traytor both by Law and Reason as ever was in the world If not against the King PRINCE CHARLES heir apparent to his Fathers Crown and Throne yet against the peoples Majesty and Soveraignty And if this be true as it is That this purg'd Parliament IS NO PARLIAMENT AT ALL then there is neither legal Judges nor Justices of Peace in England And if so then all those that are executed at Tiburne c. by their Sentence of condemnation are meerly murthered and the Judges and Justices that condemned them are liable in time to be hanged and that justly therefore for acting without a just and legal Commission either from TRVE REGAL OR TRVE PARLIAMENTARY POWER except in corporations only where they proceed by ancient Charters in the antient Legal form And if this be Law and l Gospel as no doubt it is then by the same reason not only all legal proceedings Indictments Judgments Verdicts writs Trials Fines Recoveries Recognisances and the like before any of our new created Judges and Justices since the Kings be heading in any Courts at Westminster or in their Circuits Assisses or quarter Sessions held by new Commissions with all Commissions and Proceedings of Sheriffs ate not only meerly void illegal coram non judice to all intents with all Bills Decrees and Proceedings in Chancery or the Rolls and all Judges Justices Sheriffs now acting and Lawyers practising before them in apparent danger of High-Treason both against King Kingdom they neithver taking the Oathes of Judges Supremacy or Allegiance as they ought by Law but only to be true and faithfull to the new erected State but likewise all votes and proceedings before the pretended House or any of their Committees or Sub-Committees in the Country with all their grants and Offices Moneys Salaries Sequestrations Sales of Lands or goods Compositions c. meer Nullities and illegal acts and the proceedings of all active Commissioners Assessors Collectors Treasurers c. and all other Officers imployed to leavy and to collect this illegal tax to support that usurped Parliamentary Authority and Army which have beheaded the late King dis-inherited his undoubted Heire levyed war against and dissolved the late Houses of Parliament subverted the ancient Government of this Realm the Constitution and Liberties of our Parliaments the Lawes of the Kingdom with the liberty and property of the people of England no less then High Treason in all these respects as is fully proved by Sir Edward Cook in his 3. Institutes ch. 1.2 and by Mr. St. John in his Argument at Law at the attainder of the Earl of Strafford both published by the late Commons House Order which I desire all who are thus imployed to consider especially such Commissioners who take upon them to administer a new unlawful Ex Officio Oath to any to survey their Neighbours and their own estates in every parish and return the true values thereof to them upon the new prov'd rate for the 3 last months contribution and to fine those who refuse to do it a meer diabolical invention to multiply perjuries to damne mens souls invented by Cardinal Woolsy much inveighed against by Father Latymer in his Sermons condemned by the expresse words of the Petition of Right providing against such Oahes and a snare to enthrall the wealthier sort of people by discovering their estates to subject them to what future Taxes they think fit when as the whole House of Commons in no age had any power to administer an Oath in any case whatsoever much less then to conferr any authority on others to give such illegal Oathes and fine those who refuse them the highest kinde of Arbitrary Tyranny both over mens Consciences Properties Liberties to which those who voluntarily submit deserve not only the name of Traytors to their Country but to be m boared through the ear and they and their posterities to be made Slaves for ever to these new Tax-masters and their Successors and those who are any ways active in imposing or administring such Oathes and levying illegal Taxes by distress or otherwise may and will undoubtedly smart for it at last not only by Actions of Trespasse false imprisonment Accompt c. brought against them at the Common Law when there wil be no Committee of Indemnity to protect them from such suits but likewise by inditements of High Treason to the deserved loss of their Estates Lives and ruin of their families when there will be no Parliament of purged Commoners nor Army to secure nor legal plea to acquit them from the guilt and punishment of Traytors both to their King and Country pretended present sordid fears of loss of Liberty Estate or the like being no n excuse in such a case and time as this but an higher aggravation of their crime the o FEARFUL being the first in that dismall List of Malefactors who shall have part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death even by Christs own sentence John 18. vers. 38. To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witnesse unto the truth FINIS Objection IF any object that true it is the Parliament by the Common Law and custome of the Realm determines by the Kings death but by the Statute of 17. Caroli which enaâ—ts That this present Parliament now assembled shall not be dissolved unlesse it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose continues this Parliament stil in being notwithstanding the Kings beheading since no Act of Parliament is passed for its dissolution The only pretext for to support the continuance of the Parliament since the Kings violent death To this I Answer that it is a Maxime in Law That every Statue ought to be expounded according to the intent of those that made it and the mischiefs it intended only to prevent as is resolved in 4. Ed. 4.12 12. Ed. 4.18 1. Hen. 7.12.13 Plowd Com. f. 369. and Cooks 4. Instit. p. 329.330 Now the intent of the Makers of this act and the end of enacting it was not to prevent the dissolution of this Parliament by the Kings death no ways intimated or insinuated in any clause thereof being a clear unavoidable dissolution of it to all intents not provided for by this Law but by any writ or Proclamation of the King by his Regal power without consent of both Houses which I shall manifest by these ensuing reasons First from the principal occasion of making this act The King as the Commons in their * Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom 15.
as now the Levellers and Cromwellists do for want of other imployments and this for the publick good transcends my understanding 5. When the King had two great Armies in the Field and many Garisons in the Kingdom this whole Army by its primitive Establishment consisted but of twenty two thousand Horse Dragoons and Foot and had an Establishment only of about forty five thousand pounds a month for their pay which both Houses then thought sufficient as is evident by their o Ordinances of Febr. 15. 1644. and April 4. 1646. And when the Army was much increased without their Order sixty thousand pounds a month was thought abundantly sufficient by the Officers and Army themselves to disband and reduce all super-numeraries maintain the Established Army and Garisons and ease the Country of all Free-quarter which Tax hath been constantly paid in all Counties Why then this Tax to the Army should now be raised above the first Establishment when reduced to twenty thousand whereof sundry Regiments are designed for Ireland for which there is thirty thousand pounds a month now exacted besides the sixty for the Army and this for the common good of the Realm is a riddle unto me or rather a Mystery of iniquity for some mens private lucre rather then the publick weal 6. The Militia of every County for which there was so great contest in Parliament with the late King and these persons of livelihood and estates in every Shire or Corporation who have been cordiall to the Parliament and Kingdom heretofore put into a posture of defence under Gentlemen of quality and known integrity would be a far better Guard to secure the Kingdom against forraign Invasions or domestick Insurrections then a mercinary Army of persons and souldiers of no fortunes and that with more generall content and the tenth part of that charge the Kingdom is now at to maintain this Army and prevent all danger of the undoing pest of Free-quarter Therefore there is no necessity to keep up this Army or impose any new Tax for their maintenance or defraying their pretended arrears which I dare averr the Free-quarter they have taken in kinde and levied in money if brought to a just account as it ought will double if not treble most of their Arrears and make them much indebted to the Country And no reason they should have full pay and Free-quarter too and the Country bear the burthen of both without full allowance of all the quarters levied or taken on them against Law out of their pretended arrears And if any of the sitting Tax-makers here object That they dare not trust the Militia of the Cities and Counties of the Realm with their own or the Kingdoms defence Therefore there is a necessity for them to keep the Army to prevent all dangers from abroad and Insurrections at home I answer 1. That upon these pretences these new Lords may intail and enforce an Army and Taxes to support them on the Kingdom till Dooms-day 2. If they be reall Members who make this objection elected by the Counties Cities and Burroughs for which they serve and deriving their Parliamental Authority onely from the people the only new fountain of all Power and Authority as themselves now dogmatize then they are but the Servants and Trustees who are to allow them wages and give them Commission for what they act And if they dare not now trust the people and those persons of quality fidelity and estate who both elected intrusted and impowred them and are the primitive and supreme Power it is high time for their Electors and Masters the people to revoke their authority and trusts and no longer to trust those with their purses liberties safety who dare not now to confide in them and would rather commit the safeguard of the Kingdom to mercinary indigent soudiers then to those Gentlemen Free-holders Citizens Burgesses and persons of Estate who elected them whose Trustees and Attourneys only they professe themselves and who have greatest interest both in them and the Kingdoms weal and those who must pay these Mercinaries if continued 3. The Gentlemen and Free-men of England have very little reason any longer to trust the Army with the Kingdoms Parliaments or their own Liberties Laws and Priviledges safeguard which they have so oft invaded professing now that they did not fight to preserve the Kingdom King Parliament Laws Liberties and Properties of the Subject but to conquer and pull them down and make us conquered slaves in stead of free-men averring that all is theirs by conquest And if so then this Army is not cannot be upheld and maintained for the Kingdoms and peoples common good and safety but their enslaving destruction and the meer support of the usurped Power Authority Offices Wealth and absolute Domination only of those who have exalted themselves for the present above King Parliament Kingdom Laws Liberties and those that did intrust them by the help of this trust-breaking Army who have stained all the glory of their former Noble Victories and Heroick Actions by their late degenerous unworthy practices and are become a reproach to the English Nation in all Christian Kingdoms and Churches The second end of this heavie Tax is the support and maintenance of the Forces in Ireland for which there was onely twenty thousand pounds a month formerly allowed now mounted unto thirty thousand To which I answer in the first place That it is apparent by the printed Statutes of 25. E. 1. c. 6. 1 E. 3. cap. 5.7 18. E. 3. c. 7. 25. E. 3. c. 8. 4. H. 4. cap. 13. Cooks 2 Institutes p. 528. and the Protestations of all the Commons of England in the Parliaments of 1 H. 5. nu 17. and 7. H. 5. n. 9. That no freeman of England ought to be compelled to go in person or to finde Souldiers Arms Conduct-money Wages or pay any Tax for or towards the maintenance of any forreign War in Ireland or any other parts beyond the Sea without their free consents in full Parliament And therefore this Tax to maintain Souldiers and the War in Ireland neither imposed in Parliament much lesse in a full and free one as I have proved must needs be illegall and no ways obligatory to me or any other 2. Most of the ancient Forces in Ireland as the Brittish Army Scots and Inchiqueen's towards whose support the twenty thousand pounds a month was designed have been ever since declared Rebels Traytors Revolters and are not to share in this Contribution and those now pretending for Ireland being members of the present Army and to be paid out of that Establishment there is no ground at all to augment but decrease this former monthly Tax for Ireland over what it was before 3. Many of those now pretending for Ireland have been the greatest obstructers of its relief heretofore and many of those designed for this Service by lot have in words writing and print protested they never intend to go thither and disswade others
hazzard their own lives and estates for preservation of those Laws and liberties and use their best endeavours that the meanest of the Commonalty might enjoy them as their birthrights as well as the greatest Subject That EVERY HONEST MAN especially THOSE WHO HAVE TAKEN THE LATE PROTESTATION and Solemn League and Covenant since IS BOUND TO DEFEND THE LAWS and LIBERTIES OF THE KINGDOM against WIL and POWER which imposed WHAT PAYMENTS THEY THOUGHT FIT TO DRAIN THE SUBJECTS PURSES and supply THOSE NECESSITIES which their il Counsel had brought upon the King and Kingdom And that they would be ready TO LIVE AND DYE with those WORTHY and TRUE-HEARTED PATRIOTS OF THE GENTRY OF THIS NATION and others who were ready to lay down their lives and fortunes for the maintenance of THEIR LAWS and LIBERTIES with many such like heroick expressions Which must needs engage me a Member of that Parliament and Patriot of my Country with all my strength and power to oppose this injurious Tax imposed out of Parliament though with the hazard of my life and fortunes wherein all those late Members who have joyned in these Remonstrances are engaged by them to second me under paine of being adjudged unworthy for ever hereafter to sit in any Parliament or to be trusted by their Counties and those for whom they served And so much the rather to vindicate the late Houses honour and reputation from those predictious and printed aspersions of the beheaded King * That the maintenance of the Laws Liberties Properties of the People were but only guilded dissimulations and specious pretences to get power into their own hands thereby to enable them to destroy and subvert both Lawes Liberties and Properties at last And not any thing like them to introduce Anarchy Democracy Parity Tyranny in the Highest degree and new formes of arbitrary Government and leave neither King nor Gentleman all which the people should too late discover to their costs and that they had obtained nothing by adhering to and compliance with them but to enslave and undoe themselves and to be last destroyed Which royal Predictions many complaine we finde too truely verified by those who now bear rule under the Name and visour of the Parliament of England since its dissolution by the Kings decapitation and the Armies imprisoning and seclusion of the Members who above all others are obliged to disprove them by their answers as wel as declarations to the people who regard not words but reall performances from these new keepers of their Liberties especially in this FIRST YEAR OF ENGLANDS FREEDOM engraven on all their publick Seals which else will but seal their Selfdamnation and proclaim them the Archest Impostors under Heaven Secondly Should I voluntarily submit c. ERRATA Page 2. line 17. read Perusers l. 36. r. argued p. 3. l. 14. r. by l. 16. for 4. r. 14. p 4. l. 29 dele by l. 36. r consenting p. 5. l. 17. for 74 r. 49 H. 3 l. 20. r. and p. 6. l. 2. for Asportatis Religiosorum The Statute of Sheriffs 9. E. 2. and of the Templers 17. E. 2. to mention no more l. 20. dele have p. 7 l. 2. r. swear l. 7. r. 13 E. 3. l. 15. r. sitting l. 27. r. 8 H 6. p. 8. l. 4. r. an. p. 9. l. 9. r. read l 21. dele as p. 10. l. 13. for 27 r. 32. l. 14. r. Banneret p. 11. l. 12. r. God l 37. dele the p. 12. l 27 r. perjutious p. 16. l. 2. r. those a See my humble Remonstrance against Ship-money b See 1 E. 6. cap. 7. Cook 7. Report 30.31 Dyer 165. 4. E. 4.43.44 1 E. 5.1 Brook Commission 19.21 c Cromptons Jurisdiction of Courts fol. 1. Cook 4. Instit. p. 9.10 d 5. Ed. 3.6 part 2. Dors. Claus. Regist. f. 192.200 e 4 Ed. 4.44 1 E. 5.1 Brook Commissions 19.21 Officer 25. Dyer 165. Cook 7. Report 30.31 1 E. 6. c. 7. Daltons Justice of Peace c. 3. p. 13. Lambert p. 71. f 14. R. 2. n. 15. 11. H. 4. n. 30. 13. H. 4. n. 25. g 4 H. 7.18 b. 7. H. 7.14.16 11. H. 7.27 Fortescue c. 18 f. 20. Dyer 92. brook Parliament 76.197 Cooks 4. Institutes p. 25. h See the Freeholders grand inquest and my Plea for the Lords i Cooks 4. Institues p. 1. k Declaration Nov. 28. 30. 1948. l 39. Ed. 3.7 4. H. 4.10 Brook Parlia. 26.40 Cook 4. Instit. p. 1.25.26 1. Jac. ch. 1. m 49. Ed. 3.18 19. 21. H. 7.4 Brooke customs 6.32 Object Answ. n See my Plea for the Lords and Levellers levelled o Collect. c. pag. 599. â—â—6 Object Ans. p See a Collection p 94 95 99 698.700.877 878. q Matt. Paris p. 517. r Ovid de Remed. Amoâ—is s Mag. Chart. c. 14. 14. E. 3. c. 6. Cook 2. Instit. pag. 26.27.169.170 t Matt. Paris p. 516. u A Collection c. pag. 771. x See Cook 5. Report fol. 91 92. Semans Case 7 Rep. Sendels case Lambert f. 179. Daltons Justice of Peace 224. 24 H. 8. c. 5 y See Rastal Title Purveyers z An exact Collection p. 7 a See an Exact collection and a collection of publick Orders and p. 99.698.700.877.878 a His Petition and Appeal and his Arrow of defiance See M. Edwards Gangrena 3. pa. page 154. fol. 204. Pag. 11.29 Pag. 34.35 d Pag. 26 27 e Pag. 34 39 40.56 57. f Pag. 52.53.56.57.58.59 g Pag. 53.54.59 41. h Pag. 2.15.27 29.33.34.35.41.53.57 58 59 64. â—4 75 i See Pag. 31.32 k P. 57.34 l Luk. 19.14 27. c. 12.13 14. m Exod. 21.5.6 n See 1. H. 4 Rot. Parl. n. 97. o Rev. 21.8 This Objection must be added just before Secondly Should I voluntarily submit c. Answ. * Exact Collect. p. 5.6 ‖ 6. E. 3. Parl. 2 Rot. Parl. 3. 6 5. R. 2. n. 64.65 11. R 2. n. 14.16.20 8. H 4. n 2.7 27. H. 6. n. 12 28. H. 6. n. 8.9.11 29. H. 6. n. 10 11. 31 H. 6. n. 22.30.49 * Cook 4. Instit. p 25. Dyer f. 203. * Exact Collect. p. 69.70.736.709.722 * Brook Parliament 80. Relation 85. Dyer 85. 1 Is not this the Armies their own late and present practise 2 Alderman Chambers the eminentest of them is yet since this Declaration discharged by you for his loyalty and conscience only 3 And is it not so by you now and transmitted unto the Exchequer to be levyed 4 And do not you now the same yea some of those very good Patriots 5 Are not the Generals and Armies Horse and Foot too kept up and continued among us for that very purpose being some of them Germans too 6 Not one quarter so grievous as the present Tax imposed by you for the like purpose 7 And is it not more unnaturall in those now sitting to engage the English Army raised by the Parliament of England and covenanting to defend it from violence against the very Parliament of England and its Members and that successively twice after one another and yet to own and support this Army without righting those Members 8 Was not Pride's and the Armies comming thither to seise and actually seising above Forty and secluding above Two hundred Members with Thousands of armed Horse and Foot a thousand times a greater offence especially after so many Declarations of the Houses against this of the Kings 9 Was not Humphrey Edwards now sitting an unduly elected Member one of them thus armed ‖ Hon. Martin is accomptable to the State for above 8700 l. which the Committee of accounts in two years time could never bring him to account for and yet hath 3000. voted him lately for moneys pretended to be disbursted to whom and for whom query Nota. ‖ Exact Collect. p. 5 6.7.14 342.492 * Exact Collect p. 28.29.214.263.270.491.492.495 496.497.660 * Exact Collect p. 285.286.298.320.322.378.379.381.513.514 515. c. 618.619.620.623.647 c. 671.679 c. A Collect. c.p. 100.102 c. 117.
REASONS Assigned by WILLIAM PRYNNE c. BEing on the 7 of this instant June 1649 informed by the Assessors of the Parish of Swainswicke that I was assessed at 2 l. 5 s. for three months Contribution by vertue of a pretended Act of the Commons assembled in Parliament bearing date the 7 of April last assessing the Kingdom at ninty thousand-pounds monthly beginning from the 25 of March last and continuing for six months next ensuing towards the maintenance of the forces to be continued in England and Ireland and the paying of such as are thought fit to be disbanded that so Free-quarter may be taken off whereof 3075 l. 17 s. 1 d. ob is monthly imposed on the County and 2 l. 5 s. 3 d. on the small poor Parish where I live and being since on the 15 of June required to pay in 2 l. 5 s. for my proportion I returned the Collector this Answer That I could neither in Conscience Law nor Prudence in the least measure submit to the voluntary payment of this illegall Tax and unreasonable Contribution after all my unrepaired losses and sufferings for the publick Liberty amounting to six times more then Ship-money the times considered or any other illegall Tax of the late beheaded King so much declaimed against in our three last Parliaments by some of those who imposed this And that I would rather submit to the painfullest death and severest punishment the Imposers or Exactors of it could inflict upon me by their arbitrary power for legall they had none then voluntarily pay or not oppose it in my place and calling to the uttermost upon the same if not better reasons as I oppugned a Ship-money Knighthood and other unlawfull impositions of the late King and his Councel heretofore And that they and all the world might bear witnesse I did it not from meer obstinacy or fullennesse but out of solid reall grounds of Conscience Law Prudence and publick affection to the weal and Liberty of my native Country now in danger of being enslaved under a new vassalage more grievous then the worst it ever yet sustained under the late or any other of our worst Kings I promised to draw up the Reasons of this my refusal in writing and to publish them so soon as possible to the Kingdom for my own Vindication and the better information and satisfaction of all such as are any wayes concerned in the imposing collecting levying or paying of this strange kinde of Contribution In pursuance whereof I immediately penned these ensuing Reasons which I humbly submit to the impartiall Censure of all conscientious and judicious Englishmen desiring either their ingenuous Refutation if erronious or candid Approbation if substantiall and irrefragable as my conscience and judgment perswade me they are and that they will appear so to all impartiall Persons after full examination First By the fundamental Laws and known Statutes of this Realme No Tax Tallage Ayd Imposition Contribution Loan or Assessment whatsoever may or ought to be imposed or levied on the free men and people of this Realm of England but by the WILL and COMMON ASSENT of the EARLS BARONS Knights Burgesses Commons and WHOLE REALM in a free and full PARLIAMENT by ACT OF PARLIAMENT All Taxes c. not so imposed levyed though for the common defence and profit of the Realm being unjust oppressive inconsistent with the liberty and propertie of the Subject Laws and Statutes of the Realm as is undeniably evident by the expresse Statutes of Magna Charta cap. 29.30 25. E. 1. c. 5 6. 34. E. 1. De Tallagio non concedendo c. 1. 21. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 16. 25. E. 3. c. 8. 36. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 26. 45. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 42. 11. H. 4. Rot. Parl. n. 10. 1. R. 3. c. 2. The Petition of Right and Resolutions of both Houses against Loans 3. Caroli The Votes and Acts against Ship-money Knighthood Tonnage and Poundage and the Star-chamber this last Parliament 17. 18 Caroli And fully agreed and demonstrated by Mr. William Hackwell in his Argument against Impositions Judge Hutton and Judge Crook in their Arguments and Mr. St. John in his Argument and Speech against Ship-money with other Arguments and Discourses of that subject Sir Edward Cook in his 2 Instit. published by Order of the Commons House pag. 59.60 c. 527.528.529.532.533 c. with sundry other Records and Law-books cited by these great Rabbies of the Law and Patriots of the Peoples Liberties But the present Tax of Ninety Thousand pounds a Month now exacted of me was not thus imposed Therefore it ought not to be demanded of nor levied on me and I ought in conscience Law and prudence to withstand it as unjust oppressive inconsistent with the Liberty and Property of the Subject Laws and Statutes of the Realm To make good the Assumption which is onely questionable First This Tax was not imposed in but out of any Parliament the late Parliament being actually dissolved above two months before this pretended Act of these Tax-imposers taking away the King by a violent death as is expresly resolved by the Parliament of 1 H. 4. Rot. Parl. n. 1. by the Parliament of 4. H. 4. and 1. H. 5. Rot. Parliam n. 26. Cook 4 Institutes p. 46. and 4. E. 4.44 b. For the King being both the Head beginning end and foundation of the Parliament as Modus tenendi Parliamentum and Sir Edward Cooks 4. Instit. p. 3. resolve which was summoned and constituted only by his Writ now b actually abated by his death and the Parliament as is evident by the clauses of the severall Writs of Summons to c the Lords and for the election of Knights and Burgesses and levying of their wages being onely PARLIAMENTUM NOSTRUM the Kings Parliament that is dead not his Heirs and Successors and the Lords and Commons being all summoned and authorized by it to come to HIS PARLIAMENT there to be present and conferre with HIM NOBISCUM not his Heirs and Successors of the weighty and urgent affairs that concerned NOS HIM and HIS KINGDOME of England and the Knights and Burgesses receiving their wages for Nuper ad NOS ad PARLIAMENTVM NOSTRVM veniendo c. quod sommoneri FECIMVS ad tractandum ibidem super diversis arduis Negotiis NOS Statum REGNI NOSTRI tangentibus as the tenor of the d Writs for their wages determines The King being dead and his Writ and Authority by which they were summoned with the ends for which they were called to confer with HIM about HIS and HIS KINGDOMS affairs c. being thereby absolutely determined without any hopes of revivall the Parliament it self must thereupon absolutely be determined likewise especially to those who have disinherited HIS HEIRS and SUCCESSORS and voted down our Monarchy it self and these with all other Members of Parliament cease to be any longer Members of it being made such onely by the King 's abated Writ
ceased to be Members by the Parliaments dissolution through the Kings beheading Neither were they ever invested with any legall power to seclude or expell any of their fellow-Members especially if duly elected for any Vote wherein the Majority of the House concurred with them or differing in their consciences and judgments from them nor for any other cause without the Kings and Lords concurrence in whom the ordinary judicial power of the Parliament resides as I have undenyably proved by presidents and reasons in my Plea for the Lords p. 47. to 53. and Ardua Regni which is further evident by Claus. Dors. 7. R. 2. m. 27. and Mr. Seldens Titles of Honour p. 737. Baronet Camoyes Case discharged from being Knight of the Shire by the Kings Writ and Judgment because a Peer of the Realm the practice of sequestring and expelling Commons by their fellow-Commons onely being a late dangerous unparliamentary usurpation unknown to our Ancestors destructive to the priviledges and freedom of Parliaments and injurious to those Counties Cities Burroughs whose Trustees are secluded the House of Commons it self being no Court of Justice to give either an Oath or finall Sentence and having no more Authority to dismember their fellow-Members then any Judges Justices of Peace or Committees have to dis-judge dis-justice or dis-committee their fellow Judges Justices and Committee-men being all of equall authority and made Members onely by the Kings Writ and Peoples Election not by the Houses or other Members Votes who yet now presume both to make and unmake seclude and recall expell and restore their fellow-Members at their pleasure contrary to the practice and resolution of former ages to patch up a factious Conventicle in stead of an English Parliament Therefore this Objection no ways invalids this first Reason why I neither can nor dare submit to this illegall Tax in Conscience Law or Prudence which engage me to oppose it in all these respects Secondly Should I voluntarily submit to pay this Tax and that by vertue of an Act of Parliament made by those now sitting some of whose Elections have been voted voyd others of them elected by new illegall Writs under a new kind of Seal since the Kings beheading as the Earl of Pembroke and Lord Edward Howard uncapable of being Knights or Burgesses by the Common Law and Custome of Parliament being Peers of the Realm if now worthy such a Title as was adjudged long since in the Lord Camoyes case Claus. Dors. 7. R. 2. m. 32. and asserted by Master Selden in his Titles of Honour part 2. cha. 5. p. 737. Seconded by Sir Edward Cook in his 4. Institutes p. 1.4 5 46 47 49. As I should admit these lawfull Members so I should therby tacitly admit ex post facto assent to some particulars against my knowledg judgment conscience Oaths of Supremacy Allegiance Protestation and Solemn League and Covenant taken in the presence of Gyd himselfe with a sincere heart and reall intention to performâ— the same and persevere therein all the dayes of my life without suffering my selfe directly or indirectly by whatsoever Combination perswasion or terrour to be withdrawne therefrom As First That there may be and now is a lawfull Parliament of England actually in being and legally continuing after the Kings death consisting only of a few late Members of the Commons House without either King Lords or most of their fellow Commons which the very Consciences and judgments of all now sitting that know any thing of Parliaments and the whole Kingdome if they durst speak their knowledg know and beleeve to be false yea against their Oaths and Covenant Secondly That this Parliament so unduly constituted and packed by power of an Army combining with them hath a just and lawfull Authority to violate the Priviledges Rights Freedoms Customes and alter the constitution of our Parliaments themselves imprison seclude expell most of their fellow Members for voting according to their consciences to repeal all Votes Ordinances and Acts of Parliament they please erect new Arbitrary Courts of war and Justice to arraign condemn execute the King himself with the Peers and Commons of this Realm by a new kind of Martiall Law contrary to Magna Charta the Petition of Right and Law of the Land disinherit the Kings Posterity of the Crowne extirpate Monarchy and the whole House of Peers change and subvert the ancient Government Seals Laws Writs Legall proceedings Courts and coyne of the the Kingdome sell and dispose of all the Lands Revenues Jewels goods of the Crowne with the Lands of Deans and Chapters as they think meet absolve themselves like so many antichristian Popes with all the Subjects of England and Ireland from all the Oaths and engagements they have made TO THE KINGS MAJESTY HIS HEIRS AND SUCCESSORS yea from their very Oath of Allegiance notwithstanding this express clause in it which I desire may be seriously and conscienciously considered by all who have sworne it I do â—eleive and in Conscience am resolved that neither the Pope NOR ANY PERSON WHATSOEVER HATH POWER TO ABSOLVE ME OF THIS OATH OR ANY PART THEREOF which I acknowledge by good and full Authority to be lawfully ministred unto me and DO RENOUNCE ALL PARDONS AND DISPENSATIONS TO THE CONTRARY dispense with our Protestations Solemn League and Covenant so lately zealously uâ—ged and injoyned by both Houses on Members Officers Ministers and all sorts of People throughout the Realme dispose of the Forts Ships Forces Officers and Places of Honour Power Trust or profit within the Kingdom to whom they please to displace and remove whom they please from their Offices Trusts Pensions Callings at their pleasures without any legall cause or tryall to make what new Acts Lawes and reverse what old ones they think meet to insnare inthrall our Consciences Estates Liberties Lives to create new monstrous Treasons never heard of in the world before and declare reall treasons against King Kingdome Parliament to be no treasons and Loyalty Allegiance due obedience to our knowne Lawes and consciencious observing of our Oaths and Covenant the breach whereof would render us actuall Traytors and pernicious persons to be no lesse then High Treason for which they may justly imprison dismember disfranchise displace and fine us at their wills as they have done some of late and confiscate our persons and lives to the Gallowes and our estates to their new Exchequer a Tyranny beyond all Tyrannies ever heard of in our Nation repealing Magna Charta c. 29.5 E. 3. c. 6.25 Edw. 3. cap. 4.28 Ed. 3. c. 3.37 E. c. 18.42 E. 3. cap. 3.25 Ed. 3. cap. 2.11 R. 2. c. 4.1 H. 4 c. 10.2 H. 4. Rot. Par. 11. N. 60. 1. E. 6. c. 12.1 m. c. 1. The Petition of Right 3 Caroli and laying all our Laws Liberties Estates Lives in the very dust after so many bloody and costly years wars to defend them against the Kings invasions rayse and keep up what force they will by Sea and Land to impose what
from going yet take free-quarter on the Country and pay too under that pretext And to force the Country to pay Contribution and give Free-quarter to such Cheaters and Impostors who never intend this Service is both unjust and dishonourable 4. If the Relief of Ireland be now really intended it is not upon the first just and pious grounds to preserve the Protestant party there from the forces of the bloody Popish Irish Rebels with whom if report be true these sitting Anti-Monarchists seek and hold correspondence and are now actually accorded with Owen Ro-Oneal and his party of blodiest Papists but to oppose the Kings interest and title to that Kingdome and the Protestant remaining party there adhering to and proclaiming acknowledging him for their Soveraign least his gaining of Ireland should prove fatall to their usurped soveraignty in England or conduce to his enthroning here And by what Authority these now sitting can impose or with what conscience any loyall Subject who hath taken the Oaths of Supremacy Allegiance and Covenant can voluntarily pay any contribution to deprive the King of his hereditary right undoubted Title to the Kingdoms and Crowns of England Ireland and alter the frame of the ancient Government Parliaments of our Kingdoms p Remonstrated so often against by both Houses and adjudged High Treason in Canterburies and Strafffords cases for which they were beheaded and by themselves in the Kings own case whom they decolled likewise without incurring the guilt of Perjury and danger of High Treason to the losse of his life and estate by the very laws and statuts yet inforce transcends my understanding to conceive VVherfore I neither can nor dare in conscience law or prudence submit to this contribution Fourthly The coercive power and manner of levying this contribution expressed in the Act is against the Law of the Land and Liberty of the Subject which is threefold First Distresse and sale of the goods of those who refuse to pay it with power to break open their Houses which are their Castles doores chests c. to distrain which is against Magna Charta cap. 29. The Petition of Right The Votes of both Houses in the case of Ship-mony 1 R. 2. c. 3. and the resolution of our Judges and Law-books 13. Ed. 4.9.20 E. 4.6 Cook 5. Report f. 91.92 Semaines case 4. Inst. p. 176 177. Secondly Imprisonment of the body of the party till he pay the contribution being contrary to Magna charta The Petition of Right The resolution of both Houses in the Parliament of 3 Caroli in the case of Loanes and 17 Caroli in the case of Ship-mony the judgment of our Judges and Law-Books collected by Sir Edward Cook in his 2 Insti. p. 46. c. and the Statu. of 2 H. 4. Rot. Par. n. 6. unprinted but most expresse in point Thirdly Levying of the contribution by souldiers and force of arms in case of resistance and imprisoning the person by like force adjudged High Treason in the cases of the Earl of Strafford and a levying of war within the Statute of 25. Ed. 3. by the late Parliament for which he lost his head and so proved to be at large by Master St. Iohn in his Argument at Law at the passing the Bill for his attainder Printed by Order of the Commons House Fourthly Which heightens the illegality of these illegall means of levying it if any person whose goods are destrained or person imprisoned for this illegall tax shall bring his Action at Law or an Habeas corpus for his relief The Committee of Indempnity will stay his legall proceedings award cost against him and commit him a new till he pay them and release his suits at Law and upon an Habeas corpus their own Sworn Judges created by them dare not bayle but remaund him against Law An oppression and Tyranny far exceeding the worst of the Beheaded Kings under whom the Subjects had Free-Liberty to sue and proceed at Law both in the cases of Loanes Shipmony and Knighthood without any Councel-Table Committee of Indempnity to stop their suits or inforce them to release them and therefore in all these respects so repugnant to the Laws and Liberty of the Subject I cannot submit to this illegall Tax but oppugn it to the utetrmost most invasive on our Laws and Liberties that ever was Fifthly The time of opposing this illegall Tax with these unlawfull ways of levying it is very considerable and sticks much with me it is as the Imposers of it declare and publish in many of their new kind of Acts and devices in the first yeare of Englands Liberty and redemption from thraldom And if this unsupportable Tax thus illegallly to be levied be the first fruits of our first years Freedom and redemption from thraldom how great may we expect our next years thraldome will be when this little finger of theirs is heavier by far then the Kings whole loynes whom they beheaded for Tyranny and Oppression Sixthly The Order of this Tax if I may so term a disorder or rather newnesse of it engageth me and all lovers of their Countries Liberty unanimously to withstand the same It is the first I finde that was ever imposed by any who had been Members of the Commons House after a Parliament dissolved the Lords House voted down and most of their fellow-Commoners secured or secluded by their connivance or confederacy with an undutiful Army VVhich if submitted to and not opposed as illegall any forty or fifty Commoners who have been Members of a Parliament gaining Forces to assist and countenance them may out of Parliament now or any time hereafter do the like and impose what Taxes and Laws they please upon the Kingdom and the secluded Lords and Commons that once sate with them being incouraged thereto by such an unopposed precedent VVhich being of so dangerous consequence and example to the constitution and priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the people we ought all to endeavour the crushing of this new Cockatrice in the shell lest it grow to a fiery Serpent to consume and sting us to death and induce the Imposers of it to lade us with new and heavie Taxes of this kinde when this expires which we must expect when all the Kings Bishops Deans and Chapters Lands are sold and spent if we patiently submit to this leading Decoy since q Bonus Actus inducit consuetudinem as our Ancestors resolved Anno 1240. in the case of an universall Tax demanded by the Pope whereupon they all unanimously opposed it at first r Opprime dum nova sunt subiti mala semina morbi Principiis obsta serò medicina paratur Cum mala per longas invaluere moras being the safest rule of State-physick we can follow in such new desperate Diseases which endanger the whole Body-politick Upon which grounds the most consciencious Gentlemen and best Patriots of their Country opposed Loans Ship money Tonnage Poundage Knighthood and the like late illegall
forbear till I saw what their Officers would do who in stead of punishing any of them permitted them to play the like Rex almost in other places where they quartered since marching but three or four miles a day and extorting what moneys they could from the Country by their violence and disorders Now for me or any other to give moneys to maintain such deboist Bedlams and Beasts as these who boasted of their villanies and that they had done me at least twenty pounds spoil in Beer and Provisions drinking out five barrels of good strong Beer and wasting as much meat as would have served an hundred civill persons to be Masters of our Houses Goods Servants Lives and all we have to ride over our heads like our Lords and Conquerours and take Free quarter on us amounting to at least a full yeares contribution without any allowance for it and that since the last Orders against Free-quarter and warrants for paying in this Tax to prevent it for the future issued is so far against my reason Judgement and conscience that I would rather give all away to suppress discard them or cast it into the fire then maintain such graceless wretches with it to dishonour God enslave consume ruine the Country and Kingdome who every where complain of the like insolences and of taking free quarter since the 9 of June as above two hundred of Colonel Coxe his men did in Bath the last Lords day who drew up in a body about the Majors House and threatned to seise and carry him away prisoner for denying to give them free quarter contrary to the New Act for abolishing it Lastly this pretended Act implies that those who refuse to pay this contribution without distress or imprisonment shall be stil oppressed with freequarter And what an height of oppression and injustice this will prove not only to distrain imprison those who cannot in conscience Law or prudence submit to this illegall Tax but likewise to undoe them by exposing them to free-quarter which themselves condemne as the heighst pest and oppression let all sober men consider and what reason I and others have to oppose such a dangerous destructive president in its first appearing to the world Ninethly The principal end of imposing this Tax to maintain the Army and forces now raised is not the defence and fafety of our ancient and first Christian Kingdom of England its Parliaments Laws Liberties and Religion as at first but to disinherit the King of the Crown of England Scotland and Ireland to which he hath an undoubted right by common and Statute Law as the Parliament of 1 Jacobi ch. 1. resolves and to levy war against him to deprive him of it To subvert the ancient Monarchical Government of this Realm under which our Ancesters have always lived and flourished to set up a New republick the oppressions and greivances whereof we have already felt by increasing our Taxes setting up arbitrary Courts and Proceedings to the taking away of the lives of the late King Peers and other Subjects against the Fundamental Laws of the Land creating new monstrous Treasons never heard off in the world before and the like but cannot yet enjoy or discern the least ease or advantage by it To overthrow the ancient constitution of the Parliaments of England consisting of King Lords and Commons and the Rights and Priviledges thereof To alter the fundamental Laws Seales Courts of Justice of the Realm and introduce an arbitrary Government at least if not Tyrannical contrary to our Lawes Oathes Covenant Protestation a publick Remonstrances and Engagements to the Kingdom and forraign States not to change the Government or attempt any of the premises All which being no less then High Treason by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm as Sir Edward Cook in his 4 Institutes ch. 1. and Mr. St. John in his Argument at Law upon passing the bill of Attainder of the Earl of Strafford both printed by the Commons special order have proved at large by many presidents Reasons Records and so adjudged by the last Parliament in the cases of Strafford and Canterbury who were condemned and executed as Traytors by judgement of Parliament and some of these now sitting but for some of those Treasons upon obscurer Evidences of guilt then are now visible in others I cannot without incurring the Crime and Guilt of these general High Treasons and the eternal if not temporal punishments incident thereunto if I should voluntarily contribute so much as one peny or farthing towards such Treasonable and disloyal ends as these against my Conscience Law Loyalty duty and all my Oathes and obligations to the contrary Tenthly The payment of this Tax for the premised purposes will in my poor judgment and conscience be offensive to God and all good men scandalous to the Protestant Religion dishonourable to our English Nation and disadvantagious and destructive to our whole Kingdom hindering the speedy settlement of our Peace the re-establishment of our Laws and Government establishing of our Taxes disbanding of our Forces revivall of our decayed Trade by the renewing and perpetuating our bloudy uncivill Warrs engaging Scotland Ireland and all forreign Princes and Kingdoms in a just War against us to avenge the death of our late beheaded King the dis-inheriting of his posterity and restore his lawfull Heirs and Successors to their just undoubted Rights from which they are now forcibly secluded who will undoubtedly molest us with continuall Warrs what-ever some may fondly conceit to the contrary till they be setled in the Throne in peace upon just and honorable terms and invested in their just possessions And therefore I can neither in conscience piety nor prudence ensnare my self in the guilt of all these dangerous consequences by any submission to this illegall Tax Upon all these weighty Reasons and serious grounds of Conscience Law Prudence which I humbly submit to the Consciences and Judgments of all conscientious and Judicious persons whom they do or shall concern I am resolved by the assistance and strength of that Omnipotent God who hath miraculously supported me under and carried me through all my former sufferings for the Peoples publick Liberties with exceeding joy comfort and the ruine of my greatest enemies and Opposers to oppugne this unlawfull Contrbution and the payment of it to the uttermost in all just and lawfull wayes I may And if any will forcibly levie it by distresse or otherwise without Law or Right as Theeves and Robbers take mens goods and Purses let them doe it at their own utmost perill And I trust God and men will in due season doe me justice and award me recompence for all the injuries in this kinde and any sufferings for my Countries Liberties How-ever fall back fall edge I would ten thousand times rather lose life and all I have to keep a good conscience and preserve my native Liberty then part with one farthing or gain the whole world with the losse of either of them and
rather die a Martyr for our Ancient Kingdom then live a Slave under any new Republick or remant of a broken dismembred strange Parliament of Commons without King Lords or the major part of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Realme in being subject to their illegall Taxes and what they call Acts of Parliament which in reality are no Acts at all to binde me or any other subject to obedience or just punishment for Non-obedience thereunto or Non-conformity to what they stile the present Government of the Armies modeling and I fear the Jesuites suggesting to effect our Kingdoms and Religions ruine WILLIAM PRYNNE Swainswick June 16. 1649. PSAL. 26.4 5. I have not sate with vain persons neither will I go with Dissemblers I have hated the Congregation of evill doers and will not sit with the wicked FINIS A POSTSCRIPT SInce the drawing up of the precedent Reasons I have met with a Printed Pamphlet intituled An Epistle written the 8th day of June by Lieutenant Colonel Iohn Lilburn to Master William Lenthall Speaker to the remainder of those few Knights Citizens and Burgesses that Col. Thom. Pride at his late purge thought convenient to leave sitting at Westminster as most fit for his and his Masters designs to serve their ambitious Tyrannical ends to destroy the good old Laws Liberties and Customs of England the badges of our Freedom as the Declaration against the King of the seventh of March 1648 pag. 23. calls them and by force of Armes to rob the people of their lives estates and properties and subject them to perfect vassallage and slavery c. who and in truth no otherwise pretendenly stile themselves The Conservators of the Peace of England or the Parliament of England intrusted and authorized by the consent of all the people thereof whose Representatives by Election in their Declaration last mentioned p. 27. they say they are although they are never able to produce one bit of a Law or any piece of a Commission to prove that all the people of England or one quarter tenth hundred or thousand part of them authorized Thomas Pride with his Regiment of Souldiers to choose them a Parliament as indeed it hath de facto done by this PRETENDED MOCK-PARLIAMENT And therefore it cannot properly be called the Nations or Peoples Parliament but Col. Prides and his Associats whose really it is who although they have beheaded the King for a Tyrant yet walk oppressingest steps if not worst and higher In this Epistle this late great Champion of the House of Commons and sitting Junctoes Supremacy both before and since the Kings beheading who with his Brother a Overton and their Confederates First cryed them up as and gave them the Title of The Supream Authority of the Nation The only Supream Judicatory of the land The only formall and legall Supream power and Parliament of England in whom alone the power of binding the whole Nation by making altering or abrogating Laws without either King or Lords resides c. and first engaged them by their Pamphlets and Petitions against the King Lords and Personall Treatie as he and they print and boast in this Epistle and other late Papers doth in his own and his Parties behalf who of late so much adored them as the only earthly Deities and Saviours of the Nation now positively assert and prove First that Commissary Generall Ireton Colonel Harison with other Members of the House and the General Councel of Officers in the Army did in severall meetings and debates at Windsor immediately before their late march to London to purge the House and after to Whitehall commonly stile themselves the pretended Parliament even before the Kings beheading a MOCK PARLIAMENT a MOCK POWER a PRETENDED PARLIAMENT NO PARLIAMENT AT ALL And that they were absolutely resolved and determined TO PULL UP THIS THEIR OWN PARLIAMENT BY THE ROOT and not so much as to leave a shadow of it yea and had done it if we say they and some of our then FRIENDS in the House had not been the Principall Instruments to hinder them We judging it then of two evils the least to chuse rather to be governed by THE SHADOW OF A PARLIAMENT till we could get a reall and a true one which with the greatest protestations in the world they then promised and engaged with all their might speedily to effect then simply solely and only by the will of Sword-men whom we had already found to be men of no very tender consciences If then these leading swaying Members of the new pretended purged Commons Parliament and Army deemed the Parliament even before the Kings beheading a Mock-Parliament a mock-power a pretended Parliament yea no Parliament at all and absolutely resolved to pull it up by the roots as such then it necessarily follows First that they are much more so after the Kings death as by their suppression of the Lords House and purging of the Commons House to the very dregs in the opinions and consciences of those now sitting and all other rationall men And no wayes enabled by law to impose this or any other new Tax or Act upon the Kingdom creating new Treasons and Penalties Secondly that these grand saints of the Army and Statesmen of the Pretended Parliament knowingly sit vote and act there against their own judgements and consciences for their own private pernicious ends Thirdly that it is a basenesse cowardize and degeneracy beyond all expression for any of their Fellow-members now acting to suffer these Grâ—nâ—eâ—s in their Assembly and Arms to sit or vote together with them or to enjoy any Office or command in the Army or to impose any tax upon the People to maintain such Officers Members Souldiers who have thus vilified affronted their pretended Parliamentary Authority and thereby induced others to contemn and question it and as great a basenesse in others for to pay it upon any terms Secondly he there affirms that d Oliver Crumwell by the helpe of the Aâ—my at their first Rebellion against the Parliament was no sooner put up but like a perfideous base unworthy man c. the House of Peers were his only white boys and who but Oliver who before to me had called them in effect both Tyrants and Vsurpers became their Proctor where ever he came yea and set his son Ireton at work for them also insomuch that at some meetings with some of my friends at the Lord Whartons lodgings he clapt his hand upon his breast and to this purpose professed in the sight of God upon his conscience THAT THE LORDS HAD AS TRUE A RIGHT TO THEIR LEGISLATIVE JURISDICTIVE POWER OVER THE COMMONS AS HE HAD TO HIS COAT UPON HIS BACK and he would pocure a freind viz. Master Nathaniel Feinnes should argue and plead their just right with any friend I had in England And not only so but did he not get the Generall and Councell of War at Windsor about the time that the Votes of no more
Jurisdiction Proceedings Taxes and arbitrary pleasures should not all others much more doe it and oppose them to the utmost upon the self-same grounds Fifthly He there likewise affirms g That those now sitting at Westminster have perverted the ends of their trusts more then ever Strafford did 1. In not easing the people of but encreasing their greivances 2. In exhausting of their Estates to maintain and promote pernitious Designs to the peoples destruction The King did it by a little Ship-money and Monopolies but since they began they have raised and extorted more mony from the people and Nation then half the Kings since the Conquest ever did as particularly 1. by excise 2 Contributions 3. Sequestrations of lands to an infinite value 4. Fift parts 5. Twenty parts 6. Meal-mony 7. Sale of the plundered goods 8. Lones 9. Benevolences 10. Collections upon their fast days 11. New impositions or customs upon Merchandize 12. Guards maintained upon the charge of private men 13. Fifty Subsidies at one time 14. Compositions with Delinquents to an infinite value 15. Sale of Bishops lands 16. Sale of dean and Chapters lands and now after the wars are done 17. Sale of King Queen Prince Duke and the rest of the Childrens revenues 18. Sale of their rich goods which cost an infinite sum 19. To conclude all a Taxation of ninety thousand pounds a month and when they have gathered it pretendingly for the Common-Wealths use divide it by thousands and ten thousands a peece amongst themselves and wipe their mouthes after it like the impudent Harlot as though they had done no evil and then purchase with it publick Lands at small or trivial values O brave Trustees that have protested before God and the World again and again in the day of their straits they would never seek themselves and yet besides all this divide all the choisest and profitablest Places of the Kingdom among themselves Therefore when I seriously consider how many men in the Parliament and elsewhere of their Associates that judge themselves the only Saints and Godly men upon the earth that have considerable and some of them vast estates of their own inheritance and yet take five hundred one two three four five thousand pounds per annum Salaries and other comings in by their places and that out of the too much exhausted treasury of the Nation when thousands not onely of the People the of world as they call them but also of the precious redeemed lambs of Christ are ready to starve for want of bread I cannot but wonder with my self whether they have any conscience at all within them or no and what they think of that saying of the spirit of God That whoso hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother hath need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him which he absolutely doth that any way takes a little of his little from him how dwelleth the love of God in him 1 John 3.17 These actions and practises are so far from being like the true and reall children of the most High that they are the highest oppression theft and murther in the world thus to rob the poor in day of their great distress by Excise Taxations c. to maintain their Pompe Superfluities and Debauchery when many of those from whom they take it do perish and starve with want and hunger in the mean time and be deaf and Adamant-hearted to all their TEARS CRYES LAMENTATIONS MOURNFUL HOWLINGS GROANES Without all doubt these pretended Godly Religious men have got a degree beyond those Athests or Fools that say in their hearts there is no God Psal. 14.1 and 53.1.3 In quite destroying the peoples essential Liberties Laws and Freedoms in leaving them no Law at all as Mr. Peters their grand Teacher averred lately to my face we had none but their meer will and pleasures saving Fellons Lawes or Martial Law where new Butchers are both informers Parties Jury-men and Judges who have had their hands imbrewed in blood for above these seven years together having served an apprentiship to killing of men for nothing but money and so are more bloody then Butchers that kil sheep and calves for their own livelihood who yet by the Law of England are not permitted to be of any jury for life and death because they are conversant in shedding of blood of beasts and thereby through an habit of it may not be so tender of the blood of men as the Law of England Reason and Justice would have them to be Yea do not these men by their swords being but servants give what Lawes they please to their Masters the pretended Law-makers of your House now constituted by as good and legal a power as he that robs and kills a man upon the hgih-way And if this be the verdict of their own Complices and Partizans concerning them and their proceedings especially touching their exhausting our Estates by Taxes and sharing them among themselves in the times of famine and penury as the great Officers of the Army and Treasurers who are Members now doe who both impose what Taxes they please and dispose of them to themselves and their creatures as they please contrary to the practice of all former ages and the rules of reason and justice too are not all others bound by all bonds of conscience Law Prudence to withstand their impositions and Edicts unto death rather then yeild the least submission to them Sixthly He there avers proves and offers legally to make good before any indifferent Tribunal that the h Grandees and over-ruling Members of the House and Army are not only a pack of dissembling Jugling Knaves and Machevillians amongst whom in consultation hereafter he would ever scorn to come for that there was neither faith truth nor common honesty amongst them but likewise Murtherers who had shed mens blood against Law as well as the King whom they beheaded and therefore by the same Texts and arguments they used against the King their blood ought to be shed by man and they to be surely put to death without any satisfaction taken for their lives as Traytors Enemies Rebels to and i conspirators against the late King whom they absolutely resolved to destroy though they did it by Martial Law Parliament Kingdome and the peoples Majesty and Soveraignity That the pretended House and Army are guilty of all the late crimes in kinde though under a new Name and notion of which they charge the King in their Declaration of the 17. of March 1648. that some of them more legally deserve death then ever the King did and considering their many Oathes Covenants Promises Declarations and Remonstrances to the contrary with the highest promises and pretences of good for the people and their declared Liberties that ever were made by men the most perjured pernicious false faith and Trust-breakers and Tyrants that ever lived in the world and ought by all rationall and honest men to be the most detested and abhorred of all men that
Decemb. 1642. complain had dissolved all former Parliaments during his raign without and against both Houses approbation to their great discontent and the Kingdoms prejudice as his Father King James had dissolved others in his reign and during their continuance adjourned and prorogued them at their pleasure Now the fear and preventing of the like dissolution prorogation or adjournment of this Parliament after the Scotish Armies disbanding before the things mentioned in the preamble were effected by the Kings absolute power was the only gronud and occasion of this law not any fear or thoughts of its dissolution by the Kings untimely death then not so much as imagined being before the wars or Irish Rebellion brake forth The King very healthy not ancient and likely then to survive this Parliament and many others in both Houses judgment as appears by the bil for Triennial Parliaments This undeniable Truth is expresly declared by the Commons themselves in their foresaid Remonstrance Exact Collection p. 5.6.14.17 compared together where in direct terms they affirme The ABRUPT DISSOLUTION OF THIS PARLIAMENT is prevented by another bil by which it is provided it shall not be dissolved or adjourned without the consent of both Hâ—uses In the bil for continuance of this present Parliament there seems TO BE SOME RESTRAINT OF THE ROYAL POWER IN DISSOLVING OF PARLIAMENTS NOT TO TAKE IT OUT OF THE CROWN BUT TO SUSPEND THE EXECUTION OF IT FOR THIS TIME and OCCASION ONLY which was so necessary for THE KINGS OWN SECURITY and the publick Peace that without it we could not have undertaken any of these great charges but must have lest both the Armies to disorder and confusion and the whole Kingdom to blood and rapine In which passages we have a clear resolution of the Commons themselves immediately after the passing of this Act that the scope and intention of it was only to provide against the Kings abrupt dissolution of the Parliament by the meer royal power in suspending the execution of it for this time and occasion only and that for the Kings own security not his Heirs and Successors as wel as his peoples peace and safety Therefore not against any dissolutions of it by his natural much lesse his violent death which can no ways be interpreted an Act of his Royal power which they intended hereby not to take out of the Crown but only to suspend the execution of it for this time and occasion and that for his security but a natural impotency or unnatural disloyalty which not only suspends the execution of the Kings power for a time but utterly destroys and takes away him and it without hopes of revival for ever Secondly The very title of this act An Act to prevent Inconveniences which may happen by the UNTIMELY adjourning proroguing or DISSOLUâ—ION of this present Parliament intimates as much compâ—red with the body of it which provides as wel against the adjourning and proroguing of both or either Houses without an Act of Parliament as against the dissolution of the Parliament without an Act. Now the Parliament cannot possibly be said to be adjourned or prorogued in any way or sence much less untimely by the Kings death which never adjourned or prorogued any Parliament but only his by Proclamation writ or royal command to the Houses or their Speaker executed during his life as all our Journals ‖ Parliament Rolls and * Law-Books resolve though it may be dissolved by his death as wel as by his Proclamation writ or royal command And therefore this title and act coupling adjourning proroguing and dissolving this Parliament together without consent of both Houses by act of Parliament intended only a dissolution of this Parliament by such Prerogative wayes and meanes by which Parliaments had formerly been untimely adjourned and prorogued as well as dissolved by the Kings meer will without their assents not of a dissolution of it by the Kings death which never adjourned nor prorogued any Parliament nor dissolved any formerly sitting Parliament in this Kings reign or his Ancestors since the death of King Henry the 4th the only Parliament we read of dissolved by death of the King since the conquest and so a mischief not intended nor remedied by Act Thirdly The prologue of the act implies as much Whereas great sums of money must of necessity be SPEEDILY advanced procured for the relief of HIS MAJESTIES ARMY and PEOPLE not his Heirs or Successors in the Northern parts c. And for supply of other HIS MAJESTIES PRESENT and URGENT OCCASIONS not his Heirs or Successors future occasions which cannot be so timely effected as is requisite without credit for raising the said monies which credit cannot be attained until such obstacles be first removed as are occasioned BY FEAR JEALOVSIES and APPREHENSIONS OF DIVERS OF HIS MAJESTIES LOYAL SVBJECTS THAT THE PARLIAMENT MAY BE ADJOVRNED PROROGVED OR DISSOLVED not by the Kings sodain or untimely death of which there was then no fear Jealousy or apprehension in any his Majesties Loyal Subjects but by his Royal Prerogative and advice of ill Councellors before justice shall be duly executed upon Delinquents then in being not sprung up since publick grievances then complained off redressed a firm peace betwixt the two Nations of England and Scotland concluded and before sufficient provisions be made for the repayment of THE SAID MONYES not others since so to be raised All which the Commons in this present Parliament assâ—mbled having duly considered doe therefore humbly beseech your Majesty that it may be declared and enacted c. All which expressions related only TO HIS late Majesty only not his Heirs and Successors and the prnicipal scope of this act to gain present credit to raise moneys to disband the Scotish and English Armies then lying upon the Kingdom being many yeers since accomplished yea and justice being since executed upon Strafford Canterbury and other Delinquents then complained of the publick greivances then complained of as Star-chamber High Commission ship-money Tonnage and Poundage fines for Knighthood Bishops votes in Parliament with their Courts and jurisdictions and the like redressed by Acts soon after passed and a firm peace between both Nations concluded before the wars began and this preambles pretentions for this act fully satisfied divers years before the Kings beheading it must of necessity be granted that this Statute never intended to continue this Parliament on foot after the Kings decease especially after the ends for which it was made were accomplished And so it must necessarily be dissolved by his Death Fourthly This is most clear by the body of the Act it self And be it declared and enacted By THE KING OUR SOVERAGIN LORD with the assent of the LORDS Commonsin this PRESENT PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED by the authority of the same That THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT NOW ASSEMBLED shall not be DISSOLVED unlesse it be By ACT OF PARLIAMENT TO BE PASSED FOR THAT PVRPOSE nor
shall any time or times DVRING THE CONTINVANCE THEREOF BE PROROGVED OR ADJOVRNED unless it be By ACT OF PARLIAMENT to be likewise PASSED FOR THAT PURPOSE And that THE HOUSE OF PEERS shall not at any time or times DURING THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT BE ADJOURNED unless it be BY THEMSELVES or BY THEIR OWN ORDER And in like manner that THE HOVSE OF COMMONS shall not at any time or times DVRING THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT be adjourned unless it be BY THEMSELVES or BY THEIR OWN ORDER Whence it is undeniable 1. that this act was only for the prevention of the untimely dissolving Proroguing and adjourning of that present Parliament then assembled and no other 2. That the King himself was the Principal Member of his Parliament yea our Soveraign Lord and the sole declarer and enacter of this Law by the Lords and Commons assent 3. That neither this Act for continuing nor any other for dissolving adjourning or proroguing this Parliament could be made without but only by and with the Kings Royal assent thereto which the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament in their * Remonstrance of the 26. of May 1642 oft in terminâ—s acknowledge together with his Negative voice to bils 4. That it was neither the Kings intention in passing this act to shut himself out of Parliament or create Members of a Parliament without a King as he professed in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. 5. p. 27. Nor the Lords nor Commons intendment to dismember him from his Parliament or make themselves a Parliament without him as their foresaid Remonstrance testifies and the words of the act import Neither was it the Kings Lords or Commons meaning by this act to set up a Parliament only of Commons much less of a remnant of a Commons House selected by Colonel Pride and his confederates of the Army to serve their turns and vote what they prescribed without either King or House of Peers much less to give them any supertranscendent Authority to vote down and abolish the King and House of Lords and make them no Members of this present or any future Parliaments without their own order or assent against which so great usurpation and late dangerous unparliamentary encroachments this very act expresly provides in this clause That the House of Peers wherein the King sits as Soveraign when he pleaseth shall not at any time or times during this present Parliament be adjourned much less then dissolved excluded or suspended from sitting or voting which is the greater and that by their inferiours in all kinds a Fragment of the Commons House who can pretend no coulor of Jurisdiction over them before whom they alwayes stood bare-headed like so many Grand-Jury-men before the Judges and attended at their Doores and Barr to know their pleasures unlesse it be by Themselves or by their own Order 5. That neither the King Lords nor Commons intended to set up a perpetuall Parliament and intayl it upon them their Heirs and Successors for ever by this Act which would cross and repeal the Act for trienniall Parliaments made at the same time and on the same * day in Law but to make provision only against the untimely dissolving of this till the things mentioned in the Preamble were accomplished and setled as the Preamble and those oft repeated words any time or times during the continuance of this present Parliament conclude and that during His Majesties Reign and life not after his death as these words coupled with The relief of His Majesties Army and People and for supply of His Majesties present and urgent occasions in the Preamble manifest Therefore this Act can no wayes continue it a Parliament after the Kings beheading much less after the exclusion both of the King and Lords House out of Parliament by those now sitting contrary to the very letter and provision of this Act by which devise the King alone had he conquered and cut off or secluded by his Forces the Lords and Commons house from sitting might with much more colour have made himself an absolute Parliament to impose what Taxes and Lawes he pleased without Lords or Commons on the people by vertue of this Act then those few Commons now sitting since his tryall and death doe 6. The last clause of this Act And that all and every thing or things whatsoever DONE OR TO BE DONE to wit by the King or His authority for the adjournment proroguing or dissolving of THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT CONTRARY TO THIS PRESENT ACT SHALL BE VTTERLY VOID and of NONE EFFECT Now death and a dissolution of this Parliament by the Kings death cannot as to the King be properly stiled A thing done or to be done by Him for the adjournment proroguing or dissolving of this Parliament contrary to this present Act which cannot make the Kings death utterly void and of none effect by restoring him to his life again Therefore the dissolution of the Parliament by the Kings death is clearly out of the words and intentions of this Act especially so many years after its Enacting 7. This present Parliament and every Member thereof being specially summoned by the Kings Writ only to be HIS Parliament and Councell and to conferre with HIM of the great and urgent affaires concerning HIM and HIS Kingdom and these Writs and Elections of them returned unto HIM and HIS COURT by Indenture and the persons summoned and chosen by vertue of them appearing only in HIS Parliament for no other ends but those expressed in HIS WRITS it would be both an absurdity and absolute impossibility to assert that the Houses intended by this Act to continue this Parliament in being after the Kings beheading or death unless they that maintain this paradox be able to inform me and those now sitting how they can conferr and advise with a dead King of things concerning Him and His Kingdom and that even after they have extirpated Monarchy it self and made it Treason to assert or revive it and how they can continue still HIS Parliament and Councell whose head they have cut off and that without reviving or raising him from his grave or enstalling His right Heir and Successor in His Throne to represent His Person neither of which they dare to doe for fear of losing their own Heads and Quarters too for beheading him This Tax therefore being imposed on the Kingdom long after the Kings beheading and the Parliaments dissolution by it must needs be illegall and meerly void in Law to all intents because not granted nor imposed in but out of Parliament by those who were then no Commons nor Members of a Parliament and had no more authority to impose any Tax upon the Kingdom then any other forty or fifty Commoners whatsoever out of Parliament who may usurp the like authority by this president to Tax the Kingdom or any County what they please and then Levy it by an Army or force of Armes to the peoples infinite endless oppression and