the State the Army derived their Government by Martiall Law which in Judgment and Reason could be no longer binding then the Authority which gave being thereto was binding to the Army for the denyal of the authority is an Abrogation or Nulment of all Acts Orders or Ordinances by that Authority as to them And upon this account your Excellency with the Army long proceeded upon the Constitution of a new Councell and Government contrary to all Martiall Law and Discipline by whom onely the Army engaged to be ordered in their prosecution of the ends to wit Their several Rights both as Souldiers and Commoners for which they associated Declaring agreâ—ing and promising each other not to Disband Divide or suffer themselves to be Disbanded or Divided without satisfaction and security in relation to their Grievances and Desires in behalf of themselves and the Common-wealth as should be agreed unto by their Councell of Agitators And by vertue and under colour of this Establishment all the extraordinary Actions by your Excellency your Officers and the Army have past Your refusall to Disband disputing the Orders of Parliament Impeachment and ejection of Eleven Members your First and Second March up to London your late violent Exclusion of the major part of Members out of the House and their imprisonment without Cause declared c. which can no way be justified from the guilt of High Treason but in the accomplishment of a righteous end viz. The enjoyment of the benefit of our Laws and Liberties which we hoped long ere this to have enjoyed from your hands Yet when we consider and herewith compare many of your late carriages both towards the Souldiery and other Free-People and principally your cruel exercise of Martiall Law even to the Sentence and execution of Death upon such of your Souldiers as stand for the Rights of that Engagement c. And not only so but against others not of the Army we cannot but look upon your defection and Apostacie in such dealings as of most dangerous consequence to all the Laws and Freedoms of the People And therefore although there had never been any such solemn Engagement by the Army as that of June 5. 1647. which with your Excellency in point of duty and conscience ought not to be of the meanest obligation We do protest against your exercise of Martiall Law against any whomsoever in time of peace where all Courts of Justice are open as the greatest encroachment upon our Lawes and Liberties that can be acted against us And particularly against the Tryal of the Souldiers of C. Savages Troop yesterday by a Court Martiall upon the Articles of Warre and sentencing of two of them to deathâ— and for no other end as we understand but for some dispute about their pay And the reason of this our Protestation is from the Petition of Right made in the third yeer of the late King which declareth That no person ought to be adjudged by Law Martiall except in times of Warre And that all Commissions to execute Martiall Law in time of Peace are contrary to the Lawes and Statutes of the Land And it was the Parliaments complaint That Martiall Law was then commanded to be executed upon Souldiers for Robbery Mutiny or Murder Which Petition of Right this present Parliament in their late Declarations of the 9. of Feb. and the 17. of March 1648. commend as the most excellentest Law in England and there promise to preserve inviolably it and all other the Fundamentall Laws and Liberties concerning the preservation of the Lives Properties and Liberties of the people with all things incident thereunto And the Exercise of Martiall Law in Ireland in time of Peace was one of the chiefest Articles for which the Earl of Strafford lost his head The same by this present Parliament being judged high Treason And the Parliament it self neither by Act nor Ordinance can justly or warrantably destroy the Fundamentall Liberties and Principles of the Common Law of England It being a maxime in Law and Reason both that all such Acts and Ordinances are ipso facto null and void in Law and binds not at all but ought to be resisted and stood against to the death And if the supreme Authority may not presume to do this much lesse may You or Your Officers presume therupon for where remedy may be had by an ordinary course in Law the party grieved shall never have his recourse to extraordinaries Whence it is evident that it is the undoubted Right of every Englishman Souldier or other that he should be punishable onely in the ordinary Courts of Justice according to the Lawes and Statutes of the Realme in the time of Peace as now it is and the extraordinary way by Court Martiall in no wise to be used Yea the Parliaments Oracle S. Ed. Cook Declares in the third part of his Institutes Cap. of Murther that for a General or other Officers of an Army in time of Peace to put any man although a souldier to death by colour of Martiall Law it is absolute murther in that Generall or Councell of War 〈◊〉 Therefore erecting of Martiall Law now when all Courts of Justice are open and stopping the free current of Law which sufficiently provides for the punishment of Souldiers as well as others as appears by 18. H. 6 Ch. 18 19. 2 3. Ed. 6. Cha. 2. 4 5. P. M. Chap. 3. 5. Eliz. 5. 5. Jam. 21. is an absolute destroying of our Fundamentall Liberties and the razing of the Foundation of the Common Law of Eng 〈◊〉 the which oâ—t of duty and Conscience to the Rights and Freedoms of this Nation 〈◊〉 we value above our lives and to leave You and all Your Councell without all ex 〈◊〉 we are moved to present unto your Excellencie Earnestly pressing you well to consider what you doe before your proceed to the taking away the lives of thosemen by Martiall Law least the blood of the Innocent or the blood of War shed in the time of peace and so palpable subversion of the Lawes and Liberties of England bring the reward of just vengeance after it upon you as it did upon the Earle of Strafford of old for innocent blood God will not pardon Gen. 9 5. 6. 1 Kings 2 v. 4. 5. 28 29 30 31 32 33. and what the people may do in case of such violent subversion of their Rights we shall leave to your Excellency to judge and remaine Sir Your Excellencies humble Servants Iohn Lilburn Richard Overton From our Causelesse unjust and Tyranical Captivity in the Tower of London April 27. 1649. POST SCRIPT And that for the present General or his Councel to put any man to death in time of peace by Martiall Law is not only Murder but Treason is undenyably proved in Capt. John Ingrams Plea and M. William Tompsons Plea and M. Johâ— Crosmans Plea all of which are printed at large in Lieut. Col. John Lilburn's Book called FINIS
power of the whole Parliament to execute the Law they can give no power to you their Members to meddle with me in the case before you For an Ordinary Court of Justice the proper Administrator of the Law is the only and sole Judge in this particular and not you Gentlemen no nor your whole House it self And therefore if you be honest men and will be as good as your words oaths and promises which are to maintain the Laws in reference to the peoples Liberties I challenge at your hands the benefit of the Law and not to be past upon otherwise in any kinde For with your favour Mr. Bradshaw the fact that you suppose I have committed for till it be judicially proved and that must be before a legall Judge that hath cognisance of the fact or confessed by my self before the Judge it is but a bare supposition is either a crime or no crime a crime it cannot be unlesse it be a transgression of a Law in being before it was committed acted or done For where there is no Law * Rom. 4. 15. See the 4. part of the L. Cooks Institutes ch 1. High Court of Parl fol. 37. 38. 39. 41. See also my printed Epistle to the Speaker of the fourth of April 1648. called the Prisoners plea for an Habeas Corpus p. 5 6. and Englands Birth-right p. 1. 2. 3. 4. and the second edition of my Epistle to Judge Reeves p. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. and M. John Wildmans Truths Triumph p. 11. 12. 13. 14. and Sir John Maynards Case truly stated called The Laws Subversion p. 9. 13. 14. 15. 16. 38. there is no Transgression And if it be a Transgression of a Law that Law provides a punishment for it and by the Rules and method of that Law am I to be tryed and by no other whatsoever made ex post facto And therefore Sir if this be true as undoubtedly it is then I am sure you Gentlemen have no power in Law to convene me before you for the pretended crime laid unto my charge much lesse to fetch me by force out of my habitation by the power of armed men For Sir let me tell you The Law of England never made Colonels Lieutenant Colonels Captains or Souldiers either Bailisss Constables * See the Petition of Right in the 3. C. R. and my Book called the peoples Prerogative p. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 56. c. Yea I say that is the Generall take away by Martiall Law the life of Laughorn c. now in time of Peace the Courts of Justice being open he murders him or them and ought to die therefore or Justices of Peace And I cannot but wonder that you should attach me in such a manner as you have done considering that I have all along adhered to the Interest of the Nation against the common Enemy as you call them and never disputed nor contemned any Order or Summons from Parliament or the most irregularest of their Committees but always came to them when they sent for me although their Warrant of Summons was never so illegall in the forme of it and I have of late in a manner de die in diem waited at the House dore and was there that day the Votes you have read past till almost twelve a clock and I am sure there are some here present whose Couscience I beleeve tells them they are very much concerned in this Book row before you that saw me at the dore and stared wishfully upon me as they went into the House and I cannot but wonder there could be no Civil Officer found to summon me to appear but that now when there is no visible hostile enemy in the Nation and all the Courts of Justice open that you that have no power at all over me must send for me by a hundred or two hundred Armed Horse and Foot as though I were some monstrous man that with the breath of my mouth were able to destroy all the Civil Officers that should come to apprehend me Surely I had not endeavoured to fortifie my house against you neither had I betaken my self to a Castle or a defenced Garrison in hostility against you that you need to send a hundred or two hundred armed men to force me out of my house from my wife and children by four or five a clock in the morning to the distracting and afrighting of my wife and children Surely I cannot but look upon this irregular unjust and illegal hostile action of yours as one of the fruits and issues of your new created Tyranny to amuse and debase my spirit and the spirits of the People of this Free Nation to fit me and them for bondage and slavery This being the very practise of the Earl of Strafford before you as M. Pym in his declaration against him doth notably observe And Sir give me leave further to tell you that for divers hundreds of men that have often been in the field with their swords in their hands to encounter with hostile enemies and in their engagements have acquitted themselves like men of valour and come out of the field conquerours for these very men to put themselves in Martial Array against four Mise or Butterflyes taking them captives and as captives lead them through the streets me thinks is no small diminution to their former Martial Atchievements and Trophies And therefore to conclude this I do here before you all protest against your power and Jurisdiction over me in the case in controversie And also doe protest against your Warrant you issued out to apprehend me And against all your martial and hostile acts committed towards me as illegal unjust and tyrannical and no way in Law to be justified Further telling you that I saw most of the Lord of Strafford's arraignment and if my memory fail me not as little things as you have already done to me were by your selves laid to his charge as acts of Treason For which I saw him lose his head upon Tower-hill as a Traytor And I doubt not for all this that is done unto me but I shall live to see the Laws and Liberties of England firmly setled in despite of the present great opposers thereof and to their shame and confusion and so M. Bradshaw I have done with what I have now to say Upon which M. Bradshaw replied Lieut. Col. Lilburn you need not to have been so earnest and have spent so much time in making an Apologetical defence for this Councel doth not go about to try you or challenge any jurisdiction to try you neither doe we so much as ask you a question in order to your tryal and therefore you may correct your mistake in that particular Vnto which I said Sir by your favour if you challenge no Jurisdiction over me no not so much as in order to a tryal what do I here before you or what do you in speaking to me But Sir seeing I am now here give me leave to say
and by the Order of the Councel of State appointed by authority of Parliament Jo. Bradshaw President Note that we were committed upon Wensday their fast day being the best fruits that ever any of their fasts brought out amongst them viz. To sinite with the fist of wickednesse For the illegallity of this warrant I shall not say much because it is like all the rest of the warrants of the present House of Commons and their unjust Committees whose Warrants are so sufficiently anatomized by my quondam Comrade M. John Wildeman though much degenerated his Books called Truths Triumph and the Laws subversion being Sir John Maynard's Case truly stated and by my self in my late plea before the Judges of the Kings Bench now in print and intituled The Laws Funerall that it is needlesse to say any more of that particular and therefore to them I refer the Reader But to go on When we had read our Warrants we told Mr. Frost we would not dispute the legality of them because we were under the force of Guards of armed Musketiers So some time was spent to finde a man that would go with us to prison Captain Jenkins as I remember his name being Captain of the Guard and my old and familiar acquaintance was prevailed with by us to take the charge upon him who used us very civilly and gave us leave that night it being so late to go home to our Wives and took our words with some other of our friends then present to meet him in the morning at the Angel Tavern neer the Tower which we did accordingly and so marched with him into the Tower where coming to the Lieutenants House and after salutes each of other with very much civility the Lieutenant read his Warrants and Mr. Walwin as our appointed mouth acquainted him that we were Englishmen who had hazarded all we had for our Liberties and Freedoms for many yeers together and were resolved though Prisoners not to part with an inch of our Freedoms that with strugling for we could keep and therefore we should neither pay Fees nor chamber-rent but what the Law did exactly require us neither should we eat or drink of our own cast or charges so long as we could fast telling him it was our unquestionable right by Law and the custom of this place to be provided for out of the publick Treasure although we had never so much money in our pockets of our own which he granted to be true and after some more debate I told him we were not so irrationall as to expect that he out of his own money should provide for us but the principall end of our discourse with him was to put words in his mouth from our selves he being now our Guardian to move the Parliament or Councel of State about us which he hath acquainted us he did to the Councel of State who he saith granted the King or former times used to provide for the Prisoners But I say they will not be so just as he was in that particular although they have taken off his head for tyranny yet they must and will be greater Tyrants then he yea and they have resolved upon the Question that he shall be a Traytor that shall but tell them of their Tyranny although it be never so visible But let me tell them that saying of Mr. John Cook their Solicitor general in his Book called the Kings case stated is most true That in condemning the King for tyranny they have already past Sentence against themselves when they tyrannize But I say and will make it good upon my life before competent Judges that they are greater Tyrants then the King was and the Ring-leaders of them better deserved his punishment of losse of their heads then he did for he never made such professions of Libertie and Justice to the People as they have done but always maintained the people had no share in Government and that for his misgovernment he was accountable to none but God and yet I will justifie it their actions are as wicked as his yea I will maintain it that the cruel tyrant Duke D'Alva so much mentioned in Edmond Grimstons generall History of the Neather-Lands lib. 9. who with his High Court of Justice or Counsell of State put above eighteen thousand to death under pretence of Justice in less then five yeers fol. 435. 462. was more excusable then the Leaders of these men Yea bloudy Qu. Mary in comparison was a Saint to these men who never went about to burn or hang the Martyrs but for transgressing a Law in being yea and let them enjoy open tryals according to Law but these men would hang us for Traitors although we have transgressed none of their Laws yea and in the night contrary to Law in a close room examine us against our selves without producing face to face either prosecutor accuser or witnesse yea or so much as laying any crime unto our charge our chiefest Adversaries being our Judges Wherefore Hear O heavens and give ear O earth So now I have brought the Reader to my old contented lodging in the Tower where within two or three days of our arrivall there came one M. Richardson a Preacher amongst those unnatural un-English-like men that would now help to destroy the innocent and the first promoters in England as Cromwels beagles to do his pleasure of the first Petition for a personal Treaty almost two yeers ago and commonly stile themselves the Preachers to the seven Churches of Anabaptists which Richardson pretending a great deal of affection to the Common-wealth to Cromwel and to us and prest very hard for union and peace and yet by his petition since this endeavours to hang us telling us men cryed mightily out upon us abroad for grand disturbers that sought Cromwels bloud for all his good Service to the Nation and that would center nowhere but meerly laboured to pull down those in power to set up our selves And after a little discourse with him being all four present and retorting all he said back upon those he seemed to plead for before severall witnesses we appealed to his own conscience to this effect whether those could intend any hurt or tyranny to the people that desire and earnestly endeavoures for many years together that all Magistrates hands might be bound and limited by a just law and rule with a penalty annexed unto it that in case they out-stripe their rule they might forfeit life and estate therefore and that all Magistrates might be chosen by the free people of this Nation by common consent according to their undubitable right and often removed that so they might not be like standing waters subject to corruption and that the people might have a plain easie short and known Rule amongst themselves to walk by administred in their own Countries but such men were all we and therefore justly could not be stiled disturbers of any but onely such as sought to rule over the people by their absolute
his neighbours do report him to have been no small Personal Treaty man and also Captain Williams and M. Saul Shoe-maker both of Southwark who are said to be the Devills 3. deputies er informers against us and after they were turned out I was called in next and the dore being opened I marched into the Room with my hat on and looking about me I saw divers Members of the House of Commons present and so I put it off and by Sergeant Dendy I was directed to go neer M. Bradshaw that sat as if he had been Chairman to the Gentlemen that were there present between whom and my self past to this following effect Lievt Col. Lilburn said he here are some Votes of Parliament that I am commanded by this Councel to acquaint you with which were accordingly read and which did contain the late published and printed Proclamation or Declaration against the second part of England New Chains discovered with divers instructions and an unlimitted power given unto the Councel of State to finde out the Authors and Promoters thereof After the reading of which M. Bradshaw said unto me Sir You have heard what hath been read unto you and this Councell having information that you have a principle hand in compiling and promoting this Book shewing me the Book it self therefore they have sent for you and are willing to hear you speak for your self But I saw no Accuser prosecutor or witnesse brought face to face which were very strange proceedings in my judgement Well then M. Bradshaw said I If it please you and these Gentlemen to afford me the same liberty the Cavaliers did at Oxford when I was arraigned before them for my life for levying war in the quarrel of the Common-wealth against the late King and his party which was liberty of speech to speak my mind freely without interruption I shall speak and goe on but without the liberty of speach I shall not say a word more to you To which he replied That is already granted you and therefore you may go on and speak what you can or will say for your self if you please or if you will not you may hold your pyace and withdraw Well then said I M. Bradshaw with your favour thus I am an Englishman born bred brought up and England is a Nation Governed Bounded and Limited by Laws liberties and for the Liberties of England I have both fought and suffered much but truely Sir I judge it now infinitely below me and the glory and excellency of my late actions now to plead merit or desert unto you as though I were forced to fly to the merit of my former actions to lay in a counter-scale to weigh down your indignation against me for my pretended late offences No Sir I scorn it I abhor it And therefore Sir I now stand before you upon the bare naked and single account of an Englishman as though I had never said done or acted thing that tendeth to the preservation of the liberties thereof but yet have done any act that did put me out of a Legal capacity to claim the utmost punctilio benesit priviledge that the laws liberties of England will afford to any of you here present of any other man in the whole Nation And the Laws and Liberties of England are my inheritance and birth right And in your late Declaration published about four or five daies ago wherein you lay down the grounds and reasons as I remember of your doing Justice upon the late King and why you have abolished Kingly Government and the House of Lords you declare in effect the same and promise to maintain the Lawes of England in reference to the Peoples Liberties * See Their Declarations of the 9 of Feb. the 17 of March 1648 in which they positively declare they are fully resolved to maintain and shall and will preserve and keep the fundamental Laws of this Nation for and concerning the preservation of the lives properties and liberties of the people with all things incident thereunto but they of late years were never so good as their words nor I am confident never intead to be they having turned their backs upon common honesty upon the Lord their strength and made lies and falsehoods their refuge and fortress and therefore beleeve them no more for I will make it good they are worse then the King was whose head they have chopt off for a Traytor and Tyrant and thereby have condemned themselves as deserving his very punishment and Freedoms And amongst other things therein contained you highly commend and extol the Petition of Right made in the third year of the late King as one of the most excellent and gloriest Laws in reference to the people liberties that ever was made in this Nation and you there very much blame and cry out upon the King for robbing and denying the people of England the benefit of that Law and sure I am for I have read and studied it there is one clause in it that saith expresly That no Free man of England ought to be adjudged for life limbe liberty or estate but by the Laws already in being established and declared And truly Sir if this be good and sound Legal Doctrine as undoubtedly it is or else your own Declarations are false and lies I wonder what you Gentlemen are For the declared and known Laws of England knows you not neither by names nor qualifications as persons endowed with any power either to imprison or try me or the meanest Free-man of England and truly were it not that I know the faces of divers of you and honour the persons of some of you as Members of the House of Commons that have stood pretty firm in shaking times to the interest of the Nation I should wonder what you are or before whom I am should not in the least honour or reverence you so much as with Civil Respect especially considering the manner of my being brought before you with armed men and the manner of your close sitting contrary to all courts of Justice whose dores ought alwayes to stand wide open M. Bradshaw it may be the house of Commons hath past some Votes or Orders to authorise you to sit here for such and such ends as in their Orders may be declared But that they have made any such Votes or Orders legally unknown to me I never saw them It s true by common Fame you are bruted abroad and sâ—iled a Councel of State but its possible common Fame in this particular may as well tell me a lye as a truth But admit common Fame do in this tell me a truth and no lye but that the House of Commons in good earnest hath made you a Councel of State yet I know not what that is because the Law of England tells me nothing of such a thing and surely if a Councel of State were a Court of Justice the Law would speak something of it But I have read both
old and new Lawes yea all of late that it was possible to buy or hear of and they tell me not one word of you and therefore I scarce know what to make of you or what to think of you but as Gentlemen that I know I give you civill respect and out of no other consideration But if you judge your selves to be a Councel of â—tâ—â—e and by vertue thereof think you have any power over me I pray you shew me your Commission that I may know the better how to behave my self before you M. Bradshaw I will noâ—â—ow question or dispute the Votes or Orders of the present single House of Commons in reference to their power as binding Lawes to the people yet admit them to be valid legal and good their due circumstances accompanying them yet Sir by the Law of England let me tell you what the House Votes Orders and Enacts within their walls is nothing to me I am not at all bound by them nor in Law can take any cognisance of them as Lawes although 20 Members came out of the House and tell me such things are done till they be published and declared by sound of Trumpet Proclamation or or the like by a publike Officer or Magistâ—ate in the publike and open places of the Nation But truly Sir I never saw any Law in Print or writing that declares your power so proclaim'd or published and therefore Sir I know not what to make more of you then a company of private men being neither able to own you for a Court of Justice because the Law speaks nothing of you nor for a Councel of State till I see and read or hear your Commission which I desire if you please to be acquainted with But Sir give me leave further to aver unto you and upon this Principle or Averment I will venture my life and being and all I have in the world That if the House had by a Proclaimed and declared Law Vote or Order made this Councel as you call your selves a Court of Justice yet that proclaimed or declared Law Vote or Order had been unjust and null and void in itself And my reason is because the House it self was never neither now nor in any age before betrusted with a Law-executing power but only with a Law making power And truly Sir I should have look'd upon the people of this Nation as very fools if ever they had betrusted the Parliament with a Law-executing power and my reason is because if they had so done they had then chosen and impowred a Parliament to have destroyed them but not to have preserved them which is against the very nature and end of the very being of Parliaments they being by your own declared doctrine chosen to provide for the peoples weale but not for their wo First part Declarat pag. 150 266 267 269 276 279 280 304 361 382 494 696 700 716 726. And Sir the reason of that reason is because its possible if a Parliament should execute the Law they might do palpable injustice and mâ—â—e administer it and so the people would be robbed of their intended extraordinary benefit of Appeals for in such cases they must appeal to the Parliament either against it self or part of it self and can it ever be imagined they will ever condemn themselves or punish themselves nay will they not rather judge themselves bound in honour and safety to themselves to vote that man a Traytot and destroy him that shall so much as question their actions although formerly they have dealt never so unjustly with them For this Sir I am sure is very commonly practised now a dayes and therefore the honesty of former Parliaments in the discharge of their trust and duty in this particular was such that they have declared the power is not in them to judge or punish me oâ— the meanest free man in England beeng no Member of their House although I should beat or wound one of their Members nigh unto their door going to the House to discharge his duty but I am to be sent in all such cases to the Judge of the upper * See 5. H. 4. 6. 11. H. 6. ch 11. See also my plea against the Lords jurisdiction before the Judges of the Kings Bench called the Laws Funerall pag. 8. 9. and my grand plea against the Lords jurudiction made before Mr. Maynard of the House of Commons and the four imprisoned Aldermen of London's plea against the Lord jurisdiction published by M. Lionel Hurbin 1648. Bench unto whom by Law they have given declared rules and direction in that particular how to behave himself which be as evident for me to know as himself Now â—iâ— if reason and justice do not judg it convenient that the Parliament shall not be Judges in such particular cases that are of so neer concernment to themselves but yet hath others that are not of their House that are as well concerned as themselves much lesse will reason or justice admit them to be judges in particular cases that are farther remote stom their particular selves and do meerly concern the Common-wealth and sure I am Sir this is the declared Statute Law of England and doth stand in full force at this hour there being I am sure of it no Law to repeal it no not since the House of Commons set up their new Common-wealth Now Sir from all this I argue thus that which is not inherent in the whole cannot by the whole be derived or assigned to a part But it is not inherent neither in the power nor authority of the whole House of Commons primarily and originally to â—â—ecute the Law and therefore they cannot derive it to a part of themselves But yet Sir with your favour for all this I would not be mistaken as though I maintained ned the Parliament had no power to make a Court of Justice for I do grant they may erect a Court of Justice to administer the Law provided that the Judges consist of persons that are not Members of their House and provided that the power they give them be universall that is to say to administer the Law to all the people of England indefinitely and not to two or three particular persons solely the last of which for them to do is * And therefore I aver that the High Court of Justice that sate upon Duke Hamilton the Earl of Holland c. was no Court of Justice but in the eye of the Law murdered those Noble men for which Bradshaw and the rest of his fellow Judges are not in the eye of the Law so excusable as was Empson and Dudly that Sir Edward Cook speaks of in the 2. part Insâ—it fo 51. 3 part f. 208. 4. part Inst fol. 41. 196. 197. 198. who yet lost their lives as Traitors for subverters of the fundamentall Laws of England unjust and altogether out of their power And therfore Sir to conclude this point It being not in the
one word more and that is this I am not onely in time of peace the Courts of Justice being all open fetcht and forc't out of my house by multitudes of armed men in an hostile manner and carried as a captive up and down the streets contrâ—ry to all Law and Justice but I am by force of Armes still kept in their custody and it may be may be intended to be sent to them again who are no Guardians of the Law of England no nor so much as the meanest Administrators or executors of it but ought to be subject to it themselves and to the Administrators of it as is cleer by the Petition of Right c. yea the General himself And truly Sir I had rather die then basely betray my Liberties into their martiall fingers who after their fighting for our Freedoms would now destroy them and tread them under their feet that have nothing at all to do with me nor any pretended or reall civill offender in England I know not what you intend to do with me neither do I much care having learned long since to die and rather for my Liberties then in my bed It s true I am at present in no capacity effectually to dispute your power because I am under guards of armed Masketiers but I intreat you if you will continue me a prisoner that you will free me from the military Sword and send me to some Civil Gaol and I will at present in peace and quietnesse obey your command and go And so I concluded and was commanded to withdraw which I did and then Mr. William Walwin was called in and while he was within I gave unto my Comrades Mr. Prince and Mr. Overton and the rest of the people a summary account of what had past between me and them And within a little time after Mr. Walwin came out again and Mr. Overton was called in next And at Mr. Walwin's coming out he acquainted us what they said to him which was in a manner the same they said to me and all that he said to them was but this That he did not know why he was suspected To which Mr. Bradshaw replyed Is that all you have to say And Mr. Walwin answered Yes So he was commanded to withdraw And after M. Overton was come out M. Prince was called in and after he had withdrawn they spent some time of debate among themselves and then I was called in again So I marched in Sutable to my first posture and went close to M. Bradshaw who said unto me to this effect Lieut. Colonel Lilburn this Councel hath considered what you have said and what they have been informed of concerning you and also of that duty that lies upon them by the command of the House which enjoynes them to improve their utmost ability to find out the Author of this Book and therefore to effect that end they judge themselves bound to demand of you this question Whether you made not this Book or were privie to the making of it or no And after some pause and wondring at the strangeness of the quesion I answered and said M. Bradshaw I cannot but stand amazed that you should ask me such a question as this at this time of the day considering what you said unto me at my first being before you and considering it is now about eight yeers ago since this very Parliament annihilated the Court of Star-chamber Councel board and High Commission and that for such proceedings as these * See the Acts that abolished them made in the 16 C. R. printed in my Book called The peoples Prerogative p. 22. 23. 24. 25. And truly Sir I have been a contestor and sufferer for the Liberties of England these twelve years together and I should now look upon my self as the baseft fellow in the world if now in one moment I should undo all that I have been doing all this while which I must of necessity do if I should answer you to questions against my self For in the first place by answering this question against my self I should betray the Liberties of England in acknowledging you to have legall Jurisdiction over me to try and adjudge me which I have already proved to your faces you have not in the least And if you have forgot what you said to me thereupon yet I have not forgot what I said to you And Secondly Sir If I should answer to questions against my self and so betray my self I should do that which not onely Law but Nature abhorrs And therefore I cannot but * And well might I for M. John Cook and M. Bradshaw himself were my Counsel at the Lords Bar against the Star-chamber the 13 of Feb. 1645. where M. Bradshaw did most excellently oppen the Star-chamber injustice towards me and at the reading of their first Sentence he observed to the Lords that that Sentence was felo de se guilty of his own death the ground whereof said he being because M. Lilburn refused to take an oath to answer to all such questions as should be demanded of him it being contrary to the Laws of God Nature and the Kingdom for any man to be his own Accuser whose words you may more at large read in the printed Relation thereof drawn up by M. John Cook and my self p. 3. But he that condemned it in the Star-chamber now practiseth it in the Councel of State but the more base and unworthy man he for so doing wonder that you your selves are not ashamed to demand so iilegall and unworthy a thing of me as this is and therefore in short were it that I owned your power which I do not in the least I would be hanged before I would do so base and un-Englishman like an Action to betray my Liberty which I must of necessity do in answering questions to accuse my self But Sir this I will say to you My late Actions have not been done in a hole or a corner but on the house top in the face of the Sun before hundreds and some thousands of people and therefore why ask you me any questions Go to those that have heard me and seen me and it is possible you may finde some hundreds of witnesses to tell you what I have said and done for I hate holes and corners My late Actions need no covers nor hidings they have been more honest then so and I am not sorry for what I have done for I did look well about me before I did what I did and I am ready to lay down my life to justifie what I have done And so much in answer to your question But now Sir with your favour one word more to minde you again of what I said before in reference to my Martiall imprisonment and truly Sir I must tell you Circumstantials of my Liberty at this time I shall not much dispute but for the Essentials of them I shall die I am now in the Souldiers custodie where to continue in silence and
patience is absolutely to betray my Liberty for they have nothing to do with me nor the meanest free man of England in this case And besides Sir they have no rules to walk by but their wils and their swords which are two dangerous things it may be I may be of an hasty cholerick temper and not able nor willing to bear their affronts and peradventure they may be as willing to put them upon me as I am unwilling to bear them and for you in this case to put fire and tinder together to burn up one another will not be much commendable nor tend much to the accomplishment of your ends But if for all this you shall send me back to the Military Sword again either to Whitehall or any other such like garison'd place in England I do solemnly protest before the Eternall God of heaven and earth I will fire it and burn it down to the ground if possibly I can although I be burnt to ashes with the flames thereof for Sir I say again the Souldiers have nothing to do to be my Gaolers and besides it is a maxime among the souldiers That they must obey without dispute all the Commands of their Officers be they right or wrong and it is also a maxime amongst the Officers That if they do not do it they must hang for it therefore if the Officers command them to cut my throat they must either do it or hang for it And truly Sir looking wishly upon Cromwel that sate just against me I must be plain with you I have not found so much Honour Honesty Justice or Conscience in any of the principall Officers of the Armie as to trust * And truly I am more then afraid honest Capt. Brav hath too much experience of this in Windsor Castle who though he be but barely committed thitther into safe custody yet as I from very â—â—od hands am informed the Tyrannicall Governour Whichcock Cromwels creature doth keep him close prisoner denying him the benefit of the Castle air keeping not onely pen and ink from him but also his friends and necessaries with which cruelty c. he hath already almost murdered and destroyed the honest man in whose place were I and so illegally and unjustly used a flune if possibly I could should be the portion of my chamber although I perished in it my life under their protection or to think it can be safe under their immediate fingers and therefore not knowing nor much caring what you will do with me I earnestly intreat you if you will again imprison me send me to a Civil Gaol that the Law knows as New-gate the Fleet or the Gate-house and although you send me to a Dungeon thither will I go in peace and quietnesse without any further dispute of your Authority for when I come there I know those Gaolers have their bounds and limits set them by the Law and I know how to carry my self towards them and what to expect from them and if they do abuse me I know how in law to help my self And so Sir I have said what at present I have to say Whereupon Mr. Bradshaw commanded the Sergeant to put me out at another door that so I should no more go amongst the people and immediately Mr. Walwin was put out to me and asking him what they said to him I found it to be the same in effect they said to me demanding the same fore-going question of him that they did of me to which question after some kinde of pause he answered to this effect That he could not but very much wonder to be asked such a questions however that it was very much agaâ—st his judgement and conscience to answer to questions of that nature which concerned himself that if he should answer to it he should not onely betray his own Liberty but the Liberties of all Englishâ—en which he could not do with a good conscience And he could not but exceedingly grieve at the dealing he had found that day That being one who had always been so faithfull to the Parliament and so well known to most of the Gentlemen there present and that neverthelesse he should be sent for with a party of Hoâ—se and Foot to the affâ—ighting of his Family and ruine of his credit And that he could not be satisfied but that it was very hard measure to be used thus upon suspicion onely And that if they did hold him under restraint from following his businesse and occasions it might be his undoing which he conceived they ought seriously to consider of Then M. Bradshaw said He was to answer the question and that they did not ask it as in way of Tryal so as to proceed in Judgment thereupon but to report it to the House To which M. Walwin said That he had answered it so as he could with a good conscience and could make no other Answer and so withdrew And after he came out to me Mr. Overton was next called in again and then Mr. Prince so after we were all come out and all four in a room close by them all alone I laid my ear to their door and heard Lieutenant General Cromwel I am sure of it very loud thumping his fist upon the Councel Table till it rang again and heard him speak in these very words or to this effect I tell you Sir you have no other way in 〈◊〉 with these men but to break them in pieces and thumping upon the Councel Table again he said Sir Let me tell you that which is true if you do not break them they will break you yea and bring all the guilt of the bloud and treasure shed and spent in this Kingdom upon your heads and shoulders and frustrate and make void all that work that with so many yeers industry toil and pains you have done and so render you to all rationall men in the world as the most contemptible generation of silly low-spirited men in the earth to be broken and routed by such a despâ—cable contemptible generation of men as they are And therefore Sir I tell you again you are necessitated to * Reader Observe I pray that this 40 headed Tyrant called the Councel of State are under an oath of Secresie so that if the Cromwellitish Faction plot there the ruine and destruction of the Nation or all the honest men in it the rest that do not consent with them must not reveal it But the more unworthy men are they amongst them that profess to be lovers of their Country to take such a wicked oath of secresie break them But being a little disturbed by the supposition of one of their Messengers coming into the room I could not so well hear the Answer to him which I think was Colonel Ludlow's voice who pressed to bail us for I could very well hear him say VVhat would you have more then security for them Upon which discourse of Cromwel's the bloud ran up and down my veins and I heartily wished
Harrison the Generall being but their stalking Hors and a Cipher and there trayterous faction ** For the greatest Traytors they are that ever were in this Nation as upon the losse of my head l Ioh. Lilburn will by law under take to prove and make good before the next free and just Parliament to whom I hereby appeal having by their wills and Swords got all the Swords of England under their command and the disposing of all the great places in England by sea and land andalso the pretended law executing power by making among themselves contrary to the Lawes and Liberberies of *** For the people being in reason justice and truth as well as by the Parliaments late votes the true fountain and original of all just power they ought not only in Reason Right and Justice chuse their own law makers but all and every of their law executors and to obey none what soever but of their own choice and it is not only their right by reason and justice but Sir Ed. Cooke in his second part Institut published for good Law by this present house of Commons declares and proves Fol. 174. 175. 558. 559. that by law it was and is the peoples right to chuse their Coroner Justices or conservators of the Peace as also their high Sheriff and Verderors of Forest and saith he there expresly for the time of War there were likewise Leaders of the Countreys Souldiers of Ancient time chosen by the Free-holders of the county but it 's true the chiefest of these things were expresly taken from the people and invested in the King by the Statute of the 27. Hen. 3 chap. 24. and therefore Kingly government being abolished the right is returned into the people the king or fountain of power and cannot be exercised as a new devise by the Parliament although they were never so legally and Justly chosen by them without a conference with them thereupon a power deputed to them for that end as Sir Edward Cooke declares in the 4 part of his Institutes chap. High Court of Parliament Fol. 14. 34. therefore I do hereby declare all the present Parliaments Justices Sherifs c. to be no Justices Sherifs c. either in law or reason but meer tyrants invadors and usurpers of their power and authority and may very well in time come to be hanged for executing their pretended offices England all Judges Justices of Peace Sheriffs Bailiffes Committee-men c. to execute their wils and tyranny walking by no limits or bounds but their own wils and pleasures And trayterously assume unto themselves a power to levie upon the people what money they please and dispose of it as they please yea even to buy knives to cut the peoples throats that pay the money to them and to give no account for it till Dooms-day in the afternoone they having already in their wills and power to dispose of Kings Queen Princes Dukes and the rest of the Childrens Revenues Deans and Chapter lands Bishops lands sequestered Deliquents lands sequestred Papists lands Compositions of all sorts amounting to millions of money besides Excise and Customs yet this is not enough although if rightly husbanded it would constantly pay above one hundred thousand men and â—urnish an answerrable Navy thereunto But the people must now after their trades are lost and their estates spent to procure their liberties freedoms be sessed about 100000. pound a month that **** But saith there own Oracle Sir Ed. Cook in the 4 part of his instutes chap. High Court of Parliament Fol. 14. 34. It is also the Law and custome of Parliament that when any new device is moved on the Kings behalf in Parliament for his aid or the like the Commons may answer that they tendâ—ed the Kings estate and are ready to aide the same only in this new device they dare not agree without conference with their countries whereby it appeareth saith he that such conferences is warrantable by the law and custome of Parliament and this was doâ—e in the Parliament of the 9. Ed. 3. nuâ—b 5 but the present Parliament assume unto themselves the regall office in the height and therefore ought not to be their own carvers in reference to the peoples purses but ought to demand and obtain their consents especially in time of peace before they levie either 90000 pounds per month or any such like new device what ever and therefore I know neither law equity or reason to compel the people to pay a penny of it unlesse they have a desire to bring themselves into the same condition in reference to the present Parliament that the Egyptians were to Pharoah when Joseph was so hard hearted as to make the Egyptians to pay so dear for bâ—ead-corn that it cost them all their money and all their cattle yea all their lands and also themselves for his slaves Gen. 47. 14. 15. 16. c. for which tyranny God plagued him and his posterity by making them slaves to the Egyptians afterwards so they may be able like so many cheaters and and State theeves to give 6. 8. 10. 12. 14. 16000. pounds apeice over again to one another as they have done already to divers of themselves to buy the Common-wealths lands one of another contrary to the duty of Trustees who by law nor equity can neither given or sell to one another or two or three yeers purchase the true and valuable rate considered as they have already done and to give 4 or 5000l per annum over again to King Crumwell with ten or twenty thousand pounds worth of wood uponit as they have done already out of the Earl of Worcesters estate c. Besides about four or five pounds a day he hath by his places of Lieut. Generall and Colonel of Horse in the Army besides the extraordinary advancement of many of his kindred that so they might stick close to him in his tyranny although he were at the beginning of this Parliament but a poor man yea little better then a begger to what he is now as well as other of his neighbours But to return those Gentlemen that would have had us bailed lost the day by one vote as we understood for all their wicked oath of secrecy and then about 12. at night they broke up a fit hour for such works of wickednesse John 3. 19. 20. 21. and we went into their pretended Secretary and found our commitments made in these words our names changed viz. These are to will and require you to receive herewith into your custody the Person of Lieu. Col. John Lilburn and him safely to keep in your Prison of the Tower of London untill you receive further order he being committed to upon suspition of high Treason of which you are not to fail and for which this shall be your sufficient Warrant given at the Councel of State at Derby-house 28. day of March 1649. To the Lieu. of the Tower of London Signed in the name
which I have proved that I am more cruelly dealt with then bloudy Bonner dealt with the poor Saints and Martyrs in Queen Marys dayes and that I am denyed that which in England was never yet denyed to any Traytor that ever I read of And in it I accuse William Laud the Prelate of Canterbury for High Treason the which I did a yeer agone before Sir John Banks Knight and will still venture my life upon the proof thereof if I may have a Legall proceeding One ground of my accusation is this the Parliament Laws and Statutes of this Land as the 25 and 37 of Hen. 8. and the first of Edw. 6. and the first and 27 of Elizabeth doth enact to this effect That whosoever goes about to set up or challenge any forrain or domestick Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but what doth immediately flow and come from the Imperiall Crown is ipso facto a Traitor and ought to die without the benefit of Clergie as more at large in them you may read Now the Bishop of Canterbury and the rest of his mercilesse brethren about four yeers agone in the Censure of that Noble Doctor Bastwick now of late much degenerate there in their open Court at Lambeth renounced the King and his Authority and said They were not beholding to him for their Episcopall Jurisdiction for they were made Bishops by Jesus Christ and consecrated by the holy Ghost and they had their thrones and were before Christian Kings and they held the Crowns of Kings upon their heads and their Maxime was No Bishop no King And if this be not treason then I think there was never any committed And this with much more to this effect Doctor Bastwick doth declare in his answer to Sir John Banks his Information as you may read in the tenth and eleventh pages thereof And for this most Noble Lord was I against all Law and Justice laid in irons for a long time together in a most inhumane manner and lock'd up close prisoner for these twelve months together against all Law and to the violating of the Subjects Libertie for by Magna Charta and other Statutes of this Land which are still in force but onely the execution of them is thrown in the kennell neither the Lord Keeper nor any others ought to commit any of the Kings Subjects close prisoners unless either for Felony or Treason and onely in case of an extraordinary crime and then they must forthwith bring them to their tryall But by close imprisonment the Law doth not mean that the Kings Subjects should be locked up in rooms much lesse that their friends should not be suffered to come to speak with them and bring them victuals to preserve their lives as grave Judge Crâ—ok not long since in his Speech at Westminster-Hall did prove when he pleaded for the Subjects Liberty But contrary to the Parliament Laws yea and the practice of Heathens and Pagans I am locks up close all alone and cannot be suffered to come to a just tryall but am kept up so close that my friends and acquaintance that bring me relief I being long since deserted of my Kindred are not suffered to come at me but are sent away with that they bring me with all the abuses reproaches and revilings that possible may be by my Keeper And one that came unto me he hath beaten and others he hath threatned to kick if they come any more to me and to others of them he hath most fasly and slinderously reviled me calling me Rebell and Traytor telling them that no victuals should come at me so that I am forced daily in regard of barbarous cruelty to cry out aloud at my iron grate to the prisoners and strangers to let them know the height of my misery wherein I live and yet no redresse can I have but daily more and more cruelty is exercised upon me and many grievous threats from bloudy murthering Morry my keeper who threatens to hamper me and lock my head and legs together for my complaining This he did the last Lords day at night and also offered to beat me with his keys in so much that at ten a clock at night I was forced to cry out to the prisoners of it And in this most miserable condition do I remain though I have been dangerously sick almost these eleven months which many times hath brought me even unto deaths door and in regard of my exceeding extremity of pain in my head by reason of my long closenesse ever since Candlemass Term was twelve months and my cruell torments besides I have been constrained for to get a little ease of my extream pain which in sudden fits takes me for two or three hours together to be tied to a constant course of Physick usually once in fourteen dayes and sometimes oftner And though of late I had a little liberty to walk once a day in the common prison yard yet I am now deprived of it by the Warden for complaining of my keepers cruelty and his shamefull abusing me and my friends which did but come to look upon me with whom this was my greatest discourse that I had tied my self by promise before I could get that little liberty of walking that I would not talk with any Friends therefore I desired them not to be offended for I durst not talk with them Yet because they came but to see me I was deprived of it and also they that looked to me in my sicknesse and weaknesse kept from me so that now in my weakness I have none to look to me In my Grievous and mournfull Complaint already published I have a little touched the Wardens galled conscience for his cruell oppressions wherefore he in revenge it seems intends to murther me lest I should by my just complaints make it cost him as dear as the salving up of his wickednesse did when he was last called to an account for I have heard the prisoners with open mouth proclaim it that for making his peace he gave to the Barl of Bohon ten thousand pounds and to the fore-man of the Jury one thousand pounds for which his conscience being troubled he revealed it upon his death bed And also to an Officer five hundred pounds to rase out some things which were upon record yea I have heard the poor Prisoners proclaim it aloud that he cozens them of above seven hundred pounds a yeer which belongs to them and allows them but a small pittance upon which they are not able to live and some of them have severall times in the open Chappel cryed out to the Gentlemen prisoners that they are ready to starve and perish for want of food yea so great hath been the barbarous cruelty of the Warden to the poor that if the Prisoners reports may be beleeved poor men here have been forced for want of food to eat their own dung And this had been my own condition in likelyhood had not God raised up some compassionate Friends that were meer strangers
unto me before my sufferings some of which through all difficulties and reproaches from my Keeper have brought me food And though the poor have not by the Wardens means the tenth part of their due yet to lessen that small means which the poor hitherto hath had some of which have nothing else in the world to live upon he hath of late added unto them so many more some of which are men of able estates which he hath put upon the charity contrary to their Orders purposely to starve the poor indeed yea he hath by force put upon the charity Henry the Hangman who is under-Turn-key and hath forty pound land a yeer as he himself confesseth and whose vailes besides as I have heard the prisoners say are some times better worth then three shillings a day and this the warden hath done for him because he is so officious and ready in beating and abusing the poor distressed prisoners that cry out of the wardons cruelty and not only the poor prisoners but also some of those that come to visit and relievethem some of which he hath beat and threatned to kick others I have heard the prisoners affirm that the revenues of the Fleet hath been cast â—p to be above threescore thousand pounds a yeer oh therefore the height of cruelty not to be paralell'd I think amongst the savage and barbarous Heathens and Pagans and which mightily crys unto your Honer now in our Soveraigns absence for the wellfare of the City betimes to be looked unto and with the assistance of the Noble Lord Protector to examine out the truth of things that poor oppressed men may have speedy redress of their wrongs the greatest part of which ariseth by reason of the wardens greatnesse with the Bishop of Canterbury and the Lord Keeper so that they dare not for fear as I have heard some of them say complain of him Besides my Lord it is notoriously known that John Morry my upper keeper hath been arraigned at Newgate for murthering a prisoner here in former times and I think here are other fresh things against him if poor prisoners might be heard and have justice which would bear another inditement and at least manifest him to be too too bloudy a man to have the keeping of poor innocent men For some in this prison as it is here reported have been secretly poysoned and lost their lives upon it and others with eating garlike and like antidotes have expelled it and are yet living here to justifie the same and my dogged under keeper hath been a hangman whereupon the prisoners at their fallings out with him do say this verse to his face vix Morry the Irish pedler and Harry the hangman of Cambridge-Shiere and by these two bloody men from both of which I have received unsufferable wrongs my Adversaries intend I shall be killed in a corner Because of my untainted innocency they dare not bring me to a legall publike tryal to the view of the Kingdom wherefore I am forced by reason of intolerable cruely injustice and wrong to cry out unto your Honour as I have often done at my grate murther murther murther therefore hear O Heavens and give care O Earth and all ye that hear or read this my just complaint and lamentation bear witnesse to future generations that I cry out of violence wrong injustice cruelty and inhumanity that I suffer from the trayterous Bishop and the unjust Lord Keeper old Sir Henry Vaine and their bloody Jaylours which do and will execute their commands be they never so unjust and unlawfull And how that for my zeal and courage for my God and his truth and glory and for my ardent love to my Prince and Country and for my strong deâ—ire and indeavour for the prosperity and flourishing estate of this renowned City the Metropolis of England I am like to lose my life and blood by murthering cruelty in close Imprisonment Therefore oh all ye brave and worthy Citizens save help and rescue me a poor distressed and greatly oppressed young man from the devouring pawes of devouring Lionish men Now my Honorable Lord I come to make my humble supplication unto your self which is this that you would be pleased to take my most deplorable condition into your grave and serious consideration and after your consultation about it with your worshipfull brethren the Aldermen of this City acquaint the honourable Lord protector that noble and courteous Earl of Northumberland with it who in part knows it already but alas alas I am long since deserted of my kindred and friends so that I have none that dare follow my businesse for me wherefore I am like shortly to perish in my great distress unless your Lorships be pleased in this particular to do something for me I desire from your Honours neitheir silver nor gold for alas at present it would do me no pleasure for had I all treasure in the world to buy me victuals and want a stomack when I should have them they would nothing avail me and yet so lamentable is my condition by reason of my longe closeness and painfull sickness so that all the favour I desire is but the one of these two things First that îf I be thought to be an offender that then I may be forthwith brought to a publick tryal and suffered with freedom to pleade my own just cause again the Bishops and the Lord Keeper and old Sir Henry Vaine's illegall and unjust censure of me which was onely upon this ground because I refused to take an illegall and unlawfull inquisition oath which he the Lord Keeper tendred to me which as I told him to his face in the Star-chamber is against the Statute Lawes of this land yea against the petttion of right enacted in the 3 yeer of our Soveraign King Charles yea I told him and proved it to be against the Lawes of God and man and contrary to the practise of the Heathens and Pagans as you may read in the Acts of the Apostles yet this was the onely ground wherefore he and old Sir Henry Vane c. censured me to pay 500 pound and to be whipt for there was no witness brought against me face to face onely there was read two false oaths made by one Edmond Chillington now a Lieut. in Col. Whalyes Regiment and one of the principal men that lately caused the Souldier to be shot to death at Pauls whom the Bishop hired by giving him his liberty out of New-gate prison for swearing those two false oaths and doing them other wicked service of the like nature My Lord for my own part I desire no mercy nor favour nor compassion from the greatest of my enemies but onely the benefit of my Soveraignes Lawes which as I am a faithfull and loyal subject to my Prince and Contry I do according to my priviledge earnestly crave and begg not fearing by reason of my unspotted Innocency the rigour of Justice for my innocency is such that I fear neither