his Lordships owne Not to the law of Nature which in any case where the safety of the whole commeth into question doth not bind it selfe from ordering in the great world that light things shall descend heavy ascend In the little that the whole man upon consultation shall consent to the cutting off of a gangren'd hand or foot though the former bee contrary to that Common Law whereby elementall bodyes are governed in their motions And the latter against that dictate of Nature which inclineth each member to have a compassionate care of the preservation of another so strongly that except in a like case no part nor the rest of the whole may nor can consent to such a mutilation Not to the Law of the Land For in that very Statute of 25. Edw. 3. Cap. 2. whereby Treasons were first declared there is a passage which doth quite overthrow his Lordships distinction and rules squared to his present purpose as is yet plainer by divers subsequent statutes if I understand English and there be no more but that and a little right reason requisite to understand Statute law as there ought to bee I will here transcribe the severall passages wherein I observe that some or all of the latter Statutes are repealed but that is not materiall to the purpose for which I cite them 25. Ed. 3. Cap. 2. And because that many other like Cases of treason may happen in time to come which a man cannot thinke nor declare at this present time It is accorded that if any other Case supposed Treason which is not above specified doth happen before any Justices the Justices shall tarry without geing to judgement of the Treason till the Case be shewed and declared before the King and his Parliament whether it ought to be judged Treason or Felony 21. Rich. 2. Cap. 3. And that this Statute shall extend and hold place as well to them which be judged or attainted for these foure points of the said Treason in this present Parliament as of them which shall be judged or attainted in the Parliament in time to time of any of the foure points of Treason afore said 8. Hen. 6. cap. 6. And that this ordinance extend as well to such hurnings made after the first day of the raigne if our Soveraigne Lord the King till this time as to burnings to be made in time to come 22. Hen. 8. cap. 9. And that the said Richard Roose for the said murther and poysoning of the sard two persons as is aforesaid by authority of this present Parliament shall stand and bee attainted of High treason And because that detestable offence now newly practised and committed requireth condigne punishment for the same It is ordained and enacted by Authority of this present Parliament that the said Richard Roose shall therefore be boyled to death His offence was poysoning a Pot of Pottage By all which I conceive it to be elcere as the Noon-day that the Parliaments of England have heretofore as now used to looke backward as well as forwards if the occasion required it And so that his Lordships distinction hath no ground in the Law of the Land And truly it hath is little in the law of God For in that we reade that Moses and Aaron and all the Congregation to whom the man that was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath day was brought at first indeed did only put him in ward because it was not yet declared what should be done to him But when it was declared they then stoned that same man to death for that former fact by a Law made a posteriori The very same proceeding was held with the sonne of the Israelitish woman whose Father was an Egyptian for blaspheming or cursing for he was also stoned to death a posteriori and a generall Law declared upon the occasion that as wel the stranger as he that is borne in the Land when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall be put to death This furnisheth an Answer to the Objection I have heard made to the former Instance that the gatherer of sticks on the Sabbath was put to death by a speciall direction from God which may no more bee drawne into example now then Abrahams going about to sacrifice his Sonne For not to divert into that Question whether that Declaration of God Almightie ought to have beene a direction to the Jewes to punish the breach of the Sabbath with death which for ought appeares was not so understood by them unlesse Nehemiahs threatning Neh. 13.21 may be taken in that sence I humbly conceive that by the generality of the Law which ordained that Blasphemy should be punished with death it is plaine that the execution of that Mungrell Egyptian Jew for that sinne was not extraordinary And from both those Instances that by the example of the God of Heaven it is lawfull for the Assembly of Gods on Earth to put offenders to death for Crimes desorving capitall punishment though committed before they were declared to bee such And it may be so much may also be gathered from that famous place Deut. 17.9.10 which I referre to further consideration Lastly his Lordships owne Rule in his speech for the Tryenniall Parliament is this That the King out of Parliament hath a limitted a circomscribed Jurisdiction But waited on by his Parliament no Monarch of the East is so absolute in dispelling grievances For it is well knowne that if any man how great soever doe once become a publique grievance That is to say A dangerous and insupportable Minister to the State those Easterne Monarchs doe not use to stand upon punctilios of Lawes made or to be made no nor so much as upon the formality of legall proceedings Wherein there hath beene more either right or favour shewed to the Lord Strafford by the King and his Parliament then I beleeve ever was to any like Offender in the whole world before him which I 〈◊〉 to his Majesties and their eternall glory and praise I know well what may bee replyed by so me others not by the Lord Digby of the dangerousnesse of this last mentioned doctrine of his and am as sensible thereof as another man But I doe humbly conceive that there is yet more danger in the Lord Digbies fore-rehearted doctrine And that all that is in the last recited being also as I take it more conformable to the Law of the Land may be prevented by some good Ordinances otherwise needful to be made which is an Argument I must not digresse into here In summe I hope ere this it is plaine that in stead of the Prayer his Lordship made it had beene more needfull for him to have prayed to God to keepe him from making distinctions where God himselfe hath made none which his Lordship knoweth is not well pleasing to God and must needs have observed to have beene the originall of many great divisions and combustions in the Church and so might now have beene in this State if God
AN ANSWER TO THE LORD DIGBIES Speech in the House of COMMONS To the Bill of Attainder of the Earle of Strafford the 21th of April 1641. Written by occasion of the first publishing of that speech of his Lordships And now printed in regard of the reprinting of that Speech Printed in the yeare 1641. AN ANSWER To the Lord Digbies Speech in the House of COMMONS To the Bill of Attainder of the Earle of Strafford the 21. of April 1641. THE interest which every good subject hath in the actions of the King and State is sufficient to defend him from the imputation of being a busie body in maintaining the Justice of them That and my desire to doe the Lord Digby service by endeavoring to give him satisfaction in those scruples which made him differ from his former selfe have moved me to enter into an examination of the grounds of that change which his Lordsh hath declared in his speech to the Bill of Attainder of the Lord Strafford They are but two The first and maine is the fayling of that in the proofe which induced his Lordsh to consent that it was fit the Lord of Strafford should be accused of Treason which was his advising the King to imploy the Army of Ireland to reduce England For admitting the circumstances of Master Secretary Vanes three severall examinations at the Preparatory Committee to be the same his Lordship hath reported yet why they should prevaile so much with his Lordship as to work to an utter overthrow of his evidence as unto the Army of Ireland I must confesse I therefore cannot comprehend because all his Lordship doth or would have others inferre thereupon is That hee who twise upon oath with time of recollection could not remember any thing of such abusines might well a third time misremember somewhat For certainely notes taken by Sir Henry Vane himselfe of words spoken by the Lord Strafford either at the time and upon the place when and where they were uttered or soone after when they were fresh in memory are a stronger confirmation that his remembrance at last fixed upon the point of truth notwithstanding the long trepidation about it then the notes of any other Counsellor could have beene And there was a time when his Lordship avoweth that hee was fortified in his beliefe by the imagination that the notes hee had beene told of would have proved some other Counsellors So strong indeed to my understanding that I cannot see how the validity of Mr. Secretaries testimony can be in the least degree infringed without making a great breach into his conscierce For if I should allow which I doe not that there could be no other use of committing those venemous parts of discourses to paper but to accuse men and to bring them into danger certainely it then behooved Mr. Secretary to bee very carefull that the notes he tooke were no such disioynted fragments as by falling into other hands as it hapned might make a great Minister of state and his fellow Counsellor to bee thought to have said that which was never intended by him And if it betrue as I rather beleeve that Mr. Secretaries end in registring that indeed truly venemous advise of the Lord Strafford was to make sure of his memory in case hee should ever be called to testifie what had passed at that Iunto which hath also hapned it then behoved him no lesse to consider well what hee put downe in writing for the support of his memory and much more to recollect himselfe very well before hee deposed any thing in remembrance of his notes after the paper was burnt And considering his having at first rashly said that hee could not charge the Lord Strafford with that of the Irish Army it was a great providence of God that a copy of the paper hee had burned should have beene taken produced and attested in the manner it was without his having had any hand in any of them For I doe not know even what I should have thought of Master Secretaries testimony without this forraine helpe although with it I think no single testimony can be stronger and that his had not beene so strong though hee had at first deposed the same hee did at last as it is now notwithstanding his variation taking in the confirming circumstances from without I humbly beseech the Lord Digby who I see hath a noble and Christian care not to have any thing driven to an aspertion on Master Secretary first to thinke well upon the things I have now suggested to his consideration touching the necessity which in duty lay on Mr. Secretary to take heed that there were not a syllable nor title amisse in his notes and then to tell himselfe what place there is left for imagining there might bee a mistake of herefor there or this for that and that it is probable there was so since it is confest on all hands that the debate then was concerning a warre with Scotland For that there was any such mistake in the copy of his notes cannot be fancied without infinite injury to Mr. Secretaries sonne and to that most worthy Gentleman Master Pimme who took the copie with a purpose to make the use hath beene made of it and who I heare have in generall but high termes averred the truth thereof having both had a sight of the originall and being both of untainted and undoubted veracity And that Master Secretary could not so mistake in the making of his memoriall is very manifest by the incoherence of the Lord Digbies Criticisme with the whole context of the preceding words viz. That having tryed the affections of his people his Majestie was loose and absolved from all rules of government and was to doe euery thing that power would admit and that his Majesty had tryed all wayes and was refused and should be acquitted both with God and man and that hee had an Army in Ireland which hee might imploy to reduce this Kingdome For what need was there to make so great a Muster of things done in England for the acquitting of his Majestie with God and man towards the employing of the Irish Army to reduce the Kingdome of Scotland And though the primary debate of that day was concerning a warre with Scotland yet that debate must needs bring in a second viz. how monies might be raised in England towards the making of that warre the Parliament having refused to supply his Majestie as the Lord Strafford most wickedly slaundered the house of Commons And if in the Lord Digbies conceit it were not hard for Mr. Secretary to mistake in the manner aforesaid then why was his Lordship so easily engaged to prosecute his accusation of the Lord Strafford of high Treason with so much earnestnesse founding his judgement on a Basis that might so easily faile and which by the wavering of Mr. Secretary in his testimony hee had cause to feare would faile nay which had already actually fayled so farre that there was
of his mercy and by his over-ruling power had not prevented it contrary to his Lordships prudentiall judgement who I perceive would else have found a wrong Father for those seared distractions of the Kingdome Or if all I have yet said bee not enough let this suffice that the Lord Digby himselfe not only in a former speech made before he altered his mind but in this very speech doth clearely allow of this very kind of proceeding which he would faine see me to disallow For after all the expression of his so nice tendernesse of conscience in this point even his Lordship notwithstanding moved that laying aside the Bill of Attainder the House would thinke of another such a one as might secure the state from the Lord of Strafford saving only his life Which under favour had not onely beene to condemne him a posteriori to worse then death That is either to have lived in perpetuall imprisonment or to have become an ignominious fugitive and vagabond after hee had beene branded by the House of Commons by his Lordship and by his most sacred Majestie in such a manner as might well have put the same thoughts into him that every-one that met him would have killed him which made Caine cry out That his punishment was greater then he could beare But for ought his Lordship hath expressed the Bill he moved for might have trenched as deep to the ruine of his innocent posterity as the Bill of Attainder Nay I pray tell mee how but by a Law a posteriori could his Lordship have condemned the Lord Strafford of high treason as he hath professed that hee should and might have done with Innocence if that of the Irish Army had beene proved to his understanding For I doe not know whether as the case may bee put those words touching the Irish Army had beene treason as yet declared by the Statute of 25. Edw 3. But it they be then I am sure the former words are a much vaster treason And to leave no lease of his Lordships defence unventilated his reason drawne from the marking of a house infected with the plague being the same in other words with the Lo. Straffords taken from a boy is of a little shew but no force at all For under favour these comparisons shew no more but that no action in it selfe indifferent such as that the old Rhetoricians make use of the going up to the top of the wals of a Towne of Garrison ought to bee made capitall to any man that had no knowledge of that Law which I allow to bee good reason But am sure his Lordship will not allow that the Lord Strafford was charged with any such slight Article and much lesse that the result of them all is a matter of indifference or such a one to which the Lord Strafford could plead ignorance of the hainousnesse of the crime For there is no man capable of committing the treason for which hee hath suffered but must needs know That as the safety of the people is the supreme Law so the attempting to introduce any new forme of government without their consents especially an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall one is the greatest wrong can be done and the highest Treason can bee committed against a State And sure Sir Thomas Wentworth who as the Lord Digby himselfe hath noted in his foresaid speech for the Trichniall Parliament was the man that whilome in the House of Commons first moved for the inserting of that clause in the Petition of Right And that your Majestie would bee also graciously pleased for the further conmfort and safety of your people to declare your Royall will and pleasure that in the things aforesaid all your Officers and Ministers shall serve you according to the Loves and Statutes of this Realme as they tender the honour of your Majestie and prosperity of this Kingdome was not ignorant of the greatnesse of this offence If the Lord Wentworth and the Lord Strafford were as indeed a man may well thinke they were that in their Story shall hereafter observe that they no sooner were admitted to the honour of being in the number of his Majesties Officers and Ministers but they began and so continued to bee the great transgressors and violaters of all the heads of the same Petition of Right in the Kingdomes of England or Ireland and of most of them in both I cannot observe any thing more in the Lord Digbies speech that without wrong to his judgement may be thought to have beene a ground of his so solemne Protestation that his vote went not to the taking away of the Lord Straffords life But I have observed two passages which may give a little light how his judgement so neat in other things came to bee corrupted in this The first is an ungrounded apprehension that neither the Lords nor the King would have passed the Bill and consequently that the passing of it in the House of Commons would be cause of great divisions in the State For there is no passion doth multiply faster or which in shorter time will raise a greater mist in the mind of a wise man then groundlesse feare The second is His Lordships having upon this occasion much inculcated to his owne conscience the height and weight of the Crime of committing murther with the sword of Iustice But for ought appeares in his Speech having quite forgotten to put in a due Counterpoyse thereunto from a no lesse serious consideration of that saying of the Wise man Hee that justifieth the wicked and hee that condemneth the just Even they both are abomination to the Lord. And the president made upon King Ahab recorded in those words Because thou hast let goe out of thy hands a man whom I appointed to utter destruction thy life shall goe for his life Wherein notwithstanding I would not be so understood as if I who am a private man did take upon me to judge of the Lord Staffords Cause For as I declared at the beginning my intention throughout hath beene only to vindicate the publike proceedings from scandall and to cleare that Lord Digby from his scruples The first of which now I have done with the zeale that became me I shall henceforth with aequanimity expect to see what grounds there was of the Lord Straffords hopes that hee may hereafter appeare lesse guilty of the death hee died then as yet he doth to me And though in the later I have used necessary freedome in expressing my present conceits of the Lord Digbyes Reasons yet I reserve a thought that the weaknesse may bee in my own understanding and that though of my selfe I am not yet by his Lordship I may be made capable of them being one that hath his eminent abilities in no lesse admiration then any other whatsoever FINIS