whose very names are concealed yet Naboth was murdered by the sword of Justice for the honour of Parliaments give not the people cause to suspect these Gentlemen shall be so too non recurrendum ad extraordinaria quando fieri potest per ordinaria But all this was but to charme a deafe Adder the nine or ten engaged Lords that then possessed the House were thought to be fitter then a Jury of Middlesex to make work for the hang-man 52 52. Arguments proving the Lords to have no power of Iudicature over the Commons and yet they have no Judicature over the CoÌ„mons as appears by the the president of Sir Simon de Berisforde William Taylboys and the City of Cambridge Note that one president against the Jurisdiction of a Court is more valued then a hundred for it because the Court cannot be supposed ignorant of the Law and its own rights but a particular man or client may see Sir John Maynard's Royall quarrell and his Laws subversion Lieut. Col. Lilburne's whip for the present House of Lords and Judge Jenkins Remonstrance to the Lords and Commons of the two Houses of Parliament dated 21. Febr. 1647. As for the cases of Weston Gomenes and Hall cited by Mr. Pryn they were for facts done beyond Sea and before the Stat. 1 Hen. 4. ch 14. whereof the Common Law could then have no conusance therefore an extraordinary way of proceeding before the Lords was requisite and by the Kings speciall Authority it was done without which I dare boldly affirme the Lords have no Judicature at all 53 53. The House of Peers no Court of Iudicature at at all properly and per se which thus I make appear 1. The King by delivering the Great Seale to the Lord Keeper makes him Keeper of his Conscience for matter of equity By his Brevia patentia to the Judges of the two Benches and the Exchequer the King makes them administrators and Interpreters of his Lawes But he never trusts any but himself with the power of pardoning and dispensing with the rigour of the Law in Criminall cases And though the Lord Keeper is Speaker of the Lords House of Court yet he is no Member of the Lords House virtute officii The Judges are not Members but Assistants only So that no man in the House of Peers as he is simply a Peere is trusted by the King either with dispensation of law or equity 2. When a Peer of Parliament or any man else is tried before the Lords in Parliament criminally he cannot be tried by his Peers only because in acts of Judicature there must be a Judge superior who must have his inferiors ministeriall to him Therefore in the Triall of the Earle of Strafford as in all other Trialls upon life and death in the Lords House the King grants his Commission to a Lord High Steward to sit as Judge and the rest of the Lords are but in the nature of Jurors So that it is the Kings Commission that authoriseth and distinguisheth them 3. When a Writ of Error issueth out of the Chauncery to the House of Peers they derive their Authority meerly from that Writ For the three Reasons aforesaid The House of Peers is no Court of Judicature at all without the Kings speciall Authority granted to them either by his Writ or his Commission And the Lords by their four Votes having denied all farther addresse or application to the King have cut off from themselves that fountaine from which they derive all their power And all Trialls by Commission must be upon Bils or Acts of Attainder not by Articles of Impeachment a way never heard of before this Parliament and invented to carry on the designes of a restlesse impetuous Faction Had the Faction had but so much wit as to try those Gentlemen by Commission of Oyer and Terminer before Sergeant Wild he would have borrowed a point of law to hang a hundred of them for his own preferment Observe that almost all the cases cited by Mr. Pryn concerning the Peers Trialls of Commissioners were authorized by the King upon the speciall instance of the House of Commons As for the House of Commons they never pretended to any power of Judicature and have not so much authority as to administer an oath which every Court of Pye-pouldres hath 54 54. Blâ—nke impeachments dorment But this way of triall before the pre-ingaged Lords and upon Articles of Impeachment which they keep by them of all sorts and sizes fit for every man as in Birchin-lane they have suites ready made to fit every body was the apter meanes to bring those men to death whom they feared living had not a doubt of the Scots comming in taught them more moderation then their nature is usually acquainted with and to fright away or at least put to silence the rest of the Members with fear of having their names put into blank Impeachments And that it might be so apprehended Miles Corbet moved openly in the House of Commons that they should proceed with the Impeachments which were ready nothing wanted but to fill up the Blanks they might put in what names they pleased This Inquisitor generall this prologue to the Hang-man that looks more like a hang-man then the Hang-man himself hath since gotten the rich office of Register of the Chauncery as a reward for his double diligence Oh Sergeant Wilde and Mr. Steele despair not of a reward 55 55. Establishment for the Army Friday 17. Sept. the advice of Sir Tho Fairfax and his Councell of War was read in the House of Commons what standing Forces they thought fit to be kept up in England and Wales and what Garrisons Also what Forces to send for Ireland namely for Ireland 6000 Foot and 2400 Horse out of the supernumerary loose forces being no part of the Army And for England upon established pay 18000 Foot at 8d. per diem 7200 Horse at 2s. per diem each Trouper 1000 Dragoones and 200 Firelocks Traine of Artillery Armes and Ammunition to be supplied The Foot to be kept in Garrisons yet so that 6000 may be readily drawn into the field The Independent party argued That the Army were unwilling to goe for Ireland pretending their engagement to the contrary if you divide or disband any part of your Army they will suspect you have taken up your old resolutions against them to disband the whole Army It is now no time to discontent them when the Kings Answer to your Propositions tends to divide you and your Army and the people are generally disaffected to you The Presbyterian party argued That the engagement of the Army ought to be no rule to the Councels of the Parliament otherwise new Engagements every day may prescribe the Parliament new Rules we must look two wayes 1. Upon the people unable to beare the burden 2. Upon the Army Let us keep some power in our owne Hands and not descend so far below the dignity of a Parliament as
in one Brigade and their Armes taken by their Officers 60 60. Cheats put upon the State and shortly after they have been listed againe in another Brigade and their Armes sold againe to the State after a while to new Arme them And of this sort were those Armes which being found in a Magazine in Town by some zelots and rumoured to belong to the City for the Arming of Reformado's were upon examination found to belong to Oliver Cromwell so the businesse was buried in silence for though the Kings over-sights must be tragically published to the world yet the hainous crimes of the godly must lie hid under the maske of Religion 61 61. Arreares secured although the State owes them nothing And though they have usually taken free-quarter in one place and taken composition money for free-quarter in another place some of them in two or three places at once 3s. a day some of them 5s. for a Trooper and 1s. a day and 1s. 6d. for a foot Souldier whereby no Arreares are due to them but they owe money to the State yet they have compelled the Houses to settle upon them for pretended Arreares 1. The moity of the Excise that they may have the Souldiers help in leavying it Although to flatter the People the Army had formerly declared against the excise 2. The moity of Goldsmiths-Hall 3. Remainder of Bishops Lands 4. The customes of some Garrisons 5. Forrest Lands This Army brags they are the Saviours nay Conquerors of the Kingdome Let them say when they saved it whether at the fight at Nazeby or taking in of Oxford and we will pay them according to the then List And for all the Recruites taken in since the reducing of Oxford it is fit they be disbanded without pay having been taken in without nay against Authority to drive on wicked designes and enthrall King Parliament City and Kingdome 24. Decemb. 1647. 62 62. Four dethroning Bills presented to the King at Carisbrook-Castle The two Houses by their Commissioners presented to the King at Carisbrook-Castle four Bills to be passed as Acts of Parliament and divers Propositions to be assented to They are all printed so is His Majesties Answer to them wherefore I shall need to say the lesse of them only a word or two to two of the Bills 1. The Act for raising setling 63 63. Act for the Militia and maintaining Forces by Sea and Land within the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Wales c. though it seems to be but for 20 years devests the King his Heirs and Successours of the power of the Militia for ever without hope of recovery but by repealing the said Act which will never be in his nor their power for first it saith That neither the King nor his Heires or Successours nor any other shall exercise any power over the Militia by Land or Sea but such as shall act by authority and approbation of the said Lords and Commons That is a Committee of State of twenty or thirty Grandees to whom the two Houses shall transfer this trust being over-awed by the Army for the ground-work of this Committee was layed by these words though the Committee be erected since And secondly it prohibiteth the King his Heires and Successours c. after the expiration of the said 20 years to exercise any of the said powers without the consent of the said Lords and CoÌ„mons and in all cases wherein the said Lords and Commons shall declare the safety of the Kingdome to be concerned after the said 20 years expired and shall passe any Bills for raising arming c. forces by land or sea or concerning levying of mony c. if the Royall assent to such Bills shall not be given by such a time c. then such Bills so passed by the Lords and Commons shall haâ—e the force of Acts of Parliament without the Royall assent Lo â—â—re a foundation laid to make an Ordinance of both Houses equall to an Act of Parliament if this be granted in one case it will be taken in another and then these Subverters of our Religion Laws and Liberties will turne their usurpation into a legall Tyranny 2. It gives an unlimited power to the two Houses to raise what forces and what numbers for land and sea and of what persons without exceptions they please and to imploy them as they shall judge fit 3. To raise what mony they please for maintaining them and in what sort they think fit out of any mans estate 64 64. Bill for adjournment of the Parliament as well for place as time The Bill for adjournment of both Houses to any other place c. will enable the engaged Party of the two Houses and Army to adjourne the two Houses from time to time to or near the Head quarters of the Army where those Members that refuse to enter into the same Engagement shall neither sit with accommodation nor safety and so be shaken off at last this is a new way of purging the Houses Besides the Parliament following the motions of the Army the King shall follow the Parliament whereby the Army having both King and Parliament present with them whatsoever attempt shall be made against the Army shall be said to be against the safety and authority of the King and Parliament and a legall Treason triable by Indictment not a constructive Treason only Triable before the Lords 65 65. The King's Answer debated Monday 3. Jan. the Kings Answer to the said Bills and Propositions was debated in the House of Commons And first Sir Thomas Wrothe Jacke Pudding to Prideaux the Post-master had his cue to go high and feel the pulse of the House who spake to this purpose That Bedlem was appointed for mad men and Tophet for Kings That our Kings of late had carried themselves as if they were fit for no place but Bedlem That his humble motion should consist of three parts 1. To secure the King and keep Him close in some inland Castle with sure Guards 2. To draw up Articles of Impeachment against Him 3. To lay Him by and settle the Kingdome without Him He cared not what form of Government they set up so it were not by Kings and Devils Fretons Speech Then Commissary Ireton seeming to speak the sense 〈◊〉 the Army under the notion of many thousand godly men who had ventured their lives to subdue their enemies said after this manner The King had denied safety and protection to his people by denying their four Bills That subjection to him was but in lieu of his protection to his people This being denied they might well deny any more subjection to him and settle the Kingdom without him That it was now expected after so long patience they should shew their resolution and not desert those valiant men who had engaged for them beyond all possibility of retreat and would never forsake the Parliament unlesse the Parliament forsooke them first After some more debate
into a dull sleep now was his time to pick a quarrell with the City that what he could not obtain by fair means he might effect by foule To make them desert and divide from the Parliament And leave it to be modelled according to the discretion of the Souldiery He could not think it agreeable to policy that this City which had slaine his Compeere and fellow Prince Wat Tyler the Idoll of the Commons in Rich. 2. time and routed his followers four times as many in number as his Army should be trusted with their own Militia The City being now far greater more populous and powerfull then in his dayes In a full and free Parliament upon mature debate both Houses by Ordinance dated 4 May 1647. had established the Militia of the City of London for a year in the hands of such Citizens as by their Authority approbation were nominated by the Lord Major Aldermen and Common-Councell and though the Army had recruited it self without Authority and had got themselves invested with the whole power of all the Land forces of the Kingdome in pay of the Parliament so that there was nothing left that could be formidable to them but their own crimes and that it was expected they should goe roundly to work upon those publick remedies they had so often held forth to the people in their popular printed Papers yet the Army contrary to what they promised to the City in their Letter 10. June and their Declaration or Representation 14. June 1647. That they would not goe beyond their desires at that time expressed and for other particulars would acquiesce in the justice and wisdome of the Parliament behold their modesty by a Letter and Remonstrance from Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Army See the Letter and Remonstrance from Sir Tho. Fairfax and the Army pag 8 9. with unresistible boldnesse demand the Militia of the City of London to be returned into other hands without acquainting the City or their Commissioners then resident in the Army to keep a good correspondency with them therewith Upon which letter alone the House of Commons being very thin many Members driven away by menaces upon July 22. Voted the repealing the said Vote of 4 May and a new Ordinance for reviving the old Militia presently passed and transmitted to the Lords the same day about seven of the clock at night and there presently passed without debate though moved by some to be put off untill the City whose safety and priviledges it highly concerned were heard what they could say to it Observe that neither by the said paper from the Army nor by any man in the two Houses any thing was objected against any of the new Militia And indeed formerly the Parliament never made choice of enlarged or changed the City Militia but they were still pleased first to communicate the same to the Common Councell A respect justly shewed to that City which had been such good friends to them But of late since the Parliament have shifted their old Principles and Interests they have learned to lay by their old friends The pretence for this hasty passing the Ordinance was to prevent the Armies so much threatned March to London if the Houses refused to passe it and the Cities opposition if not passed before their notice of it But the reall designe was to strike a discontent and jealousie into the City thereby to force them to some act of self-defence which might give a colour to the Army to march up against them and their friends in the Houses The unexpected news of this changing their Militia 24 24. The City troubled at the change of their Militia caused the City June 24. being Saturday to meet in Common Councell where for some reasons already expressed and because the repealing this Ordinance upon no other grounds then the Armies imperious desires might justly be suspected to shake all other Ordinances for security of mony sale of Bishops lands I appeal to Colonel Harvy whether this did not fright him by making them repealable at the Armies pleasure they resolved to petition the Houses upon munday morning following being 26. July which they did by the Sheriffs and some Common Councell men 25 25. The City petition the Houses for their Militia again 26 26. The Tumult of Apprentices 26. July But so it hapned that about one thousand Apprentices wholly unarmed came down two or three howers after with another Petition of their own to the Houses Therein claiming that to order the City Militia was the Cities Birth-right belonging to them by Charters confirmed in Parliaments for defence whereof they had adventured their lives as far as the Army And desired the Militia might be put again into the same hands in which it was put with the Cities consent by Ordinance May 4. Upon reading these Petitions the Lords were pleased to revoke the Ordinance of July 23. and revive that of May the 4. by a new Ordinance of July 26. which they presently sent downe to the Commons for their consents where some of the Apprentices presuming they might have as great an Influence upon the House to obtain their due as the Army in pay of the Parl had to obtain more then their due in a childish heat were over-clamorous to have the Ordinance passed refusing to let some Members passe out of the House or come forth into the Lobby when they were to divide upon the question about it so ignorant were they of the customs of the House which at last passed in the Affirmative about three of the clock afternoon and then most of the Apprentices departed quietly into the City After which 27 27. The Tumult of Apprentices ceased but artificially continued by Sectaries some disorderly persons very few of them Apprentices were drawn together and instigated by divers Sectaries and friends of the Army who mingled with them amongst whom one Highland was observed to be all that day very active who afterwards 26. Sept. delivered a Petition to the House against those Members that sate and was an Informer and Witness examined about the said Tumult gathered about the Commons dore and grew very outragious compelling the Speaker to return to the Chaire after he had adjourned the House and there kept the Members in untill they had passed a Vote That the King should come to London to Treat This was cunningly and premeditately contrived to encrease the scandall upon the City yet when the Common Councell of London heard of this disorder as they were then sitting they presently sent down the Sheriffs to their rescue with such strength as they could get ready their Militia being then unsetled by the contradicting Ordinances of the Parliament who at last pacified the Tumult and sent the Speaker safe home which was as much as they could do in this intervall of their Militia being the Houses own Act. The Lords adjourned untill the next Friday the Commons but untill the next day Tuesday
threefold upon one or both Houses or upon the King in giving His Royall Assent neither could plead it the Parliament is presumed to consist of such men as dare lay downe their lives for their Country When the King came with force to demand the 5 Members when the City came downe crying for Justice against the Earl of Strafford when the women came down crying for Peace when the Reformado's came down in a much more dangerous Tumult then this of the unarmed Prentices yet the Houses continued sitting and Acting and none of their Acts were nullified That to make their Acts Orders and Ordinances voide ab initio would draw many thousand men who had acted under them into danger of their lives and fortunes who had no Authority to dispute the validity of our Votes we must therefore give them power to dispute our acts hereafter upon matter of fact for to tie men to unlimited and undisputable obedience to our Votes and yet to punish them for obeying whensoever we shall please to declare our acts voide ab initio is contrary to all reason If to act upon such Ordinances were criminall it was more criminall in those that made them And who shall be judges of those that made them Not the Members that went to the Army They are parties pre-ingaged to live and die with the Army and have approved the Armies Declaration calling those that sate a few Lords and Gentlemen and no Parliament they have joyned with a power out of the Houses to give a Law to and put an engagement upon both Houses a president never heard of before of most dangerous consequence it takes away the liberty of giving I and No freely being the very life of Parliaments If all done under an actuall force be voide it is questionable whether all hath been done this 4 or 5 years be not voide and whether His Majesties Royall Assent to some good Bils passed this Parliament may not be said to have been extorted by force if the Kings Party prevaile they will declare this Parliament voide upon the ground your selves have laid 1 Hen. 7. That King urged the Parliament to make voide ab initio all Acts passed Rich. 3. which they refused upon this ground That then they should make all that had Acted in obedience to them lyable to punishment only they repealed those Acts. The debate upon this Ordinance of null and voyde held from Munday 9 of Aug. to the 20 Aug. when it was passed but not without some interloaping debates of something a different na-nature yet all looking the same way occasioned by Messages from the Lords Namely once upon a Message from them The said Declaration from Sir Thomas Fairfax and his Army 43 43. The Lords Message to the Commons to approve the Declaration of the Army concerning their advance to London was read debated in grosse whether the Commons should concur with the Lords in approving it But almost all but the engaged Party and their Pensioners distasted it it was laid by without any question put lest it should prove dangerous to put a Negative upon their Masters of the Army Yet many menaces according to custome were used by the engaged party to get it passed Hasterig affirming that those Gentlemen that sate and voted for a Committee of safety 44 44. The Committee of safety and the Kings comming to London did drive on the designe of the City protestation and engagement To which was Answered That the Committee of safety was not then newly erected by those which sate but the old Committee revived by that Vote which had been long since erected in a full free Parliament when the Army first mutinyed and threatned to March to London and for the same ends Defence of Parliament and City And for the Kings comming to London it was Voted only to get Him out of the power of the Army as formerly in a full and free Parliament he had been voted to Richmond for the same reason 45 45. A Committee to examine the Tumult Upon another Message from the Lords the Commons concurred in an Ordinance to erect a Committee of Examinations to inquire into and examine the City Petition engagement and the force upon the Houses 26 July and all endeavours to raise any forces 46 46. A Sub-committee of Secrecie selected to examine the Tumult c. This Committee consisted of 22 Commons besides Lords almost all of them Members engaged with the Army but because there were some three or four Presbyterians gotten in amongst them to shut these Canaanites forth that the Godly the true seed of Israel might shuffle the Cardes according to their owne minde the 13 Aug. after upon another Message from the Lords there was a Sub-committee of Secrecy named out of this grand Committee of Examinations to examine upon Oath The persons were the Earl of Denbigh and Mulgrave Lord Gray of Wark Lord Howard of Escrig Sir Arthur Hasterig Mr. Solicitor Gourdon Miles Corbet Alderman Pennington Allen Edwards Col Ven or any three of them All persons engaged to live and die with the Army and now appointed to make a clandestine scrutiny and search into the lives and Actions of the Presbyterian party that sate in Parliament doing their duty when the engaged party fled to the Army and brought them up in hostile manner against them The unreasonablenesse of this way of proceeding was much urged 47 47. Debate upon the passing the Committee of Secret examinations and farther alleaged that it was neither consonant to the Customes of the House nor unto common reason That a Sub-committee should be chosen out of the Grand Committee of examinations with more power then the Grand Committee it self had and excluding the rest of the Committee under the pretence of secrecie Besides it was against the priviledge of the House of Commons that the Lords should nominate the Commons in that Sub-committee as well as their own Members But the Independent Grandees would have it passe Breach of Priviledge and all other considerations are easily swallowed when they are subservient to their present designes The party engaged were resolved to be Examiners Informers 48 48. The manner of prosecution and proceeding upon the Tumult and witnesses as well as parties so active was their malice and had so well packed the Cardes that eight or nine Schismaticall Lords engaged likewise with them and the Army should be judges of the Presbyterian party that sate in absence of the two Speakers the better to give the two Houses a through Purge and make them of the same complexion with the Army without which they had no hopes to divide the power and profit of the Land between themselves by 10000. l. 20000. l. in a morning shared amongst the godly and to make the whole Kingdom to be Gibeonites hewers of wood and drawers of water to the faithfull In order to the playing of this game 49 49. Miles Corbet makes report of