taken either by his command or permission in the late Wars the instances whereof would amount to a volumn and as to his intentions without injury to his memory we may take notice of his own expressions in his Letters to the Queen viz. That though he wanted money yet good swords and Pistols would fetch it in Ex unque Leonis We may judge of the Lyons strength by his paw and of the kings intentions had he lighted on the fortune to have mastered the Parliament Of the Kings Negative Voyce in Parliament WE now come to that so much asserted and inseparable Flower of the Crown as the king and Royalists would have it believed viz. his Negative voyce in Parliament a claim so absurd and contrary to Law and Reason that wise men may laugh at it and fools discern the distructive consequence thereof for at one blast or breath of the kings it utterly frustrates the very Essence and Being of all Parliaments and obstructs all their Consultations and whatsoever they shall never so well advise and agree upon as a necessary Law shall be made of no effect with this one single word of the kings Negatur which is point blank against his Corronation Oath where he swears or ought to swear to Govern both by the old Laws per istas bonas leges quas vulgus eligerit though it pleased the Archbishop to emasculate that most essential part of the Oath so to leave the king at liberty and by such good Laws as the Parliament shall chuse so that the Legislative power hath always resided in that Soveraign Court to make and unmake Laws according to the vicissitude of times and change of mens manners and not at the kings choyce who hath only the distributive power when Laws are made to see them duly executed and the Law of the Land also limits that power for the king as before 't is noted cannot execute the Laws at his own pleasure but in and by his Courts of Justice But strange it is what a ridiculous construction Royalists have made of the verb eligerit to be meant in the preterpersect Tense and not of the future to make any new Laws though never so necessary but that the people must stand to their old Laws though some of them never so fit to be abrogated unless the king please to give way to the establishing of new or repealing of the old which is a most irrationall and destructive assertion Neither may we omit to shew what Royalists farther aver that such is the necessity and force of the Kings assent that be the Law never so useful and beneficial for the people to be established yet without the Kings fiat it can never have the force and stamp of a Law which is the same as when the King chosen Generalissimo and trusted with the conduct of the Kingdoms Armies will turn the mouth of the Canon from the Enemy on his own Souldiers and deny them to provide for their own safeties such absurdities have the late and present Licenciates of this time ran into as if men had been bewitch't to betray their own freedoms It is not denyed but that the Kings assent to a Law thought fit by the Parliament to be Enacted is very necessary yet it follows not that it must be of necessity for if the King out of a perverse humour will not after some time of consideration assent to such a Law which if not ratified by his fiat tends to the inevitable destruction of the Common-wealth shall the publick safety be neglected for the humoring of one mans obstinate will and in such a case ought not the States Assembled in Parliament provide against a common mischief Enact and Ordain for the publick indemnity as former Presidents in such cases may direct them and when no other remedy can be had The Lords in the time of king Richard the Second would not be so answered when they sent him word that if he would not come to the Parliament according to his promise and joyn his helping hand to theirs in redress of the publick grievances they would chuse such a King that should The Array of the People WE now come to the principal and practical part of the kings power over the Militia for the Array of the people is the grand piece of that usurpatious claim viz. That at his own will and pleasure he may send forth his Commissions to Array the people against themselves and this power under colour of Law and of right belonging unto him the universal Nation knows he forbore not to put in execution against their Representative summoned by his own Writs a president without president neither for the legality known either in our Histories or Law-books otherwise then by consent of Parliament and in cases of immiment danger for opposing of an invading Enemy but for a king trusted with the defence of his people in calms of peaceable times and on no necessity to put in execution such a reasonless and unlimited power as one of his Royal Prerogatives and to maintain it by the sword was besides the breach of his Royal trust such a daring action as none but a Tyrant in folio would have attempted 'T is true that heretofore during that long continued feud between the English and the Scots divers Gentlemen of the North parts and others on the Welch-Borders of the kings Tenants were by their Tenures bound to rise watch and wind * Cornage Tenure horns on all incursions of the Scots and of these kind of Tenures Littleton treats in his chapter of petty Serjeanty but I suppose none so very cowards though not bound by their Tenures but would take up Arms in the common defence and contribute their best assistance for the expelling of an invading Enemy though in this very case by the Law of the Land 'T is very dangerous for him that shall raise Forces without special Commission from the King and Parliament and * The Lords Cromwels Case Cromwel Earl of Essex in Henry the Eigth's Reign though at that time Lord President of the North dyed for no other cause then this that he raised an Army both for the suppression of an insurrection and expulsion of the Scots so nice and provident our Ancestors have ever been of levying Armies in the bowels of the Land on any pretence whatsoever But for the king first to raise an Army at York assuring the Parliament that it was to no other end then for a Guard to his Person and therewith to cause so many half-witted Lords then attending him to attest that for truth which was false as it manifestly appeared by his immediate marching to Nottingham where he set up his Standard of War as a summons of the people to his assistance against the Parliament when himself was both the first Assaulter and Invader and yet at that very instant of time to reassure the Parliament that he raised not his Standard against them and at the same conjunctureâ— of
an implacable hatred do you of the old Cavalry in general bear towards the Citizens that if God aveâ—t it not in all probability the whole City will run the same fortune with Saguntum in Spain Carthage in Africa and Jerusalem in Asia and this fate the Cavaleers themselves have often in my hearing wisht unto it Neut Gentlemen your divinations seem strange to me and they very much trouble my cogitations to hear you talk in such horrid language I hope you believe the King of Scots to be a Christian and not that he will destroy himself which will be as good as done whensoever so great and oppulent a City becomes ruined which is the key of the Kingdom and from whence issues the greatest Revenue and Income the Kings of England have ever received by Customs and Imposts from the Merchants but more especially since he cannot be ignorant that he hath within this City a world of loyal Subjects as I my self for one which never bore arms against his Father nor voluntarily contributed to the Parliament one groat otherwise then needs he must whom the Devil drives therefore I doubt not however the game goes he will remember his friends and distinguish them from his foes Patri Excellently well infer'd Neutralis it seems then you conceive your self safe and sure for that in all the late Wars you have carried your self in a neutral way according to the old adage bene vivit qui bene latuit he fares best that keeps himself close and out of the scuffle But suppose the King after his Victory and march comes to be possest of the City accompanied as that you may believe with four or five several Nations can you imagine that so numerous an Army attending his person will or can Quarter elswhere then in the City and when they are there think you not but that the Souldier will have a minde to the business viz to take A continued description of the lamentable effects that willâ— besal the Nation in the case aforesaid up their pay out of the ransacking of the Citizens and that without any distinction of persons haply you conceive that the King out of his Grace and good will towards his friends will cause a mark or some cross to be set up at their doors whereby to difference his loyal Subjects from those which assisted the Parliament and took up Arms against him and his Father No Neutralis let not such a Chimaera enter in your thoughts when you shall finde your imagined cross to be no other then in so promiscuous a plundring that your self or any others of your mode shall escape scot-free or that whensoever the Souldierie falls to riffling think you any of them will be so nice and mannerly as to forbear any that lies in the way of their fury or that in such a confusion the King himself were he willing can stay them which afore-hand are prompted to enrâ—ch themselves with a booty which lies so readily before them or that the Souldier will be so modest as to omit so fair an opportunity and suffer the Citizens to convey their cash and commoditities out of the way of their needy and greedy clutches Let me I beseech you dispute this case a little farther with you for rest assured that not onely those which had a hand in his Fathers death whom long since he hath doom'd to death and confiscation by his own Dâ—clarations but even all those which assiâ—ted the Parliament or stood neutral will necessarily sall into the number of plundred persons yea all such as at the begining of the War took up Arms and were listed under the Earl of Essex which indeed were the first that broke the Ice and made the way open to the new Model under the Lord Fairfax and the now Lord General Cromwel Do you think that any of those of the first establishment which laid down Arms when the Lord General Essex layd down his Commission divers of which either before or after have been chosen Parliament Members and were known to be bold speakers in the behalf of the late Kings re-admission to the Kingly Government will or can escape If you conceive they will your imagination is vain and reasonless since it stands not with reason of State or the Kings necessities to lose the least grist that otherwise may come to his wanting Mill Moreover you may be sure on 't that in order to all the premised plundrings and confiscations you shall finde all rich men or so accounted will be cal'd to an after reckoning and holes pickt in their coats of what party soever they have been to the end to supply the Kings great debts and urgent necessities for who knows not but that he hath borrowed much and yet wants more then can well be Of the fearful consequences that attend a Conquest imagined and that having the sword in his hand he will and must have money wheresoever it is to be had and then believe it the next bout will be a strict inquisition whom they are or have been which have taken the old Covenant and the new Engagement or have bought any of the Crown-Land or goods of the late Kings the Bishops Delinquents estates and in order to this progress a rigorous inquiry will of couâ—se fall in who they are which the Parliament hath employed as actors and instâ—uments for the promoting of their designs whether in the City or elsewhere in the Country neither may you doubt on'c but that all the Judges Serjeants at Law Officers Clerks of the Crown and Chancery Sheriffs Justices of peace Commissioners Committees with all other inferior Clerks and Officers whom the Parliament have employed throughout the Nation acting by and under their power will by degrees be fetcht over and enforc't to come off with greater Fines then possibly they are able to bear and this in part was put in practise by the late Kings Commissions thoughout all his Quarters and wheresoever his Armies had prevalence when he resided at Oxford and elswhere and enough there will be which will not fail to instruct and inform this King that all the riches of the Land saved from the spoyl of his Father will not be sufficient to make him satisfaction for the infinite losses which the Crown hath sustained since the beginning of the late War and to recompence such as have suffered by taking his part Thraso Signiour Patriotus dam me if all that you have now said be not Oracles and the King ought not or can in honour do less then that which with well measured reason you have declared and in case he doth it not to a hairs breadth I shall take him not to be so wise as he should be for in confirmation of your opinion I le tell you a story and 't is a true one on my life and the reputation of a Souldier that all of us at Oxford concluded * This is a known truth and hath been often aver'd by many residing
the good and benefit of their people and not their Subjects destinated to be governed by their own will and pleasures they should then never stray out of the right Orbe of Government Moreover 't is most true that the Grandchild and present Pretender neither in the beginning of the wars nor since took the right way to gain the love and acceptance of the Parliament and people but in his open purluance of hostility both by Sea and Land incensed them and made himself utterly uncapable of acceptance Prel For Gods love What would you that the poor innocent Prince should have done on the massacre of his Father and when all of his undeniable rights divolved on him were taken from him and no means left him whereby to eat bread otherwise then to beg or borrow it and you know he cannot Camelion-like live by the ayr Patri Doctor 't is of too transcendent a nature for me to direct Princes dispossest or rather forfeiting of their Patrimonies by Tyranny what course to take for their recovery but you cannot forget how unhappily he was set on and engaged in his Fathers quarrel which had he not been but in such a contest born himself in a neutral way or sate still as his cousin the Count Palatine did I cannot disceâ—â— any reason why the Parliament should have excluded him but rather admitted him as the States formerly did Edward the Third after his Fathers deposition but alass he was so much so far interessed in the quarrel both in his Fathers life time and more unhappily since shewed The reasons of the Parliaments excluding the King of Scots and the rest of the Descendants of King James himself the Son of that Father from whom he received all those destructive principles of Tyranny which have utterly undone all those of our English Princes that pursued them as the instances of King John Edward and Richard the Second manifestly demonstrates some of his Commissions issued out in his Fathers life time whilst he was a Prisoner I have heard of which shews him not to be over-indulgent towards Parliaments but to this doubtless an utter Enemy and to speak the truth he took not the right way to win the hearts of the people since 't is evident that he hath granted sundry Commissions to rob and spoyl the Merchants at Sea viz. to his cousin Rupert and his brother Maurice as his Father not long before Commissioned both the said Princes to spoyl and plunder the poor people by Land more may be alleaged which shall rather be concealed then ript up by me onely in a word more to you Colonel and all of your party whom I could wish to look about you and bethink your selves of the sad issues which in such a change as we have presupposed will necessarily befal your selves and posterity happily the King during his own time and to some few of you may carry a favourable respect but that his Successors or himself intend to bestow Charters of Immunities upon you all and intail them on your Heirs-males is a very vain and idle imagination for after a Conquest and not unlikely within a Quarters time of a Century it will of course fall out as it did with Jacobs Posterity upon the decease of Pharoah when his Successor would not so much as look upon or know Joseph but his whole rase and Posterity fell altogether into the common-shore of bondage and Slavery And yet such is your infatuation like the Israelites which cryed for a King and soon after would have been quit of him but God told them he would not hear them and indeed few there are amongst us all that judge aright or know our own happiness and freedom in this present change of the Government Neut Patriotus Give me leave in a word or two to interpose It appears to me as by your discouse I have collected that our submission to the present power of some special selected Gentry without King and the late priviledged Lords whâ—ch I confess were wont to do what they listed will be more safe honourable and profitable for the people notwithstanding our Contributions then such as necessarily will befal us should the excluded King come in by force of Arms I profess in such a case I know not which side to take with safety advise me to the best and I 'le thank you Patri Neutralis I perceive you to be a crafty fox you are best able to judge what party to incline to I leave you to your own choyce whether to side with the present power in case of an invasion or to assist the Scotch King for I finde 't is your own safety not the common good that you aym at onely this take heed that reason do not invade you before it perswades you though it be already both sufficiently intimated and proved that your adherence to the present establishment will be your best course yea on any Invasion of the Scotch King to fight for your liberty and not sit still as you say you have done Prel Patriotus In all our conference hithereto we have omitted the principal verb which governs the sentence and that is concerning the late Parliaments sitting at Westminster acting according to their own wils and pleasures what they Vote was without any more adoe Enacted for Law as a Rule to the universal Nation right or wrong it must be obeyed Now whether 160 at most of 560 at least which formerly sate in both houses could be a Parliament is the Quere I pray resolve me in this point for in Law or in any rational mans judgement a * The grand objection of the Royal party answered in the next Reply Parliament they could not be but rather an usurpatious and despotical number backt by an Army therefore I say speak your own conscience what you conceive them to have been without King Lords Bishops and the major part of the Commons all summoned by the Kings Writ and chosen by their several Countries and violently pul'd out of the house by the Souldiers for dissenting to the Votes of no more addresses the remainder being so few that in any reason they could not so much as pretend to be a Parliament much less the Representative of the universal people yet had they the confidence that whatsoever they Enacted to assume it to be done in the name of the Commons of England which is one of the strangest pieces of Non-sence that ever was heard of in the World you may call to minde what became of those thirty Tyrants at Athens the parallel is not at a very wide distance therefore before we depart I beseech you deliver your opinion for the better satisfaction of my conscience and tell me how it came to pass that none or very few of the Lords sate there with the Commons which till of later times never were admitted to sit with them neither cal'd to sit by them for all our ancient Parliaments were onely composed of King Bishops Abbots
Earls and Barons without the scum of the Vulgar Patri Doctor 't is most true that upon the first view that remnant which so lately sate at Westminster in most mens understanding seemed to be no other then an usurped power and these back't by the Souldier but when we come to the Examination of their mutilation and how their number came to be diminished you will be of another minde for as the Author of the Kings Life and Raign exactly lays it down and resolves this doubt and tells you by whom it was first lamed and disordered this we all know that it was at first legally summoned by the Kings Writ with Lords Bishops and Commons which by your favour are not the scum of the people but as good Gentlemen as any of the Lords but as afterwards it fell out by the Kings practises and artifices it was first lessned in both Houses near to a moity to make up his Mungril Parliament at Oxford and yet the King himself and that Conventicle both calls them and acknowledges these at Westminster to be a Parliament though much against his will The late reliâ—k of the old Parliament though lamed and lessened by the late King and 't is a plain case that since the exclusion of another party by the Souldier that remainder or relick was still the Parliament and stood upon the same feet as 't was first summoned 3 Nov. 1640. with their full number and that piece of a Parliament left as you call them acted by the same power so that you must always take Powers in their present being not as they have been when inforc't from their old presidents and usages which I finde not to have been always one and of the same form but varied in all Ages according to the Revolutions of times and accidents for without all question that Magnum Consilium or Commune Consilium as Caesar calls it of the old Britons was not altogether Caesa Com. lib. 5. of the self-same form with the Witenagomots of the Saxons neither those with the Parliaments as they were after called on the coming in of the Normans and since the Conquest we finde them very much to vary Parliaments throughout all Ages not one the same in form though in substance neither is there any Record extant that shews the time when the late form with King Lords Spiritual and Temporal with the Commons had its institution but doubless 't is both a new and false assertion that the Commons had not their free voyce from the first foundation of Parliaments to this present as it evindently appears by the citations within mentioned which are authentick and incontradictable as for instance Quarto conquestoris Rex fecit summonâ—ri per universos consulatus Anglos nobiles sapientes sua lege eruditos ut eorum jura consuetudines ab ipsis audiret the fourth year of William the Conqueror the King caused to be summoned out of every Country of England all the Nobility the wise men and all such as were Learned in the Laws to the end that he might hear and understand what their Laws and customs were Hoved lib. de Litchfield Moreover Hen. 1. apud fontem Clericorum fecit summoneri omnes Arch-Epis Episcopos Abbates omnes nobiles Angliae sapientes omnes incolas Regni The King caused a summons go Clerkenwel of all the Arch-bishops Bishops Abbots all the Nobles Wise men and all the Inhabitants or as I conceive by Incolas the chief dwellers in the Kingdom which seems to be a multitudinous Aslembly Math. Paris Edm. de Loud Again Hov. 2. decimo Reg. praesentibus Arch-Epis Episcopis Abbattibus Prio. Comitibus proceribus Regni Math Paris But Hoveden Fitz-Steven make mention of Clerus Populus the Clergy and People to be then assembled the tenth of Henry the Second being present the Arch-bishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls and Barons together with the Clergy and people Paris calls this Assembly Generale Consilium a General Councel Now amongst many other presidents I shall only instance in one or two more viz. Sexto Ioban at Oxford Communi consensu Arch-Epis Episcoporum Comitum Baronum omnium fidelium nostrorum Angliae by the common consent of Arch-bishops Bishops Earls Barons all our faithful men of England Parl. Rot. pat 5. there are some presidents which only mention Barones liberos bomines totius Regni onely the Barons and all the free-men of the Realm tempore Henrici 3. and another of this reign and before the Grant of the great Charter hath it Convocatum est Londoniis praesidente Arch-Epis cum toto Clero tota Sect a Laicalâ— An Assembly at London the Arch-bishops being President with all their Clergy and all the Laicks without any mention of Earls Barons or Bishops Auth. Eulog which seems to be a strange kinde of Parliament so that in an hundred more of Presidents which may be instanced it will manifestly appear that our antient Parliaments though they are acknowledged for a National meeting made and un-made Laws according to the vicissitude of times yet were they not always of one constant and set form though tending to no other and the self-same end salus populi the safety and conservation of the people by their Enacting such Laws as then were thought fit to be established for the common welfare of the Nation to which all our Laws and Statutes in the same words have special reference though 't is confest in ancient times often varied in the form but never from the end And 't is very observable that neither the ancient summons to our Parliaments were always of one stamp but varied in Neither that the summons to our Parliaments are of one and the self same form most our Kings Raigns sure we are that last of the kings was much different from those of old which evermore had in them inserted viz. ad tractandum consulendum ordinandum cum nobis c. the principle Gerund Ordinandum being purposely omitted least it might intimate a greater power in the Commons to act by then the King was willing they should have just in the same manner as the Archbishop curtald the most material clause of the Kings Coronation Oath that so he might assume to himself a greater power then of right belonged unto him but this is a subject which to dispute to the full would take up more time then we can at present well spare onely in a word that the Commons sate not in our ancient Parliaments and that now they onely sit there where the King and Lords sate alone without them Truly Doctor I retract not from that which I have often said viz. that these late times have produced such Monsters of men such Traytors and shameless Vipers that have endevoured to blot out of memory those ancient Rights and Liberties which the Natives have for so many hundred years enjoyed and to devour the mother that bare them most
Parliament observed at the Earls tryal that the Laws were the boundaries and measures betwixt the Kings Prerogative and the peoples Liberty But whether the king throughout the whole course of the late destructive War and â—ome years before was not a prompt disciple in the Deputies doctrine I leave to Royalists to make their own judgement And whether that which after befell the king and his Fathers house was not rather of the justice of heaven then of men I leave to the judgement of all the world Sure we are the best Jurists maintain Si Rex hostili animo arma contra populum gesserit amittet Regnum which is that if a King with an hostile intent shall raise Arms against his people he loseth or forfeits his kingdom Now that the late king assumed to himself such a Royal power as to raise Arms against the great Councel of the Land I suppose no man in his right wits can deny Its most true a moderate Royal power to rule by the Laws is doubtless of Gods Ordinance but a Tyrannical power to cut their throats I am sure is of no Divine Institution and a Dominion fitter for beasts then men yet this is that power which Royalists would have fastned on the king and too many there are which constantly believe that the more injury was done him that he had it not as by the Laws of the Land they erroneously conceive he ought to have had The Power of the Militia how the Kings BRiefly now to the Militia and what kinde of power our kings by the Laws of England have had therein It hath been often told the late king all along the late Controversie that the power of the Militia was in him no other then fiduciary and not at his absolute dispose or that at his own will and pleasure he might pervert the Arms and strength of the kingdom from their proper use and against the intent of the Law as ' its visibly known he did even to the highest breach of trust wherein a king could be intrusted Now for proof that this power was onely fiduciary and by Statute Law first confer'd on * Anno 7. Edw. 1. apud Westminster Edw. 1. in trust and not his by the Common Law is most apparent by the Express words of the Statute it self which as they are commonly inserted were onely for the the defence of the Land and safety of the people salus populi being that grand Law and end of all Laws now such as are verst in our Historie know that this Prince was one of the most magnanimous kings that ever swayd the English Scepter and therefore it cannot be imaginable that he would clip his own power and so great a right belonging to him by the Common Law in accepting a less by Statute Law to his own loss of power or that ever he would have assented thereunto by an after Act of his own as follows in haec verba viz. Whereas on sundry complaints made to us by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament that divers of the standing Bands have been removed and taken out of their respective Counties by vertue of our Commissions and sent to us out of their Shires into Scotland Gascoyn and Gwoyn and other parts beyond the Seas contrary to the Laws of the Land c. Our Soveraign Lord willeth that it shall be done so no more Agreeable to this we finde Anno 1. Edw. 3d. viz. The King willeth that no man henceforth be charged to arm otherwise then he was wont in time of our Progenitors the Kings of England and that no man be compell'd to go out of his Shire but where necessity requireth and the sudden coming in of strange Enemies into the Realm And in the same kings time there being a peace concluded between him and the French king wherein the Duke of Britain was included whom the French king shortly thereupon invaded whereof complaint was made to king Edward he instantly summons a Parliament and there moves the Lords and Commons both for their advice and assistance whereupon it was concluded that the king should be expeditiously supply'd in ayd of the Britton but the Act was made with such provisoes and restrictions as Royallists happily and others of late years would have deemed them too dishonourable and unbefitting the late kings acceptance howsoever this Act shews that the ordering of the Militia of those times was not solely left to the kings disposure but that which is of more note was that both the Treasure then granted was committed to certain persons in trust to be issued to the onely use for which it was given as also that no Treaty or any new peace or agreement with the French King should be made without the consent and privity of the Parliament By these instances all Royalists may make a clear judgement that the Militia of those times and the power of the Arms of the Kingdom were never so absolutely conferr'd on our kings as that their power therein extended to such a latitude as they might use them as they pleased and to turn that power provided for the onely defence of the people against themselves and therefore wheresover we finde the Militia by other Statutes conferr'd and yeelded to the disposal of our kings without any particular mention of the word trust which is necessarily imply'd or exprest in most of the Statutes or their preambles viz. * Note that these words viz. for the defence of the Realm or common profit are afore inserted â—ither in the Stat. themselves or in their preamb. In these wotds For the honour of God the Church common profit of the Realm or defence of our people No man in common reason can conceive the Militia to be such an inseparable flower of the Crown as if it had been brought into the world with the King and chain'd unto him as his birth-right but onely as a permissive power recommended unto him by the people in their Representatives as the most eminent and illustrious person to be intrusted with such choyce weapons in trust and confidence that he will use them no otherwise then to the end for which-they were concredited unto him as the Soveraign of the people and for their onely safety and defence which trusted him in honour of his person and place Many other Statutes there are though some of them repealed which prove the Militia is onely fiduciary and not absolutely inherent to the Crowns of our Kings Now for our conclusion of this senceless illegal Prerogative as to the absolute power thereof let us in a word take notice of the destructive consequence admitting this power should be left to the Kings absolute disposure it then follows that he may take all that the Subject hath for he that hath the power of the sword on the same ground may command the purse which the late King not onely intended but practised witness the many great sums of money plate jewels and other moveables whatsoever
houses wherein to put their heads and that had his power been answerable to his will how much worse it would have been with the whole Nation had the Danes French Lorraâ—nres Scots and Irish came to his Assistance all which how earnestly he solicited their coming over his own Instructions to Cockrans his Letters to the Queen Montross and Ormond sufficiently declare Yet there are of you that dâ—re publickly say that you are not ashamed to own his cause and disown the Parliaments which is no good sign of your eternal being when you are known to glory in evil and stand fixed in the defence of him and a cause that was most unjust in the beginning bloody beyond example throughout the whole managery tragical in the end to himself loss of honor estate and fortunes of most that sided with him and should the Scotch Pretender come in how much worse and more oppressive and more bloody it must be I leave to your own consideration For a close I wish you all better to bethink your selves and take this into your more serious thoughts of the wisest of men He that justifieth the wicked and condemneth the just even they both are abomination to the Lord Prov. 17. 15. Then as you please read on and haply you may finde somewhat that will terrifie your consciences or rectifie your judgements in your erroneous principles and turn the torrent of your depraved affections to a hearty compliance with the present Powers as they are set over us by the hand of the Almighty which doubtless is the best and safest course you can take for your future happiness Which that you may enjoy are the hearty wishes of an unknown yet your unfained friend The principal Contents of the following Discourse 1. OF the necessity of continuing the Contributions on the people with the Reasons thereof 2. Of the hopes wherewith Royalists flatter themselves in mending their fortunes by bringing in the Scotch Pretender 3. Of the States Power and strength for upholding the present Government 4. Of the difficulties which attend the Scotch Kings coming in being to invade by Sea 5. Of the parallel between the Hollanders case and this of the States here in their first establishment 6. Of the miserable condition that of necessity must befal this Nation especially the City of London in case the Scotch King comes in by the sword with the consequences of changing the Laws and constitutions of the old Soveraignty 7. Of King James his plot for abating the power of Parliaments and improvement of the Soveraignty by disowning them furthered by the Bishops and pursued by the late King 8. Of the necessitated Reasons that induced the Parliament to cut off the late King and to exclude his Posterity 9. Whether the present establishment in the nature of a Republick accompanied with the Taxes imposed on on the people will not be more safe and less chargeable to them thâ—n tâ—e admittance of the Scotch Pretender to the Regal Government 10. Of the grand objection of Royalists that the late Parliament was not a legal Representative of the people after it was lamed lessned by want of the King the Lords Prelates and major part of the Commons excluded Answered 11. That the Parliaments after the comming of the Norman the Witengagomentâ— of the Saxons and those magna Consilia of the old Britains were not always of one form but one and the same in substance 12. Of the various alterations and changes of Governments throughout all Ages of the World and that all Powers had their original by the sword which once obtained Whether by right or wrong ought to be obeyed submitted unto as the Ordinance of God Refractoria Disputatio OR The Thawrting Conference Thraso GEntlemen you are all well met I perceive you are as good as your words but now Signiour Patriotus tell me what is become of your late piece of a Parliament have they not enacted hand somely to Act themselves out of their usurped powers by their injustice and self ends without any respect either to the publick good or any poor mans private interest hath not God in his justice dealt with them as they did with the late innocent King and all of us of his serâ—ants Tell me I beseech you what will be the issue of this inter-meddly of Government and whether in the end confusion will not necessarily follow these strange mutations and accompt taken of them for their extortions and corrupt dâ—meanors towards the whole Nation Patriotus I finde you are still in your old â—one but as in our last conference and elsewhere I have often told you so now I shal not take upon me to justifie every of their actions for they are men made up and composed of flesh and blood subject to sin and error and that the same God who gave them the power they have had would as soon divest them of it as beyond all expectation he bequeathed it unto them in case they carried not themselves with an upright heart As to those your Prophetical issues to follow in confusion and of after-reckonings may it befall them that deserve it for my hope it and I doubt not but that Almighty God iâ— his providence on this great change of affairs hath another manner of work in hand then lies within your kenning to discern and will raise us up such unbyassed Governors as shall set straight all obliquities both in the Church and State to his own glory and the comfort of all good men therefore let me advise yâ—u not to be too rash in your censure on that whereof you are not able to judge neither deâ—cant on his judgements which are inâ—crutable and past your finding out Nâ—us But Patriotus I remember at our last conâ—erence you also were pleased to vent your self in the way of predictions intimating that we must expect worse calamities then heretofore we have endured which as you then supposed would of necessity befal the universal Nation not onely in the continuation of the Contributions and Taxes imposed on the people but in other grievous afflictions which I prosess have ever since very much troubled my cogitations for God knows we have all suffered too much already and more then the ability of poor people can longer endure though I confess for any thing I can as yet discern out of the motions of the State the Contributions must of necessity be continued if not encreas'd for maintenance of their Armies both by Land and Sea and not unlikely will be long lived and continued for a Prentiship haply of seven years endurance Patri Yes Neutralis and longer then you imagine for considering the work the States at present have in hand within our in-works to suppress the malignant Party and in our out-works for defending the Dominion of our Seas against the invading and ingrateful Hollander we The necessity of the continuation of the Contributions of the people cannot in any reason expect any cessation or remission of our Taxes
was a known Tyrant an Usurper and a murtherer of his own Brothers children an Enemy to the Clergy and the greatest depopulator of the Kingdom that ever before it had and yet the States and Nobility forget all his Tyrannies misdeeds and after his poysoning at Swinsteed admitted of his innocent young Son after call'd by the name of Henry the third and soon quitted the Land of Lewis the Dolphin of France whom before they had call'd in to their assistance and to whom most of the great Lords had sworn fealty In like manner the Parliament after the deposiog of Edward the second for his Tyranny made choyce of his young Son Edward the third who proved a very galland Prince likewise on the Parliaments deposing of Richard of Burdeaux for his misgovernment the State made choyse of his cousin-german Henry of Bulling-brook who though not the next in blood and consequently an Usurper as to the right of Succession yet was he made King by consent of the Parliament and he approved himself a very wise and politick Prince whence it appears that the Parliaments and Nobility of those times had ever an eye on the next Successor or to such a one of the blood-Royal as in their judgements they conceived to be most capable and fit to undertake the kingly Government as it may be instanced in their Election of Steven Earl of Bulloyn in the absence of Maude the Empress next in blood and since that of Henry of Richmon after the killing of that Tyrant Richard of Glocester on these premises I beseech you a little extend your patience and tell me what you conceive to have been the reasons that the late Parliament not only took away the Kings life by a new president and under colour of a legal hearing to the great regret of the major part of the Nation but have rerejected the young Prince of mature years hopeful and able to govern together with the Duke of York and Glocester with all the discendents of King James and have changed the Royal Government into a Common-wealth have sold all the Lands Honours Mannors and Revenues anciently by right belonging to the Crown as the proper Inheritance of the Kings of England Now Sir By what Law of God man or reason of State they have attempted on so strange an enterprise passes my understanding especially the exclusion of the poor innocent Princes goes directly against my conscience yet if you please I shall willing hear what you can say for my better satisfaction Patri Doctor your questions necessarily will require a long search into the reasons wherefore the Parliament enterprized on so high a concernment yet in brief I shall tell you what hath been told me and by some of the late Members on the same Queres you have propounded First they say that on consideration of the Kings seldom calling and often dissolving of such Parliaments as he summoned without their due effects and that for ten years together he refused to summon any but ruled during so long an intermission at will and pleasure whereby the common interest and liberties of the people were so much invaded and so many grievances and oppressions crept both into the Church and State that when this late Parliament was through the extremity of his wants call'd the Assembly was to seek where to begin to rectifie and repair the decays of the Commonwealth which through his own misgovernment the prodigaltie and dissoluteness of the Court and Clergy had befallen the universal Nation which although he wholly then left to their rectification yet immediately thereupon he not onely went from his word and falsified his promise but by the continuance of innumerable practises and his uttermost endevors he sought nothing more then to obstruct their Reformation ruine the Parliament and put all the Kingdom into consusion by a most bloody and destructive war which the Assembly perceiving and that his intent in pursuing his designs full six years together and so long as he was able aimed at the utter overthrow of the Laws and envassaladge of the people and that he had entailed this quarrel on his Son and his Heirs-males in perpetuum how impossible then it was for the Parliament to settle a firm peace throughout the three Kingdoms by re-admitting the King full fraught though a prisoner with his wonted Principles and designs or to take in any of his Posterity afore-hand indoctrinated in their Fathers frauds and subtilties might amaze the wisest of men even Salomon himself to finde out any other way how to free the Nation from peâ—petual Tyranny and bloodshed but by cutting off both the Father and Son which were so deeply interessed in the controversie and to make the same use of their victories for the future security and indemnity of the people as the King himself intended to do in the behalf of himself and his Successor had the fortune of a Conquest befallen him thus much in general as to the grounds of the Parliaments resolution of cutting off the King and his Posterity as to the particular reasons I pray take them in their order 1. They alledge that they had no choyce left them whereby to save the Nation from utter ruine but were by the Law of necessity inforc't upon them by the King himself and of his own seeking both to cut off him and exclude his Postâ—rity 2. That having had so long patience and taken such infinite pains during all the wars after he had lost all and was a Prisoner to satisfie him from time to time in what possibly they could in all things questionable between them and on all his exceptions to reason the case all along with him in their several Answers and Replies to his Papers Expresses and Protestations attested before God and his Holy Angels pretending still how really he meant when by long and sad experience they found all his pretences fraudulent yet could they never satisfie him with any Arguments either of Law or Reason but that his own Reason his Will his Honour his Conscience must be the onely Directory to the Parliament theirs of no esteem with him 3. That notwithstanding their many Addresses and humble Petitions presented unto him after his causless recess from the Parliament for his return with honor and profit with this onely reservation to leave Delinquents to the judgement of his Supream Court they prevailed not but he defended them and was the skreen to most notorious Offendors professing still a willingness to peace and Treaties onely to get advantages when he most intended War and Conquest 4. That such was the obstinacy of his natural inclination which himself miscalls constancy from which they found it was impossible to disswade him or yeeld to any reason never so well measured by them but that they must yeeld to his though never so unreasonably prest by himself 5. That in this wilsull pursuance to obtain his most unjust ends he incorrigibly persisted to the last without the least reluctation
Keeper Finch Secretary Windibank Piercy Jermine Suckling all of them prime sticklers for the advance of the Kings designs c. In the next place the Kings continued practises to corrupt his own Army and that of the Scots inviting them with great rewards and promises of preferment to march against the Parliament which on any conditions he was then resolved to destroy his then succeding journey into Scotland with the breaking out of the Irish Rebellion during his residence there his assault of the House of Commons on his return his then fortifying and manning of White-hall with the Cavaleers and when he found that by none of these artifices he could break the Parliament he leaves them and departs to York sends Eliot for the Great Seal and procures as many as possibly he could of both Houses to falsifie their trust and adhere to him so to divide and destract them and then raises an Army causing the Lords there attending him to attest that he raised that Army onely for a Guard to his Person and not against the Parliament and immediately sends out his Commissions of Array and marches through several Counties to Nottingham where he erected his Standard of War and after marches to Edgehill where he fought with the Parliaments Army notwithstanding that before from Nottingham he would have perswaded the Parliament by an Express of his own that he did not set up his Standard against them all which and much more of his prodigious Stratagems known to all the World makes it apparant that his intent was to destroy the Parliament and consequently to alter the Government and the Laws as he listed and yet there are at present a new sprung-up number of perverse people amongst us besides the old Royal party that impudently deny the premises and take occasion upon this late change and dissolution of the Parliament and the continuation of the Contributions to asperse the present Parliament with most opprobrious language I wish they would look back to the cause and how diffident soever they are of the kings destructive intentions yet may they please to take a review of his after-actions and what horrible cruelties and oppressions were perpetrated throughout most parts of the Land by his Commanders authorized under his own Commissions after he began the War at Edgehill and made Oxford his Head quarters then questionless they may take the true dimensions of a most unfortunate and tyrannical King neither would it be amiss for them to take it into their remembrance what the Parliament in so perplext times were constrained to put in execution as well for their own safeties as the preservation of the Laws and Liberties of the people Thus far in brief we have made a recital of the principal transactions before that fatal battel at Edgehil whence all Royalists and others diffident of the Kings destructive intentions may evidently see unto what plunges the Parliament was put unto upon the Irish Rebellion in relief of their poor distressed brethren in Ireland that affair by the King himself bring wholy recommended to the Parliaments disposement 400000l in Subsidies assented by himself to be levied to that onely use and the Earl of Leycester by his own approbation design'd for that imployment whom he so long protracted that the term of his Commission was near expired before he went over and as to his proclaiming them Rebels to which the Parliament often prest him he would not in a long time suffer his Proclamations to come forth and at last permitted no more then 40 Copies to be printed notwithstanding these his impediments the Parliament with their best Expedition sent over divers Regiments of foot some horse and cloathes by the way of Minyard and Chester The premises considered by any indifferent man with what honour then or justice could the king countermand those Forces and seize the cloathes horses and money sent to the relief of the poor distressed Irish Protestants against his own Act and Assent and by what law or colour of Reason could he in honor grant the remainder of the third part of that Subsidie to his Lieutenant-General of South Wales for raising of an Army there against the Parliament diverting the use thereof for the relief of Ireland What answer can be made to this other then that which with impudence of the highest strain is commonly alledged by Royalists viz. That the king stood bound both in honour and reason of State to support the Rebellious Irish in what possibly he could so to lessen the Parliaments power by what means soever for advance of his own If this be the reason surely then 't is evident that he not onely favoured the Irish but authorized their Insurrection and that his intent was to incumber and cut out as much work for the Parliament as possibly he could invent and in that course to protract the War in Ireland and to pursue it in England as 't is most manifest he did during full six years together neither would he be induced by the Parliaments many and most humble Petitions really to apply himself to a safe and well-grounded Peace for the Nation though still pretending how willing he was to embrace it when as by the sequel he intended to have it no other then as suted to his own will and pleasure and yet all of the Royal party as constantly defends him as himself obstinately persisted so long as his power lasted to embrew all the three Nations with blood fire and devastation and to his last * Vide The Kings Speech on the Scaffold hour stood stiffly in the affirmative that the absolute command of the Militia was his and that the Parliament on that only ground first began the War and not he contrary to his own acknowledgement in the I le of Wight and elswhere viz. That he had been the cause of all the innocent blood spilt throughout the Land I wish he were not guilty of that in Ireland the presumptions being so pregnant as that thousands of honest and knowing men cannot be otherwise perswaded sure enough he was most notoriously guilty of all the blood spilt in England and Scotland We now come to the kings Prerogatives as the basis on which all Royalists ground the lawfulness of their partaking with him in the late War as bound by Oath their Allegiance and in conscience to support his Soveraign Rights We shall for their better satisfaction present them in a Catalogue and answer them in their order forasmuch as they still constantly maintain them to be the kings inseparably united to the Crown and that full sore against his will he was inforc't to uphold them as invaded by the Parliament since then that as Royalists aver the King onely fought to uphold his inheritance and themselves with him let us briefly examine by what Law and right he claimed them together with the destrctive consequences should he have obtained them by the sword and whether then he had not carved out his own
bodies and in divers ways the more to distract our Armies where you ought to remember that this State hath both in Scotland and the adjacent parts a very considerable force to encounter these Invaders but admit again that the King advances so far as York though you cannot imagine but that he will be fought with twice or thrice over before he comes thither with fresh men and not unlikely rebeaten as at all places he hath been but let us again admit that he sâ—rmounts all difficulties both by Sea and Land and becomes victorious and triumphantly marches towards London and that the States Force cannot withstand him and that on the noise of such sad news the prevailing party as you are pleased to stile them being confoundâ—d with terrour betake themselves to their heels as their ultimum refugium and the best way to shist for themselves and that after this all is left to the Kings absolute disposement as all this not impossible but exceeding improbable what then on such sudden change of fortune think you may be the issnes thereof and what advantage either to your party or the generality of the people and all Countries through which his Armies shall march and Quarter accompaned with so many Nations diveâ—sly affected Prel I confess the people must neâ—essarily suffer and haply in a greater measure then hitherto they have done yet am I confident his Majesty will be very sensible of their sufferings and in prevention of their farther oppression and for settling of all things will immediately call a new Parliament and reduce it to the antient Form and Institution of the three Estates King Lords Spiritual and Temporal with the Commons and then commit all things to a sober legal and Parliamentary discussion and in what manner restitution may be made of his own Lands and goods the Churches Patrimony with the many other loosers of his own party and after all this in detestation of the foulness of the late War and bloodshed to buâ—y all discontents and heart-burnings as Judge Jenkins very jâ—diciously proposes in an Act of Oblivion with free pardon to all except some special persons that had a principal hand in his Fathers death and for all other of his Subjects to spare and cherish them in what possible his affaits will permit Patri Doctor excuse me since I utterly dissent from your opinion for it stands not with reason or with the Kings then present affaires to take a piece of that course which you suppose and should he be willing there would be so many of the old Cavalry attending his person as well Natives as Forraigners which would thrust in to be served and gratified that he should not be suffered to put in practise a title of that which is by you so vainly surmised but you may build upon 't he would take a clean contrary course and such a one as the necessity of his then urgent occasions would inforce and not tie up himself to his own disadvantage by an Act of Oblivion which necessarily must disable him either to help himself or friends when the power is in his hands to do what he pleaseth and carve as he listeth Prel Since you are so diffident of his Majesties good nature and intentions towards his Subjects tell us I beseech you what you conceive he will do for the speedy settling of peace and amity through the three Kingdoms Patri May I obtain your liceâ—ce and a favourable construction of that which I shall deliver I will tender my opinion and leave you all to make your own judgments thereon In the first place I believe that whereas then he comes in by the sword in order to his necessities he would rule by the sword and by an Army with Garrisons throughout the Land as now the States upon the point do and must do if they mean to go through stitch with their work and thenceforth begin a new Government as in like manner the States here intend to do the Laws of the Land which under the present power the people yet enjoy as they were wont to do in quiet and peaceable times would necessarily be subverted and turn'd topsie-turvie and such introduced in their room as should best sute with the will and pleasure of a Prince that comes in by Conquest and by the same power will have them to be no other then agrees with his Affairs and resolutions or as they are in France if not worse and more absolute where a single paper signed under the Kings hand hath the same efficacy as an Act of Parliament in England and in order to this you must expect that his mercenary Souldiers must and would be remembred If you demand in what I answer with the whole plunder of London as the readiest means to give them all content for their service and if this seem strange to you I pray call to minde that in the late Kings time when no occasion of wars or raising of Armies in any reason were necessary to be levied but such as our late Grandees the Earl of Strafford Canterbury and Cottington would have to be raised against the Scots that Earl spake it openly at the Councel-Table 1640 and to no other man then the Lord Mayor Sir Henry Garway and others of the Aldermen upon their refusing to lend the king 100000 l. for the Scotch War It will never do well says he till the King hangs half a dozen of you Aldermen and then put the whole City to ransome Which was proved against him at his Arraignment neither did the king forbear the seizing of the Mint for supply of that needless War so that 't is evident when Princes have power they will make no scruple to act any thing that conduceth to their designs or to take all things where they can finde it as 't is well known he did in the late barbarous War neither will it be impertinent to put you in remembrance of another instance of this kinde when at or before the beginning of the War the king took his journey towards Scotland and overtook the Scotch Army in their march homewards 1641 where he dealt with the principal Commanders to turn head on the Parliament in reward whereof they should have the plunder of London with Jewels for security an overture which some of them were not so dishonest as to conceal but gave notice thereof to the City and their own Commissioners then here residing Now if you farther demand What the present Pretender would do in the pre-supposed case I shall again answer you that in reason of State which with Kings and Conquerors hath an Of the miserable condition that will befal the Nation especially the City of London in case the Scots Pretender comes in by the sword immense latitude he would and could do no less then to take present order for the satisfaction of his Country-men the Scots as also for gratifying the proscribed and fugitive Lords Cavaleers both English Scotch and Irish which first
took part with his Father and in this supposed Conquest joyn'd in ayd of himself so that the estates of the Parliament Members would be much with the least to make them all compensation for their services and losses sustained by Seisures Sequestrations many total Confiscations nay you may rest assured that there would follow upon such a Conquest a more exact and rigorous search for Delinquents estates against the king then ever the Parliament made for Delinquents against them and you may build upon 't that not a common Souldier whether Native or Stranger but would press the king for some considerable recompence for his service Insomuch that there would necessarily fall out such a strange change of affairs and so much oppression of the people above that which we now suffer as that it would amaze the universal people to look upon the miseries which would befal them neither ought you to esteem of that ridiculous surmise of Judge Jenkins annexed to the conclusion of all his jugling fragments to wit that the late kings Act of Oblivion would have been the readiest and onely way both to reconcile all differences and as he infers settle peace throughout all the three kingdoms that being a subtil kinde of begging the Question and onely for his own private ends having a tacite relation to himself though craftily umbrated under the vail of the common good and in a cunningness to endeer the Souldery to him with a super-indulgent seemingly Of the juglings of Judge Jenkins in Lex terrae care he pretended to have them paid by all means when the crafty fox only intended his own indemnity in freeing himself of all debts acompts and moneys trusted in his hands and for many years most unjustly detained from the right owners * Mr. John Earnly by name of the county of Wilts you may take it in the next degree of an article of your faith that the king comming in by the way of the sword cannot for the reasons alledged be so prodigal of his grace as to spend so lavishly on the stock of his new gotten Conquest to grant a piece of an Act of Oblivion for farther proof whereof I pray remember that when the late king after the battel at Edge-hil fortified Oxford and as then to most mens judgement was in a sairer way to carry all before him there was not any debate in that mungril Parliament as the king in his Letters to the Queen calls them that pleased him and glad he was to be rid of the tumultuous motions there made unto him for even that Conventicle composed of the Fugitive Members of Westminster plotted by himself had not the right measure of his foor but in a confused and streperous manner fell always athawrt his inclinations which were secrets he meant not to discover but to such as could guess at them and comply with his designs before himself came to disclose them and such as had that faculty were the best instruments for his turn and believe it Gentlemen he was too dark and cunning a Prince for any that he ever imployed certain it is could he then or at any other time have destroyed this Parliament he would have altered the Government and hanged by degrees most if not all the Members together with all their adherents and consequently to have made use of their estates as the exegency of his affairs then required to gratifie such of the Nobility and Gentry as he had befool'd in to side with him though to their own loss and that of the universal Nation and this was well known to all men of an ounce of wit that made any resort to his Oxford Garrison as it hath been openly confest by some of his chiefest Commanders * Colonel Leg and others and of greatest trust about his person since the rendition of that City and in this particular I appeal to you Colonel who then waited on his Majesty Colonel That which you now avouch Patriotus is a known truth and the king in reason of State and in reference to his own profit and the designs he had in hand as also for our sakes which stood to him would do no less then change the The change of the Laws and Government which of necessity would follow a Conquest Laws and the Government but especially to quit himself of all Parliaments which throughout most Raigns have been so cross and opposite to their kings and so to any Act of Oblivion after a Conquest obtained and that then a general pardon should have been granted to all sides the Judge was out of his sphear and pratled like a Parrot for admit that the king should so much overshute himself as to grant an Act of Oblivion in what a condition should we of the Souldiery be what then could we expect in reward of our service which for his late Majesties sake and the Kings that now is or shall be in spight of the Devil have hazzarded our lives and fortunes Sure I am my late Master not onely promised me but granted to divers of us his Commanders such and such Parliament mens estates yea and oâ— * Witness Colonel Gunters estate of the County of Pembrook and divers others Delinquents both Lands and Goods and you may be sure more he would have given had he obtained his ends then all of you are aware of and I doubt not but that his Royal Successor in good time will do the same as his Father intended so soon as he comes to be invested with the Septer otherwise he would be the most ungrateful Prince most deficient and wanting to himself that ever was in the world Nay reason perswades me Patriotus to concur with your opinion as touching this treacherous City of London from whence the Parliament in the very beginning of the War had their only assistance and were first enabled to wage War with their King which I hope his now Majestie will never forget whensoever he comes to be Enthroned and then I doubt not but to have a good shane of the Citizens money Gold Chains Rings Plate Jewels Silks Satins Velvets Of the implacable batre the Cavaleers bear to the City of London and that in plentiful measure since I have taken special notice that they bequeathed not all their Riches to the Parliament some I am sure and that good store are left for such as better deserves them then such Mecanicks as knew not how otherwise to use their goods then to the destruction of his Majesty and the Kingdoms detriment Patri Colonel I profess I am bound to honour you for that you have candidly and like your self spoken the truth and what in reason in such a case would befall the City not onely in the total plunder thereof which will be much with the least to satisfie such a multitude both of Natives and Strangers neither can it sink into my understanding that the ransacking of the City will be the worst that may befall it such
grievance hath been a good space since taken away and the Souldier wheresoever he now Quarters pays both for horse and mans meat moreover the States have very much lessned their Forces onely retaining such numbers of horse and foot as may keep in awe such as you Collonel of the Royal Party which if not secured it may happily be more hurtful to the Nation then the not securing of our out-works against the ingrateful Dutch on whom the Malignant party which are still rotten at the heart looks upon with a pleasing eye in hopes so to order their designs as at last to bring in the Scotch Pretender though to their own particular ruine and the general destruction of the poor innocent people but in farther answer to your Objections suffer me to put you in remembrance what long since and before the late War began was projected by the late king when he was in peace and amity with all the Princes of Europe you shall finde it most true that in so great a calm of quietness divers Regiments of Germane horse were designed to be transpotted hither to keep all the Natives in awe and under the whip and in order to that the Deputy Straford in as calm a time of quietness as ever Ireland enjoyed had raised there an Army of near ten thousand Papists which for many Moneths and some years together were there both disciplined quartered and paid for the most part at the charge of private men and such as were averse to his Tyranous courses and in addition to those grievances on the Irish Scotch and English the imperious Deputy having taken to farm the Customs of that Kingdom at an excessive under-value he imposed on all the Commodities of the Land an incredible surplusage above the Rent he payd to the King Happily you may here ask the Question to what end such an Army was there raised and quartered on the Irish and so great Taxes impâ—sed on all the Commodities of that kingdom I answer The Deputy himself tells you the reason as you may see it in the * Vide. The Juncto Juncto You have an Army says he to the King in Ireland to reduce this Kingdom If you put the Question farther Why to reduce this kingdom being in peace I shall tell you that Army of foot with the Germane horse were all to be Garrisoned in England on free-quarter to amuse and keep the people in subjection whilst the king playd his game for the reducing the Scots to the Enslaving of all the three Nations If again you demand What the King would have done with so vast a Treasure as he intended to raise on both Kingdom the Deputy could have yeelded you a reason and president for this too viz. to erect Castles and Forts in both Kingdoms * Witness his great Structure not far from Dublin Houses of pleasure as capacious as Towns Parks of as large an extent as whole Parishes Masks Friscals Comedies Tragedies for the Saboth Banquets Junkets and such-like petulancies wherewith to please the Queen and the Court Ladies to gratifie Madam Nurse her Fidlers and Dancing-Masters for rest assured that the King meant not longer to depend on Parliamentary assistance for defraying of the Court expences neither to be controld for any irregularity he pleased to put in execution and this as tenacious as he was had often dropt from his own mouth and Cottington could openly say at his own Table 1638 when a Gentleman of honour told him That the best way for the King to fill his Coffers would be by the ayds of Parliament What needs that replies Cottington the King hath other ways in hand to supply his wants without Parliaments And indeed gentlemen as it seems you know not what the King had then in agitation some what more I shall tell you that there were certain odd * Dangerous Papers of the Duputies discovered Papers of the Deputies which I finde not were in question at his Arrainment for the Parliament had proof enough wherewith to charge him of his intention to alter the Government but those Papers intimate that the design was laid that no man was to stir above ten miles from his Habitation without leave and shewing his occasion and that no man was to be master of his own Train Arms either for his Domestick use or the Publick defence but that every Particulars mans Arms were to be deposited in one Magazin and in one place throughout all the Countries of England and Wales neither was any Houshoulder to be permitted to have the use of so much as a Pitch-forke without special license such a strange change of Soverainty was not only in hatching but in the high way of execution had it not been put by and obstructed as already is declared by the refractory Scot who marr'd all the Kings work the Deputies Archbishops and Cottingtons endevours to have accomplisht the whole design but how Almighty God iâ— his Justice hath disappointed and disposed of them all I leave to your second considerations Now Doctor if I have not given you a full Answer to all your Objections would my leisure permit my longer stay I could give you a little better satisfaction but for the present I say no more but examine well the case as the King before the Wars began was carrying on his designs and at a time when he had no cause at all to attempt as he did and then take into your more serious consideration the Parliaments case and condition which inforc't them for safeguard of themselves and those that trusted them to leavie men and money and since of necessity to Impose Contributions on the the people for support of the common Interest and then you will finde a great difference between one and the others case onely for a close of our Conference and in farther proof of the premises I beseech you tell me wherefore the King at this last Expedition against the Scoâ—s 1640 Commissioned Cottington Lord-Warden of the Tower with injunction to see that place well Fortified and man'd which in obedience to his Majestie in commands was presently put Execution but with such a refuse of Bankrupt * Billingsly and Suckling Colonels and Souldiers as could not be match't in all the Kingdom then to mount near upon twenty great Guns on the White Tower with their mussels turned against the City if you cannot tell the the reason I le tell it you That it was to awe the Citizens out of fear and jealousie that some one or other insurrection which the Projectors own guilty consciences suggested to themselves might fall out during the Kings absence in the North and to mar the work he had then in design before it came to maturity to be put in execution Why then and at the very same time the King should Commission the late Earl of Worcester a profest Papist as Cottington was no better as Lord President of the Welch-Marches commanding the Earl of Bridge-water a sound
Protestant to desert that government by Letters under his own hand which on his examination in Parliament wherefor he waved that command he produced for his justification where the reason inserted was for his special service a proper service if you mark it Now if you demand What that service might be I shall instantly tell you to what purpose as 't was then spoken publico consensu neither ever since denyed viz. the same Earl being Owner of one of the strongest * Ragland Castles in those parts seated amidst the greatest neast of Papists of any one place in the Kingdom had private Commmission from the King to raise 6000 of them for his Mâ—jesties service and that service was to convoy the Irish Army on their arival and to joyn with them when the King pleased to transport them for mastering all those Western parts and to be farther employed as his occasions should require for of such kinde of occasions though never so needless unnecessary and destructive through the whole course of his Reign as a fate that followed him to the last he would not be unfurnished Why then the late Earl of Arundel another suspected Papist was at the very same time Commissioned for the North parts you may safely aver there was no very good meaning in these exorbitant undertakings or other reason to be given for their constant pursuance but that they all tended to enslave the three Nations and to subject them all under his Arbitrary Power If any of you here think otherwise as many thousands there are which will not believe it I say no more but that they want wit but more wisdom to make a right judgement not of things doubtful and hidden but of matters visible and acted on the Theater of the Kingdom Therefore Gentlemen be not still blind neither wilfully stupid but lay your hands to your hearts and bethink your selves wherefore the Parliament be-took themselves to their defensive Arms and the Scots on the same grounds to side with them can you imagine for any other reasons then the conservation of their joynt interest the freedoms and liberties of both Nations since all the world can witness that they were not onely first invaded by the King but designed together with the English to envassaladge that on the same design he first bâ—gan the quarrel with the late Parliament and therefore as 't is aforetold you they could not in any reason or with safety of the people trust a perfidious Prince any longer with the Government or admit of any more Kings but in prevention of worse evils which in all probability would happen to the prejudice of the universal Nation to alter the Government as now you see it established in peace and in hopes that in short time it may prove much better safer and less burthensom to the people then the Regiment hath been which you may be sure o' nt would have been much worse had the Kings designs prospered and taken effect whether we look back on all the Motions of his Government before the Wars or forward on that which had he been Victor would necessarily have befallen the Nation as to that God knows he came very near the accomplishment But all of you may evidently see throughout the pursute that Almighty God did not neither could he give a blessing to his bloody designs and that a most fearful fare hath befallen the Prosecutor and his Fathers house together with most of his Assistants in that work of darkness for their bloody and ambitions affectations in opposition to Gods Law the Laws of the Land and that of Natures birth-right so that on a right understanding you which are so much devoted and besotted to magnifie and adore a Tyrant cut off as well by the hand of Gods justice as mans have rather cause with thankfulness to adore his infinite Providence in taking him away likewise to magnifie the Parliament as the instrument ordain'd of God for the preservation of your libertie the common interest of the Nations much rather then to grutch and repine against the present settlement rail and storm against those Magistrates whom God in his great mercy hath set over us under whom he that will may live quietly and contentedly as to such as will not I leave them to their fortune and so Gentlemen for this time I take my leave Thra. I vow Patriotus I never till now understood so much of the Kings intentions I could wish with all my heart I had known his minde twelve years since Sure I am he deceiv'd me and a thousand more of us with as fair words and plausible Protestations as ever could come from a Christian but now I perceive your infallible proofs and many of them as I well remember of his own hand-writing and of my own knowledge that all is not gold that glisters and I protest on the reputatio of a Souldier I now begin to have a better opinion of the Parliaments cause then hitherto I have had Patri Good Colonel I have not the command of your opinion I leave you to your own election to believe and judge as you shall see cause onely as you wish you had known the Kings minde sooner I wish he had known himself rather for this nosce teipsum the knowledge of our selves is the best piece of Philosophy that any of us can possibly learn and as to his fair and plausible language whereby to attract to himself friends and assistants I shall tell you somewhat which I believe you took no notice of for you were deceived in the King who had such a faculty of his own that heretofore you could not say he was ever known to be over-cheap to any whom he found not fit and serviceable for that purpose to which he would employ him but on the beginning of the wars the case was altred for then it stood him upon to be more then ordinarily affable to all you of the Souldiery since he was to make use of your service for the accomplishment of his ends which with all my heart I have often wish't that they had bin better byassed and so Gentlemen we must have a time to depart sinace for these five hours or more we have cost the ball from one to the other and yet at last how different soever in our opinions I joy in this that we shall depart in love and friendship not doubting but this meeting may make way for another of more mirth and less distaste wishing and praying to the God of Peace that in this universal disagreement of opinions in these times that odium and hatred which so unhappily hath been contracted between brethren of one and the self-same English blood upon the late fatal quarrel may yet at length be buryed in that pleasing Sepulcher of a cordial reconciliation and that we may all submit first to Gods good will and pleasure and next to that Government which by many visible manifestations he hath been pleased to establish
work to the enslaving of the Nation Of the Prerogatives Royall which the late King claimed as inseparables of the Crown 1. OF the Royal Power what it is 2. His sole and absolute power over the Militia 3. His Negative voyce in all Parliaments 4. His power to Array the people at will and pleasure 5. His Prerogative to call and dissolve Parliaments at pleasure 6. His Prerogative to pardon Murderers and Fellons 7. His Prerogative to dispose of Wards Mad-men and Lunaticks c. 8. Lastly that Tyrannous assertion of his own and his Father King Iames viz. That they were not bound to give account of their actions to any but to God alone These Prerogatives claimed by the late King as the Royalists say were invaded by the Parliament and the grounds of the late destructive Wars happily after-Ages as well as the present may be inquisitive to know whether they were so legally in the Kings absolute power that he stood bound to uphold them by the sword to the ruine of the Kingdom and whether the Parliament by their trust stood not more obliged to withstand them as encroachments on the common freedoms and liberties of the people We shall therefore for the general satisfaction briefly shew the extent of them all as they are either defined by our ancient Lawyers or confined and limited by our common Laws and Statutes The Royal power what it is FIrst then that this Royal power of our Kings hath never been any other then a limited and intrusted power to govern by Law to which their Coronation Oathes oblige them which may very well satisfie any rational man and save us the labour farther to dispute this point But we shall make it more plain that the highest of this Royal power was never more by the Law of the Land throughout all Ages then in the executive power Ius suum cuique tribuere to give to every subject his right neither can the King otherwise dispence this right or Law to the people but in and by his Courts of Judicature non per se tantum not by himself out of the law of his own breast for that 's plain Tyranny Stat pro ratione voluntas quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem which are the common principles of all Tyrants that That shall be the Law which the king wills which is more then the Grand Signior claims or exerciseth neither can this Royal power whatsoever of late times by flattering Lawyers hath been exposed to deceive the people enable the king to do that which the Law forbids What kings as Tyrants will do makes nothing to the matter in question but what they ought to do and what by the Law their Oath and duty of their Office they are bound to do is the true state of this Question Neither were any of our kings ever so absolute in power and Supremacy but that by the fundamental Laws of this Land they had their Superiours and those which were above them as one of the most eminent and ancient of our * Bracton Lawyers affirms often recited during the late Controversie viz. Rex habet superiorem scilicet legem per quam factus est Rex alterum scilicet curiam comites Barones which is The king hath a superiour to wit the Law by which he is made king another though very much scorned by the late king viz. The Court of Parliament composed of the Earls Barons and selected Gentry of the Land for this Court hath in it the Legislative power or the Authority of making Laws and who knows not the old principle Quod efficit tale est magis tale that which makes the thing is greater then the thing made And another of our eminent and learned Lawyers Fortiscue Chancellour to Henry the Sixth fol. 40. cap. 18. positively delivers it as a fundamental Law that the kings power is no other then that which the Law gives him and that cannot be farther extended or made greater without the assent of the whole Realm for should it be otherwise it follows that the king might then sell or dispose of the kingdom to whom he pleaseth which by the Law he cannot do neither by the ancient Laws of the Land can the king sell or alienate the Regalia and Jewels of the Crown though the late king took the liberty to sell them for Arms against the Parliament neither can the King by his own sole power dispose of the Cities Towns Forts and Castles of the Kingdom as the Scotch Lords 1639 told him in down-right terms on his fortifying of the Castles of Edenburgh and Dunbarton and the reasons they gave were valid both in Law and reason for that those Forts and Castles were built for defence security and safety of the people against Invadors and not for their offence to be man'd and fortified at the Kings pleasure against themselves And the reason of this Law is rendred by a most learned and expert * Novil 85. princi cap. 18. Jurist viz. Quod Magistratus sit nudus dispensator defensor Iurium Regni constat ex eo quod non possit alienare Imperium oppida urbes regionesve vel res subditorum bonave Regni quia Rex Regni non proprietarius Which is that a King or Magistrate is no more then a bare dispensor of the Laws of hâ—s Kingdom and the reason is manifest for that he cannot sell or alenate the Kingdom or the Cities Towns and Provinces thereof neither the Subjects goods or goods of the Kingdom because the King is onely the Director not the Owner and Propriator of the kingdom But Royalists and some jugling * Judge Ienkins Lawyers and ignorant Divines have both taught and written the contrary and made the late king believe that his power was absolute and without bounds which is fearful to imagine and shameful in those which continue to possess the people with such damnable untruths as lamentable it is to see the generality of the Nation to stand still unshaken in their belief that the kings rights were invaded and himself inforc'â— to make war for his own the contrary whereunto that his power stood bounded and limited by the Laws of the Land hath been so often alledged and prest upon him by the Parliament in their Answers and Expresses that the re inforcing of more Arguments on a subject so much overworn would be nauseous to all ingenious Readers To period this particular as 't is the gound-work of all the kings other Prerogative claims I shall onely put all Royalists in remembrance of that which the Earl of Strafford aver'd to the king 1640. viz. * Vide The Iuncto loose and absolved from all the reines of Government whether this assertion amongst other of the Deputies tended not to place the kings power above the known Laws of the Land I appeal to the judgement of any rational man for as a late a worthy * Mr. John Pim in his Speech to the Lords Member of