The EARLE of PEMBROKE'S SPEECH Jn the House of PEERES Upon debate of the Citie 's Petition for a Personall Treaty to be had with His MAJESTY in London And also upon debate of those Reasons given by their Lordships unto the Commons for not sending the three Propositions before a TREATY Printed in the yeare 1648. The EARLE of PEMBROKE'S SPEECH Jn the House of Peeres upon debate of the Cities Petition for a Personall Treaty to be had with His Majesty in London The CITIZENS being withdrawn his Lordship spake as followeth My Lords I Thank God you had no reason to make me your Speaker And truly all things considered I have as little reason to be a Speaker as any man And yet I will speak for I have been learning these seven yeares how to do it extrumpere I have help't too to baul down Bishops and Scholars and Ministers for dumb-dogs and doe you think I 'll be a dumb-dog too A halter I will If I should sit still and say nothing and let His Majesty come to London that were the way to make me dumb indeed for I can say no more for my self then a dog I hope the door is fast that the Citizens do not hear me because I 'll speak my minde What though I do not know my own minde Yet I 'll speak it as well as I can 'T is known I am a true Englishman though I cannot speak good English and as honest a man too as my Lord Say can make me and therefore my Lords now I have lived long enough with you I meane to dye with the House of Commons or else they say I shall be no Lord And so say I to you Grasse and hay my Lords we are all mortall and must be tyed up to the Manger I have been for the City too in my time when they would pay their money hear reason and invite us to dinners Hang them Rascals they cannot say but we have given them their Belly-fulls too I pray God they do not hear me This time twelve-month they made a young man of me and yet as simple as you think me I am an old man They drew me into a new War and made me waite upon a new Speaker and Vote His Majesties comming to London But I was a mad man I knew not what I did then for if the Army had not had the more mercy I had been a Traitor as well as the rest for ought I know Doe ye think then I 'll Vote the King home again no I warrant you I am an old Bird and scorne Chaffe or to be made a Traitor any more for any King in Christendome I am an old thing made new now My man Michael tels me I am an Independent I think I am a good Christian I but Citizens and Scots are Jewes And who knowes but that Personall-Treaty may be a new name for Popery You may bring in Popery and break the Covenant if you please my Lords but I dare not I am sure we have reason to regard it For we have gotten well by it we have gotten the Crown-Lands Church-Lands the Cavaliers Lands every mans Lands too if we please and the Devill and all And how shall we keep them if we doe not keep the Covenant For my part I 'll keep to my Oathes and rather then part with them Dam me I 'll swear down all this Personall Treaty And good reason too for they say it will undoe all that we have been doing these seven years And for my part I thought all had been undone already then what needs any more undoing by a Treaty My Lords if we must undoe let us undoe as the House of Commons does They doe one thing to day and undoe it to morrow They Voted they would never make any more Addresses to the King and made us Vote so too and then they made us un-vote all again And truly I think this is a hard Chapter for I cannot reade the meaning of it but I am sure they doe not mean a Treaty if they can help it I like the way of sending Propositions I for I love to goe on errands I am sure it is an Honourable imployment for an old man to be the States half-penny-Boy and I am glad the Commons will not hear your Reasons for the Kings comming before He have signed the three Propositions For observe my Lords if they should hear Reason they might goe whistle Mistake me not I mean if they should hear any Reason but their own and I think that is all the Reason in the world for it is Reason of State or the States own Reason There I think I hit it for all other Reason is Malignant and High-Treason Why then should we Treat with the King For he 'll talk Malignant Reason and reason of State too but then here 's the matter my Lords he will not talk the States Reason and therefore judge ye whether the State have any reason to talk with Him when He will talk nothing but Treason and by that meanes my Lords make you or me or any of us all Traitors to our Faces Trust Him that will for my part I shall have as little to say to Him as any of you all and yet you fee I am a good Speaker according to the States Reason I thinke we never had good world since we had so much Reason For my part I 'll speak my minde plainly I never had any reason of my own nor will I own ever any but Michael Oldsworth's and the States and by the life of Pharaoh I think they two are as reasonable Creatures as any in the world But to this point of Reason I mean to speak more now I come to examine your Lordships Reasons of State which the House of Commons have Voted contrary to the States Reason For as I take it my Lords they are the STATE and you know we are all bound to submit to the STATE or else we are Traitors I am sure few of us but have been made so for not submitting and 't is Gods mercy we are not all Traitors Howsoever I 'll be one no more if I can help it but keep as well as I can to the States Reason and I advise your Lordships to doe so too for they care not a Fig for all your Reasons nor I neither s'Death I am sure some of you have no reason to the contrary you know how you were whip't with the Black-Rod lately and I can tell you there 's a black-Book too at the Head-Quarters If you 'll doe reason ye may but mark ye my Lords it 's very dangerous to talk Reason it 's the only way to be put in the black-Book and then you know the black-Rod follows I am an old man I and some of you are old enough too but you see we are not past whipping and yet you will not take warning Howsoever I shall have a care of one and in the mean time see what reason you have to
venture to talk Reason to the STATE If you were their Fellow-Commoners you might have some reason to make bold to give them Reasons but being as it is me thinks you might know your distance You say you would not have the three propositions offered to the King before the Treaty First because the Citizens here and diverse Counties have petitioned for it The Citizens 'T is true they have brought us in a Petition here for it But the more Rascals they They may go home say their Prayers for they are not like to be heard here What do they pray when they should curse Dam me do they think the States a Camelion to live upon aire good words and Petitions and Treaties They were all for a new-war and drew me in too this time Twelve moneths now they are against a new-war Is there any Reason in this when the States have not yet done their businesse must They doe and undoe as wel as the STATE and now by doing nothing quite undoe the STATE They shal be hang'd first Dam me they shal I am somewhat the more eager against this my Lords because you say 't is Reason but yet I hope the Citizens do not hear me I would not have all that I speak to be spoken on the House-Tops because usually my Lords I seldome speak but I am o' th Top of the House before I am aware But this I say why should they stand for Peace and Treaties that first set afoot the war And now when we expect they should serve another Apprentiship to the STATE to maintain the war they meant to leave Reformation like Dun in the mine and are become so Popish as to Crosse us with Treaties If they were for a new-war this time Twelve-month 't is all the Reason in the world they should be so now What though the Case be not the same nor the STATE the same now that it was then I hope the Cause the State are alive stil and wil be as long as the King and the Cavaliers live out-live them too for They are the Same stil and fitter for another world then the STATES world For the STATES world runs round and hath done so these seven years but the King and the Cavaliers are the same stil And therefore my Lords I shal conclude with as good Logick as any I have left in the University as long as the King and the Cavoliers are the same the CAUSE must needs be the same though the STATE be not the same but mangled and rent and patch't and new-modeld and the Covenant likewise crackt all to pieces And where is your Reason now my Lords doth it not follow then that they ought not to take the same Course to maintain the war against the King and the Cavaliers and not trouble the STATE thus with Treaties especially seeing Guilds Hall is the same the Excise the City-Bags and Publique Faith too are all the very same stil and as full and fluent as ever And if these fellows that come here to vex the STATE thus with Petitions will not go home in Peace to forward a new-war and be the same men again that they have been I hope the Army will come pickle them up in the Tower serve them the Same Sauce their fellows had this time Twelvemonth For what other end I pray you do we keep the Army or the Army keep us And now my Lords that I have done with the Citizens I shall fall upon the Counties What have they to do with Petitions they are out of their Calling they should follow the Plough and let the STATE alone to Harrow and fetch in Harvest I warrant you they had rather have a King and see us Quarter'd then indure any more free-Quarter but I think the States-Guard quarter'd them sufficiently and made drawn-Cats of 'em I mean the Surrey-men so that I think they or the rest will have little stomack again to come a Petitioning What reason then my Lords have you to regard what They say for a Treaty They can but talk you see and the State can fight and be nee'r the more Traitors for it but if these fight they are Traitors presently as soon as we have conquer'd them I tell you my Lords if the STATE had voted me a Soldier I would have no more mercy upon these Fellows than if they were Traitors in gingerbread What though They would bite I have ventur'd ere now the tender'st Member that I have with a biting Thing and layn in a month for it under the Surgeons hands and I 'll venture my Tongue with any Biter of them all but I 'll be sure to have a care of my Head for the service of the STATE and who knows whether I may keep it if there be a Treaty But I wonder what good my head would do them I am not weary of it yet for I never much troubled it nor have been much troubled with it and yet I should be much troubled to part with it 'T is true I for my part never got any thing by it and I suppose no Body else will Therefore they had as good let it alone But neither you have any Reason to venture yours nor I mine and therefore to this part of your reason my Lords I say the Counties are as very Rascals as the Citizens that would have us to pull an old House upon our Heads by a Personall Treaty They would have a disbanding of the Army too would they Bus they shall snap short For I love the Army Dammee I do dearly Sink me they would have us disband I think too and sit no longer but if the Army will love us wee 'll love the Army for why should the Counties be so much against the Soldiers poore wretches Consider my Lords an t were your owne case for it might have pleased God to have made some of us Soldiers And so my Lords I think I have maul'd your first reason against the three Propositions Your second Reason is because His Majesty hath often declared that he will signe nothing till all things be concluded and therefore that the sending of those three must needs cause delay to the Treaty I would have you to know my Lords I am not for delayes I hate them for I think I am as hasty as any man but yet I care not if we delay a Treaty with God or the King till Dooms-day and that I think is a faire time for it may be to morrow for ought we know And it is a very fit time I think since His Majesty will agree to nothing till the conclusion of all things I wish him well he was my Master but I care not much for seeing him nor for kissing his hand I can kisse my Lady May and she is my Mistresse I care not for kissing of men I am an old man and it is not for me to be kissing but if she be for a personall Treaty then indeed this Reason holds
good against delay and I am of your opinion Then you say too it is contrary to the rules of treating to grant any thing before the Treaty Have we done what we list all this while and must we go by Rule now Then it will follow too that we must let the King rule again He is in a fine condition to rule is he not I thought we could have ruled one another better than he I am sure my Lord SAY rules me as well as ever I would desire and I believe he rules you as well as me and then we can never be against the Rules of Treating as long as he rules the Roste because he sayes a Treaty is out of all Rule and none but unruly Fellowes do stand for it and it is not for our Honours my Lords to be unruly But Dammee I think we cannot be unruly for we have as good a disciplin'd Army as any is in the world to rule us But I say further that it was the desire of the Scots to have His Majesty come to some of his houses neare London and therefore we should yeeld to it presently to keep a faire correspondence with them Dammee and sink me my Lords what have we to do with them now we had occasion to use them a while ago but now that they have helpt us to conquer the King we have done with them We my Lords must be ruled but the Scots you see are the Lords of misrule For my part I 'll have nothing to do with them I cannot abide a Scot for a Scot switch't me once and crackt my crowne with my owne staffe the very virge of my Lord-Chamberlainship and now they are all coming to switch you too They say Hamilton is their Generall He is a Duke I cannot abide a Duke because I am not one my self but do not I look as like a Duke as Hamilton Well I might have been one if I had had wit enough to keep that honor which I had But I had honor what then had I to do with wit That 's for Poore Rogues for wit and honor seldome meet together I know many men count swearing to be wit and if I had been so witty as to keep close to my Oaths at Court and not broke them by playing false with the King and forsweare my selfe by taking the State 's Oaths and the Scots Oath Dammee I had been as good a Duke before this time as any Scot of them all But hang Dukes we are Princes now an 't please the Commons As for the King 's coming to one of his houses I know not what that means for he hath never a house I say they are the State 's houses time out of mind at least these seven yeares ever since His Majesty was turn'd out of doores I am afraid if he should come to any of his houses and we not agree with him nor let him be King again we shall be turn'd out of our House and the Commons out of their House and then we shall not have a house to hide our heads in Mark ye too my Lords it must be to some one of his houses neare London How d' ye like that I am sure some of you have no houses neare London and ye thought to make bold with His Majesties S'death I thought ye had hous'd him for that purpose and will ye now give over house-keeping You say likewise there is more reason to offer a Treaty with him now then there was heretofore at Oxford and Uxbridge Well my Lords you may do what you will Sink me if I don't live and die with the House of Commons I am for the State I But if you 'll undo your selves with reason I cann't help it you see the Cavaliers have undone themselves with it already And if you 'll beggar your selves with it too and leave me to keep house here by my self you may You know the House of Commons and I are all one and if you leave the House of Peeres to me and two or three more the Commons House and ours will soone be all one too Hang reason then will you provoke the State and leave my company for a little reason You know whither my Lord of Holland is gone for his reason what 's become of my Lord Francis and the rest and where His Majesty is with all his reason and where I am that have reason You talk of treating at Oxford and Uxbridge 'T is true His Majesty baffled us with reason but how hath he prospered after it I believe it never did any body any good and I am sure though we had no reason to get the better yet we got the better with no reason And therefore because we thrived so well then without reason I think 't is wisely done to deal out of all reason ever since And so my Lords I think I have tickled you for all your Reasons against our sending of the three Propositions before a Treaty Now my Lords in the next place I 'll prove the Propositions themselves to be so reasonable that I know you 'l never trust to your own Reasons againe What though they are unreasonable yet they are not so if I keep to my former distinction that is not according to Reason of State but the States Reason for seeing a Treaty would quite undoe the STATE sure 't is all the reason in the world they should propound things out of reason on purpose to prevent Treating Therefore I 'll mainteine the first Proposition is most reasonable that the King should recall all Proclamations and Declarations against us and well he ' scapes so too for I am sure he slander'd us sufficiently with a matter of truth though he call'd us out of our Names S'death which of all us are Rebels and Traitors Do I look like one what am I a Faux or a Catesby I am sure I had no hand in this last powder-plot nor the first neither I scorn to be a Traitor I dammee what Declarations and Proclamations to cut off our Heads and not recall them you may chuse whether you 'll have 'em recalled or no but sink me I 'll have 'em recall'd What shall our heads be fitted with an Iron Cap-case and set a sunning these Dog-daies upon the top of the house here to spoile our complexions dammee we must all come to 't if we be Rebels and Traitors Traitor then in his face if he will not recall his Proclamations for they will make us traytors in spight of our teeths if we do not make them treason against the STATE What though the House of Commons have made us traytors in many things in spight of our teeths I hope the STATE may doe any thing and be no treason Therefore I say these Proclamations are treason against the STATE and so not to recall them is to be a traitor against the STATE But the Cavaliers say if the King recalls them then he makes Himselfe and Them to be the traytors And
all the reason in the world beleeve me for do what we can we cannot make them traytors why then should not hee make them so to our hands for I am sure we use them like traytors and one had better be traytors I think than us'd so But they are stubborne fellowes their shoulders are broad enough to beare any thing and therefore the STATE hath reason to make them the Traytors I remember when they proclaim'd my Lord of Essex a Traytor and my Lord SAY here a traytor all that stuck to them traytors I am sure I stuck to them close and yet I think we are never the worse traytors for being proclaim'd What 's a Proclamation I am sure there are some in the STATE that have torn his Majesties Proclamations How can they be Traytors then But I 'll tell you my Lords who are the traytors The Kings evill Councellors are the traytors for they never left him till we shut him up close prisoner and put them away We are the Kings great Councell now What though we will not let him come amongst us yet I am sure we are his best Councell for we save him a great deale of trouble and dispatch all things for him without a hearing and so I hope we shall dispatch him too if he will not recall Judge you then my Lords whether he had not best recall his Proclamations Now for the second Proportion for setling of Church-Government there is all the Reason in the world for it For I say every tub ought to stand upon his own bottom Why then should not the Church of England be setled upon a Scotch bottom Here 's such a deale of doe about a Church and Religion I tell you plainly my Lords I am an Independent I love it better than Presbytery and yet I think they are both but a tale of a tub But howsoever it is an ill tub that hath no bottom therefore my Lords I keep to my first saying the Church will never be setled till every tub stands upon its own bottom Judge you then whether I am not fit to be a Reformer The Assembly sayes we must reform according to the Word of God For my part I never trouble my selfe to read a word of it and yet you know I am an Assembly-man What need I read the Word of God when I keep a Chaplain to read it Besides they say the reading of it would spoile my oaths and I 'll not leave one word of my oaths for all the word of God But I am willing to be rid of the Scotch Oath because they say 't is taken out of the Word of God and it may be so for ought I know But yet I would faine keep the Covenant because it hath kept many of us these hard times and because it keeps the Bishops away from us I cannot abide Bishops they have so much learning and antiquity I hate Surplices too ever since Mr. Henderson preacht it up for the Whore of Babylons smock It seems he had taken it up often for he had many a Bout with her as Mr. Sedgwick sayes now and anon too But hang the whore of Babylon she is an an old whore and I am an old man I thank God but I cannot abide old whores nor you neither my Lords I hope Therefore judge you whether His Majesty ought not to settle Church-Government presently that all old whores may be excommunicated As for our third Proposition for the setling of the Militia I know not well what to say to it This Militia is a hard word and so is publike Faith but yet the Citizens made a shift to swallow it The Devill 's in their guts they will downe with any thing these hard times and they will down with Militia too if we would let them Sure it is a very hard word for we have much ado to make His Majesty part with it and we are as loth to part with it as His Majesty But I think we have made him part with it in spight of his teeth What though he will not give it us we have it already and we are fooles I think if we do not keep it What take away our Armes does he think to make the STATE crosse the cudgells and be Popish again The STATE shall order Hammond to trip up his heeles first and if he cannot do it Rolph shall go and make him kick up his heels He is a member of the STATE 's Militia he may do it Dammee he may for no body that I see dares question him Judge you then whether His Majesty had not as good let us cut his throat with the Militia as without it And so my Lords I think the three Propositions are very reasonable and that you will never trouble the STATE with any more reasons against them Now my Lords for the Cities Petition here before us I have but one word more to say I say their Petition is worse than your reasons They would have a Treaty too and no propositions but they are not halfe so mannerly to the STATE as your Lordships for you give reasons but they bring not a word of reason that I can understand and yet they will have no nay to a Treaty Hang 'em Rascalls it is to save their purses They had rather save their purses than themselves or the STATE but Dammee their purses and they are both Râ—probates and therefore I say the STATE must damn them both It 's possible in time the STATE may hang them for all their services I doe not meane the Aldermen in their own chaines for the Troopers will find other ware for execution And well they deserve it for the poore Army hath taken the paines to conquer the Kingdom and them too and yet the churles are so miserable they never could finde in their hearts to give them so much as one meale of thanksgiving therefore I think after their cold breakfast before Colchesler they had best come and fall aboard upon the City I am sure they have some friends here that will bid them welcome Shippon hath a thousand Horse for the purpose and I think they will help pretty well to fetch recruits out of these dogged fellowes of the City and keep out a personall Treaty Then mark my Lords they 'll have this Treaty to be in London No other place will serve them to have the King in but London I thought they had Kings enough at London already but they 'll have King Charles that 's a malignant word if you put God to it for it is the Cavaliers word and I am for neither I hope my Lords you will be so too and not turn Cavaliers now at last for what should we do with King Charles which of us can look him in the face Dammee I think you have as little reason to treat with him as I. Well my Lords I have spoken my mind I pray you do not order the printing of my Speech for I would not have every body know my mind before my selfe I should speak oftener if I might be lesse in print for a Speech in print is neer kin to learning and I hate learning I hate King I hate King Charles Do you do so too and le' ts love one another and be obedient to the STATE For Dammee sink me and rammee nine miles into the bottom of a hedge we are undone if we do not make slaves of the City and keep off a personal Treaty FINIS