Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	earl_n	sir_n	son_n	57,727	5	6.2744	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88195	An impeachment of high treason against Oliver Cromwel, and his son in law Henry Ireton Esquires, late Members of the late forcibly dissolved House of Commons, presented to publique view; by Lieutenant Colonel Iohn Lilburn close prisoner in the Tower of London, for his real, true and zealous affections to the liberties of his native country. In which following discourse or impeachment, he engageth upon his life, either upon the principles of law ... or upon the principles of Parliaments ancient proceedings, or upon the principles of reason ... before a legal magistracy, when there shal be one again in England ... to prove the said Oliver Cromwel guilty of the highest treason that ever was acted in England, and more deserving punishment and death then the 44 judges hanged for injustice by King Alfred before the Conquest; ... In which are also some hints of cautions to the Lord Fairfax, for absolutely breaking his solemn engagement with his souldiers, &c. to take head and to regain his lost credit in acting honestly in time to come; ... In which is also the authors late proposition sent to Mr Holland, June 26. 1649. to justifie and make good at his utmost hazard ... his late actions or writings in any or all his books.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1649 (1649)	Wing L2116; Thomason E568_20; ESTC R204522	95,549	77

upon them unto the distressed and oppressed Commons or people of this Nation yea the setling of which principles is that that will thereby make it evident and apparent unto all rationall and understanding people in the world that the reall and hearty good and welfare of the people of this Nation hath cordially and in good earnest been that that their souls have hunted for and thirsted after in all the late bloody civill wars and contests All the Contests of the Kings party for his Will and Prerogative being meerly Selvish and so none of the peoples interest and the contest of the Presbyterians for their ●●ke-bate dividing and hypocriticall Covenant no better in the least and the present contest of the present dissembling interest of Independents for the peoples Liberties in generall read the following Discourse pag. 27 28 29 meerly no more but Self in the highest and to set up the false saint and most desperate Apostate murderer and traytor Oliver Cromwel by a pretended election of his mercinary souldiers under the selfe name of the godly Interest to be King of England c. that being now too too apparently all the intended Liberties of the people that ever he fought for in his life that so he might rule and govern them by his Will and Pleasure and so destroy and envassalize their lives and properties to his lusts which is the highest treason that ever was committed or acted in this Nation in any sense or kinde either first in the eye of the Law or secondly in the eye of the ancient but yet too much arbitrary proceedings of Parliament or thirdly in the eye of their own late declared principles of reason by pretence of which and by no rules of Law in the least they took away the late Kings head and life which it there were any Law or Justice in England to be had or any Magistrates left to execute it as in the least there is not I durst undertake upon my life plainly evidently and undeniably to make good the foresaid unparalleld treasons against the foresaid Ol. Cromwel upon against all the three forementioned principles viz Law Parliament and Reason yea and to frame against him such an Impeachment or Indictment which way of Indictments is the true legall and only just way of England to be tried at the Common Law higher and greater then all the charges against the fourty four Judges hanged for false and illegal Judgments by King Alfred before the conquest which with their crimes are recorded in the Law Book called The mirror of Justice Printed in English for Matthew Walbank at Grayes Inn gate 1646. page 239. 240. 241. 242. 243. 244. 245. See also page 196. 197. 207. ibid. Or then the impeachment or accusation Of the Lord chief Justice Wayland and the rest of his brother Judges and Lawyers tormented in Edward the first his time and mentioned in Speeds Chronicle fol. 635. Or then the impeachment in Parliament against Judg Thorp who for taking small bribes against his oath was condemned to die in Edward the third his time of whom you may read in the 3. part Cooks Institut fol. 155 156. and in Mr. Pyms Speech against the Earl of Strafford in the Book called Speeches and Passages of Parliament pag. 9. Or then the impeachment 〈◊〉 a charge of the dethroned King Edward the second in full Parliament the maner of whose dethroning you may notably read in Speeds Chronicle fol. 665. Or then the many Articles of impeachment of the dethroned King Richard the second in full Parliament recorded at large in the Chronicles or History of Will. Martin fol 156. 157. 158. 159. the 8. 10. 12. 15. 21. Articles of which I conceive must remarkable as to the people which are extraordinary well worth the reading for in them the King himself in those dark days of Popery is charged To have perverted the due course of the Law or Justice and Right and that he destroyed men by information without legal examination or tryal and that he had declared the Laws of the Kingdom were in his own Erest just the same thing do Mr. Peters and other mercenary Agents of the Grandees of the Army now constantly declare of them and that by himself and his own authority just Cromwel and Ireton like onely much short of them he had displaced divers Burgesses of the Parliament and had placed such other in their rooms as would better fit and serve his own turn Or then the impeachment of the Lord chief Justice Tris●lian who had the worship or honor in Richard the second his time in full Parliament to be apprehended in the forenoon and hanged at Tiburn in the afternoon with his brother Judges viz. Fulthorp Belknay Care Hot Burge and Lockton or their associates Sir Nicholas Bramble Lord Mayor of London Sir Simon Burley Sir William Elinham Sir John Salisbury Sir Thomas Trevit Sir James Bernis and Sir Nicholas Dodgworth some of whom were destroyed and hanged for setting their hands to Judgments in subversion of the Law in advancing the Kings will above Law yea and one of them banished therefore although a dagger was held to his brest to compel him thereunto Or then the indictment of those two grand and notorious traitorly subvertors of the Laws and Liberties of England Empson and Dudley Privy Counsellors to Henry the seventh recorded in Cooks 4. part Institut fol. 198. 199 read also fol 41. ibid. and 2. part Instit fol. 51. Or then the impeachment of that notorious wicked and traiterous man Cardinal Woolsey by King Henry the eight his Privy Councel recorded in the 4. part Cooks Instit fol. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. Read especially Artic. 17. 20. 21. 23 25 26. 30. 31. 33. 35. 38. 42. in all which he is charged with Arbitrariness and subversion of the Law Or then the impeachment of the Shipmoney Judges who in one judgment did as much as in them lay destroy all the Properties of all the men in England read the notable Speeches against them in Speeches and Passages Or then the impeachment of the Bishop of Canterbury in the late Parliament Or then the impeachment of the Lord Keeper Finch Earl of Strafford Secretary Windebank Sir Richard Bolton Lord Chancellor of Ireland John Lord Bishop of Derry Sir Gerrard Lowther Knight Lord chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland and Sir George Ratcliff all whose impeachments are recorded in a Book intituled Speeches and Passages of Parliament from November 1640. to June 1641. Pag. 76. 77. to 83. and 117. 118. to 143. and 174. and 256. 257. 258. Or then the Articles or charge against the two Sir John Hothams the elder of which kept the King out of Hull the beginning of these Wars when the House of Commons durst not command him positively to do it although they were effectually put upon it by a motion from the younger then sitting in the House and yet they were both beheaded as Traytors for but endevoring to

they thought the reputation of the original and chief promoters of that transcendnet gallant and large Petition that so much touches their Copy hold that so if it might be possible the Petition it self might be crusht in the birth before it had brought forth strength sufficient to pull up their rotten tyrannicall Interest by the rootes And after he had done with th Relation at their Bar having giving the Lords as it seemes a flagou of sack and suger they were in pains as it appears till they had communicated some deep draughts of it to their friends of the House of Commons divers of whose rotten Interests were concerned in it as the Lords sons and servants the Patentee Monopolisers the Merchant Adventurers the Lords would be which are principally the chief of Cromwels Faction who having now the power of the Kingdom in their own hands and therefore in their own imaginations can not miss of being within a little time made Barons if not Earls but especeally that grand inslaving Interest the rotten Lawyers of the House divers of whom if the Petition took effect in disabling all Members of that House that are Lawyers to plead at any Bar of Justice would deprive some of them of two or three thousand pound per annum which now they get by their Pleadings by vertue of their beeing Pa●liament men for if a mans Cause be never so unjust if by large Fees he can get two or three Parliament men to plead it for him he is sure to carry it for the Judges dare as well eat their nailes as displease them for fear of being turned out of their places by them which they more regard then their Oathes which tie them to do impartial Justice I say after he had done his Relation at the Lords Bar a Conference was betwixt both Houses where he again belcht out his most abomin●ble malicious and false lyes and one being present that heard it came immediatly to me in London and told me of it of which I no sooner heard but immediatly by water of my own accord I posted by boat to Westminster and coming up to the House of Commons door about three or four a clock I found the House to be risen and meeting with some of my friends and acquaintance at the door I told them there I understood the House of Commons had again dealt worse with me then the Heathen and Pagan Romans dealt with Paul who when his adversaries desired Judgment against him they told them that it was not the maner of the Romans to judge or condemn any man before he which is accused have his accuser face to face and have liberty to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him Act. 25. and yet upon a bare accusation of a single Priest as I was informed they had again committed me to the Tower before they heard me speak one word for myself in which I told my friends freely and openly they had outstript the Heathen and Pagan Romans in Injustice who though Paul by Tertullus the Orator was accused for a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and a Ringleader of the Sect of the Nazarens Acts 24. yet they would not condemn him before they heard him face to face speak for himself And I further told them this unjust proceeding of the House of Commons against me was but just the same unrighteous measure that they had meted out before unto me for about two years ago I had come Post from Sir Thomas Fairfax Army to bring them glad tidings of his routing of General Gorings Army at Lamport in Somersetshire and being daily waiting at the House door I was a few dayes after by the Speakers means as I have been since largely told Voted upon a bare suggestion to Prison without the House ever so much as calling in my pretended accusers viz. Dr. Bastwick and Colonel Edward King with whom for divers moneths before I had not to the best of my remembrance changed so much as one word or ever so much as calling me in though then at their door to speak one word for my self they Voted and Resolved upon the Question That I should be committed to prison till they please to release me without telling me to this hour wherefore they imprisoned me and from their Serjeant at Arms tossed and tumbled me to Newgate for refusing to make of one of their Committees a High Commission or Spanish Inquisition to answer against all Law and Justice to their Interrogatories And then when they had me at Newgate made an Order of their House to arraign me at Newgate Sessions for no less then my life and Ordered the prime Lawyers about London viz. Master Bradshaw Master Steel Master Walker c. to be my prosecuters and by a law-quirk if it were possible to take away my life from me And yet for all that they being sufficiently baffled by my own pen and the pens of my Friends they sent me One hundred pounds to Newgate as may be supposed to help to bear my charges and released me by Vote of the House as an innocent man after thirteen weeks imprisonment without all that while laying any thing to my charge or so much as ever telling me wherefore they * The full story of which you may read in my Printed Epistle of two sheets dated and in my large Book called Innocency and Truth Justified and in Englands Birth-right Englands misery and remedy and Englands lamentable slavery imprisoned me or who were the prosecutors or informers against me and all this was done unto me by Master Speakers malice principally who though he had not the least pretence or shadow of Crime originally against me yet thought by provocations laid upon me to exasperate and chafe my Spirit and thereupon as it were to force me to do something that might intangle me and be a colourable ground for him to destroy me forgetting although he pretend to be a great Lawyer that maxime of the Law made use of by Judg. Hutton in his Argument in Master Hambdens Case against Shipmoney pag. 49 That that which was defective in the Original is not good by any accident subsequent or as that learned Lawyer the Author of that notable Book called Vox Plebis pag. 20. 43. hath it That which is not good or just but illegal in its original or beginning by tract of time cannot be made just or lawful See also my Grand Plea against the House of Lords pag. 13. I further told my Friends then and there That if I might have but fair play and free liberty to speak for my self I doubted not but to make it as evident as the Sun when it shined at noon-day That at that pretended treasonable meeting at Wappin whereas I understood the parson accused me for plotting the destruction of the Parliament c. I did the House of Commons in its just and fundamental Interest simply considered a peace of the

King it was dangerous to the Kingdoms safety in this juncture of time to promote it lest it might occasion a clashing betwixt the two Houses which would now be very dangerous Unto which Mr Speaker my self c. answered to this effect That if the Lords had so concurred in these Votes that they had declared it had been their duty without dispute to have concurred to all such Votes as the House of Commons had passed there had been some ground to have pleaded for a respect unto them from us But seeing they so passed the Votes as in the passing of them they declare it to be their right to give their deniall to any Votes the House of Commons shall hereafter passe that doth not please them we are thereby engaged the rather to go on with our petition to pluck up this their destructive interest by the roots for future that had brought all our * See 1 part Book Decl. pag. 289 364 365 398 522 526 528 548 557. miseries and woes upon us For Mr Speaker if the Lords be considered in their Judicative power we shall find them as guilty of treason in subverting our fundamentall Laws and Liberties as ever the Lord of Strafford was who in his impeachment of high Treason by this House was accused in the 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. articles that he had traiterously subverted the fundamentall Laws of England and Ireland and introduced an arbitrary tyrannicall Government beyond and above Law in that he had upon papers † And if these very things should now be judged treason as they are and were in the Earl of Stafford I wonder what should becom of all our present Junto at Westminster and their new thing called A Councel of State undoubtedly the most if not all of them must go to Tyburn or Tower-hill there by an halter or axe to receive their just deserts Amen petitions and verball complaints without any due course processe or shadow of Law but meerly by the law of his own will outed divers of the Free-men thereof out of their liberties properties and free holds to the ruin and destruction of many of their families And truly Mr Speaker I must aver it and do aver it before this honourable House that the House of Lords are as guilty of this traiterous subverting of our fundamentall Laws and Liberties and introducing and exercising an arbitrary tyrannicall Government above and beyond all Law and Justice as he was and by the law of their own wils without any due course or processe of Law have outed divers Free-men of England out of their liberties properties and free-holds they themselves being complainents prosecutors parties witnesses Jury and Judges have passed most barbarous and tyrannical censures upon them to the apparent ruin of them and their families Yea and upon me have passed so barbarous and transcendent an illegal sentence that I am confident the like of it in all circumstances is not to be parallel'd in all the Earl of Straffords tyrannie And Mr Speaker let me freely tell you that unlesse this House do execute upon the present tyrannicall House of Lords or the mischievous law and libertie destroying Ring-leaders amongst them the Earl of Straffords punishment for what they have already done and for future take care to prevent their or any others exercise of the like arbitrary and tyrannicall power again I shall never justifie you for righteous and impartiall Judges or think that you have discharged your duty either to God or the Commonwealth who chose and trusted you to preserve their liberties and freedoms and punish those that destroy them The rest of my speech against the House of Lords Legislative power being already at large printed in the 14 15 16 17 pages of my answer of the 27 Feb. 1647. to Mr GUALTER FROSTS malicious and false declaration against me which I entituled A WHIP FOR THE PRESENT HOUSE OF LORDS OR THE LEVELLERS LEVELLED to which for brevities sake I refer the Reader and go on to the next thing in order being the main thing I intend as I upon the foresaid 19 day of January 1647. confidently and avowedly delivered it at the Bar of the House of Commons which is an impeachment of Treason against Cromwel c. profering againe and againe upon my life to prove it every tittle at their Bar which thus followeth And now Mr. Speaker I must acquaint you that there was occasion adminstred My charge against Cromwell and his Son Ireton to talke of Lieutenant General Cromwell and his late gross apostacy from patronising the peoples Liberties an Freedomes and here Sir it was declared with admiration and astonishment that Lieut Gen Cromwell who was once the glory of Englishmen in visibly appearing for Justice and Freedome both against the King the Earl of Manchester and the whole House of Peers c. and who had a principall hand in so many gallant Declarations of the Army in diverse of which freedome righteousnesse and Justice was published to the whole Kingdom most gloriously † As you may clearly read in the Armies Book of Declarations page 8. 17 23r 25 26. 32. 33. 35. 37. 39. 40. 41. 45 46. 52. 58. 61 62. 76 97. 101. 105. 110. 112. 118 119. 132. 137. 142. 144. 150. That this very Lieut. Gen. Cromwell whose name for honesty once rung and eccho'd throughout England should now apostate from his former declared gallantry and honesty and turne his back upon his owne solemne Declarations Remonstrances and Ingagements and persecute with bitternesse even to death and bonds righteousnesse truth and justice in all those in the Army he met with it in and now of late become a grand patron protector and earnest pleader for the preservation of all the grand corrupt and inslaving interests in England was a wonder and astonishment that he that had the gloriest praise and opportunity put into his hands that ever God put into the hands of an English man to do good unto his native Country and to settle the Laws Liberties and peace thereof in their lustre and glory should be courted out of all his principles protestations and engagements by a little selfish glitering worldly or corrupt honour and to convert his power and interest to the quite contrary to make us slaves and vassals was the admiration and wonder for all knowing observing and unbiased English men and the greatest mischief that ever befel the honest men of the Kingdome having divided them amongst themselves that formerly were one in their pursuing the firme establishment of the Common rights and freedomes of their native Country diverse honest men having his person in admiration either for advantage sake or former good services sake would not see their owne danger and misery nor willingly would suffer their friends and neighbours to see that fatal ruine and destruction that by his meanes and HIS ALONE was likely speedily to come upon them and the whole Nation by means of which we are so divided amongst

our selves that it was impossible for all the professed enemies we had in England to have put such a mischievous division amongst us the bitter fruites of which we had lamentable experience of every day in that it deprived us of the vigorous pursuing of al effectuall meanes to preserve and secure our selves from that eminent ruine and destruction that is even at our very thresholds And therefore it behoved us with all our might to presse hard forward according to the marginall note of our Petition to get our Lawes so strictly setled as though it were impossible that ever an honest man should be borne into the world to be an executor or administrator of them we having found it too true a maxime by experience in Lieut Gen CROMWELL alone that whosoever meanes to settle good Laws must proceed in them with a sinister or evil opinion of all man-kind and suppose ESPECIALLY AFTER HIS GROSSE APOSTACY that whosoever is not wicked it is for want of opportunity and that no State or People can be wisely or securely confident of any publick minister whatsoever continuing good longer then the rod is over his head And Mr Speaker it was further declared that though he might now seeme to face about and to intend just and righteous things to the Kingdome by reason of his late forwardnesse in the late Votes against the King for no more Addresses to Him Yet what rational man could groundlesly judge that he thereby intended a reall good to the Kingdome especially considering that in the very neck of those Votes he and his faction that he hath at command at the head-quarters published a Declaration to the whole Kingdome to maintaine the House of Lords in all their tyrannicall usurpations the continuance of whose Law-making interests is perfect vassalage and bondage to the whole Nation as I have before undeniably and fully proved or the rather may not any rationall knowing man conclude that Lieut Gen Cromwel's and his Son Ireton's late spight against the King did procceed only from animositie and revenge against the King because he had forsaken them and accepted of a better bargaine from the * For so saith Mr John Wildman in his Truths Triumph 7. 8. and he was conversant then at the Head-quarters and knew almost all secrets See also his Putney projects Scots who for their preservation it may be were not onely willing to give Him His Negative voice and an hereafter possession of the Militia but a present right in it and possession of it the which if he enjoyed the Army-Grandees and their accomplices could not reigne over the people as they intended to do for undoubtedly if the King would have taken and accepted of their conditions and stuck close to them and imbrace no other lovers they would never have been so angry with Him but withall their hearts have helped Him to His Crown Throne againe which is evident and clear from Iretons transcendent pleading for Him and new Addresses to Him in this House and the open Councels at Putney c. and Mr Speaker while they accused Mr Hollis and Sir Philip Stapleton c. for high Treason for under hand tamperings with the King they themselves out-stript them at that very time in that which they declared a crime in them for Mr Speaker their under hand tamperings with the King were but petty ones to those grand ones these apostates had for Mr Speaker as I said among my friends I do now aver at this Bar having my relation from so knowing good hands upon the place that I dare ingage at my utmost peril before this House at this Bar to prove by exceeding good testimony to this effect That when the proposals of the Army had past the great or Generall Councell of the Army for so themselves called it and therefore I wil give it the same name Commissary General Ireton declared to diverse of the chief Officers he would send a copy of them to the King which being opposed by them he replied that he was engaged by promise to send a copy to the King and therefore he would send one though the General hanged him for so doing And Mr Speaker he did send one to the King and that by the hands of Cromwels own Major viz. † Which Major Huntington confesseth and averreth in the 6th and 7th pages of his printed reasons for laying downe his Commission which by way of impeachment against Cromwell and Ireton he delivered into both Houses of Parliament August 2. 1648. which because of the pertinency of it to prove the most of my charge against him and because it comes from one that then lay at his very heart and was his choice agent and instrument in most of his underhand negotiations with the King then the joy of his heart and the delight of his eyes I shall incert it verbatim at the last end hereof and intreat the judicious Reader to peruse it seriously as as true a piece I believe as ever was Printed in England and so I often declared it to be in my thoughts to diverse of Cromwels owne friends when it was first delivered to both Houses though I could not joyne with Huntington at that time in the prosecution of it for Duke Hamiltons hostile invasions sake though I was often solicited to it by great ones and I believe then in my lownesse might have had money enough to have done it but I abhorred it as Mr Cornelius Holland with other present Parliament-men very well knowes and also my reasons therefore Major Huntington who then was the bosome and indeared darling of both Iereton and his Father Cromwell and it viz. the Copy of the proposals was delivered to the Kings owne hands who read it over and WITH HIS OWNE HANDS BLOTTED AND RASED OUT WHAT HE MOST DISLIKED and enterlined it with His own hand in some places which very Copy thus curtail'd and guelded the King sent back to Ireton and IRETON CAVSD THIS GVELDED COPY OF THE KINGS TO BE PRINTED TO THE VIEW OF THE KINGDOME AS THE ARMIES ‖ The Anatomy of which by Mr. John Wildman you may fully read in Putney's Projects pag. PROPOSALS when as indeed in truth Mr Speaker they were no other then the Proposals of the King and himself and therefore no wonder the King to the Parliament so pressed to Treat upon these Proposals as He did so that here was once declared affection enough to the King But Mr. Speaker I do further aver and upon my life profer at your command to produce at this Bar a Gentleman of good quality and of very much integrity and a man of much repute amongst all the honest men in the Army who comming from London to Westminster with me not long since voluntary and freely told me to this effect w●●h avowed confidence to justifie it That Cromwels Son that commands the Generals Life-guard taking notice of his aversenesse to his fathers design●s in his continuall crossing him and his

to his posterity for ever And as I told my friend Mr. Speaker the Report might arise from this which relation is true and hath not been delivered to me once nor twice but oftner But Mr. SPEAKER I shall acquaint you further that I in part acquainted my friend how ingenuously I had dealt not only with my Lord WHARTON but the whole House of Peeres in that I obeyed their first Warrant they sent to me to come to their Barr the 10th June 1646. and immediatly as soon as I was served with it being about six a clock on the next morning at my own house and I was to appear before them at Ten the same morning I went immediately to my Lord Whartons house and he being not stirring I desired his servant to tell his Lordship what had happened and that in regard I was obliged to their House for the late Justice they had done for me about my reparations against the Star-chamber Judges BEING OLD SIR HENRY VANE c. I was resolved for ingenuity and gratitudes sake to vaile my Bonnet to them as farre as with honesty and a good conscience I could And therefore it was that I had obeyed their Warrant and promised to appear at their Barre which as I sent him word was more then by Law I was bound unto but yet when I came there I was resolved at their Bar to protest against their jurisdiction over a Commoner but I could doe no lesse then acquaint his Lordship with it before-hand that so if he pleased to save and preserve the honour of their House he might if not I would doe it if I dyed for it And if his Lordship pleased I would meet him at the stroke of Nine a clock at COL FLEETWOODS in black Fryers to talk with him further about it where he appointed to meet me and away went I to a friend and drew up my Protestation leaving him one copy to print in case I were imprisoned and I took another with my hand and seal to it and accordingly Mr. Speaker I met my Lord at Col. Fleetwoods house who as I remember was gone abroad whereupon I walked with my Lord to the black-Fryers bridg where we had a large discourse about the Lords originall jurisdiction over Commoners and I shewed him my protestation the marrow of which he read and I earnestly intreated him that he would be pleased to speak to the EARL OF ESSEX AND WARWICK AND MY LORD ROBERTS who was the principall man that had done all my businesse for me and tell them from me I bore so much honourable respect unto them and their House that if they pleased to command me to wait upon them I would and upon all the rest of the Lords in the house and freely answer them to any questions that they in honour could demand of me and I in conscience return an answer to alwayes provided they talked not with me as a House nor a Committee from their House for having been fighting for my Liberties and Freedoms I protested unto his Lordship before the God of Heaven and Earth and so I wish'd him to tell them that if they forced me to their Bar I both must and would protest against their incroachment upon the Commoners Rights and appeal for justice against them to the House of Commons although I died for it immediatly And his Lordship told me he beleeved the House of Commons would not stand by me and I answered I was confident they would for it was their own Interest but if they would not I told his Lordship now I knew my Liberties I would never betray them while I breathed And this my Lord I tell you further and do professe it before Almighty God that if your House will not be ruled by reason but by their greatnesse think to crush me and by force engage me in a contest against you I so well understand the firmnesse of the grounds upon which I go that I will venture my heart bloud against you and never make peace with you till either you have destroyed me or I have p●ucked you or your Vsurpations up by the roots So away he went and kept it off till about one of the clock And Mr. Speaker when I was called in to their Bar in going in I put no affront upon them but went bare-head and gave them three or four conges with all respect before I came to their Bar where they fell a playing the High Commission Court with me in examining me upon Interrogatories against my self which forced me to deliver in my Protest against them so that Mr. Speaker I am sure I pick'd no quarrell nor sought any with them But now Mr. Speaker being so deeply engaged against them by their own folly as I am for the preservation of the Laws and Liberties of my native Country against their trampling them under their feet in the enjoyment or practise of their usurpations I will never make peace with them while I live but studie night and day how to pluck them up by the roots which I am confident Mr. Speaker is also the duty of this House if they will rightly and truly discharge their duty to the Kingdom according to that trust they have reposed in them The Reader may be pleased to take notice that at the Bar when I was speaking of writing of Letters I took notice of one of the priests positive Charges which was that I had writ a Letter to Sir Anthony Weldon of Kent which I told M. Speaker was the absolutest lye in the world for I never had a hand in the least in writing or indicting a Letter to Sir Ant. Weldon neither did I read or heard read any Letter unto him But M. Speaker said I there is well nigh forty lyes more as palpable ones as this in his Relation which I dare with confidence aver it at this bar if I had in writing verbatim the very relation that he hath now made before this House by word of mouth for all his confidence that I could by multitude of witnesses of upright life conversation in all their conversings with their neighbours and of untainted fidelity to the Parliament and the common interest of the Kingdom in the worst of times punctually prove the greatest port of forty absolute lyes and falshoeds in his present confident relation and for his averring that I said or it was said at the meeting that we would only make use of the Parliaments name and of our Petition to them for a cloak to colour our raising of the people til we were strong enough to destroy them M. Speaker I aver it with confidence upon my life there was no such thing spoken at all in the foresaid meeting or any thing so much as tending thereunto all the time I was there but the absolute quite contrary the truth of which I am confident will if need require be averred upon Oath by the generality of the whole Company then met together And therefore Master

ye worthie Trustees Let not your ears be any longer deaf to our importunate cries let not our destruction be worse then that of Sodom which was overthrown in a moment Let us not pine away with famine and be worse then those who die by the sword Oh dissolve not all Government into the prime Laws of Nature and compel us to take the naturall remedie to preserve our selves which you have declared no people can be deprived of (bb) (bb) See your Declaration of the 19 of May 1642. 1 book Declarat pag. 207. And your Declaration of Novemb. 1642. pag. 690. 726. 728. as also pag. 150. See the Armies book of Declarat p. 39. 40. O remember that the righteous God standeth in the Congregation of the mighty and judgeth among the gods and saith How (cc) (cc) Psal 82.1 2 3 4. long will ye judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked Defend the poor and fatherless do justice to the afflicted and needy deliver the poor and needy and rid them out of the hands of the wicked And your Petitioners shall ever pray c. Now judge O Heavens and give your verdict O ye sons of men where the Treason is in this Petition for which M. Wildman and I as the chief prosecuters thereof deserved seven months imprisonment as Traitors therefore or rather doth it not declare that Cromwel and the rest of his fellow-hinderers of the promotion and accomplishment of the just things therein contained the establishing of which would have in the eye of reason prevented all the late Wars and all the desperate hazards that were run thereby are as grand enemies to the Liberties and Freedoms of England as any of those ever were whom they have destroyed and as grand Traitors to their trust as ever piss'd against a wall meerly soly and only seeking themselves and their own tyrannicall domination by all their actions their pretences being but meer stalking-horses thereto as most cleerly appears by CROMVVEL'S own Majors Impeachment of him to the Parliament the copy of which thus follows Sundry REASONS inducing Major ROBERT HUNTINGTON to lay down his Commission Humbly presented to the Honourable Houses of PARLIAMENT 2 August 1648. HAving taken up Arms in defence of the Authority and Power of King and Parliament under the command of the Lord Grey of Warke and the Earl of Manchester during their severall imployments with the Forces of the Eastern Association and at the modelling of this Army under the present Lord General having been appointed by the honourable Houses of Parliament Major to the now Regiment of Lieutenant General Cromwel in each of which imployments I have served constantly and faithfully answerable to the trust reposed in me And having lately quit the said imployment and laid down my Commission I hold my self tied both in duty and conscience to render the true reason thereof which in the generall is briefly this Because the Principles Designes and Actions of those Officers which have a great influence upon the Army are as I conceive very repugnant and destructive to the honour and safety of Parliament and Kingdom from whom they derive their Authority The particulars whereof being a Breviate of my sad Observations will appear by the following Narrative First That upon the Orders of Parliament for disbanding this Army Li. Gen. Cromwel and Commissary General Ireton were sent Commissioners to Walden to reduce the Army to their obedience but more especially in Order to the present supply of forces for the service of Ireland But they contrary to the trust reposed in them very much hindred that service not only by discountenancing those that were obedient and willing but also by giving incouragement to the unwilling and disobedient declaring that there had been much cruelty and injustice in the Parliaments proceedings against them meaning the Army and Commissary Generall Ireton in further pursuance thereof FRAMED THOSE PAPERS AND WRITINGS THEN SENT FROM THE ARMY TO THE PARLIAMENT AND KINGDOM saying also to the Agitators that it was lawfull and fit for us to deny disbanding till we had received equall and just satisfaction for our past service Lieutenant-Generall Cromwell further adding That we were in a double capacity as Souldiers and as Commoners and having our pay as Souldiers we have something else to stand upon as Commoners And when upon the Rendezvouz at TRIPPLE-HEATH the Commissioners of Parliament according to their Orders acquainted every Regiment with what the Parliament had already done and would further do in Order to the desires of the Army the Souldiery being before prepared and notwithstanding any thing could be said or offered to them by the Commissioners they still cryed out for Justice Justice And for the effecting of their further purposes advice was given by Lieutenant Generall Cromwel and Commissary Generall Ireton to remove the Kings Person from Holdenby or to secure him there by other Guards then those appointed by the Commissioners of Parliament which was thought most fit to be carryed on by the private souldiery of the Army and promoted by the Agitators of each Regiment whose first businesse was to secure the Garrison of Oxon with the Guns and Ammunition there from thence to march to Holdenby in prosecution of the former advice which was accordingly acted by Cornet Joyce who when he had done the businesse sent a Letter to the Generall then at Kyton acquainting his Excellency that the King was on his march towards Newmarket The Generall being troubled thereat told Commissary Generall Ireton that he did not like it demanding withall who gave those Orders He replyed that he gave Orders only for securing the King there and not for taking him away from thence Lieutenant-Generall Cromwel coming then from London said that if this had not been done the King would have been 〈◊〉 away by the Order of the Parliament or els Colonel Graves by the advice of the Commissioners would have caryed him to London throwing themselves upon the favour of Parliament for that Service The same day Cornet Joyce being told that the General was displeased with him for bringing the King from Holdenby he answered that Lieut. Gen. Cromwel had given him Orders at London [a] [a] And I John Lilburn have heard from very good hands I will not now say from the Cornets own month that it was delivered to to him in Cromwels own Garden in Drury-lane Colonel Charles Fleetwood being by to do what he had done both there and at Oxford The person of the King b] b] And yet see the Generals Letter from Cambridge of 6 June 1647 of the Kings providential or accidentall coming to them without the privity of him or any of his Officers Armies book of Declarat p. 22. being now in the power of the Army the businesse of Lieutenan-Generall Cromwel was to court his Majesty both by Members of the Army and several Gentlemen formerly in the Kings Service into a good opinion and belief of the proceedings of the Army as