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A91405
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Mr. Pymmes speech to the Lords in Parliament. Sitting in VVestminster Hall, on the tryall of Thomas Earle of Strafford, the twelfth of Aprill 1641.
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Pym, John, 1584-1643.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing P4296A; Thomason E196_47; ESTC R11469
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3,583
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11
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Mr. Pymmes SPEECH TO THE LORDS in Parliament Sitting in VVestminster Hall on the tryall of Thomas Earle of Strafford the twelfth of Aprill 1641. London Printed 1641. Mr. PIMMES Speech to the Lords in Parliament Sitting in Westminster Hall the twelfth of Aprill 1641. My Lords THere hath beene much time spent to prove our Charge and your Lordships have heard my Lord of Straffords defence with as much patience You have also heard our evidence summed up whereby wee have proved that he hath by trayterous Words Councells and Actions trayterously endeavoured to subvert the fundamentall Lawes of England and Ireland and in stead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and tyrannicall Government a gainst Law This my Lords is that poysonous Arrow that hath tainted his blood this is that cup of deadly wine that hath intoxicated him My Lords it comes to my share to shew you how mischievous an Act of Treason it is by that Law that hee hath appealed unto which is the supreame Law to wit publicke good for his position was this That Salus Populi is Suprema Lex All Lawes are derived from this as its fountaine and end here as its proper Center And those Actions that are opposite to this are against Law First My Lords It is such an offence as comprehends all offences such a treason as comprehends all treasons The Earth My Lords is a Seminary of all flowers so is this a Seminary of all offences My Lords This Law puts a difference betwixt good and evill take away the Law my Lords and Nature becomes a Law to it selfe As Pride will be a Law Lust will be a Law Rapine a Law Treason a Law which Lawes have ruled in Ireland ever since my Lord came thither Take away the Kings protection from the people and you take away the peoples allegiance to the King Prerogative is the bounds of liberty my Lords they must not contest one against another My Lords I beseech you consider yee have all under this custodie and if you take away this you take away your goods liberties and lives My Lords he saith that Ireland was a conquered Nation why were not all Nations conquered England Wales c. The next is this that it is an offence full of danger to the Kings person and Crowne it nourisheth dissention and tumults in a people If you consider the histories of the Nations under arbitrary government you shall finde them full of cruelty and bloody Massacres yea if you please to peruse our English histories you shall finde that when Arbitrary government was set up how many Kings fell by cruell and bloody hands which is fearefull to relate Thirdly my Lords it is dangerous to the King First in respect of his honour Secondly in respect of his profit and thirdly in respect of his greatnesse yet all these have been put on upon the face of this Treason as so many vizards can it be my Lords for the Kings honour to have his Ministers to lay all the fault upon the King To kill to imprison to use Rapine to levie warre against his people and to ruine the State and then all these dishonourable acts to bee laid on the King is this for the Kings honour Secondly it is contrary to his profit for if there be not an affectionate supply from the people to the King he can never grow in his revenue Nay this my Lords is the Kings most certaine Revenue that issues from the affection of his people for other Revenue as Lands or the like are subiect to many inconveniences to many substractions and pensions but this is free and wholly to himselfe these foureteene yeares past since there hath beene an unhappy cessation of Parliamentary proceedings the King hath had lesse Revenue and it doth him lesse good Nay there hath beene more wanting to the King than many yeares before Againe it is unprofitable and that is worse for the King lost by it for it hath cost him these two yeares more then it cost Queene Elizabeth in all her warres in Ireland Spaine yea I feare more than is to be repaired in an age Thirdly in point of greatnesse the world is a society of Kingdoms and it is not enough for a King to be great at home but to equall his fellow Princes abroad nay to bee above them in honour and Maiesty in riches and glory But my Lords these Counsells of late that have beene given his Maiesty have rendred him contemptible to his enemies uselesse to his distressed friends and had they not beene prevented in time would have made him uncapable of any designe at home or abroad A fourth Consideration is this my Lords it is destructive to wealth and valour it corrupts our peace and in peace makes us have the inalignities of Warre and for wealth who will venture his goods life his liberty in the way of trading and comerce when hee knowes not upon the returne of it whether it be his owne or not Nay my Lords it imbaseth the spirits and valour of a Nation when they must stand in feare of pilloring scaffolding and the like punishments it maks men to be of base spirits Now my Lords to imbase the Kings coine if it be but six pence or twelve pence t is Treason by the Law and a man must dye for it what is it then to imbase our spirits my Lords truely it is a matter of great importance Fifthly it doth disable the King and makes him unfit to deale with forraigne enemies for every one thinkes to slip his necke out of the collar when he shall be forced to it The sixt consideration is that it is against the Covenant betwixt the King and his people Before my Lords I spoke of a legall Oath but now I speake of a personall for we sweare our allegeance to him and hee the maintenance of our Lawes to us he is our husband and we his wise he is our father and wee his children he is to maintaine our liberties and we his Dignities and our Duties And my Lords Iustice Thorpe was condemned and executed for breaking the Kings Oath My Lords he broke not his owne oath nor did the King breake his oath and yet for violating that oath that the King had taken to his Subiects he suffered Ah what an unfortunate man then is the Prisoner at the Batre that hath in all his Counsells in all his words in all his actions broken the Kings oath and as much as in him lay violently perswaded the King to countenance him in all his actions The seventh consideration is this my Lords it is against the end of government for the end of government is to preserve men in their estates lives and liberties but an arbitrary power destroyes all this the end of government is to advance vertue and goodnesse and to punish vice but this cherisheth all disorder Now my Lords I come to shew the vanity of his excuses that he hath made for himselfe The first is the liberty of giving Counsell being a Counsellor true my Lords hee hath this liberty but it s bounded within its lists and it must bee such Counsell as must stand with the sacred Maiesty and the prosperity and weale of his Subiects for if Counsell bee bad it poysons the Consciences of Princes it infects their eares for all government proceedes from the Prince as from a fountaine now if the fountaine be poysoned how can the streames be free A second shift is that hee hopes your Lordships will be carefull to secure your posterity and not to admit of this as Treason My Lords I know your Lordships will bee carefull to secure your selves but by your vertues not by your vices The third excuse is the goodnesse of his intentions truely my Lords good and evill lye close together not easily to be discerned if they be naturall corruptions but for Murthers Adultery Rapines and Treasons these are so monstrous that they may easily bee distinguished And I cannot bee perswaded that ever hee intended well that acted so ill The fourth excuse is the Kings necessities My Lords this necessity came from his owne counsells A fifth excuse is it was for the Kings honour and the maintenance of the Kings power My Lords it hath beene declared unto you that the Kings power doth not extend to any thing against Law by which hee hath sworne to rule us and to maintaine our Liberties and priviledges for us and this hath beene declared by five Parliaments and also will appeare in the case of the Petition of Right and in the case of shipmoney A sixt is that he advised the King to doe it with moderation and reparation My Lords this is a contradiction for there can be no reparation for this The seaventh excuse is that no horrid facts did follow his Counsells truely my Lords we thanke God his sacred Maiesty and his wise Counsell for that or else God knowes what fearefull things would have be fallen us nor are we free from it as yet To conclude now my Lords give me leave to intreate you to consider the Treasons ordinarily practised when the act is done they cease as in killing that noble King of France and the severall plots against Queene Elizabeth but this Treson of my Lord of Straffords is a standing Treason which when it had bin done it had beene permanent from generation to generation And now my Lords these Lawes that hee would have overthrowne must now bee his Iudges and he is to bee Iudg'd by law and that law will have marke enough of it to describe it for it is a law against such as breake the fundamentall law of the Kingdome And my Lords give me leave to informe you that under favour this is not to make a new way for blood nor is the crime of Treason in my Lord of Strafford the lesse because none would venture upon such a horrid Treason in two hundred and forty yeares But my Lords for making of our Charge good by Law as wee have fully proved it by Testimony we must resort to Counsell with the House of Commons and trust to your Lordships Iustice FINIS