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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
majesty_n	earl_n	say_a	strafford_n	3,105	5	13.5701	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56321	The declaration of John Pym Esquire upon the whole matter of the charge of high treason against Thomas Earle of Strafford, April 12, 1641 with An argument of law concerning the bill of attainder of high treason of the said Earle of Strafford, before a committee of both Houses of Parliament, in Westminster Hall by Mr. St. Iohn His Majesties solicitor Generall, on Thursday, April 29, 1641 / both published by order of the Commons House.	Pym, John, 1584-1643.; St. John, Oliver, 1598?-1673. Argument of law concerning the bill of attainder of high-treason of Thomas Earle of Strafford.	1641 (1641)	Wing P4262; ESTC R182279	46,678	116

THE DECLARATION OF JOHN PYM Esquire VPON THE VVHOLE MATTER of the Charge of High Treason against THOMAS EARLE OF STRAFFORD APRIL 12. 1641. WITH An ARGUMENT of Law concerning the Bill of Attainder of High Treason of the said EARLE of STRAFFORD Before a Committee of both Houses of Parliament in WESTMINSTER Hall BY Mr St-Iohn his Majesties Solicitor Generall on Thursday April 29. 1641. Both Published by Order of the Commons House Printed at London for Iohn Bartlet and are to be sold at the gilt Cup near S. Austins Gate in Pauls Church-yard 1641. THE SPEECH OR DECLARATION OF JOHN PYM Esquire After the Recapitulation or summing up of the Charge of High-Treason AGAINST THOMAS EARLE OF STRAFFORD 12. APRIL 1641. Published by Order of the COMMONS HOUSE LONDON Printed for JOHN BARTLET 1641. THE SPEECH OR DECLARATION OF JOHN PYM Esq c. MY LORDS MAny dayes have been spent in maintenance of the Impeachment of the Earle of Strafford by the House of Commons whereby he stands charged with High Treason And your Lordships have heard his Defence with Patience and with as much favour as Iustice would allow We have passed through our Evidence and the Result of all this is that it remaines clearly proved That the Earle of Strafford hath indeavoured by his words actions and counsels to subvert the Fundamentall Lawes of England and Ireland and to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Government This is the envenomed Arrow for which he inquired in the beginning of his Replication this day which hath infected all his Bloud This is that Intoxicating Cup to use his owne Metaphor which hath tainted his Iudgement and poisoned his Heart From hence was infused that Specificall Difference which turned his Speeches his Actions his Counsels into Treason Not Cumulative as he exprest it as if many Misdemeanours could make one Treason but Formally and Essentially It is the End that doth informe Actions and doth specificate the nature of them making not onely criminall but even indifferent words and actions to be Treason being done and spoken with a Treasonable intention That which is given me in charge is to shew the quality of the offence how hainous it is in the nature how mischievous in the effect of it which will best appeare if it be examined by that Law to which he himselfe appealed that universall that supreme Law Salus populi This is the Element of all Laws out of which they are derived the End of all Laws to which they are designed and in which they are perfected How far it stands in opposition to this Law I shall endeavour to shew in some Considerations which I shal present to your Lordships all arising out of the Evidence which hath been opened The first is this It is an offence comprehending all other offences here you shall finde severall Treasons Murders Rapines Oppressions Perjuries The Earth hath a Seminarie vertue whereby it doth produce all Hearbs and Plants and other Vegetables There is in this Crime a Seminarie of all evils hurtfull to a State and if you consider the reasons of it it must needs be so The Law is that which puts a difference betwixt good and evill betwixt just and unjust If you take away the Law all things will fall into a confusion every man will become a Law to himselfe which in the depraved condition of humane nature must needs produce many great enormities Lust will become a Law and Envie will become a Law Covetousnesse and Ambition will become Lawes and what dictates what decisions such Laws will produce may easily be discerned in the late Government of Ireland The Law hath a power to prevent to restraine to repaire evils without this all kind of mischiefs and distempers will break in upon a State It is the Law that doth intitle the King to the Allegeance and service of his people it intitles the people to the protection and justice of the King It is God alone who subsists by himselfe all other things subsist in a mutuall dependence and relation He was a wise man that said that the King subsisted by the field that is tilled It is the labour of the people that supports the Crowne If you take away the protection of the King the vigour and cheerfulness of Allegeance will be taken away though the Obligation remaine The Law is the Boundarie the Measure betwixt the Kings Prerogative and the Peoples Liberty Whiles these move in their owne Orbe they are a support and security to one another The Prerogative a cover and defence to the Liberty of the people and the people by their liberty are enabled to be a foundation to the Prerogative but if these bounds be so removed that they enter into contestation and conflict one of these mischiefes must needs ensue If the Prerogative of the King overwhelm the liberty of the people it will be turned into Tyrannie if liberty undermine the Prerogative it will grow into Anarchie The Law is the safeguard the custody of all private interest Your Honours your Lives your Liberties and Estates are all in the keeping of the Law without this every man hath a like right to any thing and this is the condition into which the Irish were brought by the E. of Strafford And the reason which he gave for it hath more mischiefe in it then the thing it selfe They were a Conquered Nation There cannot be a word more pregnant and fruitfull in Treason then that word is There are few Nations in the world that have not been conquered and no doubt but the Conquerour may give what Lawes he please to those that are conquered But if the succeeding Pacts and Agreements doe not limit and restraine that Right what people can be secure England hath been conquered and Wales hath been conquered and by this reason will be in little better case then Ireland If the King by the Right of a Conquerour gives Lawes to his People shall not the people by the same reason be restored to the Right of the conquered to recover their liberty if they can What can be more hurtfull more pernicious to both then such Propositions as these And in these particulars is determined the first Consideration The second Consideration is this This Arbitrary power is dangerous to the Kings Person and dangerous to his Crown It is apt to cherish Ambition usurpation and oppression in great men and to beget sedition and discontent in the People and both these have beene and in reason must ever be causes of great trouble and alteration to Princes and States If the Histories of those Easterne Countries be perused where Princes order their affaires according to the mischievous principles of the E. of Strafford loose and absolved from all Rules of Government they will be found to be frequent in combustions full of Massacres and of the tragicall ends of Princes If any man shall look into our owne Stories in the times when the Laws were most neglected he shall find them full of

Commotions of Civill distempers whereby the Kings that then reigned were alwayes kept in want and distresse the people consumed with Civill wars and by such wicked counsels as these some of our Princes have beene brought to such miserable ends as no honest heart can remember without horrour and earnest Prayer that it may never be so againe The third Consideration is this The subversion of the Lawes And this Arbitrary power as it is dangerous to the Kings Person and to his Crowne so is it in other respects very prejudiciall to his Majesty in his Honour Profit and Greatnesse and yet these are the gildings and paintings that are put upon such counsels These are for your Honour for your service whereas in truth they are contrary to both But if I shall take off this varnish I hope they shall then appeare in their owne native deformity and therefore I desire to consider them by these Rules It cannot be for the Honour of a King that his sacred Authority should be used in the practise of injustice and oppression that his Name should be applyed to patronize such horrid crimes as have beene represented in Evidence against the Earle of Strafford and yet how frequently how presumptuously his Commands his Letters have been vouched throughout the course of this Defence your Lordships have heard When the Iudges doe justice it is the Kings justice and this is for his honour because he is the Fountaine of justice but when they doe injustice the offence is their owne But those Officers and Ministers of the King who are most officious in the exercise of this Arbitrarie power they doe it commonly for their advantage and when they are questioned for it then they fly to the Kings interest to his Direction And truly my Lords this is a very unequall distribution for the King that the dishonour of evill courses should be cast upon him and they to have the advantage The prejudice which it brings to him in regard of his profit is no lesse apparent It deprives him of the most beneficiall and most certaine Revenue of his Crowne that is the voluntary aids and supplies of his people his other Revenues consisting of goodly Demeanes and great Manors have by Grants been alienated from the Crowne and are now exceedingly diminished and impaired But this Revenue it cannot be sold it cannot be burdned with any Pensions or Annuities but comes intirely to the Crowne It is now almost fifteene years since his Majesty had any assistance from his people and these illegall wayes of supplying the King were never prest with more violence and art then they have been in this time and yet I may upon very good grounds affirm that in the last fifteene years of Queen Elizabeth she received more by the Bounty and Affection of her Subjects then hath come to His Majesties Coffers by all the inordinate and rigorous courses which have beene taken And as those Supplies were more beneficiall in the Receipt of them so were they like in the use and imployment of them Another way of prejudice to his Majesties profit is this Such Arbitrary courses exhaust the people and disable them when there shall be occasion to give such plentifull supplies as otherwise they would doe I shall need no other proofe of this then the Irish Government under my L. of Strafford where the wealth of the Kingdome is so consumed by those horrible exactions and burdens that it is thought the Subsidies lately granted will amount to little more then halfe the proportion of the last Subsidies The two former wayes are hurtfull to the Kings profit in that respect which they call Lucrum Cessans by diminishing his receipts But there is a third fuller of mischiefe and it is in that respect which they call Damnum emergens by increasing his Disbursements Such irregular and exorbitant attempts upon the Libertie of the people are apt to produce such miserable distractions and distempers as will put the King and Kingdome to such vast expences and losses in a short time as will not be recovered in many yeares Wee need not goe farre to seeke a proofe of this these two last yeares will be a sufficient evidence within which time I assure my selfe it may be proved that more Treasure hath beene wasted more losse sustained by his Majesty and his Subjects then was spent by Queene Elizabeth in all the War of Tyrone and in those many brave Attempts against the King of Spaine and the royall assistance which she gave to France and the Low-Countries during all her Reigne As for Greatnesse this Arbitrary power is apt to hinder and impaire it not onely at home but abroad A Kingdome is a society of men conjoyned under one Government for the common good The world is a society of Kingdomes and States The Kings greatnesse consists not onely in his Dominion over his Subjects at home but in the influence which he hath upon States abroad That he should be great even among Kings and by his wisdome and authority so to incline and dispose the affaires of other States and Nations and those great events which fall out in the world as shall be for the good of Mankind and for the peculiar advantage of his owne people This is the most glorious and magnificent greatness to be able to relieve distressed Princes to support his owne friends and Allies to prevent the ambitious designes of other Kings and how much this Kingdome hath been impaired in this kinde by the late mischievous counsels your Lordships best know who at a neerer distance and with a more cleare sight doe apprehend these publique and great affaires then I can doe Yet thus much I dare boldly say that if his Maiestie had not with great wisdome and goodness forsaken that way wherein the Earle of Strafford had put him we should within a short time have been brought into that miserable condition as to have been uselesse to our friends contemptible to our enemies and uncapable of undertaking any great designe either at home or abroad A fourth Consideration is That this Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Power which the E. of Strafford did exercise in his own person and to which he did advise his Majesty is inconsistent with the Peace the Wealth the Prosperity of a Nation It is destructive to Justice the Mother of Peace to Industry the spring of Wealth to Valour which is the active vertue whereby the prosperity of a Nation can onely be procured confirmed and inlarged It is not only apt to take away Peace and so intangle the Nation with Warres but doth corrupt Peace and puts such a malignity into it as produceth the Effects of warre We need seek no other proofe of this but the E. of Straffords Government where the Irish both Nobility and others had as little security of their Persons or Estates in this peaceable time as if the Kingdome had been under the rage and fury of warre And as for Industrie and Valour who will take

pains for that which when he hath gotten is not his own Or who fight for that wherein he hath no other interest but such as is subject to the will of another The Ancient encouragement to men that were to defend their Countries was this That they were to hazard their Persons pro Aris Focis for their Religion and for their Houses But by this Arbitrary way which was practised in Ireland and counselled here no man had any certainty either of Religion or of his House or any thing else to be his own But besides this such Arbitrary courses have an ill operation upon the courage of a Nation by embasing the hearts of the people A servile condition doth for the most part beget in men a slavish temper and disposition Those that live so much under the Whip and the Pillory and such servile Engines as were frequently used by the E. of Strafford they may have the dregges of valour sullennesse stubbornnesse which may make them prone to Mutinies and discontents but those Noble and gallant affections which put men on brave Designes and Attempts for the preservation or inlargement of a Kingdome they are hardly capable of Shall it be Treason to embase the Kings Coyne though but a piece of twelve-pence or sixe-pence and must it not needs be the effect of a greater Treason to embase the spirits of his Subjects and to set a stamp and Character of servitude upon them whereby they shall be disabled to doe any thing for the service of the King or Common-wealth The fift Consideration is this That the exercise of this Arbitrary Government in times of sudden danger by the invasion of an enemy will disable his Majesty to preserve himselfe and his Subjects from that danger This is the onely pretence by which the E. of Strafford and such other mischievous Counsellors would induce his Majesty to make use of it and if it be unfit for such an occasion I know nothing that can be alledged in maintenance of it When warre threatens a Kingdome by the comming of a forrain Enemy it is no time then to discontent the people to make them weary of the present Government and more inclinable to a Change The supplies which are to come in this way will be unready uncertain there can be no assurance of them no dependence upon them either for time or proportion And if some money be gotten in such a way the Distractions Divisions Distempers which this course is apt to produce will be more prejudiciall to the publique safety then the supply can be advantagious to it and of this we have had sufficient experience the last Summer The sixt That this crime of subverting the Laws and introducing an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Government is contrary to the Pact and Covenant betwixt the King and his people That which was spoken of before was the legall union of Allegeance and Protection this is a personall union by mutuall agreement and stipulation confirmed by oath on both sides The King and his people are obliged to one another in the nearest relations He is a Father and a childe is called in Law Pars Patris Hee is the Husband of the Common-wealth they have the same interests they are inseparable in their condition be it good or evill He is the Head they are the Body there is such an incorporation as cannot be dissolved without the destruction of both When Iustice Thorpe in Edw. the thirds time was by the Parliament condemned to death for Bribery the reason of that Judgement is given because he had broken the Kings Oath not that he had broken his own oath but that he had broken the Kings oath that solemne and great obligation which is the security of the whole Kingdome If for a Judge to take a small summe in a private cause was adjudged Capitall how much greater was this offence whereby the E. of Strafford hath broken the Kings Oath in the whole course of his Government in Ireland to the prejudice of so many of his Majesties Subjects in their Lives Liberties and Estates and to the danger of all the rest The Doctrine of the Papists Fides non est servanda cum Haereticis is an abominable Doctrine yet that other Tenet more peculiar to the Iesuites is more pernicious whereby Subjects are discharged from their Oath of Allegeance to their Prince whensoever the Pope pleaseth This may be added to make the third no lesse mischievous and destructive to humane society then either of the rest That the King is not bound by that Oath which he hath taken to observe the Laws of the Kingdome but may when he sees cause lay Taxes and burdens upon them without their consent contrary to the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdome This hath been preached and published by divers And this is that which hath been practised in Ireland by the E. of Strafford in his Government there and indeavoured to be brought into England by his Counsell here The seventh is this It is an offence that is contrary to the end of Government The end of Government was to prevent oppressions to limit and restrain the excessive power and violence of great men to open the passages of Iustice with indifferency towards all This Arbitrary power is apt to induce and incourage all kind of insolencies Another end of Government is to preserve men in their estates to secure them in their Lives and Liberties but if this Designe had taken effect and could have been setled in England as it was practised in Ireland no man would have had more certainty in his own then power would have allowed him But these two have been spoken of before there are two behind more important which have not yet been touched It is the end of Government that vertue should be cherisht vice supprest but where this Arbitrary and unlimited power is set up a way is open not onely for the security but for the advancement and incouragement of evill Such men as are aptest for the execution and maintenance of this Power are onely capable of preferment and others who will not be instruments of any unjust commands who make a conscience to doe nothing against the Laws of the Kingdome and Liberties of the Subject are not onely not passable for imployment but subject to much jealousie and danger It is the end of Government that all accidents and events all Counsels and Designes should be improved to the publique good But this Arbitrary Power is apt to dispose all to the maintenance of it self The wisdome of the Councell-Table the Authority of the Courts of Justice the industry of all the Officers of the Crown have been most carefully exercised in this the Learning of our Divines the Iurisdiction of our Bishops have been moulded and disposed to the same effect which though it were begun before the E. of Straffords Imployment yet it hath beene exceedingly furthered and advanced by him Under this colour and pretence of maintaining the Kings Power

was full of horror and malignity yet it is past many years since The murder of that Magnanimous and glorious King Henry the fourth of France was a great and horrid Treason And so were those manifold attempts against Qu. Elizabeth of blessed memory but they are long since past the Detestation of them only remains in Histories and in the minds of men and will ever remain But this Treason if it had taken effect was to be a standing perpetuall Treason which would have been in continuall act not determined within one time or age but transmitted to Posterity even from generation to generation The tenth Consideration is this That as it is a Crime odious in the nature of it so it is odious in the judgement and estimation of the Law To alter the setled frame and constitution of Government is Treason in any estate The Laws whereby all other parts of a Kingdome are preserved should be very vain and defective if they had not a power to secure and preserve themselves The forfeitures inflicted for Treason by our Law are of Life Honour and Estate even all that can be forfeited and this Prisoner having committed so many Treasons although he should pay all these forfeitures will be still a Debtor to the Common-wealth Nothing can be more equall then that he should perish by the Justice of that Law which he would have subverted Neither wil this be a new way of bloud There are marks enough to trace this Law to the very originall of this Kingdome And if it hath not been put in execution as he alledgeth this 240. years it was not for want of Law but that all that time hath not bred a man bold enough to commit such Crimes as these which is a circumstance much aggravating his offence and making him no whit lesse liable to punishment because he is the onely man that in so long a time hath ventured upon such a Treason as this It belongs to the charge of another to make it appear to your Lordships that the Crimes and Offences proved against the Earle of Strafford are High Treason by the Lawes and Statutes of this Realm whose learning and other abilities are much better for that service But for the time and manner of performing this we are to resort to the Direction of the House of Commons having in this which is already done dispatched all those instructions which wee have received and concerning further proceedings for clearing all Questions and Objections in Law your Lordships will hear from the House of Commons in convenient time FINIS AN ARGVMENT of Law concerning the Bill of ATTAINDER of HIGH-TREASON of THOMAS Earle of Strafford At a Conference in a Committe of both Houses of Parliament By Mr. St. JOHN his Majesties Solicitor GENERALL Published by order of the Commons House LONDON Printed by G. M. for John Bartlet at the signe of the gilt Cup neare S. Austins-gate in Pauls Church-yard 1641. Mr. St. IOHN's Argument My Lords THE Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament have passed a Bill for the attainting of Thomas Earle of Strafford of High-Treason The Bill hath been transmitted from them to your Lordships It concernes not him alone but your Lordships and the Commons too though in different Respects It is to make him as miserable a man as man or Law can make him Not losse of life alone but with that of honour name posterity and estate Of all that 's deare to all To use his owne expression an eradication of him both root and branch as an Achan a troubler of the State as an execrable as an accursed thing This Bill as it concernes his Lordship the highest that can be in the penall part so doth it on the other side as highly concerne your Lorships and the Commons in that which ought to be the tendrest the Judicatory within that that judge not them who judge him And in that which is most sacred amongst men the publike Justice of the Kingdome The Kingdome is to be accounted unto for the losse of the meanest member much more for one so neare the head The Commons are concerned in their Account for what is done your Lordships in that which is to be done The Businesse therefore of the present Conference is to acquaint your Lordships with those things that satisfied the Commons in passing of this Bill such of them as have come within my capacity and that I can remember I am Commanded from the Commons at this time to present unto your Lordships My Lords in Judgements of greatest moment there are but two waies for satisfying those that are to give them Either the Lex lata the Law already established Or els the use of the same power for making new Lawes whereby the old at first received life In the first consideration of the setled Lawes In the degrees of punishment the positive Law received by generall consent and for the common good is sufficient to satisfie the Conscience of the Judge in giving Judgement according to them In severall Countries there is not the same measure of punishment for one and the same offence Wilfull murder in Ireland is Treason and so is the wilfull burning of a house or stacke of Corne. In the Isle of Man it 's fellony to steale a Hen but not to steale a Horse and yet the Judge in Ireland hath as just a ground to give Judgement of high Treason in those Cases there as here to give Judgement onely of Fellony and in the Isle of Man of Felony for the Hen as heere of pettie Larceny My Lords in the other consideration of using the Supreame power the same Law gives power to the Parliament to make new Lawes that enables the inferiour Court to judge according to the old The rule that guides the conscience of the Inferior Court is from without the prescripts of the Parliament and of the Common Law in the other the rule is from within That salus populi be concerned That therebe no wilfull oppression of any the fellow members that no more blood be taken then what is necessary for the Cure the Lawes and Customes of the Realme as well enable the exercise of this as of the ordinary and Judiciall power My Lords what hath beene said is because that this proceeding of the Commons by way of Bill implies the use of the meere Legis-Lative power in respect new Lawes are for the most part past by Bill This my Lords though just and Legall and therefore not wholy excluded yet it was not the only ground that put the Commons upon the Bill they did not intend to make a new Treason and to condemne my Lord of Strafford for it they had in it other Considerations likewise which were to this effect First the Commons knew that in all former ages if doubts of Law arose upon cases of great and generall Concernement the Parliament was usually consulted withall for resolution which is the reason that many Acts of

Parliament are onely declarative of the Old Law not introductive of a new as the great Charter of our Liberties the Statute of the five and twentieth yeare of Edward the third of Treasons the Statute of the Prerogative and of late the petition of right If the Law were doubtfull in this Case they conceived the Parliament where the old may be altered and new Lawes made the fittest Iudge to cleare this doubt Secondly my Lords they proceeded this way to out those scruples and delaies which through disuse of proceedings of this nature might have risen in the manner and way of proceeding since the Statute of the first of Henery the fourth the seventeenth Chapter and more fully in the Roll number 144. The proceedings in Parliament have usually beene upon an Inditement first found though in Cases of Treason particularly mentioned in the Statute of the five and twentieth yeare of Edward the third which had not been done in this Case Doubts likewise might rise for Treasons not particularly mentioned in the Statute of 25. Edw. 3. whether the declaratory power of Parliament be taken away and if not taken away in what manner they were to be made and by whom They finde not any Attainders of Treason in Parliament for neare this 200 yeares but by this way of Bill And againe they knew that whatsoever could be done any other way it might be done by this Thirdly in respect of the proofes and depositions that have beene made against him for first although they knew not but that the whole Evidence which hath beene given at the Barre in every part of it is sufficiently comprehended within the Charge yet if therein they should be mistaken if it should prove otherwise use may justly be made of such Evidence in this way of Bill wherein so as Evidence be given in it 's no way requisite that there should have beene any Articles or Charge at all And so in the Case of double Testimony upon the Statute of the first of Edward the sixt whether one direct witnesse with others to Circumstances had been single or double testimony and although single Testimony might be sufficient to satisfie private Consciences yet how farre it would have beene satisfactory in a judiciall way where formes of Law are more to be stood upon was not so cleare whereas in this way of Bill private satisfaction to each mans Conscience is sufficient although no Evidence had beene given in at all My Lords the proceeding by way of Bill it was not to decline your Lordships Iustice in the judiciall way In these Exegencies of the State and Kingdome it was to husband time by silencing those doubts they conceived it the speediest and the furest way My Lords These are in effect the things the Commons tooke into their Consideration in respect of the manner and way of proceeding against the Earle In the next place I am to declare unto your Lordships the things they tooke into their consideration in respect of the matter and merits of the Cause They are comprehended within these 6. heads 1. That there is a Treason within the Statute of 25. E. 3. by Levying of warre upon the matter of the fifteenth Article 2. If not by actuall Levying of warre yet by advising and declaring his intention of warre and that by Savils warrant and the advice of bringing over the Irish Army upon the matter in the 23. Article The intending of a Warre if not within the Clause of Levying Warre in the Statute of 25. E. 3. yet within the first Treason of compassing the death of the King 3. If neither of these two single Acts be within the Statute of 25. E. 3. yet upon putting all together which hath beene proved against him That ther 's a Treason within the first clause of compassing the death of the King Et si non prosunt singula juncta juvant 4. That he hath fessed and laid Souldiers upon the Subjects of Ireland against their will and at their Charge within the Irish Statute of the eighteenth yeare of Henry the sixt That both person and thing are within the Statute That the Statute remaines in force to this day That the Parliament here hath Cognizance of it And that even in the ordinary way of Judicature that if there be a Treason and a Traitor that the want of jurisdiction in the Judicall way may justly be supplied by Bill 5. That his endeavouring to subvert the fundamentall Lawes and Governement of the Realmes of England and Ireland and instead thereof to introduce a tyranicall Governement against Law is Treason by the Common Law That Treasons at the Common Law are not taken away by the Statutes of 25. E. 3. 1. H. 4. c. 10. 1● Mar. c. 1. nor any of them 6. That as this Case stands It 's just and necessary to resort to the Supreame power in Parliament in case all the rest should faile Of these six five of them are Treason within the Compasse of the Lawes already established Three within the Statute of 25 E. 3. One within the Irish Statute the other by the Common Law of England If but any one of these 6. Considerations hould The Commons conceive that upon the whole matter they had good cause to passe the Bill My Lords for the first of levying Warre 1. The Case I shall make bold to read the Case to your Lordships before I speake to it it s thus The Earle did by warrant under his hand and Seal give authority to Robert Savill a Serjeant at Arms and his Deputies to sesse such number of Souldiers horse and foote of the Army in Ireland together with an officer as the Serjeant should thinke fit upon his Majesties Subjects of Ireland against their will This warrant was granted by the Earle to the end to compell the Subjects of Ireland to submit to the unlawfull Summons and orders made by the Earle upon paper Petitions exhibited unto him in case of private Interest betweene party and party This warrant was executed by Savill and his Deputies by sessing of Souldiers both horse and foote upon diverse of the Subjects of Ireland against their will in warre-like manner and at divers times the Souldiers continued upon the parties upon whom they were sessed and wasted their goods untill such time as they had submitted themselves unto those Summons and orders My Lords This is a levying of warre within the statute of 25o. E. 3. The words of the Statute are If any man doe levy warre against our Lord the King in his Realm this is declared to be Treason I shall indeavour in this to make it appeare to your Lordships What shall be a levying of Warre in respect of the motive or cause of it What shall bee said a levying of warre in respect of the Action or thing done And in the third place I shall apply them to the present Case It will bee granted in this of levying of warre That forces may bee raised and likewise used in a