Paddington upon pretence of businesse of huge Importance but knew not what untill they were come thither and then went on like Geese with the flock Let the Kingdome but seriously consider the Barbarisme herein toward his Majesty and the misery wherein they involve this Nation thereby and I believe there will no more be found to tread in their Steps Imprisonment is the Buriall of a Man alive and that which Private persons hardly endure with patience no Creature will if it be possible to make any Escape And it was formerly a high Charge even in a Subjects case upon the Star-Chamber and other Courts But for a King to be so dealt withall our owne an Innocent and Pious Prince by his owne Subjects to be put under the custody of his desperate implacable Adversaries further to be depriv'd of all Accesse or Entercourse with his Wife Children friends sequestred from all the Comforts of life This is much more then ever was inflicted upon Lilburne Pryn or Bastwick whose hard usages have been thunderd by themselves throughout the Kingdome to be savage barbarous inhumane By the Law of this Land It is Treason to imprison the King though at large 25 Ed. 3. c. 2. What will these men be thought worthy of when that shall recover its own Channell and flow downe our Streets like a Stream when they shall come to their Accounts The Miseries wherein they involve this Nation hereby are obvious to every understanding The Parliament touching the Succession 1 Mariae cap. 1. acknowledgeth That the welfare profit and speciall benefit of the universall people is continu'd and maintain'd in the surety and preservation of the Prince Even in this Parl. in their Declarations they say That the very Safety and Being of both his Kingdomes depends upon His Majesties returne to London Since the King was in their power The very Army could acknowledge There can be no Peace in this Kingdome without a good agreement between the King and his Subjects Now is it possible there should be an Accommodation where there is no Entercourse no Addresses made or entertain'd Those who have felt the Burden of this War need no Admonitour to judge what will be the Burden of another As much as lies in them the Houses have laid a lasting foundation to entaile if not perpetuate the Discord to our Posterity with all the sad Consequences thereof A Collection of all the particular Objections against His Majesty before he came to the Crown Those Objections which are made against His Majesty before his Reign and belongs to the first Classis of his Charges are only soure 1. His Letter to the Pope which he writ in Spaine 2. The Articles of Marriage made with Spaine 3. The Articles of Marriage made with France 4. The Death of King James But because the three first doe relate to that Charge which are against his Majesty as being enclined to Popery we shall give them their answers under that The brief of their Calumny concerning K. James his death is this That when the Duke was charged by the House of Commons of high Misdemeanour and Presumption In that he did contrary to the advice of his Physitians cause a Plaister to be applied and a Drink to be given to K. Iames who was sick but of an Ague and that conceived to be in the Declination by his Physitians whereupon divers distempers and ill symptomes ensued and the King himself did attribute the cause thereof unto the Plaisters That his Majesty who now is took notice of this in the Lords House told them He could be a Witnesse to cleare the Duke in every particular and did interrupt them by frequent Messages in their proceeding afterwards Dissolv'd the Parliament and did imprison Sir I. Eliot and Sir Dudly Diggs and hereupon they desire every one to judge where the guilt lay An Answer to that Calumnie concerning K. James 1. It is known to all that K. James was an aged man and to all the Court that he kept an ill Diet particularly how he was addicted to Excesse of sweet Wines by reason whereof together with ease and want of exercise as also the forbearance of all Physick he grew full of humors corpulent and of an evill constitution For the sicknes he died of it was a kind of Ague mixt of a quotidian and a tertian call'd an Hemitritaea and so determin'd of by all his Physitians six or seven at least Now that Disease though stiled by the name of an Ague is known to be mortall in its owne nature and more to die of it then to recover But in such an Age Constitution and course of Diet as King James was of nothing more certain Especially considering he hated Medicines would conforme to no directions nay was so crosse that when one of his Doctors as the mouth of the rest had told him that he must bleed in a great Rage he ingeminated the Scandal of a Butcher upon him 2. As they agreed this was his Disease so they were convinc'd that his Death was the naturall and genuine effect thereof and they testified the same 3. His Body being opened was found faire and free from any ground of Suspition in the judgment both of his Chyrurgeons of whom Master Hayes is yet living and in the Kings-bench Apothecary's and Physitians There are three of those Physitians yet alive Doctor Hervy Doctor Lister and Doctor Craig all three honest and worthy men the two last resident in the Parliaments quarters about London and in this Breach between the King and them of their party Doctor Craig under a disgust at Court and discharg'd from his Attendance long afore and therefore not likely to be partial to the King Who all doe testifie the truth of this Narrative and I believe are so noble that they will readily give satisfaction to any man that shall but doe his Judgment that right as to informe it 2. Touching the Duke I shall first premise somewhat both about that he administred to K. James and also how far he was accus'd in Parliament then answer the Charge The Duke himselfe had been sick of an Ague and that not long before in which Disease he was attended by three able Physicians but after some wrestling with it by their help the Countesse of Buckingham his Mother shutting them out of dores gives the Duke a Vomit made with Tobacco which wrought violently but recover'd him from his Disease After which finding himself somewhat weak he retires to the Earle of Warwick's house in Essex where either upon change of Aire or some reliques of the disease or what cause soever he suffer'd a relapse and being perswaded by the E. of Warwick sent for one Remington a Physician living thereabout who by a Plaister applyed to his Stomack and Wrists and a Posset-drink taken inwardly recovered him from that Relapse After this K. James being sick his disease an Ague the Duke ignorant of the distinction between Agnes thinking all of the same Nature that
onely to put them in a posture for his Service 2. This was limited according to the Fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome and the Liberty of the Subject 3. It amounted but to a Petition which is printed and may be read in the first Vol. of the Decl 4. This came from the Officers unto the King and those Members of Parliament Now in that conjuncture of Affaires wherein was the King too blame when the Soldiers were discontented the Parliament grew high there were visible Symptomes of an intention to model the State anew to cast out the Government of the Church If the King did so far comply with them as to allow nay to countenance them by an humble Petition to represent their sense of the Innovations they feared and of a Breach of the Laws of the Land How happy had it been for us if it had proceeded and taken place Is it not the same which this Army hath accomplished to the destruction of the Law and dissolution of all legall Authority The Raising of War against them Answered The raising of the War will be Answered in another place As for the Aggravation a thing never done but by King Charls it is no wonder since never King needed before to deale with a Parliament by Armes One Breath of his mouth was enough to dissolve them The Mock-Parl at Oxford Answerd and retorted The Mock-Parliament was not to be so slightly thought of Themselves and their owne men the Army appeale to the equitable construction of the Law And if so pray what equity would justifie this Parliament about That The King is confessedly one Estate The Lords with him were two for one twenty or more Earles as many Barous when two Lords made up a House here often and Ten were thought a goodly number Nay the House of Commons there were neer upon the number with those that staied here Did the wals at Westminster make a Parliament surely in the equitable construction those Gentlemen made it much rather who were called together by the Kings Writ and sent by their respective Counties and Burroughs But why do we dispute that Did not many of these men that talke thus flee themselves Did they not eat up an Engagement with the Army Was there not an intention at least of another Mock-Parliament If their Returne to Westminster had not been so quick and easie we cannot forbear to thinke they would actually have done the selfe-same thing themselves which they thus condemn in others The Mungrell Parliament Answered The King hath sufficiently explained himself for that matter that he used that Expression in reference to the Earle of Sussex and his faction who had made a breach in that fair Correspondence that was maintained between them formerly The Charge of Crimes done by his Ministers We proceed from the pretended faults which relate immediately to the Kings owne person before this Rupture with the Parliament unto those done by his Ministers and those especially under this Classis concerne Oppression of us in our Estates Of which sort are the Enforced leaues Privy-Seales Coat-and-Conduct-money Enlarging Forests Enclosing Commons Ingrossing Patents Monopolies c. The Answer to these in generall To these in generall 1. That they were put in execution in times of great necessity The King was engaged in a bloody war and by the incitement encouragement and promise of this faction of men and deserted as soone as he was well entered the best Revenue of the Crown questioned if not with-held The King of Denmarke beaten for want of supply Germany over-run the Protestant cause all over Christendome in a precipice great Preparations made round about Hanibal ad portas What Irregularities might not be excused in such exigencies by that Supreame Law of Necessity which bears out all transgressions 2. None of these were contrived by Himself many of them were by his Counsell at Law many were suggested by Mr. Noy in particular his Attorney a man well versed in the Laws and ancient Records of the Kingdome one who could have given a good accompt of his Actions and was once thought a great Champion of the Laws against Arbitrary Incroachments 3. There was a Redresse offered upon the first Complaint and the Subject fenced by wholsome Laws against any such future Attempts 4. The Instruments who first contrived or abetted and put then in execution are many of them in both Houses more of them in Places of eminent trust None of them all ever punished upon this score but for some other fault In Particular The Privy-Seales Answered His Majesty was so carefull to satisfie his Subjects for what they had lent him this way that he sold unto the City of London Land at 12000. l. rent of Assise and out of the money due thereupon left and secured in the Chamberlain of Londons hand the summe of 216000. l. 15. s. 4. d. to the end that out of this such might be paid as had formerly lent unto the King either by Privy-Seale or otherwise which the City made this advantage of not contented with such a bargain though they paid for the purchase by the very Wood and Timber upon the ground as the King was informed They sent their Emissaries into all Countries where they knew there were any of the Kings Creditors who were ignorant of this Assignment and agreed with them at under-rates nay for little or nothing for the debt they accounted as desperate and by that meanes at once deceived the people of their repayment and the King of the reputation of his Justice Forrests Answered 1. The King herein used and followed the advice of his Counsell at Law and of the Lord of Holland yet was his Lordship their Confident untill this quarrell divided them 2. What was done herein was upon Oath and by due process at Law 3. His Majesty remitted his clear Right where the people were troubled for instance a great part of the County of Essex 4. He allowed them to be bounded by the Countries themselves Enclosing of Commons Answered and retorted 1. It was done by vertue of Law which investeth him with that power 2. It might have been for the benefit not of the Kingdome onely but of the very particular Inhabitants of those respective places if Instruments had done their duty 3. The Parliament keeps those in their possessions still without refunding any Compensation to those they pretend were injured 4. Nay at this time they set upon a worke of Enclosure of more then all the Commons in England which have been enclosed these 100. years I mean the Draining of the Fennes in Lincoln-shire whereby thousands of poor people are bereft of their subsistence The adjacent parts are endammaged by the Torrent of the waters turned upon them to their vast prejudice Engrossing of Patents and Monopolies Answered That I may Answer these I shall lay for a Ground That all Graunts and Letters-Patents of the King of England are not Monopolies though concerning Trade or Manufacture or the labour of the
harken to Propositions sent unto him at Hampton-Court nor signe so much as four Bills which were only in order to their Security during a Treaty since he was in the Isle of Wight though those made way to a Personall Treaty upon the rest To all which I shal answer The Generall Answer That the King did not begin the War may first be concluded from the improbability thereof 1. Themselves assoile the King from that fiercenesse of disposition and inclination to war when they make that Comment upon the Lord Digby's Letter who writing to the Queen among other Passages hath this for one I have taken the hardinesse to write unto His Majesty according as his Affairs and Complexion requires which they interpret to be a Mildnesse of Spirit 2. There was a very vast disproportion between his strength and theirs for 1. The Affections of the people and the wealth of the Kingdome were all at their devotion the King being looked on but a-squint though causlesly by his Subjects 2. The Ammunition and Armes of the Kingdome in their power 3. The Navy at their dispose What King said our Saviour going to war against another sits not downe first and considers whether he be able with his ten thousand to meet him that commeth against him with his twenty thousand It could not have stood on this side madnesse for our King to harbour such a Resolution to meet them or set on them rather that had I will not say 20000. but 200000. against his One. Secondly granting their proofs all true by what Logick doth it follow that all this was done by the King with an intention to leavy war against the Parliament A Preparation may be for Defence as well as for Assault We have not forgotten that it was one of their own Arguments whereby they pressed for putting the Kingdom into a Posture of the Militia under their command because they heard of great preparations in Spaine France Denmarke and God knows where At this time they themselves doe fortifie Newcastle have farced thereinto a Garrison of 3000 men into Tinmouth-Castle 600. c. But would they be well pleased with that inference Therefore they intend to make war against the Scots If a Ship at Sea discover a Man-of-War it is no Defiance to clear her Guns open her Port-holes let down her Wast-cloaths c. In Spaine if one man draw his Sword all the Company draw theirs also presently whatsoever the Occasion be I have heard of a Gentleman who never sees another take up a Sword in his hand to look on to shew to buy but streight he draws his owne and gives this reason Doe I know what the Devill may tempt him to When His Majesty perceived such unusuall and unseemly Expressions High and insolent Demands No satisfaction he could give accepted Words uttered in his face that he was not worthy to Reigne and those by Apprentices and by the scum of the people The power of the Parliament to Depose Kings His indeserts for that high Place liberally in all Companies made the discourse of their Confidents yea of their own Members The Militia not only demanded but wrung out of his hands His own Ammunition seized on Towns fortified against him The Navy disposed of contrary to his desires Was it not then high time for him to look about him to project his own Safety to prepare against the Storm thus hanging over his head which if he had failed to do he must have cast himself down at their feet and so had he made good what at the beginning of these Troubles for want of other Accusation they spar'd not to bespatter him withall That he was but a degree from an Ideot As for the Proofs in particular they are so frivolous and yet have had such frequent effectuall Answers in His Majesties Declarations which are to be seen in print published by Husbands their owne Printer and are so very well known among us that I will spare both my self and the Reader the paines to insert them in this place This Charge made good upon themselves But to lay the Childe at the right fathers doore The truth is though this War were the Hand of God upon us all for our Crying sins and the first Rise of it were almost as unsearchable as the Head of the Nile yet are there some Tracks that infallibly fasten it upon the Houses If you will allow the first defiance to begin the War it was the Parliaments Remonstrance piget meminisse sent unto the King at Hampton-Court which some of the wisest contested against and among others upon this Ground for one That it must be presented upon the point of a sword If you make it to relate unto the first Guard The Parliament raised that when the King was in Scotland If to the first violence It came from the Tumults at Westminster for justice on the Earle of Strafford and for expulsion of the Bishops acted by the Citizens but incited and incouraged by Members of their owne House Besides the Conducting of the five Members by a just Army to the House by land and besieging as well as shooting at White-Hall by water If the first manning of the Garrisons it was by the Parliament at Hull If the first Army it was begun by the Parliament under the Earle of Essex who had an Army of 15000 and upward when the King had not one thousand If the first Blow between them did not their Army at Edge-hill first give fire to the Cannon Indeed we must acknowledge the King trod in their steps sometimes foote-hot and most an end wrought by the Pattern they had cut out for him The same thing may further be cleared by the Confidence and Assurance of their friends that there could be no war that it was enough for the Parliament to raise an Army the King would never be able to do it or at least so as to ballance theirs and then he must lie at their Mercy Thus ran their discourse among themselves this was the Presumption of their Junto then Nay such assurance had they hereof that Mr. Hamden himself as quick-sighted as the best behind him offered to lay an hundred pound to a shilling thereon Let Mr. Lilburn speak if still you are to be convinc'd an Agitator at that time and one who knew the secrets of their Cabinet They have engaged the Kingdome in a bloody War under pretence of Vindicating the Laws and Liberties of the Subject but never intended God knows any such thing but meerly by the Blood and Treasure of the people to make themselves Lords and Masters over them Oppressed mans Oppres p. 34. The Kings refusing Petitions for Peace Answered Now to clear His Majesty from the Charge of refusing Petitions for Peace or Overtures to that purpose 1. It can hardly obtaine credence with a prudent man that the King should turne the deaf eare toward a just Peace because it was for his own Interest Both sides fought upon his score
those that died in the quarrell against him were his Subjects He was the poorer for the very Plunder and destruction that fell upon his Enemies He had three Crownes at stake His eares and eyes were continually filled with the desolations of his Country the spoile of the people In his owne Person he was stript of all the usuall Comforts of his life and for most part hunted as a Partridge upon the Mountaines and in continuall danger Whereas our Masters at Westminster continually gain'd by that which other men lost by How else were it possible that they and so many of their servants and Officers should start up into such Estates from the very dunghill or a lost condition They were at little hazard some of them being of an Estate twice or thrice sold or morgag'd for more then the worth others worth nothing They made sport with the Relations of Burnings and Massacres and heard them as some Romance when themselves sate voting securely at Westminster snorting upon their downe-beds feeding upon the delicacies of the Kingdome dividing the spoiles of it among themselves even at least 300000. l. professedly to say nothing now of Clandestine wayes cleanly Cheates Offices c. Besides they were well acquainted with that Maxime of Alexander of Parma That when Subjects draw their swords against their Prince they must fling away the scabbard 2. If you revise the pretended Petitions you will find they were for the most part as great Reproaches as ever otherwise were cast upon the King such as must needs beget a Prejudice and carry their Answer in their very Fore-heads 3. They were not Petitions for Peace but rather Admonitions to the King to submit to devest himself of his strength and power to protect his people for to sacrifice his friends to cast himselfe upon their Mercy Who could blame either them for making such Petitions or the King for denying them 4. If you know the Ends and Designes they drove therein so well as we who sate neere the Chaire and sometimes convers'd with the Councell you would rest fully satisfied that they were rather to get wind of the King to appease the people and winne their Affections by a seeming dissembled Affection and pursuit of what they so much gasped after when God knowes they never harbour'd the least expectation or desire of Condescension from the King and that they made no bones to confesse among their Confidents 5. It is false and impudent averment to pretend that any Petitions though of this nature upon such grounds were rejected by the King or indeed had not a faire answer given and such a one as in our judgement might have satisfied reasonable men His Majesties not admitting Propositions Answered and retorted Now to clear His Majesty from that Aspersion of not admitting Propositions or making any fit for them to receive 1. We desire the Reader to take notice of the severall offers the King hath made 1. Before the Warre was throughly kindled Jan. 23. 1641. Booke of Declarations wherein he did upon the matter send them a Blanke 2. Before much blood was drawn His Messages from Nottingham which you may see in the same Booke 3. His Propositions at severall Treaties at Colebroke Oxford Vxbridge which last was ingenuously and without a false Glosse exposed to the world yet never to this day had any answer In most of which never King made appearance of more gracious Condescension to a disadvantagious Composure had it been possible Whereas they never yet made any but such as expected from him 1. To sacrifice his Honour 2. To violate his Conscience 3. To give his fastest friends for a victime unto the fury of their Enemies 2. It is too evident a truth that whatsoever they pretended of an Inclination to a Composure or making up the Breach it was but to baffle and gull the people Ad populum phaleras They were resolved to hold the sword naked and to throw away the scabbard How otherwise could they have proved such deafe Adders to the many gracious Messages from His Majesty besides the Propositions mentioned before How could they cast behind their backs so many sweet courting Letters dispatch'd one upon another What Colour can they pretend for their waving of the French and Hollanders interposure when they made friendly offers of Mediation Nations the one to whom formerly the King of this Land with his disobedient Barons made reference of their differences the other of our owne Profession maintaining that Discipline of the Church which these men doat upon as their great Diana and having lately screw'd themselves into the Independency of a Free state both of them indifferent to our quarrell and if any Biasse hung upon the latter it must be toward the Parliaments party 3. Besides it is not quite out of our Memory in this City That when the generality of the better and wiser Citizens were assembled at Guild-hall in a peaceable way to draw up a Petition for Peace there were twenty or thirty men with drawn swords of which Mainwayring's son was one sent in amongst them to assault and provoke them to a defence of themselves and to reciprocall violence so that they might have some pretence to charge them with Mutiny and Riot as was done by a scandalous and lying paper afterward put forth by their Authority and that by killing some as one was served by Harvies owne hand and imprisoning others all such hopes or least Motions that way might be extinguished Nor have we forgotten how divers Buckingham-shire people being assembled to like purpose about the time of Vxbridge Treaty were dispersed by their Horse and some made Prisoners We passe by many but these are enough to demonstrate who were the most resolved against any peaceable Conclusion 4. The Circumstances of their Propositions clearly prove that they were in a great fear lest the King should condescend though they were never so unreasonable What else should be the meaning of their limiting His Majesty to six to ten to twenty dayes but for fear lest any further time and consideration should make him grant them And what of their requiring certaine numbers to be left to their mercy without any name but by that means to amuse His Majesty and keep him in suspence which of his friends should be mark'd out for slaughter And since the Armies march through London What of their leaving all such out of their Votes for Indempnity as had any hand in that Message of the King of May 12. last wherein he offered all that possibly could be offered or in approbation of it Observe how they confesse in their last Declaration for no more Addresses to the King that their Propositions sent to Newcastle were the same in effect with those at Vxbridge and those at Hampton-Court with those at Newcastle And yet how much time was spent between their sending of them Brainceford busines Answered and retorted Now whereas it is pretended the King took advantage to assault their Quarters
Crowns doe certainly under the same thought suppose him void of Common Reason without the use of his right Wits 3. There was never any Officer or man of quality not the Lord Mac-guire himself who was in the contrivement of the Rebellion that did ever in good earnest when he was in the power of the English and under sentence of Condemnation nay at the point of death which is no time to dissemble that ever did affirme the King any way privy thereunto Though Mac-guire was much importuned fairly promised threatned nay turned off the Cart and recovered again a fact too barbarous toward a very Rebell did acquit the King upon his death to use his owne words and any other man in England except one and he but a private Gentleman who came by chance as he said to the knowledge thereof from being guilty so much as of knowing it 4. In all His Majesties Declarations Messages Letters Speeches to the Parliament he doth not onely speak with much abhorrence and detestation of them but conjure and excite the Parliament to relieve his Protestant Subjects there and to revenge the Bloud that was shed offering his own Person and all other Concurrences therein 5. It may be added that most of the Soldiery imployed in that Action most of the Ministry expulsed by the Natives most of the English Gentry who had their abode in that place even Sir Hardres Waller was so before he came over and that so high that he told the Lord of Ormond though Sir W. Waller were his Kinsman he had learnt to spew such out as forgot their Allegiance to His Majesty and since that untill he saw this Side thrive best and last of all the Independents to whom for their successe sake he hath glew'd himself are but cold friends of the Parliaments and adhered to the King at least in their Opinions which they could not possibly have done if they had ground to suspect their Miseries to have been derived from him especially considering their Necessities and the hopes they might have from the Parliament of Subsistence if not of Preferment also Particular Answers to the particular Proofs Although by what hath been spoken His Majesties Innocence be as clear as the noon-day yet we will be at the pains to follow these men through every step of their Track 1. Of the Seale of Scotland to the Rebels Commissioners 1. It was a wonder the Scots could be ignorant of it by whom the King was sufficiently watched and onely we English at the distance of 300 miles and nothing interested therein should have such Intelligence 2. It is easily averred but untill we meet with better proof then their bare word we have but a poore deale of reason to believe them 3. Mac-guire upon his Death professed he never saw any who had as much reason to see it as any man having been a prime Agent in the very contrivement of that Rebellion 4. If a Commission under the Seale was shewed and boasted of it might easily be done What Difficulty was there for them to make one and afterward set it to what they pleased we know who did as much and issued out Commissions against the King in his Name What great labour was it to fasten an old labell to a new Parchment faire enough to deceive those who were willing to be deceived Nay how weak had they been if they had not done so and done what else was possible to ensure their owne side to amaze the English and cast Bones between us 5. It is of no more truth because affirmed by Sir Philem Oneale or by others of the Rebels The same Persons did withall if these Declarers had been pleased to quote the whole evidence affirme That they were sure of the Scots to be of their side Remonst p. 37. That they had the E. of Argyle's hand and most of the Nobility of Scotland ibid. That the King himself was in person among them These and many other of the same bran Sir J. Temple tells us ingenuously were the devices to delude others and to distract us The Copy of it and the Oaths may be called in question when there are no Particulars named but if true they may be suborn'd on purpose or be of that false Commission which was given them by their owne King Tyrone for so some of the Examinations doe testifie They cared not for King Charles and had a King of their own p. 54. of the Remonstrance 2. His giving 5 Counties and other Acts of Grace Answered For those Acts of Grace imply'd in the Letter by the L. Dillon giving up 5 Counties upon the private mediation of the Commissioners 1. It argues their ingratitude not the Kings concurrence in that they would after so much favour so far dishonour him and seek his mischief 2. They were granted at such a Conjuncture of time that the King had been taught more lessons then one against irritating of a Kingdome or exasperating of Waspes and was concerned to give them satisfaction rather then let them carve for themselves according to the Examples they had before their Eyes 3. These were granted by him not by private mediation of the Commissioners but by the Importunity of both Houses of Parliament see Sir Jo. Temple p. 13. by whom they were sent and under the notion of Redresse of Grievances in which it is worth your notice what our Author testifies That many of the Protestants in Parliament were made instrumentall to them under pretence of Ease and Redresse of Grievances 4. Those Acts were thought necessary by the Lords of the Counsell and further Grace and it is called by our Author An unbending themselves into a happy and just complyance with the seasonable desires of the people and mollifying the sharp Humours raised by the rigid Passages of former times 3. His not Disbanding the Irish Army Answered That the Irish Army was no sooner Disbanded was 1. upon point of Honour and Safety to this Kingdome whilst the Scots kept theirs on foot it was for neither to disband 2. for that Kingdome Had these men been sent into Spaine as was intended by the King and in good earnest sollicited by that Embassadour but opposed by the Parliament that place had been disburdened of so many Pests How doth it reflect upon the King if the Natives had another designe besides his I am sure the same Author confessed that the Natives were very unwilling that they should be sent into Spaine as much as the Parliament here 4. Their Pretences for the King Oaths c. Answered That they pretended to vindicate the King took an Oath of Allegiance to the King stiled themselves the Queens Army or in their Letters of Mart gave in charge to spare the Kings Ships 1. It is of no moment but to shew their cunning and care to maintain divisions among us under that Colour It is not long since we had such Protestations taken and enforced Our Armies at the beginning pretended to fight for
severall and indeed irreconcileable designes therein unto themselves Nor can it be doubted that the supream sole Power and Authority was the Apple of contention as well between them now thus divided as formerly between the King and them conjoyned what gawdy Colours soever are cast over and specious Pretences made to stalke before it Truth is This is the generall Ground of most Quarrels every man inheriting that ambitious Humour of our first common Parents even from the Disciples in their Poverty who were projecting for the Right-hand and for the Left and in a kingdome too unto the greatest States-men Nay a wise Gentleman of our Age observ'd it to be the Itch even of kitchin-boyes who should be the greatest Now the Independents though inconsiderable at the first even to Contempt being not above six among fourscore in the Assembly nor double that number visible in both Houses have plaid their Cards so well and follow'd their businesse so close that they have got the Purse of the kingdom at their command the whole Strength of it at their devotion and now grasp at the Authority also and seek to establish their Iniquity by a Law But by what steps and Degrees they have climb'd thus high is very difficult to discover exactly the foundation being laid deep under ground and carried up with as much Art as ever Building of that nature was Nor is it much materiall The greatest and onely unquestionable Authority of this Kingdome is of the King and His two Houses of Parliament to this their Ambition did aspire But having strugled in vain in the Houses for a good while they found the wind to sit too strong in their faces there and an impossibility for them to begin that way as the Temper of the Houses stood If the King were but in their hands being stript of all strength and in some desperate apprehension of Himself then their Hopes would handsomely smile upon them In order to this therefore a Quarrell is pickt with the Parliament the King's Person seized on and soon after the Parliament is most shamefully despised abused disgraced made to double at pleasure to eat up their owne Ordinances and Decrees perfectly over-awed and even trampled on So farre that one of their owne Members in the House openly told them That he could not call them a House of Parliament but a company of Gentlemen met together to fulfill the Iust of an Army Yet were they so wise and commenced their quarrell so cunningly as that they might keep two strings to their Bow and as the Beast which hath two holes to his den can stop or open either as the weather sits even so were their Proposals and Declarations contrived and sent abroad that by changing or interpreting one word they might comply with the King to destroy the Parliament if they should find themselves unable to mould it after their own Humour Or if once it were under their Girdle then afterward to bring the King to their Bent or lay him quite aside and by binding his Hands to establish the whole Power and Authority of the Kingdome in their owne And either of these Cards they drew as they had Occasion and convers'd with men of different Interests In the meane time they handle the King with much Civility and shewes of Indulgence allowing him the service of his Chaplains and the free use of the Liturgy which was denyed him by the Houses bearing him in hand that they preferr'd Episcopacy before the Presbyterian way and tickling him with ambiguous Promises to mollifie his hard Conceits toward them or at least to harden him the more against the Presbyterians and make that breach wider They had likewise the wit for to humour and stroak the Royall party by a thousand pretty devises and Artifices entertaining some of them in their bosomes allowing them Seats even in their Councels of War carefully forbearing in their Declarations to stigmatize them with that so familiar brand of Malignancy and filling them with hopes and expectations of I know not what great favours which they meant to perform when two Sundayes met together Thus having well divided the Kings party from the Presbyterians they had then a smooth and easie way to victory The City opens the Gates The Parliament trembles The chiefe Leaders of both Houses either flie for 't or withdraw for a while and play least-in-sight Which was fore-seen when Cromwell stole privately to Newmarket from London and asking Whether they had the King in their hand Being assured of that told some of the Officers That then they had the Parliament in their pockets Those who are of private spirits and for their owne either safety or designes constantly swamme with the streame and Tyde began now to tack about and to do Journy-worke for the stronger side and Vote with the prevailing party of which I will give but one Instance by the way and that is of Colonell Hervy who three daies before would undertake to beate them three miles into the Ground but upon their admission into the City was their first Advocate When the House was thus brought in a great measure to be at their devotion the last Rub in their Alley was the King He persisted in his Obstinacy and would not yeild up the Bucklers into their hands nor the power to protect his people Wherefore to bring His Majesty under the more advantage by insinuations both of danger to His Person and of an impossibility in them to save Him from the Agitators whom yet they countenanced for that purpose and withall by secret promises of faire complyance he is juggled into the Isle of Wight After that Bills are provided with pretence of condescension lest they should seeme to invade the Throne per saltum but in very deed such as would have stript him bare of all Soveraignty and of power to protect His Subjects and established themselves by a Law in an absolute domination and Tyranny over us The King not more for his owne interest and safety then for the benefit of his Subjects refusing to comply with their desires herein is immediately confined and that in such a manner as it is hard to find a Parallel His Wife Children Friends Servants all the Comforts of life kept from Him a course formerly pronounced barbarous and inhumane even in a Subjects case By-and-by the prodigious Votes forbidding all intercourse of Letters to Him or from Him under the penalty of High-Treason so cutting off all possibility of Accommodation were carryed in the House Last of all to render Him as black as was possible and so utterly to alienate the affections of his people this goodly Declaration first set on foot in the Army and allowed the Agitators to please themselves withall so to divert them from more dangerous designes as the Chesse at the siege of Troy to keep Souldiers from mutiny is thought upon and taken up by the Grandees lick'd into a better forme so expos'd unto publick view that besides their aime
bore the same Name perceiving the Physicians doubtfull other directions unsuccessfull the Kings disposition impatient of many Medicines declareth to the King his owne Cure proposeth to the Physicians to Vomit him with Tobacco But the danger thereof being suggested by reason of the violence of it and the speciall Antipathy of the King against it he forbeares that remedy yet upon the urgent desire of King James himselfe procures for him the aforesaid Plaister and Drinke the one being onely London-Treacle the other no more but Posset-drink boil'd with Harts-horne and Marigold-flowers then sweetned with syrrup of Gilly-flowers which were both discover'd to the Physicians afterwards and obtain'd before not without some assistance of the Earle of Warwick After the application of this whether by the naturall course of the disease or some other cause the King grew worse indeed the Physicians take it not well these Medicines are laid aside Yet the disease not abating upon intermission of the directions the King impatient both of his disease and of his Physicians prescripts importunes again for that Remedy which he had rejected Hereupon a Bed-chamber-man is presently dispatch'd unto the Apothecary Monsieur du Plure Treacle is sent for no tearm of Specification being added he thought it fit to send the best unto his Majesty and by that means sent him Venice-Treacle which as it was better in it selfe so was it worse for the Kings disease This being brought no body there present could order it but the Countesse of Buckingham It was applied again but being hotter then the former Plaister and the Kings hot fit approaching it might somewhat aggravate his Heate whereupon he cryed out That these had done him hurt and were the cause of his Extremity Upon this some one in the roome drank up the Posset-drinke and the Plaister was applied to another who took no manner of hurt but that he was cured of an Ague This is the whole truth concerning that Application and besides others it will be attested by Master Patrick Maule then of the Bed-chamber and in Attendance a Gentleman whom the Parliament hath imployed about the King ever since he hath bin in their hands and therefore one that in all probability would relate nothing to their disadvantage on set purpose For the Duke's Impeachment in Parliament this was the ground of it When that Parliament was summon'd and the Elections were made Sir John Eliot who much honoured the Duke and was reciprocally much esteemed of by him made an addresse unto the Duke in the name of many Members offered him many Arguments to bring him unto their Party made engagements unto him to establish him in all his Places by Parliament and to adde unto his Grandeur But the Duke rejecting these offers and replying with some Scorne according to the Height and perhaps vanity of his Spirit That the King should have that now by no leave of theirs which formerly he would have thanked them for and that the turbulent Spirits were so dasht that there could be no considerable Opposition in their House to his designes and indeed in sight more of the Members of that Election were at the Dukes devotion Whereupon Sir John Eliot like a good Patriot reply'd that he was mistaken in the Spirit of that House the very walls infusing Resolution into them who sate there and rather then the Duke should not be dasht that he himself would break the ice And hereupon was the E. of Bristol countenanced whom in former Parliaments they themselves had cast some frowns upon and threatned with some danger This Impeachment against the Duke is contrived in such a way as that the King must either engage against him or at least stand Neuter or which was worst of all beare the reflection of that Dirt which they would bestow upon the Duke This was the true ground of that Charge and this was the Man who carried it up and did chiefly manage it in the House of Commons and in their Committees 3. These things thus premised I answer First by way of Concession that indeed the Duke was guilty of Imprudence to meddle in an Art he was not Master of And more yet to exhibit any thing that way unto a King so that he was in some measure liable to the Charge against him Secondly by way of Exception 1. This was no cause of the Kings death and so much the very Charge implies which was but of Mis-demeanors and high Presumptions Had it been of his Death it could not have stood on this side High-Treason and therefore it was a malicious intimation to the Kingdome that his Majesty was guilty of what they themselves were ashamed to charge upon the Duke 2. It was done out of a good affection and an intent to recover the King Had he had other Ends he would never have owned the Action as he did He was not so weak a Politician as to doe such a businesse with his owne hands or by those of his Mother or so much above-boord 3. The Medicines of themselves were innocent and could not prejudice I have heard it from learned Physicians that London-Treacle is of a temperate nature and propulsive of Venome from the Heart a Cordial the decoction of Harts-horn with Marygold-flowers and Gilly-flowers is no other Nay this was attested by some of the Physicians upon their Examinations in that Parliament that those Medicines did him no hurt 4. There was a possibility to save the King thereby Experiment is the best Leg and Base of Physick and oftentimes when a learned Doctor hath strugled in vaine a Nurse or a Midwife hath wrought the Cure by an approved Receit How oft hath the Lady of Kent flatter'd her selfe in this kind and the Lady Brooks too or they have done Cures by a Medicine or two which have been blow'd at in vaine by good Physicians 5. It was done by K. James his earnest entreaty and we know how far the Importunity of a great Person a Prince may transport a man his servant even against Reason much more where there was Reason for it We can produce an example of a French K. in a Fever who being prohibited all Wine by his Physicians did so importune his Servants for that liquor as they gave him his fill and that of the strongest too whereby he was not only satisfied but his Fever cured 6. The chief Witnesses against the Duke were Ramsey and Eglisham the first to the Parliament the other to the Kingdome by his pen both of them of so bad a Reputation that their testimony was not to be taken against a private man the former being expell'd or enforced to relinquish the Colledge of London for his ill-behavior who will lie swear flatter do any villany the latter expell'd from his Vniversity a Papist or rather of no Religion and of as little honesty or learning a man of a crackt Braine too 8. For K. James his own Clamour his word that way was no Slander How often hath Treason been
in his Mouth when he was but crost or disturb'd in his sports and recreations I have heard the King of Sweden us'd to make himself merry with that Expression of King James upon an accidentall cut of his finger by his Carver 9. That the Disease was in the declination was uncertaine Sometimes one fit flatters and the next kills Physicians love to speak Placentia especially to Great Patients We have lately had an Experiment of that in the L. Fairfax who died of a Corn in his Toe and that presently after his Physician had made his Attendants and Friends secure of his recovery Nor is it sometimes amisse in reference to the Cure to feed them with hopes and to cherish their conceit which is though but of small reality yet of no small Consequence Besides at that time it was given out by them so One of the ablest told the rest and divers others That the Kings disease was mortall and would surely speed him giving this reason That he had twenty Patients that year and none of them recover'd under sixteen fits but the King had not strength enough to endure twelve Besides that was the year which preceded the great Sicknes before which usually diseases have much Malignancy and oftentimes put tricks upon the best Physicians 4. As to his Majesty that now is Those who were conversant about him both Physicians and others give this account that they are confident he knew not any of those Passages In that he brought off the Duke he might think himself bound by a three-fold Cord of Honour Justice and Friendship of Honour because that which was the ground of the Accusation was his owne service at least pretended so to be Of Justice because he had done King James no hurt did it in obedience to King James his owne command intended him all good and was prosecuted by his Adversaries upon another Score and Spite Of Friendship also it being well known how deeply the Duke had wound himself into the Kings favour I dispute not how justly the very laws of friendship call'd for relief at his hands when he saw the Duke in danger to be opprest H. Martin himselfe the most professed enemy unto the King thought so meanly of this Accusation that he onely made sport of it when in some company it was spoken of told them if it were true It was the onely good action he had ever done in his life and therefore desired he might not be alwaies twitted with that And now let all the world judge of the abominable Iniquity of these men that lay to the charge of their owne Prince things that he knew not things of that ugly Stamp that a loyall Subject dares not put them into words We may adde unto all that hath bin said in defence of his Majesty 1. The singular observance and dutifulnesse of his owne Children towards himself a comfort seldome vouchsafed but as a reward of former obedience God observes for the most part a proportion in all his Retributions and punisheth as it were in Specie according to the nature of our Offences in their own kind 2. His Majesties composednes and equality of Spirit in the midst of his dangers and afflictions When his Chamber hath been beset with Armed men I cannot learne that he lost one hours Rest for that which might have been a cause of Terrour even to a cleare Conscience Nor can I understand that he made scruple at any of those Cates which were cook'd by a Hand that had been armed and held up against him in the field Whatsoever his troubles and distresses were he was himself still Mediis tranquillus in undis But Murder especially Parricide is a Fury which keeps the Conscience in a continuall Alarme and presents unto all the Senses objects of horrour and approaching vengeance The History is known of Nero who never could endure a clap of Thunder after the murder of his own Mother but crept even under his Bed or into the closest Corner he could possibly find at the noise of it And I need not enlarge that story of a Prince who hearing Swallows singing in his Palace fancied they sung it clearly That he was his Fathers murderer and therefore caused them to be pursued and beaten downe Many more such Arguments we might insist upon if we would make use of such Topicks as passe with the House of Commons for excellent strength of reason when it may serve their Occasions I must acknowledge that I expected with this His Majesty should have been charged with the Death of his elder Brother Prince Henry also for I know That had a place in the first rude draught of the Catalogue of his Crimes which was compos'd in the Army But the House remembred his Majesty was but twelve years of Age and so that was expung'd A Collection of the Crimination they make against His Majesty from the time of His comming to the Crown untill the present Rupture Those Aspersions which they cast upon the King from his entrance upon the Crown untill this Breach between Him and them are reducible to 3 Heads The first to such as more immediately relate unto his own Person The second to such as were done by his Ministers and did originally flow from them as the Lords of the Privy Councell his Councell at Law and his Servants The third to such as were done by his Courts of Justice either Civill or Ecclesiasticall Under the first of these we may marshall 1. Perjury and Breach of Trust 2. Popery and a Conspiracy with Papists to massacre all the Protestants in England and Ireland 3. Tyranny 4. Hate of Parliaments Their Charge of Perjury and Breach of Trust This deserves the first place as the greatest Crime in a Prince if true and the fowlest Calumny if false which they tax His Majesty withall in these generall words page 11. He hath broken his Coronation-Oath severall Vows Protestations and Imprecations through His whole Reign and so oft renued before God and the world a little after They accuse him of a continued Track of Breach of trust since he wore the Crown That Charge answered and retorted 1. These are but barely asserted and I appeal to their own Breasts whether it be fit to take their word in this Case I am confident I may to the Kingdome 2. This is onely a Generall Accusation no particular Instance given Indeed afterwards there is an Imputation of Breach of Articles with the Scots denying of any Commission to have been granted to Cockram which they took with other Papers and some such things there are which amount to no more then Tergiversation if all were true as they relate and shall have a full Satisfaction in their proper places If they had held forth any proof of any particular we should have joyn'd Issue and made no question to vindicate His Majesty They may remember Generalities afford a shrewd suspition of jugling fraudulence and we have some aime at their Intents by their audacious
Imputations to make something stick upon His Majesty whether true or false 3. With what Confidence can they accuse his Majesty if he had been guilty of that wherein they themselves lie so grosly open to Exception Quis tulerit Gracchos c. Their whole Practise hath been Prevarication Breach of Oath and Trust both with God and Man Have but a little patience to eye their deportment towards all men they have had to deal with In relation to the King Have they not broke the Oath of Allegiance wherein they have sworne to beare faith and true Allegiance to His Majesties person and to defend the same against all Conspiracies c Have they not broke the Oath too of Supremacy wherein they have professed testified and declared him the onely supream Head and Governour over all Persons in all Causes within these His Dominions both which Oaths they must and doe take before they can legally sit and Vote in that House Have they kept the Protestation better which provided for the Kings honour Power and Safety before their Priviledges And have they kept their owne solemne Covenant either in this or any Branch thereof Nay hath it not been resembled to an Almanack out of date by one of their own Members Martin in his Answer to the Scots Declaration and that without a check How have they deceived and abused this poor Nation in reference to the King when they conjur'd us up to rescue the Kings Person among other things out of the hands of his Evill Counsellours and to fetch him home gloriously to his Greatest and most faithfull Counsell Themselves How well have they answer'd that very great Trust the King reposed in them when to please them if possible he tied up his owne hands from the dissolving this Session of Parliament without their Consent the greatest Breach of Trust that ever the King made if we may believe John Lilburne How have they acquitted their Engagements to the Scots as touching the King Nay have they not disclaimed their owne Declarations as Obligatory and told the Scots since That they were framed published and made use of as Affaires then stood and that they may alter them now and in another place that they are alterable at pieasure although they were Promissory and that upon the most sacred Invocation possible as you may see in the Scots Papers We professe in the sight of Almighty God which is the strongest obligation that any Christian and the most solemne Publick Faith that any State can give Husbands Book of Decl. p. 587. 663. the like That no trouble nor successe should change their resolutions ib. And how they have made good these following Expressions of the Army for now I must charge the Parliament with the Doublings of the Army who rule the roast there Whereas there is a scandalous Information presented to the Houses importing as if His Majesty were kept a Prisoner amongst us and barbarously and uncivilly used We cannot but declare that the same and all other Suggestions of that nature are most false scandalous and absolutely contrary not onely to our declared desires but also to our Principles c. and a while after We clearly professe we doe not see how there can be any Peace to the Kingdome firme and lasting without a due consideration of and provision for the Rights Quiet and Immunity of His Majesty His Royall Family c. Remonst from Ex. and A. Jun. 23. 1647. in another place That untill the settlement His Majesty may find all personall Civility and Respects with all reasonable Freedome in the Letter from Sir Tho Fairfax besides many more which applied to their present practice doe lowdly proclaime their odious Prevarication toward His Majesty In relation to the Kingdome How strangely have they falne short of their Trust Can their Consciences flatter them that they were entrusted by us with the least thought that they should enthrone themselves during life in those Chairs and entaile their Places on their Posterity yet many of them being put to it have intimated thus much nay in the House it hath often dropt from them That it was dangerous to pitch upon a time of Dissolution though within these ten or twenty yeares Some of them have been so ingenuous as to say If they give way Another Parliament must be call ' within these three years and the Kingdome is so totally corrupted that it is Ten to one but That would attaint the Members of This. Many of them who are Fathers have by their Power and Interest already brought in not onely their eldest Children some in their Nonage and Children indeed but two or three as the Lord Say who hath three of his owne Sons in the House of Commons They were entrusted by the people I trow to ease them of their Grievances establish the liberty of their Persons settle the propriety in their Estates yet let me bespeak them in the words of one that hath lost his bloud in their service Mr. Lilburne by name I challenge them to shew one Act they have done for the benefit of the people We feel their little finger heavier then the Loynes of the King with all his Predecessours They have brought us from the Government of one King who was bound up by law to the Tyranny of 5 or 600 of themselves nay every petty Committe-man every insolent Officer whose Will and Lust is their Law so into an Aegyptian Vassalage a condition worse then that of the Peasants of France of the Boores in Flanders of the Slaves in Turkie to use a mans word of their owne side What can we call our owne if one of the Grandees or his Friends mouth waters after it If they Vote to pocket up our Estates to take away our Wives our liberties our very lives who can stand before their Omnipotency Let their Officers and Army's be heard what measure hath bin meted out to them They were promised Golden Mountains The Parliament would stand and fall live and die with them Yet when the first Army had set them up and broke the ice for them how dis-honourably was the Lord Generall how unthankfully were the rest laid aside even without their wages which they could never obtaine to this day This last Army had the same doome but they tooke better Courage and knew their owne strength The Scots however stroakt with the name of Brethren to this day were serv'd with the self-same sauce and put to retreat faster then was for their Ease from Newarke toward their own Confines with a great Body of Horse at their heels The City unto whose bloud and treasure they owe their beeing and whatever they have rings again of their breach of Trust and faith with them Instead of Signall marks of the Enlargement of their Priviledges Recompences for all their offices of love Their Works are demolished The Tower is wrested from their hands Themselves besieged in a manner A Garrison threatned to be put upon them their armes to be taken
banishment of her Priests 4. The Man was of so weak Parts and of so loose a life that his Company might have been borne withall the better to serve as a Disswasive from his Religion as the Lacedemonians used by the apish and uncouth behaviour of Drunkards to possesse their young Children with a perfect hatred of that vice 5. Assoon as it was discovered distastfull or of danger he had his Mittimus 6. That of the Blanks left with Windehank and of his Letters and Flight Answered 1. Whosoever knows the Custome of the Court knows it to be no strange matter of Trust with a Secretary of State to be imployed in any sudden emergency when there cannot be recourse unto the King especially when there are generall Instructions left and sometimes the very matter made ready the forme only referred to his discretion Nay further there are some of the House of Commons can testifie how familiar it is for a Secretary of State to entrust the same with his owne Secretaries and how impossible it is to dispatch businesses of haste and necessity without some such remedy I have heard the like is not unusuall with his Excellency the Lord Fairfax and other Great Commanders to give their Servants of Trust leave to subscribe their names for them in matters of common concernment I am sure Col. Mainwayring the Passe-maker which was the best Trade he ever drove in time of greatest danger to the City and affrightment also left his Hand and Seale with many of his Servants to fill up with the names of such Persons as they should think fit Nay but doe not the Houses themselves daily so or more in matters of high concernment by their Power delegated unto the Keepers of the Great Seale Privy-Seale and their ordinary Courts of Justice their Secretary of State and persons officiating in Trust under them 2. If he were a notorious favourer of Papists His Majesty might likely not know so much of him Servants being generally studious to conceale their faults from their Masters 3. If His Majesty did know it yet Places of Trust have been often delegated by Princes to such as have been of a Perswasion contrary to theirs whom they have found Persons capable thereof Even Q. Elizabeth her selfe did send the Viscount Montacute upon an Embassy to Spaine in behalf of the Scots and to justifie the Protestant Religion though he were a Papist as Camden hath it in her Life Now whereas it is added the King would not leave any such with his Parliament 1. The Case is different if it be meant with them for passing of Acts which were not repealable by himself whereas the Secretary was accomptable for his Transactions and his deeds They if not answerable to His Majesties desires capable of reversion by His Majesty 2. There was no need in so short an absence of His Majesty whilest Bills are so long in debate before they come to their Perfection For His Letters we can give no accompt unlesse we knew their purport He might run away justly and in providence which every man oweth to himself He saw the House of Commons begin to ramp upon him and he knew how easie it was for them to find a staffe to beat a dog withall and make a just quarrell when they had an edge against any man That of the Plot to destroy all the Protestants in England Answered But the Plot to cut all the Protestants throats is so brim-full of Malice that it confutes it self 1. It is well known there are not in all above 24000 Papists convicted in all England and Wales allow as many more without that capacity for sure when you shall have deducted the old decrepit Men and all the Women their number will not be much above Now how these Papists should procure Armes embody and no discovery be made of it so as to become considerable and if all in a Body accomplish the Ruine of above a Thousand for One is incomprehensible yea though each one had the hands of Gerion and Briareus and in each hand the Club of Hercules The Protestants had need first be tamer Creatures then these late Broyles have shewed them to be In Ireland where the Papists and Natives are five hundred to one what a tough piece of work have they found it to root them out and now we hope they may drink of the same Cup they provided for Others 2. The King in that case must be look'd on as void of common understanding who would devest himself of the Monarchy over so many Millions of men that he might have it only over 24000 to inhabit this spacious Territory nay and some of them like to come short home 1. That of the Queens pious Designe Answered The Queens pious Designe was knowne to be nothing more then a Contribution by way of Assistance to her Husband against the Scots whom he then look'd upon as his Enemies And to that Expedition divers of themselves divers of the Vpper House afforded their helping hand under the same notion Essex Holland Northumberland Salisbury c. And why was the fault greater in a Wife to assist her Husband then in Subjects their King 2. That of the Qu. Mothers Servant Answered The Q.M. servant for ought we know may lie as wel as swear If it be the Man we guesse at he is of little credit even among his own Nation Nay the Ministers and Protestants of their Churches here though the man pretend to be under the notion of a Convert and a Protestant now though formerly a Papist give him but a base report And we cannot think it is for nothing that he hath been bolsterd up in the murther of his own Wife under the pretence of Physick in the oppression of her Children which she had by a former Husband and in the prosecution of a worthy Gentleman her Brother 3. That of the suggestion to the Arch-bishop Answered The suggestion to the Arch-Bishop was by one Habernfield a Bohemian from a Priest in Rome first given to Sir William Boswell in Holland and so sent over in which the principall persons to be made away were the King and the Arch-Bishop for their being so much against the Romish Religion and purposes But this Circumstance is wisely enough conceald by these Accusers Can any reasonable man let his belief so run riot as to be perswaded the King should drive on a Plot apparently to his own destruction How blind will malice make whither will it not transport Of the Irish Rebels words we shal speak in a more proper place 4. That of the Armes in Papists houses Answered The Armes and Ammunition in Papists houses were a Bow and Arrows with one brown Bill This cals to our mind the Training under ground the blowing up of the Thames c. Is it not Impudence even to a Prodigie to think now the Scales are fallen from our eyes thus to mock and befool us still 5. That of the Ammunition and Preparations about White-Hall
spent their Powder Poor King Charles How is he burdened and even pressed downe upon whom not his own Actions onely are charged but those of his Servants those of his Courts those of Strangers nay and those of meer fortune and Contingency If this expedition of the Spaniard were by the Kings contrivance or privity why did he sit still permitting them to be assaulted within his own Harbours why did he suffer his owne Ships to be idle Spectators of their Ruine How comes it that there never followed thereupon the least expostulation for so great a losse from the King of Spaine It is well knowne the Spaniards were wasted in Flanders the Natives began to know their owne strength and were in hand with a Machination to shake off the Spanish yoake from their necks in emulation of their Brethren of the Vnited Provinces There was but need then of a recruit which could not be compassed without sending a strong Fleet to convey men into Flanders And this was the Fleet which we quietly beheld beaten and scatterd Mean time what miserable shifts are these men at home put unto when they are glad to catch after such shadows thereby to bring an envy and hate upon their King The whole Charge of Tyrannicall Government made good upon Themselves 1. If it be exemption from Accompt which constitutes a Tyrannicall Government the two Houses cannot wash their hands of it by their owne Rules no men pretending to higher Priviledge therein no men seeking to fortifie themselves more against all possibility of being reckoned withall 2. If the Characters which Aristotle in the 4. of his Politicks chap. 10. assigneth and most other States-men unto Tyrannicall Rule be true the Parliament have out-done all Tyrants in all Ages The Badges are these First To acknowledge no Boundary of Law to their Actions besides their own will 2. To rule by violence over their Equals and Superiors 3. To regard mainly their owne private Vtility not the Publick Examine their Proceedings by these Marks and you shall find them sutable to a hairs breadth Is not much of this quarrell for the repeal of Lawes formerly established Doth not the King continually invite provoke them to this Touch-stone Nay what law that stood in their way have they not suspended or annulled Their whole Ecclesiasticall Government is besides nay against clear law Their Secular hath been altogether Arbitrary for what law warrants their Militia their dealing thus with His Majesty their Imprisonments Oppressions Extortions And what law had they for alienating the Bishops lands not only from the Bishops but from the whole Clergy for ever Lastly that I be not infinite what Law to cut off Canterbury's Head to murther Tomkins Challoner c. 2. How could they possibly maintaine their Power without an Army do they not trample and revel it over their Lords and Masters we will say nothing now of His Majesty their Soveraigne whom they insult upon Have not they set their feet upon the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdome ruin'd and undone them whereas themselves for a great part are of the basest among the people Among whom except what they can reckon their Places at a hundred cannot make one thousand pounds by the yeare 3. What have they done for the Publick Though it be a bold I feare it is a true Challenge John Lilburne makes which I am tempted once more to observe I here challenge them to shew me one deed they have done from the beginning of their Convention for the benefit of the people We are sure they have not been wanting to themselves All Places of profit are distributed among their Members Our monies to the summe of 3 or 400000l are put up in their bags Our Persons are at their devotion Their Priviledges are what they list The truth is All the evidences of tyranny against all the Kings of England untill this present age could not amount unto so much as the two Houses have bin guilty of within these very few years Nay it was impossible for all the Kings of England ever to attaine unto it so true a Prophet was even Master Hampden who when some expressed much Impatience at the want of a Parliament wished them to pray for a good one for nothing could undoe England but a Parliament The fourth Personall Charge That he hated Parliaments That he was a Hater of Parliaments they do back with these Proofs 1. That he never called any in twelve years 2. Prohibited all speech of any 3. Dissolved them at his pleasure 4. Searched the Closets and Pockets of the Members after Dissolution 5. Imprisoned others which prov'd the occasion of their death 6. Even in Parliament charged 5 of their Members 7. Offered them violence in his owne Person attended by a Train of Papists and others 8. Endevoured to over-awe them by bringing the Northern Army to London and that when he had declared against it 9. Called a Mock-Parliament at Oxford 10. Raised War against this Parliament which never King did against any but He. 11. Vpbraided his owne at Oxford with the Name of a Mungrell-Parliament The Improbability of this Charge 1. This cannot be easily admitted for a truth That the King should hate a Parliament if you consider 1. That he was an Advocate for them in his Fathers time and by his Endevour procured many good Laws for them in his days which was confessed in the Parliament as you may find in the Journall thereof 2. That to give them satisfaction he pressed his Father against his Resolution and Reason to begin a War with the House of Austria and obtained it though King James like a Prophet told him That it was not their Hate toward the House of Austria nor their Zeale to the Protestant Cause which moved them to put him upon that suit But a designe to bring him into a Noose that being in distresse by reason of it they might desert him and then make their Markets of the Crowne And he did particularly acquaint him with the steps and Gradations which they would proceed in first question and strip him of his Tonnage and Poundage then bind his hands from making other Provision for himself afterwards bring him upon his knees to them 3. Since his Reigne never any King called more Parliaments then He for so short a space notwithstanding those twelve years Intermission 4. All the Kings of England never offered more compliance or performed more Acts of Grace then He did 5. Lastly few Kings have testified a greater desire of correspondence with or of condescention to a Parliament then His Majesty hath done by this 1. In resigning up his faithfull Servants to be disposed of according to their will even against his Conscience 2. In offering them as it were a Blanke Jan. 20. 1640. which is to be seen in their own Book of Declarations 3. In giving up so many Bishops whose Votes for the most part were at his devotion to be expelled the House of Lords 4. Lastly In
the establishment of this Parliament by a Law during their owne Arbitrement 1. The Charge from the dis-use of Parliament for twelve years Answered To the first particular I answer 1. By way of Concession that Parliaments were under long dis-use But 2. that it might be out of some fore-sight and sense of this tumultuous Spirit in its secret workings of which the King might think by abstinence and diet to correct their Luxuriancy It argues no hate to a Parliament to desire it might contain it self in the bounds of its ancient moderation and so a fair correspondence be maintained between the Crowne and the People And this Judge Hutton in his Argument could not chuse but touch upon if you please to peruse him 3. Notwithstanding this reason for it His Majesty had made an acknowledgement hereof as of an Errour engaging himself to redresse it for the future Nay 4. did apply himself to that particular way which themselves proposed a Trienniall Parliament 5. Further yet when that gave not satisfaction by a law confirmed this present Parliament to the length of their own desires 2.3 That for Breaking up of Parliaments and forbidding all Speech thereof Answered 1. Herein His Majesty did no more then all his Predecessors Look upward and you will find it practised If it were against the words of a law yet usage makes the law of the Kingdome and supersedes the Letter Suppose it an Errour why should it be a Charge upon the King and never objected unto His Father Qu. Elizabeth Qu. Mary K. Edward K. Henry 8. and so upward 2. The King did never Dissolve any but upon their own distempers and for mutinous deportment and then it was providence to cure an evill in the beginning and crush a serpent in the shell 3. This very House of Commons doth at this time entertaine within their walls one Instrument of the dissolution of the last before this I mean Sir Henry Vane whose false suggestions were the occasion of the Kings Breaking it up If you have not heard the story then take here the plain truth of it The Parliament was willing to give the King a summe in consideration of Ship-money and an offer was made so the King would relinquish his title thereunto of six Subsidies His Majesty was willing to comply and in order thereunto gave Sir Hen. Vane and others a command to signifie so much unto the House But Sir Henry contrary to the directions demands and insists on Twelve Whereupon the House is put into some distemper which Sir Henry represents unto His Majesty with the utmost Aggravation and some Addition too whereupon His Majesty Dissolves it Searching of Pockets and afterwards Imprisoning Answered To this we give this accompt 1. That it was no Breach of Priviledge when the Parliament was dissolv'd The Elements are but of ordinary use extra rationem Sacramenti by that time they were reduced to their proper sphear and why may not the King upon reasons of State send to search the Pockets and Closets of any private man when he found the correspondence between his Kingdom and himself to be shaken who could blame him to search the cause of it to the bottome that he might prevent it for the future Though the King did imprison them it was in an Honourable way he made them such an Allowance that Master Long hath professed he spent the King 1500l there after which rate perhaps it might be of a Surfet that those died who are objected 3. Themselves never made dainty of it to imprison their own Members during their Session without any cause exprest in their Warrants and without any Allowance for their subsistance What was Commissary General Coply imprison'd for these six months Some say for nothing but telling what a clock it was at a Committee Others have been for as long a time and for as little reason The Kings charging of the 5 Members answered and retorted 1. This is true indeed that the King did charge or impeach so many of the House but then 2. His Majesty had some reason sure Whosoever reads the Articles and compares the Consequences will find them high enough and be convinced of their truth 3. If you consider the Kings proceedings thereupon his Retractation of his own way and error in the processe if it justled with any unknown Priviledge his desire of their direction and when nothing else would give Content his utter with-drawing of the Charge and if you reflect withall upon what other Princes have done what the Law gives out to wit There is no Protection for Treason you cannot chuse but admire his lenity 4. This is no more then they have suffered if not encouraged the Army their own Servants to doe unto double that number of their Houses and some of the same Members that had been charged by the King and this too upon lesse ground if any at all 5. I could tell them of Doct. Parry a Member of that House in Q. Elizab. time who was not onely charged but taken thence condemned at the Kings-bench for Treason against the Queens Person drawn and hanged before Westminster-Hall-gate at the very time the Members repaired to the House I could tell them of more then this but I passe it over The Kings going to the House answered and retorted 1. Though His Majesty went unto the House there was no assault made or intended by him as far as can appear without their Comment It had been a desperate attempt with so few to set upon so many and those backt by so great a power and had seru'd themselves so far into the affections of the City If any wild expression fell from the mouth of one or two of his retinue why were they not seized on and questioned 2. This hath been so often acknowledged for an Errour by him yet still objected by them that me-thinks they might blush at this mention of it 3. What did he doe therein which themselves had not been guilty of before it and much out-done since We remember the robustious Petition of the Porters and we know at what rates some of them were hired by what devices others were cheated thereinto it being told them it was a Petition that Water-men should be prohibited to carry Burdens The Poasting of Names exposing the Members of different judgment to the fury of the madding Multitude was a kind of Force sure So were the Shoals of Citizens who came upon their Invitation and encouragement to cry for Justice If those were not we are certaine the Reformado's were for many of them smelt ill then and Horrour was seen in the faces of most which the Army taxeth some Members withall And the Petitions Remonstrances Declarations Advance of this Army with their Interposition since are a violence beyond dispute Bringing the Army to London answered and retorted 1. None of those Examinations which we have read over all of them doe hold out clearly that the King did intend to bring them up to London
Subject or be appropriated to one man or more as Charters Priviledges to Cities to Townes Corporate to Corporations Companies of Trade Custome-house-officers the Registers-office in Chancery now enjoyed by Mr. Miles Corbet and Goodwin two Members the Clerks of the Parliament and many such like which were unquestionably used to be granted by the Kings of this Land in order to the governing and well-being thereof But those onely which are notoriously evil before or discovered to be so after and are not for the manner of granting them but for the matter accounted invalid And therefore many great things of high Concernment to the Common-wealth have justly merited and to this day do enjoy the warrant of Law and Authority which were never confirmed by Act of Parliament whilst others of lesse moment have troubled all the three Estates for an Act of Parliamnet as Hunting the Hare Paving of certaine Streets in London c. Now we Answer 1. That these were suggested by Citizens or men skilfull in those wayes and Advantages which might accrew to the respective Trades or Manufactures and so redound to the benefit of the Kingdome 2. That His Majesty did alwayes make reference of these to his Counsell and to others learned in the Law as his Attorney Sollicitor general and Masters of Requests as divers yet alive can testifie and Judge Jenkins hath testified to the view of all the world that they might examine the justice of them and their proportion to the established Laws and that His Majesty hath often given strict charge of great Caution even unto them in their determinations by which meanes multitudes of Monopolies which were by Citizens and others daily represented and pressed on were rejected and the Authors received a Check 3. That even those Grants wherein there was no discoverable Inconvenience but much benefit pretended to the Kingdome were for the most part made but Probationers by him whereas either in the Patent it self there was limitation expressed and a Proviso for their revocation if they appeared contrary to Law or of damage to the Kingdome or there was a Bond entred into by the Parties entrusted unto that purpose 4. That upon any complaint made against them he caused it to be heard sometimes did it Personally at the Councell-Table where the Lord Keeper and the rest of the Judges of his Privy Councell assisted him and about the beginning of the year 1640. when he found the Complaints to multiply against them instead of hearing the Patentees he disanulled their Patents by Proclamation 5. That divers of them are continued untill this day as the Post-office upon Mr. Prideaux of the House The Lord of Warwick The Merchant Adventurers The Greenland trade and many more 6. That this was done in all Kings Reignes and Errours of this nature have been committed from Ed. 4 Hen. 6. to Queen Elizabeths time when they multiplied to a great excesse and King James and they may be pardoned a Prince as well as the Inconveniencies of sundry Acts of Parliament which have been afterward found a Grievance and so repealed the three Estates 7. That many of those who either sit in the Houses or are in great Offices of trust about them and are their Favourites were the Contrivers and Instruments hereof yet were never under question as Sir John Evelin who had the first Monopoly of Powder Sir H. Vane sen who wip'd him of it and settled it upon his own servant when it was the greatest grievance Sir John Trevor who perswaded the King to the Imposition upon Coales Mr. Saint Johns and Cromwell who represented and drove on the Draining of the Fennes the Earle of Holland Mildmay Alderman Woollaston who managed the Monopoly of Gold-and-Silver thread Smith once Secretary to the Earle of Northumberland now in a great Office I must omit Mr. Whitaker Alderman Gibbs Mr. Ralph Farmer Sollicitour for Sequestrations in London Mr. Reading the Lord Majors Passe-maker Mr. Jackson Solliciter for Sequestrations in Westminster and multitudes of others to whom they have offered signall favours since that time never questioning any of them for their Patents or Monopolies Ship-money Answered 1. This was first suggested by Mr. Noy for Law who had few equals in the knowledge thereof 2. Examined and approved by the Lord Keeper Coventry a man of great learning 3. Subscribed by all the Judges of England 4. When it was questioned by Mr. Hamden a free debate was allowed before all the Judges who give Judgement upon Oath and the Businesse disputed Seriatim for many dayes together and at last determined for the King In which debate by the way His Majesty suffered the great Arcanum of Government His High-Prerogative to be banded by their Lawyers at a Bar which these men would never permit to be done by their Priviledges though they do Petition for them in the beginning of every Parliament What fairer course could have been taken What better confirmation could the best Right any man hath to his land of Inheritance have then this 5. If themselves had not been convinced of the justice of the sentence why did they once offer six Subsidies to purchase the abolishment of it Why did they not punish those Judges which we find they have been ready to advance as particularly Trevor who hath nor Law nor Learning whom they have sent at this time upon the Circuit Judge Bramstone whom they proposed unto His Majesty for Chiefe Justice nay and Bankes who was a great Instrument therein yet one they pitched upon for a place of Eminent employment in their first Propositions c. 6. Lastly the King condescended to abolish this Ship-money by an Act of Parliament and why should this be conjur'd up against him This Charge of Oppression upon our Estates by His Ministers and Officers retorted If these were Oppressions O what have we suffered since by those who would make us beleeve they are our Saviours I dare confidently aver and can fully prove it That neither Daneguelt Taxes Loanes Privy-Seals Ship-money c. Nor all the Impositions and grievous Burdens laid upon the Subjects by all the Kings since the Conquest and equalize that Masse of Treasure which themselves have either in their own persons and to their use or by their Instruments under pretence of the publike service squeez'd out of the Subjects of this Kingdome within these five or six years and that for to make good their bound lesse Priviledges to establish them eternally in their Tyrannous usurpation and to make our selves with our Posterity vassals for ever unto their vaine and shuttle Humours In particular to take the blame upon our selves of what we willingly parted withall and what by their Cheates were smoothly invited out of our Purses Have they not constrained us under the notion of Loanes and voluntary Contributions to give the twentieth and fift parts of our Estates unto them at other times 60000. l. 100000. l. 50. Subsidies c. which we should much rather have kept but that the rest
pretended 2. The Time when when the Scots were hardly setled upon their lees againe and the Parliament of England high flowne already and advanced in their Contestation 3. Their Preparatives to Rebellion by invading new Priviledges as to determine in Cases Capitall and Criminal Charging of Publike Officers banding against Greivances c. and an Itch also to have procured a longer if not a Perpetual Parliament if Possible which is evident in Sir John Temples relation under the Authority whereof it is probable they designed to act afterwards rather then of a Supreame Councell which was done here even to the joynt prosecution of some particular Officers as the Earle of Strafford c. 4. Their Proceedings first to sequester and seize the Goods of those whom they declared Enemies to the State 5. The persons on whom they wreak'd their Malice most Clergy-men and Officers of State 6. The Copy they writ by or at least pretended to write by namely the Scots 7. The backwardnesse of our Parliament to send any reliefe thither which was evidenced by their disputes and Punctilio's with the King and indeed their denials to assist without his perfect resignation of himselfe to them seizing money to the summe of 100000. l. to their owne use though indeed they have paid it since out of the Kingdomes purse upon the Clamour of the people and notice given of it by the King imploying such forces as were raised under that notion here in England against His Majesty Particularly the Regiment of Colonell Bamfield of Chidley and others suspending the Journey of the Earle of Leicester first then of the Lord Lisle thither a man of their owne Election untill his Commission was almost expir'd Pretending to send over succours since but letting them lie upon the Countries untill they become intolerable and then disbanding them as super-numeraries The Miseries they expose their owne Army there to of which they were soundly told by Captaine Cope lately who charged them in the very House with the death of Thousands with the Ruine of more and with streames of Blood which cry'd for vengeance against them in that place To all which if you adde 8. The fierce prosecution of Strafford whose continuance in that place and strict discipline would have prevented that Insurrection or crushed it in the shell 9. Their withstanding the sending of that Army out of the Kingdome which had discharged it of so many instruments of rebellion 10. The Profession of divers of their Confidents especially in the Army That they cannot fight against the Irish with a good Conscience That their quarrel is but to enjoy their Religion and Liberty And 11. a speech which was uttered before this Rupture by a true friend of theirs at Manidowne in Hamp-shire when the Scots first came into England What if this Kingdome should rise for their Property and Liberty and Ireland take that Advantage what will he be King of then a shrewd speech though I beleeve the man had no fore-sight of this Combustion with many other Circumstances One would verily believe the Bustles in England and the Rebellion in Ireland were like Castor and Pollux ovo prognatus eodem hatch'd by a Common-Councell of Parliament Irish and that they were mutually engaged to promote each others Interest But we must be ingenuous and allow them better measure then any they have yet allowed unto their Soveraigne All we aime at is but to open to the world that there may be full as much or rather a great deale more charged on themselves as to that Businesse then upon His Majesty The Charge of Rochel We are now in sight of the shoare and shall conclude with the businesse of Rochel which Towne they say they can fully shew was betraied by the King and so was there a fatall Blow given to the Protestant Cause in France They tell us how he lent divers of the Navy and Merchants ships to the King of France to be imployed against those whom he was engaged to assist And when some Commanders disputed his Commands he gave order to Sir John Penington to put them into the service of that King or else to sinke them That Answered 1. Herein they impose a blinde beleife upon us we have little reason to take their bare word as we hinted before whose Interest is to deceive us and who have done it so oft We never yet could discover in them any such Tendernesse either in blasting the Kings Honour or in covering their owne shame as to conceale any thing which was to their owne Advantage or his disgrace 2. How could his Maj. betray those whom he had never taken into Protection as at that time he had not done by them Are they themselves treacherous too or have they betraied the Hollanders against whom they sent divers of the Kings Souldiers taken at Naseby to be imployed in the Spanish service 3. Though it be acknowledged that there were ships lent unto the King of France yet it was not to that purpose to employ them against the Protestants and the King of England was a stranger to the designe of the King of France therein Q. Elizabeth when that very Towne of Rochel was beseiged by the King of France and some of his Subjects with the Duke of Montgomery had releived it disclaimed the Act called them who did it Pirates professed she would not protect nor afford them any supply Camb. Eliz. 4. King James in his life time had in effect promised assistance unto the French King against any of his Subjects whatsoever were their Religion or their pretence 5. The same thing was done by the States of Holland at the same time who lent unto the King of France twenty saile of ships whereas ours were but seven under the Command of Hauthain their Admiral who did in the same manner demur at the Imployment being charm'd by some pittifull Letters from Rochel untill the Rochellers treacherously and unawares surpris'd and burnt his Vice-Admiral which rouz'd him up in good earnest and made him not onely set upon but wholly discomfit them by the helpe of our and other ships Now it is very improbable the Hollanders would have conspir'd against the Cause of Religion and their owne Church-discipline which the French held forth if there had not been some other just cause of that War 6. We might very well be tender in undertaking the Protection of those Protestants for it is not quite forgotten how Queen Elizabeth sent over a considerable Army to their Assistance and that upon Articles between them which Army of hers was set upon and beseiged by those very men whom they were come to defend and expuls'd out of that Kingdome and out of New-haven by the help of the Protestants who by meanes of their succours had gotten the better Composition with their own King as you may read in Mr. Cambden and others Anno 1563. 7. The King did what was possible toward their releife when he had the advantage of Hostility
against the King of France which he could not otherwise have done with any Colour either of Justice or Policy by sending an Army to the Isle of Ree by sending two several Fleets to their reliefe If all succeeded not that ought not to be laid in his dish For the Meanes onely are in mans power God keeping events and Successes in his owne The Horse is prepared against the day of Battell but safety is from the Lord. It is very certaine he did his utmost endeavour I know those who will testifie he gave the most earnest Injunction possible for their Reliefe though it should prove to the endangering of his whole Fleet. And it is observable The grudge hereof hath not yet been forgotten by the Crowne of France which in a slye Revenge hath probably helped to raise this Devill of Intestine War in our Nation and denied all considerable Supplies to the King of England in these daies of his distresse yea though a Daughter of the Crowne and her numerous Issue be involved in the same Calamity 8. But to give you the best last The truth Ground of the whole Businesse will be made very cleare and beyond all scruple by this following Narrative which I have delivered from honest and understanding States-men The Palatinate being wrested from the Palsgrave The Protestants in Germany almost ruinated Our King unable at that time by his own strength to relieve them there was a League proposed and agitated between the Crowns of France England Denmark the States of Holland and Venice against the House of Austria and this in good measure was brought toward perfection especially by the managery of the Duke of Buckingham The wise Cardinall of France making advantage of those Traverses and taking Time by the fore-top deals with the Duke for supply of these above-mentioned Ships The Duke being Admiral and presuming high upon his Masters allowance commands the Ld. Conway then Secretary of State to write to Penington his Vice-Admirall to put the Ships under the French service and Seales this Letter with the Signet But Penington refusing to do it upon such Authority the Duke himself as Admirall seconds the first Letter with his Command which being likewise disputed a Letter was sent with the Kings Name subscribed and signed with the Privy-signet yet without His Majesties knowledge which was no difficulty considering the Signet is usually kept by the Secretary and that many Blanks are usually and must of necessity be left in trust with great Officers especially so great as the Duke then was Nay I have been informed that the King being at Woodstock when the Newes hereof was first imparted to him and that by Sir John Penington himself was in a great rage at it and not without some difficulty reconciled unto the Duke about it Is it now a rationall and just Inference to lay the Miscarriage of Rochel upon His Majesties score Have they so much Compassion toward Strangers and so little Justice toward their own rightful Soveraign Are they so deeply affected with the wounds given to the Protestant Religion through the sides of Rochel Would God they themselves did not stab it ten times more desperately by these their un-Protestant un-Christian unparalell'd Proceedings to the dishonour of God the Grief and Anguish of every good Soule the Joy and unspeakable Advantage of our common Adversary of Rome Hoc Ithacus velit magno lucrentur Atridae The Settlement which they intend and the Conclusion ANd thus have we examined the truth of their Declaration against His Majesty before we conclude It will be worth while to examine a little the truth of what they declare for Themselves We shall use our utmost endevour to settle the present Government as it may stand with the Peace and Happiness of the Kingdom I ask How can they settle the Peace of the Kingdome without a King If their Hornes should prove as long as themselves are curst and God permit them to fill up the measure of their Iniquities by the accession of the Murder of this King which we do even tremble to mention yet have some reason to believe they do designe One of their Members having professed as much and offered himself a Felton for that fact yet never so much as question'd And one Hall being a Suitor for the Command of a Ship in their Navy unto their Committee of Admiralty was accused for having said The Parliament were foolish that they had not hired somebody to kill the King whilst he was in the hands of the Scots It was thereupon replied by Sir A. Haslerigg Have you no more against him let him go to chuse We must have such men as will be faithfull against him and since that they gave him the Command of a very good Ship Allow I say they should be able to compasse this How will they trust the Children of a Father in whose bloud they have imbrued their hands And how will they be able to alienate the Crowne from that Royall Line which so many Millions of this Nation and the best for Estate the ablest for Judgment wil sacrifice their dearest Bloud for being obliged thereunto by many both Sacred and Civil Bonds which is incorporated into so many Kingdoms and States abroad Scotland Denmark France Holland c. But grant they may arrive at this Impossibility What Peace or Settlement therein can this Kingdome expect from their hands who have used us or rather abused us thus whiles as yet they stood but upon their Good Behaviour while they were no more then Probationers or Candidates of Soveraignty Our Peace must be to lie down quietly under their Pawes while they like Harpyes do snatch away the meat out of our Mouths like Vultures feed upon our live bodies whilst as a wise man said such Statists use to do they tosse our heads our very lives like Tenis-balls to make them sport withall Our Settlement is like to be firm indeed which must depend upon their Ordinances a Lawyer of their own at an Assize could handsomely call it Jus Vagum Incognitum one of them justling the other daily out of fashion according as the vane of their Humour sits In a word It is impossible there should be either Peace or Settlement whilst His Majesty is a Prisoner till there be mutuall Condescendencies and Provision made for all considerable Interests on foot which His Majesty hath gratiously offered and by a Personall Treaty managed with due Christian temper on all hands may through Gods blessing be yet accomplished The End