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A29558
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The Lord Digby his last speech against the Earle of Strafford occasioned upon the reading the bill of attainder touching the point of treason.; Last speech against the Earle of Strafford
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Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing B4767; ESTC R7473
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4,552
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23
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THE LORD DIGBY His last Speech against the Earle of Strafford Occasioned upon the reading the Bill of Attainder touching the point of Treason Printed Anno 1641. The Lord Digby's last speech against the Earle of Strafford occasioned upon the reading the Bill of Attainder touching the point of Treason Master Speaker WEe are now upon the point of giving as much as in us lyes the finall sentence unto death or life on a great Minister of State and Peere of this Kingdome Thomas Earle of Strafford A name of hatred in the present ages by his practices and fit to be made a terrour to future ages by his punishment I have had the honour to be employed by the House in this great busines from the first houre that it was taken into consideration it was a matter of great trust and I will say with confidence that I have served the House in it with industry according to my ability with most exact faithfulnesse and secrecie And as I have hitherto discharged my duty to this House and to my Country in the progresse of this great cause so I trust I shall do now in the last period of it to God and to a good conscience I doe with the peace of that unto my selfe and the blessings of Almighty God to me and my posterity according as my judgment on the life of this man shall be consonant with my heart and the best of my understanding in all integritie I know well Master Speaker That by some things I have said of late whilst this Bill was in agitation I have raised some prejudices upon me in the cause Yea some I thank them for their plain dealing have been so free as to tell mee That I suffered much by the backwardnesse I have shewn in this Bill of Attainder of the E. of Strafford against whom I had been formerly so â—een so active Master Speaker I beg of you and the rest but a suspension of judgments concerning mee till I have opened my heart unto you freely and cleerly in this businesse Truly Sir I am still the same in my opinions and affections unto the Earle of Strafford as that I confidently believe him the most dangerous Minister the most insupportable to free subjects that can be caractered I believe his practizes in themselves as high as Tyrannicall as any subject ever ventred on and the malignity of them hugely aggravated by those rare abilities of his where of God hath given him the use and the Devill the application in a word I believe him still that grand Apostate to the Common-wealth who must not expect to be pardon'd it in this world till he be dispatched to the other and yet let mee tell you Master Speaker My hand must not be to that dispatch I protest as my conscience stands informed I had rather it were off Let mee unfold unto you the Mystery Master Speaker I will not dwell much upon justifying unto you my seeming variance at this time from what I appeared formerly by putting you in minde of the difference betweene Prosecutors and Iudges how misbecomming that fervour would be in a Iudge which perhaps was commendable as a Prosecutor Iudges we are now and must put on another personage It is honest and noble to be earnest in order to the discovery of Truth but when that hath bin brought as farre as it can to light our judgment thereupon ought to be calme and cautious In Prosecution upon probable grounds we are accountable onely for our Industry or Remisnesse but in Iudgment wee are deeply responsible to God Almighty for its rectitude or obliquity In Cases of Life the Iudge is Gods steward of the parties bloud and must give a strict account for every drop But as I told you Master Speaker I will not insist long upon this ground of difference in me now from what I was formerly The truth on 't is sir The same ground whereupon I with the rest of the five to whom you first committed the consideration of my Lord of Strafford brought down our opinion That it was fit hee should bee accused of Treason upon the same ground I was engaged with earnestnesse in his prosecution and had the same ground remayned in that force of beliefe with me which till very lately it did I should not have bin tender in his Condemnation but truly sir to deale plainly with you That ground of our accusation that spur to our prosecution and that which should be the Basis of my judgment of the Earle of Strafford as unto Treason is to my understanding quite vanished away This it was Master Speaker His advising the King to employ the Army of Ireland to reduce England This I was assured would be proved before I gave my consent to his accusation I was still confirmed in the same belief during the prosecution and fortified in it most of all since Sir Henry Vains preparatory examinations by the assurances which that worthy member M. Pimme gave me That his testimony would be made convincing by some notes of what passed at the juncto concurrent with it which I ever understanding to be of some other Counsellour you see now prove but a copy of the same Secretaries notes discovered and produced in the manner you have heard and those such disioynted fragments of the venemous part of discourses no results no conclusions of Counsels which are the onely things that Secretaries of State should register there being no use at all of the other but to accuse and to bring men into danger But Sir This is not that which overthrows the Evidence with me concerning the Army of Ireland nor yet all the rest of the juncto upon their oaths remember any thing of it But this Sir which I shall tell you is that which works with me under favour to an utter overthrow of his Evidence as unto that of the Army of Ireland before whilst I was a Prosecutor and under tye of secrecie I might not discover any weaknesse of the cause which now as a Iudge I must Master Secretary was examined thrice upon oath at the preparatory CoÌ„mittee The first time hee was questioned to all the Interrogatories and to that part of the seventh which concerns the Army of Ireland he saith positively in these words I cannot charge him with that but for the rest he desires time to recollect himselfe which was granted him Some days after the precise time I cannot say he was examined a second time and then deposés these words concerning the Kings being absolved from rules of Government and so forth very cleerly but being prest to that part concerning the Irish Armie again can say nothing to that Here we thought wee had done with him till divers weeks after my Lord of Northumberland and all others of the Iuncto denying to have heard any thing concerning those words of reducing England by the Irish Armie It was thought fit to examine the Secretarie once more and then he deposed these words to have
bin said by the Earle of Strafford to his Majesty You have an Armie in Ireland which you may employ here to reduce or some words to that sence this Kingdome Master Speaker these are the circumstances which I confesse with my conscience thrust quite out of doores that grand Article of our charge concerning his desperate advice to the King of employing the Irish Army here Let not this I beseech you be driven to an aspersion upon Master Secretarie as if hee should have sworne otherwise then he knew or believed hee is too worthy to doe that onely let thus much be inferred from it that he who twice upon oath with time of recollection could not remember any thing of such a businesse might well a third time misremember somewhat and in this businesse the difference of one Letter here for there or that for this quite alters the case the latter also being more probable since it is confessed of all hands that the debate then was concerning a war with Scotland and you may remember that at the Bar hee once said to employ there and thus Master Speaker I have faithfully given you an account what it is that hath blunted the edge of the hatchet or bill with mee towards my Lord of Strafford This was that whereupon I accused him with a free heart prosecuted him with earnestnesse and had it to my understanding bin proved should have condemned him with innocence Wherein now I professe I cannot satisfie my conscience to doe it I professe I can have no Notion of my Lords intent to subvert the Laws treasonably by force and this designe of force not appearing all his other wicked practices cannot amount so high with me I can find a more easie and more naturall spring from whence to derive all his other crimes then from an intent to bring in tyranny and to make his own posterity aswell as us slaves as from Revenge from Pride from Avarice from Passion and insolence of Nature But had this of the Irish Army bin proved it would have diffused a complexion of Treason over all it would have beene a Weith indeed to binde all those other scattered and lesser branches as it were into a faggot of Treason I doe not say but the rest may represent him a man as worthy to die and worthier perhaps then many a Traitour I doe not say but they may justly direct us to enact that the like shall be Treason for the future but God keep me from giving judgment of death on any man and of ruine to his innocent posteritie upon a Law made à posteriore Let the mark be set on the door where the Plague is and then let him that will enter die I know Master Speaker there is in Parliament a double power of Life and Death by Bill a judiciall power and a Legislative the measure of the one is what 's Legally just of the other what 's Prudentially and Politickly fit for the good and preservation of the whole But these two under favour are not to be confounded in judgment we must not proceed upon want of Legalitie with matter of conveniencie nor the defailance of Prudentiall fitnesse with a pretence of Legall justice To condemne my Lord of Strafford judicially as for Treason my Conscience is not assured that the matter will beare it And to do it by the Legislative power my Reason consultively cannot agree to that since I am perswaded neither the Lords nor the King will passe the Bill and consequently that our passing it will be a cause of great divisions and combustions in the State And therefore my humble advice is That laying aside this Bill of Attainder we may think of another saving onely Life such as may secure the State from my Lord of Strafford without indangering it as much by division concerning his punishment as he hath endangered it by his practizes If this may not be hearkned unto let me conclude in saying that unto you all which I have thoroughly incultated to my own conscience upon this occasion Let every man lay his hand upon his heart and sadly consider what wee are going to doe with a breath either Iustice or Murther Iustice on the one side or Murther heigthned and aggravated to its supremist extent For as the Caâ—â—ists say That he who lies with his sister commits incest but hee that marries his sister sins higher by applying Gods ordinance to his crime So doubtlesse he that commits Murther with the sword of Iustice heightens that crime to the utmost The danger being so great the case so doubtfull that I see the best Lawyers in Diametrall opposition concerning it Let everyman wipe his heart as hee does his eyes when he would judge of a nice and subtle object the Eye if it be pretainted with any colour is vitiated in its discerning Let us take heed of a blood shoâ—tâ—… Eye of judgment Let every man purge his heart cleere of all passions I know this great and wise body politike can have none but I speake to Individuals from the weaknesse which I find in my selfe Away with all personall animosities Away with all flatteries to the people in being the sharper against him because he is odious to them away with all feares lest by the sparing his blood they may be incenst away with all such considerations as that it is not fit for a Parliament that one accused by it of Treason should scape with life Let not the former vehemencie of any against him no feare from thence that his cannot be safe while that man lives to be an ingredient in the sentence of any one of us Of all these corruptives of judgement Master Speaker I doe before God discharge my selfe to the utmost of my power and with a cleer conscience wash my hands of this mans blood by this solemne protestation That my vote goes not to the taking of the Earle of Straffords life FINIS