were needfull but I think I need not I was arbitrary in Power having the Armies in the three Nations under my command and truly not very ill beloved by them nor very ill beloved then by the people by the good People and I beleive I should have bin more beloved if they had known the truth as things were before God and in themselves and before divers of these Gentlemen whom I but now mentioned unto you I did at the intreaty of divers persons of honor and quality at the intreaty of very many of the chief Officers of the Army then present and at their request I did accept of the place and title of Protector and was in the presence of the Commissioners of the Seal the Judges the Lord Major and Aldermen of the City of London the Souldierie divers Gentlemen Citizens and divers other people and persons of quality c. accompanied to Westminster-Hall where I took my oath to this Government This was not done in a corner it was open and publick This Government hath bin exercised by a Councell with a desire to be faithfull in all things and amongst all other trusts to be faithfull in calling this Parliament And thus I have given you a very bare and leane discourse which truly I have bin necessitated unto and contracted in because of the unexpectednesse of the occasion and because I would not quite wearie you nor my self But this is a Narrative that discovers to you the Series of Providence and of Transactions leading me into this Condition wherein I now stand The next thing I promised you wherein I hope I shall not be so long though I am sure this occasion does require plainenesse and freedom is That as I brought not my self into this Condition as in my own apprehension I did not and that I did not the things being true which I have told you I submit it to your Judgements and there shall I leave it let God do what he pleaseth The other things I say that I am to speak to you of is That I have not nor do not bear witnesse to my self I am far from alluding to him that said so yet truth concerning a member of his hee will own though men do not But I think if I mistake not I have a cloud of witnesses I think so let men be as froward as they will I have witnesse within without and above But I shall speak of them that are without having fully spoken before of the witnesse Above and the witness in my own conscience upon the other Account because that subject had more obscurity in it and I in some sort needed appeales and I trust might lawfully make them as well as take an oath where things were not so apt to be made evident I shall enumerate my witnesses as well as I can VVhen I had consented to accept of the Government there was some solemnity to be performed and that was accompanied with some persons of considerablenesse in all respects who were the persons before expressed who accompanied me at the time of my entring upon this Government to VVestminster-Hall to take my oath There was an explicite consent of Interessed persons and an implicite consent of many shewing their good liking and approbation thereof And Gentlemen I do not think that you are altogether strangers to it in your Country some did not nauseate it very many did approve it I had the approbation of the Officers of the Army in the three Nations of England Scotland and Ireland I say of the Officers I had that by their Remonstrances and under signature There was went along with that explicite consent an implicite consent of persons that had somewhat to do in the World that had been instrumentall by God to fight down the enemies of God and his people in the three Nations And truly until my hands were bound and I limited wherein I took full contentment as many can bear me witness when I had in my hands so great a power and Arbitrariness the Souldierie were a very considerable part of the Nations especially all Government being dissolved I say when all Government was thus dissolved and nothing to keep things in order but the Sword and yet they which many histories will not parallell even they were desirous that things might come to a Consistencie and Arbitrarines might be taken away and the Government put into a person limited and bounded as in the Act of Settlement whom they destrusted the least and loved not the worst this was another evidence I would not forget the honourable and civill entertainment with the approbation I found in the great City of London which the City knowes whether I directly or indirectly sought And truly I do not think it is folly to remember this For it was very great and high and very publick and as numerous a Body of those that are known by names and titles the severall corporations and societies of Citizens in this City as hath been at any time seen in England and not without some appearance of satisfaction also I had not onely this witnesse but I have had from the greatest County in England and from many Cities and Boroughs and many Counties explicit Approbations not of those gathered here and there but from the County of York and City of York and other Counties and places Assembled in their publike and generall Assizes the Grand-Jury in the name of the Noble men Gentlemen Yeomen and inhabitants of that County giving very great thanks to me for undertaking this heavy Burthen at such a time and giving very great Approbation and incouragement to me to go through with it These are plain I have them to shew And by these in some measure it will appear I do not bear witnesse to my self This is not all the Judges and truly I had almost forgotten it they thinking that there was a dissolution of Government met and consulted and did declare one to another that they could not administer Justice to the satisfaction of their consciences untill they had received Commissions from me And they did receive commissions from me And by vertue of those Commissions they have acted And all the Justices of the Peace that have acted have acted by vertue of like Commissions which was a little more then an implicit Approbation And I beleeve all the Justice administred in the Nation hath been by this Authority which also I lay before you desiring you to think whether all these Persons before mentioned must not come before you for an Act of Oblivion and Generall Pardon who have acted under and testified to this Go.vernment if it be disowned by you I have two or three witnesses more equivalent to all these I have reckoned if I be not mistaken and greatly mistaken If I should say all you that are here are my witnesses Ishould say no untruth I know you are the same persons here that you were in the Country But I will reserve to speak to this at the
HIS HIGHNESSE THE LORD PROTECTOR'S SPEECH TO THE Parliament IN THE PAINTED CHAMBER On Tuesday the 12th of September 1654. Taken by one who stood very near him and Published to prevent mistakes LONDON Printed by T. R. and E. M. for G. Sawbridge at the Bible on Ludgate-hill 1654. HIS Highnesse THE LORD PROTECTOR'S SPEECH TO THE PARLIAMENT IN THE Painted Chamber on Tuesday the 12th of September 1654. Gentlemen IT is not long since I met you in this place upon an occasion which gave me much more content and comfort then this doth That which I have to say to you now will need no Preamble to let me in to my Discourse For the occasion of this Meeting is plain enough I could have wished with all my heart there had been no cause for it At that Meeting I did acquaint you what the first Rise was of this Government which hath call'd you hither and in the Authority of which you came hither Among other things that I told you of then I said you were a free Parliament And so you are whilst you own the Government and Authority that call'd you hither For certainly that word implyed a Reciprocation or it implyed nothing at all Indeed there was a Reciprocation implied and expressed and I think your actions and carriages ought to be suitable But I see it will be necessary for me now a little to magnifie my Office which I have not been apt to do I have been of this minde I have been alwayes of this minde since first I entered upon it That if God will not beare it up let it sink But if a Duty be incumbent upon me to beare my Testimony unto it which in modesty I have hitherto sorborn I am in some measure now necessitated thereunto And therefore that will be the Prologue to my Discourse I call'd not my self to this place I say again I call'd not my selfe to this place of that God is Witnesse And I have many Witnesses who I do beleeve could readily lay down their lives to beare Witnesse to the truth of that that is to say That I call'd not my self to this place And being in it I beare not witnesse to my self But God and the people of these Nations have borne Testimony to it also If my calling be from God and my Testimony from the People God and the People shall take it from me else I will not part with it I should be salfe to the Trust that God hath plac'd upon me and to the Interest of the People of these Nations if I should That I call'd not my self to this place is my first Assertion That I bear not witnesse to my self but have many Witnesses is my second These are the two things I shall take the liberty to speak more fully to you of To make plain and clear that which I have said I must take liberty to look back I was by birth a Gentleman living neither in any considerable height nor yet in obscurity I have been call'd to several imployments in the Nation To serve in Parliaments And because I would not be over tedious I did endeavour to discharge the duty of an honest man in those services to God and his peoples interest and of the Common-Wealth having when time was a competent acceptation in the hearts of men and some evidences thereof I resolve not to recite the Times and Occasions and Opportunities that have been appointed me by God to serve him in nor the presence and blessings of God bearing then Testimony to me I having had some occasions to see together with my Brethren and Countrey-men a happy period put to our sharp Warres and Contests with the then common enemy hoped in a private capacity to have reaped the fruit and benefit together with my Brethren of our hard labours and hazards to wit the enjoyment of Peace and Liberty and the Priviledges of a Christian and of a man in some equality with others according as it should please the Lord to dispence unto me And when I say God had put an end to our Wars at least brought them to a very hopeful issue very near an end after Worcester Fight I came up to London to pay my service and duty to the Parliament that then sate and hoping that all mindes would have been disposed to answer that which seemed to be the minde of God viz. to give Peace and Rest to his People and especially to those who had bled more then others in the carrying on of the military Affaires I was much disappointed of my expectation For the issue did not prove so what ever may be boasted or mis-represented it was not so not so I can say in the simplicity of my soul I love not I love not I declined it in my former speech I say I love not to rake into sores or to discover nakednesses That which I drive at is this I say to you I hoped to have had leave to have retired to a private life I begg'd to be dismissed of my Charge I begg'd it again and again And God be Judge between me and all men if I lie in this matter That I lie not in matter of fact is known to very mans but whether I tell a lie in my heart as labouring to represent to you that which was not upon my heart I say the Lord be Judge let uncharitable men that measure others by themselves judge as they please As to the matter of fact I say it is true As to the ingenuity and integrity of my heart in that desire I do appeale as before upon the truth of that also But I could not obtaine what my soul longed for And the plain truth is I did afterwards apprehend That some did think my judgement not suiting with theirs that it could not well be But this I say to you was between God and my soul between me and that Assembly I confesse I am in some strait to say what I could say and what is true of what then followed I pressed the Parliament as a Member to period themselves once and again and again and ten and twenty times over I told them for I knew it better then any one man in the Parliament could know it because of my maner of life which was to run up and down the Nation and so might see and know the temper and spirits of all men the best of men that the Nation loathed their sitting I knew it And so farre as I could discerne when they were dissolved there was not so much as the barking of a dog or any general and visible repining at it You are not a few here present that can assert this as well as my self And that there was high cause for their Dissolving is most evident not onely in regard there was a just fear of the Parliaments perpetuating themselves but because it was their designe And had not their heeles been trod upon by importunities from abroad even to threats I believe there would
never have been thoughts of Rising or of going out of that Roome to the worlds end I my selfe was founded and by no mean persons tempted and addresses were made to me to that very end that it might have been thus perpetuated That the vacant places might be supplied by new Elections and so continue from Generation to Generation I have declined I have declined very much to open these things to you yet having proceeded thus farre I must tell you that poor men under this Arbitrary Power were driven like flocks of sheep by fourty in a morning to the Confiscation of Goods and Estates without any man being able to give a reason that two of them had deserved to forfeit a shilling I tell you the truth and my soul and many persons whose faces I see in this place were exceedingly grieved at these things and knew not which way to help it but by their mournings and giving their negatives when occasions served I have given you but a taste of miscarriages I am confident you have had opportunities to hear much more of them for nothing is more obvious It 's true this will be said That there was a remedy to put an end to this perpetual Parliament endeavoured by having a future Representative How it was gotten and by what importunities that was obtained and how unwillingly yielded unto is well known What was this remedy It was a seeming willingnesse to have successive Parliaments What was that Succession it was that when one Parliament had left their Seat another was to sit down immediately in the roome thereof without any Caution to avoid that which was the danger viz. Perpetuating of the same Parliaments which is a sore now that will ever be running so long as men are ambitious and troublesome if a due remedy be not found So then What was the businesse It was a Conversion from a Parliament that should have been and was perpetuall to a Legislative Power always sitting so the Liberties and Interests and Lives of People not judged by any certain known Lawes and Power but by an Arbitrary Power which is incident and necessary to Parliaments by an Arbitrary Power I say to make mens estates liable to confiscation and their persons to imprisonments sometimes by Lawes made after the fact committed often by taking the judgement both in capital and criminal things to themselves who in former times were not known to exercise such a Judicature This I suppose was the case and in my opinion the remedy was fitted to the disease especially coming in the Reare of a Parliament so exercising the Power and Authority as this had done but immediately before Truly I consesse upon these grounds and with the satisfaction of divers other Persons seeing nothing could be had otherwise that Parliament was dissolv'd we desiring to see if a few might have been call'd together for some short time who might put the Nation into some way of certain settlement did call those Gentlemen out of the several parts of the Nation for that purpose And as I have appealed to God before you already I know and I hope I may say it though it be a tender thing to make appeals to God yet in such exigencies as these I trust it will not offend his Majesty especially to make them before Persons that know God and know what Conscience is and what it is to lie before the Lord I say that as a principal end in calling that Assembly was the settlement of the Nation so a chief end to my selfe was That I might have opportunity to lay down the Power that was in my hands I say to you again in the presence of that God who hath blessed and been with me in all my adversities and successes that was as to my self my greatest end A desire perhaps and I am afraid sinful enough to be quit of the Power God had most Providentially put into my hand before he called for it and before those honest ends of our fighting were attained and setled I say the Authority I had in my hand being so boundlesse as it was I being by Act of Parliament General of all the forces in the three Nations of England Scotland and Ireland In which unlimitted condition I did not desire to live a day did call that meeting for the ends before expressed What the event and issue of that meeting was we may sadly remember It hath much teaching in it and I hope will make us all wiser for the future But this meeting succeeding as I have formerly said to you and giving such a disappointment to our hopes I shall not now make any repetition thereof only the effect was That they came and brought to me a parchment signed by very much the major part of them expressing their resigning and re-delivery of the Power and Authority that was committed to them back again into my hands And I can say it in the presence of divers persons here that do know whether I lie in that that I did not know one tittle of that resignation until they all came and brought it and delivered it into my hands of this there are also in this presence many Witnesses I received this Resignation having formerly used my endeavours and perswasions to keep them together observing their differences I thought it my duty to give advices to them that so I might prevail with them for union But it had the effect that I told you and I had my disappointment When this was so we were exceedingly to seek how to settle things for the future My power again by this Resignation was as boundlesse and unlimited as before all things being subjected to Arbitrariness and a person having power over the three Nations boundlessely and unlimited And upon the matter all Government dissolved all Civill Administrations at an end as will presently be made appear The Gentlemen that undertook to frame this Government did consult divers dayes together they being of known Integrity and ability how to frame somewhat that might give us settlement and they did so and that I was not privy to their Councels they know it When they had finished their modell in some measure or made a very good preparation of it it became Communicative They told me that except I would undertake the Government they thought things would hardly come to a Composure and Settlement but blood and confusion would break in upon us I denied it again and again as God and those persons know not complementingly as they also know and as God knowes I confesse after many Arguments and after the letting of me know that I did not receive any thing that put me into any higher Capacity then I was in before but that it limited me and bound my hands to act nothing to the prejudice of the Nations without consent of a Councell untill the Parliament and then limited by the Parliament as the Act of Government expresseth I did accept it I might repeat this again to you if it