Laws of this Kingdom and have been so adjudged by two Acts of Parliament and ought to suffer as Traitors Die Jovis Octob. 8. 1642. In the Instructions agreed upon by the Lords and Commons about the Militia They declare That the King seduced by wicked Counsel hath raised War against the Parliament and other his good Subjects And by the Judgment and Resolution of both Houses bearing date Aug. 13. 1642 upon occasion of his Majesties Proclamation for suppressing the present Rebellion under the Command of Robert Earl of Essex They do unanimously publish and declare That all they who have advised declared abetted or countenanced or hereafter shall abet and countenance the said Proclamation are Traytors and Enemies to God the King and Kingdom and guilty of the highest degree of Treason that can be committed against the King and Kingdom as that which invites his Majesties Subjects to destroy his Parliament and good People by a Civil War and by that means to bring ruine confusion and perpetual slavery upon the surviving part of a then wretched Kingdom The Law is acknowledged by the King to be the onely Rule by which the People can be iustly governed and that as it is his duty so it shall be his perpetual vigilant care to see to it Therefore he will not suffer either or both Houses by their Voâ—es without or against his Consent to enjoyn any thing that is forbidden by the Law or to forbid any thing that is enjoyned by the Law The King does assert in his Answer to the Houses Petition May 23. 1642. That He is a part of the Parliament which they take upon them to defend and secure and that his Prerogative is a part of and a defence to the Laws of the Land In the Remonstrance of both Houses May 26. 1642. They do assert That if they have made any Precedents this Parliament they have made them for posterity upon the same or better grounds of Reason and Law than those were upon which their Predecessors made any for them and do say That as some Precedents ought not to be Rules for them to follow so none can be limits to bound their Proceedings which may and must vary according to the different condition of times And for the particular with which they were charged of setting forth Declarations to the People who have chosen and entrusted them with all that is dearest to them if there be no example for it in former times They say it is because there never were such Monsters before that attempted to disaffect the People towards a Parliament They further say His Majesties Towns are no more his care than his Kingdom nor his Kingdom than his People who are not so his own that he hath absolute power over them or in them as in his proper Goods and Estate but fiduciary for the Kingdom and in the paramount right of the Kingdom They also acknowledge the Law to be the safeguard and custody of all publick and private Interests They also hold it fit to declare unto the Kingdom whose Honour and Interest is so much concerned in it what is the Priviledge of the great Council of Parliament herein and what is the Obligation that lies upon the Kings of this Realm as to the passing such Bills as are offered to them by both Houses in the name and for the good of the whole Kingdom whereunto they stand engaged both in Conscience and Justice to give their Royal Assent First In Conscience in respect of the Oath that is or ought to be taken by them at their Coronation as well to confirm by their Royal Assent all such good Laws as the People shall chuse whereby to remedy such inconveniencies as the Kingdom may suffer as to keep and protect the Laws already in being The form of the Oath is upon Record and asserted by Books of good authority Unto it relation is had 25 Ed. 3. entitiled The Statute of Provisors of Benefices Hereupon The said Commons prayed our said Lord the King sith the Right of the Crown of England and the Law of the said Realm is such that upon the mischiefs and dammages which happen to this Realm he ought and is bound by his Oath with the accord of his People in Parliament to make Remedy and Law for the removing thereof That it may please him to ordain Remedy This Right thus claimed by the Lords and Commons the King doth not deny in his Answer thereunto Secondly In Justice the Kings are obliged as well as in Conscience in respect of the Trust reposed in them to preserve the Kingdom by the making of new Laws where there shall be need as well as by observing of Laws already made a Kingdom being many times as much exposed to ruine for want of a new Law as by the violation of those that are in being This is a most clear Right not to be denyed but to be as due from his Majesty to his People as his Protection In all Laws framed by both Houses as Petitions of Right they have taken themselves to be so far Judges of the Rights claimed by them That when the King's Answer hath not been in every point fully according to their desire they have still insisted upon their Claim and never given it over till the Answer hath been according to their demand as was done in the late Petition of Right 3. Caroli This shews the two Houses of Parliament are Judge between the King and the People in question of Right as in the Case also of Ship-money and other illegal Taxes and if so why should they not also be Judge in the Cases of the Common Good and Necessity of the Kingdom wherein the Kingdom hath as clear a Right to have the benefit and remedy of the Law as in any other matter saying Pardon and Grants of Favour The Malignant Party are they that not only neglect and despise but labour to undermine the Law under colour of maintaining it They endeavour to destroy the Fountain and Conservators of the Law the Parliament They make other Judges of the Law than what the Law hath appointed They set up other Rules for themselves to walk by than such as are according to Law and dispence with the Subjects obedience to that which the Law calls Authority and to their Determinations and Resolutions to whom the Judgment doth appertain by Law Yea though but private persons they make the Law to be their Rule according to their own understanding only contrary to the Judgment of those that are the competent Judges thereof The King asserts That the Act of Sir John Hotham was levying War against the King by the letter of the Statute 25 Ed. 3. cap. 2. The Houses state the Case and deny it to be within that Statute saying If the letter of that Statute be thought to import this That no War can be levied against the King but what is directed and intended against his Person Or that every levying of Forces for the defence
of the King's Authority and of his Kingdom against the personal Commands of the King opposed thereunto though accompanied with his presence is Treason or levying War against the King Such Interpretation is very far from the sense of that Statute and so much the Statute it self speaks beside the authority of Book-cases For if the clause of levying War had been meant only against the King's Person what need had there been thereof after the other branch in the same Statute of compassing the King's death which would necessarily have implied this And because the former doth imply this it seems not at all to be intended at least not chiefly in the latter branch but the levying War against his Laws and Authority and such a levying War though not against his Person is a levying War against the King whereas the levying of Force against his personal Commands though accompanied with his Presence and not against his Laws and Authority but in the maintenance thereof is no levying of War against the King but for him especially in a time of so many successive plots and designs of Force against the Parliament and Kingdom of probable Invasion from abroad and of so great distance and alienation of his Majesties affections from his Parliament and People and of the particular danger of the Place and Magazine of Hull of which the two Houses sitting are the most proper Judges In proclaiming Sir John Hotham Traitor they say The breach of the Priviledge of Parliament was very clear and the subversion of the Subjects common Right For though the Priviledges of Parliament extend not to these cases mentioned in the Declaration of Treason Felony and breach of the Peace so as to exempt the Members of Parliament from Punishment or from all manner of Process and Tryal yet it doth priviledge them in the way and method of their Tryal and Punishment and that the Parliament should first have the Cause brought before them that they may judge of the Fact and of the grounds of their Accusation and how far forth the manner of their Tryal may or may not concern the Priviledge of Parliament Otherwise under this pretext the Priviledge of Parliament in this matter may be so essentially broken as thereby the very Being of Parliaments may be destroyed Neither doth the sitting of a Parliament suspend all or any Law in maintaining that Law which upholds the Priviledge of Parliament which upholds the Parliament which upholds the Kingdom They further assert That in some sense they acknowledge the King to be the only person against whom Treason can be committed that is as he is King and that Treason which is against the Kingdom is more against the King than that which is against his Person because he is King For Treason is not Treason as it is against him as a man but as a man that is a King and as he hath and stands in that relation to the Kingdom entrusted with the Kingdom and discharging that Trust They also a vow That there can be no competent Judge of this or any the like case but a Parliament and do say that if the wicked Counsel about the King could master this Parliament by force they would hold up the same power to deprive us of all Parliaments which are the ground and pillar of the Subjects Liberty and that which only maketh England a free Monarchy The Orders of the two Houses carry in them Law for their limits and the Safety of the Land for their end This makes them not doubt but all his Majesties good Subjects will yeeld obedience to his Majesties Authority signified therein by both Houses of Parliament for whose encouragement and that they may know their Duty in matters of that nature and upon how sure a ground they go that follow the Judgement of Parliament for their guide They alledge the true meaning and ground of that Statute 11. Hen. 7. cap. 1. printed at large in his Majesties Message May 4 This Statute provides that none that shall attend upon the King and do him true service shall be attainted or forfeit any thing What was the scope of this Statute Answ To provide that men should not suffer as Traitors for serving the King in his Wars according to the duty of their Allegiance But if this had been all it had been a very needless and ridiculous Statute Was it then intended as they seem to make it that print it with his Majesties Message that those should be free from all crime and penalty that should follow the King and serve him in War in any case whatsoever whether it were for or against the Kingdom or the Laws thereof That cannot be for that could not stand with the duty of their Allegiance which in the beginning of this Statute is expressed to be to serve the King for the time being in his Wars for the defence of him and the Land If therefore it be against the Land as it must be if it be against the Parliament the Representative Body of the Kingdom it is a declining from the duty of Allegiance which this Statute supposes may be done though men should follow the Kings Person in the War Otherwise there had been no need of such a Proviso in the end of the Statute that none should take benefit thereby that should decline from their Allegiance That therefore which is the Principal Verb in this is the serving of the King for the time being which cannot be meant of a Perkin Warbeck or any that should call himself King but such a one as whatever his Title might prove either in himself or in his Ancestors should be received and acknowledged for such by the Kingdome the Consent whereof cannot be discern'd but by Parliament the Act whereof is the Act of the whole Kingdom by the personal Suffrage of the Peers and the Delegate Consent of the Commons of England Henry 7th therefore a wise Prince to clear this matter of contest happening between Kings de facto and Kings de jure procured this Statute to be made That none shall be accounted a Traitor for serving in his Wars the King for the time being that is him that is for the present allowed and received by the Parliament in behalf of the Kingdom And as it is truly suggested in the Preamble of the Statute It is not agreeable to reason or conscience that it should be otherwise seeing men should be put upon an impossibility of knowing their duty if the Judgment of the highest Court should not be a Rule to guide them And if the Judgment thereof is to be followed when the question is who is King much more when the question is what is the best service of the King and Kingdom Those therefore that shall guide themselves by the Judgment of Parliament ought what ever happen to be secure and free from all account and penalties upon the ground and equity of this Statute To make the Parliament countenancers of Treason they say is enough
our best security The Common Law then or Liberties of England comprized in the Magna Charta and the Charter of Forest are rendred as secure as authentick words can set them from all Judgments or Precedents to the contrary in any Courts all corrupting advice or evil counsel of any Judges all Letters or Countermands from the Kings Person under the Great or Privy Seals yea and from any Acts of Parliament it self that are contrary thereunto As to the Judges no question they well know the story of the 44 corrupt Judges executed by King Alfred as also of Tresillian Belknap and many others since By 11 Hen. 7. cap. 1. They that serve the King in his Wars according to their duty of Allegiance for defence of the King and the Land are indempnified If against the Land and so not according to their Allegiance the last clause of that chapter seems to exclude them from the benefit of this Act. 6 Hen. 8. 16. Knights and Burgesse of Parliament are required not to depart from the Parliament till it be fully finished ended or prorogued 28 Ed. 3. cap. 3. No man is to be imprisoned disherited or put to death without being heard what he can say for himself 4 Ed. 3. 14. and 36. Ed. 3. 10. A Parliament is to be holden every year or oftner if need be 1 Ric. 3. cap. 2. The subjects of this Realm are not to be charged with any new imposition called a Benevolence 37 Ed. 3. c. 18. All those that make suggestions against any man to the King are to be sent with their suggestions before the Chancellor Treasurer and his grand Council and there to find surety that they will pursue their suggestions and are to incur the same pain the party by them accused should have had if attained in case the suggestion be found evil or false 21 Jacobi cap. 3. All Monopolies and Dispensations with Penal Laws are made void as contrary to the great Charters These quotations of several Statutes as Ratifications and Restorers of the Laws of the Land are prefixed to the following Discourses and Pleas of this Sufferer as certain steady unmovable Land-marks to which he oft relates The rouling Seas have other Laws peculiar to themselves as Cook observes on that expression Law of the Land in his Comment on the 29th Chapter of Magna Charta Offences done upon the High Sea the Admiral takes conusance of and proceeds by the Marine Law But have those steady Land-marks though exactly observed and never so pertinently quoted and urged by this Sufferer failed him as to the securing of his Life 'T is because we have had Land-floods of late Tumults of the People that are compared to the raging Seas Psal 65. 7. The first Paper of this deceased Sufferer towards the defence of his Cause and Life preparatory to the Tryal as the foundation of all that follows before he could know how the Indictment was laid and which also a glance back to any crime of Treason since the beginning of the late War that the Attorney General reckoned him chargeable with shews to be very requist take as followeth Memorandums touching my Defence THe Offence objected against me is levying War within the Statute 25 Ed. 3. and by consequence a most high and great failer in the duty which the Subject according to the Laws of England stands obliged to perform in relation to the Imperial Crown and Soveraign Power of England The crime if it prove any must needs be very great considering the circumstances with which it hath been accompaned For it relates to and takes in a series of publick action of above twenty years continuance It took its rise and had its root in the Being Authority Judgment Resolutions Votes and Orders of a Parliament and that a Parliament not onely authorized and commissionated in the ordinary and customary way by his Majesties Writ of Summons and the Peoples Election and Deputation subject to Adjournment Discontinuance and Dissolution at the King's will but which by express Act of Parliamenâ— was constituted in its continuance and exercise of its Power free from that subjection and made therein wholly to depend upon their own will to be declared in an Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose when they should see cause To speak plainly and clearly in this matter That which is endeavoured to be made a Crime and an Offence of such an high nature in my person is no other than the necessary and unavoidable Actings of the Representative Body of the Kingdom for the preservation of the good People thereof in their allegiance and duty to God and his Law as also from the imminent dangers and destruction threatned them from God's and their own Enemies This made both Houses in their Remonstrance May 26. 1642. protest If the Malignant spirits about the King should ever force or necessitate them to defend their Religion the Kingdom the Priviledges of Parliament and the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects with their Swords The Blood and Destruction that should ensue therupon must be wholly cast upon their account God and their own consciences telling them that they were clear and would not doubt but that God and the whole world would clear them therein In his Majesties Answer to the Declaration of the two Houses May 19. 1642. he acknowledgeth his going into the House of Commons to demand the five Members was an errour And that was it which gave the Parliament the first cause to put themselves in a posture of defence by their own Power and Authority in commanding the Trained-Bands of the City of London to guard and secure them from Violence in the discharge of their Trust and Duty as the two Houses of Parliament appointed by Act to continue as above-mentioned The next cause was his Majesties raising Forces at York under pretence of a Guard expressed in the humble Petition of the Lords and Commons May 23. 1642. wherein they beseech his Majesty to disband all such Forces and desist from any further designs of that nature otherwise they should hold themselves bound in duty towards God and the Trust reposed in them by the People and the Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of this Kingdom to employ their care and utmost power to secure the Parliament and preserve the peace and quiet of the Kingdom May 20. 1642 The two Houses of Parliament gave their Judgment in these Votes First That it appears that the King seduced by wicked Counsel intends to make War against the Parliament who in all their Consultations and Actions have proposed no other end to themselves but the Care of his Kingdoms and the performance of all Duty and Loyalty to his Person Secondly That whensoever the King maketh War upon the Parliament it is a breach of Trust reposed in him by his People contrary to his Oath and tending to the dissolution of this Government Thirdly That whosoever shall serve or assist him in such Wars are Traytors by the fundamental
King is acknowledged to have two capacities in him one a natural as he is descended of the Blood Royal of the Realm and the Body natural he hath in this capacity is of the creation of Almighty God and mortal The other is a politick capacity in respect of which he is a Body politick or mystical framed by the policy of man which is immortal and invisible To the King in both these capacities conjoyn'd Allegiance is due that is to say to the natural person of the King accompanied with his politick capacity or the politick appropriated to the natural The politick capacity of the King hath properly no body nor soul for it is framed by the policy of man In all Indictments of Treason when any one does intend the death and destruction of the King it must needs be understood of his natural body the other being immortal The Indictment therefore concludes contra Legiantiae suae debitum against the duty of his Allegiance so that Allegiance is due to the natural body Admitting then that thus by Law Allegiance is due to the King as before recited yet it is alwayes to be presumed that it is to the King in conjunction with the Parliament the Law and the Kingdom and not in disjunction from or opposition to them and that while a Parliament is in being and cannot be dissolved but by the Consent of the three Estates This is therefore that which makes the matter in question a new Case that never before happened in the Kingdom nor was possible to happen unless there had been a Parliament constituted as this was unsubjected to Adjournment Prorogation or Dissolution by the King's will Where such a power is granted and the co-ordinates thereupon disagree and fall out such effects and consequents as these that have happened will but too probably follow And if either the Law of Nature or England inform not in such case it will be impossible for the Subjects to know their duty when that Power and Command which ought to flow from three in conjunction comes to be exercised by all or either of them singly and apart or by two of them against one When new and never-heard-of Changes do fall out in the Kingdom it is not like that the known and written Laws of the Land should be the exact Rule but the Grounds and Rules of Justice contained and declared in the Law of Nature are and ought to be a Sanctuary in such cases even by the very Common Law of England For thence originally spring the unerring Rules that are set by the Divine and Eternal Law for Rule and Subjection in all States and Kingdoms In contemplation hereof as the Resolve of all the Judges it was agreed 1. That Allegiance is due to Soveraignty by the Law of Nature to wit that Law which God at the creation of Man infused into his heart for his preservation and direction the Law eternal Yet is it not this Law as it is in the heart of every individual man that is binding over many or legislative but as it is the Act of a Community or an Associated People by the right dictates and perswasions of the work of this Law in their hearts This appears in the Case of the Israelites Judg. 20 21 chapters cited in the 4th part of Cook 's Institutes where mention is made of a Parliament without a King that made War and that with their Brethren They met as one man to do it in vindication of that Justice unto which they were obliged even by the Law of Nature This is that which Chancellor Fortescue calls Political Power here in England by which as by the Ordinance of man in pursuance of the Ordinance of God the Regal Office constituted or the King 's Politick Capacity and becomes appropriated to his natural person Thus Politick Power is the immediate Efflux and Off-spring of the Law of Nature and may be called a part of it To this Hooker in his Ecclesiastical Polity agrees and Selden on that subject The Law of Nature thus considered is part of the Law of England as is evident by all the best received Law-Books Bracton Fleta Lambard upon the Saxon Laws and Fortescue in the praise of the Laws of England This is the Law that is before any judicial or municipal Law as the root and fountain whence these and all Government under God and his Law do flow This Politick Power as it is exercised in conjunction with and conformity to the Eternal Law partakes of its moral and immutable nature and cannot be changed by Act of Parliament Of this Law it is that Magna Charta and the Charter of Forest with other Statutes rehearsed in the Petition of Right are for the most part declaratory For they are not introductive of any new Law but confirmations of what was good in all Laws of England before This agrees with that Maxime Salus Populi suprema Lex that being made due and binding by this Law which in the Judgment of the Community declaring their mind by their own free chosen Delegates and Trustees in harmony with the Eternal Law appears profitable and necessary for the preservation and good of the whole Society This is the Law which is put forth by the common consent of the whole Realm in their Representative and according to the fundamental Constitutions of this Kingdom is that with which the Kings of this Land by the joynt co-operation of the three Estates do make and repeal Laws But through the disorders and divisions of the times these two Powers the Regal and Political which according to the Law of England make up but one and the same supream Authority fell assunder and found themselves in disjunction from and opposition to one another I do not say The question is now which of these is most rightly according to the principles of the Law of Nature and the Law of England to be adhered unto and obeyed but unto whether Power adherence is a crime in such an Exigent of State Which since it is such a new and extraordinary Case evidently above the Track of the ordinary Rules contained in the positive and municipal Laws of England there can be no colour to bring it within the Statute of 25. Ed. 3. cap. 2. forasmuch as all Statutes presuppose these two Powers Regal and Political in conjunction perfect unity and subserviency which this Case does not cannot admit So exceeding new and extraordinary a Case is it that it may be doubted whether and questioned how far any other Parliament but that Parliament it self that was privy to all its own Actings and Intentions can be an indifferent and competent Judge But however the point is of so abstruse and high consideration as no inferiour Court can or ought to judge of it as by Law-Books is most undeniable to wit Bracton and others This then being the true state of the Case and the spring of that Contest that ensued and received its decision by the late War
to have dissolv'd all the bands of service and confidence between his Majesty and his Parliament of whom the Law sayes a dishonourable thing ought not to be imagined This Conclusion then is a clear Result from what hath been argued That in all Cases of such difficulty and unusualness happening by the over-ruling Providence of God as render it impossible for the Subject to know his duty by any known Law or certain Rule extant his relying then upon the Judgment and Reason of the whole Realm declared by their Representative Body in Parliament then sitting and adhering thereto and pursuing thereof though the same afterwards be by succeeding Parliaments judged erroneous factious and unjust is most agreeable to right Reason and good Conscience and in so doing all persons are to be free and secure from all Account and Penalties not only upon the ground and equity of that Statute 11 Hen. 7. but according to all Rules of Justice natural or moral The day of Arraignment being Monday June 2. 1662. Reader The best account thou canst yet be furnished with as to this dayes proceedings in Court is as followeth SIR Henry Vane was the last Term indicted of High Treason before the Middlesex Grand Jury and the Bill being found by them he was upon Monday the second of June this Term arraigned to this effect That you as a false Traitor against his most excellent Majesty King Charles the second your supream and natural Lord not having the fear of God before your eyes and withdrawing that your duty and allegiance which a true Subject ought to have and bear to our said Leige and sovereign Lord thirteenth of May in the eleventh year of our said sovereign Lord the King at the Parish of St. Martins in the fields in the Country of Middlesex did compass and imagine the Death of our said sovereign Lord the King and the ancient frame of Government of this Realm totally to subvert and keep out our said sovereign Lord from the exercise of his Regal Government and the same the better to effect the said Sir Henry Vane the said thirteenth day of May in the said eleventh your c. at St. Martins aforesaid together with other false Traitors to the Jurors unknown did traiterously and maliciously assemble and sit together and then and there consulted to bring the King unto destruction and to hold him out from the exercise of his Regal Authority and then and there usurped the Government and appointed Officers to wit Colonels and Captains of a certain Army raised against the King against the Peace of our sovereign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity and contrary to the form of the Statute in that case made and provided And the better to effect this the twentieth of December in the said eleventh year with a multitude to the number of a thousand persons to the Jurors unknown in warlike manner assembled and arrayed with Guns Trumpets Drums c. did levy War against the Peace c. and contrary to the form of a Statute Which being read he prayed to have it read a second time which was granted him He then prayed to have it read in Latine which all the Court denyed and Keeling the King's Serjeant said That though all Pleas and Entries are set down on Record in Latine yet the agitations of Causes in Court ought to be in English The Prisoner moved several Exceptions to the Indictment as that the 25. Ed. 3. is not pursued that he had levied no such force as amounted to a levying of War Also the place in which persons with whom are both uncertain and the particular acts of levying War being not set forth he thought therefore the Indictment was insufficient Also he said here is a long time of Action for which I am charged and I may be concern'd for what I acted as a Member in that sovereign Court of Parliament and if any thing concerns the Jurisdiction of that Court I ought not to be judged here at which the Court and King's Counsel took great offence He said also There hath been an Act of General Pardon since that time whereby all Treasons are put in utter oblivion and though Sir Henry Vane were excepted yet none consent that he was that Sir Henry Vane But the King's Counsel said If he would plead that Plea they would joyn that Issue with him if he pleased which if it should be found against him it would be too late to plead not guilty But the Court said in favour of life a man may plead a double Plea and give in his Exception and plead over to the Felony or Treason not guilty But as to the Exceptions taken to the Indictment they gave little heed to them but pressed him to plead or confess Whereupon he pleaded Not guilty and had four dayes to wit till Friday next for his Tryal From another hand take as followeth The Prisoner did much press for Counsel to be allowed him to advise with about any further Exceptions to the Indictment besides those by him exhibited and to put all into form according to the customary proceedings and language of the Law as also to speak to them at the Bar on his behalf he not being vers'd in the punctilio's of Law-writings and Pleas. He further said That the Indictment which so nearly concern'd his Life being long and his memory short it could not well be imagined that he should upon the bare hearing it read be able in an instant to find out every material Exception against it in form or matter He pleaded a good while on this account but Counsel was finally denied him till he should plead guilty or not guilty unto which being a third time urged he pleaded Not guilty The Court having assured him beforehand that after pleading Counsel should be assigned him which yet never was performed Here followeth a Transcript of the Prisoners own Papers containing certain Memorandums pleadable upon his Arraignment Memorandums for and towards my Defence Upon hearing the Indictment read and before pleading FIrst To lay before the Court the impossibility that he humbly conceives is already in view as to the having any such indifferent and equal Tryal as the Law intends him and doth require and command on the behalf of all the free-People of England The Rise for this Conception he takes from what hath been already done in relation to the Prisoner himself unheard unexamined and yet kept close Prisoner for near two whole years This he shall leave to the Judgment of the Court after he hath made known the particulars thereof unto them as necessary to precede the thing demanded of him in pleading guilty or not guilty Secondly What is the indifferency which the Law requires and appoints throughout as well in matters that go before the Tryal as in the proceedings at the Tryal if it self Before the Tryal and in the first step to it which is the keeping and securing his person Magna Charta is clear and gives this
of Charge comes to be exhibited And as this is the Case of the Person before his appearance at this Bar with respect to the foresaid unequal proceedings towards him and the great disadvantages put upon him and all these as it were in a continued series of Design so the matters and things themselves with which it now appears he is charged in the Indictment make his Case still very extraordinary and unusual involving him in difficulties that are insuperable unless God's own immediate Power do shew it self in working his deliverance The things done are for many years past in a time of Differences between King and Parliament and Wars ensuing thereupon Many extraordinary Changes and Revolutions in the State and Government were necessitated in the course of God's Providence for wise and holy ends of his above the reach of humane wisdom The Authority by which they are done is prejudged The Orders Votes and Resolutions of Parliament are made useless and forbidden to be produced Hereby all manner of defence is taken away from the Prisoner and that which was done according to Law as the Laws of those times were is endeavoured to be made unlawful and so the persons acting according to such Laws are brought to punishment The Judges as hath been shewed are forestalled in their Judgements by the declared sence of Parliaments given ex post facto The Jurors are put upon difficulties never known before for twelve Commoners to judge the Actions of all the Commons of England in whom they are included as to whose Judgment is the right the one or the others and whether their Representatives be trusty The Party indicted is under an incapacity to bring Witnesses as well from the nature of the place wherein the things were done within the Walls of the House as from the shortness of time having heard nothing of his Charge and being kept a close Prisoner to the last day His Solicitors and persons imployed in his Law-businesses were also restrained from him It is also most evident that the matters for which he is questioned being the Product of so many years Agitations of Parliamantary Counsels and Arms cannot be of a single concern nor be reputed as the actions of a private man done of his own head nor therefore come within any of the six Classes of Treason contained in 25. Ed. 3. It is a Case most unusual and never happening before in this Kingdom yet it is alledged in the Indictment to be a levying War within that Statute and so comes to have the name of High Treason put upon it thereby if possible to deprive him of the use and benefit of Counsel as also of competent time to prepare for his Defence and all fitting and requisit means for the clearing of his Innocency Unto this unless some remedy be afforded by the justice candor and favour of this Court it may be better for the Prisoner for ought he yet knows to be immediately destroyed by special Command if nothing else will satisfie without any form of Law as one to whom Quarter after at least two years cool blood is thought fit to be denied in relation to the late Wars This may seem better than under a colour and form of Justice to pretend to give him the benefit of the Law and the King's Courts whose part it is to set free the Innocent upon an Equal and Indifferent Tryal had before them if their Cause will bear it but it is very visible beforehand that all possible means of Defence are taken and withheld from him and Laws are made ex post facto to fore-judge the merit of the Cause the Party being unheard And when he hath said all this that as a rational man does occur to him and is fit for him to represent in all humility to the Court he craves leave further to adde That he stands at this Bar not only as a man and a man clothed with the Priviledges of the most Sovereign Court but as a Christian that hath Faith and reliance in God through whose gracious and wise appointment he is brought into these circumstances and unto this place at this time whose Will he desires to be found resigned up into as well in what He now calls him to suffer as in what He hath called him formerly to act for the good of his Country and of the People of God in it Upon this bottom he blesses the Name of his God he is fearless and knows the issue will be good what ever it prove God's strength may appear in the Prisoner's weakness and the more all things carry the face of certain ruine and destruction unto all that is near and dear to him in this world the more will divine deliverance and salvation appear to the making good of that Scripture That he that is content to lose his life in God's Cause and Way shall save it and he that instead thereof goes about to save his life upon undue terms shall lose it Far be it therefore from me to have knowingly maliciously or wittingly offended the Law rightly understood and asserted much less to have done any thing that is malum per se or that is morally evil This is that I allow not as I am a Man and what I desire with stedfastness to resist as I am a Christian If I can judge any thing of my own Case The true reason of the present difficulties and straits I am in is because I have desired to walk by a just and righteous Rule in all my Actions and not to serve the lusts and passions of men but had rather die than wittingly and deliberately sin against God and transgress his holy Laws or prefer my own private Interest before the Good of the whole Community I relate unto in the Kingdom where the lot of my residence is cast Here follow the chief Observables as to matter of new Argument on the day of his Tryal being Friday June 6. 1662. ON this day the Sheriff returned forty eight Freeholders of the Country of Middlesex After thirty two were challenged by the Prisoner he had a Jury of Twelve men sworn to wit Sir William Roberts junior Sir Christopher Abdy John Stone Henry Carter John Leech Daniel Cole Daniel Browne Thomas Chelsam Thomas Pitts Thomas Vpman Andrew Bent and William Smith The Attorney-General's Speech to the Jury The Indictment is for traiterously imagining and intending c. the Death of the King This very imagination and compassing c. is Treason Yet forasmuch as the intentions of the heart are secret the Law cannot take notice of them till they are declared by Overt Act. Therefore we shall give in Evidence That for the accomplishing of these Intentions the Prisoner sate with others in several Councils or rather Confederacies incroached the Government levied Forces appointed Officers and at last levied open and actual War in the head of a Regiment If any of these crimes be proved it is sufficient to make him guilty within this Indictment
to the first of these The Act for Continuance of the Long Parliament is express That all and every thing or things whatsoever done or to be done for the Adjournment Proroguing or Dissolving of that Parliament contrary to that Act shall be utterly void and of none effect I then thus argue The Judges do upon occasion of this Tryal resolve That the King's Death dissolv'd that Parliament No Act of Parliament hath yet declared it to be so and the Judges ought to have some Law for their guide as Cook well sayes To be sure if in process of time the Parliament shall expresly declare That not the King's Death but the Act for the Dissolution of that Parliament did dissolve it In such case these Judges Resolution by vertue of such Act is absolutely void But innocent Blood in the mean time may be shed and an Estate wrongfully taken away And in case what the Judges assert herein were Law 't is Law not known or declared till many years after the Fact committed At this rate who is secure of Estate or Life As to the second and third Queries or Propositions It does appear out of the third part of Cook 's Institutes fol. 7. and the Statute 11. Hen. 7. cap. 1. That Actings for the King in Fact are not to be questioned by the King in Right If it be said That there was no King in this case it may be replied That they who had the Power and Exercise of the Royal Jurisdiction as to Peace and War Coynage of Money power of Life and Death c. which are the highest Ensigns of Regal Authority must needs be the Powers regnant though not under the name of King and are within the Statute 25. Edw. 3. cap. 2. as a Queen also is adjudged and any sovereign Prince though under the title only of Lord as was the case of Ireland before it was a Kingdom And if so why not in more such persons as well as one that de facto exercise the Royal Power and Sovereign Authority under what name or title soever If upon this Nicety Judgment be given against me because the Powers regnant wanted the name and formality of a King I shall doubtless have very hard measure For the reason and equity is the same if the Powers regnant had the thing though not the Title And where there is the same Reason there is the same Law as is a known Rule Now there is the same Reason the Subject should be equally indempnified that acteth under any Sovereign Authority that hath not the name of a King as if it had If there had been many Kings as a Heptarchy hath been in England heretofore those would have been understood to be within the Statute and the reason and equity of the Statute is the same in all cases For the Law is made for the benefit and security of the Subject whom the Law requires not to examine the right of Soveraignty Nor is the danger less under one Government than another The Statute is for securing the Subject from all dormant Titles that they may safely pay their Allegiance when they receive Protection and that they may not be in danger of being destroyed by two Powers at the same time For that Power which is supream and de facto will be obeyed and make it Treason to do otherwise be it right or wrong And if the Subject be at the same time in danger of committing Treason against the Power de jure then is he in a miserable condition and state of unavoidable necessity which is provided against by the Laws of the Land Otherwise if he be loyal to the King de jure he shall be hanged by the King de facto and if he be faithful to the King de facto he shall die by the King de jure when he recovers possession Against this it was that the Statute of 11. Hen. 7. was provided in the difference betwixt the two houses of York and Lancaster My Case is either the same with that and then I desire the benefit of that Statute or else it is new and then I desire as is provided 25. Ed. 3. that it be referred to the Parliament So that it is either within the Equity of the Statute 11. Hen. 7. or else it is a new Case and not to be judged by this Court If the Judges in the Resolves by them delivered upon any of the particulars before-alledged have not declared that Law that ought to guide them but their particular Judgments or Opinions as undertaking to guide the Law and that in points of so grand concern as touch the Subjects Life in case their Judgments after should prove erroneous the Verdict given upon such Errors must needs be illegal and void Judgment therefore ought to be suspended till such time as the truth and certainty of the Law may be fully argued and cleared and that in the proper Court for the hearing and judging of this Case If this be not done but I be forthwith proceeded against notwithstanding any thing however rationally or legally alledged to the contrary by such undue precipitation and giving Sentence I am contrary to Magna Charta or Law of the Land run upon and destroyed without due form and course of Law And I am like to be deprived of Estate and Life upon no Law or certain Rule which was declared before the Fact no nor before the Tryal Upon these Considerations I desire an Arrest of Judgment and that Counsel may be assigned me and competent time allowed to make good my Averrements As an Argument to press this I desire leave of the Court That the Petition of the two Houses and the King's Assent to it may be read in open Court attested by one that is present who examined and compared it with the Book of Record in the Lords House by which it evidently appears that as well the King as both Houses of Parliament were agreed that admitting I were attainted yet Execution as to my Life should be remitted And if so there is no cause to precipitate the passing Sentence especially when also such weighty points in the Law are yet to be argued and cleared unless the Judges will evidently charge themselves with my innocent Blood III. My third Reason for an Arrest of Judgment is the manifest newness of this Case being such as never happened before in the Kingdom which withal is of so vast a consequence to people of all sorts and conditions within this Realm as nothing more And being so as I doubt not with your Lordships patience I shall make it appear It is the known Law witnessed by Bracton and antient approved Law-Books That in such Cases the Judges in the inferiour Courts ought not to proceed but bring it before the high Court of Parliament To prove therefore the newness of this Case besides what I have already alledged in my Defence before the Verdict give me leave to adde that which yet further shews the newness and
of that Priviledge of being present himself or having Counsel and other Friends present at the Grand Jury will appear hereafter by the subdolous and injurious handling of matters there Thirdly Concerning the Jurisdiction of the Court. 3. The Offences supposed to be committed by me are things done not of my own head but as a Member of the Long Parliament or in pursuance of their Authority The matters done by me in the one respect or the other if they be deemed Offences are punishable only in Parliament and I ought not to be questioned for them in any inferiour Court As Cook shews in the 4th part of his Institutes chap. 1. concerning the high Court of Parliament For the Parliament is not confined in their Actings by the Law which inferiour Courts are tied up to but in divers cases are priviledged to act extraordinarily and unaccountably to any but themselves or succeeding Parliaments Moreover That Parliament was extraordinarily commissioned qualified and authorized by express Act of Parliament beyond all preceding Parliaments for the Causes and Ends declared in the Preamble of the Act for their Establishment accorded and passed by the joynt Consent of King Lords and Commons whereby they became unsubjected to Adjournment Prorogation or Dissolution but by their own respective voluntary Consents to be by them expressed and passed for that purpose with the Royal Assent which occasioned his late Majesty in his Answer to the nineteen Propositions to say That the Power hereby legally placed in both Houses was more than sufficient to prevent and restrain the Power of Tyranny And further The bringing of this Case under the Jurisdiction of this Court or of any other but a Parliament may prove of very dangerous consequence in point of Precedent and most disagreeing to all Rules of Justice For First By the same reason that I am questioned in this Court not only every Member of Parliament but the very Houses themselves with all their Debates Votes and Orders may not only be questioned but referred to a Petty Jury and so come to be judged and sentenc'd by a Court inferiour to themselves which Judges in all times have disclaimed and acknowledged to be out of their power according to the known Rule Par in pares non habet imperium multo minus in eos qui majus imperium habent Secondly In such case the Parties accused will be debarred of Evidence or Witness for their Justification and Defence For no Members c. present at Debates in Parliament who are the onely eye and ear-witnesses of what is said and done there ought to discover the Counsels of the House Fourthly Concerning the Indictment 1. I have not been permitted to have a copy or sight of the Indictment nor so much as to hear it read in Latine which is the original Record of the Court and ought to be the foundation of their whole proceeding with me I often desired these things of the Court yea or at least to have but the Transcripts of some particular clauses in the Indictment to enable me to shew the deficiencies thereof in Law all which others in such cases have often obtained but nothing would be granted herein This then was my hard lot and usage I was put after two years close Imprisonment to answer for my Life to a long Indictment read in English which whether it were rightly translated how should I know that might not hear the Original Record in Latine Counsel also learned in the Law were denied me though pressed for by me again and again before I pleaded And had they been granted what could they have said as to defects of Law in the Indictment unless they might have a Copy of it What can any Counsel say to any petty business concerning any part of a man's Estate that 's in controversie unless they may have a leisurely view and perusal of the Writings thereabouts much more sure will it appear requisit to the reason of all mankind when a man 's whole Estate Life and all are at stake 'T is true before I pleaded this Court promised I should have Counsel assigned me after pleading God forfend else said the Lord Chief Justice but 't is as true I never could yet see that promise made good All things tending to a fair Tryal were promised me in general before pleading but every material particular for the just defence of my Life hath been denied me ever since And my Tryal for Life was hudled up the next day of my appearing before you The Jury as was told me must not eat or drink till they had done their work so the more than forty Jewry-men that resolved to kill Paul Act. 23. 21. But why such haste and precipitancy for a man's Life that 's more than Meat or Estate when you can let Civil Causes about mens Estates depend many years and if an erroneous Judgment be passed in such matters 't is reversible But if innocent Blood be spilt it cannot be gathered up again as the wise woman of Tekoah said 2 Sam. 14. 2. But secondly then As to defects in the Indictment which I was in some measure enabled to observe from that broken hearing thereof that was afforded me here in the Court I say there are many and those very considerable and by the Law of England I ought not to have been urged to plead or make answer to such an illegal and defective Indictment 1. There is no sufficient Overt Act therein alledged of the Prisoner's imagining the King's Death or that he had any the least intention that way 2. The Levying of a War is alledged in Southwark and cannot therefore be tryed by a Jury of Middlesex Dyer fol. 234. and the 3d part of Cook 's Institutes fol. 34. 3. There is uncertainty and obscurity in the main thing alledged against me in the Indictment to wit That I together with a multitude of persons to the number of a thousand unknown to the Jury c. whereas no Criminal Act can be tryed that is not certain Certa res debet esse quae deducitur in Judicium 4. The Treason laid to my charge is alledged to have been committed with a multitude of other false Traitors which were pardoned by the Act of Indempnity such supposed crimes therefore of theirs cannot be remembred or alledged without a manifest breach of the Act of Indempnity and Oblivion The Indictment is or ought to be founded on some clause or branch of 25. Ed. 3. chap. 2. But no such Overt Act is alledged in the Indictment or proved by Witnesses as doth discover that I had any intention to kill depose or hold out the King from the possession and exercise of his Regal Power Whereas I am accused of compassing or imagining the Death of the King this must be understood of his natural or personal not politick capacity for in this latter sence the Law sayes the King cannot die First then to compass only the Deposition of the King is not within the words
of that Statute several Kings have been deposed by Parliaments since the Conquest and as to my compassing or designing the natural death of the King's Person with what colour can I be accused of such intentions in the circumstances the King at that time was in beyond the Seas Secondly The assembling of men together without any hostility or injury offered to any person but for a man 's own security and defence in a time of confusion and distraction is not Levying War or Treason at the Common Law or by that Statute Yea in this Case and at the season wherein such an Act as this is alledged it might be supposed to be done for the King's Restoration as well as in opposition thereunto and the most favourable and advantagious construction ought to be made and put upon the Prisoner's actings or words where there is ambiguity so that they may be taken or interpreted divers wayes For the Law alwayes presumeth actions to be innocent till the contrary be manifestly proved However in a time of vacancy or an Interregnum when the Foundations of Government are out of course by the Law of Reason Nature and Common Prudence every man may stand upon his own guard endeavouring his own security and protection from injury and violence Thirdly To be adherent to the King's Enemies within his Realm c. cannot ought not to be understood of any adhaesion to a Parliament wherein the King by Law is supposed alwayes present as a part thereof Nor can the Long Parliament be called the King's Enemies without overthrowing the Act of Indempnity which the King hath declared to be the Foundation of the Nations present Peace and Security Lastly The Treasons alledged in the Indictment are said to have been committed when the King was out of possession So the Indictments runs to keep out the King c. Now my Lord Cook in the third part of his Institutes fol. 7. saith A King de jure and not de facto is not within this Statute Against such a one no Treason can be committed For if there be a King regnant in possession though he be Rex de facto and not de jure yet is he Seignior le Roy within the purview of this Statute and the other that hath Right and is out of possession is not within this Act. Nay if Treason be committed against a King de facto non de jure and after the King de jure cometh to the Crown he shall punish the Treason done to the King de facto And after in the same place he saith That by Law there is alwayes a King in whose Name the Laws are to be maintained and executed otherwayes Justice would fail The Act also of 11. Hen. 7. was made for security of the Subject on this behalf The word King also may and ought to be taken largely for any Sovereign Power in a King or Queen as Cook in the place fore-quoted shews and why not by the same reason in a Protector though a Usurper or any other persons one or more in whom Soveraignty is lodged or that have all the badges of Soveraignty as the calling of Parliaments enacting of Laws coining of Money receiving Forreign Ambassadors c. His Majesty that now is is granted by the very Indictment to have been then out of possession If so then was there either some other King or what was equivolent some Sovereign Power in actual possession and exercise or none If the former then was there a King de facto so no Treason could be committed against him that was King de jure only If the latter then the Government was dissolved no allegiance was due to any persons and so no offence could be properly Treason within the Statute But had the late Protector had the name and stile of a King no Treason could have been committed against the King de jure only Now God forbid that you should give away my Life upon such niceties because a usurping Protector was not clothed with the Title as well as Power of a King The Protector or any Usurper's taking or not taking the Title of a King in case he have the Power cannot alter the state of my supposed crime You ought not to be byassed by popular Reports concerning me 'T is easier to be innocent than so reported The one is in our own power not the other Fifthly Concerning the Evidence 1. No allegation was directly proved by two positive lawful Witnesses as in this case it ought to be 2. One of the Witnesses for the King confessed in open Court that to his knowledge my hand had been counterfeited to my prejudice and dammage in great Sums of Money yet Orders pretended to be signed by me wherein my hand may as well be counterfeited are taken as Evidence against me 3. The Issue of the whole Cause depended on the solution of some difficult Questions of so high a nature and great importance as could not safely be determined but in the high Court of Parliament As 1. Whether the Long Parliament called in Novemb. 1640 were dissolved by the late King's Death 2. Whether the successive remaining Powers that exercised the Royal or Supream Authority from 1648 to the Restoration of his now Majesty were not within the true sense and meaning of 25. Edw. 3. and 11. Hen. 7 As to other pertinent Queries thou mayest see them Reader in other parts of this Tryal That which remains as an Appendix to this Bill of Exceptions is to lay before thee the Grounds which plainly shew that there was a downright Conspiracy in Sir Vane's Tenants and others to prosecute him for Life and Estate under colour and pretence of Justice 1. Presently after I was committed to the Tower for High Treason and made a Close-Prisoner Mr. Oneale Sir William Darcy and Dr. Cradock obtained an Order from the King to seize and take into their possession all the Estates of such persons that were already or should be forfeited to his Majesty Hereupon the said Mr. Oneale and Sir Will. Darcy appointed some under them in the Bishoprick of Durham by name Thomas Bowes Esque now deceased and Capt. William Darcy to joyn with the said Dr. Cradock to put in execution the said Warrant as their Deputies who thereupon went to Raby Castle and demanded the Rent-Books of Thomas Mowbray my Steward offering him his place under them which he refused Contrary to this proceeding Sir Edward Cook expresly declares That before Indictment the Goods or other things of any Offender cannot be searched inventoried or in any sort seized nor after Indictment seized removed or taken away before Conviction or Attainder Institut 3d part chap. 133. concerning the Seizure of Goods c. for Offences c. before Conviction 2. At the Instance and Prosecution of my Tenants and others an Order was made by the House of Commons not of the Lords requiring the Tenants of such persons as were excepted out of the General Pardon to detain their Rents in
their own hands By pretence of this Order though that Parliament that made it were dissolved The Tenants refused to pay their respective Rents as they grew due contrary to all Law and Equity and joyned together in open defiance and conspiracy against their Landlord 3. The said Tenants when legally prosecuted in his Majesties Courts at Westminster for the recovery of the said Rents out of their hands did petition the late House of Commons to put a stop to such legal Prosecution and Suits which Motion of theirs put the House into a great heat and violence against me insomuch that they had no most passed a Vote to sequester all my Estate though unheard or unconvicted 4. William Watson of Cock-field and other of the said Tenants have continued in London to carry on this Conspiracy against me by whose means with others the King hath been importuned to send for men from the Isle of Silly in order to this Tryal 5. By common fame which at least affords a strong presumption my Goods and Estate have been long begg'd by several persons and granted whereas the begging of the Goods and Estate of any Delinquent accused or indicted of Treason before he be Convicted and Attainted is utterly unlawful because till then nothing is forfeited to the King and so not his to dispose of as Sir Edward Cook shews in the fore-mentioned Chapter about the Seizure of Goods c. 6. I am credibly informed that about December last a certain Captain came from the Duke of Albemarle to Capt. Linn with threatning language that if he would not confess things against Sir Henry Vane he should be fetch'd up before the Council and made to do it Linn answered he knew nothing against Sir Henry Vane nor had any Orders from him but from the Parliament and Council The same Captain came again about a fortnight after from the Duke of Albemarle with a parcel of fine words that if he the said Linn would testifie that Sir Henry Vane was in the head of his Regiment and that he received Orders from him the Duke of Albemarle would gratifie him with any civility he should desire Linn replied he knew no Regiment Sir Henry Vane had but that it was the Parliaments and Council of States Regiment The same Captain came again to him from the Duke of Albemarle and told him The Duke desired him to testifie Sir Vane's being in the head of his Regiment and that he received Orders from him to fight Sir George Booth Linn replied he knew no such things The Captain told him as from the Duke he should have any Place or Office in the Court Be not afraid to speak said he I warrant you we shall hang Sir Henry Vane for he is a Rogue 7. I am credibly informed that one of the Grand Jury declared that after the Bill of Indictment against me was brought in some from the King's Counsel came to desire them they would please to come into the inward Court of Wards Upon which one of the Jury said they were there to judge of matters brought before them and ought not to go in thither but if the Counsel had any thing to say they ought to come to them This was seconded by some others said They were the King's Counsel and it was but matter of civility to grant them their Request whereupon they went into the inward Court of Wards where the King's Counsel were to wit Attorney-General Palmer Sollicitor-General Fynch Serjeant Glyn and Serjeant Keeling After a while they caused all to withdraw but the Jury Then the Clerk read the Indictment in the usual form for Levying War from 1659. After it was read one of the Counsel told them It was a Bill of High Treason against his Majesty and they were to consider of it according to their Evidence Then they proceeded to examine their Witnesses Jefford said Sir Henry Vane offered him a Commission to go against Sir George Booth which said Serjeant Keeling was to go against the King Wright being examined whether he saw Sir Henry Vane in the Council said Yes The Attorney-General replied that if he was amongst them they might find the Bill upon that Upon this the Jury withdrew and were by themselves Then Sir John Croply the Foreman said We must pass this Bill at which all the Jury were silent At last one stood up and said This Bill contains matter of Fact and matter of Law Some of this Jury to my knowledge were never of any Jury before as well as I therefore ignorant of the Law in so difficult and unusual a point as this is and consequently could not give in their Verdict as to Law but only Fact Several others of the Jury seconded him in this and protested against giving in their Verdict as to matter of Law notwithstanding all which the Bill was carried up to the King 's Bench. 8. On the day of my Arraignment an eminent person was heard to say I had forfeited my head by what I said that day before ever I came to my Defence what that should be I know not except my saying in open Court Soveraign Power of Parliament which the Attorney-General writ down after he had promised at my request no exception should be taken at words And whole Volumns of Lawyers Books pass up and down the Nation with that Title Soveraign Power of Parliaments 9. Six moderate men that were like to consider what they did before they would throw away my Life were summoned to be of my Petty Jury which the King's Counsel hearing writ a Letter to one of the Sheriffs to unsummon them and a new List was made the night immediately before the day of Verdict on purpose that the Prisoner might not have any knowledge of them till presented to his view and choice in Westminster-hall Yet one of the fourty eight of this List who said he would have starv'd himself before he would have found Sir Hen. Vane guilty of Treason was never called though he walked in the Hall all the while And in that Hurry of those that compassed him about he being alone stripp'd of all assistance Sir William Roberts Foreman and Sir Christopher Abdy were sworn by the Court before I was aware so my challenging them might seem a personal disobliging and exasperation of them against me after they were sworn and fixed The Sollicitor also had a long whisper with the Foreman of the Jury in the Court before they went to Verdict telling him The Prisoner must be a Sacrifice for the Nation c. Suddenly after which I am here called to receive my Sentence 10. After the day of my Tryal the Judges went to Hampton-Court 11. None were more forward to absolve the King from his Grant about my Life than they that had appeared most forward in promoting the Bill by way of Petition to the King for it This Grant being upon Record may seem to have the same validity that other Acts of Parliament have which are still but