wards, by several Acts of Parliament in the days of your predecessor, Edward the Third, they must have been once a year. Sir, what intermission of Parliaments hath been in your time is very well known, and the sad consequences of it, and what in the interim, instead of these Parliaments, hath been by you, by an high and arbitrary hand introduced upon the people, that likewise hath been too well known and felt. But when God by his Providence had so brought it about that you could no longer decline the calling of a Parliament, Sir, yet it will appear what your ends were against the ancient, and your native king. dom of Scotland: the Parliament of England, not serving your ends against them, you were pleased to dissolve it. Another great necessity occasioned the calling of this Parliament, and what your designs and plots and endeavours all along have been for the ruining and confounding of this Parliament, hath been very notorious to the whole kingdom; and truly, Sir, in that you did strike at all; that had been a sure way to have brought about that, that this lays upon you; your intention to subvert the fundamental laws of the land. For the great bulwark of liberty of the people, is the Parliament of England; and to subvert and root up that which your aim hath been to do, certainly at one blow, you had confounded the liberties and the propriety of England.

Truly, Sir, it makes me call to mind, I cannot forbear to express it; for, Sir, we must deal plainly with you, according to the merits of your cause, so is our commission; it makes me call to mind (these proceedings of your's) that we read of a great Roman Emperor, by the way let us call him a great Roman tyrant Caligula, that wished that the people of Rome had but one neck, that at one blow he might cut it off: and your proceedings have been somewhat like to his, for the body of the people of England hath been (and where else represented but) in the Parliament, and could you have but confounded that, you had at one blow cut off the neck of England: but God hath reserved better things for us, and hath pleased for to confound your designs, and to break your forces, and to bring your person into custody, that you might be responsible to justice.

Sir, we know very well, that it is a question on your side very much pressed, By what precedent we shall proceed? Truly, Sir, for prece dents, I shall not at this time make any long discourse, but it is no new thing to cite precedents almost of all nations, where the people (when power hath been in their hands) have not sticked to call their Kings to account, and where the change of government hath ensued upon occasions of the tyranny and mis-government of those that have been placed over them; I will not spend time to mention France or Spain, or the

empire or other countries, volumes may be written of them; but truly, Sir, that of the kingdom of Arragon, I should think some of us have thought upon it, where they have the justice of Arragon; that is a man tanquam in medio positus, betwixt the King of Spain, and the people of the country, that if wrong be done by the King, he that is the King of Arragon, the justice hath power to reform the wrong, and he is ac knowledged to be the King's superior, and is the grand preserver of their privileges, and hath prosecuted Kings upon their miscarriages.

Sir, what the tribunes of Rome were heretofore, and what the Ephori were to the Lacedæmonian State, we know that is the Parliament of England to the English State; and though Rome seem to have lost its liberty when once the Emperors were, yet you shall find some famous acts of justice even done by the Senate of Rome; that great tyrant of his time, Nero, condemned and judged by the Senate. But truly, Sir, to you I should not mention these foreign examples and stories. If you look but over Tweed, we find enough in your native kingdom of Scotland. If we look to your first King, Fergusius, that your stories make mention of, he was an elective King, he died, and left two sons, both in their minority, the kingdom made choice of their uncle, his brother, to govern in the minority; afterwards the elder brother giving small hopes to the people that he would rule or govern well, seeking to sup plant that good uncle of his, that governed them justly, they set the elder aside, and took to the younger. Sir, if I should come to what your stories make mention of, you know very well you are the 109th King of Scotland; for to mention so many Kings as that kingdom, according to their power and privilege, have made bold to deal withal, some to banish, and some to imprison, and some to put to death, it would be too long; and as one of your authors says, it would be too long to recite the manifold examples that your own stories make men◄ tion of; Reges (say they) we do create, we created Kings at first; Leges, &c. We imposed laws upon them; and as they are chosen by the suffrages of the people at the first, so upon just occasion, by the same suffrages, they may be taken down again and we will be bold to say, that no kingdom hath yielded more plentiful experience than that your native kingdom of Scotland hath done, concerning the deposition and the punishment of their offending and transgressing Kings, &c.

It is not far to go for an example near you, your grandmother set aside, and your father an infant crowned; and the State did it here in England; here hath not been a want of some examples, they have made bold (the Parliament and the people of England) to call their Kings to account, there are frequent examples of it in the Saxons' time, the time

before the conquest; since the conquest there wants not some prece dents neither; King Edward the Second, King Richard the Second, were dealt with so by the Parliament, as they were deposed and deprived and truly, Sir, whoever shall look into their stories, they shall not find the articles that are charged upon them to come near to that height and capitalness of crimes that are laid to your charge, nothing near. Sir, you were pleased to say the other day, wherein they descend, and I did not contradict it, but take altogether. Sir, if you were as the charge speaks, and no otherwise admitted King of England, but for that you were pleased then to alledge, how that almost for a thousand years these things have been, stories will tell you, if you go no higher than the time of the conquest; if you do come down since the conquest, you are the 24th King from William, called the Conqueror, you shall find one half of them to come merely from the State, and not merely upon the point of descent; it were easy to be instanced to you, the time must not be lost that way. And truly, Sir, what a grave and learned Judge said in this time, and well known to you, is since printed for posterity, That although there was such a thing as a descent many times, yet the Kings of England ever held the greatest assurance of their titles, when it was declared by Parliament. And, Sir, your oath, the manner of your coronation doth shew plainly, that as to the Kings of England, though it's true by the law the next person in blood is designed; yet if there were just cause to refuse him, the people of England might do it. For there is a contract and bargain made between the King and his people, and your oath is taken, and certainly, Sir, the bond is reciprocal; for as you are the liege Lord, so they liege subjects, and we know very well what hath been so much spoken of, Ligatio est duplex. This we know now, the one tie, the one bond, is the bond of perfection which is due from the sovereign; the other is the bond of subjection that is due from the subject. Sir, if this bond be once broken, farewel sovereignty, Subjectio trahit, &c.

These things may not be denied, Sir; 1 speak it the rather, and I pray God it may work upon your heart, that you may be sensible of your miscarriages. For whether you have been, as by your office you ought to be, a protector of England, or the destroyer of England, let all England judge, or all the world that hath looked upon it. Sir, though you have it by inheritance in the way that is spoken of, yet it must not be denied that your office was an office of trust, and an office of the highest trust lodged in any single person. For as you were the grand administrator of justice, and others were as your delegates to see done throughout your realms, if your great office were to do justice,

and preserve your people from wrong, and instead of doing that you will be the great wrong-doer yourself. If instead of being a conser vator of the peace, you will be the grand disturber of the peace, surely this is contrary to your office, contrary to your trust. Now, Sir, if it be an office of inheritance, as you speak of, your title by descent, let all men know that great offices are seizable and forfeitable; as if you had it but for a year, and for your life: therefore, Sir, it will concern you to take into your serious consideration your great miscarriages in this kind.

Truly, Sir, I shall not particularize the many miscarriages of your reign whatsoever, they are famously known, it had been happy for the kingdom, and happy for you too, if it had not been so much known and so much felt, as the story of your miscarriages must needs be, and hath been already.

Sir, that that we are now upon by the command of the highest Court, hath been and is to try and judge you for great offences of your's. Sir, the charge hath called you tyrant, a traitor, a murderer, and a public enemy to the Commonwealth of England. Sir, it had been well if that any of all these terms might rightly and justly have been spared, if any one of them at all.

King. Ha?'

President Truly, Sir, we have been told, Rex est dum bene regit, tyrannus qui populum opprimit; and if so be that be the definition of a tyrant, then see how you come short of it in your actions, whether the highest tyrant by that way of arbitrary government, and that you have saught to introduce, and that you have saught to put, you were putting upon the people, whether that was not as high an act of tyranny as any of your predecessors were guilty of, nay many degrees beyond it.

Sir, the term traitor cannot be spared, we shall easily agree it must denote and suppose a breach of trust, and it must suppose it to be done by a superior; and therefore, Sir, as the people of England might have incurred that respecting you, if they had been truly guilty of it, as to the definition of law; so on the other side, when you did break your trust to the kingdom, you did break your trust to your supe rior: for the kingdom is that for which you were trusted. therefore, Sir, for this breach of trust, when you are called to account, you are called to account by your superiors. Minimus ad majorem in judicium vocat. And, Sir, the people of England cannot be so far wanting to themselves, which God having dealt so miracu

And

lously and gloriously for, they having power in their hands, and their great enemy, they must proceed to do justice to themselves and to you. For, Sir, the Court could heartily desire, that you would lay your hand upon your heart, and consider what you have done amiss; that you would endeavour to make your peace with God. Truly, Sir, these are your high crimes, tyranny and treason.

There is a third thing too, if those had not been, and that is murder, which is laid to your charge. All the bloody murders that have been committed since the time that the division was betwixt you and your people, must be laid to your charge, that have been acted or cominitted in these late wars. Sir, it is an heinous and crying sin; and truly, Sir, if any man will ask us what punishment is due to a murderer, let God's law, let man's law speak. Sir, I will presume that you are so well read in scripture, as to know what God himself hath said concerning the shedding of man's blood; Gen. ix. Num. xxxv. will tell you what the punishment is, and which this Court in behalf of the kingdom are sensible of, of that innocent blood that has been shed, whereby indeed the land stands still defiled with that blood, and as the text hath it, It can no way be cleansed, but with the shedding of the blood of him that shed this blood. Sir, we know no dispensation from this blood in that commandment, Thou shalt do no murder; we do not know but that it extends to Kings, as well as to the meanest peasants, the meanest of the people, the command is universal. Sir, God's law forbids it, man's law forbids it, nor do we know that there is any manner of exception, nor even in man's laws, for the punishment of murder in you. "Tis true, that in the case of Kings, every private hand was not to put forth itself to this work for their reforma. tion and punishment. But, Sir, the people represented having power in their hands, had there been but one wilful act of murder by you committed, had power to have convented you, and to have punished you for it.

But then, Sir, the weight that lies upon you in all those respects that have been spoken, by reason of your tyranny, treason, breach of trust, and the murders that have been committed; surely, Sir, it must drive you into a sad consideration concerning your eternal condition. As I said at first, I know it cannot be pleasing to you to hear any such things as these are mentioned unto you from this Court, for so we do call ourselves, and justify ourselves to be a Court, and a High Court of Justice, authorized by the highest and solemnest Court of the kingdom, as we have often said; and although you do yet endeavour what