1647. June. prove it was) fome ways mifinformed, deluded, An, 23 Car. I. furprized, or otherwise abused in those Things · by evil Members, we have frequently, in former Papers before the Charge, put the Parliament < upon it, who, without Colour of Breach of Privilege, might do it, to find out and discover who they were that had fo abused them, and to difengage the Honour of Parliament from the evil Practices and Designs of fuch Incendiaries. Now fince the fame Difficulties or Prejudices be yet in our Way, as to the particular Charge or Proof ' of thofe Things against the Members; and the Parliament (though fo often put upon it in our former Papers, yet through the powerful Intereft of the Perfons guilty) hath not taken any • Cognizance what Members or others have fo ❝ abused them, to draw the Parliament to fuch Dif'honour and Inconveniencies; we cannot but again 'more fully and clearly affert, (as we have in former Papers, and fhall yet more particularly, if Need be, remonftrate) that divers Things lately 'done and paffed from the Parliament against this Army (as particularly the Order for fuppreffing the Petition (f), that high Declaration against it, ⚫ and against all that should proceed in it, putting "the faithful Servants of the Parliament and King• dom out of the Protection of Law, and expofing • them as Enemies to the State, &c. to the Forfeitures of the Eftates, Liberties, Life and all, but ' for going about in an humble, peaceable, and inoffenfive Way to defire what was undeniably their • Due, and dearly earned, and many other fuch like Proceedings, both against the Army and others) ⚫ do carry with them fuch a Face of Injuftice, Oppreffion, Arbitrarinefs, and Tyranny, as, we think, is not to be paralleled in any former • Proceedings of the most arbitrary Courts against any private Men; but have brought in infufferable Dishonour upon the Parliamentary Au"thority and Proceedings (which we are, and others ought to be, deeply fenfible of); hath tended to difoblige all Men, efpecially Soldiers, from (ƒ) Vol. XV. p. 345, et seq. • the 1647. June. An 23 Car. I. the fame; to destroy all juft Freedom either of 'Soldiers or Subjects, and hath conduced to all other the fad Effects and worfe Confequences exC preffed in the Charge; and gives us and others 'Cause to conclude that thofe Worthies who have formerly acted and carried on Things in Parliament for public Good, Right, and Freedom, are now awed or overborne by a prevailing Party of * Men of other private Interests crept in; and that • neither we nor any other can reasonably expect Right, Freedom, or Safety, as private Men, or to have Things acted in Parliament for public Good, while the fame Perfons continue there in the fame Power to abufe the Name and Authority of Parliament, to ferve and profecute their private Interefts and Paffions; and, under the Privilege of Parliament, to fhelter themfelves under the worst of Evils or Mischiefs they can do, C though to the Ruin of the Kingdom. "We are in this Cafe forced, to our great Grief of Heart, thus plainly to affert the prefent Evil and Mischief, together with the future worse 'Confequences of the Things lately done, even in the Parliament itself, which are too evident and vifible to all; and fo, in their proper Colours, to lay the fame at the Parliament's Doors until the f Parliament fhall be pleased, either of themselves to take Notice and rid the Houses of those who have any ways mifinformed, deluded, furprized, or otherwife abused the Parliament, to the vehement preffing and paffing of such foul Things there ; or fhall open to us and others fome Way 'how we may regularly, and without the Scandal of breaking Privileges, come to charge and profecute thofe particular Perfons that, in Truth, have fo abused the Parliament, as well as ourfelves, even for those Mifinformations and other ' evil and indirect Practices or Proceedings in Parliament, whereby they have so abused the fame, as in our faid Charge and former Papers is set forth.~ And here, if we may, we fhould humbly offer to Confideration, whether it were not a neceffary • Ex 6 1647. June. Expedient, for Prevention or Remedy of fuch An. 23 Car. I. Evils in future, that, in Things fo clearly de* ftructive to the common Rights and Liberties of the People and Safety of the Kingdom, there be a Liberty for diffenting Members in the House of Commons, as it is allowed in the Houfe of • Peers, to enter their Diffent, and thereby acquit themselves from the Guilt or Blame of what Evils may enfue; that fo the Kingdom may regularly come to know who they are that perform their Trust faithfully, and who not: And this Provision for the future, as alfo our Defires for Remedy in the prefent Cafes, as it were clearly < good and neceffary in the Refpects premised, fo, we think, the fame may well be without future Prejudice or Difcouragement, in any other Refpects, to fucceeding Members of Parliament; ' provided always, that no Man fhall be queftioned or cenfured for any Thing faid or done in Parlia C ment, any further than to Exclufion from that < Truft, which is all that in the prefent Cafe we fhould defire upon any fuch Grounds. And that future Liberty of entering Diffents we do not here propose as a Thing we any way infift on to the Prejudice of Parliament Privileges; we only offer it to Confideration, and that from good • Wishes to the Privileges of Parliament, to render 'them more lasting by being less nocent. And, indeed, whoever moft adores or tenders thofe Priviléges will beft exprefs his Zeal towards them in taking Care they be not abused, or extended, to private Wrongs or public Mischiefs; public Mischiefs; for we clearly find, and all wife Men may fee it, that Parliament Privileges, as well as Royal Prerogative, may be perverted and abused, or extended to the Destruction of those greater Ends for whofe Protection and Preservation they were admitted or intended, viz. the Rights and Privileges of the People, and Safety of the whole; and in cafe it be fo, the Abuse, Evil, or Danger of them is no lefs to be contended against, and a Remedy "there An. 23 Car. I. thereof no lefs to be endeavoured, than of the 1647. June. • other. "And whereas the Injustice in that Particular of the Declaration against the Army, for their juft ⚫ and innocent Petition, may feem to have been recompenced in the late Expunging thereof out of "the Journal Books, we confefs it hath been fo in great Measure, as to the particular or present Injury done the Army therein; and we cannot but acknowledge, fo far, the Juftice that lies in thofe Votes for expunging thereof; but for our own or the Army's particular Reparation, we 'fhould never wifh more, nor fcarce have insisted 'on fo much, to any Difhonour of Parliament in 'future; we should rather have been fatisfied with the Parliament's declaring how, and by whom, "they have been misinformed, furprized, or otherwife abufed in framing the Propofal, or paffing thereof, as it was: But as to that Particular, or any other of that Nature, we fay as followeth : 1. "We never did, nor do, value or regard our own Injury or Reparation in any Comparison to "the Confequence of the one, or the Prejudice of the other, but to the future Security of the com'mon Right and Freedom of this Nation; and accordingly we do not account any Reparation ⚫ confiderable that extends but to ourselves in the < present Cafe, and does not, in fome fort, fecure ⚫ ourselves and all others from Danger of the fame or worse Injuries or Oppreffions, as private Men, 'from the Wills or Paffions of the fame Perfons that have offered and acted fuch Things against 6 us while an Army. 2. We cannot but imagine and confider, according to general Report, how the Expunging ⚫ of that Declaration was carried and obtained, and upon what Grounds and Intentions it was given Way to; but had those that procured it been all for expunging it, and that freely, yet how can we expect better but that the fame Men, who at 6 one Time carried fuch a Declaration, and another Time expunged it, may the next Day obtain the 1647. the like or worse, upon any Occafion wherein it An. 23 Car. I. may serve their private Ends or Interefts, if they 'continue in the fame Power and Sway, and be "let pass in deluding and furprizing the Parliament, ' as they have done in the paft Particulars? 3. The apparent Difhonour and Prejudice brought upon the Parliament, in having fuch a De'claration fo paffed, as that they should foon after, 'without any Alteration in the pretended-Ground of it, find Caufe, for Shame of the World, to expunge, we think fhould engage thofe Mem<bers that love Parliaments, in point of Honour, ' to find out and difcover how, and by whom, the ‹ Parliament had been abused or otherwise brought into fuch an Inconveniency. And the Parliament may in this fee the Temper, as Bye-ftanders do the Prevalence, of thofe Members that abused the Parliament in that Declaration, who will and can make the Authority of Parliament ftill lie under the Dishonour of it, in a bare expunging or retracting, rather than admit of any Confideration to acquit the Authority of Parliament, that would tend to fix the Blame on those particular Members that had deferved it: And this certainly would be - admitted and done, rather than to flight it over with a bare expunging, were not fome Men more tender of, and more fwayed with, fuch Confiderations and Confequences as may tend to the Prejudice of Perfons, than fuch as tend to the general Prejudice and Difhonour of Parliaments. As to thofe Particulars included in our Charge, 'which do depend upon Things done without the Parliament, we are ready, and should most willingly proceed in the particular charging and proving thereof, if firft (from the Juftice of the 'House in a present Proceeding against the Persons charged for the Things that are already known to 'the House to have been done in it) we could find Encouragement to expect any good Iffue upon ' those other Things; and did we not, on the contrary, find that (notwithstanding what is so known to the Houfe, as before expreffed) the fame Per • fons June. |