precipitated the Bishops to fo hafty a Refolution (which was, that the House of Peers would have made that use of the Bishops being kept from the Houfe, that they would in that time have paffed the Bill it felf for taking away their Votes) had its effects likewise with the King; who had the fame imagination, and therefore would lofe no time in the tranf miffion of it to the House. Whereas it is more probable the Lords would never have made use of that very Season, whilft the Tumults still continued, for the Paffing an Act of that importance; and the Scandal, if not Invalidity of it, would have been an Unanfwerable ground for the King to have refused his Royal Affent to it.

ASSOON as this Proteftation, which, no doubt, in the time before the House was to meet, had been communicated to Those who were prepar'd to speak upon it, was delivered by the Lord Keeper with his Majefty's Command, and read; the Governing Lords manifested a great Satisfaction in it; Some of them faying, "That there was Digitus Dei to "bring That to pass, Which they could not Otherwife have "compaffed; and without ever Declaring any Judgment or Opinion of their own upon it, which they ought to have done, the matter only having relation to themselves, and concerning their own Members; they fent to defire a Conference presently with the House of Commons, upon a bufi- The Protenefs of Importance; and, at the Conference, only read, and Aation is de deliver'd the Proteftation of the Bishops to them; which, the Lords to the Lord Keeper told them, he had receiv'd from the King's the House of own Hand, with a Command to Prefent it to the Houfe of Commons in Peers. The House of Commons took very little time to con- a Conference. fider of the matter; but, within half an hour, they fent up The Comto the Lords; and, without further Examination, accufed mons aceufe the Bishops them all who had Subscribed the Proteftation, of High Treathat fubfon; and, by this means, they were all, the whole Twelve feribed it of of them, committed to Prifon; and remain'd in the Tower High Treatill the Bill for the putting them out of the House was Pafs'd, fon, and which was not till many Months after.

livered by

They are committed

to the

WHEN the Paffion, Rage, and Fury of this time flrall be forgotten, and Pofterity fhall find, amongst the Records of Tower. the Supream Court of Judicature, fo many Orders, and Refolutions in vindication of the Liberty of the Subject against the Imprifoning of any man, though by the King Himself, without affigning fuch a Crime as the Law hath determin'd to be worthy of Imprisonment; and in the fame Year, by this high Court, fhall find Twelve Bifhops, Members of This Court, committed to Prifon for High Treafon, for the Presenting This Proteftation; Men will furely wonder at the Spirit of that Reformation and even that Clause of Declaring all Acts Vol. I. Part 2.

Null,

Null, which had been, or fhould be done in their Absence, in defence of which no man Then durft open his Mouth, will be thought good Law, and good Logick; not that the Prefence of the Bishops in that time was fo Effential, that no Act should Pafs without Them; which had given them a Voice, upon the matter, as Negative as the King's; and Themfelves, in their Inftrument, Disclaimed the leaft Pretence to fuch a qualification; but because a Violence offer'd to the Freedom of any One Member, is a Violation to all the Reft: as if a Council confift of Threefcore, and the door to that Council be kept by Armed men, and all Such, whofe Opinions are not liked, kept out by force; no doubt the Freedom of Thofe Within is infringed, and all Their Acts as Void and Null, as if they were Locked in, and kept without meat till they alter'd their Judgments.

AND therefore you fhall find in the Journals of the most Sober Parliaments, that, upon any eminent Breach of Their Privileges, as always upon the Commitment of any Member for any thing Said or Done in the House, fometimes upon lefs occafions, that House, which apprehended the Trefpafs, would fit mute, without Debating, or handling any business, and then Adjourn; and this hath been practifed many days together, till they had Redrefs or Reparation. And their Reafon was, because their Body was Lame; and what was befallen One Member, threaten'd the Reft; and the confequence of one A&t might extend it felf to many other, which were not in view; and this made their Privileges of fo tender, and nice a temper, that they were not to be Touched, or in the leaft degree Trenched upon; and therefore that in so apparent an Act of Violence, where it is not more clear that they were committed to Prifon, than that they durft not then Sit in the House, and when it was Lawful in the House of Peers for every diffenter in the most Trivial Debate, to enter his Protestation against that sense he liked not, though he were fingle in his opinion; That it fhould not be Lawful for Those who could not Enter it Themselves, to Prefent this Proteftation to the King, to whom they were accountable under a Penalty for their Abfence; and unlawful to that degree, that it fhould render them culpable of High Treafon; and fo forfeit their Honour, their Lives, their Fortunes, expofe their Names to perpetual Infamy, and their Wives and Children to Penury and want of bread; will be looked upon as a Determination of that Injuftice, Impiety, and Horrour as could not be believ'd without thofe deep marks, and Prints of Confusion that followed, and attended That Refolution.

AND yet the Indiscretion of Those Bishops, fwayed by

the

the Pride, and Paffion of that Arch-Bishop, in applying, that Remedy at a time, when they faw all Forms and Rules of Judgment impetuously declined; and the power of their Adverfaries fo great, that the Laws themselves fubmitted to their Oppreffion; that They fhould, in fuch a Storm, when the beft Pilot was at his prayers, and the Card, and Compafs loft, without the advice of one Mariner, put themselves in fuch a Cock-boat, and to be fevered from the good Ship, gave that Scandal and Offence to all those who paffionately defired to preserve their Function, that they had no compaffion, or regard of their Perfons, or what became of them; infomuch as in the whole Debate in the Houfe of Commons, there was only one Gentleman,who fpoke in their behalfs, and faid; "He did not believe they were guilty of High Treafon, but "that they were Stark Mad; and therefore defired they might "be sent to Bedlam.

THIS high, and extravagant way of proceeding brought no Prejudice to the King; and though it made their Tribu nal more terrible to Men who laboured under any Guilt, yet it exceedingly leffened the Reverence and Veneration, that formerly had been entertained for Parliaments: and this last Accufation, and Commitment of fo many Bishops at Once, was looked upon by all Sober men with Indignation. For whatever Indifcretion might be in the thing it felf, though some Expressions in the matter might be Unskilful and Unwarrantable, and the Form of prefenting and tranfmitting it, Irregular and Unjuftifiable (for all which the Houfe of Peers might punish their Own Members, according to their difcretion) yet every man knew there could be no Treafon in it; and therefore the end of their Commitment, and the use all men saw would be made of it, made it the more Odious; and the Members who were abfent from both Houfes, which were Three parts of Four, and many of those who had been prefent, Abhorred the Proceedings; and attended the Houses more diligently; so that the Angry Party, who were no more treated with, to abate their Fury, would have been compelled to have given over all their Defigns for the Alteration of the Government both in Church, and State; if the Volatile, and Unquiet Spirit of the Lord Digby had not prevail'd with the King, contrary to his Refolution, to have given Them fome New Advantage; and to depart from his purpose of doing nothing without very mature Deliberation.

THOUGH S William Balfour, who is already mentioned, had, from the beginning of this Parliament, forgot all his Obligations to the King; and had made himself very Gracious to thofe people, whofe glory it was to be thought Enemies to the Court; and, whilft the Earl of Strafford, was his Pri

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foner, did many Offices not becoming the Trust he had from the King, and contributed much to the Jealoufy, which that Party had of his Majefty; upon which there had been a long resolution to remove him from that Charge; but to do it with his own Confent, that there might be no manifestation of Displeasure; yet it was a very unfeasonable Conjuncture, which was taken to execute it in; and this whole Tranfaction was so fecretly carried, that there was neither notice nor fufpicion of it, till it was heard, that St Thomas Lunsford was Sworn Lieutenant of the Tower; a Man, who, though of an ancient Family in Suffex, was of a very fmall, and decayed Fortune, and of no good Education; having been few years before, compell'd to fly the Kingdom, to avoid the hand of Juftice for fome riotous Mifdemeanour; by reafon whereof, he fpent fome time in the fervice of the King of France, where he got the reputation of a Man of Courage, and a good Officer of Foot; and in the beginning of the Troubles here had some Command in the King's Army; but fo much inferior to many others, and was fo little known, except upon the difadvantage of an ill Character, that, in the moft Dutiful time, the Promotion would have appear'd very ungrateful. He was utterly a Stranger to the King, and therefore it was quickly, understood to proceed from the Single election of the Lord Digby, to whom he was likewise very little known; who had in truth defign'd that Office to his Brother S Lewis Dives, against whom there could have been no exception, but his Relation: but He being not at that time in Town, and the other having some secret Reason to fill that place in the Inftant, with a man who might be trusted; he fuddainly resolv'd upon this Gentleman, as one who would be Faithful to him for the obligation, and execute any thing he should defire, or direct; which was a reafon he might eafily have foreseen would provoke more powerful Oppofition; which errour, as is faid before, was repair'd by the fuddain change, and putting in Sr John Byron; though it gave little fatisfaction, and the lefs, by reafon of another more inconvenient Action, The Attur- which chang'd the whole Face of Affairs, and caufed This to ney General be more reflected upon.

Herbert ac

cufes in the

IN the Afternoon of a day when the two Houses fate, HerHouse of bert the King's Atturney inform'd the House of Peers, that Lords the he had fomewhat to fay to them from the King; and thereLord Kim- upon, having a Paper in his hand, he said, that the King combolton, and manded him to accufe the Lord Kimbolton, a Member of that five Members of the Houfe, and five Gentlemen, who were all Members of the Houfe of Houfe of Commons, of High Treafon; and that his Majefty Commons of had himself deliver'd him in Writing feveral Articles, upon High Trea- which he accufed them; and he read in a Paper thefe enfuing

fon.

Articles,

Articles, by which the Lord Kimbolton, Denzil Hollis, St Arthur Haflerig, Mr Pym, Mr Hambden, and Mr Strode, stood Accused of High Treafon, for Confpiring against the King, and the Parliament.

Articles of High Treason, and other Misdemeanours, against The Artithe Lord Kimbolton, Mr Pym, John Hambden, Denzil cles against Hollis, Sr Arthur Haflerig, and William Strode Mem-them. bers of the House of Commons.

1. "THAT They have Traiterously endeavour'd to Sub"vert the Fundamental Laws, and Government of this King"dom; and deprive the King of his Regal Power; and to "place on his Subjects an Arbitrary, and Tyrannical Power.

2. "THAT They have endeavour'd, by many foul Afper"fions upon his Majefty, and his Government, to alienate the "Affections of his People, and to make his Majesty odious "to Them.

3. "THAT They have endeavour'd to draw his Majefty's "late Army to disobedience to his Majefty's Command, and to Side with Them in their Traiterous defign.

4. "THAT They have Traiterously invited, and encou"raged a Forreign Power to invade his Majesty's Kingdom " of England.

5. "THAT They have Traiterously endeavour'd to Sub"vert the very Rights and Beings of Parliament.

6. "THAT, for the compleating of their Traiterous de"figns, They have endeavour'd, as far as in Them lay, by "Force and Terror to compel the Parliament to joyn with "them in their Traiterous defigns, and to that end, have "Actually raised, and countenanced Tumults against the "King and Parliament.

7. THAT They have Traiteroufly confpired to Levy, "and Actually have Levied War against the King.

THE House of Peers was fomewhat appall'd at this Alarum; but took time to confider of it, till the next day, that they might fee how their Masters the Commons would behave themselves; the Lord Kimbolton being present in the House, and making great profeffions of his Innocence; and no Lord being fo hardy to prefs for his Commitment on the behalf of the King.

at Arms

A Serjeant AT the fame time, a Serjeant at Arms demanded to be heard at the House of Commons from the King; and being demands the fent for to the Bar, demanded the Perfons of five of their five Members Members to be deliver'd to him in his Majesty's Name, his in the House Majesty having accufed them of High Treafon. But the Com- of Commons.

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