Judge, and faid, He fhould have the fame was mentioned above, if he would but permit and fuffer them to put in print, That he did own ⚫ and acknowledge their Power to be lawful and juft, and would not gainfay it.' To this he answered, That he would not connive at their fo doing, for all the Money they had robbed the Kingdom of, and fhould they be fo impudent to print any fuch Matter, he would fell his • Doublet and Coat to buy Pens, Ink and Paper, and would fet forth the Commons-Houfe in their proper Colours.' (That is, would make them appear to be fcandalous, impudent, and lying Rebels). When they found him fo firm, one of the Committee ufed this Motive, You have a Wife and nine Children, who all will ftarve if you refuse this Offer; fo confider, for their Sakes, they make up ten preffing Arguments for your Compliance.' What, (faid the Judge) did they defire you to prefs me in this Matter?" I will not fay they did, (reply'd the Committeeman) but I think they prefs you to it without fpeaking at all.' With that the old Man's Anger was heighten'd to the utmoft, and he in Paffion faid, Had my Wife and Children petition'd you in this Matter, I would have look'd on her as a Whore, and them as Baftards. Upon this the Committee departed, and he continued in Newgate till the Reftoration; after which I am. informed that this moft Heroical and Loyal Judge died, whofe Memory and Doings ought never to be forgotten by loyal Men.

But to proceed to the Examination of Mr. Neal's fourth Volume: He acknowledges, that upon the King's Death, the legal Government was diffolved, and that all that followed till the Restoration of King Charles the Second, was no better than an Ufurpation: And yet he cannot forbear discovering a more than common Approbation of this Ufurpa

2

tion,

tion, and Diflike to the Reftoration of the antient legal Form of Government..

N. p. 1. The House of Commons, (fays he) if it may deferve that Name, after it had been purged of a third Part of its Members, relying upon the Act of Continuation, called themselves the Supreme Authority of the Nation.

Mr. Neal magnifies the Number of the Members that conftituted the (k) Rump Parliament: For according to Mr. (1) Echard, not above a fifth Part of the Commons were left: And another Writer obferves (m), That three Parts of four at least of the Members were forcibly detained, and deterred from fitting in the House of Commons. So that the Modellers of the Rump, from their garbling of that House, might juftly be compar'd to that Man (2) who would never ceafe to whet ‹ and whet his Knife, till there was no Steel left to make it useful.'

N. p. 2. The House of Lords was voted ufelefs. And fo indeed it was: and tho' fome few Lords (notwithstanding their (0) Difability to fit in that House)

(k) This Term (fays Mr. Heath, Chronicle, p. 422.) was firft given them by one Walker, who writ the Hiftory of Independency, upon fe<cluding and debarring the Houfe to their Fellow-Members in 1648. when there remained a Fag-end or Tail: but was almoft abolished by the Height and Violence of their Profperity: Nor was heard of again till Richard's Parliament, when Major General Brown repeating the many Injuries he had received from that Party or Juncto, in a scornful Apoftrophe, branded it with this Note of Infamy the Rump, which, upon their Readmiffion, was their only Appellation, except among their own Party.' Mr. Walker, (History of Independency, part. 3. p. 71. who was himself one of the fecluded Members) fays, And now thefe Dregs and Lees of the Houfe of Commons take upon them to be a complete Parliament.' And again, (ibid. p. 35.) Oh brutish and irrational Kingdom, where 40 or 50 Anabaptiftical Members, the Dregs and Lees of the House of Commons, after all the best and fincereft (7 Parts of 8) had been racked and purged out at the Bung-hole by Cromwell the Brewer, and Pride the Drayman, fhall be called the Reafon and Law of the Land.' Mr. Carte (Life of James the Firft Duke of Ormonde, vol. 2. P. 53.) calls them, The Carcafe of a House." (1) Hiftory of England, vol. 2. p. 653.

(m) Cromwell's Bloody Slaughter-Houfe, by a Perfon of Honour, p. 25. penes me.

(n) Walton's Life of Hooker, p. 10.

(o) Mr. Clement Walker (Hiftory of Independency, part 2. p. 225.) obferves from Pryn, That fome of them were elected by new illegal Writs,

• under

House) ignominiously vouchfafed to fit with the Rump, (and thefe were the Earl of (p) Pembroke, the Earl of Salisbury, and the Lord Howard of Efcrigg). (q) Yet the Peers in general highly refented the Indignity, and in a Proteftation publifhed in the Names of all the Peers and Barons in the Realm, they afferted their Privileges and the fundamental Laws of the Nation, and disclaimed all (r) Acts, Votes, &c. of the faid Members of the Commons House, for erecting of (s) New Courts of Justice, to try or execute the King, or any Peer or Subject of this Realm, for altering the

❝ under a new kind of Seal, fince the King's beheading, as the Earl of Pem broke, and the Lor! Edward Howard, uncapable of being Burgeff's by the Common Law, as was adjudged in the Lord Camoy's Cafe, Clauf Dorf. 7. Rich. 2. m. 32. and afferted by Mr. Selden's Titles of Honour, part 2. chap. 5. p. 737. feconded by Cook's 4 Inft. p. 1. 45, 46, 47, 49.'

The Writ in Selden's Titles of Honour, 2d Edit. p. 737. as follows: Rex Vicecomiti Surria, Salutem. Quia ut accepimus Thomam Camoys, Chivaler, qui Bannerettas eft, ficut quamplures antecefforum fuorum extiterunt, ad effendum unum militum venientium ad proximum Parlamentum noftrum, pro communitate Comitatus præditi, de affenfu ejufdem Comitatus, elegifti; nos advertentes, quod bujufmodi Banneretti, ante hæc tempora in Milites Comitatus ratione alicujus Parlamenti eligi minime confueverunt, ipfum de Officio Militis ad dictum Porlamentum pro communitate Comitatus præditi, vanturi, exonerari volumus ; & ideo tibi præcipimus quod quendam alium Militem idoneum & difcretum, Gladio cinctum, loco ipfius Thoma eligi, & eum ad diem locum Parliamenti prædeti venire facias, cum plena fufficienti poteftate ad confentiendum biis, quæ in Parliamento prædicto fient juxta tenorem primi Brevis noftri tibi pro Elec tione bujufmodi Militum directi, & Nomen ejus nobis feire facias. Tefte Rege apud Wefmonafterium octavo Die Octobris. Where Mr. Selden obferves, That this Writ may not be understood of any other Banneret, than a Par→ liament Baron, or Banneret of that Time.

(p) Whitelock obferves, (Memorials p. 396.) That the Earl of Pembroke ' was returned Knight of the Shire for Berks, Prima Impreffionis.' And in another Place, (p. 439.) That his Son fat in the Houfe after his Death. And for an Honour (fays he, Mem. p. 426.) to the Earl of Pembroke, and • of Salisbury, and the Lord Howard of Eferigg, Members of the House of • Commons, 'twas ordered, that they might fit in all Committees of which they were before the Houfe was diffolved.'

(9) Echard's Hiftory of England, vol. 2. p. 652.

Whitelock informs us, (Memorials, p. 473.) That the Minifters about Dartmouth would not read any Act or Ordinance commanded by the Parliament.' And elsewhere, (p. 488.) That there was an Agreement of the Minifters of Somerfet and Devon, to refuse the Engagement, and Orders of Parliament."

(s) In the Trial of Colonel Axtel, (Trials of the Regicides, 4to. 1660. p. 185.) it is properly enough called, The High Court of Injustice. Elfing, Clerk of the Parliament, bravely (according to Whitelock, Memor. p. 364.) refigned his Poft, because he would have no Hand in the Bufinefs against the King.

Government,

Government, Laws, Great Seal, &c. raifing new Forces, and impofing new Taxes or Oaths; and likewife protested against the traiterous murdering of the late King, and difinheriting his Son the Prince of Wales, and particularly against the infolent and frantick Vote concerning abolishing the Houfe of (t) Peers, as useless and dangerous: All which Votes, Acts and Orders they declared to be not only illegal, but deteftable and deftructive to the Rights and Beings of Parliament, the fundamental Laws of the Land, and the Lives, Liberties and Properties of the People.

N. Ibid. The Form of the Government for the future was declared to be a free Commonwealth: the executive Power to be lodged in a Council of State of forty Perfons.

Mr. Whitelock fays, (u) That a Committee was appointed to bring in the Names of Perfons not exceeding forty to be a Council of State. And in another Place, (Memorials, p. 381.) men⚫tions a Vote for thirty-eight to be of the Council of State, and names their Names.' And Bishop Kennet fays, (w) That the executive Power was put into the Hands of a Council of State, confifting of thirty-eight Perfons, to act with full • Powers for one Year, the Qualification of every • Member of this Council of State, or Committee of Eftates, was to fubfcribe unto approving of the King's Execution.' Mr. Clement Walker gives the following Account of the Council of State (x):

(t) Whitelock was appointed to draw up the Ordinance for abolishing the Houfe of Peers. And tho' he declared his Opinion against it, (fee Mem. P. 377.) yet he could not get excufed.' Nay, fo fubfervient was this great Man to most of thofe Changes during the Anarchy, that the Writer of his Life fays, (Lives of the Lord Chancellors, vol. 2. p. 362.) I know not whether it was true that he waited upon the King after his Restoration to beg his Pardon for all that he had tranfacted against him; and that his Majefty bid him go live quietly in the Country, and take Care of his Wife, and one and thirty Children.'

(u) Memorials, P. 377. 2d edit.

(w) Complete Hiftory, 2d edit. vol. 3. p. 190. vol. 2. p. 653.

(x) Walker's Hiftory of Independency, part 2. p. 186.

See Echard's Hiftory,

• Whitehall

• Whitehall (fays he) is now become the Place of a Hydra of Tyrants, instead of a King, where our Hogens Mogens, or Council of State, fit in much 'State and Splendour, with their Rooms as richly hang'd (I wish they were fo too) and furnish'd (if you will believe their licens'd News-Books) as any Lords States in Europe, yet many of • these Mushrooms of Majefty were but Mechanicks, Goldsmiths, Brewers, Weavers, Clothiers, Brew6 ers Clerks, &c. whom fcornful Fortune in a fpiteful Merriment brought upon the Stage to act the Parts of Kings.' And in another Place, (fays he) (y) But I would gladly know by what Authority a Pack of forty Knaves, calling themfelves a Council of State, and ufurping Regal Power, fhall take upon them to abolish our an<tient Form of Parliaments, contrary to the fun⚫damental Laws of the Land.' And elsewhere, (z) That amongst them were fome Tradefmen Soldiers, illiterate Lawyers, Parliament Mem<bers, Men already engaged over Head and Ears in Sin, therefore to be confided in. To these, or any nine of these they entrust the Admini• ftration of this Utopian Commonwealth, and these they would have us believe (without telling us fo) are the Keepers (or Goalers) of the Liberties of England.-(a) How come we to for

(y) Walker's Hiftory of Independency, part 2. p. 207.

(x) Ib. part 3. p. 10, 11. In a Tract intitled, Mercurius Impartialis, in Answer to Mercurius Militaris, quoted in a Tract intitled, The 29th of May, P. 34. penes me, are the following Words; That that Court hath ever been had in high and honourable Estimation for the Justice thereof, we are not ⚫ ignorant of; yet even from that Court, corrupted by malignant Members, has befallen this Kingdom more Mifchief, Defolation and Ruin within thefe 8 Years, than ever it received from all the Parliaments that ever were < fince their primitive Inftitution, or than all the fucceeding Parliaments that • fhall fit these many hundred Years fhall be able to repair: And indeed the prefent Parliament Priefts, and their Emiffaries from their Pulpits and ‹ Presses, have added more Souls to the Number of the Damned, than ever • the Devil, the Pope, and their subtleft Agents, with their moft skilful and • pleasant Rhetorick, were more than fourfcore Years before able to accomplish.' ́(9) Ibid. p. 13.

* feit