sure therein. VI. A Petition of St. Giles in the | my son, and to give him the honour of access fields, near London, to the king, of the In- whensoever he shall make his addresses to crease of Popery in their parish, wherein twenty-you; wherein you shall do a work of singular one persons were seduced and turned by two charity. priests, the which priests were both discharged by him." From Calais, this unfortunate Statesman wrote the following Letter to Philip earl of Pembroke, then Lord Great Chamberlain of England: "My Lord; I owe myself to your lordship for your late favours, and therefore much more the account of myself; though the debt, in either respect, be of little consideration, and the cancelling of both may be of greater advantage to you than to continue the obligation. "This account had been presented to your fordship at my first arrival here with my first dispatches, but I was so mortified with my hazardous passage in an open shallop, and so perplexed with the thoughts of miseries, into which I find myself plunged; and besides, the departure of the messenger that carried those letters, was so sudden, that it was not possible to perform this duty to your lordship sooner; for the which I do most humbly crave pardon. Your lordship may now please to accept the expressions, from the saddest and most wounded soul in the whole world, who am a spectacle of misery in myself, in my distressed wife and children, and in my whole fortunes; who have left the attending of my sovereign and master, and access to the best prince in the world; who am become a scorn and by-word to all the world, both at home and abroad; a wanderer, an exile from my own country, now in the dechination of my years, and likely to end my days in a remote country, far from the comfort of all my friends. "What I am guilty of none knows so well as his majesty, whom I have served faithfully, diligently, and with as true and loyal a heart, according to my poor abilities, as any other whatsoever; and if I found my conscience charged with any crime of baseness, corruption, infidelity, or any thing else unworthy of a gentleman, I should not venture to address these complaints to your lordship, or to any other person of honour. "In this disconsolate estate, being an object not altogether unworthy of your Lordship's compassion, be it for no other respect, but that I have long served the king and queen's majesties, I doubt not but your lordship, in your generosity and goodness, will have a lively sense and feeling of my sufferings, and vouchsafe me such relief as in your honour you may; and if myself, who, by course of nature, cannot be now of long continuance, be not considerable, I must beseech your lordship to have pity upon my poor innocent wife and children, that they receive such comfort and assistance from you in my absence, that they may be preserved from perishing. And to that end I most humbly crave your lordship's favour to this bearer, "Now, because there is an opinion in the world, that I have much improved my fortune by the Roman party, and that there hath been into England, I shall humbly crave your lorda design, by my ministry, to introduce popery ship's patience in giving me leave to clear these two great misunderstandings; which, if they were true, were sufficient to render me uncapable of his majesty's favours, or of the compassion of any person of honour whatsoever. "For the first, it is notorious to all the world, that having now served his majesty, in the place of secretary, for the space of above 8 years, I have not added one foot of land to the inheritance left me by my father; which, in land and lease, was not above 500l. per annum ; a poor and inconsiderable estate for a secretary, and such a one as most secretaries have more than trebled in a short time: for my manner of living, it hath been much under the dignity of a secretary, and if I had not been very frugal, I could not have subsisted; where then this concealed mass of treasure is, I wish those that speak so liberally of it would let me know; for I do protest to God I am utterly to seek where to discover it; and at this present I am so unfurnished with money, that if his majesty cause me not to be supplied, I am unable to subsist in these parts, without exposing my family in England to the danger of starving; and yet neither my purpose nor inclination is to live otherwise here, than in the greatest obscurity and closeness that possibly I may. I assure your lordship that those of the Roman party that passed my hands, by his najesty's commandment, were poor distressed creatures, and far from being able to enrich me: and besides, how little I have attended my own private interest, and how freely and like a gentleman (I hope I may speak the truth without ostentation) I have done courtesies to all, I wish it should rather appear by the testimony of such as have made use of my services, than by my own. My father and I have served the crown of England near 80 years together, in which time, if a greater estate had been raised it might well have been justified, considering the great employments near the persons of queen Elizabeth, king James, and his majesty that now is, we both have had; and your lordship may believe it, for I avow it upon the faith of a Christian, that it is no more than I have above-mentioned; and whether there are not many, from less employments, have risen to be noblemen, and made their fortune accordingly, I leave the world to judge. "For the other suspicion, of my being a favourer or advancer of Popery, I protest before Almighty God, and as I shall answer at the last dreadful day, that I know no ground for the least suspicion thereof; neither am I myself, nor is any of mine, to my knowledge, guilty of the least thought of any such purpose; for myself, I received my baptism in the church of England, and I know nothing in the church of Rome that can win me from that church wherein I was made a Christian; I do therefore hold this church of England, not only a true and orthodox church, but the most pure and near the primitive church of any in the Christian world; and this I will be ready to seal with my blood, whensoever there shall be occasion; with this further protestation, that if I did not hold it so, I would not continue in it for any worldly consideration whatsoever". "For that which hath passed my hands for favour of that party, it hath been merely ministerial, as his majesy best knows: and I must be bold to say that his majesty hath not been deceived by it, but hath received many greater advantages: besides that, if a secretary of state Saunderson says, "That sir Francis Windebank having been questioned and mainly convicted for reprieving Jesuits and Priests, and of worse matters suspected guilty, got over into France, where he remained to his death a professed Roman Catholic;" but Whitlocke is more tender, saving only, "That it was reported he remained to bis death a professed Papist."-Life of Charles 1, p. 333." Memorials, p. 37. should not hold intelligence with the party, is 155. Proceedings against Sir GEORGE RATCLIFF,* knt. on an Impeachment for High Treason: 16 CHARLES I. A. D. 1640. [4 Rushw. Coll. 44, 90. 2 Cobb. Parl. Hist. 698.] to the Gate-House. On the 31st of December 1640, Mr. Pym, in the name of the knights, citizens, and burgesses of the House of Commons, did present Arti cles to the lords, in maintenance of their Accusation of High Treason against sir George Ratcliff, the Articles were read openly, in hæc verba: AFTER the accusation of the earl of Straf- doth reach unto) sir George Ratcliff may be ford, the House of Commons fell into debate sent for, though a member of parliament there. concerning sir George Ratcliff; some members-He was accordingly sent for and committed of the house giving information against him, That there was cause to accuse him of High Treason, and that he ought to be sent for hither to answer it before the parliament of England, though he be a member of the parliament now sitting in Ireland; but some scruples being made about sending for him, it was referred to a Committee of seven, viz. Mr. Selden, Mr. St. John, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Solicitor, Mr. Maynard, Mr. Grimston, and Mr. Chadwell, to consider of that matter and to make a Report to the house; who afterward reported, "That the Committee were of opinion, that it is better to examine this matter according to the rules and foundation of this House, than to rest upon scattered instances." They further find an Information given of High Treason against sir George Ratcliff, which if it be true, then there is no doubt but in case of High Treason, (which privilege of parliament neither here nor there * "Sir George Ratcliff was accused here of High Treason upon pretence of being a confederate with the Earl of Strafford in his Treasons; but in truth, that he might not be capable of giving any evidence on the behalf of him, and thereupon sent for into this kingdom." Lord Clarendon. ARTICLES of the Commons, assembled in Par liament, against Sir GEORGE RATCLIFF, knight, in maintenance of their Accusation, whereby he stands charged with High Trea son. I. That he the said sir George Ratcliff hath traiterously conspired and confederated with Thomas earl of Strafford, to subvert the fundamental laws and government of the realms of England and Ireland, and to introduce an arbitrary and tyrannical government, against laws; and hath been a counsellor, actor and abettor, in that wicked and traiterous design of bringing the Irish army into England, to compel the subjects of this kingdom to submit thereunto. II. That he hath traitorously confederated and conspired with the said earl of Strafford, and hath been an actor, counsellor, and instrument to him, in assuming and exercising regal poser over the liberties and persons, lands and goods, of his majesty's subjects of Ireland; and hath accordingly exercised the same tyrannically, to the subversion and undoing of divers of his majesty's liege people. III. That, for the better enabling the said Earl and himself to go on with their traiterous designs, he the said sir George Ratcliff traiterously joined and confederated with the said Earl, in taking great sums of money out of his ruajesty's exchequer of Ireland, and converting them to the use of the said Earl and himself, when his majesty was necessitated for his own urgent occasions; the army having been then long unpaid. IV. That he hath traitorously confederated with the said Earl, and abused the power and authority which he held in Ireland, to the countenancing and encouraging of papists, that he might settle a mutual dependance and confidence betwixt the Earl and himself and that party, and to alienate the affections of the Irish papists from the subjects of England, and by their help to prosecute and accomplish their malicious and tyrannical designs. V. That he hath traiterously confederated with the said earl of Strafford, in plotting and endeavouring to stir up enmity and hostility betwixt his majesty's subjects of Ireland and those of Scotland. VI. That, the better to preserve himself and the said Earl in these and other traiterous courses, he hath laboured to subvert the rights of parliaments, and the ancient course of parliamentary proceedings. All which offences were committed during the time that the said sir George was a coun sellor of state in the kingdom of Ireland, and had taken oath for his faithful discharge of the same. By which actions, confederacies, and conspiracies, he hath traiterously, and contrary to his allegiance, endeavoured the ruin and destruction of his majesty's kingdoms; for which they do impeach him the said sir George Ratclf of High Treason against our sovereign lord, his crown and dignity. And the said Commons, by protestation, saving to themselves the liberty of exhibiting, at any time hereafter, any other Accusation or Impeachment against the said sir George Rat. cliff, and also of replying to the Answers that he the said sir George shall make unto the said Articles, or to any of them, and of offering proof also of the premises, or any of them, or of any other Impeachment or Accusation that shall be by them exhibited, as the case shall, according to the course of parliaments, require, do pray that the said sir George may be put to answer to all and every the premises; and that such proceedings, examinations, trial, and judgment, may be upon every of them had and used, as is agreeable to law and justice. After the reading of these Articles, Mr. Pym delivered himself to the Lords in these words: My Lords; By hearing this Charge, your VOL. IV. lordships may perceive what near conjunction there is between this cause and the earl of Strafford's. The materials for the most part are the same in both. The offences of the Earl, moving from a higher orb, are more comprehensive; they extend both to England and Ireland. These (except in one particular of reducing England by the Irish army) are confined within that kingdom. The Earl is charged as an author; sir George Ratcliff as an instrument and subordinate actor. The influences of superior planets are often augmented and enforced, seldom mitigated, by the concurrence of the inferior, where merit doth arise not from well-doing, but from ill. The officiousness of ministers will rather add to the malignity of their instructions, than diminish it, that so they may more fully ingratiate themselves with those upon whom they depend. "In the crimes committed by the Earl, there appears to be more haughtiness and fierceness, being acted by his own principles: Those mo tions are ever strongest which are nearest the primum mobile. But in those of sir George Ratcliff, there seems to be more baseness and servility, having resigned and subjected himself to be acted by the corrupt will of another. The ear! of Strafford hath not been bred in the study and practice of the law; and, having stronger lusts and passions to incite him, and less knowledge to restrain him, might more easily ba transported from the rule. "Sir George Ratcliff, in his natural temper and disposition more moderate, and by his edu cation and profession better acquainted with into his offences by an immediate concurrence the grounds and directions of law, was carried of will, by a more corrupt suppression and inthrailing of his own reason and judgment. in offending, so it is the desire of the commons, "My lords, as both these have been partners they may be put under such Examination and Trial, and other proceedings of justice, as may bring them both to partake in punishment, for the safety and good of both kingdoms." a deserved bar, and told that the house of commons had Then sir George Ratcliff was brought to the brought up Articles of High Treason against him; which being read unto him (having liberty granted him to speak,) he desired their lordand that they might have liberty to come to him ships that he might have Counsel assigned him, to advise him, because he conceived there was in the Charge divers points of law to be considered, and he himself was altogether unknowing in the manner of proceedings of this house; next, he desired that he might be allowed a competent time to answer. This being resolved of, the Lords were pleased to call sir George Ratcliff in again; and the Speaker told him the House had granted both his requests, and acquainted him with the aforesaid order; and then he withdrew. Then their lordships thought fit to call the Keeper of the Gatehouse, and told him that sir George Ratcliff was now committed by this house to the Gatehouse, upon an Accusation of High Treason: Therefore their Lordships would now expect from him that he should be kept in safe and sure custody, upon his peril; and that every night he must take a note what persons have visited him that day, and every Saturday to give an account thereof to this house. See the next Case. 156. Impeachment of Sir RICHARD BOLTON, knt. Lord Chancellor of Ireland; Dr. JOHN BRAMHALL, Lord Bishop of Derry; Sir GERARD LOWTHER, knt. Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas ; and Sir GEORGE RATCLIFF, knt.; before the House of Lords in Ireland: 16 CHARLES I. A. D. 1641. [4 Rushw. Coll. 214.] THIS Impeachment was brought up to the House of Lords in Ireland March 4th, 1641, by Captain Audley Mervin, who introduced it with the following Speech: "My lords; I am commanded by the knights, citizens and burgesses of the Commons House, to present unto you Ireland's Tragedy; the gray-headed Common Laws funeral; and the active Statutes death and obsequies. This dejected spectacle answers but the prefiguring type of Cæsar's murder, wounded to death in the Senate, and by Brutus his bosom friend. Our Cæsar's image by reflection, even the fundamental Laws and Statutes of this kingdom, the sole means by which our estates are confirmed, our liberties preserved, our lives secured, are wounded to death in the Senate, I mean in the Courts of Justice, and by Brutus too, even by those persons that have received their beings and subsistence from them: so that here enters first those inseparable twins, Treason, and Ingratitude. the amiable and delightful portraiture of flourishing and indulgent justice to his subjects, to represent him personated in their extrajudicial censures and judgments; but to possess (if possible) the hearts of his loyal subjects of this kingdom, that he is a bloody and devouring ty raut, and to provoke their never dying allegi ance into a desperate and fatal rebellion? What is it to violate the Grants of many of his majesty's progenitors, kings and queens of England, confirmed under the broad-seal, being the publie faith of this kingdom, by an extra-judicial breach, grounded upon no record? What is it to insert a surreptitious Clause, forged by some servile brain, in the preamble of our last Act of Subsidies: by which the king's most excellent majesty, and the earl of Strafford are placed in one and the same sphere, allowing them but equal influences to nourish the allegiance of this kingdom. What is this but to extol other than regal authority; and to crucify the majesty of our sovereign between the two thieves of government, Tyranny and Treason? "In a plain phrase, (my lords), I tender unto you Treason, High-Treason, such a Treason, "My lord; having such a full and rushing that wants nothing but words to express it. gale to drive me into the depth of these occaTo counterfeit the king's seal, to counterfeit sions, I can hardly steer and confine my course the king's money, it is Treason: but this dies within the compass of patience, since I read in with the individual party: to betray a fort is the first volume of their brows, the least of these Treason; but it dies with a few men. To betray to be the certain ruin of the subject; and if an army is Treason; but it dies with a limited proved, a most favourable prologue to usher in number; which may be reinforced again by poli- the Tragedy of the Actors, Counsellors and tic industry to blow up both houses of parlia- Abettors herein: What was then the first and ment, is Treason; but succeeding ages may re- main question? It was the subversion of the plant branches by a fruitful posterity: but this fundamental laws of this kingdom. Let then High-Treason, by which I do now again in the Magna Charta that lies prostrated, besmeared name of the House of Commons, charge and im- and groveling in her own gore, discount her peach sir Richard Bolton, kt. lord chancellor of wounds, as so many pregnant and undenia Ireland, and sir Gerard Lowther, kt. lord chief ble proofs. Mark the epithet Magna,' Kar' justice of the common-pleas; John, lord bishop, confirmed by thirty parliaments in the of Derry, and şir George Ratcliff, kt. in its nature so far transcends any of the former, that the rest seem to be but petty larcenies in respect of this. succession of eighteen kings, the violation of which hath several times engaged the kingdom of England in a voluntary sacrifice: a Charter which imposeth that pleasant and well becoming Oath upon all sovereignty, to vindicate and preserve the immunity thereof before the crown incircle the royal temples in this oath of so high consequence and general interest, his ma "What is it to subvert the fundamental laws of this kingdom? High-Treason. What is it with a contumacious malice to trample under feet the rich legacies of our fore-fathers, purchased with sweat and expence, I mean the statutejesty doth in a manner levy a fine to his sublaws? High-Treason. What is it, through an innate antipathy to the public good, to incarcerate the liberty of the subject under the iron and weighty chains of an arbitrary government? High-Treason! What is it, since his majesty is jects use, for avoiding all fraudulent conveyances in the administration of justice; and this oath is transplanted unto the judges, as feoffees in trust, appointed between his majesty and the subject, and sealed by his majesty's provident happy divided kingdom from his majesty's presence and audience to contemplate the fair and ravishing form of his royal intentions in, but in the clear and diaphanous administration of his justice? And what do these traitorous and il care, with that emphatical penalty, that their estates and lives shall be in the king's mercy, upon the violation of the same, either in whole or in part; Neither hath the deserved punishment for the breach of this oath, been enacted, as bugbears to enforce the obedience of chil-legal practices aim at, but in affront to his ma dren. "No, my lords, the just execution of it upon their predecessors, though in breaches not so capital, might have warned them to have strangled their ill born resclutions in the cradle, before they should more proclaim their infamy, and petition for their punishment. Witness sir Thomas Wayland his banishment, confisca tion of his goods and lands, only for his mercenary justice contrary to his Oath, who was chief justice of the Common Pleas, in the time of Edward 1. Witness sir William Thorp, Chief Justice of the King's Bench in the time of Ed. 3, who was adjudged to be hanged, because he had broken the king's Oath made unto the people, wherewith he was entrusted; for so was the interpretation of the reason entered in the roll. "Yet, my lords, though Magna Charta be so sacred for antiquity; though its confirmation be strengthened by oath, though it be the proper dictionary that expounds meum and tuum, and assigns every subject his birthright, it only survives in the Rolls, but is miserably rent and torn in the Practice. These words, 'salvo contenemento,' live in the Rolls, but they are dead in the Star-chamber. These words, Nullus homo liber disseisietur de libero suo tenemento nisi per judicium parium, live in the Rolls, but they are dead where property and free-hold are determined by paper petitions; These words, Nulli vendemus, nulli 'differemus justitiam,' live in the Rolls, but are dead when the suits, judgments, and executions of the subjects are wittingly or illegally retarded, suspended and avoided: Shall we desire to search the mortal wounds inflicted upon the Statute Laws? Who sees them not lying upon their death beds, stabbed by Proclamations, their primitive and genuine tenures escheated by Acts of State, and strangled by Monopolies? 6 "Will you survey the Liberties of the Subject? every prison spews out illegal Attachments and Commitments; every pillory is dyed with the forced blood of the subjects, and hath ears, though not to hear, yet to witness this complaint. Do you doubt of the defacement of the amiable offices of his majesty's most transplendent, and renowned justice and grace? Let then that microcosm of letters patents, confirmed under his majesty's and his predecessors broad seal of the kingdom, being the public faith thereof, and yet unchristened by frivolous and private opinions, rise up in judgment. Let the abortive judgment of the tenure in capite, where no tenure was expressed; nay, let the heretical traitorous opinions, where the tenure was expressed, yet to draw in all by markets and fairs, granted in the same patents, rise up in judgment.-What glass hath this un jesty, which we most tenderly resent, and discontent to his subject, to multiply, as by a magic glass, the royal dispensation of his favours, into the ugly and deformed visage of their suppression of the liberties, devastation of estates, and deprivation of the lives of his loyal subjects; so that it may be said, Regali capiti ' cervicem consul equinam jungere sic vellet ' variasque inducere plumas.' "My Lords; these ought to be considered with as serious and attentive an ear, as they were practised by mischievous experiments. Inquire of the Netherlands why their fields are grown fertile by the inundation of blood; why the pensive matrons solemnize too too frequent funerals of their husbands and issue, and they will answer, That it was for the preservation of their laws, which tyranny would have innovated. This kingdom personated in the sable habit of a widow, with dishevelled hairs, seems to petition your lordships, that since she is a mother to most of us, yet certainly a nurse unto us all, that you would take some order for a redress of her tyrannical oppressions. "These persons impeached, resemble the opacous body of the earth, interposed to eclipse that light and vigour, which the solar aspect of majesty would communicate unto his subjects. They iinitate the fish Sepia, that vomits a dark liquor out of her mouth, to cloud the waters for her securer escape. They are those to whom the keys have been committed, yet they have barred the door to them that knocked. They are those unnatural parents, that give their children stones instead of bread, and scorpions for fish. Was it to this purpose that the royal authority situated them in these emninent places, that, like beacons upon high hills, they should discover and proclaim each innovation and stratagem against the public weal; whilst they, in the mean time, employ their fires to a public incendiary, or like Ignes fatui, seduce the easy and believing traveller into pits and unexpected mires? "Were they sworn to seal their damnation, and not the confirmation of our liberties, estates, and lives? Shall a man be censured for perjury in that breach of his private faith, and these be justifiable in Treason, aggravated by perjury against the crown and public faith of the kingdom? No, my lords, your grave, judicious, and mature examination, and deserved punishment of these traitorous proceedings, will speak these times as glorious to posterity in their reformation, as now they are lamented in their persecution. The blood-thirsting sword of an hostile enemy by a timely union and a defensive preparation may be prevented. The thin-ribbed carcase of an universal famine may have his consumption restored by a supply from our neighbouring nations. The quick-spreading |