we continue to want the happy fruition of the same, it must be ascribed either to an overgrown baseness of mind in the one, or an unnatural malignity in the other, as indulging rather to a foreign name, than to a nation whereof the said state is a part, and intrusted with the welfare and honour thereof; and in this still-servilising case it will be ridiculous for us, the nation, to pretend to honour or renown, but more proper for us for ever to profess ourselves of that quality wherein we take up our rest, to wit, captivity and servility: but, if we may descry a gloririous morning, and dvaro of our benighted honour, refulging in the happy accomplishment of these our desires, then shall we with alacrity press all that the English name investeth unto the defence and enlargement of the English dominion, and, instead of disclaiming our nation, and transfuging to others, as many of us now do, and have done especially in Ireland, we shall joy to make Anglicism become the only soul and habit of all, both Ireland and Great-Britain. Diri. Octob. 1642. J. H.

SERJEANT THORPE,

Judge of Assize for the Northern Circuit,

HIS CHARGE,

As it was delivered to the grand jury at York assizes, the twentieth of March, 1648; clearly epitomising the statutes belonging to this nation, which concern (and, as a golden rule, ought to regulate) the several estates and conditions of men; and, being duly observed, do really promote the peace and plenty of this commonwealth.

From a Quarto, containing 30 pages, printed at London, by T. W. for Matthew Walbancke and Richard Best, at Gray's Inn Gate, in 1649.

GEN

YENTLEMEN, friends, and countrymen, I do not question, but that the stile and title of our commissions, under which we are now to act, and execute the authority and power committed to our hands, being changed from Carolus Rex Angliæ, to Custodes libertatis Anglie authoritate parliamenti, works divers effects upon the tempers and spirits of men, according as the spirits themselves are tempered and affected; and that some of those spirits (like the sun upon wax) it softens into obedience and compliance, and others of them, again (like the same sun upon clay) it hardens into stiffness and opposition. Proud, ambitious, and malignant spirits, finding themselves frustrated and defeated hereby of their designed hopes, and hopeful designs, for obtain

ing their desired ends; and, being filled with prejudice to others, and self-love to their own opinions, and therefore having turned themselves aside from the use of their own reason, and from all overtures and arguments of satisfaction, and having given up their understanding to blind affections, it startles and confounds with passions and amazements, heightened into choler and disdain; because, looking through the false glass of their own self-interest, they find nothing therein, but imaginary shakings of foundations, overturning of laws, and confused heaps of ruins and distractions. But to these, if any such be present, (especially, if they have been formerly engaged in open war against the publick interest of the nation, and so are cast, by God's justice, for their transgressions into a mean and low condition;) all I shall say, (with the poor comfort of calamity, pity) is this, that, if they have not already tasted enough of the cup of God's wrath, for their misdoings, let them take heed they engage not again, for fear that, hereafter, they be enforced to drink the dregs of his displeasure. Other silly spirits there are, who, standing unbottomed upon any solid principles of their own, find themselves tossed to and fro with the wind which blows from others mouths; one while listening to the prophet, who bids them go up to Ramoth-Gilead, and prosper; and by and by again yielding him that bids them not go up, for fear of perishing; and so they are carried into cross and oblique opinions, and actions, tending to, and endangering, their utter ruin and destruction. And, to these men, all I shall say, and advise, is this, that they will forthwith repair to the school of reason, and suffer themselves to be guided and led by impartial and wholesome lessons, and instructions, to a better information of their judgments, whereby they may be settled upon undeniable grounds in the knowledge of themselves, and the truth, and of their own right, interest, and concernment. But another sort of men there are, who are willing to let their eyes stand in the place where nature set them, and to make use of that reason and judgment, which God hath given them, and, with erected minus, to apprehend the sense of their own future happiness, and to hearisen to the voice which calls them to the flourishing actions of a reformed commonwealth, and therefore do entertain this change with suitable opinions and compliance from these grounds which they thus propound and argue with themselves.

1. That all power and authority is originally and primarily in God, and comes from God; and this they rest upon, as being a scripturetruth.

2. That God, out of his wisdom and providence, hath dispensed and transmitted so much of this authority and power to men, as is necessary for their use, First, as in relation to the inferior creatures, to rule and govern them, as lord and king. And, as in relation to one another, from a principle of nature, (conservatio sui-ipsius) to seek and endeavour their own preservation and security, which principle draws them to this conclusion (salus populi suprema lex) the safety of the people is the supreme law, both of nature, and nations. And from this natural principle, and supreme law of nature, however all men, in their original creation, are all of one and the same substance, mould, and stamp, yet, for preservation's sake, they find a fitness in

subordinations and degrees among them, for the better ordering of their affairs; and so they appoint rulers, and authorise governors over them, as trustees for themselves. They also elect government, create rules, orders, and laws, by which they will have their rulers and governors to guide and steer their actions in the course of their government, to which they will conform their obedience; and this truth is ascertained from hence, that there were people before there were either rulers or governors of people, and that therefore these rulers and governors were but made by the people, and for the people, with this reserve, that whensoever the people should perceive, that their trustees, and governors, did turn potestatem into potentiam, the power and authority of government, by rule and law formerly agreed upon, and consented unto by the people, into an armed force; and that they did alter the people's rempublicam, into the governor's rem privatam; and that their government, ceasing to be free, was made to hang over the people's heads, as a lordly scourge to their destruction; then, and from thenceforth, and that with good comeliness of reason, the people betake themselves to thoughts of reformation; and finding cause to dislike their former choice, being not tied by any scripture-rule to any one form of government, they chuse again, and take some other form, differing from that before, whereby they will avoid the evils they suffered under their former choice, and enjoy the good of a more beneficial preservation; for, like mariners and men in a ship at sea, they will no longer trust an unskilful or perfidious stearsman, lest they should be found guilty of their own ensuing shipwreck and destruction.

And this brings me to the next assertion, and position, which I own as a most certain truth, and positive assurance, that the people, (under God) is the original of all just power, and that, let the government run out into what form it will, monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy, yel still the original fountain thereof is from the consent and agreement of the people. And from this assertion, and position, I am led on further, by plain reason, to understand, that rulers, and governors, are accountable to the people for their misgovernment; namely, when they transgress the rules, and laws, by which the people did agree they would be governed. But, let me not be mistaken, for, when I say, accountable to the people, I do not mean to the diffused humours and fancies of particular men in their singular and natural capacities, but to the people, in their politick constitution, lawfully assembled by their representative.

Touching the government of this nation, it hath anciently been monarchical, in the frame and constitution of it; but yet it never was a pure monarchy, for a pure monarchy is a clear tyranny: but it was a political monarchy, or monarchy governed by laws, taking in thereto all the goods, and avoiding all the ills, both of aristocracy and democracy; and so I may truly say, that look upon the frame and constitution of it alone, and, as it were, upon the theoretical and contemplative part of it; and, supposing it possible that the practice would answer the theory, no man can deny, but that it was a frame of most excellent order and beauty: for, first, it had a king, the chief officer, one single person; and therefore, avoiding the proud factions and con

tentions, usually happening in aristocracy, as likewise, the disordered confusions, common in single democracy; but yet a king bounded and compassed with laws above him, being the rules already made and giv en him to rule by; and, with a necessity of concurrence and compliance, with lords and commons below him, for future legislative power and authority, and so avoiding the danger of tyranny usually incident to monarchies, which commonly makes the monarch's will the law, and so establishing the government upon this foundation,

Voluntas lex imperatoris esto.

But, alas! when I have shewed you the frame and constitution of the late government, I have shewed you all the beauty of it; for, when you come to examine the practical part, you shall find nothing less than excellency, or perfection in it. Look into your own stories, and you shall always find the king and great lords, comites suos, as they were called, incroaching upon the people's liberties and rights, and incroaching to themselves superlative prerogatives and dominion over them. On the other side you shall find again the people struggling to preserve themselves and their own interests, labouring still to avoid the miseries, and to free themselves from the mischiefs of their sufferings.

The times and transactions, before the Norman William got the crown, and which past among the Britons, Romans, Danes, and Saxons, being dark and obscnre, I pass by, and, therefore, I shall only speak something of the times and transactions since.

First, The tyrannical domination of that first William and his son, the second William, gave the people to see their ensuing miseries; for, though they made choice of the second William, who was but a second son, and rejected Robert, his elder brother, yet they soon found their kindness was suddenly forgotten, when once the crown was obtained, and, therefore, they refused, when he was dead, to chuse again, till, by new engagements, oaths, and royal promises of better government, they were cheated into a second election of Henry the first, who was a younger brother likewise. But it was not long after before monarchy played rex, and pleasure and will ruled, and the whole kingdom almost was turned into forests; and the laws, which the people were brought to live under and obey, were the cruel and insupportable laws of the forest, which were made rather to preserve the beasts, than the people within the bounds of forests. Then the people, finding no other remedy, betook themselves to thoughts of reformation, as I told you at the first. And in the time of King John, at Renymeed, they demanded restitution of St. Edward's laws, for so they called that Saxon Edward, who was dead many years before, but without any heir or successor of that kind, (for we never read of any St. king since him:) and by those laws they say they will be governed, and to those laws they will conform. Hereupon a new compact is made, the articles of Renymeed, containing most of St. Edward's laws, are confirmed and established, by consent, in parliament, and so the people are for that time satisfied, and think themselves very safe, as they well might think so, under the security of an act of parliament. But yet this act proved no security, for, in a short time after, all was let loose again, and the same mischiefs and oppressions upon the people were still continued as before,

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and many more additions made thereto, to the utter inslaving of the English nation.

Hereupon the people stand up, once more, for their liberties and native rights in the ancient laws of the land, and demand, the second time, to have them confirmed, and to be kept from violation, and so, in the ninth year of King Henry the third, was the great charter of the liberties of England (being but a declaration of the ancient common laws of the land, and little differing from the articles of Renymeed, together with the charter of the forest) framed and consented to in full parliament, and are the first acts of parliament now extant in print. And so the people sat down again under the protection of this second security; but, how weak a security it proved, let the practice of the next King, and all succeeding Kings, tell you, though it had been confirmed and allowed by themselves two and thirty times; for in the two next Kings time you shall find the good men of the land discountenanced, and vain, loose, and wanton persons to be the men in highest esteem; nay, murderers and robbers, and the like, cherished and maintained, and, if brought to publick justice, and condemned for their misdoings, yet pardoned again, and set at liberty; and though (by the fundamental law) parliaments, (the usual salve for the people's sores) were to be called and held twice a year, yet were they laid aside, and rarely made use of; and then, when they were called, it was but to serve the king's turn, for granting subsidies, or the like. And therefore this when the people perceived, in the time of King Edward the Second, they thought fit to question his misgovernment, by articles of impeachment in parliament against him, and then to depose him from his kingly office, and to make his son, during his father's life-time, warden of the kingdom, and shortly after they made him King (while his father lived) by the name of Edward the Third. And now are acts of parliament made against the former mischiefs: First, against the King's granting pardons to robbers and murderers; and four acts of parliament are made at the neck of one another, and pursuing one before, telling the king plainly, that he may not, he must not grant pardons, but where he may do it by his oath, namely, in case of homicide, by misfortune, and homicide, in his own defence. Secondly, for more frequent holding of parliaments, namely, that they should be held once a year, and oftener, if need be. But little effect did these produce, for the mischiefs have continued, and the people have still suffered, by the breach of those laws, even until these very times, the very same mischiefs as before.

In the time of King Richard the Second, the disorders of the court, and oppressions upon the people from thence, were so great and unsupportable, that the people articled against that King, and likewise deposed him, and so they afterward did in like manner depose King Henry the Sixth, and King Edward the Fourth, by consent in parliament. Thus you see how the exercise of kingly office, within this nation, hath been made use of to the damage of the people, and how the people again have put in use their authority over their kings, to call them to an account for their misgovernment. Touching the last king, much hath been said, and too much hath been felt by this country, in