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II. Yet, nevertheless, of late divers Commissions directed to sundry Commissioners in several Counties, with Instructions, have issued; by means whereof your People have been in divers places assembled, and required to lend certain Sums of Money unto your Majesty, and many of them, upon their Refusal so to do, have had an Oath administered unto them not warrantable by the Laws or Statutes of this Realm, and have been constrained to become bound to make Appearance and give Attendance before your Privy Council and in other Places, and others of them have been therefore imprisoned, confined, and sundry other Ways molested and disquieted; and divers other Charges have been laid and levied upon your People in several Counties by Lord Lieutenants, Deputy Lieutenants, Commissioners for Musters, Justices of Peace, and others, by Command or Direction from your Majesty, or your Privy Council, against the Laws and Free Customs of the Realm.

III. And whereas also by the Statute called The Great Charter of the Liberties of England, it is declared and enacted, That no Freeman may be taken or imprisoned, or be disseized of his Freehold or Liberties, or his Free Customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or in any Manner destroyed, but by the lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land.

IV. And in the eight and twentieth Year of the Reign of King Edward the Third, it was declared and enacted by Authority of Parliament, That no Man of what Estate or Condition that he be, should be put out of his Land or Tenements, nor taken nor imprisoned, nor disherited, nor put to Death, without being brought to answer by due Process of Law:

V. Nevertheless against the Tenor of the said Statutes, and other the good Laws and Statutes of your Realm to that End provided, divers of your Subjects have of late been imprisoned without any Cause showed; and when for their Deliverance they were brought before your Justices by your Majesty's Writs of Habeas Corpus, there to undergo and receive as the Court should order, and their Keepers commanded to certify the Causes of their Detainer, no Cause was certified but that they were detained by your Majesty's special Command, signified by the Lords of your Privy Council, and yet were returned back to several Prisons, with

out being charged with any Thing to which they might make answer according to the Law.

VI. And whereas of late great Companies of Soldiers and Mariners have been dispersed into divers Counties of the Realm, and the Inhabitants against their Wills have been compelled to receive them into their Houses, and there to suffer them to sojourn, against the Laws and Customs of this Realm, and to the great Grievance and Vexation of the People:

VII. And whereas also by Authority of Parliament, in the five and twentieth Year of the Reign of King Edward the Third, it is declared and enacted That no Man should be forejudged of Life or Limb against the Form of. the Great Charter and the Law of the Land; and by the said Great Charter and other. the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm, no Man ought to be adjudged to Death but by the Laws established in this your Realm, either by the Customs of the same Realm, or by Acts of Parliament: And whereas no Offender of what kind soever is exempted from the Proceedings to be used, and Punishments to be inflicted by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm: Nevertheless of late Time divers Commissions under your Majesty's Great Seal have issued forth, by which certain persons have been assigned and appointed Commissioners, with Power and Authority to proceed within the Land, according to the Justice of Martial Law, against such Soldiers or Mariners, or other dissolute Persons joining with them, as should commit any Murder, Robbery, Felony, Mutiny or other Outrage or Misdemeanor whatsoever, and by such summary Course and Order as is agreeable to Martial Law, and as is used in Armies in Time of War, to proceed to the Trial and Condemnation of such Offenders, and them to cause to be executed and put to Death according to the Law Martial:

VIII. By Pretext whereof some of your Majesty's Subjects have been by some of the said Commissioners put to Death, when and where, if by the Laws and Statutes of the Land they had deserved Death, by the same Laws and Statutes also they might and by no other ought to have been judged and executed:

IX. And also sundry grievous Offenders, by color thereof claiming an Exemption, have escaped the Punishments due to them by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm, by reason that divers

of your Officers and Ministers of Justice have unjustly refused or forborn to proceed against such Offenders according to the same Laws and Statutes, upon Pretence that the said Offenders were punishable only by Martial Law, and by Authority of such Commissions as aforesaid; which Commission, and all other of like Nature are wholly and directly contrary to the said Laws and Statutes of this your Realm:

X. They do therefore humbly pray your Most Excellent Majesty, That no Man hereafter be compelled to make or yield any Gift, Loan, Benevolence, Tax or such-like Charge, without common Consent by Act of Parliament; And that none be called to make Answer, or take such Oath, or to give Attendance, or be confined, or otherwise molested or disquieted concerning the same, or for Refusal thereof; And that no Freeman, in any such Manner as is before mentioned, be imprisoned or detained; And that your Majesty would be pleased to remove the said Soldiers and Mariners, and that your People may not be burthened in Time to come; And that the aforesaid Commissions, for proceeding by Martial Law, may be revoked and annulled; And that hereafter no Commissions of like Nature may issue forth to any Person or Persons whatsoever to be executed as aforesaid, lest by Colour of them any of your Majesty's Subjects be destroyed, or put to Death contrary to the Laws and Franchise of the Land.

XI. All of which they most humbly pray of your Most Excellent Majesty as their Rights and Liberties, according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm; and that your Majesty would also vouchsafe to declare That the Awards, Doings and Proceedings, to the Prejudice of your People in any of the Premises shall not be drawn hereafter into Consequence or Example; And that your Majesty would be also graciously pleased, for the further Comfort and Safety of your People, to declare your Royal Will and Pleasure, That in the Things aforesaid all your Officers and Ministers shall serve you according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm, as they tender the Honor of your Majesty, and the Prosperity of this Kingdom.

Qua quidem petitione lecta et plenius intellecta, per dictum Dominum Regem taliter est responsum in pleno parliamento, viz., Soit Droit fait comme est desire.

CHAPTER IX.

CHARLES I-FROM THE PETITION OF RIGHT TO THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE.

FIVE SUBSIDIES GRANTED TO THE KING-PUNISHMENT OF DR. MAINWARING-ILLEGAL COMMISSION OF EXCISE CANCELLED-REMONSTRANCE OF THE COMMONS CONCERNING TONNAGE AND POUNDAGE-PARLIAMENT PROROGUED-CHARLES'S

SPEECH-REASSEMBLING OF PARLIAMENT CONSIDERATION

OF GRIEVANCES

AND OUTRAGES-THE KING CONSENTS TO TONNAGE AND POUNDAGE AS A PARLIAMENTARY GRANT-FURTHER IRRITATIONS BY THE STAR CHAMBERCHARLES COMMANDS AN ADJOURNMENT-RESISTANCE OF THE COMMONSTHEIR PROTESTATION-CHARLES'S PROCLAMATION-IMPRISONMENTS-DISSOLUTION-REMARKS OF

CLARENDON-DARING PROCLAMATION BY THE KINGPROSECUTIONS OF THE IMPRISONED MEMBERS-DISREGARD OF HABEAS CORPUS BY THE JUDGES-ROYAL EXACTIONS FROM THE PEOPLE-FEUDAL OPPRESSIONS AND FOREST LAWS RESTORED-SHIP MONEY-JOHN HAMPDEN-CHARLES'S DOCTRINE OF MILITARY NECESSITY SUSTAINED BY THE JUDGES IN AN EXTRA-JUDICIAL OPINION "--THE SHORT PARLIAMENT-GRIEVANCES CONSIDERED--SUPPLIES DEMANDED BY THE KING-ANSWER OF THE COMMONS-DISSOLUTION-THE LONG PARLIAMENT-ITS TEMPER FROM THE FIRST-UNANIMITY OF LORDS AND COMMONS-LATE PROCEEDINGS OF THE KING, AND THE EXTRAJUDICIAL OPINION OF THE JUDGES IN REGARD TO SHIP MONEY DECLARED ILLEGAL-MONOPOLISTS AND PATENTEES EXCLUDED FROM PARLIAMENT HUMILIATION OF THE KING-TENURE OF JUDGES' APPOINTMENTS TO BE HENCEFORTH FOR LIFE-ACT FOR TRIENNIAL PARLIAMENTS--ACT TO PREVENT SUDDEN ADJOURNMENTS AND DISSOLUTIONS—CHARLES GIVES UP HIS CLAIM TO TONNAGE AND POUNDAGE—ABOLITION OF THE COURT OF STAR CHAMBER AND HIGH COMMISSION COURT--SHIP MONEY, FOREST CLAIMS, AND FEUDAL EXACTIONS ABANDONED—— OBSERVATIONS-SATISFACTION OF REASONABLE MEN AMONG THE COMMONS-WELCOME OF THE KING IN LONDON ON HIS RETURN FROM SCOTLAND-PURI

TANISM.

THE Commons gave proof of the conciliatory effect of the proceedings we have just related by passing a bill granting five subsidies to the king. Sir Edward Coke carried it to to the Lords,

it.

accompanied by almost the whole house. The Lords took exception to the form of the bill, that the Commons alone were named in the preamble. Several conferences took place, but the Commons evaded any alteration; and from this time settled the custom of making money bills, in form as well as procedure, a grant from the Commons alone.

The king had announced his intention to prorogue the Parliament on an early day, and several important affairs were brought under consideration in the interval, which require our notice.

The impeachment of Dr. Mainwaring was brought to a conclusion by the Lords, who passed sentence upon him-that he should be imprisoned during the pleasure of the house, be fined £1,000 to the king, should make submission at the bar of both houses, be suspended three years from the ministry, and be disabled from ever preaching at court, or holding any ecclesiastical dignity or secular office, and that all the offending books should be called in by proclamation, and burnt. He acknowledged his fault, and made submission on his knees at the bar of the Commons, being led into the house by the warden of the Fleet Prison, to which he was committed.

The Commons now complained of a commission of excise which the king had issued, appointing thirty-three of his counsellors to advise him how to raise money for the war-" the same to be done by impositions or otherwise, as in your wisdoms and best judgments ye shall find to be most convenient in a case of this inevitable necessity, wherein form and circumstance must be dispensed with, rather than the substance be lost or hazarded." After a conference with the Commons, the Lords appointed a special committee to draw up a message to advise the king to cancel the commission. The Commons sent to the lord keeper for the commission, which was sent and read to the house. This business terminated in the lord president of the council acquainting the Lords that the king had caused the commission to be cancelled in his presence. lordship showed the cancelled commission to the house, and it was sent with a message to the Commons for their inspection.

His

Tonnage and poundage had not yet been granted to the king, although he appears to have expected that an act, granting the

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