them poor enough, and is their name come again to torment me? my lords, I understand not these general councils; thofe of old (they fay) were chriftians, and these are independants: what a damnable deal of generalling is here? general affembly, general of the army, general council of the army; we never had a quiet hour fince we had so many generals. Well, my lords, thefe are hard times, and we make them worse with hard words, which neither we nor our fore-fathers understood. Heretofore bishops were Jure Divino; then elders would be Jure Divino; and now agitators would be Jure Divino: d---n me I think nothing Jure Divino but God. Call you this a thorough reformation? my lords, if these agitators must rule the kingdom, why are not we ourselves agitators? why may not I make Oldfworth an agitator? his abilities and honefty are equal to most of them? but, for ought I see, agitators will fooner be earls of Pembroke and Montgomery, than we agitators. For the parliament leads the people, the army leads the parliament, Cromwell leads Sir Thomas Ireton, and Ireton leads Cromwell; agitators? will lead Ireton; whither the devil fhall we all be led at laft?

My lords, you fee I have spoke my mind: I hope, every week fome of your lordships will do the like; and the commons in this (tho' in nothing else) will follow the house of peers.

But I have done, I have done, my lords; remember, I beseech you, that I am an old man: I have been a grandfather time out of mind (for I was fo when this parliament began) and now muft I be food for agitators ? O, my lords, I have used the king fo ill, and he loved me fo well; and I have ferved you so well, and you ufe me fo ill, that no man is forry for me. Therefore my request is, that you would not think of fending me to the Tower, till fome-body pities me.

The Earl of Pembroke's Speech in Parliament, on the Debate of the City's Petition for a Perfonal Treaty with the king in London; and alfo on the Debate of the Reasons given by the Lords to the Commons, for not fending the three Propofitions before a Treaty. Treaty. 1648.

The Citizens being withdrawn, his Lordship pake as followeth :

My Lords,

Thank God you had no reason to make me your fpeaker and truly (all things confidered) I have as little reafon to be a speaker as any man; and yet I will speak, for I have been learning these seven years how to do it extrumpere; I have helped too to bawl down bishops and scholars and minifters, for dumb dogs; and do you think I'll be a dumb dog too? a halter I will: If I fhould fit ftill and fay nothing and let his majefty come to London, that were the way to make me dumb indeed, for I can fay no more for myself than a dog. I hope the door is falt, that the citizens do not hear me, because I'll speak my mind what, tho' I do not know my own mind, yet I'll speak it as well as I can. 'Tis known I am a true English man, tho' I cannot fpeak good English, and as honeft a man too as my lord Say can make me; and therefore, my lords, now I have lived long enough with you, I mean to die with the house of commons, or elfe (they fay) I shall be no lord; and fo fay I to you: grafs and hay, my lords, we are all mortal, and must be tied up to the manger.

I have been for the city too in my time, when they would pay their money, hear reason, and invite us to dinners. Hang them, rafcals, they cannot fay but we have given them their bellies full too (I pray God they do not hear me). This time twelve-month they made a young man of me, and yet (as fimple as you think me) I am an old man: they drew me into a new war, and made me wait upon a new speaker, and vote his majesty's coming to London: but I was a mad man, I knew not

what

what I did then; for if the army had not had the more mercy, I had been a traytor as well as the reft, for ought I know. Do you think then I'll vote the king home again? no, I warrant you, I am an old bird, and fcorn chaff, or to be made a traytor any more for any king in Christendom. I am an old thing made new now my man Michael tells me I am an independant. I think I am a good chriftian; ay, but citizens and Scots are Jews, and who knows but that perfonal treaty may be a new name for popery ?

You may bring in popery, and break the Covenant, if you please, my lords, but I dare not. I am fure we have gotten well by it, we have reason to regard it, for we have gotten the crown-lands, church-lands, the cavaliers lands, every man's lands too, if we please, and the devil and all and how fhall we keep them, if we do not keep to the covenant? for my part I'll keep to my oaths, and rather than part with them, d------e I'll swear down all this personal treaty.

And good reafon too, for they fay it will undo all that we have been doing these feven years: and for my part, I thought all had been undone already, then what needs any more undoing by a treaty? my lords, if we muft undo, let us undo as the house of commons do, they do one thing to day, and undo it to morrow: they voted they would never make any more addreffes to the king, and made us vote fo too, and then they made us unvote all again. And truly, I think this is a hard chapter, for I can't read the meaning of it, But I am fure they do not mean a treaty, if they can help it.

I like the way of fending propofitions; ay, for I love to go on errands. I am fure it is an honourable employment for an old man to be the states's half-penny boy; and I am glad the commons will not read your reafons for the king's coming, before he have figned the three propofitions. For, obferve, my lords, if they fhould hear reafon, they might go whistle: miftake me not, I mean if they should hear any reafon but their own, and I think that is all the reason in the world, for it is reafon of state, or the ftate's own reafon. There I think I hit it; for all other reason is malignant and high treafon. Why then fhould we treat with the king? for he'll talk malignant reason, and reafon of ftate too; but then here's the matter, my lords, he will not talk the ftate's reason, and

therefore judge ye, whether the ftate have any reafon to talk with him, when he will talk nothing but treason, and by that means, my lords, make you or me, or any of us all traytors to our faces? truft him that will, for my part, I fhall have as little to fay to him as any of you all ; and yet you fee I am a good speaker, according to the ftate's reafon.

I think we never had a good world fince we had fo much reafon for my part (I'll speak my mind plainly) I never had any reafon of my own, nor will I own ever any but Michael Oldfworth, and the ftate's; and, by the life of Pharaoh, I think they two are as reasonable creatures as any in the World. But to this point of reafon, I mean to fpeak more, now I come to examine your lordships reafons of ftate, which the house of commons have voted contrary to the ftate's reafon: for, as I take it, my lords, they are the ftate, and you know we are all bound to fubmit to the state, or elfe we are traytors; I am fure few of us but have been made fo for not fubmitting, and 'tis God's mercy we are not all traytors. Howfoever, I'll be one no more, if I can help it, but keep as well as I can to the state's reasons, and I advise your lordships to do fo too, for they care not a fig for all your reafons, nor I neither. 's death, I am fure fome of you have no reason to the contrary; you know how you were whipped with the black-rod lately, and I can tell you, there is a black book too at the head quarters; if you'll do reason, ye may, but (mark ye, my lords) 'tis very dangerous to talk reafon, it is the only way to be put in the black book, and then you know the black rod follows. I am an old man, ay, and fome of you are old enough too, but you fee, we are not past whipping, and yet you will not take warning.

However, I fhall have a care of one, and in the mean time fee what reafon you have to venture to talk reason to the ftate, if you were their fellow-commoners, you might have fome reafon to make bold to give them reafons; but being as it is, methinks you might know your diftance. You fay you would not have the three propofitions offered to the king before the treaty; firft, because the citizens here, and divers countries, have petitioned for it. The citizens! 'tis true, they have brought us in a petition here for it; but the more rafcals they: they may go home and fay their prayers; for they are not like to be

heard

heard here. What, do they pray when they fhould curfe? d------e, do they think the ftate's a cameleon, to live upon air, good words, and petitions, and treaties? they were all for a new war, and drew me in too this time twelve-months, and now they are against a new war. Is there any reafon in this, when the ftates have not yet done their bufinefs? muft they do and undo, as well as the ftate? and now by doing nothing, quite undo the ftate? they fhall be hanged firft; de, they fhall. I am fomewhat the more eager against this, my lords, because you fay 'tis reafon ; but yet I hope the citizens do not hear me. I would not have all that I fpeak, to be Spoken on the houfe-tops, becaufe ufually, my lords, I feldom fpeak, but I am over the top of the house, before I am aware. But this I fay, why fhould they ftand for peace and treaties, that first fet a-foot the war? and now, when we expect they fhould ferve another apprenticeship to the state to maintain the war, they meant to leave reformation, like Dun, in the mire, and are become fo Popish as to crofs us with treaties. If they were for a new war this time twelve-month, 'tis all the reason in the world they should be fo now. What, though the cafe be not the fame, nor the state the fame now that it was then? I hope the caufe and the ftate are alive ftill, and will be as long as the king and the cavaliers live; and out-live them too; for they are the fame still, and fitter for another world than the ftate's world: for the ftate's world runs round, and hath done fo these seven years, but the king and the cavaliers are the fame ftill: and therefore, my lords, I fhall conclude with as good logick as any I have left in the university, as long as the king and the cavaliers are the fame, the caufe muft needs be the fame, though the ftate be not the fame, but mangled, and rent, and patched, and new-modelled, and the covenant likewife cracked all to pieces. And where is your reafon now, my lords? doth it not follow then, that they ought not to take the fame courfe to maintain the war against the king and the cavaliers, and not trouble the ftate thus with treaties? efpecially feeing Guild-hall is the fame, the excife, the city-bags, and publick faith too, are all the very fame ftill, and as full and fluent as ever. And if thefe fellows that come here to vex the ftate thus with petitions, will not go home in peace, to forward a new war, and be the fame men again that

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