Whitlocke tells us, This Apology of lord Finch, which he calls a very elegant and ingenious speech in his own vindication, et captare benevolentiam, was delivered with an ex"That cellent grace and gesture.' He adds, many were exceedingly taken with his eloquence and carriage, and it was a sad sight to sce a person of his greatness, parts, and favour, to appear in such a posture, before such an assembly, to plead for his life and fortunes." The Lord Keeper being withdrawn from the house,

Mr. Rigby, member for Wigan, stood up, and, in answer to his lordship, spoke as fol lows:-- Mr. Speaker; Though my judgment prompts me to sit still and be silent, yet the duty I owe to my king, my country, and my conscience, moves me to stand up and speak. Mr. Speaker, had not this syren so sweet a tongue, surely he could never have effected so much mischief to this kingdom: you know, sir,

vate in matters of law, but by common con-those records which I thought fit for his masent in parliament. I did further deliver, jesty's service; leaving them to discharge That if this were used to make a further reve- themselves, as by law and justice they might nue or benefit to the king, or in any other do. I did never, in the least kind, go about way, but in case of necessity, and for the pre- to overthrow the Charter of the Forest; and servation of the kingdom, the judgment did did publish and maintain Charta de Foresta, warrant no such thing. My opinion in this as a sacred thing, and no man to violate it; business, I did, in the conclusion of my argue and that it ought to be preserved for the king ment, submit to the judgment of this house. I and commonwealth. I do most humbly submit never delivered my opinion, That money all that I have done to the goodness and jusought to be raised, but ships provided for the tice of this house." defence of this kingdom; and in that the writ was performed and that the charge ought not to be in any case, but where the whole kingdom was in danger. Mr justice Hutton and Mr. justice Crooke were of the same opinion with me.-Having related unto you my whole carriage in this business, I do humbly submit myself to your grave and favourable censures; beseeching you not to think the I delivered these things with the least intention to subvert, or subject, the common law of the kingdom, or to bring in or to introduce any new way of governinent. It hath been as far from my thoughts, as any thing under the Heavens.Mr. Speaker, I have heard, too, that there hath been some ill opinion conceived of me about Forest-business: which was a thing as far out of the way of my study, as any thing I know towards the law, But it pleased his majesty, in the sickness of Mr. Noy, to give some short warning to prepare myself for that employment. When I came there, I did both the king and commonwealth acceptable service; for I did, and dare te bold to say, with extreme danger to myself and fortune, (some do understand my meaning herein) run through that business, and left the Forest-Boundaries as I found them. When I went down about that employment, I satisfied myself about the matter of perambulation. There were great difficulties of opinions, what perambulation was. I did arm myself as well as I could before I did any thing in it. I did acquaint those that were then judges, in the presence of the noble lords, with such objections as I thought it my duty to offer unto them. If they thought they were not objections of such weight, as were fit to stir them, I would not do the king that disservice. They thought the objections had such answers as might well induce the like upon a conference with the whole country, admitting me to come and confer with them; to which the country did unanimously subscribe. It fell out afterwards, that the king commanded me, and all this before I was chief justice, to go into Essex; and did then tell me he had been informed, that the bounds of the Forest were narrower than in truth they ought to be; and I did according to his command, I will here profess that which is known to many. I had no thought, nor intention, of enlarging the bounds of the Forest, further than those parts for which there was a perambulation 26 Edw. 4. I desired the country to confer with me about it, if they were pleased to do it; and then, according to my duty, I did produce

apti morum putrefactio pessima;' the best things putrified become the worst; and as it is in the natural, so in the body politick; and what's to be done then, Mr. Speaker, we all know,

ense recidendum est,' the sword of Justice must strike, ne pars sincera trabatur.'—Mr. Speaker, it is not the voice, non vox sed votum;' not the tongue, but the heart and actions that are to be suspected: for doth not our Saviour say it, Shew me thy faith by thy works, O man? Now, Mr. Speaker, hath not this kingdom seen; seen, said I, pay felt and smarted under the cruelty of this man's justice? So malicious as to record it in every courted Westminster, as if he had not been contented with the enslaving of us all, unless he entailed it to all posterity, Why shall I believe words now, cum factum videam? Shall we be sa wenk, men, as, when we have been injured and abused, to be gained again with fair words and compliments? Or, like little children, when we have been whipt and beaten, be pleased again with sweet meats? Oh, no: there be some birds that, in the summer of parliament, will sing sweetly; who, in the winter of perse cution, will, for their prey, ravenously fly at all, upon our goods, nay, seize upon our per sons; and hath it not been with this man 30, with some in this assembly?-Mr. Speaker, it hath been objected unto us, That in jude ment we should think of mercy; and Be ye merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful;' now God Almighty grant that we may be so, and that our hearts and judgments may be truly rectified to know truly what B

prevented the further progress of the Impeachment, we shall not give the Articles at large, but content ourselves with an abstract thereof, with the lord Falkland's speech to the lords, after they were read in that house; as also a Copy of a Letter he wrote to the earl of l`embroke after his escape.

mercy: I say to know what is mercy; for there is the paint, Mr. Speaker: I have heard of foolish pity, foolish pity: do we not all know the effects of it? And I have met with this epithet to mercy, Crudelis misericordia;' end, in some kind, I think there may be a cruel mercy: I am sure the spirit of God saith, Be not pitiful in judgment; nay it Articles of Impeachment against the Lord saith, Be not pitiful of the poor in judgment;' Keeper Finch.] The Sum of the ARTICLES if not of the poor, then à latiori not of the against the Lord Keeper were as follows:rich; there's the emphasis. We see, by the I." That the said John lord Finch, baron set and solemn appointments of our courts of of Fordwich, lord keeper, &c. had traiterjustice, what provision the wisdom of our an- ously endeavoured to subvert the fundamental cestors hath made for the preservation, honour, laws and established government of England, and esteem of justice; witness our frequent and, instead thereof, to introduce an arbiterms, sessions, and assizes; and in what pomp trary, tyrannical government against law and state the judges in their circuits, by the which he bath declared by traiterous and sheriffs, knights, and justices, and all the coun- wicked words, counsels, opinions, judgments, try, are attended oft-times for the hanging of practices, and actions. II. That, in pursuance a poor thief for the stealing of a hog or a of his traiterous purposes, he did, in the 3rd or sleep; nay, in some cases, for the stealing of a 4th years of his majesty's reign, being then penny, and very justly too, in terrorem. And Speaker of the house of commons, and connow, shall not some of them be hanged that trary to the commands of that house, deny, have robbed us of all our property; and sheared, and hinder the reading of some things relating at once, all our sheep, and all we have away; to the safety of the king and kingdom, and the and would have made us all indeed poor Beli- preservation of religion, and did forbid all sarius's to have begged for halfpennies, when members to speak; and said, if any of them they would not have left us one penny that we offered to speak, he would rise and go away, could have called our own?-Let us therefore and did offer to rise and go away; endea now, Mr. Speaker, not be so pitiful as that we vouring, as much as in him lay, to subbecome remiss; not so pitiful in judgment, as vert the antient and undoubted rights and to have no judgment; but set the deplorable course of parliaments. III. That, being one estate of Great Britain now before our eyes, of his majesty's council, he endeavoured to and consider how our most gracious sovereign enlarge the Forests, particularly in Essex, bchath been abused, and both his majesty and yond their due bounds, &c. IV. That, being all his subjects injured, by these wicked instru-chief justice of the Common Pleas in 1835, ments: for which my humble motion is, That with these particulars we become not so mercitul, as to the generality (the whole kingdom) we grow merciless. Fiat Justitia.'

It was then Resolved, upon the Question, That John lord Finch, baron of Fordwich, bord keeper of the Great Seal of England, shall be accused by this house of High Treason, and other misdemeanors, in the name of this house, and all the commons of England. And that the lords be desired to sequester him from parliament, and be committed; and that, within some convenient time, this house will resort to their lordships with particular Articles and Accusations against him.' Ordered, That the lord Falkland go up with this message."By the Lords Journals we find, that this last named message was not delivered till next day; when the lords returned this Answer to it, That they had taken the message into consideration; but, having received intimation that the Lord Keeper was not to be found, they had ordered him into safe custody when he could be so: and when the particulars of his Charge come up against him, they will give all furtherance to it. In the mean time his majesty, by commission under the Great Seal, had appointed sir Edw. Littleton, lord chief justice of the Common Pleas, to sit as Speaker in the Lord Keeper's place.

As the escape of the Lord Keeper Finch,

he drew up the Questions and Opinions, concerning Ship-Money, and solicited and procured the Judges to sign them. V. That he subscribed an extrajudicial Opinion relating to Ship-Money himself, and pressed the justices, Crooke and Hutton, to sign them against their consciences. VI. That he delivered his Opinion against Mr. Hampden in the Exchequer-Chamber, in the case of Ship-Money; and threatened the said judges to induce them to deliver the like opinion; and urged baron Denham to retract the opinion he had given for Mr. Hampden. VII. That he published, in his circuit, That his majesty's right to ShipMoney was so inherent in the crown, that an act of parliament could not take it away; and threatened all such as refused to pay it. VIII. That he did most of the business of the Cornmon-Pleas in his private chamber, and sent warrants into several counties to release all persons arrested on outlawries, on paying 40s. fees; whereas no such persons ought to be bailed or released without a supersedeas under seal, or reversal. IX. The ninth Article charges him with perverting justice, while he was lord chief justice of the Common Pleas X. That he endeavoured to incense his majesty against parliaments; and framed and advised the publishing the Declaration, after the Dissolution of the last parliament."

Lord Falkland's Speech in Support of the

said Articles.] After the reading of these Articles,

rics between the liberties of the subject and sovereign power; he endeavoured to have all teThe Lord Falkland made the following nures durante beniplacito, and to bring all law speech in support of them- My Lords; from his maj.'s courts into his majesty's breast; These Articles against my lord Finch being he gave our goods to the king, our lands to the read, I may be bold to apply that of the poet, deer, our liberties to his sheriffs; so that there Nil refert tales versus qua voce legautur.' was no way by which we had not been opAnd I doubt not but your lordships must be of pressed and destroyed, if the power of this perthe same opinion, of which the house of com- son had been equal to his will; or that the mons appears to have been, by the choice they will of his majesty had been equal to his made of me, that the Charge I have brought power.-He not only, by this means, made us is such, as needs no assistance from the liable to all the effects of an invasion from bringer; leaving not so much as a colour for without, and (by destruction of our liberties, any defence, including all possible evidence, which included the destruction of our property, and all possible aggravation, that addition which included the destruction of our industry) alone excepted, which he alone could make, made us liable to the terriblest of all invasions and hath made, I mean his confession, in within, that of want and poverty: so that, cluded in his flight. Here are many and what he plotted had taken root (and he made mighty crimes, crimes of supererogation: so it as sure as his declaration could make it, that high Treason is but a part of his charge, what himself was not, parliament-proof) in this pursuing him fervently in every several con- wealthy and happy kingdom, there could have dition; being a silent Speaker, an unjust been left no abundance but of grievances and Judge, and an unconscionable Keeper: that discontent, no satisfaction but amongst the his life appears a perpetual warfare, by mines guilty.-It is generally observed of the plague, and by battery, by battle and by stratagem, that the infection of others, is an earnest and against our fundamental laws, (which, by constant desire of all that are seized by it; his own confession, several conquests had left and as this design resembles that disease, untouched) against the excellent constitution the ruin, destruction, and desolation it would of this kingdom, which hath made it appear have wrought, so it seems no less like it in the unto strangers rather an idea, than a real effect; he having so laboured to make other conmonwealth; and produced the honour and share in that guilt, that his solicitation was happiness of this as the wonder of every other not only his action, but theirs; making use nation; and this with such unfortunate suc- both of his nuthority, his interest, and incess, that, as he always intended to make our portunity to persuade; and, in his majesty', ruins a ground of his advancement, so Ins ad- hame (whose piety is known to give that vancement the means of our further ruin.-excellent prerogative to his person, that the After that, contrary to the duty of his place, law gives to his place, not to be able to do and the end of that meeting in which he held wrong) to threaten the rest of the Judges, to his place, he bad, as it were, gagged the com-sign Opinions contrary to law; to assign A monwealth; taking away, to his power, all swers contrary to their Opinions; to give Judg power of speech from that body, of which he ment, which they ought not to have given; and ought to have been the mouth, and which to recant Judgment, when they had given it as alone can perfectly represent the condition of they ought: so that whosoever considers his the people, whom that only represents; which, care of, and concernment, both in the growth if be had not done, in all probability, what so and the continuance of this project, canno grave and judicious an assembly might have but, by the same way, by which the wisest offered to the consideration of so gracious and judgment found the true mother of the child, just a prince, had occasioned the redress of discover him not only to have been the fosterer, the Grievances they the suffered, and pre-but the father of this most pernicious and envented those which they have since endured:vious design.--I shall not need to observe, according to the antient maxim of Odisse quos that this was plotted and pursued by an EnReseris, he pursued this offence towards the glishman against England; which increaseth parliament, by inveighing against the inembers, the crime in uo less degree than parricide is by scandalizing their proceedings, by trampling beyond murder: that this was done in the upon their Acts and Declarations, by usurp greatest matter joined to the greatest bond, ing and devolving the right, by diminishing and being against the general liberty, and publick abrogating the power, both of that and other property, by a sworn Judge; and if salt itself parliaments, and making them, as much as in become unsavoury, the gospel itself hath de him lay, both useless and odious to his maj.; signed whither it must be cast: that he poi nay, he pursued his hatred to this fountain of soned our very antidotes, and turned our justice, by corrupting the streams of it, the guards into a destruction, making law the laws; and perverting the conduit pipes, the ground of illegality: that he used the law not judges. He practised the annihilating of an- only against us, but against itself; making it, tient and notorious perambulations of particular as I may say, felo de se; making the pretence, Forests, the better to prepare himself to anni-for I can scarce say, the appearance of it, so hilate the antient and notorious perambulations to contribute to the utter ruin of itself.-I shall of the whole kingdom; the meercs and bounda- not need to say, that either this is, or can be

of the highest kind, and in the highest degree, true affection to your lordship, as ever any Parliamentary Treason; a treason which needs was.-My lord, it was not the loss of my place, not a combination of many several actious, and with that of my fortunes, nor being exiled which alone were not treason, to prove a from my dear country and friends, though treason altogether; and by that demonstration many of them were cause of sorrow, that of the intention, to make that formally treason, alflicts; but that which I most suffer under, which were, materially, but a misdemeanor; a | is, that displeasure of the house of commons treason as well against the king, as against conceived against me: I know how true a the kingdom; for whatsoever is against the heart I have ever borne towards them, and whole, is undoubtedly against the head; your lordship can witness, in part, what ways which takes from his majesty the ground of I have gone in, but silence and patience best his rule, the Laws; (for if foundations be becomes me; with these I must leave myself destroyed, the pinnacles are most endan- and my actions to the favourable construction gered) which takes from his majesty the of my noble friends, in which number your principal honour of his rule, the Ruling over lordship hath a prime place. I am now at the free Men; a power as much nobler than that Bague, where I arrived on Thursday the last over villains, as that is over beasts; which en- day of last month, where I purpose to live in a deavoured to take from his majesty the prin- fashion agreeable to the poorness of my forcipal support of his Rule, their hearts and af- tunes. As for any views in this world, I have fections over whom he rules; a better and utterly cast off the thoughts of them; and my surer strength and wall to the king, than the aim shall be so to learn to number my days, sea is to the kidgdom; and, by begetting a that I may apply my heart unto wisdom;' that mutual distrust, and by that a mutual disaf-wisdom that shall wipe all tears from mine fection between them, to hazard the danger even of the destruction of both.-My lords, I shall the less need to press this, because as it were unreasonable in any case to suspect your justice: so, here especially, where your interest so nearly unites you; your great share in possessions, giving you an equal concernment in property; the care and pains, used by your noble ancestors in the founding and asserting of our common liberties, rendering the just detence of them your most proper and peculiar | inheritance; and both exciting to oppose and extirpate all such designs as did introduce, and would have settled an arbitrary, that is, an intolerable form of government; and have made even your lordships and your posterity but right honourable slaves. My lords, I will Spend no more words, luctando cum larva,' in accusing the ghost of a departed person, whom his crines accuse more than I can do; and his absence accuseth no less than his crimes. Neither will I excuse the length of what I have said, because I cannot add to an excuse, without adding to the fault; nor plead for my own imperfections, either in the matter or manner of it. I will only desire by the command, and in the behalf of the house of Commons, that these proceedings against the lord keeper Finch may be put in so speedy a way of dispatch, as in such cases the course of parliament will allow.'

6

eyes and heart, and lead me by the hand to true happiness, which can never be taken from me. I pray the God of Heaven to bless this parliament with both a happy progress and conclusion: if my ruin may conduce but the least to it, I shall not repine at it. I truly pray for your lordship, and your noble family, that God would give an increase of all worldly blessings, and, in the fullness of days, to receive you to his Glory; if I were capable of serving any body, I would tell your lordship, that no man should be readier to make known his devotion, and true gratitude to your lordship, than your lordship's most humble and affectionate poor kinsman and servant, "FINCH.”

Articles of Impeachment against sir George Rateli Dec. 31. Sir George Ratcliff was impeached by the cominons, at a conference with the other house, on the following Articles:

1. "That he the said sir George Ratcliff hath traiterously conspired and confedcrated with Tho. earl of Strafford, to subvert the fundamental laws and governments of the realms of England and Ireland; and to introduce 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 traiterously confedcLord Keeper Finch's Letter to the Earl of Pem-rated and conspired with the said earl of broke, after his Escape.] The Lord Keeper's Leuer from the Hague, to the earl of Pembroke, lord chamberlain, after his escape, was

as follows:

"Hagne, Jan. 3, 1640. "My most well-beloved lord; The interest your lordship hath ever had in the best of my fortunes and affections, gives me the privilege of troubling your lordship with these few lines, from one that hath now nothing left to serve you withall but his prayers: these your lordship shall never want, with an heart-as full of,

Strafford, and hath been an actor, counsellor, and instrument to him, in assuming and exercising regal power, over the liberties and persons, lands and goods of his majesty's subjects of Ireland; and accordingly hath exercised the same tyrannically, to the subversion and undoing of divers of his majesty's lego people. III. That, for the better enabling of the said earl and himself to go on with their traiterous designs, he, the said sir G. R. traiterously joined and confederated with the suid carl, in taking great sums of money out of his majesty's