Speech 12 August 1648

The Speech it self.

I Am commanded by the House of Commons to desire your Lordships concurrence with them for the bayling of Major Rolphe, now prisoner in the Gate-house, which they conceive (and would have your Lordships believe) is an act not more of favor than of justice: Whether you consider (as we do) the quality of his person, or the Crime whereof he is accused: For by his imprisonment, not only his body is in great danger to be poisoned with the hellish smoke of Tobacco (wherein only deboishit drunkards delight) but his righteous-Soul also (like Lots in Sodom) is vexed with the horrid blasphemous oaths, and drinking of healths of the dam-me. Cavalieres, who for their Rebellion and Treason against the State, are there justly imprisoned. And surely, my Lord's, in reason he ought to be bayled; whether you look upon him as a man, and a Soldier, whose life ought not to be neglected, or as a new-Christian, of whose precious Soul there ought to be a due regard; both which (to say truth he hath ventred for the good of the Re-public and the preservation of all us who have the honor to sit here this day, for the good of our Utopia: And who can tell, if he should come to a legal-trial, how many of us he might accuse as abettors of the intended Act? But it may be objected, That the world takes notice of the Crime, and that therefore (though we know that some of your Lordships are of our mind even in this particular) it would be scandalous to bail a man for Treason against the person of the King: But (my Lord's) I will as quickly remove that objection, as I did that of counterfeiting the great-Seal of England, and that briefly and in few words. If no King, then no Treason: And no doubt if those Principles be true which we have borrowed of the infallible chair (as the children of Israel did the Egyptians jewels.) It is evident, that the person whom this worthy Gentleman is supposed would have murdered by poison or pistoll (it is no matter whether) is no King; especially being contrived while our votes for no Addresses to him were in force. Divers of the learned beyond the Sea (and some on this side too though not book learned) hold; That if a King be Excommunicate, he is no longer a King, and that it is lawful (at least it is not Treason) to take him away. And if so (the validity of such Excommunication being from a foreign-power, and less inspired) Then a fortiori; if by us, and our Assembly, that have undoubted (though till now unknown) power and right: he that was an unprofitable King, be for just causes (of which we are the sole Judges) devested of all power, (by the sense of the two Houses) Then, I say, he is no King: But We conjunctly are King of England; (as Master Prynne and Master Parker by many learned, polite, and prolixe Treatises (seen and allowed by Master Saint-John our Solicitor) have been more then sufficiently proved: How else could we have hanged Yeomans and Bourcher, who would have delivered up our City of Bristol: Or beheaded the two Hothams, who (upon second foolish conscientious Considerations) would have restored the Town of Hull to the pretended owner: Or Carew, who would have delivered up Plymouth to the enemy: Or executed Tomkins and Challoner, who would have set on foot the Commission of Aray, in London: Or to truss up Burleigh (not the least of my services) who would have rescued the King from Carisbrook-prison: Or (to pass by many others) Kniveton, who came with the Kings-Writt to adjourn the Terme: all whose Designes were only intentional, none acted: The least of which we neither could nor durst have perpetrated had not the regal-Power resided in Us; and if in Us, then certainly in none other: It being as mcuh against common reason to think, that in regalitie; the King and Parliament both have power, as to say that Monarchy and Anarchy are, or can be, simul & semel in one Kingdom. And this I speak as a Lawyer, being so by inheritance, my Father (though not of so public a Spirit) being so before me. Yet he never was a Judge, as I have been both at Winchester and Canterbury as your Lordships, well know. And why may not I be heir to my fathers Law, as well as the Citizens sons of London (though they have no skill in their fathers trade or Profession) be made free by their fathers Copy.

Besides (My Lord's) against this Gentleman there is a bare accusation, or impeachment, and that only by two prisoners, whose testimonies in all circumstances agree not; for I am sure there is great difference in their hand writings (a point worthy your Lordships consideration) But suppose they agreed both in circumstance and substance; shall the testimony of two such men condemn so well deserving a man for a few foolish supposed Treasonable words, or intentions, and but against a titular King? for we are King in effect; we Judges of the Law, he our prisoner.

Let us not (My Lord's) give way to such a credulity. It may concern both your Lordships and us very much to be well advised before we resolve anything to be Treason▪ acted against his person. If what, not only two but two thousand (and I may say twenty thousand more) do daily and hourly say (and would swear) concerning us, should be believed: Lord what should become of us? many thousands men and women, now being bold to say: That all we of this righteous, blessed, and reforming Parliament are Rebells, and Traitors: Nay that we are no Parliament, but a Junto of Factious, ambitious, self-seeking, and covetous men; whereof more then the one half sit there illegally, and keep honester men out of their places. That all our Votes, Orders, and Ordinances (which are an unreasonable number) are against reason, and the known Laws of the Realm: And shall we therefore believe them? if we do, then our own Consciences (which we have extended as far as may be would condemn us.

And now (My Lord's) if we neither do, nor may with safety believe so many witnesses against ourselves (though we know the matter true) why should we believe only two against a man who, for ought I know, is as honest as any of us? Nay (My Lord's) I will go further yet and affirm; That if a Jury of 12. men should condemn him; yet in point of discretion, & reason of state, we may and ought not only to baile this virtuous Gentleman, but also to release and set him free.

And for this we have a president within the memory of man, and it was of an honorable Gentleman, and a true Nathaniel (whose father sits among you) who was by a Council of War condemned to dy as a Coward, for surrendering up of a Town which was thought tenable, and yet he was set at liberty and liveth; Vivit, imo vivit, & in Senatum venit, as it was very eloquently urged in as honest a man's case by Tully, who (though no bencher of the inner Temple) understood the Laws of England as well as myself. And I dare be bold to say, that there were more than two witnesses, to prove his guilt of the fact; and those of better quality then these, and that they which found him culpable, were men of as much honesty, and more judgment, then our ordinary Jurors, who for the most part (except some such as I found at Canterbury, where they would find me nothing but an Ignoramus) will give their verdict, as we the Judges in our wisdoms (Whatsoever the Law is) shall direct them. And lastly that those Judges were as honest men as any which we shall (now) send to judge this Gentleman; if we should (which were injurious) suffer him to be tried.

Moreover, if that noble gentleman before mentioned, were justly condemned, then his setting at liberty and pardon was unjust (Unless by us having potestatem vitae & necis) but de facto he was set at liberty, pardoned, and lives in as much honor and reputation as ever he did. And it must be presumed that the two houses (who are infallible in their judgments) did not err in so doing. And if the King, when a King, and as a King by the judgment of the Law can do no wrong, much less can we being 500. Kings, and have all the power he had, and more.

But may some say, (and no doubt but some will be so malicious) why should Major Rolfe be so much troubled at the smell of Tobacco having all other good accommodations, he being a man of so mean an education and occupation till within these few years that we imploid men of all sorts, Trades and opinions in the forming of our Armies, and for reformation of Religion; and since bred up in the Wars which might have enured him to so much hardness as that the smell of Tobacco should no more have offended him now, then that of Shooe-makers wax, or Leather new come from the Curriers did then.

My Lord's; It is true he was by his profession a Shooe-makers Apprentice, and so was his master Philpit too, who was a while a Captain, but for his lives security went away at the first battle, which had he not done he might by this time have been a Colonel, as well as his man a Major. But my Lord's what's that to the purpose? we know that Tobacco is naught, though the King never take any; His foot must not be now measured by the old last. And as the old proverb tells us; honors change manners. Was not Cato taken from the plow to the Senate? and yet it was never objected to him as any point worthy reproach, and some of us (who are not of the greatest rank of gentry, nor very great Clearks) have read (or at least heard) of a King, whose father was a Potter for which cause he did all his life time after, eat his meat in earthen dishes, and is no more dishonor to him, then to some pure seraphicall Members of our house to have been Weavers, and Vinegar-men. And therefore we hope, and desire, notwithstanding these objections, or anything else that is, or can, or shall be said, or proved against him. That (if your Lordships will not think fit to reward him for his meritorious intententions) yet that you will concur with the house of Commons to bail him; which if your Lordships shall not assent to, we doubt not but we know where to have a Justice of peace, & Quor. that will. And for the time to come we hope that the same providence which hath hitherto beyond all human expectation kept us in our several stations, will so unite our hearts that we shall sit all together in a blessed Union, in our house, and save much of that Labor which hath hitherto been spent in Conference.