fome lofe their lives. And foon after this vindication of their liberties, the Romans, by their better fuccefs, made it appear to the world, that liberty and courage dwell always in the fame breast, and are never to be divorced. No doubt, my Lords, but your juftice shall have the like effect upon this difpirited people. Tis not the reftitution of our antient laws alone, but the reftauration of our antient courage, which is expected from your Lordships. I need not fay any thing to move your juft indignation, that this man fhou'd fo cheaply give away that which your noble ancestors with so much courage, and induftry, had fo long maintained. You have often been told how careful they were, tho' with the hazard of their lives and fortunes, to derive thofe Rights and Liberties as entire to pofterity, as they received them from their fathers. What they did with labor, you may do with ease: what they did with danger, you may do fecurely: the foundation of our laws is not fhaken with the engine of war, they are only blafted with the breath of these men: and by your breath they may be reftored.

What judgments your predeceffors have given, and what punishments their predeceffors have fuffered, for offenses of this nature, your Lordships have already been fo well informed, that I fhall not trouble you with a repetition of those precedents only, my Lords, fomething I-fhall take leave to observe of the person with whofe Charge I have prefented you, that you may the lefs doubt of the wilfulness of his offenfe.

His education in the Inns of Court, his conftant practise as a counsellor, and his experience as a Judge, confider'd with the mischief he has done, makes it appear that this progress of his thro' the Law, has been like that of a diligent fpy thro' a country, into which he meant to conduct an enemy.

To let you fee he did not offend for company, there is one crime fo peculiar to himself, and of fuch malignity, that it makes him at once incapable of your

Lordships favor, and his own fubfiftence incompatible with the Right and Propriety of the fubject. For, if you leave him in a capacity of interpreting the laws, has he not already declared his opinion, that your votes and refolutions against Ship-Money are void, and that it is not in the power of Parliament to abolish that judgment? To him, my Lords, that has thus play'd with the power of Parliament, we may well apply what was once faid to the goat browsing on the vine;

Rode, caper, vitem! tamen hinc cùm flabis ad aram,
In tua quod fundi cornua poffit, erit.

He has crop'd and infring'd the privileges of a banish'd Parliament; but, now it is returned, he may find it has power enough to make a facrifice of him, to the better establishment of our laws. And, in truth, what other fatisfaction can he make his injur'd country, than to confirm by his example those Rights, and Liberties, which he had ruin'd by his opinion?

For the proofs, my Lords, they are so manifeft, that they will give you little trouble in the difquifition: his crimes are already upon record; the delinquent and the witness is the fame: having from feveral feats of judicature proclaim'd himself an enemy to our laws, and nation, ex ore fuo judicabitur. To which purpose I am commanded by the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses of the Houfe of Commons, to defire your Lordships, that as fpeedy a proceeding may be had against Mr. Justice CRAWLEY as the course of Parliament will permit.. Ovid. Faft. Lib. 1. V. 557..

A

ASPEECH in the Houfe of Commons, on Tuesday, July 4, 1643, when Mr. WALLER was brought to the Bar, and bad leave given him by the Speaker, to say what be could for himself, before they proceeded to expel him the Houfe.

Mr. SPEAKER,

Acknowledge it a great mercy of GOD, and a great favor from You, that I am once more fuffer'd to behold this Honourable Affembly. I mean not to make use of it to say any thing in my own defense, by justification, or denial, of what I have done: I have already confeffed enough to make me appear worthy, not only to be put out of this House, but out of the world too. All my humble request to you is, that if I feem to you as unworthy to live, as I do to my felf, I may have the honor to receive my death from your own hands; and not be exposed to a Trial by the Council of War: whatever you shall think me worthy to fuffer in a Parliamentary way, is not like to find stop any where else.

This, Sir, I hope you will be pleased for your own fakes to grant me, who am already to miserable, that nothing can be added to my calamity but to be made the occafion of creating a precedent to your own difadvan-tage. Besides the Right I may have to this, confider, I befeech you, that the eyes of the world are upon you: you. govern in chief; and, if you fhould expose your own Members to the punishment of others, it will be thought that you either want power, or leifure, to chastise them your felves. Nor let any man defpife the ill confequence

of

of fuch a precedent as this would be, because he feeth not presently the inconveniences which may enfue. You have many armies on foot; and it is uncertain how long you may have occafion to use them. Soldiers, and Commanders, (tho' I know well they of the Parliament's army excel no less in modefty, than they do in courage) are generally of a nature ready to pretend to the utmost power of this kind, which they conceive to be due to them and may be too apt, upon any occafion of discontent, to make use of fuch a precedent as this. In this very Parliament you have not been without fome taste of the experience hereof: It is now fomewhat more than two years fince you had an army in the north, paid, and directed, by your felves: and yet, you may be pleased to remember, there was a confiderable number of Officers in that army, which joined in a Petition, or Remonftrance, to this Houfe; taking notice of what some of the Members had faid here, as they supposed, to their disadvantage; and did little less than require them of you. 'Tis true, there had been some tampering with them; but, what has happen'd at one time, may wifely be thought poffible to fall out again at another.

Sir, I prefume but to point you out the danger: if it be not just, I know you will not do me the wrong to expose me to this Trial: if it be juft, your Army may, another time, require the fame juftice of you, in their own behalf, against some other Member, whom, perhaps, you would be lefs willing to part with. Neceffity has of late forced you into untrodden paths: and in fuch a cafe as this, where you have no precedent of your own, you may not do amifs to look abroad upon other States, and Senates, which exercised the fupreme power, as you now do here.

I dare confidently fay you fhall find none, either antient or modern, which ever exposed any of their own order to be try'd for his life by the Officers of their

armies abroad, for what he did while he refided among them in the Senate.

Among the Romans the practice was fo contrary, that fome inferior Officers in the army, far from the city, having been sentenced by their General, or Commander in chief, as deferving death by their discipline of war, have nevertheless (because they were Senators) appealed thither: and the cause has received a new hearing in the Senate. Not to use more words, to perfuade you to take heed that you wound not your felves through my fides, in violating the privileges belonging to your own perfons; I fhall humbly defire you to confider likewife the nature of my offenfe; not but that I fhould be much ashamed to fay any thing in diminution thereof: God knows 'tis horrid enough, for the evil it might have occafioned! But, if you look near it, it may perhaps appear to be rather a civil, than a martial, crime; and fo to have title to a Trial at the common law of the land: there may juftly be fome difference put between me, and others, in this business.

I have had nothing to do with the other army; or any intention to begin the offer of violence to any body. It was only a civil pretenfe to that which I then foolishly conceived to be the Right of the subject. I humbly refer it to your confiderations, and to your confciences. I know you will take care not to fhed the blood of war in peace; that blood, by the law of war, which hath a right to be tried by the law of peace.

For fo much as concerns my felf, and my part in this bufinefs, (if I were worthy to have any thing spoken, or patiently heard in my behalf) this might truly be faid, that I made not this business, but found it: it was in other men's hands long before it was brought to me: and when it came, I extended it not, but reftrain'd it. For the propofitions of letting-in part of the King's army, or offering violence to the Members of this Houfe, I ever difallowed, and utterly rejected them.

Wh.t