THE Earl of Bristol HIS SPEECH IN THE House of Lords, The XX. Day of July 1660. upon the BILL of indemnity  
LONDON, Printed in the year, 1660   

THE Earl of Bristol HIS SPEECH IN THE HOUSE of LORDS.  
My Lords,  
BEING to speak unto Your Lordships somewhat more extendedly than is my use, and upon a Subject wherein there may be perhaps not only difference; but even fervour of Opinions; I find myself obliged by som●●what that happened to me here the oth●● day, to beg a favour of Your Lordships, t●●● if I should chance to err in forms and orders of the House, 〈◊〉 that there should slip from me unawares any expression th●● may be dissonant to the ears of those who understand b●●●●● than I the force and propriety of words, You will not be se●●● unto me, but be pleased to consider, That I have been six●● years out of my country, and in a profession far differing fr●● what I am now a doing: In confidence of this Indulgence I sh●●● proceed.  
MY LORDS, YOU have here before you in this Bill of indemnity the most important Business that perhaps the House of Peers hath at any time had in deliberation; it is that upon which the Honour or eternal reproach of the Nation abroad, and its happiness or Confusion at home, seems (next under God's inscrutable providence) most principally to depend. For on the one side, how abhorred a Nation must we needs be to all others, if the Infamy of our Sovereigns murder should not be throughly washed away by Justice in the blood of the guilty? And on the other, what happiness or quiet can we hope for at home, nay, what new combustions ought we not to apprehend, if the Criminal and the Misled (between whom the Eye of the Law can make little distinction) making up so numerous a part of the Nation, their fears, which might urge them to new Crimes, should not be secured by the firmest assurances of Impunity? Punishing and Securing are certainly the two principal ends of this Bill, and wherein as certainly every one of Your Lordships doth concur; but whether the means of attaining those ends have been sufficiently lighted upon by the House of Commons ●n this Bill, That I suppose is the present Question; and where●● I think myself in duty obliged to express unto Your Lord●●ips with freedom and sincerity my judgement, in all humble ●●●mission unto Yours.  
As for that part of the Bill which relates to Our sovereign's ●●rther, I find it so short and so much out of the way, of what ●e owe, both to the severity and solemnity of that Revenge, ●●●t I cannot but think it in some sort (pardon the expression) ●rophanation of the due Rites of that sacred Expiation, to ●●ndle it in the same Bill promiscuously with other more vulgar things.  
My Motion therefore shall be, That there be forthwith a Committee appointed, to consider of all things fit to be done for the washing away of that Stain from the Nation, and from the Age wherein we live; and to draw up an Act purposely and solely for that end. In confidence that this Motion will either be embraced by Your Lordships, or that, if it be opposed, I shall have the liberty to fortify it by my Reasons, I shall set that business apart, and apply my discourse to what concerns this Bill in all other relations: In which I shall not make nice to tell Your Lordships, that I think it defective in many things reasonable, and redundant in some things unreasonable; and yet, notwithstanding, not only my humble Motion, but my most earnest pressure, as far as with humility I may, shall be, That We may proceed immediately to the Passing of this Bill, with little or no alteration.  
This, my Lords, may appear a surprising motion from a Person thought to be, as indeed I am, as much inflamed as any man living with Indignation at the detestable proceedings of the late usurped Power, so pernicious to the public, and so injurious to my own particular; in whom the motion may seem yet more surprising, when I shall have told You with truth, That I am irreparably ruined in my fortune for my Loyalty, (if this Bill of indemnity to others for their Disloyalty should pass as it is here offered unto Your Lordships.) But the ground I go upon is, this received maxim as to all public Sanctions, Better a Mischief than an Inconvenience: yea, Better innumerable Mischiefs to particular Persons and Families, than one heavy Inconvenience to the public.  
My Lords, I profess unto You I find myself set on fire, when I think that the blood of so many virtuous and meritorious Persons, peers and others of all ranks, so cruelly and so impiously shed, should cry so loud for vengeance, and not find it from Us.  
That many of the wickedest and meanest of the people should remain as it were rewarded for their Treasons, rich and triumphant in the spoils of the most eminent in virtue and Loyalty of all the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom.  
What generous Spirit can make reflection on these things, and not find his heart burn into rage within him?  
Here it is, My Lords, that we sufferers have need of all Our Philosophy.  
But when I consider that these are mischiefs only to the sufferers, and that to insist upon a remedy might perhaps expose the public to an irreparable inconvenience, I thank God I find in an instant all my resentments calmed and Submitted to my primary duty.  
My Lords, We have here in Our view a Kingdom tossed and rolling still with the effects of past Tempests; and though, God be thanked, the storm be miraculously ceased, we can not say that the danger is, until we get into Still Water: That Still, that Smooth Water is only to be found in the Generalities security from their guilty fears, and in the Two Houses Union between themselves, and with their sovereign.  
Whether the latter may not be endangered if we should enter into controversy upon the particulars of this Bill, I leave unto Your Lordships to judge. But certainly as to the former, there can be no hopes of raising Moneys, of disbanding Armies, or of settling that Happiness and Tranquillity which We all sigh for, of being governed under Our Gracious sovereign by the Ancient and known laws of the Land, whilst universal fears shall subsist by the delay in passing this Bill.  
My Lords, I shall sum up unto Your Lordships my whole drift in a few words.  
I think that in this Bill there are many things wanting which solid and important reasons would require to be added, and many things inserted into it, which Justice to His majesty's interests and to particular persons would require to be omitted of rectified: But I conceive at the same time that the mischiefs of the delay in passing it do far outweigh all the advantages of improving it.  
My Lords, I shall conclude my discourse and Your lordship's trouble with the application to this purpose of a memorable saying of that Illustrious Minister, the Cardinal Mazarin's, at a Council in the Wars of France, whereunto I had the honour to be called. It was, That in the great affairs of the World He had not known any thing do more hurt than these two words, Faisons Mieux, let us do better. For, said he, whilst good Wits endeavour by debates to bring good Counsels to a greater perfection, they do for the most part lose the opportunity of timing things rightly, which in great actions is of far more importance than the preference according to refined reason betwixt Good and Better.  
Upon this ground my conclusion is, that, that part which concerns the King's death being put in the way proposed, we should proceed to the speedy passing of this Bill without losing any time in emendations; but if we be destined to so fatal a loss by raveling into particulars, I shall in that case desire leave to offer unto Your Lordships therein my reflections also.  
FINIS.