A Vindication of every Freeman's liberty; against all Arbitrary power and Government. OR, A Letter of WILLIAM LARNER Prisoner, to Sir HENRY VANE junior, a Parliament man: Wherein is set forth his unjust Imprisonment, and cruel hard deal towards the said William Larner.  
HONOURED SIR,  
IT is not unknown unto you, my suffering condition, being in some measure set forth unto you, in my Letter of the 3d. of April last passed, which I sent you then: I expected according to your undertaking and promise, you would have done somewhat whereby I might either have been freed from these my bands, or otherwise brought to trial, according to Law, and not thus to have suffered me to languish in prison, as many more do. The House of Commons have declared, that they will not exercise any Arbitrary power, or suffer it to be done by any other, but according to the fundamental Laws of this Kingdom, Justice and right to be done to every man without respect of persons: Besides, you have bound yourselves by Oath unto, and by a Law confirmed the Great Charter of Liberties, for the preservation whereof we have adventured all, in assisting you against the oppugners thereof.  
But now contrary to your Oaths, Protestations, Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom, am I still detained in prison, to the ruining and utter undoing of my wife and family, all means of subsistence and livelihood being taken from us, yet you seem regardless of it, as if it were a matter that concerned you nothing. Sir, I pray you to consider, that if the oppressions and several grievances of men in particular be not redressed what avails your general Laws? If you that are Members of the House, refuse to present our grievance and just complaints, to the House, what hopes can we have to receive any comfort or relief there, whatsoever good that Honourable House intends us? So as indeed you that neglect or refuse to open your mouths (being bound by Oath and the duty of your place thereunto for us) in presenting our Petitions, conditions and sufferings, to that Honourable House, may you not be truly said to be such as are the betrayers of our Liberties, covertly doing more disservice to the Parliament and State, than the Enemy that openly fighteth against them: The Enemy discovers themselves (by oppugning the Laws and our liberties) what they be; but you whilst you retard the delivering up of our complaints, thinking the fault to be in the House, causes us to conceive hard thoughts against them, brings us into a dislike of their government, and thus you do the work of the Enemy; and by thus neglecting us, do the Parliament more harm, and in time (if not provided for) will prove more dangerous than all the machinations and attempts of the adversary: For, the people begin already to look upon you, as men carrying on your own designs and peculiar and private interests, under the Veil of public pretences, and that your care is how to get great Offices and places for yourselves and your friends, and while you suffer us the Commons to be spoiled of all, to lie in Prisons, and undergo all miseries, wants and extremities, you be nothing troubled thereat, so long as yourselves far well; this is utterly a fault in many of you, of no little blemish and shame for you, and cannot be imputed to be little less than mere madness, in thus exasperating our spirits, and alienating our affections from you, and yet to stand upon so high terms with the contrary party.  
Till you by actions manifest, as by your words you have declared to the world, to be the men you profess and would seem to be, I and others shall doubt that you intent nothing less than our good, or peace. For hitherto you have sworn and protested, but all as yet in vain: For these our Bonds and Imprisonments show them to be (hitherto) emptiness and Wind; and if this be continued, these courses will make the people hate you, and as you have been regardless of their burdens and complaints, so (I fear) when you shall expect and most need their help, they will dissert you.  
Sir, are we a freeborn people, or are we born slaves? What I pray you, makes you to differ? who brought you into that House? whether your own greatness and power, or the people's love and Election? If by the people, how comes it then to pass, that their grievances and complaints be so little minded, and themselves so contemptible in your eyes? (as if mere slaves:) Beware, lest losing and neglecting them, you lose not yourselves: Excuse my plainness and freedom; for if I hold my peace, I see destruction; by putting myself forth this way, I may happily save you and myself, in awaking you out of this drowsiness, carelessness (of our common liberty) with which you are so deeply overtaken.  
You see in what condition you have brought us, even into a condition worse than slavery, yea, worse than death; for in death sorrow is not remembered; bread is provided for the slave, but we your prisoners (loaden with sorrow, broken with affliction) mewed up in your prison houses, oftentimes wish for death and cannot find it, nor any bread you provide for us, hungerstarved men, and we pine in prisons, not pitied, not lamented.  
Sir, if I have offended, if I have transgressed any known law, I then crave the benefit of the Law, the liberty of a Freeman; that, either according to the same I may be tried for my justification or condemnation, or otherwise; that I may be holden no longer from my charge and 
* For if I provide not for my family, I am worse than an infidel: but woe be to them that are the cause's thereof.  calling, in this my tormenting Prison.  
You have confirmed Magna Charta, and many other good Laws since made in favour of our Liberties, and yet unrepealed; which if they were duly put in execution, I then should not doubt but to come forth out of prison, to the confusion of the faces of such as prosecutes, and maliciously informs against me: In the beginning of this Parliament you brought us out of Prisons, approved our stand and sufferings against the Exorbitant and Arbitrary power and Government of the Starcham-chamber, Council Table, and high Commission Court. These your encouragements made us bold, did you find us ungrateful? We are the same men still, we have the same affections to you, and if by you we may receive one Ordinance, viz. The Ordinance of Justice, then assure yourselves, we to our abilities will not be wanting to you, but will be ever ready to spend and be spent for you: Thus hoping you will at length answer the expectation of a Freeman of England wrongfully imprisoned, and no longer add to the sins of the Prelates, to the increasing of wrath, by imprisoning and unjustly tormenting, just and free persons. In expectation whereof, Sir I am, and will remain  
Yours in all due respects to his power: WILL: LARNER. From the Prison in Maiden-lane this 3. of June, 1646.   

To the Right honourable, the LORDS assembled in Parliament.  
The humble Petition of Helen Larner, in the behalf of her husband William Larner, and their two servants, John Larner, and Jane Hale.  
Shows,  
THat your Petitioners husband, hath now stood committed more than 8. Weeks, and their servants in the Fleet four Weeks, upon a false suggestion of Hunscors (the Stationer's Beadle) a malicious adversary of your poor petitioners husband.  
Your Petitioner most humbly beseecheth your Honours, to commiserate our deplorable condition, whose means of livelihood, depends solely upon their calling and liberty, and therefore according to your noble clemency, to be pleased to assign unto them, their liberty out of Goal, free of all prison fees:  
And your Petitioner as bound, shall pray, etc. WILLIAM LARNER.