Mr. Maynards' SPEECH BEFORE BOTH Houses in Parliament, upon Wednesday the twenty-four th'. of March, in reply upon the Earl of strafford's Answer to his Articles at the Bar.  
Printed in the Year, 1641.   

Mr. MAINARDS' SPEECH BEfore both Houses in Parliament, on Wednesday the twenty-four. of March, in reply upon the Earl of strafford's answer to his Articles at the Bar.  
My Lords:  
I Shall repeat little of that which hath been said, only this: That whereas my Lord of Strafford, did answer to many particulars; yet he did not answer to that which was particularly objected against him; that is, you were to hear the complaints of the whole Kingdom: now the particular of our aim, is to take off the vizard, which my Lord hath put on; wherein the truth and honour which is due to his Majesty, he would attribute to himself.  
My Lords, there is one thing which I desire your Lordships to remember, it being the main of our complaints.  
The alteration of the face of government, and traduceing of his own Laws; and this is the burden upon all the Lords and Commons of Ireland. Concerning the breach of Parliament, he would put it on Sir George Ratcliff; but i'm sure, he cannot put off himself: for Sir George Ratcliff was not the man alone, but others joined with him in that Assembly, and I am sure my Lord of Strafford moved it for the breach of Parliament.  
I shall address myself to the body of his answer: Now give me leave my Lords, that I may open the nature of this great offence.  
My Lords, it is a charge of Treason, which is a Treason not ended, or expired by one single Act; but a trade envied by this Lord of Strafford, ever since the King's favour hath been bestowed upon him.  
My Lords, it hath two parts to deprive us that which was good. And secondly, to bring in a Tyrannical government, it takes away the laws of the land, and it hath an arbbitrary government, bounded by no law, but what my Lord of Strafford pleaseth.  
It is the law, my Lords, which we reverence, and cheerfully render to our gracious Sovereign: The Law as it is the ground of our liberty, so it is the distribution of justice..  
My Lords, in all this; my Lord of Strafford hath endeavoured to make them uncapable of any benefit: It is true, my Lords; that Treason against the person of a Prince is high Treason, and the highest Treason that can be to man; but it falls short of this Treason against the State.  
When blessed King james was taken to heaven, he commended the laws to his Son, our gracious Sovereign. But my Lords, if such a design as this should take effect, that the law of Justice should be taken from the Throne, we are without hope of ever seeing happy days, power is not so easily laid down, unless it be by so good and just a Prince as we have.  
My Lord of strafford's accusation is conveyed into twenty eight Articles, and I shall but touch the heads, that we shall insist upon, and I think the best way to this, is to consider what he did before he went into Ireland, what then, and what since.  
He hath encroached jurisdiction, where none was, taking upon him a power to repel the laws, and to make new laws, and in domineering over the lives and goods, and what ever else was the subjects.  
My Lords, this he hath notdone only upone the meaner sort but upon the Peers and ancient Nobility and what may your Lordships expect, but the same measure at his hands, here as they have found there when he committed any to prison, if a habeas Corpus were granted the Oficers must not obey, and if any Fine were put upon the Officer, for refusing them, there was a command that he should be discharged: so that he did not only take power to himself, but the Sceptre of justice out of the King's hand.  
When he was a member of the house of Commons, it was his own motion, all Ministers of State should serve the King, according to the laws which he hath broken himself.  
He doth as much as say, that Fines shall not be paid by Officers, if in this they fulfil his commands, but those that release a prisoner upon a habeas corpus shall find his displeasure.  
My Lords, if this had been a single Act, we should not have accused him of high Treason, but this hath been his Common course, and this we present to your Lordship's consideration.  
The next thing is, that in the North the people attending for Justice, you shall see what a dishonour he flung upon the sacred Majesty of the King, that did advance him: some of the justices (saith he) are all for Law but they shall find that the King's little finger is heavier than the Loins of the Law.  
My Lords, what a sad Speech was this, and what sad Accidents happened upon it, you all know, and he said in a solemn speech; That Ireland was a Conqaered Nation, and that the King might do with them what he would, their Charters were nothing worth, they did bind the King no longer than he pleased. Surely you may see what he would do if he had power, but we hope never such Counsel shall have acceptation in so gracious an Ear as our Sovereigns, and be doth not stay in words but proceeds to Actions, when a Peer of the Kingdom was expelled the Kingdom for suing at Law for recovering of his Right, he saith, he would-have Ireland know that neither Law nor Lawyers should question any thing that he ordered.  
My Lords, he goes higher, for when there was an occasion to speak of an Act of State, he said it shouted be as binding as an Act of Parliament.  
My Lords, he cannot go higher than this he tells them in Parliament; they were a Conquered Nation, and they must expect the usage of a Counquered Nation.  
The Lord Mountnorr is for a few words that fell from his mouth spoken privately at his Table, had a Counsel of War called against him and was judged to death.  
My Lords, it is no marvel that he say; That the Kings little finger should be so heavy, when his little toe was so heavy to tread down a Peer under his foot.  
My Lords, he makes Laws of himself, and he makes a difference in matters of Justice between the poor and the rich, but when he hath executed his power upon the poor, he will fall upon the rich.  
My Lords, he hath made that which was worth but five shillings to be valued at twenty, and my Lords, by this he doth in effect take away what ere this commodity is worth, he saith he doth it for the King's gain, but we shall make it appear, that the Crown hath lost, and he hath gained.  
And for the Commodity of Flax my Lords, it is but a Woman's Commodity, but yet it is the Staple Commodity of Ireland.  
Now my Lords, this Commodity he hath gotten wholly into his own hands, for he made such a Proclamation, that it should be used in such ways as the Women could not do it, and if it were not used in such ways that it should be seized upon, no he doth not only put impositious upon the Subject, but take away the goods too, and thus he hath levied war against the King's Subjects, and this is his course that if a Decree were made by him and not obeyed, there issued a warrant to Soldiers, that they should make garrison, and that they should go to the houses of those that were pretended to be disobedient.  
My Lords, they have killed their Sheep and their Oxen, and bound their horses and took them Captives till they have rendered obedience, which is expressly contrary to Law, for it saith; If any man set horse or foot upon the King's Subjects in a Military way, it is high Treason.  
My Lords, it doth not only oppress them in their estates, but provoke and incite his Majesty to lay down his mercy and goodness, and to fall into an offensive war against his Subjects, and say they are Rebels and Traitors.  
He tells his Counsel that the Parliament having forsaken the King, and the King having tried the Parliament, he might use other ways to procure money to supply his necessities.  
My Lords, the same day that the Parliament was broken, he tells the King, he had 8000 foot and 1000 horse, to reduce this Kingdom to obedience.  
My Lords, consider in what a sad time this man took to infuse this sad Counsel into the King's ear.  
My Lords, he doth advise the King that he was absolved from all rules of government, but if no rule of government, what rule of obedience; Surely he meant to reduce us to a Chaos and confusion, etc. would have us without all rule of government or obedience.  
My Lords, those that he would have brought to reduce us were Papists, Enemies of our Religion. This strikes us near, my Lords, and is the grief of our hearts; that an Irish Army should be brought into England to reduce us.  
My Lords, I hope we were ne'er so far gone, as to need an Army to reduce us to obedience.  
My Lords, he had raised this Army, and if such Counsel should have taken effect in his Majesty's ear, he, like proud Haman, would have thought to have been General of the Army.  
And thus my Lords, you see this Lord of Strafford falls upon a Counsel, which might make an irreconciliable difference to subdue us by his power.  
FINIS.