THE SPEECHES OF THE LORD DIGBY IN THE HIGH Court of Parliament, CONCERNING GRIEVANCES, and the triennial PARLIAMENT.  
Printed for Thomas Walkely, 1641.   

THE LORD Digby's SPEECH, the 9th of Novem. 1640.  
Mr. Speaker,  
YOU have received now a solemn account from most of the Shires of England, of the several grievances and oppressions they sustain, and nothing as yet from Dorsetshire; Sir, I would not have you think that I serve for a Land of Goshen, that we live there in Sunshine, whilst darkness and plagues overspread the rest of the Land: As little would I have you think, that being under the same sharp measure that the rest, we are either insensible and benumbed, or that that Shire wanteth a servant to represent its sufferings boldly.  
It is true Mr. Speaker, the County of Dorset hath not digested its Complaints into that formal way of Petition, which others (I see) have done; but have entrusted them to my Partners and my delivery of them by word of mouth unto this Honourable house. And there was given unto us in the County Court, the day of our Election, a short memorial of the heads of them, which was read in the hearing of the freeholders there present, who all unanimously with one voice signified upon each particular, that it was their desire that we should represent them to the Parliament, which with your leave, I shall do, And these they are.  
1. The great and intolerable burden of Ship-money, touching the legality whereof they are unsatisfied.  
2. The many great abuses in pressing of soldiers, and raising Moneys concerning the Same.  
3. The multitude of Monopolies.  
4. The new Canon, and the Oath to be taken by Lawyers, Divines, &c.  
5. The Oath required to be taken by Church Officers to present according to Articles new and unusual.  
Besides this, there was likewise presented to us by a very considerable part of the clergy of that County a note of remembrance containing these two particulars.  
First, the imposition of a new Oath required to be taken by all Ministers and others, which they conceive to be illegal, and such as they cannot take with a good Conscience.  
Secondly, the requiring of a pretended Benevolence, but in effect a Subsidy, under the penalty of Suspension, Excommunication, and Deprivation, all benefit of appeal excluded.  
This is all we had particularly in Charge: But that I may not appear a remiss servant of my country, and of this House; give me leave to add somewhat of my own Sense.  
Truly Mr. Speaker, the injurious sufferings of some worthy members of this House, since the dissolution of the two last Parliaments, are so fresh in my memory, that I was resolved not to open my Mouth, in any business wherein freedom and plain dealing were requisite, until such time, as the breach of our privileges were vindicated, and the safety of speech settled.  
But since such excellent Members of our House thought fit the other day to lay aside that Caution, and to discharge their souls so freely in the way of zeal to his majesty's service, and their Countries good: I shall interpret that confidence of theirs for a lucky Omen to this Parliament, and with your permission licence my thoughts too, a little.  
Mr. Speaker, under those heads which I proposed to you, as the grievances of Dorsetshire, I suppose are comprised the greatest part of the mischiefs which have of late years laid battery either to our Estates, or Consciences.  
Sir, I do not conceive this the fit season to search and ventilate particulars, yet I profess I cannot forbear to add somewhat, to what was said the last day by a learned Gentleman of the long Robe, concerning the acts of that reverend new Synod, made of an old Convocation. Doth not every Parliament man's heart rise to see the prelates thus usurp to themselves the Grand Preeminence of Parliament? The granting of Subsidies, and that under so preposterous a name as of a Benevolence, for that which is a Malevolence indeed; A Malevolence I am confident in those that granted it, against Parliaments: and a Malevolence surely in those that refuse it, against those that granted it: for how can it incite less? when they see wrested from them what they are not willing to part with, under no less a penalty than the loss both of Heaven and Earth: of Heaven, by Excommunication; and of the Earth by Deprivation; and this without Redemption by appeal. What good Christian can think with patience on such an ensnaring Oath, as that which is by the new Canons enjoined to be taken by all Ministers, Lawyers, Physicians, and Graduates in the Universities? where, besides the swearing such an impertinence, as that things necessary to salvation are contained in Discipline; besides the swearing those to be of Divine right, which amongst the learned, never pretended to it, as the Arch things in our Hierarchy. Besides, the swearing not to consent to the change of that, which the State may upon great reason think fit to alter; Besides the bottomless perjury of an &c. Besides all this m Speaker, men must swear that they swear freely and voluntarily what they are compelled unto; and lastly, that they swear that Oath in the literal sense, whereof no two of the makers themselves, that I have heard of, could ever agree in the understanding.  
In a word, m Speaker, to tell you my opinion of this Oath, it is a Covenant against the King, for Bishops and the hierarchy; as the Scottish Covenants is against them, only so much worse than the Scottish, as they admit not of the Supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs, and we are sworn unto it.  
Now Mr. Speaker, for those particular heads of grievances whereby our estates and properties are so radically invaded; I suppose, (as I said before) that it is no season now to enter into a strict discussion of them; only thus much I shall say of them, with application to the country for which I serve, that none can more justly complain, since none can more justly challenge exemption from such burdens than Dorsetshire; whether you consider it is a country subsisting much by Trade; or as none of the most populous; or as exposed as much as any to foreign Invasion.  
But alas Mr. Speaker, particular lamentations are hardly distinguishable in universal groans.  
Mr. Speaker, it hath been a Metaphor frequent in Parliament, and if my memory fail me not, was made use of in the Lord keeper's Speech at the opening of the last, that what money Kings raised from their Subjects, they were but as vapours drawn up from the Earth by the sun, to be distilled upon it again in fructifying showers: The Comparison Mr. Speaker, hath held of late years in this kingdom too unluckily: what hath been raised from the Subject by those violent attractions, hath been formed, it is true, into Clouds, but how? to darken the suns own lustre, and hath fallen again upon the Land only in hailstones and Milldews, to batter and prostrate still more and more our liberties, to blast and wither our affections; had not the later of these been still kept alive by our Kings own personal virtues, which will ever preserve him in spite of ill Counsellors, a sacred object, both of our admiration and loves.  
Mr. Speaker, It hath been often said in this House, and I think can never be too often repeated, That the Kings of England can do no wrong; but though they could Mr. Speaker, yet Princes have no part in the ill of those actions which their Judges assure them to be Just, their Counsellors that they are Prudent, and their Divines that they are Conscientious.  
This Consideration Mr. Speaker, leadeth me to that which is more necessary far, at this season, than any farther laying open of our miseries, that is, the way to the remedy, by seeking to remove from our sovereign, such unjust Judges, such pernicious counsellors, and such disconscient Divines, as have of late years, by their wicked practices, provoked aspersions upon the government of the gratiousest and best of Kings.  
Mr. Speaker, let me not be misunderstood, I level at no man with a forelaid design▪ let the faults and those well proved lead us to the men: It is the only true Parliamentary method, and the only fit one to incline our sovereign. For it can no more consist with a gracious and righteous Prince to expose his servants upon irregular prejudices; then with a wise Prince to withhold Malefactors how great soever from the Course of orderly Justice.  
Let me acquaint you Mr. Speaker, with an aphorism in Hippocrates, no less authentic (I think) in the Body politic, then in the natural. This it is Mr. Speaker, bodies to be throughly and effectually purged must have their humours first made fluid and movable.  
The Humours that I understand to have caused all the desperate maladies of this Nation, are the ill Ministers. To purge them away clearly, they must be first loosened, unsettled, and extenuated, which can no way be effected with a gracious Master, but by truly representing them unworthy of his protection. And this leadeth me to my motion, which is, that a select committee may be appointed to draw out of all that hath been here represented, such a Remonstrance as may be a faithful and lively representation unto his majesty of the deplorable estate of this his kingdom, and such as may happily point out unto his clear and excellent judgement, the pernicious Authors of it. And that this Remonstrance being drawn, we may with all speed repair to the Lords, and desire them to join with us in it; And this is my humble motion.   

THE LORD Digby's SPEECH IN THE house OF Commons, to the Bill for triennial PARLIAMENTS. Jan. 19 1640.  
Mr. Speaker,  
I Rise not now with an intent to speak to the frame and structure of this Bill, nor much by way of answer to objections that may be made; I hope there will be no occasion of that, but that we shall concur all unanimously in what concerneth all so universally.  
Only Sir, by way of preparation, to the end that we may not be discouraged in this great work by difficulties that may appear in the way of it, I shall deliver unto you my apprehensions in general of the vast importance and necessity that we should go thorough with it.  
The Result of my sense is in short this. That unless for the frequent convening of Parliaments there be some such Course settled, as may not be eluded; neither the people can be prosperous and secure, nor the King himself solidly happy. I take this to be the unum necessarium: Let us procure this, and all our other desires will effect themselves: if this Bill miscarry, I shall have left me no public hopes, and once past, I shall be freed of all public fears.  
The essentialness Sir of frequent Parliaments to the happiness of this kingdom, might be inferred unto you, by the reason of contraries, from the woeful experience which former times have had of the mischievous effects of any long intermission of them?  
But Mr. Speaker, why should we climb higher than the level we are on, or think further than our own Horizon, or have recourse for examples in this business, to any other promptuary than our own memories; nay then the experience almost of the youngest here?  
The reflection backward on the distractions of former times upon intermission of Parliament, and the consideration forward of the mischiefs likely still to grow from the same cause if not removed, doubtlessly gave first life and being to those two dormant Statutes of Edward the 3d, for the yearly holding of Parliament: And shall not the fresh and bleeding experience in the present age of miseries from the same spring, not to be paralleled in any other, obtain a wakening, resurrection for them?  
The Intestine distempers Sir, of former ages upon the want of Parliaments, may appear to have had some other cooperative causes, as sometimes, unsuccessful wars abroad; sometimes, the absence of the Prince; sometimes, Competitions of Titles to the Crown; sometimes, perhaps the vices of the King himself.  
But let us but consider the posture, the aspect of this state, both toward itself, and the rest of the world, the person of our sovereign, and the nature of our sufferings▪ since the third of his reign. And there can be no cause colourably inventable, whereunto to attribute them, but the intermission, or which is worse, the undue frustration of Parliament, by the unlucky use, if not abuse of Prerogative in the dissolving them.  
Take into your view Gentlemen, a State in a state of the greatest quiet and security that can be fancied, not only enjoying the calmest peace itself, but to improve and secure its happy condition, all the rest of the world at the same time in Tempest, in Combustions, in uncomposable wars.  
Take into your view Sir, a King sovereign to three kingdoms, by a Concentring of all the royal lines in his Person, as undisputably as any mathematical ones in Euclid. A King firm and knowing in his Religion, eminent in virtue; A King that had in his own time given all the Rights and Liberties of his Subjects a more clear and ample confirmation freely and graciously, than any of his Predecessors (when the people had them at advantage) extortedly, I mean in the Petition of Right.  
This is one map of England, Mr Speaker, A man Sir, that should present unto you now, a kingdom, groaning under that supreme Law, which Salus populi periclitata would enact. The liberty, the property of the Subject fundamentally subverted, ravished away by the violence of a pretended necessity; a triple Crown shaking with distempers; men of the best Conscience ready to fly into the wilderness for Religion. Would not one swear that this were the Antipodes to the other; and yet let me tell you Mr. Speaker, this is a map of England too, and both at the same time true.  
As it cannot be denied Mr. Speaker, that since the Conquest there hath not been in this kingdom a fuller concurrence of all circumstances in the former character, to have made a kingdom happy, then for these 12 years' last past; so it is most certain, that there hath not been in all that deduction of ages, such a conspiracy, if one may so say of all the Elements of mischief in the second character, to bring a flourishing kingdom if it were possible, to swift ruin and desolation.  
I will be bold to say, Mr. Speaker, and I thank God, we have so good a King, under whom we may speak boldly of the abuse of his power by ill Ministers, without reflection upon his person.  
That an Accumulation of all the public Grievances since Magna Carta, one upon another, unto that hour in which the Petition of Right past into an Act of Parliament, would not amount to so oppressive; I am sure not to so destructive a height and magnitude to the rights and property of the Subject, as one branch of our beslaving since the Petition of Right.  
The branch I mean is the judgement concerning Ship-money. This being a true representation of England in both aspects.  
Let him Mr. Speaker, that for the unmatched oppression and enthralling of free Subjects in a time of the best Kings reign, and in memory of the best Laws enacting in favour of Subjects liberty, can find a truer Cause than the ruptures and intermission of Parliaments. Let him, and him alone be against the settling of this inevitable way for the frequent holding of them.  
'Tis true Sir, wicked Ministers have been the proximate causes of our miseries, but the want of Parliaments the primary, the efficient Cause.  
Ill Ministers have made ill times, but that Sir, hath made ill Ministers.  
I have read among the Laws of the Athenians, a form of recourse in their Oaths and vows of greatest and most public concernment to a threefold Deity, Supplicum Exauditori, Purgatori, Malorum depulsori.  
I doubt not but we here assembled for the commonwealth in this Parliament, shall meet with all these Attributes in our sovereign.  
I make no question, but he will graciously hear our Supplications. Purge away our Grievances, and expel Malefactors, that is, remove ill Ministers, and put good in their places.  
No less can be expected from his wisdom and goodness.  
But let me tell you Mr. Speaker, if we partake not of one Attribute more in him; if we address not ourselves unto that, I mean Bonorum Conservatori; we can have no solid, no durable Comfort in all the rest.  
Let his Majesty hear our Complaint never so compassionately.  
Let him purge away our Grievances never so efficaciously.  
Let him punish and dispel ill Ministers never so exemplarily.  
Let him make choice of good ones never so exactly.  
If there be not a way settled to preserve and keep them good; the mischiefs and they will all grow again like Samson's Locks, and pull down the House upon our heads. Believe it Mr. Speaker, they will.  
It hath been a maxim among the wisest Legislators, that whosoever means to settle good Laws, must proceed in them, with a sinister opinion of all Mankind; and suppose that whosoever is not wicked, it is for want only of the opportunity. It is that opportunity of being ill Mr. Speaker, that we must take away, if ever we mean to be happy, which can never be done, but by the frequency of Parliaments.  
No State can wisely be confident of any public Ministers continuing good, longer than the Rod is over him.  
Let me appeal to all those that were present in this House at the agitation of the Petition of Right. And let them tell themselves truly, of whose promotion to the management of affairs do they think the generality would at that time have had better hopes then of Mr. Noy, and Sir Thomas Wentworth, both having been at that time, and in that business as I have heard, most keen and active Patriots, and the later of them to the eternal aggravation of his Infamous treachery to the commonwealth be it spoken, the first mover, and insister to have this clause added to the Petition of Right, that for the comfort and safety of his Subjects, his majesty would be pleased to declare his will and pleasure, that all his Ministers should serve him according to the Laws and Statutes of the realm.  
And yet Mr. Speaker, to whom now can all the inundations upon our liberties under pretence of Law, and the late shipwreck at once of all our property, be attributed more than to Noy, and those, and all other mischiefs whereby this Monarchy hath been brought almost to the brink of destruction, so much to any as to that Grand Apostate to the commonwealth, the now lieutenant of Ireland?  
The first I hope God hath forgiven in the other world; and the later must not hope to be pardoned it in this, till he be dispatched to the other.  
Let every man but consider those men as once they were.  
The excellent Law for the security of the Subject enacted immediately before their coming to employment, in the contriving whereof themselves were principal Actors.  
The goodness and virtue of the King they served, and yet the high and public oppressions that in his time they have wrought. And surely there is no man but will conclude with me, that as the deficience of Parliament hath been the Causa Causarum of all the mischiefs and distempers of the present times: so the frequency of them is the sole Catholic Antidote that can preserve and secure the future from the like.  
Mr. Speaker, let me yet draw my Discourse a little nearer to his Majesty himself, and tell you, that the frequency of Parliament is most essentially necessary to the power, the security, the glory of the King.  
There are two ways Mr. Speaker, of powerful Rule, either by fear, or Love, but one of happy and safe Rule, that is, by Love, that firmissimum Imperium quo obedientes gaudent.  
To which Camillus advised the Romans. Let a Prince consider what it is that moves a people principally to affection, and dearness, towards their sovereign, He shall see that there needs no other Artifice in it, then to let them enjoy unmolestedly, what belongs unto them of right; If that have been invaded and violated in any kind, whereby affections are alienated, the next consideration for a wise Prince that would be happy, is how to regain them, to which three things are equally necessary.  
Renistating them in their former liberty.  
Revenging them of the Authors of those violations.  
And securing them from Apprehensions of the like again.  
The first God be thanked, we are in a good way of.  
The second in warm pursuit of.  
But the third as essential as all the rest, till we be certain of triennial Parliament, at the least; I profess I can have but cold hopes of.  
I beseech you then Gentlemen, since that security for the future is so necessary to that blessed union of affections, and this Bill so necessary to that security.  
Let us not be so wanting to ourselves; let us not be so wanting to our sovereign, as to forbear to offer unto him, this powerful, this everlasting Philter to charm unto him the hearts of his people, whose virtue can never evaporate.  
There is no man Mr. Speaker, so secure of another's friendship, but will think frequent intercourse and access very requisite to the support, to the Confirmation of it: Especially if ill offices have been done between them; if the raising of jealousies hath been attempted.  
There is no Friend but would be impatient to be debarred from giving his Friend succour and relief in his necessities.  
Mr. Speaker, permit me the comparison of great things with little, what friendship, what union can there be so comfortable, so happy, as between a gracious sovereign and his people, and what greater misfortune can there be to both, then for them to be kept from intercourse, from the means of clearing misunderstandings from interchange of mutual benefits.  
The people of England Sir, cannot open their ears, their Hearts, their mouths, nor their Purses, to his majesty, but in Parliament.  
We can neither hear him, nor complain, nor acknowledge, nor give, but there.  
This Bill Sir, is the sole Key that can open the way to a frequency of those reciprocal endearments, which must make and perpetuate the happiness of the King and kingdom.  
Let no man object any derogation from the King's Prerogative by it. We do but present the Bill, 'tis to be made a Law by him, his honour, his power, will be as conspicuous, in commanding at once that Parliament shall assemble every third year, as in commanding a Parliament to be called this or that year: there is more of majesty in ordaining primary and universal Causes, then in the actuating particularly of subordinate effects.  
I doubt not but that glorious King Edward the third, when he made those Laws for the yearly Calling of Parliament, did it with a right sense of his dignity, and honour.  
The truth is Sir, the Kings of England are never in their glory, in their splendour, in their majestic sovereignty, but in Parliaments.  
Where is the power of imposing Taxes? Where is the power of restoring from incapacities? Where is the legislative Authority? Marry in the King, Mr. Speaker. But how? in the King circled in, fortified and evirtuated by his Parliament.  
The King out of Parliament hath a limited, a circumscribed Jurisdiction. But waited on by his Parliament, no Monarch of the East is so absolute in dispelling Grievances.  
Mr. Speaker, in chasing ill Ministers, we do but dissipate Clouds that may gather again, but in voting this Bill, we shall contribute, as much as in us lies to the perpetuating our Sun, our sovereign, in his vesticall in his noon day lustre.  
FINIS.