A true Copy of THE LORD ANDEVERS Two Speeches To the LORDS in Parliament; The one concerning The STAR-CHAMBER; The other concerning The PACIFICATION: Both which were formerly corrupted and abused by a false Copy printed. LONDON, Printed for Francis Constable, 1641. A true Copy of THE LORD ANDEVERS SPEECH To the LORDS in Parliament, CONCERNING The STAR-CHAMBER. My Lords, SInce your Lordships have already looked so fare into the Privileges of Peers, as to make a strict inquisition upon sorreigne Honours; let us not destroy that among ourselves, which we desire to preserve from strangers. And if this grievance, I shall move against, have slept till now, it is very considerable, lest custom make it every day more permanent than other. Your Lordships well know, there was a Statute framed, tertio H. 7. authorising the Chancellor, Treasurer, Privy Seal, and the two Chief Justices, calling to them one Bishop, and a Temporal Lord of the King's Council, to receive complaints upon Bill, or Information; and cite such parties to appear, as stand accused of any Misdemeanour: And this was the Infancy of the Star-chamber. But afterward Cardinal Woolsey, octavo H. 8. raised it to man's estate; from whence being altogether unlimited, it is grown a Monster, and will hourly produce worse effects, unless it be reduced by that hand, laid the fountain. For the Statute is ratified by Parliament, which admits of no other remedy, than a Repeal. Therefore I humbly offer unto your Lordships some reasons, why it should be repealed. First, that the ve●y words of the Statute clearly show, it is a needless Institution; for it says, they who are to judge can proceed with no Delinquent otherwise, than if he were convict of the same crime by due process of Law: And do your Lordships hold this a rational Court, that sends us to the Law, and calls us back from it again? Next, divers Judicatories confound one another; & in pessimâ Republicâ plurimae Leges. The third reason is, from Circumstance, or rather à Consuetudine: and of this there are many examples, both domestic and foreign; but more particularly the Parliaments of France, abreviated into a standing Committee by Philip the Long, and continued according to his intention, till Lewis the eleventh came to the Crown; who being a subtle Prince, buried the Volume in the Epitome: for to this day, when ever the three Estates are called, either at the death of the old King, or to crown the new, it is a common Proverb, Allons voyre le ieu des estates. My Lords, arbitrary Judgements destroy the Common Laws, and in them the two great Charters of the Kingdom, which being once lost, we have nothing lest but the bare Name of Liberty. Then the last reason is, though it were the first cause of my standing up, the great Eclipse this Court hath ever been unto the whole Nobility; for who are so frequently vexed there, as Peers and Noblemen? And notwithstanding that their Appeal is ever good to this Assembly, whilst that famous Law remains in force, Quarto Ed. 3. to hold a Parliament once by year, or more, if occasion be; yet who durst a year ago mention such a Statute, without incurring the danger of Mr. Kilverts prosecution. Therefore I shall humbly move your Lordships, a select Committee of a few may be named to consider upon the Act of Parliament itself: and if they shall think it of as great prejudice, that then the House of Commons in the most usual manner be acquainted with it, either by Bill, or Conference, who happily may think it a burden to the Subject; and so when the whole body of Parliament joins in one supplication, I am confident his Majesty will desire nothing should remain in force, which his people do not willingly obey. A true Copy of THE LORD ANDEVERS SPEECH To the LORDS in Parliament, CONCERNING The PACIFICATION. My Lords, I Did lately move your Lordships, that the breach of the pacification might be speedily reviewed, as the unum necessarium; and truly my opinion is yet nothing altered, although upon second thoughts (me thinks) it would first be known who did actually engage us in these fruitless dissensions, and so derive the mischief from some original. For, my Lords, the Kingdom cannot now long stand at gaze, or undergo new burdens. Therefore what is to be done (if you intent it should prosper) must presently receive life from the whole people, otherwise we shall expire in a dream; and when the success differs from expectation, it is not enough to cry, quod non putâram. My Lords, the wiseman says, there is a proper season for all things under the Sun, and we often find the experiment in natural bodies, which are voluntarily weakened, to recover strength; yet with a restriction to such bounds, and limits, as the Physician prescribes himself: And truly, I think it is your Lordship's case at this time, either to consider what should further be done, than is already, or else how to get out of these labyrinths we now are in; lest the words of the Psalmist come home to ourselves, Vendidisti populum sine pretio. My Lords, I am confident the house of Commons doth throughly see both into the prejudice, and vast expense that these two Armies lay upon the land; and undoubtedly so many Gentlemen of worth, as sit there, will have tender eyes upon the Commonweal. It will therefore become your Lordships to second them in your way, and whilst they apply to public wounds, the care of this House may search the intestines; for if those be not cleansed, it will be but a superficial Cure, and break out again. My Lords, it seems the Earl of Strafford, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, have gone high ways of iniquity, and every one knows how to trace them; but Mines under ground are most considerable, which (unless they be likewise found out) may at any time spring and supplant the whole fabric of all our labours. Let us then throughly examine this fantastic war, lest as the Duke of Burgundy made a few sheepskins the cause of his quarrel, so we shall find those few sheets of paper, sent under the name of a Liturgy, and book of Canons, were but the Mopsa's of the story, to divert our eyes from the main design. So that my humble motion shall be for a selected Committee of no great number, who may have power from the House to begin aborigine mali, and revise every man's negotiations, who was either an Actoror Counsellor, since the first appearance of these troubles in Scotland; and that they may be examined upon such Articles, as the heavy pressure of this Kingdom shall justly administer unto them. FINIS.