THE SPEECH OR DECLARATION OF THE LORD FAULKLAND, TO THE LORDS OF the Upper House, upon the delivery of the Articles of the Commons Assembly in Parliament: AGAINST THE LORD FINCH.  
LONDON, Printed for John Bartlet, and are to be sold at Augustine's Gate. 1641.   

THE LORD FAULKLANDS SECOND SPEECH, Made the 14th of January, 1640 after the reading of the Articles against the Lord FINCH.  
THESE Articles against my Lord FINCH being read, I may be bold to apply that of the Poet, Nil refert tales versus qua voce legantur; and I doubt not but your Lordships must be of the same opinion, of which the House of Commons appears to have been, by the choice they have made of me, that the Charge I have brought is such, as needs no Assistance from the bringer, leaving not so much as the colour of a colour for any defence, including all possible Evidence, and all possible Aggravation (that addition alone excepted) which he alone could make, and hath made, I mean his Confession, included in his flight.  
Here are many and mighty Crimes, Crimes of Supererogation, (So that High Treason is but a part of his Charge) pursuing him fervently in every several condition, (being a silent Speaker, an unjust Judge, and an unconscionable Keeper.) That his Life appears a perpetual Warfare (by Mines, and by Battery, by Battle, and by Stratagem) against our fundamental Laws, which (by his own confession) several Conquests had left untouched, against the excellent Constitution of this Kingdom, which hath made it appear to Strangers rather an Idea, than a real Commonwealth, and produced the honour and happiness of this to be a wonder of every other Nation, and this with unfortunate success, that as he always intended to make our Ruins a ground of his advancement; so his advancement the means of our further ruin.  
After that, contrary to the further end of his place, and the end of that meeting in which he held his place, he had as it were, gagged the Commonwealth, taking away, (to his power) all power of speech from that body of which he ought to have been the Mouth, and which alone can perfectly represent the condition of the people, whom that only represents, which if he had not done, in all probability, what so grave and judicious an Assembly might have offered to the consideration of so gracious and just a Prince, had occasioned the redress of the grievances they then suffered, and prevented those which we have since endured, according to the ancient Maxim of Odisse quos laeseris: he pursued this offence towards the Parliament, by inveighing against the Members, by Scandalising their proceed, by trampling upon their Acts and Declarations; by usurping and devolving the Right; by diminishing and abrogating the power, both of that and other Parliaments, and making them (as much as in him lay) both useless and odious to his Majesty, and pursued his hatred to this fountain of Justice by corrupting the streams of it, the Laws; and perverting the Conduit pipes, the Judges.  
He practised the annihilating of Ancient, and Notorious perambulations of particular Forests, the better to prepare himself to annihilate the Ancient, and Notorious perambulation of the whole Kingdom, the Mere and bounders between the liberties of the Subject and Sovereign power; he endeavoured to have all tenors in durante bene placito, to bring all Law from his Majesty's Courts, into his Majesty's breast: he gave our goods to the King, our Lands to the Deer, our Liberties to his Sheriffs; so that there was no way by which we had not been oppressed, and destroyed, if the power of this person, had been equal with his will: Or that the will of his Majesty, had been equal to his power.  
He not only by this means, made us liable to all the effect of an Invasion from within, (and by destruction of our Liberties, which Included the destruction of our propriety; which Included the destruction of our Industry) made us liable to the terriblest of all Invasions: that of want, and poverty. So that if what he plotted, had taken Root (and he made it, as sure as his Declaration could make it (what himself was not) Parliament Proof) in this wealthy, and happy Kingdom, there could have been left, no abundance but of grievances, and discontentment, no satisfaction but amongst the guilty. It is generally observed of the Plague, that the Infection of others, is an earnest, and constant desire of all that are seized by it: and as this design resembles that disease, in the ruin, destruction, and desolation, it would have wrought, so it seems no less like it in this effect: He having so laboured to make others share in that guilt, that his solicitation, was not only his Action, but his works, making use both of his Authority, his Interest, and Importunity, to persuade; and in his Majesty's name (whose piety is known to give that Excellent Prerogative to his person, that The Law gives to his place, not to be able to do wrong) to threaten the rest of the judges, to sign opinions contrary to Law, to assign answers contrary to their opinions, to give judgement which they ought not to have given, and to recant judgement, when they had given as they ought, so that whosoever considers his care of, and Concernment, both in the growth and the Immortality of this project, cannot but by the same way, by which the wisest judgement found the true Mother of the Child, discover him not only to have been the Fosterer, but the Father, of this most pernicious, and envious design.  
I shall not need to observe that this was plotted and pursued by an English man, against England, (which increaseth the Crime in no less degree than parricide is beyond Murder) that this was done in the greatest matter joined to the greatest Bond, being against the general liberty, and public propriety, by a sworn judge, (and if that salt itself, because unsavoury, the Gospel itself, hath designed whither it must be cast) that he poisoned our very Antidotes, and turned our Guard into a destruction, making Law the ground of Illegality: that he used this Law not only against us, but against itself, making it as I may say, Felo de se, making the pretence, (for I can scarce say, the appearance of it) so to contribute the utter ruin of itself.  
I shall not need to say, that either this (or none can be) of the highest kind, and in the highest degree of Parliamentary Treason, a Treason which need not a computation of many several Actions, which alone were not Treason, to prove a Treason altogether, and by that demonstration of the intention, to make that formality Treason which were materially but a misdemeanour, a Treason, aswell against the King, as against the Kingdom, for whatsoever is against the whole, is undoubtedly against the head, which takes from his Majesty, the ground of his Rule, the Laws, (for if foundations be destroyed, the Pinnacles are most endangered) which takes from his Majesty the principal honour of his Rule, the Ruling over Freemen, (a power as much Nobler than over Villains, as that is that's over Beasts) which endeavoured to take from his Majesty, the principal support of his Rule, their hearts and affections over whom he Rules (a better and surer strength and wall to the King, than the Sea is to the Kingdom) and by begetting a mutual distrust, and by that a mutual disaffection between them, to hazard the danger even of the destruction of both.  
My Lords, 
 I shall the less need to press this, because as it were unreasonable in any case to suspect your justice, so here especially, where your Interest so nearly unites you, your great share in Possessions, giving you an equal concernment in propriety, the care and pains used by your Noble Ancestors in the founding & asserting of our common Liberties, rendering the just defence of them, your most proper and peculiar Inheritance, and both exciting to oppose and extirpate all such designs as did introduce, and would have settled an Arbitrary, that is, an Intolerable form of Government, and have made even your Lordships and your posterity but Right Honourable Slaves.  
My Lords, 
 I will spend no more words, Luctando cum larva, in accusing the Ghost of a departed person, whom his crimes accuse more than I can do; and his absence accuseth no less than his Crime. Neither will I excuse the length of what I have said, because I cannot add to an Excuse, without adding to the Fault, or my own Imperfections, either in the matter or manner of it, which I know must appear the greater, by being compared with that Learned Gentleman's great ability, who hath preceded me at this time: I will only desire by the Command, and in the behalf of the House of Commons, that these proceed against the Lord FINCH, may be put in so speedy a way of dispatch, as in such cases the course of Parliament will allow.  
FJNJS.