A DEFENSIVE DECLARATION OF Lieut. Col. John Lilburn, Against the unjust sentence of his banishment, by the late Parliament of England; directed in an Epistle from his house in Bridges in Flanders, May 14. 1653. (Dutch or new still, or the 4 of may 1653. English or old stile) To his Excellency the Lord General Cromwell, and the rest of the Officers of his Army, commonly sitting in Whitehall in Council, managing the present affairs of England, etc. Unto which is annexed, an additional appendix directed from the said Leut. Col. John Lilburn, to his Excellency, and his Officers, occasioned by his present imprisonment in Newgate; and some groundless scandals, for being an agent of the present King, cast upon him by some great persons at Whitehall, upon the delivery of his third Address (to the counsel of State, by his wife and several other of his friends) dated from his captivity in Newgate the 20 of June 1653.  
MY Lord and honoured Gentlemen.  
Having seen nothing abroad in print to declare that title that you would have people give you that address themselves to you, I must therefore crave your pardon, if through ignorance I do not exactly give you (being myself in a foreign nation, at so far a distance from you) that title that is usually given unto you; for upon my word and reputation, my present design is to write with all respect unto you; wherefore, I crave leave truly to inform you, that by the sudden and unexpected arrival of my endeared (though greatly afflicted) wife, with me yesternight. I am by her certainly informed of the total dissolution of the Parliament, with the necessity of your assuming to yourselves the power of the Nation, with large and serious promises from you, of doing it real good and healing its rents, breaches, hazards, and dangerous divisions, by setting it at real liberty and freedom, founded upon the true principles of reason, common equity, righteousness and justice: ' at the sight of which in truth and verity, my heart should more truly rejoice, then at the enjoying of all earthly riches and honour, that possible it can be imagined the whole world can afford to me particularly; And also, she very much incourages me to believe, that if I can obtain your pass, faith, or engagement for my safe and free returning into England, and remaining there (which she with confidence assures me, by virtue of this letter thus penned, and her negotiations thereupon, speedily to procure from you) I may with confidence rest upon it. In which consideration, most noble and worthy gentlemen, vouchsafe me, without distaste I beseech you, liberty, truly to acquaint you, That by the late Parliaments Votes of the 15. of January last was twelve Months I was fined seven thousand pound to Sir Arthur Haselridge, etc. to be banished out of England, and its territories for ever, and never to return into any of them again, upon pain of death; but if I do, I am to die as a felon without mercy, and upon pain of death to be gone within thirty days after the said 15 of Januarie; And by their Act of the 30 of the same month, all persons are declared accessary of Felony, after the fact, that shall relieve, harbour or conceal me in England, or any of its territories, after the expiration of 20 days after the said 15 of January, the said day that the judgement of my banishment was passed against me, & the harbours all stopped, that none should pass without a pass. And yet, though I went to the Speaker Master Lenthal, at his own house, and with all the earnestness and importunity that my tongue possibly could express to him, begged a pass of him, as for my life, but it was again and again absolutely by him denied me; So that I ran apparent hazards of being hanged in England before I could get away, forwant of a pass to go into my banishment.  
For at Dover, the Mayor of that Corporation, absolutely and resolutely denied to let me go without a pass, although I had been at the charges to carry thither from London with me several witnesses, judicially to depose upon their oaths, that I was the individual Lieut. Col. John Lilburn mentioned and named in my banishing votes, which were publicly printed by special order of the Parliament, one of which copies I then delivered to him (till his wife (a mere stranger to me) and one that to my knowledge I had never seen before) upon my mournful expostulation with him, burst out into crying, and begged and desired of her husband to let me pass; and rather, by so doing, to run the hazard of his own ruin, then of my apparent death by his means. And all this is done unto me, I do here solemnly avow it (and dare engage with the utmost hazard of life, judicially legally, fully, and evidently to make it good) without any the least shadow of law, reason, justice, conscience, or provocation; without so much, as ever laying any pretence of a crime unto my charge, or ever letting me know my accuser, or any accusation, or ever by sending forth any manner of process of law, calling me to any answer whatsoever; or ever permitting me (though in the face of the Parliament sitting I most earnestly pressed it and desired it, upon the twentieth of Jan. being the very day that by their fifth vote passed against me, I was called to their bar to hear their sentence read to me) to speak so much as one word in my own defence, or expressing any manner of cause in my foresaid banishing votes, either general or particular, wherefore they so banished and fined me seven thousand pound. The foresaid Act of the thirtieth of January (past also against me) was made after it was publicly known I was upon my journey to Dover, to go into my banishment; and yet that Act expresseth no particular crime, in the least in law, against me, but only generals, which by the law of England and the Army's Declaration signify nothing. 2 Part Cooks Inst. fol. 52, 53, 315, 318, 591, 615, 616. and 1. part of the Parliaments book of Declarations, p. 38, 77 201, 845, and the votes upon the impeached 11 Members: see the Petition of Right, and the late act that abolished the Star-chamber, and those excellent printed arguments upon the Writ of Habeas Corpus, in the Court of King's Bench, in the Case of Sir John Eliot and other Parliament-men committed to prison in the third of King Charles. The unparallelled strangeness, and high injustice of which sentence (by no laws of nature, rules of reason, nor foundations of English government can no way (I am confident) be justified (nor any man that had really a finger or vote in causing or procuring of it) by any man endued either with one grain of honour, true understanding, conscience, or common honesty; the justification of my own innocency, and every way causeless suffering in every particular, against that most unrighteous sentence, I dare venture my life to the uttermost hazard, to justify, and vindicate fully against the learnedest, ablest, or rationalest writer, or lawyer in England, that shall in the least open his mouth in the defence of that Sentence; which yet, with all respect I leave to you further to judge of.  
And yet by virtue of this very Sentence, Sir Arthur Haselridge many weeks since hath actually seized, and is actually possessed by his tenants or other agents of all my land, and corn sown upon the ground, & turned all my servants out of house and home. By means of which sentence, I being but a new beginner (by reason of my many, and long continued chargeable troubles and imprisonments) to take root in any outward settlement in the world, for the future subsistence of me, my wife, and helpless little babes: I have been already so destroyed in my estate, as that really and truly, I am already several thousands of pounds damnified thereby, besides all the constant hazards of my life; And already I profess, bona fide, as in the presence of God exposed to so great straits (which till now, for my own reputation sake, I never durst divulge) as that I have already been forced in a land of strangers, for many months together, to borrow here every penny that bought me ●…ead, while my wife in England, for the subsistence of her & our children being forced to sell a great part of her householdstuff, and to pawn other of it, yet unredeemed; and also to borrow several sums of money of her friends, being in point of payment of moneys unto her so dealt with, by almost all persons in a manner, that she may justly say, they have dealt unhonestly and unworthily with her, they taking advantage of my absence, and great afflictions; yea to procure money to buy her, and her poor young babes bread she hath already been necessitated to part with my interest in one house in London, for one hundred thirty five pounds, that stands me in much above three hundred pounds, and yet by my Landlord of that house, being one of that most corrupt tribe of Lawyers, is basely, unconscionably, and unworthily dealt with, by reason of which, a great part of the said one hundred thirty five pound is kept from her. And yet, all this put together, is the least of my present sad affliction and banishment.  
For at Dover was clapped upon me a spy, a Rogue, called Captain Wendy Oxford, who had stood upon the Pillory for wilful perjury, in two several places; and yet at the same time was hired and pensioned by Master Thomas Scott Sir Arthur Haselridges bosom and most endeared friend; who hath held a constant (though many ways, seemingly disguised) correspondency, with the perjured Rogue Oxford ever since; as to Master scott's face, I am able still, in a great measure, to prove, and allowed him vast sums of money therefore; of the payment of some of which, much more than circumstantial, I am able to bring proof: And which Oxford hath had a dispensation from the said Master Scott (or at least hath made it his practice) to fall down upon his knees, with his doublet and hat on the floor, to drink healths to the damnation and confusion of the Parliament and Army (as I have been informed by one of his own Comrades) even during the receipt of his well paid, large Pension from Master Scott; in which time also he hath avowedly writ, and caused to be printed several books, with his name to them, proclaiming in foreign Nations, the Army and Parliament traitors against the King; and vigorously excited and stirred up all the Princes of Europe, to join together in one body, and by force of arms to cut them in pieces, as a pack of the grandest traitors and tyrants that ever breathed in the world; and who to his knowledge had their agents in all the Kingdoms of Europe, to stir up their subjects against their Sovereigns, and to reduce their Kingdoms into Commonwealths or Anarchies: but the main and evident scope of all his said books, and constant plotted dissembling devises and actions being principally to exasperate the body of the mad or Ranting Cavaliers in these parts, to cut my throat, as the present greatest enemy the present King, or his Father ever had in the world.  
And yet, at the same time, or under the same employment of M. Scot, etc. hath writ over to the said Mr. Scot I was become a Cavalier, or at least a mighty great man with the chief leaders of the King's party here, whose Agent or Agents of Sir Arthur Haslerig and Mr. Scot, even at Parliaments, Committees, (or Committee) have made their open and proclaimed use of it; to the great and extraordinary detriment of me, and my friends and Clients, that had business of many thousand pounds' consequence, then depending, and in actual agitation before the said Committee, or Committees.  
By means of which, with much more of as dangerous and sad nature to me, that I am able, if it were now fit, most truly to relate, all my brains, valour, and mettle hath been scarce able several times to preserve my life, from the murderous hands of the various plots, and wicked contrivances of Mr. Scots known Agents, and their greatly deluded, credulous accomplices, the pistol of some of whom, viz. Hugh Rily, a common reputed Irish Rebel, and lately a piece of a Quarter-master-General to Sir Charles Lucas in Colchester, whose tyranny the said Rily exercised, as I am credibly informed, upon abundance of people in Colchester, and particularly upon his Landlord Mr. Beacon; and which Rily for his most villainous roguery, cheating, cozening, treachery, and running from one side to another, hath several times hardly escaped hanging in Flanders, etc. beyond Seas, as I have for certain been informed by some of his own Countrymen, and Associates at Colchester, from whose mouth, especial in the particular of treachery, I have heard so much vildness related by them of him, as I never in all my days heard of one man; and yet this very man is one of Mr. Scots great Agents and Negotiators beyond the Seas, to promote the interest and freedom of England's Commonwealth; though Job saith, of such most wicked and profane men, he would not set them with the dogs of his flock; and righteous Paul saith. The damnation of such men is just, that say (as Mr. Scot constantly practices) they must do evil that good may come of it; all such vile, dissembling, wicked actions, having no foundation at all from God, or his Volumn of Truth, but from the devil and his Machiavilian principles, which are notably, excellently, and politicly described by that subtle wise man Nicholas Machiavelli, his most rememorable book called his Prince, in his whole 18 chapter, extremely well worth reading and taking special notice of: and yet as my wife informs me, the said wicked Hugh Rily hath lately to the Council of State, (by Mr. Scots instigation as I imagine) presented a strange, lying, and false Petition against me, a copy of which I know not how to come by, to return an answer to; and therefore do humbly entreat your honours jointly or several, to help me to a true copy of the said Petition, that so in the face of the Sun I may be freely admitted to make my just defence against it, truth hating holes and corners; with most bitter and fearful oaths immediately to kill me, hath several times been almost even at my very breast and that without any real provocation.  
Yea, and Mrs Oxford (a common notorious reputed whore) and who commonly passeth once every month, for above these twelve months together, betwixt her husband (the said Captain Wendy Oxford) from Amsterdam and Delfe, to and from Mr. Thomas Scot at Whitehall, hath from time to time avowed to several persons (from whom I have my relations) that I am confident will justify it, that if all the interest she had in the world, would get me pistolled or stabbed, she would have it done, having (as from several I have been informed) boasted, that she hath already, on purpose brought with her into Flanders, several stout men to do it, and to dispatch me; yea even at Dunkirk about fourteen days ago (being newly come from Whitehall, from Mr. Scot) she vowed, protested and swore, and most bitterly damned herself to the pit of hell, to the very face of an acquaintance and friend of mine, that if by any of all the hands, of all the friends she had in the world, she could get me pistolled or stabbed, it should speedily be done; or if by any other ways and means that she could invent, she could get me murdered, it should undoubtedly and speedily be done. All which murdering conspiracies, I have too much ground and cause really to believe, doth most wickedly take its original, true, and malicious cowardly rise from Mr. Scot, and Sir Arthur Haslerig, the former and often practices of both of them against me, even in this very kind, hath been as wicked, bloody, treacherous, and barbarous, even while I was in England, as in a great measure I am able truly to evince, and punctually demonstrate.  
All which seriously considered, I humbly, and earnestly entreat you, to cast a just, favourable, speedy, and compassionate eye, upon my causeless, unjust, and sad suffering condition (being constantly in a strange land,) by reason of the wicked, and cowardly plots and devices aforesaid, of Mr. Scot, (Sir Arthur Haslerig his grand and most endeared friend) accompanied with constant ●…d daily hazards of death, and to afford me such speedy, and effectual remedy, and deliverance from it, as your present exercised power, will best enable you with; and particularly, that you will immediately give such a Pass, and such security for my speedy, free, and safe returning into the Land of my Nativity, and there to live in security, from the hazard of all or any part of my aforesaid sentence, or any actions done depending thereupon, as may be ground of security and confidence, unto my faithful and beloved friends, Major General John Lambert, Colonel Bennet, late a Member of Parliament, Colonel Thomas Pride, Mr. Henry Duel my Father in law, Mr. Feake, and Mr. Powel, Ministers or public preachers, Mr. William Walwin, Mr. Thomas Prince, Mr. William Kiffin, Mr. Boulton, Mr. George Ward, Citizens of London, and Clement Oxenbridge Esquire, or the major part of them, with your Pass, to send me under their hands, their encouragement, that I may freely with security of my life, from any danger, by reason of any action whatsoever, depending upon the said sentence, return into England; for which favour I shall judge myself obliged to remain,  
My Lord, and Noble Gentlemen, Your obliged friend, in all just and righteous ways, hearty to serve you, JOHN LILBURN. From Bridges in Flanders, this 14 of May 1653 new, or Dutch stile, or May 4 1653 old or English stile.   

An Additionall Appendix by the penner of the foregoing Address.  
MY Lord and honoured Gentlemen, it hath been my hard fortune often to be misunderstood by divers of you, and which I am confident of it, many times hath principally flowed from the cunning and insinuating artifice of corrupt persons without you, whose own particular guilt and fear, required them for their own safety to calumniate and asperse me, and to do the utmost that in them lay, to set you, or some of the chiefest of you, and me together by the ears, and such was some of their mischievous practices even with his Excellency himself, at his late being at Scotland, which made and compelled me after the battle of Worcester, to wait upon his honour at his own house in the Cockpit, who very well knows he was pleased to honour me so far, and to take me with himself into a Gallery, where without a third person present, his Excellency very well knows, we had hand to hand above an hours friendly and rational discourse, at the beginning of which discourse, I do verily believe his Excellency cannot choose but very well remember I expressed myself unto him in this manner: My Lord, with all respect and sincerity of heart I am come to wait upon you, and humbly to beg that honour from you, that you would vouchsafe to give me leave a little friendly to speak with you, which being with all willingness granted by his Excellency, I proceeded to this effect; my Lord, through misapprehensions, and a kind of partaking in other men's quarrels, you and I have for some time by past, been engaged in several disgusts against each other, although my Lord I think a greater and realler familiarity could not possibly be betwixt two friends, than was betwixt your honour and myself, in the years 1643. 1644. 1645. and part of 1646.  
And at your late going to Scotland, and myself accompanying you 25. miles on your journey, (by reason of a very great Obligation you had put upon me in the Parliament House and Council of State the day before) there seemed to be a very solemn and friendly reconciliation betwixt us, which on my part hath been faithfully, honestly, and justly ever since, both privately and publicly, inviolably kept and preserved, to your honours very great advantage and safety; and yet notwithstanding from Scotland, etc. by several of my friends I have been often informed, that Mr. Scot, and others at White-Hall hath writ several Letters to you, and therein informed you, that I was a managing, and had joined in destructive designs against you and the Army with the King's Party, in which regard I have judged myself obliged in conscience and duty to my own safety, to wait upon your Excellency, and face to face to aver unto you, upon my reputation and credit, that I am absolutely free in any kind, either directly or indirectly, of doing the least action that may give you distaste, or be prejudicial in any kind to your interest; and therefore do most humbly and earnestly entreat you, to do yourself that Right, and me that Justice, as to call Mr. Scot, or any other that hath endeavoured to accuse me to you (and thereby to incense your indignation against me) face to face, that so I may speak for myself; and my Lord, if either Mr. Scot, or any other can accuse me justly in the least, as being guilty of any one action of disservice unto you, since the day of our said solemn reconciliation, let me for ever be esteemed by you the veriest false treacherous Rogue and Villain in the world, at the saying of which, his Lordship was pleased to say, he had not the least ground of disgust or distaste against me, but that I stood right in his affection, and he should be ready to do me any office of love.  
On which I told him I was the more induced to do this, because Mr. Scot being Secretary of State, (which being one of the greatest places of trust in the Nation) I could not but judge thereby, he was very deep in his Excellency's favour, and therefore might have more than an ordinary influence upon him, and thereby the more able to do me a mischief, and I was sure he had will enough unto it, forasmuch as I was able to prove it to his face, while I was a prisoner in the Tower in 1649. he had made it his work to hire an Agent, my great pretended friend, with great sums of money, to come and persuade me in my then great discontents, by reason of my sad sufferings, to write Letters to the King of Scots at Jersey, and send them by his said Agent, that so I might be drawn into a treasonable snare, thereby to lose my life; and having had much private discourse with his said Agent, and easily perceiving his drift, I was through the goodness of God too hard for him; whereupon he and Mr. Scot failing of their wicked and bloody ends in getting any Letters from me, he the said Agent alone, or joined with Mr. Scot, as I have too apparent grounds to judge, hereupon counterfeited my hand, and feigned and produced several false Letters of mine, intercepted, as was pretended, that I had writ to the King of Scots: For my old friend Mr. Cornelius Holland avowed with a great deal of seriousness to my wife then familiar with him, that he knew my hand as well as his own, & if ever he saw my hand in his life, those Letters of mine that they had to produce against me, which he said I had lately writ to the King of Scots to Jersey, was every word my own individual hand, and he was very sorry that I, who for my honesty he had so highly esteemed, should be so Apostatised from all my principals, as to turn my back of God, and of his people, and the cause of the Commonwealth, and to join with their grand enemy the King, to destroy them all.  
And the Lord Bradshaw averred the substance of this to ● very good friend of mine, a Knight; upon the knowledge of which, I did confidently, truly, and solemnly avow, I never writ a line in my life to the King, nor was no more directly nor indirectly in combination with him, than Mr. Holland, or the Lord Bradshaw themselves; whereupon after I was calumniated by M. Scots means all over City & Country, to be an absolute Agent of the King, and threatened a little before my trial at Guild-Hall, to be tried for my life thereupon, yet upon my resolute and true averments, this cheat vanished as smoke, so that Sir by this you may see Mr. Scot wants no will to do me mischief, therefore for time to come I beseech your Excellency not to believe any of his tales against me in his future endeavouring to make again debate and strife betwixt your honour and myself, but upon all his information against me, before they receive belief with you, call me face to face to speak for myself, which his Excellency solemnly promised he would do.  
Whereupon in the second place I expressed myself in this manner to his honour; my Lord, I crave your favour to speak a few words further unto you, which being granted, I went on to this effect, My Lord, there hath been in my late imprisonment much differences betwixt Sir Arthur Haslerig and myself, occasioned by his taking from me, by his will and pleasure, without shadow of Law, or authority of any in power, about 2500. l. of my own proper money, and besides, prosecuting to take away my life with that eagerness and vileness that he did, and that by ignoble and unworthy means; and now my Lord there is a great contest betwixt him and my Family, whom ●ruly I cannot but say he most unjustly endeavours to extirpate out of their country, and from my Uncle and others of his friends, he hath already by his will and pleasure, without Law or reason, taken a Colliery worth, as Sir Arthur himself saith 5000. l. per annum, and I know my Lord, Sir Arthur is a man very dear unto you in your affections, and in regard the business is like to come to a very high contest, and I as a Counsellor against Sir Arthur am like to the utmost to be engaged in it; therefore lest your honour should judge I contest with Sir Arthur upon any old score of reflection upon him as your Lordship's friend, or any the least design to occasion any disturbance, I am come to wait upon your honour, on set purpose, to take out of your mind all or the least apprehension or conceit of any disgust remaining in my heart against your honour, and to let you clearly know, my thoughts are fully fixed with as much respect upon your Excellency as its possible for a man's to be; and therefore I am come to offer this unto your honour, that seeing Sir Arthur Haslerig is your great friend, and seeing we judge our cause in contest with him so just and righteous as we do, I humbly and seriously proffer this unto your honour, that if Sir Arthur pleaseth absolutely to refer the final judgement of the cause unto your Excellencies sole judgement, and bind himself in a bond of twenty thousand pounds, finally to stand to your determinate and sole judgement, I will engage my friends shall enter into as great bonds, upon your Lordship's full hearing of the cause on both sides, to stand to, and finally to acquiesce, without further dispute, in his honour's judgement, for which his Lordship very much commended my ingenuity, and my honourable respect to himself and his integrity, so absolutely to put ourselves in a cause of so great consequence into his hands, but withal told me, he understood the cause was long, and he had many weighty affairs upon his hands, which would by no means afford him so much time as to hear so long a cause as he believed that was, unto which I replied to this effect; then my Lord, because I will absolutely leave you without the least starting hole, or any the least ground to harbour any disgust in your breast against me, for my zealous appearing in this Colliery business against Sir Arthur Haslerig, over whom I know you have a kind of friendly command; and therefore seeing you will not undertake to be Judge in the case yourself, in the second place, although Sir Arthur be a great man, and a Parliament-man besides, and also a great Military Officer under you, and none of those for whom I am engaged against him in any of those capacities or qualifications, yet to show and fully hold out to your honour our own honest, just, and peaceable intentions. I say in the second place, on the behalf of my said friends, in reference to the said Colliery, I offer this, that if your Lordship please to engage Sir Arthur Haslerig to make a final and fair end of it without too much heat and contest, that if he please to choose two Parliament men, or two Officers of the Army, out of those of either sort which he leaves we will choose two more, and bind ourselves finally in the said bonds of twenty thousand pounds, to stand, and abide their final Judgement in the case, and therein absolutely to acquiesce, provided that in regard they being an even number, there might be two and two in opinion opposite to each other, that therefore in such things as they shall not fully agree in, his Lordship should be final Umpire, which proffer his honour highly commended for so much ingenuity, that he was highly taken with it, and promised effectually to speak to Sir Arthur about it, which yet produced no other healing effect in the least, but my banishment.  
Which being upon such hard and cruel terms, as is before truly expressed, and my life beyond the Seas in a constant and perpetual hazard and danger, and that principally by Mr. Scots means, Sir Arthur Haslerigs endeared and bosom friend, who by his large pentioned Agents, and particularly by that notorious convicted perjured rogue, Capt. Wendy Oxford, whom I have too much cause confidently to believe, he got set in the Pillory, and banished, out of design to go over with me, and put him in the more disguise, the more securely to get me murdered in our travels together, who I am able to prove hath ever since been in a constant pentioned correspondency with the said M. Scot, and the said Oxford's wife, or whore, as she is commonly reputed, hath constantly and commonly once a month, past and repast, betwixt the said Oxford and Mr. Scot, on purpose to plot and contrive, as I have too apparent cause to judge, my murder, ruin, and destruction, the said perjured rogue Oxford, having constantly and apparently ever since my banishment made it his work in Holland, first by discourses and printed papers with his name to them, to make the people of Holland believe my banishment was but a counterfeit, a juggling and dissembling fictious thing, out of design, that so I might be the more serviceable to the General, or my brother Traitors at Westminster, as in his printed books he calls me and them, that so the people in Holland might beat my brains out as a rogue, and one of the Generals or Parliaments chief Spies.  
2. By his discourses and printed papers, he hath constantly made it his work to incense the whole Body of the King's Party beyond the Seas against me, constantly averring, that I have been the only principal man that embroiled the three Nations in war, that murdered the King, and altered the Government into a Commonwealth, and have destroyed the King, his Queen, and Posterity, with the Nobility and Gentry, by means of which my life hath been in a constant and perpetual danger to be taken from me, especially by the rasher and madder sort of the King's Party.  
To counterbalance these two destructive evils and mischiefs against me, and my life, I have had no other way under God to preserve my life, but these two ways:  
First by discourses and print beyond the Seas, to make it evident and apparent to the people there, that my banishment was a real thing, and no fiction in the least, and that I was so far from being a Spy for the General, that I had grounded cause to look upon him as the capitallest Adversary I had in the whole world, because as my information told me before I left England, that by one of his own Favourites, who was then constantly at his elbow, that notwithstanding all the forerecited fair outside carriage, my banishment was divers days before it was declared by Parliament agreed on by the General himself, and a cabal of Parliament-men in the Generals own private Chamber.  
And secondly, an information before my wife by some that sat in the House, and heard, and diligently observed the whole carriage of my banishment, told me, that the General upon that Tuesday that I was called to the Bar, to hear their sentence read to me (being the very day that my honest and faithful Citizen friends delivered their Petition to the Parliament against the injustice of their own banishing Votes) appeared openly in the House as the grand and principal man that caused me to be banished, in all which regards and considerations, I was then of opinion, and yet am not fully altered, that I had just cause to write, and speak as evil of the General, as my tongue or pen could invent; and I confess I did it, and do appeal to all  men amongst yourselves, what less the godliest, meekest, and moderatest amongst you would have done, all circumstances considered, had you been in my most desperate and sad condition, daily and hourly encompassed round with the plotted and contrived designs of murder and death, by the pentioned Agents of the Secretary of State; Mr. Scot, who was great in favour even with the General's Excellency himself.  
The second main thing that I had under God, in reason, honestly, or policy to preserve my life, was in all the just and honest ways I could to fall into a friendly familiarity with the rationallest and principallest of the King's Party that lived in the parts where I lived, and accordingly I did, and was very familiar with the Lord Percy, the Lord Hopton, the Lord Culp●pper, the Bishop of London Derry (a wise and shrewd blunt man) and the Duke of Buckingh●m, with all of whom, or the highest ranting Cavalier I met with, upon all occasions of discourse whatsoever, I always maintained my own principals, that at the first I engaged with in the Parliaments quarrel against the late King, viz. unlimited Regal Prerogative, and Parliaments unknown unfathomable privileges; and with whom, or any other of the King's Party, either directly or indirectly, I never in the least (I speak it as in the presence of the Lord God Almighty, that knows the secretest thoughts of the hears of the sons of men) in all my days, from the beginning of the war to this hour, entered into the least contract, agreement, oath, or confederacy, to be his Agent, or to advance his ends or interests, and am as totally ignorant as a young child of the particulars of any present designs of his, negotiated in England, Scotland, or Ireland, and never in all my days held any Counsels with them, or any of them, for the managing of the King's designs against the interest and welfare of the Land of my Nativity; and in all my actions and carriages beyond the Seas, in my cruel banishment, I have been to the utmost of my power, understanding, ability, as constant, as studious and industrious a real wellwisher to the prosperity of the people of England in general, as ever I was in my life, and I appeal to a late published Letter of mine to Col Henry Martin, as a part of my justification in this averment.  
And as for George Lord Duke of Buckingham, with whom I was the most conversant, I was again and again importuned by the said Captain Wendy Oxford thereunto, our first meeting, or seeing one another's faces, being at the said Captain Wendy Oxford's Chamber in Amsterdam, where we all three dined together, and the Duke and myself had a very large and private discourse about his own particular individual business, he craving my best advice, how he might the most rational, expeditious, and honourable way he could, make his peace in England, and return thither to breath in the Air of the Land of his Nativity, which ne avowed he loved above all places in the world, and was ready and willing to do any thing that the present power in England could require of a man, that had either a grain of honour or honesty in him, and to give them any security to the utmost of his power for his future quiet, and peaceable living under their Government; for the accomplishment of which end I gave him many reasons to believe that his only way was to make a sure and firm friend to his Excellency the Lord General Cromwell, in order unto which I advised him to deal with Captain Wendy Oxford, who was a Mercenary fellow, and whom I gave him abundance of reasons to believe, was very great with Mr. Thomas Scot Secretary of State, who I confidently then averred to him was extraordinary great with his Excellency the Lord General Cromwell, and accordingly the said Duke of Buckingham followed my advice, and large instructions in that particular, and entered into a contract with the said Oxford to obtain his pass, who to my certain knowledge negotiated it, both by Letter to his said wife (or commonly reputed Whore) with Mr. Scot, for divers weeks and months together, and the said Mr. Scot sent over to the said Oxford a Pass, at the said Oxford's earnest desire, to come from Holland to England to speak with him the said Mr. Scot, about the said business; which Pass, as I was told by a Merchant, that in Oxford's hand see it, the said Oxford was possessor of: but it being accidentally seen in Oxford's hands, by some Cavaliers who were drinking hard, and ranting it with the said Oxford, he judged it his safety and policy immediately to tear and burn it; and immediately to fall a cursing and swearing at the Parliament and Army, and to call them Rogues, Traitors, and Villains, and to with all the plagues of Heaven and earth to fall upon them, for their destruction and damnation. And which said Oxford received several sums of money of the said Duke of Buckingham to negotiate his business with the said Mr. Sco●, to procure his Pass to come into England: and as I have been credibly informed from Col. Leighton, then belonging to the Duke of Buckingham, and then fully privy to all the said negotiations: the said Oxford with Mr. Scot brought his desired Pass to that perfection, that if he the said Duke would truly declare all the discourse he had with me at Amsterdam, he should have his Pass; but the Duke having at our very first meeting engaged his word and honour to me, that his and my discourse together should not be divulged without my consent, and according to my instructions refused to tell Mr. Scot the same, and so failed of his then obtaining his Pass; and thereupon sent his friend Col. Leighton with a Letter, and full instructions immediately to his Excellency the Lord General Cromwell to procure his extraordinary much desired Pass; and the said Col. Leighton had with his Excellency and the than counsel of State many debates about it, as the said Col. fully and particularly at his coming into Flanders told me at Ostend, and Bridges, the place of my then habitation; and this business, and the debating from time to time of the honest and just ways and means how to procure the said desired Pass, for the said Duke, was the true and real ground of the Duke of Buckingham's and my many converses together ever since our first knowledge each of other: unto whom I must most truly and faithfully say this, That I do as immediately and instrumently own my life and being to him, as ever David ought his to Jonathan: his powerful influence among the desperate Cavaliers, being such, as that instrumentally under God he principally preserved my life, from those many complotted designs, that the said Oxford had cunningly laid by their hands to get me murdered; and of whom and in his real commendations, whether it be gain or loss unto me, I am in gratitude compelled to say this:  
That during the time of my banishment, I was more really obliged and beholden to him the said Duke of Buckingham, for those extraordinary benefits and favours I have received from him, than I am to my Father, my Brother, and all the Kindred and friends I have in the three Nations, in England, Scotland, and Ireland; and in whom I have by long experience found so much reason, sobriety, civility, honour, and conscience (that) as to his own particular, if ever it should lie in my power to do him any personal service, without detriment to my native country (which I am confident he would never desire of me) I judge myself bound and obliged in conscience and gratitude to travel in his errand a thousand, and a thousand miles upon my feet; and if he wanted security, and mine might any ways be advantageous unto him, in case he should ever live to enjoy that, which he to me scores of times passionately hath declared to be esteemed by him so great a happiness, once again to be admitted to breath in English air, I durst be bound body for body, for his punctual, and faithful performance of any solemn engagement he should make for his future and peaceable, quiet and obedient living under the present power of England.  
Most noble Lord, and honoured Gentlemen, I am the more bold to be thus large in these particulars with you, because, being compelled by my own necessities (Sir Arthur Haselridge having actually seized all my land) and the apparent hazard of death, (Oxford having in his third or last printed book declared, he hath two more to come speedily out against me, in which he sufficiently threatens, to make it too hot for me to hid my head in any hole in Europe.) And my wives most urgent importunity, grounded, as she said to me, upon some encouragement she apprehended from his excellency the Lord General Cromwell; I say, being necessitated and encouraged by the foresaid declared premises, to return into England, and to cast my life at your feet and favour, by reason of the unconscionable letter of an unjust, injurious, and many ways void Act of Parliament in itself.  
And in the sincerity of my soul, since my compelled return, have made to his Excellency and the honourable Council of State, upon 14, 16, and 20 of June present three humble, rational, submissive, and moderate petitions; unto all or any of which I can yet obtain no other answer, but my commitment to Newgate, in order to a trial for my life, upon the said illegal and unjust Act of Parliament; and several averments from Major General Desborough, and Major General Harrison, unto divers of my Friends, as several of them inform me, that the Council of State hath letters and papers under my own hand, of my engagement to the present King of Scots, to come over to be his Agent, and to imbroile the Nation again in blood; and that all the Duke of Buckingham's familiarity and mine hath been only in order thereunto, with divers other things of the like mischievous nature: and that which is worse, some of my said Friends, that were down at Whitehall with my last Petition, aver to me, that Major General Harrison with much incensed bitterness should aver to them, that there was no credit to be given to any of my averments to the contrary, of what he said against me, because he had found me so false, that he could not trust any thing I said: and others of my Friends aver to me, that they have been certainly informed, that Major General Harrison in open Parliament, since the debate of my banishment was afoot, avowed in the open House, that I was a most false perjured fellow: in all which consideration, and forasmuch as the wisest of men in Scripture aver to this purpose that a good name is much more precious than much sweet oil, and more to be valued then much fine gold; and to me is much more dearer than my life; in all which consideration, I say, I am compelled in all humility to take my life at this present time visibly into my hand, and humbly to declare unto you, that being lately pressed upon those very things by one supposed very powerful with his excellency about my engaging with the King of Scots, and having solemnly declared to him, I never was guilty of any the least engagement with him, or any of his party, to promote his Regal interest, against the well are of the present declared Commonwealth of England: and being desired and pressed by him, I solemnly swore it upon the Bible, and am ready with the last drop of my heartblood to make it good against any man in the whole world: being confident that no man having but one grain of common honesty, hath any ground in the least, to swear such a thing against me, as confederacy with the present King, or any for him, to be his present agent in England; nor dare do it, unless it be some of Mr. Scots most deboist Cavaliers, or other wicked Agents and Pensioners, that he constantly employs to set and lay traps and gins to betray and destroy men (as in some cases I can punctually prove, he hath already done, even to the taking away the very lives of some) the generality of which, for a Whore or a Glass of Wine makes no conscience at all, with most bitter oaths to damn themselves to the pit of hell: he having already to one of them proffered to settle upon him and his heirs for ever 200 l. land of inheritance by the year, to swear against me at Guildhall to take away my life there, as the party himself hath confessed to me; and hath also in effect done the same to a Col. that within this very few days tells me that at law upon his oath he will be ready to justify it.  
And as for my information, of Major General Harrisons averment against me in the open House, of being perjured; my condition at persent, with all the sobriety I can, compels me to say no more to him but this, That I very well know Sir Arthur Haselridge at the Parliaments Committee, where Primates business was examined, endeavoured by false Oaths, and no otherwise, to prove such a thing against me and old and honest Master George Grace; but could not, nor did in the least legally or effectually do it, although we fully proved there, his principallest witness or witnesses, to be fully perjured or forsworn: one or more of them having sworn in effect, That old-Master George Grace, and my Uncle George Lilburne, had rob by Committee force, Master Wray Sir Arthur's Champion, of his deeds and evidences, divers years ago; and yet Master Breaton confessed at the then Bar (and that upon his Oath, as I remember) that not many weeks before that, he had the said Master Rays Deeds and evidences in his possession, and perused them. And as to my being perjured, I do hereby provoke Major General Harison with all the earnestness in the world, to prefer a Bill of indictment in any Court of Law in England, to convict me of that notorious crime, and I will readily and willingly answer him; or else, if he please to aver before two or three of my friends, the same thing, that so at the Bar of Justice they may be my witnesses, I shall not be long (if I live) to seek my legal remedy against him for scandalising me, knowing in my own conscience, myself so innocent of any the least thing like perjury, that I dare with confidence and deliberation, spit in the face of the stoutest single man in England, that dare to my face solemnly aver such a thing; but being my most earnest desire is with good words, & hearty & unfeigned engagements, of living peaceably, and quietly: without the least disturbance to the present government, rather than by high language in the least, if it be posfable, to provoke, (though I heartily thank and bless God for it, it is no more dreadful to me at present to die, then to go sleep.)  
I therefore entreat your Lordship and honours, as you are men of honour, and conscience, suffer not my good name, behind my back, to be rend and torn in pieces with notorious lies and falsehoods: but what you in any kind lay to my charge, about the King of Scots, speedily send me a true copy of it, and without the least demurer to the jurisdiction of the place from whence it comes, I will speedily and freely return you a particular answer to every head of it. Or else,  
2. Be pleased to prevail with Major General Desborough, his Excellency's brother in law (and one I believe, for his wisdom and parts, he very much confides in, and one I have in times past, been most intimately familiar with, and never had any particular grand disgust with in my life, that I can remember) to vouchsafe to come and spend a few hours time with me, and I am confident, I shall face to face give him full, rational, and just satisfaction in every particular, that he is able to object against me; that so if it be possible, a quiet and peaceable composure may be made of your present distaste against me; there being nothing, I seriously profess it from my very heart, that his Excellency in Reason and Justice can desire at my hands, but he shall absolutely command it. So humbly craving your pardon for my tediousness herein, and my transgression, if you judge it any, for my printing hereof, being so much for the preservation of my own life, reputation and safety compelled thereto; being already beyond the Seas in several Nations and Languages, constrained, for the preservation of my life in my banishment to print the first part of it, being my first address to you. So I humbly take leave to subscribe myself,  
(My Lord, and Noble Gentlemen) Yours to serve you, if you please, John Lilburne. From my captivity in Newgate this 22. of June 1653.  
FINIS.