A new complaint of an old grievance, made by Lievt Col. john Lilburne, Prerogative prisoner in the Tower of London. Nove. 23. 1647. To every Individual Member of the Honourable House of Commons.  
SIR,  
MY exceeding urgent necessities, and my extraordinary sufferings by your neglect in doing me justice and right, according to your many oaths and declarations, presseth me above measure still to play the part of the poor importunate widow, mentioned in the Gospel, and to resolve whatever befalls me never to give over till I have attained her end, viz. justice.  
You may please truly to take notice (and the rather because many of you are new Members) that in the year 1637. and 1638. I suffered a most ba rbarous sentence by the Star Chamber, occasioned by two false oaths sworn against me by Edmond Chillington, now a Lieutenant under Col. Whaly, and by my refusing to answer interrogatories against myself, in executing of which sentence the 18. of April 1638. I was tied to a Cart's tail at Fleet bridge, and whipped through the streets to West minster, and had given me above the number of 500 stripes, with a threefold knotted corded whip, the weeles made in my back thereby being bigger than Tobacco pipes, etc. And set two hours upon the Pillory bare head in an extraordinary hot day, and a gag out into my mouth above an hour, to the almost renting of my jaws in sunder See my printed relation of my business before the Lords bar the 13. Feb. 1645 where all this with much more is proved upon Oath.  
And upon that very day, 10. judges of the said Star Chamber made an Order to murder and starve me, the very words of which Order being, that the said john Lilburn shall be laid alone with irons on his hands and legs, in the wards of the Fleet, where the basest and meanest sort of prisoners are used to be put: and that the Warden of the Fleet, take especial care to hinder the resort of any persons whatsoever unto him, and particularly, that he be not supplied with money from any friend. And yet they nor any for them during all my imprisonment never allowed me the value of one farthing token to live upon, but executed the said Order upon me with so much barbarity, that my pining, tormenting condition, was a thousand times worse, and less to be endured, than any sudden death whatever, under which without doubt I had perished, had it not been for the timely relief of this Parliament, by which said sufferings I was robbed of a profitable trade, in the flower of my days.  
And being by you set at liberty the first week of your sitting, I was by the malice of one Littleton a Courtier, by the King's especial command arrested of high Treason, and the 4. May 1641. by the Kings own direction, I received a kind of an Arraignment at the Lords bar, where the said Littleton most falsely swore point blank against me, to the apparent hazard of my life and being if he had not been contradicted by the oath of his own friend Mr. Andrew's a Counsellor, upon which day and at that very time, the House of Commons were so sensible of my sad and suffering condition, that they were pleased upon the report of Mr. Rouse to make these Votes for me.  
Resolved upon the question. That the sentence of the Star Chamber given against john Lilburne, is illegal and against the liberty of the Subject, and also bloody, wicked, cruel, barbarous, and tyrannical.  
Resolved upon the question, that reparations ought to be given to Mr Lilburne, for his imprisonment, suffering and loss●s sustained by that illegal sentence.  
And yet I never had to this hour one penny of separations, although I dare safely say it, I have spent above a thousand pound one way and another in following you therefore, above the space of seven years, which is a longer time, for any thing I can read of in Scripture, than ever the importunate widow followed the unrighteous judge (that neither feared God nor reverenced man) and yet obtained justice at his hands.  
That upon my deliverance, by the assistance of one of my friends, I betook myself to a●…ride for my livelihood, and of my own and my foresaid friend, stocked it with almost 1500. l. ready money, and the late wars coming on, at the desires of many eminent men of this kingdom, my then choice friends, I left my trade, and in judgement and conscience girded my sword unto my thigh, with an honest resolution to spend my heart blood for the preservation of the laws and liberties of my native country, which then the Parliament by their Declarations, made me and the Kingdom believe was endeavoured to be destroyed by the King and his evil Council. And having like a man of undaunted resolution adventured my life at Edge Hill and Brainford, with good and advantageous successes to the Parliament, though with ill to myself, being to a good value plundered at both places, and at the last taken prisoner, where by the inhuman barbarity of several Lords and others, I was d●vers times in danger aster quarter given (before I came at Oxford) to be ●…n in pieces, being pinioned with my arms behind me, and tied to another, and forced on foot through all the dirt and mire to march two days together. And being arrived a prisoner at Oxford Castle, I was visited by four Lords, (viz The Lord Newarke, now marquis of Durchester, the Lord Dunsmore, now Earl of Chichester, the Lord Mattravers now Earl of Arundel, and the Lord And ver) as messenger's from the King as they told me, and in his name proffered whatever in reason I could desire in h●… then prosperous condition, so I would forsake the Parliament, and my present principles, and desire his pardon, which they all unanimously promised to git for me, but I told their Lordships they were mastaken in me, if they thought I was to be courted out of my principles, and as for His Majesty's pardon, I told them I scorned either the craving or accepting of it, having in obedience to the Parliaments than commands done nothing but what I did then believe was just and legal, and for which I would willingly lay my life down. & the desiring or accepting of a pardon would argue guiltiness, which I told them I believed I had no need to confess. Whereupon I was clapped in irons n●ght and day, forced to lie in my  upon the flore, locked up close in a chamber, when I had not a penny of money about me, being lately plundered of all I had, and a sentry set at my door, that I could not speak with any of my fellow prisoners, to borrow a penny to buy me bread, by means of which, I was exposed to the greatest of straits; and immediately in irons arraigned as a Traitor, before Sir Robert Heath and Sir Thomas Gardner, for levying war against the King, by authority from the Parliament, and I pleaded to my Indictment, telling the judge, I girded my sword unto my thigh in judgement and conscience, by virtue of the greatest authority in the land, with a resolution to spend the last drop of my blood, for the preservation of the just laws and liberties of my native country, being seduced thereunto by no flesh alive, acting not by an implicit faith, but upon principles of judgement and understanding, in the defence whereof I told him I was then as ready to die by a balter, as before I had been either by a Bullet or a Sword, and having escaped that danger of hanging by a letter of the Speakers of this House, threatening unto them, Lex taliones. As you may read in the first part book Decl. pag 802. 803.  
I contracted there, by my hard usage, a desperate and dangerous sickness, of which I lay speechless divers days, the inhumanity of the barbarous Marshal Smith being such toward me, that he would neither suffer Physician, Apothecary, Surgeon, nor Nurse to come near me, and though some Gentlemen, then in bonds with me, got a poor half starved prisoner to look to me, yet he was clapped up twice close prisoner for helping me in those great straits, and I could not freely enjoy his help till I purchased it for money at the hands of one of Smith's cruel tormentors.  
By which imprisonment (besides my large expenses there) I lost at London in debts, etc. (my Debtors taking the advantage of my arraigment for treason, would as they said pay no Traitors debts) about 600. l. every penny of which lay upon my own particular shoulders. And coming out with the same Principles I went in, I betook myself to my sword again, having refused here at London, divers places of ease, profit and honour, and with much resolution and integrity, in the midst of many discouragements, I fought under the Earl of Manchesters' command so long, tell (by the visible apostatising from the first declared ends, and by the wickedness, treachery, baseness, and perfididiousnesse I found there) I had lost all my principles, and could not for all the world any longer kill Cavieleers, in whose service I was plundered the third time at Newarke, to the value almost of 100 l. besides many scores of pounds of my own money in that service I spent, more than ever there I received, there being due unto me at this day for my arrears there, the greatest part of a thousand pounds, as I doubt not upon just and true grounds clearly when you please to make appear.  
That at the laying down my command I vigorously, with all the interest I had in England betook myself to an earnest prosecution to obtain at the hands of your House, my just and long expected and promised reparations from my cruel Star Chamber judges (one of which sits in your house at this day) in the following of which I met with such heard and unreasonable measure (not only from the hands of your house itself, but also from its Committees, in being causelessly tossed & tumbled out of the hands of one Messenger to another & from one gaol to another) that it made me almost as weary of the Land of my nativity, as ever the Israelites were of Egypt when the cruel tyrant Pharaoh made them to make bricks without straw, especially when I considered that all this was done unto me by those for the saving alive, and preserving of whom, I had so often, freely, and resolutely with my sword in my hand adventured my life, and in the days of their greatest straits and calamities been as faithful to them, as ever Jonathan was to David, when he hazarded ruin and destruction from his father for siding with him. Yea, and if then it had been in my power, could have done a thousand times more than I did, verily believing they would have performed their just Declarations to the kingdom. But before the storm of your indignation was well blown over, the fierceness of which had almost overwhelmed me, behold such a furious tempest the 10. July 1646. ariseth against me by the house of Lords, as if it would have blown me into another Horizon, or have Metamorphased me into the shape and habit of a bruit beast, and have robbed me of all things that might give me the denominotion of a man, levelling thereby the liberties and freedoms of all the Commons of England, unto their arbitrary, Lordly wills. And having about 18. months ago fled unto you (as justly I might) for shelter, protection, and justice against them, which by my several Pleas before your Committees I have proved you ought long since to have afforded me; and having the 11. of this instant in half a sheet of Paper, presented (here at your door, as now I do to your hands) an abstract of the Lords tyrannical; illegal dealing with me. And of all by way of Plea, I have for myself to say; with a desire to stand or fall under your judgement thereupon, which yet I cannot obtain from you, and therefore referring you to that Abstract, and to my Grand plea before Mr. Maynard, upon the 20. October last, and my aditional Plea annexed unto it, for all the particulars I crave and challenge at your hands as my right and due. I adjure you before Heaven and Earth, and before the Lord Jehovah, and his mighty and glorious Angels, without any more delay, to adjudge my cause betwixt the Lords and me, either to my justification or condemnation, and to do me justice and right, by helping me to my own, kept from me by you, and do not by your 7 year's delay of justice, lay more provokations upon me, than my strength and ability is able to bear, and then go about to destroy me, for my crying out of your oppressiion; when in the eye of reason I have no other remedy left me in this world but that, or to destroy myself, wife and children, which even nature itself abhors, or else to live upon the kindnesses of those, that in future time to my reproach shall (as some from whom I should little have expected it, have lately done) hit me in the teeth with it, which makes the proffer of their courtesies a scorn unto me, and the thoughts of not being able to repay them again; a burden to my spirit. And therefore to conclude, let me in the bitterness of my spirit, say unto you as the unrighteous judge said unto himself, although by your actings towards me, you declare you neither fear God, nor reverence man, ye for my necessity and pressing importunities sake, now at last do me justice and right; for if I must die by yours and the Lords murdering oppression, I am resolved, if I can help it, I will not die alone, nor in a corner in silence. Therefore help me to my own, to leave subsistence unto my wife & children, that they may not beg their bread when I am dead and gone. And if nothing but my blood will serve my cruel adversaries, if they be men, I challenge the stoutest of them in England, hand to hand, with his sword in his hand like a man to put a period to my days, being ready to answer any man in England, Lord or Commoner, that hath any thing to lay to my charge: Either, 

First, as a rational man: Or,  
Secondly, as a resolved man: Or,  
Thirdly, at an English man.   In the last of which I sh●l desire no more favour than every Traitor, Rogue, or Murderer, that is arraigned for his life at Newgate Sessions enjoys, viz. the benefit of the declared, known law of England. And so at present I rest.  
From my starving, murdering, tyrannical, and most illegal imprisonment in the Tower of London, this 23 Novem. 1647. g●ing in the eight year of my fruitless expecting justice from the deaf and hard hearted house of Commons. Your oppressed friend, that loudly cries out to you for justice and right. john Lilburne.  
FINIS.