The Second LETTER FROM JOHN LILBURN Esquire, Prisoner in Newgate: TO THE Right Honourable JOHN FOWKE, Lord Major of the City of LONDON.  
LONDON, Printed in the Year, 1653.   

To the Right Honourable John Fowk, Lord Major of the City of London, these humbly present.  
SIR,  
I Was committed to this prison by your Warrant, and I am now informed, that sundry Witnesses are summoned to give evidence to the grand (or first) Jury against me; upon which, they may have seeming ground for finding some Indictment, without which it is known I cannot be further proceeded against.  
It hath been an evil custom for many Ages (taken up merely upon Prerogative Interests) and that without Law, Reason, or any Statute, or Act of Parliament to warrant it, for the Grand (or first) Jury, upon return of private Chamber-examinations of parties or witnesses, to find the first Indictment against the prisoner, without his privity, or being called to give his just Challenge to the Witnesses Testimony; which Indictment, so found or presented, billa vera, can be no less than a Condemnation without public or open Examination of the first, contrary even to the laudable practice of the ancient Heathens Rom●n Judges, as is most excellently set forth by the Evangelist Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, chap. 24.16. in the Case of Paul, upon his Appeal to Caesar. And suitable to this, another Heathen Writer could say, Quis aliquid Statuerit, altera part● inaudita, equum licit Statuerit, injustus est; That is to say, Whosoever judgeth any cause or party unheard, though the Sentence be agreeable with Law, yet in so judging is unjust; And this favour, in case of Treason; was not denied to Major Rolf, upon his Trial in Hampshire, in case of high Treason about 4 years since, before the Lord chief Ba●on Wild; as is well known to Judge N●cholas, and Mr. John Maynard then of Council with Major Rolf: But Major Rolf with His Council was admitted to be present in open Court upon the Examination of the Witnesses produced against him, before the grand Jury there, and to give his legal exceptions to the Witnesses: By means of which the prisoner Rolf was freed.  
And in case of Felony, I am well informed that at Carlisle Assizes about 1642. by Sir R●bert Heath, the like favour and justice was granted to sundry prisoners, as their legal Right, to the preservation of their lives: For then there were sundry of Sir Richard Grimes Tenants committed to Carlisle prison by their said Master's procurement; and a Rogue called Burney there kept in prison likewise for Felony, and therein maintained by Sir Richard Grimes to give evidence upon the prisoners Trial, as an Approver, wherewith Judge Heath being informed at the prisoners Suit, The Witnesses against them at the Bar in open Court were examined by the Grand Jury in presence of the prisoners; and upon the prisoners legal Exceptions and Challenge, the Rogue's Evidence was waved, and the prisoners acquitted by the Grand Jury, and so their lives never came in jeopardy.  
I being a free born Englishman, I hope shall not be denied that right granted of course to prisoners, charged with higher crimes than I am; And that the Grand Jury being to return their Indictment against me upon their Oaths, I expect the like justice from them, and you; which if denied, will render both you and them unjust men: As before by the practice of the Heathens, and the Judges and Sages of the Law of this Nation is clearly made out, and approved of God.  
Therefore I desire you before any Witnesses be judicially sworn and examined before the Grand Jury against me, That I may be present, and allowed with my Council, to give my legal Exceptions against them; and that no Witnesses may be examined against me, but in open Court, in the face of the free people of England: So having my Accusers face to face, I may have licence to answer for myself concerning the Crime laid against me.  
Sir, The blood thirsty Jews could not, neither do we find they offered to procure Pontius Pilot, the Roman Judge, to examine Witnesses against Christ, otherwise th●● 〈◊〉 the public Judicatures, and in the very presence of Christ.  
I further desire you to assign me Counsel, being my absolute Right by Law, to advise, consult, and be assistant to me in matter of Law upon my Trial; as was granted to the Earl of Strafford in case of High Treason upon his Trial by his Peers in Parliament, to Duke Hamilton an Alien to the Earl of Holland an English Peer, and to the Lord Capel in Case of High Treason, upon their trial before the High Court of Justice, and to the  Major Rolfe, in case of Treason at the Assizes or Goal-delivery in the aforesaid County of Hampshire, and to Vaux the Lawyer in case of Felony upon his trial for his life, in the Reign of the late Queen Elizabeth, as is by Judge Cook in Vauxes Case of Appeals learnedly set forth, and which was granted to myself at Oxford, by the Cavalier Judges there, as my Right by Law, when I was there arraigned for my life upon an Indictment of High Treason.  
My Lord, I have prevailed with my Father and some other my honest friends, to be the Bearers hereof to your Honour, to receive such an answer from you, as you need not hereafter at the Bar of Justice to be ashamed of: So with my service presented to you, entreating you seriously to remember the Punishment of the Arbitrary Lord Major of London in King Richard the seconds time, mentioned in the last Page of the first Edition of Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburne's Plea in Law, I rest  
Newgate this 10th of July, 1653. Yours, if you be England's real Friend, JOHN LILBURNE.   

I humbly desire your Lordship to communicate this to the Sheriffs of London.   


READER,  
THis Letter being presented to his Lordship by Master Lilburnes Father and four other of his friends, his Lordship having read the same, returned this Answer.   

GENTLEMEN,  
I See what it is he desires, and for my part I do declare unto you, that I shall not go about to hinder him of any thing that is his Right; but this he desires I cannot do alone. I shall to morrow being the Sessions, communicate this Letter to the Recorder and the Sheriffs, and he shall have my best assistance.— And so wished his Father to repair to the Sessions, to receive an Answer from the Bench.   
FINIS.