THE PICKLOCK OF THE Old fen Project: OR, Heads of Sir JOHN MAYNARD his several SPEECHES, TAKEN In shorthand, at the Committee for Lincolnshire FENS, in the Exchequer Chamber. Consisting of 

Matter of Fact.  
Matter of Law.  
Precedents  
Quaeres and Answers.    
LONDON, Printed by J. B. 1650.   

The Picklock of the Old-Fenne-Project.  
Mr. Goodwin,  
I Shall observe this Method in answering the council on the other side:  
First, I shall speak to the matter of Fact. Secondly, to the matter of Law. And thirdly, I shall cite some precedents in the point.  

Sir William Killagrew hath misstated the matter of Fact in his Printed Case, for therein he alleges that the Commissioners first invited the King to recommend to them an Undertaker; whereas it appears otherwise in the King's Letters, and in three of his Letters the King varies. The Undertakers, which no question was by Sir Robert Killagrew, Sir William Killagrew, and Master Robert Longs procurement. The Kings first Letter is most observable, therein are couched all the fallacies of the Undertakers, and the foundation of the project: They informed and persuaded the King, that he might appoint and command a Tax to be laid of a mark the Acre, without any respect to the interest of particular persons, or consult the owners: And further, That the Tax should be made by the Commissioners on you, without Verdict; and that their judgement must be the rule of proceedings in this case, and not the consent of the Owners, whose averseness must not prejudice the public good. In the Kings second Letter, the Earl of Lindsey, Sir Rob. Killagrew, Sir William Killagrew, are recommended by way of Mandamus to be Undertakers, As we expect, and we do command all manner of persons to forbear to make any particular bargains or works, &c.  
In the third Letter it is still by way of Mandamus, We have made choice of him (meaning the Earl of Lindsey) to be the undertaker. And in the Kings last Letter, the King offers to give his royal Assent. The Commissioners began legally, for they impanneled a Jury of the Neighbourhood, of twenty five, who found that the level was not hurtfully surrounded. When Mr. Robert Long saw how the country was bent, he wisely sold his share for 1500l. to Mr. Herne, Mr. Nicholas Love, and one Mr. Hoyden, and they were to be at the charge of draining. Likewise Mr. Long persuaded Mr. Thomas Killagrew, and Mr. Henry, to sell their shares, but Sir William Killagrew would not be advised, but built a fair House on another folk's Lands, and fortified it, and furnished it with men, Ammunition, and Artillery.  
Muskets, Horsemen, and Pistols, in a Warlike manner, and entertained French and Dutch.  
Yet the country would never yield possession, but always opposed Sir William, and the rest of the Undertakers, the Countrymen were Pursuivanted, imprisoned by Councell-Table-Warrants; some we hear were wounded and affrighted with Mastiffe-Dogs.  
Many men were utterly undone and wearied out, and forced to subscribe and enter into Bonds.  
as soon as the Courtiers saw the Commissioners joined with the country, they procured worthy Patriots to be put out of Commission, and Courtiers, Servants to the Undertakers, and many of themselves were Jndges and Parties; After the Jury found the level not hurtfully surrounded, they were laid aside.  
And the Commissioners, many being Undertakers (and consequently Judges and Parties) got upon Boston Steeple, and adjudged all they saw was hurtfully surrounded. They might, as well have got upon Paul's Steeple, and adjudged all the rich Meadows and Marshes on both sides the Thames to be hurtfully surrounded, when they are overflown by Land-floods.  
If you will see to the end, you must observe the means, The Undertakers gave the King 3000. Acres by way of bribe; and the King gave them 14000. Acres, for being Judges and Parties; they might be their own carvers.  
Likewise the Undertakers gave some thousands of Acres to divers Lords of the council, and both the Secretaries.  
I pray Observe some material circumstances: First the time when this project was set on foot.  
It was in the Intervals of Parliaments, the only harvest for Projectors, than Parliaments were damned at Court. And observe the persons that were the Patrons of those Projectors; they were inveterate enemies to Parliaments. The Lord Treasurer Weston, who was accused by Sir John Elliot in 3 Car. and most instrumental to imprison those worthy Members, and Sir John Elliot died a Martyr for the Parliament in the Tower: The Earl of Lindsey, father and son, and all the Undertakers, have been against the Parliament. Alas there is a bead-roll of other grievances, and 200. witnesses were examined when Mr. Ellis had the chair. So much in brief to the matter of Fact.   

For the Matter of Law, we conceive these Undertakers are higher offenders than the Earl of Strafford, for they have not only endeavoured, but traitorously, maliciously, and premeditately, against the light of their own consciences and knowledges, have actually subverted the fundamental laws of the Land, and introduced an Arbitrary and tyrannical Government: For contrary to the 29. Chap. of Magna Charta (which is confirmed by thirty two Sessions of Parliament, whereof the Petition of Right, and the Act for the abolishing the Star-chamber are two; they have imprisoned our persons, and destroyed Juries, and put out the two eyes of the Law, Liberty, and Property. Likewise contrary to the 15 and 16 chap. of the great Charter, wherein it is expressed, That no man shall be compelled and distrained to make new ban●● or bridges, but as formerly; the same is confirmed in the 25. Ed. the 3. ch. 2. the 1. of H. 4. chap. 12. the 6. of H. 6. chap. 5. the 8. of H. 6. chap. 2. the 12. Ed. 4. ch. 7. the 6. of H. 8. chap. 10. All which are knit up in the 23. of H. 8. chap. the 5. yet the Undertakers, many being Commissioners, have acted point blank against these known Laws.  
For the Commissioners could do nothing without the Jury, which are Judges of the matter of Fact, and they are to find the defaulters according to the 12. of Edw. 4. and the 23. of H. 8. and to amerce individuals, and not a general level; and the Commissioners are to approve of such Amerciaments.  
Object. But say they the undertakers, by the 23. of Hen. 8. the Commissioners may proceed without Juries by view, according to their discretion.  
Answ. Sir Edward Cook explains discretion, which is Secundum consuetudines & leges Angliae, otherwise their proceedings are irrational and illegal; Besides the Commissioners could not lay a Tax, because they were new moulded of Courtiers which were Judges and Parties, and the country Gentlemen contrary to Usance, Custom, and Law, were put out and Strangers put in, some not worth forty Marks per Annum, which by the Law they ought to have been; so they were not legal Commissioners, because they were Undertakers, and consequently Judges and Parties, and could not contract with themselves: Had they been legal Commissioners they could not do it without Juries, and they laid it likewise upon nobody, for generals signifies nothing, but as I said formerly, it must be done by the Jury upon individuals. All the King's Letters, which are supposed to be indicted by Master Role ● Long, were diametrially contrary to Law; The King could lay no Tax, nor give the Commissioners leave to proceed without Juries, nor to appoint Undertakers, which is contrary to the 43. of Eliz and the 4. and 7. of King James: In the 43. of Elizabeth there is the first mention of an Undertaker, and therein he is limited and directed, what, how, ●●d with whom he must contract: A Commissioner likewise hath no authority to contract, but the Contract must be by the direction and approbation of the Lords, Owners, and Commoners, under their hands and seals in writing indented: Here was no such matter, they followed their own lights, which were Ignes fatui, and so fell into those pits they digged for others.  
They made a Contract with the King, which was an evil bargain, and they had the King's royal Assent, which signifies nothing out of Parliament, who ought by Law to speak only by his Writs; For Det Lex Regi quod Rex Legi, quae Rex jure potest, Rex ea sola potest; but my fellow Courtiers, thought they were above and beyond the Arm of the Law, though they were both reached and overreached at the last.  
The Judges for Ship money were accused for Treason, by reason it was destructive to Propriety, yet that was not three in the pound; but the fen-project cuts our estates asunder at a blow.  
In Ship-Money the King had a Judgement by the sworn, or rather forsworn Judges, but the Undertakers were the old Levelling Courtiers, destroyers of Propriety, and got the King's hand to Letters of their own inditing; and just as the Earl of Strafford produced blanks for all his horrid illegal Acts, as disarming the Protestants and arming the Papists, so did the Undertakers produce the King's Letters upon all occasions, especially to destroy Jucies', and to take away our real estates, without consulting the Owners.  
It is the same with the forest business, for the Judges some of them would have made all England a forest; So this generation of Undertakers would have incorporated, and got a standing Commission in all Counties, and so made England the level, and England to be surrounded, and in short time would have taken all we had; This was as bad as their Levying War against the Parliament: And we conceive Sir William Killagrew did actually Levy War against the Nation, and had his project succeeded we had been no more a People: Alas the Law of the Land was used by the Undertakers as a Murderer in Frame, whose joints are broken on the Wheel, whilst he is yet alive, and in good health. I should Answer the Counsellors prolix Argument, but I know not how to find the beginning, nor end of his ravelled discourse; He hath played the part of a flourishing Writer, who usually buries the capital Letter in a curious knot, and instead of enucleating the business, I can see no kernel but husks and shells.  
In my apprehension the Gentleman that spoke last hath gleaned his Argument from my Lord Finch, and some of the Ship-Money Judges; All he hath spoken, is for the King's Prerogative against the Law, that is not now Ala mode. But Master Goodwin, I beseech you observe, this Honourable Committee hath spent one quarter of a year on the point of possession, and I hope we have beaten the Undertakers from that Post.  
Then they pressed to state their case in Law, and show their title, so that we hope now we have gained that Post likewise, and not only got possession, which is eleven points in Law, but the twelfth likewise.  
Now the Undertakers are building Castles in the air, or rather upon a Quicksandy foundation of the old Arbitrary Government of conveniency and inconveniency, if that point crack, than they will fly to necessity, the old Court Retreat: Let, them traverse their ground and sense as well as they can, we shall hit them still, and beat them at their own weapon.   

The precedents.  
IN Queen Elizabeth's days this project was set on foot by the than Earl of Lincoln, who procured a Patent from the Queen to drain some of these Fens: when he was making his Works and new Drains, contrary to Law, the Country rose, and the Lord Willoughby of Erby, than governor of Berwick, raised the Trained Bands and assisted the country in beating the workmen off: the Earl of Lincoln, complained to the Queen of the Riot committed by the Lord Willoughby, who was sent for to the council Table: The Lord Willoughby proved the Earl of Lincoln had not the country's consent, but some few Tenants and others of his own faction, that it was for private ends and lucre, not only to drain himself and drown his Neighbours, but to take great propoitions of Land, which were never drowned for melioration; and the means my Lord of Lincoln used was bribes to Courtiers to procure such an illegal Commission that himself and his friends might be Judges and Parties; and that it was against the 23. of H. 8. The Queen upon full hearing of the business in great passion resumed her Commission, and was wroth with the Earl of Lincoln, who had been committed to prison, but that his Lordship made great friends at Court, and the Queen thanked the Lord Willoughby of Erby for assisting her good people in so honest and just a cause.  
In the first of King James the same project was set on foot and a Petition was delivered unto his majesty as though it had proceeded from the Country, just such a Petition as Sir William Killagrew procured by two alehouse keepers: For it was only a few of the Undertakers faction, like to the Agreement of the People: Sir, Miles sands had made many friends at Court, and the King was prepossessed it was a glorious work, and for the public good, and the King was made believe the Isle of Ely, and the Southside the River Grant was hurtfully surrounded; but when the King was hunting, the Lord Garret of Chippenbam, Sir John Cotton of Chenely, Sir John Paytan of Iselham, and Sir Thomas Gee acquainted the King with all the cheats of the Undertakers, that they being Judges and Parties had made many thousand Acres, that were never drowned, and the most part of the Land which was the better by overflowing in the nature of River Meadows, to be Land hurtfully surrounded.  
That they drained and meliorated a little hurtfully surrounded Lands of their own, and pejorated ten times as much Lands; which were never hurtfully drowned before, and that which was most gross and palpable, they must not only have a third part of that Land so pejorated, but a third of such Lands as were never drowned, for melioration: When the King was fully instructed, he enjoined secrecy, and went up to the Parliament and discovered all the Undertakers fallacies, and concluded wittily.  
It is just the same case, my Lords, at though a pack of thieves should give me 20000 l to give them a Pat●● under my Broad Seal to rob my loyal Subjects of 200000 l. by the which I should perjure myself, and become a thief and Tyrant: Thereupon the Parliament ●ung it out for a base cheating Monopoly; some of Sir Miles Sands friends moved he might have satisfaction for the vast sums he had expended; Sir Edward Cook answered, Let those pay him that set him a work, and further added, that it was fit Sir Miles should give compensation to the oppressed Country; for trying experiments against the Owners consents.  
The maxim is, Plura potest interrogare Asmus, quam respondere Aristotele.  
But let the Undertakers ask as many and what questions they please, we hope to give full satisfaction to this Honourable Committee; but I will state the most difficult Quaeres, I ever heard of from the Undertakers, and give them satisfactory Answers.   

The queries.  
1. Quaere. Why did not the country pay the Tax of a Mark the Acre?  
Answ. Because it was illegal in many respects.  
First the Commissioners were illegal that laid it on the country, for the Nobility and Gentry were put out of Commission, and there was a new Commission where the Earl of Lindsey, Sir Robert Killagrew, Sir William Killagrew, Master Robert Long, and divers privy Counsellors who were bribed, and Courtiers were put in their rooms contrary to usance, prescription and custom, which is the Law of the Land; and many of them had not a foot of Land in the Country, whereas by Law they ought to have forty Marks per Annum.  
Had the Commissioners been legal they could not lay a Tax without a Jury, and had the Commissions and Juries been legal they could neither lay a Tax to make new works, which is cleared by the 15. and 16. Chap. of the Great Charter: Likewise neither the King's Commissioners nor Jurors have any thing to do with the matter of Undertaking, that belongs only to the major part of Lords, Owners and Commoners; For they may Contract under hand and Seal with whom they please, so that Commissioners cannot be Undertakers, for than they should be Judges and Parties: Likewise it is against sense and reason that Commissioners and Undertakers (as they were) should Contract with themselves, and give the country's Lands one to another, as my Lord of Lindsey gave a Warrant to the Commissioners to Judge 14000. Acres drained, his Lordship being the chief Undertaker himself: Besides the Tax was laid on nobody, because it was laid on the level in general, whereas by Law it ought to be laid on particular Towns and Individuals, so it could not be paid legally by anybody.  
2. Quaere. Whether is not draining good for the Common wealth?  
Answ. There are two kinds of draining, the one is by the Ancient Commissions of Sewers.  
The other by the more recent way of Undertaking; both these are legal and illegal.  
Legal draining (viz.) by Commissioners of Sewers of the Nobility, and well-affected Gentry of their own Country, and honest goodmen of the Neighbourhood, who are to be Jurors, and consequently Judges of the matter of Fact, who return Defaultors according to the 12. of Edw. the 4. and thereupon, the Commissioners confirm their Amerciaments: were the old drains thus legally scoured twice or thrice the year, there would little Land lie hurtfully surrounded, this is good for the commonwealth. But illegal dreyning, that is, to put in Courtiers, sharers, sharks and strangers to be Commissioners, and by the King's Prerogative to make them Judges and Parties, and to empower them to take away the Free people's Estates against their consents by view only, without Juries, and to make new Works for private ends, contrary to the great Charter, which is confirmed by 32 Sessions of Parliament: This is destructive to Propriety, and the bane of the commonwealth: Undertaking is a distinct thing from the Commissions of Sewers, neither has the King's Commissioners of Sewers nor Jurors any thing to do with the matter or manner of undertaking: This is likewise two fold, legal or illegal; legal undertaking, according to 43 Eliz. is when the major part of the Lords, Owners, and Commoners, do agree with any person or persons, or Corporations, for a certain sum of money under their hands and seals, for the draining such Lands as they find hurtfully surrounded. This is good for the commonwealth, because it is with their free consents, so Volenti non sit injuria.  
Illegal undertaking is when the King's Commissioners of Sewers, or others by virtue of the King's Authority, by violence, oppression, or Councell-Table-Warrants, will Act as Undertakers against the Owners consents; this is the height of Arbitrary Government, and tyranny itself, which is a speedy destruction to a Nation, and the Pest of the commonwealth.  
3 Quaere. Whether draining Land hurtfully surrounded, is good for the commonwealth?  
Answ. If the drainers be legal, and do more good than hurt, it may be good for the commonwealth; but if they do more hurt then good, it must of necessity be bad for the commonwealth. The Undertaker is like the Tinker, he stops one hole, and makes two; he drains one Acre for himself, and drowns two of his neighbours; nay sometimes twenty: certainly this is bad for the commonwealth.  
Yet he hath drained Lands hurtfully surrounded, and drowned Lands not hurtfully surrounded, and must have a third part of those Lands that were never hurtfully drowned for Melioration, so the same former distinction still holds good, legal is good, illegal is bad for the commonwealth.  
4 Quaere. Whether is this level of the Earl of Lindsey hurtfully surrounded?  
Answ. There are two Verdicts, and forty Witnesses, that have proved it is not hurtfully surrounded; But if draining Lands hurtfully surrounded were good, then draining Lands not hurtfully surrounded certainly is bad for the Commonwealth.  
For to drain dry Land, it is to take away the Humidum radical, and so consequently to spoil it: Besides to drain the Lands floods from our fodder-Fens, and to divert the Rivers from overflowing, we should not have half so much Fodder for our cattle in winter.  
This level is of this condition in both respects, and the Earls new drains do much more hurt then good, by draining dry grounds, which the Undertakers keep for themselves, and leaves the worst to the Country, and so contrives their new drains, that they hurtfully surround those Lands which were not hurtfully surrounded before; so they drown us to drain us, but the remedy is worse than the disease.  
There are several Witnesses that have proved this, and we can demonstrate it mathematically.  
That by opening the old drains, it would be far more beneficial to the Commonwealth, and it would not stand the Country in the tenth part of the charge: All which can and will be done by a legal Commission of Sewers, of the well-affected Gentry of the country, and honest Jurors of the Neighbourhood.  
5. Quaere. Why hath not the country drained themselves all this while, will they be like the Dog in the Manger, neither do their selves good, nor suffer others to help them?  
Ans. The Country are, and have been ever willing, but they have been obstructed these sixty years by powerful Courtiers, as Lord Keepers, attorneys-general, and the dissolution and Intervals of Parliaments have impeded us; but when we are rid of the Undertakers, the work will quickly be done, both for the Honour and profit of the Nation, without fraud or coven.  
6 Quaere, But had not the Earl of Lindsey the Major part of the Lords, Owners, and Commoners consents, his Lordship had a Petition signed with many hands.  
Answ. Ten for one of the Lords, Owners, and Commoners, are against the Earls undertaking; Those hands for the Earl were procured by two Alehouse-keepers, and most of them were Cottagers, no Lords, and but very few Owners and Commoners.  
7 Quaere. Would it not be a brave improvement to have Rape and Cole-seed, Hemp, Flax, and likewise corn?  
Answ. They calculate and reckon without their Host, that the customs will amount to 10000 l. 1 s. 8 d. ob. per annum.  
This is Ala Mountebanco, or Sharlaton like: Our Fens as they are, produce great store of wool and lamb, and large fat Mutton, besides infinite quantities of Butter and Cheese, and do breed great store of cattle, and are stocked with Horses, Mares, and Colts, and we send fat beef to the Markets, which affords Hides and Tallow, and for corn, the Fodder we mow off the Fens in summer, feeds our cattle in the winter: By which means we gather such quantities of Dung, that it inriches our upland, and corn-ground, (which are contiguous half in half. Besides, our fens relieves our neighbours, the Uplanders, in a dry summer, and many adjacent Counties: So thousands of cattle besides our own are preserved, which otherwise would perish. So take away a third of our Fens, you extinguish our Rents in our Commoning Houses, and our Pastures, and corn-ground, proportionably; besides thousands of Cottagers which have no right of commoning, must go a begging, which the Owners connive at, because they cannot prevent it, being so numerous. So that Rape, Cole-seed, and Hemp, is a Dutch Commodity, and but trash and trumpery, and pills Land in respect of the afore recited Commodities, which are the oar of the commonwealth.  
8 Quaere. Is it not pity, when Sir William Killagrew having done so much good by his draining, and hath spent 30000 l. but that the country should reimburse his moneys, there is all the conscience and reason in the world for this?  
Answ. First, it hath been proved, he hath done a great deal more hurt then good by his new drainers, and when the country shall make use of the Undertakers drains, we will give satisfaction for them, but they are useless, nay pernicious and broken cisterns to the Commoners in Summer, both by draining our dry grounds, so we are constrained to buy water, and to drive our cattle very far in Summer to water them; whereas our old drains have ever furnished us with water enough. Then on the other extreme, their new Works have so hurtfully surrounded us, that our Upland and Corne-grounds have been spoiled by them; this is fully proved by many uninteressed Witnesses, the country is daminified at the least 60000 l. by these Undertakers.  
9 Quaere. Whether are the old drains or the new, most useful for draining?  
Answ. The old drains are as the natural sinks, or rather Vent of the Body of the Fens; Suppose a man's fundament were stopped, and that a hundred Issues were made in the body, the whole mass of blood would quickly be corrupted, and the body would break out in botches and biles.  
So stop the old Sewers, you will quickly perceive the sores or Quagmires will increase; and whereas there is but one Acre now hurtfully surrounded were the old drains duly scoured, if they be stopped there will be ten.  
This is proved by Master Thorpe Mathematician, and he gives his reason, which is mathematical and necessary. Because the old drains have far greater descents than the new, so that the old drains were never without water in summer, which now they want exceedingly, by reason of these Undertakers drains; which was proved before Master Ellis, when he had the chair, by twenty Witnesses.  
Likewise the new drains, wanting that descent the old had, the least floods in Summer or Winter overflow those Lands sooner and longer, which is the cause that these fens are ten times more hurtfully surrounded then before. This is not my bare information, but mathematical, or necessary, and proved by many Witnesses: For I say what Master Walpoole hath alleged is not mathematical at all, but pragmatical and fantastical.  
It is a strange chimaera and frenzy in the Undertakers to expect satisfaction of the Parliament for the money they have expended; It were just the same, as though the old Ship-money Judges should be preferred to be Judges, and that their Fines should be restored, and they rewarded over and above, and the present Reverend Judges who have adhered to the Parliament should be displaced and Fined.  
O Monstrum horrendum in form ingens.  
Quodcunque ostendas, mihi, sie incredulus odi.  
We hope the Parliament will either Fine them, as they did the Ship-money Judges, or the old Farmers of the Custom-house; and that this Fine shall be employed by lawful Commissioners of Sewers, towards the doing of the Work, or relieving the poor; or that we shall be left to the Common-Law, as the Parliament left Sir Robert Barkham, Captain Hall, and Master Waldrum.  
If Sir William Killagrew find himself aggrieved, he may then appeal to the Parliament.  
The Rule in Divinity is, Deus non vult contradictoria, Sic Parliamentum non vult contradictoria; In the first Grand Remonstrance, this individual business is declared to be an Injustice, Oppression, Violence, Project and Grievance, and they particularize it, For this horrid Project furnished the Parliament with those choice Materials, which builded their Grand Remonstrance.  
These are their express words:  
Large Quantities of Commons and severals have been taken away by the colour of the Statute of Improvement, that is, by falsifying and adulterating it, which is meant by the 43. of Eliz. and by abuse of the Commission of Sewers (which dissolves that excellent Law of the 23. of H. the 8. without their consent, and against it) which is the destruction of the Great Charter, Petition of Right, the Act for abolishing the Star-Chamber, and all the fundamental Laws of the Land.  
And against twenty of the Parliaments Declarations, which are in Print to the view of all the world; yet the Undertakers are so impudent that they are confident to pass a Law, and to enslave us, who have conquered them; but we so Confide in our trusties, that we know it is impossible, being contrary to the principles of a republic, who acknowledge the supreme Power resides in the People, and the supreme Authority is derived from them, and the Soul and heart of the commonwealth is Liberty and Property.  
These Undertakers were formidable Monsters to the country, and had they continued a little longer, probably they would not only have torn in pieces, but devoured and swallowed up the whole Nation; For they were Legislators out of Parliament, and Anti-Legislators, Parliamentarians, and Anti-Parliamentarians, Bribers, Judges, Juries and Parties. They were Legislators, for they have made several Laws, and they bribed the King with 3000. Acres to purchase his royal Assent, though I believe they might have had it for nothing. This was the Root of all our Miseries; For could the Parliament by their humble Petitions have obtained the King's royal Assent, as these Courtiers could do with ease by their importunity, opportunity and flattery, this War had probably been prevented: Certainly the Undertakers were the only Impeders and partition walls betwixt King and People; and they had closed and been reconciled, had it not been for such impostors as they, who cared not for God, King, nor country, but sought themselves and preferred their own gain before the public.  
That Prince is unhappy that prefers Persons or Individuals, before the Representative of so numerous a People and great Nation. They were Anti-Legislators, for all their Laws were point blank against the great Charter, Petition of Right, and all the fundamental Laws of the Land; they were Parliamentarians to call a Parliament, to sell Ship-money for twelve Subsidies, and to raise money to make Wars against the Scots, who wrestled for their Liberties, and were not such tame slaves, as they expected: When the Parliament would give no Subsidies to enslave themselves, than the Courtiers dissolved that Parliament. That the Undertakers were Bribers is upon Record, and likewise that they were Judges, Juries, and Parties: Sir Edward Cook was wont to say, that it never failed, that those which broke Parliaments were always broken by them; yet these Undertakers hope to be repaired for their project, which was only to keep off Parliaments; And this one Project (had it succeeded) would have commanded all the Land in England to have been at the Kings disposing; Then all had been their own; for the King was little the better by such Projects, the Courtiers gained all.  
FINIS.