A SPEECH Spoken in the Honourable House of COMMONS. BY Sir John Maynard Knight of the Bath, one of the 11. impeached Members, Wherein he hath stated the case of Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburne, and done him more real service, in procuring his liberty, than all his seeming friends in the kingdom. Whereunto is annexed the copy of a Petition presented August 1. 1648. to the honourable House of Commons, subscribed by near ten thousand persons, in the behalf of L. C. John Lilburn, with the Answer, Orders, and Proceedings of the Lords and Commons thereupon.  
London, Printed for I. Harris, Aug. 11. 1648.   

A Speech spoken by Sir John Maynard, Kt. of the Bath, in the honourable House of Commons, July, 27. 1648. &c.  
Mr. Speaker,  
We are called hither as trusties and Representatives of the PEOPLE; and it is our duty to represent to you the grievances of any, which are injured, or oppressed, and to be as careful of them as of ourselves, being the essential part of our privileges.  
The Law of the Land is every Englishmans birthright, and you are the Conservators of the Law, in which is wrapped up our Lives, Liberties and Estates.  
Mr. Speaker, without any further preamble, or introduction, I shall acquaint you briefly with the sufferings of Lieut. Col. John Lilburne, who hath been imprisoned two years illegally by the Lords, who by Law have no jurisdiction over Commoners in criminal cases, against their wills.  
About four years since, there was a great falling out betwixt Col. King, and Lieut. Col. Lilburne, his Officer; both faithful men to your service, and of high Spirits, fierce and resolute: The difference grew to such a height, that Lieut. Col. Lilburne complained to his Commander in chief the Earl of Manchester, that Col. King had betrayed Crowland, &c. and humbly besought his Lordship to call a council of war, and he would make good his accusation: The Earl of Manchester hoping to compose the difference, put it off, and Lieut. Col. Lilburne persisted; but seeing justice delayed, he came to London, and divulged abroad that Col. King was a traitor to his trust: whereupon Col. King sued him at the Common Law in an action of 2000 l. and Lieut. Col. Lilburne applied himself to the House of Commons, and prayed that the whole business might be heard and tried at a council of war, by that Ordinance which was established in the Earl of Essex Articles, they being both soldiers, and having subjected themselves to the law-martial; for Lieut. Col. Lilburne knew by the letter of the Common Law he was gone, it being Treason by the Common Law to hold a Fort or Castle against the King.  
It seems this business depended before Judge Reeves, who was a faithful worthy Judge, and never descerted the Parliament, but adheared when we were in the lowest condition: But Lieut. Col. Lilburne being young and hot, writ a Letter to Judge Reeves, wherein he expressed himself in acrimonius language, which had better been forborn; but in a satirical way he showed how he was hardly dealt withal by himself and the Earl of Manchester, and spoke truth in sharp language; viz. That the Judges took many extraordinary Fees which they could not justify by Law, and that their proceedings in their Courts were so irregular, that no man knew where to find them; and that the Earl of Manchester had delayed him justice, &c.  
Whereupon he was convented before the Lords, the Earl of Manchester being Speaker of the House of peers, pro tempore: his Lordship asked Lieut. Col. Lilburne whether he did not deliveto Judge Reeves such a scandalous Paper: Lieut. Col. Lilburne answered, that his Lordship was Judge and Party in his own cause; that he was in England and not in Spain, and the Quere put unto him was like the oath ex officio, which proceedings they themselves had condemned as tyrannical and unjust, a little before in his own case; and by Law no man ought to be asked such an ensnaring question, whereby he might condemn himself; and that if he had offended, the Law was open, and therefore he appealed to the House of Commons, as his competent Judges, being his peers and Equals, and then delivered his Protest against their jurisdiction.  
Whereupon he was commanded to withdraw, and committed to Prison for so doing.  
Not long after he was sent for a second time before the Lords, and commanded to kneel, which he absolutely refused, as a subjection to their jurisdiction, so they remanded him to Prison to be kept close, not suffering wife, child, or any other friend to come to him for the space of three weeks, nor suffering him to enjoy the benefit of Pen, Ink, or Paper.  
After three weeks' imprisonment, he was again forced before the Lords, into whose House he went with his Hat on his head, and being there, refused to hear his Charge read; which was rashly done, but you know Master Speaker, what Solomon saith, Oppression will make a wise man mad: but after Lieut. Col. Lilburne had made this one fault, (for I conceive he had committed none before, but that the injustice rested upon the Lords) he was fined four thousand pounds for his contempt, and seven years' imprisonment. Upon the whole matter I beseech you judge in point of Law and Equity, whether this was not like a council Table, or Starchamber sentence? And I pray observe likewise the Warrant, which the Judges confessed was illegal, when Lieu. Col. Lilburne pleaded upon his Habeas Corpus.  
I shall acquaint you with some precedents, that you have relieved Commoners committed by the Lords, and fined in this Parliament in the like case. Col. King having a difference with the Lord Willoughby of Parham, the Lords took upon them to hear the cause, against Col. King's will, fined him five hundred pounds, and committed him to the Fleet; Col. King appealed to the House of Commons, and showed that the Lords had no jurisdiction over him; and so was released by the House of Commons, and the Fine discharged.  
Captain Mazy, under the command of Col. Manwaring, being on the Guards, who had opened the Commissioners of Scotland's Packets, being for the same committed to the Fleet, the House of Commons released him, and inclined to have rewarded him: the case was the same with this. And the like proceedings of Master William Larner, Bookseller, his Brother, and Maid.  
But that which is most observable, is, that Master Richard Overton who affronted the Lords more than Lieut. Col Lilburne, and protested to the Lords' faces against them, at his first coming before them, and afterwards appealed to the House of Commons, and all the Commons of England, and particularly to the general and whole Army: notwithstanding the Lords approved of his Protestation, by their releasing him out of prison, without any stooping to them: yet Lieut. Col. Lilburne hath lain two years and above in prison, and all his estate kept from him, to the hazard of starving him, his wife, and children.  
Master Speaker, you have heard the report at large made by Master Maynard, and thereupon you gave him his liberty to follow his affairs, though you did not absolutely determine the business; but such is his misfortune. that he is since committed by a warrant of this House, upon the single information of one Master Masterson a Minister, who was not sworn: And truly Master Speaker, I conceive it one of his greatest sins and errors that he hath committed, viz. his idolising this House, for he believes that you are the supreme Authority, and the chief Judicatory, in representing the People, from whom All power is derived, according to that Maxim* Quicquid efficit tale, est magis tale: But I have showed him the contrary, as you may find it in the first of Henry the fourth, Membrana 14. numero 79. There the Commons made their Protestation that they had no jurisdiction but in making of laws, and Money matters, as granting of Subsidies, &c. And truly I conceive it not honourable, nor just, that We, that are Legislators, should be Administrators or Executioners of justice; but to leave these petty things to the Constables, Justices and Judges, whom we may call to question, and punish if there be occasion.  
Master Speaker, I dare not speak against your Warrant, for what is past; but I pray observe, It is a Prison door with two Locks and Bolts upon it, so that it is impossible the Prisoner should ever get out, but die in Prison.  
Lieut. Col. Lilburne is committed in order to his trial at Law, and yet is debarred all Law; for upon his pleading, when he had brought his Habeas Corpus, the Judges confessed the Warrant to be illegal, and yet they durst not release him: Secondly, The cause is general, which is nothing in Law, viz. For treasonable and seditious practices, &c. But Sir Ed. Cook tells us the particular Treason is to be expressed, and that which is worst of all, the word of God doth not warrant it: For Festus the Pagan and corrupt Judge, who expected a bribe from poor Paul, would not send him to Cesar without specifying the cause in his Mittimus.  
It is not in the power of Parliaments to make a Law against the Law of God, Nature, or Necessary Reason: and it was the chief cause why Empson and Dudley, those Favourites and Privy councillors to Henry 7. were beheaded, as it appears in the Indictment, which you may read in the 4. part Institutes, chap. Court of Wards, for the subverting the fundamental laws of the Land: They had an Act of Parliament for their indemnity, as the 11. of Hen. 7. wherein the Judges were authorized to proceed by information, whereas by Law it should have been by Indictment, and they were to judge by discretion, which was contrary to Law, for it ought to have been by Juries of 12. men.  
I brseech you for the time to come that we commit none but our own Members, and that we avoid these old counsel Table warrants, which run in generals, during pleasure, which was the cause of that excellent Law, got with so much difficulty, called the Petition of Right, and that for Abolishing the Starchamber, and regulating the counsel Table, is not inferior to it.  
I pray let us remember and apply it to ourselves: How dangerous and fatal it hath ever been for Kings to extend and stretch their Prerogatives above and beyond Law: for the same Fate befell the council-table, Starchamber, and High Commission. And I pray let us keep ourselves within our Sphere, and not make our privileges, Entia, transcendentia,* which are not to be found in any predicament of Law.  
As touching generals, I pray remember what you yourselves declared in answer to the King, in the case of the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members accused, and Alderman Pennington, Alderman Foulk, Col. Ven, and Col. Manwaring, viz. That it is against the Rules of justice that any man should be imprisoned upon a general charge, when no particulars are proved against them, 1 part book Decl. pag. 840, 841.  
But leaving that, I shall acquaint you what this brave invincible spirit hath suffered and done for you: he was persecuted by the Bishops, had five hundred stripes with knotted cords, from the Fleet to westminster, there he was Pilloried, and gagged, lay long in a nasty close Prison in Irons, without Pen, ink, or Paper, or any company: Alas! I cannot remember half his sufferings: this in his youth, when he was but about twenty years of Age, from which murdering imprisonment this Parliament set him free, with Dr. Bastwick, &c.  
Shortly after he was questioned for his life at the Lord's bar, for asserting the privileges of Parliaments, and was accused by a single witness of Treason, but he was cleared by other witnesses, and discharged by the Lords: when the Parliament was to be forced, he fought with the Cavaliers, and brought many friends to assist in the Court of Requests, he was one of the first that took up arms, and behaved himself bravely at Keinton, where he kept the Field all night: Afterwards he fought stoutly at Brainford, was taken prisoner, and used cruelly, and got a pestilential fever in the Castle of Oxford: he was arraigned for his life before Sir Robert Heath, and Sir Thomas Gardiner, where he asserted the Parliaments cause, having the Observator without book, and spoke more for us, than many of us are able to speak for ourselves: he relieved with money, and held up the spirits of his fellow prisoners; he resisted strong temptations from several great Lords, who offered him great preferment; he was an eminent actor in that famous Battle at Maston Moor, and took in Tickhil Castle with only four Troops of dragoons, and for his pains had like to have been hanged; you must pardon me for injuring him, for I am not able to remember half his services to the public.  
For all his sufferings and actings for you, I beseech you first take off the mark of your own displeasure, which wounds him to the heart.  
Secondly, that you would discharge him from the Lord's imprisonment.  
And lastly, that you would pay him his arrears, and pass the order into an Ordinance for the 2000 l. out of the estates of those which gave that barbarous, cruel, bloody, tyrannical judgement against him in the Starchamber, they are your own expressions in your Vote of May 4. 1648.  
Master Speaker, I have forgot one material thing, which is this; you have allowed Lieutenant Colonel Lilburne forty shillings a week, but he hath not received a penny, neither is he in any hope of it, for he cannot flatter, or comply, besides this supposed gift of yours hath almost starved him, his friends in the Country thinking he had received it having thereupon withdrawn their benevolence, and he and his Family thereby exposed to want and misery.  
After Sir John Maynard, Commissary Copley &c. had several times moved the House to take the business into consideration, the House was pleased to refer it till Tuesday following, being August 1. 1648. on which day the Petition hereunto annexed, was by several eminent Citizens, presented to the Honourable House of Commons, after a motion made in the House by the Lord Car, who exceeding nobly of his own accord, appeared in his behalf, being a mere stranger to him, and having no other inducement thereunto, than his love to justice, and an heroic sympathy with him in his unparalleled sufferings.   

TO The honourable the Commons of England IN PARLIAMENT Assembled.  
The humble petition of divers well-affected Citizens, and others, in the behalf of Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburne, prisoner in the Tower of LONDON.  
Showeth,  
THat the general good of the whole Nation is so much concerned in the honour and good repute of Parliaments, that although in our understandings we have received no satisfaction, for the long destructive imprisonment of lieutenant God, Lilburn; yet we chose rather to be silent, in the same, expecting from time to time his enlargement by this Honourable House, then by our Petitions to intercede, in his behalf.  
But observing not only his own endeavours, and daily solicitations to be fruitless but that whilst he sought his freedom from the imprisonment of the Lords, he became A prisoner unto you; and perceiving many of his greater Friends, in whom he much trusted (as changed with time) turned their backs upon him, and that many of the common enemies made advantage by the hard usage of so eminent a friend, to alienate the hearts of the People from you, and which, as we fear, hath had no small influence in those unhappy Risings and Revolts that have been seen of late against you.  
We hereupon judged ourselves bound in duty and conscience both to you and him, at this time to break our silence, and to testify before this honourable House, that we verily believe there is no declination in him from those just Principles that induced him, to oppose the tyrannous proceedings of the Starchamber, and for which he underwent so cruel a Whipping, Gagging, and imprisonment, as this honourable House voted to be illegal, against the liberty of the Subject, and also barbarous, bloody, wicked, cruel, and tyrannical, and that he ought to have good Reparations therefore.  
Neither do we believe there is any alteration in him, from that judgement and affection that in defence of the just, Authority of this honourable House, induced him so freely to venture his life, and spend his blood at Westminster, when first this House was in most danger; or after that at Keinton Battle, and Brainford, whence he was led Captive in a most barbarous manner to Oxford, where he was so many ways in danger of his life, that had not this honourable House at that time, manifested a most tender regard unto him, he had certainly perished.  
We also profess ourselves fully persuaded, that as he afterward most thankfully, valiantly, and successfully again adventured his life, for the just liberties of the commonwealth, so if occasion should minister opportunity, he would evidence himself still to be the same he then was.  
And concerning his demeanour before the Lords, and for which they sentenced him 4000l. seven years' imprisonment, and incapable of bearing any Office in the Common wealth during his life: when you shall please to consider that he really looked upon himself as injured in all their proceedings with him; and not only so, but that if he should in the least circumstance, or civil compliment, have owned their authority over him, being a Commoner, that therein he should have betrayed those common known liberties of the Nation, for which he had so freely spent his blood, and so many ways adventured his life, inasmuch as in him was subjugated all the men and women in England to the illegal summons, attachments, sentence, fines, and imprisonments of the Lords: and when you shall be pleased to mind the late strong allegations of Sir John Maynard, Sir John Gayer, Alderman Adam's, Alderman Langham, and Alderman Bunce; whereby it clearly appeareth, that the Law of the Land appoints another way for the trials of Commoners, (and upon all which allegations they are all enlarged) we trust his demeanour before the Lords will evidently appear to be no ways criminal.  
And concerning the cause of his commitment by you, when you shall consider how probable it was, that the party informing was transported in his apprehension of things never intended, the whole company present, except the Informer, all well-affected persons, being ready to depose upon Oath, that there was not the least evil mentioned, as by a Petition long since presented to this House, is manifest— when you shall consider how hard and uncertain a condition it is for him, and in him, for all the People of this Nation to be made liable (by any Authority whatsoever) to be attached and imprisoned upon general accusations, which in Law are no crimes, as Judge Bacon and judge rolls in the open Court lately declared in his case, the particular offence being of right to be inserted in every Warrant of Commitment, by whomsoever— when you shall please to consider that all commitments of right aught to refer to a speedy trial at Law, and not during pleasure, as your commitment to him hath proved, which is another hard condition we are all made subject to in his case.  
When with serious deliberation you shall weigh these things, and what it is for a man born of a generous parentage that hath done and suffered so much for the liberties of his Country, and for defence of this Parliament, to be made a prisoner for no less than 7. years by the Lords, who have no jurisdiction over him: and appealing to the House of Commons, (who ought to be the refuge of Commoners) not only not to be relieved, but by them, upon misinformation, and that by one single person, to be as it were riveted in prison, to continue above two of those 7. years, as he hath done, forcibly withheld from a legal trial, though continually cried out for by him: to have his dearly purchased arrears, and Voted Reparations, to a great value held from him, whilst in seeking the same he hath spent nigh half the value, to the great indebting of himself, as he confidently averreth: and all this time to have no allowance to maintain himself, his wife and children, but that they must either starve, or depend upon the uncertain (and to a free and ingenious mind, the unwelcome) charity of compassionate People, and that also to be taken from him, by your voted allowance of thirty shillings per week, whereof no one penny hath been paid, as he is ready to testify, and was enforced to make known, or had perished, so much his friends depended thereupon, (as well they might) being by some men's art, confidently published in several of the weekly Pamphlets.  
When you shall seriously lay these things to heart, and judge impartially thereof, as if his case were one of yours, we cannot but confidently hope his instant enlargement, with full possession of all that hath of a long time been due unto him, and that he shall receive such further respect as may encourage him, and all others in the ways of public virtue, fidelity, and resolution.  

All which we most earnestly entreat: again professing from our very hearts, we see no cause in him, but that the affection of this Honourable House may justly be the same towards him, as it was when they voted him worthy of reparations for his cruel suffering by Starchamber, or delivered him from his many dangers at Oxford— And which being added unto those, would bind both him and us, and all well affected People in constant affection and service to this honourable House.  
But if this (for reasons we cannot discern) shall not be granted, we yet humbly entreat that you would he pleased forthwith to order him a speedy and legal trial by twelve sworn men, according to the known Law of the Land; a justice not to be denied to traitors, Vagabonds, or your worst of enemies.  
But if this also shall be denied, by a Parliament of England, (as our hearts will not give us leave to imagine) we shall not then well know what to do, unless it be to bewail his sad condition, and ours in him.  
This Petition being read in the House, having nigh ten thousand hands to it, the House of Commons in answer, made these following Orders.  

Die Martis, 1. August, 1648.  
ORdered by the Commons Assembled in Parliament, that the Order of Restraint of Lieutenant colonel John Lilburn, be taken off, and discharged.  
Ordered that a Message be sent to the Lords, expressly to recommend lieutenant Colonel Lilburne, and to desire them to take off their hands of restraint from him, and that the Lord Car carry up the Message: Mr. Copley, Sir John Maynard, Mr. Holland, Col. Ludlow, the Lord Car, Sir Peter Wentworth, and Col. Boswel, Ordered that it he referred to this Committee to consider how Lieutenant Colonel Lilburne may have satisfaction and allowance for his sufferings, as was formerly Voted.  
Ordered that it be recommitted to the Committee of Accounts to state the Accounts of Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburne.  
Ordered that a Conference be desired by the Lord Car, where Sir John Maynard, and Master Copley are to manage the Conference with the Lords, for the enlargement of Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburne.  
Hen. Elsing. Cler. Parl. D. Com.    

The House of Commons having (to the great contentment of the petitioners, and all other well-affected persons,) passed the foregoing Orders, the next day the Lord Car, (to whom, together with Sir John Maynard, Mr. Copley; &c. Mr. Lilburn is deeply engaged for their faithful and constant endeavours for his liberty) carried up the desire of the House of Commons to the House of Lords; whereupon they immediately made this ensuing Order.  

Die Mercurii, 2. Aug. 1648.  
ORdered by the Lords in Parliament assembled, that Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburne now a prisoner in the Tower of London, hath all the restraint of this House hereby taken off from him, and that the Fine & sentence imposed upon him by their Lordships is likewise taken off him, any former proceedings of this House in any wise notwithstanding.  
John Brown, Cler. Parl.