The manner of the ELECTION OF PHILIP HERBERT[ Late earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, Baron Herbert of cardiff and Sherland, Lord parr and Rosse of kendal, Lord Fitzhugh, Marmion and S. Quintin, Lord Warden of the Stanneries, and High Steward of the duchy in the County of Devon and Cornwall, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Constable of the Honour and Castle of Windzor, and Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter] For Knight of the Shire for Bark-shire, by almost forty Free-holders, being far the mayor part of the Free-holders of that County. TOGETHER WITH TWO SPEECHES, The one spoken by a well-affected Tanner: THE OTHER, A godly Speech of his Lordships, as it was heard with much content without an Oath. Printed in the year, 1649. april 24 A Dehortatory SPEECH by a well-affected Tanner, to the County of berkshire, met at Abingdon the 2. of April, 1649. for the Election of Pembroke to be Knight of the Shire. Honest Friends, YOu that are of the freeborn People of this Land, I speak to none else, and Lovers of the Army, and the true English Interest, all men else have forfeited their freedoms. I am full of anguish and trouble for your sakes, when I behold this Day. I fear you are in a way to ruin yourselves, unless the Lord be merciful to you. The thing you meet for, troubles me not a little. 'Tis to choose a Knight, Truly I hoped, and I hope we all hoped, to have done making Knights by this time. The thing you meet to choose troubles me more. This Fellow that was a Lord, this Pembroke, this Montgomery, this Herbert, this what-shall I call him? call him what you will: We were promised a Representative to begin on June next, and this Parliament to end the last of this Month; If so, why should we sand this Fellow thither to make mouths for three Weekes, and talk of Dogs and hawks? I say, let us have the Representative, or we are cheated. But if we must make one Knight more, let it not be Pembroke, He is no way fit for it. Consider him as a Lord, and none of the wisest Lords neither; and then consider how many wiser and fitter Persons, we have for Parliament men then ever a Lord of them all: And what a Brand it will be to Us, and our Country to choose a Lord, such a Lord; and surely, unless you are fools and mad-men, you will not choose him. again, consider him as a Lord, and so he is no freeborn Commoner, and so not capable of our Election. Is there not an Act against King and Lords? if there is, then let us have no Lords, unless you intend to have a King too. Let us be wise; we may see a design in this Lord as plain as the Nose on his Face. He was always False, False to the King that loved him, False to the Lords that sate eight yeares with him; and do you not think He will be false to the Commons too? I warrant you. Is not Michael Oldsworth this Lords man, a Parliament man? Are not his, and other Lords sons Parliament men? If he get in too, the time will come, when the House of Commons will be all Lords, and Lords sons, and Lords Servants; and then Lords will be voted up again, and King be in request again, which if we live to see again, we have spun a fair Thread. If all this which I have said be true, as it is impossible it should be otherwise; why should we not look on this Turn-coat Lord as a Cheat, as one that comes to betray and undo the Free-born People, and Switch him out of the Country? I have done, If we must choose a Knight, let him not be a Lord: we do not red in all the Scripture of any Lord was ever chosen Knight of the Shire for berkshire. But rather let us choose none at all, and unanimously Petition the Parliament to dissolve, that the Representative may succeed, and none but ourselves have any share in the Gubernation and Government of this Common-wealth. A godly Speech spoken by Philip Herbert, late Earl of Pembroke, &c. As it was heard with much content without an Oath. Gentlemen, IT was not the old Fashion to make Speeches before you choose your Knights, but I hope you like it the better for not being Old, I am sure I do; Give us old Fashions again, we must have King and Lords, our Old Religion, and Old laws, and a hundred things Older then Adam. I hate any thing that's Old, unless it be an Old man, for Adam was an Old man, and so am I, and I hate myself for being an Old man, and therefore will love you, if you'll make me a new Knight. The Gentleman that spake before me, I know not where to have him, He is an Individuum vagum. He is angry the Representative goes not on: He is angry the Parliament goes not off; He is angry I am a Lord; He is angry I would be none; He is angry I seek to be your Knight, and he would have me of that sort of Seekers, who neither seek nor find: and he concludes, I am not to be chosen because no freeborn Commoner. I fear he is a jesuit by his subtle Arguments: But though I have no logic, I hope I have Reason, to answer him, and satisfy you. I Answer, I am a Free-born-Commoner. All those three words fit me. First, I am born. Else how came I hither into the world? I am Free. My Accounts for last yeares expense came to fix and twenty thousand pounds, that's faire you'l say, and when you have chosen me your Knight, I'll carry you every Mothers Son, the whole County, into Wiltshire, and we'll be merry, and Hunt and hawk, and I'll be as free as an Emperour. So I am freeborn. I am a Commoner. Have I been so often at Common-Councels, and Common-Halls to be accounted no Commoner? Are not the Lords all turned a grazing? was not I a Common swearer before I went to Lectures, and a common sleeper ever since, and am not I chancellor of Oxford where all are Commoners? So I am a Commoner. I am no Lord. If I am, why should I come hither to be Knight of your Shire? But though I am a Lord, is not Fairfax so? And yet he is a Parliament man, & is not BRADSHAW LORD PRESIDENT? But I am no Lord. For, I am for the Parliament; I am for Voting down the House of Lords, And to tell you truth, I never loved the King fince He was Dead, and those that are Lords go in Black for Him, but I keep my old Blue still, and my Diamond Hatband, though the Crown-Jewels are sold. Therefore you may choose me well enough. You must choose me. Why came I hither else? why did cronwell bid me come hither? and I bid my Steward come hither to lay in Provision, and gather voices. If my Stewards Bill be right, every throat that Votes for me, costs me twenty pound. Choose me if you would have a Representative. I that have been Lord of Pembroke and Montgomery, two Counties, may well represent one. Choose me if you would have no Representative. For I'll do and Vote what you list, and so Choosing me, you choose yourselves. So that whether you would have a Representative or no, the best way is to choose me. But let me tell you by the way, now the Parliament is fallen into the happy way of making Acts of Parliament, let them continue. This is one of the advantages you have by losing the KING: You may have an Act of Parliament for what you please; and that's better then an Ordinance, and lasts longer, for an Ordinance of Parliament was good no longer then this Parliament, which though it last for ever, an Act lasts longer, because that lasts for ever, whether the Parliament last or no. For my Religion. Who questions it? I never changed it, I was for Bishops when there were Bishops; and I was for Visitors when there were none. It is well known I am an Independent, and had been so twenty yeares ago had it not been for Michael Oldsworth, and will be so as long as the Parliament please; I have been an Old Courtier, and that's an Old Court, and the highest Court, and old Courtiers always love to follow the new Fashions, That Religion is in fashion now. I am chancellor of Oxford, which is hard by, therefore choose me: Some of you have sons and Cozens there, all that are a kin to any that give their voices for me, shall be Heads of colleges, and Canons of Christ Church, though there be a hundred of them. The rest of you shall have the Leases of all the University Lands amongst you; what, am not I chancellor? The Place I stand for, is, Knight of the Shire. None but Kings can make Knights, make me your Knight, you are all Kings: And it will be an Honour to me, and my Posterity to have it recorded, I was the first Lord that was Knighted by so many Kings. I know now, you cannot but choose me, I knew so before I came hither, and therefore I thank you beforehand, and invite you Home. I will conclude with that very Exordium, Sir John Wray in his first Speech before his eight. wherewith a famous Gentleman that was of this Parliament, concluded his Speech upon the like occasion. Behold your Knight. Die Lunae, 16 Aprilis, 1649. Ordered by the Commons in Parliament Assembled, That these Speeches be forth with Printed and Published, in French, Dutch, Spanish, and bound up with the Declaration of bolstered Whitlock. HEN. SCOBELL, CLERIC. PARL. FINIS.