A DECLARATION AND PROTESTATION Of the Peers, Lords, and Barons of this Realm, against the late Treasonable Proceed, and Tyrannical Usurpations of some Members of the Commons House, who endeavour to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Regal Government of this Kingdom, and enslave the People to their boundless Tyranny instead of Freedom.  
February 8. 1648.  
WE the Peers, Lords and Barons of this Realm of England, for the present necessary Vindication of the Undoubted Rights and Privileges of Parliament, and more particularly of the House of Peers, the just Prerogatives and personal safety of our Kings, the known Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom, the Hereditary Freedom of all the Freemen of this Nation, and our own affronted and contemned Honours and Authority, against the many late unparallelled dangerous Invasions and treasonable Usurpations of a few insolent mis-advised Members of the (late) House of Commons, whiles the greatest and ablest part of that House were forcibly derained or deterred from thence, where with we find ourselves and the whole Kingdom unsufferably injured and deeply afflicted: Do, after a long patiented expectation of their own ingenious Retractations of such uniustifiable Exorbitances (which their own judgements and consciences cannot but condemn whereof we now utterly despair; being thereto engaged in point of Honour, Loyalty, Conscience, Oath, and love to our Native Country, as also by our Solemn League and Covenant, publicly declare and protest to all the world; That by the Laws and Customs of this Realm; & Usage of Parliament time out of mind, ever since there were Parliaments in this Island, the principal Authority and Judicatory of the Parliaments of England hath always constantly resided, and aught still to continue only in the King and House of Peers, (wherein he always sits) and not in the Commons house; who never had, claimed, nor aught to have any right or power to judge any Person or cause civilly or criminally [having no Authority to examine any witnesses upon Oath, and being no Court of Record) but only to accuse and impeach Delinquents in and before the house of Peers. where they always have used to stand bareheaded at their Bar; but never yet to stand covered, much less to sit, vote or give judgement. And that the House of Commons without the concurrent assent of the house of Peers, and Kings of England, never heretofore challenged nor enjoyed, nor can of right pretend to any lawful power or jurisdiction to make or publish any firm or binding Ordinance, Vote, Act, or Acts of Parliament whatsoever, nor ever once presumed to pass any Act or Acts to erect a new high court of Justice, to try, condemn, or execute the meanest Subject, least of all their own Sovereign Lord and King, or any Peer of the Kingdom (who by the Common and Statute Laws of this Realm, and Magna Charta, aught to be tried only by their Peers and not otherwise) or to disinherit the Right heir to the Crown, or to alter the Fundamental Government, Laws, Great Seal, or ancient forms of process and legal Proceed of this Realm, or to make or declare High-Treason to be no Treason; or any Act to be Treason, which in itself, or by the Law of the Land is no Treason; or to dispose of any Offices or places of judicature, or impose any penalties, Oaths, or Taxes, on the Subjects of this Realm. And therefore we do here in the presence of Almighty God, Angels, and Men, from our hearts disclaim, abhor, and protest against all Acts, Votes, Orders or Ordinances of the said Members of the Commons house lately made and published, for setting up any New court of Justice to try, condemen, or execute the King, or any Peer or Subject of this Realm: (which for any person or persons to sit in or act as a judge or Commissioner, to the condemning or taking away the life of the K. or any Peer or other subject, we declare to be High Treason and wilful Murder) to difinherit the Prince of Wales of the Crown of England, or against proclaiming him King after his Royal Faeherslate most impious, Traitorous and barbarous murder, or to alter the Monarchical Government, Laws; Great Seal, judicatories, and ancient forms of writs, and legal process and proceed; or to keep up or make good any Commissions, judges or Officers, made void by the King's bloody execution; or to continue any old, or raise any new forces or Armies; or to impose any New Taxes, Payments, Oaths or forfeitures on the Subjects, or to take away any of their lives, Liberties or Estates against the fundamental laws of the Realm, or to make any new judges, justices or Officers; Or set aside the House of Peers (far ancienter than the Commons house) and particularly this insolent and frantic vote of theirs, Febr. 6. (That the House of Peers in Parliament is useless and dangerous and aught to be abolished, and that an act be brought in for that purpose) to be not only void, null, and illegal in themselves by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm, but likewise Treasonable, Detestable, Tyrannical, and destructive to the Privileges, Rights and being of Parliaments, the just Prerogatives and personal safety of the Kings of England, the fundamental Government and Laws of the Realm, the Lives, Liberties, Propertyes and Estates of the People, and the most transcendent Tyranny and Usurpation over the King, Kingdom, Parliament, Peers, Commons, and Freeemen of England ever practised or attempted in any age, tending only to dishonour, enslave, and destroy this ancient flourishing Kingdom, and set up Anarchy and confusion in all places.  
All which exorbitant and Traitorous Usurpations: We, and all freeborn English men are by all obligations bound to oppose to the uttermost with our lives and forunes lest we should be accessories to our own and our posterities slavery and ruin, for preventing whereof we have lately spent so much blood and, Treasure, against the Malignant party, whose Treasons and insolences they fare exceed  
FINIS.