Mr. Pymmes SPEECH TO THE LORDS in Parliament.  
Sitting in Westminster Hall, on the trial of Thomas Earl of Strafford, the twelfth of April 1641.  
London Printed, 1641.   

Mr. PIMMES Speech to the Lords in Parliament Sitting in Westminster Hall the twelfth of April, 1641.  
My Lords,  
THere hath been much time spent to prove our Charge, and your Lordships have heard my Lord of strafford's defence with as much patience. You have also heard our evidence summed up, whereby we have proved that he hath by traitorous Words, Counsels and Actions, traitorously endeavoured to subvert the fundamental Laws of England and Ireland, and in stead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and tyrannical Government a 'gainst Law. This (my Lords) is that poisonous Arrow that hath tainted his blood, this is that cup of deadly wine that hath intoxicated him.  
My Lords, it comes to my share to show you how mischievous an Act of Treason it is by that Law that he hath appealed unto, which is the supreme Law, (to wit) public good, for his position was this, That Salus Populi, is Suprema Lex. All Laws are derived from this as its fountain, and end here as its proper Centre. And those Actions that are opposite to this are against Law.  
First, My Lords, It is such an offence, as comprehends all offences, such a treason; as comprehends all treasons.  
The Earth (My Lords) is a Seminary of all flowers, so is this a Seminary of all offences.  
My Lords, This Law puts a difference betwixt good and evil; take away the Law (my Lords) and Nature becomes a Law to itself. As Pride will be a Law, Lust will be a Law, Rapine a Law, Treason a Law, which Laws have ruled in Ireland ever since my Lord came thither.  
Take away the King's protection from the people, and you take away the people's allegiance to the King. Prerogative is the bounds of liberty, & (my Lords) they must not contest one against another.  
My Lords, I beseech you consider, ye have all under this custody; and if you take away this, you take away your goods, liberties and lives.  
My Lords he saith, that Ireland was a conquered Nation, why? were not all Nations conquered? England, Wales, etc.  
The next is this, that it is an offence full of danger to the King's person and Crown, it nourisheth dissension and tumults in a people. If you consider the histories of the Nations under arbitrary government, you shall find them full of cruelty and bloody Massacres; yea, if you please to peruse our English histories, you shall find that when Arbitrary government was set up, how many Kings fell by cruel and bloody hands, which is fearful to relate.  
Thirdly, my Lords, it is dangerous to the King, First, in respect of his honour, Secondly in respect of his profit, and thirdly, in respect of his greatness: yet all these have been put on upon the face of this Treason as so many vizards, can it be (my Lords) for the King's honour, to have his Ministers to lay all the fault upon the King? To kill, to imprison, to use Rapine, to levy war against his people, and to ruin the State, and then all these dishonourable acts to be laid on the King? is this for the King's honour?  
Secondly, it is contrary to his profit, for if there be not an affectionate supply from the people to the King, he can never grow in his revenue.  
Nay, this (my Lords) is the Kings most certain Revenue, that issues from the affection of his people, for other Revenue, as Lands, or the like, are subject to many inconveniences, to many subtractions and pensions, but this is free and wholly to himself, these fourteen years past, since there hath been an unhappy cessation of Parliamentary proceed, the King hath had less Revenue, and it doth him less good.  
Nay; there hath been more wanting to the King, than many years before. Again, it is unprofitable, and that is worse, for the King lost by it, for it hath cost him these two years more than it cost Queen Elizabeth in all her wars in Ireland & Spain, yea (I fear) more than is to be repaired in an age.  
Thirdly, in point of greatness; the world is a society of Kingdoms, and it is not enough for a King to be great at home, but to equal his fellow Princes abroad; nay, to be above them in honour and Majesty, in riches and glory.  
But my Lords, these Counsels of late that have been given his Majesty, have rendered him contemptible to his enemies, useless to his distressed friends, and had they not been prevented, in time would have made him uncapable of any design at home or abroad.  
A fourth Consideration is this, my Lords, it is destructive to wealth and valour; it corrupts our peace, and in peace, makes us have the inalignities of War: and for wealth, who will venture his goods, life, his liberty in the way of trading and commerce, when he knows not upon the return of it, whether it be his own or not.  
Nay, my Lords, it imbaseth the spirits and valour of a Nation, when they must stand in fear of pilloring, scaffolding, and the like punishments, it makes men to be of base spirits.  
Now my Lords, to embase the King's coin, if it be but six pence or twelve pence, 'tis Treason by the Law, and a man must die for it: what is it then to embase our spirits, my Lords? truly it is a matter of great importance.  
Fifthly, it doth disable the King, and makes him unfit to deal with foreign enemies, for every one thinks to slip his neck out of the collar, when he shall be forced to it.  
The sixth consideration is, that it is against the Covenant betwixt the King and his people.  
Before, my Lords, I spoke of a legal Oath, but now I speak of a personal, for we swear our allegiance to him, and he the maintenance of our Laws to us: he is our husband, and we his wise; he is our father, and we his children: he is to maintain our liberties, and we his Dignities, and our Duties.  
And my Lords, justice Thorpe was condemned and executed, for breaking the King's Oath: My Lords, he broke not his own oath, nor did the King break his oath, and yet for violating that oath, that the King had taken to his Subjects, he suffered.  
Ah what an unfortunate man than is the Prisoner at the Batre, that hath in all his Counsels, in all his words, in all his actions, broken the King's oath, and as much as in him lay, violently persuaded the King to countenance him in all his actions?  
The seventh consideration is this my Lords, it is against the end of government, for the end of government is to preserve men in their estates, lives and liberties, but an arbitrary power destroys all this: the end of government is to advance virtue and goodness, and to punish vice: but this cherisheth all disorder.  
Now my Lords, I come to show the vanity of his excuses, that he hath made for himself.  
The first is the liberty of giving Counsel, being a Counsellor, true my Lords, he hath this liberty, but it's bounded within its lists, and it must be such Counsel as must stand with the sacred Majesty, and the prosperity and weal of his Subjects, for if Counsel be bad, it poisons the Consciences of Princes, it infects their ears, for all government proceeds from the Prince, as from a fountain: now if the fountain be poisoned, how can the streams be free?  
A second shift is, that he hopes your Lordships will be careful to secure your posterity, and not to admit of this as Treason.  
My Lords, I know your Lordships will be careful to secure yourselves, but by your virtues, not by your vices.  
The third excuse is, the goodness of his intentions: truly my Lords, good and evil lie close together, not easily to be discerned, if they be natural corruptions, but for Murders, Adultery, Rapines, and Treasons, these are so monstrous, that they may easily be distinguished.  
And I cannot be persuaded that ever he intended well, that acted so ill.  
The fourth excuse is the King's necessities.  
My Lords, this necessity came from his own counsels.  
A fifth excuse is, it was for the King's honour, and the maintenance of the King's power.  
My Lords, it hath been declared unto you, that the King's power doth not extend to any thing against Law, by which he hath sworn to rule us, and to maintain our Liberties and privileges for us, and this hath been declared by five Parliaments, and also will appear in the case of the Petition of Right, and in the case of shipmoney.  
A sixth is, that he advised the King to do it with moderation and reparation.  
My Lords, this is a contradiction, for there can be no reparation for this.  
The seaventh excuse is, that no horrid facts did follow his Counsels: truly my Lords, we thank God, his sacred Majesty, and his wise Counsel for that, or else God knows what fearful things would have be fallen us, nor are we free from it as yet  
To conclude, now my Lords, give me leave to entreat you to consider the Treasons ordinarily practised, when the act is done, they cease, as in killing that noble King of France, and the several plots against Queen Elizabeth, but this Treason of my Lord of strafford's, is a standing Treason, which when it had been done, it had been permanent from generation to generation.  
And now my Lords, these Laws that he would have overthrown, must now be his judges, and he is to be Judged by law, and that law will have mark enough of it to describe it, for it is a law against such as break the fundamental law of the Kingdom.  
And my Lords, give me leave to inform you, that (under favour) this is not to make a new way for blood, nor is the crime of Treason in my Lord of Strafford the less, because none would venture upon such a horrid Treason, in two hundred and forty years.  
But my Lords, for making of our Charge good by Law, as we have fully proved it by Testimony, we must resort to Counsel with the House of Commons, and trust to your Lordship's justice.  
FINIS.