THREE SPEECHES Spoken at a Common-Hall, Thursday the 3. of July, 1645. BY Mr. Lisle, Mr. Tate, Mr. Brown, Members of the House of COMMONS: Containing many Observations upon the King's LETTERS, found in His own Cabinet at Nasiby fight, And sent to the Parliament by Sir Thomas Fairfax, and Read at a Common-Hall.  
Published according to Order.  
LONDON: Printed for Peter Cole, at the sign of the printing-press in Cornhill, near the royal Exchange, 1645.   

Mr. Lisle his Speech.  
MY Lord Major, and you worthy Gentlemen of the famous City of London, I am commanded by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, to observe to you some Passages out of these Letters which you have heard; They are Passages of that nature, though it be most happy for this Kingdom and Parliament to know them, yet my very heart doth bleed to repeat them.  
The first thing that I shall observe to you, is concerning the King's endeavours to bring foreign Forces, a foreign Prince with an Army into this Kingdom: By his Letters to the Queen, which you have heard read, he endeavours to hasten the Duke of Lorraine with an Army into England; It is well known to the Parliament, that the Duke of Lorraine is a Prince highly esteemed at Rome, the most complying with Jesuits of any Prince in Christendom; and yet the King writes to the Queen, to hasten the Duke of Lorraine to come with an Army into England.  
The next thing that I shall observe to you, are, Endeavours to overthrow the Law of the Land by Power, to Repeal the Laws and Stat●tes of this Realm by Force and Arms, endeavours by Force and Arms to Repeal all the Statutes of this Kingdom against Papists; I shall read a Passage to you, which you have already heard, out of one of the King's Letters to the Queen; The Letter was dated the Fifth of March, 1644.  I give thee power, in my Name, to promise that I will take away all the penal Statutes in England, against the Roman Catholics, as soon as God shall enable me to do it, so as by their means, or in their favours, I may have so powerful assistance as may deserve so great a favour. 
When we consider, that the Statutes of this Kingdom against Papists must be taken away by Force; when we consider that the Laws of this Kingdom are to be Repealed by Power, who cannot but when he calls to mind the Declarations that have been made to put the Laws in execution against Papists, of the Protestations that have been made, and have been often made to maintain the Laws of this Kingdom, who can choose but grieve to think of it.  
The third thing (Gentlemen) that I shall observe to you, is concerning the use, and the Ends that have been made (which you may observe out of these Letters) of a Treaty with the Parliament, I shall read His majesty's words to you in the Letter of the Fifteenth of February, 1645. a Letter to the Queen; And be confident that in making peace, I shall ever show my constancy, in adhering to Bishops and to all Our friends, and not forget to put a short period to this perpetual Parliament.  
And in His Letter to the Queen of the Ninth of February, 1644. there is this Passage, Be confident that I will never quit Episcopacy, nor the Sword.  
We did all hope, that the end of a Treaty had been to settle a happy Peace, a firm and a well-grounded Peace; but now we see by the King's Letter, that His Resolutions are, still to keep the Sword in His own hands: We did all hope, that the end of a Treaty was to settle Church-government according to the Protestation, the Solemn Vow and Covenant which we have all taken; But you see by the King's Letter, that He avows it to the Queen that He will never quit Episcopacy.  
We did all hope, that the end of a Treaty was rather to confirm the Parliament then to dissolve it; but the King says in His own Letter, that He will not forget at this Treaty, to put a short period to this perpetual Parliament.  
The last thing that I shall observe to you (for you will have the rest observed to you by a better hand) is concerning the Kings disavowing this Parliament to be the Parliament of England; we cannot have any greater assurance of any thing from the King, then of this present Parliament; there is no Law stronger that gives any property to the Subject, than the Law is to continue this present Parliament.  
This is so well known to the world, that Kingdoms & States abroad acknowledge it; and now for the King to disavow it, after it is confirmed and continued by Act of Parliament after the King hath so lately acknowledged it, now so suddenly to disavow it, how can we be more confident of any assurance or Act from his Majesty?  
There be many things more observable in these Letters, but I shall leave them to those worthy Gentlemen that come after me.   

Mr. Tate his Speech.  
THe Letters are so full, that I shall rather be your remembrancer of what you have heard in them, then give you any observations upon them.  
I shall present before you a very sad Spectacle, the whole Kingdom of Ireland bleeding, a Kingdom all in Peace without any thoughts of War, without any thoughts of Arms; and of a sudden, a Popish party rising up, laying hold upon all the Forts, Seizing all the Lands, and all the goods of the Protestants in Ireland; and not content with that, when they had done, killing one hundred thousand of them, man, woman and child: These Rebels of Ireland that had thus inhumanly murdered so many Protestants; (here is the sadness) Now the Favourites of the King, and those Subjects that the King did profess to maintain, in maintaining Arms against those Rebels; we that by Acts of Parliament of the Kings own Grant, had the Irish Rebels Lands and Territories granted to us to maintain a War against them; Now because we maintain that War, we are Rebels and traitors; and the Irish Rebels because that they stand against you, they shall be freed from all penal Laws, they shall have any thing that they desire, nothing is too dear for them, any Laws may be altered for their sakes; but when the Protestants come to desire an alteration of Law for the advancement of the Protestant Religion, and for the settlement of the Protestants, nothing can be granted to them by a Protestant King, but every thing to the Irish: I shall say but a word more, and pray consider of it; The condition why all this is granted to the Irish, and denied to you, it is only this, That the Irish may come over into England to cut your throats, as they cut the throats of all the Irish Protestants in Ireland; this is the cause for which they are encouraged to come hither, if there be such a reward for Treachery, if there be such a fruit of the Protestations of the King, what can we expect. All I have to say, is, you see you must stand to your arms, and defend yourselves; for there is no hopes for you, unless you can submit your necks to the Queen, and be transformed into Irish Rebels and Papists: I know not how you can obtain any favour at Court, especially having such a Mediator, as you have a Parliament that is so hated by this King, as long as that mediates for you, you shall have nothing, but if you can have a Popish Catholic Queen to solicit in your behalf, you shall have any thing: I know you are too much Englishmen and Protestants to submit to such base conditions; therefore lay aside all divisions, and unite yourselves in this Cause, that you may be Masters of the Popish party, that otherwise will kill you all.   

Mr Browne his Speech.  
MY Lord Mayor and you worthy Citizens of the City of London, I shall not trouble you to repeat any of the Letters that you have heard read, I doubt not but you that heard them do remember most of them, only this I will say to you; That for my part I know not whether we have more cause of joy or sorrow, for this which this day you have heard. 'cause I know we have to be sorrowful, that things are so ill with us as they are▪ and I am sure we have cause to rejoice, that things are now discovered and brought to light, that have been so long hid in darkness. This day is a day of discovery; heretofore those that spoke those things that you have herad this day manifested unto you; were accounted the Malignant party, they were termed Rebels, they were suspicious jealous people without cause; The Lords and Commons in Parliament, they have heretofore declared their fears of the things that you see now proved: Answers have been given to those fears with slights and scorns. Things are this day discovered to you that were enjoined to be kept secret by the strongest engagements; the goodness of God giving success to our army hath brought these things to light. Before his Majesty departed from the Parliament, the Lords and Commons by a Petition to him, did present unto him their fears, occasioned by the favouring of ●●●●sants; their fears that he would bring in foreign Forces▪ that he would change and alter the Laws, they gave him their Reasons for all▪ but he was pleased to give his Answer with denying all, as they affirmed all: For that of foreign Forces, because he gave a punctual Answer to that▪ I will tell you what it was: When they told him that they were informed that the Pope's Nuncio did deal with the French and Spanish Kings, to send to him 4000 men a piece, the King did Answer to them: That it was improbable in itself, and scandalous to him, for which he desired reparation at their hands.  
And at another time he Answers that very point concerning foreign Forces positively, and saith: No sober nor honest man can believe that We are so desperate or so senseless (they are his very words) to entertain such a design, As to bring in foreign Forces, which would not only bury this Our kingdom in distraction and ruin▪ but Our own Name and Posterity in perpetual scorn and infamy.  
You have heard what hath been said for that, you have heard his own Letters, how he deals with the Queen, and how pressing he is with her to bring into this kingdom the Duke of Lorraigne with his Army▪ the Duke of Lorraigne you know is a Catholic Popish▪ foreign Prince: So you see how much he is altered from what he thought then, and how his endeavours are now, that both honest men and sober men may believe that he would do it▪ because he writes to her with such earnestness, to pray her to do it for him▪  
For their fears of his making war against the Parliament▪ of his alteration of Religion and Laws▪ 〈◊〉 hath heretofore in his Printed Declaration, expressed these words: We do again, in the presence of Almighty making war against the Parliament, then against our own children, that we will maintain and observe the acts assented to by us this Parliament, without violation; and that we have not, nor shall not have, any thought of using of any force, unless we shall be driven to it for the security of Our▪ person, and for the defence of the Religion, Laws, and Liberties of the kingdom, and the just Rights and privileges of Parliament.  
And in another of his Printed Declarations he hath said: God so deal with me and mine, as my thoughts and intentions are upright for the the maintenance of the true Protes●ant Religion, and for observation and preservation of the Laws of the Land.  
And in another Declaration, he saith, That He is resolved not only duly to observe the Laws himself, but to maintain them, against what opposition soever, though with the hazard of his being.  
And in his Declaration concerning his resolution to go into Ireland, which is also Printed, he calls God to witness, the sincerity of his professions there made, with this assurance; That his Majesty will never consent, upon what pretence soever, to a toleration of the Popish profession there; or the abolition of the Laws now in force against Popish Recusants in that kingdom.  
What could his Majesty have said more to satisfy his people.  
Now compare his actions with his Declarations, and compare his Letters to the Queen, with his promise and protestations to the Parliament, and you will say Quantum mutatus, how much is his Majesty changed.  
All that we have heard read, we may divide into three parts.  
The first concerns the Letters, Propositions, and transactions, concerning Ireland.  
The second, the Letters from the Queen to the King.  
The third▪ Letters from the King to the Queen.  
Concerning Ireland, you have heard the Propositions made, to the Queen, for fending into this kingdom diverse Irish Rebels, under the Command of two professed Papists▪ 6000. of them were to be under the Command of the Lord Glamorgan, the Earl of worcester's eldest son, the other of 10000 under the command of colonel Fitz Williams: the terms that they were to come upon, were read to you in the Propositions, which themselves sent to the Queen▪ You will not think that these came to maintain the Laws, but to destroy them, not to maintain the Protestant Religion, but to overthrow it, these Propositions being sent to the Queen▪ and allowed by her and she sent them to the King.  
For the Letters concerning Ireland they were written by the King to the Earl of Ormond, who is now Governourthere: in some of them Letters, the King gives way to the suspending of Poyning's Law, I which was an Act of Parliament, in the 10. year of Henry the 7. it was called Poyning's law, because Sir Edward Poynings was governor of Ireland, when that law was made; that law made all Statutes that were before made in England, of force in Ireland; and the King may as well suspend all the laws there, as that law; by that law of Poynings, all laws that were after to be presented at the Parliament in Ireland, must be first sent hither for approbatition, before they could be presented to the Parliament there▪ and no Parliament must be called there before the causes of calling the Parliament, and the Acts to be passed in that Parliament, are first sent hither and approved but that law now must be suspended.  
Further, in the Letters to the Lord of Ormond you see the King doth not count it a hard bargain, for to make a law in Ireland to suspend or to take away the penal laws, against Papists there, so that they will help him here, against his Protestant Subjects: when this promise was made the Declaration was not remembered, wherein the King doth declare, that upon no pretence whatsoever, he will tolerate the Popish profession in Ireland, or abolish the Laws against Popish Recusants now in force there. He further saith in another Letter to my Lord of Ormond, that rather than he will fail of making a peace or a cessation with the rebels, he would have him engage himself to join with the Rebels against the Scots, and the Lord Inchequin, which is the main visible Protestant Forces, that are in Ireland: all this is enjoined to be kept secret, from all but two or three of the chiefest Rebels in Ireland, whom you heard named in the letters: you may further observe, that a peace was treated of with the Rebels about the same time that the King did Treat with the Parliament here concerning Ireland; and the King wished a quick dispatch of the peace there, lest if he should make a peace here first, he could not show such favours to the Irish as he intended; they are the words of his letter.  
You may see by all the letters to my Lord of Ormond, that the King did little stick at any thing to grant to the Rebels, for a peace with them, but how little he granted to the Parliament of England, at the last Treaty, I hope all the world will soon know.  
The next are the Queen's Letters to the King; in them you may see Her unwearied endeavours by Sea and Land to raise Forces against the Parliament to destroy it, you see she marcheth in the head of an Army, and calls herself the Generalissima; you may see further in her Letters, the great interest she hath in the King's Counsels, no Office or Place can be disposed of without her, you may see by her Letters, her advice concerning Peace, in making Peace, she adviseth the King not to abandon those that have served him, for fear they forsake him in his need; she expresseth whom she meaneth, the Bishops and the poor Catholics; she adviseth the King for the honour of God, that he trust not himself in our hands; if he go to London before the Parliament is ended, she tells him he is undone; you may see by her Letters, how active she is with the Duke of Lorraine for sending over ten thousand men, you may see her advice concerning this Parliament; She saith, that perpetual Parliament must be disbanded, the rest she saith will follow, if the King conclude a Peace without that, she will into France she saith, I am sure you cannot forget these Passages.  
In the King's Letters to the Queen you may observe these following particulars.  
First▪ his Apology to her, for calling us a Parliament at the last Treaty, it seems she was offended at it, and you may see by His Letters with what difficulty he did it, for he saith, that if but two more had joined with him in opinion to the contrary, he would never have done it, yet he hath told us, he will keep all the Acts of this Parliament inviolable: how these can stand together, let all men judge; he hath told us that he will maintain the Laws, and observe them himself, yet you see he lay the blood of that Kingdom that is shed in these wars, upon the shedding of the innocent blood (as he calls it) of my Lord of Strafford, yet my Lord of Strafford was condemned by himself, and by the Law, that he saith he will maintain.  
You see how pressing he is to the Queen to procure aid from the Duke of Lorraine, upon hopes of his coming he is very glad, and saith, the Prince of Orange shall help to transport his soldiers: compare this with his former Declarations concerning foreign Forces▪ it needs no aggravation, we have all of us more cause to pray for him.  
For his maintaining the Laws, you may observe in a Letter dated in March last to the Queen, there is this passage. I give thee leave to promise in my name, to all that thou thinkest fit, that I will take away all the penal Laws against the Roman Catholics in England, as soon as God shall enable me to do it, so as I may by their means have such assistance, as may deserve so great a favour and enable me to do it.  
To this promise of his, he enjoins much secrecy, which he had need to do, being so contrary to former Declarations, and Protestations.  
If this be done, he may as well alter and take away all our Laws, both for property and Liberty; these Laws against Papists are of as much force▪ and bind as much as any Laws whatsoever: upon all these Letters and passages together you may observe the great design, to put an end to this Parliament, although it cannot be done without the consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament, and the Kings joining with them.  
You see another design is, to take away all Laws against Recusants, and that must be when the King is able to do it, as he saith, and that cannot be without force; you see, to enable himself to do these things, He invites in foreign Forces, you see he deals with Papists & Protestants, and all to assist Him against the Parliament: You see in those Letters, what privileges and immunities are promised to Papists, and nothing at all to His Protestant Subjects; you see the great trust He reposeth in the Queen, to make a bargain for Him, although it concern Religion, which is the strongest point of confidence He can express to Her; I need not repeat the words: You cannot but observe the Reward that He bestows upon them that contrary to their trust reposed in them by the Kingdom have deserted the Parliament: He tells the Queen He is free from the place of base mutinous motions in His mongrel Parliament there; Let the like reward befall all such as shall betray their trust reposed in them by the Kingdom; You may see whom you have cause to thank, for the seizing of your goods in France, you heard it read, upon the score of whose kindness it was set.  
Lastly, you may see by the Letters, if a Peace be had, what a one it shall be, it shall be such a one as shall invite the Queen to return.  
The Treaty for it shall be according to the Instructions given to the Commissioners, which upon the King's word, are according to the little Note the Queen so well remembers: In making Peace the King assures her, He will be constant in adhering to the Bishops, & all His friends, those whom the Queen calls in her Letter, the poor Roman Catholics.  
Lastly▪ In making Peace, He will not forget to put an end to this Parliament; but some will say, What's all this to us?  
Yes, it much concerns us all, that we may pray for, and pity our King, and to learn us to look to ourselves.  
You see by their Letters the way they hope to bring about all their designs, they say it is by our divisions among ourselves, they say the City is divided in itself, they say the Houses of Parliament are divided among themselves, and they say, they are divided one with another, they say, one part goes one way, and another part goes another way; I hope, that which appears by these Letters, will make us all go the same way for the maintenance of this Cause.  
These Letters that ye have heard read, are beyond all exceptions; the King's Letters all of His own hand, and in many places Corrected by himself. The Letters to the Earl of Ormond are all His own hand; there are divers other Letters besides them, now read, which were taken at the Fight, all of them together, with these read, are deposited into an indifferent place, that any one that will may see them.  
By what you have heard read, you see the unwearied endeavours of your Enemies to destroy you, they are diligent, let us be vigilant in prosecuting this Cause we have undertaken, that we may have a happy end of these unhappy differences; do you of the City agree among yourselves in the prosecuting of this Cause, though you may differ in private opinion in other things; I hope and pray that both Houses of Parliament m●y ever agree in the maintenance of this Cause, which I doubt not but they will as they do: let us all go on together, hand in hand together, in the maintenance of this Cause, according to our Protestation; we cannot do it without unity among ourselves; if we have division among ourselves, we undo ourselves, and hazard the Cause; if we in the Parliaments Quarters agree among ourselves, I hope we shall be invincible▪ I will conclude with this Sentence, Si fueritis inseperabiles, eritis insuperabiles, if we be inseparable and undivided, we shall be invincible: Let us all do our duties faithfully, and leave the issue to God.   
FINIS.