ſeized[sidenote 1], and our author, by a warrant directed to the ſerjeant at arms, February the 8th, was fetched before the Committee for ſuppreſſing ſcandalous pamphlets[footnote 1]; where, having obtained an expreſs order from the chairman [Corbet] to ſet open the doors, contrary to their uſual practice of keeping cloſe Committees on ſuch occaſions, he acknowledged the writing, printing, and publiſhing of the book, in purſuance of the queſtion put to him, and the affair was never proſecuted any farther[sidenote 2]. But as he had herein departed from his conſtantly avowed principle of not anſwering to interogatories againſt himſelf, and his friends appeared to be uneaſy upon it, therefore, to prevent any ill conſequences that might enſue from that quarter, he wrote a piece ſhortly after for their ſatisfaction, and publiſhed it on the 30th of April 1647, with the following extraordinary title, The Reſolved Man’s Reſolution to maintain with the laſt drop of his heart’s blood, his civil Liberties and Freedoms, granted unto him by the good, juſt and honeſt Laws of England his native Country; and never to ſit ſtill, ſo long as he has a Tongue to ſpeak, or a Hand to write, ’till he hath either neceſſitated his Adverſaries, the Houſe of Lords, and their arbitrary Aſſiſtants in the Houſe of Commons[footnote 2], either to do him Juſtice and Right, bydelivering
Sidenotes
- ↑ (l l) The officer alſo ſeized above 500 copies of his London Charters, of which, when Lilburne complained to the Committee, Mr Corbet told him, the officer had gone beyond his warrant. However, he ſays, he never recovered. See the authority in the next note (m m).
- ↑ (m m) Reſolved Man’s Reſolution, p. 1 to 12. where he tells us, that on his withdrawing from the Committee, the people cried out, they never would anſwer to cloſe Committees any more, being the doors by law ought to be open, which they never knew before.
Footnotes
- ↑ [C C] Called before the Committee for ſcandalous pamphlets.] The iſſue of this affair is related above, but there happened one incident in the proceedings upon it, which ſets the character of our author’s wife in ſo ſtriking a light that it muſt not be omitted in the notes. This notable help-mate to her huſband, was fetched by a particular warrant before the ſame Committee for diſperſing the pamphlets now under examination, where Mr Corbet was Chairman. And in the courſe of the debates there, Lilburne declaring with his uſual audaciouſneſs, that before either that Committee, or any other power in England whatever it be, ſhould rob him of his juſtly expected recompence of reward for all his labours, travels, and hazards, (which recompence of reward was the enjoyment of the juſt privileges and benefits of the good laws of the kingdom) he would ſpend his heart’s blood againſt them: ‘Yea, (continues he) if I had a million of lives I would ſacrifice them all againſt you; and therefore, ſeeing you have all of you ſolemnly lifted up your hands to the moſt high God, and ſworn to maintaine the laws of the kingdom, I deſire you for your own credit’s ſake to deal with me ſo, as not to give me too juſt cauſe to avouch it to your faces you are a company of forſworn men, and ſo to publiſh and declare you to the whole kingdom.’ With this Mr Weaver, burgeſs for Stamford ſaid, ‘Mr Corbet, I conceive ſuch reproachful and diſhonourable expreſſions as Mr Lilburne gives us to our faces, is not to be endured or ſuffered, and therefore, I beſeech you, let us be ſenſible of the honour due to our authority, and the houſe whereof we are members.’ To which our priſoner replied, that he was very confident he had ſaid nothing diſhonourable to the legal and juſt intereſt and power either of the Houſe or the Committee, being no deſpiſer of the juſt and legal authority of the Houſe, nor deſirous to affront or reproach the Committee; but begged them to conſider that he was but a man, and a priſoner under many provocations; and to be ſo roughly fallen upon as he was by half a dozen of them at a time, and interrupted in making his legal defence, and not be ſuffered to ſpeak his own words, was very hard: ‘and it is poſſible (continues he) I may be provoked to heat, and in heat ſay that, that is not convenient and fitting, the which if I ſhould doe, I hope you, Mr Corbet, have underſtanding enough to judge and to reprove me for it; and truly, Sir, upon your reproofe, if I can poſſibly apprehend and ſee I have done amiſſe, I ſhall preſently cry you peccavie.’ Hereabouts his wife, ſeeing Mr Weaver ſo furious upon him as he was, and greatly alarmed with the dreadful apprehenſions that his noble ſpirits were thereupon ſinking below their true natural ſtandard, into the point of moderation[citation 3] and prudence, burſt out with a loud voice, and ſaid, ‘Did not I tell thee often enough long ſince that thou woulſt ſerve the Parliament, and venture thy life ſo long for them, ’till they would hang thee for thy paines, and give thee Tyburn for thy recompence. I told thee beſides, thou ſhouldſt in concluſion find them a company of unjuſt and unrighteous judges; that more ſought themſelves and their own ends than the publique good of the Kingdome, or any of thoſe that faithfully ventured their lives therefore[citation 4].’ We have not been able to diſcover the family of this high-mettled gentlewoman, but this preſent inſtance is ſufficient to convince us, that Mr Lilburne had either the good ſenſe or the good fortune in her to pick out a very ſuitable match for himſelf. Seven years after their marriage, he declares ſhe had been the greateſt comfort he had in all his troubles, ’till that time[citation 5]; and his meaning therein is clearly and fully unfolded in this pathetic ſpeech, which manifeſtly ſhews that ſhe was endowed with a ſpirit ſo exactly tallying with his own, that nature ſeems to have deſigned her for his counter-part; and accordingly it appears from ſeveral paſſages in his writings. that they lived in perfect harmony with each other[citation 6].
- ↑ [D D] Their arbitrary Aſſiſtants in the Houſe of Commons.] Our author being perſuaded that old Sir Henry Vane was one of the chief of theſe arbitrary aſſiſtants to the Lords againſt him. Among other reſolutions executed in this piece, exerts himſelf in a particular manner againſt that old fox, as he calls him; being determined to pay him off, coſt it hanging, burning, drowning, ſtrangling, poiſoning, ſtarving, cutting in pieces, or whatever it will or can, ‘Yea, tho’ it loſe me, (ſays he) all the intereſt I have in the world in any or all the great ones thereof, put Lieutenant-General Cromwell into the number[citation 7].’ Thus animated, he ſets out with the buſineſs of the twelve ſubſidies, which occaſioned the ſudden diſſolution of the ſhort Parliament in 1640, and declares he had been told by one who ſat therein, that Sir Henry had no ſuch commiſſion from his Majeſty, but did it purely with a deſign to breed a quarrel between the King and the Parliament, and thereby procure that diſſolution, on ſet purpoſe to ſave himſelf from being queſtioned about his dangerous and deſperate monopoly of gun-powder, and other of his illegal knaveries in which he was deep enough, even over both boots and ſhoes. From this information given him by a member in that Parliament, he proceeds, as upon his own knowledge, to give an account of that monopoly; and tells us, that Sir Henry having joſtled Sir John Evelyn out of the Powder-maſter’s place, put one Samuel Cordell, his valet de chambre, or gentleman, into it, as his agent; who, having the ſole monopoly of making all the powder in England, furniſhed it for ſeven pence halfpenny into the Tower, which was ſold out commonly for eighteen pence per pound at the firſt hand, beſides the charge of getting three warrants; firſt one from the Council-board to the Maſter of the Ordnance, then Lord Newport, which coſt dear enough; and then a ſecond from his Lordſhip to the officers of the Ordnance; and a third from them to the particular clerk that kept the powder; all which were attended with trouble, coſt, and money, beſides a fee of a mark paid to the officers of the Ordnance, for every laſt of powder delivered: and Cordwell conſtantly engaged to bring in
and their preſent praftices; then with an account of my Star-chamber ſufferings[citation 1]; and conclude with a declaration what is the end, wherefore Parliaments by law ought and ſhould be called; which is to redreſs miſchiefs and inconveniencies, but not to increaſe them. He afterwards challenges them to ſhew any inſtance of an act or ordinance ſince the wars begun, that is for the univerſal good of the Commons of England that have borne the burthen of the day; on the contrary, he charges them with having made ſeveral ordinances to eſtabliſh monopolies, (as that of merchant-adventurers, who have an excluſive power of ſending cloth to the Netherlands, whereby he was hindered from following his trade) and avows that in their practice they had unhinged Magna Charta and the Petition of Right[citation 2].’
Citations
- ↑ (69) Here he mentions ſeveral of his Judges in that Court, and, among the reſt, old Sir Henry Vane, whom he threatens to anatomize to the purpoſe, which he d⟨i⟩d not fail to do ſoon after, as the remark [D D] will ſhew.
- ↑ (70) Oppreſſed Man’s Oppreſſions, p. 27.
- ↑ (71) This moderation was apparently the effect of Mr Corbet’s behaviour to him, that gentleman’s evenneſs of temper, as well as good ſenſe, ſhewing itſelf conſpicuouſly in our author’s account of this matter. See alſo another inſtance of it in James Howel’s article.
- ↑ (72) Reſolved Man’s Reſolution, p. 7, 8.
- ↑ (73) See more of this in the ſequel.
- ↑ (74) In 1649, ſhe had brought him three children, but they all died that year of the ſmall-pox. Preparative to a Hue and Cry, p. 39.
- ↑ (75) This diſregard of Cromwell’s intereſt plainly ſhews, that he was now highly diſpleaſed with him.
