Page:Biographia britannica v. 5 (IA biographiabritan05adam).djvu/92

an indictment of high-treaſon, after a hearing of three days, in which the facts alledged againſt him, notoriouſly and flagrantly treaſonable againſt that government, were clearlyproved,

Footnotes

by one Thomas May, charging him with ſuch a confederacy. The next was in a Petition preſented October 22 to the Houſe, by his wife and his brother Robert, promiſing he ſhould withdraw himſelf with his family into ſome foreign country, provided the money due to him from the State was given to him. This was followed the ſame day, by the Innocent Man’s Second Profer, by himſelf; where he adds to their propoſal another condition, that all ſuch as were willing to tranſplant themſelves with him, ſhould be allowed that liberty, and alſo have all their demands of moneys in arrear from the State paid to them; and further, that ſuch as were poor, and willing to attend him, ſhould have ſome reaſonable allowance of money for that end. The next in order was a Petition, October 23, of the well-affected in and about the cities of London and Weſtminſter, and parts adjacent, preſenters and approvers of the late Petition of the 11th of September, &c. This is a kind of remonſtrance, declaring the Parliament’s unjuſt proceedings in perſecuting him, and averring his undoubted right to be diſcharged. After this, another petition was preſented the ſame day, ſingly by his brother Robert, praying only a ſuſpenſion of his tryal, ’till he ſhould be able to convince him of his miſtakes, or, if not, prevail with him to leave the kingdom. Laſt of all, Mrs Lilburne, almoſt diſtracted with the fear of loſing her conſort, preſſed him (as did alſo one Mr Valentine and ſome other friends) to ſtoop as low as poſſibly he could to ſave his life, in which her’s was lock’d up. Whereupon, moved by her bitter mourning and crying, and the beholding the anguiſh of ſpirit of her that had been ſo faithful and hazardous a yoak-fellow to him in his above ſeven years ſorrow, wrung from him, with much ado, the following letter to Mr Lenthal the Speaker.

 
‘Honoured Sir,
As a man, being at preſent ſomewhat confounded in myſelf, through a ſtrong confidence of my own innocency, having ſuffered above meaſure, but intentionally done injury unto none, and preſs’d under, with the importunity of friends, eſpecially with the heart-breaking ſighs of my dear but even half-diſtracted wife; as, when my late children lay in a moſt diſconſolate condition (which ended their lives), your Houſe did me the favour to grant me my liberty^{[citation 1]} to viſit them, which I think was the ſaving of her life: ſo now, greater importunities lying upon me from divers, and her that is dearer unto me than many lives, I as earneſtly intreat you to move your Houſe, in the moſt effectual manner you can, that my tryal (ſo ſuddenly intended) may for ſome reaſonable time be ſuſpended, that ſo I may have time to hear and conſider, what many of them ſay they have to offer by way of reaſon and argument, to perſwade me to what at preſent my conſcience is not convinced of. And I ſhould likewiſe be deſirous, if your Houſe ſhould judge convenient, that ſome competent number of gentlemen of your Houſe might be permitted to debate with me thoſe particulars, wherein I have appeared moſt to differ with other mens judgments; whereby, poſſibly, rational arguments may be ſo ſtrongly urged, as, peradventure, may give ſuch ſatisfaction, as may tend to the reconciling many differences: upon the knowledge of the acceptance of which, during all that time of ſuſpenſion of tryal, I do hereby faithfully promiſe not in the leaſt to diſturb thoſe that ſhall grant me this favour, being not ſo apt to make diſturbance as is conceived; and herein you will exceedingly oblige,
 
From the Tower of London, this 24th of Octob. 1649.

SIR,

Yours, to ſerve you,

John Lilburne.’

When this laſt effort to reſpite the tryal was found ineffectual, this faithful wife went, at his requeſt, amongſt their friends, to try their influence upon the jury.
’Tis no wonder, that all applications proved ineffectual to avoid his tryal, ſince, as Lord Clarendon informs us, though Cromwell could bear ill language and reproaches with leſs diſturbance and concernment than any perſon in authority had ever done; yet the perſecutions Lilburne exerciſed him with, made him plainly diſcern, that it would be impoſſible to preſerve his dignity, or to have any ſecurity in the government, if his licentiouſneſs continued; and therefore he had ſet ſpies upon him, to obſerve his actions and likewiſe his words; and, upon advice with the Counſel at Law of the State, being confidently informed, that, as well by the old eſtabliſhed laws, as by new ordinances, Lilburne was guilty of high-treaſon, and had forfeited his life, if he were proſecuted in any court of juſtice, he cauſed him to be ſent to Newgate, and the next ſeſſions to be indicted of high-treaſon; ordered all the Judges to be preſent, and the Counſel at Law to inforce the evidence, and all care to be taken for the return of ſuch a jury, as might be fit for the importance of the cauſe. His Lordſhip then proceeds to give the following account of our author’s behaviour at his tryal. ‘Lilburne appeared undaunted, and, with the confidence of a man that was to play a prize before the people for their own liberty, he pleaded Not guilty, and heard all the charge and evidence againſt him with patience enough, ſave that, by interrupting the Lawyers ſometimes, who proſecuted him, and by ſharp anſwers to ſome queſtions of the Judges, he ſhewed, that he had no reverence for their perſons, nor any ſubmiſſion to their authority. The whole day was ſpent in his tryal; and, when he came to make his defence, he mingled ſo much Law in his diſcourſe^{[citation 2]}, to invalidate their authority, and to make it appear ſo tyrannical, that neither their lives, liberties, nor eſtates, were in any degree ſecure, whilſt that uſurpation was exerciſed; and anſwered all the matters objected to him with ſuch an aſſurance, making them to contain nothing of high-treaſon, and that to be a government againſt which high-treaſon could not be committed; and telling them, that all free-born Engliſhmen were obliged to oppoſe this tyranny, as he had done heartily for their ſakes, and that he had done it only for their [the Jury’s] ſakes, and to preſerve them from ſlavery, contrary to his own private and worldly intereſt. He told them how much he had been in Cromwell’s friendſhip, and that he might have received any benefit or preferment from him, if he would have fat ſtill, and ſeen his country enſlaved; which, becauſe he would not, he was brought thither to have his life taken from him by their judgment, which he apprehended not. In ſhort, he defended himſelf with that vigour, and charmed the Jury ſo powerfully, that, againſt all the directions and charge the Judges could give them (who aſſured them, that the words and actions fully proved againſt the priſoner were high-treaſon by the Law, and that they were bound by the all obligations of conſcience to find him guilty), after no long conſultation between themſelves, they returned with their verdict that he was not guilty, nor could they be perſwaded by the Judges to change or recede from their verdict, which infinitely angred and perplexed Cromwell; and, as this account concludes, though Lilburne was then acquitted in 1653, yet Cromwell would never ſuffer him to be ſet at liberty, as by the law he ought to have been, but ſent him from priſon to priſon, and kept him incloſed there ’till he himſelf died.’ Thus that noble hiſtorian, whoſe deſign herein was to ſhew the impotency of the protector in the height of his power: and we need not repeat the miſtakes therein, which the reader will eaſily correct, by what he ſees aſterwards obſerved in this memoir.
After his acquittal^{[citation 3]}, being conveyed back to the Tower under the additional guard of three companies of foot, he was attended with the loudeſt acclamations of the people, who made many bonfires in the city^{[citation 4]}. And ſoon after his diſcharge he printed the tryal, prefixing thereto, by way of triumph, a print of himſelf at full length, ſtanding at the Bar with Coke’s Inſtitutes in his hand, the book which he had made uſe of to prove that flattering doctrine, which he applied with ſingular addreſs to the Jury^{[citation 5]}, that in them alone was inherent the judicial power of the Law as well as fact. In the ſame print, over his head, are

Citations

1. (127) The urging of this favour, as a precedent to procure another, would, in almoſt any other perſon’s life, be a diſtinguiſhing mark of confident aſſurance, ſince he made uſe of that favour to diſperſe one of the very pamphlets for which he was now indicted. See his trial, p. 79.
2. * ’Tis obſervable, that, in the point of Law, Lilburne often quotes Lord Clarendon’s ſpeech for aboliſhing the Court of York; which may be ſeen in his article, remark [H].
3. (128) The Lord Grey of Groby, Colonel Ludlow, Mr Robinſon, and Colonel Martin, were ſerviceable to him in procuring this diſcharge. Trial, p. 155.
4. (129) Ibid.
5. (130) He concludes his defence with a full reliance on his jury, as his ſole judges and keepers of his life, at whoſe hands the Lord would require his blood, in caſe they left any part of his indictment to the cruel and bloody men upon the bench, above the received doctrine of thoſe times. Ibid. p. 141.

ſeen