a paper which he called an Apology for himſelf, and printing it ſent it in a letter to Cromwell, wherein he charged the Lord General with being the principal inſtrument in in procuring the juſt mentioned act[footnote 1]. Upon the diſſolution of the long Parliament, he ſet all his engines at work, to obtain a paſs for England[footnote 2], which proving ineffectual, he returned home without one in the beginning of June 1653, and was apprehended at London by the Lord-Mayor’s warrant on the 15th[sidenote 1], upon which he printed a plea on the 28th, aſſerting the nullity of the act for his baniſhment, for want of a legal power in the Parliament that paſſed it, and being committed to Newgate in July, he ſent thence a petition on the 12th to the newly erected Parliament, praying a diſcharge from them; but that being neglected, he was brought on the 20th of Auguſt to his trial before the ſeſſions at the Old-Bailey; where, however, upon making the ſame plea as before, and moreover that he was not legally ſhewn, by reaſon of a kind of miſnomer in the indictment[sidenote 2], to be the perſon mentioned in the act, he was a ſecond time acquitted by the jury[footnote 3]. Notwithſtanding this he was ſhortly after conductedto
Sidenotes
- ↑ (l l l) A poſtſcript to the petition laſt cited.
- ↑ (m m m) In the act, he was called Lieutenant-Colonel, and in the indictment, John Lilburne, late of London, Gent. He excepts alſo, that he was not a Lieutenant-Colonel, when the act paſſed, and that he was not legally convicted, having not been ſuffered to plead in his own defence.
Footnotes
- ↑ [F F F] A letter to Cromwell.] The letter was as follows: ‘My Lord,At my diſcourſe with you in your gallery about five or ſix months ago, I had thought I had given your Lordſhip a full ſatisfaction in every thing that might remove all jealouſies from you, of my diſſerving you in any kind; that, of all men in the Parliament, I little imagined to have found your honor to be the principall man to baniſh me into a ſtrange country, where, for the ſafety of my life, I am forced to print an apology; and, becauſe you are named in it, I judge it but man-like to ſend you a copy of it; and, if I had not been travelling laſt poſt-day, I had ſent it you then; and I have alſo, by this poſt, ſent to a friend three ſheets of paper in writing, to communicate to your Lordſhip; the which, if you pleaſe to read them, you will find, that you are deeply concerned in them. I have no more to ſay to your Honour, but to deſire God for you, if it be his pleaſure, to make you ſpeedily as righteous in actions, as you were ſome years agoe in declarations; and to take leave to ſay, I am yet as much honeſt John Lilburne as ever I was in my life, that neither loves flattery nor fears greatneſs or threatnings[citation 1].’
- ↑ [G G G] He ſet all his engines at work to procure a paſs.] The following letter, printed with the abovementioned depoſitions, gives ſome light into this affair.
My dear Love,I have been, and yet am, in a lingring condition to hear from thee; but I confeſs by this poſt I have nothing to expect from thee, more than to hear that thou art ſafely got amongſt our friends at London; where I hope your joint activity will be ſuch (according to my full inſtructions to you, and my true friend that went with you) as that you will procure my expected paſs ſo ſpeedily, as to ſend it me, or a copy of it, with my friend’s encouragement, to Dunkirk the next poſt; where, by God’s aſſiſtance, I will be on Sunday next at night; and if it come, ’tis more than probable I may come to Dover that packet (or certainly ſend you word when, by God’s gracious permiſſion, I ſhall), for I long to ſee London; and if I come ſo ſuddenly, I ſhall leave all my things behind me, in the care and poſſeſſion of Mr Lambert, for which I can either come over myſelf again or ſend for them. One reaſon that moves me to make the more haſte is, becauſe if I come over, and find things in a handſome way to my liking, I have ſomething to ſay very ſpeedily to ſuch a great faithful man as I ſhall truſt, and if come I ſhall ſtay at Dover a day, or two, or three, and by the poſt let you know I am there, and expect you to ſend me a horſe to Canterbury, where at the poſt-houſe I intend to lye the firſt night, and ſhall not ſtir from thence ’till I receive a horſe from you. But if our new Council of State or Governors[citation 2] will not caſt a favourable eye upon me, and either deny or delay me a paſſe, ſo that the next poſt I hear not of it, I ſhall take it for granted, that Major-General Harriſon being, as I hear, one of your new Councel of State, is my principalleſt and grandeſt adverſarie; and accordingly I ſhall onely take ariſe (from what I have been informed he ſaid at my baniſhment, and what he ſaid publickly at Allhallowes, when from Dover I ſent my letter to the people that meet there) to write him ſuch a letter (which already in my brain I have conceived) as will no way pleaſe him, let the iſſue be what it will. I have writ again to Major-General Lambert (who I hear is Preſident of your new Councel), and incloſed him one of my printed epiſtles in Dutch and Engliſh. I have alſo writ to Colonel Bennet, which you may read the copy of on the other ſide.Soe with my hearty and true love and affection preſented to thee, and all my friends in the bulk, longing above meaſure to hear from thee, I commit thee and my poor babes[citation 3], as my own ſoul, to the protection of the Moſt High, and reſt thy faithful and loving huſband,
‘To my dear and loving wife Mrs Elizabeth Lilburne, theſe, with haſte to London.
J. L.
I have herewith incloſed one of my printed letters, which I hope are before now printed at London. I have alreadie ſent two copies of this two ſeveral waies for fear of miſcarriage.I am in haſt and can’t read this over, therefore pray mend the faults, if there be any.’ - ↑ [H H H] A ſecond time acquitted by the jury.] This ſecond acquittal was a more remarkable evidence of Lilburne’s extraordinary intereſt in the people than the former, and muſt needs provoke Cromwell much more, ſince it was done evidently in contempt of his power, at a time when he was actually in full poſſeſſion of the ſupremacy, and was formally inveſted therewith ſoon after[citation 4]. It is obſervable, that, at the end of our author’s petition to the Houſe of Commons 12 July, he printed an account of the proceedings before the Lord-Mayor at his commitment to Newgate. Having taken notice, that the marſhal who apprehended him had declared, that he was over-awed to ſwear againſt his will, to the identity of his [Lilburne’s] perſon, and that another evidence to it was a Scotch parſon, who had been formerly committed to the Gate-Houſe as a felon, for returning to England without a ſpecial licence, contrary to an ordinance making ſuch return felony, he concludes, ‘Therefore, Reader, judge ſeriouſly of the moſt blood-thirſty malice of the aboveſaid conſpirators [the Mayor and Recorder of London, and the Attorney-General, and their chief ſetters on], againſt poor Mr Lilburne’s life, who, if he were the man meant in the act of baniſhment, it is but a poor Engliſh felon, who may expect in reaſon more favour than a Scotch traytor.’ Here we ſee that irreconcilable animoſity to the covenanters ſtill ſubſiſting in Lilburne, after Cromwell had
of his animoſity, at the time of his baniſhment, to his grand rival Cromwell, ſhould carry him to propoſe ſuch a reſtoration of the King to the royal party; or that the impulſes of his natural vanity ſhould raiſe in him a confidence of being able to effectuate the propoſal, by virtue of his influence over the people. The ſtrength of which alſo evidently appeared upon his tryal afterwards. But we do not find by the depoſitions, that the propoſal was embraced by the Royaliſts; on the contrary, they are repreſented therein, arguing againſt the project as in no wiſe feaſible.
Citations
- ↑ (144) Winſtanley, ubi ſupra.
- ↑ * Meaning Cromwell and his Council of Officers, who were the governors, in the interval between the diſſolution of the Long-Parliament in April, and the meeting of the little one, as it is often called, in July 1653.
- ↑ (145) This expreſſion ſhews, that he had other children after the death of the three firſt in 1649, as mentioned in remark [C C].
- ↑ (146) Salmon’s Chron. Hiſt. under the year 1653.
perfectly
