Basiliká the works of King Charles the martyr : with a collection of declarations, treaties, and other papers concerning the differences betwixt His said Majesty and his two houses of Parliament : with the history of his life : as also of his tryal and martyrdome.

April 4. His Majesty's Message concerning the Cessation.

CHARLES R.

HOW His Majesty hath spent His time since the Committee from His two Houses of Parliament came hither, how willing He hath been (during the four days al∣lowed to them) to expedite the Treaty it self, by the free and diligent disquisition of the particulars comprized in those two first Articles, and how intent He hath been up∣on the Cessation (which He thinks so necessary, and so much desires) since the last Message concerning the same came to Him, the Committee themselves cannot but ob∣serve: And though no conclusion could be made within the two days (a time limited with much strictness in a business of so great moment, where all words and expressi∣ons must be carefully and exactly weighed) His Majesty cannot doubt but both Houses will be willing to give and receive satisfaction in any particulars which are necessarily to be considered in concluding the same, though the two days are expired. And if His Majesty enlarges Himself in His Replys more than may seem necessary to the Pro∣positions and Differences in debate, it must be remembred, by what unnecessary and un∣warrantable expressions in this last Message from His two Houses He is not only invited, but compelled thereunto; which He could heartily have wished might upon this occasion have been forborn.

I. For the Freedom of Trade, His Majesty hath great reason to require, and the two Houses to admit, that Freedom to His good Subjects He desired. For what concerns the supply of the Army with Arms, Ammunition, Money, Bullion and Victuals, He consented to the very terms proposed by the two Houses; and that they may be obser∣ved, is contented that searches may be made, which being but the trouble of particular persons, is not considerable, in respect of the Publick benefit and advantage. But why all other liberty of Traffick and Commerce should not be granted to His good Subjects, He cannot understand; for that His Majesty's Army should receive much Advantage thereby, and the contrary Army none, is in no degree confessed. For (besides the re∣straint is to places where no part of His Majesty's Army is, and indeed the whole Trade of the Kingdom interrupted) 'tis as great a support (if not a greater) to the contrary Army, to maintain and keep up the Trade of London, from whence that receives its supply and relief, as to His Majesty's Army to continue the Trade of Oxford, or any other place where His Forces reside; and to stop and seize the Cloth, Kersies, and other Western Commodities (which his Majesty can daily do from Reading) would be as great disturbance to the Trade of London, as the seizing of any Commodities (which may be done by the Earl of Essex from Windsor or Wickham) can be to the Trade of Oxford. And therefore His Majesty hath great reason to press, that mutual and univer∣sal Freedom to all His good Subjects may be granted: Otherwise, He must either per∣mit that Licence to His Army, to seize the goods of His People in their passage to Lon∣don, and to interrupt and break the Trade and Correspondence of the Kingdom (which both out of publick consideration and private compassion His Majesty is most averse from) or else must grant that evident Benefit and Advantage to those who deny the same to Him, and to His People for His sake. And it cannot be denyed but this Free∣dom is so very beneficial to His Subjects, and so wholly considerable to His Majesty un∣der that Notion, that their very subsistence depends upon it, and by this means Trade may be continued; which, if a little more suppressed by these Distractions, will not be easily recovered, even by a settled Peace. His Majesty believes that some Carriers have been robbed by His Majesty's Souldiers: But 'tis as true, that no Complaint hath been made to Him of that kind, which He hath not received to the relief and reparati∣on of the Petitioners. And 'tis therefore His desire, that both Houses would joyn with Him (at least during the Cessation) that there might be no more such Violences and interruptions offered to His good Subjects by either side.

For the embarquing the Merchants Goods in Forein parts, His Majesty denys that any endeavour hath yet been made by His Ministers of State to that purpose: But 'tis true, His Majesty hath declared His Resolution, which He shall pursue, that such per∣sons who absolve themselves from their Obedience to Him, and assist or consent to acti∣ons of Disloyalty to Him here, shall be deprived of those advantages, and must not ex∣pect that Protection from Him abroad which is due, and which He always hath and will allow to His good Subjects. And this is not to make other Princes Arbiters of the Differences betwixt His Majesty and His People; but to use the mutual Amity and Cor∣respondence with other Princes, for the maintenance and support of that Dignity for which it is made and entred into.

II. His Majesty did not demand the approving of the Commanders of Ships only witli reference to His present Right, for then He would have demanded not the ap∣probation of the Commanders, but the Ships themselves; but this Demand was and is a thing most necessary for His Majesty: for the setting out the present Fleet is pretended to be for the defence of His Majesties Dominions, and which cannot conveniently suf∣fer any alteration in Commanders, if the Cessation and Peace should be fully and speedi∣ly agreed upon; and therefore 'tis most necessary for His Majesty both to know the De∣signs, and to approve of the Commanders, who will not be so fit to be altered when once they are sent out.

His Majesty cannot see how a Cessation at Sea between His Majesty and His Sub∣jects should leave the Kingdom naked to Forein Forces (a continuance of War may well do it:) And His Majesty is willing to concurr in the resistance of all such of what kind soever, and expects that, during the Cessation, the conveying of all Forces from one part to another by Sea for the assistance of the Earl of Essex be restrained; which both Houses seem now to consent to, which was not at all expressed in their former Articles.

III. His Majesty's opinion, how unfit it was to Treat in blood, sufficiently appears, this debate concerning a Cessation arising first from His Majesty's motion (it being left out in the Answer to His Message for a Treaty.) In order to which He had and hath great reason to desire, that the Committee may have Liberty to debate and conclude any dif∣ferences and expressions in the Articles of the Cessation, that the same may be reconci∣led and removed, without remitting all questions to London. For as those now con∣sented to might in much less time have been agreed here if there had been that liberty; so there can hardly be a right and clear understanding of intentions without expoun∣ding of words, and knowing the meaning from each other: as in the Consent which His Majesty now understands to be given by both Houses, that no Forces shall during the Cessation be sent by Sea for the relief of any place now held by them, the expres∣sion is not so clear, but referreth to Articles, in which if it was not comprised before (as His Majesty doth not conceive it was) no alteration is made by what now seems to be consented to, and the liberty which to all understandings may seem to be given, by re∣moving out of one Quarter to another within the Precincts proposed, is not yet so de∣monstrable; the Committee having no power to answer what they understand in that point, which is most necessary to be known, that the Peace be not broken during that Cessation. And His Majesty wonders that it should be thought unsafe or unfit to give such a conclusive power of such Differences and Doubts to the Committee here, when 'tis notoriously known, that the very Liberty and Property of the Subject is committed not only to other Committees of the Houses without reporting to the Houses, but to per∣sons who are employed by them, uninterested in and unacquainted with the Dire∣ctions of either or both Houses.

IV. It was no part of His Majesty's intention, that His Article against Imprison∣ment of his Subjects, otherwise than according to the known Laws of the Land, should extend to the destruction of the Military Discipline of either Army: But this is a very sufficient instance of the necessity of enabling some persons to conclude upon these Arti∣cles, without which (through inanimadvertence or doubtfulness in the expressions) they who are nearest of a mind will hardly ever come to conclude, if every Punctilio must be forced to be sent forwards and backwards a hundred miles: and (if this authority had been given to the Committee here, as for such causes was desired) a limitation of half a dozen words (which would have been as soon agreed to as proposed) would have sa∣ved most of this fourth Reason. And he that desires any thing necessary to the speed of this Cessation, gives a good argument of desiring the Cessation it self; and whoe∣ver is averse to the one, can hardly be thought inclinable to the other.

But such of His Subjects as are not concerned in the discipline of the Army, are not concerned in this Objection; and His Majesty hath reason to insist, that the same liberty may be restored to them in which they were born, and the care and defence of which is so much and so meerly pretended by those who deny it to them.

V. Though it grieves His Majesty to the Soul to see the present miserable condition of His Subjects, groaning under so many visible Pressures because of an invisible Neces∣sity, and plundered and imprisoned to maintain such a defensive War, as was begun to be raised against Him before His Majesty had granted one Commission to raise a man; yet He cannot but be pleased with the ingenuity of this confession, that the implicite faith of His seduced Subjects begins to wear out so fast, that the authority of Declaring new, unknown Fundamental Laws, doth not now so work with them, to believe that

these Taxes are laid according to the Laws of God and Man, nor the many pretences of imminent Dangers and inevitable ruine of their Religion, Laws and Liberties, so perswade them to believe this Cause to be the Cause of the Kingdom, but that if their Cause, Authority and Eloquence were not assisted by force and Rapine, their Army must needs be dissolved for want of being thought fit, much less necessary, to be pay'd by those who have equal right to judge of the Necessity and Danger, and for whose sakes, interests and concernments only it was pretended to be raised, and who are defended by it against their wills. Nor is it strange that His Majesty cannot receive these Charges upon Him, as a reason to make Him contented and acquiesce with these Injuries to His Subjects; or that they who saw His Majesties condition the last year (till continued Violence against Him opened the eyes and hearts of His Subjects; to His assistance) should not believe that He began that War which they saw Him so unlikely to resist; or that they, who could never find nor hear from them who use not too modest∣ly to conceal what is for their advantage, that from the beginning of the world to this present Parliament ever one man was raised before by Commission from both Houses, should not believe the raising of that their Army to be so warranted as is pretended, and any more approve of their Law than of their Necessity; or that they who know that His Majesty (in whom the power of making War and Peace was never denyed to be, till these new Doctrines, which make it unlawful for Him to do any thing, and lawful to do any thing against Him, were of late discovered) though he can legally raise an Army, is not allowed to be legally able to raise money to maintain it, will not allow of the Argument, from the power of Raising to the power of Taxing, and are as little satisfied with their Logick as with their Law, and extreamly troubled to pay an Army they do not desire, for a Necessity they cannot see, by a Law they never heard of; and that other men, without their consent, must be jealous, fearful and quicksighted at their Charges: and they have great reason to be apt to suspect that those made most haste to make a War, and have least desire of making Peace, who in time of War pretend their legal power to be so vastly inlarged. His Majesty therefore hath great reason to insist, that no Violence or Plundering be offered to His Subjects for not sub∣mitting to the illegal Taxes of one or both Houses, which in it self is equal; His Ma∣jesty being willing to be obliged from the like course, and relying wholly upon the known Justice of His Cause, and the Affection of His People, and in which (if the Kingdom be of their mind, and believe the Cause of the contrary Army to be really their own) the advantage will be wholly theirs, and this Judgment will be best given when the People is left to their liberty in this decision.

His Majesty's real desire of disbanding the Armies may fully appear by His often seeking, and earnest endeavours to continue and conclude this Treaty in order to that disbanding.

VI. His Majesty leaves their Preamble to all the world to consider and to judge, whe∣ther any man by their saying they were ready to agree to His Majesty's Articles in the manner as was exprest, would not have expected to have found after that expression, that they had agreed at least to some one thing material in them, and had not only meant by agreeing as was exprest, to express they would not agree at all.

For the Clause of Communication of Quarters so quietly left out, His Majesty looks upon it as of most infinite importance, the leaving out of that having discomposed the whole, many things having in the rest been assented to, which were therefore only yielded, because the Inconveniences growing by these Clauses, if they were alone, were salved by that Addition; and some things, in the other very dark and doubtful, were by that interpreted and cleared. And His Majesty is sufficiently informed how highly it concerns Him that every thing be so clear, that after no differences may arise upon any disputable point, since they whose Union, Industry, Subtilty and Malice could perswade any of His People that in the business of Brainceford He had broken a Cessation before any was made or offered, would have a much easier work to lay the breach of a made Cessation to His Majesty's charge, if the ground of that Breach would bear the least dispute.

His Majesty doth agree, that to preserve things in the same state on both sides with as little advantage or disadvantage to either as the matter will possibly bear, is truly the na∣ture of a Cessation, and is willing this Principle should be made the Rule, and never intended any thing that should contradict it; but cannot see the inequality in this which is pretended: For could Sir Ralph Hopton and the Earl of Newcastle come by this means to the King, and not the Earl of Stamford and Lord Fairfax to the Earl of Essex? Nor can His Majesty find any stronger Passes or Forces to hinder His Armies

from joyning with Him, than hinders theirs from joyning with them. If the Forces be unequal, theirs will hardly hinder the passage of His, without a Cessation; if they be equal, their coming in time of Cessation will be of equal use and advantage to their side, somewhat in point of Supplies to come with them excepted; and some advantage to one side will be, poize it how you will. But on the other side; if this clause be not in, how much greater is the disadvantage the other way by some Clauses? and how are His Forces (principally the Earl of Newcastle's) cooped up in old and eaten-up Quar∣ters, or necessitated to retire to such as are more barren and more eaten? So that if this were yielded to under the disguise of a Cessation, He must admit that which will much endanger the dissolving of the Army and destruction of the Cause; which is such a dis∣advantage as is against the nature of a Cessation formerly agreed and stated.

Notwithstanding all this, His Majesty, to shew His extraordinary and abundant de∣sire of Peace, and to prevent the effusion of blood, is contented, if both Houses shall refuse to consent to His Propositions, which are so much for the benefit and advance∣ment of the publick Trade and advantage of His good Subjects, to admit a Cessation upon the matter of their own Articles (excepting that liberty be given to the Com∣mittee to word it according to the real meaning and intention; and that the remove of Quarters within their own bounds, which is intended, may be so exprest and un∣derstood that no mistakes may arise) so that His Majesty may not be understood to consent to any imposing upon, levying, distraining, or imprisoning His good Sub∣jects to force them to contribute or assist against Him (which He shall always continue to inhibit, requiring all men to resist those Illegal acts of Injustice and Vio∣lence, against which He doth absolutely protest;) and so that there may not be a li∣berty for any Rapine, Plundering, or seizing upon His Subjects by any of the Soldiers of that Army, for not submitting to such Illegal Impositions as aforesaid: For other∣wise, they may during this Cessation (besides what is already imposed) impose new Taxes, not only to the Nineteenth part, but, if they please, (for their pleasure is all their bound) to the half of, or all their Estates, upon His good Subjects in His City of Lon∣don, and all Counties within their reach; and their Army would then be at leisure to be employed as Collectors as well of the old Impositions, (which in most places without their Army they cannot levy) as of any such new one, and vast summs would and might by this means be raised to the destruction of His Subjects, extraordinary ad∣vantage to them, and great disadvantage to His Majesty, who can neither obtain His own Consent to take the like courses, nor in case He could, is He so quartered as to have within the power of His Army, without breach of the Cessation by drawing nearer to their Forces, any such City, or so many, so rich and so fresh Counties, as they have, to retire into to that purpose. So that as nothing is more just in it self and for His People than such a limitation; so nothing can be more unequal to His Maje∣sty, or more advantagious to them, than the admission of or connivance to any such practices upon His People. This Cessation to begin on the 9. of April, and to conti∣nue to the end of 20. days from the 25. of March. And His Majesty desires that the Treaty may proceed upon the Propositions in order, upon which His Majesty hath an earnest desire that a firm and stable Peace may be agreed on, and both Armies speedily disbanded: otherwise, if during this Cessation (in the Articles of which His Majesty in order to Peace hath yielded to things manifestly unreasonable and prejudicial to His Army) the Treaty be not dispatched, His Majesty cannot without manifest ruine to His Army (principally that of the North) be able to contain Himself beyond this time now limited for the Cessation in the Quarters in which He hath so long been, and now is, and which will hardly be able to hold out so long, but must be forced to remove as He shall find agreeable for His Occasions.

And in case any delay be made in consenting to these His Majesty's limitations, or that the Houses shall reject this His offer of Cessation, His Majesty, as He hath lately desired (by a Proposition to both Houses, delivered to their Committee, to which He hath yet received no Answer) so He doth earnestly continue to desire, that the Treaty it self may not be delayed or interrupted by it, but that their Committee may be enabled to proceed upon it in the mean while.

Jo. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum. Copia vera.