The Earl of Pembrookes speech to Nol-Cromvvell, Lord Deputy of Ireland. With his royall entertainment of him at his mannor of Ramsbury in Wiltshire, on his journey to Ireland; on Thursday, July 12. 1649. Taken verbatim by Michael Oldisworth, and by him recommended to one of his Lordships tenants, to see it carefully printed and published.

The Earl of PEMBROOKES SPEECH TO NOL-CROMWELL, Lord Deputy of IRELAND.

My Lord,

DAmme, I may say King well enough; for be-God I know no man fitter to be King then your self: Hath not your Honor Conquered all that the Kings in Eng∣land have Conquered for many Generations? My Chaplain read me a Chapter, and said, That all Generations should call her blessed: but Sink me, I am sure all the Generations in England are damn'd if they call not your Honor blessed; and I am bound to blesse you too for coming hither; and you have done a blessed work too, in removing that Tyrant King, that man of Sin; and you are a going on with another blessed work, and that is Reducing of Ireland; your Honor hath happily subdued

the Levellers; strengthned and enriched your friends, and im∣poverished your Enemies; you have taken away the House of Lords; Damme, I never affected the Lords House, nor Gods House neither; and for the Lords Prayer, I have done what I can to abolish it: because I would not have the people so much as put in mind of Lords; Sink me, if I know any more Lords then my Lord Fairfax and your Self; and if the people will say the Lords Prayer, then let them pray for your Lordships, as it be∣comes good Christians: the Land is yours, you have wone it by the Sword; and then, you are not only Lords but Landlords, and all the people in England your Tenants, and ought to pray for you, and pay you Rent too; Damme, I am your Tenant, and though I am old and cannot fight for you, yet I am not so old, but I can pay you Rent: 'Tis true I am a member of Parlia∣ment; and so (as yet) free from Taxes; yet I were an ill member if I would not force my Tenants to pay you Rent; Damme, I had forgot my self, for they be your Tenants, and pay you as much, or more Rent, then they do me. 'Zbloud, would they had more heavier Taxes on them for me, because they grumble: I am informed by my man Michael, that they curse the Parlia∣ment; which I hold to be Treason, if not high treason; for, if to say, our Government is tyrannical, be high treason; Cursing must needs be high treason; nay blasphemy too: and if your Lordship shall give me power but to Hang and Draw▪ Refuse me if a Tray∣tor shall live; Damme, the Rogues won't stick to say, That we are Traytors our selves, although we are the Keepers of their Liber∣ties; and if we keep their Liberties, we ought to keep their Money too, their Law and Religion, nay, their very Wives. if▪ it please us: and if we suffer some to be kill'd to preserve the rest, be God, I think 'tis State policy: if we spend three parts of their means, to preserve the fourth; I see no reason but the fourth should be at our disposing; so long as we are the Keepers; My Lord, I will speak unto you in a Parable, I am (I thank your Honors) made chief Keeper of C••••ringdon Park, that was the late Kings; there have I Heards of Deer; My Lord, are not these Heards of Deer at my disposing? If I kill one heard, that the rest may have the more pasture, who ought to contradict it? and if I, or my Keeper make their Skins pay for Paling or Fen∣cing

in my Park; Damme, 'tis the part of a good Keeper, and such good Keepers I hope are the Parliament, and every Mem∣ber thereof; and if they be good Keepers, will they not keep their own? and if they can keep their own, nature teaches, that they may as well keep others: I keep a Pack of Doggs, and Damme, I think they have as deep mouths as any; but imagine another has a Dogge, has a deeper mouth then my whole kennell; ought I not (if my Neighbor or Tenant deny me this Dogge) to force him from him, to make compleat my Cry?

My Lord,
You have so much Money and Men to go to Ireland; it may be a Million, and about ten thousand men; if you want a Mil∣lion more, and twenty thousand men more, to make the Irish Cry; Damme, if they will not raise the Men, and find the Mo∣ney, they may be made Cry themselves: you may, and ought to take it where you can find it; Necessity must not observe a Law in these dayes; My Lord, if you are necessitated, you may command me to fight as old as I am; Damme, I were a Rogue if I should deny yee; yet I think I hate fighting my self as much as any man in England; yet though I hate it in my self, my Lord I would not have you think that I hate it in your Honor; no, my Lord, I hope I have more wit then so; I honor Valour in whomsoever I find it: Had not your Honors V••lour been tryed▪ at Marston-Moor, we had been all Myr'd and Moor'd too be∣fore this time; or had you not Rowted the Scots, we had not scap'd so Scot▪ free as we do, nor enjoy'd the good things of the Land: Damme, 'tis an unthankful Land, and a blind Land, for they understand not, they see not the blessings that you have won them; but I hope there is no Member of Parliament but un∣derstands, and is sensible enough of them: Damme, I am sen∣sible, and if your Honor loves Hunting, you shall be sensible that in my old dayes I deserve a Park as well as the City of London; I love a Cry of Doggs better then a pair of Organs: Mistris May loves them too, and I love her as well: Sir, I am a Member for Bark-shire, and then (if I should not love barking and bawling too, I should n••t love my Country) my Lord, when

old Doggs bark, they give Counsel; but if they bite, they bite sor••; Damme, we must bark and bite too, and all little enough; for ought I can understand; we must learn to hunt men, as well as we do Hares, or Foxes either.

My Lord,
You are now a going a hunting of Rebels into Ireland; and therefore I have said the more concerning hunting; I wish you good sport, that you may catch your Game, I mean the Game-Royal; a good hound upon the Chase will not leave the hot scent to follow a Rascal Deer; My Lord, you have been well flesht; pursue the ROYAL-GAME, the rest, any Curre will pull down.

My Lord,
I am an Old man, and can ill ride a Horse; Damme, I had rather ride an Asse that will not throw me; then ride a Horse to lay me in the Dirt: If I were a horseman, and as yong as ever I was, it should not be Ireland, nor Scotland neither, that should keep me back; Refuse-me if I was ever backward for the good of the State; I was, I confesse, Lord Chamberlain to the late King; I swore Allegiance to Him and His Heirs; Sink∣me, I have been too much addicted to Swearing, but what of that? if I forswear again what I have sworn, I am the more ex∣cuseable; an Oath is binding but for the time, and you know there is a time for all this; a time to break Oathes, as well as keep them, if the State requires it: We must be Obedient; O∣bedience is better then Sacrifice, and if I be not as Obedient as another, then I am a Rebel, and a Traytor, and deserve as much to suffer as the late King, the Lord Capel, or any else.

My Lord,
You are welcome, and all these Gentlumen as welcome as your self; you have honored me in giving me a vsiite, and I hope I shall be able to visite the House of Commons before Mi∣chaelmas;

where I make no doubt, but I shall give consent to the making such Laws as shall make this Nation glorious; for if we do not afflict them; then they cannot be glorious; 'tis afflictions must wean them from the World; and if they be weaned from the World, then they may the better seek after heaven, where is all real Glory; thus we made the late King a glorious King; Damme, I think he had the better of it, if he had a Crown of Glory for his Earthly Crown; though we have his Lands and Goods to boot; we cannot live alwayes to en∣joy them; 'tis true we have the profit of them for a time; but what can we profit by them in the end, when we come to ren∣der an account? We are but the Peoples Stewards as well as He; and as we are Stewards, we are to be intrusted with their Goods and Lives; and if we make not use of them as we should, pray who can call us to an account here? I know there is no Earthly pow••r above us; but Confound-me, I am half of the judgement that there is a Heavenly power above us, and that is our King, our Prince, that ought to Rule us, and his Rule is in this World, and the Aire: mistake me not my Lord, I do not mean the Prince of the Aire that rules in the Children of diso••e∣dience, that the wicked Cavaliers serve▪ I mean the Spirit; we are led by the Spirit, have our rules from the Spirit (and not from Scriptures, that's Superstition) and dare not but do what the Spirit moves us too; and if we do amisse, it is the Spirit that works it in us, and not we; and if the Spirit bid me kill my King, must I not do it? Damme if it were my Father or my Mother, or my dull Wise either, I should spare them no more then the fire did my house, when it burnt it to the ground.

My Lord,
I perceive a Spirit that now hath a working in Nature, which Spirit doth personate me, and hath made many Speeches in my Name, which I utterly Renounce; Nay my Lord, your Ho∣nors are not free from this vile Calumnious Spirit, even un∣der your very Noses; My Lord, I have been jeared into sickness, and had dy'd if I had not been jear'd out of it again; they brought me so neer my Grave, that they made my Will; and I think I had dy'd▪ but that I was loth the wicked should have their Will of me: Damme, I hope to live yet to make my Will

my self, and in it remember your Honor; if your Honor will do me the favour, as to send to the Parliament, to tell them what they put forth in my Name; 'Zbloud, I had better have no name, then no fame; and Iudge-me, I have as little as can be among the Common sort. My Lord, I beseech▪ you let this Spirit be con∣jur'd down, or else we must down our selves, and if any thing other then good should happen to us by reason of the ungodly a∣broad, I fear a great many at home will take their parts; it is good to prevent in time, my Lord, to quench the flame before it get too high, or else it may happen to burn our fingers. My Lord, I hear Ormond is 30000 strong, besides what Inchiquin, Ards, and Monro is; besides your old Enemies are come to assist them, at Kildare, Eyron, Dives, Langdale, Ashton, Hopton, and the Devil and all: And if they get Ireland my Lord, we may ere long hang up our pipes, and our selves too; My Lord; the way I would wish you, is to treat with the Earl of Darby, about the rendring the Isle of Man; you'l get a Crown too boot; if we must have a King, (as the people will never be quiet else) as good you as another; Damme, we must have a King; for so many men, so many minds; Lilburn will have one thing, another party another, a third another, and then we fall together by the eares; then comes the Prince and parts us; What will become of us then? No my Lord, win a Crown and wear it; 'tis but taking down the Excize, or making at the be∣ginning of your reign some seeming▪ good Law, as Richard the 3d did, and that will win the peoples affections to you.

My Lord, I am an ill Orator, and something given to swearing, which I hope will not be much distasteful unto you, considering I am an old man; and Damme, old men are subject to old infir∣mities; if your Honor lives, you will be old your self as I am; Swounds, I wish you long life; and could with a good Consci∣ence say, Vive le Roy; a Pox Confound-me if I could not; 'zblood, I am something short winded since my sickness; but Dam-me, Ram-me, Sink-me, if I mean not what I say; and so for this time I make an end; desiring your Honor to sit, and taste of that Welcome your Humble Subject and Servant can make you.

Your Honors humble Servant, PHILIP, Earl of Pembrook and Montgomery.

Vera Copia.

Ramsbury, July 12. 1649.