read the indictment which was very long, enumerating various of Lilburne's alleged publications and also containing passages from several of those publications. Lilburne then declared that on the previous day he had pleaded conditionally and that he was much wronged in their saying that he pleaded Not Guilty: "and now," he said, "I make my absolute plea to the indictment, which is this: That I except against the matter and form of it, matter, time, and place, and humbly crave counsel to assign and plead to the errors thereof." To this request the Court returned answer "that we have done we must maintain." 1 The Attorney-General first proceeded to call the witnesses against the prisoner, then ordered the clerk to read the Acts of the 14th of May, 1649 and of the 17th of July, 1649, declaring what offences shall be adjudged treason, and also to read certain passages from the publications alleged by him to be Lilburne's. The passages read were numerous and some of them long. As it is absolutely necessary for the comprehension of this critical period of English History to have a clear view of this trial, I will give a few of the passages read by order of the Attorney-General. "Mr. Attorney. I shall produce his book, entitled 'The Legal and Fundamental Liberties of England revived, &c. Read the title-page. or "Clerk. The Legal Fundamental Liberties of the People of England revived, asserted and vindicated an epistle written the 8th of June, 1649, by Lieut.-Col. John Lilburne (arbitrary and aristocratical prisoner in the 1 State Trials, vol. iv. pp. 1329, 1330. 2 He means by this word that he is imprisoned by the arbitrary and un constitutional power of the oligarchy or aristocracy, calling itself a commonwealth that then ruled in England by the power of the sword. 1649.] QUESTION OF THE "AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE." 211 Tower of London) to Mr. William Lenthall, Speaker to the remainder of those of those few knights, citizens and burgesses, that Col. Thomas Pride at his late purge thought convenient to leave sitting at Westminster, (as most fit for his and his masters' designs, to serve their ambitious and tyrannical ends, to destroy the good old laws, liberties, and customs of England, and by force of arms to rob the people of their lives, estates and properties, and subject them to perfect vassalage and slavery, as he clearly evinceth in his present case, &c., they have done) and who (in truth no otherwise than pretendedly) stile themselves the Parliament of England.' "Clerk. Sir, for distinction-sake, I will yet stile you Mr. Speaker, although it be but to Col. Pride's juncto, or Parliament sitting at Westminster (not the nation's, for they never gave him authority to issue out writs to elect or constitute a Parliament for them).’ "Mr. Attorney. Read page 28. "Clerk. The like of which tyranny the king never did. in his reign; and yet by St. Oliver's means lost his head for a tyrant.' "Mr. Attorney. Read page 37. "Clerk. · For if ever they had intended an Agreement, why do they let their own be dormant in the pretended Parliament ever since they presented it? seeing it is obvious to every knowing eye, that from the day they presented it, to this hour, they have had as much power over their own Parliament now sitting, as any schoolmaster in England had over his boys.'' 1 It will be seen that this passage opens a most momentous question. The "Agreement of the People" to which he 1 State Trials, vol. iv. pp. 1355, 1356. refers and which he calls "their own" meaning that of the chiefs of the army, is the Agreement of which I have given an account in a preceding chapter and which is commonly stated to have been chiefly drawn by Ireton. Now Lilburne's opinion evidently was that neither Cromwell nor Fairfax nor even Ireton himself wished this Agreement to be acted upon, that if it lay dormant in the pretended Parliament, it lay dormant with their consent, since they ruled the army which ruled the Parliament. It is manifest also that a much better and really more effective answer to those they called Levellers than putting some of them to death by the sword or the provost-martial,' and attempting to put to death others such as Lilburne by new and unconstitutional laws of treason, would have been to have put that " Agreement" in force and to have called a new Parliament in accordance with its provisions. The measure might have failed after all, but then those who, as it is, have left their names a doubt to some, an object of execration to others, might at least have been entitled to the verdict of having acted consistently. In regard to the question how far Ireton acquiesced in the putting aside or postponement sine die of the "Agreement of the People," which he had drawn I think the more probable explanation is that Ireton up, 1 Provost-marshal is an error-the word having no relation to mareschal but meaning a provost to execute martial law. The word is thus spelt in the Order Book of the Council of State-as appears by the following minute-"That Col. Pride shall be allowed for the recruits to be raised for Ireland-a Martiall at 3s. 4d. per diem, a Quarter Master at 3s. 4d. per diem. And for two carriage-horses to carry the money that is to pay the soldier's quarters 68. 8d. per diem; and the arms following, viz. 50 drums at 20s. a piece, 100 halberts at 5s. a piece."-Order Book of the Council of State, 24 Oct. 1649. MS. State Paper Office. On the same day it was ordered that two apothecaries more be sent to Ireland at 5s. per diem each, in consequence of letters from the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland signifying the want of them. prevailed on Cromwell to acquiesce in the drawing up and presenting to Parliament the "Agreement of the People,” but could prevail no farther with him. As to Ireton's opposing Lilburne, assuming both to have had honest intentions, and both to have been in their ways men of ability, Ireton would see soon enough that, whatever might be Lilburne's ability and courage, and honest and disinterested views, neither his peculiar character nor his rank and power in the army gave him the least chance of contending successfully with Cromwell. As I have said before, in every such case it must always depend on the victorious general whether a military despotism or a constitutional government be the result; and such men as Ireton and Blake might be honest as well as able and brave men, though they submitted to a fate which their practical good sense told them no resistance of theirs could have averted. "Mr. Attorney. Read page 58. "Clerk. And let the present generation of swaying men, that under pretence of good, kindness, and friendship, have destroyed and trod underfoot all the liberties of the nation, and will not let us have a new Parliament, but set up by the sword their own insufferable tyranny.' "Mr. Attorney. Read page 68. "Clerk. That the High Court of Justice was altogether unlawful, in case those that had set it up had been an unquestionable representative of the people, or a legal Parliament neither of which they are in the least; but, as they have managed their business in opposing all their primitive declared ends, are a pack of traitorous, selfseeking, tyrannical men, usurpers of the name and power of Parliament.' "Mr. Attorney. My lord, that which we shall offer you next is the Salva Libertate,' which the lieutenant of the Tower had from Mr. Lilburne himself. Read at the mark. "Clerk. A Salva Libertate:' although I then told you I judged a paper warrant (although in words never so formal) coming from any pretended power or authority in England, now visible, to be altogether illegal; because the intruding General Fairfax and his forces had broke and annihilated all the formal and legal magistracy of England, yea the very Parliament itself; and by his will and sword (absolute conqueror like) had most tyrannically erected and imposed upon the free people of this nation a Juncto or mock-power, sitting at Westminster, whom he and his associates call a Parliament; who, like so many armed thieves and robbers upon the highway, assume a power, by their own wills, most traitorously to do what they like, yea, and to fill the land with their mock and pretended magistrates, amongst the number of which is the pretended Attorney-General; in perfect opposition of whom, to the utmost of my might, power, and strength, I am resolved by God's gracious assistance, to spend my blood, and all that in this world is dear unto me, supposing him not really and substantially worthy the name of an English freeman, that in some measure, in this particular, is not of my mind." The Attorney-General then said "My lords, I hope you and the gentlemen of the jury will take notice of it, as to be very clear proof that Mr. Lilburne hath thus published, and thus said. And besides this, you see what he does go to. He denies magistracy. So that now we are all alike, a class, a confusion." Upon this in the original edition of the report of the trial there is this note: "He doth no such thing; but at most saith, the army hath destroyed 1 State Trials, vol. iv. |