State Trials, Political and Social Volume I Part 11

COURT--Sir, you must understand this by the way, this you must take along with you, that these are read not as anything of authority in themselves, or as used to any other purpose, but as evidence of the fact against you; take that along with you.

This concluded the evidence; and Windham summed up the case very shortly, concluding, 'I think a clearer evidence of a fact can never be given than is for these things,' [Here the spectators hummed.]

LORD CHIEF-BARON--Gentlemen, this humming is not at all becoming the gravity of this Court. Let there be free speaking by the prisoner and the Court Counsel. It is more fitting for a stage-play than for a Court of Justice.

HARRISON--It is now time, my Lords, to offer what I have to say.

Have these learned gentlemen offered what they have to say?

COUNSEL--We have no more till he hath given us occasion, not for evidence of the fact.

HARRISON--My lords, the matter that hath been offered to you, as it was touched, was not a thing done in a corner. I believe the sound of it hath been in most nations. I believe the hearts of some have felt the terrors of that presence of G.o.d that was with his servants in those days (however it seemeth good to him to suffer this turn to come on us) and are witnesses that the things were not done in a corner. I have desired, as in the sight of him that searcheth all hearts, whilst this hath been done, to wait, and receive from him convictions upon my own conscience, though I have sought it with tears many a time, and prayers over and over, to that G.o.d to whom you and all nations are less than a drop of water in the bucket; and to this moment I have received rather a.s.surance of it, and that the things that have been done as astonis.h.i.+ng on the one hand, I do believe ere it be long it will be made known from Heaven, there was more from G.o.d than men are aware of. I do profess that I would not offer of myself the least injury to the poorest man or woman that goes upon the earth. That I have humbly to offer is this, to your Lords.h.i.+ps; you know what a contest hath been in these nations for many years. Divers of those that sit upon the bench were formerly as active----[38]

COURT--Pray, Mr. Harrison, do not thus reflect on the Court.

This is not the business.

HARRISON--I followed not my own judgment; I did what I did, as out of conscience to the Lord; for when I found those that were as the apple of mine eye to turn aside, I did loath them, and suffered imprisonment many years. Rather than to turn as many did, that did put their hands to this plough, I chose rather to be separated from wife and family than to have compliance with them, though it was said, 'Sit thou at my right hand,' and such kind expressions. Thus I have given a little poor testimony that I have not been doing things in a corner, or from myself. May be I might be a little mistaken; but I did it all according to the best of my understanding, desiring to make the revealed will of G.o.d in his Holy Scriptures as a guide to me. I humbly conceive that what was done, was done in the name of the Parliament of England, that what was done, was done by their power and authority; and I do humbly conceive it is my duty to offer unto you in the beginning that this Court, or any Court below the High Court of Parliament, hath no jurisdiction of their actions.

Here are many learned in the law, and to shorten the work, I desire I may have the help of counsel learned in the laws, that may in this matter give me a little a.s.sistance to offer those grounds that the law of the land doth offer. I say, what was done, was done by the authority of the Parliament, which was then the Supreme Authority, and that those that have acted under them are not to be questioned by any power less than them. And for that I conceive there is much out of the laws to be shewed to you and many Precedents also in the case. Much is to be offered to you in that; according to the laws of the nations, that was a due Parliament. Those Commissions were issued forth, and what was done was done by their power; and whereas it hath been said we did a.s.sume and usurp an authority, I say this was done rather in the fear of the Lord.

COURT--Away with him. Know where you are, Sir; you are in the a.s.sembly of Christians; will you make G.o.d the author of your treasons and murders? Take heed where you are. Christians must not hear this. We will allow you to say for your own defence what you can; and we have with a great deal of patience suffered you to sally out, wherein you have not gone about so much for extenuation of your crimes, as to justify them, to fall upon others, and to blaspheme G.o.d, and commit a new Treason: For your having of counsel, this is the reason for allowing of counsel: When a man would plead any thing, because he would plead it in formality, counsel is allowed. But you must first say in what the matter shall be, and then you shall have the Court's answer.

LORD FINCH--Though my lords here have been pleased to give you a great lat.i.tute, this must not be suffered, that you should run into these d.a.m.nable excursions, to make G.o.d the author of this d.a.m.nable Treason committed.

_Harrison_ repeats his two points; that what was done was done by a 'Parliament of England, by the Commons of England a.s.sembled in Parliament'; and was therefore not to be questioned by the present Court; and that what any did in obedience to a power which they could not disobey, they ought not to be punished for. Upon these two points he asked to be allowed the a.s.sistance of counsel. To this the Lord Chief-Baron replies that the body Harrison refers to was not a Parliament, that Harrison had made himself 'a solicitor in the business,' when he said, 'Come let us blacken him as much as we can'; and that 'neither both Houses of Parliament, if they had been there, not any single person, community, not the people collectively, or representatively, had any colour to have any coercive power over their King.' Annesley--who had, as he says, been one of the 'corrupt majority,' put out of the house at the time of Pride's Purge--and Hollis repeat the same thing. An argument then ensues between Harrison and the other members of the Court on the authority of Parliaments generally; at last--

HARRISON--I would not willingly speak to offend any man, but I know G.o.d is no respecter of persons. His setting up his standard against the people----

COURT--Truly, Mr. Harrison, this must not be suffered; this doth not at all belong to you.

HARRISON--Under favour, this doth belong to me. I would have abhorred to have brought him to account, had not the blood of Englishmen that had been shed----

COUNSEL--Methinks he should be sent to Bedlam, till he comes to the gallows to render an account of this. This must not be suffered.

SOLICITOR-GENERAL--My Lords, I pray that the jury may go together upon the evidence.

SIR EDWARD TURNER--My Lords, this man hath the plague all over him, it is a pity any should stand near him, for he will infect them. Let us say to him as they used to write over an house infected, 'The Lord have mercy upon him,' and so let the officer take him away.

The argument then continues a little longer, chiefly between Harrison and the Lord Chief-Baron; till--

LORD CHIEF-BARON--Mr. Harrison, you have appealed to our consciences. We shall do that, which, by the blessing of G.o.d, shall be just; for which we shall answer before the Tribunal of G.o.d. Pray take heed of an obdurate, hard heart and seared conscience.

HARRISON--My lords, I have been kept six months a close prisoner, and could not prepare myself for this trial by counsel. I have got here some acts of parliament, of that House of Commons, which your Lords.h.i.+p will not own; and the proceedings of that house, whose authority I did own.

The Lord Chief-Baron then summed up shortly, and the jury brought in a verdict of Guilty, apparently without much hesitation. Sentence of dragging, hanging, and quartering was accordingly pa.s.sed in the ordinary terms.

HUGH PETERS[39]

HUGH PETERS was called upon to plead on the 9th of October 1660.

CLERK--Hugh Peters, hold up thy hand. How sayest thou? Art thou guilty of the treason whereof thou standest indicted; and for which thou standest arraigned? Or Not Guilty?

HUGH PETERS--I would not for ten thousand worlds say I am Guilty. I am not Guilty.

CLERK--How will you be tried?

HUGH PETERS--By the word of G.o.d [here the people laughed].

COURT--You must say By G.o.d and the Country. Tell him, you that stand by him, what he should say, if he doth not know.

CLERK--How will you be tried?

HUGH PETERS--By G.o.d and the country.

The trial took place on the 13th of October, and after the jury were sworn, without Peters making any challenges, the case was shortly opened by Sir Edward Young. He stated that he would prove that Peters was a chief conspirator with Cromwell at several times and several places compa.s.sing the King's death; that he preached many sermons to the soldiers urging the 'taking away the King,' comparing him to Barabbas; that he was instrumental in directing the making of the proclamation for the High Court of Justice; that when the King was executed, he was the person that urged the soldiers below the scaffold to cry for justice; and that on the day after the trial he commended it.

_Dr. William Young_ was the first witness. He first made Peters'

acquaintance about the time of the siege of Pembroke Castle, in 1648.

Afterwards, in 1649, Peters went over to Ireland with Cromwell, and falling sick of the flux, returned to Milford and sent for the witness.

There I found him, grovelling upon the deck, and sick he was indeed; with much difficulty we got him on sh.o.r.e; within a very few days, to the best of my remembrance five days, I perfected his cure; we became very familiar; I observed in him that he had some secret thoughts that I could not well discover, neither well understand; whereupon I thought it might tend to my security that I should so much sympathize with him, to get within him to know his intentions. After some weeks we grew so familiar, that at last I found he began to enlarge his heart to me. Many times I should hear him rail most insufferably against the blood royal, not only against our martyred king, but against his off-spring; still as we continued our acquaintance, he became more and more open to me; so we would sit up discoursing till about twelve or one of the clock at night very often, about these unhappy wars late in England.

He said that he had been employed out of New England to stir up the civil war; that he had been sent by the Parliament to Ireland 'to receive further instructions to drive on the design to extirpate monarchy'; that he had spent a great deal of his money, but had never been repaid the 2000 or 3000 he had been promised for his journey; he used to vilify monarchy, 'jocundarily scoffing at it, and would ordinarily quibble in this manner, saying "this Commonwealth will never be at peace till 150 be put down." I asked him what this 150 was, he told me the three L's, and afterwards interpreted the meaning to be the Lords, the Levites, and the Lawyers; with that, said I, we shall be like the Switzers, Tinkers, and Traitors,' He had a commission from Cromwell to raise troops for Ireland, he issued two commissions to bring over two troops from Devon, and offered to make the witness a major or captain.

Talking of the removal of the King from Holmby House, he said that the Parliament having then a design to secure himself and Cromwell, they

escaped out of London, and rode hard for it, and as we rode to Ware we made a halt, and advised how we should settle this kingdom in peace, and dispose of the King; the result was this, They should bring him to justice, try him for his life, and cut off his head; whether this was the expression of Cromwell I cannot tell; but to the utmost of my remembrance, and I am mistaken if it was not the advice of Mr. Peters to Cromwell; and I believe it, because his former relations of his instructions out of Ireland did tend to that effect.

PETERS--My lord, I desire to speak a word [his voice being low, he was brought to the second bar]. I am the bolder to speak to your lords.h.i.+ps at this time a word, and it is high time to satisfy my conscience; if these things were true, there is enough said to destroy me; I desire leave to tell you what offence I take at the witness, thus, my lord. This gentlemen I do know----

COUNSEL--What say you to him?

PETERS--That which I have to say is this, that in his story he hath told that which is not true; but I will not find fault with him, because he was my host, I will not reflect and recriminate: I shall give your lords.h.i.+ps in simplicity as much satisfaction myself as any witness; this I say to the man that speaks, and this is certain, I did spend some time at this gentleman's house, he is called there Dr. Young; and my trouble at this discourse is this, I do not know, my lord, that I found a more violent man for the parliament than himself; so far he undertook to be a spy on one side; this I find to be so, he will not deny it; he was very fierce in that way; I think words of such a man ought to be little attended to. The second is this, this gentleman is not a competent witness, and that upon a two-fold ground. First, because I know he is under a very great temptation and trouble in this very thing, and it is upon this account he was put out of his living in the country, and here he came to me to help him in again, and was very highly offended because I did not do it. Secondly, it is not that I would invalidate his witness, but give me leave to tell you, it is his way to snap and catch at every man, which is the complaint of the people in his own country. I know that same which is spoken is false; I speak it in the presence of G.o.d, I profess, I never had any near converse with Oliver Cromwell about such things; I speak this to the Jury, that they would have a care of the witness; I was in sickness then; those that have known me do know likewise that I have much weakness in my head when I am sick, and to take words that are spoken in a sick condition, he ought not to do it; for the words themselves I do here profess against them, for the generality of them; and that he hath been freer in my judgment in any communication in this way than I have been; it is marvellous, here I profess the things untruths; I call G.o.d and angels to witness they are not true. I will give you an account of my whole condition by-and-by, if I may be heard.

COURT--You shall be heard at large; that which you have been heard now is concerning the competency or incompetency of the witness: the incompetency against him is this, that when you came thither none more violent for the parliament than himself, and that he was a great spy, and you say it was usual with him to take such courses; these are but words; if you have any witnesses we will hear them; the man may be traduced and slandered, and so all witnesses may be taken away. Mr. Peters, if you take this course, G.o.d knows when this business will end; if you have a mind take pen, ink, and paper, and take notes of the witnesses, and make exceptions to them one after another; but interrupting one, and so another, we shall never have done.

YOUNG--I do recollect myself of some other conferences between us; as to my being malicious, I know he never did me any wrong, and therefore I cannot be malicious; and as for my reputation, having resided two years in London I can have certificates both from my country, and some of this city, to vindicate me in that particular; But, my lord, that which I would inform your lords.h.i.+p is this, he told me he took duke Hamilton a prisoner himself in his own chamber, seized on his goods, and took his George and blue ribbon off his shoulder, and the George he shewed me.

_William Gunter_ was a drawer at the Star in Coleman Street. Oliver Cromwell and several of his party used to meet there in consultation; there were several meetings; he remembered one in particular when Peters was there; he came about four in the afternoon and stayed till ten or eleven at night; they were talking about the King after he was a prisoner, for they called him by the name of Charles Stuart; they were writing something, but the witness could not say what. He could not say whether Peters was there oftener than once, 'but once I am certain of it; this is the gentleman; for then he wore a great sword.'

PETERS--I never wore a great sword in my life.

_Starkey_ deposed that in the December before the King's death, and up to the 12th of the following January, the headquarters of the army were at Windsor, and General Ireton was quartered at his father's house. The Council of War was held there, and Cromwell, Ireton, Peters, Col. Rich, and another gentleman, whose name he forgot, would meet and consult there, and sit up till two or three in the morning very privately together. The witness was often in Ireton's company, and Peters would often come in to meals in the evening.

Mr. Ireton being civil in carriage, would usually entertain discourses with Mr. Peters, likewise would favor me sometimes with discourse; and in that discourse I did many times take occasion to a.s.sert the laws in point of the king; and discoursing about the king as being a capital instrument in the late inconveniences, as they called it, in the times of the war, Mr. Ireton would discourse this ordinarily; I was bold to tell them that the person of the king was _solutus legibus_; this gentleman the prisoner at the bar, told me it was an unequal law. I did observe Mr. Peters did bend his discourse, not by way of argument only, but in point of resolution of judgment, fully against the person and government of the king. I remember some of his expressions were these, That he was a tyrant, that he was a fool, that he was not fit to be a king, or bear that office; I have heard him say, that for the office itself (in those very words which shortly after came into print) that it was a dangerous, chargeable, and useless office. My lords, the constant discourse of this gentleman at that time was such as he did believe would never be called into question, so it was not a thing that a man was necessitated to observe by an accident, but it was their whole discourse. I will put you in mind of a particular pa.s.sage. When the news came to Windsor that the king was in prison at the Isle of Wight, my father (whose house that was) was very much troubled at it; and being an ancient man, was not able to control his pa.s.sions with reason, told my mother that they (meaning Mr. Ireton, etc.) should have no entertainment there, and took the key of the cellar and put it in his pocket; his pa.s.sions being lessened, Mr. Ireton, his wife, and another officer being at supper, and afterwards my father said grace, and, as he usually did, though they were there, he said that usual and honest expression, praying for the king in these usual words, 'G.o.d save the king, prince, and realm'; sometimes they did laugh at it, but never did reflect upon him; but this night he made this expression, 'G.o.d save the king's most excellent majesty, and preserve him out of the hands of all his enemies.' Peters, who was then at the table, turns about to him, and said, 'Old gentleman, your idol will not stand long'; I do conceive he meant it of the king. For a matter of two months of the constant residence and being of the army there, I did observe that in the General Council there, and in this private cabal (after the business was broke out, and when the king was taken prisoner, and carried to Windsor), Mr. Peters was the constant man; and when the business broke out, I looked upon it in reason that Cromwell, Ireton, and this gentleman at the bar, and Rich, and that other gentleman, whose name I have forgot, that they were the persons that did the business. My lords, Mr. Peters he continued at Windsor: I remember very well that after the body of the army, the general, and the officers of the army, were gone to London, he continued at Windsor: I remember a pa.s.sage of one Bacon, who was a sectary; Mr. Peters being in discourse of the king, Mr. Bacon took great distaste at Mr. Peters for some affront put upon the King; Mr. Peters falls upon him, and rails at him, and was ready to beat him; we understood it so, because he did tell him of his affronting the King.

COUNSEL--Mr. Peters, if you have any thing to ask this witness, you may.

PETERS--I have many things to ask him. Did I ever lie there?