[16]
Power, by two special Declarations, the one dated the ninth of February last, and the other the seventeenth of March last, have positively declared, and called God to witness, that they will maintain, preserve, and defend that excellentest of Laws, the Petition of Right, as in the seventh page of the last Declaration they call it; and that the people of England shall enjoy all the benefit therein contained, whether to Life, Liberty, or Estate, with all things incident thereunto; and therefore I humbly beg and crave that favor from you, that seing to me you appear to be sent in an extraordinary manner, not according to to the ordinary Customs of the Lawes of England, that you will be pleased to let me hear your Commission read, that so I may consider of the consonancy thereof to the Petition of Right, and other the good old Lawes of England; and after the reading of it, I hope I shall return you such an answer as doth become a rational and ingenious man; who though he hath right to all the Priviledges of the Laws of England, and hath read all the declared and plain Laws of England, that are to me the fundamentals of all, yet the practicle part of the Law, which are in other Tongues besides the English, I cannot read, know, nor understand; and in the Petition of Right, and other the good old Fundamental Lawes of England, I can find no Foundation or Bottome for such an extraordinary Court as this before my eyes seems to be; and therefore I again make it my most humble suit to hear your Commission read.
Judge Kebell, M. Lilburn you are fully heard.
M. Prideaux Atturney Gen. My Lord, the Prisoner at the Barre nor none else have cause to complain that he hath wanted your patience in being fully heard. My Lord, that which at the begining of his Arraignment you expected from him, which was to hold up his hand, he denyed, and upon his denyal, desired liberty of speech to speak, and he hath injoyed it: But my Lord, how pertinent his discourse is, to what was proposed to him, the Court and all that hear him will judge; My Lord, I am not here to justifie the actings of those that here he hath complained against; but they are a Court, they are a Councel, and my thoughts are (and so ought his to be) honorable of them, and what they have done (my Lord) towards him in ordering this Court to try him, is but justice: My Lord, there is no speciall Commission of Oyer and Terminer but a generall Commission, and upon that general Commission, here is a special presentment of M. Lilburn here at the Barre, the general Commission is according to the Law of the Land, and upon that special presentment it is expected he may be proceeded against according to Law. And for your Commission, my Lord, that hath been read and pub-lished
