Anno 12, Car. Members of that House, L II. 1660. And of the A& itfelf. That they prefent to his Majefty the humble, hearty, and thankful Senfe this Houfe hath of his Majesty's Juftice and Favour, in making this juft Defence for the Parliament and the People of England. And within a few Days after, they compleated the much-defired Act of Indemnity. The Act was large and very extenfiye, and as fuch was moft likely to compofe the Minds of a divided and diftracted People, and to give Eafe and Quiet to various and innumer able Criminals. One healing Claufe was, That if any Perfon obje&ed against another any Words of Reproach, tending to revive the Memory of the late Differences, he should pay ten Pounds, if a Gentleman; and forty Shillings, if one of a more inferior Degree, As to the Exceptions, the Act gave no Benefit to Row, Garland, Harvey, Smith, Martin, Waller, Titchburn, Fleetwood, J. Temple, Wait. Meyn, Heveningham, Pennington, P. Temple, Lilburn, Millington, Potter, Wegan. Doruns, Scroop, Lifle, Say, Walton, Harrison, Whally, Barkfeed, Ludlow, Livesey, Okey, Hewfon, Goffe, Holland, Challoner, Carew, Jones, Corbet, Clement, Scott; Cauley, Love, Dixwell, Blagrave, Cook, Broughton, Dendy, Hewlett, Peters. Hacker, Axtell, or any of them; nor to thofe two difguifed upon the Scaffold the 30th of January 1648.' All which Perfons, for being inftrumental in the Murther of the late King, are wholly excluded: But in regard the nineteen firft-mention'd had render'd themselves according to the Proclamation of the 6th of June, and thereby pretended to fome Favour, it was enacted, That if the faid Row, and the reft fo first mentioned, are attainted, their Execution fhould be fufpended, until the King and Parliament fhould order the fame Only Mr. Scroop, for vindicating his Crime, was again excepted. Next, Cromwell, Ireton, Bradshaw, and Pride, though dead, were excepted, and the Lands and Goods, Rights and Trufts of them, and one and twenty others deceas'd, viz. Ewer, Danvers, Maleverer, Purefoy, Blakeflone, Conflable, Dean, Allen, Pelham, Moor, Alred, Edwards, Norton, Ven, Andrews, Stapely, Horton, Frys Hammond, Skippon and Bouchier, were made fubject to fuch Penalties and Forfeitures as by another A&t, to be pafs'd, fhould be ordain'd. Moreover, Monfon, Mildmay, Harrington and allop, as not having fign'd the Warrant for the Execution of the King, were referved to future Penalties and Forfeitures, not extending to Life. Phelps and Haflerig were put into the fame Condition. Hutchinson and Laffels were made incapable to execute any Place of Truft, and to pay one Year's Value by way of Fine. Oliver St. John, and seventeen oẻ thers nam'd in the Act, were to be excluded from any Benefit by by this Act, if they accepted or executed any Office in Eng- Anno 12, Car. land, either Ecclefiaftical, Civil, or Military. And all that II. 1660. had given Sentence of Death in any of the late illegal HighCourts of Juftice, except Colonel Ingoldby and Colonel Thomlinfan, were difabled from being Members in any Parliament, or bearing any Office in England or Wales. Laftly, no Perfons were to be indemnify'd who had enter'd into any Lands, c. call'd Fabrick Lands, or poffefs'd themselves of any Rents or Revenues given for the Repair of any Cathedral or any other Church, or who had facrilegioufly enrich'd themselves by the converting of the Plate, Utenfils, and Materials belonging to fuch Churches, to their private Ufe.' After all, we must not forget that Sir Henry Vane and John Lambert were excepted out of the Act. This important Affair being thus brought to a Period, and feveral other Bills ready for the Royal Affent, the King came to the House of Peers, September 13, 1660, and made a Speech to both Houses, (See CHANDLER'S Hift. p. 23) after which the Lord Chancellor (Clarendon) by his Majesty's Command, thus enlarged by way of Supplement. My Lords and Gentlemen, The King tells you that he hath commanded me to fay Lord Chancel many Particulars to you; and the Truth is, he hath charged lor's Speech. me with fo many, that I have great Reason to fear, that I hall ftand in much need of his Mercy, for omitting many Things he hath given me in Command; at least for delivering them in more Disorder and Confufion, than Matters of fuch Moment and Importance ought to be to fuch an Affembly, for which the King himself hath even a kind of Reverence, as well as an extraordinary Kindness. I am to mention fome Things he hath done already, and many Things he intends to do during this Recefs, that you may fee, how well content foever he is that you should have Eafe, and Pleasure, and Refreshment, he hath defigned Work enough for himfelf • The King hath thanked you for the Provifion you have made that there may be no free Quarter during the Time the Army fhall be disbanding, and hath told you what he will do with that Money you have given him, if there fhould want wherewithal to disband it; and now I hope you will all believe, that his Majefty will confent to the disbanding: He will do fo; and yet he does not take it unkindly at their Hands, who have thought that his Majefty would not difband this Army; it was a fober and a rational Jealoufy; other Princes in Europe would be willing to disband such an Army; II. 1660. Anno 12, Car. Army; an Army to which Victory is entailed, and which, humanly fpeaking, could hardly fail of Conqueft whitherfoever he fhould lead it; and, if God had not reftored his Majefty to that rare Felicity, fo as to be without Apprehenfion of Danger at Home or from Abroad, and without any Ambition of taking from his Neighbours what they are poffeffed of, himself would never disband this Army; an Army whofe Order and Difcipline, whofe Sobriety and Manners, whofe Courage and Succefs have made it famous and terrible over the World; an Army of which the King and his two Royal Brothers may fay, as the noble Grecian faid of Æneas. Stetimus tela afpera contra, Contulimufque manus, experto credite, quantus They have all three, in feveral Countries, found them; felves engaged in the midst of thefe Troops, in the Heat and Rage of Battle; and if any common Soldiers (as no doubt many may) will demand the old Roman Privilege for having encountred Princes fingle, upon my Confcience, he will find both Favour and Preferment: They have all three obferved the Discipline, and felt, and admired, and loved the Courage of this Army, when they were the worfe for it; and I have feen them, in a Seafon when there was little elfe of Comfort in their View, refresh themselves with Joy, that the English had done the great Work, the English had got the Day, and then please themfelves with the Imagination what Wonders they should perform at the Head of fuch an Army; And therefore when his Majefty is fo entirely poffeffed of the Affection and Obedience of this Army, and when it hath merited fo much from him, can it be believed, or imagined, that he can without fome Regret part with them? No, My Lords and Gentlemen, he will never part with them; and the only fure way never to part with them, is to disband them: Should it be otherwife, they must be expofed to the daily Importu nity of his great Neighbours and Allies; and how could he refufe to lend them his Troops, of which he had no use himself? His Majefty knows they are too good Englishmen, to wish that a standing Army fhould be kept in the Bowels of their own Country; that they who did but in Bello pacis gerere negotium, and who, whilft an Army, lived like good Husbandmen in the Country, and good Citizens in the City, will now become really fuch, and take Delight in the Benefit of that Peace they have fo honeftly and fo wonderfully brought to país: The King will part with them, as the the most indulgent Parents part with their Children, for their Anno 1z, Car. Education, and for their Preferment; he will prefer them to II. 1660. disbanding, and prefer them by disbanding, and will always retain fuch a Kindness for them, and fuch a Memory of the Service they have done him, that both Officers and Soldiers, after they are disbanded, fhall always find fuch Countenance, Favour, and Reward from his Majefty, that he doubts not, but if he should have Occafion to use their Service, they will again refort to him with the fame Alacrity, as if they had never been disbanded: And if there be any fo ill among them (as there can be but very few, if any) who will forfeit that Favour and Protection they may have from him, by any withstanding his Majelly's Commands, and the full and declared Senfe of the Kingdom; his Majefty is confident they will be as odious to their Companions, as they can be to any other honest Men. ་ 6 My Lords and Gentlemen, I am in the next Place, by the King's Command, to put you in mind of the A&t of Indemnity; not of any Grants or Conceffions, or Releafes he made to you in that Act; I have nothing of that in Charge; no Prince hath fo excellent a Memory to forget the Favours he doth ; but of what he hath done against you in that Act, how you may be undone by that Act, if you are not very careful to perform the Obligations he hath laid upon you in it: The Claufe I am to put you in mind of, is this, And to the Intent and Purpose that all Names and Terms of Distinction 6 may be likewife put into utter Oblivion, be it further enacted by the Authority aforefaid, That if any Perfon or Perfons, within the Space of three Years next enfuing, fhall presume fo malicioufly to call or alledge, or object against any other Perfon or Perfons, any Name or Names, or other 'Words of Reproach, any way leading to revive the Memory of the late Differences, or the Occafion thereof, that then every fuch Perfon, fo, as aforefaid, offending, fhall for . feit, &c.' It is no matter for the Penalty, it is too cheap. a one; the King wishes it had been greater, and therefore hath by his just Prerogative (and 'tis well for us he hath such a Prerogative) added another Penalty more infupportable, even his high Displeasure against all who fhall fwerve from this Claufe in the A&t. Give me leave to tell you, that as any Name or Names, or other Words of Reproach, are exprefly against the Letter, and punifhable accordingly; fo evil and envious Looks, murmuring and difcontented Hearts, are as directly against the Equity of this Statute; a direct Breach of the Act of Indemnity, and ought to be punished. too; and I believe they may be fo. You know Kings are in fome Senfe called Gods, and fo they may in fome Degree be II. 1660. Anno 12, Car. be able to look into Mens Hearts; and God hath given us a King who can look as far into Men's Hearts as any Prince alive; and he hath great Skill in Phyfiognomy too: You would wonder what Calculations he hath made from thence; and no doubt, if he be provok'd, by evil Looks, to make a further Enquiry into Men's Hearts, and finds those corrupted with the Paffions of Envy and Uncharitablenefs, he will never chufe thofe Hearts to truft and rely upon. He hath given us a noble and princely Example, by opening and ftretching out his Arms to all who are worthy to be his Subjects, worthy to be thought Englishmen ; by extending his Heart with a pious and grateful Joy to find all his Subjects at once in his Arms, and himself in theirs: And fhall we fold our Arms towards one another, and contract our Hearts with Envy and Malice to each other, by any fharp Memory of what hath been unneighbourly or unkindly done heretofore? What is this but to rebel against the Person of the King, against the excellent Example and Virtue of the King, against the known Law of the Land, this bleffed A&t of Oblivion. ་ My Lords and Gentlemen, The King is a Suitor to you, makes it his Suit very heartily, that you will join with him in reftoring the whole Nation to its primitive Temper and Integrity, to its old good Manners, its old good Humour, and its old good Nature: Good Nature, a Virtue fo peculiar to you, fo appropriated by God Almighty to this Nation, that it can be tranflated into no other Language, hardly practifed by any other People; and that you will, by your Example, by the Candour of your Converfation, by your Precepts, and by your Practice, and by all your Intereft, teach your Neighbours and your Friends, how to pay a full Obedience to this Claufe of the Statute, how to learn this excellent Art of Forgetfulness. 'Let them remember, and let us remember, how ungracious, how indecent, how ugly the Infolence, the Fiercenefs, the Brutishness of their Enemies appeared to them; and we may piously and reasonably believe, that God's Indignation against them, for their Want of Bowels, for their not being Englishmen, (for they had the Hearts of Pagans and Infidels) fent a Whirlwind in a Moment to blow them out of the World, that is, out of a Capacity to do more Mischief to the World, except we practife their Vices, and do that ourselves which we pretend to deteft them for: Let us not be too much ashamed, as if what hath been done amifs, proceeded from the Humour and Temper, and the Nature of our Nation. The Aftrologers have made us a fair Excufe, and truly I hope a true one; all the Motions of these last twenty Years have been unnatural, and have proceeded from the |