And now Sir, I desire to speake a few words to that which I have concei­ved as essential to my good & benefit, as any thing that yet I have said, & that is this, in some of my late letters to M. Martin, I have declared, that I cannot own the iudgment of the present mixed house of Cōmons, being compounded of two Anty-parties, the one of which must of necessitie upon their own publique de­clared principles be guilty of the highest of crimes, upon which some of the active agents of my close and heavie adversaries of the Army, have taken oc­casion [Page 19] thereby to doe the utmost they can to blast my reputation, indeavou­ring to make honest consciencious men in London beleeve, and report me to be a man fallen from the principles I formerly went upon, and from the Parlia­ment, and the interest of the Commons of England, and am totally become a Gavialeere, and soly captivated, or degenerated to their principles and in­terest, and act what they in their desparate Councells put me upon, when they have distempered me with drinke, &c. And at the Head quarters, and in o­ther quarters of the Army, I am by the foresaid wicked and Lordly agents, rendred a man that would distroy the King and kingly government, the Parliament, and most of the chiefe men in the Army, and that I am the head and chiefe of a generation or faction of men that are altogether for Anarchy and confusion, and would have no government at all in the Kingdome, but have every man to doe what he list, and have all things common, and so di­stroy all law and property, and that I might have my liberty and freedome if I would, which say they I have by all the wayes and meanes I could invent declined, being a gainer by my imprisonment; and fully hearing of these things, and how dissignedly, maliciously, lyingly, and confidently from one company to another, they were blasted abroad by the Agents and instru­ments of no meane ones. And although my principles, and the constant, visi­ble, and publique Declarations thereof fully declares (as my late Plea before you also witnesseth) that I am for meum & tuum; liberty and property, con­tinually professing, that I had rather live under a very harsh law, whereby I may know by what rule to walke, then live under the moderatest arbitrary government in the world, begun to be exercised by the godlyest, justest, or choisest men that ever the earth bred, in regard I am not then under law, (which all men that ever God created ought to be) but under will and power, by which (by reason of mans corruption, who here hath no perfection, but are subject to actuall backsliding, and degenerating) I am lyable and in dan­ger every houre to be distroyed at the pleasure of him that is stronger in pow­er then I. And although I had often profered Bayle for my liberty to the Generall and his Lievtenant of the Tower, and offered to put any difference betwixt me and any in the Army, to the full and finall determination of ho­nest men, equally chosen, and in case they could not agree in their judgment I was willing the Generall himselfe (to whom I am but a stranger) should be Vmpire and finally determine them, but finding my selfe no whit secured or preserved for all this, from their designed, blasted calumniations.

I was in no small straights in my own spirit, being sensible of my great and urgent necessities in my present condition, the continuance of which but for a small time longer, must needs in reason be the ruine and distruction of me, my wife and children, and having offered all (time after time to those I [Page 20] look upon as my present Gaolers) that in my thoughts it was impossible for a man of brains and honesty to invent, and stoop too, to obtaine his long longed liberty, but all in vaine; J was necessitated, seeing I could not own the present mixed House of Common, nor willingly submit unto their sentence in that condition I was necessitated I say, to publish in print my Proposition of the 2. of October, 1647. Which in private I had made unto Liev. Gen. Cromwell some weeks before, face to face, with divers other things as faire in them­selves as it, And I caused it under my hand Seale to be delivered unto the Speaker of your House, that so all the Kingdome might know my readines and willingnesse to stoop to any thing in the world that was rationall and just to obtaine my thirsted for liberty and freedome.

Which paper your Speaker communicated to your house, and caused it to read and debated, which as I am told hath procured this Committee, unto whose desires so farre as with a good conscience, and the preservation of my principles, and integrity I am willing to stoop (that so I might stop the mouths of my calumniators, and bring my businesse to no issue, being rather willing to hazzard (if I had them) a million of lives, then much longer re­maine vnder my present tyranny and imprisonment) and therefore it is that I have obeyed your summons, and gon thus far with you as I have done, knowing by your order, you are not difinitively to judge my cause.

And therefore before your house finally judge my cause, I desire you from me to acquaint them that Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Army under his com­mand, upon the 18 August 1647. hath published a Remonstrance printed twice by two speciall Orders of the present House of Peers, to the view of the whole kingdome, and approved of by all the Members of the House of Commons, that went to the Army for protection. In which Remonstrance they utterly disclaime and renounce Mr. Pellam, and all those that sate and voted with him, as Vsurpers of Parliament authority, forfiters of their trust, and Traytors to their Country, for actually by their Votes, Orders, and Or­dinances, levying of a new warre in the kingdome, against the peace and the power thereof, which Sir Thomas Fairfax is since by this present House of Commons owned by them for their Generall, and the Army under him for their Army, and yet the most of these very Members thus declared against, sit in the house, being in this condition, by reason of their crimes declared in that Declaration under the power, lash, and awe of those of that Army, that have the power of that Army at their beck and command.

Wherefore I desire, that seeing Lievt. Gen, Cromwell is the man that in­gaged we originally in my contest against the Lords, and particularly against the Earle of Manchester, who then in his discourse to me, was the greatest Anti Lord (I aver it) that I conversed with in England.

[Page 21]And seeing that now of late, (as I have too much cause to judge) he is apo­statized from his principles, and the peoples liberties, and hath visibly shake hands with those he accused and judged to be enemies to the peace and liber­ties of England, and is now, as I have too much cause to judge, become a pa­tron, approver, and protector of them in all their Arbitrary, illegall, and ty­rannicall usurpations, with all his interest, with the conductive power of the Army, which now he hath at his beck, and by meanes of which he holds a rod of feare and terror over the heads of all those Members of the House of Commons, that they shall not dare (for their own safety and preservati­on) to give their Votes freely against the Lords, seeing that he in interest and designe is now so neerely conjoyned unto the present House of Lords, who I may now justly call his creatures at his beck to execute his will and mind, and therefore desiring to stoop as low as in justice and honesty I can, to put a pe­riod one way or another to my present contest with the Lords, I earnestly de­sire that the House of Commons will publiquely declare against the foresaid Remonstrance (if Mr. Pellam and those that sate with him, were a true house of Cōmons) that so al the said Members therin concerned, may effect­ually be instated in the full condition and capacity of free and innocent men, that so without feare of Liev. Gen. Cromwell, or his power in the Army, they may vote freely according to their consciences, and then I shall freely sub­mit to their judgement. Or else secondly that according to the tenor of the said Remonstrance, they may either be totally expelled (or else pro tempore in my cause) and I shall freely put my selfe upon the judgement of the remai­ning part of the House of Commons, let it be what it will, I value it not, so I may come to an issue, & therby fully know what I have to trust to. Or if nei­ther of these can at present without further delay of time be done, then in the third place I earnestly desire to put my selfe upon the issue of my foresaid proposition, which I desire verbatum to read unto you, but seeing this Com­mitteee hath dealt so fairely, justly, and honourably with me, in granting me so free open, and publique hearing, as I had before you upon Wednesday last and hearing me with so much patience, without interrupting of me, and seeing the calumny is so strong upon me, that I have no mind to come out of prison, I am resolved in this particular, wholly and solly to put my selfe upon the judgment & conscience of this Cōmittee, & that if you amongst your selves judg it fit that I should wholly put my self upon the present judgment & con­cience of the final judgment and determination of the present mixed house of Commons. I do here before you all freely & voluntaryly declare I am willing to doe it, and in testimony whereof I give it you under my hand and seale, and desire you, that upon all that this day, and upon Wednesday last I have said [Page 22] and declared to you, that you would immediately consult amongst your selves, and give your sense and opinions as farre in it as your present power will inable you, and thereupon withall speed make your report unto the House, that so without any more delay, I may receive their long expected judgement and finall determination, and so I leave you, desiring the Lord to direct you, now at last to acquit your selves towards me and the kingdome like men of honestie and honour, and so rest yours in your faithfull serving of the kingdome.