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amongst us dissenting, that, if any should oppugn it, he were worthy to be proscribed and prosecuted either as a viperous malignant, or as a public adversary. So that it is but the carcase of an enemy that we have to remove out of our territories, even the carcase and bones of the Norman duke's injurious and detested perpetrations, much more meriting to be dug up, and cast out of our land, than those relicks of his body that were so unsepulchred from his grave in Caen. Let us therefore, until we have wiped off this shame of our nation, and demolished the monuments thereof, no more talk of honour, as being a thing that we have least to do withal, but, yielding that and the glory to the Norman name, reserve unto ourselves nothing but the inheritance of shame and confusion of face; yea, let us either confess and profess ourselves for ever mere vassals and slaves, or else attempt to uncaptive ourselves, the end and scope of this whole discourse, that is, effectually, yet orderly and legally, to endeavour these following particulars:

That William, sirnamed the Conqueror, be stripped of that insolent title (which himself scarce ever assumed after his victory, much less pretended to before, but hath been since imposed on him by Norman arrogance and our servile flattery), and that he be either reputed amongst our lawful kings by force of £t. Edward's legacy, or adjudged an usurper; however, that he may no longer stand for the alpha of our kings in the royal catalogue.

2. That the title to the crown be ungrounded from any pretended conquest over this nation, and that his majesty be pleased to derive his right from St. Edward's legacy, and the blood of the precedent English kings, to whom he is the undoubted heir; and that he restore the an cient English arms into the royal standard.

3. That all the Norman nobility and progeny, amongst us, repu diate their names and titles brought over from Normandy, assuming others consistible with the honour of this nation, and disclaim all right to their possessions here, as heirs and successors to any pretended conquerors.

4. That all laws and usages introduced from Normandy be, eo nomine, abolished, and a supply made from St. Edward's laws, or the civil, and that our laws be divested of their French rags, (as king James of worthy memory once royally motioned) and restored into the English or Latin tongue, unless, perhaps, it may seem honourable for Englishmen to be still in the mouth of their own laws no further free than frenchified, and that they only, of all mortal men, should imprison their laws in the language of their enemies.

5. That our language be cleared of the Norman and French invasion upon it, and depravation of it, by purging it of all words and terms of that descent, supplying it from the old Saxon and the learned tongues, and otherwise correcting it, whereby it may be advanced to the quality of an honourable and sufficient language, than which there is scarce a greater point in a nation's honour and happi

ness.

To which may also be added the removal of an indignity of kin to the former in quality, though not in cause, namely, the advancing of the French arms above ours in the royal standard, as if, by our ances

tors conquest of that nation, we had merited nothing but the public subjection of our honour to theirs: the Scots, though an inferior nation, denying us any such privilege in their own kingdom.

These things thus obtained, and Normanism thus abolished, we may then, and then only, have comfort in our name, as after our excussion of that which is utterly destructive to the honour of our nation, which is the motive unto us to demand and require these things; neither want there reasons sufficient on the other side, why they may and ought to be granted, some whereof are these:

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1. For his majesty, it will be no prejudice to his title, nor impeachment of the honour of his blood, should he wave his descent from Normandy, but rather an improvement of the same, by how much it is more honourable to be derived from free kings, than vassal dukes, and from Saxony, the heart and noblest part of Germany, than from Neustria or Norway; and it will, moreover, settle him as well in the true affections, as on the throne of this nation, which none of his predecessors, since the pretended conquest, could rightly enjoy, there being too much tincture of domination in their rule, and of captivity in our obedience. And this is confirmed by that love and honour which the most glorious kings of this realm have here gained by their inclining this way; witness Henry the first, approved and beloved above his Norman predecessors, who, for that sole purpose, took to wife Edgar Atheling's niece, the female heir of the English blood; next, Edward the first, whose memory is no less acceptable for his being the first reviver of that name in that line, than for his inlarging the honour and dominion of this state: thirdly, Edward the third, the most glorious, renowned, and precious of all our kings, not only for his famous victories, but withal, for restoring, in a good degree, the use and honour of the English tongue, formerly exiled, by Normanism, into contempt and obscurity. To which purpose also it is observable, that none of our kings since William the pretended conqueror, and his son, have bore their name, the imposing whereof on our princes, their royal parents seem purposely to have avoided as justly odious to the English nation; whereas, with what honour they have continually used both the name and shrine of St. Edward, I need not recount. And if these kings so lately after the conqueror, and while the Norman blood ran almost fresh in their veins, thought it their duty, in some sort, to profess, for the English name, against Normanism, how little mis-becoming will it be for his majesty, after his so many ages ingraftment into this nation, and disunion from the other, and having in him, for one stream of the Norman blood, two of the true English, to profess himself altogether English, and to advance that nation to the greatest lustre he can, whereof he professeth himself the natural head; yea, it will so far transfer him above the honour and felicity of his predecessors, as it is more honourable and happy for a prince to be called and accounted the natural father of his country, than the exotick lord of the same, of which titles the very tyrants of Rome were ambitious for the former, but rejected and detested even the one half of the latter.

2. For the Norman progeny, they may consider, that themselves, as Norwegians, are originally, as Verstegan hath well observed, of oue

and the same blood and nation with the English, namely, the Teutonick, and that, in doing what is here required, they shall but shake off that tincture of Gallicism, which their ancestors took in Neustria, and rejoin themselves with their ancient countrymen; which also even their own honour requires of them, even according to the opinion of the ancient Treviri, who, as Tacitus recordeth, though inhabitants of France, yet disdained to be accounted of the French blood, but ambitiously adhered to their descent from Germany; the Gallick nation having been servile ever since the time of Julius Cæsar, and no other their language, which we so much dote upon, than an effect of the Roman conquest over them, and a testimony of their long vassalage and subjection to that empire.

But, if they can relish no honour but what must arise, and fetch life, from our shame, let them revolve how loth they would be to be served, as sometime the Romans dealed with the insulting Gauls, the relicks of Brennus's army, whom they utterly rooted out of Italy, nequis ejus gentis superesset qui incensam a se Romam jactaret, as an historian hath it; and, if they will needs continue the Danes succeeders in insulting over us, they may also remember that we are the posterity of those English who massacred them, and that when they had a potent kingdom at hand to revenge it, which these others are to seek for.

3. Lastly, State policy requires it, it being requisite to the good and safety of the kingdom in general; for, if ingenuous valour in the people, and their love to their king, state, nobility, and laws, with regard to honour, be the chief strength of a realm against foreign invasions (for instance, and testification whereof, we need look no further than the Scots) it is necessary, that, if our state should enjoy that strength, our nation enjoy these demands; for, how can we love and fight for those laws, which are ours only by our enemies introduction, and are our disgrace instead of honour; or for that sovereignty and nobility, in whose very titles, as before is related, we read our country to be already in captivity, and that the alteration of the state will be, to us, but changing of usurpant masters? Neither will the recordation of our ancient honour be any better a provocation to that purpose. Should the Turk go about to exhort his Grecian soldiers to valiantness in his cause, and against his foreign enemies, by commemorating unto them the ancient glory and prowess of their nation, would not that cohortation merit to be taken as an insulting irrision? and, should not the first effect thereof be a vindictive incitement of them against himself, as the most proper object thereof in all respects? so also cannot the remembrance of our ancient glory, if we consider ourselves aright, incite us to any thing more than the clearing of ourselves from this insulting conquest, as already, and long since, pressing us with that dishonour, which other dangers at most but threaten? and as, upon these grounds, we can scarce find courage to fight for the safety and preservation of the state; so for the same reasons have we as little heart to pray or wish for the same, until our national honour be restored to a coexistence therewith.

Since, therefore, these things are so behoveful for our nation to demand, and for our state to grant, if, after due consideration thereof,

we continue to want the happy fruition of the same, it must be ascribed either to an overgrown baseness of mind in the one, or an unnatural malignity in the other, as indulging rather to a foreign name, than to a nation whereof the said state is a part, and intrusted with the welfare and honour thereof; and in this still-servilising case it will be ridiculous for us, the nation, to pretend to honour or renown, but more proper for us for ever to profess ourselves of that quality wherein we take up our rest, to wit, captivity and servility: but, if we may descry a gloririous morning, and avaro of our benighted honour, refulging in the happy accomplishment of these our desires, then shall we with alacrity press all that the English name investeth unto the defence and enlargement of the English dominion, and, instead of disclaiming our nation, and transfuging to others, as many of us now do, and have done especially in Ireland, we shall joy to make Anglicism become the only soul and habit of all, both Ireland and Great-Britain. Dixi. Octob. 1642.

J. H.

SERJEANT THORPE,

Judge of Assize for the Northern Circuit,

HIS CHARGE,

As it was delivered to the grand jury at York assizes, the twentieth of March, 1648; clearly epitomising the statutes belonging to this nation, which concern (and, as a golden rule, ought to regulate) the several estates and conditions of men; and, being duly observed, do really promote the peace and plenty of this commonwealth.

From a Quarto, containing 30 pages, printed at London, by T. W. for Matthew Walbancke and Richard Best, at Gray's Inn Gate, in 1649.

GE

ENTLEMEN, friends, and countrymen, I do not question, but that the stile and title of our commissions, under which we are now to act, and execute the authority and power committed to our hands, being changed from Carolus Rex Anglia, to Custodes libertatis Anglie authoritate parliamenti, works divers effects upon the tempers and spirits of men, according as the spirits themselves are tempered and affected; and that some of those spirits (like the sun upon wax) it softens into obedience and compliance, and others of them, again (like the same sun upon clay) it hardens into stiffness and opposition. Proud, ambitious, and malignant spirits, finding themselves frustrated and defeated hereby of their designed hopes, and hopeful designs, for obtain

ing their desired ends; and, being filled with prejudice to others, and self-love to their own opinions, and therefore having turned themselves aside from the use of their own reason, and from all overtures and arguments of satisfaction, and having given up their understanding to blind affections, it startles and confounds with passions and amazements, heightened into choler and disdain; because, looking through the false glass of their own self-interest, they find nothing therein, but imaginary shakings of foundations, overturning of laws, and confused heaps of ruins and distractions. But to these, if any such be present, (especially, if they have been formerly engaged in open war against the pub lick interest of the nation, and so are cast, by God's justice, for their transgressions into a mean and low condition;) all I shall say, (with the poor comfort of calamity, pity) is this, that, if they have not already tasted enough of the cup of God's wrath, for their misdoings, let them take heed they engage not again, for fear that, hereafter, they be enforced to drink the dregs of his displeasure. Other silly spirits there are, who, standing unbottomed upon any solid principles of their own, find themselves tossed to and fro with the wind which blows from others mouths; one while listening to the prophet, who bids them go up to Ramoth-Gilead, and prosper; and by and by again yielding him that bids them not go up, for fear of perishing; and so they are carried into cross and oblique opinions, and actions, tending to, and endangering, their utter ruin and destruction. And, to these men, all I shall say, and advise, is this, that they will forthwith repair to the school of reason, and suffer themselves to be guided and led by impartial and wholesome lessons, and instructions, to a better information of their judgments, whereby they may be settled upon undeniable grounds in the knowledge of themselves, and the truth, and of their own right, interest, and concernment. But another sort of men there are, who are willing to let their eyes stand in the place where nature set them, and to make use of that reason and judgment, which God hath given them, and, with erected minds, to apprehend the sense of their own future happiness, and to hearken to the voice which calls them to the flourishing actions of a reformed commonwealth, and therefore do entertain this change with suitable opinions and compliance from these grounds which they thus propound and argue with themselves.

1. That all power and authority is originally and primarily in God, and comes from God; and this they rest upon, as being a scripturetruth.

2. That God, out of his wisdom and providence, hath dispensed and transmitted so much of this authority and power to men, as is necessary for their use. First, as in relation to the inferior creatures, to rule and govern them, as lord and king. And, as in relation to one another, from a principle of nature, (conservatio sui-ipsius) to seek and endeavour their own preservation and security, which principle draws them to this conclusion (salus populi suprema lex) the safety of the people is the supreme law, both of nature, and nations. And from this natural principle, and supreme law of nature, however all men, in their original creation, are all of one and the same substance, mould, and stamp, yet, for preservation's sake, they find a fitness in

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