144 CHARGE AGAINST MR. OLIVER ST. JOHN. 



occasion, or pretends occasion to be absent, because 

 he would bring his papers upon the stage : and 

 thereupon takes pen in hand, and, instead of excus 

 ing himself, sits down and contriveth a seditious and 

 libellous accusation against the king and state, which 

 your lordships shall now hear, and sends it to the 

 mayor : and withal, because the feather of his quill 

 might fly abroad, he gives authority to the mayor to 

 impart it to the justices, if he so thought good. And 

 now, my lords, because I will not mistake or mis- 

 repeat, you shall hear the seditious libel in the proper 

 terms and words thereof. 



(Here the papers were read.) 



MY lords, I know this paper offends your ears 

 much, and the ears of any good subject ; and sorry 

 I am that the times should produce offences of this 

 nature : but since they do, I would be more sorry 

 they should be passed without severe punishment : 

 &quot; Non tradite factum,&quot; as the verse says, altered a 

 little, &quot; aut si traditis, facti quoque tradite poenam.&quot; 

 If any man have a mind to discourse of the fact, let 

 him likewise discourse of the punishment of the fact. 



In this writing, my lords, there appears a mon 

 ster with four heads, of the progeny of him that 

 is the lather of lies, and takes his name from 

 slander. 



The first is a wicked and seditious slander; or, if 

 I shall use the Scripture phrase, a blaspheming of 

 the king himself; setting him forth for a Prince per 

 jured in the great and solemn oath of his corona 

 tion, which is as it were the knot of the diadem ; a 



