By W. IF. Ravenhitt, Esq. 



261 



33. If the judges say, that the Lord Protector is invested with the same power 

 that the late governors, whether king or parliament, were invested with, tell the 

 jury boldly, that the laws of England cannot be altered but by act of parliament) 

 and therefore there was an act of parliament to change the government from 

 the king' to the keepers of the liberties, anno 1649 ; but there is no act of par- 

 liament since to change the keepers of the liberties into a Lord Protector, so 

 that there can be no treason to bear arms against the Lord Protector.* 



34. Tell the jury, that it is now our case, and they know not how soon it may 

 be their own, for many were zealous for the present government, as the jury now 

 can be, who have already felt, and others like to feel, the effect of their new or- 

 dinances : how safe and honorable it is for them to stick to the law, rather than 

 take our blood upon them ; and instance in John Lilburn's several juries ; and if 

 not to acquit us yet to acquit themselves by finding a special verdict which leaves 

 lis to law, and lays the guilt of our blood upon the judges ; and especially how 

 dangerous it is for the jury to prove, by shedding our blood, that the Lord Pro- 

 tector hath a legislative power, and that his ordinances are laws, when the late 

 representatives of the whole people in parliament refused to acknowledge them. 



35. If indicted for treason upon the 25 Edw. III. for levying war against the 

 king, demand the statute to be read, beg the jury to observe when it is read, and 

 then remember how all kingly government and authority was abolished by the 

 act 1649 of the long parliament ; and the Protector himself in several speeches 

 declared, he was not, nor would be king. If they bid us shew the speeches where 

 he saith so, it is in the late speech, Jan. 22, 1654, p. 24, and in his declaration 

 on April, 1653, where he saith, he desired the long parliament to prevent mon- 

 archy."! 



The original of the above, together with the other papers known 

 as the Thurloe Collection, are in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. 

 The handwriting, if I may venture to surmise, that of some counsel 

 learned in the law, and not John Penruddock. 



But before they relied on the above, they probably petitioned 

 their judges for counsel, as the following MS. in the handwriting 

 of Mrs. Arundel Penruddock suggests to us : — 1 



" To the Right Hon ble . the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer, and Goale 

 Delivery, for the Countyes of Wilts, Dorset, Sommerset, and Devon. 

 And the County and City of Exeter. 



The humble Petition of all those unfortunate Prisoners now in the goale of 

 Exeter whose names are hereunto Annexed. 

 Humbly Sheweth 



That your Petitioners upon the surrendinge of themselves at South Molton in 



*The court having decided that the Protector was within the Statute Ed. III. could not permit this 

 plea to be argued, for it went to the whole question of the legality of the Protector's authority. 



tNo extract of a reasonable length will convey this dogma, of the single person and (lie par- 

 liament, as contained in this famous speech. It is given in Carlylc's Cromwell. 



1 Coinpton MSS, 



U % 



