The Earl of PEMBROOKES SPEECH TO NOL-CROMWELL, Lord Deputy of IRELAND.

DAmme, I may ſay King well enough; for be-God I know no man fitter to be King then your ſelf: Hath not your Honor Conquered all that the Kings in Eng­land have Conquered for many Generations? My Chaplain read me a Chapter, and ſaid, That all Generations ſhould call her bleſſed: but Sink me, I am ſure all the Generations in England are damn'd if they call not your Honor bleſſed; and I am bound to bleſſe you too for coming hither; and you have done a bleſſed work too, in removing that Tyrant King, that man of Sin; and you are a going on with another bleſſed work, and that is Reducing of Ireland; your Honor hath happily ſubdued4 the Levellers; ſtrengthned and enriched your friends, and im­poveriſhed your Enemies; you have taken away the Houſe of Lords; Damme, I never affected the Lords Houſe, nor Gods Houſe neither; and for the Lords Prayer, I have done what I can to aboliſh it: becauſe I would not have the people ſo much as put in mind of Lords; Sink me, if I know any more Lords then my Lord Fairfax and your Self; and if the people will ſay the Lords Prayer, then let them pray for your Lordſhips, as it be­comes good Chriſtians: the Land is yours, you have wone it by the Sword; and then, you are not only Lords but Landlords, and all the people in England your Tenants, and ought to pray for you, and pay you Rent too; Damme, I am your Tenant, and though I am old and cannot fight for you, yet I am not ſo old, but I can pay you Rent: 'Tis true I am a member of Parlia­ment; and ſo (as yet) free from Taxes; yet I were an ill member if I would not force my Tenants to pay you Rent; Damme, I had forgot my ſelf, for they be your Tenants, and pay you as much, or more Rent, then they do me. 'Zbloud, would they had more heavier Taxes on them for me, becauſe they grumble: I am informed by my man Michael, that they curſe the Parlia­ment; which I hold to be Treaſon, if not high treaſon; for, if to ſay, our Government is tyrannical, be high treaſon; Curſing muſt needs be high treaſon; nay blaſphemy too: and if your Lordſhip ſhall give me power but to Hang and Draw ▪ Refuſe me if a Tray­tor ſhall live; Damme, the Rogues won't ſtick to ſay, That we are Traytors our ſelves, although we are the Keepers of their Liber­ties; and if we keep their Liberties, we ought to keep their Money too, their Law and Religion, nay, their very Wives. if ▪ it pleaſe us: and if we ſuffer ſome to be kill'd to preſerve the reſt, be God, I think 'tis State policy: if we ſpend three parts of their means, to preſerve the fourth; I ſee no reaſon but the fourth ſhould be at our diſpoſing; ſo long as we are the Keepers; My Lord, I will ſpeak unto you in a Parable, I am (I thank your Honors) made chief Keeper of C••ringdon Park, that was the late Kings; there have I Heards of Deer; My Lord, are not theſe Heards of Deer at my dispoſing? If I kill one heard, that the reſt may have the more paſture, who ought to contradict it? and if I, or my Keeper make their Skins pay for Paling or Fen­cing5 in my Park; Damme, 'tis the part of a good Keeper, and ſuch good Keepers I hope are the Parliament, and every Mem­ber thereof; and if they be good Keepers, will they not keep their own? and if they can keep their own, nature teaches, that they may as well keep others: I keep a Pack of Doggs, and Damme, I think they have as deep mouths as any; but imagine another has a Dogge, has a deeper mouth then my whole kennell; ought I not (if my Neighbor or Tenant deny me this Dogge) to force him from him, to make compleat my Cry?

My Lord, You have ſo much Money and Men to go to Ireland; it may be a Million, and about ten thouſand men; if you want a Mil­lion more, and twenty thouſand men more, to make the Iriſh Cry; Damme, if they will not raiſe the Men, and find the Mo­ney, they may be made Cry themſelves: you may, and ought to take it where you can find it; Neceſſity muſt not obſerve a Law in theſe dayes; My Lord, if you are neceſſitated, you may command me to fight as old as I am; Damme, I were a Rogue if I ſhould deny yee; yet I think I hate fighting my ſelf as much as any man in England; yet though I hate it in my ſelf, my Lord I would not have you think that I hate it in your Honor; no, my Lord, I hope I have more wit then ſo; I honor Valour in whomſoever I find it: Had not your Honors V•lour been tryed ▪ at Marſton-Moor, we had been all Myr'd and Moor'd too be­fore this time; or had you not Rowted the Scots, we had not ſcap'd ſo Scot ▪ free as we do, nor enjoy'd the good things of the Land: Damme, 'tis an unthankful Land, and a blind Land, for they underſtand not, they ſee not the bleſſings that you have won them; but I hope there is no Member of Parliament but un­derſtands, and is ſenſible enough of them: Damme, I am ſen­ſible, and if your Honor loves Hunting, you ſhall be ſenſible that in my old dayes I deſerve a Park as well as the City of London; I love a Cry of Doggs better then a pair of Organs: Miſtris May loves them too, and I love her as well: Sir, I am a Member for Bark-ſhire, and then (if I ſhould not love barking and bawling too, I ſhould n•t love my Country) my Lord, when6 old Doggs bark, they give Counſel; but if they bite, they bite ſor•; Damme, we muſt bark and bite too, and all little enough; for ought I can underſtand; we muſt learn to hunt men, as well as we do Hares, or Foxes either.

My Lord, You are now a going a hunting of Rebels into Ireland; and therefore I have ſaid the more concerning hunting; I wiſh you good ſport, that you may catch your Game, I mean the Game-Royal; a good hound upon the Chaſe will not leave the hot ſcent to follow a Raſcal Deer; My Lord, you have been well fleſht; purſue the ROYAL-GAME, the reſt, any Curre will pull down.

My Lord, I am an Old man, and can ill ride a Horſe; Damme, I had rather ride an Aſſe that will not throw me; then ride a Horſe to lay me in the Dirt: If I were a horſeman, and as yong as ever I was, it ſhould not be Ireland, nor Scotland neither, that ſhould keep me back; Refuſe-me if I was ever backward for the good of the State; I was, I confeſſe, Lord Chamberlain to the late King; I ſwore Allegiance to Him and His Heirs; Sink­me, I have been too much addicted to Swearing, but what of that? if I forſwear again what I have ſworn, I am the more ex­cuſeable; an Oath is binding but for the time, and you know there is a time for all this; a time to break Oathes, as well as keep them, if the State requires it: We muſt be Obedient; O­bedience is better then Sacrifice, and if I be not as Obedient as another, then I am a Rebel, and a Traytor, and deſerve as much to ſuffer as the late King, the Lord Capel, or any elſe.

My Lord, You are welcome, and all theſe Gentlumen as welcome as your ſelf; you have honored me in giving me a vſiite, and I hope I ſhall be able to viſite the Houſe of Commons before Mi­chaelmas;7 where I make no doubt, but I ſhall give conſent to the making ſuch Laws as ſhall make this Nation glorious; for if we do not afflict them; then they cannot be glorious; 'tis afflictions muſt wean them from the World; and if they be weaned from the World, then they may the better ſeek after heaven, where is all real Glory; thus we made the late King a glorious King; Damme, I think he had the better of it, if he had a Crown of Glory for his Earthly Crown; though we have his Lands and Goods to boot; we cannot live alwayes to en­joy them; 'tis true we have the profit of them for a time; but what can we profit by them in the end, when we come to ren­der an account? We are but the Peoples Stewards as well as He; and as we are Stewards, we are to be intruſted with their Goods and Lives; and if we make not uſe of them as we ſhould, pray who can call us to an account here? I know there is no Earthly pow•r above us; but Confound-me, I am half of the judgement that there is a Heavenly power above us, and that is our King, our Prince, that ought to Rule us, and his Rule is in this World, and the Aire: miſtake me not my Lord, I do not mean the Prince of the Aire that rules in the Children of diſo•e­dience, that the wicked Cavaliers ſerve ▪ I mean the Spirit; we are led by the Spirit, have our rules from the Spirit (and not from Scriptures, that's Superſtition) and dare not but do what the Spirit moves us too; and if we do amiſſe, it is the Spirit that works it in us, and not we; and if the Spirit bid me kill my King, muſt I not do it? Damme if it were my Father or my Mother, or my dull Wiſe either, I ſhould ſpare them no more then the fire did my houſe, when it burnt it to the ground.

My Lord, I perceive a Spirit that now hath a working in Nature, which Spirit doth perſonate me, and hath made many Speeches in my Name, which I utterly Renounce; Nay my Lord, your Ho­nors are not free from this vile Calumnious Spirit, even un­der your very Noſes; My Lord, I have been jeared into ſickneſs, and had dy'd if I had not been jear'd out of it again; they brought me ſo neer my Grave, that they made my Will; and I think I had dy'd ▪ but that I was loth the wicked ſhould have their Will of me: Damme, I hope to live yet to make my Will8 my ſelf, and in it remember your Honor; if your Honor will do me the favour, as to ſend to the Parliament, to tell them what they put forth in my Name; 'Zbloud, I had better have no name, then no fame; and Iudge-me, I have as little as can be among the Common ſort. My Lord, I beſeech ▪ you let this Spirit be con­jur'd down, or elſe we muſt down our ſelves, and if any thing other then good ſhould happen to us by reaſon of the ungodly a­broad, I fear a great many at home will take their parts; it is good to prevent in time, my Lord, to quench the flame before it get too high, or elſe it may happen to burn our fingers. My Lord, I hear Ormond is 30000 ſtrong, beſides what Inchiquin, Ards, and Monro is; beſides your old Enemies are come to aſſiſt them, at Kildare, Eyron, Dives, Langdale, Aſhton, Hopton, and the Devil and all: And if they get Ireland my Lord, we may ere long hang up our pipes, and our ſelves too; My Lord; the way I would wiſh you, is to treat with the Earl of Darby, about the rendring the Iſle of Man; you'l get a Crown too boot; if we muſt have a King, (as the people will never be quiet elſe) as good you as another; Damme, we muſt have a King; for ſo many men, ſo many minds; Lilburn will have one thing, another party another, a third another, and then we fall together by the eares; then comes the Prince and parts us; What will become of us then? No my Lord, win a Crown and wear it; 'tis but taking down the Excize, or making at the be­ginning of your reign ſome ſeeming ▪ good Law, as Richard the 3d did, and that will win the peoples affections to you.

My Lord, I am an ill Orator, and ſomething given to ſwearing, which I hope will not be much diſtaſteful unto you, conſidering I am an old man; and Damme, old men are ſubject to old infir­mities; if your Honor lives, you will be old your ſelf as I am; Swounds, I wiſh you long life; and could with a good Conſci­ence ſay, Vive le Roy; a Pox Confound-me if I could not; 'zblood, I am ſomething ſhort winded ſince my ſickneſs; but Dam-me, Ram-me, Sink-me, if I mean not what I ſay; and ſo for this time I make an end; deſiring your Honor to ſit, and taſte of that Welcome your Humble Subject and Servant can make you.

Vera Copia.

Ramsbury,July 12. 1649.