n
believed that Lilburne would do nothing for it, and Buckingham not much
more.--Clarendon Papers, iii. 75, 79, 98.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 1653. June 15.]

of his publications, contributed to irritate members. They refused to
interfere; and he was arraigned[a] at the sessions, where, instead of
pleading, he kept his prosecutors at bay during five successive days,
appealing to Magna Charta and the rights of Englishmen, producing
exceptions against the indictment, and demanding his oyer, or the
specification of the act for his banishment, of the judgment on which the
act was founded, and of the charge which led to that judgment. The court
was perplexed. They knew not how to refuse; for he claimed it as his right,
and necessary for his defence. On the other hand, they could not grant it,
because no record of the charge or judgment was known to exist.

After an adjournment[b] to the next sessions, two days were spent in
arguing the exceptions of the prisoner, and his right to the oyer. At
length, on a threat that the court would proceed to judgment, he pleaded[c]
not guilty. The trial lasted three days. His friends, to the amount of
several thousands, constantly attended; some hundreds of them were said to
be armed for the purpose of rescuing him, if he were condemned; and papers
were circulated that, if Lilburne perished, twenty thousand individuals
would perish with him. Cromwell, to encourage the court, posted two
companies of soldiers in the immediate vicinity; quartered three regiments
of infantry, and one of cavalry, in the city; and ordered a numerous force
to march towards the metropolis. The particulars of the trial are lost. We
only know that the prosecutors were content with showing[d] that Lilburne
was the person named in the act; that the court directed the jury to speak
only to

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. July 13.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. August 11.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1653. August 16.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1653. August 1.]

that fact; and that the prisoner made a long and vehement defence, denying
the authority of the late parliament to banish him, because legally it had
expired at the king's death, and because the House of Commons was not a
court of justice; and, maintaining to the jury, that they were judges of
the law as well as of the fact; that, unless they believed him guilty of
crime, they could not conscientiously return a verdict which would consign
him to the gallows; and that an act of parliament, if it