Charles's government (notwithstanding
their beheading him as a tyrant for it) when it was at the worst before
this parliament, than live one year under their present government that
now rule; nay, let me tell you, if they go on with that tyranny they are
in, they will make Prince Charles have friends enow not only to cry him
up, but also really to fight for him to bring him into his father's
throne."(972) His trial was at length forced on parliament by the
injudicious publication of a pamphlet(973) calculated to excite discontent
in the army, and a mutiny broke out in the garrison at Oxford so soon
after the issue of this pamphlet that it was justly thought to have
occasioned the outbreak. The country became flooded with seditious
pamphlets to such an extent that an Act was passed for their suppression
and for the better regulation of printing. The civic authorities and the
Stationers' Company were especially admonished to see the provisions of
the Act carried out.(974) What brought matters to a climax was the
discovery that the Levellers were entering upon negotiations with Prince
Charles, and thereupon the House resolved (11 Sept.) that Lilburne's trial
should at once be proceeded with.(975) A special commission of Oyer and
Terminer, presided over by Andrews, the outgoing Lord Mayor, and including
the Recorder, the Common Sergeant and nine aldermen, was opened at the
Guildhall on Wednesday, the 24th October. The trial lasted three days.
Lilburne made a spirited defence, winding up with a solemn peroration in
which he invoked God Almighty to guide and direct the jury "to do that
which is just, and for His glory." His words sent a thrill of enthusiasm
through the crowded hall, the audience with "an extraordinary great hum"
giving vent to cries of "Amen! Amen!" in such a manner that Skippon, who
was in attendance, deemed it advisable to send for more troops in case of
disturbance. When in the end a verdict of acquittal was brought in, a wild
scene followed. "The whole multitude in the hall, for joy of the
prisoner's acquittal, gave such a loud and unanimous shout as is believed
was never heard in Guildhall, which lasted for about half an hour without
intermission." The judges turned pale from fear, but the prisoner at the
bar, so far from displaying any excess of joy, remained unmoved and
silent, and "rather more sad in his countenance than he was before."(976)
He was conducted back to the Tower, whence he had been brought,