oduced as a
criminal, sustained, by his magnanimous courage, the majesty of a
monarch. With great temper and dignity, he declined the authority of
the court, and refused to submit himself to their jurisdiction. He
represented, that having been engaged in treaty with his two houses of
parliament, and having finished almost every article, he had expected to
be brought to his capital in another manner, and ere this time to have
been restored to his power, dignity, revenue, as well as to his personal
liberty: that he could not now perceive any appearance of the upper
house, so essential a member of the constitution; and had learned, that
even the commons, whose authority was pretended, were subdued by lawless
force, and were bereaved of their liberty: that he himself was their
"native, hereditary king;" nor was the whole authority of the state,
though free and united, entitled to try him, who derived his dignity
from the Supreme Majesty of heaven: that, admitting those extravagant
principles which levelled all orders of men, the court could plead no
power delegated by the people; unless the consent of every individual,
down to the meanest and most ignorant peasant, had been previously asked
and obtained: that he acknowledged, without scruple, that he had a trust
committed to him, and one most sacred and inviolable; he was intrusted
with the liberties of his people, and would not now betray them
by recognizing a power founded on the most atrocious violence and
usurpation: that having taken arms, and frequently exposed his life in
defence of public liberty, of the constitution, of the fundamental laws
of the kingdom, he was willing in this last and most solemn scene, to
seal with his blood those precious rights for which, though in vain, he
had so long contended: that those who arrogated a title to sit as his
judges, were born his subjects, and born subjects to those laws which
determined "that the king can do no wrong:" that he was not reduced
to the necessity of sheltering himself under this general maxim which
guards every English monarch, even the least deserving; but was able, by
the most satisfactory reasons, to justify those measures in which he had
been engaged: that to the whole world, and even to them, his pretended
judges, he was desirous, if called upon in another manner, to prove the
integrity of his conduct, and assert the justice of those defensive arms
to which, unwillingly and unfortunately, he had had recourse