Diskussion:Algernon Sidney (1623-1683) - Letzte Rede

Discourses Concerning Government, G. Hamilton and J. Balfour, Edinburgh 1750 1. Band S. XXIII–XXVI Google

[XXXIII]

THE COPY of a PAPER Delivered to the Sheriffs, upon the Scaffold on TowerR-Hill, On Friday, December 7, 1683. By Algernon Sidney, Esq;

Immediately before his Death.

Men, Brethren, and Fathers; Friends, Countrymen, and Strangers:

IT may be expected that I should now say some great matters unto you; but the rigour of the season, and the infirmities of my age, increased by a close imprisonment of above five months, do not permit me.

Moreover, we live in an age that makes truth pass for treason: I dare not say any thing contrary unto it, and the ears of those that are about me will probably be found too tender to hear it. My trial and condemnation doth sufficiently evidence this.

West, Rumswy, and Keeling, who were brought to prove the plot, said no more of me, than that they knew me not; and some others, equally unknown to me, had used my name, and that of some others, to give a little reputation to their designs. TheLord Howard is too infamous by his life, and the many perjuries not to be denied, or rather sworn by himself, to deserve mention; and, being a single witness, would be of no value, tho' he had been of unblemished credit, or had not seen and confessed that the crimes committed by him, would be pardoned only for committing more; and even the pardon promised could not be obtained, till the drudgery of swearing was over.

[XXIV] This being laid aside, the whole matter is reduced to the papers said to be found in my closet by the king's officers, without any other proof of their being written by me, than what is taken from, suppositions upon the similitude of an hand that is easily counterfeited ; and which hath been lately declared, in the lady Car's cafe, to be no lawful evidence in criminal causes.

But if I had been seen to write them, the matter would not be much altered. They plainly appear to relate to a large treatise written'long since in answer to Pilsner's book; which, by all intelligent men, is thought to be grounded upon wicked principles, equally pernicious to magistrates and people.

If he might publish to the world his opinion, that all men are born, under a necessity derived from the laws of God and nature, to submit to an absolute kingly government, which could be restrained by no law, or oath ; and that he that has the power, whether he came to it by creation, election, inheritance, usurpation, or' any other way, had the right; and none must oppose his will, but the persons and estates of his subjects must be indispensably subject unto it 5 I know not why I might not have published my opinion to the contrary, without the breach of any law I have yet known.

I might, as freely as he, publickly have declared my thoughts, and the reasons upon which they were grounded; and I am persuaded to believe, that God had left nations to the liberty of setting up such governments as best pleased themselves.

That magistrates were set up for the good of nations, not nations for the honour or glory of magistrates.

That the right and power of magistrates, in every country, was that which the laws of that country made it to be,

That those laws were to be observed; and the oaths taken by them, having the force of a contrast between magistrate and people, could nqt be violated without danger of disiolving the whole fabnek.

That usurpation could give no right; and the most dangerous qf all enemies to kings were they, who, raising their power to an exorbitant height, allowed to usurpers all the rights belonging unto it.

That such usurpations being seldom compassed without the slaughter of the reignin-j person, or family, the worst of all vilknies was thereby rewarded with the most glorious privileges

That if such doctrines were received, they would stir up men to the destruction of princes, with more violence than al! the passions that have hitherto raged in the hearts of the most unruly.

That none could be safe, if such a reward were proposed to any that could destroy them.

[XXV] That few would be so gentle as to spare even the best, if, by their destruction, a wild usurper could become God's anointed, and, by the most execrable wickedness, invest himself with that divine character.

This is the scope of the whole treatise; the writer gives such reasons as at present did occur unto him to prove it. This seems to agree with the doctrines of the most reverenced authors of all times, nations and religions. The best and wisest of kings have ever acknowledged it. The present king of France has declared, that kings have that happy want of power, that they can do nothing contrary to the laws of their country; and grounds his quarrel with the king of Spain, anno 1667, upon that principle. King James, in his speech to the parliament, anno 1603, doth in the highest degree assert it: The scripture seems to declare it. If nevertheless the writer was mistaken, he might have been refuted by law, reason, and scripture; and no man, for such matters, was ever otherwise punistied, than by being made to see his error: and it has not (as I think) been ever known, that they had been referred to the judgment of a jury, composed of men utterly unable to comprehend them.

But there was little of this in my cafe; the extravagance of my prosecutors goes higher: the above-mentioned treatise was never finished, nor could be in many years, and most probably would never have been. So much as is of it was written long since, never reviewed nor shewn to any man; and the fiftieth part of it was not produced, and not the tenth of that offered to be read. That which was never known to those who are said to have conspired with me, was said to be intended to stir up the people in prosecution of the designs of those conspirators.

When, nothing of particular application to time, place, or person, could be found in it, (as has ever been done by those who endeavoured to raise insurrections) all was supplied by inuendo's.

Whatsoever is said of the expulsion of Tarquin; the insurrection against Nero; the slaughter of Caligula, or Domitian; the translation of the crown of France from Meroveus his race to Pepin, and from his descendants to Hugh Capet, and the like, wasapplied by inuendo to the king.

They have not considered, that if such acts of state be not good, there is not a king in the world that has any title to the crown he wears; nor can have any, unless he could deduce his pedigree from the eldest son of Noah, and (hew that the succession had still continued in the eldest of the eldest line, and been so deduced to him.

Every one may fee what advantage this would be to all the kings of the world; and whether, that failing, it were not better [XXVI] for them to acknowledge they had received their crowns by the consent of willing nations; or to have no better title to them than usurpation and violence, which by the same ways may be taken from them.

But I was long since told that I must die, or the plot must die.

Lest the means of destroying the best protestants in England should fail, the bench must be filled with such as had been blemishes to the bar.

None but such as these would have advised with the king's council of the means of bringing a man to death; suffered a jury to be packed by the king's solicitors, and the under-sheriff*; admit of jurymen who are not freeholders ; receive such evidence as is above-mentioned; refus e a copy of an indictment, or suffer the statute of 46 Edward III. to be read, that doth expressly enact, it should in no cafe be denied to any man upon any occasion whatsoever; over-rule the most important points of law without hearing. And whereas the statute, 25 Edward III. upon which they said I should be tried, doth reserve to the parliament all constructions to be made in points of treason, they could assume to themselves not only a power to make constructions, but such constructions as neither agree with law, reason, or common sense.

By these means I am brought to this place. The Lord forgive these practices, and avert the evils that threaten the nation from them. The Lord sanctify these my sufferings unto me; and tho' I fall as a sacrifice to idols, suffer not idolatry to be established in this land. Bless thy people, and save them. Defend thy own cause, and defend those that defend it. Stir up such as are faint; defend those that are willing; confirm those that waver; give wisdom and integrity unto all. Order all things so as may most redound to thine own glory. Grant that I may die glorifying thee for all thy mercies, and that at the last thou hast permitted me to be singled out as a witness of thy truth, and even by the confession of my opposers, for that Old Cause in which I was from my youth engaged, and for which thou hast often and wonderfully declared thyself.