sought to be remedied The Statute of 27 H. 8 cap. 10. for transferring of uses in possession making great alterations in Mens Estates did after many savings and provisoes ordain That all lawful Wills and Testaments made or to be made before the first day of May 1536. should be of the same force as they were forty years before notwithstanding the said Act and that Actions then depending should not be abated or discharged by reason of the executing of any Estate by Authority of the said Act. The Act for Inrollments of Deeds of Bargain and Sale made in the same year and Parliament was ordained not to take effect until after the last day of July which should be in the said year The Statute of 5 6 E. 6. c. 16. forbidding the buying and selling of Offices concerning Administration of Justice doth expresly provide That all Acts or things before done in the execution of such Offices should be good until the parties offending contrary to that Act be removed out of their places and that all Bargains and Contracts made for Offices before the first day of March then next coming should be in such force and effect as if that Act had never been made And all our Acts of Parliament which were not private or by way of pardon for Offences past have until the Act of Attainder of the Earl of Strafford in Anno 1641. Wherein there was a Proviso That it should not afterwards be made or taken to be a precedent been made and ordained for the future and in all their Orders and Prohibitions looking forward and for the time to come and not seldom prefixing a day or time when the Act should begin to take effect And for fear least any particular should be damaged in their intentions and care of the general have besides a saving of other mens rights been loaded with as many Provisoes to that purpose as any their cares or forecast could possibly put them in minde of Wherin we may hope that our no foolish Ancestors though some of their ingrate and less wise Posterity have been pleased to think them otherwise did neither erre in following the opinion of Saint Paul That by the Law is the knowledge of sin and we had not known sins but by the Law And the guidance of Gods Holy Laws and Ordinances or that which the Light of Nature and Laws of all other Nations where Justice and Reason had any acquaintance could as well as their own instruct them For if Laws which are rightly and generally defined to be Praecepta quaedam à recta ratione tracta deducta honesta imperantia turpia prohibentia certain Rules and Precepts drawn and deduced from right reason commanding good and honest things to be done and forbidding the contrary should like Janus whose retrospection was but feigned as a loving farewel to the year past look backward as well as forward and claw and fall upon all that was past and behinde them they would as to what is past cease to be Laws and instead of preventing evil and doing good prove to be no better then snares to catch and surprise men in their past and innocent actions before such Laws came to be known or made against them make the time past out of a time to come and be as to what is past or had been done before as Laws altogether impossible to be kept and as never known or published and the punishments or evils hapning upon them as inflicted for Offences before any Law was made to make or declare them to be so and be in the birth and making of them like some fierce and pitiless winds broke loose into the world which with some benefit they bring along with them in other things do at the same time break overturn and throw down all that are near or about them contrary to the care and love which God himself was pleased to shew to his people Israel in the making and giving of his Laws to whom intending to deliver his Laws with great terrors and majesty in Mount Sinai to the end they might hear and obey them he did three days before give them warning to set bounds before them and take heed that they came not near the Mountain least they or their Cattle should perish or be consumed And contrary to the rules of all the Intellect and right reason which God hath hitherto blessed the World withal and the rule and reason of all the Laws of God Nature and Nations Civil Common or Cannon But if there were nothing of ill example or consequence which might happen by this proposed retrospection in the making of other Laws Such as inforced Retrospection of Deeds and Evidences already past and executed which could never yet deserve to have any entertainment or to be so much as heard or mentioned in Senates will bring a very great charge and trouble to the people to Register their former Deeds and Evidences which were before as strong and valid as the Law and the best Council they could get could make them and to or from which such Registring by Act of Parliament without a judicial examination of the cause and hearing of the parties concerned on both sides can neither adde or diminish Or if they shall be pretended to be onely inforced to be Registred to prevent frauds and inconveniences for the future by former Bargains or Dispositions which do so seldom happen to Purchasers and Money-lenders as there is not one in every thousand which comes to any loss or mischances by them will as to Fines and Recoveries Judgments Statutes Recognisances and many Deeds which are Inrolled without some of which no Land or almost Bargain of consequence doth pass from one man to another Actum agere and altogether needless for that they being the greatest incumbrances to be feared are better Registred already then they are like to be by the Proposers And for such Deeds or Evidences which the owners were unwilling to be at the charge of Inrolling as not being necessary they are not like to bring any disturbance or inconveniencies to Purchasors who by the Fines and Recoveries onely which in every purchase or mortgage of any considerable value are sure not to be omitted may if nothing else were to be found upon Record though very many Deeds of Uses Trusts Intails Releases and of other special concernments are for preservation most commonly to be found Inrolled easily understand there hath been some former disposition or alteration of the Estate which is to be suspected or looked after And for the greatest part of them are so little wanting to themselves in their purchases or lending out moneys as they do not onely then and at all other times before hand summon in and be speak all the cares diligences and jealousies possible of themselves and their Counsel learned but make out all manner of Inquiries and Scrutinies concerning the title and value of the Lands call for and peruse the
per pound for the other hundred besides other charges Which Writ of Extent being returned and filed in the Petibag is the Warrant for a Liberate directed to the Sheriff to give possession of the Land extended which is but many times the beginning of a greater charge in bringing Audita Quaerela's or Bills in Chancery When as it is in every year to be proved and acknowledged for a truth That of Eight hundred Actions or Writs issuing forth of the Court of Common Pleas or Upper Bench in a year in some one particular County for Debt upon Bonds or Bills or in some other Personal Actions there are no Warrants taken out to Arrest above Six hundred of them in regard of the Defendants speedy Agreement and of those Six hundred not above Three hundred are Arrested or come to enter their appearance and of those not above a half come to plead or make any defence and not the on half of them do afterwards come to tryal at the Assises and not a fifth part of those do come to move in Arrest of Judgment or sue out Writs of Error or put in Bills in Chancery And those that do not proceed so far as to Arrest do not put the Plaintiff or Defendant to so much as Ten shillings a peice charges the second sort including the former charges not Twenty shillings a piece if the Defendant be not a desperate fighter and hard to be taken and the third sort if there be no special or long Pleadings not above Thirty shillings in all and the fourth sort or such as come to tryal not above four or five pounds with all the charges reckoned together besides that of Witnesses or extraordinary Counsel so little is the expence of time and money in the present way or course of suing upon Bonds and Bills and other Personal Actions And so much is like to be the delay and charges and vexation of that which some would so willingly have to succeed it But if the trouble and charge of Certificates into the Chancery and suing out of Audita Quaerela's and such a generation of Suits as are like to happen by such a severe kinde of Securities shall be endeavored to be prevented by making every Registry to be a Court of Record and to have something to hear and determine as well as to Write and Register CHAP. VI. Of new Courts or Judicatories to be erected in every County to hear and determine Causes THere will be then Fifty two Judicatories or Inferior Courts more then are already erected one of which to be added to every County in England and Wales will come before they will be welcome or wanted for every Shire in England hath already the Summer and Winter Assises Quarter Sessions four times in every year County Courts every moneth Sheriffs Turns Courts Leet and Baron and weekly or three weeks Courts in its City or Towns Corporate amounting in every County to no less then Two hundred one with another which being in the wisdom of former ages and some hundreds of years past and every years experience since sound to be in their due limits and bounds very necessary and useful do make as many Law-days and meetings for the people as they have need of To help which new Courts or Judicatories to work or business if Bonds and Bills which they would have the Registring of or any other of the Causes or Matters which are and have hitherto been from time to time dispatched by the Courts at Westminster when they had before the Wars and Troubles of these later times almost half as much or as many again as they have now with good content and conveniency to the people and to all who have had occasion to seek for or attend their Justice if those that are ignorant or peevishly self-conceited or discontented because their desires or unjust expectations have been frustrated in some Actions or Suits which they prosecuted or defended would but let Reason or Truth be judge of their Mistaken-apprehensions and not lay their own or other mens errors or failings upon the Courts or Judges shall be transferred and carried into these County Judicatories from the more knowing and Superior Courts and Judges at Westminster who besides their well-known learning and justice in all Causes which are brought before them may for an evidence or testimony of the peoples approbation of them call to witness the many causes which for many ages together and in every year are and have been removed from the Inferior Courts to the Superior for want of Justice and the many Juries and Tryals at their Bars which by consent both of Plaintiffs and Defendants are yearly and termly brought from the Counties as well near as remote to be heard by the more learned sort of Judges and Courts And put unto the Judgment and determination of the less or very little or not at all able or knowing will stop up the ways of the places of the paths where Wisdom and Justice made their constant habitation deprive and take away if they shall not be impowred to try by Juries from every man so much of his part and interest in Magna Charta as the want of his tryal by his Peers or a Jury will come to put the spear of the mighty into the hands of those that are not able to weild or manage it inforce the people to inquire of the blind and deaf the way to make an end of their controversies by carrying their causes to such as are not able to judge or determine them which may after the expence of much money time and labor yield them as good a Crop or Harvest as Ulysses had when he counterseited himself to be mad by Ploughing the Sand or Shore with his strange kinde of Cattle and sowing of Salt instead of Corn. Or if the Sheriffs Turns and County Courts shall be put into the power and care of those Judicatures That ancient and necessary Officer of Justice and the execution of the Law will be made either to be as nothing or but the one half of what it was formerly and ought to be and the whole frame of that ancient and useful Jurisdiction put into disorder or dissolved or if the Hundred Courts Leet and Baron will take away the inheritance right and property of the Lords of Manors and the necessary relations and dependences which are and ought to be betwixt them and their Tenants contrary to Magna Charta and the whole tenor of our Laws and Liberties Or if these new Judicatories shall as the Systeme-makers had for the setting up of others not long ago contrived be made up of several parts or pieces and torn or taken out of that goodly order and frame of our Laws and Body Politick or as the Romans did in their original contempt and poverty in the getting the Sabine and Neighbor Virgins to be their Wives sally out upon other Jurisdictions and Ravish and take to themselves what
THE Reforming Registry OR A Representation of the very many mischiefs and Inconveniences which will unavoidably happen by the needless chargeable and destructive way OF Registries Proposed to be erected in every County of England and Wales for the Recording of all Deeds Evidences Bonds Bills and other Incumbrances Written in the year 1656 when Oliver and the Levelling-Party made it their Design to ruine Monarchy the Laws of the Nation and the impoverished Loyal party and is now published to prevent the more then a few Evils and sad Consequences which may hereafter be introduced by it By Fabian Philipps Plato lib. 6. de Legibus Omnes eas leges colunt Innovare formidant in quibus educati sunt si illae divina quadam fortuna longis temporibus stabilitae fuerint LONDON Printed by Tho. Newcomb for the Author and are to be sold by Abel Roper at the sign of the Sun over against St Dunstans-Church in Fleet-street 1662. THE Contents of the CHAPTERS Chapter 1. THat the Registring or Inrolling of Deeds of Bargain and Sale whereby an Estate of Freehold doth pass is provided for by the Statute of 27 H. 8. cap. 16. wherein it being left to the peoples choyce where to Inroll them they have rather chosen to do it in Chancery and at London then in the several Counties p. 3. Chap. 2. The Inconveniences of an inforced Registry of such Deeds in the proper Counties pag. 8. Chap. 3. The Inconveniencies if all Deeds of Bargain and Sale shall be Enacted to have the force and effect of Fines with Proclamations or of Recoveries and to Bar as they doe pag. 20. Chap. 4. Of the Registring of all mens former Deeds or other Evidences if but for ten or twenty years past under a penalty to be otherwise of no effect or less then they would formerly have been pag. 31 Chap. 5. Of the Registring of all Bonds Bills Leases Releases Feoffments Contracts in writing and all other writings which may incumber reall or personal Estates pag. 49 Chap. 6. Of New Courts or Judicatories to be erected in every County to hear and determine Causes pag. 75 Chap. 7 That it is impossible to provide against all things which may happen to be Incumbrances pag. 87 Chap. 8. That if it could be possible the people will not willingly be at the trouble or charges in all their Contracts to search in so many County Registries to discover Incumbrances pag. 92 CHAP. I. That the Registring or Inrolling of Deeds of Bargain and Sale whereby an Estate of Freehold doth pass is provided for by the Statute of 27 Hen. 8. cap. 16. Wherein it being left to the Peoples choice where to Inrol thâ—â— they have rather chosen to do it in Chancery and at London then in the several Counties THe erecting of Offices for the Registring of Deeds and Conveyances Indented in every County by which any Estate of Freehold or Inheritance is to pass or be conveyed by Bargain and Sale will be needless For that by the Statute of 27 H. 8. c. 16. which is yet in force and unrepealed it is already provided for And being ever since now almost One hundred and fifty years ago left to the Peoples liberty Whether they will Inrol with the Clerk of the Peace in every County or in the Chancery and Courts of Record at Westminster They have so much liked of the better and more proper way of Inrolling in Chancery being the Officina Justiciae of the Nation the Repository of most of the Records of it and into which many of the greatest concernment are by Law and several Acts of Parliament certified and disliked the other as there is not one Deed or Indenture of that nature for every Hundred which are in the Chancery Inrolled in the Courts of Upper Bench Common Pleas and Exchequer by vertue of that Statute And not one almost in a year Inrolled with the Clerk of the Peace of every County where the Lands do lie either because where it was done in the proper County it was by that Statute appointed to be done by the Custos Rotulorum and two Justices of the Peace of the County and the Clerk of the Peace or two of them at the least whereof the Clerk of the Peace to be one who by their distances or remote Habitations were not often or easily to be found or got together or that the people were not so willing to trust their Deeds or Evidences or the Records thereof with the Clerks of the Peace as they are with an Officer of Trust in Chancery which being the Registry of the Supream Authority is a Court always open and kept in a known place of strength and security And was very long before in use and practice amongst them for the more sure keeping and memory of their Deeds and Evidences as Grants and Releases for Lands and the like amongst the Records of their Kings and Supream Magistrates where they thought them safest as may appear by the close Rolls in Chancery ever since the raign of King John and so frequently in the raign of King Henry the Seventh being forty years before the making of the said Statute of 27 H. 8. as there are many Deeds of Bargain and Sale of Lands Releases of Right and Title to Lands Deeds of Gift or Bargains and Sales of Goods and Chattels Bonds for payment of Money Acquittances for Money paid Letters of Attorney and Agreements betwixt private persons to be seen Recorded and Inrolled in the close Rolls of 8 H. 7. with the now usual Form or Memorandums that the Parties acknowledging did come into the Chancery and acknowledge them c. And which was anciently held to be so much assistant and contributing to the welbeing and preservation of Mens Deeds by Inrollments or Records or Exemplifications made thereof as it was in 20 E. 1. adjudged That if a Deed be shewed in Court or be in the custody thereof and the Seal be by mischance broken off the Court shall Inroll the Deed for the avail of the Party Which is not onely an evident Demonstration of the Peoples long approving of the one and disallowing of the other but of the ease and benefit which they have had by Inrolling of their Deeds in Chancery and the Courts at London And therefore every mans private Deeds and Conveyances being to take their Original and Principal force from the Parties consent and contract and the confirmation and power which the Laws of God Nature and Nations and the Common and Statute Laws of this Nation hath allowed them in making them to be of force and valid The Act of Parliament of 27 H. 8. 16. for Inrolling of Deeds as aforesaid being made in the same Parliament when the Statute of 27 Hen. 8. 10. for transferring of Uses into Possession was Enacted did in the supplying of many defects in Deeds of Bargain and Sale of and concerning Freehold and Inheritance and the want of Livery and Seisin and Attornment Not
forbid or take away the use and force of Fines and Recoveries Leases with Releases and Feoffments with Livery and Seisin which in the extent and validity thereof are far better Assurances but onely ordain That all Deeds whereby Estates of Inheritances or Freehold should pass or or be altered or changed from one to another by way of Bargain and Sale should not be good unless they should be Indented and Inrolled as that Act appointed and restraining onely the execution and effect thereof to the Inrolment within the time prefixed did leave the people to Inrol them where it might seem best or their own conveniences perswade them Wherefore an Inforced Registry or Inrolment of all such Deeds in the proper Counties if it should keep within the bounds of that Act and onely injoyn Inrolments of Deeds by Indenture where Estates of Freehold and Inheritance are to pass by way of Bargain and Sale will unavoidably produce many Inconveniences CHAP. II. The inconveniencies of an inforced Registry of such Deeds in the proper Counties THey will be illiterately carelesly and ill-favoredly Registred and kept in the proper Counties if either the pay or number of them shall not come up to the care and time are to be bestowed upon them or receive no other or greater Fees then are allowed by that Statute for Inrollments As it hath demonstrably already hapned in the taking and inrolling of Statutes Merchant by the Majors of the Staple in all Cities Burroughs and good Towns and their Officers thereunto appointed by vertue of the Statutes or Acts of Parliament of Acton Burnel in 11 E. 1. and the Statute de Mercatoribus in 13 E. 1. which have since the erecting of the Statute Office at London by the Statute of 23 H. 8. 6. to attend the Lord Cheif Justices of the Court of Upper Bench or Common Pleas and in their absence the Major of the Staple at Westminster and Recorder of London For acknowledging of Statutes for Debts have been so much disused and the course of Statutes Merchant which are yet in force for Merchandise so neglected as there are above a hundred such Statutes entred to or for every one Statute Merchant And whereas the Clerk of the Statutes who was by that Act of Parliament ordered to reside at London doth fairly and orderly enter and keep his Books and Records and after certain years lodg and lay them up for safety in the Tower of London It will upon search and inquiry appear that notwithstanding every Statute whether for Merchandise or otherwise is to be duly Inrolled by the Clerks or Officers upon pain of forfeiting of Twenty pounds for every Statute not entred or Inrolled there can be found very few of the Rolls or Books of the Statutes Merchant since 23 H. 8. and none at all of those that were taken and Inrolled in Two hundred years before The difference betwixt the now Statute Office which is inperpetual succession to such a capital City and superior Courts as the City of London and the Courts of Upper Bench and Common Pleas and annexed as it were unto them and the Town Clerks or Majors or Constables of the Staple in the other Cities and Corporations which do so often change and are by election as they become little more then as private persons giving us the reason why those Writings or Records in their custody coming afterwards through so many changes to so many several hands as they do can no way as it seems escape imbezelling We may well enough believe that the same fate may attend these Country Registers if they shall not be made to be as a Court of Record and in perpetual Succession and if they shall be made to be as so many Judicatures and Courts of Record will be the cause of more inconveniences to the people then the loss and imbezeling of their Records or Inrollments can come unto The City of London which did use to Inroll such Deeds in the Hustings and divers other Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate who did use to do the like and had therefore their Rights expresly saved by the Proviso of that Act of Anno 27 Henry the Eight for Inrollments and that it should not extend to any Manors Lands Tenements or Hereditaments within the said Cities Boroughs or Towns Corporate for that they did anciently and before the making of that Act use to Inroll such Deeds will by these new Registries without any forfeiture or cause given to loose them be deprived of those their very ancient Rights and Liberties Such a constrained way of Registring of Deeds of Bargain and Sale which concern onely Estates of Freehold and Inheritance will be very inconvenient to Purchasors who most commonly do reside at or near London or Trade or come thither where the richest and most moneyed men and Purchasors amongst the people are to be found and whose Inhabitants or near dwellers do amount to almost the one half of the Commonwealth and added to such as upon Merchandise or other occasions do come thither and pass to and fro from Ireland Scotland and other Foreign parts will make up in number as many as the whole people of the Nation and be not a little prejudicial to such also as live in the Countreys more remote who for any thing of value do usually either come themselves on purpose to London or employ their Attorneys or Lawyers to procure their Conveyances to be there made where the best of Lawyers and most variety are most easily to be found and advised withal in the Term times to travel or send to those several Counties where the Lands do lie to have their Deeds Inrolled or for such as dwell and purchase in remote Counties either to content themselves at home with such Counsel oâ— Lawyers which the Country affords and adventure their Estates and Security upon it or go on purpose or send to London to have their Conveyances made and when they are brought home send to the Shire-Town to finde the Register or some before whom to acknowledge the Deed which may happen to be many miles distant from him and for them that buy in London to be at the charge to carry those that do sell and live as far as Yorkshire or other remote places or make their bargain in London for Lands lying in Wales or the West part of England into that Country where the Lands do lie And send or travel to Inroll a Deed for every parcel of Land in its several County the Lands therein sometimes extending into three or four Counties and many times into more then one when as now one uninconvenient charge to Inroll it at London will serve for Lands in all the Counties mentioned in the same Deed. Or upon any Suit or occasion at London or Westminster Hall where all the Suits and Actions of concernment are amongst many other businesses most commonly and commodiously dispatched at one and the same time by the Nobility Gentry Merchants Tradesmen
known to be in use long before and ever since the Conquest and which without any strained guess or conjecture and with more probability for it then against it may to such as know that our Fines are Recorded as an Agreement betwixt the Parties acknowledged in the Court of Common Pleas before the Judges Et multis aliis fidelibus ibi praesentibus and many other good people there present seem either to be deduced or very much to resemble that manner of assurance or conveyance which Abraham had of Ephron the Hittite when he bought of him the Field of Ephron for a burying place for himself and his wife Sarah where after the Agreement or Bargain made for it the holy Scripture saith it was made sure To Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth before all that went in at the Gates of the City which was their Court of Justice will be taken away to give place to that will be a great deal dearer and a worse assurance then a Fine which as to the Indentures of Chyrograph if there were no other necessary foregoing Writs and Solemnities to make it legal and prevent counterfeiting would amount but unto about Five or Six shillings And if it shall be endeavored to be made equal with a Fine with Proclamations and as safe from Forgeries and be a bar as such Fines are should be read and proclaimed and hung up in Tables as Fines are to be read at the Assizes in the County where the Land lies and be also hung up in Tables at Westminster-Hall and read and proclaimed in open Court or some eminent place in four Terms after the Ingrossing or acknowledging of it to the end that such as are for ever to be concluded by it may not pretend ignorance And yet if that were done there cannot be in a Deed inrolled reasonably supposed That Ground or Reason which besides the parties agreement and consent appears to be in a Fine or Recovery viz. That it is done upon a Demand Suit or Action and Interpleading in the Court of Common Pleas whereby the parties are for ever bound and debarred to say It was not so by the strength and power of a double Estoppel in so high a Court of Record against the Record whereof there can be no Averment For all our former Acts of Parliament do in their Preambles which are to be as the Keys to open and expound the minde and intention of the Makers and to bring the Act it self unto a reasonable Exposition most commonly if the Reason it self were not obvious not onely take care to express and declare the reason and cause of that which was commanded or forbidden but made every thing that was to be done in order to such prohibition or command to carry and bring along his reason with it whereby to make known its consistence and agreeableness with right Reason Which being the ground foundation and support of all Laws is so every where visible in our Laws where time hath not made some alteration of that which was before the basis and reason of it as every thing therein if not mistaken by ignorance or such as make too much haste to censure or condemn it before it be heard or understood may upon due examination some small or very inconsiderable defects perhaps or redundancies which the greatest perfections under the Sun are to be allowed onely excepted not onely justifie it self but condemn those that have been too busie in finding fault with it it being a never failing principle in the Laws that Ratio Legis is Anima Legis and gives life and being to it And therefore it will be a dangerous president and of ill consequence that Acts or things in Law grounded upon several Reasons and very much differing in the Magis and Minus or extent thereof should be made to be of one and the same operation and effect As that a Grant by Copy of Court-Roll should pass an estate of Freehold as well as Copihold a Fine levied by Tenant in Tail bar a stranger in Remainder as immediately as it doth the issue of his body or that a General Plea or Issue Not guilty the manifold inconveniences whereof have all over England been sufficiently experimented should carry and amount to as much as all other more legal Pleas and Issues or that any thing of an inferior consideration shall be of the same effect as a superior or more weighty As that the sign Manual or Privy Seal of the Supream Magistrate shall be as binding as the Great Seal of England that an Interlocutory sentence shall be as much as a Decree Sentence or Judgment upon a full hearing or debate that an acquittance without Hand and Seal or words of Release of all Actions shall be of the force of a Release of all Actions under Hand and Seal a Lease Parol or by word of mouth or a Deed Poll should be as much as by Indenture that a contract or promise of Marriage before two witnesses shall be as much as a Marriage duly solemnized and that things said or spoken without Oath shall be as much aupon Oath All which would be against that right Reason which do usually accompany our Laws Women Covert who upon levying of Fines were to be examined whether they did freely consent or do it must now sign and seal the Deed to be Inrolled as well as their Husbands if Dower be to be barred and examined as they were wont to be upon levying of Fines for by Law they are not barred by a Deed Inrolled in regard of their Coverture Deeds of Bargain and Sale covinously or deceitfully gained by greedy and insinuating oppressors in taking advantages and working upon mens necessities or gotten by cheating Gamesters of some yong Gentlemen who many times loose their Lands before they finde their wits or some fawning Cormorant Citizens who gets into such witless mens Estates upon kindly supplying their wants with a Knavish bargain of Beaver-Hats St. Omers Onions Brown Paper Pack-thred and such like Trash or loosing Commodities shall have no remedy or relief in Chancery allowed them as formerly If that such Deeds inrolled shall have the force of Fines and Recoveries for that against Fines and Non-claims and Bars by Recoveries there can be no releif to be had in Conscience or Equity because it might otherwise be a means to impeach and open a gap to break into all other Mens Estates and Conveyances So as that which by these Proposals is pretended to be a way to prevent deceipt will in such or the like case become the greatest fortifier and defender of it Such a transferring of the power of Fines and Recoveries into Registred Deeds may hereafter much prejudice and terrifie such as by this new way of Registring shall have deserted the suing out of Fines and Recoveries If another Parliament either in this or any future ages shall happen to repeal or take it away or the
part of what is designed could be feasible and that there could be at every Shire-Town such a rare Glass or Perspective at the peoples charge as they pretend to make for them the most part of the people will when all is done be like to do but as they do already which is not in one of every 500 Bargains or lending of Money or Contracts which they make unless where they have to do with some very much inoumbred and indebted persons and Estates to busie themselves or their purses in searching for Judgments Statutes or Recognisances or Scriveners Books or what Fines are leavied or deeds inrolled though the searches be not either very troublesome or costly but rather tarry at home and believe one another satisfie themselves by private informations and inquiries and take as they have all this while done covenants or collateral securities to be freed from incumbrances or upon any probability of distrust cause them to be discovered upon oath or be as unwilling to be at the labour and charge to prevent such seldom happening frauds or the wrongs which they may receive by them as they are in multitudes of deceits cozenings and cheatings which every week or oftener are put upon most or many buyers at markets and in the trading and commerce of most men one with another though the Laws have provided several sorts of remedies and reliefs and the Court Leets and Sheriffs Torns twice a year holden to enquire amongst other things of those or the like frauds and some of the Buyers as well as the Sellers the cozened and the cozening those that commit the frauds and deceipts and those that suffered by them are not seldom sworn and impannelled in Juries to present them and every one or too many as it is to be feared do buy by false weights and measures which the Office of the Clerk of the Markets and the care which should attend it and the punishments of Pillory and other severities ordered by our Laws against the offenders have not been able to restrain and yet by course or custom do too contendedly endure it or not put themselves to the trouble of complaining of it which until a glass or Christal or window can be contrived in every mans heart and head to be looked into to discern their hearts and purposes and their intentions made unalterable as Thales one of the seven wise men of Greece being appointed by Apollo with some other wise men and Philosophers to reform the world in that Learned and pleasant Mythologie of Traiano Boccalini had proposed to be made will render this design of preventing all or many frauds and freeing all mens estates and assurances from incumbrances to as little purpose as the great care which was taken by Edward the third and his Parliament in Anno 27 of his Raign to have Correctors in every City and Town of the Staple to make and record Bargains between Buyers and Sellers now and long since if ever put in execution utterly disused and believed to be more troublesome then necessary or or as Mr Henry Robinson's kinde Office of Addresses or helps to borrow or lend moneys buy or sell or rent Land or Houses help Men or Maids to services or any that want Solicitors for their Suites at Law cum multis aliis c. which being erected at his own charges some years ago the people who thought they could better do their business themselves though he was content to take for his Fees but what they themselves should think reasonable so little relished as he and some others who have since driven on that design of Publick Advice and Assistance have to their costs and charges found it to be onely an essay of their own invention which hath neither answered their charges or expectation Nor will this Design of Registring at all or in any thing gratifie or benefit the people who will thereby have their charge and trouble as greatly as needlesly multiplied and their Laws by degrees reduced into many little Courts and Iudicatories which will be as much for their good as those many grievances and oppressions heretofore put upon them by Lords and men of power and great Estates Sheriffs in their County Courts and Tornes Bailiffs and Stewards in the Court-Leets and Court Barons long agoe heavily complained of and by the care of many good Acts of Parliament at length remedied or bring the Commonalty of our more happy England into that servile and sad Condition of the Common people of France who having at one and the same time many perpetual Parliaments or Courts so called and a multitude of Baillages Seneschauses resorts and petty Jurisdictions with their numberless Presidents and Lievtenants Criminel and Civil and as many Appeals as their Contentions can possibly purchase are not seldom in the Chase of one another through their many inferior Courts to the Superior or Dernier resort with as little money left them as hopes of gaining any thing more then a repentance brought to a loss of much of their time as well as their estates And will gain as much hereby as to their needless charges as they would do if all the people of England from one year old to Fifty should be ordained to buy and weare Spectacles at more then the ordinary rate because such as live to be Fifty or threescore and upwards may have need to benefit and help their Eyes thereby or as the French do by way of imposition or Gabel of a certain proportion of Salt enforced upon every Family at the Kings Rates whenas many of the Common people have more salt then meat Or as to have it ordained that every Town and Village shall all along the High-wayes in the bounds of their Parishes keep a strong and constant Watch and Ward every day but Sundayes betwixt Sun-rising and Sun-setting to prevent Roberies and catch Thieves because sometimes upon Actions brought upon the Statutes of Winchester and for Hue and Cry the Inhabitants of some few hundreds are but selfom enforced to pay for the money goods or Cattel lost or that all Villages and Towns not having as there are very many any Physitians to cure diseases and Apothecaries with their Shops abundantly furnished with allmanner of medicaments to prepare and administer them should keep and maintain Physitians and Apothecarie at the chargeof the Inhabitants or the publick because that one part of three or a very great part of the people do die sooner then otherwise they would do or languish under long and incurable pains and Sicknesses and expend much money to no purpose for want of them or skill or care to prevent diseases or not seeking a cure by Physitians or Apothecaries dwelling far off before it be either a great deal more difficult or chargeable or impossible to be helped And as great advantages touching the preservation of their happy and well known and approved Laws and Liberties as the now and long agoe wandring and every-where dispised Iewes had by Crucifying their Saviour and letting loose Barabbas the Murtherer For the hoped for importation or our imitation of any such Forreign Customs or the expected fruit and benefit by this design of Registring whatsoever they shall be fancied to be beforehand until it shal otherwise be lamentably experienced will never be able to Ballance or Recompence the charges of one hundred thousand pounds per Annum pretended to be raised for the King as a constant and perpetual Revenue by that way of Registring and Nine or ten hundred thousand pounds per annum or a million of English monies which the people must pay for unnecessary Registring of many of their Deeds Writings and Contracts more then they did heretofore those other great disturbances ruines and alterations in the Nation troubles and charges in all mens Estates Businesses and Affairs which will arise and happen by it when as the Registring supposed to be such an Antidote against Incumbrances shall prove to be the cause not of a few but very many mischiefs inconveniences not incombrances and needless charges only in some one single case of a hundred or five hundred and seldom but for ever upon all the people of England not upon a part onely of their Estates but all and not upon all men for life or in tail or for a short time or but upon some of their Generations but until some good Angel or Act of Parliament by the mercy of him which dwelleth on High shall be sent to our Pool of Bethesda to recal and cure them remain as an estate in Fee Simple and perpetuity to all our posterities Quae procul a nobis Flectat Deus ipse Gubernans Et Ratio potius quam res persuadeat ipsa FINIS Cook 2 part Institutes 676. Hill 20 E. 1. in Banco Rot. â—00 Somerset §. 1. §. 2. § 3. §. 4. §. 5. §. 6. §. 7. § 8. §. 9. Gen. 23. 18. §. 10. §. 11. § 12. § 13. § 14. Doctor and Student 25. and Lib. 1. cap. 1. §. 15. § 16. §. 17. §. 18. Plowdâ—ns Comment 357 358. §. 19. Deut. 27. 8. Levit. 4. Levit. 18. Josh. 8. 1 Sam. 14. 15. Rom. 3. 20. Chap. 7. 7. Cicero Philip 11. Vida lib. 2. de dignitat Reipub. Exod. 20. 12 13. § 20. §. 21. § 22. § 24. Coke's 3 Reports Sir Will. Herberts Case 7 Reports Sir Thomas Cecils Case And 11 Reports Earl of Devonshire's Case § 25. § 26. § 27. § 28. § 29. § 30. § 31. § 32. § 33. § 34. § 35. § 36. § 37. § 38. § 39. § 40. § 41. § 42. § 43. § 44. § 45. § 4◠§ 47. § 48. § 49. Exod 22 v. 22 23 24. Exod. 22. v. 25 26 27. Deut. 24. v. 6 10. Matth. 5. v. 7 9. Gal. 5. v. 13 14 15. § 50. § 51. § 52. §. 53. §. 54. § 55. Prov. 5. 1 2. § 56. § 57. Sigonius de Antiquo jure Civium Rom. Lib. 2. cap. 7. 18. Et Lib. 1. de Repub. Atheniens Lib. 1. cap. 7 Plato lib. 2. de Legibus § 58. § 59 § 60. § 61. Cap. Smiths History of Virginia 223. §. 62.