assizes in those parts so as one of the said Justices assigned be Justice of the one Bench or the other or the Kings Serjeants sworn That of 20 R. 2. cap. 10. that two learned men in the Law Justices of the peace shall be in Commission of Goal delivery And of making the several Acts of Parliament 28 E. 1. cap. 14. 9 E. 2. cap. 4. 4 E. 3. cap. 5. 9. E. 3. cap. 3. 14 E. 3. cap. 7. 28 E. 3. cap. 7. 1 R. 2. cap. 11. 1 H. 4. cap. 4. That none should be Sheriffs and Bayliffs for above a year together or but such as had sufficient to answer the Complaints of the people that Bayliwicks and Hundreds should not be let to Farm at over great Rents that Sheriffs Clerks should not practise as Attorneys during their office the Act of Parliament in 28 E. 1. cap. 4. That the Chancellor and the Justices of the Kings Bench should follow the King that he might have at all times near unto him some that were Learned in the Laws which might be able daily to order such matters as should come unto the Court at all Times when need should require that of 28 E. 1. cap. 7. That the Constable of Dover should hold no pleas within the Castle gate but such as did belong to the keeping of the Castle that of 30 E. the first to question by Quo Warranto all liberties to which there could not be a good Title shewn for that to the King belonged the care of execution of Iustice And that of 9 E. 3. cap. 5. at the request of the Commons that Justices of Assize Goal delivery Oyer and Terminer should every year at Michaelmas send their records to the Exchequer And did put the Kings of this Nation into such a continual watchfullnesse and care of the due administration of Justice to be done in the Counties and remote parts of this Nation as the Justices of Assize never went their Circuits but they either attended the King or his Chancellor to know what special matters were to be given in charge to the people and did at their retorn upon any extraordinary thing that happened in their Circuits give him and his Council an account thereof and yet notwithstanding all this their care and the sending of Justices twice a year into every County which did much awe and keep in order those County Courts Sheriffs Turnes and the Actions of Stewards in their Court Leets and Court Barons and that the wisdom of former times took all the care they could to have the hundred Courts Courts Leet and Courts Baron Countie Courts and Sheriffs Turnes to be executed by able and honest men as we may see in the reign of King Henry the first who would not allow viles inopes personas to be Legum Judices or Stultos aut Improbos sed optimates qui non personam sed opera dijudicent And that Bayliffs were long after in ll H. r. c. 9. 29. Characterd by Fleta to be moribus legibus pro officio sufficientes and the Stewards in legibus consuetudinibusque Fleta lib. 20. 60 65. Provinciae officio Seneschalciae cognoscentes and that those Franchises and little Courts were forfeitable by a misuser of them all the care could be possiby taken to prevent it nor the punishment or forfeiture which hung over them could not so restrain or keep them in order but that there were daily complaints made of them and writs obtained from the Kings Courts to remedy them as writs of right patent Ne injuste vexes supersedeas writs of right writs of Pone prohibitions writs of false judgement de executione judicii Recordares accedas ad Curiam Cerciorares habeas Corpora to remove causes Register of writs writs to take one in Witherman that would not suffer a man to be replevied and writts of Error to County Courts Insomuch as the people were in the sense of their own grievances which were never like to fail them in those inferior Courts and those natural inclinations and propensities which are in all Mankind to the best things and that which may soonest accomplish their ends so brought especially when they found that the Stewards or Judges of those inferior Courts could not hold any proportion or stand in the ballance with the Judges at Westminster by degrees to a contempt and waving of the Countie Courts Court Barons and Hundred Courts as they became to be generally disused or laid aside the people seldome appearing at them when they were summoned and the Stewards as seldom keeping of them For though it must be confessed that it may be possible thatsome few men may by such new Countie Courts save some labour charges or trouble for once or a a little while as their particular cases or conveniences neighbourhood or conditions of adversaries may happen to be for no doubt but there were some that did find good by the Courts of Star-Chamber and High Commission and the Courts of Honour and Marshal sea and of the Marches of Wales and the North in every year of their many years or ages continuance though they were afterwards taken away as grievances yet those particular benefits which some few of the People shall receive by these new to be erected Courts will or can as little assure them or their own posterity from meeting at some other time with those many inconveniences may happen unto them afterwards as it will do Thousands more than themselves and the whole body of the people that shall be prejudiced by it in the general for all that are or may be benefits to some particular men or places have neither a possibility or capacity of being so in the general and to all people of the Nation or to those very individuals at all times or upon all occasions and therefore the making of a Law to forbid all usury or taking profit for mony lent would not be profitable to the people in general nor to those men that at once might perhaps save some money in the payment of their debts when they shall be more troubled after upon their next occasions or want to borrow mony than that amounted unto nor would it be for a publick or general good that every Town or Village in the Nation should have a Market kept every week it though it might be good for some solitary Towns in a Forrest or upon the Woalds to have it so nor would the Country people that can be sometimes content to supply their present or lesser occasions by the Pedlars at their own doors be well pleased that they should therefore be restrained from seeking better upon their greater disbusements or occasions at the well-furnished Shops in the Cities or that they should have a Monopoly of only selling to them the worser sort of commodities Wherefore let any men of Learning reason or impartiality judge if all this would not do when the little Courts could not proceed in any Action
8th Commandement in the Decalogue a second time with his own Finger That the Judges and professors of the Law and also all Persons interessed or concerned in any losse may happen by any alteration thereof may be heard or advised withall in what particulars may be charged aâ—â—â—â—â—â— the Laws in being or thought fit for reformation and to take into their consideration That in the reformation in the Body natural the Cure is never gone about by a total dissolution nor any part of it intendedly cut off even in case of Gangrene where there is any hope to keep life or to cure without it That the Petitions which have been against the Laws are not the voice or general outcry of the People in their several Counties or made by the consent or approbation of the major or any considerable part of them but are an Engine or Artifice of some people never made use of till these times of Troubles to advance their designs and conveniences and bring ruine to others by petitioning in the names of a whole County or Province of which many times not one in every thousand of the Inhabitants ever knew or heard any thing before of it Too many of the Petitions concerning publique affairs having been of late and for some years past made and framed by a few in the name of many and many times not in the place or County from whence they seem to come 20000 hands said to be subscribed when there was not so many scores of those many ignorant peoples names or marks put to it that were meerly led or seduced unto it eighty Schools Boys have at once subscribed their names to a Petition by the procurement of their School Master some have had their names subscribed when they were never privy unto it and others that could not write or read have been drawn to suffer their names to go along with a Petition was for other matters than they were informed of And that if all the People of this Nation were but freely called together by Tribes and Wards or Centuries to give their votes concerning our Laws as the People of Rome k were to peruse and approve the Laws of the Ten Tables brought from Athens and to speak and give their voices as freely as they did then there would be one thousand for or to every one that should appear against it would not only consent to the continuance of the Laws and Court of Iustice we have in being but be most earnest Petitioners for them And would be pleased if upon a free full hearing as hath been lately granted in the matters of Tithes any thing shall be found fit to be abrogated or taken away they to consider That in the Acts of Parliament of 27 Henry 8. cap. 28. 31 Henry 8. cap. 13. Touching the dissolution of Abbies there is a saving of all Corodies profits pensions due to any other than the Donors their Heirs Abbots Abbesses c. In the Act for establishing Laws Ordinances in Wales 34 35 Hen. 8. cap. 26. There is a saving for the Kings Officers for their Offices and Fees In the power given by Parliament to Queen Mary in the first year of her reign to dissolve alter unite or put into one the Courts of first fruits Wards Surveys Augmentation and Dutchy of Lancaster there is an expresse saving of all annuities pensions fees stipends or sums of money which they might or ought lawfully to have by any letters patents or grant of the said Court of Augmentation And that if the Queen should annex any of the said Courts to the Exchequer it should be with a saving to all persons of all Offices of keepers of Chases Parks Houses and the profits thereof and all Rents Annuities Fees c. with a provisoe that that Act should not extinguish or take away from any person any Fees or Sums of Money which they Lawfully had before the seventh of Iuly then last past That in the dissolution of the Abhies by Hen. 8. provision was made and pensions given for life to such as had places or imployments in them as to Readers Curats c. and the like and Corodies or provision of diet made into a yearly pension granted out of Abbies and Priories saved to those that had right to them many of which are to this day enjoyed by the purchasers of them That in the Act of Parliament 3 Jacobi cap. 16. For the bringing of the new river water to London recompence and amends was to be made and given before hand to such as should be endamaged by it That in the Act of Parliament 7 Iacobi cap 19 for the continuance repair of a Weare upon the River of Exe near the City of Excester recompence is provided for any that shall be losers thereby for that as the words of the Act are it standeth with the rule of Equity and Iustice that those which should receive so great benefit by it should yeeld competent and sufficient recompence to such as should sustain any losse or detriment thereby That in the putting down of Episcopacy in Scotland in the late King reign the Parliament of Scotland did think fit to allow to the Bishops yearly pensions or maintenance during their lives and suffered them to enjoy it That in the last Parliament of England satisfaction was promised to the Officers and Clerks of the Court of Wards upon the dissolution thereof and so much intended as the Lord Say and Sr Penjamin Rudiard had some thousands of pounds paid or promised unto them and a Committee was appointed to consider of the value of every Clerks place and their losses sustained by it The Wives and Children of Ministers that were put out of their Benefices and of Delinquents were allowed a fifth part of their Husbands estate And that in the Proposals or Petitions for taking away of Tithes there is a desire or intention to give to them a maintenance equivalent by some other way That in the Act of the Parliament 29 May 1649. for the draining of the Lincoln Shire and Cambridge Shire Fenns the Commissioners have power to make satisfaction to such persons whose Interest or Lands shall be made worse in quality or condition by the draining of them proportionable to their losse and damage That 2 Reg. 23. 9. Iosias king of Iuda in his reformation and turning to the Lord with all his Soul and with all his might did breaking down the high places permit the Priests though Causers of grosse Idolatry and more peccant than any which do now belong to the Law to eat of the unleavened bread among their Brethren That by the rule of our Saviour Christ in the Gospel we are to do as we would be done unto And that the promise in the first Act of this Parliament to be as carefull of the Peoples property and liberty as of their own lives and estates will not be performed without having rightly informed themselves before hand of what they would put down or alter hearing those that are concerned and giving them a just recompence for what shall be thought fitting to be taken away Which if for a general good may for such part of the Law as shall be found fit to be abrogated or taken away be done With content to all People and according to natural and common equity By a Publique and general Assessment or some other way of certain satisfaction for it That so there may be a mutual preservation of the people no sighing of multitudes of poor or broken in Spirit nor complaining in our Streets FINIS By the Authors absence from the Presse the Errata's following have escaped the Printer which the Reader is intreated to amend or supply IN Page 9. line 12. adde which in l. 33. dele for in p. 16. l. 7. r. Jesuitical in l. 33. r. and p. 17. l. 6. r. abstract in p. 19. l. 9. r. or for as in l. 10. r. the mistake of the Judges in p. 20. l. 1. r. and in p 20. l. 25. dele but in l. 32. r. now be had for it in p. 25. l. 8. r. may then in p. 26. in l. 3. of the title of Ch. V. r. of this in p. 26. l. 7. r. Syllan in l. 15. r. Reformation of in p. 28. l. 14. r. have been in p. 29. l. 1. r. and from in l. 10. r. they did not p. 31. l. 25. r or fit in p. 32. l. 19. r. it is p. 33. l. 1. r. new modeld in p. 34. l. 5. dele to in l. 6. r. Assistant in the latter end of l. 32. dele the in p. 35. l. 4. r. rightly in l. 10. dele and and r. can no more be kept from in l. 11. dele can no more be kept from and in l. 12. adde and in l. 12. dele save in l. 17. r. should in p. 36. dele and in p. 38. l. 23. adde that in p. 39. l. 26. r. Canon in p. 40. l. 23. r. will little help the busines l. 25. r. and to oppose l. 29. r. be in p. 41. l. 3. r. or if in l. 14. r. had advised in l. 25. r. that should in p. 47. l. 5. r. the in p. 49. l. 11. r. security in l. 33. r. and p. 50. l. 23. r. were in p. 51. l. 3. in the Margent r. 9 H. 3. cap. 11. in p. 54. l. 6. r. 27 H. 8. cap. 5. in p. 55. l. 21. r. Serjeant p. 57. l. 14. r. attachments upon l. 18. r. Withernam in p. 62. l. 9. r. to in p. 74. l. 6. r. Benjamin in l. 24. r. in in p. 69. l. 23. dele in adde in Anno in p. 46. l. 3. r. one hundred and Thirty thousand in p. 24. l. 16. r. allowed in l. 17 dele to Bricklayers and Carpenters
such as were not repleviseable and kept in prison such as were Beasts were distrayned and carried into another County Great men and their Bayliffs did attach and arrest others passing through their Jurisdiction and compelled them to answer upon Contracts covenants and Trespasses done out of their power and Jurisdiction 13 E. 1. cap. 13. Sheriffs did in their Turnes feign men to be indicted before them for felony and Trespasses and imprisoned them and exacted money of them when they were not lawfully indicted by Twelve Jurors Lords of Courts and others that kept Courts and Stewards cap. 36. intending to grieve their Inferiors did procure others to enter Actions in their Courts and to move matters against them and to put in sureties and pledges or to purchase writs and compel men to follow their Countie Courts Hundreds Wapentakes or other like Courts until they had made Fine at their will Sheriffs Hundredors and Bayliffs of liberties did use to grieve such as were in subjection to them putting in Assizes and Juries men diseased and decrepit and such as dwelt in other Counties to extort money from them and Bayliffs intending to grieve their Inferiors to the end they might exact money of them did send Strangers to take distresses by reason that the parties so distrained and not knowing such persons would not suffer the distresses to be taken 33 Ed. 1. Stewards and Bayliffs of great Lords did undertake to bear or maintain quarrels which concerned other parties 38 E. 3. Great cap. 3. men came armed and with power to disturb the execution of Justice 4 E. 3. cap. 11. Diverse as well great men as other made Alliances confederacies and conspiracies to maintain parties pleas and quarrels whereby divers were wrongfully dis-inherited ransomed and destroyed 14 Ed. 3. cap. 16. Enquests and Juries were taken in diverse Counties where no Justice did come to the great mischief of the Parties that did sue as also of the good people that were impannelled and Sheriffs did let their Hundred Courts at great rates to the impoverishing and oppression of the People 17 E. 3. The Rot. Parl. in 38. Commons Petition that excessive Fines imposed on them by such as have Leets might be redressed 20 Ed. 3. cap. 6. Bayliffs of Franchises and their under-ministers did commit maintenance and imbracery of Jurors and took gifts rewards and other profits which they did take to array pannels and to execute them to the subversion of the Laws and disturbance of Common right 31. Ed. 3. cap. 15. Sheriffs held their Turnes in time of Harvest and hindred the people 20 Rich. 2. cap. 10. Notorious Theeves were delivered by favourable inquests procured to the great hinderance of the people Lords cap. 3. and other great men did use to sit upon the Bench with Iustices of Assize 17. Ed. 4. cap. 2. Courts of Pypowder were misused by Stewards Vnder-Stewards and Baylifls holding pleas for contracts made out of the Fairs 1 Rich. 3. cap. 4. Diverse inconveniences and perjuries did dayly happen in diverse Shires of England by untrue verdicts before Sheriffs in their Turns by persons of no behaviour nor dreading God nor the worlds shame cap. 6. Courts of Pypowder were misused by Stewards and Bayliffs upon feigned plaints to trouble men to whom they owe evil will to make men lose their Fair or to get favourable inquests whereby many coming to the Fairs were grievously vexed for contracts made out of the Fair The Lords lost their profits of their Fairs and the People wanted those merchandises would otherwise come to them II. Hen. 7. cap. 15. Great extortion was used in divers Countries by Vnder-Sheriffs Shire-Clerks and other Officers holding and keeping County-Courts and in the name of the Sheriffs by entring Plaints without the Plaintiffs direction against Defendants to the intent that if they appear not they may be amerced or entred Plaints in the name of such as were dead and to that end did not at all attach or summon the Defendants but caused the said amerciaments to be levied 3 H. 8. cap. 12. Great extortions and oppressions were by Sheriffs and their Ministers by impanelling such as will be perjured 26 Henry 8. cap. 4. Juries in Wales gave untrue verdicts because upon indictments of Murder and Felons the Kindred and Friends to such offenders had accesse to them 27 H. 8. cap. 7. Divers oppressions maintenance imbraceries riots trespasses c. were in Chester and Wales by reason that common justice was not administered there as in other places by reason of a diverse ministration of Justice Diverse authorities of justice appertaining to the King had cap. 24. been granted away to the great hindrance and delay of Justice cap. 26. By reason of diversity of Laws and usages in Wales and England great discords variance and sedition have risen betwixt the People Which irregularities of Small Courts so all along from time to time complained of in Parliament were not only the cause of making those many Acts of Parliament in those several years to redresse those grievances but of the making of several other Acts of Parliment As that in 13 E. 1. cap. 30. authorising Justices of Nisi prius to go at certain times of the year into the Counties that of 27 E. 1. cap. 3. and 4. to make those Iustices of Assize Iustices of Gaol delivery and that enquests and recognisances taken before Iustices of either Bench should be taken in time of vacation before any of the Iustices before whom the plea is brought That of 28 E. 1. cap. 10. that against Conspirators false informers procurers of enquests and Iuries remedie should be had by a writ out of the Chancery and that the Justices of both Benches and Justices assigned to take Assizes should when they come into the Country upon every plaint made unto them award enquests Char of 12 E. 2. cap. 3. and 4. that enquests and Juries in pleas of Land that require great examination should be taken in the Country before two Justices of the Bench and that which they shall have done shall be reported in the Bench at a certain day there to be inrolled and thereupon Judgement shall be given And to provide that inquests and Juries should notwithstanding be taken in the Bench if they came That of 2 E. 3. cap. 2. that Assizes Attaints and Certifications be taken before the Justices commonly assigned which be good men and lawfull having knowledge of the Law and none other That of 14 E. 3. cap. 16. that nisi prius shall be granted as well at the Suit of the Defendant as of the Plaintiff and before a Justice of another Court then where the Suit dependeth and if it happen that none of the Justices of the one Bench or the other may go into the Country then Nisi prius to be granted before the Chief Baron of the Exchequer if he be a man learned in the Law and in case he cannot go then before Justices assigned to take
The putting or mingling of matters of equity into Courts of Law will be but one and the same thing and as like to be a grievance as the other Of which the late Parliament in their argument against the Councel of the Marches of the North in 1641 were so sensible as they alleaged it would be prejudicial to the people if the King should be permitted to canton out a part of his Kingdom to be tryed by z Mr. Hides argument in April 1641 before the Lords in Parliament by order of the House of Commons Commission though it were according to the Rules of Law or to erect new Courts of Chancery and that the latitude and power of the Iudges of that Court of the Marches in judging according to equity and discretion was the Quick-sand that swallowed up the peoples property and liberty and that the very administration of Iustice founded upon such illegal principles was a grievance and oppression to the people and the House of Commons in the late Parliament of which some of the now Members were then a part were so far from altering their opinion in that particular as in their grand remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom the a Remonstrance 15 December 1641 15 of December 1641 repeating what good they had done for the people and what Courts they had taken away they reckon that and some other arbitrary Courts and called them the forges of misery and oppression And yet this is not all the proposers would have nor will their appetite of change be satisfied or the confusion be compleated unlesse the Lawiers may be totally extirped the Innes of Court and Chancery which used to breed them be abolished a doctrine any but the quondam Jack Cade and his men of rudenesse who would have all Learning and Letters suppressed and the Score and the Tally to be the only Books of the Nation would not only blush at and be ashamed to own but stand amazed and dissolve themselves into a wonder that any men should think as some of these proposers have done that the Lawiers or professors of reason should not be fit to intermeddle in the administration of Justice as if reason which God gave for a blessing and distinction to mankind could be Antichristian or the mark of the Beast or that all the praises of wisdom in the Scripture were only to let men know that those that had it were not fit to be imployed CHAP. X. That in the right administration of Justice there is a necessity of Lawiers and men of skill and experience FOr the Laws and Customs of all people Christians and not Christians Barbarians and not Barbarians do allow and practise that most necessary and usefull Maxime Cuilibet in arte sua credendum It is best to believe every one in his own art or that wherein he is skilful All our Laws and reasonable Customs do forbid the using of Trades to which men have not been Apprentises for seven years 2 3 P. M. 8 Eliz. cap. 11. 1 Iac. cap. 24. together And several Acts of Parliament would not so much as trust Watermen to row upon the river of Thames nor the inhabitants of several Shires to use the art of Cloathing nor so much as to make Caps or Pol Davis unlesse they had been Apprentises to it The Parliament in the third year of the reign of King 3 H. 8. cap. 11. 1 Ma. cap. 9. Henry the eighth and some other Acts of Parliament made since provides that none but allowed and skillfull Physicians and Chirurgions should practise Physick and Chirurgery for that the practice thereof by Artificers and unlearned persons was to the great displeasure of God and grievance hurt damage and destruction of the People How then can these proposers or Trades-men imagine it to be good for a Common wealth to banish all the knowledge of the Laws and the means of doing Justice out of it and to take in all manner of ignorance in the place of them or that the Lawiers or men of Iustice should be a burthen to the Nation when Paul took it to be no dishonour to have sate at the feet of Gamaliel was more than ordinary carefull of Zenas the Lawier Epist ad Tit. 3. v. 13. and had never gone to Rome not converted some in Nero's own houshold if he had not been learned in the Laws and Privileges of the Romans as well as of the Iews When the Dutch in their united Common-wealth or Provinces dare not trust their smallest causes to their b Commentar de Stat. confederat Provinciar Belgic Commissarissen op de kleyne Saecken without a Lawier added to them and for causes of greater consequence will not in all their Colleges or Courts of Iustice want an Assessor or Syndic being a Professor of the Civil Law to direct and guide them When the Turks who for the most part of them are by the Tyranny and designs of their Emperors kept in an ignorance of all Learning and Letters can have their Cadies in their lesser Courts and their Iudges in the Divano or greater purposely educated and brought up in that which might enable them unto it and do not put their mad men in places of Iudicature though they give much respect unto them and take them to be inspired And when these Proposers can at the same time for any thing which they have to do in their own affairs labour to find out the most able and skilfull men and would think them not to be their Friends at all or to be some of the Inhabitants of Gonzagua's newly discovered Country slipped down hither through the Moon which should instead of a Physician bring them when they are sick a Carpenter or a Plaisterer when they are wounded for a Surgeon For can any man think that the Law which was heretofore esteemed to be as hard and difficult a Science as it is noble and worthy can be practised or given out to the people without any manner of knowledge or learning of it would these Proposers desire an Act of Parliament that no sick and wounded men should any more use the help of Physicians or Chirurgians but should go to the Justice of Peace for it or that no Carpenter Mason or Bricklayer should any more meddle in the building of Houses May not the Civil part of the government or power come in a short time to be as much endangered or disordered by such an ignorant management of Justice as these proposers would have it as the Militia or Military part thereof would be if all the old Legions or Regiments and tryed Souldiers of the Army should by a Law be disbanded and forbidden the art of war and young boyes newly come from School be taken on and listed in their places and none to be Captains or Officers but such as should want their sight or be blind Or how little difference will there be betwixtan ignorant administration of Laws and the having of
CONSIDERATIONS Touching the DISSOLVING OR TAKING AWAY The COURT of CHANCERY AND The Courts of Iustice depending upon it VVITH A Vindication or Defence of the Law from what is unjustly charged upon it AND An Answer to certain proposals made for the taking away or alteration of it Cicero pro Cluentio Civitas sine Lege ut corpus sine mente Leo Imp. in proaem Constit Novellarum Sunt Leges tanquam Custodes vitae nostrae London Printed by F. L. for Thomas Heath and are to be sold at his Shop in Covent-Garden 1653. The Contents OF the Court of Chancery Chap. 1. The great inconveniences which will happen by the dissolving of it to the whole frame and body of the Laws and Iustice of this nation ch 2. Besides other sad effects and consequences will be brought upon the people by it ch 3. That the Laws are not in themselves evil but are only abused by the people ch 4. That to put down or overturn the Chancery and so many Courts of Iustice which depend upon it will be so much against the former customes and reasons of this or any other nation as it is not to be presidented ch 5. That the very being of Parliaments is preserved by the Laws and that so great a distemper and disturbance as will come by the taking away of the Laws will by a necessity of Iustice and better ordering of affairs bring them by a revolution of time back again into their old channel ch 6. That the erecting of so many new Courts as are proposed or cutting and translating the great Courts at Westminster into so many little Courts and Iurisdictions will besides the before-mentioned inconveniences not only be very prejudicial to the State but to the people ch 7. And not only raise up again those old grievances which were formerly the cause of disusing or restrayning the Sheriffs Turnes County Courts Court Barons and Hundred Courts and such-like petty Iurisdictions but far exceed them ch 8. That the annexing of a Iurisdiction or power of equity to every or many of such new Courts will much increase the peoples grievances and turn that little Law which shall be left into a course of arbitrariness ch 9. That in the right administration of Iustice there is a necessity of Lawyers and men of skill and experience ch 10. CONSIDERATIONS Touching The Dissolving OR Taking away the COURT of CHANCERY THe Parliament that intends to bless and make the Nation happy are to consider what may best advance it In order to which as they may claim the Prayers and obedience of those they represent So on the other side the Peoples great concernment in what shall be acted or suffered by them is entitled to a modest and well-ordered liberty of address and advices not only in the general but in particular also to the end that every part how little soever of the Body Politique may be either heard or rightly understood before any alteration or Sentence shall goe out against it Especially when their Livelihood Freehold and Posterities are to be the present and immediate Sufferers in it For it could never be intended by the Lawes or Constitutions of this Nation or is indeed imaginable that the Parliament can like a Deity see thorow and know all things at once or before-hand or judge of what can be objected or said in any particular case or concernment without hearing parties or defences The Justice and reason whereof may be exemplified from God himself who being not only Omniscient but Omnipotent would not think it fit to condemn Adam untill he had heard what he could say for himself Whence the Law of Nature and Nations the Civil Canon and Common Lawes and all the Parliaments of this People and Nation have not only made it their Rule but their Practice to hear both parties without which no Sentence or Judgement can be said to be just or valid though the parties that did it should intend it well and give as just a Sentence as possibly they could according to that generally received Maxim amongst all Nations Qui judicaverit altera parte inaudita aequum licet statuerit injustus est Upon which consideration of Justice and that most antient and uninterrupted custome of it and the reason of all Nations and Men of Reason It is hoped that the now Parliament according to the antient courses of Parliaments and those sage and successfull Customes of those Sonnes of Liberty the Romans who in the Rogation and promulgation of their Laws did not only hear but demand what the People and those that were to experiment the sweet or sowr of it had to say against it will give leave to those that have been bred up laid out their Fortunes and spent a great part of their lives in Chancery and well understand it to be heard concerning the preservation of what shall be good or the taking away of any thing that shall appear to be evil in it before they shall proceed upon those Proposals which have been made unto them for the dissolving of that Court And for the better sanisfaction of that small part of the People which tire the Supreme Authority 1 with their wild Proposals to represent unto them what that Court is which that kind of People would have the Parliament to put down The great inconveniences which will happen by it to the 2 whole frame and body of the Laws Iustice of the Nation Besides other sad effects and Consequences will be 3 brought upon the People by it That the Laws are not in themselves evil but are only 4 abused by the People That to put down or overturn the Chancery and so 5 many Courts of Iustice which depend upon it will be so much against the former Customs and reasons of this or any other Nation as it is not to be presidented That the very Being of Parlements is preserved by the 6 Laws And that so great a distemper and disturbance as will come by the taking away of the Laws will by a necessity of Justice and better ordering of affairs bring them by a revolution of Time back again into their old Chanel That the erecting of so many new Courts as are proposed 7 or cutting the great Courts at Westminster into so many little Courts and Iurisdictions will besides the before mentioned inconveniences not only be very prejudicial to the State but to the people And not only raise up again those old grievances which 8 were formerly the cause of disusing or restraining the Sheriffs-Turns County-Courts Court Barons and Hundred-Courts such like petty Iurisdictions but far exceed them That the annexing of a jurisdiction or power of equity 9 to every or many of such new Courts will much increase the Peoples grievances and turn that little Law which shall be left into a course of arbitrarinesse CHAP. I. What that Court is which they would have taken away THe Court of Chancery not to trouble the
Reader with what is more largely declared by Crompton in his Iurisdictions of Courts Sir Henry Spelman in his Glossary and Sir Edward Cook in the fourth part of his Institutes and the known benefits which redound and come unto very many of the People by it for those that are restrained by it from their oppressions are not always well-pleased with it is the conscience of the Supreme Authority to qualifie the severitie of the Laws when they happen to be so in some particular cases without taking away those Laws or breaking them or opening a gap to Ten Thousand mens inconveniences to give relief to some one particular man which without those general remedies and applications of conscience could not otherwise be avoided And as to the Law or Latine part of it and granting out of Writes Remedial will appear to be a Court as antient as the Reason or Civilitie of the Nation from which all the other Courts at Westminster-Hall County-Courts Sheriffs-Turns Court-Leets and Baron and all other Courts inferiour may truly be said to have their beginning the Matrix or Womb of all our Fundamental Laws either before or since Magna Charta which had its birth and being from it A Court where the Genius loci and Salus populi like Nature in the Womb of the Creation resides to give out its ordinary administrations of Justice for the good of the people and is for that purpose as the Soul to the Body in the direction and subsistence of it And the head to which all the Nerves and Sinews of it are joyned The repository in the absence of Parliaments of Justice in all cases where the helps of Parliaments were not necessary The a St. German de fundament Leg. Angliae cap. 7. Custom of the Nation The Officina Justitiae the place or work-house of Justice The original and Authority of all mens Assurances and Conveyances by Fines and Recoveries The Preserver of their Rights and Estates in them The primum mobile of all or most of our proceedings at Law The principal Secretary Amanuensis or Register of the Supreme Authority and which bears Record unto it The place whither the Petitions in Parliament that could not be dispatched were usually referred The Fountain and Chanel by which Justice Reason and Equity was upon any of the peoples necessities or complaints conveyed unto them and the Magazine store-house and dispensatory of all Writts remedial and in which all the peoples rights liberties and properties are so concentred and incorporate as they must either die or live with it and is as saith the last Parliament no longer ago than in April 1641. by a long usage and prescription grown to be as it were Lex Terrae b M. Hides Argument before the Lords in Parliament by Order of the House of Commons the dissolution wherof must of necessity produce very many mischiefs and inconveniences CHAP. II. The mischiefs and inconveniencies which will happen to the whole Frame and Body of the Laws and Iustice of the Nation by the dissolution of it FOr it will not only take away the equitable and English part of it consisting of Bils Answers and Decrees being a latter part of the business of it to examine Frauds Combinations Trusts Secret uses and the like and moderate or take away the rigor of Laws and rescue men out of the hands of such as would oppresse them by putting extremities upon them but the old and most antient part of it consisting of writs of Habeas corpus which no other Court can grant in a vacation For that the Chancery was always to be open to give remedies where it can to the people The Sealing and Inrolling of Letters Patents and Pardons Inrolling of Treaties and Leagues with Forein Princes and States Making or granting out Writs or Summons of Parliament Edicts Proclamations Charters Protections safe Conducts or for Elections of Knights of the Shire Burgesses Parliament men and Coroners Writs of moderata misericordia where any were too much amerced and of a reasonable part of goods for Widdows and Orphans Patents for Sheriffs Cercioraries to remove Records and false Judgements in inferior Courts Writs of Audita querela and Scire Facias Inrollments of Deeds betwixt partie and partie concerning their lands estates or purchases Taking recognisances and making out of extents upon Statutes and recognisances for payment of moneys or securing of Contracts Writs remedial or magisterial Commissions of appeal Oyer and Terminer for the Peace and many other things not here enumerated tending either to the well-being or conservation of Justice And in a word almost all the Justice of the Nation Parliaments being properly pro arduis and eminent occasions not determinable by any other Court. Make all the Decrees of Chancery and Injunctions granted against unconscionable acts or proceedings at Common Law when the said Court shall not have any being to protect or maintain them to be contemned and the parties put again to new vexations and troubles increase and encourage desperate swearings and perjuries in the Intervals betwixt the putting-down of the old Court and erecting of a new Enervate and put into a suspition all those very many judgements and decrees which have been founded upon the proceedings of it as is demonstrable enough in the Acts of the Courts of Star-Chamber Requests and High Commission Courts of Honour and Marches of Wales and the North upon their dissolution Take away the prescription and birth-right of all the free-born people of England to their Laws and customs And by dissolving the Chancery and so many Courts of Law and reasonable Customs as depend upon it Leaves them only some Statute and penal Laws to support their Proprieties For as many of them as they can get again must be by a new grant which those that have had right of Common or Copy-hold being of a far lesse concernment and lost it by pulling down an old Tenement and building up a new or taking a Lease of their Copy-hold estate may guess how prejudicial it may be in greater matters Obstruct and put to a stand all assurances contracts and bargains which are every minute going and passing amongst the people May disturb and prejudice many men in their estates and properties as well as Magistrates in their power and authority over them And put them on to jeaiousies Scruples and questionings of the present authority when they shall have none of the Customs of the old which they took to be reasonable left to goe along with them or perswade to an obedience to it And may be but as the throwing down at once of an old Park pale upon hopes that the Deer will be perswaded to tarry in upon an expectation of a new All the writs and Commissions made out and retornable in Chancery will be to seek for a validity as to their execution or retorn All the causes now depending enough to take up if they should lay aside the work of beginning and emergencie of new causes
out of one Action into another almost to their utter undoing There have been in every year of those many years many thousands of causes as may be demonstrated to any that will call for a proof of it dispatched put to an end by the Courts of Law at Westninster or in the Circuits that a multitude of People Actions and businesses more than formerly in a Time of more Deceit Falshood Perjuries Secret and cunning combinations and breaches of Trust than ever were may make an increase multiplicity of Suits and yet the Lawiers who in an age have not a common Barretor amongst them be as innocent as the Physicians who are not accused for much practise in a time of Pestilence or when there are store of Epidemical diseases there will be no cause to say that the Law is endlesse Let it be but considered that the greater part of established Fees in the Courts of justice are lesse than what the most common Artificers do take for their labour and as for any which exceed that rate are but that which was allowed one Hundred years agoe when the rate and price of Cloths and Victuals was not one in three so much as it is now that the Attorneys 3 s. 4 d. fee and the Lawiers 10 s. fee would then have bought 3 times more than what may be now for it That the Gentry have since raised their rents two parts in Three the Farmers the price of their Corn and Cattel and the Citizens their Commodities and servants and workmen raised their wages yet the Lawiers except some eminent and great practisers who take but the Free will offering of those that give them the greater Fees to take the greater care of their businesse have but the same Fees were formerly taken by them That the Lawiers who had no worse a name auntiently given to their profession by the most Civilized Nations of Europe than Sacerdotes justttiae the Ministers of Justice and had so right an esteem in our former Parliaments as by several Acts of Parliament made upon several and successive necessities of the People in 2 Edward 3 cap. 2. 14. Edward 3 cap. 16. 34. Edward 3. cap. 1. and 20. Richard 2. cap. 10. It was specially provided that none but men learned in the Law should be made Justices of Assize and Goal delivery and that there should be in every County men learned in the Law made Justices of the peace And in all their Actions either at home in their Counties or at London in the Terms are known to be men of Godlinesse Sobriety and learning and compared with any other profession or part of the People to have fewer men of vice or ignominie amongst them than any other profession Let it be but considered that the Law as it may be demonstrated if an accompt were kept as some Physitians do of their consultations and Cures or as the People of the Bath do of some that are cured in every year doth in every year recover and get in many Thousands of men debts redresse their Injuries preserve their rights secure their estates rescue and take some Innocent mens lives and estates out of the jawes of death or oppression support the hand of Justice and is as eyes and ears unto it puts her Judgement in the right way when it was sometimes allmost carried off ormislead into a wrong and hath kept us and our forefathers in a greater safety certainty of it than Roman Legions could have done and Ten greatet Armyes than we now bear the charge of That in the determination or adjudging of every Action or Suit in Law or Equity one of the parties is discontented and one of them most commonly faulty or much mistaken in the grounds of that Contest Actions of Debt or of other natures where the Plaintiff will not give time and the Defendant only stands out a Suit to gain it only excepted and do all they can to lay the fault upon the Law when it should be charged upon themselves And that the difficulty in the case before Solomon betwixt the true Mother of the Child and the false could not be charged upon any defects of the Hebrew Laws or the Professors thereof but the wickednesse and false pretences of her that had no right to it and that every discontent and every Complaint is not just because the partie thinks it to be so There will be as little cause to say that the practice of the Law as to the Law it self or to the Lawiers is a grievance or that they are worse than Ten Thousand Devils as that Tenterden Steeple is the cause of Goodwyne Sands For most of the things complained of in the Law if impartially and knowingly examined will appear to be neither from the Law or by the Law it Self or of the Essence Nature or Intention of it but meerly proceeding from the people and their own misuse or abuse of them which being not evill in themselves but commanding good things to be done and forbidding evil are no more to be charged with the faults which the people themselves Commit in abusing of them than that great Luminary and comfort of Mankind the Sun can be said to be the cause of darknesse or ill influences because in his journey or execution of his Office he is sometimes orecharg'd with Foggs ill vapours or exhalations from the Earth which he would disperse or carry away or meets with so many Clouds interpositions and Shadows of the Earth Conjunctions of Planets or Malevolent Aspects than the necessary arts of Physick and Chirurgery are to be blamed for the many Errors and mischiefs are done by Montebanks or confident and credulous women that have no skill in them than wine and women for the General abuses of them or Religion and the Sacred Scriptures because the world hath of late been troubled with so many Heresies and Schisms proceeding from the mis-interpretation of the one and practice of the other and may the better be understood and believed to be thus Innocent when those that not long agoe could run to Westminster and cry for justice against the Earl of Strafford but for at most an endeavour to subvert the Laws and cryed out they could have no Trading or subsistence if his head were not taken off cannot now give us a reason why those very Laws and the Courts that administred them should not now be as good as they were then Or why the Old Chancery and Court hands which being made out of Saxon letters or Characters before any Friers or Monks ever came into England have through so many generations come down to us and given such a legibility duration and continuance to all our records as they may yet be plainly seen and read for 7 or 8 hundred years past should be more inconvenient Popish Antichristian than the Secretary other Mungrel and Scrible dashed hands made out of the Roman and Italian which will not as it begins to appear already
wisdom to any that shall so judge of them be thought to have been so to a continual succession did only correct alter and add as there were necessities or occasions but left us our Laws and reasonable customs to preserve our estates and properties Contrary to all the Petitions and pretences of Grievances that ever were exhibited by any of the people before or since the Conquest to any King Parliament great Councel or Assembly for above one thousand years To what our Auncestors did in England Who in the change of governments and succession of Kings from the Saxons to the Danes from them to the Normans thence to the Plantagenet line from the right Heirs to the wrong from the red rose to the white from the white to the red and white united in Henry the seventh from the Catholick religion to the Protestant from that to the Catholick and from that back again to the Protestant from the English line to the Scottish did never find any cause to take away that Court which they found by so long and successive experiments to be the conservator of Justice Contrary to the National Covenant which many have endeavoured to prove to be consistent with the Ingagement to what was done by the late Parliament in their reformation of religion wherein though the Bishops and Book of Common Prayer were put down and abolished and that not at once did not put down all the Doctrine of the Church or all the Discipline or parts of it nor shut up the Church doors Contrary to the many Declarations vows and Imprecations of the late Parliament The many Declarations and Remonstrances of the Army The Course held in the late Conquests of Scotland and Ireland who by enjoying their Lawes and Courts of Justice have yeelded an easier submission to it The Act of the late Parliament in erection of this Commonwealth which declared and promised to the people that they would not alter nor take away the fundamental Lawes The Peoples purpose of their ingagement upon it The Act or order of Parliament for the regulation of the Lawes The regulators Systeme and the Nature of a reformation or regulation The late Act for taking away Fines in Chancery and many of the Petitions that of late have been against the Lawes which desired a regulation but not a total taking of them away CHAP. VI. That the very Being of Parliaments is preserved by the Laws and that so great a distemper and disturbance as will come upon the people by putting down of the Laws will by a necessitie of Justice and of the better ordering of Affairs bring them back again by a revolution of time into their old Chanel WHich for so much of them as have their Principles from the Laws of Nature and right reason and the consent of them or are founded and deduced from them are so interwoven and radicated in the very Being of Parliaments so inseparable from it and so reciprocate to it as that high Court of Parliament which is not by themselves intended to be any standing or ordinary Court or Rule of Justice cannot when it shall sit upon emergencies or matters of greater consequence be without it no more than the people can in the Intervals or absence of it for that the Law of Nature which God imprinted and put into the Hearts of all Mankind and that Law of reason which bindeth Creatures reasonable in this world and with which by Reason they most plainly perceive themselves to be bound and so much of our Laws which out of the Law either of God or Nature or Reason our Forefathers probably gathered and conceived to be expedient which the learned Hooker putting all together calleth the second Hooker 1 lib. Ecclesiastical Pollicy Law eternal are so in some sort immutable as they cannot be taken away or repealed by any Act of Parliament whatsoever but will retorn and grow up again with the nature and reason of Mankind for Laws of men not contrary to the Law of God nor to the Law of reason are to be observed in the Law of the Soul and Doctor and Studient 4 Chap. he that despiseth them resisteth God and that which plain and necessary reason bindeth men unto will upon some inconvenience or necessity at one time or other get it self in again and obtain an allowance or ratification of human Laws for it Which should advise a great inspection and examination into the nature cause and effect of all our Laws before a sentence of condemnation passe against them that so it may be clearly known what and how much of them have their Being from the Law of God or Nature right reason or convenience and a value accordingly put upon them that the Gold may not be cast away for the drosse nor the Saint for his infirmity That we may not be sent to seek after in the rubbidg for that we might have kept or laid by or not seem to have pullen down all the house when some little part of it would have served the turn or to be such ill Husbands as to cast away the materials might have served for the new building and is better or more substantial than any can be gotten instead of it of which opinion were all our former Parliaments who hitherto in their correcting and altering of Laws could never be brought to forsake any thing might be good or fit to Sir Francis Bacon Judge Hutton in his argument against the ship mony and Lord Hobart in his Reports remain of them and all our Forefathers who in their greatest esteem and reverence of Parliaments did beleeve that an Act of Parliament it self enacting any thing against Common right and right reason would be void and of none effect to what end then should these men sollicite a Parliament to take away the matter of its own form and subsistence and its Being or coexistence with the Laws or to take away that which is to be a rule of justice to the people when they cannot themselves intend it or to lay by those Laws which the wisdom of their Predecessors thought they had done the people good service when they did procure them to be enacted and those reasonable customes which the people were wont to swear their Kings to observe when the late Parliament took it to be a good way for the preservation of the Laws and Liberties of the people that Sheriffs and Justices should be sworn to the Remonstrance 15 December 1641. and 26 of May 1642. due execution of the petition of right m Stiled themselves the Conservatory of Lawes took Arms for the maintenance therof appealed to the people touching that imputation which they said was then laid upon them that they which represented all the Commons of England and had so great a share in it should endeavour to take away the Laws and run so great a hazard to make themselves Slaves Wherefore if the Parliament to please these unquiet and proposing spirits and let
County Courts had their original by consent of most Authors from K. Alfred who n Polidor in Guliel Conq. Spelman Gloss in verb. Justitia would not trust them with Capital or Chief matters Criminal but reserved them ad Majores Justitiarios And though he gave them power to determine lesser matters yet did he as well as King Ina his predecessor and those Saxon and Danish Kings Edward the elder Athelstane Ethelbert Edgar Canutus and Edward the Confessor which succeeded him give leave to any to appeal pro defectu Iustitiae or when right could not be obtained But that being in a time when the smallnesse of Commerce paucity poverty and inculture of people little acquaintance with Navigation or Forein Customs continual wars one with another in a Heptarchy or multiplicity of Kings and Invasions of the Danes could not allow them much businesse at Law and if they had where withall to have been contentious were so bound up by certain strict Laws fit only for a people were newly escaped out of Paganism and lived in a Country more like a desart or Wildernes than as now it is as they could not if they would have many Suites at Law to trouble the lesser or greater Courts withall for in every Tithing o In ll E. Confess cap. 20. or Friborgh every man answer'd so for one another as they were bound to bring offenders to Justice every p In ll Edgari c. 6 in legibus Ethelredi cap. 1. man did put in securities to do right to one another the Lord for q In ll H. 1. c. 23 et 41. in ll Canuti c. 25 28. in ll Ethelst cap. 10. his Tenants and the Master fot his Servants r In legibus Edw. Reg. cap. 1. no man bought any thing without a pledge or voucher or exchanged goods but before a Magistrate or the Minister or Lord of the Mannor he that s In ll Aluredi c. 33. in ll Ethelstani cap. 8. received a Stranger answered for any thing t In ll E. Reg in ll Canuti cap. 64. he had done in the place from whence he came no man under a penalty harboured a Fugitive or kept him from Justice he that was misdoubted u In ll Inae In ll Edgari c. 2 l. Canuti li. 16. or accused was in many things to purge himself by his own oath or of so many of his neighbours if any had w complained before they had demanded right in those lesser Courts were fined and punished Yet though those Courts had their work so much done to their hands the people were so little notwithstanding satisfied with their Justice as we shall find William the Conquerour afterwards to have his Chief Iustice to at tend him for the determining of such causes as came to demand his Justice his Son William Rusus the like and by that time the Crown came to Henry the first who was not also without his Chief Justice the Laws began to take notice of the different Laws of Provinces of a penuria Iudicum in w In ll H. 1. c. 7. some Hundreds of violences disturbances which made a necessity of carrying some causes upon denying right to be done in those Courts to the County Courts all actions of breach of the peace and pleas of Treasons Murder Coynings of monies and many more which are enumerated in his Law de Jure Regis then belonging to the King King Stephen had his Chief Justices and when King Henry the second comes to raign the Kingdom was so full of exactions and oppressions as he is much troubled how to find a man fit and honest enough to make Chronic. Jo Bromton a Chief Justice of though he had tryed Abbots and Earls Commanders and Souldiers and Spiritual men as well as Secular and therfore we find him upon the peoples Complaints of their want of justice from several parts of the Kingdom in a Parliament at Nottingham in Anno Domini One Thousand One Hundred Seventy Six in imitation of what had been formerly done in France x Spelman Glossar in verb. Justic tinerant by Carolus Calvus in Anno Eight Hundred Fifty and Three ordaining Iustices Itinerant or in Eyre according to their allotments of several Shires but all Fines levied in the Kings Court Actions of debt writs of Assize Dower advowson and all or most pleas of consequence brought and held in the Kings Courts except such as were sometimes allowed by his Writs or lib. 11. c. 1. Commission to be determined in the Sheriffs Court or the Hundred or Courts Barons for any might then lib. 12. c. 7. remove an Action from the lesser Courts to the Kings 3 c. 3. et 5. or have an Accedas ad Curiam or prohibition if we may believe Glanvil y Glanvil lib. 10. c. 1. who was his Chief Justice In his Son Richard the first his time the power and privileges of Sheriffs did grow so great in their Counties and Courts as some Bishops whose places in those times led them quite off from Secular imployments were inticed to take upon them the Offices of Sheriffs but were questioned for it afterwards and forbid by the Pope to intermedle any more in them But about 9 H 3. the Complaints of the people did so follow the King and his Chief Justice as it was enacted by Parliament that Common pleas should not follow the Court but be holden in 9 H. 3. c. some place certain in 52 H. 3. Complaints were made 52 H. 3. cap. 11. in Parliament that great men and diverse others refused to be justified by the King and his Court as they ought and were wont to be in the time of his progenitors but took grear revenges and distresses of their Neighbours and others until they had amends and Fines at their own pleasure And would not suffer delivery of such distresses as they had taken of their own authority distrained men to do Suit to their Courts that Eodem Anno c. 9. were not bound by their Deeds or Enfeoffments amerced men wrongfully for default of Common Summons and compelled c. 17 22. Freeholders to answer for their Freeholds without the Kings writ In the reign of his Son E. 1. as appeareth by Britton who compiled a book of the Laws by the Kings appointment all men by a Publick Cry and proclamation were to come with their plaints causes and actions before the Justices in Eyre when they came into the Counties and all other pleas to Cease and all those who claimed any Franchyses were to shew their Title to them and special enquiries made of Sheriffs Bayliffs and Stewards concerning the execution of their Offices maintaining Quarrels amercing men wrongfully committing extortions and holding pleas in debt or trespasse above Forty Shillings which did not belong to Britton c. 2. 20. 21. them 3 E. 1. cap. 15. Sheriffs and others did let out of prison
no Laws at all Was it Jethro's good Counsel to Moses to choose able as well as honest Judges and will any Trades men or Country men now serve the turn or to what a small avail had it been for the Children of Israel for Moses to have been learned in the learning of the Egyptions and to have been enabled by God himself in his taking the Laws from his own mouth if ignorant and foolish Judges had been appointed under him or to what end was Solomons prayer to God for Wisdom to go in and out before the people if those to whom he should commit the care of Justice should not know how to execute it or what would Paul the Apostle now say if he were to plead for his life before such Iudges as these Proposers would bestow upon us or how should he then say as he did to Agrippa I think my self happy Acts 26. 2 3. King Agrippa Because I shall answer for my self this day before thee especially because I know thee expert in all the Customes and questions which concern the Jews These men therfore of Novelty or change may do well to consider that all things enjoy a happiness in their rest and that a setled consistence must needs be more happy for States so called of their Stabilities than to adventure the hazard of so many changes as the humours or designs of the people shall tender unto them and to believe Plato who was of opinion that Legum mutationes Plato de legibus were perniciosae that it was most dangerous to change Laws and remember what in the Last Parliament was delivered by an eminent Member of their own for a most certain truth That the Law c Mr. St. Iohn in his argument concerning ship mony in Ianuary 1640. was the Temple or Sanctuary whither the People were to run for shelter and refuge and that part of Mr. Pyms Speech against the Earl of Sttafford published by order of the House of Commons in the late Parliament and spoken by their own sense and direction That the Law is that which puts a difference betwixt good and evil betwixt just and unjust If the Law be taken away all things d Mr. Pyms argument against the Earl of Strafford will fall to confusion every man will become a Law unto himself which in the depraved condition of Humane nature must needs produce many great enormities Lust will become a Law and Envy will become a Law Covetousnesse and Ambition will become Laws and what dictates and dicisions such Laws will produce may easily be discerned That the Common Souldiers of the Army did so well e Remonstrance and Proposals of the Army p. 11. understand it in the year 1647 as they made it their request in their second Apologie to their General the Lord Fairfax that e Justice and Judgement might be dealt to the meanest Subject of the Land according to the old Law That the said Sir Thomas Fairfax and the whole Army did f Declaration of his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Army 14 Iune 1647 afterwards remonstrate to the Parliament that nothing was more dear and pretious to them in their thoughts they having hitherto thought all their present injoyments whether of life or livelyhood or nearest relations a price but sufficient for so rich a blessing that they and all the Freeborn people of the Nation might fit down in quiet under their Vines and under the glorious administration of Iustice and Righteousnesse and in full possession of those fundamental rights and liberties without which they could have little hopes as to humane considerations to enjoy either any comforts of life or so much as life it self And were at that time so far from desiring the Lawes to be taken away as they desired of the Parliament that the right of freedom of the People to represent to the Parliament by way of humble Petition their grievances for such things as could not otherwise be remedied than by Parliament might be cleared and vindicated and that in such things for which men have remedy by law they might he freely left to the benefit of it And that in the Parliament Anno 1648 Many of whose Members were then the Officers of the Army that had subscribed that Remonstrante were so well contented with it as in a Declaration of the Parliament of England g expressing the grounds of their proceedings and of setling the present Government in the way of a Free State they declared unto the People in these words viz. that They are h Declaration of the Parliament of England 17 March 1648. p. 24. 25 very sensible of the excellency and equality of the Laws of England being duly executed of their great antiquity even from before the time of the Norman slavery forced upon us of the Liberty and Property and Peace of the Subject so fully preserved by them and which falls out happily and as an increase of Gods mercy towards us of the clear consistency of them with the present government of a Republique upon some easie alterations of form only leaving intire the substance the name of King being used in them for form only but no power of personal administration of judgement allowed to him in the smallest matter contended for They know their own authority to be by the Law to which the People have assented and besides their particular interests which are not inconsiderable they more intend the Common interest of those whom they serve and clearly understand the same not possible to be preserved without the Laws and government of the Nation and that if those should be taken away all industry must cease all misery blood and confusion would follow and greater calamities if possible than sell upon us by the late Kings misgovernment would certainly involve all persons under which they must inevitably perish and that these arguments are sufficient to perswade all men to be well contented to submit their lives and fortunes to those just long approved Rules of Law with which they were already so fully acquainted and not to believe that the Parliament intends the abrogation of them But we have read of a people that died with quailes in their mouths and of a generation of that people did expostulate with a Roman Magistrate for going about to hinder them in their Self-destruction we shall therefore leave these Proposers to the busie imployment of their own imaginations and make our addresses to the Supreme authority who being called together for the works of righteousnesse and Iustice and bringing good intentions along with them have a power to give a stop to that Fury is now amongst a small part of the People but enough to undo all the rest Humbly beseeching them to rescue out of their hands the Laws and Birthright of the people and to reach out their hands to preserve that Law of Property which God himself by Thundrings and Lightenings pronounced from Mount Synai and wrote i