Iudgments were not given till the 15 of Feb. following which is a Quarter of a Year 'T is also to be observed That several of these Iudges were very unwilling to give their Corrupt Opinions but were menaced and violently drawn thereunto by the Duke of Ireland and others And at their Trials they severally Alledged That in part Violence had been offered to their Persons because they had deferred the delivery of their Opinions But as Fear or Cowardice is no Plea for delivering up of the Forts or Bulwarks of the Kingdom so neither is it for basely betraying our Rights and Liberties These Allegations of being threatned from their Duty could not excuse them from the Rope but how much more then do they deserve it who shall presume to do as bad things or worse without any Menaces at all but wilfully and presumptuously purely out of their own base inclinations But Tresilian was not the onely Iudge which our English History even since the Conquest mentions to have been executed for irregular Practices For in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh a Wise but Avaritious Prince there were two Gentlemen of the Long Robe that for private Interest and to serve the Kings present Turn were ready to dispence with their Oaths and the known Fundamental Laws But as they liv'd hated during his time so they died unlamented under his Successor being given up a necessary Sacrifice to Publick Iustice. Their Names were Sir Richard Empson Knight and Edmund Dudley both saith Sir Richard Baker fol. 247. Lawyers and both of them Barons of the Exchequer and Iustices of the Peace throughout England Dudley of a good Family but Empson the Son of a Sieve-maker So true is that Remark of the Poet Mendico asperius nihil est cum surgit ad Altum There is no Person in the World more Haughty or an Apter Tool for Oppression than a Beggars Bratt or some base Mechanick Butcherly Off-spring when undeservedly flush't with Preferment The King made odd Use of these Two Instruments They turn'd sayes Baker Law into Rapine And most certain it is that many ill Things they did But the better to colour their vile Practises a Statute was Provided to Justify their Invasions on the Liberties and Properties of their Fellow-Subjects We will give you an Account of this Matter in the very Words of that Great Oracle of our Law Sir Edward Cook But first hear how Sir Richard Baker in his Chronicle fol. 247. represents them Their Manner was saith he to cause divers Subjects to be Indicted of Crimes and then presently to Commit them and not Produce them to their Answer but suffer them to Languish long in Prison and by sundry Artificial Devices and Terror extort from them great Fines which they termed Compositions and Mitigations Neither did they towards the End observe so much as the Half-Face of Justice in Proceeding by Indictment but sent forth their Precepts to Attach Men and Convent them before Themselves and some Others at their private Houses and there shuffle up a Summary Proceeding by Examination Without Tryal by Iury assuming to themselves to deal both in Pleas of the Crown and Controversies Civil Then did they also use to Enthral and Charge the Subjects Land with Tenures in Capite by finding False Offices refusing upon divers Pretexts and Delayes to admit Men to Traverse those False Offices Nay contrary to all Law and Colour they maintain'd That the King ought to have the Half of Mens Lands and Rents during the Space of full Two Years for a Pain in case of Outlawry They would likewise Ruffle with Jurors and enforce them to Find as they would Direct And if they did not then Convent Imprison and Fine them These and many other Courses they had of Preying upon the People and had ever a Rabble of Promoters and Leading Jurors at their Command so as they could have any Thing found either for Fact or Valuation Thus far the Historian Now take the Relation of the Reverend Judge Cook in his ever-valuable Works Commenting in the Second Part of his Institutes on that GOLDEN Nine and Twentyeth Chapter of Magna Charta which being of Inestimable Value I take it for granted no True English Man will any more grudge the Reading than I do the Recital of it and I wish it might every Market-Day be repeated with a Speaking-Trumpet in every Town and Corporation of this Kingdom The Words run thus Nullus Liber Homo c. No Free-Man shall be Taken or Imprisoned or Disseised of his Free-Tenement or Liberties or Free-Customs or be Out-law'd or Exil'd or in any manner Destroy'd Nor will we pass upon him nor send any to pass upon him But by the Lawful Judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land We will Sell to none we will Deny to none nor to any delay Justice or Right Discoursing I say upon this most Comprehensive Text the Corner-Stone of all our English Freedoms my Lord Cook 2 Instit fol. 51. thus expresses himself Against this Antient and Fundamental Law and in the Face thereof I find an Act of Parliament made 11 H. 7. Cap. 3. That as well Justices of Assize as Justices of the Peace without any Finding or Presentment by the Verdict of Twelve Men upon a bare Information for the King before them made should have full Power and Authority by their Discretions to Hear and Determine all Offences c. And Fourth Part Instit fol. 39. he gives a further Account of and Recites this Act thus There was an Act of Parliament made in the 11 H. 7. which had a Fair Flattering Preamble pretending to avoid divers Mischiefs which were 1. The High Displeasure of Almighty God 2. The great Let of the Common-Law And 3. The great Let of the Wealth of this Land And the Purview of that Act tended in the Execution contrary Ex Diametro viz. To the Displeasure of Almighty God The great Let nay the utter Subversion of the Common-Law and The great Let of the Wealth of this Land Which Act followeth in these Words THe King our Soveraign Lord calling to his Remembrance That many good Statutes and Ordinances be made for the Punishment of Riots and unlawful Assemblies Reteinders in giving and receiving of Liveries Signs and Tokens unlawfully Extortions Maintenances Imbracery Excessive taking of Wages contrary to the Statute of Labourers and Artificers the Vse of unlawful Games Inordinate Apparel c. to the displeasure of Almighty God c. notwithstanding that generally by the Iustices of the Peace in every Shire within this Realm in the open Sessions it is given in Charge to inquire of many Offences committed c. and divers Inquests thereupon straightly Sworn and Charged before the said Iustices to inquire of the Premisses and therein to present the Troth which they letted to be sound by Imbracery Maintenance Corruption and Favour by occasion whereof the said Statutes be not nor cannot be put in due Execution For Reformation whereof
forsomuch that before this time the said Offences Extortions Contempts c. might not nor as yet may be conveniently Punished by the due Order of Law except it were first found and presented by the Verdict of Twelve â—â—en thereto duely Sworn who for the Causes before Recited will not find nor present the Truth wherefore be it by the Advice and Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by Authority of the same Enacted Ordained and Established That from henceforth as well the Iustices of Assize as the Iustices of the Peace in every County of the said Realm upon Information Note it was to be without any Presentment or Indictment found by any Grand or Petty Jury for the King c. shall have full Power Authority by their Discretion to hear determine all Offences c. Here you see Matters were left to be determined by Judges and Justices Without Iuries in a Summary Chancery-Method only according forsooth to their Discretion Yet still there was a Proviso THat no such Information should extend to Treason Murder or Felony nor to any other Offence for which any Person should lose Life or Member Nor to lose by or upon the same Information any Lands Tenements Goods or Chatteis to the Party making the same Information Which deserves Particular Notice Yet observe how the same Reverend Lord Coolt in the Place before-cited descants on this Act. By Pretext saith he of this Law Empson and Dudley did commit upon the Subject unsufferable Pressures and Oppressions and therefore this Statute was Justly soon after the Decease of Henry the Seventh Repeal'd by an Act of Parliament 1 H. 8. Cap. 8. A good Caveat to Parliaments to leave all Causes to be measured by that Golden and Strait-Mete-Wand of the Law and not to the incertain and crooked Cord of Discretion It is not almost Credible continues the same Judicious Author to fore-see when any Maxim or Fundamental-Law of this Realm He means as to this particular Case Tryals per Pais that is by Juries is Altered what dangerous Inconveniences do follow Which most expresly appears by this Most Vnjust Strange Act For hereby not only Empson and Dudley themselves but such Justices of Peace Corrupt Men as they caused to be Authorized Committed most grievous and heavy Oppressions and Exactions Grinding of the Faces of poor Subjects by Penal Laws be they never so Obsolete or unfit for the Time Suppose for a Parallel in our Times putting the Statutes against Popish Recusants in Execution against Protestant Dissenters at a Juncture when Popery was just ready to over-run us all by Information only without any Presentment or Tryal by Jury being The Antient Birth-Right of the Subject But to Hear and Determine the same by their Discretion These and other like Oppressions and Exactions by or by Means of Empson and Dudley and their Instruments brought Infinite Treasures to the King's Coffers whereof the King in the End with great Grief and Compunction Repented This Statute of 11 H. 7 We have Recited and shewed the Inconveniencies thereof to the end that the like should never hereafter be attempted in any Court of Parliament And that others might avoid the Fearful End of these Two Time-Servers Empson and Dudley Thus far that Oracle of our English Laws Wherein be pleased to observe First That he sticks not to call even an Act of Parliament most Vnjust and Strange And in the Second Part of his Institutes fol. 51. Vnjust and Injurious because it Altered a Fundamental-Law of the Realm viz. Denyed Tryal by Juries a most Essential Part of English Freedom and never to be parted with Secondly Observe what became of these Two Wicked Men though they had such a Colour of Law to bear them out They were in the Beginning of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth first Indicted for other base Practises in Finding of False Offices for the King to the Dammage and Disherison of His Subjects Which Indictment ran as follows see Cook 's Instit Part the Fourth fol. 198. Juratores praesentant quod Richardus Empson nuper de London Miles c. In English thus THe Jurors present That Richard Empson late of London Knight late Counsellor of the most Excellent Prince Henry the Seventh late King of England on the Tenth Day of May in the Twentyeth Year of the said late King and divers Times before and after at London c. Not having God before his Eyes but as the Son of the Devil imagining the Honour Dignity and Prosperity of the said late King and the Prosperity of His Kingdom of England not at all to Value or Regard But to the end that he might obtain to be a more Singular Favourite of the said late King whereby he Himself might be made a Noble or Great Man and Govern the whole Kingdom of England at his Pleasure Falsly Deceitfully and Treasonably Subverting the Laâ—y of England did amongst other Things the Day and Year afore-said at London in the Parish and Ward afore-said procure and cause to be found divers false Inquisitions and Offices of Intrusions and Alienations of divers Leige-Subject's Mannors Lands and Tenements that they held the Mannors Lands and Tenements in those Inquisitions specified of our Lord the King in Capite or otherwise when in Truth it was not so And afterwards when the said Leige-Subjects of our Lord the late King would have tendered and alledged Traverses to the said Inquisitions in the Court of Him the said late King according to the Law of England they could not be admitted to those Traverses But he the said Richard Empson debar'd and delay'd them from the same 'till they had agreed with him to pay divers Great and Insupportable Fines and Redemptions as well for the Profit of the said late King as for the proper private Advantages of him the said Richard to the great Impoverishment of the said Subjects And that the said Richard the Day and Year afore-said in the Parish and Ward afore-said and several Times before and after divers Leige-Subjects of the said late King holding of out said Lord the King divers Mannors Lands and Tenements by Knight's-Service and themselves being by the Death of their Ancestors under Age and so in the Wardship of the King by Reason of their Tenure when they came to lawful Age and ought to have had due Livery of their Mannors Lands and Tenements according to the Custom and Law of England and would have Prosecuted the same according to the Course of Chancery did refuse them so to do and totally deny and erclude until they had made with him the said Richard divers great Fines and Redemptions more than they could bear as well for the Gain of the said late King as for the private Benefit of him the said Richard Whereby many of the said late King's People were by such Grievances and Vnjust Extortions many wayes vered Insomuch that the Subjects of the said late
Administration of Iustice to the Subject according to the Laws which are every Free-mans Birth-Right so also as they be of the Kings Council they are by such their Oaths oblig'd lawfully to counsel him that is whenever their opinions are demanded they are sworn and bound to deliver them according to the Law Let us see how our Ancestors resented these matters In a Parliament held in the 11th year of Richard the 2. there was Iudgment of High-Treason given against 18 several Persons and all save one of them of Eminent Rank Three Privy Counselors viz. The Archbishop of York The Duke of Ireland and Earl of Suffolk the Bishop of Exeter the Kings Confessour Five Knights of whom some had been Servants to Edw. the 3. and all but one Servants to the then King and some of them of Noble Descent but that which I more particularly observe there were amongst them Six Judges and Locton the Kings Serjeant at Law Blake of the Kings Council at Law and Usk the under Sheriff of Middlesex Of these 18 8 were Executed that is Sir Robert Tresilian the Lord Chief Iustice was drawn from the Tower through the midst of London to Tyburn and there Hanged so likewise were Usk and Blake and Sir Iohn Salisbury but the other 4 Knights had the Favour to be Beheaded Three that is the Archbishop of York the Duke of Ireland and the Earl of Suffolk died miserable Fugitives in forreign Parts The other seven whereof five were Judges with much ado got a Pardon as to Life but were banished and their Lands and Goods all forfeited and it was made Felony for any to procure their Recalling home and themselves forthwith to be executed as Traytors if at any time they should presume to return And of these eighteen Persons all save three were impeached by the Commons The Offences which procured these Exemplary Punishments were briefly these King Richard the II. being an unthinking dissolute Prince by the ill counsel of some near his Person there had during his minority happened divers miscarriages in the Government To redress which in a Parliament holden in the tenth year of his Reign and the twentieth of his Age a Commission was awarded to Twelve Peers and others of greatest Wisdom and Ability impowering them to inspect the past management of the Houshold the Revenue the Courts of Justice and in a word all things that did concern the Good of the Realm with full power finally to determine and put all things in excution so as might most tend to the Honour of the King Relief of the People and Safety of the Land which Commission was to endure onely one year Now come five of the Persons above-named viz. the Archbishop the Duke the Earl of Suffolk the Chief Justice and Brembre who seeing themselves like to be called to Account for their pernitious Counsels and Irregularities and to be brought to deserved shame and punishment to avoid the same and continue their Villanies for the future they insinuated to the King That this Commission intrenched upon the Royal Power and was derogatory to the Crown that the procurers thereof had extorted His Royal Assent thereunto in Parliament and that this was Treason for so the Chief Justice and Blake the Kings Council who was advised withal in the Writ declared it to be whereupon Blake was commanded to prepare an Indictment of Treason against all the said Commissioners and against such others as had been most active in procuring that Authority Accordingly he draws the Indictment which stands entred in the Roll and is to this effect That they the said Commissioners c. had Traiterously conspired among themselves to make this Commission by Authority of Parliament against the Royalty of the King to his disherison and in derogation of the Crown and that they forced the Kings Consent and confederated themselves to maintain one another in so doing It was designed that they should be tryed upon this Indictment in Middlesex or London and therefore some of the parties to be prosecuted not being Peers Usk the Under-Sheriff of Middlesex was acquainted with the business who was to return a Pack'd-Iury you see that 's a very old Game that might be sure to do the business which he performing accordingly was therefore hang'd But further the five grand Favourites that the King might the more confide in their Counsels for so are the words of the Record and that under colour of Law they might cover their malice from the King and the Kingdom before the Trials were to be brought on advise the King to demand the Opinion of some of the Judges that is of the two Chief Justices and Chief Baron and the Judges of the Common-Pleas six in all in number and of Locton the Kings Serjeant Blake of the Kings Council at Law was commanded to draw up those Questions who did it accordingly and for drawing the same and the before-mentioned Indictment he was himself Drawn and Hanged The Questions being prepared in Writing the Iudges were sent for to Nottingham Castle where in the Kings own Presence they were commanded upon their Allegiance to deliver their Opinions 1. Whether the Commission was derogatory to the Rights of the Crown They answered It was 2. Whether the persuading and urging the King to consent thereunto in Parliament was Treason They answered That it was Here were other Questions ask'd but these were the Main and those for which they were condemned as appears by the Replication of the Commons to the Iudges Answer and by the Words of the Iudgment That they the said Iudges knew that this Commission was awarded in Parliament c. that it was for the Publick Good That they knew of the Traiterous Intent to destroy the Procurers of this Commission That they knew the Law and that it was not Treason and had delivered such Opinions thereby under colour of Law to cover their Treasonable Intent and therefore Iudgment of High-Treason was given against them and against Locton the Kings Serjeant who had Subscribed these False Opinions with the Iudges And though there be other Articles against the Rest yet this alone is adjudged Treason in the several Iudgments against every one of the Eighteen And 't is observable That in all these Iudgments they are adjudged Traitors as well against the Person of the King as against the Common-wealth And it is there declared upon great Advice taken That in Treasons which concern the King and Kingdom they are not bound to proceed according to the Rules of the Common-Law but according to the Course of Parliaments so as may be for the Common-Good Nor were these Iudgments huddled up in haste but given upon long and mature Deliberation the Work of a Whole Parliament And it is declared in the Roll That they spent long time and took great pains in examining the Evidence the better thereby to satisfie their own Consciences and the World Their Proceedings against the five Plotters were begun the 14 of Novemb. and the
Votes being Transmitted by the Commons to the House of Lords Their Lordships did Concur therein And on Fryday the 26. of February 1640. It was Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the High Court of Parliament Assembled That the Lord-Keeper or Master of the Rolls the Two Lord Chief Justices and the Lord Chief Baron and likewise the Chief Clerk of the Star-Chamber should bring into the Upper House of Parliament the Records of the Judgment against Mr. Hampden concerning Ship-Money in each of those several Courts and that a Vacat thereof should be made And that a Copy of the Judgment of the Parliament concerning the Illegality thereof should be Delivered to the several Judges of Assize and that they should be required to Publish the same in all the Circuits Which on the 27. of the same February was done accordingly the said Records being Vacated and the Rolls Cross'd with a Pen in the House of Lords and Subscribed with the Clerk of the Parliament's Hand And soon after several of the before-named Judges were Impeached for the same in Parliament And not daring to stand the Shock some of them as the Lord Chief Justice Finch Fled beyond the Seas and others Absconded And soon after came on the Unnatural Civil-Wars so Destructive to King and Kingdom which though no way Justifiable yet it cannot be denyed but they were not a little Occasion'd and the Animosities of the People blown into an Untameable Flame by these base Traiterous Proceedings of those Sycophant Judges And Woe unto those say Sacred Oracles by whom Offences come However after so many dismal Experiences and fair Warnings and the Miraculous Restauration of His present Majesty our Gracious Soveraign whom God long Preserve a Prince of Incomparable Lenity and Good-natur'd beyond Example it might be hoped that none Preferr'd to the Publick Seats of Justice durst to have Acted â—o contrary to His Royal Incimations as to violate those Laws which He Himself has Sworn to Maintain and Intrusted them to Administer Yet so Base and Extravagant are some as even to abuse the Favours of the Best of Princes and puff't up with Preferment will take no Admonition from the Falls of their Head-strong Predecessors but still presume to sully those Ermins the Emblems of Innocency and Integrity which they wear and adventure on the same Destructive Precipices You have heard how heinously our Prudent Ancestors resented the Violation of their Liberties though by an Act in Tryals of the Free-born People of England Without Iuries Next to which is the Ruffing Hectoring and Over-awing of Juries For What real Difference is there betwixt allowing no Juries at all and Menacing them into a Compliance contrary to Law and their own Consciences with the Corrupt Humours and Time serving Interests of ill Judges Of this Crime the Lord Chief Justice Keeling about the Year 1666. a Time when God's General Judgments on this Sinful Land might have awakened them to greater Circumspection and Uprightness was not only Guilty but Question'd for the same even by That very Parliament which was never extraordinarily Celebrated for bringing Publick Vermine to Punishment Yet such a Sense they had of these ill Practises that in their Journal we find the following Votes on this Occasion Die Mecurii 11º Decembris 1667. THE House Resuming the Hearing of the rest of the Report touching the Matter of Restraint upon Juries and upon the Examination of divers Witnesses in several Cases of Restraints put upon Juries by the Lord Chief Justice Keeling Resolved as followeth First That the Proceedings of the said Lord Chief Justice in the Cases now Reported are Innovations in the Tryals of Men for their Lives and Liberties and that he hath used an Arbitrary and Illegal Power which is of dangerous Consequence to the Lives and Liberties of the People of England and tends to the Introducing of an Arbitrary Government Secondly That in the Place of Judicature the Lord Chief Justice hath Undervalued Vilified and Contemned Magna Charta the great Preserver of our Lives Liberties and Property Thirdly That he be brought to Tryal in Order to Condign Punishment in such Manner as the House shall judge most Fit and Requisite And again Die Veneris 13º Decembris 1667. Resolved THat the Precedents and Practice for Fining or Imprisoning of Jurors for Giving their Verdicts is Illegal Here you see the ill Practices of that Chief Justice were Branded in Parliament and he was ordered to be Prosecuted though by reason of the Houses being Prorogued and he himself not long after Dying in Discontent we do not find there were any further Proceedings made therein At the Sessions for London Sept. 1670. William Penn and William Mead Two of the People commonly called Quakers being Indicted For that they the Fourteenth of August before did with others to the Number of Three Hundred in Grace-Church-Street Unlawfully and Tumultuously Assemble c. by reason whereof a great Tumult did there happen in Contempt of the King great Disturbance of the Peace Terror of the People c. And the Jury after having been several times sent back and kept close from the Saturday till the Monday Morning bringing them in Not Guilty Sir John Howel then Recorder of London presumed to Fine the said Jury Forty Marks a Man and to Lye in Prison till paid Being thus in Custody Edward Bushel one of the said Jury-Men brought his Habeas Corpus in the Court of Common-Pleas and upon a long Argument it was Adjudged by the whole Court That the said Fining and Commitment was Illegal Whereupon the said Bushel was Discharged and left to bring his Action for False Imprisonment against the said Recorder Which Case is Reported by Vaughan at that time Chief Justice of the said Court in his Reports Licensed and Approved of by the present Lord Chancellor of England Sir William Scroggs since Lord Chief-Justice of the King 's Bench my Lord North Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas and all the Judges of England But as to the Illegality of any Courts Imposing upon Menacing Fineing or Imprisoning Juries see a small Treatise Entituled The English-Man's Right Printed for R. Janeway 1680. and another called The Grand Iury-Man's Oath and Office Explained Sold by Langley Curtis on Ludgate-Hill both well worthy the Perusal of every True English-Man What Proceedings have been since or rather are at this instant pendent against Judges for Hectoring of Juries and other Illegal Arbitrary Proceedings are too fresh in every Bodies Memory to need a Recital Instead of which I shall rather Insert the Form of the Oath Taken by Judges at their first Admittance to that Office which runs as follows The OATH of a JUDGE In Dorso Claus ' de Anno 20. Edw. 31. Part. Prima YE shall Swear That Well and Truly ye shall Serve our Sovereign Lord the King and His People in the Office of Justice And that ye shall Counsel our Sovereign Lord the King in His Needs And that ye shall not give any
and Imitable Ones Memoria Justi in Aetermun In the Reign of King H. 4. His Son and Heir apparent then a Wild Youth but afterwards as Solid and Renowned a King as most that have sway'd the English Scepter hearing that one of his Companions was Arraigned for Felony before the Lord Chief Justice of England I am sorry my narrow Reading has not brought me acquainted with his Honourable Name came to the Bar and offered to take away the Prisoner by force but being withstood by the said Chief Justice stepped to him and Struck him over the Face whereat the Judge nothing daunted rose up and with a Gravity becoming his Dignity told him That he did not this Affront to Him but to the King his Father in whose Place he sate and therefore forthwith Committed him to Prison The Prince Over-aw'd with the Majesty of the Sage Judge's Expressions calmly Suffered himself to be carried away by an ordinary Tip-Staff which being told the King He not a little Rejoyced both that he had a Judge of such Couragious Integrity and a Son of such Submissive Obedience to his Laws Vide Baker fol. 163. The Famous Queen Elizabeth having required a Charge upon divers of Her Subjects by particular Letters from the Lords of Her Council of several Sums of Money for present Aid towards Her Wars in Ireland hearing that one of Her Judges viz. Mr. Justice Walmesley being conven'd before the said Lords for Non-Payment thereof thereby Discouraging others had Answered That it was Contrary to Law that the same should be Imposed there being an Express Statute against it which He being a Judge was bound by his Oath to signifie to Her Majesty he being as much as in him lay a Conservator of the Queens Oath in that behalf Her Majesty was much Offended that any such Imposition had been pretended to and Commanded that it should be stopped from further Gathering and to such as had paid it their Money by Her express Order was Restored Judge Crooks Argument in Hampden's Case p. 57. In the 29th of the same Queen Her Majesty having Erected a New-Office in the Common-Pleas for making of Supersedeas on Exigents She Grants it to one Cavendish Her Servant sends to have him admitted but the Judges delay the doing thereof On this Reason because the Prothonotaries and Philizers Claimed the making those Writs The Queen sends a Sharp Letter and Commands them forthwith to Admit him Then She sends a more positive Command requiring the Reason of their Contempt and Disobedience The Judges return the beforementioned Reason to the Lord Keeper and Earl of Leicester no mean Man in those Days upon which the Queen sends a Fourth Peremptory Message for their Admitting him with this Reason That if the others were put out they were Rich and Able Men and that Her Courts of Justice were Open where they might Demand their Right for this was not to debar them Therefrom but only to put them to their Action The Honest Judges roturned this Answer That the Queen had taken Her Oath for the due Execution of Justice According to Law and they did not doubt but when Her Majesty was Informed it was against the Law She would Act therein as became her For their own parts they had taken an Oath to God to Her and the Common-Wealth And if they should do it without Process of Law before them and only upon Her Command put the others out of Possession though the Right remained to them it were a Breach of their Oath and therefore if the Fear of God were not Sufficient they told Her the Punishment that was Inflicted upon their Predecessors for Breach of their Oaths citing Thorpe c. might be a sufficient Warning to them Whereupon the Queen hearing these Reasons was Satisfied and the said Judges heard no more of this Business To Descend nearer our own Times we cannot omit that grand Example of Uprightness the ever Famous Sir Matthew Hale late Lord Chief Justice of the King's-Bench a Miracle for all other parts of Polite and Serious Learning as well as profound Knowledge in the Laws of England Of whom I shall yet not offer any particular Instances since his whole Life was one continued Thred of Sincere and Understanding Justice For as easily you might have justled the Sun out of the Ecliptick as to have warp'd him from his constant Road of Integrity An exact Standard whereby Future Princes may measure the Qualifications of their Judges for though he were a most Loyal and Zealous Servant to the Crown yet he was so far from being ever Impeached by the Representative Body of the Nation that no one Single Person no not of those that were Cast before him were ever heard to complain of his Conduct And if any Latter Judges have been dismiss'd by false Tales of Sycophant Whisperers or for opposing base Illegal Arbitrary Interests as they have the Invaluable Satisfaction of a good Conscience for their Comfort so they may be assured they still appear more Glorious in the Eyes of all good English-Men at present and will be Recorded more Venerable to Posterity than any Robes or Preferment sullied with Bribery Flattery or Treacherous Compliances could renden them However we hope the Various Examples we have here Enumerated from Authentick Records and Histories may be sufficient to Deterr future Judges from Ill Courses and satisfie all the World both in the Justice of the Parliaments late Proceedings in this Case and the Reasonableness of their Vote and intended Bill That Judges henceforth should hold their Places and Salaries not Ad Placitum but Quam Diu se bene gasserint Which was the principal Aim of these Papers Fiat Justitia FINIS