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justice_n	great_a	king_n	lord_n	8,214	5	3.8032	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56227	A seasonable, historical, legal vindication and chronological collection of the good old fundamental liberties, franchises, rights, laws of all English freemen ...; Seasonable, legal, historical vindication of the good old fundamental liberties, franchises, rights, properties, laws, government of all English freemen.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1654 (1654)	Wing P4122; ESTC R13248	47,108	63

just suits deprived of their lawfull Rights and subjected to his Tyrannicall will to their ruine and destruction Fourthly That he hath Trayterously endeavoured to corrupt the other Courts of Justice by advising and procuring his Maiesty to sell places of Judicature and other offices contrary to the Laws and Customes in that behalf Fifthly He hath Trayterously caused a Book of Canons to be compiled and published without any Lawfull warrant and authority in that behalf in which pretended Canons many matters are contained contrary to the Kings prerogitive to the Fundamentall Laws and statutes of this Realm to the Rights of Parliament to the property and Liberty of the subject and matters tending to sedition and of dangerous consequence and to the establishing of a vast unlawful presumptuous power in himself and his successors c. Seventhly That he hath trayterously endeavoured to alter subvert Gods true Religion BY LAW EST ABLISHED and instead thereof to set up Popish Religion and Idolatry And to that end hath declared and maintained in Speeches and printed Books divers popish doctrines and opinions contrary to the Articles of Religion ESTABLISHED BY LAW Hee hath urged and enjoyned divers popish and superstitious Ceremonies WITHOUT ANY WARRANT OF LAW and hath cruelly persecuted those who have opposed the same by corporal punishments and imprisonments and most unjustly vexed others who refused to conform thereunto by Ecclesiastical Censures Excommunication Suspension Deprivation and Degradation contrary to the Laws of this Kingdome 13. He did by his own authority and power contrary to Law procure sundry of his Majesties Subjects and enforced the Clergy of this Kingdome to contribute towards the maintenance of the war against the Scots That to preserve himselfe from being questioned for these and other his Trayterous Courses hee hath laboured to Subvert the Rights of Parliament and the ancient Course of parliamentary proceedings and by false and malicious slanders to incense His Majesty against Parliaments All which being proved against him at his Tryall were after solemn Argument by Mr. Samuel Brown in behalf of the Commons House proved and soon after adjudged to be High Treason at the Common Law by both Houses of Parliament and so declared in the Ordinance for his Attainder for which he was condemned and beheaded as a Traytor against the King Law and Kingdom on Tower-hil January 10. 1644. 11. In the a same Parliament December 21. Ian. 14 February 11. 1640. and Iuly 6. 1641. Sir John Finch then Lord Keeper chief Justice Bramston Judge Berkley Judge●Crawley Chiefe Baron Davenport Baron Weston and Baron Turnour were accused and impeached by the House o● Commons by several articles transmitted to the Lords of High Treason for that they had Traitorously and wickedly endeavoured to subvert the Fundamentall Laws and established Government of the Realm of England and instead thereof to introduce an arbitrary and Tyrannicall Government against Law which they had declared by traiterous and wicked words opinions judgment and more especially in this their extrajudical opinion subcribed by them in the case of ship-money viz. We are of opinions that when the good and safety of the kingdome in general is concerned and the whole kingdome in danger your majesty may by wr●● under the great Seal of england without consent in parliament command all your subjects of this your kingdome at their charge to provide and furnish such a number of ships with men victual and ammunition and for such time as your Majesty shall think fit for the defence and safeguard of the kingdome from such danger and peril and we are of opinion that in such case your Majesty is the sole Judge both of the danger and when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided and likewise for arguing and giving judgment accordingly in Master Iohn Hampdens case in the Exchequer Chamber in the point of ship money in April 1638. which said opinions are Destructive to the Fundamentall Laws of the Realm the subjects right of propriety and contrary to former Resolutions in parliament and the petition of right as the words of their several Impeachments run Sir John Finch fled the Realm to preserve his head on his shoulders some others of them died through fear to prevent the danger soon after their Impeachments and the rest put to Fines who were less peccant 12. Mr. Iohn Pim in his Declaration upon the whole matter of the Charge of High Treason against Thomas Earle of Stafford April 12. 1641. before a Committee of both Houses of Parliament in Westminster hall printed and published by order of the house of Commons proves his endeavour to subvert the fundamentall Law of England and to introduce an Arbitrary Power to be High Treason and an offence very hanious in the nature and mischievous in the effects thereof which saith he will best appear if it be examined by that universall and supream Law Salus Populi the element of all lawes out of which they are derived the end of all Lawes to which they are designed and in which they are perfected 1. It is an offence comprehending other all offences Here you shall finde severall Treasons Murthers Rapins Oppressions Perjuries There is in this Crime a Seminary of all evills hurtfull to a State and if you consider the Reasons of it it must needs be so The Law is that which puts a difference betwixt Good and Evill betwixt just and unjust If you take away the Law all things wiill fall into Confusion every man will become a law to 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 Lawes and what Dictates what decisions such Lawes will produce may easily be discemed in the late Government of Ireland and England too since this The Law hath a power to prevent to restrain to repair evils without this all kinds of mischiefes and distempers will break it upon a State It is the Law that doth the King to the alegiance and Service of his people it intitles the people to the Portection and Justice of the King c. The Law is the Bondary the measure betwixt the Kings prerogative and the peoples liberty whiles these move in their own Orb they are a support and security to one another but if these Bounds be so removed that they enter into contestation and conflict one of these mischiefs must needs ensue If the Prerogative of the King overwhelme the liberty of the people it will be turned into Tyranny If liberty undermine the peprogative it will turne into Anarchy The Law is the safegard the custody of all private interests your honours your lives your liberties and estates are all in the keeping of the Law without this every man hath a like Right to any thing and this is the condition into which the Irish were brought by the Earle of Strafford and the English by

AND PRINCIPLES upon which it was framed and founded Though the Generality of the afterwards-secured and secluded Majority of the House of Commons endeavoured constantly to make good this Declaration in all particulars yet how desperatly the garbled Minority thereof continuing in power after their Seclusion prevaricated apostatized and falsified their Faith and Engagements herein in every particle in the highest Degree we cannot but with greatest grief of heart and detestation remember to the subversion ●uine of our King Lords Commons Kingdom Parliaments Fundamental Laws Government and the Peoples Liberties c. almost beyond all hopes of restitution or reparation in humane probability without a miracle from heaven The Lord give them grace most seriously to consider of repent and really sincerely reform it now at last and not still add drunkenness to thirst lest they bring them to temporal and eternal condemnation for it in Gods own due time and engender endless Wars Troubles Taxes Changes Confusions in our Kingdoms as they have hitherto done By this full Jury of Parliamentary Authorities to omit many others of like or a inferiour nature and less moment it is undeniable That the People of England have both ancient Fundamental Rights Liberties Franchises Laws and a Fundamental Government which like the Laws of the Medes and Persians neither may or ought to be altered violated or innovated upon any pretence but perpetually maintained defended with greatest care vigilancy resolution and he who shall still deny or oppugne it deserves no refutation by further arguments since it is a received Maxime in all Arts Contra Principia negant●●● non est disputandum but rather demerits a sentence of Cond●●nation and publike Execution at Tyburn as a common Enemy Traytor to our Laws Liberties Nation it being no less then 〈◊〉 transcendent Crime and High Treason by our Laws for any person or persons secretly or openly to attempt the 〈◊〉 or subversion of our Fundamental Laws Rights Liberties Government especially by fraud treachery force or armed power and violence the later part of my first Proposal which I shall now confirm by these twelve following Presidents and Evidences corroborating likewise the former part that we have such Fundamental Laws Liberties Rights Franchises and a Fundamental Government too In the b fifth year of King Richard the second the vulgar rabble of people and villains in Kent Essex Sussex Norfolk Cambridgeshire and other Countreys under the Conduct of Wat Tyler Jack Straw and other Rebels assembling together in great multitudes resolved by force and violence to abrogate the Law of villenage with all other Lawes they disliked formerly setled to burn all the Records kill and beh●ad all he Judges Iustices and men of Law of all sorts which they could get into their hands to burn and destroy the Innes of Court as they did then the new Temple where the Apprentices of the Law lodged burning their Monuments and Records of Law there found to alter the Tenures of Lands to devise new Laws of their own by which the Subjects shold be governed to change the ancient Hereditary Monarchicall Government of the Realm and to elect petty elective Tyrannies and Kingdoms to themselves in every Shire a project eagerly prosecuted by some Anarchical Anabaptists Jesuits and Levellers very lately and though withall they intended to destroy the King to last and all the Nobles too when they had gotten sufficient power yet at first to cloak their intentions for the present they took an Oath of all they met Quod Regi communibus fidelitatem servarent that they should keep allegeance and faith to the King and Commons this their resolution and attempt thus to alter and subvert the laws government upon full debate in the Parliament of 5. R. 2. n 30 31. was declared to be High Treason against the King and against the Law for which divers of the chief Actors in this Treasonable design were condemned and executed as Traitors in several places and the rest enforced to a publike submission and then pardoned 2. In the a Parliament XL R. 2. as appears by the Parliament Rolls and printed Statutes at large three Privie Coun●cellors the Archbishop of York the Duke of Ireland and Earl of Suffolk the Bishop of Exeter the Kings Confessor five Knights six Judges where of Sir Robert Trisilian Chief Justice was one Blake of the Kings Councel at Law Vsk and others were impeached and condemned of High Treason some of them executed as Traytors the rest banished their Lands and goods ferfeited and none to endeavour to procure their pardon under pain of Felony for endeavouring to overthrow a Commission for the good of the Kingdome and contrary to an Act of Parliament of force of arms and Opinions in Law delivered to the King tending to subvert the Laws and Statutes of the Realm overthrow the Power Priviledges and proceedings of Parliament and betray not all the house of Lords but only some of the Lords of Parliament which Judgment being afterwards reversed in the forced and packed Parliament of 21. R. 2. was reconfirmed in the Parliament of 1 H. 4. c 3. 4 5. and the Parliament of 21. R. 2. totally repealed and adnulled for ever and hath so continued 3. In the a Parliament of 17 R. 2. n 20. and Pas. 17. R. 2. B. R S. Rot 16. Sir Thomas Talbot was accused and sound guilty of High Treason for conspiring the death of the Dukes of Glocester Lancaster and other Peers who maintained the Commission confirmed by act of Parliament X R. 2. and assembling people in a warlike manner in the County of Chester for the effecting of it in destruction of the Estates of the Realm and OF THE LAWES OF THE KINGDOME 4. In the 29. year of King Henry the sixth Jack Cade under a pretence to REFORM alter and abrogate some Laws Purveyances and extortions importable to the Commons whereupon he was called JOHN AMEND ALL drew a great multitude of Kentish people to Black Heath in a warlike manner to effect it in the Parliament of 29. H. 6. c. 1. this was adjudged High Treason in him and his Complices by act of Parliament and the Parliament of 31. H. 6. c 1. made this memorable Act against him and his Imitators in succeeding ages worth serious perusual and consideration by all who tread in his footsteps and over-act him in his Treasons Whereas the most abominable Tyrant horrible odious and erraut FALSE TRAITOR Iohn Cade calling himself sometimes Mortimer sometime Captain of Kent which Name Fame acts and Feats to be removed out of the speeh and mind of every faithful Christian man perpetually fasly and trayterously purposing and imagining the pertual destruction of the KINGS PERSON and FINALL SUBVERSION OF THIS REALM taking upon him * ROYALL POWER and gathering to him the Kings people in great number BY FALSE SVBTIL IMAGINED LANGVAGE and seditiously made a stirring Rebellion and insurrection under Colour of Justice for Reformation of the LAWS

of the said KING robbing slaying spoiling a great part of his faithfull People Our said Soveraign Lord the King considering the promises with many other which were more odious to remember by advice and assent of the LORDS Spirituall and Temporall and at THE REQVEST OF THE COMMONS and by authority aforesaid hath ordained and established that the said Iohn Cade shal be had named and declared a false Traytor to cur said Soveraign Lord the King and that all His Tyranny Acts Facts false Opinions shall be voyded abated adnulled destroyed and put out of remembrance for ever And that all indictments in time coming in like case under power of Tyranny Rebellion and stirring had shall be of no regard nor effect but void in Law and all the petitions * delivered to the said King in his last Parliament holden at Westminster the sixth day of November the 29 of his Reign against his mind by him not agreed shall be taken and put in oblivion out of remembrance undone voided adnulled and destroyed for ever as a thing purposed against God and his Couscience and against his royall estate and preheminence and also dishonourable and unreasonable 5. In the a 8 year of King Henry the 8. William Bell and Thomas Lacy in the County or Kent conspired with Thomas Cheyney the Hermite of the Queen of Fairies TO OVERTHROW THE LAWS AND CVSTOMS OF THE REALM for effecting whereof they with 200. more met together and concluded upon a cause or raising greater forces in Kent and the adjacent shires this was adiudged high treason and some of them executed as traytors Moreover it b was resolved by all the Judges of in the reign of Henry S. that an Insurrection against the Statute of Labourers or for the inhansing of salaries and wages was Treason a levying war against the King Because it was generally against the KINGS LAW and the Offenders tooke upon them the REFORMATION thereof which Subjects by gathering of power ought not to do 6. On a December 1. in the 21. yeer of King Henry the 8. Sir Thomas Moor Lord Chancellor of England with 14. more Lords of the Privy Councel Iohn Fitz Iames Chief Justice of England and Sir Anthony Fitzherbert one of the Judges of the Common Pleas exhibited sundry Articles of Impeachment to King Henry the 8. against Cardinall Wolsy That he had by divers and many sundry ways and fashions committed High Treason and notable grievous offences misusing altering and subverting the order of his Graces Laws and otherwise contrary to his high Honour Prerogative Crown Estate and Dignity Royall to the inestimable great hinderance dimunition and decay of the universal Wealth of this his Graces Realm The Articles are 43. in number The 20 21 26 30 35 47 42 43. contain his illegal arbitrary practices and proceedings to the subversion of the due course and order of his Graces Laws to the undoing of a great number of his loving people Whereupon they pray Please therefore your most excellent Majesty of your excellent goodness towards the Weal of this your Realm and Subjects of the same to see such order and direction upon the said Lord Cardinal as may bee to terrible example of others to beware to offend your Grace and your Lawes hereafter And that he be so provided for that he never have any power jurisdiction or authority hereafter to trouble vex or impoverish the Commonwealth of this your Realm as he hath done heretofore to the great hurt and dammage of every man almost high and low His * poysoning himself prevented his Iudgment for these his practises 7. The b Statute of 1. Marie● 12. Enacts that if 12. or more shall endeavour by force to alter any of the laws or statutes of the Kingdome the offender shall from the time therein limited be adjudged ONELY AS A FELON whereas it was Treason before but this act continuing but till the next Parliament and then expiring the offence remains Treason as before 8. In the a 39. of Queen Elizabeth divers in the County of Oxford consulted together to go from house to house in that County and from thence to London and other parts to excite them to take arms for the throwing down of inclosures throughout the Realm nothing more was prosecuted nor assemblies made yet in Easter Term 39. Elizabeth it was resolved by all the Judges of England who met about the case That this was High Treason and a levying Warre against the Queen because it was to throw down all inclosures throughout the Kingdome to which they could pretend no right and that the end of it was to overthrow the Laws and Statutes for Inclosures Whereupon BRADSHAW and BVRTON two of the principall offenders were condemned and executed at Aic●ston Hill in Oxfordshire where they intended their first meeting 9. To come nearer to our present times and case In the last Parliament of King Charls Anno 16●0 1641 b The whole House of Commons impeached Thomas Earle of Stafford Lord Deputy of Ireland of high Treason amongst other Articles for this crime especially wherein all the other centred that he Treasonably endeavoured by his Words actions and Counsels to subvert the Fundamentall Lawes of ENGLAND and IRELAND and introduce an arbitrary and Tyrannicall Government This the whole parliament declared and adjudged to be High treason c in and by their votes and a speciall act of parliament for his attainder for which he was condemned and soon after executed on Tower Hill as a traytor to the King and Kingdome May 2● 1641. 10. The whole House of Common● the same Parliament impeached William L●●d archbishop of Canterbury of HIGH TREASON in these 〈…〉 1646. First that he hath traytorously endeavoured 〈…〉 Fundamental Lawes and Government of this Kingdome of England and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law And hee to that end hath wickedly and Traiterously advised his Majesty that hee might at his own will and pleasure levy and take Money of his Subjects without their consent in parliament and this hee affirmed was warrantable by the Law of God Secondly He hath for the better accomplishment of that his Trayterous design advised and procured Sermons and other Discourses to be preached printed and published in which the authority of parliaments and the force of the Laws of this Kingdome have been denyed and absolute and unlimited power over the persons and estates of his Majesties Subjects maintained and defended not onely in the King but in himself and other Bishops against the Law Thirdly he hath by Letters Messages Threats and promises and by divers other ways to Judges and other Ministers of Justice interrupted perverted and at other times by means aforesaid hath endeavoured to interrupt and pervert the course of Justice in his Majesties Courts at Westminster and other Courts to the subversion of the LAWES of this KINGDOME whereby sundry of his Majesties Subjects have been stopt in their

others who condemned him And the reason which he gave for it hath more mischiefe than the thing it selfe THEY ARE A CONQUERED NATION Let those who now say the same of England as well as Scotland and Ireland consider and observe what follows There cannot be a word more pregnant and fruitfull IN TREASON then that word is There are few Nations in the world that have not been conquered and no doubt but the Conquerour may give what Laws he please to those that are conquered But if the succeeding Acts and agreements do not limit restrain that Right what people can be secure England hath been conquered and Wales hath been conquered and by this reason will be in little better case then Ireland If the King by the Right of a Conquerour give Lawes to his people shall not the people by the same reason be restored to the Right of the conquered To recover their Liberty if they can What can be more hurtfull more pernicious than such Propositions as these 2. It is dangerous to the Kings Person and dangrous to his Crown It is apt to cherish Ambition usurpation and Oppression in great men and to beget Sedition Discontent in the people and both these have been and in reason must ever be causes of great Trouble and Alterations to Prince and State If the Histories of those Easterne Countries be perused where Princes order their Affaires according to the mischievous Principles of the Earle of Straffords LOOSE and ABSOLVED FROM ALL RULES OF GOVERNMENT they will be found to be frequent in combustions full of Massacres and of the tragicall end of Princes If any man shall look into our own Stories in the times when the Laws were most neglected he shall finde them full of Commotions of Civil Distempers whereby the Kings that then raigned were alwayes kept in want and distresse the people consumed with CIVILL WARRES and by such wicked Counsels as these some of our Princes have been brought to such miserable ends As * no honest heart can remember without horror and earnest Prayer that it may never be so again 3. As it is dangerous to the Kings person and Crown so it is in other respects very prejudiciall to His Majesty in honour profit and greatnesse which he there proves at large as you may there read at leasure and yet these are the Guildings and Paintings that are put upon such Counsells These are for your Honour for your Service 4. It is inconsistent with the Peace the Wealth the Prosperity of a Nation It is destructive to Justice the Mother of Peace to Industry the Spring of Wealth to Valour which is the active vertue whereby the prosperity of a Nation can onely be procured confirmed and enlarged It is not onely apt to take away Peace and so intangle the Nation with warres but doth corrupt Peace and powres such a malignity into it as produceth the effects of Warre both to the * NOBILITY and others having as little Security of THEIR PERSONS OR ESTATES in this peaceable time as if the Kingdome had beene under the fury and rage of Warre And as for Industry and Valour who will take paines for that which when he hath gotten is not his own or who fights for that wherein he hath no other interest but such as is subject to the will of another c. Shall it be Treason to embase the Kings Coine though but a piece of twelve pence or six pence and must it not needs be the effect of GREATER TREASON to * embase the Spirits of his Subjects and to set a stamp and Character of Servitude upon them whereby they shall be disabled to do any thing for the Service of the King or Common wealth 5. In times of sudden danger by the Invasion of an enemy it will disable his Majesty to preserve himself and His Subjects from that danger When Warre threatens a Kingdome by the comming of a forreign enemy it is no time then to discontent the people to make them weary of the PRESENT GOVERNMENT and more inclinable to a change The Supplies which are to come in this way will be unready uncertain there can be no assurance of them no dependence upon them either for time or proportion And if some money be gotten in such a way the Distractions the Divisions Distempers which this cause is apt to produce will be more prejudiciall to the publick safty than the Supply can be advantageous to it 6. This crime is contrary to the Pact and Covenant between the King and his people by mutall agreement and stipulation confirmed by OATH on both sides 7. It is an Offence that is contrary to the ends of Government 1. To prevent Oppressions to * limit and restraeine the excessive power and violence of great Men to open passages of Justice with indifference towards all 2. To preserve men in their Estates to secure them in their Lives and Liberties 3. That vertue should be cherished and vice suppress●d but where Laws are subverted and arbitrary and unlimited power set up a way is open not onely for the security but for the Advancement and Incouragement of evill Such men as are * aptest for the execution and maintenance of this power are onely capable of Preferment and others will not be Instruments of any unjust commands who make conscience to doe any thing against the Law of the Kingdome and Libbeties of the Subject are not only not passable for imployment but SUBJECT TO MUCH JEALOUSY and DANGER Is not this their condition of late and present times expertus quor 4. That all Accidents and events all Counsels and Designs should be improved to the publick good But this arbitrary power is apt to dispose all to the maintenance of it self And is it not so now 8. The Treasons of Subversions of the Lawes violation of liberties can never be good or justifiable by any circumstance or occasion being evil in their own nature how specious or good so ever they be pretended He alledgeth it was a time of GREAT NECESSITY and DANGER when such Counsels were necessary FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE STATE the Plea since and now used by others who condemned him If there were any NECESSITY IT WAS OF HIS OWN MAKING He by his evill Counsel had brought the King as others the Kingdome since into a necessity and by no Rules of Justice can be allowed to gain this advantage to his Justification which is a GREAT PART OF HIS OFFENCE 9. As this is Treason in the nature of it so it doth exceed all other Treasons in this that in the Designe and endeavour of the Authour it was to be A CONSTANT and PERMANENT TREASON a standing perpetuall Treason which would have been in continuall Act not determined within one Time or Age but transmitted to Posterity even from Generation to Generation And are not others Treasons of late times such proclaimed such in and by their owne Printed Papers and therein

exceeding Straffords 10. As it is a crime Odious in the nature of it so it is odious in the Judgement and Estimation of the Law TO ALTER THE SETTLED FRAME AND CONSTITUTION OF GOVERNMENT IN ANY STATE Let those consider it who are guilty of it in the Highest Degree beyond Strafford Canterbery or the Shipmoney Judges in our own State The Lawes whereby all parts of a Kingdom are preserved should be very vaine and defective if they had not a Power to secure and preserve themselves The Forfeitures inflicted for Treason by our Law are of Life Honour and Estate even all that can be forfeited and this Prisoner although he should * pay all these Forfeitures will still be a Debtor to the Common wealth Nothing can be more equall then that he should perish by the Justice of the Law which he would have subverted Neither will this be a New way of blo●d There are marks enough to trace this Law to the very Originall of this Kingdome And if it hath not been put in execution as he alledgeth this 240 yeares it was not for want of Law but that all that time had not bred a man * bold enough to commit such crimes as these Which is a circumstance much aggravating his Offence and making him no lesse liable to punishment because he is THE * ONELY MAN that in so long a time hath ventured UPON SUCH A TREASON AS THIS Thus far Mr. John Pym in the Name and by the Order and Authority of the whole Commons House in Parliament which I wish all those who by their Words Actions Counsels and printed Publications too have trayterously endeavored to subvert the Fundamentall Lawes Liberties of England and Ireland and to introduce an arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law as much as ever Strafford did and out stripped him therein ever since his execution in all particulars for which he was beheaded would now seriously lay to heart and speedily reform lest they equall or exceed him conclusion in Capitall punishments for the same or endlesse Hellish Torments The next Authority I shall produce in point is The speech and declaration of Mr. Oliver St. John at a Conference of both Houses of Parliament concerning Ship-mony upon Judge Finches Impeachment of High Treason January 14. 1640. printed by the Commons Orders London 1641. wherein he declares the sense of the Commons p. 12. c. That by the Judges Opinions forecited concerning Ship-mony THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF THE REALM CONCERNING OUR PROPERTY and OUR PERSONS ARE SHAKEN Whose Treasonable Offence herein he thus aggravates p. 20. c. The Judges as is declared in the Parliament of 11 R. 2. are the Executors of the Statutes and of the Judgements and Ordinances of Parliament They have here made themselves the * EXECVTIONERS OF THEM they have endevoured THE DESTRVCTION OF THE FVND AMENTALS OF OVR LAWS and LIBERTIES Holland in the Low-Countries lies under the Sea the Superficies of the Land is lower than the Superficies of the Sea It is Capitall therefore for any man to cut the Banks because they defend the Country Besides our own even Forreign Authors as Comines observes That the Statute DE TALLAGIO and the other old Laws are the Sea walls and Banks which keep the Commons from the inundation of the Prerogative These * Pioners have not onely undermined these Banks but they have levelled them even with the ground If one that was known to be Hostis Patriae had done this thought the Dammage be the same yet the Guilt is lesse but the Conservatores Riparum the overseers instructed with the Defence of these Banks for them to destroy them the breach of Trust aggravates nay alters the nature of the offence Breach of trust though in a private Person and in the least things is odious amongst all men much more in a publick Person in things of great and publick concernement because * GREAT TRUST BINDS THE PARTY TRUSTED TO GREATEST CARE AND FIDELITY It is TREASON in the Constable of Dover-Castle to deliver the Keys to the known enemies of the Kingdome because the Castle is the Key of the Kingdome whereas if the house-keeper of a private person deliver possession to his Adversary it is a crime scarce punishable by Law The * Judges under his Majesty are the Persons trusted with the Laws and in them with the Lives Liberties and Estates of the whole Kingdome This Trust of all we have if primarily from his Majesty and * in him delegated to the Judges His Majesty at his Coronation is bound by his Oath TO EXECUTE JUSTICE TO HIS PEOPLE ACCORDING TO THE LAWS thereby to assure the people of the faithfull performance of his Great Trust His Majesty again as he trusts of Judges with the performance of this part of his Oath so doth he likewise exact another Oath of them for their due execution of justice to the people according to the Laws hereby the Judges stand intrusted with this part of his Majesties Oath If therefore the Judges shall do wittingly against the Law they do not onely break their own oaths and therein the Common Faith and trust of the whole Ki●●dome but do as much as in them lies sperse and blemish the sacred Person of his Majesty with the odious and hateful fin of * Perjury My Lords the hainousnesse of this offence is most legible in the * severe punishment which formour ages have inflicted upon those Judges who have broken any part of their Oaths wittingly though in things not so dangerous to the Subject as in the case in question * Sir Thomas Wayland Chief Justice of the Common-pleas 17 E. 1. was attainted of Felony for taking bribes and his Lands and goods forefeited as appears in the Pleas of Parlament 18 E. 1. and he was banished the Kingdome as unworthy to live in the State against which he had so much offended * Sir William Thorp Chief Justice of the Kings Bench in Edward the thirds time having of five persons received five severall Bribes which in all amounted to one hundred pounds was for this alone adjudged to be hanged and all his goods and Lands forfeited The reason of the Judgement is entered in the Roll in these words Quia praedictus Wilielmus * Throp qui Sacramentum Domini Regis erga populum suum habuit ad custodiendum fugit malitiosè falsò rebeliter quantum in ipso suit There is a notiable declaration in that Judgement that this Judgement was not to be drawn into example against any other officers who should break their Oaths but onely against those qui predictum Sacramentum fecerunt fregerunt * habent Leges Angliae ad custodiendum That is onely to the Judges Oaths who have the Laws intrusted unto them This Judgement was given 24. E. 3. The next year in Parliament 25 E. 3. Numb. 10. it was debated in Parliament whether this Judgement was legall