Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	judge_n	king_n	power_n	3,562	5	5.1146	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50890	A true and plain account of the discoveries made in Scotland, of the late conspiracies against His Majesty and the government extracted from the proofs lying in the records of His Majesties Privy Council, and the high justice court of the nation : together with an authentick extract of the criminal process and sentence against Mr. Robert Baillie of Jerviswood / extracted by command of His Majesties most honourable Privy Council of Scotland ...	Mackenzie, George, Sir, 1636-1691.; Baillie, Robert, d. 1684.; England and Wales. Privy Council.	1685 (1685)	Wing M210; ESTC R19774	71,866	68

with Ferguson upon the said Conspiracy and who should be better believed then Fergusons confident and one who was so far trusted in the whole affair that he was to take away that Sacred Life which Heaven has preserv'd by so many Miracles Against these three Depositions you have heard it objected that non testimonia sed testes probant especially by our Law in which by an express Act of Parliament no Probation is to be led but in presence of the Assise and Pannal To which it is answered that these Depositions are not meer Testimonies for I call a Testimony a voluntar Declaration emitted without an Oath and a Judge but these Depositions are taken under the awe of an Oath and by the direction of a Judge 2. Shepard was confronted with the Pannal himself and he had nothing to say against him whereas the great thing that can be objected against Testimonies and by our Statute especially is that if the Party who emits the Testimony had been confronted with the Pannal the impression of seeing a person that was to die by his Deposition would have made him afraid to Depose laxly and the Pannal likewise might by proposing Interrogators and Questions have cleared himself and satisfi'd the Judges in many things Depos'd against him But so it is that Mr. Shepard having been confronted with the Pannal before the King Himself who is as ●ar above other Judges in His Reason and Justice as He is in His Power and Authority He Deposes that the Pannal was the chief Mannager of this Conspiracy next to Argile and that he was so passionate to have this Money to buy Arms that he lamented the delays and can it be imagined that Mr. Shepard whom he trusted with his Life and his Fortune and whom all their Party trusted with their Cash would have Depos'd any thing against him that was not true especially when he knew that what he was to Depose was to take away his Life and his Fortune or that if the Pannal had been innocent he would not when he was confronted with Mr. Shepard before the King Himself have roar'd against Mr. Shepard if he had not been conscious to his own Guilt There is a surprise in innocence which makes the innocent exclaim and it inspires men with a courage which enables them to confound those who Depose falsly against them and in what occasion could either of these have appear'd more than in this wherein this Gentleman was charg'd to have Conspir'd with the greatest of Rascals against the best of Princes and that too in presence of the Prince himself against whom he had Conspir'd but Guilt stupifies indeed and it did never more than in this Gentlemans Case whose silence was a more convincing Witness than Mr. Shepard could be Mr. Carstares likewise knew when he was to Depone that his Deposition was to be used against Ierviswood and he stood more in awe of his love to his Friend than of the fear of the Torture and hazarded rather to die for Ierviswood than that Ierviswood should die by him How can it then be imagin'd that if this man had seen Ierviswood in his Tryal it would have altered his Deposition or that this kindness which we all admir'd in him would have suffer'd him to forget any thing in his Deposition which might have been advantageous in the least to his Friend And they understand ill this hight of Friendship who think that it would not have been more nice and careful than any Advocate could have been and if Carstares had forgot at one time would he not have supplyed it at another but especially at this last time when he knew his Friend was already brought upon his Tryal and that this renew'd Testimony was yet a further confirmation of what was said against him and albeit the Kings Servants were forced to engage that Carstares himself should not be made use of as a Witness against Ierviswood yet I think this kind scrupulosity in Carstares for Ierviswood should convince you more than twenty suspect nay than even indifferent Witnesses nor can it be imagined that the one of these Witnesses would not have been as much afraid of God and his Oath at London as at Edinburgh and the other in the Council Chamber in the Forenoon as in the Justice-Court in the Afternoon 3. The Statute founded on does not discharge the producing of Testimonies otherways than after the Jury is inclos'd for then indeed they might be dangerous because the party could not object against them But since the Statute only discharges to produce Writ or Witnesses after the Jury is inclos'd it seems clearly to insinuat that they ought to prove when they are produc'd in presence of the Party himself as now they are And though the Civil Law did not allow their Judges to believe Testimonies because they were confin'd to observe strict Law yet it does not from that follow that our Juries whom the Law allows to be a Law to themselves and to be confin'd by no Rule but their Conscience may not trust intirely to the Depositions of Witnesses though not taken before themselves when they know that the Witnesses by whom and the Judges before whom these Depositions were emited are persons beyond all suspition as in our case But yet for all this I produce these Testimonies as Adminicles here only to connect the Depositions of the present Witnesses and not to be equivalent to Witnesses in this legal Process albeit as to the conviction of mankind they are stronger than any ordinary Witnesses When you my Lords and Gentlemen remember that it is not the revenge of a privat party that accuses in this case and that even in privat Crimes such as Forgery or the murder of Children c. many Juries here have proceeded upon meer presumptions and that even Solomon himself founded his illustrious Decision approv'd by God Almighty upon the presum'd assertion of a mother I hope ye will think two Friends Deposing as present Witnesses adminiculated and connected by the Depositions of others though absent should beget in you an intire belief especially against a Pannal who has been always known to incline this way and who though he was desired in the Tolbooth to vindicate himself from those Crimes would not say any thing in his own defence and though he offers to clear himself of his accession to the Kings murder yet sayes nothing to clear himself from the Conspiracy entered into with the late Earl of Argile for invading his Native Countrey which is all that I here Charge upon him and which he inclines to Justifie as a necessary mean for redressing Grievances I must therefore remember you that an Inquest of very worthy Gentlemen did find Rathillet guilty tho there was but one Witness led against him because when he was put to it he did not deny his accession And two Rogues were found guilty in the late Circuit at Glascow for having murdered a Gentleman of the Guard though no man