transgresses that Law that made him so and his Ministers Judges and Justices of all sorts that either assists him in it or Act by such Commands shall account to the people by the Law of the Land and reckon one day for it to their cost for though it be a maxim in Law the King can do no wrong which is meant as to his pollitick capacity yet the Ministers and Officers that act under the pretence of his command if it be an unlawful Act they do though they are commanded by the King to do it it shall be no excuse for them for if the Kings Commands or his Patents be not according to the Law they are Null and Void and the Person that Acts by such Commands though he hath such pretended Authority shall be punished for the same with Life and Member as the crime deserves And the efore our wise Ancestors foreseeing the mischief that corrupt Ministers and Judges about the King might bring upon the Nation always took care that within some convenient time a General Councel of the whole Nation should meet for to judg of matters hear complaints redress Grievances punish Evil Councellors wicked Judges Officers and Offenders who had wronged the King and People by such their foul practices and pernitious Councels well foreseeing that in a pollitick Body as well as in a Corporal Body Deseases and Scurbitick humours will ever be growing and therefore must stand in need of good Physick and wise and honest Physitians to heal them lest the Disease grows incurable And therefore in all ages we find that our Ancestors took care that the people should meet together at certain times sometimes twice in a year and oftner if need required As in King Alfred's time and the reason by the Records is given to keep the people of God from sin and to do Holy Judgments as you may see by our Law Books Vid. Flornes Merrour of Justice Sect. 3. p. 10. Cook and Litâ—leton fol. 110. See Hornes Mirrour of Justice and my Lord Cooks second part of the Institutes of the Law of England The words of the Law are these viz. That a Parliament shall be called at London twice every year or oftner if need be to keep the people of God from Sin that they might live in peace and true Religion certain Vsages and Holy Iudgments Now of later years in Edward the thirds time a Law was made that a Parliament should be holden once a year and more often if need be See the Statute of the 4 E. 3. Cap. 4. which ordains viz. Item 4 E. 3. C. 14. It is Recorded that a Parliament shall be holden every year once and more often if need be There is another Act made in the 36 E. 3. in these words viz. Item 36 E. 3. C. 10. For maintenance of the said Articles and Statutes and Redress of divers Mischiefs and Grievances which daily happen A Parliament shall be holden every year as another time was ordained by a Statute Now by these Statutes we may plainly see what is the Right of the Subject and the Law of the Land Why it is frequent Parliaments to protect and preserve the Nation without which it is impossible for either the King or People to be safe from violence oppressions and incroachment of proud and insolent men which always was and over will be designing to root up the Government and the peoples Rights and get them into their own Clutches under the disguise of their serving the King in his own way And if this be so that both these last recited Laws be yet in force which I am sure neither the wise Justice or any Judg of England that is a man of Law can say they are not And since we have been now without a Parliament above one whole year sure Sir W. in his Speech ought to have given some touch to the Jury to present as a Grievance and a Breach of the Law the want of a Parliament and it would have better befitted him to have discoursed about the Effluviums of the Mouth and Haggs And since we are governed by Laws and our Kings are sworn to maintain them as we shall show you anon and that we are sure our Kings receive the Crowns they wear from the Law of the Land And that no King of England came into the world booted and Spurred ready prepared to ride the people to death nor drop from Heaven in a Cloud nor yet riseth in a night like a Mushroom but that he is the Ordinance of man as St. Paul calls him for their good And that the Kings of England can deny then Subjects nothing in Parliament that is for the publick welfare as appears in the latter clause of the Statutes of provisoes made in the 25 year of Edward the 3 25 E. 3. C. 1. and since the Justice is pleased to say page 1. that it is high time to speak plain English methinks he could not have spoken better English then this that the want of a Parliament is the greatest mischief this Nation now groanes under especially if his own words are true that we are a miserable devided people what means can better be found out to unite and help us then the Parliament where every mans complaint may be heard and where the King is most powerful to Redress which is no where so great as in the High Court of Parliament but to justifie what I have before propounded or rather asserted that Justice cannot be stopped either by the King his Ministers or his Judges on any other pretence whatever I shall here add to what hath been said a short branch of the Statute of Provisoes and the Coronation Oath which plainly shews that our Kings are so by Law and not otherwise of Divine institution then any other man in such Station as God calls them to for every man in his several calling may be said to be by Gods permission and allowance in some way or other as much as Kings in their way of Government which appears plainly by the Text the Justice hath named to wit by me Kings Reign but with his good leave the Law choose them or else they come by force and are Tyrants and that will appear not only by our Records of our English Government both in the altering and translating of the Crown from one to another in all ages by Act of Parliament but in holy Record too though we are not under the same Dispensation the Jews were under yet the Scripture tells us they choose and made their King See the 2d of Kings Cap. 17. ver 21. The words are And they made Jeroboam Son of Nebat King and though the prophet did anoint David to be King yet all the people met together to make David King and to in divers other places but I think Jure Divino is so far out of the case that it would show in the Author as much Ignorance to spend time to make Arguments about so vain
publick one if these be the conscientious men Sir William esteems then Libera nos Domine But as to the Speech it self Page 1. in the first place his Title is transcendent and far out does the common way of giving charges to Juries For in the beginning he tells us he hath had the Honour to Discourse the Country from this Bench several times well what then why must it be a discourse instead of a charge I never heard of a Grand Jury that was sworn to take notice of a Discourse but the Oath of Grand Jury men is to present all such things as shall be given them in charge as the Law directs But what Sir W means by entring into a discourse with them about other matters especially about how much will build a Ship and how much his Majesty hath laid out in the war with Argier or to preserve Tangier and against the Indians in New England as in page second is a most strange thing to be discoursed to a Grand Jury unless he would perswade the Grand Jury to present the Parliament for not making up the damage certainly that was his intent though he will not make the Nation so happy as to speak it out Well but then still to the entrance into this discourse pray observe the method first seek peace good man that is his aim witness his earnest endeavour to have Conventicles disturbed though his Majesty and the Parliament thought it the best way to preserve peace was to let them alone for that it was never proved nor can be proved that ever since the Act of Uniformity they that go to Conventicles as he calls them seditious Meetings did ever disturb the Goverment and if that be so and that the only Church of England is that which is made by the Act of Uniformity then sure Sir W. Undermines and Acts against his own Expressions for if they were never unpassable why is there all this ado to make a disturbance but have patience Sir W. S. by and by will tell you all Well then in the next place he tells us page the first that nothing procures Wealth sooner then Trade it is well observed and if the persons that are Traders and the greatest Traders in the Nation be hindred in serving of God according to their Consciences and for this serving of God only as they in their Conscience believe they ought to do without disturbing the peace of the Nation must be torn in pieces their Estates taken from them and they put by their Trade how shall the wealth of the Nation be preserved if he could have found out an experiment for this his discourse ought to have been writ in Letters of Gold as well as replenish'd with Latin Sentences well but he goes on nor will any thing secure it better then Unity If so why then must the Neighbours of each others be forced to prosecute one another to bing us into confusion Why Sir W. S. tells you anon and that is in plain terms his sense though not in words the Nation can be better Governed without Unity then with it For the Justice tells you plainly that the King by his wisdom and care hath hitherto preserved peace without the help of Unity for certainly saith he no Nation can be more devided then this Well now how will this agree together with what went before which was that Unity and Trade was the only way to peace and yet now he tells us that the King hath a better way for he can better govern without Unity then with it even for twenty years together So then the consequence is Unity may be good but no Unity is better or at least he thinks our King is so indued from above that it is all one to Him to Govern with or without Unity well then if it be so the King hath Governed for these twenty years without disturbance though we are an United People and a divided Nation as this Chairman tells us what is the meaning then of all this bussel now about conformity in point of profit to the King when by his own shewing the Government hath received no prejudice Well but since Sir W. gives no better reason pray let us guess his reasons for once and those may be two or three The first is there wants money to defray the publick charge and to repay the King his own page 2. but that is but a pretence the next reason the Papists and their Adherents would feign provoke the Dissenters so far as to make them quarrel and rebel a troubled water is the best for their turn which they always live by and if they could but once blow up the flame so high which God forbid then they have gained their full point which they have so long been aiming at both of covering their own hellish Plot and the rooting out the Pestilent Heresy as Sir W. S's brother was pleased to term it and could they catch the Fanaticks by this bait not only them but the whole Protestant Interest in England might be rooted up indeed and then the Papists takes the Possession of their Lives and Estates all at once which is the thing driven at as appears by all the Proceedings and manifest Declarations of several of our Parliaments they were all of that mind that the chief design of the Papists was to set the Protestants together by the ears well fore-seeing that Device And therefore both Lords and Commons ordered bills to be brought in to Unite the Dissenting Protestants all in one against the common Enemy the Papists and made applications to the King to stop all such prosecutions as was acting against the Dissenters But a third reason is the vexing and perplexing the Protestants may be a design of tiring them out and by threats and vexatious Prosecution to see if they can be forced to yield up their Reasons and when made poor that they may be the easier made slaves and be compelled to if ever there should be an other Election of Members to give their Votes for such Persons as instead of keeping out of Arbitrary Power and Popery by Law will bring it in by a colour of Law and if men do but observe the Transactions for these twelve months past in divers Corporations It cannot but be thought that this is one of the main designes now on foot For a great man not long since openly declared that the Country was not yet fit to choose a Parliament they had not smarted enough and saith he they are for Law but replies to himself with an Oath they shall have Law enough that is they shall have the form of Law and tricks in Law to make a specious pretence but the designes is the easier to undoe them and this is the Law the Justices intends thoug they do not speak it which I gather from an other passage from the same Sir W. S. at another Sessions about nine or ten moneths ago Councel coming to Hick's-Hall to move the Court
where he sat Chairman then that the Commission of Oyer and Terminer might be read having something to move which was not proper to be moved before it was read it being for the making of a request for the Prisoners then in the Tower upon the Statute of 31 of this King And the Chairman as well as the Justices being aware of it made an excuse to put it off till the Afternoon which was only a trick or in effect a modest denial but when that time came and the same request made then another excuse was made by the Justices that though they had such a Commission yet they heard there was a new one Sealed and so they thought it not safe to execute it but that being inquired into was false so by this trick the Commission was never read and the Law was defeated and the Justices so to elude the Law used this triek so those Persons who were then prisoners in the Tower was forced to loose the benefit of the Act that Sessions which was made on purpose that Justices and Judges should not dare but to deliver upon bayl or try them as the Law directed Well but saith the Justice and his Associates that are resolved to adhere to him page 11 This is but one Instance and in that the Justices as to the law might be mistaken it being a surprize upon them for you hear the Justice himself in page 2. declares he knows not if it be against the Law or not it is a sign Justice is come to a fine pass then in England for certainly if he undertook that place of a Justice he ought neither to pretend he knows not the Law nor that he was surprized for at that rate the whole County may be ruined Well but to show Sir W's Wisdom Justice and Conscience further and his impartiality in a Sessions that was held before him and the rest of his Adherers about August last past after the Grand-Jury was sworn divers bills of Indictment were presented to the Grand-Jury for to be found against certain persons of most wicked fame for Subornation Perjury and such other Villanies as scarce ever was heard went unpunished for they were Bills against a pack of Conspirators that had a design to have murthered divers Noble and Worthy persons in this Kingdom by Perjury and Witnesses to prove those Bills was produced to the Court to be sworn in order to give their Testimony to the Grand Jury against those Villains but this just upright Sir W. and his Associates stopped it in open Court in the face of the Sun and denyed the Witnesses to be sworn till they had leave from the Attorney General which certainly was the greatest stab that ever was given to the Common Law of England and a perfect turning and altering the course of Justice making the Law subservient to protect the Guilty and condemn the Innocent This thing is of so high a Nature that no King in England ever did or dare attempt the same or like it publickly what ever secret tricks may be underhand shewed for this was not only to break the Grand Juries Oath who are sworn to present all without favour or affection And the Justices Oath who are sworn not to deny or delay Justice to any man but forcing the King if possible but at least as much as in them lies to violate and break his Coronation Oath that sacred Tye and the fundamental Laws of the Land And that I may not be said to speak without book I shall here incert a Copy of the Judges Oath and give a short touch of the fundamental Laws of the Land established in this Kingdom concerning the true Execution of Justice and which the Kings of England are bound to observe by vertue of their Oath and the trust the people repose in them and this digression I hope will not be amiss before we come further to take notice of the Speech The 27 Cap. of Magna Charta Magna Charta Anno c. H. 3. Chap. 27 which Magna Charta is no other then thē Confirmation of the ancient Rights Customs and Common Law of the Land It is ordained viz. Do Freeman shall be Taken or Imprisoned or be Diseased of his fréehold Liberties or free Customes or be out Lamed or Excited or any otherwise destroyed nor we will not pass upon him or condemn him but by Lawful Judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land We will sell to no man 9. H. 3. C. 29. we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right Pray mark this last clause and see how it suits the Justices refusing and stopping Justice and with what impudence he dares do that which no King of England did or can do without violation of his Oath and Laws of the Land and yet now tells you of Loyalty and Justice and you will find in the Statute made in Edward the 3. time that by no Commandment whatsoever the course of Justice could be stopped The Title of the Act is this Vid. Rot. Anno. E. 3. Chap 1. No Commandment under the Kings Seal shall disturb or delay Justice Which Sattute I shall Incert Verbatim as it is upon the Roll viz. Item it is Accorded and Established that it shall not be Commanded by the Great Seal or the Little Seal to disturb or delay Common Right and though such Commandment do cōme the Iustices shall not therefore leave to do right in any point There was another Record of 14 Ed. 3. See Crook fol 417. Eliz. Chap. 14. Intitled there shall be but four writs of Search for the King nothing shall hinder the Execution of Justice In the last part of the Statute are these words viz. Nor that the Iustices of whatsoever place it be sha l let to do the Common Law by Commandment which shall come to them under the Great Seal or Privy Seal The 11 R. 2. Vid. 11. R. 2. Cap. 10. Chap. 10. The same is again Asserted that the Law shall not be stopped or Disturbed and begins thus viz. Item It is Ordained and Established that neither Letters of the Signet nor of the Kings Privy Seal shall be from hence forth sent in damage or prejudice of the Realm nor in disturbance of the Law By this it appears most plain that by no Command of the King or his Ministers the Law can be stopped It is true the King in some Cases may pardon by his Prerogative but to stop the Course of Law though you have the Command of the King or his Ministers is point blanck against the Law and tends to the overthrow of the Government and that very Law which the Kings of England by their places are the Executioners off for this land in all ages never knew any Government but by their own Laws and to which Laws the Kings who are Crowned in England doth swear and ought and must maintain otherwise let him be what he will and who he will he
and foppish an assertion as it will be if the Justice should the next Sessions spend his time in his Discourse of catching of Connies in a Warren he is well acquainted with In the Statute of Provisoes the Parliament there asserts these words viz. The Commons have prayed our Lord the King that since the Crown of England and the Law of the said Realm is such that upon the mischief and damages which happen to this Realm he ought and is bound by his Oath with the accord of his People in his Parliament thereof to make Remedy and Law in removing the mischiefs and damages which thereof ensue that it may please him thereupon to ordain remedy The King in the same Statute Answers the Prayer of the Commons and saith by his Oath he is bound to it which Statute may be read at leasure to this plainly agrees the Kings Oath at his Coronation viz. Râ—t Parliament 1 H. 4. Num. 17. Forma Juramenti solit consueti prestart per Reges Angliae in horam Coronatione Servabis Ecclesiae Dei cleroque populo pacem ex integro concordium in Deo secundum Vices tuas Respondebit Servabo Facias fieri in omnibus Judiciis tuis equam Rectam Justitiam Discretioonem in misericordia veritate secundum Vices tuas Respondebit faciam Concedis Justas Leges Consuetudines esse tenendas promittis per te eas esse protegendas ad honorem cas Corroborandas quas vulgus elegerit secundum Vices tuas Respondebit Censedo Promitto Aujiciantque puldutis interrogationibus que justa fuerint pronunciat iisque orbus confirmet Rex se omnia servatur sacramento super altare Prestito coraâ—â— Cunctis By which Oath we may perceive the Kings of England are bound to keep all Laws and to grant fulfil and defend all rightful Laws which the people of the Realm shall choose and to strengthen and maintain them the Chancellor and Ministers about him are sworn to give him true and faithful advice the Judges are sworn to advice the King in point of Law and to Administer the Law indifferently between the King and his Subjects which Oath begins thus viz. An oath of the Iustices being made in the year of Edw. the 3d. in the year 1344. Ye shall swear that well and lawfully ye shall serve our Lord the King and the people in the office of Iustice and that lawfully ye shall Coucel the King in his business and that ye shall not Councel or Assent to any thing which may turn him in damage or dishersion by any manner way or culler and that ye shall not know the damage or dishersion of him whereof ye shall not cause him to be warrented by your self or by other and that ye shall do equal law and right to all his Subjects rich and poor without haveing regard to any Person and that you take not by your self or by others privately or apertly gifts nor rewards of Gold nor Silver nor of any other thing which may turn to your profit unless it be meat or drink and that of small value of any man that shall have any plea or process hanging before you as long as the same process shall so be hanging nor after for the same Cause and that ye take no fee as long as ye shall be Iustice nor Roabes of any man great or small but of the King himself and that ye give no Advice or Councel to no man great or small in no case where the King is party and in case that any of what Estate or Condition they be come before you in your Sessions with force and armes or otherwise against the peace or against the form of the Statute thereof made to disturb execution of the Common Law or to mennace the people that they may not pursue the Law that ye shall cause their Bodies to be Arrested and put in prison and in case they be such that ye cannot arrest then that ye certifie the King of their Names and of their misprision hastily so that ye may thereof ordain a conveneable Remedy And that ye by your self nor by others privity or apertly maintain any Plea or Quarrel hanging in the Kings Court or elsewhere in the County And that ye deny no man common Right by the Kings Letters nor no other mans nor for none other Cause And in case any Letters come to you contrary to the Law that ye do nothing by such Letters but certifie the King thereof and proceed to execute the Law Notwithstanding the same Letters and that ye shall do and procure the profit of the King and of his Crown with all things where you may reasonably do the same And in case ye be from hence forth found in default in any of the points aforesaid ye shall be at the Kings will Body Lands and Goods thereof to be done as shall please him As God you help and all Saints Now having given you the Oaths as the Law hath setled it I shall add one Statute more to shew how careful and diligent our Ancestors were to preserve this Nation from Arbitrary Power not only in the King but also in Judges and Officers that we might not be enslaved and opprest by the Judges under a colour and pretence of Law And that is the Statute of 20 E. 3. The Title is viz. The Justices of both Benches 20 E. 3. cap 10 Assices c. shall do right to all men take no fee but of the King nor give Councel where the King is party First we have commanded all our Iustices that they shall from henceforth do equal Law and Execution of Right to all our Subjects rich and poor without having regard to any person and without omitting to do right for any Letters or Commandment which come to them from us or from any other or by any other Cause And if that any Letters Writs or Commandments come to the Iustices or to others deputed to do Law and Right according to the usage of the Realm in disturbance of the Law or of Execution of the same or of Right of the Parties The Iustices and others aforesaid shall proceed and hold their Courts and Process where they please and matters be depending before them As if no such Letters Writs or Commandments were come to them And they shall certifie us and our Councel of such Commandment is which be contrary to Law as aforesaid and to the Iuterâ— that our Iustices shall do even right to all people in manner aforesaid without more favour shewn to one then to the other We have ordained and caused out Iustices to be sworn That they shall not from henceforth as long as they shall be in Office of Iustice take Fee nor Roab of any man but of our self and that they shall take no gift or reward by themselves nor by others privily or apertly of any man that hath to do before them by any way except meat and Drink and that of small value
Sheriffs of each County and how far this last abrogates the former Statutes I must leave to the judicious Reader But except the Justice can shew me some other Statute I cannot see how he can make good his Assertion of the Right to be in the Kings of England by their Prerogative to chuse Sheriffs no more than he can make good his own infallibility And why he should start such a Point with so little ground I cannot imagine unless he was resolved to put on a Janus Face and intended to row one way when he looked another And now for this Gentleman to pretend to exalt the Prerogative and to cry out for that as he doth and yet at the same time lay so many false Surmises is strange But I conceive his Design is to destroy the Law and the Government or when he speaks of the Prerogative in general he intends some for himself but if he should that cannot be altogether strange neither since we know very well both now and heretofore even in all Ages Men that are set upon their own Lusts and Pleasures have been crying up the King's Prerogative and damning the Law only that thereby they might under Monarchy exercise a greater Prerogative over their Fellow-Subjects without any Account to be given to the Law than the true King doth over his Subjects for it oftentimes happens that Persons in great Command and Authority under the King do more enslave the People than the King ever meant or intended and hide all from the King with this Cheat that they are Loyal and whoever is not contented with his domineering is represented to the King by that Flatterer as the King 's great Enemy And so Kings oft-times both live and die blindfold never seeing or hearing any Thing much less any Complaints but what the Oppressor pleases And that undoubtedly must not be much for it must be the Courtier 's Policy that hath once dipped himself in Roguery both to hide it himself and endeavour to prevent all Persons else from discovering it And this is the true and only Reason why these Loyal Boys hate and cry down Parliaments for if they once come the Court-Knaves are undone every thing then being brought to the Light and it may be the King undeceived and these Miscreants punished But Sir W. to wind up all now your Hand is in for Abhorrences go through-stitch set an Abhorrence on Foot for the abhorring of Parliaments too and doubt not but among your Adherers the Project will take and then you and they are safe without the Devil should cheat you and a Parliament come when you least think on 't but do not let him cheat you into the belief that there will be no more you know the Law saith we ought to have it and the King hath said we shall have Parliaments and that he will govern according to Law and remember if it should be yet seven Years time before it come yet it may come too soon for your store I have but one Word more to the Justices your Associates who bring up the Rear of your Speech they being elevated and wrapp'd up as it were in the third Heaven thought it not enough for themselves to be happy with the hearing of this profound Discourse but out of their good Nature were desirous to communicate it to the World and tho it be something strange that Charges to Grand Juries should be published in Print as they seem to allow when they say the reason why 't was publish'd was to prevent Misrepresentation which they had observed already from Janeway's Paper yet it was pitty such a Discourse should be hid in that Grand Jury's Breast to whom it was spoken and therefore the Justices order the Printing thereof And who is to draw up the Order but their wise Clerk of the Peace who undoubtedly did it and it may easily be proved to be his own not only from his putting his Name to it but from its resembling his former Draught and Orders about the Constables to turn Informers against Conventicles The Order begins thus viz. Ordered by this Court That the Charge given in Sessions by Sir W. S. be Printed and that the Thanks of this Bench be given to Sir W. S. for his prudent Care and constant Endeavour in the management of Affairs for the preservation of the publick Peace and his Majesties Government And this Court doth declare they will adhere to Sir W. S. and stand by him Well be it so that the Thanks be given for his prudent Management and his constant Care for the publick Peace and His Majesties Government But now how if Sir W. should die or be put out of Commission which way then must His Majesties Government be preserved truly by this Order it seems as if the very Government would be in danger if not utterly lost now How the preservation of His Majesties Government is upheld or can be upheld by this single Justice alone seems strange for they seem to put it as if by his prudent Management of Affairs the Government was upheld if so I hope His Majesty will never part with this Knight for fear of the worst Well but how comes it to pass that all the rest of the Justices that admire him have not done the same what do they cast all the whole burden of the Peace and Government upon one poor Knight's Shoulders and he but a thin Man neither for Shame to themselves they should not have attributed all to him but this shews them as insufficient Men as well as good natur'd to Sir W. But by their next Words viz. And this Court doth declare they will adhere to Sir W. S. and stand by him c. If Lives and Fortunes had been put too then there had been ground for the Whigs to abhorr'd too What will the Justices set up Sir W. to any thing like Royal Majesty or to be chief of the Government that these Gentlemen called Justices will both adhere to him and stand by him What can they mean but to devote themselves to his Service instead of the Kings and what can they mean by their standing by him but in a Warlike Posture to defend him when he shall command their Service nor can any rational Man put any other construction on the Words And since that is the construction what is this but an Association of the Justices to set up Sir W. instead of the Government or at least to be one of the chief in it And when they have brought their Ends about that Sir W. is to be exalted then I doubt not but their Clerk Mr. Adderly shall be Secretary to that great Heroe where we leave them to caress themselves within their own Shadows until another fit opportunity FINIS