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A75552 The arguments upon the writ of habeas corpus, in the Court of Kings Bench. Wherein, are learnedly discussed, not onely the severall branches of the said writ, but also many authorities as well of the common as statute law: and divers ancient and obscure records most amply and elaborately debated and cleared. Together, with the opinion of the court thereupon. Whereunto is annexed, the petition of Sir Iohn Elliot Knight, in behalf of the liberty of the subject. Eliot, John, Sir, 1592-1632.; England and Wales. Court of King's Bench. 1649 (1649) Wing A3649; Thomason E543_1; ESTC R204808 64,168 98

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Lordship and all others but the parties themselves for I except them My Lord the great and mighty reason that they insisted upon was the inconveniences that might come to the subjects in their liberties if this Return should be good and this reason they inferred out of Records and Books of the Common Law which gives the liberty of the subjects I doe acknowledge that the liberty of the subject is just and that it is the inheritance of the subject but yet it is their inheritance secundum legem terrae My Lords they put many cases likewise to enforce it 1 2 Eliz. Dier fo 175. that the continuance of a Capias shall bee from Term to Term without Term betwixt because otherwise the party defendant may be kept too long in prison and 38 Ass pl. 22. Broke tit Imprisonment 100. that imprisonment is but to detaine the party till he have made fine to the King and therefore the King cannot justly detain him in prison after the fine tendred and 16 H. 6. monstrans de faictz 182. if the King command me to arrest a man and thereupon I doe arrest him he may have an action of false imprisonment or of trespasse against me though it be done in the Kings presence and 1 H. 7. 4. the discourse of Hussey where he saith that Sir John Markham delivered unto King Edward the fourth that hee should not arrest upon treason or felony any of his subjects because hee could not wrong his subjects by such arrest for they could not have remedy against him Prerogative Br. 139. These my Lord are the causes that they insisted upon for this purpose To the two first I shall give but one answer which is that the restraint in these two cases and most of the other cases before cited appears to be in the ordinary course of Judicature fit for Westminster Hall and not for the Kings Councell Table A writ of Capias was the first originall of it and therefore not to be applied to the cause of ours And for the other two cases the law presumeth that the active part of them is not so proper for the Majesty of a King who ever doth these things by his subordinate Officers But that the subject should not be committed by the King was never heard of for the King may commit any man at his pleasure but that is not our case but whether when the King hath committed one he must render a cause of that commitment that it may appear whether the party be bailable or not or else the party must be delivered The Book 9 E. 3. fol. 16. pl. 30. cited of a Cessavit the King having by Proclamation commanded that in the County of Northumberland no Cessavit should be brought c. during the war the tenant pleadeth this command and it was denyed him and he that notwithstanding was commanded to plead but the reason thereof was because the commandment thereof was given by E. 2. who being dead the commandment was determined The Book of Edward the third 4. fol. 16. is indeed where the commandment was given by the same King and that was likewise denyed him for the King cannot command your Lordship to any other Court of Justice to proceed otherwise then according to the Laws of this kingdome for it is part of your Lordships oath to judge according to the Law of the kingdome But my Lord there is a great difference between those legall commands and that absolute Potestas that a Soveraign hath by which a King commands but when I call it absoluta potestas I doe not mean that it is such a power as that a King may doe what he pleaseth for he hath rules to governe himself by as well as your Lordship who are subordinate Judges under him the difference is the King is the head of the same fountaine of Justice which your Lordship administers to all his subjects all Justice is derived from him and what he doth he doth not as a private person but as the Head of the Common-wealth as Iusticiarius Regni yea the very essence of Justice under God upon earth is in him and shall not wee generally not as subjects onely but as Lawyers who governe themselves by the rules of the Law submit to his command but make inquiries whether they be lawfull and say that the King doth not this or that in course of Justice If your Lordship sitting here shall proceed according to Justice who calleth your actions in question except in your own Judgements you see some errour in the proceeding and then you are subject to a writ of Errour But who shall call in question the Actions or the Justice of the King who is not to give any account for them as in this our case that he commits a subject and shews no cause for it The King commits and often shews no cause for it is sometimes generally Per special● mandatum domini Regis sometimes Pro certis causis ipsum dominum Regem moventibus but if the King doe this shall it not bee good it is all one when the commitment is Per speciale mandatum domini Regis and when it is Pro certis causis ipsum dominum Regem moventibus and it is the same if the commitment be Certis de causis ipsum dominum Regem tangentibus And my Lord unlesse the Return to you doth open the secrets of the commitment your Lordship cannot judge whether the party ought by Law to be remaunded or delivered and therefore if the King allow and give warrant to those that make the Return that they shall expresse the cause of the commitment as many times he doth either for suspition of felony or making money or the like we shall shew your Lordship that in these causes this Court in his Jurisdiction were proper to try these criminall causes and your Lordship doth proceed in them although the commitment be Per speciale mandatum domini Regis which hath not secret in it in these causes for with the warrant he sendeth your Lordship the cause of the committing and when these warrants are made and brought into this Court your Lordship may proceed but if there be no cause expressed this Court hath always used to remaund them for it hath been used and it is to be intended a matter of State and that it is not ripe nor timely for it to appear My Lord the main fundamentall grounds of Arguments upon this case beginnes with Magna Charta from thence have grown states for explanation thereof severall Petitions of Parliament and Presidents for expedition I shall give answers to them all For Magna Charta in the 29 Chapter hath these words No Free-man shall be taken nor imprisoned or disseised of his freehold liberties nor free customes nor be outlawed or exiled nor any other way destroyed nor we will not passe upon him nor condemn him but by lawfull Judgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Realm My Lord this statute
if you will not have this filed there must go out a new Habeas corpus and thereupon must be another return Sergeant Bramston My Lord we desire some time that we may be advised whether we may proceed or not Lord Chief Justice Hide Will you submit your self to the King Sir Thomas Darnell My Lord I desire some time to advise of my proceedings I have moved many men and offered to retain them of my Councell but they refuse me and I can get none to be of councell with me without your assistance Chief Justice You shall have what Councell assigned you you will have or desire for no offence will be taken against any man that shall advise you in your proceedings in Law Atturney Generall I will passe my word they that do advise you shall have no offence taken against them for it and I shall give my consent to any way that you shall desire either that it may be filed or that it may not be filed for if you desire Justice you shall have it and the King will not deny it but if it shall be conceived as it is rumored that there was a deniall of Justice on the Kings part you must know that his Majesty is very tender of that And for the Gent. now he is brought hither I conceive but yet I leave it to your Lordships judgement that the writ must be filed and you must either deliver him or remand him or else it will be an escape in the Warden of the Fleet. Sir Thomas Darnell I would not have it thought that I should speak any thing against my Prince and for those words I doe deny them for upon my conscience they never came into my thought perhaps you shall find that they have been spoken by some other but not by any of us Chief Justice Hide Sir you have made a fair answer and I doubt not but Mr. Attorney will make the like relation of it you move for the not filing of the Writ if you refuse to have it filed whereby it should not be of Record you must have no Copy of it but if you will have it filed you shall have a Copy of it and further time to speak to it choose whether of them you will Sergeant Bramston We desire to have the return read once more and it was read as before Sergeant Bramston So as the writ may not be filed we will desire no copy of the return Chief Justice Hide Then the Gent. must return back again into the custody of the Warden of the Fleet and therefore I ask you whether you desire to come hither again upon this Writ or will you have a new one Sir Thomas Darnell I desire your Lordship that I may have time to consider of it Chief Justice Hide Then on Gods name take your own time to think of it Michaelis 3º Caroli Regis Thursday 22 November Sir John Corbet Baronet Sir Walter Earle Sir John Henningham Sir Edward Hampden Knights were brought to the Barre Sergeant Bramston MAy it please your Lordship to hear the return read or shall I open it Chief Justice Hide Let it be read Mr. Keeling read the return being the same as that of Sir Thomas Darnell May it please your Lordship I shall humbly move upon this return in the behalf of Sir John Henningham with whom I am of Councell it is his petition that he may be bailed from his imprisonment it was but in vain for me to move that to a Court of Law which by Law cannot be granted and therefore in that regard that upon this return it will be questioned whether as this return is made the Gent. may be bailed or not I shall humbly offer up to your Lordship the case and some reasons out of mine understanding arising out of the return it self to satisfie your Lordship that these Prisoners may and as their case is ought to be bailed by your Lordship The exception that I take to this return is as well to the matter and substance of the return as to the manner and legall form thereof the exceptions that I take to the matter is in severall respects That the return is too generall there is no sufficient cause shewn in speciall or in generall of the commitment of this Gentleman and as it is insufficient for the cause so also in the time of the first imprisonment for howsoever here doth appear a time upon the second warrant from the Lords of the Councell to detain him still in prison yet by the return no time can appear when he was first imprisoned though it be necessary it should be shewn and if that time appear not there is no cause your Lordship should remand him and consequently he is to be delivered Touching the matter of the return which is the cause of his imprisonment it is expressed to be Per speciale mandatum domini Regis This is too generall and uncertain for that it is not manifest what kind of command this was Touching the legall form of the return it is not as it ought to be fully and positively the return of the Keeper himself only but it comes with a significavit or prout that he was committed Per speciale mandatum domini Regis as appeareth by warrant from the Lords of the Councell not of the King himself and that is not good in legall form For the matter and substance of the return it is not good because there ought to be a cause of that imprisonment This writ is the means and the only means that the Subject hath in this and such like case to obtain his liberty there are other writs by which men are delivered from restraint as that de homine replegiando but extends not to this cause for it is particularly excepted in the body of the writ de manucaptione et de cautione admittenda but they lie in other cases but the writ of Habeas corpus is the only means the subject hath to obtain his liberty and the end of this writ is to return the cause of the imprisonment that it may be examined in this Court whether the parties ought to be discharged or not but that cannot be done upon this return for the cause of the imprisonment of this Gentleman at first is so far from appearing particularly by it that there is no cause at all expressed in it This writ requires that the cause of the imprisonment should be returned and if the cause be not specially certified by it yet should it at the last be shewn in generall that it may appear to the Judges of the Court and it must be expressed so farre as that it may appear to be none of those causes for which by the Law of the Kingdome the Subject ought not to be imprisoned and it ought to be expressed that it was by presentment or indictment and not upon petition or suggestion made to the King and Lords which is against the statute made in the 25 Ed. 3. c. 4. 42
the statute of 28 Ed. 3. cap. 9. But before that statute this writ did lie in the speciall Case as is shewn in Brooks 9th Reports Powlters Case and the end of this writ was that the Subject might not be too long detained in prison as till the Justices of Eyre discharged them so that the Law intended not that a man should suffer perpetuall imprisonment for they were very carefull that men should not bee kept too long in prison which is also a Liberty of the Subject and my Lord that this Court hath bailed upon a suspition of high treason I will offer it to your Lordship when I shall shew you presidents in these cases of a commitment by the Privy Councell or by the King himself But before I offer these presidents unto your Lordship of which there be many I shall by your Lordships favour speak a little to the next exception and that is to the matter of the return which I finde to be per speciale mandatum domini Regis 8. and what is that it is by this writ there may be sundry commands by the King we finde a speciall command often in our Books as in the statute of Marlborough cap. 8. they were imprisoned Rediss shall not be delivered without the speciall command of our Lord the King and so in Bracton De Actionibus the last chapter where it appears that the King commandment for imprisonments is by speciall writ so by writ again men are to be delivered for in the case of Rediss ' or Post Rediss ' if it shall be removed by a Certiorare is by a speciall writ to deliver parties so that by this appears that by the Kings commandment to imprison and to deliver in those cases is understood this writ and so it may be in this case which wee have heard And this return here is a speciall Mandatum it may bee understood to be under some of the Kings Seals 42 Ass and ought to be delivered and will you make a difference betweene the Kings command under his seal and his command by word of mouth what difference there is I leave it to your Lordships judgement but if there be any it is the more materiall that it should be expressed what manner of command it was which doth not here appear and therefore it may be the Kings command by writ or his command under his seal or his command by word of mouth alone And if of an higher nature there is none of these commands then the other doubtlesse it is that by writ or under seal for they are of record and in these the person may be bailed and why not in this As to the legall forme admitting there were substances in the return yet there wants legall form for the writ of Habeas Corpus is the commandment of the King to the Keeper of the prisons and thereupon they are to make return both of the body and of the cause of the commitment and that cause is to appear of them who are the immediate Officers And if he doth it by signification from another that returne is defective in Law and therefore this return cannot be good for it must be from the Officer himself and if the cause returned by him be good it bindes the prisoners The warrant of the Lords was but a direction for him he might have made his return to have been expresly by the Kings commandment there was warrant for it I shall not need to put you cases of it for it is not enough that he returns that he was certified that the commitment was by the Kings command but he must of himself return this fact as it was done And now my Lord I shal offer to your Lordship presidents of divers kindes upon commitments by the Lords of the Privy Councell upon commitments by the speciall command of the King and upon commitments both by the King and the Lords together And howsoever I conceive which I submit to your Lordship that our case will not stand upon presidents but upon the fundamentall Laws and Statutes of this Realm and though the presidents look the one way or the other they are to be brought back unto the Lawes by which the Kingdome is governed In the first of Henry the eighth Rot. Parl. 9. one Harison was committed to the Marshalsey by the command of the King and being removed by Habeas Corpus into the Court the cause returned was that he was committed per mandatum Domini Regis and he was bailed In the fortieth of Elizabeth Thomas Wendon was committed to the Gatehouse by the commandment of the Queen and Lords of the Councell and being removed by an Habeas Corpus upon the generall return and he was bailed In 8 Jacobi one Caesar was committed by the Kings commandment and this being returned upon his Habeas Corpus upon the examination of this case it doth appear that it was over-ruled that the return should be amended or else the prisoner should be delivered The presidents concerning the commitment by the Lords of the Councel are in effect the same with these where the commitment is by the reason why the cause of the commitment should not be shewn holds in both cases and that is the necessity of suit and therefore Master Stamford makes the command of the King and that of the Lords of the Privy Councell to be both as one and to this purpose if they speak he speaks and if he speaks they speak The presidents that we can shew you how the Subject hath been delivered upon commitment by the Lords of the Councel as in the time of Henry the eight as in the times of Queen Elizabeth Queen Mary are infinite as in the ninth of Elizabeth Thomas Lawrence was committed to the Towre by the Lords of the Councell and bailed upon an Habeas Corpus In the 43 of Elizabeth Calvins case In the third of Elizabeth Vernons case These were committed for high treason and yet bailed for in all these cases there must be a conviction in due time or a deliverance by Law There be divers other presidents that might be shewn to your Lordship In 12 Iacobi Miles Renards In 12 Jacobi Rot. 155. Richard Beckwiths case In 4 Iacobi Sir Thomas Monson was committed for treason to the Towre of London and afterwards was brought hither and bailed and since our case stands upon this return and yet there is no sufficient cause in Law expressed in the return of the detaining this Gentleman and since these presidents doe warrant our proceedings my humble suit unto this Court is that the Gentleman Sir Iohn Henningham who hath petitioned his Majesty that he may have the benefit of the Law and his Majesty hath signified it It is his pleasure that justice according to the Law should be administred at all times in generall to all his Subjects and particularly to these Gentlemen which is their birth-right My humble suit to your Lordship is that these Gentlemen may have the
Lords there be Arcana Dei Arcana Imperii and they that search too farre into them and make themselves busier with them then their places do require they will make themselves c. I will say no more but I shall be able to shew that there shall as much prejudice come to the Kingdome if God direct not the heart of the King which is in the hand of God as the Rivers of waters I say there may as much hazard come to the Common-wealth in many other things with which the King is trusted as in this particular there can accrew to the Subject If a Treason be committed as it was not long agoe nor farre removed from our memories since there was a Treason and the Actors thereof fled some to the Court of Rome some to Bruxells when it was to be put in execution the Treason being discovered one is apprehended upon suspition of it and is put into the Tower and there he lieth and thinketh the time very long and I cannot blame him It may be he is innocent and thereupon he brings a Habeas Corpus and by vertue of that Writ he is brought hither and will your Lordship think it fit or convenient to bail him when the accusation against him must come from beyond the Sea I think you will rather so respect the proceedings of the State as that you will beleeve these things are done with a cause then inquire further of them Peradventure some great misdemeanour may be committed and some of the parties make away so as Proclamation cannot overtake them and some are taken it is fit that they that are in prison should be tried before the principall be taken I will give you an instance that lately was put into my minde There be some Prisoners in the Tower at this present which were put in thither when they were very young If they should bring an Habeas Corpus they were imprisoned for State matters will your-Lordship deliver them No in that the State doth not think it fit to send them back into their own Countries You will esteem so reverently of the State for committing children that you will beleeve that there is great reason of State so to doe or else they would not doe it Many inconveniences may follow if it should be otherwise It may be divers men doe suffer wrongfully in prison but therefore shall all prisoners be delivered that were a great mischief No doubt but the Kings Power is absolute over his coins if then he shall command his coin shall be turned to brasse or leather I confesse it were inconvenient but if the King would do it the answer that I can make is that he would not undo the Kingdome but can your Lordship hinder it as being an inconvenience if he would doe it the Cinque Ports are free for traffique for all his Subjects but the King in his Cabinet understands there is danger of Warre to come upon this Kingdome thereupon he shuts the Ports that no man can goe out shall the Merchant say this is injustice in the King And as in this so in many other particulars this may appear but I will not goe too high and therefore we are too wise nay we are too foolish in undertaking to examine matters of State to which we are not born Now my Lord I come to our Book cases by which it appears what our King may doe and nothing can be so against it but he will not doe it the King may pardon all Traitors and felons and if he should doe it may not the Subjects say If the King doe this the bad will overcome the good but shall any say the King cannot do this no we may onely say he will not doe this The King may exempt men from the Office of Sheriffe is not this inconvenient and may it not be said he may exempt ten in a Shire and then the burthen of the Country shall rest upon the meaner sort of people can any man say more to this then that he will not do it Inheritances are to be decided upon triall the King may exempt private men from being of a Jury but if he exempt all men who shall try our Causes for it is to be presumed that he will not doe it But to our Case by the Statute of Magna Charta no man shall be put out of his free-hold c. But if the King will doe it must not the party that is so put out goe to the King by Petition But you will say it is a Petition of Right and it may be these gentlemens is so admit it be yet when such a Petition comes to the King must it not be answered with these words Soit droit fait al parte and when that the King will give that Warrant for it then they must have it done and not before And this may answer a perpetuall imprisonment and God forbid that this should be so And now my Lord I will trouble you no longer but I will goe to presidents Presidents I know prevail much and rule in many cases and if the presidents they cite were not mis-interpreted I should think they had said a great deal But my Lord I will answer their presidens with presidents nay I will shew your Lordship that the presidents which they have cited are no presidents for them And my Lord it is a dangerous thing for men in matters of weight to avouch presidents with confidence when they make nothing for them for my Lord presidents are now become almost Proclamations for they already run up and down the Town and yet they know but part of them and not all and I think if they knew all men would be more modest But my Lord I will now come to these presidents where I may say they have not dealt freely with me for they have shewed me many presidents more then they mentioned here and it may be they have done the like unto your Lordship They alledged but eight presidents before your Lordship but they have brought sixteen unto me for these eight mentioned here I will take them in order as they were cited and answer The first president they cited was in Henry the eight Rot. 9. one Harrison we have the Record here to shew your Lordship that he was committed for suspition of felony which was expressed in the Warrant and then my Lord this is clear if the King or the Lords of the Councell will expresse any thing within your Lordships jurisdiction there is good ground for your proceedings But when there is nothing expressed whether you will judge what the cause of the Warrant is I will leave to your Lordships judgement but it appears this was the cause and that he was delivered The next president was 22 H. 8. Rot. 57. and it was Parkers case and it is true that his commitment appeared to be Per speciale mandatum domini Regis but it was also proposed to bee Pro pace suspicione feloniae and the