His Crown and His Regalty in the cases aforesaid and in all other cases attempted against Him His Crown and His Regalty in all points to live and to die These and several other Statutes too tedious 〈◊〉 to be inserted have been provided in former ages when the Pope's power was at the highest and provided even by Popish Kings and Popish Parliaments to secure themselves and the Nation from all Papal encroachments Neither have our Judges been less severe against the Popes unwarrantable pretensions who in pursuance of the Common-Law of the Land tho' no Statute had been made to that purpose judg'd it a very hainous Crime in any Subject of England to obey or put them in execution In the Reign of King Edward I when a Subject brought a Bull of Excommunication from Rome against another Subject of this Realm and publish'd it to the Lord Treasurer of England this was by the Common-Law of the Land adjudg'd Treason against the King his Crown and Dignity 30 lib. Ass. pla 19. Brook tit Praemunire pl◠10. An Excommunication by the Archbishop albeit it be disallow'd by the Pope or his Legate is to be allow'd neither ought the Judges give any allowance of any such Sentence of the Pope or his Legate 16 E. 3. tit Excom 4. An Excommunication under the Popes Bull is of no force to disable any man in England And the Judges said That he that pleadeth such Bulls tho they concern the Excommunication of a Subject were in a hard Case if the King would extend his Justice against him 30 E. 3. lib. Ass. pl. 19. The King presented to a Benefice and his Presentee was disturb'd by one that had obtain'd Bulls from Rome for which offence he was confin'd to perpetual Imprisonment 21 Ed. 3. f. 40. One Morris being elected Abbot of Waltham sent to Rome for a Bull of confirmation But it was resolved by all the Judges that this Bull was against the Laws of England and that the Abbot for obtaining the same was fallen into the King's mercy whereupon all his Possessions were seiz'd into the King's hands 46 Ed. 3. tit Praemunire 6. In the Reign of Ed. 4. the Pope granted to the Prior of St. Johns to have Sanctuary within his Priory But it was resolved by the Judges that the Pope had no power to grant Sanctuary within this Realm and therefore by judgment of the Law the same was disallowed 1 H. 7. f 20. In the same King's Reign a Legate from the Pope came to Callis to have come into England But the King and his Councel would not suffer him to come within the Kingdom until he had taken an Oath that he should attempt nothing against the King or his Crown 1 H. 7. f. 10. And in the Reign of H. 7. the Pope had excommunicated all such persons whatsoever as had bought Allom of the Florentines But it was resolved by all the Judges of England that the Popes Excommunication ought not to be obeyed or to be put in execution within the Realm of England 1 H. 7. f. 10. These and many other such Cases you may see in the first part of Coke's 5 th Reports Now if not only the Judges but the Representative-wisdom of the Nation even King Lords and Commons in the thickest mist of Popish ignorance were so resolute against the Bishop of Rome and so careful to preserve their own Rights and Liberties inviolable who can be so silly as to believe that a Popish Prince in this Kingdom and at this time of the day when Popery it self is much refin'd and the whole Nation irreconcilably bent against it will ever submit to any Papal Usurpation much less make himself or his People Slaves to the Court of Rome Alas says one but our sweet Abbey-Lands are in danger to be lost and reassum'd by the Popish Clergy what course then shall we take to secure them Believe me if the Law will not do it I know no other way but a project I hear shortly to be set on foot for Insuring all the Church-Lands in the Kingdom these 40 years to come The parties concern'd will propose very reasonable terms and will undertake the squinting Trimmer who maliciously whispers about he wou'd take seven years purchase for his Church-Lands in case of a Popish Successor shall have fourteen well secur'd whenever the Duke succeeds But why our Abbey-Lands more in danger than any other part of our Estates since we have the same security for the one as for the other and both as firmly secur'd as the Law can make them or the wit of man devise 'T is well known that the Popish Clergy in Queen Maries time the better to forward the peoples reconciliation with the Church of Rome by their Petition to the Queen consented that all the Church-Lands dispos'd of to Lay-men shou'd be settl'd on the Possessors and their Heirs for ever without any danger of revocation And this was approv'd of by the Pope's Legate a latere Cardinal Pool willing and ordaining as he says that the present possessors of Ecclesiastical Goods as well movable as immovable shall not at this time nor in time to come be disquieted nor molested in the possession of the said Goods either by the disposal or order of any General or Provincial Councils or by the Decretal Epistles of the Bishop of Rome or by any other Ecclesiastical Censure whatsoever And besides this to crown the work beyond all exception and bind it with a triple Cord which is not easily broken all is confirm'd in full Parliament by the Queen by the Cardinal and Clergy and by the Lords and Commons by whom 't is enacted That all and every Article Clause Sentence and Proviso contained or specified in any Act or Acts of Parliament concerning or touching the assurance or conveyance of any the said Monasteries Priories Nunneries Commandries Deanries Prebends Colledges Chantries Hospitals Houses of Fryers Rectories Vicarages Churches Chappels Archbishopricks Bishopricks and other Religious and Ecclesiastical houses and places or any of them or in any ways concerning any Manors Lands Tenements Profits Commodities Hereditaments or other the things before specified to the said K. H. 8. or K. Ed. 6. or either of them or any other person or persons or Body-politick or Corporate and every of them and all and every Writing Deed and Instrument concerning the assurance of any the same shall stand remain and be in as good force effect and strength and shall be pleaded and taken advantage of to all intents constructions and purposes as the same should might or could have been by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm in case this present Act had never been had or made 1. 2 Phil. Mar. c. 8 § 39. And 't is further enacted That whosoever shall by any Process obtained out of any Ecclesiastical Court within this Realm or without or by pretence of any spiritual Jurisdiction or otherwise contrary to the Laws of this Realm inquiet or molest
binding themselves by that Act which yet must bind the King tho it might as well be alleadg'd He did not intend it he boldly concludes with threatning and daring the Judges to do their duty Precibusque minas regaliter addit The same reasons says he which may be given for discharging such as are not Committed for breach of Priviledge if it be grounded on the Act for the Habeas Corpus will hold as strong for discharging of Persons Committed for breach of Priviledge and so consequently deprive this House of all its Power and Dignity and make it insignificant This is so plain and obvious that all the Judges ought to know it and I think it below you to make any Resolve therein but rather leave the Judges to do otherwise at their Peril and let the Debate fall without any question See the Debates of the House pag. 217. Was not this a rare Assertor of our Liberties who instead of allowing us the benefit of the Laws wou'd have us all made Beasts of burden to maintain the Grandeur of some Arbitrary Demagogues in the House of Commons and be content to turn Gally-Slaves rather than their Power shou'd become useless or insignificant But I find this daring Speech did not frighten all the Judges for Baron Weston to his immortal Renown had still the courage to grant the Habeas Corpus and rather expose himself to the malice of the Faction than deny or delay Justice contrary to his Oath Our Religion and Liberty being thus secur'd have we not reason to be fond of these worthy Patriots who tugg'd so hard against Popery the better to bring in Presbytery and to make sure that the Prince shou'd not use Arbitrary Power took all possible care to keep it in their own possession It was the Kings Prerogative in the days of yore to have the Power of making War and Peace and declaring who shou'd be counted Friends and who reputed Enemies to the Kingdom But now the Tribunes of the People are willing to ease him of that trouble and take upon themselves by the following Vote to declare some of His Majesties best Subjects and most Faithful Friends Enemies to the King and Kingdom Resolved That all persons who advis'd His Majesty in His last Message to this House to insist upon an Opinion against the Bill for excluding the Duke of York have given pernicious Councel to His Majesty and are promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdom And this extravagant Vote they are pleas'd particularly to apply to four Noble Peers of the Realm exposing them to the Rable without the least colour of proof for Promoters of Popery and Enemies to their Soveraign for no other reason but because they were truly Loyal and free from the contagious leaven of the Faction What a happiness it is to live within the Walls of the House of Commons where the Knave becomes Honest and the Fool a Politician where People are sure never to be in the wrong but always impeccable and may freely rail and reflect upon their Betters which without doors wou'd cost them very dear Yet I cannot but wonder why these Noblemen unless they as well as many others took that Character for a mark of Honour from the givers have taken no course at least with the Printer and Bookseller if not with the then Speaker for ordering such Scandalous Votes to be publish'd contrary to express Acts of Parliament For if the Kings immediate Command cannot be allow'd as a good excuse in Law for any Illegal Act so that altho the Prince be unaccountable yet the Minister is to suffer for his Obedience sure a Vote of the House of Commons shall not be thought of force at least out of Parliament-time to Protect any Offender from Justice because whatever Title the Members within the sacred Walls of the House may claim in some Cases to impunity their Officers and Servants who execute their Illegal Commands abroad cannot in the least pretend to have any But how shou'd these Noblemen be enemies to the King and Kingdom for their advising His Majesty against the Bill of Exclusion when the whole House of Peers few discontented Lords Dissenting who by their Lives and Conversation never shew'd themselves the truest Protestants nor the best Subjects openly declar'd against it and upon the first reading threw it out of doors is a Mystery not easily to be understood His Majesty in His Message to the Commons declar'd He was confirm'd in His Opinion against that Bill by the Judgment of the House of Lords who rejected it why then are four Lords singl'd out and not the whole House declar'd Promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdom The reason some will guess that the Leading Members saw matters were not yet ripe to shew themselves bare-fac'd or discover the bottom of their Designs and once more to Vote the House of Lords dangerous and useless and therefore to be laid aside But why the Opposers of the Bill of Exclusion enemies to the King and Kingdom When 't is made plain even to Demonstration in several Treatises publish'd these four years past about the Succession that the Promoters of that Bill tho some perhaps meant otherwise were in fact Enemies to the Monarchy and no Friends to the King nor to the True Protestant Religion 'T is strange that such as loudly exclaim against Popery shou'd have the face at the same time to practice the worst of Popish or rather Jesuitical Principles and endeavour to force their Soveraign to disinherit His only Brother upon a bare suspicion of his being of another Religion which Henry the 3. of France being tender of the Monarchy and of the Hereditary Right of Succession was so far from offering to the King of Navarre tho a known Protestant and but a remote Kinsman that he cou'd never be perswaded to give the Royal Assent to the Bill which the powerful influence of the Factious Duke of Guise got pass'd by the three Estates for his Exclusion Oh! but say they Popery and Slavery will break in upon us if the Duke succeeds And I am sure Anarchy and Presbytery and an Intestine Civil War will undoubtedly follow if he be excluded the King expos'd to danger and the Kingdom to ruine How fatal it prov'd to Henry 6. that he suffer'd the good Duke of Gloucester to be made away by his Prosecutors which made way for his own Deposition and consequently for his untimely end Historians do abundantly testify and Baker tells us how the great Duke of Somerset then Protector by Sacrificing his Brother the Lord Admiral to the malice of his Enemies in hopes to stop their mouths by yielding to their demands clear'd the way for himself to the Scaffold A Warrant saith this Historian was sent under the hand of his Brother the Protector to cut off his Head wherein as afterwards it prov'd he did as much as if he had laid his own Head upon the Block For
Lawyer Outlaw'd Or a BRIEF ANSWER To Mr. HUNTS Defence of the CHARTER With some Useful REMARKS ON THE Commons Proceedings IN THE LAST PARLIAMENT At WESTMINSTER In a Letter to a Friend Printed by N. T. for the Author MDCLXXXIII SIR YOur importunities have at last prevail'd and since abler Pens have hitherto declin'd to espouse the quarrel I will for once force my own inclination to silence and reservedness and briefly give you my thoughts on that unlucky Pamphlet call'd A Defence of the Charter and Municipal Rights of London The Author I find is a Gentleman of the long Robe a person so well known of late for his unweary'd diligence and extraordinary faculty in scribling that I need not give you any other Character of him but that some three years ago he writ a Book in vindication of the Bishops Right of Judicature in Parliament and for this piece of service expected no less than to be made Lord-Chief-Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland But missing of that Preferment he grows peevish and angry with the Court and Clergy and to be even with both and perhaps to appease his angry Brethren of the Separation for his former Mercenary undertaking he adds a Baboons Tail to his Picture a Postscript to his Book the most virulent and malicious that has yet escap'd the hands of Justice Ever since he has continu'd firm to the Cause laid aside his useless Law and zealously imploy'd his better Talent against the Church and State in favour of the Faction and this about the Charter is the last effort of that wise Head-piece which he has stuff'd with such a miscellany of wild Paradoxes interwoven with some impertinent Truths that 't is far more difficult to digest them into method than to answer and confute them First to lay a solid foundation for his great design he tells us That Monarchs as well as Republicks have often erected Municipal Cities and by their Charters bestow'd upon them several Franchises and Priviledges as to choose their own Magistrates and governby their own Laws while subservient to the publick Laws of the Sovereign Authority pag. 1. This is certainly very true but how far it makes for the Charter of London against the Quo Warranto is a Mystery not to be comprehended by every vulgar capacity for 't is no less plain in History that not only Tyrants and Vsurpers as he mentions but just and lawful Sovereigns have divers times suppress'd such Municipal Cities for good and necessary causes as for being disloyal to their Prince or factious and seditious against the Government and then the main Question will be How far the City of London has of late been guilty of such Crimes as by Law deserve the like Punishment This in short is the plain state of the Question for 't is most unreasonable to think that any King or Republick ever gave their Municipal Cities any such Liberties or Immunities as were not forfeitable upon their abusing the Power they receiv'd when otherwise neither Prince nor People cou'd be secure from the insolence of such uncontroulable Citizens without a standing Army to keep them in awe But our Gentleman it seems is unwilling to touch upon this critical point of speculation and as the Defence of the Charter is the least part of his Pamphlet so now he runs quite from the purpose to tell the King like a dutiful Subject He may if He please take His Quietus-est and let His people govern themselves For it is impossible saith he that mankind should miscarry in their own hands pag. 2. Now since they have often miscarry'd in the hands of Princes is it not more expedient for the publick good if this Maxim will hold that the Prince shou'd mind his own private business and not trouble himself with the Government which the People can do better without Him This is Mr. Hunt's new Model of Government who out of pure love and kindness to the Monarchy chalks out a ready way for his Sovereign to ease Himself of all the thorns and prickles of His Crown and become a glorious King like His Father And therefore seems very angry that the Court i. e. the King should be troubl'd with the Power of appointing Officers in any City or Corporation in the Kingdom tho' it be found of absolute necessity for the keeping His Crown upon His Head and protecting His best Subjects from a Band of Associators and Ignoramus-Juries Oh! But by this new form of Corporations it will be in the power of a Popish Successor to put the Government of all Corporated Towns in England into the hands of Papists p 5. And without it I say it will be no less in the power of the Faction to put the same Government into the hands of Fanaticks What a Bugbear is this Popish Successor whose very Name turns the brains of a Whig into a Magnifying-glass that will transform Ants into Gyants and Mole-hills into Mountains We have as good Laws as the wit of man can devise to secure us from the encroachments of Popery and to disable Papists from bearing any Office Civil or Military either in or out of Corporations and yet this Popish Successor who possibly may never succeed this great Goliah can break through all those Laws and will certainly do it to curry favour with a handful of Papists and make himself a Slave to the Pope This is not all For this mode saith he of incorporating Cities and Towns doth ipso facto change the Government for that One of the Three States an essential part of the Government which is made up of the Representatives of the People and ought to be chosen by the People will by this means have five sixth parts of such Representatives upon the matter of the Courts nomination and not of the Peoples choice and at the next turn we shall have a Parliament of Papists and Red-coats pag. 6. O profound Politician has not our Government been Regal and Monarchical from the beginning how then can the House of Commons in comparison but a late Institution necessary not for the Being but for the Well-being of the Monarchy be an Essential part of it Or how can any Rulâ—r be term'd a Monarch that has 500 Demagogues Joynt-Governours with Him These and such other Republican Maxims have been in a great measure the main foundation of all the miseries and confusions we suffer'd under the late Tyranny of the Rump-Parliament and after our sad experience of those Tragical times surely we have reason to think that none but such as wou'd bring us back to the same calamities and sing the second part to the same Tune would now endeavour to assert or maintain them yet they are so very familiar to our Irish Chief-Baron that there is hardly a page in most of his Pamphlets but has a strong tincture of them In his great and weighty Considerations considered he says The Parliament derive Their Authority from the same Original the King derives His The
generality of the Nation in their repeated Addresses express their dislike to the Proceedings of a prevailing Party in that House all Loyal Subjects I think concern'd in the election of such Members ought to be so just to Themselves and the Publick as to declare their own Integrity and their constant affection to the King that the world may see they are no Abettors of the unwarrantable resolutions of their Representatives who perhaps ran into such unusual extravagancies in hopes to be seconded by their Principals But tho' the occasion be never so extraordinary it must nevertheless be granted for an undeniable Maxim that whatsoever misdemeanors any Members of that Honourable House happen to commit it ought not to reflection the House in general nor yet the errors of the whole House at any time put either Prince or People out of love with that wholsom and excellent Constitution For such is the instability of Mundan affairs that as the Poet said Nihil est ab omni parte beatum there is nothing upon Earth but hath its failings and even the best of Governments has sometimes its own inconveniences Thus Princes are now and then apt to give too much credit to their flattering Favourites and be led for a while by their evil Counsels till time and experience convince them of their error and 't is plaâ—n the wisest Assembly that ever sate â—n the House of Commons cannot be always free free from the like mistakes but are sometimes mpos'd upon by the plausible pretences of some designing Politicians and cunningly decoy'd in to act contrary to their inclination to their interest and their duty Of this kind we have several remarkable passages in the Intestine-Troubles of Forty-One where a few Factious Members in both Houses insensibly inveigl'd the rest and inflam'd the whole Nation into a general combustion And these four years past can sufficiently furnish us with fresh instances almost of the like nature but that through the great Prudence of our Sovereign and His Most Honourable House of Lords mindful of their Fathers miscarriages all these endeavours prov'd abortive and unsuccessful If we serâ—ously consider what measures some persons of greater parts than honesty made use of at that time as well in as out of Parliament we shall find cause enough to admire how people that pretend so much Religion Loyalty so much affection to their King and Countrâ—y cou'd be wrought upon to run head-long into such extravagant courses so destructive of the Prerogative-Royal and of the Peace and Settlement of the Three Kingdoms The horrid Popish-Plot which has already cost us so many Millions in our Trade and Commerce and I am afraid a great deal more in our Credit and Reputation abroad was made a stalking-horse by the ambitious to attain to their expected Greatness of being chief Ministers if not chief Magistrates of all the K's Dominions And because His Majesty wisely considering it was impossible to make a just and impartial enquiry into that hellish Conspiracy whiâ—e the people were so far transported with heat and passion which nothing but time cou'd cure and withal discovering what use some designing Demagogues intended to make of this Plot against the Monarchy thought it convenient or rather necessary sometimes to Prorogue sometimes to Dissolve his Parliament and call another in hopes to meet with one of a better temper and more moderation Our cunning Machiavellians took hold of this opportunity to enflame the unthinking multitude and make them believe their All was betray'd without a speedy Parliament to enquire into the Popish-Plot and redress the Grievances of the Nation and therefore they clamour'd it was absolutely necessary they shou'd all joyn in a Petition to His Majesty for that purpose whereby they were sure either to gain their point and get the Parliament to sit which they might model and influence as they pleas'd or at least know the strength of their party by the number of Subscribers and lessen His Majesty's credit in the hearts of his People To this end Agents are sent about and the Petition is sign'd by many Legions of the Goaly Party None so forward to subscribe this Petition to the Son as they who petition'd for Justice agaâ—nst the Father There you might see Presbyterians Independents Quakers Brownists and Anabaptists all in a string to petition His Majesty for a speedy Parliament A mysterious Riddle to all sober and understanding men that Fanaticks who always but in Forty-One dreaded the face of that August Assembly shou'd now be more zealous for their sitting than the True-Protestants of the Church of England It was certainly an Omen that cou'd portend no good either to Church or State and therefore as the King had reason to mistrust there lay a Snake in the Grass the Brethrens zealous petitioning to that purpose did rather hinder than forward their meeting At last when it could not be thought the effect of the Fanaticks importunity but of His Majesty's grace and goodness the Parliament met on the 23 of Octob 1680 and the King having solemnly renew'd them His former promises of complying with any thing they cou'd in reason propose desir'd them to wave all unseasonable disputes and hasten to settle the affairs of the Nation and bring their meeting to a happy conclusion The People were generally big with expectation to see the issue of this famous Session and doubted not but all their jealousies and distractions wou'd now be fully removed the Three Nations settl'd and compos'd and the Popish Plot speedily shifted to the bottom Parturiunt montes They sate almost for three entire months without any lett or interruption and what have they done all this while towards the effecting these weighty matters that lay before them what great progress have they made towards the suppressing of Popery or putting a period to that hellish Conspiracy They spent nine or ten days about my Lord Stafford's Tryal and when all expected the other Lords shou'd immediately follow our charitable Patriots tender it seems of shedding more Popish-Blood sate down to breath themselves and not a word more of the Papists to the end of the Chapter The truth is the Leading-Members that govern'd all in the House of Commons had other fish to fry They were ferreting out Papists in Masquerade or half-reform'd Protestants now thought more dangerous than the profess'd Romanists A Reformation they intended both in Church and State and God knows where it shou'd have ended It was enough they fix'd the Popish-Plot by the conviction of my Lord Stafford but it seems it was their interest to keep it on foot for other purposes perhaps in imitation of the wise Romans who thought it impolitick to demolish their great Rival Carthage which while standing might serve to keep them from idleness and exercise their Valour The Papists therefore must have a time to breath and the Fanaticks are the great favourites of the House while known Protestants of the Church of England under the
against any of their Pretensions yet I must say the power they claim now-a-days to punish all sorts of misdemeanors and what they please to term a breach of Priviledge is not to be endur'd by any free-born Subject For besides that 't is needless because such offences may and by Law ought to be try'd in the ordinary Courts of Justice 't is very dangerous to the Publick least the Grand Inquest of the Nation appointed to represent the Peoples Grievances and pray redress shou'd upon this account be diverted from pursuing those weighty affairs by every sawcy Footman belonging to the meanest Burgess in their House I confess it were somewhat tolerable in the Commons to imprison and punish their own Members for words by them spoken or misdemeanors committed in the House 1. Because by 4 H. 8. c. 8. they are not punishable elsewhere for any rashness in Parliament that does not amount to Treason Felony or breach of the Peace which the Commons neither can nor I hope will as in Forty-One endeavour to protect 2ly Because 't is suppos'd the Members upon their entring into that Assembly unanimously agreed the lesser number shou'd always submit to the greater and the major Vote be observ'd as the Act and Sense of the whole House if therefore by consent and original compact every single Member submits himself to the rest he cannot complain tho' otherwise they had no authority if they imprison him for his misdemeanors because scienti volenti non fit injuria provided always they exceed not the common Rules of Justice nor the bounds of our establish'd Laws for then no private Act can bind a Subject tho' made with his own free consent as appears by Clark's Case against the Mayor and Burgesses of St. Albans Coke lib. 5. p. 64. I cannot therefore but think the power assum'd of late years by the House of Commons over their fellow-Members to expel them the House when and for what they please without any legal Tryal which the Lords never practic'd against any of their Peers is in it self most unreasonable and of very dangerous consequence as Mr. Prynne tho' otherwise a great Champion for the Priviledges of Parliament proves at large in divers of his Treatises The practice saith he of sequestring and expelling Commons by their fellow-Commons only is a late dangerous unparliamentary Usurpation unknown to our Ancestors destructive to the Priviledges and Freedom of Parliaments and injurious to those Counties Cities and Boroughs whose Trustees are secluded the House of Commons being no Court of Justice to give either Oath or final Sentence and having no more authority to dismember their fellow-Members than any Judges Justices of the Peace or Committees have to Dis-judge Dis-justice or Dis-committee their fellow Judges Justices or Committee-men being all of equal Authority and made Members only by the King 's Writ and the Peoples Election not by the Houses or other Members Votes who yet now presume both to make and unmake seclude and recal expel and restore their fellow-Members at their pleasure contrary to the practice and resolution of former Ages to patch up a Factious Conventicle instead of an English Parliament In his legal Vindication of the Liberties of England p. 10. But whatever Power the Commons can pretend to have over their own Members to say they can lawfully punish others tho for a breach of Priviledge much less for any other Crime seems to me a very groundless Assertion not warrantable by the Ancient Law and Custom of Parliament but rather contrary to the Fundamental Constitutions of our Government First because 't is impossible to make out from whom this Power is deriv'd From the King The Factious will not own it and none can prove it For they have neither Patent nor Statute to shew for 't nor yet any Legal Prescription which is a constant immemorial Custom such as the Lords have in point of Judicature to warrant it the Ancientest President they can alledge being that of 4 Ed. 6. or the Case of Ferrers referr'd to them by the Lords in the 34 H. 8 about sevenscore years ago Do they deriâ—e it then from the People from the Freeholders and Freemen their Electors These have no such Power of themselves they can Imprison none without His Majesties Commission and what they have not sure they cannot give Nemo dat quod non habet As for the Power given by the Electors to their chosen Members who are order'd by the Writ of Summons to have from the persons they represent Plenam sufficientem potestatem 't is no Judicial Power nor Political Jurisdiction which the People have not and consequently cannot give but only a Power of consenting as well for their Principals as for themselves to the Kings Laws and Ordinances And certainly if the King be the Suprem and the only Suprem Governour of this Realm as we affirm in the Oath of Supremacy and if all Authority and Jurisdiction Spiritual and Temporal be derived and deducted from the Kings Majesty as 't is expresly declarâ—d 1 Ed. 6. c. 2. § 3. Or as Old Bracton saith Ea quae sunt Jurisdictionis pacis ad nullum pertinent nisi ad regiam dignitatem lib. 3. c. 24. Unless the Commons can make out they have their Power from the King they can have no manner of Jurisdiction and by consequence cannot lawfully Punish or Imprison any Criminal if not perchance their own Members in the Cases aforesaid Besides in the first Parliament of Queen Mary 't is declar'd That the most Ancient Statutes of this Kingdom do give assign and appoint the correction and punishment of all Offenders against the Regality and Dignity of the Crown and the Laws of this Realm unto the King 1 Mar. Sess. 3. c. What then are the breakers of the Commons Priviledges are they Offenders against the Dignity of the Crown or the Laws of the Realm If so they ought according to this Act to be punish'd by the King if not they are not punishable at all for to trouble any that does not offend against the Crown or the Law of the Land is very Illegal and Arbitrary and a high breach of the Liberty of the Subject Secondly because the Law has expresly provided where and how breaches of Priviledge ought to be punish'd and gives the House of Commons no power to take any cognizance of them for by several Statutes it appears that if a Parliament-man or his Menial-servant be Assaulted Beaten or Wounded in Parliament-time Proclamation shall be made where the deed is done that the Offendor shall render himself to the Kings-Bench within half a year after there to be tryed and if the Offendor will not appear he shall be Attainted of the Deed and pay to the Party griev'd his double Damages to be tax'd by the discretion of the Judges of the said Bench for the time being or by Inquest if need be and also make Fine and Ransom at the Kings will Moreover it is